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.


"Ok, let me see if I have got this straight." Hermione said.

The entire group sat around the table in the library. All of the non-Hufflepuffs, including the Weasley Twins, were staring at Harry in shock at the story he had just told.

"So you accidentally create a brand new, completely original potion and turn down the recognition of a Mastery in favour of giving the credit and proceeds to Hogwarts itself." Hermione continued.

"Basically." Harry replied with a shrug. "I do have to help supervise the NEWT Level Potions class that will be brewing the testing batches. And Professor Snape wants to look at your Ingredient Interaction Chart, Wells. He seems to think it will revolutionise Potion Making as an art form, or something."

Indy, Sunset and Diva managed to hold their expressions for a few seconds before they broke down laughing at Harry's nonchalant delivery of information they knew would blow Wells away.

"Oh come on, Hermione." Susan said. "This is typical Harry."

"She does have a point." Neville added. "On both fronts. Harry would defiantly give up something selfish like a Potions Mastery in order to gain a good reputation with the wider school community, and he would tease us about it, particularly you Hermione."

"Why me in particular?" Hermione asked with a pout.

"Because you respect logic and authority, sometimes even when you shouldn't." Neville replied. "It makes your responses predictable."

"Plus Harry likes you." Tonks added. "Unwritten rule is you have to tease your friends. The more you like someone, the more you tease them."

"I guess that means you really, really like Ambassador then, huh Indy." Hannah said.

For once Tonks was speechless, especially since the comment came from Hannah, and it was delivered without a blush. The normally quite shy girl, especially around Harry, seemed to be using the Nicknames of the group more than any other member apart from Harry himself, though they all used them on occasion.

"Point." Fred Weasley said.

"Score one for Sunset." George Weasley added.

The entire table chuckled except for Tonks, who was using her metamorph abilities to prevent herself from blushing.


The remainder of the year passed quickly and the final year exams had just finished. Almost the entire school had gathered in the Great Hall, but it was not in its usual configuration. The stage which normally held the Teacher's Table had been extended and the rest of the hall had been filled with rows of chairs conjured by Professor Flitwick, with a palpable air of excitement in the air.

There had been a few notable events since the Christmas Break, but none of them really affected the group much, apart from the Quidditch matches that the Twins played in. The results of some of the matches were both unexpected and exciting, including the shock defeat of Slytherin by Hufflepuff in the final game of the year which had denied the Quidditch Cup to the Snakes and gave the title to Ravenclaw. The biggest commotion during the last half of the year was when Hagrid's hut had burnt down after he had hatched an illegal dragon in his hut. Dumbledore had of course swept the whole thing under the rug by calling it an accident to the school body and getting one of the Weasley Twins' older brothers who worked at a Dragon Preserve to take the Dragon out of the country.

Harry and Tonks had spent a fair bit of their spare time in the Potions Lab working on perfecting and testing the Anti-Acne Potion with Professor Snape. Hermione and Susan, along with Professor Sprout, had been organising this event, much to Tonks' embarrassment.

"Welcome everyone." Professor Sprout said from the middle of the stage in the middle of a pool of light, as the rest of the hall darkened. "I would like to welcome you to the first, hopefully annual, Indy Concert."

With that announcement, the spotlight on the Professor faded and four other lights came on to a quartet of Seventh Year boys who started humming and soon the entire hall was tapping their feet to a decent rendition of 'Uptown Girl'. There were around twenty or so acts in the concert, some purely vocal, some instrumental and some bands. The musical assortments included both Magical and Muggle music, with some unexpected selections from some of the performers, like Daphne Greengrass playing Mozart on the piano or a group of Muggleborn Fifth Years playing the latest Weird Sisters song, the most popular current Magical Band. With Hermione and Susan working on the organisation of the concert, there were no bad performances and there was a good mix of classical and more modern music from both worlds, and they did not announce which songs were Magical and which were Muggle.

As was fitting, seeing as she was the inspiration behind the entire concept, the final act of the night was Susan Bones. She performed an unaccompanied Aria that tugged at the heartstrings of the entire audience, taking them on a journey from innocence, through the heart warming feelings of new love through to the heartache of a lost love. As the last mournful note faded; led by Harry, Hannah and Tonks who were sitting in the front row centre, the entire audience rose in a standing ovation.

Susan stood still and silent for a moment, embarrassed by the applause, and then she made her way down off the stage to be embraced in a group hug by Harry, Hannah and Tonks. As soon as her Hufflepuff friends stepped back, Hermione and the Patil Twins stepped in to hug the redhead. Professors McGonagall and Sprout were approaching a Harry was stepping back from the group hug. It was at about this time the Castle decided to speak to him.

"Well done, Miss Bones." McGonagall said. "And you too, Miss Granger for organising a brilliant event."

The two girls blushed at the complement, but Harry attracted the group's attention by clearing his throat.

"Umm… the Castle wants me to pass on two messages." Harry said. "First, she is please to see the enjoyment of music come back into the Castle. Second, about an hour and a half ago, Professor Quirrell went down the trap door on the third floor."

The colour drained out of both of the Professor's faces at the second piece of news, until Harry made his next comment.

"She also says she has him trapped in the potion puzzle room, whatever that means." Harry said.

With that the Professors ran off, leaving the students behind. With a collective shrug they went back to celebrating Susan's stellar performance.


The entire gang was sitting in a single compartment on the train ride back to London, a feat only possible thanks to Tonks' use of a space expanding charm. Even then the compartment was crowed. On one of the benches sat Tonks, both Weasley Twins and Neville. On the opposite bench sat Hermione, the Patil Twins and Hannah. Harry was actually sitting on the floor with his back against the wall under the window and a elated but tired Susan half sitting half dozing in front of him, seated in between his legs with her back leaning against his chest. She was still buzzing from the very successful concert and as a result had not gotten much sleep the last few nights.

Ravenclaw had ended up winning not only Quidditch Cup but had also won the House Cup and, after Harry had done the math, they had figured out that Hermione had singlehandedly had gotten the over the line as Ravenclaw had beaten out Slytherin for the House Cup by seventy points while Hermione alone had accumulated over one hundred and thirty points.

"So, Indy, what are you going to do now that you have finished school?" Harry asked.

"Well, I have to wait for my NEWT scores, but I want to become an Auror." Tonks replied.

"It's a tough course." Susan said, not opening her eyes or lifting her head from Harry's chest.

"Suddenly I'm flashing back to that image of you with a Bullwhip and a Fedora." Harry said to Tonks. "And don't even ask the question."

"So that's where the nickname Indy came from." Hermione said, and then saw the confused expression from all the Purebloods. "It's from a movie serries called Indiana Jones."

"Oh yeah, and thanks for the bloody concert name." Tonks said sarcastically.

"Don't worry about it." Hermione said. "In the Muggle world, when used in relation to movies or music, the term 'Indy' is short for independent. It is usually more passionate and meaningful to the artist than 'mainstream' music and films."

"Passionate, uncontrollable and fun." Fred began.

"Sounds like our Indy." George finished.

The train clattered on and talk turned to what everyone was going to do over the break.

TBC…