AN: Welcome back for another chapter! A lot of people brought up a point that I think is a bit contentious last time, so I want to address it here: "Why are people still thinking Sirius is after Harry even though Harry's a Ravenclaw?" There are a few reasons. While the wider wizarding public may know that Harry is in Ravenclaw, Sirius wouldn't have a way of knowing. He explicitly mentions not having constant access to the Daily Prophet because he "misses the crosswords". While it is POSSIBLE that he could have come across other papers after his escape, what are the odds that any paper he would have access to would mention Harry being in Ravenclaw? It would have been big news a couple years ago, but the media has a short attention span, and a newspaper a short useful life. In their eyes, a crazed madman is making an assumption based off of what he knew when he was first incarcerated. The other point people have brought to my attention was that I already said that Andromeda and Harry had the Sirius conversation in their first meeting. Yeah, that one is my bad. I've been writing this story for a couple years now and I'm getting some threads mixed up. I will endeavor to not have plot holes like that, but this is pretty much the only incident that could cause one. Now that that is out of the way, we can get to the chapter. As a side note, if you are going to be attending Causeacon 2023, I will be there hosting 2 panels, one of which is on Fanfiction writing! Come say hi.
Tensions were high in the Sphinx Club room. Last night, Sirius Black had broken into Hogwarts, a supposedly impenetrable institution, and attacked the painting that housed the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Thankfully no one was injured, but Black was not apprehended. Classes had been canceled today, so the Sphinx club did what they always did and gathered in their meeting space.
"Why Gryffindor though?" Asked Hermione, breaking the silence. "If he is after Harry, surely it would be the Ravenclaw tower, right?"
"Yes, if he was working with that information. He could not know what House Harry is in, and just be guessing based on what he knows about both of Harry's parents. He knew them, and they were both Gryffindors, maybe he thought the apple didn't fall far from the tree." Daphne said from her position next to Harry.
"The Boy-Who-Lived being in Ravenclaw was big news though, it's not like it was a secret." Susan said, patting Harry on the back. He hated that name and she knew it, but at least in this moment it was appropriate.
"I imagine it's probably pretty hard to get information like that in a prison though." Harry spoke up. He really didn't want to have this conversation, but it seemed it would happen with or without his input. Might as well at least guide it somewhere.
"That's… a good point actually." Daphne said. "Why now though? If he was capable of breaking out of Azkaban, surely doing it earlier would have been beneficial. That place tends to make you significantly weaker, but physically and magically."
"Maybe something triggered him? The Minister made a public visit to Azkaban over the summer. Maybe he said something to him?" Susan said. "Auntie was fussing about the visit the entire time, said that a politician didn't have any place in a prison like that."
"Actually, that's a good point. What is your aunt doing about all this?" Daphne asked.
"Not as much as she'd like. Hogwarts is OLD, and the laws around it effectively treat it as it's own pseudo-government. The ministry has… limited jurisdiction here. The DMLE isn't even allowed to place Aurors here without a written agreement between the Minister, the Head of the DMLE, and the Headmaster of Hogwarts. I know the Minister really wants this whole thing swept under the rug, so he might not be willing to say things have gone that far. This break-in though may change that, but I doubt it." Susan said.
"Why do you doubt it?" Hermione asked.
"Auntie doesn't have a particularly high opinion of the current Minister, although she can't say that publicly too much. She thinks he's more concerned with maintaining his position and looking good than actually doing his job properly." Susan said.
"When did Lockhart become Minister?" Harry joked, sending some laughter across the room. "Well, if Sirius Black is after me, then I guess I just need to be prepared in case I have to fight him off or something." Harry stood up, moving over to an open area of the Sphinx club room and dropping low into some stretches.
"You can't be serious Harry!" Hermione said, looking at him with shock. "He's a fully grown wizard, not to mention a known killer! You shouldn't be fighting him at all!"
"You're right, I probably shouldn't be. But I also shouldn't have had to face Voldemort in my first year, or a Basilisk in my second. These things don't have a history of working out great for me." Harry said, bending his back over.
"Well, this year you aren't doing it alone." Neville said, speaking up for the first time. "I wasn't around to help before, but I'm not letting you do this without me this time."
"That's the spirit Neville. Come on, we'll get some dueling practice in. I'm sure you'll catch up in no time." Harry said, pulling his wand from his robe.
"And you think we'll just let you boys have all the fun? No way." Padma said, pulling out her wand. Luna joined in as well, followed by Daphne, Susan, Parvati, Lavender, Tracey, and Hannah.
Hermione looked at her friends, united, and sighed. "I guess we'll have to schedule dueling lessons for all of us around classes. Not to mention the work Parvati and I have been doing on that trial for Buckbeak."
"I'll write Daddy about that. He's an expert on Magical Creature law, especially since he helped write most of them." Luna said, her voice chipper.
"Why didn't you bring this up when we first started digging?" Padma and Parvati asked Luna in unison.
"I forgot!" Luna said, flashing a smile.
A wave of laughter filled the room, as the Sphinx Club got down to business.
True to her Word, Hermione did manage to develop a schedule that kept everyone on task, although it was a rough thing. Harry would work with Padma, Neville, and Herself on Mondays during their time after classes, teaching them the dueling skills he had learned during his training with Flitwick, this also came with the Entire Sphinx Club joining him for his morning runs, which had been relocated to the 3rd floor of the castle, which luckily had a single hallway that formed a circle roughly half the size of Hogwarts proper. Harry himself had new lessons with Professor Flitwick on Thursdays, and while he was doing that, Padma was instructing Daphne, Susan, and Luna on what Harry had taught them the day prior. Neville did the same on Wednesdays with Parvati and Lavender, with Hermione teaching Hannah and Tracey on Thursdays. Whoever was not in training was still to be working on schoolwork, with the exception of Parvati, Padma, and Hermione, who split their responsibilities between coursework and researching magical law for the Buckbeak case. Weekends were spent attempting to relax, with Luna constantly reminding people that it was important for them to take breaks occasionally, to not get burned out.
It was during one of these weekends that Daphne brought up something. "Our first Hogsmeade weekend is coming up… Who are you taking Harry?"
"Huh?" Harry asked, distracted. He had been reading a book on defensive tactics in duels, and had barely heard what Daphne had said.
"Hogsmeade! You have to take one of us on a date! It's your job as a boyfriend!" Daphne said, leaning over onto Harry. "You'll pick me won't you?"
"Ugh… huh. I guess I hadn't thought about that. Over the summer there was enough time to give each of you who could go on a date something to do, but we don't really have enough Hogsmeade weekends to do that do we?" Harry said, looking over the calendar. With 5 girls, one of whom wasn't allowed to leave the grounds, there were enough weekends that each could have one, but that was it.
"We don't really, so obviously we'll need to split some time. Especially because Luna can't go to Hogsmeade." Hermione said.
"I'll be nice and set up a schedule for Harry, give everyone some time. I'll also make some Wiggenweld Potions to make sure Harry doesn't get worn out." Daphne said, winking at her boyfriend.
Harry blushed again, an increasingly rare occurrence these days, no matter how much Daphne and Padma tried to push him. One could argue that the amount they pushed him was the reason he was as resistant as he was now.
"That's a good idea. Although I'm sorry it can't be as spontaneous as it probably should be." Harry said, looking at the five girls who were surrounding him.
"Well, we knew what we were getting into when we decided to all start dating you. There were some things we were going to have to give up, it's unfortunate that it includes just being able to walk around Hogsmeade with you all to ourselves for a day, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make. Besides, if you HAD to choose between us, we'd probably never date, since you'd be too nice to make a choice, or too dense to even know we were interested." Padma said, smirking at him.
"Hey, I kissed you first." Harry said defensively.
"Yes, following literal months of teasing from both myself and Daphne. Hermione and I holding your hands every single day for nearly 2 years. Susan falling over herself pretty much anytime you spoke. Only Luna wasn't blindingly obvious about it, and she was still rather open for an eleven year old girl." Padma said, letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Was I really that bad?" Harry asked, looking at all the girls. Nods in agreement were seen all around. Even Lavender, Parvati, Hannah and Tracey got in on the action. Harry looked at Neville, who also nodded.
"Thankfully, that was one of the things we loved about you, but god that would be awful if it kept up for much longer." Daphne said.
"It would have been even worse if some other girl asked Harry out to Hogsmeade or something before we got him. Imagine if Cho Chang decided she was interested and asked him out to Hogsmeade. Harry'd be too polite to say no even if he didn't really like her that way, and she might just drag him along until he liked it." Susan said, crinkling her nose a bit.
"Cho's nice, but I don't think I'd ever like her that way. I don't think we'd do well as a couple." Harry said.
"You're probably right, but the only other girl you were ever mildly interested in besides us was Penelope Clearwater." Padma said.
"What makes you think I liked Penelope?" Harry asked.
"You had these kind of moon eyes when you looked at her before we started dating. I was a bit jealous, since I wanted you to look at me that way, but I got the last laugh when you kissed me." Padma said. "You never would have done anything with Penelope anyway, since she's been dating Percy Weasley for so long, although apparently that hasn't been going great for her."
"The Weasleys are a weird bunch." Harry said. "Charlie's really nice, and I got to meet Bill once and he was also pleasant. Ginny's also really nice. I don't know the twins that well at all, but outside of being pranksters no one really says anything too bad about them. But Ron is… rude to put it lightly, and everyone complains about Percy being really uptight."
"It's hard to say. Maybe the pressure of their older brothers being so successful rubs them the wrong way? From what Penelope said, Percy was always a perfectionist often to his own detriment. I'd feel pretty beaten down too if Parvati was super successful and I was always being compared to her." Padma said.
"But I am super successful!" Parvati said.
"Yeah, but you're also getting compared to me, who is also super successful." Padma said, sticking her tongue out at her sister. Everyone got a big laugh out of this.
That following weekend was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year, and Daphne had given Harry a scroll of parchment with a schedule on it, as well as two Wiggenweld potions, with times she recommended he take them. His schedule was laid out as follows: he would ride the carriage to Hogsmeade with Padma. He would spend roughly an hour with her, before being passed on to Daphne. After his hour with Daphne, he is sent to Susan for her hour. A final hour in Hogsmeade with Hermione, who he is to then ride the carriage back with. Once they arrive back, Harry is to spend at least an hour with Luna inside the castle, before then being allowed to pass out from exhaustion.
Harry readied himself before making his way to the carriages for Hogsmeade, finding Padma in the crowd hadn't been difficult, and Harry was immediately taken aback by her attire. Having never really gotten to spend much time with Padma outside of school, Harry very rarely got to see her in clothes other than their school uniform, which covered pretty much everything and weren't very flattering. Her current clothes, a pair of jeans and a tight fitting T-shirt, were much better, at least in his eyes.
"Looks like I'm up first Harry!" Padma said, her tone jubilant. "Hope you're ready!"
"I hope so too." Harry said. "Still getting used to all of this, so sorry if I mess it up."
"Oh please, Mr. Harry Potter, slayer of Trolls and Basilisks, but scared of messing up a date. I swear, you'd think you mess everything up as much as you worry." Padma said.
"I mean, I do kind of do that, nothing ever really goes to plan." Harry said, putting his hand out for Padma to use as a stabilizer to step up into the carriage.
"You don't, but I won't be fighting you about this. We've got better things to talk about on our carriage ride." Padma said, as Harry took the seat next to her in the small carriage.
"What did you have in mind?" Harry asked, looking at her tanned face.
Her brown eyes looked back at him, before closing into a smile. "What we're going to do during our time together!"
"Oh, right… I honestly have no idea what to do. I asked Roger Davies, the sixth year prefect? He said that we should go to Madam Puddifoots. Apparently that's where you're supposed to go on dates." Harry said nervously.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Penelope told me that place is… dull to say the least. The kind of place everyone THINKS they should go for a date, but neither will actually have any fun. Let's not go there. There's a music shop on the high street, called Dervish and Banges I think, let's head there. You can find something for your flute maybe!" Padma said.
"Sounds fun. We'll do that then." Harry was beginning to think this might turn out better than he had expected. Leave it to Padma to set him on the right path, Harry wondered if Daphne had done that on purpose.
Arriving in Hogsmeade was a mostly painless experience, the carriages came to a stop just outside of the gates that led into the town, where all students disembarked while a few professors, in this case Hagrid and Pomona Sprout did a headcount to make sure that the number of students who left Hogwarts, was equal to the number of students who arrived at Hogsmeade. From there, the crowd of eager juveniles dispersed into the streets of the normally sleepy village.
Dervish and Banges was a small shop found on the High Street, its walls lined with various musical instruments. The shop somehow seemed bigger than its outward size would suggest. Harry had heard about space expansion charms, perhaps this shop had some in its walls. Such a feat would likely have cost a pretty penny.
Padma led Harry by the hand through the shop, taking him to a small section of flutes. In front of the selection of instruments was a small selection of songbooks that Padma began to finger through. "I've heard you play your flute a few times, but I've realized I have no idea what kind of music you actually like. What do you listen to?" Padma asked, looking towards her boyfriend.
Harry stopped to consider it for a moment, he really wasn't sure. He mostly used the radio for background noise while he worked on homework. "I suppose rock? A band called Guns and Roses did a cover of 'Live and Let Die' last year. Dad introduced me to the James Bond movies and I really liked them, so I quite like that song. Dad had a cassette of theirs and we occasionally listened to it in the car."
"Of course Mr. Harry Potter loves James Bond. Bet you're hoping we'll be your Bond girls?" Padma asked, smirking at him.
"A boy can dream." Harry said, picking back at her.
"Oh stop. Anyway, I don't think you'll find much flute music from them though. Have you thought about another instrument?" Padma asked, continuing to finger through the music books.
"Not really. Between studying and dueling practice, as well as making time for you girls, I barely have enough time to practice my flute, much less another instrument." Harry said. "I've barely been practicing it really."
"Oh, that's too bad. I love hearing you play." Padma said. "Well, do any of these flutes catch your eye? I know Hagrid made you yours and it's special to you, but it's probably not tuned the best." Padma said, gesturing to the wall of flutes.
Harry looked over them. There were quite a few hand carved wooden flutes, as well as a number of finely crafted ones made of metal, mostly silver in color, though a few appeared to be brass. "Maybe, it doesn't feel right though for me to replace it. That and these are a tad expensive, I'd rather not use the money if I don't have to." The price tags for these did imply that they were a little upscale. A few of the wooden ones were only a few galleons, but one of the metal ones, gold in colour, had a price tag that said 100 galleons. Harry did have that kind of money, his inheritance was rather extensive, but it wasn't something he was willing to buy at this moment, especially when his current flute was very acceptable.
"I suppose you're right. Oh! They have sitars! I didn't think I'd see any here." Padma dashed off to another side of the store, and Harry followed behind. Padma was stood in front of a small selection of stringed instruments. They were very long, with a pear shaped bottom and another nodule coming out near the top of the neck of the instrument. It had many strings, two of which seemed to be larger and of a different color than the rest. Several small knobs near the top of the neck were obviously meant for tuning the instrument.
"What's a sitar?" Harry asked, confused. He hadn't heard of that before, and hadn't seen one of these instruments in person.
"This is a sitar. It's an instrument from India. They're kind of like a guitar, but really only in that they're a string instrument that you hold in a similar way. This has a lot of strings, but you actually only play a few of them, the rest of them are called 'sympathetic strings'. They just make noise when you're playing the main strings, and add some richness to it. Unlike a guitar, these things here, called frets, curve up, where they are flat on a guitar. That curve lets you bend the strings more, getting more possible sounds out of them." Padma said, pointing out various bits of the instrument.
"You know a lot about this, do you play?" Harry asked, amazed.
"A bit, my father taught me. Parvati would play the tabla to go with me. The tabla is a pair of drums, tuned high and low." Padma said.
"That's amazing! I never knew." Harry said.
"I normally don't mention it. It's not easy to bring a sitar over from India, so I can't really play at all except during the summer." Padma said. "Maybe I'll ask my parents for the money to buy one."
"I'd love to hear you play some day." Harry said, locking his hand with Padma's.
"I'd love to play for you." Padma said, looking into Harry's eyes. Padma pulled him to a small sitting area in the corner of the shop and sat down with him.
"Everything okay?" Harry asked, looking to Padma.
"Yeah, I'm just… really happy." She said, fiddling with her hair with the hand that wasn't currently locked with Harry's.
"I'm glad. I like seeing you happy. It makes me really happy." Harry said, smiling at her.
Padma flushed a little bit, before looking down and smiling at the floor. With a deep breath, she looked up at Harry and said "I love you Harry Potter. I have for a while now. Probably since before the Basilisk incident. I wasn't sure what those feelings were then, but I am now."
"I… I love you too Padma. I think I can say that pretty confidently now." Harry said, as he leaned in for a kiss.
Unlike their first kiss, which had been a clumsy affair done out of frustration and teasing, this was softer, more tender. It was a culmination of their relationship to this point, and a promise of things to come.
"Oh, I wish I didn't have to send you off soon. But I have to play nice. I know you probably are going to say 'I love you' to all the rest of the girls, because I know you do. I can tell how much you love all of us. Just… make sure there's always enough love in there for me, no matter how much you give to the others." Padma said, leaning against him.
"Of course there will be Padma. Besides, you get to lord being both the first kiss, and the first 'I Love You'." Harry said, laughing a bit.
"Yeah, but Daphne beat the rest of us into saying it to you first." Padma said. "I'll keep that in mind though, although I'm sure the rest of the girls won't let me have any more firsts. I've gotten too many."
"We'll see, I think I get a say in that as well." Harry said.
"No, I'll relinquish that. You have to treat us equally, and while I would love to be the first in everything, it wouldn't be fair to the others. They can compete for theirs. I'm satisfied with what I've gotten." Padma continued to lean against his side, simply enjoying the closeness.
After a few minutes, a small ding rang out between Harry and Padma, which caused a small frown to appear on the Indian girl's face. "Seems my time is up. I've got to send you off to Daphne now. She said she'll be waiting for you at Honeyduke's. See you back at school Harry." Padma said, giving him a quick kiss before sending him on his way.