When they got into the classroom, Ron marched directly over to a single seat between Terry Boot and the wall. Harry sighed and moved to a free pair of seats. He glanced back at Hermione to see if she would follow and found her regarding him uncertainly. He smiled at her and indicated the desks with a jerk of his head. She came and sat with him.

Ron strode past them on his way to lunch and told Harry to piss off when he tried to sit near Ron's place. Ron spent the meal next to Andrew and Jack, but mostly glowered at his food in silence. After forcing down a modest amount of food, Harry got up.

"I need to talk to Ron, now," he said to Hermione.

"He's not going to listen now," Hermione said. "You need to give him a day or two."

"Hermione, we have wyverns this afternoon. I need to talk to him now!"

Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh no! I'd forgotten. Harry, that's really bad! Do you think Madam Pomfrey will give you Calming Draughts? Him, at least?"

"I'll take care of it."

Harry stood up and walked down the table to Ron's seat. Ron ignored him.

"Ron."

"Didn't I tell you to piss off?"

"We need to talk."

"I don't see that we have anything to talk about," Ron said icily. He started to turn his back to Harry, but Harry grabbed his shoulder.

"We need to talk about surviving wyverns. This is no way to meet a wyvern."

"If you want to apologize, go ahead."

"No. Let's go outside where we can discuss this in private."

For a moment, Ron looked like he might refuse, then an apprehensive look crossed his face. Without a nod or word to Harry, he stood and walked out of the hall. Harry followed.

They went through the Entrance Hall, and into the bright sunlight of a breezy autumn afternoon. Harry stopped when they reached the grass, and Ron turned to face him.

"So," Ron said sharply, "you want to be friends with Malfoy."

"I want a truce with Malfoy. He doesn't seem like friend material."

"But you're on a first name basis now."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I expect he just did that to goad you. Malfoy's always known how to put your back up."

"But I can't do it to him."

"Not start it, no. I don't like a friend of mine being a bully."

Ron stood very still for a moment, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides, and his face growing red. "This is not," he spat finally, "calming me down!"

"Sorry." Harry pulled out the necklace Hermione had brought him. It was a red globe (she'd told him it had taken her a while to find one that wasn't heart-shaped) on a black string. He grinned as he unscrewed the top and lifted it with the attached double-circle bubble-wand dripping pink liquid.

"Try this."

"Harry...!" Ron's annoyed complaint was cut off by a spontaneous giggle as the cloud of bubbles broke on his face and the hand he lifted to brush them away. He stood in bewildered delight for a moment, then stuck his tongue out at Harry. "You're awful. You do know that, don't you?"

"Uh-huh. Are you calm enough to talk about how to survive the wyvern, now?"

Ron grinned. "More?" he suggested.

"It has a very short duration. I don't know how Hagrid would take me blowing bubbles at you every fifteen minutes, and I don't want to know what our classmates would think. You also might do something stupid when everything looked pretty."

Ron tumbled down to the grass and lay on his back looking up at the sky. "Like this?" he asked cheerfully. "Here, little wyvern!"

Harry sat down next to him. "Like that. Sit up a moment."

"Hrmph. Okay."

Ron sat up. Harry took a vial from his pocket. "Drink this."

"What is it?"

"The same thing I blew at you. But if you swallow it, it's a lot more like a standard Calming Draught and lasts for two hours or more, which should get us through Care of Magical Creatures alive." Harry shrugged. "Not as much fun, but probably safer, and I'll still have the bubbles for emergencies."

Ron took the vial and frowned at it. "But can I trust you?" he asked coyly.

"Of course you can. Drink up." Harry watched Ron drink what was in the vial and nodded.

Ron handed the vial back to him and lay down again. "You should look at the clouds," he suggested. "They have all this amazing light around the edges."

"Hm." Harry glanced up at the clouds, which were rather pretty, fluffy white ones, against a vivid blue sky, then looked back down at Ron. "You realize this doesn't change anything. Really, you're still mad at me --"

"I know." Ron smiled beatifically at him. "Arrogant sod."

"-- and we still need to fight it out so we can make up."

"Wednesday evening good?"

"No. I've got a meeting."

"Imagine that. With the greasy Death Eater snake?"

Ron's almost dreamy tone kept the insult from bothering Harry as much as it might have. "Shush," he chided.

"You reckon you should take some, too?"

Harry shook his head. "I know Occlumency." He smiled sourly at the redhead. "I could hide everything I feel so deep you'd never catch a glimpse of it."

"No offense, Harry, but that sounds bad."

Harry shrugged. "It's better than being possessed by the Dark Lord, isn't it?"

Ron frowned for a moment, then the expression passed.

"S'pose so."

"I know what you mean, though. Snape is too good at it. I think that's why he's so horrible when he can lose control. He wants to."

"I think he's just a sadistic bastard."

Harry considered. "At times. Let's go, okay?"

They were the first members of the Care of Magical Creatures class to arrive. Hagrid greeted them enthusiastically. To Harry's relief, he seemed too intent on his wyverns to notice Ron's dreamy air. A huge wrought iron aviary had sprung up next to the paddock, appearing overnight, like an ornate filigree mushroom. In it were three wyverns, one green, one blue, and one blue with a purple sheen fading down from its head.

If Harry had seen the wyverns in an illustration, he might have thought they were the artist's conception of dragons, based on an inadequate description -- perhaps one neglecting to say "lizard". The scaled bodies had two legs, beaklike snouts, and the stance of fighting cocks. If a dragon looks like a lizard with bits added, Harry thought, these look like snakes with bits added. He studied them a moment longer. I wonder if they would understand parseltongue?

"Greetings," he hissed experimentally.

Hagrid jerked back from the enclosure. Ron looked oddly at Harry. The wyverns raised their heads and twisted their necks, looking around for the source of the sound.

"Here," Harry said, walking a bit around the aviary, so he was farther from Ron. "I am the one who speaks. Do you understand?"

The heads nodded and wove, but the wyvern's voices came out in harsh, birdlike bursts of sound. Harry could not distinguish any words.

The wyverns's heads dipped and rose and dipped again. The purple-headed one approached him, while the blue and green twisted their tails together in a slow, ceaseless spiraling motion.

"Yesssss," said a lazy voice near his feet. "I think that, also."

"Uh, Harry?" Ron said distantly. "You've got an adder next to you."

Harry had already spotted the adder. It was an attractive tan one, with impressive darker points on its brown zigzag pattern. It had risen half up, almost as if it was going to strike, but he could tell it was not hostile.

"S'okay," he called back to Ron. "Hello," he said to the adder.

"Hello." The snake sounded amused. She -- Harry decided it was a female -- settled slightly as Harry squatted down so they could eye each other more easily. "How can you speak, when even those creatures cannot?"

Harry shrugged. "I just can. Occasionally, a wizard can. Other wizards think it's bad."

The adder hissed and twisted angrily about herself. "And break our nests and kill our babies!"

"Yeah, probably those ones," Harry agreed. "I wouldn't." He decided not to say that he had killed the very big snake in the castle. He wasn't sure how that would go over.

"Harry!" Hagrid said urgently.

"It's okay. She's not upset at me."

"We got other kids comin', now, Harry. Yeh should stop."

"Oh." Harry frowned at the snake. "I can't talk to you any more, now. Other people are coming. Later?"

The adder hissed. "It would not help against one your size."

"It kills one of us occasionally, though not fast. They need to look at the wyverns, and they need to feel safe, for that." ("Wyverns," Harry noticed, came out more like "snake-birds".) Harry nodded at the adder. "Be safe."

"Thank you, speaking man. Good hunting." The adder dropped down and slithered off into some bushes. Harry saw Hagrid's eyes following it, and reminded himself to tell Hagrid, later, that the adder and its home were not to be harmed.

The rest of the class arrived in a clump. The Slytherins looked rather sedated. There were two Slytherins in this class, Blaise Zabini and Radiana Nott, a girl Harry had seen before, but never before caught the name of. Harry wondered how she was related to the Death Eater Nott. He thought about Sirius's family, and decided not to make assumptions about her.

For today, they were merely observing the wyverns. The class, after all of Harry's worry, passed without the need for his intervention. He found himself recalling what he had said to Hermione about how they didn't need her to keep them out of trouble. Hagrid did have a couple backup vials of Calming Draught, which he used when Parvati and Susan Bones began to fight. During the note-taking section, Harry managed to get Hagrid's assurances that he wouldn't hurt the adders. When class was over, Harry walked back to the castle alongside Ron, which made him feel curiously wistful.

"Have that fight soon?" he suggested.

Ron shrugged. The potion, Harry guessed, had largely worn off.

"Well, see you around," Harry said awkwardly. He increased his pace, overtaking the other students, and headed up to Gryffindor to get his books. He decided he would be studying in the library, for a few hours. He groaned at the thought of Ron's shrug, and wondered if a few days would be better.

That evening, Harry slipped into Snape's office. Snape looked at him questioningly as he closed the door.

"I thought it was two days until our next meeting."

Harry cast a silencing spell on the door, then turned back to his father. "It was. And I shouldn't stay long, tonight. I just wanted to tell you about my day before someone else did."

Snape leaned his head against one hand, a single finger extended to his temple. "Just what I wanted to hear," he said sarcastically.

"Ron and I had a fight this morning," Harry said quickly, "outside Defense, and Professor Lupin showed up just when we'd pulled wands on each other."

Snape looked at him incredulously. "You were intending to hex Weasley?"

"No, I just ... It's a reflex. Someone tries to hit me; I get my wand out. It just happened."

"A useful reflex. I may even approve. Why did he try to hit you?"

"For defending Malfoy."

"For what?" Snape shrieked. Harry was glad he'd put up the silencing spell.

"Ron was just after him for no reason. And I'm trying to get a truce with him."

Snape stared for a moment, then waved off the matter as inconsequential. "Perhaps we should save the tangled workings of your Gryffindor mind for a longer evening. So Lupin will come and tell me you were fighting in the halls. Anything else?"

"Well, we were going to the wyvern class angry at each other. So I gave Ron some of the pink bubble stuff."

"That? Are you insane? What did he do?"

"Oh, not as bubbles. To drink. Well, once as bubbles to get him to drink it. He was obviously a little sedated, but about a third of the class was, so you might never have heard about that. I just thought you should know."

Snape studied him for a long time.

"Very well," he said finally. "Thank you for telling me. Now, you should probably go."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Hermione and Ron are getting a bit suspicious." He hesitated. "Er... good night."

"Good night, Harry," Snape returned. He sounded almost affectionate, Harry thought. "We can talk more on Wednesday." He waved a hand at Harry in a shooing motion. "Now go back to Gryffindor tower and challenge people to duels, or whatever your sort does."

"My sort?" Harry asked in mock indignation.

"Senseless Gryffindor brats."

"Oh, that sort." Harry removed the spell on the door and opened it, but turned in the doorway. "We do homework, mostly," he said.

"Out, Potter!" Snape bellowed suddenly. "I am not interested in why you cannot understand hex absorption in asafoetida! We have a room called a library. Perhaps Miss Granger can show you how to find it."

"Oh yeah, she's mentioned that library thing," Harry returned. Snape grinned at him as he tossed an ink bottle in the air and caught it, and Harry ducked out of the doorway in time to avoid being hit by the hurled bottle. It broke on the stones, spattering red ink in a loose V that spanned the corridor. Harry sniggered and jogged cheerily back to the stairs.

Hermione crossed the common room and stood near Ron, who was studying with unusual concentration.

"Ron?" she asked timidly. At a grunt from Ron, she asked "Do you know where Harry is?"

"I don't know, and I don't care."

"Well, I care. Please?"

Ron looked up. "Look," he said, "what do you expect me to do? Harry disappears. Often. As far as I know, he's off courting Malfoy."

Hermione coughed. "That hardly seems likely."

"Giving people potions he doesn't know anything about, then. Chatting up poisonous snakes. Whatever it is Harry does."

"Ron?"

"What?"

"Care to explain any of that?"

Ron sighed. He rested his chin on his hands and looked morosely at the table next to his parchment.

"Well, he took me outside before the wyvern class, and he gave me a potion."

"Go on."

"He said it was like a mild Calming Draught. It was -- just a bit more pleasant. But while we were observing, when it was just starting to wear off, I asked him if it was safe, and he shrugged and said 'hasn't done me any harm.' So I pressed him on it, and he doesn't know exactly what this stuff is -- he just lifted it, one day, when he was working for Snape."

Hermione thought about this for a while. She looked increasingly displeased.

"If I report him," she asked cautiously, "will you be mad at me?"

"Yes. And I'll deny everything I just told you."

Hermione sighed. "Well, then. And the snakes?"

Ron shrugged. "He was talking to an adder, before class. No big deal, I suppose, just kind of creepy." Ron slouched down in the chair, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Damn, I wish we had the Marauders' Map, still."

Hermione nodded. "I'd like to know where he is, too."

"And who he's with," Ron added. "I mean, not... You know."

"Yeah." Hermione sat down next to him. She frowned thoughtfully off into the air. "You know ... Lupin's back."

"I doubt he'd make us a new one. If he did, he'd give it to Harry, not us."

Hermione shook her head. "He wouldn't make one." She smiled. "But I bet he'd tell us how they did it!" She jumped up. "Come on. Let's go see Mooney!"

Ron started to get to his feet, then shook his head. "Behind you!" he whispered.

Hermione turned. Harry was coming across the room, headed straight for them. He was holding a small basket.

"Hi!" he said, when he reached them. Ron bent over his homework. "I brought creampuffs," Harry said coaxingly. "And butterbeer."

"Ooo!" Hermione squealed. She took a creampuff.

"Here, Hermione, pass Ron one, will you?" Harry said. "He might take it that way."

Ron glared briefly at Harry, then returned to his work, but his concentration wavered noticeably when Hermione put a creampuff on a napkin and placed it next to his parchment.

Harry sighed and sat down. "Do all best friends take this much work?" he asked. "Or is it just us?"

Ron let out a bark of laughter and looked up. "Just us," he said. "We're impossible, all three of us."

"Huh. Good thing we're not torturing anyone normal then," Harry observed.

"We still need to have that fight," Ron warned. "I'm only delaying it so I can eat this creampuff and write my Transfiguration essay."

"Morphological facility," Harry said.

"Huh?"

"Use the phrase 'morphological facility' somewhere in your essay. I'm trying to get everyone in the class to do it. It will drive her crazy, trying to figure out where we all read that."

Hermione giggled.