The End Of The Beginning

CHAPTER-7

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The next few weeks went by without incident. Harry and Hermione settled easily into their pre-term friendship and any awkwardness between them had seemed to vanish. Still, being around Hermione left Harry with an odd feeling in his stomach that he couldn't explain away and he caught himself on a few occasions rather guiltily indulging in her company in the Head dorm instead of searching out Ginny.

A welcome addition to their trio had been Aubrey, the new Hufflepuff Prefect they had met on the Hogwarts Express. She had indeed joined them for dinner that night he found Hermione in front of the mirror and every night since then. Harry found she made quite enjoyable company: she made everyone laugh and had an easy grace about her that made everyone around her feel comfortable.

Granted, her entry into the group came with its fair share of hiccups. She had gotten into a pretty serious row with Hermione over the issue of Death Eater amnesty ("A dark wizard doesn't change his spots." Aubrey had rather smugly proclaimed. "And I suppose Severus Snape playing double agent for seventeen years isn't proof enough?" Hermione had countered.) And Hermione was also rather taken aback that Aubrey was more successful than she at getting Ron to study ("The key is to make it fun!" she had chimed as she explained the rules to a magical board game where she had replaced all the trivia cards with study questions to a fuming Hermione). Ginny on the other hand was crestfallen that Aubrey was the final nail in the Hermione/Ron coffin ("You'd think she hung the moon." She whispered into Harry's ear one night at the sight of Ron's eyes glued to Aubrey at dinner).

Harry had been forced to ignore her on several occasions due to her annoying habit of asking him to relive some of his early adventures that she had not been at school for ("Oh come on, can't you at least tell me how you managed to sneak a dragon out of the school without getting caught?" she had whined as Harry sped into the loo to wait her out).

However, she had finally proven herself to Harry when she caught a Slytherin sixth year trying to hex a Gryffindor student and produced a perfect shield charm so that the Slytherin (a nasty piece of work named Simon Daugherty) spent the next two days in the hospital wing with a rather itchy rash in a sensitive area.

So three had become four (five counting Ginny) and now Aubrey accompanied them almost everywhere. Ron certainly seemed to enjoy her company, he looked more confident than Harry had ever seen him, which made Ginny change her mind about the girl. Even Hermione had come around when Aubrey had proven herself useful in studying for Arithmancy. Ron had given her the passwords for Gryffindor tower and the Head common room so that she often times joined them there during study hours or on weekends. Conversely, more than once she had disappeared with Ron and Harry had spotted them on the Marauder's Map in the Hufflepuff common room close by the kitchens.

"It's rather cozy." Ron explained to Harry, "Rather like a large, earthen den of some sort."

"That would make sense, since their mascot is the badger." Hermione had chimed in.

"Right. It's surprisingly bright though, they have these windows that make it look like you're underneath a sunny meadow or something. Rather brilliant if you ask me." Ron continued, a lazy grin stretching across his face as a rosy cheeked Aubrey joined them for lunch.

As September slid into October, Harry for the first time contemplated the anniversary of his parent's deaths. He had never really thought about it before, but now that he had actually been to see them he wanted to do something meaningful. He became preoccupied with what exactly he wanted to do. As far as who he wanted to go, Harry was putting that part off for the moment.

He knew he should take Ginny. She was his girlfriend after all and he would eventually have to include her in these sorts of things, but there was something in Harry that fought that notion. He wasn't much for including people in his past. Whatever sorrow and pain was there he didn't want to burden anybody else with. Ron had always seemed to know the appropriate distance to keep and what subjects to avoid with Harry and for that he was grateful. Strange as it seemed, hindsight had told him he had even been a little grateful at the time that Ron wasn't there when he went to see his parents the first time. He hated to admit it, but somewhere deep down it bothered Harry that Ron so often took for granted the one thing he always had that Harry didn't: a family.