Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
...
The week came and went for Harry, spending his days with Hermione and Susan (who had been as gracious as to return his book to him). Trusting in his fellow Gryffindor students, the elaborate collection of books detailing the life he had not lived sat in the corner of the common room, and it wasn't strange to find a couple of students reading the fictional stories after a hard day of work. Fred and George had even gotten into the acting scene as Lee Jordan read aloud, one of the Weasley's portraying young Harry while the other did the necessary side characters as ludicrous as possible. They had even asked Harry if he would like to star in the show as a background character (there was no chance of him being the star). Harry wholeheartedly agreed that the life of a main character wasn't for him and also turned down the supportive role.
Instead Harry chose to be a part of the crowd and avoided any opportunity when an extra character was required and the Weasley Twins would coerce someone onto their impromptu stage. It had been quite hilarious when they required a female adventurer and had talked Katie Bell on stage with them. The girl had been flustered at first but when Lee had exclaimed the line 'Then Harry kissed her' Fred had wasted no time in planting his lips on Katie's. He then proceeded to run around the common room while every other student ducked for cover from the innumerable amount of hexes that Katie had in her arsenal.
Neville had been hiccuping bubbles all night.
Dean had bats crawling out of his nose.
George had tried to protect his brother in a truly noble act of courage. His heroism was rewarded with him being hoisted in the air by his underwear.
Fred, poor poor Fred. Ghost stories had nothing on the horrors that happened to Fred that night.
Shaking out of his funk, Harry focused once more in front of the complex array of seals in front of him. He theorized that everything was on point provided that what he had researched over the week was correct. Unfortunately it wasn't something that he could double check with any of the teachers for clarification. He merely hoped there weren't any serious side effects.
That was a job for that night however and he would require the assistance of both Fred and George in order to ensure that he wasn't distracted during the delicate process. Essentially he was going to be using them as Filch bait. The best kind of bait.
Rolling up the parchment and putting it in his drawer, Harry exited the room into the corridor where the rest of the Gryffindor students currently were. There was a mild drizzle of rain outside, but it was not the reason as to why everyone was holed indoors. Tables and chairs had been lined up along the room where the Wizarding Chess competition was being held for the chance to represent the house.
The previous night Professor Dumbledore had announced the competition, and that each house would need to deliver four representatives to compete the following weekend in what he hoped would be an annual competition. Professor McGonagall then had put up a sheet of parchment in the common room where all students wishing to compete for Gryffindor were to sign their name. She declared that they would play a round robin mock tournament between the students interested until four students scored ten wins. Not the best system imaginable, but for the situation it would do. Harry was sure the Transfiguration teacher would have something better planned the following year.
Ron had done his best into talking Harry into competing, but he wouldn't for the life of him. He understood the game well enough but didn't particularly feel like embarrassing himself by having the most losses. Judging by the scoreboard which the ever faithful Lee Jordan was keeping, the people currently competing for that position were Percy Weasley (who as a Prefect had felt obliged to represent the house) and Hermione Granger.
Harry was stumped as he saw the one lone win next to Hermione's name with even Neville having scored three. Harry just shrugged his shoulders, it just went to show that book smarts didn't translate into chess smarts...or something like that.
Walking over to where Hermione and Ron were currently doing battle it was clear that Hermione was out of her depth. On the other side of the leaderboard Ron was currently sitting in second position with seven wins beneath a sixth year student who Harry had never even had the chance to meet. Hence he didn't bother remembering the name.
"Bishop to E4," declared Hermione, her piece moving across the board before elaborately destroying the pawn she had targeted. To Harry it seemed as if Hermione had gotten over the fact the pieces broke each other when they fixed themselves at the end of the game to be used again.
"Knight to E4," declared Ron happy to have sacrificed his pawn to take out the more dangerous piece.
"Crumpets," cursed Hermione, Harry having to suppress a giggle against the pitiful excuse of a replacement swear word. "What should I do?"
"I'd tell you to take out his castle but that would be against the rules," said Harry before walking away. The small bit of advice he had given would allow her to survive a couple extra turns, but her side of the board was a scrambled mess; Ron would finish her in a few minutes.
"Checkmate," declared Neville as his Queen moved into position. A small round of applause went out as Percy failed to believe that a first year had beaten him, for the third time that afternoon, after having been defeated by his younger brother and having given Hermione her only win for the day. It seemed chess skill just didn't run in the family.
Moving to the end of the room, Harry opted to rest against the wall that Professor McGonagall was watching from, the elderly witch overlooking the tournament with a keen eye. "Everything going alright?" he asked.
"Indeed Mister Potter, and I believe I have you to thank for this show of skill," said Minerva. "As such I find it quite odd that you chose not to compete in a competition of your own creation."
"I merely found it odd that houses only competed in Quidditch, I offered a suggestion that built into this," said Harry with a shrug. "I'm absolute rubbish at chess though in a one on one setting, goodness knows what I'd be like with a crowd."
"Who knows indeed," mused Professor McGonagall. "Maybe next year you could try out for the Quidditch team, provided you can perform well on a broom in front of a crowd."
"Madam Hooch said I was a natural on a broom," said Harry. "Hermione said it was in my blood, whatever that means."
"Your father played for Gryffindor," declared Minerva. "He was fierce on the pitch and helped Gryffindor to many victories."
"Really, could you tell me more?" asked Harry honestly. Thus the rest of the chess tournament was spent with Harry listening to the Gryffindor Head of House elaborate on how his father played Quidditch, something which he was more than happy to listen to.
...
Sitting in the lounge, Harry stared at the fireplace as it burned brightly, illuminating the room. Darkness had settled over the castle and if Harry was to hazard a guess he'd say that midnight was not too far off.
The perfect time for a prank.
With his parchment stuffed in his pocket he had pondered another task that would require his attention, one which was in his bedroom right at that moment. Scabbers the rat needed to die, but not too soon. It was because of Peter going with the Weasley's to Egypt and headlining the Daily Prophet that Sirius would notice his former friend and break free.
Harry wasn't so dull as to believe that he could get Sirius out of Azkaban any other way and he had no knowledge of the magical legal system. This unfortunately was just one of those things that he would have to wait out until the appropriate time. Sirius had survived that long in Azkaban the first time round so there was no doubt that he would do so again.
The sound of symmetrical footsteps alerted Harry that it was time and turning his head he was able to make out the distinctive features of the Weasley Twins. "Got the map?" Harry asked as he got off the lounge.
"You know it," they said in unison.
"Excellent."
Their movements through the halls were swift yet silent, the brothers seemingly having to grow accustomed to sneaking around. With the use of the map, they avoided everyone who was up and at it at that time of night as they made their way to the dining hall. "Alright guys, I'm counting on you two to make sure I'm not disturbed by anyone," said Harry to the twins.
"Don't worry, Harry."
"We'll make sure no one gets in."
And like that the two parties split up with Harry trusting the two Weasley boys with his safety. Moving over to the Slytherin table he pulled out his wand and cast a Lumos charm before pulling the parchment out of his pocket. With one final look over to the door, Harry began his work.
Minutes trickled by as Harry delicately went about his task. While the prank itself would be glorious he was well aware that a simple mistake could have disastrous consequences. Every move was made precisely and triple checked, just to make sure everything would be alright. When he was halfway done, however, he heard something which made beads of sweat form on his brow.
Turning his head, he found himself looking at Ms Norris, Filch's ever faithful watch cat. Harry couldn't blame the twins for allowing the cat to get past their efforts, he'd never checked to see whether the feline was trackable on the Marauder's Map and he had told them that he wasn't to be disturbed by anyone, not anything.
Thus he forgave them.
The main problem now was the cat in front of him. Biting at his lip, he raised his wand at the feline before conjuring a ball of yarn. "You're a cat right, you like yarn?" said Harry trying to coax Ms Norris. The cat merely answered by batting the ball to the side, her eyes never leaving Harry.
"Alright, that's just creepy," said Harry before reaching out. "You want a scratch behind the ear?"
Ms Norris responded by trying to claw the outstretched hand.
"There's no pleasing you, is there."
"Meow."
"If you want something to eat you're going to have to go to the kitchens and get the elves to make you something."
"Meow. Meow."
"No I'm not breaking into the kitchen for you."
"Meow."
"I'm sure Filch feeds you enough."
Silence.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Meow."
"Alright, now you're being silly. Now I'm going to finish up here. Then I'll be out of your way and since you're not going to play with my yarn can I have it back, I can use it later."
"Meow."
"Thank you."
...
Harry stifled a yawn and tried to pay attention to the events going on in front of him. Oliver Wood had decided that he would hold Tryouts for the Quidditch team and had announced it the previous day after the chess tournament had ended (Ron stoked at having made the team and making the bold declaration that he would represent Gryffindor in every chess tournament while he was at Hogwarts). Everybody was encouraged to put their hand up and they did just that, the competitive spirit from the tabletop quite high.
Sadly it didn't translate well onto the Quidditch pitch.
Having borrowed practically every broom owned by the school, dozens of students had struggled with the speed that Wood wanted of them along with the simplest of tactics. Though his definition of simple likely wasn't the same as the rest of the house. Thankfully for some of the more complicated plays the students were only a few metres off the ground. Any more and the falls they had would have likely put them in the Hospital Wing.
Harry could see the look of anguish on Wood's face as he told the potential players to have a break. He knew why; none of them were near the skill level required to win against any of the other houses. He also knew that Wood didn't dare break his other players up, the twins worked magic between each other in regards to whacking the bludgers, and the Quaffle runners had too much chemistry to force them to try and team up with somebody new.
Harry's competitiveness began to boil.
"Hey Hermione, let's go for a ride," said Harry, ushering the brown-haired witch (who was just as tired as he was) down to the pitch. He was curious as to why the young girl had opted to spend her morning watching people flying but chose not to question it.
"But first years can't be selected," said Hermione.
"Who said we're trying out, we're just going to have a bit of fun while they have a rest," said Harry. Hermione, seeing nothing wrong with that started making it down to the stand they had been watching on. Harry took the opportunity to consider the girl behind him, by all means she was more outgoing than the original timeline to the point where she was almost the same after the troll incident (which he hoped to have no part of this time round). Her friendship with Susan appeared to be helping as the young Bones was highly curious about the Muggle world. Like with any subject, Hermione had all the answers.
Walking past the broken spirited Gryffindors, Harry's eyes spotted the Weasley Twins standing shoulder to shoulder. "Up bright and early today, Harry," said one of them.
"Would've thought that you'd be in bed for a few more hours yet," said the other.
"And listen to your brother snore his lungs out, I rather watch the comedy show," he said, slyly indicating the group sitting on the grass.
"Comedy indeed."
"Stay out of trouble now."
"We do have to ask..."
"As we forgot to last night..."
"Mischief managed?" they asked in unison.
"Mischief managed," answered Harry, a grin appearing on the twins before they walked over to their captain stride by stride. "I really need to find a way to tell them apart."
"Good luck with that," said Hermione dryly and Harry had the feeling that she wanted to question him about what the twins had asked, but would wait for a different moment. Thus in silence they walked to where the Gryffindor students had dumped their brooms and made their selections, although it was mildly hilarious when Harry commanded 'Up' that several brooms leapt at him.
"We're not going that high are we?" asked Hermione.
"Na, ten metres tops," said Harry knowing full well that they would probably go a lot higher, he just needed to get Hermione off the ground to start with. Looking to the side, a sinister smirk crossed his face as he walked over and picked up the maroon sphere.
"What's that?"
"If my Quidditch knowledge is on top of it's game, I'd say that this is the quaffle," said Harry as he mounted his broom. "We'll just have a friendly game of aerial catch."
Hermione seemed unsure of herself but didn't dispute the idea as she got on her broom. Harry watched as she started levitating off the ground and recalled how much progress Hermione had made during their first lesson. He never recalled flying lessons with Madam Hooch as he had already been selected for the Quidditch team first time round but Hermione hadn't particularly enjoyed the idea of flying from memory. Since he had been there to walk her through the steps piece by piece however, it must have affected her view on the whole thing if the smile on her face was anything to go by.
Lifting off the ground, Harry tossed the ball between his hands. He'd never really contemplated a position outside of Seeker but imagined that being a Chaser would be a lot more stressful in ways considering the rough nature of Quidditch. Tossing those thoughts to the side, Harry steered his broom relatively close to where Hermione was before lobbing the ball to her. Harry couldn't help but laugh as Hermione fumbled and nearly dropped the quaffle, only just managing to scoop it under her arm while using her other hand to keep grip of the broom. "Easy now," said Harry as he guided his broom closer before holding his arms apart.
"How are you keeping balance?" asked Hermione as she stabilized herself.
"I'm just awesome like that," said Harry cheekily, causing Hermione to throw the ball as hard as she could at the floating boy. Due to pitiful arm strength however Harry had little trouble catching the projectile before lobbing it back. Thus they continued their little game, tossing the quaffle back and forth while slowly gliding across the pitch. Hermione had little trouble using her smarts to know where to throw it when Harry opted to try a different tactic. Whether it was an increase in velocity, a drop in altitude or a sharp deviation, Hermione knew exactly where to throw it.
This of course didn't help, considering Hermione wasn't able to make the distance on some of the longer throws.
"Get down from there!" shouted Wood from down below, the rest of the team seemingly having had enough of a break before the captain put them through the ring around once more. Harry could see from up above though that the numbers had dwindled somewhat; many of the potential players having called it quits during their break.
"Alright then, let's go Hermione," said Harry only before a shrill scream filled the air, Hermione's broom rocketing into the air with extreme speed before trying to buck her off as if she was riding a rodeo bull. "HERMIONE!"
Harry's shout of rage echoed out as he shot upwards towards where Hermione was before he felt his heart stop momentarily as Hermione's grip faltered and she began to fall. Harry was moving before the people on the ground had even begun to react as Hermione fell through the air, picking up speed with every passing second.
The wind bit into Harry's skin as he calculated how much time they had; sadly there wasn't much. Pushing the broom with every ounce of speed it could muster, Harry angled it diagonally as he got closer to Hermione, ever passing moment inching ever closer. Her screams grew louder as she flailed through the air.
Reaching out, Harry could see just how close the ground was and knew he had no more than a handful of seconds. Angling the broom differently, Harry dove vertically downwards, surpassing Hermione before he adjusted himself to be perpendicular to the ground, gliding only a few feet from the ground. He was aware this was going to hurt as he shot forward with his arms outstretched in front of him.
Hermione crashed into his arms forcing the nose of the broom to shoot downwards before smashing into the ground. The sound of wood breaking rang out as Harry and Hermione fell through the air before bouncing off the ground, thankfully not going splat in the process. It was hard enough however that on the third bounce the world went black for Harry Potter.
...
As Harry opened his eyes, despite missing his glasses, he could still make out the ceiling as one that he had wanted to avoid as much as possible this time round. 'Hospital Wing,' he thought groggily as he allowed himself to take a couple of deep inhales. The change in his breathing however was somehow loud enough for the resident nurse to pick up on.
"You're up, Mister Potter," declared Madam Pomfrey as she bustled her way over, a tray of potions in her hand. "I must say that I hadn't actually expected a recovery quite so soon, but it seems both you and Miss Granger are full of surprises."
"Hermione?" said Harry as he pushed himself into a sitting position before fumbling for his glasses, eventually wrapping his fingers around the frame.
"Arguably, she took a substantial amount less damage than you did and if what I hear is correct I believe she has you to thank for even being able to get here in the first place," she said. "Quite a feat of heroism if the rumours are to be believed."
"I hope it hasn't been blown too far out of proportion," said Harry as he put on his glasses before being handed a glass. "On a scale of one to ten how bad is this going to taste?"
"Nine."
"Thought so," said Harry before tossing his head back and downing the entire potion, the bitter after taste burning at his taste buds. "I'd refer to that as a six."
"Good, cause this one goes beyond your scale."
"Great...let's get this over with."
Madam Pomfrey handed over the vial and Harry chose not to sniff it beforehand knowing full well how vile these things could smell. Sharply inhaling, Harry drank from the glass and immediately had to fight the urge to spit it back out. Willpower overruling, he managed to swallow the concoction, earning a small smile from the nurse who took away the vial and removed the tray. As she walked towards her office, a door to the ward opened up, revealing both Hermione and Dumbledore, the latter moving forward with purposeful strides.
Hermione's steps were much smaller.
"Good to see you, Harry," said Dumbledore, Hermione timidly standing behind him. "It seems you have taken to Madam Pomfrey's potions much quicker than many other students."
"Considering the whole nearly dying thing, I think taking a couple of awful tasting potions is the worst of my problems," said Harry as he adjusted himself. The hospital beds were not the comfiest things in the school by any means.
"Yes, you managed to prevent a major accident and for that I must thank you," said Dumbledore sincerely. "Young Miss Granger here owes you her life."
"Please, I saw a friend in need, I acted accordingly," said Harry.
"With that attitude I imagine the Sorting Hat may have debated putting you in Hufflepuff," mused Dumbledore. "I have come however for a few reasons and first and foremostly I believe Miss Granger has something to say."
Harry watched as Hermione stepped out of Dumbledore's shadow, white knuckles gripping at her robes. The residential nurse had informed Harry that Hermione had been conscious for a few days prior to his awakening. Harry knew that during that time Hermione would likely have struggled to eat, sleep and even study while he lay comatose. "Harry..." said Hermione softly as tears began to well in her eyes.
Harry swung his legs over the side of the bed before she could continue, planting his feet on the ground before quickly closing the gap between them and embracing Hermione in a hug. The tears that had threatened to fall earlier began streaming down her face as Harry embraced her. "Thank you," she managed to say between sobs.
They stood there for a minute, Dumbledore taking a stroll around the rest of the Wing in order to give them a moment of privacy. When he had returned the children hadn't moved from the spot but Hermione's sobbing had decreased in volume and frequency. Clearing his throat, Hermione and Harry awkwardly released one another. "Before I go there is one other piece of information I wish to both share and take from you," said Dumbledore. "Tell me Harry, have you heard of the Potter Club?"
"Potter Club?" repeated Harry tearing his eyes away from Hermione who was doing her best to compose herself. "I haven't heard of them, sir, and I'm a little more worried that I have a group of stalkers using my name as a banner."
"It might not be the case," said Albus. "What their intention is towards you I'm unsure, but by their actions during breakfast last Monday is anything to go by I believe that they are using your name for the fame that it carries."
"I'm not sure what you mean sir," said Harry having mentally prepared himself for this confrontation.
"Allow me to explain," said Dumbledore.
...
Monday mornings were always something to behold as students looked a little worse for wear after a weekend of relaxation. The Headmaster could always spot out the students who had left assignments until the last minute by the way they shuffled their feet and had bags under their eyes.
As he partook of the feast in front of him he nearly found himself spitting out his breakfast as a four foot wide rainbow began to spread from one end of the Slytherin table to the other. A number of verbal slander began from the cunning students while the rest of the hall began to both snigger and in several cases just burst into laughter, laughter which was contagious.
It was when the laughter was at it's peak that golden letters began to shine along the rainbow , eventually spelling out the words POTTER CLUB. As soon as the message was delivered the rainbow exploded in a plethora of coloured dust that rained down over the entire hall, bathing everyone in shades of blue, red and yellow.
Needless to say, nobody made it to first period on time.
...
"Had you been there at the time, Harry, I believe that you would have been interrogated by both your peers and staff members, however considering you were temporarily out of action there is no need for anyone to place the blame on you," concluded Dumbledore.
"I would almost consider it praise considering how complicated such magic would likely be," said Harry. "I barely know the basics at the moment and somehow I think conjuring a rainbow isn't covered in first year topics."
"Quite right you are, but in moments of pandemonium everyone looks for someone to blame," said Dumbledore. "If you hear anything in regards to this 'club' please inform me immediately."
"Will do sir, but I have to ask, what do you think they want? What's their goal?"
"If I were to hazard a guess, it's to have a laugh. That however may just be the misconception of an elderly man. If you'll excuse me, I have other appointments I must attend to," said Dumbledore dismissing himself.
As he left, the awkwardness between Hermione and Harry once again crept into the air before Harry hopped back onto the bed. "I imagine I'm going to have to stay here for another night for them to make sure I'm fine, would you like to stay for a while? I'll probably be bored out of my mind otherwise."
Hermione allowed a smile to creep over her face as she joined Harry on the hospital bed, the mattress only just big enough for the two of them to sit on. The close proximity however became even closer as Harry placed a comforting arm around Hermione allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder.
It wouldn't be much later that the two of them fell into a light sleep. Madam Pomfrey walked out of her office to find them in such a state and as quietly as she could wheeled a privacy screen in front of the bed. No need for rumours to start spreading after all.