Chapter Five
Whew! What a day! I've spent is doing nothing but teach. Geez, that's a stupid thing to say, of course I'd spend the whole day teaching, I'm a teacher now. Ministry work even feels lighter than this. At least I could fall asleep in my office when I got tired. But NOOO…
Oh well, it has been interesting, though I really ought to control myself, both magically and emotionally…
"So guys, what did you think of her?"
"Uhm, you mean Professor D'Angelique, don't you, mate?"
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in their usual places in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione was, as usual, bent over her books and parchments, which were neatly stacked on the desk in front of them. She looked up at the two.
"What's up Harry? You feel something about her?"
"We-el, I, er…"
Ron wasn't listening, though. He was looking (almost disgustedly) at the pile of Hermione's school things. With a twinkle in his eye, he said, "Hermy! It's our first day back! You don't need to study right away! The only one who gave homework was Harry's girlfriend--"
"RON!" Harry and Hermione shouted in unison.
"What?" replied Ron innocently, "That's it, Harry, isn't it? I saw you staring at her the whole lesson. You didn't say a word; you didn't even react when she did that cool manus thing--"
Hermione interrupted. She was obviously trying her best not to yell. "Ron, let me start by saying that we should really pay heavy attention to our studies now that we've got our OWLs back. You were just lucky to pass all the subjects and to have gotten eight OWLs. You have to start thinking about what you'll be doing in the future. Next," she went on, not giving the redhead a chance to rebutt, "just because someone intensely focuses on another someone doesn't mean the first someone likes the second someone. Do you get me, Weasley?"
Ron grinned and saluted, "Loud and clear, mon capitan! "Then turning to Harry, he said, "Sorry mate, I was just--"
"--fooling around," finished Harry with a smile. "I should know that by now, how you love doing that." At that, he just sighed and looked elsewhere.
Suddenly Ron said, "Hmm, I know what was weird about her! She didn't stop at your name in the roll call! Is that it, mate?"
Harry just grinned. "I was glad she didn't. There was something in her eyes that was so different. But anyway..." Again, his voice trailed off and he picked up a piece of parchment and his quill (the luxury eagle-feather one that Hermione gave him in their second year) and he started to compose his thoughts for the paper he was submitting to Professor D'Angelique. Ron, seeing that his friend had given up trying to talk about his problem, did the same.
Ten minutes (and in Harry's case, many useless doodles) later, Ron yawned and muttered sleepily to Harry about not thinking too hard (You don't wanta gert anodr hedaAAAHche, do ya?). He then crammed his things into his bag and trudged up the stairs to the sixth years' dormitory. As Harry watched his friend walk off, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking back at Hermione, for some reason he couldn't explain, he felt all warm inside seeing her smiling so tenderly at him. However, the moment only lasted an instant. She looked down at his parchments, shook her head slightly and tutted. "You didn't get anything done."
Harry looked away as he replied. "I kept seeing Professor D'Angelique in my mind. I didn't get to say it, what with Ron going on the way he was, but really, there's something about her, something that--"
"Just touches you deep inside and you can't explain why," Hermione finished for him. Harry looked at her, surprised. "You weren't...um...?" he said as he pointed to his head.
"Reading your mind? I didn't need to. I was watching you almost the whole time in class. You know what I think is up with you Harry? You see yourself in her."
Harry kept quiet after that. She was right and he knew it.
"You know what you're going to do, Harry?" Hermione continued. "You're going to go over to her tomorrow during our break and you're going to--"
"Ask her what happened to her and check to see if I'm not just imagining things?"
"Nope," said Hermione, looking at Harry's pile of discarded parchment. "You're going to ask her for help to identify your interests. You can't focus," she continued coyly, "you could use the help of an expert like her."
Harry's face lit up. "Whatever would I do without you?"
Hermione just smiled. She put her hand on Harry's shoulder again. "You need rest, Harry. So do I, come to think of it. C'mon, let's sleep."
With that, she turned away and went up to the sixth year girl's dormitory.