A sirius matter

Chapter 6 - Lessons

She looked at him defiantly and replied, "It never hurts to read ahead." Then she looked over at Harry's companion. "Hello, Neville. It was quite a surprise to see you in class. Why did you decide to join?"

He looked down at the floor. "Er, well on the train, Draco and his goons beat me up again, and I wanted to stop it from happening next year. I know I can't practice you-know-what outside of school, but I can learn to defend myself in some ways here. My Gran didn't really like the idea, but I managed to get her to let me come. Why'd you two take the classes here?"

Harry answered, "I always end up in tight spots, so I thought that I'd like a little help getting out of them. Hermione decided to join me."

"We're dating now," said Hermione blushing. "Did Harry tell you?"

"Yeah. Listen, I've got to go. My Gran'll…."

"Neville," came a call from an old woman with the weirdest looking hat Harry had ever seen. He recognized it immediately from Neville's boggart, but was still shocked to see someone with a bird-hat anyway. "I told you not to talk too much to the other children. You might give away too much information."

"Gran," greeted Neville as they walked toward the door to meet his grandmother, "This is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

Mrs. Longbottom's eyes immediately darted up to Harry's scar. Her face turned a bit pale. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was you. I thought he was talking to muggle children and might accidentally reveal things about our world. Neville has, of course, told me all about the both of you. You must join us for an early dinner tonight."

Neville looked uncomfortable, so Hermione replied, "I'm terribly sorry, but we promised my parents that we'd go straight home. Some other time, perhaps."

"Oh, all right, dears. If you've promised your parents something, you should keep your word. I am curious as to why you're here. As I understand it, you're both very good at defending yourself."

"You can't learn too much self-defense," answered Harry. "Besides, none of the other wizards can fight hand-to-hand. It gives us the advantage in a fight."

"I suppose you could look at it that way. Neville, I suppose that from now on if I say anything against this class you'll reply, 'Harry Potter is taking the class.'"

Neville chuckled, "Yes, I will."

"Well," said Hermione, "It was nice meeting you, but we have to go. Goodbye."

"Yeah," agreed Harry as Hermione grabbed his hand, "See you later."

After they rode their bikes back to Hermione's house, Harry commented, "I wonder why Neville was so uncomfortable around his Gran."

"I don't know, Harry, but it's none of our business. I say we should do some school work for an hour, and then go swimming."

-ASM-

An hour and ten minutes later, Harry was outside in the swimming pool waiting for Hermione to come out. He realized that he'd never seen his girlfriend in a swimsuit before. For that reason, he was still wearing his glasses. When she finally came out, he wasn't disappointed. She was only wearing a silver one-piece suit, but it did a great job of revealing her almost fifteen-year-old form. Even though he thought she was pretty, he'd never actually thought of her as sexy, hot, or whatever word you use to describe a girl that looks that good. He was very glad that most of him was under water. If he weren't, then he'd have been very embarrassed by the reaction she was causing.

She blushed as she recognized the look in his eyes. She was surprised, though pleased, that he was looking at her like that. She decided to make him blush. "I see you like what you see," she said with a smirk, earning the desired result. His whole face turned bright red, and he dunked his head under water for a good fifteen seconds. When he came up for air, he saw that she was now in the water swimming toward him. He took a deep breath and went back under water and swam behind her, and then came up for air and grabbed one of her feet, and started tickling it. He was ready to catch her if she went under water because of this. "Ha-ha-ha-Harry Potter!" she screamed in between laughs as she tried to get free, "Let-ha-go-ha of me!"