Chapter 20: Chapter 20
A/N: New Chapter. Please do review...
The head's room was one of a kind, a cosy, warm common room with an attached fire place and a set off worn comfortable sofa in front of it. The common room leads the bedrooms for the head boy and head girl. Both the rooms are identical with a four poster bed, a study table, a closet and an attached bathroom. But Harry and Hermione didn't spend the night in the bedrooms no they were asleep on the sofa together which would be followed by a very tough day.
Hermione opened her eyes and sat up looking at her surroundings "Harry..." she shook Harry trying to wake him up. He groaned and turned and continued sleeping, she shook him until he woke up.
"I am up, I am up..." he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes and brushed a kiss on Hermione's forehead.
"We better get ready." Hermione said in near whisper.
"Yeah." He sighed and gave her a kiss as he went to get dressed for the day Hermione soon following him into her room. Harry was already ready when Hermione came down from her room showered and fresh. "Let's go I am hungry." Harry said as he pulled Hermione with him.
"Yeah me too, I still can't believe we missed yesterday's dinner and weren't caught by anyone." Hermione wondered out loud.
"Yeah, guess Tonks managed it, she must have told something so that we were excused."
"I wonder what she said to convince McGonagall." Harry mumbled as they reached the great hall, pushing it past open Harry and Hermione sat in front of Ginny and Ron, trying to look anything but disgusted by the two of them.
"Hey Harry, Hermione we didn't see you yesterday during the feast; where were you?" Ginny asked innocently.
"Head duties and we had to help the first years, headmistress's order." Harry said as he buttered his toast.
"Oh! Okay, here I poured you some pumpkin juice, it's your favourite, drink it up." Ginny said as she pushed the goblet towards him. Harry quickly glanced Hermione and then smiled at Ginny. "Thanks Ginny." He said drinking from the goblet.
"So what did we miss yesterday?" Hermione asked as she dug into her cereal.
"Oh! You won't believe who is the new Defence against the Dark Arts Professor?" Ginny said excitedly.
"Who?" Hermione asked feigning surprise.
"Tonks and Remus." She said grinning.
"Together?" Harry asked playing his part.
"Yeah, it seems they are an item." Ron said as he chewed on his bacon and Hermione bristled on the word 'item' and was disgusted seeing him talk with his mouth open with bacon in his mouth.
"That's not a surprise" Ginny said "Mum told me that they both were going out during the summer.
"Really?" Hermione murmured as she drank the pumpkin juice in front of her, which Ron had placed it there. Soon the timetables were being passed around and they saw Sirius/Professor Andrew distributing them.
"Who is that?" Harry asked in a confused voice but with a twinkle in his eyes. They saw Professor Andrew walking closer and he was in well within their hearing range.
"Ooh! That's Professor Andrew; he's the professor who is taking over Madam Hooch's spot." Ginny replied giggling catching his attention as he came closer to pass out their timetables.
"Professor Andrew, we were just talking about you, this is Harry Potter- the Head Boy and Hermione Granger- the Head Girl." Ginny said breathlessly and Harry and Hermione saw him wince slightly and they looked away covering their smiles carefully.
"Hello." Sirius said in his fake deep voice and then quickly passed the timetables and left with Ginny sighing looking at his retreating back. And Ron's face morphed into one of disgust but kept his mouth shut.
"Let's see. Double Potions first, then Charms, then Defence against the Dark Arts and then after lunch I have Herbology, Arithmancy, Transfiguration and Astronomy." said Hermione after examining her schedule.
"I have the same except I gave Arithmancy a miss and took up the Care of Magical Animals."Harry said as he studied his timetable.
"Well same here except I took up Divination and Care of Magical Animals and gave Potions and Arithmacy a miss. I can't believe you both took up potion." Ron said shaking his head. Harry and Hermione just shrugged in return. "Let's get going then." Hermione asked as she got up.
"No, no I have a free hour now, you both go ahead." He said and waved them goodbye. Harry and Hermione nodded and left the great hall to their common room and sighed in relief. Harry compared to Hermione was starting to lose his patience when he felt Ginny play footsie with him. Hermione just smiled at him, she understood and he nodded back to her assuring her he was fine. They walked back to the common room and from there to the dungeons was a silent one. They didn't need to talk neither they needed to walk with each other, hand in hand to assure each other, just the company is enough.
Not surprisingly Potions went without breaking any sweat, with Snape as their professor for five years, Slughron was pleasant happening and was much easier to be dealt with too. When they reached the Charms classroom they found Ron already waiting for them. As soon as he saw them, he came next to Hermione and draped an arm along her waste. Immediately Harry nails dug into his palm stopping himself to beat Ron into pulp and Hermione smile became strained.
Harry looked away and saw Malfoy standing with his back against the wall relaxed with his usual group not with him looking at them with unemotional eyes. When he saw Harry looking at him, his gaze dropped for a millisecond and then reconnected. He gave a small, next to nothing nod and walked into the class, never once looking at him again. Harry frowned and remembered Hermione's observation about him being a spy, and he realised how true can than thought be.
"Mate lets go." Ron's voice pulled him out of his reverie and followed him and Hermione into the class glaring at his hand, still draped at her waste. The class went without any hitch with Professor McGonagall starting how important the seventh year was and then about the N.E.W.T's. soon the class was over and they made their way to the next class the Defence Against the Dark Arts.
The door was already opened when they reached their so they went it. Harry and Hermione occupied the front seat with each other while Ron sat behind them with Dean frowning that he couldn't sit with her but all was soon forgotten when dean started talking about Quidditch.
Soon enough the class filled and then almost immediately as the last student sat down Tonks and Remus entered the class
"Good Morning class, I am Nymphadora Tonks but you can call me Professor Tonks and I hope you know Professor Remus Lupin." She pointed at Remus who was sitting on the desk studying the class. As he heard his call called he stood up and stood next to Tonks and waved at them. The class hummed in affirmatives and Tonks continued speaking "I am an Auror so that's why you will see me giving more attention towards the physical part of this subject where as Professor Lupin will be taking the theory part. I will first start off by dividing you all into partners and today we will be duelling each other." She announced as she read out names from a paper. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Zabini." She started and went on to pair Dean with Lavender, Malfoy with Parvati, Ron with Pansy, and Hermione with Daphne Greengrass.
"The other professor's here say that the seventh year students of Gryffindor and Slytherin are the one of best here, so show me." she said as she signalled Neville and Goyle to start duelling. As soon as it had started it was finished with Goyle stunned by Neville. Next went Ron and Pansy which surprisingly was won by Pansy.
Before the duel even started between Malfoy and Parvati, Parvati's hand had started shaking seeing Malfoy's and she had heard the rumours that he had killed Dumbledore. Tonks clapped and Malfoy stupefied Parvati before she even had the chance to open her mouth. Malfoy looked down at her frozen form and shook his head in disappointment and returned to his seat.
"Ms. Granger and Ms. Greengrass, you are next." Tonks called them both to the clearing. They went and took their position. One thing Sirius had taught Harry and Hermione was that to never underestimate your opponent, even if your opponent is a squib. "Bow." Tonks said and then she clapped, the duel had started.
"Stupefy." Daphne cried.
"Protegro." Hermione protected herself. "Confingro." She said instantly.
Daphne dropped down; she got up "Diffindo." She said.
Hermione dogged it "Expulso."
"Tarantallegra."
"Rectusempra."
"Sectumsempra." Hermione's eyes widened as she barely managed to dodge it. The curse touched her arm and immediately there was blood out of the wound "So this is how you are going to play." She thought as her eyes narrowed.
Taking a deep breath she fired away "Reducto."
Daphne managed to put up a shield, then she dropped the shield, the curse on her lips but Hermione was far faster than her. She had already fired the curse "Expelliarmus." The spell was a surprise to her. Without wasting any time Hermione cried "Petrificus Totalus." successfully ending the duel. The class was in awe at the display. Hermione turned and gave a bow; Harry was the first to clap with a proud smile on his face with the others to join him later.
"Well done, Ms. Granger." Tonks said her eyes twinkling as she released Daphne from the spell. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Zabini, you are next." Tonks called them both to the centre. Harry looked at Hermione as he stood opposite to Blaise. Hermione nodded at him and gave him a smile, a small smile touched Harry's lips in return. "Bow." Tonks said and clapped, the duel started with Zabini firing the first curse."Flipendo." "Harry jumped out of the way and immediately cried "Furnunculus." Blaise wasn't as fast as Harry, he did manage to move out of the way but the curse did hit his hand, immediately causing boils to occur all over his left hand. Blaise looked at his hand for a split second, and that second was what Harry needed he quickly used his distraction to his advantage as fired the spells one after another in quick succession "Immobulus." and "Expelliarmus." followed by "Petrificus Totalus."
"Very well Mr. Potter." Tonks said smirking as she freed Blaise from the curse.
"You both were amazing." Ron said as walked from the Infirmary after Madam Pomfrey healed her wound, to the great hall for lunch. "Thanks." Harry and Hermione said together.
"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked as she wrapped her hand around Harry's hand, Hermione clenched her fist tightly in order to not slap Ginny. Ron and Hermione sat on the table opposite to Harry and Ginny who was still hanging onto his arm.
"Harry, Hermione you both were fabulous." Seamus said as he came and sat next to Harry with Dean, Parvati, Neville and Lavender.
"Thanks." Hermione said blushing slightly while Harry just nodded.
"I was wondering whether you would be continuing The Dum- D- Dumbledore's Army." Lavender asked choking on Dumbledore's name. Harry and Hermione shared a look.
"I don't know." Hermione said.
"Of course he will." Ginny said at the same time. Hermione eyes flashed in anger.
"Ginny, I don't think it will be right, I mean if we do continue we should at least ask Tonks and Remus first." Harry said quickly before Hermione could say anything.
"Yeah, let's go asked her now." Ginny suggested.
"Remus is there, I don't think we should go and interrupt them." Hermione said instantly.
"How do you know that they are a couple?"
"I met him before I came for the class." she said sweetly.
"Oh!" Parvati murmured.
"So I heard there was a duel today in Tonks class." Sirius asked that evening in the Room of Requirement.
"Yup, and it felt so good to duel someone else." Harry said as he sighed.
"Tonks, the other students want us to start the Dumbledore's Army again." Hermione said.
"What why, I am not a good teacher." Tonks shrieked as he stood up and stood in front of the sofa where Harry and Hermione were sitting. "Tell me what I did wrong, did I come out strong, like rude or something. Please tell me I didn't come out as boring." she said as her eyes filled with tears. Harry gave Hermione a desperate look and she took control of the conversation.
"Tonks, no no no... You got it all wrong. They just say how great we were and that's because of you, Sirius and Remus so they just wanted some extra help." Hermione said slowly looking into her eyes.
"Really, are you telling me that I am a good teacher?" Tonks asked desperately as she wiped a tear which came down her cheek.
"One of the best." She assured her.
"Okay, then I guess its okay then." Tonks relented as she went back to her place right beside Remus.
After few minutes of silence "So is it your time of the month again?" Sirius said chuckling slightly and then suddenly he was showered with a bucket full water.
"Well I guess this room is correctly called the Room of Requirement." Tonks said smugly leaning on Remus and closing her eyes.