Unwitting Confessions

by Icarus

Harry returned to the Gryffindor rooms very late that night, and lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. He thought of the last moments of his mother's life, his only memory of her other than the photo album Hagrid had given him. Up until tonight, he had been starting to think Snape was okay. In a strange, Snape-ish, sort of way, that was. Harry traced every wooden beam with his eyes, all the way down to the fireplace and the windows, but sleep would not come. Finally he shook Ron awake and told him what Snape had said. Ron's eyes grew big.

"Thanks, Harry. I'm going to have nightmares now!"

"But what do you think?"

"That he's a loon! You know that. Wow, I don't envy you those classes, at least - not anymore. Not with Snape as a teacher," Ron shuddered.

"I mean about what he said."

"Well. He is right about that Suspend Spell. Everyone uses it. Charlie uses it on injured dragons - their blood's poisonous, you know. One gusher'll kill. But - Harry, I dunno. You should talk to Hermione about it. She's good at this sort of thing."

"You know I can't tell Hermione!"

"Well…. um, you can tell Hermione a lot of things, Harry…all sorts of things, you - you'd never think." Ron mumbled. He sounded a little evasive all of the sudden. Harry was instantly suspicious.

"What do you mean by that?"

But Ron wouldn't answer, and pretended to be asleep. After several tries Harry gave up. He supposed he would find out soon enough. At least worrying about it took his mind off Snape.

The next morning at breakfast Hermione was in a wonderful mood. Her hair bounced as she cheerfully plunked down next to Ron, and gave Harry a warm smile. A very warm smile. Then she shot a knowing look at Ron, who blushed and avoided looking at Harry altogether.

She kept this up all through breakfast, glancing over her copy of The Daily Prophet at Harry with warm looks. She was acting very strangely.

Harry got junkmail as usual, from various different stores in Diagon Alley. Because he paid for his own things, instead of his parents buying them for him, he got all of the advertisements. He neatly a ground a particularly loud one under his heel. It had announced "SALE!" causing the entire school to turn in his direction before he crumpled it to shut it up. He could tell that the next one, which was flashing a painful orange, yellow and pink, was another sale brochure. He ripped it up without opening it. The store wasn't one he recognized anyway. Someone had sold their mailing list. How else would he get advertisements from Knockturn Alley? Those smoked and threatened the reader. "If you miss this Event, you will regret it the rest of your life!" the burning letters smoldered. Harry caught Hermione smiling at him again.

"What?" he finally asked her. Ron looked distinctly uncomfortable. "What is it?"

"Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all," she beamed and stood. "Now you two behave yourselves." She left with a wink and a knowing shake of her head.

"What was that all about?" Harry turned on Ron.

"Look, Harry, it…. it just slipped out, you know? I borrowed the Book and all, and I was explaining about it and - "

"I thought we were never going to tell Hermione!!"

"Yes but - "

"Don't ever tell Hermione, you said!" Harry shoved his plate away in disbelief. How could Ron be so stupid?

"But, but - Harry, she's fine with it." Ron's face heated, "a little more than fine actually. I think - well, she likes it. A lot."

Hermione waved to Ron and Harry from across the room. Harry slumped with his head in his hands. Unbelievable, he thought. Of all the stupid gits….

"Well, we're all friends, aren't we?" Ron blinked.

I'm going to die, Harry thought.

"We were just - you know - goofing around a bit, that's all…." Ron muttered.

"Still, maybe the three of us sometime.… " Ron continued. Harry gave him a steady look, picturing them worshipping at the golden shrine of Ron Weasley. Ron took his point, "…. or, well then - maybe not."

Strangely, he was more upset with Hermione than Ron. Things had been going just fine, until she started cozying up to Ron. But that wasn't quite fair, or even true, Harry told himself. Snape's love potion had already put a dent in his private life. If Snape hadn't…. Harry shook his head, realizing he was trying fix the blame somewhere, or on someone. He was going in circles. It was just a run of bad luck, worse than usual. But the worst had been done, and now he just needed time to assess the damage. At least Malfoy didn't know.

It was odd, now that Harry came to think of it, that Snape hadn't slipped this knowledge to his own house. But Snape had kept his word, and, other than a few snide remarks, kept it a secret. Better than Ron had, Harry thought ruefully. Even if Snape wouldn't in principal tell the Slytherins, he easily could have hinted broadly enough for Malfoy's dirty little mind to pick up on it. Yet he hadn't. Strange. But then everything about Snape was strange.

At least Harry didn't share any class but Arithmancy with Hermione today. They had assigned seats, so that left her - 'G' - far across the room from Harry - 'P'. Sitting at his desk he groaned inwardly as he saw his classmates turning in their homework scrolls. He hadn't finished their assignment for Arithmancy! And he'd left it in his room to boot. "Accio: Homework!" Harry caught the scroll, and scanned down it. It had many cross-outs and was rather messy, but, well, at least half of it was done. He sealed the scroll quickly, and waited till the end of class before he turned it in.

Just when Harry thought his day could not get any worse, Snape pulled him aside before Potions. He whispered in Harry's ear, a little too close.

" 'Detention,' Harry. Seven o'clock." Snape sounded rather pleased with himself. Never a good thing. "You will travel alone and meet me there this time. I have some - special preparations - I need to complete for this particular assignment."

Snape had a strange gleam in his eye as he said the word 'preparations.' It was the look one got when someone mentioned the word 'present,' or that Ron had when you said 'Chudley Canons.' Plus, the class wasn't going to start for a full two hours later than usual. What kind of preparations were so special they took so long? It was right over the dinner hour, too. Harry couldn't start skipping meals on top of missing Quidditch practice, and everything else. He felt hungry just thinking about it.

This did not bode well at all.

Finis. Next: 'Inferno.'