After the excitement of Halloween, November was a bit of a let down. The weather changed, it rained constantly, the temperature dropped, classes became harder, homework increased and any lessons in the potions classroom made fingers freeze. The lake froze over enough that a few students were able to walk on it, as long as they stayed in the shallows.
Harry was grateful, like he was every year, that there was a fire roaring in the Gryffindor common room during the night as his sleep was now non-existent. When the others students were in bed he either went to the Room of Requirement and practised fencing as Snape was still beating him at every fencing lesson, or Harry stayed in the common room and practised his wandless magic. He had become better at controlling it, but it did help that his Occlumency lessons were now wandless magic lessons as he had mastered Occlumency.
The Friday after Halloween went down very well. The Hufflepuffs could be seen dancing and running around by a bonfire on the front lawn with a few of the Professors to keep them in check. Most of the other students found themselves either sitting at the windows in the Great Hall or on the landing with large windows overlooking the front lawn next to the library to watch the fireworks. Ron had informed Harry that they had been purchased from the twins store and they went down very well. The air was punctuated with large dragons, small fairies and even fireworks that shot up and burst to reveal the Hufflepuff house symbol.
In the second weekend there was that years second Quidditch match, Slytherin wiped the floor with Hufflepuff with the final score being 300 – 10. Harry personally thought it was to repay them for beating them at the Halloween challenges. Luckily for the other houses Slytherin also had 200 house points deducted at 3am the following morning when they woke McGonagall trying to sneak into the Transfiguration classroom to get to the rats she kept for practice during lessons.
Snape became a real pain in lessons, more so then usual. To get his own back, Gryffindors were having points taken from them for merely walking too slowly, walking too quickly or for breathing too heavily. Harry had 20 points deducted for finishing his potion perfectly 10 minutes before everybody else. This made Snapes lessons fair game for the prank wars, which had started up again. It was as if the Weasley twins were back in school. The Slytherins and Snapes classroom were, of course, the main targets so Advanced lessons had to be moved to another classroom, as somebody had painted the other room pink and it was taking Filch longer then expected to clean it as it was resistant to cleaning spells and required manual labour to remove the paint. Harry would swear blind that he had had nothing to do with it, but under Veristium he would have cracked.
Apparition lessons were going very well. Harry was still getting the funny sensation in his heart each lesson but had learnt to tune it out. By the end of November only a few students had not managed to apparate without the verbal incantation. Ron and Neville were two of these students. Ron had just given up and Neville was too afraid to try non-verbally after a few more students splinched themselves. This left Harry and Hermione to apparate in and out of each others' circles laughing and joking around especially when Hermione landed on top of Harry's shoulders. Snape was lording it by the last weekend of November as his was the only house where all of the students had mastered non-verbal apparition. The only upside was that Snape started to lay off the Gryffindors and stopped taking extortionate amount of points.
In classes the teachers started giving them more and more homework. McGonagall started doing human transfiguration with her sixth form class. She had been thoroughly annoyed to find a queue of them outside her classroom on Halloween morning demanding she transfigure them so they could become their chosen witch or wizard. In charms they were learning some household spells Flitwick thought they should all know by now, and Professor Pentagon had suddenly gotten the hang of burying them under a mountain of essays.
For Harry November was only memorable for one reason, he acquired a girlfriend. He still went all flustered thinking about it. It happened on the last Wednesday of the month after a Transfiguration lesson. They had started out small on human transfiguration by changing the shape and colour of eyebrows and hair as they could always be grown back if something went drastically wrong.
'Come on Hermione. Please do the ginger one again.' Harry pleaded with Hermione who sat with her arms crossed looking irritated.
'No Harry.'
'Why? Too many bad memories?' Harry jests. He had been trying to convince her to turn her hair to ginger again like she had managed to do when she became a cat in their second year due to an accident with Polyjuice Potion. Hermione pulled over her book and ignored him. Harry closed it forcing her to look at him.
'Look, I won't laugh.'
'I will.' Ron snorts from Hermione's other side. Hermione slams her book into her bag and escapes as the bell for lessons to end rings. Harry quickly follows her. He catches up with her just outside the library sitting on a windowsill looking out at the frozen lake. She doesn't bother looking at him as he stands beside her and drops his bag next to hers.
'You should be in Herbology.'
'So should you.' Hermione sighs. Harry sits down on the windowsill next to her.
'Sorry about Transfiguration, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.'
'I didn't know you knew girls had feelings.'
'Well, you see, I have this girl friend who constantly tells me to stop being insensitive.' Harry retorts.
'Girlfriend!' Hermione says looking questioningly at Harry. Harry rubs the back of his hair embarrassed.
'I meant… not that you're not very pretty… you… I am not very…' Harry stutters.
'I was joking with you Harry.'
'But if you want… I wouldn't mind dating you… I mean you're intelligent…' Harry trails off at Hermione shocked expression.
'When did you start to fancy me!' Harry looks up and catching Hermione's eyes leans forward and kisses her softly. Hermione is startled but returns the pressure leaning closer towards him.
'Really Potter, couldn't you find a better mate then that?' They look up to see Draco with Nott and Pansy sneering at them. Harry looks at Pansy and says.
'At least I didn't end up with that!' Pansy walks away in a flounce.
'Be careful what you say Potter, the Dark Lord has many spies.' Nott says smugly.
'Yup. I'm looking at one Nott. You'd better hurry along and beat Pansy to the Owlery or else your father will present the information to Voldemort second. You know second best is not good enough.' Nott turns around quickly and follows Pansy.
'I'll leave you two to your…' Draco sneers 'Kissing.' He turns and walks calmly away. Harry leans back over and kisses Hermione pulling her closer to him.
'I think I started fancying you at the beginning of the year but you were dating my best friend.' Hermione blushes.
'You do know that besides Parvati and Lavender, Pansy is the biggest gossip in school, this will be all over the castle before dinner.' Hermione says. Harry's face becomes a picture of horror.
'We'd better get to Ron first then.' Harry grabs Hermione's hand and starts to pull her down the corridors towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
'Harry, stop!'
'Look, Ron doesn't have any lessons so he should be in the Common Room.' Harry shouts the password to the Fat Lady at the end of the corridor and then rushes them both along so they get through before the portrait closes. Inside they immediately spot Ron talking to Lavender around a table in the corner, and Harry pulls Hermione over to him.
'Ron!' Ron looks up startled at Harry's yell. Seeing Harry and Hermione advancing on him quickly Ron stands up panicked.
'What? Are my parents okay? Vision?'
'No, nothing like that.' Ron breathes a sigh of relief.
'Then what is it? You seemed pretty worried.'
'Um… can we talk alone?' Harry looks over at Lavender. Lavender gets the hint and leaves.
'What's wrong?' Harry looks over at Hermione and then back to Ron.
'We have something to tell you.. Hermione and I are dating.' Harry says slowly gauging Ron's reaction. Ron sat down stunned for a moment before nodding. Harry, who had been expecting Ron to throw a fit, frowns.
'You're okay with this?'
'Sure. Hermione and I broke up ages ago.' Harry looks over at Hermione confused. Ron laughs at their expressions and stands up clapping Harry on the shoulder. 'I'm dating Lavender.'
'Oh.' Ron smiles at them and heads over to Lavender who had moved to another table. Hermione is the first to recover.
'Well, that was…'
'Unexpected.' Harry says before turning to smile at Hermione. 'Well at least I'm not losing my best mate over a girl.' Hermione playfully hits Harry's arm.
'Well as we have missed Herbology we had better get to lunch as we will need to question Neville on what we have missed.' Hermione, still holding Harry's hand, drags him out of the common room.
As they enter the Great Hall students turn and look at them. Deadly glares are shot at Hermione when they see she is holding Harry's hand and the males are trying to understand what Harry might see in Hermione. Harry was content to let the males wonder, Hermione did a good job of hiding her figure under the unflattering uniform and even at weekends she still wore jeans and baggy jumpers. As they reached their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. Parvati was sitting opposite them and just glared at Hermione for taking Harry off the available lists.
'Hi Parvati.' Harry smiles as he sits down and serves himself some sandwiches. Afterwards he pulled out a textbook he had been using for DA planning. 'So do you think that the Parallel Block, Colour Jinx and Ice Queen Curse will be okay for the third years, like we were planning last night?' Harry looks at Hermione who is cutting open a jacket potato and letting the steam escape from it before piling on some cheese.
'Yeah. They're not too advanced and they will have fun learning the Colour Jinx, they can start playing hit.'
'Well it will take them up until Christmas to get them working correctly and practice their aim.'
'They should work out fine then Harry.' Hermione says as she piles some bacon on top of the cheese. Parvati pulls a disgusted face.
'That's a lot of calories Hermione. Are you sure you should be eating all that. You don't want to get fat now that you have a boyfriend to look good for.' Harry looks confused.
'Why would she need to watch her weight for me?' Parvati looks at Harry like he has started talking in Parseltongue again.
'Well, you wouldn't want her to become fat would you? You have a great body.' She slyly suggests looking over Harry's broad shoulders and muscled chest that is highlighted by the standard school black robe he is wearing. 'So your girlfriend should look just as good, so she deserves you.'
'I can eat what I want Parvati. I do exercise.' Hermione glares at Parvati telling her to drop the subject. Harry looks completely bewildered.
'Why should my girlfriend have the perfect body just because you say I do? I don't get it. Shouldn't she just be happy with what she looks like?' Harry doesn't see the looks on the faces of the people around them or notice the Hufflepuffs on the table behind them turn around and stare at his back. Hermione smiles sweetly at Parvati and turns back to her food and Harry realising he isn't going to get an answer goes back to the book in front of him and eats his sandwich with one hand.
Ron sits down next to Harry with Lavender sitting down opposite with Parvati. The two girls immediately start whispering together. Lavender gasps and then leans over the table towards Harry and whispers loud enough for most of the people near by to hear.
'You really think Hermione isn't slightly too fat.' Hermione starts turning red with anger when Harry turns to look at her. Harry looks over her closely.
'What size are you Hermione?' Hermione chokes on her mouthful of potato and glares at him.
'I'm a 6 actually.' Harry goes to say something and then stops. The people around them lean forward. 'What do you want to say Harry? Just say it!' Hermione says angrily. Harry opens his mouth and then closes it again. He starts to blush and rubs the back of his hair messing it up some more. 'Harry.' Hermione warns.
'You….you…you don't think you're too thin do you?' Harry blurts out. There is a stunned silence. 'I didn't mean it like that. It's just, you're really light. I don't want you to get ill or anything.' Lavender's and Parvati's jaws drop open. Hermione just stares at him blankly trying to digest this. Harry tries to back up. 'It's not like I don't like you like this, it's just you are eating enough right, and not throwing up or anything afterwards. I just know girls can do that.' More silence. Harry gets desperate and rubs the back of his hair again. He turns to Ron looking for help but Ron is trying not to laugh and has his hand stuffed in his mouth. Lavender finally gets her voice back.
'What size do you think females should be then?'
'Well it's up to each female.' Harry hesitantly replies trying to sound vague and hoping he can get out of what ever he said wrong.
'What size should Hermione be then?' Parvati interrupts.
'Oh Merlin.' Harry looks around desperately at the faces looking at him for support. 'Well a size 8 to 10 is said to be healthiest.' Ron breaks down laughing.
'How do you know that?' Lavender enquires.
'At the Burrow after the Quidditch World Cup, I was bored and read some of those Witch Weekly things you girls read and that's what it said.' Hermione starts to laugh. 'I'm sorry Mione, I really didn't….' Hermione leans over and kisses his cheek. Harry looks even more confused. 'Am I in trouble?'
Ron pats Harry consolingly on his back whilst Hermione picks up another mouthful of her jacket potato and salutes Parvati and Lavender with it before eating. Harry quickly eats his sandwich and buries his head in the textbook in front of him hoping to be left out of any other conversations.
The topic of conversations for the rest of the day was on his preference of female size, the description of his ideal women to which he finally got angry and yelled 'Look at my girlfriend!' In Potions the Slytherins teased him about his new girlfriend and kept on asking what he saw in a bushy know-it-all. Madam Sprout in Herbology forwent scolding Harry and Hermione for missing the mornings hours lesson but stood and helped them for the entire hour they were taking fluid from the Tuber Tree whilst talking about James and Lily's courtship when they were at school.
By the time Harry reached Dumbledore's office for his 8pm lesson he was ready to murder the next person who asked him what his ideal women would look like or describe to them how Hermione and himself got together. He dropped like a stone onto the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk not bothering to knock as he came in and grabbed a cup of tea off the tray already set on the table next to him. Dumbledore surveyed him with his eyes twinkling.
'Lemon drop Harry?' He held out a basket towards Harry and for the first time Harry actually accepted and stuck one in his mouth. Dumbledore helped himself to one and sat back silently laughing. 'Hectic day Harry?'
Harry raises an eyebrow at him and drops it slowly.
'You could say that. I never thought my getting together with Hermione would cause this much of a stir. It's only been half a day!'
'I do not think your relationship is the biggest topic of conversation at the moment. I think most of the student population are talking about your telling Ms Granger that she was too thin.'
'Do you think I should apologise to her?'
'Does Ms Granger seem like she wants an apology?'
'She's been laughing about it all afternoon.'
'Then I do not think she wants an apology. Just don't forget to ask her to the Yule Ball that's in two weeks time and to take her shopping for a new gown for it. If I remember correctly females get annoyed if you do not ask them to a ball when you are dating.'
'Past experience sir?' Dumbledore twinkles but doesn't reply. Dumbledore finishes his sweet and waves away the tea tray.
'I think we should start our lesson. You are doing really well, but I could be missing our next two lessons as I have business to attend too and might not be able to get back to school in time.' Harry nods and puts down his wand on the desk and stands up. Dumbledore comes from behind his desk and places a pedestal with a feather on top of it 3 metres away from Harry.
'Remember what I said last time. Bring up your positive emotion and thought, let it fill your magic core and then say the incantation.' He steps back and watches Harry focus on the feather. Harry's eyes glow brighter and brighter as he raises his hand and points at the feather.
'Wingardium Leviosa' The feather rises slowly and makes its way dropping and lifting towards Harry. Harry reaches out and takes it smiling.
'Well done Harry. Another try at this and then we'll attempt the Summoning Charm.' Harry places the feather back on the pedestal and then back to his starting position.
'Wingardium Leviosa.' The feather rises quicker this time and the flight of the feather towards Harry is steadier then last time. Dumbledore claps when he takes it out of the air.
'Congratulations. You are really improving at this.'
'It's weird. I can do wandless magic a lot easier when I am practicing with Professor Snape.'
'Yes, Harry. No doubt you can. Your relationship with Professor Snape is violent and the strength of those emotions works in your favour. However here I am telling you to keep all emotions away except your positive emotions, which are generally harder to concentrate on. Anybody can hate or be angry, it takes a lot of effort to put those feelings aside and find a happy thought.'
'Then why let Snape…Professor Snape teach me? If you want me to focus on casting spells when I am happy should I really be casting spells with Professor Snape?'
'Harry, you are still young and your emotions will still have times when no matter how much you are concentrating you simply cannot control them. I want you to be able to do wandless magic practice using all emotions so at these times you are not left unarmed.' Harry nods.
'Makes sense.'
'Now. Let's attempt that Summoning Charm.'
Harry places the feather back on its stand and then concentrates again. He raises his hand and says, 'Accio feather.' The feather doesn't move. Trying not to be too disappointed Harry starts again. This time the feather starts to fly towards Harry, but hits the floor just beyond the pedestal.
'Harry, visualize holding the feather.' Harry tries again but the feather still just flops onto the floor after a few feet. 'Harry. Take a few deep breathes and start again…' The floo flares up alerting Dumbledore. Arthur Weasley's head appears in the fire.
'Albus. I have bad news, they have just finished electing the new Minister and they…'
'Arthur why don't you call an order meeting and I'll just let Harry leave and I'll come to Grimmauld Place.' Arthur startled turns and looks at Harry.
'Harry. Never saw you there. How are you?'
'I'm fine Mr Weasley.'
'Harry, why don't you go back to your common room early.' Dumbledore says and Harry smiling turns and leaves.
'Sorry Albus, never saw him there.'
'No matter, Arthur. Our lesson was due to finish in a few minutes anyway.'
At breakfast the next morning Harry found out who the new Minister was and why Arthur said it was bad news. Harry sat down to breakfast the next morning and found Hermione reading the Daily Prophet. Ron still yawning sits down next to Harry and reaches for some muffins before even noticing Hermione was reading the newspaper with unusual concentration.
'Anything interesting in there, Mione?'
'Well the front page is very interesting and I do not know who gave them the information.'
'What is it?' Asks Ron. In answer Hermione turns the paper towards him and Harry and they both stop and stare. On the front page is the heading 'Potter Reveals his Favourite Female Body Size!'
'Do I dare ask what it says and who wrote it?' Harry starts to blush.
'Rita Skeeter wrote it. You sure you want me to read it to you?'
'Yeah. I'm sure nothing could be that bad.' Harry says hopefully. Hermione folds the paper so she can hold it better and reads;
'Yesterday, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at their usual
lunchtime meal, Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, The Chosen One,
revealed his ideal partners body size. According to my source, a student
from Hogwarts, Mr Potter, after telling his girlfriend, Miss Hermione
Granger, she was too thin and might have an eating disorder, informed her
that she should be a size 8 to 10 as said in Witch Weekly's March Edition.
Healer Fordhouse, at St Mungo's, quotes that 'Mr Potter, is actually
correct when it comes to a females ideal body size. Any female who is a size
6 or under should see a Healer to make sure they are not malnourished.
If his girlfriend has any sense she will listen to his advice and eat more'
'Oh Merlin!' Harry ejects.
'There's more but I gathered you didn't want to hear the rest.' Hermione says sweetly. 'There's also a very interesting article on page 5 today.'
'What's that?' Ron asks uninterested in anything save his muffin on his plate.
'The new Minister for Magic was voted for last night.' Hermione says glancing in Harry's direction, but he is busy putting bacon onto his plate.
'Yeah, Dumbledore called an Order meeting. Who got it?' Hermione puts down the paper and looks directly at Harry.
'Delores Umbridge!' Ginny says plonking herself down on the bench opposite with Luna Lovegood. Ron chokes on his mouthful of muffin and Harry pats him hard on the back staring wide eyed at Ginny. He finally turns to Hermione for confirmation.
'Ginny's right.'
'They let that cow become Minister! How could they!' Harry explodes.
'They kicked Fudge out and replaced him with her! I thought they were supposed to replace him with somebody competent!' Declares Ron.
'Please tell me she agrees that Voldemort has come back or is the Wizarding population going to be placed in the dark again?' Moans Harry.
'Its say here that she knows that Voldemort has come back, that more leaflets are going to be given out telling people how to protect themselves and new laws are going to be made to make it easier to catch the Death Eaters.'
'Does she say anything regarding Harry?' Hermione nods.
'What?' Harry asks resigning himself to fate
'She says, that the Ministry is working closely with you, calling you the Chosen One, and is reportedly placing the Aurors at your disposal and awarding you the Order of Merlin first class for alerting the Wizarding World to Voldemorts return.' Hermione trails off as Professor McGonagall puts her hand on Harry's shoulder.
'Mr Potter, could you please follow me.' Harry gets up, throwing a look back at Hermione and Ron, that they interpret as meet you in class and follows McGonagall out of the hall and up to her office.
Dumbledore and Snape are already sitting down when Harry and McGonagall arrive in Dumbledore's office. Harry takes a spare seat opposite Snape whilst McGonagall sits down a chair conjured by Dumbledore.
'I gather you know why you are here' Starts Dumbledore.
'Yes. The Ministry lost its brain cells and voted Umbridge as Minister.' Harry growls.
'Rather aptly described, Potter.' Snape drawls.
'Do I have to accept that Merlin award?' Harry asks miserably.
'You do not wish to have it Potter? It will increase your standing amongst the girls in the school some more.' Snape sneers.
'Unless you are behind in your gossip Snape, I am dating Hermione Granger.' McGonagall watches their banter with an alarmed expression on her face. Dumbledore just looks resigned.
'If you two would stop arguing for a moment and listen.' Snape and Harry turn politely to Dumbledore. 'Thank you. Delores wants to set up a meeting with you Harry and also wants you to visit the Ministry during your Christmas Holidays and meet up with Head Auror Simon Pritchard of the Improper Use of Magic Office to discuss Voldemort.' Snape and McGonagall wince at the name.
'No way.' Harry shakes his head emphasising the point.
'Yes I thought that your answer would be that. Delores may try to corner you at some point, perhaps during your visit to Hogsmeade on Saturday if I give her a negative answer for your meeting.'
'I'll just make sure I'm surrounded at all times.'
'I would advise you see Simon though. He is a very useful member of the Order.'
'You want me to be seen going into the Ministry, thereby giving my approval to whatever half baked plans Umbridge comes up with.'
'I do not think you have to go into the Ministry. He can visit you at Grimmauld Place. He knows most of what is going on, but having your point of view might help.'
'You mean other then Voldemort is a murderous raving lunatic and should be in St Mungo's department of Spell Damage in a locked ward that's had the key thrown away.' Dumbledore chuckles, McGonagall smiles wanly at him, but Snape actually tries to hide a smile.
'Quite right Potter. But I think Mr Pritchard would actually like to hear if you have noticed any weaknesses on the Dark Lords part.'
'You mean other then his appetite for pain, power and world domination and his short sightedness whenever he tries to capture me?'
'Yes, Potter. Other then those obvious weaknesses.' Snape states dryly.
'I am sure Simon would like to hear anything you care to share with him.' Dumbledore stands up and smiles. 'I'll let you get back to your lessons Harry and send Delores your response to her proposal. I'm sure Simon will be happy to talk to you after a meeting at Christmas, so I wont bother you about it until then.' Harry stands up and leaves quickly just as the bell sounds throughout the halls.
'Albus, Harry seems to be taking this very lightly ' McGonagall says slowly.
'I am afraid that the wards I placed have affected him more then I would have thought. Or perhaps Ms Granger has helped him mellow.'
Snape snorts.