Situational Ethics

Situational Ethics

By Mizzfreestyle

Edited by Laurie-an

If you intend thus to disdain,
It does the more enrapture me,
And even so, I still remain
A lover in captivity
- Greensleeves

Chapter Fourteen:

“Pronounced Hero and Consequently Popular”


By the arrival of the Ministry, the students had been told to be on their best behaviour, as not to lure attention away from Harry and towards the general hubbub of the school. Cornelius Fudge walked proudly through the vast halls cluttered with students, staff, and ghosts with his head held high and his satin black and purple pinstripe cape fluttering behind him. He reveled in moments such as these, of feeling grand and superior before the students, but, inevitably, were depressed immediately Dumbledore came to meet him flanked by several of the senior staff members. “Good day, Cornelius. I trust the journey was pleasant.” Despite Dumbledore’s humble and warm greeting, Fudge never let himself be fooled that there was anything but a conspirator beneath the sparkling veneer.

Fudge smiled and shook Dumbledore’s hand firmly. “Very much so. Now, let’s get down to business. Where is Potter?” Fudge folded his hands behind his back and awaited Dumbledore’s reply eagerly.

“Quidditch practice. He’ll be ready and available in just a few minutes. In the mean time, I suspect tea would be greatly appreciated?”

Dumbledore turned and led the Minister, with his two Aurors, towards his office where they would set out some terms before the boy arrived. Dumbledore assumed since Harry only had a few months left at Hogwarts, every university would want him in their Auror training program. If the Ministry was going to step in early, Dumbledore anticipated that the Ministry’s role in Harry’s life would be rather forceful from now until graduation. Relentless little buggers. Dumbledore thought silently.

From across the school ground, young Harry entered the locker rooms quickly to change before the rest of the boys finished their last rounds of Slytherin play. He didn’t need to get balls thrown at him now; he had a bigger battle to fight. He showered quickly, pulled on his clothes and was on his way to the Headmaster’s office before his team mates had dusted off their brooms.

In Dumbledore’s round office sat two professors. To his horror, it was the two he didn’t want to see: Professor McGonagall, as head of Harry’s House, and Snape, member of the Order. Hesitantly, he walked over to the one free chair and steadied himself against its back, pointedly ignoring the others and focusing solely on the Headmaster.

“Ah, Harry. Do join us,” said Dumbledore as he poured a fresh new cup for Harry then lit a few scented candles. Harry took his seat and clasped his hands in his lap, his eyes still fixed on Dumbledore. “Take notice of our guests.” Dumbledore lifted his hand in the direction of the Minister and his two Aurors.

Harry sneered inside. Fudge was the last person Harry wanted to see. “You needed to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Harry, and I’m extremely happy that you could make some time. No doubt you must have a busy schedule, but there’re a few things I would like to share with you.” Fudge shuffled in his own seat on the other side of the desk, facing Harry.

“Mr. Potter, I’d like to invite you to the Wizarding World’s top school for Aurors. King Arthur’s Academy.”

The room’s occupants, excepting the Aurors, were rather taken aback, not because of the offer but by the Minister’s almost casual directness. It appeared he assumed Harry’s immediate acceptance.

“I…,” Harry sipped his tea then took down a huge gulp.

“I know this seems like a big step for you, Harry. But you’re only a few months away from graduating and you can’t possibly do much good in the war against Voldemort with the basic education you’ve received so far. You need to enhance your magic and get a feel for what you’ll be up against. I assure you, Harry, that Dumbledore and I will make sure you are trained by only the best mentors.” Fudge sat back in his chair, a smile of condescension draping his face.

“The Ministry’s experts have concluded that it’ll be at least two years before You-Know-Who has amassed his forces sufficiently to wage his war. By then, Harry, you need to be a trained professional,” Dumbledore’s voice lacked sincerity and Harry noted the emphasis he placed on certain words.

“Hogwarts has only provided the foundation upon which you will build your kingdom.” Fudge raised his arms towards the ceiling and only the Aurors’ eyes followed. Everyone else mentally disparaged the theatrics.

Harry leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head and for the first time looked at the Minister. “The academy is the best in Europe, right?” asked Harry.

“Mmm.. yes. It is. But you don’t have to make a decision now. Just write to me within the next month or so and my people will take care of everything.”

“Mmm… I suppose enrolling in his program has its benefits. When will the first term of my training begin?”

“If we are to have it our way, a week or so after you graduate.”

“NO!” The Minister jumped in his seat. However, Dumbledore and Snape being rather accustomed to Harry’s sudden outbursts, barely twitched. “No. I need the summer to myself. I might agree to join the academy so long as I am given the summer.”

The Minister nodded then looked at Dumbledore who suddenly had a copy of the Daily Prophet in his hands. “Albus….?”

“Yes?” Dumbledore looked over his moon shaped spectacles. “You must agree that any boy, especially this one, deserves a holiday.” Harry noted that the Headmaster had not asked this last as a question.

“Of course.” The Minister got up and the Aurors walked up towards him.

“Well, Mr. Potter, it was a pleasure talking with you. I will inform my people of your decision and we’ll request information in pieces every now and then. Take care. And I’ll owl you soon, Albus, for Harry’s transcripts and paperwork.” My, the Minister was feeling awfully complaisant today.

Dumbledore waved casually while addressing his attention to reading the paper once again.

Once the door had closed behind the Minister, Dumbledore put down the paper. “Minerva, please assist me in ensuring no one hexes our dear Minister as he leaves.” After a momentary hesitation in which she seemed to want to say something, McGonagall got up and left the office with the smiling Headmaster.

Snape too left his seat but instead of following his colleagues he approached Dumbledore’s desk. “What meddlesome antics are you crafting in that little brain of yours, Potter?”

“I am just trying to fulfill my duties. Nothing more.”

Snape whirled round to face Harry, his expression snide. “This academy the Minister speaks of, Potter, is nothing like Hogwarts. The students accepted are the elite, chosen from schools worldwide. You are but a lethargic, arrogant, delicate excuse of a hero.”

“You’re wrong!”

“Am I? If you would put forth half the effort into your work as you do into making my life a daily challenge, then you would be so far ahead we’d have to graduate you early.”

Harry stared coldly at Snape. “I think the latter is more gratifying.”

“Is it? I would not latch on to the notion so readily. I make a better ally. You don’t want me as your enemy.”

“I could say the same to you.”

Swiftly, Snape placed his hands on the arms of the chair and leaned down towards Harry. “Yes, but that is if you could be my enemy. Last I checked the Golden Boy melts every time I touch him.”

“Piss off…”

“Ah…, but I am right…, am I not?” Snape smirked then ran his hand over Harry’s cheek. Sure enough, Harry closed his eyes and leant his head against it. “You are drawn to me, Harry. I am what you want.”

There was a noticeable change in Harry’s emerald eyes. They became soft and lost once they looked into Snape’s. The boy was searching for something in those seas of black and then he asked, “Why do you like to hurt me? You told me you didn’t take me seriously, so why…?”

“As I said. Delicate.” Snape pulled his hand away just as Dumbledore reentered the office.

“Stop tormenting Potter, Severus. If you must torment him, do so in your own classroom,” Dumbledore then opened the door wider and said, “Now leave. I need to freshen up my room and chair.”

HARRYPOTTERHARRYPOTTERHARRYPOTTER

Flashes, sudden outbursts, ridiculous questions, and being encircled by reporters from different papers became common within a week since the Minister declared that Harry had accepted the proposal. “How do you feel about being invited to this top academy?” asked one reporter while several others listened in.

What I want to know is how you got on campus?! Harry smiled then tried to take a step back. I demand a restraining order.

“Give the man some space!” Said Ron as he pushed himself between the lady reporters. “Let the man breathe!”

Having so many reporters and people from the Ministry on campus was unsettling. Harry couldn’t go from one place to the other without being tracked down. And to add to the chaos, reporters were bribing students with candy and money to find out answers to questions Harry refused to answer himself. Often, when Harry was trying to eat, several students would come up to him and ask something stupid like, “What’s your favourite colour?”

Nearly every Gryffindor wanted to slap this first year Hufflepuff.

Harry wanted to just finish eating his three pancakes, two pieces of waffles, two strips of bacon, two sausage links, three over medium eggs, and one giant glass of pumpkin juice.

Then a second year Gryffindor asked, “What’s your favourite meal?”

Even Harry’s fellow Gryffindors were being baited into this interrogation. “Not you too!” cried out Ron. “It’s like the entire school is in on this.”

“Harry, won’t you get sick if you eat all that food?” Hermione was comparing her simple meal of yogurt and fruit to Harry’s all-you-can-eat buffet.

“Well, I feel hungry all the time.” No one knew Harry could have a voracious appetite from looking at him.

“I think you eat more than Crabbe,” Ron said, feeling his stomach knot as he watched Harry devour a pancake whole.

“Yeah, well, I have to stay healthy.”

“Harry, there’s a difference between healthy and…. That…”

“Yeah man. That’s just sick,” Ron grimaced as Harry chomped at the two sausages at once.

The inchoate fetus had a long maturating process to undergo. Harry had to feed regularly otherwise it would not develop normally. Anyways, the eggs were mighty tasty.

Potions was the second lesson of the day and the one class Harry didn’t feel like being in. He was hungry. In his mind, starving. He needed some more food and soon. Hermione was being meticulous in preparing the potion and Harry was sitting beside her with his stomach growling like a caged animal. “You ate like a troll and you’re still hungry?”

“Yup,” Harry sighed. He should learn to pack some snacks for later. Despite his obsessive hunger issue, he nevertheless managed to devote a lot of time to noting the numerous impressive traits of the Potions Master. Overall, he thought, he was looking exceptionally good today. Whether is was some different shampoo, a new black robe, or just the way the light was hitting him, something about Snape was making Harry a little restless below.

Harry never imagined that being pregnant would not only make him constantly hungry, but more easily aroused as well.

At that thought, a smile graced Harry’s lips and Snape looked up from his desk at Harry. “Careful, Potter. You’re drooling.”

Harry snapped out of his trance and threw Snape a nasty look.

Snape returned the look with one of venom and Harry judiciously decided he had provoked him enough for the day. He placed his head on the desk and continued to take notes on the potion until Malfoy asked, “So, Potter, I overheard some people saying you have a lover. Care to share?”

Hermione stopped brewing and Harry looked up at Malfoy with one of those what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about faces. At about the same time, Snape’s quill stopped moving rampantly over the paper.

“A lover?” Harry asked.

“Oh I overheard that too!” another Slytherin called out over his cauldron. “Is it true? Potter, are you two really going out?”

“What the bloody hell?” said Hermione as she looked at the Slytherins than back at Harry. Now everyone had stopped what they were doing to hear Harry’s answer.

Unluckily for them, Harry rolled his eyes and placed his head on his desk, leaving much to ambiguity.

In front of him, Snape picked up his quill and carefully set it aside. The thought that Potter might be seeing someone, a nubile young man, perhaps, suddenly took hold of him. Twisting and roiling inside his stomach was the thought that Harry, his Harry, was finding warmth in another’s embrace was vexing in the extreme. He brushed aside the remaining papers requiring grading. Damn brat… What was most aggravating was that Snape had no excuse this time to pull Harry aside and address the matter with force.

Later, just as lunch ended, Harry found himself surrounded by girls all trying to latch onto him and pleading to tell him if April really was his “One and Only”. Completely stunned, Harry could do nothing but gape while girls pulled at his limbs.

From the other side of the hall, Malfoy seethed. He had never seen so many girls fighting frantically for one boy. And for Potter no less. He bared his teeth and growled before turning and taking off. What ate at Malfoy the most was that he saw Pansy’s bouncy black hair in the midst of the group.

In the Slytherin common room, Snape was clumsily trying to comfort one of his first years after a particularly traumatic Transfiguration experience when Malfoy stormed in, face a deep red and steam surely coming out of his ears. The first year cringed as Malfoy sat down on the couch. “Hold that thought,” said Snape as he walked over to Malfoy. “You look positively cheerful. Good day?”

Malfoy crossed his arms and tried to suppress his anger.

“It’s Potter, isn’t it?”

Snape needn’t say more. Malfoy lost control. “Every damn girl in the whole bloody school is hanging off him like he’s the best thing that ever happened! Everywhere I go, it’s Potter this and Potter that! Potter to the left, and Potter to the right! Worse, Pansy’s been hounding after him!”

Of course everyone had been talking about Potter. He’d been in the papers for the last week. Every day some new story appeared about the boy who accepted the Minister’s invitation to the academy. “People see this as the beginning of an end to Voldemort. For many, this is a sign of hope, Draco, you cannot expect people to turn a deaf ear.”

“But it’s every bloody girl in school!”

“Yes, but this is Potter. He doesn’t want girls to be with him for his fame, least of all, the Slytherins and especially Pansy. She’ll come around.”

“Shouldn’t you do something about this? Claim it’s causing a commotion? Give Potter remedial potion classes? Give him detention for disturbing the peace?”

If Malfoy kept throwing out options, Snape wouldn’t be able to stop himself from making several selections from the list. “It is during the breaks, I cannot interfere unless he is being destructive or breaking a school code. Last I checked, there was nothing in there about restraining girls from fan-girling.”

“Bloody hell,” Malfoy seethed.

Tell me about it. Snape gritted his teeth for a split second.

SEVERUSSNAPESEVERUSSNAPESEVERUSSNAPE

“Mr. Potter, will you sign this for my aunt?” asked a little girl from Ravenclaw.

“Sure,” Harry pulled the picture of himself from the newspaper and signed it while staring out the window. He didn’t even see the girl who was asking for his autograph.

This was another thing that was happening rather often. Everyone wanted Harry’s autograph. Everyone…Students would get Harry’s autograph then send it to their families who would then either keep it or sell it for profit. Harry felt like he was being turned into some idol that was wanted only for his fame and money. Again. And it irritated Harry to no end. On top of that, he still hadn’t figured out who this mysterious lover of his was. “Hey, Harry, you almost done studying?” asked Ron. “I’m hungry. I reckon we get some snacks from the Great Hall before Crabbe and Goyle finish them off.”

“Yeah. Good idea.”

Along their way though, a girl hurtled towards Harry and Harry did nothing but stand there. He learned that if he tried to escape, they would chase him and girls seemed to have an abundance of energy. “Harry! Oh Harry! Is it true that April is your girlfriend?! She’s never around you! I bet she’s lying so the newspapers will interview her too!”

Ron was suddenly a hundred feet ahead of Harry and not looking back. Thanks Ron. You’re a great friend. Harry mentally sent death glares towards him but then his view was blocked by a girl with the longest, blackest hair Harry had ever seen. It was literally down to her knees. Just a mass of straight, shiny black hair. Harry stared until she was close and said in a high-pitched voice, “It’s true! He’s really with me!”

Harry concluded that this was his mysterious lover, April.

She latched onto Harry’s arm and stuck her tongue out at the other girl. “What?! No way! Harry deserves better!”

The two girls erupted into squealing argument that was totally undecipherable to the young man standing mid fracas. Two minutes in and Harry had had enough. “Enough!” he screamed. He took a moment to collect himself and glared at both combatants.

The girl with the shorter hair ran off crying but April continued to hold onto Harry’s arm. Now that he could see her closely, he noticed that she was Pilipino. “April?”

“Yes, Harry?”

“I’d really appreciate it if you let me go.”

“Why?” she asked while smiling.

“’Cause you’re cutting off my circulation and I need to get some food before my friend eats it all.”

“Only if you agree to be my boyfriend.”

“What?” Harry asked. How could someone be so… arugh! Harry wanted to slap this Ravenclaw.

“Please, Harry?”

Harry said the only thing that might throw her off. “I’m already seeing someone.”

April’s eyes were suddenly almost as big as his. Almost. “What?! Since when?!”

Harry sighed. “Long before all this happened to me.”

“What?! You’re seeing someone?” Another paid assistant to the Daily Prophet walked by. “Who is she? Since when? How far have you gone?” she pulled out her notebook along with a quill, ready for Harry’s testimonies of love.

Harry looked at her like she was the most harebrained person alive. Why would anyone care about his love life? He had had enough. He wouldn’t have any of it. He turned and walked off while trying his best to ignore the panicking April and mini-Skeeter.

“Wait! Harry!” April chased after him as Harry predicted she would and given his current state, he couldn’t run. But he could try walking faster.

Alas, girls were, indeed, energetic and relentless.

“Please, let me alone,” Harry asked in a calm voice once April got really close.

“Can we at least talk, Harry?”

“What is going on?” Snape had turned the corner and found himself face-to-face with Harry and his insistent lover. “I see. Miss. Samala and Mr. Potter.”

Harry walked forwards and his eyes pleaded soundlessly. Make her stop. Harry didn’t need to tell Snape for the older wizard to understand Harry’s displeasure. “You would be wise to leave, Miss. Samala.”

Without questioning, April whispered a good day to Harry then turned and skipped off.

“Thank you.”

“With every girl in school after you, it is a wonder that you have not been labeled. I had thought that by now, you’d become the next Gilderoy Lockhart. This last week has been rough, hasn’t it? This is what it feels like. Fame. Everyone wants a piece of you. Everyone wants a part of your title. Not you, Harry. I’m surprised you haven’t been ripped up and divided amongst the lot of them.”


Snape’s words were as warm and caressing as raging, freezing waterfall. They sang to Harry’s ears like nails against a chalkboard. They held Harry’s heart as tenaciously as a bear trap; snapping shut and violently ripping through flesh. Why do I love him?

Before Snape could utter one more word, Harry had disappeared down the hall.

Instead of walking to the Great Hall, however, Harry marched off towards Dumbledore’s office. The headmaster was seated in his chair, sipping tea and looking over some papers. When Harry entered the room, he appeared rather upset and the boy didn’t have to elaborate for Dumbledore to know the reason for his distress. “Good afternoon, Harry.”

“Good afternoon,” Harry took a seat then asked, “Can’t you make it all stop?”

Dumbledore folded his hands over his desk and listened attentively while Harry continued. “I can’t take much more of this. I am not an item to be toyed with. I’m just me, with real feelings. Why don’t people understand that?”

“It’s not that they don’t, Harry. It’s that they choose to ignore it. So long as there is a tangible portion of hope, they will cling to it. But now that you are here, we have more urgent matters to attend to.”

Harry’s raised head beheld fearful eyes.

“I am not ignorant of your circumstances, present and future. I have a plan for you after you leave this school, but there is a tiny problem that will soon erupt into a larger problem if we don’t deal with it now.”

Before Harry could muster a reaction, the door slammed shut and locked him in.

A/N: Thank you for reading. Please feel free to review, as they do help me to get through the day and to write the next chapter quicker.

And I am going to start a list for those on this site who want to be notifed when I update. If you want me to email you when I update, simply request it in a review, otherwise email me. Don't forget to send your email.
And I am sorry if you have request it before and I failed to remember. I loose things rather easily and I have not yet set aside some time to organize everyone's email. But now I'll get to it.