Third Year in Harmony » The Great Firebolt Debacle of Harry's third-year shakes out differently, and the whole year is affected. H/Hr. Mild Ron bashing. COMPLETE
Harry Potter, K+, English, Romance & Adventure, chapters: 9, words: 34k+, favs: 1k+, follows: 589, updated: Mar 1, 2018 published: Feb 24, 2018, Harry P., Ron W., Hermione G., Sirius B.
Chapter 1: Flashback to Maturity
When Professor McGonagall left the Gryffindor Common Room with Harry's Firebolt, Ron rounded on Hermione, livid. "What did you go running to McGonagall for?!" he said.
Hermione threw her book aside. She was pink in the face, but stood up and faced Ron defiantly.
"Because I thought — and Professor McGonagall agrees with me — that the broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black."
Ron said, "Why the bloody hell would he do that?!"
"He probably jinxed it to kill Harry."
"How did he get a Firebolt? With what money? It's not as if he could walk into a shop and buy a broom!"
Hermione said, "He escaped Azkaban, and he's escaped capture for months. He's very resourceful."
Ron said, "They're stripping it down. A Firebolt. Because you're paranoid and went running to the Professors at the drop of a hat! And now what's Harry going to fly? Do you want Gryffindor to win the Quidditch Cup or not!"
"Quidditch isn't really important, Ron!"
Ron gaped, shocked by such sacrilege, and Harry opened his mouth to tell her off.
And he remembered the end of his first year, when Hermione and Ron had been saying that if he went out of bounds again, he'd be expelled, and he had said that that didn't really matter. What mattered was stopping Voldemort from getting the stone.
And Sirius Black wasn't Voldemort, but someone dying, even if it was him, compared to a Quidditch match... What would he think if it were Hermione? The Quidditch match hardly mattered at all, next to that.
Harry said, "Ron, let me talk to her."
"But-"
"Ron. My broom. My conversation. Hermione, why do you think Sirius Black jinxed the broom?"
She raised her chin. "You said yourself you have no idea who sent it. And trying to kill you while you're on a broomstick wouldn't exactly be original. First year, Quirrell tried to kill you while you were playing Quidditch. Second year, Dobby jinxed a bludger to break your arm, and already this year, you nearly died playing Quidditch when the Dementors attacked. Almost dying is a regular part of Quidditch for you."
Harry wanted to disagree with that. Wanted to dismiss it. Because he was sure the broom was fine. He felt the broom was fine. But then, his first year, he'd been sure Snape was after the stone, and second year, he'd been sure Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin. His feelings had been wrong plenty before. And this was Hermione, who'd been with him in the Forbidden Corridor, who'd figured out before anyone else that Slytherin's monster was a basilisk.
Harry grabbed her by the shoulders and sat on a sofa, pulling her onto the sofa next to him.
Harry's voice was tense and clipped as he tried to sound calmer than he was. "I don't like this. I don't like this at all. For a few hours, I owned a Firebolt. Best broom in the world. Now it's been taken. I don't like that. But you're right. Black might've sent it. I think he didn't, but it makes some sense, and I'd rather not fall a hundred feet and die, so it's good it's being checked. I should've thought of that. I'm glad you thought of that. Thank you for worrying about me."
Harry let her hear a little of how upset he was, resisting the urge to shake her. "What I'm angry about is that you didn't tell me. If you'd told me you thought Black had sent it, I might've needed a few hours to come around to the idea, but I hope I would've agreed that we should have the Professors check it over. And if I'd been too foolish for that, you could've said, 'Sorry Harry. I don't have any choice, this is for your own good, I have to tell a Professor.'
"Instead, you ran off to Professor McGonagall without talking to me first. It's like you don't trust me." He took a deep breath. "Why did you do that? What were you thinking when you decided to treat me like a little kid?"
Harry had expected her to give reasons. He'd been preparing himself for the sort of screaming row she had with Ron once or twice a month. He hadn't expected her to burst into tears and hug him.
She said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking, I was only..." A sob broke her sentence apart, and she wiped from for nose with her sleeve, stared at sleeve for a horrified moment, and continued. "I wasn't thinking. I mean I was, but not about that. I just wanted you be safe, and I was so sure I was right, and that when I came here with Professor McGonagall and revealed it all, you'd be impressed."
She wanted to impress him? Her? What?
Eyes and nose red, more snot running out her nose, Hermione sobbed, "We're still friends, aren't we?"
Harry patted her awkwardly. "Of course we're still friends. You've apologized. Just promise me that next time you'll talk to me first if it has to do with me."
As they spoke, Ron turned white in the cheeks and red in the ears, expression twisting between fear and anger.
"I promise," said Hermione. She wiped her face with a handkerchief, then buried her head in his chest. He felt the wetness of more tears on his shirt, and heard her sniffling to keep what snot remained in her sinuses, in her sinuses.
Though a little unsure, Harry brought his arms around her back, holding her loosely.
Ron said, "Are you serious? That's it? She gets your Firebolt confiscated and all she has to do is cry and say she's sorry?"
Harry said, "I'm still upset, but she had a good reason. She made a mistake, but it's not as if I'm going to stop being her friend over it."
Ron said, "You're just being soft on her because she's getting tits."
Harry froze, and Hermione looked up red-eyed from the hug. "Excuse me?" she said.
"You heard me. Harry, she's crying on purpose. Girls do that. She's the one who betrayed you, and five minutes later you're the one comforting her."
Harry said. "Ron, don't be stupid."
"You're the one who's being stupid," said Ron. "I'm just telling you the truth, and she's trying to make you side with her. Charlie told me this would happen as we got older. But blokes before birds. She betrays us, and it's fine?"
Hermione said, "I didn't betray you! I was trying to keep Harry safe. So what, you want me to do penance? Okay. How about I help you both with your homework? Oh, wait, I already do that."
Ron said, "You mean you like lording it over us what a good student you are!"
Harry said, "Can you both just calm down?"
Ron said, "Siding with her, are you?"
Harry said, "I'm not siding with anyone. I'm waiting for you to calm down."
Ron snorted and stalked out the portrait hole. Harry wondered if he should chase after him, but Ron had his moods. It was best to let him cool down on his own. They'd be back to normal by the end of the night, no doubt.
#
#
That night, in their dorm, as they changed into their pajamas, Ron said, "Still getting on with Hermione?"
Harry said, "Sure. I'm a little worried about her. Taking all those classes. It's too much."
"Not worried about Scabbers though, are you? What, with the way Hermione's little monster keeps trying to kill him. She ought to get rid of it."
Harry said, "You're still on about that? If it worries you so much, we'll all get together in the library and work out a way to keep Scabbers safe. There must be a charm for it."
Ron said, "Back to the library, and let Hermione tell me what to do? You might be happy letting her order you around, but I'm not. She's always telling us what to do, she betrayed us to a Professor and got your Firebolt stripped down, and she doesn't care that her cat is trying to eat my rat. So. Her or me."
"Did you hit your head?"
"You're choosing her?"
Harry said, "I'm not choosing her. I'm waiting for you to stop being a stupid git."
"Stupid, am I?"
"You're acting like it."
"And you're acting like a ball-less pansy." With that, Ron slipped into bed, rolled away from Harry, and studiously ignored Harry's attempts to re-start the conversation.
Eventually, Harry fell silent, and hours later, despite his racing mind, fell asleep.
#
#
The next day, with Ron still in a huff, Harry went with Hermione to the library, still trying to figure out why one friend wouldn't forgive him for forgiving the other. It wasn't even Ron's broom.
He shook the musings from his head and took out his holiday homework. He had a fair bit left, and Hermione had loads left despite her having worked on it a lot more than he had.
Harry said, "I still don't understand how you're getting to all those classes."
"I have a way."
"What way?"
"I promised Professor McGonagall I wouldn't tell anyone."
"Well, if you promised Professor McGonagall..." He let the thought hang, letting it ask for him who she was more loyal too, letting it imply she owed the truth to him after running to McGonagall about his Firebolt.
Hermione groaned and looked around, checking to be sure no one was near. She leaned forward and whispered, "I have a Time Turner. It lets me go back in time a few hours, so I can be in two classes at once."
Harry digested that. His voice was thick. "You have a time machine and you're using it for classes. What about my parents, or-"
"It doesn't work like that. A day is a single unit of time. It's a work in progress until it's over, but then it's saved. And even within a day, you can't change what's already happened. Say I go to Arithmancy, and when Arithmancy is out, I use my Time Turner to go back two hours and go to Care. But when I'm in Arithmancy, I'm already in Care. I've already done what I've yet to do."
Hermione explained it further, and Harry started to get it. There were moments where it seemed very clear, and then the clarity would pop, like a soap bubble, but even then, he had the idea. Time travel couldn't the change the past, but it could change the present, which could be very useful.
Harry said, "I still think it's odd you're using it to take extra classes. Why not drop one?"
"I couldn't do that!" said Hermione.
"What about Divination? Useless class. I wish I'd signed up for anything else. I'll drop it with you."
"You can't drop it. You have to carry at least two electives into your OWL year. That's why even if you only wanted two, you should've signed up for three, and then after a few weeks dropped the one you liked least. I would've told you that last year if I hadn't been petrified."
Harry said, "Do you think I could switch to a different class?" He'd been toying with the idea, but not seriously. Ron would flip if he 'abandoned him,' but Ron had already flipped.
Hermione said, "You can only switch classes in the first two weeks. So no. I suppose you could switch next year, but you'd be in a younger year class."
In a class with students a year younger, none of whom he'd know, probably. It sounded horrible. But the thought of spending another two years in Professor Trelawney's stuffy tower, listening to her predict his death, sounded worse. Harry said, "Tell me about these other classes."
"Well, Arithmancy is my favorite. It's predicting the future with numbers. A lot of it's like muggle mathematics. In a way, predicting the future is mostly what muggles use math for too. 'If 'If I sell this many cars for this much and each car costs this much to sell, how much money will I make? What will the tensile strength of the steel bar be if it's made this thick? When will this bridge get old and fall down?' But with magic, there's other maths too, like numerology. There's a very famous result saying that You-Know-Who will probably come back one day. It was too complicated for me, but Professor Vector says it's sound, though not certain."
"Arithmancy says Voldemort will come back?"
"It says he'll probably come back. Unlike Divination, Arithmancy is logical and verifiable, even if lacking in details in some cases. And Professor Vector is great."
Hermione continued, "Muggle Studies is good too. Professor Burbage is a pureblood or near enough, but she's lived as a muggle in different countries, and she's been to muggle Universities for politics and engineering, so, in a lot of ways, she knows more than we do about the muggle world, and she has such an interesting perspective on it. I'd never realized how strange and horrible the muggle food supply is.
Hermione said, "Ancient Runes with Professor Babbling is a lot of memorization. The first two years, it's mostly just memorizing different rune systems. But eventually you get to use it for magic. Mainly for making charms last, but for all sort of other things too you that you wouldn't think of. The theory is very interesting.
Hermione said,"Divination is useless, and I love Hagrid, but you have to admit he's having trouble his first year on the job, so it's ended up that you're taking the two worst electives."
Hermione gave him a look as if to say that was his fault for not looking into them properly, and returned to her charms essay.
Harry pulled over her books for her electives, and skimmed them. After an hour during which Hermione quietly worked, Harry said, "I'll tell Professor McGonagall I'd like to take Runes next year instead of Divination if you'll come with me and tell her you'd like to drop Divination."
"That's playing dirty," said Hermione.
"You shouldn't be taking so many classes. The bags under your eyes were getting deeper and deeper before the break. And doesn't using the time turner make you get older quicker?"
"I lost a month last year to being petrified by the basilisk, and I only add a few hours a week, so even by the end of the year I won't be back to my actual age. Besides, Professor McGonagall gave this to me because she believed I could take extra classes. I don't want to disappoint her." But he could tell she was tempted, and if she was tempted, she'd already been thinking about it.
Harry said, "So apologize a lot and say I bullied you into it. And won't you still need the Time-Turner, so it won't be for nothing? Come on. You know you want to. All we've learned in Divination is that it's a bloody waste of time."
"Language," said Hermione, but she bit her lip, mulling it over. She said, "I did last a whole term at least. If I did drop it, Christmas vacation would be the perfect time."
#
#
Professor McGonagall looked at the two of them. She said, "No, I quite understand. Far be it from me to speak ill of a fellow Professor, but her class may not be the most productive use of your time, Miss Granger. I was wondering if you might do this."
Hermione said, "I feel horrible because you went to all that trouble to get me that..." she stopped, paling.
"You told me Mr. Potter about it?"
Hermione nodded, looking apologetic. "He kept asking me about how I was getting to classes."
"Have you told anyone else? Perhaps Mr. Weasley?"
"No. Just Harry."
Professor McGonagall pointed a finger at Harry. "If you use it to get in trouble, it will be Miss Granger and I who are punished for it more than you."
"I won't," said Harry. "And even if I wanted to, Hermione wouldn't let me. It took months for her to even tell me about it."
"I'll hold you both to it. Miss Granger, I'll put your drop notice through today." Professor McGonagall looked at them expectantly, waiting for them to leave, and Hermione nudged Harry.
Harry said, "Er, Professor. I was thinking. I don't like Divination very much. I know it's too late to switch classes, but I was wondering if next year I could take third-year Runes instead."
Professor McGonagall said, "Why Ancient Runes?"
Harry said, "It might be nice to learn more about the muggle world, but I know enough about it already. I looked over Hermione's Arithmancy book, and it made my head hurt." He'd imagined long nights in the common room, banging his head on the table as he tried to figure out what in the devil 'X' was. "Runes had a lot of memorization, but memorizing is simple, even if it is hard, and the introduction to the theory was interesting." Not an equation in sight.
Professor McGonagall said, "Mr. Potter, we would not normally allows transfers at this late date. But I perhaps I should've told you earlier that the student whose death she predicts at the beginning of the year transfers or drops almost invariably. That you did not was something of a curiosity."
With a rush of horror, Harry realized Professor McGonagall was about to make another exception for him.
Professor McGonagall said, "I can well understand that the Divination classroom might be a substandard environment for you. If you're willing to put in the work to catch up, I would be willing to speak to Professor Babbling and allow you to transfer now, at the start of spring term."
Harry did not like that idea. Having to study desperately to catch up on what others had had months to learn. He'd rather stick it out in Divination. But Professor McGonagall was offering to bend over backward for him, and he didn't feel comfortable saying no, so he said, "That would be great."
#
#
When they were back at the common room, Harry said, "Merlin. What have I gotten myself into?" He stared at the Runes book in his hands. He'd been instructed to purchase his own by owl order, but for now he was being allowed to use one of the school's spares, which were kept in the Deputy Headmistress's office.
Hermione said, "I'll help you."
That sounded wonderful. Hermione would help him. She'd pound it all into his head while he sat there like a great unresisting sponge. But she still looked tired, blue half-circle under her eyes, even during Christmas vacation.
Harry said, "No. You have four electives. I want you to sleep and relax more, not replace your fifth elective with helping me. What chapter did the first term take you up through?"
"Chapter 12," Hermione said, "Plus most of the glossary and appendix."
"First I'll read up through chapter 12, then the glossary and appendix, then I'll borrow your notes, and when I've copied them, maybe I'll ask you for help."
He opened to the introduction and sat down to maul his way through it, already regretting speaking to McGonagall.
:::
This story is complete on my hard drive. I had a scene from third-year of Mentordora that, as I thought about second year, I realized didn't fit. So I thought I'd expand it into a 2 or 3k oneshot.
It's ended up being about 30k words. I'll publish a chapter most days until it's all published.
PoA is my favorite Harry Potter book, but I've always hated how Hermione is frozen out for two months in it. Fourth year is not the first time Ron abandons a friend over something stupid, and in third-year Harry goes along with it.
I don't much like Ron, but I don't hate him. He has good traits. This will not end up being as much of a Ron bash as it at first appears to be.
I read a lot of Harry/Hermione fics, but I'm not committed to the pairing. In my mind, 5th-7th year Harry and Hermione have a comparability score of about 65-70%, whereas as Hermione and Ron have a comparability score of about 30%. Draco's a git, Sirius and Lupin are too old, and I can't tell the twins apart. I love Hermione, and want the best for her, so I end up not knowing who, other than Harry, to put her with.
This is a Harry/Hermione story.
Chapter 2: Sorting out the Sorting
Sorting out the Sorting
Ron continued avoiding Harry and Hermione, so Harry spent most of his time in the library with Hermione, doing homework and furiously trying to catch up on Runes.
He was relieved when the rest of the school returned from break. He didn't feel right asking Hermione to goof off with him, considering how much she had to do, and he was happy to have other people to talk to.
But Ron took to hanging out with Dean and Seamus as soon as they returned, which left Harry hanging out with Neville, who was pathetically easy to beat at both chess and Exploding Snap, and he couldn't talk about Quidditch very well either.
Mostly, Neville talked about plants, which wasn't the sort of thought-free fun and games stress relief Harry had been looking for.
Just when Harry thought Ron was about to come around, the term re-started. The first Divination class took place on the very first day, and Harry didn't go.
Ron found him in the common room after dinner and said, "Where were you at Divination today?"
"Runes," said Harry, gesturing at the book. It turned out he was even further behind than he'd thought he would be, and Professor Babbling wanted him to make up everything he'd missed. He had a long list of old homework assignments to complete.
Harry said, "I didn't think Divination was much use, and I didn't like how kept saying I'd die, so I switched."
"Unbelievable," said Ron.
"I know. I didn't think they'd let me switch so late either. It's really hard. I wish I hadn't switched, but I think later I'll be glad I did."
"And Hermione dropped it, huh? Did you convince her to?"
Harry said, "Yeah. It took some doing, but she really was working too hard and I think she wanted someone to talk her into it. It usually isn't that easy to get her to change her mind."
"So now you're in Runes with Hermione. Abandoning me."
"It's not about abandoning you, Ron. I'm abandoning the class. We still have every other class together."
Ron said, "I'm the one who suggested we take Divination."
"And it could be a very good class if it had a different Professor." Maybe.
"You're just choosing Hermione again."
"What is this with you and the choosing? Give it a rest. Just say sorry to Hermione, she'll say sorry back, and that'll be it."
"What do I have to say sorry for?"
"I don't know, saying she betrayed us, cried on purpose, and used her 'tits' to get me to forgive her. She's Hermione, Ron. I don't even think of her that way."
Ron said, "I was partnered with Lavender today, in Divination."
"I would've thought you'd be with Neville."
"Well, I wasn't. Everyone kept asking me where you and Hermione were, since I'm your best friend, and I couldn't even tell them, because you didn't tell me you were dropping the class."
"That's because you've been avoiding me. So, stop avoiding me. Let's make up." He stuck out a hand, and thought for a moment Ron would shake it, but Hermione came down the stairs into the common room, clutching her book bag. She froze when she saw the two of them together. Harry motioned her forward so they could make up, and Ron glared at her and left.
Hermione sighed and sat at their usual table, pulling out her potions book and essay.
Harry said, "What is his problem? He'll come back to us, won't he?"
"Definitely. He loves being your friend."
"It's not like I haven't apologized plenty, and I'm not even sure what I'm apologizing for. It's his turn to apologize. I understand being a little upset, but this is way overboard."
Hermione pushed her homework aside. "I think he's jealous of me. To Ron, you and he are best mates, and I'm the third member of the trio, the bookworm, the homework help." She said that bitterly. "I don't mean that he only pretended to be my friend for homework, because I think he really does like me, or at least he did, but he thinks he's the best friend, not me, and it looks to him like you're choosing me over him. Doesn't he keep being angry at you for choosing me over him?"
Taking the seat across from her, Harry said, "You're both my best friend. I'm not choosing you over him. He's being a git and I'm not going along with it. I've told him that."
Hermione said, "He doesn't want to hear that he and I are both your best friend. He wants to be first."
Harry said, "What, just because I made friends with him two months earlier? If he hadn't been being such a git to you in first year, I probably would've made friends with you before the troll."
Hermione brightened. "Really? I always thought you thought I was annoying."
"I did," Harry admitted. "Sometimes. Especially the night of the duel. You were very interfering. But I also thought you were interesting, and impressive, sort of. I didn't dislike you. I was telling Ron he ought to apologize to you even before the troll."
Hermione' smile was huge. "Really?"
"Really," said Harry.
"You have no idea how much that means to me. You and Ron were my first real friends, and it's bothered me that we only became friends because we were nearly killed by a troll together."
Harry wasn't sure if what he was about to say was true, but he wanted it to be true. "You, Hagrid and Ron were my first real friends, and I only took so long to become friends with you because Ron disliked you on sight. If he'd been sorted into Hufflepuff, I bet we would've been friends within a week of the start of the year."
Hermione absolutely beamed and leaned across the table to give him a big hug. Sitting back in her chair, she raised an eyebrow and said, "Ron, in Hufflepuff?"
Harry thought about that. Hardworking and loyal. Until the past week, he would've thought the loyal bit fit, but now... "The Hat sorted him immediately. He's Gryffindor through and through."
Hermione said, "We were both under it for a long time. It said I could be in any house I wanted. At first I wasn't happy I chose Gryffindor, but now I am."
She looked at him expectantly. Harry wished he hadn't brought the subject up. She was wondering what other house the hat had thought about putting him in. He considered lying, but whispered instead, "It wanted to put me in Slytherin. It said I would be great there." He stared at the table, afraid to see her reaction, wishing he hadn't admitted to that.
Hermione said, "Slytherin? I would've guessed Hufflepuff. Well, if you do have Slytherin traits, you should show them more."
Harry raised his eyes and was confused by how remarkably unconcerned she looked and sounded.
Hermione said, "The problem with Slytherin is the pureblood ideology. You're not a bloodpurist, so that's not why the Hat wanted to put you there. The rest is being ambitious and cunning. Having big goals and pursuing them cleverly. Those are good traits, but I'm not sure I've ever noticed you showing them. You must have them, or the hat wouldn't have wanted to put you in Slytherin, so dig them out of whatever mental storage place you've put them in."
Harry gaped at her. The fact that the Hat had nearly put him in Slytherin had always been a shameful secret. Ron, if he heard, would be horrified, and Harry had long tried to suppress whatever parts of his mind had made the Hat consider him for Slytherin.
Hermione said, "But I'm very glad it didn't put you there. We probably wouldn't be friends." She shivered. "I'd still be wishing I'd asked for Ravenclaw instead, like I did the first two months."
Hermione in Gryffindor without him? He felt cold imagining it. Would she have any friends? Would Ron still be being a git to her? He imagined her lonely and bullied, probably forming a sad little not-quite-friendship with Neville. He imagined her killed by a troll, because he wouldn't have known to find her and Ron wouldn't have gone looking on his own.
Harry said, "I'm glad it put us together."
#
#
At the end of their Defence class, Harry made an appointment with Professor Lupin for his first anti-dementor lesson, to take place Thursday evening at 8 o'clock.
As Harry and Hermione left the classroom together, Harry commented that Lupin still looked poorly.
"Hmm," said Hermione, in the infuriating way she had that suggested that she knew what he didn't but should and was impatiently waiting for him to figure it out, which he ought to because it was very obvious.
"Could you not say hmm like that?"
"Like what?"
Harry sighed. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong with Professor Lupin?"
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
"Does he have cancer?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Not even Ron, once we start talking again."
"Okay..."
She led him into an abandoned classroom, closed the door, locked it with Calloportus, and said, "Considering that Astronomy is a core class here, it's incredible more people haven't noticed, but Professor Lupin misses classes around the time of the full moon, and only around the full moon."
The idea tumbled through his mind, clattering against several walls before coming to a rest. "You think Professor Lupin is a werewolf?"
"Definitely. That's why Professor Snape had us learn about werewolves in Defence. That's why he's brought up the wolfsbane potion in his potions class. That must be the potion he's been giving Lupin. It lets werewolves keep their minds even once they've turned and it makes the transformation easier, but it makes them sick beforehand and after. He has all the symptoms."
Harry didn't know much about werewolves. What he'd picked up from muggle telly and a few off-hand comments Ron had made. Snape had done a lecture on them, but he hadn't listened, on the basis of it being Snape lecturing.
Hermione said, "Professor Lupin's hair is greying prematurely, he has very thick hair on his hands and arms, and I think his hearing and smell are unusually good. I've looked, and he usually has rare steak at dinner. And his boggart is the full moon, of course. It would also explain why such a capable wizard is in such ratty clothes. He can't get work."
Harry said, "But he's still a good person, right?"
"It's not his fault he got bit. He becomes really dangerous the night of the full moon, and the nights before and after. So what? The wizarding prejudice against werewolves is horrible. But I'm afraid he won't be back next year. I can't be the only one who's noticed, and eventually someone will tell someone who will tell everyone. And you really shouldn't tell Ron. I don't think he'd take it well."
"You really think Lupin would be fired if people found out?"
"I think so. Most of the books say really horrible things about werewolves."
Harry said, "Snape clearly knows, so Professor Dumbledore must know too." With that thought, whatever tiny smidgen of doubt he had was resolved. If Dumbledore didn't care that Lupin was a werewolf, then Harry didn't care either.
#
#
When Harry reached the common room fresh off his first Patronus lesson with Professor Lupin, it was quite late, and Hermione was alone in the common room, doing homework.
She said, "How was it? You look pale."
"Turns out my boggart is a dementor. Professor Lupin had one, so I got to practice with a dementor, almost. Professor Lupin gave me chocolate to help."
She looked concerned. "Better practice hard. If you spend real time in a dementor's company you'll be worse off than I was before I dropped Divination."
Harry said, "He didn't mention practicing any outside the sessions."
Hermione said, "It should go without saying. He's a Professor using his free-time to help you. The least you can do is practice on your own."
"Between classes, catching up on Runes, and Quidditch, I don't have a lot of time."
Hermione said, "Still more time than I have. Five minutes here, ten minutes there, it adds up." She looked at her homework planner. "I have ten minutes before I have to get back to this, so hurry and show me the spell."
Harry said, "It's called the Patronus Charm. Professor Lupin says it's very advanced. If you do it right, you create an animal guardian, called a Patronus. The Incantation is Expecto Patronum, and this is the wand movement." He showed her.
"The spell itself..." He cast through his mind for a different happy memory. Inspired by present company, he thought of how pleased he'd been to see Hermione and Ron in Diagon Alley near the end of summer. But thinking of Ron was complicated, so when he cast the spell, he thought solely of Hermione, seeing her outside Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlor, waving frantically, skin browned by her time at the beach, Ron mentally clipped from the image.
"Expecto Patronum," Harry said, and an unresolved mist of silver light came out his wand.
Fighting to maintain it, Harry said, "It's easier without facing a boggart. This is the best I've managed, and it's the not so useful form."
Hermione rose, wand out. "Show me again."
:::
H/Hr is starting.
It's possible the Sorting Hat thought Harry would be good in Slytherin purely it was detecting the horcrux without knowing what it was, but I choose to believe that Harry really did have strong Slytherin traits. In which case... where the hell were they through 7 books?
I've always thought Hermione is more of a Hufflepuff than a Ravenclaw, but she would prefer Ravenclaw.
Pretty please, with sugar on top, check out my original book, Monstrosity, by JLL, on amazon. It's in the books department. Werewolves, witches and vampires are all after an old magic tree, and a very Slytherin (but righteous) human boy is caught in the middle.
Chapter 3: Patronus Memory
Patronus Memory
January wore on.
Hermione was much better off than in the first term. She'd only been using her Time Turner for her classes themselves. What had been wearing her down more than the few extra hours per week was the amount of homework, combined with her absolute refusal to turn in any homework that was less than perfect, and so the lack of Divination homework was making a greater impact on her than the mere lack of Divination class.
Harry, mindful of her load, was making a concerted effort to re-read the relevant portion of the text whenever he felt the urge to ask her to explain something. As a result, when he did ask her, it more often ended up being conversations about complicated matters the textbook had skimmed over rather than the basic idea, so Harry supposed their doing homework together had become less like being tutored and more like a friendship where one friend was smarter and more knowledgeable than the other.
And of course, she wasn't spending any time at all helping Ron with his homework.
Ron was still ignoring them except to glare, and was making a great show of how much fun he was having with Seamus and Dean. As a result, Harry had little to do in the boy's dorm other than read or talk to Neville, and Neville didn't talk about a whole lot other than Herbology.
Harry talked to his team-members about Quidditch, and while it was relaxing to play chess against people who didn't quickly and mercilessly massacre him whenever he put a piece wrong in his opening moves, he missed Ron. Ron was his second ever friend, after Hagrid, he was great fun, and they'd been through a lot together, and it was hard to believe that that friendship could be broken by a broomstick, a dropped class, and jealousy about who was whose best friend.
Harry did not, however, have much time for more than a few games of chess and a few frivolous conversations. He was swamped between Quidditch practice five nights a week, Lupin's anti-dementor lessons, and his normal course load plus the all the extra work for Runes, which was a hard class even when you hadn't missed the first four months of it.
He told himself that Hermione had it just as rough, and had had it rougher during the first term, but it didn't help that his anti-dementor lessons weren't going as well as he would've liked. The bits of practice he snuck in here and there helped, but he longed for a chance to really work at the spell, and very nearly screwed up his courage to tell Wood they should have fewer Quidditch practices, but he chickened out in the end.
When they were alone in the library one day, Hermione said, "Let's take an hour to work on the Patronus Charm tonight."
Harry thought of all the homework he had to do and said, "I don't have an hour."
Hermione said, "Considering the dementors have almost killed you twice, if you promise to keep it secret and use it seriously," she lowered her voice, "We'll use the You-Know-What to get an hour."
"You'd do that?" he added. "Break the rules?"
"To keep you alive? Of course. Haven't I proven that plenty? I set Professor Snape on fire for you."
He smiled, remembering that. "Now?"
"Now," she said, packing her stuff away. He followed her through the halls, knowing they'd have to do it somewhere private. They went up the fourth floor, to a wing of the castle not near anything in particular, and Hermione said, "We'll use this classroom. It's always abandoned."
She opened the door, and when they stepped into the room, they saw a stag of silver light, and they saw themselves.
Another Harry and another Hermione, already in the room, startled and flushed.
Harry said, "Is that us? Isn't that dangerous?"
Hermione said, "I've heard seeing their cycle 1 selves can drive people mad, but I don't see why. I've seen myself going and coming plenty of times. It should be fine."
The other Hermione stepped forward and whispered something in Hermione's ear. Hermione looked confused and turned red, but looked at Harry and said, "Alright, let's go." She put the chain around them, Harry oddly conscious of how closely he was pressed to her, and Hermione turned the Time Turner once.
The classroom dissolved. Harry had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backward. A blur of colors and shapes rushed past him, his ears were pounding, he tried to yell—and they were in a hallway, next to a suit of armor.
"What?" said Harry. "Why aren't we in the classroom?"
"Displacement," said Hermione. "The Time Turner matches to general location and mood, not specific location. Privacy is a big part of mood, so it's works out. But let's go. I think I know where we are."
He followed her, and after two turns, they were back at the abandoned classroom, which was just as it had been before except there were no other selves and no Patronus.
Hermione checked her watch. "We've gone back an hour and three. That's normal. It's often a little off a perfect hour."
"Your watch...?"
"It's a wizarding watch. It always knows the time. Otherwise I'd be very confused. We only have an hour before cycle 1 gets here and we become cycle 2, so let's practice."
"And it's okay that we saw ourselves?"
"Cycle 2 was supposed to leave before we arrived, but they must've been distracted. We'll be distracted too."
Harry said, "I guess we'll find out whose Patronus that was. In an hour and three." He recalled his last Quidditch win and said, "Expecto Patronum," and produced a moderate volume of silver mist. Probably not the best memory, then.
Hermione produced her own puff of silver mist, and the two of them worked, settling among the dusty desks and saying little. One of them had gotten it by the end of an hour and three, and Harry wanted it to be him. He'd spent more time on it, after all. He imagined beating her, and that didn't work well. He remembered when they'd hugged in the Great Hall after Hermione had woken from Petrification, and that worked best of anything he'd tried, so he repeated it a number of times, the mist almost taking shape, but not quite.
He concluded that that memory wasn't good enough, and tried more out, looking for the one that would have that last little bit of oomph.
When nearly an hour had passed, the silver mist from her latest effort fading, Hermione said, "What are you using for your Patronus memory?"
"Er, well. Different things. Finding out I'm a wizard. Flying. Happy ideas, rather than memories. And you and Ron. Except, er, not him, since he's not talking to me, so just you, really."
"I'm your Patronus memory?"
"Well, you know. You're kind of, since my relatives and I don't get on, you're kind of the most important person in the world to me. So, yeah. You at the ice-cream parlor. When you woke at the end of second-year. At the lake with you. When you told me to embrace my Slytherin traits." He was turning pink, and he told himself to shut up.
He peeked at her, hoping she wouldn't be upset, and Hermione leaned forward. Her nose bumped his nose, then her lips bumped his lips.
The kiss broke as soon as it began, and Hermione, bright red, stepped away and looked at her feet.
Harry felt as if he couldn't move or think, but his mouth still worked. It said, "What was that for?"
"I was just happy."
"So you kissed me?"
"Did you not like it?"
Did he? It'd been so quick. There hadn't been anything to like or dislike. Except Hermione had kissed him! He'd had his first kiss, and it was Hermione. He wasn't sure what that meant, but his heart and his stomach thought it mean something. "I liked it fine," he said, avoiding looking at her, hoping she wasn't looking at him, because he was redder than before. Harry said, "Do you like me that way?" He darted a glance at her, and saw she'd graduated to staring at his feet.
Hermione said, "I don't know. Maybe. You?"
"I've never thought of you that way." She stiffened, and he hurriedly added, "But I definitely could. You're smart and pretty and my best friend."
"You think I'm pretty?"
"Of course you're pretty," said Harry, hating that his voice squeaked at the end.
She said nothing, the awkward silence going on and on, and Harry said, "So do you want to try it again? It was so short I couldn't tell anything."
Her own, "yes," was a squeak too, but she faced him and leaned forward again.
Their arms did not come around each other. There was no passionate frisson or battle for dominance between rollicking tongues. They pressed their lips together for several seconds, mostly still and barely parted.
But when it was over, Harry's heart was thundering so loudly he feared someone outside would hear its beating and come to investigate. Hermione gestured to the blackboard, and Harry saw it had turned bright red. He wondered whose accidental magic that had been, and he wondered if she felt as confused, frightened and euphoric as he did.
He'd only recently begun to think that way about girls, and he'd never thought that way about Hermione, but that she thought that way of him, of little, scabby-kneed, poorly dressed Harry Potter, was amazing. Astounding. He hadn't ever been happier.
"Expecto Patronum," Harry cast, and a silver stag burst from his wand.
The stag bounded around the room, far too big for the room, and Hermione met his gaze, eyes shining.
The door opened, and another Harry and Hermione came in. The stopped, staring at the Patronus, staring at Harry and Hermione.
The cycle 1 Harry said, "Is that us? Isn't that dangerous?"
The cycle 1 Hermione said, "I've heard seeing themselves can drive people mad, but I don't see why. I've seen myself going and coming plenty of times. It should be fine."
Hermione stepped forward, and whispered something in the other Hermione's ear. The other Hermione looked confused and turned red, but looked at the other Harry and said, "Alright, let's go." She put the chain around them, the other Hermione spun the Time Turner once, and the two cycle 1s vanished.
Harry said, "What did you tell her?"
Hermione said, "I told her she ought to kiss you if you said something very romantic. I never would've done it otherwise. Now let's go back to the library. We have a Charms essays to finish."
#
#
They did not get much done on their charms essays. Hermione stared at her book, re-reading the same paragraph again and again, and Harry didn't even try. He just looked at her. Now that she'd prompted him to think about her that way... He drank in the sight of her. Ink stains on her fingers. A pretty face framed by curly hair that wasn't as long as it had used to be. Dark brown eyes that had the faintest suggestion of gold to them. They kept darting up from her essay to glance at him.
She was beautiful, and she was his best friend.
Harry supposed, in his unsophisticated way, that a romance was friendship with other stuff thrown in, so that was perfect. He wasn't totally sure what all the other stuff was, and thinking about it frightened him a little, but he wouldn't mind trying it out with Hermione.
A particular and recently changing part of his anatomy informed him that it was very excited by the idea of other stuff with Hermione.
Blushing, he waited for that to subside, and then said, "So, do you want to be boyfriend and girlfriend now?"
Hermione jerked hard enough that she banged her knee on the bottom of the table.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she said, rubbing her knee. "Boyfriend and girlfriend. Wow. Yes, I think that's a good idea. We could gain practical experience and develop relevant social competencies."
Harry said, "Er. So you're not interested in me, really, you just want practical experience in dating?" Despite having never thought about dating her an hour ago, he was crushed.
"No, I'm just saying, you're 13 and I'm 14. We're both third-years. We shouldn't have unrealistic expectations about how long-lived and meaningful any relationship between us is likely to be. But there's no one I'd rather get practical experience with. So I'm saying I would like to be your girlfriend, and if the relationship did, against the odds, end up being long-lived and meaningful, I would like that."
She was, again, bright red.
Harry said, "Right. So. I'm thinking. Boyfriends and girlfriends, they eat together, they study together, it's pretty much everything we already do except with kissing and walking around Black Lake while holding hands?" There were also trips to Hogsmeade, but as he wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade, he didn't mention it.
Hermione said, "There should also be romantic gestures. Flowers are traditional."
He could do flowers. Probably talk to Neville to make sure he got the right ones. There had to be magical flowers that were a lot better than normal roses.
He was sitting across the table from her. He usually did that when it was just the two of them, so they'd face each other as they talked. But it was different now. He stood, moved to her side of the table, and sat next to her.
Their legs brushed, and they got very little done on their Charms essays.
As the days trickled by, they carried on as they always had, just with discreet hand holding, hugs, shoulder rubs, and occasional light kissing when in private. Harry wondered about more and had dreams about it too, but he felt as if his head was going explode from what they were doing already.
Harry had always thought about her a lot, but now he was thinking about her almost constantly, with a dizzy feeling in his stomach. He kept having to suppress a high-pitched, giddy giggle that would definitely not be attractive.
Hermione took to wearing cherry lip gloss, and did something to her hair.
And then Ron, who'd seemed to be thawing, saw them holding hands in the common room.
Ron stared and said, "So the rumor is true. Potter, are you seriously dating Hermione?"
Harry looked up, confused by Ron addressing him by his last name. "Er, more or less. We haven't gone on any proper dates, but other than that, yeah."
Ron said, "You couldn't have found anyone prettier?"
Harry heard Hermione's outraged gasp, and was outraged himself. "No, actually, since there isn't anyone prettier." He gave Hermione's hand a squeeze. "The real question is if you could find anyone pettier than yourself."
Ron ignored that. "You know she doesn't actually like you. She just wants to be girlfriend to the Boy-Who-Lived."
Hermione said, "Are you sure you're not talking about yourself?"
"I'm not a poofter."
Hermione said, "That's not what I meant, dimwit. You told me what you saw in the Mirror of Erised. If you looked in it again, would you see yourself with a lightning bolt scar?"
Ron turned an ugly shade of purple and said, "Would you be shagging me then?"
Harry and Hermione drew wands, and it would've come to spells if Fred and George hadn't picked Ron up by the armpits and carted him out the portrait hole, Fred or George promising as they passed to "hex some sense into him."
When the portrait shut, Hermione, though still clearly angry, brow furrowed, patted Harry reassuringly and said, "He'll come around."
His jaw worked. "The longer this goes on, the less sure I am that I want him to. He can't talk to you like that. He's acting like Malfoy. And what did you mean about him seeing himself with a lightning bolt scar in the Mirror of Erised?"
"Just that he's jealous. He's jealous of me being close to you, and he's jealous of you being the Boy-Who-Lived instead of him. You hate attention, but Ron loves it."
"You think he was only ever friends with me because of the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing?" The idea turned his stomach.
"No. He likes you. He was your friend. He really was. And he really was hurt that he felt like you chose me over him. But there's a part of him that's always liked being best mates with the Boy-Who-Lived. I can't say I'm completely innocent of that either. To me the attention is just a bother, but I do like that a lot of times we're working on important things. With the Stone and the Chamber and everything."
Harry said, "That's not me being the Boy-Who-Lived though. That's me sticking my nose where it doesn't belong."
"There you go then," said Hermione. "I've always liked sticking my nose where it doesn't belong."
Harry grinned. "I did notice early on that you can be very interfering."
:::
I think this was decent Time Turner use. This is a Harmony story and has romance, but plot wise it is not primarily romance, which is good, because I suck at romance.
Displacement is not my invention. Hermione doesn't name it, but it happens in PoA. They're in the hospital wing, Hermione uses the time turner, and they're in the entrance hall of three hours ago.
Yes, I know Hermione never looked in the Mirror of Erised. But they presumably told her about it after. And being Hermione, she looked it up in the library and told them more about it than they wanted to know.
The whole "we can't date because we're friends," thing has never made any sense to me. Okay, maybe if you dated a friend and the break-up wasn't amicable and so you weren't able to remain friends, you might feel burned and not want to date a friend again, but if you haven't had that experience, why would it even occur to you?
Dating may be more than a friendship with 'other stuff' grafted on, but I think that's how most kids think of it until they find out differently.
Yes, Ron said shagging. 13 and 14 year-olds say stuff like that all the time. It doesn't usually make it into YA books, but lots of kids are serious potty-mouths at that age.
Based on what we know about Patronus memories, Harry's Patronus memory basically being Hermione kissing him could easily change the form of his Patronus, but I decided against doing that.