The Sword of Light
by Jardyn39
Part Four of "The Apprentice Piece"
Chapter Ten: Trust
At dinner that evening, Harry was sitting next to Ron with Neville opposite. Hermione came into the Great Hall shortly after them and sat as usual next to Harry. Ginny sat down next to Hermione.
Hermione didn't acknowledge Harry at all though, and somehow that hurt him more than his broken arm had earlier.
"Hi, Hermione," said Neville warmly as soon as she'd made herself comfortable.
Ginny grabbed a couple of plates and placed one in front of Hermione.
"Hi," Hermione replied with a small smile. Harry was anguished to see that her eyes were puffy and red from crying.
Neville leaned towards her a little, and quietly said, "I'm afraid Harry thinks he may have upset you. You see, he was only trying to keep a confidence."
Hermione looked up at him, frowning slightly.
"I think he was wrong though," he added easily, "I can't think of anything I could trust Harry with that I couldn't trust you with."
Hermione smiled, and said, "Thank you, Neville. That is a wonderful thing to say."
Harry reached under the table and held her hand.
"I'm so sorry, Hermione," Harry whispered, knowing she would not tolerate a bigger display of his affection in the Great Hall in front of everyone.
She gave him a watery smile.
"Anyway," said Neville, a little louder and turning his attention to the meal before them, "Harry was telling me earlier about a new trick he can do."
"Er, Neville," warned Harry nervously.
Ginny and Hermione were now both looking at Neville with curious expressions.
"He can make the common room fire flare up. Apparently, he's been practicing at night. Usually, around one in the morning."
Hermione was frowning now, but Ginny had just frozen still.
"What are you talking about, Neville? Harry's been able to start a fire for ages," said Ron absently as he reached for more potatoes. "He still sets fire to most things he tries to scurgify, anyway."
Ginny looked at Neville and raised her eyebrows by the barest amount, Harry saw. Neville smiled slightly and gave a small nod back to her. Hermione appeared to be silently taking in this exchange. Ginny looked down at her plate for a moment while Neville reached for what was left of the potatoes.
Without warning, Ginny pushed her plate to one side, leaped up onto her chair and stepped straight across the table.
"Ginny, have you gone mad?" asked Ron, as several laughs and remarks about Ginny's jumping over the table were heard across the hall.
Sitting down next to Neville, she pulled her plate over and Neville calmly served her what remained of the potatoes.
"You know you'll get a detention, don't you?" continued Ron.
"Shut up, Ron," Ginny replied casually, although blushing a little. "I just wanted some potatoes, that's all."
"Mad. Completely bonkers," muttered Ron, returning to his meal.
"Is anything wrong, Miss Weasley?"
"Er, no, thank you, Professor Dumbledore," answered Ginny, going very red.
None of them had noticed his approach.
"That's alright, then," he said with a warm smile. "Madam Pomfrey tells me your First Aid Club was a great success. Will you be continuing?"
"Oh, yes," Ginny said brightly, "so long as we get enough volunteers. I was hoping Ron would help out but I couldn't find him in time for today."
"No doubt his Prefect duties prevented him. I'm sure he'll be available for the next time. What do you plan to be studying?"
"Bowel reinstatement, Sir," she said with a wicked smile at Ron.
Ron just gulped.
"Ah, yes. Bowel extraction is an unusual Quidditch injury, to be sure. But I can't deny I feel happier already knowing that trained people will be on-hand just in case. Well done for volunteering, Mr Weasley."
Dumbledore continued walking up to the staff table, leaving everyone except Ron laughing.
*
"Ron, stop worrying," said Hermione the next morning. "Ginny wouldn't really do that to you. We are studying sprains and support dressings next time, honestly."
"She would, you know," he replied absently.
"Come off it. Harry and Neville have volunteered again. Neville wouldn't be that stupid, even if Harry would."
Harry snorted, and said, "Thanks, Hermione. We're going to be late for Potions again."
"Sorry," said Ron, "I'll see you later," and he walked off to his class.
"We need to talk," said Hermione quietly as they walked down to the dungeons. "I need to tell you something."
"Morning break?"
"No, sorry. I've asked to see Professor McGonagall then."
Harry nodded and held the potions classroom door open for her. They were the last to enter and he closed the door behind them.
"Walk around the lake at lunchtime?" offered Harry as they got to their usual places.
*
Harry knocked on Professor McGonagall's office door at almost the end of the morning break. She opened the door and beckoned him inside where Hermione was already seated.
Hermione gave him a weak smile and Harry wondered again why he had been summoned. Professor McGonagall sat at her desk.
"Please take a seat. Miss Granger is considering giving up her teaching assistant duties, Potter"
"What?" Harry said in complete surprise. "No way! Why?"
Hermione looked down looking a little red. He dropped his bag and sat down, looking intently at Hermione.
"Why, Hermione?" he asked again more gently, but he couldn't hide his disappointment. "I thought you loved teaching. You did so much preparation."
"But it didn't do any good," she said, still looking down. "I wanted to teach so badly. When I walk into the classroom, they look so disappointed it's not you, Harry. The worst thing is, they're not learning."
Harry glanced at Professor McGonagall. She was looking warmly at Hermione with a small smile on her face.
"Hermione, they are learning. Loads," he added gently.
"And you never set any homework," said Hermione, as if determined to prove it was all Harry's fault.
"I deliberately didn't set any homework just for the first lesson. They were still very upset about Professor Harbinger so I made sure they all qualified for exemption. I've been setting them reading and practise mostly but also a couple of short summaries."
"And you give them loads of points."
"I do give as many points as I can. No more than one point per person per class so far and all of them are earned. It's true though, that I've given more points for attempting something than I have for pure attainment. I want them to be keen to try new things."
"They still aren't learning anything. Well, not until you show them, anyway."
"Well," said Harry deliberately slowly, trying to give the impression he was going to agree with her.
Hermione's head shot up and he grinned at her.
"Honestly, Hermione," he said smiling. "There are only two areas that I can see you might want to review. The first is homework. You might have submitted four foot essays in our First Year but it wasn't expected from the rest of us."
"Well, I just wanted them to do well," Hermione responded a little sheepishly.
"The second thing is really just to show a little patience. I know it takes time but some people need more attention than others. I know you can do it. Just look at what you've managed to teach me."
Hermione just shook her head miserably.
"All I've tried to do," continued Harry, "is what you've always done when I can't do anything. Show, explain and encourage. If you can teach me, Hermione, you can teach anyone."
Hermione sighed.
"You know," said Harry, "not one of them would let me go until they'd all been able to do that last vampire banishment spell. We all lost a whole lunchtime doing it. Why was that? The same reason they all managed to do those gargantuan essays."
Hermione's eyes began to water.
"None of them wanted to let you down. They look up to you. They all want to be as good as you and make you proud of them. Please don't give up now. They need you and will want you to continue."
Hermione sniffed and produced a small handkerchief from her sleeve.
"I note you didn't take their essays in for marking," she said dabbing her eyes.
"Too heavy to carry," Harry said at once. "Actually, I told them they should keep them for extra protection. You know, so they could whack any vampires with them!"
He mimed a swinging motion as if he held an invisible bat.
Professor McGonagall snorted loudly, as did Hermione.
"I'm sorry," said McGonagall, recovering herself. "It takes practise to teach at any level and it takes time to find a style that is comfortable and productive. What works for one teacher won't work for another. In the short period you've been filling in, your pupils have made significant advances. Above all they are enthusiastic. I think they look up to both of you," she added proudly.
"Hermione, I think that Harry has a point regarding setting homework," she continued. "That's in no way a criticism."
She turned to Harry.
"Harry, I think you need to increase the amount of theory based learning," she continued. "Please remember that they'll be taking written papers in their examinations. I know you feel that there should be a greater practical examination element for the First Years, but that will not happen in the immediate future. Remember that the written element is by far the greater part of the overall mark, although in my experience those with practical skills generally do well in the written papers as well."
Harry nodded in agreement.
Professor McGonagall stood and Harry and Hermione followed suit.
"You should have heard the complaints I received the other day when I suggested they should remain to copy down all their Transfiguration homework," she said smiling. "Apparently they didn't want to risk being late for your classes. I must be losing my touch."
*
As soon as they were out of Professor McGonagall's office, Harry dragged Hermione into an empty classroom.
"Why didn't you say anything? It's me who keeps things bottled up inside, remember?" he said gently.
Hermione smiled weakly back at him and shrugged.
"I meant what I said, you know that, right?"
She nodded, still a little tearful.
Harry began to lean in towards her, but unfortunately they were interrupted by a class of Third Years jeering at them.
"Come on," said Hermione at once, "or we'll be late."
*
Hermione sat on her favourite rock on the far side of the lake and waited patiently for Harry's temper to subside.
Eventually he stopped pacing up and down.
"I ask you? Fifty Points! Again! Is that in any way fair? And I'm all muddy!" he ranted on, finally ending with, "What are you smirking about?"
"I'm not smirking, Harry," Hermione replied with some difficulty, "I'm just trying not to laugh. No, it wasn't fair that Professor Snape took fifty points. We'll soon make those up again, though. In case you hadn't noticed, the lake is wet and thus the ground at the edge of the lake gets muddy. You will continue to get all muddy so long as you insist on pacing up and down at the water's edge."
"Hah, hah," he replied dryly, sitting down next to her. "Okay, I'm done for now. What did you want to talk about?"
"Let's start with Neville and Ginny."
"Yeah, I really handled that well, didn't I?" said Harry, examining his muddy clothes. "You kind of caught me out. You may have gathered that I promised not to tell anyone. I admitted to Neville that I saw them both in the common room. I had no idea they were there. Neville took the news surprisingly well, actually. He said he trusted me, and you obviously, which was really nice to hear."
"It was good of him, wasn't it?" she agreed, looping her arm around his and pulling him close to her.
Harry pointed his wand down to his feet but Hermione quickly grabbed his hand.
"Harry, let me do the scurgify spell. You don't want to spend the afternoon with burnt clothes."
"Hermione," he said indignantly. "I know I've set fire to a couple of things accidentally, but I'm nowhere near as bad as Ginny likes to claim. It just took me a while to control the strength, that's all."
Hermione just raised her eyebrows and smiled.
Harry decided not to perform the cleaning spell after all. Instead he continued with their conversation.
"Yes. I don't think they've been seeing each other long," he said.
Hermione smiled to herself and cleaned his robes, trouser bottoms and shoes with a single wave of her wand.
"Thanks," he whispered.
"I knew Ginny was seeing someone but she wouldn't say anything. That's unusual for her. I think she was protecting Neville, not herself. They're not an obvious couple, are they?"
Harry reached down and took Hermione's hand in his.
"I couldn't tell Neville everything, even though he trusted me. I feel terrible about that. I'd like to tell you some of it, but only if it stays between us for now."
"Of course, Harry," she replied.
"Well, first of all, I made my promise to Neville after I made a promise to myself not to tell anyone. I felt terrible after I'd seen them. I had invaded their privacy and they had no idea at all. I confided with Dumbledore about how I felt. He said I should be guided by my conscience."
"That sounds like good advice."
"My conscience says I have to ask you something. I have been meeting with Kales fairly regularly. He comes in my dreams, just like before. He started by helping me calm down before I sleep properly. He also… Sorry, I'm getting side tracked," Harry added apologetically.
"Just lately he has shown how I can move around the castle while I'm asleep," he continued. "I can move around and go anywhere without being seen or heard.
"Kales wanted me to see something. We got as far as the inner stairs of the girl's dormitories when I decided I couldn't go up. It just wasn't right."
"Describe the painting on the inside stair lobby," instructed Hermione sounding quite ill at ease now.
"Er, it was about three feet by four feet and showed a seascape. It looked rather stormy that night. The walls were plastered and you have blue carpeting on the stairs. This light was a bit dim but I think the ceiling was painted white and the walls light blue."
"You really did go there," said Hermione looking quite shocked.
"Yes. The boys' dormitories only have bare stone! Anyway, my point is that I could have gone anywhere and seen anything. No-one would have seen me or heard me."
"That's a little unnerving," Hermione admitted.
"I didn't go any further than the stairs, Hermione."
"No, of course not," she said absently, clearly thinking of what Harry might have witnessed.
"Hermione, I want your permission to visit you. Just you. If you say no, I'll never step foot there again. I promise."
Hermione bit her lip and for a moment Harry thought she would refuse.
"Harry, you are not to come earlier than midnight nor later than four am. The showers and toilets are out of bounds."
"I'm not sure I'll bother in that case, actually," he said grinning. Hermione frowned at him. "I'm kidding! Leave out a message for me together with a blank bit of parchment. I'll try and leave a sign I've visited."