Diff for "HPPT/LeadUpToGringotts"

That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

Walking over to the table Hermione was studying at, Harry asked her “Did you even come to the match?”

“Of course I did,” said Hermione, in a strangely high-pitched voice, not looking up. “And I’m very glad we won, and I think you did really well, but I need to read this by Monday.”

“Hermione, that’s not like you. You’re normally so good about getting your homework done well ahead of time, what’s different this time?” He asked.

“I just forgot, that’s all.” Was her response in an even higher pitch.

“And how long have you had to read this book?” Inquired Harry.

“Since before Christmas.” She was starting to sound hysterical at this point while also trying to hide from Harry behind the book.

“And why haven’t you read it before now?” Harry pressed.

“I haven’t had the time before now.” Now actually sounding hysterical.

Harry wondered if he should bring up the matter of how she was getting to all of her classes, but decided it wasn’t worth it. Hermione was too strung up at the moment and from what Padma had said she probably wasn’t supposed to talk about how she was managing it, so Harry decided to try something different.

“How about this Hermione, you want me to get better marks, right?” Asked Harry.

“Of course I do Harry, whatever made you think otherwise?” Answered Hermione, now calmer which pleased Harry, his track seemed to be working.

“Never did, just wanted to make sure. Now how about a deal, if you don’t manage to close the gap between our Arithmancy grades once the next assignment is graded you’ll give serious thought to dropping one subject of your choice, alright?” Offered Harry.

“And what do I get if I manage to close the gap? Will you stop bugging me to not work as hard?” Hermione replied, calming down even more and coming out from hiding behind her book.

“No, because that I did that I would stop caring about you, and if that happened you wouldn’t be my friend anymore, as being your friend means too much to me to just throw it away over you working yourself too hard.” Harry countered.

“You’re my friend Harry? Do you really mean it?” Asked Hermione calmer than before.

“Of course I am Hermione, why would I say I was if I wasn't?” Answered Harry.

“It's just that I've never had friends before, and, well it's nice to hear you say that.” Responded Hermione, finally returning to her normal voice.

“I'm not the only one concerned about how hard you're working yourself Hermione, you have more friends then you think you do, you're just too wound up to notice it.” Said Harry.

These words seemed to have made Hermione's day. “Thanks Harry, for letting me know. I'll try and relax more and not cause everyone to worry so much. And I agree to your deal.” She replied.

“Good, and no slacking off in other subjects to pull up your Arithmancy grade.” Harry responded.

“Harry, what makes you think that I would do something like that?” She retaliated.

“Nothing, just wanted to be sure you wouldn’t try and find some way to worm your way out of thinking about dropping a subject.” Said Harry. And very happy that you accepted the deal without making me agree to something in return he thought to himself. Seeing that Hermione had calmed down a lot he decided to try something else to make her relax more. “Why don't you come to the party?”

She glanced over at Ron. “He doesn’t want me to.”

Harry wasn’t going to argue with this as at that exact moment Ron called out “If Scabbers hadn’t just been eaten, he could have had some of these Fudge Flies, he used to really like them –”

And Hermione burst into tears. Before Harry could cheer her up again she had tucked her book under her arm and was up running up the stairs to the girls dormitories and out of sight.

“Can’t you give her a break?” Harry asked Ron quietly.

“No,” Said Ron flatly. “If she acted like she was sorry – but she’ll never admit she’s wrong, not Hermione. She’s still acting like Scabbers has gone on holiday or something.”

“Ron.” Said Harry angrily, “We’ve been over this before, you can’t blame Hermione for not doing anything when you didn’t do anything yourself. And you should have been thankful that you got a pet, Ginny, Fred and George don’t have any and most of our classmates don’t either. And if it gets back to your parents that you were whining like this after your own carelessness lost Scabbers, I doubt they’re going to let you have another one. So, Ron, if I were you I’d think carefully about what you say.” This last said loudly enough so that most of the room, including his siblings could hear, a subtle threat to Ron to improve his behavior.

That night Sirius Black somehow managed to get into the 3rd Year Gryffindor Boy’s Dormitory and attack Ron. The following morning Harry noticed that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor had been boarded up, meaning that someone other than Fred and George and now Ron, Hermione and Harry knew about it. Ron’s brush with death had made him an instant celebrity and people were paying him more attention than Harry, which they were both thankful for, if for different reasons. So while Ron soothed his ego Harry tried to keep Hermione calm.

-/-/-/-/-

Hagrid’s Hut, Two Days Later, Approximately Six PM

The first thing they saw on entering Hagrid’s cabin was Buckbeak, who was stretched on top of Hagrid’s patchwork quilt, his enormous wings folded tight to his body, enjoying a large plate of dead ferrets. Averting his eyes from this unpleasant sight, Harry saw a gigantic, hairy brown suit and a very horrible yellow and orange tie hanging from the top of Hagrid’s wardrobe door.

“What are they for, Hagrid?” Said Harry.

“Buckbeak’s case against the Committee for Disposal o’ Dangerous Creatures,” Said Hagrid. “This Friday. Him an’ me’ll be goin’ down ter London together. I’ve booked two beds on the Knight Bus...”

“Don’t worry Hagrid, everything will be all right.” Said Harry. “With Malfoy’s father in legal limbo he won’t be able to influence the outcome, you’ll be fine. You might want to take Madam Promfey with you but, so she can tell them about how Malfoy lied about his his injuries, I don’t think she’s at all happy about that.”

“That’s one o’ the things I wanna discuss with you two,” said Hagrid. “What were you thinkin’, makin’ an enemy of someone like Lucius Malfoy? He’s dangerous he is.”

“He’s already my enemy Hagrid, he was behind the incident last year last year when students were being attacked. Plus with they way his son mouths off in support of the Pureblood agenda if he was Imperiused he wasn’t fighting it very hard. By doing this I’m able to stop him from having an innocent killed just to make his son feel better about being an idiot and ignoring a teachers instructions when dealing with a dangerous animal.” Answered Harry

“It’s still dangerous but, he’s gonna attack you for sendin’ him to Azkaban like this.” Was Hagrid’s response.

“He won’t be in any position to do anything to me until he gets out of Azkaban or wherever the Ministry ends up stashing him until they’re convinced he won’t simply be Imperiused into helping Lord Voldermot again, which won’t be for a year or more. And if he’s smart, which given that he allowed himself be imprisoned over this whole Imperiused victim affair he is, he knows that getting caught attacking me will get him into even more trouble. In fact he’ll probably publicly thank me for allowing the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for protecting him from being Imperiused again, which will really annoy him and piss off Draco. Plus I doubt if he will have the ability to get back at me, have you seen the way Draco is spending his father’s money?” Said Harry

“Alright, I supp’ your safe enough for the moment Harry, but don’t go making enemies out of anyone else. Now, why did you transfer out of Care like you did? I thought you liked my class?” Asked Hagrid

“I do Hagrid, and sorry about not coming any more, I would have spoken to you about it sooner but I’m not allowed out of the castle much at the moment. The reason I’ve changed is that I’ve finally been given information I should have been given last year about which subjects would benefit me the most, plus the chance to take the same subjects as my parents isn’t something I was going to pass up. Don’t worry I should be able to rejoin the class next year, I’ve got Hermione taking notes for me.” Was Harry’s answer.

“That’s the final thing I wanna discuss with you two, Hermione.” Said Hagrid. “What were you two thinkin’ bein’ so mean to her? She’s bin comin’ down ter vist me a lot since Chris’mas. Bin feelin’ lonely. Firs’ yeh weren’ talking to her because o’ the Firebolt, now yer not talkin’ to her because her cat –”

“– ate Scabbers!” Ron interjected angrily.

“Because her cat acted like all cats do,” Hagrid continued doggedly. “She’d cried a fair few times, yeh know. Goin’ through a rough time at the moment. Bittin of more’n she can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work she’s tryin’ ter do. Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak’s case, mind … she’s found some really good stuff fer me … reckon he’ll stand a really good chance with you takin’ Lucius Malfoy out of the picture like that Harry ...”

“Anything for a friend Hagrid. As for Hermione I was upset that she went to Professor McGonagall without telling me first, but I knew at the time that she was only doing it to protect me and we made things up shortly afterwards and I told her that I knew. She has been more distant towards me lately. I think she’s trying to cut back on her nosiness and bossiness by not spending as much time with me, if she was a normal girl and I was allowed to go to Hogsmeade I’d take her out on a date but I can’t. As for the matter over Scabbers, I told Ron that he didn’t do anything to protect Scabbers from being eaten so he can’t blame Hermione, especially when he could have easily done more, it’s not like she could have looked Crookshanks up in a cage.” Responded Harry.

“And,” Harry added, “I’ve extracted a promise from her that if her work load remains too much for her that she’ll give serious thought to dropping one subject of her choice.”

“Alright Harry, I believe you, but Ron I gotta tell yeh, I thought you valued yer friend more’n a broomstick or a rat, that’s all.” Said Hagrid

Ron had an uncomfortable look on his face now.

“Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron. she’s got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an’ you not talkin’ to her –”

“If she’d just get rid of that cat, I’d speak to her again!” Ron said angrily. “But she’s still sticking up for it! it’s a manic, and she won’t hear a word against it!”

“Ah, well people can be a bit stupid abou’ their pets,” said Hagrid wisely. “As for taking Hermione on a date Harry, you might be surprised at how she’d react, talk to the Weasley Twins they might be able to set you up with somethin’.”

They spent the rest of their visit discussing Gryffindor’s much improved chances for the Quiditch Cup now that Slythrin had basically managed to remove itself from the running. At nine o’clock, Hagrid walked them back up to the castle.

A large group of people was bunched around the notice board when they returned to the common room.

“Hogsmeade, next weekend!” said Ron, craning over the heads to read the new notice. “What d’you reckon?” he added quietly to Harry, as they went sit down.

“The passage into Honeydukes has been closed off so someone else must have known about it.” Harry said, even more quietly.

-/-/-/-/-

The Next Day, After Class, Potter/Patil Classroom

“OK girls, I have something important to talk to you two about. Yesterday Ron and I visited Hagrid the topic of how much Hermione is overworking herself and I said that if Hermione was a normal girl and that if I could go into Hogsmeade I’d take her on a date, Hagrid said that the Weasley twins could help me set something up but I wanted to make sure it was alright with you two first.” Said Harry.

“Of course it is Harry.” The twins chorused.

“You don’t want to get too romantic with her at this point or she’ll get scared off.” Said Parvati solo. “This isn’t really a date, it’s a quiet dinner between friends, nothing more. If Hermione wants it to be more then something between friends then that’s what it is but otherwise you’re just her friend trying to get her to relax some. No candle lite dinner, but a private room with good food, about the same as the Welcoming Feast would do, but separate, individual servings and decent lighting.”

“It will be impossible to arrange everything before the Hogsmeade this weekend. Let’s see now, you’ll need flowers, Arborvitae would be best; the Hogsmeade book-store had a book on floriography last time I was there which will make a nice present. Clothes, Harry, you'll need some nice clothes to wear, there's not an opportunity to get you anywhere near a clothes store, so while your school uniform will do for the most part you will need a different tie and jacket. I'll take your measurements before I go into Hogsmeade. If I see anything else in your size I'll get it, plus I know roughly what size Hermione is so I can get her a nice dress so she has something to wear. Hermione's knee's will buckle and this will be the talk of the Castle for a month or more, and when it gets out that you two only went as friends girls will be running you ragged trying to get you to date them.” She finished.

Leaning over Harry gave Parvati a kiss on the cheek. “You know Parvati, I think I owe you an apology, I didn't think you were as smart as your sister but it looks like I was wrong you are as smart as your sister, just in a different way, so I'm sorry.” He said.

Blushing, Parvati said, “Don't worry about it Harry, we always had slightly different interests, Padma was always more interested in, well, science stuff while I was interested in people, a bit like yin and yang, and when we started Hogwarts and started thinking about our plan we knew that our lives would be like something out of a bad romance novel involving twins so we figured it was a good idea to get some practice at acting like the characters in those books. Seeing as how we were already good at the 'Can't tell them apart’ bit, we couldn’t finish each other sentences but, we started working on our ‘Different as the sun and moon’ act. Saturday is going to be fun, I haven’t been able to confuse people into thinking that I’m Padma in a while.”

It was at this point that Harry realized something else: just like Hermione and Padma, Parvati liked to talk about the things she liked, it was just that the things she liked were people and how the interacted with each other so that when she talked about it other people drew the wrong conclusions about what she was doing it was their fault, not Parvati’s.

“The other thing that I wanted to talk about was how did Gringotts know that a Hogsmeade Weekend was coming up?” Asked Harry. “I mean I know we asked for the meeting to be on the next Hogsmeade Weekend but with next weekend only just having been announced as a Hogsmeade Weekend I realized that the Goblins must have someway of finding out when a Hogsmeade Weekend is further in advance then we do.”

“Good point Harry, but the Hogsmeade Weekend schedule isn’t exactly a secret. Students who are known be to allowed to go into Hogsmeade before the year starts are mailed out, or rather their parents are, a list of expected Hogsmeade Weekends before school starts so that they can plan ahead to be free those weekends. Gringotts is probably informed before students are so that they make arrangements to handle the increased level of withdrawals that day made by students, the shopkeepers probably have to be told too, so they can get ready.” Answered Padma.

-/-/-/-/-

Later That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

Seeing as he was alone at the moment, Ron had a detention completing overdue work and Hermione was doing some of the mountain of work she had to do, Harry sought out Fred and George.

“Fred, George,” He called out. “I need some help with something and was told you two were the people to see.”

“Whatever it is little Harrykins, –” Said the one closer to Harry.

“– Ask and you shall receive.” Said the other.

“It’s Hermione, you’ve seen how she’s overworking herself, well when Ron and I were down with Hagrid yesterday I said that if I had access to Hogsmeade and that she was the sort of girl who would like that sort of thing I’d take her on a date to get her to relax. Well Hagrid said that she still might respond well to date. Well I’ve been talking to someone I can trust about the girly side of things, I just need you two to help me arrange a private room and dinner for Sunday night.” Harry explained.

“Pretty easy to do Harry –” They were now level with each other and not far from Harry and the one on the left was speaking.

“–There’s some unused private dinning rooms just off the Great Hall. –” Now the one on the right

“– And we’ll take you down to the kitchens and arrange for food with the House-Elves there.” This verbal tennis was annoying and Harry resolved to speak to the twins as little as possible.

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, Scott Smith, Michael Willmott and Ronnie McMains for typo busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of