Seeking Hermione's Bean
Title: Seeking Hermione's Bean (05)
Author name: Romulus Lupin
Author email: galigad@yahoo.com
Category: Romance
Sub Category: Humour
Keywords: Harry Hermione Bertie Botts Beans
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF
Summary: Chapter 5: Fighting Fire With Fire. What exactly did Dean mean when he said, "We'll
fight fire with fire?" And where did Harry go? Why did Hermione skive off Arithmancy? And what is Hagrid's
involvement in all of these?
DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
AUTHOR NOTES: My deepest, everlasting gratitude to everyone who has ever read or posted a review for this. As someone said, "Reviews are the lifeblood of the amateur writer's life." It is nourishing, it is lovely, and it feeds the writer's soul and enthusiasm for his work.
Aside from everyone who has reviewed, I must thank pok for the wonderful plot bunny!
And once again, my deepest gratitude to andie (pottergirl786), whose wonderful story "Beyond A Kiss" provided the spark of inspiration for this work, and whose beautiful story "In Pieces" had one of the most touching and vibrant imageries of H/Hr anyone can imagine-so touching that I cannot help myself from using it in my own work again and again.
Thank you, andie-and don't let RL get you down!
Without further ado…
Chapter 5. Fighting Fire With Fire
A winded Hermione Granger rushed into the Common Room, ignoring the Fat Lady's flustered questions about what she was doing there during class hours. Hermione dashed around the room, saw it was empty and, without even a calming pause, ran up the stairs to Harry's dormitory, flinging open the door-to find no one there.
`He's probably gone straight to Divination,' she thought, and silently berated herself for her panic attack-and the fact that she, more than any others, was to blame.
She'd barricaded herself in the library after breakfast, acquiescing to Harry's unspoken plea to leave him alone and she'd immersed herself in Ancient Runes-and became so engrossed in deciphering a particularly intricate passage that she'd forgotten to check the time.
The growling of her stomach reminded her of lunch; reluctantly, she'd stopped working and marked her notes and hurried off to the Great Hall-only to walk in and see her year-mates already finished with lunch and preparing to leave.
Harry wasn't with them.
And no one had seen him since he'd left the Great Hall that morning.
It had taken considerable willpower to keep from hexing Ron and the others into the next century-that, and the thought that she was to blame for not checking on him herself.
The others had to leave for a Divination session with Professor Trelawney; they'd fallen into the habit of leaving lunch early to get to the North Tower on time. Ron's effort to calm her by saying that Harry was bound to show up for class hadn't helped-how could they get word to her that Harry was fine when they were all the way there and she was in Arithmancy?
Dean's comment that they'd let the spirits tell her almost got him hexed; but Sir Nicholas stepped in, volunteering to join the Gryffindors in Divination and promising to get word to her in class.
But she couldn't help herself-she couldn't allow herself to relax until she was sure that Harry was safe. As the others left, she quickly grabbed a couple of sandwiches and an apple from the table and lit off for Gryffindor Tower, the voice of a worried, scared and frightened eleven-year old ringing in her ears: "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things-friendship and bravery and-"
And Harry.
There was nothing, at this point, more important than Harry… and her mind flashed a swift kaleidoscope of her memories with Harry Potter. She had never skived off classes because of him; but it was only because she had never been faced with that choice.
And she knew, as her feet speeded up, that there was never any choice.
Harry needed her.
And she needed him… between books and cleverness, and friendship, bravery and-yes, love, she knew where her priorities-and her heart-were.
Only to find that he wasn't there and-from the immaculate look of the place (no doubt from a house-elves cleaning)-he hadn't even been in the place since breakfast. She slumped on the steps to the boys' dormitories and berated herself again-no doubt Harry was in the incense-shrouded tearoom by now, rolling his eyes as the old fraud started off the class by predicting that Harry will be attacked by a swarm of beans intent on stinging him to death…
And jumped when something cold pressed on her shoulder-her wide eyes seeing Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington floating in front of her, a worried look in his eyes. Before she could utter a word, the Gryffindor ghost spoke: "Harry wasn't there, Hermione-unless he'd arrived before we did, or after we'd left but we hadn't seen him."
She bit her lip as the ghost continued, "Professor Trelawney wasn't feeling well. She had a note floating on the stairs"-Hermione nodded, remembering the narrow spiral staircase leading to the trapdoor to the Divination classroom-"saying that she needed to recharge her Inner Eye and the students were to prepare for a test next week."
Hermione felt her heart dropping at those words, and closed her eyes tightly, trying without success to picture where Harry was right now. There was something very, very wrong here, she knew… and her mind quickly replayed everything that had been happened the past few days and she began to wonder-what did Voldemort place in those beans?
There was no doubt in her mind now; Luna's words to the contrary, and her own belief that the Dark Lord couldn't be so stupid as to be using beans to get Harry… what else was there to think? He'd been acting strangely since the night he'd brought those beans for Carolyn, and Dumbledore's announcement this morning had shaken and angered him enough to almost blow up the Gryffindor table without a wand!
"The others have gone looking for him, Hermione." She blinked at the ghost's soft voice and nodded. She tried to say something, but Sir Nicholas interrupted her: "You'll find him, Hermione."
She gaped at the ghost's confident tone as he continued: "No one knows Harry better than you… if there's a way to protect him, I know you'll find it."
Hermione felt the blood rushing to her face and tried to force it away, but she could only nod wordlessly as Sir Nicholas smiled. "We may not have been as brilliant as you, Hermione, but some things are just too obvious."
"Thank you," she whispered. What else was there to say? She lowered her face, letting her brown hair hide her flustered face and nodded as the ghost took his leave, promising to look around and tell Harry that she was looking for him.
After a moment, Hermione took a deep breath and consciously marshaled her forces to the problem at hand-but felt her breath hitch as a wave of fear washed through her: where was he? Her eyes flicked to the windows of Gryffindor Tower, moving from one to the other swiftly, hoping to see his familiar form zooming around the skies on his Firebolt and she gripped her disappointment tightly as she realized that there was nothing outside but blue skies and clouds.
The library? She found herself giggling at the thought: the only times Harry would be found in the library at this time would be if he was with her-and she had her wand pointed at his head.
The kitchens! He hadn't been down for lunch-and he hadn't even had much of a breakfast! But even as she stood, she stopped: by the time she arrived at the kitchens, he may very well have gone and she would be back at square one, not knowing where he'd gone to…
Hagrid! Again, the thought was quickly squelched-Hagrid was a teacher and he was probably introducing a class to Blast-Ended Skrewts, hippogriffs or other such creatures right now…
Professor Dumbledore? Doubtful… if there was one thing that Hermione knew, it was that Harry still felt uncomfortable about going to the Headmaster with his troubles. Not unless it was something really, truly big… and she doubted that Harry would go to Dumbledore to tell him about his obsession with beans…
Remus? There was no way to get in touch with him since their former DADA Professor was working for the Order, and she somehow doubted that Harry would want to talk to the last of the Marauders-
"I'm an idiot," she whispered to herself even as she spun around and rushed back into the dormitory where she threw herself at Harry's trunk and opened it, quickly rummaging around but stopping, her mouth a wide `O' of surprise as she found a framed photograph within.
It was a picture that she was intimately familiar with since a framed copy was also hidden in her trunk: a picture taken of the three of them in first year, standing in a row, smiling at the camera, Ron nudging Harry with a lop-sided grin every now and then. The Hermione in the picture was touching Harry's arm and glancing at him every so often when he would turn and beam back at her even as she smiled back, her heart in her eyes-
Her breathing stopped as she realized that the glass covering the picture was smudged; she closed her suddenly teary eyes and bit on her trembling lip as she imagined Harry in his lonely room at Privet Drive, staring at the picture of the three of them, touching the glass covering their faces as he counted down the days until he could leave to go to the Burrow or Grimmauld Place-
It was easy to imagine… she had done the same thing so many times to the frame containing the twin to this picture in the summers before she'd met up with him. A small smile and a warm blush crept up her face as she remembered her reunion with him the summer before fifth year and all its horrors: leaping on him in her excitement, nearly crushing him with her hug, almost suffocating him as her hair covered his face, vaguely aware of Pigwidgeon zooming round and round their heads-
She shook her head and peered at the picture in her hand, something about it catching her attention and then leaning back on her heels as an even warmer blush flooded her face: were those the imprint of lips on the glass above her face? Was he kissing her face…
With a shake of her head, she set the picture aside and continued rummaging. Those were questions for another day, she thought and smiled when her fingers touched parchment and she pulled it out.
She sat on Harry's bed as she took out her wand and, with a deep breath, tapped it quietly and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that her wand had touched. They joined, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; words blossomed across the top, proclaiming:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
She eagerly scanned the parchment for the dot signifying Harry's location, seeing Dumbledore's name in the Headmaster's office, McGonagall's and Flitwick's dots in their respective classrooms, Trelawney's dot alone in the North Tower… felt her heart in her throat as her quick perusal showed nothing of Harry Potter-
She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. `I will not panic, I will not panic, I will not panic,' she thought. With an effort, she opened her eyes and began quartering the map methodically-finally smiling when she saw Harry's name on the map and quickly stifling a cry of surprise as her eyes bugged out-
`Ronald Weasley' was with Harry-standing, sitting, leaning or kneeling close enough to him that their names were practically on top of each other, and her brain continued yammering a denial that she was seeing what she was reading…
The Astronomy Tower?
Like every student before her and since, she knew what the Tower was famous for-and it was not for the academic pursuit of either astronomy or astrology. For her two male best friends-who had been the best of friends even before they met her-to be up there when there were no stars to be seen meant that… meant that…
Ewwwww!
She realized that she'd been shaking her head violently, her hair flying around as she tried to shake the thought from her mind… wondering even as she grew dizzy from her actions whether this was part of Voldemort's grand scheme: not to destroy Harry Potter physically, but to ruin his reputation. She could almost see Rita Skeeter's acid-green quill writing the headlines: `Harry Potter's Real Heartache: The Boy-Who-Lived and The-Boy-He Lusts-For'-
Arrrrgh!
She fought back the impulse to tear at her hair and almost gave in to the impulse to slap herself silly: where did she get off drawing conclusions on the basis of a few slim, possibly slimy facts? There were a hundred reasons why the Marauder's Map would picture them as being practically on top of each other-stop that!
They were boys-they'd hugged, they'd backslapped, they'd grab each other, whooping in the same way they always did when they won a Quidditch match… Hermione bit her lip as she remembered the team's aerial pile-up in third year after their victory over Ravenclaw, Fred's arms around Harry's head in a grip so tight that it seemed Gred was going to tear his head off… the team floating to the ground even as the Gryffindors started sprinting to the field, Ron in the lead…
While she slunk off to head back to the Common Room, tears falling down her cheeks at being unable to run out to the field with the others because Ron wouldn't talk with her-
BANG!
Hermione spun around before the thought could form fully in her mind, quickly thrusting the Map under Harry's bed even as her wand came up, face blushing and trying to stammer an explanation to Dean, Seamus or Neville as they entered their dormitory-
And heard her voice squeaking in surprise at the sight of two young girls standing in the door, both apparently not expecting anyone to be there at that hour: "Cindy? Ca? What are you doing here?"
***
"Are you sure about this, Dean?" Neville's worried voice broke through the taller boy's thoughts and he turned to his two companions with a sigh, stopping them in their rapid walk to Hagrid's cabin.
"You've got any better ideas, Neville?" The other boy shook his head and Dean turned to Seamus, who shrugged his shoulders in silent acceptance. Dean turned and started walking again towards Hagrid's hut.
Dean would have preferred a classroom, but finding an empty one may have proven difficult-to say nothing of having to contend with Peeves, Filch or any teacher who may be roaming the corridors. The only classroom they could be sure of being empty was Potions, since Snape was not there, but who wanted to spend more time than necessary in the dungeons?
Ron's suggestion set the plan in motion-they'd caught up with Hagrid during lunch and asked permission to use his hut for their `meeting,' explaining only that they were going to discuss something important with Harry and he'd readily agreed, saying that he had classes that afternoon and promising that he'd be leading them (and Fang!) away from the hut so they could have their meeting in peace.
But finding Dobby had been their luckiest break so far: Trelawney's indisposition meant that they could move their plan's timing up, but that had been compounded by Harry's absence from the area. They-Ron, Seamus, Neville and himself-were already planning to split up and search the castle for Harry when they'd run across the house-elf with his mountain of knitted hats, and the others gaped as Ron called out, "Dobby!"
"Yes, can I helps you, Ron Wheezy?"
They bit back their laughter at Ron's glare, but then shook their heads as Dobby approached them: they'd thought that Hermione's fascination with S.P.E.W. was nothing more than a fun diversion and had signed up to avoid her steely glare-but to actually meet a house-elf? A freed one at that?
"Have you seen Harry, Dobby? He didn't show up for lunch or-"
"Harry Potter's in the Astronomy Tower, Ron Wheezy." The four of them had blinked at each other at that but snapped back as the little creature continued, "Dobby had to bring Harry Potter some lunch there because Harry Potter didn't want to go down… he said he wanted to clear his head and think…"
Dobby suddenly clamped his hands over his mouth, a stricken expression coming over his face as he whimpered, "Harry Potter asked Dobby not to tell anyone! Dobby must be punished for betraying Harry Potter-"
Dean, Seamus and Neville's eyes bulged as they watched the elf run full force into the wall and start to slam his head against it, but Ron quickly grabbed him and held him at arm's length even as Dobby tried to kick, "Stop it, Dobby! I'm sure Harry didn't mean me when he said that-I'm his best friend, right?"
The struggling house-elf stopped and looked at Ron, big, fat tears running down his cheeks and Ron continued looking him in the eye. Dobby suddenly slumped, "Yes, Ron Wheezy-yous is Harry Potter's best friend. You and Miss Herminny is Harry Potter's bestest friends…"
"So he wouldn't mind if you told us where he is, right?"
"Yes, Mr. Wheezy."
"All right then," Ron said as he put the house-elf down. "In fact, I think-no, I know he'll be grateful to you for telling me where he is."
Ron turned to the rest and said, "All right, I'll go fetch him… meet you at Hagrid's hut, all right?"
He turned away but was stopped by Dean's voice, asking Dobby if there was a way to bring a blackboard and colored chalk there. Dobby had sneaked a look at Ron, who'd nodded although he was puzzled at Dean's request; Dean had ignored his look, keeping that part of the plan to himself for the moment.
He shook himself at the door to Hagrid's hut; after a moment's hesitation, he pushed inside and looked around in awe. Seamus and Neville crowded in after him and stared. Though they'd had Hagrid as teacher for several years, and had known him since he'd brought them across the lake to Hogwarts in their first year, this was the first time they'd ever entered his home and they gaped for several minutes at the interior.
"All right!," Dean said to himself as he saw the blackboard beside the enormous bed in the corner. He went over and checked the box of colored chalk; satisfied, he drew out his wand and murmured a charm. Silently, chalk flew out and attacked the board, quickly drawing out and filling in a sketch that would have made Leonardo da Vinci proud: a female form in the Hogwarts uniform, complete with skirt, knee-high socks, robes and school tie.
A moment's hesitation, and the chalks started moving as the head formed: bushy brown hair, chocolate-brown eyes, straight nose, angel's bow lips, strong chin-
The colored pieces of chalk dropped to the ground as Dean's concentration was broken by the shocked exclamations of his dorm-mates: "What in Hades is that?"
***
Cindy and Carolyn's mouths flapped open in astonishment, unable to answer the question that the unexpected person in the boys' dormitory had asked. Hermione stared at them for a moment, and felt herself standing straighter, shoulders squaring, eyes glaring-unconsciously mimicking Minerva McGonagall on the warpath.
"Girls?" Her voice would have done justice to her mentor's demeanor, and the two young girls audibly and visibly gulped. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
They both gulped-they were supposed to be in Transfiguration, and the sight of Hermione in her McGonagall persona brought the fact home. They were busted, they knew that, but neither one was quite prepared to explain to Hermione just what they were doing there-
"We-ah-we were looking for you, Miss Hermione." Hermione's eyebrow raised at the obvious lie coming from Carolyn, but stopped when Cindy quickly leaped in with an explanation: "We met Sir Nicholas on our way to class. He said he was looking for you, and to tell you if we saw you that Divination has been cancelled and that Sir Harry didn't show up…"
For a long moment, Hermione stared at the two young girls but her expression was blank; her mind obviously running over the explanation and fitting facts and knowledge into it. Cindy and Carolyn relaxed-they did meet Sir Nicholas and he did give them that message for Hermione…
"All right." The girls relaxed but quickly turned white when she continued in a cold voice: "I can believe that Sir Nicholas saw you, but that doesn't explain what the two of you are doing here, when it's obvious that you should be in class, and there is no way you could have known that I would be here."
"What are you doing here, Miss Hermione?" The glare that Hermione gave Carolyn made the young girl leap behind her friend, squeaking in fright-and Cindy tried to moisten her suddenly dry throat as she received the full benefit of Hermione's infamous death-glare.
"We-ahh-we were worried about Sir Harry, Miss Hermione," Cindy tried, but Hermione's skeptical eyebrow made it clear that she didn't believe them. Cindy glanced at Carolyn and the other girl nodded; turning back to the glaring Hermione, Cindy whispered, "We were going to borrow Sir Harry's Invisibility Cloak."
"And why, may I ask, would you need to borrow Harry's Invisibility Cloak when Harry's not around?"
"We were going to look for Dean and the others, Miss Hermione."
Hermione's unrelenting glare finally broke the Terrible Two's resistance and the story stumbled out: that they'd overheard Ginny and Luna talking during lunch about something the boys were discussing… that whatever it was apparently had something to do with Harry… that they thought they had time to try and find them after Transfiguration but Sir Nicholas' news about the cancellation of Divination and Harry still missing had made them change their mind…
She held up her hands as they got to that point in the story and the two young girls fell silent. "All right," she said, "I think I know what happened after that but one question, girls-what were Dean and the others talking about? Or rather, what were Ginny and Luna talking about that they'd heard from the boys?"
Cindy and Carolyn simultaneously shrugged and shook their heads but for a brief moment, Hermione caught a glimpse of something passing between them. There was something they weren't telling her, she knew, but she quickly decided it as unimportant. With a silent gesture, the two young girls sat down on Ron's bed as she bent to grab the Map from beneath Harry's bed.
She quickly checked it and heaved a sigh when she realized that Harry and Ron were moving away from the Astronomy Tower and heading towards… towards what? A broom-
`SHUT IT!' she mentally roared at her traitorous brain-they could be going out to meet with… there they were: Dean, Seamus and Neville were in Hagrid's hut, but Hagrid wasn't there… there he was, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest with a group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws-including Ginny and Luna…
Hermione bit her lip, thinking quickly and then, with a soft sigh, murmured, "Mischief managed." She watched the lines disappear from the Map and turned towards the door, her mind in a turmoil as she considered what to do next…
"Can we join you, Miss Hermione?" Startled, she blinked at the Terrible Two, looking back at her with pleading eyes. For a moment, she considered leaving them but quickly rejected the idea. Knowing them, nothing short of a Stunning Curse would put them out of commission and stop them following her; even taking the Invisibility Cloak would only guarantee that they'd be caught as they sneaked around the castle, and that would only cause more problems for Harry…
With a sigh, she turned back to Harry's trunk and pulled out the Cloak, smiling as she remembered all the times that she'd been under it with Harry and Ron… especially the first time when it was only Harry, herself and Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback-
"I'm going to regret this," she muttered to herself as she held the cloak out and the two beaming young girls quickly stood on either side of her as she draped it over them. She suddenly stopped and removed the cloak. Cindy and Carolyn exchanged worried looks but kept quiet; softly, she told them, "I know you won't blab about this to anyone; if you do, Harry won't speak to either of you ever again."
The two vigorously nodded and, with a sigh of resignation, she activated the map and checked that the coast was clear. With that, she replaced the cloak over them and started the long walk out of the Common Room towards Hagrid's hut, wondering what it was the two were keeping from her-and wondering what the other boys were going to do to Harry.
***
"What d'ya mean `what in Hades is that?' It's Hermione-"
"I know who it is, Dean! But what the hell is she doing here!"
Dean Thomas took a deep breath as he rolled his eyes, reminding himself once again that being in Gryffindor meant that you were brave but not necessarily smart. Sighing, he patiently explained his reasoning: "We agreed, didn't we, that You-Know-Who's plan is to get Harry addicted to those beans, by giving him a taste of… uhm, Hermione. Right?"
The other two nodded, and he continued. "So, we also agreed that the best way to stop You-Know-Who's plan is to… err, fight fire with fire. Right?"
Again, the others nodded.
"What do we know of Harry, guys?" Dean asked. Seamus opened his mouth to reply and abruptly closed it, looking shame-faced. "Exactly. He may be the greatest thing since canned beans but when it comes to some things…"
He turned to the blackboard, for all the world like a darker-skinned Professor Snape with his robes swirling around him. "What do you think, Neville? We're just going to talk to Harry? `Describe' some things to him?"
The other boy shook his head and Dean smiled, gesturing at the blackboard grandly. "This, my friends, is a visual aid-a picture is worth a thousand words, and this will help Harry to understand what he needs to do when he… uhm, gets the opportunity to do what he has to do."
Silence reigned in the hut at his speech, to be broken by Neville's small, stricken voice: "Does it have to be Hermione?"
Dean cocked an eyebrow at Neville but the latter continued, "Harry'll kill us if we-uhm, disrespect Hermione in any way…"
Dean rubbed his face for a brief moment before dropping his hands and looking at his companions. "Who do you think we should use as a model, guys?" He gestured with his wand, and the drawing disappeared-quickly replaced by a rather tall figure in robes and pants, with red hair, freckles, a long nose-
"EWWWW!"
"We can't use Ron, can we?" Dean said, reasonably. "For one thing, he doesn't have a `bean' (Dean's hands gestured quotation marks in the air), so…"
Another wave of his wand, and the original image reappeared but, instead of Hermione's face, this one had long red hair, freckles, smiling lips-
And Dean jumped back, stumbling to the floor as Neville leaped up, wand in hand, fury in his eyes, roaring, "NO! I thought you were dating her, you git!"
Dean's eyes bugged out in shock and fear; before he could move, however, Seamus was on Neville, pulling his wand down-the other boy quickly dropping his hand, eyes wide and blood suffusing his face, mouth opening and closing as he tried to form words-
***
In the clearing where Hagrid was conducting his class, a pair of brown eyes met a pair of blue eyes-the shocked look on their faces a mirror of their expressions that morning when Dean explained what The Nameless Git was up to. They'd been busy trying to devise ways and means of following the boys after their classes, and were shocked to see the three walking towards Hagrid's hut. Luckily, the had kept the Extendable Ears in their pockets, a few quick charms and the ends were lodged against the hut's windows and they both turned their attention back to drawing and naming the parts of the Bowtruckles they were studying.
"Hey, you two! All right, there?" They quickly composed their faces as they turned to Hagrid, who was looming over their drawings and quickly nodded to him. Thanks to Hermione's guidance, they'd known that Bowtruckles would be part of this year's curricula, and had kept their sketches and notes prepared. Luckily for them, Hagrid had enough Bowtruckles so that they could work in pairs, unlike the threes that were the norm the previous year.
As the gentle giant lumbered off to check on the others, they turned again to each other but their expressions had changed: Ginny's face was blushing while Luna's smile had a hint of a smirk lurking within…
***
"Wow, Neville!" Seamus said as he held on to the now-shocked boy. " I didn't know you felt that way about Ginny-"
"I-ah-err-"
"It's all right, Neville," Dean said as he stood up, brushing his robes. "Ginny and I are dating, but not in that way… she's just trying to wind Ron up, so if you want to ask her to a date in Hogsmeade, I won't stand in your way."
Neville gulped at that, but Seamus spoke up: "Better make a move soon, Neville, else some other bloke may try something you wouldn't like."
Neville looked down at his feet, face blushing even worse than Ron or Ginny's red hair. Unknown to the three, Luna's eyebrows had quirked at Ginny; the latter, her face a match for Neville's if they could only have seen it, merely nodded at the other girl's unspoken question. Ginny didn't see a look of wistfulness wash over Luna's eyes at her nod; the other girl quickly turned back to their Bowtruckle and continued to act as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
"All right, then," Dean continued briskly. "Who should be our `model' for this? Lavender?"
"NO!" Dean merely cocked his eye at the embarrassed Seamus as Neville gaped at him. Before Seamus could say a word, Dean continued-Ginny's image disappeared from the board to be replaced by another girl with straggly, dirty blonde hair, pale eyebrows-and Dean was nearly blasted back by the collectively loud "NO!" of Seamus and Neville.
Before he could even close his mouth, Seamus said in a frightened voice, "Ron will kill us!"
Dean didn't bother closing his mouth at that, as Neville took up the explanation: "You didn't see how Ron was glaring at everyone when Luna approached us this morning… I thought I was looking at a red-haired Hermione!"
"Yeah," Seamus chimed in. "Didn't you wonder why Lav and Parvati didn't even make a whimper? I thought they were going to hide under the table when Ron looked at them."
***
In the clearing, it was Ginny's turn to smirk at a blushing Luna Lovegood whose face, unfortunately, was covered by her waist-length hair. Before Ginny could even say a thing, Luna looked up and Ginny was the one to lower her face, unable to tease the suddenly-crying girl as they listened to the conversation in Hagrid's hut…
***
"Why hasn't he even made a move?" Dean asked, puzzled. Before the others could react, however, he answered his own question: "Because he's a dense, insecure, pathetic git who's scared of asking a girl-any girl-out on a date."
"Well, he did ask Fleur Delacour for a date in Fourth Year," Neville commented. "And you know how well that turned out."
"I think he's planning to ask Luna out for the next Hogsmeade weekend," Seamus put in.
Dean grinned. "So I guess we'll just have to be supportive of the dumb prat and make sure that he asks Luna, right?"
The others grinned and nodded, and he continued, "Let's talk to the girls and Ginny about this-it's the least we could do to keep our star Keeper up to form. Agreed?"
***
Luna looked up to see Ginny nodding vigorously and her smile would have been enough to light up a moonless night. Neither said a word, however, as their attention turned back to the conversation in the hut…
***
"Back to business," Dean was saying. "Who do you think? Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Mandy Brocklehurst…" The others were shaking their heads at each name and suddenly nodding as Dean continued, "Harry doesn't feel anything for them, does he? And feelings are everything in what Harry has to do with Hermione, right?"
He suddenly paused, thinking and quickly gave his wand a wave. "There's always Pansy Parkinson-"
***
Four throats simultaneously gave out an "Ewwww!" of pain-unknown to the three in the hut, people were looking in surprise at Luna and Ginny. The latter quickly waved Hagrid and the others off, saying that the Bowtruckle had stuck its tongue out at them, and they quickly returned to their tasks…
***
"We're talking about someone with a `bean,' Dean!" Seamus stopped, thinking for a moment. "Maybe you should invite Malfoy to this lecture-the git probably doesn't even know what a `bean' looks like!"
***
Hagrid's students suddenly jumped and looked wildly at the eruption of laughter from Ginny and Luna, both of whom were doubled up on the grass, holding their stomachs as their hilarity consumed them. Hagrid lumbered up, worried but as he approached, Ginny pulled out her wand and pointed it at Luna, saying "Finite Incantatem!" through her laughter. Hagrid and the others looked on puzzled until Ginny's third attempt finally made Luna calm down.
Quickly catching on, the other girl also pulled her wand from behind her ear and said the same incantation at Ginny, who quickly stopped her (unnoticed by the others) by now forced laughter. Ginny quickly stood up and glared around her; the other students stepped back from the force of that look as she said, "Someone cast a Tickling Charm on us-who was it?"
The others shook their heads and a worried Hagrid started looking around, his beetle-black eyes quartering the area and resting, for a moment, on his hut. Before he could make a move, however, Luna spoke up, "Whoever did it might be gone already, Professor Hagrid."
The giant looked at her and slowly nodded, "Aye, lassie-that may well be. Are ye al'right now? Ginny?"
The two girls nodded at him and he turned back to the class, "Al'right! Back to work, the lot of ye, c'mon!"
Ginny and Luna grinned at each other and went back to work, both of them surreptitiously poking their ears where the Extendable Ears rested…
***
The hilarity had died down in the cabin although giggles and snorts kept coming from the three sitting there. Dean finally stood up and wiped at his streaming eyes, with a wave, Pansy's image was erased from the board. "I needed that," he said to himself and grinned at the other two who gave him a thumbs up. Before he could wave his wand again, however, Neville spoke: "I still think we shouldn't use Hermione, Dean…"
"Neville's right, Dean." The tall boy frowned at Seamus' unexpected support but bowed his head as the Irish boy continued, "I mean, maybe we should take things slow, you know? Harry's liable to hex us if he walks in and sees Hermione on the board there…"
Dean thought about that for a moment and sighed-they did have a point. He glanced through the window and saw Harry and Ron approaching Hagrid's hut. If he had been a little more observant in that moment, he would have noticed that the ground behind the two was also moving-as if an invisible someone or someones were following the path that Harry and Ron were making to Hagrid's cabin.
He quickly turned back to the blackboard and with a wave, the pieces of chalk quickly flew and rendered another drawing on the board. Seamus and Neville gaped at the drawing, Seamus turning to Dean, saying, "But that's-"
"A bean! I know, but quickly-"
There was a knock on the door and they heard Ron's voice outside, "Guys? Harry's here."
Before anyone could move, Dean strode over and flung the door open and greeted the two Gryffindors outside: "Harry! Ron! So good of you to come!"
Unknown to each other, the Weasley siblings had blinked at that announcement-both of them wondering how Percy could have apparated into Hogwarts. Before Ron could close his mouth, however, Dean had ushered them in, leading a befuddled Harry Potter to a chair and pushing him into it.
Harry's eyes looked around him swiftly, noting all the familiar sights of Hagrid's house but narrowing as he saw the serious looks on his dorm-mates' faces. His eyes narrowed even more when he saw the blackboard by the bed-and the drawing of a bean on it.
"Dean," he began in a dangerous voice, but the other boy held a hand up and he shut up.
"Relax, Harry-you're among friends." Dean turned slightly as he said, "Would you like some tea?"
Harry turned in the direction Dean was facing; the distraction was enough for him to miss the sight of Dean's wand hand rising and he had no time to move as the shout came: "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
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