And here's the seventieth chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
Merry Christmas and Happy new year, everyone!
* Review Response:
Brockster550, Professor Slughorn - at least as far as I remember the books - has been described as someone who is actually quite good at teaching. And by giving a very hard potion for his students to brew without putting them under too much pressure, he can gauge how good they actually are.
Yaw6113, magitech, Tertius711, BMS, Maverick (guest), thank you for your reviews, folks!
Luiz4200, I think Dumbledore was able to freeze the portraits in his office. Not sure if that is because he was a Headmaster with all the powers over the castle and everything, including the portraits, in it that comes with that position, or because he knew the necessary spell to do that, one that a student can't get their hands on easily. I'm going with the latter for this story.
griffin blackwood, he's fourteen, he can be forgiven for being like that.
Guest, that was a quote lifted straight from the sixth book, so...
* AN: This chapter has not been beta-read.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
"parseltongue"
'thinking'
written text
spells
A Year Too Soon
Chapter LXX: September Flies By
When Professor Dumbledore announced the wizarding etiquette class during the Welcoming feast, he didn't actually say who would be teaching it. Which, naturally, led to the students trying to guess the identity of their new teacher. Often coming up with some ridiculous ideas just for the fun of it. Indeed, one of the younger Hufflepuffs insisted that their teacher will be an elder vampire who also happened to be a lord of some Magical county in central Europe. And wasn't even the wildest and the most out there guess someone made.
Finally, Monday afternoon arrived and once the normal classes were over for the day, the students, all seven years worth of them, headed to the Great Hall for their first lesson in wizarding etiquette. And while no one was surprised by the fact that the four House tables everyone usually sat at were gone, many had expected the Great Hall to be turned into a giant classroom with rows upon rows of desks. That wasn't the case. Instead, the space was occupied by numerous round, cloth-covered tables.
The Professors' table and Dumbledore's throne-like chair was also gone, replaced by a rather standard lectern with the biggest chalkboard Harry had ever seen set up behind it. On either side of the lectern there also were some seats for the Hogwarts staff who wanted to attend the lecture. At the moment, most were empty with Mrs. Mason, Madam Hooch and Professor Sinistra as their only occupants. That would probably change pretty soon, though.
"C'mon, Harry, stop daydreaming." Flora called, breaking him out of analyzing the changed Great Hall. "We should get ourselves a table while we still can."
"Right." Harry said with a small nod before hurrying after his girlfriends towards one of the yet-unoccupied tables on the 'Slytherin' side of the Great Hall.
A few minutes later, the three of them were joined at their table by Blaise, Tracey and the Greengrass sisters. And seeing how the class wouldn't start for a little while yet, the Clique soon started chatting among themselves quietly.
Meanwhile, more and more people kept arriving at the Great Hall, and by the time the etiquette class was about to begin, the only ones missing were an unlucky pair of second-year Gryffindors, who had a bad incident during their Charms earlier today; Madam Pomfrey, who was working on reversing the results of the aforementioned incident; Professors Slughorn and Snape, who were both busy brewing a much needed yet very tricky potions for the Hospital wing; Professor Trelawney, who had likely overindulged in sherry and was too drunk to remember about all this; and the Headmaster himself.
Then, as soon as the clock struck four in the afternoon, the doors of the Great Hall opened and Professor Dumbledore led an elderly witch inside. Immediately, the buzzing of conversations died and, following a silent command from Professor McGonagall, everyone stood up. And they remained standing while the Headmaster and the witch - those who had taken their OWLs recognized her as Madam Marchbanks - made their way to the lectern.
Dumbledore was the first one to take the word then.
"Good afternoon and welcome to our first class on wizarding etiquette held in preparation for the upcoming Triwizard Tournament." He said. "Now, allow me to introduce Madam Griselda Marchbanks, the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority under the Ministry for Magic and an esteemed member of Wizengamot, who has graciously agreed to share her knowledge and wisdom with us." Once the round of applause died down, he stepped aside, allowing Madam Marchbanks to take over the lectern.
"Please be seated, everyone." She said the first thing. When everyone sat down, she continued: "Thank you for your warm welcome. This will actually be my first time teaching in a long time, and I hope that you will find these lessons informative and easy to understand. Doubly so because they will surely come in handy in the not-so-distant future." There, she paused for a brief moment. "Now then, while this course is called Wizarding Etiquette, we will only briefly touch upon the norms of high society. Instead, our main focus will be the things you should and shouldn't do or say in order not to offend the guests from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang that Hogwarts will be receiving, as well as to present your school, and Magical Britain by extension, in the best possible light."
And so, for the next two hours, Madam Marchbanks talked about cultural differences between Great Britain, France and Northern Europe - the exact location of the Durmstang castle was one big secret - and the things one needed to be mindful of in order not to cause unintentional offense to the students and Professors of the other schools.
It was actually quite an interesting lecture and Harry was sure that everyone, even the Professors and other members of Hogwarts staff, had learned a thing or two from it. He certainly did.
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"Have you learned anything new, Wormtail?" Barty Crouch Jr. asked his …henchman when the latter returned to their current base of operation, securely hidden inside the Shrieking Shack. The rat animagus quickly nodded:
"Y-Yes. Apparently, when talking to Frenchies, you s-shouldn't… Ouch!" He began, only to be interrupted by a pain Curse from Crouch Jr.. Not anywhere near as bad as the Cruciatus, thankfully, but it was still a very unpleasant piece of Magic.
"I don't care about that load of dung the old fool in the castle tries to put into his students' heads." Barty hissed. "When do the Aurors arrive at the castle, Wormtail?" He asked, before grumbling something quite disdainful about Peter and his mental abilities under his breath. "How can I plan our Master's glorious return if I have no idea what His enemies are doing?"
"T-The students know n-nothing new about that, a-and I wouldn't dare enter the c-castle to spy on the staff with these up-upgraded wards." Peter replied.
"That's… unfortunate." Crouch replied through gritted teeth. After quite a lengthy pause, he spoke again: "Well, I guess we do have some time, but I really don't like this uncertainty. I need to know when the Aurors show up if I'm to plan the next step properly."
"O-of course." Peter echoed, not knowing what else to say here.
"Now go back and get me some actually useful news." Barty commanded. "And don't forget about that other task of yours. You would want that all ready before the winter falls."
"Y-yes, I'll d-do what I can." Wormtail replied, while inwardly cursing the other man: Crouch Jr. wasn't doing much more than sitting on his ass and 'planning' while he had to do all of the grunt work. And more often than not, in his animagus form too, which meant no wand and no Magic. Peter certainly didn't like this arrangement, but there wasn't much he could do about it as he wasn't powerful enough to challenge Crouch and win. He had actually contemplated running away a few times. That wouldn't even be that hard, given what his animagus form was, but he too wanted the Dark Lord to return, and, well… He actually had no idea how to accomplish that. Crouch did, though. So Peter had to toil under him. Hopefully, when their Master is back, all of his hard, back-breaking work will be rewarded appropriately.
~/ *** \~
It was towards the end of the second week of September when Harry finally received an owl from the Finewoods saying that they were nearly done with their work on the new Potter manor and only needed another week or so to finish it all up.
Unfortunately, breakfast was not a good time for him to speak to Professor Snape about this, so Harry had to wait until afternoon to inform his Head of the House about this development and again ask for permission to leave Hogwarts for a day:
"Ah, Mr. Potter. I take it, there have been some new developments with your …personal project?" The Potions Master and now also the DADA Professor asked as soon as Harry stepped into his office.
"Yes, Sir." The teen confirmed. "The works should be finished in a few days, thus I would like to request permission to leave the castle for a day on Saturday in two weeks." There was a brief pause, before Professor Snape spoke:
"I see…" He said. "As I told you before, I will ask the Headmaster, but whether he agrees to this or not is entirely up to him." After another short pause, he added: "And since we both know you will go regardless, please do not get caught sneaking out. Or in."
"Yes, Sir." Harry replied. "And thank you for your help." Professor Snape's only response was to wave his hand dismissively, silently telling his student to get out so that he could go back to grading homework assignments piling up on his table.
Giving the man a small bow, Harry quickly left his office and headed back to the Slytherin dormitories. He had a letter to write.
Two days later, during breakfast, Harry received a note from Professor Snape stating that the Headmaster had granted him permission to leave Hogwarts grounds for 'personal reasons' on the condition that it will not interfere with his prefect duties that day. And while the Potter scion did have to do a patrol on Saturday night, his business with the Finewoods shouldn't take that long.
"So… When are we having the housewarming party?" Tracey asked as soon as he announced that he's about to sign off the rebuilt Potter manor to his friends. The rest of the Clique were also there, of course, and they were just as curious about it. They just had enough restraint not to ask about it in such a direct manner.
"Next summer, probably. Maybe even later, depending on how things go." Harry replied. Seeing the girl pout at him, he added: "C'mon, do you really want to have that party in a house that is nothing but completely empty rooms?" Harry asked then. "And it's not even connected to the floo network yet. I plan to do that over the winter break."
"Yes. It does sound like it is a bit too early to have a housewarming party right now, even if the works on the building itself are finished." Daphne agreed. Tracey seemed to accept this, though she was still pouting.
"You wanted our input for choosing furniture, right?" Flora asked then. She received a nod in response. "When are we doing that?" While she and Hestia didn't see all that much furniture that appealed to their tastes in the magazine Harry had given them on the train, the idea of helping him furnish the Potter manor - which might just be their home as well in the future - did excite them quite a lot.
"If our schedules permit it, we can try to do some of it during the winter break after I have the manor connected to the floo network. But the bulk of it will have to take place in the summer." Their boyfriend replied. "And in any case, picking something that we all agree to - for every room in the house - will not be a quick affair."
"I see…" Flora said. "Still, I'm looking forward to this shopping spree."
"And so do I. We both do, Harry." Hestia added.
Nearly two weeks of waiting for the day he could leave Hogwarts and go sign off his newly-built manor quickly became a rather torturous experience for the young Potter as his impatience kept getting the better of him.
Eventually, though, the Saturday in question arrived and, shortly after breakfast, Harry departed from the castle using one of its guest floos. His destination was the 'Leaky Cauldron' where he will meet with the Finewoods and go over the transfer acceptance certificate for the Potter manor. He had already seen the draft of that document, of course, and it was quite massive. Not a big surprise though, given the scale of work the two builders have done for him.
Despite his attempt to arrive at the 'Leaky Cauldron' early, by the time Harry stepped out of the fireplace there, the builders were already there waiting for him. Not for long, thankfully. And once the greetings were exchanged, the three of them went to work, this time on the final version of the acceptance certificate.
Its text was identical to the drafts, just written on a fancy - and likely enchanted - parchment and with an equally-fancy Magic-imbued ink. After making sure that everything was in order and all copies of the document were identical and without any last-minute alterations, Harry used the portkey to bring the three of them to the Potter estate grounds: it was the time for him to inspect the newly-finished manor.
And it looked pretty great. Big and affluent, but without being in-your-face pompous or stilted like some of the manors Harry had seen were.
It would look even better when the signs of recent construction works on it fade away.
Taking a few more moments to admire his future home from the outside, Harry hurried after the builder duo as they were about to give him a tour of the manor. Not that there really was much to see in there yet as most of the rooms were bare and empty at the moment.
And the few that weren't only contained fireplaces. Which, while tastefully-ornate, were nothing more than simple hearths of stone and metal right now. Connecting them to the floo network and securing them with appropriate wards was something that Harry will have to do at a later date.
Following that, Harry was shown the finished gallery leading to the pond as well as the gazebo in the gardens. Both of those structures looked really nice. As did the pond. Its waters have finally settled down after it was expanded and were now invitingly crystal-clear. One could only imagine how nice it would be to take a swim in it on a hot summer day.
This left the young Potter with one last place to inspect: the basement and the ward-stone room hidden within it. There, Harry had confirmed that none of the goods within the storerooms had been damaged during the manor's construction and that the primary wards protecting the estate had not been altered.
Once Harry had seen everything and found it all to his satisfaction, the three men left the manor and used another portkey to return to the 'Leaky Cauldron' in Diagon Alley.
And despite all of the build-up, the actual signing of the acceptance certificate wasn't anything more complicated than, well, putting one's signature on a piece of enchanted parchment. In duplicate. After all, both parties needed their own copy in case of a conflict over the closing of the deal arising in the future.
Then they shook hands and went their own ways. Which, in Harry's case, meant returning to Hogwarts. But not before having a late lunch here at the pub.
"So, how did it go?" Was the question he was practically greeted with when he finally made it back to the castle and the Slytherin common room. It was understandable that his friends wanted to know about his 'adventures' today, even if they themselves knew that nothing truly exciting had actually happened.
So, Harry treated them to a 'thrilling' tale of him signing the, admittedly very important, documents. Sure he also told them about his inspection of the completed manor for any possible construction defects as well, but…
Either way, today he had reached an important milestone in getting his own place to call home. And while there definitely was a lot of work ahead of him yet, congratulations were still in order - which his friends were quick to give with kind words and promises to help him throw the best housewarming party ever when the time comes.
The twins felt like doing more than just that, though. And they even had a perfect idea of what to do:
"What do you say about celebrating this occasion some more later, Harry? In private, just the three of us." Flora leaned into him and whispered suggestively, blushing lightly as she did that. Harry glanced at just as flustered Hestia who quickly nodded in response to his unasked question: yes, she was in this as well, wholeheartedly.
"Ah… Sure." This did catch Harry up by surprise a little, but who was he to refuse his girlfriends?
That's all, folks!
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