Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.
Time passed much faster after Christmas. Between naps in the oversize comfy chairs by the warm fire in the commons, countless lazy chess matches with Ron, and the occasional snow fights outside, both the start of term and the Hogsmeade date were rapidly approaching.
"Ready for tonight?" Ron asked. He appeared to be asking nonchalantly, but Harry could tell he was somewhat nervous, since he was absently fiddling with one of Harry's captured rooks.
"Yeah," Harry replied back. "But the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating." Both the boys looked out the small window at the light snowfall outside. The weather seemed to have finally realized it was winter, and snowed for the first time shortly after Christmas – and it hadn't stopped yet. There was nearly 50 cm of snow piled up already.
However, when the pair collected their dates, they saw the snow wasn't as much of a problem as they thought.
"Odd," Harry remarked. "They must have plowed the path." The winding road to Hogsmeade didn't have a trace of snow on it.
"Don't be silly, Harry," Parvati said, and took off one of her gloves. She held her hand down on the stone path, smiled, and said, "C'mon, try it."
Harry and Ron looked at each other and took off their gloves. Both hesitantly put a hand on the walkway, bracing themselves for the biting cold, but found the stone pleasantly warm to the touch.
"The Hogsmeade path is charmed to stay warm in the winter," Lavender explained.
"Haven't you walked to Hogsmeade after a snow?" Parvati asked.
"We usually took a secret passage," Ron said proudly.
"Secret passage?" Parvati and Lavender both asked curiously.
"We can take one of them back to Hogwarts," Ron said casually.
When they got to the movie theatre, they found it relatively empty. Harry was puzzled, until he realized that most people would want to stay at Hogwarts where it was comfortable and warm – not take a long walk out in the snow only to take another trip through the weather coming back.
As soon as they settled in their seats, a bold fanfare played and the screen went silver. The logo 'Divimation' burst onto the screen in flaming letters, and a subtitle 'Starting your movies the second they ought to.'
"Huh," Ron remarked, "someone actually got divination to work." At this, both Lavender and Parvati glared at Ron, who started squirming uncomfortably in his seat – he had obviously forgotten that their dates were the Gryffindor divination queens.
Ron was saved by the Divimation logo freezing over and shattering into smaller and smaller shards, after which the movie started.
The movie was unlike anything Harry had ever seen. The screen's picture seemed to distort, creating a three dimensional image – yet when he focused his eyes on the picture, it was just a flat screen. The lines and edges squirmed, fighting in Harry's vision to be both flat and have depth. For awhile, he grew nauseous, until he forced his eyes to not focus – and the picture finally grew normal.
The movie itself was indecipherable, at least to Harry. It seemed to be about some question of pure blood versus common blood, but Harry didn't understand any of the references. He chalked that up to having grown up in a muggle home – there was apparently a lot of common knowledge he didn't have. Every five minutes Lavender would whisper explanations in his ear, but Harry had to admit that Lavender probably enjoyed leaning close to him like that.
Two hours later the movie came to an end. The guy Harry thought was the main character went crazy and killed three people, leaving Harry confused about the entire plot.
"That was great," Ron said as the screen faded to white.
"I loved the part where Roger bought the affair before the German council," Parvati said, smiling at Ron.
"What did you thing?" Lavender asked, looking at Harry.
"Er, I'm sorry," Harry admitted, "but I didn't really understand it." At Lavenders look of disappointment, Harry quickly added, "I think it's because I grew up in a muggle home. I didn't even know what 'pure blood' meant until three years ago.
Lavender seemed to accept this, and Ron led the way to the Three Broomsticks. While sipping their butterbeers, the four didn't talk about anything substantial. Most of the time they talked about classes, although Ron purposely steered the conversation away from Divination.
"Snape's not that bad," Lavender said, as the four were talking about potions.
"What?!" cried Harry and Ron.
"Oh sure, he's always giving points to his house," Lavender explained. "But Sprout never misses a chance to give points to her Hufflepuffs."
Harry and Ron gaped at her, not believing what she had just said. Parvati added, "And he's dark and brooding…"
"Ew…" Ron
choked out, "Now that is just disturbing!"
Parvati giggled and loudly whispered, "You were
right, Lavender. He does get jealous."
Harry and Ron shook their heads in amazement, and Lavender said, "You'll just have to face it – he hates you two, not everyone outside of Slytherin.
Harry patted the sputtering Ron on the back and loudly said, "I'm going to get us some more drinks…" and left Ron speechless at the table.
All in all, the night went reasonably well. It was what Harry was hoping for – no pressure, no jealous bickering, and nothing involving Voldemort. As Harry parted from Lavender in the commons, he mentally noted that it was sad that he judged his dates by whether the dark lord showed up, and laid down happily on his bed.
Harry smiled as he yet again mopped the entrance. A peculiar change had come about when it came to cleaning duty. At first he hated it – it was completely pointless. After a few weeks, it really didn't have any sort of connotation; it was just something he did every day. Oddly, now he almost enjoyed it. As soon as he started swabbing the stone floor, his mind went blissfully blank, and he 'woke' again when he finally put the mop away each time – it was actually refreshing, in a way.
Harry was scrubbing the floor, when he noticed that he wasn't alone in the hall.
"Hello, Hermione," Harry said, looking at the silent Gryffindor sitting on one of the small steps leading into the main corridor.
"Hi, Harry," Hermione replied. After a few seconds of silence, she asked, "What are you doing?"
"Hermione," Harry started, "about the dance…"
Hermione pursed her lips and calmly said, "Harry, I don't care about the dance. What I do care about is that when you needed to, you discarded any cares about how I felt."
Harry couldn't think of anything to say. She was absolutely right. A few more awkward seconds of silence, and Hermione asked again, "So what are you doing?"
Harry looked down at the mop and soapy bucket and said, "McGonagall's making me clean the entrance hall as part of my training for the golems."
Hermione's mouth twitched, and a slow grin spread on her face. "Let me guess… she dirties the floor in front of you when you're done."
Harry did a double-take. "No," he said curiously, "but the Slyterin quidditch team tramps mud on it halfway through."
Hermione's smile grew until she laughed out loud. "No fair," Harry complained. "You know what's going on!"
Hermione didn't answer; she just smirked.
"Well," Harry asked, "Are you going to tell me?"
"No," Hermione said slowly, somehow smiling even wider. The Slytherin quidditch team emerged through the giant entrance, and although several shot Hermione nasty glances, she burst out laughing again as she left the hall.
Harry groaned. She's never going to tell me, Harry thought glumly, and returned to mopping.
---
Well, I'm back from Spring Break, so hopefully the postings should be back in schedule. Oh, and if any of you were wondering, obviously I won't be able to finish all three stories on schedule. I'll have to decide after I finish this story whether I'll go ahead with the other two (even if they will be posted after the real book 5 comes out) or I'll try writing a book 6 and 7 based on the read book 5.
Kaelli: Well, I like being different. Besides, I have to admit – when I was 15 years old, if I had a popular and attractive girl mooning over me…
CastusAlbusCor: Actually, it gets better with the Elves – it's one of the main points of the stories, so it'll come back again.
Olivia: Yep, you'll learn more about the shadow war, but it might be a few chapters.
Lakergurl: Yeah, it was kind of random – but mostly because I didn't explain the thought process well enough. If I ever do revision that will definitely be a point for me to look at.
Sherman: Um… explain?
Erinamation: Thanks!
Katani: Thanks!
Earthborn: Thanks! I understand about the school computer.
Chaser: Thanks!
Mythic: Wow – THANKS! You gave me a huge smile!
Feel free to review
