Author's Note: I'm not JKR, because if I were, HPB would be a different book. I decided to whip up a chapter on this story since I need to write something happy about H/Hr.
I have some HBP thoughts at the end of the chapter, so if you haven't read the book (or spoilers about the book), don't read the end notes.
Chapter Two
The next month went by rather slowly. Even though some of the media hype had died down, I seemed to spend less and less time with Ron and Hermione, when it should have been the opposite now that I had more free time. In fact, it seemed as if the two of them were excluding me - I would always catch them whispering to each other, or shooting each other looks when they thought I wasn't looking. If not for my well-developed sense of denial, I would swear that they were dating and, for some reason, felt the need to keep it from me.
The thought of them dating obviously made me sad; I had, after all, only recently come to the conclusion that I was in love with Hermione, only to find out that she was possibly with Ron. But I was also supremely annoyed. Why did they feel the need to keep it from me? Why were they excluding me? Did they not think that I could handle it? I was hurt, angry, and resentful, and though I tried to keep those emotions in check, it was only a matter of time before they erupted.
One day after lunch, I was on my way to Transfiguration when I heard Luna call my name. I turned to see her trotting up to me.
"Harry, do you have a minute?" she asked.
I checked my watch. "Actually, I have to get to class. Can we talk after?"
She handed me a parchment. "This is from Dumbledore, excusing you from your next class. My father would like to interview you-"
I groaned. "Not another interview!"
"Please Harry? It won't be so bad; just an update on how you've been since the Battle. It'll be quick."
How I've been since the Battle? The words `miserable' and `depressed' were on the tip of my tongue, but I doubt the general wizarding population wanted to hear about that. I sighed in resignation. "All right, but you owe me."
Luna smiled and took my arm, dragging me in the opposite direction. "You won't regret this, Harry. Father is even pushing back an expose on the mating habits of Gimblesnolids for this…"
*********
Apparently, Luna has a different definition of "quick" than the rest of us - I didn't get out of the interview until after dinner, causing me to miss both Transfiguration and Herbology. I went to the kitchens in the hopes of getting a bite to eat, but for some reason they only had a few leftovers. My stomach was grumbling as I entered the Common Room, and I was both tired and irritable from the interview, plus I had to find out what happened in the classes that I had missed.
The Common Room was full as usual, with students talking, playing games, or studying. I saw Ron and Hermione heading towards the portrait hole, which put me in their path.
"Hey guys," I said. They stopped, and Hermione gave me a piercing look.
"Where were you today?" she practically demanded. "You missed Transfiguration and Herbology."
I was a little taken aback by her harsh tones. "I was with Luna," I said defensively, though not sure why. "Her fath-"
"Oh! You were with Luna, were you?" Ron asked, a certain biting quality in his voice that I couldn't place.
"Yeah," I continued, "and I was wondering if I could borrow your notes on-"
"What?!" Hermione shrieked. "You expect us to give you our notes after you skive off classes to go gallivanting off with Luna Lovegood?!"
"I wasn't galliv-"
"Just because you're Mr. "I-saved-the-world" doesn't mean you get to skip class whenever you feel like it and use us for our notes!" she continued unabated.
"I didn't-"
"That's right, you didn't think, did you!"
"That's not what I-"
"You know, Harry," she said, sticking a finger in my face. "I've just about had enough of you right now. C'mon Ron, let's go!" And with that, she left the room in a huff.
I turned to Ron. "Whoa, what was-"
"Don't talk to me, Harry!" he said angrily, and tromped after Hermione.
I was stunned. Speechless. Bewildered. Upset. Angry. What the hell just happened? What did I do to deserve that? I turned around, only to find that the entire room was silent, every eye focused on me.
So I snapped.
"What!?" I yelled at the room in general. "What is everyone looking at? Never seen a bloke get yelled at by his two best friends for no reason?! All I wanted were notes from class…what the hell is going on here?!" No one answered, and most of the room pretended to be busy. "Well, now that I have everyone's attention, does anyone have notes from seventh year Transfiguration and Herbology?" I demanded.
The room was still silent, until a soft cough caught my attention. I turned towards the noise and saw Lavender and Pavarti at one of the tables. "Erm, I have them," Lavender said in a small voice.
"Great!" I barked. "And the rest of you can go back to your business now! Nothing more to see here! Move along, move along." I stomped over to their table and sat across from the two girls. I didn't say a word, still too upset, while Lavender searched through her bag and pulled out her notes.
Upon seeing how uneasy the two girls were, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming myself down. "Thanks," I said, and then took out my own notebook. I spent the next few minutes reading over Lavender's notes and making copies.
"Um, Harry?" I heard Lavender say.
"Yeah?" I responded absently as I continued to scribble away. There was no immediate response, and instead I heard some furious whispering. I looked up to see Pavarti making fierce shushing noises while Lavender gestured towards me. My eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"
They froze and slowly turned to face me. "It's nothing Harry," Pavarti said. "Lavender was just going to say her notes aren't that good, but you can see mine if you want to."
It didn't take Legilimency to figure out that she wasn't telling the whole truth. "Really?" I asked dubiously.
"Really."
"Lavender?" I asked.
"Well…"
"Lavender."
"I was just going to say…well, we think we know why Ron and Hermione are mad at you."
"What?" I asked, surprised. "Why?"
Lavender traded one last look with Pavarti before sighing. "You see, when you told Ron that you were off gallivanting with Luna-"
"I was not `gallivanting' with anyone! I was giving an interview!"
Pavarti shushed me, looking around nervously. "Okay Harry, okay," she said in a gentle tone, "it's just that, well, Ron's mad because he fancies Luna. He's mad at you because he's jealous."
It took me a moment to process her words. "You're saying…that Ron is mad at me because he fancies Luna?" When they both nodded, I shook my head. "But…but he's always making fun of her, calling her names."
"That's just Ron," Pavarti said.
When it was obvious that I was still confused, Lavender jumped in. "You see, Ron's no Gilderoy Lockehart. He's not going to sweep a girl off her feet. Instead, he fights with them and calls them names. That's just how he is."
I nodded slowly. That does make sense, and it would explain a lot about Ron's behavior in the past. The more I thought about it, the more plausible it became. My face lit up. "Well, that's great!" I said. "Luna fancies Ron too!"
From their delighted expressions, I immediately knew that I had made a mistake - this was Lavender and Pavarti I was talking with, and the news could easily be all over school by lunchtime. "Wait a second," I said. "You can't tell anyone."
They looked as if I told them it was proven that Divination was fake - a mixture of shock, anger, and sadness. "But…"
"Listen, it's private between the two of them. Don't get involved." When they continued to argue, I said in my most threatening voice, "and don't make me memory charm the two of you."
Fortunately for me, they didn't know that I'm horrible at memory charms and was bluffing completely. But they stopped protesting and took on petulant looks. After giving them a second to recover, I asked the question that was most important to me. "And Hermione? Why is Hermione mad at me?"
Pavarti still looked resentful. Lavender waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, she's mad at you for the same reason Ron is."
My mouth dropped in shock. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even begin to understand what that meant. I tried to speak, but only succeeded in making random gurgling noises, causing Lavender to look at me in interest. "I can't believe it," I finally managed. "Hermione's mad at me because…because…because she fancies Luna too?"
Lavender and Pavarti stared at me for second before bursting into hysterics. As I couldn't understand what was so funny, I wasn't amused.
Finally, Pavarti caught her breath. "No, you dummy," she said while still laughing. "Hermione doesn't fancy Luna, she fancies you!"
While this little bit of information would be shocking under normal circumstances, to go from Hermione liking Luna to Hermione liking me made rational thought impossible.
"What?"
Lavender took pity on me. "Hermione fancies you Harry," she said simply.
"But…are you sure?"
"Harry, we've been roommates with her for seven years. Of course we're sure."
"But…but…that's great!" I said, feeling giddy as the thought that Hermione fancies me finally set in, though a small part of me couldn't help but be intrigued by the idea of Hermione and Luna… "That's amazing, that's wonderful!" I said happily.
Lavender had an amused smile on her face. "Well, I thought you'd take it well, but I never imagined…"
"Well, of course I'm taking it well; I've been in love with Hermione for months!" And then, perhaps a split second after the words left my mouth, I knew I had made a grave error. The squeals that preceded my announcement were near-deafening. I tried to speak to them, but they were speaking so quickly to each other that I couldn't make myself heard. We were also starting to garner a lot of attention, so I finally had to resort to a silencing charm. It took a few seconds of wordless chatter until they noticed what happened. They both turned to me at the same time.
"All right, now listen you two, I'm going to take off the spell, but you have to calm down first, okay?" When they nodded, I removed the silencing spell.
"Harry, I can't believe…"
"This is so wonderful Harry…"
"I always knew that you two…"
"Oh, it's so romatic…"
"Silencio!" I glared at them. "Now, was that calming down?" I asked. They shook their heads sullenly. "Right. Let's try this again." I took off the spell, and this time they were silent, though I could tell from their fidgeting and the huge grins on their faces that they were bursting to talk.
"Listen," I said in a slow voice, "you can't tell anyone."
"What?!"
"Harry, we live for things like this!"
"I know, but I'd rather tell her in my own way and not have her find out from you two, okay?" They still looked uncertain. "You can talk about Ron and Luna then, if you keep silent about me and Hermione," I added, clearly throwing my best friend to the wolves to save my own skin.
"All right, fine," Pavarti said. "But only if you tell Hermione as soon as you can, because I don't know if we have enough willpower to keep a secret like this for too long."
I sighed. "I will."
"Promise?" asked Lavender.
"I promise."
"Good," Pavarti said. Then she turned to Lavender, and they began plotting in great detail how to have Ron and Luna admit their feelings to each other. I knew I couldn't focus on class notes anymore, and instead I tried to plan how I was going to talk to Hermione. But then Lavender interrupted me.
"Um, Harry?"
"Yes?"
"You know how you promised to tell Hermione as soon as you could?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, here's your chance," she said, pointing over my shoulder. I turned, and there was Hermione, walking through the portrait hole.
A/N: One more chapter to go. I'll work on my WIPs first, and then turn my attention to any plot bunnies that HBP will create.
A few HPB thoughts. First, let me say I'm the kind of guy who read all the spoilers and people's reactions before reading the book. You might think it "ruins the magic," but I want to be prepared for the worst after devoting two years of my life on this ship.
And it's a good thing I did too, because otherwise I would be too angry to think. I read everyone's reactions, and I have good idea of what happens. I got my copy from Amazon on Saturday, and I only opened the box this morning. The book is sitting unread in my bag, and I'm still not sure I'm ready to read it on the train ride home. I'm almost there though, readying myself for what's to come.
Overall, I believe the plot will be good (I'm looking forward to that), the writing patchy in spots, and the characterization of Hermione absolutely criminal. But since more articulate and thoughtful people (who have actually read the book) have made their comments, I won't add mine.
I will say that I believe JKR has spent far too much time and effort on HBP to write a Hermione that's so OOC without a good reason. I have faith in her; five wonderful books shouldn't be discounted just because one book doesn't make much sense in terms of character development. I believe that book seven will bring it all together, that everything will make sense, and that H/Hr will prevail. I still believe, but it's going to be a long two years.
I'm also hopeful that JKR will give interviews where she'll say that something else is going on under the surface, and that not everything is as it appears.
But keep in mind that I've been a Cubs fan for over two decades, and that each year I believe that the Cubs will win the World Series - eternal optimism in the face of overwhelming odds is my specialty.
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