The school was rather quiet until students arrived. The three of them ate at the staff table with Dumbledore until classes began. They even went out to help Professor McGonagall greet the first years. Then things were as crazy and hectic as usual. Peeves was back in action dumping dungbombs on the Great Hall forcing everyone to eat in their common rooms with Dumbledore making his announcements to everyone by magic, (Kind of like a hologram.) and Filch was after Peeves. The next day, they had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson of the year. To their surprise... their Professor was Snape! He taught more curses to defend themselves against other evil wizards than the usual Dark Creatures they have been studying for the past 4 years. They all guessed this was because of the return of Voldemort although he didn't say. He was a little nicer to the three of them then in past years. They guessed this was because he got the job he'd always wanted.
Harry stopped Ron and Hermione as they all stared at their schedules.
"Our next class is Potions!" Harry told them. "I wonder who's teaching it?"
"I dunno." Hermione said.
"Hope he's nicer than Snape was!" Ron stated.
They all walked to Potions anticipating their first lesson.
As they walked down the hallways to the dungeons, they began talking wildly again about who was going to be the potions master/ess. They opened the door to the potions classroom and all of them dropped their chins along with their books. The potions master was still Snape!!
"How can he do Potions when he is teaching Defense? Slytherins first years have Defense right now," asked Hermione.
"I dunno," said Ron. They all took their seats but Snape's class wasn't as hard and harsh this year. He even complimented the three of them on how well they were doing.
The bell rang and it was lunchtime. They all dropped their books in the Gryffindor common room and walked down to lunch, still a little weirded out about the past couple of classes.
"Oh.... Excuse me," Hermione said about half way through lunch, "I have to go. See you in Charms!" And she ran away up the North staircase up to the library. Ron snorted something Harry could've sworn was something like "Busybody!" He looked a little white with a hint of green on his cheeks like he was going to be sick.
Harry wondered about this for some time. But he just couldn't find a solution. They all went to charms and Professor Flitwick was his cheery self as usual. And the three of them did surprisingly well again! Hermione looked rather suspicious once more, now and then glancing at Ron in disgust. Harry let it pass by and didn't think anything of it. But then Hermione dashed back up the North staircase to the library. But the staircases had changed since this afternoon so it was now the South staircase you had to go up to get to the library. Harry and Ron expected Hermione to pass by any minute running to the South staircase. 5.... 4.... 3.... 2...1.... there she was dashing up the South staircase!!
Ron found this quite amusing as he burst out laughing. Hermione shot a stern look at him from the staircase.
Harry yelled to her, "Be sure to be back in time for Care of Magical Creatures! You don't want to miss Hagrid!"
She gave him a thumbs up to confirm that she heard him and kept up the stairs. Ron and Harry went to gather their supplies for Hagrid's class.
When they got there, they found Hagrid in low spirits and Hermione had not yet showed up from the library. Hagrid looked at Ron and gave him a weird look as if he was a traitor of some sort. Just then Hermione showed up back from the library and Hagrid's spirits raised considerably.
Their lesson went fairly well, although Ron was blackened because one of the toggle-griffs had blown fire at him when he tried to feed it. Hagrid said that it was a sign of affection but Harry thought that it more or less felt they way Hagrid did about Ron. But he just couldn't figure out why.
Hermione herself didn't seem too pleased with Ron either and it was bugging Harry. He had no idea what this was all about.
Hermione herself didn't seem too pleased with Ron either and it was bugging Harry. He had no idea what this was all about.
Later that evening, when Ron was asleep, Harry caught Hermione before she went to bed.
"Er... Hermione... I have something to ask you," he said. "It's kind of annoying me."
Hermione sat down timidly thinking she had done something wrong.
"Umm, I feel like–" but he was cut short by Hermione's desperate apologies.
"Harry, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been spending much time with you and Ron lately because I'm always at the library but I think Ron is putting a charm on us to make us do better in class and all the teachers think so too and I was supposed to look up information on the charm for Hagrid but I had a hard time finding the book in the library so I couldn't copy it down before class because I didn't find the book I needed until 3 minutes before class." Hermione stopped now, gasping deeply for breath.
"So that's it!" Harry exclaimed.
"Yes but you aren't to let Ron know we suspect him because... er well, you just shouldn't ok?" Harry thought about this for a while and finally agreed. But he didn't know why he shouldn't let Ron know. It seemed like it would be the right thing to do. Well, anyway, tomorrow was the first Quidditch match of the year and they were playing Slytherin so he couldn't stay up to think about it.
Well, anyway, tomorrow was the first Quidditch match of the year and they were playing Slytherin so he couldn't stay up to think about it.
Harry woke up early the next morning, excited and ready for the first Quidditch match of the year! He strode down to the empty common room save two or three people, including Hermione. Harry had wanted to talk to her about last night's conversation.
"Good morning Harry," she cheerfully greeted him, "You ready for the match today?
He mumbled a faint "Yeah" in reply. He was still trying to think of a way to approach the subject of the spell that Ron had put on him. He had so many questions about it but couldn't possibly ask them all in the time before the match, so he decided to put it off until after the match.
"Something wrong? You don't seem your normal self," she asked.
"No. I suppose I'm just tired."
"Oh! Well in that case, we'd better go down to breakfast. You can't overlook breakfast on a day like this! It's supposed to be nippy out today." Hermione advised.
Harry agreed and they went down to the Great Hall. There, they were surprised to see Ron sitting at the Gryffindor table, alone for no one else had gone down to breakfast it was so early.
"RON!" they both exclaimed, "We expected you were still in bed! I mean, you're not exactly an early bird and we didn't see you come down! Why you up so early?"
Ron looked really tired.
"Well, to explain why you didn't see me walk down to breakfast, I didn't go to bed last night. Three teachers gave me detention and I don't know why. "
Harry knew why, and he knew Hermione did too. She shot a look at Harry; a look so dangerous that he was afraid she'd make him cough up frogs if he said anything about the spell.
"Oh, –oh really?" Harry sputtered. He didn't like keeping this from Ron. Especially when the teachers had given him detention for it. He didn't even know that they knew!
"Hermione, could I have a word with you for a moment please?" he asked. "We won't be long!" he added, seeing the disappointed look on Ron's face.
The two of them ran out of the Great Hall and across to the nearest, vacant classroom.
"No Harry! We can't tell him!" Hermione began. It was no surprise to Harry that she already knew what it was about.
"And why not? He's being punished for it and he doesn't know it! Why shouldn't we tell him? You seem as though it will kill him or something! " Harry argued.
"That's just it! It WILL kill him." Hermione shot back shortly.
"Wh–What?" Harry was befuddled by this last comment. How could telling your friend why he was being punished kill him?
"I looked up the spell. The spell is called Melior Ustulo. It has dangerous side affects, one of them being that you can't tell the person that you know that they casted it or the spell will find him, and creep into his body, ever so slowly destroying his spirit. It's like a dragged out form of the dementor's kiss."
Harry shuddered at the mention of dementors. Those awful, dreaded creatures that had taken to the dark side in the past year or so had a disliking for him. Not that they liked anybody.
"Is there some sort of a loop-hole we can find to be able to tell him that we know?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not. All we can do is let him go through with the punishments. As severe as they may be and as cranky and irritable as he may get."
"Even still. How can they, and you, be sure what the spell is if you can't ask him to make sure?" Harry asked, a more than a little confused.
Hermione thought on this for a while as if wondering how much to tell Harry.
"Well," she said finally, "everything adds up. First, we, meaning the teachers and I, have seen Ron muttering Melior Ustulo under his breath. Second, we have all made significant improvement in all subjects. Even me! And third Dumbledore said –" she stopped suddenly. She had a scared look on her face as if she had told Harry too much.
"We'd better get back to Ron. He'll be anxious by now," she said.
Harry was quite annoyed at her abrupt halt in the middle of what seemed to be a very important comment. But he knew he would never get it out of her. He would have to find some way to find out himself. Hermione was right. Everything did add up and that was what was scary. Ron was never a great student; in fact, he just barely passed three subjects last year. But Harry wondered what his motivation would be to cast the spell on all three of them. Hermione's voice broke his train of thought. "Harry? Are you ok? You look pale." Then, to Hermione's horror, he passed out on the floor.
Author's Note: Again, I apologize for the horrendous grammatical and character issues. I promise they will be sorted out somewhere around chapter five or six. (Right now, I've broken what I have written down into about six chapters. But I guess I have somewhere around nine or ten chapters worth of writing done.)
Also, any reviews would be appreciated.
I have also started another fan fic piece. It will be a slash Draco/Harry pairing. I have finished chapter one but will NOT however post this one until I am completely finished with it! I've learned my lesson about posting as I write from WoT! The first place you will hear about anything from fics - anything else HP related is my livejournal. My username is pianogenius. I unfortunately could not post a link here. Thanks for your interest, and please leave a review! Brendan
Harry stopped Ron and Hermione as they all stared at their schedules.
"Our next class is Potions!" Harry told them. "I wonder who's teaching it?"
"I dunno." Hermione said.
"Hope he's nicer than Snape was!" Ron stated.
They all walked to Potions anticipating their first lesson.
As they walked down the hallways to the dungeons, they began talking wildly again about who was going to be the potions master/ess. They opened the door to the potions classroom and all of them dropped their chins along with their books. The potions master was still Snape!!
"How can he do Potions when he is teaching Defense? Slytherins first years have Defense right now," asked Hermione.
"I dunno," said Ron. They all took their seats but Snape's class wasn't as hard and harsh this year. He even complimented the three of them on how well they were doing.
The bell rang and it was lunchtime. They all dropped their books in the Gryffindor common room and walked down to lunch, still a little weirded out about the past couple of classes.
"Oh.... Excuse me," Hermione said about half way through lunch, "I have to go. See you in Charms!" And she ran away up the North staircase up to the library. Ron snorted something Harry could've sworn was something like "Busybody!" He looked a little white with a hint of green on his cheeks like he was going to be sick.
Harry wondered about this for some time. But he just couldn't find a solution. They all went to charms and Professor Flitwick was his cheery self as usual. And the three of them did surprisingly well again! Hermione looked rather suspicious once more, now and then glancing at Ron in disgust. Harry let it pass by and didn't think anything of it. But then Hermione dashed back up the North staircase to the library. But the staircases had changed since this afternoon so it was now the South staircase you had to go up to get to the library. Harry and Ron expected Hermione to pass by any minute running to the South staircase. 5.... 4.... 3.... 2...1.... there she was dashing up the South staircase!!
Ron found this quite amusing as he burst out laughing. Hermione shot a stern look at him from the staircase.
Harry yelled to her, "Be sure to be back in time for Care of Magical Creatures! You don't want to miss Hagrid!"
She gave him a thumbs up to confirm that she heard him and kept up the stairs. Ron and Harry went to gather their supplies for Hagrid's class.
When they got there, they found Hagrid in low spirits and Hermione had not yet showed up from the library. Hagrid looked at Ron and gave him a weird look as if he was a traitor of some sort. Just then Hermione showed up back from the library and Hagrid's spirits raised considerably.
Their lesson went fairly well, although Ron was blackened because one of the toggle-griffs had blown fire at him when he tried to feed it. Hagrid said that it was a sign of affection but Harry thought that it more or less felt they way Hagrid did about Ron. But he just couldn't figure out why.
Hermione herself didn't seem too pleased with Ron either and it was bugging Harry. He had no idea what this was all about.
Hermione herself didn't seem too pleased with Ron either and it was bugging Harry. He had no idea what this was all about.
Later that evening, when Ron was asleep, Harry caught Hermione before she went to bed.
"Er... Hermione... I have something to ask you," he said. "It's kind of annoying me."
Hermione sat down timidly thinking she had done something wrong.
"Umm, I feel like–" but he was cut short by Hermione's desperate apologies.
"Harry, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been spending much time with you and Ron lately because I'm always at the library but I think Ron is putting a charm on us to make us do better in class and all the teachers think so too and I was supposed to look up information on the charm for Hagrid but I had a hard time finding the book in the library so I couldn't copy it down before class because I didn't find the book I needed until 3 minutes before class." Hermione stopped now, gasping deeply for breath.
"So that's it!" Harry exclaimed.
"Yes but you aren't to let Ron know we suspect him because... er well, you just shouldn't ok?" Harry thought about this for a while and finally agreed. But he didn't know why he shouldn't let Ron know. It seemed like it would be the right thing to do. Well, anyway, tomorrow was the first Quidditch match of the year and they were playing Slytherin so he couldn't stay up to think about it.
Well, anyway, tomorrow was the first Quidditch match of the year and they were playing Slytherin so he couldn't stay up to think about it.
Harry woke up early the next morning, excited and ready for the first Quidditch match of the year! He strode down to the empty common room save two or three people, including Hermione. Harry had wanted to talk to her about last night's conversation.
"Good morning Harry," she cheerfully greeted him, "You ready for the match today?
He mumbled a faint "Yeah" in reply. He was still trying to think of a way to approach the subject of the spell that Ron had put on him. He had so many questions about it but couldn't possibly ask them all in the time before the match, so he decided to put it off until after the match.
"Something wrong? You don't seem your normal self," she asked.
"No. I suppose I'm just tired."
"Oh! Well in that case, we'd better go down to breakfast. You can't overlook breakfast on a day like this! It's supposed to be nippy out today." Hermione advised.
Harry agreed and they went down to the Great Hall. There, they were surprised to see Ron sitting at the Gryffindor table, alone for no one else had gone down to breakfast it was so early.
"RON!" they both exclaimed, "We expected you were still in bed! I mean, you're not exactly an early bird and we didn't see you come down! Why you up so early?"
Ron looked really tired.
"Well, to explain why you didn't see me walk down to breakfast, I didn't go to bed last night. Three teachers gave me detention and I don't know why. "
Harry knew why, and he knew Hermione did too. She shot a look at Harry; a look so dangerous that he was afraid she'd make him cough up frogs if he said anything about the spell.
"Oh, –oh really?" Harry sputtered. He didn't like keeping this from Ron. Especially when the teachers had given him detention for it. He didn't even know that they knew!
"Hermione, could I have a word with you for a moment please?" he asked. "We won't be long!" he added, seeing the disappointed look on Ron's face.
The two of them ran out of the Great Hall and across to the nearest, vacant classroom.
"No Harry! We can't tell him!" Hermione began. It was no surprise to Harry that she already knew what it was about.
"And why not? He's being punished for it and he doesn't know it! Why shouldn't we tell him? You seem as though it will kill him or something! " Harry argued.
"That's just it! It WILL kill him." Hermione shot back shortly.
"Wh–What?" Harry was befuddled by this last comment. How could telling your friend why he was being punished kill him?
"I looked up the spell. The spell is called Melior Ustulo. It has dangerous side affects, one of them being that you can't tell the person that you know that they casted it or the spell will find him, and creep into his body, ever so slowly destroying his spirit. It's like a dragged out form of the dementor's kiss."
Harry shuddered at the mention of dementors. Those awful, dreaded creatures that had taken to the dark side in the past year or so had a disliking for him. Not that they liked anybody.
"Is there some sort of a loop-hole we can find to be able to tell him that we know?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not. All we can do is let him go through with the punishments. As severe as they may be and as cranky and irritable as he may get."
"Even still. How can they, and you, be sure what the spell is if you can't ask him to make sure?" Harry asked, a more than a little confused.
Hermione thought on this for a while as if wondering how much to tell Harry.
"Well," she said finally, "everything adds up. First, we, meaning the teachers and I, have seen Ron muttering Melior Ustulo under his breath. Second, we have all made significant improvement in all subjects. Even me! And third Dumbledore said –" she stopped suddenly. She had a scared look on her face as if she had told Harry too much.
"We'd better get back to Ron. He'll be anxious by now," she said.
Harry was quite annoyed at her abrupt halt in the middle of what seemed to be a very important comment. But he knew he would never get it out of her. He would have to find some way to find out himself. Hermione was right. Everything did add up and that was what was scary. Ron was never a great student; in fact, he just barely passed three subjects last year. But Harry wondered what his motivation would be to cast the spell on all three of them. Hermione's voice broke his train of thought. "Harry? Are you ok? You look pale." Then, to Hermione's horror, he passed out on the floor.
Author's Note: Again, I apologize for the horrendous grammatical and character issues. I promise they will be sorted out somewhere around chapter five or six. (Right now, I've broken what I have written down into about six chapters. But I guess I have somewhere around nine or ten chapters worth of writing done.)
Also, any reviews would be appreciated.
I have also started another fan fic piece. It will be a slash Draco/Harry pairing. I have finished chapter one but will NOT however post this one until I am completely finished with it! I've learned my lesson about posting as I write from WoT! The first place you will hear about anything from fics - anything else HP related is my livejournal. My username is pianogenius. I unfortunately could not post a link here. Thanks for your interest, and please leave a review! Brendan