Harry Potter and the Year of Surprises by erinpotter

Friday

Not Mine

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As Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny made their way to the great hall the next morning, there was not an air of nervousness about the test at all. They had paid attention in class and had revised for weeks, so none of them were worried. They walked into the hall and saw that the only other people were Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Parvati and Draco.
They went and sat next to their fellow Gryffindors. 

‘Why do you think he’s up so early?’ Seamus asked Harry. ‘It's not like he’s got any exams on!’

‘Erm…I dunno Seamus.’ he said awkwardly, trying to pretend he didn’t know anything. Hermione was being asked the same question by Lavender.

‘Do you really expect me to know, Lavender. Or do you want me to ask him?’

‘No, I was just making conversation…’ Lavender said. 

‘Maybe he couldn’t sleep?’ Hermione added.

‘Yeah, maybe…’

After breakfast, there was even more speculation when Draco didn’t leave with the rest of the school. He waited, as though he was taking the test.

‘Now what the hell is he doing?’ Parvati exclaimed, her high-pitched voice screaming into Ginny's ear.

‘That hurt, Parvati. Why don’t you go and ask him? Put us all out of our misery.’ Ginny snapped, holding one hand over her injured ear.

‘Oh, no way! Me? Talk to Draco Malfoy? I'd never be able to build up the courage! He’s Draco Malfoy!’

‘I know who he is! And why do you need courage to talk to him?’

‘He’s a Slytherin. In fact, he’s THE Slytherin! And he’s so hot! I think I'd go weak at the knees!’

‘For God’s sake, woman! That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! If you don’t go over there and ask him yourself, I'll tell him what you just told me!’ Ginny said.

‘You wouldn’t. Please say you wouldn’t!’ Parvati pleaded

‘I would. Try me.’

Parvati glanced at Ginny and saw that she was serious. She walked over to Malfoy.

‘Morning, Malfoy…Draco…Malfoy…’

‘Call me Draco.’ Draco said, sighing.

‘Okay, Draco. Erm…I was just wondering…em…well…we all were wondering…’

‘What I was doing here?’

‘Yeah.’ Parvati whispered.

‘Exactly what you are.’

‘No, you see. I'm waiting to do the Defence NEWT.’

‘So am I.’

‘You are?’

‘I am.’

‘Oh…right.’ she said, and scuttled off to inform all the Gryffindors what was going on.

‘Lavender! He was so sexy! Honestly! He’s even hotter up close! I called him Malfoy and then he said, in this really sexy voice, “Call me Draco” and so I did! And we were talking and oh! He is gorgeous!’

‘Was he? You lucky bitch! You talked to Draco Malfoy! I wish I had talked to him. God, I think I will. No, he’s way out of my league!’

Dean coughed loudly. ‘So what did he say?’

‘He said, “Call me Draco” and I almost fainted!’ Parvati shrieked, as quietly as possible.

No, I meant did you ask him what he’s doing here.’

‘Oh yeah, that. He’s taking the NEWT. Anyway, Lavender, he’s got these really smouldering eyes and…’

‘You mean the Defence NEWT?’ Seamus asked.

‘Yes that!’

Seamus turned to Ron. ‘You think he is?’

‘Must be. Maybe there’s been rumours going round about ‘The Rise, Fall and Rise of Harry Potter’ and the Slytherins dared him to take the NEWT to see if it was true.’

‘Yeah, good theory!’ Seamus gasped and ran off to inform Dean.

‘Good thinking.’ Harry said, impressed.

The doors to the great hall opened and they all made their way in. Harry sat down in his seat, annoyed at Parvati sitting in front of him. She was still sighing rather loudly, obviously reminiscing the moment when Draco said ‘call me Draco.’ 

The test was set in front of him. Harry turned the first page. 

Question one: Name all the ways to become invisible.

Harry smiled and started writing. 

Question ten: What is a boggart and why are they still alive in this day and age?

Harry began to write. ‘A boggart is a shape shifter. It takes the form of whatever a person fears the most. It likes residing in dark places e.g. wardrobes, cupboards. They are still alive because they cannot be killed. There are always people to scare and so there are always boggart.’

Harry thought this was an acceptable answer, so he moved on. He went through the test, not finding any questions undoable, but some were quite difficult.

Question twenty seven: explain the effect of the Imperius curse in no less than two hundred words. 

Question thirty: What were the names of Lord Voldemort’s parents?

Question thirty two: Why did Lord Voldemort go after Harry Potter?
He moved along, some questions about him and Voldemort were quite disturbing, and brought back bad memories for him.

Question thirty five: what colour is the flash of light from the Avada Kedavra curse?

Harry reluctantly wrote down ‘green’.

Question thirty nine: What were the names of Harry Potter’s parents?

‘James Potter and Lily (Evans) Potter.’

Question forty two: How many times has Harry Potter came face to face with Lord Voldemort (in any form).

Harry counted them on his finger. ‘One, two, three, four, five, six.’

He finally got to the last question, which was an essay.

Question fifty: Choose between (a) Lord Voldemort and (b) Harry Potter, and write a detailed account of their lives, till present. 

Harry thought it was sort of cheating, but he chose himself. He would obviously get more marks by reliving his memory than trying to remember a few textbook facts about Lord Voldemort’s childhood.

‘Harry James Potter was born on the 31st July 1987. He lived with his parents, James and Lily in a place called Godric’s Hollow. His godfather was Sirius Black, James’ best friend. When James and Lily realised they were marked for death, they went into hiding. They made Sirius Black their secret keeper and so only people whom Sirius had told, knew where they were. Then, at the last minute, Sirius told James and Lily to change their secret keeper to Peter Pettigrew, as it was less obvious. That was the big mistake. Pettigrew told Voldemort where James, Lily, and Harry were living. Then, on Halloween night, when Harry was one year old, Voldemort came to Godric’s Hollow in search for Harry…’

Harry wrote out his whole life story. He wrote what an awful time he had had at the Dursleys. How he had to live in a cupboard under the stairs until he told the Dursleys that his godfather was a convicted murderer. 
He gave detailed accounts on every time he had come face to face with Voldemort, and gave lots of credit to the people who had helped him. He, for the first time, told openly about how he had felt when Cedric was killed. How he thought that he was next. And he told of how all the people had come out of the end of Voldemort’s wand and gave him the strength to struggle on.
He was still writing when a female examiner called out, ‘ten minutes left! Please look over your work.’

He finished writing about coming into his powers extremely early and looked over his work. He had written plenty and was quite sure of another Outstanding, but refused to admit it to anyone but himself.

Outside, at their tree. Hermione gave a small smile. ‘Only the practical to go now!’

‘I know. I'm so glad!’ Ginny sighed, laying her head on Harry's chest. Harry was sprawled out on the ground.

‘Yeah, but that test wasn’t so hard!’ Harry claimed.

‘Yes, but there were a few hard ones.’ Hermione said.

‘Yeah,’ agreed Ron. ‘But the easiest was the last one. All I had to do was write out my best mate’s lie story! Knew all the facts!’

‘Shut up, Ron.’ Harry said.

‘Don’t say you did Voldemort?’ he said.

‘No, but…’

‘Well then, you have to agree it was easy.’

‘Easy enough. But it was hard to write it all down! Those are my memories, and everyone is writing about them!’

‘Yeah, I suppose. Never thought about it like that.’

Parvati and Lavender walked past. Parvati flashed Harry a big smile, she still fancied him.

‘She fancies every male under the sun! Me, Malfoy, everyone!’ Harry said.

‘Yeah, but you and Malfoy are the only ones she lingers on.’ Ginny said. ‘Nice to know, is it, Harry?’

‘Well, pretty flattering, don’t you think?’ Harry teased.

‘No it bloody well isn’t! She fancies anything with a dick, that one!’

‘Ohh! Getting touchy are we, Ginny?’ Ron laughed.

‘No.’ she huffed. ‘Shut up.’

They all laughed at Ginny. She was an extremely jealous person, and as nice as she was, she was spoilt. She was the youngest and the only girl in a family of nine, so it really wasn’t surprising.

Neville came running over. ‘Hey, I was wondering when you’re gonna do that spell thingy.’

‘I don’t know, Neville. I think tonight maybe. We’ll let you know.’ Hermione said.

‘Right, bye.’ he said, and jogged off.

‘I don’t know what's gotten into him lately.’ Ron said. ‘But it can't be bad!’

‘Maybe it's Luna.’ Hermione said. 

‘I'm going to go up to the tower and see if Draco has mailed me, anyone coming?’

‘I'll go.’ Ginny said, getting up and taking Harry’s hand. 

They walked around the empty school. Most people were in class and the seventh years were outside relaxing.
They got to the tower, and sure enough, Hedwig was perched on Harry's bed with a letter attached to her leg.

‘Harry,

I think that we should do the spell tonight, if Longbottom is willing. I shall meet you in the room of requirement at ten o’clock tonight. Good luck with your NEWT.

Draco.’

Harry gave Hedwig a few treats and sent her off to the owlery for a sleep.

‘What does it say?’ Ginny asked.

‘We have to meet him tonight in the room of requirement.’ Harry told her. 

‘Cool,’ she said. ‘Do you really think that he’s alright? What if he’s up to something, under Voldemort’s orders?’

‘He’s not.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Remember in the potions practical, the veritaserum. I asked some questions just to make sure.’

‘So you’re sure?’

‘As sure as I can possibly be.’

‘Okay, then.’ she said, putting her arms around Harry's neck and pulling him into a passionate kiss.

‘Mmmm. That was nice. I haven’t been able to spend time with you in ages.’ Harry said, savouring the moment.

‘I know. Stupid NEWTs.’ she said, kissing him again.

‘I love you, Ginny.’

‘How much.’

‘So much.’

‘Size of the world?’

‘The universe!’

Ginny smiled. ‘I love you too, Potter. Whoever you choose to associate with. Well, as long as it's not Parvati bloody Patil!’

They laughed together and made their way to the great hall for lunch. They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down beside Ron and Hermione, who both looked as happy as Harry and Ginny. 

‘Nice day, isn’t it?’ Harry said, grinning.

‘Oh yes, lovely.’ Hermione nodded.

‘Oy, Neville! Come over here a minute!’ Ginny shouted down the table.

‘He walked up to Harry. ‘Yeah?’

‘Will you meet us in the room of requirement tonight at ten o’clock? And I think you better tell Luna what you’re going to be doing. She might get a little annoyed if “you” start ignoring her and hanging about with us. Just tell her you’re doing it to help me. She’ll understand.’

‘Okay, ten o’clock. Do I need to bring anything?’

‘No I don’t think so, Hermione?’

‘No Neville, just yourself. And you must know that Malfoy will be sleeping in your bed and wearing your clothes, and vice versa.’

‘Yeah, no problem. See you at ten, then!’

He walked down the table again and sat down with Seamus and Dean.

‘He has definitely changed.’ said Ron.

*

All the Gryffindors (except Neville) and Draco waited outside again. Parvati was dividing her attention between Harry and Draco. Neither wanted it.

Once again, they were called in, in groups. But this time, only in groups of three. The first group was Lavender, Seamus and Hermione. They went in and came out about fifteen minutes later and as always, were not allowed to tell anyone what had went on inside. Then Parvati, Harry and Draco were called in. Parvati was nearly beside herself, trying to impress Harry and Draco at the same time. Harry made a mental note to laugh at her when she wasn’t looking. 
They went in and were each directed to an examiner. Harry got the female who had been there in the theory test.

‘Ah, Harry Potter, hello. How did you find the written test? Difficult?’

‘No, I thought it was okay, thanks.’

‘Oh! Okay, then. Could you please display every method of invisibility that you can?’

Harry turned himself invisible, and back again. He put an imperceptible charm on himself, and then a disillusionment charm. He then informed the examiner of his invisibility cloak. She scribbled a few notes on her page and turned back to Harry.

‘Now, Harry. We have got someone here, whom you must duel with. You may use any spell, charm or jinx you wish, except the unforgivables, which is obvious’ 

Harry nodded as she left to find his opponent. He was quite nervous about this. He looked around. Both Draco and Parvati's examiners had left too. He shrugged his shoulders as Draco gave him a questioning look. Parvati was too busy twirling her hair to notice the correspondence between the “arch enemies”.
Suddenly, three long platforms appeared in the middle of the stage. Aloud, booming voice told the three pupils to climb onto them. There were no stairs onto them. Parvati tried to scramble up it, but it was too high. Harry and Draco levitated themselves up, and Harry, taking pity on her, levitated Parvati up too.

When all three were standing on the platforms, wands out, their opponents appeared, dressed in black robes and masks, so their identity was hidden.

They stepped forward and bowed. The pupils did the same. Then they waited for someone to give the signal to start. Then the booming voice, said. ‘Let the duels commence!’

Harry quickly put the strongest shield charm around him that he could, as his opponent was running towards him.

Harry shouted a trip-jinx so that he/she would fall over. It worked. The opponent got up and raised its wand. ‘Impedi-’

But Harry was too fast. ‘Impedimenta!’ 

The opponent was flung backwards and landed with a thud, on the other end of the platform. Harry took this as his chance to send every possible spell its way. He sent a jelly-legs jinx, bat-bogey hex, impedimenta, stupefy, expelliarmus, petrificus totalus and levicorpus. Soon, the opponent was hanging upside-down, paralysed into a stiff position and just coming round from being stupefied. Harry was holding him/her upside down, looking at the shocked faces of the examiners, and then he saw Dumbledore’s eyes flashing with pride. Harry wondered who he was holding by the ankles, so without thinking, he muttered, ‘accio mask’ and the mask came flying towards him. He looked at the familiar face and gasped. 

‘Oh dear, God! I'm so sorry.’ he said, gently setting the person down. 

‘Its okay.’ said Erin. ‘I was expecting it. I'm very proud of you, Harry.’

Draco and Parvati had just finished their duels. Parvati had came off worse in her duel, but seemed to give the opponent a hard time, too. 
Draco’s opponent looked quite like Harry's only he/she wasn’t hanging upside down.

They both whispered ‘accio mask’ and they flew off their faces. 

Parvati’s showed a rather flustered Minerva McGonagall and Draco's was Snape, looking rather worse for wear

‘Oh, I'm so sorry, Severus! I didn’t know it was you.’ he said.

‘No, Draco. I'm very proud.’ Snape said, reaching out for Draco to help him up.

Harry helped Erin up and helped her over to the examiners, where she could get some pain relief and somewhere to sit down.
Dumbledore slapped Harry and Draco hard on their backs. ‘Well done, my boys! How wonderful that you can beat a teacher! Go ahead, on out. Well done, too, Miss Patil. You almost had her! But it is Minerva McGonagall, I doubt if anyone will ever finish her off!’

He laughed as the three pupils made their way out of the doors. Hermione was quite obviously bursting to talk to Harry, but she had to wait till Ron, Ginny and Dean were inside the great hall. Finally, they were called in.

‘How did you do Harry?’ she exclaimed.

‘Yeah, I think I did okay.’

‘Me too. I think so anyway. I got McGonagall, though. She was pretty tough. I knocked her out with the stupefy but she didn’t stay under for long. She hit me with a jelly-legs jinx but I stopped it and hit her with the petrificus totalus. Oh yeah, Seamus got Snape, but he couldn’t beat him. He almost did though! Who did you get?’

‘Erin.’

‘What?!’

‘What do you mean “what?”?’

‘I mean she’s a trained auror! A pupil shouldn’t be duelling with an auror! Did she hurt you at all?’

‘No, she didn’t get me once.’

‘What? Really?’

‘Yeah…I don’t want to blow my own horn, but to be honest…I kicked her ass.’

‘Oh Harry!’ she screamed, engulfing him in a hug. ‘Really? How wonderful! What did she say?’

‘Well, when I found out it was her, I apologised at once, but she said not to worry. That she had been expecting it.’

‘Wow! Who did Malfoy and Parvati get?’

‘Parvati got McGonagall. She did pretty well. She definitely fought for it, but she wasn’t able to defeat her completely. Draco got Snape, and well…he kicked his ass too!’

‘Really? Well, what can you expect when he’s been getting private lessons from Dumbledore?’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’

‘But you! Beating the person who taught you it! That’s impressive! Was Erin annoyed?’

‘Not at all. She was getting seen to, like pain relief but she said she was proud.’

‘Well, that’s great Harry! Oh look, here comes Ron and Ginny.’

They came over, Ginny’s hair was sort of messy looking and Ron was out of breath but they didn’t look hurt.

‘Well, how was it?’ Hermione asked.

‘I got McGonagall.’ Ron breathed. ‘She seemed like she was letting out a lot of anger on me! She was scary, but I did okay.’

‘Yeah?’ Hermione said.

‘Yeah, the first thing I did was put a shield charm around me. Harry taught me that. And then I just fired all the spells I knew, at her. She got me once with a trip jinx and I was dodging a lot of spells but I got her in the end. I hit her with impedimenta and then the petrificus totalus.’

‘What about you, Ginny?’ Harry asked.

‘Oh, I got Snape. He was a little annoyed too. He was sending all these spells that I didn’t even know! But I blocked most of them and dodged a few. In the end, I finished him with a bat-bogey hex!’

Harry laughed. ‘What did Dumbledore say?’

‘Dumbledore?’ Ginny said. ‘Dumbledore wasn’t there!’

‘He was there for mine! Was he there in yours, Hermione?’

‘Nope. Maybe he wanted to see how the star pupil was doing!’ she laughed.

‘Shut up. Anyway, I distinctly remember you saying, a few years ago, “What’s wrong with being at the top of the class?”’

Hermione blushed. ‘I was only joking…’

Seamus ran past. ‘Party in the Gryffindor common room!’

Hermione scowled but Ron looked at her with a pair of big, puppy dog eyes. ‘Just for a few hours?’

‘Well, alright then. But we’re not going till after dinner.’