Hermione was worried. Very worried. So much worried that she couldn't concentrate in Muggle Studies. Seemed to be having the same issue. Class had let out early, so Hermione and Ron walked straight to the common room. Once inside, they found no one there. The entire common room and dorms were empty.
"Harry must be outside or something." Ron guessed, Hermione nodded.
"Yes, I'm so worried about him Ron." she exclaimed, she sat down on a couch, Ron did the same on the other end.
"Me too Hermione, it's strange. None of it adds up."
"No, it doesn't. First the minister shows up asking if we knew where Harry was, next we meet up on the train but it turns out he's gone mute, then we learn he can touch unicorns, then we see him go into a panic attack when I started asking him questions, and then we learn he can do perfect non-verbal magic. It just doesn't add up. It's hard to communicate with him. And we can't even touch him without him knowing." Hermione ranted, Neville and Ginny came in at this moment,
"And how is he gonna do in Quidditch? What if this affects the team?" Ginny questioned, Ron nodded,
"And his classes, what if he has a question, how will he ask the teacher to explain. He acts as though he isn't worried about it, and that kind of scares me." Hermione tells them, that drew some looks,
"When we are in class, I see him get confused looks, but then suddenly it's as if he's no longer confused, or worried about it." Hermione explains, she felt all these changes confuse her, while they try to form an answer or possible cause. She couldn't think of any. How long would it be until the school learned about him, and Rita Skeeter? What will happen with You-Know-Who? Would he see this as a sign of weakness? Hermione wasn't sure.
The day had gone by mostly smooth, but in Herbology, Harry once again surprised her. They were to learn about the Whomping Willow. They had gathered about thirty meters away from the trees, Slytherins at one end of the group Gryffindors at the other. Hermione noticed the Malfoy and Harry stood next to each other, and seemed not at all concerned about the other. Must not have noticed each other. Hermione thought,
"Now, there is a way to calm the Willow, so as not to be attacked, who knows what it is?" Professor Sprout asked, Hermione of course knew the answer, "Ms. Granger,"
"If you press the roots, it calms down." Hermione explained,
"Yes and No. This tree has been trained to do such, but there is another way for any Whomping Willow you may come across." Hermione shrank a little, and she heard a few snakes snicker, "First Student to guess what it is you must do, will receive two hundred house points. Immediately all of the students huddled up to think. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Seamus, Dean and Harry all huddled together.
"Any ideas Neville?" Dean asked hopefully, Hermione looked at Harry, he seemed to be thinking.
"Maybe you sing it a song, that's not entirely uncommon for sentient plants." He guessed, Hermione looked at the tree,
"Let's try to come up with other ideas before we go and risk our health." the others agreed, she heard some gasps, and looked to see Theo Nott attempt to get near the tree, using a calming charm, the tree threw him back with it's branches but not as hard as normal. Maybe the charm did have some effect after all. She looked at Harry once more, only to find he looked spaced out. Was he even paying attention?
"Maybe multiple people have to use the charm at once?"
"No, the tree will still attack you." Neville replied firmly, she watched Professor Sprout go check on Nott. Suddenly she heard gasps. She turned and looked, to see Harry calmly walking towards the tree. The tree seemed to wound up as if to attack, but Harry simply stopped walking, she couldn't see his face, so she had no idea what he was doing. She moved so as to see better. The tree was about to throw it's arm when Harry whistled sharply. It was high pitched, and almost hurt her ears. Like a low-key super-sonic whistle. The tree froze, and the branches seemed to relax. Harry stepped forwards and as the tree lurched he whistled again. The tree relaxed. He continued this pattern until he was sitting in the branches, looking down calmly at the class, a blank expression on his face. Hermione swore she saw Malfoy beam at him, with... was that pride?
"Yes, congratulations, potter. Two hundred points to Gryffindor." she exclaimed excitedly. Hermione stood there shock still.
"w-what? how?" she spluttered, what was going on with the chosen one?
YOU ARE READING
Suffocation
FanfictionHarry Potter regained consciousness, the morning after his uncle raped him. He woke to find small horns on his head, huge black scaled wings on his back and a long, spear-like tail. Then the letter came. And when the goblins threatened to take Kovus...
