~ I have added this Fanfic to my Patreon. If you'd like to read advanced chapters, feel free to check it out!
~ I'm planning to increase the number of advanced chapters to +18 this weekend!
~ I've edited some of the previous chapters to remove anything you might consider "cringe" or "unnecessary." I'll continue reviewing them from time to time!
~ Very soon, we'll return to releasing two chapters daily, including bonus privileges for Power Stone contributions!
<><><><>
12 September 1991
As Harry headed down for breakfast, he wondered if he'd need an extra dose of Sleakeasy to get through the day, for today was to be the much-anticipated start of flying lessons. Naturally, the Slytherins and Gryffindors were grouped together, so it was probably going to end in tears. And sure enough, the day got off to a poor start when Malfoy and his lackeys inexplicably picked a fight with the Gryffindors at breakfast, one quickly broken up by Professor McGonagall. When they came over to the Slytherin table, Harry asked what that had been about. Malfoy was evasive, but Goyle blurted out that they were mocking Longbottom because his grandmother had sent him a Rememberall as a present.
"And what's a Rememberall when it's at home?" asked Harry.
"It's a globe that turns red when you've forgotten something important," replied Draco blandly as he buttered some toast.
"Hmm. I suppose that could be useful," replied Harry.
"Not really. Besides, Longbottom's is huge and ancient and ugly and looks to be made of cheap glass. He'll probably break it by the end of the week."
"I thought you'd gotten over your issues with Neville."
"I don't have 'issues,' Potter. But your brother hasn't done anything obnoxious in a week, so I've gone back to having equal disdain for all Gryffindors."
Harry shook his head and went back to his Daily Prophet. He hoped the rest of the day would be less dramatic.
Ten hours later ...
Harry's hopes had been in vain. That evening, Draco sat down for dinner across from him, and Harry just looked at the other boy in furious consternation. Finally, Draco noticed he was being stared at intently.
"What?" he asked.
"And what, pray tell, was all that about?" asked Harry somewhat hotly.
"You'll have to be more specific, Potter. It was an eventful day."
"The bit where you insulted Longbottom when he wasn't there to defend himself, then you deliberately threatened to destroy Longbottom's Remember-thingy after he fell and got hurt, then you flew off with the Git in defiance of Madame Hooch's orders, and then tried to destroy the Remember-thingy, only for the Git to miraculously save it. Oh, and just now, you challenged the Git to – and I can't believe this is even a thing – a wizard's duel?!"
"Yes. That all did happen. Do you want to be my second? The Weasel is seconding the Git."
"At a wizard's duel? It's not even October! What are you two going to do – transfigure matchsticks to needles and fling them at one another until somebody loses an eye?"
"You'll just have to come to the duel and watch. Meet me in the Trophy Room at midnight."
Harry's eyes narrowed as he studied Malfoy's smirking face. "You're not even going, are you? This is just a trick to get the Git and the Weasel out of bounds after curfew."
Draco laughed. "That's what I like about you, Potter. Despite your obvious deficiencies, you're still leagues ahead of your miserable brother."
"Well, I suppose that's what passes for a compliment in this house."
"Pfft. If you wanted compliments, Potter, you should have gone to the Puffs."
Harry snorted. "Well, hopefully, this has at least cured you of your strange obsession with Longbottom's Rememberall."
Draco sneered at him and then resumed eating. Theo eyed the whole exchange silently.
Later, as the Slytherins were returning to their dorms, Theo nudged Harry and whispered, "You should think about getting a Rememberall yourself if you can." And then he held out his hand to show a small orb that looked just like Neville's only about one-fourth the size. "Draco has one as well. They're more useful than you might think." Then, Theo moved on quickly leaving a perplexed Harry Potter behind.
13 September 1991
The next morning, Harry met with Hermione and Neville in the Library. They were supposed to meet up so that he could answer a few last minute DADA questions before that morning's class. But now, instead, he was sitting in a padded chair rubbing his temples and listening as Hermione and Neville described their "adventures" from the night before.
"So let me get this straight," he said tiredly. "Jim and Ron decided to sneak out to participate in an illegal midnight wizarding duel which wasn't going to happen anyway because the whole thing was a trap to get Jim in trouble which I figured out in less than five seconds. And you went along because...?"
"Well, I wasn't planning on accompanying them, but I came out into the hall after them to tell them not to go, and then the Fat Lady wandered off somewhere and I was stuck anyway, so I thought it better to go along with them than just sit in the corridor by myself," said Hermione as if that was the most logical thing in the world.
"And they actually found me passed out on a bench nearby. I, ah, sort of forgot the password and fell asleep." And then, Neville muttered "stupid Rememberall" under his breath just barely loud enough for Harry to hear.
"So to continue," Harry said with some annoyance, "the four of you went to the Trophy Room, discovered that Malfoy never showed, almost got caught by Filch, and then decided the best thing to do was to go to the Third Floor Corridor of Certain Painful Death?"
"Well," Neville replied with a grin, "obviously the Headmaster's warnings of certain painful death were exaggerated since we did not, in fact, die or even suffer pain. But we did find a Cerberus! And we also learned that Jim has a very high pitched voice when he screams!" He laughed, and Hermione punched his shoulder in annoyance.
"We also learned that the Cerberus was sitting on top of a trap door," she added. "Obviously, something incredibly valuable is being hidden down there with a Cerberus to guard it. But what could it be?"
Harry looked back and forth between his two friends in wonderment. "A better question would be: why on Earth do you care? Dumbledore said to stay away because it was dangerous, and I take him at his word. How did you even get past the door?!"
"Alohamora. It's in Chapter 7 of Goshawk's Standard Book of Spells for First Years."
Harry, who had already read that entire textbook from cover to cover, stared at her and then crooked an eyebrow suspiciously. "No it's not," he said firmly.
<><><><>
~ If you like the story, please leave a review!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power
Stones]
~ (Soon +18) Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon!
https://p-atreon.com/Deepak_fanfic
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)