Chapter Number: 17
Chapter Name: Winking at Potter
Harry woke up to find himself inside the horse-less carriage. He was a bit surprised to see that he was sleeping on Hermione's lap with her hand in his hair. ' Hagrid must have put me in here' thought Harry. He tried to move his head slightly so he wouldn't wake up Hermione. But he need not have had worried about it since Hermione was actually awake. " You're awake!" said Hermione.
" Sorry..." Harry looked apologetic, " I woke you.."
" Don't worry. I wasn't asleep.." she started to fumble in her pocket for something. After about a seconds she found what she was looking for. They were sweets that Hermione had saved for Harry. Harry was ravished and welcomed anything edible... even if it was an every flavored bean. Though the first one tasted like 'rust' Harry ate it anyway. He noticed that Ron was on the other side of the carriage and was sleeping.
" How long have we been in the carriage?" he asked curious to find out how much longer to his home... the castle. " Hagrid just put you in here. You really were tired weren't you?"
" Yeah. The journey from Morocco... well it was long."
" Are you still tired?" she asked, very concerned.
" No. I'm fine now... Thanks for saving these for me." Harry noticed that Hermione was crying silently and his heart stopped.
" What happened, love? Did Malfoy comeback after I went to sleep... 'cause I'll kill tha-" Harry was interrupted by Hermione when she grabbed on to his mid section and started to whimper. Harry hesitantly place his hand on her head and started to caress it. He managed to pick up the reason why he was so upset through all her sobbing. "... its okay, love. I'm not dead and I'm not going anywhere."
" You don't know what it was like, " she sobbed, " I thought you were dead. I...I wanted to go and look for you but I couldn't. People wouldn't let me. By the time I woke up... they found that body and everyone thought..." she didn't finish the sentence before she broke down again.
" Hermione listen to me." He forcibly lifted up face from his chest and made her look into his eyes. " The reason Voldemort wants me dead is because he knows I'm supposed to defeat him. That means I will. Have faith." Hermione took comfort in his words and clamed herself down. She let go of his mid section and compose herself on the seat. Harry wasn't as confident about what he had just said, as he might have had appeared to Hermione. He severely doubted every word, but he didn't want Hermione to be overly concerned about him. And if he kept her at peace with a few false words, he would be willing to do that.
" I will." Said Hermione solemnly.
They talked a little bit more for about two minutes before Ron finally woke up. " Hey Ron... How is going?"
" Fine." Answered Ron with a sharp edge in the voice. It was quite obvious to Ron and Harry though, Hermione didn't see the harsher connotations to his voice. Hermione passed him some of the sweets that she had kept for Harry.
"Thanks" said Ron when he took them. Though Ron was still jealous and angry with Harry for getting affection from Hermione, he completely forgot about it when Harry asked about Ron's holidays. " Hey Ron. I didn't get to ask you what happened at he burrow in the summer. How's everyone and how come I didn't see Fred and George?"
" Well... It's like this. Ludo Bagman gave back the thousand Galleons that he owed them and they wanted to set-up shop in Hogsmede. Mom wouldn't let them unless they get top grades so the entire summer they have been studying."
" So that's why I didn't see them..." said Harry but Ron quickly interrupted his friend.
" You won't believe how hard they have been studying. Mom's now scared that they'll get good marks and set-up shop, when they could just as easily take up good positions in the ministry. Did you hear about Percy..." Harry nodded a no. " You know Percy got a promotion right?...No...Ok. Percy was under suspicion because he didn't recognize that his boss was under the imperious curse so they gave him a demotion and made him an assistant to the Moroccan Ambassador." Harry was pretty sure that Ron had paused for drama.
" The Ambassador was so pleased with Percy's work he tripled Percy's salary and since then puts all the money into the family finances. Look all my books and clothes" Harry for the first time noticed that Ron was wearing very good quality clothes. "Everything brand new. Including..."
Harry didn't want to hear Ron go on and on about his new things so he interrupted by asking about rest of the family. " What about Bill and Charlie?"
" Charlie's only been to our house three or four times in the holidays, but Bill was a different case altogether. He's been there almost every other day. He stops by talks to dad about things before he leaves after dinner. Dad won't tell us what he's discussing with him. But I think it had something to do with You-Know-Who being back. There is something..." and Ron for the next fifteen minutes gave very detailed account of what all the Weasley's been up to.
Though they were amongst the very first few people to arrive Harry and Co. decided they didn't want Harry to be mauled by people so they stayed in their carriage for a long time until the other students had already filed in.
" Well. If we're any late we'll miss the whole thing." said Harry looking back and forth between his two best friends.
" Yeah! All the food...." Ron started to say but stopped himself when he saw Hermione glaring at him. " er -I mean I can't wait till we start studying again." Ron ended the sentence in a sarcastic note, but Hermione mistook that for a genuine comment.
" Oh. Ron! First Harry starts studying and Now you! Oh! I don't think this year can't get any better." said Hermione beaming. Ron knew the comment he had made was sarcastic but when he heard the praise he quickly forgot that Harry even existed. Hermione said something next that wiped his happiness away and replaced it with childish envy. "... Oh! No it can" she clapped her hands like a six year old child at a circus. " This Sunday I have a date with Victor. Victor is coming all the way from Bulgaria... just to see me. Can you believe it?"
Ron showed remarkable self-restraint when he didn't blow his top off at the name of Victor Krum, the famous Quidditch player and current boyfriend of Hermione Granger. Harry was surprised at how calm Ron was at Victor's name but he didn't say anything as he suspected Ron of liking Hermione as more than a friend. Harry jumped into the conversation, just to make sure Hermione's ongoing description of how good Victor was didn't make Ron loose his cool. " Let go inside."
The whole room was buzzing like crazy as people tried to catch up on their holidays. Surprisingly enough people had forgotten about Harry's big entrance at the train station. But it all changed the moment he emerged from the shadow of the main entrance's archway.
The room went very silent and Harry half expected that the whole hall would come and try to talk to him. But much to his relief no one came. Then suddenly the whole hall burst into conversation again but this time the sole conversation topic was "Harry". He could pick up bits of talking as he headed for the Gryffindor table. " ...can you see those scars...his arm... look at those muscles... when did he get so big...he apparated... with a magical creature... he must be a very strong wizard... his children would be very strong too.." the last stray comment made Harry's cheeks flush a bit.
Majority of the girls including those that were two years older were staring at his half naked body. His shredded cloak only covered his shoulder and a bit more. The three long scar marks on his flat stomach were only evidence of the battle with the Nundu that Harry had and it was visible to all. Harry's body wasn't rippling with muscles but it wasn't skin and bones either. Strict diet at the Dursley's coupled with three years of Quidditch and a lot of hard work over the summer at the Granger's had ensured his body was good enough to be envied by most of the male student population of Hogwarts. The fact that almost all the girls were openly ogling at him like he was the perfect male specimen only added to that.
Ogling was one thing that Harry could tolerate considering that he was just beginning to get used to the staring, well, much more than he was able to in his fourth year. But nothing in those years prepared him for prepared him for what was to come next.
After the girls had seen enough... well if they wanted to see anymore they would need to get him to a more private place, they started to wink at him. Harry took a step back when he realized that there were at least fifty witches winking at him. Most of the girls were third year and up while there were quite a few seventh years in that group.
But that wasn't what surprised and horrified Harry. No it was the idea of being winked at by Professor Nina Hawthorn who taught gnome psychology and some other subject's that Harry didn't know about that made him feel almost nauseous.
Harry though for a moment thought that Alicia Spinet the head girl (he'd seen the shiny badge) was looking at him, though unlike most of the girls when she saw Harry had seen her, she blushed and returned talking to George. As much of a surprise as it was to catch her looking at him he was literally stumped to see that some of the better looking Slytherin girls, as well as a few steely faced ones were winking at him too. Some of the girl's weren't just winking too - some of their eyes were suggestive enough to make Harry's throat go dry.
Harry reasoned that the new development could have two reasons. One, the girls were under order to seduce Harry and then kill him... or something even more terrifying... Not everyone in Slytherin was like Draco. As much as Harry wanted to believe that all the Slytherins were bad his mind kept telling him that Snape had been a good friend of his mother for a long time - when her own house was against her.
Harry took a quick seat between Hermione and a very excited Parvati. If Harry had thought that he was going to escape the staring of the girls just by sitting down at the table he was mistaken. They kept their eyes firmly focused on Harry until Professor McGonagall brought in the new first years amongst loud applause by all the houses.
[Insert stupid sorting hat song here]
"Abenine, Nikki" said Professor McGonagall when the song was finished with an explosion of clapping. All in all, there as a total of twenty six new Gryffindors, twenty new Ravenclaws, seventeen Hufflepuffs and only ten new Slytherins. Harry couldn't help but think that the shortage in the number of Slytherins was related to Voldemort coming back from the dead and their plan to invade the school pretty soon.
After the sorting the headmaster stood up and said, " Welcome students and staff to another glorious year at Hogwarts. This is for those of you who are new and a reminder for those who have been here before. Voldemort is back. The Dark lord is back. " Few of the first years looked terrified while others from muggle houses were clueless. " Tell your friends and families that. You may want to leave the school in fear that it will the first place he attacks, well you would be right. But I believe that would be a mistake. Hogwarts stood its ground when the dark wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders himself, attacked the school."
' That's right... He tried for a week to gain access, finally giving up and kidnapping a muggle child in an attempt to bring Gryffindor out of his fortress and face him.' thought Harry as he remembered the information from "Hogwarts: A history".
Harry chanced a glance at Cho Chang. Cho looked sad at Professor Dumbledore's words. Harry could see the hatred in her for Voldemort rise up. Harry quickly looked away. Harry had a crush on Cho since his first year, but when her boyfriend died partly because of him. Harry gave up all aspiration of getting involved with her. He would only remind her of the terrible tragedy that she suffered and he couldn't bear to see her in pain, or anyone else for that matter.
" The forbidden forest is still forbidden as the name implies and homework is still mandatory. In light of this new situation all students from year second year up are required to take part in Dueling classes at least once a week. Now we have two new teachers amongst us. Firstly I would like you to welcome Professor Ali Pasha from the Ministry of Morocco. He will be teaching Dueling." The hall was filled with reserved claps. They were expecting someone who looked like Gildroy Lockheart a phony teacher. When Ali Pasha came to view of the students most of them took a shine to him. His face was welcoming and understanding. The level of applause doubled by the time he sat down.
" I would also like you to welcome Percy Weasley, Professor Ali Pasha's liaison officer to the British Ministry of Magic." They saw Percy come to the podium and stand next to Ali Pasha. "...As some of you might remember he was the head boy in his time and it's always nice to see an old student return." There was a polite amount of claps for Percy though Gryffindor made a huge deal out it and started to do cat calls and whistle.
" It seems the next part of the speech has become part of the opening day speech and it looks like it'll be no different next year. We have a new Defence against Dark Arts teacher." Professor Dumbledore then said, " You may remember her from last year. She was one of the contestants for the TriWizard Tournament competition. Though she does not have as much experience with the field as some of our other teachers before, I believe she is a great replacement. She has only agreed to teach for a year, before she starts her new job as the head of Marine creatures and Regulations department for the Ministry of Magic."
Harry was surprised when Ron asked, " Harry, do you know who it is?" It was a stupid question and Harry knew it, but he also knew why Ron asked that question. He was hungry. Before Harry could say anything there was a lot of applause as the part-Veela woman made her way to the teacher's table from the anteroom. Unlike Ron the rest of the male population in Hogwarts remembered Fleur Delacour was the only female competitor in the tournament.
Harry was surprised that Ron didn't get whiplash from how quickly he turned his face back to the teachers table. " Let me introduce Professor Fleur Delacour" Ron and half the male population of Hogwarts were totally mesmerized as she took to the teachers table and sat down next to Professor Snape.
" Ron... I think you better turn the other way. I don't think there is enough holes in this room to drain the amount of saliva coming out of your mouth." said Harry teasing Ron who paid absolutely no attention to his friend.
' If he doesn't stop looking at Fluer, he can kiss any chance he has with Hermione goodbye.' thought Harry when he saw Hermione's face contorted with anger or was it fury. So Harry was glad when he heard the headmaster say, "Lets eat".
Ron's love for food was almost as much as his lust towards Fleur. Ron struggled with his lust for the part Veela woman and food that he enjoyed more than anything in the world. It was a bit funny to see Ron take a bite, look at Fleur and then go back to eating when he saw Hermione grimacing at him, only to repeat it after half a minute.
Half way through the dinner Harry spat out what he was eating when he felt a hand on his shoulder, showering Ginny and Colin who were sitting next to each other on the other side of the table with half eaten, half chewed and not chewed at all bits of food. It didn't look as though either of them actually minded the shower of food. It turned out to be Professor McGonagall. She leaned closer to Harry's ear and said, " The Headmaster wishes to speak with you when you are done putting the first years back in their dorm rooms. The password to the office is 'tooth cavity'."
Harry gave a solemn nod, and went back to eating.
Alicia kept eyeing Harry all throughout the feast. He caught her several times looking at him with an expression that he had associated more with Ron's sister, Ginny. So it was a relief when Professor McGonagall finally signaled the prefects to take their charges to their new habitats. Alicia Spinet and Hermione took the first year girls and headed towards the Gryffindor common room, following closely behind them was Harry and the first year boys. The boys didn't make a pip as they headed for their destination. Halfway to their destination Harry started to walk slower before coming to a full stop.
He turned around to see that the boys had stopped as well. He walked back and forth once, like a sergeant inspecting his troops before a drill. He spoke. " By the looks on your faces, I can see all of you belong to Gryffindor. I'm going to give you a few words of advice that'll help you though the year."
" Number one, in potions Professor Snape is your teacher. He has a very old grudge against the Gryffindors, so expect him to pick on you. He'll be hard on you. That's probably an understatement like Volde… I mean You-Know-Who is bad." Several of the boys shivered at the name but a few, Harry assumed muggleborn, didn't react all. " You have two days till your classes actually start and I suggest you spend the time wisely going over the potions book lightly. It might not be much fun, but it would mean less points being taken off the house."
" Second piece of advice. Watch out for Slytherins. Not everyone from that house is bad but most are." Harry emphasized the word most. He didn't want to prejudice their minds the other way so early, but he thought they could do with a bit of information.
" Third. If you see some one getting picked on, for any reason, stand up and say something. Even if it's a Slytherin getting picked on. Help him. You're Gryffindors and that's what this house does."
" I reserved the last advice for you because it's the most important. 'NEVER EVER EAT, DRINK OR LISTEN TO WHAT THE TWINS SAY'. They'll play tricks on you at any chance they get...OK! Now that I have finished my big brotherly speech...any question?"
A timid looking boy put his hand up and asked, " Are you Harry Potter?"
" Yes" the timid looking boy's eyes went as big as saucers. Harry thought, for a moment he had another Collin type situation on his hands but was happy when the boy turned his attention to a portrait on the wall.
" Can we see your scar?" asked another boy who reminded Harry of Draco. Harry could see from the smug expression on his face, he didn't believe that the famous Harry Potter would be wearing such bad clothing. It really wasn't possible to see Harry's scar anymore since in the time he had spent in Morocco his hair had grown covering up the scar unless he moved his hair out of the way.
" No you may not." The reply was swift and cold. " I do not like being stared at for something I did when I was one year old. How would you like it if everyone started to stare at you because you used to take a dump in your nappy when you were one year old."
All the first years laughed at his joke. The boy's smug expression was wiped and was replaced with a blushed face and an embarrassed grin. " OK lets go".
Once they were at the portrait he explained how the door worked. He also explained that the password is changed every two weeks. He explained that keeping the password written form had allowed once a dangerous criminal to enter it. Just before he came to the stairs that led to the boys dorms he pointed at the girls dorm door and said, " I haven't had the pleasure of going in there, yet - That's the way it's supposed to be. If you get caught in there you'll get expelled immediately. That's if you're lucky to escape the girls trying to kill you. Now follow me single file and I'll let you choose your own beds."
As soon as the boys found their way onto the room, a small scuffle broke out as the boys had some trouble deciding who got which bed. It was terribly fun for Harry to see the timid looking boy jump at the Draco clone. He broke the fight by giving the bed to a boy with an Afro.
When it was all finished, he went into the common room to see that all the other levels had finally finished with their feast and were now enjoying a little chitchat. Harry surrounded himself in an illusion spell to disguise himself as the timid looking boy. Harry knew he could only keep the spell going for a few seconds so he ran through the incoming crowd and went into one of secret passageways that finished very close to where the gargoyle to the headmaster's office was.
" Oof" cried Harry when he bumped into something in the passageway. Actually this something was a person and if Harry was right it was a girl. " What's the meaning of this? Get off me you jerk" said the girl.
Harry recognised the voice, ' It was Ginny!' thought Harry before he said, " Lumos", as he got off her. In the dim light of his wand Harry found Ginny, flat on the ground. He picked her up by bending his arm into a hook and sliding it behind her back. He brought the tip if the wand closer to her face to examine it more closely and he saw the mortified look on her face. Harry realized why when he saw that she wasn't alone in there some one was behind her. It was... Collin Creevy!
" Harry! Oh! Blimey!... er... I can explain" said Ginny. Even in the dim light Harry could see her face turn red enough to almost blend in with the darkened passageway. A color that her own brother acquired when he realized that Hermione's bra was on his face.
" You don't have to explain anything... I know nothing. I saw nothing. " said Harry, as quickly went back to going towards his destination.
Right after the conversation Harry started to move. It was a fair few minutes before he was out of the passageway. Once there Harry started to laugh and cry at the same time. Ginny and Collin couple was a very funny one, but thinking about how obsessive their children could be with himself, he was genuinely concerned. Their children are bound to be even more obsessed with him then either of their parents. When he finally composed himself he walked up to the gargoyle and uttered, "tooth cavity". The gargoyle came to life and jumped out of the doorway. Harry went up the spiral steps and waited until he heard the distinctive voice of the professor calling him. " Come in Harry."
Harry looked around the room and was surprised to see that nothing had changed. Harry knew not what the topic of conversation was about so he started towards the seat that the Professor had motioned toward. In midway the Professor came up to him and rather uncharacteristically hugged Harry. " Thank you. Thank you for saving Melina's life."
" You know her?" asked Harry.
" My Niece, to be exact."
" How is she doing now? I mean I haven't seen her for years now. How's Shano doing?"
" They're all fine. I wanted to make sure I got all the facts of the event of the last few days straight." With that the Professor started to tell what he thinks happened and Harry corrected as he went along. After their talk was finished he told Harry that he had brought the trunk and his books and other things from Morocco and he also told Harry to hide his chest well until when it was time. They both knew the meaning of the words, but to anyone who wasn't in on the secret it would have had appeared to be cryptic.
When Harry was back in the common room, everyone had gone to sleep. He tried going to sleep in his bed but after about an hour struggling to sleep in the soft... too soft... bed he gave up and decided to sleep on the long couch that he knew had hard seats. Sleep came very soon to him. Harry wanted to try to do astral projection but even getting out of his body proved to be a challenge. So he decided that the next time he wasn't so tired he was going to try and get back to using his powers. There was just too many centuries of residual magic in the air, and to get past that he would need to do a lot more training, testing and bit of luck - and the results would definitely be better, if he wasn't so tired.
Hermione hadn't seen Harry come in and was terribly disappointed that he hadn't said a good night to her. She didn't wait up for him though. She wanted to get an early start the next day. There was a lot of reading to be done, and she wanted to see what new books were in the library. In the middle of the night, she however woke up. After several attempts to go back to sleep, she decided to go to the common room and read through her new favorite book.
" Quidditch throughout the ages".
To be exact it was Harry's " Quidditch throughout the ages" book. She had memorized the book in the days after she had thought Harry was dead. Reading it cover to cover, it had given her the feeling that Harry was still there with her. She hadn't returned the book to Harry yet.
When she emerged from the doorway she could see, Harry snuggled up near the fire on the long couch. She went and sat down in front of the fire, leaning her back to the front of the couch. Hermione didn't make it to the fifth page before the sleeping fairy paid her a visit.
<<~~~>>
END OF CHAPTER
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Some Historical things:
Originally at one point in this chapter, I had a author note. It went like this >> " (A/N: Sorry to burst the bubble for all you Ginny/Neville or Ginny/Draco .... ewe ...well it's better than Draco/Hermione.... fans out there but making Draco good would require me to change the law of universe... I really don't have to explain my self to you...er... sorry I'll stop yelling now. ** Author makes a sly comment under his breath **)"
Compare that to the fact that I've now become a D/G fan, and you get an idea on how people change in the fandom over time.