Beta: Allexandrya & Queen Morgana. Test readers: Silverhope & Littleroo27
A/N: Written for challenge #26. Professor Trelawney makes a prediction about Harry and Lucius in Harry's 7th year on the HLFQF site. But then I saw one of the comments blasting about fluffy OOC Lucius being crap so I decided to just post it elsewhere.
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Freefall (verb): to descend initially, as for a designated interval
Harry Potter sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, glad to be early for a change. Ever since he'd managed to beat Voldemort, the Gryffindors had been treating him like some conquering hero. He was sick of it. After all, he'd never actually wanted to be the bloody one to go against Voldemort in the first place!!
He sipped at his pumpkin juice and looked around the room. The Slytherins were starting to assemble. Their reaction had been perhaps the oddest since there had been none at all! The entire house was acting completely the same. Harry had figured surely some of them would be relieved, at least, if not happy that they would not have to serve Voldemort. Or maybe some of them would be out-and-out furious with them. But, there had been no reaction at all. They were still snobby, indifferent, rude and arrogant. Harry shook his head. He'd never understand Slytherins.
The Ravenclaw House was very relieved. Yet, after a few days of non-stop parties, the students seemed rather annoyed to have their attention taken away from their studies. Many a night Gryffindor House had some Ravenclaw knock on the portrait of the Fat Lady to tell them to keep it down.
Hufflepuff house was a surprise. Harry never would have pictured them as such party animals. But night after night they had joined in the non-stop celebration in the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry did his best to avoid the Common Room completely these days. Instead, he'd taken to shrinking his broom and keeping it in his bag. When he wanted to go to bed, he'd fly up to his window and climb inside and hope that no one would spy him and drag him down to the Common Room. It had gotten so bad that he was thinking of sleeping with his Invisibility Cloak on, the problem being they'd still see the lump under the covers.
Harry sighed loudly, and hoped it would all blow over soon.
The professors all seem inordinately pleased with him, except Snape of course. But, this was not a big surprise. The really big shocker had been when he and Malfoy were cleared of any and all charges in light of some papers Dumbledore had left behind. Snape was now Deputy Headmaster and Minerva McGonagall was Headmistress.
She was being rather strict in all things, with the exception of the parties, feeling her house was due it's acclaim. Instead, she'd become just a bit prideful about the whole issue. Whereas, she used to walk around with a stiff back, now it was with a stiff back and a puffed out chest. Harry was reminded of a rooster.
Harry was wondering if it would be worth it to petition to go into Slytherin House for some peace and quiet!
Soon, the whole of Gryffindor house burst into the Great Hall in their loud and boisterous way. Harry wondered if they'd always been that way or if he'd just now noticed. Maybe he was growing up?
"Good morning, Harry!" Hermione greeted him in a perky manner.
Harry groaned inwardly, wondering how long it had been that perky people got on his nerves.
"Hi, mate!" Ron said cheerfully from next to her.
Harry bit back a sigh. Ever since Ron and Hermione had started to date, Ron had been very perky, too. They plunked down opposite him so that Harry felt forced to put on a happy smile for them, although it was practically painful to do so.
Neville sat to his left with Ginny on his left. That was yet another couple to occur. On his right side sat Seamus, who was now dating Lavender Brown, sitting to his right. They all chatted animatedly while Harry did his best to shrink down and eat faster.
An odd hush fell over the Great Hall as Professor Trelawney entered. Ever since the war ended it was practically a daily occurrence that the Professor was making predictions. The freaky thing was that they were all coming true! And they were simply falling into her normal conversations. Statements like, "Severus, I'd try the other goblet instead," before the bottom of the goblet exploded out all over his lap.
Even the Headmistress was starting to treat the Professor with a bit more respect. Of course, her regular believers were now impossible to stand, going on and on with all the correct predictions that were made now on a daily basis. The Professor seemed superbly content with what was happening as if she'd always known this would happen. She had told the students in her Divination class that the cloud of war and presence of so many Dark Wizards had clouded her Third Eye. When she told the others at the Head Table one day, Snape rolled his eyes, much to the amusement of the Slytherins.
Snape was his usual self, which in many ways was reassuring. Dark Lords could come and go, but Snape would always be a git toward him. In a way, that was true of all of the Slytherin House. Although, it would have been nice to get a bit of a break from them all, especially Malfoy, who had taken everything that had happened to him and turned it around so it was all Harry's fault; nothing really new there. It was just that Malfoy seemed so bitter toward him now.
Was it that he'd expected his father to rise and become the next Dark Lord? Or maybe it was that he'd lost his mother during the war. Rumor had it that Voldemort had been displeased at Draco's failure to carry out some command and had killed his mother in retaliation. Although, Harry really couldn't see how that was his fault. But, it was not like he ever understood Draco Malfoy anyway, any more than he understood the Ministry of Magic.
Scrimgeour had pardoned Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. Harry, Ron and Hermione had screamed over this injustice while over at the Burrow this summer. That had been a relief, at least. Once he'd gotten out of St. Mungo's for injuries sustained during the final battle, he found out that he would never have to go back the Dursley's.
With that thought, Harry managed a real smile to carry him through the remainder of breakfast. When finished, he, Ron, Hermione and the other Gryffindor Seventh Years tromped down to Double Potions with Snape. Unfortunately, they ran into Draco and his gang in the corridor.
Draco looked at him with a sneer. "I knew I smelled something awful. Oh, look, it’s the Golden Boy of Shit."
Harry frowned. That was another thing; Draco's barbs had gotten a bit nastier, especially in tone. "Malfoy."
The blond haired boy got right up in his face. "You have no right to call me even that, you worthless piece of trumped up muggle filth." Before Harry could react a wand was in his gut and he was doubled over with horrific stomach pains. He collapsed on the floor where Draco gave him a good kick before Harry's friends managed to pull him away. A trickle of blood oozed out from the corner of Harry's mouth.
Draco and his groupies were laughing as they entered the Potions room. Hermione healed Harry, while Ron removed the curse, something they'd both become rather good at in the war. Hermione was outraged, and Ron cursed vehemently about Malfoy before he had to dash off to his own class.
Harry could not help thinking that no matter how things changed some things would always stay the same. Draco Malfoy would always hate Harry Potter, always.
Snape soon arrived, and the rest of the class silently entered. The professor sneered in Harry's direction, looking pointedly over his now rumpled robes and blood on his face. Harry tried to wipe off the blood with the back of his hand, smearing it further, until Hermione wiped it off for him with a huff. Snape sneered at her, too, and class began.
Harry put his head down and wondered where the year would take him. Surely dealing with just Malfoy would be easier than dealing with Voldemort's evil plots every year. He just needed to do his best to avoid him and have his guard up better. So doing, he'd get through the year easily and then be done with school; free to do whatever he wanted to do.
Life was finally looking up!
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