The Knights Of Walpurgis

Chapter Seven: Trying Out

The rest of the week passed without much incident. Snape returned their Potions marks on Friday afternoon, with Neville getting an 'E' that left Hermione fuming - "That was an almost perfect potion. If I got an 'E' for mine, then Neville should certainly have got an O." - until Ron snapped at her for disturbing his preparations for tryouts. This in turn reminded the two of them that they weren't speaking, and they spent the rest of the evening in frosty silence with one another.

Saturday morning dawned bright and misty, and Harry and Ron wrapped themselves in scarves and cloaks before taking their brooms down to the Quidditch pitch. Katie had posted a notice for tryouts on the common room notice board earlier in the week and there was a small group clustered around the goal posts as Harry and Ron arrived at the pitch. By nine o'clock, almost twenty people had arrived. Harry waved to Ginny, who was holding her Firebolt tightly and looking slightly nervous. She managed a brief smile before fixing her attention on Ron.

Harry grinned as he looked at his friend. Katie was chatting amiably with Andrew Kirke while Jack Sloper warmed up with some practise swings of his Beater bat. Ron looked as nervous as Ginny did, and Harry suspected that he would be physically ill if he knew that the decision over the new members of the team would be his responsibility.

That was why Katie and Harry had decided not to tell him.

"Right, listen up," Harry began, slipping easily into his DA instructor mood. "We're here today to pick two new Chasers for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. As you all will know, Gryffindor have won the last two Quidditch cups, and we don't want to lose it this year. Therefore, I'll hand you over now to the team's Keeper and our new captain, Ron Weasley."

There was a gasp from inside the group of potential players as Ginny realised what Harry had said. He risked a sidelong glance at Ron, who was frozen as stiff as if he had been Petrified. Slowly, he looked from Harry to Katie, and then back again. His mouth moved soundlessly, and Harry had to hold in a laugh as he swallowed slowly. He stared at his broomstick for a second, and then at the group of potential players.

"Right," he said, slowly. "Is anyone here not trying out for Chaser?"

A few of the younger members of the group raised their hands.

"Okay," Ron said. "If you can step over here. We need reserves for most positions, so we'll test you out later."

A half-a-dozen students split off from the group and stood beside Kirke and Sloper. One eyed Sloper's Beater bat covetously, and Harry couldn't help but wonder whether he would be an improvement over either of the fourth years.

Ron, meanwhile, was separating the Chaser candidates by make of broom.

"Cleansweep Eights here, Nines here. Any Tens? Right, okay, you've got an Arrowhead, you go here. Ginny... Any other Firebolts?" Ron grinned at the laughter from the candidates. "Well, I can hope, right? Okay, anyone flying a Nimbus 2000? Okay, you come here. Any 2001s? 2010s?" More laughter. "Anyone else?"

Katie had made her way over to Harry. "Think we made the right choice?" she asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, but he's going to be impossible to room with now."

*

As had been generally predicted, Ginny had no trouble securing one of the vacant Chaser slots. Her Firebolt put her a class or two above every other candidate, and she had the comfort of experience to guide her. Even though she had been one of the first candidates in the air, she had been the only one to successfully catch Katie's feinted reverse pass, and she had also been the only one to score three penalty shots against Ron. The rest of the team didn't even need to confer. Ginny was back on the team.

The other Chaser slot was harder to fill. After nearly three hours of repetitive drills and unplanned tests, two candidates remained. One, a third year called Natalie McDonald, was a fiery player on a Nimbus 2001. She had fouled more than anyone in the practise, but had also managed a very complicated - and dangerous - leapfrog over Ron, sending her broomstick under him as he attempted to intercept her, while she leapt over his head. Even after replaying the move on his Omnioculars, Harry still wasn't quite sure how she'd managed it.

The other candidate was Dennis Creevey. Harry knew Dennis quite well. He had slipped through Hermione's screening process to join the DA, even managing to get into Hogsmeade on the day of the first meeting despite only being a second year. The Creevey brothers had refused to tell Harry how they had managed that, although Harry had heard that Colin had bribed one of his fellow third years into staying behind by offering to do a month's Arithmancy homework for him.

Dennis, in contrast to Natalie, was a rather sedate player. He hadn't fouled anyone during the trials, and played smoothly and within his limitations. His one definite advantage over the other potential Chasers was that he was barely four and a half feet tall. Harry thought that Dennis probably weighed twenty pounds less than any other boy on the pitch, and was probably lighter than most of the girls as well.

"What do you reckon?" Ron asked, landing with a Quaffle under one arm.

"It's your choice," Harry replied carefully.

"I was thinking about Creevey, at least for the first match," Ron said. "McDonald's got a filthy temper on her. She gives away too many fouls. We probably can't risk her against the Slytherins. But saying that, Creevey's tiny. Crabbe and Goyle might kill him."

Ron said this without much worry in his voice. Harry could already tell that his friend would be the ideal replacement for Gryffindor's previous, equally obsessive, Quidditch captains.

"I think we pick them both," Ron said. "We'll take a couple of practises to see who works best with the rest of the team. If McDonald can keep her temper in check, I might go with her, or if Creevey can prove that he can take a Bludger and keep going, he might make it."

"Reserves?" Harry asked. Ron pointed to a few of the other players who had turned up.

"Kevin Smith for Beater, Alice Duggan for Keeper and Bret Borden for Seeker," he said, pointing to a third year, a second year and another third year in turn. "What do you think?"

"It's your choice," Harry repeated.

"I don't mind if you have an opinion," Ron said, turning to look at him. "Look, Harry, I know why you let me be captain, but I want to do a good job."

"I didn't let you be captain," Harry replied. "Katie and me both think you'll be great."

"Yeah, well..." Ron tailed off. "It's not going to be like last year. We're going to play really well this year."

"I know," Harry said. Ron looked at him dubiously.

"We will," Harry added. "Ron, you're going to be fine."

"Yeah," Ron said. "Sure."

*

That afternoon, while Hermione was in the library and Ron was sweating over a piece of parchment on which he was copying Quidditch plays from half a dozen books, Harry returned to the boys' dormitory to finish his unpacking. The pillow fight on the first of September had finally ended at around one in the morning, and Harry had collapsed into bed not long after, although he had first had to repair his ruptured pillow to make it fit to sleep on.

The last thing in his trunk was the mirror. He looked at the shards of glass that he'd stacked neatly together after nearly slicing off his thumb when he'd unpacked it on his return to Privet Drive. For a long moment he sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the shattered glass before shaking his head. He drew his wand and waved it at the mirror with a muttered "Reparo" and watched the shards reform into a complete mirror. He stood up and set the mirror down on his bedside table, next to the picture of himself, Sirius, Lupin and Tonks that he'd brought with him from Grimmauld Place. Sirius looked so different in the picture to the way he'd looked in his 'Wanted' posters that Harry wasn't worried about Nevile, Dean or Seamus recognizing him as the escaped mass murderer of three years before.

"There you go, Sirius," Harry muttered to himself. "In case you ever need to chat, it's there. Might remind me to think before I act as well. Maybe."

*

Hermione and Ron finally started talking when they were paired together for Potions later that week. Although they bickered constantly throughout the lesson, their Searing Solutions were both pale shades of turquoise, as far as Harry could tell. He caught sight of Malfoy struggling, his work with Goyle resulting in one beaker full of orange marbles and one of green goo. Malfoy silently carried the green beaker up to the front of the class and weathered Snape's look of resigned anger as he slunk back to his desk, his expression still blank.

"Doesn't look happy, does he?" Neville said, looking up from his pale blue potion.

"No," Harry said. "I thought that he was good at Potions? I don't remember him messing them up before."

"He's probably got other things on his mind," Neville said absently. "Do you think I can get this any more turquoise?"

Harry stared at the potion for a moment. "Probably not," he said. "What do you mean about Malfoy?"

"Right," Neville said. He picked up his beaker and wiped down the desktop. "Harry, Malfoy lost his dad, remember? He's angry, he's confused, and he's not concentrating on Potions or anything else. I know I never did."

Neville walked up to the front of the class and set his beaker down on Snape's desk. Snape's gaze flickered momentarily upward from the essays he was marking to look at Neville's potion. It was noticeable, Harry thought, that he had a rather better opinion of Neville's potion then he had had of Malfoy's.

*

Harry's opinion was confirmed two days later when they received their marks for their potions. Harry and Ron managed 'A's', Neville and Hermione both scored 'O's, while Draco received a 'P'. Snape had looked particularly balefully at Malfoy as he handed back the parchment, while Malfoy had taken the mark without a word. In fact, Harry thought, Malfoy had made barely a sound in his hearing so far that term.

Whatever Harry may have thought of this was swiftly forgotten as Snape set them their essay topic for the lesson, which involved dragon's blood, otter hair, demiguise teeth and armadillo bile, as well as an intricate ritual of stirring, switching of containers and precise time keeping. Harry felt worried just looking at the instructions. As the potion would have to be made during the practical lesson on the following Wednesday, he had a feeling that the next mark he received would make even the new, silent Malfoy laugh.

*

Ron dragged the Quidditch team out of their beds very early on Saturday morning. They assembled in the gloom of the pre-dawn and stared at one another in disbelief. Ron stood before them, arms crossed and with heavy bags under his eyes, meeting their gazes when they chanced to look at him. When they were all silent and watching him attentively, he cleared his throat.

"Just so you know," he said. "We won't always be up this early. However, I've had a lot of time to think about the team this week - Did I say something funny, Ginny?"

Ginny, stifling a smile, shook her head fervently. Ron looked at her suspiciously before continuing.

"Right. As I was saying. I've had a lot of time to think about the team this week. We'll be training hard, but we won't be training as often as the team has in the past."

He paused, and looked around. Harry and Katie stared at him curiously. The others seemed content to await his next comment.

"The reason for this is simple. When we walk out onto the pitch for the first match against Slytherin, I don't want you lot to be tired. We're all going to have a lot of work this year, Ginny and Katie in particular, but I don't want us under any illusions. This is important, it's good for house pride, and there's no point me pushing you so hard that you'll fall asleep on your brooms halfway through training."

Harry and Katie exchanged glances, unsure of exactly how to take this.

"Saying that, when I do schedule a practise, you'll be expected to turn up. We've got good reserves, and I won't hesitate to put one of them in your place if you mess me around. You've all agreed to make the team one of your priorities this year, and I expect you to show each other, and me, the proper amount of respect, got it?"

The team nodded and muttered a few affirmatives. Ron looked at them stonily, before shrugging.

"Well, whatever," he said. "If you want Slytherin to have bragging rights over you for the rest of the year, that's fine."

This time the replies were a lot louder, and Ron nodded once.

"Right," he said. "Now, we're going to get up in the air, and we're going to try this out. I know you can all fly, so we're going to start with some complicated stuff, right?"

*

Harry staggered back into the Great Hall four hours later and collapsed beside Hermione and Seamus. His head dropped onto the table and he took several deep, shuddering breaths.

"He's insane," he said. "Ron. He's mad. We should never have picked him. It's like having Oliver's evil twin in charge."

Hermione and Seamus exchanged smiles, and then Hermione patted Harry on the shoulder.

"Ron did say that he wouldn't be having as many practises this year," she said. "He's got great plans. He was telling me last night. He was working on a speech."

"He told me," Harry said. "He was up all night practising it, apparently. No wonder he was in such a bad mood."

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked.

"He let me leave because he reckons I don't need as much training," Harry said. "Everyone else, even Katie, he's making them run through it all again. Everything. And he's got all this stuff, really complicated. It's the plays the professionals use, and half of it doesn't make sense."

"Well, that's not too surprising," Seamus said. "You know where he got them from, don't you?"

Harry shook his head.

"The Chudley Cannons playbook."

"The Chudley Cannons playbook?" Harry repeated.

"Oh yeah. He reckons he can prove that the tactics work when they win you the title this year. He's basing your training on them as well," Seamus grinned. "I think they finished twelfth last year, is that right? Out of thirteen?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "Ron told me all about it. Only Wigtown did worse, and they were hit by that dreadful outbreak of German Spattergroit for the first three months of the season."

Harry dropped his head back onto the table. "Insane."

*

Bill stopped Harry at the end of the next Defence lesson. They had spent an enjoyable class learning about the Gulliver Jinx, which left the victim feeling as though they were two inches tall. They frequently knocked themselves out by running into walls, thinking that they were taking shelter in a mousehole.

"Harry, have you thought of a good day for the DA to start up again?" he asked. "I have to arrange something with Dumbledore about letting people know."

"Yeah, I have," Harry said. Eager to avoid discussing Quidditch, he'd spoken at length to Ron and Hermione on Sunday afternoon about what they might focus on in the DA sessions that year. "I was thinking Wednesday evenings. We can all meet in the Room of Requirement, so that should be okay. Unless Winky's sleeping in there," he added, making a mental note to check with Dobby the house elf first.

"The Room of Requirement?"

"Yeah, that room opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. I don't know if you'd know it, actually. It only appears when you really need it to, and if you know how to get into it."

"Oh, you mean the Come and Go room?" Bill asked, his eyes widening. He grinned widely. "Yeah, I think I remember it. I'll, er, I'll let Dumbledore know then. See you next lesson Harry."

With a bounce in his step, Bill left the classroom, leaving Harry wondering about the sanity of another member of the Weasley family.

*

"Hi Harry."

Harry looked up from his chicken pie and smiled as Ginny took the seat opposite him.

"Hey Ginny," he said. "Where've you just come from?"

"Double Potions," she pulled a face. "Colin used extract of toad liver rather than frog's kidneys in our potion and we had to evacuate the dungeon until all the fumes disappeared."

"I bet Snape wasn't very impressed."

"Not even slightly," Ginny sighed. "He's given us both detentions for Wednesday evening."

"Oh," Harry said. "We're going to start the DA on Wednesday. Will you be able to make it?"

Ginny looked stricken. "I don't think so," she said. "I have a Magical Creatures essay due the next day. Sorry."

Harry shrugged. "It's okay. Check with someone afterwards to see if you need to practise. We'll probably start with some easier stuff this week, anyway."

"That Hufflepuff won't be very impressed," Ginny smiled. "What's his name, Zacharias Smith."

"Yeah, s'pose not." Harry swallowed his last mouthful of pie. "I'd better go and spread the word. I need to put up notices and all that, and I've got an essay due for Hagrid as well."

"What's yours on?" Ginny asked.

"Runespoors. Hagrid bought in a family of them last week. It was quite interesting, for me anyway. They were bickering like you and your family do."

Ginny looked at him blankly for a second, and then smiled.

"I'd forgotten that you're a Parseltongue," she said. Harry shrugged.

"Doesn't come in useful very often," he said. "Maybe I can research snakes when I finish here, though."

"Of course, if you have time breaking up gangs of Dark Wizards and making sure everyone can sleep safely at night."

"It's a hard job," Harry grinned. "But someone's got to do it. See you later."

"See you."

Harry was joined by Susan Bones as he approached the school notice board. Searching in his bag for one of the posters that Hermione had presented him with - she had prepared them during a free period the week before, she told him. He had been surprised that she'd had any free periods, given their workload. She'd even managed to come up with a new name for the club: The Hogwarts Alliance, or HA - he smiled politely at Susan as he tried to find somewhere to pin the poster.

The notice board was covered with adverts for the various clubs offered to students, as well as items for sale, chocolate frog cards for trade, notices from the staff - these were usually well hidden by less official notices - and a fold out list from Filch the caretaker that ran to thirty-two sheets of parchment, covering in brief the items that were banned from possession by students on Hogwarts grounds. Harry noticed with a smile that the top ten items were newly released Weasley Wizard Wheezes products, and that samples of all ten were sitting in the innocuous brown paper bag he'd collected from Fred and George during the trip to Diagon Alley.

"No place to put your notice?"

Harry came back to reality to notice that Susan was standing beside him. She glanced at the poster in his hands and then pointed at the one she had been reading.

"You can put it over this one if you want. It's just about our Quidditch squad for this season."

"Thanks."

As Harry was fixing the poster to the board, he noticed Susan's name on the squad list.

"I didn't know that you played Quidditch," he said. "Did you play last year?"

"Oh, no," she blushed. "I only tried out this year because, well, we've never had a very good team. Auntie Amelia gave me a broom for my birthday in June and when Ernie saw it, he insisted that I tried out for the team."

"You must be good if you're going to be a Chaser," Harry said. They began to walk away from the notice board, towards the stairs leading down to the Hufflepuff common room.

"I suppose so," Susan said. "But I don't think that I'm good enough to be on the team"

"Why?"

"Well... Harry, what do you think of Ernie? McMillan, I mean."

"Well, he's nice enough," Harry said, wondering why she was asking him. "I don't know him very well, but he's smart, isn't he? And he believed me last year when hardly anyone else did. I appreciated that a lot."

"It's just that... Well, he's the new Quidditch captain this year," Susan said, staring gloomily at the floor. "I think he may have picked me for the team even though I wasn't the best player."

Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of this, but he remembered Angelina saying that Ron hadn't been the best player in his own tryout the year before. "Listen, even if you weren't the best player, Ernie may have had other reasons for picking you. Other players may not have wanted to make Quidditch their priority, or they may have had a bad attitude, or-"

"-or maybe it's because I think that Ernie may fancy me," Susan said.

Harry stared at her in surprise. Thinking about it, Harry supposed that Ernie had been rather insistent on being around Susan recently, but he hadn't given it very much thought.

"I know that that's a terrible thing to say," Susan said. "I may be imagining it, but he always seems to be wherever I am. Even when we don't have the same class, he'll be awaiting for me in the corridor afterwards. He... Oh, I don't know why I'm telling you this, Harry. I shouldn't drop all this on you. Please don't tell Ernie or anyone, will you? I might be imagining the whole thing."

"Er, no, of course I won't," Harry said.

"Thank you. I feel really quite awful even thinking it, but I don't like Ernie that way."

"Right," Harry said.

"I'm sorry to tell you all this," she said. "I haven't even told Hannah, because it all sounds so horrible, but thank you for listening, anyway."

"It's okay," Harry said. "I wish I could help, but I'm really the wrong person to talk to about anything to do with relationships."

"Yes, I heard about you and Cho Chang," she said, giving him a commiserating smile. "Is there any chance of you getting back together?"

"No," Harry said immediately. "Er, I mean, she's with someone else now. Do you know Michael Corner? He's in the HA, used to go out with Ginny Weasley."

"Oh, yes, I think I do know him," Susan said. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that, Harry. No one else for you, though?"

"No," Harry said, half-smiling. "I'm not very good at that sort of thing, like I said."

"That's a shame," Susan said. "Well, I should be going. Ernie comes looking for me if he doesn't see me for too long," she said, with a half-smile of her own. "Thank you for listening, Harry."

"Any time," Harry said, watching her go down the stairs.

*

Harry handed his Magical Creatures essay to Hagrid at the start of the Wednesday lesson and leaned listlessly against a tree as Hagrid expounded on the properties of Clabberts. Harry took notes automatically. Knowing that the essay that Hagrid would set would rely heavily upon the information Hagrid was giving out didn't help to settle Harry's mind at all. He could see Hermione taking notes at her usual feverish pace, and even Ron seemed to be interested in the ape-like creatures, but Harry had other things on his mind.

He'd had the dream again. For the first time since returning to Hogwarts, he'd found himself on the crest of the hill, peering out across the moors around him. Far off in the distance, something had been happening. He'd wanted to go and see what it was, had been searching for a path down the rocky hillside, but something had made him stop and turn back.

He shook his head, willing himself to concentrate on the class. He focussed on the Clabbert hanging from the tree behind Hagrid. It grinned toothily at the class, its green, lump skin remind Harry a little of Trevor, Neville's pet toad. He looked down at his notes. Hagrid had said something about the bump in the centre of the Clabbert's head, but he didn't know what. Harry had a sinking feeling that it had probably been something quite important. He shook his head again, trying to clear the last lingering traces of the dream from his mind.

Harry stared at the creature, hoping that it would somehow be able to tell him exactly what the bump meant. Suddenly, the creature began to grow agitated, jiggling up and down and scowling out across the grounds towards the castle. The bump on its forehead began to glow, faintly at first, and then more brightly, flashing on and off. Harry turned and followed its gaze, and saw Professor Snape approaching. Snape glared balefully at the class, and the Clabbert in particular, and then proceeded on his way to the Herbology greenhouses.

Harry looked back down at his roll of parchment and carefully wrote 'Flashing = danger'.

*

"Okay, can I have your attention please?"

Harry looked around the Room of Requirement in consternation. The room seemed to have increased in size from their clandestine meeting place of the previous year, but still it was more crowded than he could have ever imagined.

"We're going to have to think this place bigger next week," Ron muttered beside him.

"Er, welcome back if you were with us last year. Thanks for coming if this is your first session. For those of you who don't know, we founded this group last year to help us learn Defence Against the Dark Arts. It's not necessary this year, because we've actually got a decent teacher -" Bill stopped looking curiously around the room and grinned at the watching students "- but there's a war going on, and I suppose it won't hurt us to learn a few new things."

"Hear hear," Ernie said, from his seat between Susan and Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Right, er, I think it's best if we just spend this session going over some of the basic spells, stuff like Disarming, Jelly Legs, the Full Body Bind and the Impediment jinx. If you can all please get into pairs, and if you joined last year, try and work with another member so we can keep things even for now."

Harry watched as the more than seventy members of the HA struggled to find room to spread out. He turned to Bill for help.

"Well, we don't have to meet in here, do we?" Bill said. "It's a good room, and it can probably be a bit bigger if we need it to, but isn't there anywhere else?"

"Not really," Hermione said. "We looked everywhere last year. We can't go outside, because in winter it will be far too cold, and if it rains it would be hopeless. The Great Hall is big enough, but not with all the tables there and it would take a lot of work to move them every time we want a meeting. I won't ask the house elves to do that."

"No, can't have that," Ron said, winking at Bill and Harry. "I think we'll just have to make do. We can have them take it in terms for this week, and hopefully next week the room can be bigger."

"It should be okay," Harry said. "Ron's right, they can take it in turns tonight. It's only a warm up session, anyway."

Harry and Bill divided the group and moved among them as they began to cast their spells. Ernie seemed particularly committed to getting his jinxes right, while Zacharias Smith was scowling with concentration as he and Dennis Creevey exchanged jinxes. Neville, facing off with Anthony Goldstein, showed no signs of rustiness as he bombarded the Ravenclaw with a barrage of hexes and minor curses. Harry slipped between the pairs, correcting and commending as necessary. Cho took his comments stiffly, all trace of the warmth she had once shown him disappeared from her expression. Harry wished he could think of something to say to her, but she was already firing Impediment jinxes at Michael Corner, who didn't look happy about the treatment he was receiving from his girlfriend. Harry passed by, ignoring Cho's pointed expression as he stopped to correct Hannah Abbott's casting of the Stunning spell.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Hannah asked.

"Of course," he replied, looking curiously at her. Susan, who was working with Hannah, smiled in what Harry could only think of as a sympathetic way.

"It can't be easy being around Cho and her boyfriend," she said.

Harry blinked. In truth, seeing Cho and Michael together - although possibly not together for much longer, he thought - didn't bother him. Whatever he had felt for Cho had been forgotten over the summer. The only thing that he thought was difficult was the way Cho ignored him now. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that she was still bringing her wand in from too far to the left as she cast her Stunner, leaving herself open to an attack. He made a note to have Bill mention it to her, in case she would take his advice.

"It's not a problem," he said, turning back to the Hufflepuff girls. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

"Oh," Hannah said. "So, we'll have to let the girls know that you're available again."

"What?"

Hannah grinned. "All those heartbroken girls who've seen you pining over Cho since the Yule Ball. Now they can have their chance."

"Er..."

"You wouldn't deny them the opportunity to get to know the real you, would you Harry?"

"Hannah," Susan said, in a warning tone. "Don't mind her, Harry," she added as Hannah laughed. "She's just sour because Justin hasn't noticed her yet."

Susan's eyes sparkled. Hannah's laugh died off.

"That is not true," Hannah squeaked. "I'm not interested in Justin!" It was Susan's turn to laugh.

"It's okay, Harry," she assured him. "We're only joking. There aren't really hordes of girls queuing up to ask you out."

"Oh, right," Harry said, feeling a little bit relieved.

"Just Hannah."

"Susan! Stop it! You know who I-"

"I'll, er, I'll just..."

Harry quickly left the two girls behind.

At the end of the lesson, Harry and Hermione stood by the door to see everyone off. Bill, Ron and Dean had become involved in a discussion on dueling etiquette and had vanished before they had had the chance to tidy up. Harry and Hermione were left to pick up the cushions and put the books back on the shelves.

"We could probably leave all this and it'd be back in place next time we came in," Harry said, as he caught the side of a table to stop himself falling over a large, leather grimoire. "It'd be a lot less hassle."

"It's good to tidy up," Hermione said vaguely. "It shows that we're responsible."

Harry looked at her curiously.

"Are you all right, Hermione?"

"What?" She looked up from the cushion she had been holding and staring blankly at. "Oh, yes, I'm fine. Harry, do you think Ron really tries?"

Harry blinked, waiting for Hermione to finish her question. When it was clear that she had finished, and was waiting for him to reply, he tried to work out what response was expected.

"He tries with his schoolwork," he said eventually. "He just doesn't find most of it very interesting. Is that what you mean?"

"I suppose so," Hermione said, not sounding very convinced. "I was watching him just now, and he was more interested in telling jokes with Bill and Dean then he was in learning the spells."

"He knows the spells, though," Harry shrugged as he picked up a cushion and threw it onto the pile at the back of the room. "He's used them often enough, practising and in the Ministry."

Hermione glanced up at the mention of the fight in the Ministry, but didn't say anything.

"I know, but he could do so well, if only he tried. He's so good at chess, and he practically has the entire history of the Chudley Cannons memorised but..."

"Yeah, well, that's Ron, isn't it?"

"It shouldn't be. Or you, Harry," she added, belatedly.

"Hermione, I do try. My marks are better this year," Harry said, a little defensively.

"Oh, I know," she said. "I'm sorry. It's just... Ron can do it, and it makes me feel a bit angry with him for not trying. It seems silly not to do your very best at whatever you try."

"Not everyone can do that," Harry said. "You can do it, but I suppose Ron doesn't want to."

"It just makes me cross," Hermione repeated. "He carries on and on about how much he wants to stand out in his family, but he never does anything about it."

Harry tried to remember Ron saying anything like that, but supposed that Hermione would remember it more than he would.

"Well, so what? It's up to Ron," he replied, feeling as though Hermione were somehow holding him responsible for Ron's marks. "Why do you care so much?"

"I just..." Hermione tailed off. "It just makes me cross," she said, a little huffily. Throwing the last cushion onto the pile, she left the room so quickly that Harry could almost have thought that she'd Disapparated.

He stared after her, a funny feeling that there was more to it then Hermione was letting on growing inside him.

To be continued...