Chapter 14 – Never a dull moment

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I've only been back at Hogwarts a few weeks and I've got Snape and Dumbledore upset with me. Tonks is in her base form drooling over Lupin, Minerva is stewing after coming back from St. Mungo. Half the school thinks I am the new Dark Lord while most think I am the Ministers new pet boy. A quarter are upset with me for the rumors of how I have been insulting Dumbledore. The Slytherin house of course hates me while Ron Weasley is stirring up the Griffindor's over his perceived girlfriend's attraction to me. Ron would probably kill if he knew what really happened at Dun-Potter.

I was happy in my Dark Lord Quarters I even put up a sign, "Dark Lord's room, beware of evil wizard". This of course did not make the teachers happy. Their attempt to remove the sign was met with my concentrated magic's sticking charm which they couldn't over come.

On the Girl Friend side I had Luna floating in and out still friendly and still untouchable. I did wonder about her sometimes as she could be found in the mornings sleeping on my couch or in my bed with me, still untouchable. The Great Hall was becoming a hazard zone as Susan had broken up with her attentive friend and was now trying to return to me, which wasn't going to happen. Romilda Vane and Ginny Weasley, the Gillywater girls, were now on a 'sit next to me and innocently rub as much of their bodies on me as possible attack'. This of course did nothing for Ron's temper tantrums.

/Scene Break/

"Bill it's so great to see you again, how was Egypt?" Dumbledore twinkled and smiled.

"Not so great and yet fantastic, the Goblins have recalled me to England and Gringotts. Might I ask how you got the Goblins to agree to divert me from their projects to yours?"

"Yes you might ask but some secrets must be kept for the Greater Good. Are you settled in and ready to start on some wards?"

"Actually we're not; we are all at the Burrow right now and it's quite crowded. My wife Fleur has her sister Gabrielle with her for the rest of the year and I have my apprentice that I am responsible for."

"I assume that Gabrielle will be attending Hogwarts?"

"Yes Sir as soon as I can get her enrolled."

"Might I offer you guest quarters for you and the rest of your family? That would help at the Burrow and help our little project. I will get Minerva to get started on that immediately."

"Thank you Headmaster."

/Scene Break/

(Pretend the three French girls speak in that sexy broken French accent when they speak English)

I had my back to the door of the Great Hall as I fended off Ginny and Romilda.

"Harry, Harry Potter how are you?"

I was startled to find Fleur, Gabrielle and the most beautiful red-head I have ever seen interrupting Ginny and Romilda's the unwanted attention. Fleur and Gabriella did the "Squash Harry Hugs" and dragged me where all four of us could sit down.

"Fleur, Gabriella, it so great to see you, what are you doing in England and where is Bill?"

"Gabby will be attending Hogwarts and Bill and I will be staying here also. Dumbledore has work for Bill." Fleur notice my falling face. "Harry what is wrong."

"I'll explain later but Dumbledore is a manipulating sod when it comes to me. However, while that is problems for a later time please introduce me to this lovely red-head following you two around."

"Gabby turn down your allure this instant! You know it doesn't affect Harry and you got half the boys here drooling." Fleur hissed.

"I'm sorry for that Harry, Harry Potter this is Cheryl Beauvais, Bills apprentice."

"Pleased to meet you Harry but are you really not affected by the allure?"

"Yes I have that happy ability or I would have fallen for Gabby's allure years ago. She has not been deterred even with such a large difference in our ages."

"Harry, I will keep trying until I have you wrapped around my little finger. You know you love me beyond words." Gabby sent me an evil smile.

Amy flashed in and grabbed me and the next thing I know I am just down the hall from the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. Draco is running out of the room to the seven or so Slytherin's waving a Tiara and yelling "I've got it lets…its Potter, get him." Amy it seems has the knack of knowing when there is a problem. The problem however is that I now have the problem as seven plus wands are firing curses at me. I 'faded' into the midst of the Slytherin delegation. The corridor is not that wide so I introduce the pureblood mob to Tae kwon do. Draco as usual has run off…and as usual I am standing tall in the Headmasters office for putting students in the hospital wing. Of course no one knows why they were there and I don't know what I saw, that's according to everyone who were not there at the time. Therefore it must be all my fault.

/Scene Break/

I sat in on one of Bill and Dumbledore's meetings as an invisible spirit and I found that I was the target. Bill was convinced, by Dumbledore, that it was in my best interest to have a ward notifying Dumbledore if I left Hogwarts. Then there was the ward to insure I didn't leave Hogwarts grounds. Of course Bill was to take down all the wards I put up on the Dark Lord's Room. Dumbledore also wanted to put up spells like listening charms and tracking charms inside the Dark Lord's Room. All this was to be kept between Bill and Dumbledore for the "Greater Good". I was Happy as they had not put Fleur or Cheryl in the middle of all this "for Harry's good".

Classes were mostly the pits. Snape potion class was a mini war zone while Minerva had been memory charmed so many times I wondered if she remembered who she was. I had no idea how many other teachers had been memory charmed nor what they were supposed to do to me. Amy was a jewel but she had one flaw and that was knowing when there was an attack or problem and putting me in the middle of the mess.

/Scene Break/

Putting up or taking down wards is not an all day job because it's tiring. Putting your magic into warding stones or finding a spot in a ward to put your magic in to bring the ward down was tiring. Hogwarts was a huge warding stone and my Dark Lord's Quarters had wards based on my concentrated magic. After a couple of hours Bill and Cheryl were knackered sending Bill for a kip. Cheryl found the lake peaceful while I found the lake a good place to evade all my admirers, Ron and the Gillywater girls.

"How's the warding going?" I never was good with words and talking to girls when I had an interest in them.

"There progressing but very slowly. Warding is quite exhausting especially here at Hogwarts."

"Why are you not taking a nap if you're so exhausted?"

Cheryl gave a musical laugh and asked, "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course, besides have you noticed there aren't many people that want to talk to me here at Hogwarts."

"I've notice that attitude which is funny as the general public call you the chosen on and seem to love you."

"That this week Cheryl, next week I'll be the Lucifer incarnated, but you haven't answered my question."

"Well when Bill returns for a nap, err, that is…you see Fleur is there."

"And?"

"Well she insists that he needs a massage to get the kinks out after working so hard on the wards."

"And?"

"Are you that slow that I have to explain what a Veela massage does to a man?"

"OH! And yes I have been told I am slow many times. Boy here, automatically slow if you haven't ever noticed."

"Yea that's probably true. Bill says I am only about a year older than you but socially that usually equals five years ahead of a normal boy."

"You will never know how I wish I was just normal."

"Anyhow, I wait an hour or so and then go to our quarters and hopefully I can get a nap."

"Well you are welcome to nap in the Dark Lord's and Evil Wizards lair. The couch is soft and the fire is warm."

"Thanks but I wouldn't want to take advantage of you." Cheryl almost choked when she realized what she had said, while I definitely wouldn't mind if she did.

"Cheryl I know Bill and you have been working on my wards but I think you will find them as tough on the inside as trying from the outside." I was thinking that I might get a Veela type massage in the future if I was lucky.

"I would never try to use your hospitality that way. I would just 'apperate' to my parent's house if I wasn't afraid to splitch myself."

"So you were born here in England?"

"No my parents moved here because my father now works for Gringotts. I just graduated school and became Bill's apprentice when Bill got this job over her. I was expecting Egypt with excitement and got Hogwarts instead."

"If you promise not to tell anyone I can give you the password so you can crash on the couch.

/Scene Break/

"Oh, hi Luna, was the couch uncomfortable last night?"

"No but you do know there is a strange girl sleeping there right now?"

"Probably Cheryl, she has been trying to break the wards I have on this place."

"You do know that she has an infestation of Garploopnails?"

"Ah, No, and that means?"

"New paths muddy waters." Luna just gets up out of bed and left humming a tune.

After showering I dressed for breakfast and upon entering the living room. "It's none of my business but do you often have your girlfriends sleep over?" Cheryl asked.

"Oh Luna is not my girlfriend. She is really nice but a little weird. She took a fancy to that couch and since it was occupied last night she slept in my bed. If you ever come over to Dun-Potter you can see a lot of the real Luna." The image of Luna leaping nude into the pool flashed in my mind. "If she beats you to the couch my bed always has room for one more." I smiled but I was serious as this was one lovely red-head.

"I'm sorry but we worked late and I fell asleep, seems the morning got here a lot quicker than I thought."

"Like I said always room for a lovely girl here in the evil wizard abode. How's the taking down of my wards going?"

"Why do you think I was so tired, what did you put those things up with Merlin's staff?"

I thought that was funny as I probably knew where she got that idea about Merlin. At the entrance to my quarters was the access portrait. It was a portrait of a grizzly old man with a staff standing in front of a lake. He had the attitude that would make MadEye Moony sound like a choir boy but he did his job as described by Dumbledore but my wards started just before his canvas. That was one of the wards the ward breakers were here for.

I did a sweep for spells and charms later that morning to see if Cheryl was as nice as she appeared. I found nothing so I figured I hadn't made an error allowing her in to the Evil Wizards Abode.

/Scene Break/

Here I was again in potions pretending that I cared and pretending I was working on a real potion. I actually had my caldron full of water which was under fire and heading to become a caldron of tea. Snape would just banish it in the next couple of minutes and make me try and redo the potion listed on the board and take points regardless of what was in my cauldron. Luckily his potion assigned for the day ended with the appearance of clear water when it was completed. Then there was Draco and Ron flicking things at my caldron so my potion would explode or fail. So unless they could throw some white phosphorus into my cauldron the eye of newt falling in my cauldron would not do much but ruin the tea.

Draco had just tossed something that almost hit Snape's large nose. Snape pretended that he did not notice anything which started Draco on his own sneer, at me, accompanying his rude hand gestures. Ron tossed something but, "Mr. Weasley that will cost you ten points and a detention with me tonight after dinner." Even from where I sat I could see Ron's ears turn red, which was never a good sign.

Before Snape had a chance to look into my caldron he started, "Your incompetency shows your lack in brewing skills or even making a substandard potion…" He then looked into my cauldron as he simultaneously banished what he thought was my potion. What he saw was a couple Plimpy eyes, an eyeball and the head of a Horned Slug floating in a clear liquid.

I watched his face contort from surprise to anger and he yelled to me, "GET OUT!" He knew that if the Horned Slug or the Plimpy eyes had hit the prescribed potion there would have been one large explosion, I happily left.

While the public at large might love the 'chosen one' to take care of Voldemort there were those in the school that thought I was a target. A 'Diffindo' was fired at my back on my way to dinner that night and around midnight someone used a 'Reducto' on the portrait to my quarters. Of course my wards took the exploding curse without any damage to the portrait as the noise echoed up and down a few corridors. This set off the old man who started yelling verbal curses and obscenities. All this caused other portraits in the area to yell objections to the noise, apparently everyone at Hogwarts were sound sleepers as no one showed to investigate.

/Scene Break/

I was having breakfast the next morning as I though about all that had taken place in just a few months. In a couple of days it would be Christmas break and a chance to escape my minders and enjoy myself.

We were all in the Great Hall, Luna sat on my right and Cheryl on my left, Fleur and Gabby sat across from us.

"Fleur you and Gabby are invited any time along with Bill to visit Dun-Potter during the break."

"A day visit we may be able to do but Molly insists that we stay at the Burrow for the whole break."

"I want to stay at Harry's place and not at that place with all those people." It seemed that Gabby was bound and determined to get her claws into me. She knew that Cheryl had accepted my invitation to stay over the entire break. Cheryl had met the Weasley family and wanted some privacy, she pitied Fleur over having none while at the Burrow. There was probably not going to be any time for Veela massages at the Burrow if I knew Molly Weasley. Luna had also opted to say at Dun-Potter as her father was going to be out chasing some undiscovered creacher in the Amazon forests. It was just as well as the two girls seemed to have become inseparable and I definitely needed some company. Even with both girls at Dun-Potter my love life was adding zero's to zero and coming up with nothing.

The owls were doing their morning deliveries and I was surprised to receive a parchment. The Minister wanted me to attend one of his speeches at the Ministry. It was to be the morning of December seventeenth. Since we left for break on the morning of the eighteenth it seemed the Minister wanted to give a Christmas speech before his poster boy got lost for the break.