Dear Harry,
AKA the snake prefect,Would you like to come to lunch with us on your Hogsmeade weekend in October?Rems being polite. He meant to say: hey kid, come get lunch with your favorite godfather.You are his only godfather.Exactly.Anyway! Let us know if you're free and how your classes are going.I heard Umbridge is a right twat.Very mature Padfoot. Excellent example to set for your godson.Hey! Harry teaches me more curses than I have him!See you soon, hopefully.
-Remus & Sirius
Harry knew that this was OWL's year and his classmates were stressed about the increased workload, and the extra essays were bloody exhausting. He knew that Dumbledore was plotting ways to use Harry to kill Voldemort for him. And he knew that Timmy was back and was constantly trying to break in to his head- an incredibly annoying sensation that gave him a slight headache each time. But honestly?
Harry actually thought this might be the best year ever.
There wasn't a tournament to be won, and every time he saw Fred it set off a painful constriction in his chest, but he compensated by avoiding Fred and finding other things to do.
Things like quidditch practice, with and without his team. He had talked with Viktor after he setup the spots for his team and asked for advice on how to convince recruiters for professional teams to come to his games this year.
'You are Harry Potter. Sign your name clearly' was the advice he got.
Which is exactly what he did.
Technically, Susan wrote the letters (having a much more professional way of writing) and Harry just signed his name and sent them off with Sevvie. So he had a small bit of hope that at least one team recruiter would be curious enough to show up. If Viktor could go pro at sixteen, Harry wanted to do it at fifteen.
Harry also spent a lot of his time showcasing duels to the other Slytherins who came to him once they realized Umbridge wasn't willing (or, according to Snape and Hermione, capable) to show them the spellwork in class. He really didn't see the fuss everyone made over it, if you understood the theory then you should be able to do the spell. And even if you didn't, you just needed to focus hard and pull on your core.
Magic was so easy, it was everyone else who was making it hard.
Plus, Harry liked having two extra classes every week where he could just work on his essays for other classes. Ron had given him 'a look' when Harry pulled his transfiguration text out during Umbridge's second class, but Umbridge didn't even comment on it.
She was just another suck up, always mentioning how great it would be if Harry would tell Fudge about how good of a teacher she was. He always hummed noncommittally at that, he wouldn't do it for free and so far there wasn't anything Umbridge could offer him.
Harry did refuse to help any student struggling in Umbridge's class who hadn't sworn themselves to his side though. It would be stupid to help make a potential enemy even better at magic. But the ones who did approach him for alliances he helped.
Blaise had teased him, calling him the future Snape, but if these were people in his gang, people who were going to fight with him, why wouldn't he make them better at it?
Blaise hadn't had a response when he said just that.
So, all in all, Harry was having a great year so far.
Even the Draco and Luna thing wasn't bothering him as much ever since Neville and Theo talked to him about it.
'You are allowed to be jealous, but you are not allowed to treat Draco like dirt just because he's in a new relationship,' Theo said firmly.
'And if he hurts Luna?' Harry asked coolly.
'Think about that Harry, do you honestly, honestly, think Draco is brave enough to hurt Luna when he knows she's so important to you and Susan?' Neville smirked. 'He's not exactly full of daring nerve, is he?'
Which, was fair enough. Because Harry had made it real clear to Draco that he would beat him to death with his bare hands if he hurt Luna. He liked Draco, he was one of Harry's best friends, but Luna was... Luna.
And Luna had already been tossed in the bottom of a lake once, he wasn't going to sit around and give anyone else an opportunity to hurt her.
And now, they were only a week away from their first Hogsmeade weekend, two weeks from their first game, and Harry was entirely content.
He walked down to breakfast with Ron and Draco, discussing the lineups for the other school quidditch teams (apparently Ginny was the Gryffindor seeker, which had made Harry laugh a bit rudely). They were still debating on who the new Hufflepuff seeker would be since Diggory graduated last year when they realized the buzz of frantic whispers filling the Great Hall.
"What'd we miss?" Harry asked Susan, sliding in to his seat.
Theo was the one who answered him. He handed over his paper and needlessly pointed at the headline. "Umbridge's promotion was announced."
HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR INSTATED!
Harry scoffed at the paper, then immediately sent a polite nod up at the Head Table to Umbridge. If she thought they were allies working towards a common goal, then all the better for Harry. He had known she was getting the position, she told him after their last class, it was just a power move so she could make rules that Dumbledore couldn't override.
"Oh he's fuckin mad, isn't he?" Harry murmured to his friends, grinning slyly at Dumbledore's lack of usual cheer.
Susan was beaming outright and even laughed when she saw Dumbledore's cool look every time he glanced at his paper. "It doesn't help that on page two it announces he was asked to step down as the Supreme Mugwump."
"Was he really?" Harry was now smiling almost as brightly as Susan.
"Good riddance," Draco muttered darkly.
"I wish it wasn't at the expense of our education," Hermione said. "Umbridge is a foul teacher. If it weren't for your meetings Harry I think everyone would fail their exams."
"Hey, speaking of that- Harry, are you letting other people from other houses come practice defense, or just us and the Slytherins?" Neville cut in abruptly.
Harry tilted his head at Neville and raised one brow quizzically. "Who wants to join?"
"Everyone," Neville deadpanned. "Well, not the ones in the other club, but a good portion of others asked me about it. I guess they heard from-"
"Wait- what club?"
Luna shook her head at Theo's question and tsk'd a little. "A bunch of the other students started a defense group. Everyone knows that," she said airily.
Harry felt better when he and his friends all exchanged looks, it actually seemed like none of them besides Neville and Luna knew that at all.
"We aren't a club though," Harry pointed out. "And I don't like 'everyone'."
"We could be!" Hermione sat up eagerly. "We just need permission from a Head of House-"
"Which will be terribly difficult to get," Blaise smirked.
"-and then we could post signups! And make lesson plans! And rules!!" Hermione looked like a crazy person as she immediately started digging parchment out of her bag.
"It would be a good way to recruit students from other houses," Ron mused. "Offer alliances to the ones who seem decent at it."
Harry would have said no, he really had no interest in making his little weekly showcasing in the Slytherin common room public, but then Luna had to go and guilt trip him with her wistful comment.
"I've always wanted to be in a real club."
Which is how Harry found himself standing outside Snape's office immediately after breakfast the next morning. Draco had wanted to go get permission right away, but Hermione and Theo thought that Snape would be more likely to approve it if they came up with an actual 'proposal' for the club. Not that that meant they were going to be the ones to ask though, they all told Harry that he should be the one to do it.
"He'll never tell you no," Ron said.
Harry sometimes thought people got the wrong idea about Snape. He had loads of rules that Harry wasn't allowed to break, and he said no about a lot of things.
'Don't go in the chamber of secrets without a professor'.
'Eat your meals every day'.
'Don't follow me in to a fight with death eaters'.
'No you can't enter the Triwizard tournament'.
'No you can't skip your potion just because you miss the feeling of manic episodes'.
Harry honestly thought Snape was pretty strict.
"Sev," Harry grinned cheekily when Snape opened the door. "We have a favor to ask you."
Snape slowly looked over the excited expressions on Harry's friends' faces. "No."
Harry didn't want to say 'told you so' but he went ahead and muttered it anyway.
"But you didn't even hear what the favor is?" Hermione pointed out.
Snape actually looked like he was going to shut the door right in their faces. Susan must have thought so too, because she hastily stuck her foot in the doorway.
"We want to start a defense club," she said. "And we just need your permission to do it."
"A club?" Snape raised both his brows at Susan. "You expect me to believe that you came here to get permission to start a school club?"
"Why's that so hard to believe sir?" Neville asked.
Snape didn't even answer, his brows just somehow managed to go higher.
"We think it would be a good way to help students in other houses practice defensive magic," Hermione said.
Which was kind of a lie. Harry was doing this for three reasons:
1. Because Luna wants to be in a club.
2. It would be easy to add more people to the gang this way. And Harry personally thought it would be hilarious if he was able to recruit enough students to just shock the hell out of Dumbledore when he finally realized it.
3. It sounded like a good way to show off his magic and keep people from attacking him. Not that anyone had really, not since his second year, but it never hurt to remind people that Harry wasn't weak.
None of them were just to help others. But Hermione's explanation sounded better for the 'proposal'.
"Harry's already teaching most of Slytherin. And we made rules! So rule one would be-"
"I am no longer saying no. I am now saying that I cannot grant this request, but I will point you in the general direction if you will not read me a list of rules and leave me alone for the rest of the weekend," Snape sighed.
"And that direction is...?" Susan smiled.
"Dolores has already established a dozen new policies as her new position allows her to. One that will be announced this week is that all clubs, teams, and study groups consisting of four of more people have to be approved by her," Snape said. "I apologize Harry, you will need her permission."
"Brill," Harry shrugged. "I'll just go ask her then."
"You believe she will approve it?" Snape asked.
"She will if she wants me to tell Fudge what a great job she's doing," Harry said.
It seemed like Umbridge finally had something Harry wanted from her.
"Excellent. Then you may ask her to allow the Slytherin team to continue playing as well." Snape kicked Susan's foot out of the doorway and closed the door with a curt slam that made Harry and his friends laugh.
Yeah, Snape was strict. And he was a bastard sometimes. But Harry never failed to find it hilarious how much he pretended to not like people.
Harry and the others were halfway to the defense corridor when it seemed as if Ron, Draco, and himself all stopped short with the same sudden, horrifying, thought.
"Did- did he say Slytherin team?" Ron stammered.
"As in quidditch?!" Draco's voice was high-pitched.
They both looked at Harry with identical looks of horror that he was undoubtedly wearing as well.
"If she doesn't approve it, I'll kill her, yeah?" he reassured them, thinking quickly. "Snape can't be mad about that. He'll see that it was an emergency."
"Quidditch is not an emergency excuse to kill someone," Hermione said firmly.
"Can I do it?" Susan asked brightly. "So when Auntie comes to investigate she either has to drop the case or arrest me."
Harry started walking with newfound purpose once more and carefully put his arm over Susan's shoulders. "I'd never let them arrest you."
And he wouldn't. But he also would never let Umbridge refuse to allow all the houses to play quidditch either. What good would it be for Harry's team to get permission if they didn't have any competition?
And he'd already sent out letters with the date of the upcoming Slytherin vs Gryffindor game. He'd look like a prat if it got cancelled.
It was while planning a quick way to kill Umbridge if she refused that was on his mind as he rapped politely on her office door.
"Come in!"
Fuck. Harry hated her voice. It was so... so fake.
But two could play that game.
"Good morning Professor Umbridge." Harry smiled charmingly as he and his friends entered the most disgusting looking office he'd ever seen. There were just kittens... kittens everywhere. Kittens painted on plates and on canvases. Photos of kittens. Kitten stuffed animals on the shelves.
It reminded Harry of the crazy lady that once threw a fit outside of a shelter because the staff wouldn't let her bring her shopping cart full of cats inside.
"Good morning Mister Potter." Umbridge smiled while her beady eyes glanced at the group of students. "What brings you here today?"
Hermione didn't say anything, so Harry assumed this was another thing he had to do himself.
He'd remind them of this next time they complained that he didn't rely on them often enough.
"I have two favors actually," Harry said. "I heard about the new policies you're putting in effect-"
"From Severus no doubt."
Harry didn't think he really liked the way she said Snape's name.
"Yes ma'am," Harry said politely. "And we both agreed that it's great how many changes you and Cornelius are making around here."
It didn't hurt to remind her that he was on a friendly first name basis with the Minister. It was a neat trick that Draco's dad taught him.
"So I was hoping that you would give the quidditch teams permission to play, and that you would approve a new club that we-" Harry gestured to his friends, "-would like to start."
"Is that so?" Umbridge's smile stretched until it was clear across her face.
"And I'd be sure to mention to Cornelius what a great job you're doing and how you did me such a big favor," Harry said casually with a half-smile.
"Well." Umbridge patted down her greying curls and batted her eyelashes. "What kind of club are you starting Harry?"
If Harry didn't like how she said Snape's name, he really didn't like how she said his. It made his skin crawl and the air stick in his throat. He quickly stuck his hands in his pockets and held tightly to his pocketknife. He rubbed the handle with his thumb while he glanced subtly at Susan.
Handle this, please, he mentally begged.
He'd never beg aloud, but he really hoped Susan knew what he was thinking.
And, as usual, she did.
"It's a defense club ma'am," Susan said in her innocent student voice. "We thought it might help some of the... less studious," she smirked, "students to get extra help outside of your class."
"Which would increase the overall grades of the defense classes," Theo said.
"And reflect back on the defense teacher of course," Draco added.
"Of course," Umbridge simpered. She was still batting her lashes at Harry and he thought maybe he'd be sick.
"So you'll approve it?" Susan glanced at her wristwatch and raised her brows at Harry. "I bet we'd have time to floo Minister Fudge before he gets too terribly busy if we hurry."
If Umbridge hadn't been sold just yet, she certainly was when Blaise spoke up. "Don't be ridiculous Susan," he drawled. "Minister Fudge is never too busy to answer calls from Harry."
"It would have been easier to kill her," Harry muttered to Luna on their way to the library. The others were all chatting excitedly about the 'Defense Against Dark Arts Club', the official Hogwarts club with the least interesting name ever.
Loads better than 'Dumbledore's Army' that Neville mentioned said Finnigan and the Patil twins were trying to run. Apparently they were 'showing loyalty' to the headmaster whose name was being trashed in the papers and by the majority of Slytherin house.
Luna laughed airily and squeezed his hand. "You will."
Harry accepted this with a sigh of relief.
It sometimes seemed like Timmy had the right idea. He didn't bother with the politics and playing nice- he just killed whoever was in his way.
But then Harry remembered that two of the people who stood in his way were his parents, and that he'd tried to kill Snape back in May and reminded himself that Timmy wasn't much of a role model.
***
Sirius and Lupin,
Sounds brill. I'll see you Saturday. Don't forget that our first game is next Sunday.
-Harry
***
Life that week went on as usual for Harry. He attended classes during the day and he ran practices in the afternoons.
Hermione compared all of their schedules and made Monday nights the official night for the DADA club to meet bi-weekly. The plan was to advertise the club and then have the first meeting the day after their first quidditch match.
And, at breakfast Wednesday morning, Harry wasn't sure if Hogwarts could get any better when he saw a group of a dozen owls carrying a giant box straight to the Slytherin table.
Sevvie followed behind them, dropping a red envelope in front of Harry right on top of the huge box.
"What's that?" Neville asked, carefully prodding the box.
"A howler," Ron's face paled and he pointed slowly at the red envelope.
"What's that?"
Before Ron could answer Harry's question, or Harry could answer Neville's, the 'howler' did both.
The Hall seemed to go silent as everyone watched the the envelope magically levitate itself and unfold right in Harry's face.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER! HOW DARE YOU BUILD THE GREATEST QUIDDITCH TEAM EVER! DID YOU EVEN THINK OF HOW DEVASTATED MINNIE WILL BE WHEN THE LIONS LOSE? HOW EMBARRASSED SHE'S GOING TO FEEL? IT'S GOING TO BE TERRIBLE FOR HER WHEN YOU LEAD YOUR TEAM TO VICTORY! I AM SO DISAPPOINTED-"
"PADFOOT! DO NOT TELL HIM YOU'RE DISAPPOINTED YOU IDIOT! WAIT, IS THAT A HOWLER?!"
"GOTTA GO! LOVE YOU PUP!"
Harry's face had never been so red in its entire life.
He was going to kill Sirius. The brooms he was sure were in this box were not worth having everyone stare at him as the envelope burnt itself to ashes.
He sent a nervous glance up at the Head Table and saw that Snape and McGonagall both were watching him as well. Snape was smirking, probably laughing at Harry's embarrassment like the bastard Harry knew he was on occasion. And McGonagall's lips had never been so thin before.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," she snapped, thankfully taking the attention off Harry.
"Oi! What for?!" Thomas yelled from the Gryffindor table.
"Nostalgia," was McGonagall's curt response.
Which, as odd as that reply was, it did make Harry's friends all laugh.
"Does that mean that's what I think it is?" Ron gasped. "Harry. Mate. Let's skip history and go fly?"
"Harry is a prefect, he can't just skip classes to go flying," Hermione hissed.
Harry glanced at Draco and saw his carefully masked excitement and shrugged.
"You in Dray?"
Draco's head snapped up. "Really?"
Harry also thought that sometimes people misunderstood him just as much as they did Snape.
Did he have a bit of a temper? Yeah.
Does he always have a good understanding of relationships like everyone else seems to? No.
But Draco thinking Harry wouldn't include him in the first test ride of Firebolt 100's for their quidditch team was stupid. He was Harry's cousin and one of his friends. Draco never asked for favors and always stuck by Harry's side. He bought Harry his first broom and made Flint let Harry try out for the team. Harry would kill anyone for Draco. Of course he was going to include him in such a brilliant idea.
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't mean it, would I?" Harry said. "But if you don't want to go..."
"Yes!" Draco jumped from his seat with the least amount of control Harry had ever seen him dismay. Luna giggled at his enthusiasm, which must have brought Draco to his senses.
"Uh, excuse me," he blushed. "I- I can help you carry that box Harry."
"Orrrr, I can levitate it," Harry drawled with a roll of his eyes. "Nev, you wanna skip off too?"
"And get on a broom? I'll take my chances with Binns," Neville shuddered.
"How mad will Snape be if I skip?" Susan asked.
"You can't skip! We're partners!" Hermione said. "The boys shouldn't be skipping class either!"
Harry grinned at Hermione and made the box float off the table in front of him. "Alright Mione, we won't skip."
Hermione looked momentarily relieved, and Ron and Draco looked devastated.
"Really?" Hermione said hopefully.
"Nope. Run!"
Harry, Ron, and Draco laughed like idiots as they ran from the Great Hall straight to the quidditch pitch.
The boys had a great time flying. By the time they landed they were all sporting flushed cheeks and windswept hair.
"There's no way we can lose." Draco had a bounce in his step as they went to lock their brooms up with the others in the changing rooms. "We're-"
"What the fuck?"
Harry's overwhelming happiness from flying with his friends died immediately as his vision went red. Because there, leaning against the outside of the Slytherin changing rooms, was Fred.
Fred and some fucking tosser snogging.Harry's vision seemed to narrow down to this one person. This yellow clad older student.
Ron and Draco darted forward to yank Harry away, but they were too slow.
Harry landed a punch to the Hufflepuff boys face before he even had a chance to realize Harry was there.
"ARE YOU FUCKIN SERIOUS?" he yelled. He went to hit him again, but the prat ducked and Harry hit the building instead.
"What the hell?" the boy yelped, darting off to the side, effectively blocking Harry's next hit.
"Harry, c'mon," Ron made a brave grab at Harry's right arm and yanked on it. "They're fucking brainless morons, don't get expelled mate."
It was only Ron's use of Harry's favorite curse word that drew Harry's eyes from the Hufflepuff boy to Fred.
Fred who was fucking grinning at him.
"Don't touch me," Harry shook off Ron's hold of his arm and glared at Fred. "I will kill you," Harry hissed.
"Why?" Fred asked innocently as the Hufflepuff boy ran towards the castle as quickly as he could. "You're not jealous, right Harry?"
Harry's hand flew to his pocket- only to be stopped by Draco this time.
"No!" Harry spat. God he was sick of people accusing him of being jealous. "You- I- detention. You have detention."
Fred's smile only grew at Harry's blatant abuse of his authority as prefect. And Harry had never wanted to hit him so bad before.
"With Snape," he sneered. "On Saturday."
Which meant that if Fred and the coward that ran away had plans for some cute little Hogsmeade date, they were cancelled now.
Harry went to stalk off, but Fred's laughter almost had him giving up his entire education if he could just go back and hit him one time.
"Breathe," Draco murmured from his side. "He's just trying to get a reaction from you."
"Is murder a reaction?" Harry growled.
"He'd deserve it," Ron muttered darkly. "Merlin. I can't believe he'd be so daft."
"Who was the other bloke?" Harry demanded as soon as the three of them were safely in the locker room and Harry had slammed the door behind them.
"Kaleb Barrett," Draco supplied immediately. He carefully grabbed the Firebolt still in Harry's hand from him and hung it up on the wall. "Seventh year Hufflepuff."
"Well he's got fuckin detention too," Harry snarled.
"Snape might not like you giving them detention for pissing you off," Ron said slowly. "Tell him it's for public display of affection or something."
Harry bit his tongue until he tasted blood and jerked his shoulders in a shrug.
Snape better just be happy Harry didn't kill them and make them absolutely miserable during detention.
He probably would.
Harry immediately logged Barrett and Fred's detentions the moment the three of them got back to the castle. He hesitated when he had to write down a reason before firmly writing 'snogging in public'.
Snape would figure it out.
Harry returned to his classes with the other Slytherin boys and was relieved that everyone seemed to understand he was not in a good mood and did not want anyone to talk to him.
Draco had explained what happened in a note he passed to Susan in defense, causing her to glower and mentally swear to kick Fred's arse. But she knew better than to bring it up to Harry when he looked half a second away from burning down the entire castle.
Even Luna kept her distance, knowing Harry needed time to calm down before she tried to cheer him up.
And, by Friday evening, Harry was mostly calm.
He was digging out every book on curses that the restricted section of the library offered (another perk that came with his prefects badge) while his friends wrote their essays for Flitwick, but he was calmer now.
He had ended it with Fred because Fred deserved better. Fred deserved someone who wasn't broken and could give him everything he deserved.
But fuck if Harry wanted to see Fred actually snogging someone else right in front of him.
"That's a good one," Blaise murmured, gesturing to the book Harry brought back to their table. "There's an excellent curse of castration in there."
Harry wasn't sure what castration was, but if Blaise said it was a good curse then he'd add it to his list of things to try out if he ever found Barrett alone in the halls.
"Are we allowed to talk about it now?" Susan whispered to Harry after she neatly rolled up her essay.
"Nope."
"He doesn't really like Barrett," Ron jumped in quietly. "He's just-"
"Think I said 'nope', didn't I?"
"We're talking about it during patrol tonight." Susan crossed her arms stubbornly. "If nothing else, we can plot revenge."
Harry just nodded and focused on his book. The rest of them finished up their essays and chatted quietly about their classes and which OWL will be the hardest and a million other things Harry didn't give a damn about just then.
"Hi Harry."
Harry glanced up irritably at the girl who was standing beside the table his gang had claimed way back in first year. His friends quieted down, curious what she wanted from Harry.
Except Luna, who hummed as she stared up at the ceiling with an odd little smile on her face.
"What?" Harry snapped at the girl.
"I wanted to find out how I can sign up for your defense club," the girl smiled coyly, twisting a lock of her long dark curls around her finger.
"Mione and Theo do sign ups," Harry said coolly. "They'll add your name."
"It's Romilda, Romilda Vane," the girl smiled, not even looking to where Harry pointed out Hermione and Theo.
"Brill," Harry grit out, losing what little patience he had. "Tell them."
"I also wanted to know if you had plans Saturday?" she asked, either oblivious to Harry's decreasing patience or ridiculously brave to continue the conversation.
Harry's brows twitched and he cocked his head to the side as he studied her. She was pretty enough; long black curls, dark skin, and light brown eyes framed in thick lashes. She had on the school uniform, but hers looked to be shrunken on her as it clung to curves that the other boys were doing an admirable job of ignoring.
And, most importantly, she was a Gryffindor.
Harry closed his book and offered her a charming smile. "I don't," he lied.
Romilda beamed, and she had a decent enough smile. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?"
Harry eyed her maroon and gold tie one more time before he leaned back in his chair and shrugged casually. "Why not?"
His friends exchanged surprised looks, all of which Harry ignored.
"Great!" Romilda bounced on the balls of her feet. "I can meet you in the Great Hall at noon?"
"See ya then," Harry smirked.
"What in Merlin's name was that?" Theo asked in a hushed whisper as soon as Romilda left.
"Payback I'm pretty sure," Blaise smiled. "And a pretty payback at that."
Neville shook his head in Harry's direction. "She's going to tell the entire Gryffindor common room that she's going out with Harry on Saturday."
Harry bit back a smug grin. He had been fairly certain that Romilda was one of the girls who giggled in their groups when they saw him in the halls, which was fine by him.
"You know she only asked you out because you're famous?" Draco said hesitantly. "I thought you wanted to go out with someone who liked you for you?"
"It's one date," Harry said lightly. "I don't care why she asked me out."
All he actually cared about was that she bragged to the seventh year Gryffindor boys.
Sirius & Lupin,
Can we reschedule lunch? I've got a date Saturday.
-Harry.