actually, maybe i shouldn't comment, but i think that i should defend my work? anyway, the point about them showing affection is wrong…well, what i have in mind is that they are the strongest and no one could take them unaware…
and i'm too lazy to comment further…oh wells…well, read it if you like it…if not, then too bad…
Disclaimer: yadda yadda yadda
Chapter 7: Dreariness
by zfirze
The next few days passed rather uneventfully, as compared to the excitements in the first. Well, there were some rather eventful things.
Tuesday - Snape wasn't seen at breakfast and it was later found out that it was due to some appearance of unexplained boils on his face, which only served to amplify the sallow-ness of his skin. ("Eww, did you see his face?" - Random student 1; "Did you see his mood? Man, Potions was a torture," - Random student 2; "Double Potions was worse," - Random student 3)
Wednesday - all of them (except Hermione and Sasuke) struggling through their stacks of homework ("We'll never finish this, how could you two get through it so easily?!" - Naruto, Ron and Harry)
Thursday - the rest of the gang realising Harry was being tortured by Umbridge ("That does look like it hurts…" - Naruto; "Looks like?! It definitely hurts!!" - Ron).
Friday - Naruto making the bad decision of wanting to try out for Quidditch ("Aaah! Get me down!! NO!!").
Finally, Saturday came.
"Quidditch practice," Harry was practically grinning.
Sasuke had to roll his eyes, Harry wasn't that happy just because there was Quidditch, but because he met Cho in Owlery in the morning (but the rest don't need to know that - let it be Harry's 'secret'; though it wasn't much of a secret since Naruto and Sasuke knew, but no one knew that they knew, so…).
Ron looked rather pale at that, and had problem with his breakfast. Seeing that he usually gobbled down his food, Naruto was quite surprised at his sudden docile way of eating.
"It's just his way of expressing his nervousness," Hermione whispered quietly to Naruto.
"Er, Harry, do you mind going down with me earlier to practice? Before training," Ron asked.
"Sure,"
Hermione broke off from whispering with Naruto and turned to them, "I don't think you should, your homework pile-"
She was cut off by the arrival of morning post, whereby the trio immediately launched into a discussion of someone they knew (from the Order). Naruto asked a few questions here and there to get the bigger picture (since they trusted Naruto - or forced to, since Harry had revealed the Order to him) while Sasuke just listened. He wouldn't want to be the one to remind them that he was there just in case they decided not to talk in front of him.
He was a little jealous of Naruto, in that sense, being able to gain the trust of people around him so easily.
Harry and Ron left for the Quidditch pitch after breakfast and Naruto hurriedly followed them, saying that if he took the time and effort to observe them, he'd learn how to fly as well. Sasuke seriously doubted anyone (without the Sharingan) could learn just by observation (even if the person in question was Naruto).
That left Sasuke with Hermione. Honestly, Sasuke wouldn't say he like the girl - she was far too observant, the type who would persist until they got a decent answer. Sasuke scowled at the fact that Naruto had a reason to tag along with Harry and Ron (Sasuke had earlier said he didn't like Quidditch so that he could 'look after' Harry when he was doing his detention with Umbridge. So it'd be painfully suspicious if he suddenly had the interest to go down the pitch, wouldn't it?)
"So, do you prefer the library or the common room?" Hermione asked him.
Sasuke stared. He wasn't sure what exactly she was asking.
"I mean, where do you want to go to finish up our homework?" She said when she saw his blank stare, "Or do you prefer to finish it up by yourself?" She added shrewdly.
Sasuke shrugged, "Anywhere is fine,"
Hermione smiled, and they made their way up to the Gryffindor common room.
Meanwhile, Naruto was staring as Harry threw the Quaffle to Ron over and over again. He sighed. He really wished he hadn't been so bad on a broom. At least if he made it onto the team, he could have a better watch over Harry. Not to mention that if he had made it onto the team, it would mean that he was proficient in riding a broom and that would make it easier if Harry was ever attacked in mid-air. Unfortunately, Naruto couldn't even last five minutes on the broom.
Naruto fiddled with the hem of his robes, longing to do something, anything that didn't involve him sitting there, doing nothing. He wasn't that kind of person.
Maybe he could think up of a Jutsu which would allow him to walk on air or something, if it didn't already exist.
It was another hour to lunch and the Gryffindor common room was nearly empty (it was Saturday, obviously everyone else was out somewhere) except for Sasuke and Hermione, who were both busy working on their assignments. Sasuke shifted his Divination homework (a dream diary) away and gave it a disdainful look. Hermione looked up from her Arithmancy essay.
She frowned, "Why did you take it, anyway? You don't even seemed to be able to tolerate it,"
Sasuke shrugged, not wanting to tell the true reason (of needing to protect Harry) but also not willing to go along with Naruto's reason (of taking the class so that he could be with Naruto).
Hermione turned back to her work while Sasuke idly flipped through his Transfiguration book.
"Just in case you're thinking," Hermione said softly, without looking up from her essay, "We do trust you, Sasuke," At this, she looked up determinedly, as though to prove her point.
Although her cheeks were tinged pink with light embarrassment, Sasuke could tell she was definitely sincere. Sasuke stared at her expressionlessly, not knowing how to respond, since she was one of the rare few (other than Naruto) to sound so sincere about something.
After Hermione realised that Sasuke probably wasn't going to reply her, she lowered her eyes back to her work. Another moment of silence passed.
"Thanks," Sasuke said gruffly, head turned away from Hermione as though he was searching for something under the pile of books.
Hermione's smile widened.
Quidditch after lunch wasn't much enjoyed due to the fact that many of the Slytherins found the time to turn up for their practice. In short, the Slytherins ruined the practice.
Naruto was finding it hard not to jump up from his seat (which was very near the group of Slytherins led by another blonde - Draco Malfoy) and start attacking them. They were making such a ruckus, and disturbing the training going above them!
After an hour or so, the training was forced to end after one of the Chasers started bleeding heavily (through her nose). The Slytherins started snickering and their jeering got louder.
'Deep breaths', Naruto told himself, 'One, two, three-'
"Did you see her face?" One Slytherin asked another, both breaking into loud and rude laughter.
"SHUT UP!!" Naruto finally yelled.
"What do you want, new boy," Malfoy sneered.
"My name is UZUMAKI NARUTO, damnit!"
"Strange for someone to be called Uzumaki," Malfoy scoffed, and his two cronies laughed along as well.
"If you weren't so unknowledgeable, you would have known that that was his last name, Malfoy," Harry said, having flown down on his brooms to where they were, and was now landing directly in front of them (Ron had already been too dejected to notice the argument).
"Don't make it sound as though you are so knowledgeable, Potter," Malfoy spat, then he paused and grinned after a while, "How about this: since you think you are more knowledgeable than me, how about a duel? Or are you too scared to take it up?"
"And I wonder…who was the one who had chickened out the last time, and called Filch for help?"
Malfoy's fist clenched warningly, his grin still on his face (although a little forced by now), "I never ran away, you were just too stupid that time. So, how about an actual one now? You can decide on the time and venue," He smirked.
"Fine-"
"Harry, what are you doing? Get changed!" The Gryffindor Captain (Angelina) called out to them.
"We'll settle this next time, Malfoy," Harry said as he mounted his broom to take off to the changing room, "Naruto, wait for us, alright? We'll be ready in a little while,"
"Sure!" Naruto said cheerfully.
He cast a dark look at Malfoy before walking off to wait for Harry and Ron (at another place).
Sunday passed relatively fast, at least, in the afternoon. After dinner, Harry, Ron and Naruto started struggling through their pile of homework.
A letter came from Ron's brother (Percy), which resulted in Hermione finally taking pity on Ron to actually help him in his homework (at this point, Naruto gave huge puppy-eyes to Sasuke, trying to convince him to do the same and Sasuke gave a huge sigh, rolled his eyes and proceeded to do so).
Harry's godfather also startled all of them by appearing in the fireplace. Naruto was rather amused and thought that the head in the fireplace was not real and started poking it. Until Sirius stated, quite calmly, that it hurt. Naruto, Sasuke and Sirius were then introduced to each other. (Sirius was rather suspicious of Naruto and Sasuke and thought of them as spies initially, until Harry caught the look in his eyes and convinced him that they were not.)
The next day (Monday), the news of Umbridge becoming the Hogwarts High Inquisitor came through the Daily Prophet. Naruto blanched loudly when he heard that.
"What do you mean by she's going to inspect our lesson?" Naruto was horrified.
"What's the difference? She's just going to judge the professors, not us," Sasuke replied rather coolly.
"She's going to be in our lesson! That is the big difference!"
Sasuke just rolled his eyes in response.
They left for History of Magic, followed by Double Potions, in which Umbridge was in neither.
Snape's face was downright ugly. He looked at Malfoy in way that was very much different from his usual favouring ones. Halfway through their making of the Strengthening Solution, he paused for a very long time at Malfoy's cauldron. Sasuke had a very strong suspicion that it was due to the extra ingredient Sasuke had added to reward Snape and Malfoy.
After much discussion between them (with Malfoy's neighbours attempting to listen in and only resulting in their own Solution being destroyed), Snape straightened up. His dark eyes traveled across the classroom, pausing at Naruto and finally landing on Sasuke. Sasuke turned away, concentrating on his Solution. After all, Snape had no proof it was him, so he was innocent until proven otherwise.
After Double Potions, it was lunch, followed by Divination. Umbridge was there to inspect Trelawney's lesson. Harry, Ron and Sasuke were trying not to show their thrill of seeing Trelawney suffering under Umbridge's gaze. Though Sasuke pitied Trelawney a little, seeing that Umbridge was being mean and evil, but he quickly lost this feeling when Trelawney came over and started predicting Harry's most gruesome death yet. She was still a fraud.
Defence Against the Dark Arts after that was another disaster. Harry got himself involved in another argument with Umbridge and landed with a weeks' detention again. Naruto almost groaned aloud.
The only interesting thing to happen on Tuesday was that Umbridge finally got her just deserts in McGonagall's class. Sasuke had to say his respect for McGonagall had increased a lot. Naruto had to refrain from snickering aloud when Umbridge looked like she was looked down upon by McGonagall (though she probably really was looked down upon - metaphorically and physically).
Care of Magical Creatures later in the afternoon only resulted in Harry getting another night's worth of detention.
Harry came back from Umbridge's office late at night, with his hand bleeding severely. Naruto and Sasuke were feigning sleep upstairs in the dormitory, so as to take turns to watch over Harry and further explore the castle. A suggestion from Hermione resulted in Harry shouting again and almost waking up the whole castle.
"I do say that that is a good idea," Naruto whispered to Sasuke.
"Hn,"
"I mean, if Harry could teach other kids magic, we could teach them self-defense. That way, they could better protect themselves,"
Sasuke's eyes turned towards Naruto, "You're only going to reveal things about us to them,"
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Obviously not. If we really are going to teach them self-defense, it'll only be more on dodging spells. It's not as if we are going to teach them how to do back-flips,"
"Still, that depends on Harry's final decision,"
"He's going to give in," Naruto said confidently.
The subject that Hermione raised with Harry (about Harry teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to them) was not spoken of for another two weeks, probably to let Harry simmer down from his previous explosion. She finally broached the topic again, only for Harry to be seen hesitating to accept. Naruto tried his best not to show his glee, of winning their unspoken bet, to Sasuke.
When Harry finally agreed to teach them, Naruto raised his idea with them.
"You mean if Harry agreed, other than just learning more spells, we'll be learning more physical stuff as well? Cool! Harry, please agree!" Ron's eyes were round with anticipation, after hearing Naruto's suggestion.
"Hey, don't talk as though all the decision lies with me," Harry protested, before adding, "And you make it sound as though I'm so uncooperative,"
"So it's set?" Ron asked excitedly.
"Okay!" Harry and Naruto replied at the same time, before looking at each other in surprise and bursting into laughter.
The librarian (they were in the library, trying to complete their essay) gave them a scathing look and a loud 'Shh!'.
Hermione frowned, "Your country is rather strange, isn't it? I mean, most wizards, sad to say, are rather lazy and wouldn't want to move much of a finger. You guys, on the other hand, are forced to do physical training and physical endurance…it must be tough,"
"You have no idea," Naruto nodded.
"But it would help, if we were ever in a battle. During a battle, you might lose your wand and you would be left with no defense. If your reflexes aren't built up, you wouldn't be able to dodge attacks long enough to grab your wand again, that was what our leader had in mind when he regulated physical training as a part of our course," Sasuke added, rather helpfully.
A moment of silence passed as the trio digested Sasuke's information as well as the fact that he had spoken so much.
"Um, so anyway, how about an informal meeting during the first Hogsmeade visit? We could ask those interested to meet us in the village,"
"Why must it be outside of school?" Ron asked.
Hermione gave him a long look, "I doubt Umbridge would be too happy,"
Ron nodded absently at her statement, "Hey, and what you mean by informal? Don't tell me that Harry's teaching is going to become something super formal?" He panicked slightly.
Hermione only rolled her eyes in response before turning back to her work.
