To wierdhead: Have no fear, every person I listed will be getting a small bit of light cast on each of them. The only thing I will say is that Snape, Dumbledore and Draco (don't worry, his twin sister isn't crazy) aren't going to be bashed to high hell. Without giving away too many spoilers I'll just say that the Marauders and the canon potions professor have a very different relationship than what is standardly portrayed.
To Ayush208: I'm steadily working to get more typed up at every chance I get. Normally I'm typing during my lunch break at work which only gives me about 20 minutes a day on most days. My weekly schedule is really busy. Sunday I have to do assignments for college, Monday I have to do a lot of household work and repairs since it's the only day I have off, Tuesday through Saturday I work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. with three different jobs. Put simply I don't have the time I need in order to dedicate myself thoroughly to my writing. If I wasn't in college and trying to get the certifications I need to make my life better than maybe the money I have would be able to help me get myself a real office for all of my work. Unlike a lot of other authors out there I don't have a fanbase, or a computer so everything takes a lot longer than I would like. As it sits right now I'm not in a bad spot but $100,000 would get me in the best spot. I'm just getting there far slower than I would like to admit.
The first week of school was far more boring than Harry and his friends could have expected. Only Hermione had been able to find anything about it to be considered positive. Harry and Rose already had the basics for all of their classes handled pretty well, Neville was able to keep up without any help so far and Ron was struggling to handle his measly pile of homework. Hermione on the other hand was the most eager student attending Hogwarts by far. The moment she was given her schedule she immediately pulled out a handmade calendar and started filling in the dates that she would be attending classes.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was mostly practical since Sirius was a firm believer that the best way to learn a lesson was to have to live through it. During his classes they would start with learning how to recognise the dark arts and what they were to do if they ever came across anything dark. After that they would learn some rudimentary ways to defend themselves such as minor shields and dodging. To finish out the year they would learn a few minor spells meant to deter any would be attackers. Instead of normal homework, they were assigned self study and a foot of parchment about what they learned and how it could be applied to their daily lives.
History of Magic was really interesting in the way it was taught but learning about nothing but the history of goblin rebellions was really boring. Marlene used a large table in the center of the class to demonstrate the tactics used. That was the only thing that kept many of the students awake though, as the rest of the class was about what witch or wizard in power at whatever time it was offending one goblin or another and inciting a whole rebellion. Harry and his friends decided that their notes would be best to write their essays from.
Charms was a lot of fun for most students but for those that had grown up receiving tutelage, it was simply a lot of reviewing their first wanded lesson. Remus had the class learning the most common day to day spells such as teeth cleaning, drying, warming and cooling charms. He was a fairly thorough teacher that would have his students practice the charms from a provided list and tell them the history and trivia of each spell as he walked around the class correcting pronunciations and wand movements. This early in the year, the only thing he would assign is having the students list out each spell they used throughout each day and why.
Potions was a fairly neutral class, they would be assigned a potion to brew but before they could begin brewing they were told how each ingredient reacted with each other and Lily made sure to point out that the recipe was not exact. Hermione looked offended until Lily pointed out that knowing how to improve the potion was the difference between a good brewer and a great potioneer. Instead of homework, they were assigned a project to create a minor potion of their own at the end of the year.
Astronomy was a very simple class and the first thing Professor Sinistra announced was that her class was only required for three years since it was rarely a job requirement. In response to her shortened requirement period she was the only teacher that would assign more than a foot of parchment for each of her assignments. Herbology was much the same with Professor Daniels though his class was still required for the standard five years.
Transfiguration was an odd class with an odd method behind it. James was energetic but also very firm. When all the students were settled into their seats, James passed out booklets that covered his entire year. There was what each class would be about, what spells they were going to learn, the history and application of each spell. When someone asked why they were getting the booklets James simply told them that while he would be telling them everything in it anyway, it would allow the more serious students to put just a bit more effort on their essays.
Career preparation was more of a grouping of the students to tell them what each job required rather than how to get a job. Which made sense when Harry thought about it but there were a lot of jobs out there and after about fifteen minutes of droning the Ministry representative just handed them the list of jobs and requirements before turning into another hour for assignments.
With very little deviations from what happened in each class waking up on Halloween was quite a shock to Harry. He had been at school for almost two months already and he hadn't spoken to Rose about her 'not yet' comment. Well, maybe after the festivities of the night he would pull her aside and make her talk. While most people happily enjoyed the holiday and the teachers made it aware that they would take today lightly, Harry and his parents were torn on whether it was supposed to be celebrated or if they should be mourning the loss of Harry's grandparents. The middle ground was to treat it as another day and simply live.
Rose was the polar opposite, she loved the holiday dearly and it was difficult to get her to relax long enough to sit still. She had been that way for as long as Harry could remember. Being in Ravenclaw had a few perks as well. Since they were each given their own room, Harry and Rose had their rooms right next to each other but the downside was that Harry could hear Rose already going at the decorations that would adorn her room and shift with each of the holidays. As focussed as Rose could be, it would always be the holidays that would cause her mass amounts of distraction.
Harry sighed after he finished his lunch, he would ask Rose once more when she would like to talk about it. If he were honest with himself, Harry would admit that the reason he wanted to talk was because he had no idea what he was supposed to do with the information but as it stood, he just wanted answers about where it had even come from. Neville and Ron were discussing various quidditch strategies to his left and Hermione and Rose were comparing notes. Harry himself was reading about wandless magic. If he was lucky then he would be able to become an animagus in only a couple years. It was all about how in tune you were with your magic.
"So, what do you guys think the feast will be like?" Hermione asked.
"Well, from what my parents told me, it's usually decorated with bats, pumpkins and skeletons," Rose said.
"Yeah, but if they let you have your way then it'll be decorated floor to ceiling with everything you can think of Rose," Harry said. Neville and Ron nodded in agreement, they had both seen how insane Rose would decorate when she was given the chance.
"Well, since it's the start of the weekend, should we head to the library and try to finish our homework?" Hermione asked. Ron grunted, Neville shrugged and Rose simply raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?" Harry asked. "Besides I'm sure the weekend is going to be nice and relaxing with Ron trying to convince us all we have a shot at beating him in chess."
The five of them made their way to the library where it would really only be Hermione finishing her work. Harry and Rose had a routine that they would always keep up, the two of them would only ever work if they were in front of a fireplace or if it was some daunting task that they would have to handle together. Neville and Ron were just lazy, and since the two of them shared a House with the bushy haired bookworm, they would probably find a way to use her essay to write their own.
As soon as the five of them took a seat at the table in the back, Hermione pulled out a little journal and opened it to a brightly colored schedule. Neville pulled out a book on plants and Ron pulled out a book on strategies used in the last few wars, both of their choices were painfully predictable. Hermione had disappeared only to suddenly reappear with a large stack of books and immediately dove into cramming as much information as she could into every essay. Harry simply placed his bag on the table, it already contained every book he would want while Rose pulled out another romance story and tossed her feet into Harry's lap again.
"Oh congratulations Rose," Hermione said. Four confused faces met her instantly. "What?"
"What are you congratulating me on Hermione?" Rose asked. "I don't think I've done anything recently."
"You and Harry look like you guys cleared up whatever happened on the train. I thought you guys had talked and since you two never really changed I thought everything worked itself out," Hermione explained.
As soon as she finished speaking Hermione felt the awkward tension all around her. She didn't know what she said wrong but something had certainly soured the mood.
"We haven't actually, I was going to try and talk to her tonight before bed though, just to get it over with," Harry explained.
"Oh, is talking to me about a relationship that bad?" Rose snapped.
"Not at all, honestly I think I just want answers about it but seeing how everyone gets tense and things get awkward whenever it's brought up I thought it would be best if we spoke about it before telling the rest of our friends. I don't want to say something stupid though," Harry said defensively.
"Harry, Rose, why don't you two just go talk about it real quick and we'll either meet you guys back here or we'll see you at the feast?" Neville suggested. Rose sighed but got to her feet anyway.
Harry led Rose back to their dorms and quickly into his room. Unlike Rose, who's bedroom was set up with bookshelves filled with romance books and pictures, Harry's room had bookshelves lining three of the walls filled with research and notes. His desk was littered with notes, parchment and several self-inking quills.
"So," Harry began, deciding to get right to the point. "What did you mean by not yet?"
"Okay, it's a little long for an explanation but if you wait until I'm done I think you'll understand."
Harry flopped onto his bed and got comfortable while Rose took his desk chair and pulled her feet up underneath her.
"I'm your best friend right along with Neville and Ron. Hermione, while new to the group, isn't quite as far up there and let's face it Cassie is a bit of a jerk. As far as I'm concerned, you guys have always viewed me as another guy, and don't interrupt. You remember that I'm a girl but you never really treat me differently than Neville or Ron.
"I like my romance books, every girl in the world will admit that at one point in their life they imagined being a princess of some kind and wanted to have some kind of knight in shining armor come and sweep them off their feet. Some girls think that leading a country is what they want to do but they'll still want a family of some kind. It's the same thing for me, I want someone loyal, brave, kind and selfless to protect me from all the guys that want to do me harm but I also want to have a job of my choice later in life. So, I did what all little girls do when they have dreams like that: I went to my mum.
"It was a pretty long conversation and I asked a bunch of questions that she brushed off saying I wasn't ready to know but when I asked how I would know when I found my knight my mum laughed and told me she thought I already did. A little before I got on the train, she pulled me aside and told me that between you and Neville, I already had my knights but that there were a few things that might happen before we all started dating in a few years. Not the three of us dating each other like I thought at first so don't worry.
"Anyway, what she said, and Aunt Lily agreed with her, was that you two might just view me as a sister and I would have to wait until another person came along that the two of you would approve of. Though another chance would have been that the two of you would eventually both want to be my only knight and would wind up fighting each other for me and I didn't want that at all. The best option would be that one of you would want to be my knight while the other would be happy for me. Which is where Neville comes in. The three of us have always been together so I approached him first to see what he thought. In short, he's always thought of me and you as more siblings anyway. Ron is out of the question because his greatest love in life is either chess or quidditch and I don't think anyone is going to figure that one out.
"Hermione and I had been talking and she pointed out that you are already being looked at by a lot of the other girls here. Famous Harry Potter, the man from stories that's going to sweep them off their feet and live happily ever after. I hate it, I hate the thought of it and I really hate how it makes me feel too. She kept going on and on about how she thought you and I were in some weird marriage contract or had been taught that we would wind up being together because of some sort of law.
"Look, at the end of the day the reason I said not yet is because when I think of a knight I think of you, okay? I think of the time that we were lost in the woods because Neville thought he would find a plant and you took the lead and got us all home while you held my hand. I think of the time during the full moon that you were at my house and a normal wolf, still really scary to us, ran into the back yard where you and I were looking at the stars. I couldn't move and I was crying but you were still hurt from having your broom crash you into a tree so you couldn't pick me up, instead you grabbed a tree branch and stood in front of me. I think about having to clean up the blood from where the wolf bit you and how we were so desperate to not tell anyone about it that you and I worked together to hide your injury. Most of all I think of the time when we snuck out into the forest behind Neville's house to set up a secret hideout but it was you that fought away all the animals while Neville and I held each other." Rose had begun to curl in on herself.
"Well, as flattered as I am, I was more expecting, like, a timeline, or some sort of plan," Harry said. "I wasn't expecting you to pour out your hopes, dreams and fears. It's not that I was upset about what you said, after all, you always berate me about being dense to a woman's wants."
"I thought you were mad or upset this whole time! I thought you were going to call me stupid!"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm mad. You went to your mum about this and that's fine, but you went to Neville about it, which means Neville knew about this and did nothing to help you or tell me about it. Then you went to Hermione, and thought that I would care about what other people were thinking. At the end of it all though, I'm mad that I feel like you have been slowly manipulating me into something."
"I would never do that!"
"Obviously, not. I'm just mad because it hasn't all sunk in yet. Anyway, did you have a date in mind when you would try to make us into a couple?"
"Well, we're eleven," Rose said as if it explained everything.
"Look, I'm not a genius, the occlumency stuff about meditation and understanding that your mind is yours to control has helped me learn faster and made my memory much better. That doesn't mean that I know things about that I haven't learned yet. So, the reason I'm asking is because I have no idea about how any of that stuff is supposed to work or what I'm supposed to do."
"Well, if you were even interested then there isn't much you would have to do differently. Aunt Lily says that if we held hands any more than we already do then she would make us a couple anyway."
"Rose, you're a great person, but if you think I enjoy hearing about relationship advice from my mum then I'm going to have to never look her in the eye again to save myself from embarrassment. The way I see it is we can give it a shot. I don't care when because I'm pretty sure that is a learn as you go kind of experience. Answers for that part of life I think are unique to each person."
"If you don't care about when then I don't see why we don't start now. That way, if anything changes we can face it together the way we always have and then by the time real dating happens we'll know what we're supposed to do."
"Now?" Harry asked in slight shock.
"Yeah, everyone thinks we're dating right now anyway, why not?" Rose asked. It was true and even though most of the upper years thought that it was a misunderstanding, well, they would figure it out later and see if they worked well together.
"Okay, but you have to be the one to worry about the anniversary. At least this way I'll be able to keep my promise to you about making sure you're happy. Are there any rules about this that I should know about?" Harry asked.
"All I know is that the books aren't a good example. I think we just hold hands but from now on I want to be the only one allowed to sit on your left side okay?" Rose demanded.
"Okay, that's even better since you're left handed. No more bumping elbows. Now, I don't know about you but I know the feast is about to start and you have been dying to see the decorations. Let's go eat okay?" Harry offered his hand out and the two kids made their way down to the feast just in time to tell their friends Rose's decision.
The feast and all of it's decorations were exactly how Rose had dreamed. There were live bats, the suits of armor would sometimes jump out at random students, floating pumpkin lanterns, jack-o-lanterns throughout the whole castle though Rose's favorite thing of it all were the animated spiders that would run around on the walls. She loved to watch Ron squirm. Though everyone would agree that the Great Hall of Hogwarts was the best part of the castle and the food was much better than it was during the Welcoming Feast.
It was winding down when the doors burst open revealing a man in red auror robes who quickly moved to the front of the headmaster's chair. Every student in the hall fell silent as the hushed tones of the two men echoed throughout the Great Hall. Harry felt Rose grasp his hand as they heard the auror explain that there was a large group of trolls closing in around the wards of Hogwarts. The debate they were having about sending the students back to their dorms was cut short as a resounding crash rang through the Hall.
"Students! Follow your prefects back to your dorms, Teachers with me!" Dumbledore announced. Nearly as one, every student stood and followed their pale faced prefects through the halls in silence. The roars and sounds of spell fire that rang in the distance promised that it was going to be a long night.
Severus Snape was not a man that was very well liked among the student populace. Unlike the other Heads of House, utilized a very structured chain of command in Slytherin. It helped free up quite a bit of his time to brew the immense amount of potions that helped fund both his retirement and Hogwarts research division. Very rarely throughout his life did he find himself firing off offensive spells at anyone or anything. He managed a neutral stance in the last war, acting as a simple brewer in Diagon Alley shortly after he received his Potions Mastery despite the numerous times that the Death Eaters had approached him.
Now, as he found himself on the grounds of Hogwarts, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sirius Black and having his rear covered by James Potter and Remus Lupin as they led the charge into the heart of the horde of trolls, he felt that he might have let his skills with a wand fade just a bit. The three remaining Marauders were working flawlessly in their teamwork, bringing the greasy man a bout of jealousy. It wasn't that he wanted to be their friend, no matter how many apologies given from each of them and regardless of the nights that he would reluctantly join them for drinks, scars like that wouldn't quite fade. It was the thoughtless devotion and precise movements of trust that brought a sad thought into Snape's mind: he was lonely.
"Snape, pay attention!" Sirius shouted. "Brood later, kill now."
"I was not brooding Black," Snape replied as he shot off a few darker spells.
"No, I know that look," James interjected. "You're thinking of a girl aren't you?"
"Now I hardly think this is the time for such a discussion," Remus snapped. "If it's so important for us to talk about the love life of Severus then we can do it after this is all over."
For the first time, Severus felt one of the scars close. Maybe there was hope for the man who had gone so far to avoid any attachments.
Ron, Neville and Hermione were sitting by the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room in stunned silence. None of them could believe what they had just seen out of the window. The bright lights of the spells were flashing into one of the windows and coloring the whole room. It was the early hours of the next day and McGonagall had just been in to say that the day's lessons were canceled and that they were not to leave their common rooms until the aurors and teachers handled the situation with the trolls.
"How is this even happening?" Hermione asked. "Hogwarts has a lot of wards to prevent this entirely."
"Hermione, as much as I would love to try and explain what is going on outside, the only person here out of the four of us, is Ron. I doubt I'll be able to get anything done until whatever it is that's making this take so long is done. There has to be some sort of outside force affecting that battle for the small amount of trolls that are actually around this place for it to have gone on all night," Neville said as he rubbed his face in agitation.
"How many trolls do you think are even out there? I mean you have all but four members of the staff, the house-elves and on top of that you have the aurors that have shown up. If even the house-elves are out there then it shouldn't have taken all night. Dumbledore beat Grindelwald in only eight hours so this should be easy," Ron whined.
"Albus I don't know how much longer we can hold out like this," James yelled.
"I know, there's something else at play here and I don't like it. This is far more trolls than are located this far north," Dumbledore replied. It really was but the real issue was that they weren't allowed to kill them. It's one thing to kill a human, since there are few reasons to justify why someone needs to die. Execution is a different matter, if you faced the judge and the jury decided on death then it was true justice. Trolls were simple beings, they were magically resistant and had horrible hygiene but they only attacked structures if they were commanded to do so. Honestly, Albus didn't care anymore and was about to issue an order to kill them all in his capacity as an ICU member. He cared about all life but if you threaten the students under his care then he would treat the threat accordingly. What they were waiting on was the search that was looking for the person who was leading the trolls. "Amelia, Rufus, I'm only going to allow the search for five more minutes before I issue the death order."
Amelia Bones, though stern, was also reaching her limits and when the headmaster implied that he would pull rank on her she sighed in relief. As the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement she had to follow protocol and with Fudge and his toad of a secretary breathing down her neck she couldn't afford to slip up until someone was severely injured. Thankfully, if Dumbledore gave the command then the backlash would be minimal. She would have had to wait four more hours before calling the trail cold but whoever did this would certainly try again.
Rufus was not one to be given an order from someone who wasn't directly above him and it took him a few minutes to remember that Dumbledore did in fact have the authority to give such an order. At least it would be Dumbledore taking the fall here because there was no way Rufus was going to allow a bumbling snowman and a puffed up toad shift blame onto him and his department after the fiasco that had been this night.
"Fine, but when this is all over I will need you to explain to the minister why you made the decision rather than following his newest protocol," grunted Rufus.
"The fact that such an order exists without the clause of allowing our aurors freedom to make the choice on their own means that Fudge must have had it voted upon while I was attending the ICU meeting. Before either of you even says anything, I will be personally calling this new law into question as soon as the next Wizengamot session takes place if I cannot call an emergency session sooner," Albus declared. The glow emanating from his bright blue eyes was enough to make both Amelia and Rufus take a step back. It was rare for Albus to lose his temper like this.
In the aftermath of the toll incident, Harry and his friends saw a lot more of the aurors running around the grounds in a desperate attempt to find out not only who commanded the trolls but also to figure out why they thought such an attack was even necessary. It wasn't exactly common knowledge but the incident gave Harry and his friends a first hand experience as to how the Hogwarts rumor mill worked.
Several students were convinced that the reason someone had trolls attack the school was that it was a distraction to get something out of the ministry or some other place that was normally heavily protected by a contingent of aurors. Others thought that there was something secretly contained within the school itself that someone thought was worth stealing. There were a few students though that thought that whoever led the attack was after someone in the school, most likely one the the children that held the title of heir within an ancient family.
Despite everything that had just happened, the school was pronounced safe and the students were given two consecutive Hogsmeade weekends, one to make up for the one that they missed the day after Halloween and one to prepare for the upcoming Christmas holidays. It was a bit of a shock when Cassiopeia decided to join the five friends for the first time during the school year, not to mention the clear tension between Hermione and Cassiopeia. In an attempt to keep the peace going, they decided to split into pairs as they explored the village. Harry and Rose were one pair, Neville and Hermione were another and Ron and Cassiopeia were the last.
Harry and Neville knew that the only reason Cassie was stuck up was because her father would expect nothing less and with Draco being the whiny one of the two, there was no doubt in their mind that as soon as Cassie let her snobbish facade fall that Draco would either force her to keep it up permanently or inform their father of her 'weakness' which would be infinitely worse.
Harry and Rose both had a plan but in order to pull off a school-wide prank that would force the Weasley twins to admit defeat, well, they would need quite a bit more supplies. After all, they had the notes of the original Marauders, the knowledge of their parents and the patience to wait for the right moment. The only snag was that Harry and Rose both adamantly demanded that any prank they pulled on anyone had to be completely harmless. They had heard about the way their fathers and their friends had treated Snape and even though he looked and sounded mean, even though he gave curses in retaliation instead of a simple prank, there was nothing else to call it other than bullying.
"So," Rose began, "what should we do first?"
"I think that for right now, we should leave all prank supplies off our shopping lists and just owl-order in the base supplies. It would be really difficult to do anything else. Though, I see no reason why we can't start up a small potions supply for the other students. If we could manage to get some sort of income going while we're here then we would be able to get a lot more supplies the next time we go to Diagon Alley," Harry said thoughtfully.
"That's all fine and dandy but I meant for fun right now," Rose clarified.
"Oh, why don't we start at Honeydukes and just go from there?" Harry offered.
The two of them handled Honeydukes, then Scrivenshaft's followed by lunch at the Three Broomsticks. They spoke about all kinds of things, from what subjects they liked and why to what career they thought they would be interested in. They both really enjoyed the dueling classes and the announcement for the tournament had been posted just that morning. Apparently the initial selection was going to be done by who had the best grades, then who performed the best in class. After both rounds of selection were finished then there would be a three round elimination test to select the best four students from each house and year. The whole thing was made to inspire every student to do their best. First there would be a winner for each year receiving five galleons each, then a winner from years one through three and four through seven receiving ten galleons each, finally there would be an obstacle course appropriate to your year to decide who the overall winner of one hundred galleons was.
Neville was walking with Hermione in silence as she vented out her frustrations about the female Malfoy. He figured that it would be best if she just got it all off her chest rather than snapping at someone. Neville understood her issues with Cassie, it had taken her years to finally reveal the secret of her facade to him but it wasn't his secret to tell so until Cassi told Hermione that it was all an act to maintain the small amount of freedom that she currently had, Neville would maintain his silence.
"How can she just look at me and decide that she's better than me? No matter whether or not it's true, it's still rude. Just because her father is rich doesn't mean that she gets to walk around like the world is beneath her!" Hermione ranted.
"Well, in her defense, it's not really her fault that she thinks like that you know? I mean, her father is a really strict guy and he's got really high standards. I don't think her mum is much different, though the two of them were married because of a contract. Not exactly in my expertise to talk about though. You can't really blame her about it yet, all she's really known is what her parents have taught her and not much else. She'll mellow out eventually when something happens to show her that she's not Merlin's gift to wizard-kind, I just hope that whatever it is isn't dangerous," Neville said passively. There just had to be a way that he could get Hermione to calm down long enough for her to work out the subtle hints that he was trying to drop.
"I guess you're right, though I hope that whatever it is happens soon, but certainly nothing dangerous. I'd rather her be a snob than have her injured," Hermione said.
"Maybe it'll happen when that tournament happens. I know her grades are pretty good and she's decent with the practical stuff but I don't think she'll be able to beat Rose or Harry," Neville said as he let his eyes wander over all the shop faces.
"Oh yeah, don't those two receive extra lessons from their parents?"
"Yeah, Harry's getting pretty good with wandless spells and Rose has a decent grasp on occlumency. Though, now that I think about it, Harry's not half bad either."
"What even is occlumency?"
"I don't know that much about it but I know that it's built around being able to protect your mind from a legillimens. Right now though, all they're learning is how to keep their mind organized since you shouldn't be building walls up until you're sixteen, it messes up your development apparently. A legillimens is someone who has the ability to go into someone else's mind and do stuff to it like watch your memories, hide some of your memories, put fake ones in or even shred your mind if they're skilled enough. But Harry and Rose really just keep their mind organized, it helps them remember stuff and have more attention for details."
"Well, I guess I'll have to read up on both of those later. Want to explore Scrivenshaft's with me?" Hermione asked as she grabbed Neville's hand and neglected letting him even answer.
Ron and Cassie were leaving the Hogsmeade branch of Madam Malkins when Ron finally spoke up.
"So, do you have any intention of telling Hermione about your little secret?" Ron asked as they approached the Shrieking Shack.
"I want to but I haven't really been able to get her on her own. I doubt that it'll be easy at all since Draco called her a mudblood on the train. I wasn't all that mean to her but I did have to tell her to piss off. Draco's been enforcing father's rule about the Malfoy's always being better than anyone else a lot more recently. It doesn't help that Granger's top of the year right now. If she would just relax a little then Draco wouldn't be so set on beating her down," Cassie said with a resigned sigh.
"Well, I won't lie, she's a bit of a know-it-all but she can also be the funniest person in the room when she wants to be. I know that as soon as you two get to sit down and talk with her then you'll quickly become best friends."
"Oh I have no doubts about that. A girl who can talk with me about school stuff would be wonderful. Don't get me wrong, Rose is great when it comes to talking about all the romance stuff and Harry can challenge my mind but if Hermione would be able to talk with me about all the different ways that a spell could be used or changed then the world would be perfect for now."
"Yeah but you know that as long as your dad has a say in it then the only way you'd be able to talk to Hermione would either be in absolute secret or be banished from your family."
"You talk about being banished from the Malfoys like it would be a bad thing for me. I just want the freedom to be whoever I want to be. Father even brought up the topic of marriage contracts to me already. Draco is really interested in getting one himself but the only people who would be willing to offer up their daughters to that nightmare child only have sons."
"Marriage contracts are old and outdated though, the only people left who even use them are dignitaries who only use it as a formality after their kids have already decided on who they're going to marry."
"Father's always going on about my need to secure a more permanent alliance with 'a family of proper lineage and power' which basically means that I'm going to be sold to the highest bidder of a pureblood family. The problem is that father means any pureblood family with enough money. Including foreign families, Ron. I could be given to someone from Japan if the price was right."
Ron fell silent at that. What could you say to someone who's biggest fear comes from something that they had no control over? It's not like Ron had the money to rescue her from a fate like that. He'd always felt a strange connection with the blonde girl at his side, mostly because she was just as overlooked as he was and while the Weasley's weren't poor, they weren't exactly rich. Not to mention he had no idea about any of the laws concerning something like that, but if there was one thing a Weasley knew better than anyone else, it was the importance of family.
Cassie seemed to take his silence as an insult and huffed as she turned her back to leave. Ron stumbled slightly, he had no idea how to comfort her or if he was even supposed to in the first place. Neville was always the one who was better at handling Cassie, he would know exactly what to do right now and Harry would probably just talk to her about some piece of Arithmancy to distract her.
"How much are they offering?" Ron blurted. Cassie froze and Ron thought that he had overstepped. "I mean, well, maybe between all of us we can come up with the money to buy your freedom from your dad instead of letting him sell you into a marriage contract."
"If you can think of a way to top the highest bidder then maybe but the highest one right now is sitting at five hundred thousand galleons and it's for the son of some politician on the continent."
That was way more than he thought it would be. If it was only fifty thousand then maybe it would be achievable but even that would take the combined efforts of all of his friends and several very lucky miracles.
"Can we bring this to the others? Maybe one of them will think of something that we're missing here," Ron practically begged. This was most certainly NOT his specialty.
"Fine but only Rose, Harry and Neville. I don't want their parents or yours to find out. This is supposed to be a secret too. At least we have four more years, that's one law that not even my father would ignore." With that the two kids headed back into the village. Ron was really hoping that they would figure something out soon since that talk was really awkward.
Harry and Rose were sat in Harry's room once again, this time they had several sheets of owl-order forms and a lot more base supplies. The plan was for the entire school to walk around for a whole week with hair that changed colors based on their mood, well only if they were happy, sad, mad or confused. They didn't want to show embarrassment or have anyone's crushes revealed. It was a pretty simple idea, there was already a potion that did that to someone's skin but not to their hair. The only other thing they had to figure out was how to apply it to everyone in Hogwarts and when they would activate it.
Of course, they would have to be affected by it as well in order to avoid punishment for it but it would be nice to know that only their parents would realize it was them but without hard evidence there wouldn't be any detentions given and since it was a completely harmless effect then nobody would be hurt. Well, as long as nobody was allergic to any of the ingredients.
"What do you think we should do to raise money while we're here?" Rose asked as she laid out on the bed.
"We could tutor some of the students in our year, sell copies of our notes, maybe run a betting pool like the Weasley's do. I wish we could invent something though, then we would always have a steady supply of money coming in," Harry said. He was working on trying to duplicate his mirror so that Hermione and Cassie would be able to have a way to talk to everyone as well.
"Why don't we?" Rose asked. "Invent something I mean."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, you're the creative one when it comes to useful stuff. Why not a parchment that works like the mirrors?"
"You mean like a parchment that lets two people communicate through writing? I guess it would help with notes if you miss a class but it wouldn't really help if you were moving around a bunch. What else would it have to do?"
"You tell me! All I can think about is two people being able to write to each other without using owls."
"That's not a bad idea actually. I'm not sure what the distance would be but it would be really helpful and let us keep our mirrors a secret as well. There's a lot of spells on Remus' list that I can't do right now. What if it was more than just one piece of parchment though? Do you think we would be able to make a book of parchment so that each page could be connected to one or more people?"
"If you weave the spells carefully enough then sure, but why would you need to do that?"
"Think about the aurors, if every one of them had one of the little books and each had a page that connected to someone else then reports wouldn't need to be owled in. It would be a lot safer and they would be able to get messages out during stakeouts. Or maybe they want to write a letter or note to their wife or something while they're out on a mission. Curse-breakers would be able to share their notes with their whole squad at once so that everyone would be on the same page when they had to go into a tomb of some kind. Even the staff here at Hogwarts would be able to use them to write notes about students in trouble or students that would be late for their next class. Students all over the world would be able to talk to their friends at any time. OH! A perfect example would be the six of us. Think about it, I could be taking one third of the classes with you, Hermione could take another third of them with Cassie and Ron would take the final third with Neville and we would all share notes that we could study so that we can all take whatever O.W.L.s we want. Not to mention the fact that we would be able to plan out any pranks we want in silence wherever we are without having to sneak off to use the mirrors! Rose you're a genius!" Harry shouted.
"I only brought up using a paper to write someone letters that they could read as you wrote them. Other than that, it was all you, but since I was here as your sounding board I want a cut of the money," Rose said.
"Of course you'll get some of the money, you're going to be helping me test everything out until I get it right. I don't think we're supposed to share money or anything like that right now anyway," Harry said as he flopped down next to her on his bed.
The two of them spoke long into the night about their new project and even though neither of them knew about even a quarter of the spells that would be necessary to make this project come to life, neither of them really cared since both of them knew that when they brought the idea to the rest of their friends they would have all the help they would need.
Christmas was quickly approaching and the teachers all seemed determined to give the students enough homework to last through the entire two week break. Harry, Rose and Hermione were just fine as they got their assignments done as soon as possible, Ron and Neville were going to push it off until their break began and Cassie was going to use it as an excuse to hide from her father over the break. All six of them had agreed to put a little bit of time a day into researching spells that Harry could use to make the journal he described to them all. Despite it being Harry's and Rose's initial idea, it was Cassie who brought up using a contract to evenly split the money and the reaction was not one that Harry thought he would ever see.
"Well, if we're going to help you do this then we should all get some of the money you know," Cassie said.
"I know and I was going to try to find a way to split it all evenly," Harry admitted. "The problem is that I didn't know who would all be willing to help in order to get a share of it all. I know most of the spells I think I would need I just wanted your help to find out what books the spells were in so I could learn how to do them."
"So, you just want us to find the information for you?" Neville asked.
"Basically, yeah. While Harry and I could do it all on our own, we wanted to involve you because it really could make us all some money," Rose explained.
"I'll do it," Ron said.
"As long as you share your notes on what it is you're doing then I'll help you find what you need too," Hermione said as she read through her essays.
"Well, I was hoping that you would be willing to help brew a few potions too Hermione," Harry admitted.
"I could always just supply the ingredients," Neville offered.
"Alright, why don't we have someone draw up a schedule or something so that everyone knows what everyone is doing and then we'll talk later about a fair way to split the money IF it even makes any," Rose suggested.
"I can do the contract," Cassie offered with a look of severe determination.
"I'll handle the potions with Neville then," Hermione added with a glint of excitement in her eyes.
"Then I guess I'll deal with finding out what books have whatever spells you need," Ron said. "If Madam Pince is willing to point me in the right direction then it shouldn't take too long either."
"Great, Rose already agreed to help me test it all out and I'm going to be doing all the spellwork so it looks like everyone has something to do," Harry said as he settled into his chair.
Break would start at the end of the week and Harry was excited to see if Remus would help him learn how to cast a lot of the charms. After all, not only was he the charms teacher but he was also the brains behind the Marauder's Map and the communication mirrors along with a lot of the pranks the Marauders pulled. Rose's parents would be at home for the holidays even though Rose was going to be staying at the castle. The holidays were going to be the perfect time for Harry to start making the journals and it would all start with a single piece of parchment.