All Original HP characters are property of JK. Rowling.
Note: The Professor is based on an older..friend. He's not THAT old..I just exaggerate the oldness in the story. :P
Oh, and the SKAR thing is based partially on an inside joke. I think I have something about it in my other stories posted on this site. ..Okay, enough talking from me. :P
Dearest Harry,
I didn't receive your letter yesterday; under your oath of promising to write me once a day, you'd better PRAY that the owl delivering it got lost on the way over..
Have you been practicing your 'Diffindo' charms? Hermione told me you tried splicing eggs apart and, as a result, had to stay after class to clean the yolks from the ceiling; please practice more, love.
I look forward to hearing from you soon--and by soon I mean right away, young man. Greetings from your Father and baby sister, who miss you dearly. Say hello to Germione and William for me.
Hugs and Kisses,
Mum
P.S. Can't wait to see you on the 24th--I'll be picking you up from the station personally(Germy and Will are welcome to join us. I'll talk to Hermione..)
December 21st
Owlery, 10:21 a.m.
Harry jr. watched the retreating back of a tiny barn owl being weighed down by a large roll of parchment tied to its leg take off into the sun, only turning away from the Owlery window once the owl was out of sight. 'That should hold mum for a few days..' He thought to himself. He certainly didn't have the time to write letters anyway--he had alot on his mind: Quidditch, Homework, Quidditch, Girls, Quidditch..
Harry left the owlery and walked down the hall, letting his mind wander while his feet carried him in no definate direction. 'I wonder..what Will and Germy are doing.' He snorted. '..Rubbish. Why should I care about them? Will practicly betrayed me and Germione? Well...I haven't quite figured that out yet..' Suddenly finding himself standing in the Entrence Hall, it was no surprise to Harry that the subject of his very thoughts was walking right at him--or rather--trying to catch up with another student. A slytherin..
'Zabini..' Harry barely stepped out of Ali's away as she rushed past, with Will following after her. 'You'd think she was trying to get away from him with the way she was practicly jogging..' thought Harry with twisted joy.
Then it dawned on him--A Slytherin and a Gryffindor on friendly terms? Impossible! Harry felt it went deeper than that.. 'She must be using him.' The thought made Harry's blood boil. Of course, using people was only typical for a Slytherin, but Ali Zabini was no ordinary Slytherin. She was a member of the Sly Knockturn Alley Ruffians , a gang notorious for playing dirty. 'Poor bloke didn't even see it comming..' Armed with this bit of information, Harry knew what he had to do..
Defense Against the Dark Arts, 12:00 p.m
Harry felt completely drained by the time DADA rolled around. Though this was his last class of the day (All classes end early in celebration of the Yule Ball), he felt like it was far from over. He looked back at Germione sitting alone in a secluded corner, sleeping of course. If they were still talking, Harry knew, they'd be taking cracks at their eccentric grampa of a professor, who spent most of the class talking about what once was and what once used to be..
Harry then snuck a glance at William Weasley, who took special care of seating himself at the furthest desk possible from Harry's. Harry could only see the side of Will's head, as he was sitting face forward and seemingly paying attention to the Professor's lesson, and desperately wanted to get the attention of his friend. He quickly retrieved a scrap of parchment from his backpack and a feather quill. 'He has to know.' thought Harry, dipping the feather tip into his ink well. 'I have to tell him.'
Will, too, was exhausted and was struggling to keep his mind on the lesson. He watched his DADA professor, a wisened old wizard with a sharp wit and an even sharper tongue, pace slowly infront of the class as he lectured, pushing his steel walker infront of him. Will felt, every time the Professor made his way past, his eyelids droop lower over his pupils. 'C'mon, stay awake!' thought Will, sitting up straighter in his seat. 'Only 45 minutes left and we're through..'
Will watched the professor turn his back to retrieve something from his desk. At that precise moment, a small white object fluttered through the air and landed neatly ontop of Will's closed ink well. Upon closer look, Will realized it was a charmed oragami owl; the owl tucked its wings in and peered up at Will with its paper eyes, then tilted its head at an awkward angle. Will picked it up and unfolded it, glancing around the classroom as he did so. When he was finished, he found a note inside.
Will,
I'm tired of fighten. This whole sitchation is leaven a bloody skar on our friendship. Meet me after class coz I gotta talk to you.
-Harry
Right below the note was a small doodle of stickfigures: a tall, lanky looking one Will assumed to be him, a shorter figure with unruly squiggles for hair and glasses, and the last figure with a giant cloud of hair so big it covered its face. Will snickered at what was supposed to be his sister, not noticing that the DADA professor stopped what he was doing and was slowly making his way towards Will.
"YOU!" Will's head jerked up immediately; the old man stood over him, peering down at him with cold eyes. "Whats that in your hand?"
"Er..Nothing, Professor Doboi." said Will, hastily trying to stuff the parchment into his robes.
The note slipped from his hand and flew directly into Doboi's hand without a spell being uttered. Will watched on as Doboi skimmed through the note with his eyes, then crumpled it up in his wrinkled hand.
"Touching.." the old man spat, before turning to look at Harry from across the room. "And your spelling is atrocious, Potter! Back in my day, young folk knew a thing or two about spelling. We even had classes for it! It was manditory! And quite important if you ask me.."
Will and Harry glanced at each other, aparently thinking the same thing: 'No one asked..'
"Say you're in Potions.." Doboi continued, looking at the class as a whole, "..Creating an antidote for venom from a Fredavrix sting. One wrong misreading of a spell and you could end up with something completely different.."
The entire class was silent. Doboi moved away from Will, mumbling something about ignorant children. 'I got off easy that time..' thought Will, looking quite relieved; he looked back at Harry, who was flashing him a grin and a thumbs up.
"POTTER!" The old man snapped, causing Harry to jump in his seat. "How nice of you to volunteer for my demonstration this afternoon. Get up here, now.."
Harry hesitated, before standing up and walking to the front of the class; Draconisis and a few of his goons snickered from somewhere in the back.
"To demonstrate our topic for this afternoon, class, I'm going to set fire to Young Mr. Potter here.." said Doboi as he reached into his way-too-big-for-him robes to retreive his wand.
"WHAT!" Harry yelped, garnering a few laughs from the class.
"Just what I'd call a joke, foolish child."
Harry relaxed at this.
"The truth is.. I want you to set fire to me, Potter. Just like you were taught earlier this week." said the old professor, setting his walker aside.
Harry stared at Doboi like he was crazier than he already was. "You forget to take your meds, old man?" asked Harry, though he found himself nose to nose with his professor before the question could completely escape his lips.
"Just DO IT! Or might I have to give you a detention? Will that persuade you? Or maybe take off points from Griffyndor? How does 50 TRILLION sound to you?" hissed Doboi.
"But, sir, we don't even HAVE 50 Trillion points.." squeeked Harry.
"No surprise to me. Young people these days.. talking back to their teachers! Why, back in my day.." Harry stood face to face with Doboi for an extra 15 minutes while the professor reminesced on the way things were, before Doboi finally backed away.
"Come now. Cast a fire jinx on me, Potter, or else. I won't hesitate to reprimand you." murmured the old man, standing with his wand loosly hanging from his right hand.
Harry pulled his wand out and pointed it at Doboi, but did not progress from there.
"Did you FORGET already how to do the spell? You worthless little.."
"FLAGRANTIA!"
A circle of fire surrounded Doboi from the floor, shooting up towards the ceiling to create a wall; Harry watched in horror as the flames engulfed his professor, seeing only his distorted figure through the orangy-red flames. The entire class watched, and listened, to the old man writhe and scream in pain.
"PROFESSOR, NO!" screamed Harry, stepping towards the flames.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! " a croak of laughter filled the room; Harry stepped back and watched in wide-eyed amazement as the old man shuffled from the flame, seemingly uninjured. The professor continued to laugh (louder, seeing the expression on Harry's face), coughing and wheezing as well. The entire class applauded.
"B-b-but you were just.. and I just.." Harry studdered, staring at the wall of flames dancing behind Doboi, which gave him an eerie glow.
"Silence, Potter, your only embarassing yourself.." said Doboi before mumuring 'Finite Incantatem', causing the flames to vanish completely.
Harry stood quietly and waited for an explaination.
"FLAME FREEZING JINX!" the professor snapped, looking quite perturbed. "We went over this many times in the last week! Used mostly by witches in the Medieval century who were burned at the stake to remove the effects of the fire! I knew you didn't pay attention, so that's why I pulled you up here! Now go sit down before you make a complete fool of yourself!"
Harry quickly rushed to his seat, quite embarassed. 'Old man likes to play tricks then..' he thought bitterly, sinking low in his seat. 'Well so do I.' Harry looked over at Will, who was grinning at him and flashing him a thumbs up, and grinned right back at him.
"Some of you will be going home for the holidays, so don't forget to practice everything we've done these past couple of weeks. Especially you, Potter. Now get out of here!" bellowed Doboi, dismissing the class. Germione Weasley lifted her head from the desk just as Harry and Will left the room together, talking animatedly.
Germione stretched and yawned, speaking to no one in particular. "What did I miss?"
Gryffindor Common room, 6:34 p.m.
Germione stared up at the ceiling from her lounging position on the couch, dressed in her casual clothes. 'There's always next year..'
"Germy, what are you doing?" Harry stood over Germione, peering down at her. "Why aren't you dressed? Aren't you going?"
Germione let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Nope. I don't even want to go. Not even worth my time.."
Harry gave her a quizical look.
"WHAT?" Germione snapped, pulling herself up into a sitting positon. "It's just some silly ball. No use getting worked up over it.." She paused, glancing down at her hands. "..And no one asked to take me, so.."
Harry sat down next to her, but said nothing. Germione looked up.
"Aren't you going to say something comforting?" she asked, though it seemed like more of a demand to Harry.
"..Am I supposed to?" asked Harry, yelping when Germione replied by slapping him on the arm. Germione frowned, glancing down at Harry's clothes; he wasn't dressed for the ball either.
"You're not going?" aske-..demanded Germione.
"Nope.." replied Harry.
"But..WHAT ABOUT CAITLIN!"
Harry blinked. "It's all taken care of. See-.."
"YOU'RE JUST GOING TO STAND HER UP LIKE THAT?"
"No! I just think.."
"I THOUGHT WE WENT OVER THIS! DO I NEED TO HEX YOU AGAIN!"
"GERMIONE!" Harry snapped, cutting Germy off in mid-rant. "It's all taken care of. ..Dances and..formal..things isn't..really my thing"
"Neither are words." retorted Germy, clearly annoyed with being inturrupted. Someone coughed behind them and they both turned around. Will stood there with his hair combed back, wearing black dress robes, and looking quite uncomfortable with being so..primped up.
"I'm..going now. Just wanted to say good night. ..And thanks." He grinned at Harry, who nodded back.
"Have a good time with Cait, mate..and.. I didn't mean for that to rhyme." said Harry as he stood up and began shoving Will out of the portrait hole. "G'night!"
Germione's face went blank. "He's going to the ball? ..Will? WILL is going to the ball? And I'm not?"
"Yes. ..To all inquiries." said Harry jokingly, dropping onto the couch again. Germione immedately latched onto his arm.
"Let's go to the ball, Harry!"
Harry chortled. "Right. But one problem, Germy..neither of us are in our fourth year, so we won't be able to get in.."
The excitement in Germione's face deflated for about 3 and a half seconds before it sprung up again suddenly. "Fine, no problem! I..think I have an idea!"
...TO BE CONTINUED..