I know, I know, it's shorter than the last few parts, but hey. It's still a pretty good fic, isn't it? (Crosses fingers and hopes everyone agrees) Well, here's chapter three. Hope those of you who've already read it are still enjoying it as much as you did then -pottergal

HP so doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the genius JK Rowling and WB and whoever else is in on it. I'm just a poor student with no claim to it whatsoever.

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Only Talking:

Chapter Two

By: pottergal
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A few weeks passed after the fight, so that it was nearly time for Christmas break. Much to Harry's surprise, he learned that Ron had signed up to stay behind during the holidays, but he didn't dwell on it much. Between homework, school, and Quidditch practice, he had little time for anything, let alone trying to learn the comings and goings of a person he wasn't speaking to.

The evening after the fight, Hermione had received a stern talking-to from Professor McGonagall and a detention for very nearly destroying the common room, but at least people were still talking to her. Ron had definitely come off much worse from their fight; every single one of the Gryffindors seemed to be ignoring him. No one spoke to him during meals, no one sat beside him during classes, and no one helped him with his homework. When he came up to the dorm to turn in, all conversations would stop and then continue on without bothering to include him.

This treatment had started the day after the fight; everyone seemed horrified and disgusted that Ron could possibly make Hermione angry enough to lose control. They were downright friendly to her and Harry, who were seen as martyrs of sorts of some terrible deed. Part of Harry was slightly angered by their treatment of Ron, but he couldn't bring himself to forgive him. The things he said were just too malicious and hurtful. Harry still felt a stab of anger when he remembered what Ron had called Hermione; as if she was anything like that in the first place! He had to admit, Ron could sometimes be one of the biggest morons on the planet.

This treatment had mystified some of their teachers as well. Professor McGonagall had blinked a little in confusion when she'd noticed that Hermione was sitting up beside Lavender and Parvati, both of whom had taken her side immediately and who, Harry felt, were primarily responsible for the treatment they were receiving.

"Miss Granger? May I ask why you aren't sitting in your customary seat today?" Professor McGonagall had asked the first time it had happened.

"Because I felt like sitting here today, Professor. Is that all right?" Hermione replied before returning to copying down the beginning notes for their lesson. McGonagall had nodded and then she noticed Harry wasn't sitting beside Ron. She'd very nearly done a double take at that before fixing him with a narrowed stare. He'd held it for a few moments before returning to his note taking. He'd elected to sit beside Neville, which seemed to be thoroughly confusing to McGonagall.

"Mr. Potter . . ." She'd begun before glancing at Ron, who had his eyes focused intently on his notes. Her lips had pressed together as she suddenly understood; their moving had to do with the fact that they weren't getting along at the moment. She'd sighed slightly, and hadn't questioned their new seats since.

The two past weeks hadn't been so bad, for Harry, anyway, who woke up slightly late the last school day before vacation. He yawned and got dressed quickly. He almost chewed Ron out for not waking him up before he remembered that he wasn't speaking to Ron. He stifled another yawn before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Once reaching the Gryffindor table, he sat down between Hermione and Dean and gave them both small smiles. Dean and Seamus were engaged in a heated debate with Parvati and Lavender, which seemed to be about everybody's favorite class, Divination. Undoubtedly, Lavender and Parvati would be defending the class and their favorite teacher, Professor Trelawney, and Dean and Seamus were clearly arguing about what a load of bull the class was. Harry privately agreed with Dean, who had begun pointing out that Harry was, in fact, very much alive even after all her predictions. However, he wasn't about to voice his opinions when Lavender and Parvati looked particularly murderous.

"What about her other predictions, then? Hm? They were right on the money, the ones about Hermione leaving the class and so forth." Lavender's eyes flashed and Dean shook his head. "I'm telling you, she is a true Seer!" Harry shook his head slightly before tuning out the discussion and helping himself to some eggs and toast.

"Good morning, Hermione." He said and she looked up with a wane smile. "So . . ." He began before she could go back to the book she was reading. "How've you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages." He said before starting in on his breakfast. She placed a marker in the book and sat it down so she could talk.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I think I've been avoiding everyone for a while now. I just couldn't bear having another person tell me how much they sympathized with me over this whole thing." He nodded as he shoveled eggs into his mouth. "Plus . . . it's been difficult." She said softly. "Part of me can't believe that it's over, but . . . another part of me is glad." Her gaze met his and he froze. The feeling was back, the one that locked their eyes together and made him stare like an idiot. Her eyes were as interesting as ever, but now . . . now they seemed to hold something indescribable. She seemed to be trying to tell him something, with her eyes peering deep into his own.

"That's . . .ah, good . . ." Harry said, as he tried his hardest to tear his gaze from Hermione. He couldn't stare at her like that, not here, not now, and especially not after what had happened. "I'm glad, that you're . . . well . . . you're glad." He winced; it seemed his brain had turned off. Hermione blinked before giggling a little, finally breaking the spell between them. "So what do we have today?" He said in an attempt to shift the conversation in a different direction.

"Herbology, History of Magic, and then we have Potions, which is our last class." She said matter-of-fact-ly, and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. "Tonight Professor Flitwick asked me to help him with the Christmas decorations for the Grand Hall. Do you want to help as well? We could always use a few more hands."

"Wouldn't Parvati or Lavender be more useful? I'm sure they've got better taste in decorating than I do; after all, they're girls." He said before taking a bite of his toast. Hermione fixed him with a stare and he grimaced. "But if you really need me, I suppose I will."

"Good. It'll give us a chance to catch up with eachother, seeing as how I haven't had time to speak with you since before . . ." She trailed off as her gaze focused on something slightly behind Harry. He turned to see what she was looking at, and sighed as he saw Ron standing at the entrance to the Great Hall. The entire Gryffindor table had fell silent for a moment, all eyes watching Ron, before they turned back to their breakfast, the conversations re-starting. "I'm going to go, Harry. I'll see you in class, all right?" She gathered her books before marching out of the hall. She didn't look once at Ron as she passed him, though his gaze did follow her. He looked about to say something, but he seemed to think better of it and shut his mouth. Harry turned to devouring his breakfast before standing up and pushing in his chair.

"I have to go get my books for class. I'll see you later, all right?" He nodded at Dean and Seamus, who waved at him slightly before continuing their discussion with Parvati and Lavender. He brushed past Ron without a word and started back towards the Gryffindor common room. He was about halfway there, when the sound of his name being called made him stop mid-staircase.

"Yes?" He turned slowly to look coolly down at Ron, who was standing at the base of the stairs, one of his hands clutching the banister. "What do you want? I have to get my books, and I don't want to be late." Ron licked his lips slightly before grimacing.

"Can we go back to speaking again? This is starting to drive me crazy." Harry looked him up and down.

"We're talking now, aren't we?" Ron frowned a little and Harry gave a small sigh of impatience. "Look, I really need to get back up to the dorm. Is that all you wanted?"

"So we're friends again?"

"That all depends." Ron's frown deepened. "Shouldn't you be apologizing? To both me and Hermione?" He asked pointedly and Ron's expression darkened.

"Why does it always come back to her?" Abruptly he threw up his hands in frustration. "That's all everybody says to me. 'Shouldn't you be apologizing for what you've done? Don't you have any shame?'" Ron said in a high, mocking voice. "Both of you are so pig headed! I don't know why I even bother; it's clear you started this whole thing so you could have a chance at her without anybody saying anything!" Harry felt his fists clench.

"You know sometimes I wish I could slug you and make you see what an idiot you are." He said before turning on his heel and marching up to the common room, his semi-good mood completely ruined. The anger that had been fading for a while now was back in full, making his insides writhe with outrage. Once he got his things for class, his anger was so great that he kept heading the wrong way, something he hadn't done since his first year. Consequently he was late to Herbology by quite a bit, and when he told Professor Sprout why, she gave him an odd look.

"Lost? But you're a sixth year. Surely you must know the castle well enough by now not to get that hopelessly lost, Potter." He muttered something about being to angry to see where he was going, but thankfully Professor Sprout didn't hear and told him to take his seat.

"What kept you?" Hermione hissed as he sat down beside her. "You didn't really get lost, did you?" He explained all about Ron and how his mind had been too preoccupied to notice where he'd been heading. Luckily he'd caught himself, though, before he'd opened the door to Potions, which probably would've cost Gryffindor a multitude of points and landed him a detention. "Well, cheer up. We're not doing much in class today; just picking some things for the decorations."

And so Herbology passed without incident, the students picking sprigs of holly and mistletoe. Some Hufflepuffs tried to start a snowball fight, but Professor Sprout had stopped them before anyone had been hit.

It had to be one of the most boring Herbology classes Harry had ever had, though he did admit it gave him time to finally talk to Hermione. He hadn't realized how much he missed having conversations with her until they were gone. True, she didn't know much about Quidditch, but this year she at least seemed willing to learn more about it. In previous years she had merely rolled her eyes as Harry and Ron had talked for hours about different plays they'd seen and were dying to try out. Perhaps being Ron's girlfriend had made her more willing, or something.

After Herbology came the most boring class of them all, History of Magic. The moment Professor Binns opened his mouth and began to drone on and on about the precautions wizards were suddenly forced to take due to the expansion of the Muggle world, and all the new charms that were invented or improved to keep Muggles out of their world, people fell asleep. It went on and on and on until Harry's head felt as though it had been stuffed full of cotton. His chin rested in his hands, though it kept sinking down to the desk and Harry had to jerk himself upright occasionally to keep from drifting off into a deep slumber. Neville was already fast asleep, and Parvati and Lavender were giggling slightly because he was drooling on his book. Dean and Seamus were passing notes it looked like, and even Hermione was drifting. Her quill was moving absently across her parchment, though she'd failed to notice that she hadn't dipped it into any ink. All in all, it was a pretty normal day in class.

Lunch could never come quick enough on days like these, Harry thought as the bell finally rang and they were free until Potions. He dropped his books off at the common room before heading back to the Great Hall for a quick lunch. He tried to talk to Hermione a little, but Seamus started doing an impersonation of Professor Trelawney that lasted most of lunch and was distracting enough that he forgot until the bell rang for their final class and Harry found himself sitting in the Potions classroom.

"Settle down, class, settle down!" Professor Snape barked as he walked into the classroom and everyone fell silent. "Today we are going to be brewing an extremely difficult potion, one that will take you most of next term to perfect. If you do some how manage to get it finally right, you needn't worry too much about your year end exam." He walked to the front of the class and began to write the ingredients they would be needing on the board. "Oh, and Longbottom, I suggest you just watch today. This potion can cause all sorts of problems for those who aren't up to brewing it." Neville turned a brilliant shade of red.

"I wonder what the potion is." Hermione mused quietly as she began to unpack her things. "It seems terribly complex, though not nearly as so as the Polyjuice Potion." Harry gave her a small smile at that.

"Bet it tastes better too." He whispered to her and the potion brewing began. Things were no different than they usually were. Snape swept around the room, making particularly nasty comments about the Gryffindors' potions while praising the Slytherins. He told the class to note how Malfloy's potion had turned a disgusting brown, and Harry rolled his eyes. Six years had passed since he'd started taking this god-forsaken class and Snape still was the same mean old man.

Much to Harry's surprise, the class actually went rather smoothly. Well, as smoothly as one of Snape's classes could go. He managed to chew out Seamus for doing something to his potion, though Harry didn't quite catch what it was. Seamus only lost about twenty points or so, so Harry concluded that it must not have been too bad. If it had, Seamus would be serving a slew of detentions and he would have lost far more points for Gryffindor. Snape also succeeded in making several choice comments about the lack of brown to Harry's potion, but being used to Snape's classes by now, he ignored them.

The time finally came for the class to almost be over, so they began to clean up. Harry was one of the first to wash off his ladles and stirring spoons before hurrying back to put away his ingredients. Snape had said they weren't going to bother testing their potion today, he could assure them that no one had done it well enough to have him test it on some poor creature. It would be a waste of a perfectly good animal, which, to Harry, didn't sound like Professor Snape at all. He hadn't objected to testing Neville's shrinking potion on Trevor, had he?

"Now pay attention, class." Snape said over the dim as people continued to crowd around the water spigot trying to wash off their utensils. So far Harry was the only one who'd succeeded in getting his clean and thus was the only one standing by his potion. "The potion you made today is called the ultimate potion by some, because drinking just a dollop of it gives you enormous physical strength. How long it lasts depends on the last ingredient you add. I want each of you to research the development of this potion and hand in the papers next class meeting." The class groaned collectively; Snape was the only teacher mean enough to give them homework over the holidays.

I wonder what the proper name for it is. Harry mused as he looked down at the pale brown potion in his cauldron. The ultimate potion . . . sounds interesting, but that can't be its real name. He yawned then before blinking as a slight hissing noise sounded behind him. He frowned as Snape looked up suddenly but turned around to see where the noise was coming from. It was a cauldron, only this one hadn't been removed from the flame. It was frothing wildly, steam and smoke rising from it steadily.

"Potter, I suggest that you- "

BOOM. Snape didn't have time to finish his warning because the cauldron exploded. Harry felt himself be flung backwards by the force, something hot stinging his face and hands. He hit something very hard and very solid and everything went black in an instant.

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To be continued! I know, I know, crappy cliffhanger. Will Harry be alive? *Begin impending music* you'll just have to wait and find out! But this doesn't exactly work if you've already read it . . . ah well. See you all in chapter four! -pottergal