Harry Potter and the Curse of the Gypsy
Authors Note: Hey kids! How do you like the story? I am having a lot of fun, and hope that you like this as much as I do. Cory Johnson is quite the card, isn't she? Get ready for some cool stuff! I'm out!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the books. I own only the plot and the original character Cory Johnson. Hmmmm, finished taking notes? All right, let's begin, shall we?
Chapter Seven
Harry made it through the first day of being a prefect. It wasn't an easy task. Owing to the fact that he was such a famous figure, and because they now had an excuse to do so, many young first, second, and even third and fourth years kept coming up to Harry, asking him anything from where the nearest bathroom was to how many splinters of Ebony were used in a Perplexing Potion.
Uncomfortable, Harry did the best he could...told them what he knew, and if they had any questions over homework, he referred them to Hermione, who would be likely to not only give them whatever fact they might need, but in the process explain exactly why that fact was just so, and recommend at least five library books for further study. Many learned to avoid the Gryffindor prefects and began asking the Ravenclaws instead, who were only too obliged to help.
Only too grateful that he didn't have potions on his first day of potions, he went to all his classes. He was uncomfortably aware that McGonogall was watching his every move; he knew that she would not tolerate any slacking off of his schoolwork, and though he would gladly have given the responsibility of prefect to any of his other fifth years, he did not want to imagine the guff he would get from Malfoy or his his cronies.
Added to that, he had already begun to think about the Halloween Ball that had been mentioned on the train. At first he had thought nothing of it. A harmless affair, he thought. He hadn't even given it a second thought, other than the moment of surprise when it had been mentioned.
However, the announcement for the rest of the school had been posted, and Harry cringed whenever a girl went by, giggling at the boundless prospects. There had never been a Halloween ball at Hogwarts in recent history. The closest they had even came was the Yule Ball the previous year, and that in light of the Triwizard tournament.
"I suppose that they decided another social even would be in order." Hermione said thoughtfully when Harry asked her what she thought of the matter. "And, well, people want to get home for the holidays this time around. My mum said she would throttle me if I stayed here for another Christmas. So I guess they scheduled it for Halloween."
"Yeah...I guess so." But Harry wasn't exactly thrilled. Last year he had gone with Parvati Patil, and had found Ron a date with her sister Padma. However, the sisters had been quite angry that night, as Harry and Ron had mostly ignored them the entire night. Since that occasion, they had been rather icy towards them. Harry couldn't fathom asking Parvati again.
"Well..." Harry said sheepishly when Ron started bitterly talking about the ball. "I guess...well, you could always ask Hermione earlier, this time. I mean...it would be better than asking Pansy Parkinson."
Ron began sputtering. Harry, who had just had his suspicions about Ron and Hermione confirmed, shrugged and glanced down at his schedual. And groaned. "Ehh...why do we have to be in Divination our first day back?"
"What?" Ron looked quickly at his own schedule, grateful for a change in subject. "Oh, good. I bet you five sickles she predicts your death within, say, ten minutes."
Harry shook his head. "No, she might try and be a little more subtle this time around. How about fifteen?" Ron nodded.
"Yeah. All right." They finished their meal----Hermione had already left them alone, saying she needed to talk to her Arithmancy teacher about a project. Ron had begun to make a quip about her not being able to be involved in project yet but, used to Hermione's cryptic way of going about certain things, decided to leave well enough alone.
On the way up to Professor Trelawney's tower, Harry was once again stopped for directions. Once by a first year Gryffindor who reverently clung to Harry's every word, and another time by a little Hufflepuff girl who blushed profusely when she glanced at Harry's scar. "Watch out..." muttered Ron when they were finally able to leave her. "Or they really will be starting the Harry Potter fan club this year."
Harry shoved Ron, when suddenly they heard some very familiar shouting from around the corner.
"Just tell me where the North Tower is, you inept..."
"Aye, you defiant witch! I shall never aid ye'! What cause have you to disturb me, to mock my prowess?" Harry and Ron looked at each other, stifling laughter as they jogged towards the sound.
"Just tell me how to get to Divination, you dunder..."
"No, ye' evil enchantress! Perchance I should teach this knave a lesson!" Sir Cadogan, the portrait of a knight who had once aided Harry, Ron and Hermione to the north tower, when they themselves had been looking for it on their first day of Divination, shouted angrily at Cory. She glared at it, bending over as if looking the painting eye to eye.
"Don't make me buy a large bottle of Wizard Tuppins' Turpentine, you..."
"Cory!" Harry laughed when she glanced over. She appeared to be quite irritated. "We're going to Divination right now. Come on...I'll show you how to get there."
"All right." She joined Harry and Ron, who looked at her with more than a little trepidation, and shot the painting a dark look as they walked away. He continued to shout after her until they were out of range.
"So..." Harry said cautiously. "You...liking it so far here at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah." She shrugged. "It's better than having tutors, I guess."
"Well, I mean....are you going to miss having all your people around? You must have had a lot of friends that toured with you..."
"Friends?" she snorted. "Yeah. Right. All they were ever interested in was making money. For that matter, so was I, but at least I had other plans."
"Okay..." Harry, still uncomfortable with talking to Cory, became silent as they walked along. Ron warily shot her glances as they walked to the tower. Cory did not seem to notice.
When they got there, most of the class had already ascended the ladder and entered the room. Neville was desperately trying to make it the last few steps of the way, but his foot seemed to be hung in the rope. He gave a loud squeak when his bookbag fell to the ground, scattering his books and things over the floor.
When he would have started down to get them, Harry waved his hand. "Go on, Neville. I'll get it."
"Th...thanks." he muttered, blushing brightly when he saw Cory. He obviously had heard the stories most of the school had already seemed to tell about her...he seemed to have all the motivation he needed to quickly scramble up the last few feet of rope. Harry shoved all of Neville's things into the bag and tossed them up. Neville was knocked bag as he caught them.
Cory went up the rope first. She disappeared quickly out of sight. Ron followed suit, and Harry came up last. Harry and Ron took their customary seat at the battered wooden table nearest the window. Cory glanced around before cautiously coming near.
"There aren't any other seats." She mumbled. "All right if I sit with you?"
Ron seemed utterly flabbergasted. To his surprise, Cory had spoken with the utmost sincerity. "Sure." Harry said. Cory sat beside Ron. He seemed quite taken aback.
Trelawney glided then into the room. She looked exactly how Harry remembered her...like a large, glittering insect. "Hello, dears." She said in a mystical voice. "How happy I am to see you...alive and well." She gave a pointed look to Harry, with a hint of irritation. She seemed unhappy that Harry had not yet keeled over and died.
"This year I hope to give you all an even greater view of the future to come...certainly this is more important than ever, in view of recent events." Even she seemed to pale when she said this. "And that is why I will be devoting the entire year to the Tarot card. It is an especially powerful tool for uncovering the secrets of the future. You have all been given your cards as gifts, as I requested?"
Harry nodded as he pulled his out of his bag. Ron followed suit. Cory glanced over a the both of them as she brought forth her own. They were quite battered, and appeared to be torn in quite a few places. She blushed. "My gift. They were my mothers."
Trelawney was flitting through the room, looking at all the cards. She paled when she saw Harry's. "Oh...you have gotten these cards...well, well, no, don't ask what they mean...I am sure that whoever bought these for you meant you no harm..."
Ron snorted. "Yeah." He muttered. "I bought him the Tarot Cards of Death, because I'm trying to make sure he actually gets killed for a change, instead of escaping like he usually does."
Lavender Brown heard this and scowled. "Don't say that Ron. None of you are so gifted in the sight as you would wish. I have seen something that would quiet you soon, Ron Weasley. Don't play games."
"Yes, dear." Trelawney said. "I have seen it to. It gives me so much pleasure that some of my students are so well blessed with the same gift as I..."
"Is she kidding?" Cory said softly, looking intently at Harry. "I mean, she doesn't have any gifts. I've been around Gypsy fortune tellers my entire life. None of them have ever acted like...that."
"Yeah. I've kind of stopped listening to her 'predictions', since she's already predicted my imminent death the past two years in a row."
Both Cory and Ron snorted, looking at each other with surprise that they might have actually agreed on something.
"You dear..." Trelawney said, interrupting the moment. "Miss Johnson...you are Gypsy, I have heard..."
"Yes. Why?" Trelawney scowled at the indignant tone.
"Dear, I hope you have not let it go to your head that Gypsies are often thought of as the only true Seers...I assure you, most Gypsy fortune tellers are not what they seem. You have no idea how many of those who claim the sight are really just pretending..."
"I think I know of one..." Ron snorted, under his breath so that only Cory and Harry heard. A smile flitted across Cory's face, and Harry snickered.
"Oh, my." Cory said softly. "Do we actually agree on something?"
"Don't be surprised." Harry said. "Even McGonogall dislikes her. I think she's come very close to saying bad things about her. And mind you, she defends Snape."
"Class." Trelawney glared at them as she stood up in front of the room. "Please shuffle your cards according to the instructions in your book, and have your partner cut them accordingly. Arrange and attempt an elementary reading."
"All right." Harry looked at the cards before him, unmoving. "Erm...do you know how to cut the cards, Ron? I can't even shuffle a regular deck."
"Nope. Can't help you. I have no dexterity whatsoever."
Cory shrugged. "Here...I'll show you." She nimbly picked up the deck and shuffled it, laying it on the table before her. "Now, here Harry. You're supposed to cut the deck in half." He did so, jolting slowly when he felt a slight shock, like static.
Cory didn't notice. She took the deck back and began placing the cards in the pattern that Harry had seen in his book. When she had done that, she began tapping the cards, describing to Harry the locations and what they meant.
"And now...well, I guess we should turn them over. Here..." she flipped the first. "Oh my...the devil. Hmm..." Ron gave Harry an exasperated look. "And here's the madman." Harry snorted.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered. "Everytime I come up here I find out I'm supposed to die soon. It's getting a bit irritating."
"I would imagine." Cory said absently as she flipped the last card. "Death." She said, raising a brow. "Well, I guess you were right then. So sorry. I was rather beginning to enjoy you're company."
Harry laughed. Professor Trelawney, upon hearing this wandered over. "Well, my children, what have we..." she paused when she saw that Cory had already dealt the cards. Her gaze flickered over the cards. She cried out in alarm when she saw the last. "Oh, dear! I saw this in the stars, young Harry, but I was hopeful that I had misread, as Jupiter was so murky at the time...oh dear, dear."
Harry looked down at his watch. "Oh, sweet..."
"Pay up, Harry." Ron said jovially. Class had started exactly ten minutes before.
**************************************************************************** **
"Trelawney had predicted Harry's death every year for the past three years." Hermione said snippily. "And he hasn't died yet. Third year, everybody thought he was going to die, and that was the year he was safest!"
"Third year. Wasn't that when Sirius Black escaped Azkaban? Cornelius told me Black was after Harry."
"Oh, yeah..." Ron muttered. "Well, erm...he hasn't been back around, has he? I mean, most people reckon he's either dead or he finally did go really crazy and he got put into a muggle asylum."
"Yeah, I heard those rumors too. But still, I wonder..." It was three days after the first day of school had begun. Surprisingly enough, Cory seemed to have toned down her attitude somewhat, though the first day of potions had been an amusing occasion.
"You reckon Malfoy finally got his hair back to it's normal color?" Ron said cautiously, craning his neck to see the Slytherin table.
"Dunno. Probably." Cory grinned, remembering the incident. "It was supposed to turn him pink all over, you know. I guess the color change affected what was supposed to happen."
"Mmm..." Ron grinned happily. Her prank on Malfoy, which had cost Gryffindor fifty points, had finally led Ron to believe that Cory was on their side. His last doubts seemed to have been banished with the way she had dealt with Snape.
"I couldn't have been that calm in the face of fire." Ron muttered. "Snape acted like he was going to kill you, at first..."
"Hey, what can I say? I wanted to be an actress, but the only thing open was in America. And I couldn't leave when I wanted to eventually come here and go to Hogwarts."
"Yeah, but...come off it, Cory. You actually smiled at him. You were a perfectly pleasant, nice, young girl. Snape wanted to take points off, I could tell, but that would have been completely unjustified..."
"Oh, yes, Professor." Hermione mocked, rolling her eyes. "I know, professor, it was completely irresponsible of me...no, I promise it won't happen again, sir...why, of course I didn't do it without reason, Draco called me a dirty gypsy, and Hermione a mudblood, but still, I really shouldn't have done it..." She snorted derisively. "I can't even suck up like that."
"Oh, but it isn't that at all..." she shrugged. "You see," she said, clapping Ron on the shoulder, "I can be rude to people like Ron here, and not feel bad about it. Why? Because if I make him angry, I can always get him over it."
"Thanks...I guess..." Ron said, eyeing her suspiciously.
"But Snape, on the other hand...well, the best way to kill somebody like that is to be completely honest, and open, and kind...you know, something they really aren't used to, and can't relate to..."
"Because they don't know what it's like." Hermione snorted. "Yeah, I've thought about it to. I can't do it though, I start sputtering and I can't think. Ron just gets angry and insults people, and Harry...well, he just has his own way of doing things."
"I can bet." Cory sighed. "You know, I kind of like you guys. I mean, you aren't the prigs I thought you were going to be, after all. I think I'll be able to stand being around you."
"Yeah..." Harry felt an odd turning in his stomach. What had she meant by that? "Well...come on, then. It's time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Have you ever seen the teacher? He hasn't been at dinner even once."
"She." Ron said. Harry glanced at him. He shugged. "That's what Fred and George said. A little old lady. She made them quite sore with a shield charm they were working on, though."
"A...little old lady?" As they made their way to the door, Harry suddenly felt the events of the past few weeks clicking into place.
"Yeah. Her name is..."
They stepped in the room. The woman at the desk looked up. "Oh, Harry dear! It's so nice to see you!" She stepped forward and gave him a quick hug as the rest of the room looked on.
"Erm...good to see you too, Mrs. Figg." **************************************************************************** **
Hey, there! Just a short note to say thanks for the reviews! To Mary Sue Hunter, thank you for the criticism. Unfortunately, I can't use some of the things you said, but I will try to use a little of your suggestions. Thanks for reading, anyways!
And thanks again to Jasmine Black! You are extremely helpful!
Please be sure to Read and Review my other work, The Pranking War, a Lily and James fic, and one on Fictionpress.net called Black Witch. Everything is under the pen name Megx. I hope you come and read!
Authors Note: Hey kids! How do you like the story? I am having a lot of fun, and hope that you like this as much as I do. Cory Johnson is quite the card, isn't she? Get ready for some cool stuff! I'm out!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the books. I own only the plot and the original character Cory Johnson. Hmmmm, finished taking notes? All right, let's begin, shall we?
Chapter Seven
Harry made it through the first day of being a prefect. It wasn't an easy task. Owing to the fact that he was such a famous figure, and because they now had an excuse to do so, many young first, second, and even third and fourth years kept coming up to Harry, asking him anything from where the nearest bathroom was to how many splinters of Ebony were used in a Perplexing Potion.
Uncomfortable, Harry did the best he could...told them what he knew, and if they had any questions over homework, he referred them to Hermione, who would be likely to not only give them whatever fact they might need, but in the process explain exactly why that fact was just so, and recommend at least five library books for further study. Many learned to avoid the Gryffindor prefects and began asking the Ravenclaws instead, who were only too obliged to help.
Only too grateful that he didn't have potions on his first day of potions, he went to all his classes. He was uncomfortably aware that McGonogall was watching his every move; he knew that she would not tolerate any slacking off of his schoolwork, and though he would gladly have given the responsibility of prefect to any of his other fifth years, he did not want to imagine the guff he would get from Malfoy or his his cronies.
Added to that, he had already begun to think about the Halloween Ball that had been mentioned on the train. At first he had thought nothing of it. A harmless affair, he thought. He hadn't even given it a second thought, other than the moment of surprise when it had been mentioned.
However, the announcement for the rest of the school had been posted, and Harry cringed whenever a girl went by, giggling at the boundless prospects. There had never been a Halloween ball at Hogwarts in recent history. The closest they had even came was the Yule Ball the previous year, and that in light of the Triwizard tournament.
"I suppose that they decided another social even would be in order." Hermione said thoughtfully when Harry asked her what she thought of the matter. "And, well, people want to get home for the holidays this time around. My mum said she would throttle me if I stayed here for another Christmas. So I guess they scheduled it for Halloween."
"Yeah...I guess so." But Harry wasn't exactly thrilled. Last year he had gone with Parvati Patil, and had found Ron a date with her sister Padma. However, the sisters had been quite angry that night, as Harry and Ron had mostly ignored them the entire night. Since that occasion, they had been rather icy towards them. Harry couldn't fathom asking Parvati again.
"Well..." Harry said sheepishly when Ron started bitterly talking about the ball. "I guess...well, you could always ask Hermione earlier, this time. I mean...it would be better than asking Pansy Parkinson."
Ron began sputtering. Harry, who had just had his suspicions about Ron and Hermione confirmed, shrugged and glanced down at his schedual. And groaned. "Ehh...why do we have to be in Divination our first day back?"
"What?" Ron looked quickly at his own schedule, grateful for a change in subject. "Oh, good. I bet you five sickles she predicts your death within, say, ten minutes."
Harry shook his head. "No, she might try and be a little more subtle this time around. How about fifteen?" Ron nodded.
"Yeah. All right." They finished their meal----Hermione had already left them alone, saying she needed to talk to her Arithmancy teacher about a project. Ron had begun to make a quip about her not being able to be involved in project yet but, used to Hermione's cryptic way of going about certain things, decided to leave well enough alone.
On the way up to Professor Trelawney's tower, Harry was once again stopped for directions. Once by a first year Gryffindor who reverently clung to Harry's every word, and another time by a little Hufflepuff girl who blushed profusely when she glanced at Harry's scar. "Watch out..." muttered Ron when they were finally able to leave her. "Or they really will be starting the Harry Potter fan club this year."
Harry shoved Ron, when suddenly they heard some very familiar shouting from around the corner.
"Just tell me where the North Tower is, you inept..."
"Aye, you defiant witch! I shall never aid ye'! What cause have you to disturb me, to mock my prowess?" Harry and Ron looked at each other, stifling laughter as they jogged towards the sound.
"Just tell me how to get to Divination, you dunder..."
"No, ye' evil enchantress! Perchance I should teach this knave a lesson!" Sir Cadogan, the portrait of a knight who had once aided Harry, Ron and Hermione to the north tower, when they themselves had been looking for it on their first day of Divination, shouted angrily at Cory. She glared at it, bending over as if looking the painting eye to eye.
"Don't make me buy a large bottle of Wizard Tuppins' Turpentine, you..."
"Cory!" Harry laughed when she glanced over. She appeared to be quite irritated. "We're going to Divination right now. Come on...I'll show you how to get there."
"All right." She joined Harry and Ron, who looked at her with more than a little trepidation, and shot the painting a dark look as they walked away. He continued to shout after her until they were out of range.
"So..." Harry said cautiously. "You...liking it so far here at Hogwarts?"
"Yeah." She shrugged. "It's better than having tutors, I guess."
"Well, I mean....are you going to miss having all your people around? You must have had a lot of friends that toured with you..."
"Friends?" she snorted. "Yeah. Right. All they were ever interested in was making money. For that matter, so was I, but at least I had other plans."
"Okay..." Harry, still uncomfortable with talking to Cory, became silent as they walked along. Ron warily shot her glances as they walked to the tower. Cory did not seem to notice.
When they got there, most of the class had already ascended the ladder and entered the room. Neville was desperately trying to make it the last few steps of the way, but his foot seemed to be hung in the rope. He gave a loud squeak when his bookbag fell to the ground, scattering his books and things over the floor.
When he would have started down to get them, Harry waved his hand. "Go on, Neville. I'll get it."
"Th...thanks." he muttered, blushing brightly when he saw Cory. He obviously had heard the stories most of the school had already seemed to tell about her...he seemed to have all the motivation he needed to quickly scramble up the last few feet of rope. Harry shoved all of Neville's things into the bag and tossed them up. Neville was knocked bag as he caught them.
Cory went up the rope first. She disappeared quickly out of sight. Ron followed suit, and Harry came up last. Harry and Ron took their customary seat at the battered wooden table nearest the window. Cory glanced around before cautiously coming near.
"There aren't any other seats." She mumbled. "All right if I sit with you?"
Ron seemed utterly flabbergasted. To his surprise, Cory had spoken with the utmost sincerity. "Sure." Harry said. Cory sat beside Ron. He seemed quite taken aback.
Trelawney glided then into the room. She looked exactly how Harry remembered her...like a large, glittering insect. "Hello, dears." She said in a mystical voice. "How happy I am to see you...alive and well." She gave a pointed look to Harry, with a hint of irritation. She seemed unhappy that Harry had not yet keeled over and died.
"This year I hope to give you all an even greater view of the future to come...certainly this is more important than ever, in view of recent events." Even she seemed to pale when she said this. "And that is why I will be devoting the entire year to the Tarot card. It is an especially powerful tool for uncovering the secrets of the future. You have all been given your cards as gifts, as I requested?"
Harry nodded as he pulled his out of his bag. Ron followed suit. Cory glanced over a the both of them as she brought forth her own. They were quite battered, and appeared to be torn in quite a few places. She blushed. "My gift. They were my mothers."
Trelawney was flitting through the room, looking at all the cards. She paled when she saw Harry's. "Oh...you have gotten these cards...well, well, no, don't ask what they mean...I am sure that whoever bought these for you meant you no harm..."
Ron snorted. "Yeah." He muttered. "I bought him the Tarot Cards of Death, because I'm trying to make sure he actually gets killed for a change, instead of escaping like he usually does."
Lavender Brown heard this and scowled. "Don't say that Ron. None of you are so gifted in the sight as you would wish. I have seen something that would quiet you soon, Ron Weasley. Don't play games."
"Yes, dear." Trelawney said. "I have seen it to. It gives me so much pleasure that some of my students are so well blessed with the same gift as I..."
"Is she kidding?" Cory said softly, looking intently at Harry. "I mean, she doesn't have any gifts. I've been around Gypsy fortune tellers my entire life. None of them have ever acted like...that."
"Yeah. I've kind of stopped listening to her 'predictions', since she's already predicted my imminent death the past two years in a row."
Both Cory and Ron snorted, looking at each other with surprise that they might have actually agreed on something.
"You dear..." Trelawney said, interrupting the moment. "Miss Johnson...you are Gypsy, I have heard..."
"Yes. Why?" Trelawney scowled at the indignant tone.
"Dear, I hope you have not let it go to your head that Gypsies are often thought of as the only true Seers...I assure you, most Gypsy fortune tellers are not what they seem. You have no idea how many of those who claim the sight are really just pretending..."
"I think I know of one..." Ron snorted, under his breath so that only Cory and Harry heard. A smile flitted across Cory's face, and Harry snickered.
"Oh, my." Cory said softly. "Do we actually agree on something?"
"Don't be surprised." Harry said. "Even McGonogall dislikes her. I think she's come very close to saying bad things about her. And mind you, she defends Snape."
"Class." Trelawney glared at them as she stood up in front of the room. "Please shuffle your cards according to the instructions in your book, and have your partner cut them accordingly. Arrange and attempt an elementary reading."
"All right." Harry looked at the cards before him, unmoving. "Erm...do you know how to cut the cards, Ron? I can't even shuffle a regular deck."
"Nope. Can't help you. I have no dexterity whatsoever."
Cory shrugged. "Here...I'll show you." She nimbly picked up the deck and shuffled it, laying it on the table before her. "Now, here Harry. You're supposed to cut the deck in half." He did so, jolting slowly when he felt a slight shock, like static.
Cory didn't notice. She took the deck back and began placing the cards in the pattern that Harry had seen in his book. When she had done that, she began tapping the cards, describing to Harry the locations and what they meant.
"And now...well, I guess we should turn them over. Here..." she flipped the first. "Oh my...the devil. Hmm..." Ron gave Harry an exasperated look. "And here's the madman." Harry snorted.
"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered. "Everytime I come up here I find out I'm supposed to die soon. It's getting a bit irritating."
"I would imagine." Cory said absently as she flipped the last card. "Death." She said, raising a brow. "Well, I guess you were right then. So sorry. I was rather beginning to enjoy you're company."
Harry laughed. Professor Trelawney, upon hearing this wandered over. "Well, my children, what have we..." she paused when she saw that Cory had already dealt the cards. Her gaze flickered over the cards. She cried out in alarm when she saw the last. "Oh, dear! I saw this in the stars, young Harry, but I was hopeful that I had misread, as Jupiter was so murky at the time...oh dear, dear."
Harry looked down at his watch. "Oh, sweet..."
"Pay up, Harry." Ron said jovially. Class had started exactly ten minutes before.
**************************************************************************** **
"Trelawney had predicted Harry's death every year for the past three years." Hermione said snippily. "And he hasn't died yet. Third year, everybody thought he was going to die, and that was the year he was safest!"
"Third year. Wasn't that when Sirius Black escaped Azkaban? Cornelius told me Black was after Harry."
"Oh, yeah..." Ron muttered. "Well, erm...he hasn't been back around, has he? I mean, most people reckon he's either dead or he finally did go really crazy and he got put into a muggle asylum."
"Yeah, I heard those rumors too. But still, I wonder..." It was three days after the first day of school had begun. Surprisingly enough, Cory seemed to have toned down her attitude somewhat, though the first day of potions had been an amusing occasion.
"You reckon Malfoy finally got his hair back to it's normal color?" Ron said cautiously, craning his neck to see the Slytherin table.
"Dunno. Probably." Cory grinned, remembering the incident. "It was supposed to turn him pink all over, you know. I guess the color change affected what was supposed to happen."
"Mmm..." Ron grinned happily. Her prank on Malfoy, which had cost Gryffindor fifty points, had finally led Ron to believe that Cory was on their side. His last doubts seemed to have been banished with the way she had dealt with Snape.
"I couldn't have been that calm in the face of fire." Ron muttered. "Snape acted like he was going to kill you, at first..."
"Hey, what can I say? I wanted to be an actress, but the only thing open was in America. And I couldn't leave when I wanted to eventually come here and go to Hogwarts."
"Yeah, but...come off it, Cory. You actually smiled at him. You were a perfectly pleasant, nice, young girl. Snape wanted to take points off, I could tell, but that would have been completely unjustified..."
"Oh, yes, Professor." Hermione mocked, rolling her eyes. "I know, professor, it was completely irresponsible of me...no, I promise it won't happen again, sir...why, of course I didn't do it without reason, Draco called me a dirty gypsy, and Hermione a mudblood, but still, I really shouldn't have done it..." She snorted derisively. "I can't even suck up like that."
"Oh, but it isn't that at all..." she shrugged. "You see," she said, clapping Ron on the shoulder, "I can be rude to people like Ron here, and not feel bad about it. Why? Because if I make him angry, I can always get him over it."
"Thanks...I guess..." Ron said, eyeing her suspiciously.
"But Snape, on the other hand...well, the best way to kill somebody like that is to be completely honest, and open, and kind...you know, something they really aren't used to, and can't relate to..."
"Because they don't know what it's like." Hermione snorted. "Yeah, I've thought about it to. I can't do it though, I start sputtering and I can't think. Ron just gets angry and insults people, and Harry...well, he just has his own way of doing things."
"I can bet." Cory sighed. "You know, I kind of like you guys. I mean, you aren't the prigs I thought you were going to be, after all. I think I'll be able to stand being around you."
"Yeah..." Harry felt an odd turning in his stomach. What had she meant by that? "Well...come on, then. It's time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Have you ever seen the teacher? He hasn't been at dinner even once."
"She." Ron said. Harry glanced at him. He shugged. "That's what Fred and George said. A little old lady. She made them quite sore with a shield charm they were working on, though."
"A...little old lady?" As they made their way to the door, Harry suddenly felt the events of the past few weeks clicking into place.
"Yeah. Her name is..."
They stepped in the room. The woman at the desk looked up. "Oh, Harry dear! It's so nice to see you!" She stepped forward and gave him a quick hug as the rest of the room looked on.
"Erm...good to see you too, Mrs. Figg." **************************************************************************** **
Hey, there! Just a short note to say thanks for the reviews! To Mary Sue Hunter, thank you for the criticism. Unfortunately, I can't use some of the things you said, but I will try to use a little of your suggestions. Thanks for reading, anyways!
And thanks again to Jasmine Black! You are extremely helpful!
Please be sure to Read and Review my other work, The Pranking War, a Lily and James fic, and one on Fictionpress.net called Black Witch. Everything is under the pen name Megx. I hope you come and read!
