Chapter eleven: Two Gingers and a Toad
Tuesday morning on what many considered a ungodly hour found a dressed in his exercised clothing Harry Potter walking through the halls of Hogwarts with a steaming cup off dark blue liquid in his hand.
Last night had not been a good night for him. As he had not homework whatsoever to worry about Harry had retreated back to his bed and after casting the standard wards had pulled out both the diary and the notes he had received that morning.
After five straight hours he had went over everything he had and he could only conclude one thing; he was way over his head. The Runic array that was used alone was already way over his head. While he understood parts of it, the greater part he had no idea what they were for.
In the end Harry decided to just call it a night for now, but unfortunately for him the crappy night was just starting for him, as after only three hours Harry awoke again, waking up after another nightmare this time reliving the time his team had been send to Greengrass manor after the wards of that place had fallen. The dream had been strange to Harry it felt more real, more like a memory than an actually dream. He also for some reason had the distinct impression of someone watching him throughout the entire dream.
Harry broke out of his thought when he entered the entrance hall. The one who was responsible for breaking him out of his thoughts was leaning against a wall and looked like she was actually sleeping standing up.
Standing there with half lidded eyes and head dipped low was none other than Alexandra Black or as she preferred to be called Alex. 'Well at least she is dedicated.' Harry mused, she may look like she was still half asleep, but at least she was here. Few other would have gotten out of their bed on this hour for physical training.
As Harry walked over he couldn't help but think that robes where definitely one of the more stupider things wizardingkind had thought up. He had already knew that Alex was fairly attractive from the moment he had first laid eyes upon her, but now that he saw her out of robes and dressed in only a tank top and sweatpants that become even more obvious.
''Good morning!'' Harry greeted.
Alex's head shot up and her eyes went open fully and for a moment they looked disoriented before they settled on Harry and comprehension dawned on her face.
Alex snorted, ''There is nothing good about this morning.'' She muttered and Harry had to agree with that, especially considering he had slept even less than the day before, but he wasn't going to show that. Besides it was rather amusing to see her in this state.
''What's that for?'' Alex after a moment of silence as she pointed at the goblet.
''This?'' Harry questioned gesturing to the goblet with his off hand. "It's for you I thought you might need some Pepper up to get those eyes open.''
Alex grumbled, but took the offered potion and after one last suspicious glance at it she downed it one go. The effects were immediate as her stance visible straightened and the look of sleep in her eyes seem to disappear as steam came out of her ears. After that Harry used his wand to vanish the goblet and asked, ''Shall we?''
After running for ten minutes in silence Harry noted although Alex seemed to be easily keep pace with him her breathing had become slightly laboured
Deciding to take her mind off the running by asking a question he had been wondering about, Harry asked. ''So what is the story of our Headgirl?''
Alex glanced to the side and looked Harry in the eyes for a moment and he spotted something he couldn't immediately place; disappointment? But then the moment was gone and her gaze settled back to what was in front of her.
''Why do you want to know?'' She asked in a neutral tone.
''Well were I came from we had a Mr Blaise Zabini there not a Ms Blaise Zabini and definitely not a Blaise Zabini-Fudge.''
Alex actually stopped running at hearing this, ''Are you saying Zabini is a guy?''
Harry barked a laugh at hearing this. ''Well this one definitely isn't,'' before mentally adding, 'Well at least I hope she isn't. It would be really awkward if she turns out to be a guy under glamours' ''But yes the one I knew was a guy, arrogant bloke at that.''
Alex was sorely tempted to make a scratching comment about arrogant guys and certain in particular, but managed to show restrained and she started to run again.
''So what do you want to know about her? She and I aren't particular close so I don't know what exactly I can tell you.''
''What's up with the –Fudge part of her name?''
''Her mother married the minister a couple months ago. Shortly after that she was officially adopted by the man, but according from what I have heard she didn't want to give up her father's name so she became Zabini-Fudge.''
''Hn interesting ….'' Harry mused. He wasn't sure why, but he had the distinct feeling there was more to this marriage than met the eyes. The Zabini's while few in number had been purebloods who had both money and influence. They however hadn't been Death Eaters, but if they were in this universe then that would definitely be troublesome especially considering one of them is Mrs Fudge.
But to be honest Harry doubted it for one Dumbledore never once mentioned the Zabinis when Harry had directly asked for information and for another Blaise approach was all wrong. While yes it was a very good tactical decision for the Death Eaters to have one of their children try and befriend the boy-who-lived and see what kind of threat he might prove. Blaise's approach had just been too obvious to be a death eater plot.
''What about her ancestry? She isn't a full human is she?''
''There has been some rumours floating around, but nothing concrete. Why?'' Alex asked with a by now rather red face and considerable more laboured breathing. Considering they were only twenty minutes in their run this wasn't quite what Harry had hoped he would see at this point, but then again he had the feeling most of the students would have collapsed after only ten some maybe even after five.
Harry shrugged, ''She is the daughter of a woman who has direct influence on one of the most influential men in the county. Knowing a bit about her will give me some insight on her mother. Besides I assume you do understand what the significance is of the daughter and perhaps the wife of the minister being not completely human? A minister who heads a ministry who has shunned magical races for decades?''
To be honest Harry himself couldn't predict what would happen if that was true. Fudge had been a fool and was easily manipulated so the Death Eaters probably wouldn't want to replace him until they were ready to come into the open, but on the other hand doing nothing against a minister with a halfbreed wife/daughter wouldn't look good either.
Then there was Fudge himself to consider, regardless of his incompetence as a leader he did know how to survive in the political climate, but the question was would he try to save his own hide or would he try and protect his family?
The rest of the run was spend in relative silence and Harry had to admit that the girl had spirit if nothing else as even though it become clear it was getting difficult for her to keep up she never once complained.
XxX
Alex was not a happy person. No in fact she was questing her own sanity for not only waking up way and way to early, but also for doing this morning run thing … damn she thought she had a pretty decent stamina, but this was just too much, she was breathing heavily, her legs felt like they were one fire and even though she couldn't see it she was pretty sure her normally pale face was bright red.
But did she complain? Hell no, if Pot- Harry can do this while making it look easy then there was absolutely no way she was going to voice it out loud that she had problems. Speaking of the male she had been running behind it really started to frustrate her how she couldn't get a read on the guy.
Potter had been easy to describe; he was a selfish arrogant hypocritical bastard, simple, but Harry … he was more difficult to understand than her friend Astoria.
When she had first met him she had been too angry, to focused on the past to see him properly. She had just thought he was arrogant and had no idea what he was talking about, but then there was the duel… it had been a borderline humiliating experience for her. It was a duel with a young men barely a year older than her yet she had been so outclassed it wasn't even funny. And then instead of starting gloating like Potter would have he pointed out her flaws like he wanted her to improve … well at least that is what she has realised now at that time she just thought he thought that no matter how much she improved she wouldn't prove a threat.
After her humiliating defeat she had sought refuge in the Black library in search for a spell that would prove to that smug bastard she was someone he should take serious.
It didn't take her long to find a spell that was described to have great power and as soon as she deemed the spell good enough to use she went back to Potter manor to challenge Potter to a duel again.
The duel didn't go well … in fact it went far worse than the one before. She had nearly killed someone that day. Worse yet Potter hadn't batted an eye. He hadn't looked angry at her for firing the spell, nor had he looked even slightly fearful for coming close to death.
It had greatly unnerved her how he could react like that. She would have preferred that he had shouted at her, behaviour like that she could have handled, but the way he remained calm like that … it was perhaps then that while her heart wouldn't allow it yet her mind started to understand that the young man in front of her wasn't Potter she knew no he was the guy she would come to call Harry.
Of course her heart and mind didn't quite agree on that matter for some time … it wasn't until her best friend had talked to her that she started coming around. Oh don't get her wrong at that time he definitely was still Potter, but she was willing to give her a chance if only for Rose's sake.
So she had returned to Potter manor and had apologised, it hadn't been easy for her, but she understood it was necessary. It was also then, her first conversation with Potter with a relatively clear mind that she noticed his expressions were fake. It wasn't particular obvious at first, but then there had been that one true smile at hearing about the Weasley twins and then it became pretty obvious to her he was controlling what he was showing, most likely by using Occlumency.
She herself had some experience with the art, but she never particularly liked using it in that fashion … it always felt somewhat disconcerting to be disconnecting from her emotions like that. She always felt it was better to let one's anger out instead of supressing it like a true lady should (at least according to her mother), then again Harry had lived a different live than her, she wasn't pretty sure she would need to keep a tighter check on her emotions if she saw half what he had seen.
That conversation had also led to something else … Potter as her trainer. If anyone had told her she would request training from him even a hour before the actual request she would have declared them mad.
Her fist 'lesson' was not quite what she had expected. Seriously his instructions regarding silence casting were only slightly better than Snape's normal instructions during Potions lessons, but she did it, in only a few hours she actually managed to do it and while she never would admit it out loud his compliment … his non-mocking compliment was definitely appreciated.
That had been the day that both her heart and mind had agreed he no longer was Potter.
Of course thing hadn't been actually smooth sailing since then. His following lessons had been less than pleasant, then there was that time he Apparated out of the compartment while leaving her and Rose to deal with his fans, then there had been the matter of paying for training. At first she thought he meant it and was only doing it for the money, but when looking back she realised his answer had a deeper meaning. Then there was the matter of him asking about Blaise Zanabi, Hogwarts's local beauty queen ….
She was suddenly brought of her musings when she realised they had stopped moving and it took her a second longer to realise that they were standing before the entrance of her common room! How did a Gryffindor turned Hufflepuff know where her common room was? The instructions she had received as a first year had been clear … keep the location of our common room secret, especially from certain notorious pranksters. So how the hell did he knew?
After she voiced the question out loud she was rather annoyed when the young man in front of her only snorted.
''You're kidding right?'' Harry asked.
''No, I want to know why you where the entrance is as it supposed to be kept secret even from friends of other houses.''
Harry shook his head in disbelief. ''You are a fifth year and you don't know where the other common rooms are? I mean that was one of the worst kept secrets were I came from.''
''Where are they then?''
''Well the Ravenclaw one is obvious here … you have to solve a riddle to enter. The Gryffindor one is one the seventh floor guarded by the fat lady … you have to give a password to enter. Hufflepuff and Slytherin are in the dungeons both password protected. Slytherin is hidden by a false dead end wall and Hufflepuff is hidden behind another portrait this one almost opposite of the one that leads to the kitchen.''
As Alex listened one thought suddenly sprung up, 'Wait kitchen?'
XxX
After dropping Alex off at her common room and making sure she does the proper cool down exercises Harry made his way to his own dormitory and got ready for the day. After a long and hot shower Harry decided that he really didn't feel like a repeat of the day before so instead of making his way to the great hall he walked over to a nearby portrait of a fruit bowl and tickled the pear.
The moment he entered he was surrounded by a small army of overly excited house elves which made Harry briefly wonder what was worse; these little hyperactive guys or being surrounded by people who although left him alone kept staring at him.
It didn't take long for Harry to come up with the answer … two minutes later and seated at a small table filled with food Harry could only conclude one thing …. Those guys were much better.
As he ate he remembered one of the things he during the sorting ceremony had added to his mental to do list. He initially was going to ask a ghost about it, but those guys swarming around him, probably knew more about the castle than even the Fred and George had. As such he asked the closest elf he saw. ''Hey, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Ravenclaw hidden room would you?''
XxX
'Now what did he say?' Harry thought as he stood in a certain corridor on the seventh floor. 'Walk past the room three times while thinking about what you want to appear right?'
After a moment of indecision Harry decided he had little no nothing to lose so he just did it. He quickly walked three times past the spot where the door should appear while thinking about that he needed a place to hide something as that was what the elf had used in his example of how the room worked.
To his surprise and delight an actual door appeared. After drawing his wand he cautiously opened the door. Once he could look in this new room Harry could only think one thing, 'Holly hell!'
The reasons for this particular thought was that the 'room' Harry had just entered was easily the size of the great hall and was filled with all kinds of things, ranging from stacks of books to broken furniture.
'Even if some off this stuff is broken, this must be easily worth a small fortune.' Harry thought with a calculating look before something caught his eyes. Standing there only a couple of meters away was something Harry didn't expect to see ever again.
''The mirror of Erised.'' Harry said with a hint of awe.
XxX
''Harry, mate!''
Said person was brought out of his turbulent thoughts that had swirled in his mind since his visit to the newly discovered Room of Requirements. After glancing to the side the voice came from, Harry had to surpass a groan. 'Of all the times he could choose to appear he had to do it with my mind in the state it is now?' Of course to be fair this was the first seventh year class that Harry had attended so he shouldn't be so surprised.
''Ron.'' Harry tone greeted back in a rather neutral to the counterpart of one of his closest friends. The boy looked roughly the same as the one he remembered; slightly taller and dressed in better robes (a reward for obtaining head-boy perhaps?), but other than that he looked exactly the same.
''Harry mate, where have you been this whole time?'' Ron nearly exclaimed, ''We have so much to discuss, Ginny wants to see you, what were you doing with Black? How could you get sorted in the house of the duffers? Cant Dumbledore get you out? No wait of course he can, he is Dumbledore. Harry? Harry?''
Harry stared a bit dumbfounded at the mini-tirade the youngest Weasley male was given. He had made it clear at the sorting that he was not their Harry Potter hadn't he? And since when can Ron talk on the speed level of Hermione?
Luckily for Harry the charms professor decided to take that moment to start the lesson and Ron although seemingly somewhat reluctant turned his attention to the part-goblin.
What followed was a half hour long lecture on the importance of the N.E. exams It was somewhat interesting for Harry as although he had heard the term O.W.L and .T in passing it was never completely clear to Harry what their importance was. If he understood correctly then you can get a job with only O. , but only low paying jobs similar to Muggles who only have a high school degree. N.E. on the other hand were far more important as according to Flitwick having an acceptable for a N.E.W.T. is better than an outstanding for O.W.L.
After that Flitwick used the rest of the lesson to go over the curriculum for their final year and took his time to answer any question the class filled with the four houses might have.
This suited Harry just fine as he seriously had too much on his mind to pay attention to a real lesson. He knew he shouldn't have looked, but his curiosity overrode his common sense. He just wished he hadn't; knowledge may be power, but sometime ignorance is a bliss.
XxX
The lesson had ended and it looked like Ron wanted to talk to Harry again, but he really didn't feel like another tirade so he quickly said that lunch was about to start and that he wanted to talk with the professor for a moment.
It seems that the person he was speaking to was still very similar, as Ron quickly left the room. Either unable to resist the call of food or not wanting to spend any more additional time with a teacher.
''You wanted to speak with me Mr Potter?'' The charms professor asked after Harry approached his desk.
Harry nodded, ''Yes, professor.'' He said, ''Professor Sprout told me all four heads of houses were informed about me.''
''That's correct, Mr Potter,'' The professor confirmed while wondering what this was all about.
''Then … I have a request to make.''
XxX
Harry Potter was not amused. Why? You may wonder The answer to that question was sitting opposite of him.
''I must really insist Mr Potter.'' The woman and Harry used that term loosely insisted.
The 'woman' *couch* toad *couch* sitting in front of Harry was none other than his DADA teacher. Harry had just finished one of his most useless and boring DADA lessons ever. A fact that on some level was quite impressive considering who taught him the subject in his first two years.
Well to be honest in terms of uselessness she and Lockhart were more or less equal. One told his class mostly fictional stories and the other had the class read a book where the proper defence to an attack was described as: don't make any threating moves, try to calm the aggressor down and if that fails contact the Auror department.
So yeah both lessons were completely useless, but at least Lockhart's were semi-interesting or at least semi-interesting compared to spending the entire lesson reading a book that was written in such a style that even Binns would probably find it boring.
The reasons for his current annoyance however was not the two hours he completely wasted, no he had spent more than enough time with teachers who were useless that he really couldn't feel annoyed anymore that Dumbledore had yet again failed to hire someone competent. The reasons for his annoyance however was that this Umbridge woman had asked him to stay behind as she wanted to talk with him.
Well to be technically true this was not the true reason. The true reasons happened five minutes after he had agreed and was invited into her office.
The woman in front of him kept insisting that he drink something! Now he may be no 'mad eye' in terms of paranoia, but if this didn't scream suspicious then he didn't know what did.
Knowing he wasn't going to win a contest of wills and that he could hardly accuse her of something without some proof Harry decided to relent for now and answered, ''Some tea then if you insist.''
Umbridge gave what seemed to be her patented creepy grin and stood up before moving toward a nearby table where tea-set was standing on and started preparing it with her back shielding what she was doing from Harry's eyes. That is if Harry had normal eyes. After quickly activating his magical eye and closing his normal one, Harry saw that Umbridge had poured something from a vial into one of the cups.
'Bloody amateur,' Harry thought as he quickly drew his wand and before Umbridge had even time to pick up the cups let alone have the time to turn around Harry had fired a stunner which impacted seconds later, resulting in her crumbling down to the ground.
Moving quickly Harry fired a locking and a privacy charm at the door and then made his move over to Umbridge. He then picked up the vial still in the woman's hand and studied it for a moment before giving it a sniff.
''Don't tell me that bitch actually wanted …'' Harry muttered with a frown on his face.
He moved her to one of the wall and placed her in a sitting position, then he forced her mouth open and poured three drops of the vial in her month before muttering a counter curse to his stunning spell. When she came to her face was slack and her gaze unfocused.
''Truth potion …'' Harry muttered. This bitch actually wanted to give him truth potion! Harry had to close his eyes as anger raged through his veins. Two simple words and he would never have to see the woman who dared to attack him like that again, but his rational mind stopped. It knew that regardless of how incompetent most of the Auror corp was the death of the undersecretary of the current minister of magic would now doubt result in the Auror elites swarming Hogwarts and they weren't incompetent enough to miss that Harry would be the last one to see her.
As Harry reigned his emotions back under control he realised that a perfect opportunity had arisen. He had a high ranking ministry employee under truth serum right in front of him … it was time for some information gathering.
''Why did you try and feed me truth potion?'' He asked.
''To find about any secret you might have.'' The woman replied in a mono-tone.
Harry frowned at hearing this and decided to question further. ''Why do you want to know those secrets?''
''The minister wants your loyalty, depending on your answers I either would blackmail you to make sure you remain loyal or if you don't have any secrets I can use I would have used the knowledge I obtained from you in some other way that would make sure you wouldn't be a threat for the minister.''
''Does the minister know you are doing this?''
''He knows that I will try gaining your loyalty for him, but he doesn't know the exact plans.''
''Do you have any other plans regarding me?''
''No definite ones.''
''Is Blaise Zanabi-Fudge involved with any of your plans?''
For a moment it seems Umbridge actually showed a hint of distaste and Harry wondered if the potion was already started to stop working as the potion shouldn't allow this, but then it was gone and the professor spoke up again with the same emotionless tone. ''The half-breed isn't involved with any plans of mine.''
'Interesting,' Harry thought before asking the next question. ''Is Voldermort dead?''
''The dark lord is dead, yes.''
'Dark lord? Not he-who-must-be-named' Harry thought. ''Do you believe in pure-blood supremacy?''
''Yes,''
Harry sighted, one of the highest ranking ministry employees was a bigot … great… just great.
XxX
Information swirled through Harry's head as he exited the DADA classroom. After the question about her beliefs Harry had continued questioning her and he now knew quite a bit off useful things and a couple of things he really didn't need to know. The vial of what he now knew was Veritaserum, the strongest truth potion was also in his pocket.
After he was done with the questioning he had replaced her memory of the interrogation with one where she broke the vial of truth potion and where Harry had quickly been excused after a short conversation about what he thought about the current DADA course.
Harry didn't like using memory charms. In fact he hated using magic to mess with one's mind, but she couldn't be allowed to remember the meeting and he unfortunately couldn't kill her.
Then suddenly he heard someone approach him and judging by the sound that person was running, Instincts bred in battle kicked in and his wand was in his hand seconds later, he spun around and came near face to face with what his mind identified as 'Prewett spawn'
Instincts worked faster than his mind ever could and before he could stop himself a green beam of light came out of his wand and impacted the female redhead and catapulted her backwards.
'Well …' Harry mentally began.
''Mr Potter!'' A furious looked Minerva McGonagall strode over from the other side of the corridor, wand in her hand and a look of pure fury on her face.
'' … Shit.'' He finished out loud.
Author notes
No Daphne in this chapter sorry, I had the meeting completely written out, but it just didn't fit so I deleted it. She definitely won't appear in the next chapter, but she should make her first appearance in chapter 13.
About pairing: Okay so I have received several reviews and PMs asking about the pairing and I have decided to clarify things a bit. First of there are four main character (even though FF sometime only show two) the main characters are Harry (the main main character), (fem)Blaise, Daphne and OC (Alex). The story will mostly follow Harry and each of those three girl will have their own impact on his life. One of them will most likely end up with him. Which one of the three? Honestly I am not sure. All three are for all intend and purposes OCs so I decided to wait on deciding on a pairing until I have written a bit about each of the three potential love interests (to let them feel more real in my head). Most likely the first bits of romance won't be until Christmas.
Next chapter: Riddle and Runes