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The sessions stopped for a while.

Granger made no signal to contact him and Harry didn't bother trying to catch her attention. He was still smarting from their explosive outburst and the last thing he wanted to do was sequester himself into the cave with her. That wasn't to say he stopped his Occlumency training though. Coming up with creative defenses, Harry thought of traps and feints to bait the attacker within his mind. It wasn't subtle and anyone with a shred of talent in Legilimency would know that their presence was detected, but it would serve its purpose: protecting his mind.

Of course, Granger was right though. Duels became easier. Once, during one of their meetings, Granger determined that her statistical model was inefficient. It would have been easier if there was a constant stat collector or even a spell that kept track of such things, but she knew it would be improbable to place a spell on every student, even within their own year. Perhaps that was why she was so obsessed with Occlumency. Either way, the 52% of the time that Terry Boot used Stupefy was irrelevant at that point. Moody's class had progressed well enough that even the simplest of students could cast a few non-verbal spells to catch their opponent off guard.

For Harry, it was something else though. Everyone seemed to move slower. Either that or he just moved faster. From the very first moment his opponent would adopt his dueling stance, it was as if Harry could read his first five spells off the bat. Sometimes, he would toy with them, see how long it would take to beat them without using a significant spell. It didn't matter who it was. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin couldn't beat him. Winning streaks were nothing new, but even Harry and Granger lost once in a while. It was unprecedented if it weren't for the fact that he never faced Granger.

The early part of the semester focused on individual duels before the latter part of the semester shifted gears towards House matches again. The professors liked to model the semester this way so that the House Match between the years fell right after classes, followed by the Hogwarts Trophy. Harry still had an outside chance of participating for the Hogwarts Trophy as his recent string of wins propelled him to 18th.

It wasn't until a day in early February that the legend really took off.

It was Battle class with the Ravenclaws, the rotation sticking them with Slytherins for the time being. No love was lost between them, but their first month back from school had been exhausting. It seemed as if every teacher had thrown theory out the window and began their practical work with such fever that it was even stressing Harry. It only made it all the worse that Snape refused to let up.

The headmaster turned around the corner of the hallway, billowing robes and all, as the rest of the class waited in front of the Room of Requirement. Wordlessly, as he often did, he paced across the wall three times until a door appeared. Without issuing any commands, the class followed him inside, prepared for whatever monstrosity his mind created this time.

Only, it was just a classroom. There was a giant circular staging area and the seats were on a raised dais, but it was still a classroom with benches and tables nonetheless. Judging by the relatively small size, it was meant to be another dueling session. Harry took a seat with the rest of the Slytherins, between the usually animated Blaise and the unusually quiet Tracey.

She had been rather taciturn for the last couple of weeks. Whereas she usually engaged Harry in lengthy conversations about nothing and everything at all, Harry suspected that she was avoiding him. At first, he let her go, not knowing whatever womanly convention was taking hold of her, but after a while it was annoying him. Secretly, he knew he missed her usual cheerful presence or her blasé attitude to counter-act Blaise's outrageousness, but at the moment, he was annoyed with her avoidance.

"Quiet," Snape said it in a normal voice, but it hushed the class like a blanket tossed on a fire.

"Potter." He didn't so much as look in Harry's direction as he ordered him front of center and Harry sighed a bit petulantly. He didn't have the numbers to back it up, but it seemed as if Snape was calling on him frequently these days.

"Goldstein."

Goldstein was a fastidious dueler, simplicity and execution being his favored means. He was an oddity among Ravenclaws in that he didn't go out of his way to prove that he was smarter than you. Instead, he relied on the simplicity of his movements and his astute accuracy instead. Harry knew that he could simply overpower him but a little caution never hurt.

"Brocklehurst."

Harry just barely caught himself, his passive Occlumency taking over as he willed his face to strident impassivity. Never had Snape pitched two students against one so far. It didn't take long to realize that it was a test for him. Perhaps his recent undefeated streak had piqued Snape's curiosity. Either way, it was not something Harry was entirely prepared for.

Snape stepped onto the raised dais and carelessly waved his wand into the air causing a blue dome to appear around them. It was the protective shield and didn't allow any outside help.

"The duel ends when either Mr. Potter is defeated or both Mr. Goldstein and Ms. Brocklehurst are defeated. Standard rules apply." His tone was almost bored, but Harry knew better. There was an arrogance about it, a disbelief that Harry could possibly win against two.

Anthony and Mandy were huddled together, discussing something behind cupped palms as they waited for Snape to signal the beginning of this duel. Harry looked up and saw Blaise give a worried thumb up while Tracey sat back, looking at him curiously. It was another oddity as Tracey was usually a poor actor and always showed traces of uncertainty when Harry was dueling.

Wonder what's gotten into her head?

"Begin." Snape's voice was soft, but it might as well have been a firecracker to Harry.

Throwing all caution to the wind, Anthony and Mandy opted with a rather un-Ravenclaw show of brute force as they sprung at him with squarely offensive spells. His first plan to eliminate one of them still stood, but it was secondary to surviving this initial onslaught. Harry caught both of their spells with a rather wide Protego shield and then pivoted his attacks to Anthony, supplying him with a wordless Jelly-Legs that caught him off-guard while setting area trigger traps in front of Mandy, who was foolishly running towards him.

Since it took Anthony a second to figure out which spell Harry had used (and Ravenclaws almost always suspected it was a higher level curse instead of something as silly as a Jelly-Legs), it gave Harry ample time to focus on eliminating Mandy, the superior duelist. Unfortunately for him, she was as nimble as she was petite, dodging his spells delicately while countering with a sharp and arcing Whiplash Jinx that would have caused considerable damage to his skin had he not banished it with a Whiplash Jinx of his own. It was one of the few spells that canceled each other out, but it required precision timing on his part.

At once, that strange feeling of time being slowed down overtook him again. Mandy was twisting in the air, her momentum pulling her towards his right in a strange mid-air turn. He remembered Blaise once telling him that she was in ballet while she attended Muggle Primary and all the things he wished he could do with her flexibility. Anthony was slowly casting a Finite on himself, his face clearly vexed by the simplicity of Harry's jinx.

It would have been difficult to hit Mandy. Harry always had that problem facing her. If anyone doubted her ballet background, they could see it in her feet as she avoided curse after curse, nimbly dodging left and right. Of course, all Harry would do was keep pestering until she was caught off-balance or tried a meek counter attack, but it was more difficult when it was two on one. Knowing that, Harry resolved to take out Anthony first and then deal with the dancing girl later.

Little did he know, they anticipated just that.

He should have noticed that Mandy was moving around him in a methodical clockwise circle while Anthony stayed put. He should have noticed that they were placing him in the middle, forcing him to fight on two opposite fronts. He did notice it right as Mandy got to right about the five o'clock mark on the invisible clock on the floor.

By now, he had to resort into turning into a tornado of magic. Constantly turning between them, the blue dome exploded in a shower of lights as Anthony and Mandy responded with devastating efficiency, alternating spells to throw Harry off track, hitting him at the same time so he had to respond to both. But it was clear for everyone to see that Harry wasn't backing down. In fact, it was almost the opposite.

Harry attributed his resilience to Occlumency training. It looked simple if you were an outsider staring at he and Granger's sessions. Two people sitting across each other with only a wand trained and one spell shouldn't have exerted so much effort. Yet, later on, Harry would learn that training the mind in such a way increased magical capacity and stamina as well. After all, it was often that mind that would shut down first. That was why normal Muggle soldiers always went through so much rigorous training. Their mind would shut down in combat and their instincts from training would kick in.

It was the opposite for Harry.

The longer they dueled, the more Harry would notice their little signs of weakness. Mandy would be sluggish in her steps, bringing up a shield every now and then to let her catch her breath. Anthony would lose concentration, shooting his spell upwards as his arm grew tired, his magical reserves exhausted. Harry would have defeated them in just another minute, taking advantage of an opening from one of them as he continued to parry and counter to delay time, but Snape had other plans.

"Boot. Get in there."

Terry was so enraptured in the engrossing duel that he didn't hear the headmaster's orders the first time. It wasn't until Padma Patil nudged him in the arm that he turned to look at Professor Snape. Snape inclined his head passively, his coal eyes glittering as he repeated the order.

"Boot, join the duel. Join your House."

By now, even Tracey sat up as Terry sprung up from his seat, making his way off the dais to step into the blue bubble of the dueling arena. Malfoy looked positively giddy, anticipating Harry's defeat and his ensuing fall from grace in not only the Master List but the loss of his winning streak as well. Blaise was grumbling, trying desperately to raise the odds in Harry's favor, but no one was taking anymore bets. Harry couldn't possibly win three on one with a fresh opponent.

Then again, a baby couldn't possibly defeat the Dark Lord.

* * * * *

"You're a right show off you know that? Everyone except Malfoy was wanking over you by the time you were done," Blaise complained as they walked through the dirty, melting snow to Hogsmeade during the weekend.

Harry couldn't help but grin at that, satisfaction creeping into his bones as he pushed a stray snow rock away. Blaise was at his right and Tracey was on his left as they took the winding pathway towards the little village at the base of Hogwarts. Snape permitted them a few visits every semester and after an intense round of classes, not to mention the chaotic Battle class which saw Harry defeat three Ravenclaws, they needed a break.

"The great Harry Potter defeating three Ravenclaws at once! I didn't know whether the whole House was offended or awed by what they saw. They're a ruthless bunch, Harry. Next thing you know, we're going to have to be watching out for them too," Blaise continued.

Harry shrugged. "Let them. If they couldn't beat me three on one, why should they be mad at me? I thought they were supposed to be logical."

"They're still proud. Anyone would have felt embarrassed for not being able to beat you. Multiply that by a whole house and now all the Ravenclaws hate you as well," Tracey added.

"Oh come off it! I did what anyone would have done."

"Think you did a little more than that, mate," Blaise said. "Will you tell me how you really did it?"

Harry rolled his eyes, wiping a few snow flakes from his beanie. "For the last time, it was an accident. I wasn't even aiming for Terry! I missed Anthony and the spell hit him from the ricochet."

"Still, people say that you were so infuriated that Snape would dare send a third person that you smite him on the spot like Merlin himself." Blaise mimicked thunder coming down from the sky and obliterating an invisible target on his palm.

Harry chuckled at Blaise's gesticulation, feeling strangely good about the gossip. Good, he thought. I'm tired of people thinking I don't deserve my ranking anyways.

"Besides, I think you're still having a laugh. It was an accident, he says! I didn't mean to do it! Bollocks that, Harry."

Believe whatever you want to believe, Blaise.

"You still haven't given a reasonable explanation on how you beat Mandy and Anthony though. Don't tell me that was an accident too?" Tracey asked.

Explaining that was a bit more difficult.

The surprise of Terry entering the stage had not only caught Harry off-guard but Mandy and Anthony as well. Recovering quicker, Harry attempted to stun Anthony but the Ravenclaw responded well. Inspired by a sudden idea, Harry wordlessly cast Legilimens on Anthony. To anyone else, it would have looked like Anthony had a brief lost of concentration, but Harry had covertly plucked a memory of his crush on Mandy. Unable to react, Anthony was easily stunned and after that, it was just a matter of whittling down Mandy.

Unfortunately, Harry couldn't quite reveal that he knew Legilimency to that degree. He was confident that others wouldn't be able to spot it on the Stationary Omnioculars. Perhaps the only person that might detect the spell would be Snape, but Harry wasn't worried in that regard. A smidgen of guilt crept into him as he thought about his lie, but considering what it would protect, there was a safe risk involved.

"Just caught them off guard," Harry lied.

"Right." Tracey's eyes narrowed imperceptibly but it passed quickly like a snowflake in the wind.

"Well whatever you did has gotten everyone buzzed up," Blaise said.

Buzzed might not have been the correct word. Every Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw gave him a wide berth, ranging their expressions from terrified to contemptuous. It was a matter of pride to the Ravenclaws. That one person had beat not two but three of their students ruffled their feathers. Never mind that it wasn't even Harry's fault that the numbers had been so lopsided. In their minds, Harry had not only insulted their intelligence by his handy victory, but had also shown off to impress Snape. If there was one thing they couldn't stand, it was the matter of their administrator's and educator's opinions.

It was evident in their traversal to Hogsmeade that Harry was quickly becoming a hallowed figure. In some ways, he was emerging from under the shadow of the Boy-Who-Lived and becoming a different myth in his own right. Harry did little to give off the impression that he noticed but it was hard not to. Every Hufflepuff that was old enough to understand or even young enough to notice practically snarled and snap as he walked by. Every Ravenclaw looked upon him coolly, trying desperately to maintain their aura of intellectual importance.

It was a relief then, when he spotted Luna Lovegood playing idly in the snow.

Harry paused as he looked at the pale Ravenclaw and motioned for Blaise and Tracey to go ahead. "I'll meet you in Three Broomsticks in a minute," Harry said.

Both of them looked from Harry to Luna with bewildered gazes and Tracey scrunched up her pretty face as her blue eyes shifted back and forth but they eventually let it go, telling him that they would wait near the back of the inn.

Harry approached Luna, noting the sideways glances the rest of the students were giving him. His boots crunched in the snow, fresh footprints left in his path as the wet fringes of his jeans touched his ankles. Luna was crouched in the two feet deep snow, building what looked to be a miniature version of Hogwarts with a combination of hand sculpting and wand waving.

"Hello Luna." He announced his presence.

"Harry," she smiled brightly at him, her large eyes obscured by strangely large sunglasses and a knitted beanie that had pigtails running from either side. "You've been busy lately."

"That's one way to say it."

"It seems you've been playing games with some of the other kids in my House." Luna focused on the miniature Hogwarts snow castle, perfect the bridge. "I'd bet a Crumple-Horned Snorcack that they're none too happy with you."

"I don't think it's particularly my fault they're unhappy with me."

"Is it the Leather-Winged Catfish's fault when they decide to mate with the Winlky Pixie, killing the male in the process? I think not, but I don't think the fault ever lies where it should."

Tightening his lips in response to her purposefully obtuse question, Harry motioned towards the castle. "You built the secret passageways too?"

She stopped all of a sudden, looking up at him with a blankness instead of her usual dreamy stare. "And what do you know about secret passageways?"

Harry was caught aback for a moment but he recovered without even showing true surprise on his face. The Occlumency was helping him mask his reactions. "If there are, I haven't found any."

Luna gave a long, hard look and then the coldness evaporated, her face quickly reforming into the cheerful otherworldliness. "I suppose that rumor is false."

"Which rumor?"

"There's plenty where you're concerned, but I think most of it is rubbish. Some people say you can read minds but of course you can't. Only the Jelly Brainfish can read minds."

Harry barely suppressed his smile, masking it with a cough from the bitter cold. "That's an interesting one."

"There's others, but when I tell them what I thinking, they're not as nice about it." Her voice dropped a whisper as she concentrated on a particular window that looked to be Ravenclaw's tower.

"They're not still giving you a hard time, are they?" Harry thought about that particular night with Roger Davies, Marietta, and Belby. Even now, anger spun across his skin as he thought of their torment.

"Oh no, Roger has been particularly genial towards me. Not Marietta though. I strongly suspect that the Winklefoster has gotten to her."

Harry didn't even bother asking what a Winklefoster was. "Good. I'm glad to hear it."

"Don't be too glad, Harry. There's rumors but there's also rumblings about you."

"Rumblings?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes." She nodded her head up and down, the snowflakes coming off her well-knit beanie as she sculpted the door to the Entrance Hell. "I daresay you've made less friends than I have since this beginning of this year."

It was part self deprecation and part pity, but it was all truthful. As Harry looked up, he saw even more Ravenclaws giving him dirty looks, especially the few that were in Luna's year.

"They don't like me very much," Luna said softly.

"Forget about them," Harry responded.

Luna was quiet for a moment, the soft murmur of steps across cobblestone and the hard crunching of the snow in the distance seeming louder and louder as that stretch of silence dragged on. Harry was still ankle deep in snow, pondering Luna's rather cryptic words. Then again, the girl was always cryptic, even when dealing with cryptology. In a voice above a whisper, Luna declared, "All done."

And it truly was a job well done on her part. The snow model was about four by six meters. Luna had painfully crafted every single window as well as the particular towers and peaks. It was meticulously detailed and though Harry didn't have a clue of how Luna performed in Battle class, it was obvious she had talent.

"Watcha doing Loony?! Making another stupid castle? Want me to knock this one down too?"

The voice came from behind Harry and therefore, the boy probably didn't recognize who Harry was with his back turned. Harry took a moment to situate himself in the snow, finally turning to see a pudgy faced boy with a Ravenclaw pin on his jacket. That smile he had reminded Harry of Dudley's oafish grin right before he set about terrorizing the neighborhood.

That smile vanished when he looked up to see Harry Potter, wand in hand.

The fat boy didn't even speak. Only a whimper came out as he stopped in his tracks, his bulbous hands reaching for his wand subconsciously. Harry exhaled a long breath, the fog shooting out of his mouth with dramatic effect. Harry mustered the iciest look he could manage and very subtly cast Legilimens under his breath.

Instantly, Harry grasped into a memory of the fat Ravenclaw falling on his rather well endowed arse and suffering the embarassing laughter of his peers. Pushing it to the forefront of his mind, Harry focused on that memory before letting go, relishing the scared and sickly expression on the boy's face.

"You should probably go," Harry said in monotone voice.

The boy scrambled back to his friends, casting a few furtive glances over his shoulder until they were out of sight. Harry turned back to Luna who had the same calm pensiveness about her. When she lowered her unnecessarily large sunglasses, Harry looked into her eyes and saw...fear?

"You should be more careful, Harry. The mind reading is just a rumor for now."

* * * * *

It was in between classes, a hallway crowded of Houses and Years of different sorts.

Harry felt someone bump into him and he soldiered on, but he felt the cool imprint of something settling into his palm. Knowing it would be suspicious to stop and check it on the spot, Harry waited until the hallway cleared and opened his palm to find a inconspicuous silver coin. It would have looked like a Sickle but the weight and shape were wrong. The raised engraving wasn't raised on this coin and though it also had some sort of symbol on it, it wasn't an official Ministry Sickle.

The silver coin suddenly warmed in his palm and his eyes widened as he saw words scratch themselves into the outer rim.

Cave. 9.

Pocketing the silver coin into his pocket, Harry smiled as he walked into Creature class. Today, the lesson was centered around Unicorns.

* * * * *

"What's the spell?"

"It's a Protean Charm," Granger answered as they walked through the dark tunnel to the cave. "It works by linking objects together. Once charmed, anything I inscribe in mines will show up to yours. It goes without being said that you should at least tell me if it happens to be misplaced."

"Of course," Harry responded.

Granger said nothing of their previous meeting, her mien all business as usual. Harry even thought that they would jump straight into Occlumency training again or work on developing his spell but when Hermione pulled out her journal and placed her wand down, he suspected that she would want something worse. She would want to talk.

"We need to talk about this. I understand if you don't, but I don't particularly want to go through the awkward tap dance of avoiding the subject."

There was no nuance with her, just a strange, cold bluntness that would have been off putting had it not felt so relieving.

"Am I correct in assuming those are from your Uncle?" She began.

"Yes," he responded, his hands suddenly shaky.

She nodded, mostly to herself, as her eyes took on that glazed expression she usually had when she was processing things quickly in her mind. The corner of her mouth quirked into something that looked to be a grimace, but she just stopped and opened her journal, opening it to a page that said: Spell Design.

"That's it?" Harry asked, mildly surprised.

He could tell that she wanted roll her eyes, but perhaps she suppressed it for his sake. "It answers a lot of the questions I have."

Then pivoting without so much as a glance upwards, she started relaying him the information she found in her sparse notes.

Predictably, there weren't too many books on creating spells. More books than the few she parsed from the library about Occlumency, but still not enough to have a definitive method to simply create one. Most of them were academic studies and research, postulating different theories in the creation of spells. All in all, Granger found two common strands. Creating a spell was very difficult and that the strength of the spell was bounded to the magical potency of the spell caster.

The first theory wasn't so much stated as it was exemplified through the meticulous notes taken by academia. Nearly all of them approached the study with the wish to create a spell of their own and only three of them had succeeded. Granger initially wanted to focus on the three that succeeded, but took some time to read the failed notes to avoid pitfalls in their attempt to create a spell. A good number of them had failed simply because they didn't have the power or understanding to create that first spell.

Though it wasn't very scientific, there were several hypothesis that concluded that a spell created was so difficult because the innate understanding of the spell was unknown. You could see a Stupefy or a Wingardium Leviosa in action and believe it, but it wasn't the words that made it so nor was it the wand movement. It was a combination of these intricate patterns coupled by the fact that you could see it happen. That was why teachers frequently demonstrated the spell first.

At least, that's what Granger surmised.

"And you read all of this?" Harry skeptically asked he thumbed through the notes of Constant Levitation: An Attempt to Defy Gravity.

"Most of it. I had to skim through the boring parts," Granger said as she licked her thumb to wet the corner of a parchment.

"Which parts were those?" Harry dryly asked.

Granger answered honestly, "The research methods and data collection. I just assumed that these studies were peer reviewed instead of reading through it. It would be a pain otherwise."

None of that made a lick of sense to Harry.

"So you have to understand the spell. I definitely understand what I want to do," Harry explained.

"It's not just that." Once again, Harry had the impression that Granger was being patient for his sake. "You have to truly and innately understand the spell. So much so that you don't have to think about it. So much so that it has to be known within you. It's like...how do you this quill will come down?"

She tossed it in the air and it unceremoniously clattered against the table.

"Gravity."

"And how do you know it stays up?" This time, Granger threw the quill in the air and cast a Levitation Charm on it.

"You're using a Levitation Charm."

"Yes, but you know these things. You don't struggle to understand them, it's just something common to you. It's like....what's anger?"

"When you feel...angry?" Harry shrugged, not understanding the question.

To his surprise, Granger excitedly pointed at him. "Exactly! You know what it is, but the only way you can explain it is that you know what anger is. Either that or you just use different words to describe it, but it's still the same thing. I think that's what creating a spell is. You have to truly understand it, know it, believe it. It's not just believing or thinking it will happen, it's a certain kind of knowing that taps straight into your magical core."

"So I have to know it?" Harry drew the words out slowly, trying to think over what she said.

"It sounds simple, but that's what made it so difficult for all these researches. They tried to tie to things they knew or derive it from other spells or a bunch of other things, but I think the key to it is - and this is moderately backed up by the three researches that accomplished creating a new spell - to really know it." She excitedly flipped pages of her notes until she found the line she was looking for.

"In the end, it wasn't etymology or wand movements or a certain word. It was this deep, burning desire to have the dishes cleaned. James Morrimont," she quoted.

"He created the spell?" Harry laughed.

"Yes! But I think he misuses the word desire. Everyone one of those who studied spell creation desired to make a spell, but I think Morrimont truly understood it."

"What if it's more difficult than washing the dishes?" Harry asked.

"That's the key, isn't it? You have to be strong too and for what you're asking...."

Harry nodded, agreeing with her on the difficulty of the spell.

"I suppose we should start sooner rather than later then?"

* * * * * *

They studied more theory until a little after midnight. Granger had some interesting ideas involving branching ideas and bringing them together to create the spell. At the very end, they even attempted to find a phrase or wording that would assist them in casting the spell. It revealed very little actual progress, but there was some promising groundwork laid. Granger concluded that they could at least attempt a smaller scale version of the spell Harry wanted to create and though she had her doubts in the beginning, it would at least make a decent academic study that she could submit should she want to go into research.

Thankfully, she avoided any mention of his scars or any matter of the sort. Once or twice, Harry thought he caught her staring at him when he wasn't looking or when he was concentrating on copying down a certain passage of notes. Harry chalked it up to mild curiosity and even a morbid fascination. If it weren't for the underlying reason behind his scars, they would have looked impressive in their own grotesque fashion.

Retiring for the night, Granger reminded him not to lose his silver coin with the attached Protean Charm and she would contact him for their next meeting so he didn't have to button his shirt to the top every time he wanted to. Teaching him the spell to contact her in return, they parted ways as they exited the Cave.

Returning to the Slytherin Common Room, Harry felt fresher than after their Occlumency lessons. He even had a thought to sneak into Trow's classroom to review some dueling tape for the week ahead, but thought better of it. Climbing through the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room, Harry was so lost in thought that he didn't notice the dark-haired, blue-eyed girl sitting on one of the plush, leather couches.

"Harry."

Her voice carried though it was barely louder than the crackle of the fire. Harry turned abruptly, finding the source of the voice and sighed in relief when he saw Tracey.

"Scared me there," he said as he approached her. "Why are you awake so late?"

She looked down, wringing her wrists through her over sized sweater. She was dressed in flannel pants and a large, green Slytherin sweater and looked every bit the innocent girl she sometimes portrayed. Looking up at him, Tracey had an expression on her face that was a mix of apprehension and reluctance. Yet, it also contained a bit of anger and something else that Harry couldn't quite recognize.

"Where were you tonight?"

"Trow's classroom," Harry easily lied, going with the easiest answer.

Tracey nodded, her curly mop of black hair bobbing up and down as she cast her head downwards again. She mumbled something underneath her breath that Harry didn't catch.

"What was that?" he asked.

Tracey sat up, drawing a shaky breath as she met his eyes.

"I said that I know you weren't there."

The hammering in his heart started and he had the sudden urge to perform the Legilimens spell on her to cut through all of the red tape. His mouth was suddenly dry and he licked his lips, his calm visage all of a sudden faltering.

"I was there, just studying my duel against the Ravenclaws."

"You weren't there." If possible, her voice grew smaller. "I know because I followed you tonight. I know because you were disappearing at suspicious times in the night and Blaise dismissed it as you being you. I know because I followed you the last time too."

The air seemed to exit his lungs, clawing its way out as his eyes grew blurry for a second. His brain hadn't even comprehended her words yet and his mouth hung open as he scrambled to draw up a lie. She looked up at him and Harry was surprised to find the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"Harry, what are you doing in that room with Granger?"

* * * * * * *

A/N: Glad to beat my estimate again. Hopefully I can keep up this pace as I'm very excited for the chapters ahead. Thank you all for the kind reviews and the encouragement to keep writing. I hope to really go through with this story and write all the parts to it. Leave a question or a review and thank you.

Estimated update time: 19 days

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