Rating:: PG-13
House:: Astronomy Tower
Genres:: Romance General
Era:: Multiple Eras
Spoilers:: Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire
Stats:: Published: 10/22/2001

Updated: 08/13/2002

Words: 17,583

Chapters: 5

Hits: 14,124

Ready Or Not (Here I Come!)

Circe713

Story Summary:: Taking place Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts, and a continuation of my previous fics. A shade less sweetness and light than there was in the previous ones, but there will still be lots of H/Hr romance, as well as the developing relationships for Ron and Ginny, as well as interaction and friction between the Malfoys. Also, how Harry and Cho Chang react to one another, after the events of the previous school year and the summer. One thing that cannot be ignored: He Who Must Not Be Named is coming.

Chapter 02

Posted:: 11/30/2001

Hits:: 1,605

Author's Note:: Once again an apology is in order, because it's been a long time between postings. Writing about Hogwarts has been something I felt I had to be very careful about. Then, along comes the movie, to create more influence. Like most of us, I've tried to take some impressions from it, while keeping my own ideas intact. Big thanks, as always go to Lazymeoo7, for his support, from the reminders that it's been a long time and maybe...to beta reading, and offering suggestions. Don't forget to check his fiction on Riddikulus and the Dark Arts, and his site, (I did the Harry pic that's in the banner!). Thanks also to the people who have been mailing and talking to me online, who have read this. It's always fun!

Ready or Not (Here I - Come!)

"One...two... three...four...five... Six...seven...eight...nine...ten!

Olly, olly, oxen free... ready or not, here I come!"

Chapter Two - "Smooth Start"

Harry didn't know why he felt so uneasy at the sight of Cho and the group from Ravenclaw. He hadn't spoken to Cho alone at the end of the last term, but the memory of her sadness over Cedric's death was still clear. Both the group from Ravenclaw and the group from Gryffindor stood silently for a moment, and Harry wasn't sure he imagined the slight movement of his friends toward him, and Cho's toward her. Before the silence became uncomfortable, Cho spoke up.

"Harry, could I speak to you for a moment?" She looked pointedly at her friends, and added firmly, "Alone."

Harry tried not to gulp visibly, and told Ron and the other two he'd see them in a few moments. When he and Cho were alone in the hall, they both spoke at the same time. "How was your summer?" he asked, as Cho said, "Hear you were able to get away from your muggle relatives this summer." He grinned selfconsciously, and answered, "Seems word gets out about what happens to me before it even happens. I get so sick of it." Then he reddened and corrected himself, "I didn't mean you, er, it just feels awful to know you're watched constantly. Guess I should be used to it by now."

To his surprise, she laid her hand on his arm and said in a gentle voice, "It's okay Harry. After this summer, I can easily see how you'd feel. I did care a lot about Cedric and we had some wonderful times together. But everyone treated me like a widow this summer, even my parents. I guess they forgot, before.... what happened, they had been constantly owling me not to take the relationship seriously, and that I was too young."

"I guess it's rough to have parents being protective all the time. Of course, I wouldn't know." As usual, he attempted to sound offhand and casual when saying something like this, but it was difficult to keep bitterness and sadness from his voice. Then he remembered the night he had looked up at the stars, being thankful for the friends he had now, and to his surprise he saw Cho had now reddened in embarrassment at having reminded him of his lack of parents. "Aw, forget it, Cho. Things really have been good for me this summer. My best friends' families have become like families to me and, well, Hermione Granger and I have become, um, really close friends."

He knew it had to be his imagination, but he thought he saw disappointment and something he couldn't really define cross Cho's face, but it was gone so quickly, he couldn't be sure. She only said quietly, "That's great Harry, I'm happy for you. I think things will be much better for me, too, now that we're back at school." Then she broke into a grin that looked more like the Cho he remembered, and added, "Guess we'll be seeing each other on the quidditch field before long. Are you ready for some competition?"

"You bet!" he said, and had to admit, he could now remember why he'd gotten that lurch in his stomach. Cho was awfully pretty. Just then, as luck would have it, ( his anyway!) around the corner came Danielle and Hermione, giggling over something Dani's krup had done. In spite of himself, he felt his ears getting warm, though he couldn't understand why. Hadn't he made it clear he and Hermione were together?

"Hi, Cho, hey Harry," Hermione said, breathlessly. "Dani's passed her krup test, but oh, Professor McGonagall looked so funny! She wasn't expecting some of the krups to already be so well trained, and know so many tricks. The testing turned out to be more like a circus show! Oh, Dani, this is Cho Chang, she's in Ravenclaw, a sixth year and another great seeker. Cho, this is our friend Danielle...you saw her being sorted, I guess. She's here from France for a year."

As usual, Harry wondered where Hermione got enough breath to say so much, so fast. He wouldn't have minded if she'd gone a bit more slowly, and given him time to feel less embarrassed. Cho, however, replied cordially, and seemed happy to see Hermione, although he didn't remember ever seeing them talk before. He knew Hermione had felt badly for the other girl. She had told him this summer, after the change in their own relationship, that she felt even worse for Cho, and couldn't begin to imagine losing him. It was funny, the friendship between them had made it a lot easier to express their feelings for each other. He couldn't even imagine telling some girl he didn't know well how he was feeling. He had to admit, it was also nice that Hermione knew him so well, sometimes he didn't have to say anything.

They told Cho goodnight and almost immediately, her group of friends seemed to pop out of the air. Obviously they'd been waiting around a corner, in case the evil Harry Potter went into an attack mode! But Cho didn't seem to feel that way.

He decided he'd better turn his mind back to his own friends, and asked Danielle whether her krup had done anything unusual. By the time they reached the portrait hole ( "peppermint toads," Hermione said, proving that having a friend who was a prefect was very helpful) Harry's mind had left Cho, and he was wondering whether he and Hermione would be able to manage a moment alone. He saw Ron sitting with a group of students from their year, and wondered what had happened to Adrian. Looking around, he grinned as he spotted an unlikely group. Adrian was with Fred, George and a couple of others he recognized as major quidditch obsessed. That wasn't surprising, but what made him want to laugh aloud was Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil, hovering and doing their best to look as if they were interested in the quidditch talk. Any fool could tell though, they were only there to catch Adrian's attention. Ginny didn't look too thrilled to have their company, but on the other hand, she also was sitting very close to Adrian, and he seemed happy with that.

Ron also seemed pretty pleased, since Danielle had managed to somehow slide into the chair he was sitting in, making it difficult to tell who ended where. He moved in their direction, but Hermione pulled him back.

"Wait a couple of minutes, Harry, come over here." She led him over behind a couple of chairs and sank down on the rug, patting a spot beside her. "We haven't been alone for a moment all day! It was going to be Fred or George pulling you over to talk quidditch any minute, not that I mind, but...."

"Slow down, I know you want to hear what Cho said, and it's okay. I was sort of afraid she was gonna blast me with some hex. But she really seemed, er, ready to move on. I mean she was real friendly."

Hermione seemed to be having some kind of inner struggle, she chewed her lip a moment then burst out, "How friendly? Oh , don't look at me that way, Harry! You don't think I noticed the way you looked every time Cho was around last year? I wanted to go slap her when she turned you down for the Yule Ball!"

"But Hermione, you were already going with Viktor Krum...if I'd asked you, you'd have turned me down for the same reason," Harry said, trying to use a reasonable voice. If anyone had told him Hermione had felt that way last year, he'd have been half way between thinking they'd lost their minds, and being totally embarrassed. Now, however, he just felt really warm, and wanted.

"You think I wouldn't have gotten out of it, if you'd asked me?" Hermione retorted. "We-ell, maybe not, but I'd have wanted to! And all you did at the Yule Ball was stare at Cho and look furious!"

"Meanwhile , Ron stares at you and looks furious. Ah, Hermione we've made a lot of changes in less than a year. Wonder what'll be next?"

"How about this?" she replied, and snuggled closer to him, making a few kisses absolutely unavoidable. Finally they broke apart, but Harry reached back over and pulled her face close

"So you want to hear how I reacted to Cho's "friendliness"?" he asked. She nodded, and he continued "I.....told.....her.... Hermione.......Granger....... and....... I......are...very, very close." Harry placed a kiss on some part of her face between each word and ended by pulling her into his lap. A very pleasant few minutes passed, before Hermione began to wiggle away.

"Oh, why did I ever agree to be a prefect," she groaned. "I have to set an example and get everyone to bed."

"Come and tuck me in?" he asked, hopefully, and they both laughed as they got to their feet. "Hey, Hermione, it's pretty strange isn't it? Your parents are right here at Hogwarts, we could even use the invisibility cloak and go visit them."

"Nice try, Potter, but I'm not buying it. My parents' house is the last place you'd take me!"

"Not quite, you're forgetting the Slytherins dungeon," Harry said, trying to hold in a huge yawn, as people began to straggle up the stairs. After giving Hermione a final sleepy kiss, he made his way up to the dorm room, finding Adrian's bed had been placed in their room, and it didn't seem any more crowded. Apparently, someone, perhaps Ivy, had been enlarging the room, he thought, saying a sleepy goodnight and falling asleep instantly.

___________________

The next morning at breakfast, they found Hermione, as usual, poring over a course schedule. "We don't have Potions until the end of the week, again," she said cheerfully. "It's Herbology and then Charms this morning."

"Oh, no," Ron groaned, pulling a bowl of porridge toward him with one hand and grabbing bacon with the other. "Double divination this afternoon! Harry, get ready for Trelawney to have the reasons why you weren't killed in the tournament. She'll have her own set of answers, no doubt."

Hermione sniffed, and started on a doughnut. When she had chewed several bites, she told them if they'd had any sense, they'd have switched to something useful like Arithmancy last year, when they had their chance. Her eyes widened in surprise when Harry shook his head.

"No, I am going to get something useful out of divination this year. Somehow, or other I am going to get Trelawney back into a trance and find out what she saw at the end of the third year. I didn't have an exam with her last year, remember?" He chewed thoughtfully on a piece of toast, then went on. "It'll be awful, but Ron, you've gotta help me find a way to stay behind alone with the old bat. Adrian, are you in there with us?"

"No," the blonde boy said. " My mother was never interested in divination, and you might say she steered me away from the subject. But Dani is, aren't you, Dani?"

She sighed, and said, "Yes, unfortunately, but I think I will hate it here. We had so much fun in Divination at Beauxbatons, our professor was very young, and she was always looking into her crystal ball to see who she would have for a boyfriend next. And we practiced on things like what we'd be getting for Christmas, and who would win the next quidditch match."

"You won't be doing any practical things like that here," Ron told her, and asked with a smirk, "Did you ever try that boyfriend thing and see any red hair? No, tell me later, I can see Harry's in one of those moods."

Harry scowled, but then laughed, realizing he had taken their breakfast conversation into more serious waters than he'd planned. "All I want you and Dani to do is hide, and listen. Especially you, Dani, because you haven't been here before and even Snape can't say anything against you. If Trelawney spills anything about Wormtail, or Voldemort, we can go straight to Dumbledore!"

"Can't we wait a day or two, before we begin solving another mystery? We haven't gotten to do any magic all summer!" Hermione had a distinctly whining edge to her voice that Harry hadn't heard too many times, so he decided to wait and talk to Ron later. He wasn't going to give up on the idea though. They'd had to put up with enough of Trelawney's useless classes. If he could get something out of her that would help Sirius, or make Fudge have to admit Voldemort was on the rise, he sure was going to give it a try!

They made their way down to the greenhouses through the damp grass, and heard some very odd sounds coming from the vicinity of Hagrid's hut. He and Hermione exchanged raised eyebrow-ed looks, and Ron raised his voice, talking to Adrian and Dani about the Bubotuber pus they'd had to catch the year before, with its odor of petroleum. Seamus heard him and joined in, reminding them about the boils on his face, that had been healed by the diluted pus. When they reached the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was waiting and directed them into greenhouse four.

"We'll be working with some seedlings of the Hard Edged Silvericus plant today. When it's full grown, parts of this plant can be used in swords and knives, to provide extra protection. You'll all need your dragonhide gloves at each class, since even the tiniest sliver can cause a problem. Now, stand far back, I am going to trim a full grown plant- and don't come forward to take your seedling until I am sure it's stabilized."

They had a busy and entertaining class since there were some splinters that loosened themselves while Professor Sprout was dividing the adult plant into seedlings. It was quite a job, gathering up the wriggling splinters, but worthwhile, since she called them all back together at the end of class when they had potted their own seedlings, and put the splinters together to form a knife that she demonstrated for them. It was amazing, Harry thought. The knife couldn't have been longer than a toothpick, but seemed to have the strength of a sword. After watching it slice through glass, leather and a thick piece of wood, everyone looked at their seedling with more respect. She laid it down on a table, and had Dean try to sneak up to the table and pick it up. This didn't work though. He hadn't gotten close at all when the tiny object was dancing around the table, and Dean jumped back in alarm.

"Foldifica silvericus," Professor Sprout yelped, and the knife fell down on the table, folded in on itself, then rolled into a small ball of metal. When they had calmed down, she assigned them a few chapters of reading on famous self - launching knives and swords, and they left for the castle. Adrian was very excited at the idea of the plants, and it turned out he was quite experienced in fencing. Ron wasn't familiar with this muggle sport, and it took well into the charms classroom to make him understand what they were doing. He kept saying, "And you do this without magic? Wicked!"

When Professor Flitwick came in, it was hard to tell who stared the hardest, Dani and Adrian at their new teacher, or Flitwick at Adrian. Harry knew they'd seen each other the night before, but it had been crowded and dark. He didn't think much about it anymore, but supposed the tiny Charms professor did make an odd sight, climbing on the books to speak to the class. And remembering his and Hermione's reactions after seeing a glimpse of Adrian, he could see why Flitwick did a double take. Adrian did strongly resemble Draco Malfoy, or vice versa.

Once he had recovered, Flitwick told them they were going to start the year with a fun charm that they might find useful for special occasions, a weather changing charm. Everyone stared, but Professor Flitwick quickly made it clear the spell would only work for small areas, and couldn't be used to hurt anyone, as in killer storms. Ron muttered that he reckoned the Slytherins would find a way past that, at which they all nodded. After taking notes and learning some of the words for doing the charms, as well as reversing them, Professor Flitwick took them out on the grounds. They watched in delight as he caused a snowstorm to swirl around them. Not just any snowstorm though. This one included rainbow snow, and even a small frozen pond that gleamed and changed colors like a muggle hologram Harry had once seen. The lesson ended with each of them being given a huge cup of the snow that Flitwick flavored to their request .

They were heading back to the castle, chattering happily, when Harry spotted two students talking under one of the arches. He couldn't imagine what they'd have in common, but it was certainly Cho and Damien, very deeply immersed in some conversation. He couldn't see Cho's face very well, but Damien looked, well, smug. There was no other word for it. The worst of it was, he didn't trust the guy and never had, but he was fairly sure Ron or Hermione would see it as jealousy. It wasn't as if he and Cho were even friends, Harry told himself. There was no reason he had to protect the whole world, he argued in his head, he'd just concentrate on his schoolwork and his own friends. This year, trouble could just find someone else!

Author notes: who does Harry think he's kidding? Harry Potter look the other way when there's danger or mystery? We'll soon see.