Harry Potter and the Light of the Phoenix
By Korinna Myorin
Disclaimer: see the first chapter.
Chapter 7:
The Weasley kids, plus Harry and Hermione, got out of the "Wizard's Rent-a-Car" shakily. Mr. Weasley got out of the front passenger seat. "Well," he said, then cleared his voice, "that was an interesting experience."
When Bill got out of the car, Ginny voiced the group's feelings by saying, "Bill, you will never drive again, if we have a say in it." She looked a bit queasy, and Bill looked at them sheepishly. "And I thought it was so much fun." They all stared at him, horrified, then quickly packed up their stuff and headed towards the platform.
Hermione had stayed at the Burrow for the last week of the holidays, and Harry was quickly getting sick of the furtive glances exchanged between Ron and Hermione when they thought no one was looking. Hermione had stopped going out with Victor Krum, supposedly because of the distance, but Harry speculated otherwise.
Once they were at the Platform 9 ¾, Harry started getting uncomfortable with the weird and curious glances he was getting. He realized that once again no one recognized him, since nobody suspected that he had changed so much in just two months.
Harry was wearing some clothes he had gotten when he was out with Tyler in the US, and an idea came to mind. Since he was wearing jeans and a simple dark blue T-shirt with a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath, and no glasses, he looked like a typical boy with an American taste in clothing. With that in mind, Harry quickly changed his hair to dark brown, and his eyes to dark blue, then shared his newly hatched plan with Ron and Hermione. Ginny, who had overheard, explained it to the twins, so they wouldn't be surprised.
When the trio was loading their trunks into the compartment they were sharing with Ginny. Lavender with the Patils (Parvati and Padma) sauntered over, evidently to get a good look of Harry's behind while he helped load the heavy trunks.
"Hey there, Lavender, how was your summer?" Hermione asked.
"Good, good," she replied, "So who's this new guy here?" Some of the people near the group stopped to listen, also wondering who he was.
"Yeah, and where's Harry," said Parvati, butting into the conversation.
"Oh, this is Michael Andrews, and he's an exchange student from the Salem Academy in the US. Harry's already at Hogwarts; he went there earlier."
Harry reached out and shook hands with the three girls, then began using the American accent he had learned from Tyler, with magical assistance. "Hey, nice to meet you all! So, what houses are you guys in?" The conversation went on until Ron and Ginny got bored and went into the train and to their compartment, and Harry left, using the excuse of wanting to stay with them. He also had to promise to drop into the girls' compartment later on during the trip, to get them to stop fawning over him.
Once in the compartment, they all had a good laugh over it. The twins couldn't get enough of the American accent, and were thinking of trying to make a candy that changed the language you spoke for a limited amount of time. Harry helped them with a few of the details, and then the twins went to tell Dean Thomas and some of the other people in their grade about their new, upcoming tricky treat, and the "new foreign exchange student."
Hermione then started reading a book, and Ron, sitting next to her, looked like he might dose off at any moment, so Harry started talking to Ginny. She was very shy at first, but after they talked for a few minutes, she broke out of her shell. Ginny told him how she was an aspiring med-witch, having gotten a book on it while they were at Diagon Alley, and being fascinated. She was ecstatic when Harry told her that she was probably taking Healing classes this year. She would be able to take full advantage of them, since they started with fourth years, so she would be able to take the classes for four years. They went on to talk about other subjects, even though Harry hadn't talked to her very much in the past. Ginny had changed over the summer, similar to Harry's 'filling out,' and had possibly even gained more self-confidence.
A bit later, when there was a lull in the conversation, Harry looked over at Ron and Hermione, to see that they were both asleep. Hermione had fallen asleep with a book in her lap, and Ron had his head cocked back in an uncomfortable position. Then Hermione unconsciously moved to curl up to the side, towards Ron. Her head fell onto his shoulder, which would have been too high up for her to rest on if he hadn't been slouched down on the seat. With the jostling given him by Hermione's head falling onto his shoulder, Ron's head also fell on top of hers. They looked adorable together, so, slowly, and careful not to wake the sleeping couple, Harry and Ginny tiptoed out of the compartment and into the hall.
They laughed and went to wander the halls for a bit, keeping a lookout for Colin Creevy so maybe they could get a picture of it. While wandering the halls, they made it to a compartment that held some very flirty girls who had gotten wind of the new foreign exchange student. Harry twisted them around his little finger with charming smiles and little jokes, as well as stories about the Salem academy that Ali and Tyler had told him. The attention was rather suffocating, but still fun. Ginny laughed too, but she laughed even more when they got out of the compartment. Together they set out to wander the hallways again, laughing some more at the joke the girls didn't know was being played on them.
After they had a run in with the snack cart lady, Harry and Ginny found what looked to be an empty compartment. Harry had his arms full with cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs; he was beginning to regret having told Ginny to buy anything she wanted, on him. Harry went through the door first, while Ginny held it open for him, and he dumped the sweets on the chair next to him. He motioned, without looking up, for Ginny to sit across from him, then heard Ginny clear her throat, and looked up to see Ginny still in the doorway looking at the seat across from him. When he followed her gaze, and he saw a blonde-haired Malfoy. Draco looked asleep, but Harry wasn't sure. It didn't look like true sleep, so Harry waved a hand in front of the boy's face, frowning.
Then, suddenly, Malfoy woke up with a jerk, causing both Harry and Ginny, who were looking at him concernedly, to jump back with a start. "Who are you?" he growled at them, looking at the pair.
Harry smiled charmingly at him. "Michael Andrews, a foreign exchange student from the Salem academy in the US."
The blonde frowned. "That can't be possible; my father would have known!"
Harry leaned forward conspiratorially. "Don't tell anyone else that; this is to much fun to stop just yet." Harry was surprised, though he didn't show it, when the other boy threw his head back and laughed out loud.
"Alright then," he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement, "so who are you, then, and what a brilliant accent you've got!"
"Why thank you, but telling you would ruin the whole fun of it!" Harry told him. "So, going on with the act, pleased to meet you…?"
"Draco Malfoy, of Slytherin." Harry nodded, and then Draco looked to Ginny, saying coldly, "And you are?"
Ginny sniffed, "Virginia Weasley." Draco blinked in shock, then turned back to Harry.
"I would think you'd have better taste than that, Mr. Andrews," he told Harry, pointedly.
"You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, though, now should you? But come now, call me Michael."
"Then call me Draco." Harry nodded, and Draco sighed. "Well Michael, if you insist that Virginia stays..." He turned to Ginny and said, "Well, Virginia, there is one more seat, so come and sit down."and he waved to the seat next to him. She wavered for a moment, but then sat down stiffly next to him.
"House truce," Harry said, looking pointedly at the two. They both sighed, and then, briefly, shook hands on it.
Harry then struck up a conversation, getting along surprisingly well with Draco. Even Ginny started warming during the conversation, all of them nibbling on the sweets. Then, when they were playing the part of telling the "foreign exchange student" about Hogwarts, there was a knock at the door, and Harry stood up and opened it.
Tyler was near the door of the compartment, and waved him outside, wanting to talk to him. Harry called inside that he'd be back in a minute. "What do you want?" he whispered to Tyler in his regular voice.
"Well," Tyler said, "First, I want to commend you on the American accent; beautiful, bravo." he said the last part in a mock British accent. "Secondly, I wanted to show you my latest discovery- well, actually, it was Val's, but it's still so cool!"
"Couldn't it have waited?" Harry exclaimed, annoyed.
"Well, technically, yeah, but I was so sure that you would have killed us for keeping it from you..." He looked slightly embarrassed. Harry looked at Tyler and told him to get on with it, quickly. "Okay, you know how Val has been researching soulmates and stuff- how she's so sure that there is such a thing. Well, she found a spell you can put on a mirror, glasses, anything that shows people when you look through or at it. It shows people with whom you could have a good relationship with in the future; you can't see yourself, though the person wearing it can see anybody else's. What you see is a little rope going from one person to the other; at one time, there are many people that a person could have a potentially successful relationship with. If they break up by mutual agreement, the bond disappears, but sometimes it can disappear while they are still going out. Also, the bonds can reappear again suddenly, and they change colors by the level of interest between the people, or how successful it would be. Very flimsy business, but that's about all the info I have, so I'll see you tonight; we have a meeting, you know, so I'll just hand you these, and I'll leave." Tyler then handed Harry the type of sunglasses he usually wore, and disappeared with a tap on his dark blue necklace.
Harry stared at the sunglasses in his hands as he processed the information, then smiled crookedly. This is going to be fun, he thought, mentally sending a silent thanks to Tyler. Harry then slipped on the glasses and stepped into the compartment, where Ginny and Draco were talking animatedly.
They didn't notice him at first, so he took a minute to focus on Ginny with the sunglasses. He could see three threads coming out of her, besides a fourth one, which, he noticed, shot out into him, but was relieved to note that it seemed to be wavering. An interesting thing was that there was clearly a solid, red bond between Ginny and Draco, and it looked like it was getting stronger by the second. Harry focused on Draco, and found that he also had a bond like Ginny's going between them, and a couple of other thin bonds that shot out through different walls, just like Ginny. "He he," Harry thought, 'fun!'
"I still think Madam Hooch should have called a foul when Potter regurgitated that ball!" Draco was saying when Harry started to actually listen to the conversation.
"You're just saying that because Gryffindor won," Ginny pointed out, apparently too annoyingly right for Draco to admit it, since he started sputtering, and the argument got louder.
Harry then got an idea, and disappeared from sight, not that the two had seen him in the first place.
*********Draco's POV********
He was sitting up stock straight as he argued with the red head, then the next moment Draco felt a shove from behind him, and got pushed towards Virginia, when during the conversation, he wondered, did he stop really thinking of her as Weasley? He caught himself, one of his hands on the wall, the other on Virginia's shoulder, his face inches from hers. For one of the first times in his life he was extremely embarrassed and nervous in a situation with a girl, thought he didn't blush, Malfoy's just don't blush. Draco had been thrown into many situations with girls time and time again, but something was different.
He looked at her, across her pale face, with the liberal dusting of freckles that seemed to complement her light complexion. His gaze traveled across her slightly upturned nose, and then traveled upward to catch her gaze, which was also grazing his features, he noticed her beautifully brandy colored eyes, staring into what he knew to be stone gray eyes. What he didn't know was that they were not as hard and cold, but almost radiated warmth compared to before. Neither
moved for was seemed to be ages, Draco was still trying to catch is breath, from when he had it knocked out of him.
Then tantalizingly slowly, Draco moved towards her, his eyes once again caught up with hers, then his lips grazed hers lightly. Her eyes fluttered shut as he did so, and neither heard the compartment door gently slide open, then close, as they continued.
**************Harry's POV*************
Well one thing Harry was sure of was that he did not hear any shouting curses for the next couple minutes as he stood outside the compartment, laughing his head off, and basically making a complete psychopath image of himself with the uncontrollable laughter.
When he finally recovered, he summoned the rest of the candy, quite sure the two occupants of the compartment would not notice for a while, then headed in the direction of the other two lovebirds.
When he was getting closer he started to hear interesting sounds of yelling, cursing, and flat-out mayhem. He opened the compartment to see Ron and Hermione yelling at a cowering
Colin Crevey with a camera in one hand and a picture in the other. It was apparent that they were trying to take the picture from him, though they were not just screaming at the fourth year, but also at each other, altering between the two.
When Harry sauntered in, Colin looked very relieved, and Ron and Hermione rounded on him.
"Why did you just leave us there, ready to get embarrassed, I mean really just waiting for Colin, or anybody with a camera!" Hermione shouted.
Ron shouted an agreement, while Harry just smiled, looked at Colin and said, "Get that picture Colin," the other boy smiled, and tapped a few pictures he had in his hand.
"Right here for you when you want them Michael!" he replied.
Ron looked between the two, "It's a conspiracy against both of us, I swear!"
"Don't swear, Ron," Hermione mumbled absently as she looked between the two other boys who were looking quite smug at their accomplishments.
"Oh come on you two, no one else will know about this- Right, Colin?" he looked pointedly at the younger boy, who quickly nodded yes. "So need to worry, just a friendly prank, not to mention I just had to have a picture of this."
"Hey Harry," Ron asked as they sat down, "What happened to Ginny?"
"Oh," Harry said nonchalantly, "We walked around a bit, talked really, found some other people for awhile, and then the snack cart. Oh by the way I saved some candy for you guys we had plenty left, after I let Ginny buy whatever she wanted."
"Bad move, mate," Ron looked at him sympathetically, "Ginny buys everything when possible."
Harry laughed, "Yeah well, anyway that means there is enough left for you guys. But we stopped in an compartment, and they were having a heated conversation between them that I didn't want to get between, so I just slipped out with the candies." He grinned sheepishly, "Of course, they didn't know it, and I kind of started it, but I think it was the right time to leave." They all accepted the half true story, except Ron couldn't really picture his sister in a heated argument apparently, or rather didn't want to.
Later on Harry remembered that he had the glasses that Tyler gave him and slipped them on, when Ron commented on the unnecessary need of them inside, Harry told him that it made him look cool, and they all laughed at him. When he got a good look around, he found what he was not surprised to see a very strong and sturdy bond between Ron and Hermione, and a very broken one between him and Hermione. He smirked to himself: Lots of matchmaking to do.
A/N: Hello, again, people! Hope you like the new chapter! Sorry to people who don't like D/G, but don't worry; there won't be too much, and, from now on, mostly just hints of it. About the prefects, I think, since I'm not the greatest at preplanning, I'm just starting to do it, that Hermione is the only prefect, since I wasn't sure how many prefects there could/should be, but it seemed that maybe there was say one prefect of each year out of each house. I don't know- I have weird logic- but I hope you all continue reading it! And please, everyone, Review!