Yr Ail. The Second.

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Harry sat in the Great Hall, positioned purposely between Ron and Hermione. He picked at his breakfast while Ron shovelled food into his mouth beside him, and tried not to angle himself away from the redhead. It wouldn't really do him any good to pick sides while they were on the outs with each other.

"Cheer up, mate!" Ron said suddenly. Harry glanced up at him, unsure where that had come from. "Only a day left! Then we can finally get out of here for a bit!"

"Mm," Harry said noncommittally, taking a bite of his eggs. He hadn't been entirely thrilled with the idea of going to the Weasleys' for the break, and Ron seemed to have just assumed he would be going. If it were Grimmauld place, Harry would have considered it, but…

The fact that Hermione was staying at Hogwarts over the break only made him more inclined to stay as well. If she had been going to the Burrow, then at least he would have had someone other than a Weasley to hang out with. He didn't mind the twins – in fact, he rather enjoyed their company – and Ginny, well, he still found it a bit awkward around her. But spending day in and day out with Ron was a bit too much.

"What's up, Harry? You seem really down," Ron observed. Harry managed not to roll his eyes at how long it had taken Ron to notice that he wasn't bouncing off the walls in excitement.

"I'm going to be staying here, Ron."

The redhead looked aghast. "But – You're not – Why?"

"I'm not about to leave Hermione on her own all Christmas, Ron."

"What, she's not going over to Bulgaria or something with Krum?" Ron sneered.

Harry bit back an icy retort, saying curtly "No, she's not."

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Ron gave Harry the cold shoulder the rest of the day, though it wasn't something Harry was really bothered about. He had realized earlier that year that he preferred spending time with Hermione, if only because the two of them managed to have relatively intelligent conversations.

He wasn't sure what had really made him realize that his schoolwork was actually important. The combination of the havoc Umbridge had brought on the school the previous year and Sirius' death seemed a likely culprit, though. Hermione seemed to feel that he had matured, though to Harry it just seemed like he had finally opened his eyes.

By the time that evening rolled around, Harry really just wanted to get away from everyone. Nearly the entire school was buzzing in excitement for the Christmas break, and the constant chatter was getting irritating. Being in the Gryffindor common room was almost worse: the small space seemed to increase the volume of everyone's already loud voices. To top it off, Ron and Lavender were directly across the room from him, and to say they were closely entwined on their chair would be putting it mildly.

Harry gave no resistance when Hermione asked him to work on Welsh that night. It wasn't that he really cared that much about people kissing in public, but the way Ron and Lavender went about it made him wish he were in Potions.

The two returned to their usual practice room. So far, none of the teachers had come across the two of them, and the only prefects who had noticed them hadn't had much issue when they saw who it was. Harry wasn't sure if it was that they didn't look like they were a couple, or if was just the fact that Hermione was there. Either way, he was glad they hadn't been forced elsewhere. The Room of Requirement was an obvious solution, but not ideal. The classroom they were using currently was close enough to the Gryffindor common room that they didn't really have to worry about curfew.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw Hermione flipping through her book, far past where they had been working.

"Er…'Mione?" The witch didn't look up, skimming through pages that were nearly at the end of the thick book.

"Mm?"

"What exactly are you doing?" He might not have been doing too poorly with this, but that didn't mean he was interested in skipping to the more advanced lessons. Hermione didn't answer at once, her eyes still darting over the text as she flipped page after page.

"Aha!" she looked up at him triumphantly, apparently having found what she had been searching for. "I thought we might try learning some common phrases this time. It'll be more useful in general conversations. So we can work on that and some new vocabulary." Hermione rolled her eyes when she saw Harry's reluctance. "They're at the back of the book because they're not officially part of one of the lessons, Harry."

"…Right," he said, sitting down beside her. Hermione made a face as she looked through the list.

"What's up?" he asked, craning his neck to see. She rolled her eyes, holding the book out to him.

" 'I love you' is listed here in the common phrases," she said. Harry looked at her, unsure of what the issue was. "I'm not trying to say that it's not common, just that I think it's ridiculous just how commonly it's used. I mean, if everyone actually meant it when they said 'I love you' to someone…" she snorted. "Lavender Brown would have a lot of intense bonds with various people, that's for sure. Won won," she scoffed under her breath. "Anyway. Shall we get started?"

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They had been practicing for nearly an hour, and curfew was fast approaching. Harry was quite pleased with his progress; although Hermione had memorized the entire list, he had a fair bit of it down himself. He was able to hold a short 'hello, how are you, I like _, do you?' conversation with her without too much difficulty.

Harry had to admit: he was enjoying himself. The set-up of the language wasn't as difficult as he had expected, and he liked the way the words sounded. They were much like the almost-Latin words used for spells in that they had the same sort of magic feel to them. He was slightly tempted to ask Hermione about it, but wasn't really interested in hearing the history behind the language.

"You know, why they made you a prefect, Granger, is beyond me." Harry looked up to see the Slytherin prefect standing in the doorway. "Sneaking off at night with Potter instead of doing your rounds? Tsk tsk."

"Noswaith dda, Malfoy," Hermione said sweetly. "Wyt ti'n siarad Cymraeg?" Harry smirked. The fact that Malfoy wouldn't be able to understand what Hermione had said to him would likely prove to be an irritation, and the fact that she had only greeted him politely, and asked if he spoke Welsh made it that much better.

Mild annoyance flashed over Malfoy's face before he sneered at the two of them. "And the mudblood thinks she's so much better than me now," he rolled his eyes.

"As if she would need to learn another language to think that," Harry retorted. "Why are you here, anyway? Just like checking up on us?"

"Someone's got to make sure the Gryffindors aren't being complete idiots, Potter. Besides, as a prefect, it's my job to be doing rounds. Just because you weren't competent enough to warrant the job, I wouldn't have expected you to be so thick as to forget who was."

Harry scowled at him, more irritated by his arrogance than anything.

"Let's go, Harry," Hermione said as he opened his mouth to reply. "I think the language might be a bit over Malfoy's head." She pulled Harry towards the door, pointedly ignoring his attempts to free his arm from her grasp.

"If that makes you feel better, Granger, then continue with your delusions, by all means," the Slytherin drawled.

"Why don't you join us during the break then, Malfoy? I hear you're staying here. Did your parents forget to invite you home?" Harry asked, stepping in front of the blond as he reached the door.

"Didn't the two of you get invited to the Weasel's hovel this year? Or has he been too interested in shagging the first girl he's noticed to ask?"

Hermione pulled Harry through the door before he had a chance to respond. She kept his arm in a vice until they could no longer hear Malfoy's chuckling.

Harry held back a sigh as they walked away from the grinning Slytherin. This was going to be a long Christmas break.

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All right, that's chapter two! My apologies for the long wait; I'm hoping to get future chapters up more quickly. And I hope it doesn't bother anyone terribly, and I know I forgot to mention it at the beginning of the first chapter, but there will be Ron bashing. Quite possibly Dumbledore bashing as well, depending on the angle I go with here. Just so you know. But now we've got the winter break! And of course Draco's staying. ^.^ A-a-and, we're not going to have nothing but scenes like this. I apologise for making it so similar to the last. XP

And before you go, do take a look at this lovely, glittery, amazing net. It's a thing of beauty, wouldn't you say? Made by the elves, you know. Doesn't it make you want to leave a review? I think it might. ^.^

Seriously, though, reviews would be brilliant. Aha, I don't even care what you write. Anything at all is welcome.