Chapter Nine

The two weeks leading up to the Dance Off seemed to go by very quickly, in Harry's opinion. With copious amounts of homework from all his classes, visits to see Sirius, Remus and The Pups, regular dinners with Severus and Hermione and the occasional game of Wizard's Chess with Ronnie, it seemed as though there wasn't nearly enough time to practise all the moves he was meant to learn.

"Arrrgh!" said Harry as he flung himself onto his bed. "The Dance Off is tomorrow and I still can't do this move right!"

"I know!" wailed Ronnie, from where she laid eagle spread on the floor. "I don't know how anyone could learn it in two weeks!"

She moaned loudly.

"Why did we ever vote Angelina as Captain?"

"Oh, bollocks it all," said Harry, "I'm going for a walk. Hopefully she just won't make us do it."

"Ok," said Ronnie, "I'm going to have a shower and attempt to re-shrink my leg muscles. Don't get into too much trouble."

Harry nodded as he left the room.

"Since when do I get into trouble?" he scoffed.

As Harry descended towards the Common Room he suddenly became aware of raised voices coming from within. He stepped into the room to see Ginny and Dean having a rather intense discussion.

"You promised me you wouldn't whore yourself around anymore!" said Dean.

Ginny flicked her long red hair.

"It doesn't mean anything," she retorted.

Dean threw his hands up in the air.

"How can you say that?!" he demanded. "You know how much it hurts me!"

"Well, maybe that's because you're just not man enough to deal with it!" cried Ginny.

The occupants of the Common Room gasped in unison and waited eagerly for Dean's reply.

"Fine!" he finally spat. "It's over between us!"

Ginny sniffed and adjusted her boob tube.

"No wood off my wand," she said as she turned to exit the room.

"Just so you know, I like Ronnie better anyway," said Dean as a parting shot, as he stormed up to his dormitory.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOO," said the crowd in pleasure.

Ginny stood, open mouthed, in the centre of the room for a few moments time, digesting what Dean had said, before finally turning and angrily exiting the portrait hole.

The other students immediately began to gossip. Harry shook his head at their antics.

"They'll get used to it," said someone very close to Harry's left ear, "Life is pain."

Harry turned to look at who had spoken. He took in the pale skin, black skinny leg jeans, huge black fringe and numerous piercings.

"Colin?" he said in surprise.

"Yeah," said the younger boy miserably, "don't worry, I'm not offended that you've forgotten me. Everybody has."

"Oh, no," said Harry, "it's just that you seem to have … changed a bit over the Summer."

Colin nodded and brushed his fringe out of his right eye.

"Yeah," he said, "my parents don't get me; they don't understand that this is the real me, the one inside that hides from all the pain and suffering the world heaps upon my shoulders."

"Oh," said Harry. "that's good. I, uh, have to go, but I'll talk to you later, ok?"

Colin shrugged.

"Whatever," he said slowly, "you know Harry, I really heart your scar. It's so, like, painfully personal."

Harry nodded.

"Right. Bye Colin."

Colin sighed as he watched Harry walk away

"People don't get me," he said morosely.

He sighed again, before turning and walking back to his dormitory, where he could listen to Hawthorne Heights, and cry.

Harry walked through the Dungeons, absent-mindedly humming 'It's Raining Men'. He stopped and looked around. His feet had led him to his father's private quarters, apparently of their own accord.

'Then again,' he pondered, 'I was trying to get away from Ginny and Smith, and I guess this is the last place they would be.'

He remembered what he had witnessed only a few minutes ago and shuddered.

Apparently there was some basis in calling Zacharias 'The Hufflepuff Hellraiser'; he certainly was rather noisy.

Harry shuddered again and quickly banished any more thoughts of the amorous couple from his mind. If Severus were to do a surprise Occumency test on him this evening, those kind of images could prove very hard to explain.

Suddenly, Harry realised that he wasn't the only one to visit the Potion Master's rooms that night.

A dark figure in a long cloak was crouching down before Snape's door, apparently leaving behind a large parcel.

"Who's that?" said Harry nervously, and rather stupidly.

The figure turned sharply, its cloak billowing out impressively in the still Dungeon air.

Harry gasped and began to slowly walk backwards as he caught a glimpse of the figure's blazing red eyes.

The figure continued to advance on him, raising two seemingly clawed hands; Harry raised his wand and shouted the first spell that came to mind.

"Lumos!"

The figure hissed in pain as it reared away from the light, bringing its arms up to shield its face as it did so.

Harry stepped forward, suddenly feeling braver.

The figure appeared to sense him coming, and without a single further motion, turned and ran, quickly disappearing into the shadows that lined the hall.

'Well, that was weird,' thought Harry, as he began to slowly walk towards the door leading to his father's rooms.

He had almost reached the door when he fell over.

"Ooofph," said Harry.

Severus opened the door.

"What in the name of the Wizarding World are you doing, Harry?" said Snape. "I guess it was too much to hope for that you would one day inherit some resemblance of my grace and poise …"

Harry muttered something that may have been 'sod off'.

"What was that, my dear son?" queried Severus teasingly.

Harry dusted himself off and raised his chin.

"I'll have you know," he said, "that I just fought off a very vicious vampire."

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"Nice excuse. I still say that you're clumsy."

"I have proof!" exclaimed Harry, playing along with his father's teasing.

"Oh, yes? Pray tell, what is this proof you have?"

Harry pointed to the parcel the figure had left behind, and that he had only recently tripped over.

Severus raised his other eyebrow.

"Hmmm," he said, "this will need to be investigated."
He picked up the parcel and motioned for Harry to follow him inside.

"Where's Hermione?" asked Harry as they entered the kitchen.

Severus scowled.

"She got annoyed when I mentioned that Big Brother: Series 38 was little more than a poor excuse of an experiment to attempt to disprove that stupidity wasn't contagious. She went back to her mothers'."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"You know, if you just got rid of the TV you two would have a lot less fights. And Hermione wouldn't use up so much floo powder."

"I mentioned that once," grumbled Severus, "and I had to sleep on the couch."

Harry chuckled.

Severus finished unwrapping the parcel.

"Curious," he said.

Harry pinched his nose to try and avoid the stench that had quickly begun to fill the room.

"That's gross," said Harry, "and on that note, what is it?"

"It's the spleen of a basilisk," said Snape, "it's very useful for many potions."

"I'm sure," said Harry.

"You wouldn't know," said Severus, "you wouldn't know a useful ingredient if it hit you on the head."

Harry sneered.

"And don't do that," said Severus, "it's like looking into a Youngifying Mirror."

"That's not a word," said Harry sniffily.

"Is too," shot back Severus, "the author just added it to dictionary."