Courage
A co-written fanfiction by the members of Fawkes Ashes the Harry Potter forum.
This story is written at the boards by members adding a post of a paragraph or few lines to the story and continuing it.
As the story is made up from lots of posts from different people it might have a rather eclectic style, we have beta-ed it and tried to make it flow as smoothly as possible.
H t t p : f a w k e s a s h e s . p r o b o a r d s 2 3 . c o m /
Chapter number two is here! Thanks very much for the reviews, they are much appreciated! Hope you enjoy this new chapter.
Hello and thanks to the contributors to this chapter?Me, Pegasus, Tennisplaya, and Lunar Eclipse.
A big hello to everyone else at FA. Lots of love!
Enjoy?
Courage : Chapter 2.
Hermione and Ron ate in silence for a few more minutes. Ron shovelled sausage into his mouth as Hermione slathered butter onto her crumpets, her gaze swept the Slytherin table, returning briefly to Malfoy and Blaise, before she searched for more familiar faces.
"Hey, there's Ginny," she said, surprised, when the distinctive red head was spotted at the Ravenclaw table. "And Luna," she added, seeing the dirty blonde hair nodding furiously at something Ginny had just said. Beside her, Ron choked on his mouthful of scrambled egg.
"What's Ginny doing with Loony Lovegood?" he asked furiously when he'd cleared his throat. "Next thing, she'll be wearing vegetable earrings and talking about Tri-toed Womplesnacks or whatever Loony's latest craze is!"
"There's nothing wrong with Luna," said Hermione the pacifist, ignoring her own misgivings. "She's just a little eccentric."
"She's not a little eccentric," informed Ron in a loud voice. "She's stark raving mad."
Hermione glanced sideways at him, he looked as agitated as Harry had done moments before. As he caught her stare he grew steadily redder, till he was an alarming beetroot colour.
"Uhm..." Hermione began delicately, "Shall we go and find Harry?" She suggested. Ron nodded, and grabbed a muffin to take with him. Hermione and he got up and began moving across the hall.
"Oi! Mione!"
Hermione span and saw Ginny waving at her from the Ravenclaw table, she took a step towards her, then glanced back at Ron questioningly as he stood stock still. He started and followed her meekly over.
"Alright?" Hermione said, grinning at Ginny and smiling at Luna who returned the smile, if a little vaguely.
"Yep, I was just wondering whether I could borrow your potions notes from last year? I've got a huge project to complete." Ginny asked, a hint of a wheedle in her voice.
Hermione gave a mock sigh then smiled, "Course. I'll get them later."
"Thanks," Ginny said gratefully. "C'mon Luna, we've got Herbology, move it!" She added, nudging Luna who was staring openly at Ron, whose ears looked like they were going to burst into fire by the shade of red they had turned.
"Good morning Ronald," Luna said in her dreamy voice. Her earrings, two large silver bells, tinkled as she nodded her head and pushed past after Ginny. Ron shuffled his feet, ignoring Hermione's knowing stare.
"What?" he snapped finally.
"Nothing," smirked Hermione, then added in an undertone. "Ron's Courage list, number one: ask Luna Lovegood out."
"What?!" Ron's face was bright red. "No way! We've got to go and fetch Harry, there's no time for messing around or we'll be late," he added hastily. "Come on!"
"Ron Weasley, worried about being late?" Hermione teased, "I never thought I'd see the day."
Ron shot her a glare, and stomped out of the hall. Hermione grinned and followed him, they'd only moved a few metres across the Entrance Hall when Harry dropped into step beside them.
"Get your homework?" Hermione asked him innocently.
"No - what? I mean - yes!" Harry stuttered, glancing guiltily at her.
Hermione caught a flash of something in his green eyes, but he'd looked away before she could decipher it. Frowning, she dropped back a step and followed him and Ron as the descended into the grounds and headed for Hagrid's hut.
He was hiding something from her. Surely this courage game didn't mean that much to him. What could he have written that he needed to guard so strictly? She didn't have anything on her list that required real courage yet. Yes, they were all good and well the ideas, but nothing called for true, blue Gryffindor courage.
There was only one thing she could think of that did. Her fingers flitted to the locket and in her head she added,
10. Tell Harry how I feel.
The rest of the Gryffindors were gathered outside Hagrid's hut already. Hagrid himself was missing, and as the Slytherins arrived and began making snide comments, Hermione couldn't help but worry.
"Harry, where is he?" she asked quietly. Harry shrugged.
"Getting the animals?" he asked, his fists clenching as Draco Malfoy's arrogant voice floated over to his ears.
"I bet that whatever savage beast we're meant to be studying this lesson has eaten him."
"Shut up Malfoy," Hermione snapped automatically, as the blonde boy sidled into view, he made the same comment every single lesson that Hagrid was the tiniest bit late for, but it didn?t stop Hermione worrying that one time it might actually be the case.
Malfoy smirked at her, "Touchy. Oh, I get it. Granger's Courage List, Number One, Bed the hairy half breed."
"What's Number One on yours? 'Come clean about my sexuality'" Harry shot.
Draco raised a eyebrow, "Pathetic Potter, just because you are - how do I put this? - confused - it doesn't mean the rest of us are that insecure."
"Oh Fu-"
Harry and Hermione's joint reply was cut off by the loud roar that resounded across the grounds. Nervously, all the heads turned to look where the sound had come from. When they figured it came from the Forbidden Forest, they backed up against Hagrid's Hut.
A shadow of a large person began walking closer to them, keeping his head down. He looked up and they recognised him as Hagrid. He yelled out to them, "S'alright! Been savin' somthin' special for yeh!"
The class groaned. Last term it had been the thestrals. Who knew what it could be this time.
Loping along behind Hagrid was a large creature. Something that neither Harry, Hermione or Ron had ever hoped to see again.
It was Fluffy.
"Now, now, NOW!" Hagrid yelled over Fluffy's growls. "Don' panic. I've got a tigh' grip o' him, your allrigh'." He said digging his heels into the mud as Fluffy bounded out from behind him and strained against the leash Hagrid had him on.
The majority of the class were still cowering behind each other. Hermione, Harry and Ron were attempting to maintain a stance but couldn't help inching backwards as one of Fluffy's heads sniffed closer to them.
"Now, whatever you do, don' start runnin'" Hagrid said, "Fluffy likes to play chase, an trust me, he can outrun any of you. Now, he does need exercise like any normal creature. So we're gonna be taking him for a walk. To pacify him, we need a group of yer to be playing music, he loves a bit of music, Fluffy does."
The Slytherins were torn between glaring and fainting, the Gryffindor's looked rather ill.
"I got a box of panpipes inside, can one of yer hang onto 'im while I fetch them?" Hagrid asked, offering the lead to them.
Ron's eyes widened and Hermione swallowed. "Er - alright." Harry agreed tentatively, taking a cautious step forward.
As soon as Hagrid let go of Fluffy, the three-headed dog pounced on top of Harry. A couple of the girls, including Hermione, screamed and jumped backward. The Slytherins and most of the Gryffindors were hiding behind Hagrid's hut. Ron and Hermione seemed to be the only people willing to even come near Fluffy.
Then, instead of biting of Harry's head, it began to lick him and wag its tail. Hagrid who had gone rather pale momentarily, beamed widely.
"Knew Fluffy would recognize yer." He said, stomping off in the direction of a box beside the hut door. He passed out the pan flutes and began to play his own and Fluffy's eyes began to droop.
When Hagrid was satisifed they'd given Fluffy all the exercise possible, which wasn't much as the playing hadn't so much pacified him as sent the dog into a very sleepy mood and he'd only managed a slow, ambling pace to the edge of the forest before curling up under a tree and beginning to snore loudly.
Hagrid stopped playing and smiled at them. "Now that wasn't so bad! You've tired 'im out alrigh."
"Hmmprff." Harry grumbled as he and Hermione rubbed at his robes to try and shift the sticky dog drool.
"Alrigh'" Hagrid spoke up, "Now you've all meet 'im and learned how to pacify 'im, next lesson we'll be doin' grooming an exercise, you can all go to break now."
The Slytherin's immediately dropped their panpipes and moved swiftly towards the castle, followed by the majority of the Gryffindors. Harry, Ron and Hermione hung back like usual to speak with Hagrid.
"Alrigh' you three?" He asked, beaming at them whilst he ruffled the sleeping Fluffy's ears. "Hows yer lists coming along?"
"How do you know about that?" Hermione asked, taking a step away from where Fluffy's tail was creating deep dents in the soil as it wagged.
Hagrid gave a booming laugh, "C'mon Ermione. Everyone knows about Courage. Just cause I didn't get ter play... bein expelled an all..." he said wistfully.
"Well, yeah, they're going fine," Harry shrugged non-commital, as both Ron and Hermione blushed.
"And Hermione won't tell us what she's put on hers," Ron protested, as she once again subconsciously put her hand to the locket around her neck.
"I told you," she exclaimed angrily, "I will tell you when Harry tells us what he's got in his!"
"No way," Harry said, his cheeks heating up too. "It's private!"
Hagrid laughed again. "It's gonna be an interestin' year for yer all. Talk to yer all later - Fluffy's gettin' restless." He yelled the last bit, as Fluffy - evidently bored - was pulling him in the direction of an interesting looking patch of shrubbery.
"Hermione, what's in your locket?" Ron said quickly.
"You won't catch me off guard, Ronald Weasley. What is in this locket is nothing to do with you! And I never take it off."
As Ron groaned, Harry smirked to himself, mentally adding another item to his own Courage list, a point that he intended to fulfil sooner rather than later:
Gain access to Hermione's locket.
Hermione glanced at Harry, his eyes were fixed on the hollow of her throat where her locket rested. She felt her cheeks flame even more, her fingers flitted up to touch the cool, smooth surface. The movement made Harry start, his eyes flicked up and caught hers, they stared at each other until Ron's stomach grumbled loudly.
"C'mon," he whined, slinging his bag over his shoulder, "Let's eat."
"Alright." Hermione replied quickly, grabbing her books and shoving them into the satchel. She and Harry dropped into step beside Ron and headed towards the castle.
They reached the Great Hall and took their usual seats, Hermione sitting in between Harry and Ron. Ron, taking no notice of the tension between his two best friends, began to pile food onto his plate, chatting away between mouthfuls about various random subjects.
Hermione sat there, not really hungry. She gazed around, trying to find someone, or something to gain her attention. Her eyes brought her over to a piece of parchment sticking out of Harry's bag.
As quietly as she could, she reached for the parchment and had got her hand clasped around it without him noticing. Breathing fast, she slid it out of his bag, casting surreptitious looks at Harry as she did so. Suddenly, he spun, and grabbed her wrist. She gasped, as she felt a spark of electricity that made her skin tingle. Butterflies danced in her stomach as he raised an eyebrow at her.
"I think this means war, Miss Granger," he said evenly, prising her unresisting fingers off the parchment, and carefully pushing further it into his bag.
"Er... er..." Hermione stuttered. Why is it now my extensive vocabulary decides to leave me? Why? Why? WHY?' "Yeah," she finished lamely. He laughed, and returned to his plate, leaving her thoroughly befuddled, and exceptionally hot-cheeked.
Harry smiled to himself as he paused, fork poised above his plate. She had fallen for the decoy further than even he had dared hope. Now he had an excuse to gain access to that intriguing locket.
Hermione left in a hurry, her face still completely red. She grabbed her books and ran off to her next class, Arithmancy.
She waited outside the door for a while but as she was so early noone else was there, she tried the classroom door but it was locked. She took off her satchel and slid down to sit with her back resting against the wall, before pulling out her courage list. Looking it over, she decided to add another one to it. Her quill was about to go down onto paper when suddenly, she heard an all too familiar voice behind her.
"Well Granger. What do we have here?"
Chapter 3 out soon! Please leave a review and let us know how we are doing. Remember if you want to get involved, come and sign up at Fawkes Ashes the link is in our profile!
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