MY PLACE
Summery: After the Dursley's unexpected death Harry finds himself whisked away to a place unknown where he's adopted by people who are much more familiar than the area.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his wonderful universe don't belong to me, but to the real wizard, J.K. Rowling.
Author's Note: Happy Birthday Harry and J.K.Rowling!
Chapter 11: The Color of Murder
James's friends and himself yawned as they entered McGonagall's classroom late per usual.
"Up late Mr. Potter?" the professor asked; "Perhaps you should spend less time plotting Mr. Snape's embarrassment?"
James opened his mouth to argue, but with a sheepish grin he closed it. He had been up late last night with his friends planning the prank that went off at breakfast. It wasn't just looking for Harry that tired him.
Professor McGonagall lifted an amused eyebrow at them and pointed to empty seats in the front.
With reluctant grumbles from the group of boys they seated themselves.
"Now," Professor McGonagall continued; "As I was saying before we were interrupted by Mr. Potter and his friends..." She sighed as the door swung open again and the sneering face of Severus Snape peered around it.
His nose was billowing smoke from the salve that Madam Pomfrey rubbed into it. The sneer on his face was somewhat defensive, but grew more aggressive as the class laughed. Snape blew out his nose in irritation and several students gagged on the release of smoke.
"Mr. Snape," McGonagall snipped not appreciating the loss of control in her classroom; "If you could be so kind to find yourself a place to sit...?"
Harry watched as Snape tried to sit himself next to a girl named Lila Puchuck, but she laughed at him wrinkling her nose with dislike and waving him away. Snape moved several rows up to a Slytherin boy, but like Lila he didn't seem to appreciate Snape's company. The boy shoved Snape from his seat and the class roared.
Harry had seen enough. They were practically torturing Snape, and although Harry disliked his future Potions professor very much he couldn't allow Snape to be pushed around like such. Steadfastly, Harry raised his arm tall sitting straight backed.
Professor McGonagall snapped at the offending Slytherin ignoring Harry's hand; "Detention Mr. Green!"
Harry sat somewhat impatiently with his eyes boring holes into the professor.
Finally she asked; "Yes..." With a quick glance down at her class list she continued. "Mr. Potter?"
Confidentially Harry told her; "There's a spare seat beside me. Sn...Mr. Snape, can sit beside me."
Professor McGonagall appeared to visually deflate with relief at Harry's suggestion; "Thank you, Mr. Potter." She even sent a small smile in Harry's direction.
Mr. Snape was not as grateful. He loudly scraped his chair back, and threw his bag down with an interruptive bang on the floor. Snape didn't bother to say thanks or apologize for the noise.
Harry's temper rose at Snape's actions, but mentally reminded himself of what he had witnessed in Snape's pensieve.
"Today, class, we will be continuing our work on turning an object into a bit larger animal than what we've been dealing with..." the professor continued at last getting on with the lesson.
Harry's mind wandered off as the professor rambled on only perking up for the wand movement and incantation.
"Anima Adverto!" Harry tried waving his wand in the pattern shown to them.
Unfortunately the pillow did not turn into a turtle, but rather a turtle with a pillow case for a shell.
However, McGonagall seemed pleased; "Not bad Mr. Potter. You just needed a little more force. Five points to Gryffindor."
Harry smiled; "Thanks,"
He got it on his second try. Hermione would have been proud.
The professor had moved onto the rest of the classroom, but she nodded to him appraisingly from over the top of Richard McLean's head.
She went onto see James's and Sirius's fine work eventually rewarding them ten points, but retracted them and more almost immediately. This was because they had set their turtles on Snape who was already struggling with the lesson.
Harry watched his partner with mild amusement. He was yelling at his spotted pillow, while fruitlessly shaking his hand from which James's turtle dangled. Sirius's turtle (which was the slower of the two turtles) finally arrived at the scene to promptly snap up some robe. The robe ripped, but the turtle remained unfazed reaching for more.
"Look, Snivellus is dancing!" James shouted to the class pointing at Snape who did indeed look like he was doing some foreign dance. To make matters worse Sirius fired a dancing charm at Snape and sent him into a real dance.
The classroom nearly blew the roof off with the great volume of the laughter.
Snape glared and snarled sounding much like an enraged bear. James thought so too and added some bear ears to his head.
Professor McGonagall was attempting to holler above the strident laughter about loosing points.
Harry decided to help his professor out; "Sonorus!"
"-NE HUNDRED PIONTS FROM GRYFFINDOR AND TWENTY FROM EVERY INDIVIDUAL STILL LAUGHING!"
The professor seemed a bit surprised when suddenly her voice was clearly projected across the class. They quickly died down to sniggers, but with the professor glaring daggers at everyone they rapidly quieted.
"Mr. Snape!" McGonagall snapped; "Hospital Wing, and be back at seven for a tutorial!"
The class snickered at Snape's tutorial, and got worse when Lily Evans turned around from her spot in the front positively fuming.
"Stop it!" Lily said sternly; "All of you are so heartless. You're just a bunch of..."
Professor McGonagall cut Lily's tirade short though when she turned to the class looking very frazzled and heated.
"The rest of you!" she barked furiously; "I've never had such a class! Every one of you should expect a detention! Fortunately for you there will only be two detentions handed out, as they will be more than enough for me to cope with. Potter, Black... DETENTION!"
James and Sirius grinned cheekily though as if the strict professor had just given them her highest praise.
Harry suspected this irked the professor even more, but she ignored them turning to Lily and him; "Ten points to each of you."
Class was dismissed after that and they left a frustrated professor for the frightened first years.
The Gryffindors had Charms with the Ravenclaws next.
After explaining how to produce an emotion charm Professor Flitwick clapped his hands together excitedly, announcing they could pick their partners today.
James went straight for Lily while Sirius and Remus paired. Peter looked a bit lost.
Harry watched James though, for he was quarrelling with Lily.
"Be my partner," James suggested.
"No," Lily answered.
James grinned though; "Oh, so you want to play it that way..."
Lily shot him her best glare with a sour expression twisting her face; "I am not in denial about you."
"Lily, be my partner!" James insisted; "I don't bite."
"You bully," Lily pointed out stubbornly.
James got a little red in the face; "So what? I still get good marks, and I wouldn't pester you."
"You're pestering me right now," Lily retorted standing.
James's face darkened a shade; "Well, if you would just...go out with me?"
Lily shook her head; "I will not."
"Then be my partner. It's not like I'm proposing to you...yet."
Lily's face went as a splotchy red now with odd pale patches, and she hiss viciously at him; "Go...away!"
James grinned confidently, but Sirius had been watching the exchange too and came to intercept them before the situation got any worse.
He dragged a protesting James away telling him to partner up with Peter.
Harry waited a moment before he realized he was without a partner, and with Lily being the only one left...
"Hi," he said softly.
"James!" she snapped; "I thought I told you to go away!"
"I'm Harry,"
She looked rather flustered now; "Oh, I'm so sorry. It's just that you look a lot like James Potter..."
"Yes," Harry agreed; "We even have the same last name. When I first met his family I though we might be related, but..." He trailed off sadly.
Lily appeared to be sizing him up; "Well, you're really nothing like him...other than appearances."
"Thanks," Harry smiled; "Do you have a partner?"
"No," she replied; "You need one?"
"Yeah,"
By now the class was an odd array of colors from the emotion charm. It was a charm that, when cast, turned the opponent the according color of how the dealer felt.
Some people were riddled with spots of different colors and others were one solid color.
Lily cast the spell perfectly resulting in colors blooming from where the charm hit. Harry was soon mottled with red (anger), pink (embarrassment), maroon (guilt), blue (confusion), and black (indescribable).
Harry took a few more tries than Lily who was top notch at Charms. In the end he did get the spell accurately.
Lily was soon dotted with color. There was red, maroon, blue, yellow (pain), green (sympathy), sky blue (sadness), fuchsia (shame), black, and a funny murky color that wasn't in the book they were taking the meanings from.
"Professor Flitwick!" Lily called; "What does this color mean?"
The professor turned, but when he saw the color he let out a sharp squeak and fell over. He got right back to his feet, but the whole class's attention was on him now. The tiny professor went to his enormous pile of books and collapsed upon them breathing heavily.
"Professor?" Lily addressed hesitantly.
"It...it is the...the color of murder..."
The babble of hungry students reached the class's ears shaking them from their stupor. They exited for lunch pale and whispering.