Disclaimer: Not mine, Not mine. Definitely not mine. The entire HP world belongs to JK Rowlings.
Hidden Beneath
Chapter 2- Oddities
Harry tossed and turned in his sleep. He was still haunted by the memories of who he had eliminated when he was forced to either kill Voldemort or be killed himself. -He was fighting hard for his life, using a number of curses plus a muggle sword with an enchantment on it. The large thick poisoned blade turned bright red, burning hoter and hoter as it got nearer to its victim. He ran through a crowd of death eaters, hearing their pitiful screams as he swung the blade in all directions, one swipe from the sword anywhere on the body and it resulted in instant death.
He didn't know how many he killed, he couldn't keep count on his fingers that's for sure. Harry was confronting Voldemort who stood there before him. He couldn't hear what was said, Harry just quickly lifted his hand and summoned Voldemort's wand. Then while using Voldemort's wand he shouted a number of curses in all directions while the wizard dodged them the best he could, one out of pure luck bashed into Voldemort and he fell to the ground.
Harry quickly rushed over to Voldemort who seemed dazed. He lifted the blade. "You lose." Harry said and he brought the blade down into Voldemort's heart. He lifted the blade once more and sliced off his head to prevent any spirit from leaving to attempt to renew itself. Large shadow like hands reached up from the earth and grabbed a hold on Voldemort's body. The body appeared as if it were being sucked dry of all its fluids. All that was left was a pile of skin. Voldemort was dead, he was gone and he wasn't coming back.-Harry sat up in his bed, he hated having that dream. He needed to get some air.
He stood and quietly put on his shirt and slippers and started for the door. Harry opened the door, he could hear two people talking and girl and boy, their voices were low and hushed. One of them sounded like Neville, he must be still up with Ginny, Harry thought. He really didn't want to interrupt them.
"Just put it back in, it will feel better in a minute." She said her voice sounded shaky.
"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to hurt you more." Neville replied.
"Please?" She asked, her breath was short.
"Oh all right then." There was a pause.
A muffled cry came from the girl.
"Shhh, shh it's okay, I've got it." Neville said in a soothing, soft tone. "Is that any better?" Neville asked.
Her breathing was hard and erratic, "Yes-it-feels-much-better." After a few minutes her breathing settled "Well I'm done."
"Are you sure there's not something more?"
"No, that's it. I'll head up to bed now. Thank you Neville." She started up the stairs and Harry backed up into the shadows.
Harry was surprised to see a brown head instead of a red head, Harry turned and looked down into the common room, was Neville cheating on Ginny? What an asshole Harry thought. Even though he had just met them, Ginny seemed really nice and so did Neville. How could he do such a thing. Harry heard footsteps coming up the stairs, it was most assuredly Neville's. Harry stood there at the door with his arms crossed over his chest when Neville came into sight.
"Late night?" Harry asked casually.
"It's always a late night, what are you doing up?" Neville asked.
"Oh I decided to take a walk, clear my head a bit." Harry took in a breath and leaned causally against the door. "I come out of the dorm and hear a most interesting conversation between you and Ginny, or who I thought might be you and Ginny. Much to my surprise I find that instead of a red head, I see a brunette leaving from the common room."
"How much did you see?" Neville asked worriedly.
"I didn't see anything, I heard everything though." Harry said.
"I need you to forget everything you heard."
"I can't really do that, it sounded like you cheating on your girlfriend."
"I would never cheat on Ginny." Neville was getting angry, but he still kept his voice low. "Listen to me Harry, leave this alone. Don't go sticking your nose into things that are way over your head. We have to deal with certain situations here, and I can't have you the new student come in and turn everything upside down." Neville quickly brushed passed Harry and into the boys dorm.
"Huh?" Harry said out loud, "that was the most confusing bit of guff he had ever heard." He shook his head and then decided that he should just go back to sleep. He really didn't need that walk after all. He returned to the boys dorm.
* * *
Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table, with her nose buried in her Transfiguration book. That was their first class for the morning, she wanted to get a head start on the information before it was actually taught.
Ron leaned over and kissed her on the side of the forehead, "I'm going to go talk to Lavender from Ravenclaw, she has my cheat notes for Transfiguration. Stay here and remember what I said."
Hermione nodded, she heard Ron make some kind of noise, it wasn't a happy noise. "I remember." She said quickly.
Ron smiled a bit, "That's my good girl." He stood from his table and started over towards the Ravenclaw's table.
The table shook a bit as she was just getting back into her book, Hermione heard Ginny's voice across from her.
"Good morning Harry." Ginny said with a smile.
Harry simply yawned, "Hey." He said he looked about the table and decided to help himself to the large bowl of oatmeal. Harry scooped out one glob of it into his own bowl; he grabbed the pitcher of milk and poured a bit of it in the oatmeal. He then grabbed the bowl of blueberries and put some of those into his oatmeal and he stirred it about. Harry began to eat his breakfast.
"Did you have a good sleep?" Ginny asked.
"Sure." Harry replied.
"You're not much a morning person, are you?" Ginny said cheerfully.
"Nope." He continued eating.
Ginny shrugged, "I gotta get ready for Potions anyway, I'll see you around." Ginny smiled and then gathered up her bag. She jumped up from her seat and headed towards the Great Hall doors.
Harry wasn't really hungry so he just started twirling the spoon about in the oatmeal, it was starting to liquefy anyway. He pushed the bowl away and leaned back a bit. Harry saw Hermione hunched over reading a book. He decided to try and talk to her, he lifted the end of the spoon and tapped it on her book. She didn't even look up at him. So he did it again. Still no response.
"Excuse me?" Harry said trying to get her attention. "If we're going to be in the same house, we should at least get to know each other." He wondered if she was even listening to him.
"Don't talk to me." Hermione said quietly without lifting her head, she heard him make some kind of scoff. "I'm very busy." She added, still not taking her eyes from the book.
'That was rude' Harry thought to himself, "Look all I wanted was to talk to you for a moment, can't you just take two seconds and-"
Hermione interrupted him "Just don't all right, I don't care if you're new sixth year around here, or if you're a first year. Just don't bother me." She said in the same quiet tone.
Harry's eyes narrowed at hearing the growing aggravation in her voice. Just who does this girl think she is? Does she think she's better than everyone else? She must think that, it obvious she's dating Mr. Popularity. Anyone dating someone of that high stature has got to be just as stuck up and arrogant as him. He was just about to tell her exactly what he thought of her kind when Ron came up behind Hermione, he was glancing down at the back of her head.
"Hermione, let's go now." Ron said, his tone like ice.
Harry watched Hermione as she shut her eyes for flash of a second taking a small unnoticeable breath. Well to everyone else it was unnoticeable. She quickly closed her book and stuffed it into her bag. Hermione stood from the bench and Ron grabbed her hand.
"Did you forget what we talked about last night?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowing.
"It wasn't my fault." She said quietly as the two of them started towards the Great Hall doors.
Harry shook his head, Those two are welcome to each other. Two stuck up people like that; well they just wouldn't get to him. Like Neville and Draco said there were plenty of other pretty girls at this school. He stood up and picked up his Transfiguration book and headed to his first class at his new school.
* * *
Ron drug Hermione into the classroom, they were almost late. All heads turned and eyes were upon them as they took their seats.
Ron inconspicuously pushed Hermione down into the chair next to him. "Just sit there and be quiet," He said hovering closely to her ear. "We were almost late because of you." Ron said in anger.
Hermione glanced down at her bag and slowly pulled out her book setting it on the table. She folded her hands on top of the bronze cover and looked straight ahead awaiting the teacher's arrival.
The door to the classroom opened and Professor McGonagall walked inside, she went to the front of the classroom and turned around facing the students with a stern look upon her face. "Welcome to a fresh new year students." She said looking about the students faces. "Now to cut back on the amount of goofing off this year," She looked pointedly at Ron Weasley and Dean Thomas, I will pair you with a partner. This will be your partner for the whole rest of the year."
McGonagall picked up a scroll from off her desk, as she heard the students groans and complaints. She unrolled the scroll and cleared her throat to speak. " Dean Thomas and Draco Malfoy. Parvati Patil and Vincent Crabbe. Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom. Gregory Goyle and Blaise Zambini. Lavender Brown and Justin Finch -Fletchley. Hermione Granger and Harry Potter." She continued on down the list.
Ron glared over at the other side of the classroom at Harry, his glare faded and was replaced by a grin. He was going to flatten him at the Quidditch tryouts on Friday.
McGonagall finished the list and the students began changing seats, Hermione looked over at Ron.
"Well I'm not moving, so you had better." Ron said as Neville came over to him.
Hermione gathered up her belongings and moved over to where Harry was sitting. She sat down next to him still staring ahead at the teacher.
Harry glanced at her for a moment, until Professor McGonagall started talking. He turned his attention to the lesson. They were given an assignment to turn an artichoke into a duck.
"Let's get to work." Hermione said without looking at him, she stared at the artichoke. She pulled her wand out from her pocket and pointed it at the object. Her hand was shaking and she felt the sweat drops start forming on her forehead.
They hadn't even really gotten started yet and she was already sweating up a storm. Harry glanced at her. "Are you all right, you're not sick are you?"
"No, I'm just concentrating." Her hand started really shaking. "I-I don't want to mess this up."
"Just relax," Harry suggested, "It's not that big of a deal if we don't get it on the first try you know."
"It isn't?" Hermione looked at the artichoke again.
"We haven't really been introduced have we?" Harry said with a smile
Hermione just shook her head no.
"Well then I'm Harry, and you are?" He knew her name, but he still wanted to hear it from her.
"Hermione." She said quietly. "Not Herm, Herms or Hermie. Just Hermione." Hermione was glancing down at the book cover.
Harry nodded. "Okay, who was your last partner and how did you work with them?" Harry asked.
"Well," She kept her eyes firmly on the artichoke. "My partner has always been Ron, he likes to get things on the first try." She said.
"How often did that happen?"
Hermione was silent a moment, "It hardly ever happened. I just get so nervous that I-" She cut herself off. Hermione paused a moment then she gave a soft, tiny smile. "This is just a really hard subject for me, that's all."
"Well then we will take it easy." Harry said, he bent a little trying to catch her eye. "I'm in no rush we have until Friday to see if we can turn this artichoke into a duck. How odd is that? I wonder what the duck would taste like. Would it taste like duck or artichoke?" He smiled a bit.
Hermione laughed a little, then slammed her palm over her mouth. Harry looked at her oddly. She was one weird girl.
The two of them were working hard on the transfiguration, Hermione just wasn't getting the grasp of it. "I am never going to get this."
"For one, you are holding your wand wrong." Harry gripped his a little harder, "You have to hold it like you mean business." He glared down at the artichoke with menace and determination, which again caused another burst of laughter come from Hermione. Harry noticed she was still doing it wrong. "Here let me show you." Harry placed his hand on hers and she instantly ripped it away from his touch, almost as if she had been burnt.
"No, no i-it's okay, I think I can figure it out." She said her voice sounded shaky.
Harry thought he had heard that tone of voice before, then it struck him. This was the girl that was with Neville last night. For some reason he was finding it really hard to even want to be her school partner. She seemed to have no morals, no nothing. Going behind a friend's back and stealing someone's boyfriend, while she already had a boyfriend. His eyes narrowed. "Okay then I'll just-" The bell wrung interrupting Harry
Hermione quickly packed up her books and shoved her wand in her bag, quicker than lightning she left Harry's side and rushed back over to Ron's
Harry watched her for a moment, Ron was talking in her ear and she had her head bowed looking towards the floor. She appeared straight and tense as Ron put his fingers on her chin raising her face for their eyes to meet. Harry noticed that Ron continued talking to her and she was just nodding, not really saying anything. Her body slumped almost relaxing.
Ron then reached down and grabbed a hold of her hand and they started from the class room.
Potions was next, Harry passed through the corridor and into the classroom in the dungeons.
Ginny was just putting her book into her bag when she saw Harry come inside, "Hey Harry, I think you'll like this class. Potions is really fun."
Harry smiled, "Well if it was anything like it was at Durmstrang it's probably a walk in the park."
"Well Professor Snape is a good professor, if you are on his good side of course." She said with a smile. "Well I must get to Charms, see you at lunch." Ginny then raced from the room.
The classroom started filling up with students, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were in this class together Harry noticed.
"Five points each from Gryffindor Weasley and Granger, please keep you're personal… business…. in private." A gruff voice sounded at the door. Harry assumed that must be Professor Snape.
Professor Snape stalked into the room and up to the front of the class, Hermione and Ron followed after him and took their seats two rows in front of Harry. They got glares from the rest of the Gryffindors.
"Now." Snape said with a smile facing the students, "Sixth year potions is extremely tough, not as tough as seventh year, but it is difficult. Still it can be fun. Now for this year Headmaster Dumbledore spoke to me and said that he wanted partners for potions to be interhouse relations, what that means is, pick someone from another house to be your partner. I'll give you a few minutes to pick your partner. Go." He said watching the students scramble around.
Lavender Brown came up to Harry, "How about you being my partner, I heard you were top student at Durmstrang?"
"Fine, whatever." Harry said as Lavender sat next to him. He looked over at the other students. Ron looked like he was gonna throw a fit for some reason. Oh well Ron and Hermione were oddities among the students. He didn't want anything to do with them.
Ron moved over to the Ravenclaws side and picked a partner. He sat down crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at his cauldron.
Harry watched as Draco came over to the Gryffindors side, up to Hermione and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. She nodded and Draco sat down.
"Okay now that you've all chosen your partners," Snape began teaching the class.
The students got underway chopping and preparing their ingredients.
Draco looked at Hermione, whose face was turned downward as she chopped up the batwings. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine." Hermione said.
Draco watched her closely, her hands were shaking a bit as she sliced up the wings into fine, long strips. "Hermione relax a bit, I'm not Ron you know."
"I know." She said. "It's just hard. The batwings I mean, they are tough to cut so my hands shake just a little bit."
"Hermione you don't need to tell me that, you know that I know." He watched her closely, there was a bluish mark forming on her cheek.
"I'm a bit relieved that I have at least two classes free, you know." Hermione grabbed the vial of purple dust handing it to him.
"Yeah I know." Draco said as he measured out two tablespoons of the dust and put it into the bubbling cauldron. He looked at her again and the mark on her cheek was growing a little bigger. "Hermione?"
She glanced up a moment, "What?"
Draco pointed to her cheek. "That's what."
She bent down and opened her bag fishing for her mirror she pulled it out and took a look. "Oh no." She was panicked. Hermione turned facing Draco. "Cover it hurry, I obviously didn't do a very good job."
"All right, all right. Hold still." Draco said putting his wand up to her cheek just below her eye. "invisibious." He said quietly as the mark was hidden once again. "When did you get that one?"
"Last night. It has a twin." She laughed a bit.
Somehow Draco didn't think that was funny.
"Hey Malfoy, you trying to steal Ron's girl?" Dean shouted with a chuckle. "A wimp like you couldn't even grasp such a hottie as Hermione." That outburst caused a lot of the student body to look in their direction. Including Ron.
"Shut up you idiot." Draco bellowed at Dean for more then one reason. "She just has something in her eye."
"Yeah, yeah I heard that one before. They always have something in their eyes." Seamus also joined in on the teasing.
Hermione turned resting her face in her hands which were propped up by her elbows on the table. "Be careful Draco." She said quietly.
"I will. Come on let's continue working." Draco said as they continued on the potion. He took a side glance at Ron who looked like he was going to kill him. Draco swallowed hard.
Harry just shook his head back and forth and continued on his potion.
* * *
On his way to Lunch, Harry who was walking behind Neville and Draco overheard their conversation, "yeah mate she's not coming to lunch. Did you see how fast she bolted out of History of Magic?" Neville said.
"Yeah I suspect Hermione went to go seek shelter in the library, he hardly goes in there after her." Draco replied.
"That git doesn't study for anything, it's only because he cheats of Hermione that he's almost top of the class." Neville replied.
"Yeah I know." Draco saw Ginny ahead of them and the two boys ran to her.
"Hey Ginny." Neville said with a smile, "are you going to try out for the Quidditch team on Friday?"
"Of course I am." Ginny said with a smile.
Harry wandered up to them, "Hey what's up?" He was in a foul mood but he played it friendly.
"Nothing much." Ginny said and she turned to Neville and Draco. "I was thinking about asking Hermione if she wanted to try out. Do you know how fast she is? She would make a great Chaser, don't you guys think so?"
"That's a lost cause, Hermione won't play." Neville said and Draco nodded agreeing.
"Why not, all she does is study in that damn library. She should have a little fun in her life. I don't know about you boys, but I'm going to go and convince her to try out." Ginny turned away from them.
"How fast is she on a broom?" Harry asked.
"You would have to see it." Ginny said with a smile. And she started for the library, Harry followed after her.
Hermione sat at her table in the library and opened her book. But she wasn't reading. She was staring down at the words. Hermione rolled the sleeves of her robe up over her arms, the library was stuffy and warm and she was hot She didn't hear the two people come up to her table as she was starting in on her reading.
"Hey Hermione." Ginny said.
Harry watched as Hermione was surprised and nearly jumped a foot out of her chair.
Hermione pressed her hand against her heart, "Ginny, you scared me to death."
Ginny giggled, "I'm sorry." And she and Harry sat down across from her. "Hermione we've come to talk to you about trying for the Quidditch team."
Hermione shook her head, "no, no I don't play." She continued looking at her book.
"Why not, I see how fast you are on a broom. You could play Chaser with no problems."
Hermione pushed her book away and finally looked up at them.
This was only the second time that Hermione looked up at Harry. He was once again struck with the awe-ness of her eyes. The deep brown, with golden flecks seemed to cause his stomach do to flip flops. He had never had this kind of reaction to a girl before. Maybe he got this feeling cause she never looked someone in the eye when she talked to them. She always looked to the ground or to an object avoiding eye contact with anyone, except Ron. Now that was odd.
"Oh Hermione please try, you could use a little fun." Ginny pleaded.
Hermione took a breath, she lifted her hand running it nervously though her hair.
Harry noticed several bluish black marks on her arm, his eyes narrowed wondering what in the world those were.
Hermione shifted in her seat a few times, "I really don't want to play Ginny, okay I mean if I wanted to, which I don't. I would never want to show up Ron, he's the best player on the team."
"Oh no he's not. He's only the Seeker." Ginny looked at Harry, "No offense or anything."
Harry dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "none taken."
"And how could you even be showing him up, they are completely different positions." Ginny argued.
"No Ginny, I don't want to play. Okay can't we just leave it at that?" Hermione said with growing aggravation. "I don't mean to snap at you Ginny. I just don't want to play, okay?"
"Well alright, if you say so." Ginny said looking down at the table in disappointment. Through the corner of her eye saw the library door open and her brother came through. Ginny turned her head and saw that he didn't look to happy. She noticed her brother saw her waving to him and he walked over to them.
"Ginny." He said plainly. "Can you take Hermione's things back to the tower for her? She and I need to have a little chat."
Harry noticed that Ron was rigid with anger for his fists were clinched at his sides, he looked over at Hermione seeing her eyes shifting about nervously. Something was not right here. He didn't know either of them very well, quite frankly he had just met them a few days ago.
"Yeah sure." Ginny said with a smile.
He watched Ron reach down and grab a hold of her arm right where those marks were and pull her to her feet.
"We need to talk." Ron said and he started dragging her from the library, he roughly opened the library doors and pulled her quickly through them. The doors closed behind them.
Harry thought a moment, something was definitely not right here, he could feel it in his toes. For some reason he felt he needed to watch those two even closer. It was a good thing he had an invisibility cloak, it was time to do a little detective work.
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Okay that's it for chapter 2, I know kinda long. But I had to get through their classes. Well read and review, thanks Ryoko.