Disclaimer and such- The Characters are JK's- anything you recognize is not mine, and the 6th book, officially belongs to her. There's about 30 hours until HBP, and that's the official book- this is just my version. As I truly hope it will turn out… though Jess told me this thing about a piece of… art… that JK presented to her fans.. and the 'O' looks a lot like it could be… Loony… which kills a lot of Hhr spirit that I had building up. This is my last post before the real 6th book comes out, and I hope that you will continue reading after you have read HBP, just to see how my story turns out. I will not change the course of my story to be more like HBP, and the plot will still be Hhr, no matter if there are HL and Rhr parings in JK's book. I hope that you enjoy this chapter and continue to read and review.
Chapter 19: Coping
The next day dawned with an unfittingly blue sky, and all it did to Harry's mood was rub last night's bad news in his face. He and Hermione had woken up and put the night behind them. The only difference between their smiles and those of Ron and Alexis were that of course, theirs were fakes.
The two friends ate breakfast while Ron, Alexis and Jack Sloper jabbered on about the excitement of last night's dinner. Well, it was mostly Ron and Alexis, with Jack adding small comments on the side, but he wasn't making it a big deal. Apparently, as Hermione had not told Harry, Professor McGonagall had told the student body that the Grey Lady had been mistaken, and nothing of concern to the students had occurred during dinner.
After a few bites of porridge and toast, Harry, Hermione and Alexis were on their way to Potions, leaving Ron and Jack behind in the Great Hall. An hour of so later, during their potions lesson, Hermione and Harry found themselves working together on a new concoction neither had ever heard of before, and no one in the 6A Potions lesson was yet to attempt pronouncing the mixture's name correctly.
Harry and Hermione worked in a somewhat strained silence, and every few minutes one of them would try to break the ice with a question, though conversation still wasn't easy.
"Aren't turnips pretty?" Hermione said after another one of these silent periods, waving the one she was peeling in front of Harry's face. She held back a sigh of relief when Harry gave her a weak grin.
"Look," the girl grabbed her quill from the table and drew a crude smile on the turnip, jabbing both her and Harry's wands into the vegetable as arms.
A snort escaped Harry and he turned towards the back of the classroom, hiding his now true grin from Professor Snape. Hermione smiled, happy that she had made Harry laugh. Jokingly, she drew buck-teeth protruding from the turnips lips, which made Harry turn red in his attempt to withhold anything that would catch Professor Snape's attention.
Taking the turnip from Hermione, he danced it across their lab table, bringing it up to the edge of the cauldron and bouncing it on an imaginary diving board.
"Weeee!" Hermione said, just as Harry pretended the turnip was diving from the board. Harry coughed involuntarily with laughter, and his face spread into a grin. He accidentally released the turnip.
"No!" Hermione shoved the vegetable away from their steaming cauldron, flinging herself over the table to do so. With a sickening splat, the ripe turnip hit the dungeon floor, covering their shoes in turnip-gunk. Luckily, the bell clanged at that exact moment, marking the time to switch classes. Still, the two students couldn't help exchanging embarrassed grins as their classmates got to their feet with raised eyebrows directed towards the turnip display.
"Potions into vials and onto your shelf, the homework is on the board!" Snape roared as the students scrambled out of their seats. "Potter and Granger, you are not setting foot outside this classroom until that floor is spotless!"
Hermione and Harry grinned at each other wordlessly, for even though Snape had seen their accident, the gloom of the night bellow was at least parcially lifted. After a moment, the Hermion broke her gaze from Harry's and said briskly; "Harry, I'll clean it up; you can put away the potion."
Harry got up from his stool rather reluctantly, proceeding to get them a glass vial from the back of the cupboard at the back of the classroom.
"I received a detailed letter from a reliable contact this morning," said someone from behind Harry, just as the boy was about to turn around.
Harry paused, fixed an annoyed expression on his face, and turned to set his eyes on the owner of the voice he detested.
"They've told me everything," Draco Malfoy added thickly. "I probably know more than you do."
"Your point?" Harry said in a false-calm voice as he briskly carried his vial back to his and Hermione's lab table. Malfoy followed him smirking, putting his foot right next to Hermione's hand as she scooped up the remains of the turnip from the floor. The girl glanced at his foot, then, slowly moved her eyes up to the Slytherin's face, looking slightly surprised and annoyed. Harry grit his teeth as he brutally wiped down the table, trying to ignore the Slytherin's act of rudeness.
"I see the mudblood is down on her knees, like she should be. Good." Malfoy looked down at the girl, who got steadily to her feet, meeting his eyes in a defiant glare.
Harry put down his rag and vial. "If you're judging by blood, then I can tell you that hers is much better than yours is."
"Quietly, Potter, quietly," Malfoy stooped to pick up a chunk of turnip, and flipping it over, he examined the face that Hermione had drawn on the vegetable's skin. "Well, well, well," he sneered at the other two. They stared back at him, their glares unfaltering.
"It seems like you've been exterminating sweet little turnips, Potter."
Harry stared back at him, but Hermione flinched and glanced at her friend.
"You've been practicing murder, now haven't you? Going to need that skill?"
"Shut your mouth, Malfoy." Harry had caught on. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes I do, my letter, remember?" He pulled several sheets of parchment out of his pocket and tapped Hermione on the nose with them. She smacked his hand away.
"Don't touch her!" Harry hissed.
"Tut tut." Malfoy leaned to one side. "I'd always thought that Trealawney was an old bat, but now I've decided to change my ways. Many people out there are hoping that she isn't quite that stupid. You dieing- might just-"
"Shut up," Harry snapped before Malfoy could finish, but Hermione cautioned him by resting her hand on his shoulder.
"You've told other people?" Her words were calm, though Harry could tell that her hand was cold and clammy, even though his robes.
"That doesn't concern me at the moment," Malfoy smirked as Harry clenched his fists. "I could tell though- if that's what you want… my dear mudblood."
Hermione removed her hand from Harry's shoulder, grabbing the turnip chunk out of Malfoy's clutches in a swift movement. "Go away; take your gruesome face somewhere else." Malfoy smiled slightly at these words. It was as if he found her comment funny.
"I don't see cleaning!" Snape's voice cut through the still air. "Another class will be here in six minutes!"
Malfoy smirked at the two Gryffindors. Turning, he voiced four words that touched Hermione's last nerve- "Long live the Lord."
Squelch.
The sound produced as Hermione pushed her exploded turnip piece into Malfoy's face was almost impossible to describe. Holding the piece to the staggering boy's nose, she smeared her wet, turnip-sodden rag over the other parts of his face, covering his forehead, cheek and ear in greenish-white mush of an applesauce consistency.
"Urghhhh!" Malfoy gave out a roar of disgust as Hermione backed away, letting the solid piece of turnip fall to the floor, along with a splatter of liquid.
"GRANGER!" Snape screamed at the top of his lungs. "Out! Out- all of you!"
Malfoy ignored the teacher's voice and lunged at Hermione, but Harry pulled the girl out of the way just in time. Malfoy lost his balance and fell flat on his face, sliding several feet on the turnip-strewn floor.
"Out!" Snape roared again, and with no further ado, Harry and Hermione grabbed their bags and sprinted from the room, Harry almost throwing their potion onto the shelf as they passed through the door.
……………………
Snape eventually caught up with Hermione during lunch, assigning her a detention for mauling Malfoy with the turnip.
"He deserves everything that he got," Hermione told Harry in Charms, their last class of the day. "It isn't fair that I have to clean out bedpans because he- well, if Snape really knew all the stuff Malfoy said, then I wouldn't be getting a detention." Hermione huffed, jabbing her wand angrily at the soup that she was preparing. She glanced at "Charm Your Own Cheese" to see if she was following the recipe adequately. "It isn't- it isn't fair."
"You want to know what's not fair!" Ron grumbled loudly. "- I miss all the action. Everything exciting happens when I'm somewhere else." Ron sulked, stirring his cauldron with his wand in a rather gruff manner. "I wish that I'd made it into the A6 class..."
"What did Draco do?" Alexis dipped her finger into her own soup, licking it. She made a face and used her wand to conjugate more salt. "I wasn't there either, you know."
"I know you weren't-" Hermione said briskly. "Not everyone pretends to be sick right before potions class."
"I wasn't pretending!"
"Yeah right." Hermione scowled.
"You haven't told me what he did-"
"It wasn't a big deal." Harry said when Ron glanced questioningly at him as well.
"I think you two are hiding something from us." Alexis added more salt to her soup. "You've been acting very- depressed, all day now."
"I've been getting that impression too," Ron agreed, still stirring the contents of his cauldron in the same way, as if something very hard were stuck to the bottom and his life depended on getting it off. Hermione and Harry were quiet for several moments, not looking at the other two and pretending they had not heard.
"So, what is it?" Alexis finally put down her wand, stopping her fountain of salt and staring intently at Hermione.
"We- We-" Hermione glanced anxiously at Harry.
"We aren't hiding anything!" Harry lied loudly, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. He and Hermione had not told anyone else about the prophecy and at the moment, he was comfortable that way.
Hermione looked down at her cauldron, biting her lip as she poured a stream of liquid into her soup. She glanced sideways at Harry, obviously displeased with his lying, but understanding nonetheless.
"Oh." The other two seemed struck by Harry's outburst, and they backed away from the conversation topic. Ron however, still had the gall to glance up at Harry with a confused expression on his face. Harry just glared back at his friend, and the redhead quickly returned his eyes to his soup, which was simmering contently.
Harry looked down at his own cauldron and realized that his soup had sat for too long at too low a temperature, leaving a thick, creamy skin over the burnt pile of vegetables at the bottom.
"I hate magical cooking," Harry said, slamming his wand down on the table and extinguishing the fire beneath his cauldron.
The four sat in silence for several moments, none of them making eye contact.
"Yeah..." Hermione pushed her cauldron set away from herself and put out her flame as well. "I'm no good at this." She buried her face in her hands, sighing loudly.
"Oh come on!" Alexis looked at Harry and Hermione with concern, but Ron's expression was just guilty. "Anything can taste good- just enough salt-" She dumped a handful into each of their cauldrons.
Hermione straitened herself and stared at Alexis. "It's supposed to be butter- not salt."
"It's all the same." Alexis said in an overly joyful voice, throwing in another handful. Hermione was looking at her cauldron as if she might cry.
"Don't make it worse-"
"And a shot of cooking wine-" Alexis conjured up a bottle and liberally poured fluid into Hermione's cauldron, but the girl shoved her hand away, getting some of the wine on the table.
"I said- stop it."
"'Mione- you guys are being so pessimistic!" Alexis sat down hard in her seat, taking a swig from the bottle of wine, then slamming it down on the table.
"For God's sake; you're underage!" Hermione screeched, and then added in a softer voice; "and I am not a pessimist!"
Alexis made a face and lifted the bottle once more, but Harry yanked it out of her hand before she could bring it to her lips.
"Stop- both of you-" He vanished the cooking wine with his wand. "Look- Hermione and I have just had a bad day- we made a mess in potions, Snape wasn't too happy, and Malfoy was a git, as usual- called Hermione 'moodblood.' Happy?"
The other three stared at various things scattered around the table, Ron still stirring his soup. After several lingering moments Alexis cleared her throat.
"I'm sorry Hermione- I didn't mean to be a- well- I was a bitch to pry." She smiled weakly, then strode around the table, embracing Hermione's shoulders in a gentle hug. At first the girl looked away, but then she slowly leaned her head against Alexis' and moved to put an arm around the shorter girl.
The rest of the class was quiet, but calm, for Ron cheered them all up with a cup each of his rather lovely beef goulash.
AN: Jessie has alerted me that she believes that some of you are starting new S.N.s just to review for my story multiple times. I must tell you that I do no longer use the number of posts on my story as a way to judge when to post, and reviewing five times for one chapter will not increase my posting rate. Thanks, and keep reading. I really enjoy your support.