"Double potions. I can't wait," said Harry sarcastically, as he read over his timetable over his bowl of oatmeal.
"I was hoping to get out of Potions," said Ron, frowning. Hermione snorted.
"How many times have I told you?" she asked shrilly, "You can't quit potions until you become of age!"
"We can if we try," said Harry, a sneer fixed on his face.
"Oh, get over it, Harry," said Hermione, prodding her eggs with her fork.
"No, wait," said Ron, leaning over secretively, "Harry, you might be onto something,"
Harry burst into laughter. Today would be the first day of their classes and, lucky for them, potions with the Slytherins was first on the list. Hermione didn't see why Snape wouldn't give any of the Gryffindors-particularly Harry-a detention on the first day.
"Hello," said as misty voice above her and Harry's shoulder. Hermione nearly toppled over her goblet in surprise to see Silversmith barring down at Harry, who was looking at him as though he were mad. He was almost nose-to-nose, with Silversmith staring him down. Silversmith was wearing robes of neon green today, and his hair was in the same position as it was the night before. The other Gryffindors leaned over to watch.
"Ah, Harry Potter," Silversmith drawled, his black eyes tracing Harry's scar, "You look different. Much older. Green eyes. Raven black hair. Fairly perfect shaped jaw line. You look better. It suits you," he said this all very fast, slowing down at the end of each sentence, "I will see you in class, Harry Potter."
And he sat back down at the staff table, earning a disapproving stare from McGonagall. Harry looked puzzled, as Ron burst out in laughter.
"W-what did he just say?" asked Harry, raising his eyebrows, bewildered. Hermione grinned widely.
"He said you have a fairly perfect shaped jaw line," she said, giggling. He shook his head, and glanced at the other Gryffindors staring at him.
"Stupid git" said Seamus, "What was that all about?"
"No idea," answered Harry absentmindedly. The remains of breakfast went fairly quickly. Harry was shooting odd looks in Silversmiths direction, as though he expected for him to leap up and do something completely out of the ordinary.
Soon enough, they were all heading to the dungeons under the school for potions with the rest of the Gryffindor fifth years, books at hand. Neither of them expected anything good coming from going to potions anyways. They quickly entered the dungeon full of Slytherins and Gryffindors and sat down at the farthest table from Snape, who was staring at Harry with squinted eyes full of hate and loathing. Hermione was too used to this to care.
"Now," said Snape coldly, "I hope you all now that this year you will have to be by far smarter than you are. Some of you wont be able to make it," he was looking at Neville as he spook, "But if any of you melt a caldron or miss use any of the equipment this year, there will be severe consequences"
"What's the change in that?" muttered Ron beside Harry, who kicked him from under the caldron in front of them.
"We will be making a dangerous potion… if not handled properly," Snape continued, scanning the students with his dark gaze, "It is called a Fire water potion. It can burn right through a persons flesh if touched by a very stupid human being. The contents are at the side of the room, and the instructions are on page six in your books 'Potions for the Advanced' if you do not follow the rules and your potion turns the wrong colour or texture, you may not see tomorrows lesson."
"Wow," said Harry, after the three of them retrieved their potion bottles and brought them to their table, "I never knew it was possible… Snape being more slimy than ever."
"I hope Neville spills his potion all over him, "said Ron with clenched teeth, "If only I could walk up there, tell him off and-"
He made a violent gesture in mid air.
"Ron!" hissed Hermione, "He might hear you!"
"Yeah… 'a million points from Gryffindor'," said Harry darkly, as he took the leaves of a borsch wig Hermione handed him.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he did," said Ron, while cutting roots into precise halves as it said in the book, "The thing is, we would never get a million house points."
Hermione started to pour the bubbling liquids from the potion bottles into the caldron. Everything seemed to go fairly well, and their caldron was sizzling at the right temperature and with the right potions and roots. Neville kept shooting Hermione nervous glances as if to say 'help me', but they were all under the cold eye of Snape, who was circling the tables like a hawk for anyone who makes one slight mistake. He ignored the snickering and chatting of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and the other Slytherins; he always had a soft spot for Slytherins. Snape reminding the class shrewdly how well Malfoy had steamed his leaves and how he measured his potion perfectly.
Harry and Ron looked as though they didn't mind this to last. Divination was next with Professor Trelawney, and she was the only teacher Hermione hated as much as Snape. Every year, she would predict Harry's death dramatically like it was something real and from the heavens. Harry hasn't died yet; she wished she would stop because when ever she would see the grim in Harry's crystal ball, everyone acted as though Harry would drop dead any minute.
Soon enough, Snape had reached Harry Ron and Hermione's caldron.
"This is to thick to my liking," he said, hardly taking a glance at their caldron, "Lets just test it, shall we?"
He stood up, walked back to his desk, and reached down for something in the shelves. He pulled out a large glass box with three bright green snakes inside; they were hissing and spitting at Snape as he carried them across the room. Everyone watched as he set the cage onto Harry, Ron and Hermione's table, and unhinged the latch. With a small shriek from Neville, all three snakes poured onto the table, their beady black eyes staring at Harry, who was nervously leaning back to avoid the snakes.
"Potter will feed this potion to these…ahem…friendly snakes," announced Snape, watching Malfoy and the other Slytherin's shake with laughter, "And lets hope he succeeds. These snakes will be dead before you know it if you are smarter than you appear to be."
Then he passed Harry a small vial. Harry watched the snake hissing for a moment, and looked up at Snape.
"Hurry up, Potter," Snape said coldly, with a rather nasty grin on his face, "You wont hear the suffer for to long. They'll be dead before you barely pour it down its slimy throat."
Harry looked over uncertainly at Hermione, who shrugged. He returned his gaze to the waiting snake. A moment later, the snake trashed its head is if to say no.
"Potter!" snapped Snape, "Come off it! I'm sure you've heard plenty of pain from last year. The soon to be dead cannot wait."
Now that had done it. Every nervous eye was fixed on Harry now; even the Slytherins stopped laughing. Hermione looked over at Harry. His temples were throbbing on his red face, and the vial he held in his hand looked like it was about to break under the pressure.
But then something happened that was the least expected. Suddenly, the glass box that held the snakes exploded, sending shards of glass in every direction. Hermione ducked, and covered her head with her arms, and heard all the frightened screams around her.
Then everything stopped. She looked up, and saw the rooms splattered with pieces of glass. Harry was shaking in rage now, as Snape stared at him disbelievingly. Then the snake turned, and advanced on Snape, hissing uncontrollably. Harry picked up his books and stood up.
"I'm leaving,' he said loudly, and he left through the door without a backwards glance, and as he did, the snake flumped back onto the table. There was silence for a long moment, only broken by the uneven sobs from Neville. Hermione didn't know what happened. What did Harry just do?
Snape took one hasty look at them all, and pointed a trembling finger to the door.
"OUT!" he shrieked, "OUT! ALL OF YOU!"
Nobody hesitated. There was a mad rush to the door, and soon enough, both Hermione and Ron were walking back to the common room with the other Gryffindors while the Slytherins disappeared up another flight of stairs.
"Miserable slimy git," muttered Ron under his breathe, "You know, Harry did something like that before. Remember? When he blew up his aunt."
"I know, but that was when his aunt was teasing his parents," gasped Hermione, "That's horrible."
"Come on," said Ron, "Harry should be in the common room by now."
After they hurried through a group of Hufflepuffs they reached the portrait hole. And sure enough, when they entered, Harry was coming down the spiral staircase from his dorm. He didn't look well at all.
"Don't talk to me," he said quietly as he brushed past them. And he left through the portrait again without them. Ron raised his eyebrows.
"What's with him?"
…~'*'~…
Hermione or Ron hadn't seen Harry for the rest of the afternoon until lunchtime. Harry came inside a few minutes after everyone had their first serving. He slipped into seat Ron had saved for him between him and Hermione, trying his best to ignore all the staring eyes.
"Where were you?" asked Ron at once. But he stopped; Dumbledore stood up from the staff table. The buzz of talk died when he cleared his throat.
"I have a very important message for all of you at the last minute," he announced, looking careless, "We have an event happening later this week, and it will involve all Hogwarts students of this year."
Anticipation drifted over the dense sea of eager heads of the students. Hermione held her breath.
"I do hope you excuse me for such a short explanation, and allow your attention to wander freely," Dumbledore continued, "As I was saying… we are participating in a famous called the tournament of Demontarity with three different school from around the world. We are one of those three schools. I suppose all of you have not heard of Dryconderoga and Nockdernia?"
A few students at the front row shook their heads silently. Dumbledore smiled.
"Yes, well, Dryconderoga and Nockdernia will be the other two schools that will participate as Hogwarts will. This event is somewhat similar to the Triwizard Tournament we hosted last year."
Hermione felt Harry twist uneasily in his seat as a few heads turned his way, and back to Dumbledore.
"But not nearly as dangerous and unpredictable. Now, one student of the highest ranking and ability will be a champion to represent Hogwarts, and that certain student will be chosen by none other than all the students of Hogwarts. Whenever you feel ready, each of you may vote for who you think would be best to fulfill the position, and put it in here."
With a wave of his wand, a large bowler hat appeared on the table in front of him.
"Just remember what this person you are voting for will go through, so choose wisely," added Dumbledore, "In just a few days, I will announce who has been chosen, judging by the number of votes per student. You may start whenever you like."
And he sat back down at the staff table, and soon after, the curious chatter started again. Ron looked puzzled.
"What was that all about?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Hermione shrugged.
"I think we might have to vote. I mean, we-", but she stopped seeing Harry beside her. He shook his head, folded his arms up on the table, and buried his head into his robes. Fred and George stared at him in sympathy.
"Uh… Harry?" asked Ron, as Hermione laid her hand on Harry's neck, "You don't look to…er…well."
"I'm fine," he said, raising his head, and giving a nasty glance at the few people staring at him, "Just tired, I guess."
Hermione knew he wasn't. He did look exhausted, but he didn't look well at all. She strengthened her voice slightly, and said to him- "Maybe you should go to the hospital wing."
He looked at her for a moment, and nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I think I will. See you later," he said, before getting up; everyone suddenly went dead quiet, staring at him.
"What's up with him?" asked Ron, watching as Harry left through the giant oak doors. Hermione shrugged just when Fred and George leaned over to talk to them
"You do know, don't you?" Fred asked them. Hermione stared.
"Know what?" she asked. The twins looked around the hall as if they did not want to be overheard.
"You know everyone's going to vote for Harry," said George, "I can tell. Remember the Triwizard Tournament last year? Everyone's going to think Harry could handle this too."
"And Harry knows it," whispered Fred in a hushed tone, "That must be why he's upset and all. Knows he'll be it again. But I don't think that's the half of it."
"Yeah, he must be thinking of something else too," said George, taking a second glance around the room. Hermione's mouth fell open in awe.
"Do you know why he… you know-" hissed Ron. The twins shook their heads in unison.
"We thought you'd know."
…~'*'~…
A/N: I never knew I could make Silversmith look so cheesy! I know there's not much H/H, but keep reading, and it gets better…