2,571And here's the seventy eighth chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
* Review Response:
WHYBERD, BMS, DarkRavie, Brockster550, nkh1, Yaw6113, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Luiz4200, that's assuming Sirius even cares about that given how he still isn't fine with Harry being a 'slimy Slytherin'.
Code Gundam (guest), probably no, but he will probably end up 'dead' narratively if I can't find a way for him to overcome his prejudices in a reasonable way. Which is likely not happening soon if ever: after all, despite being hurt the most by a Gryffindor - someone from the House of "brave and noble" - Sirius still pegs all Slytherins as evil little bastards. But if I can think of something, the dogfather might find his way back into plot relevancy.
D.J. Scales, the Prefects and the Head Boy and the Head Girl should indeed be quite busy with all of the patrolling and other duties the teachers place on them. So I'm a bit surprised that in the books Cedric could and have remained the Head Boy despite being a Champion. True, there are people who can manage many jobs at once, and Cedric could've been one of them, but I certainly can't see Harry being able to juggle so many duties without burning out quickly. Which is why I had him step down as a Slytherin prefect for now.
* AN: This chapter has not been beta-read.
* AN2: I'm sorry for taking so long to write this tiny filler chapter, but the real like has not been very kind to me recently with many things just doing their best to kill any inspiration I might get. Hopefully, the next chapter, which should cover the Yule Ball, will come easier to me.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
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A Year Too Soon
Chapter LXXVIII: The Days Leading to the Ball
The following days did nothing but reassure Harry that his decision to step down as a prefect for the duration of the Triwizard Tournament was the right one. Well, he was still a prefect until the end of the semester on the insistence of Professor Snape, and between his normal classes and the prefect duties, the young Potter couldn't find much time to do his extracurricular studies.
Which meant, his progress with the 'treasure' chest containing the clues for the Second Task was extremely slow. Disenchanting and Curse Breaking in general weren't the easiest skills to learn and master, and became even more so if one had to rely entirely on the books to learn these arts: he wasn't willing to risk running afoul of the Tournament's rules by asking a teacher to help him.
So, Harry was stuck trying to figure out many of the unmentioned tricks and secrets of the art on his own, perhaps with occasional insight from his friends. It was not an easy process.
Thus, the Hogsmeade weekend and the very special™ date with Flora and Hestia ended up being a much welcome and much needed distraction from his academic pursuits for Harry. Too bad, he couldn't escape his Prefect's duties completely and still had to patrol the village streets for a bit. The green-eyed wizard ended up making a few deals with his fellow Prefects to ensure he had his afternoon free and thus could devote it to giving his girlfriend all of the attention and love they deserved.
That didn't mean they actually spent much time apart from each other in the morning, though. The three of them walked about the village and visited quite a few shops together while Harry was doing the patrols. Then, once it was lunchtime and Harry was finally done with his Prefect's duties for the day, their actual date began.
Their first stop was the Three Broomsticks. And since it was a bit past the usual lunch time, the pub wasn't overflowing with people anymore so finding a nice table to sit at wasn't a big problem. They still needed to wait for a bit before Madam Rosmerta was able to serve them, though. Not that the three of them minded it all too much as - like all people young and in love - they had things to occupy themselves with. They just had to be mindful of the fact that they were in a pub and with other people around.
Eventually Madam Rosmerta stopped by their table and the lover trio was able to make their orders. Which included some of the best dishes - generous desserts included - that the Three Broomsticks had on the menu that day: it was their special date, after all, so no need to be frugal.
And while they waited for their lunch, Harry, Flora and Hestia did some small talk, which eventually led them to once again rehashing their plans for the winter holidays.
They were obviously attending the Yule Ball here at Hogwarts, and would have almost certainly attended it even if Harry wasn't one of the Champions opening the event. Still, it was a bit of a shame that because of it they wouldn't be able to attend the traditional Yule party - hosted by Lord Flint this year - but the two events took place on the same night, so…
As for the rest of the holidays, they had things to do away from the castle and were planning to take the Hogwarts Express to London a couple of days after the ball. The twins had offered Harry to stay with them at the Carrow manor, but he had politely declined them as he wasn't comfortable with relying on their generosity so much. He did promise to come visit them, though.
And, of course, he still planned on showing the Potter manor to Flora and Hestia, as well as taking them to the non-Magical world for some furniture shopping for their future home.
At that point Madam Rosmerta brought them their lunch and the conversation naturally died down as the trio started eating, occasionally sharing bits of their dishes with each other.
After a nice and filling meal, Harry, Flora and Hestia headed out into the village. The twins wanted to visit a few more shops, this time looking for something interesting that would catch their fancy rather than trying to restock on stuff like quill or ink or parchments that they needed for school.
Thus, their first stop was Gladrags Wizardwear. And since Flora and Hestia already had their robes for the Yule Ball sorted out, they instead went looking for something more casual. They also tried on a few of the rather more 'risky' robes the shop had in store. Harry had certainly enjoyed seeing his girlfriends in those.
In the end, though, they picked some nice and comfortable light-blue sweaters woven from Magically-softened wool. Those looked really nice on them and Harry's reaction to seeing it didn't go unnoticed by the girls. And they seemed to be quite pleased with it. Flora even teased that if he were a 'good boy', they might wear these sweaters - with nothing underneath - to one of their 'private' trysts.
After leaving the Gladrags, they visited a couple of other shops within the village that sold various unusual and interesting things. The twins did a bit of window-shopping there but none of these Magical knick-knacks had really captured their attention enough for them to want to buy it.
The lover trio then made a quick stop at the Three Broomsticks for some take-out hot chocolate, before heading back out into the village, this time simply enjoying a rather nice December afternoon as they walked about without any particular goal or destination in mind.
Eventually, they found themselves a small way away from Hogsmeade and at the foot of local mountains. It was a nice quiet and peaceful spot, and they were all alone there. It was just so romantic here. This naturally gave the lover trio some ideas.
In a bit of a surprise, it was Hestia who made the first move this time. Embracing her boyfriend, she pulled him into a slow, deep kiss. Harry quickly returned the kiss with equal ardor. They remained lip-locked for a couple of minutes before finally separating for some fresh air. Almost immediately, Harry found himself pulled into another kiss, just as deep and needy, this time by Flora.
Then it was Hestia's turn again. And then Flora's. And… As their kisses grew more and more passionate, the three teens soon got lost in their little world.
When they finally came back to reality, quite some time must have passed as the skies certainly looked darker now. They've also, at some point of their make-out session, ended up rolling in the snow and now their cloaks and other garments were now covered in it. Thankfully, Magic was there to clean that up and make sure they were warm and dry.
"That was,.. Wow." Flora breathed out. Harry and Hestia nodded in quiet agreement. The latter then spoke up after a few more moments of silence.
"Uh… Maybe we should be heading back to Hogwarts?" She said, reminding them of the fact that it was getting darker and the Hogsmeade visiting time was coming to an end.
"Yeah, we probably should." Harry agreed.
The teens made sure they were presentable and their clothes were in proper order, before setting off on their journey back to Hogsmeade and then to Hogwarts castle. Their date might have gone off the planned course towards the end, but they certainly won't be complaining about that: it has been a very enjoyable afternoon after all.
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While being a Triwizard Champion gave Harry a free pass for the Ministry-administered OWLs at the end of the academic year, it didn't automatically exempt him from the normal end-of-semester tests as those were administered by Hogwarts' Professors instead. And only Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were gracious enough to grant him an automatic pass for their subjects. Likely because he had proven his Transfiguration, Conjuration and Charms skills during the First Task.
For all other classes he was taking, Harry had to pass the tests normally, like any other student.
And seeing how it was his OWLs year, the tests were especially thorough and exhausting this time around. Thus, the young Potter had to devote a lot of his time to studying for these tests, which naturally cut into his research of disenchantment techniques, to the point of putting it nearly on hold.
Harry wasn't especially happy about that - Merlin knows, he needed all advantages he could get to make it through the Tournament alive and in one piece - but the winter break was less than two weeks away and he didn't have many plans for the holidays, so might be able to use it to make up for the lost time.
There wasn't anything really unusual about the class schedule getting a bit messy at the very end of the semester, though this year it was a bit worse than usual. Primarily because Beauxbaton and Durmstrang delegations needed to make some use of Hogwarts facilities to conduct a few exams for their students. Thus, it wasn't until December 20th that Harry had sat the last of his end-of-semester tests. Which happened to be Arithmancy.
And he didn't even find the test to be that hard, though he had heard several of his yearmates complaining about Professor Vector making it unreasonably-difficult. Then again, he had read quite a lot on spell-crafting theory, which includes a lot of Arithmancy equations, as a part of his research into Curse Breaking, so…
Anyway, with the end-of-semester tests concluded, Harry could finally return to working on that clue for the Second Task he had 'stolen' from a dragon during the First Task. And spend more time with Flora and Hestia, of course. With how busy he has been for the past several days, he hasn't given his lovely girlfriends the love and attention they deserve.
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A day before the Yule Ball, Harry was approached by his Head of the House in the common room.
"Mr. Potter, a word." Professor Snape said, announcing his 'arrival'.
"Sir?" Harry asked, not really sure what the man might want from him at this time. The end of the year tests have all been graded already and Harry got Outstanding on all of them, except for History of Magic, so Professor Snape shouldn't have any issues with his academic performance. Was it something about him stepping down as a Slytherin Prefect?
"As you should know, tomorrow is the day of the Yule Ball. And, regardless of circumstances, you're one of the Champions for the Triwizard Tournament and will be opening the ball, Mr. Potter." The man said. "I will not have you shame Slytherin and Hogwarts as a whole by not having a suitable date. You do have a date for the ball, right?"
"I do." Harry replied.
"One of misses Carrow, I presume?" Professor Snape asked then.
"Ms. Greengrass - Astoria - if you must know." Harry replied, deciding to humor the man with an answer even though it was probably none of his business. "As a favor for a friend."
"I see…" The Head of Slytherin said slowly. There was a brief pause before he continued: "I hope you got your ladies' agreement to this, Mr. Potter, because there will be Hell to pay if you ruin the Yule Ball with unnecessary teenage drama."
"I'm doing this with Flora's and Hestia's agreement. There shouldn't be any issues, Sir." Harry said.
"Very well." Professor Snape said. Then he turned around on his heels and made his way out of the Slytherin common room, his cloak billowing dramatically in an unseen wind.
"What did the Professor want with you, Harry?" Flora asked as she and Hestia emerged from the girls' dormitories. They have missed all but the moments of the conversation the Potions Master had with their boyfriend.
"He was asking if I'm ready for the ball tomorrow. As a Champion, I'm one of those who're opening it, after all." The green-eyed teen replied.
"Remember, you have only one dance with 'Tori. Then you're all ours for the rest of the night." Flora reminded him.
"As my ladies say."
That's all, folks!
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