Chapter Eight: New Disturbances

As the days past, 'Padfoot,' the man dog, tried nothing. He slept faithfully at Harry's feet, much to the twins' amusement. Break ended, Harry went back to the Slytherin dungeons, and students spilled back into Hogwarts. Padfoot seemed confused and distressed by the move he was a Gryffindor, wasn't he…and Harry took a few minutes to explain that he'd only been staying in Gryffindor tower for the break, and to instruct the 'dog' to keep an eye out for danger.

Harry was able to truthfully report to Hermione that he'd been studying magic in the hopes of learning skills that might help him should he run into danger. Tracey approved of 'Padfoot' from the first time she saw him growl at Malfoy, a sight which amused her greatly.

Dean brought back what information he'd gotten from his mother about his biological father, a man named Benjy Fenwick (Thomas was his step-father's surname). Harry personally wrote a letter to the ministry inquiring about the man, and received a letter several days later.

Dear Mr. Potter,

The person about whom you inquired, Mr. Fenwick,

was indeed a wizard. We must regretfully inform you

that he was killed by Death Eaters in the war with

Voldemort many years ago. Hopefully the information

is of some assistance.

Sincerely,

Stamford Jorkins,

Ministry of Magic, Department of Records

Dean took the news pretty well, probably because he already had a family. He'd never known his biological father, after all. He thanked Harry for the help, and spent a portion of his free time studying books on the war, sometimes pointing out interesting facts he found to the others. He took time, as well, to owl his mother and inform her, as, he pointed out, she deserved to know.

The days fell into a pattern again, classes, studying, meetings. Harry took advantage of history of magic to practice awareness, and to practice sensing the difference between the sense of ghosts, objects, and classmates, and spent a little time each day walking around outside with his eyes closed, accompanied by Padfoot and Silas.

Things had started to calm down a little at Hogwarts. There had been no attacks for weeks, and students had had time to go home and re-group. Harry still had a sort of distant respect, in some cases tinged with fear, from his fellow slytherins, and they all still had the school's general distrust, but the sense of panic had faded. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the school's next bout of distress stemmed from Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart.

The morning of February fourteenth, Harry found upon arriving for breakfast that the walls of the Great Hall had been covered in paper flowers. Pink paper flowers. Not to mention the heart-shaped confetti falling from the ceiling.

"Who…." muttered Tracey, who had just arrived and sat down by Harry. Then she spotted the obvious perpetrator, who was sitting at the head table in florescent pink robes. "Lockhart. I'm going to kill him. Or better yet, hire the twins to."

"Last I checked, they were pranksters, not assassins," Harry told her, amused.

"Your point being?" she muttered back.

"What's got you so worked up this fine morning?" asked Nott, who had just arrived.

"All this pink!" exclaimed Tracey. "Stupid, fussy, excuse for a holiday."

Nott laughed.

"You can laugh all you want, but I promise you you'll be sick of it by the time the day's over."

"Jokes already gotten old, from where I'm standing," commented Harry, "Lockhart's a complete idiot."

"No kidding," agreed Nott.

Unfortunately, the outlook for the day was about to go from bad to worse. Lockhart stood up and waved for silence. Snape looked extremely pained, and McGonagall was looking rather annoyed. Tracey was glaring mutinously at the pink-clad figure.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all- and it doesn't end here!"

"Damn it!" Tracey muttered.

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs, each of which wore a pair of golden wings and carried a harp.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've every met, the sly old dog!"

Flitwick buried his face in his hands, and Snape was looking murderous.

As soon as people started to clear out of the Great Hall, Tracey walked purposely over to the Gryffindor table and dropped a small bag of galleons in front of the twins.

"Lockhart is an idiot. Do something to him, sometime this year, and make it good."

They looked her for a moment, then grinned. "As the Lady wishes."

"Call me a lady again and I'll hex you."

"Right then, see you around, lady- er, Davis." She glared at Fred, then walked off to rejoin Harry and Theodore on their way to class.

Through most of the day, the students suffered interruptions to their classes by Lockhart's "friendly, card-carrying cupids", much to the annoyance of the Professors. Just after transfiguration, Harry heard one of the things shouting his name.

"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way. It lunged at him. Harry dodged behind a suit of armor and disappeared. He remained floating several feet above the dwarf's head, invisible.

"Where'd he-"

"Petrificus Totalus!" someone shouted, and dwarf fell to the floor. It was, unsurprisingly, Tracey Davis. She walked forward and kicked the thing to the side of the hall, a satisfied smirk on her face. Harry floated down behind the suit of armor, re-appeared, and stepped out into the hall.

"Thanks, Tracey."

"No problem," she replied, still smirking, "no problem at all…."

"You are planning something to do to Lockhart, aren't you?" Tracey asked the twins when they, Harry, Nott, Neville, Hermione, and Dean met in the library after classes.

"Of course," George assured her, "it'll just be a week or two. We have plans."

"I don't see why you want to do anything to him at all," Hermione frowned, "he's just trying to cheer people up-"

"Don't worry Granger; your precious professor will live." Tracey snapped.

"We'd best head to dinner," Harry intervened, rising from his seat. The others followed.

"Oh no," groaned Tracey as they entered the Great Hall to find it still covered in the offending decorations, "Urgh, I hate Valentine's Day."

"That's just because no one would ever want to be your valentine," remarked Pansy Parkinson nastily.

"Haven't you noticed that I'm surrounded by gorgeous guys and you're not?" Tracey retorted. "I'll bet Malfoy didn't even send you a valentine. Not even he likes you."

Parkinson went red in the face, and retreated to go sit down at far side of the Slytherin table.

"Well what'd you know, boys, she didn't argue; apparently you're gorgeous."

"Of course we are," replied Fred, "I'm astounded you didn't realize sooner."

"Either that or Parkinson has atrocious taste in guys," Tracey added.

George snickered.

"Well, see you lot later," Harry waved, and the group split to head to their separate tables for dinner. He couldn't help wondering what the twins had planned, and couldn't help looking forward to finding out.

A/N: Admitably not one of my more serious chapters, but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway… and it seems there'll be at least one more goofy/semi goofy chapter in the near future. The next chapter will be posted next week or when I've gotten thirty reviews, which ever comes first.

Some people wondered about Padfoot following Harry last chapter. Sirius has been known to act rashly, not to mention that in cannon he swung by Magnolia Crescent to see Harry, and came to the quidditch game. Harry reminds him of James, and having spend years in prison reliving old memories and breaking out in order to get some closure with Harry's ghost, I don't think it's all the surprising he was willing to follow Harry upon finding him alive.

Many thanks to:

NamelessHeretic, Sorrowe, MingShun, jbfritz, GoddessMoonLady, The Sleeping Creature, lil-dragon-blue, lord nott, MarauderinglyMagical, hilarydilarydoc, akunamatata, Shadow Lighthawk, steffles24, like whoa, FroBoy, frodobeutlin, ManicReversed, Nights Silhouette, Muhjaa-ness, firmin, thsunami, Lurk, ShadowObscurity, Dnic5, I-Y-T-Y, Katt, Aqua Mage, Manatheron, albert87