I decided to post a short chapter before Turkey day (aka Thanksgiving Holiday, US), in case you need to ditch the fam & want something to read.
START
Harry looked around self consciously, resisting the urge to (yet again) adjust the collar of his dress robes. He glanced sideways to Hermione, who looked just as awkward as he felt. They were at Slughorn's Yule party, and his office was packed despite having been expanded significantly.
"Look at all those people," Hermione mentioned awkwardly.
"Yup."
"I mean, I don't see anybody else our age..." It was supposed to be mostly Hogwarts students, or so she had thought, but everybody she saw was an adult, at least several years out of school.
"Ah, Harry and Hermione! I am so glad you came," Horace swooped down like an owl to greet the two students. "Makes yourselves at home. The refreshments table is on the far side." He leaned in conspiratorially and added, "and I think most of your peers are hanging out next to it, though unfortunately Ronald wasn't able to make it." He stood up and smiled benevolently. He really did enjoy having talented people around him. "If you don't mind, I'll bring by a few people to chat with you later – there is one Ministry researcher who's been dying to meet you ever since I told him about you." This last was directed at Hermione. He then bustled off to greet other guests.
Harry started for the refreshments table, self-consciously taking Hermione's hand so that they wouldn't get separated in the press.
"Um, do you want anything?" Harry asked. The table was filled with platters of little sandwiches as well as various salads.
"No, I'm good." Hermione replied. It felt good to be holding Harry's hand. "Actually, can you get me a glass of water?" She could see that there was also a bar off to one side, but water would suffice. She just needed something to settle her stomach. She was never good with crowds. And here not only was she surrounded by one, but she had to deal with Harry Potter. 'Why did I invite him?' Well, he did half the inviting, so she couldn't take all the blame. But this was an AWFUL place to go for a first date. And was this even a first date? Because maybe it wasn't. It didn't have to be, after all - she wasn't supposed to be dating Harry Potter, after all. She had just asked him to get that weird obsession out of her system.
"Oh, hey, Neville! You sly dog – you didn't tell me you were going to be here!" Harry called out as his brother arrived, accompanied by Luna Lovegood.
"I actually wasn't expecting to be here, except.." He glanced self-consciously at Luna.
"Horace invited me, but I did not feel it would be enjoyable to come all by myself, so I invited Neville."
"Just as friends," he added quickly. He was angry with Daphne, but not that angry.
Luna nodded.
'See, people come just as friends,' Hermione wiped her free hand on her dress, 'If I keep sweating like this I'm going to stink!'
"Didn't you go 'just as friends' to the Yule ball as well?' Harry smirked.
Luna gave Harry a puzzled look. "We were friends then, and we are friend now."
"Besides, that was two years ago." Neville interrupted, before quipping, "I see you solved your dilemma of who to take." He nodded to Hermione who was practically glued to Harry's side. He misinterpreted Hermione's queasy smile for a happy grin.
"Yeah, we kind of invited each other," Harry hadn't told Neville who he was coming with, as Nev still had a thing against Ron (and all those who had passed through his circle), and he didn't want to have to deal with Neville second guessing him.
"Ah, there you are," Horace reappeared, accompanied by an older woman. "This is Melinda Midges. She is Newt Scamander's protege and a renown magizoologist in her own right. She wrote a fascinating treatise on the link between the decline in the population of the Rukh bird in Africa and muggle poaching of elephants."
As Luna (and Neville, by proxy) were drawn away to be introduced to Melinda, Harry turned to Hermione, "If you don't want to stay too long, that's fine with me." Hermione looked a little nervous, which was no surprise: Being surrounded by all these famous people was more than a little intimidating. Though even his peers were a little overwhelming - Hermione was crazy smart, and everybody could see that Luna was going to become a famous researcher one day. But he was just Harry, a regular guy. He really felt out of place at this party.
"Um.. No, it's fine, as long as you're ok with it." Hermione took a sip of her water. 'People go to these as just friends, and that's ok'. She looked around. There really were some fascinating people here. She was almost certain that the man standing with his back to her was a vampire! "I mean, I hope you don't feel that I pressured you into coming, or anything."
"What? No!" Harry replied, "Well, unless you mean that kiss."
Hermione blushed a deep red all the way up to her ears and looked down into her cup, as if trying to read the future in the water dregs. "I.. that wasn't.. I mean that wasn't about you, that was me being stupid." She quickly looked up, "I mean, that I.." Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "Let me start over. I never said thank you for staying with me, at the Ministry. It meant.. I was so scared. I couldn't see, everything hurt, and I thought I was going to die. Having you there, talking to me, helped keep me from panicking. It meant the world to me." She spoke quietly but urgently, she needed Harry to understand what it had meant to her. What he had meant to her.
Hermione was standing very close, staring up at Harry, so it felt completely natural for him to lean over and give her a lingering (but chaste) kiss.
"None of that, now, we're British!" Chortled Horace as he led over a familiar young couple. Hermione practically teleported to make space between the two of them, blushing furiously again.
"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks pronounced cheerfully, "So you're the 'promising student' that Sluggy wanted to introduce to me, Well, I have bad news for you Horace, I already know this guy." She winked.
"Hullo, Harry, Hermione," Bill Weasley smiled and raised his glass to them with his free hand (the other was intertwined with Nymphadora's).
'Oh, god! Did he see that?' Hermione panicked as she saw Ron's brother. If word got out, people would think she was an easy woman, no better than Ron! ...And what would Ron think?
"Oh, hey guys. I think the 'promising student' here is Hermione," Harry gestured at his date. As he did he realized that she had stiffened up and glazed over in panic, so he added: "She's single handedly keeping the Gryffindor grade point average on par with the other houses, despite the rest of us numskulls spending all of our time playing quidditch instead of studying."
"Don't be a prat!" Hermione swatted his shoulder, her panic overridden by her indignation. She turned to the two adults, "Don't listen to him, Harry is a fine student!" People who worked hard in school deserved recognition. And there was no reason for Harry to feel insecure, and… 'He's not feeling insecure. He's distracting me from my anxiety, isn't he?'
"Well, you can't do worse than I did. I had to cram the summer after seventh year to get into the Auror Academy," Tonks admitted.
"Oh, I meant to give you this," Bill handed Harry a coiled up string. "It's a portkey to the Burrow. If you ever need anything, hop on over. Dad will know how to reach me. I keyed it to the wards, so it will let you through."
"Thanks?" Harry looked puzzled.
"Bill's too much of a guy to come out and say it, but he is incredibly grateful for what you did, helping out Ron back at the Ministry. He wanted to do something for you as a thank you." Tonks added, "We figured that turn about is fair play, so this is what we came up with."
"Thank you, guys."
After that, the conversation flowed more casually as everybody relaxed into the party.
\*/
Ron smiled as yet another old guy came over to shake his hand, "I'm so glad you were able to help the minister drive off Voldemort last year. It makes me feel so much safer knowing that you're standing with the Ministry."
"Yes, The Boy Who Lived is a good supporter of my administration, as opposed to certain Headmasters who can't be bothered to show up," Scrimgeour commented as an aside. They were at the Ministry Yule party. Not the one for employees, with beer and crisps. The fancy one for political donors and senior officials, with champaign and little platters of cheeses and meats. The Minister had asked Ron to come and show his support, and Ron had been thrilled.
That had been almost an hour ago.
Ron's smile was getting glassy from overuse, and Lavender had ditched him to 'go get something to drink' some long time ago.
Finally, Scrimgeour released him from durance vile, "Why don't you go get some refreshments and mingle on your own for a bit. I'll handle it by myself from here." He gave Ron a winning smile, which looked a little scary on his hatchet-thin face. He certainly looked like the sort of leader you wanted to have during wartime.
Ron grabbed a few canapes – there were still plenty, even this late - and went looking for Lavender. The Ministry certainly didn't stint on the expenses.
He finally found her in an out of the way corner, talking to an older man and giggling a lot. "Lavender? I was looking for you." Ron scowled at her over the old guy's shoulder.
"Oh, don't be like that. You were just standing there, not doing anything. It was boring. This ish, is Lord Haffly. He wash, he was telling me the most funny anecdote."
"Lav, you're drunk!" Ron replied, shocked. He tried to push past the older man, who still had not left Lavender's side.
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing young man?"
"I'm taking her back to Hogwarts!" Ron retorted. Lavender really didn't look good. Did he need to take her to Madam Pomphrey?
"Wait – she's a student?" Lord Haffly asked, taking a quick step back to distance himself from the (suddenly) underage girl.
Ron didn't dignify that with a response, instead asking ,"how many drinks did you have?"
"Three!" Lavender held up five fingers and giggled.
"Come on, let's go down to the floo."
Half an hour later they were outside Hogsmeade village, walking back to Hogwarts. The walk seemed to be sobering Lavender up, and she insisted that she not go to the nurse. "If my dad finds out about this I'm dead! He'll ground me for the rest of my life! My mum too!" She groaned before doubling over, "Oh Merlin, I think I'm going to hurl! Hold my hair."
Ron held her hair out of the way as she emptied her stomach onto the ground. After a minute she stood back up."I can't.. I.. can you cast a vanishing charm? Make sure I don't have any on me?"
\*/
Hermione stood staring at the mirror. She wasn't sure what time it was – after that scare with Bill Weasely, she and Harry had stayed at Slughorn's party until it started to wind down, and then the two of them had ended up taking a stroll around the grounds. It had been very relaxing.
Which was exactly the problem.
When she was with Ron, she had to keep a tight control on herself so that she could steer the redhead to success through the shoals of life. It was hard work, but rewarding. That struggle defined who she was.
With Harry, everything was so easy. He magicaly knew what she was feeling. And he always did the right thing. She felt like she was losing her self, her identity. If she wasn't fighting, who was she? She struggled to control her breathing as she realized that she was hyperventilating. 'Deep breaths, Hermione. Deep breaths.'
"You ok there?" Katie Bell had walked into the bathroom to find Hermione grasping the sink in a death grip as she stared into the mirror, unseeing.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just puzzling over a bit of homework," Hermione faked a smile. 'This isn't sustainable.'
\*/
The following day was the trip back to London.
Harry and Neville slid into their usual compartment. A few minutes Ginny and Luna joined them.
"Hey, that was fun," Neville gave Luna a thumbs up.
"The Slug club party? Ron said that it was probably going to be dull. Though I doubt the one at the Ministry that he went to was any better." Ginny replied, eyeing Harry out of the corer of her eyes. She had heard that he'd gone with Hermione. 'Apparently, they are a couple now'. She frowned.
"Oh, I don't know about that. You didn't see Lavender when they came back – she was stinking drunk. If the professors find out, she's going to get suspended."
As the train pulled out of the station, Harry looked around, Hermione still had not shown up. Even though she usually didn't ride in the same compartment, he had been hoping that she would drop by to say hi.
"Looking for your girlfriend? She's probably up front in the Prefects car."
"Oh, I forgot about that. And she's not my girlfriend." Harry replied. They hadn't discussed it yet, so it felt wrong to just assume. It would be disrespectful to Hermione.
Neville snorted. "You forget, I was there too."
Harry blushed, "Um, I'm going to go see if I can get some snacks off of the food cart." He quickly exited the car.
"Dude, we just left the station. They aren't open yet!' Neville called after him mirthfully.
\*/
"Ok, boys. Hogwarts is going to have a class on apparition for students that are of age, but I figure we can get a jump on it over the hollidays."
Both Harry and Neville nodded eagerly. James had picked them up from the station and they were walking out to a safe spot to portkey from.
Both teens had been looking forwards to being able to apparate.
"Mom doesn't mind?"
"Mom is the one who is insisting on it. She wants you to apparate at home, under her supervision, the first few times." James paused before adding to Neville, "Once you got the hang of it, you can go sneak out to visit your girlfriend."
"We're not dating anymore," Neville replied before adding, "Wait, you knew about that?"
"Auror, remember?" James gave a self deprecating bow. "Oh, and Dudley was asking after you two. You should give him a call." James held out the piece of rope. As soon as all three had a hold of it, they whirled their way home.
\*/
This year, it was the Potters turn to host Christmas dinner but Petunia had declined, saying that that she wouldn't be able to make it, so Harry and Neville decided to visit Dudley that morning, before everybody sat down to the meal.
Dudley met them out front of the Dursely's condo, looking morose. He was dressed in a pair of spotless black pants and a button down shirt that looked like it had just come off of the rack.
"Hey, everything ok?" Nevile asked.
"Yeah. If, you don't mind prison."
"What happened?" Harry asked shocked.
"Jack the Dull happened. Mom invited him and his sister to come over for Christmas dinner. I'm going to have to wear a suit and be on my best behavior for the whole fewking night. She says that I'm not allowed to slip out early, even though there won't be anybody my age there." Dudley kicked a Coke can into the street.
"So, they're pretty serious."
"It's creepy as shit is what it is! She's my mum!"
Harry and Neville exchanged glances. Clearly Dudley was having a hard time processing this change in lifestyle. "Um, let's go hang out at the mall."
The three boys spent a few bucks playing video games in the arcade before going down to the food court. As they were passing a small jewelry shop catering to teens a familiar looking girl stepped out, "Hey.. Harry, right? You're the one that goes to school with my cousin?" It took Harry several moments to put a name to the face – it was Becky, from that muggle school dance that Dudley had snuck him into last year.
"Yeah. This is my brother Neville," Becky's attention had already gone to him, an appraising look on her face – he was the tallest of the three boys by a fair bit, after all. "We both go to school with Hermione."
"Oh, yeah. She's somewhere around here – we were just getting a few last minute presents." Becky pointed to the bag in her hand, "Though she says that you were wrong – she's not dating anybody. She was quite upset that I thought otherwise. You know, you if you're not certain, you shouldn't spread rumors. She was really hurt." Becky obviously thought Hermione was overreacting, but she was her cousin, so she had to take her side. She glanced back into the store. "She was just behind me, I don't know where she got off to."
Harry peered around. There was no sign of Hermione. And he didn't really want to go into this sort of store. Not with a bunch of guys. "Um, it's ok. we'll see her back in school. Tell her Merry Christmas."
They continued on to the food court. "That was weird," Neville commented, glancing at Harry to see how he took it. Harry just shrugged stonefacedly, and Dudley was oblivious.
\*/
"The apparition instructors always stress 'Destination, Determination and Deliberation', But those words never made much sense to me. Instead, I would describe the process as having a clear image of where you want to be, and the pressing need to be there. The 'Deliberation part just means that you shouldn't rush it. You know where you're going, and you know that you are going to get there, so it's ok if if it takes a little while." James instructed. Lily had wanted to be the one to teach them, but James had pointed out that the boys were at an age where they listened better to instructions from men than women, and apparition could be dangerous if done carelessly - it was important that they not make any mistakes.
Neville and Harry were in the back yard, trying to apparate from one side to the other.
"Can you apparate during the middle of a dual?"
"That's a good way to get splinched. Don't apparate when you're in a rush or have a lot of adrenaline going through you. Calm and controlled – that's the only safe way to do it,." James repeated. Seeing his sons disappointed look, James rolls his eyes, "Not everything is about dueling."
"I know, but since I'm running the Dueling club, I have been looking for anything more that I can teach."
"Sirius tells me that you and a couple of your friends are also doing Auror level training. After lunch, you want to show me what you can do?"
The two teens spent the rest of the frustrating morning trying and (failing) to teleport, so it felt good to cut loose in the afternoon with a little dueling.
\*/
"Hey, Harry, we're on vacation – you can take it easy," Neville replied as Harry asked (yet again) to work on defense with him. Harry had spent most of the week either trying to apparate or going over the dueling drills that James had showed them.
"I just don't want to sit around doing nothing." Harry shrugged self consciously.
"Is this about Hermione?"
"What? No. What does she have to do with anything?" Harry looked puzzled.
Neville just shrugged. "Let me finish my book. We can spar after lunch."
Harry nodded and grabbed his broom. He wanted to try steering it without his hands. Neville was right, in part - for some reason he was having trouble sitting still. He was constantly doing something, because he didn't want to slip into that state of nothingness that he was in last year, where nothing really seemed to matter and he would only go do stuff if somebody told him to. It had been like he was half dead.
Plus sitting around also gave him too much time to think.
Yet no matter how much he thought, he still didn't understand what was going on with Hermione.
\*/
"The new administration doesn't have its head in the sand, like Fudge did," Ron expounded to all those at the study table, "They will deal with Voldemort and his Death Eaters." He was pontificating in the Gryffindor common room. A growing number of students had started to sit with him lately, and Ron had taken that as a license to talk about how close he was with the Minister, and about his trips to the Ministry (all two of them). On the plus side, he wasn't sucking face with Lavender all the time anymore (though she was sitting close by his side, shooting glares at Romilda who was listening with rapt attention). Romilda was seated opposite Ron with her elbows on the table, leaning forwards in such a way that most of her (formidable) cleavage was revealed.
They had been back in class for a week, and homework was piling up again. Harry and Neville were sitting at a table in the back of the room, working their way through a potions essay (In the Gryffindor dorms, the study tables were mostly scattered to the back, while the couches and easy-chairs were given pride of place, clustered around the fire. This wasn't Ravenclaw, after all). "You think the Ministry will be able to handle Voldemort?" Neville asked.
"I hope so. Who else is there? The Order? Ron's got a point – they aren't really set up for that sort of thing. They're not a vigilante group."
"As long as Ron doesn't get it into his head that he has to face off against him because he's the 'Boy-Who-Lived'" This was from the third occupant of the table, Ginny.
"You worried about Ron?' Harry asked, half joking.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "He's a prat, but he's my brother. Anyway, where's your girlfriend, I haven't seen her in a while."
"Hermione and I aren't dating. And she's probably in the library – it's Hermione."
A predatory gleam entered Ginny's eye before she turned back to her work. "So, you got any plans for the weekend?"
"Not really, other than Dueling club."
Ginny looked up, incensed. "It's Hogsmead weekend!"
"I know, but we'll still get a good turn out."
"I mean you should do something. We can go into town and check out to see if High Street Brooms has the new Firebolts"
Harry was still flying the Nimbus 2001 that his dad had gotten him for Christmas three years ago. "Ok, that's a plan!" He grinned. Even if there was no way he was ever getting one, he still wanted to check it out.
"You two are such quidditch nerds," Neville shook his head.
Ginny just shrugged. 'That didn't go like I had hoped.' But it was still a step in the right direction.
\*/
The following day was the high point of the week, for Harry: 'Ranger' training.
The group was in Slytherins cave (aka the Chamber of Secrets, but they liked the new name better - it made them feel like they had stolen a march on the Slytherins, taking over something that was rightfully theirs). Hermione was standing next to Harry, hoping to have a chance to talk to him, but not certain what to say after that disastrous incident over winter break. 'Why does Becky have to tell everybody everything!' She scowled, not looking at Harry. She knew she should have talked to him as soon as they got back to school, but she was too embarrassed.
"So what are we doing today, Entil'Zha?" Neville asked.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't you start with that Entil'zha stuff. For all you know it's some Swahili insult that Terry picked from the muggles."
"It's not an insult."
"How do you know?"
"I asked." Neville gave Harry a condescending look, "Apparently it's from a muggle TV show. They have a group called the Rangers there, and their leader is named Entil'Zha."
"Oh." That sounded so.. prosaic. Explanations took the mystery out of everything! "Ok, today I was thinking we'd take turns and do one on one duals on a broom. I know most people fight from the ground, but I want to see if you can do it while flying. Pair up, and we'll all have a go.." Harry turned to Hermione, who had was standing next to him. Maybe they could talk a bit as well, after they were done blasting each other out of the sky (it made sense in his mind).
"Um, I don't fly," Hermione replied. She hated flying, and could barely stay on a broom if she held on with both hands.
"Don't work, I'll take Harry," Ginny smirked at her (unknowing) rival. "You stay on the ground with Terry."
"So it's you and me, hmm?" Harry gave Ginny a challenging look.
"Bring it!" Ginny jumped onto her broom and kicked off.
Moments later, the two were swooping around the stalactites and back down to the stalagmites, up and over and down, as they snapped jinxes back and forth.
"Should we put up some cushioning spells?" Terry asked, looking at the two crazed Gryffindors fly without any regard for their safety.
"Erm, yeah. That's probably a good idea" Neville started casting.
Hermione pulled herself away from aerial acrobatics long enough to help out. As usual, both Ginny and Harry were amazing fliers, but Harry had drilled casting in the air before, and along with his natural talent, he was scoring more hits than receiving. After a couple of minutes, they both landed, out of breath. "That was fun."
"You want to be an Auror, right?" Ernie asked Harry, "So what is there going to be left for you to learn once you get to the Auror Academy?" He tried not to sound jealous, but it was hard.
Harry looked surprised. "Police procedure, Rules of Evidence, Law. There's tons of stuff I still need to learn!"
Hermione couldn't help but smile. 'He's so different from Ron.'
\*/
"Hey, Peter, It's been too long!" James gave his old friend a hug.
"Yes, it has!" Peter nodded, smiling anxiously. James was an old friend, but he was an Auror now, and Aurors always made Peter a little nervous. They sat down at a back table at the Leaky Cauldron. James had invited Peter out for drinks, but the little shopkeeper had not wanted to go anywhere fancy, preferring the comfort of a familiar watering spot, where he always ate lunch (on those days that his wife didn't pack him one).
After James had gotten them a pitcher of the house lager and a pair of mugs, Peter asked, "so what brings you around?"
"Partly to catch up, partly business." James shrugged apologetically, "With the return of Voldemort, I am so busy that everything is business. Lily complains that it's all I talk about now."
Peter giggled, "I'm glad I opted for the slow life!"
"How's the wife?"
"She's good." Peter paused before adding, "she's going to be in India for a bit, arranging a shipment of rare snakes. I'm hoping it takes longer than expected, so she can stay away from all the craziness here."
"That's part of what I want to ask you about. I was wondering if you could arrange a safe house. I need one that's off the books, that nobody in the Ministry knows about, in case things go badly."
Peter hesitated a moment but then jerked his head down in a nervous nod. He really, really didn't want to get involved with the war. He wasn't like Sirius or James. He just wanted to live a quiet life, maybe have a kid (eventually – that was also a scary concept). But James had made him feel like he was part of something back of Hogwarts. Him, who had always been an outsider. A loser. "I've got one. One of my muggle suppliers in France has a warehouse that is poorly supervised, so I used some space expansion charms on a back closet, turning it into a small apartment. I stay there when I have business on the continent. It's cheaper than renting a room. You can use it, for the duration." Peter smiled nervously, not certain if he had just admitted to breaking any laws.
James gave his old friend a warm smile. He knew that the little businessman would be able to pull something together – he was a lot more resourceful than most people thought. "That's great!" Technically, what Peter had done was frowned upon by the DMLE, but as long as nobody got hurt the Aurors usually looked the other way.
\*/
That following Saturday was a Hogsmead weekend. THE Hogsmead Weekend. Capital letters. Ginny stood in front of her wardrobe, trying to decide what to wear. 'Arg! This is stupid!' She finally grabbed her skirt (it was at the very bottom of her trunk, but she DID have one) and her best jumper.
She had taken long enough that some of her dorm mates were looking her way, "You got a date?" asked one.
"No, I'm just going to hang out with the guys." Though it would be with just one specific guy. And hopefully, it WOULD turn into a date. Somehow. 'I need to make sure Harry understands my intentions!'
Half an hour later, she was heading down to Hogsmeade with Harry and Neville (Because OF COURSE he brought his brother!) "Are you certain you don't want to invite Luna?" Ginny half teased. If Luna was there, then she and Harry could ditch Neville.
Neville sighed, "we're just friends. I am most definitely not her type. She's going to end up with some Ravenclaw guy."
"There's nothing wrong with dating somebody from another house," Harry protested. "Except Slytherin, obviously," he added quickly.
"I.. No... Daphne was ok." Neville appreciated Harry's show of support, but he wasn't willing to write off all Slytherins just because Daphne had freaked out & broken up with him for. Absolutely. No. Reason. He still wanted to know what had happened. 'I know. I'll write her a letter, like I did last year.'
"Stop here!" Ginny called out to the carriage. They were almost all the way to Hogsmead, but off to the left there was a grassy field leading to a shallow escarpment. "Lets go up there!" If it was going to be the three of them, then her original plan (if you could call 'get Harry alone, do something that only the two of us enjoy, start dating' a plan) was out the door, so they might as well do something fun instead. "I heard that there is an old abandoned house up at the top, right at the edge of the Forbidden Forest"
Harry and Neville looked at each other. "Yeah, that wold be cool to visit." They had heard about the Shrieking Shack from their dad, but had never gone to see it before.
There was an overgrown path that led up the side of the rise – it was only thirty feet or so – but Ginny instead headed for the steepest part, where bare rocks jutted out, and started climbing.
"Um, Ginny? Should you be doing that?" Harry asked, averting his eyes so that he wouldn't be looking up her skirt.
"It's fine. It's not a difficult climb."
Harry and Neville exchanged a look. "We'll go up after you're done," Harry called up.
At that moment, a cold breeze blew up Ginny's legs, flapping her skirt upwards. She froze in horrified realization. "If you look up, I will kill you both!"
"Who's idea was it to go climbing in a skirt?" Neville heckled her back.
There was a moment of silence, and then, "I'll still murder you both. You know I'm good for it!"
A few minutes later, the three teens were at the top of the outcrop. "It's supposed to be somewhere around here."
"Hey, guys, over here!" Harry led the way through a stand of trees to small house – more a cottage than a proper home. Harry had to Alohomra the door open after first using a cutting hex to clear some of the vegetation from around the front door, but the building was in surprisingly good condition. "It must have preservation spells on it." The trio peered in. There was a large living / dining area in the front, and a couple of rooms in back, as well as a set of stairs leading up, but none of the teens were willing to risk those – preservation spells can only do so much.
Everything was coated in a thick layer of dust
"Hey, look at that!" Ginny pointed into one of the back rooms, which had a large four poster bed that was in surprisingly good condition, "You could come here for a shag!"
Harry and Neville exchanged another look. "What's with you today?" Harry asked. Ginny was definitely acting weird.
Ginny shrugged, "I'm just making a joke. You want to try the upstairs?"
"Not without a broom – I don't trust those stairs."
"I guess. Well, let's see if there is anything down here." Neville opened the door to the other room. "Whoa!"
The entire places was covered in claw marks, like a a wild animal had tired to rip the place apart.
"I bet that was done by a poltergeist!" Ginny crowed.
"Um, no that was probably Uncle Remus." Harry replied, "Back when he was a student here. He's a werewolf, you see, and he would come here on the days of the full moon."
Neville nodded, "There's supposed to be a secret passageway from here back to the school, but dad never told us where it was. We looked, back in first year, but kind of forgot about it afterwards."
"You guys knew about this?" Ginny asked in a hurt tone. It felt like Harry didn't need anybody else since he had his brother. 'I guess it's good to have family.' Ginny tried to put a positive spin on the situation, but it was really hard. Really, really hard. And the fact that her own brother was a total prat didn't help matters.
"We weren't keeping it as a secret or anything. We just forgot about it."
Ginny gave a huff and stalked out of the room before racing up the stairs to the second floor, ignoring the fact that the stairs looked like they were just about ready to collapse. "Oh, this is so cool. You can see all of Hogsmeade from here!"
Neville turned to Harry. "Remember when we'd have raced right up after her?"
"Yeah, when we were younger and a lot dumber."
"And 50 pounds lighter."
"Nah, it was mostly because we were dumber."
"Oy, speak for yourself!" Neville tried to grab Harry, who ducked out of the way, laughing, "I can still give you a noogie!"
\*/
They returned to Hogwarts to find Lavender and Ron having a screaming fight in the middle of the Common room. Ron was yelling something about Lavender getting dunk and hitting on older guys, and she retaliated by calling him a slut and running up the girl's stairs.
"Um, what did we just walk into?" Harry asked the cluster of Gryffindors who had been forced to watch the proceedings. The younger students looked shell shocked, while a couple of the seventh years looked like they wished they had popcorn to go with the show.
Surprisingly, Sally-Ann Perks, the class wallflower, was the one to reply."Lavender just discovered that Ron's been shagging Romilda."
"Merlin. Ron is an idiot" Neville opined. To which most of the audience nodded, as he was stating an accepted fact.
\*/
It was at dinner the following night that Harry noticed something off, "Where's Hermione?" She was usually sitting either with the coterie around Ron or with Harry's gang. But she wasn't at either place. Though the usually raucous group surrounding Ron was somewhat muted, and Lavender and Parvati were eating with Padma, at the Ravenclaw table.
"I don't know. And she didn't show for Dueling club earlier today," Neville added. Though the Rangers sometimes ditched that, as the material was pretty basic - they only came to help Harry with the teaching.
Harry sighed and wiped his mouth before putting his napkin on his plate. "I'll go take a look."
Ten minutes later he slid into the chair next to Hermione. She was at a back desk in the library, a stack of books in front of her, like a palisade. "Hi."
There was a not-particularly feminine grunt from the other side of the barricade.
"Are you ok?"
Hermione finally raised her head, "Do you come asking after everybody's well being?"
"No, just my Rangers," Harry smiled, causing Hermione to snort. "You should go down and get some dinner before it's all gone."
Hermione gave a long suffering sigh and stretched. "I'll be ok. I'll get something from the kitchens later." She paused before adding, "It's just Ron… You know, after word got out that he was dating Lavender, I thought about having a fling to get back at him. But… If he's two-timing Lavender to shag Romilda, he wouldn't have even noticed, would he? Or cared."
No he wouldn't. And that had been clear way back in fifth year. But Harry was tactful enough not to say it. "Who were you planning to have a fling with?" He asked too-casually. 'Was that what the Slug Yule party was all about?'
Hermione snorted again, in self-derision, letting her hair fall forward like a curtain as she looked down at her homework. "I hadn't thought that far ahead." Suddenly, her head jerked up, a look of horror spreading across it. "Wait, you doesn't think that… The Yule party wasn't about that. At all." She shook her her vigorously before returning to contemplating her (closed books).
The two teens sat silently for a several minutes. Finally, Hermione forced herself to continue, "you know, about the party – I should have talked to you about what happened. I'm sorry."
Now it was Harry's turn to be self conscious, "Well, there wasn't much time before we left for the holiday."
"I should have made time. It was wrong of me. But it's just, well, I was scared that you would stop being my friend, because of.. Because your friendship is very, very important to me." Hermione sighed before looking up again. "So – friends?"
"Yes." Harry swallowed before adding, "or something more, if you want."
Hermione shook her head, replying with atypical self awareness, "I don't think I'm ready for that."
She then got up and gave Harry a quick hug. Except it wasn't quick. Harry wasn't certain what to do as Hermione suddenly clutched onto him, sobbing slightly. In the end he just held her, rubbing her back.
.
Note:
I will try to rush out another chapter over the long weekend.