Next Time Around

A Forced Hand

Author's note:
So here's a new chapter... it was for some reason really hard to write. My friend said that both my version of Harry and myself are walking memes, so I suppose that's... good? Oh and she'd like to add that all the commenters are memes too. And that she's honored to be mentioned.

Anyways... no warnings for this chapter cuz this is purely manipulation and general trickery so yeah. That's cool.

Disclaimer: if I was writing for a living, I sure as hell wouldn't be writing Harry Potter fanfiction. We all know that JK Rowling has only written one fanfiction- a pretty decent one called The Cursed Child- and I'm pretty sure it wasn't on Wattpad. Therefore we can presume I'm am not profiting from this story, nor am I JK Rowling. But I did put a lot of time and effort into it so yeah please don't copy.

Enjoy!

It was a couple days later- Tuesday morning- that Harry could be found eating breakfast in the Great Hall with his friends. It was a normal Tuesday morning. The atmosphere was lazy, not-completely-awake, and all in all quite cozy.

Harry was enjoying some banter with Draco and was eating his poached eggs without haste. As he glanced up, he noticed morning past was just arriving. He cursed. Loudly.

Draco gave him an enquiring look. 'What is it Hades?'

Harry did not react or move at all, his eyes focused on a certain black eagle soaring straight towards him.

'You might want to move over your plate,' he said to Draco, his eyes still trained on the big bird flying his way.

A small frown on his face, Draco slowly pushed his plate aside, barely on time for the huge bird of prey to land in front of Harry.

The bird stopped right in front of Harry's plate, sometimes Harry was rather happy about, and pinned him with a sharp stare. Unblinkingly, Harry stared back until the bird stuck out its flaw with a sealed letter attached to it.

Harry carefully took the letter. Immediately after taking it, he shooed away the unnaturally large animal. It wasn't that he hated birds... but it was Voldemort's bird, and Harry didn't trust the man for as far as he could throw him.

With a polite smile, Harry stuffed the letter in his bag and ignored it for the rest of the meal. He saw Quirrell sneaking glances at him though, so he was quite sure what this letter was about. He didn't like it for a bit.

Harry went on to ignore the letter for the rest of the day, stubbornly shoving it under in his bag and only taking it out late at night in the safety of his bed. He spelled his curtains shut and put up a silencing ward for good measure. Only then did he start scanning the letter for any possible curses.

Harry finally determined there was nothing on the letter, except for a tracking charm that was so obscure even Harry didn't know the counter-charm. Mentally shrugging, Harry nimbly opened the envelope.

Inside, a letter could be found. It was, all in all, a very average letter. The only thing that might show there was something going on, was the Slytherin seal holding it closed. Harry happened to know just who used that seal, and any hopes he had had of being wrong about his previous assumptions were discarded, just as the envelope was.

Leaning back into his pillows, Harry furrowed his eyebrows and took a look at the contents of the letter.

Dear mister Potter,

From a variety of different sources, I have heard about your interest in different forms of magic not taught at Hogwarts. I am, myself, an avid believer in the power of knowledge, and would be interested in teaching you a couple of things I have learned over the years. I believe you would be a very capable candidate to relay my knowledge to, as I wish for my knowledge not to go lost.