Harry walked down the hall, being careful to avoid certain people. He strode ahead, thinking of everything that occurred. Harry pushed his hands deep inside the pockets of his robes. A hand grabbed his elbow.

“Hey, Harry!” Ron looked at Harry, concern evident in his eyes. “You seemed to be lost in thought; did you not notice me calling?”

“Sorry, Ron,” Harry said, in a subdued voice. “I was thinking about something.”

“Well, it must have been interesting. You were just powering along. I had to run to catch up with you.” Ron’s posture changed from concern to worry. “What did grease ball want?”

Harry snorted at the name. “Snape noticed I had left something in the classroom and gave it back to me.” No matter how small, lies never tasted good on his tongue and it made the air around him feel dirty. Nevertheless, Harry couldn’t tell Ron of the conversation. Ron visibly relaxed. He heaved his chest, probably for a sigh.

“Alright. Well, come on. Hermione wants us to study for the charms quiz tomorrow. She’s already threatened me twice.” Ron ran up to Gryffindor, dragging Harry with him.

~ * ~ * ~

Harry scratched his quill along the dry, crispy parchment. The faded yellow paper looked as if it would hold great thoughts of an ancient philosopher. It was instead the only parchment he could find for taking notes on. He carefully plotted out how to pronounce the charms next to the names. Written phonics had always been important to him, but now it was essential.

Cognitira (Reversing Confusion Charm): special emphasis ni of the word, lengthen Co, but do not make it the syllable of the word. “O” is like “pot,” “i” is like “ee,” and “a” is like “pot.”

On and on, the notes scrolled down the page. Hermione thought he was finally paying attention to detail in his work and had started also putting small pronunciation guides on her papers as well. Ron couldn’t have cared less.

A small shift in the upper, left corner of his vision caused Harry to look up. Hermione dropped her quill and leaned back in her chair. She popped her joints and looked at Harry (Ron was asleep on his textbook). “Done?” she asked.

Harry stretched a little and sighed. “Three more,” he answered. She nodded and looked over onto his notes. She bent over the page, looking for any errors, accidentally pushing some of her bushy hair into Harry’s face. She moved her mouth, but in profile, Harry couldn’t catch what she was saying.

“What did you say? I was thinking about something else for a moment.” Harry hoped she would accept the excuse.

“I was just commenting on how well you diagram phonetically. I usually just say ‘stress “o”’ or something of the same extant, but you—” She bent over the paper again, which made it impossible to understand what she was saying. Luckily, Ron saved him from responding.

Ron contorted his face, shifting his jaw side to side, in what had to be a painful manner. Harry leaned back in his chair so he could fully see what they were both saying at the same time.

“Ron. Why must you sleep during all our study sessions?”

“I just fall asleep easily. Now that Harry’s respectable, I can’t talk to anyone anymore.”

“So, it’s my fault now?” asked Harry, mock offended.

Ron smirked at him. “Why, of course.”

Hermione shifted, her body language betraying that she thought they both were idiots. Harry smiled and said, “I’ll finish up tomorrow before class. Are you guys going to the commons?” They nodded and led the way to Gryffindor.

~ * ~ * ~

Harry tried to make it sound like he was asleep, just incase Ron wanted to talk. When it was dark, he had absolutely no chance of recognizing the words. Harry shifted, the cottony sheets rubbing against his skin. He only wore pajama pants due to the unusual heat in the dorm. A small breeze blew across his exposed skin. The stale smell of warm bodies was seeping through the room. He had no idea whether or not anyone else was asleep, but he did not care. All his thoughts were on the day’s events.

After the near breakdown he had (how shameful was that? He hadn’t cried in years!), Snape had written down a couple more questions for him.

“How do you listen to people far away from you?”

That problem took a while to solve, Harry thought. “I have a magnifying charm on my glasses. They automatically focus to however far I need them.” Snape nodded appreciatively.

“What about safety issues? Like Malfoy and Voldemort?”

“I have tried to avoid all…uncomfortable situations and I also try to keep Hermione or someone next to me. If that can’t be done, I completely avoid the person It doesn’t always work, but it limits confrontation. I also don’t anger as quickly because I can’t hear insults.”

“What about Voldemort?”

“Well,” sighed Harry, “he appears whenever he wants, anyway. What could I do about it when I could hear?”

“Touché.”

After a promise to talk to Snape again the next day, Harry was dismissed, with the promise of course that he would be watched.