Dark Love
AN: I'm using American English, as I believe I would sound like an idiot trying to use British English.
Chapter 4: Rules only apply to some...
"No," Dumbledore interrupted. "I'm sorry Harry but I can't allow you to be resorted."
Harry's eyes narrowed as he harshly replied, "Headmaster, the school rules clearly state..."
It should be noted the amount of scorn Harry lumped into the title of headmaster could, if it was water, fill the Atlantic ocean.
"That doesn't matter," the old man interrupted again, and continued, "you need to stay in Gryffindor." The man had noted the scorn, but knew he could overcome it... eventually.
"So that means rules don't apply to me headmaster?" Harry asked in a curious tone of voice.
"No it doesn't, but I cant allow you to be resorted," came the reply, although the old man seemed to realize that he might be making a mistake.
"Fine, for now, but just a warning headmaster, you can't pick and choose what rules apply."
After the drama of the attempted resorting, the meal commenced, and Harry made sure to sit as far from his former 'friends' as possible, and after ignoring the headmaster, the foppish fool, and most of the students, followed the prefect to the dorms to obtain the password.
A minor argument happened then as Percy the prefect tried to get the elementals to leave as per the headmasters orders. He ended up stuck to the wall by bands of darkness and light as Harry went to the dorms to rest.
After all, he had stuff to do the next day.
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The next day dawned clear and cool, and Harry plus his elementals left to both drafy some letters and send them to Gringotts, whom had agreed to be intermediates for certain communications at the extravagant price of three sickles per letter.
Nobody interfered with the bank mail, as it would be considered cause for them to confiscate all the perpetrators vaults.
After he had sent the letter he headed down to breakfast and obtained his schedule.
A quick look at hit had him decide to self study. Potions and DADA, both subjects taught by people he hated beyond belief.
So he decided to take advantage of Dumbledore declaring, despite his protestations otherwise, that rules don't apply to him, after all, you cant have it both ways. You can't say some rules don't apply and others do, either they all do, or they all don't, unless there is another rule that makes an exeption, such as the no casting in the halls, when you need to defend yourself.
The resorting rule was not one that had an exception.
He later learned that he had gained three detentions and lost fifty points, which he had already decided to ignore before he was granted them.
He also learned more in two hours about potions studying from some supplementary books, in two hours than he did the year previous. He also found some old noted in a used potions book, that were from when a Professor Slughorn was teaching. They were first through third year notes, that demonstrated how the last teacher taught the subject.
Lunch was interesting as he was called to the headmaster's office at three pm after DADA fpr missing potions.
The DADA free study went even better. To give the possessed asshole credit, if you could decipher his stuttering, he actually taught the class in a half-assed manner, and covered two-thirds of the years subject matter, in comparison to the quarter the potion master covered.
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He arrived at the office ten minutes early and was admitted. He on the wall as far as he could from the self roasting turkey ans the old man as he waited for him to speak. He had decided that unlike the two other students, he would maintain a hostile, but relatively polite manner with the old man, and if what he was planning went through, tear him a new one later.
His elementals took up positions between Harry and the other two.
"Harry, You didn't attend potions today, why?" the headmaster started.
"I don't feel like being insulted, and belittled by a petty little man, and before you talk about DADA, I have no plans on helping that fraud, especially after he grabbed me," came the reply.
"You do realize that you have detentions, and lost points right? And you really need to learn to let go, this childish grudge you have against Severus needs to be let go," Albus replied, and privately granting the second point.
Leilah snorted, and replied, "Childish grudge? Shouldn't you say that to... I don't know, the ADULT of the two? Harry told me of the first class, and every single interaction afterwords. The man has insulted and belittled Harry since the day he met for no reason, and Harry responded to the hate with hate, so shouldn't you speak to the the one whom started the cycle, and not the one responding to it?"
"Thanks, Leilah, " Harry said, then continued, "she's right, but also, who said I'm going to attend the detentions? Remember headmaster, you can't have it both ways. You can't simply state some rules apply and some don't. You refused to let me invoke the rule to be resorted, that means that despite your protests, I can ignore the rest of them, and for the points, let him take em, I don't care."
Dumbledore was dumbfounded. A student was not only standing up to him, but blatantly telling him that he was going to ignore the rules. Privately he thought the boy had a point, he was saying certain rules don't apply to the boy, but he needed to stay in that house damn it. Most of his supporters were there.
"Are you planning on taking any classes Mr. Potter?" the old man asked, tabling the rule discussion for later until he has time to think of a response the boy in front of him could accept. "And what about your... elementals?"
Harry sighed and responded, "Yes to most of the classes, as long as they at least treat me neutrally. And my elementals, both my dark elemental pact partner, and my rather odd light elemental bound servant will stay with me. I know the rules about both, perhaps you should learn them? After all having Percy try and separate them from me was bad form, and against both the rules of the school, and the laws of the land."
The old man sighed, and nodded, acknowledging the point. It galled him, but he knew such things were for life, the fact that besides some looks light and dark were getting along made him reach behind him for a book he had been intending to read ever since Harry bonded, but kept putting it off. It was obvious now he needed to read it, ASAP. Putting the book on elementals on his desk he made note to read it when the meeting was finished.
"One last thing, I noticed you are using a different wand, why is that? You know it's illegal to have a second one if you aren't a hit wizard or Auror."
"I know, that's why I snapped my old wand, that wasn't working, at all, in front of a wand crafter. She them made a new one for me," came the response, with Harry absently rubbing a wooden ring he had commissioned a few days before school started. A wooden ring that had some hairs inside, hairs that he awoke after being dead holding.
After all, nobody ever heard of using rings to cast with in England, and the law specifically mentioned wands, and ignored other foci.
Taken aback the old man swore in his head, and made a note to revise the law. After all, a wizard who's wand doesn't work, especially when in trouble, is a dead one. Perhaps he should make it so every child needs a new wand if the family can afford it? And perhaps a subsidy to help those who can't, and allow a child who's wand doesn't work anymore to trade it in.
That's for later though.
For now he dismissed the three, and picked up the book, titled "Elements and Elementals, Fact from Fiction" the author had a sense of humor, opening up with a fictional story, then pointing out where it went right. Oddly enough it was a muggle fiction, and had over twenty percent right, and a note saying that it was one of the most accurate ones the author found in both worlds.
It would be an informative and fun read.
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When Harry got back to the dorms he noticed that many of his dorm mates were glaring at him for loosing so many points.
He ignored them, and cracked open a book.
The next day Harry had charms and transfiguration, both of which he intended to attend.
Charms was no problem, although the professor kept giving him odd looks, mostly because he refused to sit by those he at one point considered friends.
The first transfiguration class went well enough, although the glares the professor shot him was epic.
The week continued in this vein, and the house of the lions once more started to shun the boy-who-lived.
Then came the weekend, and the issue boiled over. The reason?
Quidditch practice.
The team captain had failed to pass on a necessary piece of information. Actually he had failed to believe it. After all, what wizard would willfully (EN) give up the wonderful sport?
So, as Harry was enjoying sleeping in on a Saturday, he was dragged out of bed by a pair of twins, both of them ignoring the fact that he wasn't along in said bed. Well ignoring the fact until the bedmates blasted them into the wall with blasts of light and darkness.
They were lucky the blasts just stunned them, and not knocked them out... or splattered them against the wall.
"What the Hell are you two doing!" yelled the understandably upset boy.
The yell woke up the rest of the dorm-mates, making a lot more boys upset.
Fred managed to respond first as the dark blasts that hit his brother were slightly more powerful than the light blasts that hit him, "Oliver had us come get you, you're late for practice."
Harry's eyes narrowed as he responded, "So the asshole forgot the letter I sent? I told him I quit, find someone else." he then started to climb back in bed.
"Sorry Harry, but..." George started, only to be interrupted by Harry.
"Get bent bastards, I want nothing to do with your backstabbing team," and with that Harry was on the bed again...
only to have to cover his ears as the dorm room exploded in protests.
Sighing in frustration Harry got up and got ready for the day, and packed some books to read if he could find somewhere quite to read, as it looked like the dorms were out of the question.
The twins decided to wait by the painting for Harry, so they could drag him to the pitch.
Walking out with his bag, the twins met him at the painting and tried to forcibly pull him to the Quidditch pitch. A move the boy was able to avoid with some elemental help.
Avoiding his house mates was should have been easy, as the castle was large, and had many, many empty rooms.
It wasn't though.
The twins kept finding him, and bugging him about the sport, not taking 'no' for an answer.
Finally Harry had enough, and went to one of the few only professor he knew of that would potentially do anything, and had tea with him, waiting for them to show up for the dozenth time that day.
And thus, the twins learned the dangers of tunnel vision. The practice for the day was canceled due to Slytherins, but the next day they would have the pitch.
The two made their first mistake. They ignored the small professor, and the elementals, and grabbed Harry again.
"Enough!" the small professor declared. "twenty points from each of you, for every time you bothered Harry today, and thirty more for each time you manhandled him." he fact that Harry was with a professor finally dawned at them, then finding out that they lost twelve hundred points each, and they had found out the first day school was back on that yes, the house points can go into the negatives, well their popularity would be below Harry's new popularity, except that they could pin it on the boy-who-lived. They then paled at the next words, "A detention for each incident and each time you grabbed him, and finally a ban on Quidditch until all detentions served."
"But you can't do that!" the twins shouted in response.
Professor Flitwick went to his full, if meager, height as he responded, "Yes I can. If your head of house can take fifty each for the first time being caught out after curfew, than I can take similar amounts for systematic bulling. Now leave, and I will report your punishments to your team captain, personally."
The two left while shooting glares at the other student in the office, and started planning retaliatory pranks on both the professor and the student.
It would take them a week to come up with something, but by then, it was too late.
Harry's plan would come into action.
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It was unusually for an emergency staff meeting to be called on a weekend.
It was not unusual for them to be called by the transfiguration professor.
"Explain yourself Filius. Why did you take off over six hundred points, hand out s detentions to two different students each!" Minerva shouted, and ended with a screech.
Every professor there, and the headmaster looked at the short man. Whom was actually seething under his calm exterior. Nobody ever called Severus out, so why call him, when he at least had a good reason.
"It was because of the systematic bullying, and manhandling of both students toward a third. Mr. Potter had told the team captain that Mr. Potter quit, and didn't tell the rest of the team. He then ordered the twins to retrieve him for practice. The twins attempted to do so, by dragging the boy out of bed. At this point, I would've not removed any points because it wasn't quite their fault, but then, they ignored the fact that he said he quit, and attempted again to drag Harry to the Quidditch pitch on his way out from the dorms. A similar series of events took place ten more times, the last time right in front of me, so I took points off, and detentions for each time they did it. If they had stopped at verbal It would've only been twenty points a time, but they didn't."
"If Harry would've only..." McGonagall started.
"What? Just meekly gone along with them? He has the right to quit the team at any point. The fault is their own, they should've just went back to the pitch and told the team," came the interruption.
"Enough!" came Dumbledore's voice. "Filius, I understand your point, and will let the detentions stand, but not the Quidditch ban and points. I will reduce the points to two hundred and forty a student, and inform the two that any pranks this year will mean a year ban from the sport, starting from the date of the prank, and a reinstatement of the full lost points. I am disappointed that he quit, but he did inform both the captain and his head of house before the year started. Now anything else?"
Nobody had anything else but Minerva looked like she had swallowed a lemon tree grove as she stalked out.
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When he returned to the dorms, he was met by every single student glaring at him, and many wands pointed at him, some with tips glowing.
"And what is this?" he asked with narrowed eyes, nudging the two with him to be ready.
Fred and George stepped forward to reply.
"You are."
"No longer."
"Welcome in."
"Gryffindor!" a twin finished harshly.
"And why not? Is it because I quit the Quidditch team?"
"No you lost us hundreds of points today!" cam the shout from the youngest male Weasley.
"I did? I was quite sure that the twins lost them for bullying. How was it my fault?"
"You should've just came..."
"So laying the blame on me, like a coward, huh? If you hadn't kept bothering me, you wouldn't have lost the points, or gained the detention," Harry replied, then ducked as somebody sent a curse at him.
As if that was the signal, dozens of curses flew at him, only to be stopped by a wall of darkness as he escaped the house of the 'brave'.
He headed to the only place he could think of to get a bed for the night, the hospital wing.
The nurse was not pleased that he had to resort to this, especially when dozens of different curses simultaneously could've killed him.
She did order a house elf to retrieve the boy's belongings, which the Gryffindor house had only then figured they should raid, so it was untouched.
She would have to talk to the staff later for a more permanent solution.
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End chapter.
EN: that's a lot of Ws.