Sorry it took me so long to get this done, but I've had some serious writer's block! I hope you enjoy this, and to all of youout there who want a little more Harry/Tammy fluffyness, well...it's on the way. Featured in the next chapter...bathtime!
/7:30pm, near the Whomping Willow/ Quite a crowd had gathered, some of them bringing their dinner out in order to be there early. Tammy stood quietly in the center of a circle of light cast by the magical lights she had conjured earlier. A few stragglers raced up. Tammy treated them to a disapproving glare and indicated that they sit on the grass with the others. Looking very embarrassed, they did so.
"Alright. For the few of you who don't know me, I am Tammora Nightshade, and I've received a number of requests to teach you gymnastics. I've agreed to do so. I was also asked to teach some of the self-defense techniques I used two days ago. However, I can't do that until I'm satisfied that you're flexible enough." Tammy said. Like Professors McGonagall and Snape, she was able to speak quietly and still have everyone hear her. They were dead silent.
"How will you know that?" A voice in the back asked.
"I will know because you should be able to keep up with me. I'm going to tell you now, and I'll be telling you this again: If you don't like hard work, go back inside. I'm not going to teach anyone who isn't willing to work for this. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"
"Yes." They chorused.
"I can't hear you!" Tammy yelled.
"YES!" the gathered students yelled back.
"Good. Now, lets see all of you run a lap around the lake. GO!" The students rushed off in a huge herd. Laughing, Tammy seated herself behind Harry on his Firebolt and hung on as he took off, bringing them to a halt over the lake at a point about halfway around.
"So, what do you think of the turnout?" Harry asked, twisting around to look at his passenger.
"Mmmm…there's more than I thought there would be, but some of them have some real potential. A few of them, though…they just want to do it because everyone else wants to. This is going to be quite interesting." She took mental notes on the students below as Harry hovered. When the entire group had returned to the meeting place, Tammy hopped off the Firebolt and surveyed her audience. Most were out of breath, some looked like they were about to pass out, and a select few were barely winded.
"Not bad all of you, not bad at all. But by the time I'm done with you, that will seem easy. Now, I've got some sign-up sheets here. Each one has a different class time. Only sign one. I'll weed you out as we go along. Do not miss classes unless you have a good reason. If you hurt yourself goofing off, it's not my fault, but injuries that occur when I'm spotting, then I'll take full responsibility, with exceptions."
"What exceptions?" Someone wanted to know.
"Well…if you are deliberately ignoring my instructions and you go and break your wrist because of it, then I certainly am not responsible." The sign-ups were passed around, and eventually made their way back to Tammy. She gave each one a quick look-over and nodded her satisfaction.
"Alright then. First class is tomorrow evening at 7:00. I'll see you then. You can go." The students left in small groups. Tammy stacked up the schedules and headed for Professor McGonagall's office. She'd asked to see the lists and to be made a copy of them, so the other Heads of Houses would know where their students were.
/Later, in the Gryffindor common room/ Tammy dragged herself into the common room and dropped onto the nearest couch.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked, looking up from Flying with the Cannons.
"I just got chased by those two Neanderthals who follow Malfoy around. Apparently, they are both under the impression that I was the one who used the Imperious curse on their irritating blonde boss. I've never been so lost in my life!" She let her neck go limp, head lolling over one arm of the couch.
"That's Crabbe and Goyle for you. Dense to the end."
"Very true." Tammy sat up slowly, wincing.
"You okay?" Harry asked.
"Probably not. Between sudden stops, split-second turns, falling several times on the way back here, and rolling down the last dozen steps into the Entrance Hall…well…you get the idea." Harry shook his head.
"You can't keep a low profile, can you?"
"Neither can you, Wonder Boy."
"Touché." Harry watched his friend for a few minutes, just enjoying her presence. Ron and Hermione were off somewhere, so he was especially grateful that Tammy was around. Otherwise, he'd probably go nuts.
After staring rather blankly at the dancing flames in the fireplace for a few minute, Tammy had the distinct impression that she was being watched. She looked up, and found herself staring into a pair of very green eyes. Likewise, Harry was lost in the mysterious blue-green depths of her eyes. They remained this way for a few seconds, and then both realized that they were staring, and broke away, blushing.
"Yes?" Tammy asked, as calmly as she could. " Is there something on my face?"
"Well, now that you mention it…yeah there is." Harry said. Tammy was silent for a moment, clearly trying to come up with a response to the question she didn't expect to be answered.
"Where?"
"Right on your left cheekbone." Tammy rubbed vigorously at the spot. "No, my left." She tried again. Still no luck.
"If it's really there, you get it off!" She snapped finally. Grinning sheepishly, Harry bent over the couch and rubbed carefully at a purplish spot on her right cheekbone. Tammy yelped and pulled away.
"What did I do?"
"That hurt!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"Well you must have, because it hurt when you touched me." Harry looked puzzled for a moment, and then realized what had probably happened.
"Wait a sec. Hold still, and let me see it again." Grudgingly, Tammy allowed Harry to lean back over the couch and examine her cheek carefully. After a few minutes, he nodded and pulled back.
"What?"
"Hmm?"
"Why did you nod like that? What is it?"
"A bruise. You probably banged it while you were running from Crabbe and Goyle."
"Ah. That explains it. Well, sorry to leave you all by yourself, but I'm going to bed." Tammy stood up and walked, rather stiffly, up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. "Good night."
"G'night."
Several unfortunate Gryffindors were treated to Tammy's spectacular bad mood the next morning. Despite the fact that she had first turned on two of her dorm-mates, nobody had any idea of what could have made her this irritable. She wandered stiffly into the common room, and, after snapping at a small group of sleepy looking second years, had her first run-in with a male member of her year. It happened to be Ron, who was stumbling down the stairs from the boy's dorm. He walked right into her, nearly knocking her over, and earning himself an angry snarl. Startled, he scrambled back up the stairs, leaving Tammy prowling around the common room.
Harry looked up when Ron burst into the room, looking quite startled.
"Something wrong?" he asked. Ron nodded. "What?"
"Kit." Ron said shortly. "I ran into her in the common room and she nearly bit my head off!"
"Then why did you come looking for me?"
"Because she listens to you!"
"Ron, she was probably just annoyed that you walked into her. Go downstairs, apologize, and quit worrying." He waited a few minutes, and then looked pointedly at Ron. "You haven't left yet?" Ron shook his head.
"Nuh-uh."
"Why not?"
"Because it wasn't just me."
"What d'y- Hi Seamus."
"Don't Hi Seamus me!" Both Ron and Harry looked at Seamus is surprise. They couldn't tell if he was angry, scared, or a bit of both.
"Um…is something wrong?" Ron asked timidly.
"You bet something's wrong!" Seamus rounded on Harry. "You get your butt down into the common room and make your crazy girlfriend calm down!" Harry turned very red, opening and shutting his mouth several times, unable to say anything. Finally, it was Ron who managed to say something.
"Since when is she his girlfriend?"
"Since we all saw them sleeping together right after school started!" Clearly, if Harry didn't step in soon, there was going to be a fight between the two.
"Calm down. Both of you. Seamus, she's not my girlfriend. Ron, it's not something to get to mad about. I'll go see what I can do, but I'm not making any promises." Harry left the room and hurried down the stairs.
His arrival in the common room was greeted with thankful sighs, and a few cheers. Hermione stepped up to him.
"She's over there." She said, pointing at a secluded desk in a corner. "Under the desk. Good luck."
"Thanks." Harry was about to approach the desk when an owl flew in the window and fluttered underneath the desk, hooting. Then, there were a few moments of silence, then a deafening hoot, and the owl shot out from underneath the desk, with Tammy in hot pursuit.
"Bloody bird!" She screeched angrily, brandishing her wand at the creature, which was perched on the back of an armchair across the room. "Keep bringing me letters from those idiots and I'll use you for a feather-duster!" The owl gave an indignant hoot.
"I think she's lost it." Someone whispered. Tammy rounded on the crowd behind her.
"LOST IT!" she shrieked. "WHO SAYS I'VE LOST IT!"
"She didn't have it to begin with." Harry muttered, shouldering his way through a tightly packed cluster of second-years that were blocking his path. Hermione saw him. He gave her a thumbs-up and snuck around behind Tammy, who was still threatening the owl on the armchair. Several times, her wand came dangerously close to Harry's face, and he had to duck in order to avoid getting hit by it, and thus losing the element of surprise.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Tammy yelled at the owl. "I DON'T CARE IF-HEY!" Harry pounced just as she was about to voice this latest threat, grabbing both of her arms and pinning them to her sides. On a second thought, he pulled her hands behind her back and caught her wrists in one of his hands. Hermione zipped over and took away Tammy's wand.
"She's all yours." She whispered, retreating to a safe distance, so that neither Harry nor Tammy could attempt to exact revenge.
"Gee, thanks." Harry grumbled. He clapped his free hand over Tammy's mouth just as she was about to continue her yelling. She glared at him, and struggled, but he had the advantages of both size and strength, and he won. "Listen. You've really got to calm down. I don't know what's going on, and I don't want to. Understand? OW!" he let go, cradling his hand to his chest, and glaring at Tammy.
"I understand." Tammy growled, licking her lips and making a face. "Yuck. You taste like owl."
"Hedwig was just in. Now shoo." Tammora went, leaving Harry to examine the two neat sets of imprints left by her teeth, punctuated by two spots of blood that marked her canines.
"Are you sure they're not a couple?" Seamus whispered to Ron. (They'd come down to watch Harry.)
"Yeah. But you couldn't tell by looking at them."