Chapter 11: Chapter 3: Awards, Electives and Disagreements. Part 3
Before the any further queries were raised, Dumbledore cut in, "Students remain seated, the staff shall leave the hall to discuss the amendment to the awards that Mr. Potter presented. Prefects, please rise and maintain order within the hall. Mr. Potter you may take your seat," with that many of the staff were quick to follow the words of their Headmaster and followed him out of the Great Hall, not before throwing various looks of appreciation at Harry Potter and the aforementioned duo.
Prefects stood up and started maintaining order within their respective houses. Nonetheless, no prefect approached Harry Potter, as he remained standing at the center of the hall with his eyes closed and arms clasped behind his back in silence. No one dared to, not even the most stringent followers of the rules such as Percy Weasley. Waves of whispering and murmuring spread across the Great Hall, but Harry Potter stood stoically, not paying heed to any of the proceedings.
Hermione stared at the silent figure of Harry Potter, wide-eyed. This Harry Potter felt like her friend, but he was more expressive. He was protective but now he seems to have become much more. She could not put her finger around why though. Even without an announce magic leaking out of him, he cuts a powerful picture. This Harry is somehow more yet still he is Harry. A tinge of red flooded her cheeks when he spoke in praise of her. In praise of her character and strengths. Harry Potter felt like her best friend, but now he is much more formidable than she ever remembered; dare she say it, he cut much more imposing figure than she has ever seen Dumbledore display.
Neville being caught off guard is the understatement of the century. To say that his eyes were widened to epic proportions was an understatement. He felt numb, but for the first time in his life, Neville Longbottom felt a trickle of confidence. A trickle that will one day cascade into an ocean. Harry's belief and appraisal helped him find something he lost on the day of the torture of his parents. Something so lost that his crestfallen grandmother could never help find. Today, the Neville Longbottom will begin his ascend to greatness. Harry Potter just earned the undying support of one Neville Longbottom.
Ever since he saw Harry Potter by the fireplace with Neville, Ronald Weasley could not predict what his best friend anymore. He seemed more withdrawn and was seemingly casting judgement on people. When Harry ran towards Hermione, he was left speechless and rendered incapable of thinking any further. Harry Potter usually was not someone who likes to give or receive physical intimacy. Ever since he woke up this morning, Harry seemed to be judging him. For some reason, Ron felt as if he was failing to understand something obvious.
At the same time, he felt jealous. Jealous that Hermione was paying more attention to Harry by the glances she was giving him. Bitterness that he must share the glory he and Harry obtained with Hermione and Neville of all people. It is not like plants are that hard to take care of. Surely Harry Is exaggerating. Right? Oh well. Whatever it is, Harry will get over it. He will be best mates with Harry and forget Neville soon, and everything will be fine. Harry will get back to agreeing with him that studying is annoying and that quidditch is life.
He will get back to fooling around with Ron. Most importantly, Harry will get back to sharing his glory with his best mate. After all, what use is a best mate if they do not share their glory. For now, he wanted to bask in a glory that not even his brothers achieved, not understanding that he was just riding the coat tails of Harry Potter.
After nearly twenty minutes of waiting, the staff made their way into the Great Hall after their impromptu meeting. Snape seemed a little more than miffed, while the rest of the professors seemed more than happy with the outcome. Harry understood that his request has just been met.
All the teachers settled down and with that, students shifted their attention to the head table. Silence settled in the Great Hall and the Headmaster gestured the prefects to take their seats. He raised an eyebrow at the still standing figure of Harry Potter with his eyes closed, but he chose wisely to ignore him.
He raised his voice and stated, "After listening to the appeal by Mr. Potter and much discussion among the staff, I have decided to follow through with Mr. Potter's recommendation. Ms. Granger and Mr. Longbottom will receive awards for Special Service to Hogwarts. On a further note, this is the first time in Hogwarts History that four such awards were given out and the first time that a muggle-born student received the award," with that many students stood up and burst into cheers, none louder and more obvious than the Gryffindors; especially the Terrible Two, the Weasley Twins.
Harry gave a small bow to the head table and walked back to his seat. When he got to the table, he was met with celebrating housemates, as if they had just won the house cup. Harry sat down next to the dumbstruck forms of Hermione and Neville.
If he did not notice Hermione breathing, he would have worried that she somehow suffered a second bout of petrification. Well to be fair, she is going to be immortalized in the next edition of Hogwarts, A History. Harry chuckled and the duo broke out of their trances.
Hermione gathered her wits first and stammered out, "T-Thank you Harry. It was nice of you to ask for us to receive awards as well. You didn't have to do that you know?"
Neville soon added, "Yeah, thank you Harry."
"Nonsense, seeing you dumbstruck was well worth the effort."
Hermione mock glared and huffed with a hint of a smile, "Honestly Harry, here I thought you finally grew up."
Harry raised his hands in mock indignation, "Growing up! Why I have you know Ms. Granger that you are leveling a serious accusation on my person!" and Hermione just rolled her eyes at his antics.
Harry reached into his backpack and took out the notes he prepared for her. "I took extra notes in class for you. I know you would be upset for missing your classes and I thought about what I can do to help. So here are the notes I made for you."
She gave him a bright smile and pulled him to a tight hug. She let him go after a few minutes and then started going through the notes. She immediately noticed something, "Harry your handwriting much more readable than your usual scrawl."
Harry looked abashed, "Hey! My handwriting isn't that bad! Besides, I tried really hard. It should be absolutely gorgeous to you missy!"
Neville deadpanned, "It's not bad, it is bloody awful. The one time I was paired with you in Snape's class and I tried to copy down something I missed earlier, could not understand a word of that horrid mess. I thought I read putting erumpet horn shavings in to one of the potions," Hermione giggled at Harry's mock outrage at Neville's reply.
Harry looked around for Ron, only to see his attention directed towards a group of Gryffindors who wanted him to tell the story of the Chamber of Secrets. Harry could not really hear what he was describing, but from reading his body language, Harry was sure Ron was making up a few white lies and throwing in some exaggeration. 'I wonder why I did not notice this the last time, was I so unwilling to give up my first friendship that I ignored all the gaps in his character? Horcrux or not, it feels like a splash of cold water suddenly thrown on my face.'
Hermione noticed where Harry's gaze was draw to and sighed, "He did not even talk to me since I entered the Great Hall. Let's leave him be and let him approach us." The trouble for taking him out his moment of glory is not worth it right now.
A few minutes later when everyone calmed down, lunch appeared, and they dug into their food. Harry and Neville filled her in with the happening around the castle. He told her about the night Hagrid was taken to Azkaban and their encounter with the acromantula. Hermione berated him for his foolhardiness and Neville was utterly horrified at the thought of almost being eaten alive by a bunch of overgrown spiders. Not that he was afraid of spiders, he is an aspiring Herbologist, he must deal with insects much more gruesome than spiders.
Well, at any rate it made sense why Ron had nightmares for two weeks straight. Harry did not give them the details of the Chamber of Secrets, retelling the details of that encounter out in the open was not a subject he was comfortable with. Hermione relented on that topic and let it slide for now.
After lunch he said goodbye to his friends, telling them he had a few things to do. Hermione looked like she wanted to press for details, but Neville prevented her from doing anything. Harry gave a sigh of relief as Neville directed Hermione away from Harry and towards the Gryffindor common room.
He had two tasks he wanted to accomplish before he went back to the Gryffindor common room. On his way down from the Room of Requirement, he spotted the broken Vanishing Cabinet in the first floor. He wanted to take the cabinet upstairs and try to see if he can start fixing the cabinet. Or, he could get Hermione's help with fixing the cabinet together during the summer. He was not allowing her to carry all the intellectual heavy lifting this time around. He reached the corner that he saw the cabinet.
"Dobby."
"You called Master Harry?"
"Could you shrink this cabinet down so we can take it to the Room of Requirement?"
A snap latter and an emerald haze later, a shrunken cabinet lay in front of him. He tucked the miniature cabinet in his robes and made his way into the Room of Requirement. He asked for a room that would help repair the cupboard and when he when inside the room, the room was filled with various books and tools. He reached out to read some book, they seemed to be books on runes and arithmancy of spatial magic. How the hell did that moron fix this? I know he did not take ancient runes. He must have lucked out. After all, he was looking increasingly miserable as each day passed in his sixth year. Or he might have used Felix Felicis. That would explain his stroke of luck. No way did that Neanderthal fix this otherwise.
He then remembered that this would a good opportunity to do one other task in his list. He summoned Dobby and asked him to check if he can get the Sword of Gryffindor from the Headmaster's office. Ten minutes later, Dobby returned with the sword, apparently a Hogwarts house-elf told him that the Headmaster was out of school till later this evening. Alright, let's try to see if the Room would respond to this command.
"I need Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem."
Lo and behold, the diadem materialized in front of him. Without thinking twice, he slashed the diadem apart with the sword. A black mass resembling Voldemort's wrath materialized and disappeared after a horrifying screech. Harry took a while to recover from that horrifying sounded emitted from the Horcrux. That is three down, four more to go. He wished for a table and pulled out his parchment and started writing down the observations he made today since he came back.
Half an hour later, Dobby appeared in front of him. He was wearing a three-piece emerald suit with a fitting dark green fedora. His current outfit is vastly preferable to what Dobby wore in the previous timeline after being free. Somehow the outfit seemed to make sense on the elf. This outfit screamed of an elf of influence. Harry raised his eyebrow and questioned, "Hello Dobby, I see you made quite the wardrobe change. I love the new suit you got there."
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