(Disclaimer: Characters are NOT mine; Well, all except the ones you don't recognize..o.o;!! So, read and review! Please. I need reviews. Please.....please!!!!!! Thankees! G'day.)
Chapter One
As Harry walked into Hogwarts, he felt a great air of excitement, for this was the summer program at his magical wizard school, and he would do anything to escape the wrath of the Dursleys. Over his last year at Hogwarts, they had gotten extremely worse than before. Dudley was tremendously big, and Aunt Petunia was nosier than ever. Plus, Uncle Vernon became stricter, with not allowing Harry out of his room the whole week he was at home.
He had signed up for the summer program along with Ron and Hermione; otherwise it would have been quite boring. The actual program was extra practice on any subject you want to study for, including Quidditch, the ultimate sport of wizards throughout Europe. It would all be so perfect, but for one horrible matter. Draco Malfoy had also joined the summer program, hearing that Harry was joining. He obviously didn't care about the extra studies or practice at Quidditch. All he wanted to do was torment Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Harry met up with Hermione and Ron at King's Cross, the train station leading to Hogwarts. They had gone through the brick wall, which was actually a walk-through barrier to the train that took them to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although this was only a one-month program, Harry was terribly excited. He had brought his broomstick, the Firebolt, for which he won the Quidditch Cup in his third year attending Hogwarts.
Back to the present, Harry was examining a new picture that had appeared on the wall of the Great Hall. It was a mummy, wrapped tightly, whispering quiet little voices to a Pharaoh, who was standing next to it. The Pharaoh looked up at Harry, startled by his presence, and tried to throw an insane scarab at him. Of course, it only bounced back towards him off of the picture frame, and scuttled towards the mummy, at which caused him to scurry away in quick hops out of the picture.
Ron was staring at Hermione with narrowed eyes. She didn't seem to notice, but Harry eyed him cautiously. It must have been something she said on the train, he thought. At that moment, Albus Dumbledore had suddenly appeared and began walking towards them down the hall. Following closely behind him, unfortunately, was Severus Snape. Snape was the potions teacher at Hogwarts, and Harry extremely disliked him.
Snape looked at Harry with a sense of loathing in his eyes, and Harry turned away from his glare. He began whispering to Dumbledore, who turned deathly white. He looked at him, his eyes questioning.
"Are you sure, Severus? Here? At this exact moment? Oh yes, immediately...I will attend. Tell the staff to meet me in the lounge, I'll hurry. But first, I must speak with Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said to Snape. At this, he scowled at Harry for no reason, and walked away, his cloak swinging behind him. He paused and looked back towards Harry, a narrow grin spreading across his cold face. Apparently, Malfoy and his goons had just walked into the Great Hall.
"Ugh. You're here, Potter? Ruins my summer, that does." Malfoy said coldheartedly to Harry, and then he turned to Ron and gave him a glare that would shock a ghost. The back of Ron's neck started to turn red, and his eyes glazed.
He turned to Harry and whispered, "I swear, if he says anything to me about my family, I'm going to...," He stopped, unfortunately, because Snape had re-entered the hall. Dumbledore turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and motioned for them to move towards the Gryffindor Table.
"Harry, do you know the location of Sirius? The Ministry of Magic is still looking for him, and it seems Lord Voldemort is again on rampage." Dumbledore whispered to the three, and cautiously looked off towards Snape, who was eyeing them suspiciously.
"Oh, I don't know where he is; he doesn't tell me in any letters. He's probably really busy with searching for Voldemort and whatnot." Harry answered, and looked again towards Ron, who was shifting nervously. Suddenly, Snape walked over, his steps in quick motions.
"Headmaster? We must be going...They are waiting for us to discuss--" He tried to say, but Dumbledore held his hand up to stop him from saying something he did not want any students to hear.
"I'm on my way, and I beg of you, do not bother me in a private session again. Understood?" Dumbledore said quickly, his voice tingling with a note of power in it. He winked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and swiftly turned and followed Snape out of the hall.
"Oh dear. I must say, I forgot how interesting this book really is." Hermione was holding up Hogwarts, A History, and spoke for the first time in a long time. Ron jumped at the sound of her voice and turned around mumbling something about "people these days." Hermione abruptly made a squirming noise and pointed to the end of the hallway. Standing among the light was Cho Chang, a girl whom Harry liked a great deal.
Harry blushed with shyness, and dropped his broomstick. The clatter made such a noise that all the talking in the hall had stopped.
"Hello Harry, Ron, and Hermione! How have you been? I had no idea you signed up for the summer program too! It's so great you three are here, since only about 10 other people are here. Well, I'll be seeing you!" Cho called from the other end of the hall, not noticing how silent it was and how high her voice was. She blushed furiously, turned around and quickly walked over to her friends. Harry noticed a swift movement about her, her cape swinging behind her making such a soft noise it reminded Harry of the wings of a bird.
Hermione let out a diminutive giggle, and then looked away as Harry turned to her. She was looking at someone from the Ravenclaw table, and as she looked away, a person at the table also looked away. Harry had seen him in classes before, although he didn't know which class. The boy, undoubtedly, was Alexander, a Ravenclaw prefect. His eyes were blue as ice and his hair was greasy blonde.
Ron came back to reality and noticed Dumbledore had re-entered the Great Hall and was motioning for everyone to sit down. Harry, Ron, and Hermione took three seats at the Gryffindor table, and Dumbledore began talking.
"Welcome to the summer program at Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry! You will be studying and practicing extra studies, and practicing for Quidditch!" He glanced over at Harry and winked, which in turn made Malfoy snicker and scowl.
"More importantly," he continued, "is the new class to be introduced! I'm sure some of you will be interested in Concentrational Course, the act of focusing your magical powers onto one very specific thing. Plus, we have a new staff member, in place of the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. You all know this before everyone else who did not sign up for the extra program, but please do not send an owl out to any other friends and tell them; otherwise I will have to kill you." He added a chuckle, but his words still sent a ripple of heads turning towards each other. Harry raised an eyebrow to Ron, thinking about sending a letter to someone in particular.
"As I was saying, you will have short days that last for about 5 hours. You will take your 3 elective classes in the morning, and then shall have the rest of the day off to practice some..Er..sports, so to say. We will have a miniature competition of Quidditch, in which the 4 houses will be split into two. Hufflepuff will join together with Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor shall go with Slytherin." A sudden moaning came from the Slytherin and Gryffindor tables, for they are complete enemies. Through all the frowns, Malfoy seemed particularly happy about the subject. An evil grin had spread across his face and he began whispering to Crabbe and Goyle.
After Dumbledore had dismissed the Great Hall, everyone went to his or her temporary dorms. Hermione had brought Crookshanks, which may be the reason Ron was looking quite unhappy. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all decided to go to the lake outside. They exited Hogwarts and went to sit in the grass under the tree. Ron threw a piece of bread into the lake, at which the Giant Squid grabbed and took under the water.
Suddenly, Harry had an odd feeling and looked off towards the door. His heart sank when he saw Cho walk out, hand in hand with Alexander. He dared not say anything, for Hermione was looking as if she liked Alexander. But, she looked too and gave out a cry. She sat up and started trotting off towards the Quidditch field. Harry decided to follow, with Ron behind him reluctantly.
When they got to the field, they weren't the only ones there. They hadn't seen them exit the school, but Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were there, on the left side of the field, dodging each other on their brooms. Crabbe and Goyle had old and slow brooms, but Malfoy's was new and quick. He flew over Hermione's head, for she was the one who entered the field first. She ignored him with passion and sat on the bleachers. But Malfoy landed on the ground when Harry and Ron walked onto the turf.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Poor Weasley and Famous Potter. What have you done to poor Hermione? She seems upset, Potter, did you turn her down yet again? My, my, my. If only you had the cunningness of a Malfoy and if you only had at least a sickle, Weasley." He kicked dirt onto Ron's shoes.
Ron had had enough. He walked up to Malfoy, looked him straight in the eye and said "Malfoy, have you ever noticed the gleam in Crabbe's eye? Every time he looks at Hermione? You never did, did you? Never noticed that your own goon had turned on you. Hermione had told me, he sent an owl to her the day he got home! How's that for your joke? Now, I do believe you wouldn't want everyone knowing that a Slytherin likes Hermione?"
Malfoy looked stunned. He turned to Crabbe, who was taking minute steps backwards and mumbling something nobody could actually understand.
"Let's go, Goyle. Crabbe, go sit with your girlfriend a while." He tormented Crabbe, who now stood alone. Malfoy and Goyle trotted off, Crabbe motionless behind them. Harry turned to Crabbe. He had never really seen him away from Malfoy, and he looked smaller and less stalwart than before.
"Hi..Harry..Ron.." He mumbled, and Ron raised his eyebrow to him. Hermione had walked up behind Harry and was pulling on his sleeve.
"Harry..er.." She whispered in her ear, and from what she mumbled next would have shocked the world. Harry nearly fell over in disarray.
"Harry.." Hermione continued. "Sirius was..err...just..walking around..with Buckbeak. He was in his animagi form, but I know it was him."
"Are you sure, Hermione? Ron! C'mon, we got to go!" Harry pulled Ron's sleeve and off they went towards the castle. But, although Harry, Ron, and Hermione did not know, Vincent Crabbe had overheard them and was standing where he was with a crazy grin on his face.