Harry had grown quite accustomed to the whispers of other students over the past five years, but he had found that this time, as he made his way through the train alone to find a cabin to sit in, he could hear every single one of them as if they were speaking directly to him. The hushed tones and mumbled comments were all just as clear as could be. Harry sighed, wondering how his father had dealt with this for basically his entire life.
He wished Hermione and Ron could be with him. They were such good friends to have, and always knew exactly how to distract him from the whispering of their classmates. However this year, they were to ride in the Prefect's car, so that they could be given orientation to their new position in the student population.
Eventually, Neville and Ginny waved him into a carriage, and he sighed with relief upon being able to finally have a place to hide. Harry swung in quickly, and Neville locked the latch on the door behind him. "Alright, mate?" He ask, taking his seat back.
"Just as lovely as always." Harry replied dully, but all three of them laughed at the humor behind it.
"Ginny was just telling me the bits the Prophet left out about your news... Are you okay? I mean, don't get me wrong... Your dad was the best teacher I've ever had. But I just know that has to be rough..." Neville rambled.
"It is what it is. Honestly, I don't know why anything I ever find out surprises me anymore." Harry laid his head back on the chair. "I guess it was too much to ask for no one to be able to recognize me, wasn't it?"
"You honestly don't look all that much different." Ginny informed him with a shrug.
"I'm just going to nap for a bit until we get to school. Someone wake me up in time to change?" He asked, and his companions agreed.
At the school grounds, Ron and Hermione was able to rejoin them, but Harry was concerned when the carriages were no longer moving via enchantments, but had large, undead looking horses pulling them. Harry froze in place for a moment, but boarded the carriage when Hermione gently guided him to take his place along with his friends. "Erm, Harry?" Ron ask cautiously sitting forward, waving his hand in front of Harry's face where he was starring.
"Hmm?" He said, blinking. "When did they start using these... Things?" He ask, confused.
"What?" Several of the company replied.
"The carriages. The creatures pulling the carriages." Harry explained.
"There is nothing there, Harry. They're pulling themselves along off a charm, like always." Hermione said, her voice harsh but concerned.
"No, I can see them, too..." A voice from the back called, and everyone turned to see a doe-eyed girl in Ravenclaw robes with platinum blonde hair, who was speaking. "You're just as sane as I am."
"Er, thanks..." Harry said, noticing the odd glasses on the top of her head and dreamy look on her face. Hermione wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes, but gave introductions.
"Everyone this is Loon-" She stopped and cleared her throat loudly, "Luna Lovegood."
"Hello!" The girl, Luna, waved cheerily. "Pleasure to meet you all. Harry, I just want you to know we don't believe anything the Prophet has printed about you and Dumbledore."
"Ah, well, some of it was true..." Harry started to explain, but Luna smiled again and disappeared behind the book in her lap. Hermione made a face and she and Ron steered the conversation away to keep Harry's mind occupied until they reached the castle
That night, after a very awkward opening feast, and an almost physical altercation with Dean Thomas, whom Harry thought was his friend, he lay awake with his mind reeling. He couldn't relax for anything, his nerves felt on edge, like they were crawling. He sat up, and remembered the mirror that Sirius had given him. He crept silently to his trunk and removed both the mirror and his invisibility cloak, just in case.
As silently as he could, he crept down the stairs and to the Common Room, which luckily was abandoned, all the students wanting to get enough sleep before the first day of classes. It was lit quite dimly, so Harry sat at a table close to a lamp and took the mirror from his pocket. He thought for a moment, then spoke. "Sirius Black." He said, and the mirror changed from his reflection to the ceiling of the drawing room at Grimauld Place. "Sirius?" He called, and after a moment the mirror moved.
"Shouldn't you be in bed, boy-o?" Sirius ask, looking groggy.
"Were you asleep?" Harry questioned, almost amused.
"Dozed off, s'all." He admitted, rubbing his face with his hand. "You okay?"
"Ah- Is my dad around?" He blurted. Sirius looked hurt for just a second, but it passed and he shook his head.
"Sorry, bud. He's out. Dumbledore sent him to watch someone for the evening." He explained. "He's supposed to be off for the week, actually. But I could send for him, if its an emergency..."
"No, its just. I was going to see if he had any tips on how to drown out sounds, that was all. I can hear my dorm-mates heartbeats when its quiet enough if I don't focus on something else. I don't know how to handle it, and I think it'll make my go insane if I don't get a handle on it. I hear everything." Harry elaborated about his issue.
"Including what everyone else has to say about you, right?" Sirius guessed, and Harry's face flushed slightly.
"Yeah." He admitted. "And it isn't what they're saying, so much. It is the fact I can hear it all, at once, and its like being in that dull roar of a crowd, except its all funneled into my ears. My head feels like its ringing all the time, and I have been getting enough headaches as it is without this."
"Headaches?" Sirius questioned, concerned.
"It's nothing, really." Harry shook his head, trying to brush it off.
"Boy- Tell me the truth- Is it headaches or is the scar the main pain?" Sirius' voice was firm as he spoke.
"Well, they start at the scar, but-"
"But nothing. You call into the mirror, or go to Dumbledore or McGonagall when that happens, do you understand me?" Sirius commanded, and Harry nodded.
"Yeah, alright." He agreed. "I should try and sleep..."
"Would you like me to send you an owl when Moony gets back? Then you can slip away again and call if you'd like?" Sirius suggested, his voice softer and more comforting now.
"Yeah, great, thanks Sirius." Harry gave a small smile, and for the first time since he had began to change, Sirius could really see Remus in him- in his smile.
"Sure thing. Call anytime you need, right? Love you, Harry." Sirius reminded him.
"Thanks, Love you too." Harry replied, and Sirius disconnected the mirrors and Harry was once facing his own reflection. He looked his face over and observed the differences and similarities- Things that must have been from his mother all long. His face was not totally different, more squared jawline, slightly thinner nose, and his mouth and teeth. His hair had lightened quite a lot, but hair color was not that dramatic of a change, and honestly he recognized himself in this new face, and he felt at home with it. He was no more changed than many of his other classmates, and maybe even less different than Neville, who had grown up quite a lot between fourth and fifth years.
Harry quietly crept back upstairs, where he met Ron about halfway back to his dorm. "Alright, mate?" Ron ask, his voice fogged with sleep.
"Yeah, just needed to think for a bit." Harry answered, as they both headed back up.
"You think that pink lady will be as horrible in class as she was at the feast?" Ron pondered aloud.
Harry simply shrugged. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow afternoon."
The morning classes passed entirely too fast for Harry and his friend's taste, and soon they found themselves back in the familiar Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, not filled with the normal excitement; instead they were nervous. The Ministry sending one of their own into the school to watch the coming and going of staff and students was horrid enough- but for them to be in command of the Defense class, which could be argued as one of the most important courses, was dreadful.
The Ministry was desperately trying to prove Harry and Dumbledore to be liars. The slurs they used had only gotten worse when the truth of his birth had came out. Harry felt no optimism about them at all. So he sat quietly, and waited for the class to start.
Everyone had filed into their seats, watching the office door, where teachers for Defense often came down from to start the class, but there was no movement. After a time, there was a voice, over-the-top cheerfully called out. "Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts, fifth years. This year, you will be studying for your Ordinary Wizarding Levels- O.W.L.s" she said, walking up from the back of the room, the chalk writing her words as she spoke. "Please take out your Ministry approved texts from your desk, and open to page-"
"Basics for beginners?" Hermione scoffed. "Aren't we a bit old?"
"I did not see a hand in the air, Miss...?" The Professor, Umbridge, turned on her pastel pink high heels to face Hermione.
"Granger." Hermione answered.
"Right. Miss Granger, if you must question things- No. This text is Ministry approved for all levels of schooling as meeting the needs of students to educate you all in the theory of basic self defensive magic." She answered with a large, toothy grin. "Now if you will be so kind as to put your wands away, you won't need them."
"How're we supposed to practice if we've not got wands out? These beginner books gonna teach us wandless magic, then?" Seamus Finnigan spoke up now, from near the back of the class.
"Hands up when we wish to speak!" Umbridge chirped, then turned to face Seamus now. "And you will study theory."
"Theory without practice?" Hermione said again, her hand held high as she spoke. Harry felt himself getting more and more anxious as he watched this all go on around him, but he tried to stay quiet. "How are we supposed to protect ourselves from what is out there?"
"There is nothing 'out there' who will harm you! Who is it you children think is going to be attacking underage wizards?" Umbridge demanded, her voice growing exasperated now.
"Hmm, Voldemort, maybe?" Harry finally pitched in, and Ron gasped that Harry spoke, and a couple of girls in the class gave small screams at the mention of the name.
"Mr. Potter. Is it still Potter?" She addressed him, moving closer, "How many times do I have to say this? No one believes your lies. Mr. Diggory was killed in a tragic sporting accident, and I am sorry you had to see that. But there is nothing out there for you children to worry about. The Ministry simply has taken too long to get a handle on this situation!"
"Situation?" Harry and Hermione ask together, hands put up as they spoke and taken back down in an almost choreographed manner.
"The lack of structure to this course, obviously. It has been called to our attention that you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed – not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, and glanced back toward Harry before continuing, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."
"You mean Professor Lupin?" Dean Thomas spoke up now, his fist in the air. "He was the best we ever had- everyone learned in his class."
"He was a hazard, a monster! Allowed to teach in this school. The scandal of it all should've had him in Azkaban and Dumbledore allowed it all-" She was answering, her voice calm but tight. Harry felt so angry his jaw clenched.
"Oh, Merlin! Harry!" Lavender Brown called loudly. The entire class and the new teach all turned and Harry looked down to see blood dripping off his face onto his bright white uniform shirt. He touched his face and saw he had been bleeding from his mouth, and it was dripping from the corner of his lips. He opened his mouth to speak, but more poured out, and Harry felt panicked. He wondered how he'd not tasted it filling his mouth, replacing saliva.
"I believe you may want to see medical, Mr. Potter. You're dismissed." Umbridge said, keeping her distance form the bleeding student, who was honestly too shocked himself to argue. He walked the familiar path from the defense wing to the Hospital wing, and found Madam Pomfrey at her desk. She no sooner heard his footsteps on the hard stone floor than she was at his side.
"Harry! Already?!" she half joked, guiding him to an exam bed.
"I don't know what happened." Harry confessed. "I feel confused. Faint."
"Lay back, lad." She commanded. "Lets have a look, then." The Mediwitch illuminated the tip of her wand and shined into Harry's mouth, moving his cheek with a wooden tongue depressor.
"You bit your self, nearly clean through in a couple places. Here, on the inside of your lower lip." She told him, then she tapped on his teeth, which were once again longer and more pointed. "Still haven't learned to use those?"
"Not exactly." Harry answered with a huff. Madam Pomfrey took a bit of cotton from the jar next to the examination bed and gently tucked it into the gap between Harry's lip and gum.
"Tell me what happened. Slowly, though. So I can understand through the cotton packing." She gave a small chuckle.
"I was in class..." Harry tried to explain, having to feel how his mouth moved with the cotton in the way before he continued with his story, "Defense. That Ministry teacher was talking about our 'lack of structure,' and how we'd had some terrible past instructors. She then made it a point to inform the class my dad was a dangerous half-breed who deserved Azkaban for even having the audacity of stepping into the classroom." Harry said, feeling himself grow angry again at the fresh memory.
"You bit your lip gritting your teeth too hard." She gave a small, sad but comforting smile. "The anger made the canines grow, and you bit yourself."
"Oh." Harry nodded. "Right."
"You know, as well as I, that nothing she said was true." Madam Pomfrey reminded him. Harry nodded. "And she most likely did it to get a you."
"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry ask, looking up at the Mediwitch. She was one of the people who knew him best, and she also knew Remus very, very well from his time in the school. She was well trusted by both, and Harry felt safe talking to her about his changing body. "How much longer am I going to have to go through this?"
"That depends." She replied, giving a shrug. "You could try practicing. Focus on controlling it all. Teeth, nose, ears. Take deep breaths, try focusing on one thing at a time. Practice until you are in command."
"Okay." Harry nodded again. Madam Pomfrey had him open his mouth, and she removed the cotton with her gloved hand, and then put a thin, strawberry flavored salve on the wounds.
"There, now. Should heal up by tomorrow. What classes do you have left?" she questioned.
"Just the rest of Defense, and Potions." Harry answered, lack of enthusiasm evident.
"Hmm. Well its my orders you need rest. I'll send an excuse note to both professors. You head up to the dorm and have a nap in the quiet by yourself before dinner. Alright?" She smiled in a motherly way as Harry's eyes lit up and he nodded his agreement.
"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey!" Harry shouted as he left the medical wing. Madam Pomfrey smiled after the young wizard, the turned back to her notes.
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