Susan Bones was never afraid of dueling anyone- being trained for that very purpose kinda defeats the purpose. She was, however, not willing to start fights, explaining half the reason she was placed in Hufflepuff- violence is her last resort. Which is why she was currently fighting the urge to draw her wand from her holster to hex the two people cornering her.
"We're warning you, Bones. Stay away from Potter. He doesn't need more than one girl near him, and more than likely, he will swear off girls if he heard of what you did in collaboration with Granger" sneered her year-and-housemate, Ernie MacMillan.
"Yeah, he'll probably tell you to sod off and then never so much as look at you or Granger again" snickered Justin Finch-Fletchley, not noticing one red-trimmed and three green-trimmed robe sets appearing close to them. Then again, Susan didn't as well
"Personally, I believe Harry would listen to an explanation from both of us. Also, why is a girl smarter than most first-year Ravenclaws a Gryffindor? That should tell you something about her yourself" scoffed Susan. Having heard from her Aunt about the potions and Harry's actions regarding it ('If first-years can sneak potions into a Hogwarts meal, then Mad-Eye Moody has a point about Constant Vigilance' the letter said, and since the complaint hadn't been filed in yet, Amelia could warn her last family member about the happenings at Hogwarts).
Besides, Susan was a bit suspicious about Hermione's behaviour around Harry Potter since a week after term had started- normally, even becoming closer, people don't distance themselves the way the pair did prior to Halloween. Having that explained away by potions settled that down, and she knew that the two in front of her wouldn't know what hit them.
"Get real, Bones! Potter would never want to associate with gold-diggers! Stay away from him, or I'll talk to Dad about having you brought up on false charges of Line Theft! You'll lose your ability to use magic then! Good riddance, I say" threatened a suddenly enraged Ernie, knowing that even Amelia Bones couldn't save her niece from that
"I'd advise you not to drag me or Susan into any mess you might want to cause, Heir MacMillan" came an icy tone from Ernie's ear, loud enough to be heard by the other present parties. "You see, the MacMillan House may have been allied with the Bones House for the past 50 years, but the Potter-Bones alliance has been going on for the last 3 centuries. That alone is enough to end any influence House MacMillan may have had recently."
All three Hufflepuffs turned to gawk stupidly at the hardened and downright enraged glare on Harry Potter's face. Susan was weirdly relieved that Harry turned up just then, because she had considered drawing her wand then and there, risking detention. Ernie and Justin, on the other hand, didn't know what happened, but the MacMillan was stupid enough to retort.
"Yeah, right, and the Boy-Who-Lived knows more magic than Dumbledore! You can't ride your coattails all the time, while money and heritage speak, Potter", Ernie sneered Harry's last name, not knowing what a brain-to-mouth filter was, or registering what Harry said. Also, he thought that the draw between Harry and Snape was a lie… disregarding the fact that Snape and McGonagall both announced that draw before dinner after the duel, or that Snape started treating all houses with parity after that week, causing every house to request flushing and anti-hallucinatory draughts from a harried (pun intended) Madam Pomfrey.
The next thing Ernie, Justin, Daphne, Tracey, Blaise and Susan knew was that the first two had wet their pants in fear, and all four of the latter started blushing, which said a lot about Blaise.
"Wanna duel, MacMillan? I was in a forgiving mood earlier, but what you just said tore through my patience!" That exclamation mark was felt, rather than expressed, seeing as Harry's voice became deathly calm after that rather scathing remark, and Harry was saying something, since Manny had been waiting to rip Macmillan's throat out since the beginning.
The three Slytherins knew better than to let things go further, but also knew that they had no chance at holding him back.
"By the way, MacMillan, Madam Bones will be hearing about this, if only because I don't like anyone threatening a lioness' last cub. Believe, me,what follows would be entirely upon your head" Manny, who took over at that moment, snarled out.
The two scared Hufflepuffs scurried away, not wanting to get in Harry's way anymore. Susan sighed in relief, thinking that Harry's bluff had worked… Oh, how wrong she was.
Harry took back over and said "Susan, could you tell me what your home address is? It's just, I really need to inform your aunt of this development. I don't like sticking my nose in this matter, though it seems I have to."
Whatever relief Susan felt instantly died horribly, replaced by horror at Harry's request. She knew that her Auntie Amy wouldn't like someone else reporting any bullying from anyone, and knew that she would blow up.
Reading her body language, Harry responded "I would've asked anyway, I do need to talk to your aunt about some other matters. This just got added to that list."
That stunned, relieved and horrified Susan all at the same time, not just because she liked Harry looking out for her, but because he was talking to her aunt on serious matters. "Just address anything to The Ossuary. Still, allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Susan Susanne Bones, Heiress to House Bones. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." She curtsied and held her hand out.
"A pleasure, Heiress Bones. As the last Potter, I hereby renew the Potter-Bones alliance, and hope for a long and pleasurable time working together." Harry played along, while reactivating the Potter-Bones alliance, which wasn't a bluff, as MacMillan clearly thought it was.
At that moment, DMLE Head's Office
Amelia Charity Bones was assaulted by knowledge of the Potter-Bones Alliance, and realized that she needed to get a letter owled over to Harry at once.
Back to Harry
"Well, that was a bit of a rush! New information is always a good thing, even if I already know of it. Now, I know what Hermione did, and I wanted to know what your intentions towards her are. But I'll wait for the other Hufflepuffs to come along."
Susan was also recovering from a rush of information, but it wasn't as bad as Harry's, if only because Harry was technically the head of House Potter, while Amelia was Susan's Regent.
While Harry was personally willing to step into any conflict to stop it, he would only do so if either side of it crossed the line.
"So, where's Miss Abbott, while I have you?" he asked Susan, mentally notifying Manny that Madam Bones is more suitable to take care of this problem.
"That's the problem; She has always been called away just before MacMillan and Finch-Fletchley approach me. I'm not sure why either. I'll probably meet up with her in a few hours" lamented Susan, who was forced to handle those two alone. Hannah did support her, to be sure, but the pattern is disturbingly not a good thing, especially for best friends
"Well then, it looks like we will have to look for her. Wanna come along?" Harry had a bad feeling about the 'being called away' part, so he decided to look for Hannah. Susan nodded back, and the Slytherins were challenging their minds as to why the Potter Heir would reactivate the Potter-Bones alliance- it was deactivated temporarily due to the war, and if Harry was of Dumbledore's mind, he would want to wait for the Dark Lord to reappear to defeat him again. Nothing made sense.
An hour of searching later found Susan drawing her wand on a couple of Hufflepuff fifth-years, in an effort to free Hannah, Harry right beside her.
"Who cares about the House of Bones!? The House of MacMillan is much more influential, and we can even join it as vassals if necessary! You'd do better to leave Bones, Abbott!" shouted the blond fifth year.
"How about not pissing off the best friend of the niece of the Head of the DMLE?" Susan may have been unwilling to fight for herself, but a Hufflepuff doesn't usually forsake a friend. That particular aspect made her friends someone not to mess with, another reason her aunt is the head of the DMLE (Most know that the other candidates are corrupt or incompetent).
Harry didn't just draw his wand, he used it- Two tripping jinxes and they lost their wands. Harry muttered the jinxes to keep his abilities a secret. That pulled the fifthers up short- Neither of them could keep themselves straight, both lost their wands and one of them even lost their undies, which would be discovered later.
"Or the only one ballsy enough to try standing up to Snape? You don't even behave like Hufflepuffs should..." Backed up a very disappointed Harry. By now, the Slytherins knew to keep themselves out of the way, regretting trying to manipulate Harry when they saw his Hufflepuff side.
The fifth-years were subsequently handed over to Professor Sprout, who was very displeased with their actions. In the following weeks, it was rumored that she had a special form of detention for those Hufflepuffs who deliberately went against the code of Hufflepuff, which was scary enough to traumatize OWL students.
But our man wasn't done by a long shot. He comforted Hannah, who was not exactly in the right state of mind to be apologized to. While leading the group that had formed out of the second floor (where they found her in an unused classroom), they ran into, rather were fallen on by A Hufflepuff seventh-year. This seventh-year proceeded to apologize profusely.
"Man, I'm really sorry, I'm just too damn clumsy not to fall on perfectly flat floors. I'll make it up to you, I swear!"
Harry was actually put in a good mood by this encounter, seeing as he didn't have to look for her anymore. Cedric Diggory was known to hang out near the Quidditch pitch during Saturdays because of practise. That would be taken the wrong way (he might've been spying on them).
"No problems, , I was actually going to look for you, Ms. Tonks. The name's Harry Potter, nice to bump into you for the first of many times" came the not-so-smooth reply. That earned him a knock on the head from Daphne (Pureblood etiquette demanded not joking about a person's disposition, even when it's genuinely funny, unless in an absolutely private setting, where such can be disregarded.), and a chortle from the now-identified Tonks.
"Lose the Ms, Potter, I'm not one for formalities. Just call me Tonks. I assume you don't know my first name, which would be a good thing."
"That was one of my own questions, actually. Well, that and why you're able to wandlessly change your appearance. It's actually something I want to learn" pressed an intrigued Harry.
"Go into depression, then. I can do it because I'm a Metamorphmagus, which is an inborn ability. I can change my body at will and thus alter my appearance. It's why I'm clumsy, actually. As for my name, it's Nymphadora. And I expect none of you little whelps to call me that. Talk about embarrassing names" Tonks scowled at the last part, though she smirked at the depression part.
At the inborn part of Tonks' little rant, Harry remembered the hair incident, where his hair regrew in a single night, causing him to speculate and try something. His speculation turned right when he grew his hair out in front of an astonished group of people, Tonks most of all.
"Cor, didn't think you were one as well. Were you planning on tricking me later by showing your abilities at a later date, to make me seem inferior? Would've worked." the older Meta (pun absolutely not intended) commented and asked.
"Nah, I just discovered I was one as well- How else do you explain anyone regrowing their hair in one night? Anyway, you wouldn't know where a Cedric Diggory is, would you?" Harry replied, while pretending to not know where Cedric is.
"Yeah, I do! Tell you what, I take you to Cedric and you tell me what you are doing with 3 Slytherins and 2 of my first years- capiche?" Hook, Line, Sinker. She fell for it.
"Cool! What are waiting for then? Let's go!"
With that exclamation, the group of 7 moved, with Nymphadora Annette Tonks leading the group- A worrying thing, if Minerva McGonagall ever found out.