Dumbledore just smiled brightly though and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "No apologies, Harry! That's good news!" He assured the raven-haired teen happily.
"Now, everyone off to bed! We need to get this meeting started and you all need to finish up any homework you've put off until the last-minute tomorrow!" Molly Weasley instructed as all the younger inhabitants of the house were shooed out of the kitchen.
Hermione grabbed onto Harry and Ron as she followed them both into their room. "Ok, spill Harry. What's really going on?" She asked him in a hiss as Ron plopped onto his bed.
"Yeah, mate. You've been acting a little off lately," Ron added in, sounding much less concerned than Hermione.
Harry shrugged and pulled his knees to his chest on the bed. "I'm fine really."
"I don't believe you for a second," Hermione crossed her arms and stared him down. "There's something going on. Even the adults are noticing. Hell, even Sirius noticed, and he calls you James half the time."
Harry frowned and picked at a string on the comforter. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around it…could you both just trust me for now?" He asked hopefully. He knew Hermione and Ron would be the ones to find him out. He just wasn't able to tell them, not yet. Who would want a dementor hanging around them anyway? "I promise I'm ok, or as ok as I'm going to be anyway," he added on.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron's face clouded in concern. He hadn't thought anything was actually wrong like Hermione had. He just thought there might be something bothering his friend.
Harry shrugged noncommittally. "Just that if Hermione's right and there is something going on with me, that doesn't mean I'm ready to talk about it. Especially if there isn't anything you can do anyway."
"But maybe there is something we can do," Hermione sat beside him on the bed and almost pleaded.
"Not this time 'Mione," Harry smiled at her sadly. "Really, I'm fine…I'll tell you sometime, but let me process it all first, ok?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes and studied her friend in front of her. "I'm not going to let you bottle this up like you always do…I'll give you some space for now, but I'm not letting this go completely. I care too much about you to do that."
"Of course not, Hermione," Harry laughed. "Then you wouldn't be you."
"You got that right," Ron laughed as well while Hermione rolled her eyes at them before joining them in laughter.
"Hey, maybe you could both give me a heads up when I'm acting strangely? That would actually help a lot," Harry asked sheepishly as they stopped laughing. "Sometimes I do things without even knowing I'm doing it until everyone is looking at me weird. Maybe you could poke me or something?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other in concern but nodded. "How about we come up with a word like 'pineapple' or something that we say when you're doing something off?" Ron suggested.
"Why pineapple?" Hermione asked with a smirk and raise of her eyebrow.
"I don't know…why not?" Ron shrugged. "It was the first thing that came to mind."
"Er, maybe something a little easier to work into conversation," Harry thought for a minute. "Hey, how about you ask about my friend Jamie? It would change the subject of the conversation to distract from whatever it is I'm doing, would sound fairly natural, and we don't already have a friend named Jamie."
"Do you actually have a friend named Jamie?" Hermione thought about it with a frown.
Harry nodded. "Sort of, more of an acquaintance. You think it'd work?"
"Yeah, I think it would," Hermione nodded in approval. "I'm concerned about whatever is making you act different, but you still seem to be Harry just a little odder…so I'll go with it for now."
"Yeah, mate, you promise you aren't really a Death Eater polyjuicing as Harry?" Ron questioned suspiciously.
"You tried to turn Scabbers, who was really Wormtail, yellow on our first train ride to Hogwarts, your dad's car saved us when we went to see the acromantulas in our second year, third year you had a crush on Pansy Parkinson and didn't tell anyone except Neville and me, fourth year…"
"Yeah, ok, I got it!" Ron cut him off as he blushed bright red. "No need to go on, you're Harry."
"Pansy, really?" Hermione laughed heartily. "I can't believe you liked Pansy!"
"It was a moment of weakness," Ron grumbled and threw a pillow at Harry.
"Hey!" Harry threw the pillow back at him before an all-out pillow fight broke out.
....
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