Malfoy did not turn up in class the next day, suggesting all the more that he was trying his best to get Hagrid in trouble. Harry, Ron and Hermione took their worry into the weekend, talking it over while doing homework, or while mirror-calling Sirius to learn their animagus spell. Sirius, it seemed, was still irked by the whole acromantula business and at first agreed with the school governors that Hagrid should not have introduced hippogriffs in his first lesson. He soon relented, though, and agreed with them that there was reason to worry – that Lucius Malfoy would do what he could to harm Hagrid out of spite.
Hermione was making good progress with the animagus spell, while the boys were a little slower to pick it up. Despite this, it was Harry who brought up their duelling practice, telling his friends of his exercises with Dudley, and showing them the book his cousin had given him for his birthday. Ron was immediately for it, while Hermione hesitated, reminding them that they now had more subjects to learn.
"Well, it was your choice to pick all five electives, Hermione—" said Ron.
"Because I'm interested in all of them—" Hermione shot back.
"I agree that we don't have as much time this year," said Harry, before another argument could develop. "And we'll have even less once teaching really picks up, and the quidditch matches grow near. That's why I think we should train now, while we still have a bit of extra time."
Hermione did not need any more convincing and was soon the one leading the effort. She made the boys go through all the spells they had learned the year before and was happy to note that most of their skill was still there.
"So, we can all do the spells that we've learned in charms and should've learned in defence already, like the full-body bind, the knockback jinx, the severing charm, the freezing charm—"
"There's also the spells that aren't necessarily meant for duelling, like Wingardium Leviosa," added Harry. "Or the dancing feet spell – which isn't just used for silly things like making pineapples dance. Last year, several of the Slytherins used it in the duelling club – quite successfully."
"Yes, exactly. And we can all use it on humans now." Hermione did not look directly at Ron, who shifted, remembering that it had taken him the longest to learn the spell.
"The smokescreen one," added Ron.
"Yes, Fumos – another spell Lockhart didn't teach us, but we've managed on our own." This time, Hermione shot Ron an encouraging smile – he had done quite well with that spell. "And finally, we also know Inobservatus – one of the disillusionment spells that Professor Flitwick taught us in first year. We'll be having that one in charms class in a couple of months."
"Then there's the spells we copied from others – the leg-locker curse Malfoy used on Neville that we found in Viridian's book—"
"I still can't believe he could do that in first year," griped Hermione. "It should've been far too advanced – even for us it's still a bit…"
"The disarming spell Snape showed us in the duelling club—" Harry went on.
"And the shield charm, which Lockhart failed to demonstrate," added Ron.
This time, Hermione frowned. "Separately, our shields are still not very strong. Though they're alright when cast in pairs, and pretty good when we all cast them together."
"And the final spell – which is actually the spell we started our duelling practice with – we still can't cast separately. At all. We can only cast the Confundus charm all together, or you with one of us—" Harry pointed at himself and Ron, "—and even then, not very well."
Hermione waved off his objection, reminding him that the Confundus charm was very advanced. But she agreed to focus on it, spending a large part of the weekend on improving it, until Harry and Ron could successfully cast it on her.
Ron was the one who insisted that they should include the physical exercises as well. Harry agreed, and they had a look through the book on martial arts Dudley had given to Harry, to see what they could adapt for themselves. Hermione soon had to concede that she was not in good shape. Over the summer, she had lost a lot of the fitness she had managed to gain during their training in spring. She seemed a little unmotivated at first, but finally conceded that it was both important for duelling and something she needed to work on more. She agreed to make it a regular part of their training.
~HP~
Harry, Ron and Hermione knew their Monday classes would be important. There was potions in the morning with Snape, and there was a fair amount of uncertainty about how their evolving relationship with him would affect his interaction with them in class. Then, in the afternoon, they would have their first ever defence against the dark arts class with Remus Lupin, about whom they had heard a great deal from Sirius. While Harry had no other classes that afternoon, Hermione and Ron would also be having muggle studies, and then Hermione would be repeating that hour for her ancient runes class happening at the same time.
All of that was overshadowed, however, when Hermione opened her copy of the Daily Prophet that morning, and the headline read that Pettigrew had been sighted by a muggle not too far from Hogsmeade. All three of them pored over the article all through breakfast, while also reassuring Percy – whose eyes had instantly been drawn to the newspaper in their hands – that they were not unduly worried.
The double potions class turned out to be more unpleasant than they had perhaps hoped. Snape did not react, beyond telling them idly to settle down, when Malfoy swaggered into the classroom midway through potions with his arm bandaged and in a cast – finally returning to his classes after getting attacked by Buckbeak. Snape then forced Ron – and later Harry – to prepare Malfoy's ingredients for the shrinking solution, which they were brewing for the first time that day. Malfoy himself brought up Hagrid with a nasty smirk, and shamelessly told Harry and Ron that his father was indeed working on getting Hagrid fired.
Harry, hands shaking with anger, accused Malfoy that he was putting on a show, that he was not injured at all, but merely pretending – just to get Hagrid fired.
"Well," said Malfoy, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits, too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me."
Then, while Neville was struggling with his potion, and being put down by Snape for all to hear, Seamus turned to Harry, to bring up Pettigrew's sighting. Malfoy listened with rapt attention, as Seamus recounted the same details Harry had read in the Daily Prophet.
Ron, noticing this, turned around. "What, Malfoy? Need something else skinned?"
Malfoy, eyes shining malevolently, leaned across the table towards Harry. "If Pettigrew was there, Black can't have been too far away. Thinking of trying to catch him single-handedly, Potter?"
"Or maybe I'll catch Pettigrew while he's all by himself," said Harry offhandedly.
It was only Malfoy's thin lips pulling into a mean and knowing smile that gave Harry pause. "Because that's the only way you'd risk it – only if the weaker one is all by himself. Otherwise, you'd leave it to the dementors, would you?" Malfoy followed this up by needling him about Sirius, and all the reasons Harry would have for wanting revenge. All expected, considering that Malfoy likely knew that Sirius was Harry's godfather.
Harry was left with the unpleasant sense that Malfoy thought he knew more than Harry. He did not have time to dwell on the thought, however, because Snape called an end to their class, before proceeding to test Neville's shrinking solution on Trevor, his toad, while everyone was watching. Thankfully, Hermione's whispered instructions had been enough to repair Neville's botched potion and it worked correctly, turning Trevor into a tadpole. The Gryffindors cheered. Snape turned Trevor back with a sour face, using a swelling solution. Then, instead of conceding that Neville had done well, he took five points from Hermione, for helping Neville.
Once Hermione had finally caught up with them – her bag splitting at the seams because of all the books she was carrying – Ron wanted to know why she had not lied to Snape, told him Neville had brewed his potion by himself.
Hermione shook her head. "He wanted to take points. He would've found a reason, regardless."
"Well, that settles that, then," sighed Harry. "He's going to be as nasty as ever."
"He'll have to be," said Hermione, her tone indicating that what she was saying ought to be self-evident. "He has to try to get back into Lucius Malfoy's good graces, after helping to thwart his plans."
"I guess," said Harry. "So he'll have to be horrible to us. But Neville?"
"Yeah," said Ron. "What's Neville done to him? Snape has no excuse for that—"
"Well, he's a Gryffindor, and not so great at potions – like certain Slytherins. Malfoy's going to be insufferable in potions classes," sighed Harry, "and Snape's only going to encourage it…"
"Because Snape's fond of Draco Malfoy," said Hermione slowly.
"At least that's what he hinted at." Ron nodded, thinking of the same conversation they had had with the potions master some months ago.
"Actually, did I tell you what Sirius had to say about that?" said Harry.
Ron snorted. "You mean besides what he says about everything Snape does in general?"
Harry snorted a laugh. "Yes, besides that. He thought it a bit odd that Snape would be that honest with us. I know it's Sirius' general opinion of Snape, pretty much, but—"
Hermione frowned. "No… I don't know. Sirius might have a point, don't you think?"
Ron nodded. "Snape's been a spy for long enough, hasn't he? I reckon it's not that easy to get him to admit to something he doesn't want you to know."
Harry shook his head slowly. "Why, though? Why'd he want us to think he has such a high opinion of Malfoy?"
"Well, to be fair, Malfoy is one of the best students in our year," Hermione admitted grudgingly.
"So what? He's vile. And Snape might like that a Slytherin student is best at his subject – after all the effort he puts into achieving that, by being awful to everyone else – but why would he tell us?"
Ron groaned. "Really? The year's barely begun, and we're already trying to figure out what awful thing Snape's up to? Come on, let's have lunch…"
Putting him out of their minds proved more difficult than expected, as they saw him again that day, when Lupin took his class to the staff room for his first defence against the dark arts lesson. Snape was the only teacher present, and he got up as soon as he saw them.
The sneer on his face; his parting words, both a slur against Lupin – saying he would not stay to witness what was to follow, and an insult to Neville – warning Lupin against entrusting Neville with any significant tasks unless Hermione was whispering instructions to him; all this made the students more inclined to like Lupin, just to contradict the disliked potions master.
Not that it was needed much: Lupin had won most of them over by dealing with Peeves on the way to the staff room. Peeves had been stuffing chewing gum into the nearest keyhole and had begun singing 'Loony, loopy Lupin,' as soon as he saw them. After Lupin had managed to foil him by shooting the chewing gum up his nostril with a nifty little spell, most of the students had been impressed by their new teacher, despite his shabby appearance.
Harry caught Snape's eye, scowling at him for what he said about Neville. The scowl he got in return quickly turned into a sneer, but not before Snape had glanced at Lupin and then back at Harry – who knew of the history between the two teachers, even if they were unaware that he did.
Another thought made Harry pause. A mere few days ago, before Sirius had told him who Lupin was, he had been ready to base his opinion of the new teacher on Snape's reaction. Would he have actually done so, though, despite the favourable impression Lupin had made on him? Would he have gone against his own judgement in favour of Snape's? Especially after Snape had done his best once again to make himself disliked?
Lupin was looking a lot healthier than he had on the train – the effects of the full moon had apparently worn off. He seemed unfazed by Snape's reaction, was Harry's first assessment – until he noticed the glances Lupin was shooting at him and his friends, while he explained to Neville how best to deal with the boggart, given his fear of Snape.
Harry, Ron and Hermione had strongly suspected that Lupin had heard their discussion on the train, and this seemed to prove it. They had tried to undo the damage as soon as they had noticed, mentioning their dislike of Snape, but Harry suspected it might not have been enough. Lupin kept giving them odd looks while they laughed with everyone else at the boggart turned into Snape dressed in Neville's grandmother's outfit. A sense of unease took hold of Harry. He knew from Sirius that Lupin himself was trustworthy enough, but Snape's secret was such that even a casual, unintentional slip of the tongue by someone who did not understand the situation well enough might be disastrous, he was aware.
Hermione, who normally did not enjoy laughing at teachers had made sure to laugh at the Snape-boggart, Harry noticed. This likely meant she was thinking along the same lines as him.
So preoccupied was Harry with this worry, that it took him a moment to notice that Lupin had not called either him, Ron or Hermione to tackle the boggart. In fact, when Ron tried to step forward, Lupin stepped in front of him, and Harry could see the boggart momentarily take on the appearance of a full moon, before the spell was cast and the moon deflated like a balloon.
As soon as Harry pointed this out, Hermione caught on to what was going on. "Professor, I'm not afraid of basilisks," she said loudly enough to draw attention.
Lupin looked at her with some surprise, but then gestured towards the boggart, in the shape of a single, bloody eyeball. "Go ahead, then," he said.
Hermione stepped forward, and the boggart turned into Professor McGonagall, who began to enumerate all the reasons why Hermione was not doing well enough and would fail all her classes. The Riddikulus died on Hermione's lips, as her classmates got to listen in on her fears.
"Turn her into a cat!" shouted Ron quickly, before the moment could lengthen.
Hermione regrouped, cast the spell, and as Ron had suggested, turned McGonagall into her animagus form, turning her criticisms into meows.
"Excellent!" said Lupin. "Ron, how about you next?"
Ron was already stepping forward, turning the boggart into an acromantula. Several people shouted, but Ron was ready, casting the spell to make the spider's legs vanish. It rolled over and came to a halt at Harry's feet. But once again, Professor Lupin interfered, stopping Harry from facing the boggart. Neville got to have another go at it instead, finally making it explode.
Harry wanted to bring this up with his friends, but did not get the chance. First, Hermione gave an embarrassed thanks to Ron, and then she brought up Lupin and Snape, and what the former might have overheard them say about the latter.
"And of course Professor Lupin overhearing us isn't nearly as dangerous as, say, Malfoy," she said. "We mustn't slip up like that again. We really need to make sure everyone believes that we dislike Snape—"
"That's not going to be a difficult task, Hermione," said Ron, rolling his eyes at her behind her back.
Hermione argued some more, but she was distracted, already leafing through her ancient runes and muggle studies books. Soon enough, it was time for her and Ron to go to their class, before Harry had brought up his own grievance.
Left alone with his thoughts, Harry wondered about why Lupin had prevented him from tackling the boggart, and was not liking the reasons he was coming up with. At first, Lupin might have thought Harry would turn the boggart into a basilisk, but what about after he had let Hermione and Ron have a go at it? Did he still think Harry was afraid of something more dangerous than his classmates – like Voldemort? He could have asked – he had already been wrong about Hermione's and Ron's fears. Harry had been thinking of a dementor, actually, and could have told Lupin so.
Maybe it was because Lupin had seen Harry collapse on the train, and thought he was not up to much? Had he thought Harry would pass out again? And maybe he would have, the traitorous part of his mind whispered, faced with another dementor.
Harry had to wait for some time to share his thoughts on the matter. When his friends returned an hour later, Hermione was explaining in great detail what a refrigerator was, and Ron actually seemed to be paying attention.
"How was it?" asked Harry.
"Not bad," said Ron. "It's mostly purebloods and a few halfbloods, but without Malfoy or any of his gaggle of friends. I'm pretty sure Hermione's the only one who actually has a tel-e-phone at home. Ernie Macmillan was so surprised when I said I'd been to the cinema."
Hermione only added that the magical perspective had been interesting, and then mostly wanted to gush about ancient runes. She did admit, though, that Malfoy and a fair few other Slytherins were in that class, making Harry grimace.
"Well, it's a bit of a posh subject, isn't it – ancient runes," said Ron. "Of course they'd be there."
To Harry, that made ancient runes sound like an awful class to have, but not wanting to dampen Hermione's enthusiasm, he instead switched topics, bringing up his disappointment about not having faced the boggart.
"Well, you still got points, didn't you?" said Ron.
Harry shrugged. "For answering an easy question." It had not been difficult to deduce that the boggart might get confused facing different people's fears. Besides, everyone had received points in that class.
"Well, you might get another chance next lesson," was Hermione's vague suggestion.
Harry doubted this, but let it go.
Later, Harry was once again joined by his friends when he called Sirius. There was the issue of Pettigrew's sighting to discuss.
"I have read the papers," Sirius said as soon as they brought up the subject.
Once again, they dared not ask him how.
"It does sound like he's headed towards Hogwarts again," Sirius admitted grudgingly. "Or that he never went very far in the first place – as unlikely as that may seem. You can't apparate on Hogwarts grounds, Pettigrew's unlikely to risk going through the Forbidden Forest if he can avoid it – Wormtail would not fare very well there, and apparating in and around Hogsmeade would risk detection by the aurors. So going through neighbouring muggle villages is likely the best option to get to Hogwarts…"
Once they were done discussing that topic, and Hermione was done asking more questions about the animagus spell, Harry recounted to Sirius their first lesson with Lupin. Once Sirius was finally done laughing about Boggart-Snape – it took a while, as he wanted all the gory details – he was the first to suggest Harry might talk to his new teacher to ask why he was not given the chance to face the basilisk. Harry liked the idea at once, and suddenly the thought came to him that he might ask Lupin what he thought of the other two Marauders being hunted by the law. Hermione immediately told him not to, and even Sirius cautioned that Lupin might notice Harry was not entirely unbiased about the topic.
"Besides, what's he going to tell you? He probably thinks the same thing everyone else does. And even if Remus might find reason to doubt, he wouldn't say so to you. It'll just be a painful topic for him." Sirius looked resigned when saying this.
Harry had to agree that his teacher was unlikely to confide in a student, especially one he had only recently met, but thought that simply his reaction might be interesting. Sirius still cautioned him, but Harry could tell his heart was not in it. Clearly, Sirius also wanted to know how Lupin would react.
As predicted, Harry did not get another chance to face a boggart in the next defence lesson, but at least he found it enjoyable. The same could not be said for some of his other classes. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence and the care of magical creatures class had become extremely dull. Divination was far worse, with Trelawney's eyes filling with tears every time she looked at him. This was made worse by the students who did hold divination – and Trelawney – in high esteem, like Parvati and Lavender, and who started using hushed voices whenever they spoke to Harry, as though he were on his deathbed. Arithmancy, at least, while hardly Harry's favourite subject, was useful, he supposed.
Lupin was not in the great hall during one lunchtime later in the week, and when Harry checked his map, he found that the defence teacher was in his office. Hermione told him once again to be careful. Harry nodded and hurried to Lupin's office. The door was open when he got there.
"Harry?" said Lupin as soon as he saw the boy approach. "What are you doing here?" His tone sounded mildly curious, but otherwise pleasant enough.
"Er, I wanted to ask you something about this week's lessons," said Harry.
Lupin invited him into his office. Before accepting the seat he was being offered, Harry noticed a large, dark box in one corner of the office, which emitted a strange, dull thud, as if something from the inside was trying to break out.
Lupin followed his glance. "Ah, that's going to be the subject of our next lesson."
"Is it another boggart?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I'm afraid not. It's a red cap, actually."
"Professor, I wanted to ask you about the boggart. Why didn't you let me fight it?" Harry came straight to the point.
Lupin raised his eyebrows. "I would have thought that was obvious, Harry," he said, sounding surprised. "I assumed that if the boggart faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort." Lupin frowned. "Or at least a basilisk. Even from the little I've heard of your life in the news, I had to assume that whatever frightened you had to be quite unpleasant for everyone else to see."
Harry was impressed that Lupin was willing to use Voldemort's name – something he had only ever heard from Dumbledore before. The rest of what he heard still made him frown. "I wasn't thinking of Voldemort – he's nowhere near. And you believed Ron and Hermione that they weren't afraid of basilisks. Well, neither am I. I was thinking of a dementor, actually."
"I see," said Lupin thoughtfully. "Well, well… I'm impressed." He smiled slightly at the surprised look on Harry's face. "That suggests that what you fear most of all is – fear. Very wise, Harry." He glanced around, then got up to grab his kettle from a shelf. "I was thinking of having a cup of tea. Some for you as well?"
"Er, alright, thanks. But…" Harry did not enjoy imitating Hermione, but could not see any other approach. "What about exams? Or are boggarts not going to be on the exam?"
"Ah, yes… it's possible that boggarts will be included in the exam. But I doubt they'd cause you any trouble." Lupin had produced boiling water by just tapping the kettle with his wand. "I've only got teabags, I'm afraid. But I daresay you've had enough of tea leaves?"
Harry twitched, even though Lupin's eyes were twinkling. "You heard about that?" He tried to sound unconcerned, hoping Lupin would not notice his discomfort. If he had heard Harry describe the grim as misunderstood—
"Professor McGonagall told me," said Lupin, passing Harry a chipped mug of tea. "She quite proudly told us – everyone who wanted to hear – that you're not the sort to be scared by omens in teacups."
No, after learning about the prophecy, some vague omen was not likely to unsettle him, thought Harry. He shrugged awkwardly, pleased to hear that his head of house thought him brave, but he was still unsure if Lupin knew about—
"So the grim is misunderstood, is he?" mused Lupin. He looked pensive, but his eyes watched Harry's reaction carefully.
"Er, w-well, I guess I like dogs." Harry did his best not to stumble over his words. He had had some time to consider his answer to this question after his unwise outburst in divination. The trick was to say the words in a convincing manner. "And the grim looks just like a big, black dog – like Fang." Harry was aware that he was pushing the truth here. No one would mistake Fang for the grim. "Oh, and Mrs Figg was saying—" Harry decided the best defence might be offence after all. "You know her, right?" His words – carefully speculative, to sound almost like a real question – hit right away.
Lupin regarded him with a fair amount of surprise. "Do you mean Arabella?"
"Er, yes. She's my neighbour. She's mentioned your name before, actually – er, just your first name. That's why I didn't recognise you at first…" Harry could feel his pulse speed up. He was of course lying – even if Mrs Figg really had mentioned Lupin – after careful and prolonged prodding by Harry.
"I-I see." Lupin really was discomfited by this.
"Anyway, she was helping me with my history homework. Witch hunts, you know. And she told me that muggles used to think owls were omens of death – because they were associated with witches and wizards. And they used to kill them for no reason." Harry decided that was laying it on thick enough.
"Ah… what did Arabella… I mean, did she mention anything – or anyone – else?"
"You mean Pettigrew and Black?" Harry did his best to look innocent, while inside he was cheering. Lupin had obligingly brought up the topic he himself wanted to talk about. "She did say you all went to school together…"
"Yes, well, yes." Lupin glanced away, then busied himself with his cup of tea. "I expect that creates a certain impression of me."
Harry shrugged awkwardly. Of course it did. Lupin being his dad's and Sirius' friend mattered a great deal to him. "Mrs Figg said nice things about you," he said instead. That, at least, was the truth.
Lupin smiled fleetingly. "I'm glad to hear. I can see you're courageous enough to look past my unfortunate connection to – those people. There's really not much that scares you, is there?"
"Er, well, I did meet them a few months ago." Harry considered his words, remembering Hermione's warnings. "Black actually helped us, and Pettigrew wasn't all that scary by himself. It was more that he was helping – well, the possessed Lockhart. But actually, we know it was Lucius Malfoy, who was behind the whole thing," he said conspiratorially.
Lupin did not look surprised at hearing this. "I see… Was that what you had expected from them? I mean, besides being alive – no one had been expecting that. But perhaps it was a relief to you, knowing your letter had nothing to do with—" Lupin stopped abruptly, seeing Harry's alarmed expression.
Harry reined in his reaction, berating himself for slipping up in front of Lupin yet again. Why, why had he not considered that other teachers might have been told about the letter as well? "I-I hadn't even thought about that letter for ages," he forced out. It was the truth, and sounded like it.
Harry sat up, angry at his own reaction. Such constant paranoia would not do. If he could not even talk to people like Lupin, then what hope was there of anyone ever believing Sirius anything at all? "What about you, Professor? You used to know them. Was what you heard about them what you were expecting?"
Lupin hesitated. "I'm afraid I stopped expecting to know them quite some time ago." He glanced away. "That's what the evidence is for, I suppose. Anyway," he shook off the sombre mood, "so you're not afraid of them, either. That leaves us with dementors – and perhaps Malfoy."
"I wouldn't say I'm afraid of Malfoy," Harry went on in a lighter tone as well. "I mean, I've enough sense to know how dangerous he is. But for now, he's been stopped, he's no longer a school governor." He shrugged, agreed to go back to the original topic. "So… you don't think I'll have any problems with the boggart on the exam?"
After more reassurances from Lupin, Harry left to rejoin his friends.
~HP~
In no time at all, the increased workload had become routine, if not always enjoyable. Potions class was the worst. After the story of the boggart assuming Snape's shape and Neville dressing it in his grandmother's clothes had spread through the school like wildfire, Snape had become particularly vindictive. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever. Harry and his friends were also frequent targets of his ire – at least in class. Outside of class was a different matter, however. Harry's summer homework had been returned to him with thorough, constructive criticism. Snape had even read Hermione's entire essay for once – his comments extended until the end of the parchment.
Defence against the dark arts was a different matter altogether. It had become most people's favourite subject in no time, and Harry was certainly no exception. They had studied red caps, as promised, which turned out to be nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed. Harry had certainly been allowed to tackle them, and Lupin had been impressed by his skill and speed at using common hexes. (Harry had been holding back, of course.) Neville had found him, Hermione and Ron after class to thank them again for teaching him a few hexes the year before – when he had been helping them improve their shield. He had done better in class than anyone had expected of him – including Neville himself.
Then there were their extra-curricular activities. Despite the increased number of subjects and far superior defence teacher, they had not abandoned their duelling practice. On top of that, they now had their animagus project.
Hermione had figured out the animagus spell within a few days, but kept badgering Sirius every few days, demanding to know how he could be sure that she got it right – because for quite some time, it showed no effect. Sirius did his best to reassure her that this was not unusual, that it might take some time to find their words. He also suggested she might want to try casting the spell in more unusual situations than she had perhaps been trying thus far – after Hermione admitted that she had mostly been casting the spell while studying – convinced that that must be a fundamental part of her personality.
It finally happened during their second weekend at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione were jogging early in the morning, before Harry had to go to his quidditch practice. The boys went ahead, even though Hermione had been trying to keep up valiantly, once again serious about their exercising. Then she gave a strangled noise, making Harry turn around. He pulled Ron back with him, when he saw her folded in on herself, crouching on the ground.
Hermione was actually laughing. "I did it!" she said breathlessly. "I finally did it. It was exactly like Sirius said – like a déjà vu, like I knew what would happen just a moment earlier than it did. And everything looked more sharply in focus – the edges more defined, but also more distant—"
"Yes, yes." Ron interrupted what was essentially a word-for-word recital of what Sirius had told them. "But what's the word you discovered?"
"I—" Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure. It was something to do with me being too stubborn to let myself get tired…" She hummed. "Maybe – persevering?"
The boys tried their best to hide their smirks – especially after Hermione began to grouse that her words had come during jogging rather than while doing something more productive – like studying.
Sirius congratulated her when they told him that evening. Hermione was immediately eager to attempt the next step – to learn how to calculate the numerological values. It was something each of them had to do for their own words. While Hermione was greatly enjoying arithmancy – much more so than Harry – she had still only just begun learning the subject, and found it very difficult to understand Sirius' explanations through the mirror. Harry, envious despite himself that she had made much faster progress than he had, was not looking forward to having to understand the same explanations himself in the – hopefully – not too distant future. When he glanced up, he saw that Ron looked at least as discouraged as he felt.
Then Sirius tentatively suggested that they could meet up so that he could give them some books. "I can't send them by owl – even if I had access to a decent sized owl. The books are just too heavy. I'd need a number of owls, and they'd most certainly attract too much attention…"
The boys were immediately for it, while Hermione kept cautioning against it.
"I know!" said Ron. "We could meet Sirius on your birthday, Hermione. It's next Sunday, isn't it? And Hagrid isn't going to let us do something fun this year—"
"Because there are dementors stalking the edges of the school grounds this year!" said Hermione.
Sirius settled them down before they could start arguing. He agreed to try explaining things through the mirror once more – in hopes that Hermione might get away without needing the books. Harry was sceptical about it – especially because he was sure that even if Hermione did manage, he and Ron would definitely be needing the books. He even got a little annoyed that now of all times – perhaps for the first time ever – Hermione was choosing to say no to books.
The issue resolved itself a couple days later. Hermione was doing homework in the library – they all were – when she suddenly jumped up, knocking her books to the ground, and alerting Madam Pince. With apologies to the stern librarian, Hermione pulled her friends into the corridor, so excited she was almost buzzing on the spot.
"I think I found another!" she squealed, barely out of earshot.
"What – another word?" asked Ron.
Hermione nodded fast. "Yes, yes. Oh! I was doing the transfiguration homework, and I kept thinking how useful that might become soon, for – you know – the actual transformation—" She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "So I cast the spell – as I keep doing every chance I get, now. And the word must've something to do with working towards something, or having an aim, or… maybe something like purpose?"
Harry could tell he was not the only envious one at that point – Ron's envy was comically obviously painted on his face.
On the positive side, this finally tempted Hermione enough that she agreed to get the books from Sirius.