Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

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(I am back from my vacation, so time to upload the next chapter. I also realized that since I added an original chapter that makes tis one #13, and given the title I think that's fitting. Enjoy)

Chapter Thirteen: Professor Umbridge

Monday was the first day since they had all arrived that he got up at the same time as his dorm-mates. There wasn't usually friendly banter, but sometimes they'd at least say 'morning' to each other, and everyone would mind their business as they got ready, but today everyone but Theo was staring at him as he got changed, he could hear Blaise Zabini sniggering behind his back. It took every once of self restraint to just ignore them and make his way up to breakfast.

As he and Theodore entered the Entrance Hall a line of fourth-year Ravenclaws walked by; they caught sight of Harry and hurried to form a tighter group, as though frightened he might attack stragglers.

Harry tried to push that out of his head as he and Theodore came across a small group of people, including Tracey and Canini, standing around a board were announcements were sometimes posted. Harry went for a closer look and Theodore followed. What everyone was staring at was a large new sign which read:

"GALLONS OF GALLEONS!

Pocket money failing to keep pace with your outgoings? Like to earn a little extra gold?

Contact Fred and George Weasley, Gryffindor common room, for simple, part-time, virtually painless jobs

(WE REGRET THAT ALL WORK IS UNDERTAKEN AT APPLICANT’S OWN RISK)"

'We should have known the twins would try perfecting there business once back at Hogwarts,' said Canini.

Harry thought it was kind of brilliant however, 'They're geniuses, by getting kids to test the products they'll spread awareness of their company, as well as if something goes horribly wrong they have the best nurse in the world just upstairs. Though I doubt Madam Pomfrey would appreciate it.'

As they entered the Great Hall, Harry's energetic mood immediately plummeted, once again everyone turned to look at him and he could almost hear the things they were saying behind his back. The enchanted ceiling above them echoed Harry’s mood; it was a miserable rain-cloud gray.

'You alright Harry?' asked Tracey?

'Harry is just annoyed by how so many people think he made up You-Know-Who's return,' said Theodore succinctly, when Harry did not respond.

Tracey, whom Harry had expected to react angrily on his behalf, sighed.

‘Yeah, me and Allison have been dealing with something similar in our dorm. It’s not just Pansy either, Millicent has been bad mouthing you, and Daphne has been oddly quiet.’

‘Been having a nice little chat with them about whether or not I’m a lying, attention-seeking prat, have you?’ Harry said loudly.

‘Of course not,’ said Tracey calmly, ‘I’ve been telling them to shut their gossiping mouths shut and trying to prevent Allison from murdering them. Harry, did you really think we didn’t have your back. We are with you, no matter what.’

There was a short pause as the group sat down at their table, now joining Allison.

‘Sorry,’ said Harry in a low voice.

‘It’s ok Harry,’ said Tracey with a half smile. ‘I know how hard things have been.’

‘We’ve all been through hard times,’ said Theodore. ‘And they are going to get more difficult. Dumbledore said last year that You-Know-Whose gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. He said we must show we are stronger through bonds of friendship, but we can’t be friends with the school if we are struggling to be friends in our group.’

‘That was over two months ago,’ said Allison, ‘how do you remember that?’

‘Information can be very important,’ he responded, ‘I never know when I might need it so I try and remember as much as I can.’

‘The point of the matter is,’ Tracey pressed, ‘that now both Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat which probably knows more about Hogwarts and its history than any living thing are saying that things are about to get really bad. We have been fighting amongst ourselves, letting tensions rise, but that isn’t going to do us any good. We should make an agreement, that no matter how things get that we have each other’s back.’

Harry didn’t quite now what to say to that, but Allison who is usually so stoic and didn’t like soft emotions, put her hand on Tracey’s shoulder.

‘I agree. Things are going to get worse before they get better, so we are going to need allies. I am with you Tracey.’

‘I’m with you too you guys,’ said Theodore. ‘I don’t know where I’d be without you all.’

Harry was taken a bit a back, he had not been expecting his friends to take an oath like this, but he knew how horrible it felt when there was resentment and mistrust amongst his friends and he knew he couldn’t take that from both them and the rest of the school.

‘Alright, then I’m in too. I agree with what Allison said, we are stronger as a group than as rivals.’

With that settled they started eating their breakfast. After taking a bite of toast, Harry looked up at the staff table. Professor Grubbly-Plank was chatting to Professor Sinistra, the Astronomy teacher, and Hagrid was once again conspicuous only by his absence.

‘Dumbledore didn’t even mention how long that Grubbly-Plank woman’s staying,’ he said, as he took another bite.

'He might have done that on purpose,' said Theodore.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Harry.

Theodore lowered his voice, ‘Well, if Hagrid really is on an important mission, Dumbledore himself might not know when Hagrid is returning.’

There was a defining silence as Harry started panicking again, if it was that serious what if Hagrid never came back, what if...

‘But I’m sure he will return soon,’ said Tracey, putting a hand on Harry’s arm.

‘Yes, you’re probably right.’

With a whoosh and a clatter, hundreds of owls came soaring in through the upper windows. They descended all over the Hall, bringing letters and packages to their owners and showering the breakfasters with droplets of water; it was clearly raining hard outside.

Harry hadn’t been expecting any mail knowing that nearly everyone he knew was under strict owl rules, but he could make out his trusted snowy owl coming in for a landing. When Hedwig landed Harry handed her an owl treat and took the letter. It was a letter from his aunt Andromeda and uncle Ted wishing him good luck on the start of school.

Someone else who received mail was Allison. She moved her scrambled eggs aside quickly to make way for a large damp barn owl bearing a sodden Daily Prophet in its beak.

'What are you still getting that for?' said Harry irritably, thinking of all the rubbish that was being written in there, as Allison placed a Knut in the leather pouch on the owl’s leg and it took off again. 'Isn't it all lies?'

‘The articles on you are all lies,’ she replied while she unfurled the newspaper and began reading, ‘but this is still the best way to know what is happening at the Ministry, and we need that information to stay prepared.’

It was only at the end of breakfast when they had received their schedules that she had finished reading. ‘Nothing today, at least where the Ministry is concerned yesterday was a boring day. There wasn’t even an article berating you Harry.’

‘That’s good, I didn’t want my first day to have a fresh article fueling our classmates discussions,’ said Harry as they all stood up. ‘Is your schedule the same as ours today Allison?’

While Harry, Tracey, and Theodore took the elective Divination, Allison had quite it early in her third year and switched to Study of Ancient Runes.

‘Today I’m the same as you, it’s Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Runes class.’

‘Ok,’ said Tracey, ‘then we’ll all be going to Charms, double Potions, Herbology, and double Defense today.’

With the topic now being classes, Theodore had a question, ‘So we’re in fifth year now, that means we have O.W.L.s at the end of the year. Do you think the rumours are true that they’re fifty times harder than the regular exams?’

‘Last year Terence started studying for his O.W.L.s all the way in the fall,’ said Tracey.

‘I thought that was because he liked you,’ said Harry.

Tracey blushed, ‘He studied in the courtyard to be closer to me, but he really was studying that entire time. But what I don’t understand is why they’re so important, aren’t they just tougher exams?’

‘No,’ said Theodore, ‘the O.W.L.s determine what N.E.W.T.s you’re able to take in your final two years, and your N.E.W.T. results determine what jobs you’re eligible for. You can’t get any high paying jobs without a couple N.E.W.T.s, and again you can’t take any N.E.W.T.s without doing well on your O.W.L.s.’

Theodore then saw the worried look on Tracey’s face, ‘But, um, I’m sure you’ll do fine.’

‘You won’t be completely alone Tracey,’ reassured Allison. ‘This is also the year teachers will help you figure out what job you’d like and what O.W.L.s you should put your energy into to achieve that job.’

‘D’you know what you want to do after Hogwarts?” Harry asked the others, as they started getting closer to the Charms classroom.

‘Potions,’ said Theodore at once, ‘I want to invent new potions.’

‘That’s cool that you got that all figured out,’ said Tracey, ‘I have no idea what I want to do. What about you Harry?’

It was Harry’s turn to go a little sheepish, he knew what he wanted to do, but the person who had suggested it to him had turned out to be a murder.

‘I want to be an auror, like, um, like how B-‘

‘Like how Sirius was and Remus suggested,’ Allison said very suddenly. Harry looked at her with surprise, and then gratitude. She then continued. ‘And you’d be following in Remus’ and your cousin’s footsteps. My dad really wants me to be an auror too, but I don’t think that’s where my passions lay.’

‘Well where do they lay?’ asked Theodore, but it was at that moment they had reached the Charms classroom.’

Charms with Ravenclaw wasn’t Harry’s favourite classes, but Professor Flitwick was a nice man and a good teacher so Harry didn’t have any problems paying attention. Unlike in previous years however, Flitwick assigned homework in the very first class, and spent the first fifteen minutes of their lessons lecturing the class on the importance of O.W.L.s.

‘What you must remember,’ said little Professor Flitwick squeakily, perched as ever on a pile of books so that he could see over the top of his desk, ‘is that these examinations may influence your futures for many years to come! If you have not already given serious thought to your careers, now is the time to do so. And in the meantime, I’m afraid, we shall be working harder than ever to ensure that you all do yourselves justice!’

They then spent more than an hour reviewing Summoning Charms, which according to Professor Flitwick were bound to come up in their O.W.L., and he rounded off the lesson by setting them their largest amount of Charms homework ever.

‘I want you all to write a detailed explanation on the following charms from previous years and show me your paper tomorrow; the Banishing Charm, Fire-Making Spell, Levitation Charm, Mending Charm, and the Severing Charm.’

To Harry this had been the longest Charms class in his life and was relieved when the bell finally rang.

‘Things really must be getting serious if Flitwick gave us homework on the first day,’ said Allison. ‘He usually only goes over the curriculum for the year and saves the homework for the next class so we aren’t overwhelmed on the first day.’

‘We’ll probably have to pull a page out of Terence’s book and set aside study time for every single day,’ said Theodore.

‘And you’ll help us with that, right?’ asked Harry.

‘I’ll help you all come up with better studying strategies, but you won’t see me giving you answers to anything. If we get caught cheating this year we potentially face worse consequences then just detention.’

Before heading to Potions they decided to review their Charms homework in the damp courtyard. A fine misty drizzle was falling, so that the people standing in huddles around the yard looked blurred at the edges. Harry, Tracey, Allison, and Theodore chose a secluded corner under a heavily dripping balcony, turning up the collars of their robes against the chilly September air and talking about what Snape was likely to set them in the first lesson of the year. They had got as far as agreeing that it was likely to be something extremely difficult, just to catch them off guard after a two-month holiday, when someone walked around the corner toward them.

‘Hello, Harry!’

It was Cho Chang and what was more, she was on her own again. This was most unusual: Cho was almost always surrounded by a gang of giggling girls; Harry remembered the agony of trying to get her by herself to ask her to the Yule Ball.

‘Hi,’ said Harry, feeling his face grow hot. At least you’re not covered in Stinksap this time, he told himself. Cho seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

‘You got that stuff off, then?’

‘Yeah,’ said Harry, trying to grin as though the memory of their last meeting was funny as opposed to mortifying. ‘So did you...er...have a good summer?’

The moment he had said this he wished he hadn’t: Cedric had been Cho’s boyfriend and the memory of his death must have affected her holiday almost as badly as it had affected Harry’s...Something seemed to tauten in her face, but she said, ‘Oh, it was all right, you know...’

‘Are you a Tornados fan?’ Allison demanded suddenly, pointing at the front of Cho’s robes, to which a sky-blue badge emblazoned with a double gold T was pinned. ‘I’m one of there biggest fans.’

‘Yeah, I do,’ said Cho.

‘Have you liked them for a long time or are you a recent fan?’ Allison continued to press.

I’ve supported them since I was six,’ said Cho coolly. ‘Anyway...see you, Harry.’

She walked away. Tracey waited until Cho was halfway across the courtyard before rounding on Allison.

‘Why did you do that?!’

‘I was trying to save the conversation, it looked like it was going down hill.’

‘But she obviously wanted to talk to Harry, not to you!’

‘Why would she want to talk to just Harry, we both play Quidditch with her.’

Harry had told Theodore that he liked Cho, and Tracey had figured that out on her own, but Harry realized just now that it must never have been brought up to Allison. Tracey gave her best friend a pitiful look.

‘My poor blind friend, there’s much we should discuss.’

‘That’s the bell,’ said Harry, who was glad to bring an end to that conversation.

Tracey and Allison walked a bit behind Harry and Theodore as they made their way down to Snape’s part of the dungeon. Although Harry couldn’t hear what they were saying he assumed it was about his feelings for Cho.

What Harry could not stop thinking about in the long trip down the stone stairs was that between Neville and Allison he would be lucky ever to have two minutes’ conversation with Cho that he could look back on without wanting to leave the country.

And yet, he thought, as they joined the queue lining up outside Snape’s classroom door, she had chosen to come and talk to him, hadn’t she? She had been Cedric’s girlfriend; she could easily have hated Harry for coming out of the Triwizard maze alive when Cedric had died, yet she was talking to him in a perfectly friendly way, not as though she thought him mad, or a liar, or in some horrible way responsible for Cedric’s death...

Yes, she had definitely chosen to come and talk to him, and that made the second time in two days...and at this thought, Harry’s spirits rose. Even the ominous sound of Snape’s dungeon door creaking open did not puncture the small, hopeful bubble that seemed to have swelled in his chest. He filed into the classroom behind Theodore with the girls close behind and went to their usual table at the back, ignoring the quiet whispers of other students who were looking right at him.

‘Settle down,’ said Snape coldly, shutting the door behind him. There was no real need for the call to order; the moment the class had heard the door close, quiet had fallen and all fidgeting stopped. Snape’s mere presence was usually enough to ensure a class’s silence.

‘Before we begin today’s lesson,’ said Snape, sweeping over to his desk and staring around at them all, ‘I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an ‘Acceptable’ in your O.W.L., or suffer my...displeasure.’

His gaze lingered this time upon Neville, who gulped.

‘After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me,’ Snape went on. “I take only the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying good-bye.’

His eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled. Harry glared back, feeling a grim pleasure at the idea that he would be able to give up Potions after fifth year.

‘But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell,’ said Snape softly, ‘so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. students. Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: If you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing.”’

On Harry’s left, Theodore sat up a little straighter, his expression one of the utmost attentiveness.

‘The ingredients and method’—Snape flicked his wand—‘are on the blackboard’—(they appeared there)—‘you will find everything you need’—he flicked his wand again—‘in the store cupboard’—(the door of the said cupboard sprang open)—‘you have an hour and a half...Start.’

Just as Harry and the others had predicted, Snape could hardly have set them a more difficult, fiddly potion. The ingredients had to be added to the cauldron in precisely the right order and quantities; the mixture had to be stirred exactly the right number of times, firstly in clockwise, then in counterclockwise directions; the heat of the flames on which it was simmering had to be lowered to exactly the right level for a specific number of minutes before the final ingredient was added.

‘A light silver vapor should now be rising from your potion,’ called Snape, with ten minutes left to go.

Harry, who was sweating profusely, looked desperately around the dungeon. His own cauldron was issuing copious amounts of dark gray steam; Tracey’s wasn’t emitting any vapour, Ron’s was spitting green sparks, but Theodore’s was exactly as Snape had described, silvery as a unicorn’s hair. As Snape swept by he looked down his hooked nose at Theodore’s without comment, which meant that he could find nothing to criticize. At Harry’s cauldron, however, Snape stopped, looking down at Harry with a horrible smirk on his face.

‘Potter, what is this supposed to be?’

Pansy’s group at the front of the class all looked up eagerly; they loved hearing Snape taunt Harry.

‘The Draught of Peace,’ said Harry tensely.

‘Tell me, Potter,’ said Snape softly, ‘can you read?’

Blaise Zabini laughed.

‘Yes, I can,’ said Harry, his fingers clenched tightly around his wand.

‘Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter.’

Harry squinted at the blackboard; it was not easy to make out the instructions through the haze of multicolored steam now filling the dungeon.

‘Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counterclockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore.’

His heart sank. He had not added syrup of hellebore, but had proceeded straight to the fourth line of the instructions after allowing his potion to simmer for seven minutes.

‘Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?’

‘No,’ said Harry very quietly.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘No,’ said Harry, more loudly. ‘I forgot the hellebore...’

‘I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless. Evanesco.’

The contents of Harry’s potion vanished; he was left standing foolishly beside an empty cauldron.

‘Those of you who have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name, and bring it up to my desk for testing,’ said Snape. ‘Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday.’

While everyone around him filled their flagons, Harry cleared away his things, seething. His potion had been no worse than Tracey’s, which was now giving off a foul odor of diesel fuel, or Neville’s, which had achieved the consistency of just-mixed cement and which Neville was now having to gouge out of his cauldron, yet it was he, Harry, who would be receiving zero marks for the day’s work. He stuffed his wand back into his bag and slumped down onto his seat, watching everyone else march up to Snape’s desk with filled and corked flagons.

When at long last the bell rang, Harry was first out of the dungeon and had already started his lunch by the time his friends joined him in the Great Hall. The ceiling had turned an even murkier gray during the morning. Rain was lashing the high windows.

‘What Snape did to you wasn’t right, Harry,’ said Theodore as he sat next to him.

‘Oh really Theo, I’m surprised you said that because you’re always so busy sucking up to him.’

Tracey looked like she was going to intervene, but Theodore spoke first.

‘No, what he did was wrong, almost everyone was unable to make a complete potion, and yours was far from the worst, so to single you out to give a zero to wasn’t right.’

‘Yeah, well,’ said Harry, glowering at his plate, ‘since when has Snape ever been fair to me?’

None of the others answered; all three of them knew that Snape and Harry’s mutual enmity had been absolute from the moment Harry had set foot in Hogwarts.

‘I think we thought Snape might lighten up on you this year,’ said Tracey as she looked carefully around; there were half a dozen empty seats on either side of them and nobody was passing the table. ‘Now that he’s on our side against You-Know-Who.’

‘I guess working together isn’t enough of a reason to him to stop treating me unfairly,’ said Harry before taking a drink of pumpkin juice.

‘And I wonder if we are really working together at all,’ said Allison. ‘What proof do we have that he truly stopped working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’

That left their lunch on a sour note, and there moods did not improve as they attended Herbology as the rain made the path to the greenhouses all muddy. Similar to Charms, the Slytherins had Herbology with the Ravenclaws, and once again although it wasn’t Harry’s favourite class, Professor Sprout was a tough but kind teacher.

‘I want you all to write a paper on Mandrake’s,’ said Professor Sprout near the end of class. ‘It’s due on Wednesday and once marked I’d hold onto it as it may be very important in June.’

‘With Flitwick wanting us to write those reviews, Snape wanting a foot long essay on moonstones, and Sprout wanting a paper on Mandrakes we are going to be drowning in homework by Wednesday. That Umbridge woman had better not give us any...’ said Harry.