Author's Notes:
Hey, everyone, thanks for your interest in The New Order so far :-) Just a few things to say before the chapter reading.
First, I'd really like to thank you guys for the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised by the response that this fic got, and it really made me eager to write more of it. The reviews have been great, and I can honestly say that your input helps me in shaping the story. I also like hearing from you, so thanks again :-)
Second, for any The Life and Times of Linnea Potter readers, thanks for your interest in both my stories :-) Rest assured that I am NOT dropping Linnea's tale in favor of The New Order. I haven't received any complaints or anything about this, but I thought I'd just put it out there. Chapter 18 will definitely be out this week and I will do my best to pick up the pace with Linnea.
Well, that's it, guys. Thanks again for reading my stories :-)
By the time half of the Charms lesson had gone by, Harry truly felt sorry for Professor Flitwick; no one was paying him a lick of attention, not even Hermione. Harry sat next to the usually religiously attentive girl at the front of the class, which he had suggested so as to avoid catching the eye of any of their classmates. She had readily agreed, but with actions rather than words; she hadn't made a peep since her shouting match with Ron.
His idea had evidently been a good one, for he could sense the probing stares of the other students on their backs - not to mention hear the whispers. He ignored it all, staring unseeingly at Professor Flitwick while occasionally glancing at Hermione. If he didn't know her better, he would think that she was asleep; her head was bent down over the desk, cradled in her arms. Her bushy hair masked her face, and he was afraid that she might be crying again - though obviously for a less joyous reason than his apology to her.
Professor Flitwick caught his eye and the diminutive Charms Master looked pointedly at Hermione, raising his eyebrows. Harry gave a sad smile and a barely perceptible shake of his head. The Head of Ravenclaw House seemed to take this as confirmation that something monumental had happened - Harry supposed that he had surely noticed that no one was at all interested in what he was saying - as he said, 'Well, I think we can break class early at this point. I'd like you all to stay here while you wait for your next class, though. Other than that, you're dismissed.'
It seemed the students had been waiting for this, for their whispers suddenly rose in octaves and Harry found it much more difficult to shut them all out. Hermione raised her head and Harry saw that she did indeed have tears in her eyes, though she was yet to allow them to fall.
'I'll have to apologize to Professor Flitwick,' she said quietly. When Harry didn't say anything, she looked around at him and said, looking very sad and frightened, 'It looks like our situations have reversed, Harry; I need to apologize to you too.'
Harry raised his eyebrows. 'Why would you think that?'
'Because I brought you into my fight with Ron. I shouldn't have done that; I just destroyed your friendship. I'll understand if you never want to speak to me again.'
Harry looked around and caught much of the class staring at the two of them; they quickly averted their eyes. Harry sighed and looked back at Hermione, who was looking more scared than Harry had ever seen her.
'Why did you say that, Hermione?' Harry asked, keeping his voice down to a whisper so that no one would overhear them.
Hermione didn't need any clarification on his part and immediately knew just what he was asking. She wrung her fingers together, doing anything to avoid his gaze, which was proving to be quite a task. 'I - Last year I…I kind of started asking myself what it would be like if I dated either you or Ron.'
Harry didn't say anything; he was too surprised, both at her revelation and the fact that she would actually tell him such a thing. He watched her in silence as she gathered her thoughts. He didn't dare say anything as she looked desperately fragile at the moment - as though even a single word from him before she had told all she had to tell would break her.
The girl in question took a deep breath and said, as quietly as she could, 'I started thinking about it during the holidays before fourth year. I thought about how you and Ron would do as a boyfriend for me - that's when I truly realized how I really felt about Ron. I'm sorry, Harry, but he's never been a friend to me, and I have to say that I don't think he's at all good for you as well; I know you could do incredibly well in school and everything else if you really tried, but Ron always has you goofing off. He makes you waste your potential, Harry - and honestly, that's as much your fault as it is his.' She paused, looking at Harry to see if she had angered him, but he appeared calm at least, so she steeled herself to continue. 'I imagined us being together and it wasn't bad, but I didn't feel like we would last very long; we had years of knowing each other on our side, but I felt that what with my…obsession with knowledge and your less…serious attitude -' She glanced at Harry again but he still looked to be calm. '- we'd get annoyed with each other very fast, and I didn't want that; you're too important for me to lose, Harry. I didn't think I had those kinds of feelings for you, anyway.
'So when you really started to show an interest in Cho, I cheered you on - and you fell flat on your face.' Hermione smiled as Harry nodded with a grimace. 'But I was jealous of Cho, of a lot of girls; I wanted someone to look at me that way too - then Viktor came along. He made me so happy I could barely think straight. But then you came along - the you I always hoped you would be; when I was helping you to train for the Tournament, I saw a whole new side of you. You were working your hardest, you were focused and driven. You didn't enter the Tournament of your own free will, but I could see that you really wanted to win - you weren't going to settle for a mediocre performance. I was so surprised by you - and so happy. You showed everyone what you were capable of, and I wasn't the only one who was cheering for you any more. I'm sure Viktor was more than annoyed with me at this point, because I would talk about you a lot even when we were together.'
Harry nodded again, remembering his talk with Krum just behind Hagrid's hut, where they had found Barty Crouch Senior.
'I became…confused. I liked Viktor a lot, but I wasn't sure what I thought or felt about you any more - so I kissed you at the end of the year to see if I would feel…I don't know, a tingle, I guess. I felt something, but in all honesty I don't know what. So I waited…but when I saw you again, it looked like you'd gone back to slacking off; you played around while we were in Grimmauld Place instead of working on your case. Honestly, Harry, if it weren't for Dumbledore I'm afraid that you would have let Fudge and Umbridge walk all over you at the hearing. I remember thinking "just-getting-by" Harry had made his reappearance, and things went back to normal.' Hermione glanced at the boy beside her again, once more fearful that she had offended him, but he actually looked sad, as though, on some level, he was agreeing with her and felt bad about his actions.
'I didn't immediately realize how much I wanted you to go back to how you were in fourth year. I know how selfish that is of me, but I really do have your best interests at heart, Harry; you're an amazing person, but you don't try, you don't push yourself at all. I know that you have it in you to become the greatest wizard in the school if you just wanted to. So I talked to you about what I was thinking when you seemed so reluctant to pursue the Defense group. Honestly, I thought you would have jumped at the chance to help people prepare, even just a little, for what's coming. Well…you know what I said that day…and then you came back; you started taking initiative and being more mature and everything and…well, as I said, I really like it.' She took in another breath. 'Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I'm a perfect person - far from it - and that I want to "fix" you, I just…'
Hermione faltered and fell silent, unable to find any more words within her. She avoided Harry's gaze as she waited for him to say something. She was terrified beyond belief, frightened that she had just lost her dearest friend. But she had needed to say all that - she had needed to let him know about the thoughts and feelings that had been swirling around inside her, some of them for almost as long as they had been friends. She felt lighter, as though keeping it all to herself had put an immense weight on her shoulders. Her feelings towards Harry for much of their fifth year had been just as they mostly had been over their years of being close: they were friends, just that. During the past few days, however, she had started to get flashes of the immense confusion that she had experienced last year. It wasn't a mental state that was familiar to her, and she wasn't at all sure of how she should deal with it.
She jumped in alarm when she felt an arm go around her shoulders; she looked around and saw that Harry was looking at her with half a smile on her face.
'I suppose I should have known that you were thinking this stuff; I've been thinking it myself, ever since your lecture. I have been skating by up until now, haven't I? I'd actually like to start trying - and I hope that you'll help me, if you want.'
'You - You aren't mad at me?' asked Hermione, her eyes widened.
'No, why would I be? I just told you that I've been thinking a lot of the same lately, didn't I? If anything, I should be mad at myself - but that doesn't really help, does it?' Harry gave her a true smile here. 'I want to do my best this year - and not just because of the OWLs; if I'm going to end up in some crazy situation again, then I can at least be as prepared as I could possibly be, right?' Hermione returned his smile and nodded enthusiastically. 'But while we're on the subject, Hermione, can I, er, point out a few things I believe you could work on yourself?'
'Harry, I just basically attacked you - though in a much nicer tone of voice than I did Ron,' Hermione answered with a small laugh. 'I think it's only fair - and I would honestly appreciate your advice.'
Harry smiled again and said, 'Well, sometimes I think you wind yourself up too tight; you can goof off once in a while and still be the brightest witch of our age, you know.' Hermione gave another laugh and nodded. 'And maybe you should ease up on your aggression towards people when you're convinced you're right, like Luna for example; a lot of people may think she's not all up there, but isn't she free to believe whatever she wants? She's not hurting anyone, so why be mean to her? I don't think you've treated her at all well, whether it's to her face or behind her back. She doesn't deserve that, Hermione and if I'm honest, your behavior struck me as a little Malfoy-like.'
Hermione took this with a small, shuddering gasp and she immediately looked very ashamed of herself.
'You're right,' she whispered. 'I've been horrible, and all I know about her is what I've heard from others. I'll apologize to her.'
Harry smiled. 'I'd appreciate that; it'd be best if you two got along.'
'Why?'
'You'll know at the meeting tonight.'
Hermione shook her head. 'You've become a real mystery man lately, Harry.'
'D'you like it?'
The bushy-haired witch rolled her eyes and her green-eyed friend laughed. Hermione felt more relief than she could have ever thought possible - relief at still having Harry as a friend.
He looked thoughtful as he said, 'I'm also going to try being more social - make more friends, you know. It certainly wouldn't hurt, and I'd really like you to join me in that.'
'I'm not very good at making friends, Harry,' Hermione replied anxiously.
'Because, as I said, you wind yourself up too much. I'll make you a deal: you help me become the best wizard I can be and I'll teach you how to have fun.'
'I know how to have fun!'
'Really? What would you do rather than read a book?'
Hermione opened her mouth to answer, then closed it. She opened it again to argue her case, but Harry forestalled her.
'I know what you're going to say: reading and learning is fun for you. That's totally okay, Hermione, but I'm talking about doing crazy, goofy stuff that other people would consider fun - things that you can do with friends. I believe we're long past the age where we can read to each other and have a good time, don't you think?'
Hermione sighed and nodded, conceding Harry's point. She accepted his proposal, then glanced around and seeing that their classmates had given up on eavesdropping on their whispered conversation, said, 'What about you and Ron?'
Harry sighed and spared himself a quick glimpse of the boy in question, who was sitting near the back of the class and apparently doing everything he could not to look at them. 'We can never go back to how things were.'
'And it's my fault.'
'Yes, it is - but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Ron's a decent bloke, but like you said, he isn't necessarily the best friend for me; he abandoned me last year and you were right, he made it too easy to slack off on our studies. And then that ultimatum he gave me in the corridor, and how he suddenly wanted no part of the Defense group just because I decided to have some Slytherins there - or how he reacted to Astoria's…actions. He's far from being supportive and open-minded, and honestly, I don't think that's what I need right now. And who knows, maybe some time away from each other would do us - and maybe everyone - some good. I'd try to talk to him, but I don't think he wants anything to do with either one of us any more. I do hope he comes for the Defense meetings, though.'
'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be; this could turn out to be for the best.'
'And if it doesn't?'
The bell signaling the end of Charms rang at that moment and they both jumped. Hermione's final question rang in Harry's mind as they packed their things and made their way to Transfiguration. He supposed that if things didn't work out well, he would just have to fix them as best as he could. If he couldn't fix them…
Well, there was really nothing he could do about that, was there?
'Here you go, Harry!' Astoria said brightly, handing him the list of members of the Defense group after she had sat down next to him; Harry admired how she was able to shrug off people's pointing, staring and whispering as though it meant absolutely nothing to her.
'That was fast,' he remarked, catching a glimpse of Ron glaring at the two of them and hastily looking back at the young Slytherin. He looked down at the list and saw that the other girls had all signed their names on it.
'I told you, Daphne loves runes; it was an easy job for her. You could learn a thing or two from her, Granger.'
Hermione scowled as Astoria smirked and Harry laughed, earning him a swat on the arm from his bushy-haired friend.
'Actually, could you get Daphne to come over here? There are a couple more ideas I have for the list, and I'd like to run them by her.'
Astoria immediately got up and went to the Slytherin table, where she appeared to have a heated argument with her sister. It was quite clear that Daphne did not want anything to do with the Gryffindor table, but her younger sister seemed relentless and five minutes later, the two of them were seated on either side of Harry, eliciting more whispers and stares from the Hogwarts population.
'Hello, Daphne,' said Harry brightly.
The blonde girl raised an eyebrow as she regarded him with her clear blue eyes. 'I don't remember giving you permission to use my first name, Potter.'
Behind him, Harry heard Astoria sigh in annoyance. He took it all in stride and kept smiling at the elder Greengrass girl, who he could tell was at best neutral towards him and a long way from trusting him.
'I think using first names would be best, seeing as how we'll be working together.'
'Working together?' Daphne repeated, her manicured eyebrow going up even higher.
'Yeah; I'd like you to take charge of security measures for the Defense group,' Harry explained; he had decided this the moment Astoria had given him the list back, in awe of how quickly Daphne had responded to their request. He also recalled how Astoria had mentioned that Daphne would be enthusiastic about taking part in coming up with ways to protect herself, her friends and her sister, and surmised that she would want the job. He would have revealed this to everyone at the first meeting, but he felt doing so now would get Daphne on his side at least a little, and he was sure that she would do a good job.
'Security measures?' Both her eyebrows were raised now.
'Yeah, like coming up with ways to make sure that no one blabs to Umbridge or anyone else we don't want; she might not be able to do anything with only suspicions that we're having meetings, but someone telling her the time and place of a meeting will definitely not be good for us.'
'Hence my jinxing the list with the Tongue-Tying Curse. By the way, Granger, it may not exactly have been ideal, but good work on that curse; I'm sure that almost everyone would have had a hard time figuring out the counter to that thing.'
'Oh…thank you,' Hermione said, looking ridiculously surprised at the praise from the Slytherin girl, who promptly turned back to Harry.
'The Tongue-Tying Curse is considered elementary - any first year should be able to do it - but it thankfully doesn't have a counter-curse, so it should work for our purposes; if anyone on the list tries mentioning anything about the group to someone who isn't already on it, the curse will activate - and it will be renewed every time they try again, so it could go on forever if it needed to. Even if someone chooses to leave the group for whatever reason, I'd recommend keeping their name on the list to prevent them from talking.'
Harry nodded happily and smiled; it looked like he had indeed been right about Daphne.
'There are a few…improvements I wanted to talk to you about, to see if you could do them and how fast.' Daphne, Astoria and Hermione were watching him curiously, so he continued, 'I was thinking about writing; what if someone wrote about the Defense group? That could land us into a fire as well.'
He watched the girls consider this for a moment and was happy to see that they were nodding their agreement.
'That's true, Harry,' Hermione said, smiling widely. 'But what would be the best way to counter that, I wonder?'
'We should go with the same logic as we did to prevent someone talking about the group: we should prevent people from being able to write about it altogether,' Daphne replied at once. 'There's a variation of the Jelly-Legs Jinx in one of my books that affects arms instead. I could limit its range to someone's fingers so that any time they even think about writing something to do with the group, it triggers; they wouldn't be able to hold a quill or anything else they could use to write.'
'I had a feeling you would be brilliant at this.' Harry smiled at Daphne, but the girl only shrugged.
'Daphne, what about Dictation Quills?' Astoria asked, frowning.
Daphne also frowned as she looked at the list. 'I hadn't thought of that. I suppose I could expand the scope of the Tongue-Tying Curse to include speaking to charmed objects, but I'm not entirely sure how I could do that…'
'I have a few reference materials on charmed objects, including the most common runes and spells used to enchant them,' Hermione supplied. 'I'm sure we could come up with something if we work together.'
Daphne stared at Hermione for a long time before she nodded her assent.
'Harry, what's wrong?' Astoria asked, seeing the green-eyed boy staring at the two fifth year girls in wonder.
'I'm realizing just how much I've been slacking off over the years; I don't have the first clue of how to do any of what we're talking about,' Harry answered, shaking his head.
'You wouldn't, not if you don't study Ancient Runes, Potter.'
'Yeah, I guess,' Harry answered. 'Just two more things: First, Astoria was talking about how the list could be a big bit of evidence if the wrong person ever found it. Is there any chance that you could have it show something else when anyone who isn't on it tries to read it?'
He was a little surprised to see Daphne nodding appreciatively at him. 'A wonderful idea, Potter. I'm glad that you're taking this seriously.'
'Honestly, the Defense group is all I think about nowadays; like I said, I don't want anyone to get into trouble on my account.'
Daphne watched him for a moment before she nodded again and said, 'That's certainly doable, and it wouldn't take long at all - we just need an idea of what we want it to show to outsiders. You had something else?'
'Yeah, for just in case someone was suspicious and managed to break past the illusion; the names are one thing, but I think we should get rid of everyone's handwriting. It makes it obvious that these people signed the parchment themselves, so they wouldn't be able to claim ignorance if something goes wrong. I'd like the names to be in the exact same handwriting if that's possible.'
'Harry, you're such a liar; you're really smart,' Astoria said, smiling widely at him.
'He is when he tries,' Hermione corrected, also smiling. 'The rest of the time, though, I'm always wondering how he's gotten this far.'
'Thanks, Hermione,' Harry retorted, giving a fake scowl in her direction. 'And Astoria, please stop. I'm not used to compliments from beautiful girls; you're making me blush.'
If he wasn't regarding the list, hellbent on thinking up more ways to improve it, Harry would have realized what he had said, jokingly or not, and would likely have gone as red as Astoria had. When no other ideas struck him, he handed it to Daphne, who he was puzzled to see was looking between him and Astoria, as was Hermione.
'I think that's all for now,' he said. 'How long d'you think it would take to put all of that into place? Would it be possible to get it back to me by four?'
'That would give us about two-and-a-half hours from now,' Daphne mused. She thought for a moment then said, 'I think I can manage it, if you'd be willing to lend a hand, Granger.'
'Of course,' Hermione readily agreed.
'Whose handwriting should we use for the list, though?'
'Take the writing out of a textbook for now; we'll think more about it later.'
Daphne nodded, told Hermione to meet her in the library at two, then abruptly stood up and went back to the Slytherin table; Astoria wrapped her arms around Harry and pecked him on the cheek again before she left, which left him just as surprised as last time. Across the table, Hermione was watching her long-time friend with a faraway look on her face, thinking of a whole host of things.
Harry, meanwhile, had looked up at the Head Table to see Umbridge staring at him with a horrible smirk on her face. He knew that with these sudden interactions with the Slytherins, he had just painted a larger target on himself for her to hit. Unlike his shouting at her in her first lesson, however, he was sure, without a doubt, that this was totally worth it.
