Chapter 4
Well it finally is that time =) I've started with chapter 4!
Can't believe it myself, but since I've started, I haven't been writing anything else, which is great as I tend to get distracted a lot by writing other stuff at the same time. Also, as I am a super Potter-Head, I'm reading up on many Harry Potter facts and stories and watching Harry Potter related video's in YouTube, which helps a lot keeping me in the "zone".
Okay, little preview on what I'm writing on at the moment.
Harry completes his first day and heads off to Hagrids to tell him all about his day. He also learns a bit more about the Malfoy family and makes a new friend. However, he also has a first chat with Professor Snape, who is questioning him about his aunt and uncle.
That's how far I got while watching Season 1 of Tokyo Ghoul anyways xD I know, they go so well together.
Anyways, I'll upload it as soon as I finish it. :)
Sorry about the delay in uploading this... I didn't have proper internet for quite a while... on the upside, I'll upload a few chapters this time again ;)
Chapter 4
Later, when Harry finished telling Hagrid all about the first day, Tessa reminded them about the time, about the dinner rule for Slytherins, so the two of them said goodbye to Hagrid and rushed back towards the castle and the Great Hall. “Do you know why Hagrid looked so nervous when I mentioned Malfoy earlier?” Harry asked as they walked closer to the castle.
“Well,” Tessa said with a sigh, “Back in the days Draco’s family were big supporters of you-know-who and a reputation like that won’t go away easily. Everyone is still very aware of what they used to be and his fathers general reputation doesn’t help of course. In the Ministry of Magic his views about a pureblood society are quite… well… radical and not really wanted of most wizards and witches. Luckily.”
“Oh…” Harry mumbled and wasn’t sure what to think of that, “But non of that is Draco’s fault, is it?” “No,” Tessa sighed, “He has nothing to do with the reputation his fathers family built and encouraged all those years ago. But most of the time Draco is his fathers son and acts his part.” Quietly Harry walked the rest of the path back to the castle and the Great Hall next to Tessa.
At dinner Malfoy only briefly asked about Harry’s evening, and went on telling Harry about his evening, about how they had beaten some third years in wizard’s chess. Harry had played chess before, once at his neighbours house, but wizards chest seemed to be a little different. After dinner Malfoy and Nott demonstrated how wizards chess worked and played a round in the Slytherin common room.
Fascinated Harry watched the chess pieces move by themselves as Malfoy and Nott commanded the next moves. The first time Malfoy destroyed one of Nott’s pawns, Harry got quite a fright though. Malfoy’s pawn pulled his swords and destroyed the opposing pawn, wiping the pieces off the board. “Urg… this is brutal…” Tessa mumbled as she walked by and moved up towards the girls’ bedrooms. However, Harry was fascinated the longer he watched the boys’ game.
It was brutal, Harry agreed, but it was awesome! As they played, they explained the rules to Harry and when they finished the game, Nott offered to play easy, while Malfoy coached Harry through the game. He didn’t only receive help from Malfoy, but also from the figures themselves.
“What are you all doing, still up at this time of night?” they heard the nasal sneer of their head of house. As the boys looked up from their game, they saw Professor Severus Snape and all of their prefects enter from a hallway on the side of the common room. “We’re sorry, Professor Snape,” Nott said quickly and bowed his head, “We forgot the time while teaching Potter wizards chess.” Harry quickly followed Nott’s example and bowed his head, helping Nott tidy up the chessboard. “Lead the remaining students up to their bedrooms, it is already late and there are classes tomorrow! Except for you,” he said calmly, his eyes fixed on Harry, “Potter! You come along to my office!”
As soon as he had closed his mouth, everyone, including Malfoy, hurried on to follow the professor’s orders. Had he done something wrong? Would he be punished now? He wasn’t necessarily scared, he couldn’t remember doing anything wrong, but still, grown ups didn’t need reasons to punish, not that Harry would ever admit that to anyone here in Hogwarts. Quietly he followed his head of house as he walked back into the hall he had appeared from. At the end of the hall they stepped into an office, full of dark jars and skulls and vials of liquids with unknown powers. On the side of the office was an opened door, leading into what looked like a storage room. On the right and left were drawers, all the way up to the ceiling, small labels marked each drawer.
“Sit,” he said and Harry followed, insecure and nervous about the reason for this secluded conversation. Snape sat down behind his desk and glared at the boy, for quite a while, until finally he said, “I won’t treat you any different to any other of my students. I don’t care that others might consider you someone special, I won’t care, I will treat you like any other student in my house!”
“I’m not asking for special treatment, Sir,” Harry assured his teacher, “I don’t really know what’s so special about me anyways.” “Well, the Dark Lord attempted to end your life, Potter,” Snape said with a slightly pained tone, “And you survived while your parents died before you. The curse left a mark on you, the scar on your forehead, and you were brought to safety, to live with your aunt and uncle.” To Harry the last part sounded more like an accusation and the glare in his eyes seemed to intensify. “Have they treated you well, Potter?” he asked and Harry wasn’t sure what to answer. If he said the truth, the Dursley’s would surely find out and would lock him up during the entire holidays. They might not let him return to school if they believed Harry said anything bad about them.
Anyway, they hadn’t treated him that badly. He always had food…well… unless they punished him for odd things happening around Harry, like when he suddenly found himself on the school roof, or when his hair had grown right back after Petunia’s attempt at cutting his hair an awful way, or when they had taken Harry to the zoo and he had accidentally set a boa free and locked his cousin in the snakes terrarium. He had never really been beaten, except by his cousin and that had been only out of fun, hadn’t it? As he thought about all those awful things, it seemed like he relieved all those scenarios and all Harry wanted was to go to bed and forget about it.
“They treated me as well as they could,” was all Harry said about their treatment, when his thoughts finally returned to the present. Snape’s expression didn’t change at all, however, he didn’t seem to believe him either, “I don’t appreciate lies, Potter, however, as this was your first day, I will let it slide this time, but mark my words, if you lie to me again, you will live to regret it. Understood?” Harry quickly nodded, aware that by that he kind of admitted to not entirely telling the truth before. “Off to bed now, Potter, and as you seem to have a lot of catching up to do, I will assign you some additional work so that you won’t fall behind in your first week!”
Extra work? On his first day? So much about his plan on reading ahead in his textbooks to understand all the magical words everyone around him seemed to be so familiar with, so much about learning more about wizard’s chess from Malfoy after classes. However, Snape was his professor and he couldn’t object, so he only nodded, took the scroll that Snape held out for him and stood up to get ready for bed. “One last thing, Potter,” he said as he opened the door for Harry, “If there is anything you want to talk about, there are many people for you to confide in. Remember the prefects have to follow our Slytherin rules as much as you do, and there are also your teachers and your house mates if you don’t want to confide in me. However, know that you are a part of Slytherin, a part of our family now, Potter. You are not alone!”
With that said, he let Harry leave without further questions. Could his teacher know about how Harry had been raised? Only a little bit worried he walked up to his bedroom and quickly changed into his pyjama and hurried into bed, the scrolls on his night stand. Before he fell asleep he managed to whisper good night to the boys.
Early the next morning he started working on the sheets Professor Snape had given him, until the others woke up and arrived in the common room to head to the Great Hall for breakfast. This ended up becoming like a routine for Harry; get up and get ready, do some reading and head to breakfast and to class with the other Slytherin first years. And after dinner and homework they taught Harry all about Wizards Chess and Quidditch, which seemed to be a huge sport in the magical world.
On Wednesday night they had their first Astronomy class at midnight and Professor Sinistra taught them about how to read maps, how to recognize star patterns in the night sky and about the moving planets. There was a huge telescope that would show them the movement of the planets and help them see the stars so far away from England, unrecognizable to the bare eye.
Thursday morning was the first morning Harry didn’t wake up long before the others, which took his chance to catch up on some reading away, but that was okay. Harry was way too nervous anyways. Later that day he would have his first flying lesson and that scared Harry a little bit. Until about a good month ago Harry hadn’t believed that witches and wizards were actually real and that flying on broomsticks was nothing more than a story.
He had managed to do charms and was still able to do so during Professor Flitwicks class on Thursday morning, but flying… he had always dreamt that he would fly, high up to the clouds and soar through the air… but now that it was so real… so close… he didn’t know if he would completely embarrass himself in front of the first years of Slytherin and Gryffindor, and everyone who would look out of the windows.
After lunch the two classes headed to their Defence Against the Dark Arts class and once that was finished, both houses had half an hour to get to the yard for their first flying lesson. On the way outside, as Slytherins were always early, Draco told them all about his broom at home and how he had learnt to fly when he was four. He told them how he was such an ace and how he would totally make the Quidditch team this year, if they didn’t have those stupid rules and that he would make it next year for sure.
It had been a note on Harry’s first Hogwarts letter, that first year students were not allowed to bring their own broom, and that they were not permitted to try out for the Quidditch team. Not that Harry planned on any of that to happen! He didn’t even know if the broom would fly at all!
Nervously Harry stood with the other Slytherins, while the Gryffindors only showed up when Madam Hooch already approached to start the class. “Stand next to your brooms everyone!” she said and stopped in between the two rows of students, “My name is Madame Hooch. Now everyone stand on the left of their broom, hold out your hand and say, UP.”
The two houses did as they were told and as Harry watched Malfoy, his broom flew up straight away. Decidedly Harry held out his hand over his broom and commanded, “Up!” With a swish the broom flew up into his hand and Harry was surprised and also impressed by the connection to the broom he felt through his hand, Harry looked around again and watched as one of the red haired Gryffindors kept yelling at his broom, as it kept turning and moving beside his feet. Then it flung itself up and hit the Gryffindor straight on the nose before it fell down. On the next try it flew up into his hand though and soon all Gryffindors and Slytherins stood there with their brooms in their hands.
“Very good, now, in a moment you’ll all mount your brooms, push yourselves off the ground, hover and lean to the front to land again,” she explained and held her whistle to her mouth. “On my mark, one, two,” she said and as she inhaled to say three, one of the Gryffindor boys seemed to take off unintentionally. “Mister Longbottom!” Madame Hooch scolded, “Get down here, right away!”
Neville Longbottom, a chubby boy from Gryffindor, tried to follow her instructions, but the broom went higher and higher, almost throwing him off a few times. The broom bucked and slammed against the castle walls as everyone watched helplessly, Madame Hooch still calling after her student, until Neville fell off, getting caught on a spear with his robe after falling about 20 feet, another 30 feet above the ground. As the two first year classes rushed after Madame Hooch and Neville Longbottom, the tear ripped further and the boy fell to the ground.
“I’ll take Longbottom to the infirmary,” she said and helped him up, “While I’m gone, I don’t want anyone to take more than one foot off the ground at a time! If anyone’s on their broom, you’ll be sent home sooner than you can say Quidditch!” While they walked off the two houses stood in the yard, their brooms in their hands and chatted about what had just happened and their first two weeks in Hogwarts.
“Oh, look what I found here!” Malfoy said and picked up a tennis ball sized glass ball from the ground; inside was white smoke, twirling around. “Hey, that Remember-all belongs to Neville, it was a gift of his grandmother! Give it back right now,” the girl with the wild brown hair demanded and held out her hand. “Give it back?” Malfoy asked and grinned, “I don’t think so!”
“Give it back, Malfoy,” Harry said as well and stepped in between the girl and Malfoy. “I think I might hide it,” Malfoy chuckled, mounted his broom and took off, “Why don’t you come and get it, Potter?” Harry considered the consequences for a moment, but at this point he would rather loose the one place he felt home in, than seeing how other people were treated badly and not do anything.
“Harry,” the Gryffindor girl said and approached quickly, “Don’t go! You know what Madame Hooch said! You’ll be expelled!” Harry smiled at her and shook her off before he pushed himself off the ground. For some reason the whole flying thing felt natural to him, like it was a part of him and he was certain that he could get that glass thingy back for the other first year, what ever it may be.
“Give it back, Malfoy, or I’ll have to knock you off your broom!” Harry said firmly, and put both of his hands on the broom, while Malfoy leaned there leisurely, one hand on the broom, and the other playing with the remember-all. “Try it so,” he chuckled and smiled at Harry, challenging him. Harry leaned forward and the broom shot towards Malfoy, who spun around his broom to not fall as Harry shot by. “Fine,” Malfoy said, “Have it your way so!” Then he threw the glass ball as hard as he possibly could and Harry cursed quietly as he leaned forward again to race after the ball.
Malfoy returned to the other Slytherin first years while Harry tried to go faster and faster to catch Neville’s toy or what it was. “Oh, oh,” Harry thought as the glass ball flew straight towards a window. Going even faster, Harry reached out his hand and caught it just before it smashed on the metal frame of the window, diverting the broom to not end up as mashed Harry and hovered in mid air, proud about his catch, and returned to the rest of the class more slowly then before, showing off the glass ball thingy.
The entire class, excluding Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, cheered and raced towards him as he landed as if he had done it a million times already and presented the glass ball, handing it over to Hermione, the girl with the wild hair who had spoken up for Longbottom before. “Here you go, will you give that back to Longbottom for me?” he asked as he placed it in her hand.
See, nothing had happened. He had caught the glass ball, had shown Malfoy that he was good at something wizard-y and no one had caught him. Smiling he turned and saw Professor McGonagall hurry towards them, an expression of shock, anger and enthusiasm in her face. “Potter!” she scolded, “You have been told to keep your feet on the ground and then I see you on your broom, almost crashing into the castle! 20 points from Slytherin! And now, everyone come with me! Everyone else, return your brooms to Mister Filch and return to your common room as we go! Potter, you’re coming with me.”
Damn… Harry thought as he followed the professor, and the rest of the class back into the castle. Everyone handed the brooms back to Filch and went their way, while Harry followed Professor McGonagall towards the potions classroom. Oh no… Professor Snape would probably send him home straight away!
She knocked on the door and Professor Snape opened, looking as gloomy as he always seemed to do. “Professor Snape,” she said and glanced towards the class, “Can I have a moment of your time?” “Read chapter five in your books, I will ask questions once I’m back! A sound from anyone and I’ll be giving out extra work and deduct points from each and every one of you!” he said to the class and closed the door behind him, “How can I help you, Minerva?”
Snape almost glared at Harry as Professor McGonagall cleared her throat nervously, “I just caught Potter on his broom after Madame Hooch told them to stay on the ground. Not only that, he was racing after a Remember-all and caught it only moments before it would have smashed through the window and Potter would have also crashed into the wall and most likely died!” Professor McGonagall seemed more flustered and worried now, while Snapes expression seemed to add a bit of curiosity. “Now, as I recall, your last seeker was banned from playing this semester due to his behaviour last year, I thought you might be interested in the circumstances of Potter loosing 20 points,” she explained and patted Harry’s shoulder, “With a bit of training he should make a fine Seeker for your team.”
“You’re not helping your own team, Minerva,” he said as he glared at Harry, probably for loosing 20 points, “You won’t get any closer to winning the Quidditch Cup like that.” “That’s quite alright,” she said proudly, “We’ll get our chance again by playing fair and with the skills of our team. It would just be a shame to let a talent like his go undetected!”
Professor McGonagall left without another word and left Harry standing there, under the glare of his Head of House. “So I won’t be packing my bags?” Harry asked, still waiting for the punishment of his lifetime. “No,” Professor Snape said, “But you’ll be wishing I had sent you home instead! As you seem to have issues following instructions while unsupervised, I’ll assign you some more work, also on Saturday at 9 am you will meet Marcus Flint, who is our current Team Captain. He’ll train you and explain the rules and strategies so that you’ll be able to play soon! In addition to that I’ll work out a training plan with Flint so that you don’t have to make time yourself!”
Harry swallowed and nodded quietly. Extra work. Extra training. That really wasn’t quite fair, however, everything was better than going back to the Dursleys! “Before you go,” Snape said and glared at Harry, “The remember-all, why was it flying towards the school in the first place?” “It belongs to a Gryffindor boy,” Harry said as he didn’t want to tell on Malfoy, “It just happened to fly off, maybe someone tripped over it…” Harry was sure that Professor Snape knew that wasn’t the truth, but he didn’t say anything and just send Harry back to the common room before returning to his own class after handing him a thick parchment scroll.