8/7/15

Sorry it took so long for an update. The thing is, I thought I would have more time this summer, but it turns out I was wrong. Now I'm back in school again... great.

But I have made some changes, since my last update. For instance chapter names, and slightly longer chapters. And, from this point forward the standard chapter length will be 2-3.5K words long. Go ahead and read the chapter, because I know you hate Author's Notes.

Albus's P.O.V.

I was not looking forward to my first day. I'd heard many stories about this era, Voldemort, Deatheaters, and Umbridge. I never would have thought I'd actually meet any of those horrible people.

I got just a small preview of the oncoming year the night after the feast in the dormitory.

"Out of order, am I?" shouted Seamus. "You believe all the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who, do you, you reckon he's telling the truth?"

I sat on my bed silently watching Seamus ramble about how my father was a liar... if only he knew.

"Yeah, I do!" said Ron angrily.

"Then you're mad too," said Seamus in disgust.

"Yeah? Well unfortunately for you, pal, I'm also a prefect!" said Ron, jabbing himself in the chest with a finger. "So unless you want detention, watch your mouth!"Seamus looked for a few seconds as though detention would be a reasonable price to pay to say what was going through his mind; but instead vaulted into bed, and pulled the hangings shut with such violence that they were ripped from the bed and fell to the floor. Ron glared at Seamus, then looked at Dean, Neville, and I.

"Anyone else's parents got a problem with Harry?" he said aggressively.

"My parents are Muggles, mate," said Dean, shrugging. "They don't know nothing about no deaths at Hogwarts, because I'm not stupid enough to tell them."

"You don't know my mother, she'll weasel anything out of anyone!" Seamus snapped at him. "Anyway, your parents don't get the Daily Prophet, they don't know our headmaster's been sacked from the Wizengamot and the International Confederation of Wizards because he's losing his marbles -"

"My gran says that's rubbish," piped up Neville. "She says it's the Daily Prophet that's going downhill, not Dumbledore. She's canceled our subscription. We believe Harry," he said simply. He climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. "My gran's always said You-Know-Who would come back one day. She says if Dumbledore says he's back, he's back."

Seamus shifted angrily and turned towards me, "You- What about you, Anthony? You don't seem very contempt to speak up. What's your deal?"

"My parents agree with Harry. I mean, look at the Prophet. Where's the proof Dumbledore's actually gone mad?" I say, "Besides, Voldemort-" There were gasps around the room from Dean, Seamus, and Ron; whilst Neville nearly almost fell out of his bed. "Oh, toughen up. Voldemort seems way more likely than Cedric Diggory dropping to his death on his own."

Seamus looked at me in pure shock, "And to think I thought you were actually cool. You lot are fools, you're bloody mad."

They haven't got a clue. If only they'd listened....

***

By the time I woke up, it was only Neville and I in the dormitory.

"Harry and Ron just left, I would've woke you up sooner but-"

"It's okay Neville," I say, "a few extra minutes of sleep doesn't hurt."

We dressed in silence. Not just silence. Awkward silence, the worst kind there is.

Just as I left the dormitory Neville came out behind me, "Hey, er- if you want I can show you where to go. Since you're new and all."

Even though I'd been to this school for four previous years, I pretended not to know where I was going. Every once in a while, on the stair case I 'accidentally' stepped into one of the trick stairs.

Once I got to the Great Hall, I thanked Neville and took a seat between Ron and Rose.

"Look what we've got today," said Ron grumpily, looking at his schedule. "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen."

I leaned over to look; he was right. It was the worst Monday imaginable in my opinion. First Binns, then Snape, after that was Trelawney, and worst of all Umbridge.

"Fair point, little bro," said Fred, scanning the column. "You can have a bit of Nosebleed Nougat cheap if you like."

"Why's it cheap?" said Ron suspiciously.

"Because you'll keep bleeding till you shrivel up, we haven't got an antidote yet," said George, helping himself to a kipper.

"You know if you add Atropa and Lovage together it will make a decent antidote," said James sitting down across from me.

"Really?" asked George.

"I wouldn't have thought that would work."

"Thanks Ja- Josiah."

"We'll start testing tomorrow,"

"And speaking of your 'testing'," said Hermione, eyeing Fred and George beadily, "you can't advertise for testers on the Gryffindor notice board."

"Says who?" said George, looking astonished.

"Says me," said Hermione. "And Ron."

"Leave me out of it," said Ron hastily.

Rose who was half way through a bite of bacon, nearly spit out her food laughing.

Hermione glared at him. Fred and George sniggered.

"You'll be singing a different tune soon enough, Hermione," said Fred, thickly buttering a crumpet. "You're starting your fifth year, you'll be begging us for a Snackbox before long."

"And why would starting fifth year mean I want a Skiving Snackbox?" asked Hermione.

"Fifth year's O.W.L. year," said George.

"So?"

"So you've got your exams coming up, haven't you? They'll be keeping your noses so hard to that grindstone they'll be rubbed raw," said Fred with satisfaction.

"Not Umbridge," I whispered to Rose who only nodded.

"Half our year had minor breakdowns coming up to O.W.L.s," continued George happily. "Tears and tantrums... Patricia Stimpson kept coming over faint..."

"Kenneth Towler came out in boils, d'you remember?" said Fred reminiscently.

"That's 'cause you put Bulbadox Powder in his pajamas," said George.

"Oh yeah," said Fred, grinning. "I'd forgotten.... Hard to keep track sometimes, isn't it?"

"Anyway, it's a nightmare of a year, the fifth," said George. "If you care about exam results anyway. Fred and I managed to keep our spirits up somehow."

"Yeah... you got, what was it, three O.W.L.s each?" said Ron.

"Yep," said Fred unconcernedly. "But we feel our futures lie outside the world of academic achievement."

"We seriously debated whether we were going to bother coming back for our seventh year," said George brightly, "now that we've got-"

He broke off at a warning look from Harry. Apparently his still hadn't told anyone about the Tri-Wizard earnings he had given them

"-now that we've got our O.W.L.s," George said hastily. "I mean, do we really need N.E.W.T.s? But we didn't think Mum could take us leaving school early, not on top of Percy turning out to be the world's biggest prat."

"We're not going to waste our last year here, though," said Fred, looking affectionately around at the Great Hall. "We're going to use it to do a bit of market research, find out exactly what the average Hogwarts student requires from his joke shop, carefully evaluate the results of our research, and then produce the products to fit the demand."

"But where are you going to get the gold to start a joke shop?" asked Hermione skeptically. "You're going to need all the ingredients and materials- and premises too, I suppose..."

I noticed Harry had deliberately dropped his fork and dived down to retrieve it. Was he really feeling that guilty?

"Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies, Hermione," said Fred. "C'mon, George, if we get there early we might be able to sell a few Extendable Ears before Herbology."

Fred and George both walked away from the table, each carrying a stack of toast.

"What did that mean?" said Hermione, looking from Harry to Ron. "'Ask us no questions...' Does that mean they've already got some gold to start a joke shop?"

"You know, I've been wondering about that," said Ron, his brow furrowed. "They bought me a new set of dress robes this summer, and I couldn't understand where they got the Galleons..."

"D'you reckon it's true this year's going to be really tough? Because of the exams?" said Harry, who I was sure was eager to change the subject.

"Yeah, but not necessarily because of the exams," said James mysteriously. "Now, I gotta go, don't want to be late for Herbology. It's Sprout who teaches this year, right? Because, that's gonna be different! See ya suckers!"

"Okay, what did he mean by 'not necessarily because-" Hermione was interrupted.

"A typical James thing to do," said Lily. "Expecting us to clean up his mess. Just don't listen to him, he's enjoying this. Knowing everything that's going to happen; he's just trying to lead you on."

"Your best bet," I say, "is to ignore him."

"Yeah, but what did he mean 'not necessarily because of the exams'? asked Harry.

"We know pretty much all your secrets and stories, even the ones you guys don't know yet," says Roxanne. "For example, Hermione you're going to waste a lot of your time reading the whole book for Umbridge. Ron, keep practicing, it's going to pay off. Harry, don't let the Toad get to you."

"How do you-" Ron asked eyes wide.

"Don't be an idiot, Ron," says Fred. "We're not stupid."

"What do you mean don't let the Toad get to me?" asked Harry.

"You'll find out soon enough. Oh and, Murtlap Essence should work," said Lily all very quickly, "Now I don't know about you, but I think we better get a move on. It is the first day after all."

***

History of Magic was as dull as usual. Nothing seemed to have changed in over twenty years for Professor Binns.

Next, I had Potions, which I was not very excited for. I knew the story of my namesake. Severus Snape. He was opposed to all Gryffindors(all Gryffindors that happened to not be my Grandmother) and docked points for things as simple as missing one stir on your potion. Pretty much the opposite of what Potions was like in my time.

"Potter, what is this supposed to be?"

I looked up as Snape stopped in front of Dad's Cauldron.

The Slytherins at the front of the class all looked up eagerly; they loved hearing Snape taunt Harry.

"The Draught of Peace," said Harry tensely.

"Tell me, Potter," said Snape softly, "can you read?"

A few of the Slytherins laughed; it took me all my will not to hex them on the spot.

"Yes, I can," said Harry, gradually getting more tense.

"Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter."

It was hard for me not to flinch everytime he spat out the word, 'Potter'

"'Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counterclockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore,'" he said looking down.

"Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?"

"No," said Harry very quietly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"No," said Harry, more loudly. "I forgot the hellebore . . ."

"I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless. Evanesco."

The contents of Harry's potion vanished; he was left standing foolishly beside an empty cauldron.

"Those of you who have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name, and bring it up to my desk for testing," said Snape. "Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday."

Twelve inches? I never got twelve inches! Maybe I shouldn't complain about Professor Detchley, my own Potions Teacher, that much....

Next I had Ancient Runes; in my third year I took my parent's advice and skived off Divination, even though Firenze was a worthwhile teacher. The only people I knew in the class were Hermione and Rose(who sat together) which left me alone.

It was a very small class, and it was nothing I hadn't heard before. We did the basic review of the runes we had learned the year previous, and soon enough the class was over. Next was the class both Rose and I were dreading, Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The three of us; Hermione, Rose, and I met up with Harry and Ron on the way to the dreaded class. At least Rose and I knew what was coming.

I sat down at a desk near the back with Rose, it was essential not to draw attention to ourselves.

"Well, good afternoon class!" said Umbridge, once all the class had sat down.

A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply. I was definitely not one of them.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," everyone, with the exception of Rose and I, chanted back at her.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

I sighed and picked out the book from my bag. It was nothing more than I expected. Nothing compared to DADA in my own time where we are actually able to withhold the same Professor for more than a year.

Umbridge continued on to talk about how the ministry was pretty much controlling their curriculum, which left me with nothing to do except laugh at her stupidity, which got boring very quickly. Then she asked us to read, which was also very useless.

So then I watched Hermione try to get her attention, which led into the argument about not being able to use magic. I thought I saw Hermione turn her head a few times to look at Rose like, 'Is she serious?'

By the end of it, Harry had gotten himself landed in detention and sent to McGongall. If only he knew, what he had done by getting that detention....