It had been less than a day since the dueling club and Harry already noticed the change in behaviors coming from the girls in the castle. This time though the whispers surrounding him and the short furtive glances weren't attributed to their nervousness about interacting with a new wizard. Harry realized that they were afraid of him.
Throughout the day unless it was required none of the girls wanted to be near him.
That was quite disheartening to see the change, especially because it was about something he didn't understand.
At dinner time though as he was pushing around some of his food, a hand tapped him on the shoulder. "I'm just reminding you of your detention tonight Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall said to him so that he did not forget before the fall term ended.
"Of course, thank you professor," Harry responded and thought at least that later tonight he'd be able to ask Professor Lockhart about what happened.
And that night as he approached the defense classroom Harry opened the door without knocking and stopped dead in his tracks because facing him was Professor Lockhart, except blocking the sight of the man's front was a student sitting on his desk. "Oh Professor," the girl breathily moaned.
Harry sucked in a breath for what he just walked in on, he hoped to take a few steps back and close the door to knock this time, when Gilderoy grunted and opened his eyes to see a student standing in the doorway looking quite trapped. "AHH Harry," Gilderoy shouted, this declaration enough to alert the girl he was with that someone had walked in.
Taking a moment to look up at the ceiling, he heard some shuffling of clothes and then the sound of shoes on the stone. Trying to pretend that the desks were supremely interesting but still he noticed the face of the girl leaving in a hurry and he was pretty sure that she was just a fourth year Slytherin. The door quickly shut behind Harry as she exited the room and Gilderoy was in the middle of trying to straighten out his clothes and casting a few charms on the area around his desk.
Clearing his throat Gilderoy was trying to act as if nothing had happened, "Was there um… was there something that you needed me for my boy?" Gilderoy asked with a very fake smile plastered on his face.
"The detention you gave me sir," Harry asked while cringing because it was apparent that Professor Lockhart had forgotten about it, which would explain why he was preoccupied. Although Harry wasn't sure how to explain that he had caught the professor with a student, had he walked in on the wizard with one of his other professors then that would have been different.
Gilderoy blinked in confusion a couple of times before remembering that he had indeed given out a detention to Harry Potter, the first time he gave one to a wizard in the castle. "Quite right," Gilderoy said as he went over to grab a chair and pull it up to his desk. "Umm you can um… help me…"
His eyes were roving around his desk. "Answer my fan mail, yes," quickly pulling out a couple of large stacks from a drawer.
Deciding that just getting through this would be for the best, Harry nodded and came over to sit down grabbing one off the stack and quickly writing a thank you response using details in the letter such as the name of the witch who sent it and what she had sent it for.
For the next couple of hours the only sound in the room was the scratching of quills before Gilderoy hummed. "Erm Harry," the man said, breaking the silence. "I do hope you know not to um speak of what you witnessed earlier. I'm sure you understand the predicament."
"Is it because you're a professor and she's a student?" Harry asked because that seemed like the obvious problem.
Gilderoy took a moment before he nodded. "Yes, that's precisely the problem if you say anything. Now wizard to wizard, could you do me that favor." He really didn't need it getting back to the headmaster that he was using the castle as his own little playground.
"I guess," Harry said because he wasn't even really sure what he would say on this topic. "Um but I do have a couple of questions."
"Oh well you see Harry, when a wizard such as yourself, finds a girl attractive then you may wish to," Gilderoy paused before offering a smile. "The witches in the castle are very receptive to the needs that we have and I'm sure in a couple years you'll be taking full advantage of that, what with your fame and all."
"N-no, that wasn't what I had been meaning to ask you about," Harry said quickly to cut off the man so he didn't go more into detail than that, because it sounded like Professor Lockhart used his fame to get witches in the castle to do… sexual things with him. And he expected Harry to do that as well, and that just sounded wrong to him.
He would have to think long and hard about that because it sounded like that these girls would let Harry do what he wanted just because he was a famous wizard, or even that he was just a wizard and what would that make him.
"I was meaning to ask you about the dueling club," Harry corrected the man. "See I was telling the snake to please calm down so that it wouldn't attack that girl even though it was really angry. But then Professor Snape still got rid of it. Why'd she ignore what I was saying?"
Gilderoy blinked curiously before he moved away the letter he was writing on and leaned forward. "My boy, have you ever talked to snakes before?"
Harry reached up and scratched his cheek. "Well there was this one time, I was at the zoo with my relatives and I was just looking at this python through the glass and I wasn't really talking too the snake, just sort of at it. Then I noticed it seemed like it was listening to me and understanding what I was saying."
"I had a bit of accidental magic and made the glass vanish and the snake got out, and it thanked me," Harry shrugged. "I didn't know that snakes could talk."
"So you are unaware that you're a parselmouth?" Gilderoy questioned because that was one of the rarest magical abilities, a highly valuable skill to the right profession and not unexpected that a wizard like The-Boy-Who-Lived had something like that, he couldn't just be an ordinary wizard after all.
"Is that someone who can talk to snakes?" Harry asked even if he was fairly confident that is what it meant.
"Indeed," Gilderoy nodded his head and then because of the motion he was able to see the clock on the far wall. "Oh dear look at the time, it's far past curfew now."
The man pulled out a notepad and autographed it. "In case you get stopped on your way back to the dorms," Gilderoy said as he started to move Harry towards the door.
Once outside the classroom Harry felt that at least he knew a little bit more now and started to make his way back through the castle. He turned a corner and came upon the sixth year Hufflepuff prefect. "Oi," the witch called out. "You're out after curfew."
"Sorry, I just got out of detention," Harry quickly answered as he presented the note to the witch. "You can ask Professor Lockhart if you need proof."
"You just left Lockhart alone?" the young girl paused.
Harry nodded his head in response.
"Well go on then," the girl said as she brushed past the younger wizard.
Raising an eyebrow because he was sure that the girl was rushing towards Professor Lockhart's classroom and he came to the conclusion that Professor Lockhart was becoming involved with a number of witches in the castle.
Sighing because he still hadn't had a chance to think about that complex topic Harry moved his way through the halls before turning a corner and coming to a dead stop.
Laying still on the middle of the floor was a witch, a witch he recognized as Justine, the girl that the snake had almost bitten in the dueling club yesterday. But along with that, Harry saw Nearly-Headless Nick floating still in the air. Slowly approaching with his wand out he came up to the girl and found her petrified just as Colleen had been.
Hearing footsteps approaching Harry whirled on the suspected attacker when he found that he was pointing his wand at Professor McGonagall and another prefect, a pretty blonde witch from Ravenclaw.
"Mister Potter?" Minerva said in shock at having a wand aimed at her as she took in the scene. "What have you done?"
"I- I," Harry stammered before Minerva roughly grabbed his arm and started to pull him along behind her.
As she dragged him through the castle, a small head poked out of a corridor looking in his direction. "Harry?" Luna questioned as she moved into the hallway, shivering as she stood barefooted on the cold stone.
Harry had never been to the headmaster's office before. Most students hadn't, it was frankly something of a legend about what lay inside. Some students believed that it was full of all the ancient magical artifacts from the time of the Founders, others thought it was a treasure trove of candy, while another figured that the man surely had a luxurious hot tub where he entertained many famous witches.
Of course none of them compared to what Harry found.
It was quaint, containing a small personal library, a couple of chairs, a desk that had some parchment laid out with a small dish of yellow candy drops, a few portraits of sleeping old men and a perch for a bird. Far from lavish as the rumors suggested it would be.
"Wait here," Minerva said as she left Harry alone in the room to quickly return to the scene of the crime and bring Justine Finch-Fletchly to the hospital wing.
Taking the moments of solitude Harry walked around the office and up to the perch which did have a bird mounted on it. It was a sickly red thing that Harry was curious about before with a weak cry it exploded into flames. Stumbling back Harry quickly drew his want to put out the fire but it was too late, the bird had turned into ash before his very eyes.
"Ah I see you have met Fawkes," a calm voice said to him from above.
Gulping Harry looked up as the headmaster came down a spiral set of stairs, likely from his sleeping quarters in the back of the room. "I'm sorry sir, it just went phwoosh and I didn't have time to put it out," Harry stammered because he didn't wish for the headmaster to think he just murdered his owl, especially not after what he just found in the hallways.
"Oh it's quite alright," Albus smiled and came over to stick his fingers in the ashes, sifting through it before he found what he was looking for, a small barely hatched chick, that he gave a light chuckle to as he pulled it out and gently brushed it off. "Fawkes is not a normal bird as you can plainly tell."
"What is he?" Harry asked as he watched the headmaster carry the chick to another place before pulling out a few red berries and placing them in front of the bird.
"A phoenix, one of nature's truly immortal creatures," Albus said. "He had been molting for quite some time now to prepare for his burning."
Leaving the bird alone to peck at the fruit, Albus sat down at his desk. "Now what brings you to my office at this hour?"
"I- well, I was leaving Professor Lockhart's detention sir and I came across, what I mean is, I found a student, and a ghost," Harry stammered before taking a moment to collect himself. The headmaster seemed like a patient man and would allow him to calm down enough to answer. "I'm sorry."
"I had just finished my detention which had run later than expected and on my way back to the dorms I stumbled upon Justine and Nearly-Headless Nick, she was petrified, just as Colleen was and Nick was… dead."
Albus snickered at the statement. "Well young Harry it may come as a surprise to you but Nicholas has been deceased for quite some time now."
"No I mean," Harry blurted out before hanging his head as he caught on that the headmaster had just told a joke to try and keep the conversation light. "It was like he was dead, a second time. I couldn't explain it more than that."
Stroking his beard in deep thought, Albus leaned back in his chair. "I see what you mean, that is distressing."
There were not many spells that could affect a ghost, banish yes but, to put one in a catatonic state was unheard of. That was very advanced magic, too advanced even. Something like that would leave behind echoes or residue of its use, there was something else in play that he was unaware of, but it would seem that Harry Potter had a knack for finding these incidents, and he could use that.
"That's quite alright my young boy, I will see to it that she is taken care of, now if there is nothing else?" Albus looked down his nose at the boy.
Harry moved to rise before he paused and sat back down. "Actually yes sir, there is."
Steepling his fingers, Albus was curious about what other problems Harry Potter had. "This isn't really a student-teacher kind of question and more a wizard to wizard question."
Nodding his head to let the lad know to continue Harry sighed. "Have you ever… when you were young," Harry pursed his lips because he didn't want to come off as offensive for asking this. "Did you ever make a witch do things…"
Raising an eyebrow because he was now intrigued at the point Harry was working his way towards. Had Harry done something he regretted with Nymphadora? "Just, gone to a witch and asked or even told her that you wanted her to do something to you and… that she did them? I…"
Harry had to stop to take a breath because this was somehow more difficult to talk about than finding a petrified student. "I'm worried because, another wizard told me that I could. That I could go up to a witch and tell her that I wanted things from her, things that she might not want to give to me and that she'd still do it because I was a wizard and she was a witch."
Albus had not expected this. He knew that social dynamics between the witches and wizards that attended his school were quite fluid, much different than in his own time. And he would be lying if he said that no wizard ever took advantage of their position in society to sample the goods as one might crudely say. This was a rare occasion for the headmaster to speak of such a delicate topic with one who was also much younger than one would expect to be talking of such things.
"And why would that be cause for concern?" Albus asked, wanting to know Harry's feelings on the subject.
"Because… because what if she didn't want to do that but she worried that if she said no then things might change for her and she was more afraid of the change than what she might have to do and…" Harry closed his eyes because he was picturing Tonks in his head, he was giving her an order, one he knew she wouldn't want to follow but she did anyway. Because she was afraid that if she didn't do what he said that he'd get rid of her, that her life would be ruined if she didn't listen to every petty little command he gave. And that she'd be hurting but unable to ever tell him for fear of retaliation and then his mind jumped to the story she told him on the roof, about her aunt. And maybe that's what happened, her aunt Narcissa had disobeyed the wizard who wanted her to do things she didn't want to and that's why she died.
Albus watched as his student started to hyperventilate, it was clear to the headmaster that this was a very sensitive issue for the boy, especially if the rumblings of objects in his office was anything to go off of. Not wanting to see just how much damage could be done, the headmaster flicked his wand out and cast a calming charm over the boy. It wasn't entirely professional to do so, but sometimes a student was far too worked up to answer questions and needed some help in collecting themselves. "Mr. Potter, I can see that this is a difficult topic for you. But I will do my best to alleviate your concerns."
"Commanding a witch to do 'things'," Albus emphasized as he stared up at the ceiling. "Is not something that I have ever had to deal with. But I suspect that it comes down to the type of wizard that you are."
Harry was listening to the older man's every word even if he didn't know why the headmaster never had to deal with witches and things.
"I like to believe that your reaction to this question alone is telling. You worry about your relationship with Nymphadora and what it entails, that shows you care about her and what you say and do with her. That tells me you are a thoughtful person and so long as you continue to think about the wellness of others you are unlikely to become the type of person you seem to be worried about at the moment."
"So I just have to be a good person and that's it?" Harry questioned because it sounded easy but it seemed so difficult as well.
"It's not enough to be a good person," Albus smiled at the young boy who so very much resembled another from his past. "It takes doing good acts for the betterment of others to be a good person."
Harry slowly nodded because that made some sense, if he wasn't doing kind things for Tonks then how would he know when he was doing bad things. "You've given me a lot to think about sir."
"Anytime my boy, although it is getting very late and you should be in bed," Albus stood and walked Harry to the send him off to the dorms.
Once it was shut Albus walked over to his desk and sat down. "Was that all a trick? Like Tom used to do. Project innocence and garner sympathy to distract from his nefarious deeds."
At this junction, two students had been attacked, both with connections to Mister Potter in ways that one may call it retaliation. And he did not know if Mister Potter had been probing him for information, if mentioning Nicholas was a means of finding out how much he himself knew of the crimes being committed. "It is far more dangerous in Hogwarts this year Fawkes," Albus lamented as he stroked the phoenix on its head as it trilled happily.