FicWad

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author's Note June 21 '08: I edited existing chapters and re-posted them. New Chapters will be uploaded starting next week.

Harry grimaced. The constant throbbing from his scar was really starting to annoy him. Actually, his entire fifth year at Hogwarts was annoying him. And thinking about it wasn’t helping any. It was already past midnight and he still needed to finish his Potions essay.

He’d been reading and re-reading the same passage for well over an hour now, but couldn’t concentrate enough to actually understand it. Fitful sleep and problems concentrating… They each happened a lot during the summer. Normally, it was his trusty owl, Hedwig, who had been able to calm him down enough. This time, however, he couldn’t visit Hedwig as she was still healing from having been injured delivering a letter to him.

Not doing an assignment wasn’t an option when it was for Snape, so Harry hunkered down to try and to read through the text once more. Unfortunately he only lasted for a couple paragraphs before his concentration lapsed again. There was just so much going on with his life right then and very little of it was good.

Umbridge, the under-secretary to the Minister of Magic and now Hogwarts’ Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, had quickly become someone he despised. Standing up to her and telling the truth was the only option Harry saw. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be against him on this. That was even more surprising than the ministry acting the way it was. Voldemort murdered a fellow student, and his professors wanted him to roll over and just let the Ministry continue to deny it? McGonagall was supposed to be head of Gryffindor! How was acting like a sniveling coward a Gryffindor trait?

The other students, too, were acting odd. Many didn’t believe him. While he wasn’t happy with their reaction, he could at least understand it as nearly every year the students had turned against him for one reason or another. But his friends and housemates who believed him were acting as if standing up to Umbridge and the Ministry was wrong. Even the twins, who were some of the biggest troublemakers in the school, had kept silent with any support of him. He knew they would go against her on principal alone, but they wouldn’t stand up to her directly, or even offer any support for him.

Angelina was another problem. Quidditch practice used to be something he really looked forward to. Unfortunately, this year he couldn’t even rely on Quidditch to help him through. A part of him could understand Angelina’s frustration. It was her first, and only, year as Captain and they’d gone from winning the House Cup third year, to only being a mediocre team. Having no Quidditch practices for more than an entire year had left them all a bit rusty. But loosing a keeper of Oliver Wood’s skill had also hurt their team dramatically. Quidditch was a team sport, and unless every single member was up to par, the entire team would do poorly. Knowing why she was frustrated with him was of very little help though. Some things were more important than Quidditch though; Cedric’s murder and Voldemort’s return was one of them.

He also needed to find someplace to have their Defense Meetings. That was something he really wasn’t looking forward to either. When Hermione had badgered him into teaching them defense lessons, he’d thought it would be her and Ron, and maybe a few others like the twins and Ginny. He had not expected 28 students though. And now with Umbridge’s new decree, using a spare classroom was not going to work.

Harry was still lost in thought when someone calling his name startled him.

“Dobby?” he asked, seeing the eccentric House Elf he freed from the Mafloys.

“Dobby knows how much great Harry Potter, sir, loves his owl. So Dobby volunteered to bring her to him.”

“Thanks Dobby!”

“It’s good to see you too, girl,” Harry said as Hedwig glided over to his shoulder and gave him an affectionate nip. That was at least one thing off his list to worry about.

“Harry Potter is bothered, sir?” asked Dobby. “Dobby has heard Harry Potter, sir, is not having good year. Dobby wishes he could do something to help.”

“Sorry Dobby,” he said with a frown. “I don’t think you’ll be able to help unless you can make the Ministry admit Voldemort is back, or happen to have a spare room where nearly thirty people can meet without being caught.”

“Dobby not help with evil you-know-who, but Dobby knows of place to meet, sir,” he said bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in eagerness. “Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!”

“Why?” asked Harry curiously.

“Because it is a room that a person can only enter,” said Dobby seriously, “when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir,' said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty, 'when Winky has been very drunk; he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir ... and Dobby knows Mr. Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and –“

“And if you really needed a bathroom,” said Harry, suddenly remembering something Dumbledore talked about at the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, “would it fill itself with chamber pots?”

“Dobby expects so, sir,” said Dobby, nodding earnestly. “It is a most amazing room, sir.”

“How many people know about it?” said Harry, sitting up straighter in his chair.

“Very few, sir. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, sir, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, sir.”

“It sounds brilliant,” said Harry, his heart racing. “It sounds perfect, Dobby. When can you show me where it is?”

“Any time, Harry Potter, sir,” said Dobby, looking delighted at Harry's enthusiasm. “We could go now, if you like!”

For a moment Harry was tempted to put it off until another time, he still had Snape's essay to finish. He grinned; the room provided the seeker's needs... "Alright Dobby, let me go get my invisibility cloak."

"Sir not need, Dobby very good at not being seen, sir," Dobby said happily. "Dobby not let Harry Potter be seen."

Harry felt a slight chill form around him as the House Elf snapped his fingers. "What'd you do Dobby?"

"We use magic so not disturbing Masters when cleaning, sir. Only other House Elves notice Harry Potter now, sir."

"That's incredible Dobby! Thank you."

Dobby led Harry to the entrance, explaining as much as he could about the Room of Requirement, before returning to his duties.

Harry wasn't sure what to expect really, but what he saw when he entered wasn't it.

The room itself reminded him of a cross between a library and the Gryffindor common room. It was decorated in Gryffindor colors and there was a comfortable looking red chair pulled up to sturdy wooden table that held his Potions text and homework. One wall had a lighted fireplace that kept the room warm and a window that looked out at the night sky. All that was quite nice, but it was the wall off to the right of the table that amazed him that most. It was like he was looking through a window into Grimmauld Place!

Sirius, Remus, and Tonks were lounging on the sofas in the sitting room. It looked like Sirius and Remus explaining something to Tonks but couldn't agree with each other. Whatever it was Tonks seemed to really be enjoying watching the two of them, he could tell she was trying to hold in her laughter. Harry stood there watching them argue with each other for a few minutes before sitting down to finish his potions homework. It was amazing how much easier he found the homework now that he could glance over and see Sirius sitting there talking.

Quidditch practice was canceled the next day and Harry almost scheduled the first defense meeting for that evening but decided against it. After all, he thought to himself, Dobby did say that people could find it on occasion; he needed to make sure it worked every time before telling anyone about it. Taking advantage of the unexpected break Harry found himself in the Room looking in on Grimmauld Place again.

Mrs. Weasley was preparing a delicious looking dinner and he laughed as Sirius, Remus and Mr. Shacklebolt picked on the food as she was distracted by one of the others. She bravely attempted to prevent the pilfering, but it was clearly a loosing battle. Harry watched them for a few more minutes before moving on to why he was there in the first place.

The thought of needing a room to teach in had barely entered his mind when the room shifted before his eyes. No longer was it the small, cozy study room he'd needed last night, but rather a large room containing several bookcases full of books, practice targets, and several cushions laid out on the floor. Taking a quick look through the books Harry found quite a few spells he'd never heard of before, as well as several interesting ideas on how to use magic in a fight. There wasn't time to go through them all now though. He needed to get back to Gryffindor Tower before he was missed.

Later that night Harry made his way back to the Room of Requirement as soon as he was reasonably sure his roommates were asleep, and thought of the small room he'd done his homework in the night before. The room appeared just as he remembered and he saw Grimmauld Place through the window in front of him. He found Sirius and Remus, along with Tonks, Shacklebolt and Mr. Weasley, chatting in the kitchen of headquarters. There were a couple of the books that interested earlier on the table, so he picked up the one on defensive strategies and started reading.

This was fast becoming Harry's favorite way of studying. Being able to glance up and see Sirius anytime he wanted almost made it seem like he had a family, a home. The book itself was a bit beyond his understanding in many areas, but still he learned a lot about defending himself. He'd have to learn the exact spells later but just the idea that you could keep multiple levels of shielding spells on you at the same time was huge.

He was reading about strategies for defending yourself against multiple opponents when he glanced up and noticed Tonks was no longer there. The mere thought of wondering where she'd gone had only just crossed his mind when the view changed. The book he'd been reading was instantly forgotten as Harry stared at the sight before him.

Tonks' friendly and carefree attitude had drawn his attention nearly immediately during the summer. She didn't talk to him as if he was a small a child like most the adults did, and had a way of drawing him out of his funk with laughter. The fact that many of her shirts were a little too short and oftentimes revealed a stripe of skin between her shirt and pants didn't hurt. He tried not to be obvious about his interest, though Ron had teased him a bit after catching Harry glance her way one too many times.

Now though, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Tonks was in the shower, naked. Harry couldn't take his eyes off her lean, muscular body. He'd known she was in good shape- she was an Auror after all- but seeing her starkers showed off just how fit she really was.

The water ran down her body, glistening over her muscles and giving her skin an almost heavenly shine. Her pink hair looked longer now that it was wet and partially covered her eyes. Her breasts, while no-where near the large melons he'd seen in a couple magazines floating around Gryffindor Tower, looked amazing. As she moved on to washing her legs, she turned, raised one foot on to the side of the shower wall and bent down slightly, giving Harry his first view of her incredible backside.

After watching her for a few more moments he was able to snap out of his trance and closed his eyes, trying to think of anything but Tonks. The Weasleys! They were safe to think about.

Unfortunately, today they weren’t.

Instead of one of the six brothers Harry thought would be safe, there in front of him was the image of the youngest, and only, Weasley girl reading a book in bed. This wouldn’t be too bad normally as he’d seen her read books quite often over the years. Unfortunately for him, or fortunately- he wasn’t quite sure which yet- this time she was naked.

Ginny’s skin was pale with only the barest hint of color and her breasts were small in comparison to Tonks’, but they still looked great on someone as small as she was. He’d always known she was small compared to the rest of her family, but hadn’t realized just quite how petite till now. Harry groaned softly as he watched one of her hands absentmindedly skimming ever so slowly up her body. This was Ginny, Ron's little sister!

Little? She sure didn't look like a little girl at the moment. As much as part of him wanted to, he had a hard time turning away. Finally though, he managed to gather enough concentration and this time thought of a male Weasley.

For a brief moment both relief and disappointment flooded through his body as the image of Ginny dissolved to be replaced with that of her eldest brother, Bill. It didn't last long though as his mouth dropped open a moment later when a gorgeous blond appeared next to him, Fleur.

She was dressed. Well, if you could call what she was wearing dressed- she wasn't starkers though. A small blue nightgown covered all her important bits, but was shear enough that it only hid the most minute of details. She was flawless. Her breasts firmly stuck out in round circles from her chest and were larger than he imagined. Bill barely even noticed though, seemingly too engrossed in his work to pay her attention. After only a few kisses to the back of his neck, Bill turned and said something softly to her. Fleur apparently took the hint and went back to the other room.

As much as he hated seeing her go, Harry was finally able to force himself to leave the room. Breathing heavily he nearly ran all the way back to his dorm where he quickly disrobed and threw himself into his bed.

The next few days were quite trying for Harry. He felt disgusted and ashamed of himself. The worse part was that even though the guilt weighed heavily on him, he couldn't stop thinking about that night. Every time he saw Ginny in the common room, the halls or the great hall, the picture of her hand skimming across her body came to the forefront of his mind.

While eating breakfast with his friends the second morning he saw Hermione's tongue flick out and lick a bit of milk off her upper lip. Unintentionally, he let out an audible groan from the sight, which caused Hermione to ask if he was all right. He quickly made up some excuse and went back to eating, making sure not to look at her again.

All through the day he couldn't stop himself from thinking about what Hermione might look like under her robes. Harry knew she'd been seeing Victor most of last year, and though she never let on that anything happened, he was no fool. He saw her after she came back from studying in the library and could guess what type of ‘studying’ she’d done. He also fairly sure she borrowed his cloak on more than one occasion to sneak out late at night, though never asked to make sure. He wasn't jealous. Unlike Ron, he'd known she was a girl and, if anything, thought Victor had been good for her. He also wasn't worried about her being pressured to go too far, knowing how strong her morals and stubbornness were. Besides, he doubted Hermione would do anything like that with someone who wouldn't be there after the year.

It wasn't just Ginny and Hermione though; nearly all the girls in the DA had come up to him in the past couple days wanting to know when the first meeting would be. After the fourth day Harry swore there was a conspiracy to drive him nuts and that they were all in on it. Each girl seemed to be wearing her skirt a little too high, shirt a little too tight, or have one too many buttons open while slightly bent over to talk to him. The last draw was Hermione though. While doing homework on the fourth evening he glanced over and saw her softly nibbling and licking the end of a sugar quill as she concentrated on the text in front of her. Images of what else she could do with that talented tongue flashed through his mind and that was it.

He wanted to see Sirius again.

At least that’s what he told his conscience as he snuck through the corridors later that night. And Sirius was exactly who Harry saw when he entered the room. The view only lasted a few moments though before it turned directly to Tonks. Relief and frustration both flooded through his system as he found the Auror working at her desk in the Ministry of Magic. He watched her for a few minutes and was rather amused to see that she kept the same fun attitude he enjoyed this summer while working. After the view changed back to Sirius, Harry grabbed the book on defensive strategies again and started to read through it.

The studying didn't go nearly as well at first as he found the image changing to Tonks several times throughout the night and was slightly disappointed at finding her working each time. After a while though, Harry found himself engrossed in the strategies of fighting multiple opponents.

The next time he looked up Sirius was already asleep and Harry realized it was nearly three in the morning! Harry cursed at himself for having lost track of the time; he'd be tired tomorrow. Still, it'd been worth it- he wasn’t likely to have been able to get a lot of sleep with how horny he'd been earlier anyways. With that thought the image of Sirius changed to that of Tonks, only she wasn't at work this time.

She wasn't in the shower this time either, but was wearing only a pair of knickers that seemed to conform to her magnificent arse as if they were molded just for her. Her hips were swaying as she straightened up her flat and Harry figured there must've been music playing, though he wouldn't put it past Tonks to dance to music only she could hear. He watched her for several minutes, enticed by the movements of her long athletic legs and the bobbing and swaying of her breasts. They weren't as large as they had been when he watched her in the shower, but they were incredibly perky and bounced along perfectly with her body.

The guilt returned slightly as he watched Tonks, but not as much this time. Harry knew he shouldn't be watching her, but couldn’t deny he felt a bit of a thrill at doing so. He justified it to himself by saying that it wasn't like he was hurting her, and that she'd never know. In truth, he wasn’t even positive it really was Tonks, as it very well could be some sort of illusion the room provided. His conscience satisfied, Harry moved the chair a bit closer and continued to watch her.

He woke up tired the next morning and slowly opened his eyes to see Tonks sleeping in bed. Harry closed his eyes again for a moment before they snapped open and he jumped up in surprise.

It took a moment before everything started to sink in, he couldn't believe he’d fallen asleep! He grabbed his invisibility cloak and ran over to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as he could. It was light out already, but thankfully it looked like the sun had only risen a little while ago. With luck he'd be back before anyone noticed him missing.

Of course, Harry should have known better to count on luck.

"Where were you last night mate?" Ron asked the moment the three of them left the common room for breakfast.

Thinking quickly Harry decided to tell them a partial truth. "Looking over a place for the meetings. I haven't been able to find what I wanted so I asked Dobby and he told me of a room."

"Dobby?" asked Hermione. "Are you sure it was wise with out one of us with you? I know he means well, but..."

That comment irked Harry a bit, even if it was a valid point, she was the one involved with Elfish rights after all. "He was right though, I checked it out last night. It's great."

"Great! So we'll start to let everyone know when we're going to meet today."

"No!" Harry said a little too quickly. "Um... It won't work. I'm going to talk to him again later to find something else."

"Thought you said it was great, why won't it work?" Ron asked him.

Harry was wracking his brain for anything to tell them. It wasn't like he could just tell Ron the truth. Yeah, it's perfect, but I'm worried that my concentration will slip and instead of a dueling room, we'll have a life size image of your little sister in bed.

"It's too far out of the way," Harry finally told them.

"Well that's even better mate, less chance to get caught."

"No," Hermione interjected. "Don't you remember what Snuffles said? We were noticed in Hogshead because we were out of place."

"I didn't think of it, but you're right Harry," she said as she stopped walking and gave him a large smile. "We need someplace that won't easily be stumbled upon, but also where students won't be immediately noticed when walking to it."

"Thanks," Harry told her, flushing under her smile while hoping it didn't show. He'd seen Hermione smile before, but with all the thoughts and hormones running through his body... It was different this time. "I'm going to ask him again during lunch, can you two cover for me?"

"Of course mate! We'll even knick some food for you. Now will you two come on! Breakfast will be over soon and you know I can't stand Potions on an empty stomach."

It seemed there was one good thing that came from the conspiracy around him. He was so preoccupied with thoughts about the girls around him that he didn't pay attention to all the snide remarks and whispers that followed him around daily.

During lunch Harry visited Dobby in the kitchens and described the new room he needed; one where they wouldn't be found, but not so out of the way that students would be noticed walking to and fro. Dobby knew the perfect place and led Harry away after talking with another elf for a moment. They'd only been walking a couple minutes when Dobby announced they were there.

"Um... Dobby, it's a wall."

"The door is spelled not to be noticed Harry Potter, sir, look."

As Dobby snapped his fingers another cold feeling flashed over his body and, to Harry's amazement, a door seemed to appear right in from of him.

"Come Harry Potter, sir, Dobby explain inside."

The room was smaller than what Harry wanted, but what it contained was amazing- 14 magical doors. Each of the doors went to a different part of the castle. The doors, Dobby explained, had originally been used by the staff to monitor all the students in the castle. That was a long time ago though, when Hogwarts was one of the only magical schools in the world and had ten times as many students as it did now.

The knowledge of the room was lost over the centuries and Dobby didn't think anyone else beside the House Elves even knew it existed. To Harry it was perfect, and he thanked the little House-Elf profusely for his help. With all the doors going to a different part of the castle everyone could arrive in small groups. If each group took a different way no one would realize anything was up!

After classes he showed Ron and Hermione to the room. Ron instantly fell in love with it and wanted to start using it as a shortcut to some of the classes. Harry actually liked the idea himself as, depending on how ornery the stairs were being, there really were times when they'd sprint from one class to the next and still barely make it on time.

Unfortunately Hermione would have none of it, insisting that if they started using it all the time the room wouldn't remain secret for long. She did like Harry's idea of everyone arriving in small groups by the different doors however, and even found a way to deal with the smaller room size by splitting the class into two groups. This also had the advantage of lessening the scheduling conflicts caused by the Quidditch practices and other clubs and activities within the school.

Harry fell asleep early that night, being too tired to even consider going back to the Room of Requirement.

The next day turned about to be another conspiracy day for him. Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to schedule the first meeting for later that week and he once again seemed to have nearly all the girls from the DA coming up to him. Not that he minded- far from it really- it was just driving him insane that now his roommates seemed to be in on the conspiracy as well. None of them seemed to be in any hurry to go to bed that night. Harry ended up talking with them for ages before they finally went to sleep.

By the time he could finally sneak out of there and head back to the Room of Requirement it was past midnight and most the girls were asleep already. The few who were still awake weren't wearing anything revealing, which was probably because of the cold that seeped into the castle during the late night. Though there were a couple of girls who'd kicked back their comforters a bit, allowing him to see more of their legs, shoulders and backs than he'd ever be able to normally.

After Cho called him brave earlier in the year and seemingly wanted to talk to him during the meeting at Hogshead, Harry thought maybe, just maybe, she'd been interested in him. It turned out he was wrong though, and whatever feelings for his crush were left over were silently squashed that night.

Checking in on her he found she wasn't alone in her bed, the girl she brought to the meeting, Marietta, was asleep under the covers with her. Cho was lying partially on top of the girl, her head resting on Marietta's shoulder. Harry couldn't make out all the details, but from Cho's bare back and Marietta's bare shoulders; it was fairly obvious they were at least topless.

Mentally he made a note to check back on them in the future. His hopes for dating her may have ended, but he was rather intrigued by the idea of the two girls together.

Fleur, too, was fast asleep, though she was alone at her own place this time. He found that Tonks was still awake and seemed to be alone at her desk in the Ministry. He watched for a few minutes as she read through a file, making a few notes here and there, while constantly glancing at what looked like a mirror on her desk. It showed an empty corridor instead of her reflection and Harry figured she was on some sort of magical stakeout for the Ministry. Bad luck to have drawn the short straw for shifts. Still, she was smiling and seemed happy enough, even if she must've been bored out of her mind and tired from working so late at night. Her vibrant attitude towards life really did amaze him.

The night wasn't a complete waste though. He saw quite a bit of skin on a few girls, knew better than to get his hopes up for Cho, and managed to read through a good bit of the defense book.

"I take it you didn't find what you wanted?" Harry asked as he handed her the food he saved her from dinner. Hermione had disappeared into the library every chance she could for the last two days. She barely ate anything all yesterday and had skipped both lunch and dinner completely today as well.

"Thanks. And no. I managed to find a few references to his spells, but he never publically published any of them so it’s been difficult to find even that. I know one of the Ravenclaws referenced one of the spells in an essay for Charms before, but even if I knew who it was, I doubt they’d admit it."

"It's so frustrating sometimes," she added with a huff that caused Harry to smile.

"Why wouldn't they tell you?" Harry asked. He knew there were quite a few Ravenclaws in the defense class he'd be teaching after all.

"Honestly Harry, haven't you figured it out by now? The wizarding world isn't like the muggle world in regards to the sharing of information. Knowledge really is power here. Most witches and wizards keep their works for themselves, passing it on only to their family and familial allies. Even the magical ones that don't believe in the pureblood nonsense teach their kids not to share what they learn from their family libraries. For muggleborns and the lesser families who don't have large libraries and extensive alliances, the only books available are what they can buy from the stores."

"That's why learning everything we can now is so important,” she continued. “Hogwarts’ library is one of the largest depositories of magical knowledge in the world and we have almost unlimited access to it!"

"Oh... I never realized. I guess I just thought it'd be like this, where we can just go pick up the book we need anytime."

"So do most other muggleborns, but it's nearly impossible to get permission to use the library once we graduate. You need permission from both the Headmaster and the Board of Governors, and I'm sure you can guess how often that happens for a muggleborn with people like Malfoy on the board. It's just one of the many ways the Purebloods keep their power; hoarding the knowledge. You can't get into the most powerful positions unless you've proven yourself to be one of the bests in that particular field. It's much harder to reach that level when you're severely limited in the books you have access to. That's the main reason why they can continue to claim that Purebloods are better at magic than muggleborns, when really it's the Muggleborns and Half-Bloods that are more powerful, healthier and physically fit because of the centuries of close breading between the pureblooded families."

Harry frowned, not liking the sound of any of it. Even though his mom had been a muggleborn, the Potter line existed long before that. Had his family been true Purebloods? Did he have a library? And what about his parent's house?

The stories claimed his house completely destroyed the night Voldemort attacked, but he remembered a lot about that night from his third year and didn’t remember anything about it being destroyed. He received quarterly owls from Gringotts, but never bothered to look into the details before. He knew Hogwarts regularly took their fees from his account, but that was about it.

"Harry!" Hermione said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Just thinking. What was it you were looking for today anyway?"

"Something to help us keep the meeting secret. This is serious Harry; if you're caught you'll be expelled."

"Trust me,” he replied rather blandly. “The thought crossed my mind. But we're already committed to it, so we're doing this anyway."

Harry wasn't going to straight out blame her because he had agreed after all, but he wasn't about to let her completely forget that she'd tricked and badgered him into it.

Hermione's flush was enough to let him know she understood. "I know. This is too important to stop even if we wanted too. That's why I was searching for a way to make sure we're not caught. Certain departments of the Ministry use magic to prevent leaking or stealing information. It’s incredibly complex; using a combination of Runes, Potions and Wards, but we can use the same idea, only simpler, here.”

“The man I was researching, Randal Stephens, was an incredibly talented artist of about five centuries ago and was the first to perfect infusing a subject's echo into a painting,” she said in the lecturing tone that he knew so well. “He was deathly afraid that another artist would learn how he created his masterpieces though. So he ended up paying a fortune to have a series of spells developed to prevent his clients from talking about what they saw. Another artist did eventually learn the secrets by binding her senses to the man's pet dog, but that's beside the point. It'd be perfect for us, only I haven't been able to find even the slightest hint of the spell. Not even its name."

Harry could hear the frustration in her voice and couldn't help but feel for her. "Ron'll be in detention with Snape for a while yet. Want to head over to the room? We need to get it setup for the first meeting. You can even make a list of what we'll need." Hermione had a twisted love for creating lists that he'd never understand.

"I've actually thought of several things we'll need already,” his friend replied as she reached into her bag for a quill and parchment. “And Ron makes me so mad! He knows we need to keep our nose clean with Snape and Umbridge, but he still picked a fight with Malfoy after class. It's not like it was even anything worth getting mad about anyway, only the same insults he's been throwing since first year."

"I'm really proud of you Harry," Hermione commented as they walked out of the tower. "For not letting Malfoy goad you like that in front of Snape. It just shows how mature you've become."

Harry flushed at her praise as he kept walking. Hermione wasn't one give out such compliments lightly, yet he'd received two in less than a week.Wisely, he chose not to mention that he'd barely even noticed Snape or Malfoy the entire lesson as he’d been too busy wondering if Hermione could keep her famous concentration on making a potion while he thoroughly explored her body with his fingers.