Yuletide Blessing in Disguise

Physical Activities

Warning for this chapter: language.

Harry and Hermione had received a few odd glances when they returned to Gryffindor Tower, wet and dripping all over the scarlet and gold rugs. But after changing into clean dry clothes, and settling together in a little settee near the fireplace in the common room, nobody gave them a second look. For a few minutes they both basked in the heat of the crackling flames, simply enjoying the warmth.

"So, what do you think about the rhyme, Harry?" asked Hermione, finally breaking the silence.

"Well, seems pretty obvious seeing as it was in Mermish," Harry replied. "The Merpeople are somehow going to steal something of mine, something I'll really miss. They'll hide it in the lake somewhere and I'll have an hour to get it back. Pretty basic, really! ... Dunno what they'd steal from me though.

"I doubt they'd know about the Marauder's Map or my Invisibility Cloak - and I reckon they'd have to leave me my wand. So, maybe my Firebolt?"

"Yes..." Hermione nodded slowly, her brows knitted in thought. "That's more or less what I was thinking too. It does seem to be the most logical interpretation of the song..."

"...but it seems like there's more to it, doesn't it?" said Harry, picking up on Hermione's uncertainty. "Anyway, whatever it is, isn't the most important bit right now. My biggest problems are that I don't know how to swim, and I reckon I'll need a spell or some sort of magic to breathe under water."

"What? You've never been swimming?" Hermione peered at Harry with surprise.

"The Dursleys," Harry muttered, "They always left me locked in my... er, at home, when they took Dudley swimming, or left me at Mrs Figg's when they went on day-trips to the beach. And my primary school didn't have a pool."

Hermione scowled, catching Harry's near slip. She'd gathered from some of the things that Harry had been more open about over the years that the Dursleys weren't at all nice to him, and she knew that Harry had had bars on his bedroom window from the story of how the Weasley brothers had rescued him the summer before second year.

But there was something much more than simple dislike and strict parenting which Harry would almost never talk about. Hermione vowed to herself to press him on it eventually, but now didn't really seem like the right time.

"That's alright Harry, I can teach you all the basic swim strokes," she said gently. "Though it'll be a bit hard learning in the lake during the winter - I suppose we can look in Advanced Charms textbooks from later years or in the library for warming charms."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks Hermione." Harry paused for a moment, and Hermione could see another query forming in his mind, this one apparently even more anxiety inducing. "Er... I don't suppose you could teach me how to dance too?"

"Actually, I can," Hermione replied, smiling, thrilled to finally have the opportunity to put her skills to use. "Mum and Dad gave me lessons when I was little..." She left it there, not liking to admit that nobody had ever wanted to dance with her at any of the functions she had attended with her parents - not that most boys were ever very keen to dance anyway, at any age apparently.

"Brilliant!" said Harry, breathing a huge sigh of relief...

~o0o~

The last weeks of the term before the start of the Christmas Holidays were busier than Harry had ever imagined they could be. Not only was he contending with piles of homework that some teachers like McGonagall and Snape were doling out, but now, he also had swim and dance lessons with Hermione.

And though he much preferred the swimming and dancing lessons, Harry found himself with a new appreciation for studying his other subjects with Hermione as well. Harry reckoned that Snape would be in for a big surprise when he aced the Antidotes Exam that he was certain Snape had planned for the last day of the term - as long as he managed to concentrate and ignore Snape's usual deliberate attempts to antagonise and sabotage him during exams.