Ok, so here it is. The last chapter before we get into the completely new stuff. Again I will warn you that it is not that different.

I liked the chapter enough that I simple didn't see the point in trying to write it out differently when it would just be the same anyway.

Enjoy :)

XXX

Disclaimer: I own nothing :(

XXX

Beta: alexis. metoyer. 1

XXX

Chapter 7- Trolls Can't Run Indoors

XXX

The month leading up to Halloween was very busy for Harry, especially between catching up his practical skills with his theoretical knowledge, acting as a teaching assistant in Potions, Charms and Transfiguration, and making sure the Twins didn't blow themselves up along with his Potions Lab. That was how Harry liked it. Since he was busy all the time, his mind had little chance to be bored even if helping the other first years wasn't exciting.

He wasn't able to keep himself completely focused on catching up, but about 70% of his time was put into it. This was good for Harry because he would normally have gotten bored with it by now and started a few different subjects.

The news that he was being moved ahead had spread around the school within a day of the decision being made, a fact Harry strongly suspected the portraits for. It was met with many different reactions, some better than others.

For the most part, the other first years seemed to be amazed, with exceptions such as Malfoy, who seemed to find it insulting that he wasn't being moved ahead, too. Fifth through seventh years were largely indifferent to it, having more things to worry about with exams and such. It was the second through fourth years that mostly didn't seem to take the news well, especially those in Ravenclaw.

Already, Harry would see them bringing books and notes to read while eating in the Great Hall, sending him glances when they thought he wasn't looking. It had apparently been a long time since someone was given the chance to skip a year- let alone two- and they didn't like the fact it wasn't any of them. They were trying to compete with him, something Harry found even more annoying than having to help the other first years.

Fred and George had taken his advice and held off on taking their sweets to Honeydukes to sell, and instead decided to perfect the recipe while testing it on themselves. Harry had asked them why they didn't test it on other people, and the two had been very adamant that they wouldn't want to risk it when they could simply do it themselves.

While he didn't understand the sentiment, exactly, he respected their work ethic if nothing else. If it was up to Harry, he would probably just hand them out randomly and anyone stupid enough to eat them without question would then be watched for unexpected side effects. It would be their own fault while working as a test run at the same time. They did admit that when they had more saved up they planned on offering people money to be lab rats, but not until they could offer what they thought was a fair price for the risk involved.

The twins had also decided to try and invent several other sweets to sell to the local shop in the village, taking Harry's advice about not rushing and building up their funds and products. The current plan was to invent a few non-joke products to sell and save up the money earned from those, first. When they had enough funds, they would branch out into joke products. The long term goal was to open a shop in Diagon Alley, and if business was good, they would open a branch shop in Hogsmead.

It didn't hurt that Harry had already expressed his willingness to invest in their future business- both with money and producing future inventions. He knew a good business opportunity when he saw one, and while he wasn't desperate for money, he would be a fool not to try and add to his family's fortune.

Harry was also able to keep Hermione and Neville at arm's length, despite the bushy haired girl's insistence on trying to get to know him. Neville seemed happy to have someone that helped him when he needed it and to talk Herbology with, but Hermione was constantly trying to push. Most of the time Harry would ignore her, only answering questions that were relevant to the lesson he was helping in and walking away if she asked anything personal.

The reason why she seemed so determined to get to know him was beyond Harry; he was very aware that he was an arsehole to everyone- including her. But for some reason, this wasn't enough to get her to back off…or the twins, when he thought about it…or Neville…

Maybe he was slipping. It had been a long time since he had been around people his own age. Adults were so much easier to understand, a few comments to make them feel stupid and they left him alone.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Harry refocused on the charms lesson he was assisting in as Flitwick explained how to cast the levitation charm. It was a decent spell to know, if simplistic. Point your wand, and the object would follow where it pointed.

While he didn't use a wand, Harry had taken the time to familiarise himself with the methods on how to use one, just in case he ever decided to get one if his Grimoire became too easy. Most people tended to do it the other way around and start with a wand before experimenting with different Magical Foci, but Harry wasn't most people and didn't care for doing things the normal way.

He sat at the front of the room, waiting to see if anyone would ask for his help.

Harry saw how many didn't get the wand movement right- and others that were pronouncing it wrong- with a shake of his head. If they had simply taken the time to read the spell and ask for clarification on how to pronounce it, this would be so much easier for them. He was also a little worried when he realised that most were already adding power to the spells.

If you just tried without practicing at all, it could have…explosive, consequences.

A prime example of this was a Gryffindor boy named Seamus, who had been getting a bit of a reputation for having his spells blow up in his face. He was still missing half his eyebrow after a failed attempt to turn water into rum at dinner the night before, much to the amusement of both Harry and everyone else that had seen it.

Finally, his attention was drawn to the sight of one of the feathers near the back of the room starting to float in the air, Hermione pointing her wand at it with a satisfied look on her face. Harry also didn't miss the sour faced expression of Ron Weasley sitting a few chairs away from her, but thought nothing of it.

It was about ten seconds later while Flitwick was praising Hermione for getting the spell right, when there was a loud bang and smoke filled the room. Already knowing where he needed to look, Harry's eyes landed on Seamus with his face covered in black soot and his hair pushed back from the explosion.

The feather he had been trying to levitate slowly floated back to the table, burning away seconds after landing.

XXX

Harry never liked Halloween, even before learning it was the night his parents were killed and he was sent to live with the Dursleys. To him, the holiday had been corrupted- like Christmas- and turned into something people used for profit. What did sweets and dressing up have to do with the original purpose of the holiday? Nothing, that's what.

He had actually had higher hopes for the Wizarding World, but that was forgotten the moment he walked into the Great Hall for the Halloween feast and saw the carved pumpkins floating around with candles in their mouths. The feast itself was filled with overly sweet food, and the pudding was nothing but a sea of sugar and chocolate.

Harry could only shake his head with a frown on his face, the happy chatter of the other students grating on his nerves like sandpaper. He was ready to call it a night and head back up to his room then and there- maybe get a few more hours of studying in before sleeping- when the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open with a loud bang.

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! TROOOOLL IN THE DUNGEON!"

In ran a hysterical Quirrell, eyes wide with fear and arms flailing about. The nervous professor came to a stop in the middle of the room and took three deep breaths before turning his attention to the staff table.

"Thought you ought to know…" he said in a much quieter voice. He then fell flat on his face, fainting on the spot.

It was almost exactly five seconds later that the hall broke into complete chaos, students screaming and jumping to their feet, food forgotten. Harry watched on impassively as several professors attempted to call everyone into order with little success, the growing panic hindering their attempts.

Finally, after several minutes passed, Dumbledore stood and pointed his wand to his throat, magically increasing the volume of his voice, "SILENCE!" The effect was instant. All noise fell quiet as the headmaster pulled his wand away from his throat and spoke normally again.

"Everyone, please, do not panic. Prefects, please lead your House back to your dormitories. Teachers, you will follow me to the dungeons," Dumbledore said in a calm voice.

Harry wondered if Dumbledore had forgotten that the Slytherin dormitories were in the dungeon, or that there was no Prefect to lead him. When he saw that it didn't occur to anyone else, since the staff all marched out of the room in search of the troll, Harry decided not to worry about it. After getting up from the table, he stayed to the back of the crowd. He was in no hurry to get to his room or fight his way through the still-panicking students.

He hadn't even made it out of the hall before he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, and he turned around to see a very pale Neville looking moments away from passing out.

"H-Hermione isn't here! Padma said she was in the girl's bathroom, crying. She doesn't know about the troll!" whispered Neville in a weak voice as his hands shook slightly.

Frowning and shrugging the boy's hand off, Harry stood in place and looked the boy up and down for a moment before saying, "Then tell one of the Prefects," in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I did, but they wouldn't listen to me! Harry, we need to go get her; what if the troll finds its way out of the dungeons?" Neville asked, getting more and more panicked by the second.

His face still set in a bored expression, Harry shrugged and made to turn and carry on his way.

"It's not my problem. If she is stupid enough to get in the way of the troll, then it's her own fault," he threw over his shoulder as he turned his back to the boy.

Harry was about to step away when his shoulder was once again grabbed and he was turned around forcibly. He had just enough time to register the furious expression on Neville's face before a fist came at him and knocked him over. Staring up at the usually meek boy with a hand over his soon-to-be black eye, Harry could only look on with a mixture of shock and confusion as Neville glared down at him.

"I've had enough of you and your bloody pig headedness! You think you're so much better than everyone else because you're smarter? because you understand things better? You're nothing but an arsehole! Hermione and I have been nothing but nice to you; we tried to get to know you, but you keep shoving us away. What did we ever do to you that would make you hate us so much, that you would leave Hermione out there with no idea of the danger? There is a bloody TROLL wandering around the castle and it could kill her!" ranted Neville, his face red with rage and his breath coming in pants. His hands were still shaking at his sides, but now it was in restrained anger instead of nervousness, and he had tears running down his face.

Harry wasn't sure if it was the pain in his eye, the expression on his face, or simply the fact that Neville had just punched him, but he found himself taking in each word. In some ways they were more painful than the black eye, and for the first time in many years Harry felt shame for something he had said or done.

Letting out a sigh, Harry slowly got to his feet, his right eye closed and already turning black. "Which bathroom, I don't want to go running in one direction only to find it's the wrong one," he said without looking at Neville.

His words seemed to throw the boy for a moment, but Neville quickly recovered and gave a sharp nod. "Ground floor, west bathroom. It's right next to the entrance to the dungeon."

Nodding, Harry quickly ran from the now empty Great Hall, Neville trailing at his ankles the whole way.

"AAAHHH!"

They had just arrived to the corridor with the bathroom when the scream reached them. Harry's eyes widened slightly before they narrowed quickly, and he ran even faster to reach the broken down door at the end. He was able to see the large form of the troll through the door, but it blocked out everything else and Harry quickly shouted over his shoulder to Neville, "I'll lead it away, you get Hermione and find the professors!" he ordered.

Without waiting for a reply, Harry burst into the room. He quickly took in the terrified form of Hermione crouching under a sink with the troll raising a club to crush her.

The troll stood at least 10 feet tall, with dull blue-grey skin and beady, black eyes. Its arms and legs were thick as tree trunks and came from a fat body with a potbelly, which was barely covered by the crudely made vest and loin cloth it wore as clothes. Its head was also very small compared to the rest of its body, the ears on either side almost as large as the head itself.

In the span of two seconds Harry went through every spell he currently knew, realising that he had nothing that would be able to stop the giant magical creature. He did, however, know a few that would get its attention away from Hermione and onto him.

Opening his grimoire, Harry started desperately flipping through the pages as fast as he could while trying to keep an eye on the troll before realising that he was taking too long. In a desperate, stupid move, Harry slammed the book closed and threw it at the troll's head, the chain growing longer to allow the move.

The heavy book found its mark and bounced off of the troll's head with a dull thud, not doing any actual damage, but still getting its attention. It turned to face him for a moment, but it decided that Hermione was more interesting and turned back to her.

However, it had given Harry time to pull his grimoire back to him and find the page he had been looking for.

Pointing his chain covered arm at the troll's arse, Harry put as much power into the Stinging Hex as he could before letting it go. The result jarred his arm and sent a football sized red curse flying at the creature.

The moment the hex hit, the troll let out a loud yell of pain and rage, dropping its club as its back arched slightly. The pain only lasted a moment, though- the magic resistant hide of the troll took the worst of the damage- and left the troll very angry as it turned to look down at Harry again with a glare.

Not that he could blame the creature, he did just hit it with an overpowered Stinging Hex in the arse.

The troll bent down and grabbed its club from the ground with its small angry eyes glaring at him and slime dripping from its mouth. Harry took a step back, and as if it was a silent signal, the troll released another yell and started charging at him. Harry didn't wait to see if Neville got to Hermione and simply turned around and started running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

While clumsy and not very fast, the troll was able to catch up with Harry as he reached the end of the hall- most likely due to its larger stride. Harry was forced to jump around a corner to avoid the swing aimed at him, rolling back to his feet and looking over his shoulder just in time to see the troll run straight into the wall. It was then he realised that though the troll was faster than him, it couldn't navigate corners very well while running.

With this thought in mind, Harry started to run again, wanting as much distance as possible between himself and the giant creature before it got back up. It caught up to him once again, and Harry quickly changed direction and took a side corridor. The troll missed the turn and skid past, but soon was back screaming in frustration and swinging its club randomly.

This carried on for some time, Harry having no idea where he was going as he took random turns while trying to lose the troll. They left a clear path of destruction behind them, one that Harry knew would be enough to lead the professors to him once Neville found them. Taking another corner- he could actually feel the wind the club generated as it passed his head- Harry could only hope that they found him before the troll got a lucky hit.

Just as he was starting to get tired, Harry recognised the corridor he was running through, and quickly made a decision. He took another turn and soon came running into the Great Hall. He flattened himself against the wall to the left of the door, panting heavily, and hair sticking to his forehead with sweat.

A moment later the troll came barreling in, sending three of the house tables flying with a swing of its club before coming to a stop in the middle of the room. It looked around in confusion, trying to understand where Harry had gone, before slowly turning around and seeing him.

Harry wanted to move, but his body had apparently reached its limit. Instead of getting up, he slid down the wall slowly, sitting on the floor. Even with the troll's limited brain, it seemed to realise that Harry wasn't able to run anymore. It gave a roar of victory before slowly walking over to him, club dragging on the ground behind it and filling the air with a grinding noise.

However, before it got more than four steps a black shape came flying through the doors, heading straight for the troll's head.

"Caw!"

Harry was able to recognise Poe after a moment, his raven familiar clawing and pecking at the troll's eyes and face in an attempt to blind it. Unfortunately, the small bird was little more than an annoyance to the thick skinned creature, and she was unable to get a clear shot at its eyes once he started moving around and trying to knock her away.

"Bombarda!"

"Confringo!"

Two spells came from outside the door next to Harry, Poe flying away just in time to avoid them as they both slammed into the troll's chest. The first seemed to simply slam into it with the force of a car, pushing it slightly off balance and causing it to drop its club. There was a large bang as the tree sized weapon hit the ground heavily.

The second spell hit the same spot on its chest as the first a moment later, but was not able hit with enough force to knock the troll off its feet. It did cause a small explosion that set the troll's vest on fire. The heat obviously didn't bother it since it turned its attention to its new attackers with a snarl.

Harry watched in confusion as Fred and George came running into the Hall with serious expressions on their faces, wands pointed at the troll.

"Hey, Harry! Thought you could hog all the fun to yourself and leave us out did you?" said Fred with his back to Harry, not taking his eyes off the troll.

"Just as well Poe came and got us in time; you look like shit," George added.

Letting out a slightly wheezing laugh between his pants, Harry shifted slightly as Poe landed on his knee so he could send the twins a genuine smile. "Sorry about that; I didn't have time to get you. Neville was very insistent we find Hermione-,"Harry said between pants, "which we did, just as big-and-ugly over there found her."

Both teens nodded their understanding of what had happened, before moving to stand in between Harry and the troll once it got back to its feet.

"Fair enough, mate. Now just stay back-" said George.

"- and let the masters do their thing!"

Harry watched as the twins charged forward. They were casting spells constantly and moving around in such a way as to confuse the troll. They worked in a very impressive synchronization not unlike everything else they did, but now it had a dangerous edge to it. While one took time to power up a spell, the other would be peppering the troll with weaker ones to distract it. When it got too close, the twins showed a surprising amount of agility and would sometimes even flip out of the way. At one point, Fred had even used George's back as a springboard, flipping over the troll's head completely and hitting it with three spells before landing in a crouch behind it and rolling away to put distance between them. As he was doing that, George got its attention away from his brother with an overpowered blasting hex to its stomach that winded it..

Their movements reminded Harry of parkour, a muggle trend that he had seen before coming to Hogwarts.

Unfortunately, it soon became clear to Harry that despite the number of spells they sent at the troll, none of them seemed to create any lasting damage. Its skin was too thick, and their spells were simply not strong enough. It was as he realised this that Harry noticed the club still lying on the ground where it had dropped it before, forgotten by the troll which had resorted to swiping at the twins with its hands..

Opening his grimoire, Harry started flipping through pages as quickly as he could before stopping at the one he needed. He held his hand out to the club and shouted the spell loud enough to draw the twin's attention.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The chain glowed brightly with the amount of power needed to lift the club, but Harry didn't stop. He started flipping through pages again before stopping at another and calling out the second spell while still holding the club in the air.

"Flipendo!"

His chain glowed even brighter for a moment before the spell shot from his hand and hit the club, which suddenly became a cannonball.

The club flew across the room straight at the troll. Fred and George rolled out of the way at the last moment. The troll had enough time to turn and widen its eyes before the club smacked into its face; the sound of breaking bones filled the air. Harry let go of the spell and the club fell to the ground, the troll swaying for a moment before following it.

The marble floor splintered from the impact, and the troll shuddered before falling completely still.

For a moment after that, the only sound in the room came from Harry and the twin's heavy breathing. The two red heads slowly made their way over and sat on either side of him on the floor. He didn't really know what to say to them, so for a while the three simply sat with their wands and grimoire still pointing at the possibly dead troll- just in case.

After finally regaining his breath, Harry looked from one to the other with a small smirk on his face.

"I take it back; your sanity is not in question anymore. You two are both insane!" This got a bark of laughter from both boys, who seemed to relax a little more as Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook him slightly, "What does that make you? We came to save your sorry arse, remember? Nice shiner by the way."

Wincing slightly at the reminder, Harry shook his head and lightly banged it against the wall behind him. "Yeah, had some sense knocked into me. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, to be honest…"

They laughed again at that, before falling into a surprisingly comfortable silence.

Harry wasn't sure what to make of anything that had happened tonight. Between Neville punching him in the face, drawing a troll away from Hermione only to be saved by the twins and his familiar… he was both mentally and physically exhausted.

Why would Neville come to him for help? Why did the twins save him?

These were questions he couldn't answer.

Sure, he helped Neville in class from time to time, but he had never said a nice word to the guy and was a general arse. He was on better terms with Fred and George, but he had thought it was more a business arrangement then an actual friendship; he let them use his potions lab and they showed him a few tricks and promised to cut him in on their eventual profit.

However, as far as he knew, business associates didn't fight a troll for you...did Harry have actual friends? That seemed like the sort of thing he should have noticed sooner.

It was as these thoughts were going through his head that the professors finally arrived, Dumbledore in front with his wand pointed forward. McGonagall was only a step behind him while Neville and Hermione brought up the rear. They all froze at the sight of the seemingly dead troll laying in the middle of the Great Hall, having not noticed the three of them sitting on the floor next to the door.

Running over to the fallen troll with her wand never lowering an inch, McGonagall cast spells quickly before paling and shaking her head. All of the professors slowly put away their wands.

"What happened here? How did it even find its way to the Great Hall? If the students had still been here, this could have been a disaster!" McGonagall said in a slightly panicked voice at the thought.

Harry took offense, "Hey! I was sort of too busy running to think that far ahead; the bloody troll was pissed I hit it with a Stinging Hex in the arse and wouldn't leave me alone." Harry got a laugh from the twins at his comment about the Stinging Hex.

As one, the group turned to see the Harry and the twins, Poe still perched on his knee and giving a small caw at the attention.

"Mr. Potter! Misters Weasley!"

McGonagall ran over with her wand once again in hand and pointed at his black eye, but before she could heal it Harry waved her away with his usual bored expression- though it was somewhat ruined by the dark ring around his eye. "Leave it be. I didn't get it from the troll; I earned it anyway. I'll let it heal normally."

Looking a little confused, the Transfiguration professor turned her attention to the twins before frowning slightly and rubbing her head tiredly. "Do I even want to know why you two are here?" she asked before putting her wand away when told they had no injuries.

In response, both red heads grinned before both pointing at Poe. Said raven simply puffed up slightly as all eyes turned to her, and Harry couldn't help but think that there was smugness in her eyes.

Though that might have also been because of the bond they shared…he really needed to stop putting off researching about that. He just didn't seem to have the time between catching up his practical skills to his theoretical and building up his Occlumency Shields.

Shaking his head at his familiar, Harry used the wall to help himself get back on shaky legs. He really needed to get out and exercise more; running for his life from the troll had tired him out far too much.

By the time he was standing, Dumbledore was making his way over to them after checking on the troll himself. The twins were standing with him and grabbing an arm each to help hold him up. Maybe he should ask Fred and George to teach him some of those acrobatic moves they had used while fighting; it seemed interesting and useful.

"I think we need to have a few words in my office, all of you," said Dumbledore. His eyes moved over the three of them, before- to Harry's surprise- also scanning over Neville and Hermione.

XXX

It wasn't until three hours later, after each of them had been forced to recount what had happened from their own points of view several times, that the group was allowed to leave the Headmaster's office. Harry had been surprised at one point when Hermione attempted to take the blame and lied about going after the troll herself, but Harry had put a stop to that with a light glare at the girl and a few short words.

He didn't need someone else taking the blame for his actions, especially when her reasoning made no sense at all. Who would believe a first year teacher's pet would go looking for a troll after the students had been ordered back to their dorms anyway?

There was also the fact that Harry didn't regret what he did; it had been…fun, for one thing. It was also the closest he had gotten to a good deed in years, so there was a little pride in there too.

To say Fred and George were not happy to hear that their younger brother had been the reason Hermione was crying in a bathroom was an understatement, and Harry had a feeling they would be having a few words with him sooner rather than later.

They had been ordered to return to their rooms and had been given passes for being out of bed after hours by Dumbledore, but they were only good to get them back to their dorms.

Harry stayed near the back of the group as they walked the corridors, his sharp eyes moving from one to the other. Poe was perched on his shoulder, rubbing her head against the side of his every few seconds as if making sure he was still there.

He still wasn't sure what to think about them.

Were they his…friends?

He'd never had friends before, at least, not for long periods of time. When he was younger, he had made a few friends, but then he was moved ahead and lost touch with them. After that, he was always around older kids or adults; most of them hated his guts for being smarter than them. There was also the fact he was an arsehole, but Harry was sure it was mostly because he was smarter.

The fact was, he really didn't know how to connect to people around his own age- or any other age- anymore. His only real source of human contact with people outside of an academic situation was the Dursley's, and they were not the best people to emulate for obvious reasons. There had been a few teachers that had taken a little more time to get to know him, but he could never call them friends, or even close, really.

How was he supposed to know any of these things?

Maybe he should just ask Fred and George the next time they came to see him. At this point, they were two people on a very short list that he trusted. This was odd because he also knew for a fact that if they could get away with it, they would probably prank his hair pink and his skin green the second he dropped his guard around them.

Neville had shown a backbone he hadn't expected from the boy based on their interactions up until this point, going so far as to actually knock some sense into him. If nothing else, Harry found himself having a little respect for the usually meek kid- that punch had really hurt. He had a mean right hook that Harry would have to watch out for in the future.

He still wasn't sure what to think of Hermione though. She had tried to take the blame after all, even if it was unnecessary. When he first met her, she had been a pain in the arse and smug as hell, but she had also adapted to not being the smartest person in the room when he was around pretty well…wait a moment, was he actually thinking about still interacting with them in the future?

XXX

The next morning at breakfast, Harry was once again treated to the stares of almost everyone in the Great Hall. Word of what had happened that night seemed to have travelled fast. Personally, Harry blamed the paintings; he had a feeling that they were all gossips.

Like always, he was dressed in plain Muggle clothes with his red hat and Poe perched on his shoulder, but he also had a black umbrella in his hand since it was raining outside.

Ignoring the stares, Harry walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down between Neville and Hermione, the twins sitting across from them. Harry then pulled out a galleon and flipped it over to a very surprised Neville, who caught it.

"Congratulations, Neville," Harry said as he put some food on his plate. "You're hired!"

"H-hired?" asked Neville, a very confused expression on his face.

Harry did look up from his plate as he spoke, "Yep, I am officially hiring you to be my Conscience, since I recently came to the conclusion that I don't have one and it might be a good idea to change that. Basically, I want you to tell me if I am doing something morally wrong." He passed a piece of bacon to Poe before eating.

Neville could only blink in confusion. "Ok…" he said after a moment.

Harry nodded and looked straight at Neville before continuing.

"Good, I already have your first job. Hypothetically, is it morally wrong to remove the ward on the Great Hall that prevents the owls from shitting while delivering the mail, and to feed said post owls laxatives in the middle of the night?" asked Harry as he took a bite of his toast.

By this point, both the twins and Hermione were staring at him, and Neville was looking even more nervous than before. "Y-yes, Harry, it would be wrong…why do you ask?" Neville asked before catching the galleon Harry flipped to him again.

Harry then brought up the umbrella in his hands and opened it above his head, covering both himself and Poe before he gave a shrug.

"Huh…no reason."

Before anyone could comment on this, there was a screech as the owls started to stream into the Great Hall, followed by horrified screams as a sea of white and black shit rained down on both the students and professors.

Throughout it all, Harry continued to eat his breakfast under the safety of his umbrella, seemingly ignoring the chaos around him.

The twins were right, that had been…interesting.

XXX

So there it is, I am officially out of previous chapters to take from and the next will be a completely new chapter.

Let me know what you thought of this one :)