I'll try to keep the dates right, but I'm gonna throw in technology from later years. Stuff like DVD and MP3-players and such. Just a note so that nobody needs to complain that the tech doesn't match the time they're in.
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A Different Path
Chapter 2
Tuesday, 17 September 1996
It had been about two and a half months now since the accident. The wizarding world was mourning the loss of their hero. And strangely, Voldemort hadn't made a peep. Unknown to the rest of the wizarding world, the sudden loss of the link Voldemort had with Harry had caused him considerable pain and had sent his magic in disarray. Had they know this and where he was hiding, he could easily have been killed. But they did not know, so nothing changed. Voldemort's magic had returned to normal after 3 weeks and the pain had lasted only two days. Still, he was cautious and lay low for the time being.
School had started again. The Slytherins, or most of the higher years anyway, with Malfoy as de facto leader, had been very outgoing about their pleasure that Harry Potter was no more. However, it hadn't lasted long. Whatever resentments any of the other Houses might have had against Harry, they did acknowledge that he had defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on various occasions and had banded together to silence the Slytherin House in a spectacular way. The group of Slytherins that was glad Potter was gone had literally encountered the combined strength of the remaining three Houses and quickly stopped any outward gloating they had. They had been threatened to be 'cursed to Hell and back' if they so much as thought of thinking anything bad about Harry Potter. The leading forces in this short, but spectacular confrontation had been the remainder of the Dynamic Trio, Hermione and Ron, strengthened by Neville, Ginny and, to the surprise of many, Luna Lovegood. Shortly after, classes had regained an air of normalicy, but a feeling of sadness remained.
Today, during lunch, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna, who had started to take her meals with them, sat together as had become their custom. Hermione and Ginny were sitting next to each other. Across from Ginny was Luna, who sat next to Ron, to his irritation. True, Luna wasn't so bad once you got to know her, but Ron had the distinct impression that Luna deliberately sat next to him for some reason. Neville had taken the seat next to Ron, as he didn't feel all that comfortable sitting next to Hermione. True, they were friends, but Neville had a bit of a weak spot for pretty girls and Hermione had grown in some obvious places over the summer. So had Ginny and Luna for that matter.
Having just finished their main course, desserts appeared on the table.
"Neville, could you pass the treacle tart, please?" Ginny asked. Neville was closest to the plate and nodded. He took the place and passed it to Ron, in order to give to his sister. But Ron paused when he had the plate in his hands, looking at the tart with a sad expression.
"Ron? What's wrong?" Hermione asked, having seen the change in his mood.
"Treacle tart was Harry's favorite." He answered before passing on the plate. The mood, which hadn't been all that great to begin with, dropped like a brick. Nobody could blame Ron, as they all felt the loss of their friend. But Ron seemed to take it the hardest of all. Though, even in his grief for the loss of his best friend, he didn't forget that he had another best friend who was grieving just as he was. Hermione and Ron had spent a lot of time together, helping each other through their grief. One day, when letting go of each other from a comforting hug, their faces had drifted closer together and they'd shared a kiss. Not a passionate kiss or anything, but a normal kiss, one that spoke of how much they cared for the other. After the kiss, they had held each other for a long time.
A week later however, both had felt that, although they loved the other and felt good hugging and occasionally kissing the other, it was not the love one had for someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. What they felt was more of a combination of love between siblings and trust that had developed over the course of 5 years. They agreed to stop trying to pursue any romantic relationship, at least at that time. Maybe later, when they weren't grieving, they could examine their feelings deeper. They still shared the occasional hug if they needed the comfort, but no more than that. Their friendship had grown stronger because of it.
Time to wallow in their sorrow for their friend, was up though. The doors of the Great Hall opened, alerting everyone of the impending arrival of someone. Almost everyone looked to see who was coming in, as there had been no notice of visitors. Slowly the door opened.
Someone clad entirely in black could be seen through the doors. Wearing what appeared to be black boots, loose black pants, a loose black jacket and a black, otherwise unmarked baseball cap. The only hit of color in the entire wardrobe could be seen through the top of the jacket, which was opened slightly to reveal a dark blue T-shirt. Hands stuffed in pockets, the figure stood still until the door had opened completely.
The students who were sitting nearest to the doors, could make out a few more details than the rest of them. The figure was obviously male and stood about 5 foot 8 inches (± 1.73 m ). Broad shoulders, but not overly so. The jacket hid the rest of his figure pretty well, hanging loosely on his frame. Very confident pose, even when standing as relaxed as he was, whoever he was. Baseball cap drawn so that his eyes were hidden from view, unless someone bent over to peek under the flap. They could see his hair though. Black as night and rather long from what they could see. Very unruly too. Two more things could be seen on what was visible of his face. First, the goatee that the young man had. Nothing fanciful, just a simple goatee like many people in the world sported one. Second was the scar on the left cheek. A soft red, going pink, scar of about 2, maybe 2.5 inches adorned the left cheek of the young man.
Then he started to walk in the Hall. He didn't seem to be in any hurry, as he strolled in. When he passed the first students, they could confirm that his hair was indeed long. It hung to just above his waist in a simple but thick, spiky ponytail. The tail was held together by what appeared to be a leather cord of some kind. Those who looked up to see if they could see more of his face, could see that his fringe was spiky to a fault too. He continued to stroll further into the Great Hall at a relaxed pace. Until he suddenly stopped.
Turning his head to the right, he looked right at where Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville were seated. Several moments he seemed to be studying them without moving or showing any indication of what he was thinking on his face, or what was visible of it anyway. How he could see anything while his eyes were still hidden by the flap of his cap, nobody knew. Then, a smile began to show on his lips. Lazily, he drew his right hand from his pocket and tipped the flap of the cap up with his index finger, revealing a pair of piercing emerald green eyes.
"What? No hello for me?" He drawled.
Nobody moved for the next few moments, but suddenly he was tackled by both Hermione and Ginny. Taking a step back to steady himself, he grabbed both girls in a big hug, which they returned with crushing force. Both could be heard to be sobbing. Meanwhile, Ron, followed closely by Neville, had gone straight over the table, spilling food all over the table. He too wanted to welcome his best friend back, but from the looks of it, neither of the girls seemed inclined to let go of him any time soon.
By now, everyone, save for the first years and some second years, had caught the fact that it was actually Harry Potter that had strolled in the Great Hall moments ago. As such, conversation started all around the Hall. Dumbledore, as well as the rest of the teachers, had stood up and was making his way to where Harry was standing. McGonagall and Snape were following. Hagrid wasn't present at the time, otherwise he'd have joined the migration too.
Meanwhile, Harry had succeeded in getting loose from Hermione and Ginny and was now exchanging strong thumps on the back with Ron. When he let go of him, he could see that the red haired teen had tears in his eyes. He smiled at the sight and punched his friend lightly on the shoulder before grabbing Neville in a strong hug. After exchanging a couple of manly thumps on the back, he noticed that someone seemed to be missing. And indeed, Luna hadn't moved from her spot at the table. She was looking at them, but didn't seem inclined to join them. Frowning slightly, he took the path that Ron had taken minutes earlier, and went over the table to where she was sitting.
"Hello, Luna." He said once he was standing on her side of the table.
"Hello, Harry." She replied to the greeting.
"Would you object to a hug?" He asked.
At this, Luna smiled. Not one of her dreamy smiles that she often wore on her lips, but a true smile, one that spoke of happiness. She shook her head in denial.
"I think I would enjoy that, Harry."
And Harry pulled Luna in a gentle hug, without the crushing strength either of the other two girls had used, and Luna responded in kind by letting her arms enveloping his waist and squeezing softly. They stayed like that for a couple of moments before they let go of the other. He turned to the rest of his friends who still stood on the other of the table. Or so he thought. He barely finished turning around before he was once again nearly crushed to death by one redhead and one bushy brunette. He smiled as he put his arms around them.
"I've missed you too." He said. "We'll catch up later, but now there are some unpleasantries to be dealt with."
And indeed, Dumbledore had come close enough to speak with the gathered friends. Harry didn't let go of the girls, and neither did they, but they did turn to face the approaching teachers.
"Hello Harry. It's good to see you, alive and well." Dumbledore had a smile on his face as he said this and his eyes twinkled like they normally did.
"Only my friends are allowed to call me by my given name, old man. You're not one of them." Harry replied in a cold tone.
Whatever Dumbledore had been expecting, this wasn't it. His smile left his lips and the usual twinkle in his eyes became duller. McGonagall looked very upset that anyone would speak to the Headmaster like this and voiced her objections.
"Mr. Potter! You will show the Headmaster the respect he's due! 20 Points from Gryffindor for your disrespect." Snape sneered at this and opened his mouth to add his own commentary.
"Snape, one word from you and I'll permanently remove your vocal cords. It's bad enough this world has to suffer your existence, the least you could do is keep silent. Professor McGonagall, I gave the old man the respect he's due. None. After everything he'd done to me, he deserves none. He's lucky I even acknowledge him." Harry said. This of course resulted in shocking everyone who could hear that statement. McGonagall looked even more upset than she did before and Snape was glowering with rage, sputtering incoherently. The ever present twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes had vanished altogether now and he looked sadder than he'd ever seen him look.
"Snape, I'm warning you, I will carry out my threat of removing your vocal cords if you don't keep silent. Believe me, I'll enjoy it very much and the world in general will thank me for it, of that I have no doubt." Harry continued in the same tone he'd started in.
By now, the entire Hall had caught wind of what was being said and conversations were starting all over the tables. More than a few students would love to see the threat being carried out, even if it was only temporary. Harry's friends had no idea what was happening and were very much shocked at what Harry was saying, but they didn't move a muscle. If anything, Ron, Neville and Luna stepped closer to Harry, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that they were backing him up, no questions asked. Snape however, looked like he was going to explode. His face was abandoning the color red and stepping into the realm of purple at a very fast rate. Harry realized that Snape would never be able to keep his mouth shut and he really didn't want to hear his voice. Not now, not ever again. However, his threat applied to when he spoke, which he hadn't done yet. So as an alternative, he sent a small tendril of magic to Snape, which prevented his vocal cords to move even the smallest bit. This could be undone at any time, but still kept the man silent so Harry had no problem with doing so. Sure enough, Snape opened his mouth to scream his head off and not a single sound came from it.
Dumbledore could see that this would get out of hand.
"Harry, please join me in my office. We'll discuss things there."
"I don't think so, old man. I have no intention of going anywhere with you, nor will I discuss anything with you. My only reasons for being here are my friends. I'm no longer a student of this school. As such, I don't need to explain myself to you. I don't care what you think of that because that's how things are." Harry said, eyes narrowing at the old man that stood on the other side of the table. Dumbledore, as well as the rest of the school, was understandably shocked at what Harry said. Hermione opened her mouth to protest at this, but Harry silenced her by covering her mouth with his hand. "Later." He whispered to her.
"Harry, I implore you not to do anything rash. Please, come with me to my office and we can talk things out." Dumbledore pleaded. He couldn't believe that Harry would abandon his education, nor would he allow it. He was too important in this war to simply let him go.
"Old man, I told you before that only my friend can call me by my given name and that you are not one of them. And I just finished saying that I'm not going anywhere with you. Are you deaf as well as stupid? What I do with my life is nobody's business but my own. So leave me alone. I have some catching up to do with those I care about. Do not follow us." And with that he turned around, something that wasn't as simple as it might have been, seeing as he was still held by two girls.
"Room of Requirement, guys." He said once he'd turned around so he could face the rest of the group. They were completely bewildered by now and hadn't said a word since Dumbledore had begun speaking to Harry. They figured they'd get some kind of explanation when they were in private, so they nodded their acceptance and moved to the door.
"Harry, I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave. You must come to my office so we can talk about your absence and your apparent decision to leave school." Dumbledore tried again.
"You can try to stop me old man, but you'll pay the consequences. I don't care what happens to you, I want to spend some time with my friends. And don't call me Harry, you've lost that right with your actions toward me. Now leave me alone." Harry said without turning or slowing down.
"I'm afraid you leave me no choice." Dumbledore said in a sad voice. He drew his wand from his robes and aimed it at Harry. "Stupefy."
What happened next would remain the topic of discussion in the school for days to come. Harry, having heard and sensed the attack, let go of the girls and pushed them forward. He turned with blinding speed and raised his right hand in the path of the spell. Said spell splattered against his hand like a raw egg would against a wall, but it didn't even ruffle the black glove he wore. All of this happened in less than two seconds. The expression on Harry's face was one of resignation mixed with a touch of anger. He'd known the old man wouldn't let him go quietly.
"I told you there would be consequences." And with that, a ripple shot out of his still outstretched hand, heading straight for Dumbledore.
Dumbledore, while shocked at the failure of his spell, still raised his wand and put up a shield. A fairly strong one too. Imagine his surprise when the ripple, or whatever it was, passed through the shield as if it wasn't there. It knocked into his chest with enough force to send him flying, straight into Snape, knocking both of them to the ground. Dumbledore was in no condition to get up, as his chest felt like it was on fire and he couldn't seem to breathe. The entire Hall had gone silent and the remaining teachers had gotten up and were moving towards their position.
"This is your second warning. Do something like that again and I'll do far worse than hit you with a burst of compressed air. I want to spend time with my friends, so don't follow me." He could see that more than one of the approaching teachers had their wand out and it looked like McGonagall was going for her wand too. He sighed. Things were never easy for him. He focused his magic in the pattern needed and released his spell by clapping loudly in his hands. The effects were immediate. Everyone fell asleep in an instant. Those not sitting fell to the floor like a puppet with his wires cut. Unfortunately, that included his friends. They'd fallen like a sack of potatoes to the floor. Harry sighed again. Nope, never easy. He levitated his sleeping friends and began his walk to the Room of Requirement.
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Done. Tell me what you think.