"What do you mean?" she asked him in return, glancing over at her friend and brother who were sharing a sofa revising in front of the fire.
"Don't tell me you don't see it?" he retorted unbelievingly. "And here I thought I was supposed to be the thick one."
"What am I supposed to be seeing?" she inquired, shifting her gaze from Harry to the duo and back again.
"Ever since Ron threw me off the team, they haven't argued once that I've seen," Harry told her. He cocked an eyebrow at her and added, "That has to be some sort of record for them. I think Ron may finally be coming around. All he needs to do is ask her to the ball to seal the deal."
"Oh? So is that what you were doing then? Sealing the deal by asking me to the ball?" she teased.
"But of course," he returned self-importantly. He waggled his eyebrows at her for a moment before becoming serious again. "It would be about time, really. Those two have been dancing around each other for years."
"No kidding."
Things continued more or less on par the following week. Harry continued practicing his metamorphmagus abilities in addition to his usual training, but so far he did not have any luck changing anything besides his hair length, though he did get a good laugh at himself when he managed to grow out the hair on his arms and legs. He wasn't going to give up easily. He was used to controlling hair length, so of course that would come easiest to him. He didn't know if he had any additional abilities, but he was going to make sure that he tried as hard as he could before he discounted the possibility.
Harry was glad to see that Ron still showed up to his HA classes, though he suspected Hermione might have had to coax him. Ron wasn't acting friendly by any means, but he was at least being a little more civil in that he wasn't completely ignoring Harry. Harry, for his part, was trying not to act like it bothered him. Ron's behavior only served to reinforce Harry's reasoning for hiding things from his friends. If this is how Ron was going to react over Quidditch, Harry couldn't afford to share any of his secrets with him. He couldn't be trusted with them.
Harry continued to spend lots of time with Ginny and her friends. He started helping them revise for their ever-looming OWLS. Ginny found a wellspring of knowledge for her Muggle Studies class in Harry. Not that she didn't have other muggle-born friends to ask for help but they were often busy with their own assignments.
Harry continued to stay ahead of his classes without putting too much effort into it. The fact that he was only taking five courses combined with his increasing abilities and growing affinity for reading were really making a difference in his studies.
He still had to hold back in class so as not to draw too much attention to his ever-increasing abilities. He was confident that he could do most spells in class on the first try, but he deliberately made some mistakes in the beginning. Sometimes he would still be the first one to successfully cast the spell, other times he would let a couple people beat him to it. Even with all he was holding back, his teachers couldn't praise him enough, much to Hermione's consternation.
Hermione was still spending an inordinate amount of time studying, trying to stay well ahead of Harry. The fact that she was taking several additional classes didn't seem to make a difference in her mind. She was determined to be the best in every subject. At first he was a little amused at Hermione's reaction to his improvements in class, but as time went on he began to feel a little hurt by it as well. Rather than just be happy for him, Hermione just got more and more frustrated and focused. Harry tried not to think on it much as he didn't exactly need any more depressing thoughts at the moment.
If not for all the personal reading and training that he was doing, Harry imagined that he would be quite bored this term. In the past his classes had been much tougher due in part to his lack of effort and also his rather busy schedule. This year was completely different. His classes were easy. The HA was well under his control. His personal training was progressing nicely. And without Quidditch practice he had even more free time to study types of magic that caught his fancy.
Hermione was still somewhat torn over Ron and Harry's estrangement, but Harry just told her that there wasn't anything she could really do to improve the situation. Of course, that didn't stop her from continually trying to get the two of them to talk about it. Harry had no intention of doing so at the moment, not before Ron gave him one good apology. This only served to put further strain on his relationship with Hermione. While he felt that they were constantly growing apart, he didn't want to lose her friendship either. So Harry made a point of spending time with Hermione while Ron was off at Quidditch practice.
Hermione spent most of her time with Ron, mostly because Ron seemed to flock to her nowadays, and she felt bad about leaving Harry out. Harry knew the way she felt about Ron, so he understood why she would side with him. Nonetheless it still hurt that she continued to side with Ron.
There were almost daily reportings of attacks in the Daily Prophet, which created a tense atmosphere, but the normalcy of school and their every day lives combated that adequately. Life in Gryffindor Tower was relatively peaceful for most occupants. That did not extend to Ron, however, who bore the brunt of more than one prank and faced open hostility from many members of the house. None of them were thrilled at the way Ron was treating Harry, nor the loss of their star seeker.
....
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