Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even own Dudley.
Ron insisted that the three enter class at the last possible moment. Ron closed his eyes while walking through the class. This was a big mistake, because Hermione guided him to the first row bench. Harry, in the bench behind them was torn. Of course, she was putting Ron through a ringer. On the other hand, the situation was absolutely hilarious. Ron for the most part, was not amused when he found out that the professor was teaching directly in front of him. Not only did he keep his eyes closed and body hunched over his desk, but Hermione could swear he was softly humming the Chudley Cannon's anthem. Professor Delacour somehow didn't notice his peculiar behavior and began her lecture.
"Girls, look around at the guys in the room. What are they doing?" she prompted.
After looking around, Parvati Patil slowly ventured "Um, most of them are looking at you."
"They're looking at me? There isn't anything unusual, is there?" Delacour prodded.
"Well, maybe a better word would be gazing. Or even fawning," Patil answered.
"Do you know why they're doing that?" Delacour asked. When Patil shook her head no, the professor asked the rest of the class. To her surprise, it wasn't a female who answered.
"It is because you are one quarter veela." Harry stated.
"Very good – 5 points to Gryffindor." She finally noticed Ron in the front row. She smiled, grabbed a potion from her pocket, and asked "Ron Weasely, what do I have in my hand?"
Hermione sniggered. Ron ventured a look up, and quickly said "A potion." He very quickly averted his gaze down at his desk. Delacour drank the potion, put the empty bottle into her pocket, and told Ron "Weasley, look around the classroom and tell me what you see. Focus on the guys in the room."
Ron did as he was told, and saw something unusual. The guys' eyes looked as if they were coming back to life, and some were visibly shaking themselves. He was about to answer, when the professor talked to him again.
"Weasley, now look up at me. Tell me if you see a difference," Delacour prompted. Ron looked slightly shaken, but he looked the professor straight on. He waited, but the mysterious charm she had didn't materialize. He beamed, and then laughed. "The veela charm is gone. What is that potion?"
Delacour responded "Very astute, Weasley. 5 points to Gryffindor. As Ron guessed, the potion holds a neutralizing agent which counteracts the charm which veelas produce. Not all charms are the type that comes from wands. You will often encounter ones such as the veela charm, and not all are as benign."
After talking about the Veela Charm and common relatives for 15 more minutes, she came to the end of class. "You have an assignment for next class. Your assignment is to come up with another counter for the veela charm. I will not accept the potion I just described as a solution. You must use your solution the next class. I don't want to see anyone fawning over me" she finished with a smile. Noticing the grins on the girls faces, she added "Oh, and I will be putting a spell on the ladies, so that they too will be susceptible to the Veela Charm. Class Dismissed."
Next day, the Gryffindor 5th years had Care of Magic creatures with Slytherin. Amazingly, there weren't any gigantic, horrendous beasts within view. Ron noticed this, and pointed it out.
"Yeah, but the Blast Ended Skrewts weren't big to start out with, either." Harry whispered.
The three couldn't talk anymore, because Hagrid started his class. "Now, I got a few requests for less… violen' creatures. An' I thought raisin' those Blast Ended Skrewts would be fun. Anyway, I 'ave a new thin' for ya' to look after." He opened a crate up, and revealed a bunch of very tiny babies, each about an inch long. "Now, does anybody know wha' these are?" Hagrid asked.
As if on cue, both the Slytherin and Gryffindor houses looked over at Hermione. Hermione didn't notice, and raised her hand high into the air. "They're faerie babies," she responded.
"Good. 5 points fer Gryffindor," beamed Hagrid. "Now, yer job is to raise these faeries up. This is gonna be a term long project. Now, the most important part about faeries is time. Faeries have a way of makin' time pass differently. Never spend more than a few hours with faeries at once. And yeh might want to take off yer watch if yeh visit them. But don' worry too much. They're not going to be full grown, so they can' harm you that much." Hagrid spoke about faerie raising for another 15 minutes, then at the end brought them to a new enclosure.
"Take off yer watches, unless yeh want to have to reset 'em," spoke Hagrid. A few set their watches down outside, Harry purposely left his on.
"Harry, Hagrid told you to put your watch away," pointed Ron.
"I know. I just want to see how much affect on time the faeries will have," Harry whispered back. They walked into the enclosure, where Hagrid set each faerie in a little bed. Each bed had two signs, a sign with the faerie's name, and another with a students name. The students quickly went over to their faerie's bed.
"Oh, he's so cute," squealed Lavender. Patil didn't even speak, but just made a bunch of cooing sounds. Ron and Harry were torn between laughter and disgust at the two of them.
"Just remember, yeh've got to spend some time with 'em each day," Hagrid said. After a few more minutes, they all made their way outside.
"So are we getting out early," Harry asked, somewhat confused. He looked at his watch, which was giving him 1:32. Hagrid simply chuckled. Everyone else became confused, when their watches said 1:58. "Yep, that wasn't 10 minutes we spent in there, it was closer to 40. Keep that in mind when you see the faeries each day," Hagrid said, "Class dismissed."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked back to their commons, all talking animatedly about the faeries and how they would raise them, when Malfoy and his gang interrupted.
"So, if it isn't the threesome. Who would've thought that scars, poverty, and muggles went together so well," Malfoy sneered. Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
"Sod off, Malfoy," Harry hissed.
"Oh, don't want to see me? I thought you'd need some friends. After all, I bet most of them left you after you killed off Cedric," Draco said. Harry rounded on him. But before his anger could build, Dumbledore appeared between them.
"Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, I'd like to see you in my office, please," Dumbledore spoke, with no emotion at all. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked away, beaming with delight.
"Oh, I hope he expels them," Ron crowed, almost skipping.
"Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle," Dumbledore spoke, "I don't see why you're staying here. Surely your parents have better uses for you, at the moment."
"I don't know what you're talking about, professor," Malfoy innocently said.
"I expected no less from you," responded Dumbledore," However, I think you should consider this. You would be well off to leave. You'll find that Hogwarts will not be a good haven for lies. It will be even less of a haven for your father's master."
"But my fath…" spoke Draco, before being interrupted by Dumbledore.
"Draco Malfoy, do not finish that sentence. I will not have lies from you, especially about last year. Do not anger me. Leave, now, all three of you." The three left quietly. Even though they were secret supporters of the newly raised Dark Lord Voldemort, they couldn't help but fear Dumbledore that moment. His entire body seemed to radiate power, and was angrier than the three had ever seen him.
"Ugh. We've got divination," complained Harry that afternoon.
"Not to worry. I did some work on divination during the summer. I should be able to breeze through it this year," Ron smiled. Harry stared at him.
"You… You, did work on Divination... during the summer?" Harry asked. He was thoroughly amazed. Ron never did work during the summer, and he hardly worked at divination during the school year. Ron just smiled and handed him a stack of parchment.
"Yep. I had all my brothers write down every horrible thing they could think of that could happen to somebody. 632 things, 237 involving death. The old bat should love this stuff," Ron said. The Divination professor was very pessimistic, especially about the fates of Ron and Harry. Harry, meanwhile, was reading through the parchment.
"Eaten by a dragon, burned by a dragon, maimed by a dragon, stomped on by a dragon… Ron, are all these about dragons?" Harry asked.
"Whoops. That's Charlie's page. Read the next one," said Ron. Charlie was one of Ron's older brothers who worked with dragons for a living.
"Tranfigured into a squirrel, decapitated by a bludger, eaten by the giant squid… now this is what I'm looking for! Ron, can I borrow some of these for mine, as well?" Harry asked, as he packed his notebooks to go to class.
"Sure, but I get to pick out the good ones. I can't wait to use 'transfigured into Snape's image.' Ugh," Ron shivered, "that's got to be the worst thing imaginable." Harry and Ron laughed at the image as they climbed the north tower's stairs.
"Well, you could be transfigured into Snape's image while he was wearing the vulture hat last year," Harry laughed. They both grew quiet, though, as they approached the trap door. Last thing they needed was to draw the professor's attention. They weren't worried about getting in trouble; Harry just didn't want her to come over and predict his death yet again.
"Today, class, we're going to be going into another divination tool: orbs," professor Trelawney spoke mistily. Ron and Harry sat up. This sounded far more interesting than tea leaves or crystal balls. "Orbs are made up of two parts, a crystal and a piece of wood to support it. Now I need a volunteer."
Harry and Ron immediately looked at Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, the resident 'diviners'. However, the two boys were surprised. Brown and Patil were in deep, whispered conversation. When they looked up, they both had knowing grins on their faces and they looked pointedly at Harry. Harry looked back at the professor; she was also looking at him. Harry sighed, and then exasperatedly said "Fine. I knew I was going to die somehow, today. Might as well be now."
Harry got up and walked up the professor. Trelawney passed him an orb with a red-orange crystal, and said, "Hold it like a wand, with the crystal end out. Now, try casting an illumination spell."
Figuring he had nothing to lose, Harry gave the rod a flick and muttered "Lumos" Immediately, a bright light burst from the orb. It seemed far brighter than normal.
"Now try a cheering charm. Weasley, will you please come up and help us?" instructed Trelawney. Ron looked at Harry, who shrugged. Ron walked up and stood by Harry.
"Hilarulum" Harry invoked. Ron promptly doubled over in giggles. Harry looked puzzled. He hadn't put much power behind the spell; Ron should be grinning at best. He looked over at Trelawney who had a knowing smile. Ron had to be guided back to his desk by Seamus Finnegan.
"One final test. Can you freeze the water in this glass for me?" the professor asked. Harry pointed the orb at the glass and muttered "Refrigero" Nothing seemed to happen. Harry tried it again, with a little more power. Instead of a bright sky-blue beam emerging, a little blueish wisp puffed out. Harry tried it one more time, with all his strength. He managed to get a full beam, but it took several seconds to finally cool the water enough to freeze it over. Harry collapsed, panting a little. Seamus, with a smile, guided Harry back to his desk as well.
"Now, you might be asking how this demonstration has anything to do with divination. While the spells Harry used were technically charms, orbs can be also used for hexes, curses, and of course, divination. However, each orb has a specialty as you saw. The orb Potter used contained Zincite, which is used for Illumination, Power, Kindness, and Joy. When Potter attempted a spell that wasn't related to those, he found it very difficult," Trelawney spoke.
"I'm going to pass around 5 orbs. I want you to write down information about each orb. Then, before next class, I want you to try to guess which crystal is in each orb. Finally, I want you to write a quick summary which would be best suited for divination." Trelawney then passed 5 orbs out. Each had a different crystal shape. The shiny red one looked like a faceted jewel, but the redish-orange one looked like a simple stone. The apple-green and greenish-blue ones looked like perfect spheres, but the last one looked like a porous rock of pure gold.
After jotting this down on his parchment, Harry pulled over to Ron and whispered, "Back in my muggle schools, we did something like this. Let's come up with a list of varied spells. We'll use each one on every orb, and write down what happens." Ron pulled out his parchment, and they both came up with a list of spells.
"Ok, so we've got Lumos, Stupefy, Inflamarae, Refrigero, and Hilarulum," listed off Ron.
"Well, we should put a healing type spell in there. Maybe enervate – doesn't that wake people up," suggested Harry.
"Ooh, good. And let's try spell blocking as well." By this time, Harry and Ron finally got one of the orbs, the shiny red one. After doing their spells and writing their results, Harry said, "So, Hilarulum and Inflamarae both worked, but nothing else did. Ok, let's see if we can get another one." Harry borrowed the apple-green orb after Seamus was done with it.
"Wow, only the Hilarulum spell worked! Ok, try to curse me. Make it a light one, though," Harry asked. Ron promptly shot a Jelly-Legs at him, and Harry easily brushed it aside. "Ok, lets try something stronger…Fernunculus!" Harry didn't have to spend near enough effort to block that one, either.
"It looks like this apple-green one just helps you block other peoples spells," finished Ron, "Pretty useful"
They got the same results with the redish-brown orb, even more dramatic. But they couldn't get even the Hilarulum to work on it. When they were done, they waited for Lavender and Parvati to get done with the greenish-blue one.
Nothing seemed to work with it, except when they got to enervate, the stun victim immediately rose to their feet. Finally, they got the last one, the gold looking one. It could produce the Stupefy and Hilarulum spells, and seemed to be decent at blocking curses. But none of the orbs could do all the spells. Several of their spells couldn't be done by any of the 5 orbs. When class was dismissed, Ron and Harry realized they hadn't even done a divination spell.
"Well, are there even divination spells? How are we supposed to know which orb would be better for divination?" asked Ron. Harry only shrugged.
The following day, Harry and Ron walked into the Potions dungeon with a few minutes left before class. Professor Snape looked at his timepiece, then looked away, disappointed. No doubt he wanted to start the year off with taking points away from Gryffindor. Shortly after the class started brewing their potions, Snape sidled up to Harry and Ron.
"So, if it isn't our little hero Potter. Tell me, are you planning on breaking every rule Dumbledore makes this year, too?" Snape hissed. Harry carefully kept his attention on his potion. Snape, continued on, "Well, I wouldn't be surprised. After all, you can't make a simple energizing potion, but that shouldn't stop you from doing whatever you want. Just like your father." At this, Harry began to shake, but he didn't say anything.
Just keep calm. Just keep calm. Harry thought. But Snape had more to add, "Of course, most people would've thought you'd change after causing Cedric to die. But of course, you don't care about anybody but yourself," Snape finished, then glided away from Potter's desk. Harry could barely control his anger. He was shaking, and his face was a beet red. Ron, for his part, just shied away from Harry, thinking that he'd blow up at any moment. The moment the class ended was one of the happiest for Harry and Ron.
Voldemort's eyes snapped open. The dream was much clearer this time, and longer than before. He could see Potter again, and this time he was sitting next to a boy. Voldemort didn't recognize his face. But the man facing him was clear – Severus Snape. They appeared to be in a classroom, making potions. Now that is interesting, a dream with Severus Snape and Harry Potter, Voldemort thought. "Wormtail!" he cried.
Wormtail came running in, slightly shaking. "I want you to summon Lucius and Draco Malfoy before me. I want to see them the first of next month, at this time," Voldemort hissed.
"But master, Draco Malfoy is attending Hogwarts. His absence will be noticed," Wormtail said.
"Crucio!" Voldemort shouted, pointing his wand at Wormtail. Wormtail began screaming, and twitching on the ground. Finally, Voldemort put down his wand and hissed, "Lucius and Draco, at this time, the first of next month. Go."
"Yes, Master," Wormtail whimpered, exiting Voldemort's chambers.
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Thanks to Risi and Atheis & Aeris! I don't remember the 5 year separation between tourneys, but I could be wrong. In any case, it wouldn't work out too well here because the 3rd through 5th years would never get to participate.
Oh, and I made sure to extend the chapter to include Snape…
Lastly, I'm trying to bump up the submission times. I've already got a good deal more planned out, but I want feedback - Please Review!