It’s almost been a week since the Hogsmeade trip and I’ve barely spoken to Seamus since then. I have a lot of different classes from him, and a lot of other Gryffindors as well, is mostly why. He is in my N.E.W.T. Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense against the Dark Arts classes, but I’m always with Harry and Ron. Ah well, I know I’ll see him eventually.
Yesterday, after having a delicious dinner of roast beef and honey ham in the Great Hall, the students at the Great Hall just laid back and enjoyed each others’ presence. After an hour, Professor Dumbledore dismissed us all to our dormitories. We all got up to leave, when I felt someone tap me sharply on the shoulder. To my surprise, I turned around to see Professor McGonagall forming a thin line with her mouth. Harry and Ron stopped as well when they didn’t see me next to them.
“Potter, Granger, Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you in his office. Weasley, lead these students up to the common room,” she said sternly.
Ron nodded slightly, and gave me and Harry a curious stare. Had we done something wrong? I had only been to Dumbledore’s office once before, and the prospect of going again made me jittery. I glanced at Harry to try and read his expression, which I couldn’t translate. Catching me looking at him, he gave me an encouraging smile, which made some of my worry vanish. If Harry wasn’t worried, then I shouldn’t fret too much either, right? Harry and I walked side by side with Professor McGonagall a few footsteps ahead. We went up a flight of stairs and then stopped in front of two gruesome-looking stone gargoyles.
“Licorice wand,” Professor McGonagall stated clearly.
The stone gargoyles jumped out of the way revealing a shiny oak door. I began to fret again.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Harry whispered sideways to me. Once again, Harry managed to somewhat lift my subtle feeling of dread. We walked up a few steps and reached another door. Professor McGonagall rapped on it smartly, then a voice from inside said,
“Come in.”
Professor McGonagall opened the door for us and we walked inside. A large red bird that I immediately recognized as a phoenix squawked loudly.
“Good to see you too, Fawkes,” I heard Harry mutter fondly.
“Have a seat!” Dumbledore said merrily. He was sitting at his desk in a large, comfortable-looking, leather chair. Harry and I each took seats on maroon velvet armchairs positioned in front of his cluttered desk. Professor McGonagall left the room, and Dumbledore’s silvery eyes settled on us.
“Do you two have any idea why you are here?”
“Er…” I began.
“No, we don’t,” Harry said quite plainly.
“I wouldn’t expect you to. I called both of you up here because I would find it useful if you, Ms. Granger, would continue to be willing to organize, and you, Mr. Potter, would continue to teach the, shall we say, the Defense Against the Dark Arts League. Though you could still call it Dumbledore’s Army if you prefer,” he said as his eyes twinkled. “Anyway, since Dolores left, I am again allowed to do what I see fit for this school, and I think that our students would do well as to practice the Defense Against the Dark Arts regularly.”
“Sir, now that Professor Lupin has returned, Harry being a teacher isn’t exactly… necessary, is it?”
“If we wish to protect ourselves against Lord Voldemort, we will need more that one class every few days to protect ourselves. Professor Lupin cannot possibly do this as well, so I am asking if you would be able to do this for our students.”
“Of course,” Harry said. “I mean, we will need all the help we can get in the Final Battle.”
I shivered. Thinking about it made my knees shake and my legs wobble, even though I was sitting down. To think that either Harry or Voldemort must die at the hands of the other…and Voldemort is a very powerful dark wizard…I’m scared for Harry. I mean, what if he…dies? He is my best friend and…I just don’t want to think about losing him.
“Wonderful,” Dumbledore said beaming. “I’m sure everyone will be eager to get started. Of course, you may still use the Room of Requirement for your meetings, and I will ask the House Heads to put up a sign-up sheet on each of the bulletin boards in the common rooms. You may get several new members. You will feel much more freedom with this, now that it is not hidden. If you do happen to need help with anything, I am sure either Professor Lupin or myself will be happy to attend to it.”
“Okay, I’ll get this going as soon as I can. Oh yeah, thanks for lifting my lifetime banishment from quidditch, Professor.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Professor Dumbledore said winking. “I will make sure everyone disregards anything Dolores Umbridge did while she was at this school. I’ll be looking towards to the first game next month. I would also like to say thank you to both of you for willing to get this started again, and especially to you, Hermione, because this was all your idea.”
I felt my face heat up.
“I’ll let you go to your dormitories now,” he said getting up. “Teacher’s meeting soon.” He pointed his wand at the center of the office and conjured up a long, gleaming wood table.
“Good night,” we said as we closed his door quietly. As soon as we passed the stone gargoyles, I said,
“Wow, the D.A.! I thought we had gotten in trouble. I can’t wait to start.”
“Me too, I was beginning to miss teaching those lessons. When do you think we should have the next meeting?”
“Well tomorrow is Wednesday…Gryffindors have quidditch practice on Saturday, Hufflepuffs on Monday, Ravenclaws on Tuesday, and…do you think that any Slytherins will actually join? Their practice is on Thursdays, mostly.”
“We might, so that leaves Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays open.”
“Does Friday sound good to you?”
“Should be. Hermione, d’you think you can help me think of what we should go over on the first meeting?”
“Probably a review of everything we did last year. That might be helpful.”
“Good idea and since we’ll have some new members, we can help them out too and make them feel welcome.”
“Okay. When we get back upstairs I need to work on my Potions paper.”
“But we only got that today!”
“Procrastinating-“
“-will get you no where, Harry,” he finished with a sad sort of grin. “Fine. Ron and I have to do some charts for Divination. They’re due tomorrow.”
“Go figure.”
“I can’t help it if we can’t all be like you, Hermione.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“We all can’t be smart, pleasant, and caring.”
I looked over at him.
“But just because you’re lazy doesn’t mean you aren’t clever, Harry. And of course you are caring and nice!”
His eyes clouded over for a moment and he stopped in front of the portrait hole.
“It’s just…I…I dunno…Ivory wood,” he said climbing through.
I climbed in as well.
“What are you talking about Harry?”
He grinned and then rubbed my head so that my hair was messy.
“It’s nothing. Don’t you have a Potions paper to do?”
“Hey!” I said scowling. I began to laugh. “Yes, I think I’m going to do it upstairs though.”
“G’night, then.”
“Night.”
I went upstairs and took out a few of my books, a bottle of green ink, and my raven-feather quill that Mum got me from Diagon Alley. I wrote a good eight inches before I fell asleep writing.
When I woke up the next morning, my quill and books were put away nicely. I suspect Lavender and Parvati did this for me. They can actually be nice sometimes…when they’re not gossiping about people, that is. I grabbed my book bag and stuffed my Transfiguration and my Arithmacy books in it for today. I then changed my robes and set off for the Great Hall. While I was walking down a flight of steps, I opened my Transfiguration book to read up on the right way to flick your wand when turning a cat into a small jewelry box. A piece of parchment slipped out a fluttered to my feet. I bent down and picked it up. It was a little torn, and was scrawled hastily in blue ink.
Hermione,
Meet me outside of the Great Hall after breakfast. I have something to show you, but it’s a surprise. Can’t wait to see you,
-Seamus
My heart began to beat quickly. A surprise? I wonder what that would be…and I also wonder how he got that note in my book…its been upstairs with me the whole night. Odd, I’ll have to ask about that. I wrung my hands on my robes as I continued down to the Great Hall. Was it a good surprise or a bad one? Well I was about to find out after breakfast. I got down to the Great Hall and walked over to the Gryffindor table. Spotting Harry and Ron, I set down my schoolbag and sat down across from them, and next to Lavender and Parvati who were giggling and pouring over the super-glossy pages of ‘Teen Witch-Weekly.’
“Hi Harry. Morning Ron.”
“Hey Hermione,” Harry said eating a bowl of oatmeal.
“Morning Hermione,” Ron replied as he gulped down some orange juice.
Ron was telling Harry about the Chudley Cannon’s winning streak. I was reading up on the spell for Transfiguration when Lavender nudged me. I glanced at her, and saw that Parvati had left the table.
“Did you get the note?” Lavender asked curiously.
“Yes…that was you?”
“Yes and no,” she said closing the magazine. “We put it in your book, but Seamus wrote it and told us to give it to you. We figured that a book would be the quickest way you would find it.”
“You were right about that part. Er…thanks.”
“So what do you think your surprise is?”
“You read my note?”
“Of course I did! What did you expect? I’m too curious to be trusted,” she said as she giggled.
I sighed heavily and turned a page in my book.
“I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” I said lowering my eyes to the book.
“All right,” Lavender said disappointedly.
When I looked back, Ron was staring at me with a funny look on his face.
“What was that about?”
“Oh, not you too. Besides, it’s none of your business.”
“She’s right, Ron,” Harry said. “…but that doesn’t stop us from asking,” he said laughing.
“Honestly!” I huffed as I turned my back to them.
Why was everyone being so nosy? I mean, I can understand Lavender, it’s practically her nature. But Harry and Ron? Well, actually it’s like their second nature too…I remember when I kept Viktor from them in fourth year. They simply would not leave me alone.
Breakfast neared to a close, and I shut my book and put it in my schoolbag as I walked up to the exit of the Great Hall. Seamus was standing there, leaning against the door to let people pass. His ice-blue eyes were scanning the crowd.
“Hermione!”
“Hi Seamus,” I said. Oh no, was I blushing? How embarrassing…the thought made me turn a light red. I came up to him.
“What are you up to?”
”You did want to meet me here, right?”
“Right. I have a surprise for you.”
“And what would that be?”
“Turn around and close your eyes.”
I did and cautiously opened one eye a crack.
“No peeking!” he said sternly.
I laughed and shut my eyes. He lifted my hair and slid something around my neck.
“Open your eyes.”
I looked down to see a small gold heart on a slender golden chain. It was very shiny and when examining it closer, I found that it was a locket. I opened it to find something inscribed. On one side it said, ‘You’re in my heart’ and the other side read ‘I hope I’m in yours.’ I gasped.
“Seamus!”
“Do you like it?”
“I-I…”
“You don’t like it?”
“No, I love it! Thank you, but you really didn’t have to do this for me.”
“I just thought you deserved something really special, because you yourself are really special.”
My cheeks turned a light pink.
“Shall I accompany you to Transfiguration?” he asked me.
“I was going to go with Harry and Ron, but it looks like they’ve left all ready.”
“So you’re stuck with me.”
“Looks like it,” I laughed.
“Well, I’m not that horrible,” he said winking.
“That’s a relief.”
While walking up to Professor McGonagall’s classroom, our hands found each other, and Seamus gave a slight smile. His hand felt cool against mine. I was glad I didn’t have sweaty palms, or that would be simply dreadful! I didn’t want to ever let go of his hand, but we soon neared the classroom. Seamus let go of my hand, reluctantly, I hope, then tilted up my chin with his hand. He gave me a soft kiss on the mouth, and then smiled.
“See you later, Hermione.”
I swear I could’ve melted. Instead, I gave a small smile, and we walked into the classroom, me looking particularly love-struck, I imagine. I don’t think I’ve said this before, but I’m glad I write all this down in invisible ink. No one can ever read it but me.
-H. Granger