Chapter 010

Hermione's expression warred between curiosity, concern and hurt. She finally just sighed and hugged him. "Okay. If you decide you want to talk about it just remember, I'm here for you, Harry."

"I know and I appreciate that, Hermione," Harry said squeezing her back. "I trust you, Hermione. Maybe someday I'll tell you. Just not right now."

"I understand." She gave him a small, watery smile and pulled back from the hug. "Now, who is this 'Shiva' person?"

Harry grimaced. "Yeah, I hadn't meant to call her that here. Shiva is Professor Babbling."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Where in the blazes do you get Shiva from Babbling?"

"Apparently it was her nickname since her Second Year. She said she blew a few things up, including herself. I didn't really get it, something about a Hindu goddess."

"Of destruction," Hermione squinted, "and her first name is Bathsheda which I suppose could be shortened to Sheda which makes it a hop, skip and a jump to Shiva but..." She twisted back to Harry before continuing, "It is not appropriate to call a teacher by her nickname."

"I know," Harry held up his hands to ward her off. "It's only a private thing. She's only a few years older than us and she made a good argument for it. And...well...I um...it's just..." Harry's voice dropped so low that Hermione had to lean in to hear him, "it's just a lot easier to let her help me and to trust her if I can call her Shiva instead of Professor."

Hermione sat in silence for a minute. She crossed her arms and studying Harry thinking over the last few minutes and slotting it into her growing picture of her friend. "You can trust her if she's your friend rather than an adult?" Hermione finally asked softly. Harry just nodded. She sighed and hugged him again. "Okay. I won't bring it up again. I do expect you to tell me about where this is coming from in the future though, Harry. And try to make sure to at least refer to her as Babbling when others can hear."

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said giving her a very small smile. "I promise."

Hermione released him from her hug and opened her own book, settling in to read next to him.

"Well I sure hope that doesn't happen every time I play a game!" Harry snorted after the Quidditch match had ended. His broom had been jerking around on its own so bad that he'd nearly been bucked off!

"Harry," Hermione whispered from beside him. The Common Room was still celebrating their win so he had to strain to hear her. "We think you were being cursed." Neville nodded from his other side.

"What?" Harry stared back and forth between the two of them.

"Neville saw Professor Snape muttering something and staring at you during the match when your broom started to go crazy."

"You have to maintain eye contact for some persistent jinxes and curses," Neville said, wringing his hands. "And not many things affect brooms beyond those types. Brooms have to be pretty resistant to that kind of stuff otherwise the professional games would be a joke."

"So it's not enough the bastard hates me, he's actively trying to kill me now too? Just perfect," Harry glared at the fireplace. He needed his rune notebook. "So why did he stop then? He almost had me, I was starting to lose my grip by the time I finally got control back."

"Well..." Hermione said blushing while Neville's face went beat red. "I um...may have set fire to his robes."

Harry's mouth dropped open and all thoughts of runes went out of his head. "You...you...you what?"

"I set fire to his robes," she muttered. "Neville said we had to break his eye contact so we ran over. Neville knocked over Professor Quirrell – who was sitting next to Professor Snape – to try and distract him but I was already casting the Incendio charm."

Harry goggled at her then at Neville. "You guys – you guys are amazing!" Hermione snapped her head up and stared at him and Neville went started shuffling a bit. "Neville, you knocked over a teacher to help me! And, Hermione! You set another's robes on fire! You guys are the best friends someone could ask for!" Harry laughed out loud and pulled them both into a quick hug.

"Well, um, you're welcome?" Hermione whimpered. She really didn't feel like she should be praised for attacking a teacher. It was so wrong!

"No problem, Harry," Neville said with a deep breath. "We look out for each other, right?"

"Yeah. We do," Harry beamed at his two friends. "So do you think this was in retaliation for hearing about Nicolas Flamel and the three headed dog from Hagrid the other night?"

"How would Professor Snape even know that Hagrid mentioned that? I mean – completely discounting the fact that we don't even know who that Flamel man is – and that I would think the dragon egg Hagrid is hiding would be a far more important detail from overhearing that conversation – I can't see why Professor Snape would try to kill you over hearing about a name."

"Remember to breath, Hermione," Harry said with a laugh. "And this is Hagrid we're talking about. I love the man, but we all know he can't keep secrets for more than five minutes."

"Yeah, Hermione, I'm with Harry on this one," Neville said. "Hagrid's nice but he's not a – how did Gran put it – not a 'player of the game'. And what are we going to do about that dragon anyway? It's going to hatch soon and then it's going to grow up and then it's either going to eat him or eat one of us!"

"I don't suppose we can convince him to get rid of it, can we?" Hermione commented flopping back into her seat. "That man seriously needs someone to explain what the word dangerous mean. Honestly, three headed dogs, pet dragons, what's next? Giant man eating spiders?"

"I actually could see the dog being cute," Harry said. The others turned to stare at him. "What? If the thing wasn't snarling and trying to eat me but was just slobbering on me and wagging its tail it could be cute."

"It could squash you under its paw like a bug." Neville said with his face completely blank.

"It could tear you literally into thirds." Hermione added.

"Well I was just saying," Harry grumbled. "Fang's cute."

"Fang is not the size of a small house," Hermione commented dryly.

"Moving on!" Harry said holding his hands up in surrender. "Didn't the twins say their one of their brothers worked with dragons? Could we ask them to contact him maybe?"

"They'd probably ask why," Hermione said.

"Well, we might as well tell them," Neville shrugged. "They'd probably be able to get the dragon out easier than we could anyway."

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