Harry Potter and the Dragonline
Chapter 2
After this event, Harry was called to Dumbledore's office. The headmaster wanted to know if he had understood what had been said and if yes, what it meant.
This time Harry didn't kept it to himself, but told Dumbledore the same he had told his friends. The old wizard seemed thoughtful. "Did it say something else? Anything that might be a hint as to whom it was meant?"
Harry shook his head. But it was making himself curious. To him it was obvious that Dumbledore might know who was supposed to be the receiver of the messenger.
A bit later he left to the his houses common room, where Hermione and Ron were already waiting. "What did he want?", Ron spoke up.
"He only wanted to know what the voice said and so I told him... But I think, that he knows more about this...", Harry replied.
"When doesn't he?", the girl rolled her eyes. "But he never tells us anyway."
It was then that Percy came up to them. "Excuse me, but have you seen the new one? Yule Wu? I haven't been able to find him since everyone left the dinning hall and he still doesn't know his way around here..."
All three shook their heads. "But if you want, we can help.", Harry offered. He had wanted to talk to the boy anyway and with the enchanted map he received from the Weasley twins he should be able to find him without any troubles.
"That would help a lot, thanks.", the red-hair smiled and disappeared again. Harry quickly ran up to his room, getting the map and leaving with his friends.
Once they were sure that noone was close Harry activated it and searched for the right names. "Damn it.", he cursed under his breath. "There are to many people on the floors, I can't read one name!", he complained.
"Well, I guess we will have to find him ourselves then...", Hermione shrugged. "But where do we start?"
"We don't know him very well... He could be everywhere...", Ron said, feeling helpless. "Why don't we split up and everyone searches his favorite places? Let's meet back here in two hours. If we don't find him, he might already have returned in the meantime.", Harry explained his plan. "Alright, let's go.", the other two said.
Of course Harry had to check out the Quidditch area first, but without success. "I wonder... Where could he have gone? Maybe he just got lost?"
While he was lost in his thoughts he suddenly noticed Nearly Headless Nick coming his way. "Good evening, have you seen the new boy by any chance? He has white hair, so he does stand out a bit."
The ghost thought this over for a moment and was about to shake his head when suddenly a thought crossed his mind. "Oh yes! A very polite boy indeed. It's been a while since I had the pleasure to speak to someone who actually knows-"
Harry cut him off. "I'm sorry, to interrupt, but it's very important that I find and return him to the dorm. So where did you see him?"
Nick did seem only a bit miffed. "When we separated he was walking in the direction of Slytherin..."
The boy-who-lived groaned. "Great! If I'm lucky I find him even hanging around Malfoy and those two idiots...", he thought making a face.
"Thank you, Sir Nicholas.", he said, quickly hurrying towards the Slytherin dorm.
Luck definitely wasn't on his side today.
Yes, he had found Yule, but he didn't liked the company he was with. "My, my, my... Isn't this the ever famous Potter?", Malfoy smirked.
As always the blond was accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle and this time Yule was standing kind of shyly at Draco's right side.
"Shut up, Malfoy!", Harry hissed. "I don't have time for you and you antics... Yule, Percy is searching for you, you'd better return with me to the dorm.", he then turned his attention to the white haired one.
The boy blinked but nodded. "I'll see you around then, Draco.", he said in his ever so soft voice and bowed lightly, before joining Harry.
The black haired one glared at the blond one last time, who only smirked back, before leading the newbie away. "How can you stand being around that stuck-up asshole?!", he finally asked, once they were close to the Gryffindor common room.
The boy looked at him with a strange expression. "He isn't as bad as everyone says he is...", he started, but Harry only snorted at this. "... I think if you would take the time and actually give him a chance you could become really great friends...", Yule tried again.
"Yeah right, and Voldemort just dropped dead.", the boy-who-lived snorted. Out of the eye he noticed that the boy wasn't cringing like everyone else when he said that name. "You aren't afraid of his name?", he wondered out aloud.
"Should I?", came the reply. "It is just a name after all... Even thought names can be powerful, I think it's better if a fear has a name."
"Obviously not many think the way you do...", Harry commented.
Brown eyes fixed his gaze. "I think there are worse things in the world then some currently weak, thought evil wizard..."
Harry rose an eyebrow in question but didn't received an answer. It wasn't until Yule was being led away by an very grateful Percy, that he remembered that he forgot to ask him something.
"Damn it...", he cursed again and waited for Hermione and Ron to appear and busied himself with a book about Quidditch in the meantime.
"I guess you sitting here all relaxed, means you found him.", a voice suddenly spoke up. He looked up and found himself faced by the two friends in question. "Yes, I did. Percy already took him with him.", he answered.
"So where was he?", Ron wanted to know while taking a seat next to his friend, while Hermione sat opposite them.
"You don't want to know.", Harry said making a face. "What? You found him in Snape's office?", the girl wondered. At this the black haired boy made an even more disgusted face. "No... Thought that's not to far off..."
"Stop talking around!", Ron lost it. "Just tell us!"
"He was in Slytherin...", the black haired one said. "Making friends with Malfoy... MALFOY of ALL people!"
Now the other two made faces as well. "I can't believe a shy person like him would befriend THAT one.", Ron muttered. "What could he like on such a stuck-up asshole?"
"That's what I asked him too... Want to know the answer?", Harry told them. When he got two nods he continued. "He said 'He isn't as bad as everyone says' and 'You could be really good friends if you gave each other a chance' and such bullshit like that..."
His friends made faces. "Yeah right... Which sane person would want to be friends with that guy anyway?", Ron grumbled.
"Guys? As interesting this topic is, I think we should return to our chambers... It's quite late...", Hermione told them. Everyone looked up onto the clock.
"Guess you are right... See you tomorrow then, Hermione.", Harry bid his good-bye, before raising and walking to his room, together with Ron.
"Yule is really a strange guy.", the red-head yawned, when he slipped under the warm blankets. Harry shrugged. "Well, I won't keep him from becoming friends with Malfoy... It's his own fault if he gets hurt, if he doesn't listen to others."
In the back of his mind this somehow affected him more then he would admit to himself.
The next few days passed by with nothing happening except for everyone looking over at Malfoy and Wu with weird glances. It was rather rare for a Slytherin to get along with a Gryffindor. And it was even more unexpected when that Slytherin happened to be a Malfoy.
Strangely enough Yule also seemed to get along with Harry and his friends pretty well. He was also very good at most classes.
It was in the middle of the second week, just before lunch was served when suddenly screams sounded through the halls.
Quickly Harry and his friends run towards the source of the screams.
They saw many strange things onto the floor and Hermione suddenly knew what was wrong. "Boggarts!", she called out, quickly followed by her pointing her wand at one and calling "Riddikulus".
The trio were quickly getting ride of the little annoying creatures, when they heard steps coming closer. "What the ...", they heard Malfoy gasp and turned around.
Yule was standing in the middle of the floor a dark shadow forming in front of him, while the boy starred at it wide-eyed and trembling.
With a clatter the wand he had held in his hand felt to the floor, while he took a step back, almost stumbling over his robe.
Slowly the form became more and more clear. It was a tall man with long black hair, who looked at Yule with the coldest gray eyes that one had ever seen. The other thing that was immediately noticed by all bystanders where his aura of strength, coldness and superior. Harry was just about to lift his wand again and saying the chant again, when he heard Yule gasp one word in Parseltongue.
At the same time Snape and McGonagall were stepping around a corner and looking at the scenario and Draco Malfoy stepped in front of the trembling boy yelling "Riddikulus".
The teachers quickly came up to the remaining students. "What is the meaning of this?", Snape demanded to know.
"Boggarts were harassing students.", Hermione explained. "Mostly first-years.", Harry added, still eyeing Yule out of the corner of his eyes.
"You learned how to defend yourself in the 3rd year, didn't you?", Snape asked coldly. When the trio as well as Malfoy nodded he quickly looked to McGonagall before announcing: "30 points to Gryffindor and Slytherin for defending the Boggarts, 10 points from Gryffindor for not being able to defend himself."
The last sentences was directed at Yule, who was still looking blankly ahead of himself, where the illusion had stood not that long ago.
When Snape's words didn't made the pale boy react in any way, Draco stepped forward and waved his hand in front of his face. "Oi, you inside?"
This snapped the boy out of his daze, this time falling onto his behind, looking up to Draco with big, frightened eyes, before jumping to his feet and running off.
"Yule!", the blond Slytherin called after his friend, before yelling at his two companions to hurry up and following the scared one.
Snape simply continued walking, while McGonagall stepped up to Harry and his friends. "Well, done.", she praised them, before continuing her former route as well.
Once the teachers were gone, many of the first-years rushed up to them, to thank them.
With a few quick and well-chosen words Harry managed to excuse himself and his friends and led them away from everyone else. "Did you understand what he called that man?", he asked them.
"No, wasn't that Parseltongue again?", asked Ron and Hermione agreed. The black haired wizard blinked. He hadn't noticed that Yule had spoken in a different language. "It was?", he wondered, but then put that aside. "He was calling it 'father'! Why would someone be most afraid of his own father?"
"I don't know... But did you see that expression on his face? He was frozen with fear.", the girl said.
"Yeah, I don't think I have ever seen so much fear in anyone's eyes before. Not even Ron is that terrified of spiders.", Harry thought aloud.
"Hey!", Ron protested, even thought it was clear that he didn't even liked the word 'spider' mentioned around him.
"Maybe we should cheer him up a bit?", Hermione suggested. "He probably headed right into his room."
A thought struck Harry. "Go ahead already, I'm joining you in a few minutes."
When his two friends looked at him with a strange expression he added. "Go ahead already, it won't take me long. Just have to take care of a little business."
A bit redundant they did as he bid.
Once they were out of sight the young wizard run back to where the Boggarts had been and searched the ground.
A few minutes later he found what he had been searching for and pocketed it with a smile, before heading for the dorm himself.
