Chapter X
"…And in result to his foolish
mistakes, Jake the Fake was killed without mercy," Professor Binn's voice
droned on.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Rachel
were in the back row of the History of Magic classroom, all fast asleep on each
other's shoulders. Suddenly, the bell signalling lunch rang out and Professor
Binn assigned them homework, and the yawning students trailed out of the
classroom.
"Ah,
Potter. May I speak to you?" A cold voice rang out into the corridor. They four
friends turned. It was Snape. Cringing, Harry answered with a regretful "yes".
He followed Snape through the classroom and into his office. Snape sat down
behind the desk, and Harry sat opposite him. Harry stared at him with cold eyes
and spat out, "What do you want?"
"Harry,
I ask you to not be angry and cold at me," Snape said. Harry was stunned at the
Professor for using his first name, but he dismissed it from his mind. Snape
continued.
"I
know that the past years you and I have…ah… not gotten on very well, and I
apologize. I was angry and hateful to you because you reminded me so much of
James and Lily, that it hurt so much. They hated me from the day we met, and
when they were murdered, I was so regretful for being horrible to them, that I
wanted to continue being horrible to the name Potter, and thus the reason for
our hatred against each other. But as soon as Voldemort repossessed his body, I
knew I had been foolish, but didn't want to admit it. Then in your sixth year
when you faced Voldemort again, I couldn't stand it. Voldemort grew back to his
highest strength (he has been keeping low, so most people do not know how much
his strength his up to now). But when he was up to his highest strength, I knew
you didn't need any extra enemies, so we both need to be on the same side. The
Slytherins will always stay the same, but Sirius, Remus and I have talked with
each other and we have become close friends. All of this is true, and you must
believe me, as you need as much support as you can get," Snape finished. Harry
sat in his chair, staring at the Professor.
"Y-you
mean it…I can tell…I can trust you…" Harry stuttered. Snape laughed, and Harry
noticed his hair was neat and washed. His laugh was handsome, not the cold one.
His eyes were like Hagrid's: black, warm and sincere.
"Yes,
Harry. It's all true. But you do need as much support as you can get, you
know…I mean…you will be the Head of the Light; Voldemort will be the Head of
the Dark in the Battle of Forces. Wait…you do know all of this, don't you?"
Snape asked.
"No!"
Harry cried.
"Ahh…well,
I had better explain. You and Voldemort will, at one point in your life, come
together and take part in a duel. It will be the Battle of Forces, which means
the ultimate battle of all times. Whomever wins will mean that their side is
the better one, and all people on the opposite has the chance to join the
victorious side, or be killed without mercy. These sides are the Light and
Dark. The Battle of Forces can only happen once, and it has never happened
before. But it's a fact now that it will happen between you and Voldemort. You
shall be the Head of the Light and he shall be Head of the Dark. If he wins,
the world will collapse. If you win, then the world shall be a whole lot
better. But the thing is, to win; you have to kill the opposing Head. Harry,
the world is relying on you, but I beg you not to worry about that. We know you
can win, but if you do not want to, or if you do not focus properly, you will
not win – and that means you will die. But we know you will always stay
truthful to us, Harry. Now scram, you have some food to eat!" Snape finished,
smiling at him. Instead of going to lunch, Harry fainted, his wand clattering
to the floor.
^^^^^^^^^^
"Yo, Harry! Where've ya been?"
Rachel yelled across the whole Great Hall as Harry entered the place for his
(late) lunch.
"Rach!
Fred and George would be proud of you! Yelling is one of their specialties,"
Ron said to her. Ginny overheard him and giggled.
Harry
walked over, trembling and his face pale. Without saying a word, Hermione
grabbed a stack of sandwiches, and got up. Ron and Rachel got up too, and they
led the shocked Harry down to the lake. Harry was hesitant to go to the lake
because of his nightmare, but they led him there anyway.
"Spit
it out, Harry," Ron said once they had sat down. Harry repeated what Snape had
told him. Ron fainted. Rachel took her (clean) handkerchief out of her pocket
and wafted it above Ron's face, staring at Harry. Her mouth had dropped open,
and her eyes were wide. She was still wafting her handkerchief over Ron's face.
Hermione
was staring at him. She blinked a few times, then her eyes rolled backwards
into her head, and she fell backwards onto the grass, out cold. Harry shrugged
and helped himself to a few sandwiches.
Ten minutes later, the group had
recovered, and they had all accepted Harry's future.
"I
should have expected it, really…I mean, every single one of the books I have
read about you, Harry, have said that you will conquer You-Know-Who…and all the
things you've done" Hermione said. Harry blushed. Rachel and Ron laughed at
Harry's pink cheeks.
"Oh,
here we go, Potty, the Weasel, the Mudblood and the bale of hay," a voice
drawled out into the warm, afternoon air. Harry spun around.
"Don't
call her a Mudblood!" Harry warned menacingly.
"Ooh!
Somebody's got a soft spot, haven't they?" Draco said sweetly.
"Well,
Ferret Boy, you have returned from the dead. The whole castle knew about Harry
and Hermione, except for you and your puny, idiotic bodyguards!" Rachel shot
back. She knew about Draco's experience in the fourth year by Ron, Hermione and
Harry.
Draco's
cheeks turned a pale pink. He motioned Crabbe and Goyle to beat her up, but
Hermione stopped them with a curse. She and Rachel turned away swiftly and
started to walk up to the castle.
Suddenly,
there was a crack of thunder, then Harry saw a Death Eater leap out from behind
a tree and pounce onto Hermione and Rachel. Their screams echoed into the afternoon.
Harry yelled out and raced forward. He could hear Ron following him. Harry's
feet slammed into the ground as he sprinted forward.
Hermione!
I can't let her go…I love her…Hermione! Save Hermione… Harry's brain yelled to him.
The
Death Eater gave him a fleeting glance, then grinned behind his mask. He pulled
out his wand. Harry reached him in what seemed like three seconds, though he
knew he had run quite a long way. Harry pulled out his wand. He skidded in
front of the Death Eater. He yelled out a curse to the Death Eater, who flew
backwards and fell to the ground with a thump. Then he got up, and the next
thing Harry knew, Ron, Hermione and Rachel had been tied up. Draco, Crabbe and
Goyle were beside Harry, looking panic-stricken. Without thinking, Harry threw
another curse at the Death Eater, who was thrown to the ground again. Harry
rushed forwards to his friends, and to Harry's surprise, Draco was with him.
Together, the enemies pulled free Harry's friends. Hermione, Rachel, Ron,
Crabbe, Goyle and Draco started to rush to the safety of the castle, but Draco
yelled at them to stop. They stopped and turned, only to see that Draco was
rushing back to the Death Eater, who was duelling with Harry.
"Oh,
for crying out loud! Not again!" Hermione screamed, starting to cry for Harry.
Rachel comforted her, and put an arm around her shoulders. Crabbe, Goyle,
Hermione, Rachel and Ron huddled together, watching as Draco reached Harry. He
grabbed Harry's wrist and pulled him away. Harry shot a final curse at the Death
Eater, and then ran back up to his friends – and enemies. The Death Eater
yelled out a nasty phrase, then Disapperated. All of the teenagers rushed into
the castle, and Harry pulled Draco aside.
"Malfoy,
why did you do that? Why did you help me free my friends, then pulled me to
safety from the Death Eater?" Harry asked him, running his hand through his
unruly hair.
"It
seemed like a good thing to do at the time, and I wasn't thinking," the
Slytherin snapped. Harry sighed and walked up to Dumbledore's office to tell
him about this event.
^^^^^^^^^
"Harry! Could we have a word?"
Corri McNorry (A Daily Prophet reporter) asked Harry.
It was the next day, and the
Daily Prophet had already caught wind of what had happened with the Death
Eater.
Corri McNorry was 19, nice and
funny, and she had blonde hair with red streaks in it, and had blue eyes. She
was turning out to be the exact opposite to Rita Skeeter, and Harry wondered
how reporters seemed to have weird and rhyming names. Corri had her own photographer
(Stan) with her, who was Australian and snapped photos of Harry whenever he got
the chance – which meant he barged into the middle of some of Harry's classes.
But at least Potions had become
a lot more tolerable since Snape admitted to Harry and himself that he had
forget about the past and befriend Harry. Speaking of Potions, that was the
lesson that Harry was in when Stan had pushed his luck too far…
"Parkinson! 10 points from
Slytherin for throwing toad brains at the Gryffindors!" Professor Snape barked.
The Slytherins were getting under his skin, as was Stan, as he never failed to
barge into each of his classes, trying to catch the one with Harry in it.
When Snape's washed and trimmed
hair fell over his shoulder as he tried to show Dean how to cut up the dragon
bones properly, Stan skidded into the Potions dungeon, his camera swinging
wildly around his neck, his brown eyes blazing with anticipation. He ran a hand
through his short, brown hair.
"HA! Found ya, mate!" the
Australian photographer bellowed to Harry, but before he could even touch the
camera that was still swinging backwards and forwards around his neck, Snape
let out a roar.
"THAT'S IT! GET OUT, STAN! I'VE
HAD ENOUGH! C'MERE!" Snape hollered, and leapt onto Stan's back. The two fell to
the floor with a CRASH. Snape pinned him to the ground, while the whole class,
both Gryffindor and Slytherin, were standing on the desks, cheering. Rachel,
Hermione and Pansy had dressed up as cheerleaders. They were doing a dance
around the room with mini red skirts, white shirts that showed their
bellybuttons and red and white pom-poms. Their black platforms clacked on the
stone floor, and Corri had joined them, with an exact same outfit. She didn't
like Stan, and had been forced to sign up with him for the subject of Harry.
She loved to see him embarrassed, and played pranks on him constantly, which
meant they had become instant enemies.
Finally, after a brawl on the dungeon floor (Snape didn't give
up the dungeons, but he did turn them warm, instead of cold), Snape stood up,
holding Stan's arms behind his back. Snape was panting; his shoulder length
hair now messy, and a few strands of it were stuck to his lips. He was panting,
and he had a cut above his left eye. Harry cheered the most for Snape. It was
as if they had become best friends. Harry realized that once Snape put his
coldness to the side, he was much nicer and likeable. It was much better than
Harry's previous years at Hogwarts, that was for sure.
Snape led Stan out of the
classroom, and soon they heard somebody yell, then somebody else burst out
laughing. The class ran out of the classroom, and saw that Dumbledore was in
fits of laughter - and he was laughing
at Stan and Snape, who were, once again, having a fist fight on the floor. The
four cheerleaders (still in their outfits) danced around the two fighting, and
their platforms were making so much racket, that the other classes peeked
outside to see what was happening. Dumbledore looked up, saw the cheerleaders
and had to lean on a suit of armour for support. The three 17 year olds and one
19 year old had quite a lot of people laughing. Harry was grinning, and when
the cheerleaders had stopped dancing, he walked over to Hermione, took her in
his arms and kissed her on the lips. Hermione's pom-poms fell to the floor as
she wrapped her arms around Harry's neck.
^^^^^^^^^^ End of chapter,
peoples!
Author's Note: I'm sorry this was so
short, but I wanted to get this up A.S.A.P.! If you want longer chapters, ask
me in reviews, and I shall try to get them longer!
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Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the HP characters, apart
from Rachel, Stan, Corri McNorry and the NICE Snape, who I own. If there is
anything else that you do not recognize, it's mine.