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Author's Note: This is actually one of my favourite chapters that I've written so far just because it was so fun to write. Thank you so much for your reviews! They're incredibly helpful for inspiration and I love reading them. I hope you enjoy this chapter – I had a blast writing it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I definitely don't make any money off of writing this.

Duality: Dilemma
oOo

Harry felt the need to apologize to Daphne again after Nott had finished his first lesson. Upon viewing the subject of lying the way a Slytherin would view lying – the way Daphne probably viewed lying – it all made perfect sense. She wasn't lying at all – ever… not exactly.

"The 'perfect liar' is a 'liar' that doesn't lie. The whole truth is left out, yet a bit of the truth is told to appease the prospect."

"But that's still a lie."

"No, Potter, it's the truth minus the unnecessary details." Nott paused and paced the front of the room meticulously. "For example, if you were to ask me, 'When is the last time I've seen my father?' and I told you, 'Recently.' – what would you assume?"

"That you've seen him in the last few days," Harry replied with a shrug.

"And that's what most people would assume. But I could consider 'recently' to mean 'within the last couple of months or years'. 'Recently' is a vague statement that could have a bounty of different meanings to each individual. So with that in mind, do you believe that my previous statement is a lie?"

"No… it's not, I guess."

"And that's how you formulate the 'perfect lie'. A misnomer, of course, but the barest of details or specifics of the truth allows a person to tell a 'lie' without any repressed emotion and without giving any indication that you're deceiving the prospect at all. You can bypass the body language control issue this way. However, the drawback with this method is that you have to be fairly decent at thinking on your feet."

Harry felt so stupid for accusing her. He should have just thought about it. She said that she would be 'around'. She didn't specify what she considered to be 'around'. It could have meant 'around' London, for all he knew.

Yet, it still made him wonder… Why did she have to leave out the whole truth? To appease him? Did she think of him as a 'prospect' in that situation? The idea of her thinking of him as a prospect got under his skin a bit, but he let the thought slide as he made his way toward Gryffindor tower before curfew.

Footfalls – and a familiar voice yelling, "Harry!" – bounded up the stairs behind him. "I thought you were going to finish your Charms essay this evening?" Hermione asked, slightly out of breath and looking over him as if she would find a completed Charms assignment tucked under his arm.

"Oh, erm – no. I was just visiting my new tutor," Harry replied. He had thought of using his new 'skills' on Hermione to see if he could actually pull off an outright lie to a person who knew him best, but the guilt trickled in early and stopped him. Nott only drilled him for as much time as they had left after the long drawn-out lecture. And he didn't want to lie to Hermione anyway; there was no reason for it.

"Really?" The centre of Hermione's forehead creased. "But you could have asked me for help if you needed it. You didn't have to get a tutor."

Harry grinned at her sheepishly, moving aside the secret passage tapestry for her, so she didn't have awkwardly try to move it with her arms full of books. "I don't think you'd be the best tutor for this particular subject."

Sighing, Hermione replied, "Just because I got an E on my Defense Against the Dark Arts OWLs-"

"It's not Defense Against the Dark Arts either." Harry paused, moving through the tapestry. "It's… persuasion." He could also call it 'manipulation' and 'learning how to be hyper aware if people are lying to you'. Persuasion sounded nicer.
Hermione stared at him as if he had grown a third ear. "A tutor in persuasion? That's what you consider more important than your Charms essay?"

"It's helpful and it builds people skills," Harry defended.

"You mean Daphne skills," Hermione corrected with a knowing grin. "She is, by far, the most difficult and evasive person I've ever tried to talk to."

Zabini's worse, Harry thought. I can't believe I'm thinking of manipulating him. They moved past the Room of Requirement toward the Fat Lady at the end of the long corridor.

"So, who did you get to tutor you for that?"

Might as well go all out.

"Theodore Nott," Harry replied.

"Are you sure that's safe?"

"He doesn't seem threatening. If his father was a Death Eater, I really don't think he be helping me with this, and I think Daphne's friends with him."

"Right, like that makes it okay… being friends with Greengrass, who is rather questionable in my opinion," Hermione scrutinized.

Harry shrugged. "He hasn't tried to kill me so far and I'm not likely to tell him anything important."

"So what is he getting out of this then? Slytherins don't seem to do anything out of the goodness of their hearts after all," Hermione muttered bitterly.

Harry stared over at her, a bit confused by her tone. Daphne's kitten protection detail for Restricted Section passes must have bothered her much more than he previously thought. Despite that, Hermione was enthralled about the Restricted Section volumes of Hogwarts, A History – for her, it was as if Christmas had come early from the way she kept rambling on about it during their study breaks.

"He asked me to take him to Slughorn's Christmas Party," Harry answered finally, a little reluctant to admit it aloud. He didn't want to do it at all.

Hermione snorted, trying to hold back a chuckle. "I wasn't expecting that. I bet you two will have an excellent time together." Her voice was almost a pitch higher than her normal voice.

"Oh har har," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Not as a date."

"Are you sure he's aware of that?"

Harry shrugged. "I made it clear from the beginning that it's not going to be a date."

Shaking her head in an amused fashion, Hermione grinned wryly. "Ron's going to have a field day with that regardless."

Harry definitely wasn't going to tell Ron about it. He also didn't want to tell her that he planned on taking someone else as well – preferably someone female and a lot more appealing than Nott – as that would look quite selfish of him. The only question was who, since Ron stole Daphne.

If he showed up with only Nott in tow, Ron would probably take the mickey out of him for as long as he lived.

"Yeah, but Ron's going with my-" Harry wanted to say 'girlfriend' but backed away from that word, "-originally planned date. Who are you taking?"

Her mouth opened, as if she were going to speak, but then snapped shut as she stared up at the Fat Lady.

"Password?" the Fat Lady drawled, sipping red wine from her crystal goblet.

Hermione held her forefinger up to the portrait. "Could you give us a second?" she asked, but she didn't wait for an answer before nudging Harry into a darkened corner – out of earshot from the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry's brows furrowed at the odd way she was behaving. "What is it?"

"I'm having a little dilemma," Hermione started quietly with a sigh. "I sort of – accidentally – said yes to two different people. Ron made me so furious yesterday that I jumped at the first person who asked me and then the same thing happened again today and I rather forgot that I said yes to the first person because I was so angry. And I didn't write it down, like I usually do, and we have the finals coming up and I'm messing up my Arithmancy functions and tables and… and now I have two dates to Slughorn's Christmas Party," she explained in a rush.

"Breathe," Harry said slowly, surprised at her lung capacity. "I'm sure it'll be alright. Maybe I can help. Who are the two blokes you said yes to?"

"Cormac McLaggen and Zabini," Hermione whispered breathily.

Harry's eyebrows shot up. Shite. Maybe he couldn't help her. All that would come out of his mouth at the moment was, "You said yes to Zabini?"

McLaggen was pretty obvious about his… affections toward Hermione, and that was putting it lightly. If she wanted to get under Ron's skin the most, McLaggen was perfect. But, Zabini? Harry wondered when the Weasley twins were going to pop out of the walls and simultaneously declare this a cruel joke.

"Yes… he asked me before Arithmancy. I don't know what I was thinking. It was probably something along the lines of 'Ron hates him with a passion – say yes'. So I did. Or maybe that's what I was thinking when I said yes to McLaggen." Hermione ran her hand through her hair a few times. "If I wasn't so scatterbrained lately and if I didn't have fifty percent of my marks for this term riding on that blasted Arithmancy project… I…"

He interrupted her tirade before she could work herself into even worse of a tizzy. "I could probably talk to McLaggen for you," Harry offered, rubbing one of her shoulders to try and get her to calm down. He hadn't seen her like this since the OWLs. He couldn't imagine what the NEWTs would do to her.

"But he doesn't take no for an answer!" Hermione huffed, waving an exasperated hand and nearly dropping her books in the process.

"Yeah, and Zabini's impossible to talk to," Harry said regrettably. Unless he had something to gain from it, he added in his head. "I might be able to get Daphne to do it, but Daphne and I are at an odd place right now."

He also didn't feel comfortable asking Daphne for a favour while he was trying to find a way to manipulate Zabini into telling him her secrets via Nott.

Hermione let out a long sigh. "I don't know. It would be better if I handled it myself and declined one of their invitations, but which one? I don't like either of them."

"Go with both of them and have them fight to the death?"

That sounded like the best plan to him.

Hermione threw him a stern look, but it wasn't very serious. "Not funny, Harry."

Harry gave her a crooked smile to get her to soften up a bit. "Well," he said, "if you want my honest opinion, go with Zabini. He's… not as terrible as McLaggen."

"But Zabini is more likely to listen if I back out of going with him," Hermione disputed somewhat doubtfully. "I think."

Harry shook his head slowly, imagining that scenario. If Zabini really wanted to go with her, he'd probably find a way to make her feel as if she really wanted to go with him using various manipulative tactics. "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that." Why did Zabini, the pureblooded git, want to be seen with a Muggleborn at Slughorn's Christmas Party in the first place?

McLaggen only wanted into Hermione's pants, which was reason enough for her to back out of going with him. Zabini's motives were mysterious, which could be dangerous. And that was a good reason to back out of going with him.

"Which one do you like better?" Harry asked.

Shifting her books in her arms, Hermione shrugged. "They're both rather foul..." Harry nodded in concurrence. "I'm an idiot for agreeing to go with either one of them."

"You're not," Harry disagreed, shaking his head. "Maybe a little… frazzled." Maybe a little bit of an idiot, he begrudgingly admitted to himself. But she wasn't an idiot normally. Why did Ron always get on her nerves so often? It's like he did it on purpose.

They settled into a companionable silence for a few moments, where only the faint noise of clinking glasses and laughter was heard from the portraits down the corridor.

"I don't know... I'll try and decide tomorrow – after the game," Hermione said in an almost defeated tone. "We should probably get in before Filch gets to the seventh floor."

Harry reached down to squeeze her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. "Well if they give you too much trouble, I won't be far behind to hex their bits off, okay?"

Hermione grinned, squeezing his hand back and lacing their fingers together. "Thanks, Harry."

oOo

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! Please review.