Chapter Number: 11
Chapter Name: The Septanic Games
When they reached home, Mr. Pasha made them eat enough to last three days, though they were going there for only one day but he liked to take precautions. After that Mr. Pasha lead the way into a secret room that had two entrances - one going into Mr. Pasha's bedroom, the other going into the living room.
The room had very high celings and the three beds in the room occupied so little space that it looked like they were in a deep cavern. Harry and Hermione took one next to each other, and Mr. Pasha took the one at the end of the room.
Ali said the games didn't start for another five hours, but he guessed that it would take at least that long to get there, with Harry carrying most of the pain. And Hermione wanted to go back into the house every time she felt Harry's body tense up, while they were on their way. Finally Harry snapped and shouted at her. " I said, I'm fine. If you're not going I'm not going. And I WANT TO GO."
Hermione didn't say anything after that, but she cried a lot more. After about half an hour, she would make Harry stop after a few minutes, by making an argument. Harry knew what she was doing and he played along. He knew she wanted to see the games as much as he did, but she didn't want him to go through the pain. It was like him seeing her dead… he understood what was behind her actions.
When they finally reached the entrance, Harry was apprehensive. He wasn't sure if there was a magical shield anywhere. He had to be certain, otherwise their journey might finish prematurely. He turned to Mr. Pasha, who knew what Harry was thinking so he said, " There was no magical barrier here. You need to show this to enter."
With that Mr. Pasha rolled his sleeve to reveal, a glowing symbol of white and light blue. It looked like the letter 'd' with the bottom of the vertical part extending both ways and ending with an arrowhead. "Wow! It's beautiful! How did you get it?" asked Hermione.
" Well, it's done when you're fifteen. You choose which of clan you want to belong to. If you're 'Shoran' you get a red arrowhead. If you're 'Tozan' like me you get a blue arrowhead. Shoran clan's magic is mostly influenced by how the ancient mages taught magic, through experience. While the Tozan clan teaches it's magic more along the lines of what they do in Hogwarts. Theory and practical. There are benefits to both systems, but... We're wasting timeee -" Mr. Pasha's voice trailed off, just as a loud gong sounded, announcing the beginning of the tournament. Hermione looked disappointed that she wouldn't get to hear more about this.
"... We have very little time. Hurry or we'll miss the beginning." He said. They rushed, well as much as they could. As soon as he entered the Dome, Harry felt a nice and warm feeling wash over him, like had just ate chocolate after seeing a Dementor. This was the moment that Harry realized that he had started to loose the vicious pain. Just so that his skills didn't become rusty, he paced all around the flat surface, where the battle was supposed to be fought. Harry's eye caught those of an elderly gentleman on the stand for a second. He could have had sworn that man was looking right at him, but dismissed that because no one could ever see him in his Astral form.
" Sonorus" shouted a thick voice, " Welcome to the sixth Septanic Games. I am your commentator, Zahid Khan. The games will begin in half a minute. Now a word from our sponsor."
From no where something like what Fred and George had used to display Ron's recollection of Malfoy turning into a ferret showed up. As Harry moved around the screen kept changing direction to face Harry. Harry guessed that the "screen thingy", has the ability to face every one in the stadium, since no one was complaining that the screen suddenly started to move in odd directions, with Harry's haphazard movements.
After about half an hour of commercials, as voters started to file into the stadium, which was much larger than the one where they held the Quidditch cup. Just from the clothes that people wore, Harry could see that this event was much more than just voting for a chosen clan. People wore their best clothes, brought enough money to last through three days of mass shopping and extravagant spending.
When Harry saw the vendors were handing out pamphlets about the individuals that made up the teams, he wanted to go read one, but AstralProjecting had it's disadvantages. So when Zahid Khan, the commentator who reminded Harry of Ludo Bagman, detailed how the three-day event was to be held, a few minutes late, he was ecstatic.
The first day was the re-enactment of a battle that was fought about thirteen years ago. It was more of a staged battle, rather than an actual fight. This thankfully lasted only half an hour. Then came the real fights. Whole teams against teams, until sunset. The next day the same thing. Then on the very last day was the one which most people were interested in. Not only that was the day people voted, but also that was the day the two best fighters fought until only one was conscious - and in the worst case dead. That was the fight that brought in more people on that day from all over Morocco. "-Remember, A voter is there for his country.", finished Zahid Khan in his patriotic voice.
Two lines of contestants entered the arena, following two very oddly dressed women. The two lines of the contestants faced each other, with a hundred meter between them. Contestants for each team dressed the same, except for one at the end of both rows. Harry made his way to where Hermione was and dragged her on to the arena. Hermione hadn't moved from where she was sitting, because she was sure that it would send pain through Harry.
" Come on..." he said.
" It'll hurt you..."
" No it won't. It stopped a while ago.." he said, wiping away one of Hermione's tears.
' She does cry an awful lot when something bad is happening to me...' thought Harry, not sure if he should be happy that he had such a caring friend, or to be angry with himself for causing her so much anguish. Harry promised himself that he would never knowingly do anything, that would hurt Hermione.
" You really shouldn't cry..."
Hermione used the back of her hands to wipe away the tears in her eyes. " Is that better?" she said half laughing, half still sad at the pain that she thought he must have been going through a few seconds ago.
" Much..."
It was a bit weird that in Astralform there was no need for the use of glasses. Vision was perfect either way. Harry preferred not to have his glasses on in the astral form. He didn't know how to not want it, so he always took them off in his astral form. But Hermione was a different case altogether. She loved the feeling she got when pushed them up her nose bridge. This rather odd habit was one that she picked up in matter of minutes from seeing Harry do it, with his new glasses. It was a new sensation to her, and her personality dictated that she explore it fully.
On the other side of the arena, Mr. Pasha was doing something that would have had seemed to Harry and Hermione rather odd. He was softly talking to the elderly man to who Harry's eyes had met briefly.
" It's him isn't it?" asked Mr. Pasha.
" Yes. Hard to believe isn't it?"
" Are you sure? -I mean it's been a long time, you know?"
" I know -but you can hardly forget someone like him-" there was something in his voice that Mr. Pasha thought indicated respect. He could see where it was coming from, but still found it really hard to believe, "- tell me Ali, what would have done if he didn't accelerate this fast in his training -come to think about it, surely you suspected something. Or have you become a lot less sharp in your civilian life?"
" I'm still as sharp as I ever was," said Ali fast and louder than he really should. "… and as for the matter of recognizing him, it didn't come to me until last night."
" You know what's to come then?"
" Yes. I wish it didn't have to be like this."
" It's for the best and we both know it." Sighed the elderly man. " You still haven't answered my question"
" I'm the Minister of International affairs, I could have easily convinced the Minister of Magic to let Harry Potter and his friend to be an exception... after all it is election season and it's good publicity to have the boy who lived in the paper next to you."
The elderly man and Mr. Pasha observed not the re-enactment, which was in full swing, but the pair of teenagers running around and animatedly discussing the things all the people were doing.
" He doesn't know what he is -does he, Minister?"
" How many times do I have to tell you to call me Professor? I don't like that title, that pompous git gave me (referring to the Morrocan Minister of Magic). If I had a choice I would have ran the other way."
" As I recall, you did try to run-" said Mr. Pasha ginning.
" Yes. Yes. You don't have to remind me -Anyway, I suspect he is beginning to see his importance -"
Then the two men started to discuss a topic that would have had made no sense to anyone, unless they knew what they were talking about, which no one besides them did. "-but I wonder how he ended up there. As far as I knew it's impossible to do it for more than two days."
" I know" agreed Mr. Pasha, " Don't you think it's a bit odd...I mean, Harry and that girl with him, Hermione, it's almost like fate reincarnated them to live the life they had missed. Together."
" You know as well as I do that's not the case... but I think someone more powerful than fate is guiding his actions" said Professor Dippet.
" Someone more powerful than fate" Mr. Pasha choked on his own words as he said them, " Who do you think it is? Surely you're not suggesting what I think you are?"
" I am." The older gentleman was adamant. " The prophecy of Merlin's heir in spirit is well known. Not to mention in all the Wizarding cultures it's there in some form or another. Surely Merlin would have had left some of his own magic behind to protect him, atleast until the appointed hour."
" I guess you could be right. That would explain how he got past the two day limit" Mr. Pasha agreed reluctantly.
" I think they were meant for each other -" said Professor Dippet, indicating Harry and Hermione chasing each other around the arena. " -they seem to care deeply for each other. I think those two are the only ones who don't realize it."
" They're going to turn back this way in a few seconds, I have to go" said Mr. Pasha hurriedly, as he made his way back to where he was standing before.
The re-enactment wasn't actually that much fun for either Harry or Hermione, so they decided to have some fun for themselves. The real fun started when the proper battle against each team began. When it did begin, Harry and Hermione were careful not to get close to spell or curses being thrown around, as spells, they were sure would pack a punch a lot stronger that an ordinary magical object. Neither of them wanted to get out of the arena.
Much to Harry's surprise the Septanic Dueling turned out to be nothing like what he had expected. The Septanic games were nothing but a dueling match combined with hand to hand combat. At first Harry was disappointed, but as time wore on, he began to see the astounding amount of thinking it required a person to do a simple series of attacks.
The games finished for the day at 9:00pm. Sharp. Ali Pasha wanted to go back to the house, Harry and Hermione wanted to stay behind. They had somehow got the idea that it would be a lot of fun if they playacted their own version of the battle. They fought with imaginary wands and dueled for over five hours. At first it was acting, but then as minutes turned into hours, they kept doing the physical ones for real.
Hermione had had martial arts lessons when she was young. It was her mom who told her to take that particular hobby up when she was young. According to her mother, "these days it's important for a girl to know how to defend herself."
Because of her back ground in physical fighting, Hermione was the one who was flipping Harry from the very beginning. Harry tried very hard not to act like a bull and charge at her at full speed, but never did he manage in all that time that they were there to pull Hermione to the ground.
They ended up in quite a few compromising positions (most of the time Harry's Astral self trapped under Hermione's in some kind of paralyzing position) but they recomposed themselves quickly.
Everything was going well, a little too well. Harry should have had realized something bad was going to happen soon to ruin his fun. And it did.
At about 4:00am, Harry started to feel slight tingling in his scar. Before he had a chance to want to wake up, a massive surge of pain pulsed though him, making the world go black around him. Harry didn't notice it then but Hermione feeling the same pain, had collapsed shortly after he had. Unknown to both, they were experiencing the same dream from the same viewpoint....
They both saw a dark and shadowy valley, with three men...two of them in a cloak and a giant beast in a cage of light that, neither could be certain about what it was. They heard murmuring between two men, one cloaked and one uncloaked. They strained their ears to hear what was being said.
Suddenly the scenery in front of the pair changed. It was almost as if they moved closer to the three people. What they heard chilled both of their blood.
"...Release the beast, Wormtail."
" But master..."
" Are you saying *no* to me...Wormtail -" he said almost enjoying the defiance that his servant was showing him, for he knew that it would be a pleasurable experience for him to torture his greatest servant. " -You know the punishment for arguing with me don't you"
" Yes. Master. Punish me. Please..." Wormtail pleaded.
" Very well. Since you asked so nicely... 'Crucio'"
A very loud scream could be heard echoing the valley, for a while. Harry felt himse writhe in pain. " ... How was that Wormtail?"
" Very painful, Master. If you like you can do more your lordship." said Wormtail.
Voldemort drawled. " Perhaps later... NOW RELEASE the beast."
The bars of light that made up cage of light flickered and then vanished. The beast let out a growl that sounded a lot like that of a lion. The beast turned to face the three.
" Go. Wormtail...Send Lucius and then go do as I have asked you...Get me what I want."
Lord Voldemort watched as the third man, left without any means of protection, ran for his dear life. Harry and Hermione thought that man hard to be a muggle, since he didn't just apparate out of the situation.
No matter how fast the man ran, it simply made no difference, because the beast, though still in shadows was at least three times as big. It was a Quadrapedal -or at least Hermione thought it was one. It caught up to the man in three jumps. Once the beast had its prey, the creature made short work of him. It used what Harry thought was its claw to swipe the man to one side of the canyon. The body flew right into the wall and made a thumping noise, before falling to the ground with a sickening cracking noise. The pain in Harry's scar (now shared by Hermione) was becoming unbearable.
The creature of Voldemort then started the task of slicing off bits of the human flesh with it claw and proceeded to eat them. Once in a while it would look up to where Lord Voldemort was and think whether or not it was a wise idea to attack the humanoid creature, who had trapped it in it's confinement for so long.
There was a small pop and Lucius Malfoy appeared next to his master. He immediately went on his knees. Partly because he was afraid of his master, but most likely that he was afraid of the beast in front of him. His new position allowed him to both kneel in front of his master and allowed him to keep an eye on the beast. Ready to make a hasty retreat at a moment's notice.
" Malfoy..."
" Yes, master."
" Do you have the centaur?"
" Yes...Yes my lord."
" Good. You'll be glad to know that I've decided to give you the charge of the mission for the end of the year."
Whatever the mission was to be held at the end of the year, it must have been really important, since they could see that Lucius Malfoy was literally bursting with joy.
" Thank you master" though he was happy, he made no move to get up from where he was.
" Come sit by me..." Voldemort patted on the ground next to him, "...we'll see the ending of the muggle at the hand of his creature of darkness. Marvelous isn't it?"
" As you wish, sir. It is a beautiful-" said Lucius Malfoy as he got up and moved to where his master has told him to sit. He sat there next to his master. He did not feel as good about it as he really thought it would, as the constant thought of how much evil the man next to him was capable of sent shivers through him.
" This was a good idea, Lucius."
" Thank you master" there was tremble in his voice that Lord Voldemort liked very much.
Right then the creature bit and engulfed the head of the muggle in one swift motion. The pain became unbearable for Harry and he woke up screaming.
" AAAAHHHH" cried out both Harry and Hermione in pain, from the secret room.
Had there not been magic to sound proof the whole room, someone from the house would have had heard them. Harry felt something watery in his hands when he touched the scar in pain. When the pain decreased Harry brought his hands down to see that his fingers were covered in small amounts of blood. But before his mind could think about the blood, he heard the blood curdling screams that kept coming from Hermione.
She was still screaming from the pain in the scar.
He quickly got off the bed and rushed to her side. Harry tried to get her attention, but she was in too much pain to think clearly. He thanked the creator that he wasn't a scrawny little boy anymore. Had he been one, he could never have had done what needed to be done. He quickly picked her up into his arms, started to run up the stairs. Most of that was adrenalin.
When he reached the door leading into Mr. Pasha's bedroom, it exploded outwards showering a sleeping Mr. Pasha with chunks of wood. The sound from the explosion was deafening and woke up the whole house. Ali went into battle mode, wand ready and blinking off sleep haze, ready to kill anyone who came through the door. He relaxed slightly at the view of Harry, before hearing Hermione's hoarse cry of pain.
Mr. Pasha might have had some diviner abilities, but he could not see into the future for anything less than a few months time. Even then most of it was almost always blurry and only a few times had his prediction come true. This was not something he was expecting.
' He doesn't have his wand... How did he make the door o-oopennn - erm… explode…?' His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Harry carrying a screaming Hermione.
Mr. Pasha pointed at the bottom edge of the bed and said, " Put her on the bed.".
As Harry followed his order, Mr. Pasha moved quickly to the drawer and got out a blood-colored potion. He handed the glass container to Harry and told him to pour into her mouth, while he tried to force open her mouth. When her mouth was forced open and the contents vial had been emptied, Hermione stopped moving totally, leading Harry to believe that she was dead. Very soon after he thought this, his mind was quelled by one simple fact, and that was Mr. Pasha had no reason to kill Hermione - none that he knew anyway, thought a particularly nasty voice in his head.
Hermione didn't even breathe, then suddenly her eyes snapped open and she turned her head to the side of the bed and emptied the contents of her stomach on the floor, in one go. Her eyes met those of Harry's for a brief second before she lost consciousness.
" What happened?" asked Mr. Pasha.
Harry explained how they were playacting then he went into his nightmares that are connected to Voldemort. He explained, When he awoke to find Hermione screaming in pain. He brought her up and the door just exploded, by itself. Then he asked a question of his own.
" What was that potion?" asked Harry.
" Blood of Chimera with a small bark from the tree of life. Takes away any pain a person experiencing while they are asleep."
" Tree of life" Harry's eyebrows went up a bit, knowing that tree of life potions always had some side effect. Like the Wolfsbain potion, which helped to reduce the pain and the length of the transformation, but caused the person to be very sick for a few days after taking the potion. And depending on the person, keep them in a sickly state most of the time. He knew this partially because he did some research in to werewolves after he found out that Professor Lupin was one, but mostly he knew it because Hermione had told him so. " -any side effects?" asked Harry.
Mr. Pasha didn't answer the question. " Don't worry. She'll be all right. I suppose I should wake up the house-elf" he said, but before he even takes one step, the house elf came in cleaned the carpet, removed most of the bits of the shattered wooden door and even put a little sweet smelling fragrance in the air. The whole process took less than three seconds.
Harry apologized to Mr. Pasha and Mrs. Pasha, who had watched the events, for blowing up their door. He explained that weird things like that seemed to happen to him all the time. Mr. Pasha explained that Hermione was okay and that was all that mattered for the time being.
Harry picked her up in his arms and slowly headed towards her room. He really didn't want to wake her up by moving too fast, but he was also sure that if he moved any faster he himself would fall over from exhaustion.
Harry carefully laid Hermione on the bed and sat down on the side of the bed. He stayed there for rest of the night occasionally leaving so that Hermione's mom could come and visit her. Whenever he did so, he would go into the large library of books that Mr. Pasha owned and searched through all of them to find something on the potion that Mr. Pasha had given Hermione.
Hermione's mother was almost hysterical in her behavior, and in the end Mr. Pasha with the help of Mrs. Pasha convinced her, that Harry would take care of Hermione for rest of the night. Harry didn't know why, but that simple fact made her go back to her own room, though not before telling Harry to wake them up when Hermione was awake or he was feeling sleepy. He later realized it might have been the toast that they had forced her to drink that made her calm.
Hermione took her time to wake up the next morning. It was ten o'clock and a full seven hours had passed since they both shared the nightmare. Her mind was hazy and recollection of the day before was hard. Her body felt so incredibly weak and battered, she thought she might be in bed for rest of the holidays. Her first thoughts were on her unfinished Care of Magical Creature homework, though.
Once her mind focused on the reality around her, she saw that Harry was holding her hand on the bed, with a particularly large book on his lap. But she was surprised to see that his eyes were focused on her face, but then she saw the dried blood on his scar.
' He's been bleeding' thought Hermione before noticing that his emerald green eyes didn't have their usual glow, but the whites of his eyes were blood shot. " Hermione! You're awake. Your parents just left. I'll be back with -" said Harry excitedly. The centre of his eyes glowing now, and even in the middle of the bloodshot whites of his eyes, he looked ecstatic to see her. Harry couldn't move because Hermione had somehow managed to gather up enough energy to grip Harry's hand, which was already in her palm, very tightly.
" Wait..." said Hermione in a cracked voice, emphasizing the point that her voice box did not want to be used again after the way she had abused it a few hours ago.
Harry quickly agreed, as he was just content that one of his two best friends was ok again. " OK"
" You stayed here all night didn't you? Uchh..ssk" said Hermione coughing heavily after the question.
" Yeah... It was nothing. I'll get your pare -" He was interrupted by Hermione.
" Will you stop it? I'm not mad at you." Hermione knew Harry thought that she would be mad at him, but she really wasn't. " Tell me... What happened after we were practicing those dueling moves? Tell me every single thing you know about it."
" Yes. Well I - we fainted...." and Harry explained what he saw. How he woke up and saw blood from his scar. How he carried her to the door. How somehow the door exploded outwards. How they had to force her to drink the potion. How she had thrown up on the carpet and went unconscious again. How he carried her to the room and had been waiting in the room since then. How her mother had made long visits to see her and had just left the room a few minutes ago to rest a bit, since she had stayed with Harry for two hours before.
" Well that's the story... Anyway... I'm really sorry. You know about the GIFT...I shouldn't have had given it to you. I shouldn't have had told you about the powers-"
" Are we going to have that same conversation again Harry Potter. Give me my wand. I'll kill you and spare Voldemort the trouble..."
Only from the shock on Harry's face did she realize that she had said something that made her flinch for a long time. Suddenly Hermione's face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"... I called him by his name. VOLDEMORT" now she started to laugh as she sat up. " VOL-DE-MORT! VOL-DE-MORT! This is not hard at all. I don't even know why it was hard before."
Then she realized that she had gone off the topic in the middle of the conversation. " ...Now back to the matter at hand. Harry if you even joke about not giving me the gift, I'm going to kill you. GOT IT"
" Yes, MAAM." His eyes sparkled at the strong sentiment that Hermione had shown about her new gift.
" Good. Now what do you think Voldemort was doing?" asked Hermione making Harry uneasy. It wasn't easy to hear Hermione say 'Voldemort', since only a few hours ago she would have had flinched at the name. It was only a few more hours before that she had given permission for him to utter the word in front of her, albeit told to do so sparingly. Hearing her utter the word like it was second nature to her would have been weird enough but Harry noticed that Hermione was practically reveling in the experience.
" I don't know, but I assumed you would want me to send an owl to Professor Dumboledore, So, I told already did it." Hermione smiled. " Just the dream, but nothing else." He said anticipating her question.
" You don't trust him?" asked Hermione, more than a little surprised.
" I do trust him, but Hedwig might get intercepted, you know" reasoned Harry.
" What do we do then? I mean we have to do something."
" Nothing now. We wait. In the mean time, you need to eat. What do you want?"
" What do I want? -Let me see -Anything really. I'm starving, and I don't really care what I eat.
" Wait. I'll get something for you" Harry ran out of the room and went into the kitchen.
He was only gone for half a minute and he was back with several items of food as well as a large pile of pancakes covered in syrup (Hermione's favorite as he had learned during his stay with the Grangers.) But he wasn't alone. He had told everyone that Hermione was awake.
" Look who I found" said Harry, but before he was finished Hermione's mother rushed to her daughter and started to cuddle her. Harry took the tray and put it down on the bed next to her.
" Mom!" said Hermione, as she came closer to her mother for a hug. She whispered to her mother, " Stop crying! It's embarrassing. I'm OK. It was just-"
" You don't have to explain it dear. We're just happy that you're alive" said Mrs. Granger, after she had force-fed Hermione little bits of pancakes. It took two hours for Hermione to get her parents out of the room.
Once they were out and Mr. Pasha was the only one who was left, he spoke up. " You should find out that I had an ulterior motive showing you the Septanic Games. I figured, since you both had the powers so I might as well show you what you'll be learning at Hogwarts next year."
" What do mean?" asked Harry who was beginning to feel a little groggy, which he attributed to staying up all night.
" The Septanic duelling technique -I'll be teaching it at Hogwarts."
" Why are you telling it to us now?" asked Hermione in her small, adoring voice that she reserved for the teachers.
" I'll give you two some advanced lessons. By the way -Harry I talked to Professor Dumbledore and unfortunately he doesn't have a clue as to what the beast was. Now both of you have a little rest. Do some exploring around the house...er...Hermione, there are a few little things that I need to tell you...alone." He looked pointedly at Harry, who took the hint and left the room with a banana and a piece of bread in his hand. He had earlier pocketed a few dates that he wanted to have later.
As soon as he left, Mr. Pasha became a little apprehensive. He didn't have any children, so he had never needed to talk about this type of a topic to such a young person. " I'm not sure how much Harry has told you, but we had to give you a potion to subdue you." Hermione tried to speak up, but he put up his hand to stop her. " It's kind of hard for me to explain, so let me explain before I loose my nerve. There are some erm… side effects are not really visible… may be I should tell my wife and she could tell you -" Hermione put an end to Ali's rambling.
" I know Blood of Chimera was used. Didn't you?"
" -err. How?" Ali looked very embarrassed. " - Yes. How did you know?"
" Harry told me. You don't have to tell me, I know the side effects or the lack there of." Hermione finished in a worried, but understanding tone.
" OK. Good. Since you know, I'll go now... I'll send Harry in. I ordered "IT" and it'll be at Hogwarts in about a two to three weeks time." Though they didn't mention any details about the side effect it was surprising to see the redness in his face.
When Harry arrived she told him that Mr. Pasha wanted to explain the consequences of using the blood of Chimera and the tree of life potion. Harry wanted to know what were some of the side effects but seeing that Hermione would only blush at the question he took the hint and stopped asking. There were quite a few reasons for not telling Harry what the side effects were. And she wasn't blushing because it would make it impossible for her to get pregnant for approximately five years. There were several more embarrassing ones.
Hermione wanted to ask Harry about the scar, and decided it was as good as a time as any. " Harry. You know when your scar hurts... How bad is it compared to Cruciatus Curse?"
" er... I'll tell you another time -" said Harry, before getting interrupted by a Hermione who had had enough of being patronized.
" Stop babying me, Harry. Just answer it!"
" But -but...." Harry was still very reluctant, but he knew Hermione would pester him until she got the information that she wanted " OH...okay. Remember you asked for it..." Harry paused before continuing after a long sigh, " This is the worse that the scar hurt... even worse than last year when I collapsed. But it's not as bad as the Cruciatus curse or the first time you go through magical objects. My scar hurts sometime more, but the amount of time it hurts has gone down a lot."
They talked a little while longer, eating and talking as they went, and it wasn't before the food was all gone. Unknown to both, Mr. Pasha had mixed, sleeping potions in their food, since they both needed the rest. However because his wife had dragged him away on other "business", Ali completely forgot about taking Harry away from Hermione's room. After Harry finished eating, they fell asleep right where they were - Hermione on her bed, while Harry fell face first into his a plate that had the pancakes and syrups in it.
The next day Harry woke up in Hermione's bed, with the bed sheets stuck to his face. ' Merlin Help me I'm stuck to the sheets.' As he slowly separated the bed sheet from his face, he looked up to see Hermione's face only inches from his own. ' Wow. Who would have had thought she slept this peacefully.' He felt a strange sensation in his stomach, as well as tightening of his chest that he identified as hunger. ' Aww man. I need some food.'
Once fully untangled he slowly went to his feet and walked as quietly as possible to the door. But sleeping Hermione wasn't actually sleeping. She had been awake for the last half an hour, peacefully dozing on the bed. Harry's hand froze on the handle, when she said, " Could you close the door properly, when you go. I need some privacy."
" You're awake?" Asked Harry a little surprised.
" Have been for the last half hour. Why?"
" How come you're still in bed? For that matter -Why didn't you wake me?"
" The sun feels warm. It makes me sleepy" said Hermione as if it explained everything, but Harry just left anyway. He needed a shower; he could almost feel two days of grim on his body. He definitely needed to get a shower. Definitely.
<<~~~>>
END OF CHAPTER
READ AND REVIEW
(A/N: Hunger??? A quick question to all you folks out there.... Do you think it's hunger?... I didn't think so. Harry in my book is great at seeing when people like each other. He just doesn't have a clue when it comes to Hermione or himself.)