Harry Potter and the Violet Chain

Chapter Seven

During breakfast the next morning, Harry was helping himself with some bacon when he got a nudge from Ron.

'Your 'guardian' is here,' muttered Ron under his breath.

'Can't you even eat on your own?' said Hermione in disbelief.

Professor Mintridge came towards the Gryffindor table and to Harry's relief, she was not looking for him particularly. To everyone's surprise, she came over to hand out timetables to all the Gryffindors.

'I am the deputy head of the house,' said Mintridge cheerfully. 'You can look for me if you need anything, besides Professor McGonagall.'

At the same moment, the owl posts arrived. Harry had an owl from Hagrid, asking them to go over to his hut for tea, which Harry replied quickly that they would be there on time. Ron had one from his mom, which was a letter asking how was his first day as a prefect. Hermione had a letter too, which she opened up excitedly. She read it with a smile on her face.

'Who's that from, Hermione?' asked Ron while chewing on a piece of toast.

'Huh? Sorry?' Hermione seemed lost.

'The letter,' said Ron. He then added quickly, 'Just curious, if you don't want to say, it's ok...'

'Oh,' said Hermione blushing, 'it's from my mom.'

'Your mom?' Now Harry was curious too. 'Your mom sent you an owl post?' asked Ron, with emphasis on the work 'owl'.

'Yeah, I got her an owl,' said Hermione, 'so that she can reach me quicker.'

'But you didn't get an owl the other day at Diagon Alley,' Ron prodded further.

'I went back there to get her one,' said Hermione, looking agitated. 'Oh Ron, do I need to tell you everything that I do?'

Harry nudged Ron to stop talking about the matter because Hermione was obviously getting uptight, and Draco Malfoy was walking towards them with Crabbe and Goyle.

'Potter, I heard you had special treatment coming back to Hogwarts yesterday,' said Malfoy. Harry ignored him and studied his timetable instead.

'Famous Harry Potter, can't even move a step without a bodyguard.' Malfoy sniggered. Crabbe and Goyle made some forceful laughs. Harry stared really hard at his timetable.

'You know what I heard just now, Potter? I heard that that Minty witch will be protecting you. Ha! What a joke! She couldn't even carry a stack of books. Professor Snape got to do that for her!' laughed Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

'It's always useful to look around before you talk about anyone, because that person could be standing right behind you.'

Malfoy shocked and swirled around in reflex to see who had spoken to him. Harry saw Malfoy's bag hitting tiny Professor Mintridge, who in turn, lost her balance and fell on Hermione. Hermione let out a loud shrill as Mintridge not only fell on her, she also accidentally knocked down a jug of pumpkin juice, which soaked Hermione and everything around her. Malfoy could not contain himself and started laughing at Mintridge and Hermione.

Professor Snape appeared from nowhere and marched straight towards them, looking menacing. 'Malfoy! Look what you had done! Apologise!' snapped Snape.

Malfoy stopped laughing and looked at Snape in disbelief. So did everyone else in the hall.

'I didn't do anything!' cried Malfoy.

'It's my fault, Severus,' said Mintridge, who just managed to clear away from Hermione, 'I lost balance and fell...'

'Don't need to protect my student, Jenna,' said Snape softly at Mintridge. 'Leave him to me; he is from my house. Malfoy, follow me.'

Snape disappeared out of the great hall with Malfoy tailing him uneasily. Crabbe and Goyle awkwardly walked back to their house table, looking lost without Malfoy. Ron turned to look at Harry, grinning madly.

'Unbelievable! Is that really Snape or Neville's Grandma in disguise? Did you see Malfoy's face! He was...' Ron stopped short and stared through Harry. Harry turn around and saw Hermione very red, and Mintridge very white, desperately trying to clean up the mess.

'I'm so, so sorry,' said Mintridge, brushing off some drops of pumpkin juice from Hermione's cloak with her hands. 'I can clean your things, easy, but you need to change into clean clothes... if I can just...'

'Leave me alone,' said Hermione slowly but forebodingly. Harry looked at Ron, shocked. As far as Harry could remember, Hermione always respected her teachers, save for Trelawney, but she was looking as if she was going to explode anytime at Mintridge. And Mintridge, innocently did not sense the 'danger' ahead, was about to take out her wand with good intention.

'Professor Mintridge!' Harry quickly called out before she could say or do anything at Hermione. She turned to look at him. Harry's mind raced for something to say. 'Can I speak to you for a while?' Harry gave a quick nod at Ron towards Hermione, motioning him to help her.

'Sure, Harry...' said Mintridge uneasily, 'but I need to clean up this...'

'Ron and Hermione will manage, right Ron?' said Harry quickly.

'Err... yeah,' said Ron, picking up Hermione's wet books. Hermione quickly gathered her things and stormed out of the hall, with Ron tailing after her. Harry saw Mintridge looking quizzically at the door as Ron and Hermione disappeared, before looking at him.

'You want to talk to me?' asked Mintridge suspiciously.

'Err... can I... do you...' Harry stammered. Quick, think of something, Harry urged himself, anything. 'Do you like Quidditch?'

'What?'

'Quidditch, you know, the game on broomstick...'

'I know what is Quidditch,' said Mintridge, 'this is my first day as a teacher, yes, but not my first day as a witch.'

'Sorry... I didn't mean that,' said Harry quickly.

'I know,' she smiled at Harry. 'So, yes, I like Quidditch.' She folded her arms across her chest and looked at Harry teasingly. She had obviously realized that Harry actually had nothing to say to her, but to get her away from Hermione. Harry did not want her to think that way, so he simply said the first thing that came across his head.

'I was thinking that, since our captain and keeper, Oliver Wood had left Hogwarts,' said Harry, 'probably we need to look fast for a new keeper and captain. Since we are the defending champion, we should start our practice early...'

'I heard you play good Quidditch, Harry,' said Mintridge, 'and since you care about the team's welfare, why not I let you in charge of searching for a new keeper?' Harry stared at her for a while, trying to digest what he had just heard.

'No,' he said quickly. 'That is not what I mean, I just meant that, we need to look, not that I look... I mean...' The school bell rang.

'Oh, I need to get going, Harry. I don't want to be late for my first class,' said Mintridge. 'See you Harry!' she gave him a wink and quickly left the hall.

Harry would be getting late for his class too, Herbology with Hufflepuff. He quickly turned around to his seat to gather books for his class and saw Fred, George and Angelina Johnson, staring awkwardly at him.

When Harry reached the green house, Ron and Hermione were already there. Hermione had changed into dry robes, but still looked easily irritable. Ron shook his head furiously at Harry, when he Hermione was not looking. Harry got the message and they kept quiet the rest of the morning.

Potions in the afternoon was the most enjoyable class Harry had ever had since the very first Potions lesson, even thought it was with Slytherin. Malfoy was still shaken and kept making mistakes with his brew, which Snape did not fail to tell him off, to everyone's delight. Snape did not say anything about Harry's brew, which was good news to Harry. He did not even pick on Neville as he used to do for the last four years.

When the bell rang, Ron actually felt reluctant to leave the Potions class, as he kept thinking that he must savor 'the best Potions class, ever!', as much as he could. But he was soon ushered by Hermione to make a move to Hagrid's as they had promised earlier, for tea.

'Glad to see three of yer,' said Hagrid, beaming while serving them tea in his hut. They just beamed back.

'Al' right there, Harry?' asked Hagrid, concerned. 'I heard 'bout what happened at Privet Drive. I'm not worried about you-know-who finding yer, Dumbledore will make sure that you are safe. I'm more worried 'bout you, Harry, how you are handling everything'

Harry felt Ron and Hermione looking edgily at him. He knew that they wanted to know the answer as well, as they did not dare to mention or ask him about it. Harry did not know what to say. He did not know how he felt, actually. He knew that every time he thought of what happened last year, his heart would drop and gloom would hover over his head. He knew that he felt sick every time he had dreams of Voldemort. He knew that he was worried about the future, about his friends around him, Hogwarts and what Voldemort would do to get him. He knew that he felt lost and empty.

'I'm fine,' answered Harry. Everyone had already worried enough about him; he could handle his own feelings.

Sensing that Hagrid was not convinced, Harry quickly changed the subject.

'What about you, Hagrid? What did Dumbledore ask you to do?' asked Harry.

'Oh...' Hagrid looked slightly gloomy. 'I went to the Giants,' said Hagrid in a very low voice, afraid that someone else might hear. 'They did not believe us about you-know-who risin' and all that, those pea-brains, sorry, and they still don't. But at least, they agreed not to join any side. That was the best we could do.' Hagrid looked dejected.

'We?' asked Hermione. 'Who did you went with?'

'Madame Maxime, of course!' said Ron. 'Where were you, Hermione?' Ron received a dangerous glare from Hermione for his wit, and he kept quiet.

'Well, we tried out best,' said Hagrid, raising his voice back to normal. 'We just have to hope for the best now.'

The rest of the evening they spent talking about their holidays and just about anything but Voldemort. Ron and Hermione had lots to talk, but Harry noticed that Hermione did not mention about Viktor Krum, probably because Hagrid did not think a lot about him when he was at Hogwarts, so maybe Hermione did not want to upset Hagrid, or even Harry, as bringing up Krum, would bring back all last year's memories.

The next morning, Harry ate his breakfast quietly, as he did not want to attract any attention, particularly of any teacher's. He had received some uneasy glares from his Quidditch teammates and some fellow Gryffindors, as words had spread that he was trying to gain some favouritism points from Gryffindor teachers to choose him as the new captain.

He was nearly done with his breakfast, when he heard a female voice calling his name from his back. Oh, no, he thought, please let it not be Mintridge. Harry reluctantly turned around to see who had called him. It was Cho Chang.

*******

Thanks for reading! A review is deeply appreciated! :)

Note: I may get some of the terms or facts wrong, so please do point out.