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Harry looked at Malfoy once more and cursed Tonks for the umpteenth time for managing to sleep through work on the very first of September. Potter himself had a share of the blame, of course - he shouldn't have relied on Nymphadora, her alarm clock and her sense of responsibility - when available. He should have started his own alarm clock just in case, too, had someone wake him up, had Justin send a thunderclap... Well, or at least something.
Apparating straight into a moving train was a bad idea. The fact that the apparition had happened a minute after a nap, when Potter had dressed himself and hadn't brought half of his things with him, made the idea even worse. Apparating onto the head of a woman who was handing out sweets was an astounding failure. Getting an ear split in that apparition is a disgusting coincidence. So after all that, getting into the compartment with the new professor and Malfoy wasn't so scary.
Further down the line, events unfolded a little more favourably. The new DADA teacher was Professor Lupin, who had been a guest of the Tonks' some time ago, and Nymphadora was able to explain the accident that had put them on the train. Afterwards, Lupin healed the wound on Harry's ear and went to bed, and Tonks, taking Potter's promise not to say anything to his parents, apparated back. Soon Zhou Chang came into the compartment, and Potter was finally convinced of his unfavourable fate.
It was a big mistake; at first Malfoy completely captured Zhou's attention: he told her some stories about "stupid Puffenduys," at which only he laughed, then told her some anecdotes of not the most decent content. After a while, Harry was willing for Malfoy to leave, even if Zhou left with him. But just when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, the train stopped and the Dementors came to visit. Harry had underestimated the danger of these dementors then, he felt sad for some reason, but that feeling was immediately replaced by joy because Draco had finally shut up. Seeing Malfoy trembling with fear, Harry became indescribably excited. However, as the Dementors approached, Potter was hit with a wave of horror so incredible that it washed away all the joyful feelings, Potter screamed and fainted.
When Harry woke up, Zhou was no longer in the compartment, a deathly pale Malfoy was huddled in a corner, and Professor Lupin was leaning over him, examining him.
- What happened? - Potter asked, not getting up from the floor.
- One of the dementors in Azkaban was looking for Sirius Black. Here," Lupin stepped away from Draco and handed him a bar of chocolate. - It should make you feel better. Share it with Mr Malfoy and Miss Chang if she comes back.
- Okay," Potter mumbled mutely.
- Come on, get up," Lupin held out his hand. - 'I'm going to be gone for a while, I have something to tell the typist.
Harry would rather avoid unnecessary touching, he ignored the professor's hand and stood up on his own. Lupin shrugged and disappeared behind the compartment doors. Harry was still reeling from the shock. He broke off a larger piece from the chocolate bar and placed it next to Malfoy.
- Are you alright? - Potter asked him.
He thought that in situations like this, one should forget about enmity and unite. Well, Malfoy obviously thought otherwise. He pulled away from the chocolate bar and stood up, squaring his shoulders.
- Certainly better than some, at least I didn't faint!
Harry wanted to throw some kind of spell at him, but instead he lay down on a nearby bench and turned his back to the wall. Draco had been annoying Potter for the day, but Harry put up with it. He just didn't want to get into a conflict and start a fight again.For the next ten minutes, Harry regretted his decision not to interfere: he listened to Draco Malfoy's "One Thousand and One Jokes About Underpants, Fainting Spells, and Dementors". The absence of an audience obviously didn't stop him from mocking him. Harry looked at Malfoy once again, cursed Tonks again, and tried to abstract himself from Malfoy's 'Puffendoor and Dementor' story. Potter began to ponder why he still hadn't answered Draco. After all, he didn't have to fight, there were plenty of other, rather effective ways. You could tell him he was a moron. You could throw Confundus or Furunculus or some other spell at him. You could complain to Lupin. Or even punch Draco in the eye, for that matter, would that be better than enduring insults in silence?
When Harry had made up his mind and was already choosing a suitable spell, Professor Lupin returned.
- Minus ten points to Slytherin, Mr Malfoy," he said, obviously having heard part of the story.
Draco fell silent and stared at his new teacher with anger.
- Has he been insulting you this whole time? - Lupin asked, not noticing or only pretending not to notice Draco's stare.
Harry nodded.
- 'Another minus ten points to Slytherin then.
- You have no right! - Malfoy got up from the bed and stared at the professor with hatred, no longer hiding.
- Minus ten again. Will there be any more complaints?
Malfoy kicked the sofa, it wasn't the most ingenious decision. He is a heavy thing, but his leg is not. Confirming this statement, Draco grabbed his leg, gathered his things, and limped off to another compartment. Harry stared at the professor curiously. Finally the school would have someone to counterbalance Snape's actions.
- Are you all right, Harry? - Lupin asked with concern.
- 'I'm fine, thank you, Professor,' Potter said quietly.
- You're welcome.
* * *
Harry returned to his bedroom feeling frustrated, the day had flown by, and not in a pleasant way. Justin, on the other hand, was cheerful, happy about the events at Hogwarts. He sat down on his bed and began to tell Potter his thoughts.
- Once again I'm convinced that I did the right thing in persuading my parents to send me to Hogwarts. Eleven million pounds at Eton would probably have been fun too, but they wouldn't have been able to beat Hogwarts anyway. A forbidden door where everyone who enters dies an agonising death, a troll roaming the castle attempting to take the life of a female student, teachers, some of whom cheat on everyone while others throw killing spells and poison students. A potential castle-crawling basilisk who has already killed a Slytherin student, and now an escaped maniac from the worst prison who dreams of breaking into Hogwarts to stab my neighbour to death, and scary monsters that inflict pain and gloom to protect the students from the maniac.
Harry silently began to sort through his things. Justin, on the other hand, took his friend's silence as a sign that he should keep talking.
- I'm glad I met you. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been involved in half of this. And by the way, I forgot to mention the dark wizard locked in the diary, who only wants the Dark Lord to take over the world.
- Hey, that's not true," Potter decided to enter the dialogue. - He said he was having trouble sending me messages for some reason.
- Well, sure, keep your pocket wide open. For some reason! Even my excuse to Professor McGonagall tomorrow about why I hadn't done my summer homework would sound more convincing. I'm telling you for a fact, Riddle shut up as soon as you told him about Sirius Black. He realised that Black was the Dark Lord's right-hand man, and he didn't want to help us so he could get us killed.
- It's a memory, Justin," Potter interceded for his diary friend. - The real person must be long dead by now, and that memory couldn't even know Volde... the Dark Lord.
- 'Well, then he's just a complete dark wizard,' Finch-Fletchley chimed in from the other side. - You saw what he advised you. I'm a hundred per cent sure it's not a light spell.
- Doesn't make any difference. If he hadn't told us how to break it, we'd still be there. Remember? He helped us! - Harry lay back down on the bed.
It was a good thing Ernie wasn't in the room right now. He would have obviously spotted some interesting topics to gossip about.
- It was only when he realised it wasn't Black who was attacking, and before that he was as silent as a guerrilla, I'm telling you... By the way, he can't hear us now, can he?
- No, he's in the house, Tonks will bring him back later with the rest of his stuff.
- Don't tell him about my suspicions, I'll see what I can find out about Tom Riddle. I don't think he's as clean as he pretends to be. I'll go to the library tomorrow... If I'm not too lazy, of course.
"I see," Harry realised. - 'Justin will forget about Riddle for at least a year.
- I believe him, you do what you want, but I'm going to go to bed now, then wake up, congratulate Hagrid on his professorship, and get ready for my numerology, transfiguration, and DADA lessons. Hopefully, at least this year, I'll be out of trouble.
Justin didn't say anything, but Potter assumed he was still on the same page. He covered himself with a blanket and, before he fell asleep, for some reason remembered last year's dialogue with Finch-Fletchley about the new subjects.
* * *
- Justin, let's concentrate. This is the first time we've been given a choice at Hogwarts, and we can decide for ourselves what we're going to do. We can't just let it go.
- Well, how can we not when we can? - Finch-Fletchley wondered. - I'll take Divination and Muggle Studies. The former is useless, and I know the latter perfectly well as it is. I'll do my homework for the other subjects in those classes.
- Look, don't you want to study interesting subjects, learn the meaning of ancient Runes, learn the habits of magical creatures or learn all the facts about numbers?
- Honestly... No," Justin smirked.
- Aw, whatever," Harry waved his hand.
Potter knew that he wasn't a perfect student - he'd skipped Potions, History of Magic, and Defence Against the Dark Arts in second year, and in recent years he'd been doing his assignments just to get away from them. All of his time was spent studying spells. It was only at Riddle's expense that he had done so well in his exams. So Finch-Fletchley's choice to take the easiest subjects Harry didn't really disapprove, but he decided to take something more interesting.
- 'Help me with my choice then. I'm definitely not going to take Muggle Studies, but I'm only familiar with the rest of the subjects from the fascinating forms... Which I quoted to you. Will you tell me what you know?
- I don't know much about it myself. Ask Cedric, if it's important to you. Well... If you want me to... I can still give you a brief description. Divination is the science of foreseeing the future. Several people I've asked say it's bullshit, not a subject. It's more of an imagination thing where you'd need imagination to make stuff up. Ancient Runes - it's about ancient Runes something there... Further....
- Hey, wait," Harry interrupted him. - What Runes?
- No idea, I didn't really look into it. Well, Runes are like letters, like letters, stuff like that, whatever. Muggle Studies is the science of Muggles, they have questions on PSB like how to use the TV remote, it's a bit of a cakewalk, but I'd advise you to take that one, don't you want to? Suit yourself. Numerology is about numbers. Maths, two times two is four and stuff like that. I originally wanted to enrol there, but everyone complains about the complexity of the subject, complicated examples, maybe I don't know... And the last subject is Care of Magical Creatures, if you like animals it's perfect, you learn how to take care of animals of all sorts, but there's a problem with the teacher: he's old and his lessons are quite boring. That's it! What do you think?
- Well... Maybe you're right," Harry admitted. - All the subjects look kind of unpromising. For now, probably Care of Magical Creatures and Numerology. But I'd better consult Cedric.
Cedric's information wasn't much different from Justin's. But still Diggory's words had a strong influence on the choice of the subject. It turned out that the ancient Runes were needed to create their own spells. The choice was obvious. Sacrificing the care of magical creatures, Harry signed up for numerology and ancient Runes.
* * *
The next day, after breakfast, Potter received the items given to Tonks through Professor Steble and headed for Hagrid's hut. He was extremely excited about his first lesson as a professor, and was constantly coming out of his house to double-check on small dog-like animals, which Harry later found out were called shishugas.
The only thing Harry realised in his first numerology lesson was that Justin's method of choosing subjects was far more logical than his. Potter had excelled in school at solving equations where you have to find an X. The method of solving is simple: you need to put all the numbers and the x's on opposite sides of the equals sign. However, Harry had no idea how to solve equations with only letters. In both dual numerology, Professor Vector explained that (a+b) multiplied by itself would equal (a*a)+(b*b)+2ab. No matter how hard Harry tried, he still didn't understand where 2a and 2b came from. And Justin's story about how they were taught in Muggle Studies to tell the difference between a wizard and a muggle, Harry was silently jealous.
Potter had pretty high expectations for defence against the dark arts. How easily Professor Lupin had put Draco Malfoy in his place on the train had left him with a good impression. And those expectations had been fully met. In DADA class, the Hufflepuff students were introduced to boggarts.
- A boggart is a mortal ghost that has a different appearance for each person," Professor Lupin said. - It transforms into whatever the person is most afraid of.
The professor then taught them a new spell, Ridiculus, and gave them the opportunity to fight against a boggart. Harry had debatable feelings about this event: on the one hand, he wanted very badly to try out the new spell, and on the other he certainly didn't want to face... Who? Pierce? Dudley? Voldemort? Or maybe a dementor? Though definitely not a dementor, Harry didn't even know what they looked like, though if Dumbledore's words that Hogwarts would have new guards were to be believed, he would soon find out. I wonder if a boggart could take the form of fire?
Potter watched as Ernie Macmillan finished off some witch, Susan Bones defeated a dragon, Hannah Abbot a huge worm, and Megan Jones, seeing a man in a white mask in front of her, panicked and tried to run out of the classroom.
"Well, in case anything happens, I won't be the only one who tried to run away from their fear," Harry thought to himself.
When Justin approached the boggart, no one was expecting anything special anymore, only Potter stood closer - he was eager to find out what Justin was so afraid of, not the history of magic, really?
The reality was strange: the boggart had turned into a tall smiling man who immediately laughed evilly. Justin didn't flinch and exclaimed as if nothing had happened:
- Ridiculus!
The man's nose fell off, a horn grew from his forehead, and his skin turned red. Potter was disappointed. After Finch-Fletchley, it was up to Harry himself to defeat the boggart, but Lupin was in no hurry to pass the turn to Potter. He frowned and thought about something, then waved his hand and, as if deciding not to worry about something, called Harry over.
- Potter, it's your turn!
Harry walked swiftly out to the boggart, he was sure that whatever the boggart turned into, he wouldn't be scared. The boggart began to turn into a human. At the last moment Potter thought of Moody. If Lupin saw that his boggart was Mad-Eye, he would no doubt tell Tonks.
The ghost began to turn human. A moment later, Piers Polkiss himself was already standing in front of Potter. He extended his right hand for a handshake and walked towards Harry.
Overcoming the urge to let out some sort of harsh spell, Potter, thinking of nothing in particular, exclaimed:
- Ridiculus.
Pierce stumbled and fell, then burst into flames.