Chapter 153: Of Intrusive Beavers

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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18 September 1993, Hogwarts

Susan Bones walked towards the Ancient Runes classroom, feeling a little more excited than she probably should have been, something that her best friend Hannah noticed immediately, "What are you so happy about, Susan."

"Just excited about learning magic, I suppose," the redhead answered.

Honestly, she would have confided to Hannah if it wasn't for the fact that the entire school would know about any words they shared by the end of the day. She loved her friend, she really did, but that girl could challenge Lavender Brown when it came to gossiping.

Alright, she was exaggerating a bit. Lavender Brown was the undisputed Gossip Queen of the school. If Susan had organized a vote in the entirety of Hogwarts, even the Slytherins would agree about that fact.

When it came to magic, the girl was mediocre. She could barely brew a potion, not that Snape was a good instructor, and the constantly shifting Junior Professors didn't help matters. It didn't take long for Susan to figure out that they were obviously obligated to teach to have access to the infamous Hogwarts library and left the moment their research was over.

Lavender was a disaster in Transfiguration, somewhat decent in charms, and disinterested in any other class to put in an effort. Except for divination, she was weirdly obsessed with that elective.

But the Gryffindor was very good when it came to maintaining her little information network. It probably had to do with her mother being a lesser known reported in the Daily Prophet, but she was weirdly competent at it. Of course, information about Slytherins was very hard to come by, but the girl somehow was able to get a few precious nuggets of information. Nowadays, even the Weasley Twins tended to ask her about their targets, and she always delivered.

Lavender knew about Malfoy buying into the Quidditch team before a lot of Slytherins even knew about it. She knew that the Golden Trio was caught breaking into the Slytherin common room the day after it happened. She knew about Crabbe and Goyle leaving Draco Malfoy and joining Nott instead, and that Nott wasn't even happy about it.

But she never found any secrets that had to do with Potter. The boy was very private and rarely spoke to anyone other than Greengrass, Davis, Zabini and that weird blonde in Ravenclaw who was a second year. But a few things were still known about him. He was brilliant, he was above and beyond most upperclassmen in most magical fields, and best of all, he wasn't a braggart.

That fascinated Susan immensely. She always liked a mystery, and the boy was pretty cute.

Fine, she might have a tiny crush on him, but it was completely harmless.

Still, when Lavender found out that he hadn't found a partner for their Ancient Runes class, she jumped at the chance. And he accepted, just like that. She kept encouraging herself to go over to him for half her lunch, and he just said yes. Thank Merlin he did because she left that until the last possible moment to ask him and if he had found another partner, she would have been saddled with either Longbottom, Crabbe or Goyle.

He had practically given her at least a couple hours with him, just the two of them for their project. It wasn't even just his crush. Potter was really knowledgeable, and she would learn a lot from him. Her aunt Amelia taught her that the people you hang out with tend to rub off on you.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Hannah poking her, "Sure, you are. And where was that excitement in our defence class?"

"Hey, I just don't like Lupin that much. Auntie Amelia said to be careful around him. Didn't say why, only to be alone with him outside of class, and that Dumbledore only accepted him because there were no other options."

And just by seeing how her friend's eyes lit up with the information, Susan knew that she made a mistake. It just slipped out of her mouth and by the end of the day, the entire school would know. The fact that Dumbledore was having a hard time finding a Defense professor wasn't surprising.

Susan's aunt had never made a secret of the difficulties Hogwarts had in hiring someone for this ill-reputed job. Sure, it wasn't always fatal, but the many deaths, crippling injuries, and destroyed reputations, didn't really make the position attractive, especially since the salary wasn't worth that suffering.

It was literally a subject of mockery in all other international schools. Defence Against the Dark Arts was something that no one even looked at anymore. Even her aunt Amelia told her that she didn't expect much from anyone coming from Hogwarts when it came to defence. Even if a graduate had an outstanding, it didn't mean anything. Apparently, the ministry demanded that they lower the difficulties of the defence NEWT exams since people kept failing and they needed Aurors.

Privately, even the students of Hogwarts seemed to see the whole thing as some sort of joke. They had a betting pool on how professors would end up leaving and why. Even if they were contracted for just a year, they always suffered some kind of accident. Lockhart had literally confessed to being a fraud, which Blaise Zabini predicted somehow, even if the author was a pretty good teacher. People mostly thought that he would be petrified like the other victims. The dark-skinned boy had earned a lot of gold with just that bet.

Quirrell flat-out died. She didn't know who won that year's pool since she was too young to enter, but there were always weirdos who liked to bet that the professor would die. She still hasn't decided about what to bet on Lupin.

Hannah shook her head, "No, you're trying to weasel out of this by giving me some juicy gossip. You always do that. So, spill. Why are you so excited for Runes? Now that I think about it, shouldn't you dread the whole thing since you refused any partnership that you got offered?"

Ah, that.

She still hasn't told Hannah about her new partner, not that she didn't get enough offers. Practically half the students in her year asked her. Rune partnership was known to be one of the easiest ways to make connections outside your house and Susan was probably going to be the next head of House Bones, and her aunt was very influential in the ministry, being the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. That made the young Hufflepuff quite an attractive potential partner.

People have been trying to suck up to her for years because of her aunt. She was used to it and had been taught to defend herself if they were forceful. Auntie Amelia knew the best curses.

Susan refusing all offers was a proclamation that she either didn't find them worthy, or she already had a partner. Since Hannah was a blabbermouth, everyone assumed that it was the former, not the latter.

Well, Hannah was going to find out eventually, "I'll have you know that I actually have a partner. So, I'm not risking ending up with the two Slytherin trolls."

It was a mean nickname to call Crabbe and Goyle, but the resemblance was uncanny. The Crabbe and Goyle families are known for being brutes with unusual physical strength and resistance to both magic and physical attacks, but apparently, it was at the expense of their mental prowess or something. They weren't dumb by any means, just below average when it came to raw intelligence. 

As she expected, Hannah latched onto that detail and didn't let go, "Oh, is it a boy? I don't know who doesn't have a partner yet. Or maybe you were asked at the start, and you just kept it a secret. How could you? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

Susan just gave her a cheeky grin and continued walking in silence, letting her blonde friend run after her. She still didn't say anything when they entered Professor Babbling's classroom. They sat down with Hannah glaring at her since they couldn't talk inside the classroom.

The professor grinned, "Good Afternoon to you all. Now, today we'll continue studying the Elder Futhark alphabet and discuss some very common combinations. But before we get started, I'm going to discuss this year's project. Yes, this project will span both terms. The first one will be coming up with a runic matrix and carving it or drawing it using a medium of your choosing. This will also include a roll of parchment with all the details of your matrix and how you came up with it. You will be graded on both your ingenuity, the fact that your design works and is efficient, as well as how well the drawing would be made. You can use any runic language, and I even recommend that you use your time to learn a new one to set yourselves aside. Your second term would focus on fixing whatever errors you made and optimizing your designs, as well as powering it up."

The entire class stayed silent, and the professor continued, "I asked you last week to find a partner for your project. I'm going to call your name alphabetically and I want you to say whether or not you have a partner. Let's start with Abbott, Hannah."

The blonde stiffened immediately, "Yes, I have a partner. Lavender Brown."

It wasn't long until the professor called out her name. She just stood up and said, "Harry Potter."

She then sat down, ignoring the looks of surprise that everyone gave her. They did have a point; she never really interacted with the Potter scion. Even the professor had raised her eyebrows at this. Hannah was flat-out gaping at her and her eyes were threatening her of bodily harm for not telling her at the same time.

But that didn't even come close to two of the most disturbing reactions in the room. Daphne Greengrass glared at her like she wanted to set her on fire or something. It was somewhat understandable. She and Potter have been inseparable for years and the girl wasn't going to like any partner that he might have had.

Susan would only admit to herself that the blonde intimidated her. They called her the Ice Queen for a reason because whenever anyone tried to talk to her that wasn't in her circle of friends, she tended to either snipe back at them or flat-out hex them. Finnigan still shivered whenever she was around after the witch froze his bits.

Potter and Greengrass were close. If it wasn't for the fact that Davis denied it last year, Susan would have assumed that they were a couple. Even with that knowledge, she still felt like she was intruding somehow.

The other person who glared at her was surprisingly Longbottom. She never liked the boy. Sure, at first, she was curious about the hero of the magical world, the defeater of He Who Must Not Be Named, but she ended up just being disappointed. He was a bully during his previous years in Hogwarts who used his popularity and the Staff's obvious bias to terrorize anyone who didn't treat him like some kind of godly figure. 

He did mellow out after the rumours of his mental instability came to light. She thought it was the usual Rita Skeeter hogwash, but the boy sniped at anyone who tried to speak with him this year. She honestly wanted nothing to do with him.

Now that she thought about it, Longbottom had always tried to come after Potter for some reason, but the Slytherin always deflected it. And now he was angry at her for some ungodly reason.

That was of course, when he decided to stand up, "And Neville Longbottom too."

The professor looked confused. The rest of the classroom, Harry included, seemed to share that sentiment. Susan's gaze was directly on Harry, which immediately turned from surprise to understanding, then exasperation before finally settling on resignation.

The Longbottom scion gave a piece of parchment to the professor, "This is a permission slip from the headmaster saying that I could join any group for this project as long as all the members of the group agree. Since our class is made of an uneven number, a three-person group is inevitable, and I got this permission since my situation is delicate and so that there wouldn't be any conflicts with any potential partner."

The professor grabbed the small slip and read it. The boy was obviously telling the truth, and she didn't look happy with the headmaster's intervention. Potter, too, looked resigned. He wasn't happy either. But they both knew that they couldn't really refuse.

There was a difference between actively avoiding Longbottom and humiliating him by refusing in front of the entire class. They were both stuck between a rock and a hard place and they knew it.

The professor also seemed to know it since she gave them a pitying look, "So, Mr Potter, Ms Bones, do you agree to let Mr Longbottom join?"

They both looked at each other and nodded, "Yes, professor."

Yeah, this won't end well. 

Harry Potter better be worth the trouble.

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.