Harry woke up as the morning light crept through the curtains of his four-poster bed. He fumbled blearily along the bedside cabinet until his hand closed around his glasses. Pushing them onto his face the world came sharply into focus. The sound of soft birdcalls was the only thing he could hear, which of course meant that Ron must already be up since usually his snoring would be echoing around the room.
Harry reluctantly pulled himself up from the warm and cosy bed, and slowly dressed himself whilst occasionally pausing to stifle a large yawn. Looking around the room he could see that he was the last person up, as each of the other boys' beds were in differing arrays of disorder, but that didn't really matter seeing as it was the first weekend of the term.
He pulled open the door and headed down the steps towards the Common Room, which was abuzz with excited sounds. It seemed as though every single Gryffindor was there, chattering eagerly with each other.
It's only the weekend thought Harry, why is everyone so overly happy about it?
His eyes scanned the room. All the first years were huddled together acting as though they wanted to be part of the action but weren't sure if it was ok to intrude, most of the other years had mingled well enough. Being in his 6th year Harry recognised pretty much everyone, the occasional person would catch his eye and either nod, wave or call out 'hello' depending on how well they knew him.
His gaze fell on one group of individuals who, despite looking as though they were the oldest in the room, were keeping themselves to themselves much like the first years. There was an aura of nervousness about them as though they weren't sure they should be there, their eyes were flicking back and forth between the various groups of people and they were speaking to each other in hushed agitated voices. Although there were about half a dozen of them Harry didn't recognise a single one., there was something out of place about them but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Before he could approach them he was interrupted a very happy looking Ron who was beaming ear to ear.
"Alright Harry," he greeted, before flashing his wide smile at a group of girls, "did you hear the good news?"
"What news?" asked Harry warily wondering when his best friend had become so confident around girls, since every time he was around Fleur over the summer he seemed to become a drooling idiot.
"Saw it posted up on the notice board this morning," explained Ron handing him a parchment.
"What's an OOC day?" asked Harry reading from the note.
"It's an Out of Character day," replied Ron happily before calling across to one of the groups, "hiya Lavender, looking lovely today as usual."
"That doesn't really answer my question," frowned Harry as Ron ruffled his hair into a 'just got off my broom' windswept look, "what does it actually mean?"
"Well it means that you can say and do whatever you want as you can always blame it on being OOC," smiled Ron.
"Is that why you are all…" Harry wasn't quite sure what word to use so he just mimicked Ron's earlier hair ruffling.
"Yeah," admitted Ron looking a bit embarrassed, "normally I haven't got a clue how to talk to girls, well except Hermione, so I wanted to see what it was like being a smooth talking Lothario."
"Lothario?"
"I think it means 'good with woman' at least that's the impression I got from mum," Ron said shrugging, "she reads those kind of soppy books where the front cover has a girl swooning into the arms of some long hair muscle bound Lothario who has all the buttons on his shirt undone."
Harry glanced down at Ron's shirt, which was well as truly buttoned all the way up.
"Well it's a bit cold for that," admitted Ron.
"Er… excuse me?"
Harry and Ron turned to see one of the boys from the group of strangers had come over. He was just a little bit taller then Harry, with slightly wavy brown hair and was wearing a navy blue polo shirt and jeans, the biggest surprise however had been his voice; he was unmistakably American.
"Hi I'm Seth Cohen," he greeted them hand outstretched, "sorry we couldn't help overhearing you. Did you say that this is an OOC day?"
"Yeah I guess it is," replied Harry passing Seth the notice, before looking at Ron who wore the same confused look as him.
"Oh," Seth's face lit up as though he had finally made sense of something. He turned back to his own group of friends, "It's ok guys, it's an OOC day not an OC one."
At this news his friends also broke into relieved smiles, and began talking happily to themselves, "I told you we should have checked it before we turned up…" echoed back from the group.
"Sorry about this," apologised Seth waving a hand back at this friends, "we thought it might have been a cross over story. We better be heading back, look if any of you guys ever want to have an OC day you just drop me a line and we'll be right over."
"Oh no problem," agreed Ron, as he flashed the girls in the group a smile, "no problem at all."
"Er…just one more thing," frowned Seth pointing at the fireplace, "how do we…er…"
"Easy, just grab a handful of that green dust from the bucket next to it," Harry explained pointing, "and then step into the fire and say where you want to go then drop the dust."
"Thanks, well see you around."
Seth went back to his friends and held a brief conversation with them, picking up a handful of the dust to illustrate his point, stepped into the flames and gave Harry and Ron a wave goodbye, "Orange County," he said loudly dropping the dust. The flames rose up and he was gone.
"What on Earth was all that about?" asked Harry as they watched the remaining five copying Seth and disappearing.
"Oh it'll probably be the Author's idea of a joke," signed Ron, "you know OOC and OC being very similar and all."
"Author?"
"Yeah, it's that guy over there," Ron pointed over to a dark haired man sitting in the corner of the room, who seemed to be scribbling away like mad on a pad of paper, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth as he concentrated, "normally it's a pretty blonde woman but I'm guessing since he is here instead that this must be a fanfiction story."
"Er… what?" Harry frowned not understanding a single bit of what his friend had just said.
"Oh it was all explained in Hogwarts: A History," said Ron in response to Harry's look of complete confusion, "best not to think about it too much. Usually you can't see any of the Authors, at least not directly, if you kinda squint up your eyes you can sometimes notice them at the edge of your vision."
"Erm… right," agreed Harry slowly.
"We can probably only see him so clearly because he must be OOC too. Hey mate," Ron called out waving as the Author raised his head up from his furious writing, "don't suppose you could do help me out a bit here?" he asked pointing at his bicep.
"Nice one, cheers," thanked Ron as he flexed his new set of bulging muscles, resulting in much giggling from a group of nearby girls just as Hermione came into the Common Room, with a harassed look on her face and a rather hefty looking bag on her back, "hey check me out, need anything heavy lifted? Your bag perhaps?"
"Very funny Ron," Hermione replied haughtily rolling her eyes as Ron carried on pulling ridiculous poses, she looked warningly at Harry, "I hope you aren't getting carried away like that?"
"To be honest I'm still completely puzzled by what is going on."
"I'm not getting carried away," frowned Ron as if he had only just registered what Hermione had said, "I'm just enjoying it. Anyway where are you off to with your school bag? It's the weekend."
"I'm going to the Library to work on my Arithmagic essay," explained Hermione, "ever though its only the first week we have been given loads of homework."
"You're doing homework?" asked an amazed Ron, "but it's an OOC day."
"Look Ron," snapped Hermione, heaving her back further up her back, "I don't have time to act Out of Character, I mean we are NEWT students now, and prefects, we should be setting an example. Now if you don't mind?"
Adjusting the bag one final time she pushed passed Ron and headed off towards the Common Room exit.
"There is no pleasing some people," said Ron shaking his head as he watched the retreating back of Hermione, he turned back to Harry, "so what do you want to do first?"
"I'm not sure," admitted Harry.
"Sounds great," replied Ron only half listening on account of the fact that he was trying to catch Lavender's attention again.
"Look," sighed Harry finally poking Ron in the arm to get his full attention, "I'm just gonna go on a bit of a wander around the school, I might go see how Hagrid is doing, seeing as none of us are taking his class."
"You want me to come with you?"
"No it's ok," smiled Harry nodded at Lavender who had disappeared into a fit of giggles with her group of friends, "I think you'd be missed here to much."
Harry headed out of the portrait opening and made his way through the school. On the way down to Hagrid's he encountered a whole host of people all acting out of character. A gruff looking Flitwick barged past him on the stairs. A rather relaxed McGonagall, with her hair down, flounced along one of the corridors wearing a light floating summer dress with a rather gaudy floral pattern on it. Filch waved hello as he passed humming a happy little tune to himself, whilst pushing his broom along in long even strokes.
Harry bounced down the final few stairs in the main hall, but since he was still looking back and returning Filch's wave, he wasn't looking where he was going and almost ended up barrelling into someone.
"Oh sorry…Sir," he added looking up; he had almost bumped into Snape. He waited for the expected snide remark, then Harry remembered how everyone else was behaving. Any change in the way Snape acted had to be for the better, he thought.
"Not looking where you were going Potter? No doubt you expect everyone to get out of the Chosen One'sway," he sneered, Harry's sense of confusion must have been easy to see since Snape added, "I don't think wasting my time acting stupid like the rest of the sheep in this school is of any use. Although I would have like to have seen you get into the spirit of the day, acting as though the Universe doesn't revolve around you might have done you some good."
"I don't act like that," said Harry through gritted teeth.
"Really? I have seen no evidence to the contrary in your time here," said Snape, looking coldly down at him, "you continually flout the school rules, you're impertinent, disrespectful to your betters, and are always strutting around the halls as though you own the school."
Harry clenched his fist together in his pocket, his nails digging hard into his palm. Without looking back at Snape he pushed passed him and walked out into the cool morning air.
"Your father would be so proud," called Snape from behind him.
"Stupid Snape," muttered Harry angrily to himself as he moved across the lawn and down the small hill towards Hagrid's hut.
Harry looked up to see some Hufflepuff students playing with the Whomping Willow. From previous experience with the tree he knew that anyone usually going anywhere near the tree would generally end up spending an extended stay in the hospital wing, however today it was letting them climb up through it's branches as if they didn't have a care in the world. In fact one first year who accidentally fell out of the tree was picked up, placed back on his feet and then dusted off by one of the branches.
Shaking his head in wonder Harry approached Hagrid's hut. Raising his hand he went to wrap his knuckles on the solid oak door, but owning to the fact that it had just been opened his hand passed soundlessly through the air.
"Hello Harry," said Hagrid, although without his usual friendly greeting.
"Hi Hagrid," replied Harry, his cheeks burning with embarrassment at the fact that neither he, Ron or Hermione had taken Care of Magic Creatures lessons, "look… about the lessons."
"You don't have to apologise for anything," Hagrid cut him off gruffly, "it's not your fault you don't particularly enjoy my lessons."
"Oh it's not that Hagrid," implored Harry desperately, "it's just that while we really wanted to have the lesson, none of us could fit it into our timetables."
"Oh… well I didn't know that," frowned Hagrid, but suddenly looked much more pleased with the whole situation and broke into a wide grin, "I should have know that my three best students had a reason for not taking my lesson. Well that's just tremendous."
"Er… Hagrid?"
"Yes?"
"What's happened to your accent?"
"Oh well that's easy," replied Hagrid in his new crisp voice, "since it's an OOC day I figured it might be nice to be a bit on the eloquent side for a change."
"And is it?"
"Not really," admitted Hagrid shrugging, "I can take it or leave it I guess."
"So where are you off to?" asked Harry pointing at the large crossbow swung over Hagrid's shoulder.
"Oh I'm heading out into the forest, would you like to accompany me?"
"No it's ok Hagrid," Harry shook his head, "I think I'm going to take it easy today."
"Er… are you sure? I mean there are lots of dangerous creatures in the forest, there is a whole wealth of exciting adventures that could possible happen in there."
"Yeah," said Harry stifling a yawn, "it's a bit to early for me at the moment I'm afraid, maybe after lunch."
"Oh ok," conceded Hagrid a bit defeated, "well I'll see you later."
Harry waved as his half-giant friend lumbered away disappearing into the leafy folds of the forest.
"Er… excuse me," asked a quiet voice from behind Harry, who jumped a little at the sudden noise then looked around at the person that had addressed him.
"Oh it's you, you're the Author right?" he said to the stranger, who was still rapidly writing away on a pad of paper.
"Yep that's me," admitted the Author, "I was just wondering why you didn't go with Hagrid?"
"To be honest I just didn't really feel like it."
"Well you see the thing is, is that the forest is full of exciting and dangerous creatures."
"Yeah I know, so far I have almost been killed in it about a dozen times."
"For the record none of those times have been my fault," smiled the Author reassuringly, "but if you could go in there for me just this once it would be great. I mean I have a whole amazing set piece worked out, involving you, Hagrid, a dragon, Grawp and some centaurs. It'll be very exciting, with lots of spells being fired off, explosions and well everything. The CGI alone cost me a fortune."
"Look… sorry what's your name?"
"Jason."
"Look Jason," said Harry sternly, "so far in my time at Hogwarts I have been involved in so many adventures I'm actually looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend where I don't have to do anything."
"But…" stammered Jason.
"But nothing," Harry cut him off, "ok, today is an OOC day right?"
"Right."
"And you'll agree that generally I'll dive head first into any adventure without really checking it out first?"
"Yeah," replied Jason warily.
"Well then wouldn't it stand to reason that by if I act Out of Character then I really wouldn't head off into the forest, especially after everything you have told me?"
"Oh… I suppose not," signed Jason glumly, "how about if we just cut it down to a small dragon and two centaurs? It'll take half hour, forty five minutes tops."
"Nope," replied Harry firmly, "now if you don't mind I'm going to take a nice quiet stroll by the lake, and if any dragons or centaurs just happen to come my way I'll hex you into next week."
"Fine," Jason sulked as the retreating Gryffindor walked away humming pleasantly.
As he settled down on the grass in front of the lake, Harry basked in the sunlight of a glorious day. The sun beat down onto his face as he closed his eyes and let the warm feeling flow through his body.
Such a perfect day,Harry thought to himself as he laid back onto the soft green canvas, his hands tucked under his head, I doubt it could get any better.
He was right.
"Harry! Watch out!" a voice cried out.
Harry opened his eyes and only just manage to fling his body to one side as a large green foot stamped down onto the grass. His quick Seeker reflexes had saved his life. In one fluid motion he pushed himself up and pulled his wand out ready.
Standing in front of him was a huge savage looking beast, unlike anything he had seen before. It was as tall as Hagrid, with a body made up of lots of black scales, it's face resembled that of a bird with a vicious looking beak, but more dangerous looking then the beak were what it had instead of paws; nasty sharp long hooks were on the end of each of its arms.
Harry cautiously sidestepped around, slowly circling the beast, wand raised ready to defend himself. But the beast wasn't interested in him, it was too busy trying to attack another student. Whoever it was, was doing very well, dodging the beast as it swung it's hooks at him and firing off spell after spell, each one finding it's mark and causing the creature to stumble back.
One of the spells struck the beast hard on it's leg making it drop down onto one knee, that's when Harry saw who the other student was.
"Neville?" he said amazed.
"Alright Harry," he replied wand still fixed on the beast.
Harry noticed there was something clearly different about his fellow Gryffindor, the way he stood, the way he looked, even his general presence, it just ooze a sense, of well, cool. He was so amazed in the transformation of his friend that he almost didn't notice the beast swiping at him with one of it's arms. The blow was stopped by another spell by Neville, this time he made the ground in front of Harry rise up into a pillar protecting him front the hook.
Harry stumbled back watching his friend continue his battle against the beast, every now and then he would point his wand at the creature ready to help out Neville but his fellow Gryffindor was always one step ahead of him hitting it with everything he had.
Backing away Harry lowered his wand, he looked down at it hanging uselessly by his side as Neville single handed fought the monster.
This isn't right, thought Harry. He looked around quickly, squinting his eyes against the bright sunlight until he found what he was seeking. Standing a short distance away was Jason, writing pad up, still scribbling away with a frown on his face.
"Hey you," Harry said as he approached the Author, "you are aware that what I said about dragons and centaurs also applies to… what is that anyway?"
"I think it's a Hook Horror, though I'm not entirely sure," admitted Jason not looking up from his writing, a deep look of concentration still etched into his face.
"What do you mean you aren't sure?"
"Oh well that," Jason waved a hand dismissively at the current confrontation between the beast and Neville, "has nothing to do with me."
"It doesn't?" asked Harry sceptically, to which Jason just shook his head, "oh well…I guess that's ok then."
The two stood in silence watching Neville battling the creature, pulling off many difficult spell as though he had been doing them all his life.
"Er… the thing is," Harry started reluctantly.
"Yes?"
"Well, it's just that, and I don't mean to put down Neville," he added quickly looking embarrassed, "well… erm… I'm just used to…"
"To being the hero?" Jason raised an eyebrow as he finished the sentence.
"No… nothing like that," replied Harry shaking his head, then he sighed loudly, "well maybe a little like."
"It's ok," conceded Jason, "we all like to be the hero. For instance I myself once saved a woman from a burning house."
"Really?"
"Actually no," admitted Jason, "but I did see it happen on ER, and the fireman seemed to like being the hero."
"Right," said Harry slowly not quite sure how to respond, "so can you…do anything about it?"
"To be honest I have been trying but nothing I do seems to work," Jason looked up from his pad and scanned the area whilst squinting his eyes. He must have found what he was looking for because after several seconds he pointed out towards the edge of the lake, "ahh there is your answer. Looks like another Author, he must be doing a Neville fanfic."
"So what does that mean?"
"Basically the other Author is in control of this area of the school at the moment."
"And you can't do anything about it?"
"You mean interfere with another Author's story?" asked Jason aghast, "do you have any idea just how rude that would be?"
"No."
"Oh…well it's pretty impolite."
"So there isn't anything you can do? I could pay you?"
"I couldn't put a price on my integrity, my honour, my principles…" replied Jason haughtily.
"I have a galleon," cut in Harry holding up a gold coin.
"Would you like to just save the day or a damsel in distress as well?"
Jason smirked as he looked up at the scene in front of him, his brow turned into a deep groove as he looked as though he was making some calculations, he looked between Neville fighting the beast and the other Author, and after a few moments nodded to himself as though he had come to a decision. He began scribbling away once again.
Harry watched for any changes that might occur, he gripped his wand tightly ready to spring forward. He was so engrossed in the confrontation between Neville and the Hook Horror that he didn't even notice the surface of the lake rippling slightly.
His gaze only became distracted from the battle as one of the tentacle's of the Giant Squid broke through the water and snaked itself around the waist of the other Author and pulled him into the water.
"What did you do?" asked a shocked Harry, "I didn't mean that you should kill him."
"Oh don't worry about him," reassured Jason, "us Authors don't technically exist here so we can't actually be killed. Basically we are make-believe, a bit like Celine Dion. By the way you should probably help Neville out now."
Harry looked over to where Jason had nodded; Neville had stopped fighting the beast as was just standing there with a look of utter confusion and horror.
"Neville watch out," Harry shouted as the creature started to advance on his friend.
He fired off a Stunning Spell as he ran towards the beast; it glanced off the creatures shoulder causing it to stumble slightly. The Hook Horror looked around to where the attack came from and seeing the fresh threat rounded on Harry. This momentary pause allowed Neville to regain his composure from the sudden shock of finding himself outside and in front of a hideous looking monster, and he too joined the fray. Although he was not as capable as he was under the other Author, Neville fought with the same ferocity and skill that he had whilst in the Ministry of Magic the previous year.
Between them they pushed the beast further and further back, Harry had a large gash across his arm where a hook had slashed him and Neville was bleeding from a cut in his leg, but they were working well together and easily winning the fight.
A spell ricocheted off of the beast's scaled chest causing it to spin around. Panting heavily on one knee, as both boys pointed their wands at it, the creature looked up to see a new target standing straight in front of him. The small eyes on its bird like head narrowed malevolently, and it rushed forward arms outstretched and beak wide open.
"Watch out!" cried Harry, as the Hook Horror descended on Jason, who was far too preoccupied with writing to notice it attacking.
Jason frowned as he reread the last few sentences on his pad, as realisation dawned he looked up. The Hook Horror occupied his entire field of vision, before he could write anymore the beak snapped shut.
Jason woke with a start. His heart pounded hard in his chest as he looked around the room. He was safe. Yawning heavily he picked up the TV remote next to him and he stabbed his finger down on the 'Off' button. Glancing down he looked at the still open book on his lap; Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. He'd only bought it a few hours ago but was already a substantial way in.
I should probably get some sleep, he thought to himself checking his watch, and went to fold down the corner of the page to mark his place. His hand stopped with the paper still between his fingers. Jason peeked once again at his watch, well maybe just one more chapter.