Chapter 12: Back at Hogwarts
Summary: Draco and Harry have a normal conversation, without any cursing or screaming, some more Ron/Hermione moments, the first day of school and a teacher's already missing, the trio meets new DaDA Proffessor, and Harry gets tired. Lol.
Disclaimer: I know I forgot to write this for the first eleven chapters, but I just wanted to say this now before some bozo tells me that I'm stealing J.K.'s idea. I do not, I repeat, I do not own Hp or anything else created by J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own is the plot to this fic.
Harry opened his eyes to a bright light. For a while, he just laid there, trying to catch up on where he was, and what happened. He then heard a familiar drawling voice say something he did not quite catch.
"W-what?" He mumbled.
"I said could you pass me the big chunk of chocolate that's next to you?" Draco said a bit more clearly this time. But Harry didn't move.
"Why don't you get up and get it yourself, Malfoy?" Harry said, wide-awake now.
"Well, if it wasn't for the fact that I can't move my bloody arms, I would have already gotten it, Potter." Draco replied, impatiently.
Harry sat up slowly, fearing that he would get of headache if he did it too fast, and looked at his surroundings. He quickly figured out that he was in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. He knew he should be happy to be back to his home, but he felt an eerie, creepy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He quickly put that feeling aside as he looked towards where Draco was sitting. Harry choked down a gasp when he saw the condition that Draco was in. He was lying there, with bandages around both of his arms, stained with dried blood, and one of them bent at an odd angle. His face was even worse. His lip was split open in about three different places, his nose had a small but deep cut in it, and his right eye was swollen and red and puffy. His lower body was under the sheets, but Harry had a suspicion that one of his legs was badly scraped, due to the fact that there were blood stains on the sheet, right where his left knee was.
"Well? Are you going to stare, or are you going to give me the chocolate?" Draco said again, with even more impatience in his voice.
"Fine." And with that, Harry got up, took the chunk of chocolate that was on the bedside table in between the two beds, and walked over to Draco. He put the piece of chocolate in one of Draco's hands, and walked back over to his bed. He crawled back into the bed and sat down with his knees drawn up on his chest. He put his chin on his knees and stared at Draco, eating the chocolate with a childlike grace.
"What happened, Malfoy?" Harry asked calmly.
Draco stopped eating the piece of chocolate and looked at Harry.
"Well, after I barged into your compartment, some Dementors decided to stop by. The Dementor grabbed me and started choking me. Though I didn't get the attention I needed, I fear, because you had fainted yet again! And everyone in the compartment was, as always, only paying attention to you. And then, that stupid Mudblood Granger screamed as someone cast the Expecto Patronum Spell, and then...someone hit me over the head and I fell unconscious." Draco added the last part to say that he hadn't fainted. Which was what he exactly did. But he thought Harry didn't need to know that. But little did he know that Harry knew he fainted.
"Oh. And why did you barge into our compartment like that? Did it have anything to do with the train breaking down?" Harry asked.
"Oh, about that. Well...I...Ummm," Draco stuttered.
Harry had never heard Draco stutter before. Never. He knew Draco was going to make something up because that's the same thing he would do. But he didn't say anything because he didn't feel like arguing. He felt drained.
"Well...when the train stopped...ummm...Crabbe and Goyle...they...ummm...they got really scared and started beating each other up...and I tried to leave...and then Crabbe grabbed me...and they started using me as a human punching bag...and I finally got away from them...and I just happened to barge into your compartment." Draco finished with a piece of chocolate in his mouth.
"That's crap Malfoy. What really happened? Tell me the truth." Harry said, looking at Draco with a serious face.
"The truth, Potter? You can't handle the truth." Draco said, with a smirk on his face.
"I'm serious Malfoy. Tell me the truth...It's probably the reason why we're here in the first place. It's important Malfoy." Harry said sternly.
"Fine. You want to know the truth? Well here it is! I-" Draco was cut off as the door burst open and Hermione and Ron ran in.
"Harry! Oh my God! Your okay!" Hermione threw her arms around Harry in a friendly, but tight embrace.
"'Mione...your ummm...choking...me..." Harry managed to choke out.
"Hermione, let Harry breath." Ron said, a bit stiffly.
When Hermione let go of Harry, he saw why. Ron and Draco were staring at each other, each with the same amount of loathing on their faces, and in their eyes.
"Ron! Look! Harry's okay! See?" Hermione said, obviously trying to ease the tension between Draco and Ron.
"Yes Weasley. Go along with your little friends. Nobody wants you over here." Draco said with a smirk.
"Okay then. But before I go, I have to agree on what you said. You are a nobody." And with that, Ron walked over to Harry's bed and shut the curtain around them.
"Ron! Why are you so mad at Malfoy so suddenly? We just got to school and he didn't do anything to you!" Hermione whispered.
"The way he...the way he hit you back there on the train...before he fainted...it was just-"
"I did not faint Weasley!" They heard Draco yelled on the other side of the curtain.
"What do you mean the way he hit her? Hermione...Did he hit you?" Harry asked, voice full of concern.
"He didn't hit me. He...if you don't want to believe me, you don't have to. After you fainted Harry, the dementors were coming after Draco, but I was in front of him, and the hand closed around my shirt instead. And...And Draco pulled the hand free of my shirt and then he fainted when one of the dementors got really close to him. Close enough to suck his soul out." Hermione shivered and continued.
"But before it could do that, a seventh year called to the driver of the train, and the driver did the Expecto Patronum spell and the Dementors got off the train. And...That was it." Hermione finished.
Harry just stood there trying to pick it all up. Malfoy...protecting Hermione? It couldn't be possible...Malfoy hated Hermione.
This is going to be a very interesting year, Harry thought.
That day, everyone else that was in the compartment with Harry went to visit him. It was like a party. Even Fred and George came. There was screaming and yelling and Draco was all alone all day. When Madame Promfrey got tired of the yelling and screaming, she shooed everyone out and told Harry and Draco to go to sleep. Thankfully, that night Harry had a dreamless sleep. But little did he know that Draco was in the bed next to him, tossing and turning and sweating and whimpering in his sleep.
"Welcome students. Welcome to your sixth year of Hogwarts. I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mr. Senborough. That's Sen-Bor-Oh."
"Oh my God. We're not 6 year olds. We know how to say Sen...Sen...Forget it." Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the back of the DaDA room.
"Shut up, Ron. Just try and listen please?" Hermione said impatiently. She was looking at the new teacher with amazement in her eyes.
He wasn't that old. Maybe in his late fifties. But he had so many lines in his face, it looked like a wrinkled piece of paper. It was as if he had been through many things in his life. His hair was a fiery red color. Kind of like Ron's. He walked in a cool catlike grace, even though he had a slight limp on his right leg.
"I am here this year to teach you all you need to know in Defense Against the Dark Arts for next year's N.E.W.T.'s. And if your lucky, we can even squeeze some advanced learning before, as I here everyone saying, I get cursed with the DaDA bad luck." He finished the sentence there, trying to say that there was no such curse, but everyone sat in their seats, and uneasy feeling in the room.
"You guys really don't believe that do you? I mean...oh. Forget it. Let's get on with the first lesson." Mr. Senborough tried to defend himself, but dropped it and started asking questions.
"So, tell me, what have you guys been studying lately in DaDA?" He asked.
As always, Hermione raised her hand first.
"Yes Ms..?"
"Granger. Hermione Granger."
"Okay. Tell me Ms. Granger."
"Well, last year, we really didn't learn that much with Proffesor Umbridge, but we did learn alot with our secret..." Hermione trailed off, not knowing if the teacher already knew about the D.A. or not.
"Club...I already heard from Dumbledore. Dumbledore's Army...Great name...Anyway, continue Ms. Granger." Proff. Senborough said, leaning on his desk.
"Anyway, we learned how to defend ourselves incase of...ummmmm...emergencies. We learned the Impediment Curse, the Reductor Curse, the Stunning Curse, how to produce a Patronus, and alot more." Hermione said.
"Interesting...Very Interesting. Okay, put away your wands and take out your books."
There were groans all around the room as the kids pulled out their books.
"Don't worry. I'm not like Umbridge. We will be doing alot of wand work, but today, I want you guys to focus on one thing. Open your book "Book of Great Reemers" to page three. Now before you start reading, does anyone know what a Reemer is?" Proff. Senborough asked, eyes searching the room.
Hermione's hand shot up in the air as usual.
"Yes Ms. Granger?"
"Reemers are witches or wizards who can do wandless magic. They are more powerful than ordinary witches and wizards, but their Reemer power can have horrible consequences."
"Like?"
"Like...If they don't know how to control it, it can just go crazy. Like if your mad and you can't control it, anything near you that's glass will break and shatter. But on the other hand, if your really happy or content, it just might start snowing in the middle of summer or flowers might start sprouting in the middle of winter." Hermione answered.
"Very good Ms. Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor." The Slytherins growled at Mr. Senborough.
"Another mudblood, muggle loving idiot." Draco Malfoy muttered behind Harry, talking to one of his classmates, Pansy Parkinson.
Harry turned around and scowled at Draco. Draco scowled back.
"Okay. Everyone you have 10 minutes to read chapter one. Starting now."
Everyone started reading and the only noise was of paper crumbling under people's touch.
Harry read the first sentence and was immediately into the subject of Reemers.
Reemers are one of the most Rarest, but the most powerful beings in the world.
Harry read on until he finished the first chapter. He hadn't learned so much in that one chapter, so he read the second chapter as well. By the time he finished the second chapter, he learned about Ptomle Dequire, the first Reemer ever. Nuisa Reshinbald, the first Reemer to turn evil. And Natasha Giolato, the first muggle Reemer.
It was time to change classes and the teacher assigned the homework for that night.
"Write a summary for the first chapter of the book. At least half a page!" Mr. Senborough said before the class filed out of the classroom.
"Homework on the first day of school. I still don't understand why they can't give us a day to catch up with our friends. I mean, if they-"
"Ron shut up! Your already giving me a headache and it's only the first day of school! Besides, if you want to do good on your N.E.W.T.'s next year, then you're going to have to get used to alot of homework." Hermione said to Ron with an air of impatience in her voice. They were walking to their next class.
"Potions. Eeergh. Why do we always have to have Potions on the first day? I mean, who wants to see that ugly git with the abnormally large nose everyday?" Ron asked with a frown.
"I know I don't." Harry said smiling. In reality, he was kind of glad that he was going to Potion's class. He missed challenging Snape in classes. He missed when they eyed each other down. And he even missed laughing at that big nose of his. But when he walked into the classroom, Snape wasn't at his desk.
There were silent whispers coming from different parts of the classroom. While Harry walked over to a vacant table with Hermione and Ron, he caught some of the whispered conversations other kids were having.
"...he was on a mission for You-Know-Who..."
"...he was afraid of coming back.."
"...he ran away with one of the houselves to have a steamy getaway from Hogwarts..."
Harry laughed for a bit at the last comment, but the next one he heard gave him the shivers.
"...he got killed by You-Know-Who..."
What if he did get killed by Voldemort, thought Harry. What if Voldemort found him over the summer and killed him? He did betray Voldemort after all.
Harry's thoughts were lost when Professor Grubbly Plank walked into the classroom. She walked over to the desk and took a quick look at Snape's lesson plans.
"Take out your book "One Million Magical Herbs and Fungi" and read the first three chapters." She sat down and started reading the Daily Prophet.
Immediately about half of the class's hands went up.
"No questions please. Just do your work. Hopefully we will have your answers soon." Was Proff. Grubbly Plank's answer. She kept on reading the newspaper and didn't even realize it when the class broke out in whispers again.
"I wonder what happened to Snape?" Hermione said, voice full of worry.
"I don't know and I don't care. As long as I don't have to look at his greasy face." Ron said.
"Ron, this is really serious. I mean Snape was the one who got most of the information for the Order. I mean, if anything did happen to him then..."
"We're screwed." Harry finished Hermione's sentence with a frown.
The three stood in silence for a couple of minutes. Hermione broke the silence.
"Maybe we should get to our work."
"Why? Nobody else is." Ron argued back.
"So what Ron! If everyone else ate dragon dung, would you?" And on they stood, arguing as always.
"God...can you two just hurry up and get married?" Harry said, not knowing that they both heard.
Harry wasn't in the mood to hear them bicker or to do work, so he just put his head down and closed his eyes.
God I wish...I wish...I don't even know what to wish anymore. I'm all out of wishes. I just hope that everything ends soon. Whether it's good or not. I just want it to end. And with that, Harry dozed off to a quick rest.
A/N: OMG!!!!!! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry for all of you that are reading this! It's just that my pc broke down and I didn't have anything for about a month and a half. And then, when I did get aol back, I went back to school and I didn't have time to finish writing this chapter and I had all of these tests and alot of studying to do and I was just sooooo stressed. I mean I have about 20 gray hairs now! Anyway, I edited the previous chapters that had the curses in them, and now they are curse-free! YAY! And there will be no more cursing in this story. Unless it is really, absolutely necessary! Which it won't be but...ah what the heck. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and R&R to read what happens to poor Seviekins. Oh yeah, and ummmm, I will have the next chapter up in a couple of days, hopefully. Lol. Until next time, Ciao! Krystina