Disclaimer: As always I own no part of Harry Potter whatsoever and have only my imagination to work with.
Authors Note:
Thank you to my betas James Marx and mineng101 for their work on this chapter.
"Speech"
'Internal Dialogue'
French
Chapter 9: School, Skrewts, and Mad Eye Moody.
The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy, clouds of pewter grey swirled overhead as Harry, Ron and Hermione examined their timetables over breakfast.
A few seats down Fred, George and their friend Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.
"Today's not bad, outside all morning." Said Harry who was running a finger down the Monday column of his timetable. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures with the… damn it! We're still with the Slytherins."
"Double Divination this afternoon." Ron groaned looking down at his timetable.
"You should have given it up like I did, shouldn't you?" Said Hermione briskly buttering herself some toast. "Then you could be doing something sensible, like Arithmancy."
Harry nodded in agreement, he was very grateful he had not chosen Divination, instead electing to take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures.
"Or just never taken it to begin with like me." He said, voicing his thoughts. "I told you it was a waste of time, Ron. If you're not a natural seer, there's nothing the old bat can really teach you."
Ron looked a bit disgruntled at that, clearly he had thought it was an easy route to a high grade, but apparently it wasn't working out the way he had hoped.
"You're eating again I've noticed." Said Ron, watching Hermione add liberal amounts of jam to her toast, as he referred to her refusal to do so the night earlier in protest of elf enslavement.
"I've decided that there are better ways of making a stand for elf rights." Said Hermione haughtily.
"Yeah, and you were hungry." Said Ron grinning.
…..
Hermione and Ron argued lightly all the way across the sodden vegetable patch until they arrived in greenhouse three, but here he was distracted by Professor Sprout showing the class the ugliest plants Harry had ever seen.
Indeed they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly, and each seemed to have a number of large, slimy swellings on it which each seemed to be full of liquid.
"Bubotubers" Professor Sprout told them briskly, "they need squeezing. You will collect the pus…"
"The what?" exclaimed Seamus Finnigan sounding revolted.
"Pus, Finnigan, Pus." Said Professor Sprout. "And it's extremely valuable so don't waste it. You will collect the pus as I was saying in these vials. Wear your dragon hide gloves, it can do funny things to the skin when it comes into contact with undiluted bubotuber pus."
Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting but oddly satisfying. As each swelling popped a large amount of green yellowish liquid burst forth which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints.
"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy." Said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to drastic measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Like poor Eloise Midgen." Said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl." Said Professor Sprout shaking her head. "but Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."
A booming bell echoed across the lawns from the castle, signaling the end of the lesson and the class separated, the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for transfiguration and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn towards Hagrid's small wooden cabin which stood on the edge of the forbidden forest.
Hagrid was standing outside his hut, one hand on the collar of his enormous black boarhound Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet and Fang was whimpering and straining at his collar, apparently keen to investigate the contents more closely. As they drew nearer an odd rattling noise reached their ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions.
"Mornin." Hagrid said, grinning at Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won't want ter miss this. Blast Ended Skrewts!"
"Come again?" Asked Ron.
Hagrid pointed down into the crates.
"Ugh!" Squealed Lavender Brown jumping backwards.
Ugh, just about summed up the blast ended skrewts in Harry's opinion. They looked like deformed, shell less lobsters, terribly pale and slimy looking with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over each other, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a Skrewt and with a small bang it would be propelled forwards several inches.
"On'y just hatched." Said Hagrid proudly. "So, ye'll be able ter raise them yer selves. Thought we'd make a bit of a project out of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" Asked a cold voice.
The Slytherins had arrived, the speaker was Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling appreciatively at his words.
"I mean, what do they do?" Asked Malfoy. "What is the point of them?"
Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard, there was a few seconds pause then he said roughly. "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer just feedin 'em today. Now, ye'll want to try em on a few different thins, I've never had em before, so I'm nu sure what they'll go fer. I got ant eggs and frog livers, and a bit of grass snake. Jus' try em out with a bit o' each."
"First pus and now this." Muttered Seamus.
Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have made Harry, Ron and Hermione pick up squinching handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast Ended Skrewts.
Harry couldn't suppress the suspicion that the whole thing was entirely pointless because the Skrewts didn't seem to have mouths.
"Ouch!" Yelled Dean Thomas after about 10 minutes. "It got me!"
Hagrid hurried over to him looking anxious.
"It's end exploded." Said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off." Said Hagrid.
"Ugh!" Said Lavender Brown again. "Ugh, Hagrid what's that pointy thing on it?"
"Ah, some of em ave got stings!" Hagrid said enthusiastically, Lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box.
And on the day went. Malfoy had loudly complained once more, Hermione had rebudled him, but later admitted to the other two that she actually agreed with Malfoy's sentiment, something Harry and Ron were hard pressed to argue.
Harry was rather thrilled that the usually strict Professor Vector, his Arithmancy teacher had not given them a single page of homework. Ron, however, was far less fortunate, as apparently he would be spending a great deal of his weekend working on his homework from Trelawney.
"Tough luck, mate." Harry had said through a rather luxurious stretch, a smug yet amused smile playing on his lips.
The class Harry was really looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry had heard others rave about Moody and his classes, the twins chief amongst them, and it was quite unlike them to praise any figure of authority.
When Thursday finally came Harry was rather excited for the defense lesson, however his excitement quickly faded when he walked into the great hall that morning and looked at the headline of the Daily Prophet.
Harry Potter Defeats Former Death Eater and Duelling Champion
By Rita SkeeterThere have many ongoing questions regarding the fiasco that was the aftermath of the Quidditch World Cup. In all the chaos however, a major story was lost.
Thomas Nott Jr., Former National Youth Duelling Champion, and former Regional Duelling Champion as an adult was tried in front of a court of law on Wednesday afternoon. The trial took place in front of a full Wizengamot and was conducted by the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot himself.
What makes this so interesting however, is not the charges laid against Mr. Nott, nor the fact that they were proven accurate. No, it was the nature of the charges themselves that were so interesting.
Thomas Nott was charged with, (and later admitted to, under veritaserum) the attempted rape of two Veela, one of them underage, the attempted assault of a minor, the attempted murder of a minor, and the attempted use of multiple Unforgivable curses against said minor.
But who is this mysterious minor? And what did he do to upset Mr. Nott oh so much? Well, my eager readers, Mr. Nott answered it all himself under veritaserum so we need not ask ourselves the question at all.
"I was trying to capture a couple of Veela, my intentions were to have some fun and sell them off for a profit later down the road. But then they stepped in." Mr. Nott told us all in a flat voice as the potion worked its magic.
"Who are the 'they' you are referring to Mr. Nott?" Asked Amelia Bones, head of the Magical Law Enforcement Office.
"Harry Potter and a few other teenagers, I don't know who the other ones were."
"What happened next?"
"One of the girls tried to get me to stop and I offered her a deal. If Potter could best me in a duel I would let them go."
"Why would you want to duel Harry Potter?"
"Revenge."
"For what?"
And that is when Mr. Nott made a shocking proclamation.
"For destroying the Dark Lord, my lord, and stopping his progress to establishing a better world."
Mr. Nott then went on to describe a thrilling duel where he was apparently bested by the fourteen year old Harry Potter.
But does this just raise more questions than it answered?
What was Harry Potter doing that night to come across such a scene? Who were his young accomplices? And how did he beat Thomas Nott? Was it powerful dark magic? Was that how he beat You-Know-Who all those years ago? Do we have the next Dark Lord on our hands?
Well readers, for your sake and mine, I certainly hope that is nothing more than speculation.
Harry was fuming. "How could they publish that without my permission? I'm not even of age?"
"No clue mate." Said Ron, looking a bit incredulous.
"My question is how do you go and beat an old death eater and get accused of being a dark lord?" Asked Hermione, sounding rather bewildered.
Ron just shrugged. "That's just Rita Skeeter isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Asked Harry, his attention caught. He had heard Percy and Mr. Weasley complaining about her quite loudly over the holidays and now she had given Harry more than enough reason to do the same.
Ron just shrugged and seemed to search for the right words before finally deciding on a very articulate observation. "She's just a massive git." He proclaimed through a face full of eggs.
Harry nearly choked on and spat out all his pumpkin juice all at once at Ron's description, it was more the fact it had taken him that long to come up with it.
As Harry spluttered Ron shot him an apologetic look before continuing. "Dad always says she just makes stuff up. Takes a base of truth and builds whatever she wants on top of it, you know? He said she's even been accused of faking quotes, but no one's ever been able to prove it."
Harry just nodded.
By the time Harry had finally arrived at his first defense class of the year any feelings he had about the article were long gone, replaced by raw excitement at the prospect of having a teacher the caliber of Moody.
The door to the classroom was unlocked so they all walked in.
As they made to sit a gruff voice screamed from out of nowhere. "Stupefy!"
Jet after jet of red light flew in every direction, stunning nearly everyone in seconds.
Hermione fell instantly, caught by surprise, Ron managed to avoid a few spells before slamming hard into a desk and falling to the floor cursing rather loudly.
Harry had evaded stunner after stunner until it was just him facing thin air. Everyone else either stunned, or in Ron's case doing a good job of pretending.
"Stupefy!" The voice said again, and this time Harry saw a shimmer in the air.
Harry silently raised a Protego and let his shield absorb the impact of the stunner before making a circular motion with his wand and jabbing it in the general direction of the disturbance.
"Revelio."
There was yet another shimmer in the air and Moody was all of a sudden standing there.
Harry expected the show to end there but it didn't. He tried a full body bind next, followed by a disarmer and a stunner, all chained together in one sequence.
Harry sidestepped the first two and shielded the third before deciding it was his turn to play.
"Wingardium Leviosa." With a flick and a swish of his wand three desks raised into the air before hurdling themselves straight towards Moody who's eyes widened in surprise.
He managed to banish the desks away before being caught off guard by Harry's silent expelliarmus.
Harry caught his wand and looked at Moody, he was giving him a calculating look before laughing hardily, walking forward and clasping Harry on the shoulder. Harry flinched a bit at the sudden contact, years of abuse drilling the motion into him.
"Silent casting, Potter? At such a young age, and CONSTANT VIGILANCE personified! Brilliant! Just brilliant, take 20 points for Gryffindor."
Harry smiled and handed Moody back his wand. He knew he had only surprised the man and he had been sticking to low level spells. Although he knew that in a real duel he would have no chance he was proud of himself nonetheless.
Ron stared up at Harry with awe etched in his features as Moody went around reviving people until he saw Ron.
"Weasley, right?" He asked him, Ron all of a sudden looked very nervous.
"Yes sir." He said politely.
Moody nodded rather approvingly. "Your dad got me out of a bit of trouble the other day, do me a favour and write to him saying old Moody sends his gratitude will you?"
Ron nodded at once. "Yes sir."
"Good, now, were you awake the entire time?"
Ron blushed a bit and looked rather embarrassed but spoke. "Yeah, I kinda just dived on the floor and hid behind a desk."
'Correction, Ronald, you dove to the side and damn near put your knee THROUGH the desk.' Thought Harry as he suppressed a snigger.
Moody nodded approvingly once more. "Take 3 points to Gryffindor. Next time, Weasley, attack. You're strategy is good, but you could have surprised me and took me down much faster if you would have attacked from there while Potter had my attention."
Ron blushed again before muttering under his breath. "He seemed to have it under control." And something like "didn't wanna get in the way."
"Too true, Potter did well, but those are famous last words Weasley. Don't let them be yours." He then looked around at the assembled class before roaring "CONSTANT VIGILANCE! It is key in any fight, it is key in any situation, and I expect a damn shot better of a display of it then you all showed today. If I had been a death eater and Potter hadn't been there to save all of your necks, you would all be dead, captured, or being tortured right now."
He paused to let that all sink in before making his way to the front of the room and taking out a scroll of parchment before taking the roll.
"Now, Professor Lupin was kind enough to leave me his notes from last year. He said that at the beginning of last year the class was rather far behind, but he seems to have put it down to incompetence in the teaching position more so than your own abilities. Do you all agree with his assessment?"
There was a mutual murmur of agreement and Moody scowled before moving on. "He said that last year you covered Boggarts, Red Kaps, Kappas, Hinkypunks, Grindylows and Werewolves. All correct?"
Again the class muttered their agreement and Moody nodded. "I will have to meet this Remus Lupin, he seems as if he is more than capable. But you are all very, very behind in terms of dark curses."
He inspected the class for a minute before asking no one in particular. "Who here can define for me what is a dark curse?"
Harry's hand shot into the air immediately but Hermione's beat his by centimeters.
"Go on then." Moody grunted at Hermione.
"A curse is the highest level of offensive magic" Hermione reeled off with ease, "a curse is anything the ministry deems dangerous enough to be ranked above jinxes and hexes, and any dark, offensive spells fall into this category without question."
Hermione smiled a rather smug smile seeming rather proud of herself.
"Wrong." Growled Moody seemingly unimpressed.
Harry almost laughed as there was literally an intake of breath from many of the students around them and Ron looked like somebody who had just woken up from a rather bad knockout loss in a heavyweight boxing bout, dazed, shocked and confused. Hermione on the other hand looked like someone had kicked her puppy, but defiance shown in her eyes.
"But that's what it says in…"
"I don't give a damn what book told you that nonsense, it's wrong."
"But the ministry…"
"Can go suck Merlin's dirty toes for all I care." Thundered Moody. "The ministry knows nothing about combat magic, they're a bunch of academics shut up in a room trying to come up with a smart sounding definition that will satisfy the average witch or wizard. You need to learn to think for yourself, Granger. Memorizing the textbooks will only get you so far in life."
Harry thought that was a bit harsh but did not necessarily disagree with Moody's statement. It did pain him to see the look of hurt on Hermione's face though.
"Anyone else wanna try? And if you're gonna spout off a ministry approved definition you can stay sitting with your mouth shut."
For a long moment no one moved, and then Harry tentatively raised his hand.
"Go on then, Potter." Said Moody, seeming somehow more interested now.
"Well," started Harry "a curse is anything cast at you with the intent to cause serious harm."
"Go on." Prompted Moody. "What is it that makes your answer different from Granger's?"
Harry thought for a moment before it clicked. "Well, if I'm right then it's not so black and white, curses aren't what the ministry deems them, they're the magic that is specifically designed to cause harm." A light bulb went off in Harry's mind. "That's it isn't it? A curse is any spell designed with the soul purpose of causing harm to another person, no ifs ands or buts. That's why spells like diffindo are only considered hexes. You could cut someone's neck with a diffindo and they'd be dead, but the spell wasn't created to cause harm."
Moody seemed to evaluate Harry for a long moment before speaking. "There's no official definition I can give you that I agree with, but I like Potter's, so we're going to go with that. So, Potter, why then are curses so dangerous? And I don't mean just because they are harmful."
Harry thought for a long moment before answering slowly. "Well sir, curses can be almost anything, anything designed to harm, so they can be very flexible and come from a lot of different fields of magic, which means your defense would need to be sound in all areas as well as flexible and adaptable."
Moody actually shared a rare smile. "Very good Potter. Very, very good. Take another 10 points. Now, can anyone else tell me why the bit about all curses being dark magic and vice versa are balderdash?"
No one answered.
"Potter?" Moody asked, despite the fact Harry had not raised his hand.
Harry sat there stumped for a moment before the answer came to him. "Because not all dark magic is designed to harm you?"
Moody nodded, the same approving smile on his face.
"But sir" piped up Hermione. "Isn't that exactly the point of dark magic?"
Moody observed her closely. "I'm afraid that's a heavily debated topic, Granger, the definition of dark magic will vary depending on who you ask. There were classifications for magic once, true, accurate, unbiased classifications based on magic itself. But those were lost centuries ago. It is rumoured that some intelligent creatures like goblins still have them, but they would never share their knowledge with wizards even if the rumours are true, which I doubt. The ministry came in and gave their own definition, but it was riddled with bias and was designed solely to scare people away from the arts, not to be accurate in their classification."
"The point that I am trying to get across is that magic can be dangerous in many different ways, as can assumptions. If you assume you know what is dangerous and what isn't, if you assume your defense is good enough simply because it works well against a particular branch of magic then you're already halfway to being a rotting corpse on the battlefield. CONSTANT VIGILANCE is always the solution. This year we will be going in depth on combat magic and how to defend against what most people consider dark. There isn't much time left so I just want you all to copy down your biggest takeaways from this lesson and hand them in to me at the end of the period, they will not be marked but I am curious to gauge your takeaways. There will be no homework for today."
When the class didn't move Moody growled. "Well, get to it then."
And they did.
"I see what Fred and George mean." Said Harry as they left the defense classroom for dinner.
"Oh yeah?" Said Ron, clearly curious.
"He knows, he knows what it's really like. Not because he's read about it, not because he's made assumptions. He knows the truth, he's seen it all in action and understands what dark magic really is. He'll make an excellent professor."
Ron nodded in agreement but Hermione said nothing.
"Cheer up 'Mione, at least you learned something today. It's nice always being right but it's useless if you're not actually learning isn't it?"
Hermione nodded thoughtfully at that, seeming to cheer up a bit as she smiled gratefully at him.
They reached the entrance hall which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line when a loud voice rang out behind them.
"Weasley! Hey Weasley!""
Harry, Ron and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"What?" Said Ron shortly
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley. Clearly he isn't big enough business to make the main prophet." he sneered at Harry as he said this. "old scar head seems to have that honour locked up quite nicely. But he sure made the evening prophet. Weasley." Said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the evening prophet and speaking very loudly so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could here. "Listen to this."
"Further mistakes at the Ministry of Magic. It seems as if the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end. Writes Rita Skeeter, special correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment on Monday by the antics of ARNOLD WEASLEY of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
Malfoy looked up. "Imagine them not even getting his name right Weasley, it's almost like he's a complete non-entity isn't it?" He cooed.
Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now, Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on. "Arnold Weasley who was charged with the possession of a flying car two years ago was involved in a tussle with several muggle law keepers (police men) over a number of highly aggressive dustbins early Monday morning. Mr. Weasley seems to have rushed to the aid of Mad Eye Moody, the aged ex auror who retired from the ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house it was discovered that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the police men but refused to answer any questions as to why he chose to involve the ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene. AND there's a picture, Weasley." Said Malfoy, flipping over the paper and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house, if you can call it a house. Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight couldn't she?"
Ron was shaking with fury, everyone was staring at him.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy." Said Harry. "Come on Ron."
"Oh yeah! You were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" Sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky? Or is it just the picture?"
"You know your mother, Malfoy?" Said Harry, both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy. "That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose. Has she always looked like that or was it just because you were with her?"
Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink. "Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter!"
"Keep your fat mouth shut then." Said Harry, turning away.
BANG!
Several people screamed. Harry felt something white hot graze the side of his face. He plunged his hand into his robes for his wand but before he had even touched it, he heard a second loud BANG and a roar which echoed through the entrance hall.
"Oh no you don't, laddy!"
Harry spun around, Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing at a pure white ferret that was shivering on the cold white floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.
There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall, nobody but Moody was moving a muscle.
Moody turned to look at Harry, at least his normal eye was looking at Harry the other one was pointing into the back of his head. "Did he get you?" Moody growled, his voice was low and gravelly.
"No." Said Harry. "Missed."
"Leave it!" Moody shouted.
"Leave what?" Harry asked, bewildered.
"Not you, him." Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe who had just frozen about to pick up the white ferret. It seemed as though Moody's eye was magical and could see out of the back of his head.
Moody started to limp towards Crabbe, Goyle and the ferret which gave a terrified shriek and took off towards the dungeons. "I don't think so!" Roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again. It flew ten feet into the air and then fell to the floor with a smack and bounced up once more.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's backs are turned." Growled Moody, bouncing the ferret higher and higher as it squealed in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do."
The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. "Never. Do. That. Again." Said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upwards again.
"Professor Moody!" Said a shocked voice.
Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall." Said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.
"What… what are you doing?" Said Professor McGonagall her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.
"Teaching." said Moody.
"Teaching… Moody, is that a student?" said Professor McGonagall, the books falling out of her arms.
"Yup." Said Moody.
"No!" Cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand. A moment later with a loud snapping noise Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek, blonde hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.
"Moody, we never use transfiguration as a punishment." Said Professor McGonagall weekly. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might have mentioned it, yeah." Said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly. "But I thought a good sharp shock…"
"We give DETENTIONS Moody, or speak to the offenders head of house."
"I'll do that then." Said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.
Malfoy who's grey eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation looked melevalantly up at Moody and muttered something where the words "my father" were distinguishable.
"Oh yeah?" Said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy. You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son. You tell him that from me. Now, your head of house will be Snape, will it?"
"Yes." Said Malfoy resentfully.
"Another old friend." Growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape. Come on you." And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off towards the dungeons.
Professor McGonagall stared worriedly after them for a few moments before waving her wand at her fallen books and causing them to shoot up into her arms once more.
"Don't talk to me." Ron said quietly to Harry and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.
"Why not?" Said Hermione in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever." Said Ron, his eyes closed, and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."
Harry and Hermione both laughed and Hermione began dolling beef casserole onto each of their plates.
"He could have really hurt Malfoy though." Said Hermione. "It was good really that Professor McGonagall stopped it."
"Hermione." Said Ron furiously. "You're ruining the best moment of my life."
From there, Hermione had eaten at top speed before rushing off to the library, leaving Harry and Ron to wander off to the common room alone.
It came as a great surprise however, when they reached the common room to find a large, excited group of students all gathered around the notice board.
As Harry was at best average in height for his age and Ron was far above that, the red head stood on tiptoes and got a look at the board from over the heads of the students.
"Quidditch tryouts will take place every morning starting next week for the school team." He informed Harry. "There will be open practices until the first of October when the other schools arrive and the team will be announced that night at the feast."
"The first duelling tryout is also this Saturday, and apparently the first academic tryout is this Sunday."
He looked at Harry incredulously. "Blimey, they're really taking this tournament thing seriously aren't they?"
Harry nodded.
"You should do duelling." Said Ron. "Obviously you'll make the Quidditch team, youngest seeker in a century and all that, but you'd be great at duelling and I think you'd really love it, it seems like just your thing."
Harry smirked at that. "You mean avoiding death by the skin of my teeth, yeah, I'm pretty good at that, sign me up."
Ron laughed loudly and then got a serious expression. "I'm serious."
"I know, but you do realize I'd probably be the youngest in the tournament if I made it?"
"You do realize you beat a former duelling champion this summer?"
"That was a fight, not a duel. There is a big difference, and he probably underestimate me."
"Yeah" said Ron. "If you can fight, duelling should be easy, just make it fast paced and intense."
Harry nodded, he had come to the same conclusion long ago. "I think I will go for it." He said quietly.
"Bloody brilliant!" Said Ron, clapping his friend on the back. "So we'll win Quidditch and duelling, now I just need to convince you to find a way into the tournament so you can win that too."
Harry just snorted and shook his head disbelievingly. "I'd never win, and I would never want it."
"I know you'd never do it." Said Ron with an amused smile. "But it would be a hell of a triple crown."
Harry shook his head. "Not interested, not even a little.
"Suit yourself." Said a familiar voice from behind them.
"More for us!" Said a nearly identical voice.
Harry turned to see the twins grinning at him. "You guys are gonna go out for Quidditch obviously?" Asked Harry.
"Obviously!" They affirmed as one.
Harry nodded.
"We were told to give this to you." Said Fred, handing Harry a tightly bound scroll of parchment.
"Any idea what it is?" Asked Harry, his curiosity peaked.
"Not the foggiest idea." Said George cheerfully. "Cheers mate, see you later." And just like that they were gone.
Harry just raised an eyebrow at Ron who smirked and shook his head. "That's just them, isn't it.?"
Harry just nodded before his curiosity won out and he unrolled the scroll. Upon it was a very short note scrolled in familiar, loopy writing.
I would appreciate it very much if you could meet me in my office tomorrow evening at 8:00. We have much to discuss and I have a most intriguing proposition for you.
I hope your first week has gone well, and I hope it only continues to improve.
All the best,
Professor Dumbledore.
…..
Authors Endnote.
Wow, what a way to end it off! What could Dumbledore possibly want with Harry? Keep reading to find out.
I know that in canon the first lesson in Moody's class was the unforgivables, I did not forget, I am just changing the timeline so it comes later on. Also, I know the Malfoy scene was on the first day, but same thing goes for that.
Next chapter, Dumbledore's proposition, Quidditch, Duelling, and the arrival of the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang! I hope to see you all there.
