Disclaimer: All recognized characters and elements goes to J.K Rowling
And another chapter is up! Thanks for all the reviews, reads, follows and favourites!
Albus Dumbledore stroked his long white beard and twinkled madly as the students dressed in black robes flooded into the Great Hall. Not for the first time, a small sense of pride welled up in him; from a disgraced family to now, one of the most powerful, magically and politically, wizards in the world, Albus is indeed proud of his many deeds. Proud of the many things he did in his long life that was successful.
Except.
Albus frowned a little when he spotted a small hunched figure trip clumsily into the Great Hall. Harry Potter. To this day, he was still Albus' greatest regret.
What did I do wrong? All I ever wanted was for him to experience a childhood without all the constant attention… he thought morosely.
When Minerva and Filius had come back from their trip a little more than four years ago, Albus had been anxious when he heard what they told him. But nonetheless, he had decided to wait and see. When the first years were led into the Great Hall, Albus had easily spotted Harry Potter, his resemblance to James was uncanny. At first glance, Albus had been tempted to disregard all that his coworkers had said.
By their description of him, Albus had expected a small, malnourished, scrawny boy with pale skin and broken glasses. But instead, he was met with a slightly taller, seemingly healthy looking boy with tan skin and surprisingly, had escaped the Potter curse.
At a closer inspection, Albus discovered that the boy was hunched into himself, his hands were fluttering around him nervously, his eyes were skittering around the place as if expecting an attack, and he wasn't talking to a single person. Albus, the optimistic person that he was, had passed it off as nervousness on the eleven year olds' part.
But it wasn't. It wasn't.
That much was obvious when the boy had froze on the spot and had refused to come up to the Sorting Hat when his name was called; when he was finally convinced to, he had tripped and had nearly broken down crying.
Throughout the year, he had been late for classes on multiple occasions because he was lost. During mealtimes, he sat alone by himself at the end of the Gryffindor Table. When final exams rolled around, he failed Potions, History of Magic, and Astronomy. He had barely passed Charms, Herbology, and Transfiguration, and that was only because the professors took pity on him. At the end of the school year, Harry had only managed to pass all of his classes because he was constantly paired up with either Hermione Granger or Neville Longbottom, and because Albus had pulled a few strings.
Albus had hoped that Harry's grades would improve as he grew older, but sadly, none of that happened, it stayed the same.
It had been a slight relief when it was discovered that the boy had chosen to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes instead of the usual easier classes like most students did when they entered their Third Year. At least he's trying Albus thought.
In his Fourth Year, Harry's grades dropped even more, but this, Albus attributed to the stress of the Tri-wizard Tournament. But then again, Albus wasn't even sure if Harry had ever experienced stress before.
Albus had hoped that by giving Harry Potter the Fifth Year prefect position, it would get him to become more involved with his classmates and perhaps become brighter.
We'll see, we'll see. Albus thought as he watched the boy sit down by himself in his usual seat.
If that doesn't work, there are still other ways. Here he stole a glance at the new professor seated to his immediate right.
Sirius Black placed his fork down and scanned the crowd of students at the Gryffindor Table, his eyes landed briefly on Neville Longbottom and his group of friends when they waved at him, he waved back and gave them a small smile
"Where is he Albus?" Sirius asked as he turned to his left.
The older man was stroking his beard as his eyes twinkled, "Who is where Sirius?"
The Animagus scoffed, "Harry! Where is he? "
"At the end of the Gryffindor Table, closest to the doors."
Instantaneously, Sirius's eyes snapped there and it zeroed in on a lone figure, "Why's he sitting by himself?"
The Headmaster merely gave him a sad smile before standing up to address the students, "Welcome back students, to another wonderful year at Hogwarts, welcome First Years, we hope you will enjoy your first year here…" Sirius tuned him out as he studied his godson carefully. According to the other teachers, and Snape in less kind words, Harry Potter was very different from his parent's… mentally.
"-And this year, two new professors will be joining us, Professor Umbridge will be teaching-"
"-Hem, hem."
Sirius winced as he listened to Dolores Umbridge's high nasally voice start droning on and on about how great the Ministry was. If the Ministry was so great, then why did they allow an innocent man to be thrown into prison for twelve years?
"-And now because of this new… little problem,-"
Is that what you call a maniacal dark lord on the loose these days?
"-the Ministry believes that it will be safer for all the students if we stationed our prison guards around Hogwarts."
Prison guards…. Dementors? Are they fucking insane?
Sirius was still pondering exactly how dense Fudge was when Albus motioned for him to get up and introduce himself, "Hi, I'm Professor Sirius Black and I will be your History of Magic teacher until…. Well, hopefully for quite some time, we certainly wouldn't want Binns back huh?" Here he stopped to wait for the cheering to die down, though it took a while longer for the Gryffindor Table to do so. "I hope that we will all have a great year together, even with my past… and your past four wild years, if the rumors are to be believed." Flashing the students a large smile, he waved at them and sat down as the loud laughter subsided.
Harry woke up at exactly 6 in morning, when the sky was just turning a pale shade of blue. Getting out of the bed, the Gryffindor gently pulled back the curtains and scanned the room. Noting that none of his roommates were awake yet, Harry grabbed his morning workout clothes, a pair of socks and cleats before heading towards the restrooms to complete his morning ritual.
A few minutes later, he summoned his Invisibility Cloak and his football from his trunk with a silent wave of his wand. Without a second glance back, Harry fluidly descended the stairs and into the Gryffindor Common Room. Quietly, he draped the Cloak over his body, taking care to make sure that the black and white patterned ball isn't visible as it rolled on the ground next to him.
With practiced ease, Harry crept across the room and successfully snuck past Granger, like he had been doing for the past few years.
Potter: 763 Granger: 0
It never stops to amuse Harry at how easy it was for him to sneak out from under the nose of the "brightest witch of the generation". It's not that Harry doesn't think Hermione Granger was smart. She was it's just that she's not smart, smart; only book smart.
Silently laughing at the whole situation, Harry almost ran into Professor Umbridge as she came strolling down the hall. It was only with honed agility and grace that came from many years of football, did he dodge her without making a sound.
Stifling a laugh, the boy made his way out of the castle and into a secluded meadow in the Forbidden Forest.
Coming up next: So now we have the first day of classes.
Be sure to check out my other fanfics, the Bound Trilogy.
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