Chapter 145: Thrice Warned
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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1 September 1993, Hogwarts Express
There was a small pile of sweets when Harry returned to his compartment. The trolley lady must have visited his friends and Tracy, as usual, decided to pour a lot of her pocket money into sweets. That girl really was a glutton.
Harry watched in amusement as she and Blaise gorged themselves in the various assortments of candy. They were lucky that the blinds were closed because if any of the other Slytherins saw them, they would have been politically untouchable, in a bad way that is.
Daphne though, looked at them with a mixture of amused disgust. Yeah, her heiress training had hammered in her head that this kind of behaviour was unacceptable. Harry didn't know much about what she was being taught, but he had the impression that her father was particularly strict and that their relationship was somewhat strained.
She immediately noticed that Harry was back and spoke up in a haughty tone, "You sure took your time. We were starting to think that you got lost somewhere…"
"Very funny," he responded with a dry tone, "the whole Longbottom thing was surprising, believe it or not."
"What did he want?" Blaise asked, suddenly interested.
"Nothing really. He wanted to apologize and start over. I think he's just lonely, after what happened to Hermione. Everyone just steers clear of him because of the whole insanity thing after the Chamber. He's been slandered non-stop for months and the prophet didn't even print out a retraction. And you know how his friendship with Weasley imploded. He's vulnerable and could be useful in the long run."
And wasn't that an understatement? Everyone knew about the official destruction of the Golden Trio. With Hermione out of the picture and Ron badmouthing her to everyone who would listen, the boy who lived exploded. The resulting fight heavily damaged the Gryffindor common room and got both boys detention for the rest of the school year. But one thing is for certain, Ron Weasley wasn't under Longbottom's protection anymore.
It was a foolish thing to do, especially since the only thing that made the redhead remarkable in any way, outside of some talent in chess, was his relationship with Longbottom. It wasn't just because he was the boy who lived, but because of his position as the Longbottom scion and his future political influence that made sticking with him appealing.
Weasley could have ended up as his understudy, or his assistant, which would have given him a lot of power and influence that his family just didn't have. Like Dolores Umbridge was the voice of Cornelius Fudge, Ronald Weasley could have been the voice of Neville Longbottom. His older brother, Percy, had looked especially put out by this, since Ron could have used his relationship with Neville to grease some palms and get him a good starting position in the ministry. Alas, the boy was now going to live with his feeble natural talents.
These were all great reasons to befriend the boy, especially since they were starting to get involved in Slytherin politics starting this year. Of course, Daphne saw through all of that, "You're not doing this because of some political position. I know you hate that stuff. You're doing it because you feel guilty."
Harry deflated, "Fine. But you didn't see the damage I did by screwing with him so much. Everyone thinks he's unstable, and they're not really wrong. But he's like that because of me, not because of some cursed Diary that turned into an illusion."
They all looked at each other before nodding, "Fine, but be careful. You said it yourself that bad things always happen to Longbottom."
Harry couldn't really dispute that, but the boy always actively pursued danger. And it's not like he was going to actually pursue a friendship with Neville. They were starting over, and that didn't mean anything more than them not being antagonistic between one another, which was mostly on Neville's side. Whatever happened between them was water under the bridge, nothing more. Harry had no plans to actually join any of the boy's adventures or be pulled into Dumbledore's little puppet show.
Blaise decided to change the subject, "So, anyone has anything interesting to say?"
He was oddly looking at Daphne, who was in turn doing her best to ignore him, "Well, before Harry left, we were talking about the international event that's going on next year. There's this big debate in the Wizengamot to cancel the whole thing, so it might not happen, but it's some kind of international school tournament."
Tracy seemed to also jump at that topic, "Wait, why would they do that? It sounds kinda exciting."
"Tracy, you don't even know what that tournament is?" Harry answered dryly.
"And you do? It's also a school tournament, in Hogwarts. So, we'll get to see it in person."
Harry rolled his eyes, "It's called the Tri-Wizard tournament. It's a pretty barbaric thing by today's standards. It involved three European schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbattons, and Durmstrung. A champion is elected for each school, and they have to complete some very dangerous tasks to win. Entertaining on paper, but the fatality rates were too high, and it was cancelled."
"And someone thought about reinstating them?"
"It was probably an idea from the ICW and Hogwarts was selected to host. Crouch probably jumped at the chance." Blaise answered while rolling his eyes.
Daphne, though, didn't seem impressed, "Well, I think the whole thing is utterly stupid. Magical Britain doesn't have the funds to host something like this. We're rebuilding our main prison, and even if Dumbledore is saving us a lot in terms of labour, the materials are still pretty expensive."
Harry shrugged, "I'm not saying you're wrong. Half the Wizengamot actually agrees with you. The other half thinks that the income from the Quidditch World Cup would suffice to fund this project."
"But then, wouldn't they have to arrange for everything in just a couple of months?" Tracy asked.
"Yes, that's the issue. Fudge and Crouch think that they could do it, but considering how unstable things are, no one wants to take them at their word."
Daphne groaned, "Even if they pull it off, the level of our NEWT students is so far lower than the graduates from Durmstrung's, it's not even funny."
Harry nodded, "The ICW probably want to use this tournament to start writing off magical Britain and interfere properly. If we lose in this tournament, they'll start by discrediting our diplomas internationally, then try to interfere in our political affairs. We're one of the few countries in Europe that ICW has no direct control of, and that's only because of Dumbledore. The last war showed them that the headmaster wasn't infallible, and they're taking advantage of that. It's sad that they're not even considering the potential embarrassment of losing so badly. They're so focused on the political and economic side of this thing."
"So, what are we going to do?" Tracy asked.
Harry shrugged, "It's not our problem. We're students, not politicians. At least, not yet."
The conversation lightened after that, devolving into a friendly debate on the best electives they could choose. They had all taken Ancient Runes, but only Daphne and Harry had chosen to have Arithmancy. Harry, Tracy and Blaise were the only ones taking Care of Magical Creatures. Thankfully, they were assigned a normal textbook and not one that tried to bite you like the stories. It seemed like Hagrid probably wasn't promoted to a professor this year. Harry was the only one of them who decided to take Divination, and it was mostly out of curiosity if it could help him understand his dreams a bit more.
Divination was a very interesting subject, if he had a proper instructor, that is. He would decide on his own after the first lesson. Honestly, Harry wanted to not take any of the electives, since he knew all of the materials. Alas, he was forced to take at least two because of the school rules. Care of Magical Creatures and Divination were the only two fields he didn't really explore, and he had taken Runes and Arithmancy as a sign of solidarity, it also gave him the choice to drop both Care and Divination if he found them to be useless.
The rest of the ride to school went very smoothly. The Hogwarts Express arrived safely at school, without any Dementor attacks. They used the Thestral-pulled carriages to the Great Hall, and they sat, starving as the first years were sorted.
The atmosphere was as warm as usual but strangely subdued. It seemed like the Azkaban fiasco had touched every magical soul in the country in some way. People lived in fear and uncertainty.
Harry was too hungry to really care about any of that. The only surprise was when McGonagall yelled out a familiar name, "Greengrass, Astoria."
A small clone of Daphne skipped to the sorting hat and put it on without a single ounce of hesitation.
As for Harry, he immediately turned towards Daphne who pretended not to see him, choosing to focus on her sister's sorting. It took a couple of minutes, but the hat yelled out, "SLYTHERIN!"
Daphne seemed to deflate slightly. If he hadn't known any better, Harry would have thought that she didn't want her sister in their house. He would ask about her later in private. The younger Greengrass walked with a large smile on her face towards her sister and took a seat next to her. She looked around, and when she saw Harry, her eyes lightened up, "Hi, I'm Astoria, Daphne's sister. I'm assuming you're Harry?"
He just nodded, surprised by the girl's energy. Astoria seemed to take that in stride, "I've heard so much about you."
Daphne quickly glared at her sister, making her gulp slightly and deflate, "Ignore that. I'll just focus on the sorting."
By the time the sorting ended, Harry's stomach was growling. He hadn't eaten anything since Breakfast. By the end, around twelve Slytherins had joined their house, a far larger number than the previous years. But it seemed like there was a small baby boom after Voldemort was defeated.
Finally, Dumbledore rose from his seat, and the entire hall quietened immediately. Harry couldn't help but admire that. It was like someone had pressed a mute button on the entire hall. Harry hadn't seen the man since his guardianship audience, and he didn't seem any different. He maybe looked a bit older, probably because of how many things he had to juggle.
As the defeater of Grindelwald surveyed the room, his gaze stayed a fraction of a second longer when his eyes met Harry's. Yeah, the man wasn't over what happened. It wasn't unexpected but a small part of Harry had hoped that the man would let bygones stay bygones. Perhaps it was too much to expect a century-year-old headmaster to be the mature one in the situation and wasn't that a disappointing realization?
The man smiled softly and said, "Welcome! I know that most of you are hungry, so I'll keep this brief before most of you are too bloated on our marvellous food to listen. I'll start things off by addressing the returning students. I would like to say that it's good to see you back and we're all glad to spend another year teaching you the wonders of magic and getting to know you even more. As for our new students, I would like to officially welcome you to our school. Hogwarts is a place of wonder and magic, but magic could also be dangerous. That's why we have some strict rules and regulations that we would like you to follow. Your heads of house will hopefully explain them to you in detail, and the student rulebook is in the library for you to read. As for our faculty, I am pleased to welcome two new senior professors into our ranks. First of all, Professor Grubby-Plank has agreed to take the job of Care of Magical Creature teacher. Her predecessor, Professor Kettleburn decided to retire last year to spend more time with his remaining limbs. I have no doubts that you will enjoy her lessons well."
A nice silver-haired woman stood up while everyone clapped. Harry didn't know much about her, but she did substitute for Kettleburn a few times when he got too injured, and the feedback was usually positive. That was already a good point.
"Finally, Professor Remus Lupin has kindly accepted to fill the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
This time, Harry really did stiffen. The man who stood up looked well-kept, wearing enough muggle clothes to be considered scandalous, alongside his traditional robes. He looked confident in his skin with a few faint scars on his face.
This wasn't what Remus Lupin was supposed to be like in the stories. Then again, they have been wrong before. Curious, Harry spread his Arcane Magic and focused on the man standing at the high table and did his best not to gasp.
Hunger, pure hunger was the dominant song. It was loud, unrelenting, savage, mixed in with an aggressive and predatory undertone, mixed with a lingering sadness and loneliness. There was this cunning to it, this ruthlessness at the end of a hunt, the reflex to always go for the king. It just felt so unexpectantly inhuman. He was definitely a werewolf, but his personality was just alien.
Harry still wanted to know more. He carefully observed the man. The stance showed that he wasn't ashamed. Self-confidence was something that most werewolves didn't develop, and there were no signs of excessive scarring, so fighting on the full moon was unlikely. Conclusion: the man didn't have a pack to go out every full moon with.
Snape was openly glaring at Lupin. So, that means that the werewolf was probably a friend of Harry's father or had attacked Snape in another way. The fashionable muggle clothes meant that he was very familiar with the muggle world, but Harry could tell that it was made of Acromantula silk with his Arcane Hearing. So, he was also rich in the magical world.
Before he could have a deeper analysis, the werewolf turned towards Harry, and he could feel the song speed up. It was hard to describe but it was like it became more intense. The savageness was starting to rise, only to be stifled by the man's iron will. Still, it felt like both man and beast were looking at him as if he were prey.
Well, that wasn't a good sign, was it?
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
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.