The Potter Alliance

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"When you're seconds away from dying, or watching a friend die...you just don't know what that's like."

The assembled students in the Hogs Head were shocked to silence. Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and the boy who had lost his mind in the maze last year was presenting himself naked in front of his fellow students. He sounded desperate, and defeated. It was at this moment that some of the students were stirring uncomfortably. This wasn't some ploy for attention, or an attempt to usurp the Ministry like they had been told. Whatever had happened to the last Potter, it was deep, and it was scarring. Something had changed the young heroic boy, and the man that stood before them was attempting to save them, though they had done nothing to deserve it.

A young redhead, who was in Harry's year, stood in the back of the room in deep thought. Her Auntie was unsure of what exactly had happened at the end of the Triwizard Cup, and Dumbledore had blocked her off at every attempt to get in contact with the young man. Susan had tried to reserve her judgment about Harry, she had once fallen prey to the rumor mill that entranced the magical world, and she misjudged the boy then, but now she did not want to misjudge the man in front of her.

Susan Bones was many things, but a fool was not one of them. She knew from what her Auntie had told her, Harry was almost dismissed from the Wizarding World just before the start of term for simple underage self defensive magic, which was undoubtedly used to counter a dementor. Her Aunt had questioned how she knew that he hadn't just used it to show off, but Susan knew the boy well enough to know that wasn't his style. Harry Potter had a short temper, and if he was going to get in trouble for underage magic she had no difficulty believing that it would be a blasting charm to some muggle bullies face, but a patronus simply made no sense.

She didn't know how much of the rumor mill was true, but she knew that every rumor had to hold some truth to it, and if even one of the stories about Harry Potter was real, he was an incredibly powerful young wizard, with a decent fortune to inherit when he became of age. He was no millionaire by any means, but he certainly had enough money to buy himself some sharper clothes, or some private lessons to fix his grades in theory.

Had Harry been in Hufflepuff Susan would have tried to befriend the sole remaining Potter, and maybe even ask him some of the questions that she at times pondered when he came up at the Hufflepuff dinner table conversations. However she was not friends with Harry Potter, yet here he was offering to, if nothing else, save her grade from a failing practical OWL.

Looking at her best friend Hannah next to her she knew that the girl was much more interested in the drama then the grade, but also knew that the grade would play a factor in her decision. Every person in the room had different opinions about Harry Potter, but at one point or another they had all seen his clever abilities, or superior wand work. The Triwizard tournament certainly proved that he was capable if nothing else.

When Hermione stood at the end of her tirade she turned to the gathered students, "Whether you believe Harry's story or not, Umbridge has to be stopped. I am not proposing any actions against her, but if you want to pass your practicals Harry is your best shot. He covered every spell up to NEWTs last year to help him survive the tournament, and he was able to teach Ron and I most of these spells. He is a capable teacher...I have a contract here that says you won't rat any of us out to Umbridge. If you sign it, I will give you a fake galleon that will heat up when we have decided a time and place to meet. If you don't decide to sign you can leave now, and forget this ever happened."

Not many people cleared out. Nearly everyone was at the very least interested in what Harry would teach them, so by the end of the day there were lots of signatures on Hermione's paper. Susan wasn't surprised to see most of Ravenclaw had their names on parchment in the end. Everyone knew that they would ace the theoretical portions, but if they wanted to get their outstanding grades, they would need practical abilities to get it.