Chapter Number: 27
Chapter Name: Cho, Charms and Runes
Author's Note: One of the hazards of writing stories off the top of your head is that you forget to do things you meant to. Well I forgot to do several things, now I've done them in this rewrite.
As the three friends rushed through the corridors and secret passageways of Hogwarts, they laughed (Harry and Ron) and giggled (Hermione) approaching their destination, the great hall. As they approached the hall, Harry noticed a particularly sad looking Cho talking to a few of the Hufflepuffs. The euphoria that he was feeling a moment ago, elation from the escape from Hagrid's well meaning clutches, vanished.
Cho looked as mortified as the first time he saw her this year and it was plainly obvious to all people that Cho was still grieving for Cedric.
Harry stopped in mid step, making his two friends get a fair bit in front of him. When they realized that Harry was falling behind they backtracked to where Harry was. They saw Harry looking at Cho, with an unrecognizable expression on their faces.
" You okay?" asked Hermione, taking his hand while he walked forward and she walked facing him. She held the books harder to herself in front of her chest.
" I'm okay..." started to say Harry, until he realized that his friends would know that he was lying, " well, actually no - I think I need to talk to Cho..."
Hermione nodded in agreement, as he gathered up his courage to face Cho Chang. Hermione grabbed a hold of Ron, and started to walk off. Harry needed to do this on his own , and without a cheering squad.
Susan Bones and several of the Hufflepuffs had approached Cho to tell that they suspected Harry to have had murdered Cedric to get close to her. The grief-stricken house - atleast the ones that had come to meet her - had convinced themselves that the Minister of Magic was right - the dark lord had not risen, and Harry had used it as an excuse to kill Cedric.
Cho Chang might have been grieving for Cedric, but anger at the loss of the very first glory in a long time had not clouded her judgment. She knew, from what the professors had told them in class, that Harry and his two friends had risked their lives in their very first year to stop the rise of the Dark Lord.
And then in the last year, Professor Sinistra had confided that Harry fought and killed the basilisk of the dark lord when he was in his second year. In Cho's opinion, someone, who had defied Lord Voldemort so many times, would never kill someone for his or her own gains.
Cho was also privy to a bit of information that none of the other Hufflepuffs knew about. After the ball, Cedric had told her that it was because of Harry that he had managed to get past the first task. He told her that if Harry had never told him about the dragon, he would never have known what to do. He probably would have had died on the first task.
When Cho saw Harry approach her, she did not want to talk to the Hufflepuffs anymore. She had entertained them long enough out of respect for what they were feeling. She left in the middle of Susan's plans of revenge, making her angry.
" Hello." said Harry.
" Hi" her reply was short. But she did smile at him - in a broken and would never be fixed sort of way.
" I need to...." started Harry but she interrupted him.
" Yeah.... we need to talk."
" Do you want to talk outside? By the lake?"
" Sure...I guess."
It took a while to reach the side of the lake. Both of them sat on the bank leading up to the peer, lazily basking in the warm sunshine. They sat there for a while, neither wanting to really talk. Finally realizing that he should start, Harry spoke in the gentlest voice he could muster. It was hard since his inside felt like stone. " I wanted to talk about Cedric. I'm really so..." Cho interrupted him. She was getting a bit sick and tired being treated like a fragile doll. She was more interested in other matters.
" Can you tell me what happened in the third task?"
" Okay..." said Harry as he covered the events of the tournament.
When he reached the part about getting transported to the graveyard, Harry was feeling sick. But for Cho's sake, he kept going. When he said the part about the green spark hitting Cedric, Cho broke down next to him and started to cry.
Harry was not sure of what to do. He put his arm around her, and gently brought her closer. While he did this Harry realized something, he didn't have to force himself to believe that Cho was no longer a romantic possibility, for when he put his arms around her he realized his feeling towards Cho had changed to what he felt for Hermione or Ginny. How a brother feels about a sister - well that's what he thought it must be. He didn't have anything to really compare these feelings.
" It'll be alright..." he said, "...you'll get past this. Time heals all wounds, just give it time." Words came out of his mouth, that he had no idea he would say. It was as if a part of him was taking over that he didn't know existed.
" I know," she whimpered in his chest, before she looked up onto Harry's face and asked, " What happened after that?"
Harry was surprised that Cho would want to talk about what happened after Cedric died. He really wanted to tell his friends what had happened after Cedric died first, but realised that Cho deserved to know rest of the events more than anyone else. So he told her, everything. Including the part about when Voldemort's wand connected with his own. He did not tell that his wand had the same core as Voldemort's, or tell her what it was called. He did not think Cho would feel the same way knowing those two specifics of the story.
When he said how his mother and father's shadow form had emerged, Cho cried in his arms some more. " It must have had been horrible for you" she said, hugging Harry's midsection with more force than even she had known she could. It was an effort for Harry to breathe, but he did not say anything.
" It was, but then again I had lost my parents a long time ago. I never really knew them, when this happened. I have some pictures now, but I've got no real memory of them. I learned something about my parents in the holidays...If the same thing happened again, I don't know what I would do."
Cho looked up and saw Harry's face. He looked handsome and in the bright sunlight, his features were even more pronounced. She kissed him - On the cheek.
" You know there can never be anything between us and it's not because I know reporters would have a field day with me and you dating each other..."said Cho.
" I know... I think my feelings about you have changed... I used to" Harry blushed very slightly, " -have a crush on you, but now…"
" You don't have to say it. I know how you feel. When you walked in the great hall that day, I wasn't even attracted to you, like all the other girls were. I knew they were right in being attracted to you, but I just did not feel the same way." She smiled and said, " I think I felt more for that Malfoy creep than you."
" You don't have to go that low," said Harry, kissing her cheek once. " You look much better with a smile" It was Cho's turn to turn pink in the cheeks.
Harry got up and extended his palm to Cho. She took it and hand in hand they walked back into the great hall. Just before they entered, Cho let go of Harry's hand gave him a small hug and one last kiss on the cheek.
" We'll be friends...no matter what," she said, as she headed to the entrance and then to the Ravenclaw table.
Harry turned around and saw the sun above, shining brightly, he murmured, " We will. I just hope there is something to be friendly about before the end of the year."
Harry and Cho might have thought that they were alone when they drew closer for comfort, but they really weren't. The highly charged emotions running through Harry's mind blinded his ability as a spotter to detect that there was a fifth year girl, namely a Hufflepuff by the name of Susan Bones.
From where she was standing their hugs and kisses appeared intimate. This was the final bit of information that proved in her mind that Harry had indeed killed Cedric to get Cho. And it looked like he had succeeded. She really didn't blame Cho for falling for Harry. He was one of the better looking boys in school, and he was famous and there was no way, in her opinion, Cho could have had resisted a two headed snake like Harry Potter.
Ron and Hermione as always, were in the middle of the biggest fight imaginable over his involvement in S.P.E.W. Though Harry very partially agreed, (the bit about house elves punishing themselves for displeasure of their master) he was against some of the more outrageous things that Hermione wanted for them, namely the masters to serve the elves once a month. This was supposed to create a bond of understanding between the master and the servant.
Harry thought being paid to work and not being punished was the best the house elves could hope for. He wasn't looking forward to the day Hermione would pass that particular thing into the law books. He knew Hermione was persistent and would pass every single thing she wanted into law, because of the way she was.
' Better separate the married couple before they kill themselves,' thought Harry, referring to Hermione and Ron on the Gryffindor table.
Once he did manage to separate them, by sitting between them, Harry ate like a pig, without a thought to how he was being looked at. He had nothing in the morning and people seeing him eating like a pig was not his problem. His main problem was the fact that Professor Snape was very interested to get back to his class, and that meant that he might not get another scrap of food until the end of the day, as he was very sure that he was going to have to avoid girls all day long. He had been wrong before about that - but he kept thinking that. Maybe he liked the attention for once? - Harry really didn't know.
" Yum... Well, that was the best meal I ever had." said Ron rubbing his belly slowly to emphasise the point. " What class do we have now?" he asked Hermione.
" Well you have Divination and we, as in Harry and I, have Runes and dead languages"
Ron's face faltered for a second, as this was the first class of Divination that Harry would not be in with him.
" Well... Good luck" said Ron as he made a dash for his Divination class.
Harry was a bit depressed about this as well but consoled himself with the fact that he would be with him in most classes. Hermione then tentatively reached out and grabbed Harry's hand.
" Let's go," she said, as she proceeded to drag Harry by his hand. It amazed Harry to no end that Hermione could actually drag him somewhere when she was both shorter and weighed much less than him.
The class she dragged Harry into was the on the second floor of the west wing. It was large and was occupied by students. The students he recognized were mostly from Ravenclaw. It made sense to him that the Ravenclaws would choose to do this rather than take a fluffy subject like Divination. It also scared him that the whole class was full of people who had been doing the subject for as long as he had been doing the fluffy subject.
' I'm doomed.!'
Hermione lead the way to the two empty seats at the back of the class and sat down. Hermione was quick to ask him about how he was feeling since this was a new class and all.
" Probably about as good as Ron felt, after eating Chocolate in Defence against dark arts."
Hermione giggled a bit. " Don't worry... Professor Hawthorn is the nicest and kindest....", She was interrupted by the Harry, who panicked at the mention of the woman's name. It was quite understandable since Hawthorn was well over a hundred years old and was the reason why he felt nauseous during the sorting ceremony.
' But I thought she taught Gnome Psychology... Oh no, It's her... I have to get out of here.' he thought, as he got up from his chair determined to beg Professor Trelawney to let him back into the class.
But he quickly sat down again when he saw the "woman" come into the class. Before the Professor could see him, Harry quickly went down on the floor and started to whisper to Hermione. " Hermione, I have to get out of here. That woman was winking at me in the great hall..." his whole body shuddered as he said those words.
" Did you think? -" Hermione started laugh out loud. " Oh this is funny -I'll have to remember this."
" Why are you laughing? Hsss.. Please keep it down, will ya? " said Harry, who was panicking even more now since her laughter was drawing more attention from the class and eventually the teacher would notice that Harry was in the room.
" Because..." Hermione could not finish the sentence before she burst into laughter yet again.
" Come on... keep it down will you, please? I don't want to draw anymore attention" there was urgency in his voice that did not escape Hermione.
" Ok..." she answered as the amount of laughter from her was decreasing. "... It's just that..." a bit more laughter, "...she winks at every one. She has a muscle problem in her right eye..." Hermione could no longer keep the laughter down; she fell from her seat on and onto the floor, and started to roll around.
Hermione's overt display of laughter caused the whole class to turn around and look at what was so funny. Harry quickly took his seat again before Professor Hawthorn could make her way to the back of the room to see what was the cause of all the commotion.
She was very surprised to see that Hermione was causing all the noise. ' It's really sad when the good ones go bad...,' she thought sadly, but her mood improved quite a lot when she saw the boy next to Hermione's seat.
' Yum, new meat.'
Professor Hawthorn cast a calming charm on Hermione, who promptly stopped laughing and returned to her seat. " I'm very disappointed in you Hermione. I expected more from you" with that, she returned to the front of the class, without giving Hermione a chance to defend herself - who looked quite scandalized.
" We have a new student in class," said Professor Hawthorn as she looked up the new name at the bottom of the register. " Potter, Harry...." she choked on the name just as the words left her mouth. She was rather quick to recover from her shock.
" Well... Professor McGonagall told me you switched from Divination but she did indeed forget to tell me you would be coming in here.
This is a complex subject and with the OWLs this year and I doubt it would be easy for you to catch up on the subject..."
" It won't be." interjected Hermione, " I made him go through last year's textbook and he has already done up to the third chapter of the book." Hermione's voice carried with it unmistakable pride in it.
" Well in that case I really have nothing to say. Good thing I did not assign any homework for the holidays, otherwise you would be having a lot of trouble in class, Mr. Potter. Okay, now class, we need to go over the basics of last year and then we will start on this year's work.
Though Harry had caught up in the holidays, Harry still had a hard time in class applying the theories to practical things they were asked to do. The subject was hard and required Harry to do more thinking then any of his other classes. At the end of the class his brain was going into overdrive just to keep up with the rest of the class. He soon realized that although Hermione might have been confident that he would be an okay student in the subject, he had a long way to go. A very log way to go.
The class left him wanting more of it though, this mind was totally smashed because of the amount of work it had done. Just before he left the class, Professor Hawthorn invited him to the front of the class for a chat. Before Professor Hawthorn had a chance to say anything, Harry asked his question, " Do you think I have a chance of passing this subject?"
"Don't worry just yet about failing. You did well, for your first day. You'll need to work a lot harder in this subject then the others because this subject is more about knowledge than actually performing magic." At this point she winked at him making Harry cringe, "... I'm sure Hermione would be more than happy to help you in your studies."
Though she noticed the cringing Professor Hawthorn let it slide. Students who had been in her class since the beginning of their third year were still not used to her winking at awkward times, and this was Harry's first day.
They talked for another four minutes before she let him leave the room with a warm smile on her face. When he went outside, he found Hermione and Alicia both laughing their heads off about something...
Outside the class, as Hermione waited she was surprised to feel someone tapping on her shoulder. She was quite surprised to see that it was Alicia Spinnet. " Hey... What are you doing here?" asked Alicia.
" Just waiting for Harry to stop talking with Professor Hawthorn..." she noticed that Alicia's interests suddenly left from the conversation, as she tried to look into the room to see if she could see Harry.
' Hmmm, I wonder...,' thought Hermione, ' if she is interested in Harry...'
But she quickly dismissed that thought since the headgirl was very popular with the sixth and seventh year boys, so why would she be interested in Harry who was a full two years younger than her?
Alicia quickly caught herself in the middle of her search and quickly turned back to Hermione to answer her question, " Well I have Runes now" then she remembered something and a question, " Why is Harry in this class? I thought he was in Divination..."
" He was," replied Hermione, " 'WAS' being the operative word. I convinced him to switch to another class and as luck would have it he switched to Runes."
She would have had asked her why she wanted to know that but before she could Alicia asked her a question. " How was his class? I mean it was his first right so was it easy for him or did he muddle through it?"
" He did well enough... I suspected that he would have had done better if Professor Hawthorn didn't keep winking at him."
Alicia giggled and asked, " How did he take it?"
" Not well. You should have seen him..." then Hermione said what happened at the beginning of the class and Alicia burst into laughter. Her laughter was loud and combined with Hermione's it echoed through the corridors. They both stopped promptly when they saw Harry approach them.
Harry's suspicion that they were discussing his behavior at the beginning of the class was confirmed when both Hermione and Alicia stopped laughing when they saw him. ' Oh great... Why did she have to tell her?,' thought Harry, slightly miffed at Hermione, but then he thought that if Hermione hadn't done it then one of the Ravenclaws could have fabricated a story and it would be all over the school.
Realizing this he quickly forgave Hermione. Harry assumed an expression that said he had no idea what the two girls could be talking to her about. " Alicia... what are you doing here?" He asked politely.
" Well nothing... I mean... I have my Runes next..." she was having a hard time trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. " Oh look, the door is opening... I have to go." She said, quickly taking off in the direction of the class.
Half way to there she turned around and yelled, " I want a rematch for that snitch catching game."
" When?" he answered back. Harry's heart did a flip, but he was not certain as to why it did that.
" Today... how about after dueling class?"
" OK. I'll be there."
The Dueling classes were held for all the levels together. Well, all the people who could show up on the free timeslots. Harry and Alicia ended up in the same Dueling class, by luck. He was glad for his luck.
Hermione watched the exchange with interest. She could not shake the feeling that Alicia, as uncharacteristic as it sounded, was indeed interested in Harry. " Well, Harry..." she said, " Looks like you have another admirer", with a grin spreading across her face.
Harry was in shock. For a moment he thought that using his brain on overdrive must have short-circuited his comprehension, but quickly realized that was not the case when he inspected Hermione's face.
" How would you know?" he retorted.
Alicia was a very beautiful woman. The word woman applied to her more than almost any other female that he had had the pleasure of meeting - at hogwarts. She was both beautiful and smart, not only book smart but also smart in the ways of the world. She had a nice sense of humor and was very easy to talk to. All in all she was a person that Harry could see himself getting involved with, BUT he still thought that the chances of her liking him in return were less than zero.
' Probably in the negative territory,' thought Harry, rather glumly.
It is very odd that in the beginning Harry hadn't thought of liking Alicia like that, but when Hermione planted the idea in his head, he was actually disappointed.
" Couldn't you tell by the way she was looking at you?"
" How was she looking at you...? I mean me... How was she looking at me?"
" Same way I look when I'm thinking about Victor I suspect?" there was a sigh in there for Ron. It was a habit that she now had, it was a pity he was not there otherwise Hermione would have enjoyed seeing Harry struggling to hold back Ron.
" Are you sure? -" They started walking toward Ron's Divination Class, " -I mean think about it. She is the headgirl -The headgirl for god's sakes. She can get any boy she wants to. Any boy."
" Well it looks to me that she's after just one boy."
" Nope. Can't be" said Harry. She wanted to go on and tease him about this, but she knew from the tone of Harry's voice that the discussion was over. As much as Harry liked Alicia, she was out of his league and going after her would only make things worse for him. It was a good thing they spotted Ron coming down the rope ladder when they did, as it destroyed the possibility of having an awkward moment between Harry and Hermione.
" There's Ron... lets go" said Harry as he started to run toward Ron's direction. The three friends entered their next class, which was charms, exactly one minute and thirty three seconds later.
Professor Flitwick looked even smaller than the year before, even taking into account the fact that Harry had a massive growth spurt over the summer holidays. Harry quickly took his usual seat next to Ron and Neville. Hermione sat next to Ron, much to his delight. The delight however increased when the Hufflepuffs joined the class and they had to squeeze together to make room for the new students.
Ron blushed slightly while Hermione just sat there enjoying the closeness though she showed no outward sign of enjoyment. Charms was Harry's worst subject and as always Hermione was great at it like all the other subjects. Ron actually fared better at this subject than Harry, though both were pretty much at the bottom of the class. Harry had no intention of showing off how much he had improved in all his subjects as he suspected this would only make him more of a target by the girls and he had no intention of loosing the normalcy of his life... or what's left of it… even if it meant that he had to sabotage his own work to do it.
Harry was confident that he could do all the charms in the book quite quickly now, but ruining all of them would take even more hard work then trying to do them right. ' This will be an interesting challenge,' thought Harry as he finally started to listen to what Professor Flitwick had been saying in class.
" The assignments were very well done and the top mark for it goes to... err...wait it's coming" he said shaking a small bit of parchment, "Ahh...it's coming... Here it is... Harry Potter"
Professor Flitwick fell off his chair as he said the name.
It was not as embarrassing as the first time he had done it. It looked like he was more shocked that he had said the name than the first time he had called Harry's name from the class register. " Oh yes. I forgot... 128% " he said shaking his head at himself for forgetting that he had indeed given the mark to him. Harry knew his paper was good - maybe high 80% was what he had expected.
The whole class turned to Harry, making him wish the classroom was a desert and he was an ostrich, so he could bury his head in the sand. His face rapidly became pink and the smile he had on his face disappeared a few minutes ago was gone when he saw the look on Hermione's face.
She had never come second on anything and this was one of her better subjects. She had her mouth open in horror. She was quick to recover, but she felt suddenly very angry with Harry, for stealing her rightful place as the number one in charms. After all, she was the only one of the three who managed to learn how to cast the unlocking spell in their first year.
The rest of the class was very awkward for Harry. He did not even try any of the Charms, explaining that he was no good at them, but the occasional look from the people in the class made him think that they suspected that he just did not want to show how good he really was. When the class finished, Hermione ran from the class and was not seen during the half an hour break. Ron took off after her but lost her after a few minutes.
Harry however made his way to the Dueling class quite unsure of why Hermione behaved the way she did. When he got there after the break a surprise was waiting for him.
<<~~~>>
Thanks to NATE for BETA so far :)
END OF CHAPTER
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