A Certain Amount of Sense

Chapter 6

“Pssst. Harry. Harry, wake up.”

Harry groaned and reached for his glasses. He had just been in the middle of a very nice dream starring Ginny Weasley in a pink genie costume and himself as…. Wait a minute. Was he still dreaming?

The very girl of his dreams (minus the pink costume) was kneeling on his bed and looking at him quite expectantly. Harry rubbed his eyes. Yup, she was still there. And she was starting to look at him quizzically. Oh god, he hoped she hadn’t noticed what was going on further south of his body. He gulped. In the meantime, quizzically had turned to peevishly. “Better make it good,” he thought to himself as he sat up, conveniently draping the extra fabric over certain, currently more noticeable parts of his anatomy.

“Ginny, what are you doing here?” Strange, his voice usually didn’t sound this high.

“Shhhh. Don’t wake anyone else up. I have something to show you.”

Harry didn’t know it was possible for even more blood to drain from his face. Or his brain.

“Uh.”

Ginny rolled her eyes.

“It’s about Hermione.” More silence. “Oh, forget it. I don’t even know why I bothered.”

Harry felt the mattress spring back up as Ginny climbed off and snuck out the room. He blinked twice in the darkness. Oh. Right. Hermione. Just as silently, he followed her out, making sure to take his wand with him.

“Ginny,” he stage whispered. She was already halfway up the stairs to the girl’s bedrooms, but she paused and turned around.

“What did you want to show me?” She held one finger to her lips and indicated that they should move to the Common Room, away from the sleeping chambers. They tiptoed over to the fireplace, where the last embers were dying. He figured he could have used his wand to illuminate the scroll she was holding out for him to read, but it was much nicer to have to scrunch up right next to her to be able to get enough light. All thoughts of romance disappeared, however, by the time he finished reading the note.

“Ginny, where did you get this?”

“I…I got it from a house elf. He was supposed to deliver it to her, but she was sleeping, and he was afraid she’d give him clothes, so I offered to deliver it for him. I wasn’t going to open it, only…I noticed the colors and the seal and…. And I thought maybe…. Oh Harry, you should have seen her! She was crying, and she was so scared. I’ve never seen her like that. Something truly awful must have happened.”

“But why didn’t you tell us after we sent you to check up on her? All you said was that she was tired and wanted to take a nap before her detention.”

“You know my brother, Harry. He would have made such a fuss. And I was afraid he’d go do something rash.” Harry mentally made note that she had, in spite of what she thought of Ron, chosen to share this information with him. Even in the middle of this precarious situation, something deep inside of him grew very warm.

“Um, right. Well what do you think this means?”

“Argh, who knows?” said Ginny, sounding exasperated. “The last few hours I’ve been imagining a million different scenarios in my head, but nothing makes sense.” She sat back, looking around as she thought. “So this is what we know for sure. Parvati told us that Hermione dropped something in Potions and got a detention from Snape. Do you remember what it was that she dropped?”

“She said it was ‘nay-tree-um’ or something like that.”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure what that is.”

“Me neither.”

“I wonder if that’s how she got cut….”

“What cut?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. When I saw her, she had a cut on her left hand. Well, I think it was a cut; it was all bandaged up already. But there was a lot of blood, Harry. I could smell it.”

This was very bad, thought Harry. A mysterious note from Snape, Hermione in hysterics, and blood. Very bad indeed.

“So then…something…how did he put it? Something ‘possibly damaging’ happened between Snape and Hermione after everyone left the classroom. And there was blood involved,” said Harry.

“Right. Something so bad that he’s kicking her out of his Potions class.”

“But not so bad that he’s not letting her finish the course by herself. And he even excused her from detention tonight.”

The two of them stared off into space as they both considered what could possibly make the Potions Master excuse someone from a detention. At the same time, they turned to each other and said, “He’s trying to avoid her!” Even their reactions were the same; they both blushed and drew back a little. Eventually, Harry tried to fill the awkward silence that followed.

“So why would he want to avoid her? Unless, you don’t think….”

“What, that he made a move on her? That he tried to kiss her?” Harry couldn’t help but notice that Ginny’s eyes had looked down at his lips for the briefest of moments as she said this before returning to his eyes. “No, I thought of that already, but I don’t think that’s what happened. This is Hermione we’re talking about. And Snape. He’d never do something like that. Plus, Hermione would just hex him six ways to Sunday if he had tried to do anything she didn’t want him to.”

Harry was about to agree when he suddenly heard footsteps. They both looked at each other and dashed to hide behind the couch. The steps were coming closer now, but rushed right past them and out the portrait hole.

“Did you see?” asked Ginny. Harry shook his head.

“They walked by too quickly. I don’t think they saw us, though. Probably just some seventh year sneaking off to the Astronomy Tower.” Harry was quiet for a moment. “Ginny, do you think we should tell Dumbledore about this? Or McGonagall?”

“No,” said Ginny, shaking her head emphatically. “I don’t want her to know we read her note.” She stifled a yawn. “I think…I think maybe we should just wait until tomorrow morning and ask her what happened. Without Ron, if possible.”

Harry nodded. She made to get up, but before she could, he touched her shoulder.

“Ginny, thanks for showing this to me. It means a lot that you trust me like this.”

“Well, you’re her best friend. I don’t know who else I could have told.”

Harry considered this a moment before he said, “Ginny, if you ever…. If you ever got into any kind of trouble, you know I’d be there for you, right?”

Her face softened, and she touched the hand on her shoulder.

“Oh Harry. Don’t you remember, you already saved me when I needed you most. Of course I know.” She smiled and dropped her hand. “Good night, Harry.”

“Good night, Ginny.”

They both crept up to their respective bedrooms, each harboring the bittersweet knowledge that while their dear friend was suffering, they were finding a reason to smile in their sleep.