Destiny Reversed

Chapter 9 Ice Breaker

"Potter, I'm not going to do your Potions essay for you," Hermione said, positively exasperated.

Harry looked at her pleadingly. "I don't want you to do it for me . . . just fix it up a bit."

"That's cheating, Potter," Hermione retorted stiffly, looking uncomfortable at the thought of breaking the rules.

"That's editing, Granger," Harry mimicked, grinning widely. He missed bickering with his friends.

It bothered Harry that Hermione still wasn't comfortable with calling him by his first name. A couple of weeks into the school year and she still called him "Potter". He couldn't help but get the feeling that she was purposely keeping him at a distance, almost as if she thought that when she did called him "Harry", she'll have to go back to calling him by his surname eventually.

In other words, Hermione still didn't entirely trust the sincerity of their friendship.

"Harry!"

He turned his head around to see Violet walking towards him. Without invitation, she plopped herself onto the couch and flashed a smile at Hermione. "Hey, Granger," she said easily, her voice friendly.

"Hello, Potter," Hermione said, a twinge of surprise in her voice.

"Call me Violet," the redhead said, "Wouldn't know who you're talking to if both of us are here, right?"

"I suppose," Hermione answered, blinking at Violet's outgoing manner.

Violet turned towards Harry, suddenly scowling. "Did you forget?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Forget what?"

Sighing in exasperation, Violet mimed wringing her brother's neck. "Quidditch tryouts, you moronic Captain. When –are –they?"

"Oh," Harry said. He'd completely forgotten about Quidditch in light of everything that has been happening.

"Oh?" Violet mimicked, clearly ruffled about this. "You forgot to set tryouts, and all you can say is 'Oh'? D'you realize how much we need Quidditch now, with half the school gone? Need a little friendly competition to keep people from killing each other in the hallways."

Harry grimaced, remembering that massive hex-fest the day before. The target was a Slytherin boy whose father was suspected to be a Death Eater, one who supposedly murdered Hannah Abbott's mother. Harry remembered Hannah leaving school after finding this out the previous year, but it looked like she had decided to come back –perhaps seeing that boy had made her want to seek revenge.

However, what began as a personal matter soon involved all the houses as Slytherins came to the boy's rescue, sending curses at Hannah, who the other three houses chose to help. All and all, there were a lot of tentacles and tap dancers when the dust cleared. A few were badly hurt –in particular, Hannah and the Slytherin boy –but it could have been worse.

"You're right," Harry said, "I'll talk to McGonagall in Transfiguration."

"Actually, you should talk to Professor Tonks," Hermione piped up helpfully, "She's Head of House now."

"Okay, thanks," Harry said, smiling at her. Tonks hated being called "Professor." First day of class, she'd insisted that they just call her simply "Tonks" because "Professor Tonks" made her feel old.

Like Tonks could ever be old; the pink hair would see to that.

Glancing across the room, Harry noticed Ron hunched over a desk, pen twirling between his fingers as he scrunched his features together in concentration. Must be harder to get by without Hermione's "editing", Harry thought wryly. Briefly, he flirted with the idea of going over and boxing Ron in the ears for being an insufferable prat, but decided that it wouldn't help him any. If he didn't approve of Harry going out with Ginny, then beating him in a fist fight would only make things worse.