Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't even own Dudley.
NOTE: For some reason, the Iowa State network lost all connection with Fanfiction.net for the last couple of days. Not only would my computer fail to reach it, but so did the Iowa State Unix Web Servers.
However, I saw that other people had posted 11-14, so I assume it was a problem on our end. I apologize if you had to wait awhile for this chapter, and barring further difficulties connecting, I will have the next chapter up tomorrow.
Harry's classes seemed to go much smoother, now that Malfoy was out of Hogwarts. Potions for once was smooth sailing, but this was beginning to worry Harry. Snape's sudden reversal of attitude bothered him, and he wondered where Snape's true loyalties lied. But Harry couldn't spend too much time worrying about Snape or classes; the Yule Ball was less than a week away!
As he walked into the commons, he noticed Ron and Hermione sitting next to each other by the fire. If she were any closer to him, Harry thought, she'd be on his lap. "So are you glad I told Hermione what you were doing in Fleur's class, Ron?" Harry asked, with a big grin.
"What! You told her!" protested Ron.
Hermione answered, "Well, not in so many words. Then I saw you coming back with those books about how to counteract the Veela Charm, and I knew what you were doing."
Ron looked lost for words, so Harry twisted the knife a little deeper, "So have you two kissed yet?"
"No!" Ron loudly said.
"Yes…" stammered Hermione, which made Ron even more confused.
"Oh, do tell!" said Harry, clearly gleeful about the utterly confounded look on Ron's face.
Hermione was a little hesitant, and said "Er, well, it wasn't easy. I ended up having to magically shave off the beard, first."
"That was you! I thought I was just imagining that!" exclaimed Ron, blushing, finally figuring out what he felt the night they first tried to put Alicia's name in the cup.
"You must've had to think really hard about kissing him, with that ethereal potion to go through," Harry cracked, and then ran up the stairs chortling.
Harry wished he had held his tongue. Now, instead of simply sitting by each other, Hermione and Ron seemed to be sitting on each other's lap every night in the commons. On the plus side, there was one extra seat by the fire always available.
Harry sat back, trying to ignore the two of them now cooing to each other. It was nice and comfortable by the fire, and he fell into a light dream.
He was at the ball with Ginny. She was wearing a beautiful dress, and asked him about his clothes. Harry looked down, and was wearing the extremely scuffed robes his effigy had been wearing earlier that year. "What, you didn't get any good dress robes?" Ginny asked, somewhat tearful. He didn't know what to say, and Ginny started crying and ran out of the ball. Then Malfoy popped in, followed by Snape, followed again by Voldemort, who all laughed at him.
"Stop It!" Harry yelled, frightening Ron and Hermione.
"We're sorry Harry! We didn't know! We're still your friends!" cried Ron, clearly mortified.
"What?" Harry asked, now confused. Then he noticed Ron and Hermione were apparently kissing. Harry laughed, and said, "No, I had a bad dream. It had nothing to do with you."
Suddenly, Harry realized the dream was right! He hadn't bought any good clothes. He didn't want to wear the same dress robes as last year! Harry quickly ran upstairs, which made Ron and Hermione slightly suspicious. However, when he came down under the invisibility cloak, neither noticed when the portrait opened up on its own.
Harry quickly ran outside and prodded the knot on the Whomping Willow with a stick. He dashed through the tunnel, and came up in the Shrieking Shack. After exiting through the back door where no one would see him, he ran over to the clothing shop.
He quickly tossed off his cloak, which greatly startled the shop's owner, and urgently said, "I need your best dress robes!"
After getting over her shock at Harry's sudden emergence, the shop owner said, "You're pretty late to be getting robes for the Yule Ball, you know. But lucky you, you arrived just late enough. I just got in the dress robes for next year. You've got your pick of the entire lot."
Harry could hardly believe his luck. He quickly looked over the robes, and one quickly drew his attention. But he noticed that it wasn't a robe at all.
"Oh, that," explained the owner, seeing what he was looking at, "Of course that's not a robe. It's a tuxedo. They're always the first to go. I'd stock more of them, but I get them from a muggle store. Better not to raise their suspicions by buying too many, you know."
Harry was hardly listening to her, but was imagining himself in the suit. He quickly grabbed off the hanger, and found a dressing room. It was by far the best Harry had ever looked, and Harry made a mental note to dress his future effigies in tuxes instead of quidditch robes. He quickly paid the owner the price of 28 galleons, and set back off for the castle. He was going to be the best dressed at the entire dance!
On the way back to the shrieking shack, he saw a curious sight that completely ruined his excitement. It was Snape, and to Harry's horror, he was meeting with a cloaked stranger with bright red eyes. Voldemort! Harry thought angrily to himself. Worse, Snape was passing Voldemort a set of potions ingredients, two of which were large crystals. Harry had to work hard to control his anger – Snape was working for Voldemort all along!
Harry stopped just before entering the castle, and looked over at the Forbidden Forest. He had to know for sure – he couldn't believe Snape would betray them all! Making sure that his invisibility cloak was still in place, Harry ran to the forest.
He had almost forgotten how spooky the forest could be, especially at night. After an hour or so, Harry heard a noise in the distance. Harry quietly made his way over, and was amazed by what he found. It was Firenze, but the centaur was softly roaring for some reason.
"Firenze?" Harry called, taking off his cloak. Firenze turned around, and Harry noticed the dexterous centaur seemed to be wobbling. Fearing the worse, Harry glanced down, and saw that the centaur was indeed missing a hoof.
"Please. Don't look," Firenze said. Harry heard something he never thought he'd hear in Firenze's voice. Defeat.
"It's ok. I'm sure they can make a replacement hoove for you," Harry quickly said.
However, instead of looking up in hope, Firenze shuddered. Firenze slowly said, "Centaurs are not a vain people, Harry. However, we are very vain about our hooves. It's, very hard to explain to outsiders. I… I have been expelled from our society because of this. But it would be even worse to fix it. It is unspeakable to even suggest it." Firenze's head drooped even lower, and Harry had a hard time remembering Firenze's bold rebelliousness, and an even harder time containing his anger at Snape. When he finally arrived back at Hogwarts, Harry silently went to bed.
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Ok, I know it's a short chapter. But there's a lot of action in the next chapter, centering around the Two Draughts.
Atheis and Aeris, I wouldn't worry about it too much – you see, 2/3 of the reviews are from you!
Avide Reader – I've tried to come as close to JK's style as possible. For instance, I would never say "Sod off". I was hoping people would think I was English, but then I realized that my bio said I was from Iowa State University…
About the Philosopher's stone – is the book's content changed as well, or is it just the title? If the original was different, I'd be interested in reading it, just to see what changes they made. About the title, I am far in favor of Philosopher's Stone. It by far captures the point of the stone: whether eternal life and endless riches would be a blessing or a curse. I would imagine they changed it to "Sorcerer's Stone" so it would be alliterative, and maybe make it sell better.
C'mon. You know you want to review this story. I can see your cursor heading over to that 'Submit Review' button. Give in to temptation!