Title: Strings of Fate
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Being raised only by his Aunt, Harry comes to Hogwarts not only knowing about the Wizarding World, but with a kind of training no one at the school is expecting.
A/N: I have had some comments about the inadmissibility of Memories or Truth Serum testimonies, stating the reasons were weak. Of course they were weak reasons, but it was just meant as token justification by the Purebloods who passed the law. Do you honestly think they would allow evidence where a Muggleborn could definitively prove something against a Pureblood?
A/N2: I have also had a lot of negative comments about the use of Al Jazeera, in particular from Americans, stating that they are 'Terrorist Mouthpiece' and I was 'Defaming the BBC' when I mentioned that they used Al Jazeera reports. Just because it has a bad rep in the very anti-Islamic sections of America because it is 'an Islamic Propaganda Machine' does not make it true. I listen to BBC News Radio and they often cross to Al Jazeera. In Australia we have a 24 hour Al Jazeera news channel on Cable TV right next to the BBC channel. Also there are as many reporters from Western countries in Al Jazeera as there are Middle East reporters.
Harry awoke in his bed back in the Apartment in the Hufflepuff Dormitory. He had enjoyed spending the holidays with his Aunt and Cousin. Apart from the Christmas party at the Bones Mansion, there has also been a New Years party at Longbottom Manor, but most of the time was just spent with his family.
There had been, of course, the two Press interviews on the 28th, which had gone as well as expected. The interview with Miss Worth from The Daily Prophet, as Harry's Agent had indicated, had been a social interest story that mostly focused around his impressions of and experiences in the Wizarding World and Hogwarts. The Al Jazeera interview was more what you expected from an international news agency. It did not focus on the 'Boy-Who-Lived' instead it focused more on his political views and his impressions, as Heir Potter, on the current policies of the English Ministry a well as giving him a chance to respond to his critics. He was very careful to indicate that while he had political views, he was still too young and new to the Wizarding World to be able to comment on the current Political situation.
In an odd way, it was good to be back at Hogwarts, back in the apartment. It had been odd when he was at home. The sounds of the apartment were familiar. The slight shuffling of Hannah, going about her morning routine in her bedroom. Tonks muttering in her room as she decided on what colour her hair was going to be that morning, though she usually did settle on pink. Susan singing, quite well actually, in the shower. As it was a Sunday, the train having returned the previous day, Harry was dressed in a pair of casual jeans and a simple t-shirt as he emerged into the living room.
"Morning, Ambassador." Tonks said with a grin.
Tonks was sitting on one of the sofas; Hannah was at one of the work desks, not doing school work as she was writing in a book so it was probably a diary, and Susan was just emerging from the shower in her bath robe with her hair up in a towel.
"Good morning Indy, Sunset, Diva." Harry replied.
"Diva?" Susan asked.
"Well, you are very good. Better than having the Wizarding Wireless in the morning." Tonks said.
"You all hear that?" Susan said with a blush.
"It is soothing." Hannah said.
"Oh God. I am so embarrassed." Susan said, shaking her head and disappearing into her room.
"Well, that was fun." Tonks said with a wide grin.
Hannah just shook her head as she went back to her diary.
The weeks went by and the group managed to establish a routine. The study group still met, now including Tonks and the Weasley Twins, on a more regular basis than before. Classes got increasingly more difficult, but the study group was consistently getting high grades, with all eight of the Fist Years being in the top ten in their year.
The only time where the group was in opposition was at the attendance of Quidditch Games. House Loyalties were strong but the Weasley Twins, as individual players, also always had their support despite the majority of the group not being in Gryffindor House. Harry also had one additional role over and above that of any other student in the entire school. Harry, with the assistance of Hogwarts herself, became the unofficial first line of defence when it came to the off limits Third Floor Corridor. The Castle would warn Harry whenever anyone approached the Corridor with the intention of exploring the forbidden place and then Harry would inform either Professor Vector or Professor McGonagall. The Professor would then go and stop the student from entering the Corridor. That happened four times in the first week alone.
There had been another Poker Tournament, but this time Harry had bowed out early after a few bad hands. In the end it was down to Professor Vector and Tonks, in which the Professor just won out with a full house of Queens over Sevens against Tonks' Two Pair of Jacks and Fours.
There was also the reaction to the two press interviews, with the Al Jazeera interview being reprinted in the Daily Prophet. Harry wondered how much they had to pay for that one, especially as they tried to make it seem like it was a Daily Prophet interview, not that most people bought that as the questions were too insightful for the usual Prophet reporters. The puff article, as intended, showed him not as 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' but as a young Wizard with the same fears and hopes as his classmates. Apart from the Slytherins, who saw that kind of admission as weakness, the article earned him a lot of sympathy and respect from the other students. In the Al Jazeera article, his honest opinion that he was too inexperienced to comment was seen by the Slytherins as a very political and Slytherin thing to do, making the enemy underestimate you, while the rest of the school took it at face value.
In general, was fairly quiet for both of Harry and his friends and for the school in general. There were a few incidents between Gryffindors and Slytherins, mostly involving Ron, Draco and Draco's two bodyguards. Daphne played the role of primary peacemaker between the two houses, supported by the other members of the group as well as Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Houses in general.
Severus Snape was still, despite having known the boy for over half a school year, conflicted about his feelings towards Harry Potter. On the one hand Harry was the spitting image of James, Severus' arch nemesis at school and beyond. On the other, the boy acted so much like Lily. Dear sweet Lily, who could be the kindest and gentlest person you had ever met, until you got on her bad side and then she could eviscerate you, verbally or physically. Lily who had been Severus' best friend until, in a moment of shame and anger, he had driven her away, straight into the arms of James.
Severus watched as the first year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students filed into the classroom. Unlike every other class up to fifth year, these first years did not segregate along House lines. In sixth and seventh years, the classes were usually so small that any partnering along House lines was irrelevant. Often the pairings changed, particularly amongst Harry's little… cabal, with their silly little nicknames. Today Hermione Granger was sitting with Hannah Abbott, while Padma Patil was sharing a bench with Susan Bones. Harry himself was sitting with a diminutive Asian Ravenclaw Witch called Sue Li, the one who had set off that whole debacle earlier in the year by asking Potter for his autograph.
While most of the core subjects had the students divided with Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw in one group and Gryffindor and Slytherin in the other, Severus divided them that way for a different reason to the other Professors. For the others it was tradition, though one encouraged by the Headmaster, but for Severus it was more practical, and slightly governed by the defining traits of the Houses themselves. The Badgers worked hard at everything they did. The Ravens were could make logical connections that others would miss. The Lions were brash and often bored when not waving their wands around. His own Snakes, well lets just say the defining trait had moved from cunning to ambition, mostly ambition without aptitude.
In effect he was running advanced classes for the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and remedial ones for Gryffindor and Slytherin. As Slytherin House Master, it was expected by the parents that he would favour his own House, so he awarded points to them for the most pedestrian of achievements. Punishments, which Draco Malfoy was setting new records for almost every other week, were done in the privacy of the Slytherin Dormitories and did not involve loss of points. He moved through the class passing out a piece of parchment to each student.
"You have in front of you a test." Severus announced. "Each question has a few ingredients and a few processes listed. Your job is to list the missing ingredients and any missing processes as well as the name and effect of the final potion."
This was a test that he would never give to the Gryffindor/Slytherin class, but was common in the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff classes. It was also one reason why the vast majority of his NEWT level classes were Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students. For most of the questions there were several possible potions that could be the answer, but some had only a single answer.
"Begin."
Severus strolled around the classroom, which was silent except for the scratching of quills on parchment. The class worked diligently and quietly for twenty minutes before the first person, Miss Granger, finished. In a Slytherin/Gryffindor class it would have been a miracle for three minutes to pass without some kind of incident. Mister Potter and Miss Bones finished soon afterwards.
At the end of the class, he collected the tests from the two students who had yet to finish. The next period, in which he was not teaching a class, he started grading the tests. Predictably Miss Granger had accurately given him all of the more difficult variants for the questions with multiple answers. Most of Harry's Cabal did very well, as did several other students. When he got to Mister Potter's test he paused. For one of the questions Harry had not provided a name for the potion. Severus' first inclination was to fail the question, but then he began to go over the answer in detail. Two hours later, after consultation with several Master level Potions Texts and a missed Lunch, he sighed as he sat back in his chair. He did not know if he should be annoyed or proud.
Purely by accident, and with nothing more than a basic grounding in potions interactions that Severus had given during the year; the well know discussions that Harry's study group had on all their studies; a logical process and a few starting ingredients and processes, Harry had managed to create a completely new potion. Of course it would have to be brewed and tested to confirm but still. Creating a new potion was one of three ways to gain a Potions Mastery, the method that Severus himself had used when he had created the Wolfsbane potion, making him famous as the youngest Potion Master in the last five hundred years and now a first year had done it by accident.
For half a second, Severus considered submitting the potion as his own invention, but then an image of Lily's disappointed face flashed through his mind. He would have to report this to the Council of Potion Masters, Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Sprout, as Harry's House Mistress.
TBC…