Chapter Thirteen…
The Blood Stone - Part 7!
(History Class, Flying, Troll, Oh My.)
15th of September - Hogwarts, History of Magic:
It's been nearly a week since the incident in the potion class and the meeting with Dumbledore, and since then all Potion Classes have been cancelled for a short while. It would seem that Professor McGonagall was able to make the Headmaster and Snape see sense, as the Potion Classes were cancelled for about two weeks, during this time a new classroom would be arranged, and new equipment would be brought in that would keep them safe from any accidents.
News that it was thanks to Harry for this changes, fastly spread, and many thanked him for this, as they seemed to think things would be better from now on. Even a few Slytherins were happy about the changes, seeing that a few of their families didn't teach them potions when they were younger, unlike most of the Slytherins had been taught.
With being at Hogwarts for two weeks now, things were slowly coming together for Harry. Whilst he was rethinking his decision of coming to Hogwarts, a few of the classes like Charms were slowly helping him along in improving his Wandless Magic. It was a shame that Transfiguration and Potions, two of the few classes he was interested in, weren't really helping him. But he hoped that with the changes with Potions, that would be something that would be sorted out. Because of the rules within Hogwarts, he couldn't skip a few years in Transfigurations or hire a Personal Tutor, he couldn't do much. But Professor McGonagall did try and help him and suggested a few books Harry could read to help him out.
DADA though was still the worst class he had, Harry had hoped it would help him find some spells or ideas on how to defend against others with wand magic, or other kinds of magic that is out in the world. But the problem was Quirrell, how the Headmaster hired someone who stammers and fears his class, Harry didn't know what to think. Then again, what else should he suspect when the same Headmaster hired someone like Snape.
During last Friday and the weekend, Harry heard two interesting news, the first was when he, Ember, and Ron visited Hagrid, they learnt that one of the vault at Gringotts had been broken into. Gringotts insisted that nothing had been taken, and that the vault was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. The Goblins wouldn't say how it happened, or what was in the vault.
Harry saw that the date of the break in was the same day that he and Hagrid got Harry's things, he had to wonder if it was the same vault that Hagrid had emptied, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. When Harry tried to ask about it, Hagrid badly denied knowing anything about it, making Harry wonder what it was. Harry wouldn't normally care about this, but the thing is that with the third floor being out of bounds, and the thrift, Harry suspected it was at Hogwarts and so wondered what it could be.
The other piece of news was from Bowser, who informed him that they had been able to make his idea in the form of bracelets. They would be able to create enough for him by Christmas, in which Bowser and the girls had arranged for the Grand Opening of the Abyss. Which made Harry happy, they also informed him that they wanted to talk to him about some ideas that they wanted to talk to him about, when he got back at Christmas.
At the start of the week, Harry and his friends found out that anyone who was interested in learning to fly on brooms, would be able to do so on that Thursday coming. Harry wasn't really interested in the idea of fly on brooms, but Ron, Ember, Tony and Hermione were, so Harry put his name down too. Not only to back up his friends, but also he wanted to see what the interest in flying on brooms was all about.
It was the day of his first flying class, and it was still a few hours away, for he was sitting in class waiting for his History of Magic to begin. He didn't have to wait for long when Professor Helling entered the classroom room and stood behind her desk and said, "Greetings class, as you know in our last week we began to work on your projects that you'll soon step forward and give your thoughts about." Helling told the class, "But today though, we'll begin to cover about the Goblin Wars. Today's class well be about the similarities between Goblin Wars and the wars against recent Dark Lords today. But before we start let's see by show of hands, how many of you think that Wizards/Witches are more powerful than Goblins."
Here most of the Half-Bloods and Purebloods that Harry knew of within his first year had their hands up, only a few including himself, Ember and Hermione didn't have their hands up. Once the hands were down, Helling said thoughtfully as she walked around the class, "Hmm, that's interesting to see. Now let's see, Mr. Potter, why didn't you put your hand up?"
"Well I did ome research on them, as I wanted to know the race that I'm dealing with, and who is handling my money." Harry explained to the History Professor, "And what I found out about them, the Muggle saying of don't judge a book by its cover, comes to mind. If they really wanted to, they could easily defeat most of the Wand Users."
"How? they don't have magic. And they don't have wands." asked a girl by the name of Lavender Brown if Harry remembered rightly.
"That's what most people like you to think, but answer me this: why are there so many Goblin Wars with the Wizarding World?" asked Harry, "Think about the Mystics, they don't use wands normally, so why do you think that magical creatures like the Goblins need a wand too? They have their own kind of magic, and focus, they fight to have the same equal rights that we have in our world. They are one of the most intelligent and powerful magical creatures in our world today."
"Five points for the basic exemption of the Goblins Mr. Potter," Professor Helling told Harry, "as Mr. Potter just said, Goblins or intelligent and powerful magical creatures. For the last few hundred years, they are mostly known for running most of the wizarding banks there are. The most widespread one would be the British Gringotts, followed by the American Binnings. The relations between wizards and goblins hasn't always been this peaceful."
Helling then pointed her wand to the board and an animated war scene was played for a few minutes. And once the animation of the war played out, she went on to say, "Wizards and Goblins have fought hard over the centuries to come to the status quo as we know it today. Unlike other magical races, the Goblins are a race of warriors and they take pride in this aspect of their culture. This has been proven the hard way to Wizards all over the world. They massively underestimated their opponents and their determination to fight for their freedom and their rights."
Hermione then raised her hand, and when Professor Helling acknowledged her, Hermione asked, "So has the problems between the Wizarding World and the Goblins been solved?"
"Although many would like you to think so, no the problems between the two races have not been solved," the History Professor explained to the young girl, "it would be wrong to say that all the problems between Wizards and Goblins have been solved, they aren't, but the two races get along with each other for the moment at least. And as long as no one is foolish enough and does something to set the Goblins off, I don't see a reason for them to start another rebellion for a very long time, if at all.
"People tend to forget that being different doesn't mean the other one is evil or out to harm you." Professor Helling told the class, "This is a character trait you will find in all human societies, be they Magical or Muggle. The human nature leads to fear of the unknown, and people often fight the unknown because of this fear. Many Dark Lords and Ladies in the past have used this fact for their own gain."
"There has been two Dark Lords that have appeared in Europe during this century, that are good examples of how they used fear to get what they want. The first was Gellert Grindelwald." Here the History Professor waved her wand and a picture of a man in his forties, with golden blond hair and a 'merry, wild' face, "His rise to power was mostly based on the fear of the Wizarding Populace that if the Muggles found out about them, they would return to their practice of witch hunts and burnings. The political situation in central Europe made it even easier for him to succeed in his ambitions. The fascists were singling out people they thought beneath them and in 1939 the German Nazis started World War II. Grindelwald used the fear the war inflicted upon the wizarding population, getting them to believe he had the solution to free them from the muggle terror.
"Nobody knew it at the time, but Grindelwald used the ignorance of the abilities of the Muggles to get rid of political opponents that stood in his way. Many Wizarding Families who protested against his methods suddenly disappeared, many of them to the so called concentration camps or they were killed on sight. Only after his defeat many found out that their leader had given away the locations of his enemies to the Nazis. But the thought that Muggles and Muggleborns were the downfall of the Wizarding World had been rooted in the minds of Wizards and Witches.
"The next was the Dark Lord Voldemort." here many shivered as the History Professor waved her wand and a picture of a man in his sixties, with pale skin with black hair and in black robes. Seeing the shivers from everyone other than Harry and Ember, she said with a sigh, "Five points to everyone who shivered," this shocked the class as she went on to say, "whilst I understand why your parents are scared of him, I can't understand why you lot should be, other than your parent's teachings. I especially can't understand why you Muggleborns are scared of him, until a few months ago you never heard of him so why shiver at his name? He is dead, and can't harm you, and his men haven't been seen in years, so why the fear of them? The only one who should have any fear of Voldemort is Mr. Potter, for what the Dark Lord did to him and his family, but as you can see, he doesn't have any fear of him. Tell us Mr. Potter, why is that?"
"Because Professor, he is either dead as you said, or very weak as some people believe, either way, he can't do me any harm." Harry explained to his Professor and class, "It's not that I'm not scared of him, I would be a fool not to be scared with the things he meant to have done. But it's because I'm not willing to give him that sort of power over me. If I did, like most here, and the people in the Wizarding World, I wouldn't be able to do anything. As the old Muggle saying goes, fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself, so I won't fear the name so that he has no real power over me. But that doesn't mean I'm not scared, I'm just willing to fight not to be scared."
"Very good, ten points to Gryffindor," Professor Helling, "and so you know class, as I told the other classes, I'll be taking five points each time you flinch or shiver at the Dark Lord's name. It is my hope to knock the fear that you have for the name out of you, as it does no good to do so. As Mr. Potter said, it would be foolish not to be scared of the Dark Lord with the things he has done, but to fear him so much that you can't fight him, that is foolish. What if the people who believe that the Dark Lord is still out there but weak, regains his powers? How would you defend yourself from him and his men if you fear them?"
"Isn't it the Aurors job to fight him and his men?" Ron asked his Professor.
"That's partly true," the History Professor admitted, "but the true job is to stop them from doing any more damage. Yes, they fight them, and arrest them, but tell me will you still be around if you can't defend yourself if you're too afraid to defend against them? I'm not saying you'll have to fight against them Mr. Weasley, as you said that is the job of the Aurors, but you can defend yourself until the Aurors arrive. That's the problem in the last war, we all have weapons in our hands by the age of eleven, our wands and we are taught the basic defence spell over the years. If back then we used those spells, and didn't let our fears overcome us, the war wouldn't have lasted as long.
"But there lays the problem though, Voldemort," more shivers happened and the Professor took more points from them, "built his reign on the teachings of Grindelwald. He used an existing scapegoat, Muggles and Muggleborns and gathered his own group of loyal followers, the so called Death Eaters. Those followers hid their identity by wearing black cloaks and frightening white masks."
Here the professor waved her wand to the wall and the beginning of a Death Eater raid was shown. Many of the students' faces were pale seeing it.
"The problem at this time, was that unlike the Dark Lord Grindelwald's time, this time the Wizarding World had a real reason to be scared of Muggleborns, as they formed a new race you could say called the Mystics." Professor Helling explained to the class, "These Mystics used their power in ways that the Wizarding World never thought possible. But that's for another class, which will take place in a few weeks or so."
"Either way though, nobody knew who these Death Eaters really were; not even the other Death Eaters, apart for Voldemort himself, and those in his Inner Circle as they called themselves. Witches and Wizards were afraid of who they could trust anymore. What if their neighbour was with Voldemort? The strategy the Death Eaters used is what the Muggles call the guerrilla warfare. They hit in places and other targets that would hurt the community, create chaos and fear and disappear before the law enforcers appeared. It was a hit and run strategy in the beginning. It got so bad that people feared even speaking the Dark Lord's name and they began calling him 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'.
"This behaviour only helped Voldemort to strengthen his hold over Britain. The Ministry was busy enough trying to keep the things happening from the muggles to really do anything useful against the terrorists. A stroke of luck, it can't be described otherwise, was the downfall of Voldemort.
"While Grindelwald met the end of his power when Albus Dumbledore defeated him in a duel in 1945, Voldemort was defeated by an infant, Harry Potter, who became known as 'The-Boy-Who-Lived.' Whilst there are many theories as to what happened, nobody really knows how he did it or if it was something his parents managed to do before they died. Probably we will never find out as the only one who could tell us what happened was only fifteen months old at the time. But before Voldemort was defeated, he was winning his war. It would have been a matter of time until he would have taken over Britain.
"You may ask why. Well, imagine the following scenario: There is a really powerful wizard and has a group of followers that he controls through greed, fanaticism and fear. This group isn't even that big, from what has been found out after Voldemort's fall he only had about twenty to thirty members of his Inner Circle his most devoted followers, and about a few thousand in the outer circle. They were up against a population of about fifty to seventy thousand. Now normally no Dark Lord would be able to win against such odds. But he nearly did. His followers as well as he were ruthless. They used the three unforgivable curses, the Imperius, Cruciatus and Avada Kedavra every chance they got."
"By the time the war reached its climax the normal Wizards and Witches were so frightened that they ran instead of standing up against the attackers. It didn't help that important members of society agreed with Voldemort's point of view. They supported him in the ambition to make Purebloods rule their society and acknowledge their superiority over Muggleborns, Half-Bloods and of course Muggles. Fear leads to stupidity. While you may be able to explain things to a single person if you have time and is in a secure environment the person will be able to see reason."
"But under pressure the true personality of a person shows. Either they rise through the problem and come out stronger for it or they break. And if a group is put under pressure it is only a question of time until the weakest of them will break and the others follow. This is why in these lessons I'm hoping to change the way you think, as the Muggle saying goes, if you don't learn from the past you're doomed to repeat it, and I'm sure none of you want another Dark Lord like the last one."
"But the big problem that they had in the last war, was that the government did nothing to organize a resistance against Voldemort properly. In the beginning they didn't even realize that there was a problem, as many of the Purebloods were a vital part of the government and thought Voldemort was the solution to the supposed problem of Muggleborns in their society. They got a bad wake up call. When they finally realized that Voldemort was the main problem he had sown the seed of doubt and fear in the hearts of the population.
"He operated from the shadows. He blackmailed who he could and killed those who wouldn't be blackmailed or be controlled by other means. Many of his opponents were members of the Pureblood High Society. This was when most people finally saw the true colours of their supposed saviour. But the breaking into hysteria of the masses was what he was aiming at."
Hermione Granger put her hand up, and when Professor Helling acknowledged her, she asked, "What has this got to do with Goblins Wars?"
"I'm about to get to that Miss Granger," Helling told the young girl, "As I was about to say, what I told you just not happens in Wizarding Societies, but it is the same with Muggles. I tell you this as I believe that Wizards and Muggles aren't that different. Only we have magic and Muggles don't. And because most Muggles don't understand magic they tend to fear it. Like the Wizarding World fear those magical beings, as they can't, or don't want to, understand them, which leads us back to the Goblin Wars.
"The biggest battles, where open hostility between Wizards and Goblins led to massive losses on both sides, were only partly covered up to the Muggles. They suspected something and they reacted with overall tension. It was one of the reasons the open warfare eventually ended. Both sides had too much to lose if the Muggles found out about everything."
From here Professor Helling used the rest of the class to cover some important facts about the Goblin Wars, discussed the reasons behind the battles with his students, gave the most important historical dates and names and opened a discussion what could have been done differently and what lessons the modern wizarding community could learn from the past.
o0OoO0o
With the History Class done, and having some time before the Flying Class started, Harry, Ember and Hermione went to the library to do some of their homework. Ron and Tony went to their room, to do whatever, as they didn't want to do their homework. As they were doing their homework, a girl with long red plaited hair, going down her back, came walking towards them. She had a chubby face, with a few fuggles around her nose. She was with Hannah Abbott, and another boy, who looked was older than the other two. The young man with them was tall and extremely handsome young man with chiselled features, dark hair, and bright grey eyes, and he was well-built and burly.
As the three came to them, Harry asked the three politely, "Can I help you three?"
"I don't know if you know us, but I'm Susan Bones and this is Hannah Abbott," Susan said with a smile, as Hannah hid behind her shyly, "and I wanted to talk about what you did for us, with the Potion Class."
"If you want to thank me, you don't have to," Harry told them, "I only did it as it was unsafe, and the so called Professor just rubbed me the wrong way. And you are Mr?"
"Oh I'm Cedric Diggory, I've been assigned to look after these two girls," Cedric explained to the three Gryffindor's, "and I would like to thank you too, Snape is one of the worst Professors at Hogwarts."
Hermione looked pained at this, she didn't like the fact that the two of them were disrespecting a Professor, but at the same time, she could argue the fact that from everything she saw and heard about Professor Snape, he wasn't that good of a Professor. But she was brought up to respect teachers, not doing so was hard for her, no matter if the teacher was good at their job or not.
Before she could decide what to say about this, her House Mate, possible friend, Harry asked, "Assigned? What do you mean?"
Cedric said with a smile, "Well every student from third year up is assigned to at least one first year for the first few weeks after the Sorting, to show them around, explain the rules, and explain any useful information, like short cuts to classes seeing they have a short time to get to each class."
"Oh that is useful," Ember said shyly, still not used to talking to others, but she was getting better thanks to Harry, "wish we had someone like that. The only one willing to help us out in Gryffindor is our House Ghost."
"I know what you mean," Cedric said sadly, "from what I can find out, Hufflepuff is the only House at Hogwarts that does this. It would seem the other Houses aren't all that bothered about the first years."
"It would seem you are right, more I find out about Hogwarts more I think I was wrong to come here." Harry sighed to himself, as he shocked the people around him by what he said. But he didn't let them think much about this, as he asked, "So are you here only to thank me for making changes to the Potion Class or is there something else you want?"
"Well we mainly want to thank you," admitted Susan, "but I was asked by my father and Aunt Amelia to thank you as well."
"Oh and why is that?" Harry asked out of curiosity.
"My father is on Board of Governors, and for years he has been trying to get rid of Snape, or force him to teach Potions properly." Susan explained to Harry, "But with Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy's father backing him, my father couldn't get any changes. Dumbledore, my father has no real idea why he is protecting Snape for, there are a few rumours but no real info as to why. Malfoy's father and Snape are old friends, and Mr. Malfoy is also on the Board of Governors, he bullies and blackmails the other Governors to do what he wants. And there's no one who can stop him, not even Dumbledore tries and stop him for whatever reasons."
"Well that explains Draco's attitude," Harry said thoughtfully, "with his father on the Board of Governors, he feels he can do whatever he likes, as his father as money and willing to use that to bribe and blackmail people."
"That's about the sum of it," admitted Susan, "but it gets worse. You see not only is Mr. Malfoy on the Board of Governors, he also has the ear of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge."
"Damn so people fear Draco's father because of this." Harry said darkly, and seeing that Hermione didn't correct his language, she was thinking the same thing. Mr. Malfoy had too much power, power he would have liked at some point. "And let me guess, our supreme Headmaster, who has his own political power and favours he earned over the years, has done nothing to change this fact, right?"
The three Hufflepuffs looked at me in shock, maybe surprised they were shocked at how I was talking about Dumbledore. He didn't know which, but Cedric said with a sigh, "Sadly that's right, both my father and Susan's aunt, aren't happy about this at all. Madam Bones comes round my house every so often, and a few times they talk about how Dumbledore could use his power to change things but don't. They also don't like "
"I think that Dumbledore wants to keep the status quo among the Purebloods." Harry said thoughtfully to the Hufflepuffs.
"But Harry, the Headmaster would not do that." Hermione stuck up for the Headmaster, not really surprising to be honest. She hadn't been at the end of his meddling, and so didn't have the need to think about Dumbledore in any other light, other than in a good one.
"Hermione, I know you think he is a good man, and maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but let me ask you this," Harry began to tell his House Mate, "if he has this much power as we know he has, why hasn't he done anything with it? Look at the werewolves of this world, they are treated worse than second class citizens, there are laws stopping them doing many things only because they turn into a monster once a month. Professor Dumbledore has this power to change the minds of the young, making them to see that werewolves aren't all bad, and so making their lives in the future better. Hell, with words alone he could change the laws if he wanted, seeing how many people look up to him. But yet he just stands there and does nothing with the power he has. I know you don't want to think about it, but think, with the political power he has, and how much respect people have for him, he can change lives by just using a few words. So tell me, why doesn't he do so?"
For the first time in her life, Hermione was lost for words, not knowing what to say. Whilst she didn't like how Harry was speaking about their Headmaster, he was right, Professor Dumbledore had great power, power that he could use to change the world, but yet he has done nothing to change the way werewolves and other sentient magical creatures are treated. As she thought about it now, there is a saying that comes to mind, with great power comes great responsibility, and Dumbledore has the responsibility to make things better for people.
She got to thinking, unless Harry told her this, she would most likely not be thinking like this, as she was taught to respect her elders, which she took seriously. But this leads to another thought, there must be a really good reason for why her Headmaster hasn't done anything to help the Wizarding World as she thought he should do. There was so many questions, and for the first time in her life she didn't know where to find the answers to them. Not only that but her beliefs about respecting her elders and those in authority, were coming into question, and all because of a boy she only knew for a few weeks.
Whilst all this was going through Hermione's head, Harry looked at Susan and asked, "So why would your aunt want to thank me for changing the Potion Class?"
"My aunt is the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Susan explained who her aunt was, "which is a combination of police and justice facilities, and is roughly the equivalent to the Home Office of Muggle Britain or the Department of Justice in the United States. There are many departments that she runs, two of the departments are the Hit Wizards and Aurors, both of which needs Wizards and Witches to have passed their NEWTs in Potions, are at an all time low. But since Snape begun teaching eleven years ago, not only are Hit Wizards and Aurors at an all time low, but the enrolment into jobs that needs Potions have slowly degraded. But she hopes that with the changes you have forced into action, things will get better in the next few years."
Now Harry was kicking himself, he didn't realize that by forcing Snape to teach properly he might be helping the Law Enforcement to gain new people over the next few years. Which means if his plans for the future come to fruit, it would make possible problems for him. But on the other hand though, to be friends with the niece of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and be in good favour of the said Head, could be good for Harry too if he was careful. Right now he was on a double edged sword, where one wrong move could mean doom to Harry's plans and so many problems in the future.
For now though, he would work on Susan and the two people with her, he didn't know if his newly formed plans would work or not, but as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So with a warm smile Harry said, "As I said no thanks are needed, I just did what I had to to learn in a safe environment, and the so called Professor rubbed me the wrong way. But I'm glad that what I did has done some good. Anyway, unless you three have something else you want to ask me, and you're not busy, would you like to join us?"
"Sure we have a free period thanks to Professor Quirrell being off ill today." admitted Susan. To Harry, that wasn't a big of a loss, they could learn more by themselves than they could with Quirrell. Cedric too had a free period, but unlike the girls, he had one because he actually had a free period that afternoon. And so until the three Gryffindors, had their Flying Class, they worked on their homework and talked to the three Hufflepuffs.
o0OoO0o
As Harry, Ember and Hermione got to the inner grounds where the Flying Class was meant to take place, they found Ron and Tony with the rest of the first year Gryffindors who wanting to fly there already. The Slytherins were just arriving, Draco Malfoy looked smirk, as since the notice went up, he kept telling those who would listen how good he was at flying. As Harry looked around, he saw the broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. Frankly, they sounded like your standard shopping cart from a grocery that'd been around for more than a few years.
Before he could go back to his thoughts their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. He had to wonder why someone would want to fly on a broom like this.
"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!' "
"UP!" Everyone shouted.
Harry was shocked to find his broom jumped right into his hand at once, but he saw that it was one of the few that did. Ron's and Draco's were one of the few that did, Tony's, Hermione's and Ember's simply rolled over on the ground, and Harry noticed to his amusement that Neville Longbottom's hadn't moved at all.
From what he heard from some of the older students, brooms, they say that brooms are like some animals out there, they could tell when you were afraid, and if you are afraid of them they wouldn't do as you tell them. Harry noticed that there was a quaver in Neville's voice, one that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground. So he had to wonder why the fool took the class if he didn't like heights? It wasn't like this class was one they had to do unlike the others, this was an optional class.
Walking over to Tony, Ember Hermione and Neville, Neville he would have left alone, but he had a plan that suddenly came to mind. One that would make a point to Neville about family, if he planned out though was another thing, it all depends on what was said next. So with a smile he said, "Guys listen up, I heard from some of the older students that brooms are like animals that you can train." The four of them, and those around them, looked at him strangely so he explained his reasoning. "They are able to sense when their trainers are afraid of them, and so they don't do anything. Try and be more confident."
Nodding, the four of them held their hand out and a bit more confidently, they both said, "Up!" The broom shook for a moment or two before they flew into their hands. His fellow Gryffindor's smiled at him, "Thanks Harry." And seeing that it worked for them, the others around them did the same, and had the same results, although a few had to do it a few more time before they did.
Harry sighed as he got back to his place, it would seem his plan for Neville didn't work out as he hoped, but then again it was a weak plan, so the chances of it working was low. So it wasn't a big of a deal, and it wasn't like it was something important for his main plans. He just wanted to show Neville up, and teach him about what family meant.
Anyway, once everyone got their brooms into their hands, Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry exchanged smirks with Ron when she had to correct Malfoy twice, who'd been bragging about flying brooms for years.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." Madam Hooch instructed. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle; three, two-"
Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.
"Come back, boy!" She shouted, but Harry doubted Neville could hear her over the sound of his own terrified screams and he corkscrewed upwards. It was barely a few second before his grip loosened and he plummeted towards the ground.
A thud and a nasty crack was heard, causing the gathered students to wince. Neville's broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Neville himself was unmoving, face down in the grass.
Madam Hooch rushed over to examine him, casting a spell that caused the boy to wake up before she picked him up.
"Broken wrist I suspect." She muttered as she looked him over. "Come on, boy, it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you are to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."
Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.
No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter. "Did you see his face, the great lump?"
The other Slytherins joined in, although Harry spotted a few of them in the back keeping to themselves didn't, Harry felt he should keep an eye on these lot. Maybe he could become allies with them, only time will tell.
"Shut up, Malfoy." Snapped Parvati.
"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" Pansy taunted. "Never thought you'd like fat little cry babies, Parvati."
"Look at what the fool dropped…" Malfoy said with a smirk as his eyes locked on the Remembrall lying on the ground. Harry remembered Longbottom getting it that morning, whilst he was okay in class, Longbottom had a bad memory with a few things, and so his Gran sent him something to help him remember. From what Longbottom told Harry, a Remembrall would grow red if he forgot something, but unlike the old Remembralls that are out there, this one would have a short message as to what he had forgotten… the new Remembralls were made by a Mystic. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's Gran sent him." He was going to have some fun with it and try and bait the Gryffindor's with it, so with luck they would fight him and so he could get them in trouble. All he had to do was grab it and-
Before Malfoy he could even implement his plan, Harry Potter wordlessly picked up the glittery crystal ball and pocketed it. Harry wouldn't normally would have done this, but two things came to mind, one he didn't want to give Malfoy his way, and two this might help him with his old plan with Longbottom, showing him what a family was meant to be like.
Malfoy absently heard Harry give a reply of, "Oh, thanks Malfoy, Neville probably wants this back." As he did so. Malfoy couldn't tell if the boy was mocking him or not, distracted as he was by his scheme shattering before it could even form; he couldn't even accuse the other boy of stealing it. Well, he could, but even he knew that was stupid; he was Harry Potter, and a fellow Gryffindor on top of that, and Gryff's didn't steal from each other, that was more of a Slytherin and sometimes Ravenclaw thing. Draco seethed as his scheme was ruined before it could even happen. How dare Potter interfere like that and walk away like he didn't even know what he'd done!
Harry didn't care if the Remembrall was broken or not, but two things came to mind, one he didn't want to give Malfoy his way, and two this might help him with his his old plan with Longbottom, showing him what a family was meant to be like, and it would look better to return it undamaged. So Harry grabbed it and slipped it into his pocket as the students started gathering into groups and chatting.
They spent the next fifteen to thirty minutes chatting, Harry drifting from group to group, seeing how the students reacted. He only tried a group of Slytherins once, but apparently he picked the wrong group - one that was close to Malfoy, or at least similar beliefs, and was glared at until he left. Speaking of glares, Malfoy himself had spent the entire quarter hour glaring and pouting like a child; Harry had no idea why, and his clueless expression only seemed to set the blond off further.
Harry still couldn't believe that Malfoy had wound up in the House of Cunning. So far from what he'd seen, Malfoy had yet to show any sort of cunning, or even a hint of subtlety. What's worse, if things didn't go his way he would threaten the other person with going to his father. Harry suspected his father was the only reason he hadn't been eaten alive by what was no doubt a very fragile social hierarchy within Slytherin.
Once Madam Hooch returned she informed them that Neville's wrist was broken like she suspected, but he should be fine in a few hours. Harry heard Malfoy mutter that it was a shame, and he'd hoped that it was worse. Whilst on the outside Harry had to suppress the urge to hurt the boy, on the inside he hated to agree with Malfoy. For this he had to suppress the urge chuck a rock at him, for forcing him to agree with him. After she said this, she started the class.
The class went well, Madam Hooch said that Harry was a natural and could be on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team the following year. Harry thanked her for the compliment, but claimed he didn't like flying. Hooch was baffled, but Harry shrugged helplessly and told her that just because he had natural skill (apparently inherited from his dad) it didn't mean he liked the activity. It was a half-truth, really, he loved flying, but after flying on his so long own using a broom felt… uncomfortable? Wrong? Clunky? Just off in general really. He'd have to find time to fly on his own. But he told her he would think about it, which seemed to settle her a bit, happy that he would think about it.
o0OoO0o
31st of October:
It had been about a month and a half since the Flying Class, and things had fallen into a routine for Harry, in the mornings he and Ember would do a few exercises before they did some training in their powers. After which they would get a quick shower in the nearby changing rooms, before going to breakfast and going to class. The classes were getting more advanced, although a few classes like, Transfiguration and Charms, were a bit too slow for Harry. But the Professors would give him extra books to read as long as he helped the other students in learning magic, along with some of the seventh years who wanted to get extra points for their Masteries in the subject they were helping in. Defence was still a joke, and Harry really wished he could hire a personal tutor to teach him, but sadly Quirrell had done nothing to warrant Harry to leave his class.
His other classes kept him interested enough, although Potions wasn't all that fun. Yes it had gotten a lot better, but Snape's hatred for Harry grew because Harry forced the Potion Master to do his job right. So Snape would try and find the smallest of things to dock Harry points, and because Dumbledore was on his side for some strange reason, Harry couldn't do much about it. It was lucky he could make up the points in his other classes.
For outside of his classes, he spent time with Hermione, Ember, Tony, Ron and his new Hufflepuff friends, doing homework, playing chess and other games that they might have, which weren't many. Harry was thinking that when he went home for Christmas he would bring back Muggle games with him, so he would have more things to do in his spare time.
Harry was happy that when he gave Neville's Remembrall back, he was able to make his point across about family to the boy. As when Longbottom asked why Harry would save his Remembrall when the two of them didn't get along, Harry told them that for the next seven years at Hogwarts they are considered family seeing that they were in the same house. And real family, no matter how they feel about each other, should always look out for each other, those who don't. They can't be considered family. This made Longbottom look down in shame, as he realized what Harry was getting at, and since then he stayed away from Harry when he could.
Other than that, the only other thing of interest that happened during this time, was Hermione learning a few home truths about his past, and he learnt a few things about her. Until Hermione came to Hogwarts, and still was, she was known as a smart person who believed in figures of authority to always do the right thing, and was a bit bossy when it came to rules and those who would break them. Because of this, she was alienated and eventually scorned by her peers. It hurt her emotionally, and turned into an endlessly repeating cycle, causing the girl to pull deeper and deeper into her shell and blindly following the only people willing to stand up for her; her parents and teachers. That was until she came to Hogwarts, and with the help of Harry, she was slowly coming out of her shell.
Still, her social isolation did have some benefits; namely, Hermione considered herself to be good at examining people. It was a hobby she used to pass time when her parents had a scheduling error in their dental office, or were running late for one reason or another, and she'd be left at school from anywhere between a few minutes up to half an hour - depending on traffic - and she'd read books and talked to her parents about recognizing signs in people, especially kids her own age.
This lead to the problem of her learning about his past, she had overheard her parents talking about a few children being abused and learning the signs of someone being abused. She even read up about this, and even bookmarked these signs in particular, just in case she was in a similar position and could help, like her parents have done at times.
Hermione admitted that she didn't want to admit to it, as although they knew each other for a short while, she consider him a friend, he was smart, although distrusting, he was loyal to those who had his trust, and was easy to talk to. Sure their friendship had its rough moments, but she felt they were closer for it when they made up a few minutes later. Not to say their spats were common, it was just nice to note that almost all of their uncommon arguments usually ended with one of them better for it.
But the signs were there that he is or used to be abused, and so he was either getting over it or was trying to hide the fact he was being abused. She didn't say she was good at reading people as some could, but she had the basics to read someone, but often could get wrong. But for him, Hermione found he was too mature for his age, and she found it hard to read and it took her far longer than it would anybody else to feel confident in her findings; he seemed to be forcing himself to act a certain way, but what his true nature was she couldn't be sure.
She might be very good, but she was confident he was probably a very meek child though, because of the signs she'd seen. He didn't trust adults, like most children would at his age, and whilst he was careful not to show it, but sometimes slip when he thought others weren't watching, he showed that didn't like being touched or hugged, normally flinching when people surprised him. His knee-jerk reaction was to avoid other people before his mask slipped on and he was back to the extrovert he was pretending to be, there was also the physical evidence.
These ones were harder to see, thanks to his skills to be able to change his looks, but there were a few times since that she meet him, that she saw him with a thinner than normal frame for someone his age - which she found strange as she didn't think anyone would want to look like that if they had they the power to look differently. So whilst this was strange, that alone didn't raise any red flags, but when combined with a few scars in places there should be, and the other tells, it lead to an unpleasant picture. Well, that or he was a very unbalanced individual, but she didn't want to think that way about her first friend.
Harry cursed himself, he thought he was being careful not to show his rule body, and not react so badly to people touching him, which he was slowly getting better, but when it happens by surprise he couldn't always hide it. He knew if he didn't deal with this, Hermione might do something foolish like going to the Professors. So he told her some half-truths, that yes in the past he had problems with his relatives, but once he found out that he could do magic and how to control it, he threatened his relatives to leave him alone and so the problems were sorted. And over time he found a few people he trusted and helped him to heal.
Whilst Hermione didn't like what Harry had to do, she could understand his reasons, she too might use her powers to defend herself like Harry did. She was also glad that Harry was able to find those that he could trust, she feared that without people he trusted, things could have been worse than she could think of.
So when Harry asked not to tell anyone about this, she could understand his reasoning, her parents told her that children that are abused don't want others to learn that they were. They were embarrassed that it happened, and think that they were weak and such, it could make things worse if she told someone when the person didn't want her to. So she agreed not to tell anyone, as long as he visited Madam Pomfrey to make sure there was no lasting problems from the past.
Whilst Harry wasn't happy about talking to the Healer, he had to admit Hermione was right about seeing if he had any lasting problems that the Dursleys might have caused. And he was thankful that he did, as he found that he had some minor malnutrition problems, because of his past, and a few broken bones that didn't get fixed in the past, but nothing too bad and with a few potions he would be fine within a few weeks.
When the Healer asked about why he was like this, he told he was a fussy eater when he was younger, and his family had problems feeding him, and he was always getting hurt whilst playing as he liked to play rough. Harry suspected the Healer didn't believe him, but unless he said otherwise, she couldn't do anything about it.
Either way it was the end of October, and whilst the others excited about the day, as not only do they have a feast at the end of it, it was a day to rejoice, as Lord Voldemort was defeated this day and ended a long war. But for Harry, he never really liked it, he was never allowed to go trick or treat, on this day, but stuck in his cupboard. And when he learnt the truth about his parent's death, he hated the day even more, not wanting to celebrate the day. So it was no surprise why he was annoyed with everyone celebrating the day, and not thinking about him and what this day meant to him.
As it was, they were just finishing off their Charms lesson, and as they were leaving, Ron said to Harry and Ember, as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor. "It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly. She hasn't changed at all…"
What Ron was talking about was Hermione Granger, today's class was to levitate a feather. The class was a bit boring, seeing that he could do something like that wandless - something the small Professor knew and which why he had him help a Seventh Year Hufflepuff, who was helping to get his Mastery, to show the rest how it was done. But the problem was Ron, he was having a few problems with the spell, and was getting very annoyed. By the end of the class he was one of a few people who hadn't made any progress, a Gryffindor boy named Seamus Finnigan was the worst, as he kept setting his feather in flames.
But Ron was having problems with his wand movement and pronunciation of the spell, and when he couldn't get it right, be he (Harry) or the Seventh Year Hufflepuff could go to help him, Hermione helped him out, where the offer of help was slapped back at her face as Ron said, "So if you're so damn clever, you do it." Which Hermione did, being the first to do it, making Ron unhappy.
Before he could think more about this, Harry grunted lightly as someone pushed past him, sending him into the wall. He looked up and saw a glimpse of Hermione, her face red and her eyes watery before she turned the corner.
"I think she heard you." Harry commented with a hard look directed at the redhead.
"So?" Ron said, looking uncomfortable at the look in Harry's intense green eyes. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."
Harry sighed at this, it had been a month since Hermione confronted him about being abused and starting to use potions to help him heal. (Which seemed to help, as his bones had gotten better and from what Madam Pomfrey told him his immune systems were getting better too, along with a few other health problems.) Thanks to this he and Hermione had grown closer, telling each other about their respective childhoods. Harry held back a lot, but Hermione didn't seem to mind when he'd go silent. Harry had also learned about why she'd been so adamant about helping him; her parents finding the abused child and not being able to help him really affected her. The only problem they had was Ron, he didn't like Hermione that much and would try and pick a fight with her often.
"Ron, Ember and I are her friends!" Harry said heatedly, before he turned to Ember and said softly, "Could you go after her please and make sure she is ok Ember?"
"Of course Harry." Ember said with a smile. Ember, thanks to Harry getting closer Hermione had gotten closer, seemed to get better too. Harry wasn't sure what the two talked about, but although she still claimed to Harry, and relied on him, she had become more confident within herself around others.
"You're the only two then." Ron replied flippantly, unsure of what he'd done wrong. "You know no one likes her because of her bossiness."
"Ron, you might be my best friend but at times you really are a jackass." Harry spat, his true personality making an appearance as his act was strained from the sheer gall that Ron was displaying. "It makes it very difficult to be your friend. Now, I want you to apologize to Hermione when we see her in class."
"But -" Ron began, but before he could say more Harry interrupted. "No buts Ron, until you say you're sorry, don't bother talking to me or Ember again. Because until you say you're sorry to Hermione, our friendship is at an end."
o0OoO0o
It was now the end of the day, and Harry and the rest of the school were heading off to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. Harry was a bit worried about Hermione, since the first class, Harry hadn't seen either her nor Ember, not even for the afternoon class. The only thing that stopped Harry fully worrying about Hermione was that Ember was with her. So he could go down to the Feast with peace of mind.
As he went down to the Great Hall with Aneira, he was a bit upset, whilst the teachers knew about his familiar, the Headmaster forbid her going to classes with him. As he said that the Tigran would be a distraction, and should stay in the dorm rooms during class time. Which made bonding with his familiar difficult, the only times he could be with her was in the mornings and after classes. Because of this, Aneira wasn't as strong as she would be should they spent all the time together as they should have.
So whenever the two got together, Aneira would stay as close to Harry as possible, even hissing at anyone who dares get close to them during this time, even at Ember and Hermione. But the two understood the reason, and gave the Tigran the time she needed with her Master. It has only been the last week that Aneira was okay with others being near her Master, and stopped hissing at people, and giving them dagger looks, when they came close. Although, the three had to agree that she did look a bit ill, and so Harry was going to take her to see a vet at Christmas to make sure nothing is wrong with her.
On his way down to the Great Hall for the feast, Harry overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom on the second floor and wanted to be left alone - but young Ember wouldn't leave her until she decided to come down or return to the dorms. Whilst this made Harry a bit more relaxed, knowing everything was ok, he however had to frown as he saw Ron, on the other end of the small group of Gryffindor's making their way into the Great Hall, was completely unaffected by the news, showing no signs of regret.
As they entered the Great Hall, the students saw thousands of live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. It wasn't long before the feast started, as the food suddenly appeared on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
But as Harry was helping himself to some baked potato, Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."
He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. To Harry something felt off about his actions, but his immediate thoughts quickly moved elsewhere, namely, his two follow Gryffindor friends who could be in possible danger.
It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence. "Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" He instructed, sounding surprisingly commanding for a normally so eccentric man. Although Harry did find this stupid, he didn't know how it took Quirrell to get here from the dungeons, all he knew the troll could be outside the doors, or going up the stairs, any of them could be in danger as soon as they left the Great Hall. What is worse, two of the Houses had their dorms down in the dungeons, what kind of person would send children down there knowing the dangers that might be down there?
Percy was in his element. "Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the Troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!" As the first year Gryffindors got together and followed Percy, Harry stared at the older boy in blank amusement. Did he really think orders and organization would keep them safe if a Troll happened to find them? Harry wondered why Percy was made a Prefect, from what he had seen so far, he was a stuck up son of a bitch, who was drunk with power, and didn't think about the real danger that is going on.
Regardless, he followed the ginger Prefect. "How could a Troll even get in?" Harry wondered to himself as he climbed the stairs.
"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid. Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke?" Ron said, apparently having forgotten about the no talking rule.
"No, that's not it." Harry said as he shook his head at his friend's ability to jump to conclusions about people. "Peeves may be many things, but he wouldn't put a student's life in danger."
Harry suddenly jerked as he remembered what he'd realized earlier before Percy made him lose his train of thought. "Hermione, Ember; they don't know about the Troll." Harry said worriedly.
"Who cares." Ron shrugged carelessly, "I'm not going to risk my life for someone I don't like or don't know. If you want to save them, be my guest, but I'm not helping."
Harry didn't say anything, but the glare he gave Ron caused the boy to trip over his feet. When he stood back up, Harry was gone, the raven haired boy had blended with the Hufflepuffs that were passing them and then slipped down a deserted side corridor and hurried off to use the shortcuts that lead to the girls' bathroom on the second floor. Harry had just turned the corner when he heard quick footsteps behind him.
Already on high alert, Harry hid behind a large stone Griffin. Peering around it Harry saw Snape. The man's gait was hurried, and he quickly disappeared from view behind the next corner.
"What's he doing? Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?" Harry whispered to himself. Quietly as possible, he crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.
"He's heading for the third floor." Harry muttered to himself, wondering what the ass of a teacher was doing. But then he smelt something awful; it was a foul stench that reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seemed to clean.
And then he heard it; a low grunting and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. As Harry looked down to the end of a passage to the left, something huge moved toward him. He shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.
It was a horrible sight. At least twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, pointy feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.
The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.
Harry was about to dash off to the girls bathroom where Hermione and Ember were reported to be when he froze as he realized the room the Troll had just entered WAS the girls bathroom. In the same moment, he heard a high pitched scream of fright echo down the halls from the room the Troll had lumbered into.
Harry didn't know how he got to the room so quickly, but he launched himself around the doorway an instant later at a full sprint, only to pause as he saw the Troll with its club hitting Ember's gravity shield, that was protecting the two girls. Without a thought he flicked his wrists and hurled two balls of flame at the creature's hand and face.
Whilst Harry might be magically powerful, incredibly so; seeing he was meant to be Voldemort's equal, because of Fate's little games with the mortals, started with a prophesy of all things this time, could be fulfilled, it didn't mean he had the full power yet. Yes he had trained over the years and was more skilled and more powerful than others, but nature had its way to make sure that a human being didn't overload themselves, so whilst powerful, Harry hadn't got his full power yet.
So the problem becomes with the Troll's hide, which was resistant to magic, but only to a certain degree. The two bursts of fire hit the Trolls right cheek and left hand with a crackling sizzle as the flesh boiled, the magical fire almost ignoring the resistance it met, but not all of it. This made the Troll angrier, causing it to start swinging its club around in anger, destroying the bathroom some more in the process but not harming either of the first years. Seeing this, Harry knew that he had to do something or three of them could be hurt from the debris that was flying about. And so running towards the girls, he summoned a power fire bubble, and the debris was burnt away.
"Ember take Hermione and leave," Harry told his friend, as he used his requip magic and summoned two magical swords that his Sword Master, Syrio Forel, got him, "I'll distract him long enough for you two to leave and I'll follow."
Whilst she didn't like the idea of leaving her friend behind, she knew that he wouldn't suggest this if he had a better plan. So as Harry lowered his fire bubble, he crashed towards the Troll, attacking it with his swords. This give her the time to lower her own bubble and made a run to the doorway, and watched helplessly as hers and Hermione's friend distracted the Troll so they could escape.
With Harry though, he wasn't having much luck, although he was able to make slight cuts into the Troll's skin, all he was doing was making it annoyed. Not wanting to risk much more, he jumped back and resummoned his swords. At this point he clapped his hands together and summoned fire balls in each hand, where he combined both of the fireballs and sent the combined strength towards the Troll's club hand. This time the Troll screamed in pain and dropped the club as the more powerful bolt of fire did far more damage to not just the skin, but also the muscle beneath.
Trolls had a very simple mentality, almost animalistic, and like all animals its first reaction to seeing its hand being lit on fire and being burned was 'Fire Bad!' before trying to get away from it. The next reaction was to find the source of the fire and get rid of it in one way or another.
As the long armed creature turned to look for the source, the Troll quickly spotted Harry, and its instinctive reaction to fire increased as it saw that Harry's hands were covered in flame. It made a run towards the human boy, but a pipe from the stall that it had destroyed earlier, got under its foot and, and not paying attention enough to notice it, the Troll fell over backwards.
Harry grinned in a way that was just a few inches to the left of sane as a shot of adrenaline poured into him. His sense of sanity left him. He hadn't felt this excited in ages, not since he'd committed his last arson and had almost been caught almost a full year ago. His vision was tunnelled as he focused completely on the Troll and he sprinted forward when it fell. Not missing a beat Harry ran up the creature's arm, and putting all his power into a ball of heat growing a condensing in his right palm as he did so. His legs bent and he pushed off of the Troll's massive shoulder, the muscle acting almost like a trampoline.
Time seemed to slow as the Troll's eyes rolled down from where they'd been looking confusedly at the ceiling and saw Harry, or rather, the miniature sun he held in his hand. The beast had barely a moment to utter a shocked, 'Rada?' before the orb was slammed into its nose.
An ear-splitting explosion filled the room, alerting the Professors three corridors away.
Back inside of the bathroom, Harry rolled to a stop, the back of his head hitting the stone wall with a hard thud, where an incredibly wide eyed Hermione and Ember ran back into the bathroom to make sure the boy who saved them was alright. The two girls brain locking up as they tried to handle everything that had just happened. It was probably for the best, if they were in their right mind, they would have heard the unhinged, breathless little giggles, that Harry was releasing as he eyed what remained of the Troll before he broke out into a full blown cackle, but only for a few seconds before he doubled over and started coughing. He'd landed hard on his back, slightly to the side, and his torso burned.
Harry's breath hitched as he tried to sit up higher against the wall. His attention was taken from the pain in his chest and the charred, headless remains of the mountain Troll as Professors Flitwick, McGonagall, Snape - who Harry noticed had a limp - and Dumbledore entered the room, only to freeze as they saw the corpse… or the smell had hit them, Harry wasn't quite sure.
"Mr Potter, Miss. Granger, Miss. Veil, what is going on here!" The Lion's Head of House was the first to get over the shock.
Harry grimaced as he forced himself into a standing position. Hermione tried to answer, but her reply of, "It… he… bwah?" Didn't help much, so Harry took over.
With a boyish grin that he couldn't keep off his face he 'explained'. "Well Professors, as you know Hermione and Ember weren't at any of our classes this afternoon seeing that someone upset Hermione, and Ember was with her to make sure she was okay. When I heard from their roommates where they were, I was planning to find them after the Feast if they didn't show up, but when we heard about the Troll I went looking for her."
"Why didn't you tell one of the Professors or Prefects about her?" Snape asked with a sneer, "Trying to get more attention for yourself I bet, just like your father."
"Oh no sir I wasn't, I thought that seeing that the Troll was in the dungeons, or so as Professor Quirrell told everyone, I thought there was very little risk of facing the beast so I went after my friends. How was I supposed to know that the Troll would come up here?" Harry answered, his voice getting more airy as he spoke, his eyes losing some focus as they wandered, seemingly unable to focus on one thing for long.
Snape grunted, taken off guard by the boy's strange behaviour and almost whimsical speech pattern.
"Now, now, don't be grumpy, I'm sure whatever caused that limp of yours in on the third floor is probably very sorry it had to taste your pale arse." Harry giggled at his joke while Snape fumed, trying to ignore the other Professors suppressing chuckles of their own but also giving him a suspicious looks too. "Found 'Mione and Em in the bathroom, place was smashed to pieces and the Troll was about to attack her. Then stuff happened and here we are." He accounted cheerfully.
Snape ground his teeth and glared impotently at the rapidly nonsensical child, but Dumbledore pushed the man back. The eccentric Headmaster seemed to find it humorous, because his tone held some amusement as he inquired, "Stuff? Don't hold us in suspense my boy, tell us more."
"Oh very well…" Harry ceded magnanimously, trying to be careful what he said, "I entered the bathroom when the Troll had its club attacking Ember's gravity bubble, and I froze a bit in shock, as I was worried my friend would be killed. Lost control of my magic, as the Troll's hand caught fire and he backed away, it got angry and started to swing its club, lost control again and some more fire appeared around the Trolls hand again. The brute dropped its club this time, so I guess it hurt it more. I calmed down a little, just a little, enough to realize the Troll had committed a very grave offence, and very much needed to die. Had to use lot of my power to defend myself, because its head just… exploded. Kpch!" Harry pantomimed an explosion, starting with his fists clenched in front of him before quickly splaying his fingers. He gave a little giggle at his own actions before wincing and moaning, his head lolling to the side. He reached back to feel the back of his head, only to have it come back red.
Flitwick was quick to explain Harry's behaviour. "His magic is depleted; magical exhaustion can make people, hmm… loopy at times. He also has a head injury, so he must have a concussion which doesn't help things, we need to get him to Poppy now."
Dumbledore nodded absently, more focused on Harry's declaration. The twinkle in his eyes dimmed as he declared gravely, "My boy, nothing deserves to die. One mustn't be so flippant about the taking of life."
"That's where we differ in opin… opininy… moral thingies, I guess. Friends are important to me, gotta keep 'em alive; anything that threatens 'em gets to die; simple." Harry said decisively, his voice slurring lightly as his eyes closed. His breathe hitched and his eyes shot back open as Hermione, his words sinking in and snapping her out of her comatose state, slammed into his side, her arms wrapping around his torso tight enough to take the air from his lungs.
"We'll talk later. Miss. Granger, Miss. Veil. And Mr. Potter is in no condition to walk on his own, can you two support him so we can get you three to the infirmary to make sure you are all okay?" McGonagall butted in.
Hermione and Ember nodded into Harry's chest, Harry heard Hermione shaky but determined whisper of, "Always."
Harry smiled, far too out of it to even begin to think about what she'd meant and started walking as she and Ember lead him somewhere, mostly leaning on them. Whilst Ember was okay, Hermione had trouble, but voiced none of it as she followed the Hogwarts Staff, ignoring Harry as he started blaming Ron for everything, and not just getting them both in this situation, but also for completely unrelated things, like why it was so cold in the castle, why it rained so much, and why Quidditch made no bloody sense.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Author's Note: Here ends the seventh part of The Blood Stone Saga, I would like to thank you for reading it, and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. The History class was taken from Forging Destiny by White Angel of Auralon, which I altered a bit to fit my needs, I would like to thank White Angel of Auralon for allowing me to use this part of his story.
I would love to hear any ideas and suggestions you might have. If you don't like the story… don't bother about leaving a hate review… as it doesn't affect me or how I will be writing in the future. Then I'm not interested. If you feel that there needs to be a little improvement, then please point that out to me and any suggestions on how to make the story better. I'm also after ideas for what should happen in the first year, so I hope you'll help me out there.
If you think you can make the story better, and you have time to do so, then let me know and I'll see what you can do in the next chapter. So you know I use Google Doc to write my work, so if you want to help, you need to be able to use Google Doc too. I'm after someone who can add things to the story to make it better, not just spelling and grammar.
I do have an important question to the story, I'm thinking about adding Tonks to Harry's group, and I was wondering about your thoughts about it. But I was wondering what you lot think, and ask how I should do it. I was thinking about having Tonks in her sixth and seventh year, and have Harry meet up with her as he explores the castle. But I would like to ask what you think.
I hope you like how I have added Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, I am now working on trying to add Su Li from Ravenclaw. So if you got any ideas, I would like to hear them…
I have thought long and hard about Tonks, and I've decided that Harry'll meet her whilst she is at Hogwarts, a fifth year Hufflepuff. I know many of you would like it for him to meet her out of Hogwarts, but the problem is that at the moment, he has no reason to meet her nor know about her at the moment. It is easier to have him to meet her at Hogwarts, so that's what I'm going to do.
One last thing, for the new things I need, I'm after a name for a tech item that would keep track of money and other things within the Underground Club, would like ideas of things it could keep track of, and that could block magic. I mentioned this item a few chapters back, but had no name for it. So I hope you can help me with it, as I need it by the next chapter is done - but nothing stupid please.
If possible, I would like to hear any other ideas as to what this item could do, think of it like a tablet, that has many apps on it. What magical apps should this item have, and what can the apps do. I hope you can help me out here.
I'm still looking for ideas for pranks, and I hope you can help with this as I'm wanting a few magical and non-magical ones. Please help me out here, as I'm after some ideas and would like to use some of them soon. I'm now looking for a prank that the Weasley Twins could pull on Harry first, as it'll start off a prank war between the three of them, any ideas please let me know.
I'm still after ideas of how Harry could turn his friends Dark and joining him, instead of using Confundus Charm. Any and all ideas are welcomed.
I was wondering, how would you feel if I brought the three Slytherins who befriend Harry in his second year sooner, within the first year? If you like the idea I'll do it, if not I'll leave it until second year.
I'm still after ideas for how to make this harder for Harry, be it with his underground club, his everyday life and such. So I would like to ask you what sort of problems should Harry run into now? I love to hear what you lot may come up with.
Just a reminder, if I get a flame review and they are guests and aren't helpful I'll be removing them. But if they point out a problem that needs to be fixed, or ideas that I could use to make the story better I'll keep them. I'm not against flame reviews, but only if they are helpful and help me to become a better writer. Otherwise I don't want to know about them. Please consider this when reviewing, as I don't want you to waste your time or mine in useless flame reviews that if not going to be helpful aren't going to be seen.
Either way, I would like to thank you once again for reading and I hope you spare a few minutes to leave a review and let me know what you think of the chapter, and any ideas you might have for the future chapters, and any powers you would like to be used in the story.
Next on Rise of Overlord Vulcan: In the next chapter we have the Grand Opening of the new underground club of Harry's, along with Christmas, and a few other things like finding about Nicolas Flamel. Other than the Grand Opening, I'm going to highlight the things that happens in the next chapter, unless it is important to the story, in which case I'm going put it in detail. I'm hoping that next chapter and the chapter after that will be the last ones for the Blood Stone Saga, so wish me luck.