A/N: thanks for all the reviews, people! I'm happy that you liked my little idea about Nick. (I liked it, too :-)
Many of you asked about Millicent causing trouble to Harry – well, I have great plans with her (you'd never guess what those are – so have patience!)
Juliana Black: you really hate Ron? Hmmm… I like him. (But I like Draco more!)
fishfreak2000: lol, you wrote: "thanks for writing this story, it is so fun to read!" – I'm glad that you like it so much – later on it'll be even more fun, I promise!
unknown reviewer: you wrote that my misspellings disturbed you. Sorry, but as you might have read in my author's notes, my native language is NOT English, and I had already apologised for mistakes like that. You wrote the following: "there would probably only be 17 year 7 boys in the whole of Hogwarts, sorry that really annoyed me." You didn't really pay attention, then, because I wrote 17 7-year male GRYFFINDORS! It's pure maths: Rowling said that there were about 1000 students at Hogwarts. 1000/7(the number of years)= 142. 142/4(number of houses)= 35. 35/2=17.5. (I assumed that half of the students were girls.) So I got the number 17.
All right, enjoy and don't forget to review!
Chapter 8
They are everywhere!
Harry left Ron and headed for the headmaster's room. On the second floor he turned right and bumped into a stupidly smirking Millicent Bulstrode.
"Oh, sorry, Millicent." he apologised. "I didn't see you were here."
"Never mind, gorgeous." the girl grinned.
*Gorgeous? Did she REALLY call me gorgeous?* Harry thought. *She must be out of her mind.*
"Um, well, I've got to go now." he said.
"To Dumbledore, right?" Millicent gave him a huge smile. "Oh, Harry, you must be very worried now! Poor little one!"
*Is she mocking me?* the boy wondered. "No, I'm not that worried. I am aware that he might expel me, but I'm ready to face the consequences of my stupidity."
"Oh, you are such a brave hero!" Millicent fell on his neck with all her eighty kilos.
"Mi…Millicent…" Harry groaned, almost collapsing under her weight. "Thank you for your sympathy, but let me go, please!"
The girl reluctantly released him, sighing. "I don't understand why I haven't realised what a handsome boy you have become… no one in whole England has such beautiful green eyes… and that sexy scar of yours…"
"Huh?" Harry blinked. Now he was sure that Millicent had gone crazy. "Well, thanks, I guess… you are also pretty." he said, lacking a better idea what to say to her.
"Pretty?" she flung her arms around his neck again, almost suffocating him. "Oh, my dear, my sweetheart, my beloved Tri-Wizard Champion!" she started to sob.
*Good gracious, what have I done?* Harry's mind froze. This girl was either lunatic, or desperately in love with him. But how could that happen? And why?
Suddenly Mrs. Norris appeared on the corner. Seeing Harry, she let out a terrified mew and scurried in the other direction, as fast as her tiny legs could carry her.
Millicent didn't understand the cat's behaviour, but didn't care for it, either – she carried on hugging poor Harry.
"Listen, Milli, I…"
"No, don't speak, sweetums!" she put a finger on his mouth.
*Holy Snitch, she isn't going to kiss me, is she?* Harry felt nauseous.
"Harry Potter, sir, Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you, sir!" a voice broke the awkward silence.
"I'm coming, Dobby." Harry was eternally grateful to the house-elf for saving him now. He tossed Millicent's arm away and ran after Dobby.
* * * * *
Harry took a deep breath and stepped to Dumbledore's door.
"Um, orange-drop?" he asked the stone gargoyle.
The door didn't budge.
"Pepper flavoured beans? Cockroach-cluster? Chocolate kangaroos?"
The door still didn't open.
*How is Dumbledore expecting me to visit him, if I don't know the password?* he thought, then suddenly heard a creaking sound and the door opened. Out came Hagrid.
"Harry, finally, yeh're here!" he said. "Dumbledore's bin waitin' fer yeh fer ages! Where have yeh bin?"
"I was with Ron." Harry shrugged. "By the way, what's the current password?"
"Banana split." the giant answered. "Hey, go in, don' make him wait!"
"Is he very upset? Is he gonna expel me?"
"Nah, why would he?" Hagrid answered. "Although he isn' too happy with yeh, mate. Yeh were thoughtless, an' Ginny too. But no use cryin' over spilt milk, so… just go in and don' worry! He won' snap yer head off!" and with a grin he left.
*Oh, well, get a grip, Potter.* the boy told himself and entered the room.
At first he didn't see the headmaster anywhere. There was no one there, but Fawkes, the phoenix.
"Hi, Fawkes, how are you?" Harry tried to smile. Maybe speaking to the bird would divert his thoughts from the impending catastrophe. For he had a certain premonition, that a real catastrophe was about to come.
The phoenix flew to him and perched himself on Harry's shoulder.
"Where's Professor Dumbledore?" the boy asked the bird, as if it was capable of answering. "What do you think, will he expel me? I think he'd have all reasons to do so. I've brought shame on the school… and on poor Ginny, too." he sighed. Fawkes snuggled closer to him, trying to encourage him a bit. "Do you think I could stay and be a ground-keeper like Hagrid? Or will Dumbledore think that I'm not worthy of that? Oh, Fawkes, life's so difficult. If I could change the past, I'd do so, to avoid the humiliation that Ginny and Hogwarts have to suffer now… because of me. Whatever happens, promise me that you'll take care of Professor Dumbledore, will you, Fawkes?"
"I don't think I need his protection, Harry." a voice came from behind Harry. He turned around to see a secret door in the wall open and the headmaster come through it. "But you're right, sometimes he can be really useful." the old man smiled, pointing his finger at the phoenix. "At least he provides me company when I'm bored."
"I never thought that you could get bored, sir."
The old wizard's eyes glinted mischievously. "Of course I can get bored sometimes. But that is what pretty scandals like yours are good for: shaking me out of boredom. But have a seat, please."
Harry gulped and sat down. He had no idea how to react on Dumbledore's phrase 'pretty scandals like yours'.
"You are very disappointed with me, aren't you, sir?" he blurted out.
"I should be, of course, I should be, but…" his smiled, "I can't help feeling happy that at least something is happening here. Hogwarts has been an utter boredom lately." he told this in such a nonchalant way, as if talking about weather.
Nonplussed, Harry stammered: "But you are going to expel me, aren't you, sir?"
"No way, Harry." Dumbledore shook his head. "I wouldn't deny you the chance of becoming a full-fledged wizard. You might be one of the bests, and the wizarding world needs you."
Harry felt that a great weight was off his mind. Everything was okay. Just okay.
"What do you plan to do with me then, sir?"
"Nothing, son, nothing." Albus smiled jovially.
"But you'll let me marry Ginny, won't you?"
"Only if you accept me as your best man."
"Well, actually I've already promised Ron…" Harry said.
"Never mind, Harry." Dumbledore grinned, his blue eyes sparkling impishly. Strangely to Harry, he still looked young when smiling like that.
"We will throw a nice wedding party for you two… let's say… at Christmas?"
"Christmas, sir?"
"Yes, imagine, how wonderful it'd be to have a Yule ball combined with a wedding! No student would want to spend the holidays at home this year!"
*Sure, and Malfoy will be around, too.* Harry sighed inwardly, wondering why Dumbledore was so lenient. He expected to get expelled, or at least get a long detention… or a great dressing-down… but nothing like that happened. Why? Funny man, Dumbledore.
"Okay, then, I guess we've discussed the main points, Harry, you may go now."
*The main points? What main points?* the boy raised an eyebrow. *We haven't really discussed anything. I guess he was only bored and wanted to talk to someone. Poor old Dumbledore.*
"All right, sir." Harry said and stood up to leave, when a strange noise filled the room, coming from the fireplace.
In the next moment a man and a woman burst out of it, falling on the floor.
"Uh, good flight, bad landing." the man groaned.
"I told you we haven't used Floo-powder often enough, Tim." the woman growled at him, standing up, smoothing the folds of her yellow robe. "Oh, Professor Dumbledore! Nice to meet you!" she stretched out her hand.
The headmaster walked to her and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you too, Miss… I don't even know whom I have the honour of talking to."
"Oh, my, I'm so ill-mannered!" the woman clasped her hands. "I'm Emeline Bacon from Witch Weekly. And I'm looking for… oh, there he is!" she caught a glimpse of Harry standing before the headmaster's desk. She immediately turned her back on Dumbledore and rushed to the boy. "Harry Potter! Oh, my gosh, you've grown a lot! When I last saw you, you were only three months old! What a handsome young man you've become!" she took the befuddled Harry by the arm, leading him to the window. "Timmie," she turned to her assistant, "make a photo of him! It'll be on the front page!"
Tim started clicking his camera.
"But, Miss Bacon, I…" Harry was speechless. "Professor?" he looked over the journalist's shoulder, looking for the headmaster. Dumbledore was standing about four metres away from them, wearing a furious look on his normally peaceful face.
"Okay, Timmie, enough of the photos!" Emeline instructed the man. "And now, Harry… if I may call you Harry, you'll let me call you by your given name, won't you, so, Harry, I have some questions for you."
"You may have questions, but won't ask them." Albus cut in. "The door is that way, Miss Bacon. Or just go back the way you came here. I place my fireplace at your disposal."
"But Professor, I have to make an interview with Harry, and…"
"No interviews! This is a school, an educational institution, Miss Bacon, so I'm asking you to leave my students in peace! Leave my office, please!"
"Never in my career have I met such a rude person like you, Professor!" Emeline Bacon was offended. "Okay, we'll leave your office, sir. Come, Timmie." she said and left through the door. Tim, the photographer followed suit.
"Rude? Me?" Dumbledore fumed. "These low-down, no-good… oh, I can't stand journalists!"
"I can understand that, professor." Harry replied.
At that instant Dobby burst into the room.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir, they are everywhere!" he panted.
"Who?" Albus and Harry asked in unison.
"The nastiest scum of the world, sir: journalists! They have invaded the castle! They've brought thousands of cameras, hundreds of tins of make-up, and a dozen huge crates with colourful lamps, I think… and… tents, sir."
"Tents?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, sir." Dobby nodded with an anxious expression. "I fear they are planning on settling down here for a while."
"Settling down?" Harry gasped. *No, that can't be true! Are they doing all this because of me? Damn, I really have got Hogwarts into trouble.*
"Professor?" he turned to Albus. "What are we gonna do now?"
"We can do only one thing, Harry." the headmaster sighed. "You have to go home."
"To my godfather?"
"No, son."
Harry blanched. Dumbledore couldn't possibly be planning to send him back to the Dursleys, could he?
"Professor, please, not there, anywhere, but not there!" he pleaded, but Albus put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it to give encouragement.
"I'm sorry, Harry, but it is the only place where the journalists cannot disturb you."
"But… what will be with the school, sir? With my Quidditch team?"
"They'll manage it without you for a while, Harry. There won't be any matches until March."
"You don't want me to stay with the Dursleys until March, do you?" Harry looked as white as a sheet.
"Don't think so." Dumbledore smiled. "I'll send you an owl when you can come back. You won't have to stay there long… a couple of weeks, at most."
Harry nodded. "But professor, how am I going to go back? There's no Hogwarts Express now."
"You'll use Floo-powder then."
"I cannot." Harry protested. "Uncle Vernon's fireplace is blocked up."
"You'll go to Mrs. Figg's, then."
"Mrs. Figg?" Harry frowned. "She'd get a heart-attack as soon as someone came out of her fireplace, for sure. She is an old and sickly lady, it wouldn't be proper to risk her health, sir."
"Oh, don't be worried about Arabella Figg, Harry." Albus smiled. "She won't get frightened. Some decades ago many young men travelled in and out of her fireplace… she had been a pretty girl." a dreamy smile appeared on Dumbledore's face. "Very pretty, indeed."
Harry stared at the headmaster, his mouth open in surprise. Was Dumbledore speaking of the same crazy, old, cat-lover Mrs. Figg? How could they know each other? Was she… could she be…?
"Oh, yes, Harry, Arabella Figg is a witch. Concealed it well, didn't she?"
"Um, yeah." the boy nodded. "Do you know her well?"
"And how!" Dumbledore winked. "And now, go Harry."
"Yes, Harry Potter, sir, go and make yourself safe from these lunatic journalists, sir!" Dobby agreed.
"All right." Harry heaved a deep sigh. "Will you take care of Ginny for me?"
"You can count on that." the headmaster nodded, giving Harry a handful of Floo-powder. The boy threw it into the fire, saying: 'Mrs. Figg's house!', and off he went.
* * * * *
Tom Riddle, alias Lord Voldemort, a.k.a. You-Know-Who (or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) was sitting in an armchair, playing with an onion. He liked onions and garlic. These were his favourite nourishment, besides blood-tonic, of course.
Suddenly a snake slithered into the room, with an envelope and some newspapers in its mouth.
"Ah, the daily post!" Voldemort said and took the letter and the papers, patting the snake on the head. "Good girl, Nagini, good girl. Fetch, Nagini!" he threw the onion out the window. The snake hurried after it.
"Wormtail!" the Dark Lord yelled.
Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail, entered the room in an apron. "Yeees, my lord?" his voice trembled, just like his silver hand holding a dripping plate. "What is thy bidding? Should I clean the windows? I can stop doing the dishes, my lord, if you wish."
"No, Wormtail, I just wanted you to go to the post-office and pay this bill." he handed Peter the envelope. "I don't want to wake suspicion. If we don't pay the bills of the Riddle-house, some money collectors will be sent here, whom I'll have to kill, you know. I don't want it, though."
"I see, my Lord." Wormtail bowed and backed out with the bill.
Nagini slithered into the room again, with the onion in her mouth.
"Good girl." Voldemort stroked the snake's head. "And now leave me alone. I want to read in peace."
Nagini put her head into his master's lap, trying to catch his attention.
"I said, out with you!" You-Know-Who shouted. Poor Nagini got close to getting a heart-attack. Her master was somehow even more unbearable today, than usual. She decided to avoid more trouble and left the room.
Voldemort unfolded the first newspaper, The Diagon Alley Journal.
*Sports column, economic figures,* he read through the pages, *ads, comics… oh, I hate Martin Miggs!… recipe of the week… celebrities…now wait a minute!* his red eyes widened. "Harry Potter! A whole page on Harry Potter!" he fumed. "What the hell did that little bastard do again?"
He started to read.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GREATEST SCANDAL OF HOGWARTS HISTORY
As you, Dear Reader might already have got to know, Harry Potter, the boy, who survived Lord You-Know-Who's death curse at the age of one, has again become the centre of attention - although this time not due to his heroism, but his imprudent act of having impregnated his best friend's sister, Ginny Weasley.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has never been exposed to such a terrible scandal. My assistants have read through all relevant books, but in vain - no scandal of this magnitude has ever been registered in Great Britain's wizard history. We can state without hesitation, that Harry Potter has given us a field day that we have used as much as possible, in order to sate your curiosity, Esteemed Reader.
Now we are at Hogwarts, where Mr. Potter is studying as a seventh-year student. Our plans of making an interview with him have been thwarted by Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of the school. We have asked the opinions of some students and teachers about the events, though:
Professor Snape, Harry's Potions teacher: " Potter is just like his father. Reckless and stupid."
Susan Cunningham, Ms. Weasley's best friend: "Yeah, I had suspected something like that for about three weeks. Ginny was having morning sicknesses. I wasn't sure whether she had a bun in the oven or not, but I had a strong impression that she actually did."
Professor Snape: "For me it was no surprise. That boy is rotten to his very core."
Ginny Weasley, the future mother of Potter's child: "Harry isn't faulty. It was me, who seduced him. I love him, you know."
Draco Malfoy, captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team: "I wasn't surprised at all. That's exactly what you'd expect from Potter. He thinks that he has the right to do anything he wants, just because Dumbledore is favouring him. I wouldn't be surprised at all, if Dumbledore wouldn't expel him… though I think he'd deserve it."
Vincent Crabbe, Mr. Malfoy's friend: "Yeah, the same as Draco said. Potter is a ******* (we didn't want to quote Mr. Crabbe's words. We are sure that you will understand that, Precious Reader.)
Gregory Goyle, Mr. Malfoy's other friend. "Exactly, Crabbe."
Hermione Granger, Mr. Potter's friend: "Harry is a good boy. But he is human, like we all, that's why he made a mistake. Everyone can make mistakes, so no one has the right to condemn him."
Professor Snape: "From the first time he set foot on Hogwarts grounds, he has been crossing lines. Sneaking out of the castle in the middle of the night with his no-good fellows, talking back to teachers, going illegally to Hogsmeade, bullying his schoolmates - especially the Slytherins -, helping prisoners escape, always wanting to be the centre of attention - just think of him taking part in the Tri-Wizard Tournament… And now he has managed to corrupt the youngest Weasley, too… a great achievement." he adds sarcastically.
Milliencent Bulstrode: "Don't hurt poor Harry, please! He is such a cool guy!" (Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle exchanging bewildered looks - we have to mention, that Ms. Bulstrode is also a Slytherin.)
Ronald Weasley, Mr. Potter's best friend: "At first I was angry with him. But he truly loves my sister, and will marry her. I'll be glad to have him as my brother-in-law, and don't care what the others say, or what you ********** journalists write."
(Thank you, Mr. Weasley.)
Sir Nicholas de Mimpsy-Porpington, new member of the Headless Hunt: "I like Harry. He is brave, clever and has always been ready to help anyone, even those, who didn't deserve it. He is generous, and shouldn't be condemned, in my opinion."
And finally, Professor Snape: "He has talent for only two things: Quidditch and getting himself into trouble. I say that he would deserve to be expelled."
No comment.
"Potter, Potter, Potter, what a pleasant surprise!" Voldemort whispered, a malicious smile appearing on his disgusting face. He reached for the other paper, The Hogsmeade Times, in which he found another detailed article about Harry's little romance with the Weasley girl.
"Nagini!" he yelled. The snake slithered into the room, trembling with fear. She was sure that her master would beat her now, or tie a knot on her just for fun. But Lord You-Know-Who didn't look as if he was about to beat anyone. On the contrary. He looked pleased.
"Come, Nagini. I'm taking you out for a walk." the snake's eyes lit up. She looked like as if she was about to bark and wiggle her tail. (And didn't look a thing like a cow.)
"Yes, Nagini, I'm in a terrific mood now. I've received wonderful news." he took the onion and threw it away. "Fetch, girl!"
A/N2: all right, I know that Voldie was totally OoC in this chapter, but I just couldn't resist the temptation of making a bit of ridicule of him. Don't worry, later on he'll be his old, extremely evil self.
I guess you were surprised by Dumbledore's reaction. Please, don't write me flames saying that he was stupid – NO, he wasn't stupid, he had a reason for behaving like that. (It'll be revealed later.)
The eight chapters I've posted so far can be considered as the 'introduction' or 'prologue' to the real story that begins HERE, with Harry leaving Hogwarts. In other words: magic begins here.
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