Author's Note: Frankly, I am sick and tired of people posting saying that it's too "sexual" or whatever for them. HELLO! The rating is PG-13…and don't even think about suggesting that this should be R (not yet anyway---it may be later)…movies with sex scenes in them (such as Die Another Day) are rated PG-13 and there's only a little bit of innuendo, some sexual references, and such in this. So if you're going to be prude, go to a G or PG story. Stay away from here. Also, you people posting about not liking H/Hr…THIS IS NOT AN R/HR SITE! This is an H/Hr site and frankly, I'm gonna post whatever H/Hr I want. Sorry if I sound so ticked, it's just really annoying… Oh yes, I'm gonna attempt Hagrid-speak, but it won't be exact! I'm trying my best! As for the rest of you fans are have been waiting patiently for this, I'm sorry for delaying so long…I had writer's block and have been very busy.
Chapter Six---Lessons with Kingsley
Ron left the common room at six-thirty, giving Harry the thumbs-up sign. Once he had left, Hermione came over and sat next to him.
"I can't wait for my lesson," Harry murmured, happily aware of the fact that Snape had had to defer his two detentions this week to Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
"Yeah," Hermione replied, tapping he foot impatiently, "I just want Ron to hurry up so I can go."
"And I go last of all," Harry said somewhat anxiously, "oh well, nothing I can do about it…"
They sat in silence for twenty minutes until Hermione left for the Defense classroom with a quick smile. When Ron returned, he refused to tell Harry anything, telling him just to wait until it was his turn. This only served to make Harry more anxious.
When it was finally time to go, Harry almost bolted out of the common room. He reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and saw that Hermione was just coming out.
"How was it?"
"Amazing, you'll love it, Harry," she said, with a smile.
Excited, Harry went into the classroom. Kingsley was waiting for him and smiling.
"Hello, Harry," he said, "please sit down."
Harry did as he was told.
"As you know, when you fight Dark Lord, your wands become connected---they are brothers and it is impossible for you to fight one another properly. The Dark Lord understands this and is beginning to try and find other ways to kill you; by hand, by knife, etc. The object of these lessons are to teach you how to defend yourself properly. I am teaching you hand-to-hand combat. This will be immensely valuable in your upcoming battles with him."
"But what about Ron and Hermione? Why do they have to learn this?" Harry asked.
"To be honest with you," he said, "if they're facing a wizard of greater skill than them, as many of the Death Eaters are, they can find themselves Disarmed. They must learn how to defend themselves without a wand and also how to improve their reflexes so much that they'll be able to dodge spells with relative ease. And we also felt it would be easier for you, if you had some training partners."
Harry nodded.
"Now," he said, clearing away the desks, "hit me."
"What?"
"Hit me," Kingsley repeated, "use your fists and try to hit me."
Feeling a bit uncertain, Harry led out with a weak punch. Kingsley stopped it with his left hand and socked Harry in the stomach with his right. Harry flopped to the floor, the wind knocked out of him.
"Come on," Kingsley said, "fight with every bit of energy in your body. Pretend I'm Draco Malfoy."
Harry stood up and tried to imagine the white-faced ferret. Satisfied with the image, Harry began punching at Kingsley, his speed increasing. Kingsley continued to block the punches, but Harry was improving. Finally, Kingsley grabbed Harry's hand and threw him to the floor.
"Good, Harry," he said, "you're learning well. Now, I want you to watch me fight and learn."
Kingsley walked over to a cabinet and opened it. A boggart stepped out and immediately rearranged itself into the shape of Lord Voldemort. Harry watched, impressed, as Kingsley used his fists and legs to continually beat the boggart/Voldemort back.
"Now, fight me again," Kingsley said, "don't think how fast you are. Know how fast you are."
Harry began kicking and punching the bald man, but he still could not get a hit on him. Twenty minutes later, he stopped and collapsed to the ground.
"Good start, Harry," Kingsley said, "I want you to read up a little bit on the martial arts for Friday and learn a few things about judo and tae kwon do. You're doing much better so far than Hermione and Ron."
"Thanks," Harry said, and he walked out of the room, his shirt soaked through with sweat.
Ron and Hermione were sitting on opposite ends of the common room, but Harry naturally had to go sit with Ron.
"That was awesome, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," Harry said, "this is going to be a lot of fun, I think."
Ron nodded, "Maybe one day Malfoy'll challenge us to a fight…" He broke off as he thought of whipping Malfoy, with a dreamy smile on his face, "That would be great…"
Harry laughed, but his eyes were on Hermione. She was reading a book, but she obviously wanted to discuss the lessons with at least Harry, if not Ron. She was probably bursting to talk about it.
"Listen, Ron…do you think we should forgive Hermione?"
Ron looked oddly at him, "I thought you didn't like her."
"Ron," Harry said firmly, "Hermione's our friend. Yeah, we all got mad yesterday…but I think we should forgive one another and let bygones be bygones."
Ron shook his head, "That little…you-know-what…says that I can't formulate my own opinions. What the hell does she know about it? I usually agree with you, because you're right, not because of stupidity."
Harry wasn't sure whether he disagreed or not. Ron could form his own opinions…but often when it was just Harry and Hermione in an argument, he would side with Harry for fear of Harry's wrath.
"But come on, Ron, you know it's not as much fun with her avoiding us. And Neville too."
"Look, I don't care. I'm going to bed."
Harry watched as Ron stormed off to bed, presumably very unhappy that Harry had even suggested that they reconcile with the former third member of their trio. Once Ron had left, Hermione came and sat down next to Harry.
"I take it you asked him to forgive me," Hermione said, "although I don't know what's there to forgive. I certainly didn't do anything wrong. He's just being immature…"
Harry held up his hand, "Please, Hermione, can you not start listing Ron's faults? It's annoying for me to be stuck in the middle between you two, listening to your constant complaining about the other."
"I'm sorry," Hermione said sincerely, and then changed the subject, "what do you think about those lessons?"
Harry smiled enthusiastically, "They're awesome! I think this could really help us in the fight against Voldemort…especially me. We can't use our wands on each other, so being more physically able would be a definite advantage."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully, "I have to agree. It's a good workout too. I wonder how good we'll become at fighting."
"Hopefully, at least as good as Kingsley," Harry said, "it kind of sucks that we got homework in it, though."
Hermione shrugged, "I don't mind. It'll be interesting reading up on that stuff I think."
Harry looked at his watch. It was only nine o'clock. Ron had gone to bed rather early, but he had been mad.
"Hey, Hermione, do you want to go for a walk?"
Hermione looked surprised, "Where?"
"I don't know…around the school, maybe."
"Okay."
They got out their evening cloaks and stepped out of the portrait hole. Together, they began walking in no particular direction, just enjoying the feeling of moving and being together.
"What do you think the best advice your mother ever gave you was?"
Hermione looked thoughtfully at the ground, before saying, "'Learn to love as you want to be loved.' It really is deep and I always think about it before I go to bed each night. I want to find a person to love one day, and consummate everything with him. Love is the most important thing one can have and I really want to be able to cherish it and enjoy it."
Harry thought about love. It seemed as if everyone he had loved had died. Sirius. His parents. Yet, he knew that he still loved Ron and Hermione, though in a friendly way. But they weren't dead. Harry silently reminded himself that they had been lucky. Both his friends could easily have expired before they reached their sixteenth birthdays (of course, Hermione still hadn't reached hers yet.) But real love? As in, jump-in-the-air-for-joy love? He had never experienced that. Not with Cho. Not with anyone. He shook his head silently. He doubted he ever would. His purpose in life was to defeat Voldemort.
"Do you think you'll find love?" he asked her.
Hermione shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes I think I already have."
Harry didn't know what she meant by that, but he didn't bother trying to decipher it too much. It probably was about Krum or something like that.
It was getting late. They needed to return to the common rooms. Harry and Hermione walked back to Gryffindor Tower and parted at their respective dormitories, their minds still on love.
***
The next day dawned, rainy and cloudy. Ron still was angry with Harry and didn't speak with him at breakfast. This only led Harry to become angry as well. He didn't need to put up with Ron's childishness right now. So, after breakfast, he walked over to Hermione and they walked to Transfiguration together.
They sat down near the front, Harry acquiescing to Hermione's wishes. Ron came in and sat near the back, not wanting to talk with either. The rest of the class filed in, Draco Malfoy also entering, much to the disdain of Harry.
"Sixth year Transfiguration is possibly the most difficult class you will have in your years at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said, "many key concepts will be covered in here. If you don't get it now, you never will. Much of what we learn this year will apply to next year, and make it much easier. This class is difficult and I urge you to stay on top of things. Today, I want you to read the first three chapters in your textbook. While this may seem like drudgery to you, this is highly important and you must understand the concepts in these chapters. You will be tested on them next period."
Grumbling, the class pulled out their books and began reading. Harry read slowly, wanting to make sure he understood everything. The concepts didn't seem that difficult to him, but he was sure the application was much harder. Hermione was zipping through the pages at almost a heart-pumping rate. By the time class was over, she had read it four times.
"Why do you go so fast?"
Hermione shrugged, "It's easier that way."
Harry smiled at her, and they walked down to lunch together. Ron sat far away from them, but Harry noticed this with only a slight bit of caring. Ron would get over it, eventually. He was too good-natured at heart not to.
Hermione propped her Arithmancy book against her pumpkin juice jug. She had that class this afternoon, but luckily, Harry didn't have anything. He was going to use the time to go fly out in the stadium.
Or so he thought.
Just as he was about to leave the Great Hall, Snape caught him by the arm.
"Potter, come to my office now."
Harry had no choice but to follow him. Hermione gave a sympathetic look at him, but she had to turn and head to Vector's classroom. He followed the greasy git into the Potions Master's office.
"Much as I hate to inform you of this," Snape said, "your Occlumency classes will take place during this time period. Not after classes, as you previously thought. You see, we both have Tuesday afternoons off. So Dumbledore thought it might be…beneficial…if we did Occlumency during this time."
Harry nodded, silently cursing Dumbledore. He may have been a great Headmaster, but on this one, Harry had to take the opposing viewpoint.
"You will still report for detention in tonight in the Potions classroom," Snape added, "though you may have connections with the Defense Against the Dark Arts 'teacher', you will still serve as many detentions as you were supposed to. As I suspect you know, you will serve them next Tuesday and Wednesday."
Harry nodded again, bored.
"Well, let's see how well you've practiced over the summer," Snape taunted, knowing full well Harry had done nothing of the sort.
Harry tried to resolve himself and set him a shield against Snape. But it was useless. Snape said, "Legilimens!" and he could feel a rush of images permeate through his head…Ron laughing as they walked along at Hogsmeade together, the Shrieking Shack just ahead, in their third year…Hermione lying on the floor of the Department of Mysteries, looking dead…Neville finding her pulse, the sigh of relief…Hermione----wait, he was about to lie in bed with her…He did not want Snape to see that and get the wrong impressions. Angrily, he tried to set up an image of a brick wall.
"Good, Potter," Snape said, withdrawing and leaving Harry shaking on his knees, "finally, some progress. While a brick wall is an adequate start, I would've easily broken it down if I wanted to. It also tells the Legilimencer that you're actively trying to block them, which will only reaffirm their focus. You need to have a void…absolutely nothing. Empty your emotions and feelings."
Harry felt his confidence go up a notch. He had done okay. He could only get better.
"Legilimens!"
The images started going again, though Harry tried to set up a void…Sirius laughing…Sirius humming some Christmas tune…feeding Buckbeak…laughing at Bellatrix Lestrange…
"NOOOO!" Harry was brought back to Earth, by his knees crashing into the ground as he desperately tried to block out the image of Sirius dying at the hands of Voldemort's minion.
"It hurt, didn't it?" Snape asked, his black eyes glittering, "Potter, that will only show weakness to the Dark Lord. You must focus."
Harry glared from the floor up at Snape, trying to fight off the tears. The git just didn't understand. He was acting like it was just an exercise. He couldn't forget about Sirius. Ever.
"Again," he ordered, and Harry pulled himself off the floor, "Legilimens!"
This time Harry got the brick wall going again. It held for a few seconds before Snape crashed through bringing some more memories through. Valentine's Day with Cho (Harry was sure he thought he heard Snape sneer)…Ron and Hermione dropping sweets all over his bed after coming back from Hogsmeade…the Deathday Party…the veil…the Deathday party again…He felt Snape relinquish his grip on him.
"What was that party about? Who were those ghosts?"
"It was this thing in the second year," Harry explained, rubbing his sore knees, "I went to the 500th Deathday anniversary for Nearly Headless Nick."
Snape nodded, seeming uninterested, "That's enough for today, Potter. Go and rest your weak body. Every night, before you go to bed, release your emotions. Don't feel or think."
Hermione was waiting for Harry in the common room when he came back, "What did he want with you?"
"Nothing, that's just when our Occlumency lessons will be," Harry said, "Tuesday afternoons."
"How was it?"
"Not a lot of fun," Harry replied, "I got up a brick wall, but he got through it easily."
Hermione nodded sympathetically, "Maybe you should look up some things in the library. It could help."
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. It seems like a lot of work to me. I'm going to go rest before detention tonight."
"Okay. Take care of yourself."
"I will."
***
"Mr. Potter…again," Snape said silkily.
"I don't much enjoy being here either, Professor," Harry said curtly.
Snape smiled vindictively, "Potter, for your little insurrection yesterday, you will be pickling these horned toads. All of them. Without magic."
Harry grimaced. There were nearly two barrels full of toads.
"I'll leave you to it," Snape said, walking out the door. Harry cursed after him and turned to the toads.
"Okay, toads," Harry said, "let's get some pickling done."
For the best part of an hour, Harry sat in a desk and pickled toad after toad after toad. Occasionally, Snape would drop in, smile without remorse at Harry, and then leave. All in all, it was annoying Harry. But he had to do it.
Finally, the two barrels were done and Harry stood up, horn marks all over his arms and pickle juice on his body.
"Ah, you've finished," Snape said, "no doubt that you did a horrible job. Come back here tomorrow for your next detention. You are free to go."
Harry left as fast his legs could carry him, intent upon reaching Gryffindor Tower. He wanted to take a shower. The common room was devoid of people, except for Ron and Hermione, sitting at opposite ends of the room.
"How was it?" Ron asked.
Harry just shook his head, "I need to take a shower. Then, I'll be back down to talk to you. Both of you."
Ron and Hermione stared at one another and then at Harry, but he was already gone, heading into the shower. Eleven minutes later, he got out, refreshed and feeling good. They were still waiting for him in the common room.
"I think both of you need to apologize for two days ago," Harry said, "Hermione, you say that you didn't say anything wrong, but you did. You told Ron that he had no opinion and that he was just my minion. You know that's incorrect…and it's uncalled for. Ron, you need to apologize to Hermione for saying the stuff that you did to her. It was rude and also untrue."
Ron and Hermione just stared at each other, unable to apologize.
"Come on, dammit!" Harry shouted, "I'm both of your best friends and it's bloody hard going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth! Think about me for once, would you? You two are like a pair of five year old siblings!"
Hermione blushed, and Ron's face was a deep shade of magenta.
"Sorry," Ron muttered in the direction of Hermione.
Harry rolled his eyes, "Come on, you can do better than that."
"Sorry," he said, his voice a little louder.
"Sorry," Hermione said back.
"Now, can we go back to being normal?" Harry asked.
Ron and Hermione nodded. Just the sight of their scared faces made Harry start laughing.
"What's so funny?" Ron asked.
"You two…" he said, "you look like you're completely scared of me! Come on, just do it, because you know it's right. Not because I'm telling you to."
"Okay," Hermione said, "sorry for everything, Ron. I didn't really mean it."
"Neither did I," Ron replied.
"Now hug," Harry commanded.
They hugged, laughing a little bit. Hermione drew Harry into their circle and the trio was rejoined once more, no longer separated by petty squabbles.
"Tomorrow, I want you to apologize to Luna and Neville," Harry told Ron.
"Okay, you're right."
***
When Harry walked into the Great Hall the next day, he was surprised to come upon the sight of Luna hugging Ron. Ron was blushing furiously as the girl was practically dancing to hear that Ron hadn't really meant what he had said to her on the train. Then again, he must have been enjoying it, because Harry certainly didn't see any attempt by him to extricate himself from the hug.
He sat down next to Hermione and muttered, "Aren't they a cute couple?"
Hermione laughed, "I hardly think so. Ron's too hot-tempered for Luna."
"You never know," Harry said, shrugging.
A few second later, Ron joined them, his face as red as his hair.
"Looks like you were enjoying that, Ron," said Harry, pouring himself some pumpkin juice.
Ron blushed harder, "She wouldn't let go of me! There was nothing I could do."
"Whatever you say," Harry said, rolling his eyes to the heavens.
He was rewarded with a piece of toast in his face. Laughing, Harry put the toast onto his plate and began applying jam to it.
"What do we got today, Ron?"
"Just Herbology in the afternoon," Ron said happily, "what about you, Hermione?"
"Me too!" she said happily, "I don't have anything in the morning, surprisingly."
"Cool," said Harry, "what do you want to do?"
"Let's visit Hagrid."
Hagrid already had a fire going on in his hut, the chimney belching smoke.
"Come in," they heard Hagrid's voice.
They walked in and were immediately attacked by Fang, who licked their faces happily. Laughing, the trio pushed him away and took up seats around the fireplace.
"How was yer summers?" Hagrid asked, stoking the fire.
"Well, it was fine, once we all got to Grimmauld Place," Ron said, "we got to spend time together, and that was a lot of fun."
"It would've been more fun with Sirius," Harry muttered under his breath.
"What was tha', 'Arry?" Hagrid asked.
"Nothing," Harry said, shaking his head, "it doesn't matter. How was yours, Hagrid?"
"Abou' the same…just takin' care of Grawpy. He's really found something he likes to eat…although werewolf bones are a bit crunchy."
Harry tried not to think about the image of Lupin getting eaten by Grawp. Hermione, he noticed, was grimacing, and apparently had thought of the same thing.
"Did you see Madam Maxime?" asked Ron, winking at Harry. Harry stifled a laugh. If those two ever had a baby…well, he didn't really want to think about that.
"Yeah, yeah," Hagrid said, turning a bit red behind his beard, "and don't you go meddlin' in things that you don't know about."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione laughed, knowing full well that Hagrid had a very deep liking for the Beauxbatons headmistress.
"Don't you lot have classes?" Hagrid suddenly realized.
"Not this morning," Hermione said, shaking her head, "we've got Herbology this afternoon, but that's it."
"Oh yea', I forgot," Hagrid said, "you all are sixth years now. Not as many classes."
"You can say that again," Ron chimed in.
"What's the latest with the giants?" Harry asked, turning the subject to something far more serious.
Hagrid's face clouded over, "I'm not sure, to tell you the truth. Some apparently see things the same way Dumbledore does, but others want to be on Voldemort's side. They know what our kind has treated them like for the past few centuries…with Ministers like Fudge, it's hard to win support from anybody these days."
"Isn't Fudge going to be out soon?" Hermione asked.
"Probably," Hagrid said, and then looked at Ron, "it's looking more and more like your dad will replace him."
Ron grinned, "I hope so. We'd have a lot more money."
"You'd also be major targets," Hermione reminded him.
"Not to mention, you're already my best friend," Harry added, "you're probably already number-one on the Weasley hit list."
"That's very comforting," Ron said, shuddering.
"Don't worry abou' it," Hagrid advised, "if it happens, it happens. Don't spend all your time thinkin' about it."
Ron nodded, apparently taking Hagrid's advice to heart. Hermione looked at her watch and stood up.
"Come on, let's go in for lunch."
The trio and Hagrid headed up to the castle for lunch, bundled up and talking about Quidditch and other meaningless things. It was of some comfort not to discuss Voldemort.
***
Herbology was much of the same doom and gloom that they were getting from all their teachers. Professor Sprout endlessly warned them about the difficulty---and dangerousness---of sixth year Herbology. Harry was frankly getting tired of all the teachers telling them how hard this year was going to be. Hermione would later remark smugly that this was because Harry wanted to delay his realization of the difficulty of NEWT classes until they were sufficiently ingrained in them, and Ron was willing to complain with him.
"These bloody teachers," Ron said, as they walked away from the greenhouses, "they keep warning us how difficult this year is. Yeah, yeah…Fred and George said that sixth year was the easiest year they'd had since first year."
"Then again, they probably weren't taking the subject seriously," Hermione said disapprovingly, "you know how they are."
Ron shrugged, "They're rich now, aren't they?"
Hermione had to concede the point. The Weasley twins, for all their imperfections at school, were doing the best out of any of the Weasleys, including the ones who had been prefects and Head Boys.
"I can't wait till Friday," Ron said, "Kingsley's lessons are so cool!"
"Oh yeah, we've got to do some researching of martial arts for that class, don't we?"
Hermione nodded, "Yes. I've already done mine. Have you?"
"What do you think?" Ron asked, rolling his eyes.
"Can we copy your notes?"
She glared at Harry, "You two are so…cheeky!"
Harry grinned at her, "So what? You know you're going to give it to us."
She sighed, "Okay, I'll let you look at it tonight."
Ron and Harry grinned at one another in triumph. Hermione laughed and led the way back to Gryffindor Tower. They squeezed their way over to the squashy armchairs by the fireplace, delighting in the heat that it gave the windy September draft.
"Do you know when the Ministry elections are going to be?"
"In October, I think," Ron said, "my dad's running and so's Fudge."
"I hope your dad wins," Harry said fervently, "that would really help the Order and our cause against Voldemort. Not to mention it'd get Fudge out of the Ministry."
Hermione suddenly frowned.
"What is it, Hermione?"
"Remember when we did that magic in Diagon Alley? Why didn't we get punished for it by the Ministry?" Hermione asked, biting her lip.
Ron rolled his eyes, "I already asked my dad about it. He said that they couldn't help but ignore it in light of the fact that you had brought 3 Death Eaters to justice. Not to mention that in Diagon Alley there's so much underage magic going on, it's not a really big deal."
Hermione nodded, evidently pleased with Ron's answer. Harry was about to add something, when suddenly all the lights in the room flickered out. The fire was extinguished. A cold rattling air came over them. Harry could feel his happy thoughts being sucked out of him. It was the dementors.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Hope you liked it!