Chapter 4
Monday morning dawned bright and clear with a crisp autumn breeze blowing through the open window of the girls' dorm in Gryffindor tower. Hermione made her way down the stairs to find Luna sitting in an armchair by the fire, dozing. As Hermione approached her, she stirred and woke.
"Luna, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked in hushed tones, "This isn't your common room!"
"I thought I should stay with him," Luna said dreamily, nodding at the sofa Hermione had just walked past, "Make sure he didn't go out again. I must have dropped off. There must be some soporixies around."
Hermione glanced round at the sofa to see Harry lying there sleeping soundly. She ignored the reference to soporixies: Luna had brought them up once before and explained that they were very definitely invisible, lazy, little pixies who liked warm comfortable places and whose snores, which were outside the range of human hearing of course, put the listener to sleep.
"How is he?" Hermione said, turning back to Luna.
"The same as usual," Luna replied calmly, "Now that you're awake, I'd better go before anyone else finds me here."
"Of course. Thanks Luna."
"Watch out for the soporixies."
"I will do."
Hermione watched Luna leave then turned to Harry. He was so soundly asleep that Hermione was sure he'd have a hangover if he woke up now. For a few moments she contemplated ways of keeping the area around him quiet, but eventually shrugged and shook her head. It was almost time for breakfast and she could hear other students moving about in the dorms up above. Soon they would also be in the common room and then it would be time to have breakfast, then time to go to class and first up on a Monday morning was potions, with Professor Prospero.
"Aquaeductus," Hermione murmured, sitting down on the side of the sofa and pointing her wand at Harry's face.
A jet of water shot out of the tip of Hermione's wand and splashed over Harry's eyes, nose and mouth and he sat up spluttering.
"Whazzup!" Harry said groggily.
"Breakfast time, Harry," Hermione replied, grasping his hands and pulling him to his feet as she herself stood up. "Come on."
Harry groaned, but followed Hermione out of the portrait hole as footsteps made their way down the dorm stairs. The Great Hall was still quiet when they reached it and Hermione ushered Harry over to the Gryffindor table and sat him down.
"Not hungry," Harry muttered.
"You have to eat Harry. Come on, Sirius and Remus wouldn't have wanted you to be like this..."
"Sirius and Lupin aren't here, Hermione!" Harry snapped, "That's part of why I am like this!"
Hermione frowned, picking up on the wording of Harry's reply and ignoring its hurtful tone. She finished buttering some hot toast and handed it to Harry.
"Eat. Stop arguing or I'll put a silencing charm on you," she said, pulling a goblet towards her and flicking her wand at it.
A blue, shimmering substance flowed forth from the tip of her wand, filling the cup to just below the brim. Hermione picked it up and handed it to Harry, who was chewing his toast sullenly but obediently.
"Drink," Hermione ordered, once Harry had swallowed his last mouthful of toast.
Harry took the goblet and drained its contents. As soon as he had done so he felt his headache begin to lift and his stomach growled for more food. His temper also improved somewhat as the foggyness in his mind eased and dispersed.
"Sorry," he said quietly as Hermione poured herself some juice and buttered some more toast.
"Don't worry about it," Hermione replied, smiling at him now that he was returned to his 'normal' self.
"H-how did I get back?" Harry asked, a little shakily, "The last thing I remember is being in the Three Broomsticks with you and Ron and Luna. Then you and Ron left and I remember staying and drinking some more, but..."
"Luna brought you back," Hermione replied, "I don't know how, whether she knows the Gryffindor password or whether you managed to remember it, but when I came down this morning, there she was, sitting in an armchair by the fireplace. She stayed in case you woke up again during the night. We're lucky I'm usually up earlier than anyone else."
"Yes..." Harry's voice tailed off and he stared at the empty goblet in his hands.
"She cares a lot about you, you know. We all do."
"I know. And I appreciate it. It's just..."
"You don't have to explain."
Harry nodded, still gazing at his hands. Hermione went back to her breakfast.
"You should get some more food inside you," Hermione said after a while, as other early rising pupils made their way into the Great Hall.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, looking up and turning back to the table, "And thank you... for everything."
"You're welcome."
Not one to be numbered amongst the early risers of the school, it was merely ten minutes before class when Ron hurried into the Great Hall, shovelled down some breakfast while Hermione told him off for almost being late, then rose, satchel in hand, to accompany the others to their potions class.
"Well come on then!" Ron said, dragging Hermione to her feet, "You were the one who was worried about us being late!"
Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes playfully at Harry as Ron led her out of the hall and off to class, with Harry meandering behind and eventually becoming lost in the crowd. Ron and Hermione reached the door to the potions classroom before most of the class and Hermione took the opportunity to tell Ron about finding Luna in the common room that morning. Just as she finished her tale, Malfoy sauntered up, followed closely by the other few Slytherins in the class.
"What's this?" Malfoy sneered, "Sucking up to the Head Girl, Weasley? Hoping she won't take off points for your cretinous behaviour just because she's your girlfriend?"
"Speaking of cretinous behaviour," Hermione replied waspishly, keeping a firm grip on both of Ron's hands as she did so, "I forgot to ask: did Crabbe and Goyle move up to NEWT level this year or not?"
Before Malfoy could reply, Professor Prospero bounded up the corridor, as enthusiastic as ever, and straight through the door. A moment later the door opened.
"Sorry! Sorry! Do come in!" Professor Prospero called from within, "Take out your books and collect your potions. They should have brewed nicely by now."
The gathering class hurried inside and followed their teacher's instructions, Ron collecting Harry's potion as well as his own and returning to his desk just as Harry himself wandered into the room and headed over towards him.
"Have I missed much?" Harry asked.
"Only the daily door trick," Ron replied passing Harry his vial of potion, "Where did you get to?"
"Just had to have a word with Luna. Two words actually: sorry and thanks."
"You have got to stop doing this mate. It's not good for you. Especially not now: anything could happen."
"I know. I'll try."
"Now then class," Professor Prospero began, bouncing up and down on his toes a little in the excitement of the moment, "we have a very important day ahead of us. I want you to follow the instructions on the board to put the finishing touches to your potions. We don't want our potions to open our minds to the whole class, that would be far too vague and there are far too many minds in this room. What we want to do is focus our potion. To do that, we need something of the person we wish to focus our potion on: a lock of hair will do, doesn't need to be much. Partner up now and swap a few hairs with your partner. Let's have the Head Boy and Girl up here to show us how it's done."
As Hermione, grimacing, trudged across the floor towards the professor, Ron and Harry shuffled closer together. As downcast as Hermione looked as she made her way to the front of the class, Malfoy could hardly be said to look happier and if anything actually looked worse. He shot a glare at Hermione as the two of them reached the professor, then turned back to the class, vial in hand.
"Now just pull out a few hairs," Professor Prospero instructed, "Same as with the Polyjuice potion."
Malfoy tugged at his silky, straight, silver-blonde locks, dislodging a few strands as he watched Hermione pull a few long, curly brown hairs from her own head.
"There we are," the professor continued, surveying the class as they copied their Head Boy and Girl, "Now swap the strands over... That's it. And add them to the vials. There we go."
Vials all around the classroom turned various different colours as their owners added the hairs and watched them dissolve in the transparent, slightly shimmering liquid within.
"Now give it a quick swirl... That's it. And just drink it straight down, all in one."
Professor Prospero Proctor watched as his class consumed their concoctions. On either side of him, Hermione and Malfoy gave each other another glare and did the same. For a moment there was no effect and Hermione glanced around the class to see what was happening with everyone else. In their usual corner, Harry and Ron seemed to be looking at their vials curiously. Nobody else seemed to have felt any effect yet either.
Well, that was a waste of time!
The thought came unbidden into Hermione's mind. What startled her so much was not that she disagreed with it, for up until that moment she would have been inclined to agree wholeheartedly, but the fact that she heard the thought in Malfoy's voice, as if the young man standing next to her had said it out loud. Hermione looked round at him, her eyes wide.
"Did you say something?" Hermione asked Malfoy carefully.
"No," Malfoy sneered. Why would I bother?
This time Hermione was certain. She had watched Malfoy's pale lips as he replied to her and he definitely hadn't voiced the comment after his negative.
It was you! Hermione thought, directing the thought at Malfoy emphatically.
"I told you I never said..." Malfoy began, then stopped, his face turning even paler than usual.
You can hear me! Hermione said, mentally, her head on one side as she watched Malfoy's face.
Believe me I wish I couldn't! Malfoy's voice replied in her mind, his face betraying his shock at the revelation that the potion actually worked.
"Ah, good. I see some of you are beginning to feel the effects of the potion," Professor Prospero said cheerfully, watching similar facial exchanges between other members of the class, "It will take time to show its full potential, depending on the latent ability of each party, their ability as an Occlumens, and how well they know their parter, but we should all see the full effects arrive within about ten to twenty minutes. They should start to wane gradually after another twenty, finally disappearing after about an hour."
You mean I've actually got to spend an entire hour with that bushy-haired mudblood invading my mind!
Hey, I heard that, ferret face!
What did you call me?
I do believe you heard me, Malfoy!
You can't insult me, remember.
Apparently that only applies to what I say. When it comes to what I think, I can be as brutaly honest as I like!
Then the gloves are off?
The gloves are off.