Chapter 316: Hero’s Lament

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

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1st September 1995, London

The previous summer had to have been one of the worst ones ever since he received his Hogwarts letter four years prior. The way he had been treated reminded him of how everybody in Privet Drive turned on him just because of what the Dursleys said about him.

It was hard to conceive the idea that the ministry was so antagonistic towards him. They hadn't really done any investigation on what happened in the third task, and he couldn't help but feel like Cedric deserved better than to be dismissed as some tragic accident by the ministry.

That was what angered him the most. It would have been different to have people be on Voldemort's side. He expected it. But there was just something unforgiving about being so resolute in ignoring the situation, of refusing to even confirm anything Harry said. They were ready to simply ignore the death of a student, just because it made them feel better.

He clenched his palm at the thought. Now was not the time to blow up. He was following Ginny, trying to find any empty compartment. So far, everything was nearly full. He hadn't really talked to Ginny much since what happened in the Chamber. For some reason, she got awfully shy around him and barely spoke. However, with both Ron and Hermione being forced to go to the Prefect compartment and him being Magical Britain's newest pariah due to the Daily Prophet, he was having a hard time finding one.

In the very last carriage, they found Neville Longbottom clenching Trevor, his pet toad, and trying to clumsily carry his trunk as well, "Harry, Ginny. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who couldn't find a compartment."

Ginny answered him, "Why don't we just stay here? It's only Luna and some sleeping bloke there. I don't think they'll mind much."

"I didn't want to bother them," Neville protested.

"Ah, nonsense," the redhead interrupted him, "Here. Let's go."

She opened the compartment door and spoke up, "Hey Luna. Do you mind if we sit down with you?"

In times like this, Harry really regretted not expanding his social circle further. He had never really noticed the girl before. Luna was a blonde with a dreamy look in her silver eyes. She absentmindedly answered Ginny's question, "Of course."

They all stowed their trunks and sat down in front of them. When they sat down, he noticed that Luna was reading a magazine called The Quibbler upside down. He just shrugged; he wasn't in the mood to really ask her about it.

Ginny then asked her, motioning towards the sleeping wizard, "Who is he?"

The blonde girl simply shrugged, "I don't know. I found him asleep when I got here. He seems nice though..."

Honestly, Harry didn't know how someone who was asleep could seem nice or how this Luna girl could have found out about it. But from the fond expression on the redhead's face, it wasn't exactly something unusual...

Ultimately, the conversation somehow evolved into Neville bragging about this weird plant that his grandmother got him for his birthday. Of course, he ended up covering the entire compartment into pus – which was weirdly not the first time that Neville did that – causing them to have to clean up.

Unfortunately, the smell or the loud noise seemed to have woken up the sleeping boy from before. For the first time, Harry could easily see him properly. He was wearing a muggle outfit, some jeans and a leather jacket. He had brown hair, and hazel eyes, and also wore glasses.

The boy huffed, waved his wand, and the pus disappeared. He turned towards the embarrassed-looking Neville, "Please don't do that again."

"I'm sorry," Neville replied.

The boy simply grunted and prepared to get back to sleep. Before he did, Ginny seemed to have wanted to speak with him, "I've never seen you in Hogwarts before."

He nodded in response, "And I've never seen you in Hogwarts as well."

"You're a student here?"

"No, I'm the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."

Harry didn't know if the wizard was being sarcastic or not. Everyone else was of the same opinion. After a few seconds, the boy groaned once more, "Seriously? I look like a teenager and I'm saying that I'm your new professor and you don't really care."

Harry grabbed the back of his head, embarrassed, "Sorry."

"Don't worry, that says more about the school than about you. My name is Harrod Smith and I'm a new student here. I'll be transferring into fifth year here."

"I didn't know you could transfer between schools," Neville commented, "Where were you taught before?"

"I was home-schooled."

No one said anything for a few seconds until Harrold groaned, "Seriously, what's with you all? This is the part where you introduce yourselves."

Oh, right. Harry wasn't really used to doing that. Everyone kinda knew it was him. Still, Ginny took the initiative and introduced herself, followed by Neville, and then Harry. The boy, Smith, barely reacted to his name other than raising his eyebrow faintly for a fraction of a second. That already made him alright in Harry's books.

Luna, though, seemed to have a different idea altogether, "You're not from around here, are you?"

Harrold's polite smile turned into a smirk, "You're a very observant girl, Luna Lovegood."

"I never told you my name," she replied.

"You're not the only one who's observant."

For some reason, the girl seemed more animated than she had since Harry entered the compartment. However, that seemed all Harrold had to say on the matter since he went back to sleep afterwards. Ron and Hermione ended up returning after at least an hour. Harry had bought everyone snacks from the trolley lady, even a few extra for Harrold, who seemed determined to continue sleeping.

After eating his fill, Ron asked, "Who's the bloke?"

"Harrold Smith," Harry answered, "A new student. Not really a talker, to be honest."

"He's pretty big for a first year," the redhead commented.

His sister hit him in the head, "Of course, he's not a first-year you idiot. He's transferring in. He'll be in your year. Apparently, he was home-schooled."

Hermione seemed to have taken that personally, "Home-schooled? That's absolutely dreadful. Why not just go to Hogwarts? It's the best school in Europe, isn't it?"

Surprisingly, it was Neville who answered her, "It's uncommon nowadays, but it used to be a normal thing in the past. If a family is secretive or something, they can refuse to send their kids to Hogwarts. And before Dumbledore started the Hogwarts scholarship fund, a few people just couldn't afford to pay for the school's tuition. Now, I think most people who don't come to Hogwarts, either have a dangerous magical gift or a family that's pretty traditional. The ministry has tried to stop this by making OWLS a requirement for a lot of jobs."

Ron groaned, "Great. So, it's either a ticking time bomb or a future Death Eater. What a joy!"

Hermione hit him in the shoulder, "Hey, you haven't even spoken to him."

"I call it like I see it."

Hermione was about to say something but the door to the compartment opened once more, and Harry gritted his teeth at the sight of a smirking Draco Malfoy. Instead, he growled out, "What is it Malfoy?"

"Nothing much Potter, I was just patrolling. I'm allowed to do that, since, you know, I'm a prefect. You wouldn't really know about it, I guess. I have to say that it's refreshing to see how Weasley was chosen over you. I wonder how it feels to be Dumbledore's second choice. Are you even that? Maybe he'd have even chosen Longbottom over you."

Harry controlled his temper once more, "At least Ron earned his spot. Can you say the same? I know Snape is close to your father. How much did he have to pay to get you your position? I wonder if one day you'll be able to actually achieve something meaningful with your life without Daddy behind you."

Immediately, Malfoy raised his wand, Crabbe and Goyle following behind him. Harry and his friends did the same. Right as he thought the first spell was about to be fired, a voice interjected, "Come on, people. I'm trying to sleep here."

A grumpy Harrold Smith was looking at them with annoyance and Malfoy blurted out, "Who even are you?"

"Someone who is trying to have a nap in peace. Could you, like, wait until we get to the castle before sending spells at each other? All this fighting is so troublesome."

Malfoy didn't seem to like that response, "You should be careful how you speak to me. My name is Draco Malfoy."

Smith interrupted him, "And let me guess, your father is a very important man or something. Look, I've done this song and dance a hundred times and I'm not in the mood to give you lessons in manners. Can you just go and try to keep a lid on your obsession with Potter?"

"I am not obsessed with Potter," the blond boy snarled.

"Sure, you aren't," Smith retorted with a patronizing tone, "You came all this way without any other reason than to speak with him. That sounds like an obsession to me."

"When my father." he replied, but Smith interrupted him, "Again with the whole father thing. You really need to get a grip on this thing... You'll eventually have to grow up, you know, and I don't think it will look good if you throw your father's name around when you're in your twenties. No one would really take you seriously if you did that. Now, can you go in peace, please? You can go stalk Potter or whatever when we're in the castle, and to be honest, the compartment is getting cramped."

Smith closed his eyes, but Malfoy wasn't done, "You'll regret this. People tend to die when they stick around Potter. You know what happened to poor Cedric Diggory. I still remember the way his parents screamed when they saw his body."

That took everyone in the compartment aback. They all knew that Malfoy was a prick, but even he had never stooped so low as to mock someone else's death. To be fair, he did make fun of the fact that Harry was an orphan, which was already pretty distasteful.

But this made Harry's blood boil. He was about to cast a curse until Smith gave him a weird look, "Did you say something? I was distracted by remembering this wonderful dream I was having. I was lying down in a beautiful field and watched the clouds."

That seemed to distract Malfoy, "You dream about watching clouds?"

"Oh, it's such a fascinating hobby. One that a truly enlightened mind could understand."

Harry had to admit that it was funny seeing Malfoy being so out of sorts. During most confrontations between them, the Slytherin always ended up with the upper hand. It was very nice to see the tables being turned.

The blond boy seemed outraged, "Are you calling me stupid?"

"Oh, nothing of the sort. I just said that you were not someone with the wisdom to appreciate the art of cloudwatching."

Malfoy motioned to move his wand and Smith gave him a bored look, "Now, now. I know that I might have hurt your feelings, and there's no reason to do anything rash."

"Tell me why I shouldn't hex you to pieces right now?" he growled.

"Well, I could keep droning on and on about the rules and you breaking them. I could talk about how it would dishonour your father. But I think I'm going to stick to the person standing behind you."

Malfoy instinctively turned, "Who?"

Harrold seemed to grasp the opportunity to cast a spell that shoved them out of the compartment and locked it with a swish of his wand. He could hear Malfoy screaming and hitting the door repeatedly until the noise disappeared with another swish of Smith's wand.

Ginny was the first to speak up, "That was amazing."

"It's nothing really. When you deal with a spoiled brat, you deal with all of them. Damn, reality is going to hit that guy very hard."

Harry couldn't help but be curious, "What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing much, just that he's obviously pretty sheltered and has an inferiority complex. It's pretty common with people who have high-achieving parents. The problem is that one day, he'll have to face the world himself, without his father there to help him, and that will be an experience that will mark the man he will become in the future."

Harry spoke up, "His father is a pretty powerful man. He's also one of Voldemort's main supporters."

The boy who lived suppressed the urge to roll his eyes as everyone flinched at the name. Everyone except for Smith, that is. That was another point in his favour.

Smith simply shrugged, "Meh, don't really care."

"You're not scared of you-know-who?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Meh, anyone who has a fake name that says they're afraid of death isn't worth being scared of. It's such a silly name, really. He probably came up with it when he was a moody teenager and chose to stick with it."

Harry didn't know what to say about that. Thankfully, Hermione changed the subject, "That was wordless magic, right?"

That seemed to surprise Smith slightly, "Yeah. What about it?"

"It's a pretty advanced subject, isn't it? We're not even taking it this year and it's our OWL year."

"Meh, it's not that hard, really. From what I hear, it's different for every person, but I just always did it. I was taught to cast every spell without saying the incantation every time. You get used to it after the first few times."

Hermione practically perked up at that, "That's fascinating. I never really expected how much the method of education could change the competence of the wizard or witch. Are there any other things that you can do differently?"

"How should I know? I don't really have anything to compare it to. The recommended schoolbooks are a bit too varied and cover a lot of material, far more than a single school year should. Not that they're all good. Really, the Defence book was one of the worst reads I've ever had. I'm not really optimistic for that class, to be honest. At least it's a good way to make sure to fall asleep. It's very effective. Just thinking about it just makes me want to doze off."

 The muggleborn obviously wanted to press matters, but Smith just yawned, grunted, and fell asleep again. Hermione just looked outraged by his behaviour. It was honestly pretty funny to see her so riled up.

He expected that little exchange to happen many times when they got to Hogwarts. At least that was something to look up to. Smith was just so laid back and relaxed that he would automatically clash with most professors who were passionate about their subjects. He imagined the boy napping in McGonagall's classroom. Or even worse, Snape's. Now that was an amusing thought. He'd probably be the first person to love Binn's classes, though.

Still, having a nap wasn't really a bad idea. When Harry closed his eyes and fell asleep. He dreamt of snakes and a weirdly familiar black corridor.

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AN: Now that's Harry's introduction to the trio... I was kinda rushed when I wrote this but I hope I did an alright job. Still, I'd still appreciate your feedback on it. I'm also excited to finally have a proper Harry Umbridge interaction... I don't think Umbridge becoming a professor is likely to happen in his home universe, so I'm excited to write the interactions between them. Also please let me know if you have any suggestions in the future.

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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.