Hey! It's been a while, again…I know, I've been really bogged down, I apologize, here goes, you've waited too long already.

Chapter Three: Confrontation

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"The woman has no seeing-eye professor Dumbledore, she makes it all up if you ask me…" Professor McGonagall protested to the headmaster of Hogwarts. "She's just a girl, how on earth could one sixteen year old cause so much Havok?" she stopped her pacing and turned to face Dumbledore, who sat calmly in a chair behind the desk in his office, the portraits watching the two of them intently. Albus Dumbledore played with his long fingers, intertwining them together as he stared up at her with the smallest amount of disregard in his eyes. He cleared his throat gently.

"Indeed Minerva, I do know what you think of Professor Trelawney's predictions…but we must also take into consideration what happened the previous year and the accuracy of her prediction of young Harry thus far, we must be careful and take the necessary precautions so that her prediction does not some true." He took in a slow deep breath.

"I agree that we must take precautions Albus, but we would have had to do so even if she had not made this prediction, the irony behind her making this… I wouldn't even call it a prediction, it's more like… oh, for heavens sake Albus, the irony behind her assuming Blaine Lockwood, the daughter of the new head of the department of mysteries, will be involved in the 'end' of this…this, this thing with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is a complete raillery." She paused. "Do you not see it, she made this all up to get attention, just because last year involved the department of mysteries, does not mean that-" he cut her off abruptly.

"Yes, we do not know that if –he- strikes again this year, it will have anything to do with the department of mysteries, but we do know –he- -is- likely to strike again, Harry is becoming stronger as his education continues, and if he does succeed at becoming an auror-" this time professor McGonagall cut him off.

"At the rate Harry is going now, I do not think he will succeed at that task, his attention span in class as well as his assignments, written or not, are not near what they were last year, or any year for that fact." Professor Dumbledore leaned forward in his chair and frowned.

"Harry, you can't keep going on like this, staring off into space continually, finishing assignments last minute and handing them in without checking them over, or handing them in un-finished… you're letting her get to your head." Harry didn't even hear Hermione reprimanding him for his skills at homework the last few weeks.

It had been three weeks and two days since he'd seen Blaine on the Hogwarts express and he couldn't get it out of his head how she didn't tell him, even though it was because he hadn't told her he was a wizard in the first place, every night he'd look at the un-opened letters she'd handed back to him and regret not telling her.

"Harry, are you listening to me!" She said a little louder to get his attention. He snapped out of it and shifted his gaze to her.

"What were you saying Hermione, I was-" she ct him off with a loud irritated noise.

"That's It!!!" she shouted, shoving her books off her lap and interrupting the snooze crookshanks was having on the arm of her chair as she stood up abruptly. "I can't let you do this to yourself, I can't let her do this to you." Ron shook his head.

"Don't do something you might regret Hermione." She glowered at him.

"OH SHUT IT Ron!" she said, then turning back to Harry. "I'm going to go talk to her right now." She turned and began for the portrait hole, but Harry jumped up and stopped her by grasping the back of her robes.

"Hermione don't, she already hates me as is." Harry pleaded and Hermione pulled at her robes, freeing them from his grasp as she turned around.

"If I don't say something to her, you're going to continue on this path and ruin all chances of having a proper future." Harry rolled his eyes. "Maybe she'll listen to me, you should've explained everything to her when you saw her on the train instead of being a bumbling idiot." He frowned. "Now if you'll excuse me." She walked away and Harry rubbed his forehead, soon finding a hand on his shoulder and Ron by his side.

"You know mate, she could possible make this worse…" Ron's words echoed in Harry's ears, he didn't think this could get any worse.

"How could she possibly do that? Ron, Blaine won't even look at me as she walks by me." He paused and brought his hands up at his sides. "And you know how we have Divination with the Ravenclaws, and when Trelawney makes her predictions of my sudden death, everyone stares at me? She doesn't even acknowledge I exist." Ron seemed to be considering this, and then his face became distorted in sympathy.

"Maybe she's not the girl for you, ya know?" Harry shook his head and brushed passed Ron to his seat, Ron stood and considered the situation. "But you know Hermione, she could just be telling Blaine about your homework habits, trying to make her feel guilty…" he trailed off as Harry looked up at him like a deer caught in the headlights.

"You think so?" Harry questioned dumbly, Ron's face turned to worry and his eyebrows both rose, and then Harry jumped up and raced for the portrait hole, leaving Ron standing awkwardly with everyone staring at him.

Blaine sat in the Library with Cho and a couple of her other Ravenclaw classmates, the ones she'd been with on the train, and these were her friends.

The last three weeks Cho had gone out of her way to accept Blaine and be nice to her, while Blaine tried her best to avoid Harry and move on. Blaine, though she'd tried so hard, couldn't even look at him, she still felt the same way about him and as much as she tried she couldn't make her feelings go away.

Blaine had explained about Harry when Cho asked after what happened on the train, then Cho had told her what had happened between her and Harry last year.

"You won't find anything you need in those books, Snape likes to pick essays that aren't extremely easy to write, there's a book…" she pointed across the room to a section of books. "Down there, third shelf from the top, right on the end, called… The Properties of Poison Potions, it think, right next to it should be a book on monkshood, and I used them last year." Blaine smiled and got up.

"Thanks." Blaine voiced and began off towards where Cho had pointed. She scanned the line of books, but just as she reached for the book on poison potions she noticed someone walking towards her, the brown bushy haired girl that Harry was friends with. Blaine focused all of her attention on the book, hoping she wouldn't come over to her.

"Excuse me…" Hermione said as she approached Blaine, Blaine glanced over at her.

"Yes?' Blaine asked hesitantly.

"Blaine right? Can I talk to you privately for a moment." Blaine had just pulled down the second book and cradled both now in her arms, turning to Hermione reluctantly. "Please, it's important." Blaine nodded and Hermione led her to an empty table in the corner, both sat down quietly then Hermione intertwined her fingers and set her hands upon the table.

"If it's about-" Blaine was cut off by Hermione.

"I know you likely don't want to talk about Harry, but what you need to know is that he didn't not tell you on purpose." Blaine shook her head.

"That may be, but he still didn't tell me, and why are you trying to explain this to me when he's perfectly capable of doing that himself." She realized the fault in her words as soon as she'd said them, she didn't want to talk to Harry.

"That's the thing though, I'm worried about him, and he hasn't done his homework at all because he's too busy obsessing over his mistake. In the last three weeks he's said he should've told you thousands of times, and when he does do his homework, he doesn't do it properly, or hands it in un-finished, he's-"Blaine cut her off this time.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked simply, laying the books upon the table as Hermione flattened her hands firmly upon the table as well.

"Because, you have to at least talk to him, I'm begging you, even if you do only say one, two, three words...or, or just listen to what he has to say." Hermione looked pleadingly at Blaine.

"What do you expect of it? If you think I'm just going to go back to the way things were before he left this summer, you're sadly mistaken, you have no idea how I felt when he left only saying "I'll see you next summer"." Blaine shook her head again, and Hermione looked surprised at her.

"I-I…" Hermione stumbled on words, a feat that didn't happen often. "He thought you were a muggle, he thought you'd be frightened off if he told you." a sudden wave of regret washed over Blaine and she lowered her gaze to the bundle of her own hands in her lap.

"I knew what he was, I only wanted him to tell me himself." She said softly, peeling the polish off of her nails. Hermione smiled.

I know how you feel." Blaine looked up quickly, but Hermione's smile faded. "Just talk to him." Blaine sighed, she could feel herself almost shaking, she felt bad for Harry, but knew that if she talked to him again she'd want it all back the way it was. Just then a figure appeared at the side of the table and Blaine looked up to see Harry standing there, his hand cupped upon the side of his neck awkwardly as he glanced between the two girls and then fixed his eyes on Hermione.

"Uh, Hermione, Ron and I need your help with that um, that, that thing." Blaine looked at Hermione, who was glowering at Harry as he squirmed under her gaze, she looked helplessly to Blaine. Blaine too squirmed in her seat; she didn't know what to say and could feel her throat clog at that moment. Hermione suddenly stood and grabbed Harry's arm, pushing him down into the seat that she once occupied.

"I'm not going to ask anymore, I'm not going to deal with this…this, oh whatever, you two need to talk and it needs to be now." Blaine watched her, then her eyes shifted to Harry, who was already looking at her.

"Ok." She said, looking up to Hermione. "Ok" Hermione smiled at her and let go of Harry's arm.

"Ok then, I'll just be… over there." she voiced and moved away from the table slowly, watching them carefully for any signs of struggle.

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Hope you liked it!

Next: a fight, a date, and a new seeker…

Hope that gives you enough insight that you want to come back, but I didn't give away too much, just remember the details. Have any guesses as to what will happen?

Now, to my reviewers…

Pepper-the-rezo-loves-meg: thanks for the review, it was my only one for the chapter, but hey. i'm glad you like it, hope you keep reading.

AFireInside