Suddenly, Ron popped in.
Into Hermione's mind, that is. Followed by the screaming thought, What the hell are you doing!?!?! Her eyes shot open, and she quickly pulled away, as flushed as the fire. Harry didn't say anything, just reached for his shirt with the same look as Hermione. He quickly pulled it on and buttoned it, then sat in silence. Neither said anything at all.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Surprise!" came a voice from the portrait hole. Both their heads shot up to see Susan Bones in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear. Harry managed a weak smile as he stood up and straightened up. Hermione followed, blushing even more.
"Hey, Susan," Harry mumbled.
"What's wrong, you two?" she asked, her grin turning into a concerned frown.
"Oh, nothing. How come you're not home for Christmas?" Hermione asked quickly, desperate to divert Susan.
"My parents went on a cruise. Third honeymoon in a year," she sighed as she entered and flopped down on the couch.
"Wait, Susan. How did you get in here?" Harry asked.
"Hermione gave me the password. Don't worry, I know how to keep a secret," she whispered, smiling. Harry smiled and nodded uncomfortably.
"So what are you two kiddies up to?" Susan asked, raising her eyebrows with a mischievous grin.
"Nothing!" Harry and Hermione shouted at the same time, producing a frown from Susan.
"Why do you ask?" Hermione added, laughing nervously.
"Just... wondering," she said slowly, looking back and forth from Harry to Hermione. Hermione feigned a yawn and stretched.
"Well, Transfiguration notes all night can make anyone tired. I'm going to go to sleep," she said, gathered her books quickly, and rushed up the stairs. Susan looked to Harry.
"What did you DO to her, Harry?" she asked incredulously, only half- joking.
"Me!? I didn't do anything!" Harry exclaimed. "Good night, Susan," he hastily added and rushed up the stairs as well. He slammed the door shut harder than he had intended and flopped down on his bed, too confused to change properly or brush his teeth. What on earth had just happened??
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Great Hall seemed strangely empty. There was one table stretched out in the middle of the room, instead of the four normal house tables that were usually situated there. Golden plates, spoons, forks, knives, and silver goblets decorated the table, gleaming in the sunlight that poured in from the broad windows and from the bewitched ceiling. Not that Harry or Hermione noticed. They were too preoccupied in their own thoughts from the previous night, each too scared to look at the other, afraid of what they might see in each other's eyes. They walked as quickly as possible, eyes focused elsewhere, to the Hall for lunch that cold Saturday morning.
"Good afternoon, students!" Dumbledore welcomed them cheerfully. They looked up at the smiling face of the great man, and smiled back.
"Good afternoon, Professor Dumbledore," they greeted, Harry sitting down next to little Professor Flitwick, who beamed at him. Hermione purposefully seated herself across and to the left of Harry, next to Professor McGonagall.
"How are you, Harry?" the small teacher asked.
"Not bad, Professor. And you?" Harry replied.
"Charming!" he answered, then cracked up at his own joke. Harry forced himself to laugh along.
"Enjoying the winter holidays? It's a magical time, isn't it?" he commented.
"Um... it's something," Harry replied, uncertain as to how to respond to that question properly.
"Ah, Severus! How nice of you to join us this fine day!" Dumbledore exclaimed. Harry looked up to see Snape walk briskly through the tall doors and seat himself to the right of Dumbledore.
"Good afternoon, all," he answered crisply. Everyone else greeted back. Snape quickly surveyed the people around him, and when his eyes hit upon Harry, he gave him the usual cold stare, then turned to talk to Dumbledore in hushed tones. All of a sudden, a rush of cold air startled Harry from behind, and he turned around to see Professor Trelawney, the infamous Divination teacher, slide by and sit down next to Snape, whose face folded into a disgusted look before assuming its familiar bored expression. Harry had to stifle his laughter.
"Sibyll's here as well!" Dumbledore announced happily.
"Why?" McGonagall asked sharply, shooting Trelawney a quick glare before turning back to her plate.
"Well, I was gazing into my crystal ball, looking for Mercury's alignment with Earth's moons, when this powerful feeling washed over me that I had to be here," she explained mistily. Harry saw McGonagall roll her eyes and Hermione smile so wide, Harry thought she was going to burst out laughing at any moment.
"Are you sure that wasn't your hunger?" she retorted. Harry snorted into his goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Come, now! It's Christmas time! Let's enjoy the festivities, shall we?" Dumbledore interrupted, with his voice and eyes full of laughter. Everyone else agreed. Suddenly, there was a high yelp as a small, raggedy- looking thing scurried into the Hall through the back door. Squinting, Harry realized that it was none other than the Malfoys' former house-elf, Dobby. He was wearing his tea cozy on his head once again, this time with a pair of what looked like shorts but stopped just above his ankles, rainbow suspenders, and a horrified expression on his face.
"What is it, Dobby?" Dumbledore barely had time to ask, before Dobby sped from one end of the Hall to the other in the blink of an eye, squealing the whole time.
"What's that gray blob in his hand?" Hermione asked, a note of disgust in her voice. Dumbledore calmly got up, walked over to the frantic house-elf, placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Dobby stopped at once. His eyes grew wider than before (if that was possible), and he looked up at Dumbledore fearfully.
"What's wrong, Dobby?" he repeated, kneeling down in front of him. Then, Harry clearly saw what Dobby was holding in-between his thumb and index fingers: a small, gray, sick-looking, squirming rat hanging by its tail.
"Sir, I-I... I's been cooking, Professor sir! I's didn't do nothin', like Winky says. Winky's lying, sir! I's innocent!" Dobby exclaimed.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well, sir, I's been cookin' in the kitchen, Professor sir. All of a sudden, Chitty screams, sir! Dobby don't know what's wrong! I runs over to her and she is screaming, 'There's a thing in my kitchen! Get it out!' Dobby doesn't know what to do, sir! So I grabs up the small thing and run! Chitty tells me to take it out, anywhere but the kitchens! So I run in here! I's so sorry, Professor Dumbledore, Sir!" Dobby wailed. Then, he abruptly started smacking himself on the head with his wrist. Dumbledore caught his wrist in a swift motion, then said, "Dobby, calm down. Now, take the rat outside, and everything will be fine." Dobby nodded his tear- stained face, his ears flapping, and started to scurry to the door.
Unexpectedly, the rat squirmed out of Dobby's long fingers and scurried toward the table, where Hermione let out a yelp as it brushed past her ankles. It ran under the table, then moved to the right and continued rushing past the surprised people. It approached Harry, who couldn't turn away or help noticing something odd about the small specimen. Abruptly, the rat stopped at Harry's foot, looked up at him, and winked.
Harry blinked rapidly, then opened his eyes wide to make sure he hadn't just seen a rat wink at him. It remained where it was, but now, its tiny lips curled up into what was unmistakably a grin. Suddenly, Harry saw a glint of silver on the rat. As Harry watched in shock, his brain scrambling for any idea of a similar rat he had seen before, it suddenly hit him: Peter Pettigrew was at Harry's feet.
"Professor! Wormtail! He's here!" Harry exclaimed, standing up and bumping his knee underneath the table in the process. Snape raised his head quickly.
"What?" he asked in a sharp tone.
"Wormtail! He's here! In his Animagus form!" Harry repeated, searching around him frantically for the
small rat while clutching his throbbing right knee. But it had disappeared as fleetingly as it had come.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Professor Lupin?" Harry tentatively called out to the empty Defense Against The Dark Arts classroom. "Professor?" he tried again, a bit louder this time. He sighed and was about to turn around and head back when the kind teacher stepped in through a side door, face lighting up in a smile when he saw Harry.
"Good afternoon, Harry. What brings you here?" he asked cheerfully.
"Can I... talk to you? Or Sirius? Or both, preferably?" he asked. Lupin's smile faltered a bit. He nodded, checked the door, and then strode quickly to the fireplace, where the embers were still glowing from the recently put out fire. He conjured another roaring fire, then threw a pinch of white powder from a pot sitting on the mantel into it, shouting, "Sirius Black!" After a few seconds, Sirius' head popped in amidst the flames, grinning.
"Harry! Remus! How lovely to see you!" he exclaimed, but when he saw Harry's grim expression, the grin faded away.
"Nice to see you too, Sirius," Lupin replied warmly, looking expectantly at Harry.
"Hey, Sirius," Harry greeted with a small smile.
"What's wrong, Harry?" Sirius inquired.
"How do you have access to a fireplace? Where are you? Is it safe?" Harry fired back. Sirius laughed.
"I'm in Remus' old house, Harry. Yes, I assure you, it's perfectly safe. I'll be staying for a few days, then moving out," he replied back calmly. "Now, what's wrong?"
"Well, first, did you know that Hogsmeade was attacked? And that the Dark Mark was found floating over it? And Nott was at the scene without a wand?" At this, Sirius merely nodded.
"Did you know where his wand was?" Harry forged on. "I had it." At this, Sirius' eyes grew wide. "Yeah, I know. Except I didn't know it was HIS wand at the time. I found it on Hagrid's mantelpiece," he explained.
"What were you doing in Hagrid's hut? Wasn't that out-of-bounds?" Sirius asked, narrowing his
eyes. Harry flushed.
"I wanted to go see why. I was curious! So I went with Ron and Hermione with the Invisibility Cloak, and Hagrid
wasn't home but Fang was, so he opened the door for us. We went in, and it was a total mess. Then, I saw a wand
sitting on his mantel above the fireplace - which by the way had red embers, which meant someone had been there minutes
before - and when I did the Priori Incantatem spell, a smaller version of the Dark Mark appeared," Harry rushed.
Sirius was quiet, taking all this in.
"AND, when I did the Revelatio spell..." Harry started up again.
"I know about that, Harry. Lupin told me," Sirius cut him off. Harry took a deep breath and nodded.
"Do you know who it could've been? Lucius Malfoy, maybe? Or some other Death Eater? Crabbe? Goyle? Anyone?" Harry asked, grabbing names out of air.
"I don't know, Harry. That's truly strange...I'll look into it with the help of some friends. Now, until I come back with more information, I don't want you going anywhere else that's out-of-bounds. You're in fifth year. Surely you can understand what those three little words mean when put together," Sirius advised with a small smile. Harry smiled back.
"That's not all! Wormtail was here today!" Harry burst out, suddenly remembering. Both heads snapped up.
"Wormtail? As in Peter Pettigrew?" Lupin asked sharply. Harry nodded, swallowing. Lupin looked back at Sirius, who had gone a bit pale.
"What makes you so sure?" Sirius asked.
"Well, Dobby caught this rat that he found in the kitchens, and it looked all pale and sickly, so it reminded me of Wormtail last year. Then, it got out of Dobby's hands and started running by the table in the Great Hall. It stopped at my feet and looked up at me, and it WINKED! AND it SMILED at me! And to top it off, I swear I saw something silver shining on it!" Harry explained.
"Well, I may not know a whole lot, but I know rats CAN'T grin. I also happen to know that rats aren't silver," Sirius muttered. "How did he get in there in the first place?" Harry shrugged.
"How should I know?" he asked.
"I'll go check on the situation," Lupin hurried off. Sirius turned to Harry.
"Harry, Remus and I are going to look into this now. Don't lose sleep over it, as the Muggles say. And I don't want you 'exploring' any more until we have some concrete information, OK?" Sirius warned Harry very seriously. Harry nodded.
"Promise me, Harry. Its not to be taken lightly," Sirius said sternly.
"I promise, Sirius."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry slouched down further in his seat, mulling things of the past two days over in his head. How can so much happen in TWO days!? All I had planned was to catch up on sleep and relax over Break! he thought. But NO. I saw Peter Pettigrew at Hogwarts, had to put up with Snape so early, AND kissed Hermione! As this thought popped in his head, he groaned and slouched down so much, he slid off the red couch and onto the carpeted floor. He looked up into the fire, then above it, where he saw the gallant Gryffindor lion with its front paws in the air etched into the mantel. As he stared at it absentmindedly, the lion began to move.
It extended its paws even further into the air, as if stretching. Then, it lowered its body, let out what looked like a tremendous yawn, then settled its head on its front paws and went to sleep. Harry was in awe. He had never noticed that in all of the years he had been at Hogwarts. He was so absorbed that he didn't hear a friend come in.
"Harry?"
"Hmm?"
"Can we talk?"
Harry looked up to see Hermione, her big toffee eyes full of nervousness. He sighed deeply and picked himself up off the floor.
"Yes, Hermione?" he asked as calmly as he could.
"About last night..." she started. He put up a hand to stop her.
"Hermione, I don't know how it happened. It just did. You can't blame me for this," he stated blatantly.
"Harry! I wasn't going to blame you! For that matter, I wasn't going to blame me either. I was just going to ask... how do you feel about what happened last night?" she asked softly.
"How do I feel?" he asked incredulously. "I... can't begin to describe how I feel. How do YOU feel, Hermione?"
"I feel incredibly guilty, Harry. I mean, RON! Just because he isn't here and I miss him terribly doesn't mean I have to go and kiss my best friend! I feel horrible. But, somehow..."
"What did you say?" he asked, head snapping up.
"But somehow?" she asked, confused.
"No, no, no. Before that," he said, hoping she hadn't said what he thought she had said.
"Just because he isn't here and I miss him doesn't mean I have to... oh," It suddenly dawned on her the full meaning of those words, and she regretted having said them. She closed her mouth quickly.
"Yeah," harry curtly said and sat down on the couch again. She had said it.
"So I was just a distraction? You USED me because you missed Ron?" he asked, his anger rising in him, amongst other very strong feelings.
"Harry, it wasn't like that! Do you think I would really do that to you!?" she exclaimed, voicing her anger.
"I don't know, Hermione! Would you?" he shot back.
"Harry, I thought you knew me better than that. I wouldn't do that to you! Ever! I like you too much to hurt you!" she blurted out, then turned as red as a beet and turned away. Harry sat up straight. WHAT had she said? That she liked him too much?
"What?" he asked softly, slowly standing up, his ear on high alert just to make sure he wasn't hearing things because of his overwhelming anger.
"I...oh just forget it. Its never going to happen, Harry. Ron's still with me, and I'm...I'm happy," she whispered.
"Hermione, if you're truly happy with him, then why'd you do that last night? And why did you cry when Ginny accidentally kissed me the other night?" he asked, just as softly. She gasped and turned around.
"How do you know about that?" she bit out.
"Just because I'm 'Golden Boy', doesn't mean I'm stupid. I see things," he answered, smiling slightly. She did not return it.
"That was... I was having a bad day. That's all. I was in over my head, and all the stress just had me frustrated. You and Ginny had nothing to do with it," she said in a 'That's-That' tone. He hesitated, then merely nodded.
"Now, Harry. About last night, we have to forget about it. As soon as possible," she said in the same tone.
"I can't just forget it, Hermione! People don't JUST forget something like that! It's easier said than done." His voice rose a little, then he took a deep breath to calm himself.
"Harry, you have to. It's the only way we'll get over this," she said grimly.
"Maybe I don't want to get over this!" he exclaimed. She stood silent for a minute, just staring at him. He stared back, somewhat unwillingly.
"Just forget about it, Harry. Forget it ever happened, forget we did anything. Forget about me," she whispered. He couldn't believe this.
"How can I forget about you when I love you?!"