As Harry stepped out of the Ford Anglia at the Burrow, Fred jumped out of the driver's seat. "Make sure you tell mum that my driving was perfect!" Apparently getting to drive the family car was a rare occurrence, and one that Weasley twins at least appreciated.
The Weasleys had again invite him to come stay with them over the summer break, this time for almost the entire summer,
At first, Petunia had been conflicted about having him gone, as she appreciated the free labor, but Vernon was excited at the prospect of having 'the freak' out of the house as much as possible. They compromised by having Harry work on all of Petunia's projects for the first two weeks of summer vacation. Harry ended up carting all the trash out of the attic as Petunia went on a cleaning spree. She then (over Dudley's protests), turned her attention to Dudley's room (though Harry rescued Dudley's porn mags, slipping them back to him when Petunia was not looking).
As Harry and the twins walked down the path from the barn to the main house, Ginny poked her head out of the kitchen door. "Oh. It's you." She snorted, "Maybe we should make you an honorary Weasley given how often you're here." She ducked back inside.
Harry glanced at the Weasely twins in confusion. "Actually," said the closer one.
"That's not a bad idea. We'll talk to mum about it," the other finished.
As he walked inside Ron came out of the living room, "Ginny said.. Oh, great to see you Harry!" He gave Harry an awkward back pat / hug thing. "I'm glad you came. Come on Hermione's also here."
As Ron led the way up the stairs, he whispered "You gotta help me - she's still upset that Buckbeak was executed. She's making everybody's life a misery!"
Harry walked into Ginny's room where Hermione had her homework out. But she was instead morosely reading 'Hogwarts, a History' - her comfort-book.
"Hey, Hermione! It's your favorite Slytherin," Ron pronounced.
"Sit down, both of you," Harry closed the door behind him, taking control of the conversation before Ron could say anything dumb. "I didn't have time to tell you back at the end of the school year, but Sirius Black didn't kill my parents. And I don't think he's guilty of the other stuff he's accused of either."
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, he never got a fair trial," Harry went on to relate what he had seen and heard in the Shrieking Shack, as well as what he was able to research in the last few days before end of term.
"And you believe him?" Ron looked incredulous.
"Why else would Peter – Scabbers admit to it otherwise? And why would he have spent the past decade living as a rat?" Harry asked.
"That means that I had…" Ron looked aghast as the realization that he had been sharing his life with a middle-aged man. Who was probably a pervert with a thing for teenage boys.
"That means a huge injustice was perpetrated!" Hermine was standing, a fire in her eyes, "we need to write to Dumbledore.. no, we'll talk to Dumbledore in person, that will be more effective. We'll write to the Minister of Magic. And we'll get Dumbledore to sign it!"
Harry hid a smirk. He knew moral outrage would cheer Hermione right up.
"Hey!" Ginny pushed the door open, "Mom says that you're not allowed to close the door when you have boys up here!" She glowered at Hermione (since it was her room), before transferring it to Ron (as her brother, it was always also his fault). She then turned to Harry, "Come on down, Mom wants to say hi." She almost pulled him out of the room and swung the door shut behind her.
"Let the two of them have some time, they're dating," she hissed at him as they descended down to the kitchen. As they started down the stairs, Ron self consciously pushed the door part way open again.
The summer passed quickly – Hermione went back home after a couple of more day, but Harry enjoyed playing quidditch or just flying with Ron & the twins and practicing dueling with Ginny.
*UHD*
"Hey, it's summer. You should sleep in sometimes. Maybe we can switch to starting after 10!" Ginny groused as she went through the dueling exercises with Harry.
"It gets too hot in the middle of the day. Besides, nobody is forcing you to train with me every morning."
"As if I'm going to let you get ahead of me!"
Harry nodded, "So you still want to be an Auror?" He left the part about finding Harry Potter unsaid, though it made his lips curl up as he restrained a giggle.
"And so what if I am?" Ginny crossed her arms defensively.
Harry paused. He could tease her but… "Well, you need good grades for that as well. Have you finished your summer homework?"
"Arg! Don't remind me!"
"Well, I'm done with mine. Do you want me to help you?"
Ginny scowled at him before finally grumbling, "If I get stumped, I guess. But I should at least try it on my own first." A moment later, she added, "Thanks" as she looked to see what Harry's response would be out of the corner of her eye.
"I bet Ron could help you out just as well," Harry replied dismissively – his help wasn't valuable enough to bother trading for. But his thoughts were interrupted by Ginny bursting out laughing.
"Ron? If Hermione didn't correct his homework and loan him her notes all the time he would be getting all Trolls!"
"What were you saying about me?" Ron strolled over to their area behind the barn.
"Nothing," Harry quickly replied, "You want to practice some DADA with us?"
"You know, maybe I will." Ron didn't want to practice schoolwork over summer vacation, but Harry & Ginny seemed to be having fun, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
Half an hour later, Ron was levered himself off of the ground for the third time, "What have you done to my sister?" He demanded of Harry, "You turned her into a monster!"
"It's not my fault you can't keep up with a girl who's a year younger than you" Ginny stuck her tongue out at her brother. They had just finished their third dual.
Ron just sighed, "I'm going to go get some lunch. Dad says that we should pack up for the Quidditch World cup after dinner, so you want to spend the afternoon flying?"
"Sure. I'm done with my summer homework, so it works for me."
"Arg! Don't remind me!" Ron threw his hands into the air as he beat a retreat for the house.
*UHD*
"Hello, my master. Let us begin," a wizard stood over a man tied in the middle of a ritual circle as a clump of ominous mist hovers on one side. Everything else was cast in shadows. There are no land marks or any discernible features.
Thunder rumbled, and there was a flash of light from the wizard. When the smoke cleared, a small homunculus hissed, "A beginning. Yes. But we have yet a long way to go."
*UHD*
Harry woke up with a start, and it took him a few minutes to remember where he was – He was sharing a room with Ron at the Burrow. He vaguely remembered having a nightmare – something dark and ominous - but he couldn't recall any of the detail.
Nevertheless, he spent the following day vaguely anxious as the Weasleys took him to shop for school supplies, along with Ron and their other children, but he put it down to the chaos at the Quidditch World cup last week. He had heard Vernon talking about football hooligans before, but according to Ron the same wasn't typical for Quidditch matches. Which is probably why Arthur had them all go shopping as a group – the Weasley parents were still worried.
"But mom, why do I need dress robes?" Ron whined.
"The school supplies list specifies that you need two pairs of school robes and one set of dress robes." Molly was not one to dispute the Hogwarts school supplies list. She had complete trust in Albus and the school board. Even though sending her children to Hogwarts stretched the family finances (and her two youngest almost died there), she never questioned her choice of school, because her children deserved the best.
"Harry, dear, lets start with you," She gestured to the alcove where one of the shop clerks was waiting to measure Harry. That would give her some time to dig through the bargain rack.
After a exhaustingly boring half hour, Harry had his robes.
"Oh, dear these are very expensive," Molly's mouth pressed into a line as she looked at the price of the two set she had finally been able to find for the twins. Harry's trust fund covered Harry's robes, but it wouldn't pay for her sons'… "Ron, you're about the same build as Bill. I think we have a pair of his old dress robes at home that you can borrow." It's not like dress robes went out of style. And Bill never wore them after that time they went to Melinda Prewett's wedding 10 years ago.
*UHD*
Harry was half listening to Dumbledore at the welcome feast as the Headmaster made the usual start of year announcements, when he suddenly went off script ."I would like to announce that this year we will be hosting the Triwizarding tournament, a storied competition between the three top schools in wizarding Europe. The students from the other schools will arrive after Halloween." He continued talking some more after that, but Harry tuned him out. 'A contest..' He turned to Pucey, "Hey, do you think we could have a dueling club contest with the other schools?"
Pucey shrugged, "I guess. But you'd have to get other students interested in the club – right now nobody really knows about it."
That evening, Harry wrote up a poster inviting other students to come join the dueling club, and proclaiming that they would have a contest with the other schools. Though it was less of a 'poster' and more of a half page note scrawled in Harry's best handwriting, which he duplicated with a spell and went on to tack up on all the notice boards.
He was just putting one in the Great Hall when Draco came up behind him. "Keep dreaming, Dursley," he scoffed. "You're a fourth year – you think you can organize a tournament?"
"Do you have a problem with age, Mr. Malfoy?" A grizzled old man – Moody, the DADA professor – demanded as he approached.
"He's too young, to do something so complicated!" Draco sneered.
"Is that so? In that case, as somebody who is a little older," He scowled at Draco, "I will assist." Moody turned to Harry, "who's your current advisor?"
"Professor Snape."
Moody nodded, "I will speak to him, and see if he will let me assist with the club. A dueling club is the best possible extracurricular, and it should be available to as many students as possible!" He pronounced vehemently before stomping off.
Draco rolled his eyes at the theatricality of it, and even Harry had to smirk.
"Look, if you manage to get this off the ground, I'll sign up so I can wipe your ass all over the floor," Draco gave Harry a slap on the back as he swaggered over to join his twin goons.
*UHD*
That evening, at Dinner, Harry brought another handful of his club announcements. He was just considering if he should ask Ron to put one up in the Gryffindor dorms when a glossy flier landed on the table in front of him. "What's this?' He looked up to see Hermione standing with a stack of of them in one hand, and a box of button in the other.
"S.P.E.W."
"No thanks."
"Don't be a child, Harry. I get enough of that from Ron. It's the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Did you know that enslaved elves make our meals every day here at Hogwarts?" She asked belligerently.
"Yes, and they like it," Draco interrupted, "Elves become morose and miserable if you don't work them hard."
"Spoken like every slave-owner ever!" Hermione hissed in anger.
"Hermione, I know how it sounds, but elves aren't human," Harry interrupted.
"And is that any reason to treat them like slaves?"
"No, that's not what I mean," Harry had read about house elves – they were a manifestation of family magic. They weren't born or created – they just showed up in homes that had been occupied by the same family long enough. He was actually a little surprised that the Weasley's Burrow didn't have one. Harry looked up at Hermione's face, 'She's not going to listen.' "Speaking of clubs, I am trying to expand the dueling club to the entire school. I was hoping you would put up my announcement up in the Gryffindor dorms, and come try it out as well." He glanced at his crabbed little note, which paled in comparison to the professional looking fliers that Hermione held.
"Harry, it's not the same thing. SPEW is far more important than a club. It's not even close!" She turned to leave.
"I'll take a button if you do."
She turned back to glare at him before her expression softened slightly. "Fine".
*UHD*
After dinner, Harry went to his usual spot in the library and grabbed some books off of the shelves – it was too early to have much homework as yet. He was just sitting down when Hermione arrived and dropped into the seat opposite him, and began as she looked down at her hands, "so…"
"Oh, incidentally, you said you would look into how help Sirius.." Harry interrupted during the ensuing awkward pause.
"I… Sorry, I forgot, I just got so upset about the way House Elves are treated. We can try seeing if we can find anything.." her voice faded out as she gestured tentatively at the books around them.
"No, it's ok." Harry was resigned to Sirius being a fugitive – it's not like there was anything a fourth-year student could do. "I understand you're upset about the Elves, but that's going to be a huge - no a monumental - task to improve their welfare, because they don't WANT better treatment. Maybe you should put it aside until after you graduate. Then, you can join the ministry & legislate changes." And maybe he could get her to use that clout to help Sirius also (there was no way that he was going to be some high-power ministry official – he knew himself: he lacked the drive for that. But trading favors with somebody who was… that he could do. He would just have to make sure to be extra-nice to Hermione in the interim, but that wasn't a big ask.
"I don't think I could do that,"
"Don't sell yourself short – you're the sort that gets stuff done."
"Oh, I guess," Hermione blushed and looked back down at her hands.
"So now you can help me recruit for dueling club."
"Prat!" Hermione whacked him in the arm. "And I was just about to apologize to you for being abrupt during dinner." At that time she had forgotten that everything with Harry had to be a trade. He hadn't been making light of her efforts - that had been him trying to be nice, in his own weird way.
Harry waved it away as if it was nothing – after all, the Dureleys were far worse to him on a good day. "But we should go talk to Dumledore about scheduling a tournament."
"Let's go."
"No – we have dueling club in a half hour. We'll do it after breakfast tomorrow."
"Are you going to make me go to that?"
Harry pointed to the SPEW button proudly pinned to his chest.
"Fine."
*UHD*
When Harry and Hermione arrived at Dueling club, they were surprised to see Moody in place of Snape – apparently the DADA professor had manged to convince the sour Slytherin housemaster to let him run some of the sessions. Snape had agreed to the trade because he didn't want anybody to discover that dueling club was the only thing that brought a sliver of joy to his bitter, unhappy life.
"Is this everybody?" Moody looked over the dozen or so students. "Ok. First off, the rules of dueling," he holds up the rule book. "Forget them. In real life, if you get into a fight, you don't want it to be a fair fight. You want it to be in a beating, with you handing out the pain."
Apparently Moody was planning to run the dueling club as an advanced seminar for his DADA class.
*UHD*
The following morning as breakfast was finishing up, Harry went up to the head table, "Professor Dumbledore? About the Triwizarding tournament... Can we add a dueling competition? You know, between the Hogwart's dueling club and the other schools."
Dumbledore considered for a moment, "I am sorry, but I am going to have to say no – there are already too many distractions from the academic schedule with the tournament. But you can invite any of the visiting students who wish to do to join your club, and then have an internal contest like you had last year."
"Ok." Harry was disappointed, but maybe if he got enough people interested, he could change Dumbledore's mind.
*UHD*
Harry was just walking out of Potions the following day when Tracey Davis darted over to him. "Hey, what's up with you and Granger? You brought her to dueling club the other day, and today.." she nodded back to the potions classroom.
"What do you mean? We're potions partners."
Tracey rolled her eyes, "Yeah, for like four years."
"She's dating Weasley," Harry gave Tracey an exasperated look. "We're working together because Snape assigned us to be partners back in first year, and I've seen no reason to switch – she's smart. Is this because she's a Gryffindor?"
"No.." Tracy walked silently next to Harry for a moment before continuing, "I want to ask a favor – can you ask Daphne out for Hogsmeade weekend?" The first one of the year was in a week.
Harry stopped in the middle of the corridor, forcing a pair of second years to navigate around them, "Wait, what? Why? Did she ask you to ask me?" Harry's brain tried to catch up with his mouth.
"Well, no, but she likes you." Tracey shrugged awkwardly. "She likes you a lot, and has for a long time, but she's really, really shy."
Harry didn't know either girl very well, which was not a surprise, as he kept to himself and mostly socialized with students from other houses (Not that he considered them friends either – they were acquaintances he exchanged favors with. He didn't have friends), but he had noticed that the two Slytherin girls didn't interact with anybody else either. It had earned Daphne the moniker 'the Ice Queen".
"Ok, I'll ask her out." He didn't like being pressured into doing things, but he had to admit the idea of going on a date with the rather attractive blond was appealing.
Tracy nodded with a smile, "Great. She's probably already at lunch." She picked up her pace.
When Harry arrived at the great hall, he quietly sat down at his usual spot at the periphery of the fourth year Slytherins, where he could watch their hi-jinks without really being involved.
There she was – Daphne was sitting at the far end of the table, on the other side of pair of third year Slytherin girls who were chatting away. She was been reading a book as she ate, which she put away as Tracey sat down next to her.
Tracey glanced over at Harry and gestured subtly at Daphne. Harry nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. 'What am I supposed to do? I'm a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor!' He turned back to his food, but kept one eye on Greengrass.
He watched as she finished up her salad and got up to go to her next class. Harry wolfed the rest of his food and stood up to follow her, before turning to grab his napkin and wipe his mouth. But by the time he got to the exit from the hall, Daphne had already disappeared.
Over the course of the following week, Harry watched Daphne whenever they were at meals or in class, but never quite worked up the nerve to talk to her, until it was Friday night. Tracy approached him in the Slytherin common room as Harry returned from the library. "Look, are you going to ask her? Hogsmead is tomorrow!"
"Yes," Harry replied self consciously.
Tracey gave a sigh. "Look. She already went to the dorms. I'll go tell her." She paused. "Or do you want me to send her down so you can ask her yourself?"
"No, this is better," Harry mumbled, blushing.
Tracey gave another exasperated sigh. "The two of you are killing me! I'll have her meet you at the main gate."
*UHD*
The following morning, Harry dressed in his best clothes. Most of his clothing was from thrift stores (Petunia wasn't going to spend good money for the likes of him), but some of it was fairly stylish nonetheless. Or at least he thought so.
Harry made his way to the Hogwarts entrance, trying to walk with confidence. While there were a number of students walking through, the only person who was waiting was Tracey.
"Hi, where's Greengrass?"
"You should call her Daphne. And she went on ahead."
"But.. I don't think I was that late" Hary glanced at his watch – he WAS about 5 minutes late, but was she that sensitive?
"You're not," Tracy reassured him, "Daphne just got here very early, and she got nervous waiting. Come on – I'll take you to her!"
The two of them rode down to the village in awkward silence. Tracey led Harry to the Three Broomsticks. "Huh. I would have expected her to be here."
"Did she tell you where she would be waiting?"
"Well, no, but I figured... where else would she wait?"
Harry shrugged. He rarely came down to Hogsmeade (it wasn't much fun going on his own). "I don't know either."
"Well, let's wander around, and we're certain to bump into her."
At first, Harry found it a little awkward: Here he was, walking around with a girl that he really didn't know! But Tracey managed to fill the awkward silence with conversation, describing the places they were passing, and asking Harry questions as well.
As the morning turned to afternoon, Harry said, "Let's grab some lunch."
"That's a good thought, but I'll pay for my own, though."
"Don't worry, I know this isn't a date." Harry ordered a sandwich and a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. There was still no sight of Daphne, "You know, you're very easy to get along with. I'm surprised you aren't.." Harry paused, not certain how to finish that statement without being rude.
"More popular?" Tracy finished for him, without taking offense, "I'm a half-blood," she shrugged.
Harry nodded his understanding. It was Slytherin. "So why don't you make friends with people in other houses?"
"Because I'm Slytherin! Who would want to hang out with a Slytherin except another snake?"
"Hey, don't put yourself down. I think a lot of people would like you once they got to know you. Why don't you come with me to the library – there's a number of us that meet there for a study group. It has Gryffindors and Ravenclaws." Well, one Gryffindor and one Ravenclaw, but the way he said it sounded better.
"A study group?" Tracy frowned, "That's not really my thing." She couldn't imagine how awkward that would be. At least she knew how to behave around Slytherins. But nerds? They were a completely foreign species.
"Or you could try making friends in Dueling club. Ginny's not a Slytherin."
"Seriously? You haven't noticed?" Tracy snorted in disbelief.
"Noticed what?"
Tracy opened her mouth to reply and then froze, before stuttering out, "That ..that she's there just to blast some snakes into the ground! She's not there to make friends with Slytherins!" Except maybe ONE specific Slytherin.
Harry quirked an eyebrow, "Ginny's not that bad once you talk to her. She is just kind of competitive."
"Kind of? She's like the Hermione of the dueling club!"
Harry didn't know how to respond to that – he never had any problems with Hermione either. He sighed, "I think we should get going. I guess Daphne is not going to show."
"Yeah. I'll talk to her when we get back."
*UHD*
The following day, Harry wasn't certain what to say to Daphne. Heck, he wasn't even certain what had happened: had she gotten cold feet? Was the whole thing a prank? Had she just forgotten? He could ask, but then what if she just laughed at him? Harry decided that the best options was to pretend that nothing had happened. Fortunately, at breakfast that day Dumbledore announced that the other schools would be arriving that Friday afternoon, so all week that was all that anybody talked about, and Harry quickly forget the fiasco of the Hogsmeade weekend (though it hadn't been a complete bust – Tracey had seen to that. But he didn't know how he was supposed to behave around her now either).
*UHD*
Harry lined up on the edge of the Slytherin contingent as they stood on the lawn in between the castle and the lake, waiting for the other two schools to arrive.
"Why aren't we down at the train station?" Asked one boy.
"Maybe they are coming across in the boats, like the first years. That was pretty awesome."
Others had actually paid attention to Dumbledore's explanation and were craning their necks looking for any sign of the flying carriage that Beauxbatons was supposed to arrive in, though an equal number were chatting with each other and ignoring the proceedings entirely. Draco in particular was making an ass of himself, telling everyone all about his date with Pansy the previous week.
"But I wasn't the only one getting lucky – I saw our resident wall flower with a girl as well." He turned to Harry. "So, Dursley, did you score with Davis?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Draco was speaking loudly enough so that Harry could see Tracy, who was standing near the other end of the line, flush red.
Harry gave a theatrical sigh. "Draco, not all of us need to create exaggerated tales of our sexual prowess to bolster our flagging egos." He might not know what to say to Daphne or Tracey, but he had no problem putting Draco in his place.
Now it was Draco's turn to flush red, but in anger.
"So, that means you and Davis are an item?" Theo interrupted.
"What? No! We're not dating!" Harry replied panicked-ly. But just at that moment the Beauxbatons carriage landed, distracting everybody and saving him from from needing to reply – disaster was narrowly averted.
The students murmured as they watched the huge headmistress disembark, followed by the students, all of whom were dressed much too lightly for the Scottish fall.
And then everybody fell silent. It was like the sound was cut off with a knife.
Harry turned to see a stunningly beautiful seventh year girl exit the carriage. Most of the boys' (and some of the girls') eyes were glued to her. It was like Harry was a metal filing, and she was a magnet. He had to force himself to stand still and and not do something foolish. The fact that he was still recovering from Theo's question helped him maintain his composure. But other boys were less fortunate (or less strong willed). Draco stepped forward a moment behind Ron Weasley. The red head walked right up to the girl and stuttered an introduction as he made an awkward bow.
*UHD*
"I can't believe Ron did that!" Hemrione fumed. She was sitting with Terry and Harry in the library, ostensibly studying. But in reality the two boys had been listening the Hermione vent for the past half hour.
"You know it wasn't on purpose – you heard the headmaster - she's a quarter veela." Harry replied. Terry had his nose buried in his textbook, pretending to be studying so that he wouldn't be sucked in to this discussion. There was no way he was going to deal with this sort of drama when it wasn't his girlfriend! (Not that Terry had a girlfriend. Not since Padma.)
"You didn't make a fool of yourself!"
"I almost did. I'm just a little slower than Ron" 'Why am I defending Ron? He's an idiot!' But his family was always really nice to him over the summers. "Just give him a second chance".
Hermione gave another annoyed sigh, but finally seemed to be mollified. For now.
*UHD*
"Hurry up, or all the good seat will be gone!" Pucey led the way into the stands, with Harry and Terry following after. It was three weeks later, and time for the first Task (with a capital 'T'). Harry was as excited as everybody else to see the three champions compete. The Ministry had expanded the bleacher seats around the quidditch pitch, and they were now filled with what felt like half of wizarding England (though it was actually just the family and friends of the students – the quidditch world cup had been much larger).
Pucey wasn't certain what to make of Terry – he was a Ravenclaw, but he seemed friendly, and he wasn't some braniac nerd. 'Oh, well. Harry has a weird taste in friends'.
They settled into the seats reserved for students. "Your parents don't mind you not sitting with them? Harry asked Terry.
"Nah, as long as I have dinner with them, their fine." Actually, his father had explicitly told him that hanging out with friends was more important than spending every minute with family.
"Poor Ron has to be sticking-charmed to his family for the duration." Harry snickered, not displaying much sympathy.
"Ron Weasley? How do you know him?" Pucey only knew the Gryffendorks through the lens of their rivalry in Potions and DADA. Though that might also be in part that he only hung out with the other members of the Slytherin quidditch team. If they weren't all also 'sticking charmed' to their families for the duration of the Task, that's where he would be now as well, instead of sitting with the Nerd Patrol.
"I don't, but his girlfriend is in our study group." Harry paused before adding, "You'd have met her if you came to dueling club more often."
Just then Hermione came storming down the stairs and slid onto the bench next to Harry. "Budge over. I'm watching with you guys."
The crowd broke into loud cheers as Ludo Bagman took the stage. "I would like to welcome all of you to the Triwizarding tournament, a contest that brings the preeminent schools in Europe together in harmony for culture exchange and friendship." His amplified voice echoed though the stadium as he went on with his spiel.
Harry turned to Hermione. "Is everything ok?"
"Yes, I'll tell you later," she gave a long suffering sigh. "I was sitting with Ron, but he spent the whole time talking to his brothers. I get that he hasn't seen Charlie since the summer, but it seems like he only remembers that I'm there when he wants help with his homework. Like last night, I edited his potions paper, and then I just wanted to talk, but he went off to play chess with Dean!"
Harry nodded along, 'Shit. I shouldn't have asked. I need to remember this for next time.' He gently patted Hermione's back. She pulled out a handkerchief and surreptitiously dabbed at her face "Um, can you tell me later? I think Cedric is coming out of the tent."
Cedric received loud cheers from the Hogwarts contingent. He was too nervous to respond, instead concentrating on the dragon that he had to face off against. Suddenly, a rock on the far side of the dragon shook itself into a large dog that started barking loudly at the dragon. As the dragon instinctively lunged towards it, Cedric disillusioned and silenced himself. Then, the silent fuzzy patch that was the Hogwarts champion darted for the pile of eggs. The dragon was busy trying to roast the yapping canine, so it did not realize that there was a second intruder until Cedric had grabbed the prize egg. He was almost off of the field before the dragon finally spotted him and sent a gust of flame at his rear. But he managed to leap to to the goal line, where the safety team extinguished the flames and checked him over.
"That was well done!" Ludo pronounced. "Let's see what scores our judges give to the Hpgwarts champion. It's 8, 8, 6 from Headmaster Karkaroff, 8 and 8. I think getting caught by that last little spurt of flame cost him some points, as well as his pants! Next, let's see Fleur Delacour!" A switching spell replaced the Swedish Short-Snout Dragon with a Common Welsh Green and a new set of eggs.
As Fleur stepped out of the tent, the whole crowd broke into cheers and howls – even many audience members from the other schools cheered and whistled.
"That's disgusting," huffed Hermione as she crossed her arms across her chest.
Harry shrugged as he felt impelled to defend his gender. "She's an attractive woman."
"Not you too!" Hermione looked in shock at her friend.
"What? I'm not going to do anything, but there is nothing wrong with a guy appreciating an attractive girl! I appreciate a lot of girls!" Harry blurted defensively.
"Oh, so you look at a lot of girls?" Hermione turned and demanded.
"Not like that."
"Not like what? So you appreciate other girls differently than her?"
"That's not what I meant. I meant that I like seeing pretty girls, but I'm not like Draco – I'm not going to go talking trash abut them or objectifying them or anything. It's just normal guy stuff!"
"So which girls do you like looking at?" Hermione asked, trying to suppress an amused smile at her friend's complete panic. "Maybe I can set you up with her?"
Harry blushed crimson and turned back to the competition. "Oh, look she put the dragon to sleep!" He tried to change the topic." Fleur was walking calmly towards the eggs when the dragon gave a loud snore, shooting a gout of fire out of its left nostril, setting her robes ablaze. In a panic, Fleur disappeared her robes before she could get injured, leaving her in nothing but her halter top and short shorts.
Haremion mouth fell open, scandalized. The entire crowd fell silent. She glanced around – almost all of the male gaze was locked onto the quarter veela. Except Harry, who had turned his head sideways, and put his hand up the side of his head to shield his eyes.
"See? I'm not staring!" He insisted as he focused all of his attention on Hermione to keep from sneaking a peek. Hermione looked away, blushing slightly from the intense attention.
She then kept glancing between Harry and the competition. "Ok, you can look now," she finally said. As they listened to Ludo announce the scores, she added, "And Harry? Thanks."
Harry sighed. He had no idea what she was thanking him for, but he had apparently dodged a bullet.
Viktor went third, and his approach was the classic conjunctivitis curse, followed by a fast run to snatch up the egg. He remained uninjured and earned first place.
After the task was done and they were getting up to head down from the stands, Pucey turned to Terry and asked, "Are they always like that?"
Terry sighed. "No. It's been getting worse the last month. I wish they would get a clue."
*UHD*
Viktor walked into the Dueling Club room, "Is this dueling club?" He asked, holding up one of Harry's signs.
"Yes, come on in. All are welcome," Harry quickly greeted him before he changed his mind. Today Snape was running the club, so there was no one else who would try to make him feel welcome. 'Maybe with a celebrity here we'll get some more members.'
As Harry led him in Viktor glanced around the room, scowling. He was disappointed to see that there were no students older than 5th year in the room (the club had gotten a handful of new students to join up, but they were all younger years. And almost all Slytherins)
"So, let's see what you already know" Harry started Viktor on some of the basic drills, before progressing to a couple of short spars between the two of them.
Viktor was good, but not exceptional. His strength was traditional dueling, but when it came to the freestyle fighting that Moody had been teaching them, he was no better than Harry.
*UHD*
The following day, at the end of Potions, Snape dropped a bombshell on the combined class of Gryffindors and Slytherins. "In honor of the Triwizarding tournament, we will be holding a Yule ball for all students in fourth year and above. Dress robes will be worn, and the Ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall." He glared at the students, for once saving most of his attention for the Slytherins. "This will be an important chance for you to display your social decorum. Any who do not behave in a fashion becoming of their house will earn my extreme displeasure!" He turned to focus on the Gryffindors before adding, "That means no drunken buffoonery!"
As he dismissed the class, it exploded into a susurration of gossiping as all the girls immediately started brainstorming what they would wear (and some, who they wanted to go with, though obviously proper pureblood witches would need to wait for the boy to ask them).
Tracy made a beeline for where Harry and Hermione were putting away their papers. "Hey, Dursley," she slipped in between Hermione and Harry. "Now is your chance! Go ask Daphne to the Yule Ball!"
"You like Daphne?" Hermione asked, looking surprised.
"No, well, maybe. I don't... Tracey says that Daphne likes me."
Hermione nodded, "Do you want me go over and chat with her? I can find out." Hermione volunteered. Harry was so serious all the time. He needed to loosen up (and that was something, coming from her). Going on a date would be good for him.
"Do you even know her?
"No, she doesn't. This is Granger just sticking her nose in, like usual." Tracy scowled, pushing her way in front of Hermione again
"Hey, that's not nice.." Harry began
"Sorry." She didn't sound sorry. She also continued blocking off Hermione.
Hermione scowled. She hated girls like Tracey – all fake and manipulative. The stereotypical Slytherin. Girls like her had made primary school a living hell. She glanced over at Harry, who gave a little shrug as if to say 'what can you do? You just have to accept it.' Hermione turned and yanked her book bag onto her shoulder. "I'll see you later, Harry." She was no good at these sort of games.
After Hermione left, Harry turned back to Tracey. "You know, I've been thinking. Are you certain that it's Daphne who is interested in me? Because the only one who's approached me is you. And that Hogsmeade 'date' – I spent the whole time with you!"
"What are you implying, Dursley?" Tracey crossed her arms defensively.
Harry 'hmmed' for a moment before blurting out, "Tracy, would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?"
"What?! You should be asking Daphne!" Tracey brain froze – this was not part of her plan!
"And have her be a no-show again, except now it would be in front of everybody? No thank you."
"She won't do that!"
"So you claim. I bet she's not even interested."
"No, but…" Tracy looked between Harry and Daphne.. except Daphne had already left!. But Harry was still standing, looking at her… And he was kind of good looking and… "Ok, fine." Tracey deflated.
"If you don't want to do, then don't go" Harry tried not to sound disappointed.
"No, it's not that, it's just…" Tracey shrugged, trying to find someway out of the maze that she found herself in. She was supposed to be Daphne's best friend. But Harry had asked her. And she was a Slytherin, and Snape had almost explicitly told them that they were supposed to be disingenuous about betting a date for Yule...
"You sound about as excited as Goyle when he has to cut flobberworms in Potions."
"That.. was a very specific example."
"You're not right next to him all class, listening to him complain."
Tracey sighed and smiled. "Come on, let's go get some lunch" As she walked out of the classroom, Tracy turned back to to Harry, "And you better wear dress robes. Nice ones!"
*UHD*
The following day was awash in gossip about who was taking who to the dance. Nobody was paying any attention in class. By the time Dueling club came around, Moody took one look at the students and scowled. "You're in no state to dual today." But before the students decided if they were glad or not that club was canceled, Moddy continued, "Which is why you're going to practice defending yourselves from a real attacker. A real attacker won't wait for you to be ready. You have to be able to defend yourself no matter what state you are in." He stepped onto the dueling floor and drew his wand, "One at a time, starting with Zambini!"
The following 30 minutes were alternately exhilarating and terrifying (depending on whether you were watching or dueling). "Don't fight fair – come at me with everything you got!" Moody roared.
Nobody lasted longer than a minute, not even Viktor, and the duals only lasted that long because Moody went easy on them.
"Ok, you sorry lot, NOW you can bugger off. Same time next week, and you better be ready for actual dueling!"
As the head of the club, Harry stayed behind to put the chairs and desks back in the classroom when Daphne walked up to him, "You want to take a turn before we leave?"
"Sure, why not." Of all the club members, Harry wasn't surprised that Daphne had wanted to get an actual bout in. She liked dueling almost as much as he did.
Daphne was a careful dualist, usually taking a moment to exchange a few light jinxes to asses her opponent before deciding how to attack.
"Stupify! Experiamus! Bombarda!"
But not today. She threw herself into the bout with the most aggressive spells that she knew, her blond hair whipping about as she forced spell after spell out of her wand, pushing Harry on to the defensive. 'I guess she wanted to try some of what Moody was teaching us.' Harry smiled. That meant he could go all out as well. He transfigured the floor, causing Daphne to stagger and he followed up with a flashy fire spell that was intended as a distraction before casting a stunner. But Daphne simply rolled out of the way as soon as she saw the flame. 'Damn! Have I gotten predictable?' and she continued with a barrage of bombarda and reducto spells, pushing herself to to cast faster so that sweat matted her hair and she was gasping out the spells.
"Whoa, ease up!" Harry called out as he dodged the spells. Several smashed through protective wards on the classroom and out into the corridor outside, "We don't want to hurt passersby".
Daphne used his momentary distraction to hit him with an Expeliarimus, sending him sprawling to the floor and his wand flying to her hand. "That was pretty goo.." Harry began when Daphne returned his wand by mashing it into his chest.
"You better treat Tracy well, or I'm going to make you suffer!" She hissed before turning and running – running! - out the door.
Harry slowly got up off of the floor. 'What's gotten into her?' He wasn't certain what that had been about. 'I should talk to her and find out – I don't want her to get upset with me for no reason'. But Daphne avoided him in their classes, which wasn't difficult to do – they had never interacted much before, and Harry couldn't work up the courage to just walk up to her out of the blue.
'I'll talk to her in next Dueling club'. Harry always found it easier to talk to people there. The setting was informal, and since everybody took turns sparring with each other, they would be forced together by the vagueries the club.
Except she skipped the last two Dueling club meetings before the holidays. That would have been concerning to Harry, except that he had learned something horrifying – there would be dancing at the Yule Ball! And not just any dancing, but formal dancing with specific dances that you had to memorize!
The day before the Ball, Harry pulled Pucey over in the common room. "Do you think Tracey will want to dance?"
"Why are you asking me… Wait, you're going with Tracey? Why didn't you say something? I thought you were going to be hanging out with the losers." He nodded subtly towards Goyle and Crabbe, neither of whom had a date, but who were planning to go anyways.
"As if. I'd rather hide in the library. No, she asked me, sort of. Or she was going to ask and I asked first. Or something. It's complicated. The question is, will she expect me to dance? Because I don't know how to dance."
Pucey shrugged, "Well, it's too late to learn. You're screwed, Dursley"
Harry's shoulders slumped and he sagged onto a chair, "You think she's going to want to dance."
"Duh. All girls like dancing."
*UHD*
When the night of the Yule ball arrived, Harry waited in the Slytherin common room nervously, adjusting his dress robes. They were stiff and scratchy (though the stiff part was intentional). They did look nice, though he was too nervous to care.
He glanced at his watch. He wasn't late. So where was..
"Hey." Harry looked up to see Tracey.
"Oh. Wow. You look good!" Tracey had cut her shoulder length hair and permed it into a pixie-cut cloud around her head. And she wore an off-the shoulder dress, which was rather risque for wizarding society.
"You sound surprised."
"Um. No?" Actually, Harry was surprised – Tracey never struck him as the sort to worry about clothes. She never dressed ostentatiously, and never competed with Pansy and her clique over fashion. But Harry wasn't dumb – he knew the right answer.
Tracey relaxed, smiling for the first time in what seemed like weeks. "Come on – close your mouth before you catch a fly and lets get going. We don't want to be late."
They made their way into the Great Hall, which had been expanded and magically reconfigured. Harry spotted Hermione – she was already out on the dance floor, dancing with Viktor Krum.
"Ooh. Ron's going to be pissed," Harry nodded towards the couple.
"Why? He wanted to go with Krum too?" Tracey asked nonchalantly, causing Harry to choke on his laughter. "What, you had to be deaf or dead not to hear Ron fan-boying about the 'greatest Seeker of our generation'," She added air quotes.
"Huh. I never knew that you were evil," Harry smirked.
"Harry, I'm Slytherin. We're all evil." She paused, "And you better get with the program – you're falling behind," She gestured to the other Slytherin couples around them, with the boys doing their best to act like proper gentlemen, as they had been trained.
"Yes, Ma'am." Harry continued looking around, "You want me to get you some punch?"
"Sure. Unless you see the Weasley twins anywhere near the punch bowl. I don't trust them not to spike it with something."
Harry looked around, "They're sitting with their quidditch teammates" – he pointed to the other side of the room, where the redhead pair were flirting with the two Chaser girls.
"Oh, that's ok. Where do you want to sit?"
"You don't want to join Daphne?"
Tracey gave Harry a look like he was stupid, "She didn't come. Why don't we go sit with Pucey." The Slytherin boy had brought Hestia as his date, and he was floundering badly as the impassive girl wasn't responding to any of his conversational sallies.
"Ok, I'll meet you there once I get you some punch." Harry was pretty certain that Fred and George had already spiked it (or had somebody do it for them – they were tricky that way), but he was looking forwards to discovering what effect it would have on Tracey. Because she was right – Slytherins were evil, and he was a Slytherin.
*UHD*
"Why is the room spinning?" Tracy asked as Harry led her off of the dance floor some time later. Surprisingly, Harry had enjoyed dancing, despite not really knowing what to do – he had just followed what the other guys did. With his exceptional reflexes, he managed to keep up. The couple even stayed on the floor for a slow dance (which had mostly consisted of Tracy leaning on him, as she was already starting to feel unsteady).
"I expect the punch was spiked."
"Oh god! Am I drunk?" Tracey blanched, horrified.
"I doubt it. At least if it's the work of the Twins – Finate Incatatem!" He pronounced.
"Oh. That is better. Those ponces must have slipped a potion into the punch before it was even brought out!"
Harry shrugged. "They're good at what they do best. And what they do best is cause trouble. You want to go outside and get some fresh air to help clear your head?"
"Sure."
As they walked out, Harry casually put an arm around Tracey.
The area outside the great hall had had a warming charm cast on it, and there were other couples strolling around the courtyard. Or not strolling – they passed a fifth year couple locked at the lips as they pressed into the shadows. And they were not the only ones.
As her eyes locked onto the couples making out Tracey began to hyperventilate, "I need to go!" She pushed Harry's arm off and almost ran back inside.
When Harry followed, she was nowhere to be seen. Harry spent the next half hour wandering the crowd, trying to find his date before giving up and heading back to the dorms.
*UHD*
"So what happened, Davis?" Harry asked coldly as he sat down opposite Tracey at breakfast the following morning.
"Don't talk to me, Dursley." She continued eating her breakfast, refusing to look up and letting her hair (grown back to its usual length overnight) obscure her face.
Harry looked around in confusion. The Great Hall was back to its normal set up, and with all of the younger students already gone, it was almost empty. With a sigh, he picked up his plate and moved over to sit with Pucey. "I don't get girls"
"Who the fuck does!" Pucey growled out.
"It didn't go well?"
"I have no idea – she literally didn't talk to me all night!"
"Well, I guess that's a fail."
"But she was the one who asked ME out!"
Harry patted his friend on the back. "Tell me about it."
"You want to hear about…" Adrian looked up, surprised.
"No!" Harry quickly interrupted. "I meant that colloquially, meaning that I had the same sort of experience."
Pucey nodded. "Girls!"
Tracy didn't speak to Harry for the rest of the year.
*UHD*
Harry spent the winter break at Hogwarts again. To keep his mind off of the disaster that had been the Yule ball, he spent every morning on 'dueling practice' and then taking some time to fly in the afternoon (he had finished his homework the first day).
Except 'dueling practice' was mostly him practicing casting blasting hexes at the vaguely humanoid mannequins. He didn't do the exercises that Snape had taught them or even the less structured free-casting that Moody encouraged.
Instead, he blasted away with the same spells over & over until he couldn't do any more. He had just slumped to the floor, exhausted, when he realized there was somebody else in the room.
"Your technique could use some work," Snape scowled. He reparo-ed the targets and then proceeded to cast a blasting curse at the closest one before turning to Harry. "Don't swing your elbow when casting, and keep your wrist motions smaller." He pointed out several other minor errors Harry made in his posture, "This will let you flow from one curse to the next more easily."
Harry nodded morosely from where he was slumped on the floor.
"Get up, Dursley. I'm not talking because I like the sound of my voice." As Harry stood back up, Snape added "Would like me to transfigure the mannequin to resemble anybody in particular?
"No, sir that won't be necessary"
"Then get started, you lazy boy!" Harry stated casting the way Snape had mentioned. It was easier.
"Now do that for another hour. If you're going to vent your spleen, you might as well get some benefit out of it" Snape turned in a swirl of his robes and strode off.
'What an odd man.'
But it had felt oddly nice to have somebody put into words what he was feeling and simply accept it. Harry spent the last few days of break revising his homework and practicing properly
When the spring semester began, he felt refreshed and ready to face whatever the world would bring him.
*UHD*
The second Task was fast approaching, and the excitement in the school was building again. Annoyingly. And Harry was getting tired of hiding out in the library all the time.
This came as a shock to him.
He had gone to the library as soon as he had finished eating lunch, so as to avoid the unending circular discussions about what the next task would be. None of the students knew, yet they were all incessantly speculating!
Hermione and Terry were still with their housemates in the Great hall, eating. Harry picked up a book and glanced through the table of contents. 'Meh. It looks boring'. Maybe if he snuck into the restricted section… He glanced up towards where Madam Pince was seated behind her desk… 'Not worth it'.
Suddenly, an idea occurred to him – he would go down to the Chamber of Secrets. He could practice dueling drills or explore or maybe even do some flying stunts. And nobody would bother him. He had just grabbed his broom from his dorm and was heading back to the third floor when he almost walked into Ginny Weasley.
"And where are you going in such a hurry?" She asked, eyeing his broom.
"I was going to go explore the Chamber of Secrets. Want to come?"
"I… Uh…" Ginny froze. "You know what? Yeah, let's do that. I want to see the place where I almost died!"
Now it was Harry's turn to blanch, "Oh, no, I didn't… I'm sorry – I didn't mean to say that.."
"No, I'm serious," Ginny interrupted his meltdown, "Let's go!"
As they walked up to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Harry added, "can you keep a secret? Both about where the entrance is, and about how I get into it."
"Sure, no problem" Ginny smirked. All boys were embarrassed to be seen entering a girls bathroom.
But when Harry hissed at the sink and it lifted up into the ceiling, her smirk slid off her face. "You're a Parseltongue!"
"Yes. And everybody makes a stupid big deal about it every time they find out, so that's why I want you to keep it a secret."
Ginny smiled warmly, "Of course. You can rely on me."
"Ok, hop on!" Harry mounted his broom, and the pair of them flew down the slide into the chamber.
Harry led the way to the bronze doors and into the main chamber. It was empty – he had been halfway expecting the dead basilisk to still be there, but it was gone, as were all the discarded snake skins. 'Dumbledore must have cleaned the place up.'
"Where was I, when you came here two years ago?" Ginny asked in a small voice.
"I think it was here." Harry walked over to the spot. "And the shade of Voldemort was hovering over you there."
"Are you certain it was him?"
Harry shrugged. "So he – it – claimed."
"If there are more things like that diary around, I'm going to find them and burn them!"
"Technically, I didn't burn it – I stabbed it with a basalisk fang"
"Whatever, dork," Ginny smiled. "You said that it came out of that statues mouth? Do you think we can get inside?"
"Eww! It's going to be full of snake poo!"
"It wouldn't have pooped where slept. That would be dumb. Besides, I don't think it ate anything for the past 800 years."
"Fine. I'll Wingardium leviosa you up, and you see if you can get it open."
They spent the next hour trying to get the mouth open, with limited success – one time Harry managed to spell it part way open, enough so that he could peer in, but it then snapped shut again.
"Well, that was frustrating"
"I know. But I have class, so I gotta go."
Harry mounted his broom, and this time, without the distraction of the unknown, he was much more aware of the feminine form pressed into his back as Ginny climbed on behind him.
"I actually kind of had fun. We should do this again sometime:" Ginny admitted as they flew back up the slides.
"But don't tell anybody about it."
"Duh!"
*UHD*
The second Task came and went – it was extremely disappointing. The ministry had handed out omnoculars, but Harry hadn't been able to figure out how to get them to focus right, so all he saw was murky water as he watched the lake from the section of bleachers reserved for students. A few times he had managed to get them set right and had caught glimpses of the various champions, but then they would swim out of range and he would have to fiddle with the knobs again. Harry had been hoping to at least spend some time afterwards messing with the omnoculars so that he could learn how to use them, but they were transfigured and they had turned back into a cardboard box shortly after the Task was finished.
Harry was back in the library, leafing through a book on omnoculars with Terry. "Do you think we can transfigure something into a pair?"
"We would have to take it in several stages." Terry rubbed his chin pensively, "there ware a lot of parts."
"Why do you even want omnoculars?" Hermione asked as she joined the duo.
"Becasue omnoculars are cool!" Terry answered immediately, flipping the page so Hermione couldn't see what he had been reading - some models could see through clothing. But he wasn't going to say that in front of a girl.
"Boys," Hermone rolled her eyes, but she sat down next to Harry and turned the book so she could see it as well. Within moments she was lost in thought.
Harry poked her in the ribs, "I thought you didn't want omnoculars,"
"I don't. But I like the challenge. And keep your hands to yourself."
"Yeah, or she'll send her quidditch player boyfriend after you."
Hermione gave Terry an annoyed look, "Viktor and I are not dating. He just needed a date for the Yule Ball, and he was too shy to ask anybody. We're just friends."
"At least you're friends," sighed Harry.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Ever since the Ball, Tracy acts like I'm not there. Which honestly, is not much different from how she treated me before the Ball, but.." Harry let his sentence trail away.
"So why did you ask her out?"
"I.. ." Harry stopped, "You know, I don't want to think about this anymore. It's done."
Hermione patted Harry's arm, "That's very mature of you Harry."
"Yeah. I'm done with girls!"
"Or not," Terry snickered.
*UHD*
The rest of the school year passed uneventfully, the only other excitement happening during the third task. Monsieur Delacour – Fleur's father – was apparently a prominent member of the French ministry, and when he came to Hogwarts to watch his daughter compete, some whackjob attacked him, throwing paint all over his robes as he headed towards the quidditch pitch before flying off on a broom. Harry wasn't there when it happened but he was curious how a real Auror investigation would go, so he threw his invisibility cloak over himself and snuck in behind the police line. What he saw did not impress him greatly.
The cordoned off area was packed with British Aurors talking to French Aurors, everybody was trying to look impressive, which meant that they were all standing around not doing anything. Nobody seemed to have any clues or any idea on how to find them. From listening in on their conversation, Harry got the impression that none of them were particularly smart.
Except there was one young man quietly working in the background. Harry watched as he cast diagnostic charms on the paint and inspected footprints.
Finally he walked over to one of the French Aurors, "Senior Auror Guillaume, I think I have enough to cast a point me spell at the culprit."
"Good work, Unspeakable Carmichael "
Harry had heard of Unspeakables before, but he had never known what they did. It actually seemed quite interesting.
As Harry watched the champions race through the maze, he kept thinking about the Unspeakable. 'I'll have to ask Moody what the requirements are.' He wouldn't mind doing that sort of thing after he graduated from school. He put it out of his mind and watched the rest of the contest, which was the best of the three, not least because Cedric won handily.
Afterwards, Harry was not able to find Moody. He went to ask Snape. "Do you know where professor Mody is?"
"I will look into it."
At dinner that night, Dumbledore announced, "I have disheartening news - I have to announce that professor Moody has gone missing. In his place, Professor Snape will be administering the DADA final exams.
END
Ok, that was the easy part - this is the last of the prequel chapters. Next will be a time-skip 7 years forwards, to just after 'Chapter 0', and the start of the main story.
And that will take more time to create, especially since the votes are in and it looks like everybody wants a Harry /Daphne pairing, which will be incredibly HARD to write, since currently they are locked in a dysfunctional relationship, with neither realizing how messed up it is (and by extension, they are).
I am going to do the best I can to turn it around, but I'm not certain if I will succeed.
If it really sucks, I may instead ship Harry with somebody else.
