Thoughts: 'Blah. Blah. Blah."
Flashback: Blah. Blah. Blah. ( [END]FLASHBACK before/after them)
Hedwig: "Blah. Blah. Blah."
Parseltongue: {Blah. Blah. Blah.}
Letters/Articles/Writing: Blah. Blah. Blah.
Chapter 6
Harry groans as he walks up the stairs on his way to his first class of the day. It's Tuesday, so that means that he has Transfiguration first, which is the main reason for his bad mood.
Draco, after about thirty minutes of trying to wake him up, decided to leave for the Great Hall with Blaise and Theo. He'd figured that if physically pulling Harry out of bed hadn't worked, then nothing would. He only has so much patience, after all. Therefore, Harry is walking in silence, only partially regretting his belligerence this morning. He's not used to being without Draco, and the quiet is disconcerting.
'Draco is going to be upset with me for skipping breakfast.' This thought crosses Harry's mind as he turns the corner, revealing the open door to the Transfiguration Classroom. He trudges into the room and over to his friends, slumping in his seat, eyes half-lidded as he fights to stay awake.
Harry isn't really listening as Professor McGonagall begins speaking, and continues ignoring her words until he hears something that piques his interest. Harry raises his hand and is quickly called on.
"I'm sorry, Professor, but did you just say that we'll be transfiguring snakes into smoke?"
"That is correct, Mister Potter. Now, if you could humour me and say the incantation? I have already informed the class of this information, so you should be able to answer without much difficulty." McGonagall stares Harry down, a no-nonsense expression on her face as she waits for Harry's response. Harry gulps, McGonagall has him trapped, and he sees a few Ravenclaws shaking their heads at him in disbelief.
"Um…," Harry begins, weighing his options. Ultimately, he chooses sass - no surprise there - and he takes a deep breath before meeting McGonagall's eyes innocently. "Actually, Professor, I have a rare memory condition that keeps me from remembering anything before 10 am. It's called It's-Way-Too-Early-For-This Syndrome. It really is quite inconvenient, but there's no helping it, so a quick recap would be extremely helpful."
The room falls dead silent as McGonagall's face contorts with poorly concealed rage, but it's clear that most of the class is struggling to control their laughter. Draco whips his head around to face Harry, eyes wide with shock. Harry doesn't return his gaze, keeping his eyes locked on McGonagall and focusing on maintaining his unconcerned expression.
The Gryffindor Head of House takes one more moment to reign in her anger, finally managing to dull it to an acceptable level. "Harry James Potter, you are one sarcastic comment away from a week's worth of detention, so I suggest that you hold your tongue and keep your humour to yourself from this point forward."
"As you wish, Professor, but just know that you are- OW!" Whatever Harry was about to say is efficiently silenced by Draco, who had jabbed his elbow sharply into Harry's ribs when he realized what route his friend was taking with his comment.
Professor McGonagall huffs in annoyance. "Thank you, Mister Malfoy." She says tightly, turning on her heels and making her way back to the front of the room to continue the lesson.
From that moment forward, Harry makes a show of paying attention, flourishing his quill when he goes to take notes and nodding obnoxiously at everything McGonagall says. It's a miracle that she hasn't given him detention and kicked him out yet. So, like any sane person, Harry decides to kick it up a notch. He doesn't exactly know what his goal is, but he's feeling particularly spiteful today, so he's just going to go with it and see where it takes him. Maybe he has a death wish, maybe he doesn't, the world may never know. Besides, this is the most fun he's had all week, so it will be worth whatever punishment McGonagall decides to dish out.
Harry raises his hand.
"Yes?" McGonagall grits out after a few seconds of watching Harry wave his hand in the air.
"Hypothetically, what would happen to someone if they inhaled some of the smoke?"
"Nothing, now when you attempt this spell-"
"Yes, but, what if the snake was untransfigured while the smoke was still in the person's lungs?" Harry persists, despite Draco's jabby elbow of doom.
Professor McGonagall is now visibly annoyed and exasperated. "I don't know, Potter, now if you would ju-"
"Theoretically, wouldn't part of the snake be left inside the person's lungs after the transfiguration process, or would the smoke make its way forcefully from the person to join with the rest? And if that's the case, would the smoke become solid before leaving the person, consequently tearing a hole in the person's chest while attempting to reform? That would be rather unfortunate, don't you think? Not to mention the mess, and the paperwork, and-"
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" McGonagall finally breaks, shouting to cut Harry off.
"I'm just showing you that I'm paying attention, Professor." Harry provides innocently, cocking his head in mock confusion.
"OUT!" McGonagall says, pointing to the door. "Right now, or so help me God, you will be spending the rest of your evenings this year in the company of Mr. Filch! Detention, all week, with Professor Lockhart!"
'Okay, maybe not so worth it.' Harry thinks when he hears who he'll be serving his detention with. Hardly willing to show McGonagall his displeasure, he dramatically gathers his things, walks to the door, and turns around to give the enraged Professor a salute and a cheeky grin before he finally walks out. The last thing he sees before he closes the door behind him is McGonagall's face turning an impressive shade of Gryffindor red.
Harry walks down the corridor thinking, 'Draco is going to kill me later.'
~~~Time Skip~~~
"What were you thinking!?" Draco storms into the common room and immediately starts yelling, stomping his way over to where Harry is sitting by the fire reading a book.
"I was thinking that I wanted to go back to bed." Harry replies, turning the page nonchalantly. Out of nowhere, with absolutely no prompting at all, Draco yanks the book from Harry's grasp, snapping it shut and dropping it onto the table with a loud thud. Which, first of all, he was reading that. And, second, couldn't he have at least had the decency to keep the book open? It's going to take forever to find where he was. It's a tragedy, an act of sabotage, utter heathenism.
"And that was your solution!?"
"It worked, didn't it?" Harry places his hands neatly in his lap and cocks an eyebrow.
Draco growls. "And why, pray tell, did you skip Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
"I'll be getting my daily dose of blatant stupidity later tonight, and I don't fancy doubling up on that. Besides, did you not hear me when I said that I wanted to go back to bed? I can't do that when I have a useless moron prattling on about how amazing his smile is. And I swear to everything holy and unholy that if I hear the Bandon Banshee story one more time I will lose the last bit of sanity I have left. Is that what you want, Draco? And here I was thinking that you cared about my well-being!"
"You- Stop trying to turn this around on me!" Draco shouts, flustered, but with a more humorous tone than before.
"Whatever do you mean?" Harry asks, before reaching for his book. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have to search for the page I was on because somebody decided to wake up and choose violence."
"Fine." Draco huffs. "And, for your information, you lost your sanity a long time ago." Harry flops a hand at Draco, dismissing his comment. Draco rolls his eyes and decides that telling Harry off will get him nowhere. The blond sighs and walks away, leaving the common room and heading to the Great Hall for lunch.
"You're in a mood today." Blaise comments idly on his way to the door.
"I'm always in a mood. This one just happens to be more confrontational than the others."
"You, uh… You have fun with that, mate."
"I intend to. Run along now, I'm busy."
~~~Time Skip~~~
"Harry, Harry, Harry… Can you possibly imagine a better way to serve detention than by helping me to answer my fan mail?" Lockhart says, grinning, as he sets down his quill and looks over at Harry.
'I'd rather go back to the forbidden forest than deal with you.' Harry thinks. But rather than voicing his displeasure, he simply mutters, "No, sir, I can't."
"Well, of course, you can't! Fame is a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does! Remember that!"
'The only thing I-'
"Come, come, come to me. Come to me!"
Harry's snide thought is abruptly cut off by a creepy disembodied voice that sends chills running down his spine. Harry shivers and jerks up, sending a line of ink across the letter he's working on. He squints at the ceiling, then at Lockhart, and back at the ceiling again.
"Um, Professor, did you say something?" Harry questions. He knows that it wasn't Lockhart speaking, but he figures it won't hurt to check all bases, just in case.
"What are you talking about, Harry?" Lockhart says, confusion etched across his face. "I think we're getting a bit drowsy, don't you? And, Great Scott- No wonder? Look at the time! We've been here nearly four hours! Spooky how time flies when one's having fun." Lockhart finishes with a chuckle, making Harry roll his eyes in annoyance.
'Right; 'Fun' is one word for it, I suppose.' Harry thinks, scoffing quietly.
"Yeah, definitely spooky."
With that, Lockhart dismisses Harry from detention, the latter bolting from the room as fast as he possibly can just to make sure that he won't be sucked into another "fun" activity. As he hurried down the corridor, he can't help but think about the strange, hissing voice he'd heard.
'Maybe Draco's right. Maybe I actually am losing my mind.'
"That would be rather inconvenient." Harry mumbles as he continues walking, looking down at his feet as they pass over the stone floor.
"Harry!"
"AH!" Harry screams, whipping around and taking out his wand, his books flying everywhere and clattering to the floor. "Merlin, Draco, don't do that!" Harry breathes deeply, trying to calm himself down.
"Alright, alright! Just put your wand away. What's got you all worked up?" Draco replies, one eyebrow raised, as he walks over and begins helping Harry gather his belongings.
"Nothing, it's just-"
"Blood. I smell blood. Kill, kill, kill!"
"Okay, please tell me you heard that!" Harry yells, turning around in circles as he tries to pinpoint where the voice is coming from.
"KILL!"
"That!" Harry puts his ear to the wall for a moment and then breaks into a run, Draco following close behind him.
"You know, I really don't think you're supposed to follow creepy voices that nobody else can hear! There has to be some sort of rule about that!" Draco calls as he runs after Harry, receiving no response.
Draco rounds a corner and runs into Harry from behind, sending them both off-kilter and falling to the ground. When Draco looks up, he sees dozens of spiders scurrying across the floor, and up the wall, trying to escape out the window.
"Nope! No way! I will put up with a lot, but spiders? Not today!" Draco hurries into a standing position but stops dead in his tracks when he notices Harry standing eerily next to him.
"What's tha- Oh no…" Draco tapers off, gasping and reaching out to grab Harry's hand. "That's Mrs. Norris. We have to get out of here."
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware." Harry reads the words that have been written on the wall in front of them, the blood still fresh and dripping down the stone in crimson rivulets. "You're right, we have to leave. Now, before anyone sees us here."
Harry takes off, Dracos' hand still in his. The two boys turn the corner just as they hear the dull murmurs and gasps of the students and teachers filling the hallway, and Filtch's dismayed scream of, "You've murdered my cat!"
They don't stop running until they reach the common room.
After a brief moment of breathy silence, Harry laments, "It's official! I've been cursed. And to think that I was finally starting to get my life together!"
"Is that seriously what you're worried about right now?" Draco counters, looking at Harry in disbelief.
"Why? What else would I be worried about?"
"Nothing, Harry. Absolutely nothing. C'mon. Let's get some sleep before all hell breaks loose tomorrow."
A/N: So, we decided to change Harry's father from chaser to seeker for this story. We received a comment correcting it and we realized that we forgot to put an Author's Note explaining that.