It had been almost a week since the prank, and things between Harry and Hermione were still not back to normal. They were better, yes, but still not great. While she was at least back to talking with Harry now, unfortunately for both of them, she still refrained from kissing him, or even giving him a hug.
Harry was at a complete loss on what to do. He had told her every day that he was sorry, he had sworn to her he would do better, he was doing everything he could for her, from carrying her book bag to class to running every conceivable errand for her he could think of; he had even owl-ordered a large bouquet of flowers from a florist in Hogsmeade and had Dobby deliver them to her dorm.
But it hadn't worked.
And now he was completely out of ideas.
The only good thing to have come out of it was that Fred and George been mightily impressed with his prank. While changing the colour of people's hair wasn't that big a deal, that Harry's prank had managed to hit the entire school at the same time was something even they hadn't been able to do.
At least, not yet, though they seemed to be taking Harry's performance as a challenge.
The twins did come through on their bargain admirably, and had given him ten fake wands; more than enough for him to start testing his first version of the summoning array.
His first test had been an absolute disaster.
He had written the two arrays he needed on separate bits of parchment, attaching the first one to a wand blank and sticking the other to his hand. One was a summoning array, and the other a targeting array.
He'd fed the Rune's on his hand a little of his magic, but instead of the wand flying to Harry's hand from the table ten feet away, the parchment stuck on his hand had promptly burst into flames, setting Harry into a panic from being on fire.
Luckily, Hermione had insisted on being there; even if she was barely talking to him at that point, she had still wanted to watch, and just sat there silently observing him. She had kept her cool, and with a quick charm, had water coming from her wand, quenching the flames and cooling Harry's hand. Thanks to her quick response, Harry had barely suffered any burns at all.
That he had also ended up completely soaking wet, with Hermione not only putting out the flames, but giving him a shower in the process, wasn't as great. But, it was the first smile he'd seen on Hermione's face since the potions incident, so he didn't mind at all.
Harry guessed that she even liked that look on him, from the weird glances she gave him as he attempted to dry off his ever-troubling hair.
He had examined the Runes afterwards to try and find out what had gone wrong, and found that he had created a power flow imbalance; there was too much magic building up in one part of the array and not being used, eventually bursting out as he'd channeled more and more of his magic into the Rune.
And so it was back to the drawing board for the Runes.
Before he could focus on that particular problem, he first and foremost had to come up with a way to apologise to Hermione.
Or at least, an apology she would accept .
He already said he was sorry a number of times. In fact, he made a point of telling her at least twice a day; when they first met up in the morning, and when they parted ways for the night. The problem was, he just didn't know how to go about it, and the person who he would normally go to for advice like that happened to be the one who he was trying to apologise to.
He really had to figure out things soon; it was Valentine's Day in less than a month, and after he had forgotten it last year, he really needed to do something special this year, which would be incredibly hard if Hermione was still mad at him at that point.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Harry was wandering the halls of the castle, pondering what he could do in regards to Hermione, something he was almost always thinking about now. Rounding a corner, he came across Tracy Davis, who was tugging on the larger paintings and looking behind the wall tapestries as she passed up the corridor his way. This may have looked weird to some, but it wasn't uncommon for students to see if they could find secret passageways and hidden rooms.
The castle was full of them and finding them could be a lot of fun to do, unless those rooms where dangerous.
Last year, Harry wouldn't have thought twice; he would have turned around and continued his walk somewhere else.
It would be easier than listening to the insults the Slytherin was bound to throw at him. This year, however, was different. While he wouldn't exactly call Tracy a friend, she was definitely more than a mere acquaintance.
So, he decided to go and say hello, surprising himself as much as Tracy, once she realised who had come to talk to her, "Hey Tracy, how are things?"
"Oh, hey Harry! Yeah, things aren't bad. How about you? You and Hermione still fighting?" She asked.
Tracy and Daphne had noticed the shift in how Hermione and Harry were acting during the Runes classes they shared that week. Usually, the two were extremely close to one another, usually holding hands or touching shoulders as they worked, but now, they weren't.
"Sort of...she's talking to me again, instead of at me, but things are still not right."
"What did you do anyway?" They were now walking down the corridor while Tracy continued to check the paintings and wall hangings.
Harry considered if he shouldn't tell his Slytherin classmate, but she had trusted Harry and Hermione with a pretty big secret, so it was up to him to show some trust now, like she had, "I slipped her a potion without thinking. After Christmas last year, she is understandably sensitive about potions."
Harry turned to where he thought Tracy had been standing, only to find she wasn't there. He then felt a vicious shove and was suddenly pinned against the wall, with Tracy standing in front of him, her wand aimed at his head.
His classmate's face was almost unrecognisable with anger and disgust as she snarled at him, "How could you!? The girl is already in love with you! What, got tired of waiting? Give me a good reason not to curse you Potter, before I lose my patience."
Harry was confused, as well as quite shocked at the pure venom Tracy suddenly had towards him, "What? Why would you curse me?"
"Why!? WHY!? You slip your girlfriend a love potion and ask why I would curse you!"
In an instant he understood what Tracy thought he had done.
He would never do what she had implied; even the idea made him feel sick, "Woah, woah, woah. You've got the wrong idea. I didn't slip her a love potion. Or any potion like that .
I did the hair prank last week. That's the only potion I gave her...and everyone else," the last bit he mumbled incredibly quietly, "All it did was affect her hair colour. That's it."
Tracy lowered her wand, only a bit, "That's it? Just the hair prank? You swear it?"
Harry held up his hands in submission, "I swear."
Tracy lowered her wand completely now, " God Potter! Be more clear from the beginning in the future; when a girl hears about being slipped a potion, it's not normally so...innocent."
Harry was horrified by even the idea that he, or anyone for that matter, could do something like that, "I would never ."
"Lots of guys say that, but it still happens way too much," Tracy deadpanned.
"But Hermione knows I wouldn't do that, right?" Harry pulled the conversation back to his problem. He was extremely worried now that Hermione would have thought that that was what he'd given her, before he'd explained himself.
"I don't know, Hermione and I aren't very close. It could be something that she is worried about, or I could be wrong. Like I said, we aren't close enough for me to really understand her like that," Tracy went back to checking behind the portraits and tapestries.
"I just wish I knew how to apologise to her."
"This may sound crazy Harry, but have you tried just telling her?"
Harry rolled his eyes, " Of course I tried that. I tell her every single day. I promised not to do it again, and that I would do better from now on. I even had flowers delivered to her dorm. I just want to know how to make us good again."
"Well, what did Hermione say about apologizing?"
"Only that I had a lot of it to do, but that she wasn't going to break up with me," Harry explained.
"Then have you considered that you're already doing everything right? Maybe, you just need to go at it for longer than a week. Also, can't you do better than flowers?" The derision was plain in her voice when she mentioned the flowers.
Harry felt better at the idea that he was doing the right thing, but that disappeared as he realised that there was probably no quick fix to the massive screw-up he did. However, he was slightly annoyed that Tracy said flowers weren't enough, "What? What's wrong with flowers? Isn't that what you're supposed to do?"
Tracy snorted, "Harry, flowers are nice, but it's what you get for your partner when you have no other ideas. You could do so much better. Get her something she would like. For example, if I wanted to cheer up Daph, I would get her a charm for the charm bracelet I'd gotten her. You just need to think about what Hermione likes ."
"I guess you have a point; I've never seen Hermione pay much attention to plants and flowers outside of Herbology. I should probably think of something better," Harry really tried to think of a gift that would be better for Hermione. The problem was, if he spent too much on it, Hermione would get even more mad at him for that than she already was. She wanted him to be careful with his gold, he supposed she had a point. After paying his Hogwarts tuition for anther four years there wouldn't be a lot left.
Harry attention was caught when he saw Tracy drop the latest tapestry she'd checked behind, swearing in frustration.
"So, why are you looking for a secret passageway or room? You just exploring, or are you looking for something specific?"
Harry hoped that, if she was looking for something specific, then he would be able to check the Marauders' Map for her to see if he could find it, as a thank you for her advice.
Tracy looked around nervously to check that they were alone, "I'm looking for somewhere private, to take Daphne on Valentine's. If we go to Hogsmeade together, on Valentine's, then people will wonder about us being together. We can't let that happen, but we still want to do something together, you know?"
Harry nodded, "I get it. Even if it's for a different reason. Hermione and I prefer privacy as well," Harry then had a thought, a brilliant one, "Actually...come with me. I have an idea."
Harry lead a confused Tracy though the school, up to the Seventh floor, and the Room of Requirement, "Mione and I wanted a spot where we could be alone, and I found an amazing place. I'm planning to use it Valentine's as well, but I don't see why we can't both use it."
Tracy was half jogging to keep up with an excited Harry, "Um, Harry...I think Daph and I might want a bit more privacy."
Harry turned and grinned back at her, "Don't worry; I don't think it will be a problem. Trust me."
They were at the tapestry of the dancing trolls that marked the location of the Room of Requirement. Harry started pacing back and forth, thinking of his and Hermione's date room, but he changed it a bit to accommodate a second couple.
Tracy was watching Harry while she leant against the wall. If she hadn't seen just how strange things could get at Hogwarts, she would have worried that Harry was losing his mind. Instead, she just mused on just how much crazy a person can accept, given enough exposure in a place like Hogwarts. Then, there was suddenly something that was poking her in the back.
She turned around to see what it was. It was the door handle to a door that had definitely not been there when she had started leaning against the wall.
Harry opened the door and motioned for her to go in. Once she stepped in, Harry followed her, closing the door behind them, "Welcome to the Room of Requirement."
They both looked around at the room. Instead of the normal date room Harry and Hermione used, there was now only a nice little dining area that was brilliant for a group of four. There were also three doors leading off the room; one behind them, that they had just come through, one on the left wall, with another mirroring that on the right.
The wall opposite was dominated by large windows, showing the regular beautiful sunset the room used, even when, like now, the sun had already set for the day.
Tracy looked into one of the side doors and found a small room with comfortable sofa facing a fire, "Cozy. I see what you mean about privacy, with the two side rooms."
Harry wasn't finished yet, "Oh, this? This is just an idea. The room changes into whatever we want. Bigger, smaller, more rooms, less rooms, colours, furniture, equipment. It's all changeable."
Tracy was staring at him, stunned. The complexity of the magic needed for something like that was staggering. That was before you looked into how much power would be needed. Yet, the ideas were racing through her mind at just how good a Valentine's she could make it for Daphne.
"Do you know if there are any limitations?"
"Yeah; it can't make food, and the stuff made by the room stops existing outside of the room. Oh, and the room resets as soon as there is no-one inside."
"No food is a pain, but we could bring a picnic or something."
"I have a friend who can deliver food here, we just need to agree what we want. It's unfair to ask him to make two different sets of meals. So, why don't we sit down and plan out exactly what we want to do?"
Harry and Tracy sat at the relatively small dining table, and Harry pulled a spare bit of parchment and a Muggle pen from his pocket. Carrying a Muggle pen was a habit he had picked up from Hermione. Muggle pens were just more convenient than trying to carry a quill and ink bottle in his pocket. The two sat there for over an hour, working on what they planned to make Valentine's as special as they could for the ladies in their lives.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Hermione had a lot on her mind.
The past week had been eventful for her. First off, Harry had betrayed her trust in him by slipping her a potion.
Yes , it was harmless, Hermione even thought she looked good with gold hair. Her bushy hair, along with her cat ears, had given her a bit of a lion look. It was just a pity that it was more lion than lioness.
However, the problem was that Harry should have known better.
He knew what messing with potion's had done to her. She knew that Harry hadn't meant to hurt her. He'd gotten so caught up in trying to prove he was his father's son he had gotten tunnel vision.
She knew he was sorry; he had even ordered her flowers, which she thought was sweet, even if it was a bit stereotypical.
She wanted to forgive him, but everything in her life was just getting in the way this week.
The day after Harry had dosed her, her cat side had come calling, and like Madam Pomfrey said she would, she had gone into heat.
That was panic-inducing enough; the suppression potions she took every month were supposed to stop her from feeling that...needy.
It had been incredibly difficult to focus on her classes that day. Even though she was mad at Harry, she kept getting distracted by him. She had not taken as many notes as she normally did in Charms, and in History of Magic, she hadn't taken any at all , finding Professor Binn's droning monotone lecture too boring to hold even her attention that day.
She hadn't said a word to Harry that day, in part because she was mad at him, but also because she wasn't sure she could keep being mad at him while image after image of Harry without a shirt, and sometimes without even more, were racing through her mind.
She wasn't exactly positive that she could avoid dragging him to the Room of Requirement to help release her tension. She could not let that happen; despite not being ready, and being mad at Harry, there was no way she was going to let her first time be because she was in heat. Her first time with Harry was going to be special.
As soon as classes were over, she had retreated to her dorm to try and relax a bit. She had known disappearing like that would hurt Harry and make him think she was more upset than she was, but at the time, it was all she could think of.
Once she was alone, she had tried to review the chapter for History of Magic they'd done in class, only, she still couldn't concentrate. She eventually decided that, if she was going to relax at all, she would need to take care of her tension herself.
That had been the start of the next problem. She was no stranger to herself; she had gotten worked up more than once by Harry. During her alone times previously, her mental images of Harry had greatly helped things along. Only this time, she was upset with him, so her mind had wandered, first picking out generic males conjured from dreams, then a few of the better looking guys from around the school.
Then, she thought of something else, something that had shocked her.
Images of some of the prettier girls had floated through her head.
The idea that she could be into girls had surprised, and scared, Hermione. It had taken her a few days to even wrap her head around the concept.
It hadn't helped that she went into heat when she ovulated, meaning that she also had to deal with the end of her cycle at the same time as being angry at Harry and trying to work out what this meant for her.
At one point, she had almost convinced herself that if she liked girls, then she would need to give up Harry, but quickly realised that she definitely liked Harry. He had managed to get her worked up more than once, and there were also male crushes she'd had before getting together with Harry, like Ron and Lockhart.
Ron and Lockhart , what had she been thinking ?
She'd had a thing for Ronald at first, that was why his words that first Halloween had hurt her enough to send her into tears in the bathroom; his opinion had mattered to her because she liked him.
Of course, even after they became friends, the more Ron spoke, the less attracted to him she was.
As for Lockhart, well...her crush on him was like a lot of girls' crushes on Harry; It had nothing to do with the real person, and was focused on the fiction that was based on what people believed about them.
The big question was; should she tell Harry? On one hand, she didn't like keeping things from him.
On the other; did it even matter? She was with Harry, she loved him, and she definitely found Harry sexually attractive. Telling him could make him think that he wasn't, or ever could be, enough for her.
There was no rush, she concluded. Maybe she would wait till the summer and talk with her mum first.
Her mum was always good with stuff like this.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
She had just gotten back from her second detention with her Head of year.
Professor McGonagall had her doing the same job as last time, giving Hermione the homework assignments of the first and second years.
The job had gone a lot quicker this week for two reasons, first was that homework over the Christmas holidays was longer than regular homework.
The students had two weeks to do the homework in, so the length required reflected that.
This time, Hermione also knew what she was doing a lot better than last time. As Hermione was finished with the lower years, she had organised the rest of the assignments by house and year, and as Professor McGonagall had no more work to assign to her, in a rare showing of lax, she had let Hermione go early.
Hermione half-ran back up to the common room. It had only just gone eight; if she got to the common room quickly enough, she could have a couple of hours curled up with Harry.
Maybe she would make him read one of her textbooks to her while she curled up next to him. It was a poor substitute for a real date night, but she and Harry had agreed to put off any more date nights until she was done with her detentions. Breaking curfew for their anniversary was one thing, but breaking curfew because it was their regular date night would just be going too far.
And , making Harry read to her the latest chapter from history of magic would be a good way for her to unwind and start getting back to normal with Harry, without just letting him off the hook.
Once Hermione got to the common room, she looked around for Harry, but she couldn't find him, so she asked Dean if Harry was up in the boys' dorm.
"Sorry Hermione, but he's not there. I was up there about five minutes ago dropping off my potions essay in my trunk. Last I saw him was about forty to forty-five minutes ago; I saw him going up to the Seventh floor with some girl."
Hermione was disappointed; Harry must have thought she would be in detention longer after last week, "Who was he with?"
"Not sure, only saw her from behind. All I can say is she's a dark blonde, and not someone I recognized, so probably not a Gryffindor."
Hermione was more than a little put out; Harry had been trying to make up with her all week, and now that she was in a place to start fixing things, he'd run off to do something else.
She began wondering what Harry was doing up on the Seventh floor. There were only really two destinations; The Owlery, maybe Harry or the girl were sending a letter? Maybe the girl was sending a letter and wanted to borrow Hedwig? No, that couldn't be it; the girl could use a school owl, and she and Harry were sending their weekly letters to her parents tomorrow. Harry wouldn't risk Hedwig being unable for that unless it was incredibly important.
The only other place worthy of note was the Room of Requirement. Her heart clenched at the idea that Harry was taking another girl to their date spot. In her head, she knew that whatever was going on was fine.
She and Harry were solid.
But, the part of her that never had a lot of friends, the part that sees a mutant when she sees her ears and tail in the mirror, was whispering in the back of her mind, telling her she hadn't been much of a girlfriend this week and Harry could be really popular if he wanted to be.
The rest of her was reminding her of things that told her that everything was fine. The Room of Requirement can be a lot of things, it didn't necessarily have to be a date room, it could just as easily be a study, a dueling area or even a bedroom.
No, not a bedroom; Harry wouldn't do that.
Hermione's thoughts were driving her nuts, she knew that Harry was probably just killing time because he thought she was in detention. But, after the last week, she didn't have the highest of self esteem and because of that, was having stupid thoughts.
She just needed to talk to Harry.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Hermione had to wait over half an hour before Harry climbed through the portrait hole into the common room. Hermione almost went over to pull him into a much needed hug, but held herself back; she was still a little mad at him after all. Instead, she calmly walked over to speak to him, "Hey Harry," she was still feeling a little anxious, and that kept her voice from being as light and friendly as she wanted.
"Hey 'Mione; you got out of detention early. I was going to meet you, but when I checked the map you were already here."
"I finished the work professor McGongall set me, so she let me go early.
Where were you? I asked Dean if you were up in the dorms, but he said he saw you going up to the Seventh floor with a girl," Hermione tried to keep any tones of worry and accusation from her voice, but she didn't think she did very well.
However, either Harry didn't notice, or was ignoring it.
"Yeah. I was uh...brainstorming with Tracy," Hermione frowned a little at the pause in Harry's sentence, but relaxed when he said he was with Tracy. Tracy may not be a girl she trusted too much, at least not yet. While she definitely had the feeling that could change in time, she knew could trust Tracy and Harry to be alone together, no matter how bad an argument got between her and Harry got. Tracy just wasn't into guys at all.
"Brainstorming? For what?" Hermione was curious now.
Harry hesitated once again, "All I will say is Valentine's . The rest is a surprise. Oh, and," he looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, "Daphne and Tracy will be using the room with us that day," A frown crossed Hermione's face, "Not together with us, we just tested the room, and it can make us separate rooms, so we will have our side and Daphne and Tracy the other. Like two separate private rooms at the same restaurant," Harry clarified.
Hermione liked the sound of that. She was looking forward to a full day with just the two of them, especially with everything that was getting in the way of that at the moment, "That sounds lovely Harry," Hermione thought for a second and came to a decision, "Let's go sit down Harry."
She gave Harry's arm a little tug, pulling him not towards the more uncomfortable tables that were mostly for homework, but to one of the comfy sofas that she and Harry mostly used for cuddling up in the evening, and which she had avoided with Harry for the last week.
Harry hadn't needed telling twice and followed her. Hermione let him sit first so that she could curl up against him, "I'm still a little upset at what happened, but I've missed this," Hermione said as she cuddled into Harry's chest.
Harry put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head, "I missed this too. I'm sorry; I was so stupid."
"Yes, you were, so now you are going to help me."
"Ok...how?"
Hermione reached into her book bag and pulled out her History of magic textbook, "You can read chapter twenty-seven to me while I use you as a pillow," She settled her head in Harry's lap and relaxed while he read the chapter to her.
Harry was far easier to listen to than Binns.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
The next four weeks nearly passed without incident. Harry made a few more attempts with his summoning project. The wands were now coming on command, but they were currently trying to impale the person who summoned them. While that was obviously a problem, Harry had been far more focused on improving Hermione's hair band.
He was quite proud of the progress he made on it. After he had decided to focus on his project for Hermione for a bit, he'd had a few brain waves. He added a bundle of small runes on the inside of each end of the hairband. Now, If someone pressed their thumbs into each bundle of Runes, and then, at the same time, touched the outside of hairband to say...a bit of clothing, the fabric on the outside of the hairband would change its colour and pattern to match.
This meant Hermione could now match her hairband to whatever outfit she was wearing when she went out in the Muggle world. He still had more improvements planned, but so far it was a good start.
Hermione had been ecstatic about the improvement, and it had earned Harry his first bone-crushing Hermione hug since the potions incident.
Hermione had finished her detentions with Professor McGonagall, who was actually a little disappointed to lose her marking assistant. Hermione, however, was thrilled to have her night with Harry back.
Things were back to normal between them by that point.
Ron had apparently earned himself two more detentions for constantly complaining to their Head of year that he was the victim, and that he shouldn't have detention at all, completely glossing over the point that there would have been no fight with Hermione if he hadn't coldly accused her and tried to attack her familiar.
It was starting to look as though their friendship with Ron might be well and truly over.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
On the 25th, dinner in the Great Hall was surprisingly unusual, which was saying something. Along with the regular variation of Hogwarts food, this evening there was a thick beef stew and mashed potatoes, along with a mixed root vegetable mash.
There were also a number of plates holding oddly shaped, short but fat, dark sausages that looked like they were boiled instead of fried.
"What are those things?" Neville, who was sitting opposite Harry and Hermione, asked aloud.
Harry had no clue, having never seen them before, but Hermione apparently had, "It's haggis*. Oh right...it's Burns night."
Harry was more curious about Burns night than he was about haggis. From what he had heard of it, it didn't sound particularly appetizing, "What's Burns night?"
"It's a celebration of a Scottish poet Robert Burns. It's sort of a Scottish pride day. Professor McGonagall must have arranged it," Hermione slipped into her lecture mode, something which tended to happen whenever she was explaining something.
"Is haggis any good?" Neville asked
"Don't know; I've never tried it. I just saw a photo in a book about British traditions."
The three of them and a few more of the Gryffindors tried the Scottish delicacy with mixed results. Harry and Hermione didn't care much for it, but Neville and a couple of others seemed to like it.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
On the 27th, Professor Lupin disappeared from the school once again, because he was ill. The professor got ill quite often. Harry wondered if his honorary uncle had some kind of health condition that made him more susceptible to getting sick.
Professor Snape covered his class this time, and was a bigger git than normal, assigning them homework on werewolves; a topic they hadn't covered yet.
When Professor Lupin returned, he had cancelled the homework, much to Hermione's disappointment and Harry's frustration. Hermione had pushed Harry to do the homework as soon as it was assigned, so they could be sure that they had time on the weekend to do more research for Buckbeak's case.
The werewolf assignment was bugging Harry for some reason, but he couldn't figure out why. It probably had something to do with the smirk on Snape's face as he gave out the work though, so Harry did his best to put it out of his mind.
Instead, he occupied his mind by spending time with Tracy as they planned their Valentine's Day dates. Tracy, it turned out, was an untapped goldmine of ideas, some of which Harry thought Hermione would absolutely love.
Hermione, who seemed to have lost her boyfriend to his scheming, had taken to the library to pass her time. She was soon joined by Daphne, who found herself similarly lacking the company of her own schemer. Daphne asked Hermione if she knew anything about where Tracy planned for the two of them to go, considering she and Tracy were keeping their relationship a secret.
Hermione only said that privacy wasn't going to be a problem, but she didn't want to spoil any surprises Tracy might have planned.
The two witches quickly started coming up with this own Valentine's ideas, hoping that they wouldn't get in the way of Harry and Tracy's schemes.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
In the second week of February, Hermione found herself going into heat again. More prepared for it this time, she was able to really take stock of what she was feeling. She noted that while she definitely wanted to drag Harry off somewhere private, and while it wasn't as intense as the first time she went into heat, before she started on the potion, they did seem to be getting more and more intense, even when she took the potion.
When she told Harry that she was going to see Madam Pomfrey, it took a lot of persuading to get him not to come with her;
"You're going to the hospital wing!? What's wrong!? Let's go; do you need to lean on me?" Harry was standing and getting ready to leave right there and then.
"Harry! I'm going to the hospital wing. You are going to class," she dictated to him. Unfortunately, he was being stubborn and amazing at the same time.
"'Mione, I don't care about class; if you're sick you will be my priority," Harry was going to make sure she was taken care of, even if he needed to carry her to the hospital wing himself, with or without magic.
"Harry, calm down, I'm fine," He looked at her disbelievingly.
Hermione sighed, she hadn't wanted to tell Harry too much, so she leaned in and whispered, "Honestly Harry; it's just girly stuff, nothing to worry about. I'm more worried about missing class. Can you please go to class and take notes for me? Please?"
"Are you sure you are Ok? I don't mind blowing off Defence and I'm sure Uncle Moony would forgive me."
Normally she would let Harry come and fuss over her, but his presence would be both distracting and embarrassing, "Go to class Harry," She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "I love that you want to watch out for me, but some things I need to do alone, now go to class, for me."
Harry agreed finally, and left her to go and see the school nurse alone.
Her conversion with Madam Pomfrey was embarrassing to say the least. But, at least she was spared the indignancy that would come from speaking to a Muggle doctor about such things. She was so glad those types of exams were done by diagnostic charms in the magical world.
"Well Miss Granger, this is a good news bad news situation. The good news is that physically, you are almost completely healthy. You still have a few lingering problems from being petrified, but that is to be expected, and I think you will be fine by the end of the school year," Hermione was happy to hear about that. She regularly got stiff joints while she slept. It was more of an annoyance now, but she was glad it was going away.
"The bad news is that you are building up a tolerance to your suppression potion. I expect by this time next year, the potion will not help you," Madam Pomfrey paused to let that information sink in, "I can increase the strength of your next potion, if you like, but be careful, the sooner I up the strength, the faster you'll build up your tolerance. If you can hold off for a month or two more, it would help."
"What about the contraceptive part of the potion? Am I building a tolerance to that as well?"
"The contraceptive draught is one you won't have a problem taking for however long you want. It's a separate potion that I added to the suppression potion to cover you if the suppression potion failed. So, even after you are no longer on the suppression potion, you can continue with the contraceptive one, though I doubt someone as studious as you would want to give up your schooling to be a mum."
"Definitely not. One day I want to be a mum, but not for a few years at least. I was thinking of getting a mastery first."
Madam Pomfrey nodded, "A sensible plan. Too many witches get pregnant not long after leaving school and don't get their mastery."
"What about if I stopped the suppression potions early, would that pause the building of tolerance, or better yet, reverse it?" Hermione asked.
"If you stopped taking it, it's possible over time it would get more effective, but you wouldn't be able to use it a lot. Why are you asking?"
"I don't want to be distracted during my exams, and from what I hear about N.E.W.T's, it wouldn't be great if I was distracted," Hermione explained.
Madam Pomfrey gave Hermione's idea some thought before she answered, "If you stopped taking the potion after your end of year exams, and only took one dose for your fourth year, and one for your O.W.L exams, there is a good chance your tolerance to the potion would be low enough to allow you to take it again through a lot of your N.E.W.T years. But, there is a good chance that you may not need it by then. You may have gotten so used to it that you don't feel the need to suppress it.
If that's what you want to try, then that's what we will try, but think about it for now; you have a few months to mull it over. Also, you might want to consider speaking with Mr Potter. When you stop the suppression potion, there's a chance you will lose yourself a bit when you ovulate. It would be better if he understood what decisions you have made about what you want before then."
Hermione blushed as she realised that the medi witch was basically telling her to plan with Harry if they should have sex when she went into heat. But that was definitely better than leaving it up to Harry to guess at what she was ok with.