Butterfly Effect ; H. Potter

113. better than firewhiskey.

Exhausted but delighted with his night's work, Harry and Antheia told Ron and Hermione everything that had happened during next morning's Charms lesson (having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest them). They were both satisfyingly impressed by the way he had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn and positively awed when he told them about Voldemort's Horcruxes and Dumbledore's promise to take Harry along, should he find another one.

"Wow," said Ron, when Harry had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore ... and try and destroy ... wow."

"Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Harry noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighbouring table through very red eyes and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry ... looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now ..."

He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder. Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her.

"We split up," he told Harry and Antheia out of the corner of his mouth. "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, Harry, so she thought it had just been the two of us."

"You're fine with that, though, aren't you?" accused Antheia.

"Yeah," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it."

"Coward," said Antheia.

"Well, Lavender's not the only one who came to a realization last night," said Hermione.

"What d'you mean?" said Harry.

"Actually," said Hermione, casting a glance at Antheia. "Antheia just realized that -"

"- that I hadn't finished my Potions homework," interrupted Antheia, glaring harshly at Hermione.

"We had homework?" asked Ron, horror-struck. Antheia shrugged. Harry stared at her. He had not known, either, that there was Potions homework and it seemed very out of character for her to have forgotten if they did. His thoughts wandered away as he stared at her. A clear image of her confessing her love for him and smiling brightly at him appeared in his head.

"Flitwick," said Ron in a warning tone. The tiny little Charms master was bobbing his way towards them and Hermione was the only one who had managed to turn vinegar into wine; her glass flask was full of deep crimson liquid, whereas the contents of Harry's and Ron's were still murky brown. Antheia quickly waved her wand and filled her glass with wine just as Flitwick came over to them.

"Now, now, boys," squeaked Professor Flitwick reproachfully. "A little less talk, a little more action ... let me see you try ..."

Together they raised their wands, concentrating with all their might, and pointed them at their flasks. Harry's vinegar turned to ice; Ron's flask exploded.

"Yes ... for homework ..." said Professor Flitwick, re-emerging from under the table and pulling shards of glass out of the top of his hat, "practise. As for you, Potter," Flitwick leaned over to him and whispered, "it would do you good to focus rather than stare at Miss Lupin. You have plenty of time for that outside of class."

Harry blushed profusely.

They had one of their rare joint free periods after Charms and walked back to the common room together. Ron seemed to be positively light-hearted about the end of his relationship with Lavender and Hermione seemed cheery, too, though when asked what she was grinning about she simply said, "It's a nice day." Suddenly, Antheia turned to look at Harry.