Chapter 17 - calm before the storm

The week after Hermione's birthday had been rather hectic. It started at the end of the very first lesson on Monday morning.

Professor McGonagall had just wrapped up her lesson for the day when she addressed the Gryffindors in the class, "Before you all leave I need one moment from my Lions please!" she called, as the class got ready to leave. The Gryffindors all waited while the Ravenclaws continued to pack up, "As you're all in my house, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before the end of the week. No form, no visiting the village this weekend, so don't forget! Ravenclaw students, you will need to hand yours into Professor Flitwick, who will no doubt ask for them soon", she added for the few Ravenclaws who hadn't left yet.

Harry and Hermione both had their slips tucked into their transfiguration books, after Hermione had guessed that they would eventually have to hand the forms over to their Head of House. So the two of them handed over their notes right then.

The Professor looked over the notes and frowned, "Mr Potter and Miss Granger, I will need to talk to you about these after everyone else leaves." The two of them retook their seats after exchanging confused looks. It took about a minute for all the students to leave, most shooting them curious glances on their way out.

Once all the other students had left the Professor approached them holding their permission slips, "Would you care to explain why Miss Granger's father has signed both of these forms?"

Harry was just wondering how to respond when Hermione spoke up, "Harry was with my parents and I this summer. They are his guardians at the moment. So when the form came they signed it."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple Miss Granger. While Harry's aunt and uncle may have trusted your parents to act as Harry's guardians while he stayed with you, that doesn't make them his legal guardians", she stressed the word legal, making her point clear.

Hermione looked over at Harry, silently saying it was up to him how much he wanted to reveal. He got up and passed back and forth for a few moments. Professor McGonagall looked like she was about to interrupt but Hermione touched her hand to get her attention and shook her head. Asking the Professor without words to wait.

Harry sat back down, but instead of sitting in the chair facing his teacher, he sat on the corner of the desk facing away from her and Hermione. "They are my legal guardians." Harry's voice was barely above a whisper, but still easily heard in the empty classroom, "S-stuff happened over the summer. No...that's not quite right. This stuff has always been happening, but on my last birthday, I-it was too much. My magic ran out of control. By the time it had finished I had apparently apparated to the Grangers'. The DMLE investigated of course, they thought that me going back to my aunt and uncle would be a danger to the Statute of Secrecy, so I'm not allowed back there until they say otherwise. Mr and Mrs Granger sighed a bunch of forms making them my temporary legal guardians. They are good people."

Harry hadn't moved or varied his tone during his little speech. Hermione had moved next to him and put an arm around him halfway through.

"Is that enough Professor, or do I need to tell you more?" for the first time since he'd started speaking his voice had a little inflection.

"No Mr Potter. I will need to write to Mr and Mrs Granger to confirm this but I need no more from you. You two can go get ready for your next lesson." The two teens picked up their bags and made their way out.

Professor McGonagall called after them as they exited the classroom, "Mr Potter, Miss Granger, if I find you are lying so you can visit the village, you will be in a lot of trouble. Now off you go."

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry and Hermione left the Astronomy theory classroom chatting with Lavender and Dean; "I still don't get why he is doing it. It will be obvious to anyone it was his own fault", Dean insisted as they walked down the steps to the Astronomy tower.

Lavender giggled, "Sometimes it's easy to see you grew up in the muggle world Dean. It won't be obvious at all. Not if his father doesn't want it to be."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

Harry answered, "Just look at his father Hermione. Lucius Malfoy is probably friends with the people who will be doing the investigation. If he wants it to go one way he will just ask them to do it."

"More like bribing them. Fortuna Major," said Lavender, as they had arrived at the Gryffindor common room.

"But that's not justice! That's just wrong", Hermione exclaimed, getting passionately worked up.

Lavender shrugged in response, "nothing we can do about it."

Hermione got a determined look in her eye, one which Harry knew all too well, "We will see about that", she turned to Harry, "Harry, we are going to Hagrid's."

Hermione started to pull him back out the still open portrait hole. "Wait up a sec 'Mione", she turned to look at him, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, "Let me drop my books in my trunk and grab my Cloak." She looked at her bag, then at the rain running down the common room windows before nodding.

They both ran up the stairs to their respective dorms. Harry pulled one of his trunk keys out of a little pocket he had added to his wand holster. Quickly turning the key in the lock, his wardrobe popped out. He exchanged his book bag for his cloak, closed his trunk and return to the common room.

Hermione appeared a few seconds later carrying her cloak under one arm. She pulled Harry out the portrait hole and down through the school. They stopped when they reached the entrance hall, taking a moment to don their cloaks before venturing off into the rain.

The rain beat against their cloaks as they traversed the green between the castle and the forbidden forest. Hagrid's hut sat on the edge of the Hogwarts boundary and overlooked many of the paths that lead deeper into the trees. Harry thought of the time he'd had to go into the forest and hoped he wouldn't ever have to go in there again.

Hagrid opened the door after Hermione's knocking, "'ello you two. Get in 'ere out of the rain." He invited them in out of the rain. The two of them took the seat opposite the one Hagrid had been using. The two of them fit easily on the single seat sized for Hagrid, while said groundskeeper busied himself with an oversized copper kettle and giant mugs, making everyone tea. Fang, Hagrid's black boarhound, rested his head between Harry and Hermione, trying to get his ears scratched.

A few minutes later, tea in hand and tooth snapping rock cakes politely declined, Hagrid started up the conversation, "So wha' brings the two of you down 'ere? You two still fighting wi' Ron?"

Hermione scowled in way of reply, "He is the one doing the fighting. What more does he want from me!? I said I would keep Crookshanks out of the boy's dorm and I have. It's like Professor McGonagall said, he is the one who brought a rat to a school full of cats and owls. What, did he think that everyone was gonna send their familiars home?"

She was working herself up into a real state. If she was allowed to continue they would never get to the reason they had come down and Hermione would get mad at herself. Harry quickly began speaking as she paused in her tirade, "Actually, we came down to find out what happened between Draco and Buckbeak. We heard the Ministry is holding a trial?"

Hagrid's mood changed instantly, his usually warm demeanour changing to a more closed-off one, "Lucius Malfoy is sayin' tha' I didn' do enough to stop his boy getting hurt. He is tryin' to sue me for twenty thousand Galleons -" Harry did a rough conversion in his head; that was about ninety-four thousand pounds. It was a lot of money. "- Dumbledore said he was gonna help me with it. He knows how the courts an' laws work. He's a good man, Dumbledore."

He quickly became emotional, as he did whenever he talked about the wizened Headmaster. Harry had learned the year before why Hagrid was so enamoured with the Headmaster; when he'd had been accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets he had lost everything. When Hagrid had nothing; no home, no family and, Harry suspected, no hope, Dumbledore had given him a home, a job and even his respect. Harry looked at Hermione; he could easily see how you could end up devoted to someone after that sort of thing.

-ϟϟϟ-

Professor Babbling was giving out an assignment in her Ancient Runes class; "OK class, here I have your first group project. The task is to translate the Rune text I will provide in just a second. Each group will have its own text to translate, so you can't get the answer from another group. Once you translate the text you will find that it is a set of instructions on using Runes for a Beginner's project. You will collect the materials for the project from me, once you finish your translation. Then you will follow the instructions and present the completed project to the class, with a presentation on why those Runes were used for your completed project.

You will be working in the pre-assigned groups you were given last week", she waved her wand at the blackboard and the groups appeared. Harry was working with Hermione, and they were partnered with Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis, both of whom were Slytherins. Harry looked over the groups; every group had at least two houses in it.

The class shuffled around to sit in their assigned groups. Daphne and Tracy joined Harry and Hermione at their table at the front of the class. They set their bags down and sat in the recently vacated chairs on Harry's right, as Sue Li and Padma Patil had gone off to find their own groups.

"Hey Granger, Potter", Daphne greeted quietly after she had sat down next to Harry.

Harry hesitated for a second, " Greengrass, Davis...uh...hey." Harry didn't know what to say to these Slytherins. The Slytherins he always interacted with usually seemed to be trying to get him into trouble.

Daphne stared at him and sighed, "Are we going to have a problem, just because Tracy and I are in Slytherin?"

Harry gaped back at the two of them, taken aback. Just outright asking like that was more of a Gryffindor approach than a Slytherin one, but with the question out there Harry decided to just go with it and get it out of his way, "Depends...Do you plan to work with us, or do you plan to try and get me and Hermione in trouble while insulting my parents and Hermione's blood status?"

Daphne and Tracy were shocked by the amount of venom in his voice. Harry hadn't raised his volume but his tone was harsh and unforgiving.

"What the fuck Potter!? What has Slytherin, as a whole, ever done to earn that level of hate. Malfoy may be a bloody nightmare but he doesn't speak for us all."

Harry snorted back, "Yeah, but it's not just Malfoy, is it Greengrass? Crabble, Goyle, Nott, Parkinson and Flint are some of the others, just to name the ones off the top of my head, and let's not forget the Chief Slytherin, Professor Snape. Who, if you remember, opened his very first class with first years, by berating me for something I couldn't have known-"

Hermione stayed silent, though she had known the answer to the question. It was quite near to the end of the year, however.

"-On the other end of the scale, the nicest thing any Slytherin has ever said to me was just now, when you said 'Hey Granger, hey Potter'. And that's in over two whole years here, that's the friendliest you, or any Slytherin, has ever been. Let me ask, would you trust you in my position?"

Before Daphne or Tracy could respond, Professor Babbling came over and handed them their project packet, "I think you will do well with this one Mr Potter", she said before walking over to the next group.

Once she was gone, Daphne opened her mouth to answer Harry, but Tracy cut in, silencing her friend, "he's right Daph; we chose not to get involved, we can't be surprised that Harry won't trust us just like that."

"But he never tried to talk with us either, how is it our fault?"

Hermione cut in this time, "Daphne, how can Harry try when your housemates keep treating him the way they do? If you want Harry to see you as better than your housemates, then prove it to us. If you always stay silent, then, of course, we think that you agree with them. Anyway, enough of this, let's just do our project without the normal petty sniping."

While the three of them had been arguing Hermione had opened the project pack and looked through it, "This Rune script is pretty long, I suggest we each take a section, that will probably be fastest."

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry and Hermione were sharing one of the horseless carriages with the Patil twins as it started away from Hogwarts. The Patils' had been in the queue of students going to Hogsmeade village, just behind Harry and Hermione, so they ended up sharing a carriage. The twins were discussing their plans for what they were calling a 'sisters' day', while Harry and Hermione said that they just planned to explore.

As the carriage sped on towards Hogwart's front gates, the air suddenly started to grow very cold. This time, knowing what it was, Harry knew he was feeling his happiness being suppressed, and those words, words from long ago, started floating through his head once more...

Freak...

Worthless...

Burden…

and again he heard those echoing cries...

"No! Please, no!"

Harry felt Hermione pull herself into Harry's side, seeking comfort and warmth from him. The Patil sisters were doing the same on the other side of the carriage. Soon they had passed through the walls and were moving down the road to the village. Padma pulled a bar of chocolate out of her bag and split it with her sister.

She apologized for not sharing with them, "Sorry guys, I don't have enough to share with you."

Hermione waved her hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it, we'll pick some up in the village. We should probably pick up a few bars for the trip back as well."

Soon the carriage pulled into the area next to the train station, and the four of them started travelling the last quarter mile on foot. On the outskirts of the village, the Patil twins went off on their own, saying something about a hair appointment. That left the two remaining Gryffindors to wander through the village as they made their way to the village square, where most of the shops were located.

They walked down a street aligned with three-storey townhouses. Each one was built in its own style; one would be a white-washed daub with black timber frames, the next a red brick, then followed by what could only be described as an impossible log cabin that had to be held up by magic. Each of the homes had a family crest on the front door. One of the houses, an old fashioned whitewashed wattle and daub house, had its crest as stained glass on the top half of the door. It was a cauldron with three potion bottles over it, a field of brown as the background.

They reached the village square and looked around. There were shops selling everything, from school & office supplies, to a store that arranged and took care of funerals.

"Where do you want to go first?" Harry asked as he looked around.

Hermione bit her lower lip while she thought about it. Harry didn't think she knew just how cute she looked when she did that, and he was about to go in for a quick kiss when she then answered, "I think we should go to Honeydukes first", Harry turned and looked over at the bustling sweetshop, "I know it's a bit crowded...but," she shivered slightly, "I think we could do with some chocolate."

It was obvious what she was saying, without saying it. She wanted to cure the lingering effects of the Dementors so that they could enjoy their day out/date.

As they joined the crowd in the sweetshop, Harry wasn't sure if he could call this a date or not. Neither of them had called it a date, but they were in Hogsmeade as a couple, and most of the older Gryffindors he had spoken to had said they used Hogsmeade weekends for dates. Harry decided it didn't matter much what they called it, he was still going to make sure his girlfriend enjoyed herself.

They looked around the shop at all the sweets available. There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking treats imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat; shimmering pink squares of coconut ice; fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; in the corner of the room there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans; and another of Fizzing Whizbees; levitating sherbet balls that made you hover a few inches off the ground as you suck them, along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets; Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days); the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints; tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'); Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'); peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!'); fragile sugar-spun quills; and exploding bonbons.

Hermione picked up a few packs of the Tooth Flossing Stringmints; some for herself, and some to send home for her parents. She looked at the sugar quills but decided she still had plenty from the box Harry had gotten her for her birthday last week. Harry got a pack of Fizzing Whizzbees, he loved flying so the sweet seemed like fun and worth trying. He also grabbed a couple of packs of Pepper Imps. They started looking at the chocolates, seeing that there was a Ministry notice on one of the barrels;

BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Customers are reminded that until further notice,

Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown.

This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Bellatrix LeStrange.

It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.

Merry Christmas!

The barrel was filled with bags of chocolate quidditch balls. Each bag was priced at 3 sickles and contained 50 small balls, all individually wrapped in different colours of foil, giving them some resemblance to the quidditch balls they were named after. Harry grabbed two of bags of these; one for himself and one for Hermione. They each grabbed a few more things for themselves and went to explore the other shops after paying.

They spent the next few hours exploring Dervish and Banges, Gladrags Wizardwear, 's Potions, Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Spintwitches Sporting Needs, and lastly, Tomes and Scrolls. They had saved this shop for last, for the same reason they left Flourish and Blotts till last when they went to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. Tomes are heavy, and Hermione wanted to get multiple tomes.

Now the two were heading into the Three Broomsticks, "why don't you find us somewhere to sit, while I go get us some drinks", Hermione handed Harry the bags she was carrying, almost dislocating his arm from the heavy tomes. Hermione smiled as he struggled to lift up the extremely heavy bag, "bloody hell Hermione! How on earth did you carry this around!?"

She smirked at him, before whispering a spell under her breath, pointing her wand at the bag. Suddenly, the weight disappeared, and Harry felt his muscles relax. She winked at his baffled expression, before she turned to go buy the drinks. Harry called out at her;

"Uh, shouldn't I be the one buying the drinks?" he asked, a little confused.

"A guy doesn't have to pay for everything Harry." She kissed him on the cheek, "Now go find us a table", she left and went to the bar.

Harry started looking around for somewhere to sit. He didn't know if it was different because it was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, but the pub was absolutely full. It seemed that every student, third year and over, was trying to squeeze into here. Harry was finally able to grab a small table when two adult witches got up to leave, complaining about how "there's never room to wave a wand* when the Hogwarts students are let loose." Harry claimed the table before anyone else was able to.

A young woman, who looked vaguely familiar and seemed young enough to have been a N.E.W.T student this time last year, came around, and with a quick cleaning charm and a wave of her wand, she sent the used glasses still sitting on the table to the kitchen. After she had moved on, Harry looked around for Hermione and saw her carrying a couple of drinks as she looked for him. Harry waved at her so she could see him.

Once she'd taken her seat, Harry noticed the drink Hermione had gotten him and looked at her quizzically. She gestured towards the drink, so he took a tentative sip, then started drinking deeply. It was the most delicious thing he'd ever tasted and seemed to heat every bit of him from the inside. It was warm and creamy with warm spices. "This. Is. Amazing. Thanks, Mione!" He continued drinking, then after a second, he stopped, "What is it?"

"It's called Butterbeer, all the other students are buying it so I thought it might be worth giving a try." She took a small sip from her own tankard. Her eyes opened wider and her ears stood up straighter, then, just like Harry, she took a deeper drink of the liquid nirvana they had just discovered.

"Next rounds on me?" Harry asked, to which Hermione nodded enthusiastically.

They sat there drinking their Butterbeer and talking about the things they had bought. Predictably, Hermione hadn't been able to leave a bookshop without at least three new books. One was on the history of the magical village of Hogsmeade, and one was a first for Hermione 'The Witch and the Wishing Stone', it was the first wizard world fiction book she had ever bought. The last one was a book on the history of House Elves.

Hermione had become very interested in House Elves after they had talked with Dobby during the week. Dobby had explained some of the history and culture of his race and a good bit about how their magic worked. House elves, it turned out, were related to Boggarts and Dementors, and only the Boggarts were a naturally occurring species. A long time ago there had been a witch who had done a lot of experimenting on Boggarts. Eventually, in order to try and study their nature, she tried breeding and fusing them with other creatures. Most of the resulting creations had been total failures, but those two creations were not.

First were the House Elves who, instead of just being parasites who fed on the magic given off by wizards and witches when they are afraid, fed off all types of magic they gave off. Over time and more experimentation, the House Elves become what they are today. They serve wizards and witches so that they can feed on the magic they give off. They look after the homes so that wizards and witches don't exhaust their magic, as an exhausted mage gives off less magic. And also, according to Dobby, because "happy masters has yummier magics".

This was also why Hogwarts had the biggest colony of House Elves in Britain. The students gave off a lot of magic collectively, so it was easy for them to live there.

The Dementors had been created second. After her success with House Elves the witch, whose name had been lost to time, tried to create another magical race by combining Boggarts with Lethifolds. Unfortunately, unlike with House Elves, that suppressed the darker nature of the Boggart, the Dementor race amplified it, creating the soul-sucking demons they are today. Dobby also explained that the creator of his people was the first victim of the Dementor's kiss, "She was not knowing of the kiss. So she was doing nothing to stops them."

It was Harry's turn to grab the drinks; he made his way over to the bar carrying his and Hermione's empty tankards. The witch behind the bar served a few people who were waiting before him before she got to Harry;

"What will it be love?" She smiled at him,

"Two refills on the Butterbeer please", he put the tankards on the bar and fished in his pocket for the sickles he needed while the bar women poured the drinks he ordered.

"Your Harry Potter, ain't you?" She asked just as she finished pouring the first drink. She spoke in a conversational way, without the reverence most people had when they asked that question.

Harry nodded, "Yeah."

"I'm Madam Rosmerta. I remember when your parents used to come in here. Your dad used to try sweet talking me into selling him fire whiskey and your mum was always in here with her friends. Your parents even came here on their first date." Harry blushed and glanced over at Hermione. Madam Rosmerta noticed where he was looking and smirked at him, "Well, you certainly have your father beat there Mr Potter, he didn't bring a date here till he was a fifth year. You be sure to treat her well, she seemed like such a nice girl when she got your first round. Speaking of which, that will be six sickles."

Harry handed over the stack of silver coins, "Yeah, I definitely will. She is the best, and I relly like her." He took the two drinks and returned to where they were sitting, only to find Daphne and Tracy sitting with her. There was no hostility between the three, which surprised Harry, thinking back to Draco's specific targeting of Hermione for being a muggle-born. He set Hermione's drink in front of her and retook his seat, nodding to the two girls, "Daphne, Tracy."

He looked at his girlfriend, silently asking her why the two Slytherins were sitting with them. She smiled and rolled her eyes at his antics, but provided him with an answer, "I invited them to sit with us. This place is too full for them to find a table of their own."

Harry smiled. He and Hermione had worked with the two of them most days over the last week since they were given their Runes assignment. Daphne and Tracy had been perfectly cordial, teetering on the edge of friendly.

"How has your day been? You two had fun?" Harry asked. Tracy nodded enthusiastically, "we spent some time at the music store, you know, Dominic Maestro's? I got the new Weird Sisters album for my gramophone."

Harry looked baffled at the mention of the wizarding band, "What type of music do they play?"

Daphne and Tracy looked at him in complete shock, "How do you not know the Weird Sisters!? They are played quite often on the Wizard Wireless Network. They're pretty much celebrities."

He shrugged, "never really had access to a wizard radio. Or any opportunity to hear any wizarding world music."

Daphne looked a little down as she said, "well that must suck."

-ϟϟϟ-

They sat there for a while longer, first talking about the difference between Muggle and Magical music, then about whatever topic took their fancy. Eventually they landed on their Runes project.

"I tell you, I know that Rune array is an anchor for a long term undetectable expansion charm", Harry adamantly told the two Slytherins.

"It can't be, that array would be a fourth year one! It must be something else", Tracy argued back.

"If Harry says it's an undetectable expansion charm I trust him", Hermione said.

"But how would Harry know?" asked Daphne, "It's not like he has any more experience than we do."

Harry looked at Hermione, silently asking for permission to tell the two other girls about the headband and bag he had given her. She nodded easily enough; it wasn't like she hid her ears and tail in the wizarding world so there wasn't a big secret to keep.

"At the end of last year, before Hermione and I went back to the muggle world, I realised that Hermione's ears and tail would keep her shut-in over the summer. Professor Babbling helped me make something to hide her cat features so that she could go out in the muggle world. We used that same array to create extra space to contain the parts that need hiding from Muggles."

The two Slytherins looked at him, amazed, "you made an enchanted item in Second year!?" Daphne asked, her voice, just like her face, completely shocked.

Harry shrugged back, "Yeah...but not really. I just did what Professor Babbling told me to. Step by step she worked everything out magically."

"Why expansion charms though, not invisibility?" Tracy asked.

"Invisibility can still be touched. Last thing I wanted was some muggle freaking out because they sat next to me on a bus and puts their hand on a fluffy tail they can't see", Hermione explained while waving her tail around.

They talked for about another 20 minutes or so before Harry and Hermione called it a day and decided to return to the Castle for some dinner. They left Daphne and Tracy at the Three Broomsticks and made their way back over to the carriages. They were soon approaching Hogwart's gates, the chill of the Dementors telling them really how close they were long before they saw the window-topped pillars marking the entrance to the Castle. The chocolate Quidditch balls seemed to do quite well against the effects of the soul-sucking creatures from such short exposure.

As the carriages made their way across the Hogwarts grounds Hermione leaned into Harry, stealing his lips for a long deep kiss, "Thank you for such a lovely date."

Harry didn't notice that the carriage had come to a stop, what with him getting thoroughly snogged by his girlfriend. After a few more seconds, Hermione broke the kiss, gathering up her purchases and climbing out of the carriage with a grin on her face. She waited for almost two minutes before Harry's brain caught up enough for him to join her.

Author's Notes:

Lethifold - The Lethifold (also known as the Living Shroud) is a carnivorous and highly dangerous magical beast. It is also considered a Dark creature because of its highly aggressive and violent nature. (Source: wiki/Lethifold)

No room to wave a wand* - we have the saying no room to swing a cat, which I often see with a wizard equivalent 'no room st swing a kneazle.' however the popular theory says that swinging a cat doesn't refer to a feline but a type of whip. In that context, I decided that 'No room to wave a wand' or 'No room to sling a spell' would be the line witches and wizards would use.

i love all the comments and reviews i get i read them all

The next chapter is going to be a bit of a time skip