Don't Own
Please R&R
I haven't updated my stories for a while but I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, so here we go.
If anyone has any ideas of what challenges I can use for the other three students, your input would be appreciated.
Enjoy!
…
Surprisingly it was Neville who initiated the first of the challenges.
They were in Muggle Studies the next day. A class that Dumbledore had insisted every student, no matter what year, take at the beginning of the year. He had argued, with the Board of School Governors, that it was important for all students to know about the Muggle World as well as the Wizarding one. The Board was against it at first but after a little bit of persuading and the threat of another Dark Lord coming to be, they finally agreed.
Neville walked up to the front of the class because he was supposed to be presenting his project for the class about how the Wizarding World and the Muggle one affected each other.
For a moment Neville looked out at the class and fidgeted nervously.
"Whenever you're ready Neville" Mrs. Loviett said prompting him to start.
"Uh right…" Neville said, coughing to clear his throat "Well my topic was about how the Wizarding World affects the Muggle World and vice versa. Sometimes I think that we don't really realize that both worlds are affecting each other but really if you look closely enough you can always find examples of the contrary. As a good example of how the Wizarding World effects the Muggle World just think about the way muggles greet each other for the first time."
Neville stopped for a second and walked over to Mrs. Loviett. "Professor do you think I could ask for your assistance for a visual example?"
Mrs. Loviett smiled "Of course Neville, what a splendid idea to help engage the class."
Neville blushed slightly but held out his hands take the Professor's outstretched one. He took it firmly, and squeezed gently as he shook it. When he pulled away he thanked the Professor for her help and then moved back to his original stance. He went on to talk about how this shaking of hands came to be in the Muggle World.
When he was finished with his presentation all the Gryffindors in the room applauded loudly.
Mrs. Loviett smiled "I'm glad to see you're all taking a healthy interest in this class."
…
All the seventh year Gryffindors patted Neville on the back that day at lunch.
"That was awesome Neville!" Ron stated slapping the other boy on the back as he sat down beside him.
Neville was blushing fiercely.
Hermione who was sitting across from the boys nodded her head "Even though I can't really say that I approve of this challenge, I have to admit that the way that you handled that was rather clever."
Neville blushed even more "Uh thanks, I came up with the idea last night while I was practicing what I should say today."
"Well it was brilliant!" Ron said as he grabbed a sandwich "And it's bound to get us ahead in the game, I mean you did it in front of a whole classroom!"
The 7th years cheered again as they dug into their food.
…
The next day for DADA Remus was taking the class outside the castle and into the forest like area just behind Hagrid's hut. There, Remus had told them, that they would find a clearing where they could look for knarls, which were hedgehog like creatures, that they had just started studying.
The students had been excited all week for this, since the weather was still nice outside and they were happy to be out getting fresh air instead of stuck inside the stuffy, old castle.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were working together to catch the knarls they needed. Remus had told them each group needed four, one for each person.
All of the students were in a particularly good mood as they chatted in the nice weather and tried to catch the fast moving knarls.
"Yes!" Ron shouted in triumph as he was able to grab a knarl before it could scurry back into its den. However his victory was cut short when the knarl turned around and bit his hand angrily. Ron dropped the thing with a yelp while Hermione giggled. "Bugger" Ron grumbled as he glared at Hermione.
Suddenly a girl screamed and everybody looked over at Luna who was jumping around and trying to flick something off her back as she cried "Get it off, get it off!"
Remus was there is seconds "What's wrong?" he asked calmly "What's on you?"
"A vicious, rabid nargal!" Luna cried.
"What?" Remus asked confused.
"The nargal, it's on my back, please get it off!" Lana's voice was a scared sounding whimper.
Remus still looked confused but he jumped into action at her tone. He made Luna stand still and then swatted at her shoulder area where Luna had indicated the 'nargal' was.
Luna sighed in relief dramatically. "Thanks Professor" she said and she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "If that nargal had bitten me I surely would have gone mad with infection" Luna told the blushing, shocked Professor.
Then Luna skipped away dreamily, heading back towards her group. However she sent a wink at Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione before she went.
They all gaped at her.
"I never knew Luna had that in her" Hermione whispered quietly.
They all turned to Remus who was still slightly red.
He stumbled with his words at first before he got control of himself and said "What are you all looking at? Get back to catching your knarls, there's only thirty minutes left in class."
After shooting him a few last looks the class got back to work.
…
On Thursday afternoon Harry was coming out of Transfiguration when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around and saw Sirius standing in the middle of the hall beckoning him over.
Harry moved quickly, since he had another class in ten minutes.
"Hey Sirius," he said "What's up?"
Sirius smiled and ruffled Harry's hair, Harry was glad that not many people were around to see "I just wanted to ask if you were planning to go to Hogsmede this weekend?"
"I was," Harry said "I mean there's nothing much more to do around the castle. Why?"
"Well Remus and I are supposed to chaperoning and I was thinking that perhaps we could head to the Three Broomsticks and catch up, I'd like to know how the school year has been treating you since we don't normally get a chance to talk outside of classes."
"Yeah sure, that sounds fine." Harry answered "Is it okay if Ron and Hermione come to?"
"Sure it is, the more the mer…" Sirius began but was cut off.
"Professor Black…Professor Black!" Justin said running towards them.
"Yes?" Sirius asked.
"I…I uh…" Justin stumbled.
Sirius gave him a questioning look.
"Uh there's something on your boot!" Justin said quickly and Sirius looked down just as Justin dived to the ground with a quick "Oh I'll get it."
Within three seconds Justin had licked Sirius' boot, jumped up and ran away with a squeaky shouted "Bye!"
Sirius stared after Justin for a moment, wide eyed, before he looked back at Harry and asked "Did that boy just lick my boot?"
Harry's eyes were tearing with an effort not to laugh "I dunno" he said to Sirius with a shrug.
Sirius shook his head "That was weird…" he said before looking back at Harry "You better get to class or you'll be late. I'll see you this weekend."
Harry walked away, still holding in his laughter at the look on Sirius' face.
…
Friday night came quickly and soon enough the seventh years were heading up to the seventh floor, this time lead by Professor Flitwick.
As soon as they were in the Room of Requirement the Professor wished them all a goodnight and told them he would be back to check on them in half an hour.
Once he was gone Draco looked to Blaise "Where's the pensive?"
"Right here" Blaise said pulling the small cup out of his robe pocket and handing it to Draco.
"Thanks" Draco said going to the middle of the room and placing the pensive on a table there.
All of the students crowded around the table, sorting themselves into their four houses.
"Peeves?" Harry called out into the quiet room and was startled when Peeves popped up right next to his ear.
"Are you ready for me to be the judge?" he yelled happily.
"Yeah" Draco said before Harry could answer. "Who wants to go first?"
"We will" Ron said and gently prodded Neville forward.
Shakily Neville used his wand to pull his memory of Muggle Studies out of his mind and he placed it in the pensive.
Hermione pulled out her own wand and cast a spell on the pensive so the memory rose up and they were able to watch it like you would a movie at a movie theater.
Everyone was silent as the memory played out. Once it was done they all looked at Peeves expectantly.
"Interesting…very interesting," he said and everyone waited, holding their breaths "It was very creative and in front of a lot of students. It was well executed and no one suspected a thing. Though the subject matter was a little boring but I guess you had no choice in that."
Everyone stayed silent as he thought it over. Finally Peeves squawked "I'm awarding Gryffindor twenty five points!"
The Gryffindors cheered.
Next up was Hufflepuff. Again everyone was silent.
"Hmm…" Peeves mumbled "That was slightly disappointing. There weren't many people around and Black was definitely suspicious after however the task was daunting. There aren't many instances when you would have to lick someone's foot. So for that and because you actually did it, I award Hufflepuff fourteen points."
The Hufflepuffs clapped a bit while Justin hung his head.
Slytherin went next.
Harry was excited to see how Pansy had fulfilled the challenge since he hadn't heard anything about what she had done.
The memory was short and pitiful. Pansy had walked up behind Filch and disgustedly stuck her hand out, looking away uncomfortable as she lightly tapped Filch on the shoulder and then quickly pulled away.
Her touch was so light that Filch hadn't even felt it and he continued on mopping the floor.
Peeves frowned "That, was bad" he said with a shake of his head and your task wasn't even hard. I give Slytherin five points."
All the Slytherins groaned and glared at Pansy.
"Well sorry" Pansy said not sounding sorry at all "But there was no way I was going to grab that filthy squib, disgusting."
"Oh come on Pansy, you're so stuck up! It's not like he was going to zap your magic or something" Blaise growled.
"How do you know…?" Pansy began but Draco cut her off.
"Enough" he shouted "You're wasting time. Let's get this last memory watched so we can put away the pensive before Flitwick comes back."
Luna quickly stood up and placed her memory in the pensive.
There was a tense silence as they waited for Peeves' decision.
It was quiet for a moment before Peeves shouted "That was great! You pulled it off easily without problem and it front of a group of people. Not to mention it was the most entertaining out of all of the memories. I award Ravenclaw thirty six points."
Ravenclaw cheered and a few of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs clapped along too, it really had been the best memory out of the four.
Harry clapped loudly; if Gryffindor didn't win he would rather Ravenclaw won instead of Slytherin or Hufflepuff.
They had just gotten the pensive away when Professor Flitwick walked in. "How's it going in here?" he squeaked.
"Good" everyone called.
Flitwick furrowed his brows but shook his head after a minute and left the room.
"That was close" Hermione said.
"No kidding" Ron stated as Peeves jumped out from behind a chair where he had been hiding.
"Okay" Draco said "Let's get this week's challenges picked."
Harry watched as the hats they had been using the week before flew into the middle of the room.
"Since Ravenclaw won this round they should go first" Hermione said.
Terry nodded and stood up to pick a name out of the hat. "Padma" he called out and the girl in question groaned.
Draco stood up next and picked a name out of the hat "Blaise" he said.
Next was Hufflepuff, Ernie stood up and grabbed a name "Hannah" he called out.
Lastly Seamus stood up and grabbed a name out of the hat "Harry" he read.
'Damn' Harry thought but he nodded his understanding and then watched as the hats floated to Padma first before floating to Blaise, then Hannah and finally him.
Harry pulled out his words and gaped in horror at the sentence they formed.
Harry barely heard what anyone else said as he looked down at what he had to do. His heart was hammering in his chest and he had started to sweat. 'Why me…why me…why me…" was the mantra running through his head.
He was startled out of his panic when Hermione gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Harry looked up and realized everyone was staring at him. "It's your turn Harry" Hermione said gently.
Harry swallowed and everyone waited quietly for him to say what he had gotten.
After thirty second of silence Draco huffed and said "Oh come on Potter, it can't be that bad."
Harry breathed deeply and then stated "I have to kiss Snape on the lips."