A/N Well, at about 2:45 yesterday afternoon my story suffered its first
identity crisis. I took my dog for a long walk, then spent half an hour
talking to a particularly uncommunicative horse. Now I'm back on track. Not
so much Dr. Dolittle as Dr. Dolally. However with the regaining of my mind
came the realisation that if do what I want to do with this story 10
chapters is going to be a squeeze. So either its going to be more like 15
-20 OR each chapter is going to be longer which means further apart between
posts. What do you reckon? Long and less frequent or same but over a long
period of time?
Also, thank you to the folk who posted reviews -especially Eileen, who I think spends far too much time looking at dots and dashes on computer screens. * Grin *
Chapter Three: What Could Be and What Is.
"I know and I'm sorry." were her first words, even before Harry had his second leg through the portrait entrance.
"You are?" he asked stupidly, almost tripping over.
Hermione sat at one of the window seats that looked out toward the lake and the Forbidden Forest beyond, lying dark and imposing, at the edge of the castle grounds.
Harry joined her on the seat, leaning back against the sun-warmed granite of the window bay.
"'Mione?" he could see she was trying hard not to cry- for which he was very grateful. "'Mione, I'm worried about you, we all are. Since we came back after summer, all you seem to do is bury your self in your school work, or snap at us or give out detentions. I know this seems like a thick question but, what's wrong?"
Hermione took several deep gulps of air to steady her self before she answered him. "Am I the only one who sees it?.. You lot are all off acting like children. Playing silly games, behaving like nothing's wrong.."
She made no attempt to disguise the bitterness in her words. That shocked him. Leaning forward he took her hand and looked earnestly into her large brown eyes.
She continued. "Any day now Voldemort could choose to attack, and unlike you lot, I just can't forget that." Pulling away from her friend she stood and started to pace the floor of the common room.
"That day when He killed Cedric, it could have been you. It should have been you Harry! It still could be.." she wrapped her arms around her self as if she felt cold through to her bones. " We are so unprepared.. Even with The Order. They can't protect us all."
Her chin quivered and her eyes were bright with her unshed tears. She bit down on her bottom lip. "It doesn't matter, if we have perfect partners" her voice barely a whisper now "we could all be dead before the year is out."
Her head hung in misery as the tears finally took over and rolled down her cheeks. Harry stood to take his friend in his arms.
"Please Hermione. Please don't cry." he soothed " I promise everything will be OK -I promise."
She looked up in to his eyes. Dazzling green. She loved his eyes. But etched there within was all the hurt this Boy, this Young Man had suffered, and she suddenly felt ashamed.
"Oh gods I'm sorry Harry - I can't begin to imagine how you hate this waiting, this not knowing.. And I can't let you promise me anything. I know you will defeat Voldemort. I know you will! But I'm not stupid enough to believe in happy endings."
Harry looked for a long moment, searching his friends face, for a clue, an answer to what he could possibly say to make it better for her, even if for only a little while. He sighed deeply.
"Your right." Harry moved to look out the window. "Voldemort may well at this very moment be in there," he gestured out towards the forest. "Any moment now thousands of Death Eaters could appear and attack Hogwarts. You and I may well die, as could everyone here. Our classmates, our Professors - McGonagall, Sprout, Lupin, even bloody Snape - even Dumbledore. It could all happen before the bell for first class stops ringing, it might happen next month, next year, next sodding decade! Look, the answer is I don't know 'Mione, and neither do you, and neither does Dumbledore"
Harry sat down again on the deep red velvet cushion of the window seat and looked up at his friend. Her tears had dried, but he still saw confusion in her eyes. So he carried on.
"Until I know for sure, I plan to behave like every other stupid love stuck eighteen year old. I want to have fun with my friends, I want to laugh, I want to joke, and I want to get on with my life. I want to pretend I'm NOT Harry Potter, Famous Harry Potter, potential saviour of Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding world! And I recommend that you, Hermione Granger do the same thing."
Hermione was on the verge of a smile - he could see it as the corners of her lips twitched - so with a wry grin he added, "For all we know it could be Neville Bloody Longbottom who gets to kill Voldie with an exploding cauldron!" And with that they both fell into fits of cleansing laughter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Twenty points each from Gryffindor for your tardiness - and .detention I think, Mr Potter, Miss Granger. See me after class, what's left of it."
Harry and Hermione had pulled themselves together after their laughing fit only to discover they were going to be late. Very late, for Potions.
They had grabbed their books and fled the Gryffindor common room, running full pelt towards the Dungeon classroom through the deserted corridors. They were going to get a detention; that was inevitable. When they entered the room, breathless and bent double with the effort of running, for a moment it looked like they might get away with just house points being taken off. But Snape had lifted an elegant eyebrow on top of his already threatening sneer. Apparently hell hadn't yet frozen over.
Harry slipped into his seat next to Ron, and Hermione went to Neville, who was fiddling with a scrap of parchment. Snape continued his lecture on the different properties found in ingredients harvested on waning and waxing Luna cycles.
As each working pair went to get the equipment for their experiments, Ron took the chance to find out what had happened when Harry had caught up with Hermione.
"Well? How did it go then?" he had his back to Harry so as to make it look like he wasn't gossiping in class. He had no desire to join his friends in detention that night.
"I think we got it straightened out," Harry hissed back over his shoulder as he lit a flame under each cauldron. "Did you lot come up with anything?"
Ron turned to stand next to Harry lining up the ingredients in the order that they would have to be added to the potion.
"Yeah" he fished an almost identical piece of parchment as the one Neville had hold of, out of his robes "Lavender reckons we are on a search and destroy mission.. Well not so much destroy but its definitely like a mind sweep." he wrinkled his nose up as he stabbed the blade of his knife in to an oozing black mass of Fluxweed.
Harry rolled his eyes. Arthur Weasleys collection of Muggle wartime stories had a LOT to answer for.
"Mine sweep. " he corrected.
"Whatever" he dismissed with a shrug of his shoulders. "We're going to make sure EVERYONE has had a go, including Malfoy who, you will notice, is on OUR list."
Suddenly dissecting the slimy black thing in front of him didn't seem all that bad.
Also, thank you to the folk who posted reviews -especially Eileen, who I think spends far too much time looking at dots and dashes on computer screens. * Grin *
Chapter Three: What Could Be and What Is.
"I know and I'm sorry." were her first words, even before Harry had his second leg through the portrait entrance.
"You are?" he asked stupidly, almost tripping over.
Hermione sat at one of the window seats that looked out toward the lake and the Forbidden Forest beyond, lying dark and imposing, at the edge of the castle grounds.
Harry joined her on the seat, leaning back against the sun-warmed granite of the window bay.
"'Mione?" he could see she was trying hard not to cry- for which he was very grateful. "'Mione, I'm worried about you, we all are. Since we came back after summer, all you seem to do is bury your self in your school work, or snap at us or give out detentions. I know this seems like a thick question but, what's wrong?"
Hermione took several deep gulps of air to steady her self before she answered him. "Am I the only one who sees it?.. You lot are all off acting like children. Playing silly games, behaving like nothing's wrong.."
She made no attempt to disguise the bitterness in her words. That shocked him. Leaning forward he took her hand and looked earnestly into her large brown eyes.
She continued. "Any day now Voldemort could choose to attack, and unlike you lot, I just can't forget that." Pulling away from her friend she stood and started to pace the floor of the common room.
"That day when He killed Cedric, it could have been you. It should have been you Harry! It still could be.." she wrapped her arms around her self as if she felt cold through to her bones. " We are so unprepared.. Even with The Order. They can't protect us all."
Her chin quivered and her eyes were bright with her unshed tears. She bit down on her bottom lip. "It doesn't matter, if we have perfect partners" her voice barely a whisper now "we could all be dead before the year is out."
Her head hung in misery as the tears finally took over and rolled down her cheeks. Harry stood to take his friend in his arms.
"Please Hermione. Please don't cry." he soothed " I promise everything will be OK -I promise."
She looked up in to his eyes. Dazzling green. She loved his eyes. But etched there within was all the hurt this Boy, this Young Man had suffered, and she suddenly felt ashamed.
"Oh gods I'm sorry Harry - I can't begin to imagine how you hate this waiting, this not knowing.. And I can't let you promise me anything. I know you will defeat Voldemort. I know you will! But I'm not stupid enough to believe in happy endings."
Harry looked for a long moment, searching his friends face, for a clue, an answer to what he could possibly say to make it better for her, even if for only a little while. He sighed deeply.
"Your right." Harry moved to look out the window. "Voldemort may well at this very moment be in there," he gestured out towards the forest. "Any moment now thousands of Death Eaters could appear and attack Hogwarts. You and I may well die, as could everyone here. Our classmates, our Professors - McGonagall, Sprout, Lupin, even bloody Snape - even Dumbledore. It could all happen before the bell for first class stops ringing, it might happen next month, next year, next sodding decade! Look, the answer is I don't know 'Mione, and neither do you, and neither does Dumbledore"
Harry sat down again on the deep red velvet cushion of the window seat and looked up at his friend. Her tears had dried, but he still saw confusion in her eyes. So he carried on.
"Until I know for sure, I plan to behave like every other stupid love stuck eighteen year old. I want to have fun with my friends, I want to laugh, I want to joke, and I want to get on with my life. I want to pretend I'm NOT Harry Potter, Famous Harry Potter, potential saviour of Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding world! And I recommend that you, Hermione Granger do the same thing."
Hermione was on the verge of a smile - he could see it as the corners of her lips twitched - so with a wry grin he added, "For all we know it could be Neville Bloody Longbottom who gets to kill Voldie with an exploding cauldron!" And with that they both fell into fits of cleansing laughter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Twenty points each from Gryffindor for your tardiness - and .detention I think, Mr Potter, Miss Granger. See me after class, what's left of it."
Harry and Hermione had pulled themselves together after their laughing fit only to discover they were going to be late. Very late, for Potions.
They had grabbed their books and fled the Gryffindor common room, running full pelt towards the Dungeon classroom through the deserted corridors. They were going to get a detention; that was inevitable. When they entered the room, breathless and bent double with the effort of running, for a moment it looked like they might get away with just house points being taken off. But Snape had lifted an elegant eyebrow on top of his already threatening sneer. Apparently hell hadn't yet frozen over.
Harry slipped into his seat next to Ron, and Hermione went to Neville, who was fiddling with a scrap of parchment. Snape continued his lecture on the different properties found in ingredients harvested on waning and waxing Luna cycles.
As each working pair went to get the equipment for their experiments, Ron took the chance to find out what had happened when Harry had caught up with Hermione.
"Well? How did it go then?" he had his back to Harry so as to make it look like he wasn't gossiping in class. He had no desire to join his friends in detention that night.
"I think we got it straightened out," Harry hissed back over his shoulder as he lit a flame under each cauldron. "Did you lot come up with anything?"
Ron turned to stand next to Harry lining up the ingredients in the order that they would have to be added to the potion.
"Yeah" he fished an almost identical piece of parchment as the one Neville had hold of, out of his robes "Lavender reckons we are on a search and destroy mission.. Well not so much destroy but its definitely like a mind sweep." he wrinkled his nose up as he stabbed the blade of his knife in to an oozing black mass of Fluxweed.
Harry rolled his eyes. Arthur Weasleys collection of Muggle wartime stories had a LOT to answer for.
"Mine sweep. " he corrected.
"Whatever" he dismissed with a shrug of his shoulders. "We're going to make sure EVERYONE has had a go, including Malfoy who, you will notice, is on OUR list."
Suddenly dissecting the slimy black thing in front of him didn't seem all that bad.