Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.
Chapter Seventy-Seven
At the Burrow
"Harry, are you going to tell me why you're so nervous?" Hermione asked in a huff. It had been a day and half since Harry had woken up with his scar burning and he had yet to tell Hermione a thing. They were now waiting in Hermione's living room for the Weasleys to come and pick them up.
"Not yet," Harry said with a sigh and she raised an eyebrow to him. "I just don't want to repeat it two more times … just wait until we get to the Burrow and I can tell you there."
"That bad," Hermione fretted and Harry could only nod his head. "And here I thought that we were going to have an easy year," she added on as an afterthought.
"I think last year was the easy year," Harry pointed out and Hermione made a face. "Are you still going to be taking all those classes … and use the timeturner?"
"I was thinking about it," Hermione answered. "At the end of term I told McGonagall that it was difficult to get all my lessons done, but I could manage it. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to anymore. She said that I could think about it and tell her before the beginning of the next term."
"Can you really handle all of the classes," Harry asked.
"Of course I can," Hermione said looking offended that he would ask her that.
"Sorry," Harry chuckled.
"I know I can handle all of the classes, Harry, I just don't know if I can handle whatever extra nonsense that you're going to add onto my schedule," Hermione said curtly.
"Nonsense," Harry frowned. "Whatever I do isn't nonsense."
"Sure it's not," Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "You just said that you think last year was probably a light year, but we were still learning to be Animagi, not to mention I did a fair amount of research on the Patronus Charm among other things. I barely stayed ahead of my homework. I think it would be best if I drop a few classes and have a schedule with normal hours."
"I'm sorry," Harry frowned and Hermione looked at him curiously. "If it wasn't for me, you could have taken all the classes you wanted and more …" he explained.
"Oh Harry … I didn't mean it like that," Hermione sighed. "It's not your fault. Plus, it's not really healthy living more hours than are in the day. Besides, you're much more fascinating than any class can be."
"Gee thanks Hermione," Harry made a face at her. "That makes me feel specially."
"You're welcome," Hermione said, pointedly ignoring his sarcasm. "Now I just have to figure out the classes that I should give up. Obviously Muggle Studies is one, because as fascinating as it is hearing the wizard point of view on Muggle things, I'm not really learning much from that class. I was thinking that I should drop Divination, because I still think it's a pointless subject, but it sort of feels like I'm quitting, and I hate quitting. Then there's Care of Magical Creatures … but I can't stand to think of Hagrid's face when he learns I dropped his class. I won't drop Arithmacy … it's my favorite class. I love Ancient Runes, but it is a subject that I could learn on my own as long as I have time to work on the translations."
"It seems like you have a dilemma," Harry said, trying to keep up with what Hermione was saying but she was talking really fast.
"Thanks for your help, Harry," Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"Are you really asking for my help," Harry questioned and she nodded her head. "Well, to be honest, I plan on dropping Divination myself, because I don't really care for Trelawney telling me how I'm going to die in every class."
"Even after she made a real prediction about you?" Hermione asked, that fact had made her appreciate the odd witch a little more, though not much.
Harry shrugged. "According to Dumbledore she's only made one other prediction … I doubt she's going to say anything useful. Besides, I'm already taking Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes; I don't really need to take Divination anymore."
"Hm," Hermione said thoughtfully for a while. "Harry … do you think you could show me your notes and homework for Ancient Runes if I didn't take that class?"
"Is that so you could do my homework for me?" Harry questioned amused.
"No," Hermione rolled her eyes impatiently at him. "I was just thinking that if I had your notes and homework I could keep up with the lessons without actually being in the class."
"Only you would want to do work without getting any credit for it," Harry shook his head at her. "Yes, I can give you the notes and homework, but I still don't know why you don't just drop Divination … I know you don't like that class any better than I do … I would even say you think it's a pointless subject."
Hermione didn't answer his question, but her cheeks started to turn red and Harry laughed.
"This has something to do with Ron, doesn't it," Harry said and Hermione shook her head almost violently.
"No! That's not it at all," Hermione protested, her blush growing darker. "I just don't want to quit … I said that before."
"Ah huh," Harry said still laughing, "I'm sure that's the reason and it has nothing to do with the fact that you'll be in a class with Ron without me there."
"That's not the reason at all," Hermione huffed, still rattled.
"More like it's not the only reason," Harry allowed but before he could say anything more there was a flash of green coming from the fireplace and Arthur Weasley was coming out of it. It was a whirl of greeting after that as Arthur talked with the Grangers, Sirius and Remus. There also was a bit of questions from Arthur about the many Muggle appliances in the Granger's home so it was almost an hour later and Bill had to come to reminded his dad that the Floo was only going to be connected to the Granger's home for another few minutes.
"What took you so long?" was the first thing Harry could hear when he stepped out of the fireplace into the Weasley's living room. "We've been sitting down here waiting for you to come for ages."
"Er …" before Harry could think of a nice way to explain what happened he had to move out of the way as Hermione fell into the living room. She would have fallen to the floor if Ron had not moved closer when he was talking to Harry, so instead she landed in his arms.
"Oh …" Hermione said as Ron steadied her, she could feel her face heat up. "Thanks Ron."
"No problem," Ron muttered his ears a deep shade of red and neither one of them moved for several second. Then the twins started sniggering.
"Oh, isn't that just the cutest things you've ever seen, George," Fred said. "Look at how red th …"
"Shut up!" Ron hissed at his brother before taking a step away from Hermione.
"I'm so glad you're here," Ginny said, hugging Hermione, "it's nice to finally have a girl in the house. Bill and Charlie just got here the other day and the only thing we've talked about since then was Quidditch."
"What's wrong with that?" Harry asked. "Quidditch is great … and I thought you liked Quidditch."
"I love Quidditch, but that doesn't mean I want to talk about it all the time," Ginny rolled her eyes. "Especially since everyone keeps saying the same things."
"We do not," Ron said shaking his head. "Sure similar things come up because we mostly talk about the Irish and Bulgaria sides … And a lot of the conversation revolves around Krum and whether …"
"Who's Krum?" Hermione asked and got an incredulous look from all the boys in the room, even Percy who had come in when Harry and Hermione had arrived seemed to be stun that she didn't know that.
"He's only the most exciting player in the whole tournament!" Ron exclaimed. "He's the best Seeker I've ever seen … no offense Harry …"
"None taken, he is amazing," Harry chuckled.
"He's more than amazing," Ron said, "he's never failed to catch the Snitch yet and you should have seen his last catch … the way he outmaneuvered the …"
"Enough about Krum already," Ginny hissed, who had heard this too many times to count. "The way you go on about him, one would think you fancied him or something …"
"Shut up," Ron growled at her, turning red in embarrassment as the others couldn't help but snigger at that. Ron wasn't sure if Hermione was sniggering along with the others, he was too self conscious to look at her.
"So what took you guys so long to get here … Dad left almost an hour ago?" Ginny asked before Ron could say anything more about Quidditch. Before they could answer there were two popping sounds and Arthur and Bill were soon walking into the room.
"Was there something wrong with the connection, Dad?" Percy asked.
"No," Arthur answered, his ears turning red and his expression was guilty.
"Dad just got caught up talking about Muggle things," Bill said with a bemused look. "He wouldn't leave until Mr. Granger finished telling us about the microwave."
"Well it was fascinating," Arthur muttered as his children laughed good naturally.
"I knew someone should have gone with you … you needed a chaperon," Fred chuckled.
"I suppose that probably would have been a good idea," Arthur admitted.
"We weren't formally introduced, yet, seeing as you had to Floo as soon as I got to your house," Bill said to Hermione and then looked over at Harry. "Bill Weasley, it's nice to finally meet you."
He shook their hands as both Harry and Hermione repeated his sentiment.
"That goes ditto for me, as well," Charlie said also shaking first Hermione and then Harry's hand. "Tonks talked a lot about you too … or at least her cousin that I've only realized it was you the last few years."
"Tonks said a lot about you too," Harry smiled.
Soon after that Harry was heading upstairs with his bags, and with a look to Hermione, signaled that she should join them in Ron's room after she put her own bags away in Ginny's room. Harry debated with himself whether he should tell everyone about his nightmare or just Ron and Hermione and finally decided to just tell the two for now.
"As you can see, Fred and George are going to be sleeping in here too, so there's not much room left," Ron said after Harry had to maneuver his way around the camp beds until he put his stuff on the one he was sure was his.
"That's okay," Harry said because he was sure that Ron was waiting for him to say something.
"Er … I guess we should get back downstairs … Mum should be done with dinner soon," Ron said, his ears showing that he was uncomfortable, Harry was sure that had something to do with the room.
"Just wait a second … there's something I need to tell you," Harry said.
"Er … I'm waiting," Ron said after a few second of looking at Harry expecting him to say something. "What is it?"
"When Hermione get's here I'll tell …" before Harry could finish there was a tap on the window that surprised both the boys. Ron had to crawl over one of the camp beds to open the window and when he did an owl that was brown with some white that made a wavy patterned flew into the room. The owl looked at the boys with familiar brown eyes.
"Hermione?" Ron said in shock.
Harry crossed his arms and glared at the owl. "Why didn't you tell me you could transform?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise," Hermione said after a small popping sound and the girl replaced the owl in the room … she was beaming at them.
"It definitely was a surprise," Ron said.
"How long have you been able to transform!" Harry demanded, still looking upset.
"About two days after our talk," Hermione said with a significant look that told Harry that it was when he had snuck into her bedroom.
"You've been able to transform for two weeks and you didn't tell me all this time!" Harry repeated himself looking truly put out now.
"It was never the right time," Hermione chuckled at his expression and then turned to Ron. "What do you think of my owl form?"
"It's amazing," Ron said, his ears turning slightly red. "And a lot least conspicuous than turning into a lion … no one would look twice at seeing an extra owl around. Fred and George are going to be so upset that you beat them in transforming …" he added with a grin.
"We should get down to dinner," Harry said.
"I thought you wanted to tell us something," Ron said frowning.
"I don't know if I want to tell the ungrateful little owl about this …" Harry huffed, "and after all the help I gave you, this is the thanks I get."
"You never could take a joke when it's on you," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"I resent that comment," Harry said trying to look serious but he couldn't hold back his laughter.
"So what is it you wanted to tell us?" Ron said causing the other two to look at him, surprised at his grumpy tone and even more surprised at his sudden surly look. Ron on the other hand was getting a bad feeling about what his best friend was about to tell him … he couldn't help but noticed the looks the two have been giving each other and how close they seemed to be now. He always knew that Harry and Hermione were close, but there was now something new to their tone to each other that he didn't like. He was sure they were about to give him the worse news he could think of.
"I had a bad dream the other night," Harry started, breaking into Ron's thoughts and stopping them. Ron looked at Harry confused, wondering why this was a topic that he would bring up. He noticed that Hermione was looking at Harry just as confused and that pleased him. Maybe this conversation wasn't going to go as badly as he had just feared it would. "About Voldemort …."
"W-what?" Ron asked, paling at just the name and now preparing himself for a new kind of fear as Harry told them about his dream.
"But … it was just a dream, right?" Ron asked after Harry had finished his story.
"No … I don't think it was," Harry shook his head. "I told Remus and Sirius, and they told Dumbledore. They all took it seriously … Sirius told us that Dumbledore even went to check out the house and found … well … he found evidence that the dream was real."
"So he's trying to come back … and he needs you for something," Ron said summoning up the worst of what he heard.
"Pretty much … yeah," Harry sighed.
"Why didn't you tell the others too," Ron asked looking at Hermione with concern, she hadn't said a word yet. As she seemed to be processing what she had just heard her eyes were on Harry and Ron could see that she was terrified that something was going to happened to him. A fear that Ron was feeling himself, but it bothered him a little to see it in her expression. He tried to push away that feeling as he looked back at Harry waiting for an answer.
"I'll tell them if and when something happens," Harry said looking down. "I don't want to ruin their summer when there's nothing any one of us can do about whatever it is that Voldemort is planning."
"So you just wanted to ruin our summer," Ron said, "what makes us so special?"
"You're my best friends," Harry said looking up and Ron could see that Harry was surprised that he even had to ask that. Then he added looking towards Hermione, "besides, I couldn't keep this from her. She knew something was bothering me and wouldn't let it go."
"This is something that we should know," Hermione said in a voice she was obviously forcing to sound even. She then hugged Harry before she turned to walk out of the room.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said anything," Harry said frowning as he watched Hermione leave.
"Nah, it was good you said something," Ron said, frowning too, but that was more because of what he just saw than of anything else. "You know there's no way you could have kept it from her if she wanted to know what was happening."
"Yeah … but now I feel like I put a burden on her … er, both of your shoulders," Harry said looking guilty.
"Maybe you have, but that doesn't mean that we aren't willing to hold it," Ron said and Harry snorted. The line sounded a little corny but Harry was glad he said it all the same.
"Thanks mate," Harry said. "Come on, I bet dinner's ready."
"I'm sure it is," Ron said and the two of them left the room.
Harry was awed by the fact that he actually felt relieved telling Ron and Hermione about the dream. He had talked about this with Remus and Sirius, but somehow that was more about getting the information out there so something could be done about the dream. It had been about doing something. However, there was nothing Ron and Hermione could do with the information that he just told them, well besides being prepared for another difficult year. No, telling them was more about venting his own fears and knowing that he still had the support of his best friends even when a madman was said to be coming after him.