Before Harry knew it Halloween had crept up on him, and the Great Hall was filled with giant, floating pumpkins and bats. Harry hated the Halloween feast but Dumbledore had made attendance mandatory, so he simply suffered in silence. After listening to the Gryffindors roar with joy throughout the feast, particularly Thomas and Weasley, Harry looked at his watch and up to Snape, who was glowering at James Potter, who was yet again telling all the staff how his son had 'ended the first war', as he put it. It was to everyone's surprise, however, when Dumbledore rose, and all conversation ceased as everyone looked to the Headmaster, as he had never made a speech during this feast.
"Thank you students, I do hope you have enjoyed the tremendous feast tonight, however I have a very serious topic to breach with you." Dumbledore paused to gaze over the school
"As you all know, there are those that do not wish us to be able to enjoy these golden moments of peace and unity. Lord Voldemort has continued to attack the wizarding world, and although you are all safe behind these walls, we must remember that divided we will fall, but united, we can hold against those who wish to extinguish the light, and plunge our world into darkness."
Dumbledore looked over his glasses as he finished and stared right into Harry's eyes, who glared right back.
"We must also commemorate, those who have contributed to the noble efforts of defending our way of life, and so I raise my glass to those who have contribute to the cause. To Thomas Potter"
Blaise spluttered as Dumbledore finished, but he was barely heard over three quarters of the school scrapping back their benches to raise a goblet and mutter, "Thomas Potter."
Amongst the commotion Harry looked at Snape, who looked as if he wanted to start cursing everyone, and seeing all eyes focused on the Gryffindor table, subtly rose and left the hall, not noticing a pair of twinkling blue eyes on his retreating back.
He stormed through the corridors, not coming upon anyone, as all the students and ghosts were preoccupied. He hissed when he reached the door to the common room, and it swung open smoothly, but Harry barely noticed as he went straight for the bottle of Ogden's, conjuring a glass as he went. After draining the first glass he took a deep breath and enjoyed the second glass at a slower rate, not acknowledging Blaise as he sat down next to him, the rest of the Slytherins passed by on either side, most muttering about Dumbledore's 'stirring' speech, although many for a different reason.
"He's never done that before" Blaise stole the bottle from Harry's grasp and poured some for his own tumbler
Harry grunted and took another sip,
"Why now? He didn't make an announcement like that in 5th year, when the ministry denied the Dark Lord, nor last year when they finally acknowledged it, so why now?"
Blaise looked at Harry expectantly,
"The next few graduating years have the closest connection to Potter, and have displayed the most loyalty, which Dumbledore is obviously playing on. He is highlighting his role, so that people will see him as a 'beacon of light', or some shit like that. The sheep will flock to him, but really they all flock to Dumbledore, the next generation ready to join the Order of the Phoenix, and 'fight the good fight.' I'm guessing that the Order are taking heavier losses than the Prophet reports, judging by Dumbledore's speech. He needs more bodies, and he's using Potter's name and fame to get them."
Blaise put the stopper back on the bottle, ignoring the disgruntled look from Harry, who knocked back the final drops and rose to walk to bed with his friend,
"Well, at least neither of us will be getting ourselves killed in this.
Harry laughed and the boys parted at the entrance to their rooms.
The weeks continued to pass quickly for most students, despite the overwhelming amounts of homework heaped upon the 5th years and up. Harry was still the anti-Christ of Hogwarts, and Thomas continued to take every opportunity to degrade his brother. However it wasn't Thomas who was annoying Harry, it was his father. James Potter spent half his Defence against the Dark Arts classes teaching, and the other half taking ridiculous amounts of points off Slytherin for the stupidest of reasons, particularly Harry.
Such was his apparent hate for his son that even Snape was struggling to keep up with his campaign against Gryffindor, whilst still making semi-legitimate cases. Apparently taking copious amounts off the noble Gryffindors had turned most of the other teachers against Slytherin by joining James Potter in his vendetta. The entire school took great pleasure in pointing out that Slytherin had never gained more than 30 points in its glass container before it was wiped away. Harry was absolutely seething from the pettiness of the abuse and put Draco Malfoy into the wall of the common room when he tried incite the Slytherins into lynching Harry for it.
Apparently the only person who had sympathies outside of his house was Alisha. He had come to greatly appreciate his time spent with her on their assignment, as well as tutoring her with her homework. He helped her with Runes, Arithmacy, Defence, Charms and Transfiguration, whilst she helped him with Astronomy and History, the last one he desperately needed help with, seeing as though he barely turned up, and when he did, he spent the whole time doing homework.
"Come on Harry, you have to admit that Padma and Lavender aren't too bad. I mean, yes, they can get annoying with their gossip, but everyone is allowed to let their hair down a bit once in a while. We're teenagers for Heaven's sake! We're supposed to have fun! Sneak out, smuggle a few drinks, chat each other up, LIVE! You need to get out more."
Harry as ever, didn't look up, again annoying Alisha with his lack of reaction.
"Putting your idiotic, silly, shallow dorm-mates aside, what do you know about sneaking, smuggling and snogging, as you put it?"
Unable to quickly come up with an answer she settled the age old tactic of recycling the accusation,
"What do you know of it then, huh?"
Harry did look up at this, a gleam in his eye.
Alisha tried to backpedal, she had wanted a reaction, just not THIS reaction.
"No, no, no, no. We are not doing that. Harry, stop. Harry, Harry, HARRY! Stop that! We are NOT DOING THIS!"
She might as well have been talking to a dragon for all the good it did, as Harry quickly packed away his work and put it all in his expanded pocket.
"Harry! Bloody hell, curfew is in ten minutes! We can't get caught."
She continued to protest as he pulled her out of the library, a rare grin on his face and a devilish gleam in his eye.
"Come on Alisha, we're having fun, letting our hair down, living a little. We're teenagers after all."
"No, that is not funny. I am not doing this."
To her shock he let go of her arm and stepped back, his arms raised and a mischievous smirk plastered across his handsome face, a welcome change from his scowl.
"Well Alisha, I won't force you, you can go back to your, safe, snug, boring tower, and not follow me. It's your choice." As she turned to leave with an indignant huff, he started again.
"But, curfew just started, and we are about as far as you can get from Gryffindor Tower, and I doubt you could get there without getting caught."
"You absolute pillock! Do you want me to spend all my free time scrubbing cauldrons?" Alisha hissed.
He continued as if she hadn't spoken.
"But if you come with me, I promise that you will get back, safe and sound, with the teachers none the wiser."
"Well that leaves me loads of choice then, doesn't it." Alisha shot back
With a smirk he turned and strode towards the stairs, sliding into the shadows, leaving Alisha to scurry to keep up, whilst trying to match his effortless and noiseless steps.
"Where are we going anyway? What is this supposed to achieve?"
"All will be revealed, now shush, I'm trying to get us there without getting caught."
"Knowing where we are going would be nice" Alisha grumbled but quieted.
After half an hour of slowly moving throughout the castle Harry and Alisha stood on the 7th floor corridor opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, and his doomed attempt to teach trolls the finer aspects of ballet.
"Why am I staring at a blank wall?"
Harry gave another infuriating smirk, as he had done for the past half an hour, and paced back in forth whilst Alisha glanced nervously around.
It was to her shock that when she turned back there was a door formed within the wall.
Laughing at her shocked expression Harry opened the door and motioned for her to follow. The walked along the corridor as Harry explained the secret.
"This is the fabled and long-lost, Room of Requirement. It appears only when the user is in desperate need, providing almost anything, within its limitations. This tunnel, will lead us to where we want to go, Hogsmeade. Specifically the Hog's Head. Your ramble reminded me that I needed to pick up a few things, my stock is almost out."
"What do you need to get from the Hog's Head that you can't ge-…"
She glared at his back as they walked on
"Harry, you can't bring alcohol into school! There are kids!"
"Yeah, but we're not kids, besides, I'm not the only one, I know that a few Ravenclaws have it for when they get stressed, and some of the shit I have found in the Room of Requirement, you wouldn't believe, so I can safely say that this isn't the worse thing people have smuggled in for a bit of late night fun."
"Yes, but just because other people have done worse doesn't mean you can do this!"
He gave her a glance, "You are absolutely, one hundred percent right. I shouldn't be doing this. However I am, because I want to, and any tiny little act of rebellion I can get away with it worth it."
"Really Harry? Starting an uprising against the teachers?"
"I would If I could…" He muttered darkly, before coughing, "More like… Escaping the boundaries that Dumbledore and my wonderful parents place around me. Small victories, but victories none the less."
"Stupid, irrelevant and inconsequential victories." She shot back, her annoyance rising.
"Quite possibly true, but those small victories are what makes life bearable these days."
That stopped her, and she watched as Harry paused in front of a door that had sprung up on the wall of the corridor and spoke quietly to this. Alisha just realised that Harry had finally given something away before he managed to inevitably kill the conversation.
"This is it, do you want to come out, or stay back?"
She shook her head and stepped forward, finding herself in a cramped, dusty, cluttered room full of old barrels and crates. Harry stepped out behind her and sat down on a barrel.
Not a minute later a man walked through, causing Alisha to jump. Except for the rather bland robes, he could have been the Headmaster.
"Back again Boy? This lot ran out sooner than I thought."
The two men shook hands and Harry smiled and whispered something, to which he only got a gruff grunt in return.
"Aberforth, this is my friend Alisha, Alisha, Aberforth. He's helped me out on more than a few occasions."
"Aye that be true." The old man grumbled as started shrinking a few crates and a barrel.
Harry gave a wry grin and tossed a bag to Aberforth, who caught it in one hand, whilst levitating the shrunken goods with the other.
Harry pocketed his bundle and waved goodbye to Aberforth, who had already turned away. Facing the portrait that they had walked through Harry gave the girl inside a sad smile,
"It is good to see you too Ariana. It's been a while, I'll try and see you soon."
The girl in the portrait returned the sombre smile and swung the portrait open to reveal the corridor.
Harry and Alisha walked silently for a while before she gathered up the nerve to speak.
"Harry, why do you get your drinks from a man that looks like a fake Dumbledore?"
"Because Aberforth knows the pains of being hidden in a sibling's shadow, besides, he is a good man, an honourable man, he keeps my secrets, just as I keep his."
"You mean, that man, is actually Dumbledore's brother?" Alisha looked perplexed, after all, how could the great Headmaster have a brother who worked in a dodgy old pub?
"Yes, Aberforth is the middle child of three, younger brother of Albus, and older brother of Ariana, the girl whose portrait hides our way. However, they prefer to keep people unaware of that fact, so I trust you will not mention it." Harry looked over, his face serious yet again.
"Of course I will."
The two walked in step quietly until they reached the end of the corridor and Harry pulled out a piece of parchment.
"What's that?" Alisha tried to see what was so special about the supposably blank parchment
She jumped when Harry hissed, only to look on as lines suddenly appeared all over the parchment.
"I didn't know that you were a parselmouth", Alisha's voice cut in, full of suspicion.
"Well then, you were probably the only one in the castle who didn't. Ever since I called off a snake from attacking Justin Finch-Fletchley in my second year, Thomas has used it as irrefutable proof that I am evil."
Putting that past her Alisha moved in to peer at all the lines on the parchment,
"It's a map! Wow, and damn, it has everyone on it! Look it's us!"
She was unable to keep the childish glee out of her voice, only stopping when Harry looked over and laughed at her.
What a strange night this was turning out to be, full of revelations and adventure. She had heard Harry laugh softly before, but never a complete, open laugh. She couldn't help but notice how nice it sounded.
"Yes, this is a map of the castle. My father originally made one with the help of his friends, then when Thomas was about to go to Hogwarts he made a second one for him. I happened to chance upon them as he did and realised I wanted one for myself. So I made this one. I added a few things that the others haven't discovered, like the Room of Requirement, and another secret passage out of the school, between the painting of Lucretia the Ludicrous and the broom closet on the second floor. I also made this map," He said, pulling out a second piece of parchment, "as a copy of Thomas', so that way I can control what he sees on his map."
She revelled in the awesomeness of the plan before a thought struck her.
"Hang on, if you had this map, why didn't we just use it to avoid the others on our way here?"
Harry shook his head,
"Firstly it was a challenge, and secondly, I knew the schedule of patrolling prefects and their routines, so I knew that we only had to avoid the two Hufflepuff fifth years, as the Slytherin sixth years stay in the dungeons, and my brother would be trying to get in the knickers of the Ravenclaw sixth year after he dismissed her partner."
Alisha grimaced at that before putting the disturbing thought behind her.
"So why do we need this now?"
"Because", he paused as he examined the map one last time, before putting it away, "The students have gone to bed and the teachers are patrolling, and they are much more cunning in their ways."
The pair set off, with Harry occasionally consulting his map, and in no time Alisha stood before the Fat Lady, who scowled suspiciously at Harry's green trimming. She felt disappointed that the night had ended, as she was quite enjoying learning more about Harry, even if he had a way of infuriating everyone.
"Well… I guess this is goodnight. See you tomorrow Harry." And before she lost her nerve she moved forward and kissed him quickly on the cheek. She turned and moved through the porthole before he could see her blush, missing his guarded and confused face.
Blaise looked up as Harry walked into their shared dorm room, an unusually pensive look upon his face,
"What happened?"
It was a testament to how deep in thought Harry was that he didn't even notice Blaise, and recoiled into a duelling stance when a tickling hex hit his thigh.
"Harry, what the bloody hell happened? You're never this out of it!"
Harry shook his head and pulled a bundle out of his pocket and put it in his trunk, keeping only one suddenly enlarged bottle out, pouring into two glasses Blaise conjured.
After knocking back his first drink he poured a second and started speaking.
"Hillman"
There was a long silence between the two as Blaise watched Harry and Harry drank.
"Blaise, removing all pretext, all prejudice, what do you make of the girl?"
Blaise didn't even think about it,
"I like her, and she obviously likes you."
"Tell me something I don't know. Right now I don't give two shits whether you like her or not. Do you trust her?"
Blaise stiffened, taken aback by the abrupt change in his friend,
"Well, she doesn't have the typical house prejudice, is aware of the Boy-Who-Lived bullshit, but isn't infatuated with it, she is obviously smart, and she doesn't pay heed to the rumours that swirl around the castle. So, all other feelings aside," with a pointed look at Harry he continued, "I do believe she is trustworthy. But you didn't need me to tell you that. You don't need my advice on who to trust, so what was the real purpose of this?"
Yet another silence fell, as Harry fidgeted slightly, opening his mouth a few times before stopping.
"Oh no." Blaise looked aghast as he spoke, "You're worried that you two are getting two close. That's what this is about. You like her, but you don't feel like you can trust her."
Harry nodded and Blaise slumped back in his seat
"Well what do you want to do?"
"What I want and what is possible are never the same Blaise, you know that." It was impossible to ignore the bitterness in Harry's voice.
"I don't know. She obviously wants to go further, but I don't know. Is it wrong to want something good in my life?"
Blaise winced at that and spoke tentatively,
"Harry, put aside yours doubts for the moment, I trust her, you trust her, she trusts you, she likes you, and of course, lest we forget, YOU LIKE HER! Mate, why do you keep holding back?"
"Because nothing is ever this nice, this clean cut, or even this good! How do I know that this isn't some plot from my brother? She would certainly see him enough in that tower of theirs."
"For fucks sake Harry. DO YOU WANT THIS OR NOT? Do you want to spend the rest of your life with just you and a bottle? Moping around and seeing a knife hidden in every sleeve waiting to stab you in the back. Unless you become a fucking hermit in a faraway mountain, you are going to have to Besides, your brother? You met her well before your brother, and they obviously have a mutual dislike for each other. Go for it, what is stopping you?"
"She is a Gryffindor!"
"And you're the one who makes those grand fucking speeches about House prejudice you pillock!"
Both boys were nose to nose and breathing heavily, before Harry turned around and smashed his glass on wall, sending glass through his hand, and leaving deep cuts that went seemingly un-noticed.
"Do what you will Harry, but what do you have to lose from it?"
"Famous last words Blaise" Harry shot back as Blaise turned to fall into bed.