Chapter Number: 34
Chapter Name: The long Explanations...2/3 (Harry's Mark)
When the Defence against Dark Arts class was finished, Hermione dragged Ron with her to the where the care of magical creatures class was held the day before. " Where're we going?" he asked rather testily, not wanting to miss out on lunch.
" Lunch will still be there when we get back." She replied, making Ron blush.
" err..."
" We're going to where we had our care of magical creatures class."
" Why?...you want to observe the Veloron again?" smirked Ron.
" No!...well actually, it's the cage I want to see."
Ron stopped dead, as he had joked about the creature. He had not told anyone but the creature had caused him nightmares. Most of them involving him strung up by his ankles over a fire from the beasts mouth - while Draco poked him with a stick to see if he was soft enough.
" The cage?" he threw up his arms, " Why would you want to do something like that?" he hid his fear well.
" I want to check something."
" With that thing? Still in there?"
" Yeah! So what? Harry did it... he didn't get hurt by it."
" That's because I heard him speaking to it in that snake tongue...I mean parseltongue."
Hermione's mouth gaped open. She started to pace around on the spot that they had stopped. She was very surprised for some reason. She had been very close to the Harry when she saw him fall, but she knew that Ron was much closer and as such heard something being spoken between them. " Really?..."
" You don't believe me?...why do you look so surprised?" said Ron, apparently affronted.
" No, that's not it! It's just..."
" Just what?..."
" er... You know what Hagrid said in class?"
Ron just grinned in reply.
" Honestly, Ron!" her face took on the tell tale signs of a lecture, and Ron being around her for five years knew it was coming, " You should pay more attention in class. The owls are on this year..."
Ron interrupted, " Do you want me to go back to the great hall?" he threatened.
Hermione looked torn between telling him off for the threat or just tell him what he wanted to know. She chose to do the second one and just tell Ron, " Oh! Okay... Velorons are more closely related to dragons, then snakes. You can say because they have wings and a very hard hide, imbued with powerful ancient magic, though admittedly not as powerful as it is in a dragon. But strong enough to throw off a few stunning curses"
Ron did not understand the significance of the statement " So?"
" So...It means when everyone in class took out their wand to defend Harry, I doubt if they even would have been able to make it stagger, let alone save Harry. The second..." Hermione said a bit more dramatically then she needed to, " is a bit more important...but that's only a concern if you answer the question, 'Was he taking softly or loudly?'"
" Softly...can you hurry up and answer this already."
" I'm trying to." Hermione looked irritated. " It doesn't help when you…"
"Hermione…"
" What you heard was probably Drakh." She saw Ron's face turn even more confused than it had ever before. " It's kind of like parseltongue...just a bit different. Humans who know parseltongue can control snakes. Drakh is just like any other language. Only dragons can speak it."
" What!" Ron was outraged. Yet another talent of Harry Potter has just been uncovered, and he could not help but feel jealous of him, but then he remembered something which gave him some hope. " I don't think you're right!" he said, shaking his head side to side to emphasize his disagreement. Hermione had not expected Ron to object, after all she was always right, and this was not an exception. Hermione felt the need to amuse herself with Ron's objection, so she asked him.
" Why do say that?" Hermione did not wait for the answer as she slowly started towards their previous destination. Ron followed her without thinking, falling into what Hermione was trying to do, lure him with her to the Velorons cage. She knew her shielding charm was not as powerful as it was for Harry, so, she was planning to get Ron to cast one on her as well. It would increase her shielding charm a lot. She hoped it would be enough to get away from the Veloron if it started to fire balls of fire at her.
" Because then Harry could have had just asked the dragon last year to let him retrieve the egg." Ron sounded very proud of that piece of deductive work. Hermione thought it was almost a shame that she had to discredit it. Almost. She did not like one of her two friends having some ill-gotten ideas that might prevent them from their OWLs.
" Do you really think a mother would let anyone make her believe that her eggs were not in danger. Let alone one, who came from the people that had used spells on it to subdue it."
Ron's face fell, but Hermione was not done just yet. " Besides, he would not have had been able to speak it, even if he wanted to... You see humans can only speak it, when the dragons allow the humans capable of speaking it. There are some exceptions, but they don't apply here." Hermione paused to take a breath and then started to explain what the exceptions were, " The first one..."
Ron had recovered slightly, interrupted her, " How do you know so much? You're like a walking library."
Hermione really wanted to smack Ron at that instance. She had had enough torment over that fact for the last four years and she hated it. Coming from Ron, it hurt more than it would have had from someone else.
" I'm not a walking library." Her voice very cool, " Last year, if you had not been acting like a big jealous prat, you would have been in the library looking up everything about dragons to keep Harry alive. You could have had picked something up" She huffed and started to walk very fast. Ron, surprised from the fact that she had gone so cold at one of his stray comments, fell back a bit.
" I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. " He said when he caught up to her.
" No!" Hermione turned and said in n even colder voice, " The thing is Ron, you did... go back to your lunch..."
" Hermione, I really did not mean to make you upset. Now that I know it makes you upset, I'll stop. I promise." Hermione looked at Ron's face and she could tell that he was being truthful. She knew that Ron would not say the walking library comment ever again, but there were still a lot of other things that she had to get him to stop saying to her.
" Ok." She replied.
" Good" said Ron.
He was about to put his arm around her shoulder when the bright sunlight from the door that Hermione had just opened disrupted his vision.
What they saw when they emerged from the castle, to where they had their last class the day before, they saw something very odd.
It was Percy!
He had just finished teaching a very large group of children, whom Hermione identified as a group of third years. The class had just finished, as the children were running toward the direction Ron and Hermione had come from. No doubt going into the great hall for their lunch.
" Percy!" called out Ron in surprise.
Percy looked up see his brother waving at him, " Hello there, you two..." he said, in return when the pair made their way to where Percy was busy putting a variety of glowing creatures into a black jar.
" What are you doing here?" asked Hermione, though she had a vague inkling as to what he was doing. " Oh! I was teaching care of magical creatures class..."
" You're what? Since when? How? Where's Hagrid?" asked Ron
" Well, Hagrid had other business to take care of... he left early morning..." he paused and stated to look for something inside his cloak. With a triumphant smile he gave Hermione a piece of parchment. " Hagrid left this with me for you three...well you two can give it to Harry"
Hermione started to read the piece of parchment out loud enough for Ron to hear.
Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron,
Harry, I hope you are feeling well. I'm sorry to leave before saying good bye personally. But it is for a greater good that I have to go now, please forgive my rather untimely and hasty departure. It's about...well I'm sure you can guess why and where I'm going. If not...ask Hermione. She'll know. ( ' He's going to try and contact the giants...maybe his mother too' thought Hermione. Ron had the similar thought as well.) I'll write to you as soon as possible, though it might be a while before I come back again. Take care so you do not overexert yourself. You know what I mean. Take care.
Hermione, the extra credit assignment that you took on, you can hand it in to Charlie when he comes to teach. Percy was wrangled into doing this class, help him out in your classes. I hope you make up with Harry soon, the headmaster told me that you two were fighting... (Hermione blushed. Telling Percy about her and his squabble was not her intention. The rest of the letter she read out softly, so that only Ron and she could hear it. Hermione knew this was not really of any possible help, since Percy probably read the letter already. * How did the headmaster find out!* she thought, looking at Ron, who had a look of pure astonishment on his face.) I hope you would realize how much you two mean to him. You two are, not only his best friends, but you are also his very first friends. (* Well Hagrid, you don't have to worry about that now... Harry and I will be back to normal in no time*)
Ron, look after Harry and Hermione, and try to make sure that they don't have another row once you've got them back to being their normal friendly selves to each other again. I'm also warning you that the Velorons have a nasty temper and they tend to take on characteristics of the people they are in care of. Try to control your temper, otherwise you are going to have a rather painful experience. (*Ron does not have to worry about me and Harry, but he better be careful around the baby Velorons. With Ron's temper and short fuse, he's gonna have a rather hard year controlling his one.* Hermione almost looked forward to the day they were going to get their little pets to take care of.* It'll teach him to control his temper...now, if only there was a way to get rid of his jealous side...*)
Don't try to contact me. It's very dangerous. I'll bring you all presents when I come back.
Wishing you all the well for rest of the term...
Hagrid
P.S. Hermione, I have a birthday present in my hut for you... you have to get Harry to find it for you. So... make up with him, other wise there's no presents for you.
" So how did you end up doing the class?" Hermione asked Percy, who was trying to put one of the glowing things back into the black jar. Her question was tactful enough so that if Percy did not want to answer then he did not have to. Ron, however, was not so tactful about the subject. It was hard enough for him to live up to Percy's legacy and now he was going to teaching the class that he excelled at, he was sure that rumors of brotherly favoritism would plague him the rest of the year. Somehow he forgot about the fact that half the school knew about their close friendship with the groundskeeper turned professor. " How come you're doing it? ...You're no good with magical creatures." Said Ron in an accusative tone.
" Well...it is true that I'm not particularly fond of anything other than humans, but I am the only person they could hire in a jam like this... besides Charlie is going be taking the class. He'll be here in about a month's time... He'll be taking over until the end of the year. Something to do with what Professor Dumbledore has assigned him to... I don't know and I don't particularly care. I'll be happy to get out of this then.... Besides I need the money."
When the duo looked at him questioningly he answered, " …for something."
" You need money! What do you need money for! You already get paid three times your old salary?"
Percy blushed.
" Well...." He almost told the pair what he was going to use the money for, but he restrained himself. " Do you have your next class here?" he asked.
" No" answered Ron.
" Then if you don't have anything to ask, go away. I'll give you two five seconds... after that I get to give you detention..." Percy thought for a second and then said, "... that goes for you too, Hermione."
" We do have to ask you something..." started Ron, Hermione interrupted by saying " Can we go and check something? It's for my care of magical creatures, extra credit assignment."
" Sure" said Percy as he walked off in the direction of the great hall.
" Why didn't you let me ask about why he needed the money for?"
" Because it's none of our business...and besides, he looked power hungry enough to give us detentions." Hermione quickly made for the back of Hagrid's hut.
Ron thought back to what his brother looked like and thought it was a good thing he had not challenged his brother right there. It could and would have ended up him in detention and Hermione would have been very upset with him for it. Hermione could tell by the mess it was behind the hut, that Percy had not had a chance to go there yet. It was perfectly understandable, as the only thing there was the Veloron and some of Hagrid's junk. Ron's heartbeat started to climb when the faint noise of the snarling beast started to become clearer. " What are we doing here again?"
" Shhhh..." Hermione asked for silence from Ron, as she slowly crept around the hut. Only about ten meters from the hut, she whispered to him, " I'm here to check something... you're here to cast a shielding charm on me"
" What! I'm not as good as you in Charms, I'm likely to the charm wrong."
" Be that as it may, My own shielding charm might not be strong enough."
Ron looked confused. " Didn't Harry have a shielding charm around him when he was with the Veloron?... I mean he can't be stronger than you, can he?"
" He might be. Remember, he's the one that's been fighting off Vold..." Ron shivered, " I mean You-Know-Who, for ages. I know, we had a hand in it in the first year, but we really did nothing else other than help him on the way. He's the one that faced Vold...You-Know-Who... alone. He's got to be strong to survive those attacks... not to mention he threw off two of the Imperius curses, before he was even 15 and he stood up to Cruciatus curse.... Then..."
" I get it. I get it. He's strong."
" Wait... I'll cast mine first and then when I tell you, you'll cast yours. I'll only get that..." she pointed to the white cloth on top a pedestal near the cage, " white covering..."
" I think I should go..." offered Ron.
" No... Your shield won't be strong enough."
" You cast a shielding charm on me then"
" No... Shielding charms are stronger when the person casting it is close by. That's why.."
" I know..." interrupted Ron, " If we go together, then the charm is gonna be stronger."
" But then there would be no one to get help is anything happens to one of us..." Ron looked rather glum, she kissed him on the cheek and said, " Thanks for the offer anyway. I'm going..."
Hermione's body was for a short time enveloped in a shimmering blue glow, before another layer of the same glow covered her, though this one was much lighter.
" Good luck" said Ron.
Few minutes later...
" I can't believe we made it!" said Ron, huffing, " Did...did..you get... it?"
" Yes!... that was a big rush!... Can you believe it!..."
" I can... The way it was doing..."
" yeah and then it..."
" yeah... then the fire..."
Whatever Ron and Hermione were talking about only they understood it. They went to the small bridge, which went over the small stream and sat down. They sat there a while catching up on their breath and contemplating what had happened a few minutes ago.
Hermione managed to get the cloth, but her curiosity got the better of her. She actually started to head for the mother Veloron. Cuddles as Hagrid called it, Scaly its real name. Sufficed to say, when Hermione was a bit too close for the creature's comfort, it fired a small ball of fire. It missed her by a mile, but it was enough to make Hermione realize that she should not treat the situation lightly. When Hermione reached Ron's location, making sure to carefully avoid the fireballs, the two of them took off.
" So what did you want to get that dinky little cloth for?"
" I wanted to check something..."
" What?"
" Remember, the white cloth that the Veloron cage had on top of it, when Hagrid brought it out the first day we had our class with him?"
He did, so he nodded and said, " Yeah...so what?"
" Well, after the incident with the Neville fainting, Hagrid asked me to put a charm on it to make it stick on to the cage."
" So? ...Where are you going with this?"
" Yesterday when we showed up in class, the cloth was on the ground and Harry was in front of the cage."
" Ohhhh!... you mean he broke your charm?... He broke your CHARM!" exclaimed Ron.
Harry being strong is one thing, but breaking another wizard's magic takes an awful lot of power. Specially, something that he was sure could not be removed using a simple "Finite incantem" spell.
" Either that or I did not word my charm properly." Ron looked at her astonished. Hermione had just admitted that done a spell wrong. It was almost as if Christmas had come early for Ron.
" But all your charms are done perfectly...aren't they?... I mean I remember trying to breakaway from the bodybind curses. I never managed to come close to it..."
" Dunder head, didn't you listen to what said?..I said I did not word my charm right. I did not say that I did not do the spell right."
" There's a difference?"
" Yes!... Wait!" said Hermione as she started to examine the cloth's every stitch and every stain. " Just as I suspected..."
" What?" asked Ron very eager.
" Harry's magical powers are growing..."
" Really?" Ron was outraged, but he did an exceptionally good job of hiding it.
" You know what else?"
" What?" asked Ron knowing he would regret asking the question.
" I think it's just the beginning... I think he's slowly becoming as strong as Voldemort...." Ron flinched, " oops"
" That's okay..." he said feeling queasy at the name, " How can you tell?"
" Look here..." she pointed to a small green stain on the towel. When Ron looked closely, it turned out to be a small green eye. It was eerie and it shimmered from time to time.
" What the hell is that?"
" It's the sign that the curse was broken forcibly... that's Harry's mark."
After lunch Hermione had Herbology and Runes class and after that she had her extra class of Muggle Studies. Most of the time that she had free, that day, she spent it reading the events that shaped the battle. This time however, there was a lot of more interesting information before she stumbled onto another long section of boring information. Some very interesting information came to light.
Things like how the author and Harry first met.
It had been a humid day. All day long I was expecting something big to happen. Nothing did. Nothing like what I was expecting anyway. I was sitting outside my house, when I saw a couple of local boys beating up another one. He was lighter in color. He was desperately trying to fight back with what little he knew. I knew the local boys, they went around and beat up people from the other clans and freemen. Normally I never took stock of what they did, the beating would never get any further than first blood. This one was different. As harsh as it seems, times were hard, and I did not get involved.
He was a stranger in a strange land, and he was being literally killed on the footpath, because no one dared to speak up for a freeman. I approached the youths and told them to leave him be. They obeyed. They obeyed not because I was respected, but because they were afraid of me, I had never tried to help anyone getting beaten up.
This boy, though unconscious began to heal himself. Admittedly rather slowly and not very well. It is not uncommon ability amongst wizards and witches in Morocco, it's very rare anywhere else. The only reason he ever made it alive that day was his remarkable healing ability. When he awoke, he wanted to get out of the city and asked for the direction England was in. He said he had to get back there. He had a tone of voice that suggested urgency. I told him of the war raging on, he behaved as though he had first heard of it. It was not until much later that he asked me, whether I wanted to help him reach his destination, Cartova Mountain Range. He never told me why he needed to go there. Not in the time I knew him, close to a year, that is how long it took us to get there while avoiding battles...
I do admit that I would not have done that if he had not paid me generously. But halfway through our journey I regretted the fact that I ever took the money. He was an enjoyable companion and a very good traveling mate. I paid him back every dime of the money before he left my side, to do something that made me proud that I taught him...
He captured Shozar Sebastian and brought about the end of a war lasting over five years.
As we progressed, I taught him how to defend himself. At first I had to get rid of the Tozan variation of the art he knew.... the next few pages had a detailed comparison of how the Tozan and Shoran methods of Septanic Dueling varied. (A/N: Though Hermione read through those with great enthusiasm, I won't elaborate.)
Problems they had....
Harold had a nasty way of getting into trouble when we had to pass through a town. Something about him, drew people to him. Almost at the end of our journey, there were a lot of cases when, a certain girl would pay attention to him and a local boy thinking that she was his, would cause trouble for Harold. But his lack of attention to the girl was one thing that made me think for a while that he did not favor them. It turned out to be untrue, as he told me how his story.
As it turned out that the girl he loved was in love with another. His rival and himself had taken part in a competition, in which the boy died. He remembered that when he first found out, how he wanted his rival to be dead. But they had grown closer, helping each other. When he died, he gave up all hope of ever achieving love for that girl.
The more Hermione read about Harold, the more that she wanted to know. That night she used Harry's invisibility cloak to break into the library. She found all the books she could on this Harold Parker person. Hermione was very disappointed to find that there was very little information on Harold. She went back into her dorm room and fell sound asleep... well she had a dream but it was not unpleasant.
It was a dream of a world without the threat of Voldemort hanging over good people.
(A/N: The next part is kind of an anecdote... so I talk in it like I was talking directly to the reader... It's just much more humorous that way.
Jessica Abernithy, Romano Ketchka, Abby Somerset, Madhu Chopra and Serena Appleby were an odd bunch indeed. A Hufflepuff 6th year prefect, A 5th year Ravenclaw Prefect & Chaser, two seventh year girls and one 6th year Slytherin prefect, though had a lot of differences, they had put them aside to achieve one goal. They had devised a plan that involved two of them keeping the headboy occupied, while the other three retrieve the things that they wanted form the unconscious body of Harry Potter. It would have had worked too, if it had not been for Alicia showing up when she did, a few minutes before she was supposed to be there. They had managed to get take off all of Harry's clothes off, except for his boxers. Alicia had shown up, just when they were about to take them off.
I know what you are thinking... oh no another story with a Harry Potter fanclub. No, this was not the function of the club. They called themselves the scavengers... well they should have been called that. They had no name for themselves.
If you worshiped the ground a person walked on, there was a lot of that happening in Hogwarts, and wanted to get a hold of their personal items (clothes, tooth brush and paste, shaving blades and things like that) for your personal shrine, these were the people to contact.
As odd as it may seem, there were no school rules for stealing other people's clothes! Stealing clothes, and other accessories were fine. They had a variety of ways to obtain what they wanted, and at the moment there was a great deal of demand for anything that had been worn by Harry Potter. At the beginning of the TriWizard Tournament championship it was Cedric's clothes that were in hot demand. They had used one of Cedric's roommates, back then.This was business, though all of them agreed getting a snapshot of a totally nude Harry Potter could be worth a lot of money to them. For this reason Serena had also brought along her camera.
" What the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled Alicia.
The girls had not expected Alicia to show up. Serena pointed her camera at Alicia and made it flash a few times at her. Disoriented and severely handicapped Alicia was in no condition to see anyone, let alone stop them from escaping.
" Get back here!... you...you..." said Alicia, before she started to firing random curses down the hallway, still blinded by the flash.
It took her several minutes to recover. In that time she used her wand to make it pour water, which she used then to keep washing her eyes. Once she was okay, she went to check on Harry. She was not sure, who the people she saw, but she knew that they were girls. ' Must be his fan club ' she thought.
Once she saw, that the girls had removed every, single piece of clothing off Harry, leaving him only in his boxers, she blushed furiously. She didn't think it was appropriate for her to see him like this, so she quickly covered him up with the blanket. Since Harry was with even less clothes than before she thought that she should get another blanket to compensate for that. So she went to the next bed and picked up the blanket from there and covered him up.
Harry felt bruised and battered when he awoke early on Saturday morning. Sleepy eyed, he looked out of his bed. Early morning gave him the impression that it was still, the same day as when he had fainted. Without his glasses, he could not see clearly. He sat up on the bed with much effort, began to search for his glasses on the table next to the bed. From the corner of his eye, he saw a green blob appear at the doorway. It looked at him, and then headed for where Madam Pomfrey's office was. Harry guessed someone had come to get something looked at. Harry then started to think about what he remembered about his dream. Voldemort... Karakauff... Snape! (must be on some kind of mission...)... Professor Dumbledore and the painful lightning... Then he thought he remembered two voices talking, but he was not sure.
" ahme..." said a very feminine voice.
" huh? Who is it?" Harry squinted his eyes.
" It's me... Alicia"
" What are you doing here?...don't you have dinner now?"
" Dinner?" she laughed, " Why would I have dinner at six thirty in the morning?"
Harry looked out the window and sure enough, he could see that the sun had risen a bit more in the sky.
" I slept for an entire day? Wow!"
Alicia giggled, " One day! No, you slept for two! All day yesterday and the day you fainted."
" By Merlin's beard! It must be Saturday now then! Todays' the Quidditch tryouts right?"
" Yeah... Hey! I brought some of your things for you."
" Presents?"
" err no..." she started to things out of her bag and put them on the table next to Harry's bed, " One trouser, one shirt, " she blushed and squeaked out the rest, "um... clean underwear...., toothpaste, toothbrush aaannnd..." the last word extended beyond what it was supposed to be, as she got something out of her bag. It was Harry's glasses. She unfolded them and put them on Harry. "... Your glasses."
" Thank..."said Harry, he felt a lump in his throat.
He croaked out something that Alicia could just barely make out. Harry had politely asked her, why she had his glasses?, since the last time he remembered, he had them on before fainting. Alicia rather reluctantly told him about what had happened the day before. When she told him about being in his boxers only, he quickly checked under the blankets, to make sure, he was not missing that too.
" Okay... I'll leave you to get dressed and then we'll take a walk. I already asked Madam Pomfrey, I suspected you'd want to leave as soon as possible. She wants you to come back and see her again in the evening... something about a last check up."
" Okay."
After Alicia went outside, Harry quickly went into the toilet. He wanted so much to find out what had happened in the time that he was asleep that he could not wait. In his hurry, Harry forgot his wand. He quickly retrieved the wand from the bedside cabinet and went back into the toilet. Before he did anything else, he made sure he got rid of the five o'clock shadow that he had acquired. He said a word and the tip of his wand glowed a purple colour, which changed to an orange when it made contact with Harry's face. As the tip glided over his skin the stables disappeared. Once fully dressed, he went out of the hospital wing with Alicia by his side.
" So, where do you want go?" she asked.
" I just want to walk a bit. I feel really tired. I think I haven't had anything to eat- did I?"
" err...no, I suppose not!"
" Oh... Okay, how about if we go to breakfast then. I think it's..." Harry looked to where his watch was. It was not there. " Well looks like I don't have watch. What time is it?"
Alicia checked her watch and said, " about seven. I think the hall is full now." She stopped and asked, " You sure you want go in? There's bound to be a lot of people there"
Harry thought for a second and said, " Yes! I'm very sure. I would have to face them eventually. Better now then later."
When they entered the great hall, every pair of eyes was on the pair. After a full minute, in which time no one dared to even breathe, except for most of the Slytherins everyone there rushed to where Harry was. It was almost half an hour before Harry could have his breakfast. He answered a variety of questions regarding the incident. Everything from if and what he had dreamed to if it hurt, how bad, what he saw when he woke up. Harry was never so glad to see Professor Snape enter the great hall. He threatened to take of points from all the houses, which got the attention of all the house prefects.
Alicia and the rest of them that were present busily moved the crowd back to their respective tables. Ron was the only person left there. Harry looked around for Hermione, but could not see her. " She's not here yet." said Ron, correctly guessing what his friend was searching for.
" Oh!" Harry was disappointed and did not hide it. He had hoped that him being close to death she might have had been more receptive to him, but since she was not present, he couldn't be sure how she would react to him. Ron was happy to see his friend again, he took Harry's hand and shook it, as he clapped Harry's back.
" Let's have something to eat" said Ron, guiding Harry to the table.
" Yeah. We can catch up in while we're doing this"
" Okay... you'll love it. The house elves have done something to these sausages... they taste even better they usually do."
Ron sat down on the opposite side of Harry on the table, while Harry took the seat next to Alicia. " So..." Harry looked expectantly at Ron, " What have I missed so far?"
" Well..." began Ron, " You missed the breakfast on Thursday, so I'm guessing you still don't know about Lee Jordan."
Harry was confused. He looked around the table and when he did not see him, he immediately assumed that something was wrong. " What happened? Is he ok? Did..Did Volde- I mean You-Know-Who get him? Was there an attack on..."
" Hey...hey!" said Alicia patting him on the back, " Relax. It's nothing serious-"
" Nothing serious!" exclaimed Ron, " I beg to differ. Snape has ousted him, from his commentating duties. The best commentator we've had for years...and now he's gone."
" It's a shame. Where is he? He must be heart broken." Asked Harry. Knowing that Lee had as much enthusiasm for the game, as anyone that he knew.
" He's been sulking around." Said Ron.
" Yeah, Right!" Alicia snorted. " He's been taking full advantage of the situation and he's getting any girl who would listen to him, to 'comfort' him. I think in the last two days he's managed to get himself dates until the end of this term."
This information brought a smile to his face. " Ok... what else?"
" Well... remember, just before you fainted how Malfoy had hit Hagrid with that spell that made him fly backwards"
Harry nodded.
" Well, he's been punished."
" How? Expelled?" Harry desperately hoped that would happen.
" No..." said Ron, barely containing his laughter, "He's...He's ...."
Ron tried several times, but he could not finish the sentence because, he burst into laughter and started to roll around on the ground.
" What?" Harry asked.
Alicia came to Ron's rescue. " He's been punished to clean the Prefects toilets"
" So..." Harry really did not think that cleaning the prefects' toile was really that much of a punishment.
" Well..." Alicia giggled, " Harry, He's been sentenced to clean the old prefects bathroom. Myrtle's been flooding that entire section of the castle since the middle of last year. She keeps saying something about a boy.... he has to clean the toilet..." Harry's face darkened slightly, before he heard that Malfoy had to clean the toile. He smiled, " with...with... I can't say it..." Alicia started to shake with laughter.
" Toothpick!" said Ron, taking a split second to finish off Alicia's comment, before he resumed his rolling on the ground. Harry burst into laughter as well. It was too much for him to keep his laughter in when he heard the word toothpick.
Hermione had spent the last hour, before the breakfast, convincing Parvati to take part in the Quidditch tryouts. In the end, Parvati agreed, if only to shut up Hermione. When Hermione reached the great hall, flanked by Parvati and Lavender, she saw Harry. All the guilt that she felt suddenly overcame her mind and she forgot all about what she wanted to do. Apologize to Harry. She ran, leaving Parvati and Lavender wondering what was it that made her do this. Until they saw Harry, Ron and Alicia in a fit of laughter, it did not make sense to them. By the time they realized it, Hermione was long gone.
Harry saw from the corner of his eyes, Hermione, he stopped laughing. Alicia noticed this. She leaned closer to Harry, after she stopped laughing, and said, " Go after her. I think, she'll listen now."
" You think so!"
" I know so." Alicia said in a all knowing kind of way. " If she doesn't tell her that, I said hello. She'll know what I mean."
" Huh?"
" Don't worry about it. Just go!" she urged him.
" Okay... Ron. I got to go..."
" Whatever..." Ron was still on the ground rolling with laughter. He did not even notice the strange looks that he was getting from the passing students.
The last time Harry had made the mistake of not looking in the library, this time he made it his first stop. Unfortunately, Hermione was not there. Harry quickly moved towards the Gryffindor common room. He went into his room and started to look for the 'Marauders Map'. He found it under his Invisibility cloak.
' Odd... I remember putting it under the broomstick caring kit...' Harry stopped thinking about the fact that someone might have had used his cloak or the Marauder's map, when he saw the caring kit. It was a gift from Hermione and it reminded him of her. He whispered, " I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
The brown piece of parchment started to fill with lines and dots. He found the Dot named "H. Granger" in their transfiguration room, the room that only he and she could access amongst the students.
' Perfect place to be alone...'
Harry made the mistake of leaving the Marauder's map, which made it hard for him to navigate through the castle. When he reached the wall and said the password the room opened up in front of him, it had been already fifteen minutes. It was only by chance that Hermione had decided to stay in the same room. He saw Hermione was practicing her stances for the tournament, from the door. There was a pile of books on the floor. Some of them were on Morocco and others were on Martial arts and wizard Dueling. He walked slowly towards her, before he found himself bumping into an invisible barrier. A shielding charm. Hermione's shielding charm might not have had been that powerful compared of Harry's, but hers was ingenious. It would take Harry a while to get through it, even though he could sense that only a very small fraction of Hermione's power was being used to sustain it. She could leave it up all day long and she would not be even weak.
" Hermione we have to talk-" started Harry, but she interrupted him.
" I don't want to." she said, as she pointed her wand at Harry and started to fire small fireballs directed all around Harry. They left scorch marks wherever they hit the wall, but Harry did not move at all when she did that. Either Hermione was a very poors marks woman - or she didn't want to really hit him.
" Hermione, do you want me to break through the shield and talk to you. Because I will."
" Try it!" Hermione challenged him. " You can't break it."
Hermione was sure of herself, even though she had seen how he broke the seal on the charm that she had placed on the Veloron cage. Hermione focused more on the place where Harry was likely to attack and try and break through it. To her astonishment, Harry did not try to use any spells to break through it.
Harry walked right up to the shield, and started to push the barrier with his two hands. Hermione could suddenly feel pressure building up on herself. She knew not the reason this was happening. She knew not, what Harry was doing. She had to bring the shield closer to herself, so that the pressure that built up would be relieved slightly. She was so busy bring in the shield closer to herself and strengthening it, she did not realise how close Harry was, until they were almost nose to nose. Suddenly noticing Harry in front of her face, Hermione panicked and dropped the shield for a split second.
It was all the time Harry needed to pin her to the ground. Harry was grinning. " Now... Will you listen to me?"
" Lemme go!" she squirmed under him
" No. You have to listen to me." His voice conveyed his mood. Grim determination, " Please listen to me... it's important."
Hermione looked at Harry's face and she noticed something that she had not before. He looked just like... " Oh! My God!... It's you isn't it?"
" Who? What?" his grip on her loosened. Hermione took the opportunity to try and free her arms and legs. It did not work. Harry had a hold of her that was almost impossible to break. Not unless Harry moved and he knew that. So he did not move.
" It's you... you're Harold! I can't believe that! You little..." Hermione searched for a name to call Harry, but she could not find anything.
" Oh that! Yes... That's what I was going tell you!"
" When?... after the end of the year... when we graduate?"
" No!" Harry was determined in his conviction. " On Wednesday. If you hadn't blown up on me, I would have had told you then!" Harry moved and let go of her, before standing up.
Hermione's face colored.
" Look..." Harry said, offering his hand to her.
" Thanks." She said, as she took it.
" you're welcome... Look... I wanted to tell you from the beginning. I thought I was going to tell you today on the first day back, but when I saw how deeply you were thinking in history class, well I thought that I better tell you sooner than that. Then you get mad at me for beating you in Charms and then..."
" That's not why..." Hermione interrupted.
" Huh?" Harry was confused. He had thought Hermione was jealous of him. Though, if what he thought Hermione had meant, then that would mean Hermione was never jealous of him. This news was a welcome. But then he had no idea what the real reason for it could be then.
Harry saw a brown flash, before Hermione clamped onto him, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. " Oof" he cried. When he got a chance at looking at her face, he was surprised to see that Hermione had a silent tear running down her cheek. They had gone slightly pink, because of how flustered she felt. He put his hand on her cheek and wiped the tear away. " Why are you crying?"
" Harry... please forgive me..." she looked up to his confused face.
" For what?"
" For getting mad at you... for pushing you to the ground... for making you think that I didn't like you as a friend anymore...for trying to make you break through the shield...for..."
" That's ok... I was never mad at you..." Hermione made a face at him, " Okay... just a little, but its okay now." He stroked her hair, before very unlike him he hugged her back.
" No... that's not why I was really upset. You see Parvati explained it to me."
" She did..." said Harry, " It wouldn't be along the lines of you being in love with me would it" he said, wanting to avoid that area of discussion. He felt for her as the sister that he never had and besides there was Ron who really liked her.
Hermione pushed Harry away, like suddenly he smelled of garbage, " No!..."
" Good. 'cause, I don't think I can go another year of that hanging over my head. Remember last year, after Rita's article...No offence, but I only like you as a friend"
" I'm heart broken!" Hermione faked being hurt, " No... it's because, I though you wouldn't need me to be you friend anymore. I was the one who always was the smart one in the group, and now that you could be just as good as me, I didn't think you'd like to be my friend anymore..."
Harry interrupted, " That's not the reason that I befriended you! When you go through something like what happened on that Halloween of the first year... you become friends. You can't help it. You've stuck by me at the end of that year and gave me strength to face Voldemort, granted that you would not have had been expelled because of your charms high mark, but you still took a chance with your life to help us. You were the one, who got petrified because, you figured out that the basilisk was the one hurting people. You were the one that was with me when we saved Snuffles and Buckbeak. But you did the most for me in my fourth year...
Harry avoided using the word, "last year", because to Harry his fourth year was almost a year ago.
" ...you were the only person, in the whole school, who believed that I did not put my name in the goblet. You believed me when the entire school didn't- wait, I said that already. You believed me when Ron didn't. Because of me you have to share the pain that I go through every time I have a dream involving Voldemort. Because of me you life is always in danger. I can't ask anything more from you, if I wanted to."
Hermione hugged him again. This time she didn't let go until Harry started to wheeze, because of the lack of air.
" My life is not in danger because of you. If it weren't for you and Ron I would be dead and buried now. The shared nightmares... you have a very selective memory. You seem to forget that I told you that, it was a very small price for what I'm capable of doing now. By the way when are we going get to astralproject?"
"err... I've tried to do that several time, but it's really hard. I can't even get out of my own body. I'll try a lot harder from today... but it might be a while before we can do it again. Even after I can get out, I have to go to you room and then...."
Harry absentmindedly pushed Hermione's glasses up her nose, as they were dangerously close to the end of her nose and ready to fall at a second's notice.
".. I have to..."
" I get the point Harry."
" Well, What do we do now?"
" You're telling me exactly want happened after you apparated with that horrid creature"
" it's pretty grim and there's a lot of blood and violence in there. You might not want to know about it..."
" I'm not a baby and... " Hermione stopped in the middle of her sentence and asked, " Harry?"
" Hmm?"
" how long were you in Morocco. The books vary. One says that you were there for three years and one says that you were there for only three months. How old are you now? How did you get past the two day limit on the time turners, how did you hide you scar, and ...."
" I'll start way at the beginning. Right after we met the Nundu. Is that ok?"
" Very..."
" Okay..." started Harry," It is one of those days. Not too bright, not to too dark. It was a day like any other, it was a day that I..."
Hermione interrupted, " Will you just get on with it?"
" Okay... Right after, I landed..."
<<~~~>>
END OF CHAPTER
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