Chapter 6 – A Hermione and Sophie Showdown

When Harry woke up the next day, Ron was putting on his socks. "'Morning," said Harry.

"'Morning. Have you thought much about that Sophie girl?"

"Yeah. I talked to here last night. She's not so bad. She's actually nice, Ron."

"What's she like?"

"She has a very complicated way of thinking."

"Like Hermione?"

When Ron said this, Harry laughed. He remembered everything Sophie said about Hermione.

"If you tell her she thinks like Hermione, she'll be very insulted."

"Huh?"

"She thinks Hermione has some sort of superiority complex or something. You should've listened to her rant and rave, Ron. She's something when she's mad."

"Hermione's the best student in our year! She doesn't have superiority complex! It's not her fault she looks stupid compared to her!"

"Ron, mate, Hermione looks stupid compared to her. I saw her O.W.L.s. She got an O in everything except for History of Magic. She got an E."

Ron's jaw dropped. "I haven't received mine, but I saw Hermione's! She got an O in everything except for Study of Ancient Runes! She got an E – I think that's when she mistranslated a rune or something. If Sophie's as good a student as Hermione, how come we never heard of her?"

"She never recited in class her entire life. She said that she feels she doesn't have to prove anything to anyone by answering the questions. She never passed a single piece of homework except for Potions since the second year and she spends meals in her room, sketching. Speaking of sketching, look at what she gave me."

Harry showed Ron the portrait of Sirius. Sirius was still snoring. "Blimey, is that -?"

"Yep."

"Sirius?" Ron whispered.

Sirius woke. He yawned loudly, and Harry and Ron exchanged grins. It was as if Sirius wasn't gone.

"Harry? Ron?" Sirius said.

"Sirius!" exclaimed the two together.

"I'm a portrait!" Sirius said, laughing his laugh like a bark. Harry and Ron laughed along.

"You guys in Grimmauld Place? Is my mother's portrait there? Where's Kreacher?"

"Yes, we're in Grimmauld Place," said Ron.

"No, we managed to take down your mum's portrait, I think they wanted yours to replace it," said Harry.

"And Kreacher died," Ron said.

"How?" asked Harry and Sirius together.

"Well, when we got here he was all drunk and high on Butterbeer and stuff. He snuffed it a week later. Mum blames his death on too much to drink, but I know better. Fred poisoned his Butterbeer with Doxy venom."

All three of them laughed. Just then, Mrs. Weasley entered.

"Come on boys, breakfast."

"Ooooh! Breakfast! Can I have some?" said Sirius.

Mrs. Weasley's jaw dropped. "Is that? No it can't be – Sirius?"

"Hey Molly, I'm a portrait!"

Mrs. Weasley, though she never got along with Sirius when he was alive, looked as though she wanted to embrace the portrait.

"Oh Sirius! Everyone's been so miserable without you!"

"Really? I didn't know I was so missed!"

Mrs. Weasley snorted. "You haven't changed," she said, quite fondly. "Anyway, breakfast. Please bring Sirius along, it might lighten up the mood."

Harry and Ron got dressed and went down, bringing the portrait of Sirius along with them. In the kitchen were Lupin and Tonks, chatting, Mad-eye, Mr. Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt talking about Ministry goings-on, Mundungus, Fred and George roaring with laughter, Hermione and Ginny giggling, and Sophie sketching on her sketchpad.

"HEY EVERYBODY! I'M A PORTRAIT!" Sirius shouted and everyone turned to the source of the sound.

"Sirius!"

Everyone took turns to talk to Sirius. The mood was so happy that Harry didn't mind not having enough time to talk to Sirius. In fact, he took this time to eat as much as he could. The only person who wasn't talking to Sirius was Sophie. She was sketching and munching on toast.

"Hey, Sophie," Harry said.

"Hey. I can tell you like that thing I gave you."

Harry grinned. "Yeah. Everybody else does as well."

"I know. Everyone left us alone here."

They both laughed.

"Thanks a lot for Sirius' portrait. It really means a lot."

"It's really no problem. I missed Sirius a lot, so, yeah."

"Did you know him?"

"My mum did, she was an old friend of his. She was also a friend of your mum, I think. They went out in their fourth year, but remained just friends after that."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I think your parents were in my parents' wedding, along with Lupin and Sirius. I never got to see him so much, but I've offered to help him out in the fourth year when he was on the run. I remember I was in Muggle school then, and he was looking for rats, I offered him a place to stay, but he said he couldn't risk getting caught. I gave him a roast chicken for him to eat."

Harry laughed. "We used to nick food from the kitchens to give to him. He's eat them so hungrily, I remember him telling us that he had to live off rats."

"Eurgh! That's gross!"

"I know."

"Hey guys," said Hermione. She got back from the crowd greeting Sirius. "Who gave you the portrait, Harry?"

"I did," Sophie said in a very indifferent tone.

"I see. It's really nice, Sophie."

"Yeah, I suppose it is."

"Have you received your O.W.L.s yet Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Nah. Not that I'm worried, though."

"You should be!" Hermione said, outraged. "Harry, your O.W.L.s are perhaps the most import – "

"Oh sod it, Hermione. Fred and George got only three O.W.L.s each and they're freaking rich," Sophie said irritably.

"But they have absolutely no ambition."

"At least," Sophie began, her voice quivering, "at least they don't act as though they're better than everyone else."

"What're you getting at?"

"If you're so smart, why don't you figure it out yourself? You're such a know-it-all, Hermione. I'm sick of you giving out help when I don't need it, I'm sick of others acting like you're the most God damn intelligent creature they've come face to face with, and most of all, I'm sick of you trying to prove yourself so much!"

"It's not my fault that you don't allow others see how great you are!"

"I don't need the praise of other people to know how great I am!"

"You are so conceited!"

"Me? Conceited? Who insists on correcting other people's work when they don't ask for it? Who insists on scanning other people's work to look for something to correct? Who pretends to blush every time a teacher compliments her? Who has her hand in the air every time a question is asked? Who is the most insufferable know-it-all that stepped into Hogwarts? I know it's not me, but I wonder who that person is?"

"Well, who refuses to be corrected?"

"I cannot be corrected if there is nothing to correct! Hermione, you insist on looking for flaws in other people so that you can correct them. You despised me from day one because you've met your match. I know I can't be perfect, Hermione, but why do you think you are?"

"I know I'm not! Here's a question: How come Harry and Ron can be corrected without them storming off and/or causing a row? Who's the one acting like she's perfect?"

"Why do you insist on treating everyone like Harry and Ron? Because, unless you haven't noticed, Harry and Ron actually ask for your help!"

Hermione scowled, stormed out and went upstairs. Sophie didn't say anything and began to busy herself over her sketchpad again. Just then Ron sat down next to Harry.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. Just a Hermione vs. Sophie showdown"

"Who won?"

"I dunno. They've both got mad issues."

"Where's Hermione?"

"She stormed off."

"Ah. I thought she would."

Harry and Ron began to dig in for breakfast. Sophie got up, and made her way upstairs. Before she went up, she whispered something in Harry's ear.

"I'll teach you a bit more Occlumency after lunch."

Harry nodded and she went up, nearly bumping into Hermione who was on her way down. They gave each other dagger looks before going up/down the stairs.

"Ooooh! Breakfast! Can you give me some?" Sirius' portrait was now next to him. Harry laughed as Hermione sat next to Ron, still glaring.

"It's not funny," she seethed.

"I wasn't laughing at you. I was laughing at Sirius. Don't get yourself too worked up about this thing with Sophie. She's really nice, you know."

"I've shared a dormitory with her for five years. I should know."

Harry never saw Hermione like this. Usually, she was the one good with feelings and stuff, but now it seemed that the roles were reversed. Sophie's presence somehow changed a lot of things. While Ron tried to calm Hermione down (trust me, he's failing), Harry began to dig in, thinking of how a certain dark-haired girl changed many things.

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A/N: Really sorry for the short, meaningless chapter. I just thought that a year in the life of Harry Potter would be totally odd without an irrelevant fight here and there. I also have a horrible case of (dun dun dun) writer's block. So there. I promise to post a better, more relevant chapter IF I get more reviews…

Kristie