I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.
A Taste of Magic
63rd Course – Storming Brains
"Huh. You know, I watched you make all this, and yet I'm still surprised," Blaise said, looking at his plate, more than a little impressed. "And you do this often?"
"As often as I can. If I don't cook at least every other day I get antsy," Harry said.
"Ah, I can understand that feeling," Daphne said. "Not for cooking, but I play instruments."
"Oh, what do you play?" Hermione asked.
"Violin and piano mostly," Daphne said. "Unfortunately, I could not bring my piano so while here at school, I play my violin."
"I'm glad you couldn't bring it. We'd have no room in our dorm," Tracey said. "Plus you're better at the violin." She smiled cheekily at Daphne's sour look.
"You have two person dorms too?" Padma asked. "That's nice."
"How come we have to share with the three of us?" Parvati complained.
"It's a really big room though and we have plenty of space," Lavender said.
"Parvati tries to take as much space as possible," Padma sighed. "Sue is far more courteous." She returned Parvati's rude hand gesture.
"There's five of us in our dorm," Neville said.
"You poor souls," Blaise chuckled.
"Ron's a bit of a snorer, yeah, same as Seamus," Neville laughed.
"First Charm I learned was to dampen sound," Blaise said. He bit into his sandwich and looked at it with surprise. "I normally do not enjoy egg salad but that is rather tasty."
"We had picnic dinner nights at the Hog's Head a lot," Harry said. "I got good at it and it's one of my favorites. The ham and chicken pie is one of Auntie Ari's favorites too."
"You've been to the Hog's Head? You worked there?" Blaise asked, looking even more surprised. "Willingly?"
"Very much so," Harry said, with a small frown.
Blaise grunted when Millicent stomped on his foot. "My apologies. It just seems rather…dismal from a distance." He grunted again and glared at a glaring Pansy.
"Who's Auntie Ari?" Tracey asked.
"Ariana Dumbledore," Pansy said with a small smile.
"The Headmaster has a sister?" Daphne asked, eyes wide.
"And a brother, he runs the Hog's Head," Pansy said. She gave the other three Slytherins a look and shook her head ever so slightly.
"Very interesting. I did not know that," Daphne said and applied herself to her food.
The atmosphere was still a smidge awkward and chilly, but with the good food and the slow exploratory conversation, it was warming up slightly. They were starting to feel more at ease around each other, with Pansy and Millicent smoothing out the little bumps in the conversation between the two new groups. They eventually finished lunch, with the three newcomers looking more impressed, and started nibbling on a plate of biscuits Harry set out for afters.
"Okay, so what should we make?" Parvati said. "You're good at making all sorts of things but we should find something easier and doable especially if we need to make a lot of it."
They looked at the handout listing what to expect for the Festival. It had a general layout of where the stalls and booths would be, a rough estimate of the amount of people, and other things and rules they had to abide by.
"Probably something that you can eat with one hand or while standing," Harry said. "We won't have tables or anything like that. Nothing too strange since it will be for general people. Can't really cater to a specific group or anything, nor should we."
"Everyone likes sweets," Lavender said. "Well, mostly everyone." After some more chatting done by the group without input from the Slytherins, Lavender looked over and frowned. "Is something wrong?" she asked sweetly, looking at Daphne directly.
Daphne looked like she was in pain but as soon as she was called out, it smoothed into pleasant blandness. "No, nothing at all," she demurred insincerely.
"No please, you're here and a part of the team, right?" Lavender asked, her smile sharp and all teeth.
Daphne's veneer cracked slightly and she took a deep breath. "Very well. Did you honestly think that you can just make something and people will flock to you and buy it just because it tastes good?"
"Something like that," Parvati said, frowning.
Daphne sighed and rubbed her eyes. "That is almost adorably naïve of you. However, we must treat this Festival like a business because it is, in fact, very much like one. We have to be able to attract people. We have to have a theme. We have to consider the competition. We have to do so much more than just come up with something 'tasty' and then hope for the best."
"The Greengrasses own one of the largest shipping companies in Wizarding Britain," Millicent said. "They work with a lot of businesses."
"It's a festival though," Hermione said.
"It is more than just a festival," Daphne countered. "You have two…three other schools involved and you better believe the foreign schools will be doing everything in their power to prove their superiority over Hogwarts, all the schools actually. They want to compete strongly and come out on top. Any chance to knock Hogwarts down will be taken and they will want to be the best in any way they can. If we do not take this seriously, then there will be no success."
"We weren't exactly going into this to beat everyone down and prove we're the best," Padma argued.
"Then why do it at all?" Blaise asked.
"Not everything is a competition," Luna frowned.
"Except this is," Daphne insisted. "If you go in without a plan and without conviction, then you will fail and your efforts will be for naught. And why even try if you are not even going to try at an acceptably adequate level?"
"Hey, we didn't ask you to be here," Parvati said, eyes flashing. "There's the door, princess."
"Do not call me princess," Daphne said, heated.
"Guys," Harry said and was soundly ignored.
"What's the matter, princess? Don't like being called one while acting like one?" Parvati continued.
"Hey, leave her alone, I don't see or hear you saying anything helpful," Tracey cut in.
"Hey, guys," Harry said a little louder and was still ignored.
"And you leave her alone," Padma bit back.
A fight was brewing, even the blind could see and the deaf could hear it coming. Pansy and Millicent looked a little panicked, trying to calm both sides down while each got more heated. Voices rose and arms waved with more than a few throttled rude hand gestures.
"SKRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Everyone shouted with alarm and gasped and jumped, looking at the source of the blood-curdling screech. They gulped and flinched at the thunderous look on Hedwig's face. She was completely fluffed up and looking at everyone with narrowed amber eyes and she tapped the tabletop with a single talon emphatically.
"Thank you, Hedwig," Harry said, rubbing her head and feeding her an owl treat. "You're the best."
Hedwig chomped on the treat with enthusiasm, giving Harry's hand a nuzzle and looking up at him adoringly before her head turned back around and she looked at the sheepish others, licking her beak slowly. Sunny shared her ire, glaring at the others while Crookshanks continued to slumber, unperturbed.
Harry sat back down at the table, everyone's eyes following him. "Okay, I get this is the first time we've really interacted outside of class and we all have different motivations for doing this. But I want to approach this as a team, together. For what it's worth, I don't think anyone's wrong right now completely, but let's try to be a little more…nice about it."
"Right," Lavender and Parvati said, and the others nodded slowly.
"That is fair," Daphne said and Tracey and Blaise mumbled agreement.
Harry took out his tablet and started writing as they talked, transferring the writing to parchment as the tablet filled. "Okay, so we need to account for the people coming, the other stalls, and the location. Then we should compile what we're good at and divide up the work that way, right?"
"Yes," Daphne said. "Pool resources and divide them based on people's strengths, as well as interests."
"It looks like the stalls will be divided between food and not-food for the sake of the competition." Hermione said, reading the rules.
"We're probably going to be the only food one from Hogwarts honestly," Parvati said. "The other schools might have more, if their cultures care about food."
"Beauxbatons has a cooking class I think," Harry said somewhat wistfully, "Grandfather said so during second year when we met."
"They definitely will try to put forward food stalls," Daphne said. "The French think highly of the culinary arts."
"Hannah probably will do something baking related," Sue said. "At least that's what Susan has told me before. I know they're doing something with members of their House."
"Durmstrang has students from all over Eastern Europe, it wouldn't surprise me if you got one or two from them," Blaise said.
"The Festival is going to be outside in Hogsmeade, in the main square," Hermione said, reading on.
"Outdoors in the snow and wind and cold," Padma shivered. "Scottish winter and all."
"Then that will help us figure out what to make," Pansy said. "I adore sweets as much as the next but perhaps not the best to eat in the cold and wind."
"We're going to need to make something kinda local," Tracey said, looking at the handout too. "It says here that stalls will be judged on the students representing themselves and the school."
"Too bad we can't serve scotch," Millicent joked, making the others laugh.
"Why not?" Blaise asked, wholly serious.
"We're underaged," Hermione said severely.
"They care about that sort of thing," Millicent said.
"Hmm, pity," Blaise mused.
"So something one handed or easy to eat while standing and walking," Neville said, "and it's going to be really cold and windy, and something that represents Britain or is British."
"Scotch beef is well-renowned," Daphne said. "It is prized for its quality and taste."
"Beef stew is really good on a cold day," Hermione said. She instantly flushed and looked at Harry. "Oh! I'm sorry."
Harry smiled weakly. "It's okay," he said.
Daphne frowned, exchanging a look with Tracey and Blaise, not understanding why the others were looking at Harry sympathetically. "Here is something else to consider and I do not mean to say this in a rude way, but if we are to impress people, we cannot do something so…mundane."
She held her hands up as the others looked at her. "I am sure Potter makes a perfectly fine beef stew but remember, these will be people from different countries and around the world as far as the ICW members. We will need to do something to entice them. Something that will draw the eye and the mind as much as the tongue."
"You mean magical food?" Padma asked.
"We are Magicals after all," Daphne said.
"But magic changes the taste of things and part of why Harry's food is so good is that he makes it without relying on magic," Lavender argued.
"Magic changes the taste of food?" Blaise asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, we've learned about that and practiced spells involved and the better you are at the spells, the less you taste of the magic," Parvati said.
"Wow, that's actually interesting," Tracey said.
"But it would be in our best interest to incorporate some kind of magic," Daphne said. "If anything, to draw them in. Give the food a chance to entice them afterwards but if they are not interested to even taste it, then it does not matter how good the food is."
"Well we can use magical ingredients then," Neville suggested. "Like certain herbs and things."
"And dragon meat," Luna said.
"Oh right, we talked about that before," Millicent said. "When we made the roti and egg things. Now that's an idea."
"I mean, we can think of something other than stew though, right?" Lavender said.
"It's okay, really," Harry said. He shot her a grateful smile. "I can't not make stew ever again. I like it myself. I just have…complicated feelings about it." He sighed but felt better when she hugged him. "The Headmaster did say I can try and make it my own however, and not let it be ruined. Maybe this is how I do it."
Pansy shook her head when Tracey opened her mouth, a question on her lips. She mouthed "later" at her and Tracey closed her mouth and nodded.
"The problem with dragon meat is that it can be difficult to obtain easily and it can be a bit expensive," Daphne said. "It is also somewhat random when it appears on the market. Even for my family, it is not something reliably obtained."
"Actually, that won't be the main problem," Harry said. "The main problem is that I've never cooked it before."
"You think you can easily get dragon meat?" Daphne asked, smirking a little.
"I don't know about easily," Harry replied. "But I have a reasonable idea of who to ask to see if it's possible."
"The Elves? I can't see Hogwarts having access to dragon meat," Millicent said.
"Oh! The goblins!" Sue said, realization dawning.
"Yeah, I'm sure they could point me in the right direction," Harry said, nodding.
"You…you can just ask the goblins for things?" Blaise asked, looking impressed and mildly disturbed.
"Sure. They got me some really nice tofu a few weeks ago and they'll be honest with me if they can get it or not and all that stuff."
"They will be…honest with you," Daphne repeated slowly.
"Always have been," Harry nodded.
Pansy looked smug when the three new Slytherins looked at her.
"Right." Harry held up the sheaf of parchment after they wrote out more notes. "I think this is a really good start and it's enough for us to submit and work on. Thank you, everyone, this is really exciting and it's going to be fun." His enthusiasm was infectious, even to Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise, and the others nodded in agreement.
"I'm going to submit it to Professor McGonagall and send a message off. I'll let you guys know what they said. How about we meet here when we can to finalize things and figure more things out as they come?"
"Sounds good to me," Lavender smiled. She turned to Tracey, Daphne, and Blaise. "Thanks for joining the team. It's a lot of help."
"You are welcome," Daphne said softly.
"Yeah, you're not half-bad princess," Parvati said. She smiled at Daphne and Tracey's glower. "See you lot later."
"How have you not Cursed her between the eyes?" Daphne asked as the Slytherins left together, "or in the back?"
"She grows on you," Millicent said, amused. "Much like some others can."
"Not all of us can grow like you can," Blaise said blandly.
"I can snap you like a noodle," Millicent said blandly back. "You know, since you're Italian and all."
"Wow, you've never been that snarky back before," Tracey said.
"I got some good examples to follow," Millicent said happily.
"Clearly," Daphne said dryly.
Millicent drifted back to join Pansy when the other three started talking about something. "So that was rough," Millicent whispered.
"Actually, it went better than I thought it would," Pansy whispered back.
"Yikes, you assumed the worst?"
"You didn't?"
"Fair," Millicent snorted.
-0-
"Well that was fun," Parvati said dryly as she and the other Gryffindors, save for Harry who left for McGonagall's office, and the trio of Ravenclaws turned the corner. "Gosh, I forgot how Slytherin the Slytherins can be."
"Millicent and Pansy have changed a lot," Padma agreed. "You almost forget since they're so nice now."
"Unfortunately, they weren't wrong really," Hermione sighed. "It's true, we didn't consider those factors."
"We might have eventually," Neville said. "But no guarantee."
"They were thawing out in the face of Harry's kindness," Luna said dreamily, skipping alongside.
Lavender smiled. "I like that." She sighed. "We'll just try to treat them like we did Pansy and Millie in the beginning and Pansy said we can trust them to want to work with us."
"I guess it could've gone worse," Sue shrugged.
-0-
The next day after classes, they congregated at the clubroom once more. Something simmered on the hob, filling the air with a rich savory scent.
"Oooh, I wonder what that is," Parvati said. She reached for the lid and then yelped when Hedwig swooped down and pecked her hand. "Hey! Come on, not even a peek?" She sighed when Hedwig mooned her, flicking her tail feathers at her. "No fair," she grumbled.
Daphne and Tracey had caught the act and they looked at each other. "I have never seen an owl behave that way," Daphne said.
"She's great," Lavender smiled, giggling when Hedwig tugged on her hair playfully.
"We're good to go," Harry said when he walked in.
"We've been approved?" Lavender asked excitedly.
Harry nodded and smiled. "Yup!"
"We haven't even finalized everything though," Tracey gasped.
"Apparently our plan is still really involved and laid out well, and we're trusted," Harry said.
"Mmhmm," Parvati hummed. "'We're trusted' alright. Hey! I see you!" She glowered at Hedwig who had creeped up with her beak opened for a nip.
Harry chuckled when Hedwig nipped Parvati anyways and waddled off when Parvati shook her nipped hand at her. "I think I'll try to make a beef stew though," he said and smiled sadly when the others looked at him softly. "I mean, it'll be really cold and stew sounds great. You get a lot of stew for the cost of the ingredients and a nice cup of it will be easy to eat. I think it's a great idea to use scotch beef and if dragon meat is possible and tastes good to add to it, might work out well.
"We can also do a soda bread. Cut that into thick slices with some butter, and then serve it with the stew to dip into the broth," he continued.
"Mmm that sounds good, and now I'm hungry," Millicent said.
"I'm making Bolognese sauce," Harry said, pointing at the pot. "Like the first time you visited the club, thought the others might like it."
"Thanks!" Millicent said happily and hugged him. "I love that so much."
"Oh? Like a traditional one?" Blaise asked.
"Probably not super traditional but one I like," Harry said. "The girls mentioned you're Italian?"
"Half Italian," the four Slytherin witches said together, giggling at his look of affront.
"Quite," Blaise sighed, giving them a look.
"I might as well give the beef stew a go for everyone to try," Harry said, starting to gather the ingredients. "Same with a soda bread."
Tracey, Daphne, and Blaise moved closer to the prep table to watch Harry cook. While Daphne had watched him before the one time, she was still interested and now she was able to watch him more closely.
"Wow, you are fast," Tracey said admiringly, watching him clean the vegetables with a charm and peel and chop them swiftly.
"He got even faster after the summer," Parvati said proudly. "And he wasn't all that bad before either."
"You look more relaxed now, compared to the Honor Duel time," Daphne observed.
"Yeah, at the time, I just wanted to show that Draco couldn't beat me in the kitchen," Harry said, gritting his teeth a little. "I wanted to win."
"Nothing wrong with that," Daphne said.
"No, but not how I like to cook either," Harry said.
Daphne said nothing further and watched him closely. After Harry finished preparing the stew and with it simmering away, she drew Pansy to the side. "Is there something wrong with him making stew or something? He seemed somewhat hesitant compared to making the soda bread right now. Not to mention the reactions from the others."
Pansy sighed. "Beef stew used to be very important to him but it turns out it was built on a lie. He was told by the ones that raised him that it was a family recipe when it wasn't. It was one of the reasons he even got into cooking."
"Despicable," Daphne said, scandalized.
Pansy nodded in agreement. "I think it's hard for him to make it again, he hadn't since he learned and it used to be a favorite of his."
"Hmm, good of him to face it head on then," Daphne said softly.
Harry mixed flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk together and made a rough round loaf and popped it into the oven. After some time, he pulled out the baking sheet and everyone admired the crackling crust and the warm bready scent it released. After he set it on a cooling rack, a knock was heard and the door opened.
"Chef!" Harry said, surprised and delighted to see Diglin walking in carrying a large box with Flitwick following him also carrying a box.
"Potter," Diglin greeted warmly. He nodded shortly at the other students, ignoring their looks of surprise.
"Well hello Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis, and Mister Zabini," Flitwick said brightly. "How good it is to see you."
"Hello Professor," they said together, still looking at Diglin with surprise. Diglin was dressed in a neat coat with the Gringotts symbol emblazoned in platinum on it.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked with a large smile.
"I was interested in your request and had to bring Filius something anyways. Been meaning to see this place too so yeah, took advantage of the opportunity." He looked at the large soda bread with approval and lifted the lid from the stew pot, looking at the stew with a critical eye and breathing deeply. He even peeked into the pot of simmering Bolognese sauce. "Good to see you aren't letting yourself get rusty."
"I have to keep my skills up for next summer, right?" Harry said. "Or else you'll have me peeling tubers for days again."
"I still might," Diglin chuckled, eliciting more shocked looks from the others. He lifted one of the boxes and put it on the table, taking the lid off and everyone crowded around to look at it.
"Is it supposed to look like that?" Hermione asked, looking askance at the reddish-green meat.
"This one does," Diglin said. "Depends on the dragon but yeah, this one looks like this. You wanted a local dragon right? This is Scottish Rarebit."
"Any relation to Welsh rarebit?" Harry asked.
"Is that another kind of dragon?" Pansy asked.
"No, it's a dish. It's hot cheese sauce poured onto bread," Harry said.
"No, not at all. It's an old name. They used to be nuisances all over Scotland and they're pretty temperamental," Diglin said. "So the saying went that it was rare that the dragon wasn't a bi-" He looked over at Flitwick when the professor coughed loudly. "What? That word is barely a swear word these days."
Harry and the others snorted and laughed. "How does it taste?" Harry asked.
"Less gamey than most dragons. It's actually a pretty common dragon to eat. Meaty, a lot like scotch beef actually. May I?" he asked, pointing at the stew pot. At Harry's nod, he dipped the ladle in and sipped from it, smacking his lips slowly. "Hmmm, good bit of stew. Veg is cooked well, beef is tender but still has a bite. Good work."
He looked at Harry directly. "A bit weak though, for what you want it to be." He turned to Flitwick. "Don't look at me like that. I know what I'm talking about."
"Harry's stew is really good," Lavender said, looking displeased at Diglin.
"I didn't say it was bad," Diglin said. "Said it was weak for what he wanted it to be."
"What does that mean?" Pansy asked indignantly.
"It means what it means," Diglin said, unperturbed and sipped another ladle of stew, chewing appreciatively on the veg and beef. "Even adding a bit of dragon meat might give it some body, depending."
Harry frowned in thought. "I want it to be beef stew, potentially dragon and beef stew," he said thoughtfully. The others looked back and forth between them, not wanting to interrupt.
Harry watched Diglin eat a third ladle of the stew. He looked up, a light in his eyes. Diglin smiled and continued to eat.
"You can eat a big bowl of that in one sitting," Harry said slowly.
"Probably multiple bowls," Diglin agreed, starting a fourth helping.
"But if you are eating it outside from a smaller container on a cold day, you need something with more body to it. Are there cuts to a dragon like shank or tail even?"
Diglin's smile went from ear to ear and he lifted the second case and opened it, revealing it to be tightly packed with shank meat and chopped up tail. "I knew you'd get it."
"So I braise that separately, make a stock from it and blend it into the main," Harry said enthusiastically.
"Then you'll get a stronger stew," Diglin smiled. "Maybe."
"Thanks Chef! How much do I owe for the dragon meat?"
"Already took it out of your account and you got a discount. Make sure you send us a sample and a recipe." After polishing off a fifth ladle, Diglin waved goodbye and left with Flitwick.
"You couldn't have just told him?" Flitwick asked, smiling.
"Do you tell your students the answers just like that?" Diglin retorted.
"For the ones that don't get it sometimes." They laughed at that.
"Well I knew he would. He's not an anvil with ears," Diglin said fondly.
"What just happened?" Blaise asked after Flitwick and Diglin left. "Did that just happen? Did you just get a personal delivery from a high ranking Gringotts goblin full of precious meat? Not to mention you bantered with him?"
"Chef taught me like that all summer. He was a little more brusque in the beginning though but that was when he was still testing me," Harry said. He was busy laying out pieces of dragon tail into a pan while putting pieces of shank into a pot with water.
"How did you know he was high ranking?" Padma asked.
"He had a platinum emblem on his jacket, only the highest in the bank have that honor," Daphne said, looking at Harry.
"Chef is the main chef of Gringotts," Harry said. "In charge of all their food services and production and all that. He's also married to the Director Ragnok's sister."
"You have met the Director?!" Daphne exclaimed loudly.
"He's nice. Said I'm good at making crake chowder and he liked my cooking," Harry said, focusing on the meat before him.
Daphne's jaw fell open and she looked at Harry blankly while Tracey looked impressed and Blaise shook his head slowly.
"Is that a big deal?" Hermione asked.
"No one meets the Director easily," Neville said. "Wizards have patronized Gringotts for ages and petitioned to meet him and have never done it. You have to be super important to meet him."
Daphne turned to look at a very smug Pansy. "I told you," Pansy mouthed, smiling wide.
"Help yourselves to the stew and soda bread," Harry said. "I'm going to see how the tail and shank cook. I'm glad Chef brought a lot for me to experiment with." He watched with a little trepidation as the others filled their bowls and sliced into the bread. "How is it?" he asked.
"Incredible," Lavender said brightly, licking her spoon clean. "You saw the Chef eat it though, did you think it wouldn't be?"
"Well, he never had it before," Harry said. "You and some of the others have and I was worried it wouldn't taste like it did before. Before I, well, you know."
"Don't worry, it tastes really good," Parvati said enthusiastically and the others who have had it before nodded in earnest agreement.
"I like the bread a lot," Luna smiled. "It tastes really good dipped into the stew."
"Wow, he really can cook a lot," Tracey said softly as she ate.
While they all chatted and continued to make plans, Harry worked with the meat. It did act like beef save it was a lot tougher, full of strong fibers and density. After long braising and slow cooking, it did become tender and when they tried it on its own, it was still quite chewy.
"Huh, yeah, this is what I imagined dragon would taste like," Parvati remarked. "It's like…scaly beef, and no I don't know how I got to that thought."
"It doesn't taste bad," Hermione said, "but it is very different."
"It'll need some strong flavors to work with it," Harry said. "Let's see how it is with the beef stew." He shredded the meat into the stew and stirred it together before giving people tastes.
"Oooh, you know, that's good," Millicent said, licking her spoon. "Like, you can tell what's beef and what's dragon, but the taste is good."
"It absorbs the flavor from the stew very well," Daphne said, looking at her mug with interest. "And the beef is much more tender in comparison."
"But you don't miss having a chewy piece of meat with the dragon in it," Sue said. "It's kinda nice bouncing back and forth. Like differences in texture."
"The stew is a bit thicker too, more rich with the dragon meat," Padma admired. "It makes a difference."
"More please," Luna said after she slurped her mug dry, licking her lips.
"Why did you ask about the different cuts of meat?" Tracey asked as she ate. "What difference do they make?"
"Shank and tail are a lot tougher on a cow," Harry explained. "You have to braise them or slow cook them for a while to get them tender but when you do, they release a lot of flavor and if you still have the bone, it releases gelatin which really thickens the sauce. That's why I asked Chef if there were similar cuts and he sorta confirmed what I was thinking."
"Where did you learn that?" Blaise asked.
"I've read it in different books and a few of the telly shows," Harry said. "I wanted to cook them separately here just in case, the dragon meat, but I'm definitely going to do a combined pot to test it."
"I think this will be very good," Pansy said, utterly sincere. "People will pay a lot for this in a formal setting, much less a festival one."
"I'll keep playing with it, but yeah, I think you're right." Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When he opened them, he looked slightly different somehow, as if a burden had left his shoulders, one that he carried for sometime and was unaware of the true weight of it. He wore a small sad smile but he nodded firmly. "I can do this." He looked around at the others. "We can do this."
"Yeah we can," Lavender said with utter confidence.
-0-0-0-
odonellzoo99 - That was part of the fun of this chapter. It was kind of refreshing to reintroduce everything to Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise. Sort of like the parents from the party like you said. We have grown used to it and sort of just accept it as is and don't realize how wild it is to new perspectives. Plus, at least I think so, it makes sense given the setting and all Harry has done up to this point.
Hands Off MY Wolfie - Yep, and might as well take advantage of the perks that you can. Plus I couldn't resist using the joke 'literally sweeten the deal'. No one should ignore Hedwig. Crookshanks doesn't care haha. Thanks for reading.
DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - Akira and Blaise is not nearly as talented or driven lol. I want this Blaise to feel like a loveable snooty person. He knows he's a snoot, and lives up to it, but isn't overtly annoying about it, hopefully.
61394 - Similar to that stall chapter but not quite, the stakes are a lot higher here after all. I'm glad you like my stories.
alix33 - That might be fun.
poka - I was sitting on this part too. I knew I wanted to do this event and thought it would be a good way to bring them in. This way we got to see Pansy and Millicent be their own characters for a while and now we have the other side of the Pureblood coin.
- Thank you.
DarkRavie - Thank you.