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True to her Word, Hermione did manage to develop a schedule that kept everyone on task, although it was a rough thing. Harry would work with Padma, Neville, and Herself on Mondays during their time after classes, teaching them the dueling skills he had learned during his training with Flitwick, this also came with the Entire Sphinx Club joining him for his morning runs, which had been relocated to the 3rd floor of the castle, which luckily had a single hallway that formed a circle roughly half the size of Hogwarts proper. Harry himself had new lessons with Professor Flitwick on Thursdays, and while he was doing that, Padma was instructing Daphne, Susan, and Luna on what Harry had taught them the day prior. Neville did the same on Wednesdays with Parvati and Lavender, with Hermione teaching Hannah and Tracey on Thursdays. Whoever was not in training was still to be working on schoolwork, with the exception of Parvati, Padma, and Hermione, who split their responsibilities between coursework and researching magical law for the Buckbeak case. Weekends were spent attempting to relax, with Luna constantly reminding people that it was important for them to take breaks occasionally, to not get burned out.
It was during one of these weekends that Daphne brought up something. "Our first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up… Who are you taking Harry?"
"Huh?" Harry asked, distracted. He had been reading a book on defensive tactics in duels, and had barely heard what Daphne had said.
"Hogsmeade! You have to take one of us on a date! It's your job as a boyfriend!" Daphne said, leaning over onto Harry. "You'll pick me won't you?"
"Ugh… huh. I guess I hadn't thought about that. Over the summer there was enough time to give each of you who could go on a date something to do, but we don't really have enough Hogsmeade weekends to do that do we?" Harry said, looking over the calendar. With 5 girls, one of whom wasn't allowed to leave the grounds, there were enough weekends that each could have one, but that was it.
"We don't really, so obviously we'll need to split some time. Especially because Luna can't go to Hogsmeade." Hermione said.
"I'll be nice and set up a schedule for Harry, give everyone some time. I'll also make some Wiggenweld Potions to make sure Harry doesn't get worn out." Daphne said, winking at her boyfriend.
Harry blushed again, an increasingly rare occurrence these days, no matter how much Daphne and Padma tried to push him. One could argue that the amount they pushed him was the reason he was as resistant as he was now.
"That's a good idea. Although I'm sorry it can't be as spontaneous as it probably should be." Harry said, looking at the five girls who were surrounding him.
"Well, we knew what we were getting into when we decided to all start dating you. There were some things we were going to have to give up, it's unfortunate that it includes just being able to walk around Hogsmeade with you all to ourselves for a day, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make. Besides, if you HAD to choose between us, we'd probably never date, since you'd be too nice to make a choice, or too dense to even know we were interested." Padma said, smirking at him.
"Hey, I kissed you first." Harry said defensively.
"Yes, following literal months of teasing from both myself and Daphne. Hermione and I holding your hands every single day for nearly 2 years. Susan falling over herself pretty much anytime you spoke. Only Luna wasn't blindingly obvious about it, and she was still rather open for an eleven year old girl." Padma said, letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Was I really that bad?" Harry asked, looking at all the girls. Nods in agreement were seen all around. Even Lavender, Parvati, Hannah and Tracey got in on the action. Harry looked at Neville, who also nodded.
"Thankfully, that was one of the things we loved about you, but god that would be awful if it kept up for much longer." Daphne said.
"It would have been even worse if some other girl asked Harry out to Hogsmeade or something before we got him. Imagine if Cho Chang decided she was interested and asked him out to Hogsmeade. Harry'd be too polite to say no even if he didn't really like her that way, and she might just drag him along until he liked it." Susan said, crinkling her nose a bit.
"Cho's nice, but I don't think I'd ever like her that way. I don't think we'd do well as a couple." Harry said.
"You're probably right, but the only other girl you were ever mildly interested in besides us was Penelope Clearwater." Padma said.
"What makes you think I liked Penelope?" Harry asked.
"You had these kind of moon eyes when you looked at her before we started dating. I was a bit jealous, since I wanted you to look at me that way, but I got the last laugh when you kissed me." Padma said. "You never would have done anything with Penelope anyway, since she's been dating Percy Weasley for so long, although apparently that hasn't been going great for her."
"The Weasleys are a weird bunch." Harry said. "Charlie's really nice, and I got to meet Bill once and he was also pleasant. Ginny's also really nice. I don't know the twins that well at all, but outside of being pranksters no one really says anything too bad about them. But Ron is… rude to put it lightly, and everyone complains about Percy being really uptight."
"It's hard to say. Maybe the pressure of their older brothers being so successful rubs them the wrong way? From what Penelope said, Percy was always a perfectionist often to his own detriment. I'd feel pretty beaten down too if Parvati was super successful and I was always being compared to her." Padma said.
