Chapter Six

The next morning Harry awoke earlier than his dorm mates. Well what did he expect really? When you aren't talking to anyone in the castle and refusing to do homework, there isn't a whole lot to occupy your mind with and he fell asleep earlier than he normally did. Plus the fact that when you send one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds in a dark, tiny and dirty cell, you have a tendency to loose track of time.

So getting out of bed and pulling off his sleep clothes, he had felt he was too old for pajamas and had started sleeping in a t-shirt and lounge pants, Harry made his way to the shower room to clean up for the day.

Standing under the hot water as it poured down on his head Harry began to think to himself, 'Maybe I should be nicer to Neville, Dean and Seamus. After all they really didn't do anything bad to me.' Turning in the shower, to let the hot water beat down on the tension in his back; he continued to think it over. 'It was mostly Ron and Hermione and the adults who royally screwed me over. Maybe I should go and talk to Luna, she wasn't even a Gryffindor and her father did print a story about my innocence before I was sent away.'

"Harry?"

Looking up, Harry saw Seamus standing naked in the shower room shivering.

"Yeah?"

"Will you please try and find in your heart to forgive me? I know I should have believed in you last year, but I wasn't there to witness what happened and then everyone was saying you murdered Hagrid and the others. I just didn't know what to believe."

Feeling a little relieved, Harry pulled Seamus into the shower with him. Seamus looked a little surprised. Harry explained, "There's no need to catch your death when you could be warm. I know it's kind of Myr of me to do this, but I'm not gay or anything. I'm not hitting on you."

"I am," Seamus said through a cloud of steam that filled the room.

Confused Harry asked, "You are what?"

"I am gay," Seamus said with his Irish accent. He went on, "You remember in fifth year when we weren't talking and I let you believe it was because of what me mum said about you?"

Harry nodded.

"It was more because I had feelings for you and I didn't know what to do about it," Seamus admitted. "Then last year when you were taken away, I wouldn't let them take your bed out of the room, even when Ron pitched his little tantrum about it being removed. I sometimes slept in it so I could feel closer to you. I caught hell from Ron for it too, but it didn't stop me."

Harry simply did not know what to say right then. All he could even think was, "I'm not gay."

"I know." Then looking devilish, Seamus said, "You know you could close your eyes and think of someone else and I could show you just how much I do care about you."

Harry's eyes bulged out of his head and he jumped out of the water and into the cold room. Not really the best idea after all. It's in the middle of winter in a drafty old castle and he was soaking wet and naked.

"That is so Darkmoore of you, you know that?"

"Who?"

"Never mind," Harry muttered. "I can't let you do that Seamus. Believe it or not, I don't think it would be fair to you."

Cocking his head to one side, Seamus clarified, "I thought you hated us."

"Well, not really so much you and Neville and Dean. Mostly just Weasley and Granger, but I didn't want to ask anyone to take sides, so I…" However, Harry didn't get to finish as he was pulled back into the hot water.

"So you decided to be an equal opportunity arsehole?"

Harry smiled boyishly and said, "Yeah, something like that."

"Does that mean I'm forgiven? I don't mind getting down on my knees. And since I'm down there anyway…" Seamus said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Yes, you're forgiven. No, you don't need to get down on your knees and I like girls."

Then both of them laughed. It felt nice to laugh with someone again. After one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds without it, Harry had almost forgotten what it felt like.

x-x-x-x-x

A few minutes later, Harry left the shower to get dressed and head down to the common room to do a little reading before classes began that morning and too let Seamus take care of a 'little' problem he had popped up while they were in the shower.

With one of his new law books in hand, he took a seat in his favorite chair by the fire. As he opened the book, he noticed that he wasn't alone. Sitting across from him was, Hermione Granger, Head Girl.

"Good morning, Harry," she said pleasantly.

Harry stared at her for a moment and simply said, "Granger."

"You look chipper this morning, but don't you think you should wear the school robes before you get into trouble?"

"Well," Harry said curtly, "I had a nice hot shower this morning and no, I didn't buy any school robes. Even if I walked into the Great Hall naked with word, 'Bitch' written across my malnourished chest, Uncle Fucker wouldn't say a word about it."

"You don't know that for sure Harry," she relied bossily.

Harry shrugged and said, "Okay." He wasn't going to argue with her. He didn't even want to talk to her.

Hermione sat there and looked victorious, as if she had won a great battle. Completely unaware that Harry was smirking at her from behind his book on wizarding law. However, he had a little trick waiting for her.

"Eppy?" Harry called.

The little elf popped in wearing her beloved pink dress with the little yellow flowers on the hem. "Yes, Master Harry?"

"May I please have a cup of coffee or hot chocolate? I would like something to warm me up on the inside."

"Oh yes, Master Harry," Eppy beamed at being able to do something for him and popped away.

"Don't tell me you own that poor creature," demanded Hermione.

"Yep."

"You realize that you are enslaving her don't you?"

"Yep."

"That's barbaric!" exclaimed the Head Girl as the house elf popped in with the drink.

"I keep the whips and chains in my trunk for special occasions, like Christmas, my birthday and payday."

"Oh, yes missy, he is beating Eppy terrible he is. But it is being okay with me. I like it. It makes me feel dirty," Eppy said as she pointed to her skirt, "down there."

Harry nearly choked on his drink from trying not to laugh as the elf popped away.

x-x-x-x-x

About half an hour later, Harry entered the Great Hall and sat down to have his breakfast at the very end of the Gryffindor table. He soon began watching as the students from the four houses made their way into the Great Hall. As Harry watched the students coming in, his face was still hurting from what Eppy had said to Hermione. He thanked his lucky stars he had an elf that was so smart as to improvise like that.

A few moments later, Harry looked up from his bowl of porridge, and watched as Hermione stalked into the room with a growl on her face followed closely by Ron who was looking bewildered. Obviously she hadn't told him what happened that morning.

As the couple past Harry, he caught her eye and mouth the words, 'Down there,' and pointed at his pants.

The Head Girl looked like she wanted to explode, but continued on while Harry beamed with joy.

"What was that mate?" asked Seamus as he took a seat beside Harry.

"Just messing with Granger's head."

Neville and Dean, who had followed the Irishman into the hall, were looking dumbfounded. Harry was talking to Seamus.

Dean leaned in to Neville and whispered, "He must have gotten through to him."

"But when?" asked Neville back in a whisper.

"Who knows, but let's take advantage of it while it lasts."

So Dean and Neville took seats on the opposite side of the table from Harry and Seamus.

Moments later, the sounds of hundred of post owls filled the air and instinctively Harry looked up looking for a spot of white among the brown and gray feathers. Then he remembered, she wasn't coming down to see him anymore and he looked down again.

Seamus saw Harry's momentary sadness and clapped a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it a little. Seamus could be a good mate when he wanted to. The corner of Harry's mouth twitched into a smile, it did feel nice to not be alone, if only for a moment.

However, everyone's attention was soon diverted to another part of the Gryffindor table. An owl had landed in front of Ron Weasley with a red envelope in its beak, a smoking red envelope to be precise. It was a howler. Dropping the envelope in Ron's lap, the owl took off quickly and the monstrous sound filled the air as it went off.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" roared Molly Weasley's voice. "HOW DARE YOU EMBARRASS US WITH YOUR DISGUSTING ACTIVITIES? SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH A GOAT, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH YOU AND YOUR POOR FATHER IS SO HUMILIATED THAT HE CANNOT EVEN GO TO WORK. IF YOU SO MUCH AS WHIP IT OUT AGAIN TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN HERMIONE GRANGER, I WILL COME UP THERE AND PERSONALLY CUT IT OFF AND THEN DISOWN YOU OUTRIGHT!"

The whole hall broke out into fits of laughter and looks of disgust towards the Gryffindor prefect.

"I didn't do it," Ron said feebly. "I would never. You believe me don't you Hermione?"

Harry chuckled to himself. The twins had come through this time, he had to admit.

x-x-x-x-x

"Harry?" Neville said outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "Could Dean and I please have a word?"

Harry stopped and listened to them.

"Harry, Seamus told us after breakfast that you forgave him," Neville said nervously. "Dean and I were wondering if you would please forgive us too."

Sighing Harry thought, 'This is going to be exhausting. Forgiveness is taking too much out of me.' Then he looked into their pleading faces and knew that they truly did him no wrong, said, "Alright, but only on the condition that you two stay out of my fight with the teachers and with Weasley and Granger."

"Why are you fighting with them? Didn't they ask for forgiveness too?" Neville asked innocently.

"No," Harry said wearily. "They demanded it. Never once did they ask me to forgive them. Never once did they ask how I was feeling. Never once did they ask if I was even hurt after killing Voldemort. No they just picked me up and started demanding forgiveness."

Both boys flinched at the dark wizard's name and though it annoyed him, Harry said nothing about it.

"That seems fair, mate," Dean said with a grin. Neville grinned too and held his hand out for Harry. Harry took it and then the three entered the classroom.

x-x-x-x-x

Professor Lupin entered the classroom and noticed that Harry was sitting near the back of his classroom. He also noticed that three of his fellow dorm mates were seated near him. Was this a good sign? Lupin didn't know, however, he also noticed Ron and Hermione were in the front row and she looked like she could just spit. He sighed and waited for the bell to ring to begin class.

"Now, class, as you know we have a former student returning to us and I want you all to help him along with his studies."

Harry snorted as Dean, Seamus and Neville snickered. They all knew that Harry could probably still be able to teach them after one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds of being locked up for a crime that he did not commit.

Lupin continued, not knowing what was going on in the back of the class. "Now as I said last time, I want this to be a practical exercise today. Now I want everyone to pair up, however, since we now have an uneven number of students, I think Harry should come up here and work with Ron and Hermione."

Okay kids, can you guess what's going to happen next? I thought you might.

Ron looked highly embarrassed to having himself thrust into the spot light again that morning and Hermione looked as if she wanted to hex Harry for … well you know… that 'down there' thing.

Harry looked snarky, stood up and reached into the pocket of his everyday robe and pulled out a small object. He held it up to the light between his thumb and forefinger and screamed, "SPOON!"

Instinctively the werewolf grabbed his bandaged hand and said timidly, "Perhaps not."

"He can work with us Professor," Neville said as Seamus grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him over to that group.

"Thanks," Harry muttered.

"No problem mate, I would hate to see someone end up in the infirmary so early in the morning," Seamus said spying the other two parts of the former Golden Trio. "Especially after a certain someone got that howler this morning."

Dean and Neville snickered as Harry smiled and they all worked together as one big group.

x-x-x-x-x

Defense Against the Dark Arts had actually been fun for Harry. As he had thought, he held his own with no problem and didn't need anyone to teach him a separate sixth year course. In fact he was doing better than some of the seventh years in the class.

After an uneventful lunch, where Ron was teased by a few Slytherins for his morning howler, Harry headed up to Gryffindor tower to change his clothes for his Muggle Studies class. Professor Langtree had given him a syllabus for the class, after rummaging in her desk for ten minutes trying to find one for the N.E.W.T. level courses and it clearly said that no wizarding clothing would be allowed in class, only Muggle clothes. It also said magic in any form would NOT be tolerated.

So Harry arrived at Professor Langtree's office wearing his new denims, his new trainers, a new white t-shirt and a comfy oversized jumper (in America we call them sweaters) that he bought in a small shop on Charing Cross Road, not far from the Leaky Cauldron.

"Good afternoon Potter," Professor Langtree said with a smile. "You could pass for a Muggle any day of the week. Three points to Gryffindor for correct use of camouflage."

"Only in winter," Harry said casually. "This wouldn't look right in summer."

Laughing she said, "Take another two points for correct seasonal appearance."

"Well, it's easy for me; I grew up living with Muggles."

"I know, I was reading your file. I usually try to keep Muggle-borns and Muggle raised students entertained with something while I try and teach the others how to dress Muggle. I think half of them go into hysterics every year when we begin the fashion assignments," Professor Langtree said, which cause Harry to smile.

"You should do that more often," the Muggles Studies teacher said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Smile."

Harry scowled. What was he thinking; he was consorting with the enemy.

Professor Langtree laughed again. "I know what you're thinking."

"Oh, what's that?"

"That I'm going to run off and tell Albus that you were being a happy smiling sunshine kind of guy today."

"He's seen me smile before."

Langtree laughed, "True, but from what I've been hearing at staff meetings, it's usually when you're being down right creative about punishing him. I've never seen Severus so tickled in the two years I've been working here. At today's meeting I thought he was actually going to smile."

"You talk about me in staff meetings?" asked Harry a little concerned. Were they comparing notes?

"Kid, before you returned we had weekly meetings where we talked about all kinds of students, those who needed some encouragement and those who were outstanding in academic performances."

Harry looked suspicious and asked, "And now?"

"Now we have daily meetings where we talk about nothing but you. You know all the teachers but myself and Severus are concerned for you."

"I can guess why Snape isn't, but why not you? I mean I am in your class now."

"Honestly?" she asked amused. "Well, I don't think you're suicidal, homicidal, destructive, planning to take over the known wizarding world or anything like that. I think what you are doing is something we used to call back on the farm in the Midwest a little 'Cock on the Walk'."

Harry laughed in spite of himself and said, "What's that?"

"Striking out with your independence and scratching out your territory."

Harry laughed again and indeed he felt better and hoped she was telling the truth about not telling the Headmaster that he was in a good mood. He didn't need the old man knowing that quite yet.

Changing the subject, Professor Langtree clapped her hands and asked, "Now I am guessing that you are adept at living in a Muggle social setting already and can dress like them. What do you really want out of this course?"

"Well, my plan is to live like a Muggle after I get out of this prison and away from Dumbledore."

"I'm guessing that you already understand Muggle money?" she asked and Harry nodded that he did. "Alright, I'm going to have to teach you about Muggle government and helping you pass your equivalency exams so you can get a Muggle job. There are several things on there that are not taught in this school and probably should be, such as Mathematics, Basic Business, English Literature and Computer Sciences."

"Okay, let's get started then."

"It's going to be quite a bit of reading, but since you're not doing the homework in any of your other classes, that gives you quite a bit of time to do mine."

Harry chuckled, "How did you know that?"

"It was discussed in the meeting. They were also discussing ways of trying to get you to do to your homework and to get you back on the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Langtree admitted which caused Harry to groan. "Also the Head Boy and Head Girl were in attendance and something was mentioned about you demanding to be killed and whipping your house elf."

"Is the Head Boy, Malfoy?" asked Harry and she nodded in the affirmative. Harry grunted and continued, "Malfoy caught me in the hallway without my wand and I had to do something to mess with his head and Granger was being bossy so I laid it on rather thick with her this morning."

Smiling she said, "I figured as much."

x-x-x-x-x

After class, Harry returned to the tower to do some reading. Professor Langtree couldn't give him homework as she had to special order some books for him on the subjects that they talked about in her office. So instead Harry found himself reading a Muggle novel that he picked up in a small secondhand bookstore in London.

"What are you reading mate?" Dean asked as he and Seamus sat down with their homework from Care of Magical Creatures.

"A Muggle novel I picked up for some casual reading," replied Harry.

"Well, I'm surprised that you're not reading some pornographic guide to elicit sex with non-human magical creatures," interrupted Hermione Granger, Head Girl.

"Well, I had a picture book of the Magical Kama Sutra, but Eppy took it and I haven't seen her since," Harry said without looking up. "She said something about page 36 and a black leather brazier."

Hermione gasped slightly and then snorted in aggravation before she stormed away to one of the study tables to sit beside Ron.

x-x-x-x-x

Later that night as the boys were getting ready for bed, Harry could tell that Ron was working himself up to say something to him again. As a result Harry was getting ready for bed much faster than normal.

"Harry?"

However, it wasn't fast enough. Damn it!

"I think you really upset Hermione."

"How so?" asked Harry as he slipped his t-shirt over his head.

"Well…" Ron said not sure where to go. "Are you really doing it with your house elf?"

"Are you really doing it with a goat?" Harry responded and caused Neville, Dean and Seamus to snicker.

"You know me better than that," Ron said heatedly.

"How would I know what you're capable of? After all you helped put your best friend in prison for one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds and it didn't seem to phase you at all."

Ron Weasley stood there shocked. "Harry, you know that I'm sorry about that you went to prison, but it wasn't my fault. Besides I didn't have sex with a goat!"

"Just Granger."

"Yeah," Ron admitted and then said, "NO, she and I haven't done that either. We're just friends."

Seamus walked over to Harry and put an arm around his neck and said, "Don't worry about it Ron, I know for a fact that Harry ain't doing no house elf."

"How would you know?" Ron said accusingly. Then his eyes went wide. "You let Seamus do that to you?"

"Seamus didn't do anything to me," Harry said. "Not that it's any of your business."

"Harry, mate, that's just wrong."

"I'm not your mate, Weasley," snarled Harry. But then he saw an opportunity and went for it. "So what are you saying? That I'm not good enough for Seamus?"

"No," protested Ron as Neville and Dean snickered in their beds.

"Oh, so Seamus isn't good enough for me?"

"Of course he is. He's a good mate."

"So what are you saying? That I can only love someone that you pick for me? That I need your approval before I can actually have someone in my life? Is this how it's going to be? I need committee approval from you, Granger and Dumbledore?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all," pleaded Ron. "I'm just saying that maybe you should give yourself some time before jumping into anything."

"So we're back to me not being good enough for Seamus, are we?" Harry said as he curved the argument back around to his advantage.

Ron stood there and hung his head. "Is there anyway that you could ever forgive us?"

"Yes."

Ron's head shot up with hope in his in eyes. "Then why won't you do it? Why are you making our lives so miserable?"

"Because this is something you have to figure out for yourself," Harry admitted and then climbed into his bed and closed the hangings.

To Be Continued … Please Read and Review

Some of you may have noticed that I mentioned two authors during the shower scene, that's because they both had shower scenes in their stories involving Harry and Seamus together.

Also, those of you who might object to the gay thing, well all I can say, I thought it was funny. So get over it.

Myr is a devilish writer who wrote Harry Potter & the Parliament of Dreams which can be found on this bat station (f f dot net) or at gay authors dot org. This story is very much Harry Potter meets Tales of the City. Eventually everyone will end up being gay.  I didn't ask Myr's permission, but figured he wasn't a reader anyway.

Darkmoore is almost finished writing a story called Harry Potter & the Veela That Wouldn't Go Away, which is a prequel to his Honeychurch series. All three of his main stories are good and can be located also at F F dot net. As for Darkmoore, are you kidding? He emailed me wanting to know why I wasn't referencing him in my story. What a ham!