CHAPTER SEVEN: HOGWARTS

Harri never knew why she agreed to go back to Hogwarts via the Hogwarts Express. Maybe it was because it was what she always did? Or because she didn't want to be treated any differently to her friends? Or maybe it was because of Draco? If anything, it was definitely the latter of the three. However, whatever the reason was, she was regretting it now.

As always, there was the running around, last minute packing, looking for lost items and, well, the overall commotion that Harri saw with the Weasleys every year. Only this year, Harri felt like she was going to scream and yell at them, for they were giving her a massive headache. Mrs Weasley was screaming, no sorry, bellowing at Fred and George for knocking Ginny down the stairs with their trunks that they made fly down the stairs. On top of Mrs Weasley's yelling, Sirius' mother was yelling about her favourite topic: Mudbloods and Traitors. In addition, there was the racket the animals were making on top of everything else.

Then came the greatest surprise and one Harri was not happy about… Guards! Guards to escort Harri to King's Cross station. Now normally Harri would argue saying that she is big enough and ugly enough - though many people laugh at the last part) to look after herself and that she does not need to be babysat. However, seeing as she currently had a headache, she decided against arguing… at least until her headache was gone.

They arrived at King's Cross, with no dramas and a few minutes to spare. Moments later, they were walking through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. After a hurried goodbye, Harri, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins boarded the train.

'I'll see ya later,' Harri said to Ron and Hermione, after Fred and George had excused themselves.

'What do you mean, "You'll see us later"?' asked a confused Ron, looking between the three girls who exchanged exasperated looks.

'Ron! We are Prefects!' scolded Hermione. 'We have to go to the Prefects Compartment, remember? Did you even read your letter?'

'Nope.'

Harri laughed as Hermione grabbed Ron by the arm and dragged him towards the Prefects Compartment.

'Come on. Let's find an empty compartment,' she said to Ginny.

Along the way, they came across Neville, who, of course, did not recognise Harri.

'Hi Neville,' said Harri.

'Hi.' said Neville, slowly trying to figure out who this girl was, but then he saw Ginny next to her and relaxed. He had thought that the black-haired girl was a Slytherin planning something horrible. 'Hi, Ginny. Everywhere is full and I can't find a seat.'

'What are you talking about? There's room in the compartment we're standing next to. Only Luna's in there.'

'I didn't want to disturb…'

'Don't worry, Luna won't mind!' said Ginny, walking into the compartment confidently. 'Hi Luna, may we join you?'

Luna looked up from the magazine the she was reading, "The Quibbler" Harri noticed, looked around at all of them and nodded.

'Thanks Luna,' said Ginny and once everyone was seated, she continued, 'Did you have a good summer, Luna?'

'Yes,' said Luna dreamily, 'yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. You're a Valkyrie!' she added nodding to Harri.

Harri, taken back by the sudden statement asked her suspiciously, 'How do you know that?'

'I saw your scar. Only one person in the world has a scar like that, and seeing as you're female now, well, basically I put all the facts together.'

Harri stared at Luna calmly for a few minutes before turning to Neville and started explaining to him that she was "Harry Potter" and all the other relevant facts.

Around an hour later, Hermione and Ron came in.

'I'm starving!' Was the first thing Ron said as he flung himself into the seat next to Harri, grabbing one of her chocolate frogs.

'There are two fifth-year students from each house chosen as Prefects,' said Hermione.

'Yea, an' 'ess 'ho Slytherin's 'ale Prefect is,' Ron said through a mouthful of chocolate, smiling at Harri.

'Draco,' Harri said with a small smile appearing on her lips. Of course, she already knew, she knew whom all the Prefects were seeing the Professors had asked for her opinion, but she was not going to let the others know that.

'Draco? As in Malfoy?' Neville questioned.

'Yes. Harri's Prince Charming. Her Knight in Shining Armour. Her… Ha! Harri, you're going redder than a tomato!' Ron teased in a very brotherly way.

'Don't worry, Neville. Draco's going to have most of the Slytherins leave the Gryffindors alone,' said a red-faced Harri, completely ignoring Ron's comment.

'Anyway,' said Hermione, continuing on with the Prefects topic, 'Pansy Parkinson's been made Prefect too. How that cow got it is beyond me!'

'Poor Draco,' muttered Harri, thinking about how Pansy will now annoy Draco until see gets what she wants. Harri still did not know why Severus chose her.

'And Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott are Hufflepuff's and Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil are Ravenclaw's,' concluded Hermione.

Just then, there was a quiet knock on the compartment door before it slid open to reveal Harri's "Prince Charming" as Ron put it.

'Sorry if I'm interrupting. Harri, could I have a word in private, please?' Draco asked politely, causing Neville to nearly fall off his seat with his mouth open like a codfish.

Harri nodded and followed Draco to an empty compartment, curious as to what he wanted to talk to her about.

As soon as Draco had shut the compartment door and pulled down the blinds, adding a privacy charm just to be safe, he turned around and embraced Harri.

'You wanted to talk to me?' said Harri as she snuggled into Draco's chest, causing Draco's embrace to tighten.

'Yes, I did. I wanted to talk to you about this year. Are you telling the school that you are "Harry Potter"? If so, do you want our relationship to try and remain a secret?'

'No, I've had to keep enough secrets to last me a lifetime. Besides, you know hardly anything can remain a secret at Hogwarts,' Harri said firmly.

After a comfortable silence, Harri added, 'Oh, and congratulations on becoming a Prefect.'

'Thanks, love.' Neither of them realised what Draco had just called her. 'Hopefully I'll do a good job.' Draco said with a hint of nerves evident in his voice.

'The Prince of Slytherin is worried!' Harri said, pretending to be shocked.

'Ha ha ha, very funny.'

'What? No come back?'

'Well, since you want one…' Draco trailed off as he began to tickle her, and was happy to see that she was very ticklish.

'Okay, okay. I surrender! I surrender!' Harri laughed as she fell to the floor as a natural reflex to stop him from tickling her.

While Harri sat laughing on the ground, Draco sat down next to her and gave her a kiss. They kissed passionately until the need for air became too great.

'I'll see you later, Harri,' Draco said, while helping her to her feet. 'I promised Blaise that I would make this short so he wouldn't have to put up with Pansy.'

'Why does he have to put up with her and why does it involve you?'

'Well, ever since my birthday, Pansy's been clinging to Blaise like she used to do to me. However, Pansy's still furious with me 'cause I "cheated" on her, so she won't even stay in the same room with me longer than she needs to. Basically, Blaise is using me as a sort of Pansy repellent.' Draco concluded. 'Come on, I'll walk you back to your compartment.'

On the way back to Harri's compartment many people stared at Draco and Harri as they walked by, hand in hand, before whispering to their friends about what they had just seen. This made Harri uneasy.

Draco, noticing that Harri was feeling uncomfortable, asked her what was wrong.

'It's just… all these people are staring at us and I feel as though they know who I am, meaning my other form.' Harri whispered, barely moving her lips knowing that Draco could hear her.

'Well, I don't think you have to worry about that.' Then he elaborated when he saw Harri's blank expression. 'It's probably because Pansy told everyone that I "cheated" on her and they think you're the girl I "cheated" with. It's also because you're a new face.' Draco said as an after thought stopping outside Harri's compartment.

Then with a sweet kiss on her hand, he said goodbye and went to rescue Zabini.

When the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade Station, Harri got off the train with Luna, Neville and Ginny, seeing as Ron and Hermione were needed to go and supervise the younger years.

Harri saw Draco kneeling down talking to a small first year who was crying. Harri watched Draco and was very impressed on how he handled the situation. She would have to tell Severus that he did an excellent job at picking Slytherin's male Prefect. As though he could feel her looking at him, Draco turned and grinned at her before going and breaking up a fight between two second years. Little did he know that he would be dead if looks could kill seeing as Pansy was glaring between Harri and Draco. Harri, however, did notice and made a mental note to watch out for her. Not that she was scared of Pansy, but she knew that jealousy was a powerful emotion.

Ron and Hermione caught up with Harri and the others at the self-drawn carriages, only… they weren't self-drawn anymore. There were fleshless, black horses with wings and their coats clung to their skeletons. Their heads were dragonish with pure-white, pupil-less eyes.

'What do you reckon those creatures are?' Harri asked no one in particular.

'What creatures?' asked Hermione.

'The ones pulling the carriages!'

'What are you talking about, mate?' asked a perplexed Ron, with Ginny mirroring his expression.

'They can't see them,' said Luna in her dreamy voice. 'Hardly anyone can,' she added, before she hopped into the carriage leaving Harri with millions of questions spinning around in her head.

Why couldn't other people see them? How come she could see them, then?

Maybe my uncle did something to my brain in the graveyard, thought Harri before she dismissed the idea seeing as Luna could see them too.

Harri wanted to question Luna on the way up to the castle, but her friends were already watching her carefully as though she was going to do something outrageous, and she did not want to end up in the Hospital Wing.

As soon as Harri stepped into the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione, the Hall went silent for a few seconds before everyone broke out into conversation again. Harri, who was used to this now, just kept walking, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she picked up the different conversations.

'Who's the new girl?'

'Where's Potter?'

'Has the Golden Trio fallen apart?'

'Hey, where's Professor Snape?'

When Harri, Ron and Hermione had taken their seats, Harri looked up at the teacher's table. She saw her uncle looking quite amused and she knew it was because he had heard some of the students' comments. Then there was her grandfather, wearing midnight blue robes with silver stars and a matching hat, who was talking to her grandmother. However, the thing that caught Harri's eye was sitting right next to her grandmother looking like a big, fat toad.

'Who's that?' Hermione whispered to Harri, nodding in the direction of the toad.

'I don't know, but she works for Fudge.'

'How do you know that?'

'I saw her at my hearing.'

Harri and Hermione broke off their conversation as Professor Grubby-Plank took her place at the staff table and Minerva brought forth the three-legged stool and placed the Sorting Hat on it. Once the Sorting Hat had sung its song and gave the school a warning, the Sorting commenced and then dinner was served. Ron wasted no time digging in; piling anything he could put his hands on onto his plate.

At the end of the feast, Albus rose to greet then all and give some announcements.

'To our newcomers – welcome! To our old hands – welcome back! First-years ought to know that the Forest in the school grounds is out-of-bounds, - and I give that message to a handful of our older students who ought to know it by now, too. The caretaker, Mr Filch, has also asked me to remind you that no magic is allowed to be used in the corridors and to go and check the extensive list of items banned at Hogwarts, fastened to his office door. Now, there have been a couple of changes in staff this year. First I would like to welcome back Professor Grubby-Plank who will be taking over for Professor Hagrid, while he is on temporary leave.'

Polite applause.

'I would also like to introduce Professor Dolores Umbridge, who has kindly taken the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Now, onto Quidditch. Those…'

'Why did he stop and look at Umbridge?' Ron breathed.

He soon got his answer when Umbridge got up to make a speech. One thing was for sure, Umbridge's speech held a lot of meaningless words to the students of Hogwarts who were half-asleep, and who were already looking at her in distaste, from the way she spoken to them to her horrible pink cardigan.

'Thank you, Professor Umbridge for that illuminating speech. Now, as I was saying about Quidditch…'

'Professor!' said an angry voice from the Slytherin table. 'What about Professor Snape?' said the shrilly voice of Pansy Parkinson, 'and, who's that teacher?' she added pointing rudely at Severus, who raised an irritated eyebrow.

'Thank you, Miss Parkinson, for giving me an opening for some news I need to tell everyone. Firstly, Professor Snape is where he normally is at this time of the year, sitting beside me, which I believe answers both of your questions Miss Parkinson, and now to answer some of the questions I know are on everyone's minds. Yes, Professor Snape has always looked like that; he has just dropped his Glamour. No, his name isn't really Severus Snape, but rather Severus Dumbledore. Yes, we are related, for he is my son, and is also Professor McGonagall's son, but to save much confusion, we'll stick with the last names you know us as. Now, since we have sorted out the Professors, I'll get back to Quidditch…'

'Wait, what about her?' Pansy said pointing at Harri. 'Why does she look like Professor Snape?'

'Who?'

'HER!'

'She means me, Grandfather.' Harri said standing up, seeing that her grandfather was still looking confusedly out at the sea of students. Then, ignoring all the codfish in the room, Harri turned to Pansy. 'Does that answer your question? We're related, uncle and niece if you must know.'

'Then why have you only just appeared?'

'I don't know what you are talking about,' Harri replied calmly. 'I've been coming to Hogwarts for five years now.' Then she changed into "Harry Potter" for a few seconds before turning back into herself. 'There you go Grandfather, now you don't have to explain anything. You were saying about Quidditch?'

'Yes, Yes I was. Tryouts for -'

While her grandfather was talking, Harri discreetly took in the many still stunned faces. She saw the Slytherin fifth year boys kicking themselves for not being able to figure it out, Draco trying not to laugh at them, and Pansy obviously still trying to figure it out. Harri was that lost in thought that she did not hear her grandfather dismiss them.

'-rri. Harri. HARRI!'

'Huh?'

'Honestly Harri,' said Hermione, 'we've been trying to get your attention for a while now. Anyway, Ron and I are about to take the first years up to the Common Room, do you need the password?'

'No, I'll be staying in my uncle's quarters, but don't worry,' she quickly added catching their panicked looks, 'I'll be able to hang with you in the Common Room and you can visit me too. See ya.'

Harri had just seen her uncle beginning to leave so she hurried over to him to accompany him to their quarters.


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Written: February 2011
Updated: 27 May 2012
Beta:
alex rider junkie

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY. I DO, HOWEVER, CLAIM SOME COPYRIGHT OVER HARRI SINCE SHE IS HALF BASED ON MY ORIGINAL VALKYRIE CHARACTER, PRINCESS HARRIETTA.