Diff for "HPPT/DracoSuffers"

That Night, Gryffindor Common Room

It wasn’t until Harry was leaving the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner that Ron asked Harry about him not being in Care of Magical Creature that morning.

“Harry, wait up.” Ron called out just as Harry was about to step out to portrait hole.

“What is it Ron?” Replied Harry.

“I was just, um, wondering were you were during class today?” Asked Ron.

“What do you mean, were was I during class?” Asked Harry in return.

“During Care of Magical Creature, that’s when. I didn’t see at all during class, then whenever I see you for the rest of the day you act like nothings happened. If you’ve found a way to skip classes without getting in trouble you’ve got to tell me. No more Snape.” Ranted Ron.

“Sorry to disappoint you Ron, but I don’t have a way to skip classes without getting in trouble. I’ve transferred into Arithmancy and out of Care as a result.” Said Harry, finally answering Ron’s original question.

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” Said a flabbergasted Ron.

“Well, Ron, ever since you blow your top at Hermione about her telling McGonagall about my Firebolt we haven’t been talking as much. As for why I changed, given the amount of trouble I get into knowing how and why spells work the way they do could come in handy, plus my parents both took it. And before you bring up all the monsters I’ve had to fight, none of them are likely to come up during class.” Responded Harry.

“What you taking her side again Harry?” Ron said rather loudly, sounding rather upset.

Harry returned fire. “NO, Ronald, I am not. Hermione had nothing to do with my changing classes, in fact she didn’t even know about it until we meet up outside the classroom this morning. Now, unless you have something important to talk about I’m going to get my homework done.”

“Getting your homework done? Why would you want to do something boring like that?” Ron was almost screaming at this point.

“Because Ron, in about a week Quidditch practice will start up again and knowing Oliver he will have the team out on the pitch as often as he can and when that starts I’d rather not get behind in any of my homework because I won’t have time to do it in, plus if I get too far behind in my homework I’ll be pulled off the team, and you wouldn’t want that now would you Ron?” Harry felt no need to match Ron for volume but his voice was louder then normal.

“WHAT?” This time Ron did scream. “They can’t do that.”

“Yes they can Ron, we’re here to learn, not play Quidditch. Now, I know you’re looking at trying out for Keeper when Oliver leaves next year, right?” Asked Harry, knowing that making this point clear should cause Ron to be quite on the subject.

“You know I do Harry.” Answered Ron, having returned to a more normal voice.

“Well if you don’t have a record of doing work why should the team let you on? If you’re not going to be making it to practice because you’re doing detention for not having homework down, why should they pick you?” Explained Harry, hoping that at the very least it would cause Ron to not make a fuss about him getting his completed early in the future and avoid Hermione’s nagging.

-/-/-/-/-

That Sunday, Breakfast Time/Before the Slytherin/Ravenclaw Quidditch Match, The Great Hall

When the morning post arrived and everybody looked up to see if there was anything for them it was impossible to miss the swarm of Post Owls headed towards Malfoy. Between them those owls carried seven long, thin oddly shaped packages that could only be brooms. Once Draco had finished opening them and passing out the Nimbus 2002 broom around to his fellow members of the Slytherin Quidditch Team Harry and Ron started grumbling. Ron was making the usual noises about him being dark and evil, but Harry was saying something about getting out of his punishment.

Hermione couldn’t resist taking the bait offered up by Harry’s statement. “What do you mean Harry, getting out of his punishment?” She asked.

“Well Hermione, with those new brooms Hooch’s punishment is going to be rendered null and void?.” He answered.

“You mean because they will be scoring so high, right.” She replied.

“No.” He corrected her. “They’ll be scoring low. The Nimbus serries are all racing brooms, they sacrifice control and stability for speed and it gets worse each year. Seekers get a lot out of them, as can Chasers at times when speed matters, but other wise they’re a bad broom for Quidditch. The Nimbus Company is also owned by the Cleansweep Company, so it’s a bit like, say Vauxhall, trying to produce a sports car, it’s not their field of expertise and they’re not going to devote or have the resources to really make it work. My Firebolt on the other hand is made by a company similar to Aston Martin, they specialise in high-performance brooms and produce high quality product as a result. So they’ll be playing on brooms that are for the most part inappropriate for their positions on the field that they have never flown before, it’s a bad place to be in.

-/-/-/-/-

Dinner Time The Great Hall

Harry has greatly overestimated Slytherin’s chances, Hermione thought once the match was over and they were all inside for dinner. The match had lasted all day, literally. It had gone on for all of eight hours, a record new length for a Hogwarts game, and while the sun had been just pecking above the surrounding mountains when the game started it had well and truly been down when they trudged back inside after Cho Chang had caught the snitch for Ravenclaw, it hadn’t really mattered for Slytherin hadn’t scored a single point all game.

Once they had all finished eating Madam Hooch stood up at the Head table like she had at the start of term and motioned for everyone to be quiet. When the noise level had died down enough that she could be heard by everyone she started speaking.

“In light of Slytherin Quidditch Team's horrible performance today and their attempt to mitigate their punishment for tricking the teachers into changing the match schedule, the outcome of this game will stand as-is and instead their points total from their highest scoring match of the year will be halved.” She said.

The response around the Great Hall was varied, several members of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses looked like they were about to burst into cheers while the rest of those house where looking very happy with this outcome. The Slytherins did not look at all pleased with the situation, their Quidditch Team or Draco in particular. Snape looked like he wanted to do something nasty in return but know it would only get his house in deeper trouble, he had annoyed the other teachers too much over the past years and with out the Headmaster here to support him things wouldn’t go well.

Harry was very happy with the way things had turned out, but not for quite the same reason as everyone else. With the way things had happened Snape couldn’t cause trouble for him in class for the next few weeks with out the other teachers hammering him for retaliating against Harry for something Harry had no part in. Between that and Professor Vector’s list of books Harry’s potion grade should be going up, which could land Snape in even more trouble if the teachers caught on in time.

-/-/-/-/-

Sunday, Breakfast Time, The Great Hall

The following morning when Harry was eating his breakfast before most of the castle was up a thoroughly unremarkable Post Owl delivered the plainest letter Harry had ever seen, not even the Dursley’s had stationary this bland, however the moment Harry got a look at the back of the letter he could just make out an embossed Gringotts logo that would be all too easy to miss if he wasn’t physically holding the letter in his hand. Putting the letter in his bag to read later, he offered the owl some bacon, which it didn’t take before flying off. Finishing off his breakfast, Harry set off at a leisurely stroll for the room where he normally meet up with Padma and Parvati.

When he reached the room neither of the girls where there yet, not that he expected them to be. Parvati wasn’t an early riser when there weren’t classes and Padma didn’t like getting here before her sister. Deciding to use the time to get started on his assignments, he didn’t want to read the letter yet, it looked very different to the last one he had received and he wanted to know if it was safe to open first.

When the twins did arrive, separately, about an hour later, he waited until they had all finished greeting each other, which for Padma and Parvati seemed to be livelier, but before they settled into do work before raising the matter of the letter he had received. Padma replied, told him that, “Gringotts sends out letters like that when they know the person on the receiving end doesn’t want other people to know that they are getting mail from Gringotts. It’s probably a reply to your request for a meeting and they sent it to you like that because you mentioned that you weren’t being allowed to move around. If I sit in your lap we can read it together.” And with that she took of her robe.

Thankfully this time she war wearing her jumper, but Padma hadn’t gotten her jumper cut to allow growth so it was rather form fitting. Once Padma was sitting in his lap he pulled both of them and the chair into the table, reached into his bag to retrieve the letter and then open the letter. Placing the letter down on the table in front of them, they begun to read.

Dear Mr. Potter,

My apologies for the lateness of this reply but I wished to consulate with your family lawyer first and arrange, if possible, for him to be present at our meeting. It was only when I showed him your letter requesting a meeting and he saw your statement about your movements being restricted, apparently he has sent several letters to you that were confidential and he is surprised that you haven’t replied to them, he now believes that his letters to you have been intercepted and is prepared to meet with you outside of his normal hours.

As far as transport is concerned, for some reason the wards of Hogwarts do not block Portkeys like they do Apparition so this letter also contains a length of knotted thread that can pass as a bracelet, it is a return Portkey. I have made arrangements for both myself and your family lawyer to be available to meet with you from 1 PM on the date of the next Hogsmeade weekend. Once this time has passed you and whoever you wish to bring with you should retire to a secure location, once there have your companion grab your hand while you grab the bracelet with one of your hands and say the word ‘coming’, you will be transported to a special arrival room here in Gringotts, a return function of the Portkey will be enabled once we are finished, allowing you to return from where you left, so make sure that the location will be secure for the entire time.

Yours, Gangrene.

“Well that’s interesting, I didn’t know that Portkeys went through Hogwarts’ wards like that but it makes travelling easier. Now that bit about the family lawyer is both useful and interesting. Now that I think about it it’s not surprising that your family both has a lawyer and that he would want to speak with you, I mean at this time you are the sole member of the Potter Family and as such you should know what is going on with the family trust. This means that we won’t need to hire a lawyer to help with selling the Basilisk or with any other activities that require a lawyer.” She said, winking at the last bit, obliviously hinting at her and her sister becoming his concubines.

“Family trust, I’m guessing that I’m missing something again?” Asked Harry.

“Yes, I’d say you are Harry.” Answered Padma. “The whole thing is really complicated and I haven’t look at it in detail but a trust is a body of wealth, weather actual coins in a bank or property that can make money that was set aside to provide for a family such as the Potters is the past to support them so when people talk about families such as the Potters owning something their normally actually talking about the family trust owning it. The lawyer probably just wants to give you a report on how much money it has been making.”

“What’s the difference between that and my trust vault?” Said Harry, thinking that he was still missing something.

“Legally from what I understand, not much, but your trust vault will only contain money and is mostly there to pay for your school expenses with a little bit of spending money, to provide you with some independence from your parents, if they where still alive.” Supplied Padma, seeing that Harry was starting to tear up with this piece of information she continued. “I’m sorry Harry, but I think you needed to know. Parv, come here and help me cheer Harry up.” Before moving over so that there was room for both of them on Harry’s lap.

Hearing her sisters word’s and seeing how upset Harry was over the mention of his dead parents, Parvati decided that work on her dream journals, which she had chosen because she was likely to be interrupted or distracted, could wait. Taking of her robe before settling in next to her sister she wondered if Harry had ever really dealt with the death of his parents. He seemed to get a bit upset on Halloween, but something bad always seemed to happen to him on Halloween. And it seemed more like he sad over never knowing them then actually hurt.

Once Harry was feeling better, and having two very attractive girls sitting in his lap meant that he felt better rather quick, he then asked Padma “What do I put in my reply to Gangrene?”

“Nothing is particular, just thank him for being prepared to meet with you outside of normal hours and ask him to thank your family lawyer as well.” Padma answered.

“Padma,” Asked Harry, “Do you know how Hermione’s making it to all her classes? I mean she’s taking both Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy and I had to drop Care to take Arithmancy and as far as I know she’s never missed a class for either.”

“Oh that’s easy Harry, several of us in Ravenclaw spotted it right off the bat. She’s been given something that allows her to be in two places at once, most likely is a Time Turner, something that allows you to travel backwards in time by a small amount, so she goes to Care with Ron, then travels backwards in time and then comes to Arithmancy with us. The thing that’s been really bothering those of us in Ravenclaw who like Hermione is why she would have been given one, messing with time is dangerous, so the best we can come up with is that someone’s trying to do Hermione a bad turn.”

“And why would she want to do that? And how do we protect her?” Asked Harry, worried about Hermione.

“The why is pretty simple Harry.” Answered Parvati this time. “She’s the sort of person who isn’t going to let injustice stand sooner or later she will cause trouble for the Pureblood Elite that run the Ministry so their just trying to deal with the problem before it becomes a problem. Protecting her is harder, we’ll have to some how knock the idea out of her head that taking all classes at once is a good idea to deal with the immediate problem, then we have to get her to keep her head down until she’s in a position to do some actual good. There’s nothing much you can do for her at the moment Harry, just keep an eye on her and try and keep her out of trouble, and talk her out of taking all twelve classes at once, if possible. We’ll think of something later, hopefully.”

"One last thing, Padma, Parvati, what's a Portkey?" Asked Harry

"That, Harry, has to be the simplist question you've asked all day." Responded Padma. "A Portkey is a charmed object that takes anyone holding it when it activates to a preset location. A Portkey may activate for one of three reason: someone touches it, a spefic time has been reached or an activation worf is said. This one seems to require all three."

And with that they separated and got to work on their homework.

-/-/-/-/-

Once classes resumed Harry found himself tired quite often. Quidditch practice was only twice a week as Madam Hooch wouldn’t let Oliver book the pitch more frequently, but Oliver tended to book the pitch two days in a row, often leaving Harry to stay up late to complete work that they weren’t given much time to complete. Lupin’s Anti-Dementor classes were also rather tiring and on a random schedule, although Harry found he got the best results if he thought of Padma and Parvati, or even Hermione; and he didn’t know why.

On the day Harry asked Lupin about what was under a Dementor’s hood and got his Firebolt back from Professor McGonagall. He had just sat down next to Hermione to work on his Arithmancy homework while she seemed to be working on six things at once when Ron came down the stairs and started started yelling about Crookshanks eating Scabbers. Personally Harry wasn’t really interested, while Scabbers might have been important to Ron he didn’t really mean anything to Harry. Plus Ron was being rather hypocritical of Hermione by blaming her for not doing anything to stop Crookshanks when Ron hadn’t done anything to protect Scabbers. It wasn't like you could keep a cat in a cage, unlike a rat.

This meant that Harry was on rocky ground with Ron for not backing him up about Crookshanks eating Scabbers. Things didn’t get better between the two of them until Harry let Ron take the Firebolt up during his next Quidditch practice and then things went back to normal between them but Ron wasn’t really talking to Hermione.

-/-/-/-/-

After the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Quidditch Match

“An unworthy trick!” Screamed Professor McGonagall. “A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker.”

“Agreed Professor.” Called out Madam Hooch. “As catching the Golden Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points I think that point deductions can start with that much, each. And seeing as how Mr. Potter has spent most of the last month practising for this match I think your detentions can start at that long. Finally Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Flint, you are banned from Quiditch for the remainder of the year -- and the team will not be allowed to seek replacement members, either!”

Thanks to Tommy King for his beta'ing, red jacobson, Corin Wolfkin, Scott Smith and fribergken for typo busting and all the folks at the Caer Azkaban and Seel'vor fan fiction Yahoo groups for all the help I can't keep track of