Harry Potter

Scars

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CHAPTER NINE
Suspicious Happenings
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Not even the best laid plans survive battle intact, and most things are easier said than done. Much to Harry's consternation, these two bits of wisdom were perfectly applicable to every plan she and her friends laid out to make positive contact with the other Slytherins and Gryffindors.

In accordance with Hermione's suggestion, they had decided to try reaching out to the older students first, but there came the first unavoidable flaw: Harry, Theo, Neville, and Hermione were all first years, and any upperclassman would be reluctant to speak with them over other upper year students. Even those students who were helpful (in some of the original plans, which involved asking for assistance in this or that) were wholly unresponsive when the four attempted to extend branches to other areas of acquaintanceship. Still, unwilling to accept failure, Hermione allowed for a modification to the plan (which was largely her making, with bits of advice from Harry and the boys); instead of targeting the older students first, they would attempt to connect with the other first years.

It did them no good. The other boys in Gryffindor thought Neville was some sort of traitor to their kind, and the lionesses treated Hermione no better. Harry had a slight chance, sent to the Slytherin boys while Theo chatted with the girls, but with Draco's wounded pride and Blaise's aloof attitude she made little progress. Even Theo, perhaps the most socially aware of the four, was unsuccessful in his endeavors.

Still, despite the fervor with which they pursued their goal, that was not all they had to worry about. As the weeks passed and they settled into their Hogwarts' lives, they became aware of strange things occurring around the school. Things that both Harry and Hermione might have overlooked or missed completely, unfamiliar with what might be considered normal when magic was factored in, had Neville not spoken up. Apparently, while it was perfectly normal and acceptable for the staircases and paintings to move, the same could not be said for the suits of armor scattered across the castle. Additionally, Neville and Theo concurred with Harry and Hermione when they brought it up that it was strange that an entire corridor had been forbidden on risk of painful death—and Harry's detention being placed in the Forbidden Forest was just as odd. Theo was the one to point out that the ghosts and pets were behaving strangely skittishly, if rumor were to be believed.

None of them had any idea what any of that meant, however. They were only first years, even considering Neville and Theo's experience with the magical world. But the next oddity was what drove them to action, if not to do anything so grand as the phrase implies. If Harry's friends had known the fullness of it, however, they might have really done something other than the passive aggressive course they decided on.

Harry's scar had been bothering her. She had never given much thought to it, thinking only occasionally that it was probably the coolest thing about her as a child or resenting the way it seemed to draw her aunt's ire. Now, knowing what it truly was (or at least thinking to know such), she tried to think of it even less lest she become depressed about her unwanted fame and its unwelcome source. Still, there was not much else she could think of when it began throbbing and sending waves of pain throughout her entire body. The first time had hit her completely out-of-the-blue, a sudden starburst of pain blossoming out from her scar in one of their Defense classes, and since then it had only gotten worse. Her head seemed to be aching at all times, and Harry could hardly concentrate in her Defense classes any more. Not even a day after the first incident, even meals were becoming a struggle.

Of course, Harry being who she was, she did not tell her friends the full extent of it. Would not have told them at all if Hermione had not been so observant. As it was, they had noticed, so Harry prevaricated a bit and hinted that the pain was less than it was. Hermione had been a bit skeptical, but she had been quick to turn it into a researching opportunity in typical Hermione fashion.