Disclaimer: It's all mine! Mwa ha ha haaaaaa! Or not. If you recognize it, it's J.K.'s. Details were referenced in the books and in the Harry Potter Lexicon.
Chapter Sixteen
"Good morning, Professor Snape. I decided I would like to sit in on one of your potions classes."
Snape just stood there for a moment, staring at the Slytherin ghost.
The Baron raised an eyebrow at him challengingly. Snape took a deep breath, and looking strait at the Baron, finally spoke.
"Fine."
He knew then, no matter how uncomfortable it made him, he would have to deal with the Potter ghost-child attending his class.
Harry had entered the Gryffindor common room that evening as usual, for theory with Hermione. She was sitting in an armchair, waiting for him.
Neville was sitting in a corner nearby. Most of the other first years were chattering about 'Quidditch..' They were listening to Ronald Weasley (who was relishing his bit of seldom found attention,) and Seamus Finnigan telling stories of experiences flying on broomsticks.
"I'm supposed to start flying lessons Thursday," Hermione informed him at when he reached her.
"You don't sound too thrilled," Harry remarked. He sat down in an empty chair near by and waited for her to continue.
"I'm not. I've looked up everything I can find on flying, but I'm not sure it'll be enough, and-"
"Calm down. I'm sure Madame Hooch will give you plenty of tips."
"But this is flying. From what I've found, it'd be so much easier to mess up, so many injuries are possible and-"
"Floating isn't too bad. I can't imagine flying would be that dreadful."
"You can't fall and get hurt."
"True, but in both you control where you're going, without being anchored to the ground."
"Only if you manage to fly properly," she muttered skeptically.
"Let's just try and put it in perspective. Compare it to, say, learning to drive. There's only so much you can learn from books when you're learning to drive a car, and it's usually easier to learn by having someone show you what you need to do. Flying, though, you'll be at the Quidditch pitch, which is cleared out especially for flying, and you'll be above most things you could potentially crash into. It's a good deal simpler than with a car, too, from the look of it, at least for transportation purposes, and you'll be able to feel the wind."
"I'll still have to deal with heights, as well as the Slytherins. It did help a bit though, thanks."
"You'll do better than me, at any rate," commented Neville from the corner.
"Why do you say that, Neville?" asked Hermione, "Haven't you ever flown?"
"No," he replied glumly, "Gran never let me near one. She says I'm clumsy enough on the ground. I've enough classes to do miserably at without this."
"Like what?" asked Harry, who'd never seen Neville in any of his classes.
"Everything... ...well, I guess I'm alright at Herbology, but I'm dreadful at Potions. I always manage to bungle them up some how. I managed to melt a cauldron the very first class."
"If you'd like, perhaps I could start going to your potions class instead of the twins. I could keep on eye on the directions for you, and help explain the parts you have trouble with."
"Would you really?"
"Of course. I don't have anything else I have to do."
"Thanks!" Neville replied, sounding a bit relieved. "Um, I was just wondering... what's a car?"
Hermione stared at him for a moment.
"You must have seen one before, on the way to the Platform..."
Neville shook his head. "Gran's always worried I'll get hurt. We took a port-key strait to the Platform."
Getting over her shock, Hermione threw herself into a rather thorough explanation of different types of Muggle transportation, and ended up having to answer a good many questions on the topic from Neville- why Muggles used so many different ways of transportation, whether they were dangerous, and what types were used for what purposes.
"It's amazing how different things are here," muttered Hermione, "so many little things that one takes for granted. Seeing the ghosts of all the people who've died is odd enough."
"Not everyone becomes a ghost,"corrected Neville.
Hermione frowned.
"Why's that? I mean, what determines who becomes a ghost, and who doesn't?"
"I'm not sure."
Moments later, one of the other first year boys walked over towards them.
"Mind if I hang out over here?" asked Dean Thomas. "I'm getting tired of hearing Seamus and Ron chattering about Quidditch. The stories were interesting mind you, the first time the told them..."
Harry snorted. "I can see your point," he replied, glancing over to where Ronald Weasley was repeating a story of how he almost hit a hang glider to anyone who'd listen.
Hermione nodded. "Your welcome to join us."
"Thanks. I didn't think I could stand another moment over there, especially with Ron repeatedly trying to say Quidditch is better than football (called soccer in the U.S., to anyone who's confused)," replied Dean, rolling his eyes.
"How does he figure that?" asked Hermione. " Has he ever seen a game of soccer, or played one?"
"No," answered Dean, "he says that no game with only one ball, where no one is allowed to fly could possibly be exciting."
"Didn't it ever cross his mind that muggles can't fly? It has very little to do with not being allowed to."
"Apparently not. Say, if he brings it up again, any chance you lot would help my side of the argument?" asked Dean jokingly.
"We could try, though since I don't know anything about Quidditch, my arguments would likely be a bit lacking," said Hermione, smiling.
"Maybe someday we could convince Dumbledore to hold a soccer tournament," suggested Harry, who'd been finding the conversation rather amusing..
"It'd have to be mandatory for it to work," murmured Neville.
At the idea of Ron Weasley, and quite a few others who would undoubtably protest- such as Percy Weasley and Draco Malfoy- the lot of them burst into laughter. They got quite a few odd glances for that- but at least it interrupted the Quidditch discussion that had been taking place on the other side of the room.
"Potter."
"That was my last name in life, yes."
"Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter. What are you doing in this class?"
"Last I checked, Severus Snape, you have no authority over me, nor was I ever sorted into Gryffindor. Neville mentioned he'd been having some trouble with potions, so I decided to hang around and see if I could reduce the amount of cauldrons being destroyed, since you cannot spend all class tutoring him."
"Fine. However, as it wouldn't be fair for Mr. Longbottom to have an advantage over the rest of the class, your tutelage will be instead of his working with a partner."
Neville nodded numbly.
"I have no problem with that, Professor. I'm sure the added challenge will only help him learn."
Snape nodded grudgingly.
"Get to work!"
The potions class, much to the surprise of most, went smoother than usual. Harry, who'd gone over the theory with Hermione already, instructed the clumsy boy on when to add which ingredients, and discussed the various properties of the herbs in it, which made more sense to Neville than the rest. Neville almost always still put things in at not quite the right time, but the main problem was that he would put in a bit more or less of the ingredients than he was supposed to. Once he bumped a jar over so that half its contents fell into the cauldron. Harry managed to tell him what ingredients to put in more of to stabilize it. The potion was still mediocre at best, but was not, at least a complete catastrophe.
The flying lessons, as Harry found out later, did not go very well. Neville Longbottom had fallen off his broom, and ended up with a broken wrist. Hermione had apparently managed pretty well, however.
"The flying part was actually pretty fun," Hermione admitted to him that evening, "though it made me rather nervous. I don't think I'll mind it after a bit more practice, but I doubt I'll ever be secure enough to try and play games at the same time."
At least the start of flying lessons had stopped the constant bragging and story exchange about flying experiences. The Halloween feast soon became the main topic of conversation.
Upon entering the Great Hall, Harry found that it had been decorated rather uniquely for the occasion. Live bats fluttered around the hall, causing the candle light to waver eerily.
Pansy was gossiping delightedly to Millicent Bulstrode and ljk that 'Granger' was sobbing in the girl's bathroom. Harry had other things to worry about at the moment. Quirrel was missing from the head table. Harry, who was observing the hall from a seat by the Baron, was about to go look for him when he burst into the hall.
"Troll- in the dungeons- thought you ought to know."
He promptly sank to the floor in what appeared to be a dead faint.
It took several firecrackers- purple firecrackers- exploding from Dumbledore's wand to stem the chaos that followed.
"Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Crowds of students were jostling to exit the hall.
"Baron," Harry whispered sharply, "I'll cover Quirrel. Send Peeves to tell the twins about Hermione."
The Baron was not arguing, for once. Cold silver eyes held only strategy instead of their usual smirking, cynical humor. He nodded.
"I'm heading to the third-floor corridor. I'll inform Peeves on the way."
Quirrel, Harry was soon entirely sure, had set up the whole thing. As soon as the students and other teachers had swept out of the hall, he got up and left, heading for the third floor.
Harry followed. As it turned out, Snape had also gone to head off Quirrel. His leg was injured by the time he confronted Quirrel in front of the corridor entrance. Satisfied that Snape had both eyes on the man, and that the Baron was also there to keep an eye out, and could fill him in later, he turned towards the girls bathroom, hoping the Weasley twins would have made it there by now.
He found, upon reaching his destination, that he was out of luck.
The troll had Hermione trapped, the stall she'd tried to hide in completely smashed. He arrived just in time to see the thing lift her up with the ease of a child lifting a doll, and fling her against the wall.
Forcing herself on to her feet shakily, she attempted to escape, but it took no genius to see that she wouldn't make it out of the way in time.
He had no time to try and figure out how he might use the basic charms, or transfiguration he'd learned with so much effort in order to keep up with his year-mates. He threw himself forward, grabbing her, and floating her up, and out of the way of its next blow.
She felt his arms around her, and saw his face, right before she finally collapsed from the damage of the previous blow, and everything went black.
A/N: Hmm...
So, what'd d'ya think is going to happent to 'Mione? Death, perminant injury, full recovery... do you care?
I admit, I can't promise that the next chap will be up next week. It's towards the end of my school year, and things are getting rather hectic. On the brightside, only three more weeks of classes! Hopefully updates will even out come summer.
And, of course, thanks to all my reviewers:
Linker27-Snape doesn't appreciate Harry's presence because he of all people has a lot of things that he links with Harry. Harry at the moment is a bit like an echo from the past. Snape has associations of him with memories of torment from James, and of the war, and therefore his memories of being a deatheater, especially because of the scar. Most people are a bit uncomfortable in his presence, and Snape has multiple reasons to find his presence distracting. He's hardly about to explain that to Harry and ask him to leave reasonably, of course, as that would be admitting weakness, both to Harry and to himself. Er, did that make any sense?
FairyBlue- This chap have enough action for you?
Isis's Rose-Will there be character death? Well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see...
japanese-jew- I'm afraid they can't do anything about his tangibility. The twins are only third years.
MerlinHalliwell- Some of your guesses are good. I covered where he sleeps quite clearly, however.
Kaaera- grins. Glad it amused you.
Thestrals- Although he may not be ahead on magic in anything but the obviously mentioned ones, he has a few traits that will be of advantage. If you haven't picked up on them though, I'm not telling... Don't worry, everything isn't going to be luck or fate.
shion20- There have been several incidents where I've had him appear right next to a wall, which would make it look like he'd floated through. It isn't a perfect technique, but it isn't my intention to make his disguise perfect...
Baranwyn- You think that if I sort him, I'd put him into Gryffindor? blinks. I seem to be even more unpredictable than I thought...
GoddessMoonLady- Snape can be a bastard, I'd agree. But we love him anyway... The comedy does seem to balence it out. I didn't add it for that purpose, though. I just get the basic plot line in my head, sit down, and write... shrugs. I seem to be managing to add lots of forshadowing with barely any planning, which I'm very proud of. : )
Yzliose- I'll show something with Peeves eventually... whenever I get around to it, and it fits with my evil plots.
Fate- People have been removed for notes to reviewers? Well, hopefully they won't care since they're at the end of the chap...
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