AN: I'm spoiling you again by posting another chapter less than a day after the previous one~ Enjoy!
Chapter 15 - Exams
It was very early in the morning, before the sunrise. Seeing as it was the end of September, the air was cold and humid at that time of the day in Scotland.
"It's good that I don't need to sneak around in the middle of the night anymore."
He breathed in deeply the clear air of the forest in the morning. The semi-darkness, the chirping of the birds that were just starting to wake up, the refreshing chill and the picturesque image of the millennia-old castle surrounded by an ancient forest and a dark lake...
"How beautiful!" he said to himself as he flew slowly above the grounds of the castle, on his broom. Accelerating, he headed towards the Black Lake and flew close to the surface of the water, touching it with the tip of his fingers.
A massive tentacle rose from the lake and Harry slowed down his flight speed and increased his altitude a little. He knew from his past life that the giant squid was not dangerous for students but it did not hurt to be careful nonetheless. More tentacles rose from the water after that and attempted to catch him.
"Oh, you wanted to play," Harry spoke to the squid with a smile. "Must be boring doing nothing all day long in that lake. Alright, I'm game! Catch me if you can."
⁂
'I have to get used again to these cold Scotland mornings.' Fleur inwardly complained as she came out of the castle. After spending nearly 10 months in the warm Mediterranean climate of southern France, her body had forgotten how cold it could be in Scotland.
Wearing a pair of rather thick black track pants, a pair of blue Muggle sneakers, ear-warmers, a muffler around her neck, a blue hoodie, a pair of thin gloves and with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail - the girl looked like she had come out for a morning run.
Fleur Delacour had made it a habit in the past more than five years to run every day in the early morning. It was not for the sake of maintaining a wasp-like waist or for the sake of health. In that regard, being a Veela and witch was like a cheat code; she had never seen or heard of an overweight Veela and wizards and witches had all kinds of ways to keep themselves healthy without the need of sweating that much from the physical effort. She was jogging for the sake of building up her stamina and a way to discipline herself too. She might have not been able to run a marathon but jogging for four or five miles and sprinting the last few hundred feet every morning was nothing out of common; it had become a routine for her.
Fleur started her run as usual, by doing a lap around the castle and then one around the lake. The lap around the castle was uneventful but when she was halfway through her lap around the lake, her breath stopped in her throat at the sight of the ten giant tentacles raising violent waves as they stabbed out of the water, trying to catch a boy flying on his broom.
She took her wand out and broke into a sprint, doing her best to get closer as fast as possible, scared for that young student's safety. However, as she got closer, her sprint gradually slowed down to a jog and then to a full stop. The giant squid and the boy flying on his broom were about 60 feet away from the shore but it was close enough for her to realize that she had misunderstood the situation. The boy's excited laughter was proof of that.
A tentacle almost as thick as the boy's waist stirred winds as it came flying at him but he rolled under his broom and pulled the end of the broomstick's handle, making the broom nosedive and dodge the massive tentacle by a hair's breadth. When he was about to go out of the tentacles' range, he flew back and the game started again.
The "game" of tag between the giant squid and the young boy left Fleur mesmerized. She had never had any strong feelings about Quidditch - neither for, not against it - but, at that moment, it was as if a fire was lit inside of her. The way he dodged the numerous deadly tentacles and the grace with which he controlled his broom made it look as if it was an extension of his body. He was like a bird and the broom was like his wings.
The sun rose from behind the hills by the time Harry and the giant squid finally ended their game. It was only then that he noticed that he had a spectator.
"It was you?!" Fleur exclaimed in surprise when he landed next to her, on the shore, and she finally got to see him up-close, recognizing him.
At that moment, she recalled what Harry had told her the previous year: "If I'm ever gonna get famous for something, I wanna be famous because of my talent in Quidditch."
'I thought he was making fun of me but he was serious! He really is...incredible.'
She was impressed from the bottom of her heart.
"Hey. What brings you here?" Harry asked, also surprised to see Fleur outside at that early hour and in that outfit no less.
"You were magnifique!" she exclaimed, reverting partly to her native language in her excitement.
"I didn't take you for a Quidditch fan," he said. "But thank you!"
"If I wasn't a Quidditch fan before, I most certainly am now!" she said enthusiastically, making him chuckle. "You passed the tryouts for our house team, didn't you? I'll make sure to watch your first match!"
Harry was in a great mood as well. He had been missing the adrenaline accompanying a dangerous flight. He had not had such an exhilarating ride on his broom since more than five years ago, in his past life.
'A Dark Lord with a Flood Dragon as a familiar. In some ways, that bastard was even harder to kill than Voldemort.'
Flood Dragons were the fastest among Dragons when it came to flying or swimming (depending on the species) and an aspiring Dark Lord from China happened to have tamed one. It was not that he had been better than Voldemort with a wand, but a team consisting of a powerful wizard and a Dragon was a fearsome combination.
Most spells simply bounced off the Dragon's scales and any curse aimed at its eyes was intercepted or blocked by the Dark Lord. The wizard only took care of protecting the only vulnerable point of his Dragon, its eyes, giving it full liberty to lay waste on their enemies with its breath attacks. And if the number of enemies was too large for the Chinese Dark Lord to handle, he would just fly away on his Dragon. The usual methods of trapping other witches and wizards - Anti-Disappartion Jinxes and Anti-Portkey wards - were obviously of no use and flying brooms could not catch up to the speed of the fastest species of Dragon even in 2015 despite the progress made in the spellwork and enchanting of racing brooms.
"Earth to Harry? You there?" Fleur waved her hand in front of his face, waking him up from his thoughts.
"Sorry, I was thinking about something."
"I could see that. Ignoring someone while they're talking to you is not polite at all. What would Professor Black think if she saw you now?" she said. She was smiling.
"So you found out..."
"Duh! Of course I did. The entire school knows about it."
It was barely a month into the new school year and Horace Slughorn had already fished out the most outstanding students and invited them into his club. As Bellatrix had predicted, Neville Longbottom had been the first to be invited by the old Potions Master and Harry and Fleur had received an invitation as well. The Slug Club had yet to hold an official meeting with all the club members but rumours about the more noteworthy members had already started circulating. It became known as well that Harry was the legal ward of the DADA professor, Bellatrix Black.
"How come you woke up so early?" he changed the subject.
"I came out for a morning run. It's part of my daily routine. It's relaxing."
For the first time that year, Fleur did not complete her morning run. She and Harry started walking side by side, by the lake and chatted as they headed back to the castle.
"Are you coming to Slughorn's party on Halloween?" Harry asked.
"I'd rather not. I don't like 'im that much, I don't like people that indulge in favouritism," Fleur said. "Besides, I don't 'ave a date."
"Just say a word and you'll have dozens lined up in front of you in one hour," he laughed. "I'm going to go," he continued. "He knows many people in important positions, even in the Quidditch industry."
"Trying to get in through the back door?" she asked with narrowed eyes but he shrugged his shoulders uncaringly.
"I know I am good and you saw it just now too," he said smugly. "I'd have to be mad to not take advantage of what he has to offer. With a simple recommendation from him, I could probably skip completely the 1-2 years of being a substitute player for a team. Who knows, I could play for the national team even before graduating."
"Are you always this modest?"
"When it comes to Quidditch, yes," he said and laughed.
Unknowingly, the closer they got to the castle, the slower their walking pace became.
"You're difficult to get a 'old of usually. What are you doing when you don't 'ave classes? Are you by chance avoiding me, mister?" Fleur asked half-jokingly half-seriously.
Over the past month, she had had a hard time finding Harry except for when he came to the Great Hall for meals. While the rest of the school believed that they were very close (they were often sitting together at lunch and dinner) they had actually not spent that much time in each other's company.
"I'm helping aunt Bella with various things. She's also been trying to teach me how to play the piano. We're usually in the Music classroom these days." (1)
"You're playing the piano?" she said in surprise.
"I can play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and the Happy Birthday song...after two weeks," he said and the two of them burst into laughter. "Yeah, I don't think I'm very talented at it. But it makes her so happy that I'm trying to learn what she loves that I'd feel too bad to tell her to stop it."
She giggled at him some more.
"You two are very close," she probed.
"Yes. You probably know by now, but I grew up in an orphanage. Professor Dumbledore arranged for her to take me in last year. I was wary of her at first, like why would someone take in a random orphan? They'd have nothing to gain from it. Just an additional responsibility and more expenses."
"I'm sorry to 'ear that."
"Don't be. I'm happy. Bella has been great to me." he said with a smile. "I want to repay her kindness one day. For now, helping her around a bit and trying to learn her hobbies is the only thing I can do to make her happy."
They were momentarily silent after that, both thinking about different things.
'He really is more mature than other boys his age. And he has a kind and grateful heart,' Fleur thought. Her opinion of him rose the more she got to know him and that served to further confirm to her that her decision to become friends with him had been a good one.
"Say, are you really not affected by my allure?" she asked.
"That's so out of the blue," he said. "I can feel it, but it doesn't make me brag about being a vampire hunter with a hundred confirmed kills on my belt."
Fleur burst into giggles again because that's what one of the boys that had invited her last week to go to Hogsmeade had bragged about. She secretly noticed that she had laughed more during their half an hour walk than she had done the entire week.
"If you were just a bit older and a bit taller, I'd let you take me to Hogsmeade," she said teasingly.
"What makes you think I'd want to?" he shot back with a grin.
"You wouldn't?" she raised an eyebrow sceptically.
"Don't get me wrong, you're beautiful. Just not the kind of girl I'd go for."
She glared at him. It was exactly what he had told her last year in the Great Hall. It looked like the fact that she had Obliviated him had not changed his lines.
"As if you'd know what your type is. You're only 12!" she huffed.
"Of course I do. I like older, mature girls-"
"AHA!" she shouted in triumph.
"-with long black hair, violet eyes, intelligent and a bit snappy. Makes for good conversation and banter."
"...Are you describing professor Black? Don't tell me you like her..."
"Me and 99% of the boys and even some of the girls in the school. Of course I do, what's there not to like about her?" he said with a roll of his eyes.
She crossed her arms in annoyance.
"I'm blonde and 'ave blue eyes but other than that, she and I are not that different, are we?"
"Are you competing with her?" he said with a laugh.
"I am not!"
"Hahaha! This is gold. I have to tell her this. There's no better compliment for a woman than knowing that a Veela is jealous of her!"
"I AM NOT!"
Her yell and the fact that she was about to draw her wand made him raise his hands in defeat but he still chuckled.
"Alright, alright!"
She sniffed at him and started walking a bit faster, going ahead of him.
"Then what about you? Do you have someone in mind?" he asked while trying to contain his sniggers as he ran to catch up to her.
"Not really."
"Oh, come on, you have to have a general idea of what you like."
She stopped walking fast and hmmed a bit before saying:
"I do...but I've come to understand that looks don't matter all that much. So what if you marry a good-looking witch or wizard if they 'ave a bad character? What good is their beauty for if you wake up one day with a knife stabbed into your back?"
The way she said those words made Harry think that it was not just random talk.
'What happened in her past future?' he wondered not for the first time. The Fleur from his past life had the personality of a regular girl, seeking handsome guys, as it was normal. For example, Roger Davies (his personality aside) was a good-looking jock and Bill Weasley was a cool and handsome guy too.
It was then that a shout from afar shattered the moment they were having.
"Hey! You two! What are you doing out here at this hour by the lake?"
It was a middle-aged man wearing black boots and a long leather trench coat. He was one of the six Aurors assigned at Hogwarts to protect the students. They were working in shifts of eight hours, two Aurors on a shift. At any given moment, there were two Aurors guarding the school: one was patrolling the grounds and one was patrolling the castle's corridors.
"We just went for a walk, Mr Finley," Fleur said. "It's not against the rules, is it?"
"It's not... But you better hurry up and get back to the castle. Breakfast is about to be served soon."
When they arrived in the Ravenclaw common room, before separating to go to their dorms, Fleur said:
"It was lovely talking with you. We should do this more often."
Harry scratched his cheek awkwardly. He was still stubbornly refusing to accept the possibility that he might be forced by the situation to play a major role in the upcoming war... But the problem was that the French girl was growing on him. Despite that he knew that she was someone who would undoubtedly be in the thick of it, he found himself unwilling to cut her off from his life. She was more mature than the rest of the students and, without lying to himself, he found her attractive too (who wouldn't?). Most men liked the company of a beautiful woman, especially if she was intelligent and witty, and Harry was no different in this regard either. He was beginning to enjoy the time they spent together quite a lot.
"Definitely."
His answer was rewarded with that brilliant smile that Harry was slowly starting to become smitten with.
"Then, how about coming for a run with me in the morning?"
"Um, I don't think I can keep up with you. You said you're running about four-five miles every morning... that's a lot."
"Don't worry, I'll run at your pace until you can work your way up. You can even take your broom and fly when you can't run anymore."
Without any excuses left, he could not turn her down anymore. Besides, their impromptu meeting that morning had left him wanting for more.
"...Alright."
She smiled, very pleased with herself.
"I knew you'd come around, 'Arry," she said. Then, she bent down and pecked him on the cheek.
It was just a simple, innocent kiss on the cheek but it was as if the place where her lips had touched his cheek had been set on fire. Ginny Weasley had not been the only woman that he had been involved with in his past life. There had been others too so it was not as if he had no experience with women. However, the hormonal and traitorous body of a young teenager often came in conflict with his older mind. Outside of his control, his face flushed red. His embarrassment only increased when he heard the other housemates present in the common room wolf-whistling at the two of them.
⁂
"Merlin, Michael, how did you fail the Charms written exam?!" Terry asked, almost unable to believe his eyes when he looked at the big red P (from "Poor") written on Michael's Charms test sheet. Charms was considered one of the easier classes, at least compared to others like Potions, Transfiguration, or the boring History of Magic.
The boy in question was devastated.
"My dad will kill me."
Due to the previous year being cut off after only two months, it was not realistic for everyone to advance to the next year without being evaluated. That being said, all students (except for the first years) had been announced in their Hogwarts letters that they would be taking their previous year's end-of-the-year exams in the first week of October. Those who passed the exams would be able to advance to the current year as they should have done had the school not been closed.
Failing two exams meant that they would be held back but students were given one more chance to take a make-up exam for one of the two exams that they had failed (or for both if they so desired). If they managed to pass the make-up exams, they would be allowed to advance to the current year. Otherwise, they would be held back. As for those that failed three exams or more, they would not be given the chance to take any make-up exams at all, they would be automatically held back to repeat the previous year.
Michael Corner had not been the only one to fail. There were students from other houses as well. For example, also in the same year as Harry, Seamus Finnigan from Gryffindor had blown up (literally) his mouse into a messy pile of charcoal instead of transforming it into a snuffbox, while Ron Weasley failed his practical Charms exam too, failing to cast the Levitation Charm.
In truth, it was not entirely the children's fault. Hogwarts had not provided them with a safe environment to study in and now it was expected of them to know the material that they would have been taught if the school had not been closed... The students had been given the month of September to catch up with their studies but as the saying goes, one cannot fatten up the pig on Christmas Eve. Cramming could only take one so far. If they had not studied over the course of the past year, one month was not enough for them to learn an entire school year's material.
Breakfast the day after receiving the results of their exams had been very...eventful for the lack of a better word. Eventful and loud. Dozens of students had been assaulted by howlers from their parents for failing their exams. Molly Weasley's hollers at her son, Ron Weasley, had managed somehow to cover any other sound in the Great Hall and that was an achievement worth taking note of.
"Maybe you should've spent more time studying instead of leering at girls," Harry told Michael, mercilessly pouring salt on the open wound.
What was incredibly annoying and frustrating for Michael was that Harry had been doing just that - playing around with his 'girlfriend' - yet there were only Os on each one of his tests. However, there was nothing he could say about it. It was his own fault for failing.
Despite his mean words earlier, Harry let out a drawn-out sigh at the boy's desperate face.
"Don't be too hard on yourself... You didn't do all that bad. You passed the practical exam, it's only the theory that you have to brush up on. Getting an Acceptable in the written exam shouldn't be that hard. I will help you. One week will be enough for you to even get an E at the make-up exam."
A tearful "Thank you!" was all that Michael managed to say.
⁂
It turned out that other second-year students had somehow gotten wind of Harry's offer to help Michael pass his make-up exam too. When he went with Michael to the library a few hours later, in the afternoon, he was greeted by a small crowd of second years. Two boys and a girl from Gryffindor, a girl and a boy from Hufflepuff, and two boys and a girl from Slytherin. Well-known by everyone by now as a "genius", those second-year students that had failed their exams flocked at him for help as if their lives depended on it once they heard that he was going to help them.
"Mate, the offer was to help you, because you're my friend, not the whole school," Harry said flatly.
But as he looked at the anxious faces of the young students, especially at Ron's freckled face (Harry could still recall the extremely loud howler that Mrs Weasley had sent her son earlier that day), he felt his annoyance melt into nothing.
"Sigh... okay, I will help you," he said reluctantly. Mixed feelings appeared in his heart when he saw that the two boys from Slytherin were none other than Crabbe and Goyle. However, he was a grown-up man in mind and they were different people from his past life too. He would not hold a grudge against two innocent boys.
AN: I know it's not healthy for the longevity of the fic if I post chapters so often but I couldn't help myself. Words just flowed from my mind as I wrote about Harry's interaction with Fleur. It felt so natural and smooth. I just had to update it right away.
(1) for those who do not know, there is a Music classroom at Hogwarts and there is even an optional course that students can choose starting with their third year, to study music. That classroom has several types of instruments among which there is also a grand piano.