Glamour

Hate

The fluttering of wings heralded the arrival of the post as Harry sat bleary eyed at breakfast. He had spent the night before finishing the book on cores and there were several exercises that he wanted to try over the weekend now he had a few hours to himself.

Your Core and You was transfigured to look like a quidditch defence strategies book (using a nifty spell he had found when doing the extra reading for his transfiguration essay), which guaranteed Hermione would not want to read it. Harry never had to worry about Ron, in the four years they had known each other, he had not once seen him pick up a book outside the classroom. Harry had never paid much attention to this before, preferring to go along with his best friend, but now it was irritating him. There was so much that was never taught in the classrooms he was starting to realise, and even if he didn't want to live in the library like the Ravenclaws, he had a newfound respect for the vast amounts of knowledge held within the shelves.

Harry was startled from his reading by the gentle hoot of Hedwig. He carefully placed his book back in his bag and turned his attention to the fussy owl. She didn't like being ignored on the best of days, and with the storm outside, her feathers were most certainly ruffled. Harry gently removed the letter from her leg, seeing Hagrid's familiar scrawl he placed it in his bag to read later, assuming it would be an invite for tea. As nice as a letter from Hagrid was, he had been hoping for a reply for Sirius, it had been two weeks and he was starting to worry that his godfather had gotten himself captured on some stupid unnecessary errand. Sighing he held out a piece of bacon to a disgruntled Hedwig who accepted the offering, dipping her beak into his goblet of pumpkin juice before flying off back to the Owlery.

"You really shouldn't let her do that." Hermione's voice cut in. "You don't know what effect it will have on her. I imagine the sugar in pumpkin juice alone is not healthy for her."

"I will order an owl care kit and guide from Eyelops this weekend," Harry said, smiling at Hermione. She did give good advice, even if it was phrased harshly. "You are right, I care about Hedwig a lot and it is silly of me to neglect her health like that"

Hermione looked startled at his response, and harry had the sense to look a bit ashamed. He knew he had often treated his friends advice unfairly, often ignoring her common sense if it was too much effort on his part to change. Her startled look quickly gave way to a smile, and she turned back to her breakfast with a satisfied air.

"I'm glad you are listening to me for a change. I know how important Hedwig is to you"

"I know 'Mione, thanks for the advice." Harry said while grabbing his bag from the floor, "Sorry I need to go, I have a bit of work to do for Snape and Dumbledore's private lessons"

Hermione just nodded, absorbed in her Rune dictionary once more. Harry was thankful Ron maintained his customary Saturday lie in. Hermione would accept him going to do homework, but the excuse never washed with Ron. He would insist on tagging along then complain when it got too boring. Swinging his legs over the bench, Harry made his way out the great hall and towards the fourth floor where the empty defence classrooms were located. They had been invaluable to him during his months practising for the Triwizard Tournament, and Harry was going to take advantage of them once more to put some of the theory he had been reading into practice.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on the newest defence professor and her annoying habit of sticking her nose into everything. He had barely made it to the fourth floor corridor when a familiar 'Hem 'Hem stopped him in his tracks.

"Mr Potter, may I enquire as to why you are skulking round my classroom and offices this early on a Saturday morning"

Harry cursed internally, before remembering he still had his copy of Defensive Magical Theory in his bag from their lesson yesterday afternoon. He quickly pulled it from his bag, removing the scrap of parchment that was being used as both a bookmark and a note of the homework they had been given.