The Mudblood and The Prince

Filler 2- Harry's summer

Summer vacations came all too soon and it was time to go back home. The results had come and as expected Harry was at the top of his class. Granger came a close second. He would have to work harder to keep a margin between them. Harry was looking forward to go home. Hogwarts was nice, but it was not home. At home, he could practise all spells, including dark arts which he couldn’t do here, talk in parsel without revealing the truth to everyone. He was also excited to start his training on the spells he had read about in the book sent by his Father.
The train ride was not very notable, Draco played Exploding Snap with Theo and Blaise, Harry spent his time reading the book sent by his father. The girls had put their heads together and talking about Merlin-knows-what. On the station, Harry made his way towards Narcissa and Lucius, but greeted them formally. This was the first time he was supposed to meet them.
“Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, it’s great to meet you. I’ve heard about you so much from Draco. Thank you for letting me stay with you.”
“Nonsense, dear, it is our pleasure to have you with us. We feel as if we already know you since years!”
Harry barely managed to swallow his snort at Narcissa’s sentence.
“Come on, Mr. Riddle, Narcissa, time to go.” They made their way towards Lucius and then towards the floo. Harry was not supposed to know how to do it, so he asked Narcissa.
“It is quite simple Mr. Rid-” “Call me Harry.” “Very well, Harry, just observe Draco and you can follow him.” Harry stepped in after Draco and threw the Floo powder while saying, “Malfoy Manor”.
He was brushing of soot from his clothes when the Malfoy couple floo’ed(?) in.
“The Dark Lord is waiting for you in my study Harry.”
“Thank you, Lucius, I’ll go meet him now.”

“Hello Father. Did you enjoy your Yuletide present?” He was smirking, he knew his father HAD enjoyed it.
“Yes, you insolent brat! Now I wanted to talk to you about your training this summer. We will start next week, Monday, 6 in the morning in the duelling chamber.”

Harry was panting. He was tired, it was 11 in the morning and he still did not have a break. 5 hours continuously he was duelling with his Father. He was hungry!
It had been a month after his training started. The dark lord started with half hour to 45 minutes of training including running and exercises to build stamina. And now slowly increasing the time it had gone up to 5 bloody hours!
Harry looked up. His father, apart from a little heavy breathing, was showing no signs of getting tired! There was a small smirk playing around his lips. Oh no, that never meant good for the person in front of him. Right now, that was Harry.
“Tired already Harry? And here I was thinking you could actually defeat me- ‘old man’ you called me.”
Harry groaned. Not that again. He’d called his father that in a moment of defiancy when they were going through books and his father had forgotten where he kept some books. His father had used it to rub salts in his wounds. Every time Harry got tired, his father would use it to mock him even more.
“I’m sorry. Can you please let it go?”
“Oh Harry, I have perfect mockery material. Do you think I’ll just let it go?”
Harry groaned again and prepared himself for it.

xx

Harry was enjoying. A lot. Currently he was flying, racing Draco. Harry knew he would win. Brooms were just a restriction. They had speed limits on them. Flying by yourself, that was amazing. Draco was on a nimbus 2001, he hoped to make the quidditch team. He wanted Lucius to secure a position for him, but Lucius declined point blank by saying-
“If you can’t get on the team on your own merit, then you can’t get on it at all. I’m not going to bribe them.” Draco was disappointed but refrained from throwing a hissy fit. Harry understood what Lucius was getting at.
“Come on Draco! Are you that bad a flier?”
Draco huffed but did not grace Harry with a comment. He just sped up. He was already panting with the effort.
“It’s not my fault that you are bloody impossible to catch when you fly.”
Harry just laughed, twisted mid-air and shot for the ground. Draco followed muttering about ‘egoistical prats’ and ‘show-offs’.
“Admit it Draco, I’m a better flier of the two of us.”
“As if you need your head to get any bigger.” Draco muttered under his breath.
Harry chose to ignore him.
“Come on, boys. Harry your Father is asking you to go home immediately.”
“Yes, Narcissa. Bye Draco. I’ll see you when we go to get supplies.”
Last week their letters had come but they did not get a chance to visit Diagon Alley. They were visiting it on the Sunday. Being so close to start of school, it was going to be extremely crowded but oh well, they had no choice. Their booklists contained all books written by Gilderoy Lockhart and so they were curious to know who it was to assign them. They knew Quirrell had resigned (something about vampires still haunting him). And Lockhart was a fraud as anyone not belonging to the female species or having half a brain would know, even Narcissa was charmed by him. What a phony!

xx

“… and this year, Hogwarts students are going to get much more than just my books! They will be taught by someone who can best explain the text. They are getting The Magical Me! I am flattered to say that I’m going to be the new Defence professor at Hogwarts for the coming year…”
Harry did not know why he was surprised, of course the ponce himself was teaching them. Who else would assign ALL the books to them, including his autobiography that did not deal with defence at all? First a stuttering fool, now a ponc Greatat educati D Dumblorore had going here. If he did not already possess this knowledge, he would be stuck in defence. Dumbledore was doing a great job of weakening the light side for the dark.
“I would rather not learn defence at all than learn something harmful to myself. These spells don’t even exist!”
“I know, Draco, but there is nothing we can do. Buck up. This year’s defence lessons are going to be a cakewalk. Just praise him till the end of the world and you get the highest marks there are.” Draco snickered at that.
“That is true. That is what we will do.” Harry cracked a small smile at that.
“It’s too crowded in there for my liking. Let’s finish rest of our shopping and then come back.”
When they came back, the bookstore was just as crowded so they had to push their way around to get what they wanted. Neither fancied an autograph from Lockhart and so, they just picked up books and got out after paying the bill.
When Harry reached home, his elf took all his purchases to be packed into his trunk and informed him that the Dark Lord wanted to meet him. Harry hurried towards the study, knocked and waited.
“Come in, Harry.”
Harry walked in and softly shut the door behind him.
“I’m very happy with the way you handled yourself when you got the philosopher’s stone. This year, I have a different task for you.”
Harry was excited. “What is it?”
"What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"