Chapter 40

The truth comes out

"Bless you," Hermione whispered, after Harry sneezed silently for the fourth time in History of Magic the next day. The two of them sat together, desparately trying to stay awake, which was quite difficult with Professor Binns' droning voice.

"You really need to go and see Madame Pomfrey about this cold," Hermione told him, once class ended. "You've been sneezing all morning."

Harry sighed, checking his watch. "Yeah, I guess I'd better," he muttered regretfully. "I really don't want to bother her, though. I don't really feel all that sick."

Hermione shrugged. "She can at least give you some pepper-up potion to clear your head." She gave Harry a kiss on the cheek. "I'll walk you there. We have a half hour until Defense Against the Dark Arts, and even if you're late, Professor Lupin won't be annoyed by it."

Harry smirked; Hermione was usually a stickler for time. "Okay." He took her hand, and the two of them made their way to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey was tending to a third year girl, whose right hand was completely blown up to the size of a balloon.

"Hello, Mr. Potter," Madame Pomfrey greeted. "Is everything all right?"

Hermione nudged Harry forward, and stood waiting patiently. "Well, I've been sneezing a lot today…I'm getting over a cold I had at Christmas."

She nodded, poking the third year's arm with a needle-like object. The girl let out a whimper, and watched with amazement as the liquid from the needle began to deflate her hand quickly to its normal size. "See? I told you it would be just fine, dear. Just be more careful next time. That's why you have to pronunciate very clearly with your spells in charms."

"Thank you," the girl replied, staring with awe at Harry after she'd been bandaged and sent on her way.

"Have a seat," Madame Pomfrey encouraged, pointing to the now empty cot. "You don't need to stay, Miss Granger," she added, and Hermione swallowed.

"Well, I…" Hermione began, and Harry smiled at her.

"I'll be okay," he promised. "I'll see you in class."

She hurried over to give him another kiss, and, waving sadly, hurried out into the crowded corridor. Once she was gone, the nurse began to fill a flask of pepper-up potion, which Harry recognized instantly by the pinkish-tint it contained. "How exactly do you feel, Potter?" she asked, stirring it a little with a spoon.

"Fine," Harry replied. "Well, except for a bit of a headache. My throat doesn't hurt anymore, though."

"Mmmm." She placed her hand against his forehead. "Well, you certainly don't appear to have a fever, which is a good sign. You're probably just starting to come to the end of your recovery from the holiday. Was it bad this time?"

Harry shook his head. "Well, not really. I was in bed for a few days, but I recovered pretty quick from it."

"I see. Well, take this down, and if you don't start to feel any improvements by tomorrow, come back to see me."

Harry took the flask, drinking the liquid down as fast as he could. He closed his eyes as it burned a little down his throat, and could already feel the smoke billowing out of his ears. When he calmed down, Madame Pomfrey took the flask back, and handed him a package of tissues. "Always good to keep these handy," she explained, and Harry nodded, pocketing them.

"Thanks," he replied, checking his watch one more time. He still had twenty minutes, so he did not have to rush.

"Are you ready to begin rehearsals for the musical?" Madame Pomfrey asked, as she cleaned out the flask. Harry swung his backpack over his shoulders.

"I suppose so," he replied. "I'm nervous, though. I've never done anything like this before."

She smiled at him. "You'll do fine. I hear your auditions were very impressive."

Harry smiled back. "Yeah, well…" he shrugged. "thanks again, Madame Pomfrey." He hurried out, bumping into Erin by accident who was coming in the opposite direction.

"Oh!" she cried, as her bag fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry," Harry apologized, bending down to help her pick up her books. "Hi, Erin."

"Hello, Harry," Erin replied politely. "Are you all right? Were you coming from the infirmary?" she zipped her bag and put it over her shoulder again.

"Yeah. It's nothing," Harry insisted.

"Where are you off to?" she walked beside him, scooting to the side when she saw Malfoy coming towards her with Crabbe and Goyle at his sides.

"Out of the way, mudblood," Malfoy snarled, and Erin glared at him.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry snapped.

"You take that back," Erin added, and the Slytherin looked at her with amusement.

"I'll call whomever I please a mudblood, shrimp," Malfoy told her haughtily, and, to both Erin and Harry's surprise, let out a yelp a moment later. Jess had come up from behind, kicking him hard against the back of the knee.

"Don't you ever call her that again!" Jess yelled. "Or I'm going to Professor Dumbledore!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Don't you all have somewhere you have to be, eh?"

The group turned, and they saw Filch coming towards them, with Mrs. Norris at his heels. Malfoy glared at Erin, who was clutching her wand protectively against her chest. He turned on his heel and stalked off, and Harry touched Erin's shoulder.

"Don't listen to him," he told her. "He's always making fun of people who aren't in Slytherin."

"Malfoy's a big prat," Jess snapped. "I never take anything he says seriously."

"He called Hermione a mudblood our second year," Harry explained.

"Some people are so terrible," Jess added, as they followed Harry towards Professor Lupin's classroom. "My father is a muggle, after all. Half and half," she told Harry. "Muggleborns aren't bad! There are so few purebloods left, after all. Without muggles to marry, we probably wouldn't exist very long."

"My parents are both muggles," Erin told Harry, still a bit tearful from her run-in with Malfoy.

"Same with Hermione," Harry added. "Oh, well, I have to go…this is my stop. You two take it easy, all right?"

"Goodbye, Harry," Jess called, waving as he disappeared into Lupin's classroom.

The rest of the day passed without incident. In Potions, Professor Snape kept trying to catch each of them off guard, asking questions about the Phantom script. He seemed utterly disappointed when Harry knew almost as much as Hermione did about the plot line and character relationships. Hermione beamed at him everytime he answered a question correctly, and Harry decided an extra thank you to Professor Lupin was in order.

"See?" she told him, as they sat together working on their assignments later that evening in the common room after dinner. "Reading for fun does come in handy!" Hermione had her nose in her Ancient Runes text, jotting down notes on a roll of parchment. Harry was struggling through his Charms essay, feeling considerably better after the pepper-up potion.

Ron and Lavender had gone for a stroll along the bank of the lake, because it was beginning to get darker later.

The portrait hold suddenly swung open, revealing Jess and Erin, both of whom were giggling uncontrollably. Fred and George followed after them, both looking rather sour.

"What?" Hermione asked, and Erin tried her best to stop laughing. Though everytime she'd quiet down, Jess would start up again.

"All right, all right!" George snapped. "So we should have graduated at the end of last year."

"We didn't think it was necessary to finish school," Fred added, and Harry looked up from his parchment. "Didn't think it was necessary to take N.E.W.T.'s, so we decided to drop out. The education system isn't really our scene, you know."

"Of course, Mum well, had a big row with us after she found out."

"And threatened to disown us if we didn't come back to re-take certain classes," George finished. "Took a while to convince us to go back, though."

"But here we are," Fred added, and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It's always good to have an education under your belt," she began, "even if you do want to start a joke shop. At least you'll have a more…respectable reputation."

The twins eyed Harry uncomfortably; Harry had given the stack of gold he'd won from the Triwizard tournament to them, and they had sworn not to tell anyone about it.

"You can stop laughing now," Fred told Erin and Jess, who had their mouths covered, and were pointing at them.

"I'm sorry," Erin giggled. "but…but…"

"I was frightened," Jess told Hermione. "when they told us they were eighteen. I thought perhaps the rules had changed. Imagine, trying to bear Professor Snape for eight years instead of seven!"

"One is bad enough!" Erin agreed.

Everyone laughed.

"Are you satisfied, then?" George asked, and the little girls grinned at each other, nodding.

"Very," Erin replied, taking a bite of her apple, and plopping down at one of the tables to start her own homework.

"Hermione," Harry began, after he set his quill aside. "Would you check this over for me? I'm about half done."

Hermione looked up from her reading, and nodded. "Sure." She accepted the essay, just as Ron and Lavender came back, holding hands. Ron was whispering something in Lavender's ear, making her giggle and blush.

"How was your walk?" Harry asked, clearing his throat, and watching as Hermione marked certain areas with her own quill.

"It was wonderful," Lavender replied, twirling around. "It's so beautiful to watch the sunset."

"Marry me, darling," George told Fred, kneeling down and taking his twin's hand. "I love you soooo…"

"Shut up," Ron snapped, as George began to sing in an operatic voice.

"Glad you two had a nice walk," Harry agreed. "Hermione." She glanced at him, and he leaned across the table to kiss her. Hermione hopped up from her seat, and went to sit on his lap.

"This is good," she told him. "You have a few errors, but nothing serious." She shuddered with pleasure as he ran his hands down her arms, and nuzzled her neck. Jess and Erin were both watching, their tongues sticking out with disgust.

"Excuse me," Jess spoke up. "Some of us have just eaten!"

Hermione, after giving Harry another kiss, looked at the younger girls. "You'll understand how wonderful men are one day," she told them, and, after the girls looked at Fred and George, who were jumping around and acting like a bunch of monkeys, and smirked.

"Nah," they both replied in unison, and began giggling again.

"So," Ron grunted as he and Lavender plopped down onto a free chair. "Are you lot ready for rehearsal on Monday?"

Harry snorted, listening as Erin quietly sung a verse of, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling", and wrapped his arms around Hermione.

"Sure," he chortled. "You?"

"No," Ron replied. "Barely am two pages into the script."

"Your loss," Lavender added.

"You should talk," Ron smirked. "You don't even have any lines to worry about."

"Thank goodness," Lavender admitted, and winked. "You and Harry are lucky, though" she added. "I mean, you end up together at the end of the play. How funny is that? I mean, you get to share on-stage kisses and everything!"

"Oh yeah," Hermione said dreamily, massaging Harry's fingers. "You have an ink stain," she laughed, holding his hand up so he could see it.

"Are you going to clean it off for him or what, Hermione?" Ron laughed.

"It looks cute. I might leave it there," she teased, and Harry merely winked.

As the evening drug on, the common room began to once again fill up to it's usual capacity. Most of the Gryffindors sat in the common area working on homework or playing games; Dean and Parvati were in the middle of a game of wizard's chess. "I'm horrible at chess, Dean, I warned you," Parvati told him.

"You won the first round," Dean snorted.

"I'm really getting tired," Hermione yawned, stretching her arms over her head.

"It's from reading too much," Harry laughed, as an explosion came from the corner. Ginny was playing exploding snap with Seamus, and began clapping at the noise.

"It's almost eleven," Hermione told him, pointing to her watch. "Tomorrow's Friday, Harry, not Saturday yet. I promise, we can stay up as late as we please tomorrow night." She stroked his cheek, and he helped her up.

"I should call it a night, too," Lavender agreed. "Anyone who cares about their beauty sleep follow us, please," she called, and the other girls began packing up their things. Ron made a point to pull Lavender aside, and kissed her as she finished zipping her bag.

"Good night," she said, wiggling her eyebrows. "Won-Won."

Hermione burst into laughter, and nudged Lavender's arm. "Won-Won? Is that your new nickname for him now?" she chortled.

"See you in the morning, Lav-Lav," Ron retorted, and then grinned, waving. When the girls disappeared into their dormitory, he looked at Harry. "Oy," he smirked, "Women."

Harry laughed.