Chapter 14

The next couple weeks had passed smoothly for the school, mostly. Classes went well though it became clear to the teachers that the top student of the first years was Harry Snape. He had the best scores in every class, only slightly followed by Hermione, Draco, and, surprisingly, even Neville was in the top 5 of the students. Liam was an average student, which disappointed his parents. The classes went by smoothly, the work was keeping the students busy, and there weren't any real incidents between them.

Though there was one time, at the end of those two weeks, where Harry's love of animals kicked in again. He had been walking alone down a corridor when he noticed a commotion from around a corner. He ran down the corridor and turned. There were three 2nd year Gryffindors as well as Liam and his friend Ron, surrounding a cat that he recognized as Mrs. Norris. He hadn't run into Mr. Filch, but sometimes during free period, he would talk to the cat who seemed to like him.

He felt anger at them once he realized that they were taunting and tormenting the poor thing. "HEY! How dare you attack her you damn cowards!" He growled, going through the 2nd years to the cat who he realized was injured. "What did you do to her?" he growled at them, waving his wand to cast an easy and quick diagnostic charm on her. He was relieved it was just bruising to the ribs and that they weren't broken or anything worse. "You're all cowards, picking on a creature smaller than you."

"Go away you little freak." Liam growled at him, shoving him away from the cat. While Harry was magically strong, he was still weak physically from the abuse from the Dursleys. When Liam shoved him, he fell and his wand flew out of his hands. He was now their new target. Mrs. Norris was Filch's familiar and she called to his mind to bring Snape. Harry was doing his best to fend off the blows being thrown at him, and avoided most. Ron and the others still got a lucky shot at Harry's stomach, causing him to fall to the ground coughing.

"What are you brats doing. And our brother's involved too." 2 outraged voices growled. It was the Weasley twins. They used their wands and stunned the group of bullies, including their brother and helped Harry up. "You okay you ickle firstie?" they asked.

"Yah. Not the worst that's ever happened to me."

"What were you doing here?" the first one asked.

"I found them attacking Mrs. Norris. I'm against animal cruelty. It's just wrong to hurt an animal for fun like that. Or at all." he said.

"We agree with you little Snape. Is she okay?" the second one asked as Harry gently picked up the injured cat, who felt herself relax in his arms.

"She has some bruising on her ribs, but nothing's broken or anything worse." He said. Just then, Mr. Filch and Severus rounded the corner.

"Mrs. Norris? What did you do?" Filch asked Harry angrily. Mrs. Norris let him know that Harry had saved her.

"What's going on here?" Severus asked, seeing the stunned Gryffindors and a wand on the side. Harry softly told him what had happened as one of the twins handed him his wand after he gently put the feline into her master's arms. Mr. Filch was shocked at it, but soon realized that Harry loved animals and would never harm them. He respected Harry from then on and was very lenient with him, though Harry also respected him and didn't make trouble if he could avoid it. The boys got more detentions with Mr. Filch and together the 5 boys lost over a hundred points for Gryffindor. It would've been more if the twins weren't given 50 points for helping a student who was being bullied.

Together, after Harry was let out of the infirmary and Mrs. Norris was healed, the Weasley twins talked with Harry and soon found out Harry was a kindred spirit in pranking. He of course told them he wouldn't be pranking Mr. Filch or his dad, but they agreed and set plans to prank the Gryffindors. It was to take place after dinner that night.

The Gryffindors involved had ran out of the Hall screaming like little girls as they turned green and silver with different animal parts attached to them, including cat ears, shaggy dog tails, and elephant noses. The entire hall burst into laughter. Two days later, they were going to have flying lessons. All of the first years together after lunch. So 2 days later, after a lunch where Ron Weasley could be heard boasting about his times on his brothers' cleansweeps and all of his daring escapes from muggle helicopters, all the first years headed up to the open fields a few yards from the entrance. The first years saw Madam Hooch and James there and headed over.

There were rows of broomsticks and everyone rushed to get a good one. Soon everyone was ready, Harry and his friends all standing farthest from Liam with some of the best brooms. "Welcome students. This is your first flying lesson and we will just cover the basics for now." Madam Hooch told the group. "I don't tolerate showing off. There are first timers here that could get hurt because of some of you being arrogant." she cast a stern look at James, letting him know Liam wasn't to get special treatment. He looked away sheepishly. Madam Hooch valued the safety of the children much like Professor Snape, which was one of the reasons her and Snape got along. Not even the boy-who-lived would be spared if he broke her rules.

"Put your left hand over your broom and shout 'UP!' " James said taking over for Madam Hooch. The students did so. The results were various. Harry's, Draco's, and Daphne's were some of the few whose brooms jumped into their hands. They snickered lightly when Liam's broom didn't so much as twitch. After a few minutes and everyone had their brooms in their hands, James showed them how to mount them and how to position their hands. Hooch went around correcting different students grasp, including Ron Weasley's, telling him he had been doing it wrong for years.

"Alright, when I blow my whistle on the count of 3, you will lightly kick up from the ground and hover a couple feet, then bring yourself down. on three. 1..2..." before she could say three and blow her whistle, a Hufflepuff, Hannah Abott, nervously kicked off the ground hard and shot up a lot more than 2 feet. "Ms. Abott come down here!" Hooch called.

"I- I can't!" She cried in alarm. "HELLLP!" she screamed as the broom shot up to over 20 feet in the air.

"HANNAH!" Neville and Daphne called to their house mate in alarm.

"Get her James!" Hooch called. He nodded and shot after the girl. Wow, who knew a cleansweep could go so fast?

Harry cast a sonorous charm, something he picked up from his dad. "HANNAH BREATH! YOUR BROOM'S MAGIC IS REACTING TO YOUR PANIC WHICH HAS SPIKED YOUR MAGIC UP. YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN AND TRUST THAT THE PROFESSOR WILL GET TO YOU AND HELP. THE PANIC HAS MADE THE BROOM GO BEYOND IT'S NORMAL SPEED. THAT'S IT. BREATH AND CALM DOWN. FOCUS NOT ON THE SPEED OR THE BROOM, BUT ON BREATHING AND WHAT I'M TELLING YOU." Harry called after the girl. And Draco had thought that reading that book on the magic of broomsticks was stupid.

The girl was able to hear him due to the sonorous charm and focused on breathing and what he was telling her. She felt the broom slow down and when James got to her, she held on tight as she could as he lowered them to the ground. He let Hooch check the girl over.

"She's still in shock. Mr. Longbottom, will you and Ms. Greengrass please escort Ms. Abott to Madam Pomfrey please." the two Hufflepuffs nodded and led the distraught girl into the castle. "Mr. Snape, what you did was very helpful. Where did you come across that information?" she asked. James wanted to know that as well. He hadn't known about any of that.

Harry flushed. "Well, at home we have an extensive library, and I wanted to know about the magic in broomsticks that made them so different from a normal broom, when the broom I tried to use to sweep the kitchen had floated away from me." he admitted. Draco couldn't help his snicker, which made Harry glare at him.

"How come you didn't know about broomsticks before? I mean your Sniv- I mean Professor Snape's son, surely you would've known?" James wondered, correcting himself at Hooch's warning look.

"Dad adopted me when I was about 6 years old, before then, I was living with a muggle family that made me do all the chores in and around the house, which included cooking and cleaning up any of the messes my cousin made. And he would make lots of them. He once dumped out an entire 8 lb. bag of flour in all the rooms just so I would have to clean the house again. I was six in a half and at home, I had spilt some flour when I was baking a cake, and well, like I said the broom floated away from me. I found it fascinating." Harry answered, blushing harder. That had been so embarrassing, as Draco had witnessed his freak out at the floating broom. Some of the other children that had grown up in the wizarding world started lightly chuckling, but not in a mean way, but an amused way.

"It's been a surprise for many when they have first seen a broom fly. I also had a start when I first saw a broom fly, and I was 8 when it happened. My family is pure blooded wizard, but we lived moderate muggle lives until my Hogwarts letter came." Madam Hooch told the class, surprising all of them. "Any ways, you have a few more basics to learn in this class. Back to your brooms!" she called. The students hurried to do as they told. The class went by with out further incident and the students went back up to the castle for dinner, before they went back to their dorms for bed.

School was going great. Classes were going well, Harry and the Weasley twins pranked students from every house and even some of the teachers, though they avoided pranking Severus and Minerva. Their group, Harry, Draco, Blaise, Neville, Daphne, Hermione, and Theo were the top of all their classes. Liam and Ron were making asses of themselves, strutting around the castle like they owned the place, boasting and bragging about how important they were. It was fun, so Harry was surprised when he realized a month had already passed.

It was lunch time and Harry was sitting with the Weasley twins, their heads together as they considered their next prank. The rest of his group was sitting at the Ravenclaw table discussing the latest essay they had for homework from charms since it was a class they all shared. Liam and Ron walked in, their eyes automatically seeing the green and silver robe of a snake at the lions' table. "Hey snake, you're at the wrong table, or are you just too stupid to realize it?" Liam drawled. Harry looked at him, before turning back around to the twins and continuing in lower whispers about their plans. Liam turned red in his anger at being ignored. He was used to having the attention on him all the time. This was just infuriating. "Don't you dare ignore me you slimy worm." he growled lowly. Harry let out a long suffering sigh.

"Okay. Okay. Okay." he turned towards the boy. Liam smirked, thinking he had won and the freak would now know his place. "You are a spoilt brat. You rely too much on your fame and believe you are everything 'Precious mommy and daddy' told you, you were. Well you're just an average student with no talent and their is nothing outstanding about you in appearance or skill, save your size which is that of a walrus. And maybe your undying need for attention. Everyone is too afraid to tell you the truth. And you know what that is? No? Well listen well. I know it'll be hard since you only care about hearing your voice, but it's best you learn now." the hall was quiet as they waited with baited breath. Not even the adults could seem to take a breath with their curiosity burning at what the dark haired boy was going to say.

"The world does not revolve around you. You supposedly defeated the Darkest wizard alive when you were a year old, yet he is not gone for good, because you were being trained since you were 6 to fight him again, and it has proved futile and useless. You believe you are the world, that everyone needs you. They do not. There are far more powerful wizards than you, and they could easily defeat you. My self included. There are wizards who have lives that you are not apart of. You may be considered a hero now, but as soon as something goes wrong, you are who they will blame. You are on a pedestal now, only to be dragged through the mud and made a martyr. That is the life you are leading now."

"But you're not going to listen to me. You will believe I'm just jealous. So just remember that I tried to warn you when everything goes to hell in a handbasket." with that the boy stood up said goodbye to the twins and left. Liam growled and stormed out of the hall.

"Snape." he said, stalking up to the boy. The boy sighed and turned around.

"What do you want Potter?"

"I want you to prove that I don't know any thing and that you're more powerful than me. I challenge you to a duel in the trophy room at 11:30 tonight. Just the 2 of us. No seconds for this." he told the boy angrily. Harry thought this through. He didn't want to betray his dad's and Filch's trust like this. But he also knew that he couldn't turn this down. If he did, he would be giving Potter something to use against him. And he was a Slytherin and a proud child with a strong and powerful Slytherin for a dad, they preserve their titles and abilities to survive. With a sigh, he nodded. He'd be careful, not get his friends involved, and not get caught, even if he would end up having to make a run for it.

Harry made sure to be his normal self so no one, not even his dad or Draco, would be able to tell something was off. The last of the classes passed peacefully as did dinner. Everyone was in bed, and 15 till 11:30, he left the common room after putting a de-odorizinging charm on himself. As he headed up to the Trophy room, he stopped at a window to see a full moon. He suddenly wondered how his uncle Remus was doing. Would he have accepted his adoption by Severus? Had what uncle Luci been saying the truth when he said that Remus had disowned the Potters after they gave him up with out even consulting him? Had Sirius soon joined his friend in the disowning when they became too obsessed with fame? He shook his head and soon entered the Trophy room, his wand drawn to make sure Liam wouldn't ambush him. No one was there. It was almost midnight when he heard what he dreaded to hear.

"Come on Mrs. Norris, find the culprit who decided to break the rules tonight." he realized Filch was using the voice that was filled with gleeful vindication saved for out of bed students. He hated that that voice was meant for him, even if Filch didn't know it. He stealthily ran, not being able to cast a new de-odorizing charm as his last one finally wore off. He wasn't always the best at those. He was so lost in his thoughts as he ran, that he ended up crashing into a suit of armor, loudly. He got up and ran harder. He ran down a corridor only to turn and be halted at the sight of Peeves, the resident poltergeist of Hogwarts.

"OOOH! A student out of bed. My my my. Oh bad bad ickle firstie." he crooned, making Harry wince.

"Please Peeves. I ask you as a fellow prankster, don't rat me out or tell him where I've gone." he said to the ghost. Peeves found himself letting out a sigh. The prankster oath to never give up another prankster, whether they were pranking or even just in trouble.

"Fine. Hurry and hide." with that Peeves took a deep breath and right as Harry got to a door, "STUDENT OUT OF BED! DOWN THE THIRD FLOOR CHARMS CORRIDOR! STUDENT OUT OF BED!"

"Alohomora." Harry muttered. He wrenched open the door and flew inside, shutting it just as he heard Filch come into the corridor.

"Where did the student go Peeves?"

"I shant say nothing if you don't say please." Peeves chanted. Harry gave a small smile, knowing what would happen.

"Fine. Please." Filch said exasperated.

"NOTHING! I said I shant say NOTHING if you don't say please." Harry heard Peeves zoom away, rattling suits of armor as he went. Filch cursed before him and Mrs. Norris left. He sank to the ground in relief, but froze when he heard growling behind him. Slowly, he turned around on his knees, and his jaw dropped. It was a large, 3 headed dog. A Cerberus, if he remembered correctly.

"Wow. You are magnificent." he murmured. The dog stopped growling as it felt the intruder's aura. It was a gentle and caring. The 3 heads all looked at the boy in font of them. And all 3 heads started licking him. Harry spent the night petting the dogs, and ended up falling asleep against their side that was facing away from the entrance to the room, where they stood watch over the child that they had come to really like. Harry was awoken by light growls as morning had come. He realized someone else was in the room and was alert at once, not moving and glad that he was unable to be seen. His head was pounding painfully and he held in his groan.

"Shut up. You stupid mutt." the voice, that was familiar some how, growled. Harry felt anger through the headache at this. This magnificent Cerberus was not a mutt. It was intelligent and beautiful. How dare this idiot, who ever he was, insult the amazing animal protecting him. Harry gently crawled around the canine, staying hidden as the canine was very tall, even as he stayed down to keep him hidden. He peeked around and, after seeing who it was ducked down before he himself could be seen.

"I will find away past you in order to get to my prize so I can present it to my master. Stupid creature." The canine barked loudly in warning and the man jerked back and left with a final curse word to the canine.

What was going on? What was that person doing here? And where the hell was his irritating stutter? Harry wondered confused. Maybe he should tell dad about everything that had happened. Once he got out without being caught by that man. He waited until the canines growls stopped before giving all 3 heads a loving pat and going out a secret door provided by Hogwarts herself. His head no longer hurting.

Harry was glad that the door and passage lead to the dungeons. It was still early, so everyone should still be asleep. Harry was relieved that the common room was empty. After taking a shower and putting his hair in a braid that went over his shoulder, he decided not to tell his dad right away. Fluffy, as he was going to call the canine with his Fluffy personality, was fine and resistant to most curses and spells. That idiot wouldn't get past Fluffy for awhile to get through the trap door he had spotted. So they continued on with school and soon, another month passed and Halloween was upon them.