AN: Hey Guys! It's been a long while since I've been active, but recently I more and more wanted to pick up writing this fanfic again…so here goes nothing! A bit of a slow chapter this one, quite difficult to write. Still building up to more action-packed chapters, more characters, etc. Hope you enjoy!
OOOOOOOOOO
Following the encounter with his dorm mates and his talk with Hermione the night before, breakfast in the Great Hall next morning was a tense affair at the Gryffindor table. As expected Hermione was the only one sitting near Harry, already chatting excitingly about the start of the new term and her favorite subjects.
Harry smiled slightly watching his best friend rave on about some new Ancient Runes concept she was excited to learn about, telling him it would be her highlight of this term.
"You do know that classes start in ten minutes and you haven't eaten anything yet right?" Harry said casually, chuckling when Hermione realized that indeed he was correct and started to quickly eat some toast with eggs.
"I'm sorry" she managed to say in between some bites. "I just get excited when the new year starts with all my classes".
Harry smiled. "Its totally fine 'Mione, I think this year I might have to do spend some more time on my studies than I have before… and not just because our O.W.L's are coming up."
Hermione smiled proudly at him, but when she realized that Harry probably meant studying things that were not taught inside the Hogwarts curriculum but would rather help him in the fight against Voldemort, her smile disappeared and made way for a worried expression.
Meanwhile Harry glanced past Hermione to the rest of the Gryffindor table. While most students had already left on the way to their classes, some remained and they all had something in common. They were all engaged in quiet conversations, while shooting Harry and Hermione nasty looks every now and then.
"Come on" Harry grumbled as he stood up and packed his bag. "Two hours potions with the Slytherins, we don't want to be late for that"
Hermione nodded and quickly gathered her things too. Taking the hand Harry had reached out for her to take, she couldn't help but smile on the inside. Together they made their way to the Dungeons, holding hands and nervously awaiting how bad professor Snape was going to be this year.
OOOOOOOOOO
"Silence!" Professor Snape said loudly after all students had found their way into the potions classroom.
"Now, I know that it will probably be too much to ask from some of you" he continued, glaring at the Gryffindor side of the students. "But today we start with a potion that will most likely be O.W.L material, namely Amortentia. Pair up in groups of two and start!"
With a swish of his wand, instructions appeared on the chalkboard, while students hastily began to find partners and a free spot. Harry and Hermione didn't need to say a word. Silently they made their way over to the corner of the classroom. At the table next to them Ron appeared with Seamus.
Harry's eyes met the redhead ones for a few seconds and for the shortest of moments it seemed like Ron was about to say something. He however, did not and quickly started focusing on his potion's ingredients, even though Harry could see the blush on his face.
He felt Hermione squeeze his hand reassuringly and with a sigh he turned to his own work, chopping up some flubberwurms. It still hurt him to know that he and Ron were still not speaking, but he had meant what he said to Hermione earlier. This year he wanted to start focusing hard on his classes and magical abilities, which started with this Amortentia potion.
OOOOOOOOOO
Two hours, a bit of cursing and a lot of sweat later, Professor Snape indicated loudly that the time was up. Slowly he began pacing past all the students, making crude comments here and there to some Gryffindors and complimenting almost all Slytherins.
When Snape finally turned to the last row, he almost made Neville cry when he just laughed at him and vanished his potion.
Slowly he moved forward, past Ron and Seamus, who he seemd to practically ignore, until he stopped in front of Harry and Hermione's table.
"Well well well… if it isn't our celebrity" professor Snape sniggered. "Have you two even tried to brew a decent potion this time, or were you and miss Granger too busy holding hands like you were at the beginning of my class Potter?"
Harry and Hermione both felt their head turn bright red, while laughs from the Slytherins and even some Gryffindors echoed through the room. Snape smiled contently and finally looked at their potion.
Harry swore for a second that he saw a change in the potion professor's emotion, however before he got the chance to really think about it, he had already turned around and made his way back to the front of the class.
"Class dismissed. Potter, Granger you stay" he stated simply.
Students slowly made their way out of the classroom while Harry and Hermione waited, sharing equally surprised and confused looks.
"Seems like Potter finally got himself a girl, even if it's a worthless one like her" Harry heard Pansy whisper a little too loudly to Malfoy on their way outside, resulting in another round of Slytherin laughs.
While Harry felt his anger rise, he knew better than to act on it in front of the potions professor. With gritted teeth he made his way to the professor's desk, where an anxious Hermione was already waiting with Snape.
"Mister Potter, Miss Granger, you are probably wondering why I have made you stay?" Snape started, earning a slight nod from Harry.
"It is very simple" the potions professor continued. "For appearances sake I am rather forced to treat you two like I have done the past years. However, given the recent circumstances with the Dark Lord rising and me being in the Order, I found it time to make some changes"
Harry and Hermione still looked as confused as they had before. The almost human-like voice of Snape was definitely not something they were used to.
"The reason I held you back was for two reasons" Snape continued, as if it was the most normal thing to have an almost friendly chat with Harry and Hermione. "First of all, your Amortentia potion was close to perfect. And secondly I have a piece of advice for you two."
Harry looked at Hermione and saw that most her confusion was gone and had made way for a big smile. Doing good in potions was rare enough, combining it with getting complimented for it by Snape was reason enough to make the young witch happy. Harry however, was not so quick to smile.
"What piece of advice professor?" he asked in a voice that clearly vocalized his distrust towards the professor.
Snape sighed and looked Harry in the eyes for a few moments. "I know mister Potter, that our history is not the best. However, trust me when I say that I want to see you succeed against the Dark Lord. You must understand that for appearances sake of course I will continue to treat you and miss Granger like I always have. My piece of advice for you is very simple: stay together, it makes you both stronger."
Harry and Hermione remained quiet and looked at each other. A slight blush appeared on both their cheeks, even though neither of the two could explain it. Quickly they made their way out of the classroom and dungeons, Snape's words still ringing in their ears.
"Remember you said some changes needed to be made?" Hermione asked Harry while they walked towards the Charms classroom for their next class.
Harry nodded in affirmation. "Of course 'Mione, and I still mean it."
Hermione nodded quickly. "Of course of course, I'm just saying given what we just had with Professor Snape, I think that some changes are already happening and I'm for one are happy if they all turn out to be that way."
Harry remained silent, his mind was still not sure what to make of the encounter with Snape. "I don't know 'Mione, I still have no idea what it means" he finally managed to say.
Rounding the corner to the Charms classroom, Hermione gave him a warm smile that made his stomach feel all weird again.
"I'm not sure either Harry, but I just think it might mean that help and support can come from rather unexpected places"
OOOOOOOOOO
After the rest of his classes finished, Harry found himself sitting in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, his homework sprawled over the desk in front of him. However, little progress was made on his two rolls of parchment assignment for Professor Flitwick on the correct use of banishing charms.
After staring at the same page in his book for what felt like hours, Harry sighed and decided to give up for tonight. Stuffing his schoolwork in his bag, his mind wandered over the happenings of the past days.
He knew that he had meant when saying changed needed to be made. However, the more Harry thought about it, the more he realized how complicated things were and that he had no real idea on where to start.
Glancing around the common room he saw Neville giving him a small smile when their eyes met. Harry gave him a little nod of the head before letting his eyes wander to the other side of the room where Fred and George seemed to have taken Ron hostage in some way, trying to force him to test their latest Weasley product.
Still feeling hurt when thinking about Ron, Harry quickly focused his eyes on the desk in front of him.
"Where to start," he murmured in himself, letting his head rest on his hands.
Without giving it much thought, his thoughts went to Hermione. He knew that somehow his bushy-haired best friend always knew what to do, no matter how complicated the situation.
He didn't realize the small smile that had formed on his face when thinking about her, but the question in his mind had changed. "What would Hermione do?" he thought over and over again.
After several minutes of thinking, almost staring through the wooden desk in front of him and trying to ignore the annoying looks and whispers that were shot his way from around him, Harry finally had a starting point.
"Planning is always key," he thought to himself, imitating the sentence that Hermione had told him and Ron so very often.
Grabbing a new piece of parchment from his bag, Harry dipped his quill in some ink and started writing. Everything that came to his mind he wrote down: names of people, places, topics like charms and defence against the dark arts…
After scribbling for quite some time Harry finally couldn't manage to add anything more. A weird sense of being at ease washed over him, now that all the thoughts in his head had found a way out through his writing.
Staring at the parchment in front of him, he began looking for reoccurring themes or questions that had come to his mind earlier, structuring his thoughts.
He had lost sense of time when he finally put his quill down. Most of the common room was empty by now, save for some seventh years on the other far end of the room.
Looking at the draft of a plan he had written down, Harry was quite happy with himself. Whereas he didn't have concrete plans on the where or what, he at least had been able to identify two priorities.
First of all it was key that he started to identify who he could trust and to what extent. Not that he was planning on building his own group or anything, but Harry knew that he relied on people that he could trust, now and in the future.
Secondly, he had created a list of topics he wanted to focus on to extend his magical knowledge and abilities. Regretfully he realized, that past years he had spent too little time on his education and studying of magic. That needed to change.
Here however, a dilemma arose. He knew that he could easily study magic theories in the library or common room, however practicing spells and charms was going to be a lot trickier. He still needed to find a place where he could be away from everyone, training and practicing, especially since the magic he was going to use would definitely not fall within the Hogwarts curriculum.
From the corner of his eye he saw the portrait hole open and close and Hermione coming in. He grinned looking at her bookbag that seemed to weigh a ton and quickly waved her over. Smilingly she approached him and plopped down in a chair beside him.
"Let me guess… library?" Harry asked playfully, smiling at her.
The young witch nodded tiredly. "With O.W.L's coming up this year I thought it would be best to start early and finish the smaller homework already."
"Smaller as in the two rolls of parchment for Charms?" Harry asked and laughed when he saw the confirming somewhat guilty expression on her face.
"Great! Then you can help me with mine, I still need to start"
"Harry! You haven't even started?!" Hermione said swatting his arm lightly.
"Well…err… not really," Harry said slowly. "I've been productive though!" he added quickly.
Without saying a word he slid his piece of parchment over to Hermione, who looked slightly confused but accepted it quickly.
Harry watched almost nervously how she scanned all the words and scribbles he had written earlier. Looking at her face he couldn't help but notice how her eyes moved over the piece of parchment in record pace and how her nose scrunched up when she focused, he couldn't help but admire his friend.
"Stop it, this is Hermione" he thought to himself, quickly averting his eyes and waiting for her to be finished before his thoughts would go down a road he was not sure he was ready for.
"Harry… this is really good," Hermione said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "This makes a lot of sense as a way to start and learning so much!"
Harry couldn't help but have a little smirk on his face when he heard the proud tone his best friend was using.
"Well, yeah its great and all, but we still need to find a place to do most of the practical stuff," he responded.
Hermione nodded understandingly. "I know Harry, but I am sure that we will come up with something. This is already a good start."
"Yeah, I'm glad you forgot about the part where I told you I haven't started my Charms homework yet," Harry said jokingly, earning another swat on the arm.
"You know Harry… I am really proud of you" Hermione said softly after a while.
Her eyes met his and both of them felt their heart skip a beat. Harry didn't really know what to say, so he decided to take her hand and squeeze it softly, earning a smile from Hermione.
"Couldn't have done it without you 'Mione" he murmured so soft that Hermione almost thought she didn't hear it.
Whereas the worries for both teens seemed almost overwhelming, the rest of tonight they could wait. The few hours before bedtime they just enjoyed each other's company, joking, reading and talking about everything but the upcoming troubles.