you raise me up || harry potter

chapter 52

»»————-　song:　————-««

carrying you

★ from the ghibli movie 
castle in the sky ★

♢ ♢ ♢

Harry made it a habit to drop by the Gryffindor table every morning to greet Hermione and Ron. The dirty looks and vaguely threatening way that the others would place their hands on their wands was disconcerting, sure, but that wasn't going to stop him. Harry did consider once or twice to actually sit down and join them to give them a great big shock, but thought better of it—he'd probably be hexed out of his seat before he could get a word out.

"Hey," Harry said, grinning at Ron. "What's going on?"

Ron jerked his thumb at Hermione. "She brought her Numerology and Grammatica textbook to breakfast, and it's taking up all my elbow space."

"A good thing then, because elbows on the table are bad manners, Ron," Hermione sniffed.

But instead of studying her very large textbook that she had lugged all the way down to the Great Hall, she was peering up at the High Table. Ron, who had turned his attention back to his plate, didn't notice. 

"So, what's so interesting about the professors this morning?" Harry whispered in a mock-conspiratorial manner. 

Hermione looked a bit startled. "Oh... nothing," she stuttered.

Harry gave her a look. 

Hermione pursed her lips. "Look at  Professor Lupin and Snape," she said.

In a much more subtle manner than Hermione, Harry cast his glance around the Great Hall before casually glancing at the High Table. Nothing seemed to be out of place, until he directed his gaze toward the edge.

He looked back at Hermione in utter confusion. "I thought Snape hates Lupin?"

"Exactly!" Hermione said. "So why do they look like they're having an actual conversation?"

It did look like that. Well, less of a conversation and more like they were... conspiring something. Snape didn't seem like he was doing much of the talking, as per his usual self, and Lupin had the same genial air about him as he chatted away, but the way they glanced at each other every so often or nodded thoughtfully was definitely out of character for them. 

"Weird," Harry said. "Planning some kind of a joint class, maybe?"

"Final exams are almost starting, can't be that," Hermione shook her head. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, as if in suspicion. 

"Something wrong?" Harry asked. Lupin and Snape certainly didn't look like chums, but the fact that Snape wasn't glaring daggers at Lupin like he normally did was an nice improvement in his opinion—he didn't quite like the idea that Snape loathed his favorite teacher. 

"No," Hermione said, looking like something was very wrong. "Nothing wrong..."

Harry shrugged it off, knowing that he wouldn't get anything out of Hermione until she wanted him to. And besides that, the other Gryffindors were starting to look hostile. 

"Are you done here or do we have to kick you out?" a sandy-haired boy said—Finnegan, if Harry wasn't mistaken—as he lounged in his seat. 

Harry gave him a good-natured grin. "A snake in a lion's den doesn't have much to be afraid of," he said.