More to Life

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Chapter Five - Potions, Hogwarts, Quidditch and Sneaking Around

September 1^st had rolled around and Severus Snape had gone to Hogwarts, leaving Harry with Narcissa and Draco. After a lot of begging from mostly Draco, Severus had allowed the two boys to go to Hogwarts to see the first Quidditch match of the season, which was incidentally Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Since that wasn't till November, Harry and Draco still had a lot of time to kill.

This was why Narcissa suggested learning a few magic spells with training wands as well as some potions. Training wands were made for children below the age of eleven and any magic cast from the wands wasn't detected by the Ministry. Spells cast from these wands were not very strong since the wand wasn't made for the specific person and it stopped older children from using under-aged magic which could be harmful. That was the theory behind it anyway.

So one morning a few weeks into September, Narcissa was instructing the two boys how to do a levitating spell.

"So it's Wingardium Leviosa, right?" Harry asked, tapping his training wand on the table.

"Yes, like this; Wingardium Leviosa!" Narcissa said the incantation. The feather they were practicing on floated gently into the air. She smoothly moved it around in a figure of eight before lightly landing it back on the table.

Harry looked at Draco. "You go first."

"You go first," Draco demanded.

"You both need to have a go anyway, why don't you go at the same time?" Narcissa compromised.

Both boys nodded at each other, but as Harry went to say the spell, Draco stalled and let the dark haired boy go first, with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry's feather shot off the table like a bullet, hit the ceiling then shot back down and landed. Harry blinked and looked at Narcissa slowly. "Heh..." he said weakly.

"Was it meant to do that, Mother?" Draco asked just as weakly, somehow already knowing the answer.

Narcissa didn't seem too bothered about this. She tapped a finger on her chin. "Try it without your wand. Use a finger to act as a wand instead."

Draco eyes widened. "Without a wand?"

"It should not have been so surprising really. You are an Aegis Wizard, are you not?" Narcissa asked. Harry gave her a slow nod. "You should be able to do simple spells like levitating without a wand easier than with one. You should learn how to do both though; you'll be bringing enough attention to yourself just for who you are without any extras."

Harry dropped the wand on the table and nervously pointed a finger at the white feather. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he tried again. This time the feather floated around gently. Harry grinned. "This is easy!"

Draco, a little put out by his friend's performance, tried the spell for himself using his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The feather moved slightly, but stayed firmly on the table top. The blonde scowled at it and tried again. "Wingardium Leviosa!" This time the feather lifted off the table slowly, if a little jerkily.

The two feathers hit each other in mid air and fell back to the ground.

"So that's a first year spell, right?" Harry asked staring at the feather.

"We have to start somewhere, don't we?" Draco said.

Harry looked at him. "I thought you'd be complaining about it being too easy?"

Draco waved his hand in dismissal. "Have to give all the under achieving people a chance."

Harry laughed loudly. "Trust you to come up with an answer like that."

"And then there's all the muggle-borns." Draco looked down at the desk in distaste. "I mean all the mud-" Draco glance at his Mother. "-Muggle-borns won't even know they are Wizards and Witches yet, will they?"

Harry shook his head. "Suppose not."

The boys fell silent for a while. Harry reached over for his feather and started fiddling with it while Draco seemed to be thinking.

Draco snapped his fingers. "Can we do a potion now?" he asked rather excitedly. Harry rolled his eyes.

Narcissa looked at her son amusedly. "Yes, dear."

Draco grinned like mad and ran off to where he knew his Mother kept the cauldrons. He brought one back for himself and one for Harry, slamming them both of the table with a loud bang. Narcissa winced a little but never said anything.

"What are you trying to do? Break them?" Harry asked.

"I'll have you know cauldrons are very tough," Draco responded.

Harry shook his head. "I've known you for little over two months and I still worry about you."

This made Narcissa chuckle a little. "We all worry about him, dear."

Draco pouted. "Why is everyone picking on me like I'm not in the room? I'm right here, you know!"

"We know, that's why it's so fun!" Harry declared, jumping out of his seat as Draco made a lung for him. The dark haired boy squealed involuntary as he fell over his own feet. Draco came to a stop, trying to hide his giggling behind his hand.

"Come on boys. If you want to get this potion done by the end of the day, you'll have to start now," Narcissa interrupted the two.

Draco, who was quite interested in potions having seen Severus make concoction after concoction, sat in his chair in two seconds flat. Harry, who was a bit more dubious about it, made his way back to his seat a little slower.

"So, what are we making, Mother?" Draco asked in a sweet tone. It made Harry roll his eyes.

"A boil cure potion."

The blonde boy pulled a face. "Why?"

Harry sniggered. "Why not? You said yourself we have to start somewhere, right?"

"Oh har, har. Throw that back in my face." Draco never said anymore as he began to follow the list of instruction Narcissa had just given the pair.

They went about weighing dried nettles, crushed snake fangs and stewed horned slugs. Draco looked out of the corner of his eye as he took his cauldron off the fire to add the porcupine quills. He saw Harry starting to add his quills with the cauldron still on the fire. Draco was just about to warn him, but settled for pulling him away from the cauldron instead. A cloud of acid green smoke erupted from Harry's cauldron with a loud hiss, melting away the metal of the pot. Harry gave the pile of melted metal and potion a sheepish look.

"I take it that it's not supposed to do that?" Harry said quietly.

"No. Just be thankful it wasn't your first potion lesson at Hogwarts. Sev would have killed you for that," Draco sniggered. "At least you didn't get any on you, that's something to be grateful for."

Narcissa sighed, clearing away the mess with a swish of her wand and repaired the ever growing hole that the potion was eating at.

"Something tells me that Potions isn't going to be my strong point," Harry mumbled.

"That Harry is a huge understatement," Draco added.

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November soon came around; the winter weather with it, as well as the first Quidditch match of the season at Hogwarts. As promised, Harry and Draco were allowed to watch it. Harry seemed more excited at seeing Hogwarts than the actual Quidditch match. Draco was just as excited, but would deny it later.

"It wouldn't be right for me to show excitement. It would give everyone ideas," Draco had told Harry. Harry had just laughed.

After flooing to Hogsmeade, the two boys slowly walked up the long path towards Hogwarts.

"Have you ever been to Hogwarts before?" Harry asked.

"Once," Draco mused, "Last year, my Mother and I came here for Christmas since Severus wouldn't go to our mansion and my Mother said she wasn't going to leave him on his own at 'this time of year'."

"I can imagine that," Harry said with a little laugh. "So what's it like?"

"Just wait and see. You're like no less than a hundred steps away."

Harry pouted. "I don't want to wait!"

"Big baby," Draco mumbled.

"Hey!"

"Draco ignored him and shouted, "Sev!" as he saw the Potions Master stood near the entrance of Hogwarts.

Severus said something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like, 'don't call me that'.

Harry grinned. "Hullo Severus."

"I trust you both had a safe journey here?" Severus asked.

"No we didn't," Draco began, "In fact we're not really us. We're just clones, the real us got kidnapped."

Severus ignored the blonde boy's sarcasm and turned to walk back towards the school.

"I thought it was funny," Harry volunteered after Severus had walked a good distance away from them both. Draco grinned.

"I would take that as a compliment, but this is coming from the boy who thinks the spell 'Flipendo' is funny."

"It is though! I mean c'mon, Flipendo?" Harry defended himself.

Draco shook his head and ran to catch up with Severus. Harry followed, but at a slower pace.

"I trust you aren't going to run off again like last year, Draco?" the Potions master asked.

"You can trust all you want it won't happen," Draco replied, earning a glare from Severus. "Oh alright, I won't go anywhere," then under his breath he muttered, "Alone."

Harry hid a grin behind his hand while trying to stifle a snigger. "So I take it your taking me?"

"I did promise I wouldn't go anywhere alone, didn't I?" Draco smirked. "And besides, Hogwarts is too interesting not to sneak off."

Harry goggled at the sight of the huge castle while Draco was talking. "I can see that. It's huge!"

"It's better inside; moving staircases, ghosts, the lot. Honestly, you don't know what you've been missing stuck in the muggle world."

Harry couldn't help but agree. The muggle world was so boring and ordinary compared to the Wizarding one. The Wizarding one was a lot livelier. Everyone seemed to know or at least have heard of everyone else. True, some were more famous than others, but still most Wizarding families were known. Harry was determined to find out more about his own family, but now wasn't the time.

He'd get round to it one day.

Harry spotted what he assumed was the Quidditch pitch in the distance. He could see players already gliding around in the air, tossing a Quaffle between each other. Since the match wasn't supposed to be start for another hour, he assumed that they were having a last minute practice. Harry could faintly pick out the blurs of red and green from where he was stood. He was broken out of his stupor by Draco tugging on is sleeve.

"Come on, we'll miss the match at this rate."

"Wouldn't want that, would we?" Harry grinned. He really did want to see the match, but annoying Draco was more fun. Well, he thought that anyway.

Draco gave Harry a shove. "I know you're just doing that to annoy me, so I'll forgive you."

"So you forgive me by shoving me?"

"Yes," Draco said seriously.

Harry shrugged and carried on walking. The two walked in silence until they both heard a girl's voice up ahead.

"Here's ickle Draco. Aunt Narcy said you were coming."

"Hullo Nymph," Draco grinned.

Nymphadora Tonks scowled. "It's Tonks, always Tonks."

"I know I've heard it all before," Draco put on a shrill voice, "How would you like it if your Mother named you Nymphadora?"

Harry watched as the girl's short blonde hair gradually changed to black. He blinked. "How'd you do that?"

Tonks grinned. "I'm a metamorphmagus. I can change what I look like at will."

"No one knows what she really looks like except Aunt Andie and she's not telling. Bet she was an ugly baby," Draco whispered in Harry's ear. Harry stifled a giggle.

Tonks rolled her eyes at her cousin. "I guess your Harry then, since Draco is being oh so rude and not introducing you?"

Harry just nodded in reply.

"C'mon then. Aunt Narcy said I had to look after you both," Tonks said as she made her way towards the Quidditch pitch. Draco had a huge grin on his face. Harry poked him and asked him why.

"It'll be easy to get away from her. She'll probably even let us go if we ask nicely enough."

Harry grinned in return.

Tonks shoved the two boys off towards the teachers stand, even though Draco protested loudly that he wanted to go and stand in the Slytherin stands. The match started around half an hour later and as soon as it did, Harry couldn't take his eyes off the game. It really was better watching it than just having it explained to you and nothing else. There were so many things going on at once you could never get bored.

The Slytherin and Gryffindor seekers suddenly dived for the snitch only to lose it seconds later.

Chasers flew from one end to the other, throwing the Quaffle to each other. Sometimes it was intercepted by the other team and sometimes they would score.

Harry couldn't help but think that being a beater would be stress relieving, especially if you hated someone on the other team. A beater bat smacked a bludger towards Slytherin seeker, who dodged it at the last moment.

Draco leaned over to Harry a little so he could be heard over the crowd. "Enjoying yourself?"

Harry just nodded, eyes still locked on the game. Draco laughed and let his friend carry on watching the game.

Finally the Slytherin seeker caught the snitch after both seekers' dived for the fifth time. Draco grabbed Harry sleeve and dragged him away from the crowd.

"If we want to go exploring we have to go now, before Sev sees," Draco told him. Harry gave him a nod and followed.

The two boys found themselves in the entrance hall a few minutes later. Harry realised the hall was at least as big as the old Dursley house and it was only a small part of Hogwarts. He also imagined it was very easy to get lost in the huge castle. Harry noticed Draco was walking off so ran to catch him up.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked.

Draco just shrugged. "Who knows? I told you, I've only been here once and last time I got lost."

"That's reassuring," Harry mumbled.

They came across the Great Hall soon after. The enormous room with the enchanted ceiling was sparsely populated due to everyone still being outside after the Quidditch game. Harry felt a cool chill in the air and turned around to find himself face to face with what Harry thought could only be a ghost. He swallowed in an attempt to wet his dry throat. He tugged on Draco's robes. Draco was about to shout at him when he noticed the ghost as well.

"You're the Bloody Baron, aren't you?" Draco asked, slightly in awe.

"I don't know what it is to you, but yes I am," the ghost replied haughtily.

Harry just had to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue. "How do we know if that's really blood? I mean, you're colourless, right? It could just be blue slime or something."

The Bloody Baron stared at the young boy for a few moments then cleared his throat. "I suppose no one has ever told you the story about the Bloody Baron?"

Harry blinked and shook his head.

"I was attacked by several Dark Creatures during the 1800's. I can assure you it's blood," the Bloody baron grinned and floated away.

Harry blinked and looked at Draco. "You don't suppose he'll tell us the real story when we start Hogwarts, do you?"

"Hope so and it'd better be better than being mauled by Dark creatures. Honestly, I would be embarrassed if that was me," Draco mumbled.

Harry grabbed hold of Draco's wrist this time and dragged him off towards the moving staircases. They found themselves in a darken corridor after climbing several stairs, having no idea which way they came from since most of the staircases had shifted while they were walking up them. A distinct cackling was echoing from down the corridor.

Draco turned to Harry. "I have this feeling that that was Peeves."

"As in the poltergeist you were telling me about?" Harry asked with a tint of dread in his voice.

"The same," Draco said in the same tone.

The cackling had gotten louder by now. It was right upon them but still they couldn't see Peeves. Harry then spotted two water balloons floating in mid-air. Harry was just about to warn his friend when one of them hit him, drenching him through. Seconds later another one hit Draco.

"Peeves!" Draco yelled at the top of his voice, making Harry wince. Peeves then appeared, his wicked dark eyes staring at the two boys.

"You're not ickle firsties?" he asked.

"Do we look like first years?" Draco said with his teeth clenched together.

Peeves looked them over. "Too runt-like to be firsties," he replied.

"Hey!" Harry shouted.

Peeves cackled and flew away.

Harry picked at the wet fabric of his robes. "Its days like this I wish I knew a drying charm," he moaned.

"You're not the only one," Draco said in a sulk.

The two boys made their way out the castle, having enough of walking around with wet clothes. They eventually, after just over an hour, found themselves near the Quidditch pitch once more, where Severus was stood waiting for them. When he saw the state of them he only smirked.

"Ran into Peeves then?" was all he asked.

Draco scowled. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You can stop like that until you get home. Think of it as punishment for not doing as you were told," Severus told them both, still smirking. He then led the two boys off back towards Hogsmeade.

"I swear when we get to Hogwarts, Peeves is in for it," Draco stated.

"Definitely," Harry agreed.

Harry was surer than ever now. He really couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts. He was sure it would be the best 7 years of his life.

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Leatrix Malfoy ~ 16^th October 2003