Have you seen The Santa Clause 2? I have just come back from the cinema – it was excellent! So much fun! And there was a little girl called Lucy in there who looked exactly the way I'd imagine a seven-year-old Ginny. If you haven't seen it yet, do so :)
Also thanks for the nice reviews!Here's a long chapter for you. Note that this is still build-up, so not action-packed. I hope you'll still like it.
Chapter 5 Maps and mirrorsAfter his discussion with Dumbledore, Harry headed for his room. As he turned left on a corner, he accidentally ran into someone carrying at least a dozen different sized packages that – of course – ended up on the floor with a thud.
"Sorry!" Harry said, bending down to help the other person gather his things. "Oh, it's you, Neville!"
"Hi, Harry!" Mr. Longbottom, the new Flying professor greeted him with a thorough handshake. "Nice to see you!"
"Nice to see you, too. What are you doing here, at half past two in the morning?"
"Just arrived," Neville replied, picking up his suitcase and carryall. "Wasn't Dumbledore mad that I was late for the evening feast?"
"Not mad, just a bit surprised, I guess," Harry said, handing Neville the last piece of scattered package: a box that emitted the unmistakable croaking of a toad. "Trevor, isn't it?"
"No," the Flying professor laughed. "Trevor passed away years ago. This one is called Severus."
"What?" Harry's eyes widened. "You named your toad after Snape?"
Neville grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. Because this toad is much uglier than the previous one."
Both young men burst into laughter.
"Man, what a moral-booster…" Harry took off his glasses to wipe away the tears of laughter. "I really needed this laugh, Neville."
"Why? Is something amiss, Harry?" Longbottom's face turned serious – way too serious for someone like him. Harry had to admit that Neville had changed a lot. Awfully lot. The once pudgy and clumsy boy was a man now.
"Well… it's not that terrible, after all…" the Charms professor looked at his shoes, "It's just that my son got sorted into Slytherin."
Neville made a face like a dumbfounded fish – his mouth wide agape and his eyes bulging in surprise. "You… don't mean it, do you? I mean, come on, he's a Potter! Why would the Sorting Hat put him into Slytherin?"
"I don't know," Harry shook his head. "Neither does Albus. I'm at my wit's end."
"I'm sorry, my friend," Longbottom said sympathetically. "I'm sure I'd also feel miserable if Eve got sorted into Slytherin."
"Eve?"
"My daughter, Evelyn. I named her after my mother."
"Oh… how are your parents doing?" Harry asked. He remembered that Neville's mother and father had been healed after the Dark Lord's destruction.
"They are okay and likely to move to us to Hogsmeade. They say they cannot live without their little granddaughter…" Neville smiled. "And they are right… Eve's a real angel. You've got to get to know her."
Harry nodded. "I'm sure she is adorable. So, your family isn't going to live at Hogwarts like Lupin's?"
"No. My wife Mary Sue and Eve will be living at Mrs. Figg's pension until we manage to buy a house in the village. After that my parents will also move to Hogsmeade. Anyway, I didn't want to bring a little child into the castle… she'd be scared to death by the Bloody Baron…" he looked around, then whispered into Harry's ear: "Sometimes I still get scared by ghosts… and I'm afraid to meet Snape again."
"I promise I won't tell him that you named your toad after him," Harry winked at his old friend. "And don't worry about him, he'll have to respect you and treat you as an equal."
Neville wrinkled his nose. "I don't think I'll like him more as a colleague than as a teacher… but at least those times are over when I was bungling in his damned dungeons, melting cauldron after cauldron. It's still a bit hard for me to believe that I'm a professor!"
"Same here," Harry nodded. "By the way, how did you come by the job of the Flying teacher? When I applied for a job the advertisement only said that they were looking for a Charms professor… had I known that Hooch's place was also free, you would have had a competition for it, Neville."
"I can imagine that," Longbottom grinned. "However, the advertisement about Hooch's job was published in the Daily Prophet weeks after you took on Flitwick's. Originally, Hooch didn't want to retire, but a nasty flying accident compelled her to."
"Poor Madame Hooch. Ah, the irony of life…" Harry sighed. "Remember our very first flying lesson? Oh, stupid question, how could you not remember?" he added with a chuckle.
"Yeah… I was the worst flier in the class… maybe in the whole school…"
"…and now you're one of the best in Great Britain."
Neville flushed a bit. "Thanks, Harry."
"No need to thank… I told you that you were worth a dozen Malfoys! He never became as good a Quidditch player as you, after all."
"Speaking of Malfoy… is that bank in Hogsmeade really his? I couldn't not notice it with all those magical torches illuminating its façade…"
"Well, you know the Malfoys," Harry shrugged. "They love to show off. By the way, there's a new Malfoy among the first-years… better watch out for him."
"Constant vigilance?" young Longbottom smirked. "Okay, I guess Severus is sleepy… so am I. I've got to take a nap," he added. "G'night, Harry."
"Good night, Neville," the Charms professor watched as his old friend disappeared into a room, and headed for his own. He also had a class in the morning – with the third-year Hufflepuffs.
As he turned into his corridor, he heard the angry voice of McGonagall coming from a nearby room:
"You have been married before me? And never told me? ABERFORTH DUMBLEDORE, I WANT AN EXPLANATION!"
* * * * *
For the first time in his life, Daniel couldn't eat breakfast. He was terribly hungry, but he felt that he'd surely throw up anything he swallowed. His stomach was making flip-flops as he stared at the scrambled eggs that his friend was devouring with delight. He tried to divert his thoughts from his grief over being in Slytherin by studying the timetable. It looked as follows:
MondayHistory of M. (9 o'clock) – with Gryffindor
Herbology (11:30) – with Hufflepuff
Lunch
TuesdayTransfiguration (9 o'clock) – with Hufflepuff
P.E. (11:30) – all classes together
Lunch
WednesdayDaDA (9 o'clock)
Lunch
Astronomy (11 p.m.) – with Ravenclaw
ThursdayFlying (11:30) – with Ravenclaw
Lunch
FridayPotions (9 o'clock) – with Gryffindor
Charms (11:30) – with Gryffindor
Lunch
"Whassa matter?" Norbert asked with his mouth full of bacon. "You look concerned."
"How could I not be?" Daniel sighed. "We are going to have Potions in ten minutes. Potions! On Friday! How terrible…"
"You're afraid of Snape, right?" the other boy perceived, pouring himself a glass of orange-juice.
Dan nodded. "That guy gives me the creeps. He hated my grandpa, hates my dad and he'll surely hate me, too. He was looking daggers at me during the evening feast and he told me off before going to bed. I don't dare imagine what he'll do to me during class."
"Don't worry, Dan, you're a Slytherin. He won't be taking points from you, because then his house would lose points. You're safe."
"No," young Potter shook his head. "Slytherin house might be safe, but not me," he cast a wistful glance at his sister Lily sitting at Gryffindor table, talking animatedly with Christopher Wood. She seemed to have a rosier complexion than usual. Daniel couldn't not notice David Dursley giving bitter glances to Lily and Christopher from the table of Hufflepuff. Now Daniel managed to understand it: David liked Lily. And not like someone likes his second-cousin...
But Lily didn't seem to notice the Dursley boy looking at her, neither did Yvette Weasley – from Ravenclaw table – notice that Chris Wood was giving her furtive glances while talking to Lily.
"What are you looking at like that?" Norbert asked.
Daniel's mouth tucked into a smirk. "A double triangle."
"What?"
"My second cousin David seems to like my sister Lily. Lily definitely likes Christopher Wood. Chris, however, likes my cousin Yvette."
"Interesting," the other boy shrugged. "Let's hope that little Liu Chang doesn't like anyone yet," he added with a wink.
Daniel blushed furiously, casting a sideways glance at Liu, who was deeply absorbed in a conversation with Yvette.
Suddenly the air filled with the noise of wings.
"Mail's here," Norbert said as a barn owl flopped down on his plate, dropping a letter into it. "Oh… it's an apologising letter from Pudgy."
"Who?"
"Our house-elf," Malfoy shrugged. "He is my elf, to be exact. Father gave him to me years ago. He's a bit of a bungler. I have had to make him punish himself more times than you could imagine. Yesterday, I was almost late for the train because of him – you know, father was too busy to accompany me to King's Cross, so the elf took me there. I couldn't even tell him off properly because I was in such a hurry. He writes that he broke his nose to expiate for taking me there late and begs me not to tell my father about his blundering."
"Why not?"
"Because father isn't as lenient as I am," Norbert shrugged and Daniel shuddered, having heard already too much about Lucius Malfoy.
"You're really lenient to the house-elves? Care to join S.P.E.W., then?"
"The band?"
"No. The original S.P.E.W," young Potter replied.
S.P.E.W. had become a widespread movement throughout Europe during the last decade. While Hermione was at home with her twins, she was downright bored, having nothing useful to do besides housework. So she re-started the Society for Promotion of Elfish Welfare… and to her – and everyone else's – greatest surprise, it became so popular that many wizarding families started to set their elves free and pay for their work.
With the financial help of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, the movement became such a success, that - to Ron's utter disgust - the wizard youngsters created a new fashion in clothing: robes, shirts, Quidditch equipment, towels, umbrellas and everything adorned with the script SPEW. Last year a new band called SPEW was introduced in WWN, becoming the favourite band of young witches and wizards at once. Bands like the Weird Sisters, the Wacky Warlocks and the Apparate! were forced into the background by SPEW.
"No way," Norbert shook his head. "I love the band, they're cool, but I spew up from the thought of making a fool of myself by campaigning against house-elf enslavement. My father would kill me if I did, anyway."
"Hey, guys," Gilda Lockhart stepped to them, "hurry up, or you'll be late for Potions," with that she picked up her schoolbag (bearing the letters SPEW on it) and strolled away.
"Okay, let's go," Daniel sighed, feeling like going into the lion's den, and followed Norbert out of the hall, down the stairs.
* * * * *
They were indeed late - the door to Snape's dungeon classroom had already been closed by the time they arrived there.
Daniel gulped. "Now what?"
"Well… I'm a Malfoy. He won't punish me…" his friend thought aloud.
"That doesn't stand for me," Dan pouted. "Oh, well…" he screwed up his courage and knocked.
"Come in!" Snape's harsh voice said from inside.
"I'd better go first," Norbert said and entered, followed by Daniel.
"Aha… Potter," the Potions teacher said with a rather threatening expression.
*Of course he wouldn't say 'Aha, Malfoy'* Dan thought bitterly.
"I'm sorry about being late, professor," he said finally.
"I can imagine how sorry you are," Severus folded his arms.
"It wasn't his fault, professor!" Norbert said. "It was mine. Punish me, not him!"
Snape's mouth seemed to be twitching for a moment – his face revealed the inner struggle: take points off his house and punish both Potter and Malfoy, or leave it at that? It would be rather ridiculous, after all, if Slytherin also started the school year with minus points, just like Gryffindor.
"This time we can dispense with the punishment," Snape said, "but only because of Mr. Malfoy's moral fibre."
"What moral fibre???" Kevin Weasley gasped at the other end of the room – the Slytherins and Gryffindors had Potions together, as always.
Snape shot Kevin a stare that made him shut up.
"Where were we when Malfoy and Potter interrupted?" the professor mused.
Lancelot Weasley's hand shot into the air. "You said that Potions wasn't foolish wand-waving, professor."
"I didn't ask you, Weasley," Snape growled at him. "I know perfectly what I have told you. So… I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses… bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper into death."
"That's boring," Viviane whispered to Kevin. "According to mum he said the same when she was a first-year."
"C'mon, what did you expect from him?" Valentine shrugged. "He doesn't look the type with a vivid imagination to make up new speeches every year."
"Ms. Weasley… and Ms. Weasley," Snape spoke up. "Do you care to share your thoughts with us? They must be very interesting, indeed."
The always so chatty twins cringed and cast their eyes down.
"No?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "Then maybe you could answer a couple of questions… but no… not you. Let's ask the latecomers. Potter!"
"Yes, sir?" Daniel looked up, knowing exactly what was coming.
"What do I get if I add bat-blood and phoenix tears to an infusion of fluxweed?"
Lancelot's hand shot into the air again.
"I don't know, sir," Dan replied.
"Malfoy?"
"If you don't mind, professor, I prefer to be called Devilsmoor, after my mother's name," said Norbert with an angelic expression. "And I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer."
"Then try again. Potter, what does the Discord Potion do to its drinkers, what are its ingredients and what does it taste like?"
Daniel shot an angry glance at Lancelot who almost fell off his chair, because he was waving to catch Snape's attention so badly.
"I don't know, sir."
"Weasley?" Snape turned to the twins.
"Which one of us?" asked Valentine.
"You," Snape pointed at Viviane.
"I don't know, sir," Viv shrugged.
"And you?" the professor asked Val.
"I don't know it, either."
Snape's eyes narrowed. "Does anyone know the answer to either of my questions?"
Lancelot was almost standing, stretching out as much as he could.
"All right, then, Weasley. Enlighten us," Severus said with a grim expression.
"Bat-blood, phoenix tears and fluxweed create a potion that witches used to get rid of their unwanted children in the middle-ages when the KeinKind Potion and the Anti-conceptus Charm hadn't been invented," Percy's son replied, adjusting his glasses, looking around proudly to see the confusion on the others' faces.
Snape nodded, though clearly unwillingly. "That's right. And the second one?"
"Well, the Discord Potion creates discord, of course. If two people drink it about the same time and meet each other within one hour, then they'll start fighting, even if they have always been very good friends. Its ingredients are lacewing, venom of a doxy, shredded shrivelfig, milk of a mother unicorn and a bit of magically boosted honey, in order to take away its bitter taste. So the Discord Potion tastes overall very sweet," he beamed at Snape.
"Right," the professor nodded.
In the rest of the class the students made a simple hair-growing potion.
Snape was walking up and down in the classroom, telling off Nigel Bailey of Gryffindor for having spilt too much of eel-eyes into his cauldron and made it melt. Snape immediately sent for the caretaker to come and fix the mess. Of course he could have cleaned it up with a swish of his wand, but probably had wanted to stick to his speech that Potions wasn't foolish wand-waving.
Daniel and Norbert were working close to the Weasley children.
"He didn't give Lance a single point!" Kevin fumed. "Had he been an ickle Slytherin, he would surely have got at least fifty points!"
"Prejudices against Slytherin again, Weasley?" Norbert snorted.
"Why? Aren't I right?" Kevin spat. "You two were late but Snape didn't take a single point off Slytherin. Had Daniel been a Gryffindor, he would have been punished and you not. Now that he's in Slytherin, Snape didn't want to take points from your house just because he was late."
"You sound as if you were accusing me of getting into Slytherin!" Daniel retorted.
"We aren't accusing you, Dan," Valentine said. "You know that we love you. It's just so hard to believe… you should be with us, in Gryffindor."
"Yeah," Viviane agreed. "That's where you belong, not the slimy Slytherin."
"Explain that to the Sorting Hat," Daniel said sadly. The door of the dungeon classroom opened to admit Bert Bradley, the caretaker.
Dan watched him as he cleaned up the remains of the melted cauldron, wondering how this weenie, bag-of-bones guy could hold that huge mop at all. He didn't seem to have enough strength for such a work, still he made a nice job – not a single fleck of potion remained on the floor.
As Bert Bradley walked past Daniel with a bucket full of dirty water, he dropped a remark:
"If I were you, I wouldn't put glycerol and nitric acid in it, or it will explode."
"Excuse me?" the boy raised an eyebrow.
"I said it would explode if you put glycerol and nitric acid into it," he pointed at the vial in Dan's hand. "That's glycerol in your hand… I can tell by its smell, but for you it was easy to mistake it for that bowl over there," he pointed at a bowl filled with bat-liver oil, then he peered into Daniel's cauldron. "You have already put H2SO4 in it by mistake – you must have mistook it for that thing in that other bottle… er, armadillo bile, or what..."
Professor Snape stepped to them.
"What is the problem, Potter?"
"Nothing, professor… according to Mr. Bradley I have mistook bat-liver oil for glycerol and armadillo bile for H2… H2... forgot," Daniel shrugged.
"H2SO4. Sulphuric acid," Bert finished the boy's sentence.
Snape took a bit of the potion out with a ladle, then let it trickle back into the cauldron. "Hm… indeed," he gave a surprised glance to the young caretaker. "And what did Mr. Bradley say it would cause if you spilled glycerol and nitric acid into it?"
"He said it would explode," Dan shrugged.
"Yes, because glycerol, nitric and sulphuric acid make nitro-glycerine," the caretaker said nonchalantly. "You should maybe keep such dangerous things out of the reach of the first-year students, professor."
Snape's expression changed from surprised to dumbfound. "Oh, of course… those bowls of sulphuric acid and glycerol must have been left here by mistake… my mistake," he immediately snatched up the bowl, then turned back to Mr. Bradley. "Um, I never met a caretaker who understood Potions," he said with a hint of admiration.
"Oh, I don't really understand Potions, Mr. Snape," Bert replied. "How could I? I'm a Muggle."
"Then how could you…?"
"Before I came to work here, I taught at a Muggle school… I taught Chemistry," Bert said and walked out with his bucket.
"Another Muggle caretaker?" Norbert furrowed his brow as the students left the dungeons. "I don't understand Dumbledore. Why does he insist on employing magickless people?"
"Dunno…" Daniel shrugged, quite surprised that a person like Snape would ever admit that he had made a mistake by leaving dangerous stuff in his classroom – moreover, admit it in front of a mere caretaker! "But did you see how Snape stared at that guy?"
"No. How?"
"I couldn't really describe it… with respect, I guess."
"…and we know how hard it is to make Snape respect you," his friend added.
"Exactly," Dan nodded. "What's the next lesson again?"
"Charms. With your dad."
"Oh."
"You don't look too happy about it," Norbert perceived.
"Of course not. He's my dad. He's brilliant in charms, but… I don't like the idea of him teaching me. Other students might say that he's favouring me or something. He's not the type, but… it's still embarrassing."
"I think I understand you. You are afraid of being Daddy's Little Son at Charms classes."
"Kind of," Daniel nodded. *And I'm also afraid that I'll suck at charms.* he added in thought.
* * * * *
The first ever class of Professor Potter's life as a teacher went all right – the majority of the third-year Hufflepuffs were quite talented in Charms. To Harry's greatest surprise his cousin, David Dursley, proved to be the best. Then again, this shouldn't have surprised him: he had heard from Dudley that Davie used to make cakes fly at the age of nine months.
However, Professor Potter was a bit concerned about his second class with the first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins. He didn't really like the idea of teaching two classes at once, but according to Hermione, McGonagall had spent weeks arranging the timetables for all classes, so he didn't see the point in entering into a controversy with Minerva.
"First of all: welcome to your first Charms class!" Harry greeted the Gryffindors and the Slytherins. "For those who don't know me: I'm Professor Potter."
Some of the students started to snigger: who wouldn't know Harry Potter?
After Harry read out a list of the students' names to try and memorise them, he got down to teaching.
"Well, we are going to start with basic things today. All you will need is your wands," the new teacher carried on. "I presume all of you managed to make your wands emit sparks when you bought them at Ollivander's. I'd like you to do it again: produce a shower of sparks."
"That's damn easy!" Norbert grimaced.
"You can't expect him to teach us the Cheering Charm at our very first lesson!" Gilda Lockhart said with a scolding expression.
"Who asked for your opinion?" young Malfoy snapped and waved his wand to eject a shower of silver and green sparks.
Daniel also flipped his wand and managed a couple of feeble reddish-gold ones. All the children succeeded in ejecting sparks, mainly red, yellow and green.
"All right, I see that you all managed it," Professor Potter smiled at the children. "But you know that it's an important thing what kind of sparks we produce. For example if we are in trouble, we send up red sparks… You will have to learn to produce sparks of certain colours and sizes. Now I'm going to ask you to produce blue sparks in the size of Snitches. Like this." he waved his wand that immediately emitted a shower of royal blue, walnut-sized sparks. "Go on, try it."
Some of the students managed the task, but others had problems with the colour and size of their sparks.
"Professor Potter?" Nigel Bailey, the boy who had melted a cauldron in Potions, put up his hand. "Is there an incantation that could help us to produce the required colour and size?"
"No, Mr. Bailey," Harry shook his head. "This is such a basic thing that wizards never cared to make up incantations for it. This is something you've got to do by instinct. Try to concentrate. Close your eyes, if needed, and imagine blue sparks of the size of walnuts."
"Okay," Nigel nodded, somewhat insecurely. Daniel watched the Gryffindor boy intently, hoping to learn how to do it, since he had the same problem: his sparks refused to turn blue and remained as small as peas.
After a minute of concentration, Nigel Bailey succeeded and gave Professor Potter a triumphant smile.
Daniel decided to copy Nigel's tactic: he closed his eyes and imagined the sparks in the required colour and size, then flipped his wand and opened his eyes.
Red. They were still red. And small.
He let out a resigned sigh. "I'll never manage it," he mumbled, watching enviously as Lancelot Weasley showered the classroom with magnificent blue sparks. Kevin, Valentine and Viviane also seemed to have no problem with the task at all. All the Slytherins did it, too.
"I'm a bungler," Dan sighed.
"Are not," Gilda said.
"Am too!" Dan retorted.
"Oh, ickle Danniekins is starting to whine! Why don't you run to daddy?" Donald Rookwood smirked from a nearby table.
"Shut up if you don't want me to smash your face!" Norbert growled at the other Slytherin boy. "Daniel is just a bit… indisposed at the moment, but he can do it. Right, Dan?" he shot his friend a peremptory look.
"Uh-huh," Daniel nodded, screwing up his face in concentration, finally emitting a couple of huge, blue sparks – that accidentally set Gilda Lockhart's robes on fire.
"Help!" she screamed.
Professor Potter immediately sent an extinguishing charm on the girl's robes.
"Who did this?" he asked with knitted eyebrows.
"Me, dad," Dan seemed to have shrunk to the half of his usual size. "I mean, Professor Potter."
"It was an accident, professor," Norbert defended his friend. This was the first time Harry thoroughly inspected him. This was the boy whom he had helped on King's Cross to get on the train. The boy who stared at his scar then left without saying thanks. Harry frowned. This boy didn't look much like a Malfoy – with the exception of his eyes, that were unmistakably Malfoy-ish: cold grey, just like Lucius' and Draco's. But then again, Harry had heard that the Malfoys had vampire ancestors as well – so no wonder that this boy had such dark hair. His complexion was just as pale as that of all members in his family. A boy with vampire ancestors… and this boy seemed to have made friends with his son. Harry shuddered.
"Are you all right, Ms. Lockhart?" finally he turned to Gilda.
"Yes, sir," she nodded.
When the class started to exercise their very first incantation (Lumos), Daniel leant closer to Gilda with a rather embarrassed expression. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to set you on fire."
"No harm done," she shrugged. "Yesterday I beat you up on the train. Now you set me on fire. We are quits."
It was lunchtime, but Daniel didn't feel hungry. He hadn't eaten anything the whole day, but he still felt that he'd be sick if he did – after the Charms class he felt even more so than in the morning.
He had screwed up. He couldn't accomplish something as easy as conjuring sparks!
Norbert decided to exercise solidarity and he didn't have lunch, either.
Harry, at the staff table, couldn't help but notice that his son was missing from the Slytherin table, and he had a good idea why.
"All right, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Not really, Herm," he shook his head.
"Didn't your first two classes go well?" she looked concerned.
"They went okay," he shrugged. "David Dursley turned out to be very talented. I never thought he could be this good."
"Then why are you so sad?"
"Daniel," he sighed.
"What happened to him?" she furrowed her eyebrows. "Besides getting into Slytherin and having had a terrible Potions class…"
"He couldn't perform the simplest charms properly, Hermione," Harry put his spoon down, having lost his appetite. "At first he couldn't even produce blue sparks, and when he finally did it, he set the robes of Gilderoy's daughter on fire. And this isn't the main problem, I mean not every wizard is so damn talented, but… the point is that he was broken down by this. I saw the pain in his eyes, Herm. He's probably sitting in a toilet, sunk in misery."
"I don't think so," she shook her head. "He isn't the type to break down, is he? He's way too much like you, Harry. He's strong. He can take anything. He must be shaken, but he'll overcome this," she squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Trust him."
Harry nodded awkwardly, directing his attention back to the broth. "Uh, by the way, how do you know that Dan had a terrible Potions class?"
"Viv and Val told me about it. Snape doesn't like Dan, that's for sure. But he doesn't like my kids and Kevin, either," she shrugged. "Just the usual Snapish behaviour."
Harry's mouth tucked into a smirk, then it disappeared at once when he caught a glance of Aberforth and Minerva. Those two looked as though they had swallowed a dagger. *Oh, the poor fellow.* Harry thought, feeling sorry for Aberforth. *He must have fallen out with McGonagall again. But he really should have told her that he has been married before…*
* * * * *
"Lunch isn't over yet, and I'm hungry!" Norbert whined as he and Daniel walked down the corridors. Dan hoped he'd feel better after a bit of walking, but up till now his mood hadn't improved.
"I didn't ask you to come and walk with me. Go and have lunch. I'm not hungry," Dan replied.
"I'm not leaving you alone in your current state. You might…" Norbert's voice trailed off.
"What? Commit suicide?" Daniel's voice sounded cold and ironic.
"For heaven's sake, Dan!" Norbert clutched at his arm. "Don't ever talk like this!"
"Don't worry, I'm not going to make any harm to myself… especially because I couldn't. I cannot perform a single charm to hurt myself, besides, my mum would die if I did. I love her too much to cause her pain."
"And what about your father? Wouldn't he die, too?"
"Probably," Daniel hung his head. "Considering how much he has done for me already…"
"What has he done for you? … besides fathering you," Norbert asked with an amused look.
Young Potter heaved a deep sigh. "Well… I think it's all right to tell you."
"Tell me? What?"
"I was born a squib."
"I guess father mentioned something like this… but then even he started to doubt it when he heard from people that you were magic, after all. What exactly is the truth?"
"I was born a squib, that's the truth," Daniel sighed. "Then my dad caught a magic goldfish in the Durmstrang Lake – a wish-fulfilling goldfish. Dad's wish was to make all his descendants have magic powers. So happened that I got powers. But originally I didn't possess them. That's why I'm such a bungler at Charms. I'm sure I'm going to screw up in Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts as well… I simply don't have enough magic for that."
"Ew, this sucks," Norbert shook his head. "Your powers aren't really yours… just got them as a present or what? That must be really disturbing!"
"It is. You have no idea how much it is," young Potter replied bitterly. "My cousins were always better than me. Even my Muggle-born second-cousin, David. Okay… now you know it. I will understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore…"
"Do you know that you are utterly stupid?" young Malfoy said.
"Well, my sister Lily keeps telling me that…" Dan shrugged.
Norbert rolled his eyes. "I meant that you were stupid thinking that I wouldn't be your friend anymore. I don't care that you are less able a wizard… and you know what? I'm ready to help you with whatever you aren't that good at. You are going to be all right – you managed those sparks, after all…"
"Yeah, but I set Gilda on fire."
Norbert waved. "That doesn't matter. She deserved it… crazy, arrogant chick. I still hurt at many places where she hit me. I'm glad you set her on fire," he added with a wink.
Daniel couldn't help but grin. "Will you really help me? Practise with me?"
"'Course I will. We are friends, aren't we?"
Young Potter nodded. "We are. Though I still can't believe to have a Malfoy as my best friend."
"I bet you can't," Norbert smirked. "Okay, you have this weight off your chest, can't we go back and have lunch at last?"
"Well… we could…" Daniel said then suddenly stopped before a door, the expression of surprise spreading on his face.
"What happened? The Great Hall is the other way!" his friend reminded him, but Dan didn't listen, just pushed the handle of the door. It refused to open. "Why do you want to get in there?"
"I didn't even notice that we have walked this far away from the Great Hall," Dan said. "I've just realised what this room is… or might be."
"And? What's this?"
"My parents' one-time room."
"Huh?"
"Mum and dad used to live here when they were in their seventh year."
"What?" Norbert looked incredulous. "They were living here together when they were students? Did Dumbledore let them?"
"Sure he did, 'cause they were married. At least I think this must be that room… I just can't open the door."
Norbert shrugged. "Alohomora!"
The door opened to reveal a room with forget-me-not-blue tapestry. There was a small dais with an ancient book standing on it.
"Wow, the Hogwarts parchment book!" Norbert said admiringly.
"Then it's really their room," Dan nodded. "Mum and dad had to share the room with the book," he looked around. "Their bed must have stood there," he pointed at the corner.
"And maybe you were even conceived in this room?" his friend added with a wicked grin.
"Not likely," young Potter shook his head. "I was conceived a month before my parents' wedding, and they only moved into this room after they got married."
"Aha. So your sister Lily and you came along before your parents were joined in the holy bind of matrimony?"
Daniel blushed a bit. "Yeah. They were a bit… thoughtless, I guess."
"Not just a bit," Norbert Devilsmoor-Malfoy looked around in the room. "Hm… what's this?" he stepped to a tall, flat thing that was covered with a purple sheet with a thick layer of dust on it. He tugged at the sheet that fell down onto the floor, revealing a mirror.
It was a huge mirror with an ornate golden frame. There was a script carved around the top:
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi"Great! The mirror of Erised!" Dan said with admiration. "I always wanted to see it ever since dad mentioned it to me!"
"Erised?"
"Desire," Dan shrugged. "It has to be read backwards."
Norbert started to decipher the text: "I show not your face but your heart's desire. Um, what does it exactly mean?"
"Simple: stand in front of it and it will show you the greatest desire of your heart. It will show it only to you, so you can even keep it a secret."
Norbert stepped before the mirror and looked into it. His eyes seemed to flash for a second – in surprise or fright, Daniel couldn't tell. Maybe neither. Norbert didn't look surprised, after all, as if he had known what the deepest desire of his heart was.
"What do you see?" Dan asked him.
Young Malfoy shuddered, then turned around to face his new friend. "Oh… myself… with my parents and my brother Draco. Being a happy family."
Dan nodded knowingly. He was sure that Norbert didn't get enough love from his parents and he had heard that Draco downright despised his younger brother. No wonder what Norbert wanted above all was to live in a loving and caring family.
"Your turn."
Daniel stepped in front of the mirror and his mouth tucked into a sarcastic smirk. "I knew it."
"What? What does it show you?"
"Me, as a great wizard… as a Gryffindor… older, and looking like… dad."
"He's your idol, eh?"
"Yeah. I want to be like him. I don't want to be as famous, but I want to be as brave and talented… but I'll never be."
"Defeatist," Norbert shook his head. "Really. You're gonna be okay. And if not, then I'll tutor you, as I promised."
Daniel forced a little smile. "I've got to tell Kevin that not all Slytherins are bad. Honestly. I have never had such a good friend."
As he turned around to examine a closed cabinet, he couldn't see the pitiful pouting of Norbert.
"This one is also locked," Dan said.
"Then try and open it," his friend said. "First lesson: Alohomora. Go on!"
Young Potter nodded, pointing his wand at the lock. "Alohomora!"
The door didn't budge.
Seeing Dan's disappointment, Norbert waved. "It's just because the emphasis is on 'mo', not on 'Al'. Try again."
"Alohomora!"
The door of the cabinet flung open to reveal several small objects in it.
"This seems to be some kind of reserve for things that students had lost."
"Or maybe they keep the most dangerous magical objects here!" Dan commented enthusiastically, feeling overjoyed that he had managed to open the door.
"Well, let's see, then," Norbert pulled out a funny-shaped thing. "Just a sneakoscope. Not dangerous at all."
"What if it's bewitched?"
Norbert shrugged and put the sneakoscope back into the cabinet. "What about this one?"
"A fanged frisbee? Ow, watch out or it will bite your hand off!" the frisbee indeed started to move and clench its teeth, so Norbert dropped it back into the cabinet as fast as he could.
Daniel, meanwhile, had pulled out an innocent-looking parchment and started to study it with interest.
"Put it back, there's nothing interesting about it. It's blank," Norbert said.
"It might be written on with invisible ink, or you could make it reveal words if you write on it… dunno, worth a try."
Dan put the parchment on the table and pulled his quill and a bottle of ink out of his bag. He dipped the quill into the ink and wanted to write something. The tip of the quill had almost touched the parchment when words appeared on it:
"PUT THAT AWAY IMMEDIATELY!"
Dan dropped his quill in surprise.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because you would spoil everything we have worked for if you tainted this parchment with your ink!"
"Why, what have you worked for?" Norbert asked in a drawling voice.
"What have we worked for?" the parchment mused. "We could show you, after all… just say the magic words."
"The magic words?" the two boys exchanged confused looks.
"Er… show yourself!" Norbert tried.
"Reveal your magic!" Dan added.
"Open Sesame?"
"Aparecium!"
"Do something you damned…"
"Shhh… calm down, Norb," Dan hushed his friend who started to get really riled up. "This stupid little thing doesn't want to show us anything. Let's just leave it here… or sic the fanged frisbee on it and watch as it tears the parchment into little pieces?" he added with a mischievous grin.
Norbert's eyes flashed with delight. "I never thought a Potter could be like this… I thought you Potters were all saints, but I'm pleasantly disappointed."
Dan shook his head. "The only saint of us Potter children is my eldest sister Lily. The triplets are a bunch of little monsters and even my youngest sis, Lea, can drive my parents crazy… I for one, am far from being a saint. Lily always says that I'm utterly horrible. So I can solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
Norbert grinned back, drawing his wand to sic the frizbee on the parchment, then suddenly gasped. "Look!" he pointed at a text that had appeared on the parchment.
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
"The Marauder's Map?" Daniel's eyes widened in surprise. "I can't believe it! I thought it had been destroyed long ago!"
"Why? What's the big deal about it?" his friend scrutinised the parchment with the four names on it.
"What's the big deal?" Dan snorted. "This is the coolest thing in the world! My dad used to own it for about a year, then Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as Mad-Eye Moody, took it from him. He never got it back. He was quite unhappy about it, though, because this little thing here," he pointed his wand at the parchment, "helped him a lot in mischief-making."
"How did it help him?" Norbert wondered, absent-mindedly tapping the parchment with his wand.
As if answering, the parchment wiped the four names off itself to replace them by lines running out from the point where Norbert's wand's tip touched the map. The lines arranged themselves into a sophisticated map of the Hogwarts castle.
"Wicked!" exclaimed Norbert, seeing two dots standing in the room labelled 'purple room': the two dots had the tiny words 'Daniel Potter' and 'Norbert D. Malfoy' written above them.
Alas, there was a third dot approaching – a dot labelled 'Harry Potter'.
"Uh-oh… your dad," young Malfoy whispered.
"He hasn't rounded the corner yet," Dan perceived. "We have enough time to escape. C'mon."
The two boys ran out of the 'purple room'. (It had indeed been purple before it got painted forget-me-not-blue, but the staff members kept referring to it as the 'purple room', so the map also showed it with its old name.)
Dan didn't remember having run this fast in his whole life. He and Norbert managed to reach the staircase when Harry turned into the corridor.
"Damn, we left the door open!" Norbert swore as they hurried downstairs into the Slytherin common room.
"And? Dad doesn't know who has been there," Dan shrugged. "We're safe… and so is this little beauty," he squeezed the map to himself, as though it was the most precious treasure in the world.
"How came that your dad never found the map while he was living in that room?"
"I'm sure that this cabinet with the confiscated magical objects got placed in the room well after my parents graduated. The whole room must have been re-furnished several times. I mean, the bed got removed, for example…"
Norbert nodded as they reached the stonewall hiding the entrance to their common room. "Venenum velox!"
In the common room there wasn't a single person to be seen – the weather was too favouring to be inside.
The boys flopped down into the green-cushioned chairs in front of the crackling fire. While it was hot outside, the underground common room was still cold, so the fire was needed all the time.
Dan put the parchment on a small table to see whether he and young Malfoy were the only ones to be around. They were really alone.
"My dad told me a lot about himself using this map," he said. "I guess he never forgave that guy for having taken it from him."
"Had this thing been mine, I wouldn't have forgiven that Crouch guy, either," Norbert agreed. "By the way, who are these people: Moony, Bigfoot and… er, forgot…"
Daniel burst into laughter. "It's Padfoot, and he's called Sirius Black in normal life. Moony is non other than good old Professor Lupin, as for Prongs… he was my grandpa."
"James Potter?"
"Yeah."
"Wow. And what about this Wormtail? I guess I have heard his name somewhere."
"You must have… he was a death eater, just like your father. No insult, but…"
Norbert waved, laughing. "No insult taken. I'm perfectly aware what my father was. So is everyone else. You know… sometimes I still wonder how he can be still at large instead of sitting at Azkaban."
Young Potter shrugged. "Maybe he gave a huge donation to the Wizarding Orphans and that git of a Minister left him alone in exchange."
Norbert sniggered. "You're totally right. Fudge is the greatest git ever. I simply don't understand why people keep re-electing him."
"People have a knack of choosing what's the worst for them," Dan said seriously. "Take that Wormtail, for example. He also chose the worst: joined Voldemort. At least he redeemed himself at the end."
"How?"
"He sacrificed himself for my dad."
Norbert furrowed his brow. "Wormtail? I thought he was too much of a coward for such a thing."
"He was, but he changed at the end," Daniel looked into his friend's eyes a bit dubiously. "How do you know what he was like?"
"Heard it from father," young Malfoy shrugged, diverting his attention back to the map. "Tricky little thing, that's for sure. Without it, your dad would have caught us and Slytherin would have minus fifty points."
"Well, that wouldn't be that terrible, would it?" Dan chuckled. "Gryffindor started the school year with minus ten points because McGonagall didn't really tolerate Kevin beating up Lancelot."
The two boys spent the afternoon talking and laughing, and to Daniel's surprise, he started to be less broken down by the fact that he was a Slytherin.
By the time dinner was served, Dan's bad mood had all but disappeared.
Having had starved all day, Daniel ate as much of steak and kidney pudding for dinner that he got a serious stomach-ache.
All the other boys in his dorm were already asleep when he still couldn't close his eyes. He kept tossing and turning for hours.
At about midnight he started to feel so sick that he decided to go and find Madame Pomfrey and ask for something to help him with digestion. He also swore never to eat this much before going to bed.
He got out of his four-poster, put on his glasses and slipped into his slippers. As he grabbed the Marauder's Map, Abu woke up.
"Sshhh!" Dan pressed his index finger to his mouth, snatched up his wand and the map, and tiptoed out of the room.
* * * * *
After a bit of stair climbing, Daniel started to feel much better. Maybe all he needed was a bit of movement – maybe he didn't even need the school matron's help anymore.
He was just about to turn and go back into his dorm when a sudden thought came to his mind: why not visit the Mirror again?
He was only a hundred feet from the 'purple room', after all…
He cast a glance at the map to see to it that no one was around and walked up to the door. Although he and Norbert had left it open at lunchtime, now it was closed again.
"Alohomora!" he whispered, placing the emphasis on the right place this time.
The door opened.
Dan put the map onto a table and rushed to the mirror – it wasn't covered with the purple sheet now.
He stared into it and felt half-surprised, half-disappointed. His mirror image looked very Harry Potterish, just like some hours earlier, and it still wore robes with the Gryffindor lion.
*That means I still want to be a Gryffindor.* he thought sourly. No matter how good a friend Norbert was, he still craved to be together with his cousins.
For a moment he imagined what it would be like to be in Gryffindor: he would not only have one friend, but several. He wouldn't feel as embarrassed about not being able to accomplish simple charms properly – in Gryffindor you were allowed to be a bit clumsy, while in Slytherin it was an unforgivable sin… Had he been in Gryffindor, he wouldn't mind the Slytherins laughing at him because he could hate them in peace.
He furrowed his eyebrows. Could he actually hate Norbert?
Probably not.
Inexplicably to him, he never found young Malfoy unsympathetic. He couldn't put a finger on it, but felt some kind of a tie between the two of them. He just had no idea what that mysterious tie could be.
He couldn't ponder this, because someone cleared his throat behind him.
Daniel felt the blood freeze in his veins. He gulped and turned around slowly to see… his father.
Harry Potter was leaning to the doorframe in a nonchalant way, fondling Abu the monkey.
"Well?" he asked.
"Uh…" was all Dan managed to comment. "What is Abu doing here?"
"He followed you," Harry shrugged and Abu jumped down from his hands. "You know, I should take points from Slytherin now, but given that there are no points to take away…" he stepped closer with his hands clasped behind his back. "I believe it would seem stupid if both Gryffindor and Slytherin started the term with minus points, so we might dispense with it. As for your punishment, young man…"
"Dad, I mean… Professor Potter, I can explain it."
"Leave the professor part, we are between the two of us," Harry replied with a small smile. "However, I'd really like to hear your reasons for unlocking this door twice today, opening that cabinet, stealing the Map and coming back here now…"
Daniel blinked, confused. "How do you know about the Map?"
Harry pointed at the table. "First of all: you left it lying around, switched on, which was downright irresponsible of you. What if somebody…"
"I didn't know how to switch it off!" Dan cut in. "I don't even know how I actually activated it, how could I have know how to switch it off? … Er, sorry." he hung his head, realising how impolite it was to interrupt his father.
"I believe you must have accidentally said I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good in order to activate it. As for switching it off, you have to say Mischief managed!" Harry replied with a stern expression. "And if you allow me, I'd like to continue. So, the first clue was the map lying around. The second one: when I saw that the door to this room was left open at lunchtime, I noticed that the door of this cabinet was also open. And what did I find in the cabinet? Dangerous and confiscated objects. Just like in Filch's room years and years ago…" a dreamy expression fell over Harry's face, remembering his little visit to the old caretaker's room in his second year at Hogwarts. "I didn't know where the map was hidden after the fake Moody took it from me, but it was quite sensible of the teachers to put it together with other confiscated objects… Dumbledore knew that the map was mine, but he might have thought it would be too much to give it back to me… that it would look like he was favouring me and letting me do more rule-breaking." he shrugged. "I guess Dumbledore was right not to give it back to me… So when I saw the door of this cabinet open and realised that whoever had been here, managed to escape just in time… it was obvious that the map had been found. I knew that the door had been locked because I saw it on my way to the Great Hall, and I presumed that the 'perpetrators' must have left the room mere seconds before I arrived here, especially because I heard the pattering of feet… you must have just got out of sight when I arrived, but your footsteps still echoed in the corridor. You couldn't have escaped without knowing that someone was coming. And where could you know it from? The Map." seeing his son's appalled expression, Harry had to laugh. "Daniel… I was using this parchment for a whole year and managed to escape from Snape with its help several times."
"But… how did you know that it was me who had been here at lunchtime?"
Harry pulled an elegant eagle feather quill out of his robe-pocket. "You accidentally left this here. A luck that it was me who found it, not say, Snape."
Daniel took the quill from his father, cursing his own stupidity – he had dropped it in surprise when the Map had 'shouted' at him.
The quill even had his name carved into it – he had received it from Harry for his birthday.
He pocketed it with an embarrassed blush. "Thanks, dad."
Harry nodded. "Just an advice: next time you decide to go for a night-time stroll, always make sure that your monkey does not follow you around because that might be conspicuous for the teachers, and always keep one of your eyes on the map so that you won't get nasty surprises."
"Does that mean that I can keep it?" Dan's face lit up.
Harry's lips tucked into a smirk. "I don't think I could use it as well as you could. As a teacher, I should confiscate it, of course, but as an old marauder I can only encourage you to use it. Should any other teacher catch you hiding it in your pocket, I will have no idea where you got it. Understood?"
"Certainly," Dan nodded eagerly. "You have no idea that I found the map."
"All right. Use it, but try and stay out of trouble."
Dan grinned. "Being your son, I doubt I can stay out of trouble."
"At least try," Harry said, now wearing a bit more serious expression. "As for the mirror…"
"I… saw myself being a great wizard… and a Gryffindor, like you," Dan blurted out, feeling that he had to tell someone – someone, who wasn't another Slytherin... and who could understand him better, than his own father?
"As a great Gryffindor wizard?" Harry echoed him.
"Yeah…" Dan hung his head. "But it will always remain that way… just a desire, never reality."
"Well, partly," Harry replied, stepping next to his son. Now both of them were looking at the mirror, seeing their normal images. The mirror couldn't show the desires of more than one person at once, after all.
"Partly?" Dan asked.
"Yes," his father nodded, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "You can't change the house you have been sorted into, but you can still become a great wizard."
"How?" Dan sighed. "I don't have enough talent and never will."
"Talent isn't everything," Harry shook his head. "Many talented wizards wasted their talents away, and others who weren't so gifted, turned out to be really great."
"Name one," the boy said, resigned.
"Neville Longbottom, for instance," Harry replied. "You couldn't find a better example. I tell you he wasn't any more gifted than you are, and look what he's become! A famous Quidditch player and now a professor."
The boy wrinkled his nose. "I guess I should be feeling better now… but I don't."
"I haven't told you this to console you, son," Harry said sternly. "I told you this so that you'd remember it when the time comes. And it shall come."
Daniel didn't really see the point, but he trusted his father to tell him wise and reasonable things. Then again… could a father/teacher who let his son/student use an aid to rule breaking be considered wise and reasonable?
"Dad…" the boy spoke up finally. "What do you see if you look into this mirror?"
"For the time being… the two of us."
Dan was just about to step aside to let Harry face his deepest desires alone, but Harry kept him in place with his hands resting on Dan's shoulders.
"I don't want to look into it anymore. Neither should you. Many wasted away and even went mad in front of this mirror."
"Did they?" the boy gasped.
"Yeah. To quote the words of a very wise man… it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. Never forget this, son."
The boy nodded, though somewhat insecurely. "So, you are afraid of going mad?"
"Me? No," Harry managed a small smile. "There are way too many things I'd wish for… too many things I wish never happened… it's not me who'd go crazy, but the mirror, trying to show all my greatest desires."
Daniel knew that his father considered the topic closed and stepped away from the mirror. "Oh, look at him!" he pointed at Abu who was posing in front of the mirror, salivating. "I bet he sees himself eating a huge banana split!" he bent down to grab the monkey that started to squeak, not wanting to leave the mirror and his banana split. "Oh, come on, Abu!"
"I told you he was a troublemaker," Harry said. "You should have left him at home."
"No way. The poor thing would miss me… wouldn't you, Abu?" Dan caressed the monkey that gave him an 'I'm missing my banana-split more than you'-expression. "And I promise I won't come back here, " he added, stifling a yawn.
"That's more like it," Harry handed him the parchment. "And now, off to bed, young marauder!"
"What about my punishment?" Dan raised an eyebrow.
Harry shook his head, laughing. "Out with you, little tyke. And keep an eye on the map if you don't want to run into Snape!"
A/N: thanks to Indigo Ziona for her help on chemistry – I've always sucked at that subject.
Note that I'm not familiar with class-length in Great Britain, I just assumed that classes had to be at least 60 minutes long and that the kids needed some break between two classes. I decided that the Slytherins didn't have lessons in the afternoon – I know how much it sucks having to sit at classes even in the afternoon, and I wanted to be gracious to my dear Slytherins :) I also assumed that the students had one particular class only once a week. I didn't want to set up a more complicated timetable.
Laurel Hoffman: I also like Draco.
Squalldaman: the Internet incarnation of Rowling? Noooo… but it sounds very flattering, thanks! :)
King Jasbon: no, sorry, in my fic Harry won't be the heir of Slytherin, because I don't believe he could be. Remember, Voldemort was the last heir of Slytherin – at least according to Rowling. I don't know any Harry-is-the-heir-of-Slytherin fics, sorry, I have never read any. No, there is no heir of Voldemort. I don't think he ever had a son/daughter.
Katie Bell: you'll see Ginny's reaction in the next chapter. She won't be too happy, I tell you.
jennaration: sure, you are going to find out why he got into Slytherin – in chapter 28 :) Next time if you find grammar mistakes, would you be so kind and point them out to me? I'd like to learn from my mistakes.
puppy duck: I feel special to be the first author whom you have ever sent a review. Thanks :)
Lily: Dannie is going to be all right… at the end of the fic. But until then he'll have to go through a lot – and most things won't be pleasant for him.
AmandaPanda: Harry and Daniel will get to know why Dan got into Slytherin at the same time, in chapter 28.
makulit: that might be a reason, but it isn't the real reason.
Houou: I'm sure that Brannagh could have played Lupin as well, but he is good enough as Lockhart, isn't he?
Cute Little Piccolo: better than the others? Wow, I never thought :) In fact I feared that people wouldn't like chapter 4 that much – I'm glad they still did.
Derkaun Zarion: no, in the books it wasn't mentioned which house Dumbledore went to, but in an interview Rowling said that Albus had been a Gryffindor.
C-chan: sorry, but I'm no LotR fan at all. Never really liked it. I'm glad your sis also likes my fic :)
goldenstar555: LOL at the image of Dan redecorating the Slytherin chambers :)
Jeanine23Dr: how is Dumbledore sure that Dan won't turn to the dark side? Hm… maybe he isn't sure just wanted to comfort Harry. Dunno. One can never know Albus Dumbledore enough. He is the most enigmatic guy I know.
Saphron: yes, you'll see quite a lot about the Minerva reaction. And yes, there will be some Snape/Dan interaction as well. How do I motivate myself to write the build-up chapters? Well… I didn't need much motivation when writing this fic – I just had to think of chapters 27-29 (the wicked part of the story that will make my readers want to send me to hell), and I was already motivated to do the build-up.
zzxm: yeah, pooooor Dan :)
AClodHoppingElf: I wouldn't mind being in Slytherin, either. There's just one reason I wouldn't want to be one: the Slytherin dungeons are very cold and I hate being cold. My mum keeps telling me that in my former life I must have lived in Africa :)
K. C. Hunter: I'm glad you liked the Aberforth part.
Kit Cloudkicker: oh, but yes, I do.
Altec: not all Slytherins are mean, you'll see that they aren't.
Toby Haine: sure, of course there's a good reason! In this fic 80% of the events have a good reason.
Rose: shame that there are so few Gildy fans out there :( He deserves to be loved! Goooo Gildy!
Cassandra Anthemyst: being ambitious could be a reason for Dan getting into Slytherin, but the real reason is something else. No, it has nothing to do with the 1000 years.
Tenshi: I'm happy :)
2Coolio: you can never know me enough :)
Rab: why did I choose Seattle? It was a random choice, really. I could as well have chosen any other city/town. Read my answer to Cassandra Anthemyst.
apple-pie: you have the Inner Eye :)
Ice Kitten: no, I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm going to see it in a week. No, his family in Gryffindor won't ignore Dan.
Any last requests: what kinds of festivities did your school have? Well, hopefully the Hogwarts festivities will be nice enough :)
the coffee fiend: thanks for the correction.
Indigo Ziona: no, Valentine isn't like Hermione at all. I'm glad you like Norbert's name :)
Alexander Pheonix: you asked me to stop putting Harry through all this. All what? I haven't even started putting him through things! He isn't even miserable yet – at least not compared to what he's going to be like… dark times are coming for our poor Harry.
Nefertiri: sure, Dan will have more than one Slytherin friends, not just Norbert.
rebkos: yes, I hope it will be interesting :)
Wood's secret lover: no idea what happened to Crookshanks, but he won't put in an appearance in the story. Lockhart couldn't have been a Hufflepuff, because Hufflepuffs are generous and loyal, and Gilderoy isn't. Aberforth as a Ravenclaw? I can't imagine him there – he isn't exactly bright, is he? He's cute and mischievous, but not too clever.
X-Tow-Naga: Tom Parris and John Nash will be very side-characters. It's not Nevile, but Neville. I just wanted to have a first Snape/Dan interaction, and for that I needed Snape to guide the firsties down into the dungeons instead of the prefects. Thanks for the Peeves' verse correction, I'm still having difficulties with the conditional. Yes, perhaps the American Dumbledores didn't know that Aberforth was still alive. The third time when Harry wore the hat was when he slammed it onto his head in the Chamber of Secrets and the hat dropped the sword onto his head. If I asked people how many times Harry had worn the hat, I bet that 95% would say that twice :) But no, it was three times. My, my, you seem to be a little biologist! Sorry, I'm not and I don't care for genetics that much, since they are not essential for the plot. Rest assured that Daniel has nothing of Voldemort in him, I swear he has nothing. I know the switched order of names, since we in Hungary also have it: I'm Hartman Agnes, but in English I would be Agnes Hartman.
notebook girl: perhaps:)) Nice to see you again!
Lana Riddle: and this chapter wasn't even the longest, it was just 15.5 Word pages. Chapter 18 will be the longest with exactly 18 Word pages.
Black Ice: no, Dan being a Slytherin has nothing to do with the goldfish. This fic will only be about this school year, so you won't see more Potters at Hogwarts.
seashell: of course I have planned it all out. You have interesting idea there, but you're on the wrong track.
LilGinny: you are free to imagine that Norbert's wearing leather under his robes :)
dragon tiger: I do hope it's gonna be brilliant. But only I know what is going to be brilliant about it – hopefully all my readers will find something in chapter 27 absolutely brilliant – I was very proud of myself when I made that up, but you'll have to wait a 'bit' for that chapter. Yes, please, tell me when you upload your next generation fic. I'd like to read it, but I'm sorry to say that I cannot read your current fic, because I don't know Night World at all, and if I don't know something, I cannot judge it. I'm glad you like my art at GTnet, more pics are to come in the near future, because I've asked my friend to scan some new ones. Hope you'll like them.
sabby: well, Dan and Norb will do funny and dangerous stuff, but they won't exactly be like Gred and Forge. The story will be mainly about Daniel, but lots of things will be about Harry, Ginny, Albus, Snape, Draco, Norbert, the Weasley kids and Gilda Lockhart.
SiriDragon: I feel bad for Dan, too :)
Princess Ginny: I don't remember your mail address, sorry. Yes, lots of evil things are to happen.
Allie: here's more :)
Waldomier: thrice means three times.
Embyr Black: yes, I do have my reasons.
Kristen Michelle: no, Snape won't get even nastier… just almost :)
Pamela-potter-24: see, Dan's really depressed. The poor thing.
Lady Schezar: yes, Potter and Malfoy are going to be friends in this fic. But not Harry Potter and not Draco Malfoy :)
Cyclo: P.E. won't be that important in the fic, don't worry. I just had to make up a new subject to be able to bring my beloved Gildy back to Hogwarts :)
Lavendar Brown: sorry, but I'm going to keep the answers to reviews on the bottom. I got bored with them on the top. I decided to change profile – I'm studying PR and I've learned about profile-changes and decided to use a bit of it :)
Sky: yes, from a certain point of view, the story will be like a roller-coaster – ups and downs, ups and downs…
Eclectus: I hope you did well in your test. I don't think that Rita is a death eater, but I agree that she must have been in Slytherin.
jasper: certainly I'm going to give my reasons for everything that happens in the story (not only for putting Dan in Slytherin.). Everything will be explained, I promise.
Dauphin: I guess I'm never going to understand Chinese names :)
Zenon Lee: I didn't think of putting Muggle-borns into Slytherin. About Gildy not being a death eater – well, not all Slytherins are death eaters and not all death eaters are Slytherins (I guess Pettigrew was a Gryffindor). How would Harry handle Charms? Pretty well, I guess. He had always been good at it (with the exception of the Summoning Charm, but he mastered that one, too). Yes, this story will be the darkest I have ever written. I hope I haven't scared you away :)
unknown reviewer: I envy you. Even you got to see the movie one week before me. Btw, you could write a random name, you don't need to sign in at all, just make up a name. It'd be nice to call you something else than 'unknown reviewer' or 'reviewer with no name'.
Desiree: I'm glad you've grown to like the 'Dan in Slytherin' idea.
Lyny: no, Norbert isn't a thing like Colin. James Lupin, on the other hand, will be very much like him (but he won't be important, only for a very short scene near the end). Yes, you'll see quite a bit of Lily, but only in the second half of the story. She's not important yet, but will be, later. By Mr Bean's Christmas do you mean that episode in which he goes to a shopping mall and keeps bouncing Christmas-tree orbs off the ground and threatens the Virgin Mary with a T-Rex? I loved that episode, very funny.
kryptKnight: no, Norbert's not gay at all. He'll prove it very clearly in chapter 15.
star queen: The Two Towers come to Hungary in January, since we'll only have Harry Potter two in December, and it's quite reasonable not to start playing the two movies at once.
Neus: who would win in a game of chess – Ron or Draco? Well… Ron, of course :)
CandyGurl83: Snape won't treat Dan so terribly, don't worry.
Aimee: yes, the hat's motives will be revealed… in chapter 28. Julie Dumbledore is just a little blurb in the plot, not really important – so don't worry, she's by no means a Mary Sue.
WolfEyes: no, the serpents that seemed to be moving didn't refer to Dan being a Parselmouth – as he ISN'T one. I just thought it'd look cool if the serpents seemed to be moving. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I haven't taken the spiralling staircase from there – I took it from CoS, the book. Yes, Dobby will appear in this story.
Myr Halcyon: no, you aren't wasting my time. But I totally understand if you only review when you feel like saying something. I hope that most chapters will make you feel like saying something, even if that's only critic :)