O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

LIV ; the hogs head

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            HERMIONE MADE NO MENTION OF THE DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS LESSONS FOR TWO WHOLE WEEKS AFTER HER ORIGINAL SUGGESTION. harry's detentions with umbridge were finally over; ron had had four more quidditch practices and not been shouted at during the last two; and all four of them had managed to vanish their mice in transfiguration (elara and hermione had actually progressed to vanishing kittens), before the subject was broached again, on a wild, blustery evening at the end of september, when the four of them were sitting in the library, looking up potion ingredients for snape.

            "i was wondering," hermione said suddenly, "whether you'd thought any more about defense against the dark Arts, harry."

            "'course  have," said harry grumpily. "can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us —"

            "i meant the idea ron and i had" — ron cast her an alarmed, threatening kind of look; she frowned at him — "oh, all right, the idea i had, then — about you and lara teaching us."

            there was a pause.

            "well," harry said slowly "yeah, i — i've thought about it a bit."

            "and?" said hermione eagerly.

            "i dunno," said harry.

            "i thought it was a good idea from the start," said ron, who seemed keener to join in this conversation now that he was sure that harry was not going to start shouting again.

            harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

            "you did listen to what I said about a load of it being luck, didn't you?"

            "yes, harry," said hermione gently, "but all the same, there's no point pretending that you're not good at defense against the dark arts, because you are. you and lara were the only people last year who could throw off the imperius curse completely, you two can produce a patronus, you both can do all sorts of stuff that full-grown wizards can't, viktor always said —"

            ron looked around at her so fast he appeared to crick his neck; rubbing it, he said, "yeah? what did vicky say?"

            "ho ho," said hermione in a bored voice. "he said lara and harry knew how to do stuff even he didn't, and he was in the final year at durmstrang."

            ron was looking at hermione suspiciously.

            "you're not still in contact with him, are you?"