Title: Kiss.
Author: AspergianStoryteller.
Genre: Supernatural/General.
Summary: When a dementor tried to Kiss Harry Potter, it got more than it bargained for. And Harry did not walk away unaffected. Don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 29: My Hair Is Not A Rose Bush!
The students began to pour in, and Severus was distracted from his musings for now, his last non-ball-related thoughts being on why the hell did Potter have green inside of him?
After dinner, the tables were banished to the edges of the hall, and a raised platform was conjured along the right-hand wall. It had instruments upon it: drums, a cello, several guitars and bagpipes. The band that came on to play them, the Weird Sisters, was a group of very hairy people in black, ripped robes. Parvati pulled Harry into the middle of the hall where the other champions and their partners were standing, ready to open the ball. Harry tripped on his dress-robes.
The first song was a slow, mournful tune. Harry and Parvati turned slowly on the spot (Parvati was somehow leading, even though she was in the girl's position). It was okay. Soon other couples joined them; Neville and Ginny (Ginny's poor feet), Dumbledore dwarfed by Madam Maxime, Mad-Eye Moody and Professor Sinistra (avoiding Moody's wooden leg)...
'Nice socks, Potter,' he growled.
Harry grinned and told the Defence teacher where his mismatched socks came from. He hoped that Moody's x-ray gaze didn't traverse any higher his robes, though... Nah, unlikely.
Parvati commented on how creepy Moody's magical eye was.
A few songs later, Harry and a rather grumpy Ron, found themselves pulled into a group dance; Ghost Trail. Several real ghosts actually joined in. Two lines were formed and couples would detach from one end and glide to the other down the middle. When every couple had gone, they'd spread out and twirl in circles until eight beats later, the lines would reform again in a different order. The music was floaty and eerie.
The first time round, Harry and Ron stood next to each other in line. Harry's partner from the opposite side was an older girl he didn't know. He thought he might have seen her at the Slytherin table though. Ron went down the middle with a Hufflepuff girl. Then they all twirled on their own. One beat, one spin. Two beats. Three. Four. It would be funny if they did the Chicken Dance. Five. Six. Seven Eight.
This time Ron was a few people away. Harry looked across and saw Moaning Myrtle smiling at him.
'Hello Harry,' she said.
'Hey Myrtle.'
'Isn't this fun?' she asked, swaying in place, holding hands with the students on either side of her. They looked uncomfortable with chilly ghost hands in theirs.
'I quite like dances,' Myrtle told him. 'Well, it wasn't fun when only some of the teachers would dance with me, but Sir Nick is a good dancer, when his head stays on.'
Sir Nearly Headless Nick was closer to the front end of the line, across from Hermione.
'I remember a dance when I was alive,' Myrtle went on. 'Professor Dumbledore was at that one too, he's quite old. Professor McGonagall was there as well, though she was just a student then. And Hagrid. I did this dance with him. He wasn't very graceful. And he was so much taller than me!' She wrinkled her nose, then giggled. 'I stood on his feet when we danced, and he could walk easily.'
It was soon their turn to join hands and float, twirl, duck in-and-out along the middle of the lines.
'I also danced with Tom one time,' Myrtle reminisced. 'He was very handsome and charming, but there was something a bit, scary about him.' She looked at Harry. 'You remind me of him, you know, but you're nicer than him.'
Harry shivered. It wasn't because of Myrtle's cold hands through his.
After the Ghost Trail Harry and Ron sat down at the table. Parvati and Padma were dancing with boys from Beauxbatons. When Hermione joined them, she and Ron wound up arguing over her being Viktor's dance partner. Apparently she was "fraternising with the enemy." Hermione disagreed, they were supposed to be getting along with the foreign competitors, and Ron should have asked her sooner if he'd wanted to go with her. Harry didn't like it when his best friends argued. It was upsetting, put pressure on him (Hermione must have felt this way when he and Ron weren't talking to each other before the first task), and damn annoying that they just bickered without noticing how like a married couple they acted.
Eventually Hermione left, Viktor stopped by to ask if they'd seen her, and Percy and Bagman joined their table. The conversation went from the Tournament to Mr. Crouch's illness, to Ministry business. Ron and Harry went on a walk outside to escape.
The front steps outside the Entrance Hall were cluttered with rose bushes, stone statues, carved benches and ornamental paths. There was a fountain nearby, by the gurgling sound of it. There were fairies in the bushes; small, humanoid creatures that fluttered and glowed.
Ron and Harry hadn't gone far when they heard Snape and Karkaroff talking. The Durmstrang head was anxious about something. Something that was becoming clearer. Snape told him to flee if he wanted, but he would staying at Hogwarts. Then he strode along the path, wand out, blasting bushes apart to reveal many a student engaged in elicit activities.
When they got to a large stone reindeer with water spouting from his antlers, the boys saw two large, shadowy figures talking. It sounded like Hagrid and Madam Maxime. They froze. This seemed like a private sort of scene. They should leave. Oh look, there were Fleur and Rodger Davies. They looked quite busy. It should be easy to sneak past them. Unfortunately, seeing this, Ron went pale, shook his head, and dragged Harry behind the reindeer. Harry tried to focus on a beetle crawling on the statue's back, but it wasn't interesting enough to prevent Harry from hearing Hagrid reveal that he was half-giant. Oh. That was interesting.
Madam Maxime was outraged that Hagrid thought she was like him. She stormed back inside. Hagrid stayed on the bench for a minute, then strode back towards his cabin. Then a fairy decided that Harry's always messy hair was bush and settled in there.
'Ha ha, it thinks your hair is a rose bush!'
'Very funny Ron, help me get it out.' Harry tried to pluck the fairy off his head, but it zapped him. It felt like a little electric shock.
'Owch! Ron, stop laughing and help me!'
Ron reached his long fingers in, but he got zapped too.
'Yow! Little titch shocked me- hey, here comes another one! Oh. Oh!'
'What! What's going on?' Harry felt another tiny weight settled on his head. 'What are they doing?'
'Ew, Harry, the fairies are doing it in your hair!'
'What! Get them out!' Harry whisper-yelled.
'But they'll shock me again!'
'Cover your hands then, just get them out! And stop laughing!'
'Potter! Weasley, what are you shrieking about? Ten points from Gryffindor.' Professor Snape was back now, without Karkaroff.
'Sir!' Ron started before Harry could elbow him or clamp a hand over his mouth. 'Fairies are doing it in his hair! Look!'
There was a long, awkward pause. Harry wanted to disappear. He wanted to face-palm, which was difficult with glasses on.
'... And you haven't managed to get rid of them yourselves?' Snape sounded odd, like he was caught between laughter and horror. Like he wasn't sure if he wanted to forget this, or make it a patronus memory.
'We tried, they hurt our fingers when they get too close.'
Snape sighed and pushed Harry towards a rose bush.
'Put your head near it.'
Harry bent his head down, and to his relief, the fairies on his head flew into the bush to continue their fun.
'I suggest you go back inside,' Snape drawled. 'Before your hair is visited upon by nesting fairies again.' He left them to blast more bushes apart.
When they went inside, Ron explained to Harry that giants had a violent reputation, and there were none left in Britain. They spent the rest of the night talking about giants and other magical creature breeding, occasionally joining in a dance, mostly just jigging their feet to fast music.
At midnight, the weird Sisters finished playing and everyone applauded them and starting leaving. Hermione said goodbye to Viktor, then swept past Ron coldly. He and Harry followed her, but were stopped when by Cedric who told Harry to take a bath, in the Prefect's bathroom, and take his golden egg with him.
When Harry got back to Gryffindor Common Room, Ron and Hermione were shouting at each other. When Hermione had stomped off to the girl's dorms, Harry went up to the boy's to change and wash his hair.
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The next morning everyone was up late, neglected homework was started and Ron and Hermione were pretending their argument hadn't happened. Hermione confessed that her now bushy-once-more-hair had been so sleek last night due to her use of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. Harry wondered aloud if Draco Malfoy used it every day then? When she was told about Hagrid's half-giant heritage, she said she wasn't surprised and surely not all giants were horrible. This was like the prejudice people had towards werewolves.
The beginning of the next term had an unpleasant, then interesting start. In the morning, Care of Magical Creatures class was taken by a relief teacher, Professor Grubbly-Plank. Hagrid was "indisposed", because somehow, Rita Skeeter had found out about his giant blood. That lesson they were shown a beautiful white unicorn, dimmed somewhat by the fury induced by the newspaper article.
The afternoon lesson was interesting because in Health, they had moved on to Sex Ed. Fourth year was when Madam Pomfrey began giving them photos in addition to diagrams. It was quite disturbing watching a witch give birth in a moving magical photo. Other photos were a bit like the ones in the magazines showing up in the older boys' dorms. Harry learnt that there were just as many magical S. as there were non-magical ones, there was an adult shop in Hogsmead, and the wizarding world was both more prudish and more open minded about sex than the muggle world. At least, in England and amongst humans anyway. Harry, Ron and Hermione thought it would be very awkward to ask Remus Lupin how werewolves felt about sex.
A few interesting things that happened that week (Culture Week, which explained a few things) were, one day, all the bathroom mirrors in Gryffindor Tower were jinxed so that when the boys looked in their mirrors, they saw female reflections of themselves, and girls saw male reflections. Seamus borrowed Colin Creevy's camera to take photos of their reflections.
Another interesting thing was when the Japanese exchange students jinxed several people with an illusion charm that made them look like Japanese cartoon versions of themselves all day. Ron and Harry were caught by this had to enjoy-er-endure many girls cooing at how cute they looked with big anime eyes. Photos were taken of that too. Colin was paid to undertake the dangerous mission of getting a snap of Professor Snape, who looked very scary when the illusion made his evil teacher aura visible.
It was alright at school since others had been jinxed too, but on his weekly trip to St. Mungos, Harry and Professor McGonagall stood out. The Transfiguration teacher didn't know the particular counter needed to make them look normal again, so she had to put up with cartoon cat ears and tail popping up from time to time. The first time it happened, Healer Nathaniel ducked behind a file to hide his sniggering.
That same day Hermione was hit by "Speak Chinese" jinx on the way to Hogsmead in the afternoon. The boys managed to translate her requests somehow at shops. When they visited the Three Broomsticks to see if Hagrid might be found there (he wasn't), they bumped into Ludo Bagman. He asked how Harry was getting along with his clue to the second task and offered help. He left when Fred and George turned up.
Rita Skeeter and her photographer were there too. Harry started to have a go at her for what she wrote about Hagrid, but fumbled when she pinked at him. Inwardly, he cursed the illusion making his blush extremely noticeable. Soon he was glaring at her, not realising that his cartoon eyes were not longer cute but shadowed, scary and almost glowing. Next to him, Hermione was cursing in Chinese. Still sitting down, Ron was caught between looking frightened and amused. After the journalist had left, he warned Hermione that she'd be targeted next if she wasn't careful.
The three of them hurried back to Hogwarts after that and banged on Hagrid's door, shouting, until they were let in. Professor Dumbledore, also under the anime jinx, sided with them in telling Hagrid that he was a great guy, loads of people liked him and they didn't care that he was half-giant. Dumbledore also knew Chinese and was able to translate for Hermione accurately.
Hagrid told Harry that it'd be really neat if he won the Twiwizard Tournament, to show everyone that even a half-blood could do it. Blood didn't matter.
The mystery of egg was heavy in his heart, and by the time he got to bed, Harry knew he had to shelve his pride and see if Cedric's hint could help him. He had to plan it carefully. He'd have to go at night in case it took him a long time. And night meant being out after curfew. Having been caught out of bed by Filch before, Harry no desire for a repeat, so he'd need his invisibility cloak and probably the Marauder's Map. And he'd use the Prefect's bathroom since there was less chance of being disturbed. He needed to do this soon, so maybe the next night? Sunday was the Culture Week feast, where everyone would be dressed up, eating foreign foods and having fun. There might even be a party he could sneak out during.
Okay! Tomorrow night it was!
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Next week I'm starting a full-time business management and computing course, on top of the part-time creative writing one I'm already doing, so I won't have as much time to write this. I'll try to keep updating every week, but don't be surprised if updates slow down. Sorry.
