Disclaimer:
British? Yes.
Female? Nope
Extravagantly rich? I wish!
Probability of being Jk Rowling 1%
I own nothing but the plot!
Chapter 7: Small Changes, Big Differences, Someone Notices
Their first few weeks back at Hogwarts passed without much incident, discounting Snape's usual spiel and general dislike of Harry. Of course the young Potter hadn't been expecting to continue potions, so had to borrow one from the Snape, instantly giving Snape a reason to begin the hate train. 'Some things never change' he sighed to himself.
-Flashback First Potions Lesson of the Year-
"Turn to the page on the Draught of Living Death, I expect a workable potion in an hour and a half. Go." Snape's callous voice droned. Harry turned to the offending page looking up and down it with interest. "In reality this should only really take an hour" he thought to himself as he looked through the instructions for the, supposedly, tricky potion. Grabbing the supplies from the cupboard he set to work chopping, crushing and slicing his ingredients, making sure to do all three variations to all his ingredients. His theoretical knowledge of potions had increased by magnitudes over the summer, but he had yet to test it out on actual potions. He then setup 3 small cauldrons around his workbench before combining different variations of his ingredients into his cauldrons. Fifteen minutes into the lesson, Snape began to prowl the classroom, pausing to sneer at a few pieces of work, most notably one Ronald Weasley, who despite his Acceptable had managed to enter the lesson, to the surprise of everyone bar Snape.
With his 3 cauldrons sizzling nicely, Harry looked at his potions book, noting the colour of each of the concoctions and disposing of two of them, focusing on the one which was closest to that of the book, he didn't need Snape thinking he was so bad he needed 3 cauldrons to make a single potion that required no additions of liquid bar some water. He also noted down what worked, scribbling in the book he was given.
Snape arrived at Harry's table, noting Hermione's speedy progress silently, before turning to Harry's potion ready for his sneer to come in with full force, instead with a small amount of surprise on his face, not making any comments he swooped back to his desk, beady eyes looking around the room.
Harry continued his potion, knowing that he now only had one shot in which he would be able to crack this potion. Following the instructions to the letter after his brief experimentation allowed him to finish in just over the hour mark but was by no means perfect, while Hermione had finished almost 10 minutes before with a potion that was almost the same as described in the book. Both simply took a sample from their cauldrons and placed them into unbreakable phials, presenting them at the teachers desk. Harry's potions "decided" to go for a meander with some persuasion from the spiteful potions master, though when the phial simply bounced from the floor without breaking Snape conceded and picked it up.
After they had finished Harry and Hermione talked quietly between themselves, not to disturb Ernie MacMillan with whom they shared a table. They began with trivial matters, more often than not started by Harry, like Quidditch, before more other topics took hold, most specifically, their elemental training. Potions ended uneventfully, the only blip in the lesson being Ronald melting his cauldron after taking his sample to Snape, by way of leaving the fire burning underneath.
-End Flashback-
From then Harry had taken to using a third of his free periods in the Room of Requirement to test what the difference in preparation would do for his potions, resulting in a fair few explosions, but yielding more information. This allowed him to avoid the potion master's wrath. By the time they first Quidditch match was to be held, Harry's advanced potion making had is good number of scribbles and notes on its pages. It was on his way to the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game that Harry found himself now briefly considering the past few weeks. There was almost always a constant presence of "the potion" at meal times, and the interference he got hadn't dissipated in any amount, coupled with Hermione acting stranger and stranger, her grades, while still high, were no where near what they were in years previous, nor at the start of this year. She also seemed to space out greatly while in DADA or in the Great Hall and in Potions. Harry feared the worst connecting the dots somewhat, so he had sent off to the goblins for an antidote, just in case, they had replied with haste of course and sent him another antidote.
The Gryffindor team walked out with the Ravenclaw team. Both sets of players shooting up into the air and circling the stadium of red and blue. Both teams then took positions on the field as Madam Hooch walked to the centre of the field, releasing the Bludgers and the Snitch, before hoisting the Quaffle. "I want a nice, clean game" she repeated, as she would normally at the start of any match.
The whistle blew. The Quaffle thrown into the air. Finally, the game had come to life. Gryffindor snagging the Quaffle as they rocketed toward the Ravenclaw hoops, the three chasers weaving and ducking, the Quaffle never being held for more than 10 seconds before a pass, using more unorthodox methods to keep the opposition chasers guessing, they made short work of the distance before making short work of the keeper also. 10-0. The Ravenclaw chasers made a play for a counterattack, swerving through Bludgers by only a hair's breadth before a deadly accurate Bludgers managed to hit the Quaffle and drop it into the waiting hands of one Katie Bell, who rocketed off topping the Gryffindor score up. 20-0. Neither Harry, nor Cho had seen the Snitch. Cho had planned to mark Harry through her own plan as captain, making sure he was always in her line of sight. Harry saw this out of the corner of his eye and smirked to himself lightly, before flattening himself against his broom and dropping faster than anyone could imagine, taking Cho with him as he descended, Cho knew she wasn't ever going to make the turn so careered away into a slight spin, while Harry neatly leveled off a foot away from the ground, a large grin finding it's way onto his face. Above him, Ravenclaw easily slipped three passed Ron, leaving them 10 down, despite many almost interceptions from the chasers and Bludgers from the chasers, and looked to be on the charge once again. Thankfully, a Bludger found it's mark this time and the ball was passed to Katie, allowing a level score. The charges and counters continued for another 15 minutes, before a sickening crunch was heard all around the stadium, before all the players turned to see Katie falling from her broom, blood rushing from her face and a Bludger continuing it's normal path. Immediately, Harry sped through the chaos as the two remaining chasers mounted a charge and a beater swung his bat to send the Bludger at the opposing side. Harry caught his captain just before he dropped to the floor. Carefully depositing her to Madam Pomfrey. The match continued badly for the Gryffindor team after that, with a chaser down, their charges were effectively out maneuvered resulting in another 10 goals going to Ravenclaw. Suddenly a glint of gold appeared at the feet of the Ravenclaw keeper, Harry saw no time to waste and broke, flat on his broom as Lee continued his slightly dejected commentary, not noticing Harry's charge, before the streak of red actually caught his attention by passing in front of his face, quickly followed by a slightly slower blue streak. Harry quickly weaved and dived as the Snitch did it's best to not be caught quickly dropping and rising with no real way to predict where it would go next. It then dropped steeply, pull8ng Harry and Cho into another dive, this time Cho tried to stay in the dive, while Harry pulled ahead recklessly. The Snitch abruptly stopped, trying to sneak under Harry's arm, but Harry quickly grabbed it out of the air before landing softly on the ground rasing the Snitch into the air, seeing Katie look it him from the Medical tent, standing shakily.
In the stands, Hermione was sitting massaging her head, while those around her were cheering their hearts out, in particular one Lavender Brown, as she looked at the Gryffindor keeper. Hermione was drawn to said girl as she called Ron's name out, but for the love of logic she couldn't figure out why.
-Gryffindor common room-
After the narrow victory, the lions returned to their den in high spirits, cheering for their team as they walked through. Lee managed to steal the microphone and announced the players as they entered and the beaters walked in after taking to the kitchen, seamlessly taking Fred and George's place in providing the food for the after party.
They party continued for another 20 minutes with most of the team in the centre, talking to their respective friends and occasionally mingling with others. All except Harry, who instead opted to sit in his favourite armchair, by the fire, joining Hermione who was reading, never one for overactive partying. Cat calls began ringing through the room as the two turned to find Lavender latched onto Ron, in the centre of the room. Harry turned back to find Hermione gone quickly turning again, he saw a brush of bushy hair squeeze through the crowd to the portrait hole. As he moved towards the exit to the common room, he saw Ginny walking up to him, intent in her eyes. Quickly saying he needed to get fresh air, Harry followed out of the portrait hole and quickly began to search the nearby classrooms. Finding her in the second unlocked room from the common room, he quietly entered and shut the door.
"Hermione," he said quietly, waiting for a response. She looked up at him, with confusing in her eyes, almost as if she didn't know herself anymore. Harry settled next to her on the table, "What's going on Hermione? You can tell me"
"I... I don't know Harry, it's like I... I can't stand to see someone with Ron, even though he's been an absolute arse to you and to some extent me this year. I don't know what's going on anymore Harry." she finished. Harry once again rubbed his ring, this time seeing a pink glow surrounding Hermione, and a small trace leading to the door, being which the lanky, hunched figure of Ronald Weasley could be seen, holding a hand behind him. "Here, drink this," Harry whispered, handing her the phial from the goblins. Trusting Harry, she downed the small crystal container and promptly slumped onto Harry's waiting shoulder. Deciding he didn't want to deal with Ron, he shifted to the other empty classroom he found, just as well as said Weasley decided to barge into the room, bringing a giggling Lavender with him, before a confused look appeared on his face and he left the room to return to the common room.
-Headmaster's Office-
A sudden spike in energy, akin to apparation alerting the headmaster to the small shift Harry had done, leading him to the empty classroom wand in hand, in which both teens were sitting, well, one was sitting the other sleeping. Entering he quickly whispered "Expelliarmus" before walking through the door, expecting the intruder to have fallen to his disarming spell. What he wasn't prepared for was a very small shield intercept the spell exactly reflecting the spell back at Dumbledore. With no time to mount a defence, the spell hit him squarely in the chest, sending his wand flying out of his grasp, allowing Harry to catch it easily. "I don't appreciate that Headmaster," Harry said calmly, twirling the Headmaster's wand in his hand(1).
"Aah you'll have to forgive me my dear boy, I was merely investigating a disturbance in this area. Might I enquire how you have the ability to apparate?," The aged professor asked in a grandfatherly tone, while probing Harry's surface thoughts with passive legilimancy, gleaning 'shifting' and 'goblins' from the forefront of the boy's mind. While Harry answered, "I don't know how to apparate, sir"
"Well, no matter, my dear boy. Though, I have been meaning to discuss something with you in regard to Voldemort. I'd like us to have some... Lessons on his past and why he is the way he is. I could even show you some advanced spell work," he though, not totally lying entirely; he didn't want to teach the boy any spells he could use in a fight, but removing a memory for a pensieve was truly advanced spell work. "Why exactly would we need to take lessons, plural, if you're just going to show me his past, sir? Surely we could do that in a single night?" Harry questioned, trying to keep himself from sounding sarcastic. "Well... Err we'll see Harry, my boy. If I can have my wand back, you can go ahead back to the Gryffindor common room. It seems as though Miss Granger is waking." Harry handed the wand back and quickly set about leading Hermione back to the common room, while she was murmuring, questioning what was going on. Dumbledore grasped the wand again, yet it didn't seem to feel right in his hand. He didn't connect with it, much like before he killed Grindelwald(2). Brushing it aside as just a side effect of the adrenalin leaving his body, he swept away back to his office, constructing anti-shift wards. 'It surely wouldn't do to allow Harry to shift like that' he thought to himself, as he set the wards and allowed them to charge through the residual magical potential left by the students casting spells.
-Gryffindor Common Room-
Harry and Hermione entered the room again, finding it still packed from the celebration. The team had dispersed throughout the room, sitting comfortably with friends, on the floor or in chairs. The pair ensconced themselves in a quieter corner of the room, before Harry started to explain everything he left out over the summer, including the various rituals he went through and talking specifically about the love potions, to which Hermione was particularly ticked off about. It took a fair amount of force and a foot locking curse to stop Hermione storming off to pulverise the two remaining Weasleys left in Hogwarts. Soon enough she calmed down, in the knowledge she wouldn't fall for it again, nor would she look the fool. With that the two left for the library, finishing up on their homework, which only really consisted of reading each other's work, and critically eyeing them, mostly Hermione made changed to Harry's, though Harry did manage to correct a mistake or two in DADA. After which they packed away their things, and left for bed. Harry attempted shifting to their common room, yet found he was unable. Shrugging, he simply walked the way, enjoying the company Hermione brought, enjoying having the friend he had gotten to know back.
(1)- For those who know me, you know what I mean ;)
(2)- In this one, Dumbledore thinks the elder wand passes by death, so he killed Grindelwald
A/N: I am back! Not dead! Very much alive! Been very busy, so sorry for not updating... Been nothing busy and lazy but hey, this one is a long one! Of course many errors in many things, will probably revise all chapters soon, for stuffs. Again, don't expect regular updates as such, but... Eh you know my regular spiel. So, a match of Quidditch, Hermione is immune to the love potion, Harry is being a nice guy, Ron is... Well being Ron. Not much, but meh you get what you get. To the people who were talking about the OWL results that were wrong, it was intentional, it's a new system so there are bound to teething problems **couch** Windows 10 **couch** Anyways, drop me a review, I read each one and take your responses seriously... I even respond sometimes!
Like it? Lump it? Love to hate it? Or hate that you love it? Whatever you maybe doing, drop me a review and let me know, I appreciate and love reading every single one!
Me out!
