Disclaimer:  They aren't mine.  Not now…not ever.  Anything recognizable belongs to JKR and Company.  Anything else is simply me having a bit of fun!

A Tense Situation

~Chapter Nine~

Susan Bones was getting more than a little tired of waiting for her boyfriend of nearly a year, but she had finally come to accept that waiting around was just another part of the 'privilege' (as so many people seemed to see it) of dating the Boy-Who-Lived.  Not that she was really complaining as Harry had always been more than considerate during their relationship and they had grown to truly care about one another.  So much so that they had spoken of marriage upon more than one occasion during the past few months.  She sighed knowing that, though they may speak of it, Harry would never actually propose while the threat of the Dark Lord hung over their heads as he feared she would be one of the first people on the Death Eaters' list that would be used against him.

"It's bad enough that Hermione and Ron insist on allowing themselves to be placed in that position, despite my better judgment," he had argued time after time, "but I refuse to see you make the same mistake. I'm just not worth it!"

There had even been a few occasions, when the Dark Lord's minions had been especially active, that he had tried to call off the relationship entirely for her own well being.  But even though she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, she was still as stubborn as anyone else and her Hufflepuff standing all but guaranteed her loyalty to those she loved.  And if she was truly honest with herself, not to mention everyone else, she would have to admit that she had fallen completely head over heels for the dark haired young man despite all of his dire warnings to the contrary.  The best part of it all was that she strongly suspected he returned her feelings one hundred percent. 

And that left her with waiting for him yet again so that they could spend a little time together before curfew went into effect for the evening. Now that the NEWTs were over and the Professors had stopped assigning homework in order to finish tallying the students' final grades, it was the perfect opportunity.  It really wasn't his fault that she was left waiting for him more often than not, but it seemed that every time they attempted to make arrangements for some time alone, someone or something usually got in the way.  Either it was some sort of meeting with Dumbledore regarding the Dark Lord, the Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape that he had reluctantly resumed at the start of the year, Quidditch problems with his teammates, or generally being a normal wizard and losing all track of time when he was with his friends; Ron and Hermione to be precise.  This week his continual tardiness had been a result of the latter reason, although she suspected there was more to the situation than met the eye.  The three friends had carried with them an air of apprehension throughout the week and while most people probably would never pick up on such a fact, Susan had become close enough to Harry and his best friends that she knew better.  She wished yet again that he would open up just a little and tell her what the problem was.  She might not be able to help, but at least it would put an end to both her constant worrying and overactive imagination, which was intent on conjuring all sorts of various possibilities as to the reason for the trio's current preoccupation.

She sighed and glanced yet again at the round Muggle timepiece on her wrist that Harry had laughingly presented her with on her birthday. "Perhaps he should have purchased one for himself as well," the Hufflepuff grumbled before giving in to a good-natured laugh.

"Five more minutes," she decided, barely realizing that she had given voice to her thoughts.  Luckily there was no one around but the trees, the lake, and the giant squid or people might think that she was losing what little seemed to remain of her sanity, although she was certain she could safely argue that most of the seventh year students had undoubtedly become candidates for St Mungo's mental ward with it being the year of the dreaded NEWTs.  Oh well, maybe she really had finally stepped over the line considering that she could now add 'talking to herself' to her ever growing list of odd character quirks.  Still, if Harry didn't shown up within the next five minutes, she was heading back to the castle and making her way to the Great Hall.  She might be in love with the infamous Boy-Who-Lived, but she would be strung up and flogged if he, or any other wizard for that matter, was going to make her miss a Hogwarts supper!

/^\^/^\^/^\

"I can't believe that overgrown bat gave us detention on the last Hogsmeade weekend we'll ever have," Ron practically shouted, his face quickly becoming as red as the infamous Weasley hair, which sat atop his head.  "And to think, Hermione, you were defending the greasy git the other day!"

"I simply said that we have to trust him to do what's right.  I never claimed he would win any prizes in a Wizarding personality contest!" she retorted hotly, her temper still simmering from the uncalled for abuse that their Potions Professor had delighted in inflicting on both her and her friend in front of their classmates.  "Besides, he set us up deliberately."

"Oh sure, like that's something new!" Ron groused. 

"She's right, Ron," Harry interjected quietly, taking a seat on the overstuffed comforter resting atop Hermione's four-poster bed.  "Snape may be a right total bastard, but he just set the two of you up for Saturday evening in a way that won't arouse suspicion.  It was fairly brilliant too.  After all, who would question Snape giving detention to Gryffindors on the last weekend of the school year?  The fact that it's the final Hogsmeade weekend makes it all the more plausible."

"You mean he set us up so that no one would question our spending time with him this Saturday?" Ron asked, comprehension finally beginning to dawn.

"Think about it, Ron," Harry urged.  "He only assigned detention to you and Hermione.  When does he ever miss a chance to give me detention?"

"Never," the disgruntled young man replied.  "He usually provokes you into mouthing off and then hands you a detention as if he had nothing to do with the situation at all."

"Exactly, and yet he didn't pay me any attention at all today," Harry reminded them.  "In fact, he never even looked my direction or mentioned my name. It was like he was trying to make certain that he had no reason to bring me into the situation at all."

"That's a first," Ron mumbled with a grin.

"Yeah, too bad he couldn't have adopted such an attitude a few years ago under less dire circumstances. It would have saved a lot of elbow pain from scrubbing Neville's exploded cauldrons by hand during his detentions," Harry joked.

"Not to mention the pain in my knees from bending over the floor and scrubbing up the stains left by Crabbe and Goyle's overflowing cauldrons," Ron grimaced.

"Could we please get back to what's important here?" Hermione interrupted, eyebrow raised in an expression of impatience at the boys' unexpected walk down memory lane.

The boys looked at one another and attempted a look of guilty contrition at Hermione's rebuke all the while trying to contain the laughter that threatened to overwhelm them.  The situation suddenly reminded Harry of another time just before the start of their second year when Ron and his brothers had rescued him from the Dursleys by means of a flying Ford Anglia.  The car ride had been one of the most memorable times of his life, as had the scolding Mrs. Weasley had bestowed upon her sons once they returned home.  Ron's father had been so interested in hearing the details of the forbidden car ride that he had almost landed straight into trouble himself until he caught Mrs. Weasley's warning glance and administered a less than stern rebuke to his mischievous sons.  Then, as now, they had found the situation to be more humorous than the ranting female of the group had intended. 

"Sorry, Hermione," Harry apologized with a boyish smile.  "I guess we just got carried away."

"Obviously," the Witch replied in an irritated tone of voice that held more haughtiness in it than she was probably aware of.  Bestowing her attention on the snickering redhead, she returned the conversation to the most pressing matter at hand.  "Ron, have you heard back from Fred and George yet about the wands?"

"Yeah," he said after a moment's worth of silence as he bit into a chocolate frog that looked to have been sitting in his pocket for far too long.  He eyed the usually coveted card with an audible grimace and forcefully tossed it on the bed where it landed face up, displaying a picture of a grinning Gilderoy Lockhart that was busily preening, primping and posing for his unimpressed audience. "You'd think they would have stopped putting him on those things by now."

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, thoroughly exasperated at his short attention span, "What about the wands?"  

"Hmmm?  Oh yeah… I got an owl from Fred earlier this afternoon.  He says that he and George are to meet their contact this evening and that we should have the wands by lunchtime tomorrow.  It wasn't cheap though, especially on such short notice."

"How much?" Harry questioned, not worried so much by the amount except to wonder if he really did have enough hidden away in his trunk in Gryffindor tower to cover the cost.  A trip to Gringotts would raise too much attention, especially since he would have to obtain permission from Dumbledore ahead of time.  He knew that even if he tried to make it to the Goblin bank without the older Wizard's permission, the man would find out about it anyway. Not only was it annoying but it was also a scenario that would only lead to more questions that Harry really didn't want to answer at this particular point in time.

"Twenty-Eight Galleons," Ron said with an apologetic look at Harry when he heard Hermione's shocked 'that's outrageous' at the outlandish figure.  "Fred said that he knew it was a ghastly amount but their contact wouldn't budge on the price.  In fact, he threatened to raise it if they continued to argue with him about it.  Anyway, Fred and George will cover it as a store expense so that no one will become suspicious. They'll collect the money the next time they see us."

"That's fine," Harry told him, thankful that he had had the foresight to withdraw such a large amount of money from Gringotts over the Christmas holidays.  He had planned to use it to purchase graduation gifts for Ron, Hermione and Susan during the last Hogsmeade weekend but…

"Oh no!" the Boy-Who-Lived exhaled, shaking his head back and forth in irritation. 

"What is it, Harry?" Ron asked, looking slightly alarmed at his friend's unusual display.

"Susan.  I forgot that we were supposed to meet just before dinner and then spend the evening together.  I'm already late.  Again."

"You're a typical boyfriend, Harry," Hermione laughed, patting his shoulder reassuringly.  "Don't worry, you've been late to meet her before and she's always forgiven you."

"Yeah," Ron agreed with a grin, "She probably expects it by now and would find herself with her toes facing upwards on a funeral pyre from pure shock if you actually showed up on time for once. Just explain to her that you were trying to spare her such a horrid fate and everything will be all right.  You'll see, mate."

"Ron, you are such an oaf!" Hermione said, wrinkling her nose with distaste.  "It's no wonder you can't keep a girlfriend for more than a week."

"Well at least I have girlfriends unlike a particular Gryffindor Head Girl who shall remain nameless, but always has her nose in a book!" the red headed young man retorted hotly.

"That's because most of the boys in this school are just that… BOYS!" she returned flippantly.  "Which means that most of them are just like you!"

"Enough!" Harry intervened, knowing that once his friends started bickering, he could be sitting there all night while they traded insults with one another.

Surprisingly, they stopped their squabbling almost immediately and were just getting ready to leave the privacy of the Head Girl's room and make their way to the Great Hall, where Harry knew his aggravated girlfriend would be, when Hermione asked him a question that brought him to a full stop.

"Harry?  Why do you think Voldemort ordered Professor Snape to bring Ron and me to him?  I mean, don't you think that it would have made more sense to order him to deliver Susan since you have a romantic attachment to her?"

A look of panic crossed the young man's face as his friends stared at him expectantly.

"Maybe Voldemort doesn't know about my relationship with Susan," he ventured tentatively, although the lack of conviction behind the words told both Hermione and Ron that Harry didn't believe that particular explanation anymore than they did.

"That's doubtful, Harry.  I mean, everyone knows about your relationship.  Susan even got a few Howlers from some of your disgruntled groupies when your relationship went public.  One of those Howlers was from a middle-aged Wizard if memory serves me correctly."

"Ron's right, Harry," Hermione agreed with a mixture of hesitation and apology lacing her voice. "News of your relationship was in the Daily Prophet just before Christmas.  Even if Voldemort didn't see the article, one of his followers was bound to mention it."

"Especially since you're at the top of his 'must be sure to kill off soon' list," Ron murmured.

"Thanks, Ron," Harry replied with no small amount of sarcasm. 

"Maybe he wants Snape to deliver you and Hermione because we've been together longer or because we've foiled more of his plans as a team.  I wouldn't have been half as successful as I was over the years if it hadn't been for the two of you," Harry continued thoughtfully.

"Perhaps," Hermione conceded, though she didn't look convinced.

"Hey, you don't think that Vold…'You-Know-Who' will go after Susan if he doesn't get us, do you?" Ron asked.

"Who knows?" the Boy-Who-Lived answered dejectedly.  "What's to stop him from going after her regardless of Saturday's outcome?"

"Nothing," Hermione whispered with a sad shake of her head, feeling sorrow for the fact that Harry's life was being manipulated by the whims of a maniac yet again. "Nothing at all…"

"I need to get to Dumbledore," Harry announced decisively.  "She'll need to be protected."

"Well mate, he'll be in the Great Hall right now so it will have to wait until after supper," Ron reminded him. 

"Right. We'll eat first and then I'll talk with Dumbledore," Harry decided.  "Maybe he'll have some type of a plan that we can use."

"Let's hope it's better than the plan he had for Hermione and me," Ron muttered softly.

It was obvious that the young man hadn't meant for his words to be overheard but nevertheless Harry and Hermione had both caught the words and the meaning behind them.  Exchanging a worried look with the young Witch who looked a little nervous herself, the Boy-Who-Lived simply shook his head. "Yes, let's hope so."

It was a very subdued and worried trio that slowly traversed the castle corridors to the Great Hall.

/^\^/^\^/^\

TBC

Author's Note:  First of all, I hope that all of you are enjoying a good New Year.  Second, I'd like to take a moment or two to send out a huge load of thanks to all of you who took the time to review after the last posting.  Your response truly overwhelmed me (in a very good way) and I enjoyed reading and thinking about what each of you had to say.  To those of you who sent along well wishes regarding my health:  THANK YOU!  I am still on bed rest (multiple back problems, etc), but we have begun treatments and I am hoping for the best.  As they say…. 'This too shall pass' very big grin

As always, huge thanks and warm regards to Ozratbag2 for lending her time and talent to this story to ensure that it is not only readable, but that the plotline flows and makes some type of sense G

Once again, feel free to leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter/ story.

~Jules