Chapter 12 Only Me
"Why do you read so much!" Rachel yelled at Neil. Neil was munching on a
beagle while reading the book, Hogwarts, A History. "Because I want to
know the basics before we begin." He replied, not looking up from his
book. "Have a doughnut." He added. A doughnut floated over and hung in
midair an inch away from Rachel's face.
"I've already had twelve!" She said, closing her fist around it. When she
tried to pull it out of the air, it resisted to even budging. She tugged
on it again, having the same result. It was causing quite a scene. Rachel
pulled on it again, and Neil released it. Her arm came flying down and she
hit herself in the stomach.
"Hey, dawg!" A voice said. Neil looked up and saw Fred. Fred sat himself
down next to Neil, followed by George. "Ahh! It's the book to top all
books!" George said. Rachel gave an exasperated sigh and flung her arms
into the air. "What's up with everyone and Hogwarts, A History!?" She
asked.
Crystal appeared sitting next to Rachel, making her give a little
frightened squeak. "Don't do that!" she said, waving her arms in the air.
Crystal only grinned at her.
"What's the first class?" Neil asked Rachel absently. "Defense Against the
Dark Arts." She replied. Neil spat out his beagle. "My dad teaches that
class!" He said. Crystal rolled her eyes. "Of course, dad came to
embarrass us." She said sarcastically. Neil rolled his eyes and grabbed
his backpack. "C'mon, Rachel, my dad'll be there early." He said, and they
walked away.
Neil came to the D.A.D.A door and pushed it slowly open. Harry, not
knowing Neil and Rachel were in the room, jumped as Neil tapped him on the
shoulder. "Neil! Don't do that! I told you not to appear and startle me
like that!" Harry said. "I didn't." Neil said, his green eyes watching his
father searchingly. Harry opened his mouth, changed his mind, and closed
it. He gave Neil a little grin. He had the same piercing green eyes Harry
had.
Harry looked up abruptly as the bell rang and grinned as the students filed
into the classroom.
~*~Meanwhile.~*~
Meagan dragged Joanne and Jessica to the doctor's office. Jo and Jess
struggled, kicked, and even bit their mother to get back home. Meagan gave
a sigh. "I don't like the doctor's office either, but my Quidditch
insurance says we must go!" She said, exasperatedly.
She dragged them into the magical doctor's office, causing a scene. She
magically bound them to the seats they were in. She wiped the sweat from
her forehead and sighed. Twins. She thought.
"Potter, Meagan!" The secretary yelled. "You better stay here." Meagan
said threateningly to her daughters. They gave her equal looks of
disgust. She strutted over to the secretary, who glanced over at the two
struggling twins. "It'll be about ten minutes until they get out of that."
She said sadly.
Meagan walked in and saw Dr. Bruder walk in. "'Morning Meagan." He said,
grinning. Meagan grinned back. "I had to take the twins along." She
sighed forlornly. "Those two give parenthood a bad name."
Dr. Bruder laughed. "Yes, yes," He said, "I saw them before I came here.
Magically bound to the chair, are they?" Meagan nodded and grinned again.
He tested her reflexes (which worked quicker than he expected and got flung
across the room when she kicked him), looked in her ears, eyes, and throat,
and then said, "Well, it's not time for the blood test." Meagan wrinkled
her nose. "Blood tests." She said, shuddering, "I hate them. I don't mind
slitting my arm open for a good reason but I still don't like it."
He led Meagan to the blood testing room and pricked her finger. She winced
a little but didn't emit any noise. He walked away and came back minutes
later, looking at a piece of parchment. He grinned at her again, showing
lots of teeth. "Meagan," He said, looking over the parchment, "You're
pregnant again."
~*~At Hogwarts.~*~
"And Hagrid will be bringing the today's subject." Harry said, looking out
the window. He saw nothing, but he swore he heard a faint clicking noise.
Neil looked out the window and zoomed onto a spot where the bushes were
moving. Seeing nothing, he sighed and returned his sight to normal.
Suddenly the door burst open. Harry jerked around and saw Meagan standing
in the doorway, her face flushed and her flyaway hair messier than normal.
"Harry-!" She gasped. Harry looked at her, startled. She mentioned for
him to step outside and he did so.
What the.? Neil thought. The next thing he knew Crystal was hovering
beside him. 'What called you here?' Neil mind-waved to her. Crystal
settled herself on Neil's desk. 'You know I have the Weasleys for
friends,' she said, as though it were obvious, 'they can read minds.'
She looked at the wall. Her special power was the power to look through
solid objects. There was a yelp and a scream of, "OH MY GOD!" and then the
thump of something large hitting the ground. 'Dad just fainted,' Crystal
informed him. Neil looked at her. Rachel was starting to give him funny
looks.
There was a flash of lights and a muffled shout. 'Ewww.' Crystal said,
'Mum just woke Dad up by kissing him while zapping him.' Neil wrinkled his
nose. "What the heck is up wit' you?" Rachel asked. Neil shook his head
and mouthed, "Crystal."
Harry stumbled back into the classroom. Meagan gave him a soft kiss and
left. "Ow." He said finally.
"Harry! There yeh are!" Came loud voice. Harry looked up and saw Hagrid
entering the room. "Are yeh read' for 'im?" Harry rolled up his sleeves,
licked his parched lips, and nodded. There was a loud clicking noise and
Aragog entered the room, pincers bared, all eight eyes twinkling. Most
students screamed.
"Where is the boy I met in the Forbidden Forest?" He asked, his pincers
clicking dangerously. His eyes scanned the room and landed on Neil.
Aragog approached Neil and leaned his horrible white head close to Neil's.
Rachel pushed her chair violently backwards, ramming into the desk in back
of hers, which also happened to be Pandemonia's. Pandemonia was watched
Aragog with interest, her red and brown eyes sparkling.
Neil looked coolly at Aragog. "No, I think perhaps you're looking for my
father." He said, jerking his head to his father. Aragog reared back and
looked at Harry. Aragog walked over to him and stared into his eyes.
Harry stood tall, his jaw set and looked back into the spider's eight eyes.
"Where is your orange-haired companion?" Aragog inquired. Harry unclenched
his jaw. (Crystal was gone by now) "Working for the Ministry. He's as old
as I now." He said. Aragog clicked his pincers. "I need you to help me
with my classes." Harry said, flexing his arms, "I'm sure it is Hagrid's
will for you to do it."
Aragog looked from Harry to Hagrid, who nodded enthusiastically. Aragog
sighed, his pincers clicking rapidly. "Then I will do so." He said, and
Harry began to teach his class.
~*~At the Potter Residence.~*~
James sighed despondently. Meagan had been making fun of his hair again.
It had started to gray and Meagan wouldn't shut up about it. "Wait until
Sirius sees this! I'll never hear the end of it." He said.
There was a crashing sound as Jo and Jess knocked something over. He
looked up abruptly and grinned. It sounded like it did in the day of the
Marauders. "THE NEW NEIGHBOR IS HERE! JOANNE? JESSICA? DID YOU BREAK
THAT LAMP AGAIN!?" He heard Meagan shouting. He laughed.
Meagan walked into the room, snorted, and said, "Do you and your gray hair
want to meet the new neighbor, Prongs?" James sighed and looked miserably
into the mirror. It was a tendency for the Marauders to make fun of each
other. "No." He said. Meagan laughed and walked downstairs.
"I think I'm leaving the kids here!" She shouted up the stairs to James,
"They might break something!" She heard James give another sigh and she
laughed.
She left the house, wincing as she heard another crash and James yelling.
There was a high-pitched meowing sound. Sighing, she rang the doorbell. A
blonde-haired woman with icy gray eyes opened the door moments later.
"Yes?" She asked. "I'm your neighbor and I was wondering if you wanted to
come over to have some tea." Meagan said kindly. "Alright." The woman
replied, "By the way, my name is Agatha. You know, the popular singing
sorceress, Only Me."
"Uh huh." Meagan said, not knowing what on earth Agatha was talking about.
Agatha stopped short when she saw the direction Meagan was walking in.
"Isn't that Harry Potter's house?" She asked. "Yeah.?" Meagan said slowly,
watching Agatha, "That's the Potter residence. I live there."
"Is it a condominium?" Agatha asked.
"No."
"Are you his. sister?"
"No."
"Are you his girlfriend?"
"In a way. I'm his wife." Meagan said. Agatha gasped. "Harry Potter is.
married?" She sputtered. Meagan opened her mouth to reply when there was a
loud crashing sound and Nita sprinted out the front door, screaming. Jo
and Jess were her pursuers, chasing her with Meagan's wand. Nita's glasses
fell off and she blundered into a tree.
"JAMES!!!" Meagan screamed. James opened the window of his room and stuck
his head out. "What?" He asked with fake innocence. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE
GONNA WATCH THE KIDS!" Meagan hollered. "Oops!" He said, closing the
window. "PRONGS YOU LOSER!" Meagan replied, her eyes flashing red.
She ran after Jo and Jess. "Leave Nita alone!" She shouted at them.
Jess's eyes flashed purple from behind her glasses. Jo, wearing her
sunglasses as usual, didn't even glance towards their mother. Agatha stood
staring as Meagan lunged at Jo, who held position of her wand. Jo fell,
her sunglasses askew, and threw the wand to Jess. Jess "accidentally"
stepped on Nita's glasses and stumbled away.
Meagan, exasperated, pointed her finger at her wand, which shot towards her
and out of Jess's clutches. She repaired Nita's glasses and comforted her,
for she had a horrible scrape on her knees that was starting to bleed.
Nita sobbed into her mother's shirt as Meagan healed the scrape. "There
you go, Juanita," Meagan soothed, running her fingers through Nita's hair.
Nita wiped her nose with her arm, stood up, and ambled away.
"Sorry." Meagan said, shaking her head. "Those twins always get their
hands on my wand one way or another." Agatha looked at her weakly. "You
have kids?" She asked. "Yeah. Harry and I have five of them. Crystal and
Neil or off at school. And he's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts."
Meagan replied, "Won't you come in?"
Meagan led Agatha into the house. She waved her hand casually and made
them some tea. They sat down at the table. "Grandpa! Grandpa!" Came two
identical shouts. Meagan and Agatha turned to see James walking down the
stairs. "Hullo Blue Eyes." He said, seating himself beside Meagan. "Are
you. Harry Potter?" Agatha asked.
Meagan and James looked at each other and burst out laughing. "No!" James
wheezed. "I'm James Potter!" Agatha gasped as Meagan and her chair fell
over backwards. "ME get married to THAT bloke!?" Meagan choked. James
held a hand out to Meagan, who took it. James let go of it and she fell
over backwards. She yelped and glared. She mumbled under her breath and
then remembered that she hadn't told James she was pregnant again.
She sat herself down and sighed. Nita came into the kitchen and started to
look for the sweets. She found some Reese's and started to open it when
Meagan said, "No, no, no! Not before lunch! Remember the time you ate too
much sugar?" She took the Reese's away and Nita sulked away.
"James Potter?" Agatha squeaked, "But James Potter. died!" James gave her
a sideways look. "Indeed I did, but I got another shot at life. This
second life was a gift to Meagan and Harry on their wedding day." He said.
"Yeap!" Meagan said, she herself starting to eat Reese's, "A gift from
Godric Gryffindor himself, as I'm his heir." Agatha looked as if she were
receiving too much information in too little time. Then the puzzled look
was replaced by another look. All Meagan knew was that she didn't like it.
'Mk, status report on this Agatha person sitting in front of me.' Meagan
mind-waved to Marykate. 'Mmfrg! Meagan! It's nine!' Marykate replied.
Meagan sighed again and rolled her eyes. 'This Agatha person has a
murderous look in her eyes! Now tell me!'
Marykate mumbled something inaudible and said, quite dully, 'Agatha, or the
singing sorceress "Only Me," moved here purposely, so she could marry Harry
Potter and become more famous. Not that she likes him really, she just
wants to be famous.' She yawned. 'Happy?' She asked. 'Yeah, thanks Mk.'
Meagan said.
"I'm just wondering how you didn't know I was married to Harry. I'm always
on the sports news, since Harry and I both play professional Quidditch."
Meagan said, unwrapping and throwing another Reese into her mouth. "Oh, I
don't watch Quidditch news," Agatha said snobbishly, "I only watch the news
when I'm on it." Meagan stared at her.
"Yeah. Wow! Look at the time! I have Quidditch practice now!" Meagan
said in fake surprise, "You really must be going!" She and Agatha got up
and Meagan shoved Agatha out the door. She leaned on the door and sighed.
"Good riddance." She said.
~*~
"Hey, Moonlight! Your dad's class is next!" Fred said, taking aim and
flicking a pea at George. George loaded his spoon with mashed potatoes and
flung them at Fred. "Well, I think it's gonna be interesting!" He said as
Fred wiped fustily at the potatoes that were in his hair. "Oh boy." Was
all that Crystal could say.
Brian started to flick peas at Felicity, over at the Slytherin table.
Crystal joined him, flicking peas at Blick. Both Slytherins looked around
for the pea-flickers, but Brian and Crystal stopped and shoveled food into
their mouths as Felicity and Blick looked in their direction.
The loud bell rang and the four Modern-Day Marauders took up their bags.
They all ran down the hall so they could grab seats before the Slytherins
could.
Crystal swung around the corner and ran into her father's classroom,
closely followed by Fred and George, with Brian in the rear. She sat in
the first row of the middle row. Fred and George sat on her sides and
Brian sat behind her. There were three popping noises and Bill was sitting
behind Fred, whereas Georgia was sitting behind George, and Ginny behind
Georgia.
Everyone else gradually came in and sat down in the rest of the seats.
Harry walked in, grinning around at all the students, it only faltering
when his eyes landed on Felicity and Blick all done up in Slytherin robes.
"Hello, class. I'm Professor Potter, as most of you already know." Harry
said. Most of the Slytherins snickered at him from behind his back.
"Now the creature I'm bringing in is large, but it will not hurt you. I
ask you please not to scream." Harry said, his eyes wondering onto the
Weasley Quints. "Aragog, if you please." He said. Aragog walked and there
were four identical screams. Four of the Weasley quints were screaming.
Fred pushed his chair violently backward, knocking into Bill. Bill sat
with his mouth open in a silent scream, his eyes popping. Georgia and
Ginny were clutching each other and screaming a high-pitched scream.
George and his chair had fallen over sideways.
Harry grinned a little to himself. Just looking at their faces reminded
him thoroughly remember Ron, his best friend. He gave a fluttering sigh as
the two Weasley quint girls had fainted. "I think you five shout sit out
this class." He said.
~*~
"Flying lessons are next!" Rachel shrieked. Neil hitched up his bag, his
shy eyes scanning the schedule. "Let's go to it then," He said. Rachel
led the way, shrieking and jumping up and down while Neil followed. Neil
had been on a broomstick his whole life, and didn't really need to learn
how to fly.
They came out onto the patch of grass where they would take their class.
Elderly Madame Hooch came across the field as soon as everyone was there.
"Hello class." She said, "The first thing you do is put your hand over the
broom and say, 'up.'" Neil noticed that his flying teacher was watching
him very closely. "Up." He commanded in a firm voice. The broomstick
leapt from the ground and into his hand. "Up! Up! UP!" Rachel was
shrieking at hers. The broomstick leapt from the ground and did some kind
of funny flip like thing, landing on the ground once more.
Pandemonia had her broom, as Debra Malfoy did too. Madame Hooch nodded at
Neil, not surprised to his taking to Quidditch like a duck to water. "Now
sit on your broom like this- No, Miss Malfoy, like this." She said. Neil
positioned himself the way his father had shown him to.
"When I blow my whistle, kick off." Madame Hooch said. Nina Longbottom,
Neville Longbottom's daughter, looked fretfully at Madame Hooch. "One."
She began. Neil tensed his legs, ready to kick off. "Two." Nina started
to shake. "Three-!" One second too early, Nina jumped. "COME BACK DOWN
HERE!" Madame Hooch roared.
Nina went higher. and higher. and higher. Then, suddenly, the broom's
handle pointed straight down. Nina screamed and let go of the broom to
shield her face from the on-rushing ground. There was a loud thud and a
sickening crack as Nina hit the ground and broke both her arm and leg.
Madame Hooch thought this scene looked vaguely familiar. like it had
happened before, but in a different way. She led the sobbing Nina to the
Hospital Wing, but before she entered the castle, she said, "Don't any of
you even think about flying before I come back!" and entered the castle.
Debra, Pandemonia, and most of the Slytherins started to laugh. Debra's
pale, pointed face flushed as she threw her head back and laughed. When
she wiped her eyes, she saw something glittering and swooped down to pick
it up. She looked at the object and remembered the story her father had
told her. It was a Remembrall.
"Oh look! Sniveling little Longbottom dropped her father's Remembrall!"
She said, laughing again. Pandemonia burst into laughter too.
"Hand it over, Malfoy." Neil said, stepping forward. Debra looked at him.
"No, I have a better idea. I'll leave it somewhere Longbottom will find
it. maybe on top of the Astronomy Tower." She said, hopping onto her
broomstick and kicking off the ground.
Neil mounted his broom and was about to kick off when Rachel put her hand
on his shoulder. "Dude," she said, "You'll get expelled if you do that!"
He shook her off and gritted his teeth. "My dad did it, and he got onto
the Gryffindor Quidditch team. If he can do it, so can I." He said. He
kicked off and watched the top of Rachel's hat shake back and forth.
He smiled as he felt the wind on his face. His face flushed with
excitement as he turned to face Debra. "Hand it over." Neil said. Debra,
face white, remembered that she left her wand in the common room. Neil
shot at Debra who veered quickly to the left, Neil just missing her.
Debra, not knowing what to do, threw the Remembrall with all her strength.
"CATCH THAT POTTER!" She screeched. Neil, before he knew what he was
doing, dived. His chest touched the broomsticks handle as he shot towards
the falling marble-like thing. He was catching up with it. he was level
with it. he was underneath it!
He caught it in one hand and veered upwards, narrowly missing the ground.
He jumped off his broom, amid claps and cheers from the bystanders. Then,
all was hushed. Professor McGonagall came running. She grabbed Neil by
the arm and led him into the castle.
She knocked on Flitwick's door, got Mac, went and got Harry, and they went
to her office. She talked to Mac and Harry quietly for a moment, Harry
grinning, a look of horror on Mac's face, and then she turned back to
Neil. "Neil, would you want to be the new Gryffindor Seeker?" She asked.
Neil's mouth dropped open, then he regained his composure and said, "No."
"Why?" asked Professor McGonagall, Harry, and Mac at the same time
(although Mac sounded happy). "Because I'm gonna spare Mac the shame of
being replaced by a first year." Neil said. Mac jumped into the air and
shouted for joy.
