Disclaimer: I certainly do not own Harry Potter. That belongs to J.K Rowling.
Chapter Six
Oddballs, Lessons and Posters
Harry woke up startled.
The sound of Neville Longbottom's shrill shriek filled through the dormitory.
'Ugh, Neville...' Harry thought grumpily trying to bury his head underneath the pillow to block out the noise.
He knew by the way he shrieked he wasn't in any danger but just shocked.
Harry wasn't the only who Neville woke up with his shrieks.
"Bloody hell Neville! What are you screaming about now?" came Seamus's snarling voice.
Harry could hear the sound of feet marching across the room.
"Oooo Neville I didn't think you'd read that kind of stuff," Seamus voice rang out teasingly.
"It's not mine!" Harry could hear Neville hiss.
"What's going on now?" He heard Dean ask.
"Longbottom's got himself a dirty magazine!" Seamus sounded like he was laughing.
"I found it on the floor right here it's not mine!" Neville protested.
"Ooo let's have a look then!" Ron's voice rang out joining in the fun.
'Oh God I'm never going to get back to sleep now,' Harry thought to himself hearing the laughter of his friends.
He lifted himself up from the bed and stopped himself when he heard the boys grow deadly silent.
"Is that Harry in this magazine?" Dean's voice asked.
'What?'
"Hey yeah it is...damn he looks really..." Seamus voice confirmed sounding like he was in awe.
'Oh crap! That's it!' Harry thought to himself tearing open the drapes around his bed.
"Harry!" his friends said simultaneously all standing there frozen looking pink faced.
Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville were all huddled around a magazine while Colin Creevey and his brother was sat on their beds listening to them.
Harry had a horrible suspicion what magazine it was.
"If that's Witchy Warts magazine I'm going to tear it to shreds!" Harry yelled.
The boys who were holding the magazine stepped back slightly scared.
"I'm afraid it isthe Witchy Warts magazine," Dean admitted to Harry who looked like he could tear them all to shreds.
"You might not want to look at the picture then," Seamus advised with an huge grin on his face.
"What picture..." Harry said in a deadly serious voice that made the Irish boy flinch.
"Um..." Neville awkwardly handed him the magazine.
Harry's face visibly turned red with rage when he saw himself topless in nothing but his boxers and his wrists decorated with chains.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" The Boy Who Lived yelled so loud that anyone at the other side of the castle could hear him.
A couple of other Gryffindors woke up and started to listen in curiously.
"Where the hell are they getting these pictures?" Harry asked frustrated.
The picture actually looked really realistic and that was what he hated most.*
"Um, they look like magically enhanced pictures," Ron informed his angry friend.
"What?"
"They have a special camera that takes a picture of you and it turns out based on theme," Colin informed him.
"They had a camera with a theme of kinkiness," Seamus muttered staring at the picture of Harry.
Harry glared at his Irish friend and was about to rip up the vile magazine until Seamus grabbed it out of his hands.
"Let me read it first," Seamus grinned.
"Seamus," Dean gave his best friend a look that said 'Don't do anything stupid now,'.
"I want to see what it says about Harry!" Seamus exclaimed.
"I don't," Harry muttered angrily trying to whisk the magazine back but his friend jumped back keeping it out of his reach.
"C'mon it might say who takes the picture," Seamus smirked.
"Okay fine read it, I want to find this creepy person making these pictures," Harry declared.
"Your eyes are closed and you're laid back so it looks like they've taken it when you were asleep," Colin summarised.
Harry shuddered.
"This is starting to get really creepy," Ron muttered with his nose wrinkled.
"It says 'Watch out! Harry is now of age,'...of age?" Seamus muttered curiously.
"Of age to have sex," Harry revealed bluntly making a few Gryffindors to turn pink.
The sound of a wolf whistle made by Cormac McLaggen was heard at the side, he was arrogantly listening in their conversation with a churlish grin on his smug face.
Harry returned the favour with a glare that only made Cormac's grin wider.
Seamus only just now realising the attention that he attracted handed back Harry the magazine.
"Here why don't you read the rest of it," Seamus muttered to Harry.
Seamus was a very laidback boy but he didn't want to humiliate his friend that just wasn't his style.
Harry straightened up fully aware of the many eyes staring at him and began to read to himself the page.
He firstly he tried to read who the makers of the magazine were but there was nothing to be seen.
'Great,' Harry thought sarcastically to himself feeling very unsafe that someone is taking pictures of him sleeping.
The Boy Who Lived breathed in deeply and started to read the dreaded article.
'Finally The Boy Who Lived is offically of age! This magazine is now determined to keep a track of how many people plan to pursue him in the quest of his deflowering-'
'Screw it! I'm not even finishing it!' Harry thought as he tore up the offending article making it cause tiny little screams and tossing the pieces to the floor.
The Gryffindors started to do their own thing and get ready for breakfast.
"If I ever catch the guy who taking these pictures he will be as good as dead!" Harry mumbled angrily at Ron.
Harry and his friends quickly left the dormitory.
Cormac watched them travel down the spiral stairs and silently moved towards the ripped up magazine.
"Repairo," he grinned ready to see what got Potter so worked up.
"Hello Draco," said an airy voice that belonged to a female.
Draco looked up from his breakfast to see a Ravenclaw girl with multi-coloured spectacles that made her look like a demented owl.
"Do I know you?" Draco asked raising an eyebrow.
Pansy who was sat beside Blaise gawped at the strange female trespassing her territory.
"I'm not sure if you've met me before, but I'm Harry's friend Luna Lovegood," smiled the blonde girl.
"You mean Looney Lovegood," snorted Pansy.
'Oh crap, she's one of Harry's friends. Don't say something you'll regret Malfoy,' Draco thought to himself eyeing her spectacles.
"Um, hello Luna..." Draco said unsure of what to say.
Pansy stared at Draco in shock.
"I wanted to congratulate you into changing your ways and making peace." Luna smiled.
"I just thought I'd see if it wasn't wrackspurts making you act this way but there isn't enough around you to make you too confused," she tapped her spectacles gently.
"...wrackspurts?" Draco looking absolutely confused.
"Little invisible things that go into you ears and make your brain go fuzzy," she explained.
Draco noticed that Blaise was biting his knuckle to stop himself laughing either at his reaction or her story.
"Okay..." Draco finally said hoping not to offend her.
Luna gave Draco an a bracelet with butterbeer corks with sickles embedded in the middle of each one*.
"This is for luck and also keeps the nargles away. I'd thought I'd make a bracelet instead of a necklace," Luna told Draco dropping the object in his hand.
"Thanks," he said keeping himself from saying anything else.
Luna gracefully walked away from the Slytherin table which went quite quiet for some reason but not before turning to Pansy and saying "There are too many wrackspurts around you, what a pity,"
Draco laughed at Pansy who began staring around her head like something demented to see if there was something there.
"What a freak," she whispered nastily to Daphne Greengrass who was sat opposite to her.
"Oi Draco, why didn't you tell that lunatic to piss off?" Millicent Bullstrode asked loudly.
"Yeah, why exactly are you trying to make peace with them lot I thought you hated them?" smirked a third year Slytherin named Mafalda*.
"What I do is none of your business," Draco remarked coldly staring at each one of them.
Pansy backed off with a frown planted on her face, Millicent stared back with a studying glare and Malfalda's grin grew wider.
"Blaise, what's first period?" Draco asked grumpily annoyed by the topic.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Blaise replied.
"Excellent, hopefully I get to blast something," Draco muttered stabbing his bacon.
Draco ceased his stabbing when he saw the smile of Harry across from the Gryffindor table.
"Looks like someone got into Potter's good books," whispered Blaise smirking.
Draco smiled back. 'This day might prove good after all,'
The Malfoy sighed in relief that he managed to repress the side of him that would've told him to laugh in the face of Luna and openly taunt her.
'Be proud of your progress Malfoy,' Draco thought to himself.
Harry waited patiently in Defence the Dark Arts class, the place looked creepy to him, the windows were closed and the only light was candles decorating the classroom. Also there were posters around showing gruesome pictures of people being tortured by the Dark Arts.
'...Pleasant...' Harry thought to himself.
"Hello Potter," Draco greeted pleasantly smoothly walking into the classroom along with the other Slytherins in the class.
Ron was sat next to Harry he gave Draco a heated glare to which he returned.
"Hey Malfoy, why don't you sit near us today?" Harry offered the seat next to him.
Hermione was sat next to Lavender Brown behind them.
"Sure why not?" Draco smiled repressing the urge jumping up and down screaming "Yes!"
Ron looked surprised that Draco accepted the offer so quickly.
"I want to thank you for being decent to Luna," Harry smiled.
"Surprised you didn't make a snobby comment about her glasses," Ron grumbled not looking at Draco.
"Well she's very...unique..." Draco said unsure of what to say.
"That's one way of saying it," Ron smirked.
A frightened looking Hufflepuff entered the classroom, with a bunch of flowers; she hastily placed them in a vase (that had a creepy gargoyle face in the front) and quickly went to sit next to Susan Bones.
The air turned cool when Snape entered the classroom making the students go instantly silent.
"It is my pleasure to announce, it will be me that shall teach you Defence Against the Dark Arts this year," Snape said in his soft voice walking towards the desk.
He looked down at the flowers in the vase, which stood out because of its brightness compared to its bleak background.
"While I thank Miss Abbott for your...generous gift...this won't affect your grade,"
Hannah looked like she could burst into tears.
Snape then looked directly at Draco and Harry.
"I never thought I'd see the day," Snape muttered almost to himself.
Draco could swear that Snape was repressing a smile.
With a faint flick of his wand the books on each of the student's desks was flung across the room into a neat pile.
"Today we shall be practising a more...serious side to Defence Against the Dark Arts, you will not always have your wands to defend yourselves with...which is why I took the honour of teaching you non-verbal spells," Snape said sternly.
"But Professor with You-Know-Who dead, what's the point of learning Defence Against the Dark Arts anymore?" a hufflepuff student asked out loud.
The students began whispering silently until Snape shouted out "Silence!"
The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher walked over to the student and loomed over him.
Harry noted that the Hufflepuff boy turned a pale shade of yellow.
"Little fool, though the Dark Lord may be gone. The Dark Arts has not. There will always, be The Dark Arts just as Defence Against the Dark Arts will be," Snape explained placing his hands on the desk.
"There is no light without dark and vice versa. Without it we cannot exist," Snape said turning to the class.
For a fleeting moment Snape's eyes lingered onto Harry before moving to the centre of the room.
"Let us begin shall we?" Snape's lips curled into a smirk.
The students were exhausted, each student were in pairs. One partner had to perform the stinging hex on their partner while the other had to try and counter-curse it with a non-verbal spell.
To put it bluntly hardly any of the students were doing a good job.
Each student had at least one or two hives on their body, the faces that some of the students made distracted Harry greatly, he had to force himself from laughing because most of the students looked constipated when they tried to do a non-verbal spell.
The only students that were doing a good job was Hermione, who managed to make her partner Lavender Brown's face swell up greatly and Draco who was begrudgingly partnered with Gregory Goyle.
"That was a pathetic job," Snape sneered at his students eyeing up each of their swollen faces when class was over.
"You should thank your lucky stars that the Dark Lord is no longer with us for if that was the performance you were willing to give to defend yourselves then God save you all," Snape lectured completely ignoring Hermione.
"45 points to Slytherin," Snape pointed to Draco.
Ron opened his mouth to argue until Snape said "I'll reduce fifty house points to whoever interrupts me,"
"Your homework for tonight is to write up an essay on your text book 'Confronting the Faceless,' Class dismissed,"
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked to their next class, Draco began to follow them until Blaise blocked his way.
"Looks like you've gotten into Harry's good books," Blaise smiled patting him on the shoulder.
"Looks like I have," smirked Draco.
"Good on you mate," Blaise smiled beginning to walk to his next class.
Draco began walking behind him before hearing the sound of giggling girls huddled in the corner.
"Can you believe Potter of all people would allow this?" that was Malfalda.
Blaise stopped in his tracks to eavesdrop.
"Yeah, who knew," smirked a girl named Leanne.
"And this is being passed on throughout Hogwarts?" Romilda gasped dramatically.
Draco noticed that all the girls was huddled around a pile of papers, one of them happened to drop right at Draco's feet.
The young Malfoy was filled was rage as he read the poster.
'Harry Potter is a Whore! Slut! Bitch!'
The nasty words flickered in all different colours, underneath the title was several pictures of revealing and suggesting pictures.
One was Harry in chains in nothing but a pair of boxers.
If Draco saw this in real life, he would be very turned on, however this wasn't in reality this was made to humiliate Harry and also a lot of people was going to see this.
'How dare someone treat my Harry in such a way,' Draco seethed.
"Malfalda!" Draco hissed quietly trying to keep in his rage.
Blaise purposely blocked the third year Slytherin's way to keep her from ignoring Draco, then Malfalda cautiously approached Malfoy leaving the other girls to wander off somewhere.
"Who's been spreading these around?" Draco demanded shoving the poster in the young girl's face.
For a few moments the girl was silent, but the young Malfoy knew it wouldn't be for long.
She was after all the biggest gossip in the Slytherin House.
"I-It was Cormac Mclaggen he's been giving them to nearly everyone!" Malfalda squeaked under Draco's intense gaze.
"Cormac?" Draco hissed.
'Cormac? That pompous Gryffindor that swaggers around the place? He's done this! Least Slytherins have some sort of loyalty,'
Without really knowing Draco used non-verbal magic to set the poster on fire, startling Blaise greatly.
'Oh that lowly worm will regret the day was born. And he'll regret that he ever crossed with me. I'll make sure of it,'
A/N: Oooo Draco's pisssed.
*This is set in a time before Photoshop was invented. This is set in 1996.
*I got the idea from a gift I previously received from my sister who gave me a cork with a 20p in for good luck.
*Malfalda is NOT an OC. She was in the Goblet of Fire books but was edited out. I'm not going to include her much in the story but for more information on her search for her on J.K's website. Malfada was supposed to be a big gossip and tell Harry a lot of what the Slytherins were saying. Which will be perfect in some situations.
Understand why Draco acts that way towards Luna. Luna is the embodiment of what he was taught to shun, she's different, she believes in different things and is quite odd. This will make him hard to let go of his persecutions of the past. So Luna is there to serve as a challenge towards Draco.
ALSO A QUESTION FOR MY READERS TO THINK ABOUT:
If Voldemort never existed what would happen to Snape?
I have a theory of what would happen (though I know not all would agree)
I believe that if Voldemort never existed. I believe that Snape would actually become a dark wizard.
I know what a lot of you are thinking (What? How dare you say that!)
But think about it Snape was interested in Dark Arts long before he met Voldemort.
Also he has every reason to become a Dark Wizard; he was weak and was picked on by people.
The only reason he feels like he has to redeem himself because the Potters died because of him. The loss of his true love died because of the Dark Arts.
Without the death of his love would he have worked so hard to redeem himself?
Those are my reasons, I would like to hear your opinions on this question.
I'd also like point out that Snape is one of my favourite characters in the books, so I'm not trying to bash him in anyway.
Till Next Time
~Blazenix