MANIA - HJP

CHAPTER VI

For a brief period, the three of them stared at each other in silence. Hermione then vanished behind a plume of black smoke after a loud bang.

"Hermione!" shouted Harry and Ron; the breakfast tray slid to the floor with a crash.

Hermione emerged from the haze, choking and gripping the telescope, her eye a deep purple-black.

"I squeezed it and it. . . it punched me!" she gasped.

And sure enough, a little fist on a long spring projecting from the telescope's end had appeared.

 "Don't worry," said Ron, who was plainly trying not to laugh, "Mum'll fix that, she's good at healing minor injuries. . . "

"Oh well, never mind that now!" said Hermione hurriedly. "Harry, oh, Harry. . . "

She sat down on the edge of his bed again.

"We wondered after we got back from the Ministry. . . Obviously, we didn't want to say anything to you, but from what Lucius Malfoy said about the prophecy, how it was about you and Voldemort, well, we thought it might be something like this. . . Oh, Harry. . . " She stared at him. "Are you scared?" 

"Not as much as I was," said Harry. "When I first heard it, I was. . . but now, it seems as though I always knew I'd have to face him in the end. . ."

"When we heard Dumbledore was collecting you in person, we thought he might be telling you something or showing you something to do with the prophecy," said Ron eagerly. "And we were kind of right, weren't we? He wouldn't be giving you lessons if he thought you were a goner, wouldn't waste his time. . . he must think you've got a chance!"

"That's true," said Hermione. "I wonder what he'll teach you, Harry? Really advanced defensive magic, probably. . . powerful countercurses. . . anti-jinxes. . . "

Harry was oblivious to what was going on around him. He felt warm, but it wasn't from the sun, and a tight constriction in his chest seemed to be melting. He knew Ron and Hermione were more surprised than they let on, but the fact that they were still there on either side of him, speaking reassuring words of comfort and not retreating from him as if he were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than he could ever tell them.

". . . and evasive enchantments generally," concluded Hermione. "Well, at least you know one lesson you'll be having this year, that's one more than Ron and me. I wonder when our O. W. L. results will come?"

"Can't be long now, it's been a month," said Ron.

"Hang on," said Harry, as another part of last night's conversation came back to him. "I think Dumbledore said our O. W. L. results would be arriving today!"

"Today?" shrieked Hermione. "Today? But why didn't you. . . oh my God. . . you should have said. . . "

She leapt to her feet.

"I'm going to see whether any owls have come. . . "

However, when Harry returned ten minutes later, fully dressed and carrying his empty breakfast tray, he found Hermione agitated at the kitchen table, while Mrs. Weasley attempted to hide her likeness to half a panda.