Complicated Wishes, Confusing Jealousy

- Chapter Three -

Professor Jaroslav Krum

The first day of classes passed by uneventfully for most of the Gryffindors. To Harry's great relief, Ron and Hermione had forgotten about their argument over Viktor and were being quite friendly once again. Hermione had to endure herself through a double lesson of her NEWT Potions class, ignoring Draco Malfoy who shouted insults at her from across the room. Ron moaned and slept all the way through History of Magic, and Harry seemed decidedly interested in reading the Daily Prophet at every spare moment.

"Why is he being so quiet?" he asked abruptly over breakfast the next morning, causing several people around them to look at him strangely.

"Who's being so quiet?" Ron asked thickly through a mouthful of porridge. Hermione shot him a small, disgusted look, before turning back to Harry.

"Voldemort!" Harry exclaimed, causing several flinches from the people surrounding him. "We haven't heard anything from him since the Daily Prophet finally reported he was back! Don't you find that strange?"

"Harry, he's using stealth," Hermione said rather simply with a small shrug. "He's not about to walk into Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade or any other public place and yell out that he's going after so-and-so next, is he? He's trying to keep it all as quiet as possible, even though everyone knows he's back now."

"Yes, I understand that, Hermione," Harry said, looking back down at the paper in front of him and skipping through a few pages, "but wouldn't you think he'd have at least killed someone, or tortured someone, or possessed someone by now?"

"Not necessarily," Hermione said with a small shake of her head. "We don't know what it was like when he was around last time. Maybe this is some sort of original plan of his. Maybe this is the way he was in the beginning last time."

"No one knew of him at the beginning last time, Hermione!" Harry said incredulously. "It was like his ... debut last time. No one knew of him until he showed his real, true power, gathering followers in the meantime!"

"Well, yes, I guess you're right," Hermione said weakly, rather alarmed. "But, I'm sure this is all some sort of plan of his. He's probably waiting for the right time to strike, or proposing some complicated plan for when he does." She gave Harry a small smile. "Whatever he's up to, though, Harry, there's a guaranteed chance that the Order have some idea of it."

Harry nodded, though he was still greatly unsure.

He folded the paper back up and stood up with Ron and Hermione when they had finished their breakfast and was just leaving the Hall with them when someone called out his name as they ran up behind him from the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey Harry!"

Harry turned to come face to face with Anthony Goldstein.

"Hi," Anthony said to the three of them. "Harry, we - Michael, Terry and me - were just wondering whether the DA was going to be reformed this year?"

"Well - er - I've been thinking about it, yes," Harry said with a nod at Anthony. "I'm not entirely sure as yet, though."

"Well, we were kind of hoping that it would run," Anthony said. "It was loads of fun last year and it wouldn't be bad to learn some more Defence. Have you had Krum, yet?"

"No," Ron said. "We've got him this afternoon. You?"

"Had him for single yesterday," Anthony replied. "Really odd bloke if you ask me and he's quite hard to understand; English isn't superb. He's definitely better than Umbridge, though. At least he's guaranteeing some spell work!"

"Well, that's good," Ron said. "I'd hate to go through another year of nothing but theory."

Harry, Hermione and Anthony gave small signs of agreement.

Anthony turned back to Harry. "Well, anyway, Harry, let us all know when you've come to a decision about the DA, will you?" And he walked away back towards the Ravenclaw table.

Hermione turned to Harry as they started across the Entrance Hall to the marble staircase and began climbing towards their Transfiguration class. "You know, I honestly don't think it would be a good idea for the DA to reform this year, Harry," she said. "So many more people know about it, and now that the Ministry of Magic has confirmed your story about Voldemort - cut the whimpering, Ron! - returning, a lot more people are going to want to have more Defence training. I highly doubt you will be able to teach them all more on your own and there may very well not be enough room in the Room of Requirement for all the new people."

"Who says Harry's going to even let more people in, Hermione?" Ron asked, looking at her. "He'd have to teach all last year's stuff all over again because of all the new members not knowing any of it. And I'd hate to see some slimy Slytherin ruin it for us."

Harry looked doubtful. "How can we reform, then?" he asked. "If all these new people want to be members? We can't just turn around to every second one and say 'Oh, I'm sorry but you're not allowed in!'"

"We could always set a kind of ...deadline," Hermione suggested after a moment, realising just how much Harry wanted to reform. "Fifty members at the most, including all the original members. No members under fifth year - Dennis Creevey being an exception, of course, as he's an original member, and -"

"No Slytherins," Ron said hopefully.

"We can't do that, Ron," Hermione snapped. "That would be discriminatory. And besides, who says any of the Slytherins will even want to join a group run by Harry?"

"Malfoy would just to annoy us," Ron stated, glowering.

"Fine," Hermione sighed finally. "We'll put notices up in the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff common rooms and hope that the Slytherins never find out. But, this time, we're going to Dumbledore for permission. That way there's no possibility we'll get into trouble."

They came to a halt outside the Transfiguration classroom. Harry looked at Hermione, his expression still as doubtful as before. "Yes, that seems all good, Hermione," Harry said, "but I don't think I can teach fifty people on my own and there isn't much else that I really know. We've covered Stunning, blocking, Patronuses and all that. What else am I supposed to teach?"

Hermione considered it for a moment. "Well, there are quite a lot more advanced hexes and jinxes and curses in those books in the Room of Requirement. I'm sure we can find something to teach in them and I'm sure it's possible for us to learn while we're teaching..." An expression of deep thought came over her face. "I'll go to the Room of Requirement today after classes and grab a few books from there to look through. We can also check the library. And, Harry, you do have that book Sirius gave you for Christmas last year..."

Harry stiffened at the sound of Sirius's name exiting Hermione's lips and moved uncomfortably. The loss of his godfather still held a horribly weight inside Harry and the emotions that rose at every mere mention of him made it increase terribly. He tried to ignore it.

"What about my teaching-fifty-students-on-my-own problem?" Harry asked after a moment, pushing his thoughts of Sirius from his mind.

"Ron and I will help you, of course," Hermione said promptly. Ron nodded, but Harry was still unsure.

"And where does Krum come into this?" he asked. "Who says he'll allow it?"

"I'm sure Professor Krum will understand that this is like a homework group," Hermione said reassuringly. She seemed to have quickly grown to accept the idea of Dumbledore's Army reforming. "It's not as though we're planning to take over his classes or anything. We're just ... working together to prepare ourselves for the Dark future."

The door into McGonagall's classroom opened at that moment and put an end to their conversation. They filed in with their classmates, Harry feeling much happier and reassured then he had at the beginning of the discussion.

A few of the Gryffindors were feeling slightly anxious during morning break. Their first lesson with Professor Krum was straight after and none of them really had any clue of how they should act in his classes. They had heard from five Ravenclaws and three Hufflepuffs that he was very odd and that his classes weren't as dreadful as Umbridge's, but that didn't really give them any real idea.

"Oh, I hope we learn something really interesting," Hermione, the most anxious of the lot of them, said as they headed down the third floor corridor towards the classroom.

"I just hope 'interesting' doesn't include reading chapters of Defensive Magical Theory when we could be practicing important spell work," Harry said, while Neville and Ron nodded in agreement.

"Well, the book he set is full of curses and charms," Hermione said, "so he must be planning on having some practical lessons."

They reached the classroom to find the door standing open and they all, as one, fell silent. They quietly filed in to find the room extremely and eerily dark. Thick black curtains were drawn over the ceiling-high windows and not a single light was on. Towards the back of the room, Parvati and Lavender were already seated, gazing around at the darkness surrounding them with curious expressions on their shadowed faces.

Harry, Ron and Hermione each took seats in the centre of the room, the silence surrounding them causing a slight chill to run down Hermione's back and she shivered slightly.

Around them, the seats were slowly filled and there was still no sign of Professor Krum, though it was possible that he was sitting among them, unseen due to the dull blackness that filled the entire room. After a few moments, many students jumped as they heard the click of the door closing and they looked around wildly. One by one, candles placed in only the corners of the room flickered to life with flame, sending four spots of dull light towards them. A moments silence followed, until another, single candle lit near the front, identifying Professor Krum, who sat at his desk, gazing around at them through his dark eyes.

He slowly stood and walked around his desk to face them, showing his tall figure. When he spoke, his words came out in a rich Bulgarian accent, causing Hermione's to give another shiver.

"Velcome to your first sixth year Defence Against the Dark Arts class," he said. "This year, ve vill be studying some of the more Darker aspects of Defence. I vill be going over some of last year's curriculum, which I believe you vere never taught with Professor Umbridge."

There was a small murmur amongst the class at this piece of information.

"The spells and curses you vill be learning are quite advanced and I, as vell as Professor Dumbledore, vill be very surprised if you master them all by the end of the year," Krum continued as the class regained its silence. "Your single lessons vill be dedicated to theory, vile your double lessons vill contain the practical aspects of your vork. I haff great confidence in you all and expect you all to put in your greatest effort in all your tasks.

"The first task I am setting you is the very advanced, but extremely valuable Patronus Charm," Krum continued. There was another small murmur in the class, most of whom had already attempted producing Patronuses in the DA, but they all seemed quite happy to learn it all over again. "Ve vill start today vith the theory and hopefully ve can practice the Charm during our double lesson on Friday."

For the rest of the lesson, the classroom was filled with the sound of scratching quills on parchment and the occasional whisper. They each copied down notes from the blackboard, filling almost three feet of parchment with writing. No one complained and, after a full hour, they left the classroom together, feeling that this year's Defence Against the Dark Arts class couldn't possibly be as terrible as the last.

Hermione was just heading out of the room with Harry and Ron by her side when Professor Krum's deep voice carried across the room.

"Miss Granger, vould you please stay behind for a moment?" he asked.

Hermione looked at Harry, avoiding Ron's eye. "Tell Professor Flitwick I might be slightly late," she said and she turned and headed back into the room, feeling rather nervous about standing in a room alone with Viktor's father.

Krum studied her for a moment before speaking. "I haff heard quite a lot about you from Viktor, Miss Granger," he said calmly, as he pulled a parchment envelope from his black dragonhide briefcase. He gave the left arm of his robes a slight twitch as he handed over the envelope.

Hermione, frowning slightly, politely took it from him and looked carefully at it. Scrawled messily across the top in Viktor's familiar handwriting was her name.

Krum was watching her closely. "He seems to be highly fond of you," he stated with the shadow of a smile. "He has even arranged to come here to Hogvarts over Christmas. He appears excited to see you again."

Hermione looked up from the envelope quickly. Had she heard correctly? Viktor was coming to Hogwarts for Christmas? Hermione's stomach gave an unpleasant turn at the thought. For some reason, she wasn't really looking forward to seeing Viktor again.

An image of what Ron might look like if he saw Viktor Krum entering the castle filled her mind and her stomach gave another unpleasant flip. She wasn't looking forward to seeing Viktor again at all...

"Before you leave to head to your next class, Miss Granger, I vould like to thank-you," Professor Krum said, gesturing to the room around them. "If it vasn't for your contact vith Viktor, I vould never haff known about the job of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher being vacant and I vould never haff applied or gotten it. Thank-you."

Hermione worked her face into a smile and bade a small good-bye before exiting the room. Reaching the deserted corridor, she broke into a fast walk, Viktor's letter still clutched in her hand. She reached the Charms classroom and quickly placed the letter in her bag before entering the classroom.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor," she said to tiny Professor Flitwick as she took a seat beside Ron. "Professor Krum wanted to discuss something with me."

Professor Flitwick gave a tiny nod. "Of course, of course," he squeaked before heading away.

Ron turned to Hermione. "What did Krum want?" he asked.

"Oh, he just gave me a letter from Viktor," Hermione said slowly, again avoiding his eyes as her cheeks turned a light pink. "I'll tell you the rest over lunch."

Ron gave her a slightly quizzical look before turning back to the mouse he was supposed to be Freezing, but instead it was running madly around in a rapid circle on the table as it changed from white to bright orange and back again. The class was much too eventful for him to ask any more questions for her to answer.

After many colour changes and temper-rising mistakes, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed out into the corridor filled with hungry students heading down to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron kept casting sideways looks at Hermione, but Hermione, quite aware of this, ignored it and walked silently beside Harry.

As they headed down the staircase into the Entrance Hall, Ron gave a sigh. "So, Hermione, are you going to tell us what else Krum said?" he asked.

Before Hermione could answer, however, Harry gave a groan, causing both her and Ron to look at him. They saw him staring at something ahead of them and followed his line of vision.

Cho Chang was struggling through the crowd of people, casting occasional glances at them as she came closer. She stopped in front of them, her cheeks pink. She gave Harry a smile and moved awkwardly on the spot.

"Hi Harry, I've been meaning to let you know that I'm sorry about your loss of Sirius Black," she said. A small amount of tears seemed to have surfaced in her eyes as she said this. "I only found out yesterday that he was actually your godfather (Luna Lovegood told me) and I know exactly how you must feel. After all, I lost Cedric."

Harry gave her a forced smile as her tears became more evident. "Gee, thanks Cho," he said awkwardly.

Cho gave him another, very weak smile before running away, tears now spilling down her cheeks.

"She still isn't over Diggory then," Ron muttered. He looked at Harry, who was watching the spot she had disappeared with a blank expression on his face. "Come on," Ron said, "I'm starving." He lead the rest of the way down the stairs and entered the Great Hall with a hungry expression on his face as the smells of the lunch dishes reached his nostrils.

They each took seats across from Dean, Seamus, Neville and Ginny at the Gryffindor table and were about to start dishing food onto their plates when a vague voice sounded behind them.

"Gravies can contain different varieties of Hair-Sprouting Potions, you know."

The three of them looked around to see a dreamy-looking girl of around fifteen years of age with long, straggly dirty-blonde hair; her rather protuberant eyes were staring blankly at Ron.

"Hello, Luna," Hermione said as politely as she possibly could. "Did you and your dad end up catching a Crumple-Horned Snorkack over the summer?"

Luna looked at Hermione. "No, unfortunately," she said, "but Daddy thought he saw a Bibbering Humdinger on the way to the toilet the night before we came back."

Hermione seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before smiling. Luna turned back to Harry.

"I was wondering whether you were going to run the DA again this year?" she asked dreamily, casting a quick glance in Ron's direction.

"I - er - was thinking about it, yes," Harry said. "Ron, Hermione and I just have to organise the new - er - conditions before I know for sure. I'll tell you when I do."

Luna gave a small nod, said, "Good-bye, then", and walked back to her place at the Ravenclaw table.

Ron looked back towards Hermione, who had pulled Viktor's letter out of her bag and was now in the middle of reading it. It was rather short, being a mere three paragraphs long, but the moment Hermione had started reading it, she knew it held no help or support about what she should do about her wish. In fact, the subject of her wanting to be kissed before her sixteenth birthday wasn't mentioned once as it seemed all Viktor could talk about was his coming to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas festive.

She folded the letter back up with a small, disappointed sigh when she had finished and placed it back in her bag.

"So, what does Vicky have to say?" Ron asked, as Hermione started eating the small amount of lamb casserole on her plate.

Hermione didn't look up at him as she replied. "He's coming to Hogwarts over Christmas," she said shortly.

Ron choked loudly on his pumpkin juice. "Krum's coming here - -He's coming back to Hogwarts?" he spattered, looking horrorstruck.

Hermione looked up at him and nodded rather grimly. "That's right," she said simply. Ron stared at her with an odd expression, causing Hermione to frown and look at him questioningly. "Do you have a problem with that, Ron?"

It was obvious that he did. He mouthed wordlessly in an uncomfortable sort of way as though he didn't know how to reply and looked at her with that same odd expression that caused a strange and rather fluttery sensation to take place in Hermione's stomach. Eventually, however, he looked back down at his plate.

"There goes seeing you over Christmas, then," he muttered finally, feeling a strong surge of hatred towards Viktor Krum flood through him.

Hermione, who had just taken a mouthful of casserole, swallowed thickly and painfully and looked up at him again. "What - What is that supposed to mean?" she asked indignantly.

Ron hadn't expected her to hear him. "Well," he said uneasily, casting a cautious look at Harry, who was watching the scene with slumped shoulders and a rather bored expression on his face. "Well," Ron started again, "you're going to want to catch up with each other, aren't you? You haven't seen each other in about a year and we all know how he feels about you -"

"So you're just assuming that Viktor still thinks I'm the most amazing girl he's met, are you?" Hermione asked irritably, her brown eyes narrowed and flashing with anger. "How do you know that he hasn't moved on and met some pretty girl in Bulgaria?"

"I've seen how long those letters you send each other are!" Ron stated in a vexatious manner. "You can call him you're friend, or pen-pal all you like, Hermione, but you and I both know differently. Harry and I are your best friends and never once have we received letters that long from you!"

"So you're judging Viktor and my relationship by the length of letters?" Hermione asked incredulously, her cheeks going pink with anger. "Well, that just proves exactly how stupid and pathetic you can be, Ron! Viktor and I are no more than friends and never have been! I told you that a mere couple of days ago and yet it went in one ear and out the other, just like everything else that passes by your pea-sized brain!"

"You can't deny that he likes you more than just a friend, Hermione!" Ron said angrily. His ears were bright red and he was highly oblivious of everything going on around him except for Hermione and the argument taking place between them. "He said in our fourth year that -"

"We're already aware of what he said, Ron, but that was almost two years ago!" Hermione said, her eyes were beginning to fill with angry and upset tears and her face was extremely pink. As she continued, her voice was slightly shaky and in a tone much quieter than the one she had previously used. "I really don't know what your problem is Ron. All this rivalry between you and me over the tiny subject of Viktor is ridiculous. I want you to understand that I never, ever felt the same way towards him. I always felt that way towards - towards someone else."

Ron stared at her, thunderstruck. A strange feeling swept over him and he was struck with a feeling of curiosity. "Who?" he asked quietly, not knowing if he really wanted her to share this information.

Hermione shook her head quickly and her face, if possible, turned even redder. "I can't tell you," she said shortly, looking away from him and suddenly becoming interested in the shape of a jug holding pumpkin juice. "It's my personal business and you just happen to be ... very close to him."

When she looked up to meet his eyes again, she immediately knew that this had been the wrong thing to say to Ron. He jumped to his feet abruptly, looking quickly from Hermione to Harry and back again, his mouth agape.

"You liked - You liked HARRY?" he gasped loudly in shock, startling several people nearby.

Hermione jumped to her feet as well, looking greatly alarmed. "I never said - You're just assuming - I didn't -" She paused a moment, gathering herself together. It wasn't common for her to stammer like that. "I did not like Harry in that way at all, Ron! You just assumed that it was him, when it really wasn't!"

"But you said I was close to them!" Ron pointed out indignantly.

"Yes, I did, but that didn't automatically mean that I meant Harry!" Hermione said irritably. "It could've been anyone! It could've been Fred, or George, or Neville, or ... or YOU!"

Ron gaped at her in shock, while she looked at him rather accusingly for a moment before shaking her head to herself with a frown, gathered up her things and walked away and out of the Great Hall, several curious eyes following her process.

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