Jake awoke rather early the following morning. And to his great satisfaction, he didn't experience the nightmare. He dispelled the Silencing Charm he placed on his bed that he had put up just in case the Draught didn't work, and got out of bed. It was early, incredibly early, actually, and the sun wasn't even over the horizon yet. He needed a way to stay active at Hogwarts like he was at Merlin's Tower, and he figured that going on a run each morning was the best way to accomplish that. He had thought ahead for this and pulled out the clothing he'd wear while running.
He slipped into his clothing and went downstairs and outside into the cold September air. It was far colder than he was expecting for it to only be September, but the rain yesterday had been freezing, so it still being cold today was not surprising. He stood outside the great Double Doors that led into the Castle and began to stretch. He'd do one lap around the Castle for now and see how that went.
When he was done stretching, he started at a casual jog down the steps and along the cobblestone path until he got a fair distance from the Castle before veering left to run the perimeter. The grass was still wet and muddy, but he'd just have to get over it; he could always Scourgify the mud away, anyway. The sky was still gray as if to mock his decision to go on a run that morning. He picked up his speed, which was now at a running speed, just as he passed Hagrid's Hut.
The cold air stung as it entered his lungs. He was closing in on the Black Lake when he started to get a little tired. He regretted not training his body in the cold while at Merlin's Tower; it would have benefited him greatly right then if he was used to it, but as he got three-fourths the way done with his run, his lungs were on fire, it felt like his chest was going to explode inside out. Just a month of no exercising at the Burrow and he was already feeling out of shape.
By the time he arrived back at the steps, the sun was starting to come over the horizon and he was bent over, about to cough up a lung from how he felt right then. He wiped the sweat from his brow, used Scourgify on his shoes and sweatpants, and made his way into the Castle again. He steadily climbed the stairs all the way back up to Gryffindor Tower and spoke the password when he arrived at the Fat Lady. He went up the Boy's Staircase, got some clean clothes, and walked into the bathroom to bathe before his friends got up, which would be a couple more hours at least.
He removed his shirt and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. More specifically, he saw the scars that covered his torso. He quite honestly hoped that none of his friends, or anyone, ever found out about them. They'd never stop worrying about him, especially if it happened to be Hermione. He tore his eye from the mirror, removed his eye-patch, and ran some hot water, deciding to add some bubbles to the bath as well.
*******
Hermione had just woken up to her Six o'clock alarm, and felt her back pop and crack as she stretched after shutting it off. She rubbed her eyes and looked around, only to realize her curtains were still drawn. She shoved them aside and wasn't surprised to be the first one up in her dorm room, she always was. She vacated her bed and went to the girls bathroom to get ready for the day.
She ran her fingers through her hair as she stood in front of the mirror, and her eyes caught sight of her two scars on the palm of her hand. She stared at them for a few seconds; she hadn't even felt the pain of the shards from the mug after she crushed it in her hand. She balled her hand into a fist, holding her hand close to her chest. She wondered what kind of pain Jake had experienced when his arms had got cut up during his training, or if he didn't feel the pain like she didn't; Hermione would never know.
After getting ready, she walked down the stairs to head for the Common Room. Before she made it all the way down, she heard the Portrait swing open. She peeked around the edge and saw that Jake had entered, looking exhausted, sweaty, and breathing heavily. She wondered where he had been at first, then she wondered what he had done to be so fatigued in the first place.
When she was sure he was gone up the Boy's Staircase, she descended the rest of the way into the Common Room, book in hand, to wait for the Library to open and for him to come back down the stairs; when he arrived back down in the Common Room, she'd go over more about their research for House Elves. She was glad she wouldn't have to search by herself, his help would prove invaluable.
It was about ten minutes before he came back down to the Common Room, "Ah, good morning, Hermione," he greeted her with a smile.
She looked and smiled back, "Good morning to you as well, Jake," she saw that he was indeed clean and no longer had sweat running down his face, but he was still breathing heavily. She didn't bother asking about it, though.
He walked over and sat beside her, yawning as he did, "So I was thinking this morning, and Lunchtime may be the best time to start looking in the Library for books on House Elf treatment as a good place to start."
"I was actually thinking the same thing," she looked at her watch, "Breakfast should be starting in about five minutes. You want to go ahead and go down?"
"Breakfast sounds wonderful right now, actually," he smiled at her. At least with Hogwarts, he almost never missed breakfast, except for in Second Year when Hermione was incapacitated, he didn't eat a whole lot during that time.
It wasn't until after Harry and Ron, and most other Gryffindor to show up, that the schedules got passed around by Heads of House. McGonagall had given them the schedule at breakfast and Jake and Hermione both agreed that it looked far more manageable than last year, "Today's not bad... outside all morning," Ron said as he ran his finger down the column for Monday, "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures... damn it, we're still with the Slytherins..."
"Seems a bit odd, if you ask me, how many classes we have with them..." Jake said as an afterthought.
"Double Divination," he heard Harry say somewhat cheerfully, "Could actually be fun now that Trelawney isn't teaching it?"
"Maybe, but I still think you should've just given it up like us, shouldn't you?" Hermione asked briskly, buttering herself some toast, "Then you'd be doing something sensible, like Arithmancy."
She had just started adding some jam, a lot of jam, to her toast when the Owl Post came in. Jake looked around and saw the flurry of Owls fly to each of the different tables and students, dropping and leaving or perching on the shoulder of a student if it was a family Owl.
They soon found themselves on the way out of the Great Hall and heading outside towards the Greenhouses for Herbology. To his dismay, Professor Sprout had them enter Greenhouse Three where the Tentacula resided. Jake knew it hated him, but no book could explain why it hated him, he just knew it did. "I'm staying as far away from that blasted thing as possible," he said quietly, which caused Hermione to giggle with her hand against her mouth.
Professor Sprout then showed them one of the ugliest plants Hermione had ever seen. They looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of a liquid, "What are those?" She heard Harry ask.
"Bubotubers," Jake answered without pause.
"Correct, Mr. Kidd, take Ten Points for Gryffindor, why don't you?" Professor Sprout said, walking up to the Bubotuber, "and they need squeezing. You see this here? You will collect the pus-"
"The what ?" Seamus asked, sounding utterly revolted.
"Pus, Finnigan, pus," Sprout reiterated, "and it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted... let me show you how to collect them from one spot here, and then get to work!"
Jake and Hermione promptly put their gloves on and each decided which task to do for themselves; Hermione would be popping them and Jake would catch the pus in the Bottles. Hermione was heard commenting how disgusting, but satisfying popping them felt. By the end of class, several pints of the Pus had been bottled.
"This ought to keep Madam Pomfrey happy," Professor Sprout said as she corked the last bottle. "An excellent remedy for the most stubborn of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Like poor Eloise Midgen," Hannah Abbott said in a hushed tone, "she tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl," Professor Sprout said, shaking her head, "at least Madam Pomfrey was able to fix her nose back on in the end."
Jake blinked his eye and looked taken aback, "Did I miss something?" He whispered to Hermione.
All she did was shush him as a booming bell rang out through the whole Castle, signaling that class ended and to get to the next class. The Gryffindors separated from the Hufflepuffs as they made their way down to Hagrid's Hut, which was a shorter walk than it was for the Slytherin, wherever they were coming from.
Hagrid's Hut was situated at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, which Jake had only ever entered twice, at least when it came to going deep into the Forest. He didn't count any time last year with how he had only skirted the inside a little bit.
Hagrid was standing outside his Hut, waiting for them to arrive, one of his enormous hands was on the collar of his Boarhound, Fang. There were several opened crates on the ground at his feet, and Fang was whimpering and straining to get over to the crates to investigate more closely; whatever was in them, if Hagrid was keeping Fang back, it must not have been good.
When they got closer, an odd rattling sound could be heard coming from the crates, followed by what sounded like miniature explosions, "Mornin'!" Hagrid grinned at the four of them, "be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' wan' ter miss this, Blast-Ended Skrewts!"
Jake stopped dead in his tracks, 'No... did - did he really?' He walked up to the crates and peered down inside, wanting to suddenly bash his head against something hard and stony.
"Eurgh!" Lavender squealed, jumping back in horror.
Hermione peered inside and sure enough, Blast-Ended Skrewts were down in the crates. They looked worse than how the book described them; they were like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places, and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, about six inches long each, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the crates. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting flesh, something Hermione had hoped she'd never know the smell of before. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of one of the ends of them and they'd skid forward a few inches.
"On'y jus' hatched," Hagrid said proudly, "So yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we make a bit of a project out of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" Came a cold drawl of a voice that had an oh so punchable face that came with it, Jake thought to himself.
The Slytherins had finally arrived and Draco Malfoy was the speaker for the group, Crabbe and Goyle chuckling appreciatively at his words.
Hagrid looked downright stumped at the valid question. Jake might have hated Malfoy with every single fiber of his being, but with this, he couldn't agree more.
"I mean, what do they do ?" Malfoy continued to question, "What's the point of them?"
Hagrid opened his mouth and paused for a few seconds, very obviously, and thought hard about it. Then he said, "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em, terday. Now yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'ren' things - I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll eat. I've got ant eggs, frog livers, an' a bit o' grass snake. Jus' try 'em out on each."
Hermione was about to walk over when she saw Jake pulling on his Dragon hide gloves, and he walked over to the crates to go ahead and get started. No one else put them on, and the Slytherins even laughed at him, but he ignored them, and she soon found out why he had.
" Ouch !" Dean yelled out in pain. Hagrid hurried over to him, "it got me!" Hagrid looked anxious as Dean then said, "It's end exploded!"
"Why do you think I put gloves on?" Jake asked, looking at Dean for a moment.
Hermione noticed the Slytherins stopped laughing and promptly began to put their gloves on. She herself couldn't help the few giggles that escaped her lips.
"Erugh," she heard Lavender say. Because of her suspicions about the girl, she had little care for her, "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's this pointy end on some of them?" She had her gloves on after seeing what happened to Dean and grabbed one of the pointy ones.
"Ah, some of 'em got stingers, reckon those are the males," he said and Lavender continued to look revolted. "The females I believe have these sort of sucker things on their bellies, reckon they are fer suckin' blood."
"Well, I can certainly see why we are trying to keep them alive," Malfoy said sarcastically as he handled one of the Skrewts with his gloves on, "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"Just because they're not very pretty, doesn't mean they aren't useful!" Hermione snapped at him, "Dragon's Blood has amazing magical properties, but you wouldn't want to keep one as a pet would you?"
That had got Malfoy to shut up and he went back to attempting at an attempt to care about the Skrewts.
An hour later, they were making their way back up to the Castle for Lunch period, "Well, at least they are small," Ron said naively.
"They're small now ," Hermione said, disgusted.
"Once Hagrid realizes what they eat, they'll grow to at least six feet in length... and that's if they don't resort to cannibalism," Jake said, keeping his eye forward.
"Cannibalism?" Harry asked, his face going white.
"Well... will that matter if they end up being able to cure some kind of sickness?" Ron asked.
"You know very well I only said that to shut Malfoy up!" Hermione said a bit more angrily then she meant to, "actually, I think he's right, and I know Jake does as well."
"It's the only time I will probably ever agree with Draco Malfoy on something. They are useless, and if I had my say, we would just stomp the little bastards and move onto something more fun, like Porlock's or Bowtruckle's. Anything right now is more fun to learn about than those things," Jake said spitefully as they got to the Great Hall.
Once they sat down, Hermione began to eat incredibly quickly, and Jake just ate a few things, not much of anything. They'd already talked about going to the Library during Lunch and looking for info on House Elves.
"Er - is this a new stand on Elf Rights?" Ron asked as he looked at Hermione.
"No," Jake spoke before Hermione could even attempt to with a full mouth, "the both of us are simply going to the Library for our Lunch Break, but doing so on an empty stomach is foolish."
" What ?" Ron asked in disbelief, "Hermione - Jake - i-it's the first day back! We-We haven't even got homework yet!"
They both shrugged as Hermione continued shoveling food down her esophagus until she tapped Jake on the shoulder, "Come on," her attention turned to Harry and Ron, "see you at dinner!" She waved and sped off with Jake lagging a bit behind, only standing up as she got to about twenty feet away from him. He slung his bag over his shoulder and followed her out. By the time he arrived at the Library, Hermione had already found at least five books on House Elves and had them stacked on a table. Jake went ahead and sat down, spreading the books around and opening one of them. To be honest, he didn't expect to find any of the relevant information on House Elves outside the Restricted Section, and that was assuming there was a book on the subject. Hermione finally arrived back at the table with another six books, "Hey, is anything wrong?" She asked him as she sat down.
"No, not really," he looked over at her, "but Care of Magical Creatures was just so... mind-numbingly boring because of the Blast-Ended Skrewts... maybe Double Arithmancy can cull some of my boredom."
"I understand that... I don't know what Hagrid was thinking... it doesn't help that they are technically an illegally bred creature either, but it is Hagrid, and he did have a Dragon at one point," Hermione responded.
"Yeah... I don't miss Norbert at all, honestly," Jake said, looking through one of the many books Hermione had picked out.
"I don't either. It was a menace, and if Malfoy had told Dumbledore, or worse, the Ministry, Hagrid would've gotten in serious trouble, and most likely been taken to Azkaban..." Hermione started scanning through a book as well.
*******
By the end of Lunch Break, neither of them had made much progress, even though they got through three books each, and quickly put the books back, shuffling out to go to Arithmancy. Professor Vector was at her desk, waiting for the class to arrive, which was only two students shy after Hermione and Jake arrived. Like McGonagall, Vector was a shrewd, but fair woman. She didn't hesitate to take away House Points from anyone, or give them out when she deemed it fitting.
As usual, her main two students to answer her questions were Hermione and Jake, and Vector didn't miss the chance to praise them both for being the only ones to pass her Third-Year Exam perfectly. Hermione felt immense satisfaction; Jake did too, but his smile was more humble looking than Hermione's.
Jake wouldn't swear to it, but he was sure that that was the reason Vector didn't give them any homework by the end of class. They joined Harry and Ron in the Great Hall, which they were already at having to come from outside.
"How was Divination?" Hermione asked as they got to them.
"Far better than Trelawney's that was," Ron said contently.
"It was a nice change, not being told every five minutes I'm going to die any minute," Harry said, "I think you both would enjoy the class with Firenze, compared to Trelawney, he actually seems to know what he's talking about."
"He did give us a little bit of homework, though, probably to see where we are compared to last year," Ron suggested.
"Professor Vector didn't give us any," Jake said.
"Well bully for Professor Vector," Ron tried to be upset, but because he was in unusually higher spirits than normal, he couldn't help but laugh.
There was one thing that did ruin his mood, though, and that was the arrival of Malfoy, "Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
They all turned and saw Malfoy standing there with Crabbe and Goyle, all looking thoroughly pleased about something. Although Hermione did notice that when Jake turned and looked at them, all three looked kind of afraid for a moment, "What?" Ron asked shortly.
Malfoy recovered and pressed on, "Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" He was brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and was speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed Entrance Hall could hear. "Listen to this:
FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end,
Writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for it's poor
Crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the
Disappearance of one of it's Witches, the Ministry was plunged into Fresh
Embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley,
Of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
Malfoy looked up with an ever present smirk on his face.
"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" He crowed loudly. Everyone in the Entrance Hall was now listening with great interest. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:
"Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car
Two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle
Law-Keepers (Policemen) over a number of highly aggressive dustbins.
Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the
Aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell
The difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly,
Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house,
That Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced
To modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen,
But refused to answer the Daily Prophet questions about why he had
Involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially
Embarrassing scene.
"And there's a picture, Weasley!" Malfoy said, flipping the paper over and holding it up for Ron to see, "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
Ron was shaking with fury, and everyone was staring at him. Not Jake, who was already infuriated, was looking right at Draco with a serious intent to maim or disembowel him.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy," Harry said angrily, "Come on, Ron..."
"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" Malfoy asked with a sneer, "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
Harry and Hermione were holding Ron back, but those words set Jake off, "What about your own mother, Malfoy?"
"What about her?" Draco asked defensively.
"Oh, I just can't get the look of her face out of my head when I was telling your father to get out of my way, or you know I would move him out of my way. The look on your mothers face was priceless. The fear her eyes displayed, it looked like she had just emptied her bowels right then and there. And let's not forget your father's look of fear when I had him held up by the scruff of his neck. He looked like he pissed himself," Jake said and everyone in the Entrance Hall began laughing at Malfoy.
Jake turned to go back to his friends, "Don't you dare insult my parents, Kidd!"
"Then don't dish out what you can't take back, bitch," he said triumphantly. He suddenly heard a BANG from behind him and he immediately went for his wand, turning around just as a spell went right by his head, grazing his right ear ever so slightly.
He had just gotten his wand pointed right at Malfoy when another BANG was heard, but Draco suddenly shrunk down to a small Ferret, "OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"
Jake looked past the Slytherin group and saw Mad-Eye Moody limping down the Marble Staircase. He had his wand out and was pointed right at the Slytherin turned pure white Ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor.
A terrified silence filled the Entrance Hall, only Moody and Jake moved, and Jake merely lowered his Wand. When Moody got up to them, he looked at Jake, at least his normal eye was; the other eye was looking somewhere inside his head, "Did he get you?" Moody growled at Jake in a low and gravelly voice.
"Grazed my ear, nothing I haven't experienced already," Jake said, reaching up to feel his ear, and it was definitely burning, and when he brought his fingers down to look, they had a little bit of blood on them.
"That was the fastest draw I've ever seen from anyone. No Ministry Auror or Death Eater can draw their wand that quickly. That was impressive, Laddie." Moody said, praising him, before he suddenly shouted, "LEAVE IT!" Moody suddenly shouted. Jake was about to ask, but he immediately looked behind Moody and saw Crabbe, who had just frozen in place, about to pick up the Ferret. Jake immediately realized that his Eye was magical and could see through solid objects. Moody turned around and began to limp towards Ferret Malfoy, who gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking towards the dungeons, "I don't think so!" Moody roared, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet into the air, and fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upwards once more, "I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," Moody growled as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain, "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."
Ferret Malfoy flew through the air, his legs and tail flailing helplessly. Jake couldn't help the smirk on his face as he watched Malfoy suffer. He turned and looked at Hermione, wondering just how bad her scowl towards him was, but he saw that she was looking at Ferret Malfoy with a look of loathing.
"Never - do - that - again-" Moody said, speaking each word as Malfoy hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.
"Professor Moody!" Said a shocked voice. That voice belonged to Professor McGonagall, and she was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall," Moody said calmly, bouncing Malfoy higher still.
"What - what are you doing?" She asked, following the pure white ferret with her eyes as it bounced through the air.
"Teaching," Moody said simply.
"Teach - Moody, is that a student !?" Professor McGonagall shrieked as she dropped all of her books to the floor.
"Technically, it's a Ferret," Moody said with a gruff laugh.
"No!" Professor McGonagall cried, running down the stairs and pulling her wand out; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He was wincing as he got to his feet, and Jake couldn't help but continue to smirk, "Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" McGonagall said, trying to sound not so stunned at Moody's previous action, "surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He... might've mentioned it, yeah," Moody said, holstering his wand and scratched his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock-"
"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!" McGonagall informed Moody.
'Since when have Detentions ever worked on the Slytherin? They are still worthless pieces of shit, except for Pendragon, he's alright,' Jake thought to himself.
"I'll do that then," Moody growled, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.
Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words 'my father' were indistinguishable.
"Oh yeah?" Moody asked quietly, limping over to Malfoy, the dull clank of his wooden leg echoing around the hall, "well, I know your father of old, boy... You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son... you tell him that from me... Now, your Head of House will be Snape, yeah?"
"Yes," Malfoy muttered resentfully.
"Another old friend," Moody growled, "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape... Come on, you..." With that, Moody seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off towards the Dungeons.
Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.
Everyone then made their way into the Great Hall, a few girls showed great concern for Jake, Hermione noticed, as they sat down. None of them approached him to ask him if he was okay, but she knew by the looks on their faces that they were concerned, as his ear did get grazed. She looked at him, "How's your ear?"
"It's fine," he said, taking a moment to bring his wand out and pointing it at his ear. He said nothing as he then put it away, but Hermione knew better; he had non-verbally healed his ear. One thing Hermione noticed was that, when the spell had hit him earlier, he didn't flinch, or even acknowledge that it had hit him, and that proved to Hermione that he had really been at it over the Summer, training to not flinch or shy away from oncoming spells. "I was too slow," he said, bringing her out of her thoughts.
"What?"
"The very millisecond I heard that spell fire from Malfoy's wand, I should've been turned around and had a Shield up... that could cost the life of me or someone I care about in the future... I can't ever let that happen again..." he went quiet as Ron then began to speak.
"No one talk to me," he said, his eyes closed.
"Why not?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," Ron said, his face in an uplifted expression, "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret..."
All three of them began laughing, and Hermione then began to dole out some beef casserole onto their plates, but not putting much on Jake's, which he was keen to notice, 'Why do I feel like we are going to talk about this later...'
"To be honest..." Hermione spoke up quietly, trailing off a second, "I almost didn't want Professor Moody to stop... but... maybe it had gone on for too long..." They all three gave her an odd look, "What? You three know how I feel about Malfoy, why does this still come as a shock?"
"It just... I dunno, it's unexpected from you, given that you don't look like you hold any ill will against anyone on a regular basis," Jake said and Hermione took that as a compliment before she started to eat quickly.
"Don't tell me you're both going back to the Library again this evening, are you?" Harry asked them.
"Got to," Hermione said through a full mouth.
"We have a lot to do," Jake said, eating normally, but he also had miniscule amounts of beef casserole compared to them.
"But you told us that Professor Vector-"
"It's not schoolwork," he interrupted Ron.
Within five minutes, Hermione had finished eating, as did Jake, and they both stood up, making their way out of the Great Hall and towards the Library. Just before they walked in, Hermione turned around to look at him, and he knew why, "So when were you going to tell me that you've not been eating a lot?"
"I don't guess I was..." he gave a single, nervous chuckle before clearing his throat, "It's not as big of a concern as you are about to make it, I promise, Hermione."
"Your body needs food to function, Jake. Did you not tell me around this time yesterday that I need to be at full strength to help you?" She asked and he had nothing to say. He looked down at his feet, "Jake, I need you to be at full strength as well, okay?"
He looked up at her and nodded, "But maybe not eat nearly as fast? There are two of us, after all, doing this research, you don't have to eat quite as fast as you did at Lunch and Dinner."
"Alright, if I eat slower until we figure out this House Elf situation, will you eat more for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner?" She asked him, to which he nodded with a smile, "Okay, now let's go and see if we can find the book that holds the answers we seek, shall we?" She asked him with a wide smile, showing him her teeth.
"Indeed we shall, Hermione," he said and ran his fingers through his hair as it had fallen to be in his vision. Unknowingly, this made Hermione find the action incredibly attractive, and she zoned out for a moment. He snapped his fingers in front of her, "Hermione? Helloooo? Anyone home?"
He waved his hand and she zoned back in, "Huh?"
"You zoned out, are you sure you didn't eat too fast?"
"No, I'm okay. Come on," she said and turned around, opening the door to the Library and walked in with him, eager to continue their work.