A/N- Just wanted to write a little note to say thanks for everyone that has been reading along and reviewing, I really appreciate it J Sorry if the font size is weird on any of your computers, for some reason when I try to change the format from MS word to HTML it messes up along the way. The last chapter really messed up…and I don't know too much about computers! So the only thing I can advise is to just change the font size while I try and figure out what the bloody hell I am doing! Anyway, here's an interesting chapter for you…enjoy!
**Islanzadi** J
The next couple of weeks passed in a blur for Hermione. All five of them spent most of their time studying and practicing as many different spells as they could find. Harry left for a couple of hours everyday to study with different members of the Order, and came back looking tired and dejected. By an unspoken agreement Harry and Hermione had decided to act like they were friends in front of the others. In the early hours of the morning they would meet in the garden with Harry's invisibility cloak and spend hours talking and kissing. They had not lost control since the evening spent on the side of the country road. Not because they didn't want to, but because they understood that it was not wise to jump into things like that so quickly. Well…Hermione knew it wasn't wise and reminded Harry breathlessly on a regular basis. She didn't regret losing control with Harry that night, but she did want their relationship to be in the open before anything else like that happened. She wanted things like that to be special, and it couldn't be as special as they wanted if they were keeping their relationship a secret. She didn't feel like they had anything to be ashamed of, but she would feel ashamed of anything she did with Harry if Ron had no idea about them. They found out things about each other that no one else in the world knew, and Hermione knew that she was falling for Harry harder than she had ever thought possible. They knew that what they were doing was unfair to Ron. They knew that they would have to tell him sooner or later, but every time Harry would mention Hermione's name Ron would interrupt with -
"I'm not interested in anything to do with Hermione," and walk away quickly. Harry knew that he was trying hard to be nice to Hermione and act like they were best friends again. Everyone could feel the tension, and Luna was quite fond of pointing it out. Every time Ron tried to make a joke about Hermione it came out bitter and nasty. Harry was having a hard time controlling his anger.
So the weeks passed, with Harry and Hermione's secret meetings at night and meaningful looks during the day. Harry knew that he had never felt this way about another girl before, but he was scared of admitting just how much she meant to him. What kind of danger would that put her in? He woke up every morning and wondered if today was the day she was going to see what he really was and run off with Ron after all. Every time he thought about her he felt at peace and unusually contented. Every time he saw her walking towards him he felt an odd twisting sensation in his stomach. Every time she kissed him in the early hours of the morning he lost himself in her entirely, and wasn't too sure if he ever wanted to come back to reality and go back to his bed alone.
It was a Friday evening, and after a gruelling week of hard work everyone was sitting in the living room playing games of chess and exploding snap. Ron left the game to go into the kitchen and came out with a large bottle of firewhisky. He put it on the table along with five glasses and poured them all a liberal amount.
"Oh how lovely," said Luna vaguely. She reached for the glass and swallowed the whisky in one. Then she pondered how to attack Ron's Knight, oblivious to everyone staring at her. Harry grinned at Ron and raised his glass…they swallowed it together and tried to look as cool about it as Luna had…they didn't succeed. Ron stood up and coughed loudly. Harry made a very unattractive face, which made Hermione and Susan laugh.
"If you two think it's that funny you try and do it without making a face," Ron said with his eyebrows raised. Susan grabbed the glass and swallowed it quickly, making a slight gagging noise. Hermione looked at all of them and shook her head. She stood up, reached for the glass and swallowed it as deftly as Luna. Harry grinned at her, but Ron simply poured everyone another glass. The evening was spent with the five of them getting louder and louder. Soon the games were abandoned as each of them began telling stories, which were a lot funnier than usual. Eventually it moved onto drunken guessing games and Harry wondered why Hermione was still getting everything right when she was totally drunk.
"All right! If you don't guess this one you all have to take a shot!" Ron said drunkenly and wobbled as he tried to stay standing. "Who was the wonderful but obviously gay author of the book 'magical me'" Harry started laughing as Ron did a very good impression of Lockhart's swaggering walk.
"Gilderoy Lockhart!" Susan said "But I really don't think he was gay…"
"Right!" said Ron pouring four shots "Sue got it right so everyone else take a shot!" They all knew that this was a ridiculous rule that meant four people had to take a shot every time a question was asked. No one really seemed to mind too much however, courtesy of the firewhisky. Susan tried to stand up, but ended up leaning on the couch trying not to fall off.
"Ok ok…" she said with a definite slur to her words "who shagged in the astronomy tower last year and was caught by Filch?" Hermione, Harry and Ron all looked at each other confused but Luna put her hand up quickly.
"Cho Chang and Michael Corner!" said Luna, and then toppled onto the floor. "Ooof…Tumbled over…" Everyone roared with laughter as Luna tried to get up but couldn't seem to find her balance. Eventually she gave up and just sat on the floor, her eyes seemed to be wider with the drink. She grabbed her wand and tied her hair up with it.
"That looks cute," said Susan surprised. "Lemme try it…" All the girls eventually put their hair up with their wands, though it took quite a while and the effect wasn't quite as cute as they all thought. Ron rolled his eyes and wondered why girls were always worried about their looks. He thought he had said that in his head, but they all began to answer him. It turned out he had said it very loudly indeed.
"Girls like to look nice Ron," said Susan, attempting to point her finger at him but in actual fact it was pointing around most of the room. "We like to take care of ourselves you know."
"Not to mention that men won't look at you in the slightest if you look like you haven't washed in a week and never met a pair of tweezers before," said Hermione briskly, and looked at Harry. Harry smiled fondly at her.
"You don't have to worry about that Hermione," said Harry, before noticing Ron looking at him oddly "None of you have to worry about that. You're all very pretty and men would like you if you'd never even met a hairbrush." He added quickly, and thought it was a pretty good cover up. The three girls thought this unbelievably sweet in their drunken state and attempted to hug him. Ron mentioned very loudly that they were in the middle of a game, which Harry was grateful for. Drunken hugs from three girls were quite painful.
"Right, 's my turn…" said Luna loudly "Who is the heir of Slytherin?" Everyone except Susan put his or her hands up and she merrily reached for more firewhisky.
"Voldemort," said Harry loudly, echoed by Hermione whilst Ron said "Ssssnake Face". Susan shuddered at the name but no one seemed to notice.
"You know…" slurred Luna dreamily "My father told me that my mother and I are direct descendants of Rowena Ravenclaw." Everyone giggled at this idea but Hermione looked quite thoughtful. She summoned a book from her bag called 'Useful charms for every occasion' by Francis Bubbowter. She read through it not quite as quickly as normal and kept blinking her eyes in an attempt to focus.
"Only Hermione reads when she's drunk," said Ron, in a joking way. Everyone sensed that Ron wasn't really joking and the room when a little quiet. Hermione uttered a few words under her breath and stood up from the couch. She removed the wands from her hair and began to gather her things.
"What did you just do?" asked Harry.
"Sobering charm," said Hermione quickly "I've got to look up a few things before I go to bed, and I doubt I'd be able to do it with that much firewhisky in me. Night everyone." With that she made her way to the study and sealed the door.
"Nice to see she can just let go and party, eh Harry?" said Ron, filling his glass once again.
"Leave her alone Ron," said Harry with a warning tone in his voice.
"Leave her alone Ron," mimicked Ron in a squeaky slurred voice "She's not your girlfriend mate, no need to get pissed off." Susan stood up from where she was sitting and wobbled dangerously.
"I'm going to bed." she said and attempted to walk out of the room. She held onto the doorframe and leant against the walls before Harry decided to help her. Together they laughed hysterically all the way upstairs, each trying to balance the other without much success.
Luna was still sitting on the floor and Ron was still drinking. She got up onto her knees and grabbed the bottle from Ron taking a large swig. Ron looked at her and started laughing.
"Never thought you'd be the type to handle firewhisky well Loony," he said, and took a swig himself. He half moved and half fell off the couch and sat on the floor with her.
"You're being quite nasty to Hermione you know," said Luna.
"You told me before," said Ron "I'm not being nasty to her, she just can't take a joke. Neither can you lot"
"It's not a very funny joke when it's mean about someone." said Luna and stared at the floor. "People think it's funny when they say nasty things about me, but I don't find it funny at all." Ron stared at the floor for a while before he finally spoke.
"I'm sorry for anything nasty I said about you." he said quietly "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I don't mean to be nasty towards Hermione either but I don't know how to act. I can't believe she doesn't want to be with me after all this time. It's hard trying to be her friend again when I'm angry at her."
"You'll get over it eventually Ron." said Luna "She was your friend before all this and she will be after" Ron remembered Harry's words that closely resembled what Luna had just said. He saw a new kind of wise ness in Luna that he hadn't seen before and was quite surprised. He looked at Luna and gave her a very big (and very drunk) smile. He put his arm around her and dragged her closer to him.
"Loony, Loony, Loony," he said and loudly kissed her cheek "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw. Me, I'm just dumb, but you're very smart. No wonder Harry wanted to have you with us. I'm glad, we need more brains around here to make up for me!"
"Ronald," said Luna "You are much smarter than you think. Now stop this self-pity nonsense and play me at chess. I'll beat you this time for sure…" she turned to get the chess set but had problems trying to remember where they had put it.
"You're really nice to me Loony," said Ron drunkenly. He reached turned her head towards him and put his mouth on hers. Luna was in shock at first. What on earth was Ronald playing at? 'He would never look twice at someone like me!' she thought. Then she decided that this was what she had wanted for a while, and at least she could avoid some embarrassment by pretending that she was drunk too. So she opened her mouth and let him kiss her until they were both breathing heavily. He finally broke away and looked curiously into her eyes.
"Was that ok?" he asked. Luna smiled and nodded her head vigorously. Ron smiled back and kissed her again. Eventually he pulled away and began shaking his head. Luna's heart dropped to her stomach when she remembered that her daydream had not involved kissing Ron so drunk that he had no idea what he was really doing.
"We're both very drunk," she said very calmly "Don't feel bad. But I do think we ought to go to bed." Ron nodded his head in agreement and eventually they managed to get up the stairs, eventually they managed to find their rooms (after going into Harry and Susan's rooms several times). Luna lay in bed and thought about Ron's kiss. She knew it only happened because he was drunk, and she knew it would never happen again. But she decided that it was the closest someone like her would ever get to living out her daydreams, and that was enough. Ron lay on his bed and thought about undressing, but after a couple of feeble attempts that landed him on the floor he decided not to. He passed out on the floor and didn't dream at all. Hermione worked long into the night without a break, amazed and a little frightened at what she was learning.
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It was 8 in the morning and Hermione had finally finished reading and making notes. She showered and then made breakfast for everyone. After that she went into everyone's room and cast sobering and anti hangover charm's. She then woke everyone up and told them to meet her downstairs. After a lot of grumbling and moaning they all made their way down to the kitchen table, where they abruptly stopped moaning when they saw breakfast in front of them. They all ate hungrily then went to shower. Hermione waited impatiently for them in the living room and by 10am they were all finally sitting down and waiting to hear her out.
"Well," she said briskly "I'm glad you're all finally ready to hear me out."
"Relax Hermione," said Ron "It's not like we have to go anywhere right? What's so important that we couldn't have a lie in on a Saturday morning?" Hermione stared at Ron with an eyebrow raised until he mumbled an apology of sorts, though the words 'just want to sleep in' could be heard by everyone and Luna giggled rather girlishly.
"Last night Luna mentioned something that caught my interest. She said that she had been told she was a direct descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw. I know we all thought it was pretty funny because we were drunk…" said Hermione but Luna interrupted her.
"I didn't think it was funny," she said. Hermione tried to back track but it was already a 'foot in mouth' moment.
"Uh, anyway," she continued quickly "I decided to check up on it. Not that I didn't believe you Luna but I was kind of wondering why Harry felt that he had to have you with us. Susan too for that matter. No offence Susan but we have never been, erm, close friends so it was kind of strange when Harry suddenly asked you to come and stay with us."
"No offence taken," said Susan brightly "People do hang out in different circles after all. I've been wondering why I agreed to come and stay with you all too. Not that it hasn't been fun getting to know you all of course, but it was weird when I found myself saying that I'd leave Hogwarts to come and stay here!"
"I think it's lovely that we're all friends," said Luna quietly "It's nice to have friends and not be made fun of all the time." Everyone was quiet for a moment, unsure of what to say.
"Yes well," said Hermione "I looked into your family background too Susan. What I learnt explains quite a lot" Harry noticed Hermione's face beginning to flush with excitement at what she had managed to find out, and wondered why he had never thought it cute before.
"I started with the history of the four founders of Hogwart's and traced their family blood lines to the present age, it took me all night because of all the different books I had to look through and…" said Hermione excitedly and Ron decided to hurry her up before she started talking about books.
"Can we get to the point?" he said, "I'm just not interested in the different kind of books you had to look through…"
"Fine," said Hermione tersely "Luna is the heir of Ravenclaw. Susan is the heir of Hufflepuff and Voldemort is the heir of Slytherin."
"Bloody hell," Ron said staring at Luna and Susan "We knew that Snake face was the heir of Slytherin, but you two are heir's too? Bloody hell…all we need now is the heir of Gryffindor and it'll be like history repeating itself!" Hermione turned around and stared at Harry, and pretty soon they all were. Harry burst out laughing.
"You've got it wrong Hermione," he said after his laughter had subsided "There's no way I can be the heir of Gryffindor."
"It's true Harry," she said "I looked at Godric's whole family line and I found your great great great Grandfather there. I looked in another book and found the histories of the whole Potter family leading directly to Godric Gryffindor's bloodline. Did you ever stop to think why your parents lived in a place called 'Godric's hollow'? Not to mention what happened during our second year at school."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry rather tensely
"You used Godric Gryffindor's sword to kill the Basilisk." Hermione said simply.
"Yeah I did, but Dumbledore said that any true Gryffindor could use the sword." Harry reminded her.
"According to this book I read last night only the true heir's of houses can use the items that belonged to the founder's. You Harry, you could use that sword because you are the heir of Gryffindor. I bet Luna can use the tiara because she is the heir of Ravenclaw and I bet Susan will be able to use the magic in Hufflepuff's cup somehow because she is the heir of Hufflepuff."
"Bloody hell," said Ron again and stared at all three of them in awe.
"So," asked Susan "Do you think that's why we're all here? Like history repeating itself or something?"
"Yes," said Hermione "The three founder's of Hogwart's had a feud with Salazar Slytherin because of his, uh, principals. It was their combined power that stopped him from acting like a total mad man and taking over the school. Now you three have to stop the heir of Slytherin from being a mad man and trying to take over the whole world. You three have to stop the murders and torture, you three are going to right the wrong that he has done."
"Bloody hell," said Ron again, but a lot quieter this time. They all sat there in silence for a while thinking about what Hermione had said.
"I always thought it was strange that my mother, my grandmother, my great grandmother and so on were all in Hufflepuff. I knew that I was a true Hufflepuff but I never thought it would be anything as exciting as this!" said Susan, with a flush of excitement on her face.
"So you believe me now that you have proof in a book Hermione?" asked Luna. Hermione went rather red in the face and went and sat next to Luna.
"I'm sorry Luna," she said quietly. "We just believe in very different things so sometimes it's hard for me to believe in things like that so, erm, easily. But I'll try a lot harder. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."
"It's ok," said Luna, her wide eyes brimming with tears.
"Friends?" asked Hermione. For an answer Luna threw her arms around Hermione and hugged her a little longer than what Hermione was used to. From that moment onwards they were very good friends, though sometimes Hermione had to bite her tongue when Luna would read her articles in the 'Quibbler'.
Harry's mind was in turmoil. He was trying to think of every possible argument against him being the heir of Gryffindor, but the only one he could really come up with was that he didn't feel he was important enough. 'When has Hermione ever been wrong about something like this?' he thought to himself, and didn't like the answer. He felt like he had too many good things attached to his name. All he thought of himself was a blundering seventeen year old that would be dead if it hadn't been for the help from the people he cared about every step of the way. How could he have not known this before? How could he have not had a sign? How was he supposed to believe all this? He found himself wondering why he couldn't just be a regular teenage boy. But no, he was Harry Potter, the boy who lived. He was Harry Potter, the chosen one. Now he was Harry Potter, the heir of Gryffindor…It felt like so much pressure. If he failed to kill Voldemort he wouldn't have people saying 'Oh well he was just a lad.' No, people would be outraged that the chosen one could not do it; they would be ashamed that the heir of the brave Godric Gryffindor couldn't save the world. What if he couldn't do it?
"I'm not sure about this," said Harry quietly. He stood up to leave so that he could think alone when he felt a heavy weight at his side under his jumper. He pulled it up and stared in shock. There on his side was Godric Gryffindor's sword.
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