Disclaimer: Once Again, I do not own Harry Potter…End of discussion…
A/N: Pretty long title, eh? Anyway, I don't want to spoil the chapter by telling you there are some kissing scenes so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut, k? Crap!
Harry Potter and the Ring of Fire – Chapter 6 – Two is a Company, Three is a Crime
"Harry Potter!" Ron bellowed as he entered the Great Hall the next morning. "Why didn't you wake me up?!"
Ron made his way to the Gryffindor table, with a sour and furious expression.
"You fell asleep during our conversation. I didn't want to wake you up, you'll throw a fit." Harry explained.
"It's true, Ron. You always do that when we wake you up from your sleep." George said without taking his eyes off his plate, "You even throw a fit when mum wakes you up."
Harry wanted to burst out laughing, but he bit his lip to stop him from laughing. Ron was still cross.
"If you woke me up last night, I wouldn't have seen the most disgusting thing in my life," Ron pouted and sat down on the wooden bench, "It's going to haunt my dreams forever!"
"I'm sure it's not too bad, Ron." Hermione said, "I'm sure it won't haunt you in your dreams."
"Oh ya?! What will you do if you woke up in the middle of the night and you saw your brother and his girlfriend making out?!" Ron screamed. The chatter in the Great Hall covered his voice.
Hermione and Harry directed their attention to George.
"It's not me, mate," George responded, "I'm the brother that's single."
"It's Fred?" Harry asked, "You saw Fred making out with Angelina?
Ron nodded with his sour face. "It's the most disgusting thing ever! I mean, kissing girls ain't bad but watching your brother kissing one, GROSS!" Ron scrunched up his face. He looked like he swallowed a lemon.
Just then, Fred and Angelina came walking down the isle between Gryffindors' and Slytherins' table. Ron made his sour face again and shivered.
"I'm sorry, brother, but I've got to express my love to Angelina some way." Fred said as he let Angelina take a seat between George and Katie. He sounded like Percy.
"I know, but would it have killed you if you didn't go to a more private place?" Ron questioned. He shivered again.
"Who asked you to sleep in the Common Room. Angelina and I didn't know you were sleeping there." Fred responded and took his seat beside his twin.
"But couldn't you use the Make Out Room instead?" Harry butted in, "I think you really did some damage to Ron."
"Can't." Fred replied and helped himself to some toast. "Someone was using it last night."
"Who?" Harry asked.
"Don't know. Cho perhaps. She seems to be busy with somebody." Fred replied and gave Harry a little wink.
"Isn't the lock broken?" Harry inquired, "Wouldn't you have known who was inside?"
"It seems like someone fixed it. Angelina and me nearly got caught by Filch running back and forth from the Common Room to the library. Cho must be doing some serious thing in there." Fred clarified to Harry.
"Why do you suspect Cho's in there?" Harry asked before Fred finished his sentence.
"Well, do you see her here?" Fred questioned looking around the Hall. Cho was missing from the Ravenclaw table. "And what's with you about Cho? Are you a some sort of automatic question machine?"
Harry didn't say a word to Fred for the rest of breakfast. He ran off to the library since their first period was a free period. He looked for the bookcase with the initials on it. Harry stroked the lion's head twice, it purred and the board slid down. The door was unlocked now.
Harry peered inside; he spotted a great lump underneath a quilt on the couch. The door slid back up to its regular position with a quiet thump, then followed by a clicking noise. The door was now locked.
"Lumos!" Harry whispered sharply to his wand. The wand lit up and Harry moved closer to the couch. He used his wand to poke the figure in the quilt. The figure lunged onto Harry, making Harry drop his wand to the ground. It all happened so fast. In a blink of an eye, Harry found the figure point her wand to his throat.
"Oh! Sorry, Harry!" She said and dropped her wand.
"It's alright, Cho. I didn't mean to scare you anyway." Harry replied and picked up both their wands. "What are you doing here?"
"I was talking to a friend last night. I couldn't go back to the Ravenclaw Common Room because Filch was in the library, inspecting for students who weren't in bed."
"Fred and Angelina is really mad at you for fixing the lock. They were nearly caught by Filch."
"It was really important and private. That probably explained the knocking and the cursing by the door last night." Cho joked. "I'm starving. You hungry?"
"No. I just ate."
"Alright. I'll go to the Great Hall to see if they still have food left."
"Good. I'll come with you." Harry volunteered.
Cho quickly got her stuff together and headed out for the Hall. But when they got there, there were only very little students and food left.
"Oh well. I can eat during class." Cho said disappointedly and spun around.
"No, wait!" Harry said and grabbed her hand, "I know a place with plenty of food and you won't get in trouble."
Harry pulled her through corridors and staircases. Cho find it hard to catch up with Harry. They finally reached a painting of a bowl of fruit.
"This is really nice but I would rather eat a bowl of fruit than stare at a bowl of fruit." Cho joked.
"Don't worry, you will soon." Harry said slyly and raised his right hand. His left hand was still holding Cho's hand. He tickled the pear and it stated to giggle. The pear turned into a green door handle, Harry pulled the door open and yanked Cho inside.
The room was tall and narrow. Brass pots glittered as sunlight was poured into the room by a long row of dusty windows just beneath the ceiling. Firewood crackled in the large stone fireplace across from the door. Many house-elves stopped working and their tennis ball-like eyes landed on Harry and Cho, who was panting from the long run.
"Harry Potter!" One of the elves squealed from a row of rusty sinks. He dropped one of the dishes he was washing in the sink and ran towards Harry. He jumped and hugged Harry's legs, making Harry lose his balance. Cho pulled Harry towards her in time before Harry fell flat on his face. Dobby finally let Harry go.
"Hello, Dobby. Meet my friend, Cho." Harry introduced.
"Miss Cho, such an honor it is." Dobby said and took Cho's hand, pulling her down. Dobby gave Cho a small kiss on her hand. Harry could see Cho turning red.
After a long conversation with Dobby, Winky and many other house-elves, Dobby gave Cho a plate of toast with strawberry jam and a pitcher of pumpkin juice.
"Thish ish reawy good." Cho said with her mouth stuffed with toast, "Yu wan sum?" Harry declined but accepted a glass of pumpkin juice from her. Harry had never seen Cho eat like this before. She ate like Ron, or at least the twins.
"So, you have a free period today?" Harry asked, trying to start a conversation.
"Yup," Cho replied, "second period."
"So you have two free periods?" Harry asked.
"No, I have class on the first." Cho responded and took a sip of pumpkin juice.
"Well, I hate to say it but shouldn't you be in class by now?" Harry asked. Cho nearly spat out her pumpkin juice.
"What?! What time is it?" Cho asked, nearly knocking her goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Its ten minutes pasted nine o'clock." Harry replied; looking at the watch Hermione gave him for his fifteenth birthday. Cho jumped out of her seat.
"Thank you for the lovely breakfast, Harry, Dobby and Winky. I'm ten minutes late. Thanks again." Cho blurred and grabbed her stuff. "Thank you, Harry. Snape's going to kill me." Cho wiped her mouth with her hand and gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek, ran to the door, opened it and slammed it closed. Leaving Harry confused and amazed.
"Cho, I am terribly sorry that I got you into a detention. Please forgive me." Harry practiced under his breath as he walked to his second period class. Cho little peck on the cheek changed Harry's relationship with Cho, although Harry does not know if Cho's relationship with Harry changed also.
"I know, Ada. Snape's an ass." Harry heard someone say as a group of Sixth years exit Snape's dungeon. It was none other than Cho Chang.
"Hey Cho! Over here!" Harry directed her attention beside the door.
"Hey, Harry." Cho said cheerfully.
"Cho! Aren't you going to introduce me?" The girl behind Cho joked.
"Sorry. Harry, this is Ada. Ada, this is Harry."
Harry held out his hand, Ada shook it. Ada was the same height as Cho and Harry. She had brown curly hair a squeaky little voice. Ada's eyes blue locked on Harry. She seemed to be blushing.
"Um, Ada, I think you should let go of Harry's hand. I think you're cutting up his blood circulation." Cho joked.
"Oh! Sorry." Ada apologized and released Harry's hand from her grip. Ada turned bright red.
"It's alright." Harry said, turning red himself.
"I'll meet you in the library, Cho. Nice meeting you, Harry." Ada said and followed the other Ravenclaw students.
"I think Ada has a crush on you, Harry." Said Cho with a grin. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"
"Erm, Cho, I'm sorry I got you in trouble." Harry mumbled and hung his.
"Its alright, Harry. I always get a detention, especially with Snape." Cho comforted him.
"Really? You got a detention?" Harry asked in a more cheerful tone and lifted up his head.
"Yup." Cho said, "Now I've got to go to the library and start my Defence Against the Dark Arts homework."
"And let me guess, being a hard working Ravenclaw, its due two weeks from now?" Harry teased.
"Actually, it's due the fourth period." Cho answered. "Things aren't always what they seem, Harry."
With that, Cho spun around on her heel and walked to the library without giving Harry a peck on the cheek. Harry was disappointed.
"Maybe it was an accident." Harry thought. "Maybe it was a one time thing. Or maybe I looked better at the kitchen than in corridors."
Few minutes later Hermione showed up with Ron, breaking Harry out from his thought. They took their seat and began to finish their potion from last class. Potions was the usual, Snape was picking on Neville.
"Did I not tell you to add the Peacock Feet BEFORE the Pepperseed Spice?" Snape questioned Neville, his long nose nearly poking Neville's forehead.
"Poor guy." Hermione whispered as she stirred the potion in their cauldron.
Suddenly, a seventh year teacher with sparkly glasses and a tall royal blue witch hat came bursting into the door.
"I am terribly sorry, Severus, but I must speak with you. Are you sure that you need twenty snails' shells? I'm pretty sure its ten." The squeaky voiced witch asked.
"I don't have time for this, Agatha. I'm having a very bad day." Snape muttered.
"But I cannot order the new ingredients without knowing how much to order." Agatha snapped back.
Snape sighed then said, "Alright, Agatha. I'll speak with you in the corridor." He walked out of the room with his nose up in the air, but he spoke again before he exited the room. "Points will be taken off if I find students out of their group."
Chatter began when the dungeon door slammed shut.
"Neville, would you like any help?" Hermione asked. "I can help you get your ingredients done before Snape comes back."
"But I did put Peacock Feet before the Pepperseed Spice." Neville managed to get out without crying. "I just don't know why the potion exploded."
"It's alright, Neville." Harry said as he wiped some of the potion of his robe, "Hermione can help you a bit. Our potion is nearly done."
Just then, Malfoy and his group burst out in laughter. Harry knew what Malfoy was up to.
"Hold on." Harry said and pushed Neville aside. He rolled up his selves and dug his hand into the remaining potion in Neville's cauldron. Harry pulled out a little metal cube. The cube had a dent on each of the sides except for one.
"I know what that is!" Ron exclaimed and stopped cutting his pickled tapeworm. "It's a magical firecracker. It was driving mum mad the whole summer. Fred and George were putting it everywhere! Pots with sauce or soup, cups with water, even the toilet! It explodes each time you wave your wand and say 'Explodium'. Malfoy must have put that thing in Neville's cauldron. You can use up to 6 times with one cube. See?" Ron pointed to the dents on the metal cube. "Each dent for each time its been used. Looks like you can use it one more time."
"Really?" Harry said with a grin. "I think I'll give it back to him."
"No! Are you nuts? We should hide it in his porridge one day then explode it in his face." Ron suggested. But Harry ignored Ron.
He walked over to Malfoy's table, where Malfoy stood with Crabbe and Goyle behind him laughing.
"I believe this is yours." Harry said and opened his palm where the magical firecracker laid.
"Yes, it is. Now give it back, Potter." Malfoy demanded.
"Come get it then." Harry told him, his palm still up for Malfoy to grab the firecracker.
Malfoy took out his hand and tried to grab the metal cube, but Harry was too fast for him. Before Malfoy even reached Harry's palm, Harry flipped his palm downwards and let the firecracker fall straight into Malfoy's potion.
"Here you go, Draco." Harry said with a smirk, "Returned to its rightful owner."
Malfoy was furious. Harry pretended he didn't see and turned around and headed back to his own table. Ron was delighted to see Harry's trick and was giving him thumbs up.
"No one messes with me." Draco muttered under his breath. He ran towards Harry and tackled him to the ground in the back. The whole class gasped and gathered around the to boys, who was now on the ground. Malfoy threw Harry his first punch, hitting Harry right on his cheekbone. Harry threw a punch back at Malfoy, skinning him on the cheek.
"Go Harry! Duck! Now punch! Go Harry! Knock his teeth out!" Ron screamed and cheered. Harry felt like he was one of those Muggle boxers he saw on the television set while the Dursleys were out one day. Gryffindor was cheering for Harry and Slytherin for Malfoy.
"What is the meaning of this?!" The high squeaky voiced witch, Agatha, screamed behind the circle of students. Snape ran into the classroom. He quickly pushed his way through the circle of students.
"Potter! Malfoy! Stop at once!" Snape screamed and grabbed both students by their collar robe. "50 points from Gryffindor and 30 points off Slytherin!"
"But why 50 for us and 30 for them?!" Seamus Finnigan blurted out.
"Ask why Mr. Potter here started the fight." Snape responded, clutching his teeth.
"But Harry didn't start it, Professor! Malfoy did!" Padma Patil reasoned.
"That's enough!" Snape shouted furiously, "Another complain will cost their house another 50 points! Detention for both the boys. Malfoy and Potter, I'll see you tonight at midnight! Class dismissed!"
The class quickly gathered their things and head out the dungeon door, not wanting to even look at the outraged Snape.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked when they've reached the Gryffindor Common Room.
"That was bloody brilliant!" Ron exclaimed. Ron was grinning.
"My God! What happened to you?" George asked, looking up from his homework.
"Got into a fight. Fist fight." Harry responded and wiped the blood off his lip. He was bruised, cut and scraped all over.
"Not just any fight! A fight with Malfoy! And he won!" Ron shouted so the whole room heard.
"No one won." Hermione said. But her remark was ignored. Everyone dropped everything and listened to Ron tell about the fight for the rest of break. Harry is not only glad he hurt Malfoy, but also he gets to spend time with Cho in detention.
It was nearly midnight and Ron was already in bed, Hermione was still doing her homework and the twins were brainstorming ideas for their next prank. Harry walked to Snape's dungeon quietly, until he ran into Cho, who was strangely coming out of a room hidden behind a dusty blue tapestry.
"So that's where the Ravenclaw dorm is." Harry said.
"Yes, now don't go telling everyone." Cho kid. Then strangely looked at Harry. "My God! What happened to you?"
"Got into a fight with someone in Potions, now I have a detention with Snape."
"Did it hurt?" Cho asked concernedly. She touch Harry's cut on the eyebrow gently.
"Yes. But it was worth it." Harry replied with a grin.
"C'mon, we better be going. You don't want to be late for detention with Snape, he'll give you a week's worth of detentions if you do."
They arrived at Snape's dungeon in time. Harry and Cho sat at the very back row in the center. A few floating candles in front of the classroom lighted the room. There was a girl from Ravenclaw who was sitting at a desk against a wall. She was carving something on the desk with her hair clip. Another girl sat at the front row, her back straight against the back of the chair. She was pale white and her hands were on her lap, she seemed like she have just seen a ghost (possibly, because Harry saw the Bloody Baron's head gilding quietly on the floor when he entered the dungeon.). The door swung opened again and Malfoy entered the room. He looked worst than Harry. He had a big bruise on his cheek and a huge cut on the other. He also had his left hand bandaged and cut on his lower lip. He glared at Harry as he made his way to a seat in the back corner.
"You're detention will be as follows," Snape said without lifting his eyes from the newspaper in his hand. "You will list all the potions you can think of that uses Cheop Juice as one of its ingredients. I want at least thirty potions, if you do not have thirty potions listed by the end of the hour, points will be taken off your house and you will spend another night in detention."
"At least thirty potions?!" The Ravenclaw student who was carving on the desk groaned.
"Yes, Miss Nettle, at least thirty potions." Snape breathed. "And may I remind you that you still have a week's worth of detention ahead of you."
The girl responded in only a nod and rolled eyes.
"Begin!" Snape barked at the group.
Cho started to scribble down words in neat little handwriting. Harry on the other hand was clueless. He had no idea what to write.
"Need any help?" Cho whispered and nudged Harry in the arm.
"Yes! Please!" He whispered back.
"Well, for starters, the Transportation Potion is one."
"There's such thing?"
"Yup. The drinker gets transported to the place he or she desires for ten minutes, after ten minutes, the drinker returns to the place where they drank the potion."
"Wouldn't it be easier to use Floo Powder. At least you don't get a time limit."
"During the ten minutes, you can see everybody and everything, but no one can see the drinker. Its like they've put on a Invisibility Cloak." Cho answered in a hush voice, making sure Snape didn't hear them. Harry knew what was it like being under an Invisibility Cloak all night; he had done it millions of times, and for more than just ten minutes.
"Anyway, another potion is the Blackclaw Cure, it cures sunburn. The Vain Potion is another. It stops cuts from bleeding."
Cho helped Harry with most of the potions but Harry managed to get a few by himself. In the end, Harry had fifty-two potions listed on his parchment. Cho managed to get sixty-sixty on hers.
"Miss Greenthyme, your parchment?" Snape questioned; whom had his arms crossed. He was tapping is long fingers on his arm. The pale girl rose up shakily, then walked to where Snape was standing. She held up her parchment, Snape ripped it out of her hand.
"Thirty-one potions," Snape growled at the corner of his lips, "you may leave." The girl quickly scampered off. Slamming the dungeon door behind her.
"Miss Nettle," Snape said and pointed to the spot in front of him. The Ravenclaw student slipped out of her seat and stepped forward and practically shoved the parchment into Snape's face. She stared coldly at the ground next to her. "Thirty." Snape said between his teeth, "You may leave."
She walked slowly and quietly to the door, opened it and left. Harry, Cho and Malfoy were left in the dungeon.
"Miss Chang." Snape addressed. Cho rose from her seat and walked in front of Snape and showed him her parchment. "Sixty-six, interesting. You may leave."
"I'll meet you outside." Cho mouthed then disappeared into the doorway.
"Mr. Malfoy, I barely noticed you there. Come." Snape ordered. Malfoy walked gloomily to Snape and handed his parchment in. Snape's eyes moved up and down the parchment several times before speaking. "Eighty-nine potions, well done. You may leave."
Malfoy walked to the door with a grin before he too disappeared.
"Mr. Potter, up here please." Harry gulped, then made his way to the front of the room. He gave his parchment to Snape, who scold at it for a second the said, "Fifty-two potions. Leave."
Harry was relieved and left the room as fast as he can. He found Cho standing against a wall in the corridor.
"How did it go?" Cho asked.
"Pretty well. I've got to thank you for all the help." Harry said.
"No problem." Cho responded.
"But can you believe Malfoy got eighty-ni-?!" Harry asked surprisingly.
"What about me, Potter?" Malfoy asked and appeared from a dark corner in the corridor.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Cho asked coldly.
"A duel." Malfoy answered, moving closer to Harry and Cho. Malfoy's eyes watch glued on Harry. "The little Muggle fight we had wasn't en-."
"I'll fight you." Cho cut off.
"You will? On that's so sweet of you, Cho. I'll be glad to win against someone with more skills than Potter, who barely has none." Harry moved forward and whipped his wand. Cho stopped him.
"I'm willing to fight. Scared?" Cho challenged.
"You wish." Malfoy whispered.
Cho and Malfoy took their positions, each on the end of the corridor. Harry was standing behind Cho. Both duelers whipped out their wand and faced each other. Both bowed their heads, yet their eyes were stuck on each other.
"One…" Harry started to count, "Two…"
Both of the duelers struck their wands and both shouted at the exact same time: "Frodionium"
A streak of white light shot out of both wands, heading straight for the other at great speed. The lights met at the middle and bounced off to the right. The smell smashed into a wall, where apart of the wall was now frozen solid due to the spell. The frozen wall started to crackle and the rubble dropped to the ground with a thump. Cho was the first to speak.
"Shit!" she cursed in a hushed voice. "We're going to die now. Didn't Dumbledore remind you not to use magic in the corridors when you first came to Hogwarts?"
"It was you're spell that hit the wall!" Draco hissed back in a hushed voice. He stepped over the pile of frozen ice. The wall had a rough uneven dent on it with some frost forming on the side. It looked just like the dent in the Great Hall caused by Ginny's spell.
"If Snape finds out he'll have my head on a platter!" Cho argued. "I'm leaving. Come on, Harry. Quickly, before Snape finds out." Cho grabbed Harry's hand and started to walk away from the scene, leaving Malfoy behind.
"I'm not going to clean this up!" Malfoy raised his voice.
"Fine." Cho said and continued walking away. She stopped, let go of Harry's hand, took her wand out from her pocket and gave it a wave. She grabbed Harry's hand again and started to walk. In the corner of Harry's eye, he could see the piles of frozen stone on the ground floating back up to the dent to its original place, repairing itself.
Harry and Cho arrived at the dusty old tapestry again.
"Well, had a great time tonight." Cho joked, "See you later, Harry." She went up to the curtain and whispered something to it, the old rug giggled and rolled up, revealing and dark opening which Harry could not see what was inside.
"Cho, wait." Harry said as Cho began to walk into the opening.
"Ya?" she answered. But Harry did not reply back. He grabbed her hand and twirled her towards him and he planted a kiss on Cho's lips. Both of them were shocked but dared not to look at each other. Cho was the first one to pull away.
"Goodbye, Harry." She said quickly and ran into the dark arch. The tapestry dropped down and separated the Ravenclaw Common Room from an awe-struck Harry Potter.
A/N: Ok…This chapter is the LONGEST chapter yet! Its 9 pages long in Word Document! Hell that's long! I'm be updating ASAP. So REVIEW! I NEED REVIEWS! I CAN'T GO ON WITHOUT THEM! THEY ARE MY LIFE SUPPORT!