(A/N: In the previous chapter, I wrote "Uncle Dudley" instead of "Uncle Vernon", sorry!)
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"Harry, we're worried about you," said Hermione giving a quick glance to Ron. "You haven't even talked to us today! Is everything alright?"
No, of course everything is not alright!, thought Harry. He decided that he better tell them now to get it out of the way.
"Ever since Vol-dee-mawrt tried to kill me last year, I've now-ticed that I can't speak or wri-wri-te cawr-ict-lee in front of magike people."
That was all he was going to say because he couldn't stand the embarrassment. He couldn't even look his two best friends in the eye. When he finally did look at them, they looked more puzzled than worried.
"I've never heard of anything like that before," said Ron. "Maybe You-Know-Who put a hex on you."
"Honestly," said Hermione, who was obviously disgusted with them, "have you two even cracked open any text book since we started at Hogwarts?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other with menacing grins.
"Oh yeah, Hermione, every night after you go to bed. Harry and I have a secret book club where we discuss the day's lessons over a nice cup of Butterbeer," said Ron sarcastically.
Disgusted, Hermione finally said, "However you two got into Hogwarts is beyond me. Anyway, I've read about this type of hex before. It's called Confusus Verbum, which in English means "Confused Word". It basically confuses the mind into incorrectly saying and spelling words. It said it is frustrating to the person under the hex because they know how to correctly say or write the word, but they just can't."
"Yes!" exclaimed Harry. "That is eggzactly it! Gosh Her-my-o-nee, without you Ron and I here would probably be dead becawz you save us from everything. Is there any anti-hex for this?"
"Actually, I don't think it gave a cure for this Harry," Hermione said sadly. "But I guess this is going to be our year-long mystery that we must solve and believe it or not, we'll figure it out on the last day of school. It's so cliché Harry."
"I k-now, I k-now," said Harry not believing that he actually pronounced the silent "k"s. "But what do you eggspeckt when you're the Boy Who Lived? You don't find troo-ble, troo-ble finds you." Harry was now fighting off the biggest smile and they all burst out laughing.
*~*~*
Later that day, the trio decided to go to Diagon Alley to buy their school books.
"Now Harry," warned Hermione, "if we run into anyone from Hogwarts, you stay quiet. Ron and I will do the talking."
Ron, taken aback by this statement, argued, "I never agreed to this, Hermione! Honestly, you really need to start including me in your plans, I feel like a loner!"
"Well, you are," said Hermione, "and you'll just need to deal with that. And anyway Ron, it's not a big deal, all I said was that you were going to talk. It's not like the end of the world. Stop being such a crybaby."
Ron, still looking in awe at Hermione, said, "Gosh Hermione, I'm sorry. I guess I'm still upset that my prefect title was taken away and given to Harry."
Harry looked down at his shoes, as if to avoid eye contact with Ron. He only wished that Ron wasn't such a push-over these days.
All of a sudden, as the three walked into the ice cream store, a crude voice snarled, "Well if it isn't Potty, Weasel, and Granger." It was Malfoy, their arch nemesis. Why do we always come to Diagon Alley on the same day as Malfoy?, thought Harry. What are the chances? Meanwhile, Malfoy was shooting weird faces at them, as if there was something wrong with his face.
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You know on the "Chamber of Secrets" movie when they meet up with Draco and his dad at the book store? Well, it seemed to me that everytime he said "Potter", he spit and then he kept giving weird looks to all of them. If you don't know what I mean, check out the movie, it's really funny.
