See chapter one for disclaimers/warnings/summaries
PREVIOUSLY:
The dark-haired boy wearily gathered himself up and shuffled down back to the Gryffindor Tower, it'd be a long, busy day tomorrow and he'd need his sleep. If there was anything he'd learned at all during the summer, after his creature inheritance, it had been the need to rest and to rest well. His sleep cycles had gone haywire and he doubted returning to school would ease that particular grievance.
Harry disappeared into the darkness without a backward glance.
He never saw the tall, shadowed figure lurking the background, who looked from the plate to the direction of the retreating footsteps, shadowed hands clenched tightly at the sides.
The first day began with the usual, breakfast in the Great Hall. Harry was usually pleasantly sandwiched between Ron and Hermione. Usually. But the current seating arrangement changed just enough for it to be Hermione, Ron and Harry on the other end. The Twins were sitting further down the table and talking to Angelina and a few of the other upper-year girls.
Laughter flowed freely from their corner of the table and for a moment, Harry wondered what it was like to be normal like that—in their shoes.
He tried to pretend it didn't really bother him, but it did. He felt it plainly like a definite stab of loneliness that pierced through his stomach like as if it were a knife twisted and left there. He picked at his food and felt the 'knife' twist even deeper when Hermione didn't harp on him to eat more as she usually would.
Not that he could've really eaten much. His appetite had upped and left the moment he'd seen the new seating arrangement. It had thrown him off-kilter in a way he hadn't expected. Arguing with himself over such a little detail did more harm than good and so Harry gave it up and settled for making shapes and goals with his breakfast plate.
At least he'd look busy, if nothing else.
His morning melancholy was interrupted by the arrival of an unusual breakfast partner and punctuated by a flip of one thick, black plait. Parvati Patil slid easily into the space beside him and began reaching for the dishes along the table as if this were where she usually sat.
For a moment, Harry froze. They hadn't really spoke much—if at all—since his disastrous reality as her escort to the Yule Ball. He swallowed and glared at his breakfast plate. This was certainly starting out to be a strange day in more ways than one.
Her rich brown eyes flickered sideways at him and a slight spark of surprise registered. Her soft pink lips quirked into somewhat of a frown as she leaned forward and looked up and down the table, before settling back into her seat. She wore simple gold hoop earrings with a jade bead in the center of it, her thick, shiny hair pulled into a tight, neat plait that hung down her back, past her waist.
"Good morning." She said, politely.
"Morning." Harry managed. He caught sight of a thin, gold-and-green bangle on one wrist as her shirt-cuffs eased up and she stretched to reach the serving spoons of her favorite dishes.
She half-smiled at him and continued to fill her plate with the warm breakfast dishes before her. A moment later, she passed him the bowl as a matter of course. He took it, quickly, as she nearly dropped it in his hands and continued on with reaching for the desk dish.
He awkwardly handed it down the line, seeing Ron's face light up at the thought of bread pudding for breakfast and he noted that Hermione didn't even seem to care. The brunet returned his attention to his own breakfast plate only to realize that Parvati had finished filling her plate and was now adding to his.
"Er-" He began.
"You look awful." She said, bluntly. "Didn't you get enough sleep or something?" She added a hefty scoop of scrambled eggs to the right side of his plate. "Eat up. It'll make you feel better." She wrinkled her nose. "You look like you're about to pass out." She frowned.
The thread of conversation was normal and harmless enough that Harry should've been able to accept and decipher it by now. He should have. Instead, he found himself staring at the pretty Indian girl, before barely managing a weak smile belatedly in reply when the dark beauty stared expectantly at him.
"You say 'thank you'." Parvati prompted.
"Er," Harry managed, eloquently.
"Two words." She rolled her eyes. "Boys…"
"Thank you." Harry mumbled. He didn't want her to get all mad and huffy again. It'd been bad enough after the ball, but that they appeared to be on speaking terms at present was good. He didn't want it to go back to the way it'd been. That was too frustrating to handle. Girls were always complicated. He scowled.
"Good boy. Eat up." She repeated and flashed him a smile that seemed to soften as her gaze swept over him from head to hands. Then her attention returned to her own plate.
"I'm not really-uh-hungry." The smile was forced as if Harry couldn't help himself. "Thanks anyway." He set his fork down, his mind already spinning. There was no way he could really eat the breakfast, not when his stomach was calling for more the kind of meat he'd had last night in the Astronomy Tower. A faint shudder rippled through him and Harry dug his fingernails into his hands to produce the customary spike of pain that would help him keep his head straight and clear.
It was a trick he'd learned early on and it had yet to fail him. He couldn't afford to slack off and let something odd show through now. He'd managed to keep everything together for the past sixteen years—surely he could continue to do so for a good while longer. After all the major things were done—and his life wasn't in some sort of dire straits in regards to Voldemort—Harry figured he could hang on until then.
"Morning, Ginny." Parvati said, pleasantly.
Harry's head snapped up and he realized that the youngest redheaded Weasley had been watching him with narrowed eyes. He nervously began picking at his filled plate all over again. This time, he worked to move Parvati's spoonful of egg bits into even piles around his plate. He knew what was happening, knew that he wasn't about to get in the middle of it and that even if he did, it wouldn't do him much good.
"Morning." Ginny grunted. "Aren't you on the wrong side of the table?"
"Am I?" Parvati's smile darkened just a touch. "I hadn't realized." She said, sweetly. "Are you alright? You look terrible."
"Not any worse than your-"
Harry stabbed the table with his fork.
The movement even surprised him and it drew the attention of both girls.
He swallowed hard and managed a faint smile. Now he really didn't have much of an appetite at all. The bright yellow eggs only served to make the nauseous feeling a dozen times worse and knowing what he knew of Ginny, Harry didn't have to be a genius to figure out that the conversation wouldn't end well. He hadn't meant to stop them, but then again, his stomach clenched tight and a faint image hovered in his head.
Red meat. Blood. Food.
His heart throbbed rapidly and he groaned, inwardly. This morning was going from bad to worse in short order.
"Aren't you boys finished yet?" Hermione's disapproving tone sliced through the chatter. She'd stood up, with her bookbag slung over one shoulder as Ron grabbed one last sweet roll from the breakfast platters and took a large bite out of it. Her glare was slightly directed down the table at Neville, Seamus and the others. She was in perfect Head Girl mode. "We can't be late to the first class of the school year on the first day!"
Harry immediately swung his legs over the bench and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I'm all ready, Hermione." He forced a smile, this time, a little more naturally than before. "We won't be late. I won't be late. First class is transfiguration, right?" And without waiting for her confirm it, he made a beeline for the doors before the others could even slide free of the bench.
One puzzled bushy-haired witch, two redheads and an Indian beauty stared after him.
"Good morning." Professor McGonagall greeted them stiffly, her head held high as usual. She took a quick scan of her present students and made several notes on the hovering piece of parchment beside her. "Today we're going to be transfiguring…"
Her voice continued on and Harry tuned her out. He was remembering a peculiar incident earlier in the summer and then later on when he'd arrived in the dorms last night. He remembered having a wand and the sudden inability to cast a simple lumos.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall said, stiffly. "Is there something the matter?" She looked pointedly at his washcloth that should've been a throw pillow.
He opened his mouth to speak, but no answer came out. He couldn't think of a single excuse as to why his magic wasn't working—and to tell a lie to his head of house—well, Harry had a feeling that this little lie wouldn't go over well. In fact, if he had to trust his new Dragel senses, they screamed at him to be careful of which side he was on with this stern woman.
"Well, Mr. Potter?"
Harry tried.
He really did.
He said the incantation. He made the correct movements.
Professor McGonagall's brow furrowed. "Try again." She said, briskly. "With feeling!"
He did.
The result did not change.
The washcloth seemed to mock him.
At one point, the washcloth shuddered and then suddenly shot upwards and slapped Professor McGonagall in the face.
Harry stared at her in horror.
She plucked it from her pink-dotted face with two slender, wrinkled fingers, her mouth set in a line. "That, Mr. Potter, is quite enough!" She turned away with a huff. The rest of the class resumed their practicing at a single glare from the elderly woman. A few sniggers from the Slytherin side didn't help matters any.
Harry sat miserably until class was over. She hadn't taken points or assigned a detention, but the very fact that she hadn't done anything, left him with a rather bad feeling. He had noticed that some of the others had some trouble with the assignment, but none of them to the extent that he had—magicless, that is. Malfoy seemed to be the only one out of the bunch with some difficulty, but he'd managed to transfigure the washcloth in the end, so Harry pushed that moment aside.
He wondered which of his fellow classmates had come into any sort of inheritance over the summer. He couldn't see anything obvious, but perhaps they were like him—hiding it from prying eyes. He made a mental note to up his awareness by a few notches. It certainly couldn't hurt.
The moment class let out, he was on his feet and ready to go, hoping that Professor McGonagall wouldn't hold him back to ask any questions. His magic was probably just upset for a bit and would settle down on its own. He was sure of it—almost. After all, it's not like an inheritance could cancel it all out.
Unless he did something big and horrible and terrible or something equally big and terrifying and wonderful, there was no reason for his magic to be anything but simply what it was. He could be a squib—if he did something on such a large scale that he exhausted himself, but as far as he could recall, Harry knew he'd done no such thing.
He'd simply have to give it time—and hope that no one would really notice.
After all, surely there were other students who'd come into inheritances and were sure to cause some sort of ruckus in class.
He hoped.
It was a gamble he'd take for now.
In the meantime, he'd have to start thinking up some believable excuses.
His musings cut into his usual trip time, and Harry looked up to realize that Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight. He muffled a sigh and tore through the corridors, hoping he wouldn't run into anyone who'd order him to slow down. He could practically feel the seconds ticking away as he rushed to the next class and skidded to a stop before the door.
He was late—but Professor Flitwick merely gave him a look as two other late students came stumbling in after him. Harry gratefully hurried to a seat saved by Neville as Ron and Hermione were sitting together again and whispering heatedly to each other. Whatever it was, Hermione pulled away with a huff, crossing her arms and looking to the front. Ron tried to plead with her for a moment, before Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and class began.
Harry quickly found himself in the same predicament from Transfiguration. There was only so far he could go before the absence of his magic caused a bit of an issue. Professor Flitwick didn't call him out on it, but his disapproving frown said more than the little man himself, might have.
A slightly apologetic smile was the most that Harry could muster at that point. It didn't escape his notice either, that he was not the only one having trouble—Parvati had struggled some and so had Malfoy, along with Jennifer Dawn and Blaise Zabini. Harry soon found that his eyes sought them out every so often, regardless of whatever he was doing or trying to do in class. It was almost like a knee-jerk reaction, one that he couldn't control.
Thankfully, the little professor didn't seem to notice anything and Harry wasn't about to draw his attention to it. Relief was like a drink in the middle of the desert—and Harry took hold of it with both hands. It didn't take a genius to see that Ron and Hermione were engaged with each other the moment class let out and Harry knew to hurry to the next classroom before he resumed his earlier stream of convoluted logic. At least, he wouldn't be late.
The next class was DADA and there was some chattering amongst them all for the new professor had not shown up for the welcoming feast, nor had they been present at the staff table for breakfast this morning. It was a lovely little mystery of the most interesting kind and there were plenty of stories already flying around the room as to who and why.
Harry felt a faint shiver run through him as he fought the urge to squirm in his seat. All of his Dragel senses were screaming at him that this room was not safe. There were far too many dark memories associated with it—and the past DADA professors—with the exception Remus Lupin, certainly didn't help at all. Harry couldn't help feeling that this year would be just like all the others. There was nothing to suggest it would be otherwise.
He fought the urge to shiver and pushed it away, even as he felt a slight chill creep over him. The room was cooler than any of the other classrooms so far and he didn't like it. He much more preferred when everything was nice and toasty. His Dragel side preferred it, anyway. A scowl visited his face and stayed there.
Several long minutes passed by and the students shifted restlessly, the eerie air seeming to steal over them all and silencing the gossipy babblings.
The Gryffindors began to whisper amongst themselves and the Slytherins began to look rather uneasy.
Harry took note of both sides. To occupy himself, he took up his earlier musings and began to double check them.
As a matter of course, he darted a glance to Hermione and Ron who were engaged in another one of their whispered battles. He'd expected that and while he did wonder, briefly, what they were arguing about, he didn't care to ask them. It hadn't piqued his curiosity as it normally would, and his Dragel instincts had no particular inclinations towards them, so he ignored it. If it was important, then he'd know.
Neville was busy listening to something going on between Dean and Seamus that sounded like it might have had something to do with Quidditch or some other sports related thing. Parvati was sitting next to Jennifer Dawn instead of her best friend, Lavender and they were engaged in a polite conversation. Lavender sat by herself at the back of the room, reading Witch Weekly, with the occasional sniffle into her robe sleeve. Harry made a mental note of that, wondering what Lavender had done that would have Parvati set on her current track. He'd always thought the two of them were inseparable and their penchant for Divination hadn't really sat well with him.
But this version of Parvati was an entirely different one. She sat up straight and nodded and smiled in all the right places as she spoke with Jennifer and Harry finally took notice of the other Gryffindor girl. She wasn't really much to look at, mostly because she kept to herself, but he took a quick impression of her and stored it away for later use, if needed.
Her hair was a lovely auburn shade while her eyes were a very light shade of green, almost blue in their hue, when she happened to look in his direction and smiled—politely—before turning back to listen to whatever Parvati had been saying. It didn't escape his notice that she sat almost the same way that Parvati did.
The oddness of it struck him as strange. He filed that detail away for later thought as well.
The rest of the Gryffindors didn't seem to be doing much that warranted his attention, so Harry shifted his attention to the Slytherin side.
In stark contrast, every one of them seemed highly strung up—particularly Draco Malfoy. In fact, as far as Harry could recall, the blond had gotten progressively worse through the first two classes. He'd been all wonderful at the breakfast table and now as lunch approached, it seemed as if he was going to pieces.
To date, Harry couldn't recall having seen the white-blond ever that pale. If he didn't know better, he'd swear that Malfoy was trying his chances on becoming a ghost—and from the looks of it, doing a swell job. He was holding a single cord of black in his hand with two beads in which he worried between his fingers and his steel grey eyes remained fixed on some invisible point on the classroom wall. He didn't move.
Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem to think anything of it, as they didn't engage him in any way, but Harry had a feeling they were probably on orders to leave the blond alone and so were doing exactly that. It did bug him that the rest of his usual group was doing the same thing—including the mile-a-minute-mouth, Pansy Parkinson. She sat, calmly, to Draco's left and stared straight ahead at the classroom wall, just as he did. If he didn't value his life to some degree, Harry would have told her what a great impression of petrification she did.
He didn't though. He didn't think she'd appreciate it.
Daphne Greengrass, the dark-haired beauty with piercing blue eyes, sat ramrod straight, her thick hair hanging in soft waves around her oval-shaped face and there was a near visible crackle of magic around her. Harry blinked twice as he studied her and quickly averted his gaze when he felt those blue eyes shift in his direction.
Harry did notice that not one of the Slytherins were talking, but rather, they were all fidgeting—barely—but fidgeting nonetheless and growing more tense by the minute. They went from sitting in perfect, polite form to varying degrees of well, petrification. Head's straightening up, shoulders settling further behind, backs ramrod straight and feet firmly planted on the ground.
It was rather unnerving.
Harry had never seen them do that before—of course, he probably hadn't paid that close attention to them before, so it could be normal and he simply didn't know it. He did take careful note of the Slytherins that he knew, the tanned and generally good-looking Blaise Zabini, appeared relaxed, however, every so often, his left eyebrow would twitch as if the very act of sitting still and pretending that everything was just fine was one thing too many.
Theodore Nott chewed calmly on one of four chocolate frogs and Harry felt his own stomach rumble in reminder that he hadn't really given it much of a breakfast.
Millicent Bulstrode snuck glances at Daphne and Pansy adjusting her figure each time she did. Crabbe and Goyle did a fine impression of two lumps and nothing else.
With that little bit of spywork done, Harry then returned his attention to his schedule on the desk. He wasn't sure how much longer they were going to wait here, but if it was anymore than-
Everyone jumped when the classroom doors burst open.
A/N: And it's Harry's first day! He's made it through two classes without magic and he's skipped his breakfast. Ah, Harry. Now there's a new DADA teacher and what's up with Parvati? Btw, I've named the OFC Vampire, Ebony. ^_^ The updated pairing list is below! There have been mentions and descriptions for Jennifer Dawn, Parvati and Daphne in this chapter. Vote via PM or review. List will be adjusted by chapter until I decide. ONE VOTE per person (You may vote for multiple characters, but please vote only once, unless you're changing your vote). Thanks! ^_^
Luna -5
Daphne -6
Parvati -2
Padma -2
Bellatrix -5
Narcissa -4
Gabriella -1
Susan B. -5
OFC(Vampire) "Ebony"-4
Jennifer Dawn (Gryffindor in Harry's Year) -1
Pansy P. -3
Millicent B. -2
N. Tonks-5
Morgana le Fey -1
Perenelle Famel -1
Katie -1
Angelina -1
Alicia -1
redstickbonbon: I've added your suggestions to the list. (and glad you're enjoying the original version as well!) Thanks! ^_^
Kitsune Shifter: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I have plans for a Sophia later on in the story-so I've named the vamp for ya. ^_^ Thanks for reading and reviewing!
sky is the limet & blood hunter: Votes received! :)
AlexTheGoth: And here's another chapter! *grin* I aim to please. :P Tonks may just make the cut yet, there's quite a few votes for her Luna, Daphne and Bellatrix, with Narcissa coming up in there as well. LOL at giving Lucius to Sevvy. ^_^ Megan will make her appearance slowly and with feeling. Erm, I mean, she'll make her appearance soon-remember, she's a hufflepuff and as such, Harry doesn't run into her the way he would've with others. I'll try my best to make her a likeable character. I hate Mary Sue's, so if I start going off in that direction, yell loudly. :P Thanks for reading and reviewing!