Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 23 - A Day of Firsts
"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley" Dumbledore said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar…"
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.
"Er - but maybe this is not the time…no…" said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament…" He went on to explain what it was and how the death tolls caused it to be discontinued, but now the other schools had agreed to try again. Then he caused an uproar as he said, "…the Heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This…"
Shouts of, "This is rubbish," and many other similar sentiments could be heard for about a minute until something small flew into the Great Hall. It appeared to be a small, gray, feathery tennis ball. It flew straight toward Gryffindor table, toward where Harry was sitting with his friends, while everyone, even Dumbledore, watched with interest. As it flew closer, Harry could see that it was an owl, and it had a note tied to its leg.
It landed in front of Ginny Weasley, who hesitantly untied the note, saying, "I wonder who sent me this? It is a cute little owl though." As soon as she removed the note, the bird hooted enthusiastically, and flew what appeared to be a victory lap around the table, causing several chuckles, while Ginny read her note. Her expression turned from confusion to happiness as she put the note in her pocket.
"Who was it from? What did it say?" asked the ever inquisitive Hermione.
"It's from my parents," said Ginny. "They decided that they'd get me my own owl as a reward for how good I did in classes last year. This is it. Mum said he looked so eager she couldn't resist buying him." She then stuck out her hand and the tiny owl landed on her. "Hello, little owl. I'm you're new owner," she said as she stroked his feathers. "My name is Ginny. What should I call you?" she said as she looked into its eyes. "I know - Pigwidgeon! That's what your name is," she said, nodding her head at her owl.
"Pig-widgeon?" asked Harry, trying to stifle a laugh.
"Yes," said Ginny defiantly. "Pigwidgeon is a good name!"
"I agree," said Hermione, as Dumbledore finally continued with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Now that Miss Weasley has received her mail," causing her face to turn red as a few people, especially Slytherins, chuckled, "I believe it is time for bed. I know how important is for all of you to be well rested for tomorrow's lessons. Goodnight."
-
Harry then turned to Hermione and kissed her cheek, "I want to talk to Dumbledore. You can go to the common room."
"If it's all the same to you, love, I'm going with you. This is about Mrs. Figg, isn't it?"
Harry nodded his head as they both walked toward the staff table. "Mrs. Figg," Harry called out in the friendliest voice he could. "How are you?"
"Er, Harry, I, I'm fine," she said, "and before you ask, Professor Dumbledore had me move to Privet Drive when he left you with the Dursleys. I told him how they treated you, but he said leaving you there was for the best, and he forbad me from telling you about the magical world or your part in it. I'm sorry about how miserable you were when I babysat you, but I knew that if you'd enjoyed yourself, they wouldn't let you come back. I'm glad you finally got away from those horrible people, Harry. I hope we can be friends now."
"Sure, Professor. It's not your fault. By the way, this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger."
"Hello dear," said Professor Figg, shaking Hermione's hand nervously.
"It's good to meet you, Professor," said Hermione amiably.
"If you'll excuse me, though, there's someone else I want to see."
With that, he strode over to Professor Dumbledore, who was attempting a hasty retreat. "Professor Dumbledore," said Harry in a friendly tone, "Could we speak with you in your office immediately?"
The aged man put his head down as he sighed, "Very well. I suppose we might as well get this over with. Come with me."
-
Within a few minutes, the three of them were in Dumbledore's office. Fawkes' perch was noticeably empty. Harry immediately began, "Why did you place Mrs. Figg to spy on me if you didn't care what she had to say?"
"I didn't disregard it, Harry; I just felt it was…"
"For the best," interrupted Hermione, surprising both the headmaster and Harry. "You say that a lot, as though you alone are the great and wise one who always knows what's for the best for everybody! You make wonderful people like Harry suffer their entire lives because of a decision you made! You hear reports of how the Dursleys treated Harry, but you know it's for the best because otherwise you're decision would be wrong, and that's impossible!" she said sarcastically.
Fortunately for Dumbledore, he was saved from further abuse by Fawkes flying in and singing the soothing song that phoenixes are known for. Fawkes landed on Harry's shoulder, and while Harry petted the phoenix, he said calmly, "Well, professor? What do you have to say for yourself?"
Dumbledore shut his eyes for a moment, and then answered. "I guess I have to say what I've been saying a lot this past year. I'm sorry Harry. That's all I can say. I can't take back actions or decisions from the past any more than you can."
"Fine," said Harry, while the phoenix was still singing, "I guess you can't change the past."
-
That night in Gryffindor tower, Hermione was sitting on a couch reading something from her laptop, while Harry was sitting next to her using his Game Boy, practicing Mario Kart, when Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas walked up to them.
Seamus said, "Hi guys. What are those?"
"I know what those are," said Dean grinning, "but how are they working? I thought muggle electronic devices don't work here."
Harry paused his game, smiled ear to ear, and said, "Hermione and I found a way to make them work. We've each got a laptop with a magical battery that never runs out and a fast working connection to the Internet."
"If I had my folks send my Game Boy here," said Dean, "Can you make it work like yours?"
At that moment, the Weasley twins, who'd been listening in on the conversation, walked up. Fred put his hand on Dean's shoulder and said, "Yes they can, my boy, but you'll have to go through us. We're business partners."
George said, "How many Galleons is it worth to you?"
Dean looked from the twins to Harry, who nodded silently along with Hermione. Dean finally said, "Er, ten Galleons?"
"Thirty," said Fred.
"That's too much!" said Dean. "The most I'll pay is fifteen."
"Are you sure? The process gives you a magical battery that will never run out. We'll even throw in making it impervious for free," said George.
"That way when you drop it off the Astronomy tower while you're snogging," said Fred.
"Or you drop it in the lake," said George.
"It won't get damaged," said Fred.
Dean took a deep breath, "Ok, but it had better work like you said! I'll owl my folks tomorrow."
"Deal!" said George.
After Dean had walked off, Fred whispered, "I guess we now have a price for making a Game Boy work. Do you think it should be the same for everything?"
Hermione finally looked up from her laptop with a smile on her face. "For most things. Make it twenty-one Galleons for digital watches and thirty-nine Galleons for TVs, DVD Players, and computers. That's to get them power. For communication, it'll be nine Galleons for things like the Game Boys and TVs. Computers and cell phones will be eighteen Galleons. If you're not sure of something, ask me."
"I couldn't help but notice that every price you've named is easily divided by three," said Fred.
"I figured it would make easier math," said Hermione with a smirk, and then continued her studying. After virtually every muggle-raised Gryffindor had spoken to the twins about having something charmed for them (after Dean, Harry and Hermione simply referred people to their partners) while the other students simply watched with fascination the common room eventually cleared out. Harry and Hermione put their stuff away and started talking.
"Don't worry, Mine," said Harry in between kisses, "The muggle devices are new to people right now. There'll be a lot of people wanting them, and you'll make some money, but then the rush will be over."
She smiled, "I know Hero. Anyway, I don't think people will be directly bothering us about it anyway. I think now everybody in Gryffindor knows to talk to the twins."
"So what do you think, Mine? Should we bring our laptops to class tomorrow, or our books?"
"Well, er, I was thinking that tomorrow we should bring both, and just use the laptops. If one of the teachers has a problem with them, then we'll have the books with us," said Hermione.
"Well, I know that Moony and Padfoot won't have a problem, so we can leave those books in our dorms."
"Then it's settled?" asked Hermione. Harry nodded, and then she leaned her face to be about an inch from his and asked, "Whatever shall we do now?"
-
The next morning, Harry and Hermione woke up an hour before everyone else so they could exercise. Sirius was to meet them in his office and show them a place they could work out. They met him and said their, "Good morning's," sleepily. Sirius then told them to follow him.
After leading them to a certain seventh floor corridor, Sirius said, "You need to walk past this place three times thinking, `I need a place to exercise,' over and over again. If you do it right, a door will appear and you'll find a perfect exercise room."
Harry and Hermione did as they were told, and to their astonishment, a door did appear. Hermione asked, "What is this place?" as she looked around at the exercise equipment.
"Dumbledore calls it, `the room of requirement.' It will fulfill the requirements of everyone who uses it. When I told him about your training, he suggested using this room. Just don't abuse it and do something I wouldn't do with it."
Harry smirked. "And what exactly wouldn't you do with it?"
Sirius' ears turned slightly pink. He barked, "Just don't disobey school rules in here, ok," and walked off. "Enjoy your workout. Meet us back here after dinner." (The plan was to do the physical exercises in the morning before breakfast, and then to practice with Remus and Sirius after dinner.)
At breakfast, when they got their schedules, for the first time in his life Harry was glad to see they had Potions first period with the Slytherins. He glanced at Hermione to see that she was pleased as well. They had History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs as their second class of the day. A few minutes later, when the mail was coming, Hermione was surprised to receive a package from her parents carried by a Hogwarts owl. She opened up the attached note and read it out loud for Harry,
"Dear Hermione,
We shipped this overnight to the Hogwarts mailing address, and hope you got it on your first day. It's a cell phone. We hope that you can charm them to work magically like you've been able to charm everything else, including Harry." Hermione blushed at this point, but continued. "If you can charm it to work, call us tonight. If not, send the phone back by owl.
Sincerely hoping we can hear your voice soon,
Love from
Mum & Dad
P.S. Tell Harry, Professor Black, and Professor Lupin we said hi!"
"That's great!" said Harry. "I know you mentioned cell phones last night."
"Yes," said Hermione. "I researched how to charm them last night. I don't know why I didn't ask for one myself. I think that every muggle-raised student will end up getting one of these. They don't need to pay for minutes or anything. I've just got to charm them so they don't go off during lessons."
"I'd say it's better to just make sure the customers know to turn them off during lessons," said Harry.
"You should get one for yourself, Harry," she said enthusiastically.
"You're with me all the time, and the only other people with phones I might call are your folks, and I think you'd let me borrow your phone for that."
"If you say so, Harry," said Hermione, sounding a bit sad, "I just thought you'd want a way to keep track of me when we are separate, so that I could call you if I'm in some kind of trouble," she fake-sobbed, "But if I'm not that important to you…"
"Fine," said Harry, giving in. "Ask your parents to pick up a good phone for me, and make sure it's a flip-phone, so I don't end up accidentally calling people. I think I left them with enough money to take care of it." (Harry had left a thousand pounds with her parents in case he needed them to pick anything up for him while he was at school.)
All of the sudden, Hermione's countenance changed back to excited as she grabbed him for a quick kiss. "Now, let's see if I can get this phone ready before breakfast is over."
-
She did manage to finish breakfast, charm the cell phone, get her supplies, and make it to Potions class on time with Harry. There was a small amount of chatter going on until the side door opened and Sirius Black stepped into the room. Most of the students didn't know what to make of him yet, so they didn't want to get him upset. He was grinning ear to ear. He walked to the front of the classroom and said, "Hello class. As you all know, I'm Professor Sirius Black. As you also know, I was falsely accused of murders that Peter Pettigrew committed and spent some time in Azkaban, where I know some of your parents are right now." He shot a quick glance at Malfoy, whose smirk faded momentarily. "Now I understand that your previous professor favored his own house tremendously. I want you to know right from the start that I'm not going to show any favoritism in this class…"
"Except to Potter," muttered Malfoy, apparently unaware of how good Sirius' hearing was due to his animagus form.
"Mr. Malfoy," said Sirius, "I have no intention of favoring Mr. Potter over anybody else, but I won't be harassing him unfairly the way Snivelous Snape used to!" At this, all the Gryffindors, even Hermione, started laughing. "Excuse me, slip of the tongue. I meant to say Severus," Black said, smirking so that the entire class knew he didn't regret what he said. "Now, according to Professor Snape's records, Mr. Malfoy here is tied with Miss Granger as the best potions student." Malfoy smiled at the recognition. "For our first class, we'll observe these two master potion brewers compete in mixing this potion individually." Draco's smile immediately disappeared. Sirius flicked his wand toward the blackboard, which showed the process for making a potion that Harry and Hermione had practiced together at his house. Judging by the look on Malfoy's face, he hadn't. "Well, both of you come up to the front of the class so we can watch." Hermione happily took her supplies to a front desk while Malfoy, looking very nervous, did the same.
While those two were working, Hermione quite calmly and Malfoy quite panicky, Sirius began his lecture. "This will take them about an hour to brew. While they're working, I'm going to teach you a little bit about this potion. As I understand it, putting the instructions on the board was Professor Snape's idea of teaching. It's not mine. I'm going to explain how and why different ingredients work together. Starting with the first ingredient of this potion…" Sirius lectured in a way that was easy to understand, and about a half hour later when he told them all to start working with a partner, even Neville wasn't nervous about the potion. He was a bit nervous when he asked Ginny, who'd planned on partnering Hermione, to be his partner. She accepted and they began to work together. Harry got Dean to work with him for that class. When Hermione and Draco were finished, Sirius had the class pause for a few minutes (this particular potion could wait) while he inspected the pink substance in her cauldron. "This looks perfect, Miss Granger!" Sirius said. "Ten points to Gryffindor." Now let's inspect Mr. Malfoy's. Based off of his Potions grade from last year, we should expect the same results. He held up a beaker of Malfoy's blood red potion that appeared to have specks of dirt in it. "Not quite perfect, is it, Mr. Malfoy?"
The blonde boy looked ready to kill. "I guess not, the mudblood was distracting…"
"Fifty points from Slytherin for the use of that word, as well as five detentions with Mr. Filch!" interrupted Sirius, "and five points for trying to blame someone else for your own mistakes. If you were too busy looking at Miss Granger, that's your own fault." Draco's face went white. "Your excuses aren't going to work with me." He then turned to the rest of the class. "As I've demonstrated with Mr. Malfoy, past grades don't mean anything if you didn't earn them. Everybody will have to earn their grade in this class, and yes Mr. Malfoy, that includes my godson Mr. Potter." The class resumed mixing their potions, and many of the Gryffindors, including Harry, Dean, Neville, and Ginny, got Outstandings. Still more got Exceeds Expetations for their potions, while most of the Slytherin's, including Draco, got an Acceptable, although Crabbe and Goyle, who'd foolishly partnered together when Draco was called up, got Troll as their grade when they turned in a green potion.
"Wow," said Harry, grinning ear to ear, "That's the first time I ever got an O in potions class!"
"You earned it!" said Hermione, giving his a quick kiss.
"I loved the way you humiliated Draco today! I never had any doubt in my mind that you would!"
She blushed, "That's nice of you to say, but…"
"That's not being nice, Mine. You are brilliant, in every sense of the word!"
"Thank you. Oh, there's something I wanted to show you," she said, dragging his arm and pulling him with her into a small door.
He looked around. "Well, you pulled me in this broom cupboard, what did you want to show me?"
"How much I love you," she said, and then proceeded to snog him senseless until they heard a beep. They separated and Hermione said, "That's my phone. I set the alarm so we wouldn't be late for class."
They then left the cupboard and noticed Ginny and Neville standing there grinning at them. "We saw you go in there, and wanted to make sure you made it to class. We were just about to get you when we heard beeping in there," said Ginny. She then added sarcastically, "Was that a smoke alarm?"
"Er," said Hermione, "It was a watch alarm to let us know it was time to stop." They then started walking toward their history class. "Thanks for waiting for us though," Hermione said, "We really do appreciate it, although it won't be necessary anymore."
"It's no problem," said Neville.
They then proceeded to the History of Magic class, where the young brunette teacher was sitting at the desk in navy blue robes. "Hello everyone," she said. "My name is Professor Brooks, and I've had the honor of finally replacing that deadbeat teacher." Everybody chuckled at that. "Now, here's my question for you. Has anybody here ever learned anything in this classroom? I'm not talking about reading the book while Professor Binns was boring everybody. I mean did he teach you anything? I'm not gonna make you answer that. As I understand it, the only thing he taught you was history from long ago, like goblin rebellions. Am I right?" The whole class nodded in agreement. "Has he ever taught you about recent history?" The whole class shook their head. "What is the single most important event to happen in the wizarding world in the past fifty years?" The whole class looked dumbfounded except for Hermione, who characteristically held up her hand. "Yes, Miss?"
"Granger, ma'am. Hermione Granger. The most important thing in recent history was the Vold-, er You-Know-Who war, which ended on Halloween thirteen years ago with the attack on the Potter family, which resulted in You-Know-Who's disappearance." Hermione gave a quick glance at her boyfriend, who nodded that he was ok.
"Correct, Miss Granger, and I think you should use the name Voldemort." Almost the whole class flinched. "There is absolutely nothing to fear from speaking the name that Tom Marvolo Riddle fabricated for himself." Most of the class was astonished at this news (obviously not Harry, Ginny, or Hermione). "Oh yes, didn't you know? The man who calls himself Lord Voldemort was actually a student that came through here by the name of Tom Riddle. He was the son of a muggle man with the same name and a witch by the name of Merope Gaunt, whose father was named Marvolo. That family was the last of the Slytherins…" She then gave the most complete lecture on the origins of Voldemort that anybody had ever heard. She covered all the way until he graduated from Hogwarts, mentioning the orphanage, the chamber of secrets and the death of his father's family, and his extreme fear of dying, among other things. Hermione and Harry took out their laptops to take notes early in the lecture, and Professor Brooks said nothing about it.
"Wow!" exclaimed Harry, as he, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny were walking out of class. "That was the most interesting history class I've ever had - here or in the muggle world!"
"I never looked at it that way before," said Hermione. "Voldemort is a coward! He's as afraid of death as Ron is of spiders, and everything he's done, even his attempt to kill Harry, has had the ultimate purpose of letting him escape death."
"Tom would rather kill a baby than face his fear!" said Ginny, smirking (for the first time ever while discussing Riddle), "No wonder he wasn't a Gryffindor!"
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