Chapter 105: 31st October 1991, Thursday: Part 7

Whilst they were silently walking to their flying lesson, George thought this would be the ideal time to naturally segway on to the topic he was gagging to know about.

He leaned over and asked, "since I mentioned her, how is Hermione getting on? I see her in potion class and sometimes in the Library but we never talk. Now that I think about it, we haven't spoken for nearly two months."

Any joy that Neville had gained from having his confidence lifted was seemingly smashed after hearing George's question. His relaxed smile was replaced with a frown as his face turned sickly pale.

"She's doing well, she always knows the answer to every question, just like in potion class, but I guess you already know that", Neville said whilst awkwardly scratching the back of his head and avoiding George's line of sight.

"I meant outside of class, it's pretty much common knowledge that Hermione is good at everything. I know she can be a little... stuck up sometimes, but you do still talk to her, right?", George insisted.

This added pressure from George made Neville look like he wanted to crawl away into a hole and never come out. It was clear that his guilty conscience was weighing extremely heavy on him. Even then, Neville was still reluctant to talk to George about Hermione, perhaps he was worried about angering George if he found out the truth.

Neville eventually formulated a sentence, "since I made friends with Harry, Ron, Dean and Seamus, I don't talk to her anymore."

George's patience was starting to wear thin as he was bated with a confirmation only to have Neville take it away, he just wanted to know what happened to Hermione. Although George understood why Neville didn't want to talk about her, he didn't have the time to start another pep talk to boost Neville's confidence. They had nearly arrived at the flying lesson and he didn't want to continue this conversation with the other students around. Therefore, George stopped walking which consequently made Neville stop as well.

He looked at Neville seriously, "I'm not blind Neville, I can tell that you're feeling bad about something and it's definitely got something to do with Hermione. Even though I don't see her often, I've heard people talking about her and none of it sounds good, that includes Ron as well. I've also noticed that she never seems to be hanging around with any friends and today she wasn't even at the Gryffindor table for lunch. I thought that, because we were friends, you would tell me what is going on with her. If you've done something to upset her or to annoy her then…"

"I wouldn't, never. It's just Ron, he says stupid things sometimes. He didn't mean to upset her, none of us did", Neville finally relented under the pressure.

George quirked an eyebrow, "and what exactly did Ron say to Hermione?"

From that point onwards, Neville was completely open about what had happened during and after the Charms class and George couldn't be happier to hear it. Although he did not show it, George was very satisfied to know that everything had occurred exactly as he recalled. Hermione had annoyed Ron and embarrassed him in class, after class he said mean things about her that she overheard. George did not doubt that Hermione was currently in the girl's bathroom sobbing to herself, exactly where he wanted her to be.

George didn't seem to be the only one who was happy after hearing this news, Neville appeared quite relieved after finishing his story. It must have felt quite liberating to be released from the burden of guilt after admitting to his actions, a bit like a Christian going to confess to their priest. In reality, Neville had no reason to feel ashamed because he hadn't done anything wrong except becoming an accessory to some light bullying. That was the sort of villainous thing Draco would exceed before breakfast and he wouldn't be batting an eye, he probably couldn't sleep at night if he hadn't tormented an innocent child that day.

George gave Neville a light push and reassured him, "stop beating yourself up, you did the right thing in the end and that's all that matters. Next time, remember what I told you a few weeks ago on the Quidditch pitch. You are your own person. You decide what is right and wrong, not your friends. If Ron does something you don't like in the future, tell him. Make it clear that you're not happy about it. Who knows, standing up to him might just make Ron realise how wrong he was. I would expect you to do the same for me if I ever stepped out of line, that's what friends are for."

You are reading story Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon at novel35.com

A weak smile returned to Neville's face, but it didn't appear to be genuine. The idea of standing up to George if he did something bad probably never crossed Neville's mind. Luckily for him, George never planned on contradicting any of the ethics he was implanting into Neville's brain.

Neville asked timidly, "do you think Hermione is going to be ok, after what Ron said to her?"

George shrugged his shoulders before saying, "by the way you described it, I imagine she's quite upset. I guess we'll have an idea of what state she's in when we see her in the flying lesson. But don't worry about it, I'll talk with her so you don't have to. We'll give it a few days for the strong emotions to die down and I'll arrange for Ron to apologise to her, whether he likes it or not. Then everything will be back to normal, Okay?"

Neville thought about George's plan before nodding weakly, "okay."

"Alrighty then, we seriously better get a move on or we will be late for class…", George then checked his watch and grimaced before continuing, "actually, we better hope that Professor Hooch is late again because the lesson should have already begun."

It didn't take long before both George and Neville started sprinting toward their lesson. In an incredible bout of luck, they managed to arrive at class five minutes late without getting caught. Hooch arrived ten minutes after them complaining that there had been some hiccups with the Halloween feast operations which were apparently caused by Quirrell's absence. It seemed that Quirrell had been a little distracted and had forgotten to relay the Hogwarts staff's orders to the house elves. George had a pretty good idea of what may have been weighing on Quirrell's mind, he was clearly planning on making the Halloween feast one to remember. Of course, it was in George's best interest to allow all this to happen.

The flying lesson went on like normal except with one distinct difference, Hermione was absent. That was something only George and Neville seemed to have noticed as the others were far too distracted flying through the hoops Hooch had levitated into the air. Harry was still competing with Draco, and Ron and his friends were keeping Crabbe and Goyle occupied. The cousins looked equally as miserable as Theodore as they did the bare minimum in class, they weren't lying when they said they hated flying. Neville looked uncomfortable flying his broom, most likely due to his guilt flaring up once again. George wasn't going to reassure him this time because he needed to learn that you reap what you sow. Knowing that he could have prevented Hermione's sadness will serve as a good reminder for similar future events.

George wasn't having a great time on his broom either, it was something that he simply couldn't get accustomed to no matter how hard he concentrated. He wasn't a bad flyer, far from it, George was probably in the top five in the class excluding Harry and Draco who had a bit of an advantage. His problem lay with a compatibility issue, his body wasn't agreeing with the broom. Although this was merely an unfounded theory, George believed that his body was aware he was flying but not under his own steam. His newfound instincts were telling him that he should only be flying with his wings and not with a wooden stick between his legs. He hadn't flown in his dragon form and had no plans of starting, a massive dragon flying over Hogwarts was the opposite of covert after all.

Regardless of what was causing George's discomfort, he was just happy that the flying lessons were only mandated for the first year at Hogwarts. The class ended early because the wind was starting to pick up and George now had the entire afternoon to himself before the Halloween feast. He already had everything he needed for tonight, but it wouldn't hurt for him to check that everything was in order. Therefore, George made his way up to the second-floor girl's bathroom. This was of course not the same one that Hermione was currently crying in, but instead the one home to his number one ghost. That would have been quite a privileged position if it hadn't been for the lacking competition, Peeves and the rest could get exorcised for all George cared.

George entered the bathroom after making sure there was no one inside and he was surprised to find the cubicles quiet for once. Myrtle was normally one of the very few ghosts that didn't travel around the castle; she spent almost the entirety of her afterlife residing in a toilet's u-bend. George called out her name a few times but received no reply, this was a first. The show must go on even without his moaning audience, so he started pulling out all the notes relevant to this evening. He also got out the boombox knowing that, when Myrtle eventually decided to turn up, she would want some music playing.

Since she wasn't here, George flicked through the pile of cassettes and picked one he had been eyeing up for a while. Myrtle was set in her ways and didn't like anything a bit too wild, this limited a lot of George's choices. He pulled out the brand new Nirvana cassette which came out at the end of September, just over a month ago, it had arrived by Owl with his letters from home. The cassette was a gift from Amanda to show the family were still thinking about him. Amanda knew what George liked and she wasn't wrong in her pick, it was just a shame that he had to wait until now to listen to it.

George put in the cassette and pressed play, then he started to hear 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' belting out of the speakers. This was the sort of music he needed to quell the demons in his head. It was a shame he didn't have a Sony Walkman or he would be walking around with headphones on all the time. After the first song of the cassette ended, George reached down into the deepest corner of his leather sack and felt around until he found a metal safe. By far the largest and heaviest thing in his sack was a massive safe Dominic had given him. Since weight wasn't an issue, it must have weighed over a quarter of a ton and could fit a small child inside. It was perhaps the only thing George couldn't pull out of this sack on his own; they had used a small crane in Dominic's garage to drop it in the sack back in August.

George put in the code, which was Ellie's date of birth, and opened the large metal door. His hand was immediately greeted with a gust of hot pressurised air escaping the safe, it was like opening the door of an oven when the temperature was maxed out. The safe originally had a lot of money inside from various countries as well as his identification papers, but all that had been taken out and put to one side at the start of October. Now there was only one thing inside the safe and it was eagerly calling out for him to retrieve it.

You can find story with these keywords: Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon, Read Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon novel, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon book, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon story, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon full, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon Latest Chapter