Chapter 145: Back To School

The rest of the holidays passed quickly. We found Kreacher in the attic. He was suddenly acting a bit kinder, and was more cooperative for some odd reason. Sirius however, was quite the opposite with his mood. His high spirits that he had on Christmas had slowly dwindled, and he was starting to get a bit mopey. More than likely because we would be returning to school sooner than later, and the poor bloke would be alone again.

It seemed as if no one except for Hermione was eager to get back to school, and she was only eager because of DA and OWLs. No one really looked forward to returning back under the link toad's ruling. Especially Harry, since he couldn't even play Quidditch anymore, something we discussed on the very last day of holidays, while playing chess in our room.

"I wish I could just stay here with Sirius," he said as he took my pawn. "I mean DA is wicked, but I really miss flying. And the fact that that overgrown bitch stole that from me just makes me mad."

"I don't particularly want to go back either, mate." I said, taking his knight. "The thought of continuing Quidditch without you and my brothers isn't pleasant."

"You'll do alright, " said Harry. "You just have to stay confident."

"You do have one more thing to look forward to going back to school," I said with a grin, trying to change the subject.

Harry blushed. "I guess."

"Are you two..."

"I'm not exactly sure." said Harry, as he snapped his fingers for making a wrong move. "I didn't get to ask her or anything."

"Well, be sure to do so. I hear girls like to know when they have boyfriends," I joked. "Check."

"You two are insufferable," said Hermione, with Ginny nodding in agreement.

"Harry, dear," said Mum, poking her head in the door, "could you come down to the kitchen? Professor Snape would like a word with you."

Harry didn't really hear. One of his rooks was fighting with one of my pawns.

"Squash him- squash him, he's only a pawn, you idiot. Sorry, Mrs. Weasley, what did you say?"

"Professor Snape, dear. In the kitchen. He'd like a word."

Harry's mouth fell open in horror. He looked around at Hermione, Ginny, and I, as if we could help him.

"Snape?" said Harry blankly.

"Professor Snape, dear," mum corrected. "Now come on, quickly, he says he can't stay long."

"What's he want with you?" I asked after Mum left the room. "You haven't done anything, have you?"

"No!" said Harry quickly. "Not that I know of at least. He got up from the chessboard (that had been knocked over by Hermione's fuzzy menace) and went out the door.

"Hermione, I hate your cat." I said as I began to pick up my chess pieces that had been scattered about. Crookshanks glared at me as he innocently licked his paws.

"I'm going to go talk to the twins," said Ginny, hopping off my bed and going out the door.

"I'll help," said Hermione, getting off the bed and helping me pick up the rest of the pieces.

"What is it with you and that cat?" I joked. "Don't you have enough gingers in your life?"

Hermione laughed as she put the pieces she collected into my trunk. "Oh I could never have enough gingers, Ron."

"Well, as long as you remember that I'm the most important one." I said, putting the rest of my chess set in my trunk and closing it.

"Oh. So you're Crookshanks now?" said Hermione, chucking a pillow at my head, which I caught.

"Are you trying to start something, Hermione?" I said, picking the pillow up and chucking it."

"Just helping you with your keeper skills. That was really good," she said, throwing it back at me as she caught me off guard with her compliment.

Soon, we were going back and forth in an impromptu pillow fight. I managed to knock most of her throws away, causing her to get frustrated because she couldn't best be.

Suddenly. I found my face being bombarded by hair as Hermione lunged at me and knocked me onto the bed. She sat up on me, took a pillow, and started hitting me everywhere with it. I managed to get a grip on her waist and flip her over, causing her to be under me as I snatched the pillow out of her hand and started tickling her.

She laughed uncontrollably as she tried to fight me off. I ended up lining her arms over her head, causing us both to stop laughing.

My eyes locked onto hers as I felt her chest rise into mine with her trying to catch her breath. In that moment, I felt really compelled to kiss her.

"Hey Ron, Da- hey what's this?" came a voice out of nowhere. I quickly hopped off of Hermione and we smoothed down our clothes, trying to look as presentable as we could in the situation that my fucking cockblocking sister had interrupted.

Ginny grinned. "If this is a bad time..."

"No, we weren't doing anything! What is it?" I said a bit too loudly.

"I...oh yeah. I came to get you for Dad. He just arrived!"

I looked at Hermione and smiled. Then the three of us ran out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the hallway where Mum was standing with Dad in stripes PJs, who looked much much better.

The twins popped up at the end of the stairs and we all went over and hugged Dad. We had known since the first visit that he was going to be okay, but seeing him out of St. Mungo's confirmed it fully.

We walked down to the basement and into the kitchen.

"Cured!" Dad announced brightly. "Completely cured!"

We all paused. Sirius and Snape had their wands out, pointing them directly at one another's faces, with Harry standing in between them, a hand stretched out to each, trying to force them apart.

"Merlin's beard," said Dad, the smile sliding off his face, "what's going on here?"

Both Sirius and Snape lowered their wands. Harry looked from one to the other. Each looked pissed. Snape pocketed his wand, turned on his heel and swept back across the kitchen, passing by us without comment. At the door he looked back.

"Six o'clock, Monday evening, Potter." he said.

And he was gone. Sirius glared after him, his wand at his side.

"What's been going on?" asked Dad again.

"Nothing, Arthur," said Sirius, who was breathing heavily as though he had just run a long distance. "Just a friendly little chat between two old school friends. So ... you're cured? That's great news, really great."

"Yes, isn't it?" said Mum, leading Dad to the nearest chair. "Healer Smethwyck worked his magic in the end, found an antidote to whatever that snake's got in its fangs, and Arthur's learned his lesson about dabbling in Muggle medicine, haven't you, dear?" she added, rather menacingly.

"Yes, Molly dear," said Dad, sounding busted.

During dinner, Harry told Hermione and I quietly about having to take Occlumency lessons with Snape.

"Dumbledore wants to stop you having those dreams about Voldemort," said Hermione at once. "Well, you won't be sorry not to have them any more, will you?"

"Extra lessons with Snape? I'd rather have the nightmares!" I said with a shiver.

"Oh come on," said Hermione. "They may not be all that bad."

Harry and I looked at her, flabbergasted expressions on both our faces.

The next morning, we took the Knight Bus (which was bloody brilliant) back to Hogsmeade station. We avoided Umbridge lime she was the plague. .

Throughout the next day, Harry was bombarded by DA members, anxious to know if there was going to be a meeting.

"I'll let you know in the usual way when the next one is," Harry said over and over again, "but I can't do it tonight, I've got to go to-er-remedial Potions."

"You take remedial Potions?" asked Zacharias Fucking Smith laughing, having cornered Harry in the Entrance Hall after lunch. "Good Lord, you must be terrible. Snape doesn't usually give extra lessons, does he?"

As Smith strode away in an annoyingly buoyant fashion, I glared after him.

"Shall I jinx him? I can still get him from here," I said, raising my wand and taking aim between Smith's shoulder blades.

"Forget it," said Harry. "It's what everyone's going to think, isn't it? That I'm really stup-"

"Hi, Harry," said a voice behind us. We turned round and found Cho standing there.

"Oh," said Harry, nervously as I began to grin. "Hi."

"We'll be in the library, Harry," said Hermione firmly as she grabbed above the elbow and dragged me off towards the marble staircase.

"Awh come on Mione, it was about to get good!" I said as I yanked out of her grip, but followed.

"You're so inconsiderate sometimes." scolded Hermione. "Don't you think that Harry would want to talk to her alone?"

"What for? He's just gonna tell us later."

"What if he was asking her out, you git? He wouldn't want to do that in front of everybody!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's embarrassing!"

"What's so embarrassing about a bloke liking a girl?" I said, confused.

Hermione stopped before she could open the door to the library. She looked up at me, bewildered.

"You don't think it's embarrassing?" she asked, with a newness about her voice.

"No, why would I? Well, unless the person didn't like me in return. Now that's embarrassing." I said, making a face.

"Who wouldn't a girl like you? " asked Hermione as I started feeling uncomfortable and opened the library door for her to walk into.

"You're really asking me this?"

"Yes, I am. You're not a dislikeable person."

I chuckled. "Just a few minutes ago, you were calling me inconsiderate. And how many times a day do you call me insufferable?"

Hermione looked a bit hurt. "Oh Ron, I don't...I mean...while you do have your inconsiderate moments, as all of us do, you're not a total barbarian. And I didn't think you took me calling you insufferable to heart."

"I don't. I just wanted you to tell me how brilliant I am." I said smugly.

Hermione gave me a small nudge. "Now you're really being insufferable." she said with a laugh.

We sat down in our usual corner that had three cushy chairs and a desk and waited for Harry. He came in a few minutes later, sporting a very sheepish grin on his face. I was all for taking the mickey, bit Hermione gave me a look that clearly told me not to speak a word.

At six o'clock, Harry set off to meet up with Snape. Hermione and I went to retrieve our Defense Against The Dark Arts homework, and returned to the library. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, because when we had gotten back, there were several other fifth years (mainly from Ravenclaw)had filed in to do whatever work they had to do. Thankfully, our spot hadn't been taken, so we went back and sat down.

We took out our parchment and ruddy books that made me feel like a four year old and began writing. Well, Hermione began writing. I was in between trying to start, and watching Hermione work.

One thing I always liked doing was watching Hermione concentrate on something. Though she really didn't have to concentrate hard on this assignment, she still showed her signs that she was working hard to get everything just right. She would bite her lip and sometimes twirl a stray strand of hair around her finger absentmindedly when she was reading. Her eyes would dart back and forth between book and parchment as she wrote down facts.

I might not have been completely about books (well, not all books), but it was fascinating watching Hermione be about them. One of the many reasons why I was so into her.

Harry found us about an hour or so later. He looked completely flushed, and no in a good way. His skin looked pale and he looked as if he had just finished sweating, as if he had just had a fight with a dementor.

"How did it go?" Hermione whispered, looking concerned. 'Are you alright, Harry?"

"Yeah ... fine ... I dunno," said Harry sounding a bit out of it, and wincing as if something hurt. "Listen ... I've just realized something."

And he proceeded to tell us about his lesson with Snape and how some corridor leading to a strange door popped into his mind.

"So ... so are you saying," I whispered, as Madam Pince swept past, squeaking slightly "that the weapon, the thing You-Know-Who's after, is in the Ministry of Magic?"

"In the Department of Mysteries, it's gotta be," Harry whispered. "I saw that door when your dad took me down to the courtrooms for my hearing and it's definitely the same one he was guarding when the snake bit him."

Hermione let out a long, slow sigh.

"Of course," she breathed.

"Of course what?" I said.

"Ron, think about it. Sturgis Podmore was trying to get through a door at the Ministry of Magic. It must have been that one, it's too much of a coincidence!"

"How come Sturgis was trying to break in when he's on our side?" I said.

"Well, I don't know," Hermione admitted. "That is a bit odd.."

"So what's in the Department of Mysteries?" Harry asked me. "Has your dad ever mentioned anything about it?"

"I know they call the people who work in there 'Unspeakables'," I explained with a frown. "Because no one really seems to know what they do. Weird place to have a weapon."

"It's not weird at all, it makes perfect sense," said Hermione. "It will be something top secret that the Ministry has been developing, I expect. Harry, are you sure you're all right?"

Harry was rubbing his hand across his forehead vigorously, as if he was trying to iron out a crease.

"Yeah ... fine ..." he said, lowering his hands, which were trembling. "I just feel a bit...I don't like Occlumency much."

"I expect anyone would feel shaky if they'd had their mind attacked over and over again," said Hermione sympathetically. "Look, let's get back to the common room, we'll be a bit more comfortable there."

But the common room was packed and full of shrieks of laughter and excitement; Fred and George were demonstrating their latest bit of joke shop merchandise.

"Headless Hats!" shouted George, as Fred waved a pointed hat decorated with a fluffy pink feather at the watching students. "Two Galleons each, watch Fred, now!"

Fred swept the hat on to his head, beaming. For a second he merely looked rather stupid; then both hat and head vanished.

Several girls screamed, but everyone else was roaring with laughter.

"And off again!" shouted George, and Fred's hand groped for a moment in what seemed to be thin air over his shoulder; then his head reappeared as he swept the pink-feathered hat from it.

"How do those hats work, then?" wondered Hermione out loud as she watched Fred and George closely. "I mean, obviously it's some kind of Invisibility Spell, but it's rather clever to have extended the field of invisibility beyond the boundaries of the charmed object. I'd imagine the charm wouldn't have a very long life though."

"I'm going to have to do this tomorrow," Harry muttered, pushing the books he had just taken out of his bag back inside it.

"Well, write it in your homework planner then!" said Hermione encouragingly. "So you don't forget!"

Harry and I exchanged looks as he reached into his bag, withdrew the planner and opened it tentatively.

"Don't leave it till later, you big second-rater!" yelled the book as Harry scribbled down Umbridge's homework. Hermione beamed at it.

"I think I'll go to bed," said Harry, stuffing the homework planner back into his bag and walked towards the boys dorms.

Hermione watched him somewhat stagger away, a concerned expression on her face.

"I'm worried about him, Ron." said Hermione in a low voice. "He doesn't seem well."

"Maybe it takes a lot out of you, yeah?"

"Possibly. I would imagine a lot of deep concentration would have to be done to block someone from getting into your mind. You'll check on him, won't you? His defenses might be horribly down after that."

I nodded and got up from the sofa, making my way to the dorm.

When I got there, I seen Harry rolling around on the floor, holding his forehead and hissing in pain.

"Harry? HARRY!" I yelled as I kneeled down beside him not knowing what to do. I tried to push him a d shake him slightly with no response.

Finally I did the only rational thing I could think of at the time.

I slapped him. Hard.

Harry opened his eyes immediately and laid there, panting on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. He finally looked over at me.

"What happened?" I said.

"I ... dunno ..." Harry gasped, sitting up. "He's really happy ... really happy ..."

"You-Know-Who is?"

"Something good's happened," mumbled Harry. He was shaking horribly and looked like he did the night Dad was attacked. "Something he's been hoping for."

"Hermione told me to come and check on you," I said as I helped Harry to his feet. "She says your defences will be low at the moment, after Snape's been fiddling around with your mind ... still, I suppose it'll help in the long run, won't it?"

I helped Harry into his bed. He nodded and slumped back on his pillows, a pained look on his face.