Ok, first I want to thank everyone who went to the Pat re on page and became a patron. I am still working out the Pat re on system, so there may be a few bugs still to work out. However, the Pat re on page has a two chapter early access buffer and I am working on a few little bonuses for them as well. If you want to read the next month of updates early then go to pat re on. slash Lowten
Chapter 20 echoes of the past
It was Sunday, and after all the training Harry, Hermione, and Fleur had been doing, they finally got to the point where they finished early. From tomorrow, they would need a new schedule with classes restarting, but Harry finally had an afternoon free with the opportunity to go through his mother's trunk. He dragged the trunk to the Room of Requirement, where Hermione was waiting to help him. Fleur had offered to stay, but Harry really wasn't comfortable having her there while he looked to see what his parents had left him. Fleur had looked disappointed, but she had said she understood and had returned to the Beauxbatons carriage.
"Are you OK?" Hermione asked as Harry opened the door to the Room of Requirement, drawing his mother's trunk behind him. Harry made a noncommittal grunt as he looked around, feeling a little apprehensive about seeing what his parents had left him. While he was collecting the trunk, she had reformed the room from the open-plan training room they had been using for the past week into a cosy nook reminiscent of the room they used for their dates. A comfy love seat, a table, and a roaring fire.
Harry pulled the trunk over to the love seat, but instead of sitting on the furniture he found it easier to sit on the floor next to the trunk. Hermione sat down next to him, put a supportive arm around his shoulders, and waited. She knew that this would be hard for Harry. He sat there for almost 10 minutes looking at the trunk, doing nothing except leaning into Hermione a little. Harry didn't understand why he was hesitating. He had already read the letters they had left him, shouldn't that have been harder than seeing what stuff they wanted him to have?
"You don't have to do this today Harry, if you're not ready it's OK." Hermione said comfortingly.
Harry shook his head. "No I'm ready it's just… I'm being silly." He embraced his inner Gryffindor and opened the trunk. It was full to the top with things, including a blanket that looked soft and warm. Harry pulled it out to have a look at it. It was a cream-colored wool blanket and looked handmade. As he looked at it, a note fell out; Hermione picked it up and handed it to Harry
My mum made this for me the summer before my first year. It was the middle of the hot summer and I thought she was nuts, but she said I would be glad of it in a Scottish winter. By Christmas I loved it. Stay warm pumpkin
L
Harry reread the note before passing it to Hermione. She read it. "So your grandmother made it? That's really cool." Hermione said as she felt how soft the blanket was.
Harry draped the blanket over his and Hermione's shoulders. The room was warm enough that they didn't need it for warmth, but it felt right. The next thing to come out of the trunk was a wand kit, again with a note.
I'm sorry I can't be there to help you find your wand, but I can at least help you take care of it. This kit contains everything you need to keep your wand in pristine condition, so don't get embarrassed - you need to polish your wand regularly.
J
Hermione had been reading the note the same time as Harry and burst out giggling. Harry was confused for a moment until he remembered that polishing a wand was a wizarding euphemism for having a wank. He groaned as he realised that his dad had probably bought the kit just to make a dick joke.
He opened the kit to take a look. It was a nice kit including a bottle of "Ollivander's Premium Wand Polish", some spelled cloths to make the polishing easier, and a wand holster that, while nicer than the one he wore, didn't have the pocket where he kept his keys, so Harry decided to keep it as a backup.
He placed the kit on the table before he pulled out the next package. It was a complete potion-making kit with a note from his mum saying that it had everything he would need to to take him from first year to his N.E.W.T.s, except for ingredients, as most of them would spoil before he left for school, 'and fresh is nearly always better in potions.'
Other things in the trunk included: a full set of books covering every year of the core subjects that his parents had annotated and added notes to, 'As we won't be there to help you with your homework.' A box of his parents' jewellery that didn't contain anything expensive but did have some pieces of sentimental value (a promise ring his father had given his mother while they were in their last year at Hogwarts, his father's favourite cufflinks, etc.). A guide book on being a Marauder his father had written that, according to the note, his mother had gotten her hand on and spelled to only open if you tap it with your wand and say "I solemnly swear not to be a bullying prat." Hermione had smiled at that. Harry knew that she thought that the twins sometimes crossed that line with their pranks.
There was also a book from his father that was the public history of the Potter family. Apparently there was more to know, but the books with that information were in the Potter Family library under protection spells so only a Potter could read them. Hermione was put out by the idea that there were spells that could limit who could read books in such a way, but Harry said it was just a good excuse to make her a Potter. That caused her to blush but she also had a happy smile.
"Is that something you think about? Us being married I mean?" Hermione asked.
"Way more than I think I should admit to. I know we aren't ready for that, not even close, but the longer I think about us the more I'm convinced that we have what it takes to stay together for life. And that test we did in Gringotts, soul bound, that basically means we are perfect for each other, right?" Harry said as he held her close, his mother's blanket still wrapped over their shoulders.
"You have a bond with Fleur as well, and she is… well, she's gorgeous." Hermione said quietly.
Harry could hear the insecurity in Hermione's voice, but this was the first time she had actually voiced her fear to him. "Mione, listen to me. Fleur may also be perfect for me, if that test is to be trusted - and given that it's a Gringotts test I trust it." Hermione stiffened next to him but he continued holding her close and pushed on with what he was saying. "That means you both have equal potential; you, however, have something she will never have, something that puts you so far in front she doesn't stand a chance." Harry passed thinking for a moment. "Three years, five days and about twenty hours."
Hermione looked at him puzzled. "What?" She asked.
"That's how long ago we fought the troll and how long ago we became friends." Harry answered simply.
"You track that?" Hermione asked, surprised.
"Nah, but it's easy to work out as it was Halloween, and last Halloween was last Monday." Harry explained and Hermione accepted that. "In that time you have saved my life, saved my school work, saved me from my relatives, stood by me at my lowest points, and helped us build a strong foundation to move forward with. Compared to that, Fleur has a piece of paper signed by my dad and her mum. I feel a little sorry for her, as I think she might be a good person, and I'm going to have to call off a wedding I think means a lot to her, but I made my choice. I made my choice long before I met her and I have no intention of changing my mind." Harry finished his little speech.
Hermione was now crying in relief and buried her face in Harry's chest, and he held her as she cried away the worries she had been bottling up for the last week.
-ϟϟϟ-
Monday meant that classes had started back up, and with them Harry was once again thrust into the spotlight for the school. He and Hermione had mostly focused on their training since they had returned from their little day trip to London. All the training had pretty much kept them out of the eye of the students. When they went to Care of Magical Creatures right after breakfast, Fleur was walking with them on her way back to the Beauxbatons carriage where she would be attending her own lessons. The Slytherins who were walking down to the paddocks as well were shooting glares at the three of them.
Malfoy and his regular coterie were all wearing large badges that were a garish combination of blue, green and yellow, basically the colours of all the houses except Gryffindor. It was obvious with the exclusion of the Gryffindor colours that it was a badge to support Diggory's team. There were words on the badge but Harry couldn't read it from as far away as he was. Harry and Hermione were just about to separate from Fleur when Malfoy came striding up to them.
"What do you think?" Draco asked loudly, indicating the badge on his chest. "Do you like them? I thought the school should support the real champions, not a cheating traitor and a couple of half breeds."
Harry heard Fleur gasp a little behind him, and he could see Hermione stiffen out of the corner of his eye. "Piss off Malfoy! Go run off and hide behind daddy's robes again and leave us alone." Harry spat in anger.
Whatever Malfoy was going to say was cut off by Fleur suddenly laughing hard enough to distract everyone. "Think my name is funny do you, half breed bitch?!" Malfoy snapped.
Fleur took a moment to get her laughter under control before replying. "Oui. Uh.. I mean yes. 'Malfoy'" she started to giggle as she said the name. "Talk about bastard French."
"Bastardised," corrected Hermione.
"Who would name themselves 'mauvaise foi'? Bad faith, it is like you are trying to, how you say, advertise not to do business with your house." Fleur tried to compose herself but was failing.
"Bad faith?" Questioned Harry.
"In deals." Hermione explained. "To deal in bad faith is to make a deal you don't intend to follow your end of. In other words, fraud."
Harry nodded understandingly, it hadn't clicked in his head until Hermione had explained it, but once she had he could remember hearing it a few times before. "That seems about right, his family pretends to be English after all."
During the little exchange between the three champions, Malfoy was getting more and more irate that people were starting to laugh at him. "You think you can laugh at my house, Potter. Densaugeo!" the Slytherin whipped out his wand and shot a spell at Harry.
Over the last week, Harry, Hermione, and Fleur had been training for the Triwizard Tournament. They had done fitness training, spell practice, and some basic team bonding, but that wasn't all. The three of them were having trouble working out how to train; not knowing what the first task involved had them doing a lot of general training. One of Fleur's ideas was that Harry and Hermione should focus on defence. The idea was that they were to focus on buying time until Fleur, with her more advanced spell knowledge and experience, could work out what they needed to do. Part of the defence training was picked right out of Professor Moody's first lesson: 'Duck and cover'.
Harry dove forward, rolling under the spell before he jumped back to his feet. It was a move he had practiced a lot in the Room of Requirement, because it was a bad idea to dive away from a threat and then to lie on the floor completely exposed, a point Fleur had proven the first few times he did it by hitting him with the lightest of stinging hexes they were using to train. The upside of that move in this case, though, was that Harry was now directly in front of Malfoy.
Harry had no clue what the spell Malfoy had just sent at him was; if his Latin had been better Harry may have pieced together it was a hex, but he didn't. All Harry could think of was the last time Draco had pointed his wand at Harry, a few months ago under the direction of his psychotic bitch of an aunt. Harry didn't hold back, in less than a second his fist collided with the poncy git's nose. There was a loud crunch and a squeal of pain. Harry wasn't done, though; Draco was still standing and holding his wand, and if Bellatrix's attacks last year had taught him anything it was that you don't hold back when your opponent can still fight back.
He swung for Malfoy again. This time the Slytherin saw it coming and tried to get away from Harry; however, Malfoy hadn't spent an hour a day over the last week dodging stinging hexes. He ended up stumbling over his own feet, falling backwards, and landing flat on his back. Harry saw an opportunity and took it before he had even thought about it. He picked up his foot and brought it down hard, putting all of his weight into it and even added a twist by digging in his heel. Malfoy screamed in pain as the bones in his wand hand succumbed to far greater pressure than they were ever meant to take and broke.
Harry then kicked the wand away from the whimpering piece of shit who had attacked him. He was just about to draw his wand and stun him, something that would prevent the Slytherin from attacking him and would stop the whimpering that was still coming from him, when suddenly the world was toppeling. Malfoy's two bookends Crabbe and Goyle had tackled him, and they started to hit him. Harry, who had taken worse from his uncle and didn't have an ingrained fear of the two dungeon trolls, gave as good as he got.
The scuffle between them barely lasted a few seconds when all three were magically blasted apart and Harry heard Fleur yell at him. "Harry, enough! Hermione was hit!"
Harry felt the fire in his chest suddenly doused with a bucket of ice water. "Hermione!" Harry dashed to Hermione visions of her suffering from a terrible curse. He had to stop himself from sighing in relief when he saw Hermione; instead of the life-threatening images his imagination had given him, Hermione was crying in pain as her front teeth had expanded and grown down past her chin.
It didn't surprise Harry that Hermione was in pain; the bases of the expanded teeth were now quite a bit wider and must have been putting a lot of pressure on all her other teeth. It didn't help that the teeth where still growing. Harry pulled out his wand and hit Hermione with a finite incantatem, and her teeth, while they didn't sink back down, stopped getting bigger. All thoughts of Slytherin's resident daddy's boy were now gone from Harry's mind along with every other thought that wasn't "get Hermione help."
Harry helped Fleur get Hermione back on her feet, and at Fleur's prompting they turned back the way they had come from, returning to the castle so that they could get Hermione to the hospital wing
-ϟϟϟ-
Fleur was pacing back and forth outside of McGonagall's office while Harry just waited quietly fuming while they listened to the shouting adults in the office.
Professors McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore, and Headmistress Maxime were shouting up a storm. Snape, who looked like he was in desperate need of an anti-grease shampoo, was apparently the rude little shit's head of house and demanded that Harry be expelled for attacking 'mauvaise foi'. That doing so would kill her and rob both Harry and Hermione of their magic didn't seem to bother him at all, nor did he accept that it was his student who cast first. Madame Maxime had backed Fleur up when Fleur had given her recounting of everything, telling the Hogwarts professors that "Fleur is a good student who is known for telling the truth when she got into trouble."
That was true enough - she had encountered more than one bigot in Beauxbatons, mostly girls who were jealous of Veela, and despite matters occasionally coming to wands, Fleur (who knew of her headmistress's heritage and the struggles she had faced) was always completely open with her headmistress about exactly what she had done and why. It hadn't kept her out of trouble, but it did get the people who attacked her punished as well and earned Fleur the respect of the headmistress.
McGonagall had been all set to punish Harry, though not to the extent that Professor Snape wanted, until Harry pointed out two things. One, he had only hit Malfoy twice after dodging a curse, and even if it had been a mild one Harry hadn't known that at the time. Two, "it may have slipped your mind, but the last time that piece of shit pointed his wand at me, it was to practice the Cruciatus Curse, with his psycho bitch of an aunt giving him instructions." That had changed the tune of McGonagall immediately. She was now advocating for Malfoy to be expelled given that Malfoy had a pattern of antagonistic behaviour towards Harry, and she felt it was reasonable that Harry would defend himself as though it was a serious attack, as opposed to a school yard scuffle. Dumbledore of course was not going to have either student expelled. So the three professors were now arguing while Fleur and Harry waited outside.
Fleur was thinking of the two who were currently in the hospital wing. Before the teachers had turned up and practically dragged Harry from the hospital wing, Goyle had dragged Draco into the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey had quickly set about healing the bigot while she waited for Hermione's teeth to slowly shrink. She had fixed his nose in seconds with a quick 'episkey', but his hand was not so easily fixed. Harry had apparently crushed some of the bones and the shards had embedded themselves in the soft tissue. Madame Pomfrey had needed to vanish all the bones in the hand, fix the tissue damage, and only then regrow the bones overnight with Skele-Gro.
The medi-witch was about half way through fixing the tissue damage when the head of the green house had come storming in. After a quick pause getting a report from the healer, he turned on Harry. He had threatened everything from detention for the rest of Harry's time in school to having his soul fed to a Dementor before making Harry follow him. Hermione, who was stuck in the hospital wing for at least the next hour, had quickly pulled parchment and a quill from her bag and scribbled a note telling Fleur to go with Harry.
That had surprised Fleur, she knew that Hermione was still not happy with Fleur butting into what Hermione still saw as her and Harry's relationship. That she had sent Fleur after Harry was a massive show of trust, a show of trust in Fleur. Hermione trusted Harry, that was something that Fleur didn't even question. Maybe Hermione just trusted Fleur to back Harry, while obviously trusting Harry not to let her get too close? After all, it was in Fleur's interest to help Harry, and not doing so would show her in a bad light and lead to a rift between her and Harry. Or maybe Fleur was just overthinking things - Hermione wanted to help Harry and may have just reached out to the only help available.
As much as Fleur wanted to help Harry right now, it was the cute bushy-haired cat girl that was filling her head. She wanted to rush off back to the hospital wing and reassure herself that Hermione would be OK. Hermione's pain filled squeals were still echoing in Fleur's mind. Academically she understood that teeth hurt a lot when something went wrong, but emotionally she wanted to hug the poor girl and tell her it would be OK.
-ϟϟϟ-
It had been Madam Maxime and Professor McGonagall who had pulled Harry's ass out of the fire. The large witch had pointed out that Harry's actions, despite being more effective, were no different to the reactions of Crabbe and Goyle. Both had been physical reactions to an attack on a friend. Professor McGonagall had latched on to that information and had informed both Professors Dumbledore and Snape that, in whatever way Harry was punished, she would see them punished the same, and as the instigator Mr. Malfoy would of course receive a proportionally greater punishment.
That more than anything had stayed Snape's hand in calling for ridiculous levels of punishment; the idea of calling for Gryffindor to lose every point they had earned so far this year for example died as the thought of the same happened to his own house passed though his mind. After all, what was the point if it also cost Slytherin the cup? And as for banning Potter from ever playing Quidditch again in the school, or for him to give Potter detention every weekend until he graduated, the idea of facing Lucius after that had happened to his son was not a pleasant one. Snape did not fear the man, but the elder Malfoy was formidable in the way his son just wasn't.
Harry knew very little of this, only what he had overheard as he waited outside of the room. He was shocked when the adults had called him and Fleur back into the room and told him of his punishment: thirty points and three nights of detentions with Professor McGonagall. Harry was also shocked that Crabbe and Goyle were going to receive the same as him, only their detention would be served with their head of house. Almost impossible to believe, though, was that Malfoy was losing 100 points and was to serve a whole week of detentions with Snape for cursing Hermione.
After a short conversation with Professor McGonagall where she told him and Fleur about the wand weighing ceremony that was to take place the next day directly after lunch, Fleur and Harry had rushed back to the hospital wing to find Hermione, who was doing a lot better now. While her teeth were still far too big, Madam Pomfrey had been able to give her a pain relief potion that would help while her teeth were resized, and Hermione's teeth were already at a size where she could talk again (albeit with a lot of difficulty and slurring).
Fleur sat herself on the hospital bed next to Hermione and instantly pulled her into a hug. "I am very sorry. We 'ave training been all week but when I was supposed to help I just stood there and did nothing. I was useless and you got 'urt." It was obvious to the two that the French witch was genuinely upset that Hermione was hurt. Her English had even gotten worse as she was focusing on it less.
"I didn't exactly react well myself. It's not your fault. '' Hermione slured her words around her over large teeth.
"If it was anyone's fault it was mine," Harry said sadly. "I didn't realise Hermione had moved behind me and ducked when I should have shielded. I practised that charm enough over the last week. I should have used it."
"No Harry, I slipped behind you. I was hoping to draw my wand without him seeing. But I was so focused on my wand, I never saw him draw his." Hermione struggled to say; she was understandable, even if Harry had to wipe some drool off her chin for her as Hermione's arms were currently trapped by fleur.
"So Scarface, when are they shipping you back to the muggles?" Malfoy, who was still in the hospital wing (but only for observation while the bones regrew in his hand), had decided to come over and taunt them.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not going anywhere. According to Professor McGonagall, it's an obvious case of self defence. However, she did say you have some trouble coming your way." Harry inwardly smirked to himself. While everything he said was true (he wasn't being expelled because it was self defence), Draco would jump to the conclusion that Harry wasn't being punished at all, and it would drive the git crazy.
"This is an outrage. Just yo-" Draco started but Harry cut him off.
"You wait until my father hears about this." Harry finished in a mocking sing-song voice. "Change the record, daddy's boy." He wondered if he should change that to "daddy's girl" as Draco stamped his foot, turned and stormed off back to his bed, just like a little girl throwing a hissy fit.
"Are you really not in trouble?" asked Hermione.
Harry leaned in and spoke quietly so Malfoy wouldn't hear. "Three nights of detention with Professor McGonagall and 30 points, but Crabbe and Goyle have the same and Professor McGonagall is giving more to Malfoy, so it's pretty fair. And honestly, after what he did last year, more than worth it."
Hermione nodded but looked disappointed. Harry could understand that, given that McGonagall liked to schedule her detentions so that you missed something you wanted to do, and for Harry and Hermione that meant their date nights.
"It's only three nights, love, and maybe Professor McGonagall will be lenient and let me do them on a different night," Harry said, even though he didn't believe that second part himself.
Hermione tried to make a disbelieving sound but failed. "That's not going to happen and you know it." However, her words were a little clearer than they were at the start of the conversation.
-ϟϟϟ-
Soon Madam Pomfrey was kicking the three of them out of the hospital wing and back to class. They had missed a break and would only be a little late for Herbology. Harry noticed that Hermione had let Madam Pomfrey shrink her teeth until they were a little smaller than they were originally. Harry knew why - his girlfriend was always a little self conscious about her teeth. Both her parents were dentists, so Hermione knew more than almost anyone who hadn't been to dental school about every tiny imperfection in her teeth, not to mention she was a little buck-toothed. Hermione had asked her parents to let her sort it out with magic, but Dan and Emma seemed to see it almost as a case of preschool pride that they would be the ones to sort out their daughter's teeth.
Harry could understand both sides, Hermione just wanted it done. Dan and Emma, however, wanted to do something for their daughter and to remind Hermione that magic wasn't the only answer. Harry had stayed out of it, but now that Hermione had gone ahead and done it he told her how beautiful she looked. That had caused Hermione to smile and wrap him in one of her signature bone-crushing hugs, kiss him on the cheek, and thank him for saying it.
"Oui. Harry is right. Despite how horrible the way it happened was, you are looking 'belle'"[Beautiful] Fleur added.
The three of them finally split up, with Fleur returning to the Beauxbatons carriage while mumbling to herself in French. "C'est parti pour une leçon de morale" [let's go for a moral lesson]
Harry didn't understand it at all, so he looked at Hermione, whose French was a whole lot better than his. "She thinks Madam Maxime is going to chew her out." Hermione told him as they slipped into Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures class having already finished. They were a little late, but they had a note from Madam Pomfrey that they had been in the hospital wing, so Professor Sprout just sent them to a work table and set them to pruning a venomous tentacula, whose clippings where a key ingredient in a blood thinning potion.
The two set about their work pruning the uncooperative shrub, unknowingly each one's thoughts mirrored the others: why was Fleur so upset by Hermione being hurt? Yes, they had been training together for almost a week now, and that had taken the edge off his and Hermione's prickly attitude towards the French witch, but they were still keeping Fleur at arm's length. Reacting to Harry being hurt they could understand, there is a bond between them, but why would she care so much about a young woman who was pretty much her rival?
A/N
Harry using the female gender as an insult - please remember that this story is set in 94 a little over 28 years before I am writing this. it was normal then. And while it is not seen favourable to say or think such things like that now. In general I try to portray a realistic look at the time period I'm writing in.