Title: Harry Potter and the Days of Thunder
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter books and their characters and places are intellectual property of JK Rowling, and the song "You know so well" is property of Sondre Lerche.
A/N: Ah, the ff.net is finally up again! This chapter is dedicated Me_160286, good friend, although I'd be very happy if he stopped calling me in the middle of the night (and yes, that IS a hint). I really hope this makes up for the other fic I dedicated to him, 'boys, boys'.
I also want to (once again) thank Shkspr, who was very helpful when it came to naming the American magic school. *glomps Shkspr and Me*
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Chapter 3: You know so Well
Use every chance you've been given
She replied, after several days She has no need to be perfect
You know so well, things are easy to tell
There is one thing I
know
It goes like this
It's that when I'm down and out it's you I miss…
Much to Harry's despair, being back at Hogwarts didn't seem to stop the bad dreams, and when he woke up the next morning it was with red, swollen eyes. The dream had been worse than ever: he had actually felt the knife cutting through his skin, felt the blood flow down his arm, flow over him, felt himself being engulfed in a giant pool of his own blood, drowning in it, in a way, drowning in himself.
As he got out of bed, he had no other wish than taking a long, hot shower, but even that plan was spoiled: apparently, Seamus had, under the strong influence of his brandy, snogged Lavender after the feast, and now seemed quite intent on scrubbing off every inch of skin that had touched hers. However, as he joined Ginny Weasley on her way down to breakfast, he was starting to feel better as he sat down at the Gryffindor table, opposite Hermione and Ron. They bid him good morning, and not wanting to have them, or anyone else, prying about his red eyes, he replied with a forced smile on his face.
"I'll say, you're as moody as Lavender during PMS," said Seamus, who was sitting next to Hermione. "Laughing one minute, crying the other."
"And you would know that, wouldn't you?" Dean dryly remarked from further down the table.
Seamus looked up, and his smile faltered at the sight of the other boy.
"Dean."
"Seamus."
The two of them had an intense stare-down for twenty seconds or so, before Seamus abruptly stood up and stalked off.
"What was that all about?" Harry quietly asked Ron.
"Dunno, but I'll bet it's because of Lavender."
"You mean- Dean... Lavender?"
Ron shrugged.
"Unlikely pair, hm?"
Hermione tutted loudly.
"What?" Ron asked irritably.
She shook her head.
"You boys are so dense."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, nothing," she replied airy. "Oh look, new schedules! Here you go!"
Ron groaned as he examined the timetables.
"All day torture! Blimey, what've I done to deserve this?"
"What is it, Ron?" Hermione asked courtly. "My day's excellent! Two hours arithmancy first, then there's that...erm... rather unfortunate hour of potions, then two transfiguration."
"Yeah, well, at least you won't have to put up with that dingbat Trelawney first in the morning!"
"It's your own fault, you don't HAVE to take that subject. In fact, you should really take muggle studies."
"And why is that?"
"Oh, well, say if you're going to spend a vacation in a muggle household..." Hermione drifted off.
Ron grimaced.
"Why would I want to do that?"
Harry jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow.
"Ouch, what was that fo- oh," he said as Harry pointed to their female friend. "Sure, Hermione, muggle studies sounds fascinating, but it's too late to-"
The end of the sentence was drowned in the sound of thousands of owls flying through the hall, delivering letters and packages to and fro.
Harry's own owl, Hedvig, was nowhere to be seen, and, noted Harry, neither was the eagle owl that used to deliver Draco Malfoy sweets every morning. Instead, there was a large, black raven hovering above his head, and Malfoy himself looked as though he wished the earth would open up and swallow him. Harry was about to comment on the very unusual sight, when a loud outburst distracted both him and the rest of the table enough to look up from whatever they were doing.
"Hermione!" spluttered Ron, "did you just say-"
Putting her hand over Ron's mouth, Hermione quickly prevented him in repeating the foul words she so uncharacteristically had uttered, and shoved the newest edition of the Daily Prophet into his face.
"Read this!" On the front of the newspaper, in war-types, it read: HOGWARTS TO VISIT DEATH EATERS?
Harry gaped.
"What the-"
Hermione snatched the newspaper back, and started reading the article aloud.
" DUMBLEDORE'S DARK MAGIC SHOCK
It seems that Hogwarts' headmaster is finding shocking innocent parents and the ministry of magic more entertaining than ever these days. Our esteemed readers probably still have Rita Skeeter's reports on a Hogwarts seemingly gone mad from last year in mind, and more than one parent was shocked by the news that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named supposedly was responsible for the death of a seventhyear student at the end of last term.
However, if we thought we never could see or hear worse, we were fooled.
It appears, that without even alerting the ministry of magic, Hogwarts has re-entered the Merlin Exchange Program.
The exchange program was started already in the darkest Medieval Ages, by the headmasters and -mistresses of the five oldest magical schools in the world: the American Coyote Academy, the Brazilian school Colemago Institute, the Mjolngard School of Sorcery, the Chinese Kang-Lin Centre, and our very own Hogwarts. In 1982, after several years of controversy surrounding the program, the Hogwarts school board decided that Hogwarts was to leave it, and it has not since participated.
Yesterday, however, all parents of fifth years at Hogwarts received news that not only will their children be asked to spend their school year far away from their home country, no, they will also be staying at the infamous Mjolngard School of Sorcery!" Hermione paused, and turned to Harry. "Infamous? How can it be infamous when it's not even mentioned in An Appraisal of Magical Education of Europe?" She continued reading.
"Very little is known about this Scandinavian school, but it is generally reckoned as the oldest magical school still in business, and had until few years ago one of the largest libraries in the world. Its exact location has never been disclosed, but is rumoured to be somewhere in the mountain areas between Norway and Sweden. The school is also famous for its hard acceptance tests, and high expectations to its students.
Sounds like a good school?
Think again!
After the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in 1981, the Mjolngard was accused of consorting with the Dark Side. Investigations of the school showed that even though the curriculum does put emphasis on learning and understanding charms and curses commonly recognised as 'dark', it was impossible to prove that the school promoted Death Eating, and charges were dropped. The school was later banned from the International Confederation of Wizard's Education Board because of its open line on the dark arts. For a short while the school was also excluded from the exchange program.
Even though the school's exclusion from the Merlin Program was undone, parents have been critical about sending their children to this scandalous establishment, and when Dumbledore now sends our children there, he is the first headmaster to do so in 15 years.
So what we now must ask ourselves is: Dumbledore- is this the man you really want to entrust your children?"
She looked up from the newspaper.
"This can't be true! I mean, a dark arts school?"
Ron snorted.
"You didn't seem to mind when it was Vicky of Durmstrang, did you?"
"That was different, that was rumours, and they were here! But this- this is on paper! Black and white! And we're going there!"
"You shouldn't believe everything you read, Hermione, it's probably just rumours anyway," lied Harry, who was quite unnerved by the news himself. "Do you really think Dumbledore would let us go if it's dangerous?"
Hermione shook her head, and agreed that no, Dumbledore would never let them get hurt, but the look on her face as she hurried off to Arithmancy said that she, like Harry himself, still wasn't convinced.
***
After finishing their breakfast, Harry and Ron slouched off to Divination.
"You know," said Ron, "Hermione's so bitchy sometimes."
"What, she stole your favourite lipstick?" said Terry Boot, who had joined them.
"Ha. Ha," Ron mocked. "So, what lucky teacher will you be favouring with your wits today, Boot?"
Terry chuckled.
"And you tell me I have a bad sense of humour?"
Ron raised an eyebrow, not caring.
"Anyway," continued Terry, "I'm off to see the wicked witch of the north tower, Trelawney herself."
"Divination? We have divination now, you can't!"
Harry coughed.
"Actually, Ron... we have divination together this year."
Ron didn't respond, but his ears went very red.
"So," said Harry to Terry, "where's your better half?"
"Mandy? She went ahead with some of her friends. They're probably dissecting and analysing everything I've said, done or written during the last 24 hours." He grinned. "And I wouldn't have it any other way. But speaking of girls... Harry, I heard you arrived at the Leaky Cauldron with Hermione Granger this year."
"Yeah, so?"
"So? Are the two of you... an item?"
Harry's jaw dropped.
"No, we're just friends."
Terry grinned smugly.
"I bet you are. Hey, Ron, wait!"
Because at the mention of Hermione Granger as part of an item, Ron had sped up, leaving both Harry and Terry had to run to catch up with him.
They arrived at the base of the North Tower at about the same time as the bell rang, and were the last to climb up the ladder.
The room was more full than they were used to, probably because of the Ravenclaws, and the boys had no other choice than to sit down next to Lavender and Parvati, who were discussing last night's events, using words that Harry didn't know what meant, but had a feeling he really didn't WANT to know, anyway. However, they quickly shut their blabs when their dingbat-like teacher professor Trelawney stepped out of the shadows.
"Good day," she said airily. "The spirits wish me to inform you that this term, we will be studying the symbolics and predictions made out of numbers, in pairs of two and two."
The students started shuffling around to get to work with their usual partners, but Trelawney raised her hand.
"Because we will be working a long time with this, it is important that we do it with someone that is alike ourselves. Therefore, I have conferenced with the divine powers that be, which gave me a list to follow when partnering up students, based on their spiritual kinness."
Ron leaned over.
"Is that even a word?"
"I don't think so."
Trelawney shot them a severe look before continuing.
"So- here are the pairs: Brown and Boot, Finnegan and Brocklehurst,"
"That's not divine foreseeing," Ron whispered as Neville sat down next to Katy Burkes, "that's inter-house pairing by the alphabet."
Seconds later, Parvati Patil was paired off with a boy named Carrington, and Harry was already on his way over to Morag MacDougal when Trelawney called out the last expected thing in the world:
"Potter and Chang!"
Harry stopped dead. There was no way-
"Harry, over here!" said a voice behind him.
He turned, and there, next to Lisa Turpin, sat Cho Chang.
His entire body numb, Harry somehow managed to get over to the corner table she was sitting at, and slid down in the seat next to Cho, Cedrik's Cho, talented seeker Cho, beautiful -
"Harry, Harry!"
His eyes snapped back in focus, only to see HER staring at him dully, waving her hand in front of him.
"Are you okay? You..drifted off for a minute or so."
Harry groaned inwardly. Nice, now she would think he was mad too.
"I'm sorry, I'm not completely awake yet." He grinned apologetically. "I'm not a morning person."
"That's all right, I'm not either. And add Trelawney to that..."
Harry nodded, and looked down on the chart they Trelawney had given out.
"So, what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, it's rather like muggle arithmancy. The first thing is to calculate the sum of our names."
"The what?"
"The sum, like this: H is 8, A is 1, R is 18, the other R is also 18, and the Y is 25. Together, that is 70, 7 plus 0 is 7, therefore, your cosmic number," she glanced up at him "Harry Potter, is 7."
Harry stared a her, dumbstruck, then looked at her calculations, the chart, and back at her again."
"Wow, that was...fast."
She smiled.
"Thank you, but it's not a big deal. I had this last year too."
"So... why are you in this class, if you did it last year?"
She looked down at the table.
"Because of the OWLs, some of the exams were after the Third.." she paused, "the Third task. And, well, after the task...I was.... I failed the exam, so I have to take the class over again."
"Oh."
Suddenly, Trelawney swooped down on them, her many bracelets and beads rattling.
"So, how are we doing?"
Cho smiled an obviously forced smiled.
"Very good, actually."
"And your cosmic numbers?"
"Harry is a seven, and I'm a...six."
Trelawney nodded.
"Ah, yes.. 6, the number for grief and sorrow. And 7, ah, the number of...premature death."
And with that, she moved on to the next table, the scent of her heavy perfume lingering.
"You know," said Cho, "I think the only reason she did this alphabetic thing, was that so she could pair us up, and save her breath by predicting doom for us both at the same time."
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Whatever makes you say that?" he mocked.
"I'm not sure, but the fact that she last year told me that the cosmic number 6 stands for eternal happiness and love, could have something to do with it."
Harry swallowed hard.
"I'm really sorry about Cedrik. He was always nice too me."
She nodded, her eyes watering up.
"Yes, he was a good person. Maybe too good for this world sometimes."
They continued their work in silence, only speaking when necessary. After class, Trelawney held the two of them back to help her rig up the crystal balls for the next class, and this was how it came that the two of walked together, still in silence. It was not until they reached the third floor, that Cho spoke.
"So...Mjolngard. Sounds..."
"...dark," finished Harry.
"Yes," she agreed as she stopped at a corner. "Very dark, indeed."
Harry nodded, and Cho smiled.
"Well, this is my stop. Charms next," she said.
"Oh," said Harry. "I guess I'll have to wish you luck, then."
Cho laughed.
"Don't worry, I'm not THAT bad at it."
For a moment, they just stood there. Then, Cho quickly gave him a hug, muttered 'bye', and disappeared down the corridor, leaving a flustered Harry behind.
***
Because of his slow speed, Harry was a minute too late, but Snape didn't seem to mind. He was busy writing down ingredients on the chalkboard, and simply greeted him with the standard '10 points of Gryffindor'.
Harry found his between Hermione and Ron (the latter didn't seem happy about this, but as Hermione already had drawn out the chair, he couldn't very well say no, either), and got his book out.
"Where were you?"
"Walked with Cho, tell you about it later. Have I missed anything?"
Ron shook his head.
"Nah, Snape's just been standing there, writing. No name for the potion, though. You reckon he's gonna make us do it, and then dare someone to drink it?"
Hermione, leaned forward and shot them both a stern look. "Snape may be evil, but he's not stupid. Or deaf, for that matter."
"Meaning what?" Ron hissed.
"Meaning keep you voices down, Weasley and Potter," said Snape, who had put down the chalk and turned around. "That will be an additional ten points from Gryffindor. But also, seeing as the good Mr. Potter is feeling very needy when it comes to talking today, perhaps he can tell the class what potion it is that have these ingredients?" He gestured towards the chalkboard.
Harry quickly read through the list. "Lacewinged flies, boomslang skin...Polyjuice Potion?"
Snape smirked.
"Somehow, I didn't doubt you knew that." He looked around the room.
"The Polyjuice potion," he stated, "is a transfiguring potion, which change you into another person. It is a complex potion, as it takes at least 21 days to make, and among the many ingredients is a body part of person you want to change into. Today, we are going to take notes on this potion, and I will expect an essay on the main uses and complications of this potion. We will not be making it in class, however, I would advise you all be thorough in your research, seeing this may come up on your OWLs and definitely on the exams. So, get to work!"
Harry simply stared. Snape had been civil, non-despotic, and had not subtracted more than 20 points from Gryffindor.
It was Millicent Bulstrode that voiced the thought faring through every student's mind at that moment.
"Professor...are you sick?"
Snape's lip curled, and he barked back in response:
"Of course not, Bulstrode! Now get to work!"
As they started working, Ron leaned over.
"Number one: what was Cho doing in our class? Number two: why did the two of you stay behind? Snogging session?"
"At Trelawneys? Very kinky."
Ron rolled his eyes.
"You know what I mean, com'on, tell me!"
Harry started telling Ron about what had happened.
"She hugged you?"
Harry nodded.
"Nothing big, not like Hermione hugs (at this, their friend's cheeks reddened), just cheek against cheek."
Ron's eyes darkened.
"I know what you mean, Ginny and her girl friends does that all the time, while emitting high squealing noises. Usually when they part, saying 'baibai, bimbi!'."
"Sans the squealing and bimbi-thing, that's what happened," replied Harry. "So what does this mean, that I'm one of her girl friends now?"
"Not unless you have failed to tell us something very important," Hermione whispered. "And shut up, both of you, I'm trying to work."
Ron rolled his eyes, but quickly got back to the book as Hermione kicked his leg under the table.
And as Harry heard him mutter "violent bitch.." under his breath, he couldn't help but smile and think that the two of them would make a cute couple.
***
The rest of the day went by fairly uneventful; lunch was none the extraordinary (not counting the food-fight the firstyears, led by Hecate, started), History of Magic was just as stale as the professor, the long-passed Binns, and it was not until Katie Bell, one of the Gryffindor chasers, had hit him over the head about five times that she managed to get it through to Harry that a crisis meeting for the quidditch-team had been scheduled at 8 P.M. that evening.
Which was why he later that day found himself hurrying down towards the pitch in the dark of an evening with no stars or moon.
The ground was slippery and muddy; the thunder storm Harry had been expecting the night before having come that afternoon instead. This was not ideal at the moment, seeing as he was half-running, being late (in his defence, it had to be said that this was not entirely his fault, seeing as Ginny had asked him for help with her homework, wearing an extremely skimpy singlet. And after all, he was just a boy, right?). He smiled at the mere thought, taking his eyes off the ground for a moment. This, he shouldn't have done, because with a dull *thud* the great Harry Potter slipped, and fell headlong over.
And it was here, on the ground, with dirt on his clothes and leaves in his hair, that Harry had first encounter with Draco Malfoy that semester.
"Now Potter, just because they say it's healthy for the skin to take mudbaths, it doesn't mean you should over-do it, does it?"
Harry quickly gathered himself up, startled. The blond Slytherin had come out of nowhere, as silent as a cat.
"Well, you would know about that, wouldn't you? After all, it did take care of those curse scars we put on you last June. But," he twirled his wand between his fingers, "if you want, I can put them back on."
Malfoy cocked his head, and leered.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. You are ...not... funny." He rolled his eyes. "Now excuse me, Potter, I have an appointment."
"With what? The mirror?"
Malfoy turned, and Harry stepped back, expecting to be the victim of the Slytherin's short temper. Malfoy, however, just gave him a cold look.
"At least I don't have an ugly scar in the middle of my face. Can't say the same for you, though, 'Wonderboy McPublicity'."
"Hey, I'm not-"
"Oh, admit it already, Potter. Despite what you like to tell yourself, you know as well as I that the world is watching you- your achievements, your girlfriends, even your bloody quidditch matches. Scar-boy with the Firebolt, that's you."
"Yeah, well, I see you've got yourself one too." Harry gestured towards the broom Malfoy was carrying.
"It's not a Firebolt, it's a Twigger- for racing, not quidditch."
"You mean- you've quit the team?"
Malfoy nodded, his face expressionless.
"I just don't see the point anymore, that's all. Plus, we have OWLs this year."
"Yeah- that, and the fact that you're tired of loosing to me all the time."
For a moment, there was cold fire in Malfoy's eyes, but all he did was push Harry down to the ground again as he rushed by on his way to the castle.
Within moments, he was gone, swallowed by the darkness of the night.
Harry skidded into the locker room just as the Katie, the new captain, called for them to calm down. As she stood up to talk, he slid down between the Weasley twins. He wasn't surprised to see that Lee Jordan was there too, seeing as his vast knowledge of quidditch made him a good advisor to the team. That, and the fact that he and Katie were dating.
"Okay, order, order! I hereby declare this meeting of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team opened!"
George, who was sitting next to Harry, leaned over.
"Katie'sh ghoing to be a judge when she growsh up," he said in a childish voice, making Harry smile.
"Very funny, George," Katie said. "But to the point- we have a serious problem."
"Problem?" piped Fred.
She nodded.
"Yes. Not only do we need a keeper and a chaser, but now, we need to find a substitute for our seeker too." Katie paused. "Now, before Oliver graduated, he left a list of possible candidates for the keeper position, so that's easy. Finding a seeker is harder- but if all else fails, Sally has said that she could step in."
Harry was puzzled.
"Sally?" he whispered to George, who nodded in response.
"Sally Capper, she played seeker before you, she's in our year. Her parents made her quit the team after she hurt her back in finals."
"But- if her parents won't let her-"
"Let's just say Sally got her groove back. If she wants to play, she will play."
They looked up at Katie again.
"Finding a chaser will be the hardest, because he or she will have to be totally in sync with the other chasers- Alicia and I. And this has to be done quickly, because except for the Hufflepuffs, all the other teams have the same players as the year before last."
Harry looked up.
"Actually- the Slytherin seeker quit."
All eyes were on him now.
"That albino-Malfoy kid quit?" Alicia said hopefully.
Harry nodded, and Fred gave George a high-five. Meanwhile, Katie got a critical expression on her face.
"Don't rejoice too early! Remember, as much as the Slytherins are asswipes, they have fostered a lot of good, if not excellent, quidditch players and tacticians. And when all comes too- there has to be an incredibly good reason for Malfoy quitting the team, considering his over-sized ego. We mustn't slack off just because we think they're worse off than us. We have to think speed, agility, tactics!" She had a mad look in her eyes now.
"Katie," said Alicia slowly, as if talking to a madman. "You sound like Oliver."
The rest of the meeting drifted off into nothingness, seeing as Alicia had nicked Seamus' brandy while he had been flat out the first night, and insisted on sending it around (she wouldn't let Harry have anything, though). Both Katie and Fred got quite tipsy, and when Madame Hooch finally came along and threw the lot of them out of the changing rooms, she was giggling too hard to even stand up. Lee, however, easily solved this by lifting her up, and gave her a piggyback ride back to the castle. Both the twins and Alicia seemed amused by this, and for some reason, Fred kept on repeating 'spank it, spank it'. This, combined with the fact that Katie kept on hitting Lee lightly with her wand, somewhat disturbed Harry. To add to that, Alicia took off her scarf, and started to wave it around, trying to hit the people around her, kept chasing after anyone who ducked. She joined Fred in his chanting, so when they reached the common room, Harry was happy to hide over in Hermione's corner. However, seeing as Hermione's lithe frame was not much to hide behind, he decided that her desk would be a more suited hiding place. Or rather, in his hurry he tripped over the carpet and came flying, almost knocking over the table in the process. It was rather stuffy under there, and Hermione (who turned out to be quite ticklish) kept on squirming and kicking him, forcing him to grab hold of her foot.
"Harry!" she exclaimed.
Harry stuck his head out.
"Yes?"
She shot him a severe look, tucking her quill between her ear.
"Would you please remove your hands from my left leg?"
Harry looked down, only to see that his hands had indeed slid up on Hermione's leg. He blushed, and quickly withdrew them.
"Sorry," he muttered, blushing. She sighed.
"What are you doing down there, anyway?"
Deciding that he would rather lie than loose face, Harry thought a bit before answering.
"Hiding."
"From who?"
"Voldemort!"
She cocked her head.
"Hilarious. Simply hilarious. You're so funny, you could give Jerry Seinfeld a run for his money."
She looked at him, her eyes shadowed by…sorrow?
"Why do you joke about it?"
He stopped grinning.
"I don't know… I just do."
"I-" she started, but stopped as the quill fell down behind her. "Stupid quill," she muttered, and bent down to pick it up. Unfortunately enough, she leaned to far, and fell off the chair.
Harry couldn't help but laugh, and even though she tried to keep a serious face, Hermione smiled too.
"That's what happen when you get so pompous, Ms. Prefect!"
She rolled her eyes, but instead of getting up again, she crossed her legs, just sitting there and watching Harry.
"So…what are you really hiding from?"
His mind was blank, and he simply answered the first word that came to his mind.
"Everything."
"Everything?"
He nodded briskly, his eyes dark. "Everything's just so…fucking complicated."
She didn't scold him for swearing, just put a hand on his chin, tilting it up, forcing him to look into her eyes, green on cinnamon.
"Harry- life is complicated- even without a Dark Überlord on your tail. There's only one thing that's sure."
"Yeah, what's that?"
"That it becomes a hell of a lot harder if you keep it all inside."
She smiled sadly, before pulling him into a hug.
"Just keep in mind that I'm here for you, okay?" she whispered, her warm breath tickling his ear.
He nodded, blinking hard as he felt his eyes water up. /Damnit, I will NOT cry/
"I just…I don't know what I'm….I don't know what to do."
She swallowed hard as she withdrew.
"Write Sirius, Harry. If nothing else, it'll help you sort out your thoughts."
And with that, she stood up, collected her books, and walked away.
***
Although he kept Hermione's words in mind, it was not until Saturday, after five days of emotional chaos, bad dreams and having Cho avoiding him, that Harry wrote to Sirius.
Dear Sirius
He paused. How was he supposed to continue, 'how are you, I'm fine, except that I'm becoming an insomniac with a girl problem'?
No way.
Dear Sirius
Sirius.
It's been a while since my last letter. I'm not sure whether or not you're going to respond to this one (Hermione explained about the tightened security- is that still on?), but I really hope you will.
See, I have this problem…actually, I have many problems.
And not a single solution to any of them.
I keep… I keep having these nightmares, about the things that happened last spring.
I'm afraid.
Afraid of sleeping.
Afraid of living.
I'm not sure why I'm writing this letter. After all, it's not like you have the power to stop them, or to save me from myself. Hermione's offered to make me a no-dreams potion, but I'm not sure whether or not take her offer, seeing as it stops the good dreams as well as the bad.
My other problem is rather different.
See, there's this girl (Harry blushed) who's in my Divination class. Or rather, she's just started in it (I didn't thing she took it anymore, see).
She's very pretty, and smart, and I act like a complete twit around her. Last year, I didn't think she liked me, because she was with this other guy (he's not around anymore), but a couple of days ago, she hugged me after class, and I just realised that this sentence is way too long and I'll stop it now.
Yours, Harry
Harry looked over the letter one last time, and deciding that not even rephrasing could save his dignity after that last sentence, he resignedly tied the letter to Hedvig's leg. She hooted softly as she took off, through the Owlery window, and into the night.
Harry picked the Invisibility Cloak off the floor (placed there because Hedvig refused to even come near if he was as much as touching it), and draped it around himself. As he turned to leave, he stopped dead in his tracks. The door burst open, and in hurried Hermione, dragging Ron after her. He breathed out, and was about to take the cloak off, when he realised that he hadn't told either of them that he had gone to there.
So what the hell were they doing in the Owlery?
Hermione turned, her face glowing with anger.
"Explain, Ronald Weasley."
"Explain what? That I don't want my best friend to embarrass herself by stripping before a horde of hormonal arses?"
Hermione sighed, and threw her hands up in exasperation.
"Everyone was stripping Ron, that's why it's called STRIP POKER! It's the whole meaning of it! Besides, I was winning!"
"That's not the point!"
"Then what?"
"Girls are not- YOU are not- supposed to play strip poker with those boys!"
For a moment, Hermione stared at him, dumbstruck.
"Excuse me? Which boys am I supposed to play with, then?"
Ron looked down at his feet.
"Ron?" Here eyes were narrowed, not in a judgmental way, but confused, enquiring.
He did not answer, and biting her lip, Hermione brought her arm up to touch his shoulder. However, he only brushed her away, and stormed out again. She stared at the door for a moment, before walking over to the windowsill, and sitting down.
Harry stepped forward.
"What happened?" he said.
Hermione looked up, bewildered, and Harry lowered the hood of the cloak. In response, she breathed out, and as to emphasise, she put her hand over her heart.
"Gods, Harry, you scared me."
"Mind if I sit down?"
She shook her head.
For a while, they sat in silence, until she spoke up.
"You saw it all, didn't you?"
Harry nodded. "What happened?" he repeated.
Hermione shrugged, looking away.
"I was just playing cards with some of the others from my arithmancy study group, no big deal. Then that idiot came in, and gave everyone the stink eye."
Silence, again.
"He only does it because he cares about you, you know," said Harry.
Hermione turned her face towards him.
"What if I don't want him to care? What if I just want him to stop meddling, and leave me alone?"
Harry didn't know what to answer- however, what could have turned out to be a really embarrassing moment, was saved by Hermione standing up.
"I have to go," she said. "I have a letter to write."
"To your parents?"
Hermione shook her head.
"No. To Victor."
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