"Harry?" Daphne responded almost immediately. "I assume you're about to want the rule verbatim?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I know we had discussed this for us but it looks like I'm about to need it now instead."
"Shame. This would have been far more fun if I or Tracey cited it. Oh well, just repeat what I tell you when prompted."
"Will do. Thanks, Daph," Harry turned to face Snape as the man walked up to him.
"Lovegood. Return to your table immediately," Snape said with a scowl.
Harry placed a hand on Luna's shoulder keeping her sitting down as he raised his brow at Snape. "May I ask why, Professor Snape?" Again conversation in the Hall quieted down. Harry caught a glimpse of Shiva at the faculty table leaning over to whisper to McGonagall and Flitwick. All three quickly covered their mouths obviously stifling potential laughter.
"Students are to sit at their House tables, Potter. This does not concern you. Now, Miss Lovegood."
"Actually, Professor, that's not true," Harry said with a lopsided grin.
"What are you blabbering about?"
"Harry, said your statement was untrue Professor," Luna stated with a dreamy smile. "Perhaps the wrackspurts have been hovering around you too much?"
"Get back to your table now, you silly girl," Snape said barely containing his sneer.
"Sir, before you interrupted I was telling you that you were wrong about the requirement to sit at House tables," Harry responded calmly.
"Of course they are required to sit at their tables, Potter!" Harry saw Shiva giving him a small salute.
"Well…" Harry started and then waited a moment for Daphne to murmur the exact wording to him. "According to Hogwarts bylaws Section D, Subsection 2, Paragraph 3A, Line 12: 'Hogwarts students are required to sit at assigned House tables only during the Welcoming and Leaving Feast and any specifically designated Special Occasions Feasts such as welcoming a Foreign Visiting School. At all other times, students are encouraged to sit at other House tables with friends, family or acquaintances in an effort to foster inter-house camaraderie and cooperation.' So Professor," Harry said smiling up at Snape, "Luna is not only allowed to sit here, she is actively encouraged to do so."
A pin could have dropped like a cannonball in the Great Hall for all the noise that was going on. Harry caught sight Shiva shaking with her hands desperately clamped over her mouth. Flitwick wasn't even trying to hide his laughter, holding his belly and chortling merrily. McGonagall had a smirk plastered on her lips which – for her – might as well as been her rolling on the floor. Surprisingly the new Defense teacher was also chuckling though he was attempting to hide it if a bit less successfully than Shiva.
Snape just snarled and spun on his heel to stalk out of the Great Hall.
"Excellent work, Harry," Daphne said into her Comm Stone. "We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet. Disconnect."
Dumbledore watched his Third Year students filing out of the Great Hall with mixed feelings. On the one hand he could appreciate a well executed prank even if the victim was Severus. That the prank had been performed simply by knowing the Potions Master's likely reactions and having a rulebook handy was impressive.
On the other hand…Harry had undermined the staff authority quite decisively. And in a distinctly Slytherin fashion. He could see Greengrass' hand in this. A fact that was distinctly worrisome. Even more so – Minerva and Filius tacitly approved. That Bathsheda did not lift a hand in prevention came as no surprise and Remus had been a Marauder so his amusement was expected as well. Dumbledore had hoped that another summer with the Dursleys would have reminded Harry just how precious Hogwarts was as well as how trustworthy its teachers could be.
But Minerva and Filius…Dumbledore was losing control of his faction. Voldemort was moving again.
He could not afford to lose control. Not when so much was at stake.
"Hermione…" Harry said looking at her schedule for a third time and finally giving up rubbing his forehead as he handed it back to the girl. "How can you possibly take every single course at once? You realize three of those classes meet at the same time?"
Hermione blushed and snatched her paper. "I'm surprised you noticed that honestly. I know it will be difficult but I have no doubt I can handle it."
Neville just shook his head at the girl. "Seriously though, why do you want to take Muggle Studies? Your parents are Muggles."
"Well it will be interesting to see them from a witch's perspective don't you think?"
Harry sighed. "I think you should just get a notebook to compile a list of issues if you're going to take that class, Hermione. We're still using quills and parchment plus 90% of the magical population can't even pronounce electricity let alone know what it does. Don't complain to us when you find out the things they teach are a hundred years out of date."
Hermione glared at her friends. "We shall see." The trio walked into the Ancient Runes class waving at Shiva who winked back at them. Grabbing seats near the middle Hermione stopped and stared wide eyed. "Lavender? You're taking Ancient Runes?"
Lavender shrugged, tossing her hair a little. "I've seen some of the things Harry comes up with in the Common Room. It seemed interesting. And besides," she smirked, "just because I love to gossip doesn't mean I can't study as well as the rest of you."
"She's got you there," Neville laughed. "Hello, Susan. I hope you had a good summer."
"Hi, Neville, Harry, Hermione," the redhead said flashing them all a smile. "My summer was great thanks. Harry, I hear some congratulations are in order?" She winked at him and slyly nodded toward Shiva.
Harry nodded back at her. "Thanks, Susan. Tell your Aunt we appreciated the advice by the way."
"Will do. So is anyone else surprised that Millicent Bulstrode is in this course?"
"Harry's exploits have made a rather big impression on her. She's trying to follow in his footsteps a bit," Daphne said as she and Tracey grabbed seats nearby. "Millie may be intimidating, but she's a lot smarter than she looks and she's pretty nice if you can get her talking."
"Well," a raven haired, oriental girl said sitting in front of Harry said, "I for one was planning on taking this class before you starting making waves, Harry. We haven't really been properly introduced yet. I'm Su Li."
"Nice to meet you, Su," Harry said shaking her hand.
"Alright, people," Shiva said, rubbing her hands together and getting the class' attention. "Welcome to Ancient Runes. Let's get started, shall we?"
"I can't believe Hagrid is teaching hippogriffs for the first class!" Hermione muttered besides Harry and Neville.
Harry had just gotten off of the hippogriff named, Buckbeak after a short flight around the campus. The animal was beautiful sure but…"Give me a broom any day. That was not my idea of a fun flight."
"Says the man who flies directly towards the ground at a 100 km/hr," Hermione scoffed.
"Yeah but I'm in control when I do that," Harry grumbled. "How the hell am I supposed to know what my flight partner is going to do if it has a brain of its own?"
"Heads up, people," Neville murmured. "Malfoy's up."
Harry's eyes narrowed watching his self-declared rival stalk towards Buckbeak. He palmed his Fishing Line rune just in case. It had been an idle experiment in pranking over the summer that ended up turning out pretty good. The cluster functioned somewhat like a modified version of the summoning charm they'd learn next year, but this one was directed and could just yank on a distant object and pull it a short distance in whatever direction the rune stone was jerked. He knew Fred and George would have a field day with it when he showed them.
"I still think if the blockhead is foolish enough to annoy the hippogriff you should just let him get hurt," Tracey said from beside the trio. "Getting a bit bloody would serve the ponce right."
"And if he runs to daddy afterwards, Trace?" Daphne commented watching Malfoy sneer at the animal.
"Yeah, I know…it wouldn't be fair to the critter. I still want to see him bloody after he tried grabbing your arse earlier," Tracey replied.
"Well the Whomping Willow is close. Maybe we'll get lucky and the Fishing Line will be a bit stronger than I expect," Harry snorted.
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