Vernon Dursley was having a good morning, no a brilliant morning – the best morning in over twelve years.
When that man had turned up in Privet Drive on Saturday, Vernon had almost shut the door in his face as soon as he mentioned his freak nephew's name, what a mistake that would have been.
He was offered ten thousand pounds and given a guarantee that Harry would never contact them again if they signed over his guardianship to a couple of dentists, Vernon would have paid money to be rid of the freak.
He had finished his breakfast, even kissed Petunia before heading out the door to work and discovering why only half the wizarding population was currently at the ministry, the rest were in Privet Drive and they were pretty pissed off.
....
Severus Snape was in a foul mood to eclipse all his other foul moods combined, Draco had rushed to his godfather's room at first sight of the Quibbler, clutching a copy purloined from a first year puff.
They were striding towards the great hall with Severus desperate to find a victim to unleash some of his anger, he would bet that new records for points deductions and detentions would be set today. How dare that arrogant little shit print those things about him, the fact that every word was true had no baring on Snape's anger. He didn't even consider that he might be in trouble, Albus would sort this out and Potter's life would be hell from now on.
They entered the great hall and caught sight of the object of all his hatred and anger, standing there in front of the staff table as if he owned the school, Snape literally screamed "POTTER!" and his wand had sent a curse flying before his brain had even engaged.
As soon as she heard Snape's voice Hermione whirled round and the cruciatus curse hit her squarely in the chest, the pain was unbelievable but only for a split second as Harry was in her mind telling her how to beat it and his hands were placed on her shoulders to provide the power if needed.
Pomona Sprout had read today's Quibbler and watched this morning's events unfold with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, she had read what that poor boy had went through and liked to think if he was in Hufflepuff she would have stood up to Albus and Severus better than her friend Minerva did.
She didn't think she was a better witch or head of house than Minerva, she just didn't believe every word that came out of Albus Dumbledore's mouth was the truth. If he'd pulled some greater good crap on any of her puffs she would have exploded in his face, she might only manage to singe that ludicrous beard but at least she would make her point. Minerva just followed along blindly and Filius followed Minerva's lead.
When Severus entered and fired that darkest of curses she was on her feet and reaching for her wand before the impossible happened right in front of her, the Granger girl just stood up straight and accepted the curse, smiling at Snape in the process.
The sweat was pouring down Snape's face as he tried with all his might to end the curse but to no avail, the mudblood bitch had got in the way and now was even smiling at him.
Albus Dumbledore shouted, "Enough! Mr Potter end this at once."
Harry calmly replied, "Students, staff and members of the school board please note the usual behaviour in Hogwarts, the head of Slytherin house fires an unforgivable curse at a student who's not even holding a wand yet it's my fault. Professor Snape can do no wrong and literally gets away with murder, just out of interest how did he escape going to Azkaban? You really have outdone yourself this time old man."
Harry's voice took on an icy tone again, "your pet death eater has just attacked the betrothed of an ancient and noble house in front of hundreds of witnesses. His arse belongs to me and anyone interfering will, I can assure you be dealt with in an appropriate manner."
Harry was trying to divert attention away from the fact that Hermione was draining the power right out of Snape's magical core, they had quickly decided to leave him just a fraction above a squib, he should be able to cast a 'lumos' but not much else, a reminder of what he'd lost. Of course he was going to lose more than that.
Snape's power drain very quickly reached the required level then Hermione cast a wandless reducto which blew off his wand hand, simultaneously Harry cast the same wandless spell removing his other arm just below the elbow.
Draco had made his way to the side, un-noticed he thought, and had his wand lined up on Potter when a stinging hex made him drop his wand.
Luna had tracked him from the second she was sure Harry and Hermione had the Snape incident under control, Malfoy's wand hadn't hit the floor before the right fist of Neville Longbottom connected with the blond Slytherins jaw, Draco went down like a sack of potatoes but Neville had years of contained anger to release and jumped on him to continue pummelling the hated face of his worse antagonist.
After a few punches a gentle hand on his cheek stopped his onslaught, Neville looked up into the face of an angle as Luna softly spoke to him, "enough Neville, your better than he is in every way, he's not even worth your anger."
She offered him her hand and Neville took it, standing up to see that Snape was down and bleeding while Harry was looking at him and smiling.
....
Join my P*atreon for early access to 60+ chapters ahead of the public release.
Free members can get a combo of 6+ advanced chapters from my books FOR FREE.
Link : pa*treon.com/thebookaddict (Remove the *)