Okay, this chapter comes later than I wanted it.
I had no choice, as my laptop kinda broke. I worked out a way arround it just about an hour ago. The next few chapters will probably take a longer time because of this, but I promise you I'm trying. Also school starts again next week, which will obviously take time too.
Thanks yet again to Luke Amranvor, my beta
Oliver, Charlie, Lee, Fleur and Bill all had to leave because of their respective jobs. All of them promised, that they would return later, if it was possible.
"I'll read", offered Hermione.
"The Potions Master", Hermione read.
Harry turned to Severus.
"Be careful what you say", Harry advised.
"Why?" Severus questioned.
"Remember when I thought you didn't like me at all?"
Severus nodded.
"I was right."
Severus gulped as the Marauders, Tonks, Fred and Lily glared at him.
"There, look."
"What?" Sirius asked.
"I was reading the book", Hermonie said.
"I know that!"
"Where?"
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."
"No, next to the small kid with purple hair", James said sarcastically.
Teddy, who sat next to Harry, changed his hair purple.
"See?"
"Wearing the glasses?"
"No, wearing an Auror's uniform", Remus joined in.
"Did you see his face?"
"Yes, yes, I did", Fred added, pretending to be proud.
"Did you see his scar?"
"Nope. Covered by hair", George laughed.
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day.
"That is so annoying. And it's even worse now!" Harry groaned.
Impossible, Severus thought, A Potter disliking attention? Must be Lily's genes.
"I feel you", Steve and Tony said.
They looked at each other.
"That never happened"
"Agreed"
People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.
"They could at least have told you the way to class," Lily ranted, "if they are following you like oh, I don't know"
"Like me and Sirius a Quidditch star? Like little kids playing tag?" James supplied.
"Exactly!"
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts:
"You counted!?" Ron exclaimed.
Harry blushed. The rest laughed.
"Well, the hat did say Ravenclaw", Regulus voiced his thoughts.
wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday;
"Sounds confusing", Darcy groaned.
some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place,
The Marauders, Weasley Twins, Ginny and the Golden Trio smiled knowingly.
"Which room is it?" Clint asked.
"That's what you would like to know", Ginny smiled.
and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.
"They can't", every witch or wizard who wasn't at the (second) Battle of Hogwarts denied.
"They can", those who were there argued.
The ghosts didn't help, either.
"The Grey Lady / Nick / The Fat Friar / The Bloody Baron is", the (former) students protested.
It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.
"Fabian and Gideon gave him that idea", Molly remembered.
He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"
"That's us", Remus admitted, "Sirius, James, me and -"
"No one", Harry interrupted. Everyone who knew glared at the thought of him.
The Marauders wondered what he had against Peter.
Tonks wondered why Harry had a problem with Peter Pettigrew, the hero, but not her cousin, the traitor, Sirius Black.
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning.
The Marauders and Weasley Twins looked at them in awe.
"It took us a week / three weeks!"
Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose,
Percy snorted.
"They were first years on their first day. Anyone else, okay, but please. That's just ridiculous."
and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.
The Trio snorted.
"Please, he didn't save anyone."
"But it is a coincidence he was passing."
"I mean, every place he had a reason to be was at the other end of the castle, but I'm sure he had a reason."
The others stared at them.
Remus, Regulus, Loki, Tony, Jane and Bruce began to suspect something was wrong with Quirrell.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.
"Creepy cat", Clint muttered.
Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone
"Hey!" protested the Weasley Twins, Marauders and rest of the Golden Trio.
(except perhaps the Weasley twins)
"That's better."
The Marauders and the rest of the Golden Trio pouted.
"For the love of Merlin! I didn't know about you guys back then! And it was our first day! We didn't know any secret passageways!"
and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.
"I did", the Weasley boys but Ron, Marauders and Draco announced proudly.
"Wait...how did that cat live that long?" Harry wondered.
And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.
"Why did you think that?, Regulus asked.
"You see muggle 'magicians' pretend to do things with waving a stick and saying things like 'hocus pocus'", Harry explained.
"Or Abracadabra", Natasha supplied which caused everyone who either didn't know this before or had seen the Avada to stiffen.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.
"Did you like have more free time in the afternoon to sleep then?" Jane asked
Hermione, Harry and Percy frowned.
"No", Hermione said slowly, "Actually we did not. It's a good idea though. Or move it to Friday so you can sleep in."
The Marauders, Lily, Regulus, Severus, Tonks and Teddy nodded. Staying up this long once a week really took out a lot of them. Especially those in their fifth year (all above but Teddy and Regulus) with the OWLs coming up.
Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.
"Herbology is awesome. At least with Professor Neville."
Neville smiled proudly. Since he took over, the scored in OWLs and NEWTs were higher than before (and they were not really low). Only about two people per year did not pass (and those were from very...inbred families).
The muggles stared at him.
"Professor...Neville?" Steve asked.
Neville winked.
"Well, yeah. I grew up with him as 'Uncle Neville'. I couldn't really bring myself to call him 'Professor Longbottom' all the time, so Professor Neville. Got a problem with that?" Teddy explained jokingly.
Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost.
"Agreed", said everyone who ever had that class.
The others wondered. A class taught by a ghost sounded cool.
"I mean honestly! Binns only covers Goblin wars in all six years so far! Not, that isn't an important topic, but there's a reason no one since 1834 made a BEEP in History! There are a lot of other things worth teaching in the book. Like the Wizarding Wars in the last few centuries. And that book doesn't even mention non-magical history! It could be such an interesting class, but the way Binns teaches it, it's worthless", Teddy ranted.
"Exactly", Charlie agreed, "All I ever did in that class was sleep. In my third year I handed in some lyrics of a song of the BEEEP BEEEEEP and got full marks. For the exams I memorized my textbook."
"See, that's what I mean! History is an important subject, but Binns might have been a good teacher once but he can't even remember my name and I'm the only one in my class in sixth year!"
"Why do you even still do it", Tonks wondered.
"I do it, so I can take my exams faster and become a teacher by the time Lily and Collin are in their fifth year."
Remus looked proud of his son. Which Teddy noticed.
Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
"After the first week only about one student per house and year would take notes. In Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff they took turns last I heard" Percy informed the rest of the room.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.
Everyone smiled. Those who knew him at the man, those who didn't at the image of a teacher teaching while standing of a pile of books.
At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.
Lily sighed.
Tony muttered: "I wish they had done this at MIT instead of assuming I just got in with Howard's money."
Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross.
"Yet you did it!"
"Perce. Would you have preferred it, if we didn't?" Harry questioned
Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back.
The Marauders and Weasley twins snorted.
You have been warned."
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again.
The muggles looked impressed. Thor laughed as Loki turned red.
Tony wanted to know what happened, but the brothers refused to tell.
They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.
"We're doing it now", Teddy testified.
After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match;
"When did you do it?" James asked his son, wanting to know, if he had hints of his talent.
"At the beginning of the second lesson"; Harry replied.
Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.
"SHE CAN SMILE!?" James and Sirius asked seriously.
Remus face palmed. "She's human, you know?"
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts,
"No wonder there!" Hermione observed, "You're the best in BEEEEEEEP!"
"I bet there was someone better"
"NO! I looked it up! Final exams! Yours are the best since Thomas Williams 1756!"
but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania
"He wasn't in Romania"
"And he met someone worse"
"That idiot"
and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie,
Tony snorted.
"Please, I met a lot African Princes. There's no way someone like T'Challa would do that!"
"Who?", Clint asked confused.
"T'Challa, Prince of Wakanda. I'm one of the only people allowed in the country who were not born there."
The muggles, Harry and Hermione stared at him.
"How and why?" Natasha wanted to know.
"It sort of happened accidentally..." Tony trailed off. He had accidentally transported himself there while training with Charles Xavier.
Yes, Tony was a mutant. That's the reason why he didn't trust SHIELD. I mean why would he trust people who had experimented on him?
His powers were teleportation (although he had just recently figured out how to do it through certain materials) and he could make himself invisible.
but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather;
"Not obvious at all", Ginny shook her head.
for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
"That's not what was in there!" Harry muttered under his breath. Only the people next to him (Ron, Hermione and Ginny) or with enchanted senses (Remus, Teddy, Sirius, Steve, Thor and Loki) could hear.
Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.
"That many have-"
"Been his laziness."
Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.
The Marauders, Weasley Twins, Teddy, Tonks and Regulus cheered.
"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them — we'll be able to see if it's true."
"It is", everyone who had this class confirmed.
Severus sunk in his chair.
"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry.
"I take that back because a) McGonagall is a better teacher this way and b) she favors us concerning Quidditch."
Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.
"...It wasn't that much actually. I was finished in 15 minutes."
"It took me 30!" shouted Ron
"Me 20", Neville commented.
"Me 35, because of my dyslexia which was 'discovered' when I was 20", Draco admitted.
"It took me 17", Hermione breathed.
Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.
Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far.
"Why haven't I send you anything?" Remus wondered. From what they heard, he was the only one who was forbidden, not unable to take care of Harry. Why hadn't his future person written him anything?
"The minister decided that I could not be bothered with fan mail and, unknown to me warded my house and me that no owls except from Hogwarts, the ministry and my friends can reach me. I found about 324 of your letters, telling stories of the you guys and my grandparents and everything I could possibly want to know, and Christmas and Birthday presents for me in a vault in Gringotts", Harry answered.
She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.
"I like her", Lily declared.
This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:
Dear Harry,
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?
I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.
Hagrid
"I'm sure I already said that, but remind me to thank Hagrid", James said looking at Lily who sat on his lap.
"Sure", Lily replied.
Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.
It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.
Severus paled.
At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry
Everyone who knew of their relationship stared at Harry or the book in Hermione's hands in disbelief.
he hated him.
"Yeah, sounds about right", Katie said.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.
"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new — celebrity."
"Really, Sev?"
Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands.
"It's not like we knew it. I'm sorry."
Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
Clint looked Severus in the eye.
"Nope. At least not yet."
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
Lily frowned. "If you hadn't mentioned the 'dunderheads', it would have been a great speech."
More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.
"Gee, I was really annoying, wasn't I?"
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"How exactly would he now that? It's the first lesson in first year. That's fifth year!" James ranted.
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.
The room was impressed. Hermione blushed.
"I don't know, sir," said Harry.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer.
"Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything."
"That's what you're trying to prove? Or that James' son is an idiot?" Sirius inquired.
He ignored Hermione's hand.
"That's mean, Severus", Regulus disapproved.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
"Sixth year", Percy remembered.
Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.
"Once again, I'm sorry."
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"
"It was proved you did. I'm sorry", Severus muttered barely audible.
Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?
"Wait. That's the Herbology book. Why did I think that? I meant Magical Drafts and Potions", Harry corrected himself.
Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.
Everyone looked disapproving at Severus.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"What?" wondered everyone from 1976.
"That was discovered in 1979", Bill explained.
At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.
"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"
"Lily", chorused the people from 1976, but Severus and Lily herself.
A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.
"Thought that", Lily said.
"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"
"Because you didn't tell them to? Or is that too obvious?"
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."
"Just one point?", everyone between Bill's and Ginny's age who went to Hogwarts wondered.
Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils.
"Did you forget the security instructions? They're important! They could blow themselves up by simple mistakes."
He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs
"It was actually rather horrible. Your potion was better, Harry."
"Practice from chemistry and cooking, I guess."
when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"It was the first-ever lesson. You shouldn't be doing this!"
"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
"No need to insult him", Lily scolded.
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
"You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills?
"Because I was busy with my own potion?"
Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
"Just two points so far?"
"Must be a record."
"Why?" Lily wondered at the twins' statement.
"He took points of for things like untied shoes, breathing loudly, asking questions, not asking questions, coming one second to late and a lot more."
Severus was deep red and sank deep in his chair.
This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.
"Thank you, Ron!" James thanked him.
"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."
"And that wasn't?" Dudley wondered.
"No, actually not", Neville replied.
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week —why did Snape hate him so much?
"Because of me", James began.
"And me", Sirius added.
"And me", Remus joined.
"And that other thing that hasn't happened yet in your time", Harry finished.
"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest.
"What he seems to forget sometimes."
A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang —back."
"Fang?" Tony thought about what they had said earlier, "Nice pet?"
"Yes. He's a coward", Draco answered.
Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.
"And that's a friendly pet? What are unfriendly ones then?", Jane wondered.
The Golden Trio looked at each other "You'll see"
There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.
"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
"Ahhh"
"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."
"Not"
"really."
"He'd be"
"Four years"
The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.
Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."
"Ah, the only coworker Hagrid would ever insult", Bill, Charlie and Tonks said.
"Wrong", Ron said, thinking of Lockhart and Umbridge.
"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her — Filch puts her up to it."
Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
"But he seemed to really hate him", Lily protested.
"But he seemed to really hate me."
"Creepy"
"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"
"Because of us?!"
Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.
"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot — great with animals."
"Thank you very much!"
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose.
"Noooo, you think that?" Ginny said
While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.
Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.
"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday!
"So that's your birthday! No, wait, you already said that", James commented.
"It was my birthday the day before."
It might've been happening while we were there!"
"Nope"
There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?
"Yes"
As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse,
"Wait wait wait wait wait. Ron too polite to refuse? You sure you don't mean Harry as to polite and Ron to hungry?" Ginny asked.
Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?
"Yes, Hogwarts and yes. That's the end of the Chapter, by the way. Who's next?"
Disclaimer: JKR doesn't go to school in Germany. I do.
Marvelgeek42
