Puzzle to a Frozen Heart

Chapter 17

( Forte, Brad Forte )

"Harry," Hermione whispered, abruptly surprised at the utter look of disgust on her Jedi Wizard's face. It wasn't directed to her, however.

"Aren't you a little far from the Great Hall, Forte?" Harry asked coolly.

"Wait, how do you two know each other?" Hermione interrupted, suddenly very curious.

"I guess I should ask you the same question," Harry replied, glancing from Brad to Hermione.

"Well, I really should go now. Oh, and 'Ermione?" Fleur called her.

"What is it?"

"Professor Snoopy asked me to tell you 'zat 'e is already waiting for you in 'ze Great 'All, approximately 25 minutes ago; my bad. You should 'ave known 'zough." In an instant, Fleur was out of sight, leaving a puzzled Hermione with a very mad Harry and a clueless Brad.

"Professor Snoopy? Who the he..." Hermione snapped out of her reverie as her eyes widened. She was late for the feast! She would find out who professor Snoopy was later. "Oh no! We're late! Come on Harry. I'll see you later Brad!" Hermione grabbed Harry's arm as she waved at Brad and made a dash towards the Great Hall. Suffice to say, it was a very interesting feast that took place that night.

****

Hermione blinked as sunlight reached her eyelids. It was morning already and she felt like she hadn't had an ounce of sleep.

"Oh well, time to greet another day," she murmured to herself, getting out of bed in the process.

Yesterday had not been a very good day and today did not promise to be any better.

On her way to the shower, she caught glimpse of Harry, who was still sleeping. Honestly, if she didn't know any better, she'd say that the only time when he was peaceful was when he was sleeping. And she didn't know any better.

Her thoughts wandered to the welcoming feast: Ron giving her nasty glares, Harry not speaking to her, and Brad waving at her from the Slytherin table; fact which got Harry to show him his middle finger proudly whenever the greeting took place. They obviously knew each other, but were not on friendly terms; at least not on Harry's behalf. In spite of this, Brad was the bright spot on the feast, which didn't go as planned. It rained madly, so the first years arrived positively soaked and a lot of them fell flat on their face upon entering the Great Hall and, to make matters worse, she had forgotten her Head Girl speech and started stammering, (the nerve! After practicing all summer!) so Harry had to give the speech for her. No, things couldn't possibly get any worse.

Suddenly, Harry stirred and opened his eyes, revealing a starring Hermione, who immediately looked away.

"Already up?" he asked sleepily, his tone cold. Yep, she had been wrong again.

"Mind your business," she snapped, heading towards her original destination. After fifteen minutes, she emerged fully dressed in her Head Girl robes, only to find herself face to face with Harry.

"Where are you going at 6:00 a/m? Classes don't start for another two hours and it's still an hour until breakfast."

"What do you care?" she spat, putting up her defensive shield again.

"I'm your Jedi Wizard, all the students are back, have to protect you, Voldemort wants you dead... Need I go on?"

"I see," she whispered, hurt. He had already frozen his heart again and she was back to being JUST his charge. "For your information, I'm going to the library and this chit chat is taking away my precious reading time, so do you mind?"

"Oh, sorry." Hermione could have sworn there was sarcasm in his voice. "Go right ahead then, just give me five minutes to dress."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you can't expect me to go to the library in my boxers, can you?" Harry said, staring at himself from up to down while Hermione's anger rose to the surface, again.

"No, I won't. Nobody invited you and, quite frankly, I don't want your company today. Good day." With this said, she grabbed her book bag and closed the door on his face.

"Crap!" he cursed, before grabbing his robe plus his invisibility cloak and heading after his charge.

****

He arrived exactly five minutes after Hermione had entered the library. He found her already seated, reading 'Hogwarts, A History', again, surprisingly. He took a seat at a table across from her, careful to not make any noise, because if Hermione found him 'spying at her' without her consent and in his invisibility cloak, she would probably hex him back to Dumstrang.

Suddenly, the door of the library opened and Brad Forte entered, wearing his Slytherin robes, which Harry thought were wasted on him. He caught sight of Hermione and went directly to her.

"Excuse me, may I sit here, that is, if the beautiful lady doesn't mind?" he asked, flashing her all his white teeth.

"Brad!" Hermione squealed, getting up and giving him a hug. He grabbed a chair and seated, in Harry's opinion, extremely close to her. "What are you doing up this early?"

"I knew for a fact that you would be here, so I came to join you. You never miss an opportunity to read and I never miss an opportunity to spend some time with you."

"Always the charmer, Brad. So, now that we're alone, would you care to tell me what are you really doing here?"

"To sneak his ass in other people's business," Harry muttered to himself.

"Boy, you don't miss a thing, do you?" Brad asked flirtatiously.

"I pride myself in that. So tell me, why come to Hogwarts, especially when you're so close to graduating from Dumstrang?"

"Well, I need a few classes to graduate and Hogwarts provides them. So, why not?" Hermione just gave him a playful glare. "Fine, fine. I really wanted to see you, 'Mione'. I haven't seen you in over three years and... with your parents' murder and all, I figured you could use all the support you could get."

"Oh Brad, you are the best friend a girl could ever get," Hermione said, tears welling up in her eyes as she reached for his embrace once more, which Brad provided without hesitating

"They have known each other for over three years! How the...? Harry began questioning, but stopped dead on his thoughts when he caught the scene unfolding across from him. Brad had just stopped the hug, reaching Hermione's shoulders again and giving her a neck massage. The nerve!

****

'Quidditch time, Quidditch time!' Oliver's alarm clock rang madly.

"5:00 a/m already?" A tired Oliver moaned, stretching in bed and finding an arm, which definitely did not belong to him, placed on his chest. "What the...?" he began to question, but nearly had a heart attack at the sight beside him.

It was Fleur! And she was sleeping very peacefully. Panic began to rise up within him. Had he slept with his charge? Oh, he would never hear the end of it if Master Yoda found out. What if Fleur told Hermione? And then Hermione would tell Harry and Harry would tell the Jedi Temple? His mind began to play the what if game, not knowing that Harry had done the same thing a couple of days ago.

Unexpectedly, Fleur began to stir and Oliver jumped from the bed. He ran for it, grabbing his sweat pants and t-shirt just as Fleur was opening her eyes.

"Oliver? Up so early?" she asked flirtatiously before watching Oliver exit the room like a speeding bullet. "Mm, 'e tends to do 'zat very often," she murmured to herself, returning to her beauty sleep right after her little observation.

****

"Then I talked to Master Yoda about a possible transfer to Hogwarts and so he told me they had already sent a Jedi Wizard. Of course, I asked who it was and they told me it was Potter, just because he's the only Jedi Wizard who graduated with a special concentration on Voldemort and his fighting techniques," Brad commented unenthusiastically. He and Hermione had been talking for the past 45 minutes, much to Harry's dismay. He was bored to death already and Brad showed no signs of shutting up.

"Is that so? Interesting. So, what is your concentration?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, Dark Arts."

"Dark Arts? Why would you concentrate on that?"

"Why not? They are fascinating."

"They are dangerous. Not to mention that Voldemort and the Deatheaters use them."

"Exactly. If they attack, I can beat them at their own turf."

"Well, I guess. So, changing the subject, what's the deal between you and Harry? I know he's mad at you for some reason."

"Well, it's kind of a long story."

"Try me."

"The thing is that we were roommates and I had a girlfriend. Well, to cut it short, I went to my room one night and found them fucking in my own bed. I think he's mad because I interrupted them."

Harry's eyes went as big as saucers when he heard Brad's last statement. He had the sudden urge to hurt him.

Well, why not? You're under the invisibility cloak. Accidents can happen.

Sure, and what if Hermione suspects something? She'll kill me!

Like that's going to stop you!

Yeah, you're right.

As soon as he finished the discussion with his mind, Harry started to make his way slowly to Brad's chair.

"He did what?! God! I can't believe Harry did that. What did you do?" Hermione asked Brad, outraged at Harry.

Harry was nearing Brad's chair, he extended his leg and...

"The only thing I could do, I.. Whoa!" Brad gasped as his went backwards, making him fall flat on his back.

"Brad! Are you okay?!" Hermione jumped out of her own chair and went to his side.

"I'm fine. Just a little shaken up," Brad answered gently, getting up and picking the chair. Upon inspection, it had a broken leg. "Wonder how that happened. Anyway, I got to run. I have a few errands to complete before classes." He lifted his book bag and gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later 'Mione'".

"Okay, bye," Hermione replied, grabbing her bag as well.

Harry almost sang the halleluiah chorus as he got up again, after forcing himself to hide a good laugh. He fixed his robe and made sure that his invisibility cloak was covering him. Then his thoughts shifted over to Brad.

One of these days, I'm going to give that asshole what he deserves.

Careful, Mione seems to be fond of him.

So? She won't be when he's six feet under the surface.

Boy, aren't we mad? Temper, temper.

Oh, shush! Who asked your opinion anyway?

He was so busy with his thoughts that he didn't see Hermione headed straight at him. Within seconds, a scream filled the room. Hermione had walked straight at Harry, causing the both of them to tumble down to the floor. As a result, Harry's cloak fell off and he became fully visible.

That can't be good.

Oh, come on, what's the worst she can do?

"Harry James Potter! What the hell are you doing here?!" she shrieked.

You were saying?

But he wasn't paying attention to her shrieks. Currently, he found himself fighting hard to keep his body under control. She had landed on top of him and, if she kept moving like that, she was going to wake little Harry. They were so close; he could feel her sweet breath on his face. He knew that he should say something quick, such as an excuse, but nothing was coming out of his mouth; his eyes transfixed by her lips.

Say something, anything! Whatever comes to mind, and snap out of it!

"Hi."