Harry Potter couldn't help but smile merrily at the confused, abashed look in Hermione's eyes. "Hermione Granger, not thoroughly investigating something?! Say it ain't so!"
Hermione's laughter floated down the halls, Ron Weasley scowling in anger at his treacherous best friend. "I know, I know!" Hermione said with a halting laugh.
Harry's green eyes glittered with mischief, "You know," he pretended to scheme... "I do have an invisibility cloak."
"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, "Oh, I just couldn't!"
"But you wa-ant to..." Harry said in that sing-song voice.
Hermione looked down, her eyes flicking upwards to Harry's (her face still downcast), "well, yes..."
"Stop thinking so hard, trying to find a reason not to." Harry said, Hermione frantically shaking her head, "Just go." In a much softer voice (softer than a whisper, a trick he'd learned well before Hogwarts), he said, "I'll cover for you."
Hermione leaped into Harry with a hug, that Harry was surprised to see was quickly followed by sobs. "Hermione?" He asked, his tone conveying both his confusion, and bafflement at the sorrow writ in her tight grip on his chest.
"He won't be there. He's not from here, you know? He sounds like he's from Wales... Didn't say a word about being there, not even an extra night..." Harry heard all of this, between sobs, quietly muttered into his ear. And it was all that he could do to simply hold her tight, his restless body wanting to move, to take action, to fix his friend's immutable sadness.
[a/n: Harry's a good friend. He's still a boy, though, and boys like to fix problems.
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