Harry walked up to them after Ron was called over by Katie to see if Oliver's robes would fit him. Jake would be a little surprised if they did, given how tall and lanky Ron was getting, "Hey," Harry said as he sat down beside Hermione. That bothered Jake more than it should've.
"Hey, Harry," Hermione said in a slurred speech from how exhausted she was. She woke up after what Harry said next.
"So just before I left Umbridge's office, she touched my arm..."
Hermione and Jake both listened closely to what Harry was saying to them. When Harry finished, Hermione said slowly, "You're worried that Voldemort is controlling her the way he controlled Quirrell?"
"Well," Harry said, dropping his voice, "it's possible, isn't it?"
"I guess..." Hermione said, but her voice was unconvinced.
"I don't think he's possessing her, not in the way he was with Quirrell, at least," Jake said, "in fact I honestly don't think he's got anything to do with this. I mean, he's properly alive again, what need would he have for possession?"
"I guess it's possible she's under the Imperius Curse, but..." Hermione trailed off, "your scar has hurt since last year when no one was touching you, Harry."
"Voldemort's influence was much weaker last year," Jake said, "and Dumbledore said it had to do with what he was feeling at the time. Maybe it has something to do with the scar he left you the first time he tried to kill you... it was probably just a coincidence that Voldemort was feeling something when she touched your arm?"
"She's evil," Harry said flatly, "twisted."
"Why do you say that? What happened during detention?" Jake asked.
Hermione saw the look on Harry's face as he didn't look Jake in the eye. Hermione didn't know what was going on in Umbridge's detentions, but it was clearly not something Jake should know about, "Nothing, just from how she was during my hearing at the Ministry," Harry answered.
Hermione looked at Jake, and his eye was looking at Harry analytically. She looked back to Harry and thought to herself, 'I want to know what happened... Harry lied just now, Jake knows he did as well, but if Harry doesn't want to tell us, then we can't press him...'
"Fine," Jake said, "you don't wanna tell us, don't."
"But you should tell Dumbledore your scar hurt, Harry," Hermione said to him.
"I'm not bothering him with this, besides, it wasn't even that bad-"
"That's not the point, Harry, the fact it hurt at all says Voldemort is feeling something. What that is, it's impossible to say, but you have to tell Dumbledore," Jake said.
"Yeah, he'd want to be bother by this-"
"That's all he seems to care about me anymore, isn't it?" Harry said stiffly, "my scar."
"That's not true, Harry, Dumbledore cares about you," Hermione said calmly.
"I think I'll write to Sirius about it, see what he thinks-"
"If anything, that's not something that should be put into writing... is there another way to talk to him or convey it to him without arousing suspicion?" Jake asked.
"Actually... there is, yeah, I know how to talk to him without risk of Owl interception," Harry said, looking thankfully at Jake.
"Good. He should know, definitely," Jake smiled at his friend.
"He will... well, I'm going to go to bed, try to get an early rise, lots of homework I've not been able to get done," Harry said and stood up, bidding them good night.
Hermione sighed and slumped back into her chair, "I might go up to bed as well... I've not felt even remotely energetic for the past hour..."
"You should go to bed, then," Jake said to her.
"Yeah... I will..." she yawned and stretched, unknowingly being cute while doing so, and stood up, "Night, Jake."
"Night, Hermione," he said as she walked up the girl's staircase. It was just a couple of days ago when they argued, but already the both of them were acting like they didn't argue.
Well that wasn't entirely true; they weren't back to being normal, but they were talking without the awkwardness of the past couple days. He wrenched his eye shut in frustration. He stood up and quickly hurried out into the corridor. He walked a few feet away from the Fat Lady before his frustration leaked out and he punched the wall beside him.
"Make up... your fucking mind... you worthless fuck..." he scolded himself.
He pulled his hand back and his knuckles were bleeding. He didn't heal them right away, he let them bleed to serve as a reminder to not be that guy.
He looked at a suit of armor, his eye glowed red and it exploded into several metallic pieces. It was somewhat cathartic, but it still wasn't enough. He quickly put it back together and walked further down the corridor. He was disgusted with himself, and he was sure if anyone else knew, they'd be disgusted as well, and would probably hate him. He wouldn't blame them. He was surprised that Hannah didn't think badly of him.
"Maybe she's on patrol tonight?" He mumbled to himself, edged away from the wall and walked down the corridor, going down to the base floor. He didn't rightly know the location of the Hufflepuff Common Room, but figured that maybe she was patrolling the Dungeons if she was out tonight.
He slowly walked down the stairs and into the dungeons, coming across Malfoy and Parkinson, "Kidd, what are you doing down in the dungeons?"
"I don't answer to you, daddy's boy," Jake said.
Malfoy scrunched his face up, "I'd be careful, Kidd, dogging around isn't good for your health," he smirked.
Jake just glared at him for a moment, not understanding what he was getting at. His eye widened slightly as he made the connection, 'Sirius... does Malfoy know that Sirius was at Platform 9¾?' "Making me angry ain't good for yours, either," Jake threatened him and then continued walking.
He walked around for another thirty minutes in the dungeons, but didn't find Hannah or Ernie for that matter. He left the dungeons and decided to just go back to Gryffindor Tower for the night. He spoke the password to the Fat Lady, and found the Common Room deserted. He wasn't complaining, though. He went to the bathroom up the boy's staircase and cleaned his knuckles off, but he didn't heal the skin damage, and he wasn't going to.
He walked into his dorm room, got into his bed and pulled the curtains of it closed, took off all of his clothing except his underwear, took off his eyepatch, and crawled under the covers for a few hours of sleep.
*******
Jake was the first to awaken the following morning, he usually was, even on the weekend. There were a couple of times he could recall that he was the last one up, but otherwise it was always him first. He didn't stay in the Common Room for long, but long enough to see that it was empty, and he vacated it quickly. He had no reason to be up and out this early, because the girl he wanted to see, had to see, probably slept in on the weekends.
He ended up walking past the bust of Paracelsus, not thinking much of anything, when he felt a sense of danger approaching, and fast. His eye glowed and he put up the Protego charm for protection. "Peeves..." Jake said slowly, "you've got five seconds to get out of here, or I will turn you into ectoplasmic goop."
Peeves didn't even say anything, but Jake did hear the distinct sound of a wall being phased through. He walked down to the First Floor and glimpsed into the Great Hall, but saw it empty, so he walked outside. It was so far the brightest day of the week, literally and figuratively, and it was a good way to end the first week of term. He walked down the steps and sat down on the base step, and sighed in exasperation.
The longer he went on without talking to Hannah, the harder things would be, but it was the weekend, so he had a good chance of finding her. He also thought about his Defense Class, and how boring it already was. They only had the class once a week, but with the way Umbitch was teaching it, they weren't learning anything. He had nothing to learn from most of his classes at this point and was only even still at Hogwarts so he could graduate and become an Official Alchemist.
He hadn't realized how long he sat there for, but he heard a low buzz coming from up the stairs behind him. He stood up and turned around to go back inside, if his peers were awake and going to the Great Hall, he had the chance to talk to Hannah. He found himself in the Entrance Hall and he looked through the crowd for any Yellow accented robes.
The few he did see weren't Hannah, but he saw Susan, so he followed her. He had tried pushing past the crowd, but they were packed like sardines, so he had no choice but to follow. As he got into the Great Hall, he realized he didn't have to talk to Susan at all; Hannah was already in there at the Hufflepuff Table.
He walked over to her, drawing more than a few heads as he did. He walked up to Hannah, "Can we talk in private?" He asked her. He didn't know quite why, but his nerves were on edge.
"Of course," she smiled at him and stood up, following him out of the Great Hall. He led her out of the Castle entirely and stopped at the top of the steps, "is everything okay?"
"No... no, I won't lie, everything is not okay..." he said quietly. He turned and looked at her, "I'm a scumbag, first and foremost, and you should hate me for that reason alone..."
"Jake, you're not a scumbag, or anything like that. I have no reason to hate you," Hannah said, a frown on her face.
"You will after I tell you what I'm about to tell you..." he steeled his nerves, but they wouldn't be that way for long, so he had to say it quickly. His eye was closed, but he opened it to see her as he spoke, "Hannah, I don't like you in the way you like me, and I was about to lead you on, but I cannot and will not do that to you. You are a kind and amazing girl who deserves a guy who will care for you in the way you deserve, but that guy's not me."
Hannah had an unreadable look on her face. Jake braced himself for the angry, disdainful words that she was sure to start spouting at him, but she didn't yell at him, "I understand... I do, really... your heart belongs to another, and when that happens it's almost impossible to move on," her voice was shaky. She looked at him, her eyes were watery, "I know that it's Hermione who has your heart... who else could it be?"
His eye widened, "What? How obvious is it?"
"Don't worry, I didn't realize it until I saw you both in the Prefect's Carriage on the train. I haven't told anyone else, don't worry," she said.
He sighed, unsure of how to feel, "Okay... even though there's nothing officially between Hermione and I, yet ... you're right, she's the one who has claimed my heart, but it seems like it won't matter... she's being polite and civil now , but that may not last..."
Hannah walked up to him and embraced him, "If you believe that Hermione is the one for you, then she will be yours, Jake. You're the absolute smartest and brightest in our grade, hell the whole school, and Hermione's attracted to intelligence, so of course it's you... who else could it be?"
He returned the embrace for a moment before they separated, "Thanks, Hannah... Thank you for understanding and not hating me, even though you have every right to..."
"Nonsense, well... good luck with Hermione," Hannah smiled sadly and went back inside.
He sighed, feeling a weight off his shoulders, "That went way better than it should have..." The weight was soon back as he walked into the Great Hall as well and he glanced at the Hufflepuff table. He received glares, but Hannah said something he couldn't hear, and the glares stopped. He went and sat down with his friends just as the Owl Post arrived, and a copy of the Daily Prophet landed in front of Hermione, "Anything interesting?" He asked as she sped through the front page.
"No, just some guff about the bass player for the Weird Sisters getting married..."
"Well congrats to him, maybe I'll find a woman who finds me worthy of her time one day," he said as an off-hand comment.
Hermione felt her face burn lightly as she opened the paper and disappeared behind it. It was a few seconds before she made another sound, "Oh no... Sirius!"
"What's happened?" Harry asked urgently, trying to reach for the paper, but it was out of his reach.
" The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious murderer... blah blah blah... is currently residing in London !" Hermione read in anguish.
"But who-" Harry was about to ask.
"Malfoy... I ran into him last night... and he said something weird... he told me that dogging around isn't good for my health... that son of a bitch... Lucius Malfoy..." Jake was pissed.
"It was too dangerous for him to leave the house..." Hermione whispered.
"It's my fault..." Harry said somberly.
"No... not just your fault..." Jake said, feeling remorse for encouraging Sirius' behavior.
"Hey, listen to this," Hermione said, reading more of the Prophet , "it's something barely touched upon, talking about a Trespassing in the Ministry. Sturgis Podmore, 38, of Number Two, Laburnum Gardens, Clapham, has appeared in front of the Wizengamot and has been charged with Trespassing and Attempted Robbery. And he's spending Six Months in Azkaban after refusing to speak in his own Defense, resulting in a conviction of both accounts."
"Sturgis was who I filled in for to be your guard, Harry, and I remember Moody was not happy with Podmore's absence," Jake said in a quiet voice.
"What if, no, hear me out," Ron started, getting their attention, "what if the Ministry knows he's one of Dumbledore's lot, and they faked the whole thing? What if he wasn't trying to get into any room at the Ministry?"
"As far-fetched as that sounds... I'm not sure I would put anything past our Ministry anymore," Hermione said, impressed with how much thought Ron put into it.
"Right, well, after yesterday, I've had an essay tacked onto the currently to do assignments I have, which is just the Herbology essay on Self-Fertilizing Shrubs, so I'm going to get out of your three's way and go work on that, excuse me," Jake said as he finished his breakfast.
Hermione watched him leave with a worried expression, "What was that about?"
"Dunno, but he has been acting unlike himself lately... you don't think he's possessed, do you?" Ron asked her.
"No, his natural Occlumency prevents anyone from controlling him... but he is right, we do have that essay, plus there is McGonagall's Inanimatus Conjurus assignment, which it sounds like he's already completed..." Hermione was envious of him, 'Where has he gotten all this time to get his assignments done faster than me? I know he's brilliant in every way, but it's almost inhuman how fast he works...'
"Do you think he's using a Time Turner like you both did in Third Year?" Harry asked quietly.
"No, no that's not it, he's not suddenly disappeared on us at any point..." Hermione was frustrated she didn't know the answer.
Harry and Ron decided to instead go out to the Quidditch Pitch and practice before Angelina's scheduled training session today. Hermione warned them that if they put off their homework so much, they'd fail their O.W.L.s. She decided to just go back to Gryffindor Tower and see if that's where Jake went. She arrived to find he had planted himself right in a chair in a corner of the Common Room, or as close to a corner as he could get in a circular room. Hermione walked up to him, and he caught movement out of his eye, "Hermione?"
"Hey, what's wrong? You're not acting yourself lately, ever since I said what I did about Luna..." she trailed off.
"Can we... Can we talk about that later or tomorrow?" He asked in a strained voice.
Hermione's heart broke slightly upon hearing his voice, "Of course... Can I sit with you?"
"I didn't want to be a bother to you..." he said, not looking at her.
"Jake, you are never a bother to me... never... we may have a row, and fight a bit, but..." she looked around the Common Room and whispered, "I love you, Jake, and I always will..."
He couldn't stop the tears as they escaped his eye. He was glad his eyepatch was facing away from Hermione, because he didn't want her to see the tears coming from under his eyepatch. "Why?" He asked quietly, "How? I'm not even worthy of your friendship any longer... how can you still love me?"
Hermione sat down across from him, "Jake, you're the only guy for me. No one else likes me even a fraction of how much you do..." she remembered the kiss she practically forced upon Logan the other day, "can I ask you something?"
He looked up at her, having wiped his face dry of his tears a moment ago, "Of course."
"How about we go patrol an empty broom cupboard later tonight?" She suggested quietly.
He felt his face burn red, "I think I'd like that," he smiled at her.
"Great, for now, we should get this essay done. How much have you done for it?" She asked him.
"I only just started..." he said sheepishly.
"Which means you're on your second page at least, right?"
"Halfway down it..."
She smiled and smoothed out her parchment, getting started on her own essay.
*******
They had worked until before Lunch on their essay, and Hermione got in some of McGonagall's work before Lunch. Afterwards, they went down to the Quidditch Stadium to watch Gryffindor practice. After arriving, they found a band of Slytherin's sitting there as well. Jake just ignored them, but he was ready with a spell, if they did what he thought they'd do. The Gryffindor team soon came out onto the Field and Malfoy could be heard immediately laughing. It wasn't until after Ron mounted his Cleansweep that Malfoy spoke.
"What's that Weasley's riding?" Malfoy called in his sneering drawl, "Why would anyone put a Flying Charm on a moldy old log like that?"
Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson guffawed and shrieked stupidly with laughter. Jake saw Harry speed up to Ron and said something, but he couldn't make out what. It wasn't until Angelina's mouth began moving that Pansy put her two-cents in.
"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle anyway?" Pansy shrieked, "why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?"
"That's funny coming from you, you ugly cow," Hermione spoke casually, as they were too far away from the Slytherin's to be heard. She turned to Jake, who looked calm, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine... it's just hard to not put a Silencing Charm on the four of them..."
"Why don't you?" Hermione asked.
"Because that wouldn't help the situation..." he looked at her.
"I see what you mean... if the Gryffindor Team, Ron specifically, can't play with distractions, then he won't get better..." Hermione sighed.
As the Team was passing the Quaffle back and forth to and from their teammates, Ron, due to the Slytherins, performed less admirably than he had during tryouts. He missed two passes to him, but on his third grab, he caught it, but in his enthusiasm, he tossed it to Katie much more forcefully than he meant to. It slipped through her fingers and impacted her nose, which was now bleeding and broken. Jake's eye glowed as he fixed her nose, and rid her face of blood. She let out an audible sound of more pain as her nose fixed itself. She looked and saw Jake's eye just as it stopped glowing.
"Thanks, Jake!" Katie yelled to him.
He didn't bother to respond as she stopped facing him a second later.
"All right, Fred, George, go and get your bats and a Bludger; Ron, get up to the goalposts; Harry, go and release the Snitch when I say to. We're aiming for Ron's goals, obviously," Angelina called out to her team.
Harry and the twins zoomed off towards the chest that housed the two Bludgers and the Golden Snitch. When Angelina blew her whistle, Harry released the Snitch and the twins let one of the Bludgers fly. Jake watched with Hermione as the next ten minutes played out as a usual Quidditch match, minus the opposing team. The Slytherins were stamping their feet with laughter on each goal Ron missed.
"Do you miss flying?" Hermione asked him as Ron missed his second goal.
"A little..." he said, a little sad that he resigned.
Soon, Angelina blew her whistle, "Stop - stop - STOP! Ron - you're not covering the middle post!"
It was true, Ron, watching the Chasers, had drifted off to the side and was hovering in front of the left post, leaving the other two completely undefended. By now, the Slytherins had begun chanting, Gryffindor are losers , and it was grating on the ears, and Jake could tell it was seriously affecting Ron, whose face was bright red against the blue sky. The Gryffindor's practiced for two hours, and Ron had improved and was learning to block out the Slytherins chanting, but his improvement wasn't much compared to how well other Keepers were, but compared to how he was when they started that evening. He had improved quite a bit.
Later that evening, Harry and Ron finally got started on their homework, but they hadn't made much headway. Hermione did manage to finish McGonagall's assignment just before 10PM. Harry and Ron had gone up to bed and Hermione turned to Jake, "So... ready to go on Patrol ?" She asked him.
"Yeah... after tonight, I'm not going on Patrol all next week, let the other Prefects deal with it," he said, packed his stuff up, and followed Hermione out of the Tower. They went up a floor and into the first broom cupboard they found. He immediately placed a Silencing Charm on the door and was turned around by Hermione, her lips crashing onto his. The force of her moving against him caused him to hit the wall.
Hermione had her hands on his shoulders and he had his hands on her waistline, and she pressed her body against his. Since they both had their bulky robes on, it didn't do as much to increase arousal, but it still increased the temperature in the broom cupboard.
They separated for a moment, "I've been wanting to do this since we left the Tower," she said, and he knew she was talking about Merlin's Tower.
"I have too," he said, his breathing steady for now. He moved his lips to her jawline and kissed her all the way down her neck, Hermione moaning in his ears as he did. It was a sound he loved hearing, and he couldn't wait until he heard her moan his name.
He placed his hands at the hem of her shirt and began moving it up, but Hermione stopped him, "I-I'm not ready to go there y-yet... I-I'm sorry..."
"No, no I - I was getting ahead of myself, I'm sorry, Hermione," he said, feeling bad about letting his desires almost take over.
She placed her hand under his chin, raising his face to look at her, "I'll forgive you this time, Mr. Kidd."
She recaptured his lips in a loving passion, rekindling the love they had lost earlier that week, and strengthening it tenfold. They both realized they were meant for each other, and no one, or anything would ever keep them apart.