December, 5th
Ever since the announcement Hogwarts would be able to reopen for the new school year and be fully repaired, the coordination of students became a mess.
Because the curriculum of the last year had been changed and subjects as Defence Against The Dark Arts, Muggle Studies and Divination haven’t been taught or drastically changed and many students didn’t even attend Hogwarts since they had to fear for their lives, a huge educational gap arose.
The school offered all students for this reason the possibility to repeat the last school year but also allowed those who felt confident enough in their knowledge and abilities to move to the next.
Almost all students that would have taken the NEWTS returned to repeat, or take the seventh year for the first time and the same was the case with the OWL students, who needed the results of their exams to decide their courses. The majority of the other classes though were happy enough to start their next year, as the exams were cancelled because of the circumstances.
Some classes therefore suddenly became rather crowed, or mixed with students from a former lower or higher year.
So it happened that The Gryffindor ‘eighth’ years were taking charms together with the official seventh years, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to share a class with Ginny.
The youngest Weasley didn’t sit with them though, but rather with Becky Coleman from her year as well as Seamus and Dean.
“Is everyone equipped with an ice block?” The dwarfish Professor Flitwick asked in his squeaky voice, looking around cheerfully.
“Well, alright. If every one of you has done their homework, as I am sure all of you did, you will have no trouble with the Sculperis charm today. Now, I want you to sculpt an animal of your choice from the ice block using the charm. This will be an excellent training for your spell aim, as you need to be absolutely precise. Once you’ve mastered this one, every other charm will come noticeably easier to you. And maybe, as a little incentive, the most beautiful sculptures will be presented in the Great Hall for the rest of the month. Please begin!”
“We’ll be able to do other charms more easily when we do this? Why wasn’t it the first spell we’ve ever learned?” Ron muttered to his two table companions.
Harry shrugged and stared at his block, trying to think about what animal he would carve out of it. Next to Ron Hermione already got to work, succeeding into forming the frozen block nicely while launching into a drawn out explanation why the Sculperis charm was too complicated for younger students between her spell castings.
Half an hour later nothing of Hermione’s ice sculpture resembled a block anymore. Instead a gorgeous glassy swan sat on the desk in front of her, with spread wings and feathers so detailed, that it might as well was able to just fly off any second.
Harry’s block on the other hand only represented a phoenix in a very Picasso-ish kind of way and only if looked at from the right angle. He didn’t have the mind to sculpt ice figures right now; it was already busy with thinking about something else.
Finished with her work the talented brunette witch leaned closer to her boyfriend and examined his work with an appreciative nod.
“You’re hippo turned out quite good, Ron.”
“… It was supposed to be a horse.”
“Oh…” Hermione blushed.
“No, no Mr. Finnigan! Like this you’re going to melt… oh, you see…” Professor Flitwick squeaked and rushed over to Seamus’ table in order to restore his now molten ice block.
The trio looked over with amused smiles and could see a drenched Seamus with a sheepish expression on his face, while Ginny’s buried her face in a grinning Dean’s shoulder, her own shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
The only one still concentrated on working at that table was Becky.
Ron frowned when he saw his sister with Dean. “Aren’t they getting a little too touchy-feely?”
“Oh, Ron.” Hermione sighed. “It’s really not your business what Ginny’s doing, you know? Besides, they’re dating again.”
Ron’s eyes bulged, studying the pair even more intensely now, while Harry simply said: “Oh.”
Hermione looked over to him behind, biting her lip. “Didn’t you know?”
“No, I… didn’t.” Harry frowned slightly.
Why didn’t he know that? They were still friends weren’t they? Then, on the other hand, Ron hadn’t known either, but then again Ginny never told her brothers about her dates.
“They haven’t been for long. He asked her after the match Saturday.” Hermione hastily added, her eyes starting to fill with concern while she looked at Harry.
“Oh.” He said again. “That’s… really not long yet.” He grinned at her, feeling somewhat uncomfortable under her concern.
“You okay with it?” Harry wasn’t sure, but he might have heard something else swing in her tone as she asked him this.
“Sure. Hermione, she’s free to date whoever she likes. That between us… it’s just friendship, you know? I’m happy for her.” And as the words left his mouth, he found that he really was.
Of course, he still cared deeply for the ginger haired girl and felt protective over her, but it wasn’t the raging jealousy he had felt two years ago and more like he regarded Hermione. Just a very good friend.
“Doesn’t anyone care if I’m okay with it?” Ron complained and got bopped in the side by a grinning Hermione.
“No. Now finish your hippo.”
