Hey there, faithful readers! I'm not dead, I've just had lots on and many issues to deal with... I'm also lazy and haven't had much inspiration to write lately. Many deep apologies for the lack of chapters for the last two years, this chapter will be followed by a second new chapter on Christmas Eve, as an apology and a present to my faithful (hopefully) readers. It will also give time for people to send me reviews detailing how much they'd like to kill me for my late updates, so feel free to shout abuse. so long as its not abuse about the actual writing, I will not take it as a flame.
Anyway, do enjoy! This chapter is brought to you by Moonlight Ace's proud sponsor, also the inventor of the glass hammer, inflatable dartboard, dinosaur repellent and the nuclear mousetrap! Enjoy!
Broomsticks, Testing and Apologies
Fleur woke around 10am the next morning, smiling as she remembered the wonderful night she had last night, her smile widening as she remembered the kiss she had shared with Harry. It had been magical, far more so than when she was with Bill. Fleur looked around the room as she woke; surprised to see a delicate glass vase on her bedside table filled with blue roses, arranged in a neat little display. Fleur smiled again, knowing it was her sweet new boyfriend who had placed them there. Fleur showered and dressed as she sang to herself, her amazing good mood continuing through the morning. Even the other Beauxbatons students she passed in the corridor were surprised at the girl's happiness, which seemed to be affecting them too. Before this year, Fleur was quite cold, but ever since the start of the year she had been much kinder to everybody, though never before had she been in a good enough mood to hug random classmates as she seemed to float toward the Hogwarts castle for breakfast. The students watching her eventually shrugged, putting it off as an overpowered Cheering Charm.
Harry woke in a very good mood too, his mind full of memories of last night, dancing with his friends, his sisters and of course, his silver haired girlfriend. Harry grinned happily to himself at that thought, though he frowned slightly when he thought about his now ex-friend, Ron. Ron had glared at Harry and the others as they returned, but they had studiously ignored him completely, still talking about the night with excitement, even talking about organising a dance next year as well. Ron was still asleep right now, but Harry had the feeling that he couldn't trust Ron not to try something stupid, so he placed Wards around his bed and trunk, as well as adding locking charms to his trunk, just in case Ron did try something. Harry went down into the Common Room to find Hermione talking to the Quidditch Team.
"Morning all," greeted Harry, getting high fives from the twins and hugs from the girls.
"Hey Harry, we were just going to get some breakfast together, did you want to come with us?" asked Alicia.
"Yeah, sounds good to me," replied Harry, as the group set off for the Great Hall. Upon reaching the Hall, Hermione spotted Jesse, who also joined them at the Gryffindor table, along with Fleur, who had seemingly floated into the Hall just then, an enchanting smile on her face as she walked towards Harry.
"Good morning, Arry," she said brightly, kissing his cheek in greeting, which Harry returned with a smile.
"Good morning belle, how did you sleep?" replied Harry, leading her over to the table, where she sat down close to him.
"Wonderfully, and zank you for ze roses, zey were very sweet!" she mumbled happily, as they each took a croissant and some fruit, while Fleur helped herself to some coffee and Harry made himself a hot chocolate.
"Mind if we sit here?" asked Cedric, as he and Cho neared the table, Cho half asleep on Cedric's shoulder.
"Sure, but is Cho alright? What were you both doing last night to make her so tired?" asked Harry mischievously, making Cedric turn red in embarrassment while the twins snickered.
"Mind out of the gutter Potter, Cho just has trouble waking up in the mornings," stated Cedric. As he said this, Cho's head smacked into the table, causing a loud thudding sound.
"I don't believe it, she's fallen asleep again," groaned Cedric, picking her up of the table and waving some coffee under her nose. Cho slowly opened her eyes, her eyes drifting to the coffee.
"Ah, there's three Ceddy's!" she sang in delight, slowly adding large amounts of sugar to her coffee. Everybody else just looked to Cedric for an explanation, said person sighing in exasperation.
"She get's like this when she doesn't get enough sleep. She was like this once when her classmates said she told Flitwick what she called 'the shortest joke in the world'," explained Cedric, face-palming himself from the memory.
"What joke did she tell him?" asked George, genuinely curious. Cedric took a moment to take a sip of his coffee, and to make Cho a new coffee that didn't have more sugar than coffee, before answering the question.
"Dwarf shortage," he said shortly, as the group cracked up laughing. Unbeknownst to the group, Professor Flitwick had heard the retelling of the joke and couldn't help chuckling a little, all things considered.
"Luckily I'm not the shortest in the family; I certainly got a good laugh telling that joke to my brother," he thought, walking along.
After breakfast, the Chasers and the twins asked Harry if he would mind sparing some time to have a practice with the new brooms somewhere inside with enough room. Harry, after making sure Fleur was alright (Fleur was still on cloud nine and had decided to do a personal project for the day) Harry told the team to meet him in the Common Room when they were changed, as he knew a place they could practice inside. Ten minutes later, and Harry was leading the Quidditch team up to the seventh floor, to the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.
"Where are you leading us Harry?" asked Fred, as Harry stopped in front a blank wall. Fred and George's jaws dropped when, after pacing in front of the wall three times, a door had suddenly appeared where there had previously been just blank wall. Opening the door, the twins were further astounded to find a giant Quidditch pitch with a bright open sky, shining warmth down on them.
"H-h-how is this possible?" stuttered Angelina, while Katie ran about on the field.
"Wow, its real grass!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"What is this place? It's so awesome!" shouted Alicia in amazement.
"This, is the Room of Requirement, like I told you three last time, it becomes whatever you need it to be, I asked it for a place to practice Quidditch, but I didn't expect it to actually give us a real pitch," explained Harry.
"I can't believe we've never known about a place like this before," said George, before he and Fred were on the ground bowing to Harry.
"Thank you for the most amazing gift!" they cried in unison, as the chasers pulled them up off the ground while Harry laughed.
"But this is great!" exclaimed Angelina. "Now, if we want to practice with different weather conditions, we can ask the room to simulate them instead, and best of all, we can practice in secret, so the other teams won't know what we're up to!" she ended with a huge smile on her face, as she squeezed Harry tightly, twirling around the room with him.
"Enough of that, let's get up in the air and test out these new brooms!" shouted Alicia in excitement, as the team donned their Quidditch robes (change rooms had appeared, as were requested) and mounted their brooms, ready to start.
Hours later, the team emerged from the room, huge smiles adorning the faces of everybody. The chasers had loved their new Raika models Harry had got for them, having never ridden such a fast broom before, and the twins were more than happy with their Schichiseiken brooms, which were faster than anything Nimbus had come up with. They had used the room to simulate sunny skies, rain, clouds, storms, snow and even a tornado when Katie got curious. They had just finished up in the room's conjured swimming pool, where Harry 'accidentally' dropped the golden egg he carried in his bag, into the pool, where upon fetching it, the team discovered that the egg sang underwater.
"By the sounds of it, you'll have to go into the Black Lake and find something precious to you. Damn it George, I knew we should have upped production of those Froggy Formula Mints!" exclaimed Fred in annoyance.
"Froggy Formula Mints?" asked Harry curiously. George grinned mischievously at him.
"Mints that can turn somebody into a frog for a half hour, but at the moment we seem to only be able to get it to the point that the person turns green and sticky," he explained, getting interested looks from his audience.
"There's the Bubble-head Charm, but it's kind of fragile, so I don't think it's a good idea," mused Alicia.
"We still have almost two months before the next task, so don't worry Harry, we'll help you out as much as you need!" said Katie cheerfully, getting a smile and hug from Harry.
"Thanks guys, I really appreciate it," replied Harry, still smiling as they made their way back to the Common Room to get changed. After the girls split and head for their dormitories, Harry asked to see Fred and George alone.
"Ok guys, I wanted to ask you guys a favour," said Harry, as they shut the door to Fred and George's dormitory. At the moment, their roommates were out, so they were unlikely to be disturbed.
"What can we do for you Harrykins?" asked Fred.
"If I win this tournament, you obviously know I have no need for the extra money, however, what I do have a need for is a good laugh. So, if I do win the tournament, I need you guys to take the money and start up that joke shop you want, I know I could do with a few laughs, and I can't think of anyone else better to make them," said Harry, getting gobsmacked expressions from the twins.
"He's barmy Fred," whispered George to his twin.
"Yes, indeed I am barmy, but that's beside the point," corrected Harry. "Seriously, the world needs to see some of your jokes, and I couldn't care less about the money. Although, I need one promise from you if I do this," added Harry.
"Anything Harry," replied the twins in unison, both with determined faces. Harry grinned and told them his plan.
Harry had just arrived at the classroom, waiting for Professor McGonagall; who was going to give him his Transfiguration test. They had decided to do the test now, instead of putting him on the spot in the next class.
"Good to see you here early Mr Potter," said McGonagall, as she came around the corner.
"Good morning Professor," he replied politely.
"Are you ready then?" she asked seriously, getting a nod of consent from her student. "In that case, the first thing I'm going to ask you to do is a practical and theoretical exam that seventh year students take in their Transfiguration NEWT's," she instructed, handing Harry a test paper, which he dove into immediately. Eventually, he handed it back to McGonagall, who was gobsmacked as she read through the well thought out answers which were all correct.
"This is amazing Mr Potter! These are NEWT standard questions and you're a fourth year! You and your father really are so alike, right down to the messy handwriting," she exclaimed, getting a grin of somewhat embarrassed pleasure from Harry. "Now, you'll next have to show me your seventh year understanding of the subject. I'll start by asking you to turn this iguana into a desk," she continued, swishing her wand, causing a fully grown iguana to appear on the table. The practical testing went on for over half an hour before Harry finished. By the time he had, Professor McGonagall was almost literally glowing with pride.
"This is marvellous Mr Potter! I can safely say that, if this was the real Transfiguration NEWT, you would have received an Outstanding with distinction!" she said, a smile of pride on her aged face. "It may take a couple of weeks, but once I've cleared everything with the Ministry, I can organise for you to take a formal Transfiguration exam to test your true skills," she finished, still looking at her young student with pride.
"Thank you Professor, I'll make sure I'm ready to take the exam once it's time," replied Harry, as he gathered his bag to leave.
"Given that you have shown that fourth year work is trivial for you Mr Potter, I will have to allocate different work to yourself," said McGonagall, flicking her wand at the wall behind her desk, causing it to open up into a smaller classroom filled with diagrams on the walls of various animals, as well as humans. "For the rest of the year, you will be using this room to start practicing new forms of Transfiguration." She explained to Harry, who looked bemused. "Transfiguring objects and animals can be done easily enough, but a wizard who can transfigure not only themselves, but also liquids and even gases in the atmosphere can conjure almost anything in a duel." Harry marvelled at the idea's for transfiguring different matter, thinking of the unending possibilities for usage in a duel, or indeed, in everyday life.
"Thank you very much Professor, I'll make sure I don't let you down," stated Harry, gaining a rare smile from the aged teacher.
"See that you don't Mr Potter," she replied, before walking back down the corridor, allowing Harry to make his way towards the Durmstrang ship, where he was supposed to be meeting with Viktor and Cedric to teach them some more obscure magic. He was almost out of the castle, when he crossed paths with Snape, who looked very deep in thought about something, almost running into him on his way to the dungeons.
"Sorry about that Professor," apologised Harry, knowing that he didn't want to give the Potions Master a reason to deduct points, despite his unusual neutrality toward him, which had been occurring since the Potions lesson when he had given the man a mental warning.
"Please be more careful next time Potter, however I have been meaning to talk to you, if you have time presently?" he replied, staring at Harry, his eyes piercing him with a stare, not of his usual loathing, nor of his newly acquired neutrality, but one of curiosity, intermixed with an unidentifiable emotion. Without waiting for a response, Snape turned on his heel, heading toward his office in the dungeons, forcing Harry to jog to catch up to him.
Snape and Harry arrived at the door to the office, which opened at once to admit them. Snape motioned to a chair opposite the desk, before seating himself at the desk, waiting for Harry to sit.
"I must admit since your... excursion into my mind and the message you left in it, I have been rather curious to talk with you about your knowledge and other matters Mr Potter," started Snape, once Harry was seated. Harry fixed him with a stare, pondering certain things in his mind, before internally sighing in annoyance.
"What is it you would like to know sir?" he asked, as a flash of emotion passed over Snape's face. Harry was unsure as to what it was, though he somehow thought it could have been something akin to regret.
"First of all, I think I must apologise for my unfair treatment of you throughout your school years," he said, a definite pain in his voice, as though he were struggling to comprehend apologising to someone related to his archenemy. Harry himself was truly thrown for a loop at the man's change in attitude, before speaking up.
"Sir, while you may have had an unfair bias against myself in my first year, I did nothing to alleviate your annoyance with me, so I can only really blame you for first year," stated Harry.
"It appears you do have moments where you act more like your mother than your father," Snape said quietly, his eyes flashing with a spark of life at the mention of Lily.
"May I ask a question Professor?" Harry asked. After receiving a nod, Harry continued; "Sir, many people have been able to tell me about my parents, and recently I have met people who have given me more in depth knowledge about my father. However, I have yet to meet anybody who seemed to know my mother very well. Yet, from the way you talk about her, you seem to have known her quite well," Harry finished, as Snape stared at him, as though he were seeing him for the first time.
"What do you mean Potter?" whispered Snape.
"Sir, could you tell me about my mother? I would enjoy hearing about her, from someone who was close to her," Harry asked, hoping that with this question, perhaps he could help the man who had saved his multiple times before. Snape looked shocked at his question, and didn't answer for almost a minute.
"Lily... she was... my closest friend as a child," Snape began, his eyes gaining some light as he spoke of his friend. "We met in a park near to where I lived with my parents, where I learned she was a witch, while her sister was a Muggle. From that day on, we became inseparable, even when we were sorted into different houses at Hogwarts. One day, I said something which, to this day, I regret with every fibre of my being. It caused our friendship to deteriorate, almost to nothing, at which point she started seeing your father, James Potter," here Snape grinded out the name, as though it was painful to even say. "After that, I rarely ever saw her, only during special events. My heart was torn in two when she announced her engagement to a man I detested, so much so that I even missed her wedding day, yet another mistake on my part, for the Headmaster revealed to me that she had cried when my invitation returned, unopened. That was the last time I heard from her, before..." Snape swallowed painfully, the words dying in his throat, unable to voice the pain he felt.
Harry stared at the man whom he had hated for years, until discovering this connection to his mother. He had only ever thought of the man as the greasy, bat-like Potions professor for his entire school life, and had never thought he would ever be anything other than neutral at best to him. But looking at everything from this new angle, Harry couldn't help but wonder what his earlier school life would have been like had he and Snape gotten along better. Or what would have happened if he and his mother had still been friends at the time of her death. Snape could have been a mentor to Harry, or even served as a guardian in place of the Dursley's or the unjustly imprisoned Sirius. In some twisted, alternate universe, Harry may even have been calling him Uncle.
"Sir, with respect, I think we can both agree that we have acted foolishly, as we are respectively, the last links to my mother, you as her closest childhood friend, and I as her only child. If it were at all possible, I would hope we could become at least neutral toward each other," spoke Harry carefully, as Snape looked up from his mourning, his blank look unchanging, though his eyes showed a spark of hope and recognition.
"You believe you can overlook my... pitiable performance in my role in your life, while I overlook your tendencies to act like a... Potter?" Snape questioned his smirk back in place somewhat, though it was a different one to his usual look.
"I maintain that I act more like a mixture of my parents sir, though I am still unsure of what my mother was like, hence why I am asking you," said Harry, a trace of a smirk on his face too. Snape stared piercingly at Harry, a smile ghosting over his pale face for the briefest of moments.
"Going to the most logical source of information... I guess Lily was your mother after all, though don't expect me to treat you any differently in class, I'll still call you Potter, you'll still call me whatever you vagabond Gryffindor's call me and we'll call it a truce," reasoned Snape, as the door casually opened itself.
"Wouldn't have it any other way, sir," answered Harry, walking to the door. Harry stopped just before he left the room, and half turned back to Snape. "I think my mother would have been very proud of you today, Severus," Harry said quietly, before leaving the room.
Inside the office, Snape wore an expression of great shock on his face. He slowly came back to the waking world, shaking his head in disbelief as he sorted his books and reports. Even as he worked however, the smallest of smiles flitted across the face of the Potions master, along with a tiny twinkle in his eye, following a feeling of fulfilment.
Finally! Another chapter cleared! Remember, a new chapter (This time, its actually been written) will be posted on Christmas Eve so you have until then to read, review and do feel free to give as much abuse as you like for me not updating much (or at all).
If theres any sort of punishments people want me to do for not having updated in so long (my friend suggested going down the main party district in boardshorts and pouring a slurpee (slushy, very watery version of a snowcone, whatever you like) over my back and neck) then tell me in a review or PM and I will compile them and see what people want me to do, and then I will film what is chosen and link you all to it.
See you next time, and don't forget to review :)