After I had my fill of the view from the train, I pretended to sleep by closing my eyes while opening my ears to hear what my friends were talking about...
"I can't believe that Harry Potter fought the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who...and survived!"
"He didn't fight them alone, you know. He had his friends with him."
"He's so cool, ain't he?"
"Please, Harry's just one doomed lad."
The amazed voice belonged to Emily Pennington. The blue-head has always been an admirer of The Boy Who Lived. Ever since her first year in Hogwarts, she's been collecting candid Polaroid's of Harry and cutting every article written on Harry Potter on every paper she can get her hands on. It was borderline creepy. As a matter of fact, she just came back from the prefects' carriage interrogating Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley to get more scoop about Harry Potter and then managed to bump into Harry himself, but didn't manage to fire a question or even a remark. "I felt like I wanted to faint" was her excuse.
On the other hand, the less amazed voice belonged to Alex Pewnair. He was the smartest boy I've ever met. He ended last year on the top of his class like he's done since the first year, and it would be a surprise if he didn't get at least five O's on his O.W.L's...bastard.
"Thom, what do you think?" Emily asked me.
I kept pretending to sleep.
"I know you're awake, Thom. No need to keep pretending."
"Ugh!" Damn girl gutted me! And of course I woke up. "That hurt!"
"You thank your lucky stars I didn't aim lower, Thom."
True.
"So what do you think?"
"About what?"
"Harry Potter!"
I answered shortly, "I think he's a decent bloke, and I think people should stop talking about him." I stressed the last three words while looking sharply at Emily.
"Humph, you're no fun!"
"Let's talk about something else," suggested Alex.
Finally...
"So, Thom, what did you do last summer?"
I spoke too soon...
When we got off the Hogwarts Express, Emily, Alex and I were as bummed as ever. You would be too if you had managed to listen to my story and not commit suicide in the middle of it. I told them about how my father died driving the family car over Brockdale Bridge when it decided to snap into two; I told them how my mother suffered a nervous breakdown and how now she's in St. Mungo's, and I told them how now "The Greenwood", the family business in form of a restaurant in Diagon Alley, is now closed indefinitely because of lack of management staff (Dad's dead, Mom's crazy and I'm in here). As I said before, the worst fucking summer ever. I kind of felt sorry for them. Kind of.
Then I saw her for the first time in this school year and angelic choirs start singing...
"Hi, Thom!"
"...Oh, hey, Sarah..." I said dismissively. This was Sarah Lightbody; she was a Huff...I'll talk about her later, as she's not the girl I was talking about.
Who I was talking about was strolling right behind Sarah...Ginevra Weasley. My, my had she filled out. You couldn't quite notice her transformation under that robe, but I could be sure that something's cooking under there. I had a friend in Gryffindor that confirms my delicious suspicion. Plus, she was not with Michael Corner anymore; this year could be my chance! Ha ha ha!
"Helllooo, Thooom..." sang Sarah while waving her hand right at my face. "Earth to Thom...are you there?" She caught me off-guard and drooling... a shame.
"Yes, I'm here, Sarah. What's up?"
"Oh, I just wanted to give you this." She handed me a little gray box with a blue bow.
"What is this?"
"Your long overdue birthday present, of course! Open it!"
She sounded excited. This must have been good. I ripped open the wrapping paper. It was...a...fucking Rememberall. Great, I could hear the laughter from Emily and Alex right behind me.
"Good one, Sarah!" Emily remarked.
"Now, maybe you would remember where you misplaced my Quidditch through the Ages book, eh?" Alex added with a light punch to the arm.
Disgraced, shamed. But it would be a lie if I said I didn't need it. I lose things left and right. Last year I barely managed to survive three months without my History of Magic textbook before finding it under the bed.
"Great..." I said flatly. I wasn't in the mood to show gratitude at the moment
"Hey, I thought you would be -"
My eyes turned to Ginevra once more as she ran back to a carriage. Maybe she forgot something...
"Yo! Thom!"
"Huh?" I said idiotically
"Oh, Thom. You have attention span problems," she said apologetically.
Sarah Lightbody. We've known each other since forever. She lives next door to me in a flat in Liverpool and is the only friend I have outside of Hogwarts. She's a Hufflepuff and she's the sweetest girl I actually know.
"God, I hate that Weasley bitch!"
I guess one couldn't stay sweet forever. We were just about to enter Hogwarts grounds when Sarah spontaneously whispered that remark to Emily, Alex, and I. And since she was ranting about a girl that I have a crush on, I couldn't resist enquiring, but thankfully Alex managed to do that for me.
"What's with the venom, Sarah?"
But Sarah continued as if she was never enquired.
"He hexed Zechariah for no good reason; she stole every boy I've ever had the vaguest interest in. Point is, I hate her!"
"You liked Michael Corner, too?" asked Emily.
Sarah ignored Emily and ploughed on.
"Sometimes I just feel like stalking her, waiting until she's alone somehow, take her wand away, and give her a good Muggle beat down!"
Ever hear the phase 'Never give an Irish a good cause for revenge'? Probably not, but the phrase really applies to Sarah, even though she's only half Irish.
"God, Sarah, do you have to be so graphic?" was the only thing I could think of saying after hearing what she had to say. I said it with a sincerely surprised tone.
"Sorry, you guys," said Sarah, back to her sweet old self. "Just needed to get that off my chest before we start the school year. Nobody heard, right?"
"I guess," I said, not really knowing for sure.
The Great Hall was as loud as ever, although the ambiance wasn't quite...celebratory as the years before. It obviously because that son-of-a-bitch You-Know-Who and his Death Eater gits and cunts were loose. No doubt.
"Hey, if one of our teachers was a Death Eater, which one would it be?" asked Alex to the group in a playful tone. If it was a joke, nobody got it.
"Keep eating, Alex," said Matt Tong, a classmate.
"C'mon, Thom. You're daring, who it would be."
I decided to answer. "I say Snape, because he's one ugly git."
Nobody laughed but Alex.
"Man, that would've killed in the Gryffindor table," I said.
Again, no reaction by anyone but Alex. I brushed off the lack of reaction by stuffing my mouth full of mashed potatoes and shut up.
"Now that you mention it...where is Snape?" asked Matt.
He was right. Snape was nowhere to be seen. Where was he?
Then the giant door swung open, and almost everybody turned toward the door. The door opened some more, revealing a pale Snape and a bloody...Harry Potter?
"I tha arry otte?" I asked with my mouth full, but I bet no one understood me.
"Swallow, Thom," advised Megan Barrymore, another classmate.
I swallowed and asked again, "Is that Harry Potter?"
"I think so, but I'm not...oh, yeah, it's Harry Potter, alright. Look at the glasses."
I sat down and continued eating, and so did most of the people in the Great Hall. Five minutes later, only Emily was left standing, but even she sat down.
Later, as I serve myself a bowl of pudding, I found myself feeling...aroused. I didn't know why, but suddenly I had a mental picture of Sarah and Ginevra fighting. Not the one-sided Muggle beat down Sarah described. But rather an equal hex duel with complete with hair pulling and nail scratching. Two minutes after the mental picture came to my head, I immediately felt guilty. Why shouldn't I? I was fantasizing about one of my closest friends and my crush putting each other in the vicinity of utter discomfort (it's light hexes, not killing curses) and it making me feel strange, a good, pleasurable strange. Let's just say it was making my dragon rise, okay?
Thank God for Dumbledore standing up to make his speech; if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have stopped thinking about it. "The very best of evenings to you!"
"Hey, you guys! Look at Dumbledore's hand!" exclaimed Megan.
We all saw Dumbledore's hand when he held his arms wide open to start his speech like every year. He tucked it in quickly and said, "Nothing to worry about," and soldiered on with his speech. First he introduced the new Potions master, Professor Slughorn, and announced that Professor Snape was going to be our new Defense against of the Dark Arts teacher, which probably meant Snape would surely exit Hogwarts by the end of the year. I would certainly not miss him; I was crossing my fingers for the curse of the Defense against the Dark Arts teaching job to be true. Then Dumbledore addressed the whole You-Know-Who situation and how we were safe from it. Nice try, Dumbledore, but I'm not buying it.
Afterwards, we filed out of the Great Hall and went to our dorm rooms. I popped my head up to see what was in front of me and saw Sarah with Hufflepuff girls I only knew by name. Shendy Phair and Vera McLachlan were their names...I think. Then I looked a little to the right and saw Ginevra. Oh, no, the fantasies were coming over me again! Great, now Shendy and Vera were in it, too, and it was turned to a 3 on 1 handicap match! Only one way to solve this problem...pat the dragon.
I did the deed. With the help of one of the Patented Daydream Charms I had stowed deep in a hidden compartment in my trunk of course. Got them for my sixteenth birthday from Fred and George Weasley; bet they wouldn't have given them to me if they knew what I was doing with it...he he he...
Ginevra won, by the way.
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