The Awakening Power

Sib

Story Summary:
Complete! Challenges fill Harry's busy sixth year: growing powers, Snape becomes defense teacher (and Harry's not in the mood for abuse), a new Potions teacher, a girl with a new crush on him, Quidditch, Voldemort, and a certain redheaded girl named Ginny who may help him through all of it. What are the goblins up to? Will Ron win Hermione back? And what exactly is Voldemort's diabolical plan to kill Harry and plunge magical society into anarchy? Lots of romance, drama, action and humor! Voted Phoenix Song's Best Novel-Length Story (along with Best Harry and Best Kiss).

Chapter 13

Chapter Summary:
Harry’s powers are growing very strong, and Dumbledore is worried about his control. Meanwhile, Snape has become the new Defense teacher, and Harry resolves not to take his abuse this year… Will Harry notice Ginny? Will Ron win Hermione back? Who has a new crush on Harry? Who is the new Potions teacher? And what exactly is Voldemort’s diabolical plan to kill Harry and plunge magical society into anarchy? Lots of humor, drama, action and romance as all these questions are answered and much more in Harry’s busy sixth year.
Posted:
05/06/2004
Hits:
4,833
Author's Note:
Harry's sixth year, after OotP. H/G, R/Hr, PG-13 rating.

Chapter 13: A Meeting in Hogsmeade

* * *

Harry walked to the front of the Potions classroom, feeling very pleased with the results that day. It had been a complex assignment, but somehow having Professor Melanadray made a huge difference in his outlook on the subject.

"Well, Mr. Potter, I must say your work has been excellent lately," Melanadray said to him as he turned in his potion for marking.

Harry noticed bashfully that she looked particularly pretty today with her hair clipped up with a bright red bow. "Um, thanks."

"Oh, would you mind waiting after class? I could use your help with something," she said, smiling at him.

"Sure, no problem," Harry said, feeling pleased despite himself about her picking him to help her.

He went over to Ron and Hermione. "Hey, I'll catch up with you two later. The Professor wants help with something."

Ron gave him a smirk, causing both Hermione and Harry to glare at him.

"What?" Harry said, annoyed.

"Sure, Harry. You're quite the helpful bloke, aren't you? Always willing to lend a hand to someone in need," Ron said, snickering.

"All right, all right, just go," Harry said irritably, as he went to the side of the room to wait.

After the last few students filed out, Harry walked up to Professor Melanadray's desk.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Harry," she said. "It won't take long. I just received a big box of potions, and it's much easier with two people."

"All right," Harry said.

She moved to the side of the classroom and opened up a storeroom, gesturing to him that he should follow her in.

"Here we are. I'll pull them out of the box, and you mark off the inventory on this sheet, all right?" she said, handing him a clipboard.

"All right, Professor," Harry said.

Melanadray giggled a bit and leaned forward. "You don't know how odd it is to hear you call me that."

"Um, really?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes. You know, Harry... may I call you Harry, at least when we're not in class?" she asked.

Harry nodded.

"Well, Harry... you may call me Melissa if you like... anyway... I'm not that much older than you are... in fact, we just missed being classmates at Hogwarts. I left the year you came," she said, looking at him carefully. "Thirty ounces of ground bat wings."

"What?" Harry said.

She waved a potions bottle. "Thirty ounces, ground bat wings."

"Oh," Harry said, writing down the quantity.

"One ounce, spider hearts," she continued.

Harry repeated the quantity as he wrote it down.

"It would have been fun to be classmates, wouldn't it?" she said. "You know, I was in Gryffindor, too... we could have been friends. Six ounces, pickled toad."

"Er, yeah, maybe," he said, wondering where she was going with all of this as he wrote down another quantity.

She reached up and pulled out her hair clip, shaking her shiny long, blonde hair out and letting it cascade over her shoulders. Harry felt very flustered watching the process.

"That's better," she said. "I have to be professional in the classroom, but I can be more... relaxed here, right?" she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye and giving him a smile. "Twelve ounces, bull testicles."

"T-twelve ounces," Harry said, feeling some heat coming up on his face.

They continued unpacking ingredients; Melanadray calling them out and every so often giving Harry another smile. Finally they reached the end; Harry feeling conflicted about whether the end was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Harry," she said, putting her hand lightly on his shoulder as she opened up the door to the storeroom.

"Um, sure, anytime," Harry said, feeling a bit of disappointment as she lifted her hand off his shoulder.

"Anytime? I'll keep that in mind, Harry. It's good to have a bloke around that's so... helpful," she said, her azure blue eyes giving him a wink.

Harry felt his breath catch, the wink feeling like a physical punch. At that moment, he felt like she could have asked him to do anything, and he would have gladly complied. Walking out of the classroom, he grinned as he hoped that Voldemort didn't have any Death Eaters like her.

* * *

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in Dumbledore's library, dust swirling around the torches as they browsed through the very old volumes. Harry looked over at Hermione, who was deeply engrossed in a particular book. He had been spending a lot of time reading in the secret library, but there was no way he could keep up with Hermione, who had been reading through the dusty volumes like a fiend. He knew Hermione was good at research, but he still had to marvel at her recent focus as she made copious notes on spells that she thought might be useful to him.

Even Ron had been excited, for once, about spending time in a library. Since Hermione seemed determined to take a broad approach to everything, he had decided to focus on books devoted to dueling to find spells that might be useful to the D.A. meetings.

For Harry's part, he was currently fascinated with some of the more obscure information. At the moment, he was reading a book with extremely powerful spells used for large scale construction. The mountain tunneling spell he was reading was particularly interesting. Very few wizards could actually do it, and it was a very rare type of spell that concentrated a wizard's power, but temporarily drained it for several hours.

"You know," Harry said musingly, "I'm not even sure why some of this information is restricted. It usually says that most wizards wouldn't even be able to make them work. I mean, they're powerful, but... I guess I expected more summoning of demons from the depths of hell, or splitting the planet in half, or something."

"Yes, I know what you mean, Harry. I suppose the Ministry tends to restrict any sort of spell that could cause large scale damage, even if its intended purpose is useful," Hermione said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they released particular information only to the licensed guilds that need it."

"On the other hand," she continued, "some of this information is pretty - well, frightening, frankly. I was just reading about a potion that has a similar effect to the Dementor's Kiss - it destroys the soul of the recipient. Fortunately, it's an extremely complex potion, and has to be administered in very specific circumstances."

Harry looked over at Ron, who seemed unusually interested in a particular book. "What did you find, Ron?"

Ron looked up with a bit of an incredulous expression. "This book is... wow. It's a bit hard to follow, because the English is pretty old, but the first part of the book shows how to duel using single syllable spells. The next part tells how to do them while just speaking them in your head, not even out loud. It lists all sorts of stunners, shields, bludgeoners..."

Hermione looked up. "I didn't think that was possible," she said.

"Well, it looks complicated," Ron said. "All sorts of rubbish about mental states and precision wand control. It also says that it takes a lot of power to make them work."

Harry walked up and looked over his shoulder at a hand-bound book with cracked leather. "We need to learn these," Harry said decisively. "This is exactly the sort of thing that can give us a huge advantage if we get into another scrape with some Death Eaters."

Ron nodded. "All right, mate. Why don't I try and translate some of this? Maybe I can put together some study plans."

Ron noticed Hermione giving him a rather proud look. "What?" Ron asked, embarrassed.

"Oh, nothing, just - I've never seen you so interested in studying something," she replied.

"Well, we all need to help out, right?" Ron mumbled. "I, er, might need your help with some of this. It looks like it's Middle English or something."

"All right," she said, smiling at him.

Harry sat back down with his own book. While he was sure that Voldemort probably knew much of what was contained here, a lot of the books looked very old and obscure. It was likely that his Death Eaters did not have access to as much information as they had here.

Harry glanced over to his Pensieve. True to his word, Dumbledore taught Harry how to use it for faster recall of information. Harry had always had an average memory; nothing like Hermione's phenomenal memory, but the Pensieve seemed to make all the information much more orderly in his head. Harry planned on sharing the techniques with Ron and Hermione, but for now he wanted to experiment with it himself.

He didn't want them to know yet, but he had also been trying some of the extremely powerful spells when he was in the secret library by himself. Many of the spells claimed to need a lot of power behind them, and he wanted to measure himself. Although he seemed able to get the spells to work, he hadn't really had enough practice to make them operate to their full potential and wasn't totally adept at them.

Harry looked around the room. He had to admit that he had actually started to feel a tiny bit of confidence since they had started reading the restricted material. He finally felt like he was gaining a bit of an edge. He had to hope that it would all be enough when the inevitable conflict came.

* * *

Harry came down the dormitory stairs with his Firebolt over his shoulder, looking forward to practice finally starting. As expected, Ginny had easily made the team, along with the Beaters from last year, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, and their veteran Chaser, Katie Bell. They had additionally found a very promising Chaser named Sam Peterson, a fourth year. All in all, he felt very good about the upcoming season.

As he entered the room, Ginny was carrying her broom down the girl's dormitory stairs, looking excited as well.

"Hi, Harry," she said brightly. "Can't wait for practice, can you?"

Harry grinned at her. "You have no idea, especially after getting banned last year."

"When did Ron leave?" she asked.

Harry chuckled. "An hour ago. He said he wanted to get everything organized for our first practice."

"You know, he scared me a bit at tryouts. I've never seen him so - er, loud," she said, giggling.

"Yeah. You never saw Oliver Wood; he sounded a bit like that. But Ron won't let it go to his head like Oliver. He was just excited because it was his first day," Harry said, as they walked out the portrait hole.

"Can't wait to try out the Lightning in a real practice, too," Ginny said, as she patted her new fiery-red broom appreciatively.

"It's been working great. You were a terror at the tryouts; it was pretty impressive, actually," Harry said.

"Well, I don't know about that," Ginny said modestly. "But it's certainly nice to play on a good broom."

Ginny gave him an odd glance as they walked out of the castle into a cool, overcast day. It was to be a late afternoon practice, and storm clouds were starting to gather. Ron had been worried about their first practice getting rained on, but it looked like the storm wasn't to come in until later.

"Of course, I wrote Fred and George and thanked them for the new broom. It was awfully nice of them, wasn't it?" she asked.

Warning alarms started ringing in Harry's head. "Er, yes, it was. But you deserved it," Harry said, fighting to keep his voice level. Ginny was watching him carefully.

Ginny smiled. "Did I? That's nice of you to say, Harry."

"Well, you know, the old broom was... erm, having so much trouble... that... erm, Fred and George probably thought you needed a new one," Harry said awkwardly.

"Yes, that's true... and it was good timing, especially since they hadn't really seen the broom up close the rest of last year, and they didn't play with us over the summer," Ginny said musingly.

"Yeah, I guess they figured that the broom was getting old, and was, er, probably having problems..." Harry said, wishing he could think of something a bit less ridiculous to say.

They stopped in front of the doors of the changing room. Ginny turned and faced Harry, giving him a very serious look.

"I thanked them, of course, but what I didn't say was how much it meant to me," Ginny said, looking Harry straight in the eye.

Harry said nothing; his voice seemed to have left him.

"You know, even before I came to Hogwarts, I always wanted to do well on the Quidditch team, but never really had any confidence. I never told anyone, but, last year, it seemed like the expectations for the team were so low, that even if I didn't do well, no one would blame me. But this year, you're going to be back... and we won last year... and I was really afraid that the old broom wasn't going to cut it."

"So... it was very... caring of them, and I appreciate it more than... they... can ever know," Ginny said, and then abruptly turned and entered the witches' changing room.

Harry stood for a second, looking at the closed door, before he entered his own changing room and got dressed.

* * *

"Line up!" Ron shouted, as the team filed into the common part of the changing room and sat down in a line on the bench. Harry sat down at the end next to Ginny. Ron pulled out a stack of rather thick-looking books and handed them to Harry, who began passing them down the line one at a time.

"These are our playbooks. I spent a lot of time putting together formations, as well as optimal strategies. I want everyone to study them, memorize them, live them... Every practice, we will drill them. I want this team to execute them perfectly without even needing to think," Ron barked.

He began pacing back and forth, his hands behind his back. "Last year, we won the cup. But let's face it - it was close. TOO CLOSE!" he suddenly shouted, making everyone flinch. Harry and Ginny glanced at each other.

"We have by far the best team at Hogwarts. If we play together, if we play as a team - if we play with passion," Ron said, his eyes growing wide as he clenched his fists out in front of him, "we can't lose."

"Let me repeat that. Quidditch is about passion. It's about life. It's about giving everything you have, and more, and leaving it all on the field. It's about wanting the victory more than anything you've ever wanted in your life. When you're on the field, you have to embrace the beauty that is Quidditch... you have to be one with the broomstick. All that matters during the game is playing your position; being one part of a greater whole."

Ron paused, his eyes blazing with a manic fury as he looked each player in the eye, walking down the line.

His voice went to barely a whisper. "A greater whole. Not just the team - but the greater whole of the entire house of Gryffindor. We represent the pride of not only our fellow students, but every student, every team that has come before us. We must not fail them," Ron said, looking like he might break out in tears at any second.

He suddenly shouted. "Who are we?"

"Gryffindor!" Harry heard himself roar back along with the team; somehow caught up in the speech despite himself.

"What?" Ron said, putting his hand to his ear.

"Gryffindor!" they roared even louder.

"I can't heeeeaaaarrrrr you!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" the team screamed at him.

"Are we going to win this year?" Ron screamed.

"YES!" The team screamed back.

"Will we conquer all comers?"

"YES!"

"Do you swear, on all that you hold dear, to devote yourself totally to the passion of Quidditch when you're on that field?"

"YES!"

"THEN GET THE BLOODY HELL ONTO THAT FIELD FOR PRACTICE!" Ron screamed, his voice cracking.

Everyone leaped to their feet and almost trampled each other heading to the field.

* * *

It was several weeks later as Harry sat in the common room with Ron and Hermione doing some homework. Sighing, he put down his quill as he reflected on his first month.

"Boy, this month seems to have flown by this year. I can't believe we're going to Hogsmeade already tomorrow," Harry said. "I've been so busy with Quidditch, the D.A., not to mention just the normal classes. I'm really looking forward to the break."

Hermione suddenly looked a bit distressed. "Erm, Harry, about Hogsmeade tomorrow..."

Ron looked up suspiciously.

"What?" asked Harry.

Hermione blushed. "Well, er, that is, Joseph asked if I would I go with him."

"Oh," Harry said. He felt a bit of disappointment. Except for the time he and Ron had been fighting, he had always gone with both of them. Harry had been looking forward to just a normal, fun day.

Ron looked petulant. "You're going with the Runt?" he asked incredulously.

Hermione looked angry. "Just because he's a little, er, small doesn't mean you have to call him a runt! He's very nice, and he really likes studying with me. You know, you could be a little nicer, Ron Weasley!"

"I'll just bet he likes 'studying,' " Ron grumbled. "Well, you know what I'm doing tomorrow? I'm skipping Hogsmeade. To study!"

Hermione looked stunned. "You're going to skip Hogsmeade? To study?"

"Yes!" Ron said, looking triumphant.

"Are you feeling all right, Ron? You've been studying an awful lot lately... it's... er, not like you," she said, looking a bit worried.

Ron looked wounded. "Just because I've been studying doesn't mean there's something wrong with me," he said.

Hermione looked embarrassed. "Well, I didn't mean to imply that..."

Harry sighed. "So I'm going by myself?"

Hermione looked unhappy. "I could ask Joseph if it's okay if you come along..."

"No!" Harry said quickly. He definitely didn't want to get in the middle of that business. "No, you two have fun."

Ron shot Harry a look, as if he was unhappy that Harry decided not to tag along.

Harry went back to his homework, but was finding it difficult to concentrate. He didn't want to go Hogsmeade by himself, but he really wanted to get away from Hogwarts. He spied Ginny across the room and wondered what her plans were.

He got up from the table and casually walked over, feeling very nervous. Maybe he could find out if she already had plans without being too obvious about it.

"Um, hi, Ginny," he said. "I was just wondering if, er, you had a quill I could borrow."

"Hi, Harry," she said brightly. "Sure, I have one in my bag." She reached down, pulled up her bag, and started messily pushing items aside, looking for a quill. "Doesn't Hermione have any? I thought she always carried a pile of extras."

A very good question, Harry thought, feeling stupid at the obvious ploy. She handed him the quill, and Harry decided to ignore her question, hoping it would just go away.

"Thanks. So... looking forward to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Harry said, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Yeah. OWL studies have been a killer so far. I can really use the break," she said.

"Yeah, me too. Are you going with... friends?" he asked.

"Yes, a group of us are going," she said.

Harry felt frustrated at the lack of specifics. He wondered if a boy was taking her along with her other friends. He suddenly felt shy about the whole thing. He didn't want to get turned down if she was already going with a boy.

"Oh. Well have fun, then," Harry said.

Ginny gave him a strange look, and appeared about to ask him something, but thought better of it. "All right, Harry. Maybe I'll see you all there tomorrow."

"Yeah. See you," Harry said, walking off. He sat back down at the table, looking at the quill he had borrowed, feeling annoyed with himself. Why didn't you just ask her? he thought. Sighing, he went back to his work.

* * *

It was a pretty autumn day the next day as Harry set out alone to Hogsmeade, walking with the other students. He thought he saw some curious looks as he walked by himself, but he tried to ignore them. He really wanted to enjoy the day, and he was glad that the weather was nice.

As he walked, he noticed Ginny up ahead with her group of friends, her fiery red hair unmistakable as it sparkled in the sunshine. He matched their pace as he followed at a safe distance. There seemed to be about five people in her group including herself; three girls and two boys. He couldn't tell if she was going with one of the boys or not.

As they entered the village of Hogsmeade, Harry looked around, trying to decide where he wanted to go first. Just as he was deciding to pay a visit to Honeydukes, he heard a loud female voice call out to him.

"Harry!"

He turned around and noticed Parvati waving at him energetically. She was with Seamus, Dean, Lavender and another girl that Harry thought was a Hufflepuff. He saw her say something to the group and then ran over to Harry.

"Hi, Harry. Are you here by yourself?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Well, uh, sort of," he said, feeling a sinking sensation.

"Can I join you?" she asked hopefully.

Harry sighed. Feeling like it would be rude to give her a flat no, he said, "All right, then."

Parvati looked delighted and gave him a huge smile. "Well, let's go! Where do you want to go first? I have an idea... I know a really fun place to go. Let's go to Madam Puddifoot's!" she said enthusiastically.

"No!" Harry felt a feeling of horror, remembering the last time he'd been there with Cho. "I mean, no, why don't we go to Honeydukes? I was just on my way there, actually."

"All right, Harry. Wherever you want to go," she said happily.

As they walked together, Harry couldn't help but notice that she was looking very pretty, and was wearing the perfume she had been wearing the night of the D.A. meeting. He felt a bit flustered, remembering the temptation he'd felt that night.

"Where are Hermione and Ron?" she asked.

"Well, Hermione had a date, and Ron decided to study," he said.

Her eyes widened as she looked at Harry. "Hermione has a date? Who?"

"Er, Joseph something-or-other," Harry said.

"I know him! I'd been kind of wondering; they seemed to have been studying together so much lately. Well, you know Hermione - she studies so much anyway, but I didn't think she was actually going out with him, but he seems very nice, so I suppose it's not surprising that they might go out. It's funny that Ron decided to stay behind and study; he's never seemed like the studying type, but supposedly he did well on his OWLs last year, so I suppose anything is possible," Parvati said, without seeming to need to take a breath.

"Yeah," Harry said, not sure what to say to the parade of subjects she had just covered.

They walked into Honeydukes and Harry once again marveled at the wide array of sweets available at the shop. It certainly had to be the most colorful shop in Hogsmeade. He walked up to the counter and began listing an assortment of items to the shopkeeper. He made sure he selected some of Ron's favorites, as he felt bad about Ron staying behind, so thought some sweets might cheer him up.

"Oooh! I love these," Parvati said, as she pointed to a bin full of something called Grasshopper Gummies. As he looked into the bin, he could see them jumping around, seeming to try and escape.

"Are they good?" Harry said uncertainly.

"Oh, they're the best! You should try them," Parvati said.

Harry shrugged, deciding to go with the flow. He asked the man to add a bag full of the treat. The man carefully opened the bin, covering the opening with his hand. He held up the bag and let them jump in rather than trying to use his normal scoop.

He put the bag next to Harry's other bags. The bag jumped around on the table as Harry pulled out some money and paid the man.

They walked out of the shop, and Harry offered the bag to Parvati. "Thank you for buying me some, Harry," she said, smiling coyly at him.

Harry groaned to himself. He should have known it would be seen by her as buying a gift. No matter what he did, somehow it seemed to be interpreted as encouraging her. He needed to be more careful.

She offered him one of the Grasshopper Gummies. "Thanks," he said, popping it into his mouth. It jumped around violently and then exploded with a loud 'pop' sound. Harry was shocked for a split second, but then a sweet flavor covered the inside of his mouth with a delicious, silky texture. He had to admit, he really liked them.

"Wow, that is good," he said appreciatively.

Parvati beamed like Harry had just pronounced her the most beautiful girl on Earth. "I knew you would like them," she said.

They continued walking down the street, eating the gummies. Harry was just starting to relax a bit when he felt Parvati reach over and take his hand. He glanced over, and she was looking straight ahead, appearing a little fearful.

Harry felt a panic come over him. He didn't want to lead her on, but he also didn't want to hurt her feelings. His confusion rose, as part of him had to admit that it was rather nice holding her hand.

Stop! None of that! he thought desperately. He had to figure a way out of it. He looked around the street desperately, hoping something would come to mind. He spotted the Three Broomsticks not far away, giving him a possible solution.

"Erm, do you want to get a Butterbeer?" Harry asked nervously.

"All right. That sounds nice, Harry," she said, giving him another smile.

They walked up to the door, giving Harry an excuse to let go of her hand. She waited, looking at him.

"Oh," Harry said, dawning on him what she was waiting for. He opened the door for her, letting her through.

She waited for him to lead the way to a table. Deciding on a table toward the back where he couldn't be seen from the front windows, Harry led Parvati to a table and they sat down, with Harry facing the room.

"Uh, I'll go get us a couple of Butterbeers, all right?" Harry said.

"That would be wonderful, Harry."

Harry briefly thought about asking her for some money for her Butterbeer to make the whole event less of a date, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. She was looking at him so happily that he knew it would hurt her feelings. He wandered up toward the bar where Madam Rosmerta was serving drinks.

"Hello, Harry," said Madam Rosmerta, who was looking like her typical busty self.

Harry always felt a little shy around her. "Um, hi," he said. "Two Butterbeers, please."

As she pulled out two bottles, she peered towards Harry's table. "I see you have quite the pretty girl with you today," she said, winking at him.

Harry blushed. "Well, she's just a friend," he said.

"If you say so, Harry," she said, giving him an indulgent smile. "Well, here you go." Harry gave her some money, feeling a bit annoyed.

Just as he turned around to walk back, he heard a familiar laugh, drawing his eyes toward a table across the room. Ginny was sitting at a table with her friends. Harry continued walking to his table, hoping that Ginny wouldn't see him over there. He put the Butterbeers down on the table.

"Thank you, Harry," said Parvati with a warm smile.

Harry smiled back weakly as he took a drink from his bottle. He had a good view of Ginny from where he was sitting. She was sitting next to one of the boys, but Harry couldn't tell if they were sitting together or not.

"Oh, look," Parvati said in a low voice. "Hannah Abbot is here with Jack Sarnock. She's liked him for ages, but he never gave her the time of day. Looks like he finally asked her out. Lavender told me that his best friend John said that he was thinking about it, but I didn't think he'd really go through with it. He's kind of shy, you know? But I'm glad for Hannah. He better treat her well, though. Her brother is a seventh year and you should see the looks he gives the blokes that she goes out with. He'll hex him into next week if they do anything funny. Sometimes I wish I had a brother like that, but I suppose the boys I go out with don't, do they?" She giggled. "But I love having a twin sister, even though she ended up a Ravenclaw. But she was always more academic than I was."

Harry nodded through her monologue, giving an occasional "hmm" or "really?" which seemed to be all that Parvati required to keep the conversation going. He found his mind wandering while she chatted away about various subjects.

He looked over at Ginny. She was grinning as she talked with her friends. She gave a laughing smile to one of the boys at the table, causing Harry to feel a little annoyed as he wondered what he'd said to her. He wished he had just asked her to go with him back in the common room; maybe she would have turned him down, but at least there was a chance he could have been sitting with her instead of...

"What do you think, Harry?" Parvati said brightly.

"Pardon?" said Harry.

"I asked if you thought Cho was feeling better?" Parvati said. She didn't seem to notice that Harry hadn't been paying attention.

"Well, I talked to her at the first D.A. meeting, and I've sort of seen her around," he said. In fact, it occurred to Harry that he'd seen Cho around quite a bit. He hadn't really thought about it before, but it seemed like he ran into her a fair amount. It wasn't anything overt... between classes, during meals...

"Um," Harry said, realizing that Parvati was still looking at him. "She does seem to be feeling a lot better."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out between you two," Parvati said sympathetically.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I guess it goes that way sometimes."

Parvati nodded. "Yes! I was just telling Lavender that when I went out with Jeremy Johnson, I always had fun but he just wasn't right for me. He was a Hufflepuff, and was very nice, but I like a bloke that's a bit more... adventurous." she said, looking straight at Harry, giving him a flirtatious smile and touching his hand. Harry felt a nervous chill go down his spine.

Parvati continued chatting as Harry looked around the room, giving an occasional word here and there when it seemed to be needed. He found himself very distracted, however, as Parvati seemed to punctuate her points with touching his hand or his arm.

Harry suddenly felt some eyes on him. He looked up and noticed that Ginny and her friends had risen from their table. She was looking at him, her eyes moving back and forth between Parvati and himself. He smiled weakly and gave her a little wave. Her lips formed an almost McGonagall-like thin line as she nodded her head at him, and then turned abruptly and followed her friends out of the Three Broomsticks.

She seemed annoyed about something, Harry thought. He wondered if she'd had some sort of problem with her friends at the table.

"Do you want to look around Hogsmeade some more?" Parvati asked, their Butterbeers finished.

"All right," Harry said.

They both got up from the table and walked out of The Three Broomsticks into the cool autumn air. Some clouds had begun to form, as if a storm might be coming in overnight. They spent the rest of the day looking through curio shops, stopping at Zonkos and snacking at the various food carts that roamed the streets.

They were coming out of a particular curio shop at the end of the village when Harry spotted Ginny up ahead with her group of friends. He really didn't want to see her again while he was with Parvati, so he headed in the other direction.

"Come on, let's go this way," he said, gesturing in the direction of the lake.

Parvati's eyes widened. "Oh! That way? All right, Harry," she said, giving him a sly smile. Harry felt confused at her reaction.

Harry looked up ahead and couldn't see anything unusual. They were heading toward the lake, but there was a rather dense forest of bushes along the bank.

As he approached the bushes, Harry noticed a mischievous looking couple ducking behind some of the brush. Suddenly it hit him where he was leading Parvati - he suspected that this was a place for couples to find private snogging spots. Oh no, he thought, panicking.

Parvati grabbed his arm and pulled him into the bushes where no one could see them. Harry felt extremely nervous, and couldn't help but notice again how pretty she looked today. Parvati took a step toward him. She reached up and took a lock of her long hair in her hand, twirling it between her fingers.

"I'm so glad we met up today, Harry," she said slowly. She took another step forward.

"Um, yeah..." Harry said nervously.

"You know, Harry," she said, gazing up at him, "you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen."

"Uh, thanks..." Harry said, barely able to speak. Parvati was looking very, very pretty... she was standing very close...

Suddenly she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her, kissing him aggressively.

"Mmmph!" Harry said, his eyes wide in shock.

"Mmmrrowrr," Parvati responded, making a low growling sound.

Some part of Harry was telling himself that he needed to bring things under control, but another part was surging strongly. He rationalized that it might not hurt to kiss her for a few minutes as he put his arms around her...

"Great Merlin! It's bloody Snape!" someone yelled.

Harry immediately released her and backed away. Just hearing the name threw ice water on any surging feelings that he might have been experiencing. Harry noticed that a lot of couples appeared around him, looking nonchalant as they walked toward the lake.

Parvati looked at him with a frustrated expression as they walked to the lake as well. Harry saw Snape looking suspiciously at various students, but it appeared that he didn't catch anyone. For once in his life, Harry was happy to see Snape. If things had gone much farther, he wasn't sure how he would have handled things after this day.

They spent some more time sitting by the lake chatting; Parvati doing most of the talking. Harry gazed out over the lake, half listening to her talk about the various couples sitting around them.

"Well, we'd best be heading back, I guess," Harry said, noticing the sun getting low in the sky.

"I guess you're right," she said, looking a bit disappointed.

Harry got up, and Parvati held her hand up to him. Harry took her hand and pulled her up to her feet.

"Thank you, sir," she said, smiling at him.

As they started walking back to Hogwarts, Parvati reached over and took Harry's hand again. Harry sighed silently, letting her hold his hand. Looking forward, he saw Ginny far up ahead, and he was grateful she couldn't see him.

They finally reached Hogwarts, giving Harry an excuse to release her hand as they climbed the steps.

"I had a lot of fun today, Harry," Parvati said, stopping outside the doors, and walking a bit to the side, away from direct view. Harry followed her, wondering where she was going.

"Um, yeah, I had fun, too," Harry said politely.

Parvati beamed at him. "I'm so glad you had fun, Harry! I'm really glad we met up," she said, looking up at him, her dark eyes looking rather pretty. She took a step forward toward him.

Temptation surged up him, as Harry suspected what she had in mind. He backed away slightly, barely maintaining control over himself.

"Um, well, we better get in," Harry said, trying not to look at her too closely. He reluctantly began backing away toward the doors.

"All right, Harry," she said, looking slightly disappointed, but still smiled at him. "I guess you're hungry, aren't you? You've been working so hard in Quidditch practice."

"Yeah, that's right - hungry," Harry said, glad that she had given him an excuse.

They entered the doors, Harry feeling a bit of relief that the day was over, although he had to admit that it hadn't been horrible spending the day with Parvati. It had actually been rather relaxing, since she didn't require him to talk all that much.

They walked into the Great Hall, just beginning to serve up the evening meal. Harry sighed as Parvati stuck close to him. He had thought his time with her was done, but apparently not.

Looking around the room, he saw Hermione looking shy as she sat with Joseph at the Ravenclaw table. Harry blinked; he'd never seen her sit anywhere but at the Gryffindor table. He searched for Ron, but he was apparently still studying. Harry suspected that he might be avoiding Hermione.

He sighed again as he sat down at the Gryffindor table, Parvati sitting next to him. Listening with half an ear to Parvati's chatting, he saw Ginny down the table laughing animatedly with her friends, and he wished once again that he was sitting with her instead.


Author notes: All right, I know we’ve had a lot of Parvati the last couple chapters, but I promise to make it up to you H/G fans next chapter. It’s fluffy. Really fluffy. And angsty. Thanks again to my beta readers Allie Kiwi and DM. Please review!