-Story Disclaimer is at the beginning of Chapter One-

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:Chapter Three: Blackmail

Harry was almost finished with his breakfast. He looked over his class schedule for the day. His first class was Flying with Madame Hooch. Previously, she only taught flying to the first years, but another change that happened this school year was that she now taught an extra class with many seventh years.

The only way you could get into the Flying class is if your grades were decent enough from the year before and that you wouldn't be better off having a study hall.

Harry leaned over to Ron and said, "Maybe we should buy Hermione a present since she's the only reason we did well enough last year to be able to take Flying this year." Ron grinned and nodded because his mouth was currently full of food.

If at any point during the school year your grades started to slip, the head of your House could pull you from Flying and put you in study hall or other classes that concentrate more on the end of year N.E.W.T.s.

When Ron finished eating, the boys grabbed their bags, which had their change of clothes, grabbed their brooms and then walked out of the castle towards the Quidditch Pitch.

As soon as they were on the field, Madame Hooch got their attention.

"Now class, this will be the first year that Flying is taught to Seventh Years! I am also pleased to note that all four Houses are taking this class together. Alright now. One of the things we will be learning is a series of difficult turns and spins on your brooms that Professional Quidditch players use. We will also have mock games and races among other types of flying demonstrations. There will be a gym portion in this class consisting of stretches, exercises, and running. Now, I see everyone is already wearing their work out clothing. Good. I want you to make rows of five people across so we can start some calisthenics and stretches."

The students rushed to get in line. It seemed not many people wanted to be in the front row. Harry and his friends pushed their way near the back.

Madame Hooch clapped her hands loudly. "Alright, first we are going to stretch vertically. Reach as far to the sky as you can. Hold for fifteen seconds.

"Now cross your right leg over your left. Bend down as far as you can without straining."

At this point, Harry noticed a few of the nicely shaped bums in front of him, which were mostly male. He quickly looked down while burying his face in his hands and tried to keep his grin to himself. His immediate thought was, 'Oh Brent, look what you did to me.'

Ron noticed Harry's predicament. With a huge smile on his face he reached over and shoved Harry lightly. But because Harry's legs were crossed, he immediately fell over, causing quite a lot of laughter – mostly on his part.

"Mister Potter, would you like to do extra laps today?" Madame Hooch sternly asked.

"No ma'am!" Harry said as he got to his feet and continued with the stretching.

Almost fifteen minutes later all the students were jogging down the field around a cone that Madame Hooch had set out earlier. As soon as they returned, they took to the air for their first lessons in complex flying.

When class was over, they headed to the showers. Walking there, Harry noticed Malfoy for the first time. Ron also noticed him and said very loudly,

"Oh look, maybe with all these extra flying lessons, Slytherin might have a chance at winning the Cup this year." The Gryffindors and a few other students laughed.

Malfoy just turned around and gave his well–perfected sneer, then turned around and kept walking without comment.

"Wow," Ron said to Harry, "that was a bit odd. Usually he has something smart to say back."

"Who cares." Harry followed.

As they entered the building, the girls walked off towards the female locker room and the guys headed off towards the male locker room.

Everyone felt a little self-conscience because they had never showered with any one outside of their own House before. Plus, they were all trying to shower as fast as they could so they could hurry up and get to their next class.

Harry was washing up when he overheard Blaise Zabini asking Malfoy if he was going to fill out the Quill-Pal form.

"Of course I'm not. Don't be ridiculous. I don't need help making friends or finding a date." Was his reply. Harry and Ron looked at each other and tried not to bust up laughing.

What Harry didn't know was that the pretty blond Slytherin was checking him out from behind.

-o-O-o-

After the Gryffindors made it back to the castle, they immediately rushed down the stairs and into the dungeons.

Their next class was Potions with Professor Snape and the Slytherins. Harry decided that he enjoyed having his Flying class before Potions because it made him feel a bit more relaxed. Thinking back, he wished it could have been like that every year.

When they made it into the classroom, Harry noticed that Hermione had saved him and Ron a seat beside her. They walked over and sat down. Hermione launched into great detail about her first class.

"I am the first Library aide since Madame Pince has been there! I spent the entire morning shelving books, helping people research and look up articles, checking books in and out. Oh! Also, Madame Pince even taught me a couple spells to repair book binds, remove markings, and remove dog-eared creases!"

"That's great, Hermione," Harry assured her, "but I am shocked Madame Pince would ever take on a student aide. She doesn't even like any of us students being in her library, much less handling her precious books."

"Well, Professor Dumbledore had a talk with her," Hermione gushed and leaned over to whisper, "besides, I think she started dating Filch recently, and that seems to have mellowed her out a bit."

"Eww!" Was the response she got from Ron, while Harry just made a disgusted looking face.

When Professor Snape walked in, everyone stopped talking.

"Get out your books and turn to chapter one." He snapped.

-o-O-o-

After Potions class, the rest of the day went fairly smooth for Harry. He and Ron were sitting in the common room after dinner playing Exploding Snap when Hermione walked up to them and dropped a couple of scrolls in front of them.

"Fill them out." She demanded.

"No thanks." Harry retorted while pushing the scrolls out of the way.

"Please Harry, if you don't want to reply to any of your responses, that's okay. But just give it a chance."

Harry looked up at her and said, "Please, Hermione, I really don't want to."

Grinning she replied, "Okay, but don't expect me to help you out with your homework. Oh and if you get pulled from your Flying class because your grades have drastically dropped, don't come crying to me about it."

With that said, Harry and Ron scooped up the scrolls and reached out to take the quills she was holding out. With a victorious smile on her face, she turned around and went to sit on the couch with Ginny. 'Boys,' is all you could hear her say as she shook her head.

-o-O-o-

With the game abruptly finished, Harry and Ron walked over to an empty table to fill out the questionnaires.

"Are you going to fill them both out or just one?" Ron asked.

"I guess both. Who knows what else Hermione would use to blackmail us with." Harry responded.

Harry looked down at the first parchment. It was the one for friendship. He glanced at the questions, which looked easy enough to answer. It took him all of five minutes to fill it out.

Then he moved onto the dating form. This one obviously had more intimate and in-depth questions.

Looking down the lengthy scroll he realized that unlike the friendship quiz, which had a bunch of boxes to check and a few short questions, this questionnaire had many blanks to fill in and huge areas to write out detailed answers. Both of their jaws dropped.

"It's like taking an exam!" Ron shouted.

"This is insane," Harry choked, "at this point, doing homework would take less time."

Glancing at the scroll, Harry read the top ten questions aloud.

"Self-esteem: How do you feel about yourself?

Appearance/Attraction: How important is physical attraction?

Entertainment, Sports, and Hobbies: What do you like to do for fun?

Past: How is your past affecting you now?

Communication: How well do you communicate verbally, visually, physically, and telepathically?

Romance: What does romance mean to you and how important is it?

Commitment and Trust: What do you want out of a relationship now?

Future: How do you see yourself in the future?

Family: What is your relationship with your family like?

Vacations: Describe your ideal vacation.

…and then even more questions about values, ethics, having children, friendships… and on and on!" Harry said disbelievingly.

Ron looked up from the parchment and glared at Hermione, who pretended not to notice.

"This has to be a joke… I mean, people actually filled this out on their own free will?" Harry spewed, "Some of these questions, even I don't know the answer to."

But they started filling them out knowing that Hermione probably wouldn't let them go to sleep until they were finished.

Quite some time later, the two tired boys dropped all four quizzes into the box and practically crawled up the stairs to get ready for bed.

-o-O-o-

The following morning at breakfast, Professor Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement.

"Good morning students. I wanted to tell you that by Friday, your Quill-Pal mailboxes will be set up and you will each be assigned one. You will receive your letters and mailing information after supper on that same day. This is due to the fact that you should be receiving approximately eleven letters at first. I hope each of you finds at least one new friend through this exciting new program." Dumbledore gently nodded his head and sat back down.

-o-O-o-

That following Friday, sure enough, there were small mailboxes set up inside each of the House dorm rooms. Everyone was excited to check their mailboxes before they went down to breakfast, but they didn't know which box was theirs.

Entering the Great Hall was a chore. There was loud talking and even more moving around than usual. Most of the students were overly excited about the first letters being delivered that day.

The classes flew by and dinner time proved to be the fastest Harry had ever seen people eat and leave. Harry and Ron refused to rush upstairs to check their mailboxes – so they took their time eating dinner. After all, Harry had only filled out those forms because of Hermione blackmailing him.

By the time they finished eating, they were the two last students in the Great Hall. Passing through the Fat Lady portrait, the common room was almost empty. Upon entering their dorm room they noticed the blank mailboxes now had each one of their names on them.

Harry went up to his and asked Seamus, "How do I open it?"

"Touch your wand to the box and say your name. I think they have been spelled to know our wands and voices. You are the only one who can reach inside your mailbox. So even if you wanted someone to pick up your mail for you at some point, they physically can't." Seamus said.

"Thanks." Harry said as he touched his wand to his box and stated his name.

The door opened and he took his stack of mail out and walked to his bed.

The first thing he noticed was a small official looking note card which read:

-o-O-o-

Dear Student,

Thank you for participating in the new Quill-Pal program.

I want to give you some basic information.

First, each of the letters you have received today will have a code to reply to.

Each student has many code numbers assigned to them. This way you cannot compare the numbers with any of your friends or try to guess who you are writing to. The owls know all of the different codes and will deliver the mail to the correct person.

Second, I strongly advise you to use a generic-handwriting spell after you start up your correspondence. This way you will not recognize the handwriting of any of your classmates and they can't recognize yours. The answers you gave on the questionnaires have already been spelled by house elves, but they will not be doing this in the future.

Third, please get to know the person through this correspondence before you decide to meet in person. This will hopefully eliminate some problems. I hope you realize that just because your answers might match or are similar, does not mean you two will get along in person.

Again, thank you for participating in this program!

Yours truly,

The Sorting Hat (penned with a Quick-Quotes Quill)

-o-O-o-

Harry tossed the note aside and lifted up the first parchment. It had the top five matches for friendships. It listed the things they had in common, and the few question parts that the quiz had. He briefed over them. Nothing really caught his eye. He was starting to wish he didn't fill out the stupid forms… silently telling himself that he didn't actually have to reply to anyone. Besides, no one would know it was him, Harry Potter, who refused to respond to any of them.

He picked up another parchment. This one had the three girls he most matched up with dating wise. He briefed over some of the answers. Heck, it took forever to fill out the questionnaire the first time. He didn't want to spend hours reading all six replies word for word.

The first girl he was given a grade of matching at 70 percent.

The second girl he was given a grade of 52 percent.

The third was 68 percent.

The responses weren't bad, but nothing had caught his eye yet.

He picked up the last of the responses, which were all from guys.

The first guy he was given a match grade of 75 percent.

The second, he was matched at 85 percent.

And the third, he was matched at 98 percent.

Briefing through the matches, he wondered if the Sorting Hat knew something he didn't. To believe that his best match for any girl in the school was a lousy 70 percent. And the lowest for the three guys was 75.

He glanced at the three guy's responses but only person's answers caught his eye.

Self Esteem/How do you feel about yourself: 'I feel I am at a new place in my life. While I feel good about myself, I am starting to wonder if there could be something more.'

How is your Past affecting you now: 'I have been forced to do things and make choices that I would have never chosen for myself in different circumstances. Because of this I feel some what bitter, yet at the same time I am glad to have had those experiences because they make me who I am today.'

What does Romance mean to you: 'Sometimes I feel like I will never find the one who completes me. Yet, I admit I am a fool for wanting to hold hands, feel butterflies in my stomach, and have soft lips pressed against mine. '

Commitment/What do you want out of a relationship now: 'I am tired of random dating and would love to find something more than the meaningless encounters I have been having.'

Family/How is your relationship with them: 'I have been taken care of with food, clothing, shelter. Emotionally… not so much.'

-o-O-o-

And so on. It was almost as if Harry had received his own questionnaire back. It wasn't word for word what he answered, but pretty close. He almost felt an immediate connection with this person. Harry reread the answers and decided that he just might respond to this one.

-o-O-o-

Many floors below him, the Slytherin Common Room was quieter than usual. Draco Malfoy was lying on the couch with his back up against the side arm.

"Where is everyone, Pansy?" Draco asked.

"Probably reading their mail." She answered with a grin on her face.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well let's just say that you should check your mailbox too."

"Why, I haven't filled out any of the forms. I think this Quill-Pal thing is a bit on the silly side."

Pansy's grin started to falter, and Draco started to suspect something.

"What did you do?" He asked her.

"Um. Well, I kind of filled out your form for you."

He opened his mouth to tell Pansy off, but then quickly closed it. He thought for a few moments and then said, "Well I'm sure it doesn't matter. As soon as the Sorting Hat realized it wasn't me filling it out, he probably trashed it."

Pansy then had an evil smirk on her face and replied, "Well, I did include a note in with your questionnaire that explained that I was filling it out for you because you are too stubborn and have too much pride. I also mentioned that all the answers I gave were ones that suited you and that the Sorting Hat should realize it once he read them. And lastly, I explained that it was up to him whether or not he wanted to include you in the program – but I sincerely hoped he would."

Draco sat up and almost pushed Pansy off the couch.

"You stupid girl," he spat, "why would you do that?"

"Obviously because you are too stubborn and needed a little push." She responded while shoving back at Draco, "I am going to my room to read my responses now, I suggest you do the same since you now have nothing better to do." And she walked off, but not before she threw a victorious smile over her shoulder at Draco.

-end of chapter-

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Author's Note One: Doing research to find some good questions for the relationship questionnaire – I finally found the ones I used above from a site selling a book called Intellectual Foreplay: Questions for Lovers and Lovers-to-Be. There were many more questions, but I didn't want to list them all. Actually, the ten I listed were probably too many.

Author's Note Two: A quick thanks to my friend Mace, who actually works at a library and was able to help me give Hermione's brief description of what she does as an aide for Madame Pince.