A/N:
Heh, heh, here's the next section, hope you like how I resolved the evil cliffhanger from yesterday. R/R!
*****
Chapter 16
Before he even knew what was happening, Harry was at Hermione's side, completely transformed back to his human state.
"HERMIONE!" He screamed at her eagle-spread body. Tears overwhelmed him, and he didn't bother to hold them back. Around him everyone was looking on in utter shock, everyone beginning to sob.
Harry leant down and kissed Hermione's forehead. "Please, Hermione, tell me you'll be alright. Please," His last words were spoken in a mere whisper, and as he cried into her hair his hands brushed down the side of her neck.
Thump…Thump…Thump…
Harry readjusted his fingers on her neck, wiping away his tears. He felt it again.
Thump…Thump…Thump…
"She has a pulse!" Harry screamed, picking her up in his arms and fingering his glove with the embedded orb.
"I need you Snitch, please come, hurry…"
Less than a second later the dragon appeared in front of him. Ignoring the gasps from everyone surrounding him, he grabbed Snitch by the tail and spoke in Parseltongue, "Hospital wing. Now!"
He felt the familiar sensation of being rushed forward through the wind (as had happened the last time) and when Harry opened his eyes again he was standing in the hospital wing, clutching Snitch with one arm, and Hermione with the other.
Madam Pomfrey was looking at him, astonished, and Harry quickly spoke up, choking out every word.
"Please…Poppy…help…Hermione…please…tell…not dead…" Madam Pomfrey took Hermione and laid her in the nearest bed, then returned to Harry.
"Mr. Potter, I need you to tell me exactly what happened if I am going to be able to help her."
'To hell with keeping the true nature of the lessons a secret!' Harry thought. "We were in the forest, practicing our animagus transformations with Moony, Tonks, and McGonogall," The school nurse's eyes widened in surprise, but Harry continued anyways.
"I, I transformed," Every word was harder and harder to say. "In-into a basilisk," Pomfrey gasped loudly, covering her mouth with both of her hands, fear and astonishment playing in her eyes.
"I-I was l-looking right at Hermione when I did it, but she still has a pulse, please tell me that she's going to be fine." His head was in his hands, and he was sobbing uncontrollably.
Madam Pomfrey rapidly did a quick check over of Hermione, and came back to Harry a few minutes later, relief easily depicted in her eyes. She smiled at Harry.
"She's going to be fine Harry," His heart leapt with joy. She was alive! He hadn't killed her! Pomfrey continued. "She was just knocked unconscious, that's all. How she survived the stare of a basilisk, I do not know, but she will be fine by morning."
"I believe that I may be able to answer that Poppy." Came a new voice from the entrance to the hospital wing. Harry turned to see the familiar face of an old man with a long, white beard and sparkling eyes.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and stepped towards the bed where Hermione lay, looking so innocent and peaceful in sleep. "I believe Harry, that while you did successfully turn into the basilisk, your eyes, or rather, the basilisk's, had not quite yet reached their true power when you laid your eye on young Miss Granger." His eyes sparkled dangerously. "But I daresay, that a few more seconds and your beloved Hermione would be in a never-ending slumber of death."
Harry didn't know whether to cry or smile, so he simply stood and threw himself around the headmaster in an intense hug. Dumbledore patted him on the back lightly before breaking the contact and turning to leave.
A sudden thought struck Harry. "Wait, Albus!" Harry wasn't sure what had possessed him to call the headmaster 'Albus' but he ignored that and continued.
"Look, if that didn't kill Mione, than it was like, an incomplete transformation, right?" Dumbledore nodded, confusion in his eyes.
"Yes, one could say that."
Harry continued. "Then would it be possible for a person that is an animagus such as myself to intentionally do an incomplete transformation?"
Dumbledore frowned slightly, but nodded. "Yes, Harry, I believe that you could partially transform into the basilisk, but why, may I ask."
Harry gave him a small smile. "So I could transfigure only my eyes?"
Understanding flashed through the headmaster's eyes. He smiled lightly. "Ah, yes, of course Harry. And with your glasses, the stare would not kill, but rather petrify. A very daring and innovative idea, if I do say so myself. You will want to use this in battle, I presume?"
Harry nodded in conformation. Dumbledore smiled almost forcibly. "Although I am against most acts of hostilities Harry, I do agree with this sentiment. Yes, Harry I will inform Professor McGonogall and she can help you learn to do this. But Harry, you must be careful. Although this may prove a powerful weapon on your enemy, than it will be the same on your friend."
Dumbledore left him with these words, and Harry thought for about half a second before deciding. 'I'll do it, Hermione and I'll just have to come up with a charm to stop the basilisk stare from being harmful to our own forces while our enemies are petrified one by one without a clue of how it is happening.'
He smiled and returned to Hermione's bedside, brushing a stray hair from her beautiful face. He leaned in and kissed her softly, then turned as he felt Pomfrey coming up behind him.
"Don't even think about it Madam Pomfrey. I'm staying with Hermione tonight and that's final."
Harry then refocused his gaze to the love of his life, and Pomfrey walked away, this time without her usual protests and grumbling. Harry knew he wasn't going to fall asleep any time soon, so he turned to Snitch, who was perched on Hermione's bedside rail.
"Hey Snitch, do me a favor?"
"Of course."
"Will you go to my dorm and bring me back my broom and the servicing kit? I think it's about time that I finally put the finishing touches on it."
The dragon dissaparated without a sound, and Harry turned back to Hermione, stroking her face lovingly.
"I love you so much it hurts Hermione," He spoke from the deepest depths of his heart. "It hurts so much to see you in pain, even more so because it was my fault. Everything's my fault Hermione, if it weren't for me you wouldn't have been dragged into this mess."
He allowed himself a smile, knowing that Hermione would be snapping at him right now for suggesting that this was all his fault and that she wanted to be a part of this 'mess'.
"That's why I'll never leave you. If I left you, I wouldn't be protecting you, I'd be killing you. I have to stay close to you to make sure that you're okay, even if I'm not," He leaned down and put the most loving of kisses on her lips.
"Your life means more to me than mine does. I would die for you in a heartbeat, you have so much more to look foreword to than I do, and you deserve so much. I love you with all of my heart."
He kissed her hand tenderly, then was snapped out of his stupor by Snitch returning with the broom and the servicing kit, along with something Harry hadn't asked for - a photo album.
Harry laid the broom and the servicing kit aside, and looked at all the photos in the book, a smile playing on his face. He had no doubt whatsoever what he would do with his broom now.
He grabbed the broom by its handle and quickly muttered a simple incantation that turned the entire broom emerald green.
Next he used a copying spell to take one of the pictures out of the album, than a pasting and wrapping spell to secure the picture on the tail end of the broom, completely enveloping the part of the broom that would have been nothing but bristles in the muggle world.
Thinking of the muggle world, he charmed the photo so that it would be a stand-still, and unmoving. Harry had actually always preferred photos that way anyways.
Next he took out a thin, long, golden engraver, and turned his attention to the hilt of the broom.
In small, but easily readable, golden letters, Harry engraved the name of his new broom on forever.
The Marauder.
He turned the broom around so that he could see the back and grinned at the photo of his father, Sirius, and Remus, all beaming proudly at the camera.
He laid the now-completed broom to the side and crawled onto the bed with Hermione, adrenaline gone and the past few days lack of sleep finally catching up to him.
He wrapped his arm around Hermione, holding her close, and nuzzling his face deep into the back of her neck he fell into a blissful slumber.
It was a dark and stormy night, rain pelted the black robes of the death eaters that surrounded the dark lord, Voldemort.
The evil one spoke, "You are all here today because in just a few short moments, the dementors will leave Azkaban and join us in our fight for the eradication of all mudbloods on the planet."
Surprised and happy murmurs rose from the crowd, and Voldemort shushed them all with a wave of his wand.
"Now, we will have some of our most loyal servants among us once again. All those lost in the Department of Mysteries will rejoin us in a few short moments."
His eyes narrowed and he glared at every death eater in turn.
"Now we only need to rid ourselves of that pest Potter before we begin our reign. He is strong, I will not deny that, and he could be our undoing."
A wicked smile spread across his face.
"No doubt Dumbledore has him in advanced training right now, but no matter, the plan is in motion, Potter has already began to fall for it. When he - POTTER!"
Harry flinched when he heard Voldemort hiss his name. The dark lord began to chuckle.
"Attempting to use my own mind against me, are you Potter? You are no match for me. You are a mere shadow of your father, and I did away with him with little difficulty."
The death eaters snickered among themselves, and Harry began to speak, amazing even himself, through Voldemort's lips.
"I would hate to see you rid the world of all mudbloods and half-bloods," Harry sneered through Voldemort's mouth. "Because then you'd have to kill yourself, now wouldn't you Tom?"
Harry pulled himself from the man's mind before he could be attacked in any way, shape, or form, and left Voldemort to deal with Harry's accusations.
Would he lose followers if they knew that he was a half-blood? Well it couldn't hurt to try.
Harry woke up slowly, taking a few minutes to remember where he was. When he saw Hermione smiling at him, her face inches from his own, he remembered the horrific night.
"Good morning Harry," She said, giving him a gentle peck on the lips. "Mind telling me why we're in the infirmary?"
Harry, as gently as he could, relayed to her the previous night. She was shocked by some parts of it, but she smiled in the end. Harry did not tell her about his littler heart-felt speech, though he had an inkling that Hermione knew he had said something anyways.
"So, anything else happen last night?" She said giggling and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "I mean, we did sleep in the same bed together."
Harry started to chuckle until he remembered the dream. He slapped himself hard on the forehead.
"No! The dream! I forgot! I have to tell Dumbledore!"
"Harry, what's going on?" Hermione asked nervously, reaching out and stroking Harry's cheek in concern.
He told her all about the dream, when he finished, she had a horror-stricken look on her face.
"Let's go."
Together they bolted from the hospital wing all the way to Dumbledore's office. After yelling out the password, they ran into Dumbledore's office, and spotted him behind his desk.
He looked up with sad eyes, and Harry realized that he already knew, but he also knew much more.
Harry gasped in realization.
"Who died?"
Chapter 17
Dumbledore gave them a sad, tired, and rather old look, as if his age was finally catching up to him. The great sorcerer sighed.
"I assume you already know of the breakout at Azkaban?" He asked, and Harry nodded.
"Yes sir, I dreamt it. I talked to Voldemort himself. He said something about a plan I had already started to fall for, and then he said that he would rid the world of all muggle borns and half-bloods. So no new news there." He gulped, wondering how Dumbledore would take the rest of the news. "Then I called him Tom and said - so that all the death eaters could hear - that if he killed all of the half bloods he would have to kill himself. Then I left, of my own free will."
To Harry's utmost surprise, Dumbledore chuckled. "So now the death eaters are plagued with a thought of their master not being a pureblood as he claims." Dumbledore let out a deep, sad breath, readjusting his glasses that had slipped down his nose.
"One piece of good news from last night, I suppose. The rest, as you may guess, is horrible."
Harry and Hermione said nothing, only waited and stared, the firelight reflecting the determination in their eyes.
"There are at least twenty dead," Hermione gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. Harry grasped her hand in support.
"All of them, I am afraid, were friendly. We also lost five from the order."
Harry held his breath, preparing himself for the worst.
Dumbledore continued. "Emmeline Vance, Dedalus Diggle, Hestia Jones, Horace Frances, and…" Dumbledore fiddled with the quill in his hands, twirling it between his fingers like a first year in History of Magic class.
"The fifth death, I'm sorry to say, was Bill Weasley."
Harry sat down hard, not caring that there was no chair under him. Hermione fell right next to him and wept into his chest. Dumbledore eyed them both gravely.
"Mister and Misses Weasley have already been summoned, they will be here momentarily. I thought that you, Harry, should be the one to break this to them. You are the closest to the family, and although you did not know Billius as well as the rest of the Weasley's I believe that the two of you were rather friendly acquaintances, no?"
Harry could only nod. He couldn't believe it. Bill…dead. It was to much. Ron and Ginny would be crushed. Ginny especially, Harry knew that Bill had always been her favorite brother.
Hermione found her voice first. "But, but Professor Dumbledore, sir. Bill is a code-breaker, why, what was he doing in Azkaban?"
Dumbledore's face fell even more, if that was possible. "Order business." He barely whispered, and Harry and Hermione nodded in understanding.
Bill had died because he was in the Order of the Phoenix. That would not go over well with Mrs. Weasley.
A few minutes later, Ron and Ginny, both looking tired and bewildered, came into the room. Harry stood up and gave them each a solid hug, Hermione following his lead, did the same.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, fear etched into his voice, as if he knew that the response would not be a favorable one.
Harry sighed. There would be no point in beating around the bush here. "The dementors left Azkaban, and took all the prisoners with them." Both fire-headed wizards gasped.
Harry continued, tears falling freely. "Ron, Ginny, I'm so sorry," He whispered, hoping vainly that maybe the news would be easier to take in a quiet voice. "Bill was killed."
Ron's eyes drooped in disbelief, but he knew the truth. He fell to the floor, face in his hands. Ginny was another problem altogether.
"NO!" She screamed, shaking her head violently while tears cascaded down her cheeks. "NO! NOT BILL! ANYONE BUT BILL! PLEASE TELL ME IT WASN'T BILL! HE WAS, HE IS, NOOOOO!"
She fell to the ground, and before anyone could help her, she started thrashing uncontrollably, foam appearing at the corner's of her mouth, her face broken out in a cold sweat.
"No, not Bill," She sobbed, a foot thrashing towards Harry. "Impossible," She choked and foam spilled out of her mouth and down her chin. Harry and the others looked on, aghast at what they were seeing.
She continued to convulse on the ground, body parts writhing as if she was under the cruciatus curse. Then she spun over to the side and began to retch violently.
"Not Bill!" Retch. "Please, anyone but Bill!" She hurled again, covering the floor with her dinner. Harry turned away, he couldn't watch anymore.
Ginny continued to writhe and retch all over the floor, steam nearly visible coming off of her forehead, before her eyes rolled up to the back of her head and she passed out.
"Ginny?" Ron asked, shaking her, uncaring of the filth that now covered his hands. "GINNY!"
His hands fell to her neck. "Oh Merlin, Professor Dumbledore, her pulse is so weak, and," He leaned his ear to her mouth. "AND SHE'S NOT BREATHING!"
By this time Madam Pomfrey had rushed into Dumbledore's office and to Ginny's side. Dumbledore had obviously contacted her when Ginny started to convulse.
Immediately Pomfrey conjured a stretcher immediately, a very concerned and worried look on her face. "She's having some kind of attack," She spat out hurriedly, placing Ginny gently onto the stretcher.
"I'm not sure yet, but it could be a nervous breakdown, or simple shock, or it could be much worse." She shuddered. "It may be Wizard Stress Meningitis." This time Dumbledore shuddered, Hermione let out a small squeak, Ron's face paled to a ghostly white.
"Huh?" It was times like these that Harry hated the fact that he was very ignorant of the world to which he belonged.
As she rushed the young Weasley from the room, she shot over her shoulder one of the worst things Harry had ever heard in his life.
"A wizard form of Meningitis. The brain becomes inflamed after a great loss to an individual with all of that certain witch or wizards potential magic. It overloads the brain and the patient begins to vomit their food, then the acids from their stomach, until finally blood is finally drawn in from the blood stream and is retched until there is to little blood left for the patient to survive."
Harry was awestruck once again. Ginny was a very powerful witch - all of the Weasley's were. If her magic was locked away in her brain…he didn't want to think about it. But she was his friend, and he had to help her.
He turned to Hermione. "Come on Hermione, let's go back to those physics notes. Maybe we can figure something new out to help her?"
Hermione sniffed and nodded. Harry, with one last sad glance to Ron and Dumbledore, took her hand and led her from the headmaster's office.
They didn't talk much on the way back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry's thoughts were on the Weasley's. they had never lost anyone in their family before. How would they take it? Would they pull out of the war? A horrible thought struck Harry. What if they took Ron and Ginny out of Hogwarts? What if they thought they were all doomed to die and they wanted to spend the rest of their lives in peace?
Harry was snapped out of his thoughts at the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Linkin Park." Harry muttered the new password - some kind of muggle band or something.
They still did not speak all the way up to Harry's room, where they found a very nervous Dean, Seamus, and Neville waiting for them. They all eyed him in question, and he answered their unspoken question, thinking it better to give them the truth right away.
"The dementors left Azkaban tonight and took the prisoners with them back to Voldemort." Everyone gasped, Dean and Seamus both flinching at the name.
Harry sighed and wiped away his tears. "Upwards of forty people were killed. Bill Weasley was one of them."
This elicited even louder gasps from the group, and Dean made to tear from the room to find Ginny, but Harry stopped him. "It gets worse. You all know how close Ginny was to Bill right?"
Everyone nodded. "Well, she had a sort of, attack after she heard the news." He sighed deeply. "Pomfrey thinks she may have Wizard Stress Meningitis."
This time Dean did bolt from the room, Neville close on his heels. Seamus just dropped back on his bed with his hands over his eyes, not saying a thing.
"Hey, Seamus, Hermione's going to stay here tonight, alright? We have some work that we have to do."
Seamus snorted and replied, "Yeah, just use a silencing charm."
Harry would have torn Seamus' head from his shoulders if he hadn't known the boy so well. In Seamus' view, there are two outlooks on the world. One, you can take everything seriously and do what everyone expects of you in a given situation. And two, you can take life as one long joke and find humor around every corner, making life fun and worth the effort. Seamus (along with the Weasley twins) obviously fall into the latter category.
Harry led Hermione to his bed and sat down on it, pulling the hangings closed around them. He sighed and laid back, and immediately Hermione jumped on him.
She kissed him hard and forcefully, her fingers intertwining roughly with the back of his untidy hair. Harry pulled her closer, breaking the kiss (which got a disapproving groan from Hermione) and began to kiss the nape of her neck, then again on the mouth.
They kept at it for a few minutes before Harry finally pushed her away, gasping desperately for breath. "We can't do this now, no matter how much we want it, we aren't ready. We also have work to do."
Hermione reluctantly nodded, but threw herself into Harry's chest, sobbing uncontrollably. "Harry, I-I don't ever want to lose you!" She sobbed, her tears soaking a puddle straight through Harry's undershirt.
He held her close as she continued. "Oh Harry, if my parents died, it would be ever so dreadful, but I would get through it, I know I would. Even with Ron, if he died, I could get over it eventually. But-but with you Harry," She sniffed back her tears and looked into his eyes, cupping each of his cheeks in her hands.
"If you died, I couldn't go on." She cried again, pounding a fist into Harry's chest, not caring whether Seamus could hear them or not. "You're, like, a part of me. I can't live without you. Don't ever do that to me Harry. Please promise me that you'll never die."
Harry cried with her and pulled his face into her bushy locks, murmuring, "I-you know I can't promise you that, the prophecy…" This only made her wail louder, reminiscent of the wails that Winky had let out back in their fourth year. He quickly decided to change tactics.
"But I can promise you that I will always be with you," He caressed her cheek softly, calming her slightly. "Whether in body or in spirit, I'll never leave you. If I ever die, I promise that I'll always look over you. There's no one else but you Hermione, there never has been, there never will be."
Hermione, despite her tears, managed a genuine smile, gracing her already beautiful features with a brilliant glow. She leaned up and gave him the most loving of kisses.
"I love you."
"I love you."
She smiled and kissed him again, and Harry eagerly returned it.
"Okay," Hermione said, finally stopping the kiss. "Now for physics."
"Er, wha? Oh, yeah, uh, physics." Harry said in a voice reminiscent of Goyle, causing Hermione to go into a fit of giggles.
Harry smirked at her and pulled out their books. Hermione leaned her head back into Harry's chest, twirling her hair in her fingers, and sighed. "All pain occurs in the mind…"
Harry gave her an odd look. "Huh?"
Hermione gave a sigh that said she had read this in some book. "I read that in a muggle psychology book over the summer. It's also physiologically correct. As your brain is the only part of the body with the ability to think, nothing else can experience pain. When you say, get hit in the wrist by a bludger," She smirked at him, but he just stared at her, suddenly very interested.
"Go on."
She gave a pleasurable moan as she laid back against the backboard of the bed with Harry holding her tightly. "You see, the brain is too complicated to understand its own complexity. When you hurt your arm, the nerves there send a message to your brain, telling it that the body has been injured. The brain then relays a message back that says there is pain in that area, when in fact there is not, because only the brain can truly feel pain. So the brain, and no one knows how, makes us believe that there is pain in our arm when there is not. Do you understand?"
In response Harry pulled her to him and kissed her deeply. When they pulled away he was smiling broadly. "You're brilliant Hermione!"
She smiled sheepishly, blushing a little, and responded with, "I know."
Harry laughed and pulled her closer. "Don't you see? The cruciatus curse!" Hermione's eyes widened. "It's not body control, but rather mind control. In fact, all magic must be a manipulation of the mind! If we can block the path to our mind from being manipulated, then we can stop any curse that is thrown at us!"
Hermione gasped, throwing one of her slender hands over her completely desirable mouth.
"And," Harry continued, realizing more as he went along. "That means that the cruciatus curse, when used excessively, will manipulate the mind into not working at all, but it is possible to block, in fact, the energy could probably be drained out! Which means…"
Harry drifted off, seeing if Hermione would catch on. She did.
"Oh my God Harry!" She nearly screamed. "We could save Neville's parents!"
Chapter 18
After a long night of going over theory after theory, and searching through many anatomical and physiological textbooks, Harry and Hermione were determined that they could bring Neville's parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, back to full health with a complex potion.
"Okay, we'll need grafstain roots for the penetration," Hermione stated in her know-it-all voice, but Harry didn't mind that right now. He was too transfixed on the idea of helping Neville and how beautiful Hermione was.
"Then we'll need some strango seeds for the swelling, and a few bronci horns for the actual cleansing. Then obviously we'll need some charfrain to stop the blood loss, and finally we'll need a few drops - four, I expect - of verinsium to expel all of the magic."
She smiled at Harry. "We can do this, I know we can. So do you want to tell Neville then?" Harry grinned back at her and nodded.
Together they walked down the Gryffindor Boys staircase (eliciting a few strange looks from a couple of second years that were huddled around Basic Book of Spells, Grade 2) and out the portrait hole into the cold, drafty, corridors.
Harry pulled Hermione to his chest and wrapped his robes around her as she nestled her head on his shoulder. She wrapped an arm around his waist and they walked in peace to the hospital wing, where they found Dean and Neville, both their eyes dried up from tears, huddled together over Ginny's bed.
"Neville, a private word?" Harry asked, and Neville turned to them with a perplexed look on his still slightly chubby face. Sighing at the sight of Ginny sleeping rather poorly on the bed, he got up and trudged over towards them.
Harry pulled him out into the hallway and smiled at him. "I have great news for you Neville, really great."
The young man sighed in exasperation. "It's about time we had some of that, I don't know if Ginny will ever pull out of this, so I could use some good news right about now. What is it?"
Harry grinned at him and placed a triumphant hand on his shoulder. "Hermione and I were going through some books tonight and we figured something out, something big, huge. The best thing is that this involves you personally."
Harry paused. Neville, very attentive for it being seven o'clock in the morning after a night in which he did not sleep, said, "Okay, you've got my attention. Now what's this all about."
Harry smiled broadly. "We've discovered how to make a potion that would cure your parents."
These simple words were the greatest thing to ever grace the ears of Neville Longbottom. He did not look at them questionably, or like they were insane. He knew they would never lie about something this important. A wide smile spread across his face as his eyes filled up with tears of happiness.
"When, when can we make it? I'll help in any way I can, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Hermione smiled at him. "I expect that the potion will take about a week to make, and then it will have to sit for a few days and be stirred regularly before it reaches its potential. Neville, you could have your parents back by Christmas."
Neville gave them both grand hugs as he let the tears fall. "W-What do we need? The ingredients, I mean."
Hermione started ticking them off her fingers. "We need grafstain roots, strango seeds, bronci horns, charfrain, and about four drops of verinseum. We'll need to add the horns first, followed by the strango seeds, stir counter-clockwise for a few hours, then put in the grafstrain and stir four times clockwise, then let the potion sit for three hours and add four drops of verinseum. Finally we'll need to continuously stir clockwise until the potion turns red, then switch to counter-clockwise until it goes emerald green." She smiled at Harry, staring into his eyes.
Neville spoke up. "Done. I'll start now, the sooner the better. I can find most of that in the students cabinets, and I guess I'll have to get a note from Professor Dumbledore so I can have access to Snape's ingredients for the verinseum. I'll see you guys later!"
Harry smiled at the retreating boy's back before returning his gaze to Hermione. He kissed her softly on the nose. "You are brilliant, you know that?"
She smiled back at him, kissing him on the cheek. "And you are a flatterer, you know that?"
She giggled and Harry replied, "Yes, I am." They both fell into a fit of giggles and they reentered the hospital wing and made their way to Ginny's bed, which was in the far right corner of the room.
Harry laid a hand on Dean's shoulder and said in a soft voice, "How's she doing?"
Dean sighed and leaned back, rubbing his blood-shot eyes. "It's definitely WSM, it's only a matter of time now to see whether or not she pulls through. I think she's going to be fine, she's so strong and all." He sighed again, sadly this time, and lowered his head in shame.
"And I'm going to have to break her heart when she wakes up."
Harry and Hermione were very taken aback at this. "Why?"
"Because when I was here with Neville all night, I came to some realizations. I'm not in love with Ginny. I mean, I lover her, as a friend, but that's just it. She's my best friend, nothing more." He gave a low chuckle. "It's sort of the opposite for you two, isn't it? You guys were best friends first, fell in love later. We dated first, became friends later. Best friends."
He looked pointedly at Harry. "She is my best friend, and I do love her, but I'm pretty sure that Neville is in love with her. You know what I mean?"
Hermione nodded. "Yeah, I love Ron, I really do, but I'm not in love with him. Where is he anyways?" She asked, just now noticing that their red-headed best friend was nowhere in sight, and he hadn't been in the dorms earlier.
Dean shrugged as he turned away from them, applying a wet cloth to Ginny's forehead. "I dunno, haven't seen him at all. He never came in here. I wonder where he is?"
Harry frowned at the news. He hoped that Ron wasn't doing something stupid.
A few minutes later they left for the Gryffindor common room, but Harry had no intentions of going back to sleep anytime soon. As they reached his room (after shaking off a group of excited third years that were convinced that Ginny had just battled You-Know-Who) Harry headed to his trunk and pulled out The Marauder. He turned and smiled at Hermione, taking her hand.
"Flying lessons."
Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Harry silenced her with a finger to her lips. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, so that they could not be overheard, "If you are going to be a phoenix animagus, you're going to have to learn to fly. In fact, I think you should naturally be a great flyer if your animagus form is a phoenix. You just have to let go of your fear. Believe me, when you're in the air, everything else disappears, it doesn't matter. It's you and nature up there, and I'll be with you too. Come on, let's go."
He nibbled her ear lobe, making her giggle. She followed Harry out the portrait hole and down to the quidditch pitch. The breeze was strong, but satisfyingly warm and gentle to the touch. Harry pulled out his broomstick, and mounted it for the first time.
He flashed Hermione a brilliant smile and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I'll be back before you can say-"
"quidditch!" Hermione finished for him, bursting into a fit of giggles. Harry smiled at her, wondering why he had ever thought that giggling should be illegal. It was one thing when it was a group of friends hanging around the girl that he liked, but Hermione's giggles were sweet and peaceful to his ears.
Harry kicked off the ground and flew straight up into the morning sky, spinning corkscrews in an upwards spiral. When he reached roughly two hundred feet (he had a charm that would make the broom warm up slightly when over an altitude of two hundred feet, and one that would cool it down if he dropped under ten) he looked down and spotted Hermione, who was waving up at him with a beautiful smile on her face.
Harry leaned forward on the broom and dove.
WHOOSH!
It was faster than he could have ever imagined. He was ten feet off the ground in less than five seconds. At ten feet he pulled up on the broom, and at five feet he was completely level with the ground.
Yep. The broom was brilliant.
He looped over and found Hermione, landing next to her. He dismounted the broom and handed it to her. "Your turn, love."
She gave him a nervous smile and shook her head. She straddled the broom with Harry's guidance, and finally she was ready to lift off.
"You'll be fine Mione." Harry whispered to her, nuzzling his lips into her neck. "Just let it overtake you, and before you know it, you'll be having the time of your life."
Taking a deep breath she kicked off the ground and shakily rose into the air. Grinning, Harry pulled out his wand and sent a gust of wind under her, forcing her robes to temporarily fly up, exposing her long, beautiful legs, both covered in her white undergarments, but it was a wonderful sight, nonetheless.
"Harry!" She exclaimed, trying to be angry, but her giggling gave her away. After that, she lost all of her nervousness and started to fly. By watching her, one could never tell this was her first true time on a broom. It was just as Harry thought, she was a natural.
After watching for about half an hour, a voice from behind Harry startled him. "Bloody hell, is that Hermione!?"
Ron goggled at the sight of his best friend pulling evasive loops and corkscrews trough the goalposts and diving straight at the ground, only to pull up at the last second.
Finally she came down, her smile brighter than the morning sun. "Harry, you were right! It was just so, so, natural up there. It was perfect!" She gave him a soft peck on the cheek before turning to face Ron.
"Good morning Ron. Are you okay?" She asked, hoping to Merlin that he did not go through what Ginny was experiencing in the hospital wing at that very moment.
He sighed and shook his head. "No, but I will be." He grinned at his two best friends. "I was just in the kitchen, I had Dobby make me some pancakes and waffles," He paused and grinned. "And eggs, cinnamon rolls, bacon, and a few other things."
Harry rolled his eyes at him. "Pig."
Ron scowled while Hermione giggled. "Yeah, that can be your new name, Piggy." Her and Harry fell into a loud chorus of laughter while Ron just scowled at them. Harry finally regained his composure and looked at them seriously.
"You know what? We should do that. Nicknames, like Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs." (He purposely omitted the name 'Wormtail') "We can all do that like they did. We don't have to have it relate to our animagus form though, unless we want to. That way when we're talking about plans and such, we can use our code names and no one will know what we're doing!"
Hermione and Ron looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded eagerly. "Okay, so Piggy it is," Ron said, seemingly not embarrassed. "Then what will you two and the rest be?"
Harry looked at Hermione thoughtfully. "Well I think it would only be fair if we picked each others names rather than do it ourselves. So, Hermione…" He said slowly, twirling her around while looking up and down.
"You can be…how about…uh…hmmm…let me think…I got it!" His eyes sparkled dangerously in excitement. "Your name will be Scarlet - it's a double meaning!" Hermione gave him a questioning look. "One, because your animagus form is red, and two, for scarlet woman!"
Ron fell to the ground clutching his stomach in laughter, while Hermione scowled at Harry.
"Fine. And Harry," He looked at her through his tears of laughter, and he distinctly saw her smirk dangerously. "No kisses for a week!"
Harry gasped and pretended to be shot through the heart, clutching his chest in agony. "Oh, no, Hermione," He said, his voice taking on that of a steamy romance novel's tone. "Anything but that!"
She shook her head forcefully, trying not to laugh. Harry sighed in defeat. "Okay, now that that's dealt with," Hermione said, now returning Harry's treatment and giving him the once-over. "Hmm, I think you will be called - Drake! Short for dragon, because you've always got that dragon hanging all over you!"
Harry smiled at her, fingering his glove that would call Snitch to him in a second's notice. "Now, now, Hermione, Snitch is like a brother to me. But, Drake is a cool name, at least you didn't say Draco." They all shivered, and the mood was lost.
"Harry, do you really think that Malfoy's a death eater?" Ron asked, and both he and Hermione looked at Harry expectantly.
Harry sighed. "Yeah, I do. And if he's not yet, he will be eventually. He was born evil, that one." Harry gave them a sadistic smile. "But if and when he does get the mark, it'll be one of us that will end it for him!"
This lightened the mood considerably, and Harry threw his new broomstick over his shoulder as they walked back up to the castle. "You know Hermione," Harry said. "You should tryout for quidditch this year. I think you'd do really well and I know it would help your phoenix abilities. And," He said, creating suspense. "If you do, I'll be making the entire team brand-new brooms this year after tryouts, so then you'll get one of those!"
Ron whooped in the air at the news of a new broomstick. "That's a bloody brilliant idea Harry! And come on Hermione, after watching you today, I have no doubt that you can make the team, probably as chaser, seeing as Alicia and Angelina both left last year. Come on Scarlet, whaddya say?"
Hermione sighed, thinking deeply, before turning and nodding to Ron. "Alright captain, I'll do it!"
Harry and Ron both whooped again in happiness, and Ron immediately started hurling questions at Harry.
"So what's the max speed Harry?"
"What are the turning capabilities?"
"What kind of durability and longevity will they have?"
"Can I help in any way?"
Harry laughed and did his very best to answer all of Ron's questions about the brooms. By the time they reached the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry was exhausted.
"How can I be so tired when it's only eight in the morning?" He asked no one in particular, but Hermione answered him anyways.
"Well, I know one way to make you feel better."
Harry raised an eyebrow as Hermione sat on the common room couch, patting the seat next to her, beckoning him to sit down. He complied, and Hermione spread her legs and leaned against the armrest, smiling at Harry. He got the message and situated himself in-between her legs, the small of his back resting on her slender waist.
Harry felt as if he could stay there forever, but then it got even better as Hermione started to massage his shoulders. He groaned at the feeling of her small and soft hands on his neck and shoulders, working out all of the knots in those areas.
"Wow, Harry, you're really tight."
"Yeah, well I've had a lot on my mind lately."
"Oh really, like what?"
Harry snorted at the absurdity of the question. "Hmm, let me see. First there's this new relationship between us, then there's training every night for our final battle with Voldemort, dealing with the deaths around us, making this broom, and - oh, mmm,"
Harry abruptly cut off when Hermione started massaging his lower back and trailing butterfly kisses all around his neck and shoulders. Unfortunately, there were quite a few younger wizards in the room, so Harry had to stop her, but not before reaching behind him and grabbing Hermione around the waist, whipping her in front of him.
Suddenly Hermione had her legs wrapped around Harry's waist and her arms encircled his back until her hands finally came into the back of Harry's messy hair, grasping it firmly. She pulled him forward and gave him a deep kiss before breaking away from him.
At that moment, Neville came bursting through the portrait hole, scanning the room for Harry and Hermione. He spotted them and came over to the couple, ignoring their compromising position, and smiled broadly.
"I've just come from Snape's. Dumbledore gave me a note that said he had to give me whatever I needed, and that he couldn't ask questions. He was right upset, he was."
Harry and Hermione grinned. They wished they could have seen that event.
"Anyways," Neville continued, suddenly jumping upright. "Come on, let's get started on the potion now! If we do this right, we could get the potion to Mungo's by Tuesday!"
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and skipped to the portrait hole, Harry and Hermione walking and giggling at his antics behind him, holding hands and snuggling close to one another.
Neville led them all the way to the dungeons, and for a horrifying moment, Harry thought that they would be brewing the potion in Snape's office, but thankfully, Neville took a right down a corridor that Harry had never seen before, and entered a small potions lab.
On the table situated in the center of the room, lay all of the necessary ingredients, all in the order of which they would need to be added. Next to them stood a boiling gold cauldron, as of right now filled only with water (the constant that was first added in all potions).
They excitedly got right to work, making sure that every instruction was followed to the most minute detail. After a while, right after they had added the grafstain, the most infamous person to the Gryffindor house walked in to the room.
"Hmph! There's something you don't see everyday, three Gryffindor's doing actual work. It's a wonder how you ever win the house cup with such riffraff as yourselves. An orphan, a muggleborn, and a boy who isn't even recognized by his own parents."
Harry had to hold Neville back from attacking the potions master. As calmly as he could, Harry said, "Will you please allow us to brew our potion in solitude, Professor? It is very complicated and we need the utmost concentration to complete it to our desired result."
Harry swirled the potion a few times, making sure that he didn't do to much, or the potion would be ruined. He smiled at Hermione, who grinned back, happy that he had kept check of his temper.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor for public displays of affection!" Snape said sharply.
"But it's the weekend, we aren't even under your jurisdiction right now, you can't do that!"
"Another ten for your cheek Miss Granger. I suggest you tell your little muggleborn her place Potter, before she gets herself into trouble."
With that Snape turned with a swish of his cloak and made to exit the room. But Harry wasn't going to let him get away with that.
No one, no one, insulted Hermione like that, not even a professor.
Harry took a deep breath and took a step forward, speaking to the slimy potions professor before he could make his escape.
"Not so fast, Snivellus."
*****
Okay, sorry for the cliff hanger, but it's not as bad as yesterday was is it??? Look for the next update tomorrow!
Preview:
Some words exchanged between Harry/Snape, some H/Hr fluff (honestly that's just sort of a given now isn't it?), a few new spells, and FOOTBALL!!! (english style mates!)