Author's Notes: Here's Chapter 7, we've entered the phase of the book where my story takes something of a step back to continue the plot of the book. Obviously, I've made some changed how some events happen to fit but overall, everything is left to happen in the order of the original. I hope you enjoy.

Harry Potter and his band of merry characters, places, etc, don't belong to me. I'm just borrowing them from JK Rowling.

Chapter 7

A silence filled the common room as Hermione stared at the cat hairs, tears formed in her eyes but when she looked up at Ron, Harry could see anger growing there as well. Sensing a fight coming, Harry grabbed both of them by the arm and proceeded to pull them towards the portrait hole. It wasn't easy because neither of them wanted to come, but Harry was determined that if they were going to have a blow out, it wasn't going to be in front of the whole of Gryffindor House. Halfway down the seventh floor corridor there was an empty classroom that he shoved both of them into.

"What's the big idea?" yelled Ron as Harry slammed the door.

Ignoring him Harry looked at both of them, Hermione with her arms crossed, and Ron with clenched fists. "You two are going to have this out here, in private instead of in front of everyone. Ron, are you sure that Scabbers isn't in the dormitory?"
"Of course he isn't!" Ron yelled, "He's been eaten by that mad cat!"
"You don't have any proof of that" responded Hermione coolly, an icy look in her eyes, "Those hairs could have come from any time that Crookshanks has been in your dormitory."
"You're still going to deny that your cat has been trying to eat Scabbers from the day we met him?" Ron fired back.

"He hasn't done anything to him that any other cat wouldn't have done," said Hermione. "You've always been prejudiced ever since he landed on your head"

"Hold on Hermione", said Harry breaking in, "just because cats chase rats doesn't mean that its ok for Crookshanks to keep going after Scabbers like he has. Scabbers is a pet just like Crookshanks and you wouldn't like it if a dog kept chasing your cat around and terrifying it."
"He hasn't been chasing just Scabbers!" yelled Hermione at Harry, losing her composure for a moment.

"Oh yes he has! Every time I've mentioned where Scabbers is around that cat he's attacked him. He's been relentless." Ron roared back

"No, he hasn't Ron." Hermione replied, her voice dropping back closer to a normal level.
"Hermione," said Harry gently trying to keep them from yelling at each other further, "look at the evidence we do have. Scabbers appears to be gone" He held up a hand to stop Ron from jumping in at that and continued, "and we have ginger hairs on the floor next to blood on Ron's sheets."
"But that still doesn't prove that Crookshanks did anything!" replied Hermione

"Maybe not, but it definitely looks bad." Said Harry, staring firmly at her. "I know we don't want to think the worst of our pets, but even if Crookshanks didn't do anything," again he held his hand up to Ron to stop him from interjecting, "Scabbers is still missing."
"He's not missing he's been eaten!" yelled Ron, staring at Harry, "Why are you taking her side on this?"
"I'm not Ron. I'm trying to get both of you to get past your being angry at each other. This has been going on all year long. Hermione, you won't see that Crookshanks has appeared to be going after Scabbers since you got him, and not seeing how that's an issue. Ron, you've been using this grudge against Hermione to get mad at her for every little thing this year. You blamed her for me handing over the Firebolt to McGonagall even thought it was my choice. So, both of you," he paused and looked both of them in the eyes, "get your heads on right and remember that we are supposed to be best friends!" Harry hadn't meant to end that with by shouting but the emotions of the moment got the better of him.
Both Ron and Hermione looked at him dumbstruck, then looked at each other. The anger that had been on both their faces a minute ago was gone. Instead, they both looked almost sad.
"I'm sorry about Scabbers, Ron" said Hermione, "and I'm sorry if it seems like I care more about Crookshanks than I do him"
"I'm sorry for being a prat about the broom", Ron replied,

"Good," said Harry, who relaxed muscles he didn't realize he was holding tense. "Now, Ron and I are going to tear apart our dormitory looking for Scabbers. Hermione, do us a favor and keep Crookshanks in your dorm until we find him alive or…. alive. That way if he's hiding somewhere, he might come out if he doesn't see Crookshanks around.

The rest of that night was spent tearing Gryffindor Tower apart. The boy's dorm was searched, so was the common room, but no sign of Scabbers, either alive or dead, was found. Harry had a brief moment of panic when Ron asked to look through his trunk on the off chance that Scabbers had climbed in when Harry wasn't looking, but Harry managed to talk him into searching the bathroom while he checked his trunk. By bedtime that night few were convinced that Scabbers would be found, and even Hermione had started to accept that maybe Crookshanks did eat him.

The next day dawned grey, as if in mourning for Scabbers, but both Ron and Hermione were surprisingly civil with each other. Fred and George thought that trying to talk Ron into accepting that Scabbers was old and was probably going to die soon anyway would help him feel better, to which Ginny responded indignantly. Soon the group were swapping stories about Scabbers, there weren't very many, and Fred and George made up and starting singing a song they'd entitled "Ode to Scabbers", which was a rather interpretive version of Scabbers attacking Goyle on Ron's first trip to Hogwarts.

Ron wasn't very kind to Crookshanks, understandably, for the next few days, and Hermione thankfully kept him locked up in her dormitory most of the time. To everyone's surprise though the two remained friendly, with Ron taking over the lion's share of preparation for Buckbeak's trial. It wasn't entirely comfortable between the three, but it was far from how bad it almost had been.

The day before his match with Ravenclaw, Hermione pulled Harry aside and gave him a small present. It was a wrapped box and when he opened it he saw a chain with a small golden snitch charm.
"It's my way of apologizing for the Firebolt, and to thank you for helping get my head on straight" she said with a smile.
Harry hugged her like he hadn't been able to since Christmas. "It's beautiful" he said, "I can't wait to wear it. But you don't need to apologize Hermione. You were right, it was better to be safe."
"Thank you Harry, and thanks for staying my friend all year. It's been a rough one on all of us."
"Hermione, you caught me in a skirt and instead of freaking out you gave me more to wear. Of course I'm going to stay your friend." Harry said, hugging her again.

"Are you going to wear that during the game?" asked Hermione after they broke up the hug.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, it might get seen."
"I guess that's true. Well, I hope you get to wear it soon."
The match against Ravenclaw was better than anyone expected. Harry's new Firebolt secured Gryffindor a chance at the Quidditch Cup if they could beat Slytherin. Harry had briefly been distracted by the prettiness of Ravenclaw's Seeker, Cho Chang, which required Wood to tell him to knock her off her broom if needed to win. After the match was the usual fantastic celebration in Gryffindor Tower. Harry felt grimy after the game and wanted to shower before joining the festivities. Not surprised to find the dormitory empty he decided to celebrate in his own way. Carefully he pulled out one of the bras, a pair of knickers, and the charm necklace Hermione had given him, and slipped them on before his muggle clothes. Making sure nothing could be seen he came back down to the party.

As usual the Weasley's had secured large amounts of Butterbeer and sweets, and the party was in full swing by the time that Harry came down the staircase. At the sight on him hands reached out to pull him into the throng. Several bodies ended up pushing against him and he received many slaps on the back, making him worry about the bra being felt through his shirt, but no one seemed to notice except Hermione. When she hugged him, he felt her hands find the bra on his back and she smiled at him.

Hours later Professor McGonagall came up to shut the party down and send them to bed. Harry, who was in very high spirits, decided to wear the underclothes to bed, and even snuck a magazine under his pillow to read after everyone went to bed. That night was the night that Sirius Black broke into Gryffindor Tower, using passwords left lying around by Neville. Black had seemed to mistakenly attack Ron's bed, but fled when he woke suddenly.

With tighter security on the castle after this, Harry and Ron were having trouble finding time to get down to Hagrid's to give him all the notes they'd found for Buckbeak's trial. Harry was still spending large amounts of time in the library with Hermione, which was surprisingly helping his grades in all his classes, and one day he was in the Transfiguration section when he overheard a group of girls on the other side of the bookcase talking to one another.
"Has anyone noticed that he's wearing his hair down?" asked one

"It almost looks girly," said another.

"I heard one of the boys from his dorm say that he's using girl's scented stuff to wash." Said the first voice

"Looks like your boyfriend might not fancy girls after all, Ginny" said the second girl causing the rest of the girls to start giggling.

It wasn't hard for Harry to figure out the girls were talking about him. Ginny Weasley's crush on him was well known across Gryffindor, especially after that valentine she sent him last year. He leaned back against the opposite bookcase, wondering how he felt about being noticed for girly things. It's not like being gossiped about was new for him, but he had hoped he wasn't as obvious as it seemed he had been. Managing to not be seen by the group of girls he walked back to the table he was sharing with Hermione. He sat down and stared at the parchment that was in front of him and didn't move. Hermione, who was deep in an essay entitled" Why do Muggle's need Electricity", looked up.

"What's wrong Harry?"
"Hermione, can girls like other girls?" He asked quietly in a somewhat deadpan

"Well, usually girls like boys but they don't have to. Why are you asking?" She replied looking slightly confused.

"I just heard some girls talking about me. They said that since I was using girls' shampoo and stuff that I might not like girls."
"Do you like girls Harry?" She asked.

"I do, at least I think I do" he replied thinking of how he'd thought of Cho Chang as very pretty.

"Then that's all that matters. Don't listen to anyone else and what they say about you." She said, smiling reassuringly at him.

"What's someone been saying about you?" said Ron's voice from behind them, making Harry jump.

"Just some gossiping girls," Said Hermione.

Ron didn't have a response to that, girls weren't high on his list of priorities. He stuck around for a while, trying to copy their Potion's homework, and Harry finally gave him his. Silently he was hoping that Ron would leave so he could continue his conversation with Hermione, but Ron was clueless to this. After copying down Harry's answers, he continued to sit there talking about Gryffindor's renewed chances at winning the Cup. Finally, curfew was close and the trio packed up to head back to the tower. Unseen by Ron, Hermione slipped a piece of paper into Harry's hand, which he pocketed. On the way he stopped on the fifth floor to use the toilet and opened the note.

Meet me in the seventh floor girl's toilet tonight at midnight. Hermione