Harry Potter and Claire Smith Adventures: Book Three

Crumbling Friendships

Chapter 12: Crumbling Friendships

"You're not mad at me too, are you, Claire?" Hermione asked as they walked into their dormitory.

Claire sighed exasperated. "Honestly, I was but I know that you just had Harry and I's best interests at heart."

Hermione seemed relieved. "You don't think they'll be mad at me forever, do you?"

Claire shook her head. "Trust me, once Harry gets his broom back everything'll go back to normal."

"I hope you're right," Hermione bit her lip. "Oh, why can't they just understand I didn't mean any harm when I told Professor McGonagall about your gifts? You'd think they'd be thanking me for preventing one of you from exploding or whatever Black did to curse your gifts!"

"Hermione, calm down," Claire said. "Stop thinking about it, okay? They're both too stubborn to realize why you did it. Like I said before, Harry will get his broom back and I'll get my vinyl and record player and we'll all have a good laugh about this. They'll forgive you in the end and they'll realize they acted like gits for treating you this way."

Hermione smiled. "Thank you, Claire for being so understanding. At least someone sees why I did it."

The rest of the holidays consisted of Claire and Hermione taking refuge in the library. They were looking up information for Buckbeak's trial and hiding from Harry and Ron. Well, Hermione was hiding from them, while Claire was trying to avoid Jason ever since their kiss. Claire hadn't seen Jason since that day and she wanted to keep it that way for the time being. She wasn't really sure how she was going to be able to talk to him after what happened.

It was now the first day back and Hermione and Claire were headed to Defense class. They were the first there. They entered the classroom and saw Professor Lupin. Claire noticed that he still didn't look too well.

"Good afternoon, Professor Lupin," Claire greeted him.

Professor Lupin smiled warmly at them. "Good afternoon, Miss Smith, Miss Granger."

"How was your holiday, sir?" Hermione asked.

"It was uneventful, but nonetheless it gave me time to plan the rest of this year's lesson plan." Professor Lupin said. "And you?"

"I've had better, sir," Hermione said looking solemn.

"Harry and Ron are upset with Hermione," Claire explained.

Lupin raised an eyebrow. "Why are they upset with her?"

"Harry and I received expensive/rare gifts for Christmas with no cards and Hermione thought it was suspicious. So, she reported it to Professor McGonagall who took Harry and my's gifts to be checked for jinxes. Hermione thinks that Black sent the gifts to us. Harry and Ron were upset because Professor McGonagall's going to strip down Harry's Firebolt to make sure there's no jinxes. If you ask me, they're acting really stupid about this whole ordeal." Claire said.

"I see," Lupin said. "Well, Miss Granger I think that was a very smart move on your part to inform Professor McGonagall about those gifts. I would've done the same thing. You can never be too careful."

Hermione blushed slightly at the praise.

"And I think that you are completely right, Miss Smith," Lupin said to Claire. "You're mother would've thought the same thing."

Just then, more students came into the classroom. Claire and Hermione took their seats at one of the desks. Their lesson went by smoothly and as they left the classroom they saw Harry talking to Professor Lupin.