Chapter 13: Prefects
"Come on Harry wake up," said Remus' soft voice. "You're a prefect now, how would it look if you missed the train?"
Harry sat up quickly, remembering that he was going back to school today. He smiled at Remus before jumping out of bed and getting dressed in his muggle clothes. He smiled as he looked in the mirror at his black jeans and green t-shirt it was nice to have clothes that fit. "Are you going with us to the station?" He asked hopefully. He was going to miss Remus terribly when he went back to school.
"Yep, Tonks is coming too." Remus smiled and pulled him into a hug, "You going to miss me?"
"Yes," Harry said looking at his adopted father. "I've always been so excited about going back to school, but I'm going to miss being able to talk to you all the time."
"You'll have a great year; Dumbledore has a few surprises for you." Remus said, his eyes twinkling.
"You have a very mischievous twinkle in your eyes; I'd say you're up to something!" Harry laughed as he put his last few things into his trunk and Remus levitated it down the stairs.
They stored their trunks in one of the front compartments near the prefect's compartment along with Neville and Luna's trunks before going outside to say goodbye to their families. Hermione's parents had come to see her off and she was introducing them to Tonks and Lupin. Many of the older students were coming up to shake Mr. Weasley's hand. Fred and George winked at Harry and handed both him and Ginny a small box. "You can enlarge them when you get there." Fred said hugging his little sister.
"Make the Weasley name proud." George said is his best imitation of Mrs. Weasley, Ginny giggled and stuck the box in her pocket before hugging Bill and Charlie. Bill picked her up and spun her telling her to have a good year and Charlie told her to have fun playing Quidditch.
Tonks gave Harry a quick kiss and hug telling him to have fun. Remus wrapped Harry in a strong hug. "Try and stay out of trouble this year." He said smiling, "Or at least don't get caught. Good luck with Quidditch and being a prefect, I know you'll have a great year."
Harry was hugged by all the Weasleys and was about to get on the train when he ran back to Remus and hugged him again. "Bye dad, I'll miss you." Then he got on the train with his friends. They all waved as the train left the station.
"Come on we have to go to the prefects meeting," Hermione said to the other three. "We'll come back as soon as we can," she told Neville and Luna. They made their way into the prefect cabin. Harry walked in behind the other two fastening his prefect badge onto his t-shirt.
"You lost Potter? Or could you not be away from your precious friends?" Draco Malfoy drawled as the other Slytherins laughed, obviously not noticing Harry's shiny new badge. Ron smirked in Malfoy's direction; he knew it must irk Draco that his dad got named Minister of Magic.
"Are you blind Malfoy?" Harry said pointing to the badge on his chest and taking a seat as all the other prefects laughed. Draco scowled and sat down almost pouting he thought only 5th years were made prefects, damn Potter had to have everything.
During the meeting Draco kept looking over at the little Weasley. He remembered seeing her at the restaurant the night he met Amanda. Did he felt guilty for looking at the pretty redhead? He had never felt guilty before, Malfoy's do as they please with no fits of conscience! He snuck another peek at the redhead, she was exquisite. Her hair was light and bouncy and she has a great figure. Her eyes were full of laughter and she had full plump pink lips. Draco imagined kissing those lips and smiled. That pang of guilt hit him again, he tried to shake it off, and there was nothing wrong with watching a beautiful woman! He cleared his head and went back to his compartment to find Crabbe and Goyle, his henchmen.
Ginny was so excited about have a separate room that she got to share with Hermione; she didn't get along with any of the girls in her year. Supposedly the prefects rooms were right off the common room, they were each told that they could make up their own passwords when they got there. The rooms were separate for boys and girls but there was no charm to keep the boys out of the girls' room, they were prefects and were therefore trusted to behave.
She smiled thinking about Harry being able to come in and kiss her goodnight. "What you smiling at Ginny?" Neville asked her, they were back from the prefect carriage now.
"I'm just excited to see my new room." Ginny said blushing. Harry saw her blush and knew she wasn't telling Neville the truth. She only got that look when she was with him or thinking about him.
"Did you have a nice summer, Neville?" Hermione asked him.
"It was ok, my gran was happy that your dad won the election," He told Ron, "She had been bad mouthing Fudge all summer. She thinks it's nice that I'm friends with both you and Harry. She was saying that your dad will be able to help the order, whatever that is. She was on and on about doing all she could for the order and the cause, I think she might finally be losing it." Neville said sadly.
The others all looked at each other, except for Luna who was reading her Quibbler. Neville's grandmother new about the Order? Was she trying to help? Harry made a mental note to write Remus or mention it to McGonagall if he got the chance. "Did you really get adopted, Harry?" Luna asked in her dreamy voice.
"Yes, by Professor Lupin, he was one of my parent's best friends." Harry said smiling; he wasn't ashamed of the fact.
"Who do you think is going to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this year?" Ron asked, "We're about due for another good teacher, the last two were insane."
"My Gran told me that I would really enjoy defense classes this year, she knows whose teaching but she wouldn't tell me. She told me that we had to keep practicing." Neville told them.
"I hope she's right." Harry told them, "I want to keep up with the DA, but if we have a good instructor I'll be able to focus the DA on more complex things, not just what we should be doing in class."
Ron, Harry, Neville and Ginny played exploding snap while Hermione was reading her transfiguration textbook and Luna the Quibbler. Harry had just won the game, and was doing a victory dance, when Cho opened the compartment door. She had been made Head Girl. "Hello Harry," She said smiling. Harry tried not to roll his eyes.
"Hello Cho, congratulations on Head Girl." Harry said politely. Ginny was shooting Cho a dangerous look.
"Could I talk with you for a moment in private Harry?" Cho asked sweetly.
"I'm sure whatever it is you can say in front of my friends." Harry told her, watching as Cho's fake smile faltered slightly.
"Oh, ok." She said looking down too quickly compose herself. "I wanted to apologize for how I acted last year and I was hoping you would give me another chance."
Harry glanced at Ginny who looked like she might jump up and start hexing Cho any minute. "Aren't you dating Michael Corner?" Ron asked in a rough tone.
Cho looked away, she hadn't planned on his friends being there, she thought she could sweet talk Harry if she got him alone. "We broke up over the summer, I told him I still liked you, Harry."
"I don't like you that way Cho," Harry said feeling slightly bad for hurting her, but knowing she only liked him for his popularity.
"Do you already like someone else?" Cho asked shocked, no boy had ever turned her down before.
"Yes," Harry said sitting back down to indicate the conversation was over.
"Oh," Cho said turning and leaving the compartment, as soon as she left Ron burst out laughing. Harry looked at him questioningly.
"Her face was priceless when you said you liked someone else," Ron said still laughing. "I bet she only decided to want you back when your picture was in the paper again."
"Yeah, I'm done with girls like that." Harry said looking at Ginny, "I don't know what I ever saw in her."
"She's pretty." Neville told him, looking at Harry like he was crazy to turn down the most popular girl in school.
"Not really. She may look nice on the outside, but she's ugly underneath and that makes her ugly all over." Harry told him. "When a girl is beautiful on the inside it makes her even prettier on the outside."
"Wow Harry!" Hermione said, "That is the most mature thing I've ever heard a guy say. Every girl wants to know she is liked for who she is not what she looks like."
"I think you're pretty on the inside Hermione." Ron said blushing as Harry and Ginny started laughing. Hermione just smiled, he really was a git sometimes.
They were just finishing their lunch from the trolley when the door opened again and there was Malfoy flanked by his goons. "So Potter is your old wolf all upset that I stole his girl from him?" Malfoy laughed.
Harry jumped up; he knew he had to make it look like Malfoy had stolen Tonks away and that he was upset about it. "Anyone willing to go out with you isn't worth his time," Harry told him. "Besides, I'm sure she's only going out with you for your money, it's not there would be any other reason to spend time with a Death Eater's son." Harry was fingering his wand in his pocket and could tell the rest of his friends were ready to strike.
"You only wish you had such a beautiful woman," Malfoy gloated sneaking a glance at the little Weasley.
"I wouldn't be too sure of yourself Malfoy, I bet Amanda's moved on to bigger fish now that you're back in school and can't keep tabs on her." Harry said smirking. Malfoy pulled his wand out but before he could say a word he had 5 wands pointing at his head and Harry twirled his wand in between his fingers. "I think you should leave now Malfoy, I wouldn't want to have to report a disturbance to Dumbledore when we get there." Harry said adjusting his prefect badge. Draco just glared and then turned and left.
"Well that was fun," Ron said as he sat back down and pulled out his chess board.
"He's not to sure of himself anymore is he?" Hermione smiled, she liked the fact that Malfoy was forced to tuck is tail between his legs and turn and run. It was a nice change from him calling her every name in the book.
"I surprised he even attempted at all, we way out number him." Ginny said.
Malfoy was in a foul mood when he got back to his cabin, he had only wanted to go bother Potter to get another look at the little Weasley. He knew that Potter's friend would protect him, but he didn't expect Longbottom and the Ravenclaw Loon to join in as well. "Damn Potter!" He growled. Crabbe and Goyle nodded in agreement. Draco wondered if he told them to jump off the Astronomy tower if they would, they seemed only to exist to do his bidding. Their fathers were the same way for his father; he wondered what they were doing now that his dad was locked up.
"Our dad's got arrested on Friday night," Goyle told him putting his head down; "Someone ambushed them from behind."
"My mum says they were questioned by the Aurors for two days before they were sent to Azkaban," Crabbe told Draco, who was now mildly interested.
"Where were they arrested at?" Draco asked wondering if they were the two stupid death eaters Amanda had caught.
"Someplace in Diagon Alley." Goyle shrugged, confirming Draco's suspicion. He would have to thank Amanda, not that Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were locked up they couldn't get any information to his father. Draco was free to do as he wished without fearing what might get back to the death eaters. He knew a few other students had parents in Voldemort's circle, but most of their wives and children didn't even know.
Draco got up and headed towards the prefect carriage, he wasn't paying attention and knocked into someone.
Ginny was heading off to go say hi to Colin and Dennis Creevey when she knocked into someone. "I'm sorry," she said her hair was in her face and she couldn't see who helped her off the floor. When she tossed her hair out of her eyes she was staring straight at Draco Malfoy.
"Careful there Little Weasley, wouldn't want you to hurt your pretty little head." Malfoy smirked. He looked the red head up and down, she was definitely beautiful. Ginny didn't know what to say, Draco hadn't insulted her or been rude, when she thought about it he had helped her up and basically complimented her. She just walked away without responding. Draco smiled; he would have to bump into her more often.
The six of them piled into a carriage and walked into the Great Hall for the sorting and opening feast. Luna said goodbye and headed for her table. They all sat at the head of the Gryffindor table so they could welcome the first years like they had been instructed, Neville went to sit by Dean and Seamus. Harry looked up to the staff table and grinned. Remus was next to Snape and some other new teacher with short brown hair. He waved and smiled, he knew who the Dark Arts teacher was now, he just wondered who the other lady was, and Remus seemed to know her for she was talking to both Remus and Snape. Harry elbowed Ron and pointed Remus out to him, Hermione was just as excited. In fact most of the student body seemed happy to see their old professor. Harry heard several students saying they were glad there would be a good dark arts professor this year.
The sorting was soon over and the new Gryffindors had all been welcomed to the table. Dumbledore stood and the hall went silent. "Welcome, Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. I see you have all noticed the new faces at the staff table. I'm sure most of you remember Professor Lupin who will be resuming his role as one of your Defense against the Dark Arts teachers." It was then that Harry recognized the other woman.
"It's Tonks!" Harry whispered to Hermione and Ron.
Dumbledore continued, "As you are all aware of Professor Lupin's condition the Ministry had agreed to lend us an auror to assist with teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. This will be your most important class work this year. You are all aware of the rise of Voldemort and must be able to defend yourselves. Let me introduce your other new instructor, Professor Tonks." The entire hall clapped for her, none harder than Harry and his friends. She smiled and waved at the hall. "Let the feast begin."
Ron stuffed his mouth as usual; the first years were looking at him like he was some sort of circus show. Harry was very happy for his adopted father; he knew how much Remus enjoyed teaching. He was also happy to see Tonks, Remus was off for almost one week per month due to his transformations and he didn't want Snape covering for him again.
Dumbledore gave the standard start of term reminders before dismissing them to their dormitories. Harry and Ginny led the first years; Ron complained that he had to do it last year. They showed them the portrait of the fat lady and the common room and where the dorms were before sending the frightened looking kids up to bed. They now had to find their room.
Hermione and Ron were waiting by a portrait of a little girl playing with kittens. They decided their password should be Marauder. It had a small entryway with a little table that would work well for leaving each other notes between classes. They went into the girls' room first; it was large with two queen size four poster beds, their trunks waiting at the bottom. "Where's the 7th year prefect sleeping?" Ron asked them.
"She transferred to Beauxbatons, I heard she wants to get a job in France." Hermione told them. The boys' room was almost identical to the girls down to the queen size four posters. "I wonder why he didn't appoint a 5th-year prefect?"
"Who cares, now we don't have to worry about slipping up and talking about the order, if we need to talk about anything private we can come in here?" Ron said smiling as he plopped down on his bed.
The next morning McGonagall handed out their schedules at breakfast. "Why do they do this to us?" Harry groaned, "Double NEWT level potions first thing Monday morning!"
"Tough luck mate, of course, I'm still stuck in Divination, but I'm glad I don't have to put up with Snape anymore." Ron told him. "I'll see you two in Transfiguration."
Harry and Hermione said goodbye to Ron and Neville, who not surprisingly was no longer taking potions, and headed down to the dungeons. They were the only Gryffindors who had high enough OWLs to get into the class. Malfoy was without his trusted body guards and was sitting next to Pansy Parkinson. Justin Finch-Fletchy the only one from Hufflepuff, the rest were Ravenclaws and Slytherins.
Snape billowed into the room and tapped the board; instructions for a very complex potion were on the board. "Potter, can you tell me what potion this is?" He said smirking. He would see just how smart the boy was.
"It's Polyjuice potion sir." Harry said recognizing the ingredients from both his second year and the textbook that he actually read over the summer. He had tried to memorize it to the best of his ability to keep Snape from giving him detention.
Snape seemed surprised that he knew the answer, but he smiled. "And can you tell me how long it takes to make and why a student such as yourself should not be able to make it."
"Yes sir, it takes a month to make and many of the ingredients such as boomslang skin are not part of our student potion ingredients." Harry said, he loved the look of loathing Snape gave him at the mention of boomslang skin. That was what he accused Harry of stealing in his second year, when in reality it was Hermione that had taken it.
Snape tapped the board and the ingredients to a simple potion appeared, "Mr. Malfoy what is this potion?" The class went on like this for most of the hour, Snape taking house points from everyone who answered incorrectly. Harry could tell he was very upset that he had no cause to take points from Gryffindor since he had answered every question correctly, including the follow-up questions designed to trick him.
When class ended he was in a good mood, it was the first time he could remember not losing house points or getting detention from Snape. He was going to study hard so Snape couldn't find fault with his work. "Mr. Potter a word," Snape said holding him back. "Your occlumency lessons will be on Tuesday afternoons directly after your last lesson; I expect you have been practicing clearing your mind this summer."
"Yes sir. I only have Herbology after lunch on Tuesday, am I supposed to come directly after or am I to wait until the end of classes?" Harry said using his most polite voice.
"Directly after Herbology." Snape told him dismissing him.
Harry hurried to Transfiguration where he sat next to Ron, "I did it!" Harry said triumphantly. "I made it through an entire potions class without losing a house point or getting detention!"
"Harry didn't answer a question wrong; you should have seen Snape trying to trick him so he could take points away!" Hermione giggled. Harry looked up at Professor McGonagall who smiled at him.
That day they were reviewing last year's work, they had to vanish a few items. Harry was the first one to vanish his mouse; Hermione looked at him surprised as she then successfully vanished hers. "Well done Mr. Potter, Miss Granger ten points each." Professor McGonagall told them. They went to lunch and met up with Ginny who looked like she wanted to kill someone.
"That man asked me every single question he could think of until I finally missed one," She said fuming about Snape. "He only asked everyone else one easy question but the asked me at least 20 until he asked about a potion that isn't even in the book, I only knew part of it so he said, 'you'll need to study harder than that to succeed in potion making Miss Weasley' like I would know to study the 7th year text, I'm only in 5th!"
"He tried the same thing with me Gin," Harry said reassuringly, smiling at her as she instantly calmed down. Harry's presence always soothed her. They headed out to the Greenhouses to join the Hufflepuffs for class then went to Care of Magical Creatures.
"Will we ever get away from the Slytherins?" Ron complained. Draco and his goons walked down to the paddock they were working at. Hagrid came out of his hut with Fawkes on his shoulder, who immediately took flight and came over to Harry.
"Hello Folks, I hope you had a nice summer." Harry said petting the beautiful scarlet bird.
"We will be studying the Phoenix today, who can tell me about them?" Hagrid asked smiling at how much the bird liked Harry.
"The Phoenix never dies; it is reborn from its ashes." Malfoy drawled looking at the bird. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was fascinated by the Phoenix. They were one of his favorite magical creatures.
"That's right, 5 points to Mr. Malfoy," Hagrid told him; nobody could ever accuse him of playing favorites like Snape did.
"They have incredible strength." Another student said, "They are capable of carrying tens of times their weight."
"Their tears have healing properties." Ron added.
"Their song strikes fear into the hearts of their enemies and strengthens those with good intentions." Hermione told him smiling at Fawkes. Hagrid gave everyone who answered 5 house points.
"Can you think of anything else Harry?" Hagrid asked him.
"They are very loyal," Harry said, "They can also move from place to place like apparating. If they trust you and love you enough they will help you fifth or will willingly, like for example getting in the way of a killing curse."
"Very good Harry, 20 points." Hagrid smiled, "Will you please stand so everyone can see Fawkes." Harry stood with the bird on his shoulder for the class to see.
"Hagrid, where did you get the phoenix?" Seamus asked, "They are a very rare magical creature and most are people's pets."
"Fawkes here is Professor Dumbledore's. As you can see he is very loyal, he knows and trusts Harry that is why he flew to him." Hagrid spent the rest of the class describing the Phoenix and assigned them a foot long essay on the creature.
They rushed up to the castle to get to Charms, their last class of the day. They also reviewed last year's charms and discussed their OWL results. Professor Flitwick gave Hermione 5 house points for scoring the highest on her OWL. He told them that they would be starting disillusionment charms tomorrow and he wanted them all to be ready.
"We only have homework in one class, and that's Care of Magical Creatures?" Hermione asked almost sounding scandalized at the lack of work. They ate dinner and went up to do their Phoenix essay before their prefect rounds. Harry was patrolling on the fourth floor near the defense against the dark art classroom when he heard laughing and went to investigate.
"You really think he's scared of the moon?" He heard one of them say.
"Yeah, hurry up before we get caught." Another boy said. Harry could see that they were trying to levitate a fake moon into the classroom. Harry smiled; he was going to enjoy punishing these boys, no one messed with his dad.
"You having a good time?" Harry asked as they turned scared to look at him, seemingly relieved when they noticed he wasn't a professor. The one boy turned like he was going to run but Harry shouted, "Yes, run so I can practice my full body bind hex on you." Both boys stood frozen to the spot. Harry could tell by their robes that they were Slytherins, probably second years. "And what are you doing out of bed after hours?"
"Nothing," the smaller of the two added, "We were just decorating the werewolf's classroom to make him feel welcome."
"Yeah, what does it matter to you?" The larger one asked, he still looked fearfully at Harry's wand after the threat of the body bind.
"I am a prefect, therefore I must insist on accompanying you back to your common room and you will be serving detention with Hagrid tomorrow after classes. The unicorn paddock needs cleaning, without magic." Harry said smiling and then vanishing the fake orb with a flick of his wand. "Come on let's go."
"I will not serve detention with that half-breed." The little one said. This kid was not insulting another person Harry cared about.
"Is there a problem here boys?" Lupin asked stepping out of the shadows before Harry hexed the two little brats. The two boys just glared at him. "I think that your detention will actually take two days to serve out, don't you Harry?" Remus said smiling at the faces of the boys when they realized they were definitely in trouble.
"Now I don't want to see you two out after hours again or I will take house points. I will be informing Professor Snape of this incident as well." Remus told them, "Now I believe you can find your way back to your common room, and I would be quick about it before another prefect catches you and gives you detention."
The boys went off in the direction of the dungeons and Remus turned to Harry. "Can you believe they thought a fake moon would scare me?" Remus laughed patting him on the back. "I did like your punishment though, much more effective for those two than writing lines."
"Yes, their spoiled little rich hands scooping manure, I might just go watch if I didn't have occlumency." Harry laughed, looking at his watch he saw that he was done with his rounds.
"How's your first day go?" Remus asked walking with Harry back to Gryffindor tower. "I saw you had double potions this morning, did you have any trouble?"
"He tried to trip me up, but I read the potions text three times this summer, I answered every question right, it's the first time I haven't lost house points or got detention." Harry told him. "In transfiguration I was the first one to vanish my mouse, even faster than Hermione, and Hagrid gave me 20 house points for my knowledge of Fawkes. It was a pretty good day."
Remus recounted his day and told Harry that all the students are being good, only a few Slytherins acting up of course. He hugged him goodbye at the portrait hole. "Good night son, enjoy your new room."
"Night dad, I'll see you at breakfast." Harry said going in to find Ginny to say goodnight. She was sitting on the sofa in front of the fire reading the 7th year potions text book. "I think you should just tell him he's a git, it would save the time of reading." He joked sitting down next to her; she leaned into him and continued to read, throwing her legs over the arm of the sofa and using Harry to hold her up. He took out one of Defense against the dark arts books and started planning the first DA lesson.
Ron came in dripping wet and looking furious, he stomped over to them. "Peeves! He was waiting with a full bucket of water! Now I have to go change!" He said heading towards their room.
"Ron, you're a wizard, you shouldn't need to change," Ginny giggled still reading. Ron realized what she meant and dried himself using his wand then sat down and opened a Quidditch magazine.
"I have a lot of ideas for the team this year Harry, I spent the summer studying plays. We need to hold tryouts as soon as possible so we can figure out what are strengths and weaknesses are," Ron told him seriously. Harry hadn't given much thought to running the team, he guessed as captain her would be expected to put in hours of time preparing plays and making diagrams, but he just wasn't up to it.
"Sounds good Ron, I'm sure everything you come up with will be great." Harry told his friend, he decided to let Ron handle all the extra Quidditch work and concentrate on the DA.
The next morning Harry got up before his friends and went to see Professor McGonagall. "I'm very honored to be captain, but I really don't have the time to dedicate to it with occlumency and DA." Harry told her sadly. "Ron has been strategizing all summer, I think he would make a much better captain."
"I will make you two co-captains. I know the team will listen to you that is why I made you captain. By having Mr. Weasley the co-captain he can strategize and you can inspire and command." She told him, "I'm glad you came to me with this, I wouldn't want to overwhelm you."
"No, that's for next year and the NEWTs right?" Harry joked as he left her office to head to breakfast and see his friends.