Harry grit his teeth as Ron stepped down into the common room, caught his eyes, then ducked out with Neville in tow. His so-called 'best friend' had been avoiding him ever since Hydrus had stolen him for his team. His godbrother didn't even want him; he only picked Ron because he knew it would mess with Harry's head. The worst part was he had to keep quiet about it, or else he'd suffer another lecture from Hermione about how rude that was to say.
"Are you listening, Harry?" she asked. "This is important."
"Who cares about astrology," he grumbled. "It's useless."
"Astronomy, and it's not useless," Hermione said, glaring at him. "The sun and the moon, the stars and the planets; the way they align with the earth can cause massive fluctuations in how our spells work."
"Right," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "If they're so 'massive', how come I've never noticed it before?"
"Because you never pay attention in potions, and don't bother taking arithmancy or runes at all," she said. "It doesn't make a big difference in regular charms or jinxes, but for large rituals or in more delicate workings it—"
"Alright, alright!" Harry interrupted. "I'll let you go on about the stars or whatever."
"Let me?" Hermione stood and gently 'slammed' her book shut. "How about I let you fail on your own."
"Wait, I didn't mean—" He cut himself off with a sigh as he stood. "Hermione!"
She was already stepping through the portrait tunnel, so he shoved his books and papers into his bag and chased after. Harry quickly caught up to her and turned around, walking backwards so he could look her in the eye while he begged. The last thing he needed was both of his best friends not talking to him.
"C'mon, Hermione, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," he said. "It was rude of me to say it, I regret it, and if you don't forgive me soon I'm definitely going to back up into somebody and cause a— Ah!"
Harry fell hard on his elbows, only just managing to stop himself from taking a bump on his head. He looked around and saw there was no else there.
"You tripped me," he accused, holding out his hand. "Please tell me that makes us even."
Hermione helped him back up, grinning ever so slightly. "We'll see."
"I'll take that as a yes."
Now that he could walk properly the pair began to talk about nothing in particular. Or rather, Harry talked and Hermione nodded along. He skimmed through a variety of topics, like how his quidditch practice had gone, some generic ideas he'd had for the capture the flag game, that he was thinking about asking out Ginny, the way he'd—
"You should do it," Hermione interrupted. "Now's the perfect time."
Harry winced. He'd been hoping she wouldn't notice him slipping that in there, but he should've known better. Hermione was the queen of multitasking.
"I don't know," he said. "It's so awkward. She's my best mate's little sister."
"Your 'best mate' that you aren't even speaking with?" His fellow prefect asked. "That's why now's the best chance to do it. Either Ron will be fine with it, just like he would've been if you weren't on the outs. Or he won't be, and who cares? He's on the other team."
"Come on," he said. "It's more than that. What if Ginny says no?"
"Then she says no," Hermione echoed, as helpful as a knife in a soup eating contest. "Something tells me she won't though."
"You really think so?"
The girl just rolled her eyes as they stepped into the Grand Hall.
Harry cast his gaze around, looking for all the important people, starting on the Slytherin tables. Hydrus was gorging himself, as always, and it was hard not to laugh at the way the normally sneering or smirking teen was instead almost swaying in his seat, eyes closed, and wearing a gentle smile as he ate. Guy really loved his food. Harry actually did crack a smile when he saw Malfoy dumping the rest of his own plate onto his cousin's. Dahlia was sitting a ways down from them, beside a first year girl he didn't recognize, and she seemed to be helping her with her homework.
Good lass.
From there he turned his attention to Hufflepuff, but quickly skipped over it when he remembered Diggory wasn't around anymore. Ravenclaw was next, but the girl he maybe-potentially-just-a-little had a crush on's best friend wasn't there, probably investigating the Easter bunny or something. So finally he looked over his own house.
Fred Weasley was tinkering with some weird cube-shaped object, his brother George was flirting with Katie Bell. Harry's vice-captain, Angelina Johnson, was watching with a bemused grin as Katie did her best to ignore the boy. The last of his chasers, Alicia Spinnet, was snogging with her own boyfriend not too far away. Neville and Ron had both moved away from their fellow fifth years and were instead sitting between the sixth and sevenths. The other students in his own year, those who had woken up anyways, didn't seem to mind and were already devouring their breakfasts. Iris was reading a book, one of the girly ones their mum liked to read too, with an empty plate in front of her.
Last but not least was Ginny.
The fourth year girl was apparently working on her potions, or at least, that's all he could assume she was doing as she poured two different glasses of liquid into a third one. He broke away from Hermione to stand behind her, then snatched away the mixed drink once she was done pouring.
"Hey!"
He took a sip then cringed. "Ugh, that tastes awful."
Apparently she'd been mixing orange juice and apple cider. It tasted like all the worst parts of both.
"Yeah, no shit." Ginny snatched away the glass and glared at him. "I'm trying to figure out how to make it not taste awful. The lady at Snapwhip's wouldn't give me the recipe."
"Well that was rude of her." Now was his chance. "Why don't I go with you this weekend and see if I can't convince them?"
"Right cus they'll just…" Ginny paused. "Are you asking me out on a date?"
"That depends." He hoped his cheeks weren't too pink. "Will you still say yes if I am?"
"I'll only say yes if you are."
"Then I definitely am."
The girl smiled and it did something funny to his chest. "Really?"
"Yes, really." God why was she dragging this out? "So?"
"Hmmm…" She looked down at her cups, still grinning. "Maybe. You're not just gonna take me to Snapwhip's, are you? And you're definitely not taking me to Madam Puddifoot's."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Harry confirmed, suddenly trying to come up with another idea. "Have you ever been to that diner with the bangers and mash?"
"You mean every diner ever?"
Harry laughed, and again it gave him butterflies when she giggled along with him. Hermione was right, as always. He should've done this sooner.
"I mean that one not too far from Sylvester's. Whenever my grandparents visit they take us there," he said. "I guess my grandpa knew the owner back during the war. It's really good."
"Sounds good," Ginny said. "So are you just gonna keep standing there or?"
He grinned. "I was considering it, maybe—"
A distant round of cheers from the Slytherin table cut him off, and he turned to see Bellatrix Black entering the Great Hall. He hadn't even remembered it was a full moon last night. He took a seat beside Ginny and snatched up a plate of food, suddenly realising he should go check on his uncle.
"What?" Ginny asked, not pulling away at all despite the fact that he'd purposefully sat down with his leg pressed against hers. "Scared of Professor Black?"
"Oh yeah, down right terrified," he 'confirmed'. "Like my grandad would say, she seems like the type to ask for seconds after eating her twin in the womb."
Ginny spat out her latest attempt at combining the two drinks and coughed up a laugh. "Bloody hell, Harry."
He just laughed along with her and began devouring his breakfast. When he was done, he got back to his feet and sat his napkin down on the plate.
"Where you going?"
Harry cocked an eyebrow at her. "To face my fears, obviously."
Temporarily putting aside his thoughts about his upcoming date, he made his way up to the teacher's table. Bellatrix was sitting between Severus and Professor Flitwick, and reading some scroll while she sipped tea.
"Hey, Professor Black."
"Yes, dear?"
He blinked. Since when did she call him 'dear'? "Is Rem-, I mean, Professor Lupin in his office?"
"No, he's staying at the Black summer home while he recuperates," she said, not looking up or paying him any attention. "You can use our floo if you need to see him."
Flitwick cleared his throat. "Students aren't allowed to leave school grounds, Bella."
"Mm, right, right…" she said absentmindedly. "Don't do that, then."
"You seem… Busy," Harry said. "Professor Lupin give you a bunch of notes or something?"
"Yes, I'm trying to discern if the cost of housing and feeding enough construction workers to build a village would be cheaper than teaching a pack of werewolves to do it for themselves."
"Uh…" he said. "Okay. I'm gonna… Go now." He turned but paused to say, "Morning mum!"
"Good morning, Harry." His mother side-eyed him, clearly she didn't like him being friendly with the other woman. "Did you finish your charms paper?"
"That's what history class is for."
He ducked away before she could respond to that. The last thing he needed was to get lectured in front of everyone by his own mother. As he began to wander back out of the Great Hall, he stole one last glance at his godbrother.
Hydrus had apparently finished eating and was now reading some paper of his own. Just what the hell kind of life was that guy living? Sirius complained constantly about how he got 'bossed around by his own son', and there was a rumour going around that he was closer than he should've been with Bellatrix Black. He was 'adopting' some classmates, investing in others', and there was no way he wasn't involved with whatever that werewolf business was. Harry wasn't sure if he was envious or terrified of all the crazy, slightly-less believable things the other students said about him.
'Glad it's not me,' he thought as he made his way towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. 'Definitely suspicious though. I should keep a closer eye on him…'
BBaRtS
Sixty-four. Sorry for the short, late, one-section chapter y'all. We're probably going on hiatus. My landlord is ghosting me regarding if I get to keep living here and my lease is up at the end of the month, and it's got me stressing out like you wouldn't believe. It's impossible to find a place to live with three cats and with rent that I can afford/I meet the 'must make 3 times as much as rent' requirement for. Because of that I literally don't have the time or mental health to write, so we're going to have to do an indefinite pause, for at least until my housing situation is settled. I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, don't want to quit writing this, but it all just depends on me literally having a roof over my head. We'll see, who knows, maybe the guy's just being flakey and it won't be a problem at all come Feb 29th. I wouldn't count on it. Sorry for no review-reviewing, but like I said, I'm in a crisis, and putting the cap on just this one section I already had half-written before panic sat in was all I have in me at the moment.
Thank you all so much for reading up until now, I hope to post again soon, love you all, lessthanthree.
