Great Hall, Hogwarts, 9/11/1995, 12:18
Harry was having an unbelievably long day. First, he had spent the morning listening to Binns give them a dreadfully dull lecture on the early giant wars.
Then he had a double potions lesson. It was always pleasant to be stuck in a classroom with the greasy-haired dungeon bat for two class periods. Today they had started the first stage of a strengthening solution and would pick it back up Monday after it stewed for a week. Snape had been ignoring him since their first class but poor Neville had taken Harry's place as Snape's favourite target.
The previous weekend had gone pretty well, Ron had made starting keeper and was over the moon about it, meaning he had stopped sulking about Harry quitting the team. Ginny had earned herself the seeker slot putting all of the other hopefuls to shame.
According to Ron, Ginny had done such a good job at tryouts that Angelina didn't even seem bothered that the 'Potter kid' had quit the team.
More than half of the team was now comprised of Weasley's, Harry had even joked that they should rename it the mostly Weasley team.
"Ready for divination, Harry?" Ron said, cutting into Harry's thoughts.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Harry shrugged, not looking forward to either of his classes after lunch.
"Got any good dreams to share in class?" Ron smirked.
Z
Truthfully the only dream Harry had in the last week was the one involving Tonks the other morning, not that he would share that with anyone.
They were required to document their dreams in a diary so that they could interpret each other's dreams during class. He and Ron had actually made a game of coming up with the most ridiculous dreams they could think of for their dream diary.
Suddenly Harry had an idea of a way to irritate his best mate, there was one thing he could think of that would definitely make Ron... uncomfortable.
"Yeah, a few. I wrote a couple of entries involving your sister. Maybe you can help me interpret them when we get to class," Harry said in faux seriousness.
"Oi, I don't want to hear about you dreaming about my sister!" Ron exclaimed looking sickened at the thought.
"I'm a bit curious about what happened in those dreams, Harry," Ginny cut in from two seats down.
"Well, it all started in the prefect's bathroom. There was a large bath filled with bubbles-
"You can't go into the prefect's bathroom," Hermione cut him off, looking at Ron in amusement.
"In my dreams, I was a prefect," Harry said giving Ginny a wink.
"What was I?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Head girl and you were just about to-
"Dammit Potter, I'm warning you," Ron exclaimed looking stricken at the direction this conversation was going.
"Join you in the bath?" Ginny added helpfully.
"It was heading in that direction before the damn alarm clock went off," Harry agreed, noticing the horrified look on Ron's face.
"I hate you both," Ron muttered.
"No, you don't. You already put your name in the hat to be the godfather of future Potter children," Harry pointed out.
"Not if the brats have red hair, I don't," Ron said flatly.
"Well, I am sorry to say that will only happen in your dreams, Harry. I have a boyfriend and he might get jealous if we shared a bath," Ginny said, smirking as Ron sputtered into his pumpkin juice.
"What?! Who?!" Ron demanded, his voice cracking from having just inhaled some of his pumpkin juice.
"Michael Corner," Ginny replied matter-of-factly.
"You're too young to be dating," Ron protested, looking as if he couldn't believe his ears.
"I can still join you in the prefect's bathroom, Potter," the dark-haired girl sitting beside Ginny offered, batting her eyes at Harry.
"Can it, Romilda," Ginny snorted in amusement, rolling her eyes at her friend.
"Does mum know?" Ron demanded in a manner that suggested he wasn't going to let this go.
"Of course, she already sent me the potion," Ginny assured him, a knowing grin playing on her lips.
Harry had never seen his best mate look that embarrassed before. Ron sat there gaping like a fish out of water, his face a brilliant shade of red and he seemed to be lost for words.
"There is no way your mother sent you a contraceptive potion," Hermione snorted in disbelief.
"I know, but do you see the look on his face," Ginny grinned as she gestured to Ron with her fork.
"If I had to give his face a colour, I would say it's almost... cherry," Harry commented, emphasizing the word cherry.
"Oh thank god, your Puff is on her way over here, Harry," Ron exclaimed in a tone that suggested he was desperate to get off of the current topic.
"Harry has a Puff?" Ginny asked in surprise.
"The name is, Wendy," Tonks said from behind him, making Harry jump.
"Hey, what's up?" Harry asked as he turned in his seat to look up at Tonks.
"I was just coming over to let you know that I can't make our... date this evening," Tonks said in a rush.
"Okay," Harry said feeling a bit put out at this news.
"I'll meet with you tomorrow evening but Sprout wants me to help Bones with her Transfiguration tonight," Tonks explained before turning and heading back to the Hufflepuff table.
"Ah, got stood up, did we?" Ron sniggered.
"Yeah, I guess I'm stuck hanging out with you after dinner," Harry sighed.
"Sorry mate, I've got quidditch practice after dinner," Ron chuckled.
"Hermione?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I'll be in the library, you can join me if you like. Though I'm a bit offended that you chose me as a last resort" Hermione commented.
"Don't be like that Hermione, you know you're my little silver medal," Harry soothed.
"Prat," Hermione scowled.
Harry went back to eating his lunch, trying to mentally prepare himself for divination and defence class. Divination class was always frustrating with the professor's constant predictions of his untimely death. Not to mention that the classroom was always uncomfortably hot and the constant burning incense gave him a headache.
Defence class was going to be dull as they were almost certainly going to be reading from that useless book again. Harry just hoped Hermione didn't do something to land herself in detention today.
Harry found himself dwelling on the fact that his lessons with Tonks were cancelled tonight. As if his Monday couldn't get any worse, now he didn't even have training with Tonks to look forward to.
'There is always tomorrow night,' Harry thought with a sigh as the bell rang and he and Ron began making the long trek to the north tower.
Library, Hogwarts, 9/11/1995, 19:29
Harry was just finishing up his homework for potions while Hermione worked on a complicated arithmancy chart. Harry really would have preferred to be in the room practising with Tonks as Hermione was not very good company at the moment and seemed very irritable.
"Hey Gilderoy," A voice said from behind him.
"Hannah it's good to see you but I prefer to be called Harry," Harry chuckled as he turned to look up at the blonde standing beside their table.
"I was wondering if you knew anything about the vanishing spell?" Hannah asked as she took a seat next to him.
"A bit. I vanished my snail in class," Harry admitted as he put his quill down and flexed his writing hand as it had started to cramp up.
"Do you think you could give me some tips?" Hannah asked hopefully.
"Yeah, but we'll have to go somewhere else or Hermione will wring our necks," Harry said looking over at Hermione warily.
"Go on Potter, you're distracting me anyway," Hermione said without looking up from her work.
"Alright, lead the way," Hannah said her cheeks tinged the slightest bit pink for some reason.
Harry hastily packed up his things and led Hannah out of the library. He was a bit confused as to why she had asked him for help but he was not going to complain.
Harry had always thought that Hannah was a pretty girl but she seemed to have gotten even more attractive in the past year. In their first year, she had been on the chubby side but over the past few years, she had slimmed down though she still had very well-defined feminine curves. As they walked side-by-side out of the library, Harry noticed that she was only an inch or two shorter than himself, which made her quite tall for a girl.
Tonight Hannah had her golden-blonde hair up in pigtails and she was wearing light makeup around her eyes and on her cheeks. Harry couldn't help but notice that she looked very pretty this evening. Even prettier than usual, now that he thought about it.
Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts as he tried to decide where they should go to practice. He doubted Tonks would be pleased if they used the room of requirement and he didn't want to walk that far anyway.
Deciding to just find an empty classroom near the library, Harry led her to the classroom that had housed the Mirror of Erised in his first year. The classroom was close to the library and it didn't take long before the two of them stepped inside the dusty room.
As soon as they stepped into the classroom, candles placed in strategic places along the walls of the room flared to life, bathing them in orange flickering light. The classroom looked the same as he remembered with the exception of there being an old teacher's desk at the front of the room where the Mirror of Erised had once been.
"Alright, how far along have you gotten with the spell?" Harry asked when they stepped up to the teacher's desk.
"Nowhere," Hannah admitted as she slid off her outer robes.
Harry did a double take when she discarded her school robes and set them on the teacher's desk. She was wearing a tight-fitting pink Tornados tee shirt that emphasized her rather impressive chest and a pair of denim blue jeans that seemed to have been painted on her, showing off the curve of her hips as well as her perfectly formed bum. Harry quickly averted his gaze but judging by the blush on her cheeks, he was pretty sure she had caught him checking her out.
"Alright we'll start at the beginning," Harry said before conjuring a common sparrow and quickly casting a body-bind spell over it before it could fly away.
Harry couldn't help sparing Hannah's backside a subtle glance as he moved to give her access to the teacher's desk. For some reason, he couldn't associate the girl standing before him with the bratty Hufflepuff who kept flashing her 'Potter Stinks' badge at him last year. There was something very different about her this year that made him want to forget about their past encounters. There was also the fact that she was really fit and he wasn't about to do anything that would push her away.
Shaking his head to push away those thoughts, Harry cleared his throat and decided to get things started.
"I guess the first thing we should do is have you cast the spell and see what happens," Harry said, thinking this would be the best way to start teaching her the spell.
"Al-alright, but is there some trick to this spell because nothing ever happens when I try to cast it?" Hannah asked hopefully, her pretty blue-green eyes looking into his.
"J-just imagine the bird disappearing and will your magic to make it happen," Harry stammered out, his face warming up as his eyes met hers.
"That's all?" Hannah asked, looking perplexed.
"That's how I cast the spell. Just give it a try," Harry encouraged as he gestured to the bird lying motionless on the desk.
"Okay," Hannah said in a soft voice before she pointed her wand at the bird and closed her eyes for a moment.
Harry held his breath as he watched her concentrate on the spell. She was scrunching her face up cutely as she prepared to cast the spell and Harry couldn't fight a small smile as he watched her.
He also couldn't help but appreciate how pretty she looked in the flickering light of the ever-burning candles. Her skin had a bronze quality to it that made him think she had spent a lot of time on the beach this summer and her hair was like spun gold shimmering in the orange light.
Harry was brought out of these observations as her eyes suddenly snapped open.
Harry watched with building anticipation as she whispered, "evanesco," while making the wand motion over the bird, causing the upper half of the bird to vanish.
Thankfully it wasn't like cutting the bird in half, there was no blood and the part of the bird that was on the table was still very much alive. Harry never fully understood how that worked exactly, he knew the half that vanished went into 'nonbeing,' as McGonagall had said in class. That didn't really explain how most of the animal's vital organs could vanish and the bird didn't die.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Harry noticed Hannah was watching him expectantly.
"That was pretty good but you're not making the flick sharp enough," Harry said as he drew his wand and pointed it at the bird before saying, "evanesco."
Harry was relieved when the rest of the bird vanished, it would have been really awkward if it hadn't been able to cast the spell he was trying to teach her.
"That's cheating, I already vanished half of it," Hannah pouted.
"I could vanish something else if you like. The spell works on just about anything nonmagical, even... clothes," Harry said, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips.
"Don't you dare," Hannah exclaimed, her cheeks flushing bright red at the implication.
"I'm only kidding, Hannah," Harry assured her as he conjured another bird and petrified it.
"Good. The last thing we girls need is immature boys running around vanishing our knickers," Hannah exclaimed only half-jokingly.
"Yeah, Seamus would have a field day with that power," Harry sniggered.
"I'm going to have nightmares about that now. Can we just get back to the spell?" Hannah asked as she suppressed a shudder.
"Alight. Try the spell again but this time remember to give your wand a good sharp flick at the end," Harry instructed, thinking that she looked even cuter when she was blushing.
"Okay," Hannah said as she cast the spell again and Harry was pleased to see the bird completely disappear this time.
"I did it!" Hannah squealed excitedly as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Just keep practising the spell, and you should have it mastered in a few days," Harry said feeling pleased he had helped her get the spell so quickly.
"Harry, can I ask you a question?" Hannah asked nervously.
"Yeah?" Harry asked, looking at her curiously.
"Are you and Wendy McDonald dating?" Hannah inquired.
"No, we're just friends," Harry said.
"I've heard that you spend every evening with her?" Hannah pressed.
"We study together but nothing is going on between us," Harry explained, wondering where she was going with this.
"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next Saturday?" Hannah asked her face flushing again.
"Is this like a date or just as... just as friends?" Harry asked, his palms feeling a bit sweaty for some reason.
"A-a date," Hannah mumbled looking down at her mary-janes.
"O-okay, but shouldn't I be the one asking you?" Harry asked, feeling his stomach twisting with nerves.
"If I learned anything from the Yule ball, it's that boys take forever to work up their nerves and there are only two weeks until Hogsmeade," Hannah answered, her cheeks still flushed.
"Maybe the hat put you in the wrong house," Harry quipped as he reached out and took her smaller hand in his.
"The sorting hat did consider me for Gryffindor but in the end... Hannah trailed off as she looked at their joined hands in surprise.
"Well, I should at least try and do this right. Hannah, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Harry asked, trying to sound confident and not stutter over his words.
"I would love to," Hannah said giving him a beaming smile
"Just to let you know, I've never actually gone on a date before. So you'll have to let me know if I do something wrong," Harry admitted as he looked at their joined hands feeling a bit unsure of himself all of a sudden.
"I've never been on a date either, so we can figure it out as we go," Hannah said softly, sounding relieved for some reason.
Before Harry could say anything else, the warning bell sounded letting them know it was almost curfew.
"I had better get going, I have prefect patrols tonight," Hannah said with some reluctance.
"Yeah, I had better get going so you don't give me detention," Harry chuckled as he led her out of the classroom still holding her hand.
As the two walked towards the grand staircase, neither of them noticed the two Hufflepuff girls walking further down the hallway coming from the Transfiguration corridor.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts, 9/12/1995, 17:49
Harry barely avoided an incoming spell from Tonks who seemed to be much more brutal in tonight's session.
Harry rolled as Tonks chained three stinging hexes together, Unfortunately, he was too slow, taking all three of them to his chest.
"Buggering hell, Tonks!" Harry exclaimed as the force of the triple spell knocked him off of his feet.
"Better move faster, Potter," Tonks shrugged.
"What the hell is the matter with you today?" Harry groaned as he tried to get to his feet only to have to drop back into his stomach to avoid yet another stinging hex.
"Nothing's the matter," Tonks huffed as she fired a spell at his prone form and Harry was forced to roll to avoid it.
"Could have fooled me," Harry before rolling back onto his stomach.
Knowing he had to get back on his feet, Harry planted his hands on the floor like he was going to do a pressup. He waited until Tonks took aim at his prone form before pushing off from the floor as hard as he could, springing onto his feet and barely avoiding a stinging hex in the process.
"So I heard that you're taking the Abbott girl to Hogsmeade next Saturday," Tonks said casually as she continued to send spells at him at lightning speed.
"Y-yeah, she asked me yesterday when I was helping her with the vanishing spell," Harry shrugged.
"I leave you alone for one evening and you dump Wendy for her dorm mate," Tonks scowled as she tagged Harry in the stomach with a stinging hex.
"Is that what you're so mad about?" Harry asked as he felt a welt coming up right over the waistband of his trousers.
"Yes, now it looks like I got dumped by that annoying blond bimbo!" Tonks exclaimed angrily as she sent a trio of spells at him that he was barely able to duck under.
"We weren't really dating," Harry argued only to yelp when another spell struck him in his left thigh.
"The rest of the school thought we were! That was our cover, you twit!" Tonks yelled and cast a stream of hexes forcing Harry to conjure a shield charm.
"I didn't think it was that big of a deal," Harry said dumbly as his shield continued to ripple from the force of her spells impacting its surface.
"I've had girls coming up to me all day saying how awful it was what happened between me and you," Tonks scowled as she continued to vent her frustration on his shield.
"How could they already know?" Harry exclaimed surprised at how angry Tonks was with him.
"Because Hannah Abbott is the Hufflepuff gossip queen," Tonks sighed as she lowered her wand.
"I told her we were just friends," Harry said as he cautiously lowered his shield.
"I know, I had to listen to her and Bones gossiping about it as soon as I returned to the dorms last night," Tonks exclaimed as she lowered her wand and closed her eyes in concentration.
Harry was about to ask what she was doing when the room created two comfortable-looking armchairs in the centre of the room. The chairs were facing each other, spaced about two feet apart and were directly under the large chandelier, casting the chairs in a sort of spotlight.
"What are we doing now?" Harry asked in confusion as he looked at the armchairs questioningly.
"We're going to start your occlumency practice and in order for you to learn the principles, you first need to know what a legilimency attack feels like," Tonks explained as she gestured for Harry to take a seat.
"Does it hurt?" Harry asked warily as he gingerly took a seat, trying not to aggravate the welts on his stomach.
"No, not unless the spell is overpowered," Tonks assured him as she sat down across from him, her knees brushing his as she sat down.
"So what do I have to do?" Harry asked, very aware her leg was bumping into his.
"I want you to look into my eyes and relax, I will not be attacking with any force," Tonks assured him.
"Will you read my mind?" Harry questioned as he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"It's more like viewing your memories," Tonks corrected, seeming pleased at how uncomfortable Harry looked at this information.
Harry could think of one memory in particular that he didn't want anyone else (especiallyTonks) to see. Harry tried his best to push it from his mind, though he quickly realized his attempts were not working, his proximity to Tonks was making the task even more difficult.
"Are you ready?" Tonks asked, pulling him back to the present.
"No, not reall-
"Legilimens," Tonks whispered, cutting him off mid-sentence as the room faded away.
Harry could see memories flashing before his eyes, he saw him and Hannah holding hands in the hallway before the memory changed to Hermione telling him off for something in the library. The final memory that he saw wasn't really a memory at all. Harry felt himself panic as the memory slowed down and he felt a jolt of surprise that wasn't his own.
..."You are doing so well," Tonks purred as she stepped closer to him.
"Tha-thanks," Harry stammered as she started unbuttoning her blouse revealing she was wearing his favourite pink bikini top underneath.
Harry's breath caught in his chest when she opened the blouse and stalked toward him.
"I think it's time to give you a reward for all of your hard work," Tonks whispered as she let her blouse slip off of her shoulders and onto the floor revealing her tight-toned stomach...
Suddenly the room came back into focus and he could feel his face heating up hot enough to fry an egg.
"I take it that was a dream?" Tonks asked a smug look on her face.
"Can we not talk about it," Harry mumbled.
"Alright, what did you notice about the legilimency attack?" Tonks asked still smirking at him.
"That you seemed to slip into my thoughts and I couldn't control what you saw," Harry mumbled still feeling incredibly embarrassed about what she had just seen.
"Exactly, the thoughts I found were ones you didn't want me to see but you were thinking about not wanting me to see them, making it easy for me to find them," Tonks explained a mischievous glint in her eye.
"So I have to clear my mind like it says in that book you gave me?" Harry questioned.
"Exactly, clearing your mind makes it difficult for a legilimencer to find a specific memory and gives you time to push the intruder out," Tonks nodded in agreement.
"It's impossible to clear your mind on command, some thought always seems to pop up," Harry pointed out.
"I know, I was never very good at the discipline either," Tonks admitted.
"Alright I'll try to work on clearing my mind," Harry sighed, knowing this was something that was going to give him a lot of trouble.
"Good or otherwise I'll get to see the rest of that dream," Tonks teased as she gave him another knowing grin.
"T-there wasn't much else to it, the damn alarm clock went off," Harry admitted, getting tired of feeling like his face was on fire.
"Shame, maybe you can have those dreams about Abbott from now on," Tonks quipped as the chair he was on vanished out from under him and Tonks started throwing stinging hexes at him again.
Harry was starting to think she was holding a grudge over him agreeing to go on a date with Hannah Abbott.
Harry quickly got to his feet, having to avoid multiple stinging hexes, some coming uncomfortably close to his lower region.
'I think I might skive off dodging practice tomorrow,' Harry thought to himself as a spell hit him in the chest causing him to audibly hiss in pain.
Library, Hogwarts, 9/14/1995, 02:49
Harry crept through the archives room of the library. This room was technically only for teachers and was where students' records were stored after they completed their education. Harry had found out about this room from Hermione last year when she mentioned wishing she had known about it when they were trying to look into Tom Riddle.
Harry had decided to take Tonks' advice on board about Umbridge and was taking a late-night stroll to peruse her school records.
It took him about a half hour before he found her records in a row marked 'Graduating Class of nineteen sixty-nine' and found her file towards the end of the row. Harry was tempted to take a peek at Andromeda's file which he had passed as he searched for Umbridge's folder but decided to stick to the task at hand.
Flipping it open Harry read its contents in disbelief.
Dolores Jane Umbridge
Blood status: Halfblood
Father: Orford Umbridge
Blood status: Pureblood
Occupation: Ministry magical maintenance worker
Mother: Ellen Cracknell
Blood status: Muggle
Occupation: None
Sibling(s): Daryl Umbridge
Blood status: Squib
Occupation: N/A
Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations
Arithmancy: D
Astronomy: A
Charms: A
Defence Against the Dark Arts: D
Herbology: A
History of Magic: E
Potions: P
Study of Ancient Runes: A
Transfiguration: D
Achieved: 5 O.W.L's
Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test Examinations
Arithmancy: P
Astronomy: A
Charms:A
History of Magic: E
Herbology: P
Study of Ancient Runes: P
Achievement: 3 N.E.W.T's
Harry couldn't believe this woman was teaching defence class, she had failed her O.W.L and hadn't even taken the course at N.E.W.T level.
Worse than her abysmal academic records were the teacher's notes concerning incidents they suspected she was involved in. all of them were incidents where muggleborn students were hurt sometimes very badly.
The worst of which was an incident where a fifth-year Hufflepuff (Also a muggleborn) named Miley Brooks was paralyzed from the waist down for a year and a half after a 'fall' from the third-floor landing.
The report said the two girls had a disagreement the day before, Miss Brooks claims she was standing by the landing waiting for the stairs to move into place when a banishing charm hit her in the back, causing her to tumble off of the landing.
Since then, measures had been put into place under all of the staircases to slow someone's fall and prevent serious injury.
Deciding he had enough to work with, Harry cast the duplication charm and slid the copy of her file into his bag before putting the original back on the shelf.
Harry draped his invisibility cloak over himself and made his way out of the archive room. Stepping out of the archive entrance, which was located through a door behind Madam Pince's desk, Harry exited the library in short order, pondering how to use this information to cause the most damage.
He realized he had two options, he could target her reputation and get the information on her transcripts out to the public or he could go for a more personal attack.
Harry couldn't decide either way,( though realistically he could do both), but he decided for now he would take his time to consider his options.
He knew this was not how he usually did things but he hadn't had the best of luck in the past by charging in blindly, the spider colony in his second year immediately springing to mind.
Harry wanted Umbridge to really suffer and regret ever taking up a teaching post at Hogwarts. That being said, he didn't want her to know it was his doing so he would have to take time to properly plan this out.
Harry was surprised to find that he was in the corridor leading to the common room already. His scheming had taken up most of his focus and he had walked all the way here on autopilot.
'I think I may have just the thing for Umbridge,' Harry thought to himself as he stepped into the common room and saw a flyer for Weasley Wizard Wheezes on the bulletin board.
Great Hall, Hogwarts, 9/14/1995, 08:39
Harry groggily took a seat and poured himself some black coffee and took a deep drink. He had only gotten a few hours sleep due to his reconnaissance last night. The classes ended after lunch today so he was looking forward to getting through his morning classes and catching up on his sleep before astronomy tonight.
Harry had barely been seated for two minutes before Hermione arrived looking to be upset about something.
"You should be ashamed of yourself," Hermione exclaimed as soon as she took a seat across from him, shooting him a look of disapproval.
"What did I do?" Harry asked at a loss for what she was talking about.
"You led that poor Wendy girl on and then asked Hannah Abbott to go to Hogsmeade with you," Hermione huffed not noticing Neville sputter into his morning tea three seats down.
"I already told you nothing was going on with me and Wendy, and Hannah asked me... well I sort of asked her back, but I don't think it really counts," Harry corrected, not really sure why she was upset with him.
"Really, then why is McDonald glaring daggers at Hannah?" Hermione demanded as she poured herself a cup of coffee, apparently, she needed the extra boost to tell him off properly.
"How should I know, I don't understand how you girls think," Harry grumbled.
"Well Brown has already started the rumour going. According to her, the fame has gone to your head and you are some type of womanizer," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"Wonderful, anything else?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"Yes, you are also having an affair with Pansy Parkinson," Hermione added, looking amused at his reaction.
"Couldn't she have at least said it was Greengrass? I mean if she was going to make something up, couldn't it at least be someone that doesn't repulse me," Harry exclaimed.
"Greengrass is way out of your league," Hermione sniggered.
"She's out of everyone's league," Harry agreed.
"Who's out of everyone's league?" Ron asked as he took a seat beside Harry.
"Daphne Greengrass," Harry answered.
"I could have a shot with her," Ron smirked.
"Yeah?" Harry asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, it's just too bad for her that I'm not into Slytherins," Ron shrugged.
"Right and I'm starting my own harem," Harry snorted in disbelief.
"Never doubt the Weasley charm," Ron said as he began loading his plate.
"Ron's delusions aside, you need to be more careful with how you treat girls, Harry," Hermione warned.
"I told you, nothing is or was going on with Wendy. The date with Hannah will be my first date... ever," Harry said, starting to sound exasperated.
"You mean that rumour was true? You're really taking Hannah Abbott to Hogsmeade?" Ron exclaimed loud enough to be heard at the Hufflepuff table.
"Yeah mate, she asked me if I wanted to go with her," Harry said, knowing there was no point in trying to hide it once it hit the rumour mill.
"So do you like her, like you did Cho last year?" Hermione asked.
"I don't really know her but I think she's pretty and we got along pretty well the other night," Harry shrugged.
"Yeah you're not alone there, she's fit," Ron agreed as he glanced over at the Hufflepuff table.
"Boys, there is more to a girl than just her looks," Hermione huffed indignantly.
"There is, but I seem to remember you pulling out all of the stops at the Yule ball last year," Harry pointed out.
"I like to feel pretty sometimes too," Hermione mumbled self-consciously.
"Well you don't have anything to worry about in that department," Ron blurted out before he blushed crimson when he realized he had said that out loud.
"He's right Hermione, you have nothing to worry about there. I bet if you lost the bag loaded with books every once in a while, you could get yourself a bloke," Harry suggested.
"Right, like I'm going to fail all of my classes just so I can get some brain-dead moron to feel me up in a broom closet," Hermione snorted derisively.
"It might help you relax a bit," Harry reasoned, not noticing the glare Ron was shooting his way.
"Whatever, I'm not interested in dating at the moment," Hermione said with finality.
"Alright, I'll drop it," Harry shrugged, knowing how stubborn she could be when she put her mind to it.
"Good, we were talking about your date anyway. Do you have a plan or are you just going to go wandering around like you would with us?" Hermione asked, bringing Harry up short.
"I hadn't thought about it," Harry finally admitted.
"Well you should, it's not hanging out with your friends so you should probably at least figure out where you're going to go," Hermione explained in a tone that suggested she thought this was very important for him to understand.
"So I should take her to a restaurant or something?" Harry asked, glad Hermione had pointed this out before he made a mess of things on the date.
"Exactly. If you just want to snog you can always take her to Madam Puddifoot's, the coffee there is very good," Hermione suggested.
"You've been there?" Ron exclaimed, his fork clattering onto his plate as he looked at Hermione in surprise.
"Yes, Viktor took me there last May," Hermione said, a blush coming over her face.
"I was actually thinking of trying to get to know her before I try and stick my tongue down her throat," Harry admitted before Ron could say anything about Viktor Krum.
"I'm impressed. If I believed Lavender, the tea shop would be your first port of call," Hermione quipped.
"You know full well that rumour is complete bullocks," Harry said in annoyance.
Before Hermione could reply, the bell rang and the hall started emptying as students tried to get to class on time.
Harry followed Hermione as she led them to their first class of the day, idly noticing Ron seemed much quieter than usual.
Today they had charms first thing which was always a fun lesson. Last week they had been going over the theory of the hot-air charm and today they would begin practising the spell.
Harry let his mind wander as he took his seat trying to think of where he could take Hannah on their trip to Hogsmeade.
'I might have to try out that mirror Sirius gave me,' Harry thought as Professor Flitwick called the class to order.