ORIGINAL: The Amour

Disclaimer: All characters & setting belong to JK Rowling.


[Chapter Five]

The next morning, Monday, Harry a to to see an empty chair.

No Draco, no nothing. Not even any signs of their actions from the night were visible. The sheets were stark clean.

It was a dream. Harry though, feeling disappointment weighing down in his chest. Of course it was a dream Something like that wasn’t even plausible anyways. It was crazy. Just like dreams were supposed to be.

The pain in his chest was completely gone and he sat up easily.

“Oh good. You’re awake dear.”

Harry looked to his right and saw Madam Pomfrey bustling out of her
office toward him.

“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Fine.” Harry said.

“Yes, well then, I suppose you can return to your classes today. You’ve missed half of Potions already but you should go anyways. The Headmaster wouldn’t want you to purposely miss a class.”

Harry regretted immediately that he hadn’t lied about a pain. Not only would he have to endure Snape’s cruel point-docking speech about being late, he’d have to face Malfoy. Even though it had all been surreal, he didn’t think he would be able to look at him.

Madam Pomfrey unwrapped his bandages and he changed into his school robes which had conveniently been brought to the hospital wing for him. Probably Hermione’s doings. He thought with a smile.

He grabbed his boo and and with a quick thanks to Madam Pomfrey, he hastily made his way down to the Potions dungeon.

He halted outside the door and took a deep breath. He’d be all right. As long as he kept his eyes lowered. He’d be fine.

He pushed the door open quietly and tried to sneak into a seat beside Hermione but Snape, who seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, caught him before his bottom touched the chair.

“Mr. Potter. How kind of you to join us. But I supposed you intended to be fashionably late?” Snape leered unpleasantly.

Harry, still keeping his gaze to the floor, chose not to say anything.

“Potter!” Snape snapped. “What, may I ask is so intriguing about the
floor that you cannot have the decent courtesy to look at your Professor when he is speaking?”

Harry’s inside fumed with embarrassment. He forced himself to look up but he turned his body so that he couldn’t see the Slytherins on the other side of the room.

“Twenty-five points from Gryffindor Potter and if you don’t manage to copy all these notes down by the end of class, I’ll double it.”

Harry slumped down into his chair and pulled out his quill and parchment. He began jotting down what Snape had written on the board. He didn’t even feel like talking back to the greasy-gi-a-t-a-teacher today. All he wanted was to get through the dang class in a hurry and leave.

The hands on the clock seemed to be moving very very slowly. Harry’s arms felt as if they would fall off at any second.

He felt a touch on his shoulder and looked up to see Hermione giving him a sympathetic smile. He returned the smile weakly and with a sigh, resumed his writing.

Hermione leaned close to his ear and nudged him again.

“Why is Malfoy looking at you all weird?”

Harry felt an uncomfortable jolt when he heard this but he couldn’t make himself lift his head.

“Probably just pondering about a good hex to use on me as usual.” he replied. Hoping to sound unconcerned.

“Hmm...” was all Hermione said.

The longest ninety minutes he had ever had to endure finally passed and Harry was first out the door. As usual, Ron had been ignoring him and so he hardly felt it was g tog to proceed to Divination without him.

He climbed the long sets of winding and moving staircases without rush. His feet seemed to be doing the navigation for him for his mind was a jumble and busy with hundreds of involuntary thoughts.

Most all of them consisting of a certain blonde.

He felt like ripping his hair out in irritation with himself. he hated the fact that he was so weak to these new emotions... he was supposed to be happy with Cho. But no. There he’d had to go and ruin himself. He’d never be the same again.

“I’m not in love.” he said aloud. “It’s just my bloody insane hormones.”

He repeated it over and over to his mind until he was beginning to actually convince himself pretty well.

Five minutes later, he found himsescenscending the rope ladder into the stuffy tea shop of a classroom.

It wasn’t long after he’d seated himself that the echoing of student’s voices and the thundering of footsteps was heard from below. One by one, his fellow classmates appeared through the trapdoor and seated themselves in the overstuffed poufs and chairs.

Professor Trelawny emerged out of her usual shadowy corner and walked towards them with a ridiculously solemn expression.

“Good Morning my dear students. Today, we will be studying the magic of Divination ugh ugh art.” she paused, as if waiting to hear students gasping or exclaiming excitedly, but since the room remained quite silent, she went on. “To read someone’s inner most, one must n ton to express themselves in some shape. And that is where the beauty of Art takes us!”

The students retrieved their books at her bidding and read for a few minutes about the unintruiging subject.

Although Harry did not wholey believe in any type of Divination taught by the old bug-eyed fraud, he felt a bit uneasy about expressing his rmosrmost so openly. What if someone found out about the dream? He couldn’t bear to think of the reaction the rest of the Gryffindors would give.

The Art, as it turned out, was something quite simpler then anyone would have expected. It was painting. Or rather, blobbing the paper with random colors and seeing what you got in the end.

They were each given a large sheet of canvas paper and a set of ‘magical divination paint’, as Trelawny called it.

Harry watched as people around him began to unscrew the pain bottles and dipping their thick brushes in them. With a sigh, Harry did so too. He lifted the dripping brush and flicked it so that the paper was now covered in green blots and flecks.

He studied it for a second, and thinking that it looked like a mess of nothing, he concluded that he was definitely in no immediate danger and s continued on.

Next he took a deep red and splattered it across the paper. After that came silver, gold, black, and blue.

He smiled at his work of art and felt calmed by it somehow.

Maybe painting is a good stress-reliever. He chuckled to himself.

“All right dear divinators. We’ll begin the analysis now...” Professor Trelawny peered out over he wide rimmed glasses expectantly. “Switch with anyone that is of the opposite gender and analyze each other’s carey. Wy. Write down anything and everything you see and I will go over what they mean later. Please begin!”

There was a storm of scraping chairs as students got up to find a partner. Harry was spared the embarrassment of searching for one himself as Parvati plopped herself into the chair next to him.

Harry looked up and saw her glaring at him. It seemed that she still upset about the way he’d ignored her during the Yule Ball in their fourth year. Girls and grudges. He thought.

He sighed wearily. “Why did you pick me if all you came to do was sit and glare at me?”

Parvati pursed her lips and smirked. “I wanted to analyze you Harry. Maybe I’ll be able to see something good that’ll pay you back for treating me so awfuat tat the Dance.”

“Oh great.” he mumbled.

“Now hand you paper over.” she snapped.

Harry reluctantly gave her his paper and watched her carefully as her eyes bore into it. Enough to burn a whole right through it.

A lump formed in his throat as Parvati let out a soft gasp and her lip curled. She began scribbling furiously onto a sheet of parchment and her smile widened even more.

45;S45;She’s probably just predicting my death again.” he reassured himself. ‘Nothing more...’

“Oh my...” she murmured delightedly.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“Right.”

“This is even better than I thought...” Parvati’s eyes gleamed mischievously and she finally brought her quill to a stop. “Professor! I’ve finished!” she called out sweetly to Trelawny.<

Professor Trelawny was at their table in a flash.

“Good girl. now if you’ll let me have a look at your results...” she took Parvati’s paper and scanned her eyes top to bottom.

Harry didn’t like the look on the teacher’s face anymore than Parvati’s. It was a look of odd satisfaction.

“So when am I gonna die this time?” he couldn’t help but snap.

The whole class turned their attention to him.

“Oh no, no one’s dying my dear.” she replied lightly. “No no. Quite the contrary. your work of Inner Art seems to be expressing... a certain happiness.”

Harry raised his eyebrows questioningly. He had no clue why then, they were smiling as if something awful was going to happen.

Professor Trelawny wrung her hands exasperatedly.

“Love, dear boy! You are in love!” she cried out.

Harry’s mouth dropped open.

Parvati smiled wickedly and pointed an accusing finger at him.

“And it’s a Slytherin!” she shrieked so that everyone could hear.

The room gasped loudly. Everyone stared wide-eyed at Harry. Harry thought he would pass out from the shock.

“You’re a traitor aren’t you, Harry.” Parvati continued, enjoying the moment immensely. “I bet it’s pug-face Parkison.”

Harry looked at her outraged. “No! That’s just sick-”

Lavender shot out of her seat. “How could you Harry? How could you choose that slimy filthy Slytherin over a Gryffindor?”

Harry nearly screamed through his teeth. “I would rather go to hell then like her!”

“Then who is it?” she demanded.

Harry froze. For a moment, it seemed impossible to think correctly. “It’s no one!” he finally managed. “I’ve never even looked at a god dam Slytherin that way! You guys should just fucking GROW UP!” He didn’t care that he had swore in front of a teacher. To hell with bloody Trelawny and her craziness.

He kicked his chair and gathering up his books violently, stormed toward the trap door and disappeared down it.

Hermione had been right to leave the class in their third year. It was shit. Shit to make his life miserable.

Auror’s didn’t need to learn the rubbish. He could become one without it.

As he stomped through the empty halls, he realized that if someone caught him out of class, they’d give him detention. So hastily, he racked his brain for a good place to spend the rest of second class. He considered returning to the Gryffindor Tower but the thought of seeing his classmates coming back from Divination made the choice quite unappealing. So instead, he made for the Astronomy Tower. No one ever went there, which was convenient at times like these.

he didn’t care that he was making a racket ascending the stairs. Only his fury towards Parvati and Trelawny filled his mind.

“God fuck them!” he shouted, kicking the door to the top landing open. A gust of cold wind swept against his flushed face. “I mean, Pansy Parkison? That’s just- do they think I’m that- and plus! I would choose him over her any day if it ad to be a Slytherin-”

“What are you shouting about Potter? You’re ruining my peace and quiet.”

Harry felt as if he’d been hit by another Bludger. He swirled around.