Harry Potter and the Emerald Raindrop

AkashaWinters

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the Harry Potter world. JK Rowling owns the Harry Potterverse anyone who doesn't know that should be exiled to Mars, I make exceptions only for poor penniless people in remote corners of third world countries, who cannot read and don't have the money to buy the overly priced one – thousand paged books. I make no money from my poor attempt at fanfiction. Also for this page, A necklace of raindrops was written by Joan Aiken, I do not own any of the rights etc.

Chapter 12

Mr. Petasus

Mr. Petasus was a tall, dark man, who Harry guessed to be in his mid-thirties. He had blue eyes with a small black goatee to match his hair, his right ear sported a small gold stud and he wore a long close-fitting, well-worn, traditional black coat with trousers to match. Harry also caught a glimpse of a black shirt under his midnight blue waistcoat, which looked by far his newest item of clothing, obviously bought to make an impression. To finish the look, a once-expensive velvet top hat had been placed on top of his neatly cropped hair and his right-hand clutched an elegant cane.

He gave a small bow at the scattered applause that had broken out amongst the many mutterings, his eyes sweeping the four tables assessing the students who had the daring to applaud, his eyes met Harry's and Harry gave a small smile and was pleased to see the man gave a nod of recognition back. Finally, Mr. Petasus took his place again and the headmaster called for silence once more.

"On a more serious note, I am sure I do not need to remind anyone of the seriousness of the situation the wizarding world is presently in." The headmaster peered over his half-moon glasses as he surveyed the students his eyes resting on the slytherin table as he continued. "Every student here has the full protection of myself the staff and keepers at Hogwarts and is guaranteed safety within her grounds. I therefore ask you not to stray out of her grounds at anytime without a teacher present and remind you that the Forbidden Forest is just that; forbidden." The Headmaster looked at the grimly his eyes loosing some of their sparkle, finally his head turned to where the golden-trio sat and his eyes met Harry's.

"While I say this every year, there are always students who do not take heed of my warning, any student who ventures within the forest may not only find themselves in serious trouble with members of staff, but will be outside the protection of Hogwarts and I can give you no guarantee for your safety." The Headmaster concluded.

"On a final note I would like to add that Hogwarts grounds are currently playing host to a group of travellers. This is to be their home for the foreseeable future and you will treat them with the same respect you treat anyone else within Hogwarts", His eyes rested on the Slytherin table, "if not more." Finally the Headmaster straightened his back, that mysterious twinkle reappearing in his eyes.

"Now I'm sure you're all as hungry as a hippogriff! Tuck in!" Waving his hands towards the tables, Professor Dumbledore took his place as golden plates filled with delicious food filled the tables.

Ron began his ritual grabbing of as much food as possible, while Hermionie told him off for being a pig as Harry filled his own plate with pork pie and potatoes, he truly loved the food at Hogwarts, speaking of which, he really ought to go and see Dobby at some point and ask him where he had gone for his summer. Last year he had somehow visited Disneyland in disguise, the excitement had almost killed him and Ron had spent the next couple of weeks trying to explain to Dobby that Mickey Mouse was just a muggle dressed up in a costume and not a new magical species of giant talking mice. Harry had given up almost immediately, knowing they would be fighting a loosing battle and Ron had soon seen sense and backed down.

Harry moved in his seat and winced slightly as he irritated the cut on his side his hand pressing down on the make-shift cotton bandage wrapped around ribs, he should really get it looked at as soon as the welcoming feast finished, he mused.

"So, what happened?" Dean asked, unable to resist any longer, the rest of the Gryffindors lent forward to listen in. Harry looked up at the questioning looks, what he should tell them. Again, he became away of a pair of onyx eyes boring into his back.

"We saw fire and lots of coloured light in the air." Hermione prompted.

"And large black shapes in the sky!" Neville added, glancing at Harry fearfully.

"I was travelling with the gypsies, we were attacked by Death Eaters" Harry told them; he didn't think the information could do any damage. "Some of the Death Eater were riding some kind of magical creatures, they were like tigers, with purple-black fur and big bat-like wings" Harry screwed his face up in thought. "They also had red eyes and tails like serpents, and talons instead of paws on their back legs."

Neville shuddered. "They sound horrible!"

"Ales Bestia, Winged Beast. One of the darkest creatures of animal creation. They are often known to befriend those of sinister nature and make very loyal pets. Their fierce and dangers, but not especially intelligent. They are also extremely rare." Hermione said, spreading butter over her jacket potato. A round of 'oww's' and 'ahhh's' rouse from the Griffindors around them.

"How many were there Harry?"

"Did anyone get killed?"

"Did you get any Death Eaters?"

"Was You-Know-Who there?"

The constant stream of questions came from the surrounding Griffindors lasted the whole evening, while the other houses listened in to the answers Harry gave. The Slytherin's seemed pleased and Malfoy was openly smirking across at Harry, although he did not seem overly happy at all the attention Harry was receiving.

Eventually the conversation turned to the rest of the summers events and Harry told Ron and Hermione all about his summer with the gypsies and his trip to Scotland (he decided to leave out certain conversations he'd had with Jacob along with the love skrying incident), and they filled him in on the meetings he'd missed and Snape's "hissy fit", as Ron had called it. Harry groaned, Dumbledore hadn't been joking when he said that Snape hadn't appreciated his current artistic abilities, it was highly unfair, it had been Jacob who'd disfigured Snape's picture, not him!

Chapter 13…? We enter the second part of my story, life at Hogwarts, this should get more interesting and I know the slash is going Very slowly for those of you reading for this, but I wanted to make this a long story and really get into it, Harry will start to look towards his Professor and more action from the Death Eaters will be about. Thanks for reading!

My special thanks goes to:

eyeinthesky ()….thanks for you review!