Omake 5: Chamber of Parties

Harry laughed as he slid down the entrance. When he landed at the bottom, he found himself standing on a pile of rat bones and...beer bottles? Odd. Shrugging, the boy made his way through the tunnels until he found a large metal door with a number of snakes on it, and an odd bass sound coming from behind it.

"Um, okay, that's not totally ominous...oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Open."

A snake slithered around the rim of the door, causing the others to retract, unlocking the door which slowly swung open, the bass noise was revealed to be heavy beats for a party, with flashing lights, a disco ball, a DJ, and a giant serpent doing the "worm" in the middle of of the chamber while a bunch of cockatrices where cheering.

"What the bloody hell is this? The Chamber of Disco?"

There was the sound of a record scratching as everyone stopped partying and turned to Harry.

"Oh ssshit, I wasssn't expecting you for another two chaptersss..."

"Uh, no! Daemon decided I'd be here before Valentines, not after!"

"Crap."

The next month was interesting for Harry. He was having to juggle schoolwork, his odd inter-house friendships, earning and learning magic from the Basilisk (slow going at the moment) and figuring out how to stay up to date with school gossip and rumors so he could talk about it to Myrtle. It wasn't long before a holiday started to sneak up, almost surprising Harry one morning.

"Valentine's is in two days!?" Harry hissed as he overheard a couple older students talking about their plans for that Friday, apparently planning to share a love potion together in some unused classroom. "How did I forget?" He groaned, looking glumly at his cereal.

"Oh my goodness, are you worried you're not going to get anything? Harry that's adorable, but remember, you're a celebrity, you're probably going to get a lot of Valentines!" Gemma laughed from next to him, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"That's part of the problem. I've never gotten a Valentines before, and I just know I'm going to get stuff because of this 'Boy-Who-Lived' crap, and I'd rather..." Harry faltered for a brief moment, his mind thinking of how he'd prefer to get something from Hermione, but not wanting to admit that out loud, "I'd rather not."

Gemma watched Harry closely, if discreetly. She was actually quite a clever girl(she was a prefect after all), and had taken a shine to young Harry, in a big sister kind of way. She could pretty well figure out what Harry was thinking and understood his dislike of the whole fame thing. And she figured she knew who he'd really want something from. I wonder how I can help him... She thought to herself as she watched the boy sneak glances across the Great Hall at Hermione.

Just after breakfast, Harry was in Herbology and working alongside Neville on the current project, which was learning about various plants used in potion ingredients.

"Thanks again Harry, I love my new wand!" Neville said cheerfully, using his new cherry wand to use the Water Spraying Charm on some Aconite plants. Between the two, Neville had been much more grateful about the wand than Ron had, but both were using their new wands to good effect, both having a lot better luck making spells work.

"No problem Nev, I didn't think it was fair for your grades to suffer."

"Yeah, but my Gran wanted me to use my dad's wand to honor him..." Neville briefly went glum, pulling out said wand from a pocket and looking at it for a moment.

"I think you'll honor your dad better by getting good grades."

Neville chuckled and shook his head. "I think you should've been in Hufflepuff, mate."

Harry shrugged at that, "I've thought about that some times. But, despite a bumpy start, I'm getting along well enough."

"Very well from some of the things I've heard. If half of what I've heard from my housemates is true, do you realize how much chocolate you're getting from Hufflepuff alone?"

Harry growled, trying to be menacing to make Neville drop the subject, but he just laughed. "I hope you're not the type to eat it all because you feel obligated."

Harry seemed to look sick for a moment as he thought about it, even if wizards seemed resistant to certain ailments that muggles struggled with, Harry felt that even he would get diabetes from that much chocolate. "I don't supposed you'd be willing to help me out with that, would you?"

"Well, actually..." Neville chuckled, looking a little embarrassed, "I think I might get some chocolate myself."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise as Neville blushed. "Who?!"

"Not tellin'."

"Not fair!"

"Totally fair, you're probably getting a mountain of it!"

"Come on Nev, who's the lucky lady?"

"I'd hardly call her lucky if she wants me." Neville joked, trying to brush him off.

Harry frowned at that, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't make both him and Neville uncomfortable but failing. Instead he backtracked his thoughts to this mystery girl and tried to sort through potential ladies. Starting with the first year Hufflepuff girls he counted them off and tried to think of which one might be interested. Hannah... Megan...Sally...Sus- "Susan Bones!" Harry guessed out loud, remembering the lesson about wands a while back and some of the looks she'd been sneaking at Neville when he wasn't looking. Much to Harry's satisfaction, Neville instantly blushed and started blubbering.

"Wha? How did yo- I mean, uh..."

"Harry?" Susan called over at Harry from where she was working with Sally-Anne, having apparently heard her name.

Harry looked between her and Neville, drawing her eyes to the blushing boy and then giving her a knowing grin and a wink, causing the girl to blush deeply herself at Harry having found out. Sally-Anne started giggling as Susan tried to fight her blush and get back to work, while Harry chuckled at Neville.

Later in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Quirrell was hosting a practical session, students paired up and worked their way through all the jinxes, hexes, and curses they knew of and cast them at targets. Being first years, most people could at best cast jinxes, though a few could cast full hexes. Harry managed to get paired up with Hermione, having wanted to talk with her about Valentine's day, but class was half over now and he still couldn't bring up the subject.

"Flipendo!" Harry cast the final jinx that he knew of after running through a good couple dozen with Hermione. The bright blue orb zipped faster than most other people's knockback jinxes, hitting the target with a clear ringing, causing Harry to smirk. "I think that's all the jinxes I got. You got any more Hermione?"

Hermione shook her head, "I think we should move onto Hexes," She grinned at Harry, "Can you cast any yet?"

Harry smirked back at her, knowing that because she was almost a whole year older, she did have a bit more magical energy than Harry. "Actually, I think I can, here. Watch. Stupefy!" Harry strained to put his magic into the spell, and the jet of crimson energy burst out of his wand to hit the target. Everyone in the class had stopped and watched him cast it and there was a moment of hushed awe. The classic stunner was pretty much the benchmark of basic dueling, and being able to cast it marked Harry as a potential fighter, his heavy breathing notwithstanding. "Wow, that's really draining." He muttered, feeling his magic complain at the strain.

Hermione managed to keep herself from gaping, not wanting to look weak in front of Harry. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she said, "My turn." Then stepping up and stabbing her wand at the target. "Stupefy!" She practically shrieked the spell as she called on her magic to cast it, the scarlet spell shooting out and hitting the target too. Her legs nearly buckled from the strain but she kept on her feet, now also panting. There was scattered applause around the class at their success, causing Harry to chuckle bashfully while Hermione blushed.

"W-w-well d-d-done y-you two. F-five p-p-points to R-ravenclaw a-and Sslytherin." Quirrell called out from the front of the class, giving them both a nervous smile.

Almost immediately after Quirrell's words, a chorus of stupefy cried out as Draco, Vincent, and Gregory all cast their own stunning hexes. Draco clearly did not wished to be shown up by a Muggleborn. Quirrell was quick to award them points as well, at least, as quick as his stutter allowed.

With that out of the way, and giving himself a moment to recover his strength before casting any more hexes, Harry turned back to Hermione. The rush of the successful spell, the applause, and the house points, had given him a bit of momentary courage, so Harry said, "Hermione, um, you know how Friday is...um...Valentine's day and I was-"

"Harry." Hermione's voice was quiet, she was clearly struggling to keep her voice calm. "Can we not talk about that now?"

Crushed, and embarrassed, Harry turned away, not seeing the blush on Hermione's cheeks. He didn't see the people who were pretending to not be eavesdropping that were making Hermione embarrassed. "O-okay." He muttered, focusing his eyes on the target. Putting his frustration into his magic, he brought his wand up for another hex, casting the Stinging Hex. To his side, Hermione realized that Harry was misunderstanding, but she didn't know what to say, so she just continued with class, in a more subdued fashion. After class Hermione tried to get Harry's attention, to pull him somewhere private to talk, but he left before she could.

Thursday night after his "lessons" with the Basilisk(which mostly focused on getting his Occlumency down) Harry flew back into the bathroom, landing with a weary sigh.

"Have fun with the snake Harry?" Myrtle giggled.

"Oh yeah, having an inhuman monster invade my mind over and over again is loads of fun." Harry snarked a bit, hissing over his shoulder to close the entrance and then leaning against the sink.

"Is, everything alright?" Myrtle floated over, concern visible on her face. Harry was often tired after visiting the snake, but he was almost unfailingly polite to Myrtle nonetheless.

"I...Sorry Myrtle." Harry sighed again. "It's just, tomorrow is Valentines..."

Myrtle blinked in surprise, crossing her arms and looking at Harry suspiciously, "What? Do you think you won't get anything? Cuz that's silly."

"Uh, no, that's not exactly it. Um, you remember Hermione?"

"Yes." Myrtle grumbled. "What's wrong?"

"Um, I think she might be mad at me. I was kind of wanting to see if she wanted to do something tomorrow..." Harry was blushing as she admitted this.

Myrtle frowned, wanting to maybe throw a monkey wrench between Harry and Hermione, but having difficulty. Harry was putting a lot of trust in Myrtle, trusting her to keep the Chamber a secret, bringing her all the gossip that he could find, and now he was pouring his heart out to her. There was a brief moment of internal strife about but but eventually Myrtle sighed, moving to sit on the sink next to Harry. "Tell me what happened." She said simply.

A few minutes later, Harry finished telling about what happened, and Myrtle groaned. "You wanted to ask her about Valentine's stuff in the middle of class?!"

"Um, yes? That was stupid, wasn't it?"

"Very stupid, yes. You should know by now how gossip and rumors work, there's no way people weren't going to try and listen in!"

"Oh."

"I'm pretty sure Hermione's going to get you something tomorrow. Better question, do you have something for her?"

"Yeah, I ordered a box of muggle chocolate, it arrived just after classes finished today."

"Muggle chocolates? Why that?"

Harry shrugged, "She's a Muggleborn, I thought she might like a taste from home. Also, I think chocolate frogs squick her out."

Myrtle chuckled at that. "Okay, that sounds fine."

Harry smiled as he stood up, "Thanks for talking with me Myrtle, it really helped."

"No problem Harry." She said with a smile. "You should probably get on to bed, talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll tell you how it went. Good night." Harry left the bathroom feeling much better, while Myrtle grumbled about being too nice for her own good.

The next morning, Harry called in a favor with Draco, getting him and his minions to help him claim one of the Slytherin table's ends. They all quickly ate their breakfast, so that they could clear their area before mail call. Soon enough the first owl hootings came from above. Harry and Malfoy's gang quickly cleared their plates away, and Harry looked up to see a fair number of owls headed his way.

"Here we go..." Harry muttered as he caught the first box and set it down. A few minutes later, all the packages and letters were piled up and the chaos was over. Looking around, Harry saw how people were whispering and gossiping about the scene. Harry ignored them however, scanning the Ravenclaw table for Hermione, but not seeing her. Coulda sworn she was here earlier.

"I think that's it Potter." Draco said, shaking his head at the pile. It was fairly impressive, and somewhat annoying because half the packages were labeled anonymously. Probably old ladies embarrassed to be sending Valentines to an 11 year old.

"Right, let's get these back to my room, I'll sort them out later, thanks guys."

Harry and Co. collected the packages and made their way back to the dungeon, dropping all the stuff off on Harry's bed. Draco and Minions left then, going ahead and making their way to first class while Harry sorted through it all. After a quick moment of sorting, Harry frowned. "Nothing from Hermione..." He briefly touched the box in his robe's pocket, with the Chocolates he was planning to directly give to her. Was she going to give Harry something personally too? Harry looked at the packages with names on them and recognized a lot of fellow students names. So some people chose to send them by owl. Harry looked through the letters and cards then, trying to sort out which of his fellow students sent him friendly Valentines and who sent him more serious ones.

Glancing at some of the letters caused Harry's eyes to bulge and his face to flush red at the contents. Apparently some of the older students were offering to "teach" him things he had no business reading about. "Doesn't Dumbledore filter my mail? How'd I even get these?" A question for later.

Later during Defense, Harry had trouble focusing on class because when he'd tried to talk to Hermione, she brushed him off, apparently upset about something. He could barely hear Quirrell trying to tell them about anti-jinxes and counter-jinxes. Part of his mind was annoyed that he couldn't focus, since Quirrell was barely stuttering today. Is she upset because I got all those Valentines? But, she knew that was going to happen, right? It was frustrating. And it was more of the same during the next class, History of Magic. Hermione took a seat far away from Harry's normal spot and studiously ignored him. What the heck? With an annoyed sigh as class started, Harry looked around and spotted Padma nearby. Getting ready to settle in for a nap, Harry tapped her to get her attention.

"Harry?"

"Hey, uh, thanks for the card." Padma had given Harry a store bought "friend Valentine" card, "But uh, do you know what's up with Hermione? I...I know it might have been bad of me to expect anything, but do you know why she's upset?"

Padma hesitated a bit before whispering back, "I'm not entirely sure, this morning when I asked her if she was getting you something, she blushed and avoided the question, which I thought meant she definitely got you something, but, after this morning she got upset."

"But why? Almost everyone in this freaking castle has been gossiping about what I was gonna get, wasn't there a betting pool among the fifth years? She...she knew this was coming right? She knew I didn't want this right?"

"I'm sorry Harry, I don't know...I don't think she really believed you were gonna get that mountain of stuff."

Harry sighed, why did Hermione have to be so complicated.

"Um, Harry?"

"Hm?"

"Why do you care so much?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I mean, I understand that Hermione is your friend, so you don't want her mad at you, but, there's a lot of girls in this school who are, um, interested in you..." Padma blushed a bit as she spoke, making a part of Harry's mind note that maybe her Valentine's might not have been simply 'as a friend'. "If you just want a girlfriend, I'm sure there are others that would be happy to be with you."

Harry's face blanched at the word 'girlfriend, which Padma seemed to notice. "I don't want a girlfriend. At least, not yet. But Hermione...she was one of the first friends I've ever had. And, I can't stand her being upset with me."

Padma was quiet for a second, before letting out a sigh. "Alright, look, after class, and before you head to lunch, stop in the library, I'll try to get Hermione there so you two can talk, but no promises."

Harry brightened up at Padma's offer to help. "Thanks Padma!"

"You're welcome Harry."

After class, Harry quickly left to head for the library, getting there just a couple minutes later. Madam Pince glared at the intruding student for a moment before softening her expression when realizing it was Harry. Harry was one of the few students Pince wasn't actively hostile at, as he was always careful to follow all the rules regarding the library and its books.

"Spending lunch in here Mr. Potter?"

"Just a bit Madam Pince, I needed to check on something." Harry said respectfully, before making his way over to the "Charms" section of bookshelves, largely because it let him keep an eye on the library entrance. Soon enough Hermione and Padma came in, and when she spotted him, Hermione tried to turn around and leave, but Padma whispered something sharply at her and pushed her forward towards Harry. Behind them Pince was giving them a suspicious glare from her desk, just waiting for them to do something against the rules. After a moment Hermione finally came over, looking reluctant. When she came over, Harry handed her the charms book he'd been 'looking' at, to make it look to Pince like they were here because of some project or other.

Hermione quietly took the book and opened it, putting her back to Pince as she pretended to read it. Harry stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he said, "I'm sorry I got so many Valentine's things, but you know I didn't want it, right?"

Hermione sighed, "It wasn't the amount of stuff you got that upset me Harry, it was the quality."

"Um, pardon?"

"I could see some of the things you got, the ones that weren't in wrapped packages anyway. I saw that Golden Egg, and that box marked with 'Wonderful Wizard's Wear' and if people bought you those things and left them unwrapped I can only imagine what some of the wrapped packages might have had."

Harry vaguely remembered from his gift sorting that some of the stuff had looked expensive, but since he had been more interested in seeing if anything came from Hermione, he hadn't looked too closely. "Um, okay, but, why does that matter?"

Hermione briefly gave Harry a sharp glare, which caused him to flinch. He tried to remind himself that, for whatever reason, boys and girls sometimes think differently about things. After a moment Hermione's face softened as she pulled an pink envelope out of her robes. "All I got you...all I could afford to get you, was this stupid card. How can I give this to you after you've gotten all that amazing stuff?"

Harry stared at the envelope for a moment, knowing that he wanted it very badly for some reason, and tried to figure out how to put it into words so that Hermione would feel better. After a moment he tried to do so. "Hermione...you're my friend. We survived a troll attack together. A card from you will mean more to me than some overly expensive robe from a brand I've never heard of, or a giant golden egg or whatever..." Wait, was that egg actually made of gold or was it a chocolate egg thing? I didn't check. Harry tried to brush the thought away to stay on track.

Slowly Hermione started to hand Harry the envelope, looking at him like she didn't really believe he would like it. Harry took it with a smile and opened it, finding a hand-made Valentine's card, in which Hermione thanked Harry for saving her from the troll, for being a good person, and apologizing for how she acted after he was sorted. By the time he was done reading it, he had a huge smile on his face. "Thanks Hermione, this is the best Valentine's I've ever gotten." Her looked at her and tried to convey his sincerity, which seemed to make her blush.

"Y-you're welcome Harry...so...did you get anything for me?"

"Oh, yeah, right, hold on, I got it right here." Harry pulled the heart shaped box of muggle chocolates out of his pouch, quickly handing it to Hermione, who looked confused for a moment. "Um, I thought you might want something from back home, especially since I heard you didn't like Chocolate Frogs because they jumped...was I wrong?"

A small smile slowly spread across Hermione's face. At first it had seemed that Harry had just given her a generic gift, but she realized that Harry had put thought into it, since getting Muggle chocolates into Hogwarts must have taken some effort, more than it would have compared to just asking one of the third years to pick something up in Honeydukes during a Hogsmeade trip. "No, it's perfect. Thank you Harry." She smiled warmly at him as she put the charms book back on the shelf. "Let's get down to lunch, I'm suddenly very hungry."

"Okay!" Harry said happily as they turned to leave. Spotting Padma, Harry remembered that she'd been there and flinched when he saw her expression of gushing over them. Apparently she very much approved. "Thanks for the help Padma."

"Anytime Harry!" She said cheerfully as the three of them left the library. Padma went on ahead, letting Harry and Hermione walk to the Great Hall together. They didn't say much as they walked, but they both smiled the whole time.

Author's Commentary

Fast Frank: Hogwarts Canonically was founded in 993 a.d. Merlin is also Canonically a Slytherin. How exactly this is supposed to historically jive is J.K. Rowling's business(she made the Potterverse). Whether the events of the Arthurian Legend are supposed to have happened after Hogwarts was founded or whatever might simply be how the Potterverse works.

Thank you everyone for the positive reviews, keep them coming! I'm actually able to write a lot lately so keep me motivated!