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Say You Need Me By: kuroneko89 Rating: *Still* PG13 (Frustrated) Status:
Un-betaed. ~*~*~*~*~ Chapter 3: Of Potions and Interesting Discoveries ~*~*~*~*~ The next day, Harry woke up with one of his worst moods. Why not, the darkness and the blond had been invading his dream again, and this time the voice was stronger than ever. Harry sighed as he made his way out of the room. Dong Eun saw him, then caught up and slapped him on the shoulder. “Not sleeping well, Potter?” he asked, face smiling and so carefreely, obviously never cared to fix his weird accent. He didn’t make that expression the night before; he looked rather cold and stern. The boy turned out to be quite friendly and fun to talk to. “Oh, Dong Eun,” Harry muttered, “well, I kind of having a weird dream last night. And call me Harry just fine,” the green-eyed boy smiled. The boy smiled back before furrowing his thick black eyebrows. “Dreams…eh? I’m sorry I cant help you much there, Harry, I suck at those types of Magic,” he mocked sigh, “Yura’s excellent on those. Hell, she’s academically excellent.” Harry tilted his head as they went down the stairs. He was beginning to get curious between the two of the transfer students. “Kitagawa surely looks much younger than 16, does she not?” Dong Eun made a heavy sigh. “She doesn’t look younger than 16,” he remarked, making Harry think that all Asian girls were small, but no, Cho was Asian and she wasn’t that small. Dong Eun went to look at Harry. “She *is* younger than 16.” The information made Harry formed a small “Oh?” from his mouth. Dong Eun nodded. “She’s 14, going 15 soon.” Harry felt startled. “That young?” Dong Eun nodded again. “She’s what you call a genius,” he waved his hand nonchalantly. ‘And I thought Hermione is genius,’ Harry thought in his heart. The Asian boy continued his tale. “And I’m her opposite. I’m quite not so clever, really. She used to tutor me back then in School. Now that we parted dormitories we will still be able to study together, right?” he grinned at Harry. “Well,” Harry shrugged, “I’m sorry to tell you that there is this unwritten rule than no Gryffindors get along with Slytherins and vice versa. It’s like a tradition.” Dong Eun’s face was making ‘that’s absurd!’ expression before it fell at the seriousness on Harry’s face. The Asian groaned. “Great. I’m going to fail my classes.” “We have Hermione here. She’s what you call genius too, and she can help you,” Harry said, smiling as he saw Hermione at the end of the common room. They both ran there. As they were running, Harry shot Dong Eun a questioning look. “What?” Dong Eun smiled “spit the question out!” Harry blushed slightly before making his question. “What’s your relationship with Kitagawa?” Dong Eun’s face fell a little bit before lifting up. “Just…friends,” he said, forcing a grin. Harry was wondering if the boy had a crush on the Asian Slytherin. The two reached the bushy haired brunet and sent morning greetings at her before they waited for a few while for Ron to get down. The red-haired boy came after 20 minutes, hair still messy and looking very sheepish. “Morning, Harry, ‘Mione, Dong Eun!” Ron said, panting from all the rush before he grinned, “sorry, me not being a morning person makes things lot harder.” Harry shrugged as Hermione made a desperate sigh. “Come on, we better get going,” the prefect girl stated, “I want to be able to give out these timetables to everyone.” The boys nodded and followed her out the portrait hole. The four Gryffindors made it out to the Great Hall in no time, with some occasional direction telling at Dong Eun, who looked abashed at his bad sense of navigating. Harry remembered back then when he lost his way during his first year and could only smile at it. As soon as they entered the Hall, Harry, Dong Eun and Ron sat down and gobbled their foods, while Hermione went around giving out the timetables to their fellow Gryffindors. Harry looked around and noticed that was exactly what Ernie, Pansy and the Ravenclaw prefect were doing right that time. Harry caught a glimpse of the Slytherin table and saw no sign of both the platinum haired boy and the Asian transfer student. Hermione came back later with a sigh before flopping to an empty seat next to Ron, muttering something like ‘all done!’ before giving Harry, Ron and Dong Eun their timetables and proceeded to take a quick breakfast. Harry, decided to ignore the absence of Malfoy’s presence, scanned over his timetable and sighed very heavily. Oh, joy, soon he would be burdened with a lot of homework, and that would be a lot harder, since he was in NEWTs classes now. ‘Let’s see…’ the raven-haired boy grunted, ‘I have divination this morning before going to lunch, Care of Magical Creatures, a free period and the class after breakfast will be double Potions.’ The Boy Who Lived’s eyes widened at this. Double Potions?? Harry recalled that Snape only took people with ‘Outstanding’ Potions’ OWL mark into his NEWTs class. True, Harry had gotten quite a good grade for his Potions’ OWL, an ‘Exceed Expectation’, but that surely wasn’t enough for Snape. He looked up and stared at Ron, who was groaning inwardly at his own timetable, and shot his best friend a questioning look. “Do you have Double Potions too after this?” Ron put his timetable down, startled. It was Hermione who answered Harry’s question. “Ron doesn’t, but I have,” Hermione eyed Harry suspiciously, “why, do you have it also?” Harry made a small nod. Hermione raised her eyebrow before asking the boy in front of her, “Harry, did you get an ‘Outstanding’ for Potions’ OWL?” The green-eyed boy shook his head desperately. “No! Well, I scraped an ‘Exceed Expectations’,” Hermione beamed at him before her eyes furrowed back, “and I’m confused as well!” Harry finished his words, frustrated. The moment turned into a silence. Dong Eun only eyed the trio in front of him quietly, as if studying something from them. Five minutes must have been passed, for Dong Eun finished his meal and said good-bye to them before catching up with Seamus and Dean for their History of Magic class, Ron snapping off his food and followed after them. Hermione looked at Harry before glancing at her watch and stood up. “I don’t know the reason why Snape wants to keep you in his class, but we better get going. I don’t want him to get the pleasure to take 50 points of Gryffindor on the first day because we’re one second late.” Harry nodded and leapt off his seat straight away. The two of them walked quickly underground, where all the cold looking dungeons lay. As the two opened the door to Snape’s classroom, Harry could feel all gazes on him. He went to look down at the floor as he followed Hermione to a seat at the back and looked around. There were not many students in there: only some Ravenclaws and mostly Slytherins (with the exception of Crabbe and Goyle). Harry and Hermione was the only Gryffindors there and there was absolutely no Hufflepuffs. People were muttering, obviously asking on how on earth he still managed to get into Snape’s NEWTs class. So much for the confusions. Harry snorted. He would rather not meet the greased haired Professor again for another 2 years. As Harry’s green eyed trailed around the room, he heard the door opened. Draco Malfoy entered the class with his usual grace, and the sight of the person following him made him gagged. Kitagawa Yura. She made her way to the class equally as graceful as the blonde Ice Slytherin Prince, ignoring the looks the Slytherins were giving her, and the hot look Pansy was shooting her. As she was looking around, her small warm brown eyes caught Harry’s and she smiled at him: her trademark smile. Harry could only smile back thinly. As usual, Malfoy sat down on the seat right in front of Snape’s desk. Pansy shot up and went to grab her things, ready to sit by the blond (the seats were arrange into twos) before Malfoy scowled and gestured the empty seat next to him to the Asian girl in front of him. “This seat is empty for you to take, Yura.” The statement made Pansy dropped her things and fumed. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott could only gag and shook their heads disapprovingly at the blond only to be silence by his infamous Malfoy’s glare before he looked back at the small girl. Kitagawa smiled at him before putting her things on the seat next to Malfoy. “Thanks, Draco.” Malfoy gave out his identical smirk. “You’re welcome.” The blond then proceeded to look around the room. His smirked widened as he saw Harry sitting tensely next to Hermione. “Potty, are you sure you don’t get your timetable mixed up?” he raised an elegant eyebrow. No one saw that one desperate sigh was coming out from someone’s lips. Harry scowled. “Sod off, Malfoy, I am not getting my timetable mixed up.” Everything
can be sweet when you add sugar to them… The Boy Who Lived made a small flinch. He heard the voice again, very loudly and clearly when he was in no trance at all. What the hell was happening? This voice was different from Ballistic’s voice; its voice came from the walls. This voice was inside Harry’s head. No one saw the Slytherin Ice Prince shrugged in unease for a mere moment before putting on his Malfoy mask again. Harry’s confusion was cut out as he saw the door opened and a tall, awry looking man with greasy raven hair came into the class, settling on his desk in front of the board and looked around the room, stopping at Harry and stared at him with maliciousness dripping at every fiber of his being. The raven-haired boy tried hard not to flinch. He stared back at the Professor, waiting for him to announce that his timetable had been wrong and he was not supposed to be in this class. But the announcement never came. Instead, Snape turned to all his class and spoke, “Welcome to my Potions’ NEWTs class. All of you here must have the best properties of a Potions Master by heart.” (The Professor went to give a bitter look at Harry before continuing). “Now, I am warning you,” by that time Snape was looking maliciously at Kitagawa, who took it with her trademark smile, “that this class will be much harder than last year. For those who think that they could not catch up, the door is always the best option.” Harry was going to stand up and say that he was indeed probably the one most likely not to be able to catch up and left, but he felt Snape glaring at him with the ‘play along or you’ll regret it’ look. Harry decided to shut up for the time being. Snape went so willow his robes before looking at his students sternly. “Now, can anyone of you tell me the use of Hippogriffs’ skulls?” Harry shrugged as he felt Hermione raising her hand enthusiastically from beside him. It came as no surprise at all. What came as a surprise was that someone had already raised her hand gracefully before the Gryffindor genius. Kitagawa Yura. Snape raised his eyebrow a bit before he walked to her and smirked. “Yes, Ms Kitagawa?” The raven-haired girl gave out *that* smile against the Potions Master’s smirk before opening her mouth. “Hippogriffs’ skulls are very competent for giving strength to whoever had consumed them. It is the basic ingredient of every strengthening potion, and some other potions as well. The amount of strength one gets depends on the amount of crushed Hippogriffs’ skulls, and if one wants a greater result, there is an incantation that would go along with the potion,” her eyes gleamed slightly before ending her information. The greased haired Professor squinted his eyes a bit before nodding and giving out a second question. “And who would like to tell me the use of Black Dog’s blood? Or even the Black Dog itself?” Hermione’s hand shot up again, and everyone in the room gave out a sigh before Kitagawa smiled and raised her hand again. As much as Snape hated the two mudbloods, he would rather choose a student from his own house, and that was what he was doing exactly. Kitagawa tilted her head amusedly as she answered the question. “Black Dog is a keeper dog of Hell, as some people call it. It is mysterious. One rarely sees Black Dog, and when one does, there always will be death around it. The Dog itself was huge, weight estimated 18-20 lbs, and its speed is more than 90 mph. It takes a lot of effort for the wizards to get its blood, and the substance was really expensive. However,” her warm brown eyes twinkled as she took a breath, “Black Dog’s blood is the most important substance in the subject of Alchemy – a subject where people can gain a body or a medium for dead soul or gain an eternal life,” Harry’s head jerked. He was thinking of bringing Sirius alive with that, before he saw a nasty wring that decorated Kitagawa’s face, “or even lose parts of their bodies, if not all, in risk. Back to the use of Black Dog’s blood, it is like the foundation of the subject, the only thing that kept the whole process as stable as possible. Other uses is that it can be used for some other body growing potions in a very small dosage.” Harry wringed. The way she said it was like Alchemy was such a dangerous thing, and he did not like it. Snape looked a little bit startled at the information, and Harry could see Hermione biting her lips. Apparently, Harry never thought that Hermione did not know the bit about Alchemy. The Potions Master eyed the girl in front of him dangerously. “And would you like to, Ms Kitagawa, name a product or a potion that has Black Dog’s blood in it?” The Asian girl gave an evil smirk. “Why, the Elixir of Life, namely found in the Philosopher’s stone,” she whispered softly. Harry and Hermione gasped quietly. No one but Quirell, Dumbledore, Voldemort, the teachers, Hagrid and themselves should know about it. Kitagawa gave the shocked Snape a smile before opening her mouth again. “Black Dog’s blood can be found in Skele-Gro as well,” she finished neatly with a voice louder than the first one. “Ah…well,” Snape trailed as he gained composure, eyeing the student dangerously “thank you. Now, who would like to tell me the use of veela’s ovary?” Almost everyone in the room gagged in disgust. Even Hermione did not lifted her hand, she only went around muttering ‘what was it? I was sure read it somewhere’ as once again, Kitagawa’s pale white hand was raised to the air before Hermione finally remembered and raised her own hand. “Yes, Ms Kitagawa?” She looked up at the Potions Master for the third time that morning and smiled. “Veela’s ovary is always used for conception potion,” Harry could feel a faint blush creeping up his cheeks, but the expression on Kitagawa’s face was dull, as if it was an everyday thing to talk about that, “it contains lots of magical estrogens, progesterone and a little mixtures of LH, so much that enough to turn any infertile female, or even male, fertile for the next 24 hours. For in male’s case, it is going to help the transfiguration of sperm into egg,” her eyes made a gleam as Harry blushed even redder. He didn’t know that males could get pregnant! “A small dosage would be enough. The ovary is classified into quite a rare ingredient, and the wizards are getting it from veela’s dead bodies using the permission from the Ministry of Magic, though some people trade this substance illegally. Veela’s ovary cost a lot,” she finished. “One last question,” Snape stated hastily, looking at Kitagawa with weird looks, “Tell me the use of Demon’s vein.” The class fell silence. Hermione squirmed uncomfortably, not recalling her memories of reading the information somewhere, because really, she had never read it anywhere. She squinted her eyes as Kitagawa raised her hand again, obviously not liking the fact that someone knew more than her, even when that person talked with a very weird Asian accent. Harry looked at the girl, impressed, his mind recalling when Dong Eun had told him about Kitagawa being a genius that morning. For once, as Snape’s eyes roamed around the room, he looked at Hermione, as if encouraging her to raised her hand and answer, but no, the bushy haired girl kept on muttering to herself. Snape raised his eyebrow before going to the brown-eyed Asian girl. “Demon’s vein,” Kitagawa started, “is one of the most useful substance on earth. It basically made the wish of its drinker come true; all you need was a will,” she paused for a while, “any wish can be granted, as long as you have the will and an undiluted Demon’s vein. Most Demons’ veins that exist on earth are diluted, for the undiluted ones are too dangerous, but I daresay, the diluted ones are strong enough. It is also one of the ingredients in a conception potion. The will of wanting to produce family with their own body had to be strong, especially if it was a male that drink the potion. It needs quite a bit of miracle to get the male’s inner organs to change temporarily for the baby. I believe that it is a conception potion we will be making today; all Black Dog’s blood, Veela’s ovary, Hippogriffs’ skulls and Demon’s vein are needed. Pregnant people, especially males, need a good deal of strength and hormones. The Black Dog’s blood was to make the process stable, so that the baby’s body can form inside the womb, and the Demon’s vein would help fulfilling the person’s will of getting pregnant.” “Impressive,” Snape commented, silently scrunching his nose. The girl knew too much for his liking. “50 points for Slytherin for making my job easier and told the class all about it. I don’t see notes being written down,” he stated suddenly. Rustles of parchments and scribbles could be heard for the next few minutes as Snape waved his wand. The procedure showed up on the blackboard. He turned and coughed to gain all his students’ attentions. “You are to work in pairs. The ingredients can be found in the cupboard,” he said, waving his wand again and the ingredients spluttered out from the cupboard, “You have one hour and a half. You can begin now.” The potion must have been the most complicated potion Harry’d ever seen. Soon enough, the class was filled with clutters of knives and simmers of vapor over the potions. Harry was cutting the ingredients while Hermione put them in carefully and stirred the potions clockwise and anticlockwise on their right time according to the instructions. Suddenly, as they were doing so, Kitagawa sighed, loudly, as she was grinding her Hippogriffs’ skulls. Before Malfoy could say anything, she raised her wand and flicked it in front of her cauldron. “Le motorisé,” she chanted. Soon enough, all the knives and grinders sprang into air before Kitagawa performed more Controlling Charms and set them each on their own jobs. The knives went cutting by itself. The Grinder grinded by itself and as Kitagawa turned and chanted the cauldron, the potion was stirred clockwise and anticlockwise by itself, on the right time according to the instructions as the Asian put the cut ingredient down in time. All left to do for Malfoy and Kitagawa was to watch the process; they didn’t need to do the constant stirring, the Charm did it for them. Snape couldn’t help but raising his eyebrow. Even some grown up wizards and witches still couldn’t do this right; it made no sense that a mere 14 years old Asian ‘mudblood’ could do it. As the time passed, Snape began to walk around the room, commenting at the potions, scowling and took some points off some Ravenclaws. He then turned up to Malfoy and Kitagawa before looking down into their potion. It had a perfect shade of pinkish blue with some gold vapor. Snape smiled slightly at the blond before glancing dangerously at the girl, who as usual, took it with a calm look. “A perfect conception potion has perfect shade of pinkish blue and gold vapor,” he stated for the whole class to look at Malfoy’s cauldron, “well done, Mr. Malfoy, Ms Kitagawa. 20 Points for Slytherin,” he glanced at the female and bit his lips a bit, “and another 20 for a perfect demonstration of Controlling Charms. Why, they make potion making simple, don’t they?” The Potions Master then left, swaying his robes fearfully as he walked towards Hermione and Harry’s cauldron, not before sending Harry a loathing look. The raven-haired boy bit back the urge to glare. Snape went to examine the potion for a while before the end of his lips twitched. Thanks to Hermione, their potion was in a perfect shade of pinkish blue and had perfect gold vapor. Disappointed at finding nothing to scowl at, he turned back to his desk and waved his wand. A veil appeared at every end of every pair’s desk. “I want you to put some of the potions into the veil and name it. Homework: make an 18-inch long essay about conception potions, their uses, the way they work and how they are viewed in society by next Monday. Class is dismissed.” Everyone else packed their books and things straight away after giving the veil to the professor and left. Malfoy, Kitagawa, Hermione and Harry were the only ones left in the class. Harry and Hermione had purposely taken the time to be the last to leave. Malfoy sent a scathing look at Harry before leaving the dungeon with Kitagawa following, but not before she managed to smile at both Gryffindors. Snape, at finding that the two people he loathed the most were still in the room, scowled and sneered at Harry and Hermione. “Potter, Granger, what else do you want?” “Sir,” Harry walked up right to the Professor with a stern look on his face, “I want to know why I am still in Potions Class.” The man growled. “As much as I want to admit that you do not qualify my standard,” (Harry glared. An ‘Exceed Expectation’ itself was already shocking himself) “the Headmaster want to keep our reason of Remedial Potions for cover of Occlumency.” Harry found himself straining a very desperate groan from his throat. He did not need to ask more. He knew that he needed it. Hell, if only he had learnt it more seriously last year, Sirius wouldn’t have… Sirius wouldn’t have… Died. The boy fell silence for a while before thanking the Professor and made his leave with his female best friend. The two walked quietly to the Great Hall before parting. Harry needed to go to Divination as Hermione needed to go for her Ancient Runes class. The boy was entering the classroom near the Hall for his lesson, feeling glad about having Ron with his this class. Even though his first potion class in the year went on without any point lost (‘Very strange’ mused Harry), he had always hated the dungeons and the Potion teacher. Harry smiled thinly as he felt his feet stepping on the fake grasses. Professor Trelawney was sacked the previous year and Firenze the Centaur had taken over. The boy was wondering who would teach them this year as he heard Ron’s voice calling him. “Harry!” the red-haired boy grinned at the raven-haired boy, “Sit here!!” Ron was pointing to an empty space of grass next to him, Dong Eun sitting on Ron’s other side looking around the room with a slight daze. Harry smiled before he flopped down. He was about to tell his best pal about his potion class when the door opened and the person who entered the room made him gag again. The muggle-born Slytherin Kitagawa Yura walked gracefully into the room as she gave a smile at Harry and Ron before pointing to the empty space next to them. “Interesting classroom, isn’t it?” she said lightly, “Mind if I sit here?” The girl was either thick, or hadn’t realized the invisible barrier between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Dong Eun nodded before Harry and Ron could respond, and as she went down to sit next to Harry, the boy felt a weird, churning, unpleasant, alarming feeling in his stomach. Like the feeling he always got in his dreams. Why
not make friends with the darkness you can approach? The churning feeling was taken out of him as he saw Kitagawa’s face floating over his; warm brown eyes shining with something like…worry? “Are you okay, Potter?” she asked. Harry nodded as he remembered how to breathe again. “I’m fine,” he made a formal smile. Kitagawa was retreating to sit back straightly as two figures entered the classroom. It was both Firenze and Professor Trelawney. The two walked in front of the class. “Good morning students,” Firenze started, with the whole class sending back his greeting. “Today Professor Trelawney and I will be teaching more on how to read future from stars. Now, if you can lay down and look at the sky-.” His explanation was cut as his gaze fell to Kitagawa’s figure next to Harry. The Centaur opened his mouth, muttering something Harry couldn’t hear as he made his way to the girl. It was when he was right in front of Kitagawa he stuttered, “…why…-?” The Centaur was lowering his body to the girl before Kitagawa’s eyebrows twitched. She stood up straight away and try to stand as tall as possible, whispering something to the Centaur while her other hand was lied on his shoulder. Harry and Ron looked at each other and shrugged. Did Firenze know her before? It was a while before Kitagawa sat back on the grasses; eyes looking sharp while Firenze looked at them and nodded firmly. No one saw the other Asian glanced nervously at the half-beast. Firenze then walked back to the front of the class. “As I said before, we will be studying more about stars…” The lesson went back into normal. Well, almost normal. Ron and Harry were groaning when Trelawney went into their way, probably making another prediction on how Harry would die when suddenly Kitagawa shot an awry smile at her and questioned her a star formation. The look in Trelawney’s face was priceless. She stopped predicting Harry’s death and turned away. “You will be living a good live with a wonderful person and many kids,” she said instead before hurrying away to Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Harry and Ron were shooting each other a very weird look as Dong Eun shrugged. “Is she always that weird?” he asked towards Harry and Ron, who could only raise their shoulders in wonderment. Harry’s head was spinning again. There were so many confusions that day. Class ended soon and Kitagawa smiled thinly at them before making her leave. The Gryffindor trio just went straight away to the Great Hall for lunch, Harry hopping to find Hermione and told her the strange event during Divination, but she was not there the whole time. The raven-haired boy shrugged. She must be in the library. Where else? Lunch ended all too soon and Harry groaned as he was dragging his feet across the field to reach the Care of Magical Creature class. With the Slytherins. Hagrid turned out to be not there yet and they got Professor Grubbly-Plank again. The lesson was boring. They were to try and feed a kind of a singing bird named Nemuku, whose blood was the most important essence of Dreamless Sleeping Draught, while they were trying not to pass out from the singing while drawing their schemes. Harry wanted to tell Hermione all the weird things that happened in Divination: how Firenze looked startled at Kitagawa’s expression and how Trelawney stopped making his death prediction when Kitagawa shot her an awry looking smile, but couldn’t. Hermione was fuming. Apparently, the Asian girl knew something about Nemukus Hermione hadn’t mentioned to Professor Grubbly-Plank and gained lots of points from there. Harry sighed. It was best leaving Hermione be when she was angry. The lesson ended fast as well, with some occasional sneering and teasing from Malfoy before he left to Hogwarts castle, mostly about *dogging*. Harry sighed as he waved off from Ron, Hermione and Dong Eun. Ron, obeying Hermione’s advise, had gone to take some Muggle Studies while Hermione went to the library, trying to gobble down as many information in attempt to beat Kitagawa as Dong Eun decided to take a walk around the castle, just wanting to try finding his way around. Harry was left alone walking around the lakes. It was three hours before dinner and he had nothing to do. He was about to flop down the grass and took a nap when the sight of someone entered his eyes. Again, Kitagawa Yura, standing on the very same position Harry first saw her, patting a Thestral. The look on her face was rather…peaceful. Harry shrugged at the fact that he always seemed to collide into her at times, but his mind was curious. She was mysterious, and this was the time to find out some things. “Taking a rest, Potter?” a voice said from behind Harry. The Asian girl had noticed him. Harry turned and tried to smile a friendly smile to her. “Yes, Kitagawa-.” The brown-eyed girl smiled and interrupted Harry. “Call me Yura please, Potter,” she said, stretching out her hand at Harry. Harry looked at the hand confusedly before looking at the new transfer student’s face. “I’m sorry, but don’t you know about the invisible rule that stated no Gryffindors and Slytherin should get along?” Yura’s face made a scowl. “Yes, I am well aware of that. Draco told me that very first thing last night, but I am not going to follow this absurd tradition. Traditions are meant to be broken, anyway,” she offered her hand again at Harry, “so?” The Boy Who Lived sighed. If he wanted to find out about her he had to be her friend. Harry took her hand and shook it, marveled at how smooth and cold her hand was. “Harry Potter,” the boy stated. Yura made a smile that was actually not that expressionless smile. “Kitagawa Yura,” she said warmly. The two released their hands shortly before Yura turned her attention back to the Thestral, seeming fascinated by it. “What are you doing here, Harry? Resting on some free time?” she asked without turning. Harry nodded a ‘yes’ before mentally hitting himself that she couldn’t see it. “Well, yes. My lessons for the day are over.” “So do I,” Yura stated, patting the Thestral’s black manes, “Draco is down doing some Dueling class Professor Snape conjured for his House students. I am free for the next one hour before going off to Arithmancy.” Harry scowled at the word ‘Dueling class’ before looking up and down at the small Asian girl. She looked very normal that time, except at the fact that she was patting a death creature. “Whose death have you seen?” Harry asked curiously before smacking his head mentally again. That was not a way to ask about someone’s death! The girl turned at Harry before giving him that very expressionless smile again. “My whole families’.” The Boy Who Lived retched. He was not the only orphan there. Harry’s face fell. “Well, I’m sorry about that…” In all sudden, Yura’s smile changed into a more saddened one. “Don’t be. It was a nasty fire,” she trailed as she saw Harry’s head shot up in curiosity, “I was saved because of my magic. But not before I saw them burnt before my eyes.” Harry was muttering more apologies as Yura went back to the Thestral again. “Weird creatures, aren’t they? Only can be seen by people who’d seen deaths…” The raven-haired boy nodded before looking at the creature with pained eyes. His mind was desperate to talk about something else. Yura seemed to realize that and set the horse off to the forest before sitting next to Harry. “I am not the only orphan here; Dong Eun too.” “Oh?” Harry looked at Yura weirdly, “but he looked so happy. No one would have thought of that.” Yura sighed. “True,” she muttered. Harry went to stare at the girl again. She was not the emotionless girl he met last night; emotions were radiating off her body, warm, like her eyes. “You look very Gryffindor to me,” the raven-haired stated unconsciously, “not so like those sly and slimy Slytherins.” In all sudden, she stood up, and Harry had to hit his mind mentally again. Yura turned to gaze at Harry’s green eyes before her mouth opened. “Have you heard of Tabula Rasa?” she asked, smilingly. Harry shook his head, not knowing where the conversation was heading. Yura smiled again before sitting back down next to the boy. “All people are born good…” she trailed, “it was their surroundings that alter the people…not excluding Gryffindors and Slytherins.” There was silence. She went to pause for a while, looking into Harry’s eyes, searching for reaction. She then continued. “Almost everyone in Slytherin has rich families, fame, pureblood, you can say, almost everything most people want,” she trailed, “but it’s all mask.” The Boy Who Lived stiffened. ‘Mask?’ he thought as he looked curiously at Yura, who was shaking her head. “I can’t tell the detail – those Slytherins are going to kill me for telling their secrets to a Gryffindor. Being a mudblood in there is hard already. But I can tell you, Harry, that their families,” Yura’s warm brown eyes turned dark suddenly, “are as cold as the dungeons during winter.” A longer silence reigned. Harry was shifting uncomfortably on the grass all the time. “They told you about it?” Stupid question. Yura shook her head. “No. But I can feel it, for I am cold as well. Cold. That’s what we all Slytherins share in common.” The girl’s gaze fell to the lake, which was shining because of the sun’s reflection. “Life as an orphan had been hard, Harry, you know that, and those forced me to become a sly being, especially when I have to earn my way to school.” Harry scrunched his nose at this. “What do you mean, earn? Don’t they have a little saving for you?” Yura shook her head a ‘no’ before her eyes blanked. “So far, I’ve been getting able to go to school by scholarships. In Hogwarts too. I can’t help owing Dumbledore my whole life for him to be letting us in free of payment.” Harry shivered. Scholarship. Where a great deal of clever people was trying to win a sum of money to pay their school fee. Harry didn’t like this thought at all. “How about Dong Eun? I mean…he told me that he’s not clever…and he looks a little bit too old for 16, doesn’t he?” Harry shifted curiously when he heard Yura gave a little snort. “Dong Eun doesn’t look too old for 16, he *is* older than 16.” Another new discovery. “Oh?” the raven-haired boy asked, “did he…fail?” Yura turned and gave him the scariest angry calm look that made Harry shivered from head to toe. Strangely, the look reminded him of Malfoy’s cold gray piercing eyes. “Dong Eun might be a little thick,” Yura’s voice was dripping with malice, “but I daresay he’s far above average wizards. It’s his foster family that did not have the heart to pay any single knut for him to go and learn magic. He had to stay in a bad muggle school for a year before the Headmistress of Quan Long herself came to take him away the year after.” Harry winced. He knew the memory all too well. He himself wouldn’t be in Hogwarts right now if it wasn’t for Hagrid coming for him. “And then?” “She took him away. His family agreed to pay, but half-heartedly. Dong Eun was in debt for all the school fees with them. He had to pay them after he graduated, that was, before Professor Dumbledore came along and freed him off those debts,” Yura’s eyes twinkled, “can’t say how grateful we are.” “That and he still manages to smile,” Harry whispered. Yura could only nod. “If there’s one thing I admire from him, that is his ability to happy-go-lucky his life when everyone else and himself knew it was miserable. Dong Eun loves sport and Quidditch all right, but he hadn’t got the money to buy any broom and he did not want to put more to his debts,” the girl closed her eyes sincerely, “I saw him once when he was flying on his friend’s broom, looking happier than ever. He’s got natural talent, I’d say.” Harry found himself smiling. He would tell Katie about this later. “What of you?” Yura gagged, but it was so graceful it could have been mistaken for a cough. “Me? I have no sense of sport. Spent most of my life feeding my upset little brain.” “I see,” said Harry before looking at the patch of grass in front of him. They fell into a comfortable silence before Harry’s matchmaker side kicked in. “What’s your relationship with Dong Eun?” Yura raised one elegant eyebrow at Harry before her face lost all its warmth and went back to its cold self. “Why, good childhood friend of course,” she answered coldly. Harry winced. With that kind of expression, it was fat chance to get them together. It was a while before Yura stood up and dusted off her skirt. “Harry, I’ve got to go to Arithmancy now. It was nice talking to you,” she gave the expressionless smile once again as she swayed her robe gracefully and went to the castle, leaving Harry sighing behind. His talk with the girl helped him understand more of Dong Eun and even the Slytherins, but did not make any progress on her. Now Harry was confused between guessing of which one was the real Yura, the cold one or the warm one. ~*~ Harry Potter stayed near the lake for the next few hours, gazing blankly at the pool of water in front of him, wincing as the Squid went to the surface and splashed him with water. His mind was too focused on the civil conversation he just had with the Slytherin girl. Harry chuckled. Civil was not a word that go along with Slytherin word, but that was really what the two was doing. ‘Cold. That’s what we all Slytherins share in common.’ Yura’s voice trailed in the raven-haired boy’s mind. Harry sighed before his mind went to a certain Slytherin with platinum blonde hair and bluish silver eyes. Draco Malfoy. ‘Does he has a cold family as well?’ Harry sighed. He knew the truth. As much as the young Malfoy seemed so spoilt from the outside, he had seen once how Lucius Malfoy had looked at his son when telling him the boy lost his grades to a mere Gryffindor mudblood when Harry accidentally got lost in Knockturn Alley before his second year. The older Malfoy had looked at the young blond like he was a trash. A trash unworthy to stand on the same floor with him… Strange. Harry was beginning to think of Malfoy with feelings other than something like hatred. He was beginning to feel at least wanting to be non-hostile to the Slytherin Ice Prince. When you look at the darkness thoroughly, you’ll realize that it has a lot in common with you… Harry’s ears prickled. That voice again. He stood up and looked at the sky. It was turning darker and darker as the sun set. The raven-haired boy sighed and looked at his watch. It was a little past 6. Dinner had started and no wonder his stomach was growling. Harry groaned at his upset stomach before running back across the field towards the Hogwarts castle. ~*~ The Great Hall was already full when Harry entered it. He spotted Ron and Dong Eun eating at the end of the table. The Asian boy waved at him before Harry smiled and flopped down at the empty space saved for him. “Hi, Harry!” Dong Eun chirped. “Hey,” Harry stared up and down the boy in front of him before giving a praising weak smile. Ron, waiting for his food-filled mouth to empty down, greeted at him. “Where were you, mate?” Just as Harry was going to tell his red-haired friend that he was on the lakeside, Hermione came, huffing, a visible cross mark decorating her head. “That insufferably know-it all!!” she snapped as she took a seat next to Dong Eun, who looked at her rather scared. “What’s wrong, ‘Mione?” Ron asked before gobbling down another spoon of his food. “Her!” She pointed heatedly at Yura, who had just entered the Hall with Malfoy on her side, not followed by Crabbe and Goyle, which was rather strange. But hey, when he came to think of it, Malfoy had been spending his time with Yura alone since yesterday. Harry was brought back down to earth by the bushy haired girl’s snap and winced at the tone of Hermione’s voice. “What of her?” Ron asked dumbly. Hermione went to glare at her boyfriend and pointed at the house point board. The three boys looked up only to find that Slytherin had got 300 points just on their first day while Gryffindor only got merely over a hundred. “All thanks to her!” the brunet huffed again. Ron hadn’t been in the same class with Hermione the whole day; he looked at her questioningly. “What do you mean?” The red-haired boy’s action only made her glared even more angrily at Yura. “Thanks to her for being insufferable good in Arithmancy! She got 50 points from Professor Vector for answering a complicated question 10 seconds faster than me!!” Dong Eun shrugged. “That is understandable. Yura is the cleverest girl I’ve ever met.” Hermione gave the Asian boy a very scary glare. “Well, I am going to change it! I am going to be the cleverest girl you’ve ever met! I am going to BEAT her!!” The Gryffindor table was rattling. Dong Eun could only shrug uncomfortably. “I’d like to see you try. For your information, she is 14, is the top in a Grade that is supposed to be one year higher for her level, and she hadn’t been paying any single knut since she went to school. She got 5 scholarships in a row every year, and she is able to speak at least 6 languages, including Ancient ones.” Hermione was so angry that the information did not make her gape at all. While Harry was gaping like a fish, Hermione punched the table with her fist. “I DO NOT CARE!!” Silence reigned before Ron looked at his girlfriend with a scared look. “You know, at least you speak English with right accent.” The supposed to be a joke statement was rewarded coldly as Hermione stuffed bread into her mouth and stood up in a snap. “I’m going to go to the library,” she stated coldly at Ron before leaving. Dong Eun gave the red-haired boy a sigh. “At least consider us as Asians, mate, it’s already hard for us to speak English properly when all I want to do is to go to Quan Long’s library and curl myself in an interesting Chinese novel,” Dong Eun stated before standing up, “I’ll be in the Gryffindor common room, starting my History of Magic’s homework. Just so to make sure I don’t make any silly grammar mistake,” he scowled before leaving. Ron, gaping, looked at Harry with an ‘I was just trying to lighten the situation!’ look and the raven-haired boy sighed. “What you had said was worst than the pureblood racism, Ron,” Harry said, taking a bite off his food before he proceeded to tell Ron about his whole day, from the Potions lesson to his talk with Yura just now. ~*~*~*~*~ End of Chapter 3 Written 3rd May 2004 6.30pm A/N: Does it tell more about Yura and Dong Eun? Bloody hell, I know you want more of Draco and Harry; you can throttle me if you want – I just hadn’t got the time to swing them in just yet you know. Just…patience pretty please? And Review too (I can’t blame you if you flame me, but please don’t). REVIEW THIS CHAPTER
Background (c) Juli
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