"Broom? Why Would I Need One of Those?"
"But Sensei! I can't just not train today! I have to get strong enough to defeat my manipulator! How can I do that if I stop training?" The green eyed disciple protested.
'Relax Harry, it's just one day without training. Besides, you haven't had any rest days since we started this! One day to let your body recover will do you good. Why would you want to train on Christmas anyway?' Crookshanks explained.
"I have to though! I don't have the time to relax. I have to find and defeat my manipulator! I have to solve the mystery if Sirius Black! I have to find that rat Animagus! How am I going to do any of that without at least a little training?" Harry countered. He didn't really like arguing with his Sensei, but he felt very strongly about this training.
His Sensei simply stared at him for a second, contemplating, before getting an idea.
'*Sigh* Fine! How about this, you can do that light workout of yours later, but that's all! And to ease your nerves a little, I'll give you a hint on that Sirius Black thing. That sound alright?' The Sensei compromised.
Thinking it over for a few seconds, Harry's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Very well Sensei!"
'Great! Now, go enjoy the rest of your holiday. I'll give you the clue at the end of the day. But! I warn you now, if you get impatient waiting for it and don't actually relax, I won't give you the clue. Is that understood?' When Harry nodded, his Sensei went to dismiss him, but fell short.
'Say, I don't think you ever told me. What is this light workout you've been doing? I need to make sure that it's actually light and your not just downplaying it so you can sneak in extra training.' His Sensei asked, curious as he had never been around during that time of the afternoon for... reasons, and he had never bothered to ask what it was before now.
The disciple smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry Sensei, it really is light, I wouldn't dream of lying to you! It's just 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run!" He explained cheerily. Then, after his master said nothing, he turned and left the RoR.
Crookshanks stared at the empty room with a deadpan expression, a sense of foreboding rising in his stomach. 'Stop worrying so much Crookshanks! I never told him about THAT hero, just Tatsumaki. Since he and his magic don't know about it, there's no way anything will happen.' He reassured himself. But the foreboding feeling remained.
'Right?'
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"Huh, cool, a new broom." Harry said with a smile as he looked at his new firebolt.
"A new broom? That's all your going to say? This is a FIREBOLT! How could you be so nonchalant about it?" Ron yelled from beside him.
"I mean, yeah, I'm excited about it, but it's just a broom dude, there's no need to lose our heads over it." Harry said dismissively. The idea of flying on a broom had seemed significantly less appealing to him after learning that he would be able to fly with his Telekinesis.
"I wonder who sent it though?" Hermione asked from his other side, her eyes narrowed at the broom.
"Who cares! Come on Harry! Let's go test it out." Ron said in a hurry, grabbing Harry's shoulder and pulled him toward the portrait hole.
"Who cares? Ronald you can NOT be serious! You don't think that it's a little suspicious that Harry suddenly received a gift that costs hundreds of Galleons out of nowhere? There wasn't even a name on the package!" Hermione interrupted him, pulling on Harry's other shoulder to stop them.
"What do you mean out of nowhere? Obviously it came from Santa!" Ron stated as if it was obvious.
Hermione just stared at Ron with a blank expression.
Ron stared back with an innocent face.
Realizing that he wasn't joking, Hermione tried desperately not to punch him. "Ronald, remind me, how old are you again?"
"I'm thirteen of course!" Ron said with pride.
"*Sigh* Just wanted to make sure." Hermione said, though she sounded frustrated.
"Anyway, I think the possibility of this being Sirius Black trying to kill Harry again is a much more likely scenario." She started, only to be interrupted by a laughing Ron Weasley.
"You actually think Sirius Black is Santa Clause?" He said between chuckles, not noticing that nobody else in the common room was laughing. In fact, all of them were now staring at him with wide eyes.
Hermione couldn't articulate her words correctly, and staring at the idiot just made it worse, but she couldn't look away. Thankfully she was helped out by a slightly less ridiculous question.
"Who's Santa Clause?" Harry asked, confused about the term. He knew he had heard it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite remember where.
Hermione turned to him and blinked. 'Why didn't he know who... NO!' She was livid when she suddenly remembered what he had told her when she was petrified, and connected the dots immediately. Her grip on his shoulder tightened to the point where he was starting to feel pain.
She started crying.
"Hermione what's wrong!" Harry panicked and started mentally recalling all of his actions toward her since he met her that could have caused this. With his current level of Occlumency, it wasn't as difficult as it sounds.
She didn't answer and continued crying. 'Why didn't I think of it before? He told me himself that he spent the entire month of December locked in a cupboard. What else has he missed out on? And why the hell am I having such a hard time remembering what he told me?' She thought in frustration, further tightening her grip and making wince in pain.
"Oh come on Harry, if she wants to be a cry baby about not getting her way then let her! Hurry up, let's go down to the Quidditch pitch and test out that new broom!" Ron said, trying to pull Harry again, but didn't get to far before Harry shook his hand off.
"Not now Ron, can't you see that Hermione's upset?" He said dismissively to him, rubbing her back to comfort her with all of his attention focused on his weeping friend.
Ron, remembering what had happened the other day and opting not to make him mad again, simply scoffed and stomped through he portrait hole. 'Attention seeking bitch! Can't show any affection toward me, but the second you find out that the great "Harry Potter" is being abused you have a break down!' Ron complained.
He knew full well what she had realized since he himself had had Harry ask him the same thing back in first year, only for Harry to get obliviated by Dumbledore a few minutes after. The old man then explained to him why he had asked that in the first place, and why he couldn't give Harry hope that someone like Santa existed, since it would make it more difficult to manipulate him.
Ron continued to grumble for the rest of the day, completely forgetting about the broom.
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"I don't understand Sensei, why would she do that?" Harry asked, confusion and a little hurt on his face.
After Hermione had finished her crying, she refused to tell him what was wrong, just repeatedly saying sorry whenever he asked. Then, a few hours later, she had come into the common room with the Professor who confiscated his new broom. Of course, he didn't really care about the broom, it was just a stick. But he did feel a little betrayed that she would go behind his back to do it.
He had ended up yelling at her over it, after which they both left the common room angrily. He immediately felt terrible, but didn't know what he should do, so he went to the wisest person he knew, his Sensei.
'Harry, while I don't think that going behind your back like that was the right way to go about things, try to understand things from her point of view. Tell me Harry, how do you think you would have reacted if you had received the same gift before you started your training with me?' The cat asked, knowing that this would be coming and having already prepared multiple rebuttals for varies scenarios.
"Well, I guess I would have went outside to ride it immediately." Harry admitted, knowing where this was going.
'Exactly, and she thinks that your still like that. Despite all of your changes these past few months, nobody has noticed them. They still think that your the same Harry as last year, including Master. She was worried that you would have ignored her warnings, or forbade her from telling on you, and, with how much she lo-*Cough**Cough* cares for you, she would have listened.' Crookshanks explained, hoping to god that he didn't just accidentally reveal his masters feelings.
"I see. I'm such an idiot! How could I forget that I haven't told anyone about this training yet?" Harry began scolding himself, feeling like even more of an ass now for yelling at her.
'Don't entirely blame yourself Harry, she's at fault to. Going behind your friends back like that is never a commendable thing to do. However, I have a feeling that she is feeling even worse about this then you are. So, why don't you work up that courage of yours and go talk it out with her.' The cat told him, not wanting the kid to think that everything was his fault, which, with Harry's personality, he would have.
"Yes Sensei!" Harry said after a moment, a weird smile on his face and determination in his eyes.
'Huh, wonder why he had that look in his eye.' Crookshanks thought to himself, then quickly dismissed it, not really caring.
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A few hours later and Crookshanks was curled up in his Masters bed, sleeping. He had gotten bored of his... activities, and decided that it was time to turn in for the night.
But then he was rudely awakened by the sound of the door slamming open. In walked Hermione, tomato faced and grinning like an idiot.
"OH! Crookshanks you won't believe it! Harry KISSED me!" Crookshanks was immediately alert, his full attention on his Master. "After we had a big fight earlier I went off to an empty classroom to cry. I had been so stupid, running and getting Professor McGonagall like that behind his back. I wanted to go apologize to him, but then he found me and apologized to ME! Can you believe it?" She asked, the very thought baffling her.
"Then he went on to say all of these romantic things like how I was his best friend, and that I was the most important person in his life. (He views Crookshanks as a god, not a person) Then, when we were about to leave, he told met that he was sorry again, confusing me, but then kissed me! Look!" She pointed to her cheek, extremely excited.
Her cat on the other hand, was not amused. Had she seriously just gone and gotten his hopes up like that, just to crush them? That's just cruel. 'Damnit Harry! You could work up the courage to fight a motherfucking basilisk, but you can't kiss a girl on the lips? That's it, you need a courage boost! We're going to go into the forest tomorrow and see if your magic can give you Death Concentration.' Crookshanks began plotting his revenge, wondering if there were any cliffs in the forbidden forest.
"OH! Does this mean that he fancies me? Oh that would be so great! Do you think that he fancies me Crookshanks? Be honest." Hermione said as she looked her cat in the eye, said cat ignoring her in favor of his planning. "You're right! I should ask him myself! But how?"
As Crookshanks began planning his revenge, Hermione began planning her confession, and Dumbledore began planning his trip to another strip club (a gay one this time, he had learned his lesson), who else was planning? I'll tell you who! No one! Because how much of a coincidence would it be for more than four characters to be doing that at the same time?