Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Resuscitation of Agapé ❯ My Wonky Valentine ( Chapter 10 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: jessica_x 
...in which Hermione nearly gets herself into a duel, and a somewhat less-than-pleasant trip into Hogsmeade occurs.
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.03.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 531 | Status: Completed
...in which Hermione nearly gets herself into a duel, and a somewhat less-than-pleasant trip into Hogsmeade occurs.
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.03.2004 | Pages: 5 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 531 | Status: Completed
Harry Potter and the Resuscitation of Agapé
Year 6 At Hogwarts
by Jessica X
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WARNING LABEL: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. INGREDIENTS OF PRODUCT NOT COPYRIGHTED BY AUTHOR, BUT THE RECIPE IS. RATED R FOR MILD VIOLENCE/LANGUAGE, AND MATURE THEMES: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. IF INGESTED, INDUCE VOMITING, THEN GO BACK TO WORK ON YOUR PAPIER MACHE BUST OF JOSS WHEDON.
ABYSMALLY-LONG NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Yet another somewhat-mild chapter, though not without its hairier points (teehee)! For those of you who're waiting for the perilous, adventuresome bits... it's on the horizon, and moving fast. I do have a confession to make... a few lines of dialogue (literally 4) in this chappie were grifted unceremoniously from an episode of Boy Meets World. If you haven't seen the episode... well, then I guess you don't care ::sweatdrop::
I was wondering something... it seems as if everybody is reading this fiction (going purely off the number of viewings), yet no one has been commenting on it. I do like to get comments, don't be afraid!
************************************************************************ *****
~*~ Chapter Ten: My Wonky Valentine
"Well, now! Hermione's kin, are yeh?" Hagrid beamed, setting down the enormous bag of feed he'd been carrying. "Pleasure, pleasure! Come in fer a cuppa!"
"We'd be delighted," Mrs. Granger said nervously, craning her neck slightly to look into the towering man's face.
Hermione was following them inside when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, and saw Harry half-jogging across the lawns toward them. She smiled, waving, and he waved back.
"What did Dumbledore want?" she asked when he was within earshot.
"Visions," he replied shortly, hands braced against his knees as he caught his breath.
"Oh." Her smile faded. "I'd nearly forgotten all about that with recent goings on... anything come of it?"
"Not really." He straightened and let out a gust of air.
"Did you tell him what you saw on the map?"
"No."
"Harry-!"
"I don't want to lose it," he said flatly. "And it's no use saying I saw anything when I can't even believe it wholeheartedly."
She nodded, looking at him intently. "I suppose. Well, er... my parents are inside... shall we?"
"Give me a minute."
He leaned back against a fencepost, calming his breathing, eyes closed. Rather than leave him alone outside, she joined him, standing nearby and silently gazing toward the lake.
"Hermione?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you know of any spells that can... remove curse scars?"
She looked at him. "What?"
"Just what I said." He was staring at the ground in front of him. "I want to know if you've ever come across a spell like that."
"You want to get rid of the lightning bolt."
A nod. She sighed, reaching across his back to grasp the far shoulder.
"Sorry, Harry, I wish I did. I suppose I should've expected you to ask me something like this eventually. But your scar is so unusual; no one's ever survived the Killing Curse before. I'm sure it's a bit trying, living with that thing and all the attention. But it's just a squiggly line."
"It's not. It's a doorway into the mind of a devious madman. I don't want to look through it anymore."
A frown tugged at her mouth, but she ignored it. "I wish I could say I know what you're feeling, what it's like to peek into You-Know-Who's mind, but I don't. If I could do anything to lessen the strain, perhaps share your burden..."
"I wouldn't want that. It's bad enough I have to deal with this without chopping off bits for my friends to hold onto."
She couldn't stave off the frown now. "Oh, Harry..."
The gentle evening winds swept their hair as she stood next to him, massaging his shoulder, his hands thrust into his pockets. Too often had she seen him look as weary and troubled as he did now, and the dull ache gripped her chest tighter. Eventually, his gaze moved to her face, and he smiled weakly.
"Let's catch up with your folks. I'm sure they're losing teeth in there as we speak, and it wouldn't do for dentists to go home with nothing but gums."
Laughing, they walked toward the door to Hagrid's hut, Hermione's arm still firmly around his slouching shoulders.
~*~
"I don't believe it!"
Harry looked over his shoulder, and was startled himself. He saw Hermione held a similar reaction, though her look was quite darker.
"What does she mean by carrying on with her?!" Ron continued, gritting his teeth.
The three of them started toward the doorway where Cho was standing, talking to the curly-haired girl that had sold them out the previous year.
"Marietta Edgecombe!" Hermione said, nearly shouting already. The several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs standing around jumped slightly, edging away from what they perceived as a prelude to quite a bitter row. She only stopped when their noses were a Snitch-breadth apart. "You have the nerve to return to our school!"
"I've been here all year," she said indignantly. "You might've noticed me before now!"
"I might've if I'd been searching the dustbins!"
Marietta's eyes flared. "What did you say?"
"You treacherous little shrew! We might've got on fine with our D.A. meetings and Dumbledore might've been able to stay at Hogwarts last year if you hadn't been such a duplicitous, back-stabbing-"
"Lay off!" Cho said, her jaw setting. "You saw to it she got her punishment, didn't you?"
"Get out of it!" Hermione growled, barely sparing her a glance before returning to Marietta. "You can just go on up to your dormitory and pack your trunk, because if you ever cross my field of vision again-"
"You'll what?" Marietta said, backing up and drawing her wand. "Go on, then! Tell us what you'll do!"
Hermione's sparking brown eyes instantly went cold, and she drew her own wand - a gesture that none gathered there took lightly, for they knew of her great intellect, what she could manage with it, and did not much care to remain on the battlefield. Everyone fled the scene, tripping over themselves in their panicked haste, all save her, Marietta, Cho, Harry, and Ron. The latter three even took a leery step backward.
"You don't want find out what I'll do," Hermione said, barely above a whisper, her wand pointed directly ahead. Her voice was not her own, and Harry could almost feel the hate pouring off of her.
Marietta faltered. Though a Ravenclaw and quite sharp herself, it showed on her face that she was also wary of Hermione's prowess. "Go on, then," she repeated, her hand beginning to shake.
"What in the name of Merlin's Beard?!"
They all turned to see Professor McGonagall striding toward them briskly. The two girls immediately stowed their wands.
"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" The deputy headmistress's eyes were wide behind her spectacles, fists at her side. "Hermione Granger, preparing to duel!"
"Professor-"
"This is most unacceptable! I'm afraid I cannot ignore this!"
"Marietta drew first!" Ron shouted.
Hermione was trying not to direct her anger at her Head of House - and failing miserably. "Professor, that sneak handed us to Umbridge last year! How can you allow her to continue attending a school she obviously has no loyalty to?!"
McGonagall's wizened brow wrinkled, and Harry was almost positive her anger abated slightly. However, when she spoke, her tones were just as sharp as they had been. "That gives you no right to hex her in the middle of the hallway! Twenty points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw!"
A collective groan went up, but McGonagall spoke over them. "It's less than you deserve for such disgraceful behaviour! Now, off to your classes, go on, then!"
As they dispersed, Harry caught sight of Cho's face. To his surprise, her gaze wasn't dripping with animosity - in fact, she looked quite uneasy.
~*~
The sun was shining brilliantly on the snow-covered city of Hogsmeade, threatening to melt everything that was frozen. Ron broke an icicle off the end of a nearby signpost, chucking it at another one several meters away.
"Good shot, Ron!" Luna said merrily after it had connected. She was wearing a scarf that appeared to be made of Christmas potholders, as well as that ludicrous zebra-skin hat of hers. "Not such a rubbish Keeper anymore, are you?"
Ron's ears glowed slightly, but he laughed. "Not so much, I guess."
As they neared Zonko's, Harry saw a flutter of raven hair across the High Street. Cho was leaning against an alley wall, arms folded against the cold and looking quite alone.
"I'll catch up with you later," he said to the three of them.
"What?" Hermione followed his gaze, then her own went cold. "You're not going off to talk to her, are you?"
"Why shouldn't he?" Luna asked, mildly interested.
"I want to settle all this."
He could hear them whispering to each other as he stomped across the lane, but he did not turn. As he reached Cho, she looked up, but her eyes only fell on him when he was a few feet away, and she jumped.
"H-Harry!"
"Why are you still talking with that Marietta?"
"What d'you mean? She's not all bad, she just-"
"And why have you been avoiding me? Don't think I haven't noticed that you were giving me quite the berth since you got back from Christmas." When she didn't respond, he said, "Answer me!"
"Er, let's go somewhere else-"
"This seems fine to me," he said quickly.
She hesitated, studying him closely. At last, she sighed. "Okay, look. As for Marietta, she knows I haven't quite forgiven her for what she did last year. But she's my friend. She made a mistake, and I'm not going to chuck her out of my life for it."
Harry nodded curtly; as much as he loathed Marietta, he could understand not wanting to lose a friend you've had for some time (a feeling he'd had to deal with quite recently). He noticed after he'd done so, she began shifting nervously.
"As for me avoiding you... I didn't know if you really wanted to talk to me anymore, now that you and Hermione Granger are an item."
His jaw slackened, but he quickly collected himself. "We are NOT an item!"
"I didn't think so, either... at first." Her voice was small, and she looked as if she'd rather not have this discussion. "I heard the rumours, but it sounded so silly that I didn't believe them - I certainly didn't want to. But I've seen you two in the halls... how close you walk, the meaningful glances, the whispering... either you're a couple, or you're planning to blow up the school."
Harry found he could not speak. How could Cho actually buy into that bilge?
"I liked you, Harry," she said, her eyes beginning to glisten. "I really did, and I- I still do... but far be it from me to stand in the way of love. You and Hermione Granger have known each other for much longer, it was bound to happen. You don't have to lie to me."
"But I'm NOT LYING!" he shouted, and she cringed. "Hermione and I are just really close mates, I swear! There's nothing more than conversation going on between us! I am not in love with Hermione!"
To his increased annoyance, her gaze was skeptical, but it quickly gave way to amazement. "Oh, wow. You don't even know, yet."
"What?"
She smiled sadly. "You're blissfully unaware that you fancy her. That's so sweet... and so tragic..."
"I DO NOT-!"
"Harry, please, can I just... just go?"
He blinked as he noticed she was crying. He hadn't seen when the tears had actually begun rolling down her cheeks, and her voice was barely cracking. At the same time, he saw she was backing away.
"Ch-Cho, wait-"
"I can't do this. As much as I want to, I can't bar your path to her heart."
"Cho!"
And with that, she ran down the alleyway, her hands covering her face.
"Is it me," he said slowly to the empty space, "or have I just been dumped by a girl I'm not even dating... because of another I'm not dating?" He slid down the brick wall into the snow. "Women are so weird."
~*~
"Harry!"
His eyes snapped open, and slowly focused on Hermione's concerned face, hovering inches from his own.
"Oh, thank God, Harry! Are you okay, what happened?"
He slowly realized he was still crouched in the snow, exactly where he'd slid down. He glanced at his watch, and realized he'd been sitting there for nearly an hour.
"Nothing," he said, realizing his throat was quite dry. He'd been trying to sort out what Cho had said, and undoubtedly nodded off after he came up blank.
"But... but Harry, why are you just sitting here in the snow?"
"I'm fine," he repeated more firmly. "Where's Ron and Luna?"
"They're in the Three Broomsticks," she said as she helped him to his feet. "We started to worry about you, and I volunteered to hunt you down."
"Kind of you," he said distractedly. "Let's go catch up with them."
The moment they entered the tavern, Ron waved them over. Hermione ordered two tankards of butterbeer as Harry dropped heavily into a chair at their table.
"Where've you been, mate? You and Cho 'make up'?" He winked as he said the last two words.
"Nothing of the sort," he said glumly. When Hermione returned, he related the ridiculous events of an hour previous to them. By the time he finished his tale, Ron's head was shaking in disbelief, Luna had a thoughtful expression on her face, and Hermione's arms were crossed in exasperation.
"Honestly, we should have a big falling out in the middle of the hall just so everyone doesn't think we're together," she said.
"They'd just say you were having a lover's quarrel," Ron put in.
"Ron's probably right," Harry said resignedly.
"You mean..." Luna said slowly. "You mean you two aren't fucking?"
They all blinked, and Hermione's face set slightly.
"No, we aren't fucking!" Harry retorted heatedly. "We are not, haven't been, nor will we be in the near future!"
"Oh," she said simply. "What a pity, I was looking forward to the wedding. I like weddings, they're quite interesting. Some of them are performed in the nude, and others in those flying machines Muggles use. I wonder if anyone's ever combined the two ideas...?"
The other three collectively clapped a hand over their faces.
"All due respect, I think you're well shut of her," Hermione said crossly. "Refusing to see that Edgecombe for what she is! And she can't be very bright for a Ravenclaw if she thinks we're a couple... or rather, that we 'haven't realized our undying love yet'. Preposterous!"
Harry sighed, drawing deeply on his tankard and setting it down. "It's so stupid. She just flat-out refused to believe me. There's nothing else I could have said to convince her, is there?"
"Nothing I can think of, mate," Ron said, shrugging. "Don't worry about it. Maybe she'll come around later or something."
"Forget that rubbish," Hermione said firmly. "We're in Hogsmeade for the day, and we might as well enjoy it."
"Yeah," Ron said, the corners of his mouth turning up a bit. "We haven't been to Honeydukes yet, and I'm out of Frogs and Whizbees again... maybe I'll pick up a Sugar Quill or two?"
"You're going to bore a hole straight through your teeth and out the back of your head at this rate!" she shot at him as they stood. "Moderation, Ronald!"
"If I get a load of cavities, I can fill them back in. The whole wizardry thing, you know."
She rolled her eyes and strode from the table.
~*~
In the weeks that followed, Harry made it a point to walk closer to Ron than Hermione, and to avoid being solely in her company if at all possible. Hermione understood the reason, of course, and also attempted to keep her distance. It seemed to do nothing at all to deter the whispers that they were starting to date, but mercifully, few students thought they were knobbing - not yet, at any rate. Even so, Harry found himself an unwilling object of lust. He overheard several fourth-year girls airily discussing possible ways to steal him away from his beloved Hermione, and was on the point of telling them off before he realized it would mean admitting he was eavesdropping.
"You have 'the scent'," Ron said, miming quotation marks on either side of his head.
"What's 'the scent'?" Harry said, repeating the action.
"I'll tell you about 'the scent'-"
"Enough with the fingers, Ron," Harry said, and Ron stopped mid-movement. "Just tell me what you're on about!"
"Okay, all the girls think you're spoken for, now, right?"
"Right," he said grudgingly.
"Well, that suddenly makes you more appealing. Not only are you famous, but you're also off the market. Now they have no hope of getting you, and that makes them want you ten times as much."
"But that's stupid!"
He shrugged. "Nature of the beast."
"HONESTLY!" exclaimed Ginny, who had been listening. She slammed her schoolbook shut and stomped off toward the dormitory stairs.
"What's twisting her knickers?" Ron said, taken aback.
In the meantime, Harry learned that Ron was having similar trouble. Luna had told everyone that they'd kissed after their date in Hogsmeade.
"She's a lot quicker than she looks!" Ron had replied indignantly to Harry's question. "She just snogged me on the mouth with no forewarning, there was nothing I could do!"
"So you didn't enjoy it, then?"
Ron's ears shone like beacons.
March wore on, and their homework had certainly not lessened any. They'd begun working faster, attempting to actually leave themselves some free time on the weekends. No such luck; one Saturday evening found them toiling in the library for hours on end.
"Maybe if we can finish these two essays tonight, we can have tomorrow off," Ron said wearily.
"Oh, for goodness' sake," Hermione said impatiently, striding around the table and sitting between them. "You two would wither up and die without me, wouldn't you?"
"Don't have to be so conceited," Ron grumbled.
Harry had taken to hiding out for hours on end in his room. When asked what he was doing, he would shrug and say, "Studying, of course." Hermione and Ron suspected this was a lie, but could never really catch him at whatever he was actually doing, so eventually they let the subject drop.
Cho Chang had not changed her opinion of Harry and Hermione. Both of them and Ron, independently and jointly, had tried to make her see reason - without a hint of progress. Her mind was made up, and she was determined not to do anything to jeopardize their obvious destiny. When it was apparent she could not be swayed, they gave up and started avoiding her altogether.
This had served to make the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw a very strange one for Harry. As he and Cho played the same position, they kept passing in the air, and more than once Harry was tempted to wave or yell something out before remembering that she didn't want to talk to him. He dwelled so deeply on this that Cho almost caught the Snitch before him; suddenly realizing it was hovering right next to his elbow, he swerved in front of her hand, then executed a barrel roll and grasped the tiny thing to tumultuous applause. She was far less inclined to speak to him after that.
Eventually, quite sick of fighting the rumours of their love, Harry and Hermione had turned to a new tactic: they began holding hands in the hallways, cheerfully telling anyone who asked that they were so mad over each other that they were thinking of getting tattoos. Of course, they had told the majority of their friends they were going to do this beforehand, and they were more than willing to help fan the flames.
"Oh, yeah, they're a cute couple, aren't they?" Harry overheard Neville telling a third-year Hufflepuff. "I always knew they'd end together."
It did the trick. Though now they looked as if they were clearly an item, at least people stopped talking about it - after all, why discuss something that you can observe?
"Harry, would you mind terribly buttering my toast for me?"
"Of course, my love."
Ginny giggled, watching him do so as if it were the most important task in the world.
"Here you are!" He held it up for Hermione to bite into, and she did so, a saccharine smile lighting up her features as crumbs fell from her lips. As Harry leaned across and planted a loud, cheeky peck on top of the crumbs, Dean Thomas rolled his eyes, and Ginny nearly fell under the table.
"There went my appetite," Ron muttered, dropping his spoon into his porridge.
~*~
"I'm certainly glad."
Harry turned in all directions. Someone had spoken, but the corridor was empty.
"Who's there?"
Cho Chang walked out of the shadow of a statue, smiling sadly.
"I'm glad you finally realized your love. You two look incredibly happy together, and I wish you all the best."
Harry sighed. "Oh, please."
"Come again?"
"It's an act!" he said, dropping his schoolbag. "We're just putting on a show for the mindless children! It was either that or keep enduring the questions!"
Cho snorted. "Why do I not believe that? You know, I really thought you'd be up front with me, as I was the one that informed you of your love."
He could feel his eyebrows shoot beyond the top of his head. "So now you want credit for it?! As if you orchestrated the entire thing?!"
"Of course not! But I at least thought you'd be honest with me!"
"I'M NOT LYING!" he shouted. "Hermione and I aren't dating! We're just sick of being accused of rogering like dogs in heat, so we figure if we act like a happy little couple, they'll leave us alone! And it is working, isn't it?!"
To his confusion, her face was now quite cold and expressionless. "Well, I'm certainly glad you have each other now. Obviously, you don't want to include me in your life, so I suppose this is where we part."
"Wh-what?"
"I'll be seeing you, Harry Potter... but I daresay I won't be talking to you ever again."
As she walked swiftly down the hall, he could feel his blood boiling, even though he had no idea what had just taken place. He punched the wall as hard as he could, not caring that his hand would be throbbing afterward.
"I bet the wall really appreciates that," Hermione said bemusedly.
"Sod off."
She whipped off the Invisibility Cloak and crammed it into the bag he'd left on the floor. "Sorry, but I couldn't help overhearing... I mean, your voices carried down to the second floor. Cho was way out of line, Harry," she said earnestly. "You didn't deserve that."
He gritted his teeth as he shook his hand out. "What are you doing here, anyway? And why did you have my cloak?"
"I was in the kitchens, talking to the house-elves. I, er... wanted to have another go with it before I returned it. You don't mind, do you?"
The anxious look on her face made him shake his head, his anger starting to lessen. "Why were you talking to the house-elves? Not still on about that Spew, are you?"
"S.P.E.W.!!!" she shrieked. Harry smiled, and she let out a gust. "And no. I've just had a long conversation with them, trying to convince them one last time to stand up for themselves. It's no good, they don't want to be freed."
"That's what we've been telling-"
"I know, I know." His smile fell as he saw how much her shoulders were sagging in defeat. "I give up. Maybe I can do something to help them eventually - perhaps after we graduate - but for the nonce, I'll just have to let them stick it out. Besides, they get treated fairly enough here at Hogwarts, at least..."
Harry knew she did not want to let her Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare die out like this, but there was little he could do, either. He picked up his bag and clapped a hand on her shoulder, leading the dejected would-be liberator gently back toward the Gryffindor common room.
~*~ To Be Continued
Year 6 At Hogwarts
by Jessica X
************************************************************************ *****
WARNING LABEL: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. INGREDIENTS OF PRODUCT NOT COPYRIGHTED BY AUTHOR, BUT THE RECIPE IS. RATED R FOR MILD VIOLENCE/LANGUAGE, AND MATURE THEMES: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. IF INGESTED, INDUCE VOMITING, THEN GO BACK TO WORK ON YOUR PAPIER MACHE BUST OF JOSS WHEDON.
ABYSMALLY-LONG NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Yet another somewhat-mild chapter, though not without its hairier points (teehee)! For those of you who're waiting for the perilous, adventuresome bits... it's on the horizon, and moving fast. I do have a confession to make... a few lines of dialogue (literally 4) in this chappie were grifted unceremoniously from an episode of Boy Meets World. If you haven't seen the episode... well, then I guess you don't care ::sweatdrop::
I was wondering something... it seems as if everybody is reading this fiction (going purely off the number of viewings), yet no one has been commenting on it. I do like to get comments, don't be afraid!
************************************************************************ *****
~*~ Chapter Ten: My Wonky Valentine
"Well, now! Hermione's kin, are yeh?" Hagrid beamed, setting down the enormous bag of feed he'd been carrying. "Pleasure, pleasure! Come in fer a cuppa!"
"We'd be delighted," Mrs. Granger said nervously, craning her neck slightly to look into the towering man's face.
Hermione was following them inside when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, and saw Harry half-jogging across the lawns toward them. She smiled, waving, and he waved back.
"What did Dumbledore want?" she asked when he was within earshot.
"Visions," he replied shortly, hands braced against his knees as he caught his breath.
"Oh." Her smile faded. "I'd nearly forgotten all about that with recent goings on... anything come of it?"
"Not really." He straightened and let out a gust of air.
"Did you tell him what you saw on the map?"
"No."
"Harry-!"
"I don't want to lose it," he said flatly. "And it's no use saying I saw anything when I can't even believe it wholeheartedly."
She nodded, looking at him intently. "I suppose. Well, er... my parents are inside... shall we?"
"Give me a minute."
He leaned back against a fencepost, calming his breathing, eyes closed. Rather than leave him alone outside, she joined him, standing nearby and silently gazing toward the lake.
"Hermione?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you know of any spells that can... remove curse scars?"
She looked at him. "What?"
"Just what I said." He was staring at the ground in front of him. "I want to know if you've ever come across a spell like that."
"You want to get rid of the lightning bolt."
A nod. She sighed, reaching across his back to grasp the far shoulder.
"Sorry, Harry, I wish I did. I suppose I should've expected you to ask me something like this eventually. But your scar is so unusual; no one's ever survived the Killing Curse before. I'm sure it's a bit trying, living with that thing and all the attention. But it's just a squiggly line."
"It's not. It's a doorway into the mind of a devious madman. I don't want to look through it anymore."
A frown tugged at her mouth, but she ignored it. "I wish I could say I know what you're feeling, what it's like to peek into You-Know-Who's mind, but I don't. If I could do anything to lessen the strain, perhaps share your burden..."
"I wouldn't want that. It's bad enough I have to deal with this without chopping off bits for my friends to hold onto."
She couldn't stave off the frown now. "Oh, Harry..."
The gentle evening winds swept their hair as she stood next to him, massaging his shoulder, his hands thrust into his pockets. Too often had she seen him look as weary and troubled as he did now, and the dull ache gripped her chest tighter. Eventually, his gaze moved to her face, and he smiled weakly.
"Let's catch up with your folks. I'm sure they're losing teeth in there as we speak, and it wouldn't do for dentists to go home with nothing but gums."
Laughing, they walked toward the door to Hagrid's hut, Hermione's arm still firmly around his slouching shoulders.
~*~
"I don't believe it!"
Harry looked over his shoulder, and was startled himself. He saw Hermione held a similar reaction, though her look was quite darker.
"What does she mean by carrying on with her?!" Ron continued, gritting his teeth.
The three of them started toward the doorway where Cho was standing, talking to the curly-haired girl that had sold them out the previous year.
"Marietta Edgecombe!" Hermione said, nearly shouting already. The several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs standing around jumped slightly, edging away from what they perceived as a prelude to quite a bitter row. She only stopped when their noses were a Snitch-breadth apart. "You have the nerve to return to our school!"
"I've been here all year," she said indignantly. "You might've noticed me before now!"
"I might've if I'd been searching the dustbins!"
Marietta's eyes flared. "What did you say?"
"You treacherous little shrew! We might've got on fine with our D.A. meetings and Dumbledore might've been able to stay at Hogwarts last year if you hadn't been such a duplicitous, back-stabbing-"
"Lay off!" Cho said, her jaw setting. "You saw to it she got her punishment, didn't you?"
"Get out of it!" Hermione growled, barely sparing her a glance before returning to Marietta. "You can just go on up to your dormitory and pack your trunk, because if you ever cross my field of vision again-"
"You'll what?" Marietta said, backing up and drawing her wand. "Go on, then! Tell us what you'll do!"
Hermione's sparking brown eyes instantly went cold, and she drew her own wand - a gesture that none gathered there took lightly, for they knew of her great intellect, what she could manage with it, and did not much care to remain on the battlefield. Everyone fled the scene, tripping over themselves in their panicked haste, all save her, Marietta, Cho, Harry, and Ron. The latter three even took a leery step backward.
"You don't want find out what I'll do," Hermione said, barely above a whisper, her wand pointed directly ahead. Her voice was not her own, and Harry could almost feel the hate pouring off of her.
Marietta faltered. Though a Ravenclaw and quite sharp herself, it showed on her face that she was also wary of Hermione's prowess. "Go on, then," she repeated, her hand beginning to shake.
"What in the name of Merlin's Beard?!"
They all turned to see Professor McGonagall striding toward them briskly. The two girls immediately stowed their wands.
"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" The deputy headmistress's eyes were wide behind her spectacles, fists at her side. "Hermione Granger, preparing to duel!"
"Professor-"
"This is most unacceptable! I'm afraid I cannot ignore this!"
"Marietta drew first!" Ron shouted.
Hermione was trying not to direct her anger at her Head of House - and failing miserably. "Professor, that sneak handed us to Umbridge last year! How can you allow her to continue attending a school she obviously has no loyalty to?!"
McGonagall's wizened brow wrinkled, and Harry was almost positive her anger abated slightly. However, when she spoke, her tones were just as sharp as they had been. "That gives you no right to hex her in the middle of the hallway! Twenty points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw!"
A collective groan went up, but McGonagall spoke over them. "It's less than you deserve for such disgraceful behaviour! Now, off to your classes, go on, then!"
As they dispersed, Harry caught sight of Cho's face. To his surprise, her gaze wasn't dripping with animosity - in fact, she looked quite uneasy.
~*~
The sun was shining brilliantly on the snow-covered city of Hogsmeade, threatening to melt everything that was frozen. Ron broke an icicle off the end of a nearby signpost, chucking it at another one several meters away.
"Good shot, Ron!" Luna said merrily after it had connected. She was wearing a scarf that appeared to be made of Christmas potholders, as well as that ludicrous zebra-skin hat of hers. "Not such a rubbish Keeper anymore, are you?"
Ron's ears glowed slightly, but he laughed. "Not so much, I guess."
As they neared Zonko's, Harry saw a flutter of raven hair across the High Street. Cho was leaning against an alley wall, arms folded against the cold and looking quite alone.
"I'll catch up with you later," he said to the three of them.
"What?" Hermione followed his gaze, then her own went cold. "You're not going off to talk to her, are you?"
"Why shouldn't he?" Luna asked, mildly interested.
"I want to settle all this."
He could hear them whispering to each other as he stomped across the lane, but he did not turn. As he reached Cho, she looked up, but her eyes only fell on him when he was a few feet away, and she jumped.
"H-Harry!"
"Why are you still talking with that Marietta?"
"What d'you mean? She's not all bad, she just-"
"And why have you been avoiding me? Don't think I haven't noticed that you were giving me quite the berth since you got back from Christmas." When she didn't respond, he said, "Answer me!"
"Er, let's go somewhere else-"
"This seems fine to me," he said quickly.
She hesitated, studying him closely. At last, she sighed. "Okay, look. As for Marietta, she knows I haven't quite forgiven her for what she did last year. But she's my friend. She made a mistake, and I'm not going to chuck her out of my life for it."
Harry nodded curtly; as much as he loathed Marietta, he could understand not wanting to lose a friend you've had for some time (a feeling he'd had to deal with quite recently). He noticed after he'd done so, she began shifting nervously.
"As for me avoiding you... I didn't know if you really wanted to talk to me anymore, now that you and Hermione Granger are an item."
His jaw slackened, but he quickly collected himself. "We are NOT an item!"
"I didn't think so, either... at first." Her voice was small, and she looked as if she'd rather not have this discussion. "I heard the rumours, but it sounded so silly that I didn't believe them - I certainly didn't want to. But I've seen you two in the halls... how close you walk, the meaningful glances, the whispering... either you're a couple, or you're planning to blow up the school."
Harry found he could not speak. How could Cho actually buy into that bilge?
"I liked you, Harry," she said, her eyes beginning to glisten. "I really did, and I- I still do... but far be it from me to stand in the way of love. You and Hermione Granger have known each other for much longer, it was bound to happen. You don't have to lie to me."
"But I'm NOT LYING!" he shouted, and she cringed. "Hermione and I are just really close mates, I swear! There's nothing more than conversation going on between us! I am not in love with Hermione!"
To his increased annoyance, her gaze was skeptical, but it quickly gave way to amazement. "Oh, wow. You don't even know, yet."
"What?"
She smiled sadly. "You're blissfully unaware that you fancy her. That's so sweet... and so tragic..."
"I DO NOT-!"
"Harry, please, can I just... just go?"
He blinked as he noticed she was crying. He hadn't seen when the tears had actually begun rolling down her cheeks, and her voice was barely cracking. At the same time, he saw she was backing away.
"Ch-Cho, wait-"
"I can't do this. As much as I want to, I can't bar your path to her heart."
"Cho!"
And with that, she ran down the alleyway, her hands covering her face.
"Is it me," he said slowly to the empty space, "or have I just been dumped by a girl I'm not even dating... because of another I'm not dating?" He slid down the brick wall into the snow. "Women are so weird."
~*~
"Harry!"
His eyes snapped open, and slowly focused on Hermione's concerned face, hovering inches from his own.
"Oh, thank God, Harry! Are you okay, what happened?"
He slowly realized he was still crouched in the snow, exactly where he'd slid down. He glanced at his watch, and realized he'd been sitting there for nearly an hour.
"Nothing," he said, realizing his throat was quite dry. He'd been trying to sort out what Cho had said, and undoubtedly nodded off after he came up blank.
"But... but Harry, why are you just sitting here in the snow?"
"I'm fine," he repeated more firmly. "Where's Ron and Luna?"
"They're in the Three Broomsticks," she said as she helped him to his feet. "We started to worry about you, and I volunteered to hunt you down."
"Kind of you," he said distractedly. "Let's go catch up with them."
The moment they entered the tavern, Ron waved them over. Hermione ordered two tankards of butterbeer as Harry dropped heavily into a chair at their table.
"Where've you been, mate? You and Cho 'make up'?" He winked as he said the last two words.
"Nothing of the sort," he said glumly. When Hermione returned, he related the ridiculous events of an hour previous to them. By the time he finished his tale, Ron's head was shaking in disbelief, Luna had a thoughtful expression on her face, and Hermione's arms were crossed in exasperation.
"Honestly, we should have a big falling out in the middle of the hall just so everyone doesn't think we're together," she said.
"They'd just say you were having a lover's quarrel," Ron put in.
"Ron's probably right," Harry said resignedly.
"You mean..." Luna said slowly. "You mean you two aren't fucking?"
They all blinked, and Hermione's face set slightly.
"No, we aren't fucking!" Harry retorted heatedly. "We are not, haven't been, nor will we be in the near future!"
"Oh," she said simply. "What a pity, I was looking forward to the wedding. I like weddings, they're quite interesting. Some of them are performed in the nude, and others in those flying machines Muggles use. I wonder if anyone's ever combined the two ideas...?"
The other three collectively clapped a hand over their faces.
"All due respect, I think you're well shut of her," Hermione said crossly. "Refusing to see that Edgecombe for what she is! And she can't be very bright for a Ravenclaw if she thinks we're a couple... or rather, that we 'haven't realized our undying love yet'. Preposterous!"
Harry sighed, drawing deeply on his tankard and setting it down. "It's so stupid. She just flat-out refused to believe me. There's nothing else I could have said to convince her, is there?"
"Nothing I can think of, mate," Ron said, shrugging. "Don't worry about it. Maybe she'll come around later or something."
"Forget that rubbish," Hermione said firmly. "We're in Hogsmeade for the day, and we might as well enjoy it."
"Yeah," Ron said, the corners of his mouth turning up a bit. "We haven't been to Honeydukes yet, and I'm out of Frogs and Whizbees again... maybe I'll pick up a Sugar Quill or two?"
"You're going to bore a hole straight through your teeth and out the back of your head at this rate!" she shot at him as they stood. "Moderation, Ronald!"
"If I get a load of cavities, I can fill them back in. The whole wizardry thing, you know."
She rolled her eyes and strode from the table.
~*~
In the weeks that followed, Harry made it a point to walk closer to Ron than Hermione, and to avoid being solely in her company if at all possible. Hermione understood the reason, of course, and also attempted to keep her distance. It seemed to do nothing at all to deter the whispers that they were starting to date, but mercifully, few students thought they were knobbing - not yet, at any rate. Even so, Harry found himself an unwilling object of lust. He overheard several fourth-year girls airily discussing possible ways to steal him away from his beloved Hermione, and was on the point of telling them off before he realized it would mean admitting he was eavesdropping.
"You have 'the scent'," Ron said, miming quotation marks on either side of his head.
"What's 'the scent'?" Harry said, repeating the action.
"I'll tell you about 'the scent'-"
"Enough with the fingers, Ron," Harry said, and Ron stopped mid-movement. "Just tell me what you're on about!"
"Okay, all the girls think you're spoken for, now, right?"
"Right," he said grudgingly.
"Well, that suddenly makes you more appealing. Not only are you famous, but you're also off the market. Now they have no hope of getting you, and that makes them want you ten times as much."
"But that's stupid!"
He shrugged. "Nature of the beast."
"HONESTLY!" exclaimed Ginny, who had been listening. She slammed her schoolbook shut and stomped off toward the dormitory stairs.
"What's twisting her knickers?" Ron said, taken aback.
In the meantime, Harry learned that Ron was having similar trouble. Luna had told everyone that they'd kissed after their date in Hogsmeade.
"She's a lot quicker than she looks!" Ron had replied indignantly to Harry's question. "She just snogged me on the mouth with no forewarning, there was nothing I could do!"
"So you didn't enjoy it, then?"
Ron's ears shone like beacons.
March wore on, and their homework had certainly not lessened any. They'd begun working faster, attempting to actually leave themselves some free time on the weekends. No such luck; one Saturday evening found them toiling in the library for hours on end.
"Maybe if we can finish these two essays tonight, we can have tomorrow off," Ron said wearily.
"Oh, for goodness' sake," Hermione said impatiently, striding around the table and sitting between them. "You two would wither up and die without me, wouldn't you?"
"Don't have to be so conceited," Ron grumbled.
Harry had taken to hiding out for hours on end in his room. When asked what he was doing, he would shrug and say, "Studying, of course." Hermione and Ron suspected this was a lie, but could never really catch him at whatever he was actually doing, so eventually they let the subject drop.
Cho Chang had not changed her opinion of Harry and Hermione. Both of them and Ron, independently and jointly, had tried to make her see reason - without a hint of progress. Her mind was made up, and she was determined not to do anything to jeopardize their obvious destiny. When it was apparent she could not be swayed, they gave up and started avoiding her altogether.
This had served to make the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw a very strange one for Harry. As he and Cho played the same position, they kept passing in the air, and more than once Harry was tempted to wave or yell something out before remembering that she didn't want to talk to him. He dwelled so deeply on this that Cho almost caught the Snitch before him; suddenly realizing it was hovering right next to his elbow, he swerved in front of her hand, then executed a barrel roll and grasped the tiny thing to tumultuous applause. She was far less inclined to speak to him after that.
Eventually, quite sick of fighting the rumours of their love, Harry and Hermione had turned to a new tactic: they began holding hands in the hallways, cheerfully telling anyone who asked that they were so mad over each other that they were thinking of getting tattoos. Of course, they had told the majority of their friends they were going to do this beforehand, and they were more than willing to help fan the flames.
"Oh, yeah, they're a cute couple, aren't they?" Harry overheard Neville telling a third-year Hufflepuff. "I always knew they'd end together."
It did the trick. Though now they looked as if they were clearly an item, at least people stopped talking about it - after all, why discuss something that you can observe?
"Harry, would you mind terribly buttering my toast for me?"
"Of course, my love."
Ginny giggled, watching him do so as if it were the most important task in the world.
"Here you are!" He held it up for Hermione to bite into, and she did so, a saccharine smile lighting up her features as crumbs fell from her lips. As Harry leaned across and planted a loud, cheeky peck on top of the crumbs, Dean Thomas rolled his eyes, and Ginny nearly fell under the table.
"There went my appetite," Ron muttered, dropping his spoon into his porridge.
~*~
"I'm certainly glad."
Harry turned in all directions. Someone had spoken, but the corridor was empty.
"Who's there?"
Cho Chang walked out of the shadow of a statue, smiling sadly.
"I'm glad you finally realized your love. You two look incredibly happy together, and I wish you all the best."
Harry sighed. "Oh, please."
"Come again?"
"It's an act!" he said, dropping his schoolbag. "We're just putting on a show for the mindless children! It was either that or keep enduring the questions!"
Cho snorted. "Why do I not believe that? You know, I really thought you'd be up front with me, as I was the one that informed you of your love."
He could feel his eyebrows shoot beyond the top of his head. "So now you want credit for it?! As if you orchestrated the entire thing?!"
"Of course not! But I at least thought you'd be honest with me!"
"I'M NOT LYING!" he shouted. "Hermione and I aren't dating! We're just sick of being accused of rogering like dogs in heat, so we figure if we act like a happy little couple, they'll leave us alone! And it is working, isn't it?!"
To his confusion, her face was now quite cold and expressionless. "Well, I'm certainly glad you have each other now. Obviously, you don't want to include me in your life, so I suppose this is where we part."
"Wh-what?"
"I'll be seeing you, Harry Potter... but I daresay I won't be talking to you ever again."
As she walked swiftly down the hall, he could feel his blood boiling, even though he had no idea what had just taken place. He punched the wall as hard as he could, not caring that his hand would be throbbing afterward.
"I bet the wall really appreciates that," Hermione said bemusedly.
"Sod off."
She whipped off the Invisibility Cloak and crammed it into the bag he'd left on the floor. "Sorry, but I couldn't help overhearing... I mean, your voices carried down to the second floor. Cho was way out of line, Harry," she said earnestly. "You didn't deserve that."
He gritted his teeth as he shook his hand out. "What are you doing here, anyway? And why did you have my cloak?"
"I was in the kitchens, talking to the house-elves. I, er... wanted to have another go with it before I returned it. You don't mind, do you?"
The anxious look on her face made him shake his head, his anger starting to lessen. "Why were you talking to the house-elves? Not still on about that Spew, are you?"
"S.P.E.W.!!!" she shrieked. Harry smiled, and she let out a gust. "And no. I've just had a long conversation with them, trying to convince them one last time to stand up for themselves. It's no good, they don't want to be freed."
"That's what we've been telling-"
"I know, I know." His smile fell as he saw how much her shoulders were sagging in defeat. "I give up. Maybe I can do something to help them eventually - perhaps after we graduate - but for the nonce, I'll just have to let them stick it out. Besides, they get treated fairly enough here at Hogwarts, at least..."
Harry knew she did not want to let her Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare die out like this, but there was little he could do, either. He picked up his bag and clapped a hand on her shoulder, leading the dejected would-be liberator gently back toward the Gryffindor common room.
~*~ To Be Continued