The Plague Ship
Synopsis: What might have happened if Sirius had been a bit more proactive after the dementor attack on Harry and Dudley? AU, and Hermione had not gone to Grimmauld Place, deciding to spend time with her family. No super-powered Harry.
Timeframe: Starting early August 8, 1995, then continuing afterwards
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Potterverse, so quit asking for loans or donations.
Warning: No mention of removal of knickers (except here)
Chapter 9: School
Two days later, at dinner on the second day of the Days of the Dead Festival (celebrated by the two Mexican exchange students, and with the final end of Voldemort, a good reason for all to celebrate with them), Harry Potter and his friends sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
Harry sadly looked over to the empty space across from him. Hermione Granger had not returned from her exile, and was not really expected to return from Beauxbatons, as her family felt that the bigotry towards the muggle-born would not have been completely cleansed from British wizarding society so easily or quickly. Great Britain seemed to produce a Dark Lord ever few decades, and the Grangers had decided that this was not a good trend.
He also looked over to where the Weasleys were sitting and laughing. Although he would certainly miss Hermione during the school year, until summer when he traveled to the south of France, at least Harry knew that his best friends were safe.
Harry looked over at the Slytherin table, and pondered the futures which had been changed, and in some cases lost forever.
Many of his own classmates and the upperclassmen were no longer there. Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were all missing, as were Marcus Flint, Ted Nott and several others.
Surprisingly to many, Millicent Bulstrode was still at school, proving that she had been only a follower of the overbearing group of bullies, and not really a participant. More surprising, she actually looked happy for the first time in the recollection of most of the students. Having been a plain, and 'big-boned' girl, she had put up with a lot of emotional and physical abuse throughout her life, and because of her family connections, she had hung around with Malfoy's bunch of purists. However, as they tended to abuse her as well, she never really bought into their beliefs. She had also found that in the Herbology club and the girls' sewing circle, she had been accepted as a friend – with some of the best acceptance coming from the Gryffindor members of the clubs. However, being of Slytherin cunning, she knew better than to let this fact become widely known in her dorm.
Perhaps the saddest figure of all was that of Draco Malfoy. All his close friends and connections were dead. When he had been informed by Gringott's that he was now the head of the Malfoy family, he knew that the path his father had tried to have him follow had led to the man's death.
His mother had turned herself in to the authorities, and insisted on questioning under veritaserum, knowing no-one would believe her otherwise. She proved, to the aurors' satisfaction, that although she bore the Dark Mark (for long years of service, and not awarded for its usual reason), her function had been administrative in the role of the accountant for the gang, and had never been active in an operational capacity. She was now in Azkaban for a five year term, but could be expected to survive, which was more than could be said for her former associates.
Like his former bodyguards, Draco had taken the preliminary mark, in preparation to committing his first official murder. He had discovered that the prospect of being a fully branded slave to Voldemort terrified him, seeing as this path had led to the deaths of most of his friends and members of their families. When Voldemort died, the draw on Draco's magical power had been weak, as he was not fully Marked and the Dark Lord himself was weak by that point. This left his left forearm badly and permanently withered where the Mark was. He knew he would never play quidditch again, as he would never be able to hold a broom with his left hand.
The Dark Lord's draw had been weak, and although Narcissa's entire left arm was now a withered ruin, at least she had survived, if a five year stretch in Azkaban can be considered surviving.
As the Head of Family Malfoy, Draco was fairly rich, but knew that no-one still alive would ever trust him again. His days of bullying and lording it over Hogwarts was over. The fact that Professor Snape had vanished also told him that he would no longer be forgiven for his actions as in previous times. Although well-off, he was truly ruined.
Near the end of the feast, Headmaster Dumbledore rose to his feet, and announced that as a special treat, and thanks to the generosity of Harry Potter and an old alumnus, for the next week the students would be able to sample some rare and exotic cheeses from around the world.
To the amazement and puzzlement of most of the students, Draco Malfoy started to cry.
Quietly and surreptitiously, Harry Potter wrote a short note, folded into an airplane shape, and sent it flying underneath the Gryffindor table, until it reached the front of the hall, where it flew up to land in front of the Headmaster.
Dumbledore looked surprised at receiving a note in this way, but quickly read it, caught Harry's eye and nodded slightly.
He leaned over the head table and whispered to Rolanda Hooch. He passed the note to her, who nodded and passed the note to Minerva McGonagall. Madame Hooch had taken over as the Head of Slytherin House, after the disappearance of Severus Snape.
Both the Heads of House left the head table. Hooch went up to Draco Malfoy, and spoke quietly to him, while McGonagall did the same with Harry Potter. Both boys were told that they were to come to the Headmaster's office after the meal was finished.
When the students and their Heads of House had arrived, and been offered licorice all-sorts (Dumbledore having permanently banished lemon drops from his office), the Headmaster broached the subject of starting a flying club, to help students who were not picked for the quidditch team improve their skills. He asked Harry and Draco to be the student heads of the club, under the supervision of Madame Hooch.
Harry agreed, after appearing to consider it briefly. He and McGonagall shared a small smile.
Draco was shocked by the request and said he couldn't fly any more, with only one good hand. Hooch scoffed, and said "I've seen you fly, Malfoy, and I have seen you wave at people with your left hand while you held your broom in your right, while doing complex manoeuvers. You can fly, and as your Head of House I want you to at least consider it."
As they left the office, Malfoy turned to Potter and accused him of a plot. "Potter, I know you are behind this. If you are trying to get back at me now that I am a cripple, it won't work. Just because you hate me doesn't mean that I am going to dance to your tune. I don't want your pity!"
Harry looked at him with a steady gaze, and said "And you won't get my pity. Malfoy, I never hated you. I was disgusted by you, yes, but never hate. You just weren't worth the extra effort, when your father and his master kept trying to kill me all the time. I was abused by the bigotry of my relatives, and I think that your family did the same to you. If anything, I was disappointed in you".
Malfoy looked shocked. "Disappointed? How did I disappoint you?" He had considered himself the epitome of the wizarding world, and here was this half-blood saying HE disappointed him.
"Yes, Malfoy. Disappointed. You claimed to be 'better' than Granger purely because of your bloodline, but she beat you at every turn. I never saw any evidence of you being 'better'"
"I had thought that coming into the wizarding world was going to be better that the world I had lived in for most of my life. Then you showed up with Crabbe and Goyle. The first things you said to me was that some wizarding families were 'better' than others, but you were standing there with your two goons, acting like the bully that your father taught you to be. It looked to me like it was going to be the same bullshit I had put up with all my life – the wizarding world was the same stuff, just a different pile."
"Malfoy, I had been bullied by my relatives most of my life, and you showing up with two boys who looked like hired thugs just was more of the same. I hated the bullying, there and here. That's what I hated, not you personally. If anything, I think that, essentially, you were as abused as I was. So hate, no."
"Malfoy, the two games we played against each other, you matched me move for move, for most of the game. The first flying lesson, when you stole Neville's Remember-all, you flew with a natural skill like I had never seen. Maybe you can't play quidditch anymore, but you can fly like almost no-one in this castle.
Malfoy shook his head. "But when you were in the tournament, you out-flew a dragon. I could never do that."
Potter smiled. "You haven't watch yourself fly. And when there is a fire-breathing dragon on your tail, you would be amazed how you can fly! Sheer terror and adrenalin, that's what it was."
"Anyway, yes, it was my idea. My idea is that there are a lot of students here who might love to learn to fly better, but this whole focus on quidditch puts them off. It's like people who like to sing, but are told that they don't have a good enough voice to be on stage, so they shouldn't even try. That attitude take away a lot of the joy in life. I hate to see that happening for something that we wizards can do that others can't"
"To tell you the truth, I really don't care for quidditch."
Malfoy was again shocked.
Harry shook his head. "Just think about it. My first match, Quirrell tried to kill me. The next year, someone hexed that bludger, and then that idiot Lockheart vanished the bone in my arm. I love to fly, but a game where your captain Marcus Flint tried to beat me up a hundred metres above the ground at a hundred kilometres per hour, not so much."
"Malfoy, you and I can fly. You have a talent to fly. I wouldn't want to see it wasted."
"Now, if you would rather wallow in self-pity, because your father enslaved himself and your mother to Voldemort, and that ruined the image that you were taught to have, please go ahead. You have my blessing. But don't waste your life and my time at it."
With that, Potter turned from the stunned Slytherin, and walked away from the stunned boy.