| Jarvey
Join Date: May 2008 Location: Leicester, UK
Posts: 567
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Krysta Hedwig
Sixth Year | 
Ok, so the current poll results suggest I should keep posting, which is great coz I love this fic and I want to share it with you all. It has been suggested that I shorten the posts, which I shall try to take on board. Phew, it's gonna take forever to post the entire thing!
Anyway here's the next chapter.
xx
Chapter 12: The Friendly Ones (Part One)
Harry was a little worried about change. But apart from more people saying hello to him in the corridors, and less people avoiding him, things were pretty much back to whatever you could call normal in the life of Harry Potter.
Of course by normal, we’re talking people missing, mysterious creatures hanging around, and a load of strange dreams.
Snape never did turn up. When they got to their first Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson they found Professor Dumbledore waiting for them. Too shocked to ask a load of questions they happily sat down and waited for their headmaster to speak.
“Good afternoon…I regret to inform you that Professor Snape is unable to take your class today…” he paused for the sighs of relief and high-fives to diminish “…And instead I shall take it today. However, for next lesson some other arrangements shall have to be made, as I have other matters to attend to.” Harry was surprised. Snape wasn’t just gone for the day, then. Where had he gone? Did it have something to do with the panther or the kestrel? He looked at his friends. Hermione was chewing her hair thoughtfully unaware of what Harry had seen that morning. Ron on the other hand did know, and kept looking sideways at Harry, obviously thinking the same thing he was. Harry felt extreme relief, but also apprehension and curiosity had sunk in too. He couldn’t help thinking that only something extremely serious could pry Snape away from teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts, and the suspicious look on Hermione’s face suggested the same thought had occurred to her.
As it happened, the lesson was incredibly boring. Defence Against the Dark Arts in the past had always been riveting, full of weird creatures and spectacular demonstrations. Not today. They were told to open their books and make their own notes on the rise and fall of Farretta Gragia, a powerful witch who had released an army of dark creatures on the earth in the middle ages. Hermione buried herself in her books whilst Ron and Harry played with Harry’s new Auto-Quill. They were having a lot of fun putting it under Lavender and Parvati’s desk and waiting for the results, when they noticed a figure standing above them.
“Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter how are your notes going?”
Dumbledore stood next to their desk with a bemused expression on his face as he peered down at them over his glasses.
“Er…fine, fine thank you Professor.” Stuttered Ron whilst Harry was trying desperately not to laugh. Behind them, he could hear Dean and Seamus sniggering softly.
“Oh, good. Oh, it seems you’ve dropped some of them.” The headmaster stooped to pick up a piece of parchment whilst Parvati budged Lavender and stared down at him as he retrieved the quill from under her chair. The two gossiping girls watched in confused suspicion as Professor Dumbledore skimmed the writing. Ron stared in horror as the headmaster’s eyebrows raised and fell, and bemused smiles appeared and disappeared from his face. Harry couldn’t watch, he covered his face with his hands and ignored the “serves you right” expression Hermione was throwing their way.
“An interesting interpretation of Gragia’s lifetime. Though I don’t see what “Seamus’ cute little button nose” has to do with the subject.” He commented a wicked glint in his eye. Harry swallowed hard and Ron’s face was fixed in a horrified expression, as though the wind had changed and it was fixed like that. For a few second Lavender and Parvati just stared in disbelief and embarrassment at the two scoundrels who had eavesdropped on their conversation, and then the anger swelled in them.
“Harry Potter, you nasty, vicious little worm!” screamed Parvati, absolutely livid with him. He cowered from her shouts and stared down at the desk in shame. Hermione looked completely disgusted with the both of them and offered no assistance, instead returning to her book.
“What did we ever do to you? That was really low, Ron. That’s invading…invading someone’s privacy. You’re no better than that horrible, sneaky reporter from last year.” Sneered Lavender sounding extremely hurt, as well as angry and Ron gulped so hard, Harry could actually hear it. Harry felt sick, and the two girls looked it. His stomach sank into his knees and his head felt swollen with shame. He couldn’t look at anyone, not even Ron, and continued to stare at the desk.
“I’m sure you two are aware that Auto-Quills are forbidden in the classroom. Wherever did you get it?” asked the headmaster looking very disappointed at Harry. They both nodded, not able to look at their headmaster.
“My Godfather gave it to me for my birthday, sir.” He said looking imploringly at Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore’s face softened a little and a slight smile crossed his lips.
“Ah. I should have guessed.” He began “However, is this the best use for it you can think of, Harry?” Harry felt worse than he had for a long time. He hated disappointing Dumbledore, and he felt sicklier by the second. “In light of past events, Mr. Potter, I find it strange that you have shown such a contrasting character to that which Miss Chang so graciously described this morning.” Harry’s heart sank and he closed his eyes, unable to look at anybody in the room though he could feel Lavender and Parvati’s eyes burning into him. “I think Miss Patil and Miss Brown deserve an apology, boys.” Harry swallowed again, before hoarsely and painfully getting some words out.
“I’m sorry…I really am.” It had no effect at all. They both glared at Ron instead.
“Sorry.” Mumbled Ron miserably. The girls scowled and turned to face the front of the room in disgust.
“I’d like to see both of you in my office after class. In the mean time, I’ll take care of this.” Said Dumbledore, taking the quill with a flicker of a smile, which made Harry feel mildly better. Dumbledore never stayed mad at people, especially Harry, but he still felt rotten all the same. What he had done was indeed very low, and he felt very much as Parvati had described him: like a worm.
Hermione wasn’t talking to them, and although Seamus and Dean gave them a slightly bemused grin after class, none of the other girls in the year were talking to them either. Lavender and Parvati were the hub of the gossip community in the 5th year after all and within 5 minutes of leaving the classroom, it felt like everyone knew. The male half of the year found the incident rather funny and even patted them on the back with a laugh, but the girls weren’t at all amused.
Avoiding as many girls as possible they made their way quickly to Dumbledore’s office. The statue opened by itself and they looked at each other apprehensively, Ron looking a little nervous. They climbed the staircase together and when they reached the door at the top, found it open.
“Take a seat, boys.” Came the familiar and somehow reassuring voice, and Harry had the feeling of dejá vu. They sat in the comfy chairs they had sat in before, and waited. They didn’t wait long. “Twice in here already, and in less than a week. This is a record isn’t it, boys?” asked Dumbledore smiling over his specs. Harry and Ron fidgeted uncomfortably.
“Why did you eavesdrop on your fellow students? I am most curious. Got a crush, have you?” he asked mischievously. This broke their miserable mood immediately.
“Certainly not!” cried Ron, then realised he was shouting at the headmaster. Professor Dumbledore chuckled to himself.
“No, I suspect not. I think both your attentions lie else where, am I right?” He said casually, as Ron and Harry exchanged confused and surprised looks. ‘How could Dumbledore know anything about that?’ - Was the question on Ron’s face. ‘Coz he’s Dumbledore.’ Harry’s shrug replied without words.
“Well, sir, Harry has this new auto-quill and we were just testing it.” Ron suddenly blurted out hurriedly.
“We’ve never tried it before, Professor. We were just curious. We knew we weren’t supposed to use it in class…” Harry began a bit ashamed “…but we didn’t use it to cheat on work or anything.” He protested mildly. Dumbledore looked serious for a moment.
“But you did use it to spy on your friends.” He said. They both felt bad already and looked at the floor. Professor Dumbledore opened a drawer in his desk and took out the Auto-Quill. He laid it on top of a plain piece of parchment and nudged it with his forefinger. To Harry’s delight and amazement the quill sprung to life as though it had been touched by a wand. Ron had a huge smile on his face and they both grinned at each other.
“That is so cool.” Said Ron, still smiling.
“Thank you, Mr. Weasley.” Said Dumbledore with a grin, and they all laughed as their conversation was jotted down on the parchment. Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a while.
“Harry, I know you well enough now. You’ve inherited your father’s sense of humour that is clear. He was quite a rascal at school…” He chuckled to himself and Harry grinned at Ron “…but like you he would never have done anything to deliberately hurt anyone. It’s quite typical that Sirius would give you this, he should have known you’d be up to no good with it…but then he was always just as bad as your father, if not worse.” He said jovially but meaningfully. Harry shifted uncomfortably as he remembered what Sirius had done to Snape one night when the moon had been full.
“I will not confiscate this, Harry.” Dumbledore told him, motioning to the still scribbling quill. Dumbledore seemed to become mildly irritated with it and tapped it with his finger it again. It dropped flat onto the desk and lay still. “I understand that it was a gift from Sirius and that it probably means a lot to you. I won’t deduct any points from Gryffindor either, you’ve already put them in the negative after your antics last weekend, and I suspect you’re unpopular enough as it is right now. However, what you did this afternoon cannot go unpunished. Therefore, two weeks detention.” Harry and Ron stared open mouthed in horror.
“Two weeks!” exclaimed Harry.
“Spying on fellow students is a serious matter, Harry, even if you didn’t have malicious intentions. Two weeks detention…besides, I think Hagrid could do with some help. I trust you can both swim?”
Ron had barely spoken a word inside Professor Dumbledore’s office, but now he was raving like a lunatic.
“Two weeks! Two bloody weeks! Just for that! I told you that bloke’s flipped!” Harry remained relatively quiet. He had two reasons; one, that he secretly believed they deserved it for what they had done, and two, he was just glad to have the quill back safe and sound. “And what’s he on about: can we swim? I mean, what on earth could we be doing that involves swimming? Knowing Hagrid it’s probably cleaning the giant squid’s tentacles or something equally fatal.”
This went on all the way back to the common room, and only here did Ron quieten down. They didn’t know how they had managed it, or whether it had been especially planned, but as they stepped through the portrait door, the two boys realised that the common room was almost entirely occupied by girls. The both stopped dead, then moving very carefully around the evil stares, fiery eyes and clenched fisted girls like they were navigating through a minefield they made their way to the stairwell and raced up to their dorm as quickly as they possibly could, slamming the door behind them as though shutting out a powerful and vengeful enemy. The voice from the other side of the room made them jump out of their skins.
“If I were a fox, you two’d be dead.” Said Dean, grinning at the two frightened rabbits by the door. He was stretched out on his four-poster, arms folded behind his head. Seamus was putting up a new poster of a blonde girl on the wall near his bed. Harry recognised her as a Muggle actress from a brand new TV show about vampires. He couldn’t remember her name, but he’d been paying less and less attention to muggle activities like television these days.
“You reckon Sarah would think I had a cute little button nose too?” Seamus asked gazing dreamily at the poster. Dean burst into laughter and even Ron and Harry managed a snigger.
“In your dreams, buddy.” Said Dean, still chuckling. Seamus adopted a mock shocked expression.
“Have you been reading my diary again, Dean?” at this comment, all four of them burst into loud guffaws as Harry and Ron dropped down onto their respective beds. Seamus’ mention of a diary reminded Harry of his own, the one that Ginny had given him for his birthday and he began rummaging in his trunk for it.
“Er, Seamus, me and Harry are y’know, sorry about earlier.” Began Ron, much to Harry’s surprise. Ron wasn’t the best apologiser at the best of time. Seamus waved the comment aside.
“Ah don’t worry about it, mate. Probably did me a favour. Me ‘n’ Lavender have kinda been on-and-off since the Yule Ball last year. She was just a bit embarrassed, it’ll blow over.” Seamus droned in his breezy Irish accent.
“Yeah, well right now ‘bout every girl in the school want our heads on a pole.” Said Harry, leafing through the blank pages of the beautifully made diary. It really was quite exquisite. The leather, apparently dragon hide, was smooth and warm, even in the cool breeze from the open window. It was bound by magic, so that only Harry could open it with an Alohomora spell, which would not work for anyone else. The pages could only be written on, or read by Harry himself, which Harry considered a very thoughtful idea on Ginny’s behalf. She had told him that her father had cast the enchantments, but Ron had since then told him that Mr. Weasley had only told Ginny how to do the spells and that she had actually cast them herself. This was something else that he had failed to notice in the world around him. Besides growing into a young woman without him even noticing, Ginny had also proven to be a talented witch. In her second and third years she had passed in the top 5 students in the year.
“Well I wouldn’t worry about that. You know women. They change their minds with each change of clothing. It’ll be forgotten by tomorrow, you’ll see.” Dean assured them.
They all turned as the door opened and Neville appeared in the door, with an armful of books and a folder. He just made it to the bed before dropping them all.
“Hi, Neville, what you been up to?” asked Seamus, nosey as usual.
“Trying to do that stupid rune thing for our divination homework. But it just doesn’t make sense to me. Those stupid little symbols don’t even represent words or letters, it’s too confusing.”
“Tell me about it.” Said Dean pulling out a folder from under his bed. “Apparently this squiggle is entitled: Constraint, and has over six different meanings. I mean how are you supposed to translate an entire sentence of this sh…rubbish if you can’t even decide what particular meaning the symbol represents.”
“Exactly.” Wailed Neville flopping on his bed next to the disarray of books and pieces of scruffy parchment.
“How far did you get?” asked Harry, grinning at the shattered state of Neville.
“Finished.” He mumbled, his face buried in the sheets.”
“Finished!” they all chorused out of sync.
“Yeah, Hermione and Sharon were down there. Helped me out a bit. Hermione’s in a really bad mood y’know. Didn’t stop moaning about what a load of rubbish it is.” Harry and Ron exchanged a knowing glance.
“Sounds about right. Did she, er, happen to mention us at all?” asked Ron, cautiously. Neville snorted into his bedclothes.
“I think when they were talking about the ‘nasty spying little roaches’ might have been something to do with you.” He said, whilst Dean and Seamus sniggered. Ron gulped and looked a little hurt whilst Harry rolled his eyes.
“Sharon’s alright, really.” Said Neville, changing the subject. Harry nodded. “You’ve known her for years then?” Neville continued, whilst Ron lay on his back yawning, and scratching his freckly nose.
“Yeah, since muggle school. She’s only eleven, but she’s so smart, and really nice. Very bubbly.” He said smiling and Neville nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I noticed. She explains things really well. She told me not to think of runes as words or letters in a sentence, but as pictures telling a story. Like a tapestry.” Harry mulled this over in his head, and he could see that it made sense. “She said if each rune represented a part of life, and the different symbols kind of weave a story.”
“That makes way more sense than the drone of crap…rubbish Professor Trelawney came out with.” Commented Dean and even Ron nodded in agreement. Neville laid his notes out on the end of his bed while Dean and Seamus ooh’d and aah’d over them. Harry began to switch off from their conversation and drifted: far away into the now strangely familiar hazy green fog.
He was in the forest. Darkness surrounded him, a thousand eyes glinting in the shadows. At his feet, an enormous snake slithered through the tall undergrowth and thick foliage. Around him, Unicorns ran away in fear, wildlife scattering in all directions. The eyes watched.
“Harry!”
He snapped from the trance in shock to find Ron shaking him violently.
“Wha…what?” he burbled.
“You passed out. We thought you were asleep but when the dinner bell went you didn’t wake…and that never happens.” Jibed a grinning Seamus. Harry grinned then clutched his head. It thudded against his temples, then as quickly as it appeared, the pain disappeared.
“You ok?” asked Ron looking mildly concerned. Harry nodded as he got up from the bed and they ran all the way to the great hall.
The five boys slid into seats in a cluster, 3 on one side and 2 the other side of the table. Hermione and Ginny were sitting together with some of Ginny’s friends including Reena. Not one of the girls looked in their direction. He was used to Hermione being in a bad mood about something or other, but Ginny ignoring him upset Harry. What must she think of him? He didn’t feel so good again.
The school was alive this evening. There seemed to be an added buzz in the chatter and the voices sounded more excited than usual. A few key words sprang to Harry’s ears: Quidditch, practise, trials.
“Oh dung!” he said a little too loudly causing a few sniggers and giggles (even from the girls). He grinned sheepishly at them all and they went back to their chatter.
“What’s up?” asked Ron who was also grinning.
“Quidditch trials! They’re next Saturday! I forgot!”
“What?!” cried Ron and the sniggers and giggles stared up again. Ignoring them Ron continued, glaring at Harry. “How could you forget?”
“I…I dunno, so much has happened.”
“What’s the problem Harry? In case you’d forgotten, you’re already on the team.” Quipped Fred and Lee, George and Angelina chuckled.
“Yeah, best seeker in the school.” Added Alicia and the others all nodded.
“Here, here!” agreed Angelina, until she got evil looks from the other girls at the school. “Er…I mean…you nasty little sneak, Harry Potter!” she said with fake enthusiasm, causing the rest of the team, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville to laugh. Harry grinned sheepishly.
“I’m sorry, Ron. We still got a week.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, we have two weeks of detention. When am I supposed to practise?” wailed Ron.
“Serves you right, you horrible little rat.” Hissed Lavender, who then returned to her little group of toffee-nosed young witches. Ron and Harry, although having nothing against Lavender and Parvati, their friends were not exactly their kind of people. There’s a group like this in every school. All girls, and all with a chip on their shoulder. They spend all their time decided who’s cool and who isn’t, and seem to live to disapprove of something. Harry and Ron ignored them and rolled their eyes.
“Ron, are you trying out this year?” they were both surprised to hear Ginny’s voice. They both turned to look at her although she avoided eye contact with Harry. She’s definitely annoyed with me. He thought to himself. He couldn’t blame her though. This really wasn’t what Harry needed right now. She was already being cold towards him for some unknown reason, and now he’d just made things worse.
“Er, yeah.” Ron said cautiously as Hermione gave Ginny disgusted looks for daring to talk to them. Ginny ignored them.
“What position?” she asked again. She seemed awfully interested, Harry thought. Ron shrugged.
“Not sure yet, chaser or keeper. Probably keeper though, coz I got more experience in that.” That was true, thought Harry. In the games at home, Ron always took the keeper position, and of what he’d seen, Harry thought he was pretty good. Not Oliver Wood good, but good all the same. Ginny nodded and seemed to relax and return to her conversation with Hermione. Harry was suspicious.
“Why?” he asked sharply. Ginny looked around again, a little shocked. She paused before answering.
“Just taking an interest.” She said defensively. Harry was just about to ask another question when George butted in.
“Hey did you all hear that Oliver’s trying out for the England team. He’s got a good chance apparently.” This got an excited buzz going around the table, and Harry couldn’t miss the thankful look Ginny threw her big brother, as George winked back to her.
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