o0o Chapter Nine o0o
Harry had spent the last five minutes trying to wake up his best friend. Finally giving up on all politeness, he rolled Ron right out of bed, only saying, "Hermione's waiting," before going back to his own bed and gathering his things. It was finally Saturday, and Harry couldn't be more thankful. After his first two weeks back at Hogwarts, he was already drowning in work.
Around three minutes later, Ron was ready. He was slightly disheveled looking due to the fact that he had only gotten up minutes ago, and the hastiness in which he had gotten ready. But he was indeed ready and that's what mattered. When they got down to the common room, Hermione wasn't even there. When Ron suggested that they'd made it to the common room before her, Harry almost laughed, and just started his way to the Great Hall, Ron in tow.
It was there that they did indeed find Hermione eating breakfast with a slight scowl, which matched the voice she soon greeted the pair with, "Why does it take you that long to get ready? I've been here for ten minutes."
"I was tired," Ron testified.
"I was getting him up," Harry defended.
"Ron, what kind of excuse is that? You know you're going to have to wake up, why drag out the inevitable and waste your own time?"
"I was tired," Ron repeated, groggily and grumpily as ever.
Hermione responded with a sigh and continued to say something that did make him more awake, but also quite a bit paler, "Well, you better shake it off, Quidditch tryouts are today…. Why do you look so surprised? Harry, it is today, right?"
"Yeah, it is. And Ron, mate, you'll do fine, you're a great Keeper. Remember that and you'll do brilliantly."
"Yeah," he replied weakly.
Ron had previously scooped mounds of food onto his plate, but now only seemed to be able to pick at it all. Soon enough though, breakfast was over and the three Gryffindors headed out to the pitch, along with many other people. Hoards of Gryffindors were streaming towards the same place, Harry even saw some people from other houses there.
He had to turn and look when he heard, "I'm willing to drag you there!" from behind him.
"I have to go practice," he saw Percy saying to a Ravenclaw, most likely the one who had made the previous statement.
"No, you don't, this'll be hilarious. You are coming, plus, you have to take a break."
"I do not need a break, and you said this is tryouts, why do I have to come to tryouts?"
"Normally to try out."
"I am not going to try out."
"Fine, but you're coming to watch with me."
"But why? Why would I watch a bunch of people tryout for a sport I don't even understand?"
"I already told you, it will be hilarious. There will hardly be any skilled people there, it's just a bunch of kids with far fetched fantasies of being on Harry Potter's Quidditch team. Come on."
"No."
"I'm not giving up; I'll argue until you come."
The Ravenclaw stared at Percy for a solid thirty seconds before he gave in with a sigh and allowed himself to be pulled outside by the girl.
The trio looked at each other after that. They had all seen Percy in class, and even after. He didn't talk to people, he didn't make attempts to be friendly, he just kept to himself and stayed quiet except for the rare random comment he would make, which typically made everyone in the room snigger or outright laugh.
And here he was, being dragged outside by a girl from a different house, who didn't even seem to be his age Ron bluntly commented, "Well that was weird."
"Yeah," Harry agreed before leading the way down to the pitch.
Ron progressively got paler as they got closer to their destination. Hermione broke off when they got there and started towards the stands, while Harry and Ron stayed down on the grass. Looking over the crowd of people, Harry found the Ravenclaw girl's words from earlier to be true, there was indeed an absolute mess of people there. Most of the students from other houses were in the stands, but he did see some of them still on the pitch, and they were holding brooms.
Harry could not fathom why they were here; it was utterly stupid. The people from Gryffindor were many and scattered throughout the years, there were people from first to seventh year and everywhere in between. Standing before him were more people than he knew what to do with, he had no idea how he was going to get through all of them.
Once people stopped coming in, Harry knew he had to start. The only problem was that he had no idea what to do.
"Hello!" he attempted, but hardly anyone paid him any mind, or even seemed to hear him. "Quiet!" he yelled over the crowd, and this time they did hear him, turning towards his voice as they did. "Ok, listen up, I'm going to try you out in groups- but first, if you're in any house other than Gryffindor you're going to have to leave."
When no one made any attempt to leave, instead just ducking down to avoid being seen, he had to add a commanding 'now' before any of them actually left.
"Right, well I'm going to try out the Chasers first, so could everyone who wants to try out for chaser please step to the side."
Thankfully, the group did what he instructed them to, and that's how tryouts began. The entire thing lasted for hours. There were groups of hopeless first years, who had clearly never touched a broom before then. Another group was comprised fully of girls who giggled constantly and were hardly able to get on the broom. One group had all run into each other practically as soon as they'd taken off.
It was a thoroughly frustrating event, and most of the people who were there shouldn't have been. The entire thing seemed like a mess, he was yelling the entire time, and even then, there were still groups of people who refused to listen. They weren't too far into tryouts before Harry had gained a sore throat.
By the end of it though, Harry had himself a decent Quidditch team, composed of Chasers - Katie Bell, Demelza Robins, and Ginny Weasley, Beaters - Jimmy Peaks and Richie Coote, and Ron as Keeper. Along with a terrible sore throat, and a grumbling stomach.
After everyone had left, Hermione joined Harry and Ron on the pitch and exclaimed, "You did wonderful Ron!" as soon as she was within earshot.
"I did, didn't I? Did you see that last save? I thought I wasn't going to get it."
"You did brilliant, but now that that mess is over, why don't we go see Hagrid?"
The trio fell silent when they realized what that would mean. For the past weeks they had avoided Hagrid, feeling too guilty to confront him. Last year the three had unanimously agreed that they wouldn't take his class this year. But however useless it was, they still felt bad not going.
"We have to go talk to him though," Harry broke the slowly spanning silence.
With that, they all silently went down to Hagrid's hut, feeling awkward and slightly dreading what they knew was coming. Knocking on Hagrid's door was something Harry had always done with ease, but right now he felt so unsure waiting for the half giant to come to the door.
"Wha'd yeh want?" Hagrid called out gruffly as he opened the door. "Oh, it's you. Potter, what are you doing here?"
"We came to visit, Professor."
"Since when do yeh call me Professor?'"
"Since when do you call me Potter?" Harry shot back, feeling bad but wishing that Hagrid could understand their choice.
"Alright, alright, come in you lot…," he muttered slightly dejectedly as he ushered them in. "Why'd yeh come?" Hagrid said as he slammed a kettle of water onto his stovetop.
"We wanted to talk to you Hagrid, we miss you," Hermione said in an almost pleading voice.
"Yeah righ'."
As soon as they sat down on the couch, Fang came to rest his head on Harry's knee and began drooling on it. Harry looked around and was disgusted to see a giant barrel of thick, white worm looking things flopping around in it.
"We did! We truly wanted to keep taking Care of Magical Creatures, but we couldn't fit it on our schedules," Hermione continued sounding desperate.
"What are those?" Harry tried his hardest to sound interested rather than down right revolted at what he was seeing.
"Oh, those, those are giant grubs, I gotta give 'em to Aragog." Without the slightest hint or sign, Hagrid burst into tears.
"Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed. "Whatever is the matter?"
"It's- it's 'im, it's Aragog, he's dyin' an' I don't know what to do. I've 'ad 'im fer so long, I don' know what I would do if… if he…," he broke off and sobbed.
"Oh Hagrid, is there anything we can do?" Hermione asked, trying to comfort him. As she spoke, Ron was vehemently shaking his head, clearly remembering their encounter with the acromantula years before.
"No, I don' there's anythin' yeh could do, with 'im dyin' the rest o' the tribe is gettin' restless. It'd be too dangerous fer anyone but me ter go there right now." He was now attempting to stop the tears flowing down his face, "But thanks anyway Hermione, that means a lot."
Even though none of them were any bit willing to actually go feed the giant murderous spider, Hagrid seemed to appreciate the sentiment and soon reverted to his normal self. They talked for the entire afternoon, both sides apologizing and explaining, and then just chatting over trivial subjects until Hagrid had to usher them out at dusk.
Harry was starving, even after Hagrid's rock cakes – which he did stop eating after not being able to open his mouth for an entire minute – he still had an empty stomach. Hours of yelling without eating had left him with quite an appetite.
As they were walking into the castle, a person came up behind them, quite unexpectedly. The new kid was just behind them, heading back into Hogwarts, too. Though he looked thoroughly disgruntled and tired, he waved at them cheerily as ever.
As the four students walked into the Great Hall, Professor Slughorn came up to them., "Harry my boy! I was just looking for you," he said. Harry barely caught himself from groaning aloud when he heard this. "I'm hosting a small dinner party tonight, and I wanted to invite you and Ms. Granger there, for a meal in my office with a few of the other students."
"I'm sorry Professor, I can't tonight. I have a detention with Professor Snape." That was the first time Harry had ever been glad to say that. And it would also most likely be the last, as Harry figured.
"Oh, that's too bad, I was counting on you. But Ms. Granger?"
"Um, of course professor," Hermione responded.
"Oh, wonderful! It'll be at eight in my office."
"Right, thank you sir," Hermione replied, sounding uncomfortable.
"Of course, of course," he said, walking off.
After that, the trio sat down and ate dinner while they could, making small talk before heading up towards Gryffindor common room.
Soon enough, Harry had to head down to Snape's classroom for a detention that he was dreading. But when he got there, someone was already in the room, making squelching sounds by shoving their hands in a barrel of… something.
"Potter." Snape drawled as soon as he had stepped into the threshold. The person with his back to Harry turned around, revealing it to be the one and only, Percy Jackson. Harry supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, due to already knowing that the boy had been given detention with Snape for the month, but he had completely forgotten.
A sarcastic grin appeared on Percy's face as he gestured towards the barrels he was standing at with the fake enthusiasm of a salesperson. The only thing keeping Harry from bursting out laughing was the fact that Snape was currently staring him down with his ever-present cold glare and scowl.
"Today, you and Mr. Jackson-" Snape started before 'present' came from said student, and Snape's scowl deepened, "will be sorting out rotten flobberworms."
"Just to be clear, I am not tasting whatever potion you put in these. Rotten or not, I don't see much of a difference, but I am very glad for the hired help. He is hired, right?"
Snape glared Percy down for his rather snarky comment, and walked off through a door into the back portion of his office to do who knows what.
As soon as Harry had joined Percy at the barrels, he wanted to back away from the smell. But instead, he stayed put and started helping his fellow Gryffindor with the task.
"This is slavery," Percy stage whispered besides him. "Forced to work, unpaid, under the cover of a meaningless detention. This is a serious crime. Treason against the school. Against the students. But going on, unpunished." He'd said the entire thing in all seriousness and in the most dramatic voice Harry had ever heard. It took all he had not to burst out laughing at the absolute stupidity of that statement.
For the rest of the detention, Harry and Percy talked and joked around. To the point where when it was over, Harry was actually surprised it had already gone by.
The pair walked back to Gryffindor common room together; or more accurately, they jogged there due to the time Snape had let them out, for fear of getting caught after curfew. Even with a very reasonable explanation behind why they were out, if it were, let's say, Filch who caught them, Harry knew there would be another detention. And there was no way that Snape would defend them.
They did make it to the common room a bit late, but it didn't really matter since they hadn't been caught. Harry immediately went to Ron and Hermione who were by the fire waiting for him. He was a bit disappointed to see Percy go up to the dorms, but nevertheless let him go.
"How was it?" Hermione questioned as he sat down.
"Not nearly as bad as it could be, Percy was there too, and he's actually a pretty cool bloke."
"Oh, so you had fun in detention."
"Oh, come off it Ron!" Hermione exclaimed exasperatedly, clueing Harry in on the fact that this was definitely not a new subject. "I told you about the dinner, it was horrid. Incredibly boring and insanely awkward. If I could, I'd gladly let you take my place there."
"I would have, too. I mean, I said it wasn't terrible, but by all means it wasn't fun. The flobberworms were gross and smelled horrid."
"Yeah, I'm sure you would," Ron grumbled back in response.
"Ron, I do not fancy having to go, I honestly dread it. I've been to one of his little parties before, and they are definitely something you want to miss."
"Sure they are… I'm going to bed."
Harry watched as his best friend stomped up the steps to the dorms and he turned back to Hermione with a questioning look.
"Ron's been like this ever since I got back, he's not taken kindly to being ignored by Slughorn."
"So I see. How was it?"
She sighed before answering, "It was terrible, Ginny was on the other side of the table, I ended up seated next to McLaggen, he's such a pompous idiot. And Slughorn, Slughorn was very annoying, he was talking about his importance and all of his connections, and telling us about the family members he knew of the people there.
"He bragged about how people were doing in his class, which truly turned into him telling us how good he must be at teaching for all of these 'wonderful students' to do so well. I have no idea what Ron wants with this, I told him so multiple times, and very truthfully, I would have gladly switched places with him."
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I think I might have enjoyed my detention with Snape more than you enjoyed a dinner with a teacher."
"Well you at least had someone decent to talk to. And the teacher was Slughorn."
"Doesn't change what I just said. Maybe it's weird circumstances, but how odd is that statement?"
She laughed at that, "It really is strange, I guess. I need a change of topics though; I do not want to have to relive that." Harry chuckled and she continued, "So, um, when do you think your next lesson with Dumbledore will be?"
"I dunno, but I do know that he's going to continue them. We went through a memory last time and I guess we'll do that again, I just don't know which. Last week we went into the pensive and saw Voldemort's grandfather and uncle, I don't really see the relevance of it though."
"Well, it's a pretty famous saying that you must know yourself and your enemy to win a war."
"I understand that, but why did he show me that , it's not like Voldemort is going to quiz me or something, and I'll die if I can't tell him his grandfather's name."
"I don't know why he showed it to you, but there has to be a reason. Dumbledore wouldn't give you special lessons just to show you something unimportant."
"I guess, but I just don't see it. I do hope the next lesson is soon, maybe it'll start to come together after a few."
"Yeah, maybe it will, but in the meantime, I think I'll get a bit more homework done."
"That's probably a good idea. I need to go get my stuff though, I'll join you at a table."
Harry went up to the dorms, and it was too quiet. Neville was reading, Dean and Seamus were whispering to each other, Ron was in his bed, and Percy was doing who knows what in his with the curtains drawn. Harry quickly grabbed his things and went back down to the common room.
He found Hermione at the table in the corner of the Gryffindor common room and sat down in the chair beside her.
-:-:-:-
They did homework for about two hours before retiring for bed. Harry trudged up the steps to his dorm, tired and brain dead, not even bothering to change. He just climbed into his bed and fell asleep.
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\/ PLEASE READ \/
I KNOW IT'S A LOT, BE YOU WILL BE THANKFUL
Keep calm while you read this please. I am taking a break from the story, a very small break and for a few good reasons, so do not be worried. I am probably going to take the rest of December off, the possibilities of me updating are probably the first week of January, or an update somewhere random in December.
This is because I have some stuff I have go to do. Firstly, I am working on a Christmas one shot, which'll be posted on Christmas, so I need a bit of time to write that up. I think I'm also going to write a New Year's one shot too, I don't really have a plan for that yet (the Christmas one has already been started) so if there's anything you want to see tell me, it will be Percy Jackson by the way, both of them. I also am going to help ZriptideZ get her next chapter up (she helped edit my chapter again, so big shout out to her), if you read her story, know that it is not abandoned, it was a temporary interest loss, so coming soon is the next chapter! If you haven't read it, go check it out. And finally, I planning to plan out my story a bit more, I have the outlines, I'm just going to plan the next few chapters in more detail so when it comes to writing them I can start right away.
I hope you understand, and know that this story will be back soon as I've cleared my plate off a bit more.
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That's all you have to read, if you're nice though, you'll stick around. I don't have too much to say on this one to be honest though. I'm sorry for the short chapter but I just could not find more to in it. Also, tell me how I did on the dialogue if you don't mind. I feel like that's a bit of a weak spot for me, and this entire chapter I feel like was talking, talking, talking, so if you have any thoughts on that or anything else, please share them with me. That's all for today, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year, if I don't post again before then, and you don't read the one shots, then at least I've said something. Oh! Also, I wanted to put this in here, I've seen people do this thing where they put songs at the end of chapters, so I want to do something similar. Louis the Child's Playground radio and major shuffling of Artic Monkey's music got me through this chapter. I felt the need to say that, if you know it, review, tell if you feel me. (Oliver Tree is great too; I really want to know if anyone gets that reference...) :) BBB – (12/6/20)
Matt - Whoops, and thanks for catching that. That my dear friend, is showing the annoyingness of this site, and the fact that it is four A.M. here, and I'm far too tired to catch it all. When things are copy and pasted the italics don't transfer, so I have to put that in and scan for it after I copy and paste to know what to italicize.
