Chapter 25 -
The next few days were interesting. Harry had been interrogated and questioned repeatedly at the ministry on his involvement with Pettigrew. He told the interrogator everything, apart from the map, but Harry had gotten tired of the interrogators stupid need to ask the same questions over and over. Eventually Harry told the interrogator that if he asked what happened one more time then Harry would carve the answers into his body with a rusty knife.
For some reason the interrogation was sped up after that.
He and Delphi were also allowed two days off school to go visit Sirius, Sirius was currently staying with Bellatrix in Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius's childhood home. Bellatrix had lived in it for the last few years and now it appeared that she and Sirius would be sharing the place. Harry and Delphi were escorted out of the gates by Hagrid where Bellatrix picked them up and took them back. Meanwhile Shadow had flown off and decided to take the more scenic route.
Once they arrived in Grimmauld Place, they were greeted by Kreatcher who took their things. They walked past the painting of Walburga Black, the woman was quiet whenever she saw Harry, which may or may not have been due to the fact that he tried to burn her last time he was there. They walked into a room where they found Sirius sitting on a chair with a glass of water in his hands.
"Harry! Delphi!" Sirius shouted once he saw them, he put the glass down and rushed over to them and pulled them each into a bone breaking hug.
"Sirius!" Delphi cheered as she hugged him back.
"Hey Sirius" Harry chuckled as he also hugged him. "Merlin, you're sticks and bones" Harry said once they let go
"Yeah well, the healers are going to fix that" Sirius grinned "now be honest, did you keep kicking Pettigrew in the balls? Because I heard a story where you were kicking him in the balls for over a minute straight"
"Minute and a half" Harry smiled
"Atta boy" Sirius ruffled his head "goodness me, you take after your mother. Oh and as for Snape, brilliant! I was next to the little grease stain when I was in Azkaban. I had so much fun messing him about. Thanks for that."
"It was honestly my genuine pleasure" Harry grinned
"I'll make a marauder of you some day" Sirius clapped his hands together
"Speaking of, I actually have the map"
"Really?!"
"Yeah, can I keep it? If you want it back then..."
"No, keep it, keep it!" Sirius insisted "it's much better you use it, you'll have much more uses for it than me. Oh by the way, what about that girl Bella told me about? What's her name? Fleur! That's it! Is she really a veela? I can't tell if Bella was joking about that part"
"Yes, she's really a veela" Delphi answered "she's also annoyingly good looking. I mean I'm pretty good myself but she's annoyingly good looking."
"A Veela, you're father would be proud" Sirius grinned at Harry "Now what is this I hear about my godson being the best in his year?"
"Year?" Delphi snorted "Probably the best in school."
"Are you serious?" Sirius asked
"No, that'd be you" Delphi grinned while Sirius laughed and they both ignored the eye rolls from Bellatrix and Harry "but seriously he's really good. In fact Flitwick and Slughorn wanted to have Harry take his owls early"
"Really?" Sirius asked Harry
"Yep, but Dumbledore refused" Harry replied with a scowl at the mention of the headmaster "bloody old goat"
"Padfoot, I..." Remus Lupin walked into the room and stopped when he saw everyone "Ah, sorry for interrupting"
"Right, you're here" Harry said in a neutral voice, though he was tempted to frown.
"Yes, though I'm only visiting for a few hours as I have class tomorrow" Remus replied, pretending not to notice.
"Come on kids, let's get you settled into your rooms" Bellatrix said in a happy voice, though it seemed slightly forced, she then grabbed Harry and Delphi by the shoulders and guided them out the room.
"He doesn't like me" Remus said to Sirius
"I'm sure he does" Sirius replied
"No Padfoot, he doesn't"
"How do you know?"
"Because he said the words 'you know, I don't like you' last time we spoke" Remus had a forced smile on his face
"Why did he say that?" Sirius asked, his voice made him sound curious.
"He called me a coward" Remus sighed "said that I am a 'fuck-up' and said that I blame the wolf for everything"
"You know" Sirius sat down "I think the kid has a point"
"What?!" Remus's head snapped towards Sirius
"Kid has a point" Sirius shrugged "I mean how many times did me and James and Lily tell you to live your life and settle down and all that? Each and every time you made excuses. 'I'm a werewolf, I'm a monster' you'd always say."
"That's because I am"
"Oh please" Sirius scoffed "you think that you're the only werewolf to ever exist? I mean Greyback, he's a monster and so are the rest of his little pack. You were a nerd who wore cardigans and was obsessed with chocolate. You hardly qualify."
"That's not true and you know it, I nearly killed Snape that one night"
"Only because I tricked the bastard into going to see you, apart from that one incident you've never attacked anyone. By the way, why was pup so upset with you?"
"He was angry because I didn't come to see you" Remus rubbed his face "that was at least part of the reason, he was also upset because I didn't bother to contact him or try and look after him and he said that if I was there then he wouldn't have suffered so much. He said that he wasn't as angry about that as he was about the fact that I was making excuses"
"Well, why didn't you?"
"Why didn't I what?"
"I mean I understand why you didn't want to see me, I was the 'traitor' but why didn't you go and see Harry?"
"Firstly because you know that they don't allow werewolves to care for children, especially if that child was the boy-who-lived. Secondly because Dumbledore had told me that Harry was safely living with his aunt and uncle and I didn't want to interfere"
"Dumbledore was lying" Bellatrix said as she walked back into the room and put up some privacy charms around the three adults "either that or he was too incompetent and lazy to go up and check on him"
"Bellatrix, the headmaster is a good man" Remus frowned
"A good man who didn't bother to look after Harry" Bellatrix crossed her arms and glared at Remus "he's also a good man who tricked Harry"
"Tricked? What do you mean?" Sirius asked quickly
"Harry never wanted to go to Hogwarts, but apparently once you've accepted and attended you have to stay for at least five years. Harry didn't know that and Dumbledore told him he had to come, Harry found out that instead of being able to hire tutors like he wanted, he now has to attend school against his will"
"He should be appreciative that he's going to such a fine instiution" Remus said "when I was younger I desperately wanted to go"
"Yeah well everyone is different, and between teachers that try to mind rape him and actually rape him, I understand why he doesn't want to go there. Especially with manipulative headmasters."
"Don't talk about him like that" Remus warned "if it wasn't for Dumbledore then I would never have had an education"
"Yes you could have" Bellatrix sneered at him "you could have hired private tutors or even gotten a muggle education, and if you couldn't afford either then I'd like to remind you that loans exist. Also, Dumbledore is currently why Harry is being held back. He's smart, smarter than his mother even, Slughorn and Flitwick have asked Dumbledore repeatedly to let him take his owl exams early yet the barmy old goat always refuses"
"I'm sure he had a good reason"
"Ha" Bellatrix snorted "even if he did, which I doubt, it doesn't make up for what he's done. He left Harry in an abusive environment and didn't even bother to check up on him, nor did he even attempt to check on Sirius, Sirius shouldn't have been in Azkaban for more than a month or two before Dumbledore got off his arse and got him out. But he didn't. He may have good reasons, but I don't care. He's caused Harry enough harm"
"Everything Dumbledore does is for the good of the people" Remus stood up and looked Bellatrix in the eye "always for the good of others"
"Believe that if you want" Bellatrix rolled her eyes "as far as I'm concerned, he's an old man who messed up"
"He's a hero!" Remus growled
"That is not an excuse to be allowed to do whatever you want!" Bellatrix shouted in his face, causing Remus to step back a little, especially as she currently looked more like the Bellatrix that everyone used to think was a murderer "Harry had stopped Voldemort but that doesn't mean he can go and do whatever he wants! If he isn't above the law then neither is Dumbledore!"
"You know that..."
"Enough!" Sirius roared as he got to his feet "Enough from both of you! Remus, I'm sorry but I am on Bellatrix's side here."
"What?! Padfoot we..."
"Remus, Dumbledore has done nothing for any of us and he damn sure should have looked after Harry better"
"If it wasn't for him then I wouldn't have a job or an education"
"There are no laws preventing you from getting one!" Bellatrix sneered "I've checked the Hogwarts laws, there are no laws that forbid werewolves from attending! The only reason werewolves don't attend is because they never wanted to!"
"If it wasn't for Dumbledore, Voldemort would've won ages ago"
"He never won the war!" Bellatrix replied "If it wasn't for Harry then we would still be bumbling around like arseholes. The war would've been over a lot quicker if Dumbledore didn't keep trying to prevent people from fighting back with all they could."
"He didn't do that!"
"Really?" Bellatrix asked sarcastically "Because I remember his little order being ordered not to use anything more than stunners and I remember him campaigning for the aurors to not be allowed to use lethal force. The light side were losing the war because they were dying while the dark side would spend days in prison at worst before they got broke out."
"You don't..."
"Remus!" Sirius interrupted "Enough"
"Sirius, I..."
"I said enough" Sirius cut him off
"Fine" Remus sighed "I'll be going back to Hogwarts, goodbye" Remus turned and walked away, he had gotten into the hall and opened the door, he looked inside once more and saw that Harry was leaning against a wall and looking at him with his arms crossed. "Harry...I..."
"Goodbye Lupin" Harry said, he raised his right hand and wiggled his fingers at Remus to say goodbye "do us a favour...come back once you got your head out of Dumbledore's arse. Bellatrix is good, but her privacy charms don't stop the listening charm I had on your feet" Lupin's eyes widened, he waved his wand over his feet and discovered that there was indeed a listening charm. He looked up to see a grinning Harry.
"Harry, you can't just..."
"Why are you talking to me?" Harry cut him off with an innocent voice "Monsters shouldn't talk with younger boys. If you want to act like you're a monster then I will treat you like one. So do us a favour Mr 'evil beast', don't come back here again. You've caused enough harm already."
Harry and Remus locked eyes for several seconds, Harry's green eyes showed no signs of being tired or needing to close. Eventually Remus dropped his gaze, he turned and walked out, closing the door as he did so. Harry let out a soft snort and turned before going to go talk with Delphi.
After a few days and a tearful goodbye, Harry and Delphi were forced into going back to Hogwarts. The rest of the year was pretty quiet, Lupin was doing a McGonagall and chose to ignore Harry, Harry and Delphi got questioned about Sirius a few times by other students, apart from that nothing eventful happened. Though Harry did have an argument with Granger on the day that everyone received the test results for the end of year exams.
Nearly all the students had gathered at the same time to look at their results which were posted on a wall outside the great hall. The students all tried to look at their results, some were happy, some were disappointed. Fay was pleased with hers, she had the second best score from the Gryffindor's and was in the top ten for her year. Though that may have been because Harry threatened to burn her broom if she didn't at least pass her exams. Harry defended that particular ultimatum with the words 'if I have to hang out with you then I am not going to listen to you complaining about bad exam results, besides if I have to care then I'm going to make sure that you stop acting like idiots' and he didn't feel the need to threaten the others because his Slytherin friends were already doing pretty good. And Delphi, despite how she acts is really smart.
Tracy and Daphne were the two top Slytherin's in their year and both in the top ten. Delphi, who was always hanging around with Harry, had actually done really good, especially since she was trying to impress Harry, Bellatrix and Sirius.
"Harry, I got second!" She said proudly, looking at him with hopeful eyes. Harry sighed and looked at the results, specifically the top ten:
10 - Fay Dunbar
9- Susan Bones
8 - Blaise Zabini
7 - Terry Boot
6 -Tracy Davis
5 -Padma Patil
4- Daphne Greengrass
3- Hermione Granger
2- Delphi Riddle
1- Harry potter
Harry's face briefly showed surprise before he turned to Delphi. "Okay, don't let this go to your head...but you have my respect and I am impressed"
"Yes!" She grinned and fist pumped at the same time
"Delphi you just got my respect" Harry groaned "don't lose it instantly"
"Sorry" She said sheepishly, she then looked at the results "oh look, you're first...again"
"You have to be kidding me!" Hermione Granger shouted in frustration, causing most people to back away from her, she then turned to Harry and Delphi "There is no way you could've beaten me! I've studied harder than everyone here! You have to be cheating! I know you were cheating!"
"Hermione, calm down" Neville whispered but he was ignored.
"Oh great I have to deal with this idiot again" Harry groaned, Granger walked up to him and slapped his shoulder.
"I'm not an idiot! There is no way you could've beat me!" Hermione Granger began poking him repeatedly in the chest with her finger as she talked, Harry's eyes had suddenly become unnervingly focused on her finger while Delphi cringed and backed away. "I have studied hard all year! I have worked harder than everyone else and I know that I've worked harder than you! I don't care if you're the boy-who-lived, you had to have cheated! Tell me how you did it now! I said tell..."
Harry had cut her off by grabbing her finger, a second later there was an audible snap that echoed in the ears of everyone. Hermione didn't even have time to scream out in pain before Harry had grabbed her by the neck with his left hand and slammed her harshly against the wall that held the exam results. The students all backed away with the Gryffindor's, minus Fay, raising their wands in aid of their fellow Gryffindor. Hermione's eyes had widened in surprise and fear just as her hands grabbed his wrist.
"Never...touch me...like that again" Harry said in a cold yet soft voice
"You can't..." Hermione tried speaking only for Harry to squeeze harder.
"Hey! Let her go!" Ron Weasley shouted
"Can you give me a good reason to let her go?" Harry asked like he was discussing the weather.
"I'll make you let her go!" Weasley responded
"Please Weasley" Harry scoffed "I said a 'good reason', you don't even have a good reason to exist."
"Harry, let her go" Neville said in a firm voice, though his wand was shaking.
"Ah, do I detect a love triangle here?" Harry said in a mocking voice "The weasel, the bookworm and the Longbottom?" Harry turned to Hermione "Now listen to me you pathetic girl, you think I cheated? No, I just have natural smarts and I revised. But I can understand why you wish I had, if I did then you'd have an excuse for being behind. But you don't. You don't have an excuse, you aren't the best. If you keep whining and complaining about it then I will hurt you. I have no patience for whining brats."
Harry let her go, the Gryffindor's lowered their wands but still kept them ready. Hermione coughed for several seconds, her face was red and her hands rubbed her neck.
"I can't believe you did that" She coughed before glaring at Harry "you strangled me! I am telling Professor McGonagall! And then I will..." Hermione was once again interrupted, this time it was because Harry had hit her in the face with a left jab. Causing her to fall backwards and land on her butt with her back against the wall.
"You punched her!" Ron exclaimed as he and the Gryffindor's aimed their wands at Harry again
"You hit me!" Hermione cried as placed her hands over the part of her face that was punched
"Well done for noticing" Harry rolled his eyes
"But she's a girl!" A few of the girls glared at Ron for his comment though they shared his opinion in the fact that they shouldn't be hit.
"She touched me first" Harry shrugged unrepentantly "if she wanted to stick to verbal aggression then she shouldn't have touched me."
"What is going on here?!" McGonagall demanded as she stormed over
"Harry strangled and punched Hermione" Neville said
"Mr Potter! Is that true?!" She turned to Harry
"I strangled and punched an idiot, but in this case it happened to be Granger, so yes, yes I did." Harry nodded
"Why on earth would you do that?!"
"I strangled her because she was poking me and shouting at me" Harry shrugged "I punched her because she wouldn't shut up."
"You punched a girl!"
"I punched an idiot...who happens to be a girl...so yes, yes I punched a girl. In my defence I believe in equal treatments, so when I lose my patience it doesn't matter to me if you have lady bits or not."
"You actually punched a girl!" Ron exclaimed
"Yeah, well she wasn't my friend or family, nor was she my girlfriend, why should I care if I punched her?" Harry asked, while he would never hit Fleur or do anything more than a light slap to Delphi, he thought that Granger was perfectly acceptable. "Besides, how come she can poke and slap me all she wants and no one complains but the second I do something everyone loses their minds?"
"You went too far!" McGonagall shouted "That will be a detention and..."
"Oh sweet Morgana's tits!" Harry groaned as he glared at McGonagall "you know that I don't attend detentions and you know that I don't give a shit for house points. Tell the headmaster to expel me if he wants or suspend me for the rest of the year if you absolutely must punish me. Bad day to you" Harry nodded and walked off with Delphi following after him.
Since there were only a little while left of the school year, Harry was sent home early. Dumbledore and McGonagall tried to make it sound like a punishment, but that failed so Harry ended up flooing home but made sure he gave Dumbledore and McGonagall an incredibly smug look before he did so. Harry soon arrived in Grimmauld place only to find Bellatrix and Sirius standing in front of him, Sirius was grinning while Bellatrix had her arms crossed and was tapping her feet whole trying to look stern. Only failing because of the look in her eye.
"So...want to explain why you're home early?" She asked
"Not really, good night" Harry grinned and ran up to his room
"Harry Potter!" Bellatrix screamed while Sirius was laughing from behind her.
A.N: Hi guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter. First of all I just want to say that it has always annoyed me how Hermione always seems to hit and shout at the boys whenever she wants when it's obvious that if Harry had ever slapped her back then she'd complain and whine. Face it guys, the girl's violent and it's a total double standard. Not saying that I support blokes hitting girls or anything but I am just saying.
As for Harry, I've made it obvious by now that he is impatient and violent with people he doesn't care about and he doesn't care about Granger. Plus Harry doesn't really care if it's a girl or a boy, if he thinks someone deserved a hit and they aren't someone he cared about then he will have no problem hitting them. To simplify:please don't hate me.
One more thing, I also decided to skip the whole time turner thing because my version of Harry would clearly notice it and that will change my story a bit, besides I think that the chances of Granger getting that time turner would have been greatly diminished if she wasn't Harry Potter's friend, even if that wasn't true, it's still stupid. I mean love Prisoner of Azkaban but there is no way in hell Hermione Granger should have been given a time turner, I don't care if she's the best student since Merlin, she shouldn't be given the ability to mess with time just so she could take a few classes. Also can I point out how time turners are never used again or before? And...oh...sorry I went into a little rant there.
Also, the plot has been taking some time off but it'll be back and it'll start moving forward on the next chapter. The next chapter will involve (spoilers) the quidditch world cup, the introduction of new characters and the first meeting between Fleur and the Weasley's (end of spoilers). Not fully sure how I'm going to play that yet, I mean I know I'll make it so she won't like Ron but I haven't decided how to have her react to the other Weasley males. Though with the way that the character and stories are currently being written I'm going to probably go with her not liking them.
Anyway thanks for reading, hope you liked the chapter and feel free to review.