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"What if down the line he and Granger..."
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Neville followed Harry upstairs while everyone in the common room looked at them in utter silence. Hermione left as well. She didn't know whether Harry will forgive her but she had said what she thought she should've and was hoping that he did.
Neville said nothing once he followed Harry into their dorm. Luckily there was no one else there other than them. The two stood in silence for a whole minute before Neville finally decided to speak.
"What will you do?" he asked.
"I...don't know," Harry responded sighing. "I'm tired" he said after a small pause. Neville nodded as he saw Harry got on the bed and put on the curtains to let anyone who came in the dorm know that he didn't want to be disturbed.
Just then Ron barged in looking all angry. He looked towards Harry's bed before heading towards it. However, before he could reach there, Neville blocked his path. Having grown quite a bit and gaining a good amount of muscles, the once nervous Gryffindor easily towered over Ron as he looked at the red head with an expressionless face.
"M...Move, Neville," Ron muttered as he felt intimidated.
"You are angry right now," Neville said slowly. "If I were you, I would calm down first before talking to anyone." Ron looked at him like he wanted to argue but Neville's next words made him change his mind. "It's either that or we will have a problem."
Luckily there was no one else to see this but even then Ron felt extremely humiliated. He wondered why he felt so scared by Neville. However, he let his instinct be the judge and slowly backed away before leaving the dorm. Neville kept watching him until Ron had closed the door on his way out. He then looked at Harry's bed before heading for his own.
Harry wasn't asleep. However, he didn't know that Ron had came in looking for him as he had applied privacy charms upon the bed curtains to get some extra layers of privacy as he looked at the communication mirror in his hand. He was wondering whether he should call Daphne to ask her what he should do with this whole new matter. He wondered if she was already asleep but then called her anyway and a few seconds later her face appeared on the mirror.
"Harry?" she said. "Is everything alright?" she sounded worried.
"Everything is fine," he said sighing. He then paused for a moment as Daphne looked at him questioningly. "Listen, something happened with Hermione..."
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"Talk about house drama," Tracey said as she took a bite out of her sausage. She and Daphne were in the great hall having breakfast. They, just like almost every student there, were looking at the Gryffindor table. Ron was sitting in his usual place, alone. However, that wasn't because of his eating habits. It was because of the angry look which the boy had carried in when he had come to the great hall for breakfast. Looking at the students from other houses Daphne knew that word had already spread of what happened last night in the Gryffindor common room. It still surprised her how fast rumours spread at Hogwarts.
Just then Harry walked in with Neville and Hermione. Everyone at the Gryffindor table turned to look at the three, except for Ron.
"Do you think he forgave her?" Tracey asked.
"I don't know," Daphne replied.
"Well, what do you think he should do?" Tracey asked again.
"It doesn't matter what I think," Daphne said as her eyes followed Harry who sat at the very end – like he had been since last year – with Neville and Hermione. "It's between Harry and Granger," she said a moment later.
"What if he forgives her?" Tracey asked.
"Then he forgives her," Daphne said. "Granger is smart and intelligent. If she has accepted her mistake and wants to make up for it, then it's only good for Harry. Her being at his side will be good for him."
"Then what about you?" Tracey asked. Daphne looked at her with a raised brow. "He has known her longer than he knows you. What if down the line he and Granger..."
"He won't," Daphne said interrupting her.
"You sound so sure," Tracey said with a smirk.
"Because the two of them don't see each other like that," Daphne said. "I have seen enough in the last three years to know that Harry and Granger are more like siblings than anything else."
"If you say so," Tracey said sounding a little disappointed.
"You were hoping for a drama, weren't you?" Daphne asked.
"A girl can only ask," Tracey said. "So...what happens if he forgives her? Does Granger become part of our group?"
"Maybe...yeah," Daphne said.
"Hmm...Does that mean she will take part in our training sessions?"
"Probably," Daphne answered. "Why? Are you not comfortable with that?"
"It's not that," Tracey said. "It's just that she might drag us behind, you know? We have already come so far when it comes to how much we know about magical knowledge and most of it isn't taught at Hogwarts. Granger is all book-abider so what if she slows our training...or worse, tell us that we are not supposed to dwell into dark magic? Most of what we learnt during summer was dark magic."
Daphne sighed. "If there is one thing that she won't do, it's dragging us down," she said. "Granger's relationship with Harry has probably only mended. She won't risk it to dictate what type of magic we should or shouldn't practice. Besides, it will be a good lesson for her to know that one can learn a lot more from outside the set curriculums."
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"So you and Ron are already a part of Dumbledore's Order?" Harry asked.
"Sort of," she said. They had a free period so Harry and Hermione were out by the black lake. "He sounded upset following Sirius' trial."
"Did he say why?"
"No," Hermione shook her head. "He told me and Ron that we should befriend you because of what is going to happen this year with Umbridge being at Hogwarts and Voldemort attacking any time."
"Is that why you apologised to me?" Harry asked.
"No," she said. "I had decided on that the first week after summer holidays had started. I even wrote you letters but it seems like you never got them."
"Yeah, a lot has been happening in my life right now," he said.
"Thank you...for forgiving me," Hermione said after a small pause. "I don't know what I was thinking. It was as if I couldn't think rationally."
"Don't thank me. Daphne is the one who told me to forgive you," Harry said.
"So it's true...you and her?" she asked. Harry looked at her questioningly. "Everybody started talking when you came out of the black lake with her during the second challenge. Fred and George have this huge bet with the entire Gryffindor house that you and Daphne are together but no one seems to believe them."
Harry smiled. He missed talking to the twins. After his falling out with Ron last year he had stopped talking to all the Weaselys. It had just happened and he had often thought how he could make things better between him and the rest of the Weaselys.
"Did you know that they are planning to open a joke shop after they graduate this year?" Hermione said. "It's amazing to see the genius inventions that Fred and George have come up with, for their products. Mrs Weasely isn't happy about it though, but I think that it's great. They are doing what they love."
Harry seemed to be thinking something before he spoke. "Where are they opening their shop?" he asked.
"At 93 Diagon Alley," Hermione said. "Why?"
"Just curious," Harry said. "That is an expensive place to run business from. It is one of the main locations of Diagon Alley."
"I don't know much about it," she said. "They say that they are completely prepared to open the shop. That is, if..." she left her sentence unfinished.
"If Voldemort doesn't cause any problems first," Harry said. Hermione looked at him. She bit her lip which told Harry that she had something to say. However, he didn't have to ask her as she spoke the next moment.
"During one of the meetings we overheard Dumbledore talking about a prophecy," she said. "He said that it has something to do with you and...Voldemort...and that you know about it. Do you?"
"I do," Harry said in a low voice, "and I am not comfortable sharing it with you. Not right now. I still need some time before I can start trusting you completely."
Hermione pressed her lips as her eyes became wet. However, she understood why Harry would say that. She had broken his trust and it wasn't something that could be mended easily. "I understand," she replied looking away.
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The first DADA class of their new term and Umbridge had already left an impression that she wasn't going to make them learn any defence spells whatsoever. Hermione was unsurprisingly pissed as she rambled on about how bad Umbridge was, as soon as they came out of the classroom. Harry, however, had expected it. Considering the woman was sent by Fudge to keep an eye on Dumbledore and him, he wasn't surprised by her teaching methods at all.
Sirius had told him that Fudge was under the impression that Dumbledore was creating an army of students to de-throne him from the minister's position which is why Umbridge was at Hogwarts to stop that from happening. And her way to do that was to prevent students from learning any magic.
Harry wasn't worried for himself over this matter. However, he couldn't stop thinking about other students. With Voldemort's return it was more important than ever that they learnt how to defend themselves but with Umbridge being their defence professor that was definitely not going to happen anytime soon. Hogwarts' curriculum was already bad and with her at school, the students won't learn what little they did before about defending themselves. If Voldemort decided to attack Hogwarts, they will all die like flies.
Harry came out of his train of thoughts when an origami bird came and dropped in front of him. He picked it up before unfolding it to see that it was a note from Snape.
'In my Office, now.' It said. Harry wondered what it could be about. A minute later he was in front of Snape's office. As he was about to knock on the doors they opened on their own.
"Come in, Potter," he heard Snape say so he slowly walked in. Harry had only been here twice before. Looking around he couldn't find the Slytherin head so he carefully approached for the chair by the table when Snape appeared from the shadows, next to a shelf which contained rare potion ingredients. Harry almost jumped in fear as he mentally cursed the man for scaring him.
"You wanted to see me, professor?" he asked.
"Yes," Snape said as he came around the table and sat down before telling Harry to do the same. "Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to tutor you on occlumency," he said. "He said that it had something to do with your dreams about the dark lord."
Harry pressed his lips. "It is," he said slowly, "which is why I have been practicing occlumency on my own since summer."
Snape looked mildly interested as he sat a little straighter. "You taught yourself occlumency?" he asked. Harry nodded slowly. Snape's lips twitched before he stood up and came around beside him. "Fine," he said. "Then you wouldn't mind if I test it, would you? That way I would know if you are lying to get out of this. I would understand though. Neither of us wants to do this but if you fail, you will have no choice but to learn occlumency from me. Is that clear?"
Harry was rather surprised that Snape hadn't tried to ridicule him unlike most times. It seemed everyone had become serious with Voldemort's return. He slowly nodded so Snape took out his wand and pointed it between his eyes.
"Are you ready?" asked the potions' professor. Harry gulped before nodding slowly. "Legilimence!"
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Thanks for reading...
