Nemea Leonthrope Chaper 11 (Patreon)

Here is number two of the four updates for this month! I'm doing my best to get all four out by the 31st, but work hasn't been cooperating with me! I should have the last two out on time if I don't get saddled with ANOTHER 50 hour week.

Hello friends and fans, Kairomaru is here with another chapter of Harry Potter the First Nemea Leonthrope! This chapter we see the first Hogsmeade trip and the Halloween incident for the year.

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Chapter 11 – Hogsmeade and Halloween

It had been a good first term for Harry so far this school year. He was doing well in all of his classes, much to Snape’s chagrin, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team was in top form to win the Cup this year. Since it was Oliver Wood’s last year at Hogwarts he’d been pushing the team extra hard during practice. Harry still remembered the team’s first meeting at the beginning of October.

~Flashback~

Oliver Wood was a burly seventeen-year-old in his sev­enth and final year at Hogwarts. There seemed to be a quiet undertone of despera­tion in his voice as he began the team meeting with his six fellow team members in the locker room on the edge of the Quidditch pitch.

“This is our last chance, well my last chance, to win the Quidditch Cup,” Oliver told the team, pacing back and forth in front of them. “I’ll be leaving at the end of this year. I’ll never get another shot at it. Gryffindor hasn’t won for seven years now. OK, to be fair, we’ve had the worst luck in the world from injuries, to the tournament get­ting called off last year because of the Chamber...” Oliver sighed, as though the memo­ry still pained him. “But we also know we’ve got the best ruddy team in the school!” he exclaimed the old manic glint back in his eye.

“We’ve got the three best Chasers.” Wood pointed at Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, getting smiles from the three girls.

“We’ve got two unbeatable Beaters.” Oliver continued pointing towards the twins.

“Stop it, Oliver, you’re embarrassing us!” Fred and George claimed together, pretending to blush.

“And we’ve got a Seeker who has never failed to catch us the Snitch!” Oliver rumbled, glaring at Harry with a kind of furious pride. “And me,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

“We think you’re very good, too, Oliver!” George stated.

“Best Keeper in Hogwarts!” Fred nodded.

“The point is,” Oliver continued as he resumed his pacing, “the Quidditch Cup should have had our name on it these last two years. Ever since Harry joined the team, I’ve thought the thing was in the bag. But we haven’t got it, and this year’s the last chance we’ll get to finally see our names on the thing ...” Oliver spoke so dejectedly that even Fred and George looked sympathetic.

“Oliver, this year’s our year!” Fred declared.

“We’ll do it, Oliver!” Angelina called out getting determined nods from Alicia and Katie.

“Definitely.” Harry stated.

~End Flashback~

On Halloween morning, Harry awoke with the rest and went down to breakfast feeling incredibly excited, though he was trying his best to act normally since he didn’t want to embarrass himself by overreacting about Hogsmeade.

“We’ll bring back lots of sweets from Honeydukes. Of course I’ll want to stop by Scrivenshaft’s to look around.” Hermione planned while looking rather excited.

“Yeah, loads!” Ron cheered already thinking about the famous Honeydukes’ sweets.

“I want to see the Three Broomsticks and maybe the Shrieking Shack if we have time.” Harry replied in what he hoped was a calm voice. His own excitement was bubbling just below the surface. 

The three of them walked to the Entrance Hall, where Filch was standing beside the front doors, checking off names against a long list while peering suspiciously into every face. The surly man was making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn’t be going.

“Are you actually going into Hogsmeade, Potter?” Malfoy jeered while standing in line with Crabbe and Goyle. “Aren’t you too scared of passing the Dementors?”

Harry ignored the childish taunts, simply too excited to really care about what the blonde ponce was saying. Being ignored made Malfoy’s face turn red in frustration at not getting a rise out of his, self-proclaimed, nemesis. A short ride on the carriages down to the village and the three third years were free to explore the magical village.

“So, where to first?” Harry asked Ron and Hermione as all three took in the sights of Hogsmeade.

“I say Honeydukes!” Ron called out eager to grab sweets from the famous shop.

“We might as well, and then we can snack a bit while checking out Scrivenshaft’s and the other shops.” Hermione replied as the trio made their way to the sweets shop. Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students that, for once, no one looked twice at Harry. The Leonthrope wizard edged through the crowd while looking around and suppressed a laugh as he imagined the look that would spread over Dudley’s pig-like face if he could see what Harry was seeing now.

There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, large, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different types of chocolate in organized rows; there was a large barrel of Bernie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned to him once. Along yet another wall were sweets with special effects like Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days. The strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps that advertised ‘Breathe fire for your friends!’ on the package, Ice Mice which had the effect of making the eater’s teeth chatter and squeak, peppermint creams shaped like toads that said they ‘Hop realistically in the stomach! Even fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons were available for purchase.

Harry squeezed himself through a crowd of sixth-years and saw a sign hanging in the furthest corner of the shop that read ‘Unusual Tastes’. Ron and Hermione were already standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavored lollipops. Harry quietly chuckled as he snuck up behind them.

“Ugh, no, Harry won’t want one of those, they’re for vampires, I expect.” Hermione huffed at Ron. Apparently his red-haired friend was plotting a prank on him; he’d have to do something about that.

“How about these?” Ron questioned while shoving a jar of Cockroach Cluster under Hermione’s nose.

“Definitely not.” Harry stated drolly from between the two of them causing the two to jump. Ron nearly dropped the jar in his hands.

“Harry!” Hermione squealed while slapping him on the arm for startling her. “How’d you sneak up on us?”

“Gave me a fright, mate!” Ron huffed, looking both amused and annoyed. “You almost made me drop the jar! I’d be making you pay for the damages you know?”

“Well I can’t have you pranking me now, can I?” Harry chuckled getting Ron to redden at being caught. Ron quickly cleared his throat before pointing to a notice posted on the inside of the sweetshop door.

“Did you notice that, Harry?” Ron asked as he changed the subject from his failed prank.

BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Customers are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall. 

“Well that’s just great. I thought the Dementors were only staying at the entrances of the school. I bet the people who live here aren’t thrilled about this.” Harry muttered after reading the notice.

“While the Dementors are horrible it should keep Sirius Black from trying anything in the village.” Hermione tried to reason getting shakes of the head from Harry and Ron.

“Have you seen the Fizzing Whizzbees, Harry?” Ron asked, grabbing him and leading him over to their barrel. “And the Jelly Slugs? And the Acid Pops? Fred gave me one of those when I was seven…it burnt a hole right through my tongue. I remember Mum walloping him with her broomstick for that one.” Ron muttered broodingly into the Acid Pop box. “You reckon Fred would take a bit of Cockroach Cluster if I told him they were peanuts?”

“You know the retaliation would be horrible, right?” Harry questioned with a raised eyebrow. Ron’s face scrunched up before he quickly set the jar he’d been holding back on the shelf.

When Harry, Ron and Hermione had paid for all their sweets, the three of them left Honeydukes to explore the rest of the village. Hogsmeade looked like a medieval village with a mix of more modern additions; the little thatched cottages and shops were all decorated for Halloween; there were jack-o’-lanterns near the shops and fake spider webs hung in some of the windows. Harry shivered as a cool autumn breeze passed over the group, a reminder that winter would soon arrive. They headed up the street while commenting on the shops they’d heard about from the upper years.

“So that’s the Post Office?” Hermione wondered noticing a sign with an owl that had a parcel above the door.

“Zonko’s is up there.” Ron pointed out, having heard enough about the joke shop from Fred and George to be able to identify it without ever seeing it before.

“We could go up to the Shrieking Shack…” Harry suggested only to get cut off by another cold wind passing through the village.

“Tell you what shall we go for a Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?” Ron offered as he shivered from the chilly breeze. Harry was more than willing; the wind was almost constant and his hands were getting numb, so the trio crossed the road and in a few minutes were entering the small inn. It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm and smoky. There was a curvy woman with a pretty face serving a bunch of rowdy wizards up at the bar.

“That’s Madam Rosmerta.” Ron informed a blush appearing on his face. “I’ll get the drinks, shall I?”

Harry and Hermione made their way to the back of the crowded room, where there was a small, vacant table between the window and an animated fake skeleton which stood next to the fireplace and held an empty mug in one of its’ hands. Ron came back a few minutes later, carrying three foaming tankards of warm Butterbeer.

“Happy Halloween!” Ron cheered happily, raising his tankard. Harry drank deeply. It was the most delicious drink he’d ever tasted and seemed to heat every bit of him from the inside. It was brilliant at making the chill of the biting wind outside leave his body.

“Hi, Harry!” called a familiar voice through the din of the bar. Turning to look at the person the trio saw Lavender, who was closely followed by Parvati and Padma Patil with Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson walking with them. 

“Can we join you?” Lavender asked the trio getting a nod from each of them. With that the six girls pulled up chairs at the table.

“Fred and George are getting us all some Butterbeers. They should be over shortly.” Angelina informed as she sat down.

“Bloody cold out today isn’t it?” Alicia asked the group as she rubbed her arms to dispel the chill.

“Very, might have a bit of an early winter.” Ron replied as he drank more of his Butterbeer.

“Man, the twins need to stop flirting with Rosmerta and bring us our Butterbeers. I’m chilled to the bone.” Katie huffed getting the rest of the group to look over at the bar and watch the twins flirt with the mature woman. While stifling a chuckle at the twins antics Harry briefly looked around the bar area and caught the eyes of Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass. The two Slytherin girls gave demure smiles and cute waves. Harry nodded back politely before refocusing on his group. It was odd, he knew Daphne and Tracey weren’t antagonistic like Malfoy and his ilk, but it was still unusual to get positive attention from Slytherins. 

“Hi, gang! Butterbeers are here!” Fred, or possibly George, said reaching the table and began passing out the tankards quickly. “That’s six Butterbeers, for six lovely ladies!” This got an eye roll from all the girls as they’d seen him and his twin chatting up Rosmerta not a minute before.

“Cheers!” George, or possibly Fred, exclaimed raising his tankard. “Cough up, though, we haven’t got enough gold for all of these.” Harry watched mirthfully as the group of girls took their beers from Fred or George and rummaged in their robes to grab coins. He could only chuckle again as the girls gave the twins their coins while ribbing them about Rosmerta.

Looking around the bar again while sipping his Butterbeer Harry spotted Hannah Abbott with Susan, who was wearing her hair in a long plait down her back today, which he thought, looked rather nice on the redhead. The two Hufflepuffs caught Harry’s eyes and both smiled at him. He returned the smile getting a blushing smile from Susan while Hannah seemed to be giggling at her friend. Harry shook his head lightly before refocusing on his group as they began to chat amongst themselves. It was only a few minutes later that another person showed up and Harry couldn’t believe the voice he heard coming from behind him.

“Whiskers! Did you miss me?!” Tonks exclaimed loudly as she wrapped an arm around Harry’s shoulders and pulled him into her side. 

“Tonks?! What are you doing here?” Harry sputtered as he almost choked on his Butterbeer.

“This is my day off, so I figured I’d come say hi!” Tonks laughed as she let go of Harry. “Plus I’m being assigned here soon as an extra measure of security in the Black case. Madam Bones doesn’t feel it’s wise to leave the protection of the students entirely up to the Dementors. So me and a few other Aurors are going to be taking shifts in Hogsmeade for patrols.”

“Whiskers, Harry?” Parvati questioned with a raised eyebrow as all of the girls giggled. Harry blushed while the girls continued giggling at the nickname Tonks had given him.

“It’s just a joke nickname…” Harry tried to explain before getting cut off by Tonks.

“Yep! He’s just a big ol’ kitty cat on the inside, aren’t ya Whiskers?” Tonks cooed as she pulled Harry into her side again.

“What have you been telling people?” Harry asked flustered. “Don’t spread that nickname around!”

“I’d say it’s a bit too late there, Harry.” George chuckled along with his twin.

“Too true brother of mine! Now that we’ve heard it we can’t just let it go, sorry old chap!” Fred laughed as the twins clunked their tankards together.

“I think it’s cute, Harry.” Padma smiled from the seat opposite him. Harry tried to smile back, but did not speak; he was still far too flustered with Tonks holding onto him. Angelina just smiled at him from her place next to Alicia. Her friend and fellow Chaser did not smile, but gave Harry a thoroughly smug smirk which plainly told him that she would be using this as teasing material later.

“What’s all this now?” Tonks questioned looking over the seven girls sitting at the table. “You have so many girls around you Whiskers! I thought what we had was special!” The Auror mock cried as she held a hand over her eyes.

“What!” Harry sputtered as he looked over at Tonks his eyes wide in shock. “Don’t say misleading stuff like that!”

“What? How is what I said misleading?” Tonks questioned with a devious grin.

“You know bloody well how!” Harry accused as he glared at his Auror friend. The massive blush on his face kind of detracted from the look though. The group at the table all busted out laughing at the back and forth between Harry and Tonks; though Hermione did admonish Harry for his language before breaking down into her own fit of giggles.

For the next hour the group chatted and laughed as Tonks recounted tales from her time in Hogwarts with the two oldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie. She also told humorous stories about her time in the Auror trainee program. There was good natured ribbing of Harry and his nickname throughout the whole time, of course. After the group split up to start heading back to the castle with their purchases Tonks got one last joke in before Apparating away.

“See you later Whiskers! I’ll be back later!” Tonks yelled out in the middle of the wave of students heading back to the carriages that would take them up to the castle. It was exactly the same way a pet owner would say goodbye to their pet when they left for work. Harry blushed profusely before responding.

“Tonks!” Harry yelled embarrassed as he quickly walked towards the first available carriage to get away from his friend’s laughter. When they’d returned to the castle Harry had all but sprinted up to his dormitory and practically hid until Ron had told him it was time for the feast.

“We’d better go down, you know, the feast will be starting in five minutes.” Hermione informed them as Harry followed Ron down the dormitory stairs. The trio hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd of students headed for the Great Hall.

“I think it’s been a wonderful Halloween so far.” Ron said as they approached the hall and the smell of the feast reached them. 

“Yeah, except you weren’t publicly embarrassed.” Harry huffed as they reached the Entrance Hall and crossed into the Great Hall. It had been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats and many flaming orange streamers, which were floating lazily across the stormy ceiling as if there was a gentle breeze they were caught in.

The food was delicious; even though all three of them were full to bursting with Honeydukes’ sweets, they each managed second helpings of everything. Harry glanced up at the staff table. Professor Lupin looked cheerful and about as well as he ever did; he was currently talking animat­edly to Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher laughing at what Lupin had said. Harry moved his eyes along the table, to the place where Snape sat. Was he imagining it, or was Snape glaring at Lupin more often than he normally glared at people?

The feast finished up with some entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do some formation flying; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost, got a rousing applause with his re-enactment of his own botched beheading.

It had been such a good evening that Harry’s good mood could­n’t even be spoiled by Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as they all left the Hall, “The Dementors send their love, Potter!” Harry’s ignoring of the taunt only served to make Malfoy fume before he caught the look the seventh year Slytherin prefect was sending him and kept his gaze on the ground as he walked towards the dungeons followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were following the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path up to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor which ended at the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it crammed full of students.

“Why isn’t anyone going in?” Ron asked curiously as he tried to see over the crowd. Harry peered over the heads in front of him as much as he could. The portrait looked to be closed.

“Let me through, please,” Percy’s voice rang out as he came bustling importantly through the crowd. “What’s the hold-up here? You can’t all have forgotten the password. Excuse me, I’m Head Boy.”

A hush fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a wave of silence seemed to spread down the length of the corridor. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, “Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quickly!”

“What’s going on?” Ginny, who had just arrived, questioned as she stopped at the back of the large crowd.

It seemed only a moment before Dumbledore was there, sweeping towards the portrait; the Gryffindors all squeezed together to let him pass, while Harry, Ron and Hermione moved closer to see what the trouble was.

“Oh, my…” Hermione exclaimed as she grabbed Harry’s arm.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; large pieces of it had been torn away entirely. Dumbledore took a quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his gaze hard, to see McGonagall, Lupin and Snape hurrying towards him.

“We need to find her,” Dumbledore stated. “Professor McGonagall, please go find Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady.”

“You’ll be lucky!” called a cackling voice.

It was Peeves the poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and look­ing absolutely delighted, as he always was at the sight of wreckage or worry.

“What do you mean, Peeves?” Dumbledore asked calmly, and Peeves’ grin faded a little. He wasn’t known to taunt Dumbledore after all. So instead he adopted a slimy tone of voice that was no better than his usual cackle.

“Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn’t want to be seen. She’s a horrible mess right now. I saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Oh she was crying something dreadful,” Peeves cackled happily. “Poor thing.” The poltergeist added unconvincingly.

“Did she say who did it?” Dumbledore questioned quietly.

“Oh, yes, Professorhead,” Peeves chuckled with the air of one that knew an important secret. “He got very angry when she wouldn’t let him in, you see.” Peeves flipped over, and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. “Nasty temper he’s got, that Sirius Black.” That statement broke the near silence of the corridor sending multiple screams and cries of shock into the air. Peeves flew off cackling in delight while the Professors shared looks and set about calming the students; well, more ordering them to be silent in Snape’s case.

-End Chapter-

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So how’d you like that? Good? Bad? Let me know! How did you like the Hogsmeade trip? Since Harry got Petunia to sign his permission form he didn’t have to miss out on the first trip! Plus as the Heir of the Potter Family he does have limited adult status in the Magical World so he is technically capable of giving himself permission to go to Hogsmeade if necessary.

Until the next chapter, later!