Reunion, Part 6

Spirits were higher the next morning at breakfast. It seemed that everyone was looking forward
to the class demonstrations. In the ten years since they had attended school, many
discoveries in the magic world had been made and it was exciting to see what the children
were learning these days.

"It's amazing to think what things will be like once Sirius gets here," Harry said, pouring
porridge into his bowl.

"Yeah, exactly," Ron agreed, hungrily getting his own breakfast as well as that of the twins,
who were pulling on his robes.

Harry and Ron had pointedly decided not to discuss Hermione today, and when they saw her,
they'd simply act cordial. What use was souring the rest of their stay here worrying about
the incident? Other people seemed less able to let it go, however, because there continued
to be whispers among the graduates about how Hogwarts could employ such a hussie as
Hermione Granger. And it was also a little hard to dismiss all the talk when the owl
posts came in that morning, delivering letters and copies of the Daily Prophet.

Pigwidgeon dropped a letter into Ron's lap excitedly, because although the owl was now
11 years old, it still had an excessive amount of energy and spark of life, thoroughly
enjoying each and every one of its mail delivering tasks.

"It's from mum," Ron said, opening it up. "She and dad are hoping we are having a good
time, but that she misses her grandchildren and can't wait till we get back!"

Harry smiled. "Ah the advantages of living close to parents, eh?" A paper had just dropped
in front of Harry as Hedwig sat staring at him, dignified.

"Hm…well I see that my subscription to the Daily Prophet wasn't put on hold due to my
vacation, and I thought I had stopped the paper for the week." He picked it up and to his
horror saw a large picture of he and Hermione sitting very "close" in the Three
Broomsticks. The accompanying article tried to make itself out to be about "renewing
old acquaintances at the 2006 Hogwarts class reunion" but obviously was focusing on the
embarrassing encounter he had had yesterday.

"Oh no." Harry said, exasperated. "I just wanted…I just wanted this to be a fun reunion,
without me being in the limelight ....again." He looked around embarrassedly and especially
at Ginny, who was petrified to see all the looks from others in the room who also had
received the paper.

"Well I've heard this reporter, Windle Wisner, is the next generation Rita Skeeter," Ron
said, also ogling the photo, which showed Hermione and Harry in the middle of a passionate
kiss.

Ginny got up, holding Sirius, and walked out of the room, she looked like a tamale as she
hurriedly excused herself, heading for the Gryffindor common room, saying that Harry
could just go on without her because she wasn't about to be seen at
the exhibitions today.

Across the room, many of the Slytherins were laughing, even as adults they were cruel and
heartless, many having advanced
to high wizarding positions through less than traditional ways. Goyle, Crabbe, and Pansy
Parkinson's whole crew were especially jovial, and they took turns staring at Harry at
the Gryffindor table and at Hermione at the staff table. Hermione looked like she wanted
to turn into a mouse and hide in a hole, and at the same time, she was obviously furious.
Draco Malfoy was glaring at her coldly, but an evil grin was plastered on his face,
and McGonagall just looked stunned. Noticing her boss' look, Hermione got up, assuring
McGonagall that it wasn't true, and marched over to the Gryffindor table, numerous
eyes following her.

"Harry, what IS this??! "

"What do you *mean*?" Ron said, glaring at her in disgust. "You can see what it is...thanks
to you, Harry's got more trouble. So you just trying to break he and Ginny up or what, just
cause you can't find a man gives you NO right to..."

Hermione was shaking her head. "Ron for God's sake..that *isn't* me! I never was even in
the Three Broomsticks yesterday! What is going on?"

"Uh..." Ron was suddenly looking a bit uncertain as to what to do, and Harry was just
looking at the photo more closely.

"Wait..." Harry said calmly, even though Hermione practically had steam coming from her
ears next to him, "where's the book? She didn't have the book at the Three Broomsticks."

"What book," Ron asked incredulously.

"The Transfiguration Book that Hermione bought right before I saw her at the Three
Broomsticks. I just realized that when I saw her come back into the store to get me that she
didn't have it."

"Harry, after our arguement I went straight back to Hogwarts. I couldn't bear to be around
Hogsmeade any longer, not after that. I took the book back with me of course," Hermione
insisted.

Harry stared up at her, something just dawning on him. It was becoming clear to him now that
the ill feelings he had experienced since arriving here were not unfounded. There
obviously was foul play going on. "Well it's just that I saw you come back to Mirtie's and
then proceed to take me to the Three Broomsticks where..this..this happened," he said,
pointing to the photo and article. The photo had now moved slightly, and Hermione in the
picture was wrapping her arms more tightly around Harry, pulling him in closer and stroking
his hair. The real Hermione was just looking down at it in disgust.

"Well honestly Harry...is this why you and Ron and everyone else around here has been acting
like I have the Celcarian Plague?? You know I would never act that way...didn't the thought
that someone might be trying to frame me EVER come to mind?" she said, looking angry
and hurt now, the thought that her friends would ever think otherwise just shocked her.

"Oh um..." Ron for once seemed speechless, and there was an uncomfortable silence filling
the room. The rest of the Great Hall had gone back to their own heated discussions,
some about the article and some about the exhibitions for the day, but Hermione felt
that the three of them, right now, were the center of attention.

"Isn't it obvious that someone is trying to ruin me?" Hermione said stubbornly. "It's a good
thing that McGonagall knows me better than that and doesn't believe this rubbish," she
added, throwing down the newspaper on the table. "I just thought my friends would trust
me more than that...here I was thinking you two were mad at me because of that arguement I
had with Harry yesterday...and I still am unclear why you denied that whole thing Harry,"
she glared at him through glossy eyes. It was apparent she was trying to hold back tears.

"Well Hermione, I never kissed you the other night either," Harry insisted.

"But you came to my room and..."

"No, I didn't...I went straight to my room and stayed there the rest the evening."

"Then what..." Hermione now looked thoroughly confused.

"Something's obviously going on here," Harry said matter of factly. "I've been sensing it
almost since I stepped in the door."

"Well I won't have my reputation destroyed by such rumors! I'm going to find out what's
going on..."Hermione said, starting to walk away. "I just hope you two have as much
inclincation to find out as I do."

Ron and Harry watched as she walked away and knew, if they wanted to find her, they would just
have to go to the library. She was still the same, she wanted to be on top of things,
find out what was going on and to fix everything so that it was right again.

"She didn't have the book...I should have realized..." Harry said, shrugging.

"Yeah well, we better figure this out before we get in any MORE trouble," Ron said, looking
at the empty spot where Ginny had been sitting.

Harry followed his gaze. "Exactly. Come on, we have an hour before Neville's demonstration,
I'm sure he'll notice if we're not there, so we should probably see what we can do
before that."

"Leaving me with the children again are you," Eloise snapped.

"Eloise I..." Ron began, but Eloise waved her hand at him dismissively, waving her
wand to wet a couple of napkins to finish cleaning up the twins faces. "Oh just go help
her," Eloise said, taking Miranda and Millie's hands and stomping out
of the Great Hall. The two little girls were looking confusedly back at their father
and Ron sighed.

"Right....and I thought this was going to be a vacation too," he said unhappily.

Harry and Ron left the Great Hall, headed for the library, paying no attention to the
scrutinizing looks they were receiving from the Slytherin table. It was just like
old times, the old competition between the two houses didn't seem to have subsided
even after 10 years.

"So what you reckon is going on?" asked Ron as they made their way to the library.

"I don't know," Harry admitted, "although I have some ideas."

Sure enough, when they got there, Hermione was sitting at a table, Crookshanks curled on her
lap, and was poring over about two dozen books, deep in concentration. The rest of the library
was deserted, it just wasn't a place people, other than Hermione, seemed to like to spend
their time unless they had to.

"Hey," Ron and Harry said, taking seats across from her. Hermione looked up with intensity
and just stared at them, pushing two books toward them. "I haven't looked in these yet...I'm
exploring transfiguration and illusionary spells mostly. My first guess would be Polyjuice
Potion since we've had some..er..um..experience with that..." Hermione stated, twitching a
bit at the remembrance of her less than positive experience with that.

"But in order for someone to use Polyjuice potion, they would have had to get one of your
hairs and one of Harry's," Ron said skeptically.

"Not to mention a number of other ingredients that are hard to come by. I know Snape used to
have them but I have no idea if Colin keeps all those supplies. He's a little concerned about
keeping dangerous things on hand in the case of accidents. I mean he does demonstrations, but
doesn't threaten poisoning people or the like the way Snape used to." Hermione continued,
looking at her book as she went on.

"But is there any way other than Polyjuice potion for people to turn into other people?" Harry
asked.

"That's what I'm trying to find out, and more even then how they did it, why did they do it?
What purpose does it serve? So we aren't liked by everyone in our graduating class...does
that give them the right to make things miserable for us? I mean REALLY, we are adults now
and they are acting like CHILDREN. " Hermione said disgustedly.

"Yeah well, I guess we are in that category too, for thinking you would have done what Harry
said you did." Ron said apologetically.

"Well it was just...they did a good job of convincing you I suppose," Hermione went on.

Harry was looking at the index of his book. "Well here's one that requires very little
spellcasting...."become the essence of your enemy with the Solidity Complex Spell...trick
your friends and fool your enemies" Oh but....it says you have to have the serum from this
certain kind of magical creature and I think that would be hard to find..." Harry shrugged.

"Of course ALL spells dealing with fake identities involve unusual things because after all,
it is a very shady thing to do. I mean WE had good intentions, but I'm sure whoever is doing
this to us is doing it out of sheer hatred. If I had my guess, I'd say the Slytherins were
involved, especially our favorite pal Draco." Hermione scowled.

"Yeah that would be my guess too except we've been keeping an eye on him and if he's doing
something he's being pretty crafty about it. He's been everywhere that we have been and
usually nowhere near you except at mealtimes."

"Still...he IS the new Dark Arts teacher and what better way to show his skills..."

A small clock chimed on the wall behind them.

"Oh no!" Harry muttered...we need to get to Neville's exhibition, I think he'll be hurt if
we don't."

"Yeah, especially after how I beat him at chess last night, " Ron grinned, getting up.

"You two go ahead, I have seen plenty of Neville's plants, botany was never a great interest
of mine anyway," Hermione said, dismissing them and digging into her books further. I'll
maybe meet you for Colin's demonstration because that could be of more use to us."

"Yeah OK..see you in an hour then in the dungeons," Harry said and being that Hermione was
so involved that she didn't respond, he and Ron headed out of the library and then outside
toward the greenhouse.

"I'll give her this..once she puts her mind to something, she doesn't give it up..." Ron said
as they joined the crowd who were already surrounding Neville.

"And THIS...is a Picalotty Plant," beamed Neville, motioning for a small little girl to come
forward. He asked her name and then what her favorite kind of food was in the world. She said
that chocolate frogs were most appealing, so Neville laughed, leaning toward a rather large
Picalotty Plant and whispered to it "Chocolate Frogs" and in moments it opened up it's
leaves to present a fully formed candy frog, to the delight of the child and the amusement
of the audience. "So you see, these plants are quite useful for when you don't have time to
cook or when you are on a busy schedule," Neville explained.

After showing the Picalotty Plants, Neville went on to show about 12 other types of flora,
each with unique properties that he claimed would help the wizarding world either in the
medical fields or in making everyday tasks easier. He was obviously very proud of his work
and after he was done, he ran to Harry and Ron excitedly. "What did you think?"

"Oh, you've done some good things here Neville," Ron said, stroking a Kitteny plant, which
felt like soft, warm fur to the touch.

"Of course. Where is Madam Granger?" he said, smiling.

Harry smirked. "Library. Had some things to do."

"Oh of course, of course," Neville said, looking slightly disappointed. Well my collegue
Professor Creavy will be waiting for us."

"Right," Ron and Harry said together, following Neville as he closed the Greenhouse door
behind him and headed toward the castle behind the huge crowd now headed that way.

"Been meaning to ask her to the Dragon Ball," Neville said casually, causing Harry and
Ron to give each other looks. "You know..since she couldn't go to the Yule Ball with me
all those years ago...I thought maybe..I don't know."

"Uh, I'm sure she'd be flattered Neville," Harry quickly said, not really knowing how she'd
react.

"I just have to get up the courage you know," Neville blushed fiercely. "But since we work
together and all, I have just um...well, kind of developed an affection for her you know.
Not sure she really even knows I exist though..she's cordial and friendly and all but never
really, well, never really acts like she wants to hang out with me or anything," Neville said,
pouring his heart out now probably because it had been bottled up inside him for so long.

"I think you should," Ron said, trying to be encouraging, "You know...ask Hermione to the
ball." He glanced at Harry with a meaningful "We are going to have to talk Hermione into
this" kind of look and Harry nodded, just as they got into the castle. Neville seemed to have
perked up though, feeling more confident.

"Well..well maybe I just will then, that is if she's not going with anyone else."

"Yeah..." Ron said, shrugging but doubting very much she was.

They now made their way into the dungeons where Colin was setting up his potions display.
Hermione was already there, holding a book under her arm and walking up to them as they
approached. "So how'd it go Neville?" she asked nicely.

"Good...wish you could have.."

"Yeah I'm sorry about that Neville, but there was something really important in the library
I had to take care of." Hermione said, as if that was enough of an explanation. Neville sighed
and shrugged at Ron and Harry, as if his courage had just been squashed again. They tried
to give him encouraging looks and he finally agreed to ask her after the demonstration.

Colin Creavy began to show different concoctions to the crowd that was gathering, many
of which, like Neville's plants, were newly discovered. They consisted of remedies and
poisons quite different from anything they had seen during their time at Hogwarts.

"Now, Colin laughed slightly, "I would like to introduce my biggest fan..." He pointed in
the direction of the hallway behind him, and a man came out who looked just like Creavy.

"This is young Marvin Whittle, the son of one of our graduates here today. He came up to
me earlier showing great interest in learning about and becoming a Potions teacher! He will
be going into Hogwarts this very next year, so I look forward to instructing him on the nuances
of this art!"

Colin at this point took out a camera and snapped a picture of his identical twin, then
had an Mr and Mrs. Whittle take one of the two of them together.

"That is a keepsake...this boy is under the spell of Polyjuice Potion, which has just been
found to be creatable from a much lesser formula than the one you may all have learned about.
I told Marvin here that he could BECOME me for an hour, and he was very happy to have the
opportunity." Colin smiled at "himself", who was beaming widely.

"I do want to caution, however, that as much as you would like to take the identity of
someone, it is important that Polyjuice Potion is used wisely. This is quite fun, but it
is not a recommended potion under most circumstances and not one I teach my students. For the
purposes of this demonstration, however, I wanted to show you its affects."

Before their eyes, the "other" Colin suddenly began to shrink and dissolve back into an
11 year old boy. The boy looked very excited as Colin handed him the pictures, taking one
more of the two of them now that the boy was back to normal. Evidently Creavy had administered
the potion almost an hour ago just to have this very effect in front of his audience.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were staring wide eyed at the front, Hermione clutching her tome
very tightly. "I never read ANYTHING about there being an alternative Polyjuice potion recipe!"
she screeched, as if disappointed that her precious books had failed to tell her something
she had wanted to know.

"And the plot thickens," Ron said, waiting now almost anxiously for Colin to be finished so
that they could talk to him and get more details. Soon he had his wish and the crowd was
dispersing, leaving Colin to clean up his supplies. Harry and Ron took a step forward,
Hermione following, but Neville gathered up determination and walked right to her side.

"Um..Hermione?"

Hermione looked fairly distracted and in a hurry to talk with Colin, but she politely turned
to him. "What Neville?"

"I was just wondering, could you..I mean would you want to, go to the Dragon Ball with me
tomorrow night?" he was just looking at her, blushing.

Hermione was just taken aback. "Oh...um..." she said, but she didn't know how to get out of
it. She definitely didn't have feelings for Neville, but what else could she do since she had
to go anyway. "Well OK, sure. " Hermione said quickly. "See you later.." she added, now
walking away from him to join Harry and Ron.

Neville just stood there a moment, smiling. He felt like he couldn't move a muscle, and it
was a good 10 minutes before he finally turned around, swishing his robes behind him, almost
tripping on them as he headed back to his chambers. This was turning out to be a wonderful
reunion for him, and now, just maybe, the girl he had had his eye on for years actually
cared about him too.