Chapter 3: Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Warnings: Ootp spoilers
Disclaimer: Sadly, Lady Lily & I don't own anything owned by J.K. Rowling and W.B. We own all unrecognisable ideas. We just Kidnap the characters, bend them to our will and return them hopefully, unharmed. Just so you know for future reference, don't sue us, because all we have is one shiny Canadian penny in our pockets. All we own is the book series and me, (Psychotic Otaku) the imaginary dolls. [Psy Otaku huggles her plushies of Harry and Sev]
Lady Lily: Could you please stop hugging those things?
PsyO: (for all of you who don't know I'm still Baka Otaku but w/ a different pseudonym) Nyah, Nyah, Nyah! [sticks her tongue out] You can't make me!
Ll3: The readers are glaring daggers at us and may kill us if we don't let them read out story…
PsyO: ;; [puts plushies away] Oy veh
But after PsyO puts them away, Severus Snape (Slytherin Sex God in PsyO's opinion) walks by and PsyO glomps him.
Sev: GEROFF! GEROFF! GEROFF ME, YOU MAD WOMAN!!! HELP!!! DON'T JUST STAND THERE, HELP ME-E-E!!!
Ll3: [rolls her eyes] -sigh- There's no use… On with the story TT;
Ending of last chapter: The mysterious figure lowered the hood of his robe as he approached Professor Dumbledore, "Hello Headmaster! o"
Now, the Headmaster of Hogwarts is not easily shocked but this time was an exception. SNAP Harry Potter had taken a picture of the old wizard's face. "Harry?…what?…how?…"
"I think we should take this to your office, sir." With that Dumbledore nodded, grabbed a hold of Harry and apparated him to Hogsmeade.
When they arrived in Dumbledore's office, Harry sighed at the look on his mentor's face. The aging wizard looked confused and the usual twinkle in his eyes was gone. "Harry, what happened when you and the students were abroad the train?"
"Well sir, the train was running on the tracks like it always does, then all of a sudden, it came to a stop. We all were frantic and scared. I decided to go off by myself to go and see what was going on. In all the cabins there were the Death Munchers (LOL!). I duelled them and defeated them. In one cabin, I found Lucius Malfoy attacking some first years. I fought Lucius in a gruelling duel, the first years fled to their siblings or to the prefects. Near the end of the duel, Draco came in and started to help me duel with his father."
"Draco's been under the watchful eyes of Severus ever since he was born, the Malfoys have been, and are a powerful line of wizards and witches. They have been serving the dark side for as long as I can remember… It's interesting though, Draco's been showing signs of uncertainty. His father has been pressuring him into joining the Dark side and to marry a pure-blood Slytherin witch…What happened to Lucius?"
"Draco told his father that he didn't want to join the Death Munchers. Malfoy Sr. got mad and attacked the both of us. In the end a misguided spell by Draco knocked Lucius into a wall at an angle that killed him."
"Interesting…Enough with the train incident. Now… I heard from your friends that you didn't reply to their letters over the summer. You've had them extremely worried, especially Molly Weasley."
Harry screwed his face up a little, he knew how Ron's mum was when it came to Harry's safety and well being, he was like another son to Molly, "Sir, I owled the Order like I promised, but I sorted things out with Ron and Hermione…"
As Harry said that, the calm and patient expression on Albus Dumbledore's face changed. It changed to a small frown of wonder, frustration and shock. Harry's magical aura was strong, very strong. It wasn't what he thought or expected it to be.
The old man thought the raven haired boy was lying to him, so he decided to use his skill of legilimency. His efforts were futile, he didn't understand how that came to be, There was a brief silence in which they both thought about what to do and say. Dumbledore was one of the most powerful legilimens in the world but it seemed like it changed over the summer break.
So, to shake off his worries he asked Harry if he wanted some tea to drink and Harry accepted.
"What kind of tea do you want Harry?"
"I'd like some peppermint tea please. Thank you very much."
A small pop could be heard and on the Headmaster's desk appeared a tray with two tea cups, and biscuits. Albus said, "I'm feeling a bit peckish, would you like some biscuits?"
"No thank you sir."
They drank their tea in an awkward silence, Harry knew that he had changed over the summer and that his mentor had tried to use legilimency on him. He brought the cup to his lips and smelled the strong scent of peppermint and took the smallest sip he could take.
Now that he had the training over the summer, he could tell whether it was poison, potion or and extra ingredient added in. He tasted the liquid and found out that the tea was laced with a dose of Veritaserum. No wonder whenever he had tea in the Headmaster's office he told the truth!
He drank his tea in silence and put the cup back onto its saucer, the old wizard mimicked his action and asked again, "Why reply to the Order only? Why not reply to your friends?
And with that, the old wizard stopped talking and thought out the possibilities of how Harry could have become so strong and about the letters. Harry rose from his chair, and dismissed himself from the Headmaster's presence.
He left the office and went down to the Great Hall for dinner. As soon as he entered the room, his friends turned to look in his direction and made some room for him at the table. As soon as Harry sat down, Hermione stopped eating for a minute and said, "Harry, where have you been? We've been looking for you…"
Harry replied, "I was at Dumbledore's office, he wanted to know what happened when we were on the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh I see… Harry where were you this summer? I've been very worried about you, Ron's mum came by my house five times to check if you were there. She told me that she checked Diagon Alley to see if you were staying with Fred and George…And they said that they didn't have you over or see you but they got orders from you…"
Ron piped up with a mouth full of food, "Yeah, Mum's been worried sick, we even visited those Muggles you live with. [swallows the food] They said that you left without saying anything. [takes another bite of what he's eating] They also said good riddance, now tha' got me so mad…"
Hermione snapped at Ron, "RONALD WEASLEY! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, IT'S IMPOLITE TO TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL OF FOOD!!! REMEMBER LAST YEAR?!?"
Unfortunately, Ron was quite taken aback by how Hermione starting lecturing him on manners. He choked on the sausages that he was currently stuffing his face with…"GACK! AGH! Gah…Urgh, bloody hell Hermione!"
After Ron stopped cursing, his friends rolled their eyes and Hermione finally spoke. "Now do you see what I mean? Ron what are we going to do with you? [sighs and shakes her head] Now…where were we? Yes, Harry where were you?"
"Oh…um, I was just travelling alone in the Muggle world…" Harry replied casually.
Hermione objected to what he was saying, "Harry, if you were travelling alone, the Death Eaters could've attacked you…"
"Erm…I was travelling near wizarding settlements, so whenever I got in trouble, I went there and asked for help…" Harry replied quickly
Harry wanted to tell his friends the truth but he knew that the walls had ears and that there were spies lurking about. After he had said what he needed to say, his friends questioned him no more and returned to eating and chatting. They both knew he was hiding something, because something felt weird, and they couldn't put their finger on what it was. The golden trio started to chat animatedly but after a while Harry's mind started to wander. The other two were chatting up other people.
After dinner and the yearly announcements, Harry left his friends and took the secret passageways in the castle back to the Gryffindor tower. He wanted to sleep early because it was a very tiring day for him. Along the way, he was stopped by a very handsome, arrogant, rich, sexy, blue-eyed blonde Slytherin. (A/N: NOT SLASH!!!)
Even though Draco helped Harry out, the level of civility between them wasn't very high. Draco was using his usual technique of dissing Harry. Always on how he dressed, his choice of friends, his deceased family, and tragedies. "Well, well, well, look who we have here… The Boy-who-lived-to-ditch his friends, what are you doing here so early? All the other sixth years and seventh years are still hanging around the Great Hall…"
"Bugger off Malfoy." Harry said while grinding his teeth together.
"Harry you should watch your temper…I certainly don't want you going all hot and steamy on me now would I?" Draco was scolding Harry with his index finger as if he was a five year old.
"Didn't you hear me Malfoy? I said go mind your own bleedin' business! Are you deaf?"
"Your friends are losers."
"At least I don't suck up to teachers!
It went on like this until their verbal assaults became more and more vulgar until Draco had hit a nerve with Harry. "At least I'm not the one who's always trying to play hero!"
Harry frowned and thought about his fifth year. 'Sirius… No! I promised my friends and myself that I wouldn't do this…' He thought. He turned to Draco and muttered, "Silencio!"
Malfoy got mad, quickly reversed the jinx, glared at Harry and walked off. "You'll pay for this Potter!"
Harry trekked the rest of the way to the Gryffindor Tower. He made his way to his dormitory and looked around, "Good, there's no one here' he thought tiredly. He went to the sixth year boys' dormitory, and lay down on his bed. He sighed and let sleep wash over him.
Early next morning at six o'clock, Harry got up, stretched and went down to the kitchens instead of the Great Hall to get some breakfast. There he ran into Dobby. "Harry Potter has come to visit Dobby! See new socks Dobby has? Winky come! Did Harry get Dobby and Winky's present?"
Harry looked at the two house elves and thought, 'They look so, so married together…The present, I think it was a pair of knitted socks, one blue with green snitches and one black with red brooms?' He squatted down so he could talk to them better and asked them, "Did you two knit me a pair of socks?"
The two house elves squeaked Happily, "Yes! That's the present Winky and Dobby sends to Harry!"
Harry smiled, ate his breakfast and talked to the house elves that passed by him. He finished the toast he was eating and drank the rest of the pumpkin juice in his goblet and went off to the library to study because it was nearing seven a.m.
As soon as Harry entered the library, Mme Pince, raised her eyebrow to see Harry. Since when had he become so studious? What was even more surprising was that he took an advanced DADA book off the shelf and started to make notes on it. 'There's More Than One Way to Block an Oncoming Curse' Harry read. After nearly 40 minutes of studying, he looked at his watch and headed to the Great Hall. He sat down with his friends and waited for the post. When the owls came in, he saw Ariel fly by him and drop a letter in front of him. The letter had a familiar magical signature around it.
'Hi Harry!
How's your first day back at school? Your mother's fretting over you. I don't know how to say this because I don't want to sound like I'm nagging at you…[Harry could hear different voices arguing] Oh James! Let me say it then!!! Harry dear, it's your mum, I just want to remind you to work on hard on the you know what! Lily! What? Don't you think you've reminded him enough already? And don't forget that I love you all the same Harry no matter what. Sorry son… [Harry rolled his eyes, his parents could act like children or teenagers at times!] Work hard and study!
Love your parents and friends at Midnight Manor'
Oh well it wasn't like any body knew what was going on! Harry listened to the sound in the Great Hall. [crickets chirping] Silence was in the Great Hall, every body including the professors were looking at Harry as if he had sprouted another head. Harry was getting annoyed so he snapped at every body, "Do you have a problem?!? Bloody hell!"
They all gave him one last look and returned to their activities. The Great Hall resumed its normal loudness and the screams and shouts of glee could be heard all over. Ron just shrugged his shoulders and continued to eat. Harry muttered about not being able to have his privacy. Hermione looked at him, raised her eyebrow and opened her mouth to ask him a question but she never got to it because she decided to drop it seeing Harry annoyed. Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore's calm gaze rested on Harry…
After Harry had finished eating his apple, he excused himself and went to the Owlery to send post to his friends and parents at Midnight Manor. He wrote his note in a messy scrawl so he wouldn't be late for double Potions with the Slytherins. Hedwig woke up to see Harry writing a letter and flew down from her nest and nipped her owner gently. "Sorry Hedwig, I can't use you, you attract too much attention…I know, you know the way there but you attract too much attention with your looks, they could easily be found."
Hedwig ruffled her feathers indignantly and glared at Harry. "ARIEL! COME HERE! I HAVE POST FOR YOU TO DELIVER!" Harry bellowed
The beautiful music made by the phoenix could be heard. Hedwig became even more mad and jealous and pecked Harry angrily on the head. "Ow! Hedwig! That hurt!" He whined loudly Ariel stuck her foot out so that Harry could tie the piece of parchment to her leg. Hedwig glared at the phoenix, ruffled her feathers and hooted indignantly. Ariel cooed, stretched her wings and flew off into the morning sky.
Harry made his way to the dungeons to have potions. He felt the cold air hit him lightly and shuddered. He entered the classroom and realized he was early. He went to his usual spot and prepared his apparatus.
Professor Snape walked into the classroom with an armful of potions essays, grumbling and muttering about how the students were incompetent fools. He saw Harry in his usual spot, cursed as loudly as he could and dropped the essays. "POTTER! What are you doing here?!? Don't you have rules to break with your friends?!? You're just like your father"
'Well, that may be true though I have yet to see it!' Harry thought to himself. Out loud he said, "While we are on the topic of my father, I wish to clear up a few things. First of all, I am sorry that I violated your privacy in your penseive, but what I saw made me horrified and it was upsetting to have to find out that he is the one that everyone says I am just like! But that's not true! I know what it feels like to be humiliated in front of people so I understand where you are coming from. So all I ask of you is this, sir. Please don't compare me with my father unless you know the truth."
Harry was spared of having to listen to what Professor Snape would say by the ringing of the bell signalling the start of classes. As the students began filing in, some of them stopped short when they saw that Harry was already there!
"Get in your seats immediately of you will all be responsible for losing 10 points each from your respective houses!" Snape was clearly not in a good mood if he wasn't even going to put up with his Slytherin's.
"I am awarding 10 points to Mr. Potter for arriving early to this class, and a further 10 for…well he knows what it's for." He gave Harry and long hard look before continuing with the class. "Today we will be making the Glacius Arachnium Potion, which one of you dunderheads can tell me what it does?"
Surprisingly, Harry was the only one to raise his hand; even Granger looked like she didn't know the answer. "Yes Mr. Potter…"
"The Glacius Arachnium Potion is a potion that will turn objects into millions of glass spiders. It is a very difficult potion to make and must be made with extreme caution due to the fact that an explosion of this potion is very likely to be fatal; that it only if the right measures haven't been taken to ensure your safety. This potion is stored in tiny phials because they are used as little bombs in case you have someone attacking you or you just need to dispose of someone behind you, and one drop of the potion will create 10 spiders." Having finished his explanation Harry looked around.
"Just where exactly did you learn this information Mr. Potter as this potion is a restricted one?"
"Summer training" was the only answer that Harry gave.
"See me after class Potter!" Turning to face everyone else he said, "The instructions are on the board, so get going!!"
Harry didn't even bother to look at it. He knew it by heart having made a lot of it at Midnight Manor to help him pull a few pranks. It wasn't that hard, it looked that way.
Half way through the class, Harry had nothing to do. He had already finished making his "Glacius Arachnium" potion and was lazily glancing at everyone else. He saw Hermione checking over everything, but Ron on the other hand…He was muttering about how hard the potion was. Ron became very frustrated and whined loudly enough for his friends to hear, "I'll never make this! This is too bloody impossible to make! Snape always gives us hard work!"
Hermione glared at Ron and lectured at him, "Well, if you reviewed everything I told you to review over the summer everyday like I told you to… You would've had less difficulty, but no-o-o you wanted to save that for the last week and did you review on the last week like you said? No! You crammed all last night knowing that he would test us in some manner!"
Ron looked at Harry for help, Harry rolled his eyes and walked over to Ron and slapped him on the back of his head, "Hey! What gives?!?"
Oblivious to Ron's whining, Harry said, "Here Ron, let me help you…"
Harry looked at the board and it read:
2 spider fangs (Dried and finely chopped)
Finely found sapphire dust (A small phial-full)
3 oleander roots (Dried and diced)
5 cups of ice water
1 piece of gillyweed
Spider thread (Approximately 2 meters long)
1. Boil the ice water
2. Add the 3 oleander roots; 1 every five minutes
3. Once the roots are well cooked, add the gillyweed. When you add it, make sure the water is bubbling.
4. When the gillyweed is soft- which should be after 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness- add the spider fangs
5. Stir the potion well and occasionally after the fangs are added
6. Do not add anything after 5 minutes to let the mixture thicken a bit. Stir occasionally.
7. Now, add the spider thread. You must take some caution when adding the spider thread, because if you add it in the wrong way then the potion will materialize around it. The proper way for this potion is to add it in a tight ball to let it expand in your cauldron. Stir the potion until it dissolves.
N.B- The improper way is to add it in one end first, as stated earlier, it will materialize
8. When your potion turns transparent, sprinkle the sapphire dust. Do not
add it all in, add a pinch or two in every few minutes. This will give it it's colour
9. When it turns completely blue, make sure the potion is still transparent. Let it simmer. If the potion isn't transparent add some more spider thread.
When you are done, phial some of the potion and place it into one of the phial racks on the counter near my desk. I will mark all of them before the end of your next class. For your homework, I want you to go through your textbooks and pick a potion, research it and create it. Due date: The class following the upcoming one.
When Harry and Ron were done, Ron had a perfect potion. "Wow, Harry, when did you become so good at Potions?"
"Maybe I decided to study a little and I now understands the concepts of the exact art of Potions making." With that said the bell rang and everyone moved to the front to hand in their potions. Remembering that Snape wanted to speak with him, he shooed his friends out and told them that he would be fine.
"I accept what you said earlier Mr. Potter, I have seen some of your memories just as you have seen mine. I guess that my assumptions of you were wrong and for that I apologize. But, certain things happened that I didn't want you to see - if you had gotten past that memory - that turned me to the dark wizard that I am. Should you repeat any of this outside of this class, you can be sure that you will be in detention with me until your dying day!"
"In that case, I accept your apology, and for your information, you are NOT a dark wizard. You forget the things that I am unfortunately able to see and feel. If you had been a dark wizard then I would have probably killed you at some point over the summer, but that is a conversation for another day." Harry turned to leave, "Oh, and one more thing, you don't need to wear the mask that you always do to hide who you truly are, because you don't need it anymore and don't tell me otherwise. I know that you were caught but I am glad that 'Daren' saved you." With that, he left.
The next morning at breakfast, Hedwig flew in and delivered a note to Harry.
Dear Mr. Potter
I wish to make a truce with you and also ask you on how you know about Daren? I know you mentioned your dreams but is that the only reason? Somehow I don't think it is. If you know him – though I doubt that you do – please ask him when I can next come over to use his incredible Potions Lab.
Waiting for your reply,
Professor S. Snape
Borrowing Hermione's quill – after being lectured that he should always carry his with him – Harry wrote a reply to his professors' letter and sent it off with Hedwig.
Up at the staff table, Snape unrolled the parchment and read it.
Dear Professor Snape
I accept your truce with honour, as I doubt that you make peace with people very often. Yes, I know about Daren and I do know him personally. The only reason that I know he personally is because…he is me! You are always welcome at my manor whenever you wish. Hope this letter didn't phase you too much!
Sincerely,
Harry Potter
He looked up, scanning the Gryffindor table for Potter to try and confirm that what was told in the letter was true, but he had already left. Looking back at the letter he noticed a PS.
PS. I will meet you tonight at 9:00pm at your private quarters to answer ALL of your questions. Some of the answers may surprise you, but I need to get it over with and you of all people deserve the right to know, as it was your life.
He rolled up the parchment and went to get ready for the long day ahead of him. Potter sure was full of surprises.
A/N: Well there you have it! Chapter 3 is finally uploaded! I am sorry that it took so long to write. But with exams and summer holidays, Baka Otaku and I didn't have a lot of time to write. We made this chapter extra long just for all of you. Thanks to all of you who reviewed! There were too many to answer to. Keep reviewing!
Lady Lily3 and Baka Otaku