home is where the heart is (and you hold mine)

a diary and a sword (shh it's a secret)

A/N - Just a tiny bit short... and probably not the best... but next chapter is super long and much better so hopefully that'll make up for it... I had to chose y'all, sorry.

Chapter Ⅷ

a diary and a sword (shh it's a secret)

Hogwarts was utterly chaotic in the last week before the Winter Hols, with Harry scrambling to finish his growing pile of assignments so that he could meet the proper deadlines for each class. Potions was perhaps the easiest for a change, though Harry knew it was from the fact that Slughorn wasn't focused on being a professor so much as he was focused on creating an entire web of connections to flaunt. A Slytherin thing to do, but perhaps he shouldn't do it in a school? They were meant to learn rather than to be scouted out.

That could also be Harry's personal bias talking, seeing as the man that come at him multiple times through the term, asking and prodding about joining his Slug Club or something of the sort. Harry privately called it rubbish and walked away to do more Necromancy practice.

Hermione had been frantic to finish her schoolwork and meet her strict self-imposed deadlines; Ron had been teaching her to take a break while Harry would scrounge around her work station and help organize it a little bit – after she was done studying it was always a bit of a mess so Harry went around to make sure when she started back up again, it was properly cleaned and she could find everything easily.

Monday had been spent brainstorming in-between classes on how to get into the Headmaster's office and what time to do so, while they worked around their hectic schedules.

The library had become their favorite meeting place after the Room of Requirement because there were books that Hogwarts couldn't pop up for them – Harry always made sure the assure her that it was alright that she had limits, despite the strange looks he would get for talking to what most thought was just an inanimate castle.

Which was entirely untrue seeing as Harry had spoken (through feelings and pictures) with Hogwarts, and he knew that she was quite protective and a bit of a jokester.

He found her hilarious, as she would switch stairs in efforts to play jokes or do funny things for the firsties or even older years who just needed to be cheered up a bit. Hogwarts really was home in such pretty ways, even if Harry was the only one who could observe them.

On Tuesday, just before curfew, they'd gone by Professor Snape's office for a feeding and Harry had taken the bare minimum, having noticed how pale the man had gotten through. It was a big enough change that he could notice it, even if the other's hadn't.

Wednesday was easy enough with only a single period of Charms which Harry had gotten done quickly enough and then they had a double period of Herbology, Lunch, and then they were let off. They had Astronomy later that night, so Harry knew that they could get away with being out late in the night.

Seeing as most students did the same so that they didn't sleep through the night and miss their class, it would be very tiring for the professor to go around and discipline everyone that they could catch. Although that tolerance was only for 3rd years and up, as the 1st and 2nd years were prone to wandering around and getting into heaps of trouble due to them getting lost.

How that happened, Harry didn't know but he assumed that it was because the moment they hit 3rd year the homework started piling up and there was more pressure on the students and their classes – it was a well enough incentive so that they could pass and go into life with a good record following them.

Did it even work like that with wizards? It did with muggles, but wizards had shown to be exceptionally odd, and it was built mostly for purebloods so perhaps it was a bit different... how small (or large) a bit was, Harry did not know.