Author's Note:
I realize that a lot of you reading the story on this site do not have access to the bedchamber at Checkmated for various reasons and that you can't read the story there. But you need to understand that I do not have the power to post an edited down version at that site. The story has been classified as NC-17 and I can not change that. Once I submit the chapter it goes to my beta, who has to proof read it and only she has the power to upload or edit the chapters after that point. I simply don't have the power to upload the chapters myself. So while the chapter is technically finished by that point, I have no real say in when it will be posted and until it is, I am not able to post the chapters here or at any of the other sites I post on because it is still unedited.
I understand that it is hard for you wait when the chapter does finally get posted at Checkmated, because you know it is out there and that you can't see it, but I must ask you to be patient. As I said, I do not know when the chapters will be updated at that site and it is only after I discover that it has been that I can copy the finished/ betaed version and edited out any unsuitable (NC-17 material) so I can upload it here. That does take time to do, especially during the weekends when I do not have a lot of time to spend online.
The simple fact is Checkmated will always get the new chapters first because that is where the majority of the fan base reads. I receive the majority of my reviews/ feedback/ help there and that is where my official beta is. HarryPotterFanFiction gets updated next. (Usually on the same day or the day after Checkmated) Because I can post an R rated version there and don't have to make as many changes in order to get it up. Sadly, this site gets the chapter last. Not because I value the readers on this site any less, but because I have to alter the finished version to make it suitable for the younger readers who view it here. Yes, I realize that the version stored here is technically rated R, but I also realize that there are a lot of younger readers who can access it here despite the rating, so I will continue to keep edit the sexual content as much as possible. Those of you that simply can not stand waiting can always go to HarryPotterFanFiction dot com and read the chapters there.
Chapter 67
"Of all the irresponsible..." Madam Pomfrey mumbled, trudging back over to her charges once the Headmaster had explained the reason behind Ron's unconventional detention and departed. "Hogwarts Professors using Unforgivables on students..." she raged under her breath, "...to prepare them for... Honestly! Keep them away from the fighting, I say," she said, her voice getting louder with each word she uttered. "Don't encourage them. And you," she said, zeroing in on Ron and glowering at him in disapproval. "You actually gave your consent to this... this madness?"
"Well, yeah," Ron replied meekly, unsure whether he really ought to respond. "It made sense at the time," he muttered when the nurse arched one eyebrow at him.
"It most certainly does not make sense," Madam Pomfrey hissed.
"Then why did Dumbledore suggest it? What?" Ron asked Hermione when she rolled her eyes at him and she shook her head.
"It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense," she replied.
"Does too."
"Whatever you say," Hermione said in a placating manner, although her face clearly said, 'That's because you're an idiot.'
"So can we go now or what?" the redhead asked, redirecting his attention to the school nurse, who looked as if she'd like nothing more than to lock the doors and keep them contained in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend, if not the duration of the war. "Because a nice long soak in the Prefects' bathroom is sounding mighty good about now. Unless you want first crack at it," he added, glancing at Hermione again as he swung his feet over the edge of his bed and stood upright.
"I'd rather check on Harry first," she replied.
"So can we go?" Ron asked Madam Pomfrey again.
"I suppose," she agreed, albeit reluctantly. Neither of them was seriously ill or injured after all and keeping them bedridden wasn't going to fix what ailed them. A hot bath however, might relax the muscles enough to relieve some of the pain and stiffness they were suffering from. "Only do try and stay out of trouble from now on."
"We do try," Ron said, as he and Hermione left the hospital wing together. "Maybe not all of the time," he added, as they stepped into the corridor, "but some of the time."
"And when exactly would that be?" Hermione asked.
"On those rare occasions you tell us to and we actually listen," Ron said with a cheeky smile. "So do you want me to walk you up to the tower?" he asked, knowing that Hermione didn't really like walking around the castle on her own.
"No, that's all right," she replied. "You go take your ridiculously hot bath. I'll be fine."
"I don't suppose there's any chance you'll come with me?" he asked hopefully. "I promise I'll be good and keep my hands to myself. Even if I let you control the temperature?" he added, when she shook her head. "How about if I agree to use those girly smelling bubbles you like? Aw, come on," Ron whined, when Hermione shook her head again. "Who's going to wash my back?"
"How about Moaning Myrtle," she suggested flippantly.
"You're no fun."
"I'm to sore for that kind of fun and it's entirely your fault."
"I'm sore too. Why do you think I promised to be good?"
"Because having Myrtle spy on us would ruin the mood."
"That too, but..."
"I'll be fine on my own," Hermione stated, sensing how reluctant Ron was to let her out of his sight. "I'm going straight to the tower."
"No detours in the library or anything like that?"
"I already told you that I wanted to check on Harry, so unless he's hiding in the library..."
"Ok," Ron agreed, before she had a chance to say anything else. "I'll try not to take too long," he said, as he started walking towards the staircase that would take him to the Prefects' bathroom on the fifth floor, "and when I get back, the three of us can go down and get some lunch or something."
¤
"Look," Hermione heard Harry say gruffly as she approached the half open door of his dorm room fifteen minutes later, "I already told you that I didn't want to talk about it, so drop it."
"With me, you mean," Parvati's voice rang out shrilly, stopping Hermione dead in her tracks before she reached the door. She'd expected to find him with Ginny, not Parvati. "You didn't seem to have a problem talking about it with her."
Her, Hermione repeated in her mind. That one little word explained so much. Harry wasn't arguing with Ginny at all. He was arguing with Parvati about Ginny. She had to be the 'her' that Parvati was in a snit about. Who else could it be? And obviously that meant that Ginny had already been up to see Harry and she'd managed to sort him out somewhat. At least enough that he'd unlocked his bedroom door and let Parvati in. But rather than make up, as Parvati no doubt expected, they were fighting again and that presented something of a problem.
Logically Hermione knew that she ought to turn around and walk back down to the common room, because their disagreement was none of her business. Then again, if she allowed it to continue, Parvati was going to undermine all of Ginny's work and put Harry back in a funk. Yet, if she tried to intercede she'd probably just make things worse and Ron would definitely not be happy when he found out she'd been meddling in Harry's private affairs again. Unsure what to do, Hermione just stood where she was and listened to them as she tried to make up her mind.
"What do you want me to say?" Harry shouted back. "It wasn't like she gave me much of a choice."
"Oh, so she forced you to open up, did she?" Parvati retorted, evidently not buying a word of his excuse. "Why didn't you tell her to get out of your face and leave you alone like you did me? Let me guess. It's because she's your friend and I'm not."
"I did tell her that," Harry fired back. "The difference is she didn't listen."
"So it's my fault now, is it?"
"You're the one that walked away."
"Yes, because you told me to," Parvati shouted back, as she threw open the bedroom door, "And just so you don't forget what it looks like, here's me doing it again," she said, stomping into the hallway and slamming the door shut behind herself. But rather than storm off, as she'd obviously intended to do, she came face to face with Hermione and froze. "What are you doing?" she snapped, clearly surprised to discover that they'd had an audience. "Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital wing or something?"
"Don't," Hermione said when Parvati lifted her head in the air with as much dignity as she could muster and started moving past her when she didn't answer her question straight away. "He isn't going to chase after you," she warned. "Harry doesn't play those kinds of games. Don't walk away from him unless you really mean it."
"Funny, I don't recall asking for your advice," Parvati replied defensively, flipping her plaited hair over her shoulder as she did so. "And I'm getting rather sick of other people pointing out that they know my boyfriend better than I do, as if that were my fault. You want to lecture somebody," she said, pushing past Hermione and trudging down the hallway towards the stairs, "I suggest you go lecture him. He's the one acting like an arse."
"Harry, open this door," Hermione shouted, after pounding on it two separate times and getting no response. "I know you're in there and I'm not going to leave. You may as well just open the door now because..."
"What do you want?" he asked, flinging the bedroom door wide open and retreating to his bed before his friend even had a chance to enter his room. "If you came up here to tell me what happened with Ron and Snape, I already know. I know about the whole holiday plans thing too," he added, before she had a chance to respond. "Ginny told me everything and it's fine. Seriously, I'm actually glad we're staying here, so you can go back downstairs and tell Ron that he doesn't have to avoid me or anything like that. I'm fine with it. All right?"
"First of all, Ron's not avoiding you," Hermione stated, shutting the door behind herself and walking over to sit on the edge of Harry's bed, "he just wanted to take a bath before lunch. Secondly, you're not fine and I know why, so don't bother denying it. I heard you and Parvati arguing when I came up to check on you."
"And now you're going to tell me exactly what it is that I did wrong," he said resentfully.
"Not unless you really want me to," Hermione answered.
"So you do think that I'm the one that's in the wrong then?"
"I can't answer that," she replied, despite the fact she strongly suspected that he was. "Maybe if you told me what you've supposedly done."
"When you find that out, let me know," Harry replied sarcastically, "because none of what she was shouting made any sense."
"Well, I just caught the end of it," Hermione stated, "but it seemed fairly obvious to me. She's jealous."
"Of what?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Not what," Hermione corrected, "who."
"Not this again," Harry groaned, replaying some of the comments Cho had made about Hermione during the course of their short-lived relationship over in his head. "How many times do we have to tell people that article Rita Skeeter wrote about us was a load of bunk? I mean, come on. You're with Ron, for Merlin sakes. Everyone knows that. Why would she be jealous of..."
"Not me," Hermione interrupted. "Well, maybe a little," she amended, after thinking it over for a moment. "But I was referring to Ginny."
"Ginny!" Harry yelped. "Why would anyone think that?"
"She is the one that Parvati was shouting at you about, isn't she?"
"But why would she be jealous of Ginny? We're just friends," Harry said defensively.
"And therein lies the problem," Hermione sighed, trying to come up with a way to explain the situation that would be simple enough for Harry to understand and yet not be critical enough to put him on the defensive. Harry didn't deal with criticism well. If she flat out asked him if he was intentionally leading Parvati on, she'd set him off. And if she threw too much information at him too quickly, or if he wasn't open to hearing it just yet, he'd simply deny everything and tune her out.
"What? I'm not allowed to have friends of the opposite sex now? When did that become a crime? You're starting to sound way too much like Ron. You realize that, don't you? It's the whole Krum thing all over again. "
"That's not what I meant and you know it," she replied. "It's just..." to hell with tact, he's already making excuses, he'll stop listening next "...you tell Ginny things. Private things. Things that matter," she tried to explain. "You allow her to get close to you in the same way you allow Ron and I to get close to you. You trust her enough to open up and you show her a side of yourself that's vulnerable. That's something I can only assume you don't do with Parvati and that's bound to make her feel like she's less important to you than we are."
"Yes, yes, I know," Hermione said quickly, holding one hand up in the air to stop her friend from interrupting when she saw the defensive look on his face. "You're trying to protect her," she said, as Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I get that and I'm sure Parvati's tried to justify it to herself in the same fashion. But the fact is, you are keeping her at arms length and in the dark about a huge portion of your life, and that's bound to sting, no matter what the reasons."
"But if she knows why I'm doing it then..."
"Put yourself in her shoes for a moment," Hermione fired back before he could get rolling with the excuses again. "It's like you have two distinctly different categories, friend and girlfriend, and she can only fit into one of them. Maybe you should ask yourself why that is? Maybe there is a legitimate reason you feel more comfortable talking to Ginny about certain things than you do her. Maybe not," she added, when his brow creased and he looked as if he was about to start arguing again. "But I'll tell you this much, if our situations were reversed and it was Ron keeping me in the dark while he shared all his problems with some other girl, I'd throttle him."
"Except Ron wouldn't do that," Harry cut in. "Why would he want to go talk to some other girl? The only reason he tells you those kinds of things is because you force him to."
"The same way Ginny forces you," Hermione reminded him. "But, you're missing my point."
"Which is?" he asked warily.
"That no matter what Ron's reasons were, it would hurt. I'd feel betrayed and I wouldn't put up with it."
"Put up with what?" a familiar voice asked, as the bedroom door swung open and one of the redheads in question entered the room. Only his hair was more auburn in color than it normally was, due to the fact that it was still damp. "What have I done now?" he groaned, as he spied his friends seated side by side on Harry's bed.
"Why aren't you lounging in your bath?" Hermione asked.
"You tell me," Ron replied, yanking the shirt he'd slept in over his head and tossing it on the floor, before moving to his trunk, and retrieving fresh one. "You're the one that went and got all concerned," he added, as he pulled the fresh shirt on. "So what's up?"
"Nothing," Harry replied automatically.
"Harry's had another fight with Parvati," Hermione said at nearly the same moment.
"That's it?" Ron asked, both relieved and a little surprised. "That's what you're fretting about?" he asked Hermione. "That's why I couldn't relax? And here I thought it was something important."
"It is important," Hermione insisted.
"To you maybe," Ron said, looking at Harry and rolling his eyes. "But Harry's not you and he doesn't want to talk about girly stuff like that," he added, shifting his gaze back to Hermione, "so stop pestering him."
"Just because you're an insensitive wart, that doesn't mean that you should encourage Harry to be one as well. Most girls aren't willing to put up with that for very long."
"I can think of a few who are," Ron retorted, plopping down on the edge of his best mate's bed beside Hermione and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "And they're the best kinds," he added with a snigger, as she shoved him away, "because they accept you warts and all. You wouldn't want me to pretend to be someone I wasn't," he stated, "anymore than I'd want you to. How boring would that be? What would we bicker about if I wasn't such an insensitive prat and you didn't call me on it?"
"Did it ever occur to you that Harry might like to have a girlfriend that is actually speaking to him?"
"Oh please." Ron chuckled. "How many times has he seen us have a row?"
"Today?" Harry asked in jest. "This week? This month?"
"My point exactly," Ron replied. "It's no big deal. It's just what couples do. They fight, they make up, fight again, make up. It doesn't mean anything. Whatever's got her knickers in a twist, she'll get over it eventually. So can we go to lunch now or what? I'm starved. What?" he asked when Hermione's mouth fell open and she continued to gape at him as if he had a spider sitting on top of his head or something.
"That's... You're unbelievable," she eventually stammered out.
"I'll take that as a compliment," Ron said, standing upright and grasping Hermione's hands so he could pull her into a standing position as well.
"It wasn't meant as one," she stated, allowing Ron to drag her towards the door as Harry got up and followed them.
"I know," Ron admitted with a chuckle, as all three of them walked down the hallway, "but I'm going to pretend that it was that way we can skip ahead to the make up portion of the afternoon after lunch."
"You're impossible."
"Impossible to resist. I know," Ron retorted with one of his patented lopsided smiles. "See how easy it is," he said to Harry, as the three of them descended into the common room together. "I'm not the only one pretending. She wants us to believe that she's offended and hacked off at me, but she's not. A little irritated maybe, but a little bit of the Weasley charm and she caved."
"Shut up," Hermione groaned, because she couldn't very well deny what he'd just said. Not with him linked to her and sensing everything she was feeling. Sometimes she really did hate that connection. It was so much easier to keep Ron in line and on his best behavior when he didn't know when she was bluffing.
"Just tell her that you're sorry for whatever it is that she thinks you've done," Ron suggested to Harry as they walked through the portrait hole and started winding their way down the corridors.
"I'm not going to grovel," Harry said rather resentfully. "I didn't do anything." She's the one that walked out on me, he reminded himself.
"Take it from a bloke that's been there," Ron advised. "It doesn't matter if you did it or not. Just apologize now and save yourself the hassle of doing it later when she's even more hacked off at you."
"No."
"Suit yourself then," Ron said with a shrug of his shoulders. "So what do you think? You up for a little chess after we eat?"
"And when precisely do you two plan on studying for your exams?" Hermione asked rather tetchily. "You do realize that we have less than two weeks before..."
"Kinda hard to forget with you constantly reminding us," Ron retorted. "Although Merlin knows we've tried. So what do you say, mate?"
"Yeah, sure," Harry replied, "why not?"
"You just had to ask," Ron moaned under his breath, knowing that Hermione would likely spend the next thirty minutes or so happily listing the reasons why they shouldn't spend their afternoon playing chess now that Harry had opened the door by posing his rhetorical question.
¤
The last few weeks of the term seemed to drag on forever as far as Harry was concerned. The closer the Christmas holidays got, the longer the days seemed to get and knowing that there was an actual end in sight only seemed to make the deluge of schoolwork the sixth years needed to finish before their exams all the more excruciating. Even Ron had finally stopped putting it off and got down to work, although Harry suspected that had a lot to do with the fact that Hermione's anxieties were now eating away at him and try as he might, his best mate simply wasn't able to ignore them anymore.
It worked out great for Hermione however, because she didn't have to actually be present to keep the boys on task. It took her all of one evening in the library to discover that she could bury herself behind a mountain of books and stay there all night long if she felt so inclined and the boys would more or less continue working on their own assignments without her supervision. Not that either of them really wanted to, of course, but the mounting unease that was gnawing away at Ron, kept him from enjoying any of the breaks they tried to take and without him to distract Harry or join in when Harry was attempting to distract himself, they both seemed to get a lot more accomplished.
Of course that didn't mean that Harry didn't take breaks. Just because Ron gave in and snatched his notes back up within five minutes of putting them down, albeit with quite a bit of grumbling, that didn't mean Harry was going to follow suit straight away. And more often than not, it was during those moments when he was trying to avoid his own school work that Harry found his mind drifting to the advice his friends had given him concerning his personal life.
He tried to focus on what Ron said a bit more than the things Hermione mentioned, however. Not because they hadn't both made valid points and given him sound advice. It was simply that Ron's advice was more comfortable to contemplate, whereas Hermione's brought up issues he didn't really want to think about. Of course there were times when he couldn't seem to help himself.
It didn't hurt that he and Parvati spent a great deal of time in close proximity to one another. They did share most of their classes after all, which meant that they had the same homework and exams to study for during the evenings. And every time Harry saw how miserable she looked when she'd glance at him from across the crowded common room, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
The truth was, despite what he'd told his friends there was part of him that wanted to apologize to her. Thinking about apologizing however, and actually doing it were two completely different things, and no matter how often he thought about it, Harry never did actually break down and say the words. If he were the one to apologize, he'd be admitting that he was the one in the wrong, and while there was part of him that knew he was to a certain degree, he wasn't going to admit it.
Besides, he was entitled to have friends of his own and he could talk about anything he wanted with them, whether Parvati liked it or not. All right, so technically his feelings for Ginny might not be strictly platonic, but they were mostly platonic and totally one sided, as she was still seeing David Devane, so what was the big deal? It wasn't like he'd cheated on her with Ron's sister or anything. All he did was talk to her for Merlin's sake.
And of course Harry continued to use the fact that Parvati had been the one that had walked out on him as an excuse to hold himself back. If anyone should apologize, he reasoned it ought to be her. It didn't matter that he'd told her to leave him alone, he'd told Hermione and Ginny that many times during the course of their friendship and neither of them ever listened. Just because he pushed Parvati away, that didn't mean she had to go. If she had really have wanted to stay, she would have, but she didn't and that just proved that no matter what she said, she wasn't really all that concerned about him. Parvati had left him, not the other way around. She was the one that proved she wasn't dependable. Why should he be the one to apologize?
Then again, Ron did have a point when he mentioned that all couples fought. He and Hermione had been snipping at one another for six years and it didn't seem to damage their relationship any. Not that he necessarily wanted a relationship like theirs and yet at the same time he did. Maybe not one that was quite as volatile, but the deep seated intimacy they shared had to be nice. Yes, it was true they could break into a fight at any given moment, and over the most asinine things, yet they knew each other so well that most of the things they shouted at one another seemed to just roll off without sticking. And while he'd seen Hermione walk out on Ron in the middle of a row more times than he could count, even Harry couldn't hold it against her, because just like Ron, he understood why she did it.
It wasn't as if Hermione was really abandoning Ron. She didn't walk away from him because she didn't care about him; she walked away because she did. When Hermione left mid-rant, it was usually because she was worried that they'd reached a point where one of them was going to say something they'd truly regret in the heat of the moment and then not be able to take it back. Sometimes it was just better for both of them if she pulled back and gave them the space they needed to cool off. And it wasn't as if she wasn't going to come back eventually. She'd always come back and all three of them knew it.
That was the thing with Hermione. No matter how angry she was or how much she might disapprove of something he or Ron did, when push came to shove, she would put that aside and support them when they needed it. If one of them was in trouble, they knew that they could count on her to help bail them out, no matter what. But could the same be said about Parvati?
All right, so it was true that maybe he hadn't really given her the chance. He did keep her at arms length when it came to certain things. Hermione had been right about that. And as much as he'd like to pretend that it was just because she was safer not knowing certain things, deep down Harry knew that wasn't strictly true. Ginny would be a lot safer not knowing half the things she knew, and yet he had still opened up to her. And no matter how many times he reminded himself that it would be better for her entire family if he distanced himself from her, Ginny kept putting herself smack dab in the center of his problems and he continued to allow it. What did that say about him?
It's just that... she's so easy to talk to, Harry told himself, attempting to justify his actions to himself with a half truth, because that way he wouldn't have to explore any the other things motivating him. And yet even as he said it, he knew there was more to it than that. Much more.
It wasn't just that she was easy to talk to; it was that she didn't let him get away with not talking about the things that were bothering him, and sometimes that was exactly what he needed. He didn't want to talk about Voldemort and how he was mucking up the lives of everyone he cared about and yet at the same time he did, at least on some subconscious level. He must, because when he did let it out, he usually felt better. But he couldn't talk about those things with just anyone. It had to be with someone that he knew he could trust; someone that would keep the information to themselves and not get all freaked out or be too judgmental.
Ron and Hermione were great and all, and Harry knew that they were always willing to listen and that they'd be only too happy to help him with any problem he had, but sometimes it was just easier telling Ginny things. In a lot of respects it was like talking to Ron, only she was better at keeping secrets. Ron had that whole connection thing going with Hermione, in addition to their relationship, and that made it nearly impossible for him to keep secrets from her. He could, and would, if Harry asked him to, but Harry didn't want to put him in that position, especially when it wasn't necessary. Besides, they already worried about him too much as it was.
Sometimes it was just easier with Ginny. She didn't wince every time he mentioned Voldemort by name and he didn't have to feel quite as guilty around her. Of course that probably had a lot to do with the fact that Voldemort hadn't singled her out as a target yet. She did have personal experience dealing with him herself, but that was all Lucius Malfoy's doing.
"Finished," Ron groaned, snapping Harry out of his reverie when he slammed his Charms textbook shut. "Finally," he sighed, shoving his now complete homework towards Harry before flopping back in his chair and closing his eyes. "It only took forever. You better look it over quick," Ron added, opening his eyes and doing a quick scan of the room just to make certain Hermione hadn't returned from the library while he wasn't paying attention, "because if Hermione catches me letting you copy, we're both going to be in a whole lot of trouble."
"Don't worry," Harry replied, spinning Ron's finished essay around just enough so he could read it, but not enough that what he was doing was obvious just incase Hermione returned sooner than expected. "I'm nearly finished myself," he added, as he jumped to the end of Ron's parchment and skimming over a few of the references he'd made so he could look them up himself. "I'll just tack this part on in my own words," he said, "and then we can start practicing for the D.A.D.A. exam."
"As if you need the practice," Ron answered. "You practically help Tonks teach the class. She's always using you to help her demonstrate stuff. Guess you'll need to bone up on your wandless magic now, since we know we'll be starting that after the break. Good thing too. Hermione's already stressed out enough as it is. Throw something she can't do on her first try at her just before exams and she'd have a nervous breakdown or something."
"And take you down with her."
"Exactly," Ron replied. "Think Tonks will go over it with us during the break?" he asked Harry, who was now glancing back and forth between his textbook and the sheet of parchment he was busily scribbling on. "The wandless magic stuff I mean?"
"I doubt it," Harry answered. "I got the feeling it was just going to be curses and stuff. You know," he said, as he continued to write. "Just to see which ones affect one of you and which ones affect both of you. Stuff like that. But hey, look on the bright side. Maybe you can earn yourself some extra credit."
"Shut up," Ron moaned, his ears darkening significantly at his best friends jest. "I'm not that bad."
"Sure you aren't."
"It's not my fault Hermione is mental right now."
"I know," Harry replied with a chuckle, "but that doesn't make you becoming all homework obsessed as well any less funny."
"I am not obsessed," Ron insisted, the redness now spreading to his face. "I'm just... motivated," he said, after taking a moment to hunt for the appropriate word. "That's all."
"Yeah, right," Harry scoffed.
"No, seriously," Ron said, lowering his voice significantly. "Hermione's...well let's just say she's been compensating me for taking the initiative in some very creative ways, if you know what I mean. If I had known that doing my homework without being nagged to death first was going to turn her on that much I would have..."
"As happy as I am for you, mate" Harry interrupted, "I really don't want to hear the rest of that sentence."
"Oh, but I do," someone with a strong Irish brogue piped in behind them. "So exactly how often are you two getting 'creative', Weasley?" Seamus asked.
"As if I'd tell the likes of you that, Finnegan."
"Creative in what way exactly?" Seamus asked, completely undeterred by Ron's retort. "If you tell me I might actually leave you alone."
"A likely story," Harry jeered, but he knew there was no getting rid of Seamus now. He'd sit there and pester them until Ron blew his top or Hermione returned from the library with Ginny and her mere presence chased him away, whichever came first. In the meantime, Harry had an essay to finish, so he may as well tune them out and get back to it.