The following weeks were a challenge for Matt and the others. With each class proving to be more difficult than any they had taken before, lessons being much more advanced, even Hermione had to get additional clarification on certain topics. The course work was challenging but both of them seemed to enjoy the increased difficulty.
"Do you still feel the need to try and retake your O.W.L.s?" Hermione asked Matt one afternoon over lunch.
"No, not really. I'm picking up most of what's going on. And…" He stopped himself. Ginny nudged Neville, hearing the pause in the conversation.
"And?" Hermione pressed.
"And…sittingnexttoyouhelpsmealot." Matt muttered quickly.
"I'm sorry, would you repeat that?" Hermione asked, a little grin on the corner of her mouth. She seemed to enjoy teasing Matt and noticed he was turning red. Ginny stifled a giggle as Matt took a breath to respond.
"Sitting next to you help me a lot." Matt said.
"That's what I thought you said." Hermione grinned, feeling like she was having a positive effect. It also helped that he refrained from asking to copy her work. Ginny had devolved into giggles and even Neville was grinning.
"Well, you know, if I get stuck, you're right there and I can ask for help." Matt said.
"Just like a couple is supposed to!" Ginny said with a grin. Hermione rolled her eyes. Ginny was trying to get them together. She looked over to the staff table, noticing Harry was watching them with smirk. He gave her a thumbs up.
"I'll see you later." Hermione said to the group as she gathered up her books and headed out of the Great Hall. Matt looked up to the staff table as well, Harry was still smirking and he gave Matt an approving wink, to which Matt responded with a confused look.
"What on earth is going on?" he asked.
"No idea, mate!" Neville said with almost the same smirk Harry had. Matt shook his head and followed Hermione's lead.
Matt sat next to Hermione in their Arithmancy class. For several days he had become quiet and reserved. Hermione was starting to wonder if her teasing in the Great Hall earlier in the week had maybe crossed a line accidentally.
As class ended, Matt stood and approached Professor Vector's desk.
"Yes Mr. Santini, can I be of assistance?" the strict professor asked.
"Yes, actually. I was wondering, can Arithmancy be used to investigate the past as well as predict the future?" Matt inquired.
"The past? Whyever would you need to use it to investigate the past?" Professor Vector asked back. Hermione caught the conversation and stopped in the middle of the class to listen, unable to help her natural curiosity.
"Say if someone had some information about an event, but couldn't remember all of it, could you use Arithmancy to calculate what happened?"
"Fascinating…" Professor Vector paused. "Yes, you could. But you would need an awful lot of information, almost so much so you'd have no need to look as you'd have your answer."
"Not unless someone was only missing a few things."
Professor Vector studied him and then it clicked in her head.
"This is about your own memory, isn't it?" she realized. Matt nodded in affirmation "Of course! If you had part of a memory but not the whole memory, it could be done! You could reverse the calculations used to look forward in order to look backwards. I'm afraid it may be imprecise however, but you could possibly realize a few minor details you didn't have before, but it may just be enough to jog the entire memory free."
"Exactly, kind of like doubling back over your tracks. Thanks, Professor." Matt said and turned to leave. "Oh! Hi!" he said as he bumped into Hermione.
"Matt, what you were talking about, that's brilliant." Hermione said as they walked out of the classroom.
"Oh, thanks." Matt said sheepishly. "It just sort of came to me in the middle of class. I had a memory shake loose the other day…"
"Matt, that's wonderful!"
"Not really…" Matt said holding up a hand before Hermione got too far ahead of herself. "It wasn't exactly pleasant…" he said.
"That's why you were up so early today, wasn't it?" Hermione asked and Matt nodded. "You know, if you need to talk about it, I'm here."
Matt gave her a sad smile and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and steeling his emotions. He was really falling for this bushy-haired know-it all.
"That means a lot to me." Matt said, although he tried, he could not keep the emotion from his voice. Hermione did something Matt was not expecting, and she leaned up and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. He returned the hug and sighed. They pulled back for a second and Hermione looked up into his eyes, the same shade of brown as her own. His gaze met hers and they studied one another for a moment. Eyes looking into each other and at their own lips. They started to lean forwards towards one another…
"Are you two ever going to bother getting a move on?" drawled a familiar voice. Quickly the pair separated.
"No, maybe we weren't. Maybe we were going to stand here the rest of the day, you don't know!" Matt shot back at Draco.
"Oh! Was I, uh, interrupting something?" he asked with a smirk. Hermione was redder than Ginny's hair and quickly slipped around Matt without a word.
"Thank you, Draco…. thank you very much..." Matt was incredibly annoyed.
"Hey, Granger!" Malfoy called, causing Hermione to turn back towards them. "You've done worse in the past. This one's an upgrade at least." Matt instantly facepalmed. Hermione somehow managed to turn even redder before dashing off.
"We've got to work on your tact." Matt said, still annoyed.
"What? It's true, you know. Just ask her out, kiss and get it over with." Draco said and patted Matt on the back as he headed in the opposite direction.
Matt was left standing by himself, butterflies in his stomach and a slightly empty feeling, like he was missing something. He sighed and knew what it was he was missing. There was a Hermione shaped hole forming in his heart and there was only one cure for that.
The nineteenth of September came a lot sooner than Matt had expected. He had spoken to Ginny and Neville a couple of times without Hermione around and had planned a special treat for her. The three of them were able to locate the Room of Requirement. Amazingly the room, Matt had been told, had been the sight of a skirmish between Voldemort's forces in the castle which included Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. Crabbe had died in the fight after setting off Fiendfyre which destroyed a Horcrux and various other items in the room itself.
The group assumed once the castle had been repaired the room was able to restore itself. Matt knew this would be the perfect spot to hold a birthday party for Hermione, making it feel incredibly special. They spent several lunches and a dinner or two preparing everything in the room for Saturday.
"Ok, so, the plan is, you're going to get everyone else to be in here by five o'clock tomorrow." Matt said pointing to Neville.
"Got it." Neville nodded.
"And Ginny you're going to distract Hermione until then." Matt continued.
"No, I can't, you'll have to do it. Remember? Mum's sending a cake over, and I have to meet her in the Great Hall." Ginny replied.
"Shoot, that's right. I forgot. I was going to just go to the kitchens tonight to get one made for her…what should I do?" he asked.
"Take her to Hogsmeade! It'll be cute. You can have your first date together!" Ginny said.
"But I've never been to Hogsmeade. I don't know where to go." Matt groaned.
"That'll be perfect! She can show you around. Go to the Shrieking Shack! It's supposed to be hot couple's spot!" Ginny offered.
"The most severely haunted building in Britain is a hot couples spot?" Matt asked skeptically. Ginny nodded enthusiastically.
"Alright fine. I'll take Hermione to Hogsmeade, while you two get people, presents and provisions." The pair nodded and the plan was set in motion.
The following day at Breakfast Matt was sitting in his usual spot across from Hermione, his back to the staff table. He was surprised none of the teachers or the Headmistress ever said anything to him, but he was thankful they indulged his habit. Ever since his latest memory shook loose, he would not sit with his back to a door. More often than not he would sit on Hermione's right, facing her side during classes even. He claimed it was because he had more space to work in but in reality, he was merely keeping an eye on the door.
"Hey, I was thinking, we should go into Hogsmeade today." Matt said between mouthfuls of Belgian waffles.
"Oh?" Hermione looked surprised.
"Yeah, you can show me around. I've never been there."
"You've never been to Hogsmeade?" Hermione seemed surprised.
"Well, I couldn't exactly go wandering when recovering, could I?" he said with a smirk.
"Alright, I suppose I could show you a few things." Hermione relented.
"He could use a few things shown to him." Ginny said, dropping a not-so-subtle innuendo. Hermione shifted in her seat trying not to think much about what her friend was implying.
"You'll be coming along too, right?" she asked Ginny. Both she and Neville shook their heads.
"Looks like it's just you and me." Matt said with a grin. Hermione turned slightly pink. At that moment owls swooped in, delivering packages and mail. One dropped a large box in front of Hermione.
"Was this you?" Hermione asked Matt, who looked utterly perplexed.
"No…it was definitely not me." Matt said standing up to inspect the package carefully. Hermione gingerly unwrapped it and opened the box. Inside was a large glass egg, filled with fire that swirled, surged, and oscillated.
"This is beautiful…" Hermione said as the fire pulsated. Matt could feel the heat coming off the egg and the fire inside seemed to be pressing harder and harder against the glass shell.
"Was there a card?" Matt asked. Hermione looked through the wrappings and the box that had fallen apart as soon as she had released the packaging.
"No…" Hermione said and started to become visibly worried. Matt went to reach for the egg and immediately pulled his hand back.
"It's too hot to touch…I don't like this…" Matt said. Hermione stood and started to back away from the table. As did Neville and Ginny. Matt noticed small cracks beginning to form in the eggshell and he knew it was about to explode. "EVERYBODY DOWN!" He yelled and vaulted over the table, towards the far wall. He pulled his wand out and wordlessly cast Accio on the egg and arced his wand, so the egg flew into the fireplace. Just before it impacted with the backwall of the fireplace, the shell cracked completely.
Matt grabbed Hermione who was closest to him and the fireplace and tackled her to the ground. She yelped as he pressed his body over hers, his arms covering her face and head as the egg in the fireplace exploded. A gout of flame went up the chimney and out of the hearth. The rest of the students in the hall and the staff had shot to their feet and were watching in horror.
Ginny and Neville had ducked down behind the Gryffindor table and the others sitting at the table were at the far opposite end, leaving the middle section nearest the fireplace empty. Hermione trembled under Matt but part of her wished he tackled her to the ground more often. She could feel him pressing against her butt and she did not mind the way his body formed over hers.
Professor McGonagall and Harry both moved over to the table, reacting to the danger.
"Are you both alright?" McGonagall asked as Matt and Hermione uncurled from the floor.
"Yes, yes I'm alright." Hermione said as she sat up, basically in Matt's lap.
"I'm fine." Matt said, wincing.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked, crouching down next to them.
"No…but it's nothing from, well, that." Matt said pointing to the fireplace.
"What did you get?" Harry asked as he helped Hermione stand, followed by Matt.
"It was an egg. It had fire in it…" Hermione responded.
"I think someone made a bomb out of dragon's flame." Matt said.