HARRY POTTER AND THE MARK OF GRYFFINDOR
By Geena
Chapter 3 : Prefects
The first thing Harry realised when he woke up, was that he did not have a nightmare that night. He sighed relieved and quickly got up. He was eager to resume his normal school routine, happy to reacquaint himself with all his subjects, even Divination.
Seeing Ron was still asleep, he decided to head off to breakfast a little early so he could take a detour to the owlery. Sirius, wherever he was, would want to know he had arrived safely at Hogwarts.
He got as far as the Gryffindor common room. A nervous looking Hermione was making a hole in the carpet, pacing up and down like she had been anxiously waiting for something. She let out a little squeak when she saw him.
"Harry ! I was just about to come up and wake you. We're late !"
Harry looked puzzled, lessons didn't start until nine and a glance at his watch told him it was only five past seven.
"Late for what ?" He asked.
Hermione looked irritated.
"For our first Prefects Meeting, silly. We're all having breakfast together with Dumbledore and the Head of Houses. Although Snape probably won't be there."
"Aaah." Harry had totally forgotten about that. Then again, the meeting wasn't until seven thirty…
"Hermione, calm down, there's plenty of time. I'm just going to send Sirius an owl and then I'll go straight to the Prefects' Room."
She didn't look too pleased, shrugged her shoulders and went in a totally different direction once they were through the portrait hole.
Harry took his time to write the note, using it as an opportunity to play with Hedwig. She nipped his finger lovingly, grateful her human spent some time with her.
Once she had flown away, whereto only Hedwig knew; Harry went back inside.
He tried to remember the directions to the Prefects Room, walking through empty passages that all looked the same to him.
Suddenly it seemed like he had come to a dead end, but then he noticed the opening on the left, just in front of the rear end of the passage. He was about to turn the corner when he heard a familiar voice. Startled, not meaning to interrupt, he held back and only heard little bits and pieces from the conversation.
"… our chateau in France … discovery … a bookworm like you would be interested …"
Bookworm ? Now Harry knew the person that hadn't spoken yet, could be no other than Hermione and the one that did all the talking … Malfoy. Harry moved closer to the passage corner, ready to intervene if necessary.
Hermione must have said something, judging by Malfoy's following smirk.
"I thought you must have heard of him. But have you read any of his work ? The Marquis wrote some interesting stuff, you might learn something, Mudblood. And, if you'd ever feel the need for a 'hands on' practise session, don't look any further."
Was it the denigrating way Malfoy spoke to her ? The hint of a threat in his voice ? Harry couldn't tell what made him act, but at the same moment Hermione said "Get your hands off me, Malfoy." Harry had turned around the corner at full speed, flying on top of Malfoy like an avenging angel.
Hermione gasped as she saw her friend appearing out of nowhere. Draco didn't have the time to be surprised, he found himself flat on his back, an enraged Harry straddled across his chest, pinning his wrists down.
Before either one of them had the chance to say or do anything, a calm voice interrupted the little scene.
"Gentlemen, it appears you have a problem ? There's no need to get physical. I'm sure you'll find some other, more peaceful means of communication."
Harry let go of Malfoy, who was staring over his shoulder with his mouth open. No need to ask who had just walked into their fight.
"Professor Palmer, I …" Draco began, but tripped over his own split tongue.
"Draco was calling me 'mudblood', professor and Harry … well, he just … you know …" Hermione defended her friend.
"He was there to play your knight in shining armour, am I right, miss Granger ?"
Professor Palmer watched both teenagers turn a deeper shade of pink and suppressed a chuckle.
"Now, I think we were all heading in the same direction, so I suggest you boys get on your feet. Mister Malfoy, you will apologise to miss Granger and we can start the meeting."
All three of them looked slightly dazed. Harry most of all because he had been holding his breath, afraid Ron's suspicions about the new professor could hold some truth. Apparently she did not favour Malfoy at all. Malfoy sheepishly murmured an apology, holding his head down in defeat, but Harry noticed the malicious glare he shot at Hermione. He was also painfully aware of her shudder and pumped her hand in comfort. It earned him a smile that made him blush some more, but he didn't care.
The meeting was a bit of an anti-climax after the upsetting events in the passage. Dumbledore explained what they were supposed to do, which came down to setting an example for the younger students and keeping their Houses out of mischief.
Harry had wondered why professor Palmer would be present at the meeting, but it seemed she had temporarily taken over professor Snape's responsibilities as Head of Slytherin. That came as a shock. Did it mean she had been in Slytherin during her time as a student at Hogwarts ? Maybe Ron's idea of her being linked to Voldemort wasn't so farfetched after all. Then again, the incident in the passage didn't result in a major loss of points for Gryffindor. With a start Harry realised he hadn't been paying attention to what was said.
When the meeting was over Malfoy headed off in the same direction as professor Palmer, trailing behind her, looking up at her tall figure, eyes shining with adoration.
Harry walked together with Hermione to Transfiguration, their first class.
"Hermione, what was Malfoy hassling you about ? That Marquis, who is he ?"
Hermione appeared to be very interested in her feet all of a sudden, but Harry didn't let go that easy.
"Is he a dark wizard ?"
Still no answer.
"Does Malfoy know him ?"
A snort. "He's dead."
"Oh. Tell me, why do you feel so uncomfortable talking about him ?"
Hermione stopped walking, looking at Harry for the first time since they had left the meeting room.
"Harry, have you ever heard of the Marquis de Sade ?"
He tried to search his brain to come up with something, but failed.
"He was a writer, a contemporary of Napoleon."
"Why is Malfoy so interested in him ? Did he write something about Dark Magic ?"
"No, he was a muggle."
"Hermione!" Harry started to get worried, normally it wasn't that hard to extract information from her, she usually poured it all out over anyone who happened to be in the vicinity.
"He wrote … em, well. He. He wrote erotic novels."
"Oh." Harry felt his cheeks burn again.
"Not the fluffy kind." Hermione added. "His name was the basis for the word 'sadism'".
Harry grabbed both of her arms.
"Malfoy didn't do anything to you, did he ?" Concern showed in his dark green eyes.
"No, no. I'm fine." She assured him, but she didn't look it. Harry promised himself he would keep an eye on her, especially when Malfoy was near.
The remainder of the day passed without any further alarming disturbances. They had told Ron about their encounter with professor Palmer in detail, but still couldn't decide whether she was as nice as she seemed or if it was all a charade.
They looked forward to their first Dark Arts lesson on Thursday, the other Gryffindors – mostly the boys assured them she was an incredible teacher. Hermione was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, considering her satisfactory intervention in her confrontation with Malfoy, but wanted a first hand experience to judge her teaching abilities.
After the lesson she wholeheartedly agreed with the boys. It had been most interesting. Professor Palmer had teamed them up to practise their duelling skills. Contrary to their previous experience with duelling during their second year, they actually learned something useful this time. At first they practised the 'Expelliarmus' spell, which Harry and Ron were already familiar with. Then they went on to some blocking spells, which were much fun to practise, each and every one of them tumbling on the floor when the spell they threw at their opponent was successfully blocked. Even Neville managed to slow Hermione down when she cast a tickling spell on him.
During their first weekend, Hedwig returned with a note from Sirius. He was happy that Harry was back at Hogwarts with his friends. No, he couldn't tell where he was or what he was doing, but he assured Harry he would see him before the new year.
"Before the new year !" Harry exclaimed. "Has he got any idea how long that is ?"
Ron and Hermione tried to be supportive, but didn't want Harry to think Sirius was engaged in something dangerous, so there wasn't much they could say to him that helped.
It was Sunday night all too soon and when Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the Great Hall for dinner, all it took was one look at the Head Table to tell them the next week wouldn't be as pleasant.
At the far end of the table, dark and brooding, like he'd never been away, sat their Potions Master. He looked as menacing as ever and seeing him sitting there, his expressionless eyes scanning the Great Hall like a hawk, it was hard to believe that only a few days ago, he had been nothing but a bundle of filthy robes.
"Look." Ron hissed.
They turned their heads in unison at the entrance of the Great Hall. Professor Palmer had just walked in. Harry averted his eyes to look at Snape's reaction to his new colleague.
At first he didn't notice anything different about him, but later, when everyone was eating their dinner, Harry looked up again and what he saw nearly took his breath away.
He must have gasped, for both Ron and Hermione followed his gaze and displayed a similar reaction.
"My God, I have never seen such an intense look of fear on anyone's face before, let alone Snape's." Ron said.
"Why would he be so afraid of Professor Palmer ?" Hermione asked.
"I dunno." Harry murmured.
"Maybe he recognised her, you know, from you-know-who's intimate circle. She might be the one they sent to check on him." Ron saw his theory confirmed once more.
"No." Harry answered. "Voldemort explicitly told Malfoy to do that."
"Maybe it's Malfoy taking polyjuice potion." Ron hadn't given up yet.
"And make his son apologise to Gryffindors ? I don't think so." Hermione added her bit.
"But she did act as Head of Slytherin." Harry continued.
"Harry, will you finally make up your mind whether you're going to trust her or not ? I mean, Dumbledore let himself be fooled one time, he's not going to let that happen again is he ? Not the greatest wizard of all time !"
"Hagrid would be pleased to hear you say that." Ron grinned. "Oh well, maybe we're reading too much into this. For all we know, she might know some deep dark secret about him, something even Dumbledore doesn't know, maybe something embarrassing."
"I guess it will remain a mystery, but I must admit I kind of like the idea of Snape being scared out of his wits by a woman." Hermione laughed.
