Ms. Horned Serpent (Harry x Reader x Draco)

The Hog's Head

A/n: Okay, wow, this ones pretty long.

   "You know what?" Ron murmured, pulling you from spacing out. "We could order anything we liked in here, I bet thatbloke would sell us anything, he wouldn't care. I've always wanted totry firewhisky —"
   "Your a prefect, dude." You said, as Hermione shot him a dangerous glance.
   "Oh," said Ron, the smile fading from his face. "Yeah . . ."
   "So who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked,wrenching open the rusty top of his butterbeer and taking a swig.
   "Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, checking her watchand then looking anxiously toward the door. "I told them to be hereabout now and I'm sure they all know where it is — oh look, thismight be them now —"The door of the pub had opened. A thick band of dusty sunlightsplit the room in two for a moment and then vanished, blocked by theincoming rush of a crowd of people.
   First came Neville with Dean and Lavender, who were closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Cho Chang and one of her usually giggling girlfriends, then Luna Lovegood; then Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, and a Hufflepuff girl with a long plaitdown her back whose name You couldn't remember; three Ravenclawboys he was pretty sure were called Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot; Ginny, followed by a tall skinny blond boy withan upturned nose, and bringing up the rear, Fred andGeorge Weasley with their friend Lee Jordan, all three of whom werecarrying large paper bags crammed with Zonko's merchandise.
   "A couple of people?" said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. "A coupleof people?"
   "Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," said Hermione happily.
   "Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?"The barman had frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a ragso filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. Possibly he hadnever seen his pub so full.
   "Hi," said Fred, reaching the bar first and counting his companionsquickly, all of which shot you a venomous glace. "Could we have . . . twenty-five butterbeers, please?"The barman glared at him for a moment, then, throwing downhis rag irritably as though he had been interrupted in something veryimportant, he started passing up dusty butterbeers from under thebar.
   "Cheers," said Fred, handing them out. "Cough up, everyone, Ihaven't got enough gold for all of these. . . ."
   You pulled out a small bag filled with galleons, "I got it." Fred and George looked incredibly surprised.
   "What have you been telling people?" Harry asked Hermione, clearly nervous. "Whatare they expecting?"
   "I've told you, they just want to hear what you've got to say," saidHermione soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiouslythat she added quickly, "You don't have to do anything yet, I'll speakto them first."
   "Hi, Harry," said Neville, beaming and taking a seat oppositeHarry. In twos and threes the new arrivals settled around Harry, Ron, andHermione, some looking rather excited, others curious, Luna Lovegood gazing dreamily into space.
   When everybody had pulled up achair, the chatter died out. Every eye was upon Harry."Er," said Hermione, her voice slightly higher than usual out ofnerves. "Well — er — hi."The group focused its attention on her instead, though eyes continued to dart back regularly to Harry. "Well . . . erm . . . well, you know why you're here. Erm . . . well,Harry here had the idea — I mean" — Harry had thrown her a sharplook — "I had the idea — that it might be good if people whowanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts — and I mean, reallystudy it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing withus" Hermione's voice became suddenly much stronger and moreconfident, "because nobody could call that Defense Against theDark Arts"
   "Hear, hear," said Anthony Goldstein, and Hermionelooked heartened — "well, I thought it would be good if we, well,took matters into our own hands."She paused, looked sideways at Harry, and went on, "And by that Imean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory butthe real spells —"
   "You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. toothough, I bet?" said Michael Corner.
   "Of course I do," said Hermione at once. "But I want more thanthat, I want to be properly trained in Defense because . . . because . . ."She took a great breath and finished, "Because Lord Voldemort'sback."The reaction was immediate and predictable. Cho's friend shriekedand slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelpthat he managed to turn into a cough. All of them, however, lookedfixedly, even eagerly, at Harry, but you noticed some looking suspiciously at you.
   "Well . . . that's the plan anyway," said Hermione. "If you want tojoin us, we need to decide how we're going to —""Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice.
   "Well, Dumbledore believes it —" Hermione began.
   "You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry.
   "Who are you?" said Ron rather rudely.
   "Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right toknow exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back.""Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly before you could say anything, "that's really not whatthis meeting was supposed to be about —"
   "It's okay, Hermione," said Harry. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he asked, lookingZacharias straight in the face. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told thewhole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."
   The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke, Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year wasthat Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that youbrought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details,he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd alllike to know —"
   "If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemortmurders someone I can't help you," Harry said. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that'swhat you're here for, you might as well clear out."He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction.
   "So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So . . .like I was saying . . . if you want to learn some defense, then we needto work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet,and where we're going to —""Is it true," interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back,looking at you and Harry, "that both of you can produce a Patronus?"There was a murmur of interest around the group at this.
   "Yeah," said Harry slightly defensively, you just nodded.
   "A corporeal Patronus?"
   "Er — you don't know Madam Bones, do you?" he asked.
   The girl smiled."She's my auntie," she said. "I'm Susan Bones. She told me aboutyour hearing. So — is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"
   "Yes," said Harry.
   "Blimey, Harry!" said Lee, looking deeply impressed. "I never knewthat!"
   "Mum told Ron not to spread it around," said Fred, grinning atHarry. "She said you got enough attention as it was."
   "She's not wrong," mumbled Harry and a couple of peoplelaughed. "B-but (y/n) can make a stronger one-"
   "And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office?" demanded Terry Boot. "That's what one of the portraits on thewall told me when I was in there last year. . . ."
   "Er — yeah, I did, yeah," said Harry.Justin Finch-Fletchley whistled, the Creevey brothers exchangedawestruck looks, and Lavender Brown said "wow" softly.
   "And in our first year," said Neville to the group at large, "he savedthat Sorcerous Stone —""Sorcerer's," hissed Hermione. "Yes, that, from You-Know-Who," finished Neville.Hannah Abbott's eyes were as round as Galleons.
   "And that's not to mention," said Cho, "all the tasks he had to get through in the Triwizard Tournamentlast year — getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas andthings. . . ."There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the table.
   "Not to memion (l/n) weird powers, like the flowers and fire." Lee said, as everyone seemed to look at you.
   "And she fought off a death eater over the summer." Lavender said.
   "Uh, Harry's fought off worst things." You said, quickly putting the attention back on Harry.
   "Look," he said and everyone fell silent at once, Harry glared at you, "I . . . I don't wantto sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but . . . I had a lotof help with all that stuff. . . ."
   "Not with the dragon, you didn't," said Michael Corner at once."That was a seriously cool bit of flying. . . ."
   "Yeah, well —" said Harry.
   "And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer,"said Susan Bones.
   "No," said Harry, "no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help,but the point I'm trying to make is —"
   "Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" saidZacharias Smith.
   "Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, before Harry could speak, "whydon't you shut your mouth?"Perhaps the word "weasel" had affected Ron particularly strongly;in any case, he was now looking at Zacharias as though he would likenothing better than to thump him.
   Zacharias flushed."Well, we've all turned up to learn from them, and now he's tellingus he can't really do any of it," he said.
   "That's not what he said," snarled Fred Weasley.
   "Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquiredGeorge, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.
   "Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stickthis," said Fred.
   "Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "moving on . . . the point is, arewe agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"
   There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias folded hisarms and said nothing, though perhaps this was because he was toobusy keeping an eye on the instrument in George's hand.
   "Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had atlast been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it.I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once aweek —"
   "Hang on," said Angelina, "we need to make sure this doesn't clashwith our Quidditch practice."
   "No," said Cho, "nor with ours."
   "Nor ours," added Zacharias Smith.
   "or mine." You said.
   "I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione,slightly impatiently, "but you know, this is rather important, we'retalking about learning to defend ourselves against V-Voldemort'sDeath Eaters —"
   "Well said!" barked Ernie Macmillan. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year,even with our O.W.L.s coming up!"He looked around impressively, as though waiting for people to cry,"Surely not!" When nobody spoke, he went on, "I, personally, am at aloss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher upon usat this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return ofYou-Know-Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells —"
   "We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in DefenseAgainst the Dark Arts," said Hermione, "is that she's got some . . .some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the schoolas a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against theMinistry."Nearly everybody looked stunned at this news; everybody except Luna.
   "Well, that makes sense. After all,Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army."
   "What?" said Harry, completely thrown by this unexpected pieceof information.
   "Yes, he's got an army of heliopaths," said Luna solemnly.
   "No, he hasn't," snapped Hermione.
   "Yes, he has," said Luna.
   "What are heliopaths?" asked Neville, looking blank.
   "They're spirits of fire," said Luna, her protuberant eyes wideningso that she looked madder than ever. "Great tall flaming creatures thatgallop across the ground burning everything in front of —"
   "They don't exist, Neville," said Hermione tartly.
   "Oh yes they do!" said Luna angrily.
   "I'm sorry, but where's the proof of that?" snapped Hermione.
   "There are plenty of eyewitness accounts, just because you're sonarrow-minded you need to have everything shoved under your nosebefore you —"
   "Hem, hem," said Ginny in such a good imitation of Professor Umbridge that several people looked around in alarm and then laughed."Weren't we trying to decide how often we're going to meet and getDefense lessons?"
   "Yes," said Hermione at once, "yes, we were, you're right. . . ."
   "Well, once a week sounds cool," said Lee Jordan.
   "As long as —" began Angelina.
   "Yes, yes, we know about the Quidditch," said Hermione in a tensevoice. "Well, the other thing to decide is where we're going tomeet. . . ."This was rather more difficult; the whole group fell silent.
   "Library?" suggested Katie Bell after a few moments.
   "I can't see Madam Prince being too chuffed with us doing jinxes inthe library," You said, getting nods from Fred and George.
   "Maybe an unused classroom?" said Dean.
   "Yeah," said Ron, "McGonagall might let us have hers, she didwhen Harry was practicing for the Triwizard. . . ."
   "Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," said Hermione. "We'llsend a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a placefor the first meeting."She rummaged in her bag and produced parchment and a quill,then hesitated, rather as though she was steeling herself to saysomething.
   "I-I think everybody should write their name down, just so weknow who was here. But I also think," she took a deep breath, "thatwe all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if yousign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge — or anybody else — whatwe're up to."Fred reached out for the parchment and cheerfully put down hissignature, but Harry noticed at once that several people looked lessthan happy at the prospect of putting their names on the list.
   "Er . . ." said Zacharias slowly, not taking the parchment thatGeorge was trying to pass him.
   "Well . . . I'm sure Ernie will tell mewhen the meeting is."But Ernie was looking rather hesitant about signing too. Hermioneraised her eyebrows at him.
   "I — well, we are prefects," Ernie burst out. "And if this list wasfound . . . well, I mean to say . . . you said yourself, if Umbridge findsout . . ."
   "You just said this group was the most important thing you'd dothis year," Harry reminded him.
   "I — yes," said Ernie, "yes, I do believe that, it's just . . ."
   "Ernie, do you really think I'd leave that list lying around?" saidHermione testily.
   "No. No, of course not," said Ernie, looking slightly less anxious."I — yes, of course I'll sign."Nobody raised objections after Ernie.When the last person — Zacharias — had signed, Hermione tookthe parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag.
   There was anodd feeling in the group now. It was as though they had just signedsome kind of contract."Well, time's ticking on," said Fred briskly, getting to his feet."George, Lee, and I have got items of a sensitive nature to purchase,we'll be seeing you all later."
   You quickly followed after them. "Wait!" You called, making them stop.
   "What do you want? You gonna take 60 points away for us breathing?" George asked, still upset.
   "I'm sorry for over reacting." You said.
   "What?" Fred questioned.
   "I'm sorry for taking away 60 points for a piece of paper." You said. "And if you still want, I'll allow you to put the paper back on the broad. But, you can't bribe anymore 1st years."
   "Oh, well okay." They were taken aback. "Well, we'll get you another paper soon, see ya." They walked away. You made your way back you the castle, studying with draco after you got there.