Harry didn't feel much like practicing the Animagus transformation right then so he stayed in the common room and cuddled with Parvati. After what had happened she was still pale, even with having hot chocolate on tap in the common rooms. Harry imagined that he was still pretty pale too.

He snuggled closer to her as he recalled the screams. "Who do you hear when the dementors get close?" he whispered.

"Hear?" she asked. "I don't hear anything, it's just a feeling. Like I'll never be happy again."

Harry swallowed, almost wishing that's what he felt.

"Why what do you hear?"

Harry shivered but answered, "Screaming. The screaming as the Aurors died last year. And I feel like I'm about to be swallowed whole by a monster."

Her eyes widened in shock, "Merlin! That's awful! I didn't realize they died screaming…"

Harry just nodded. When he closed his eyes he could almost see it all happening again. That and a man falling to his knees, clutching his guts as they fell out.

Suddenly several people wolf-whistled and Harry looked up to find two fifth years making out. He flushed in embarrassment as they refused to stop.

"Harry."

Her voice was almost too soft to hear but he turned to look at her anyways.

"Will you kiss me, please?"

He wasn't really in the mood for it but he did as she asked and leaned in for a kiss. It went on longer than any before. Despite his lack of interest at the start, he found himself enjoying it.

Suddenly Percy Weasley was there and breaking up all of the kissings that had started to happen around the common room.

"That's it! Come on! Behave with some decorum! Break it up! It's time for bed anyways, get up to your separate dorms! Fred don't think I don't see you with that broom! It doesn't work on the girls' dorms anyways!"

Sighing Harry pulled himself away from Parvati and they said good night.

After taking a nice hot shower Harry sat in his bed, ignoring Ron trying to get his attention. He activated the wards and set about typing up his daily report. After finishing it he finally laid down to sleep.

A scream pierced the night an hour later startling Harry awake.

He tried to pull his curtain open but he'd fallen asleep with the ward still up. After deactivating it he woke to see Ron in his bed, his arm bleeding.

"What the bloody hell happened?"

"Black! It was Black! He had a knife! Oh, Merlin my arm!"

"What's all this racket?" Percy demanded before catching sight of Ron's arm and rushing to his side.

The next day Harry was sitting with Parvati in the common room working on his Arithmancy homework while considering if he should apologize to Ron and Hermione. At the very least he should probably apologize to Ron, Sirius Black was looking for him after all.

Just as he'd made his decision a throat cleared and Harry looked up to find Hermione and Ron, Ron's arm in a sling.

"Can we speak to you alone, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Whatever you have to say to Harry you can say to me!" Parvati said, rather snidely.

Harry reached over and squeezed her hand to calm her.

"Come on, there's an unused classroom near here that we can go to." Harry and Parvati got up, Parvati holding his hand tightly.

There were some seventh years in the closest classroom doing something Harry didn't want to inspect too closely but the next room was empty.

Before anyone could say anything Harry said, "Ron, I'm sorry about Black. He's out to get me and you got hurt. I'm sorry."

Ron shrugged, "It's not your fault you have a madman after you again."

"We wanted to say that we're sorry," Hermione said. "It was wrong of us to invade your privacy. If you want to keep secrets that's your right. We were just worried but if you say there's nothing wrong, well then we believe you."

Ron nodded, "And don't worry, we didn't tell anyone-" he glanced at Parvati, "anything."

Parvati looked back and forth between the three of them, "Is this about that thing you do every night that you won't let anyone know about?"

Harry nodded, "They wouldn't leave me alone about it and invaded my privacy to find out what it was."

Ron and Hermione shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, then I think you shouldn't forgive them!"

"Well, that's too bad, because I am forgiving them." Looking back at Hermione and Ron he said, "Thanks for apologizing. And so long as you promise not to do it again we can be friends again."

They both relaxed. "We promise," Hermione said.

Ron nodded, "Absolutely, never again."

Parvati didn't look happy but Harry was thrilled to have his friends back.

"Want to work on the Arithmancy homework, Hermione?"

Hermione lit up, "Yes!"

Things changed after that.

Hermione and Ron just wanted to go back to the way things had been before, namely with just the three of them as friends.

Unfortunately for them Harry had made friends with Seamus, Dean, and Parvati and was friendly with Lavender (mainly because she was his girlfriend's best friend) and Neville.

Parvati seemed to be afraid that Harry was going to disappear with them and never return and clung to him like glue. She also kissed him even more often, which Harry wasn't exactly complaining about even if it was mainly to stake some kind of claim on him.

All in all, it was a constant tug of war between his friends. It seemed none of them were willing to give up their usual time with Harry.

Then Harry got more news.

"So, I was thinking that it's time for another field trip," the Headmaster said. "This time I was thinking we could donate our time to a good cause. Perhaps a soup kitchen?"

Even as Harry agreed he knew this was going to cause problems.

Sure enough when he announced that the Saturday after the next Hogsmeade trip, which was this coming weekend, he would be working at a soup kitchen with the Headmaster and he was allowed to bring two people a fight broke out among his friends.

None of them really wanted to go to a soup kitchen, he thought. Certainly, Seamus didn't and he wasn't part of the argument. However Dean and Lavender had been promised that they would get to go next time Harry left, Hermione and Ron thought that since they should have gone last time they should get to go this time, and Parvati just wanted to spend more time with Harry.

It all gave Harry a headache.

The only suggestion Terrance had was to draw their names out of a hat.

The argument continued into the Hogsmeade weekend and only stopped because the group separated. Dean, Seamus, and Ron went to Zonko's, Hermione to Tomes and Scrolls, and Harry was dragged back into Gladrags by Parvati and Lavender.

They bought another set of matching hats, or rather Harry bought another set of matching hats.

Mercifully they didn't have any hair appointments this time (thanks to them not thinking to schedule another one early and trying to do it last time they'd been there) and they could explore the candy shop, Honeydukes, that was there. He ended up buying both girls a boatload of candy and bought himself some small things.

After that, he was once more dragged to Madam Puddifoot's, though mercifully it was only him and Parvati.

After ordering Harry expected to get a kiss but instead, Parvati said, "So you and Hermione."

He blinked in surprise. "Me and Hermione what?"

"Why haven't you two dated?"

Harry blanched at the thought, "She's like a sister to me!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "A sister? That you mope after when you're fighting?"

"I don't know that I would call it moping…" he said.

"Oh, it was moping all right." She wasn't giving him an inch.

Harry sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "I just- she and Ron were my first friend. Having them betray me like that hurt, but it hurt even worse to stop being friends with them."

"So there's nothing between you and Hermione?" she confirmed.

"No, absolutely nothing."

She nodded decisively and grabbed his head to pull him in for a kiss.

After Madam Puddifoot's they met up with the group, and Padma and Justin, again in The Three Broomsticks where Harry was mercifully able to order some real food for lunch.

"So Padma," said Parvati, "Are you and Justin dating?"

Justin colored in embarrassment while Padma narrowed her eyes at her sister. "No, unlike you I follow the rules."

Parvati rolled her eyes, "Oh who cares about the rules? What they don't know can't hurt them."

It was Padma's turn to roll her eyes and she walked away in a huff.

"What was that about?" Harry asked softly.

"Don't worry about it."

Harry shrugged, he certainly had his own secrets to keep. He'd be a hypocrite to push her.