A/N: I don't get the impression that anyone's hanging on the edge of their seat waiting for this, but here's another chapter! Only got one review last chapter, but it was a really nice one. Thanks for the encouragement, Flybird! And no, I didn't mean for the Exploding Snap cards to symbolize anything, though that would have been pretty cool.
Hope you all enjoyed the last chapter. Ron's Keeper – good for him! I think we all saw that coming a mile away (in Phoenix), but I never thought he'd have such a hard time. I'm not planning on making him suffer quite so much. There are times when I think I should have made this a sixth year story, but I really wanted Sirius in it, so I left it as it was when I began a whole year before Phoenix came out. Still, it's hard to handle issues that have to be dealt with (like Hagrid's 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation', which appears in this chapter) when J.K. Rowling's already done it. So I do the best I can.
Enough rambling. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Please don't forget to review – I really depend on it.
Chapter 17: A Rare Talent
To Harry, it seemed that the days were passing a little too quickly. His classmates must have felt the same way because by the time Halloween approached, all of the fifth years were showing the strain. They were constantly buried under a mountain of homework, and their teachers never seemed to think that they were progressing enough. The new professors were no easier on them than anyone else. A few students had begun to complain that while Professor Thornby was a much better teacher than Professor Binns, she also expected a good deal more from them.
Harry and Ron's efforts had begun to show in their grades. Professor McGonagall marveled in front of the entire class when Ron managed to turn a whole set of encyclopedia volumes into a row of handsome rosebushes. Snape was so suspicious of Harry and Ron's continued high marks in Potions that he separated them from Hermione. Now Harry worked next to Neville, Ron worked with Dean, and Hermione worked with Lavender. Harry and Ron both thought that Snape was disappointed when their grades didn't drop. He stalked the halls with such an ugly expression on his face that the first years would run the other way whenever he came in sight.
On top of all their classwork, Harry and Ron also had Quidditch practice. Angelina was true to her word, rousting them from their beds at ungodly Saturday morning hours. They quickly learned not to complain, as she would extend the practice by half an hour each time they did. A six-hour session one Saturday was enough to silence even Fred and George. Gryffindor's first game of the season was against Ravenclaw and just after Halloween. As the match drew closer Angelina developed the manic glint in her eye that Oliver had so often had.
Most of the practice time was spent focused on Ron. Even when he wasn't busy learning new moves, the entire team was learning how to function as a unit. The Chasers and Beaters had to work closely with the Keeper, and Ron was trying very hard to get used to the others' moves. The Seeker had little to do with the Keeper, so Harry spent the bulk of his time following the Snitch around and practicing his dives.
"Hey, Harry!" called George after he pulled off a particularly spectacular fall. "A few more like that and you'll be ready for the Wronski Feint!"
The twins weren't as kind to Ron as they were to Harry but Ron continued to brush them off. It was when he finally started coming back with a few barbs of his own that Fred and George started leaving him alone. During one especially long practice, Fred was teasing Ron for allowing Alicia to score three times in a row. "Maybe we should use a beach ball instead of a Quaffle," he chortled. "That way Ron might catch at least some of them."
"If I were you, I'd stop watching me and focus on your swing," called Ron from his position at the goalposts. "Your forehand looks like a rusty gate."
The Chasers, Harry, and George all hooted with laughter. "We're going to have to watch it, Fred," said George. "I think Ron's starting to give as good as he gets."
After a few more exchanges like that, the twins' teasing became much less frequent. "It's bizarre, really," Ron said to Harry as they left the field one day. "It's almost like they've decided I'm finally a man or something. To think that all this time, all I had to do was jibe them back!"
"How come they never tease Ginny like they do you?" asked Harry.
"Fred and George make fun of two people in our family: Percy and me," said Ron. "Me because I'm the younger brother, and Percy because he's just asking for it, the fussy git. Ginny's different, though. It's friendly, little-sister teasing with her."
Harry squinted up at the sun. "Come on, we'd better get back. Tomorrow's Halloween and I'd rather not have to spend it doing classwork."
Harry and Ron found Hermione in the library with her nose in a dusty old tome. They followed her example and spent the rest of the afternoon buried in books, but the work paid off – by dinnertime they had finished quite a bit of their weekend work.
"And that's the last!" Ron said triumphantly as he wrote the last line of his Potions essay. He put down his quill and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. "I can't believe we finished all of Astronomy, Transfiguration and Potions."
"See what happens when you apply yourself?" said Hermione, rather smugly. Ron scowled at her, but she ignored him. "Since we're going to be done by tomorrow, why don't we go see Hagrid? We haven't been down to his hut in ages."
"Yeah," said Ron. "Maybe he'll tell us about what he did last summer."
It was true; they'd been so busy with classwork that they had not visited Hagrid in a long while, and they were dying to know if his mission had been successful, but there was no way to ask him in the middle of a Care of Magical Creatures class. So after breakfast the next morning, they set off for Hagrid's cabin, wrapped warmly in their cloaks to ward off the chill. It had frosted during the night, and the stiff grass crunched under their feet.
They found Hagrid behind his cabin wrestling with some enormous pumpkins. Fang barked joyfully and bounded toward them. Hagrid looked up from his work, and his face lit up with a smile. "Hullo, you three! Haven't seen yeh down here in a while."
"Sorry about that, Hagrid," said Harry. "We've had more schoolwork to do this year than ever."
"'S all righ," said Hagrid, still smiling beneath his wild tangle of a beard. "I 'spected as much. Bin working hard then, have yeh? 'S what yeh should be doin'. Got ter do well on yer O.W.L.s."
"And how," said Ron. "I never knew you had to be such a top student to join the Auror corps. Harry and me are both going to try."
"Aurors!" exclaimed Hagrid. "Well good fer you, lads! Takes a lot 'o hard work, but it's a noble ambition. An' what have you decided ter be, Hermione?"
"I don't know," she said lightly. "I might need to think about it for the rest of the year, but of course I hope to get O's in everything."
"Manage that, and yeh really could be anything yeh wanted," said Hagrid. "Well, if anyone can get an O in ev'ry subject, it's our Hermione." She beamed back at him.
"Well, since I haven't really had the chance ter talk to yeh yet," Hagrid said, dropping his voice, "I heard what happened to yeh, Harry, as soon as I got back. Close shave, was it?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "I was lucky."
"Lucky ter have good people watching out for yeh," said Hagrid. "Course it goes without sayin' that I'm glad yeh pulled through."
"When did you get back, Hagrid?" said Hermione.
Hagrid raised one bushy eyebrow. "So yeh want ter know what I did this summer, do yeh? I'm not really s'posed ter talk about it, but knowin' you three… it might be better if I just tell yeh right now. Yeh'd just put yerselves in danger tryin' ter find out."
Hermione blushed, but Ron said, "Now you're starting to come around!"
Hagrid scowled at him. "Don' go repeatin' any of this, now! I'm serious, yeh can't go discussin' it after we're done here today. Don' know who yeh can trust anymore."
"We promise, Hagrid," said Harry. "We're keeping some other secrets already, and we haven't broken our word."
Ron and Hermione voiced their agreement, and Hagrid seemed satisfied, but he herded them into his cabin before he would relate his story. Once they had all settled in with mugs of hot, strong tea, he finally seemed ready to talk. "All righ', then. Yeh prob'ly already know that Olympe and I went ter see the giants." They all nodded. "It didn' start off well. When we found 'em there they were fightin' amongst themselves, and yeh never get between fightin' giants. We had ter hide out for a couple 'o days until all the fuss died down, an' once it did… 'bout half the giants had gone. Turns out they'd been fightin' over whether or not ter listen ter the emissaries that Voldemort had already sent."
"Oh, no!" said Hermione. "He got to them first?"
"Yeah," sighed Hagrid. "Not long before us, seems like. We saw 'em, down in the giants' village. I knew one of 'em." Hagrid's face darkened. "I'll never forget that monster's face. Macnair. The headsman that came fer Buckbeak, yeh remember?"
"He's still employed at the Ministry!" said Ron. "Dad was talking about him this summer. Harry named him a Death Eater after the Tournament."
"That man likes killin'," said Hagrid. "I'll bet anythin' he encouraged the giants ter fight. Olympe an' I, we stayed hidden an' listened. The giants that left remembered what happened the last time they got mixed up with… with Voldemort." He shuddered. "Ugh, no matter what Dumbledore says, I still don' like sayin' the name!"
"He'd be proud of you, Hagrid," said Harry.
"I should hope so," said the half-giant. "Takes all the guts I have just ter get it out. Anyway, the ones that stayed were int'rested in the power that the Death Eaters were promisin', so we only stayed long enough ter learn as much as we could. We did hear that the other two Death Eaters were Fergus an' Ludmilla Blake."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione gasped in unison. "What, do yeh know 'em?" said Hagrid.
"They're the ones who gave the Dursleys the Dragonthistle Potion!" said Harry.
"Hmmm," Hagrid said gruffly. "I s'pose it's just as well that I didn' know that when I saw 'em, or I might've attacked. Except fer that, I don' think yeh would've heard of 'em. Reclusive husband an' wife, ran a shop in Knockturn Alley. After V… V… bah! After VOLDEMORT disappeared fifteen years ago, they were suspected o' collusion with the other Death Eaters, but no one ever brought any charges. Seems there wasn't enough evidence against 'em."
"What did they sell at their shop?" asked Ron.
"Potions," said Hagrid, with a significant look at Harry. "Their specialty was poisons, if my memory's correct. They've been credited with inventin' some nasty curses, too: the Gut Squeeze, the Limb Lopper, the Bloodletter…"
The students recoiled in disgust. "Oh, don't say any more!" cried Hermione, her eyes wide.
"Saw a victim o' the Bloodletter once," said Hagrid in a distant voice. "Horrible. Just horrible." He gave his shaggy head a shake. "Enough o' that. Where was I? Oh, yes… Well, they didn' make any detailed plans, so after a while we had ter give up listenin' an' move on. Had ter find the other giants, yeh see, the ones that didn' want ter go back ter him. We found 'em 'bout twenty miles away. Dunno if that's really far enough between the two, but there's nothin' we can do 'bout that. Anyway, at firs' they thought we were more Death Eaters, but after a few days we convinced 'em ter listen. We stood there in the middle o' the camp, an' the whole time we talked there was a giant standin' over us with a club, ready ter bring it smashin' down if they didn' like what we had ter say."
"Way to look death in the face, Hagrid," said Ron.
"Well, it wasn' any fun, I can tell yeh that," said Hagrid. "But it was too important, so we agreed to their terms. Anyway, yeh can see I'm here in one piece, so yeh know we didn' get clobbered. We gave 'em gifts from Dumbledore an' gave 'em his message, about an alliance an' protection fer what was left of the giants. They seemed ter like it, but they wouldn' commit. Said they'd think about it, but we did leave with a message o' goodwill fer Dumbledore. It was more'n Dumbledore expected, I can tell yeh that. He was pleased with what we did."
"Do you think they'll choose sides, or will they just sit on their hands?" asked Harry.
"I think in the end they'll come 'round," said Hagrid. "If they don' get into another fight with the other giants, that is."
"I'll bet it was nice to spend some time with Madam Maxime," said Hermione, a coy little smile on her face.
Hagrid eyed her suspiciously. "Now that's really none of yer business, Hermione," he said. "But yer right – it was nice. Never met someone else like me before. Very polite, Olympe," he said, his eyes going misty again. "An' so elegant. She's prob'ly half the reason we succeeded, seein' as she's so diplomatic an' all." He stared off into space with his eyes full of stars. Harry and his friends grinned at each other.
Hagrid blinked and shook his head. "Don' let me go driftin' off like that!" he admonished them. "I don' get ter see yeh often enough ter allow it."
"Nice pumpkins you've got out back, by the way," said Ron. "What do you feed them to make them so big?"
"Gordon Greenthumb's Growth Tonic mixed with Ogden's Old Firewhiskey," said Hagrid. "I get the tonic from Professor Sprout. An' if that don' work – well, I can help 'em along a bit by myself." He gave his pink umbrella a pat and winked. "Got summat planned for the Halloween Feast tonight. I'm not sayin' what!" he exclaimed as Ron opened his mouth. "You'll have to find out with ev'ryone else."
As it turned out, Hagrid's surprise was a jack-o-lantern carving contest. Each House was given one massive pumpkin and one hour to carve it, and no magic was allowed. The gourds were so large that students had to climb on top to make a lid while the more artistic Gryffindors cut out a face with bread knives. Finally Dennis Creevey and Maribel Madison, the smallest students in the House, were wrapped in plastic and dropped inside to clean out the goop. In the end Ravenclaw won the contest and twenty points, but everyone was too distracted by the live bats, the House ghosts, and all the junk food to feel too competitive.
"Ugh, I think I ate too much ice cream," moaned Ron as the fifth years climbed into bed that night. "And fizzing whizbees, and cockroach clusters, and pepper imps…"
Eventually Ron's complaints ceased, and Harry and his roommates drifted off. Harry found himself in one of his favorite dreams: he was in the middle of the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match, and Gryffindor was up by five hundred points. Harry was chasing the fluttering Snitch around the stadium while Malfoy desperately tried to keep up. His hand was inches away, ready to seal Slytherin's fate –
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP! Harry's eyes flew open.
"Wazzat?" mumbled Ron from deep within his four-poster.
"It's three A.M.," grumbled Dean.
The pounding came again. No one else was getting up, so Harry climbed out of bed and pulled on his dressing gown. When he opened the door he saw Leonard Fidemont, the third year reserve Beater, standing there with a candle in his fist.
"Leonard?" said Harry, blinking in the light. "What's going on?"
"Parvati Patil came and woke us up. We third-years are at the bottom of the steps, so we heard her banging on the entrance to the dormitory," he said. "She says that there's something wrong with Hermione."
"Harry?" Parvati's voice drifted up the stairwell. She sounded worried.
"Coming," said Harry, tying the belt on his dressing gown.
"Take this," said Leonard, thrusting the candle into Harry's hand.
"Thanks," said Harry. He descended the cold stone steps and found Parvati waiting at the bottom.
"Hermione's had a nightmare," said Parvati. "She woke up screaming bloody murder and we can't calm her down. She keeps asking for you."
They crossed the common room to the other side. At the entrance to the girls' dormitory they found a group of four other girls waiting for them – Ginny, Lavender, Alicia, and Katie. "What -?" began Harry.
"A boy can't enter the girls' dormitory without an escort of five girls, and even then it has to be pretty important," said Katie. "So if this isn't absolutely necessary… well, we're all going to get tossed out on our rears." They formed a tight circle with Harry in the middle.
"Here goes nothing," said Alicia, and the group walked forward. They ascended a few steps and the girls breathed a sigh of relief. "It seems you've been found worthy," said Alicia.
They passed three doorways full of watching, whispering girls and stopped at the fourth. The other fifth year girls were standing on the steps above the door. The escort stepped out of the way and Harry pushed open the door.
The room was dark, but in the dim light from his candle Harry could see Hermione sitting in one of the four-posters. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, and she had wrapped her arms around them. Silent tears were rolling down her face and she was trembling visibly. Harry crossed the room, conscious of all the pairs of eyes on his back, and set his candle down on her bedside table.
Hermione looked up and saw him. "Oh!" she cried, and burst into tears afresh. "You're alive, I wouldn't believe it until I saw you –"
Harry wasn't sure of what to do. He looked back at the doorway and caught Ginny's eyes. She nodded at him and looked pointedly at Hermione. Harry took the hint and sat down on the mattress next to her. "Hey, it was only a dream, right?" he said, putting one arm around her shoulders.
"The most real, the most… horrible…" she gulped. "I've never had a dream like that before. I thought that maybe it might have actually happened…"
"Do you want to talk about it? Maybe it'll help," he said, looking back up at the doorway and raising an eyebrow. Parvati and Lavender gave him appraising looks, but Ginny, Alicia, and Katie nodded at him and closed the door.
Hermione seemed to be calming down. She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes. Harry handed her a box of tissues from her table, and she blew her nose rather noisily before beginning. "I don't want to go into too much detail," she said. "I dreamed that… that there was a fight on the roof of Hogwarts. Voldemort was there, and so were the Death Eaters. The professors were trying to save you, but they were all hurt and couldn't get to you. You were tortured, and…" Her voice rose in pitch with each word. Alarmed, Harry tightened his arm around her shoulders. "He killed you. I saw him standing over you. I heard him laugh, Harry! How can I know what that sounds like? I've never heard it before."
"It was just a dream," said Harry. "Your brain just made it up."
"Have you heard him laugh?" said Hermione.
"Yes."
"Is it high pitched, and cold?"
"Yes, but Hermione –"
"And does he have a face that's not quite human?" she whispered. "Like a reptile, with red eyes and slits for nostrils and skin so tight that his face is like a skull?"
Harry froze, staring at her. "Yes," he said softly.
Hermione sighed. "That wasn't even the worst part of it. I felt like… like it could have been prevented. That if something had happened differently, he couldn't have killed you."
"If what had happened differently?" Harry asked gently.
"I don't know," she said miserably. "I don't understand. I don't want to see that again, I don't want to go back to sleep!" A new torrent of tears began.
Somehow, Harry got Hermione to lie down again. She made a pitiful sight with tears dripping off the end of her nose. Harry needed a moment to think about what to do, so he made a show of tucking her blanket back in. Hermione was a rational person, not given to bursts of emotion, though she'd had her moments. Harry rested one hand on her shoulder while he pondered. She seemed grateful for the contact, and her tears gradually subsided while he sat there thinking.
"You don't think that you were seeing the future, do you?" he asked cautiously.
"Maybe," she said. "I'm not sure." She yawned sleepily.
Alarm bells went off in Harry's head. He had expected Hermione to stomp on the very idea that she'd seen something yet to happen. It smacked too much of Divination, and she had hated that class. And more than that – if it was a vision of the future, then it was very bad news for him.
"We can go see Dumbledore tomorrow," said Harry. "He'll know what to do."
"Mmmm," said Hermione.
Harry looked down and saw that her eyes had drifted shut. Before long she was drawing the rhythmic breath of sleep. Harry waited a few minutes until he was sure that she was completely gone, and then tiptoed out of the room with his candle. Parvati, Lavender, and the rest of the fifth year girls were sitting on the steps. Some of them were asleep with their heads against the wall.
"What happened?" yawned Parvati.
"She's asleep," said Harry.
"Thank goodness," grumped Lavender, shaking her classmates awake. They silently escorted Harry back down the stairs and left again without a word. Only Parvati stayed behind long enough to ascertain that Hermione would be all right, then thanked Harry and bade him goodnight.
Harry returned to his own four-poster and sank down upon it with a grateful sigh. Exhausted as he was, it took him a while to fall asleep again. He was thinking about Hermione and wondering whether her dream had been anything more than a common nightmare.
**********
Harry spent a good portion of the next day in a daze. Potions was the worst class of the bunch, and when Potions didn't go well, it went terribly. Snape seemed to relish giving Hermione her first less than perfect mark in a long while. Her potion was still a far cry better than Harry's, which was just a useless sludge. Harry's first real misstep in a long while gave Snape the perfect excuse to pounce. Judging from his classmates' faces as they left the dungeons, Snape's litany had been memorable, but Harry's mind had been elsewhere and he remembered none of it.
"Where are you today, mate?" said Ron. "Don't tell me you're going to start slacking off, because there's no way I can keep this up without you."
"I had to get up in the middle of the night, what do you expect?" said Harry.
"What? The middle of the night?" said Ron.
Harry gave him a long look. "You do sleep like the dead, don't you? Hermione had a nightmare, and Parvati came to get me."
"What, she needed comforting?" laughed Ron.
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, she did," said Harry.
Ron stiffened. "Must have been some dream if she needed to see you right then," he said.
"It was a dream about me," said Harry.
"What, and she couldn't get over it without seeing you in the flesh?" said Ron derisively.
Irritated, Harry rounded on Ron. "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" he said.
"I've had nightmares about you, and believe me, I never needed comforting," said Ron, glaring back at Harry.
Harry was completely dumbfounded. "Why do you care?" he snapped. "It wasn't an ordinary dream, she was inconsolable! And since you don't believe me for whatever reason, I think you should talk to Hermione if you want to know any more about it. Or maybe you should just go soak your head." He turned on his heel and stalked off toward the Great Hall, leaving a scowling Ron behind.
Hermione was already seated at the Gryffindor table, away from everyone else. "Prat," Harry muttered, sitting down beside her.
"What?" she said.
"Ron," said Harry. "I told him about last night and all of a sudden he's mad at me. I don't know what his problem is, and right now I really don't care." He bit savagely into his sandwich. "I'm not sure you heard me before, but do you want to go and see Dumbledore? I'll go with you, if you like."
Hermione gave him a watery smile. "That's nice of you, Harry, but Dumbledore's not here."
"What?" said Harry. "Where'd he go?"
"The Ministry of Magic," said Hermione. "It wasn't in the paper today, but I overheard Professor Flitwick talking to Professor Sinistra in the hall. Something about the Wizengamot. He's Chief Warlock, you know."
Harry nodded, mulling this over. "Well, what about McGonagall or Professor Thornby? You ought to see someone. You didn't get top marks in Potions today, so you're obviously not back to normal." He essayed a smile, and Hermione blushed and smiled back.
"All right," she said. "I'll do it."
The rest of the day was very unpleasant for Harry. Ron had decided not to speak to him and Harry didn't see any reason to rectify the situation. They maintained a frosty silence through History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures, and Hermione kept to herself all day. Their teachers clearly knew that something was wrong, but they said nothing.
After dinner Hermione headed off to find Professor McGonagall, and Harry retreated to the library. He headed for the usual corner and found Ron already there. Ron gave him a venomous glare, but Harry merely sat down at the far end of the table. For a long hour they ignored each other. The only sound was the scritch-scratch of their quills on parchment. They were so involved in the silence that they only noticed Hermione when she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"How did it go?" Harry exclaimed, eager to talk again after the uncomfortable hour.
"Okay," said Hermione. She smiled tenuously. "Professor McGonagall took me seriously, at least. When she heard what I had to say, she called Professor Thornby in. I was right – they said it probably wasn't an ordinary nightmare."
Harry glanced at Ron, who wasn't bothering to hide the fact that he was listening. "So what was it?" he prodded.
"They think you might be right, Harry," she said quietly. "I might have seen the future. A possible future!" she cried when Harry went pale. "Something that might happen as a result of precipitating events."
"Great," said Harry. "Voldemort is going to kill me if something else does or doesn't happen. That tells us a lot."
"That's what you dreamed about?" interjected Ron. "You-Know-Who killing Harry?"
"You know, you could have asked me about it sooner," said Hermione, sounding hurt. "I really don't know why you decided to ignore me all day."
Ron turned red. "I'm sorry," he said. "I guess I just felt kind of left out, finding out that you two had this big conference without me and all."
"It wasn't like that," said Hermione. "If you'd seen what I'd seen…"
"Yeah, I know," said Ron. He looked hopefully at Harry. Harry still wasn't feeling very charitable toward his friend, but Ron was so shamefaced that he relented and gave his friend a half-smile. Ron grinned back, looking relieved. "So… would you mind telling me about it now?" he said meekly. She obliged, and when she finished, Ron's eyes were as wide as saucers.
"They say it's possible that I just had a really, really bad dream, but since my description of Voldemort matched yours… I might be a Dreamer," she finished excitedly.
"Bugger, Hermione!" said Ron, but Harry had no idea what a Dreamer was and said as much. "They're really rare, but not quite as rare as Singers," Ron whispered. "They have dreams about the future."
"Well, not exactly," said Hermione. "Here's how the professors explained it. Seers see things that will happen, no matter what you do, like Voldemort's return. Dreamers see the end result of a chain of events, but people have free will, so that chain may or may not be unbroken," said Hermione.
"So it's a warning?" said Harry.
"They say that yes, most of the time it is," said Hermione. "But the problem is knowing what that chain of events is! Apparently the best Dreamers can interpret clues in what they see, and that helps."
"Kind of ironic that you can see the future, isn't it? I mean, we all know what you thought of Divination," laughed Ron.
"It was Trelawney more than the class itself," said Hermione. "We all know she's got some real talent – it's just that she's such a fraud the rest of the time."
"Speaking of Trelawney… do you think this might be your 'unknown potential'?" said Harry.
"I've been wondering about that, but since Professor McGonagall and Professor Thornby can't positively say that I am a Dreamer… who knows?" said Hermione.
"Well if your talent is showing up, then maybe mine will too," said Ron excitedly.
Hermione shivered. "If it's anything like mine… I don't know about this. That nightmare was by far the worst I've ever had, but being a Dreamer could be really useful to Dumbledore and to you, Harry. Besides, it's kind of nice to be able to do something that most people can't."
"But you're already special," said Ron. "You don't need a rare talent for that." Hermione smiled beatifically at him and Ron blushed again.
Harry picked up A History of Magical Conflict to hide his grin. "There's something wrong with your face, Ron," he said from behind the book. "It keeps changing color."
Hermione laughed. "Shut it, Harry," mumbled Ron.