Midnight Duel, Midday Love
Round and Round the Grapevine Goes
By Draco664
Round and round the grapevine goes.
As was his newly created custom on weekends, Harry sat at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast. Cho's house had welcomed him openly, even warmly. The discussions on the tactics and inventions he had used to decimate the Dark Lord's forces had been deep, long and loud. The thirst for knowledge that typified a Ravenclaw manifested itself in many different ways, but all were interested in the practical methods Harry had used to defend himself and what he had learned as an apparent follower of the Dark Lord.
Harry enjoyed his time with the Ravenclaws. In all his time at Hogwarts, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had so few classes together, making it difficult for him to form close friendships. Now that he was spending as much time as he could with one special Ravenclaw in particular, he had become a familiar face to the rest of the house.
"You still haven't told us how you survived falling from the cliff!" Padma Patil said, bringing up for what felt like the hundredth time a topic Harry kept trying to avoid.
"How would you have done it?" Harry asked for what felt to the listeners as the hundredth time, a grin on his features.
Several students seated around Cho and Harry groaned at this, one of Harry's favourite ways of diverting attention.
"I don't know! That's why I asked you!" Padma replied, a mixture of frustration and amusement on her pretty face.
"Surely you can figure it out." Harry stalled. "Just go over everything I had on me at the time. Tattered robes and a pair of glasses. Plus all we have learned at Hogwarts."
One of the younger students Harry hadn't met shook his head in disbelief. "You had to have had more on you than that. A wand at least."
Cho smiled. "No, David. His wand was handed back to him later that evening."
David crossed his arms, a speculative look on his face. "I didn't say 'his' wand, I said 'a' wand." he said carefully.
Harry smiled. "No, I didn't have a wand."
Padma interrupted. "Cho, do you know how he did it?"
Cho nodded. "I didn't at the time, and he knew something else besides what we normally learn here. I managed to finally figure it out, no thanks to Sirius."
Harry put on a faintly outraged expression. "Hey! My godfather was just protecting me! It's not his fault that you didn't work it out sooner. He never lied to you, you know."
This was new. "You met Sirius Black before he was exonerated?" the awed Patil twin asked Cho.
Cho blushed slightly and nodded. "He is very charming, but at the time he was very scary. I thought he was going to kill me, and less than five minutes later, I was sobbing into his robes."
"Well, the first time I saw him, I fell over backwards, I wasn't sure what he was." said Harry, remembering the night he blew up his Uncle's sister.
"Have you visited him since his exoneration? I bet the mansion he got off the Malfoys is pretty cool."
"No, I haven't seen him since the party. But the house isn't cool at all."
"What do you mean? If you haven't visited him since, when have you seen the house?" asked a confused David.
Harry gave him a sad smile. "Voldy took me there sometimes, for training. For rituals. It wasn't something I care to remember if I can help it."
All the students within earshot looked at their plates as if examining in minute detail what they were eating. Some of them gave a shiver.
"Why do you call him that?" Padma whispered.
Harry turned to look at her directly. "Because it shows just how silly it is to keep up calling him 'You-know-who'. Don't fear his name, just say it."
Padma gave her own sad smile. "I'm not brave like you."
Harry snorted. "Don't sell yourself short. Your twin sister is in Gryffindor, so unless you are the only identical twins who are totally unlike each other, you do have courage." Harry looked over his shoulder at the Slytherin table. "The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin when I first put it on. Just because it isn't your dominant feature, doesn't mean you don't have it."
The distinctive sound of Professor Moody's leg intruded into the conversation. "I didn't realise that Hat wanted to put you in Slytherin, laddie. You'd have done well there."
Harry smiled up at the scarred visage. "That's exactly what the Hat told me."
Moody smiled and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "My old house would have been just the place for a devious mind like yours. Not that you don't seem to have developed it yourself. By the way, that toy we were waiting for has arrived. I was thinking I'd put it through its paces later on. Interested in helping out?"
Harry's eyes lit up. "Count me in! When?"
"After lunch, since we still need to find somewhere to put it."
"I'll meet you at lunch then."
Moody nodded. "Enjoy your breakfast, boys and girls." he said as he turned to leave.
"Thank you, Professor." Harry replied, and his thanks were echoed by several at the table.
Cho's face was alight with curiosity. "What 'toy' are you talking about?" The rest of the table nodded with shared interest.
Harry looked abashed. "Sorry, but I can't tell you just yet. I need Dumbledore's permission first. I can say that you will all find out soon, by next week at the latest, and it is going to be used in our DADA lessons."
The students at the table resumed their breakfast at this.
"Well, Potter. Even with fame and all my family's money, you still can't keep a girl satisfied." came a familiar drawl.
Harry turned in his seat and looked up at Draco Malfoy. "How are you holding up?" he asked politely.
Harry's apparent concern completely threw the only surviving Malfoy off. He paused for a while before continuing his teasing. "Didn't you hear me? Your girlfriend has apparently got someone else to scratch an itch you haven't been able to."
Cho's face coloured, but Harry didn't even blink. "Not too well then, it seems." he sighed.
The younger Malfoy sneered. "Why do you care anyway?"
Harry shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Draco. For everything."
Malfoy's face grew as red as Ron's hair, and he turned and stormed back to the Slytherin table.
"Why were you being so nice to him? Did you hear what he said?" hissed Cho.
Harry turned to her with a surprised look on his face. "You once told me to change the way I dealt with him to what ever he could handle the least."
Cho calmed down somewhat. "That's right, I remember."
Harry smiled at her. "If you'd jumped up and yelled at him, he would have succeeded to rile us."
Cho nodded, and looked around at her fellow housemates, all of whom also nodded in agreement. "But why were you so nice to him?"
Harry smirked. "Back in Diagon Alley, when we first started going out, he tried insulting us. I was jovial and outgoing, and he couldn't handle that. Now, since his life has changed, the only thing he has left is pride. The thing he could handle least is pity."
Cho's colouring returned to normal, and a smile appeared. "You know, if everyone just said, 'You poor thing' when he tried to insult them, it would drive him crazy." she said thoughtfully. Nearly every other Ravenclaw within earshot also nodded, a smirk appearing on not a few faces.
Harry gave her hand a squeeze. "That's my girl."
"Ron!" said an exasperated Hermione. "Someone is trying to break up Harry and Cho."
Ron shook his head. "So you saw Cho in the shower with another guy. Which is more likely, Cho is cheating and doing it with someone else, or someone took poly-juice potion to look like her and hope someone caught them in the shower together?"
Hermione paused to think.
"For all you know," Ron continued, "This fellow may have a crush on Cho. He may have persuaded his girlfriend to take the poly-juice to look like Cho so he can act out a fantasy."
Hermione wrung her hands together. "I wish we had made it possible to rewind the new Maps."
Ron gave her a smirk. "As I recall, Harry suggested that when we were designing them, and you quite quickly shot the idea down." He watched in amusement, as his girlfriend blushed red.
"I didn't want anyone to be able to, well..."
"Find out where our favourite 'hiding' spot are and discover what we do there?"
Hermione shot him a look, one he had learned long ago meant he was coming dangerously close to a period of enforced celibacy.
"Ron, you know Cho." Hermione continued, her voice as if nothing had happened, her face still hard. "Do you think she would cheat on Harry so soon after they got back together?"
Ron sighed deeply and shook his head. "I guess not. But the idea of someone using poly-juice potion just to break them up..."
"Harry suggested it actually."
Ron nodded absently, then blinked and gave Hermione a look of horror. "You told Harry that Cho was cheating on him?"
Hermione nodded, her face showing her shame. "He didn't even blink. He just sounded as if what I said was impossible. He trusts her so much. I can't believe how much, considering."
"Why? Why even tell him in the first place?"
"You don't think he has a right to know?"
Ron gave her a look of complete surprise. "Of course he does, but have you spoken to Cho about this at all? In passing even?"
Hermione shook her head. "We thought it would be better if I spoke to Harry first."
"We?"
"Ginny and I."
Ron closed his eyes and put his face in his hands. "You told Ginny that Cho was cheating on Harry." came his muffled voice.
"No! I just said I saw a couple having sex, that the girl is going out with someone else, and that I know that person better than the girl."
Ron's shoulders slumped. He looked up in disbelief. "You think Ginny won't be able to work that out? She still isn't over Harry you know."
"Oh, Ron! How can you say that? She has been nothing but a friend to him since he came back to us."
Ron gave his girlfriend a look of defeat. "I've known Ginny longer than you, I watched her grow up. There is less than a years difference in our ages." He looked down at his feet. "Of all us Weasleys, only the twins are closer to each other than Ginny and I." Ron paused, collecting his thoughts.
Hermione waited for Ron to continue. He raised his head and looked into her eyes.
"I see her, even now, looking at Harry; in the common room, at meals, in classes. She is all smiles, but for something, something in her eyes. She still wants him, 'Mione. She has all her life. Two weeks is not enough time by a long shot for her to get over him, to realise he is not available. If you've put the idea in her mind that Cho and Harry might break up, she is going to stop trying to get on with her life, and go back to chasing Harry." Ron looked down at his twitching hands. "I just don't want Ginny to be hurt again."
Hermione moved forward and hugged her boyfriend. "You are such a wonderful person, Ronald Weasley."
Ron put his arms around her. "I really don't want Ginny to be hurt 'Mione, she has been through too much pain already."
The pair stood together for a while. Finally the growling coming from Ron's stomach brought a wry smile to Hermione's lips. She turned her head and placed a soft kiss on Ron's cheek. "Let's go to breakfast, to shut your tummy up. Honestly, it's like I'm going out with two people sometimes." she said with a smile.
Draco sat back down at the Slytherin table, his face flaming. Damn you Potter, he thought to himself.
Draco let his mind drift back to the visitor he had after he had been caught at Malfoy Manor. There was a way for him to restore his family name and honour, he had been told, but it would mean putting his life in a certain amount of danger.
Putting his life in danger was not something Draco had habitually considered doing.
When Potter had killed his parents, Draco's entire world had changed. The illusion of respectability his family's fortune had surrounded him with had been torn asunder, revealing to the world just how far the Malfoy family had fallen to the Dark. Draco had initially assumed that he would be able to simply pay off the ministry officials, or distract them with donations to charities, much like his father had done, but for the fact that all his family's gold was now piled in Potter's stinking Gringott's vault.
He himself was not poor, as the trust funds his father had established in his name had performed adequately. But that money would not support him in the lifestyle to which he was accustomed.
For the first time in his life, Draco had seriously considered risking his life. The unnamed visitor had given him a plan, an outline on how he could restore honour ot the name Malfoy. It would be dangerous, and even foolhardy, since many would be expecting him to do something.
The blond Slytherin looked up and stared at the back of Potter's head. He has everything, and now I have nothing, Draco thought.
Well, that would change.
Not too long after breakfast, Harry and Cho made their way along one of Hogwart's many twisted corridors. The pair walked directly up to an ornate door, the frame covered in gold leaf. Harry knocked and waited.
"Enter." came the precise, clipped voice of the deputy headmistress.
Harry opened the door, and allowed Cho to enter first. He followed his girlfriend, and closed the door behind him.
"Ms. Chang. Mr. Potter. Please take a seat."
Harry smiled, and offered Cho the closest armchair. Professor McGonagall took her seat behind the large oak desk. After both witches were seated, Harry smoothly reclined into another chair.
"I must admit, I am curious as to why you felt the need to organise a formal time to speak with me. I have a suspicion, but I think it would be best for all concerned to let you explain."
Harry took a deep breath. "Cho and I would like to get your permission to undertake a special transfiguration project."
A series of almost undetectable twitches at the edges of the deputy headmistress' mouth betrayed her amusement. "A special transfiguration project?" she asked innocently.
Cho smiled. "I'd like to attempt to become an animagus, Professor."
"I see." Professor McGonagall replied, no surprise evident in her voice. For a long moment she regarded the two students. "I trust you are not being compelled to do this against your better judgment?"
"Of course not!" Cho blurted, then blushed slightly and continued in more civilised tones. "Animagi are very rare, and I don't believe that a full study of the procedure has been conducted." Cho took a deep breath. "It was once thought impossible for a witch or wizard to assume the form of a magical animal. Rather obviously, that is not the case."
Harry spoke up. "We would like to try and document the entire process, from the point of view of attempting to become a magical creature. To try and determine whether it is possible for any mage, or if only some select few have the potential."
For the first time, McGonagall looked interested in their proposal. "The procedure for someone to follow to become an animagus is fairly well documented. The way the person in question decides on the animal form is not." The professor stroked the tip of her chin in thought. "Have you thought about the impact this project will have on your studies? On you preparation for your NEWTs and OWLs?"
Harry and Cho nodded. "If possible, I'd like to use this as my final Transfiguration project for the year." said Cho. "Merging it with my schoolwork will make it less of a studious burden, and allow me to study with my friends, not keeping it secret."
"I'd also like to point out that this project will have little to do with me beyond some interviews and perhaps a medical examination. I'm more than willing to aid Cho in any way, but this project is unlikely to take up much of my time at all." Harry added.
"Do you have an animal in mind, Ms. Chang?" asked the Professor. "Normally you don't need to decide before a certain stage in the procedure, but for this project it may make a difference."
Cho blushed slightly and nodded. "I'd like to attempt to become a phoenix too, Professor. With that common point of reference, I think it will make it easier to identify the requirements of becoming a magical creature."
The stern professor slowly stood and began pacing behind her desk. "Ms. Chang, I have a long standing guideline that doesn't allow a seventh-year student to attempt something like this, especially as part of the NEWTs. The success rate for people who attempt to become animagi is so small that most don't even consider it, even if they have the aptitude."
Cho tried to keep her face neutral, but couldn't help but feel tears of disappointment form.
"However," McGonagall continued, "your premise has much merit, and such a study, if successful, would add immeasurably to the knowledge of the wizarding world. You may undertake this project with my blessing, with one condition."
"Yes, Professor?" asked Cho, expending all her discipline just to keep from jumping in joy.
"In three months, you will report to me your progress. If I deem it necessary, you will choose a different project for your final Transfiguration NEWT. If you appear on track to succeed, you may use the project for your final grade."
"No, I don't believe it." Ginny told yet another student as Ron and Hermione sat next to her at the breakfast table.
"Don't believe what?" asked Ron absently, as he started filling his plate with bacon, sausage and hash browns.
"That Cho is cheating on Harry." said Ginny simply.
Ginny watched with glee as Ron dropped his plate and Hermione started coughing. "What? Do you two know something we don't?" Ginny continued, capturing the attention of every Gryffindor within ten meters.
Both Hermione and Ron sat still, their faces betraying that they did in fact know something.
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