Summer School

Chapter 4: To Be With My Friends

"I cannot believe you told him we would help, Hermione!" Ron was waving his hands around. "The worst excuse for a teacher asks you for help at figuring out Muggles and you just go right on and agree to it. Are you mental?"

They had the Gryffindor common room to themselves for the moment, and were using the opportunity to discuss matters out loud, rather than in the usual secretive whispers.

"You know he's not the worst excuse for a teacher, Ronald. Just because you don't get along with him doesn't mean he's a bad teacher."

"I suppose you get along with him alright, huh? That's why he's forever taking your head off, because you know the right answers and dare to tell him!" Ron yelled.

"Ronald Weasley, you are impossible! Of course we don't get along all of a sudden. But he is trying to do something to help Muggle-born students. Maybe that doesn't mean much to you, oh pure-blood highness, but some of us might have appreciated a little helpful background on the wizarding [Author ID1: at Sat Oct 28 20:52:00 2006 ]world when we were admitted to Hogwarts. Some of us didn't grow up knowing we were able to do magic. Some of us only ever knew the Muggle ways in which we were raised for the first eleven years of our life!" Hermione was breathing hard when she finished her scathing statement.

"Okay, okay." Ron held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "But why did you say I would help? I don't know anything, other than that my dad likes Muggles and their odd little ... things."

Harry stepped in. "Maybe she thought you would want to be with us. Maybe she thought you wouldn't want to be left out. Maybe she thought you would want to help other witches and wizards who had the disadvantage of growing up in Muggle homes. Maybe she thought you'd realize that we need all the people we can get on our side in this war. I need them. I need you, Ron."

The three friends stood looking at each other. Ron threw himself onto the common room sofa and buried his face in a pillow. His voice was muffled when he spoke. "I do want to be with you. I just don't trust Snape, is all. I don't understand why you believe that he's doing something so- honourable, all of a sudden."

"Dumbledore trusts him. Don't you trust Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"Of course I trust him." Silence weighed heavily as they all thought about that. Finally, Ron sighed. "I suppose that we can trust Snape a little bit ... at least for this. But if he messes you up when all you're doing is trying to help, I'm gonna give the git what for." He punched the sofa pillow hard for emphasis.

"Us, Ron," Hermione said quietly. "If you're with us in this, it's us that will be doing the helping. All three of us."

The friends each placed a right hand out and clasped them together. For whatever would happen, whatever might befall any one of them, they were in it together. As always. Harry thought he just might bite through his inner lip, if he tried any harder to keep it from trembling. These were his friends- his best friends. How had he been lucky enough to end up with them, instead of, say, Crabbe, or Goyle, or some nice Hufflepuff who, in spite of best efforts, couldn't hold a candle to the courage and determination that these two friends had shown? He squeezed their hands firmly, and looked both of them steadily in the eye. He wanted to make sure they understood what this meant to him.

"I know it might seem like this doesn't have anything to do with our fight against Voldemort. But it does. Muggle-borns and half-bloods are who he goes after first. If Snape has a plan for how to help them help us in this war, then I say we do whatever it takes."

"Thank you for your vote of confidence, Mr. Potter." They all started, not having noticed Snape enter their common room. He stood just inside the portrait hole, drawn up to his full height with his arms crossed over his chest. How long had he been standing there, listening?

Ron clenched his fists at his side. "You can't come into our common room! You're a Slytherin!"

"I am also a teacher, Mr. Weasley, as well as an Order member. As such, I have free access to anywhere in this castle." Snape spoke with bland nonchalance.

Ron stared at the tall man with his mouth open in horror. He turned away, but Harry heard him mumble under his breath, "That's not right at all- creeping about everywhere like some bat from hell..."

Snape obviously chose to ignore the comment. Harry knew he had heard what Ron had said. Snape heard everything. Instead, he simply said, "I thought you should know that the location of your- detention- has been changed to the Room of Requirement. Anything we need to lay aside or keep as a work in progress we can keep in there. The room can be sealed to prevent anyone else from using it for the time being. I admonish you all, as I have already admonished Miss Granger, to keep this to yourselves."

"Why is that necessary, sir? Wouldn't it be good to let everyone see what you're trying to do?" Harry asked.

Snape regarded him for a moment, as if he was weighing the possible responses, and didn't like any of them. "Let's just say that it could harm my work for the Order if certain people knew of this ...enterprise."

"You mean you want them to believe you're still a Death Eater, and a supporter of You Know Who. Helping Muggle-borns just doesn't mesh." Ron shrugged.

They could see Snape's jaw tighten and his hands clench into fists at his sides. Another long moment and then, "A rather simplistic interpretation, Mr. Weasley, but seeing that it is your interpretation, I suppose it will suffice." Looking at them each in turn, he finished, "Don't be late." Without another word, he silently passed through the portrait hole and was gone.

In another moment, Gryffindors began to pour through to the common room. It was apparent by their carefree attitudes that Snape had already disappeared when they had stood outside speaking the password to the Fat Lady. Otherwise, they would have been much more subdued in their behaviour. Snape did not encourage pleasant conversation and laughter. The three friends looked at each other, silently wondering, how did he do that? How did he disappear in mere seconds? Harry answered these unspoken questions. "I guess that's what makes him a good spy."

No further private conversation was possible at the moment, so they each got out their homework and set to it. But in the back of their minds, thoughts about the next evening were competing with efforts to focus on Transfiguration and History of Magic.

The three were subdued during the evening meal the following day. They finished quickly, and when Snape arose from the head table they got up also. Seamus and Dean looked up. They already knew that they had a detention with Snape. Word had been spread around Gryffindor about how they had been caught brewing Polyjuice Potion again. No one was surprised about Harry and Ron, but there were many raised eyebrows when they heard that Hermione had also been "caught". As they passed their friends on their way out of the Great Hall, there were quick pats of on the back and murmurs of encouragement. Ron and Harry simply looked resigned. Hermione looked mortified at people thinking she had a detention. As they walked the halls on the way to the Room of Requirement, she kept moaning under her breath about how her academic career was now marred.

They reached the hallway where the room was located and Harry was the one to do the requisite steps to get the door to admit them. Before going in, they all joined their right hands again. This had become their sign of unity; a way of strengthening each other and silently signalling that, no matter what, they were where they were meant to be: with each other.