The Hidden Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 17: Confrontation...or Trying to

Previously:

Harry's Occlumency lessons continued. They went much smoother somehow. He felt comfortable enough to tell us about the D.A. classes he was leading in the Room of Requirement. I was finally able to get excited about them with him to the dismay of Penny and asked if I could go to some of them.

One thing concerned all of us; Harry was starting to get fake dreams.

Fortunately, we'd progressed far enough into the topic for him to be able to recognize a fake dream, or vision, from a real one. We knew now that Voldemort had a plan. Now we just needed to come up with one.

Snow piled up outside the castle but that did not deter the students from walking the twenty minutes to the small wizard in town nearby.

Jason Grace watched as a certain red-headed family boisterously left the castle. Even the oldest of the group, Professor Weasley, was laughing and being just as loud as the twins. And Ron was completely comfortable around the more strict brother. Something that was the exact opposite from how he was at the beginning of when Jason knew the family. He remembered how they would hardly mention his name. And even different from the letter he'd sent at the beginning of the year.

The son of Jupiter stole a glance at the two Gryffindors in the Golden Trio left behind. They sat a little farther down the table from him and Grover, who was sleepily munching on a large carrot.

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger merely looked on with satisfied smiles before going back to their breakfast. Harry looked exhausted and was picking at his food. Hermione had a book propped up in front of her, and she glanced at Harry every so often as if to make sure he was eating.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade this week?"

Jason was jolted out of watching his fellow Gryffindors like a creep when Piper materialized across from him. "With all that snow?" He asked incredulously.

His girlfriend shrugged. "Just thought I'd ask." She said. "I don't particularly want to go either."

"Wimps."

Jason looked up to see Travis and Connor Stoll dressed for the weather and ready to go.

"We heard there was a joke shop called Zonko's." Travis said.

"We want to see if it's any good." Conner grinned.

"Fred and George were going to come with us to show us the ropes there but they suddenly don't want to talk to us." Travis frowned in confusion.

Jason frowned as well. "I've noticed that from Ron and his friends too." He said. "Even when Clarisse and I wanted to try playing Quidditch the other day."

"Yeah, I wonder what happened." Connor said thoughtfully.

"Happened with what?" Frank dropped in a seat across from Jason and Piper with Hazel on his left.

"The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione are ignoring us." Jason answered.

"Not Professor Weasley." Frank said, looking at them, confused. "He hasn't ignored us."

"Well, no." Connor admitted. "He hasn't changed how he acts around us but that's sort of to be expected. We don't hang out with him."

"Which makes sense because he's a teacher and not a student so he wouldn't be in the common rooms or anything." Travis added.

"How is being in different houses, boys?" Hazel asked, concerned.

Jason, confused by the seemingly complete change in topic, looked at the brothers expectantly. He was interested in their answer. As far as he knew, those two hardly spent much time apart prior to coming to Hogwarts.