Simon says...

Chain of tears
Handful of trust
In the world of dust
Chain of tears
Handful of dust
In the world which can't last

***

"A DA meeting?" Simon looked thoughtful. "Oh Right. You were banned and caught by Umbridge last year; I think Terry mentioned it a couple times. I don't know why I never joined. By the way, this coin, is it a Protean Charm?"

Harry, who was still staring at the coin incredulously, nodded.

"It's very advanced and difficult magic. Who performed it?"

"Hermione," Harry replied and shut his book. "I think I'll try to find her and see what this is about."

***

"Hey, Ginny!" Harry had entered the Entrance Hall and his red-haired friend was the first one he spotted among the students filing into the Great Hall for an early dinner.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I...er...do you know anything about the DA meeting tonight?" he asked her in a lower voice than before.

"Nope. Hermione said it's supposed to be a prep meeting, maybe even to gain new members."

"Do you know where she is?"

"Last time I saw her, she was ushering Ron to the library. Well, I guess I'll see you tonight." She showed him a shy smile and then hurried after her friends.

***

The library proved to be the wrong place to find Hermione, which was surely a first. Harry would just have to wait until later tonight. After dinner and back in the Common Room, Harry hopped into a chair by the fireplace, wondering if the other members of the DA would have trouble accepting him as their leader, now that he was a Slytherin. It took him about half an hour to convince himself that they would, and another ten minutes to start dreading the meeting.

"Don't you have to be somewhere tonight?" Simon was standing in front of him, looking down curiously.

Harry shifted in his chair. "Yep, I'd better go. Hey, why don't you come along?"

"Right, I don't think that's the best idea you ever had." Simon snorted.

"Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. And it'll be two Slytherins then," Harry pleaded.

Simon sighed, but nodded in agreement. They climbed the stairs to the seventh floor and entered the Room of Requirement. Inside, Harry recognized a lot of members from last year plus quite a few from new ones, mostly from Phoenix. He was interrupted by Zacharias Smith who, somehow, had managed to stay in the group.

"What does he want here?" the young boy exclaimed, pointing blatantly at Simon.

"This is an open group. Everyone is welcome," Hermione said firmly, already expecting the direction this would take.

"But he's a Slytherin!" A few more voices butted in, supporting Zacharias' reluctance to admit an obvious 'enemy' to the group.

"The more willing to play on other side, the better," Hermione argued.

"Hermione!" This time it was Ron, who made himself heard above the others' voices. "Didn't you just tell us that the behaviour of the Slytherins towards us has reached a shocking state? And that we should stand up against them?"

Before she could give an answer to this, Terry spoke up.

"Simon's ok. He's my brother."

"No, he is not! He's a Lestrange." This outburst from Neville silenced the entire group; all eyes were upon Simon now. Ron had stepped next to Hermione, one protective arm around her.

"He'll only spy on us," he said in a low voice, glowering menacingly at Simon.

***

"I knew I shouldn't have come," Simon whispered to Harry.

"You're staying," Harry replied and stepped forward. "I'll handle it."

He walked over to Ron and Hermione, who were having a go at each other.

"Ron, he has the same right to be here as everyone else. It wasn't a Slytherin who told on us last ti..."

"Well, in that case," Ron shouted, "I'm leaving!" He turned on his heels and stomped to the door.

"Colloportus." Simon had sealed the door and was now walking towards to Ron.

"Let me out, freak," Ron spat at him.

"The only one leaving will be me," Simon said in an unusually cold voice, still moving closer to Ron.

"Simon, no - stay. He doesn't know what he's saying." Terry tried to intervene.

Simon turned to his little brother and smiled frostily. "Terry, nothing will ever change. I'll always be the bad guy, you should know that by now."

"I don't want any Slytherins inside the DA either," Seamus announced suddenly, his voice a tad too cheery. "But hey, here's a thought: Why don't we send a flowery invitation to You-Know-Who right away?"

"Seamus, that's enough!" Harry yelled. He was quickly losing his patience. They were overreacting. "How about a vote?"

Since no one argued against it, Harry took their silence as an agreement.

"Okay, so everyone against accepting Slytherins into the DA, raise your hand now."

Slowly, a few hands were lifted; Harry counted eight before asking the opposite question. Terry's hand was up in a flash, Hermione's followed quickly afterwards. But it took some time until a few more Ravenclaws hesitantly raised their hands. Simon had been their housemate once, though one could see their torn feelings written on their faces. Who knew what had caused the Sorting Hat to make Simon a Slytherin, after all?

Tied, Harry thought, frustrated, but then Ginny gradually brought her hand up as well.

"So, Simon stays," Harry declared happily, beaming at Ginny. "Whoever else wants to leave, there's the door." Harry focused his eyes on Ron, who stood his ground until Harry nodded, satisfied. He took a seat next to Simon and gestured to Hermione for her to continue with her talk.

"Okay. Why this meeting? There are several reasons. One, there has been an increasing amount of attacks from Slytherins - sorry Harry, Simon, but it's a fact - against students from other Houses. Two, Flitwick might be an extraordinarily good teacher in Defence, but it can never hurt to practice more. Three, V-Voldemort is back." She stopped here to let her words sink in.

"People keep asking me about curses or defensive spells, so I thought it a good idea to have regular meetings again. Especially, since some of the older students asked me about curses I couldn't find anywhere. The situation seems very serious."

"Yep, that's true. Someone -- I think it might have been Nott - tried to use something that sounded like Corpus Inflamare on me, I dodged it, but it doesn't show up in any of our books," Baddock chimed in.

"That's probably, because you were checking the wrong books," Simon said. "Corpus Inflamare is a fire curse and advanced dark magic." They were all listening to him, so he continued. "It's hard to defend yourself against it because usually the person hit by this curse needs the help of another wizard -- or witch -- to reverse it. Second, its effects are rather painful. So, you can consider yourself lucky you 'dodged' it."

"Why would you need someone else's help?" Hermione asked, drinking in his every word.

"Because it usually destroys your wand first."

"How do you wield it off then?" Baddock inquired.

"With a very strong Shield Charm," Simon replied.

"Can we practice it? Then I could finally get rid of Prichard," Dennis Creevey asked with a wide grin on his face.

Simon, however, was not amused and sent him an irritated look. "There's nothing funny about this."

***

About an hour later, the group had agreed on which curses and defensive spells would be practiced and rehearsed in their next lesson and that Hermione would take the lead next to Harry this time around. Since precautions no longer had to be taken, the group left in one after the meeting was declared over. This left Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Simon to stock the cushions in a corner and return some of the books to their shelves. Ron was still fuming and continuously shot suspicious glares towards Simon, who did his best to simply ignore them. At some point, Harry pulled Ginny slightly away from the others.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

"What for?"

"If you hadn't raised your hand, we would have had to leave," he explained.

"Oh, you would have gone as well?"

"Of course, it was about Slytherins in general, not just Simon. I would have gone too," he elaborated further. He looked to the other side of the room, where Ron and Hermione were having another heated, but whispered, conversation, then turned to Simon.

"Everything okay?"

"Yep, I just feel a bit bad about the DA almost breaking up because of me," Simon answered, but Harry had trouble determining Simon's true feelings, as usual.

"Don't worry about it. They'll come to their senses." With that, they bode the other three Good Night and left for their Common Room.

***

Autumn's storms had finally died down and the rain had decreased immensely. Winter's cold was moving into the country, frost on the windows promised that the first bits of snow would fall soon. Harry spent more and more time in the library, looking up curses and spells. More often than not, he was accompanied by Hermione, who was still the main source of information, and Ron, who was pretending to support them, though actually he was just sitting beside them, in order to be close to Hermione.

Two days prior to the next DA-meeting, Harry was seated in his favourite spot in the library, reading the book Simon had recommended to him: The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. This copy wasn't up-to-date, it ended with Voldemort's fall, but Harry was concentrating on Voldemort's rising and his reign of Terror, anyway. According to the description, it was a lot worse than Harry had ever imagined. The arrival of Ron, Hermione and Ginny interrupted his studies.

"I won't be able to come day after next - Quidditch practice," Ron was just saying.

Harry moved a few of his belonging to the side to make room for the books Hermione was carrying.

"It was already difficult to find a time that suits everyone with four Houses, now that it's five, it only gotten harder," Harry agreed.

"Exactly, but if Slytherin wouldn't book the pitch so often, other teams could be more flexible," Ron said, obviously upset.

"We have to train Theodore. He's the weak member in our team, we need the extra practice," Harry replied.

"Who's Theodore?" Ron asked.

"Our Keeper, Theodore Nott, you know him."

"You're using his first name? How low can you still sink?" Ron provoked.

"Why don't we change the subject," Hermione suggested and did so right away. "Did anything interesting happen around the Slytherins lately, Harry?"

"Nope, nothing at all. It was rather quiet. I believe that Malfoy is still holding his special speeches, but I try to avoid them. Besides, he's probably only speaking up when I'm not around."

"What kind of speeches?" Ginny inquired.

Harry sighed and repeated what he could remember of Malfoy's speech. When he finished, Hermione clasped her hand to her mouth and Ginny looked shocked.

"And no one, I mean absolutely no one, said anything to this?"

Harry shook his head. "No, as I said. Well, except for Simon."

"Hello, are you all right there?" someone behind him asked. All their heads shot up guiltily and in surprise. Harry turned around and saw directly into Simon's pale blue eyes.

Anger. He's angry, but doesn't want to show it, Harry thought and sat up straight. It was the first time he had managed to invade Simon's mind and feel his emotions.

"What's wrong with you?" Harry asked.

"I'll tell you later," Simon responded, getting his calm features back together. To the others he said, "Don't listen to Draco. He just likes to talk, but is too cowardly to actually do something and get dirt on his hands. Without his two shadows, he'd be nothing, just a little boy scared shitless. I'll see you later, Harry."

Ginny and Hermione were staring at his retreating back, too shaken to say anything. Ron, however, had to make his position clear once more.

"If there's nothing wrong with that guy, I'll volunteer for detention with Snape for the rest for the year," Ron uttered, also watching Simon leave, though with another of his sceptical glances.

"Ron, really, you're not being fair. Just because he's a Slytherin, doesn't mean that he has ulterior motives," Hermione stopped Ron's monologue.

"He's spying on us. Or what do you think that was just now?" Ron was obviously in a bad mood.

"He was close by and just heard us talking by accident. Things like this happen," Ginny said, siding with Hermione. This was the kick-off for a fiery argument between the three of them. Harry, who was extremely tired of this topic kept quiet and returned to his readings instead. Occasionally, he heard words like Slytherin, Lestrange, You-Know-Who, and espionage. Suddenly, Hermione elbowed him.

"Harry! Say something. This is ridiculous," she cried out.

"Wh...What should I say? I don't have anything else to say to this. I already mentioned a few times that I trust him," Harry said taken by surprise.

"You're all out of your minds," Ron declared and stormed out.

Hermione made to go after him, but Ginny stopped her.

"He'll calm down," she assured her and smiled apologetically to Madame Pince, who was on her way towards them, probably to kick them out due to their loud discussion.

Hermione broke down onto a chair, her face full of desperation and helplessness. Her eyes were filling with tears.

"There's no reason why you should cry," Harry told her.

"Oh, what do you know," Hermione sniffed.

Ginny gave him a reproachful look, which said clearly, How can you be so tactless? She hugged her friend. While she comforted Hermione, Harry returned to his book. He preferred to stay out of this, feeling uncomfortable with the situation but he couldn't read a word. He only looked up again, when Hermione had stopped sobbing. Worriedly, he looked at her, and even though he felt guiltily about it, he concentrated on Hermione. He caught anger and fear radiating from her. Both emotions were closely connected to Ron. And then he broke through her surface.

Hermione was standing in a circular room, which was most likely to be the Phoenix Common Room. She was yelling at Ron, but he didn't seem to be listening to her. Instead Ron turned away from her and stamped to a door, slamming it shut behind him. Hermione was left alone, tears running down her face.

Harry had a feeling that this hadn't been the only fight they've had lately. Harry wondered if Ginny knew about this. He was used to Ron and Hermione nagging at each other, but seeing them fight like this was something else. He didn't know what to do.

"Should I leave you two alone?" he asked Ginny, hesitantly.

"No, it's okay," Hermione answered instead. irrational

They all fell silent, unsure of what to say or do next. Hermione's eyes fell on a book Harry and been reading. She commented on it, and they were quickly engaged in an intensive discussion about Voldemort's power and the curses he favoured. They were very distracted and didn't notice the time. Only when it was so dark outside, that the candles in the library were lit, did they emerge from their musings. They realized how hungry they all were and went down to dinner together. When Harry sat down at the Slytherin table, his gaze fell on Simon. The older student no longer had an air of anger around him and the walls around his mind were back up, tightly shut.

Why had he been so angry?

***

Although he knew very well that he should be doing some of his homework, Harry sat gloomily in his Common Room later that night. He just couldn't concentrate, so all he did was flip through his Herbology book.

"What happened to you?" Simon let himself fall into a chair at Harry's table. In response, Harry only shook his head. "What? You're not talking to me?" Simon seemed entertained by Harry's lack of enthusiasm for a conversation.

"Why were you so angry earlier?" Harry finally blurted.

Simon hesitated, but then answered, "My girlfriend..."

"...broke up with you," Harry finished for him. Simon inclined his had slightly, then got up and left. Harry let Simon be. Harry had never met the girl, nor heard her name, so he wouldn't know what to say, anyway. He rolled open a new bit of parchment, trying to get back on his homework, but as before, he wasn't very successful. He gazed out the window, watching the first snowflakes dancing by. It was still too warm, so they melted as soon as they touched down.

***

Two days later, Harry ascended the stairs leading to the seventh floor, glad that Ron would be away at Quidditch practice. Ginny and Hermione sat together right next to the door, talking quietly with each other. Hermione still looked a terrible mess. It was time that someone told Ron to get a grip on himself. Simon was seated in the back of the room, away from the rest of the group, absorbed in a book. Occasionally, some students shot him anxious looks.

Harry moved into the middle of the room and started to tell the group what they'd be doing that day, how a specific Shield Charm worked and what they had to be cautious about. Since the room was a bit small for all of them to practice at once, Harry divided the members into two groups. Neville was partnered with Seamus, but was experiencing enormous trouble with directing the Shield Charm, so that other students were often hit by the Stunning Spell he was supposed to deflect.

"Neville, hold on. Try to imagine where you want to lead the curse. Otherwise it will keep flying everywhere and do more harm than it already does," Harry intervened.

Half an hour later, it was time for the groups to swap places. Simon was left without a partner, and since Harry would have to observe the happenings, he scanned the room for any potential student. His eyes rested on Neville, who could definitely use more practical training, but Harry could imagine all to well that this combination would never work out. Then, he saw Ginny and Hermione standing near by, so he walked over to them and finally paired Ginny and Neville and Hermione with Simon. Near the end of the lesson, Simon and Hermione became the centre of everyone's attention. They were moving the blue shaft of light from a Stunner back and forth between them, each deflecting it and shooting it back at the other. They continued this game, until suddenly the door opened and the Phoenix Quidditch team spilled into the room. The clattering of Ron's broom falling to the floor distracted Hermione. She looked up, caught Ron's eye and was hit by the Stunning Spell she had forgotten to deflect.

Hermione collapsed to the floor. Simon eyes were widened in shock; he hurried over to her, just as Ron dashed towards the unconscious girl as well. Simon got to Hermione first, kneeled down and pointed his wand at her chest.

"Keep your filthy hands off her, you moron," Ron spat, trying to shove Simon aside.

"Enervate." Only when he had spoken the incantation, did Simon look up at Ron and move aside.

Ron groped for Hermione's hand. "Come on, let's go. I've seen it coming all along, but you wouldn't believe me. Here's your evidence. All that freak ever wanted to do is harm you," Ron quarrelled.

"Are you of your mind? That was just an accident!" Hermione pulled her hand from Ron's.

"Hermione, please, he was having fun Stunning you. You should have seen his face," Ron wouldn't hear of it.

"Oh, I know what's wrong with you. You're jealous," Hermione screamed back.

"Ha! I won't listen to any more of this nonsense. If you like him so much, why don't you go ahead and date him!" Ron's face was a mask of pure anger.

"You're such a brat." Hermione looked as though she was about to cry.

Ron spun around and pounded out of the room, leaving behind an awkward silence. Harry quickly dismissed the meeting, ushering the group out to give Hermione some peace. She had retreated to a back corner and crouched on the floor, crying bitterly.

"I'll go and see if I can talk some sense into Ron," Ginny said. "Could you stay here with Hermione?"

Harry and Simon looked at each other, both were uncertain of how to react. But Ginny didn't really give them a chance to decide, she had already left.

Hesitantly, Harry tiptoed to Hermione and kneeled next to her. He put an arm around her and frantically searched for something comforting to say. Simon leaned down as well and handed her a tissue. Then he sat down and shrugged. What now?

Harry opted for optimism. "Hey Hermione, everything will be all right." But she only hid her face in her hands, her shoulders shivering.

Don't get her hopes up, Simon's voice echoed in Harry's head.

But there has to be something I can do or say. Seeing her like this is awful,' Harry thought back.

Just give her time, Simon suggested.

With every minute that passed, Hermione seemed indeed to calm down bit by bit.

Try to hold off Ginny. She's on her way back and has bad news, Harry heard Simon say. Go on, I'll take care of her, he added when Harry looked at Hermione uncertainly.

***

Ginny had indeed bad news. She had found Ron, talked to him, but he wouldn't listen to a word. He had said that he needed some distance. Ginny helplessly rolled her eyes. Anger was rising inside Harry. He couldn't understand what was wrong with his friend. Not knowing what else there was to do now, he suggested going back in to Hermione.

Simon and Hermione were still crouched in the corner, where he had left them, talking quietly. Upon hearing them enter, Simon looked up, apparently glad they had returned. He did look a bit lost in the situation and Harry was thankful that Simon had stayed to help out, no matter what.

"Hey, how are you?" Ginny asked as she took over. Hermione tried to smile, but failed.

***

Harry saw Hermione again during their Potions class the next morning. She looked tired and had trouble following Snape's instructions. Her mind seemed to be elsewhere today and she didn't pay attention to what she was doing to her potion.

"Tell me, Miss Granger, what potion are you trying to brew?" Snape naturally took advantage of Hermione's desolate state. She eyed her potion with sad eyes, opened her mouth but no sound came out of it.

"Ten points from Phoenix," Snape continued in a silky voice.

"What did I do?" Hermione had finally found the ability to speak.

Snape arched an eyebrow and around his lips curled a malicious sneer. He strode to the cauldron and, towering over the miserable girl, took a ladle and dipped it into Hermione's potion, making sure everyone was watching. Then he lifted it gradually and with an indolent movement let the liquid slowly rinse back into the cauldron. It was obvious that he was enjoying this moment and intended to make this pleasure last as long as possible.

"I shall enlighten you as to what you did," Snape said with a soft voice, making a significant pause before continuing. "You...ah...failed."

Hermione let out a gasp and tears were gathering in her eyes. Harry stood on his tiptoes. He had to admit that Hermione's potion didn't look exactly the way it should, but it certainly looked better than most others. Hermione started to protest, but Snape Vanished her potion without another word. Angrily, Hermione snatched up a cloth and started wiping her table. Harry wished nothing more than to go over and hug her, but he knew better than to stretch Snape's patience. As soon as the bell rang, he pushed his chair back and took a step towards Hermione, but she had already stormed out. He looked after her, feeling miserably. Since he didn't know what good it'd do if he ran after her now, he started sorting the ingredients she had left on the table on to the shelves.

***

During the next few days, Hermione looked worse every time Harry saw her. Her blood-shot eyes and pasty face had almost become her usual look. Ron refused to talk to anyone at all and avoided his friends as best as he could. Harry allowed Hermione all the time she needed, just as Simon had suggested. She and Ginny spent more and more time with Harry and Simon, chatting away about everything but Ron.

One morning after breakfast, Ginny approached Harry, a resolute impression on her face.

"Say, what are you doing on the 24th?"

"What? Why?" Harry almost choked on his porridge, desperately trying to remember what else, other than Christmas Eve, that date meant.

"Where have you been the past days? Everyone's talking about it, it can't just have gone past you," she exclaimed. "The 24th is the date of the Yule ball."

"Er...I...er...didn't know," Harry stammered. It was still almost four weeks until Christmas, a long time, so why should he worry about that now?

"So, are you going to ask me to come to the ball with you or what?" Ginny burst out.

"Yes!" Harry shouted way too quickly and only then did realise that he was supposed to ask her. Reddening furiously, he added, "Er...I mean: will you go to the ball with me?"

Ginny smiled shyly, almost laughing at him. "Of course."

TBC