A/N: No, I am not dead. No I did not abandon this story. I just took a long break from writing. Wanted to enjoy myself before I had to go back to the mind-numbing, daily process I like to call school. Only got 5 and half hours of sleep, but it's enough. Let's do this.
"Him letting us get this book only cements his idiocy. He wouldn't make it 2 seconds as a soldier," I said once Lockhart walked away from us as Hermione clutched the note in her right hand. They she looked up to him as a skilled individual only made it easier for her to suck up to Lockhart and get the note.
Hermione looked at me with an unsure look before deciding not to say anything.
"He's a brainless git. But that only helped us, so who cares?" Ron said idly.
"He is not a brainless git," Hermione said shrilly.
"Brainless? No. Narcissist? Definitely," I said as we continued toward the library.
"Most Potente Potions?" she repeated with a suspicious tone. Not that I could blame her. I'm sure the book had plenty of dark stuff in it. When Pince tried to take the note from Hermione, she held it in a tight grip.
"I was wondering if I could keep it," she said.
I rolled my eyes as Ron snatched the paper from her and handed to Madame Pince.
"We'll get you another autograph. Lockhart'll sign anything if it stands still long enough," Ron said, making let out a small chuckle. I wouldn't deny he was right about that.
Pince held it to the light as if trying to detect any type of forgery to the letter, but she eventually thought it legit. Hermione walked through the shelves before coming back several minutes later with a large and moldy book. I took it from her, carrying it under my arm with the title deliberately facing my body while remain in a vertical position.
Then we went to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to look it over. Regardless of Percy catching us like last time, as long as we were more cautious, we wouldn't get caught. And people are unlike to find a restricted potion in an abandoned girls restroom.
We opened the book and I looked through the ingredients along with the other 3.
"One look at this, and I can already tell we'll need some stuff from Severus. Powdered horn of a Bicorn... Shredded Boomslang skin..." I said with a trail. "Well, this part should be easy. Parts of whoever we're turning into."
"Excuse me, but I am not eating anything with Crabbe's toenails in it..." Ron said sharply.
I gave him a glare to shut up and thought of something.
"Don't worry about that. You're not going," I said, while not tearing my eyes away from the book.
"What?! W-" I cut Ron off by placing a hand over his mouth roughly. He tried to snatch it off with no success. I finally removed my hand and Ron looked very moody.
"If you're wondering why, it's because when it comes to Malfoy, you don't have an ounce of subtlety in your bones. If he says something you don't like, you're not going to react well, and that's going to jeopardize us. It's better if you stay behind," I explained to him.
Ron sighed in a resigned tone.
"God, I hate it when you're right. Fine, I'll stay behind. But promise to tell me everything you find out?" he asked.
"Everything," I promised with a nod. "Bad news though- this'll take a month though."
"A month?!" Harry said in a quiet yell. "But... if Malfoy really is the Heir of Slytherin, he could've attacked half of the Muggles in the school by then."
"It's the only plan we've got. Well, maybe not the only one, but I'm not too sure if I can pull it off in less than a month," I said thoughtfully.
"What's the plan?" Harry asked me.
"I could make a device that allows me to take the appearance of another person. I'd have to physically make a digital construction of the person's face, which isn't easy. Luckily they all wear robes and no short sleeves, so that makes me not have to construct anything lower, saving us time. There's a lot of things to take into account though, and it might take even longer than the month the Polyjuice might take," I explained, my words coming out as soon as I think them.
"But try anyway. If everything goes bad, we'll need a backup plan," Harry told me. I nodded in confirmation.
"I'll get to work when I can. On a separated note, we got a match with Slytherin tomorrow. If the bastard really is the Heir of Slytherin, we can make him regret thinking better broom will make them better players.
After Wood's little pep talk, we walked out onto the field with a confident stride, regardless of the odds. We already knew we were better because we worked harder for this and can do a lot even without a slow broom.
As usual, when the Captains had to shake hands, Wood and Flint seemed to try to break each other's hands, but didn't even flinch from the pain they shot into each other's arms. Then we mounted our brooms, kicked off, and we were up. Regardless of the recent negative events, flying always had that rush and excitement that few things in my lifetime have actually done.
"Alright there, Scarhead?" Malfoy yelled over to Harry. Harry didn't even spare the boy a glance as his attention was focused solely on the Snitch. Then a Bludger began barreling his way over toward him, while he barely managed to dodge it. I then got back to the game at hand.
While I didn't need the broom's extra speed, it certainly was helpful in making things easier. Normally, with the 2000, I would have to cut them off by going around, but I can actually race up to them and steal the Quaffle from them. I like it.
Then I noticed something. I noticed the one of the Bludger was solely focused Harry and no one else when the Weasley twins were batting it away. I looked over to Wood and gestured for him to call a time-out. He got the message and signaled Madame Hooch to stop the game.
"Why'd you call timeout? We were winning," Wood said.
"Someone's fixed one of the Bludgers - it won't leave Harry alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it," George said.
"But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then . . . . " said Wood, anxiously.
"Look, one Bludger is nothing to worry about. I can handle it. Just play the game and let me deal with the Rogue one," Harry said. I gave him a steady look.
"You sure?" I asked him. Before Harry could speak, Fred spoke up.
"Don't be thick. It'll take your head off," he said.
"Head will still be attached at the end of this game, don't you worry," Harry said reassuringly, but George angrily rounded on Wood.
"This is your fault. 'Get the Snitch or die trying.' What a stupid thing to tell him-"
"I know Harry. He would've been determined to do this regardless. Don't blame Wood," I told him as we walked back onto the field. Madame Hooch came back up to us, but I simply nodded.
The rain began to fall more heavy now and the Bludger instantly began tailing him. Gonna be hard to look for the Snitch and dodge that damn Bludger.
After a while, we pulled ahead by 3 more goals and I've seen Harry ducking and dodging more than looking for the Snitch.
"Training for the ballet, Potter?" Malfoy taunted. Curse my sensitive ass ears. But my eyesight is good enough to see that the Snitch was right next to his head, but he was too busy taunting Harry to notice it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Marcus attempting to speed past me with the Quaffle while he thought I was distracted, but I instantly started moving and kicked the Quaffle out of his grip and jumped over his body, grabbed the Quaffle out of mid-air while my broom met my position and I landed on it. There was a loud cheer from the crowd at this move. Yeah, I liked to show off at times. Is that such a bad thing?
I heard a sharp thud on the ground and I saw that Harry had fallen to the ground, one of his arms hanging at an odd angle with his face screwed in pain. I instantly darted toward him and was at his side at an instant. Harry opened his eyes and upon seeing me, he smiled and held up the Snitch clutched in his good hand.
"Ha. Little bastard won't get the better of me," he said in an amused tone.
"That's my boy," I said in a prideful tone. He may not have my blood, but he is my son in everything but.
I could see that people came running over to check on Harry, Lockhart leading the charge.
"Oh, hell..." I said, moving my head around in disbelief. Then I noticed Colin was coming up with his camera raised. This made the situation all the worse.
"Don't worry Harry. There's a charm I've used countless times... it'll fix your arm straight away," Lockhart said.
"No. I can just have Robert fix it with a hypo. It'll only take a second," Harry said. Then I noticed Colin was clicking away with his camera. My patience wore thin.
"Back up," I said harshly, moving him back away from Harry and focused on healing Harry, but Lockhart took the opportunity heal Harry's arm. Well, 'heal' his arm. The arm went floppy like it was made of rubber.
"You idiot," I said, pushing back to where he fell onto the ground as I tested the arm.
"I can't feel anything in that arm anymore," Harry told me.
"That's because of this," I said as I bended his hand back to where him hand was touching his arm. His eyes widened at this development and he glanced at Lockhart before turning to me.
"Can you fix it?" he asked me desperately.
"Well, I didn't think I would ever find a case where a person lost all the bones in their body. Not sure if it'll work," I said, sighing.
"Well, um... that can happen sometimes. Well, the bones are not longer broken..." At that point, I snapped at Lockhart.
"Broken?! There's no bones left!" I said angrily, rounding on him. He flinched from the furious look on my face and I held him in place with a death stare that would make a dragon back down. I focused my attention on Harry, finding this more important. I injected him with a hypo in the boneless arm and I could see him give effort to try and move it, but no such luck.
"Thought so. I can't replace what's been lost. Dammit," I said, picking Harry up and carrying him toward the hospital wing. "Incompetent dumbass."
"You look pissed," Harry said idly.
"I am pissed. At the failure we call a Professor and Order of Merlin 3rd class," I said moodily. "I know the nurse is going to be pissed about this." And I was right.
"You should've come straight to me!" she raged, holding Harry's limp arm.
"We wouldn't have to if Lockhart had let me inject him with the hypo. Arm would've been healed in less than a second," I said while leaning on the wall with my arms crossed moodily.
"Why did Dumbledore hire him is beyond me..." Madam Pomfrey grumbled. "I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them back..."
"You will be able to, won't you?" Harry asked desperately.
"Oh, I'll be able to certainly, but it'll be painful," Madam Pomfrey said grimly, throwing Harry a pair of pajamas. "You'll have to stay the night..."
Hermione drew the curtain while Ron helped him in his pajamas while I talked to the nurse.
"How long will it take to heal?" I asked.
"It'll take overnight for it to heal. It'll be ok. What is like in classes with Gilderoy?" Madam Pomfrey asked me.
"The class seem to be more about him than Defense," I said honestly.
"I was afraid of that. Anyway, he'll have to rest here. Mind if you all leave and let him rest?" she asked me.
"Yes of course," I said, before I looked at the bottle in her hand. "It's going to be a rough night for him."
"You're right about that," Madam Pomfrey said before walking back out. By then, the entire Quidditch team was around Harry's bed and they looked like he was about to party when Madam Pomfrey starting yelling. I quickly gestured for them to leave before this turned into a worse shit storm.
A/N: And that's another chapter. I just wanted an opportunity to enjoy myself, so that's my reason for the lack of updates. May not be good, but it's what it is.