Harry could barely focus as he stormed down towards Hagrid's cabin, Ron and Hermione helping Neville and Hannah behind him. They'd run into Neville on his way down from the hospital wing and Harry was still seething about the fact Neville couldn't stop shaking. Hannah at least had managed to calm down enough to stop crying so loudly but she was still silently sobbing into Hermione's side.

Hermione had suggested bringing Hannah and Neville to tea with Hagrid in the hopes it would help calm them down and Harry had silently nodded in agreement, still replaying the events of the class in his head.

With a growl Harry pounded on Hagrid's door perhaps harder then he really needed to and after a moment the door opened, revealing a confused looking Hagrid. "'Arry? What's with th' face? Yeh look angry."

"Well I am angry!" Harry confirmed, silently asking for permission to come in which Hagrid provided. The giant frowned at the sight of the two distressed students and sighed, getting to work making them tea. "I don't understand how that… that… Ugh, how Snape can be employed!"

"We've just come from potions." Hermione explained quietly, rubbing Hannah's back and squeezing Neville's shoulder. "He singled Harry out immediately."

"With no good reason!" Harry added angrily, Ron nodding sagely in agreement nearby. "The lesson had barely even started and he rounds on me the second he reads out my name and accuses me of deliberately getting myself adopted by another family for… what?! Attention!?"

Harry didn't even notice that things had started shaking inside the room.

"Then he just gets worse, accusing me of stealing notes because I know the answers to questions, takes points for it and shoves me with someone he clearly thought would sabotage me!" Harry snarled, a tea cup behind him beginning to float up.

"Harry…" Hermione said warningly but he was too distracted to realize, crossing his arms and dropping into a seat.

"I mean what?! Me and Daphne had completely evenly split the work and along Snape comes and falsely accuses me of pawning off the work and gives me detention?!" Harry growled, eyeing the table in front of him as though willing it to explode. If he were any angrier, it just might have. "And that's not even getting started on his treatment of everyone else! Making Hannah cry?! Scaring Neville?!"

"It's my f-fault…" Neville said quietly. "I m-messed up."

"No Neville." Hermione quietly assured him, squeezing his shoulder. "Professor Snape was the one breathing down your neck and who never helped at all. He never explained how to make the potion and just expected you to do it without having ever done it before without fail. That's not reasonable of any teacher. He's the one in the wrong, not you. Same goes for you Hannah, he has no idea what he's talking about."

"But-"

"You'll do great on your exams, I promise. Just ignore him, he wants to make you fail but he can't if you won't let him."

"Yeah, just ignore the git. He's nothing but a greasy jerk!" Ron added angrily and Hagrid gave him a look.

"Righ' then, tha's a bit much. He's still yer teacher, even if he's…. well, Snape." He said, and Harry gave Hagrid a disbelieving look.

"You're sticking up for him?" He demanded and Hagrid frowned.

"I'm not sayin' he's righ', I'm just saying he's your professor and you got to show him respect as yer teacher."

"I don't have to show him anything." Harry said angrily. "Attend his class, yes. Do as he says, fine. But he's not getting an ounce of my respect until he earns it and that's not happening any time soon.

"Harry-" Hermione began but her brother shook his head, cutting her off.

"No Hermione, you know mum and dad would tell us the same thing. They'd never be okay with Snape, and they'd never tell us to roll over and just show our necks to him." Harry suddenly deflated as he realized something, looking at Hagrid. "You know?"

"Know what?"

"About Snape. How he treats his class? That's normal?" He inquired with a frown and Hagrid nodded.

"Well, his actions agains' you specifically maybe isn't but I reckon he's sour about James Potter's son being in his class." Hagrid said, before stopping. "I… shouldn't of told yeh that."

"What's my dead dad got to do with anything?" Harry frowned and Hagrid shook his head.

"Not my story ta' tell. Yeh'll be better off not worrying abou' it." Hagrid told him, making Harry's frown deepen. "Back to yer first question though, Snape's never pleasant to anyone. S' just how it is."

"That's completely unprofessional, though." Hermione frowned. "How could Dumbledore keep that man on as a teacher if he knows?! Surely he doesn't?!"

"Well he has'ta. I mean, it's Dumbledore. Tha' man knows everything. I reckon he's got his reasons." Hagrid said, clearly uncomfortable with being the one playing devil's advocate. "Either way, yeh can't jus' fire Snape. He's the bes' Potions Master Britain's seen in well over a century at leas'. You'd be doing the infirmary no favours, tha's fer sure."

"So I'm supposed to what, just sit there and take the abuse? We're all supposed to sit there and let a grown man bully us?" Harry demanded angrily, making Hagrid shift even more in his seat.

"Now tha's not wha' I meant…" He said with a frown, looking down at his table. "Dumbledore's choice to keep him on. Way I reckon, not much point in complaining, if Dumbledore wants him then there's got to be a reason."

"I'm sure Dumbledore had a reason for leaving me with the Durlseys as well." Harry bit out before he could stop himself. "That doesn't make it right."

"Harry's right." Hermione frowned. "No reason he can possibly have can be good enough for having someone who bullies his class like that. Anyone who would hire him should be ashamed of themselves!"

Hagrid had no response to that especially as Hannah and Neville had finally calmed down and now just looked sad and confused, while Ron was glaring at Hagrid just as harshly as Hermione. Harry was surprised by Hermione saying such a thing about authority but then again, they had always defended each other. He supposed this was just another form of that, now that involved an adult instead of another person their age.

"Well… I… yeh see…" Hagrid sputtered, trying to find something only for Hermione to shake her head.

"Don't defend him Hagrid. Please. If you know what he's like you know why we're mad." She said and he sighed, slumping in his chair.

"I'm sure Dumbledore 'as his reasons." He repeated, before looking down. "Yeh came here fer tea, not ranting about Snape bein' Snape."

And so they took the tea, Harry's helping calm him down a bit as Hagrid inquired into the rest of their week which was much more enjoyable, as they sipped away and Hannah and Neville slowly started to perk up.

Harry was still annoyed but now the wind was taken out of his sails and more than anything he was just tired. Snape's behaviour couldn't be as well-known as Hagrid claimed, surely?

That kind of thing couldn't be allowed…

With a shake of his head, he made up his mind and when the group eventually left Hagrid's hut, Harry had rushed back to his dormitory to grab some parchment, scribbling a title along the top: 'Professor Snape's Behaviour'.

Surely, just a month or two of this would be enough to have Snape dealt with? He hoped so, because he didn't think he could stand much longer of such a horrible, biased teacher…

A part of him winced internally. A part of his anger was likely also due to the unfair situation Daphne was stuck in, not just Snape's abhorrent behaviour…

However, the more he wrote, the more a part of him wilted. Hagrid had to be wrong that that was just how Snape was. Others couldn't know, surely?

….

He ended up sitting down on his bed and putting the paper away with a groan, unsure what to think now.


Weekends at Hogwarts were certainly interesting to the Granger siblings, as amidst Hermione's insistence on studying more magic (as Harry always knew was coming whenever he asked his sister what she wanted to do for the day), they had discovered there were also a lot of ways to relax and kill time at the castle.

There were the obvious things such as the Exploding Snap card game that Harry had been drawn into a few rounds of against Justin Finch-Fletchley and Gobstones which Harry and Hannah had ended up having a mini-tournament over, where Harry eventually pulled a win from Hannah who took it quite good-naturedly and gave him a liquorice wand she still had left over from her train ride to Hogwarts as his prize.

Between that and genuinely enjoying pouring over his Standard Book of Spells textbook and learning many of the spells he would be learning in his time at Hogwarts, Harry's weekend was a blast compared to the previous Friday that had left him in a funk for most of the day.

Around dinner time that Saturday, the two siblings had an interesting encounter as they headed to the library after leaving the Great Hall to study, only to heart someone as they walked past an empty classroom. "Psst! Harry! Hermione!"

Both siblings paused and shared a look confused before they turned and saw Daphne sticking her head out of the classroom, biting her lower lip and looking around anxiously. She gestured for them to come in and then disappeared inside.

The two hesitated for a moment, sharing confused glances before walking into the room, Harry in front with his sister on his tail. "Daphne? What's wrong?"

They found the Blonde Slytherin sitting at one of the desks and Hermione closed the door behind her, before turning and raising a brow. Daphne stood up and opened her mouth. "i… Harry, I just… Hermione…"

She shook for a moment as her mind was failing her completely before all too suddenly she rushed forward in a blur and threw her arms around their necks, nearly barrelling the adoptive siblings to the ground.

"I'm so sorry!" She shuddered, tightening her grip slightly as her voice wavered. "I'm sorry…."

"Sorry?" Hermione asked, confused. "For…"

"For how I've been acting, for how horrible I've been…" She pulled away and winced. "How horrible I am…."

"You're not horrible." Hermione frowned, immediately disliking where this conversation had headed. "Why would you say that?"

"Because… Because I've been glaring, and not… sticking up for you and letting those stupid purists just talk b-because I'm a coward and… and…" she collapsed back onto a seat and the two siblings shared glances before immediately walking over and kneeling down to be eye level with her. "I'm b-being awful to my…. To you, cause I'm a coward…."

"…Your mother?" Harry guessed, hating the idea that the Slytherin was feeling as bad as she clearly was, based on her shuddering. She nodded and looked at them with sadness and what to Harry looked like no small amount of pain.

"All the ones in our class… all the purebloods… if Malfoy or Parkinson wrote home, they'd tell my mum. They'd… she'd…." She shivered horribly and Hermione hugged her with a frown etched onto her face, sending Harry a meaningful look who nodded.

"We get it. So that's why you have to put on an act?" He asked softly and she nodded. "Because if you don't, you think you're going to get hurt?"

"Y-Yeah… I h-hate this… hate being so… so…" She couldn't finish but they got what she was trying to say.

"That's awful…" Hermione said, voice filled with sadness at the thought. Harry felt a similar lurch of sadness, Daphne didn't deserve that. Didn't deserve to live like he had with the Durlseys. Without support…. Without….

"Daphne, do you still consider us to be your friends?" He asked suddenly and she looked up confused, surprised and perhaps worried. She paused for a moment before nodding.

"Y-Yes… If, if you s-still consider me to be yours then…"

"Then we're still friends." He said simply but firmly, with no room for debate as he stood up and smiled softly. "How about we come back here and eat together tomorrow?"

Daphne looked like she was resisting the urge to burst into tears as she gave him a shocked wobbly smile and nodded fast enough that Harry was worried her head was gonna fall off.

"I'd l-like that."

"Us too." Hermione said kindly and Harry sighed and gave a gentle smile of his own. It wasn't much, but it was a start.


Daphne's friendship wasn't the only matter of friendship that Harry had found himself involved in over the course of the passing month, as he began to bond more and more with Hannah as they stuck together and she usually tagged along to study with him and Hermione most weekdays, the girl quickly becoming a fixture of their study sessions that Harry was quite fond of.

She wasn't quite as academically gifted as Hermione or had as much knowledge forcibly beat into her head like Harry had, but she was a hard worker who didn't let the siblings' strong start deter her from doing her best to catch up to them with their help. She also proved to be a brilliant comedic addition, considering her uncanny ability to always find a way to make the group smile with a joke or a sweet misunderstanding.

Speaking of sweet, she could be just that, unbearably so in fact not that either sibling minded much. Although they did quickly become embarrassed realizing how much the girl seemed to need to mother them when they got too much into studying. It was always Hannah who made them take a break for a drink, or to go to lunch or even to not miss curfew as the duo could often become too absorbed in their research and studying.

As classes went on Harry also quickly found himself getting along with several of his classmates, finding different reasons to be thankful for the people who he was sat beside usually. In Astronomy, Hannah kept up her motherly streak when she wasn't being a tad clumsy herself and accidentally banging against telescopes by keeping Harry awake and alert and fussing over him, making sure he'd go right to bed after the class much to Hermione's delight and amusement.

Ron was hardly what Harry would call the king of transfiguration but he was quite good at keeping Harry from becoming too frustrated in any particularly hard classes until he managed to get a satisfactory result. Meanwhile in Herbology Neville's usual nervous demeanour practically seemed to vanish and he became something of a godsend as Harry's concentration began to waver due to the overpowering scents in the greenhouses. He could still manage quite well but with Neville as his partner it was pretty much a guarantee that regardless of whether the odd effects of the greenhouse won out over him or not he'd still likely manage just fine in the class.

Pretty much all the girls he was sat beside in other classes turned out to be godsends that he was extremely grateful for. His own sister helped him power through the odd flighty feeling he always got in Defense Against the Dark Arts that made him feel shaky and ready to scram. The conversations that Lavender Brown, Lisa Turpin and the Patil twins included him in during History of Magic kept him from being so bored out of his mind that he passed out. Daphne did everything in her power during their lessons to subtly redirect or eliminate Snape's ire. From the little things such as constantly partnering with him and reminding him he had a support, to the big things such as the fact that by the third week she had clearly had enough herself and had the guts to attempt to more obviously make Snape stop by claiming it would affect her own grades if he kept marking Harry as not working at all.

Snape hadn't liked it one bit but thanks to a bit of quick thinking on Daphne's part pointing out how if she stopped partnering with Harry then he'd be with Hermione or Hannah, he had decided to keep them partnered up. Harry was extremely grateful for that, and although it sucked he was also glad Snape's ire mostly focused on Harry as it meant Neville and Hannah didn't suffer too much berating, although Neville still couldn't leave the classroom without shaking.

Perhaps most interestingly however had to be Terry Boot in charms and how Harry and the boy became good friends a lot faster than either really expected. That wasn't to say the two didn't try to be friendly to each other or anything, quite the contrary, it was just neither had exactly been trying to become friends necessarily.

But between several laughs over failed and successful charms, two different occasions where Terry shut down Malfoy who had taken to taunting Harry as a sort of entertainment and one particularly memorable incident where Harry (secretly using his telekinesis) had bodily picked up his partner and pulled him out the way right as Parkinson's enlarging charm backfired and had nearly hit Terry in the head.

Instead it hit a chair which grew so big it collapsed under its own weight, something which left Terry in a bit of a daze considering how easily it could have been his head and he'd left the class a few minutes later with a simple "Thanks, mate" that had seemed to solidify an unexpected friendship between the two boys.

Speaking of charms, friendships weren't the only kind of progress Harry was making in that class, as since the first week he'd come to Flitwick's class every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon for special one on one classes. The goals really were quite simple, as he recalled Flitwick explaining.

"As I've mentioned before, Mister Potter-Granger, your special telekinetic abilities are rather reminiscent of the levitation and summoning charms, although there's clearly more than that to your powers. Still, this similarity does leave one to ponder, if you are capable of one wandless spell in this branch of magic, who is to say you're incapable of other such spells?" He had smiled at Harry and readjusted his seat, making the room clear. "I believe a demonstration of your abilities, an explanation of how it feels to perform and then finally a test is in order. If it all proves fruitful, who knows what you might be capable of without a wand, with all the potential charms quite literally at your fingertips."

The test had been rather simple. Much like the original class, he wanted Harry to manage to produce sparks from his hands. He hadn't managed it although his hands had glowed somewhat and certainly heated up, which as Flitwick assured him was incredibly promising.

They kept at it several times over until an unexpected result came around by the fourth lesson, where among other tests he tried to produce sparks once more and instead had managed to cast another unexpected spell entirely. Lumos, the wand-lightning charm, or in this particular case, the hand-lighting charm as both his hands became as bright as flashlights and blinded both student and teacher alike.

Harry was a bit put-out that he'd botched the intended spell entirely but Flitwick, though shocked, was ecstatic at this development and had promptly awarded Harry twenty house points that the boy was happy to take.

Amongst the many attempts at sparks, Flitwick had been insistent on Harry continuing to build up the strength of his telekinetic capabilities for several reasons. For one, the simple nature of the ability alone made it an incredibly unique and versatile ability that could benefit Harry greatly were he ever to come across any unwanted trouble. For another, Flitwick seemed to believe that if he was strong enough with his telekinesis, it might make managing other spells easier.

The thing that most appealed to Harry though was something that had almost been an afterthought to Flitwick. That Harry could perhaps discover a way to project his supernatural healing capabilities off of him and onto others, allowing him to help those who might get hurt around him.

As soon as he said it, many incidents of Hermione getting hurt over the years sprung up unbidden in his mind and his protective brotherly instincts immediately took over, insisting to Harry he had to manage this.

Yet still, the most Harry could manage was hovering himself off the ground about a foot, lifting Flitwick a good couple of feet off the air for a few minutes and making all the furniture in the room slowly rise. Harry wondered if people might not be harder due to some inherent magical resistance fighting his powers in them.

He had just done another quick demonstration during lunch on the Wednesday of the fourth week of school—Flitwick had asked for an extra lesson that day to help him better control the Lumos charm he'd discovered he was capable of—and was on his way out of the class to his next Defense Against the Dark Arts class when Flitwick had called him back for a moment.

"Harry." Flitwick had spoken, and it had been the use of his first name that made Harry stop with surprise, looking back with brows raised in confusion. Up until now Flitwick had pretty exclusively called him 'Mister Potter-Granger' so he hadn't expected the short-statured professor to use his first name. "I don't mean to pry but I can't help but notice that you've not told any of your classmates about your… unique skills."

"No, sir, I haven't." Harry confirmed and the professor tilted his head slightly as if Harry was some puzzle he was trying to solve.

"May I ask why? Not that there's anything wrong with keeping it to yourself, and there are plenty of potential valid reasons but I have to confess that I'm curious!" he squeaked, using a lazy wave of his wand to clean up the room, likely in preparation for his next class. "After all, I'd normally imagine someone of your age would quite enjoy showing off such a talent."

"Well, that's just it sir… I already find the fame I have from, you know, quite uh… weird?" He grimaces and Flitwick frowned, giving a sad and understanding nod of his head. "I feel like it would be drawing more attention to me for the wrong reasons. I don't want to be defined by things I couldn't control, I want to be known for things that I choose to do and be good at. Plus, I suppose in a way it's quite good to have it ready as a surprise if I ever need it…"

"Yes, I suppose I can understand that. Well, they are your abilities and it's your choice what you do with them. However, I will say young man, you do control your telekinesis. You have put an extraordinary amount of work into it over the years and that is something to be proud of—" Flitwick told him with a kind smile. "—so remember that. Your abilities are good because you are, not the other way around."

Harry paused, before giving a small smile back with a nod. "Thank you, sir."

And with that he headed off to his next class. Compared to the ever enjoyable charms, the very informative Transfiguration and useful extra lessons in telekinesis, Defense Against the Dark Arts was something of a joke in the core subjects. At least, it was with the way Quirrel taught it, always cowering and seeming afraid that if he read a passage from a book one of the monsters from it would materialize simply from being described.

Due to this, the headaches, the fact Quirrel had a creepy habit of staring right at Harry, and the fact the work that was assigned was usually beyond easy even for a muggleborn who never studied before in their life, there was never much to look forward to in that class. It was second only to Potions on Harry's list of least enjoyable classes, however Harry doubted any could beat Snape's abhorrent attitude. At least in Defense Against the Dark Arts if he pushed past his headache he could finish quickly and just pull out a textbook and read.

Today however, for once Quirrel didn't just stutter and cower and barely respond to the class regarding the subjects they were learning. In fact, he actually interacted with the class for once, drawing all their attention when he suddenly stopped in front of Neville and looked at his wrist.

"I-I-Interesting b-bangle you've g-got there, Mister L-L-Longbottom." He stuttered, drawing all eyes to him as he looked at it. "W-Would you m-mind if I t-took a quick look at it?"

"O-Oh, no sir! Here?" Neville offered his wrist up, confused but just as curious as the rest, as a few others began fidgeting with their own wrists and Harry noticed that several others had bangles of their own, including Daphne and Hannah. It seemed some of the only ones not wearing them were him, Ron, Hermione and Terry. "T-They're s-supposed to d-defend against all sorts of basic curses and jinxes."

"I-I-Indeed? They are m-m-marvellous pieces of work, I t-think. I a-am rather impressed, and I s-s-see a lot of you have them?" Quirrel rose a brow into his foul-smelling turban. It was Ernie Macmillan who spoke up.

"Yes sir, the Weasley Twins were selling them as well as some of the older students." He told him and the teacher hummed.

"The m-m-minds of e-entrepreneurs, e-eh? I w-w-would certainly r-r-recommend them to any of you w-who don't have one. N-Never know w-w-when you might need to b-be protected, after a-all!" He said, still quivering as he was wont to do, heading back to his desk as everyone else looked around and muttered curiously about the unusual interaction.

Harry caught Padma's eye who raised a brow. He just shrugged, just as confused as she seemed to be. If Quirrel approved though then he supposed that was permission to buy some. He wondered if they were particularly expensive at all…


The following Monday, Harry had been very curious to see on his common room notice board that there would be a change of schedule that week, and the usually free period they had during late Tuesday afternoons was being taken up now by a new class.

Flying Lessons. A part of him was abuzz with excitement at the idea of actually flying, his own attempts with telekinesis having not yet been very fruitful. Another part of him had his stomach rolling.

After all, there was simply no studying for something like flying, though he was sure Hermione would certainly try. He'd be amazed if it actually made a difference.

Still, he knew his wouldn't be the only nerves that were being rattled, which was why now that classes were once again over for the day he had told Hannah he'd be back soon as he took off to meet Hermione and told her, with a tone that left little room for argument, they were going to take a break for the day and just go read something relaxing in the library.

After all, Hermione, while she was usually fine when Harry was the one in control with his telekinesis, actually had something of a fear of heights as he had discovered the hard way when they went on a ferris wheel together during a holiday when they were nine and Hermione had nearly deafened him with her terrified screaming once it reached the top.

Needless to say, he was sure Hermione was not going to be looking massively forward to flying lessons the next day and so he thought it would be best to keep her mind off it for the time being, lest she ended up becoming sick with anxiety.

However, on their journey towards the Library, something unexpected happened.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped suddenly, grabbing his arm and turning him to the stairs instead of the hallway that would lead to the library. Confused he narrowed his eyes before going wide eyed as he spotted what Hermione had.

On the stairs, a fifth year Slytherin was lying unconscious on the steps. Aside from that, he seemed alright and unscathed—ignoring the fact he was hardly the nicest looking guy Harry had ever seen. In fact he reminded Harry of pictures of some trolls he'd seen in his text books. That wasn't what had the two worried.

No, it was the second year Gryffindor girl who was laying there as well, but bleeding profusely from several wounds. Without thinking Harry immediately ran up to her and with help from his telekinesis picked her up bridal style.

It was a good thing his powers helped alleviate the pressure or he was sure he'd quickly be crushed beneath her due to his lack of strength and the fact that whoever this girl was, she clearly made an effort to stay fit. He looked to his sister. "Where's the infirmary?"

"This way! Come on!" She led the way and he rushed after her, practically skipping steps as they made their way as fast as they could through the halls. There were a few screams as they passed a group of first year Ravenclaws they didn't know and then finally they came up on the infirmary, Hermione throwing the doors open. "Help! Help!"

Immediately, a nurse came out with a confused expression at the seemingly fine girl before her, until she turned and pointed and her face morphed into horror at the sight of a bleeding battered third year being carried by Harry.

She immediately whipped out her wand and levitated her into a bed, administering healing spells right away. "You two, you're the Grangers, right?"

"Yes." Hermione nodded with a worried expression on her face.

"Madam Pomfrey. There's a green bottle on my desk in my office. One of you go get it please, the other will stay here and tell me what happened." She instructed and Hermione immediately took off to get the bottle, so Harry informed the matron of what little he knew. It made the woman's frown deepen and tut. "Well, I suppose I couldn't have expected you to carry them both and Miss Bell here was certainly the higher priority. I cannot believe someone would be so irresponsible to use a cutting hex like this, especially against a second year…"

"Miss Bell?" Harry asked and the nurse nodded, right as the girl's eyes opened and she groaned. Without the many cuts littering her body, Harry thought she was actually quite pretty. She had long black hair she wore in a braid crown, a cute rounded face and chocolate brown eyes similar to Hermione's.

"What…. Where-" She asked quietly, looking around confused.

"You're in the Infirmary, Miss Bell." Madam Pomfrey told her with a sigh. "And here I was hoping you wouldn't be here until at the least after the first Quidditch match. Can you remember what happened?"

"Not really… I was walking down the stairs, and the next thing I knew the Slytherin captain was pointing his wand at me." She frowned, forcing herself to sit up and groan, right as Hermione came back. The nurse took it and handed it to Katie, having her drink it and she quickly seemed to perk up. Harry noticed then that much like the vast majority of his class, she had a bangle that she absent-mindedly started running a finger over. "I couldn't curse him back in defence because he had one of these… I ended up getting lucky when he accidentally flung it off and I could cast a stunner at him but by the time I managed that he ended up sending a bunch of cutting hexes at me… I don't know what happened after that."

"We found you." Harry spoke up suddenly, not seeing any reason not to. "Had to carry you back here…"

"Oh, well uh, thanks." She said before pausing and her eyes widened slightly. "Hang on, aren't you…"

"Harry Potter-Granger. Nice to meet you." He said politely with a smile, before gesturing to his sister. "And this is my sister, Hermione."

"Hello." Hermione waved, somewhat shyly. She paused for a moment before smiling.

"Nice to meet you both. I'm Katie Bell. Thanks for helping me out, and yeah, I recognize your sister… Same house." Katie grinned, fingering the lion on her robes for a moment before humming. Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat and they all turned back to her.

"So, Mister Flint attacked you unprovoked, is what you're saying?" She asked with a frown. Katie nodded, frowning herself.

"I guess it's because he knew I got on the Quidditch team last week? But matches still aren't for ages yet…" She muttered, not seeming at all confident in her own theory. The Granger siblings shared a look, curious themselves as to what this was about.

"Or it's just exam stress. More than a few fifth years have come in here due to casting curses they shouldn't be." Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly. "I have no idea what has gotten into them, most of them were nowhere near this… violent until now. I suppose stress really can drive you mad, although that's still no excuse for the amount of duels I've had to deal with the aftermath of this year."

At that comment, Harry finally looked around and was stunned to see there were at least five other people in here who seemed to have come from battles and not just classroom mishaps. The matron's words also gave Harry a small jolt as he thought about it.

He'd actually heard of quite a few duels recently, but he'd assumed this was some wizard game like exploding snap or Gobstones, he hadn't considered the possibility they could be referring to actual fighting.

A quick glance to his sister showed her thoughts must have been in a similar place as she shot a worried look to her brother. Then something stood out to him.

"Um… Katie?" He spoke and she turned to him. "I though those bangles were supposed to protect against curses and stuff? Isn't the cutting hex one of the basic ones?"

"Oh, well yeah… although he did just cast the one spell that hit me, so maybe he used a more advanced version." She frowned, inspecting her bangle. "Thing hasn't failed before, so I doubt it just gave out for no reason…"

"Oh. And uh, what's Quidditch?" He asked confused, making Katie snort suddenly for some reason. She turned to him but before she could answer, Madam Pomfrey spoke.

"A sport. You can come back and ask again later if she's better but the girl needs bed rest, and I'm sure you have homework to do." The matron decided suddenly, gently taking both siblings by the shoulder and guiding them to the door. "You can come back later, but go for now."

Both blinked in surprise and Harry managed a quick look back over his shoulders to see Katie waving a sheepish goodbye before the door closed in their faces. They both shared a look of confusion, having no idea what to say before they set off to the library in silence.

But now, despite the whole purpose of going there being to relax, Harry couldn't. Because now he couldn't get his mind off one particular query he didn't expect to be faced with or even realize was a question until now.

Why were people really fighting so much all of a sudden? Could it really be due to exams, or was it something else?

His frown only deepened as no answer came to him, and he hurried on to the library with Hermione in tow.


Harry's detention with Snape had almost gone out his mind when he'd finally been called on for it that night, having been brought into one of the classrooms and told to scrub every single cauldron as well as the floor until it was all spotless.

It didn't take Harry long to figure out why Snape had let Harry stew and wait. Clearly, the month of waiting had allowed the room to really pick up some hard to deal with filth, likely with Snape doing little to prevent it to make Harry's time spent cleaning it all the worse.

It meant that as he sat their scrubbing without magic, roughly pushing a sponge back and forth over a particularly tough hardened purple stain, his thoughts were whirling about in indignation and annoyance. Enough so that he almost missed it when someone began talking outside.

Almost, but there was just enough of a lull as his arm ached and he paused to give it a moment's rest that he heard it. A voice he wasn't expecting to hear down in the dungeons.

Quirrel.

"I u-u-understand b-but surely now w-wouldn't be the best t-time? So s-soon and…. W-Well…." There was a silence then a sudden frightened yelp. "Y-Yes! Understood, t-though we mustn't be-"

Whatever Quirrel and his impossible to hear companion mustn't be though, Harry didn't find out as he unthinkingly pushed the door open and came face to face with the man, who paled drastically.

"A-Ah, good e-e-evening P-P-Potter!" He practically squealed in fright, backing up quite fast. "S-Sorry t-t-to disturb, I h-h-had thought this was a private l-locale! I d-d-didn't r-realize you h-had a detention! I'll b-be on my way!"

With that, the professor turned and practically sprinted away, leaving an incredibly confused Harry behind.

'What on earth was that all about?'