Chapter Two.
Harry followed Professor McGonagall through the various corridors until they both stood in front of the Gargoyle that marked the entrance to the Headmaster's office. "Fizzing Whizby." Said Professor McGonagall. The Gargoyle leapt to the side revealing the door Dumbledore's office. "Well go on Potter. He's waiting for you." She said pretty irately. Harry guessed she had heard the rumours.
He knocked on the door and walked in. Albus Dumbledore sat behind his heavy hardwood desk, in his throne like chair, with Fawkes the Phoenix sitting on his perch next to the desk. "Good Afternoon Harry!" Dumbledore smiled "Please sit down… care for a lemon drop?" Harry shook his head 'no' and sat down. "You know the reason I set the passwords to my office after candies is because it is rather funny to force Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall to say them." He chuckled. "But Harry, as I'm sure you are aware I did not simply invite you here so that we could share a laugh at Professor Snape's expense." He looked over his half-moon spectacles at Harry.
"Yes sir." Said Harry flatly. He had no desire to discuss the rumours at all, let alone with the headmaster. He just hoped he could fix his friendship with Katie.
"Very good. Now you were spotted earlier this morning coming down the stairs to the Gryffindor girls dormitories. The fact that they did not turn into a slide is neither here nor there as they only do that when a male is attempting to enter as there would be little point in doing it when they were leaving." he paused for a moment as if thinking of what to ask next, or how to phrase what he was going to say. "Harry I must ask you what it was you were doing in the girls dormitories this morning?"
"Sleeping Sir." Answered Harry, which was the truth…sort of.
"Harry can you please tell me which year's dorm you were 'sleeping' in?" Dumbledore asked. He obviously knew that Harry was avoiding the questions, but decided to humour him for a minute.
"The Seventh year dorm Sir." Answered Harry. "But it wasn't my fault I was there Sir." he added.
"Oh really Harry? I'm sure Ms Bell or Ms Lethbridge-Stewart did not drag you into their dorm room if you were unwilling." Dumbledore was getting sick of this skirting around the issue, Harry could see it in his eyes.
"Sir are you at all familiar with the Weasley twins' back to school parties for the upper years?" Dumbledore nodded and ushered Harry to continue. "Well they snuck back into the castle last night, I'm not sure how but they used the Floo and threw the party anyway. Only they brought several crates of Ogden's Finest Firewhiskey with them. I can't remember most of last night and after that the first thing I remember is being woken up by a jet of freezing cold water at half ten this morning."
Dumbledore looked down at the papers on his desk for a couple of minutes while he thought on what Harry had just said. "Harry I'm not going to do anything overly rash given the circumstances, and as both you and either of the ladies in question are over the age of consent there is no reason to contact the Aurors. However I will not tolerate male students in the girls dormitories it sets a bad example to the younger students. So I must dock Gryffindor one hundred and fifty house points, but that will be all the punishment given out. Now as you were otherwise occupied this morning I'll assume you missed the Prefect patrol rotas" said Dumbledore picking up one of the sheet and handing them to Harry. He was patrolling that night with Hermione and halfway through swapped to Katie Bell of all people.
"Also Harry, this year I will be taking you for additional lessons at different times throughout the year, so that you may better understand how to combat the threat posed by Lord Voldemort. The first of these lessons will be right before Halloween, but I will contact you closer to the time." Said Dumbledore leaning back in his chair. Harry simply nodded excited to be finally doing something to fight Voldemort.
"I would also like to ask you to lead the school Duelling Club. It will be a relatively simple job simply meeting with professor Flitwick once a week. And I would also like you to reform the DA. Although a name change might be in order, defence association might be more appropriate. Any members of it over seventeen would be invited to join the order. I can understand if you say no, you have a lot on you plate at the moment. But if you do decide not to perhaps you could suggest one or two names for me to ask next." Dumbledore sighed Harry had appeared to be in a rut since Sirius died and it wasn't getting any better. If anything last night set him back a fair bit.
"I'll try my best sir. I need to train as much as I can if I'm going to face Voldemort again." Harry said. He was determined now, after Sirius died he promised himself he would try harder, be better in the fight against Voldemort.
"Very well Harry. Thank you for accepting this, it is not an easy road that lies ahead of you, but you are facing it like a man, which is always the first step to overcoming fear." Said Dumbledore. "Now Harry as I'm sure you can see I'm rather busy. I will be in contact about those lessons in the coming weeks." Harry nodded and got up. He walked past the tables with all the small gadgets he'd destroyed not two months earlier and opened the door when Dumbledore piped up again.
"Oh and Harry I'm very interested to see what you and Ms Bell manage to pull together for the Quidditch Cup. Professor McGonagall seems rather eager to keep it in her office. I myself will be rooting for you. I must also advise you not to attempt to duel other students in the halls, it was that and abuse of his powers that got Mr Malfoy removed from the post you now hold." The old man smiled as Harry turned and closed the door. "Well Fawkes…" said Dumbledore as he took off he glasses and looked at the phoenix as he took his cursed hand out from underneath the desk"…it is shaping up to be an interesting year…an interesting year indeed."
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Katie Bell groaned when she saw the patrol schedule sitting on her bed. Until Christmas at least her patrolling partners for most of the week were Harry Ron and Hermione, the bloody golden trio, which was all she needed. And for half the time she'd be alone with Harry. Ughh, and she could go and ask for it to be changed because then people would get suspicious. She bloody hated being a prefect and she hadn't even started doing her job yet. Tonight was going to be beyond awkward. At least she didn't have to spend the whole time with Harry… although Ron wasn't much better. She groaned throwing her head back down into the pillow.
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At nine o'clock Harry walked into the disused classroom that had become the unofficial prefects meeting room. All the prefects piled into the small room before being sent off to various parts of the castle. "Bell, Potter, Granger, and Weasley. You guys have the sixth floor corridor to yourselves." Said Aidan Vaisley, the Head Boy from Slytherin.
The group of four climbed the grand staircase in silence until they reached the entrance to the sixth floor corridor. They then split up and went their separate ways. Harry and Hermione took the section in the East wing and Ron and Katie took the section in the west wing. They would meet back at the staircase in an hour to switch over. If they found anyone they were to go to the Head Boy or Head Girl on the Grand staircase and then resume their duties immediately.
Harry and Hermione walked in silence for the first five minutes, before Hermione's resolve finally broke. "Harry stop." She said. "I know you don't want to talk about it but…what happened to you last night? I've heard the rumours, all of them…even the one's I wished I hadn't. I know you weren't in your own dorm last night, Ron said you hadn't slept in your bed. Please Harry… just tell me what happened." She pleaded as the stood outside one of the disused classrooms on that floor.
Harry sighed; he knew that Hermione wouldn't give in, she would keep pestering him and pestering him until he caved and told her what had happened the night before. "Ok. I stayed at the party last night. Fred and George were pouring the Butterbeer and Firewhiskey all night. I don't remember much after you left actually. This morning I was woken up by someone casting an ice water charm on me. I don't even know how I got to the girls dorms. Next thing I know I'm being blasted of Katie's bed by a jet of ice cold…" Harry stopped realising he'd let something slip he shouldn't have.
Hermione's eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth. She shook her head from side to side, but Harry simply nodded. Hermione didn't speak for a while, mulling over what she had just heard. "So tonight is going to be really awkward for you isn't it?" she asked
"Yeah, patrolling with her is only the half of it." Replied Harry "I asked her to be my co-captain for the Quidditch team on the train. I just hope I can sort of rebuild the friendship I had with her you know. Aside from you and Ron, she's probably one of my closer friends. I even think I might have fancied her a bit, but now I don't know what to do." Harry started walking again but before she could respond Harry had opened the nearest broom cupboard to reveal two fifth year Puffs in an awkward position. "You two it's past curfew. Follow me." He said and walked towards the stairs. "I'll take these two down you keep watch." He said leading the two dishevelled looking puffs down the stairs.
By the time Harry got back it was almost time to change over. The pair didn't talk much after that and stayed off the subject of Katie completely.
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Katie was sick of Ron already and it was only the first night patrolling. Even Cormac would have been a better partner than Ron. All he talked about was the bloody the Chudley Cannons. It only got worse when Katie said she supported The Harpies; he went on for ages about how the Tornados cheated their way through all their matches all their matches and that he didn't even see the point of having an all woman's team like the Harpies in the league in the first place. By the time they were ready to switch over she was ready to kill him.
They met Harry and Hermione at the stairs and changed boys. Both Harry and Katie were now painfully aware that they were alone standing on the stairs. They walked into the northern section of corridor and started walking up and down. Katie didn't see why they needed to even patrol this corridor the only thing that was on it was a birdcage, Professor Slughorn's office, and some disused classrooms. "Soooo…"said Katie as they walked, "catch anyone out?" she asked, simply trying to spark a conversation. So they had some drunken sex, so what? I mean yeah they were both virgins beforehand but neither of them could remember anything so hay no big deal right…
"Yeah we found two Hufflepuff fifth years…um… well on their way to making a little badger" he replied. Wow way to kill the mood Potter she thought. "Look Katie…" he started. "I… I don't want what happened last night to get in the way of our being captains or prefects or whatever. So what do you stay friends?" He asked, sticking out his hand.
Katie was a bit reluctant. It wasn't like she wanted him to ask her out but she did fancy him a bit, so it would have been nice. But she had to dispel those kinds of thoughts from her head. No she was his Co-Captain for the Quidditch team and his patrolling 'buddy' for prefect rounds. "Friends." She smiled and shook his hand.
By the time she let go of his hand she was already regretting her decision. She didn't really want things to go back to the way they were. In the past she had been rather friendly with Harry but outside the Gryffindor changing room or the Quidditch pitch they barely spoke. Then they come back this year and the first thing they do after talking about Quidditch is have sex! She continued to patrol the stretch of hallway, only occasionally glancing at Harry.
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They switched over twice more before the exhausted quartet trudged their way up to the Gryffindor common room. "Remember to take the right set of stairs this time Harry." Teased Hermione as she climbed the stairs to the girls dormitories. He groaned and went to climb the staircase to the boys dorms. Katie simply stood there for a minute before climbing the stairs to her own bed.
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Contrary to popular belief Ron Weasley was not an idiot, he could actually be quite intelligent when he wanted to. When he had been going on and on about Quidditch during his rounds Katie had been getting more and more aggravated. She seemed almost relieved when she had to patrol with Harry. Almost. Ron had seen the seconds' hesitation and the twinge of regret in her eyes. He was familiar enough with it at this stage; it was in his own eyes after he tried to ask Hermione out all those times. He didn't really think much of it until they got back. When Harry was going up the stairs she stared just a second too long before she went to go up her own set of stairs. Something was going on and Ron was going to get Hermione to help him find out what.
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