Disclaimer: Not mine. All characters belong to JK Rowling. If you think you can sue me to get money, go right ahead. I've got some old 8-Tracks you can have that may or may not work. Other than that, you're out of luck.
My apologies for getting this chapter out later than I wanted. I started working on this overall chapter-plot more than a month ago but it didn't get developed in a timely manner for several reasons. First was a death in the family of an aunt of mine in Kansas, which required driving to Witchita. Second was my status review from a jerk that I have to call my manager for the time being. Third was all the time I spent (instead of writing) working on my resume and submitting to new jobs. Here's hoping something breaks soon. If I can impart any words of wisdom, then let me say: never ever work for a jerk. They will ultimately screw you over. If you can't get out from under that kind of manager, then find a new job as soon as possible. So to make up for the delay in this chapter, I've made it a little longer than a normal chapter.
I had hoped to get a little bit of writing in as I'm a beta for BitterIcing's Undead Secrets, but I haven't heard what is going to happen on that story in months. It's a wonderful story and I know she had plans to complete the initial story and work on its sequel. Bitter, if you're reading this, drop me a line.
Chapter 6: A Trollish Halloween – Fall Term Year 1
Then Harry made up his mind. It was time to use some Shadow-charged channeling power. Something he'd been toying with ever since Uncle Nick had brought up his power levels in speculation. He'd always told him that magic was change. And the more magic you had at your disposal, the bigger change you could make.
Harry looked at the book again. Then he looked at the book using his Shadow-sight, his eyes all but turning black. There. It was there. And it continued out from the book toward the south. It was a line to the writer of the book, he could just sense it. Only, the writer had lived over seven centuries ago.
Harry followed the line anyway. He shadowed it until he reached London. A broken down pub sat where the line stopped. He could sense she was in there. He concentrated on seeing her. If he could have seen himself, he'd have noticed that his eyes were flashing silver then black then silver then black over and over again. The pub looked better, then new, then it wasn't there. Then trees suddenly showed up only to get smaller and smaller until they un-grew, the cycle repeating several times until a fire raged and then un-started. A house (if it could be called that) suddenly appeared and Harry could feel the line from the book get stronger.
Harry walked across the grass to the front (and only) door and knocked loudly. It was early evening and he hoped the occupants weren't asleep.
(((o)))
Outside what will become London, 857AD
The house (cottage?) stood by itself near a copse of trees. The sun was going down and Harry could see some smoke coming out what he guessed was the chimney. Or used as the chimney.
Nearby was a small patch of land that had the usual farm look to it. Since there weren't any weeds in it, Harry was pretty sure someone had been here recently, if not now.
Taking a deep breath, Harry went to the door and knocked.
Harry felt a ward come up. What the hell? He wasn't familiar with it since it was informative in nature instead of something out to kill someone with the name Harry Potter.
Harry let out a passive shadow and quickly got the impression of one person in the cottage.
Bam, bam! Harry knocked on the door again. "Hello? Anyone there?"
"Who is it?! I've already paid my taxes for the year. Go away already!" came the rather insistent voice inside. A rather feminine voice at that.
"Um, hello? I'm looking for a Safire Sephiroth. Does she live here?"
"Doesn't sound familiar. You try the hovel down the road?"
"No," Harry replied exasperated. "Look, I'm pretty sure she's here."
"Why are you sure? What's it to you anyway? Why are you even looking for her? I'm sure she wasn't anywhere near that fire. She was in Surrey that day." The voice ran the excuses together so Harry knew something was up. But the voice eventually did open the door. Harry noticed the woman opened the door carefully, looking out the crack first before opening it the rest of the way.
At first, the woman looked out door and saw nothing. Expecting the worst (meaning: an invisible enemy intent on harming her), she was about to send out a wide area stunner when she noticed a boy standing in front of her home.
The woman opened the door all the way and looked down on Harry as if trying to figure something out. After a few moments looking at him, she then looked around the property to see if someone was putting her on. Seeing no one, she intensified her gaze on the young boy.
Harry took this time to study her in return. She was about five feet, five inches, had auburn shoulder length hair tied up in braids as he was sure was the local custom. She also wore a dress of heavy material, even though the weather seemed to favor something else a lot cooler. She was attractive but not a stunning beauty. Smudges of dirt were on her face probably from working the farm. A scar ran across her left cheek to her lower lip. It was fain, but if you looked for it, it was there.
Suddenly, her eyes shot open and she cried out, "Harry? Is that you?"
"Uh, you know me?"
"Do I know you? Come on, how could I forget someone like you, Harry? You saved my life two years ago. Granted, we only met for a few minutes before you drove off that wizard, but I'll never forget you. How can I? Only…"
"Yes?" Harry said for lack of anything else to say.
"Why on God's green Earth are you masquerading like a child? Don't you realize how dangerous that is here? Why not show up like the man you were the last time we met. A delicious man at that. Yum. Now, age up. Come on, chop, chop. Get the lead out."
"Age up?" Harry muttered in confusion.
She must have heard him. "Yes, age up. You don't think I'm going to shag a kid do you? Give me a little credit on that why don't you. It may be acceptable for parents to marry off their 13-year old kids, but this woman has no desire to bed a kid. Too weird. I need a man, not a kid. And I'm not going to do anything with you if you continue to look like a child. What's the big idea looking like that anyway?"
Harry continued to stare at the crazy lady for another minute.
Safire looked at Harry critically like a teacher did to a dense student. Finally, "You don't remember me, do you?"
"No, ma'am, I don't," Harry replied honesty.
"How many trips back is this for you?"
"Alone or with a group?"
"Ah, playing tour guide are you? Need some extra cash and all that. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt to prove it. Course Mikey went and turned it into a wet t-shirt as soon as he could… shame he wouldn't let me wear it when he did that, but that Mikey was always a strange one wanting to wear my clothes. That's why we broke up. Now where was I? Oh yes, how many trips have you taken back alone?"
"Um… this is my first."
She smiled as she looked on him, a hand going to her waist. "Ah. I understand. Well, Harry, since I owe you a life debt, I'm going to start paying it off now. First, you have to understand that while you are able to go back into the past, your actual physical body is in the present. That means you are not here in any manner other than magical. Oh, you can feel and sense and kiss and all that, but your body is somewhere else. You are in essence a waking dream. That means you have a body you can change and not be a metamorphmagus to do it."
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Huh?"
"Think about it, Harry. All it takes is will power, and a strong desire to change something. Most magic is like that. Concentrate on becoming an adult again. You can do since I've already seen the outcome. Give it a shot."
Harry thought about it for a moment. If he was a waking dream, he could look like anything. "Hold on, let me try something." Harry concentrated and slowly he began to age and grow. Soon, he was back to his old self before the advent of chapter 2. He opened his eyes and an 18-year-old man smiled at to pleased looking woman in front of him. Harry went from looking up to her to now looking down to her from his 5'9" frame.
Safire smiled and said, "Now that's the man I remember. How about you and me heading to the back room for a few hours of relaxation? At least let me show you my appreciation for saving my life two years ago."
She grabbed his hand and began to pull him into the back room. "But I haven't done that."
She smiled as she moved the blanket separating the front from the back of the cottage. "Then it'll give you some motivation to go back further and do it."
Safire took his unresisting hand in hers and took him into the back room.
There was something relaxing about her, Harry could sense as he entered the room that contained a bed and not much else. Or at least not much else that he bothered to notice. He looked in Safire's eyes just before they kissed.
He did not think about his past loves at all for the next several hours.
-0-
Uptime, present day
"Harry?" Edward asked as he walked into the room. Nothing. His friend wasn't there either.
Frowning, Edward made his way back to the common room and spoke with Pam and Susan. "He's not there either. I don't know where he is; this isn't like him."
"Maybe he's inspecting the castle for his thesis," Susan suggested.
"Maybe," Pam acknowledged. "But I'm sure he would have told us first if that's what he was going to do."
"True," Edward said, thinking. "But I have a feeling that's not the case. Hey, Saul, have you seen Harry recently?"
"Get lost, Gallandro. Potter's a pest and so are you."
"How rude," Pam sniffed.
"Cedric? Have you seen Harry recently?" Susan asked another older student.
"Last I saw him was after dinner. He was headed for the library."
"The library closed an hour ago," Edward commented mostly to himself, trying to think where his friend was.
"To students, yes," Susan said, "but not to an apprentice. Maybe he's still there?"
"Let's go find out," Pam said.
"It's nearly curfew guys," Cedric pointed out.
"We'll run," Pam said with a smile leaving the Hufflepuff common area.
Cedric simply smiled at their antics. Firsties… was he ever that small?
Saul on the other hand went to alert a prefect that firsties were going to be out past curfew and that they needed to be taught a lesson. Teach that Potter to keep a better eye on his friends at least. Get him in trouble will he…
Five minutes later an out of breath trio of Hufflepuffs stood outside the library. The chime they heard indicated it was now curfew and they were outside of where they should be. Edward grinned and said, "Ah well, in for a sickle, in for a galleon." He then opened the door to the library.
It didn't take long for them to find their friend. He was standing next to the Restricted Section gate looking down at the book in his hands.
"Harry?" Pam said as she approached the unmoving boy.
The three Hufflepuffs looked at one another with worry in their eyes. Hesitantly, Susan reached out and touched his sleeve. "Harry? You okay?"
No answer. No movement.
Edward walked up to his friend and looked at his face, first moving to a lower position on his knee to look up since Harry was obviously concentrating on the book in his hands. The same book that had nothing written on its pages.
He gasped when he saw Harry's eyes. They were black. Completely black.
"What's going on here?" Jamie Summers asked, taking a small delight in startling the three students from her house. It was a small perk of being a prefect, but one she obviously tried to employ as often as she could.
"Jamie," Pam started, "something's wrong with Harry. We came here to find him and we did and well… see for yourself. He's not moving. He won't respond."
"And his eyes are like looking into a void," Edward put in, getting back to his feet.
"Maybe he's just messing with your heads. You're first years; that makes you easy targets. Harry? Harry! HARRY!"
"I don't think he's faking it, Jamie," Edward said.
The sixth year prefect stood for a moment taking in the scene. The three responsive students were looking to her for guidance and this was no laughing matter. "Edward, go to Professor Sprout's quarters and bring her here. Susan, go to the infirmary and bring Madame Pomfrey here. I'll go get Professor Dumbledore. Pam, you stay here and keep an eye on Harry in case… well, just in case.."
In short order, the adults had descended on the library and sent the students back to their rooms. After discerning that her newest patient was not the victim of a hex or curse, but was simply unresponsive, Madame Pomfrey whisked the apprentice back to her sterile lair and put him to bed. His expression was still the same and his hands still held the book as they were unable to remove it. Something resisted every attempt to wrest it away.
Professor Dumbledore had tried over 20 different spells in an attempt to get the book away from his hands, figuring that whatever was affecting their apprentice had something to do with that book. "I must say I am at a loss for this, Poppy," he said to the nurse. "This book simply does not want to be removed from young Mr. Potter's hands."
Poppy herself had not even tried removing the book other than seeing if she could take it out of his hands by pulling it. When it didn't budge, she had enlisted the help of the headmaster while she ran diagnostic spells on the boy. "Could the book be cursed, Albus?" Beep-beep-beep went a small green light near the lower end of her wand indicating his body functions were in the normal range. That indicator light had not changed during any of the attempts to remove the book.
"Anything is possible. It certainly wasn't cursed when we put it in the library years ago, but anyone could have cursed it since then. However, I do not believe so. I ran a check on the book and while magical, it does not display any of the characteristics of a cursed object."
"Then why can't it be removed?"
"That is the question of the night, isn't it? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say our young apprentice doesn't want that book removed and is using his own magic to counter my attempts at removing it."
"What makes you think that, Albus?"
"Other than being unresponsive to outside stimuli, the magical responses to my attempts have been equally met. If this was a cursed item, it would have been trying to overpower my attempts, or use Harry's lifeforce or own magic to avoid removal. Yet your diagnostic has not changed during any of my spells. If it is cursed, it is a passive curse, but I believe that there is no curse involved."
"Then what do you suggest is happening to him? I have not seen anything like this in all my days that has not been curse-related."
"This is new to me as well, Poppy. How is his health?"
"He is in excellent condition."
"No lingering spell residue?"
"Nothing that I can identify."
"I need to research this. Please place alert wards on him in case he wakes up or moves. I will check back in the morning to see if there is any change."
"What of his parents?"
"I will contact them as soon as I return to my office. Thank you, Poppy, I know he will do well in your care."
As the Headmaster left the infirmary, the nurse began casting and placing several alert wards on his newest patient. She also put into effect recording wards of his HMI and other magical signatures. She retreated to her office for an hour's worth of research on his condition before finally realizing it was late and she couldn't do him much good if she collapsed from lack of sleep.
It sucked getting old she knew. When she was younger she could have spent all night working on this problem. These days, however, she knew she needed her sleep.
She did wake early in the morning around 6AM and went to check on her patient. There was no change in his position at all. The only thing that was different was that Professor Binns was now in the room looking down on the apprentice. This was very odd. He had never once come to the infirmary while she'd been there. His body once visited the infirmary if only to have it sent on to his family, but the ghostly professor had never once stepped ectoplasmic foot in her hospital.
"Professor Binns?" the Headmaster was also shocked as he walked into the room.
"Hello, Headmaster. I heard that something happened to Mr. Potter and came to find out what is going on."
"That is certainly admirable, Cuthbert. But the only thing we know is his friends found him like this. He is not reacting to anything we ask of him, or even if we pinch his skin."
Professor Binns looked down at Harry and asked, "How about magical discharge? On the negative end if you please."
"I was just about to check my readings," Poppy answered. She then checked her wards and the two professors could see something was happening there. "This is incredible, Headmaster. According to this, Mr. Potter is discharging a tremendous amount of anti-magic. His brain is working even if he can't tell what is going on in the here and now."
"Ah," Professor Binns said. "That's what I thought. Not to worry, Headmaster. Harry will be back. He's simply gone on a vision quest."
"A what?"
"Oh, he has gone to view some history and more than likely he is going to try and change something. He'll be fine, but it may take him a bit to get back. My old history master advised against doing that. I'm sure once his energy begins to wan he will be pulled back uptime. I'm sure it will only be a few more hours at most."
"I don't see any diminish on his energy levels, Headmaster, professor," said Poppy. "And this has been recording his output all night."
"You don't? That's odd," muttered Professor Binns. "They should be dipping at the very least. I was only able to keep it going for 8 hours myself the few times I did it. How long has our apprentice been at it?"
"His friends found him about 10PM last night. So assume anytime after 10pm to now. Nearly eight hours. More than likely it is longer than that," Albus supplied.
That shocked the ghost. "That long and he has a lot of energy left?"
"As near as I can tell, yes."
"Oh dear. Well, all I can say is that he won't be able to change too much history no matter what he does. Fate won't allow it. I'm sure he will be back soon. Have you alerted his family yet?"
"I contacted James and Lily last night. They will be here shortly. Poppy, you had best get a spare bed ready if I know Lily at all. She will most likely want to stay with her son until he regains consciousness.
-0-
Downtime
Meanwhile, back in the past, several hours later (so to speak), a much more energized Harry came out from the back room. Moments later, Safire came out as well, her dress a little messed up along with her hair. Noticing the darkness, she used her wand and started a fire in the fireplace.
Looking at Harry, she smiled and said, "That was great, handsome!"
Harry smirked a bit himself. "You weren't so bad yourself."
"And to think, now I've got a full dozen. One more and I'll have a full baker's dozen."
"What?" Harry's smile faltered, fearing the next response would be an answer he really didn't want to know.
Safire looked at him and gave a sultry grin while moving to gather some dishes and pull out something to eat. "A baker's dozen. You know: notches on a belt. Conquests. Roll in the hay. That sort of thing."
"What?" Yep, Harry really hadn't wanted to hear that.
Safire put the bowls down and walked up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Sex. You know, what we just had. You didn't think you were the first did you? Come on, that body you have on is for show isn't it? You're older than you look, right? Don't tell me I just shagged some kid, right?"
Harry decided it was time to move this conversation in an entirely different direction. "You don't know how many questions I have running through my head right now."
"About sex?"
"No!"
"Oh." She walked back to a cupboard and found something to drink, then took it and sat down. "Well, go ahead and ask them. I'm too tired for another round at this time so talking will help you understand."
Harry pulled his thoughts together. "Okay. The first thing I want to ask you is your speech. Shag? That's a slang term from my time. Why are you using it? In fact, how is it I understand you as well as I do? I thought there'd be some dialect problems coming back this far in time."
Safire smiled and said, "Your magic is tied to you in both your present time and this historical time. It acts as a filter for you. You are hearing what I am saying in terms you better understand and my magic is doing the same for me – allowing me to understand what it is you are saying. You have met another history channeler haven't you? You're not a virgin on that as well are you?"
"No! I mean, yes, I've met another history channeler."
"Are you okay, Harry? You look like something the kneazle brought in after playing with it for an afternoon."
"I'm fine." Really, he was fine. Ya. You betcha.
"As long as you're sure," she replied with a slight grin. "That answer your question though?"
"Yes. I get the linguistics and no, I'm not a virgin the way you're asking."
"Whatever you say, stud."
Harry felt he knew the answer to the language situation but the explanation helped. However, the question he really wanted to ask was: "What did you mean by a baker's dozen?"
"You're not jealous, are you Harry?"
"No!"
"Uh-huh. Well, since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you. You're not the first history channel I've bagged, Harry. I've got almost all of them now. You know, oddly enough I wouldn't have even been aware of you until I got some intel on you from a Seer five years ago. Then the bit at Colin's castle two years ago – thanks by the way. Now today. Now there's only one left. And as is, I'm going to need your help to land him if that Seer is to be believed."
"Just who are all the others?" Harry asked with a slight edge to his voice. He wasn't angry, was he?
She started counting on her fingers, "Barkley, Gregorivich, Archie Andrews, D'Artione, Hu, Six of Eight, Schultzie, Binns…"
"Wait! You boinked Binns?"
Her eyes shot up as she said, "You know him?"
"He's my history professor uptime!"
"He's your master?"
"Not really. He's dead."
"I'm sorry. Died recently?"
"Nope. Dead for some time best I can tell. He's a ghost."
"Ah. Stayed around long enough to find and train a new channeler. Good dedication. Bit of a bore in the bedroom…"
"Please, don't tell me any more. I don't want to know," Harry had a queasy look on his face.
"Well, it's never been my habit to kiss and tell, so I'll keep a tight lip on the kinky things he wanted…"
"Stop!"
"I'm only teasing you Harry. Relax."
"Next question. You mentioned a Seer. Who and what info did he give that makes you need my help?"
"Sebastian Augustus DaVinci. I met him 12 years ago when my master contacted him for a reading. Once I finished my apprenticeship I hooked up with him for a bit and he helped me understand my power better than that old perv known as my former master. His inner sight helped me determine when I should travel to so I could meet other history channelers. 'Course I thought he'd blown a gasket when he suggested I visit Colin's castle a couple years back. Didn't know you'd meet me. Thought I'd have to zip to meet you."
Harry looked at her critically. "That explains the who. Now why do you still need my help?"
"I was just getting to that, sweet cheeks. Augie was able to see me meeting 13 other history channelers. But it was something to do with you that allowed me to eventually meet the last one. So do you think you're up to helping me… considering you know why I want to meet him?"
"You want me to help you travel in time so you can shag another channeler?"
"Sure. Don't you? Well, probably not since most channelers are men, but whatever floats your boat and all that."
"Ugh."
"You are so easy to rile up, Harry. That's what I like about you. That and your…"
"Let's get back on topic, shall we? No, forget it, I've got a thought that just won't go away. So you don't want to shag this last channler?"
"Whatever gave you that idea? Of course I do. It's just that he's going to be a little tough to catch considering where we have to go and all. Now before you ask me anything else you really don't want an answer to, what's the reason you came back here?"
"Oh, right. Lost track of that. Gee, I wonder why. Anyway, I'm looking for more information on the seasonal wands of Azgothigan."
Safire ladled some stew out of a cookpot over the fireplace and handed a bowl to Harry. "Good wand craftsmanship. Excellent quality. Not surprising you're looking for them. Most wizards would give their familiars for something like that. What makes you think I know anything?"
"I'm reading a history book you wrote and you mention them. That's how I knew to come back here."
"Really? A history book? I wonder when I do that? No matter. I'm surprised you simply didn't go back and ask the big guy about his wands yourself. Why come to me?"
"Binns said the farther you go back, to more power drain there is and when you get back to the present, you'll be paying for it for days if not weeks."
"True, but then Binns is only a history channeler. He's not also a shadow mage like you are. You've got power to spare and you know it."
"What?"
"Oh, relax, Harry. I'm not out to hurt you unless it's with some whipped cream on that torso of yours. You're a shadow mage. You know it and I know it."
"How do you…"
She grinned and put a finger to his lips to stop his sputtering. "Because I'm a shadow sorceress, bubba." She turned her eyes completely black similar to the way Harry's were back in Uptime. "I've got more power and more abilities than your average witch, but even I'm not as powerful as I can sense you are. I mean, just look at it. You've been here for hours and you haven't faded yet. If that's not an indication of power, I don't know what is."
"I don't understand."
"You mean Binns hasn't told you yet? Time works differently when you're interacting with history rather than just watching it. And the further back you go, the more time you lose in the present. You've been here for over two hours. Uptime you could have lost four hours or four days. Depends on how far away you are from the present, and how much power you channel back into the timestream to keep yourself from time distortion."
"Great. Just great. I need to get back to my time and hopefully set things back to normal." PING. "What was that?"
"Oh, I'd say you just trigged a desire to return home to your present. And magic is going to be taking you away from me in just a few moments. You staying her and returning is all just a matter of desire after all."
"But I still had more questions to ask you."
"I understand, tiger. Just remember you can come back here again real soon. As is, I'm not done thanking you for saving my life. And do me a favor, don't show up as a kid again. I mean, if we're going to have lots and lots of sex, I need to know you are a man."
Harry gets ready to go. "Say, you don't know what enchantments you're going to put on your book to keep others from reading things are, do you? What passwords you'll put into effect?"
"No can say, big guy. But come back here tomorrow and we'll discuss it more in-depth. And just to whet your appetite, here's something for you to see."
She opened a drawer and pulled out a silk cloth. She then pulled out a wand.
"Is that…" Harry asked as an understanding began to fill his head. Hey, it happened once and a while.
"Winter. I'll show you more if it when you come back next time. Ta ta for now, Harry." She winked at him as he faded from view.
-0-
Uptime, present day
A book landing on Harry's nose startled his eyelids open. Harry felt the sheets under him as he woke. What were sheets doing in the library? He blinked his eyes and noticed a familiar ceiling. What the? He was just in the library; what the heck was he doing in the bloody infirmary again? Looking around he noticed the light level coming in the room from the window. It was early morning and the sun was just starting to peek over the battlements on the eastern walls.
Crap, he thought. How long was I out? Harry had guessed he'd only be out a few hours and then a little magically weak for a bit based on what Binns had shared from his experience, but how long was he actually out if he was in the infirmary of all places? C'mon, Harry, maybe it was only some students freaking out if they couldn't wake you.
Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket. They just freaked out when you didn't wake up.
Taking in deeper breaths to get his circulation moving again, Harry eventually sat up and looked around to see if he was alone. He had expected to sit up, looking in the half light and see a couple rows of empty beds. He was surprised then to see the bed next to his occupied. To make matters worse, he recognized the occupant.
It was his mother.
And as he squinted to get a better look he saw she was drooling on the pillow.
Deciding to get up, he tossed the book that was on him towards his feet, whipped the covers off and stood quickly. He noticed that however long he'd been there had been long enough for someone to strip him down and put him in his pyjamas. Not needing them for anything other than the façade he was continuing, Harry looked to his nightstand and found his glasses.
The stone floor was cold to his feet but Harry didn't mind it much. He'd gotten over thinking about such things when he was six and complained during the winter that he was cold to his aunt. After her little venting about ungrateful children, he'd had his cot and blankets taken away for a week. That same week he'd gotten a 104 degree temperature and now that he could look back on it, he realized it was his magic that had finally kept him in the realm of the breathing.
Harry walked over to the window and looked out. There was a little frost on the ground. It was fall, he mused. How long had he been out he wondered. It had to be a day or longer since his mother was wearing her sleeping garb.
Crap, he thought. How the hell am I going to explain this?
"Harry?" a soft voice said, sleep still there. Then, louder, "Harry!"
Harry turned and saw his mother rushing towards him, her pink flannel nightgown (that went to her feet) not slowing her run to him. She smothered him in a hug. "Oh, Harry! You're awake! I was so worried. What happened? Did you touch a cursed book? Didn't I always tell you to run a check over any unknown book? Oh sweetie, look at you! You're all skin and bones. You haven't eaten in days. Are you hungry? I can have a house elf bring something up. How about some chicken noodle soup? Or a sirloin steak? Potatoes?" She stopped when she saw him smiling at her.
"Sweetie?" she managed to ask.
"Hi, mum." She was making a fuss over him again. How great was that?!
"Oh, Harry!" She swept him into another bear hug and leaked out a few tears.
It took nearly an hour for Harry to get his mother to stop mothering him. For one thing, he really didn't want her to stop, but eventually a bodily need won out and he needed to use the loo. Preferably without someone waiting inside with him in case he fell off the toilet.
Shortly after that he dressed in his school clothes with the full intention of returning to his dorm and cleaning himself up properly. After all, his hair was wilder than usual and he had a little B-O going. Thankfully, no one had seen fit to give him a sponge bath. God forbid his mother had thought to do it. Even Harry had his limits.
Fully clothed, he sat across from his mother, both on their respective beds. He knew there would be serious repercussions if he left the infirmary without Madame Pomfrey's permission, so he was waiting for her to wake and pronounce him fit as a fiddle.
"You ready to tell me what you were doing back in time, mister?" Lily asked, shocking her oldest son.
"Er… um, how do you know I just wasn't cursed?"
"Please, Harry, give your mother some credit. I've seen cursed people before. It's not a pretty sight. You on the other hand were still my handsome little prince."
"Mum," Harry's cheek's flushed a little.
"Besides, Professor Binns confirmed your little jaunt. He said it had something to do with your eyes."
"What do you mean?"
"Your eyes turned completely black, did you know that? All of it, even the whites turned black. And Madame Pomfrey said you were exporting a large amount of anti-magic out of your body. Harry, I'll be honest with you. When your father and I first heard from Headmaster Dumbledore that you were a History Channeler, we were both elated. We both have worked dangerous jobs in the past, and your father still has an element of danger in his job even now. We thought that this ability of yours would keep you safe, give you a safe job. And now we find that you can go gallivanting off in time whenever you feel like it and that it's not as safe as we thought it was."
"Mum, I'm not hurt. And I can't be hurt when I travel back in time."
"Oh really? And where did you get that little tidbit of information from? Because according to your Professor Binns, you can get hurt in time. Specifically, when you are interacting with time and not just watching it."
"Really? I can get hurt in downtime? Huh. How about that. He never said anything to me."
"I suspect he was waiting for the correct time. Specifically after you did something that caused you to get a little hurt with a time interaction."
"But mum, I had to go. It was important."
"What was so important you had to go alone and unsupervised at that, hmmm? What was so important you were left standing alone and unresponsive in the library for lord knows how long before your friends found you? What was so important that you wanted to change history even though I know that Binns has told you that you cannot change history?"
Boy, was she ever heated. Think fast, Harry. "Um… only part of history is recorded. I used the book as a starting point to go back in time. I found the event that was recorded but then watched and interacted with the part that wasn't in the book. Don't you see, mum? I can change history – but only the unrecorded history."
"Harry, you were out flat on your back with a book stuck in your hands for three days! I don't care about your reasoning on this. You are not doing another stint like that in time again, mister."
"But mom, if there's something I need to do back in time, I have to do it. Fate demands it." After all, he thought, how was he going to take Safire up on her invitation to return if he was stuck uptime under his mother's thumb?
"And just how are you going to know something in history needs your fingers poking around to fix unless it is already recorded, hmmm?"
Harry was a fighter. He thought with actions more so than with words. That was Hermione's department. Even as an apprentice he could feel himself sometimes get tongue-tied when asked too many questions at once. That was why he kept his mouth shut most of the time and looked around, trying to figure out the best response while other people just spouted whatever came to their heads.
And that was what he was doing here. His mouth was shut as he tried to figure out how to answer his mother's question. How would he know about something in history unless it were recorded somehow?
Lily sighed and looked down at the floor, her fingers intertwining on her lap. "Look, Harry, I understand what it's like to be your age. Really, I do. I was 11 once. You are a very gifted young man. And I know you've gotten better at keeping secrets recently. I mean, this summer is proof of that. Cooking like me when I couldn't get you in the kitchen for years? You not bothering to study during your first five years of schooling which now that I think of it you must have skived off so you could concentrate on your magic.
"You know, a couple months ago I actually suspected you were using a wit sharpening potion but you know what convinced me you weren't using a potion at all?"
Harry looked at his mother and said, "What?"
"The sorting hat. The enchantments on that hat see through potions and spells and other artificial aids students have used throughout the centuries. It sees the real you deep down. And when it made you an apprentice, I was so proud. My little boy was now a smart little man. To be able to hide your real abilities all these years and surprise us on your first day at Hogwarts? That was something, honey."
She knows, he thought. No, she suspects something is different. You've got to quit arousing her suspicions.
"Mum," he started, "I wasn't hurt and I don't plan to ever get hurt."
She sighed again and looked straight into his now-normal eyes. "Yes, you weren't hurt this time, honey, but what's to say you won't be hurt next time? Or the time after that?"
"I might get hurt, I concede that point, mum. But what if I can save someone during a time trip that otherwise might get killed by some rampaging nundu or berserk muggle? What if I can help save a child so they don't have to grow up an orphan?" Without meaning to, the hurt in Harry's eyes could be seen by Lily.
When had her son grown up into such a fine man?
"Harry… I have no right to stop you using your power. Only… do me a favor and let someone in the present know when you are going to do this again? So we don't find you like this last time?"
Harry nodded to that request. "I apologize for making you worry, mum. I'll have a spotter the next time I do this. I promise."
"Harry, I mean it. A spotter, or a friend, or even just someone concerned for your safety can do wonders for you, especially if you are hurt in the process. I mean, look at what I have to do with your father and that silly language of his."
"What… silly language is that, mum?" Harry asked guardedly.
"Your father's obsession with pig-Latin, silly. You know that. He, Sirius, and Remus use that language all the time when they're trying to pull a fast one while keeping me out of the loop."
"You know about that?" Harry really needed to rethink his mother.
"Harry, I was apprenticed to the Department of Mysteries when I was younger and language studies was required. Of course I know about it."
"Then why don't you confront them with it?"
"And give up my ability to read their notices whenever I want? Why would I do that? If I did, they'd just go and invent a new language and I'd have to spend time deciphering it before knowing what kinds of shenanigans those three are involved in. No, this way I get to know what is going on and if I need to take an active role in putting a stop to it, or just let it play out."
"Wow… I guess you're a good actor."
Lily smiled at her son and replied, "And don't you forget about it, mister. So that's my secret. I can trust you to keep it, can't I? You look like the kind of son who keeps his promises."
"I'll keep your secret, mum."
"Thank you, Harry."
It took another hour before Harry was released from the infirmary. During which time Harry had to recount his story of going back in time to a goblin rebellion he remembered reading about and then traversing the countryside to a different location to check on a village that was in the path of the goblins retreating with their pillage. He told about his adventure trying to get the villagers to defend their homes and the one wizard in residence to get ready to defend himself from the goblins. There was the obligatory fighting and the long rest periods punctuated with arrows shot over the walls. Harry hadn't heard of the village so was trying to rescue those he would. He only recalled reading that the goblins retreated along the way they'd come. So figuring it wouldn't hurt to check it out, that's what he did.
Harry knew he was never going to get into Heaven with the amount of lying he was doing. But he needed to keep his visit to Safire a secret. If only for the time being.
He told the story to his mother. Then to Madame Pomfrey who checked him over and pronounced him good enough to leave.
Then again to the Headmaster and his father (who was eating some breakfast he'd snatched from the kitchen thanks to a friendly house elf). It was Monday night when he'd gone to the library. Today was Friday. And class was going to start soon. Harry gave hugs to his parents and then made his way back to the Hufflepuff domain. He needed a shower.
And something to eat. Safire had certainly worked up an appetite in him.
(((o)))
"Hi, guys," Harry smiled as he sat down at the Hufflepuff table for breakfast.
"Harry!" Pam squealed, hugging her friend. "You're awake!"
"An improvement over yesterday I think," Edward commented with a faux upper lip.
"Miss me?"
"Of course not. Without you to mess things up, all of our classroom scores went up due to the staff's incessant use of a bell curve," Susan replied. "Of course we missed you, you moron. How are you feeling?"
"Well rested if you can believe it. Hi, Hermione!"
"Harry!" She ran over and gave him a hug that rivaled Mrs. Weasley's any day. "When did you wake up? How are you?"
"This morning and I'm hungry. Breakfast anyone?"
Edward chuckled at this byplay and scooped some eggs onto Harry's plate. Susan then gave him some toast that she knew he loved so well. Susan filled his glass up with some pumpkin juice.
"Wow. I should turn my lights out more often if I can get you to all wait on me when I wake up. This is nice."
"Shut it, you prat," Hermione grinned at her friend. "You had us worried for days. What were you doing anyway?"
Harry could have avoided the question but knew it would come back with a vengeance. This way he could at least put the right spin on things. "I went back in time. You know, kind of like I do in class."
"But that hasn't caused you problems before," Pam pointed out.
"Yeah… well, then I was only observing history. This time, though, I was trying to interact with history and that really takes it out of you according to Professor Binns."
"Interact how?" Edward's eyes narrowed as he came to the realization that his friend could do more than just watch the history channel all day.
"I wanted to save someone that might have otherwise died. Look, it's a little complicated and I still need to talk to Professor Binns about it. I can't really say much now because I don't have much to say. I went back, found a village, tried to help it stave off a gob squad and then came back to find that three days had gone by."
"Well," Susan began, "when you can tell us more, do so. Now go on and eat."
"Yes, mom," Harry grinned.
For a few minutes the group ate and the table continued to fill up, some of the newcomers waving to Harry and others choosing to not notice the apprentice and his friends. When a sixth-year prefect came in and saw Harry, she made her way directly to the group.
"Glad to see you're up and about, Mr. Potter," she said in a cheery voice.
"Thanks, Jamie. Look, I want to thank you and you guys as well for finding me and getting me to the infirmary. I'd hate to think I would have been stuck standing in the library all night. Really, I had no idea that was going to happen. I thought I would make a quick trip back in history and then be back before curfew."
"Guess you learned your lesson then, eh?" Jamie said.
"I already spoke about it with my mum this morning. No more going back in time without someone at least watching over my uptime form. Yeah, that lesson sunk in."
"Good, I guess."
"Besides," Harry continued with a marauder thought, "from what I heard, you learned something as well."
"Oh?" said the prefect.
"I heard you were the one who knew the spell to strip off my clothes when I was taken to the infirmary. You naughty witch you." Wink.
"Oh, ha-ha, mister. I was busy escorting your friends back to their rooms. For your information, I happen to know it is Madame Pomfrey who disrobes students in her care."
"Oh? And just how do you happen to know that fact, Miss Summers?" asked a smirking Edward.
She looked at him then back at Harry. "You try dating a Quidditch player long enough and you will become familiar with some of the more obscure things you don't ever want to know about the infirmary. Good day everyone."
"Later, Jamie," Susan said for the group.
(((o)))
After dinner that night, Harry made his way back to the History classroom. Once there, he proceeded to the office in the back. He stood for a moment rehearsing the story in his head that he'd been giving to everyone today. He was sure he could use the same story on Binns and no one would be the wiser.
He knocked on the weathered door.
"Enter, Mr. Potter," came the monotone invitation.
Harry opened the door and saw that Professor Binns was grading papers. Or more accurately, one of the house elves was picking up a scroll and putting it on a scale. Professor Binns then looked down on the scroll and then where the needle rested.
"Hmmmm, mark this one as an EE, Inky."
The house elf nodded once and put his finger in the inkpot and wrote a fairly legible EE on the top of the paper.
"Just one moment, Harry. I want to get done grading the 5th year history reports."
Inky picked up another scroll and put it on the scale. A cursory Hmmm later and it was given an A grade.
"Pardon my question, professor, but shouldn't you be reading those essays?"
"Whatever for, Mr. Potter? I've taken stock of my students before and believe me, if they can't stay awake in my class any more than the rest, I'm sure I don't need to review their work since it is most likely passed around from one student to the other."
"Then why the scale, sir?"
"Ah. Yes. The scale. It is to see how much work they actually inserted into the paper that I am checking on. Mark that one an EE, Inky. And that will be all. We'll do the 4th year essays tomorrow night."
"Yessir," squeaked the house elf. Moments later the house elf was gone, leaving Harry alone with the ghost.
"I take it you want to talk about my recent trip in time?"
"Somewhat," Professor Binns replied, motioning for Harry to sit down. "As is, I've already heard about your little excursion from other students and the Headmaster. Details vary but that is to be expected. I'm more interested in understanding your reasoning for going back in time the way you did, Harry."
"I'm… uh, well…"
"Take your time, Harry."
"Well, to be honest, I went back looking for some information. I wasn't even planning on being gone long, but I knew I needed to talk with someone about wand making."
"Wand making? What about our Mr. Ollivander in Diagon Alley?"
"It's kind of an independent study, sir, and I've already discussed it a bit with him, and he couldn't really tell me much which is why when I found a reference in a history book, I thought to go ask the source."
"And all this led to your interaction in saving a village from a goblin rebellion?"
"Er… somewhat. It's more of what I still need to do, sir."
"If I understand your meaning, young man, you are still slated to go back and do something even though you weren't originally slated to do something to begin with. Right?"
"Yeah. Sure. You betcha. But, sir, don't you think since I've already done it, am slated to do it, am going to do it, that I should do it?"
Binns let out a ghostly sigh. "Harry, this is precisely why Time Turners don't go any further than they do. It is also why I wanted you to take it slow when moving back in time. You are looking for a temporal loophole to validate your actions back in the past."
"But, sir, I can't just sit aside when we go back in time and not try to help those that I can. No, I understand that I can't change history or I'll muck it up more than it is. I understand that, I really do. But what I'm talking about is not changing history. I want to get involved where it's not involved. All of history isn't recorded after all."
"Harry, you certainly want to exploit your powers of time. Heh, you remind me of myself when I was young."
"And didn't you feel good when you helped those people when you interacted with history the first time?"
"Yes, Harry, I did. It felt good to be able to make a difference. I just don't want you to hurt anyone in the process. I want you to exercise caution since you could be stepping on what ultimately happens anyway."
"But who's to say that I wasn't there originally to create the cause and effect that ultimately leads to what we know?"
Binns looked at his apprentice and let out another ghostly sigh. "You are determined to do this. I can tell. I was once alive as well and remember the desire burning in me. I will not tell you no. You need to test the waters in the timestream so to speak. Just remember that when you go, use an anchor in real time that can watch over you."
"You sound just like my mother," Harry said with a grin.
"I imagine I do."
"Sir, what I'm thinking of on my next trip is to go back far enough in time that it's not very well recorded. Make sure it's not recorded very well at least."
"You certainly seem to have the power to do that, Harry. I thought the power drain of interacting with history would have sapped you far sooner than it did."
"Sir, have you ever countered the power drain? Or at least made it so it was an equal one-for-one temporal loss in downtime and uptime?"
Professor Binns removed his ghostly glasses, rubbed them and thought about what he was just asked. "To answer your question, yes I attempted to arrest the loss of time. It can be done but it's not easy. It does use your power up on a faster scale. You need to equalize the timestream around you prior to going back. I did this under a suggestion from a particularly smart… witch, and I was able to spend several hours with her in her current time before snapping back to the present."
"Were there any problems?"
"You mean other than the one that it was so draining that it left me magically weak for about a month until my reserves climbed back to normal?"
"Yes."
Professor Binns smiled briefly and replied, "No, no problems."
"Was it worth it? Going back in time and spending some time with a witch?"
"Oh yes, it was certainly worth it. Not that you'd understand it at your age, Harry. Perhaps when you're older."
They spoke about other things for a little longer, about scheduling some class trips to the past and a couple of pretty non-graphic goblin rebellions that were certain to give the political junkies of the class something to think about. And while Harry worked his schedule around the trips and thought of others to plan in the future, part of his mind held onto the hope for his next jaunt back in time based on what Binns and Safire had both said. Maybe instead of blowing off some steam next time, he could use his excess power and direct it into a time field.
(((o)))
As the weeks rolled on, classes settled down and became routine for the students. Harry continued to roll from class to class, mostly with the first years, but often with second and thirds. He continued to teach DADA spells during part of the week while allowing Quirrell to impart the theory (which he had to summarize in the next class prior to going over spell work). He would hit charms with his grade level and stay behind to help the next class or the class after that.
Potions became fun since he was now allowed to do whatever he felt like doing (within reason). For the most part, Professor Snape kept away from the apprentice. Both, however, knew enough to remain well enough away from Neville when he (and Ron/Rufus/Rodrick/Rupert) managed to blow up three more cauldrons.
Shortly into October, Harry moved houses yet again, this time going to Ravenclaw. Whereas Gryffindor had been boisterous, and Hufflepuff an exercise in solidarity, Ravenclaw was pretty much boring. Sure there were clubs he could go to, and other activities he could join, like Quidditch practice, but there wasn't much social interaction. Or at least there wasn't enough in his books. Maybe he was too Gryffindor in his ways for this house. Or perhaps this group were mostly bookworms for a reason.
By and large, they were mostly boring. They talked about schoolwork all the time. All the bloody time! Harry mused. That and jobs. There was more to life than school and jobs. There was living to do. People to see. Jokes to tell and pranks to pull. As is, the only people he could get interested in any sort of non-schoolish activity was Padma Patil and Terry Boot. Some of the other Ravenclaws that tried to get to know him mostly did it so they could have access to the library after hours (they hoped) or were trying to pick his brain for some easy answers (they wished).
But what bothered Harry the most about moving there was that when he tried to excuse himself out of whatever group had cloistered around him with the pretext of seeing his friends, they found more questions to badger him with, or threw requests at him to bring them study materials since he was going to the library anyway. Harry found ways to decline these requests (mostly by saying for the asker to get off his lazy bum and do it himself or he'd put him or her in detention), but it still bothered him that they didn't want him to see his other friends.
Harry couldn't help but think how Hermione would have grown as a person had she been put in that House. True, Gryffindor wasn't as ideal a place for her as Ravenclaw could be intellectually speaking, but Gryffindor did bring out her personality and in effect made her a more well-rounded person.
At the end of his two-week stint, Harry knew he wouldn't be coming back. He'd made some friends there and they were meeting him and his other friends in the library and Great Hall regularly, but he wasn't going to bunk in Ravenclaw again. That left Slytherin to try. But before he could do that, he needed to go back to Gryffindor if only for the weekend so he could officially be a Gryffindor while flying for them in the upcoming game.
(((o)))
Harry actually stayed for several weeks in Gryffindor. One reason he did this was to see how much he could rile up Neville and his thugs. Harry and Hermione held impromptu study sessions at night in the common room to help anyone that wasn't comfortable coming to the library after dinner to study. Parvati and Lavender sometimes participated, but mostly it was second and third years who joined in. Harry was not surprised that Ron didn't participate as the one thing that was the same here as it was in Harry's dimension was Ron was just downright lazy. It wasn't that he lacked intelligence (well, he had some smarts if little common sense), after all he could outplay anyone in chess. But other than chess and Quidditch, Ron's smarts were pretty much tapped out.
Neville was smart. He knew his spells even if he had difficulty performing them in class. Some things he knew well, other simple things he struggled with similar to Harry when he'd first attended Hogwarts. Harry sometimes wondered if he had limiters on his powers but when he'd gotten close to the boy in Herbology a few times he hadn't sensed a magical drain at all. Harry just chalked it up to his attitude interfering with his ability to learn.
At the end of the week, it was time for the first Quidditch game of the year. Harry thought he might actually perform better this go around than the last time since Quirrell wasn't out to get him. At least he hoped the professor wasn't out to get him. No, Harry was currently grading all papers in DADA from 1st-through-4th years so he was pretty sure the man wouldn't want to get rid of him just yet. If he did, then he'd have to go through the papers (that is, if he even did it the first time around).
A few odd things started happening during this time. Well, one wasn't so odd as it was expected: Snape's attitude towards taunting Neville took an upswing. Partly since the boy thought it would be funny to bring in some Snickerdoodles and put them on his desk similar to bringing an apple for a teacher. It didn't earn him any good graces and instead, the scrutiny he was placed under increased his jitters to the point where he exploded three more cauldrons. Harry could commiserate with what was happening to the boy, but he wasn't about to help him out considering he was as much a jerk as he was at the beginning of the school term.
The other odd thing was that several older girls started flirting with Harry. Now, Harry wasn't that good in the relationship department but did have eyes and did notice when a couple third year girls walking ahead of him "accidentally" dropped a quill and one of them bent down to pick it up, wiggling her rear all the while in front of the apprentice.
This had happened several times along with other similar incidents. It was getting to be too much and Harry tended to avoid those types of confrontations if he could help it. After all, dating anyone "his" age (i.e., 11-ish) was just too weird. They needed to be of legal age at least for him. His body was 11, but his mind was 18, and thinking of younger girls like that was just too "pervy". He was glad that his young body wasn't responding to these flirts, but he did find himself gazing more than once on some of the 6th and 7th year babes.
And when he did that, his body was starting to respond. Why, or why, couldn't something be normal for him? Just once.
(((o)))
While Harry shared his room with Neville and his crew, that didn't make him any part of their clique just as it hadn't when he'd stayed their earlier in the term. That didn't stop Neville from trying to include him in. Harry could only fathom that Neville was trying to get the two of them to be "friends" either to find a way to skim off his notes for homework assignments (like Harry was going to let that happen), or to show they were now chums and that Neville was again top dog of his environment since Harry had decided to become HIS friend.
Harry's refusal to have anything to do with them put a crimp in that plan, but that didn't stop him from trying. As is, the morning of the Quidditch game, Neville and his boys approached Harry during breakfast. Neville even sat down in front of Harry, pushing (not roughly, but using a firm hand) Susan down the bench a bit so he could sit.
"Potter… Harry, look. We got off on the wrong foot. Let's let bygones by bygones and how about you taking my hand in friendship?" He held his right hand out towards Harry.
Harry looked at the hand, then looked at Neville's face. He really wanted it for some reason, but friendship wasn't it. Harry then laughed out loud. "You've got to be kidding me, Longbottom. Why would I want to be friends with a jerk?"
"Look, Potter, don't make the mistake of rejecting my friendship."
"What are you going to do' complain that we're not best buds? You know, I like to tell myself that I don't judge people at first appearance. I try to wait to see how they actually represent themselves. But you… you've acted like a jerk from the moment we met. I don't know what crawled up your bum and died, but I think you can take the pole out and come down to the ground and meet some really nice people. If not, you're the Boy-Who-Lived as you like to tell everyone. I'm sure you can find yourself other friends."
Fuming, Neville got up from the Hufflepuff table and went back to the Gryffindor one.
Once he was out of earshot, Hermione said, "You know, maybe you should accept his friendship offer, Harry. He's certainly persistent about it."
Harry rolled his eyes and answered, "Why would I want to do that? He's a jerk."
"Well, they might make some trouble for you in the future."
"Ah, let them. I'll be ready. Maybe I'll assign some detentions. I hear Filch has some new fiendish tortures involving cleaning solutions, commodes, and sandpaper that he's looking to try out on students."
"Well, we'll watch out during Quidditch anyway, Harry. I just have a bad feeling about it." She looked at Neville who gave her and her friends a glare that said he was far from happy.
"You sure it's not the bacon? Seriously, don't worry about it. Neville is already in trouble from the broom incident. And did you hear what he did to Malfoy last week? They got into a fight in the hallway and used magic. Neville won, but got detention for it. Actually both are in detention for another couple weeks.
Ron shook his head and gave Harry and his friends his patented sneer. It looked like he was constipated, Harry thought.
-0-
As Harry made his way to the pitch, students he knew wished him well on his first match. This included older students, even Slytherins who he patiently explained concepts to in their Muggle Studies class. Gryffindor as a whole had a lot of students wishing they would crush the Slytherins if only to make their matches against them later on not as tough. But as always seemed to be the case, there were the exceptions to every rule. And that included some students who thought they were better than Harry. Well, to be fair, since he was a first year, most students thought they were better than him, apprentice or not. Those students tended to just snub him.
Harry didn't care about them at all. He was more concerned with the chasers on his team: Angelina, Katie, and Alicia. All older students who really didn't know what to expect from Harry as Wood had been the only one to train with him so far, they were withholding judgment on his performance, but were more than friendly to Harry – after all, he was their teammate, wasn't he?
Besides, he had stopped a potentially bullying session from getting out of control the other day, Angelina thought, when Flint had tried to intimidate the three girls in the halls. Apparently Flint, Adrian Pucey, and Miles Bletchley all thought they could try to out-psych the girls and browbeat them at the same time. There was no psychical altercation between the two groups, but the underlying threat was there.
"Flint, jerkwad-one, jerkwad-two. Why are you trying to make these girls cry?" he had said, stepping between the two groups.
"Stay out of this, Potter. It doesn't involve you," Flint said with a snide attitude.
"You sure? Because it seems to me that you're trying awful hard to get these three ladies all riled up so they won't be as effective in the game tomorrow. And since I'm on their team, I thought I should say something so you'd know we were onto your little ploy. That way we can all save some time and you and your two palsies can go back to your room and do whatever it is you three do there. But don't tell me because I'm on a strict no need to know list. Don't ask, don't tell, that's my motto."
"What are you on about, Potter?" Bletchley said.
"I'm on about you three girls leaving these three ladies alone. So how about it? Hop on back to your rooms now, that's it. Shoo."
Of course, the three Slytherins didn't move at all. Other than to pull their wands out so the Gryffindors and apprentice could see them.
"Flint, Flint, Flint. You've got to understand something. You consider me a first year. That's fine. But I'm an apprentice. Not an apprentice to just first years, but to everyone. That means I theoretically have more than enough knowledge to stun all three of you enough so that it's possible you'd miss the game tomorrow. And I'd had to show you up now in favor of being able to really show you up there. Now, what's it going to be? Do I stun you here and now, or let you walk away so we can all enjoy the game tomorrow?"
After a tense minute Flint motioned the others to put their wands away and with a glare reminiscent of their head of house, he and the other two boys strode off in a different direction.
"Thanks, Harry," Katie had said for the girls.
"No problem-o. What're teammates for? We watch each other's backs."
And now a day later Harry had found them as they were ready to head out the castle and walked with them to the changing rooms.
"Nervous, Harry?" Angelina asked.
"A little. More excited than anything. I'm looking to fly."
"You'll certainly get your chance," Alicia put in. "And, thanks again for yesterday."
An hour later the teams were on the field looking at their opponents. Some parents were in the stands with the houses their kids were in. He managed to catch a glimpse of his entire family, plus Sirius and his family, and Remus in the teacher stands. Actually playing in front of them made him more nervous than playing at all.
He kept his emotions out of it and applied some additional power to maintaining his mental shields. He needed to remain calm.
Moments later after the obligatory play nice and have a fair game (which no one in their right mind thought was going to happen at all), all the players and Madame Hooch were in the air. Harry was on his Nimbus; he had wanted to use his Firebolt, but not only was that broom not known here, it was also a reality away.
-0-
"And the Quaffle is taken by Angelina Johnson; what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive too."
"Jordan!"
There were some giggles in the crowd.
"Sorry, Professor!" Lee said apologetically, but didn't sound like he meant it.
"Chaser Alicia Spinnet intercepts Marcus Flint's shot, rather spectacular actually. Wow, Slytherin hasn't improved much have they?"
"Jordan!" McGonagall screeched.
"Anyway, look at Gryffindor go, Wow, Harry Potter you sure know how to play Quidditch, he's intercepting every Slytherin play they are dishing out! Ouch, one of the Slytherin Chasers has just been hit on the head by a Bludger by a Weasley. Don't know which one. Yes, the Weasley's are known to be legendary in Quidditch. What foul? Penalty shot to Slytherin?! Why? Whatever. Anyway, they shoot… and yes! Wood blocks it! Quaffle is immediately taken by Alicia. She's being pursued. Come on Weasleys, hit him on the head… ouch, I said head, not right between the legs! But that'll do. Nice shot there Weasleys," Jordan commented.
"Jordan!" McGonagall shouted.
"Sorry Professor, oh look Alicia Spinnet scores another goal! Another 10 points to Gryffindor! Look at the newest player in Gryffindor go, everyone. That boy certainly knows how to ride a broom. He almost looks like a professional up there. I bet the Slytherins are thinking they wished they were more like him. He's smart, has confidence, is certainly powerful enough, and can certainly ride that broom. Unlike most of the Slytherin team…"
"Lee Jordan!"
"Sorry Professor, you know how it is, oh wait, what is Harry doing? He's abandoning his strategy; he's after the snitch! Go Harry!"
The moment the game started, Harry had zoomed up and knew he could have a greater impact disrupting the game than in simply looking for the snitch for the next half hour. He flew around intercepting every play he could. It was annoying the heck out of the Slytherins. Several times he'd gotten the finger but he just brushed it off; he saw how the Weasley's who were inspired by Jordan's commenting and continue to swing their bats like mad men.
After nearly a half hour of playing, Higgs began taunting Harry. Seeing as how the seeker could handle the position, Harry decided to kick the game up a notch. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Higgs was eyeing him closely and staying just behind his bristles. With a look of sudden concentration, Harry immediately dove and pushed his broom to the limit. He was taking turns and spins like crazy, as if chasing the snitch.
"Harry Potter is after the snitch!" Immediately everyone stopped what they were doing and watched as the Slytherin Seeker followed. Everybody watched Harry as he performed a couple amazing dives, acrobats, and turns while chasing the Snitch. Wood was impressed by his flying. It showed him having spent quite some time in the air. Harry slowed down purposely so Higgs could follow. When he was close enough Harry led him to the stands and pulled out at the last second. The Slytherin seeker Terrace Higgs slammed straight into the stands.
Silence...
"Oh my god! That was a beautiful feint! A Wronski feint! Who would believe that? I didn't know he could do that! I mean, he said he could the other day in front of Professor Snape, but I thought he was just kidding. I don't believe it, it was all a fake all this time! The youngest Seeker in two centuries is showing some unbelievable skill. I guess Harry Potter is living up to his father's reputation!" Jordan enthused.
Lee Jordan wasn't the only one shocked at Harry's performance. His father had just watched his son, the same son who hadn't showed any interest in playing Quidditch in… well, ever, playing in his first Quidditch game. And that same son had just performed a professional Quidditch move. His shocked expression mirrored that of the Sirius and Remus who understood what Harry had just done.
Lily, however, was scowling at his recklessness. Amy was trying to calm the youngest children so they didn't run off on a sugar-high.
Wood giggled like mad and cheered with the rest of the Gryffindor team as Harry took his position back up in the sky.
Harry smiled and waved at Commentary box. Jordan waved back.
"Excellent move Harry! Wait, there's a time out for Slytherin. It seems the Slytherin Seeker, Higgs-something-or-other is badly injured. I don't blame him. That had to hurt. Oh wait! Someone else is injured! Who is that?" Lee said.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is part of the danger coming from chasing someone who can pull off a spectacular feint that Harry Potter just did. Apparently the Slytherin Seeker lost control at the last moment and crashed the stands. I hope whoever he hit is all right. I can't see from here yet, folks, but as soon… wait. I can see the injured person now. Oh, no, it's a professor. Higgs has hit a professor. Poor Professor Quirrell, he looks to be a little worse for wear. Good thing is he's being levitated out of the stands and I've just been told he'll be taken to the infirmary and I'm sure he'll be okay. Who knows, it might even fix his stutter."
"Jordan!"
"Or not. Anyway, it looks like Slytherin is conferring and… yes, Higgs is going to continue playing even though it looks like his arm has been set spelled to stay in place by his shoulder. You know, I may not like Slytherin since they are a bunch of gormless gits who couldn't play fair if their lives depended on it," Jordan started.
"Jordan!"
He smiled at the professor. "But I have to admire the grit and determination of Higgs. He's got to be hurting with that injury."
Harry was impressed with Higgs as well. Of course, the foul meter with the Slytherins rose as they started pulling every foul they could when Hooch was looking in different directions.
Flint tried several times to take out Wood, but failed when Harry would deliberately upset his broom handling when he flew under the Slytherin, rotated upside down, and kicked the man in the shins. The third time he did this, Hooch caught him and awarded Slytherin a penalty shot. Flint actually made that shot but it had cost him. Now he knew they had another threat to worry about than just bludgers.
And Harry wasn't done with surprises either. It was always possible to pull a Seeker from their position and insert another Chaser. That allowed more scoring opportunities, but greatly reduced the possibility that your Seeker would be the one who caught the snitch. Of course, if you were up over 150 points on the other team, it really didn't matter.
After another time out, Flint rallied his team and soon enough their beaters started aiming for the Chasers like mad. Gryffindor's Chasers barely had enough time to dodge the bludgers on several occasions. If it hadn't been for George and Fred pounding the balls back, Harry was sure one of the girls would have been sporting a broken arm by now.
Harry decided it was time to go on the offensive and as soon as Pucey had the Quaffle, Harry raced underneath him and then shot up, knocking it out of his hands and into the waiting arms of Alicia, who then raced to the Slytherin hoops.
Immediately the other Slytherin Chasers gave chase, but Harry kicked his broom into gear and soon overtook Alicia who handed off the Quaffle to Harry.
Everyone in the stands was shocked to see a Seeker holding the Quaffle. Only Wood wasn't surprised, he and Harry had discussed this situation when he felt it his duty to explain the game to Harry. True, they hadn't practiced it, but had discussed it. It's not every day you see that. And the best part; it wasn't even against the rules either.
"What the hell? Potter's got the Quaffle! I have never seen a Seeker helping out friendly Chaser! Is this legal in school matches?!"
Harry approached the Keeper, made a feint and could have scored, but instead he threw it hard at the Keeper's broom. Bletchley lost balance and fell off. He hit the ground hard with a sickening crunch. The keeper wasn't getting up anytime soon, especially with his leg bent at that odd angle.
"Holy crap!"
"Good graci ... Jordan!"
"That was deliberate! Jiminy Christmas, Potter... you play rough! But what a play! Did he miss to goal, or did his shot to towards the intended target? Whatever the case, go Potter!" Jordan screamed into the microphone while dancing away from McGonagall who tried to yank the Microphone from him. "Show them what Gryffindor is made out of! Kick their slimy arses! Oh, right. Penalty to Slytherin."
The penalty shot was intercepted by Wood who then called for a time-out.
When the Gryffindor's were on the ground his team spoke.
"Damn Harry, you're a monster," Katie said excitedly.
"Damn straight, keep doing this and we'll have so many points, our next game wouldn't matter if we win or not," Wood exclaimed.
True enough, looking at the scoreboard Harry noticed it was 270-20. They were killing them. He didn't even notice they were that high.
"Harry, you need to end this now so we could get the points for the snitch. If they forfeit now, we won't get it. Hurry up and catch it. We'll deal with the rest!" Wood said excited.
"Calm down, Oliver; we're excited too. I can just taste it: our first win against Slytherin in years." Angelina was as excited as Wood. Fred and George grinned like mad.
Harry nodded. Yeah he better wrap this game up.
Hooch blew the whistle for everyone to get back in position. Slytherin lost a Chaser and a Keeper, and their Seeker had a broken shoulder.
Harry decided to catch the snitch now. Slytherin team was badly injured. He was surprised they didn't forfeit after that time-out. 'Must be their pride.' Harry thought. So Harry looked for the snitch.
5 Minutes Later...
When Harry saw it, he was already in a middle of another feint. He flowed out of smoothly, making Higgs thing he was smart for not following that time. Harry then quickly zoomed across in front of one of the Slytherin Chasers (who freaked out thinking Harry was aiming for him). Higgs wasn't sure if Harry was feinting again. He had seen how Potter performed feint after feint. It was too much. This time when he looked closer, he noticed it really was the snitch! He tried to follow Harry who was chasing it, but it was too late. Harry caught it!
The crowd exploded with cheers. Well… most of the crowd.
Lee shouted into the microphone, "And Harry Potter catches the Snitch! Gryffindor Wins by the margin 460-20. A major upset to Slytherin. What a slaughter by Harry Potter and the Gryffindor team."
When they touch back down, the team immediately congratulated him.
"That was wicked win!" Fred announced.
"Even if we lose the next game, we'll probably still be leading in points!" George commented.
"Yeah, we kicked their cans!" Angelina cheered.
"You know, you can swear if you want to, Angelina," Fred smirked.
"Quiet you. This is Harry's moment."
"Man if felt good seeing that they are the ones that are injured this time! We didn't have a single person from our team sent to the Hospital," Alicia agreed.
"Damn straight!" Katie Bell yelled.
Harry laughed.
Wood was silent. The whole team gave him an odd look. Suddenly his demeanor change to an ecstatic smile. He cheered while hugging Harry fiercely. The whole team followed. The Gryffindor's were running across the field to meet them while they cheered and hugged.
-0-
Following the game, there was a party in the Gryffindor common room. Harry was absent as it got started as he spent some time with his family on the pitch. The day was cool but not terribly cold. Besides, being magical, his parents heated up a section of the seats so they could enjoy their conversation. The stands were empty other than for them.
"Wow, Harry, that was some bloody wicked playing," Sirius commented.
"Sirius! Language!" Amy admonished her husband.
"Wow kid, I didn't think you were that good. I never even suspected you were that good," James said looking at his son proudly.
"Thanks, dad. I just put my heart into playing a good game."
"A wicked game more like," Sheila said.
"True," Leon replied.
Lily gave her son a disapproving look. "Harry I'm ashamed of seeing you playing like that. You purposely injured them. You sent two of them to the hospital wing!"
"Um… well, they started it."
"Yeah, Lily, it was the Slytherins after all," Sirius backed him up. "They always start it."
"Well," Harry countered, "not always, Sirius. But in this instance, they did. Especially Flint. He was a real wanker the other day."
"Harry, language," Lily reproached. "And anyway, honey, look at what you did. You turfed one into the stands, breaking his shoulder and knocking cold a professor. And another you broke a leg."
"Ahhh forget mum, that was a great game bro," Shelia said excitedly. "You should give us tips on how you play!"
Leon and Rose nodded like mad. What they saw had impressed them. Their older brother performed a Wronkski feint. A professional move! When had he grown up and why hadn't they seen it happening?
Sylvia didn't understand yet, she knew how to fly, but she didn't understand Quidditch. She just cheered and nodded along her brother and sisters. Little Lily was giggling when she saw Harry. Harry began to tickle her; she laughed and kissed her brother on the cheek in greeting.
"You know Harry, if this reaches the ears of the Quidditch Junior League teams, they might attend your next Quidditch game to see your skill. I hope you'll become a Quidditch player after school! Man, you might even get to play Quidditch while you're in school!" Leon had a glassy look to his eyes while envisioning this type of situation for himself.
Harry then got a quick update on home life and knowing that a party was underway that his son would probably want to attend, his father began to gather up the families and make their departure for home. Harry walked them to the gates of Hogwarts and as his family gave him a hug one at a time, Jasmine got in line. When it came to her turn, she hugged him hard and then kissed him on the cheek, quickly moving behind her mother to cover her flaming face. Harry was gob smacked.
He snapped out of his thoughts when Sirius said to Harry just loud enough for Jasmine (along with everyone else since he really wasn't being quiet about it) to hear: "I know my daughter's kiss was a surprise, Harry, but there's no need to freeze in shock at being kissed by a beautiful girl."
Harry had to admit, that girl was brave to plant a kiss on him like that. For some reason he didn't look at her like that, she was more of a sister to him. Plus they had the body of little kids. He had a mind of an 18-year old; he couldn't picture a sexy look of a 9 or 10 year old. That was child molesting. And he wasn't a perv.
He had to admit though, when Jasmine got older (like legal age), she was going to be a sexy little thing with her pale blonde hair; maybe by then he wouldn't mind dating her. They said their goodbyes and Harry made his way back to the castle.
Harry made his way back to the Gryffindor common room. He noticed a lot of people were partying. They were greeting him wondering where he was. The Gryffindor girl Chaser's gave him kisses on the cheek for such a good game.
"I was with my family. They wanted to congratulate me on my first Quidditch game," Harry responded.
Everyone nodded and told him it was a wicked game. If nothing else, the game they played showed Slytherin one thing. Don't mess with Harry Potter.
(((o)))
On Harry's 16th birthday, he came into his shadow abilities. Not that he understood everything, just that his power took an upward surge. It took some time coming to terms with these abilities, and even more conversations with Uncle Nick and Aunt Pernelle before he could make heads or tails of what he could do and what he should do. Of all the abilities he had since found and examined, the best by far was his ability to shadow travel.
For one thing, it allowed him to go from point A to point B without landing on his rear end. Unlike taking a portkey or apparating.
Harry planned on staying in the Gryffindor tower until after Halloween. He had thought about moving earlier but a few comments overheard from some uppers who mumbled (loudly in his opinion) to one another that on Halloween they were going to check out the Forbidden Corridor for fun. So Harry decided to stick around if only to keep them out of trouble, or kick their rears in case they decided to check that corridor out. The other reason he thought of staying behind, and the most important one by far, was to make sure Hermione wasn't accosted by a brainless troll this time around.
The week leading up to Halloween Harry spent part of each night shadow walking around the castle. He visited the room where Dumbledore had squirreled away the Mirror of Erised. When he looked into it, all he saw was a yellow light. He gave it a little thought and all he could come up with was that since he'd looked into the mirror while still in his shadow form, it picked up something to show him he needed some light. That, or someone had walked into the room and turned on a light before Harry made his retreat. It didn't matter for Harry didn't give it any more thought. He had what he wanted. A family.
A family that didn't belong to you, a nagging thought prickled at the base of his skull.
Harry shook his head clear and continued with his examinations. Albus and the rest of the staff had been busy and their traps had already been implemented. Now that Harry thought about it, he guessed there had to be more than one troll on duty in there in case someone came towards its location, it wouldn't do to have the troll missing because it had gone to the loo would it?
Harry began to examine all the traps and puzzles that were there. He knew what they were from the first time around, but he was certain the staff must have put in something that allowed them to circumnavigate around the challenges rather than have to go through each one every time. It took him a little time, and a little shadow sight to see the things that didn't belong there but found them he did.
So what was a powerful Shadow Mage to do in a situation like this? he asked himself. Why, put on a few more protections, that's what, he grinned at himself in answer to his silent question. The first thing he did was place a different locking charm on the door that recognized if the caster was a student or an adult. It wouldn't keep out Quirrell, but it would keep out a few first years. Better they have to spend a night in detention than get a few fingers bitten off by Fluffy.
The mornings leading up to the 31st were also a bit tense in Harry's mind. He was in a different dimension – and anything could happen. His friend could still get harmed. H needed to keep an eye on Hermione. He was certain that if anything were going to happen, it would happen to her. She was as much a nexus as he was. Fortunately, Ron Weasley wasn't a nexus here. About the only thing they shared in common was that they were in the same house and shared the same classes. She was ever the optimist and even tried to help him during Charms, but he wasn't having any of it. Harry did notice, however, that she wasn't getting as emotionally troubled by it this go around since she already knew he was a friend, as were others in different houses. She and Padma had actually started studying something together the other day.
His friends thought his mood was him not wanting to get another Howler from his mother going on about how smart his is or even trying to get him to transfer to another grade level. They didn't want this for one specific reason: Harry was their friend and if he went to another grade level, he might not be in their classes anymore.
As is, Harry had gotten several more letters from his mother who had gone on and on about being so proud and excited for him. And that he'd better not have been traveling back in time without a spotter or he'd regret it. And she wasn't sorry about sending him that howler – it was her way of getting back at him for not letting her know how smart he'd been all these years.
Morning post was underway and Harry looked up, happy to see Lost and happier still when he saw the bloody bird wasn't carrying a red envelope.
(((o)))
Thursday, October 31st, Halloween, Hogwarts' Dungeons, during the Feast
In the dark corridor, Professor Quirrell walked ahead of a troll, trying to keep it a little quiet as he let it out of its shackles and out of the dungeons where it could cause dismemberment, death, and destruction – the 3-D's in his book.
"Now remember, beast, you are to kill as many students as you can. Create as much confusion as you can. I want chaos to rule the houses!"
"Urr… offer to fill out their tax forms for a nominal fee… got it."
"No, no, no, beast. This has nothing to do with taxes! You will do as I command! Chaos! Confusion! Killings! The three C's of life!" (Hey, no one ever said he was good as spelling.) "I want all of this!"
"Urrr… tell them I'm a lawyer and have some papers for them?"
"No, no, no! Good try, but it lacks the finality that killing the children will have. Now, what are you going to do again? Hmmm?" Quirrell cocked his head to the side and put his fists on his waist as he looked up at the large troll.
"Urrr… offer them a cup of tea but then say I don't have any?"
"No, no, no! Blast it, beast! You're not paying attention!"
"Urrr… what's my motivation again?"
"Aaarrrgh!" This is worse than when I was a student here and that pesky girl kept asking me to run and kick a ball that she was holding, he thought. A little crucio after the third time she whisked it away before I could kick it certainly did wonders for my mood. Too bad I can't use that curse on this beast. His hide protects him. As does his low brain power.
"Urrr… you know, you're not very good at this. If you're going to manage dangerous creatures like myself, you've got to know how they tick and all."
"You're a mindless killing machine! Telling you to have at it should be all I need to do to have you go on a killing spree!" Isn't it?
"Urr… I went to school, you know. I wanted to go to dental school after I graduated and be a hygienist but I was told there wasn't any need for a troll working on teeth by my guidance counselor. And that I should look for a job as a bouncer at a bar, pub, or strip joint."
"And does that make you angry?"
"Urrr… yes. I don't drink so I don't want to work at a pub, club, or any other drinking establishment. I wanted to work on bringing bright smiles to the world."
"Good, good. Use that. It was the kids who told your guidance counselor that no one wanted a troll dentist."
"Urrr… hygienist."
"Whatever. The kids told you that you couldn't do are just like these kids here. Does that make you angry? Angry enough to want to kill them all?"
"Urrr… yes, it's a start. But if I had some vanilla ice cream I'd be okay and my mood swing would go away."
"Sorry, beast, but Hogwarts doesn't have any more vanilla. Only strawberry these days. All the kids ate the vanilla ice cream just today in fact."
"Urrr… no vanilla?! That makes me so angry! Hulk smash!"
Professor Quirrell guided his enraging troll out of the dungeons and up some stairs to the ground level. Soon he would leave the beast and run to the Grand Hall where he'd announce the troll was loose, then collapse, letting all the students and staff run to safety. Then he'd go see how to get past that first protection that fool Dumbledore put on the stone. Then he'd have his life back – and immortality once again!
"Remember, beast, those same children ate all the vanilla ice cream! Lapped it up one might say. They even threw some of it away once they'd had a bite, saying they were lactose intolerant."
"Rarrr!"
"They laughed while eating it, not even thinking of the troll here who wanted a bowl of its creamy goodness to slake his aching urges!"
"Rarrr!"
"Now remember: the three c's! Chaos! Confusion! Kill!"
"Rarrr?!"
"No vanilla ice cream!"
"Rarrr!!!"
"Eeeeekk!"
Quir-riddle whipped his turbaned head around and immediately spied the four second-year students who had just turned a corner on their way to the Great Hall. The three girls and one boy all had equal startled expression on their faces.
"Professor! Look out! There's a big hairy man with a club behind you!"
"Vanilla ice cream!"
"Rarrr!"
"Paul, you save the professor!" He must be too startled to think right as he's spouting nonsense now! Robin, you, Felicity and myself use that spell apprentice Potter taught us the other day! We've got to save the poor man!"
"Right!" Paul Dattatreya, a 2nd year Ravenclaw said, rushing towards Professor Quirrell and tackling him to the ground and out of the way of the big, hairy, scary man.
The three young witches raised their wands and incanted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The strength of the three witches' spells combined to rip the club out of the troll's hands and levitate it to the ceiling.
"Rarrr?!" the troll looked up at his club in confusion.
"Now what, Kira?" Felicity Felixia (also a 2nd year Ravenclaw) said.
Kira Bartholomew (a 2nd year Gryffindor) immediately came up with a solution. "Give me control of the club, girls. I have an idea!"
"Letting up… now," Robin Conner (also a 2nd year Gryffindor) informed her. Kira immediately felt the addition of club's weight to her spell.
"All yours," Felicity cut the power of her spell.
"Professor! Quit struggling! You don't know what you're doing!"
"Ice cream!"
"Rarrr!"
BAM! BAM-BAM!
Kira took control of the floating club and used it to wallop the troll several times on the head. "Leave that poor professor alone! He's very confused these days!"
"Ice cream! Ice cream!"
BAM!
The glassy-eyed troll wobbled and staggered a couple steps.
"Kira! The professor's free! I couldn't hold him any longer!"
"What?!"
This startled Kira's attention and as her gaze went from the big hairy man to the now-free professor, so did the club's motion move from whacking the troll to head to where she was now looking. Regrettably, the club was already on a downward motion.
BAM!
The now glassy-eyed professor wobbled and staggered a couple steps and bumped into the big hairy man.
Professor Quirrell, the smaller of the two, fell over first, mostly unconscious except for that nagging little itch in the back of his turban that knew something was wrong. The folds of the turban shifted a bit and Riddle was able to see the large troll take one more staggered step before falling over with a loud thump.
Right on top of him.
"Kira, you think Professor Quirrell is okay with that big hairy guy on him?"
"I think so," she replied to Paul. "He's still breathing at least."
"Good thinking, Kira," Felicity complimented. "How did you ever think to use that spell on that big hairy man?"
"Well when I saw him, our DADA class lesson from yesterday popped into my head. For some reason I just thought of what apprentice Potter said about using everyday spells to disable opponents. He even talked about what to do in case you ever met a troll in a hallway. Useful idea he had, I have to give him credit for that."
"I wonder what a troll looks like," Robin said, looking at the two sleeping forms.
"Well, whatever they look like," Paul commented, holding his nose, "I hope they smell better than that big hairy guy. He really stinks."
"C'mon, guys," Kira started. "We better find another professor and report we stopped a burglar."
"A big, hairy, stinky burglar," Paul put in.
"You said it," Felicity agreed.
"You know, I feel kind of bad about knocking Professor Quirrell out with that club. You think we should bring him some ice cream in the infirmary when he's better?"
"Don't see why not," Robin said. "He must like it since he kept saying it over and over."
"Oh, I just had a great idea! Let's get him some vanilla ice cream…"
"…rarr?"
BAM!
"Right. Let's get some vanilla ice cream and some Gummy worms to put in it. I'm sure he'd like it."
"What're Gummy worms?"
"Oh, you pure-bloods crack me up," Kira grinned at her friends. "After the feast, I'll give you some. I've got some back in my room that I brought from home."
(((o)))
Friday, November 1st, Gryffindor Common Room
Harry sat in one of the chairs looking at the embers of the fire. It was nearly 3am and he couldn't help but think what could have happened to the students who had encountered the troll. He was so focused on Hermione thinking that she was the nexus here for the troll that he didn't even consider anyone else meeting the troll first. He had planned on simply blasting its head off and obliviating anyone who saw him do it. Or maybe not. He didn't know now.
What he did know is that while glad that his lessons in DADA had paid off for those students, he needed to quit clowning around and get off his duff. He needed to work on a way to get rid of Quirrell without anyone noticing it was him. He could simply shoot the professor with a redactor, but then the school would be crawling with aurors and an air of fear would start up. Harry certainly didn't want that as eventually it would get on his nerves and something would happen to give his abilities away.
No, he needed to come up with a better plan. Something to get rid of the man and make it look like an accident or…
Neville.
He needed to get Neville involved. After all, it was time for the little monkey to start living up to his reputation.
(((o)))
Saturday, November 9th, Slytherin Common Room
Harry decided to wait until a week into November before trying out the Slytherin digs. That way they might have calmed down from the shellacking they'd received during the game.
Being an apprentice meant Harry was keyed into all the houses and had an override password like the teachers used. As he entered the common room, immediately all eyes there centered on him. It was mid morning and the room wasn't full, but there were still plenty of students. Draco Malfoy was sitting in a chair reviewing a book when Harry walked in.
Draco caught Harry's eye and arched his eyebrow as if to ask if he was here to stay for a bit.
Harry nodded slightly and Draco got up to explain a few things to the apprentice. And maybe get the inside scoop on the winking conspiracy. If he could get that one solved, then he could again concentrate on finding out why those pesky house elves kept hiding his socks.
"Moving in today?" Draco commented as Harry met him in the middle of the room.
Harry nodded. "Just for a few weeks. I want to see if I like this house any better than the others."
"You do know we have an initiation to spring on you, right?"
"Does it involve me getting spanked with a paddle and having to say, 'Thank you sir, may I have another?'"
"No."
"That's good. Because I'm not into that."
"Don't tell Flint that because I'm sure he'd want to try it out. Guy's a total wanker."
Harry smiled. This Draco was so unlike the one he'd first met. "So I've noticed. I take it the initiation will be magical?"
"Of course," Draco sniffed.
"Same type sprung on every incoming first year?"
Draco shook his head slightly. "Actually, some of the prefects speculated you would have been here sooner than now and went so far as to prepare some particularly vindictive spell clusters to send your way."
Harry feigned his hurt. "Why? What did I ever do to them?"
Draco understood the jibe. "Harry, really. Don't you recall the Slytherin/Gryffindor match? You know, where you beat all of our players up."
"They started it."
"I'm sure they did. And it was a wonderful learning opportunity for them, but now that you're here, they want you to pay for their embarrassment."
"So how long does this initiation go on for?"
"I could lie and say for an hour, but since I like your style, I'll tell you the truth. It's probably going to go on for about a half hour."
"How long is the initiation for 1st years?"
"Usually takes less than a minute seeing as they don't know how to defend themselves from the stingers. You, however, have a reputation already of knowing shields."
"And what am I supposed to do during all this time?"
"Why, survive of course."
"Who should I look out for most of all?"
Draco turned and indicated an older student with black short black hair talking animatedly to a group of four other boys. "My guess would be Max Graile, a 6th year prefect whose family is really into dueling. After Slytherin's defeat in the game, he spelled the team to double their weight for an entire day. He said it was apparent they weren't in good enough shape and needed to lose some of their baby fat to play competitively. He's okay most of the time, but when it comes to dueling, he wants to win in the worst way."
"Any helpful hints?"
Draco began to move away as Harry noticed that more Slytherin students (particularly the 7th year students) came into the common room, wands drawn. Max and the other students moved apart to better surround him. It wasn't hard since he was in the center of the common room (where he'd intended to be after all).
"If you want to end this hazing quickly, do it in Slytherin style to gain their respect. Otherwise, you might find yourself repeating this a couple more times before your two weeks are up."
After Draco moved out of the way, Harry decided to play the upcoming fight like a training exercise and snapped his head back, letting out a maniacal laugh that was partly intended to allay his nerves, and also intended to strike some uncertainty to his attackers. The spells (stunners first) then came in.
Harry threw a silent shield up which ricocheted the spells back towards other casters who dived for cover. Moments later the entire room went black. Spells continued to light up the area when they were shot, but mostly, no one could see where Potter was.
As is, he floated himself up to the ceiling to get out of the way. He decided to have some fun with the shooters through.
"Lumos! Lumos!" a voice said, failing to light the area any further than six centimeters out from his wand. "We're shooting blind here, Max! I can't dispel this darkness!"
"Aim for the center! Aim for the center!" a voice that Harry recognized shouted.
"What do you think I'm already doing, Flint? Stupefy!"
"Ow. Oh, that's going to hurt," Harry smirked from the ceiling. "Oh woe is me, how am I ever going to survive?"
"You got him!" Flint yelled. "Jenkins, you next! Aim for the center."
"Everbero!" a voice more suited for whispering shouted.
"Ooooh, you shot me!" Harry said.
"Everbero!" Flint fired to where he thought Harry was.
"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. I'm hurt. Please stop. Oh me, oh my."
"We got him!" Flint whooped in joy.
"Freeze him in place," a voice commanded with more steel in it than Harry would have thought.
"Right, Max," a new voice said. "Petrificus Toltalus!"
"Oh you got me again! How will I ever get through this?"
"We got him, we got him!" Flint whooped again.
"Shut up you idiots!" Max commanded. "Quiet I said!"
The room quieted down.
"Potter!"
"Yes, Max?"
"You hurt?"
"Will you stop if I say yes?"
"No."
"Then I'm not hurt. Please, continue firing. I'm finding this enjoyable."
"Somebody dispel this darkness!" Max commanded, moving to his right so Potter wouldn't be able to get a bead on where he just was.
"What do you think I've been trying to do for the past 10 minutes?!" yet another unnamed voice said in exasperation.
Harry thought he better go on the offensive, if only to keep things interesting. "Spiculum!"
"Ouch!" Flint yelled, holding his face. "Blast it, that hurt, Potter!"
"And what you've been trying to do to me would have felt enjoyable?"
Max said, "It's just a stinging hex, Flint. Toughen up a bit."
"You try thinking that when he gets off a lucky shot and hits you right between the eyes."
"Spiculum!"
"Ouch! Damn it, now he just got me right between the eyes," Jenkins complained.
"Crap!" Max exclaimed. "Duck and cover, people! He can see in this darkness! He can see!"
"Right you are, Max! Spiculum! Spiculum! Spiculum!"
Harry shot the others and then added a fourth stinger back at Flint's unprotected rear.
"Impedimenta! Expelliarmus! Give up yet, Graile?"
"Where are his shots coming from?" Max asked his compatriots.
"We can't see!" Flint answered.
"Track the color of his spells!" Jenkins offered.
"That's just it, there aren't any!" another voice supplied.
And indeed Harry had been firing his spells from his wand and keeping an aura of darkness around each spell fired if only to see if he could do it. And seeing as how his vision wasn't affected by the darkness in the room, he started picking off each caster one by one.
Max had had enough. "Check fire! Check fire!"
"What's that mean?" Flint asked in confusion.
"It means to stop firing everyone. Potter!"
"Yes, Max?"
Max grumbled for a moment and then said, "….Pax!"
"Hazing is over then?"
"Yes."
"No!" Flint put in. "What about what he did to us in the game?!"
"Get over it, Flint. He has the superior tactical advantage over us. How about it, Potter?"
"I'm going to spend a couple weeks here. If you want to have some more duels, let me know. This was kind of fun."
Suddenly the room was lit again and everyone blinked away the spots in their eyes, looking for the apprentice. Max noticed him first standing on the ceiling, looking down at everyone.
Flint was next to see him and raised his wand to take a shot.
Graile noticed this and shot a body bind at the Quidditch captain. "I said pax, Flint. The fight is over. Got it?"
"For you maybe…" Flint ground out, struggling.
"For everyone. He's in. Or do you want to go a couple rounds with me later on?"
"…fine, he's in. But if he steps out of line," Flint tried to be menacing. His breath was more menacing than his glare.
"Then he's yours," Max replied, releasing him. He then turned to the descending Harry. "Welcome to Slytherin, Mr. Potter."
"Thanks, Mr. Graile. A pleasure to be here."
And as Harry found out, not all Slytherins were idiots or maniacally bent on serving a dark lord. Contrary to a Weasley's belief, there were some who actually wanted a better life and to make a name for themselves. The house was for the ambitious, the cunning. It wasn't necessarily for the evil. Sometimes ambition went hand-in-hand with evil, as it did for the other houses.
In the next couple weeks, Harry found that his prejudices against the house mostly started with his original negative assessment of Malfoy, and the bias felt against Slytherin from Ron. Now that he had a chance to see what was what and make up his own mind, he found that there were people he liked from every house… and consequently people he didn't like from every house.
Max Graile was someone he grew to like. Not quite a friend, but definitely not an opponent. They dueled several more times, this time in specific conditions set to improve each of them. Harry enjoyed himself during these duels and Max found himself learning a trick or two from the apprentice and his arsenal of household charms that he used. Especially the one where after sending a potentially harmful spell his way, he used a quick charm to wax the floor so Max would lose his footing. After the second time, Max got the hint and became a little more careful with his footing thereafter.
(((o)))
Sunday, November 17th, the Owlery
"Stupid bird," Harry muttered as he trooped up to the aviary, located in one of the furthest towers from the Great Hall. Just 30 minutes earlier Lost had brought him his letters from his family and he'd instructed the owl to remain behind while he dug his letters out of his bag so he could take them home. But did the bloody owl listen to him?
Of course not!
Ruddy thing caught wind of another owl and off he flew in chase of her. Harry could have sworn that owl had the mating instincts of Sirius when he was younger. The blasted bird certainly didn't listen to him or heed any of his commands, suggestions, or pleadings like Hedwig did.
Man, he really missed that bird.
"Whuh!" a voice yelped ahead of him.
So engrossed in his own grumbling, he had failed to take in his situation and consequently was unprepared when a body came falling towards him.
Fortunately, the steps leading up zig-zagged and he was on a landing. Thinking fast, he wandlessly threw up a cushioning field on the platform and then braced himself for the impact. Moments later he caught the person.
Or more like the person caught him and they both went down in the cushioning field. And even with good Quidditch reflexes, the problem with bodies meeting that way means body parts don't always normally end up where they should be for proper young ladies and gentlemen.
Harry didn't know who knocked him onto the ground, but he definitely knew it wasn't a boy. Parts of Harry were stinging, and those parts not stinging were feeling something fairly soft. And bumpy.
As his thoughts came back to rational thinking, he could detect the two things were familiar somehow, and kind of bouncy.
Uh oh...
Harry removed his hands from the girl's upper body.
"Sorry about that," they both said at the same time.
"Why are you sorry?" replied the girl before Harry could open mouth and insert foot any further.
"Er… um," Harry started, then just pointed to her body.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, trying to get to her feet and dislodge the human pretzel they'd become.
Part of Harry was mortified that he'd caught her… there. But another part of him wasn't sure if he wanted her to move, or to fall over some more so he could catch her a few dozen times. He just hoped that no one was watching them at this moment. It was a little embarrassing for both of them. They were, after all, in a compromising position.
Harry snapped out of his thoughts when the girl had pulled away for him to get a good look at her. Instantly, he froze.
It was Tonks.
She was blushing a furious red and looked like she wanted to hide in a hole and never come back. But it was still Nymphadora Tonks.
Harry immediately took a deep breath, and spoke like nothing happened. Which, when he thought about it, nothing did. Other than he touched her body. Hoo-boy. "It's okay, but can you get off?" Harry asked.
She murmured another apology and tried to get up while not rubbing him too much; however, she only succeeded in falling on her behind causing her robes to flutter up and down.
This gave Harry an awkward view of almost everything she wore under her robes from the waist on down. And of course, the first thing that came to his mind was: Isn't Tonks kind of old to be wearing underwear with pink heart shapes on it?
Harry scooted back, keeping his gaze down to the wooden flooring, all the while not giving a clue that he'd seen anything (especially lots of pink hearts), but his face betrayed him with a slight blush.
When he finally stood up, extending a hand down to Tonks, she took his hand while also giving him the most embarrassed and horrified look she could muster.
"Sorry about this." Tonks murmured again.
Harry coughed and murmured, "It's okay. It was my fault too."
"It wasn't," she interrupted, straightening her robes.
An awkward silence...
"Sorry," they both said at the same time.
They both chuckled at the verbal jinx.
"I'm Harry Potter by the way. Are you okay?"
"Tonks. Don't ask for my first name; just call me Tonks. I'm fine. Sorry about crashing into you. What about you? Are you okay?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
Very fine, Tonks noticed. Stop that! He's a first year! You're too old for him!
"Sorry, I'm a little clumsy and I took a wrong step and fell," she said quietly.
Harry waved off the apology. "It's okay. I was glad I managed to grab you in time, or you could've really gotten hurt. It's a long way to the main floor."
She nodded meekly.
"Well... I need to go send a letter... err bye," Harry said awkwardly.
Tonks blushed, and followed right behind him.
About 11 steps later, Tonks tripped again, this time going forward and accidentally grabbing Harry's robes to try to keep herself from falling over. She managed to stop herself but Harry's balance was offset and he teetered a few times before she pushed him stable again.
"You know," Harry began, "perhaps it would be best if we walked side by side the rest of the way. You know, in case there are any more accidents."
"I'm really sorry," she started.
"Tonks, really, it's okay. No harm, no foul."
"I feel like I should owe you a witch's debt of some sort for saving my life."
"Nah, I'm cool. Comes with the job of being an apprentice. But if you really want to make it up to me… does your mother still make Dark Chocolate Brownies?"
"How'd you know…?"
"I may jump around with where I stay in the houses, but I do notice a few things, Tonks, and when I smelled the brownies you brought into the common room about a month ago, I started to drool."
"Yes, she still makes them."
"Get me a batch and we'll call it quits then. Deal?"
"You mean all I'm worth to you is a pan of brownies?" Tonks said with a little indignation.
"She puts nuts in then, right?"
"Well, yeah."
"They smelled really good, Tonks."
"And what are you going to ask for should I fall and you have to rescue me again?"
"I heard she makes some good fudge as well…" Harry said hopefully.
Tonks arched her head and took a good look at Harry. He couldn't help it any longer and began to smirk.
"You prat! You had me going there for a moment."
"Maybe. But you still owe me a pan of brownies. I'll be back in Gryffindor before the end of the year, so anytime after then is fine, Nymphadora."
"How'd you know my first name?"
"Like I said, I observe quite a bit. Also, it doesn't help your case any that Sirius Black is my neighbor and he's told me a few stories about you this past summer."
"Nothing good I hope," she shot back with a grin.
"Of course not. Just little bits about you growing up and how you really like to wear panties with pink hearts on them!"
"You saw!"
"Of course! But if you want to pound me, you've got to catch me!" he chortled, running the rest of the way up the stairs.
She took off in hot pursuit, intending to teach him some manners and not peek at a lady's knickers.
She eventually caught him and the two continued their conversation (after a brief punch on his shoulder for peeking) in order to get to know each other a little better. As Harry listened to her quick rundown of what life was like in Hogwarts as a 6th year, he was constantly reminded of her amusing nature. She liked to laugh and it showed in her eyes. That must have been what Mooney found so alluring in her when they began to date.
One thing was for certain, he had no intention of allowing her to end up on the slab at the coroners this time around.
(((o)))
Thursday, December 12th, Hogwarts castle grounds
The Saturday before term ended, Harry found himself walking back to the castle from a visit to Hagrid. He chuckled to himself thinking about Hagrid's obsession with all things draconic. If events played out, the man would soon be getting an egg and try to hatch the bloody thing in his wooden shack, calling the small fire-spewing creature Norbert of all things. Actually, since Dragons have a very good and very long memory, that small bit of praise and kindness was never forgotten by the dragon and when Hogwarts was attacked in Harry's seventh year, Norbert would end up feeling the uncertainty of his Hagrid and come investigate. And when he found Hagrid dead near his hatch-ground, Norbert became very agitated and took out his frustration on the black robes flying in the sky, shooting beams of light from their sticks. All told, when Harry thought to check (which he hadn't wanted to do but found himself doing anyway weeks later), 22 death eaters had either been burned to death by dragonfire or were chewed on like Fang's dinner. At best, 9 death eaters had to be identified by only partial remains – when they were found later on partially digested in the dragon poop.
No, Harry knew he couldn't stop Hagrid getting his Norbert. A problem it would certainly be this year, but it was a necessity for later years. Especially if the dark wanker was successful in regenerating his body and reconstituting his wanker force of inbred goofballs.
As Harry approached the castle, he caught sight of Blaise Zabini leaving the greenhouse as she strode for the castle. It was cold out and he could understand her hurried gait as she moved to get to someplace warmer. Really, warming and heating charms should be on first year curriculum instead of the other mish-mash, Harry knew. He'd have to talk to Professor Flitwick about that.
Harry looked at Zabini's backside as she made her way to the castle. It was odd seeing Blaise as a girl here rather than there, Harry knew. If he didn't know he was in an alternate dimension before, he did now since it had a female Zabini. He'd seen her off and on in classes and in the Slytherin cellar. But he really hadn't spoken to her before now.
As Harry walked at a more sedate speed (he knew the warming charm after all), he saw that three boys broke from a concealed area against the wall and approached Blaise from behind. Harry wasn't sure but suspected they were either third or fourth years. From Slytherin. Typical.
The largest of the three boys jumped from behind her to walk next to her, then in front of her where he turned around and walked backwards while grinning at her.
"I don't know why you Zabinis prefer to stay neutral these day, Blaise. I mean it absolutely disgusts me knowing that some of our own Pure-blood families would rather remain neutral than rally under our dark lord to exterminate those nasty little Mudbloods. Wouldn't you agree?"
Blaise looked towards the boy in front of her and then to either side and noticed she was surrounded. To make matters worse, the boy in front of her decided to stop, forcing her to do the same lest she run into him. She kept her mouth shut.
Harry hugged the shadows and let some of his power move him closer to the scene without being seen. The first thing that Harry noticed when he shadowed closer was that the boy, Seth Eldrad, a fourth year wearing Slytherin colours, held two wands. And since Blaise didn't have one out, Harry knew that it must have belonged to her.
Blaise screwed up her courage. She was not going to give in and cry in front of that jerk Seth Eldrad, Alberto Cronio, or Brian Doinkie if she could help it. They were jerks and probably just trying to get a rise out of her. "You're a fool, Eldrad. You're frightened of mudbloods and you should be. Because in case you haven't noticed, the purebloods are dying out unless you have red hair and are named a Weasley."
"What are you on about, Zabini?" Cronio snapped.
"Think about it, morons. How many only children go to this school? Of that, how many are pure-bloods vs. from muggles? Can't do the math? It's no wonder I hear you got thrown out of aritmancy."
"You've got a mouth on you, Zabini."
"Perhaps. But in 200 years, perhaps less, your children or grandchildren won't have mouths at all. They'll either be part of a magical population so minor to be bereft of any political power, or they'll be mutants with no mouths, or chins, or brains. Of course, in your family that won't hinder them at all."
"What's a mutant?" Doinkie asked Eldrad.
"Who cares," Eldrad replied to his goon. "She's just making up tales."
"Sure I am," Blaise agreed easily. "Just ask any of the Darlington, Zvoy, Burles, Yves, Amesworth, Toledo, or Quinas families. Oh wait, you can't. They bred out. At the end, they produced only squibs, so no one magical to carry on their names. Too bad. I guess the mudbloods will have to carry it on for them won't they? Kind of like they'll have to do with your family, right?"
"Shut up! You know, for a firstie, you're a bigger snot than most."
"And to think, I was just getting started," Blaise retorted, jumping for her wand.
Eldrad raised it out of her reach. "I'm an Eldrad. And no little snot is going to disrespect me or my family, you got that?"
"Disrespect implies that you had respect to begin with. Jerk."
Eldrad's eyes narrowed and he quickly raised his wand, incanted sharply and threw a cutting hex at her left cheek. She dodged most of it, but it still grazed and cut the skin.
"You know, you're quite pretty, Zabini. How about we have some fun?"
"How about you rot in Hell?" Blaise shot back.
Cronio and Doinkie grabbed her arms as Eldrad came towards her. Her icy composure just about used up, she began to cry when Eldrad grabbed her chin and looked into her eyes, grinning a lopsided smile. Harry recognized that look as the one Lucius Malfoy had when he was caught raping a Muggle in one of his raids.
As much as Harry wanted to allow Blaise to work this out on her own and create her own reputation as one to be avoided, it was time to intervene.
"Accio wands!" Harry seemed to suddenly appear a few meters away from the group. All four wands flew to his open left hand. His right still held the shadow wand and if he could have seen himself, he would have noticed that his eyes had gone black again.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry hissed in a cold voice that had the intention of knocking the three boys off their feet and sending them a few meters away to land roughly on the cold ground.
Harry rushed to a now-sobbing Blaise and comforted her as best he could, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Sshhhh. It's okay. They're not going to hurt you. Here, which wand is yours? Go on, take it. I need to talk to these tossers about their attitude."
"Thanks, Harry," she managed through tears.
This was a far cry from the persona that Blaise normally showed. Only a first year, and she was already known as a future Ice Queen. She acted cold and didn't talk much to her classmates. Some students think she was stuck up, others thought she had a personality disorder. However Harry understood why. It was how her family raised her that she ended up like that.
To be ruthless and cold hearted; show no mercy to those who oppose you...
A cold mantra, but one that served them well over the centuries. The head of the house had turned their house into a workhorse on the political scene. Being neutral had its advantages, but as Blaise just found out, it also had its disadvantages. With no friends to speak of (at least in Slytherin), she had been caught alone by some older bullies.
Harry walked to the threesome now starting to get off the crusty grass. Harry tossed their wands to the ground and walked over to the leader of the gang.
"Leave her alone, Eldrad. From this moment forward, she's one of my close friends. Harm her... and I'll make sure no one will ever find your body."
"Big talk from a little apprentice," Eldrad sneered, grabbing his wand. His two goons followed suit and soon enough all three were surrounding Harry.
This time, however, the first year wasn't the least bit intimidated. "Keep in mind what I said, Eldrad."
"You lost the element of surprise, Potter," Eldrad said, nodding to his goons to grab his arms. "Now I'm going to show you why you shouldn't have let your guard down."
"Diffindo," Harry said casually, not even bothering to point his wand.
A large cut appeared on Eldrad's cheek. His hands went to the sticky sensation on his face and after seeing the red on them, his eyes bulged.
"Who said my guard was down? Now why don't you take you and your girlfriends back to your room and get someone to stop the bleeding."
"Firshn…" Eldrad started but Harry stopped him with a quick punch to his mouth and nose. Bone on bone contact always hurt, but Harry had had worse in his life. Try meeting Voldemort with low occlumency shields. He'd heal his hand later if need be.
Eldrad went back down to the ground. The two goons who had been trying to restrain Harry's arms were let go of the silent body bind he'd placed them in. "Get your boyfriend some help to stop the bleeding. If any of you report what happened here, I'll make sure to do a lot worse. Got it?"
The two goons (confirming to Harry that Goyle and Crabbe weren't the only mindless Slytherins in the house) nodded, grabbed their friend and raced for the castle.
Harry was furious that anyone had tried to pull something like this. It didn't matter if Harry hadn't known Blaise or not, the fact that someone in his school had been about to sexually assault someone made his blood boil. He needed to find Filch and see what kinds of evil tortures he could come up with for the three boys. Simply cleaning the bathrooms wasn't going to do it. There needed to be something else. Especially when he caught them doing this again and knowing that type of mentality, it wasn't a matter of if they'd do it, it was simply a matter of when.
Wards. He needed some wards. He needed to check that subject out next.
Once out of his mental checklist of books to search, Harry looked around and noticed Blaise was still taking in deep breaths while leaning against the wall. He went to help the blond Slytherin.
"Are you okay? Really okay?" Harry asked softly.
She began to sniffle and sobbed as a response. She no longer cared keeping her cold Zabini expression; she was too teary to hold it in.
Harry immediately comforted her (again) and whispered that everything was going to be okay.
"Thanks again, Harry," she whispered softly.
Harry nodded and held her close. "What are friends for?"
And as Harry quickly came to find out, Blaise did become his friend. She joined him at breakfast with his other friends who were quick to accept the quiet Slytherin. She even joined his library study session on occasion, and one time her composure crashed and burned when Harry told a particularly dirty joke and she laughed.
(((o)))
A/N: And that's the chapter this time, campers. No evil cliffie this time around. I have the next chapter well underway and even have my notes going for the chapter after that which is going to explain some things to Harry and put his role in this universe into perspective. I'm not going to say any more than that.
On a side note, I did interview for a new job but didn't get it since I didn't have the required skill of writing about medical equipment such as respirators and machines that go ping (I'll give a special mention in the next story for the first person who can tell me where that "ping" reference came from). It won't take as long for the next chapter but in the meantime, please review. They keep me going.
Steve2
New Lives 06Page 50 of 50
