After the Dawn: The Philosopher's Stone
Chapter Seven: Marauders Legacy
Sirius led Harry to a deserted corridor. Harry was wondering why this was when suddenly a door appeared on the wall. Surprised, Harry reached for the door handle and opened it.
Inside was a very strange room indeed. It seemed a cross between the living room at Potter Mansion and the Gryffindor common room. Harry shut the door carefully, and Sirius transformed, going quickly to the door and placing a strong locking charm on it.
"There," he said softly. "We won't be disturbed."
"But … where is this?"
"It's a Room of Requirement – we've got one at Potter Mansion, remember?" Sirius replied.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, looking around the room with new interest. "I think you mentioned once that there was one in Hogwarts, but I'd forgotten until now."
"What was it that you were talking to Hagrid about?" Sirius asked.
"You remember how we met up with him in Gringotts?" Harry asked.
"Yes."
"Well, I heard him talking to the goblin ahead of us. He'd come to get the 'you know what' from vault 'you know which'. The parcel he'd come out with had v: 713 written on it. I thought it might mean vault seven hundred and thirteen. Today he slipped. He said something about the 'philo', then stopped talking. It was obviously a slip, but I don't know what it was about …"
"We'll just have to find out then," Sirius decided. "But we've been here for almost a week Harry."
"Which means…?"
"We haven't played any pranks," Sirius said with wide, innocent eyes.
Harry laughed. "Quite right, we haven't. I take it you want to remedy that?"
Sirius nodded vigorously, and Harry smiled. "We'll see what we can do … I want to get that Malfoy kid back though."
"Only too happy to help," Sirius assured him. "If you'll help me with Snape."
"Deal," Harry replied, and he and his godfather shook hands. Look out Hogwarts!
Harry took out his father's copy of the Marauders Map. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he recited, smiling slightly at the password.
Immediately lines began to scrawl across the page. Eventually, it was covered in a map of Hogwarts. Harry smiled and searched the map until he found his own dot.
"Sirius, it doesn't say my name?" he enquired, pointing.
"Nope, I charmed it not to. It'll change on the rest of them too. It doesn't say my name either, you'll notice."
"Maybe we should make it show our fake names?" Harry mused.
"Hmm … Yes, otherwise if someone sees it they'll know that there's something different about us. I'll work on it tonight."
"Right, good. Now … Pranks!"
Sirius smiled. "Yes, pranks …" the two of them had their heads together long into the night, and ended up having to sneak back to the Gryffindor tower under the Invisibility Cloak.
The pair of them had agreed on several pranks, and organised who would be taking care of what bits. Sirius had to do any difficult spells, which most of the pranks would be. By the beginning of the next year, Harry would be able to play a more active role. But there were still things that he could do.
He and Sirius decided to start fairly small. Under the Invisibility cloak, Sirius went around to all of the classrooms and set buckets of water (invisible) over each doorway, and set it so that it would continually refill and dump water on each student and teacher as the came in or out of the classroom. Each was set to stay there until the end of first period.
"Oh, it's good to be playing pranks again," Sirius murmured as he pranced down the corridors setting up the water buckets. It was nearly midnight, and the castle was all but deserted.
When he saw Mrs. Norris prowling around the base of a statue on second floor, Sirius was so happy that he couldn't resist a little prank of Mrs. Norris.
Nothing big … Mrs. Norris just now had dark blue-grey fur that stuck out in clumps all over her, and there was a bell that tinkled loudly around her neck. No sneaking up on unsuspecting students now!
Sirius quickly finished his task and bounded back up to the Gryffindor tower. Harry gone to bed some time earlier to eliminate suspicion. The Weasley Twins would probably end up getting the blame.
He slipped silently into the common room and up to the first year boys dormitory, where he carefully packed Harry's invisibility cloak into the boys pack, then shifted form and lying across the end of Harry's bed, dreaming pleasant dreams and looking forward to the morning.
Morning came swiftly, and with it, the pranks began.
Harry laughed silently as he walked into Transfiguration. He got as wet as anyone else did, knowing that otherwise he might be suspected of setting up the prank. He didn't mind though – seeing the shocked expressions of his classmates and teacher was more than enough solace.
McGonagall quickly dried her class and began teaching the lesson. Harry and Sirius had decided that they wouldn't play too many pranks at first, just one every couple of days. They didn't want to run out, and they didn't want to get in trouble either.
Harry smiled to himself at the end of the Gryffindor table, listening to all of the students complaining about the water-prank, and smiled even more to see the Weasley Twins the subject of many annoyed glares.
No one noticed Harry's smile – he was now fading from the minds of the school and it's students, since he'd made it very clear that he didn't want to be friends with anyone.
Harry hated Draco Malfoy and his bunch of cocky Slytherins. He really, really hated them. They were rude and obnoxious, always parading the fact that they were Purebloods of old families, with a fortune of gold behind them.
The last part of this had been added when Ron snarled at Malfoy that he was a Pureblood as well, and it had just made Malfoy's group even meaner.
Harry knew that not all of the Slytherins were bad, but at the same time it felt as if they were – the nice Slytherins were, Harry thought, quite reclusive and kept out of the spot light.
Harry often found himself the brunt of Malfoy's taunting, but he refused to allow the other boy to provoke him into anger. Instead, he put his time to planning quietly effective pranks to play on the other boy.
One morning Malfoy found himself with gold tinged pink-red eyes, which stayed that way for forty eight hours, on another occasion, the laces on his shoes were charmed by Sirius to continually come undone.
Harry shied away from deliberately harmful pranks – Sirius had suggested making Malfoy's shoelaces continually twist together and trip him up, but Harry had refused. If Malfoy got worse, then maybe he'd consider using more humiliating pranks, but he didn't want anyone to get really hurt because of him.
Sirius thought this was because Harry blamed Dan's death on himself, and didn't want to be responsible for more harm, and, though tempted, refrained from playing smarting tricks on the Slytherins.
Harry was glad that he was obliged to spend little time with the Slytherins, but, not long after the pranks began, he discovered that this was not going to remain the case.
On Thursday they would be learning to fly. With the Slytherins.
Lying on his bed in the first year boys dormitory, Harry talked absently with Sirius about it. "At least I know that I won't be making a fool of myself in front of Malfoy. Bet he's not half as he says he is."
Harry had realised very quickly that the Wizarding world revolved around Quidditch. He liked the sport, and knew something about, as well loving to fly, but he hadn't realised just how obsessed his others his age were.
Malfoy spent a lot of time talking about flying – most of it was bragging about how good he was at it, or complaining that first years weren't allowed to play on the House teams.
Harry struggled not to laugh at the bragging competitions between various people that involved flying. Malfoy often told long and boastful stories that nearly always had him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters, and most of his group would smile and nod.
Few ever challenged Malfoy to his face, and those that did were quickly drowned out by Malfoy's group, who protested that no one was a daring as their leader.
Malfoy basked in it.
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan often had competitions to try and find out who'd had the most daring escapes from Muggles.
Harry did not participate in these exercises. For one thing, while he was (according to Sirius) a brilliant flyer, he'd never actually escaped from Muggles on a broomstick.
The day before the flying lesson Malfoy was boasting again – this time in the library. Madam Pince was somewhere around the shelves and not in hearing range.
Harry, however, was doing some homework on a table near by, and couldn't help thinking that Malfoy was aiming his 'challenge' at him. The Slytherin was just getting to the end of the story (this time involving an aeroplane) when Harry looked at him and cleared his throat.
The rest of the Slytherin group who Malfoy was currently impressing turned to Harry with angry glares. "What?" one of them asked – Malfoy pretended to ignore Harry completely.
"I couldn't help overhearing what your … friend was talking about. I'm sure it's all very exciting, but one would think that he'd have had to have been intelligent enough to avoid an aeroplane … I mean, how stupid do you have to be, to nearly crash into something that's about a hundred times your size, and claim it 'came out of nowhere'?"
Harry sneered at Malfoy, who flushed an angry pink, but before the Slytherin could collect himself and deflect the insult, Harry had packed his things away and left the library.
He was looking forward to the next day. Not only would he be allowed to fly for the first time since arriving in Hogwarts, he'd also be able to show Malfoy that he wasn't the only one who could fly a broom well.
The next day dawned bright and clear, even though it was nearly October and the days were becoming progressively wetter. Harry was happy – perfect weather for flying.
There were, however, those among the Gryffindors who would be in today's lesson who were not so happy with today's timetable.
Neville Longbottom had never been on a broomstick, his grandmother (who'd raised him) had never let him near one. Harry didn't blame here, as Neville was very clumsy, even with his feet firmly on the ground.
Hermione Granger, a Muggle born, had never even heard of Quidditch, though she knew much about Muggle mythology and the 'witch and broom' image that often showed up there.
She'd quickly learned that Quidditch was something you couldn't learn out of a book. One of the best students in every other subject, flying looked to be a serious weak spot.
On the morning that they would learn to fly, she bored most of the Gryffindor first years silly with facts from the book 'Quidditch Through the Ages', which Harry already knew off by heart anyway.
When the post came and interrupted her, the only who wasn't relieved was Neville, who'd been hanging on the girls words as though they were a lifeline.
Harry did occasionally get 'letters' from his family, along with the occasional box of sweets, but it was a fairly rare occurrence, though Harry didn't mind in the least.
Malfoy had tried to make a big deal of it … Once. He'd ended up in the Hospital wing for most of the day when Harry had punched him in the stomach, having lost his temper with the Slytherins continual insults.
He had lost twenty house points for this, but decided it was worth it. Most of his house seemed to think the same, and for a day and a half most of them nodded slightly in greeting when they saw him, and smiled their approval.
But, of course, when he refused to 'come out of his shell', they let him slide back into the background, which he was thankful for.
Now he watched as, around the Gryffindor table, many people were receiving their post. A barn howl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother.
When he opened it, Harry glanced over and noted that it was a Remembrall – he'd heard of them before. When someone held it, if it glowed red they'd forgotten something.
Harry smiled slightly as Neville happily explained to his friends what it was, and demonstrated for them, his face falling when the ball filled with scarlet mist. Neville was too busy trying to remember what he'd forgotten, and therefore did not notice Draco Malfoy coming up behind him, until the blonde Slytherin grabbed the Remembrall out of his hands.
Neville jumped to his feet, biting back a cry. Ron and Seamus jumped to their feet, obviously hoping for a fight with Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any other teacher in the school, was on the scene before anything could happen.
"What's going on?" She demanded coolly.
"Malfoy's got Neville's Remembrall," Ron jumped in immediately.
Scowling, Malfoy tossed the ball back to Neville and sauntered off in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Just looking," he snarled, with Grabbe and Goyle, his bodyguards, following a little way behind him.
At three thirty that afternoon, the Gryffindors made their way down onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. They discovered that Harry and Slytherins were already there – Harry and Malfoy glaring daggers at each other.
There were twenty broomsticks lying in neat rows on the ground as well, and Harry had sat down beside the last one in one of the lines, Sirius lying lazily, panting, beside him.
Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived quickly after the Gryffindors, seeing the students milling around in confusion. She was a middle aged woman of medium hight, and had short grey hair and yellow hawk-like eyes.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Stand by a broomstick, all of you!" She barked at the group, giving Harry a smile as she saw he'd already done as she wanted.
The broom Harry had chosen was one of the better ones, though it was still rather old and some of the twigs stuck out oddly.
"Stick your right hand over your broom," Madam Hooch yelled at them. "Then say 'Up!'"
"UP!" Everyone cried. Harry's broom shot into his hands, but he wasn't surprised. It was, however, one of the few that responded. Malfoy had gotten his broom, and Ron Weasley's drifted slowly into the air.
Hermione's broom rolled off on the grass, but Neville's didn't move at all. Harry wasn't surprised – brooms could often sense when people were nervous. Not always, mind you, but occasionally they could.
Madam Hooch showed everyone how to mount their brooms, giving ten points to Gryffindor when she discovered Harry could do it perfectly, and then information Malfoy that he'd been doing it wrong for years.
Harry could already tell he was going to enjoy the lesson.
"When I blow my whistle, I want you to kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch proceeded with her instructions. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. One my whistle – three – two –"
But she never reached one, or blew the whistle. Neville, jumpy and frightened of being humiliated by being left on the ground, pushed off hard before she could.
"Come back!" She yelled at him, but Neville was rising straight up, and Harry had a suspicion that the boy was afraid of heights. Up, he went – twelve feet – twenty feet.
Harry saw his scared, white face look downing at the ground falling rapidly away beneath him, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and …
WHAM. With a thud and a nasty crack, Neville hit the ground, face down, his wrist twisted beneath him. The broomstick rose higher, and drifted off towards the Forbidden Forest.
Madam Hooch bent over Neville, her face as white as his.
Neville gave a yelp of pain as she gently lifted his wrist. "Broken," she muttered quietly, but Harry heard. "Come on boy. It'll be alright, up you get."
She glared at the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing," she snapped at them. "You leave those brooms exactly where they are! Anyone who even attempts to fly will be out of Hogwarts before they can say 'Quidditch!"
Neville, his face pale and stained with tears, clutched his wrist to his chest and hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.
The moment they disappeared into the castle, Draco Malfoy burst into raucous laughter. "Did you see his face, the great lump?" Malfoy's group immediately joined in with the verbal abuse, though their subject wasn't present.
"Shut up Malfoy," Parvati Patil, one of the Gryffindor girls, snapped, she'd had enough of this.
"Ooh, sticking up for cry-baby? Never thought you'd like a fat little idiot like him, Parvati," sneered Pansy Parkinson.
"Hey look," Malfoy called, darting forwards and picking something up off the grass. "Longbottoms Remembrall … that thing his stupid gran sent him." The ball glittered as he held it up.
"Give that here!" Dean Thomas cried suddenly, angry. Everyone stopped talking and looked at them.
"I don't think so," he said softly. "I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to get once he's out of the hospital wing … How about up a tree."
"Give it here!" Dean yelled again, plainly nervous.
Malfoy leapt onto his broomstick and kicked off. He hadn't been lying, Harry was mildly dissapointed to realise – he could fly well. "Come on and get it then, Thomas," he sneered, hovering by the top of a tree.
Dean didn't look like he was about to do anything, so Harry sighed. Everyone turned to look at him. "I don't like bullies," he remarked, not really talking to anyone, and grabbed his own broom.
"No!" Hermione Granger yelled at him. "Madam Hooch told us not to touch the brooms! You'll get us all in trouble!"
"Madam Hooch told us not to touch the brooms," Pansy Parkinson mimicked cruely, sneering at the other girl. Harry ignored this. Blood was pounding in his ears as he kicked off the ground.
Finally – he was back in the air. The wind rushed around him, whipping at his robes and he felt a rush of fierce joy.
He pulled the broomstick up sharply, shooting smoothly into the air and levelling out neatly to glare at Malfoy. "Give it here," Harry ordered coldly. He could see that Malfoy still remembered their last encounter. "Or I'll knock you off that broom."
"Oh, yeah?" Mafloy sneered, but looked worried.
Harry leant forwards and shot at the other boy, giving him just enough time to get away before Harry hit him. A few below cheered slightly, but Harry ignored it.
"Catch it if you can then," Malfoy yelled, throwing the ball up in the air. Harry smiled faintly – too easy.
He saw, as if in slow motion, the ball rise, glittering in the sunlight, and begin to fall. Immediately he turned his broom downwards, shooting at the ground as fast as the broom would allow, racing the ball.
He probably could have caught it before hand, but it was more fun this way. No more than a foot from the ground, Harry snapped the broom upwards, one hand snaking out to catch the Remembrall before it hit the ground.
The Gryffindors burst into applause, and Malfoy landed angrilly.
"NEMO PROTECTIUM!"
Harry's heart sank faster than he'd dived. Professor McGonagall was running towards them. He trembled oh so slightly as he got to his feet.
"Never – in all my time at Hogarts-"
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "-how dare you – might have broken your neck-"
"It wasn't his fault, Professor-"
"Be quiet, Miss Patil-"
"But Malfoy –"
"That's enough, all of you! Protectium, follow me now!"
Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Grabbe and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left, walking silently behind his head of house, up to the castle. He wondered if he was going to be expelled.
He wasn't sure he minded if he was. It would mean that he could leave here and go back to his quiet existence with Sirius at Potter Mansion, even if he would not be allowed to keep his wand.
But at the same time, he realised he would miss Hogwarts if he had to leave. While he had no friends, and didn't particularly want any, it was almost pleasant to be surrounded by people.
McGonagall did not say a word to him as she swept up to the castle and through the corridors and passageways. McGonagall stopped suddenly outside a classroom – one of the Charms rooms, Harry noted absently, caught up in his own thoughts.
"Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for the rest of this class, please?"
Wood? Harry wondered. Was this some implement used to make children behave?
He needn't have worried. Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth year boy who came out of Flitwicks class. It took only a few moments for Harry to recall that this was the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
McGonagall led them silently for a while, then stopped outside an unused classroom. "In here," she said.
Inside the classroom, Peeves was writing rude words on the blackboard, but zoomed out the moment he saw McGonagall enter the room.
"Protectium, this Oliver Wood. Wood, I've found you a Seeker."
Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight, and Harry felt his emotions change in pretty much the same way.
"Are you serious Professor?"
"Absolutely," Professor McGonagall said crisply. "The boys a natural. Caught that ball in his hand after a fifty-foot dive – Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it!"
"Was that your first time on a broomstick?" Wood asked.
"No," Harry said, shaking his head slightly. "I learnt to fly when I was younger on an old family broom. It wasn't very good – even the school brooms are better."
Harry was lying, but he knew that the broom he'd ridden at home hadn't been released until after he'd said his family had gone into hiding.
Wood looked absolutely ecstatic. "Ever seen a Quidditch game?" he asked eagerly.
"No, but I know the rules and everything," Harry replied.
"Wood's the captain of the Gryffindor team, and we need a Seeker," McGonagall explained.
"He's the right build for a Seeker too," Wood said, walking around Harry and staring at him. Harry felt a little uncomfortable. "Light – speedy – we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor – a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."
"I shall speak with the Headmaster, I might be able to get him to bend the rules in this case. Heaven knows we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match with Slytherin – I couldn't look Severus Snape in the eye for weeks …"
Professor McGonagall looked sternly at Harry. "I want to hear you're training hard, Protectium, or I may change my mind about not punishing you."
Then she smiled. "I trust you'll do very well."
***
That'll do for this chapter – it's already 3,960 words! Next chapter has the confrontation with Malfoy and we finally meet Fluffy!
Again, thanks to everyone who noticed the Potter error – I don't think there is one in this chapter, but if you see one, let me know.
Thanks:
Dumbledore's Heir, Golden Moon Phoenix, Wyjara, Taka Ichijouji, Sophocoles, Songbreeze Swifteye, Jaded Angel8, jbfritz, jbfritz, AngelMorph, Songbreeze Swifteye, Cataclysmic, ReflectionsOfReality, kateydidnt, lunatyme, rayvern, Sweet A.K, iknowall, athenakitty, BlindJedi, TopQuark, Virusgod, DiaphanousChameleon, Jaime46, Katy Stgqvk, Maxx77, AltonShadeFoot, kodomo, Rachel A. Prongs, LordKazzeem, Believe, Remus' Girl aka Wolfies Rock, anonymous, Queen of the Jungle, Arianna N'Yristhel, Huskerinexile, Chicken Stars, King of the Nazgul, Lady Foxfire, Kraeg001, Musicstarlover, AnImE-aNd-Hp-FrEaK, Raven Potter Weasley, Aleh, sweedishshortsnout, Crap Apple Fairy, Hi How Are You This Lovely Saturday Morning, Hi How Are You This Lovely Saturday Morning, fullsailnate, JeanieBeanie33, Ellen is My Middle Name, hp4all, ananova, Destined Enchantress, Melissa, Kitten, Tomoe-Chan, Bob, Taka ichijouji, phoenixrising1, Cyblade Silver, Silver Scale Serpetn, Jeff, Phoenix Flight, adge9631, Akusai, Drajjen, Bukama, Marie, MikiBaby, Alexa, Empress Sarah-sama, Nasser Himura, Azntgr01, Calimora, HecateDeMort, howling wolf1, gaul1, gaia.
Sweedishshortsnout: I'm reading a book at the moment which has a Tae-Kwon-Do master in it, and this book calls it Kata … I'll try and find a book about it somewhere and check on that, thanks for making me aware of that.
~WolfMoon~