Harry could tell that his hair had grown back to be just about the same length as it had been before just by feeling how Hermione's fingers carded through it. He watched her face as she watched him, fascinated, as he finished growing his hair. Usually, he had a mirror for such things but he didn't even feel like he needed one right now; in her eyes and playing across her face, he could see a reflection of himself as clear as any mirror. Of course, he always looked much better reflected through Hermione's eyes than he ever could through any old piece of glass.
Her hand had paused now that his hair was grown out and he could feel it cupping the back of his neck, her fingers curling ever so slightly to twirl some hair at the base of his neck.
"Was that a locking charm I heard you cast?" Hermione whispered with a sly smile.
Harry felt a smirk play on his mouth and turned his head to place a lingering kiss on the inside of her arm for an answer.
"I'll take that as a yes," she said as she pulled him closer, away from the edge of the desk on which he leaned.
"Do you, oh daughter of dentists, happen to know a handy breath freshening charm, perchance?" he asked, thinking that after his little presentation in Potions class, he really ought to refrain from kissing anyone just yet.
Hermione smugly pulled her wand from her sleeve and, after Harry obligingly opened his mouth, he felt the tingle of her charm accompanied by the strong smell of mint.
"Thank you," he said formally with a nod.
Hermione eyed him with a raised eyebrow as she stowed away her wand. Harry just grinned disarmingly back at her before promptly reaching out with his hands and pulling her towards him roughly. His hands then slid between the opening in the front of her robes and found their way to the familiar swell of her hips as he held her against him while his nose pushed pack hair from her neck so his lips could then latch onto to her neck, just below her ear. Kissing and tasting, he felt her react by arching into him while her hands fisted into his hair.
"It's been too long," he breathed out into her ear before starting a line of kisses all along her jaw that lead to her mouth. Hungrily, she opened her mouth at once and clutched his head in her hands as her tongue sought out Harry's and, stroking it, drew it into her mouth.
As Harry kissed her, with his tongue invading and mapping every inch of her mouth in an effort to reassure him it was still the same mouth he always dreamed of kissing each night when he fell asleep, alone, in his Gryffindor four-poster, his hands began to tug up on the blouse that was tucked into the back of her skirt. He needed to feel her; to feel her skin sliding beneath his hands.
Finally, he got her shirt untucked and his hands quickly slid up and over the smooth skin of her back as he pressed her even closer against himself. He ached for his body to feel hers and hastily turned them around and pushed her back so she was the one now leaning back onto the desk.
All things infuriating such as potions, Snape and Malfoy were wiped from Harry's mind as he could only just manage to think clearly enough to estimate how much time they'd have before Hermione was due to rush off to her afternoon class. And even that thought was quickly being pushed aside as Harry's baser instincts rose up to fuel a desperate desire to feel every inch of Hermione right here and right now.
Breathless, he pulled back and leaned his forehead against Hermione's as they both panted for air. "I need you," he rasped out as his hands undid the clasp of her robes and then drew open the collar of her shirt. With a fleeting nip at her lips, he then dove down and kissed her neck in the hollow of her throat as his hands grasped her thighs and then slid their way up; as he tugged her forward, was now perfectly positioned for him to achingly press himself against her.
This was what Harry needed; to feel himself spiralling upwards with bliss as, just for a little while, he left the rest of the world and all its problems behind back on the ground.
Somehow, over the sound of lips on skin and clothing sliding against clothing, Harry's brain vaguely registered a click.
Just as Harry's hands reached all the way back, beneath her skirt, so he could cup her arse and then press her more tightly against him and as he began to consider just exactly how one might go about having sex with only a desk for support, until...a certain sneering voice cut into the heated sounds of kissing.
"Potter!" Snape barked out like a slash of ice-cold water, making Harry and Hermione each gasp and jump apart with shock. Snape then quickly advanced towards them from a side door neither had noticed (nor locked). The gleam in his eye was enough to tell Harry that getting caught snogging in a dungeon classroom by Snape was sure to mean more than just a mere loss of points.
Indeed, Snape paused about just a meter away from both of them and, with a snarl, spat at Hermione, "Scandalous!! A Prefect being caught in a lurid and wanton display in the middle of a classroom. And you, Potter!"
Snape now turned his disgusted leer on Harry.
"I'd be lying if I said I was shocked. But I am revolted at your attempt to disgrace and besmirch my dungeons with your tenacious and ubiquitous hormonal urges. Fifty points from Gryffindor for each of you for misuse of a classroom," he intoned with spiteful rage.
Harry heard Hermione breath out in relief; she must have been expected more in the way of punishment, he thought.
"And detention for the both of you," Snape then added smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Separate detentions. For a week."
Harry was livid as he and Hermione hurried to catch the end of lunch in the Great Hall. Snape had ordered Hermione to serve her detentions starting this weekend for a week and then, after she was done, Harry would serve his the next week. Two weeks without being able to see each other almost at all in the evenings! Hermione was most upset over the fact that there was no way these detentions would go unnoticed by Professor McGonagall and that seven nights in detention would seriously cut into her revision schedule.
"Where've you been?" Ron asked as Harry sullenly dropped down on the bench and reached for a plate.
"Getting detention," Harry growled.
"Detentions," Hermione corrected him in just as much a sour mood as Harry.
"Why?" Ron exclaimed. "What'd you do?"
Harry opened his mouth and then shut it. He looked at Hermione and then at Ron. "Nothing. Snape--he," Harry scowled, "he caught us...kissing. It just looked bad because we were in a classroom all alone. Which—I might add—was because Malfoy, the bloody bastard, hexed me in the middle of the hallway coming out of class! We just ducked in there to reverse the hex!" He shook his head disgustedly.
"You know," Hermione said crossly, "I didn't even take points away from Malfoy for that stunt!"
She made a noise of frustration and then began wrapping a sandwich in a napkin as Ron stared at her in disbelief. "What?" he squawked. "That's like the entire point of being a prefect—to be able to punish Malfoy!! How could you forget?!"
Hermione huffed. "Well excuse me! I was a bit more worried about Harry being hexed!"
"Do it now!" Ron urged.
"Honestly, Ron!" Hermione said as she rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "You were a prefect for a whole year, you know perfectly well—at least you should—that points may only be deducted at the time of the infraction."
Ron gave Harry an exasperated look as Hermione stood then and announced she had to be off to her afternoon class. But before she left, she gave a challenging look up at the head table where Snape was now smugly sitting, and then leaned over to kiss Harry soundly on the mouth.
Ron, looking a bit green after this display couldn't manage eye contact with Harry after that and finished off his lunch in relative silence before heading off to Herbology. Harry, in his own sour mood, couldn't say he was too sorry to not have to pay attention to any witless banter and was quite content to brood mutely as he did his best to ignore the usual curious stares and ceaseless gossiping. He picked at his plate until well past the lunch hour and then trudged off to the library where he was now spending his private study time until he finished the assignment from Professor Dumbledore. With any luck, Harry planned to have it finished by the end of the week and begin practical lessons in Blood Alchemy on Sunday.
In the library, Harry found a small vacant table in the back, just off to the side of the restricted section and far away from peering eyes, and settled in. He pulled out the first of three scrolls of parchment that he'd already written and skimmed over his opening paragraphs describing the art of alchemy as 'the artful transfer of magical properties through the novel use of wizardry'. It then went on to describe the two complementary fields of applied alchemy: alchemical fusion and diffusion. Fusion was the creative combination of magical properties to achieve a new and unique source of magical essence while diffusion was the manipulative application of the created source to effect wizardry. At first, these two concepts had seemed very obtuse and Harry had understood little difference between them. But then, he'd begun to find records of disaster after disaster where a wizard, who'd create a most brilliant and awesome combination of the most magically powerful elements, would then meet an untimely and often spectacular death upon attempting to harness or use that power for themselves.
Some disasters were such as the legend of King Midas who demanded a Greek sorcerer grant him the ability to transfigure anything into gold with a single touch. The King had soon irreversibly petrified all those dear to him after merely laying a hand on them and he eventually starved to death as he could never touch food nor drink without it transforming into gold. Other disasters were more along the lines of wizards who tried to create multiple-cored wands but, when they would try to use them, the power was so much and so unstable that it created a backlash that often destroyed entire stone castles and all those in the near vicinity. It didn't take long for Harry to see that almost every alchemist listed in any history book, even many who were noted as successful and respected, had met their own death at the hand of an experiment gone awry. Clearly, many has been successful is manipulating magic but very few had ever mastered its applied use.
It was enough to make Harry pause more than a few times and wonder if this was the wisest course of study. To him, it sounded much more like a field suited for someone as brilliant and clever as Hermione. Then again, he reckoned he was virtually immortal for now by way of the prophecy stating that either he or Voldemort could only die at the hand of the other. According to that logic, he was immune from being killed by some bizarre and random alchemical explosion. At least for now.
It was also clear to Harry that this was the sort of magic that Voldemort had surely tried to master and was likely still trying to master. Voldemort was the epitome of the wizard seeking the ultimate in power and glory and this fact made Harry determined to at least learn the theory of this magic. Hadn't Moody always told him to study his opponent? Didn't he always say that the more you knew about an opponent, the easier it was to try to predict their moves?
So Harry was resolute and continued to pore over the research for his essay as a means to both flee his restlessness and as a means to avoid the ever-attentive eyes of nearly the entire student body (and quite a few of the teachers, too).
Perhaps the most recent gossip, spurred on by the revelation of his involvement in the prophecy, was making Harry a bit paranoid. Or perhaps it was just his discomfort at not hearing much news from Voldemort or his followers in the past week and half, but Harry felt an increasing need to push himself beyond anyone's expectations. More than anyone, Harry felt Dumbledore watching him now and more than anyone, it was Dumbledore's expectations that Harry wanted to exceed.
Occasionally, when Harry was working in the library, Dumbledore would stop and rest a hand on his shoulder, checking over his work and the books he'd pulled out to reference. On these occasions, Harry sensed both a heartening sense of pride from the headmaster and a sense of concern. It was Harry's guess that Dumbledore likely feared for Harry's safety if he should ever get the urge to apply the powers of alchemy for his own gain but Harry knew this wasn't his aim; he was simply seeking to know his opponent. He was simply trying to prepare.
That Friday morning, after two gruelling nights of scrubbing cauldrons for Snape in detentions, Hermione told Harry with a defiant glint in her eye, "I most certainly am not going to any detention this evening!"
Harry had just received a letter, delivered by Hedwig, from Professor Dumbledore with a note that simply read: 'Meet this evening after dinner in the antechamber' in Dumbledore's familiar flowing script.
Harry looked dubiously at Hermione. "Did Snape tell you that you had detention tonight?"
Hermione sniffed and, while watching Hedwig nip at Harry's finger until he dropped his toast, said, "Well yes, but that was last night. He likely forgot we might have a meeting tonight or just thought it might be postponed again if the others couldn't make it."
Harry looked at her uncertainly; he knew if it was him planning to effectually skive off a detention with Snape that Hermione would be all over him to think twice and that Snape would likely try to retaliate by launching some new campaign to have Harry expelled.
Hermione looked up loftily as Hedwig flapped her wings and flew away "Don't even say it, Harry--I'm not going to go near that man for any reason if I don't have to! He's insufferable!" This of course only made Harry smirk knowingly. "All he does is loom over you in detention!" she went on. "He can't help but make some derisive comment every other minute and then stare at you with that maddening, knowing look. It's driving me batty and he knows very well that the Order is more important than any silly, sadistic punishment he's decided to impose!"
She gave Harry a challenging look and he just raised his hands in surrender.
"Look," he said, "you don't have to justify Snape being a bastard to me." As it was, Harry cursed Snape each night as he stiffly crawled into bed alone and as yet another day had passed with no chances to get Hermione alone and finally finish what had been so rudely interrupted.
By the time dinner rolled around that evening, Hermione was no less resolute and she seemed to almost take a perverse pride in her obvious and reckless defiance of authority. Even Harry was impressed with her brash rebellion and pure loathing of Snape.
"Maybe you could have just told McGonagall about it and had her make Snape reschedule it," Harry said as they walked out of the Great Hall, towards the antechamber. "What if he's waiting for you right now taking off ten points from Gryffindor for every minute you're late?" It felt down right unusual for Harry to be the one trying to talk rationally to Hermione.
"Unless he plans on being late to this meeting, he'll be here and not waiting down in his filthy dungeons," Hermione said as they entered the room. "Besides, if I'd have gone to McGonagall, she'd want to know why I got detention and likely would have wanted to have had some talk with me then on proper behavior and how I need to think about maintaining a good record to preserve my chance at Head Girl."
"Do I even need to ask about just what this 'improper behavior' was?" an amused voice said.
"Remus!" Harry greeted with a grin. "I wondered if you'd be able to make it tonight!"
Remus shrugged at said, "Are you kidding? This is a break from all I've been doing of late." To Hermione, he then said, "And your parents both send their regards. Although, I am afraid, I've barely seen much of either of them. I've been away more than home. But I know Tonks and Andy and both your parents are all getting on just fine."
Hermione forgot all about Snape and immediately questioned Remus, "How is your work with the WSS going?" Dumbledore had already told them that Remus was aiding the coordination of the volunteer support services he'd helped establish at St. Mungo's with the recently increased funding and scope of the Ministry's Werewolf Support Services department.
Remus sighed but gave her a tired smile. "It's been a long time coming." He looked down at the floor a moment and then said quietly but with evident pride, "They haven't yet repealed the legislation prohibiting the Ministry's employment of half-breeds yet but I've been hired on as a contract consultant."
"Oh, Remus!" Hermione exclaimed with a bright smile. "That's excellent!"
"Brilliant," Harry said, nodding as Hermione gave Remus an enthusiastic hug that made Remus look rather embarrassed.
"Oh, they will be repealing that legislature soon, won't they?" Hermione then asked in a way that made Harry sure she'd draft a letter to the Minister right then and there if the answer was no.
Remus nodded quietly again, with a bit of a shy grin playing at his mouth. "At least that's what I've been told. It's a law that's been in place an awful long time and so it will take more than a few weeks to get reversed."
Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore both entered then, followed closely by a heavily gimping Moody. Moody was never seen without his walking staff but, at times, seemed so nimble it appeared merely for show. Today however, Moody seemed to especially lean on the staff and to favor his lone good leg.
"Blasted Anti-Apparition Wards all over the place," he growled out with a bit of a wheeze.
"Ah," Dumbledore said with a smile then. "So they've been erected at the Ministry then? That is good to hear. I'm sure they are an inconvenience but, necessary nonetheless."
"Are they increasing protections around the Ministry then?" Hermione asked as they all moved over to be seated at the round table in the center of the room.
"Aye," Moody said as he dragged a chair towards him and propped his wooden leg up on it. "And none too soon, I tell you. I helped install a flock of a dozen owls to be used for identity confirmation just yesterday and we've already caught two wizards impersonating someone else under Polyjuice."
McGonagall gasped. "Were they both Death Eaters?"
"Nah," Moody shook his head dismissively. "One turned out to just be impersonating his mistress's husband—no clue where the real husband gone off to; and the other just seemed to have wanted to change from a Patrick to a Patricia. But all the same—ain't no one getting in there through those doors now who isn't who they seem to be."
Harry had to stifle a laugh at the notion of a man pretending to be a woman after he caught Remus rolling his eyes in amusement.
"And," Moody went on, "we installed Invisible Detectors at the entrances; they're made of magical glass that can see through any disguise. Like this," he said jabbing his thumb at his electric-blue magical eye.
"Excellent, excellent," Dumbledore said, sounding very pleased.
Harry had almost forgot then that they were still waiting for one more person to show up when the door banged open and Snape stood silhouetted in the open doorway. His eyes narrowed sharply as they fell upon Hermione and he then stalked into the room ominously.
"Severus!" Dumbledore greeted cheerfully. "Do have a seat," he invited, pulling out the chair beside himself.
Snape, however, was still staring down Hermione and working his jaw in an obvious effort to decided just what snarling remark to make. Harry decided it might to best to prevent Snape from ever making that decision and quickly turned to Moody and asked, "Did you get everything taken care of at the Burrow? Ginny said she'd gotten a letter from Bill saying he'd stopped by and that there were now loads changes at home."
Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye that Snape, though with a clenched jaw, did indeed seat himself beside Dumbledore and sit back impassively in his chair.
Moody leaned forward then after waving his wand at the door and securing it with an assortment of spells. "I did indeed get Molly and Arthur all squared away. It was easier than you'd think though."
"I ran into the twins in Diagon Alley the other day," Remus said. "They mentioned that they helped and were ready to launch a new line of home security products?'
Moody's face then twisted in a hideous grin that Harry now knew meant he was laughing. "And well they should! Seems, Molly and Arthur had tried to clear out the twin's room--you know, since Percy's wife is now living there and expecting a sprog. But every time anyone tried to move any bit of furniture, they found something blowing up or got hexed more times than they could count! When I arrived there, Molly was having a hell of a time countering a hex that had her hands swollen the size o' dustbin lids! Even Bill came round and was of no use in that room. So, Bill got those twins on the fire and ordered them over straight away and after I heard them talking about how they'd virtually jinxed every single thing in that room to hex anyone who dared enter or touch a thing, well then, I thought why not try and be original in how we ward that place!
"Remember--they already had a list of failed test products that they'd been working on making into some home alarm system so just I mixed in a bit of the usual while those two lads jinxed everything from the front door to the grass in the yard!" Moody then went on, describing how the twins had set up loads of selective jinxes and provisional hexes that would be tripped if anyone not cleared, even dared to step foot near the Burrow.
"So there's no sign of any rats?" Remus asked with a dark look.
Moody rapped his knuckles on the table as he said, "I saw nothing and I can tell you if one does try to come on back, he won't be hanging around for long. If he's not hexed six ways to Sunday then he'll be torn to bits by that pair of kneazels Albus had sent over there."
"Oh," McGonagall said with a prideful smile. "How do they like the place?" She turned to Hermione then and said, "I selected them especially--picked them for their cunning and remarkable intelligence!"
"Aye," Moody said as eyed McGonagall with his one good eye. "Last I saw them, they were kipping on a windowsill and stalking a ball of maroon woolly yarn. But...if you say so, they might be clever yet."
McGonagall gave Moody a towering glare but before she could go off on the cleverness of the feline species, Dumbledore said, "Alastor, I must thank you for taking care of the Weasleys. They've got each and every member of that family involved in one way or another, working along with us; it's too busy a household to not be protected against possible leaks and the Order owes them for their service."
Harry could swear he saw Remus give a kick under the table towards Snape at this and did then notice that Snape's mouth, which had opened for some remark, had then swiftly snapped shut as Dumbledore began a run down of old business.
Dumbledore was able to announce that the Ministry was arranging to host a generous number of foreign hit wizards, courtesy of the nations in the International Confederation of Wizards. "Amelia and most members of the Ministry are convinced the top priority right now is to both protect the wizarding world from the general threat of upheaval from Voldemort and the threat of exposure to the muggle world. Both rather constitute an international crisis but, for those nations not under imminent threat from Voldemort, they tend to view protection of our secrecy as the most critical concern," he said. "Which all translates over to two main things: we will soon have a vast increase in the number of wands at the ready should they be needed and the Dementors, who have been preying most on muggles and causing quite a few raised eyebrows, are becoming a focus of the Confederation."
This made Harry feel a tremendous swell of relief. With all the things building up upon his shoulders, the persistent destruction of the Dementors was one thing that just always seemed to weigh on his mind. It was a plague of the Wizarding World that had spread over and had begun to prey upon defenceless muggles for nearly a month and the Ministry let it go on without even an article in the Daily Prophet. Harry didn't have any bright ideas yet on how to eradicate the now-uncontrollable Dementors, but he knew that the failure of the Wizarding World to take responsibility for them was something of a disgrace on wizardkind.
"Will they be trying to destroy the Dementors finally?" Harry asked Dumbledore. Nothing short of Voldemort deciding to call off his whole bid to kill Harry would make him as happy as knowing the icy cold chill of Dementors would never haunt anyone ever again.
Dumbledore nodded, saying, "That would, of course, be ideal. In fact, I know an international task force has already been set up to try to do just this. Remember, ours is not the only nation that is plagued by Dementors. Ours is, however, one of the more densely populated areas for such a number of Dementors to inhabit. But alas, that is no one's fault but our own for we are the ones who fed our own condemned to these creatures to swell their ranks."
Moody gruffly said, "I've heard some talk of trying to negotiate with them and convince 'em to go back to Azkaban--any truth in that?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "None. It's impossible. Voldemort has already offered them free reign and the luxury of feeding at will. We would only be gambling on their loyalty when, it is plain to see, we have absolutely nothing to offer them. The deal that was struck years ago is haunting us now in that we have three times as many Dementors to deal with than we did when they first took over Azkaban. No," he shook his head again. "Until we can come up with a way to destroy them, we have no leverage against them, we must treat them as every bit the enemy."
This, despite being depressing, still left Harry feeling that at least something was being done about the Dementors.
"Well, that's cheerful," said Remus as he turned then to Moody. "I've been meaning to ask, is there any word on the whereabouts of the Longbottoms? I've not read or heard a single rumour about them."
Moody just waved and shook his grizzled head. "Nothing!" he grunted. "Kingsley's had to move it down to just a missing persons report. Doesn't have the wizards to spare to look into much more." Moody then leaned forward across the table and, his magical eye swivelling around at each of them, growled out, "In fact, there's been a right number of suspiciously missing persons being reported of late. Argh--maybe not so suspicious, as I can likely tell who's to blame but, they've sure all up and vanished without a trace. And there're more than half a dozen of them that all connect together--any guesses how?"
Harry and everyone around the table exchanged wary glances; Remus and McGonagall's face both betrayed that they each feared the missing were people they'd call friends.
Moody held out a gnarled hand and began to tick off one by one as he said, "Two Lestrange cousins, three women with a previous surname of Jugson, and the parents and brother of one Walden MacNair. Vanished. I had Tonks do a run of all the missing names for any immediate relation to any known Death Eaters--that's what she found."
Harry immediately asked, "Do you assume they've all now decided to become Death Eaters then? Have they gone into Voldemort's service?"
At which, Snape snorted derisively. "Of course not! I can safely say that the MacNairs would sooner slit their throats than bow to the Dark Lord. They're infamous for their attempts to try to get their son secured into St. Mungo's when he was younger and they feared he was too far into the Dark Arts. If they are, they certainly are not willing."
"Oh, I do remember that," McGonagall said with a nod. "He was just back for his fourth year and they came to the school--remember Albus? They said that before he'd left they believed he tortured and killed a slew of their neighbourhood puffskeins and that he'd also been seen with a suspicious number of horklump hides. They thought he was a bit deranged and wanted him to get professional help. But he was sent back from St. Mungo's after only a day and never another word was said on it."
"Mm," Snape said with narrowed eyes. "That's because Lucius Malfoy showed up and offered him a job if he could keep his nose clean long enough to get through school with marks high enough to enter the Ministry." He shook his head haughtily then, making his hair flap about limply, and said, "It sounds like they're going after blood relations of those imprisoned now and whose whereabouts are still a constant desire of the Dark Lord. Avery has two brothers and, if they're not doing time now as it is, you can likely find them at a certain pub in Knockturn Alley. In fact, if the rumours are correct, you'll also find a witch who works the bar and is likely due any day now with Dolohov's third or fourth illegitimate spawn." He looked at Moody, saying, "You might want to send Fletcher there as a pair of ears as he's likely the one who'd blend in--there're drunks a plenty in that hole."
"Perhaps Tonks could go in disguise?" Lupin said as he nicked a piece of parchment from Hermione and shoved it over to Snape. "Write down the name of that place."
As Snape took a quill from his robes and scratched out the name, he said, "I wouldn't send her. She's more clumsy than Weasley on a broomstick," and shot a sneer at Harry.
Harry of course immediately began to fantasize about knocking Snape about the head with the bristly end of his Firebolt.
"You know, Snape," Remus said with less than his usual civility. "I don't seem to recall you being too swift of a flier."
Harry watched as Snape's eyes glittered dangerously at Remus while Remus just smiled back wolfishly. On his other side, he heard McGonagall jab Moody, eliciting a grunt and a curse, before asking, "Tell me about those kneazels now! An old family neighbour of mine breeds them and I spotted those two out of a litter of nearly eight while visiting over the holidays as remarkably exceptional felines!"
While snarking ensued on either side of him, Harry leaned over and asked Hermione, "Is there anything we have to bring up here tonight?"
Hermione hazarded a glance over at Snape, who was sneering at Remus, and whispered back to Harry, "I don't think so, but I think Snape's a bit ticked at me so, er, you know, the quicker we could move this along, then the quicker we could maybe slip out of here?"
Harry looked at her and now saw that the defiance that had emanated from her earlier was now replaced by a nervous fear. This fear that now worried her features made him want to wrap her in his arms and make a litany of promises that he could never keep.
He reached over, picking up her hand in her lap and laced his fingers through hers beneath the table. Looking up to meet her eyes, the thought then occurred to Harry that if they could manage to get out of here soon, then maybe they could make a side trip to the Room of Requirement before heading back to the Common Room. He was now quite anxious to get this meeting over with.
He was a bit too busy trying to project his thoughts silently to Hermione so that he jumped when Dumbledore leaned over, twinkling, behind them and asked, "Are the both of your as ready to leave these two quarrels behind as I? I can't help but wonder if the elves might have any of that sumptuous trifle left from dinner."
Harry smiled at Dumbledore, so relieved for his timing that he could almost hug him.
"Oh, yes, Professor," Hermione said, nodding. "I was just mentioning to Harry how behind I am on my studies. I'm nearly three days behind on my schedule--"
"Which means you're still at least four days ahead of everyone else," Harry interrupted with a smirk as they rose from the table, Hermione gathering her things.
McGonagall and Moody had both risen then as Moody continued to protest that he'd not noticed anything remarkable at all about the Kneazels he'd delivered to the Weasleys. As Hermione ticked off courses she needed to do homework for, Harry was pleased to see that Remus was still engaging Snape in a battle of one-liners that seemed to be causing Snape to reach new levels of sneering. But before Harry and Hermione could make it to the door, Remus threw his hands up in disgust at Snape and walked away from him, over towards Harry.
"Harry," Remus called out as he walked over. As he neared, he leaned in and said, "Help a guy out there--don't leave me trying to deal with Snape all alone."
"Me?" Harry squeaked. "Don't look at me--you can say whatever you like but if I tell him what I think then it's points lost and a date with detention."
"Speaking of detentions..." Snape then said silkily from just behind Harry. "Miss Granger, unless I am very much mistaken—and let there be no doubt that I believe any such thing—I do believe you were given a detention for every evening this week? Did I not specify just last night that you were expected back this very night after dinner?"
Snape's voice filled with almost false cheer reminded Harry quite unpleasantly of a mixture between the normal sarcastically sneering Snape and the former Professor Umbridge. Harry shuddered at the combined image.
"Detention? Miss Granger?" McGonagall said shrilly as her head whipped around from Moody to Snape to Hermione. "What for?"
Hermione, Harry could see, was turning a heated shade of red and she looked like she wanted to both yell and hide behind him at the same time.
"What is this, Severus?" Dumbledore asked as he peered down over his half-moon glasses at Snape.
"Detention, Headmaster. Miss Granger had earned herself a week's worth of detentions and, by all rights, is due to have been serving one for the past hour right now, however, it seems she saw fit to disregard her punishment completely which was given after I found—"
"Excuse me, Professor Snape," Hermione then announced tersely. "Was it really your plan to loom over me for another night while I did the most disgusting task you could find while an Inner Council meeting was occurring? Did you not plan on attending here tonight?"
Snape sneered and said, "For your information, Mister Filch had arranged for your services this evening and unlike you, I am quite positive meetings can and do occur without requiring my presence." He then affected a smug look and said, "I think I shall bring this matter to your Head of House." Turning to McGonagall with a great show, he said, "Professor McGonagall, you have a student who is now truant for a detention."
Blustering, McGonagall asked, "And why was this detention—detentions—assigned in the first place?"
Snape smiled tightly then and, talking loudly to shout over Hermione's hurried and glossed-over account of the event, announced, "Because I found her and Potter in a rather compromising position that involved Potter's hands up her skirt and her splayed out on a desk in the middle of a classroom!"
Harry's head was suddenly smacked then by both of his palms as they sought to shield his eyes from the horrific sight that was McGonagall's face at this announcement.
With the sole attention of the room, Snape continued triumphantly, "You can expect Potter to be serving a week's worth of detentions as soon as Granger sees fit to finish serving hers! It appeared that they only locked one door to the room and failed to completely account for all the entrances including, most unfortunately for them, the one that I happened to use. As for me, I don't care what goes on in the rest of this castle but my classrooms are not meant to be a frotting ground for randy Gryffindors!"
Harry heard Remus sigh commiseratingly beside him before Moody barked out, "Potter! You failed to sweep and clear all entrances to a room?! What's rule number one? CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
McGonagall was now questioning Hermione on the validity of Snape's claims. Harry heard Hermione answer something by saying, "Professor, no! We were fully clothed!" and he couldn't help but wince. Clearly, it would be less painful to listen to Moody who was still extolling the dangers of failing to be aware of one's surroundings.
"Always check for every entrance!" he was growling out now as he banged his staff down upon the floor in emphasis.
Harry groaned inwardly at the cacophony of voices again shouting across the room in various directions. McGonagall was now saying, "Miss Granger, I am disappointed—I might expect behavior like this from Mister Potter but not—"
"What?" Harry interrupted sharply at this comment. "What is that supposed to mean!?" he demanded, turning to look incredulously at his Head of House.
"Well, I just mean," she began to explain as Hermione then shouted over at Snape, "You know we would never have even had to go into a classroom and lock the door if one of your students hadn't hit Harry with a hex in the middle of the corridor!"
This announcement both effectively turned McGonagall's attention back to arguing with Snape and Moody's attention back to berating Harry.
"Whaddya mean someone hit Potter with a hex?!" he bellowed stomped closer, training both eyes on Harry. "Potter! What--? How--? Who managed to hit you with a hex?" he demanded at the same time that Snape sniffingly said, "This is the first I've heard of any Slytherins using magic in the corridors. Just what spell did they use?"
Harry felt like he was caught up in a vortex of shouting and questions and closed his eyes at all the noise.
"Harry," Remus said with a nudge at his elbow. "What was the hex and who did it?"
Harry looked at Remus and heard Snape, McGonagall and Moody each fall silent in wait for the answer. Dumbledore merely looked amused (and hungry) as he curled one end of his silver mustache around a long finger.
"Malfoy," Harry said dully. He certainly wasn't proud that Malfoy, of all people, had managed to hit him with some random spell as they were wandering out of class one day and Harry really just wished that they could move on; any topic, anything other than this would be preferable. "It was nothing—he got me from behind with a stray Shearing Hex. Obviously that's one spell I can counter no problem. Hermione just made sure to drag me into a classroom alone where no one would see me using my morphing skills to reverse it. Nothing major--but he did use magic in the corridors--which totally is nothing new for him."
"Where did it hit?" McGonagall asked then.
Harry ran a hand through his hair and said, "Where else? My head."
He was about to go on and say it was no big deal and attempt to change the subject, perhaps to something more cheery like Dementors, when he suddenly felt the silence tense up. It was the look on Dumbledore's face that made Harry pause the most though; Dumbledore now pinched the side of his glasses with his forefinger and thumb as he drew them down his nose and looked solemnly at Harry.
"Do you mean to say, Harry, that you lost all the hair on your head in the middle of a busy corridor?"
Harry swallowed thickly, knowing there was something he wasn't thinking of; the sudden capture of Dumbledore's complete attention and the open-mouthed look from Snape were screaming at him.
"Er, yes?"
"How...unbelievably stupid..." he heard Snape mutter with a dramatic roll of his eyes.
Dumbledore quelled Snape with a look and stepped closer towards Harry as he asked, "Where did it all go? The hair that was sheared off, Harry--where did it go?"
Harry opened his mouth to answer, thinking, the floor, but then snapped it shut. Where did it all go? If the dungeon corridor hadn't been littered with locks of untidy, jet-black hair when he and Hermione left, then where was it all now? Then again, they were both so irate after loosing a hundred points from Gryffindor and earning their detentions that they perhaps would never have even noticed.
"It was gone," Hermione answered beside him as Moody growled a string of expletives. "When we came back out into the corridor, I remember thinking that I ought to clear it away but it had already been done." She looked at Harry then as she bit down, worrying her lower lip. "Maybe someone else cleared it away? Maybe Neville? Or Padma--they're both prefects--they know we're supposed to help keep the corridors clean. Maybe--"
"Maybe," Snape burst in with contempt, "both you and Potter failed to recall my many lectures on the importance of not leaving potential potions ingredients lying around! Maybe-- it's now in the hands of someone planning on brewing any one of the hundreds of potions that could result in--"
"Severus," Dumbledore said with a claming gesture; he then took a deep breath himself.
"But, sir," Snape pressed on. "I've told all the students numerous--" Dumbledore rose a hand, stopping Snape from speaking further a second time.
Moody, however, could still be heard listing off a litany of potions that could use a pinch of Harry Potter hair. "...Fuzby's Fungal Tonic uses hair, Selective Sleeping Draughts, Poly--BLOODY HELL!! Polyjuice is one!!" he said, shouting out.
"Oh, hell," Harry heard Remus mutter as McGonagall turned away, hiding whatever it was she'd muttered.
Nodding, Dumbledore then calmly and resolutely said, "What is done is done. It's two days gone by now."
Moody then banged his staff upon the ground sharply and turned to Snape, saying, "You got your stores of boomslang locked up?!" He took Snape's highly affronted look as confirmation and then asked, "Do you have an accounting for it all? Have you checked it? Do you check it regularly?"
"Of course!"
"Daily?" Moody persisted.
"Don't be mad!"
Moody laughed. "I am mad, Snape, and you know it! Now lead me down to your stores! I want to check them over!"
"I--I," Snape blustered. "I will not! Not--," he looked from Moody to Dumbledore and then back to Moody. "You can't be seen traipsing down the corridors with me and just waltzing into the dungeons!!"
Moody, who was eyeing Snape beadily, then pointed the head of his staff at him and quickly corrected him by saying, "You're wrong about that, Snape. I'm back on payroll now and I've had my Auror's privilege reinstated to full by the Minister for Magic herself! If I want to demand to inspect the stores of a Ministry-controlled substance then I surely can! And," he said as he took a step closer to Snape, "I think it would look odd if no one at all ever showed up to inspect you--so...I'll ask again--"
"Perhaps," Dumbledore then said. "The three of us can go together to inspect the stores." Snape whipped his head around then and looked sharply at Dumbledore who was looking steadily back at him. "I think the Potions master's private stores would the first place from which most students would attempt to procure controlled ingredients and it would be wise to look it over after we are done here."
He turned then to Harry whose mind was buzzing with many thoughts, not the least of which were questions like, why on earth would anyone ever want to turn into me--even for an hour? Don't they realize there're nutters everywhere who want to kill me? How stupid would you have to be to go around looking like Harry Potter?
"That was really stupid, wasn't it?" Harry said, making Snape snort at once. It was, he thought bitterly to himself.
Moody, just growled, "It certainly wasn't vigilant, Potter, but I've seen worse by those wiser than you."
"What's done is done," Dumbledore repeated.
Remus then turned to Snape and asked, "Aren't you still monitoring a number of the students in your House? Didn't the twins set you up with some Ears and Eyes? You must be able to know if someone's got plans--"
"And tell me, Lupin," Snape cut in. "Just why must you immediately assume it's one of my students?"
"Oh, come on!" Remus said incredulously. "You know damn well they're more likely than anyone else! And Harry told me he overheard Malfoy and some friends talking before Christmas about getting illegal potions ingredients--did you even look into that? Haevn't you been watching them at all?"
Snape, who Harry thought had to be reaching his limits with everyone bickering with him tonight, shouted back at Remus, "Oh of course, Lupin! I have time to teach six grades of Defense, two courses of NEWT level Potions, oversee and counsel all the students in my House whom no one else ever seems to care about, report to the headmaster, serve the Dark Lord, and keep a twenty-four hour surveillance over any Slytherin or student who would like to plan a prank on the most pompous Potter of all! Perhaps I should ask the house-elves if they need a volunteer! I'M SIMPLY SWIMMING IN FREE TIME!!!"
"All right!" Dumbledore then said, raising his voice and holding up his hands to quiet everyone this time. "This is getting us nowhere. If we're done here, Alastor and myself will accompany you, Severus, to inspect the stores. Minerva, you can arrange for Hermione to make up tonight's missed detention and--as to next week--let us now plan for Harry to be free for our meeting lest we repeat this debate again. Remus, tell Mundungus to keep an ear out and possibly send out a contact to ask around for black-market ingredients. Harry--from now on, be sure to only accept food or drink from Dobby and Dobby alone. I will visit him tonight and instruct him to be sure the food sent up to your seat at meals, is prepared only by him. There are precautions you can take to make sure no can slip you anything that might now be personalized to only affect you and it would be wise to take those precautions. Any questions?"
Harry could think of none and meekly shook his head. As Snape, Moody and Dumbledore then left and Hermione discussed her detention with McGonagall, Remus asked Harry, "Are you all right?"
Harry shrugged. "I guess." What could he say? "I feel a bit stupid now. I didn't even think."
"Don't get down on yourself," Remus said with a stern look. "This could be nothing. Someone might merely want to play a prank on you and turn your hair Slytherin green for your next Quidditch match. You can't be sure--but you can be prepared. You know now to watch out. I'm sure Moody or Hermione could give you a list of every single possible use for human hair--it'd...well, it would be wise to think them over."
"But, still," Harry said scowling. "Snape was right, it was stupid--"
"Harry," Lupin said firmly and with a bit of a wince. "Trust me when I say two things: one--you're not stupid and two--both your father and Sirius are likely rolling over in their graves at hearing you suggest Snape was ever right. But, well, he sometimes is. Just...well, not if he's calling you stupid. Okay?"
Harry nodded and bid Remus good bye and, after Hermione left to go serve the rest of her detention with McGonagall, he trudged back towards Gryffindor Tower alone, thinking, never a dull moment with me around. Way to go, Potter.
"You really ought to get revenge on that ferret," Ron said disgustedly to Harry as they made their way out to the pitch for practice. "He's a menace."
Harry, who had indeed been entertaining the idea of introducing Malfoy to some of the twins' more unstable concoctions, mused, "The problem with someone like Malfoy is that he's such a git as is, what can I possibly do to him to make it worse?"
Ron gaped. "Hello!! Try a hex! Any hex! Some feelers sprouting from his head is a good start!"
Harry shook his head. "Too unoriginal."
"Could slip him some Puking Pastilles?"
"Too juvenile."
"Vanish his robes as he's walking about the Great Hall?" Katie Bell then suggested as she caught up to them, her broom slung over her shoulder.
Ron stopped then and nodded with a look of misty-eyed awe. "Yes!" he said emphatically to Harry. To Katie, he then said, "That's so brilliant!" He clapped his hands twice and then almost bounced up and down. "What else, what else?" he demanded gleefully
"Well," she said, looking quite scheming. "Maybe you could then hit him with a Bristol Charm."
"A what?" Harry and Ron chorused.
"Bristols," she said, rolling her eyes at them. "You know--," she then pressed her palms against her chest as she mouthed, "breasts?"
Ron's Cleansweap then whacked Harry soundly in the back of his head as as Ron promptly tripped over his own feet and tumbled in a heap to the snow-covered ground. "Erm, er, um...." Ron stammered as Harry grimaced and rubbed the smarting welt on his head. "Sorry...I, er lost control there of my broom..."
"Maybe not, Katie," Harry said scowling down at the red-faced Ron. "I'd hate to see what Ron'd lose control of if he ever saw--"
"Hurry up!" Ginny yelled from the air then. "The rest of us have been down here for ten minutes already! What happened to Ron?" she asked as she flew lower.
"Nothing!" Ron shouted as he hastily stood up and brushed off the snow from his Quidditch robes. "We're coming!"
Harry watched Katie then mount her broom and fly up to join Ginny in the air and then both head on over to the pitch. Turning, he saw Ron scowl as he commanded his broom up.
"You like her?" he asked Ron with a sly grin.
Ron then whipped his head around so fast to look at Harry that his Cleansweep sprang upright and smacked him right in the face. "Fuck!" Ron swore.
"That's not an answer, mate," Harry said, still grinning. "An ambition, perhaps, but not an answer. Do you like her then?" He had a sneaking suspicion that Ron did.
"I--I never said--why would you--no--I--" Ron protested at once.
But Harry's grin just got bigger as they started to walk again towards the pitch. "Really? You sure you don't want to see her br--"
"Harry!" Ron said in a high, panicked voice that made Harry break into laughter. "It's not funny, Harry!" Ron said. "You--you can't--"
"Ron," Harry said, trying to speak through his chuckles. "Just admit it. Besides, I think she likes you, too."
"No! And don't say things like--wait--what?"
Harry grinned triumphantly now. "Ask her out."
"No!"
"Yes."
"No!"
"Come on."
"Harry--no!"
"Why not?"
"Because--hey--what happened to planning revenge on Malfoy?" Ron demanded as they reached the pitch.
Harry shrugged. "Forget it, you like Katie." He grinned merrily as Ron's face flushed at this statement.
"Hey, Harry!" Katie then called, making Ron burn an even more brilliant red. "Let the Bludgers loose!"
As Harry went to unlatch the Bludgers from their case, he looked over at Ron. "I'll make a deal with you," he said as one black Bludger and then the other whizzed up and away. "If you get Katie to go out with you, then we'll plan revenge on Malfoy."
Ron looked dumbfounded at this proposition.
"Think about it, Ron. If you don't do it, Malfoy walks off without a single hex." Harry knew this was just about the only thing that might motivate Ron to do anything as bold as to ask Katie out. "Deal?"
Ron continued to stare, open-mouthed, at Harry for almost a full minute before finally snapping his jaw closed, cocking his head to the side and asking uncertainly, "Will you turn him into a ferret?"
Harry grinned. It was a detention from McGonagall if she caught him ever using her lessons about transfiguring human into animals on any student like a certain Slytherin, but, Harry figured this just might be worth it. "Three weeks until the next Hogsmeade. You ask her out by then and I'll turn him into a ferret and bounce him."
Ron, grinning widely, nodded and shook Harry's hand. "Deal."
REMINDER: You can find chapter files, a discussion forum, and other dedicated and outrageously Potter-obsessed readers at my Yahoo group for this fic. There is a link on my bio page to the group. The Yahoo group name is: HPAoF. Cheers!