Encounters of the Future Sort
A Strange Encounter
2/2/24 Notes:
I struggled quite a bit with this one! I find Harry particularly difficult to write. I love OotP, so I don't intend to rehash what's already been done and soon he'll be in the wild AU heheh. So that said, some of this chapter is quotes between ch's 28/29 (which is when this fic takes place in 1996).
The divergence from canon starts at the beginning of ch 29, just before Harry makes a plan with Ginny in the library to break into Umbridge's office and use her fireplace to talk to Sirius. That Harry/Ginny scene is truly adorable and I think I'll have to make up for cutting it in this crazy AU world later...anyway, enjoy :)
Harry
Dungeon Corridors
with Ron
April 1st, 1996
"Two and a half feet of parchment on the history of Fulbert the Fearful—it's mental!" Ron reached into the pocket of his robes and began to unwrap a pasty, as if he needed to refuel from this mere thought.
"Yeah, well I expect it'd be a bit easier if he wasn't known for never leaving his house," Harry agreed dryly.
"Inquisitorial Squad material, that one is." Ron mumbled through bites of pie. "D'you think Hermione'll let me copy off the essay Binns set us?"
"Probably not." Harry sighed, wishing she would. "Worth a go though…"
"It was the first day of the Easter holidays and Hermione, as was her custom, had spent a large part of the day drawing up study schedules for the three of them. Harry and Ron had let her do it — it was easier than arguing with her and, in any case, they might come in useful.
Ron had been startled to discover that there were only six weeks left until their exams." —OotP, chapter 29
Harry had been taken off guard about their rapidly approaching O.W.L's too, but he kept this from Hermione. She was already prying about his occlumency lessons, and he didn't feel like sharing that Snape had nearly hit him in the head with a jar of cockroaches, or the reason why. Despite the pressure of encroaching exams and Hermione's firm encouragement to study, Harry had called it quits that afternoon, following a half-hour of rereading the same paragraph in his transfigurations book over and over again—with the realization he wasn't retaining a single word.
Ron had then suggested they take a detour from the library ("Can't work on an empty stomach, can we?") and the two boys had popped by the kitchens. The pockets of their robes were now filled with leftovers from very enthusiastic, insistent elves. They were in no rush to return to the dormitory, hoping to avoid Hermione's studious wrath all together.
"…one evening off a week? I mean, she's brilliant, Hermione—but she's only left me a 30 minute block for meals!" Ron sputtered as he finished his pasty and pulled a brownie out of his pocket, which he began to unwrap. "No wonder we're bloody starving…"
Harry nodded absentmindedly as Ron rambled on, squinting through the dim dungeon corridor. The heavy rains outside and the fluctuating spring temperatures, mixed with the damp dungeon air, were casting a layer of moisture on his glasses.
Harry heard Ron ask him a question, then glance at him hopefully. The only word Harry caught was 'quidditch', but he quickly nodded. "Yeah—absolutely."
Ron sighed in relief, a slight smile returning to his face as he took a bite of brownie. "Yeah, the badges are bound to grow old soon…slimy Slytherin gits…"
Harry continued to nod and give one word responses of affirmation here and there. Although he wouldn't admit it to Ron, the last thing on his mind was Slytherin and their 'Weasley is Our King' badges. Quidditch was still a priority for Harry, even though Umbridge had kicked him off the team earlier that year, but his mind was currently bursting at the seams with all that had happened during the last few weeks.
For one, he couldn't shake the resentment he held towards Cho defending her friend Marietta. Cho's words rung unpleasantly in his mind:
"She's a lovely person really, she just made a mistake —" —OotP, chapter 28
How Cho could possibly defend Marietta when the latter had sold them all out to Umbridge was infuriating. Harry was in denial, but it was easier to be angry at Cho and Marietta than to face the guilt of starting the DA in the first place. The unreal fear that Dumbledore had truly left Hogwarts because he'd assumed responsibility for it all weighed heavily on his subconscious. Umbridge was now completely unhinged with her new title as Headmistress, and Harry was positive she'd slipped some veritaserum into his tea the other day to ascertain information on the Order.
Then another matter, putting Harry quite over the edge, was his last occlumency lesson and the all-consuming desire to know more about his father. His terrifying encounter with Snape and the pensieve had left Harry queasy and positively plagued with questions. Most importantly, was James as arrogant and cruel as Snape had always claimed?
"He felt as though the memory of it was eating him from inside. He had been so sure that his parents had been wonderful people that he never had the slightest difficulty in disbelieving Snape's aspersions on his father's character. Hadn't people like Hagrid and Sirius told Harry how wonderful his father had been? (Yeah, well, look what Sirius was like himself, said a nagging voice inside Harry's head. . . . He was as bad, wasn't he?) Yes, he had once overheard Professor McGonagall saying that his father and Sirius had been troublemakers at school, but she had described them as forerunners of the Weasley twins, and Harry could not imagine Fred and George dangling someone upside down for the fun of it . . . not unless they really loathed them . . . Perhaps Malfoy, or somebody who really deserved it . . .
Harry tried to make a case for Snape having deserved what he had suffered at James's hands — but hadn't Lily asked, "What's he done to you?" And hadn't James replied, "It's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean?" Hadn't James started it all simply because Sirius said he was bored? Harry remembered Lupin saying back in Grimmauld Place that Dumbledore had made him prefect in the hope that he would be able to exercise some control over James and Sirius. . . . But in the Pensieve, he had sat there and let it all happen. . . .
Harry reminded himself that Lily had intervened; his mother had been decent, yet the memory of the look on her face as she had shouted at James disturbed him quite as much as anything else." —OotP, chapter 29
Teenage Lily's words played over and over again in his head, like he was on a nauseating merry-go-round.
"You think you're funny," she said coldly. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will if you go out with me, Evans," said James quickly. "Go on…Go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," said Lily. "…you make me SICK." —OotP, chapter 28
"She had clearly loathed James and Harry simply could not understand how they could have ended up married. Once or twice he even wondered whether James had forced her into it. . . .
For nearly five years the thought of his father had been a source of comfort, of inspiration. Whenever someone had told him he was like James he had glowed with pride inside. And now . . . now he felt cold and miserable at the thought of him." —OotP, chapter 29
Harry sighed, removed his glasses and cleaned them on his robes, hoping his mind too would miraculously clear with a swipe of the damp dungeon air. All he'd really wanted to do since he'd seen Snape's memory was talk to Sirius.
"He was not sure what Sirius could possibly say to him that would make up for what he had seen in the Pensieve, but he was desperate to hear Sirius's own account of what had happened, to know of any mitigating factors there might have been, any excuse at all for his father's behavior..." —OotP, chaper 29
It was like an unscratchable itch; he needed to know and he had been racking his brain to figure a viable way for the past week. Unfortunately Umbridge had every fireplace in the castle under survallience, and he couldn't exactly put it all down in a letter. The more he thought about it, the more discouraged he became. It was too risky and unreasonable—
"Hmm wonder who that is?" A drawling voice sounded from around the corner. I hardly ever see anyone down here…"
Harry quickly shoved his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He and Ron looked at each other, gripping their wands inside of their robe pockets. The dungeons were Slytherin territory, and the last thing either of them felt like dealing with was a member of the Inquisitorial Squad. Gryffindor was loosing house points left and right from these Umbridge appointed bullies; just this morning poor Neville lost ten points because Malfoy had insisted he was "breathing too loudly".
Holding a breath, Harry and Ron nodded at each other and rounded the corner. Harry's jaw dropped.