Author's Note: Because my new beta has been keeping up with me so well, I've got to get you guys caught up to me, too. That's why I'm updating so much faster than, well, what you've gotten used to. Anyway, thanks everyone for the reviews. I appreciate each and every one of them. You guys seriously rock!
CHAPTER TWENTY
RENEWAL OF FAITH
Since he had been underneath his invisibility cloak, Harry could not discuss what he had overheard with Ginny and he felt a strong desire not to discuss it with Ron. If Ron found out that his sister had actually been nice to Draco Malfoy, he'd flip and yell at Ginny, who would be very upset that Harry had eavesdropped in on her conversation. It was almost as if Harry was reliving the first day of classes with Ron and Hermione, except that this time, his blood wasn't boiling as much.
It was horrible to think about, however. Lucius Malfoy had killed his own wife. He was supposed to have loved that woman, yet he killed her on Voldemort's orders. He destroyed his own wife so that his life wouldn't be destroyed.
Harry took some time to consider whether or not he would have done the same thing if he had been in Lucius Malfoy's situation. If someone had ordered him to kill Hermione, would he have done it? Even if it were for the greater good of society?
Absolutely not, Harry thought. I would just as soon kill myself.
He hated the idea of being asked to kill anyone, yet he was in that exact situation. He had been asked to risk his own life to destroy Lord Voldemort. The question was, when the time came, could he do it? Could he actually kill a man? Could he kill the man who murdered his parents?
It was a question that he was still trying to answer.
With his training, however, he was becoming more and more confident that he could kill somebody if he needed to, not that he was going to go around yelling out the Killing Curse. But he was learning some nifty little tricks from Moody and Lupin as well, who taught him a few spells that the Marauders used to use back when they attended Hogwarts.
"Stuff we terrorized the students with when we were young and stupid," Lupin had said.
The late November weather was becoming terribly cold as the onset of winter was fast approaching. It made Harry's morning runs almost painful; they were nothing he enjoyed. When he arrived back, he was usually so frozen that he spent a half-hour in the showers underneath a jet of boiling hot water just to thaw out again.
Classes weren't helping much. More and more the professors were piling on the homework, demanding perfection in such things like nonverbal spellwork. Harry, luckily, had had a breakthrough with Moody and Lupin, dueling with both of them and not uttering a word. Moody had patted him on the back after that, saying, "That'll do, Potter, that'll do."
Another large happening took place in the common room a few days later, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked in to hear a huge blowout taking place between Seamus Finnigan and Lavender Brown. It was so loud that people were scrambling out of the common room just to get out of the way.
"Look!" Lavender shouted. "You're making people run away!"
"Me? Hark who's talking, Miss So-Loud-That-Ireland-Can-Hear-You!" Seamus yelled. "I asked if you wanted to talk in someplace private, but no! You want the whole common room to hear!"
"You blockhead, I said that anything you had to say you could say in front of Parvati too!"
"But I'm not the one who started this little argument. I just wanted to talk to you and you jumped down my throat about something stupid," Seamus said.
"Something stupid? You call flirting with that Ravenclaw girl right in front of me 'something stupid?' You're a great big prat, Seamus!" Lavender yelled.
"I was looking, not flirting! Bloody hell, woman! Can't a man look?" Seamus asked.
"No, not if he values his relationship with his bloody girlfriend," Lavender said.
"Well then, you know what? Maybe I don't want you to be my bloody girlfriend anymore!" Seamus said.
"Really? Well, maybe I don't want you to be my boyfriend anymore!"
"Good! We're through!"
"Good!"
Both of them marched away; Lavender ran through the door leading to the girls' dormitory with Parvati right behind her, while Seamus stomped over to the portrait hole, shouting, "What are you looking at?" when he spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione staring at him.
"Nothing," Harry murmured and stepped out of the way, allowing Seamus to leave the common room. He gave Ron and Hermione a look to show them what he was thinking. Ron simply nodded and moved to go find a seat, Harry and Hermione following him.
*****
Lavender, in Harry's mind, did not aim to stay single for long. As early as two days after her breakup with Seamus, she had found a new object for her admiration: Ron. She had laughed shrilling in Transfiguration when Ron had made a joke about a mistake that Harry had made and the following day in Herbology, he caught her glancing over at Ron from where she and Parvati stood with the Devil's Snare the seventh years had finally begun to work with.
Ron was rather oblivious to all of this attention until finally after Defense Against the Dark Arts, Lavender slid up next to Ron as they were exiting the classroom. "Hi!" she said cheerfully.
"Er-Hi, Lavender," Ron said. "Something we can do for you?"
"Oh, nothing really. I just wanted to thank you, Ron, for being such a good mentor to my little brother, Dylan. He looks up to you, you know," she said.
"Yeah? I thought he looked up to Fred and George," Ron said, stopping to chat with her. When Harry and Hermione stopped, he waved them on ahead. "I'll catch up with you later."
Harry caught Hermione rolling her eyes when they turned away, leaving Ron and Lavender to talk about Ron's excellent mentoring skills and Dylan's admiration of him.
*****
On Friday, they decided to visit Hagrid after their classes were over with. When they arrived, however, Hagrid was just beginning to teach the Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth years their Care of Magical Creatures lesson.
"Why don' yeh three go on inside and I'll see yeh after me lesson," Hagrid suggested.
They went inside, but not before waving to Natalie McDonald, who was with the rest of the fourth years having class. Fang bounded over to greet them as Hermione hunted around for Hagrid's tea kettle, saying that it would be good for Hagrid if they had hot chocolate ready for him after a long day of teaching outdoors.
Hagrid couldn't have been more grateful when he finally joined them. "Thanks, Hermione. Yeh wouldn' believe how much I've bin wantin' something warm. I was thinkin' about draggin' out the salamanders for class today, but the fourth and sixth years have already studied 'em.
"So, what's bin goin' on with you lot?" he asked, taking another sip of hot chocolate.
"Not much," Harry said. "The usual."
"I-erm-sort of got myself a girlfriend," Ron announced, causing both Harry and Hermione to gag on their hot chocolate.
"Really?" Hagrid boomed. "Who's the girl?
"Lavender Brown," Ron told him.
"You two are going out-already?" Hermione said, setting her hot chocolate aside.
"What d'you mean by that?" Ron asked, his tone defensive.
"She just broke up with Seamus. She's on the rebound!"
"So?"
Hermione stared at him. "So that's how you want to get a girl? When she's desperate?"
"You think Lavender's desperate?" Ron asked. "Why would she be desperate? I thought only girls who have gone a long time without a boyfriend are desperate."
"Not just girls," Harry heard Hermione mutter under her breath before she said, "Lavender Brown is a certain type of girl. She needs to have a boyfriend, otherwise she feels insecure. She needs someone there to tell her she's special because she won't believe herself if she says it. She needs validation. If she goes too long without a boy making her feel like she's somebody, she gets antsy. You're going to find, Ron, that Lavender Brown is a very needy girl."
"She can't be all that bad," Ron said. "She went out with Seamus for a long time before they broke up."
"I suspect Seamus had a great amount of tolerance toward her until recently," Hermione said.
Ron turned to Harry. "What do you think, mate?"
Harry hesitated, glancing back and forth between his girlfriend and his best friend. He sighed. "Whatever makes you happy, Ron."
Ron turned back to Hermione, a smug grin on his face. "Harry approves."
She shot a glance at Harry, who tried to tell her with his eyes what he really thought. She must have understood, because she then said, "I suppose Harry's right. As long as you're happy."
"Thank you," Ron said. "I am happy. Lavender and I are going to go on our first date next Saturday."
"What are yeh goin' ter do?" Hagrid asked him.
Then Ron turned slightly pink. "Er-I'm not really sure."
"You don't know?" Harry asked, trying to keep the smile off of his face.
"Er-No. You mean I have to come up with something?" he asked.
"Did you ask or did she?" Hermione asked.
"She did," he said.
"Then you're fine. She'll figure out what you're going to do," Hermione told him.
"Yeah, just hope that she doesn't want to whisk you up to the Astronomy Tower," Harry said, now unable to keep the grin off of his face. "It's too cold."
Ron's face was red. "Can we-er-get off the subject?"
Hagrid chuckled. "Don' worry, Ron. I'm sure these two won' tease yeh…a lot. Jus' be happy that Fred an' George aren' 'ere."
Ron buried his face in his hands. "Bloody hell."
*****
On Monday morning, when Harry woke up for his usual morning run, he found that the grounds were covered with at least three inches of snow. Dreading what he was about to do, he got dressed in sweats and headed out. When he reached the top of the marble staircase in the entrance hall, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with Professor Dumbledore.
"Sir!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Dumbledore smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. In fact, Harry noticed, the usual sparkle that was in them wasn't there. "I am here because I need to speak with you, Harry." He gestured down the stairs. "Shall we?"
Dumbledore led him through the entrance hall and down a corridor before opening the door to an empty classroom. Harry stepped inside and turned to the wizened old man. "What is it?"
Dumbledore sat down on top of one of the desks, looking grim. "I am very sorry to inform you that last night, number twelve, Grimmauld Place was turned into rubble and that, furthermore, your house-elf Kreacher was killed in the process."
Harry froze. Sirius's house…gone? The old headquarters of the Order was destroyed? He sat down across from Dumbledore. "Lestrange," he said quietly.
"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "Bellatrix Lestrange, a member of the House of Black, was able to unearth the Unplottable home of her dear Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion and break into it. Apparently Orion Black had passed along the information on how to get into his heavily fortified home to more than just his wife and sons."
"How? I thought you had placed the house under the Fidelius Charm?" Harry said.
"Oh, I had, but I removed it once the Order was safely moved to another location and I am once again the Secret-Keeper of that place."
"What happened to Kreacher? Did Lestrange kill him, or did he die when she destroyed the house?" Harry asked.
"Kingsley's letter reports that Kreacher was given his dying wish, to be decapitated like he ancestors," Dumbledore said.
"But what about any information he could have passed on to Lestrange? He could have given up the names of Order members," Harry said.
"I doubt it," Dumbledore said. "Kreacher, when we left, was on his deathbed. He could barely speak for all the coughing he was doing. He was very feeble and welcomed death. Also, knowing how much Kreacher loved his mistress's home, he was probably very angry when he found out that Bellatrix Lestrange was going to destroy it. I imagine she started right away and then, stumbling upon Kreacher, granted his request for death as swiftly and easily as allowed by her cruel manner. I believe the Order is quite safe."
"But now what?" Harry asked. "She'll report back to Voldemort, obviously, but then she'll just continue on, right? She'll keep searching for the Order."
"Probably, yes."
"Then shouldn't the Order move again?"
Dumbledore smiled. "She could spend the rest of eternity looking and would never find us."
"That's confidence," Harry remarked.
The sparkle in Dumbledore's eyes returned as amusement crept into them. "Indeed. Now, I do believe you were about to take a jog?"
Harry frowned. "Yes, sir."
His run was quick. Having cut half of it off thanks to getting far too cold, Harry wound up back in the common room far earlier than expected. He still had a little bit of homework left, so he took a long shower to warm him up and then went back down to the common room to finish it up.
Hermione joined him about an hour later, dropping her bag next to his on the floor. "Once again, you're up really early."
"I had trouble sleeping," he said, feeling bad for lying to her. "So I decided to take a walk."
"A walk? Around the castle?"
"Yeah, and I ran into Dumbledore," he said. "He told me something…disturbing."
"What?"
He shook his head. "Let's wait until Ron's awake so that he can hear it too. I'm almost done with this essay here and I'd like to just get it done and out of the way."
"Okay," she said.
When Ron came downstairs, he sat down next to Harry and said, "'Morning. Did you see the snow we got?"
Harry frowned. "Yeah."
"Okay, Harry, Ron's here. Tell us what Dumbledore told you," Hermione said eagerly.
"You talked to Dumbledore?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, this morning when I-er-couldn't sleep," Harry said. "He told me that Bellatrix Lestrange destroyed Sirius's house."
"What!" Ron exclaimed. "She found the headquarters?"
"Shh!" Hermione said. "Do you want the whole common room hearing this?"
"She did, but don't worry, the Order has moved to a new location. She leveled the place and killed Kreacher too," Harry told them.
Hermione gasped. "Oh no."
"I can't say I feel really sorry for him," Ron said. "He was a menace."
"Ron!" Hermione said.
"Well, it's true! I'm sure Harry's happy he no longer owns that elf," Ron said.
Harry said nothing. The truth of the matter was, Harry felt rather nonchalant about Kreacher's death. After all, if it hadn't been for Kreacher, Sirius wouldn't be dead. Normally, Harry cared a great deal about those who had died in this war. Kreacher, however, was not a normal circumstance in Harry's mind. The house-elf's death meant nothing to him.
He carried this unfeeling attitude right up to the evening, where he was standing at the head of an empty classroom with Hermione, conducting yet another prefect's meeting. Harry found these to be rather boring as all they did was go over who had broken what rule and anything else the prefects felt they should report. Even this time around, with a new topic, Harry felt uninterested.
"As you all know," Hermione was saying to the prefects, "the Yule Ball is fast approaching us. We barely have a month to get things ready. Professor McGonagall has once again left it in our hands to name which musical act to invite to Hogwarts, along with drafting up the request and figuring out how much the entire evening would cost. So, let's start with the first one. Who do we want to come to Hogwarts for our entertainment for the evening?"
"I loved Celestina Warbeck last year," said a Hufflepuff prefect. "We should invite her back."
"Please, no," Pansy Parkinson spat. "She was so boring with those ballads. We need something new and fresh."
"How about Ingo Blackpool, that cute Australian bloke?" suggested a Ravenclaw girl.
"NO!" all of the male prefects shouted.
Malfoy's drawling voice came from the back of the room, where he sat with his feet propped up. "Blackpool is a pretty-boy who can't sing."
The Ravenclaw looked pretty sulky, but muttered, "Fine."
"Let's invite the Weird Sisters back," Anthony Goldstein said. "Didn't we have a lot of fun where they were here last time?"
"Didn't you ever hear about how expensive they were, though?" Ernie Macmillan asked. "Nearly twice the amount we had to pay Celestina Warbeck."
"Again, back to my comment about somebody fresh and new," Pansy Parkinson said.
Hermione sighed. "Do you have a suggestion, Pansy?"
"I wouldn't have said anything if I didn't, now would I, Granger?" she shot back snidely.
"Quit with the lip," Harry snarled, "and just tell us what your suggestion is."
She sneered at him. "Yes, sir, your majesty. I was only going to mention this new band that's out. They're known as the Parselmouths."
"Parselmouths?" Harry said sardonically. "Let me guess, a group of former Slytherins?"
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Pansy said, giving a fake pout.
"What kind of music do they play?" Padma Patil asked.
"Wizard rock," Pansy replied. "The best type of music there is. The student body will love them and they'll be cost effective for us. I heard once that they've always wanted to play Hogwarts. Shouldn't we give them their chance?"
"All those who want to contact this group, the Parselmouths, raise your hand," Hermione said.
Over half of the hands in the room were raised. Hermione counted and then nodded. "Okay, I'll run this by Professor McGonagall. Now, we need to divide ourselves into committees…"
*****
Harry's mood didn't improve throughout the week, even at his training session with Dumbledore, who was trying to get him to ignite the wick of a candle by snapping. If anything, Harry's inability to do it just made him feel more and more frustrated.
"I can't do it!" he said finally, walking away from the candle. "It's such a mundane task anyway. I don't understand why you want me to do it."
Dumbledore, with his infinite patience, sat down behind his desk. "Please, sit," he said, conjuring up a chair for Harry. "Let us talk."
"I don't really feel like talking, sir," Harry said, but sat down anyway.
"Then we shall sit in silence," Dumbledore said, gazing into Harry's eyes. "Would you like that?"
Harry felt a sudden light pressure in his mind and immediately calmed himself. "Sir, I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to read my mind," he said, forcing Dumbledore out of his head. The headmaster couldn't have looked more delighted.
"Ah, excellent Harry, excellent! You've detected my invasion and deployed Occlumency against me. You have come a long way."
"Thank you, sir," Harry said.
"Now, you're very frustrated and, I've observed, when you're very frustrated, you like to do something…physical to rid yourself of these feelings," Dumbledore said. "Alastor and Remus can help you Friday with some combat training."
"I doubt they'll do it," Harry said darkly. "Moody still has me dueling, as if I don't already know how to duel."
To his surprise, Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, Alastor does like to keep his young Auror charges doing the same thing until they do something to impress him. Did you know that he was in charge of training the new Auror cadets in the last few years of his career before he retired?"
"No, sir," Harry said.
"He knows what he's doing, that's for sure," Dumbledore said with a smile. "He could have even worked for several more years, but he decided to quit."
"Why?"
"Because he found that the new cadets did not have as much faith in themselves as the ones before them. In fact, he swore to me that he would never train another Auror." His eyes sparkled. "That is, until I asked him about training you.
"You see, Harry, all of us in the Order see the same thing when it comes to you: determination. You are determined to do so many things and have such a faith in yourself that we can't help but believe that you will accomplish everything you set your mind to. Everything."
Harry nodded slowly, taking in Dumbledore's every word.
Dumbledore held up a candle. "Now, Harry, would you like to try again?"
Harry looked up at the candle, feeling the determination Dumbledore spoke of running through him. With a snap of his fingers, he shouted, "Incendio!" and suddenly, somehow, the wick caught fire.
Dumbledore was grinning.
*****
When Harry walked into the deserted classroom on Friday evening, he had a plan. He had been giving Dumbledore's words some thought and had finally figured out what he wanted to do about them. Now it was only a matter of time.
Ten minutes before the training session was supposed to start, the door banged open and Mad-Eye Moody came hobbling into the room, Lupin behind him. "You're early, Potter," Moody growled.
"Good evening, Moody-Professor Lupin," Harry said, nodding to each of them.
"Harry," Lupin greeted back, offering him a smile.
"Move along, Potter," Moody said, walking to where he usually liked to stand in a classroom. "Get ready for this evening's lesson."
Harry, however, stood his ground. "No."
Moody's magical eye, which had been swiveling nonstop, pointed itself directly at Harry, along with his other eye. "What did you say, boy?"
"No," Harry said more firmly as he took out his wand. "Not this evening, Moody."
"What in the name of Merlin do you think you're doing, Potter?" Moody snarled.
Harry raised his wand, pointing it straight at Moody, before whipping it back to his own face in a salute. Then he spoke very slowly and very clearly. "I hereby challenge you, Alastor Moody, to a wizard's duel."
Quite suddenly, Moody laughed. "You must be off your rocker, Potter. You don't even have a second."
Harry smirked. "I won't need one."
"Harry-" Lupin began, but was cut off by a swift shake of Harry's head.
"I'm up to the challenge," Harry said.
Moody nodded and took out his wand before saluting him. "Very well, Potter. When you wake up three weeks from how in the Hospital Wing, remember that it's your own fault."
"I won't be waking up in the Hospital Wing three weeks from now," Harry said.
Moody barked out a laugh and then struck, a blaze of blue lightning nearly hitting Harry if it hadn't been for his perfectly timed Shield Charm. Then Harry struck back, yelling, "Impedimenta!"
Moody easily deflected the jinx, then fired back, growling, "Silencio!" Harry was rendered without a voice. Moody smirked. "I thought that was your first D.A. lesson of the year, Potter. You were correct with how useful that spell is."
Harry, however, knew that Moody was also trying to test him on his nonverbal spellwork. Grinning, he pointed his wand at Moody and thought, Locomotor Mortis!
Moody barely caught that one in time, then sent an orange streak at Harry, which he ducked under before sending a Trip Jinx at Moody and successfully knocking him on the ground. With a roar, Moody sent back the Leg-Locker Curse that Harry had tried on him and Harry toppled over. At the same time, however, Harry was also sending the Blasting Curse at Moody, which blew him ten feet backward. Lupin, meanwhile, was standing as far out of the way as he could.
"Potter!" Moody roared, his face contorted. "Rictusempra!"
Before Harry knew it, he was in a fit of uncontrollable, silent giggles. Finally, he decided that he had had enough. Finite, he thought, as he rolled over, jumped up, and shouted, "Langlock!" Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lupin grin. That particular spell had been one that the Marauder had taught him.
Moody was just in the process of unsticking his tongue from the roof of his mouth when Harry struck again. "Expelliarmus! Levicorpus!" Harry yelled, jerking his wand upward as he uttered the last curse. Not only did Moody lose his wand, but he was also now hanging upside-down by his ankle.
He stared at Harry shrewdly. "Alright boy, you've had your fun, now put me down," he said quietly.
Harry lowered his wand, his mind muttering the countercurse, and Moody fell to the floor in a heap. Lupin stepped over to Harry, patting him on the back. "Well done, Harry. If James had been here watching this, he would have been so proud."
"Especially since he used all of those tricks of yours," Moody said gruffly, getting up. "Potter, if you don't win that damn dueling crown this year at the contest, I'll know you threw it away." There was a gleam in his beady, non-magical eye. "You're ready. You're ready to finally move on and learn something new."
Harry couldn't help but feel excited.
*****
His good mood faded in a dramatic fashion the next day, though. It was the day of Ron's date with Lavender and he was fluttering around nervously all morning; his date was to take place later on in the afternoon. Finally, Hermione-exasperated with his antics-told him to sit down.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. "Do you want to explain to us why you're so nervous?"
Ron shook his head. Hermione went back to studying, obviously deciding not to push things, and Harry went back to his Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. But Ron's foot started tapping so badly that he was hitting the bottom of the table that they were sitting at, knocking Harry's ink bottle over and causing it to gush all over both the table and Harry's essay.
"Oops! Sorry, mate," Ron said sheepishly.
Without saying anything, Hermione took out her wand and began to siphon off the ink before Harry could attempt to, his essay returning to its pre-pool of ink form. "Are you sure that you don't want to talk?" Hermione said finally.
Ron glanced around, his face red. Then, finally, he leaned forward conspiratorially. "Tell me, were either of you nervous before your first dates?"
"First date as in the first time I've ever gone on a date, or the first time I went on a date with Hermione?" Harry asked quietly, glancing around like Ron to make sure that no one was paying attention.
"The very first time, when you went on that date with Cho," Ron said.
Harry thought about it for a moment, trying to remember that disastrous first date he had with Cho in Madam Puddifoot's café. He recalled a lot of crying and Cho storming out angrily at the mention of Hermione, but before that he was sure that he had felt rather queasy.
"Yeah, I suppose I was," he replied at last.
"What about you, Hermione? Weren't you nervous when Krum took you to the Yule Ball?"
"Of course I was," Hermione said. "He was a few years older than me. I was nervous about what he expected from me. He was quite the gentleman, though; he didn't even so much as try to kiss me. I suppose he understood that I was feeling rather terrified about the idea."
Ron was fidgeting again. "That's my problem, don't you understand? Lavender's…more experienced at certain things than I am. What if she expects me to…to…to..."
"Snog?" Harry said helpfully, trying to look cheerful, even though he wasn't. All of this talk about Ron and his experiences with kissing was making Harry think of something else, something that wasn't exactly pleasant.
Ron, meanwhile, had turned a brilliant shade of red. "What am I going to do? I mean, what if I'm no good?"
"Oh, Ron, stop. I highly doubt you're a bad kisser," Hermione said.
Beside her, Harry went rigid. You would know, he couldn't help but thinking. He didn't hear Ron mutter, "How would you know?"
"You don't get it," Ron said in a low voice. "You two have kissed someone-each other. Me, I've never…I mean…Merlin, this sucks," he growled. "I'm seventeen-bloody-years old and I've never kissed a girl. It's going to show on this date when Lavender expects-Harry?"
Harry had stood up, his face livid and his fists clenched. Without a word to either of them, he marched out of the common room and down the corridor to an empty classroom, where he slammed the door shut. Not a minute later, the door opened as Hermione walked in.
"Harry…" she said tentatively.
Just then, Ron walked in. "Hey, mate, what's-" But before he could finish his sentence, Harry had slammed him against the wall.
Pinning him there, Harry screamed, "LIAR! YOU'RE A GODDAMN LIAR!"
"Harry!" Hermione cried, alarmed as she tried to pull him off of Ron.
"Oh, sod off!" Harry yelled. "You're just as bad as he is!"
Hermione let go of him, stung by his words. "Harry, I don't know what we did to upset you so-"
"YOU DON'T KNOW?" Harry bellowed. "YOU DON'T KNOW?"
"No!" Hermione said. "We're sorry, but we don't."
Harry didn't realize that he was crying until he felt a tear slide down his cheek. "You've never kissed a girl before, huh, Ron? You liar. How can you say that? How can you bloody say that when I know for a fact that you've kissed her," he said, nodding to Hermione.
Ron's face turned white. "What?"
Hermione was just as pale. "Harry-"
"Don't," he growled. "Don't. I heard you, don't you get it? I bloody heard what happened on that first day of classes when you both went off to that classroom." He turned back to Ron. "Did you enjoy it?" he asked the redhead savagely. "Were you proud of yourself, getting back at me for something you thought I did?"
"Harry, you don't understand-" Ron said, gasping.
"Don't understand?" Harry repeated. "Oh, I understand perfectly well. You thought that I had gone behind your back and taken a girl that you never really ever had any romantic feelings for. You admitted it yourself-she's like a sister to you, yet you still felt jealous. You felt the need to get back at me, so what did you do? You gave Hermione an ultimatum when she was only trying to get you to realize that you're a flipping moron!" He released Ron then and rounded on Hermione. "And then you…" He became speechless at that point, all of the anguish he had felt that day coming back to him.
"Harry, please, hear us out," Hermione said. "Nothing happened. Ron and I, we didn't kiss."
That stung more than the incident itself. He gaped at her. "How…how can you lie to me like that?" he said. "I heard the whole thing. I heard his demand. I heard you give in. I heard you tell him that…that…well, I heard you walk toward him and then the silence."
"I didn't kiss him, Harry," Hermione said desperately. "Nor did he kiss me. I stepped forward, yes, thinking that maybe if I did give in, if I did kiss him, everything would be better. I didn't want to, though. I was terrified. I didn't want to do the exact thing that I have obviously done."
"And what's that?" Harry said.
"Hurt you," she said in a whisper, tears falling. "I couldn't do it, Harry. Even in trying to save our friendship with him, I couldn't do it."
"Neither could I," Ron said. "You're right, I wanted revenge, but I found that I couldn't kiss her. The mere thought that it was actually about to happen was very awkward for me and when she stepped back and told me that she couldn't do it, I actually breathed a sigh of relief."
"Then we talked. We just talked," Hermione said to him. "I told Ron everything-that I've fancied you for ages and eventually fell in love with you. How I'm willing to do anything for you. You've always come first for me, Harry. Ever since I met you, I've felt a sort of connection to you. And then Ron and I talked about his feelings and he told me that he knew that he couldn't kiss me either and we figured out why. You were right, Harry, he and I are like siblings."
"Did you not hear that?" Ron asked. "You said you heard everything."
Harry shook his head. He was feeling like a great big prat now. "No, I had pulled up the Ear when I thought that Hermione was kissing you. Then I ran back to the common room."
"That's why you looked so sick," Hermione realized. "It wasn't the poison or the antidote. You were…you were…"
"Heartbroken," he finished for her.
"Bloody hell, Harry," Ron murmured. "I'm sorry you went through that torture. I can't imagine what these past few months have been like for you." Then he looked as though he were remembering something. "Wait a tick, though, did you say you pulled up an Extendable Ear?"
"Yeah," Harry said, anticipating the next blowout, only this time it would be from Ron and Hermione.
"Do you even own some of those?" he asked.
Harry shook his head. "Ginny-er-suggested that we listen in on your conversation to find out whether or not Hermione would knock some sense into you."
"Ginny," Ron said darkly. "I should have known. She's as bad as Fred and George-always has to have her nose in somebody else's business."
"You do believe us, though, don't you Harry?" Hermione said, taking his hand in hers. When he removed it, her face fell.
Slowly, with the same hand that Hermione had been trying to hold, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the enchanted beeper that Hermione had given him on his birthday. It lay completely still in the palm of his hand. "This thing isn't going off, is it?" he said.
Her chest gave a great heave as she choked back a sob and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry, Harry, I'm so sorry."
"No," he said quietly, "I'm the one who's sorry. I'm sorry I eavesdropped in on your conversation and, more than that, I'm sorry that I didn't trust you. I know better than that. You two are the truest friends I have and without you, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I'm sorry."
Hermione leaned back and kissed him soundly on the lips while Ron placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mate," he said, "if you can forgive me for being a complete jackass this summer, then how can I not forgive you for something so simple?"
Harry smiled and saw the time on his watch. "Hey, Ron, isn't your date with Lavender in ten minutes?"
Eyes wide, Ron glanced down at his own watch. "Crap!" he yelled. "I got to-"
"Go," Harry and Hermione said in unison before turning to each other and laughing as Ron ran out the door.
Harry pulled Hermione closer and rested his forehead on hers. "I really am sorry."
"I know you are," she said, "as am I."
"How about we go grab some lunch," he said, "and, I dunno, go take a walk around the lake."
She smiled. "In the snow?"
"Sure. We'll bring toast."
"That sounds lovely."
He took her hand in his and, giving her a peck on the lips, they walked out of the classroom.
A/N: FYI, the Parselmouth are a real band from the Washington state area. They sing the same type of music as Harry and the Potters. Check out their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/theparselmouths.