Monday May 24
"This is it," Harry said happily. "It's finally almost over. Finallyyyy."
"What do you care?" Blaise muttered from behind a book he was ignoring his breakfast for. "You didn't even study Harry."
"I'm sick of you lot doing it," Harry scowled. He looked around the table and sighed in Fred's direction as he gestured at his friends who were all studying. "D'you see Fred? See why I'm so ready to start these tests today?"
"I know darlin." Fred shook his head sadly at the others. "It's a sad day when the snake table looks like the brains table."
"Don't you two have detention or somewhere to be?" Theo asked sharply. "Some of us are actually worried about our tests today."
"Nope. We finished our detentions," Harry said cheerfully. "McGonagall even assigned us to our heads, so Fred and Sirius practiced dueling and I helped Snape brew. Wasn't much of a punishment, was it?"
"That's because McGonagall is in love with you two," Neville laughed. He sat down the potions textbook that had been glued to his hand for the last week and snagged a piece of toast.
Ron also conceded, throwing down his divination notes and filling a plate with sausages and eggs. "And because King was too scared to say who exactly attacked him and left him stuck to the ceiling covered in boils."
"Which is why it was an absolute injustice that my darling Harry and I were punished!" Fred declared dramatically. "Our detentions were illegally pushed on us! We need a lawyer!! We are taking McGonagall to court! Loser is executed on the spot!"
"Shut up," Harry laughed. "I told her it was me, I didn't want you to get in trouble for my idea. I dunno how you even got caught."
"I told her it was me," Fred winked. "I didn't want my dreadfully famous professional quidditch playing boyfriend to get in trouble."
Harry wasn't really a soppy person, not like some people (he glanced at Draco who was currently smiling like a dope with Luna's head on his shoulder), but anyone willing to take a punishment on his behalf was worth one soppy kiss in front of his friends.
"Yeah, worth every minute of detentions," Fred sighed as Harry sat back down. "Unfortunately, I do need to get going. I've got my charms NEWT first thing this morning."
"Good luck," Hermione said. "Will you try and remember what questions they ask? Or what spells they—"
"Probably not," Fred interrupted her with a laugh. "Sorry Granger, I'm just showing up, taking the test, then immediately forgetting every spell I've ever learned."
Hermione huffed indignantly while Harry and the others wished Fred luck.
Then the rest of them picked their books and notes back up and Harry rolled his eyes.
By Friday, this will all be over with, he reminded himself. You get your friends back at the end of this week.
Their OWLS examinations were spread out over the week. Written exams in the mornings, practical exams in the afternoons after lunch.
Snape had handed out the Slytherin OWL schedules during their class last Thursday with a stern warning to 'not embarrass him'. Harry had potions and charms on Monday, transfiguration and divination on Tuesday, defense and astronomy on Wednesday, herbology and care of magical creatures on Thursday, and only a history exam on Friday afternoon, since that class didn't have a practical portion.
Since they all shared their first exam, the fifth years all lingered in the entrance hall while the Great Hall was rearranged to administer the tests. Most of the other students were frantically quizzing each other or reciting facts out loud to themselves. Harry just leaned against the wall and shook his head at his friends.
He did pat down the front of his robes though and felt the lucky charm Sirius gave him tucked beneath his top. It might be lucky, it might not, but it got Harry signed on the Arrows, so he figured it wouldn't hurt to wear now either. Just because he didn't want to spend all his time with his nose stuck in a book didn't mean he didn't want to get as many O's as possible.
Finally, they were all called to enter the hall and sit at one of the single desks that were turned to face the head of the room. One of the examiners, an ancient looking witch with a severe hairstyle and a 'no nonsense' expression waited until they all took their seats silently.
"There will be no talking, no getting anything from your pockets, no using any quill aside from the one provided for you. If you have a problem, raise your hand and silently wait to be assisted. We cannot help you in any way with the content of the exam. When you are finished, bring the exam here," she pointed to an empty box on the table behind her, "and quietly go wait in the entrance hall for your next exam to start. You have precisely one hour starting now," she flipped over a giant hourglass, "good luck."
Harry turned over his parchment and read the first question:
a) Explain the brewing process and b) describe the effects of a Calming Drought.
Harry bit back a smile as he began scribbling away. Apparently Snape wasn't just having him brew random potions during his two weeks of detention.
Snape was a good bloke.
"Well, it wasn't too bad, was it?" asked Hermione anxiously in the entrance hall a little over two hours later, after they finished their second written exam for the day. "I'm not sure I did myself justice on Cheering Charms, I just ran out of time — did you put in the countercharm for hiccups? I wasn't sure whether I ought to, it felt like too much — and on question twenty-three —"
"No, no, no!" Susan put her hand over Hermione's mouth and shook her head. "Absolutely not. We've been over this so many times—"
"At least seventeen times," Neville added helpfully.
"—we are not going over the exams after they're done," Susan said firmly. "When I move my hand, do you swear to not mention them?"
Hermione's eyes flicked towards Theo, but Theo grinned and shrugged his shoulder in the air.
"Ugh!" Susan suddenly yanked her hand away from Hermione's mouth and wiped it on her robe. "You licked me!"
"I did," said Hermione primly. "Don't cover my mouth, Susan."
"Don't bring up exams then," Susan told her. "Look at Neville! He's dying!"
Neville did actually look pretty pale and subdued as they waited to go back in the hall for lunch. Harry doubted he was actually dying though.
The fifth years ate lunch with the rest of the school (the four House tables reappeared over the lunch hour) and then trooped off into the small chamber beside the Great Hall, where they were to wait until called for their charms practical examination. As small groups of students were called forward in alphabetical order, those left behind muttered incantations and practiced wand movements, occasionally poking one another in the back or eye by mistake.
By the time they called for 'Potter, Harry', Harry was ready to stun the rest of the students to keep them from waving their wands around erratically.
Harry entered the Hall with the Patil twins and Parkinson, his head held high and his hands empty.
"Potter, you're with Professor Lofty," Flitwick told him. "Station three over there."
Harry followed where he pointed, and stepped in a cubicle looking space where an older man, balding and heavyset, glanced up at Harry.
"Harry Potter, the famous one?" he asked.
Harry didn't know if any of his friends were nearby, but he kind of hoped not because the relaxed laugh he let out surely would have irritated them.
"Just the one," he said. He pretended to not see Lofty's proffered hand and looked around carefully. "Ready then?"
"You have your wand?" Lofty asked.
"I don't need it," Harry bragged. "Don't suppose that's worth a few extra points?"
Lofty had chuckled, but after Harry perfectly performed the spells he requested, in his own silent and oddly worded way, Lofty was beaming and Harry was sure that was one O down, eight to go.
His potions examination before dinner was just as easy. In fact, Harry actually felt almost guilty as he turned in a fever reducing potion. It wasn't that he didn't feel he deserved a good grade for it, but it was another of the potions that Snape had him making multiple times in his detention.
His transfiguration OWL the next day was a lot of fun. The written part of the exam had been hard, and left Harry's confidence shaken, but the practical was brilliant. The examiner was so excited by his wandless magic that he kept asking Harry to do wilder and wilder transformations.
"You know in the States they don't even train students with wands," the man said as he happily marked Harry's exam. "You didn't happen to grow up there, did you?"
"No," Harry laughed bitterly. "I grew up in downtown London."
Harry caught a small wink from McGonagall as he was heading out of the hall. She touched his shoulder briefly and bent her head towards his. "I'll see you in my NEWT class," she whispered.
"We're off to Runes," Draco said after everyone finished the transfiguration practical exam. "Good luck with divination."
"Yeah right," Blaise scoffed. "That class was a joke. I can't wait to be done with it."
"We shouldn't have sat with Harry," Neville said gloomily. "He's the worst distraction."
Harry shrugged. It was a fair assessment since Harry took that class time to make up the wildest prophecies, visions, and dream interpretations he could. An act he was going to carry on in to the practical exam.
The students were called up in to Trewlaney's classroom one at a time, in alphabetical order, to have their private exam administered by one of the ministry examiners.
Harry waited until it was his turn and then ascended the ladder once his name was called.
"I'm going to have you attempt to read from the crystal ball before reading my tea leaves," the examiner, a kind faced older witch, told him. "Have a seat and begin when you're ready. There is no time limit."
Harry nodded and made a bit of a show of cleaning off his glasses. Luna, who was top of her year in divination, said that since none of them 'had a hope of actually seeing anything' that they should 'just be theatric about the whole thing and it'll be fine'.
So Harry put on a show.
He placed both hands on the crystal ball and peered in to it thoughtfully.
"You've lost someone," he said, his voice as airy and dreamlike as he could make it. He kept a close watch on the examiners facial expressions through the reflective surface of the ball to see her reactions. "Your mother—," nothing, "no, your father," her lips parted the slightest amount. "You've lost your father," he said confidently. "And now you're wondering if you'll ever see him again, ever hear his gruff voice." Harry rubbed the ball and nodded slowly. "You will," he said. "I can see it in your future. When you get to the afterlife, you will see your father again. And he's going to hug you with a sad smile on his face."
Harry didn't actually know that people waited to die just to see their dead family members until Theo's breakdown over killing Umbridge. If he got a passing mark for this, he owed Theo and Luna both something.
The examiner looked at him seriously as Harry lifted his face from the ball. "Is that your prediction?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am."
"Excellent." She made a mark on her parchment and slid Harry the teacup with a small smile on her face now. "Please read my tea leaves."
That required much less dramatics. So Harry just tilted the cup around a bit and told the examiner that she should be having an 'unexpected windfall of luck' over the summer and 'a joyful change within her family'.
People liked to hear good things about their lives.
When the examiner dismissed him with a quiet, "Good job Mister Potter," Harry thought that had gone as good as he could have hoped for.
Wednesday was the day Harry was looking forward to the most.
The defense practical was right after lunch, with astronomy up in the tower after sunset.
"Harry, quick, teach me the patronus," Ron whispered desperately while they waited for their turns to be called in for the practical.
"Find your own bonus points," Harry smirked. He rolled his eyes when Ron seemed genuinely panicky. "You'll be fine," he told him. "Sirius is a brill teacher and we've been dueling since we were first years, haven't we?"
"I don't know that the unforgivables will get us any extra points," Blaise laughed. He was trying to twirl his wand between his fingers and dropped it. "Damn," he swore. "We should have taught that in the club instead of muggle fighting."
"Are we doing the club next year?" Theo asked Harry curiously.
"Depends if we can take care of my little problem this summer or not," Harry said. "Probably not though, unless one of you wants to teach it. I'm dropping a bunch of classes, but I might not have time—"
"Because he's a professional seeker now, you know," Blaise interrupted him pompously. "Hey, Theo, did you know Harry's a professional seeker now?"
"Is he really?" Ron asked, his voice dripping with fake surprise. "I haven't heard that before."
"I'm sure he's mentioned it, once, or twice..."
"Or every bloody day," Theo sighed. "You two can laugh all you want, I'm the one stuck sharing a room with him all summer."
Harry's face turned a bit red as his friends snickered, causing the other students waiting for their turn at the exam to look at them curiously.
"This is why I'm not teaching you the patronus charm," Harry scowled at Ron. "And I lied, you won't be fine, you're gonna fail."
For whatever reason, Harry's remark seemed to calm Ron's nerves because he looked ridiculously cheerful as Harry was finally called in.
Harry flipped Ron off behind his back as he entered the hall with Parkinson.
"You're with Lofty," McGonagall told Harry when he stepped inside the hall. She pointed towards the same wizard Harry had on Monday.
And, judging from Lofty's excited smile, Harry thought maybe it wasn't a coincidence.
Lofty was singing Harry's praises as he cast jinxes, counterjinxes, and other defensive spells without a wand. He did have to say some of the incantations out loud, 'to prove he knew them'. "Bravo!" Lofty cried after Harry finished the required spells. "Brilliant Mister Potter! You have a true talent for magic!"
"Thank you sir," Harry said with a humble look through his eyelashes. "When Professor Snape was teaching me the patronus charm, he said—"
Lofty's eyes went wide and his smile was stretched so far across his face that it was nearly grotesque. "You can cast a patronus? A true patronus?"
Harry tried very hard not to smirk.
Got him.
"Yes sir," Harry said politely. "Professor Snape taught me in my third year."
Lofty looked around the hall carefully before lowering his voice and leaning towards Harry. "Maybe... for a bonus point or two...?"
After Harry cast his patronus, drawing the eyes of the other examiners, and Lofty once again clapped for him, Harry figured he owed Sirius and Lupin something for telling him it would be a way to impress the examiners.
When everyone finished with their defense exams, Harry noticed that all of his friends had smug looks on their faces.
"Defense went well then?" Fred asked them during dinner when everyone was uncharacteristically relaxed.
"Went brill," Neville said between bites of his squash. "Just think, only three more to go," he sighed happily. "And none of them are even the important ones."
"Only three?" Hermione said snappishly. "Theo and I have four! And they're all equally important!"
"Not history," Ron snorted disbelievingly. "The only reason I'm not planning on sleeping through that exam is because I know it's the last one."
"Cheers to that," Draco raised his glass and clinked it to Ron's. "Here's to three more 'equally important' exams left."
Thursday was a bit of a letdown in Harry's opinion. Herbology went fine, the written was a bit tricky but the practical was just showing how to keep different plants 'alive and thriving'.
Apparently Harry absorbed quite a bit from Neville's habit of studying out loud, because he swore it was Neville's voice he heard in his head as he breezed through the practical.
It was the care of magical creatures practical that had Harry mad as hell.
The practical examination took place in the afternoon on the lawn on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where students were required to correctly identify the knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs (the trick was to offer them all milk in turn: knarls, highly suspicious creatures whose quills had many magical properties, generally went mad at what they saw as an attempt to poison them); then demonstrate the correct handling of a bowtruckle, show how to greet and approach a hippogriff, and choose, from a wide selection of food, the diet they would give a sick unicorn.
Harry was able to identify the knarl, but it bit his hand when he offered it milk. The bowtruckle also sank its sharp teeth in Harry's finger, causing him to shake it off in a knee-jerk reaction. The hippogriff tried to stampede Harry when he refused to bow to it; and, as he'd ignored the unicorns past discovering they hated him, he just guessed at what to feed a sick one.
"Fucked that up," he grumbled to Draco and Theo as the three of them walked up to the castle together after the exam. "I can't wait to never have to worry about those stupid creatures again."
"Too bad you couldn't show how to tame a skrewt for bonus points," Draco said sympathetically. "That would have been worth quite a few bonus points."
"You know you'll get high grades in your other classes," Theo said logically. "Who cares about one failed exam?"
Harry did. But as he wasn't going to admit that, he just nodded shortly.
"One more exam, Harry," Draco said bracingly. "Then this whole nightmare will be over, alright?"
"Thank God," Harry sighed.
It seemed like most of the students agreed with Harry, because on Friday afternoon the entrance hall was buzzing with students who were leagues more relaxed than they had been Monday morning.
"Let's meet up afterwards and celebrate," Susan said.
Harry was surprised when Hermione was the first to agree, he supposed it was probably Hermione who needed to relax the most though. She'd been in a crummy mood for the last couple of months, constantly studying, and fretting over if she would pass or not.
"Yes, let's," Hermione said. "No crazy parties though Susan."
"Of course not," Susan smiled sweetly. "I have a much better plan."
Harry couldn't wait. As much as he liked most of the practicals, he was so bloody sick of the written exams that it almost made him want to skip history altogether. Plus, he hardly got to see Luna or Fred at all this last week, besides at meals briefly.
Last one, he chanted to himself as the fifth years filled the hall for the final OWL examination.
"You know the rules by now," the examiner said from the front of the room. "You have exactly one hour." She flipped over the hourglass, "Begin."
Harry began reading the questions on the parchment, skipping ones he didn't know to come back to at the end (a trick Theo swore by apparently). There were a few questions that asked for his opinion on past legislations, and those were easy to write an answer for. The short 'fill in the blank' ones that asked for specific dates were tricky, and Harry mostly skipped them to come back to at the end.
All around Harry, the sound of quills scratching away kept pulling him from his thoughts.
Probably should have revised for this one, he thought bitterly. No practical here to outweigh the written.Harry was doing his best, filling in most of the answers with his best guess and expounding on the ones he definitely knew.
He hoped if he left lengthy and detailed enough answers for the ones he knew for sure, that maybe they wouldn't notice the ones that he made up dates or names for.
It probably wouldn't work, but it was his best choice since he kind of screwed himself on this exam with his refusal to study.
As the hourglass was almost half empty, Harry hissed through his teeth as he was hit with a sudden pain so sharp that he accidentally snapped his quill in half.
Not now, he groaned.
Timmy had the worst fucking timing in the world.
Harry raised his hand to ask for a new quill, his eyes squinting from the pain, when Timmy dug even harder and Harry had to lower his hand to clasp it across his forehead.
What in the holy mother of fuck (a swear he got from Sirius that Hermione absolutely hated) do you want?! Harry thought venomously.
Timmy wasn't trying to get anything out of Harry's head this time, this time he was...
He was trying to give him something?
Harry opened his eyes enough to look down at his test. It was mostly finished, and if he put his hand up again he was just going to draw a bunch of attention for a quill to finish one of the few exams that didn't matter one bit.
Plus he didn't have a clue what to write for the questions he had left.
Might as well toy with Timmy while he waited for the exam to end.
Let's see what gift you're working so hard to give me then, Harry thought wryly. He closed his eyes and it took a few moments of traveling towards where the pressure was coming in at, a really uncomfortable sensation in his head, and then carefully let that pressure in to his shielded mind.
Harry was immediately sucked in to a... vision? memory? Timmy's own mind?... something that made him think of his trips in to his pensieve.
~~He looked around and saw that he had to be in the Hall of Prophecies. He was surrounded by tall shelves covered in glowing orbs filled with mist. He peered closely at the shelf nearest himself and saw that it was seventy-seven, only a few rows away from where his prophecy had been.
Harry leisurely walked towards where his orb used to be, sure this is what Timmy wanted him to see.
He was half a shelf away from where his orb used to be when he saw a lump on the floor. A... a man. A man curled up over himself on the floor.
Another man, tall and thin, standing in front of the lump, spoke now. His voice was cold, high pitched, uncaring. "Take it for me," he said. "I cannot touch it, but you can. Grab it and give it to me."
Harry walked closer and looked at the shelf, rising his brows with interest. His prophecy, the one that Timmy wanted for himself and Dumbledore was protecting, was right there on the shelf.
Which was absolutely fucking hilarious.
The man on the floor lifted his head up, his stormy eyes glaring at up at the taller man.
"You'll have to kill me first," the man... no... not 'the man'... it was Sirius. It was Sirius curled up on the floor with glazed eyes, blood and cuts on his face, and a tortured expression rasping defiantly up at Timmy.
Which... was way less fucking hilarious honestly.
"I will in the end," Timmy said coolly. "First though, a lesson in obedience I think. CRUCIO!"~~
Harry pulled out of Timmy's 'gift' as Sirius' screams crackled in his ears. His eyes were stinging nearly as badly as his forehead.
He felt shaken, uncertain and worried. He looked at the hourglass and saw there was probably still at least twenty minutes left for this OWL examination.
He didn't have twenty minutes.
"Excuse me!" Harry threw his hand in the air to catch the attention of the examiner. "I'm sick. I need to go, now."
"There's still plenty of time left," the examiner said kindly. "Wouldn't you rather wait?"
"No." Harry got up and quickly levitated his exam to their hands with the eyes of all the other fifth years on him. "I'm done. Thank you."
Harry tore off out of the room while the examiner was muttering something about 'test pressures'. It didn't matter that he knew he had the prophecy, and even if it was stolen the thief wouldn't return it to the Hall of Prophecies, he had to be sure it was a lie, a trick.
He had to be sure Sirius wasn't about to be murdered.
Harry was racing through the empty corridors, heading straight to the defense classroom. When he was nearly there, he registered quick footsteps following behind him and spun around, knife in hand, only to realize he was jabbing it directly in Susan's neck.
"Excuse you," she snapped, shoving Harry's arm away. "This is not the direction of the hospital wing or Snape's office."
"It's not," Harry said shortly. "C'mon then."
Harry took off once more, Susan right by his side. They ran together until Harry reached the defense classroom and threw the door open without even knocking.
"Harry?" Sirius looked up, surprised. "What happened? Are you okay? Why are you bleeding?"
Harry felt the weigh on his chest that mother fucking Timmy put there dissolve as he stared at Sirius.
"What did I name you?" Harry asked quickly, ignoring the classroom full of confused students.
Timmy tricked him once, and he was clearly a big fan of using polyjuice, Harry needed to be sure.
"Grim," Sirius said. He got up from where he'd been leaning against his desk and took a step towards Harry. "What's going on?"
"What'd you call my dad?"
"Prongs. Harry, what's—,"
"The last time you were my Grim, what was I doing?"
"It was Christmas Eve and you were punching the hell out of a tree."
So Timmy just didn't know Sirius was a professor now. Either that or he hoped Harry was stupid enough to just take off and step in to what was probably a trap without checking. Logically, Harry knew that vision had to be fake, since he had the prophecy here in the castle, but he had to be sure.
And he was sure now.
Just one more thing to add to the 'reasons to kill Timmy' list.
Harry let out a breath and nodded curtly. "Don't accept any weird invites," he said cryptically. "In fact, just... just stay at Hogwarts today— all weekend actually," he said. "Kay?"
"Are you going to tell me why?" Sirius asked him as he sat back on his desk.
"No," Harry said shortly. "See ya."
Harry spun on his heel and shut the door just as abruptly as he'd thrown it open.
Susan was giving him an odd look, worried but also tired. "You're an idiot," she sighed. She gently pushed Harry out of the way and opened the door back up and stepped inside the classroom.
"Excuse me, Professor? Do you have a pain potion? I have a terrible headache from the OWLS."
"Sure."
Harry could hear Sirius grabbing something from his desk and handing it to Susan.
"Thank you, sir," she said politely.
Harry gave her a small grimace when she came back in the corridor and gave him the potion.
"The others are waiting for us by the main doors," she said while Harry drank the potion and swiped off his forehead. "I told them to wait so we could go celebrate if you weren't really sick."
"Ta, Sue," Harry said gratefully. He offered her his arm and a smile. "Walk with me and I'll tell you what happened."
Susan curled her arm around Harry's and listened with wide eyes as Harry whispered the story to her.
"What a moron," Susan laughed quietly. "I'm surprised he used Sirius to try and trick you, instead of Snape or one of us."
"That's what I thought too," Harry agreed. "That's why I figured he doesn't know Sirius is a professor. I don't think it was ever announced or anything official, was it?"
Susan scrunched her nose up for a moment while she thought about it. "No," she finally said with a grin. "They were pretty quiet about it. Probably because Dumbledore had already been arrested and Umbridge died. Fudge didn't want people to keep seeing changes happening here. Even in that photo of you guys the other day, it said 'Best friend Susan Bones, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Guardian Severus Snape, and Godfather Sirius Black'."
Harry laughed at the way Susan smirked smugly at how her name had been listed in the paper. Now that he knew Sirius was fine, and knew for absolute for a fact that the vision was a fake, it was almost funny again.
You could touch the prophecy though, Harry thought pointedly towards the link in his mind. If I could touch it, you could too. Feel free to go see if it's there. You fuckin prat.
Then Harry carefully poked around his own mind, checking for cracks in his occlumency shields. Once he was satisfied that Timmy couldn't show him anything he didn't want to see, he turned a happy smile towards Susan.
"How are we celebrating?" he asked.
"Absolutely not," Hermione said. "We are not sneaking off to Hogsmeade. We'll get caught and get in loads of trouble."
"Or we won't get caught and we'll have loads of fun," Draco countered with a smirk.
"Live a little Mione," Ron added pleadingly. "We deserve it after that bloody nightmare."
"Alright, two options then—," Harry smiled charmingly and Hermione and Neville looked suddenly nervous. "We can either all sneak off to Hogsmeade and go to Abeforth's for at least one celebratory drink, orrrr... matching tattoos."
"Tattoos," Susan said immediately.
"Let's go to Hogsmeade," Hermione said hastily. "One drink Harry, then right back."
"Brill!" Harry smiled triumphantly. "Dray, go get Lue. Nev, can you go find Fred? I'm gonna go get Trent."
"Trent?" Blaise asked as Draco immediately set off to find Luna. "Why?"
"We're.... godbrothers," Harry said slowly. "Not real brothers like us," he assured Theo quickly, just in case he got jealous, "but godbrothers. And since Sirius found the hidden passageway to Hogsmeade in the first place, seems fair I show it to Trent, yeah?"
"Makes sense to me," Neville agreed. "Trent might be in the Gryffindor tower with his friend Sapphire, they play gobstones together sometimes, want me to check when I get Fred?"
"Yeah, you go check there and I'll go check the Slytherin room," Harry said. "Everyone meet up at the passage entrance on the first floor in ten, Blaise can show you where it's at."
Harry set off as soon as the others agreed. Susan, as Harry figured she would, went with him.
"I still say that tattoos would have been way more fun," she said as she linked their arms together and turned in to the passageway for the dungeons.
"Probably," Harry agreed. "Snape would be pissed though, he told me if I got a tattoo that I'd be in detention forever."
"Well that's because Snape has no imagination," Susan laughed. "He's just— Snape?"
Harry and Susan skidded to a stop as they turned the corner to head towards the Slytherin common room and came face to face with Snape.
Snape who looked just as surprised to see them as they were him.
Snape who was... dressed up?
He was still in all black, but these clothes were somehow more flattering? Maybe a fancier cut of clothes like Harry's nice dress clothes were? They were less severe looking anyway, they looked good on Snape. They made him look taller, a little more broad shouldered.
"What are you wearing?" Harry asked, flabbergasted by the change. He cocked his head as he looked at Snape's hair. It looked... different too... trimmed, maybe?
"Clothes," Snape snapped. He glanced down at his outfit before narrowing his eyes at Harry and Susan. "What chaos are the two of you brewing?"
"Us, sir? Nothing," Susan said sweetly. "You look nice. What chaos are you brewing?"
"I have... an appointment, elsewhere," Snape said slowly in a weird voice. "It is none of your concern."
Harry tilted his head and looked Snape over from top to bottom. "What kind of appointment?" he asked. "Cause you look like you're dressing up for something important."
"It is none of your concern," Snape said sharply.
And then his cheeks turned juuust the slightest shade of pink and a smile slowly spread across Harry's face.
"Fuck." Harry started laughing, causing Snape to look more angry and more pink. "Are you going on a date?"
"A date?" Susan perked up as she looked Snape over again as well. "He is!" she squealed. "Oh my god, with who??"
"Tonks," Harry said confidently. "Finally took my advice, didn't you?"
"I am the adult, you are the idiotic child," Snape said coolly. "Goodnight Miss Bones. Goodbye Harry."
"Tell Tonks I said hi," Harry yelled over his shoulder as Snape swept past them, his cloak swishing around his feet. He had a sudden thought and yelled at Snape once more. "Wait! You're not taking her to Jiggery Deli, are you?"
Snape stopped and turned back to Harry and sighed. "If I am?" he asked. "Is that also off limits?"
"No," Harry said quickly. That hadn't been the point of his question at all. "But are you?"
"I am not, we are going to a different restaurant in Diagon Alley. Does that suit you, brat?"
"Yep, brill." Harry grinned cheekily again and added a wink for good measure, "Have fun. Try and smile, yeah?"
"You can't tell people to smile, it's rude," Susan said with a sharp elbow in Harry's side. She turned back to Snape and giggled. "But be responsible, sir."
"Goodbye," Snape said firmly.
Susan waited until Snape was gone before she proved that she could read Harry better than anyone.
"Good thinking," she murmured. "It would have sucked if he was taking her to Hogsmeade."
"Wouldn't it have?" Harry smirked. "C'mon, let's hurry up and find Trent, everyone's probably waiting."
They found Trent in the Slytherin rooms quickly, and the kid was ridiculously excited to be invited.
"Sorry, I have to go," Trent said importantly to the other second years he'd been sitting in the common room with playing cards. "Harry, my kind of brother, wants to hang out."
"Godbrother," Harry corrected him with an almost fond roll of his eyes. "We're godbrothers Trent."
Trent didn't look put-out by Harry's correction, if anything he looked even more excited. In fact, Harry was pretty sure that if he said anything else that the kid might actually explode from excitement.
The three of them were headed back up to the first floor when Timmy chose the second worst possible time to go probing in Harry's mind (during OWLS was a slight Harry would never forget). It was sharp this time, focused, and Harry's vision went white from the unexpected pain.
If Timmy kept this up, Harry was worried he was actually going to end up in the Hospital Wing from the constant mental attacks.
"Harry? Harry are you okay?"
Harry could hear Susan, could feel her grabbing his arm, but he clutched his forehead and crouched down in the doorway they were passing.
What the fuck could you possibly want this time?! Harry snarled mentally. Even in his own mind though, he sounded like he couldn't catch his breath from the pain. I'm not coming to your precious Ministry, go try and find that prophecy on your own. I'm celebrating, you selfish noseless dick.
The pain kept stabbing him, directly behind his scar, wanting to be let in again. But Harry wasn't an idiot, he wasn't going to be delayed to his friends by watching some fake vision from Timmy again. Harry sucked in a shuddering breath and drew a mental image of himself, tossing the prophecy up in the air and catching it, over and over. He pushed that back towards Timmy, following the red thread that connected the two of them. Then, for good measure, he sent the memory of sending lightning bolts at Quirrel's head before he disarmed him back in his first year.
Every time you do this it just makes me want to kill you more, Harry warned him. It took a few seconds, but finally Timmy pulled back out. Timmy wasn't curious now, he wasn't digging anymore, he must have seen what Harry sent because he was furious.
Good.
Harry was going to have to talk to Snape. They had to figure out how Timmy kept breaking in his head. With his barriers up, Timmy couldn't see anything Harry didn't want him to see, but damn if it wasn't a painful nuisance.
"Harry? Harry are you alright? Should I have Black send Snape a message?"
"No." Harry swallowed more air and dropped his arm. He opened his eyes and saw Susan was crouched in front of him, her teal eyes tight with worry. He glanced over her shoulder and furrowed a brow at the shimmering shield behind her.
"Privacy shield, Trent's on the other side," she explained. "You're bleeding again."
"Can you clean it?" Harry asked. He felt shaky, like he had the last time Timmy did a targeted attack in his mind. He didn't want to try and clean it himself and end up making it worse.
"Of course." Susan pulled her wand out and waved it over Harry's forehead, "Torego."
Harry felt the blood clearing off his forehead. He touched it tentatively and pulled his hand back quickly as it made his entire head throb to do so.
"C'mon," he said. "Let's go. I'm gonna snag another potion from Snape's office on the way."
Susan nodded solemnly and offered Harry her hand. It was a nice gesture, but Harry ignored it. He grabbed on to the wall beside him and got to his feet.
"Stubborn," Susan accused him. She dispelled the privacy shield and revealed Trent pacing around the corridor behind them.
"I'm fine," Harry said before Trent could ask. "Let's go."
By the time Harry, Susan, and Trent made it to the statue of the humped witch, the others were all there.
"I'm done!" Fred said gleefully, wrapping Harry in a tight hug. "I never have to take another test for the rest of my life!"
"Brill," Harry said with a forced smile. "Ready to go celebrate?"
Fred put his hands on Harry's shoulder and stared in his eyes with a puzzled expression. "What happened?" he asked. "You don't seem happy to be done with your OWLS."
"I'm fine," Harry said shortly. "Ready to go?"
"Hold on." Fred let go of Harry long enough to tap the statue with his wand and murmur the password. "Go ahead guys," he told the others, waving his hand to where the statue opened to the tunnel. "We'll be down in a minute."
Harry rolled his eyes a bit as the others carefully dropped down in the passageway. He just knew this was going to be 'a talk' when all Harry wanted to do was go celebrate.
Fred waited until the others were gone before casting muffliato and smiling gently at Harry. "Alright," he said. "Spill."
"I said I was fine," Harry said.
"And that was a lie," Fred argued slowly, "so what really happened?"
"You spend too much time with Lupin," Harry accused Fred without any real heat to his voice. "I am fine, now, Timmy's just being a dick today."
Fred reached out for Harry's hand and pulled him closer once he caught it. "Want to wait to go celebrate? We can go find Snape instead."
"It's fine," Harry waved him off airily. "Snape's on a date and we need to go before we get caught."
"A date?" Fred's eyes lit up with mischief as he carefully helped Harry climb in the tunnel. "With who?"
"With who what?" Draco asked when Harry dropped in the tunnel.
"Snape went on a date," Harry told all of them, "with Tonks."
"My cousin Tonks?" Draco yelped.
"Aww, that's so cute," Luna said. "They make a very sweet couple, don't they Draco?"
"Uh, sure," Draco said slowly, sounding like he didn't actually think that. "Except Snape is a genius, and Tonks is..."
"Also a genius," Harry said coolly. He flicked his wand to his hand and twirled it threateningly with a quick and smug smirk aimed at Blaise. "She's in the gang, she's my cousin too, and Snape likes her."
"What's a gang?" Trent asked curiously.
"Something you can't join until you're older," Harry said sternly. Trent was just a kid, he didn't need to be a part of the gang yet. Harry wiggled his fingers and conjured a bunch of balls of light. "C'mon guys, let's go celebrate."
Susan had a lot of good ideas. Actually, most of her ideas were good ideas, but this had been the best one yet.
When their group arrived at the Hogs Head, the bartender, Abeforth, looked up and shook his head at them.
"There's always some," he said gruffly. "Just finished your exams, did ya?"
"We did," Fred told him. He did a quick count of their group and pulled a coin purse from his pockets, "Eleven pints of lager my good man."
"Dream on kid," Abeforth chuckled. "Minerva will have my head if I sell this many kids beer."
Harry pulled his own coin purse out and smirked. "What if I swear she'll never know and we pay double?"
"And the little one," Abeforth pointed at Trent, "doesn't get one."
Trent stuck out his lip in a small pout, but Harry agreed and they paid up.
"Here's to being done with OWLS," Ron said as he raised his glass.
"Cheers!"
Despite Abeforth's faux-disapproval, and Hermione's swear that they would only have a single drink, they wound up having two drinks a piece and spending a good couple of hours in the Hogs Head.
"I'm going to miss this," Fred said happily as he looked around the crowded table. "Is it silly if I already can't wait for your first Hogsmeade weekend next year?"
"Nope." Harry smiled when Fred linked their hands together beneath the table and he could feel the ring on his hand. "I—,"
"I already miss you guys and we still have two years together," Hermione interrupted Harry with a tearful wail. She threw her arms around a very startled Luna and put her head on her shoulder. "Can we swear we'll all be best friends forever?"
"She's had a rough go of it," Theo said fondly as Luna swore to Hermione that they would be lifelong friends. "I think that's our cue to go back to the castle though."
Harry looked out the grimy windows and nodded in agreement; the sun was beginning to set, and a group this large would surely be missed at dinner.
"I need to stop by honeydukes," Harry said. "D'you guys mind waiting? I wanna get sugar quills for Snape."
"Then he'll know you were in Hogsmeade," Ron said.
"So?" Harry shrugged. "I'd tell him if he asked. But I wanna tell him about the OWLS and hear about his date, so I figure I should bring a bribe."
"Come on then," Luna smiled and skipped over to where Harry was getting up. "We'll all go together."
Harry, Fred, and Draco all tossed Abeforth a few galleons each in his greasy looking glass labeled 'TIP JAR'. They'd more than paid for their drinks, but Harry figured it didn't hurt to keep the only bartender who would serve them lager in his pub happy either.
Harry inhaled deeply once they were outside. He didn't know if it was the freedom from OWLS, the feeling of summer creeping up, or just the rush from being somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, but he swore the air tasted sweeter outside.
"To Honeydukes?" Draco asked. He was hand-in-hand with Luna, his free arm slung carelessly around Ron's shoulders. "Ron has to get a box of chocolates to send— oof!"
"Shut it you git," Ron said, having elbowed Draco in the side. "I told you it was a secret."
"Aww, love is in the air!" Fred laughed and ruffled his brothers hair. "Who is this special gal? I simply must meet her before I leave in a couple of weeks."
"That is why it is a secret," Ron scowled. He batted Fred's hand off his head. "I don't need you messing my game up."
"His game?" Susan snickered from where she stood by Theo's side. "Who said Ron had game?"
"The courting book he read," Blaise smirked. "Step one is to send a gift, isn't it Ron?"
"It is," Luna answered when Ron stuck his nose up in the air and mimed zipping his lips shut. "Draco sent me a bracelet when he asked me to court with him."
Harry had literally never noticed the golden bangle on Luna's wrist until just now. It was very... Luna-style with the sunflower charm dangling off it.
"Was that before or after you forgot to mail him back your acceptance?" Harry teased her as the group started slowly making their way down to Honeydukes. "Cause he still pouts about that."
"I do not pout," Draco pouted.
Even Trent laughed at that.
"I know who Ron wants to buy chocolates for," Trent whispered in Harry's ear.
Harry grinned and fell back a step so he could whisper back in Trent's ear. "Who?"
"Daphne, on our team," Trent laughed quietly. "He told Draco in the locker room after our last training session."
"Trent, you are officially my new favorite godbrother," Harry declared with a quick ruffle of Trent's hair.
Trent scrunched his nose up and looked a bit like a confused puppy dog. "Aren't I your only godbrother?"
"What's that d'you reckon?"
Harry looked up and quickly glanced around at Ron's abrupt question. "What's what?" he asked.
"You didn't hear those pops?" Ron asked. "It sounded like apparition, except too many in a row."
"I heard it," Neville said. He squinted down the road from them and shook his head. "Couple blocks to the east I think."
Harry had actually been a bit caught up in gossiping with Trent and didn't hear it at all. He exchanged a quick glance with Theo and they seemed to be on the same page immediately.
"Love, wait here," Theo told Hermione. He dropped her hand and kissed her chastely on the cheek. "Harry and I are going to make sure we're not about to walk up on a search team of professors."
Harry pursed his lips in thought for a moment and then pulled his cloak out. "C'mon then," he grumbled. "You lot wait here," Harry said, "we'll be right back."
Theo ducked beneath the cloak with Harry, his wand already in hand. "The teachers wouldn't apparate," he whispered as they quietly darted down an alley towards where the noise had came from.
"I know," Harry agreed tightly. "I didn't wanna say that in front of them though."
"No reason to worry them, it's probably nothing, right?"
Harry glanced over at Theo and cocked a brow at him. "Does it feel like it's nothing to you? In your gut?"
Theo's eyes tightened and he shook his head. "No."
"Me either," Harry admitted. In fact, he could feel the hair on the back of his head standing up. He turned them down another alley and kept heading forward even when Theo whispered it was a dead end.
"Duh," Harry breathed. "Crouch down here," he said, pointing at a small gap next to the trash bin he planned on climbing. Harry kept the cloak on himself as he climbed up on the bin, he was hoping he'd be high enough to peek over the dividing wall and see what had caused that noise without being spotted. He slowly, so slowly and carefully, stretched up on his tiptoes to peek over the ledge and-
Fuck.
The main strip of Hogsmeade, the road that had the Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, the lane that led to the Shrieking Shack, and the path to get back to the castle was swarmed with witches and wizards. All in black robes and white masks. All of them standing in a vigilant group.
It didn't seem like a fuckin coincidence.
"Get under here now," Harry hissed at Theo sharply as he climbed down. "Fuck."
Harry shook his head as Theo quickly got beneath the cloak. "Death eaters," Harry said. "We have to get with the others, now."
Harry and Theo took off immediately, Harry tugged on his core and had it silence their feet, and they might have made it back over by the Hogs Head with the death eaters none the wiser, if Theo didn't accidentally step on a stray cats tail, causing it to yowl loudly.
"Over there!" a man's voice grunted. "C'mon!"
"I'm sorry," Theo whispered as Harry yanked on his arm and broke out in a full on sprint.
"Shut up and run," Harry snapped.
He didn't stop running until he could see the others.
"Get over here," Harry said in a scream-whisper. He yanked the cloak off and grabbed the closest arm to him, Fred's, and pulled him in one of the dark alleys. The others huddled around quickly, their eyes wide and solemn as they looked towards Harry for instruction, but there were too many of them to hide.
And they knew he was here anyway.
Fuck.
"What do we do?" Theo whispered. His voice had a tiny little tremble to it, but his jaw was set and his hand was clenched tight on his wand.
Harry rubbed his throbbing forehead and did a mental count of the death eaters he'd seen. There had to be at least two dozen of them, just the ones he could actually see, and they had groups blocking off the possible exits.
There was no way they could get anywhere without being seen. They couldn't stay in the alley. And Harry couldn't risk splitting the group up to try and smuggle his friends two or three at a time under his cloak.
Fuck.
Harry felt a sudden inappropriate swoop of joy in his stomach as one of the death eaters yelled and he heard footsteps rushing towards their location.
You bastard.
"Death eaters," Harry whispered flatly, ignoring the pang at the sudden fear on Trent's face. "And- and I think Timmy's on his way."
It wasn't Harry that was feeling joyful, he was certain of it. It was Timmy.
Which meant this was definitely a trap. Payback, apparently, for not running off to the fuckin Ministry earlier.
"How do they know you're here?" Susan asked, quickly putting together the pieces the same way Harry had.
"I dunno," Harry whispered. He resisted the urge to squeeze his eyes shut as the situation sunk in. They were trapped.
"What do we do?" Neville asked him.
"We fight," Harry decided after a moment. He was glad his tone was strong and confident, because when his eyes lingered on Luna and Trent, his stomach quivered.
"We can't win against them all," Ron whispered as one of the Death Eaters began calling for Harry in a mocking tone.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are itsy bitsy Potter," the female voice cackled.
"I'll send a message to the others," Harry said quietly. "But be ready to start, because they'll probably find our spot as soon as I do."
Harry waited until the others pulled their wands out and tried to force himself to feel his fierce joy when the Arrows offered him a position on their team.
"Expecto Patronum."
Harry stared down at his little ghost devil, both of them blinking at each other for a split-second as Harry decided on a message.
"I need you to go to the others," Harry whispered to the little patronus. "Go to all our allies, kay? Tell them I said 'Death Eaters in Hogsmeade. I think Timmy's on the way'."
The little devil ran off immediately, and the first green spell was fired off to the side of where Harry's group was.