You know, I will probably sound quite strange when I say this and I'm sure other people will have noticed this as well, but J.K. Rowling's name is awesome. I'd love to have "JK" as my first initials. I also noticed this: J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling when looked at give you the exact same feeling. Oh, well, that was just rambling :D Hope you enjoy.
Harry had always been good at potions. Everyone in the whole school knew that the four leaders of potioneering in their year were Malfoy, Harry, Granger, and Theodore, in that order from least to greatest, but that was the thing. Harry was surpassing Granger and even Theodore now and, though Theodore followed the same instructions in the book as Harry, it was always Harry's potion that got called out by Slughorn. This was probably because Theo's father, being a Death Eater, made Slughorn unwilling to associate with him and therefore less likely to call out his excellence in Potions. This irritated Theo to no end and Harry had absolutely no idea why. Theo wasn't telling either.
Their free periods (Theo had hardly any) were spent studying and Harry was ever grateful that Snape had encouraged him not to take more than five classes. Looking over at Theo, who was trying to juggle eight, Harry was sure his friend was going to start hexing his teachers under the assumption they were trying to murder him. They barely talked their first week and Theo was always the first to rise and the last to collapse exhaustedly into bed. On Friday, he didn't even make it that far, instead sleeping on one of the chairs in the common room with books and parchment scattered all around him. Seventh year students seemed both impressed and appalled by Theodore as none of them had thought to ever take this many N.E.W.T. classes. Snape, on the other hand, seemed a bit concerned, though rarely expressed this.
On Saturday, Harry had his first "lesson" with Dumbledore, but it turned out to be living through memories concerning Voldemort, this first one about the Gaunt family, which was Tom's mother's side. Harry left feeling confused and disgusted he'd have to outright lie to Theodore as Dumbledore insisted Harry not speak a word to him about it.
Theodore didn't seem to believe Harry was practicing Occlumency, but said nothing. Harry assumed it was because Theo was feeling the exact same way Harry was at this point: they were tired of fighting with each other. The last two years had felt like riding a bucking broomstick; their relationship had gone up and done wildly between good and bad points. While there was looking more and more like nothing would be happening between them on a romantic level, Harry couldn't see himself befriending anyone else and therefore he had to make as much an effort to remain friends with Theodore as he did trying to keep an 'O' in his classes.
That weekend also he had Slytherin Quidditch tryouts, which had been awful. He had looked for people who were actually good at Quidditch, while being informed later by Malfoy that they usually went with friends or people who were good at bullying others. This proved devistating as several of the Slytherins who would normally have made the team under any other Captain. Malfoy and Zabini had made the team as Chasers and a seventh year would be playing as Keeper while Goyle and some other boy from the year below them would be beaters. The Seeker was Harry and Rachel, a year younger than Harry, was the other Chaser.
After the tryouts, Harry was surprised to see that Theodore, though stressed from working so hard on his homework, had come down to watch. He strode over to Harry to congratulate him 'on making the Slytherins dislike him more.'
"Thanks." Harry grumbled in return. "Look, I'm going to visit Hagrid. I haven't seen him...you know...since he figured out I wasn't taking his class."
Theo gave a snort. "And who would be fool enough to take it?"
"Me." Harry argued. "But it was too much. I don't know how you manage eight classes, but my five are murdering me."
Theo didn't respond.
"Come with me." Harry asked as he motioned towards Hagrid's cabin. "I don't want to go alone."
"Fine." Theodore consented, quicker than Harry had expected.
They went down and, after threatening to blast Hagrid's door down, were permitted inside. Hagrid was in a bad mood, but they soon found out it wasn't just because his three favorite students (Harry, Hermione, and Ron) hadn't taken his class. Aragog, the giant aracnomantula, was ill and Hagrid was worried the spider would die. Considering Hagrid had taken care of Aragog since Hagrid himself was in school, this was pretty harsh news for the man, who often got close to animals in very short periods of time. Harry did his best to comfort Hagrid and the man finally settled down.
Than Harry had been invited to a party with Slughorn, much, it seemed, to Theodore's disgust. Feeling embarrassed and ashamed, Harry had attended the party and found himself chatting with Blaise Zabini the entire time. This turned fruitful as Zabini yielded some interesting information.
"I know you don't notice a lot, Potter." Zabini whispered to him. "But I know you're the curious sort. Malfoy won't let anyone near his left arm. He keeps hiding it from anyone, shies away from being touched, yelps sometimes if he is, and he's been acting really...odd. I don't know if you've noticed, but he hardly is around much, anymore. I'd say he probably spends more time away from the Common Room than in it."
"It's only been one week." Harry mumbled, eyes glancing around the room.
"I don't want Death Eaters in our dorm." Blaise hissed. "If he is...and this is the only reason I am telling you this...if he is a Death Eater, we are turning him in. I want your eyes open to it as well."
"Have you asked anyone else?"
"There's no one else to ask." Blaise retorted quickly. "You and I are the only one in our dorm whose fathers aren't taking up space in Azkaban. I don't like you much, Potter, and you know my standing on blood, but You-Know-Who is mad and...I'll tell Draco it doesn't affect me and that I agree with him, but I'd never side with a crazy person. I don't care how powerful they are."
"Last year, you thought Dumbledore and I were the crazy people."
"And who wouldn't?" Blaise responded calmly. "Anyways, that's what I know. If you find out more...if you discover what he's up to...report him."
"He's sixteen..." Harry groaned. "I know the Dark Lord will take anyone who's willing, so it doesn't surprise me...Malfoy does fit the description."
"He's up to no good."
"Have you thought of recruiting Gryffindors against him?" Harry finally asked. "After all, they'd love to get him in trouble."
"That's the thing, though, isn't it?" Blaise raised an eyebrow. "They'd love to get him in trouble, but they're reckless and foolhardy. They could get others hurt in the process or him. I don't wish Draco ill. I just don't want to be..."
Slughorn interrupted their conversation and they didn't finish it until they were on their way back to their Common Room.
"If Draco is up to something and if he's following You-Know-Who's orders," Harry told Blaise. "You have my word that I will report him."
"But only if you have substantial evidence." Blaise added. "Suspicions will not count and could also be wrong."
"Of course." Harry gave Blaise a sideways glance. "You know, despite popular belief, I am a Slytherin."
Blaise gave a snort. "You only wear our robes, Potter."
Things became tense around the Slytherin Common Room due to the Quidditch Team admissions. Most agreed that Crabbe should have been added as a Beater along with Goyle and that there were several other people who would have made better Keepers and there was fire about how Tracey would have been a better choice than Rachel. It got bad enough for Harry to stop coming around the Common Room until most everyone was in bed.
He found his original Potions textbook, but instead of giving back the old one, he switched the covers and gave the new Potions book back to Slughorn instead.
Meanwhile, he tried to figure out what it was Draco was up to, but knew he couldn't spy on him as the ever-wary boy would undoubtedly notice. Theodore, seeming to realize that Harry's mind was more and more preoccupied, stopped hanging around him by the end of the third week at Hogwarts. Dismally, Harry grew more and more bitter and angry as he was about to start the typical pendalom struggle between them.
This year wasn't starting good.
Hmm...so I suddenly got this insane urge to not write. I can tell because as I am writing the above, I feel my ears burning and my face prickling and what I am writing seems boring and uninteresting.
I'd like to inform people that in general I don't look at the majority of the population on this earth as "nice" nor as "intelligent" and certainly rarely those two qualities together. People, for whatever reason, seem to think that when they are about to read fanfiction labeled as "XXX-this" or "XXX-that", this means they are about to read what they want to hear and that the writing will be superb. I would like to let you all know: YOU ARE WRONG. Most everyone (MOST everyone) who writes fanfiction does it for their own enjoyment, for personal pleasure, and they are NOT trying to please YOU. I post it for others only because I'd like to know if the style is acceptable and I figure, well, if I'm going to write it I may as well share it rather than let it sit on my computer doing nothing. This is also my emotional punching bag while I write my own story, so that way I can fling my emotions at this story and let my head remain cool and collected in my own writing. This, however, does not mean that when someone gets up the gall to make insults my direction, that it does not hurt. Honestly, if you're not liking how a story is going, or if the writing style bothers you, or if there are too many grammar/spelling mistakes, or if you think a certain character should be portrayed differently: KEEP IT TO YOURSELF! This is a FANFICTION for God's sake! I don't come on here to be bullied into writing what YOU want to hear. If you don't like it, move to a different fic. There are loads of them on this site. YOU ARE NOT MY EDITORS! IT IS NOT YOUR JOB TO BULLY ME OR EMOTIONALLY ATTACK ME! I am ranting and raving, but it is because I am mad and I am hurt.
If you have something to say and it is both nice and intelligent, feel free to review. Otherwise, don't bother because I will erase it without commenting.