Chapter 67: Parents, Part ISummary:Hazel procrastinates.
Chapter TextHaving done her good deeds for the day, Hazel kept on going upstairs, glad she didn't have to skulk about anymore. She made it to the Headmistress' office and confidently declared the password: "Phoenix Feather!"
The gargoyle just sniggered at her. "Password's changed, missy."
Hazel blinked in astonishment. "Why wasn't I notified? I'm a prefect, and prefects are required to be informed when the password to this office is changed!"
The gargoyle shrugged. "Guess you were away on holidays, then? Out there slacking off without a care in the world? Either way, it's none of my concern; you don't have the password, ergo you can bugger off."
"You bugger off, you buggerer!" Being talked back to by this talking paperweight was somewhat irritating, especially when it laughed at her irritation. "Well fine, I'll just wait here until she comes around." She conjured a padded stool for herself and sat down, staring resolutely at the gargoyle with her arms crossed beneath her chest.
"Suit yourself." The gargoyle settled back into place, making faces at her. She retaliated by sending green sparks into its face, and it flailed its hands to ward them off. "Knock it off, lady!"
Abruptly the staircase behind it began moving, and the gargoyle leapt aside. A short procession of middle-aged, staggeringly wealthy witches and wizards stepped out, giving Hazel curious glances but not stopping as they hurried away down the hall; she could tell they were staggeringly wealthy by their robes, by the decorations on their wands, and by the rings and pendants they wore.
The Board of Governors, Hazel assumed.
Last in the queue was McGonagall herself, who had a few parting words for the last witch in line before they nodded and parted ways. She noticed Hazel and cocked an eyebrow. "What brings you here so early, Potter?"
"Well, I just got back from London earlier, ma'am, and I was instructed to gain access to your office so I could use the Pensieve. Dumbledore gave me some memories he wanted me to study."
"I see." McGonagall examined her for a moment, then shrugged and waved the gargoyle aside. "Go on up, then. There's a private room to the left if you wish not to be disturbed. And for future reference, the password for now is 'Silver Lining'."
"Thank you, ma'am." She bowed and turned to the stairway, banishing the stool with an absent flick of her finger; the gargoyle stuck out its tongue at her as she walked past it, and she flipped it off in reply.
The office was much the same as it had been last time she was here, so Hazel retrieved the Pensieve and carried it to the private room. This was much smaller and plainer than the main office, windowless and with no furniture save a sturdy wooden desk and an extremely uncomfortable wooden chair. The room and furniture carried a faint hint of academic desperation; Hazel got the feeling this was where students spent detention under the personal supervision of the Headmaster or Headmistress.
Setting her musings aside, Hazel placed the Pensieve on the desk and nudged the chair aside, conjuring her padded stool again for something comfier to sit on. She uncorked Snape's memories and poured them into the bowl; there was an awful lot of the silvery fluid for such a small vial, and it seemed thicker than usual. Not that she was an expert.
Once the vial was empty, she hesitated. Whatever memories she was about to view were so important Snape had to risk life and limb to get them to her, and if everyone was right about Voldemort having access to her mind, her having these memories in there might put him at greater risk. She still had a chance to cork them and back away.
One thing was for sure. These memories were likely to feature Lily and James very prominently. They had haunted Snape his whole life, almost.
Then she remembered she was Mistress of Death and had access to the Resurrection Stone. She totally could recall them to existence and ask them what the memories might contain. Never mind what Lily had said the first time she'd tried using the Stone; she hadn't been Mistress then, but she was now!
All she had to do was walk all the damn way back to her dorm, get the Stone, consult with her parents, then make up her mind whether or not to dive into the Pensieve. Just the thought of all that walking was making her hamstrings cramp up; she knew damn well if she went down there and Pansy was still there, she'd never leave that dorm for the rest of the day.
Too bad she couldn't summon it to her from here and-
Something in her pocket shifted.
Hesitantly, she reached into her pocket and came back up with…
…the cracked black Resurrection Stone, carved with the sign of the Hallows, still mounted in its crude gold ring. She couldn't help but chuckle. " I guess the Mistress of Death need not be inconvenienced by distance, huh."
Well, fine. She gripped the Stone, closed her eyes, turned it three times-
Nothing seemed to change. The still air remained still, there was no pop. She couldn't hear anything over the sound of her own breathing, of her own nervously racing heartbeat-
"Is she gonna say anything? Bit rude to-"
She gasped and her eyes flew open-
"-conjure us from the afterlife and just stand there with her eyes closed."
"James, give her a moment, she's under so much pressure."
"Pressure! Kids these days, I'm telling you…"
There they were. Her parents. Not quite ghosts, but not quite alive either. Just like the time she'd accidentally summoned Lily. Emotions boiled up, choking off anything she might have said.
"Seriously, Hazey, say something or I'm going back. You interrupted the most amazing nap-"
"James!"
Hazel sputtered at the nickname, still trying to get herself under control. "H-Hazey?!"
James snickered and reached out to ruffle her hair; he was taller than her, but not by much, and his hand barely made an impact on her head. "There she is. Took ya long enough to yank your old pop back for a chat, didn't it?"
Lily rolled her eyes, and the exasperated affection was palpable. "Ignore him, darling. What did you need? Why are you in Dumbledore's private detention chamber?"
"You don't expect us to break you out, do you~?"
"Wh- no! I don't have detention, I-!" The surge of emotion was too strong for her to hold back; she fell onto the stool and buried her face in her hands, trying not to sob.
Instantly both of them were at her side, ethereal arms holding her as tightly as they could. Lily tilted her face until she opened her eyes. "Hazel, Hazel, breathe, darling, take a deep breath, everything's gonna be fine-"
"Sorry, Hazel, really. I guess I got a little too happy to properly meet my only daughter, eh?"
Gradually she got herself under control, compartmentalizing her emotions and clamping down with Occlumency, leaning into her parents' ghostly touch, their encouraging patter. "Right, right, sorry. Today's been… a day."
"Tell us about it, sweetie."
Instead of just talking about the day, she told them everything. Her whole life, starting from her earliest memories of green light and a woman screaming, pain and a vague sense of flying. Which she knew now was Hagrid collecting her on Sirius' bike, but not then.
"I'm so sorry, sweetie, we tried to protect you." "If only I'd had my wand, or the Cloak, we might have escaped!"
She told them about her childhood, about being raised by the Dursleys, about always having a sense of something else in the world, something that made her different, special.
"Well, they wouldn't have been our first choice, but it sounds like they did alright by you, so we won't have to haunt them." "See, Lils? If you and your sister hadn't tried to reconcile, things might have been much worse for her."
Next she told them about the day before her eleventh birthday, when Snape came by and told her the truth about how special she really was. She told them about how Vernon immediately left for work and Petunia acted relieved that they didn't have to pretend she was normal anymore.
"Ugh, I see Dursley's still a tosser. What Tuney ever saw in him, I swear…" "We can't all get as lucky as you and I, Lils."
Hazel gagged, and they laughed at her but eased off. Then she kept going, telling them all about her first few days at Diagon Alley, exploring, buying things, being weirded out by Ollivander.
"Ha! I told you he was a creep, James! I told you! Hazel agrees with me!" "Alright alright, fine, Ollivander's a creep! Merlin…"
"Creep or not, he definitely knows wands." She drew her original wand and showed it to them, the etched and filled runes and the silver inlays and snake-like modifications. "It's made of elder, so I carved runes of loyalty into it and sealed them with blood magic to bind its loyalty."
"Those aren't loyalty runes, those are Nazi runes." "James! They are not! They're the Sowilo, Ehwaz, and Algiz runes."
Hazel cocked an eyebrow. "How come he knows about Nazi things?"
James scoffed. "Come off it, Hazey. I took Muggle Studies in Hogwarts, and Lils was a huge swot who took everything." "It was all so fascinating! I couldn't seriously pick one elective over another, so I took them all!"
That was the same logic Hazel had used in second year. She felt herself flushing for no reason. Lily had been soft and ethereal last time she saw her, but now, with James present, she felt like she was being tag-teamed by years of awkward parental teasing all at once. And that nickname! She couldn't decide if she hated it or loved it.
But she kept going, telling them all about her time at Hogwarts. They were alternately proud and outraged where appropriate; outraged at all the manufactured crises she had to deal with because of Dumbledore and Voldemort, but proud she overcame them anyway. "I can't believe that old man would put you and all those kids at risk! That we ever believed in him…!" "Take it easy, Lils, you know he wouldn't do such things without a damn good reason."
Hazel rolled her eyes. "It's not like you can do anything about it now."
They were horrified about Lockhart, of course. "Dumbledore hired another child molester?! While a basilisk was loose in the castle?!" "I don't care if we're ghosts, we're gonna find that bastard and drag him back with us!"
"Um. I already did that? And I tamed the basilisk too. Let me finish, will you?" She was tempted to glaze over third year, for brevity if nothing else, but she knew she couldn't dishonor the limited time she had with her parents by lying or omitting, so she steeled herself and retold all of it, every bad decision and instance of poor judgment.
When she got to the part about the knickers-stealing charm, Lily was unimpressed, but James howled with laughter. "I can't believe Sirius didn't get thrown out after showing his face there again! Oh Merlin, who'd you try it out on?" "Hopefully nobody!"
Hazel blushed. "Some random Hufflepuff seventh-year, she never noticed a thing. But- but I put them back in her pocket a few days later! So that makes it better, right?"
Lily still looked unimpressed, but luckily James was there to cut off any lectures and distract his wife. "Yes! Yes, it absolutely makes everything better and you never ever used such a bothersome, perverted spell again, right, Hazey?"
"R-Right, Dad." A total lie, but Lily didn't need to know that. "Moving on!" She told them about the prophecy she and Luna heard, about Malfoy's release from prison and his manipulations to get Lockhart and Pettigrew loose, about Narcissa's immediate and forceful response.
"Divorce, really? I never thought Cissy would have the nerve, they were a power couple even when they were in school." "Sure, but her father isn't Lord Black anymore, and by the sound of it, she put her son ahead of her husband and his beliefs."
"Ex-husband now, their divorce was finalized over the summer. But let me finish." Fourth year took a while, from the Quidditch World Cup and ensuing shenanigans, to the Triwizard Tournament, the various machinations surrounding everything. Lily and James again alternated between outrage and pride, especially around the Tournament and Tasks.
"You seriously expect us to believe that old coot couldn't find a way to weasel you out of participating? He's fucking Dumbledore, he wouldn't let some crusty old trophy defeat him!" "Especially since it wasn't even your own handwritten signature! At least whoever did it might have ripped your name off one of your assignments."
Chapter 68: Parents, Part IISummary:Hazel procrastinates some more.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextLater, with the dragon: "Damn, Hazey, not too bad at all. Blackmailing Bagman is a proper Slytherin move, but standing up to a fucking dragon? Talking it down by showing the false egg?" "Now I know how you lost all your hair! Oh, darling, your lovely hair…"
"No comment on how I tried to Imperio the thing?"
"You tried to Imperio the thing, and failed." "Brave to use dark magic in front of so many people though, but it was a dragon so we're just glad you're alright, and not back in the afterlife with us."
That was a weird response, especially after all the fire and fury she'd caught from Sirius for the Unforgivable Curses. She just cocked an eyebrow at them, waiting for the other shoe to drop; they both cocked an eyebrow right back and waited her out, silent as the graves she dragged them from.
Annoyingly, Hazel broke first. "Is that all you're gonna say? I'd think two holier-than-thou Gryffindors would react worse to their only daughter using the Unforgivable Curses!"
They cackled victoriously and high-fived. "You already caught hell from everyone else for it, right?" "We won't waste time lecturing you, even if we are holier-than-thou Gryffindors. But for the record you did a very bad thing and we're terribly upset." "Terribly upset."
"Uh, right." Hazel cleared her throat and kept going, telling them about Pansy and the Yule Ball and her preparations for the Second Task.
"Hold up, you actually bullied Archie Parkinson's daughter out of the closet?" "Ooh, I bet he didn't like that at all, stuck-up pureblood twat he was."
"He hated it, and I'm not gonna repeat the shit he wrote to her either! But I made sure she stayed safe."
When it came to the Task itself, they were outraged all over again. "How stupid do they have to be to get other students involved? And using your own dates from the Ball against you?" "Dumbledore is so lucky we're both dead, if he'd tried to pull this shit and we were alive, it would not have ended well for him!"
Hazel choked up again, unable to keep from imagining what her life could have been like with these two utter bastards in her corner. Maybe not exactly easy, but perhaps easier in some ways. Then again, would she have had the nerve to insist on Slytherin if she'd been raised by two holier-than-thou Gryffindors?
She'd like to hope she would. Being raised by different people wouldn't alter who she was at her core, would it?
Well, whatever. She glossed over most of the remainder of the year and speed-ran the Final Task, skipping to the part where she kicked Fleur's ass in a one-on-one duel and seized the Cup for herself.
"Hazey, you were only in fourth year, how were you able to stand against a witch like her?" "Remember, James, she had part of her seal lifted earlier in the year." "Oh yeah! By that creep Barty Jr. Merlin, I never liked him in school."
"Not even his own father liked him, seeing how he sent him to Azkaban."
The events at the graveyard were the worst part, but Hazel knew she had to tell it all. So she didn't hold anything back, from being cornered by Lockhart and Malfoy, Pettigrew's appearance carrying Voldemort, Lucius summoning the bones of Voldemort's Muggle father and Pettigrew cutting off his own hand, and especially the way she sabotaged the ritual by giving up her blood rather than let it be taken from her.
"Hold on, how did you-?" "She overheard her friend bragging about his dream, James. Now stop interrupting." "Yeah, yeah…"
Voldemort came back, did his grandstanding, she told him about how they were related. Lily and James both looked flabbergasted. "I was a half-blood this whole time?"
"It seems that way, unless Gringotts was lying. And they've got no reason to lie to me, I've made them a lot of money in commissions since I started investing the money you guys left me."
The Death Eaters were summoned, things really got bad, Karkaroff died, Hazel dueled Voldemort, killed Lockhart, killed Voldemort, almost escaped but Voldemort came back, Archie Parkinson was killed, Hazel got clever and Voldemort got wise, the whole golden shower thing.
"Oh, I remember that! We had a little forewarning that time, didn't we?" "Yes, we did. Us and the others who were summoned."
"Oh, that was actually you? For some reason I thought… eh, never mind."
"What did you think, darling?"
"I mean, I thought those were just echoes of you and the others. Archie's echo told me to apologize to Pansy for the way he had acted, which made no sense. He'd never apologize for anything, least of all treating his daughter like shit! And he had literally just then been killed!"
Both ghosts shrugged. "Well, we remember what happened, anyway. Maybe the others didn't, but who knows?" "So? What happened next, Hazey?"
Hazel finished the story, defeating Voldemort and taking the Cup back to Hogwarts. Dumbledore carried her to the hospital wing, everyone freaked out, Sirius and Crouch Sr were there and Sirius didn't like what Snape was doing.
Lily reached out and put her hand on Hazel's. "Please, dear, please trust Severus. He'd never betray you, never. He may betray everyone else, but never you."
"I know, Mum, I know."
When she reached the part about Crouch making her his heir, James was incredulous. "Let me get this straight. You're set to inherit, not only the Potter shit, but Sirius' estate, the Gaunt, Slytherin and Peverell stuff, and Crouch's shit too?"
"Well, the Gaunt and Slytherin things are combined, and Peverell is subsumed by Potter, but yes. Yes I am." She held her hands out and revealed her three Heir rings. "Why don't I have a Potter ring?"
James shrugged. "Technically speaking, you're the Lady Potter, but we never put much stock in that stuff, since we'd always been nouveau riche. When you turn 17 you could create that crap yourself, if you wanted to."
Lily gave her a very candid glance. "But then you'd have to worry about heirs, darling. And you know what that means. Right?"
Hazel shivered slightly. "Yeah, I know. Straight sex. Gross." She was certain there'd be ways around that, but that was a consideration for Future Hazel. Present Hazel still had to get to the fucking point.
So she kept talking, telling them about how she got bored over the summer so she started a fight club with cousin Dudley. "Ha! I bet Vernon and Tuney were furious about that!"
"Actually, they just told us not to gamble on the fights. But we were gambling on them anyway."
"Good girl. Did you meet any cute Muggles?"
"Uh, I met a cute girl, but she turned out to be a Squib later." Hazel kept talking, trying not to linger too obviously on Leah and Shira. She told them about visiting Godric's Hollow, about the sexton who recognized her, about the graves she saw and her brief meeting with Snape. It was he who put it in her head to go see the cottage; she wouldn't have thought to do it otherwise, unless Sirius or Remus had said anything.
They were a lot more understanding about their old house being made into a shitty memorial than she had been. "That's not a bad idea, actually, wish we'd thought of it." "Would've been nice if they'd restored and preserved it at least, instead of leaving it like it was after the attack."
"Well, I was pissed off about it, so I had Sirius hire a bunch of lawyers to get possession of the property back and then I had it razed to the ground. Contractors are building a new house on the site, and I'll probably live there once this shit with Voldemort is sorted out."
"Aw, that's too bad. But it's your house anyway, we couldn't stop you."
"Exactly! So, moving on…"
This was one of the shitty parts: the Dementor attack. Lily and James would really blow their tops once she told this part of her life, and likely would tear off to punish Dumbledore and Fudge and Umbridge and everyone else they could associate with the attack.
Awkwardly, they noticed her hesitation. "What's up, Hazey? Scared to keep going?" "Whatever happened next must be nasty if you're hesitating to tell us. Just remember we can't actually do anything about it anymore, alright?"
That didn't keep Hazel from sounding miserable. "You're gonna want to, though." Then she shook her head and told herself not to be a coward, took a deep breath, and got it over with. "Dudley, Leah and I were attacked by Dementors the night of my birthday."
"DEMENTORS?!" …and there they went, ranting and raving, about Dumbledore and Fudge and Umbridge and everyone else.
Hazel didn't want to deal with this. She put the Stone down and banished them, then a few seconds later brought them back again. "Do you need a few more moments, or can we keep going?"
"Cheeky little brat." "You can't just drop something like that on us and not expect us to get mad, darling. But we'll be good." "Mostly. We're still your parents, Hazey, we can get mad over your bullshit if we want to."
"Hey, this particular bullshit was not my fault." She told them about what happened, how she almost didn't get the basilisk out but pulled it off in time, how Dudley was fine but Leah had come way too close to being eaten. She described how her Patronus ate and destroyed the Dementors, which was badass, and then Mrs Figg's appearance and the revelation she'd been a Squib and a spy for Dumbledore all those years. She told them about beating Fletcher to an inch of his life, and that brought proud smirks.
She skipped to the part where Vernon bought them all guns, and that brought confusion. "Guns? Seriously?"
"Yeah, I got a .45 revolver and a 10-gauge sawed-off shotgun. They're actually pretty fun to shoot!"
"You haven't shot anyone yet, have you?"
"I mean. Not yet?"
Lily shook her head. "It's terrifying to think that you've got guns and aren't any more or less dangerous than you were before, darling. Ugh, I wish we were still alive." "Yeah! We'd have raised you properly, Hazey! A real life with food and security and everything!"
"Huh? I've had plenty of food my whole life, what are you-?"
"Are you kidding? You're so bulky! Girls aren't supposed to be muscular!" "James! Girls can be muscular if they want to be!"
Hazel rolled her eyes, reminding herself her parents had been raised in the 60s. She moved on with her story, including all the awkward parts, even when she went on a deep dive into Horcrux lore. Her time at Grimmauld Place with Sirius and the others, how she kicked ass at the Ministry hearing and left Fudge holding the bag, how Dumbledore surprised her with getting Leah to testify and her further surprise at Leah's status as a Squib.
Afterwards, her errand with Snape and Dumbledore to Little Hangleton, where they secured another Horcrux and Hazel got her hands on another piece of her heritage. "Still can't believe we were Gaunts this whole time." "C'mon, Lils, if you hadn't been, you wouldn't have gotten a few minutes with Hazey and Snivellus over the summer, would you?" "James, enough with the nicknames, you know I hate it when you call him that." "Right, sorry. You're okay with being Hazey though, right, Hazey?"
"Uh, I… don't dislike it?"
"Good enough for me~!" Her dad seemed inordinately smug about her non-admission. What a dork.
They were in the home stretch now. Hazel told them about the new teachers, about the various events of her fifth year, her resistance to Umbridge and her various Decrees. She was especially proud of how she took the teeth out of her Quidditch Decree, and so was James. "Smart of you to get Sirius and all those other old-money types involved, Hazey."
"Yeah, I thought so too." She skipped over the gritty details of her meetings with The Study Group, especially the after-meeting hookups with all her girls. But she did tell them about her plan to weaponize the dress code to get Umbridge all worked up and to gaslight her into doubting her perceptions.
Grindelwald's sudden appointment to Hogwarts as Divination professor only accelerated matters in that regard, and it was no coincidence that Umbridge was summarily thrown into a cell a day later.
After that she told them about the attack on Arthur Weasley, how she intervened to try and stop him, the revelation that Nagini had been a Horcrux and how Hazel was the last remaining one, how she took on Dumbledore and used his wand to break into the Ministry so she could learn the words of the prophecy at long last, her ascension as Mistress of Death with Grindelwald's help, and her tour of the Crouch estate. And that was basically everything.
"Damn, Hazey, you really don't fuck around, do you? That's some of the most hardcore shit I've ever heard!" "Language, James. But yes, very hardcore. We're so proud of you, darling." They hugged her again, and she hugged them back. "I guess that brings us to the point of why you conjured us, then?"
"Oh, right!" Hazel had nearly forgotten about it. She gestured at the Pensieve. "Well, Snape handed me a vial of his memories, and I was scared to see them without knowing what to expect. So I brought you guys here to, well, tell me what to expect."
The two ghosts shared a glance, and Hazel could tell from that glance that whatever they were thinking wasn't good. Eventually, James heaved a sigh and looked back to Hazel. "Hazel, those memories probably aren't gonna paint me in a very flattering light. Snape and I had a… complicated school rivalry, okay? We hated each other from the moment we met, and I'm ashamed to say I dragged Sirius, Remus and Peter into it too."
Lily looked sad. "I tried to defend him. I was probably his only friend outside Slytherin House. But even I couldn't take his side forever. James and I were both very cruel, and Severus was lucky he didn't turn out worse because of how we treated him."
James put a hand on Hazel's shoulder. "Please don't judge us too harshly, okay, kiddo? We were kids, we were your age. And you haven't exactly been a paragon of good judgment."
Hazel rolled her eyes. "I get it already, you were both prats in school. I'll try not to be too harsh, it wouldn't help matters if I was."
"That's all we ask, sweetie." Lily hugged her as tight as her ethereal arms could, and James did the same; Hazel hugged them both with her much more solid arms, and they stood like that for several moments. "If you have more questions after you've seen them, you should ask Sirius and Remus. It probably isn't a good idea for you to call on us too often."
Hazel wasn't so sure about that. She was Mistress of Death; if anyone could bypass the rules, it was her.
But she'd be better served worrying about that later. Right now, she had a decision to make.
Notes:Some of the details in this chapter and the previous one were tweaked to fit in more with the upcoming rewrite I'm still planning, rather than the hot mess that is currently in place, masquerading as book 1 of this series.
Chapter 69: DiscombobulatedSummary:Hazel endures the horny wittering of her classmates.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text"Goodbye for now, you two." She hugged Lily and James one more time, and they smiled at her as she released them once again. She was alone in the chamber once more, her and the Pensieve full of Snape's memories.
She checked her watch, and saw it was well past lunchtime. Where had the time gone? Telling Lily and James about her whole life had taken longer than she thought it would. Oh well, it was a perfect excuse to put off diving in. So she gathered the memories back in their vial, recorked it, and stepped out of the private chamber.
McGonagall was seated at her desk, just finishing tea. "Ah, Potter. Are you finished with the Pensieve?"
Hazel hesitated, then decided to come clean. "Actually, I didn't even start. I was too busy, um, talking to my parents."
McGonagall blinked, then cocked an eyebrow. "And how, pray tell, did you manage to reach out to Lily and James Potter?"
"With this." She held up the black Resurrection Stone, which she had placed back on her finger.
"I see." The eyebrow went back down. "You've missed lunch, but I daresay you know where the kitchen is. Do put the Pensieve back before you step out."
"Oh, right." She stepped back into the chamber and retrieved the basin, placing it back in its cupboard. "I still need to review these memories, ma'am, can I come back later?"
"You may enter this office at any point before curfew, Miss Potter, though know that I will be alerted if you or anyone else comes in at any time, and the alerts are much sharper if you slip in past curfew."
"That makes sense. Thank you, ma'am." She bowed and went down the staircase, and made her way to the kitchen where she easily convinced Moxy to prepare a late lunch for her. While eating she realized it was probably wise to put off viewing those memories; if whatever they contained could compromise Snape in any way, she'd be stupid to start her plan to bait Voldemort while discombobulated by those revelations.
…did she seriously just think the word 'discombobulated'? Christ on a crutch. Where did she even learn all these weird words anyway? If she kept this up she'd have to discombobulate her brain right out the window.
She finished eating and stood up, leaving the house-elves to clean up in a trice. Classes would resume tomorrow, and she thought she was ready. All her homework was finished, her friends were safely back in the castle. Was she forgetting anything?
Right, the trap for Voldemort.
Should she get the Elder Wand to Dumbledore first? How? She couldn't-
House-elves could.
"Winky!"
The little elf appeared and curtseyed. "Yes, Mistress?"
"Can you locate people who maybe don't want to be found?"
Winky frowned and tugged on her ears. "It is depending on who Mistress is wanting Winky to locate…"
Dumbledore knew this was happening, surely he'd be open to being found. She drew the Elder Wand and held it out. "Take this wand to Albus Dumbledore, and come back with proof of the delivery."
Winky moaned and shook her head. "House-elves is not being allowed to carry wands! Winky is sorry, but Winky cannot touch it!"
Oh, right, that World Cup bullshit. "What if I put it in a box or wrapped it up in something else, would that be acceptable?"
"M-Maybe…"
Good enough. Hazel drew her old wand and conjured a small cardboard box, along with some cloth to pack in around the Wand. She crammed half the cloth into the box, stuck the Elder Wand inside, then the remainder of the cloth. "Here, Winky. Tell him it's his old wand, he'll know what to do. Don't tell anyone else, and don't forget that proof!"
"What if Master Sirius asks Winky directly?"
Hazel leaned down and looked Winky in the eye. "Winky, as your Mistress and the Heir to the House of Crouch, I give you blanket permission to lie to Master Sirius or anyone else if it be necessary to perform the duties I assign you. Am I understood?"
"Winky understands! And Winky will not forget proof, Mistress Hazel!" Nodding vigorously, Winky took the box, curtseyed again, and disappeared.
Hazel tried to take it easy the rest of the day, but she was on edge, wondering when Winky would come back. Thankfully she managed to keep her nerves out of sight when she walked into the common room and saw Daphne and the others. "Hey guys. Train finally got in?"
"Hazel!" Tracey got up and danced over to hug her tightly, and Daphne shoved Theo to one side to make room for her. "I missed you! And your fingers, and your lips, and your tongue, and your…"
Giggling at Tracey's horny wittering, Hazel sat down next to Daphne, who instantly curled up to her. "Trace isn't the only one who missed… all those things~"
"You ladies sure know how to make a girl feel welcome."
Theo, who had gotten over being turfed out rather quickly by taking a seat closer to the fire, smirked. "You're still doing Study Group meetings, right Potter? With Trelawney taking the post for the rest of the year, we'll need a solid teacher."
Hazel gave him a stink eye. "Trelawney's one of my favorite teachers, I'll have you know."
"Sure, but you can't deny she's lacking in authority on the subject. And during times of war, we need teachers who know this stuff inside and out!"
Hazel laughed, because she had thought all this through already. "Don't worry Theo, I'm not stopping the meetings. In fact, now that we don't have to skulk around hiding it without Umbridge stressing everyone out, I might be able to up the ante! More meetings, more often!"
More than one face took on shades of apprehension, but Hazel was on a roll. "No, think about it! We won't have to hide anymore, the professors can actively support us now! We can get more students involved, set up more groups-"
Pansy groaned. "Merlin's ass, Potter, you can't be serious! We only set it up because the Umbitch was threatening to ruin our education in Defense, and now that she's gone we don't have to worry anymore!"
"We do need to worry, Pansy. Like Theo said, Trelawney isn't the most inspiring teacher for Defense during wartime."
"And you think you are?"
"I know I am!" Hazel threw her hair back, rolled up her sleeves and flexed, exposing not only her muscles but the drop-holster strapped to her inner forearm. With her long black hair, her scars, and her muscles, she knew she cut a more intimidating figure than Trelawney.
Pansy didn't seem to think so, if the repressed giggle was anything to go by. "You're ridiculous, Potter. Calm down and put your sleeves back."
"Come over here and make me calm down~"
Daphne rolled her eyes and tugged Hazel's arm back around herself. "No room left, sorry Parkinson."
"What do you- there's plenty of room!" To prove her point, Pansy slid over and dumped herself into Hazel's lap without so much as a 'by your leave'. "See!"
Hazel had the wind knocked out of her, and Daphne and Tracey just cackled. And that seemed to signal the end of serious discourse for the night, because Theo checked out and the girls made themselves comfortable up against her.
Well, Hazel had never complained about a good cuddle puddle before; she wasn't about to start complaining now. So she put the heavy thoughts aside again and whiled away the afternoon, snogging and groping until dinner.
Dinner itself was nice enough, or it would be if people left her alone. She was trying to build a fish sandwich, but students kept coming over and asking if she was still doing The Study Group. Some were hopeful, some were apprehensive, some were resigned, some weren't even in the original group, but they all had basically the same question. Tossers.
But she was a prefect and a student leader, so she had to put a smile on her face and answer them all with grace. Except Colin and Dennis Creevey, whom she shut down before they could open their squeaky mouths. "Yes, lads, we're still doing the shit, now bugger off back to your own tables."
She was halfway through her first sandwich when Roger Davies came up, a grim expression on his face. "Potter."
"Davies. Why the long face?"
"I've got grim news. Myself and the other seventh-years are pulling out of The Study Group."
Hazel paused. "That is a blow, we've been learning more from you lot than you've been learning from us."
"I know, and I hate it, but we have to prioritize NEWTs and Quidditch. And your plans to expand might not work out either, or have you forgotten about OWLs?"
"Fuck." She had forgotten about OWLs! She'd been too busy worrying about Voldemort, about the war. "Maybe you're right, Davies. But I wouldn't be a Slytherin if I wasn't too ambitious for my own good."
"You'll do fine, I'm sure." He clapped her on the shoulder and walked off, leaving Hazel to fume in peace and finish eating.
Next to her, the others looked a bit uneasy. "We forgot about OWLs too." That was Daphne, chewing her lip and looking uneasy.
Pansy said nothing, though she did a bad job hiding a smug smirk. Hazel noticed, and cocked an eyebrow. "What's so funny, Parkinson?"
"You are. Unlike you, I've got my immediate priorities in order~"
Theo scowled. "Why didn't you mention OWLs earlier?"
"What good would it have done? It's not my place to question Hazel's decisions, she'll do whatever the hell she wants regardless of what any of us say."
That brought giggles and chuckles, and Hazel wasn't at all sure what to say in response to that. "So, does this mean you're quitting the Study Group to focus on OWLs?"
"I didn't say that, Potter. I didn't say that at all. Merlin knows I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I quit."
Hazel was even more confused, but it was clear Pansy didn't feel like elaborating any further. She huffed a sigh and gave up for now, going back to her sandwich. Fuck, she was hungry tonight, she thought as she ate a second sandwich, and then a third. Dessert came around and she was still starving.
Millicent cocked an eyebrow. "Trying to out-eat me, Potter?"
"No one's out-eating you, Bulstrode. I guess I was just busy today." She glanced down the table. "Anyone excited for Grindelwald's first class?"
She received a collective shrug, and someone called her a teacher's pet under their breath. "Five points from whoever said that." That brought groans, but no one fessed up. "Whatever, call me a teacher's pet all you like. I think it's gonna be amazing."
Whoever it was said it again, and Hazel put her ice cream down. "Five more points off! I can do this all night, fuckers, I don't give a SHIT about the House Cup!"
The Slytherin table went silent, and several firsties glanced nervously at the hourglasses at the front of the hall. A number of emeralds flicked away into the upper half of the Slytherin hourglass, showing Hazel's threat wasn't empty. Sinistra half-rose from her seat at the staff table, and everyone desperately went back to normal. Hazel, feeling smug, finished her dessert in peace.
Notes:Nothing much happens in this chapter or the next, so I decided to double post today. Also, chapter 69~
Chapter 70: Pop QuizzesSummary:Hazel reflects on being a slag, and endures a few surprise tests.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextIn the morning, Hazel worked out and got ready for the day, and since Umbridge was gone she felt free to dress however she pleased. She made her skirt a little shorter, her shirt a little tighter, mindful that she could adjust her appearance with the flick of a finger if someone who shouldn't was about to catch on.
Then she had second thoughts. What would Grindelwald think if she strutted in looking like a slag? Never mind that she was a slag, and damn proud of it. She didn't know how strict he would be about the dress code; her instincts told her he wouldn't give a damn, since they had more important things to worry about; but logically, considering he never went anywhere without being properly dressed in Victorian men's fashion, he probably did hold strong opinions on the dress code.
So for now it was wiser to play it safe, and she could adjust on the fly if she found he was more permissive than his upbringing would suggest.
With Umbridge gone and no one paying her any attention, Hazel ate breakfast with one hand under the table, Daphne trying desperately to maintain her composure, and Pansy trying not to be visibly jealous. Neither of them quite succeeded, which did wonders to prop up Hazel's ego. And she was gonna need every boost she could get today; rumor was swirling around that Murk and Haywood were planning to spring pop quizzes on everyone about the holiday assignments they'd given out.
Normally Hazel was all about pop quizzes, but her holidays had been so eventful she wasn't sure she'd remember everything. She probably should revise before-
The food disappeared before her eyes, the signal that mealtime was over and class time was nigh. So much for revising! She left Daphne hanging and Pansy fuming, wiped her hands clean and headed up for class, her expanded satchel easily carrying the weight of her books.
As usual, she was the first to arrive for History of Magic, and Professor Murk stood at the front of class, sleek and smug like always. "Potter. You're looking pleased with yourself~"
"I am, Professor, breakfast was very productive."
"Mm, I bet it was. I'm surprised you managed to eat so much with only one hand." She laughed at the expression on Hazel's face. "Sit down, you slag."
It was still disconcerting how in tune the new teachers were. Hazel decided it must be because it hadn't been so long since they were students, and sat down at her usual desk.
When everyone else was seated, Murk began. "As you may or may not have heard, there was a rumor going around about a pop quiz today." She paused for the groans of disappointment. "You'll be pleased to learn those rumors were correct." Another pause for more groans, and Murk gave one of her signature deadly smiles as she flicked her wand and sent sheets of parchment fluttering to every desk.
Hazel's mind was blank at first, until she got a grip on herself and used Occlumency to force her thoughts into order. Then she got to work, jotting down answer after answer with her self-inking quill. Part of her attention wandered, however.
Where was Winky? Was she having trouble finding Dumbledore? Had she ran afoul of enemy operatives? Her mind spiraled through increasingly dire predictions until she forcefully reminded herself Winky was probably just waiting for a discreet time to rendezvous and pass on proof of victory in her task. That was much more sensible than the bullshit her mind was making up, thus much more likely to be true.
Murk graded their papers as they finished them, using a grading charm to isolate key words and make their answers easier to digest at a glance. When she reached Hazel, the charm turned her parchment into a sea of green highlights. "Not bad, Potter."
That was all the praise she got, but it was another brick in the wall of her ego, so she'd take it.
On the way to Potions, Hazel had to use the loo, and no sooner did she close the stall door behind her than Winky appeared. "Mistress?"
"Oh, Winky, I was worried about you."
Winky seemed embarrassed that she had apparated in on her Mistress in a compromising position. "Winky is sorry, but could not reach Mistress Hazel alone."
"It's fine Winky, now report."
Winky handed her a letter, and Hazel read it while finishing her business. It was very simple:
Package received. Awaiting signal.
-A.P.W.B.D.
"Well done, Winky. Now get outta here." Winky curtseyed and disappeared again, and Hazel burnt the letter with a flick of her wand, dumping the ashes in the toilet before flushing it and washing her hands. She'd have to consult with Grindelwald tonight after dinner for the best time to plant the bait in Voldemort's mind, but for now she had to focus on classes.
Potions was, as always, a delight. Hazel still couldn't get over how different the classroom was now that Penny had taken over, how well-lit and clean everything was. And was it just her imagination, or were Penny's robes a bit more form-fitting than usual? It wasn't her imagination, she decided as she overheard some randy comments from incoming Gryffindors.
"Damn, look at her vest~"
"Her vest, screw that, check out that skirt!"
"Has she got new earrings on?"
Penny waited for everyone to come in before clearing her throat. "Settle down, class. I'll be handing out a quiz shortly to ensure everyone paid attention to their holiday assignments." Groans of disappointment, as if they hadn't heard the rumors. "Now now, none of that! You should know by now that Potions is not a subject to take lightly!"
The quiz wasn't terrible, just a quick reminder of the stuff they studied during the holidays. But Penny's presence made it hard to focus. She drifted here and there, checking on progress, correcting the odd error or two. But the way she bent over, the way her new earrings clinked and shimmered, the way she loomed over shoulders...
Yeah, something was definitely new.
Ron was the first to say something. "Um, Professor?"
"Yes, Ronald~?"
"You, um… you look- I mean, you…"
"Take your time, young man."
That seemed to nettle him, and he got to the point at last. "Y-You look different today!"
"In a good way, I hope." Penny fingered one of her earrings. "My friend Maya sent me these over the holidays, aren't they lovely?"
Hazel remembered hearing about Maya, the badass curse-breaker who owned Slytherin before Hazel herself came along. She put her hand up. "I think Weasley's talking about more than your earrings, Professor. You're dressed differently, too."
Penny laughed again. "Ah, I wondered when one of you would have the nerve to say something. Yes, I did adjust my robes for today's lesson, but don't get used to it. It's just for today, just a test of your collective ability to focus." A flick of her wand and her robes were back to their normal trim and fit, still flattering but far more professional and conservative.
All in all, it was a relief when Penny reverted to normal, though Hazel wondered if Umbridge's removal didn't have anything to do with her temporary attitude.
After class, Hazel lingered to ask about the earrings. "Professor, you mentioned your friend Maya earlier. Is she doing well?"
Penny smiled. "Quite well, yes. Her work has not been disturbed by the upheaval at the Ministry; her sympathies lie with Madam Bones, but her department is somewhat outside the usual chain of command."
"I bet Fudge can't stand that."
Penny lowered her voice. "Frankly I'm not sure he's even aware they exist."
Hazel giggled at that. "I actually wanted to ask about the earrings, they're very pretty."
Penny grinned and played with them again. "Aren't they? Maya always had good taste. She didn't say where she got them, but they're definitely not the sort of thing you can just pick up at the corner store. Why, do you want a pair? I can ask her where she bought them."
Hazel fidgeted nervously, suddenly wishing she hadn't said anything. "I mean, I don't even have my ears pierced. And boys keep buying me earrings. It'd be nice to get some from a girl. Or a- or a woman, as it may be."
The smile faded from Penny's eyes. "You're as subtle as an angry graphorn, Potter. I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw the line here, I've humored your flirting long enough."
She tried not to flinch at that. "Yes, Professor. I didn't mean to get you in trouble."
"No harm done. Be off with you before that changes, however."
Properly chastised, Hazel bowed and left the room, desperately hoping her face wasn't as red as it felt. She ducked into a loo and splashed some water on her face, just to be sure. Cold water, too.
Had she ruined things between her and Penny? Hopefully not, hopefully she'd settle for being a bit colder to Hazel for a week or so, then they could go back to normal and Hazel would have to be a little less overtly flirty.
Fortunately no one noticed if she was a little off her game at lunch, and if they did, hopefully they assumed it was nerves from Grindelwald's upcoming class. Apparently there had been more interest in Divination than ever before, so much so that McGonagall had taken the rare step of allowing mid-term signups. Hazel groaned, that meant the class would be full of looky-loos and rubberneckers who were there just for the teacher, not the subject.
She was about to tease Daphne under the table when she remembered Murk's teasing remarks, and kept her hands to herself with a sigh. Daphne gave her a shrewd look and teased Hazel instead, which was very nice and an excellent way to practice Occlumency to keep her reactions in check.
Eventually lunch was over, and Hazel rose to her feet, straightening her skirt out and rolling her eyes as Daphne licked her fingers clean. They had a new professor to face.
Notes:Next week, Professor Grindelwald.
Chapter 71: Tactics & StrategySummary:Professor Grindelwald is not the Divination teacher they thought they were getting, but maybe he's the one they deserve.
Notes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextGrindelwald's classroom was still on the first floor, and as Hazel walked in, she saw the windows were still wide open to the winter air outside. He had conceded to the increased interest in his class by expanding the rows of benches surrounding the central lectern, though the fire was still roaring merrily and the torches still flickered along the walls.
Hazel hesitated, not wanting to sit too close and be called a teacher's pet, but not wanting to sit too far away and miss out on the lesson. After a few moments she compromised and sat in the second row from the center, sort of off to the left; close enough to hear everything, not close enough to be mistaken.
Other students began filing in. The usual suspects were there, like Lavender and Parvati and Ron, and Millicent in the back. Hazel blinked; when had Millicent gotten so big? It was like she'd gone through two growth spurts over the last break. Either that or Hazel had been ignoring her all this time, which made her feel bad, so she waved her over to sit next to her.
Millicent saw her waving and forced her way through the throng, settling down so heavily the bench creaked. "Hazel."
"Millicent. Have I been neglecting you this year? I don't remember you being so stacked."
She smirked at that. "Maybe you've just had your head up your own ass, eh? I have been working out, though."
"When?! I work out too, every morning and evening!"
Whatever Millicent was about to say was cut off as the last of the students arrived and Grindelwald made his appearance. Hazel didn't quite catch where he'd come from, had he been standing by the fire this whole time? Hiding behind the desk?
All chatter ceased when they realized he was there. As usual, he wore yet another dark and somber Victorian suit, his side cut trimmed and sharpened, his mismatched eyes gleaming. "Good afternoon." He commanded the room with ease, his gaze sweeping back and forth, his voice carrying to every corner. "As you are all well aware, I am Gellert Grindelwald, though you will of course address me as Professor Grindelwald. Before you ask, yes, I am that Grindelwald, the one who was supposed to die forgotten in Nurmengard; you may blame your German brethren for letting me loose once more."
He paced slowly forward, approaching the central lectern. "I'm certain many of you have similarly nonsensical questions, and after class I will entertain them. For now, however, we must put my past aside and focus." He took roll with military precision, barking out names; each student snapped to attention almost automatically as they were called out. Hazel was no exception.
When the last name echoed into silence, he rolled the scroll up with a snap and put it aside. "All present, excellent. Now. Divination. Professor Trelawney has imparted an acceptable basis for our work going forward, though we shall not limit ourselves merely to scrying and interpretation. No, my friends, I shall teach you how to seize your own fates, your own futures, how to bend destiny itself to your will.
"Can anyone do this? you may ask. With the proper foreknowledge, anything is possible. Understand that the future is not set in stone; portents may be wrong, prophecies may be misinterpreted. Anything can go wrong, right up to the very second of victory; likewise, everything can go right until the moment of disaster. Win or lose is up to you."
He flicked his wand, and a blackboard full of equations floated into view. "Does anyone recognize these formulas?"
Hazel peered at them and tried to remember what she had learned in Professor Vector's class, then gave up and glanced at Hermione, waiting for her to do her thing. But she seemed as stumped as everyone else, which clearly got on her nerves. She put her hand up anyway, though. "Sir, they're just random numbers, I'm not sure they mean anything."
His silver eye gleamed. "Not at all, Miss Granger. What you see before you is a very practical application of Divination: military logistics. Perhaps one of you might hazard a guess as to how these two things are related?"
Hazel put her hand up. "I'm not sure you could call it Divination, sir. If you know your enemy's troop movements, supply routes, treaty networks and so on, you don't need prophecy to defeat them on the field of battle."
"Very true, Miss Potter, five points to Slytherin. However, there is a difference between assembling and interpreting weeks of intelligence only for a freak storm to throw all your calculations to the wind, and knowing when that storm will rise and manipulating events from afar so your foe suffers worse than yourself. A true victory is won without a shot ever being fired, without a single boot stepping onto the field."
Hazel realized he was speaking from experience. An immensely powerful man, gripped by visions of a terrible future, with only a few followers to help him against all the bureaucracies and inertia of the modern world. He would have used politics, espionage, assassination to advance his cause before ever mustering his forces and declaring open battle. And when one's spies were limited in number and reach, Divination could be useful indeed.
Grindelwald was still speaking. "Armies fight on three things; their stomachs, their feet, and their wallets. Disrupt ration shipments, destroy boot factories, interrupt the delivery of paychecks, and not even the most fanatical partisan can keep going. Destroy your enemy's morale, in other words."
Hermione put her hand in the air again. "Sir, are we here to learn Divination or military strategy?"
"Both, Miss Granger. I am not here to teach you merely how to see into the future, but how to make use of what you learn. And it so happens that military applications are a concrete, accessible, and immediate means of putting Divination to good use. Rest assured, I will make sure to review various means of scrying and prophecy as the term grinds onward.
"Our time together is sadly limited, so before the end of class I will give you a simple assignment." He flicked his wand again, and a large sheaf of parchment unrolled in midair, revealing a battlefield map. "This is a bird's eye view of Ardennes Forest, where the Germans launched a last-ditch attempt to break the spine of the Allied forces. I want you all to use whichever tokens or methods you feel comfortable with, and apply Divination to the Battle of the Bulge to try and turn things around for the Germans. You are outnumbered and outgunned, and the Allies control the skies."
Everyone reached for their implements; Ron seemed to check out, his mind probably wandering to Parvati's ass; Hermione, who hadn't taken this class in two years, appeared to disregard all tools of Divination entirely and was approaching it like a math problem, if the rapidly unfolding equations on her parchment were any indication. Hazel, taking a moment to admire Parvati as well, got to work with her rune stones. Grab a random handful in her left hand, shake them thrice, cast…
Hm, her Sowilo rune was in the center of the others, with the charred side up. What the fuck did that mean? The four closest runes were Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Eiwaz, and Tiwaz. Catastrophe, death, justice, and suffering. "It could be a reference to the desperate nature of the German attack, or… or maybe someone on the inside sabotaged them?"
Grindelwald approached and eyed the runes. "Either would be an accurate interpretation, Miss Potter. Rune stones are, as you well know, intentionally vague."
"Room for bullshit, in other words."
"A crass way of putting it, but yes." He stepped away to assist the others, leaving her to ponder the runes.
The bell rang before anyone could make real headway, but the old warlord hadn't expected anything else. "Your homework for the week is to continue your analysis of the Battle of the Bulge. Write as much or as little as you feel necessary for the task, and remember the purpose of the exercise: to put Divination to practical use to try and turn things around for the Germans. Focusing on the conditions of battle is a losing gambit."
Hazel carefully gathered her stones and put them away, along with her book, and slung her bag over her shoulder to join the exodus of students. Most of them were deeply impressed by the old man, and Hazel figured Divination would be a hot topic for reasons that, for once, had nothing to do with Trelawney's supposed drinking habits. Hell, some of them were outright reconsidering their opinion of the old fraud.
Hermione was caught between admiration and indignation. "I can't believe he gave us homework to help the Nazis."
Parvati shrugged. "What if it was just a random battle? Ask him if you can study a different fight, if it bothers you so much."
Hermione chewed her lip, then shook her head. "No, I think I'll drop the class again. I doubt I'm going to learn anything I'll ever use, even with a new teacher."
"Your loss."
Hazel smirked. "Well, I know I'm gonna tough it out. I've made it this far with a full schedule, I can't back out now. Now come on or we'll be late for Defense."
The DADA classroom was still bare, and Trelawney was waiting for them in militant-looking robes. She didn't need to take roll, her eyes scanned and noted each student as they filed in and sat down. "Well then, I trust you are all rested and ready for today's lesson?" There was a general murmur of assent, and she nodded sharply. "Good. Today I shall teach you the Down-Blast Curse, Deprimo. It has many uses, utilitarian to defensive; you can dig a well, open an escape route, clear out a gnome infestation or a nest of ants. Now open your books to page 98."
The Down-Blast Curse wasn't hard. Point your wand downward, say the curse, be ready to jump. Soon enough they were blasting holes in the floor, sometimes at each other's feet, sometimes at their own feet. Seamus got Dean, and cost Gryffindor ten points. Neville's gleeful shout turned into a panicked yelp when the floor beneath his own feet vaporized, and cost Gryffindor ten more points.
Hazel waited for Trelawney's attention to be on the other side of the room, and for Ron to be trying the spell, then vaporized the floor beneath his feet and sent him into it with an undignified scream. Gryffindor lost more points, Ron looked like a fool, and Hazel got the satisfaction of messing with him even if no one else noticed.
Since it was a double period, they all managed to get good. They spent the last five minutes repairing the floor while Trelawney assigned homework, then it was time for dinner. Draco was especially smug. "Did any of you see it when I knocked Longbottom into the floor?"
Hazel's friends snickered meanly, and Hazel herself smirked. "Don't think we did, no. I bet none of you saw it when I nailed Weasley?"
"But everyone saw Thomas and Finnegan screwing around." Cruel laughter echoed, and it echoed louder as they entered the Great Hall and saw Slytherin well in the lead. Hazel hadn't lied when she said she didn't give a shit about the House Cup (she wasn't convinced it wasn't rigged), but winning always felt nice regardless.
Glancing at the staff table, she was surprised to see Trelawney sitting with the others. Though, once she thought about it, she realized it made sense; now that she didn't have to walk all the way down from North Tower, it was easier for her to eat with the rest of the school. Down the line her eyes wandered: Flitwick and McGonagall in the center, the new professors all in a row, Hagrid taking up the far end. The older ones down the other side, and Grindelwald at the opposite end. Eating with precision and speaking to curious students at the same time; his table manners and posture were impeccable.
Seeing this, Hazel wondered if tonight would be a good night for speaking to him about her plans. No doubt he'd have an endless line of students wishing to speak to-
He saw her staring, and suddenly his voice was in her head: Nine o' clock tonight, my office. We shall scheme.
Well, that sorted that. She focused on food, and on teasing Pansy under the table, and plotted her homework ordeal and her prefect rounds for the night. Damn, she was getting rather good at eating with one hand; she didn't even need her wand, she was so good at wandless magic now she could just flick her fingers and have a whole stack of sandwiches put together.
As for homework, she'd do Divination first, since she was meeting up with Grindelwald later tonight. Murk and Penny hadn't gotten around to assigning homework, so that just left Trelawney's essay on Deprimo. The length was dependent on how well one had performed, so Hazel had to write about a foot, whereas certain unnamed Gryffindors all had to hand in over three feet.
…come to think of it, she should do the essay first, since the Divination assignment was likely to become rather involved? Yes, that seemed much more rational. Essay first, predictions, patrols, then scheming. This was the proper order of things. Yes. Fuck yes. Hell fucking yes.
Pansy was glaring and squirming, so Hazel pulled her head out of the clouds and focused on finishing her and her dinner off. And then dessert arrived! And one couldn't eat ice cream one-handed so Hazel took her hand back. Pansy glared even harder, and Hazel blinked innocently back. "You got off, didn't you? Don't look at me that way."
That brought a blush and a harrumph, and Hazel smirked. A fine meal indeed.
After dinner, Hazel had the distinct pleasure of overhearing some upperclassmen harassing one of the Muggleborn firsties. She cocked an eyebrow at Draco, who nodded and went to back her up. "What's going on here, lads?"
The upperclassmen flinched, and one of them bolted altogether. The other two stood their ground. "Potter, Malfoy. We were just making sure this little dork knew his place."
Hazel glanced at the kid, who sniffled and tried to look defiant. Point in his favor, he wasn't in tears yet. "Take him to the common room, Draco, I'll sort these two out."
"You got it. Come on, you." Draco took the boy's hand and led him away, and Hazel turned to regard the two thugs again.
"You both know damn well going after Muggleborns isn't tolerated around here anymore. But I'll be gracious and let you explain yourselves."
"Look, it had nothing to do with his blood status, alright? He was being cheeky, mouthing off!"
"And why did your mate take off at the sight of Draco and I?"
The second brute looked sheepish. "Malfoy had nothing to do with it."
Hazel grinned widely at that. "I'm not sure I believe you, but at least you know how to suck up. Now get outta here and next time don't make a scene in the halls. We've got all these abandoned classrooms all over the castle that a quick Alohomora can unlock."
With that sorted, Hazel went on to the common room, where Draco was getting the true story out of the firstie. Everything the upperclassmen had said was true, for once. Luckily Draco was already sorting the twerp out with a gentle lecture, so all was well. She dashed off a quick essay, made a good start on her Divination project, and then joined Draco for their patrols.
Notes:Next week is gonna be LIT.