Magic Meets Might

Chapter 9

Written by Moh (jasongrace567)

Harry Potter

            The rest of the week at Hogwarts sped by in a blur of teaching lessons, attending lessons, and homework.

            Harry had never realized just how hard seventh-years at Hogwarts had it, what with the constant preparations for NEWTs, the homework, the pressure of career choices (which had increased ten-fold since fifth-year.), and the fact that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and many others had missed an entire year of magical education at the school. His Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons got more and more complicated for the students (though Ron and Hermione kept up with him almost effortlessly.) and each time Harry assigned his students some homework, he felt a pang of guilt because he knew how much other work was being piled on them by other teachers. Therefore, he did his best to avoid dropping unnecessary loads of work on them, making an effort to cover as much as he could during class.

            As it happened every year, Harry and Ron were already falling behind on their homework. It was a poor excuse for Harry to have Quidditch and his own lessons to plan, because he had fewer classes than everybody else due to his new teaching position. Hermione staunchly refused to let them copy off her work as she normally did each year, and Harry and Ron’s other friends were of no help; no one could keep up with their daily workload the way Hermione did.

            On top of all that, there was also the matter of the newcomer, Percy. He spent most of his days wandering the castle as far as Harry knew, having had to help Percy out of one of the many trick steps Hogwarts had. After that, he started to loan Percy the Marauder’s Map until he told Harry it was unnecessary; he knew his way around the castle now.

            It had taken Harry, Ron, and Hermione almost three years to figure out where everything was in Hogwarts. How Percy had taken a mere week and a half to figure it out was beyond Harry, but he didn’t question the newcomer further on the matter. He did, however, keep an eye on Percy using the Map whenever he could.

            Sometimes, during the night, Harry was roused from his sleep by heavy breathing and whispered words. Percy seemed to have consistent nightmares about things that apparently worried him greatly and scared him a little. They reminded him of Harry's nightmares, which had been produced because of his scar, which was a direct link to Voldemort’s mind. However, since Voldemort was dead, Harry no longer felt twinges of pain from his scar; the only nightmares he had were memories of what it had been like when Voldemort was alive and they didn’t frighten or worry him nearly half as much as they used to, or how much Percy’s nightmares seemed to worry and frighten him.

            On more than one occasion, Harry had wanted to ask Percy about his nightmares, but he stopped himself every time. When people used to ask Harry about his own dreams, he had often snapped at them; he’d felt weak and exposed. He knew Percy wasn’t weak, but he wouldn’t want to make the newcomer feel that way, either. Therefore, he kept his queries to himself and didn’t even speak of them to Ron and Hermione.

            Now, however, after five days of hearing Percy panting and whispering to himself in the middle of the night, Harry had had enough. He made his way down the corridor to Professor McGonagall’s office, his hands deep in his pockets and his mind a world away. He gave the password to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmistress’ office (‘Sherbert lemons’ in memory of Dumbledore.) and climbed up the spiral staircase.

            He was about to knock on the door to her office, but paused when he heard two very familiar voices speaking from within.

            “Simon and Ajax were top NEWT students at Hogwarts,” McGonagall was saying. “They were… outstanding, the pair of them. Even though Simon had always been the one following Ajax around, the pair was inseparable.”