Chocolate Enchantment

42: Putting on a Show

Chapter 42: Putting on a Show

When Hermione entered Headquarters under a Disillusionment Charm the next afternoon, she hoped things would go even half as well with Harry as they had eventually gone with Severus. Somehow, she doubted she would be that lucky.

The house was quiet when she entered, and not wanting all and sundry to know of her arrival, she kept quiet and walked through to the kitchen. Empty. The library's only inhabitant was Crookshanks, who looked right at her, blinked lazily, then returned to cleaning himself.

She walked up the stairs, hoping Harry hadn't gone somewhere for the day, that he wasn't avoiding her, and that Ron would be out to work for his brothers or something. Hermione didn't think Harry would have shared his insights with Ron—hoped he hadn't as she wasn't prepared to deal with another round of Ron's righteous fury.

She made it all the way up to the attic before finding anyone in the house. Harry stood facing a white dummy in the far corner, apparently practicing silent spell casting. He waved his wand and green shot from it, striking the dummy, which ripped along one shoulder.

"About time you showed up, Hermione. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to owl you," Harry said without turning to face her.

"How did you know I was here? I thought I was quiet." Hermione removed the Disillusionment Charm and crossed the room to him.

Harry slashed his wand once more and left a burn mark on the dummy, then turned to face her. His face was inscrutable. "I have a spell cast on the front door so if I'm in the house, I'm alerted when someone comes over the threshold. I have another ward on this room. Ron's working and I was expecting you. No one else has come up here without an invitation in weeks. I suppose they don't want to catch a stray hex."

"Very impressive." Hermione smiled, honestly pleased with his accomplishment. She definitely hadn't taught him that. They stood staring at each other for a long moment; he looked like he was waiting for her to begin, so she took a deep breath. "You didn't mention any of what happened yesterday to Ron, did you?"

He lifted his eyebrows. "Are you kidding? Now that he's finally happy seeing Luna, you think I want to have him blow up all over again? If you want to bring him into this, that's your decision. Otherwise, he'll have to figure it out on his own. You probably should bring him into it, as he'll be seriously angry when he finds out that you've been keeping it a secret, but it's not my decision to make."

Threading her fingers together in front of her, Hermione nodded. "Thanks for that. So I guess you want to talk about it."

Turning, Harry pointed his wand at one of the large purple cushions with gold trim they used for defense practice and transfigured it into a plump sofa of the same colors. He gestured for her to take a seat.

"Another impressive piece of magic. You've really come a long way this summer."

Harry grunted, but didn't meet her eyes. "I've a good teacher."

The compliment warmed her, as she had been the one doing the teaching. Hermione sat at the opposite end of the sofa, toed off her shoes and brought her feet up onto the cushion.

"Just start at the beginning and tell me what you can," he directed.

So she did. She started with the moment in the library when she and Severus had first touched, glossed over their courtship, talked about the diary and their marriage at Dumbledore's requirement. She mentioned what she could of the Dark Lord's expectations from their relationship, keeping to the pertinent points, and skipping unimportant items that might anger him and were really none of his business anyway.