When Hermione returned from the headmaster, she had to spend almost the entire evening in the noisy common room, hiding behind homework and waiting for an opportunity to talk to Harry. But alas. After that day, classmates were too interested in them, and other Gryffindors, hearing what they were discussing, got interested and joined in. People approached her more than once or twice: asking about Muggle psychics, making various assumptions... At first she was pleased to feel the changed attitude of the guys, but soon there were too many questions, and the girl barely restrained herself from answering politely and not running away. Definitely, she'd only be able to do assignments in the library. Or she'd have to keep her tongue behind her teeth more often.
Going to the bedroom was even scarier: after she inquired about magical cosmetics (at Mrs. Dursley's instigation), Patil and Brown each pulled out rather impressive trunks and promised to enlighten her as soon as possible. And it was obvious they couldn't wait. But she had completely different thoughts, questions and needs for now! Where the hell was Harry wandering when he was so needed?!
She sighed heavily and asked to finally let her finish the essay.
Though... the scent of the perfume Patil spritzed on her collar, she definitely liked: sweet-spicy, it calmed and brought thoughts of warm summer. Should she order some?
***
Harry, who had recently found out with the help of another notebook (yes, they also made such an artifact for Dudley) that his godfather was sitting quietly and peacefully in the garage, sighed with relief coming out of the toilet. Well, where else could he calmly pee and chat with his cousin? And he even ran to call home to find out everything exactly. All that remained was to wait a bit, and if Sirius Black stayed in his place, he could forget about Divination with a clear conscience. Need to tell Hermione. And he hurried to the common room, hoping to meet his friend there or find out where she was. But George Weasley asked him something about Muggles right on the stairs, and it went from there...
Hermione looked worriedly at Harry, whose crown was barely visible among the guys crowding around him—as soon as he sat down, he also found himself in the center of attention. The boys were chuckling, remembering Weasley's antics in Care of Magical Creatures. Ron was blushing, and they clapped him on the shoulders, praising his courage but hinting he could have found better use for it...
And then Potter began telling his favorite horror stories. Describing everything so vividly that he gradually gathered more and more listeners, until almost the entire house gathered around.
In the noisy common room with lots of distracting factors, homework went very slowly, but thanks to Harry speaking quietly and everyone else listening to him, Hermione finally managed, just didn't show it. Finally the guys started dispersing to bedrooms, giggling about the remaining bookworm. Ron stubbornly dragged Harry after him, so Hermione was ready to do something nasty to the ginger. Just couldn't choose what yet.
"Wait, I'll just check something with Hermione now," Harry once again emerged from under Weasley's arm and headed to his friend. "I'll come soon."
"Hermione, maybe you'll check my work too?" the ginger immediately climbed into his bag, pulling out some crumpled parchment.
"Ronald Weasley, have you lost your mind?" the girl was indignant. "Harry's work is enough for me today."
"Oh, so that's how it is? You help him, but me?!"
"Learn to ask on time! That's it, last time!" she cut him off, still looking through Weasley's scribbles. With Ron it was easier to do everything quickly than explain why you can't. "You only have half the work here! I'm not going to finish writing for you!"
She shoved the parchment back into his hands.
"Until you finish, I won't look. I'm not going to work for both of you," she nodded at Harry just in case. "Enough! By the way, in Muggle schools, people like me are called consultants or tutors and they get paid for work!"
Hearing about money, Ron became covered in red spots:
"Well go to your Muggle school then!"
"Weasley."
Ron turned around. His friend had never spoken with such... such an alien voice.
Harry was looking at him as coldly as he used to look at Malfoy.
"Apologize."
"What? She herself..."
"Will you be offended if I punch you in the face?" Harry asked unexpectedly sweetly, but for some reason this sweetness sent a shiver through him.
Smoke curled near Potter's nostrils. Ron sniffed and smelled a slight burning smell.
"Harry, calm down!" Hermione rushed to him. "Quiet, what are you... Calm down..."
"What don't I know?" Ron put his hands on his hips. Seems like Granger's protecting him... Well, let's see.
He didn't get to see: to his great surprise, he was sent far and for a long time in unison.
"And until you apologize, don't even come near!" Harry sent off the retreating friend's back, seemingly already former.
"Yea-ah," Harry and Hermione drawled in chorus.
The girl conjured a glass from a draft lying on the table.
"Aguamenti!" Harry filled it and quickly drank.
"And this is just the first day. So how are you, calmed down? No heartburn?"
Harry shook his head.
"Actually, Ron wasn't any better before. Remember the troll?"
"He saved me then! Us..." the girl exhaled.
"But if not for his rudeness, nothing would have happened to us at all! And you wouldn't have been crying..."
"Harry, I need to consult. I was at the headmaster's," Hermione switched to a more important topic for her and immediately reassured her friend who instantly tensed, switching to a loud whisper. "They called me because last year I begged McGonagall to let me study all subjects. They gave me a Time-Turner! Can you imagine?! But I shouldn't tell anyone about it."
"They didn't take an oath from you?!" Harry was amazed.
"When the headmaster said no one should know, I just bugged out my eyes and shouted: 'How could I!'"
"Well, you're great..."
Hermione smiled contentedly.
"Let's find some classroom or something? I want to see! Do you have it with you?"
"But it was curfew! And anyone could come in here at any moment."
"I'll get my cloak," Harry was about to get up but immediately sat back down. "Ah, d-damn, Weasley's there. Can it wait until tomorrow?"
"Should we go early to Charms in the morning?"
"We have Potions though!"
"Oh, I mixed it up, day after tomorrow."
"Then let me read the instructions at least..."
"I haven't finished reading it myself yet, can't pull it out in front of everyone."
"Then let's both read first, and then go to the mentors. Should I write to them?"
Hermione hesitated. She wasn't ready for someone, even her best friend, to share her secret.
"Let's just meet at Flitwick's... You write to him that it's very important. And arrange for day after tomorrow, okay?"
Seeing a message from Harry late in the evening, Snape became alert: when did the boy manage to find himself a problem? He just arrived!
Soon Flitwick's familiar handwriting appeared on the page. Potter was asking for a meeting before Charms class. Well, then someone will have to get detention tomorrow.
***
That night Gryffindor slept restlessly. There wasn't a single room where someone didn't wake neighbors with a scream: "Nightmare on Elm Street" as performed by Potter, even before bed, turned out to be a real "means for nightmares." In the morning Gryffindors crawled into the Great Hall pale and sleep-deprived, except of course for Harry. And Hermione, but she was late in general and barely had time for a snack.
However, Harry's morning didn't work out either: again he didn't manage to talk to his friend—she simply overslept. "Probably studying the instructions," he decided and was absolutely right. He only saw her at breakfast, noticing the girl was very excited. But the only thing she managed was to inconspicuously hand him her new schedule.
He frowned: it turned out that she should start jumping through time right today. Well... all that remained was to hope nothing bad would happen. The Head of House shouldn't harm her student, right? The main thing is that no one notices. Harry glanced sideways at his friend. Ron, who'd been offended at them yesterday, today sat aside and looked askance. At least he wasn't distracting...
And on the way from breakfast he suddenly started talking to him as if nothing had happened. And in Potions he plopped down next to him, pushing Harry's bag to the very edge. Yeah, only Ron Weasley could do that. Hermione predictably ended up without a partner and seemed quite happy about it.
In Potions Snape ignored the bandage on Weasley's arm, pairing him with Potter, so ruining the potion didn't take much effort: Harry simply spilled half the lacewing flies past the cauldron. Here Ron behaved like a real friend: sighed heavily and confessed that today he was a disgusting assistant. And even tried to squeak something to Snape about his injury, to which he received only a sarcastic smirk.
For Snape to hiss "Ten points from Gryffindor. Scourgify!" was habitual, but... strange. For some reason it became hard to hiss at Potter, and he focused on his ginger friend. Oh yes, almost forgot...
"Weasley, minus ten points for inattention. Your arm is bandaged, not your eyes! You were obligated to warn Potter."
"Well, come on, Harry, get indignant..."
The boy finally stopped dragging his feet and jumped up:
"That's unfair! Ron couldn't see what I had on the bo..."
"Detention, Potter, today at seventeen thirty. Weasley, and you will appear when you're able to hold a knife normally, I'm not going to waste ingredients on your obviously failed cooking."
Weasley became covered in spots but kept silent, and Potter looked gloomily from under his brow. Offended? What did he expect? Though twenty points for one mistake is really a bit too much... Nothing, we'll figure it out in the evening.
And then he'll need to summon Malfoy, let him tell what he arranged in Care of Magical Creatures. Corridor talk left too much to the imagination, and he needed to know exactly. Who knows, daddy might ask. Lucius has been visiting him too often lately, eh, this isn't good...
***
After lunch, at which Harry managed to exchange only a couple of phrases with his friend, they headed to the first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson of the semester. Professor Lupin, still as shabby but looking a bit better, met them in the classroom where they left their things and led them to the staff room.
As soon as they entered, Weasley whispered:
"Is this going to be defense from Snape?"
"Did you learn to joke?" Harry asked him coldly and flinched, hearing almost the same intonation from Snape: he once again went over Neville Longbottom's self-esteem, put some magazine in the cupboard and with an effective turn, sweeping his cloak like wings, left the room.
Ron silently glanced sideways at his friend, shrugged and moved away a bit. His place was quickly taken by Hermione, and Harry started whispering something to her, simultaneously listening to Professor Lupin's explanations. Ron pricked up his ears but couldn't make anything out.
"I want Freddy Krueger," Harry barely audibly declared to his friend. "Told about it yesterday, and today it would be great to show!"
"Excellent idea. Really, all we need is for everyone to know what we fear most. You came up with horror movies great. As if you knew..."
"What will you take?"
"Don't know... Pennywise, probably..."
"Ooh, it'll be fun."
"Harry, what if my real fear comes out there?"
"But you're afraid of Pennywise, aren't you? The main thing is to imagine you're right there, in the movie!"
Hermione paled a bit.
"Seems like it worked. No more! I call first!"
"Go ahead," Harry cleared the way for her to the wardrobe, near which poor Neville continued to hesitate, trying to approach the door as slowly as possible.
"Excuse me please, professor... May I try?"
"Um-m... Yes, of course, Miss..."
"Hermione Granger, sir."
"Remember, I'm always ready to back you up, at any moment."
"Thank you, professor."
The wardrobe door creaked... From behind it appeared the whitened face of a clown. Someone giggled. But when the clown climbed out completely, there was complete silence. For some reason everyone suddenly didn't want to laugh.
"Who is that?..." someone's trembling voice rang out.
And at that moment the clown grinned with several rows of terrible bloodied pointed teeth and hissed.
Hermione with a scream of "no" transfigured some terrible rusty metal rod and stuck it right into the nightmare creature's teeth. And it, grinning wildly, began to chew it, pulling the girl closer and closer to itself.
Someone squealed. Neville Longbottom hid behind the table, after him Brown and Patil dove like light fish. Lupin was so dumbfounded he couldn't move.
At that moment Harry Potter stood next to his friend.
"Move over, I want to too!"
Ripples passed over the terrible white figure splattered with scarlet spots...
A hand appeared with fake iron claws, from which blood dripped... A terrible burned face under an old hat...
"Freddy Krueger!" several people yelled at once.
And the Gryffindors in a unanimous rush carried into the corridor the table with everyone hiding behind it, Professor Lupin and even the quite sturdy and heavy staff room door. To his misfortune, the professor ended up at the very bottom.
When Professor Lupin with difficulty crawled out from under the pile of bodies and rushed after the boggart, the Gryffindors caught their breath and first thing pounced on Potter.
"What? I'm afraid of him too!" Harry smiled, sitting on a table in the staff room and dangling his legs. "But it was cool to show him to you, wasn't it? As they say, better to see once than hear a hundred times."
"Personally I wouldn't have heard... with pleasure!"
"Why did you sit in the common room and not leave?"
"It's interesting... terribly interesting it was."
"Exactly terrible."
"Yeah."
Gradually everyone else followed Potter's example: few chairs remained—some Harry waved off Freddy, others just knocked down along the way. Gryffindor third year continued to voice their complaints.
"We couldn't sleep normally tonight anyway! And you're here with your show!"
"Granger, I definitely didn't expect this from you!"
"How are we supposed to live now?!"
"You mean sleep, you want to say?"
"That too."
"You mean to say Muggles sleep peacefully after watching such movies?!"
"Well..." Harry hesitated. "Not always. The main thing is to understand how to destroy it. The clown needs to be beaten by everyone together and not be afraid of him—he'll definitely disappear."
"I'd beat someone else right now..."
At just that moment the boggart had to appear on the threshold. The unfortunate one was rushing to the saving wardrobe from the pursuing DADA professor.
And since Granger was sitting closest to the door, then... The round cloud whitened, a head appeared, a blood-red mouth...
"Beat him!"
"Hit!"
"Stab!"
The remaining furniture in the staff room... and some inventions of the students themselves fell upon Pennywise. Someone had a sword, someone a club, Brown held a huge kitchen knife, Finnigan was waving a bat, Patil was unwinding some strange but even visually dangerous wire, Weasley was waving with both hands: in one was a gigantic ladle, and in the other—a crookedly curved either knife or short Persian sword. And grinned savagely.
The boggart squealed frantically and rushed back into the wardrobe, quickly slamming the door behind itself.
The panting Professor Lupin with wild eyes watched his students high-five each other. Having caught his breath, he could only rasp one word:
"Where?"
They pointed to the wardrobe.
No. Not today. Today he won't...
Lupin gathered his last strength.
"Who?"
"Everyone," Harry Potter cheerfully informed. "When there are many of us, it's easy to handle, professor."
With a quiet groan Lupin leaned against the wall, barely keeping from sliding down it.
"Don't worry, professor, we'll clean everything up now!" climbed out that same girl who had such a terrible, such an awful nightmare... Merlin, where could children have seen such a thing?! What inhuman creature could... Does such a thing exist?! Where? Why?
Lupin swallowed with difficulty: his throat instantly dried up. His pulse pounded loudly in his head, as if nailing the questions arising in it, and the children... Amazing children were calmly tidying up! As if they hadn't just witnessed such... such...
"Reparo... Reparo..."
"Tergeo..."
"Scourgify..."
"Reparo..."
All he could do was join in.
"Scourge..."
The wardrobe shook with a small tremor, and its door swung open.
"Scourge!" five students directed their wands at the wardrobe's insides... and saw only empty shelves in it.
"What? He's gone?"
"Is a boggart ectoplasm?"
"It's a variety of it..."
"Then why Riddikulus?"
Just by the end of the lesson the staff room was brought to its original state. And the children looked at the professor as if waiting for something.
"Oh yes... ten points to Gryffindor... each. And five more for tidying up," he sighed. "Each too."
"Hurray!" the third-years roared, almost deafening Lupin.
***
After classes Harry prowled the corridors looking for empty rooms. There were quite a few, but as soon as he entered, someone inevitably appeared after a few minutes, sometimes Filch or Mrs. Norris. But most often it was other students: apparently he wasn't the only one seeking solitude. Even the upper floors were full of people, though they were mainly favored by couples in love.
Hermione started using the artifact! And therefore they needed to figure it out as quickly as possible, because if Hermione digs in her heels, that's it.
And then there's this very strange Professor Lupin. The look... Harry didn't like him, just couldn't understand why yet. And the spell he gave them today was stupid, honestly. Though maybe he just didn't want to look for a new boggart for other lessons? And why did he start with Neville when he saw he was most afraid?! And most importantly, why didn't he explain everything in the classroom beforehand?
The notebook jumped on the Slytherin Head of House's desk. Snape, holding a cup with one hand, opened the pages, no longer expecting anything good, and sipped his tea to calm down.
Can professors harm students? What creatures are characterized by bright yellow eyes?
The professor choked on his tea and barely stopped himself from rushing immediately toward Gryffindor tower. He coughed, cleaned himself, dried his jacket and wrote an answer...
And then took the notebook with him and flew out of the office toward the headmaster's apartments, hissing under his breath magnificent plots for horror films mainly on the theme of how he would kill Remus Lupin.
So Granger and Potter who came for detention finally had a normal chat while waiting for the professor, and then on the way back to the tower. The detention didn't happen.
***
In the evening in the Gryffindor common room a small company agreed on joint searches for boggarts on the castle territory... And Potter promised to tell and show several more horror movies!