Disclaimer: Not mine I know it, you know it and I've said it 27 times!
Chapter 27 (at last!)
The lesson had gone quite well, Outkast had somehow managed to keep the Slytherins and Gryffindors from even saying a bad word to each other, she was concerned about Harry, he was trembling and seemed disorientated but every time she asked him what was going on he shrugged. It was near the end of class when it happened, all the students were packing up, Harry stood and his eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the floor spasming.
"OUTKAST!" Hermione screamed, she spun round and saw the contorting form on the floor, she glared angrily at it for a second before springing into action
"OH COME ON CUT THE KID SOME SLACK!" she screamed to the room in general not really caring the rest of the class was standing at the back watching in horror and fascination, she threw the desks against the walls with a simple hand gesture and produced a huge clock that hovered over the hovering Harry while sliding a pillow under his head.
"Hermione get Albus, Ron get Poppy and Neville get Severus" Ron and Hermione bolted for the door Neville stood stock looking at Harry for another second before conquering his fear of the potions master and also taking to the door. Oukast watched Harry fit with the rise of the class using wandless magic to prevent him from biting his tongue but otherwise not restraining him
"Outkast? Shouldn't we be doing something?" Draco Malfoy looked mildly shocked but was controlling his expression far better then the rest of the onlookers, Outkast shook her head
"No Draco we really shouldn't as terrifying as it is to watch restraining a Grand Mal will only cause harm to yourself, the victim or property, you just have to wait for it to finish" She was livid Harry never seemed to get a break, she kicked a large filing unit and ran her hands through her hair, glancing at the clock 2 minutes, 15 would lead to the danger of brain damage and hence they would have to administer something to control the seizure, muggles used valium to do this but the procedure was somewhat…. Unseemly. Madam Pomfrey and Ron were the first ones into the class room, she took a look at the body on the floor and then at the new DADA professor,
"How long?" Outkast glanced at the clock
"3 minutes 50seconds" the medi-witch nodded, the door flew open the headmaster, Severus, Neville and Hermione all came back, Severus went to restrain his son, but Poppy stopped him
"NO! you'll hurt him if you do and probably get hurt in the process, just thank Merlin he hasn't lost control of his magic as well" Severus nodded numbly feeling his heart stopped watching Harry.
"What's happening to him?" Ron was very pale, Hermione squeezed his hand reassuringly
"He's having a Grand Mal, it looks like the bangs to the head his uncle so graciously gave him may have caused epilepsy" Outkast said.
"Epilepsy?" Ron was confused
"Yeah a muggle illness that magic can cure if its picked up" Madame Pomfrey bristled thinking Outkast had just insulted her, the multicoloured hair witch rolled her eyes
"Poppy that wasn't a dig, at you for not diagnosing him - he would have had to have stayed in the same place for longer then a goldfish can concentrate for that to happen" the medi-witch relaxed and nodded.
"Yes well we can sort this when he comes round" Harry's convulsions were become less and he was almost still.
What the hell was that? Harry started to come round, he felt so tired; he ached all over he was lying down on a cold floor.
"Harry?" a familiar voice cut through his wondering thoughts, he fixed on it and used it as an anchor to the real world
"Harry, it's time to get up, you're in the Defence against the Dark Arts room I don't
want to move you until you open your eyes" Harry swallowed dimly noting how dry his throat was he started to blink the light was bright and he squinted. Everything was blurred but then his glasses were placed on his nose and the world snapped into focus
~What happened?~ he croaked in parseltongue, Outkast translated for the audience.
"You had a seizure it's nothing to worry about we'll stop it from happening again" Harry nodded at the voice which he could now place as belonging to Madame Pomfrey, he stood up slowly and was handed a potion he drank it down without giving a second thought to what is was. He immediately felt better, he could see the concerned faces of the headmaster, as well as the nurse, his father, his friends all standing around him with a look of pity, despite his weakened state he felt a surge of anger he hated pity. Out of his eye he saw Outkast re-enter the class unaware that she had left, she sauntered up to him with a vial in her hand
"Here you go kid one super strength pick-me-up that Sev here would never normally give to a student" Harry took the vial and downed the contents. He felt the power of the potion coursing through him, she was right this was nothing like the Pepper-up potions the infirmary gave out. Harry sprung to his feet eye darting round the room, he heard Sev growl
"There is a reason I don't give those to students you stupid women" Outkast rolled her eyes and then stared at Harry
"The poor boy needed something stronger look at the frail kid come on it's only once" Harry saw red, even Outkast was pitying him, in a potion filled rage he threw desks into the wall, causing an almighty crash, he threw chairs, books anything he could get his hands on, his rage was violent but short lived most of the room was in a stunned silence Outkast raised and eyebrow and the room returned to its normal ordered state
"Does that make you feel better?" Harry nodded, Outkast jumped off the desk that she was perched on and wondered over to the large bookcase on the far side of the room, in one huge burst of energy and making a almost feral noise she pulled the whole thing down, even Dumbledore's jaw hit the floor; she stood there panting and regarded Harry
"You're right it does make you feel better. Shame about the mess though" Harry glared at her and the penny dropped, she had been trying to get a rise out of him and she had managed quite well. He looked from her to the bookcase to the other professors and then to the door
"SCREW YOU ALL!" he snarled and stormed out the room Outkast righted the bookcase and looked at her colleagues with a self-satisfied smirk
"Damn I'm good!" and with that turned and in a flurry of multicoloured hair disappeared into her office.
Severus looked at the headmaster,
"Did he just say something?"
"Yes I believe he did"
"Damn that women why can't she fail once in a while" the twinkle in the old headmaster's eye was working overtime he knew appointing Outkast would make for an interesting year but he had to admit the entertainment value of having her back in the school made the Marauder's and the Weasley twins look like amateurs. Sev rolled his eyes and stalked back the dungeons to see his son, Ron stared at Hermione
"Err what happened?"
"Outkast played Harry"
"She did what?" Hermione rolled her eyes
"She acted in a certain way to get him to talk again oh honestly Ron open your eyes what do you think went on" Hermione exasperated with having to act as the world to Ron translator spun and left the room parting the sea of onlookers in the process. Ron swallowed hard and stared at Seamus
"Someone stole my best friend and replaced her with a mini-female Snape" he bolted after her leaving Seamus sniggering.
Harry staked open to the portrait covering his room
~Open~ he hissed at it and the portrait jumped out his way under the impression that if didn't do it fast enough he would go straight through it. In his room Harry's first action was to slam the door that joined to Sev's quarters he muttered a silencing and locking charm on both entrances and flopped onto the bed. He was furious, he didn't know why he was furious but he was. Maybe he'd had Dumbledore manipulate him so much even the not so subtle coaxing Outkast did pissed him off royally. He sighed and rolled over, the CD player Outkast gave him appeared from under the pillow, he smiled slightly despite himself, he had to admit albeit grudgingly it was quite amusing the look on the Professor's face when he trashed the place and then the look of sheer horror when Outkast joined in. He would have given anything to have a camera at that moment in time. He dragged the player out and stuck the headphones on. He had it up so loud he didn't realise that his wards had been broken until the player was wrenched from his hands, in doing so the phones cable fell out
"CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES, THIS IS MY LAST RESORT" the opening to the next track bellowed through room, Outkast wasn't joking when she said it was loud…
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In the Defence class room Outkast was marking the essays she'd set the first years when the floor shook to the base of Papa Roach's Last Resort her mischievous grin was back in place
"I told you Sev don't pull the phones out" she said to the empty room
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In the Gryffindor common room many floors above, the windows rattled as the song got into it's stride, Hermione didn't even look up from her book but merely reached out and caught the glass that was being bumped by the beat close the edge of the table, Ron had covered his ears with his hands
"What's that are we being attacked?"
"Yes by Rock music" Hermione said not looking the least bit surprised.
####
Severus dropped the player on the bed and tried to protect his ears drums, smirking Harry reached over and jabbed the stop button and the player fell silent. Harry looked up his father, he chewed his lip nervously Harry was fairly sure he was in trouble. Severus looked enraged, his face had gone the same colour as Vernon's did Harry curled up protecting his vital organ and just hoped his father rage wasn't as painful as his uncle's. Severus looked at the trembling ball on the bed, he was angry with Harry's behaviour earlier but also felt his heart clench as the child prepared for a beating he sighed and ran his hands through his hair.
"Well at least you waited until I was there to snarl your first words" he said defeated, he sat on the bed, Harry looked at him dubiously, that wasn't what he had expected Severus to say. Severus looked down at Harry
"I'm not going to hit you if that's what you think" Harry still didn't look convinced.
"I'm sorry" he said in a small voice, Severus looked at him and smiled
"Well look at that not a sound for months then five words in an hour" Harry smiled slightly and uncurled
"I didn't mean to lose control but it was just everyone pitying me I couldn't take it and then Outkast…"
"Prompted you to get a reaction other then indifference?" Harry nodded Severus sighed
"Well I can understand that, but I'm still going to have to punish you" Harry's eyes went wide with fear and then the spark left them with resignation, Severus moved his hand to reach for Harry; Harry flinched. Severus sighed and pulled Harry into a hug; he felt the boy stiffen but just held him tighter
"Now lets see destroying a classroom and insulting the professors I think that will be 50 points from Gryffindor and a weeks detention with Professor Lupin seeing as it was a defence classroom you destroyed, and giving you to Outkast for detention would be a worse idea then asking Mundungus to watch the bar in the Three Broomsticks sound fair?" Harry looked up stunned at his father, he nodded mutely he couldn't believe that was the end of it. Severus gave him one last squeeze before letting him go. He stood up and headed back the door; he opened it before turning back to Harry
"Why don't you go up to your common room for a bit I'm sure your friends would like to know that you're alright they were worried" Harry nodded, it had been ages since he was in the Gryffindor common room he thought of the cosy sofas and the fire place
"Ok" He got up and collected his homework seeing as no doubt Hermione would be insisting that's what they did and left. Harry started to climb the moving staircases towards the Gryffindor tower, thinking about all the good times he'd had with his friends there
"Hey vocally impaired boy wait up" Harry turned round in time to see Outkast bouncing up the stairs two at a time, she reached him with a small hope and grinned her eyes were dilated, Harry would have said that she was on a muggle drug if he didn't know better
"Watcha doin'?" She asked without really focusing on him
"I'm going to talk to Ron and Hermione for a bit" Outkast nodded violently showering purple and green hair everywhere
"That's a good idea. Oh when do you want to do some training?"
"Um how about at the weekend I have detention with Professor Lupin all this week for trashing the classroom" Outkast pouted
"That's not fair I put it all back again" Harry giggled it wasn't everyday a teacher complained about detention being unfair. With that she turned and started to bounce back down the stair case singing a song about an Indian Elephant that escaped life in a travelling circus, she stopped at the bottom and seemed to be engaged with a lively conversation with a potted plant. Harry shook his head, as DADA Professors went she was by far the oddest – but at least she knew what she was doing and didn't want him dead. Harry continued up to the common room he paused at the Pink Lady and frowned he knew the password… well he was told the password….
"Well?" she prompted he lent in and if sharing a big secret;
"I do know the password, but it's a secret and if I told you I'd have to kill you" he whispered she rolled her eyes
"Young man I already know the password, I'm a portrait and can't die and I think you have definitely been spending too much time with that new Professor not do you know it or are you just wasting my time?" Harry grinned and then it cam back to him
"Gryff's rule Slyth's drool" the portrait swung aside muttering about inappropriate choices the youth of today make. Harry sat down on a couch next to Hermione, Ron was playing, well thrashing Seamus at chess, he didn't say anything but just waited to be noticed.
A/N WOW thanks for all the Reviews people sorry it took so long but between uni and work I haven't had much time add to that a bad case of writers block and a dislocated finger and I think the world was trying to tell me something.
Thanks to May my beta-reader and font of all Harry Potter knowledge
Someone: I already commented on the spelling mistakes on my bio and on another chapter, so if you don't like it GO AWAY!
Mayhem El-Diablo, poison girl, liquidsecrets, Kyliandra, Portia De Lanuit Thanks guys your support is appreciated greatly! Oh and Portia, likewise
Minerva-Severus-Dumbledore, Lila Elansar, MikiBabay, Sword Wielder – Firebreath, Kimmylookatmoi; glad you like her!
Sara: I love confetti all those pretty colours and floatly light oooooh
Dominic: Bad joke! Very bad joke you'll never find me writing bad jokes like that (goes through Death is a Blessing and removes any words Outkast ever utters)
Rommi: But of Course!