The Marauder's Heir (Harry Potter FF)

Chapter 37

She took all the insults in stride and didn’t let them get to her, but they still hurt to hear. She was also having trouble sleeping at night, plagued with constant nightmares. The lack of sleep was starting to effect her school work.

"It's really not that difficult, Harri," Hermione tried to reassure her as they sat in Flitwick's class. “All you need to do is concentrate to summon the object you want.”

Harri rarely struggled with practical spell work, which just showed how tired she was.

“I know, Hermione. I’m just having a hard time concentrating,” Harri replied as she sat back in her chair and concentrated on a board eraser laying on Flitwick’s table a few feet away. She said the incantation as she flicked her wand and the object flew straight into her hand. Hermione gave her an exasperated look at grin Harri had on her face when the charm worked.

“You were able to do that the entire time?” she asked with her arms crossed in a McGonagall like manor.

“Kind of. I understood the principle behind it, but I’m just so tired that my magic doesn’t want to cooperate for me. I’ve been resting the entire class so I could do the charm correctly,” Harri replied putting her head down on the desk tiredly and tried not to fall asleep.

“Maybe you should go to Madam Pomfrey if you can’t sleep. It isn’t good for you to stay awake most of the night,” Hermione said worried for her friend’s health.

“George said that he’d rest with me after potions. Being near him always helps my magic recharge faster,” Harri replied with a yawn.

Hermione shook her head, “If that’s what you want. I bet Snape is just waiting for you to mess up in potions today. He knows that you don’t work well without sleep.”

“That’s why I’m charming my cauldron so the Slytherins don’t drop extra ingredients into my potion. I really don’t need Snape to yell at me as well as have a potion blow up in my face.”

Hermione chuckled at Harri’s paranoid behavior, but she could see reason behind it. Snape was always picking on Harri’s mistakes, even the smallest ones. Sometimes her potions would be perfect, but Snape would take a point off her grade because there were some stray ingredients at her work station. Hermione knew that her friend wouldn’t be able to keep her tongue if Snape insulted her today, so Hermione was going to be sitting near her and kick her if she got out of control. 

Harri could feel a nasty headache coming on as soon as she entered the dungeons. She noticed that all the Slytherin students were wearing badges on their shirts that read: ‘SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY—THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!’ the badge changed a few seconds later and read: ‘POTTER STINKS!’

“Real mature,” Harri hissed under her breath as she sat down at her station and began to prepare her potion. The Slytherins were all roaring with laughter at the badges, but Harri didn’t care. She just wanted to get through the day without getting a detention for beating the living daylights out of someone.

Alya seemed to be feeling brave that afternoon and approached Harri’s station. “So, Potter, do you like the badges? They really represent the general feelings of Hogwarts. How does it feel to be the most hated person in school?” she goaded, hoping to get a rise of the raven haired girl. Harri didn’t even turn around to address her.

“I don’t know, Lestrange, what does it feel like to be the most hated student at Hogwarts. You have the most practice after all,” Harri replied calmly. The Gryffindors behind her laughed loudly and the expression on Alya’s face only made it worse.

“You’ll regret that, Potter!” she snapped. She pulled out her wand pointed it at Harri, who wasn’t paying attention, her back turned to the Slytherin.