Midnight In Hogwarts | Harry Potter FanFiction

Capitulum Novendecim

Remus had taken the discovery of the Half-Blood Prince rather well in Harry's opinion. He sat in silence for nearly five minutes before he began pacing the room and cursing himself for not realizing it sooner. Harry suspected that it had to do with Remus not recognizing Professor Snape's handwriting or something of that sort but he hadn't been the only one. Once that was over, Harry relayed what happened in Slughorn's office which left Remus in a slightly better mood.

Apparition lessons that morning had also gone better than Harry expected. He had finally pulled off Apparition while turning on the spot. Hermione had also managed to Apparate and had nearly tackled Harry in her excitement. This earned a reprimand from Professor McGonagall and waves of jealousy from Ron (who had been standing nearby) although it was difficult for Harry to determine if it was because Hermione had Apparated or because she had hugged him.

Ron's wavering friendship was becoming extremely irritating. What was so mind boggling was that if Ron was so jealous of Harry and Hermione's rumored relationship then why was he still with Lavender? It just didn't make any sense. How could Ron actually believe Lavender's gossip over his best friends? Then again, not much of Ron's behavior has made sense this year.

Not much of anything had made sense this year. Ron was acting strange, Cho was acting strange, Malfoy was opposing Snape, Sirius was off doing Merlin knew what, Dumbledore was absent for days at a time, and, for some strange reason, the entire female population at Hogwarts thought Harry was attractive. Six months ago Harry would have thought the majority of the changes would have been impossible. Six months ago Harry never would have believed that Ron would abandon his best friends for a girlfriend he clearly wasn't too fond of.

Of course Harry had been ready to hex Ron into oblivion six month ago but that wasn't the point. The point was that Harry wasn't sure he knew who Ron was anymore. The Ron he knew valued friendship and family over rumors and publicity. They had dealt with this matter years ago. Ron knew better than to be jealous of all the attention Harry was receiving...right?

Unfortunately, Harry wasn't so sure anymore.

The D.A. meeting that night was uncomfortable to say the least. Ron was avoiding Harry and Hermione at all costs and was even being openly affectionate with Lavender during the meeting. This had annoyed quite a few members who had no problem voicing their dislike of the inappropriate behavior. After the fifth person told Ron and Lavender to knock it off or get a room, Ron and Lavender left the meeting. That was the final nail in the coffin for Harry. The Ron who had been his best friend for over five years was gone. His best friend had turned into someone he wasn't sure he wanted to know anymore.

The rest of the meeting passed without any other interruptions. However, anything was fair game after the meeting. While everyone was leaving, Harry found himself cornered by the entire Council with suggestions to suspend Ron and Lavender from future meetings. Ginny, of course, had been the one to propose the idea but what surprised Harry was that Cho had been the one to second the motion. "If Ron and Lavender think what we're learning is a waste of time then they can learn how to survive this war on their own time," said Cho. "When they decide to grow up then perhaps we'll let them return on a trial basis."

Harry let out a sigh as he sat down on the chair that appeared out of thin air. He was trapped. Whatever answer he gave was bound to anger someone. "Do you all agree to this?" he asked as he looked up at them. The Council members glanced at each other before nodding. "What about giving them a warning first?" Harry offered. "If it happens again, they're out of the D.A and won't be allowed to return."

"I'll agree to that," Hannah said with a shrug. "We never actually said that disrupting the meetings would result in expulsion from the group because we never thought it would be an issue."