Chapter 6: General Sneaking
Disclaimer is in the first chaper.
Responses to Reviews at the bottom.
Ah, bloody hell.
Harry was currently being chased by three suits of armour. Three. And – dammit, Ginny, that bat-bogey hex wasn't something he wanted to get hit with!
In consolation, though, Draco Malfoy was currently running around as a ferret because Hermione and Fred working together was a match made in the deepest circles of hell itself.
Harry was so very, very glad he'd gone with a simple expelliarmus, especially when his own spell grazed past his ear. In between plotting a way to shred the Wizengamot, figuring out what to do about a massive dragon, making sure Dobby didn't encourage Sirius to become more crazy than he already was, and pretending to spit fire at Ron, he hadn't had much time to think up complex spells, and thank god for that, because the sheer number of students who didn't know a basic shield charm was ridiculous.
Speaking of Ron, the redhead was currently sneering from one corner. "Serves you right, Potter."
Harry didn't have the brain power necessary to come up with a decent reply. "Stuff you, Weasley!" he yelled back as a stray petrificus totalus marked the ground in front of his feet.
The cycle resumed, with Harry sometimes shielding, sometimes running, sometimes dodging, snarling at almost everyone he passed. He spared a genuinely vicious glare for Ernie MacMillan. Hufflepuff or not, the boy was either very susceptible to potions, or, as Snape would say, a dunderhead. Too bad no-one had managed to crack a safe way to fix the potions; then he'd have an easy way of picking up who to trust.
For now, though, outside of The Gang, he could trust no-one.
He ducked behind a tapestry and slowed to a halt, panting as he heard the suits of armour clatter off down the hallway. Fred and George had been reluctant to allow for the tapestries as a fail-safe, but Harry had insisted, citing health, safety, and Peeves. It appeared he wasn't the only person who appreciated it.
"Hello," Luna smiled, swinging her legs as she perched barefoot on a window ledge. "You really should be more careful."
"I wish I'd listened when Hermione said all that stuff about group theory," Harry moaned. "Three, and they'll be stuck together for the rest of the day. By the end of this, they'll be moving as a pack!"
"You're stressed," Luna commented.
"I've got a lot on my plate at the moment," Harry replied, frustrated. "I mean – the next Wizengamot meeting is next week and we still haven't got a plan. And the dragon – don't get me wrong, I can fly alright – but it's a dragon, Luna!"
"Mm," Luna hummed. "Maybe there is a better way?"
"I don't know," Harry groaned. "I don't think Cedric has anything near a decent plan, how am I meant to know anything?"
"You're the chosen one," Luna stated lightly.
"The Chosen One is bollocks," Harry growled.
Luna tilted her head. "I know. But that's what they think. People often think in strange ways."
Harry sat down beside her. "If Moody didn't give me the hint, and if Hagrid didn't show me the dragons, I'd be screwed."
"I don't like him," Luna sighed.
"Hagrid?" Harry asked incredulously.
"No, Professor Moody," Luna corrected him. She sat in silence for a moment, before standing up. "I need to go check on the Thestrals. I'll see you later, Harry," she smiled.
"The whats?" Harry asked, but Luna had already vanished.
"Accio Fi – wait."
…
"Accio Golden Egg."
Nothing.
"Wingardium Leviosa Golden Egg?"
Most of the girls in the crowd screamed as Harry legged it out of the stadium with a floating egg twelve feet behind him and a dragon thirteen feet behind.
"YOU FORGOT ZE ANTI-LEVITATION CHARM ON ZE EGG?!" Madam Maxime shrieked at Dumbledore. "TU ES UN HOMME TRÈS STUPIDE, DUMBLYDOOR!"
"What just happened?" Cedric asked.
"Magic," Harry replied smugly, listening to Madam Maxime ranting and Karkaroff slipping in sly comments.
"HARRY!" Hermione shrieked, barrelling into the medical tent, much to Madam Pomfrey's chagrin. "Oh – that was clever – I thought it was going to eat you, though – well done!"
"You're going to suffocate me," Harry said weakly. Hermione ignored him. "You scared us," she said instead.
As if on cue, Ron walked in. Madam Pomfrey bristled. "Mate," he said. "I – think somebody's trying to kill you."
"You only just worked that out?" Harry asked with carefully practiced coolness.
"Eh… I…" Ron looked apologetic, and Harry smiled.
"Forget it, mate."
"But I –"
"Forget it. It's past."
Ron smiled and Hermione attempted to strangle them both in a very tight hug.
"Well done, Harrikins!" Fred and George chorused as they invaded the tent with their beaming sister.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Madam Pomfrey moaned. "Potter, either send your friends out, or go with them! You'll disturb my patients!"
"Weird," Ron commented, poking himself in the face. The first instance of sneaking out was to occur that day, the day after Harry nearly got himself eaten by a dragon, and though most of The Gang wasn't going, they had tried out all the disguises anyway. Ron, for one, was fascinated with his short nose.
"Yes, you are," Fred agreed, blue eyes twinkling a little too much like Dumbledore's.
Hermione rolled her own eyes. "Do you have the papers, Harry?"
"Yeah, right here," Harry replied, holding up a scroll.
"Excellent," Hermione smiled, before stealing Harry's glasses off his face and slipping them into her pocket. "Can you see alright?"
"I am completely and utterly blind," Harry informed her flatly.
"Sometimes the blind see better than others," Luna told them all sagely.
"Yeah… but Harry kind of needs to know who he's talking to," Lee pointed out. "Especially if he wants to pull this off."
"I don't see why he can't just wear them," George said, frowning. "I mean, if his dad wore them, it clearly runs in the family."
"Yeah, well, these are my old glasses," Harry admitted sheepishly. "I've been wearing them since I can remember, and they're a little distinctive…"
"We'll get you another pair of glasses when we get there," Hermione said impatiently, peering over Ron's shoulder at the map. "For now, those of us sneaking out need to get going… what with Snape and Flitwick both having rounds we won't have another window for an hour and a half."
"Yeah… good point… we'll work on figuring out how to stop the suits of armour," Ron sighed. "You'd think the teachers'd do the job for us…"
"It's be a lot easier for them if they weren't fighting five at a time," Ginny pointed out slightly too gleefully.
"Or if they were only firing basic duelling spells," Neville added. "Go on, Harry, Hermione, Luna, or you'll be late."
"Right. Luna, you've got the portkey?" Harry asked, picking up the scroll and putting it in his pocket.
"Here," she smiled, pulling out a quill. "Hold on here."
Harry, Hermione and Luna grabbed onto the quill, and with a quick wave, they were gone.
Harry stumbled as they arrived in Diagon Alley, as did Hermione, though Luna didn't seem to notice they had landed. As they had hoped, nobody paid them more than a second glance, though Harry fell into character as quickly as he could, just the same. "Tempus," Hermione whispered to her spare wand. "Right. We've got an hour before we have to be at the Ministry. What are we getting?"
Luna shrugged. "Glasses, parchment, quills, ink, a table we don't have to keep transfiguring back, a record on laws, and more socks."
"Titus also wants us to bring him Firewhiskey," Harry added, "We need some lionfish spine and fresh asphodel, and Rionach wants us to bring a chess table and two sets of Muggle chess pieces."
"What's that for?" Hermione asked.
"Dunno, but he specifically asked for one white and black and the other black and red," Harry replied.
"That's a lot for one hour," Hermione said.
"Fifty-seven minutes," Luna corrected her dreamily.
The parchment, quills, and ink were simple enough, and the trio stepped out of Scrivenshaft's with more than enough scrolls, notebooks and inkpots to last them the year, though the copious amount of goods brought something to Hermione's attention.
"We can't carry all this around, or into the Wizengamot chambers," she observed. "We need somewhere better to put them."
"Why not call Dobby?" Luna asked. "He's a lovely fellow."
"Yeah, but what if someone recognizes him?" Harry asked. "He was a Malfoy house elf, after all…"
"What are the chances?" Hermione asked.
"Low, but higher the longer we keep him around. Especially if he keeps coming and going…"
"We could get some bags or trunks," Luna suggested. "Daddy has one at home that's smaller on the outside. We use it when we go hunting for Crumple-Horned Snorcacks."
"An Indetectable Extension Charm?" Hermione questioned, and when Luna nodded, she did too, though slower. "That could work well… where could we buy them?"
"There's a shop down here," Luna smiled. "Twill's Trunks. I think they sell bags too…"
"We don't want to carry too much," Harry warned them, as they began down the lane. "Most purebloods here don't, I noticed."
"That is true," Hermione sighed. "Maybe if we just let you carry everything?"
"Why me?" Harry groaned.
"Because, it's probably considered polite," Hermione guessed. "And because I don't want to carry anything."
"Mean woman," Harry groused, to Luna's tinkling laughter.
Twill's did, in fact have bags, one of which Hermione bought and stuffed into the trunk, just in case the girls ever snuck out alone. Harry had never seen a trunk that was bigger on the inside, but he was very thankful of the many compartments, especially as he no longer had to carry around twelve pots of black, five pots of blue, three pots of red, three pots of green, and one pot of glittery ink. The Featherlight Charm meant the trunk felt like it was empty – not necessarily light, but certainly not heavy. This was lucky, as the next stop was at Flourish and Blotts, leading Hermione to get a little carried away.
"Emma, please," Harry sighed. "We don't need A Guide to Breaches of the Ban on Experimental Breeding."
"But what if we meet one of these things?" Hermione protested.
"If you bring that home, Titus and Julius will probably try it," Harry reasoned.
"Next you'll say I don't need Combative Use of Household Charms," Hermione whined.
Harry sighed again. "Emma… you're a smart person, you don't need the book to spell it out for you."
Hermione sulked, despite managing to justify another seventeen books.
Luna went off to Twillfits and Tatting's to buy socks while Harry dragged Hermione to the apothecary, buying a small amount of lionfish and asphodel.
"I never realised asphodel was a flower," Harry commented, as he passed six sickles over to the witch behind the counter.
"It's a type of lily, according to 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi," Hermione said immediately, "And it's associated with melancholy. In Greek Mythology, there's an entire field of them in the underworld, and its where all the mediocre souls go."
"Mediocre?" Harry asked, thanking the witch and taking the ingredients.
"Yes, people who weren't heroes but also weren't evil," Hermione confirmed, opening up the trunk and stuffing the ingredients in next to the quills.
"That's depressing," Harry commented, as Luna arrived with a large, lumpy package. "Tempus. Half an hour. What's next?"
"Tables, chessmen… we can get the firewhiskey when we get back," Hermione said.
"There's a furniture shop in Sacerdot Alley," Luna said. "I've been there. It's a bit seedier than Diagon, but much safer than Knockturn."
"I guess we could try there, then," Hermione said somewhat nervously.
"Don't worry, Emma," Luna said gently, taking her hand and walking down to the Alley. "Look, here it is, just at the entrance."
"Welcome!" chirped an overenthusiastic sales clerk as they walked through the door. "What might I get for you fine magicals today?"
"We'll have to go straight to the Ministry after this," Harry whispered.
"That's if this guy stops talking," Hermione commented, watching the clerk chatter on about everything in the room as Luna nodded seriously, apparently deep in thought.
A.N.
I was today years old when I found out that Knockturn Alley was actually 'Nocturnally', just like Grimmauld Place is a 'Grim Old Place' and Diagon Alley is 'Diagonally'.
Writing 'wizards and witches' is a pain. They're magicals now.
R.R
ShadowDrake: Thanks! I hope I meet your expectations. Hermione, this version especially, can certainly be a dangerous force, although she may not come into her full power for a while. I'm hoping each character can fit into a specific role within The Gang that makes them, together, the political and psychological equivalent of Feindfyre, physical powerset nonwithstanding...
HorusRa: And poor Harry and Ron wondering where the ominous music is coming from. And honestly, Mione, we were all disturbed at Moody... Umbridge... Snape... Dumbledore... you don't really have to say you find their failings disturbing...
Loveandpower: Sirius just got over being in Azkaban for 13 years and then having his worldview, well, not upended, but at least tipped sideways. He's therefore not in a perfectly functional state. In addition, Sirius consistently (in the books) seems to act almost as if he's still Harry's age. I'd guess it's a combination of the comparative euphoria of not having your happiness sucked away, the removal of the final formative years, an awful case of cabin fever, and Sirius being that one uncle who thinks it's okay to give you ice-cream before dinner. Anyway, I'm glad you thought it was funny, I always thought the last two marauders together, while not the same, wouldn't be dull, so it makes a good intermission.