What's She Gotten Me Into?
Harry had no plans to eat breakfast with the other students, that time of day belonged to him and his mother and probably always would. In his whole life he had only been unable to breakfast with her regularly twice, the first time was when he was about 7 and had gone away camping with Mike and his parents. The other was only a couple months ago when he had spent a week in Paris with Kate. The holiday hadn't been much, just a cheap ticket on the Eurostar, but it had been wonderful, walking hand in hand alone together he could actually picture his whole life as he explored the streets of Paris with the girl he loved. How things changed so quickly, he thought darkly to himself as he pushed the doors to the great hall open and walked on in for his first real day of Hogwarts.
He looked across the hall as he watched the older pupils working feverishly over their timetables, a part of today he hadn't even considered yet. He laughed as he wondered if they did English Literature at Hogwarts.
"Harry, over here" he heard Dean yelled, and walked over towards him as he spotted him amongst the crowds. He noticed that all the sixth years were together, even Hermione Granger was present, and they seemed to be waiting for something.
"Just gotta wait for old McGonagall to finish with them first" Ron said suddenly at Harry to spare him from asking "Then she hands out our timetables" all Harry could think to do at these words was shrug, immediately condoning it.
He watched as McGonagall worked her way through them all, seemingly to deliberately leave Harry till the rest was gone. He watched as most of the people he knew skulked off groaning hoping him more luck then they had. Soon all who was left was Harry and Hermione, and Harry instinctly knew that this had been planned. Harry wasn't surprised to notice himself sighing at his match up, no matter what the possible reason could be he figured Hermione wouldn't be the best partner.
"Mr. Potter" the woman said, her voice sharp and commanding instant authority, he could tell he would need to work to stay on the good side of her "Mrs. Potter…" but Harry interrupted her.
"Do you mind not calling her that? It makes us sound married" Harry said smiling, attempting to win McGonagall over with humour. He watched as her lips closed tight together, and he couldn't tell if his comment had hit the mark or if he had made an enemy for life. Hermione Granger didn't even move at his words, never a good sign.
"Professor Potter…" she carried on "informs me that you haven't decided what classes you wish to take yet, is this true?"
"Kinda" Harry said shrugging awkwardly.
"Well I've asked Miss Granger here if she would spend a few minutes talking you over your options, she has kindly agreed"
"That's brilliant!" Harry said, realizing that he had said this way too sarcastically, even the dumbest of people would of realized what he really meant and he felt embarrassed for his rudeness and felt his eyes fall uncontrollable towards his feet.
"That's nice, enthusiasm, Mr Potter" she said eyeing him beadily "I'll leave you two alone for a while. Call me over when you're finished Miss Granger"
Hermione readily shook her head in acceptance, smile attached and watched keenly as McGonagall left, before sitting down and signalling for Harry to join her. Sitting down next to her he sighed softly, this was probably going to be intense.
"So, what are you interested in?" Hermione asked him with a smile, looking straight at him. The question threw him completely, he didn't even know that you could be interested in magic, it was just something you did in his, rather lame, opinion.
"Not really sure…" Harry mumbled a bit pathetically trying to think fast "I guess Muggle studies would be good?"
"You think it'll be a doss, don't you?" Hermione said, a strange smile on her face.
"Well I have spent my whole life with them" Harry said laughing.
"It's not actually as easy as you think" Hermione said matter of factly "it's a study of muggles from a wizarding viewpoint… and as you have no idea how wizards think, it may be a little harder than you think"
"I'm pretty sure I can cope" Harry said raising his eyebrows at her words.
"Maybe I wasn't blunt enough before" Hermione said shaking her head softly bringing her hair slightly into her face "but you will struggle. I don't think you could possibly hope to pass that one"
"Of course I can" Harry said indignantly. Perhaps he had never been the most gifted pupil at school but he was far of being an idiot, he got good marks in all his subjects at GCSE, except French which he failed. He couldn't believe that this girl thought he was some sort of idiot "Put me down for it" he said strongly, noticing that she softly shook her head as she wrote it down on a piece of paper.
"I guess you'll be doing Transfiguration? Charms? Defence? Potions?" Hermione asked, receiving a nod to each of them, Harry knew he would be able to pass them fine enough. His mother and Moony had taught him all of the core subjects "how about Ancient Runes? That'll probably go as well as Muggle studies, after all" she said with a wry smile letting Harry know she was mocking him. Harry could feel his blood boil at this.
"I think I'll pass on that one" he said through slightly gritted teeth "How about care of magical creatures, does that fit in?"
Hermione eyed him suspiciously as he asked this, like somehow he was making a joke. Harry couldn't understand why though, dragons and things sounded like a hoot to Harry and he had been eager to sign up for that class. After a moment where Hermione deduced that he was indeed sincere she wrote that down to on the piece of paper.
"I think that'll do" she said giving him a smile "to be honest with you the other subjects are a bit, well, tedious, at times" Harry smiled at her words and understood that it was her showing him that she was trying to be nice.
"Thanks" Harry said simply, giving her a smile "So… what's your interests then?"
"Sorry?" she said, eyes widening slightly startled.
"You asked me what my interests were, and I answered rather elegantly" Harry said shrugging "so I was wondering what yours were"
"Oh" she replied softly, Harry felt sad as he realized that she wasn't asked things like this that often "well, everything really. But if I had to pick something, I guess I'd say…Runes?" she answered, unsure of herself for the first time.
"Runes?" Harry said laughing "You told me how that was to hard for me!"
"I only meant that, well, if you haven't studied it by now… that you might not be able to…catch up…with the rest of the class" she said blushing slightly making Harry laugh even more.
"Don't worry, Hermione, I'm only teasing you" he said with a smile as she calmed down, and smiled back at him.
"I'm amazed you were clever enough to think of that!" she said with a look on her face that let Harry know she was teasing him in return. And with that she strolled over to McGonagall, handed her the piece of paper and left the hall. McGonagall looked over the paper, nodded and came over to him.
"Good choices, Mr. Potter" she said smiling handing him the piece of paper "you have Potions now in the basements, then after lunch you have Ancient Runes"
"Runes?" Harry spurted out in shock earning him a suspicious look, his mind worked quickly to work this out and quickly realized what had happened, Hermione had added it to show some sort of faith in him. He had to admit that was rather sweet of her. "It's just that…um… I thought it was Tuesday?" he lied badly.
"No" she said simply pausing for a moment to eye him "After lunch"
"Thanks" Harry said flashing her the best smile he could muster.
"That's ok, Mr Potter" she said smiling softly "I'll let Professor Potter know how it went" and as she left Harry sighed. He could tell by how she had said Professor Potter that his earlier joke had worked, McGonagall was not an enemy. Standing up he ready to head down to the dungeons he laughed slightly. He was just about to have class with Snape, now that would be fun.
*
As he pushed his way through the door of his first class, his first lesson with Snape, he refused to look around, sure that the shock of seeing him stand before him would make him do something stupid. Instead he looked for someone he knew, and seeing Dean at the back he made his way silently and quickly over to him. He could tell that the whole class were watching in nervous anticipation, and Harry guessed that showing up late to a class with Snape wasn't a good idea. Harry though wished that he would start on him, then he could have an excuse. He looked around the dungeon and noticed how dark and damp it was, depressing to the point of the horror movies he had watched so avidly with Kate. Across the walls were gruesome paintings of people in pain, tortured and torn apart. Even with Harry's anger flooding through his brain he couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed at the surroundings he found himself in. None of his experience at Poole High had prepared him for this.
He sat down on a spare seat next to Dean and removed some paper and pen from his bag, along with his copy of the book they were studying. He hadn't yet become good enough to use a quill and parchment, so he had to be the only one with a biro. The room still laid deadly silent. Dean looked at him and gave him a grimace, before preparing to whisper him something, but the voice of Snape started before Harry could hear Dean's words.
"Potter…" his cold arrogant voice said, and as Harry looked up to see the man he came face to face with him. Harry's hatred was even more than he suspected, this was the man who had betrayed so many, had in effect killed his father and sentenced him and his mother to death "…Our newest celebrity…"
Harry could feel his anger boiling up, grabbing the side of the table in order to keep his hands away from his wand or making a fist
"…I don't know how it's done in muggle schools…" he started again making Harry's teeth clench with the contempt dripped into the word muggle "…but at Hogwarts we tend to arrive on time for class"
"It's cool…" Harry said as coolly as he could but hearing some of the anger in his own voice "…I'm only a few minutes late"
"I'll be the judge of that, and you will call me Professor or Sir" Snape sneered menacingly at him, Harry could tell that the nasty look in his eye would stop most people dead in their tracks. Harry, with his anger, though wasn't most people.
"I'm pretty sure that it's God who controls time, not you…" he said smiling sarcastically "unless, of course, I'm mistaken and you're God?"
He watched as Snapes' face became more tort, the skin pulled tighter across his hooked nose as his eyes widened, the beginning of red forming in his face to give him the only colour it had seen in decades.
"In this class room I am God" he sneered as evilly as he could, but this had the wrong effect. Instead of shutting up and cowering Harry couldn't help, and didn't want to help, laughing out loud at his words. The whole class room paused in dead silence as they watched this like a car crash, sure that Snape would attack him, but Harry was ready, his wand ready in his hand as he hid it in his pocket.
"You will stay behind class to receive your detention, a month should do it, don't you think?" Snape sneered using his ace as the teacher. But again Harry laughed, there was no way he was letting this happen.
"No" Harry said simply, shaking his head back and forth "I'll stay behind after class to have a word, but I can't accept your invitation to detention" he said with a wry smile. Snape just looked back at him in shock at his words, blatantly he had never been spoken to like this before.
"It was not an invitation" he sneered after regaining himself.
"Then I refuse your order" Harry said impatiently, playing heavily on tactics to annoy teachers "is that better?" Snape watched him for what felt like minutes in silence, and which probably were. No one moved an inch in the whole time and not a single sound penetrated the silence. Harry checked his watch, more to annoy Snape than to check the time.
"Get out!" Snape shouted at the top of his voice, the door to the classroom slamming open in his fury. Harry waited a moment, to make it clear he wasn't following his order, before standing up and leaving with his things. As he reached the door he paused.
"You should learn to control your anger, it makes you look weak" Harry said, the sound of laughter in his voice, and before he went he added "Snivellus" and closed the door behind him.
He laughed out loud as he walked down the corridor, hoping that they could hear it back inside the classroom, that it might even give Snape the stroke he deserved. Harry paused and leaned up against the wall, breathing heavily with excitement. He hadn't felt that alive in over a week, and he knew he couldn't get in trouble for it, at least not too much. For one he wasn't bothered if he was expelled, the only person he did this for was his mother, and he knew she wouldn't and couldn't blame him for anything he said to Snape. As long as he didn't attack him and wasn't too over the top in class then he was untouchable, in his opinion anyway. He knew he could be expelled, but meeting Albus he somehow doubted that he would. And even if he was wrong and was kicked out of Hogwarts today then he was ok with it. Actually he was better than ok, he thought it sounded good. He could go back to Bournemouth, convince Kate he was back for good, and even his mother would be happy with him, having given it his best shot.
Harry smiled to himself and started walking towards the great hall, for both the reasons of getting himself a much deserved coffee and of purposely being late for his `meeting' with Snape.
*
He was now about half an hour late to meet Snape, and he had arrived here because time was dragging. In the great hall, after class had finished he had seen his friends. Ron couldn't help but laugh continuously as he remembered Snapes' face and Dean was equally impressed. They had asked him why he had done it, but he had not told them, if it got out it would only hurt his mother for people to know. He didn't want to turn this into some sort of circus for her, where her husbands' death was school gossip once more. Not everyone was impressed though, Hermione Granger had refused to meet his eye contact the whole time, obviously in a disapproval of his behaviour. He felt a little sad to have let her down so quickly after she had showed some fate in him, but it wasn't really his fault, there was nothing else he could have done.
He strolled into the room, watching as Snape viewed him in anger all Harry did was smile back at him as he took a seat in front of his desk.
Moments passed where they just watched each other in silence, Harry wasn't willing to break this silence and just smiled back. He knew people like Snape, and he knew he'd see it as a victory if Harry caved first. At least two minutes passed, Harry wasn't even close to breaking point yet, when Snape caved in.
"Potter" Snape said harshly "I will not tolerate…" he started but Harry cut him off, pleased that he could finally say what he had come here to say.
"This isn't the way I want this to go" Harry said coolly "So I'll explain a few things first. The main thing is I know the truth about what happened. The whole truth"
Harry watched as the last tiny bits of colour from Snapes' face faded away as he turned even more white. Harry could almost have laughed at his response, but he knew if he let his emotions show he wouldn't be able to control himself.
"So here's the facts as I see them" Harry carried on "I will follow your instructions, but not you're orders. I will not be doing any detentions or any other punishment you can think of. And there is no way in hell that I will ever call you sir. If you choose I can just not refer to you instead, that's your choice to make"
"May I remind you that I'm the teacher and you're the student?" he hissed menacingly after the momentarily loss of speech.
"And may I remind you I'm a student as a choice?" Harry said coolly back "A choice I can easily change?"
"Are you threatening me Potter?" he said, eyes narrowed in preparation for an attack.
"You totally misunderstand me" Harry said laughing lightly "In no way I wish to leave Hogwarts, I'm reasonably happy here and desire my NEWTS. And to attack you would cause my mother even more pain than what you've already caused, and that I won't ever let happen, even if my desire to attack you is as much as it is. In short I just wish for you to realize that I'm here as my own choice, and wish to remain, but will not be taking your orders under any circumstance, and never will, no matter what"
And with that Harry turned his back on Snape in an act of defiance and lack of fear and strode purposefully from the room, leaving Snape fuming in his seat knowing fully that their was nothing he could do.
*
Harry had arrived a little early to Ancient Runes, intent on making this one go an awful lot better than Potions had. Harry sighed wondering if he would have to explain this to Albus or not, before shaking his head and trying to concentrate. He was sat at the desk now looking about the room. It was nice and comfortable but a little boring, similar to a library Harry thought. He could guess why it was Hermione's favourite. Thinking of the subject he wasn't sure if her faith was mislaid, he had done bits and wasn't too terrible, but didn't know if he could get his NEWTS in the subject. He watched as the door was opened and in walked Hermione, followed by many other students, none of which he recognized.
Hermione's eyes stopped in him for a moment before looking pointedly away, he couldn't believe that she could hold a grudge against him for what he had said to Snape. For one what did she care? For another what did he care.
Harry suddenly let out a loud groan as he realized something important. Having had no plan whatsoever to take this subject he didn't have a book, and that was important in Runes. He looked feverish around for anyone he knew, but no one was here. Both Dean and Ron had laughed at him for choosing it, he hadn't told them what really happened, as they explained how crazy he was.
That only left him with Hermione, and even though the girl was sweet, she was kind of mad, and evidently in a bad mood with him. He breathed in deeply, having accepted what he had to do he leaned over to her table, which only she occupied and smiled.
"Hey, Hermione" he whispered but she didn't react so he said it again, this time slightly louder "Hermione?" still no response, so he said it the third time even louder than he usually did "Hermione!"
This time it grabbed her attention and she looked at him, anger in her eyes as she looked at him.
"What?" she said quietly but threateningly.
"Um…" Harry said shocked at her reaction "Can you sit next to me?" he asked nervously. The look he got was the strangest in his life, part shock with the look that she thought he was joking, all mixed with suspicion. Easy to say that it wasn't the most attractive sight he had ever seen "So, um, will you?"
"Why?" she asked raising her eyebrow, her face looking more normal now but suspicious.
"I don't know anyone here" Harry lied lamely, receiving yet another raised eyebrow.
"No" she said simply, turning back to her book that was already open. Harry felt his anger rising at her indifference.
"Please?" Harry said quickly, but her eyes didn't move from the book even though Harry realized they weren't moving along the lines "Hermione! Please?"
She turned her face up and smiled at him before saying "I don't know if you know this, but you're a really bad liar" she said it nicely, and he could tell she was enjoying winding him up, Harry couldn't help but smile at this.
"I'll let you know that's one of my better talents" he said laughing.
"God help who you end up with then!" Hermione teased back, making Harry laugh out loud, attracting stares from the other pupils, and giving Hermione a blush at being noticed.
"Ok, ok" Harry said "I don't have a book, and need to share yours, is that better?" he admitted, Hermione smiled, picked up her things and moved to the seat next to his.
"Much" Hermione said, opening the book at what Harry assumed must be the right page for today's lesson.
The teacher came in, addressed the pupils and set a page to read, all in about the space of 10 seconds. Harry realized this was going to be much more difficult than he had first imagined. And with that he started reading the pages ahead of him.
After about an hour where they would read together, Hermione naturally finished the page before him but waited for him to catch up before continuing he started to get bored. Most of the words on the page looked like foreign language. In fact he thought they were, just had no idea which. Sighing he looked sideways at Hermione, he realized what a strange girl she was, 90% of the time she seemed to be an obnoxious weirdo, and the other 10 she seemed ok, even pretty sweet.
"Why aren't you reading?" she whispered, a little harshly but also slightly concerned.
"My eyes are hurting" he lied instinctly, earning a raised eyebrow yet again.
"If you say so" she said and carried on with the page. Harry looked at his watch and realized it was nearly over. His first day of classes couldn't have gone much worse. Kicked out of Potions and made to feel dumb in Runes. He wished tomorrow was better, otherwise he might just end up as weird as Hermione by the end of the week.
"Ok, class over…" the teacher said and then went about setting some homework. Harry copied the words down but the meaning left him. Hopefully his mother could help, otherwise he was screwed.
He stood up to pack his things, taking his time after a long day, when he realized that Hermione had already finished.
"Thanks" he said giving her a smile.
"That's ok" she said kindly and genuinely.
"I think your right though about my chances of passing this though" he said sighing, trying to fit his pad and paper back into his bag but having a bit of difficulty.
"You'll be fine" she said smiling, and Harry couldn't help but believe she meant it, he could however doubt if she was right "Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure, why the hell not" Harry said shrugging having finished he stood and looked straight at her, wondering what craziness she would ask.
"Why did you act like that with Professor Snape?" she asked with genuine curiosity. Harry shrugged, not wanting to explain it "It's just I thought you were going to be, well, a `rebel'" she said using her hands to show the quotation marks over the word rebel making Harry laugh, she carried on anyway "but in this class you were fine, even when you were bored and struggling"
"Well, what you have to see is…" Harry started, having decided he might as well tell the truth, part of it anyway, seeing as Hermione could tell his lies pretty easily `…I'm not a `rebel', there's just some, history, between me and Snape" he said giving her a sad smile.
"That's a pity" she said with a matching, and honest, sad smile "He is a really good teacher" and with those words she walked from the room, leaving Harry wondering if she even had the slightest idea what people were suppose to say in situations.
Harry slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. His mother finished later so he had to walk to Hogsmeade on his own, which was better than the Ancient Runes books he would have to read once he got there. Sighing, wondering what Hermione Granger had gotten him into, he walked from the room back towards his home.
*
Chapter 6 for you there, hope it was ok for you. Quite a bit Harry and Hermione there. Don't worry, she wont annoy him all the time…hope your enjoying it anyway, please let me know what you think…
These first six chapters were updated in about a day, the rest won't be that quick, sorry… I wrote the first ten chapters before posting it, and the only reason I've posted these this quickly is because I want the real story to start before people judge me! Anyway, hope u like what's coming…
Jms Granger
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