HIS CHOSEN GIRL
chapter seven-classes and break ins
[Harry's P.O.V]
☟ ☟ ☟
"C'mon Harry, hurry up!" Shouts my panicked redhead friend for what seems like the thousandth time as we sprint down the endless hallways of the confusing castle.
"I'm right behind you, Ron. Settle down!" I struggle to respond only a few feet behind as I attempt to shove all of the textbooks and parchment into my book bag, something I had convinced myself I'd have the time to do this morning.
Ron haults immediately, turning to face me with a look of shock plastered onto his fatigued freckled face. "Settle down? Settle down! How can I settle down? We're late to our first lesson, transfiguration no less! That's McGonagall's course, Harry. Fred and George warned me about her. We're gonna be expelled and oh man, mom's gonna be so mad," he rambles, his words, while obviously over exaggerated, still making me anxious. The last bit about being expelled and being forced to return to the Dursley's house of doom making me downright shiver.
"What Ron?" I question exasperatedly as a sudden look of pain crosses his face. "What else could be wrong?"
"We missed breakfast, Harry. It's the most important meal of the day...besides lunch...and dinner of course and you know now that I'm thinking about it-"
"JUST KEEP RUNNING!"
Good on you, Harry. You've really done it this time.
Truthfully, I'm not sure how we overslept so much. We had gone to bed fairly early, no later than 9:30. Maybe I just have yet to get used to sleep
I really don't know how we overslept, we had gone to bed fairly early, no later than 9:30. Waking up is a lot harder to do I guess, when Aunt Petunia isn't screeching at me at the crack of dawn to get a start on breakfast or chores, no less when Dudley pounds down on the fragile stairs causing me to believe it's the start of an earthquake.
Ron and I continue down the long hallways, until eventually, finally, we reach the room we'd been looking for. Bursting through the door, the feeling of embarrassment is quite immediate as the giggling and whispering of our fellow classmates becomes prominent.
It only bothers me for a moment or so, however. I glance around the room awestruck. Never in my life had I been in a classroom so big, to compare it to my old school would be completely unfair. It be like comparing a kitten to a lion.
Said room was illuminated not only by the several candlesticks lit behind the professor's desk, but by the giant windows that went from floor to ceiling. There were four rows of three desks all occupied by students who were already scribbling furiously on parchment.
Looking around the room, I wonder why Professor McGonagall isn't in sight. Surely she's not later than the two of us.
Ron, apparently a little less suspicious of the lack of teacher let's out a large sigh of relief.
"We made it. Could you imagine the look on McGonagall's face if we were late?"
Glancing right past Ron, I see Hermione who scoffs and rolls her eyes in annoyance. Beside her, (y/n) looks at us frantically, continuously flickering her eyes from Ron and I to the front of the classroom.
Following her gaze, I scan the front of the classroom. There's no one up there, what's she on about? Nothing but.. a cat?
I subconsciously take a step back, is it possible for a cat to glare? Surely it must be, because this one was glaring at Ron and I like nobody's business. As if it knew that I was thinking about it, the cat leaves it's resting spot on McGonagall's desk and pounces off into the air.
WHAT?
In the blink of an eye, the cat had morphed into a woman?!
Had I not been right there, watching it happen with my own two eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. The woman approaches, my fear only growing as she carries the very same glare the cat had shown me just moments ago.
I've seen this woman before, she was the same woman who had led us into the castle just last night, the one who had placed the sorting hat over our heads. A wave of panic rushes through my veins. Professor McGonagall. As in our Transfiguration professor. Seems Ron spoke a tad too soon when he announced that we'd made it, made it without McGonagall witnessing our late arrival that is.
"That was bloody brilliant," Ron praises, eyes and mouth widened in bewilderment.
"Thank you for the assessment Mr. Weasley," she responds calmly but with a cold tone. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I could transfigure Mr. Potter and yourself into a pocketwatch. Maybe that way one of you would be on time."
This is it, I'm through. Not even a full day here at Hogwarts and they'll be shipping me off back to the awful Dursley's where they'll laugh and mock me and return me to my dreary staircase bedroom with no real bed or door or ceiling and I'll be forced to be their servant for the rest of my life and I'll never become a wizard just like my parents, who would be so disappointed in me right now and I-
"We got lost Professor."
It comes out without my knowledge, probably my brain trying to shut up its own rambling.
But really, of all the possible excuses, I decide to go with 'we got lost'?
"Then perhaps a map," she retorts just as quick. "I trust you don't need one to find your seats."
With that she turns and returns to the front of the classroom and I practically sprint to the open seat directly behind Hermione and (y/n).
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. And anyone messing around in my class will leave, not coming back. You've been warned."
McGonagall showed us a really wicked demonstration in which she transformed her desk into a pig! The rest of the class however was quite mundane. We were instructed to preform a simple transfiguration spell at the end of class and the only one who came remotely close was, of course, Hermione.
Surely enough it was time to change classes, and Hermione was first to spring out of her seat.
"Hurry it up, (y/n). I want a front row seat this time!" the frizzy haired girl whines bouncing up and down, her items already gathered as she struggles to remain patient while she waits for (y/n) to do the same.
"Poor, (y/n)" Ron grumbles from beside me, shaking his head in pity.
(y/n) looks up and meets my eyes. I worry that she may have heard what Ron said.
"You know what, Hermione," She begins. "I may be another minute or two so why don't you go on and grab us some seats, I'll catch up with you in a moment."
This was all the approval she needed as she scurries out of the classroom. Turning over her shoulder she yells, "Well, no promises, but I'll try my best."
(y/n) turns to us. "Lost was it?"
"We overslept," I say lowering my head, the stressful situation that I hoped to pretend never existed, returning to my mind all too quickly.
She laughs.
"So, I see you've got yourself a new buddy there," Ron smirks nodding his head to the door, the one Hermione just disappeared out of. "Has she talked your ear off yet?"
"Oh come on you guys, she's really not that bad," (y/n) replies as we exit the classroom ourselves.
"Not that bad?" Ron exclaims. "What are you talking about? I don't know how I'm going to handle another class with her, let alone for the rest of this week! This year is going to be impossible.
(y/n) sighs. "Come on, Ron. Knock it off. Harry doesn't think she's that bad, do you, Harry?"
I look from her to Ron and back again then suddenly find an interest in my shoes. "Well, she is a bit much, (y/n)."
"A bit much? God you guys, so what if she's a little confident in her intelligence, you've gotta admit it kinda is impressive. Besides, she's got more to her than that, really," she looks to us, her eyes almost begging for us to agree with her. Suddenly I realize that for some reason, between last night and now, she's gotten a soft spot for Hermione.
I turn to Ron who merely scoffs. "A little confident?"
The environment shifts and (y/n) quickens her pace turning around and walking backwards and she looks at us. "You know what, I did tell Hermione to save me a seat so I'd better go. I'll catch you guys after class."
"(y/n)-" I fall but she's already scurrying herself off to class. I turn to Ron. "What'd we do wrong?"
"What?" He exclaims. "Nothing! So we don't like her know-it-all friend. That's her problem."
I shrug. "I guess."
I must say I find it astonishing that for once, there's someone maybe a little more clueless than me.
-
Ron, (y/n), and I run down the hill just outside of the castle, on our way to Hagrid's place. He invited (y/n) and I to stop by after our first week of classes to see how we've been settling in to this new life of ours.
"Is this the right place?" (y/n) asks glancing at the small hut that apparently houses a giant.
"It must be," I reply not seeing any other home looking building in walking distance to the castle.
I knock and a few seconds later, the familiar, friendly face of Hagrid appears offering us his signature smile whilst struggling to hold back a large dog.
(y/n) hardly even has to crouch to be eye level with the monstrous pup who quickly attacks her with slobbery licks all over her face.
"What's his name?" she asks squinting her eyes as to not be blinded with dog slobber.
"Fang," replies Hagrid smiling down at the two.
(y/n) laughs joyously. "I love dogs."
"Clearly they love you too," Hagrid says. "Come on in you three, take a seat."
As we settle ourselves in to Hagrid's cozy home, I realize that he and Ron hadn't yet gotten the chance to meet formally.
"Hagrid, this is Ron. Ron, Hagrid."
Hagrid chuckles. "Ah, another Weasley eh?" I've spent have me life chasin' yer brothers from the forbidden forest."
Ron blushes clearly ashamed of his elder twin brothers who he informed me to be quite the trouble makers.
"Hey there, it's no worries. Could've caught them if I really wanted to," Hagrid winks causing Ron to visibly relax.
We spend the next hour or so retelling our first few days of classes to Hagrid and it was really nice to tell someone who actually cares how your week at school is going. Both Ron and I seem to enjoy Defense Against the Dark Arts the most. (y/n) however, says that her favorite so far is Transfiguration. The three of us agree that flying lessons will be the highlight of the week and that we all despise going to potions because of our prick of a teacher, Severus Snape.
Hagrid gets up to start another pot of tea, and as he picks up the teapot, a newspaper article catches my eye.
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST!
Snatching the paper greedily, I scan over the article with goosebumps grazing my skin.
"Hagrid! the break-in at Gringotts, it happened on my birthday!"
"What?" (y/n) jumps out of her chair and runs over to mine, taking the paper from my hands. "Oh my gosh. You don't think it happened while we were there, do you?
Hagrid's eyes suddenly widen but he ignores her question, instead looking to his clock.
"Blimey! Is that the time? You three better get back to th' castle fer dinner!" He drops the teapot and rushes us out the door.
The three of us look amongst ourselves in confusion as the door to Hagrid's hut is suddenly slammed in our faces, nevertheless turning to walk back up the hill and back towards the castle.
Ron is the first to speak. "Well that was weird."
"Surely," (y/n) agreed. "But you know what? Let's not worry about it until tomorrow. Our mind will be sharper after we've been fed and put to bed." She reaches under her jumper and pulls out the newspaper before placing it into my hands. "Here. I snagged this on the way out."
I look to the paper then back at her in admiration.
"You're a sneaky genius!" Ron exclaims.
She grins. "Yeah well, I try my best.
Man, the more I get to know (y/n), the more I like her. Maybe it's because I've never really had friends before but then again, my heart doesn't begin to race when Ron smiles at me like that..
"Harry?"
"Yeah," in a trance from my own thoughts yet again I had stopped walking, Ron and (y/n) now a few feet ahead of me.
(y/n) laughs. "Aren't you coming?"
"Yeah! yeah, sorry. I was just uh, thinking about this whole Gringotts thing. I guess I zoned out for a moment."
"Well let's go, mate!" Ron whines impatiently. "It's almost dinner and I'm starving."
"You aren't starving, Ron," (y/n) rolls her eyes. "How can you be? We literally just ate at Hagrid's."
"I'm a growing boy," he merely shrugs in return.
Shaking my head I jog up the hill joining my friends. (y/n) flashes me her usual smile while tugging on my robe.
"Race you boys to the castle!" She yells, winking at me before taking off.
Nope, I'm not imagining it.. and my heart definitely doesn't react that way when Ron smiles at me.