Author's note:
Just setting the scene really... :)
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"Harry! Are you listening to me?"
Harry looked up with a confused look on his face. He had spent the past few minutes such deep in thought, he had not been aware of anybody talking to him. Upon looking up, he could see it was Hermione who was trying to get his attention.
"Course I was," he insisted.
Hermione raised her left eyebrow and looked at him sardonically. She then shook her head, picked up the rather enormous book she had picked up from the library earlier and began to read. Harry could not help but feel slightly annoyed that she had disturbed him from his thoughts for no good reason, but said nothing. He leant back in the comfortable armchair he was sitting in and enjoyed the constant heat being emitted from the fireplace opposite him. Looking at the time, he was rather alarmed to see it was already 11 o'clock. He had spent the past 2 hours relaxing in the common room, in front of the fire, and he still had a staggering amount of homework to do. Cursing himself for losing track of the time, he leant out for his bag and pulled a thick Potions book out from within. Picking up his quill, he began to write.
An hour later, Hermione put her book down, stretched out her arms and legs and then announced that she was going to bed. Feeling his eyes droop, he felt slightly bitter that she had finished all of her homework and had time to sleep whilst he still had so much to do. However, he reminded himself that it was entirely his own fault and bid her goodnight. Once she had left the common room, he continued with his essay.
At 2am, he decided he could no longer keep his eyes open and put his quill down. Yawning, he put his book on the floor and told himself that he would go to bed in five minutes after gathering some energy together. He closed his eyes, his skin still tingling from the heat emerging from the fireplace. He could feel his mind drifting, but he had no energy to prevent it.
Suddenly, he could feel someone shaking him. His eyes flew open, his heart racing from the unexpected interruption. Ron was towering above him, looking at him questioningly.
"Whyyouupsoearly?" Harry asked.
"What?"
Harry blinked and composed himself before repeating his question. "Why are you up so early?"
"Early? It's 9 o'clock, Harry."
Harry jumped up, realising he must have fallen asleep in the early hours of the morning. He noticed his potions book, essay and quill had all been placed neatly on the table across the common room. Guessing it was probably one of the house elves, he shoved all three items in his bag realising that if he was going to be on time for Potions, he would not have time to have a shower. He rushed upstairs to change his clothes and re-emerged a few minutes later, his hair more of a mess than usual. Grabbing his bag, he rushed out of the common room, closely followed by Ron.
Harry rushed down the corridor, not wanting to give Snape a reason to give him detention. Knowing that the Potions professor would not be very impressed with his attempt to write an essay, Harry pushed the door open and entered the room, with Ron following him. He noted that Hermione was already seated at a table quite near the front. The two boys took a seat either side of her just as Snape swept into the room.
Without so much as glancing at the class, he began to bark instructions at the class.
"Today, you will be brewing the remedial potion for simple poisons, which you should have outlined in your essay that I set for homework. This task will be done in pairs."
Harry, Ron and Hermione did not move, hoping they would be permitted to work as a three. However, Snape fixated his gaze upon them and gave a smug look.
"I think not. Potter, work with Draco." With this, he turned around and walked off. Knowing there was no point in arguing, Harry picked up his bag and begrudgingly moved over to where Malfoy was sitting. Malfoy looked up at him spitefully and Harry instantly knew it was going to be a long lesson.
"Did you even brush your hair today, Potter?" Malfoy practically spat at him.
Harry rolled his eyes and simply replied, "Shut it, Malfoy".
Malfoy leant back on his chair in a pose that Harry thought completely summed up his arrogance. He had a malicious smirk playing across his lips and Harry knew that he was not going to follow the instruction he had just given him.
"Do you enjoy looking like a tramp, Potter?" he drawled, "Or is it just that you've been hanging around with the weasel for too long?"
"Do you enjoy being a stuck-up git", Harry retaliated, "Or are you too thick to realise that nobody likes you?"
Malfoy looked at him, raising his eyebrows mockingly. "Now, now, Potter. That's not very nice, is it?"
Harry could feel his temper beginning to rise. Not wanting to be expelled for punching Malfoy's lights out, he stood up and fetched the ingredients they needed to brew the potion, giving himself time to calm down. By the time he returned back to the desk, he felt much calmer and began to cut up the roots that needed to be put in the potion first. Malfoy merely sat there and lazily watched Harry work. Once Harry had finished cutting up the roots, he began to make the potion, trying to completely ignore the other boy. The two boys worked in silence and Harry began to stir the potion.
"You did three clockwise stirs!" Malfoy accused. "You're only supposed to do two."
"I did do two!"
"No, you didn't. You did three, Potter." Malfoy said the last four words extremely slowly, as if he was speaking to an incredibly stupid child.
Fighting the urge to hit him, Harry again denied it.
"Professor Snape!" Malfoy called. Snape swept over to where the two boys were sitting. "Potter has just completely ruined our potion. He stirred the potion clockwise three times."
Snape looked at Harry disdainfully. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor for not following the correct instructions. I will not tolerate carelessness in this class."
Harry was outraged at this injustice and jumped out of his seat. "What! I only stirred it twice!" He shouted.
"A further five points from Gryffindor. I suggest you sit down, Potter, before I am forced to extract even more points." Snape retorted, scathingly.
Harry sat down, fuming. Unable to decide who he hated the most out of Malfoy and Snape, he glared at the desk, not wanting to give Snape yet another excuse to take more points away from him. He sat in this position until Snape announced it was the end of lesson. He picked up his stuff, leaving his essay on the desk, and stormed out of the dungeon before anybody could speak to him.
Charms and Herbeology, the following lessons, passed in a blur. Harry found the amount of information he was expected to absorb completely ridiculous and was not encouraged by Hermione's hand being constantly in the air, reciting facts in response to the various questions being fired at them. By lunchtime, Harry's head was spinning and he was grateful that he had no more lessons that day. Knowing he would regret not spending the remainder of the day catching up on the huge amount of work he had, he made his way down to the quidditch pitch, clutching his precious firebolt.
Once he reached the pitch, he mounted his broom and kicked off the ground, feeling an immediate rush of adrenalin. He could gradually feel his anger and tension leave his body, replaced by feelings of freedom and happiness. As he felt the wind rush through his hair, all of his previous annoyances were forgotten.
After a few laps of the pitch, he looked down and saw that he had a spectator. He flew over to where the person was standing and saw that it was Ginny. His face breaking into a warm smile, he dismounted his broom and greeted her.
"Hello, Ginny."
"Hey Harry, you ok?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah. What are you doing out here?" Harry asked, still feeling happy from flying.
"Just fancied a walk and I saw you flying, so I thought I'd watch for a while." Her eyes bore into him, wearing a serious expression on her face.
Harry studied her face for a few moments. He could not help but notice how unhappy she looked. His grin faded and was replaced by a look of concern.
"What's the matter, Ginny?" He asked.
She waited a few moments before replying. "I just can't get over what happened between us. I mean, I know you broke up with me because you didn't want me to get hurt, but I'm willing to risk it. We were so good together. Surely it's worth it?" Her eyes were beginning to fill with tears.
Harry did not know what to say. Although he had told her he cared about her too much to risk her getting hurt, the truth was he had realised he could not love her in any other way but platonically once they had begun dating. Not wanting to hurt her, or destroy his friendship with Ron, he had told her he couldn't risk her getting hurt. However, this was not completely a lie. He did care about her a great deal, but more like a sister rather than a girlfriend.
"Look, Ginny. It's not that I don't care about you…because I really do, but the thing is, if Voldemort found out we were together, he would use you to get to me. I care about you too much to see you get hurt. Please believe me." He felt guilty, but reminded himself he was not actually lying, just twisting the truth slightly.
Ginny began to cry. "I love you, Harry."
Harry pulled her into a protective hug. "Please don't cry, Gin."
He continued to hold her until she had finished crying. She looked up at him, with red eyes, and pulled away from him. She wiped her eyes and stood up straight. She suddenly looked rather embarrassed.
"Sorry, Harry," she mumbled, looking away from him. She muttered something about needing to be somewhere and turned around and began to walk away. Harry watched her leave the pitch, suddenly aware that it was dark. Waiting until Ginny had left his sight, he also began to walk back to the castle. He felt terrible for what he had done to her but decided it was better he ended it now rather than later.
When he got back to the common room, he went straight up to the dormitory, not wanting to speak to anyone. He lay on his bed and eventually drifted off into an uneasy sleep, not hearing his roommates enter the room a few hours later.