"Professor Flitwick?" Harry asked after Charms class.
"Yes, Mr. Potter? Can I help you? I noticed you were having some difficulties with the Freezing Charm," the diminutive man replied with a smile.
"Oh, no, Sir, Hermione can help me with that. I actually wanted to ask about the Dueling Club from the other week."
A gleam entered Flitwick's eyes as he sat up straighter and grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, looking to take up the circuit then, Harry?"
Harry snorted at the immediate enthusiasm of the teacher. He certainly was a determined fellow. "Not yet, Sir." Flitwick gave a sigh and shook his hand in defeat but nodded for Harry to continue. "I was actually wondering why you hadn't been teaching it instead? I feel like we would have actually had more than the one meeting then…"
"Ah," Flitwick said shifting uncomfortably. "You see, it's just that Professor Lockhart and I, we have…differing opinions on…teaching methods. I was a little worried we would not mesh well. I hear Professor Snape didn't end up performing much better though in my place."
"Yeah, you could say that." Harry shook his head. "Well thanks, Professor. I was just curious." As he walked out of the classroom two Hufflepuff girls stepping in front of him and smiled.
"Hello, Harry," the redheaded said.
"Hi…" Harry responded with a frown. He carefully scanned the surrounding area. It was rare these days for anyone outside of Hermione and Neville to talk to him without setting him up to be jinxed or hexed.
"It's Susan," the girl continued. "Susan Bones. And this is my friend Hannah. I know we haven't talked very much what with the different Houses and all but I talked to my Aunt a few days ago, Harry, and your name came up. You apparently made a bit of an impression on her. I brought up the…Heir...stuff. She, umm, well she made me realize I've been a bit of a bitch regarding all this." Harry's frown deepened but he nodded to her and stopped checking the corners. Susan wrung her hands and looked at the floor while Hannah nodded along. "It's stupid to blame you for something you're born with and it's stupid to think that you'd have a problem with Muggle-borns considering you're best friends with one. So I'm sorry."
"And so am I," Hannah put in with a firm shake of her head.
"Aunt Amy also mentioned that House Potter and House Bones used to have an alliance back before that night so – " Susan took a deep breath, looked straight at him and bowed low before continuing. "I, Susan Amelia Bones, Heir to House Bones, formally apologize for any harmful and inappropriate actions I have taken in the past against you, Harry James Potter, as well as any insults that I have made against House Potter. I am prepared to accept whatever sanctions or punishments you deem appropriate and wish to reestablish a benevolent relationship between House Bones and House Potter."
Hannah then bowed as well. "And I, Hannah Marie Abbott, Heir to House Abbott, formally apologize for any harmful and inappropriate actions I have taken in the past against you, Harry James Potter, as well as any insults that I have made against House Potter. I am prepared to accept whatever sanctions or punishments you deem appropriate and wish to reestablish a benevolent relationship between House Abbott and House Potter."
Harry's mouth dropped open and was only dimly aware of Neville whistling and moving to his side. Susan remained bowed while Neville leaned over to quietly talk to him. "Harry, this is a bigger deal than you might think. You have two options here: one, accept their apology on behalf of House Potter and offer to determine reparations at a later date or two, refuse their apology and break off the alliance between your Houses."
"That would be bad right?" Harry whispered back while Hannah started shifting nervously from foot to foot though Susan remained firmly planted.
"It's up to you, Harry," Neville said. "Susan's really nice though and her Aunt is very fair. Hannah's very also very nice and her family has good business deals overseas. If it was me, I'd accept the apology but you're the one who they were calling the Heir of Slytherin a few weeks ago."
Harry turned to regard the two girls in front of him. After nearly a minute he sighed and stood up straighter. "I, Harry James Potter, accept the apologies of Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott and behalf of House Potter. All previous insults are forgiven though reparations will be determined at a later date." He glanced at Neville in case he had missed something but the other boy just smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
Susan and Hannah stood up together and smiled over at him. "Thanks, Harry," Susan said. "We really are sorry for what we said."
"We'll try to talk to some people in Hufflepuff to see if we can get them to stop spreading those rumors," Hannah said nodding. "I don't think many of them really believe it you know? We're all just a little scared."
"Yeah, I understand," Harry sighed. "Thanks for apologizing girls. We should probably all head to dinner. I bet Hermione is wondering where we are anyway."
Ronald Weasley looked on from the corner as the four left the hallway. He scowled to himself and muttered, "Oh of course Potter has gotten those two to listen to him. He must have used some sort of Dark Parsel magic on them. Everyone knows that parseltongues are evil. Of course he's the Heir. Well I'm not fooled Potter! I'll watch you, and when you slip up I'll figure out how you're doing it, and I'll expose you! I'll stop the Heir of Slytherin – I'll save them all!"
The Quidditch match against Slytherin was a joke. Malfoy strutted around like a prince beforehand showing off his amazing new Nimbus 2001 and bragging to the entire school how it was hands down leagues beyond Harry's poor old broom.
Of course Harry proved that the talent trumps money by literally snatching the snitch from beside the git's ear.
That would have made the game fun if only one of the Bludgers hadn't decided it had a personal vendetta against Harry's head. Oliver Wood had tried to stop the game once the team had realized the Bludger was ignoring every other player, but the Slytherins managed to keep distracting Madame Hooch before he could get her attention. The point was moot once Harry caught the snitch.
Nobody bothered to tell the Bludger the game had ended though. It ended up breaking his arm before being destroyed by a seething Hermione. Harry would've laughed at her telling off Hooch if he hadn't been busy trying to run from Flophart.
"What did you do?" Harry moaned as he held his apparently newly deboned arm.
"Ah, yes, well," Lockhart chuckled slightly as he stepped back. "The spell can go a bit wrong sometimes. Guess we'll just leave the rest to Madame Pomfrey, eh, Harry?" He flashed a winning smile at Harry. The boy tried to remember whether or not he had any runes that could let him castrate the 'teacher' and not get caught. "Now just remember this for your own work later there, Harry! It's important to always have a healer on standby for delicate work just in case the spell fails."
"I'm going to – " Harry growled.
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