Chapter Eight
The next day found Harry sitting in Transfiguration beside Neville. Dean and Seamus were sitting in front of them and they were all listening to Professor McGonagall give a lecture about the theoretical model for vanishing spells on large magical creatures.
Although Harry wasn't really paying any attention to the lecture, he tried to make the appearance that he was. If only to distract McGonagall to what he was really doing, which was plotting the next bit of … well lets call it creative education shall we?
He decided to give everyone a free and clear breakfast that morning. Well, free and clear for him as he watched as both Ron and Hermione were watching for owl with red letters all throughout the meal. Harry was still chuckling to himself as he remembered.
Soon the bell rang signaling the end of the double period and for them to go and eat lunch. Harry gathered up his quill and parchment and shoved them into his rucksack and flung it over his shoulder and started for the door.
"Potter, may I see you for a moment," Professor McGonagall said.
Sighing, Harry really considered ignoring her and bolting from the room. However, his curiosity got to him and he turned to see what she wanted. "Yes," he asked.
"Harry, I wanted to talk to you again about rejoining the Gryffindor team. I cannot express enough how we need a competent seeker."
Was she serious? Sighing again, Harry walked up to the teacher's desk and dropped his bag on it. Then he pulled off his jumper, as he had taken to wearing Muggle clothing all the time now and grabbed her hands and placed them on his ribs.
"Professor, do you honestly think that I am in any physical condition to play Quidditch? I've only been out of prison for a week now and am just now getting used to food that doesn't have dirt and mildew as its main ingredients."
Feeling his boney ribs through his skin, she had to admit that he had a point.
Harry continued, "And, even though I bought a new broom, I haven't even been on it yet. I have no idea if I even have the stamina to stay up there long enough to play a game. Now do you really think it's in MY best interests to rejoin the team?"
Reluctantly Professor McGonagall agreed with him.
"Thank you, now please stop groping me so I can go and eat my lunch."
x-x-x-x-x
Harry arrived in the Great Hall a few minutes after everyone else and found a seat alone at the very end of the table. Hardly anyone ate that far down in the winter as it was the coldest spot in the room. However, after one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds of Azkaban, Harry didn't feel the cold like he used to.
Just as Harry was slicing into his piece of chicken breast then hall was suddenly filled with a roaring sound. It seems someone was on the receiving end of another howler.
"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!" bellowed the sweet voice of Molly Weasley, "HOW DARE YOU PROVIDE MY YOUNG IMPRESSIONABLE SON WITH A GOAT! HAVE YOU NO SHAME? TO THINK THAT YOUR OWN BROTHER HAS A REPUTATION FOR THIS TYPE OF THING, I WOULD HAVE EXPECTED BETTER JUDGMENT ON YOUR PART THAN TO PROVIDE SAID GOATS AS A SEXUAL RECREATIONAL VEHICLE! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH YOU AND YOUR BEHAVIOR! IF YOU SO MUCH AS PUT A TOE OUT OF LINE AGAIN, I WILL TAKE THIS UP WITH THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS!"
Harry looked up from his plate to watch the Headmaster's face. When his gaze fell on Harry, he raised his goblet up as if to say 'cheers.'
Professor Albus Dumbledore did not look pleased.
x-x-x-x-x
"Harry," Professor Dumbledore said with a disappointed look on his face as he sat in the chair in his office. "I cannot impress upon you the necessity of opening up your heart and forgiving us. These constant attacks must come to an end."
Harry stood there in the office and faked a trembling lip and in a whiney voice said, "But Uncle Fucker, I'm fragile." However, a wicked smile crept across Harry's face. He just couldn't help it, that howler was priceless.
"Today's example of your pranking ability …"
"Which I didn't send."
"… should show you that your love of magic is too great to spend the rest of your life living as a Muggle."
"I didn't send the howler," Harry said again. "And I haven't spoken to that woman for about a week, so how could I have asked her to do that. Plus even if I did, I don't think she would have done so anyway. I only got my wand back the other day and I have no skills at creating howlers. So please tell me how I managed to do so?"
The Headmaster looked dumbfounded.
"Now I am leaving the school in a few days and you cannot stop that. I am going to buy a house and I am finally going to have the home that you have denied me since my parents died. You have no say in this and you will have to learn to either be happy for me and leave me alone OR you can die! Those are your options, pick one."
"Harry," Dumbledore began.
"Or you can just concede defeat and expel me now and I win."
The Headmaster frowned, "Just how would that allow you to win? You would be depriving yourself of your education and your wand."
"My magical education you mean," Harry corrected. "Since I intend on living as a Muggle anyway that won't matter. How will I win? Well that's an easy one. Once you expel me, then you will have to live with the fact that once again you have deprived me of the one thing you have owed to me my entire life."
"And that would be?"
"Happiness."
Dumbledore sighed and looked extremely old. "You're never going to forgive me are you Harry?"
"My one and only intention towards you is to live just long enough to piss on your grave," Harry said a hard coldness that filled the room. Then turning he stalked out of the office.
Once Harry was gone, the Headmaster hung his head and cried for all the wrong he set on that child.
x-x-x-x-x
Minutes later as Harry stalked down the corridor, he was somewhere between hurt and absolutely furious.
"Master Harry, Master Harry," cried Eppy as she popped into the corridor.
Harry calmed slightly, it wasn't her fault that he was mad after all. "Yes Eppy?"
"Is you's being okay?"
"No, but I will be."
For such a young house elf, Eppy already knew better. "If it making you's be feeling better Eppy can be putting on the black stiletto heels and black panties and serve you in front of that bossy girl."
Harry smiled and then laughed.
"Okay."
x-x-x-x-x
Saturday morning brought some relief for Harry. All he wanted to do was to lie in bed and sleep the day away. Now reading how this story has gone so far, what is the odds that he was going to be able to do that? Any takers? So as Harry was sleeping warmly and comfortably in his four poster bed, he is suddenly woken by a great weight settling itself on his chest.
Soon the words, "Hiya Harry," filled Harry's ears in a deep Irish accent.
"Bugger off, Seamus, I'm sleeping," muttered Harry as he tried to roll over and failed to as he was an undernourished young man and Seamus is a healthy vibrant and horny Irishman.
"No, Harry," Seamus said sternly, trying to mimic Professor McGonagall and failing miserably. "I am not about to allow you to sleep your time away from us. It's a nice day today and it is long past time to get out on your broom and start flying around again. There is no way I can even imagine why you would allow a brand new Firebolt lay untouched in your trunk without flying it."
"That's because my old Firebolt was torched," Harry said for Ron's benefit. Ron looked a little nervous when Harry said that.
"I bet this thing cost a fortune," Seamus went on when he saw Ron's reaction.
"Not as much as I would had to pay if I wanted a Vintage First Edition Firebolt, like I had before. They tripled in value," Harry said loudly causing Ron to whimper. All the other boys noticed that and Harry continued, "Yeah, I'd hate to have to pay for one of those, it could break an entire wizarding family for generations to come."
Ron couldn't take it anymore; he bolted from the dormitory room, most likely to find Hermione.
Harry smirked and looked around the room, "I don't know about you, but that was damn good for me."
x-x-x-x-x
A short time later, after Seamus had convinced Harry to go flying and to pass the Quaffle around, well convinced isn't the right phrase, more like dragged out of bed by his feet, the four Gryffindors were walking down to the Quidditch pitch with their brooms slung over their shoulders.
"How did you talk me into this again?" Harry asked as they walked onto the field.
"Well, Harry, to remind you once again," Seamus said. "You had a choice, either come out and fly with us or have me strip naked and crawl into bed with you. Personally I would have preferred to curl up next to you for a bit of a cuddle, but…"
Neville and Dean snickered at them. Harry just rolled his eyes and mounted his broom. Moments later, Harry had shot straight up into the air by at least three hundred feet and began to circle around the pitch gaining speed as he flew.
Harry felt alive for the first time in one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds and he was enjoying the return of this feeling to his heart and mind.
"Hey Harry," Dean called out from below, "Are you playing or not?"
Harry looked down and smiled and flew down to join him. Now the rules were simple, as it always is when you play two against two in Quidditch. Each team had two chasers, but one of them usually stayed near the goal posts whenever the other team had the Quaffle. So it was Harry and Dean against Neville and Seamus.
"Alright flyboy," Seamus called out tauntingly. "You think you can beat me?"
"You wish," Harry said as his old competitiveness was returning in waves.
"Actually, yeah I do," winked Seamus and blew him a kiss as he tore through the air towards the goal posts that Dean was defending.
Harry snorted in laughter and pulled his broom around and was neck and neck with the Irishman in moments and managed to steal the Quaffle from him. As soon as Harry got it he turned faster than his dorm mate and headed towards Neville to make a goal.
For the rest of the morning the four had good time playing. Mostly because Harry was more like his old self than ever before. Which is to say that he felt like a part of him that had been asleep, was now waking up for the first time in a very long time.
x-x-x-x-x
By lunch time Harry was becoming very exhausted, after all he hadn't had any exercise since returning to the castle and his concentration was slipping and well as eye-hand co-ordination.
"I'm getting cold," Neville called out as he observed Harry's deteriorating condition. "Let's go in and eat and we can Exploding Snap by the fire later."
Gratefully, Harry agreed and they all landed and started back up to the castle when suddenly they heard something. Something that definitely was not human. Turning to look out towards the Forbidden Forest, the four saw a swarm of Banshees coming right at them. Seamus froze with fear. Banshees were the one thing in the world that he feared the most and he was unable to do anything at that moment.
"Seamus?" Harry asked and got no response. "Seamus!" he called again to the young man who had done the most to try and pull Harry back into the land of the living. He knew what he had to do and pulled out his wand. Harry then turned to the other two and said, "Neville, you and Dean, get Seamus inside now, I'll deal with this problem." After spending one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds locked away in Azkaban that saving people thing just kicks right in doesn't it.
"But Harry," Dean started to protest, but Seamus began to shake violently from his fear and giving in quickly, they dragged him up to the castle, while Harry stood his ground as the Banshees surrounded him on all sides.
Harry had no idea what they wanted and he stood there as they circled him repeatedly, as if trying to figure him out. However, Harry held true, even though he was about to drop from exhaustion.
"Harry," Professor Dumbledore cried out as he bolted out into the winter air from the castle. "They are after you because of your broken heart; they want to turn you into a male Banshee. Don't listen to them."
This distraction was all it took for Harry to move his eyes from the lead Banshee to the Headmaster and said Banshee began to wail and scream at Harry. However, he felt nothing and he waited for the effects to kick in. They never did, which Harry found odd as he had no known special ability in this category. Harry dropped his wand arm to his side and looked at the dark creatures oddly.
"Are you actually after me?" Harry asked them.
The Banshee stopped wailing and looked at him with her head cocked to one side. This was new to her. Harry could have sworn she looked confused; however, a moment later she began to wail again. This really annoyed Harry and with a determined look on his face, he pocketed his wand and drew his arm back and belted the Banshee right in the nose.
Needless to say, she stopped wailing. I mean really after getting a broken nose, would you want to scream at someone like that?
"Now," Harry began, "I do not really understand why I am not susceptible to your wailing, but it doesn't seem to effect me. So you are wasting your time. I DO NOT have a broken heart, BUT I am righteously pissed the bloody hell off! If that's what you are picking up on, then you can go and bugger off, because I'm not playing this game today."
The Banshees stood there and looked around at one another before collectively shrugging and with slumped shoulders began to walk back to the Forbidden Forest, while Harry stomped back to the main gate of the castle.
"That was impressive Harry," the Headmaster said as the former convict passed him.
Stopping, Harry turned to the old man and said, "No! What that was is a Sheyda." Then Harry turned back and stomped into the castle.
x-x-x-x-x
Sometime later Harry was soaking in the large claw-foot bath tub up in Gryffindor Tower. Every muscle in his body was screaming in pain due to his morning exercise, they weren't used to it anymore. Also, he had dealt with the Banshees coming to claim him as one of their own and the fact that he was even angrier at the Headmaster. He had the situation well in hand until that barmy old codger came out and started interfering with to him. If he hadn't looked away then they might have not started wailing like that. Also his hand would NOT be swelling up at the moment from breaking the lead Banshee's nose.
"Some days I can't win for losing," Harry muttered as he sat soaking in the hot steaming bubbly water. As Harry let his eyes close he wondered if it were possible to sleep in the bath tub without drowning yourself. The way his luck seemed to be going these days, he wasn't placing any bets on it.
Harry had no idea how long he was in there when he heard someone call his name.
"Harry?"
"Hmmm," he responded wearily.
"I'm sorry."
Opening his eyes against his will, Harry looked up and said, "What for Seamus? You did nothing wrong."
"When those b…, b…, banshees came, I should have stood up with you and fought them. Because I couldn't you were alone out there. You could have been hurt and it would have been all my fault," Seamus admitted as he leaned against the tile wall and slid down to the floor in a heap.
"Seamus…"
"No Harry I don't deserve you being nice to me. After what I did you should hate me more than anyone," the Irishman said in utter misery.
"Seamus," Harry began again, "Banshees are your greatest fear. I knew that and that's why I told Dean and Neville to get you inside."
"The dementors are your greatest fear and you faced them for one year, three months, two weeks, four days, seven hours, thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds. I couldn't even do it for one minute."
Harry started to get out of the tub, but fell back into it and almost slid under the surface of the bubbles. "Oooof!"
"Harry?" asked Seamus alarmed. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just more knackered than I thought," Harry lied. Then he held out his arm and said, "Help me up."
Seamus helped Harry out of the tub and onto the tile floor. Thinking he was fine, Harry tried to stand on his own, but after the morning he had, he found he was as weak as a new born kitten and promptly fell over. Thankfully Seamus was there to catch him.
"Harry, are you alright?"
"Yeah," Harry said weakly. "I just need to go back to bed."
Seamus nodded in agreement and wrapped Harry's towel around his shoulders to keep him warm as he cast a drying charm on his cold wet naked body.
Harry smiled weakly and muttered, "Thanks," before his head fell onto Seamus' shoulder and his world went black as Seamus picked him and carried him back to the seventh year dormitory.
x-x-x-x-x
Several hours later Harry woke up in his four poster bed in his dormitory room. He was really groggy and could barely rise up from his pillow. However, he heard some people shouting and he was too curious about it. So he crept out of bed on two shaky legs, went to the door and opened it just enough to really hear what was going on.
"No, Ron, I think you should leave Harry alone."
"Ginny!" Ron yelled back at her. "You have no idea what you are talking about."
"Really?" Ginny bellowed back. "Do you remember last week when Harry said to leave him alone and that he wanted nothing to do with us again, what did you do? Let me tell you. You demanded that he act the way he did before he was sent to Azkaban. To just forget all about it and be the person he was before."
Ginny's eyes flared dangerously. Of course, Harry couldn't see that as he was upstairs at the time. However, he could imagine it, as he had seen her do it many times before and it always made him funny in his tummy when she did it. Ginny continued, "I have left him alone, hoping that if I left him alone he might find it in his heart to forgive me, where you and Hermione have pestered him to no end. Now, both you and she have received howlers from mum and I haven't. I wrote to mum and she said she didn't send them. Who do you think did?"
Harry was leaning against the door; he had to admit she was the smart one in the family. That made his tummy feel funny too, but he was unaware of it at that moment.
"Master Harry," Eppy said as she popped in. "You should be in bed you's should. You's is being needing you's rest you's is."
"I heard them fighting," Harry replied. "How did it start?"
"The Weazy boy and that bossy girl," Eppy said with distaste in her mouth, "started talking about how you's is just being all stubborn and they's is going to being waking you's up and be making you's forgive them. Then the poofy Irish boy got up and being telling them to not being bothering you's. You's is sleeping and being needing it badly they's is saying. The dark skinned boy and the round headed boy is getting up and is blocking the door so no one can being bothering you's they's is."
Harry's heart felt warmth in his heart. The kind of warmth that he thought would never come again. They were defending him. They were taking care of him. Someone cared about him.
"Then," Eppy said, "the Weazy girl jumped in and started yelling she did at them both. Saying that you's is not feeling good and telling them to be remembering how some sniffly person acted after he done the same. I's not being understanding that part Master Harry."
"It's okay," Harry said suddenly becoming very tired again.
"Master Harry?" Eppy said as Harry began to slide to the floor unable to stand anymore on his wobbly legs a moment longer. The next thing Harry knew, Eppy was levitating him back to his bed and handing him a cup of hot broth. "This is being making you's much better Master Harry."
"Thanks," Harry said and drank the broth. When he was finished, Harry handed the mug back to the house elf and fell back into a much needed sleep again.
x-x-x-x-x
Sometime later, Harry woke up again, he was all warm and snuggly bundled up in his bed clothes with his hangings closed tightly. He felt so safe and peaceful; in fact it was the first time he felt that way since before he went to Azkaban. He never wanted this feeling to end. However…
Harry's eyes flew open when he heard the sound of a whip being cracked and Eppy's voice saying, "You's is not bothering Master Harry, we's is playing a game we's is and you's is not being invited."
Harry's curiosity once again got the better of him and he crawled to the foot of his bed and peeked through the crack in his bed curtains to see what was going on. In the dormitory room was all of his roommates and Hermione Granger, Head Girl standing on one side with Eppy standing between his bed and them. That wasn't the odd thing about this scene, no, that would be Eppy wearing the stiletto heels, the black panties and the brazier with the silver studded tips, a black mask and biker's leather hat while brandishing a whip that really caught his eye.
'That is one evil little elf," Harry thought as he grinned to himself and listened.
"I do not care what depraved little sex game you and Harry are playing," declared Hermione in her authoritarian voice. "We need to see Harry now!"
"And I's is being telling and Eppy is not telling you again," crack went the whip, "Master Harry is resting and is not being to be bothering him."
"Don't you see that Harry is exploiting you and forcing you into this role as his submissive?" Hermione cried in outrage. "He is only using you for his own sexual pleasure."
Harry was about to jump out of his bed to start yelling at the Head Girl. Who the bloody hell was she to say that kind of thing about his elf.
However, she beat him to it and with an evil grin across her face, Eppy said, "Who's is being saying Eppy is the submissive?" and then cracked her whip once more.
Hermione's mouth dropped open in utter shock and Harry was rolling on his bed holding his hands over his mouth so no one would hear him laughing.
To Be Continued … Please Read and Review
Sheyda wrote one of my absolutely favorite Azkaban fictions called, "Harry Potter and the Curse of the Banshees." It is the best one I have ever read! I hope that Sheyda is reading this and has been properly shamed into posted a new chapter soon. I would hate to think that this was wasted. Love you!