Chapter 15
Harry's first class of the day was Potions. He groaned as he looked over his timetable. Ron cringed as well when he looked at Harry's schedule. "Well, mate," he said cheerfully, "at least you don't have Trelawney or Umbridge or Lockhart or something…" Harry raised his eyebrows as he and Ron began to clear the Great Hall together.
"I have McGonagall, Snape, and that new Shoney guy. Transfiguration and Double Potions on the same day always guarantees 100 points from Gryffindor…" said Harry, sighing. Ron shrugged as he finished his bagel.
"Well, mate, what can I say? You're Headboy; for every point from us take two points from Slytherin…"
"Hermione would kill me," laughed Harry.
"Hey, nobody needs to know you took them…" Suddenly, Harry and Ron were joined by Seamus and Lavender. "Hey, you guys," said Lavender brightly. Her dirty-blonde hair was curled today. "Where are you headed?"
"Potions," said Harry glumly.
"Care of Magical Creatures," yawned Ron.
"Ooh. I forgot you took NEWT Potions as well. The first class was full, so my class only has about seven people in it… I hear Snape's in a really bad mood today; he took twelve points from Gryffindor when Parvati dropped her Transfiguration book about twenty meters away from him earlier." Harry groaned.
"Just what I needed," he muttered. "What class are you two off to?"
"Divination," said Lavender promptly. Upon seeing Harry and Ron's exchanged smirk, Lavender frowned. "You know, it's a useful subject for someone who can See. I'll admit, Trelawney was a bit… out there, but lessons with Firenze are loads better…"
"I like Trelawney's lessons," said Seamus. "All you have to do is predict Harry's death and she gives you full marks. It's much harder with Firenze, plus you can't get any girls to so much as look in your direction…" Lavender looked at Seamus, affronted, and Ron snorted.
"Like girls look at you, anyway," said Lavender, looking pleased with herself. Seamus frowned.
"Well, bye, you guys," said Harry as he reached the stairs to the dungeons.
"See you later," said Ron in a somnolent tone as he started towards the front entrance.
"Bye, Harry," called Lavender and Seamus. Harry then hurried towards Snape's classroom. He entered with a minute to spare and sat down quickly next to Hermione, who was drafting what looked like a letter. Harry glanced over, but Hermione saw him and quickly put the parchment away. She sat up and smiled as she took out her Potions textbook.
"So," said Harry, "did you find Bagman?" he asked amusedly. Hermione glared at him and refused to answer. "Honestly, Hermione," said Harry, "I can take Rita's letters. I really don't think she knows so much about me or the Order…"
"Then why did Dumbledore see it necessary to capture her in the first place, Harry?" demanded Hermione. Harry shrugged uncomfortably.
"Well, they aren't making much of an effort to capture her back, are they?" he asked timidly. Hermione shook her head.
"They're not telling us whether they are or not, Harry. But fine. You'll see- just keep denying it. It's not funny! This is more important than you are willing to accept." With that, Hermione shook her head angrily and slammed open her textbook and began reading furiously. Harry, quite a bit confused, decided to shrug it off when someone tapped on his shoulder. He turned around. It was Lenore.
"Hey," she said quickly. "Harry, er, Draco and I aren't exactly getting along- I was wondering if you'd switch places with me? I'm a bit afraid to approach Hermione," she whispered, nodding to the furious girl beside Harry who was flipping pages faster than Harry had thought possible.
"Sure," he said, glad to get away from Hermione's wrath for the time being. He stood up and then sat in the seat directly behind them, next to Draco, who was scanning the Daily Prophet.
"Potter," he said in a solemn greeting.
"Hi, Malfoy. So what's the deal with you and Lenore?" Malfoy shrugged.
"It's quite simple, really. We just aren't meant to be. Only children never go well together, I've heard. They're both too demanding. We just were always fighting, and both always wanted the spotlight. I think it's an SP thing."
"A what thing?" asked Harry incredulously. Draco shrugged.
"You have to take the Myers-Briggs personality assessment thing, I guess. I'd say you're a touchy-feely NF, but maybe it's just me…"
"Malfoy- I have no idea what you're talking about, but… whatever you say, though…" he trailed off as Snape entered the classroom, looking to be in a particularly foul mood.
"Class!" he barked, causing everyone to whip around to face him, sitting up straight and attentively. "Today we will not be going over any new material. I would like everyone to clear your minds and take a sip of this remembrance potion, which has already been brewed. You will then remember something which you had previously forgotten. You will write an eight inch essay, to be handed in at the end of class, about what you remembered. This will be used in our next lesson, in which you will create a Potion which will tell you the significance of your current thought, which will be what you remember today. This is not some dim-witted Divination lesson, so take heed and caution, and make sure you stay focused. Miss Parkinson, please pass out the vials. When you receive your vials, you may begin." Snape then proceeded to sit down at his desk, carefully grading papers. When Pansy reached Harry and Draco, she smiled sickeningly.
"Hi, Draco… you can still come sit with me whenever you want. You know, you shouldn't let me get away." Draco looked up and rolled his eyes.
"You know Pansy, that's the thing. You won't go away, will you? Please, let me make a mistake. Run. Far away. I'll kill myself later…" Pansy gasped, looking highly affronted.
"Fine," she sniffed. "Sit with scarhead instead; I'm sure he's the one for you…" She then nearly threw the vials at Harry and Draco. Harry rolled her eyes. Suddenly, Draco looked over at Lenore, who was flirting with Blaise, who sat in front of her. He bit his lip.
"Wait- Pansy!" Pansy turned around excitedly, her eyes lighting up. "You were absolutely right." He then stood up and kissed her roughly, looking over at Lenore. Lenore raised her eyebrows and gasped quickly. Then, she turned back to Blaise and kissed him thoroughly. He quickly responded, but a second later, Snape jumped up.
"SIT DOWN! Miss Felkes, I do not run a classroom for snogging! And Draco, you should also know better. Both of you, twenty points from your respective houses and detention tonight! Blaise and Pansy, a point each from Slytherin." Harry gasped at the unfairness of the situation, but sighed and drank his potion as to not end up with detention himself. He swallowed it, coughing. It tasted horrible. Other students were making horrible faces and sputtering as they stomached theirs. A moment after drinking his potion, Harry completely blacked out. He heard faint voices in the background, that sounded very familiar, but must not have been important. Then, without warning, a horribly bright ball of fire erupted through the black, fading out quickly. The black stayed a moment longer, and then allowed the room to dissolve into the picture. Harry was completely startled. He hadn't expected a vision like this- maybe of Dudley or one of his adventures, but not this. Harry knew it seemed very familiar, but he could not place the event. He sat, thinking for a long moment. Could it be of Voldemort? No, he would definitely remember better.
And suddenly, it hit him full on. It was one of his dreams about the Founders and Acacia last year! A lot of his dreams had ended that way- darkness, and a burning sun. He peered over at Draco's essay to see if he'd remembered the same thing, but Draco seemed to be plowing on about talking to Crabbe and Goyle about the Chamber of Secrets, and having them turn into Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and then waking up, realizing that it was just a nightmare. Harry laughed quietly. Draco turned around, evidently in a bad mood after his detention. "What are you laughing at? If you're remembering the ferret incident, I'll have you know that—" Harry shook his head.
"It's not that- but nice memory…" Draco looked to his parchment for a moment.
"What? Anyone can have a nightmare-" With that, Harry grinned once more.
"That really happened," he whispered. Draco's mouth opened. "Ron, Hermione, and I used Polyjuice…"
"Then where was Hermione?" demanded Draco, fuming. "You can't have gotten into the common room- it was a dream!"
Harry shook his head. "Hermione accidentally turned into Millicent Bulstrode's cat… then she spent time in the Hospital Wing. We were trying to find out if you were the one opening the Chamber…"
Draco laughed. "You thought I was opening the Chamber? Not even I would have thought that- people thought you opened it before believing Sexy God Draco Malfoy would…" Harry rolled his eyes and turned back to the essay, trying to ignore an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He hoped beyond hope that this dream- memory- wouldn't prove significant.
That afternoon Harry had Defense Against the Dark Arts. On his way to the class, along with Ron and Hermione, he ran into Lenore, who was with Lavender and Parvati. "Hey- LENORE!" yelled Harry, running to catch up with his cousin. She turned around, green eyes sparkling.
"Hiya, Harry. Going to Defense?"
"Yeah," panted Harry. "But Lenore- what was that all about in Potions?" he demanded. Lavender and Parvati both burst into giggles. Lenore smirked.
"Well, Draco was trying to make me jealous, Blaise was flirting with me, Blaise is hot- and I wanted to make Draco jealous to prove that I wasn't jealous. It snowballed from there. But it's not like I was using Blaise or anything- I really do like him…. Fancy him, rather." She smiled again. "So, do you think that new Professor will be nice?"
Parvati sighed happily. "He is so gorgeous," she said dreamily. "He went to school with us for one or two years… Hannah Abbott's older cousin went out with him- and practically every girl in the school was jealous of her," she finished matter-of-factly.
"I certainly wasn't," said Hermione, joining them, with Ron panting to catch up. Parvati rolled her eyes.
"Oh, yeah, that's right. You don't like people because of their looks- you like them because of their fame… Not a bad way to look at things, though," she smirked seeing the indignant expression on Hermione's face. "Oh, Gilderoy!" she mimed, making a dramatic expression through the air. "That was one thing," she continued, smiling at her increasing curious audience, "but come on- everyone knows you went with Viktor Krum. And he's great and all- but he could be a bit more cheerful, no?"
"Hear, hear," said Ron, frowning at a reddening Hermione.
"But Ron wasn't famous," noted Lavender. Parvati shrugged.
"That's true- but look who his best friend is! Plus, if she married Ron and his sister married Harry, she'd be related to the Boy Who Lived. What's that for impressive?"
"That is not true, Parvati Patil!" shrieked Hermione. "I used to love Ron! But go ahead and say that! My new boyfriend isn't famous. In fact, I bet none of you even know him," she said in a satisfied tone. "WHY is everyone looking at us?" she then yelled.
"Hermione," scolded Parvati. "You're ruining the moment!"
"Well excuse me if I don't thrive in a Soap Opera type of environment-"
"Hermione, shut up," called a deep voice behind them. "The only reason they don't know me is because I'm new here…" Harry turned around.
Hermione did as well, smiling and taking Asher's hand. "Bad mood?" Everyone's mouths dropped to the floor, and Ron's ears turned bright red.
"This is Asher," said Hermione, smiling. "From the United States."
"Hey, Asher," said Lenore. "You never told me you were going to ask out Hermione!" she continued in an accusatory voice. Asher shrugged and smoothed his blonde curls. "I asked her out in the library this morning. Apparently, she likes me as much as I've liked her." Harry stared wordlessly at Hermione, who was giving him an apologetic grin, and then to Asher, who was giving everyone a winning smile. There was something about Lenore's friends that Harry just didn't understand. He shrugged and turned to Ron, who immediately left the group.
"You all right, mate?" he asked, catching up to his best friends.
"Sure," said Ron moodily. "Just perky. Can you believe her-? Why on earth would she go out with him?"
"Maybe to make you jealous?" asked Lavender, catching up to Harry and Ron.
"What happened to Parvati?" spat Ron. "Don't you two need to go laugh at someone-?"
"Don't take it out on her, Ron," said Harry. "I think she's telling the truth…" Lavender smiled.
"Yeah," she continued. "Everyone knows what you did to her. That was really insensitive. And now she thinks you don't like her, and that Harry will take your side, and she'll be friendless. We think that she's subconsciously trying to make you jealous, which, by the looks of it isn't that hard… you look like you'd break down after seeing her kiss him on the cheek or something," finished Lavender, frowning at a disgruntled Ron.
"You- none of you know anything!" exclaimed Ron, huffing out of sight.
"Well," said Harry, watching his friend disappear down the corridor, "that went quite well, don't you think?"
By the time everyone reached Defense, the unease was still mounting between, well- everyone. Parvati was flirting with Asher, who was staring at Hermione, who kept glancing at Ron, who kept whispering angrily to Harry, who was trying to get a word in with Lenore, who kept smiling at Blaise, who in turn would smirk at Draco, who'd act like he didn't care and would loudly ask somebody to agree how hot Pansy was. This was becoming a very interesting situation, and Harry was almost glad that he and Ginny had kept their breakup quiet. The cycle had made it twice around and was on Lenore when the Professor walked into the classroom. He was very young- maybe eight years or less their senior, and Harry had the fleeting sinking feeling that he might be better at Defense than his teacher. He walked in with an air of confidence, and Harry suddenly realized that he'd seen him before- he lived on Privet Drive! It was- no, it couldn't be… but it was. It was Piers Polkiss' older half-brother, Eddie, who had lived with them until he supposedly went to live with his father. Eddie was tall; about 6'4, with dark brown hair, light, angry blue eyes, and a muscled build.
He smiled at seeing Harry. Harry didn't smile back- Eddie had participated in Harry-chasing on occasions during the summer. Perhaps back then he hadn't realized that the Harry Potter lived with Muggles. "Do you know him?" whispered Ron.
"I'll explain later," Harry whispered back.
"Class. This is my NEWT class, am I correct?" asked the teacher. Everyone nodded glumly. "My name is Professor Shoney. I think I remember a few of you- I was Headboy your first year, if I'm correct. I was a Ravenclaw." A few people nodded, and everyone else stared back at him. "Anyway, er… you've never had the same Defense teacher twice, am I correct?"
"Well, sir, we had Harry twice, in the DA…" Professor Shoney's face became thoughtful for a moment, and he gave Harry an appraising look.
"Mr. Potter. Yes, I've heard about the DA. Apparently you've been learning quite a bit of interesting stuff. Is it true you can-"
"Produce a Corporeal Patronus?" finished Lenore in an amused voice. "Yes, he can. As can a few others of us… though they're rather feeble. Not Harry's, though."
"And you are…?" asked Professor Shoney.
"Lenore Felkes," answered Lenore promptly. The professor nodded.
"All right, then… So, Mr. Potter- would you tell me what you cover in the DA so I have a vague idea of what so many of my students have experience with?" Harry frowned.
"Er… well, we've done shield charms, disarming, Reducto curses, Patronuses, Stunning, Stinging hexes, and, er…. We've basically done things like that, I suppose." The professor nodded slowly.
"Well, then, I see. That, of course, is what I'd expect of OWL students… but many in your little defense group are younger students, right?" All of the DA members were exchanging disgusted looks.
"Actually," spoke up Harry loudly, "You're quite wrong, if I may say so. The Patronus is far beyond NEWT level, and it is amazing that some members of the DA are able to produce them. Even Reducto and Impedimenta are beyond OWL… I'd like to see your brother do any of those, Polkiss."
"Ah. So you do remember me," said Eddie, grinning. "But I am certainly not a Polkiss. Piers doesn't even know about magic- I didn't even know you were Harry Potter until he told me about you talking to the snake and making the glass disappear. Anyway, even if the magic you all do is on a skilled level, that does not mean this class will be easy, by any stretch of the imagination. I understand you had a dueling club the year after I finished school. We will be restarting that, every Friday night; come when you are able."
"Is Snape helping again?" asked Dean skeptically. Professor Shoney raised his eyebrows.
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, he is. There will also be a teacher from last year helping out. I believe everyone remembers Professor Wentworth?"
Hermione, Ron, and Harry exchanged excited looks. Why hadn't Calli told them? Several other people were murmuring excitedly. "Anyway," the professor went on, "for the remainder of the class I would like you to read chapter one of your new textbook- Dark Detectors and their Functions. Now you may begin." Harry began reading his book slowly. He knew all of this- reading all those jinx and hex books, plus Auror and Defense lessons, had finally done their magic. But how could you not know about any of these, especially if you knew Mad-Eye Moody?
"Are there problems, anyone? Mr. Potter; Miss Granger?" asked the professor in an annoying voice. Harry and Hermione exchanged identical glances.
"Well," said Harry bluntly, not caring about getting on a bad side of the Professor, "Not exactly. I just don't need to read this, because I already know it."
"The why, Mr. Potter, if you know everything already, don't you simply test out of the class and take your NEWT test early?"
"Fine," said Harry crossly, flipping through the book. He already knew it all! Hermione was staring at him as if he was crazy. "Fine. That's what I'll do." He was not in the mood to spend the entire year with a Professor who used to chase him up trees. Nope. Not happening.
That night was spent with Hermione going on about how important NEWTs were, how this could affect his entire future, and the like. But Professor Shoney had seemed rather serious- as had Harry. He decided to think it over and talk to Dumbledore and Remus- they surely would talk him out of this, after all- it was a bit ridiculous. The next morning, Harry awoke and headed down to breakfast with Hermione, Ron, and Lenore sleepily. But all sleepiness evaporated once he became aware that all whispers and attention was on him and his friends. He figured it was just people getting overexcited about him taking NEWTs early, possibly- but that thought disappeared as they sat down to eat. Hermione's Daily Prophet was delivered- and on the entire front page was a picture of Harry- and beside it, a picture of Lenore. Harry's stomach sank.
Harry Potter's Last Remaining Relative- A Hogwarts Student!
A/N: Okay, I actually had an excuse this time- internet was down : ( But from now on, I will not wait over a week to update unless I give you forewarning. Remember to review! The next update will be no later than August 3rd. Thanks! REVIEW!
Jinglez