“Not that I’m complaining, but why?” This was getting more and more surreal.
Not only was she walking through an M C Escher painting, but the boy had offered her his arm like some sort of gentleman.
“Because I’m a nice guy?” Blaise gave her a half grin.
“No, seriously.
You’re new to the house and as one of Hari’s friends, I feel a certain obligation to help someone who has been forcibly dragged into his sphere of insanity.”
“I think you mean ‘influence’.”
“No, I don’t.” Blaise patted her hand where it rested on his arm.
“You’re going to have to get used to the fact that the boy who is sort of in charge of Slytherin instead of Daphne—if he bothered .
.
.
or even knew—has a certain .
.
.
warping aspect.
Things don’t work quite right around him.
And he’s decided to infect you.
The least I can do is help you find your way around.”
“Uh .
.
.” she watched as they emerged from a doorway she’d never seen in the entrance hall.
They had been walking upwards the entire time.
“Thanks?”
“Besides,” he added.
“My mother would kill me if I were anything less than a gentleman to a young lady.” His smile was as close to roguish as an eleven-year-old could manage, white teeth flashing in the dark tan of his face.
He gave a half-bow and opened the door for her.
Hermione found herself blushing slightly for no reason as he ushered her to a seat in the clique.
“Good morning, student,” offered Hari.
He hadn’t looked up from his bowl.
“I trust you are ready to tackle the day without using a penis?”
“What?” snapped Pansy.
“Do you really want to know?” hissed Daphne.
“Probably not.”
“Thought so.”
Blaise gave Hermione a look of confusion at her mix of flush and green. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
“Will I regret asking?”
“Yes.” Hermione covered her face with her hands.
“I regret knowing.
And I can’t forget it.”
“Alright then.” He began to fill a plate.
“What are our classes?” Hermione asked.
“Today, I mean.
I know there’s Defense this afternoon, because it’s with Gryffindor.
But what else is there?”
“Double Transfiguration before lunch,” grumbled Tracy.
“Twice the time for me to hear from McGonagall that I should be able to get the mouse into teacup already.”
Hermione’s mouth had barely opened when Hari’s chopsticks smacked her in the forehead.
She had a momentary flash of disgust before realizing it wasn’t her wand.
“What?”
“If you want to help someone, less lecturing and more helping,” he advised.
“Try asking to see what she does and offering advice based on that.”
“You mean like you do?” she growled.
“No.” He placed his bowl on the table and watched it vanish.
“For one thing, you won’t be hitting her with a penis.” She twitched.
“But also, you’re teaching something she has a grounding in.” He paused.
“Though maybe you shouldn’t?
It’ll just be more things I’ll have to have her unlearn when I teach the rest of them.”
“Do.
Not.
Ask.” Hermione glared around at the rest of the people who in one day somehow moved in and taken the position of ‘people I talk to’ which was closer to friends her own age than she’d ever had.
But she wasn’t going to answer questions about that statement he’d made.
“Didn’t plan on it,” muttered Tracy.
“I don’t think we want to know.”
“Good.
So, after Defense?”
“Hm?
“Right.
We’ve got free period and then dinner and Astronomy at midnight.”
“One day, I’m going to level that tower just so we don’t need to take the class again,” Hari commented.
“Blow that fucker to pieces.”
Hermione looked aghast.
“Destroy part of the school?”
“Of course!” Hari looked surprised.
“Why not?
Anyway,” he suddenly grew more serious, “we need to break you of thinking that things like that are important.
If I didn’t worry about your virtue, I would send you to spend time with Uncle Hidan and Uncle Kakuzu.”
“You get used to those comments,” interjected Blaise.
“Hari is normally pretty polite.
And then sometimes he’ll curse a streak so blue a sailor’d blush.”
Hari grinned.
“And my dad said I shouldn’t spend time with Uncle Kakuzu.”
“I’m sure he was right,” replied Daphne, her voice dry.
“Eh.
I’ll see you in class.”
X
X
Things continued much like that for the rest of the week.
Her nights were a mixture of being beaten about the head with a piece of wood she kept remembering as being genitalia and just not sleeping well.
Her days were classes and school work, both of which were much harder without her wand.
She had yet to manage a single spell.
Thursday night—technically it was Friday morning, but she hadn’t slept and was coming to the decision that until she slept, it wasn’t the next day yet—she managed to levitate the pebble out of sheer anger.
It got easier; each time she managed, Hari swatted it out of the air and told her to do it again without being mad.
She didn’t manage that, but she did hit him in the face with the rock once.
He didn’t seem to realize, which only upset her more.
His name was another thing she had to get used to.
For some reason, his group of friends called him “Hari”.
It took her a few days before she found herself doing the same, though she had no idea why.