Harry Potter: Don't touch

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Harry stood outside the headmaster's office. He buried himself headfirst into his thoughts, in which he dreaded his future prospects... He had been expelled from Hogwarts! Pomona Stable, the Dean of the Hufflepuff Faculty, after hearing about the incident in the Great Hall, after a brief conversation with Severus Snape, had decided to expel Potter from her faculty.

The first time Harry heard about it, he couldn't believe his ears. He hadn't expected his punishment to be so severe. He didn't want to leave Hogwarts! This was where he had made his first real friends, where he could finally escape the oppression of the Dursleys. And he was being deprived of his first real home. And for what? For some harmless joke... Well, not really harmless... But he didn't mean it! It wasn't supposed to be like that! You can't get expelled for a joke! What happens after he's expelled? Would he go back to the Dursleys?

No one had informed Potter of his prospects. After Pomona Stable's decision, the deans of all four faculties got together and took Harry to see Dumbledore. No one told him why, but he guessed that they had gone to negotiate with the Headmaster about expulsion from Hogwarts, for the Deans themselves had no such powers.

And so they had been sitting in the office for about an hour now, discussing something. Harry himself remained seated on the bench by the gargoyle that guarded the passage to Dumbledore. When the teachers had just left, he tried to make contact with her. Asking her what she was like and if she really only ate sweets. He couldn't figure out how the gargoyle opens the doorway. Every time the teachers call a different sweet to get to the principal's office.

He had asked Justin about it recently, and he had suggested that it was a kind of password to the Headmaster's office. But Harry had blown his version to smithereens. Dumbledore wouldn't put such a stupid password in his office. So Potter decided that these sweets had something to do with the gargoyle, and on a certain day it only eats a certain sweet.

After the mishap with the gargoyle, Harry began to deal with the incident that had got him expelled from school. He wanted very much to blame Tonks for all his sins, to say, "I had nothing to do with it, it was all her." But at the same time, he realised that he was the one to blame for the situation. He could have abandoned the plan when he'd heard about the amortentia, and nothing Tonks could have done would have helped. But he'd agreed to it. Perhaps, deep down, he wanted to do something crazy for once in his life.

Finally, sounds were heard from the direction of the Headmaster's office, and a spiral staircase appeared, with Professor Flitwick coming down it. He walked up to Harry, looked at him intently and said:

- I had a better opinion of you, Harry. You've done a terrible thing... But I'm glad you've at least confessed to it.

The Deans of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, McGonagall and Stable, came down next.

Minerva glared fiercely at Harry and headed away from the corridor without saying anything. Pomona cast a reproachful glance and headed after McGonagall.

The last of the deans to come out was Snape. He was almost as furious as he had been during the incident in the Great Hall. He rushed towards Harry, and for a brief moment he thought Snape was going to hit him, but the Potions professor only came close to Harry and hissed:

- 'If I were you, Potter, I'd watch what you drink carefully.

- Severus, we told you," Dumbledore's voice came from the stairs.

He turned around, glared defiantly at the Hogwarts Headmaster, and headed down the corridor opposite to the one McGonagall and Steble had left.

Dumbledore approached Harry and pointed to the spiral staircase.

- Harry, let's go to my office.

Potter was still reeling from Snape's outburst of rage, he blinked his eyes perplexedly a couple of times before heading into the Headmaster's office.

The office was exactly as Harry remembered it. Except that the old Distributor's Hat was nowhere to be seen.

- Sit down," Dumbledore said and sat down at his desk.

Harry found a chair and lowered himself into it obediently.

- I would like to say that what you have done has exceeded all my expectations. Yes, you heard me, I expected something like this from you. I was sure that you, because of your lack of friends and fun as a child, would start... Ahem... Let's call it "filling in the gaps". Well, I was sure that at Hogwarts you'd start having a lot of fun, and that you'd be easy to get involved in any kind of adventure, but even I didn't expect this," Dumbledore said. - And I'm also sure you didn't act alone. It's almost impossible for a first year to get a love potion. I have three suspects at the moment. Fred and George Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks. I take it you have no point in asking which of them were involved?

Harry nodded briefly. He didn't understand why Dumbledore was telling him all this.

- 'That's what I thought. Teenagers are prone to... Self-sacrifice. For them to tell someone older about their friends' involvement in various mischief is tantamount to treason. (chuckles) Okay. I got distracted. Anyway, I haven't been able to find out who exactly gave you the idea and provided the potion. I do know that you visited the Gryffindor Drawing Room this week, where you chatted with both twins, and that Nymphadora was sitting next to you during the incident in the Great Hall. Professor Flitwick has informed me that you alone put the potion in Professor Snape's goblet. I can't be sure exactly who was responsible," Dumbledore looked straight into Harry's eyes. - 'But I know for a fact that you are only the perpetrator, and this... The prank itself, though serious, still shouldn't result in expulsion. So, I've used my Headmaster's powers to return you to the status of Hogwarts student.

Harry's heart raced at an accelerated pace. Could it really be true? Was he not expelled after all?

- You'll be back in your first year at Hufflepuff, and as punishment for what you've done, you'll get... Let's say a year of detention. I've also asked the deans to deduct from Hufflepuff the number of points they think is fair. I don't know how many they've each taken off, but I don't think it's important, since Hufflepuff's points situation is already critical," Dumbledore looked at Harry, waiting for his reaction.

- 'You mean I'm not excluded? It's going to be the same as it was? Can I go? - he still couldn't believe that everything was all right.

- Yes, Harry, you can, but be warned that if you do it again, the punishment will be much more severe.

Harry stood up from his chair, opened his mouth and tried to find the right words. He wanted to thank Dumbledore for keeping him in school. He wanted to promise the headmaster that he would never do anything like that again, but instead of thanking him, the question that had long been on his mind came out of his lips.

- Excuse me, sir, I'd like to know how the gargoyle guarding your office works. I've already realised that she has to name some sweets, but I still don't understand on what principle.

- You just almost got expelled and you care about how the gargoyle guarding my office works? - Dumbledore smiled, and Harry realised it was a joke, not a rebuke. - 'Actually, it doesn't have to be sweets, it's passwords I set. Anyone who knows it can enter my office.

- Password? But... Sweets... Why do you set sweets as the password? Only children like them.

- Not only, Harry, not only, sometimes adults are still children at heart and they don't want to change, especially when being a child is so delicious.

On that note, Potter left the Headmaster's office. It wasn't until he had almost reached the Hufflepuff common room that he finally realised that he was staying at Hogwarts. He quickly ran up the stairs, jumping over a step. All his gloomy thoughts were forgotten.

He didn't stay in high spirits for long, however, because after a minute of running he fell and smashed his nose.

* * *

The next day the Puffenduys did not sit down with either Potter or Tonks. And they were completely right, the number of faculty points had gone far into the negative. At the moment, the Hufflepuff balance was minus three hundred and thirty-one points. But Nymphadora cared little for the other students' changed attitude towards her. What she cared about was the fact that an innocent person could have been seriously hurt because of her. And the term "innocent person" in her mind did not refer to Snape. It was Harry.

At breakfast Tonks decided to apologise to him. She remembered Potter's research and knew when to come to catch him in the Great Hall. Nymphadora sat down next to Potter and decided not to take too long to apologise:

- Harry, I'm sorry about yesterday, I completely forgot. I came up with this brilliant plan a long time ago, but I was afraid to. I mean, there was no way to put it into action. And I didn't think about the consequences... Well, I didn't think about them at all. I've been wanting to do something like this for six years, and when I finally got the chance, I didn't think about it at all.

- It's okay," Harry replied. He'd thought about it yesterday and decided that he had only himself to blame for the accident. - Let's just agree to avoid any more events like this.

After getting a promise from Tonks that this was the last prank she would drag him into, Harry headed off to his herbalism class. After forty-five minutes of him working with jumping grebes, Professor Stable approached Potter and asked him to stay after class. She gave him a twenty minute talk about what a bad thing he had done and how lucky he was that Dumbledore had decided to keep him in school. Because of this conversation, Harry was late for his next lesson and received another minus ten points from Professor McGonagall.

By lunchtime, Harry's mood had soured completely, but Tonks had cheered up:

- Congratulations Harry, you and I have broken a record. Hufflepuff has the lowest number of points today. No one in the history of Hogwarts has ever had less. Last year's record was held by Ravenclaw, but a seventh year boy got bored, and you know how Ravenclaws are. So he decided to experiment with the bulbs on the chandelier for New Year's Eve, I don't know what the experiment was, but as a result the chandelier fell right onto the teacher's desk! Ravenclaw was minus one hundred and ninety-eight points. And that was without anyone getting hurt! By the way, that's when the chandelier was removed and flying candles were installed in the Great Hall. And we made it even better! Pretty cool, huh?

- Um," Harry didn't know what to say to him, so remembering his conversation with Professor Steble, he decided to just quote her. - I don't think it's cool. It was unfair and wrong to Professor Snape.

- Oh, so not only did you talk to the headmaster, but you also talked to the dean? 'Unfair and wrong to Professor Snape, unfair and wrong to Professor Trelawney,' Tonks mocked the Dean's tone. - 'Who cares about that! It turned out awesome! I've never been able to pull anything off before because I didn't have the right accomplice, and then you showed up... So congratulations, you're my accomplice now.

Harry looked at her in surprise. There was no trace of the remorseful Tonks left.

- You said you wouldn't involve me in anything else," Harry reminded her.

Tonks's smile faded slightly, and Harry realised that she had completely forgotten to remember her promises.

- Well, let's do it after school then! Or out of school, if you don't want to get in trouble with the teachers and headmaster. Come and visit us in the winter holidays, we can do a lot more than that.Surprisingly, Harry's conscience stopped gnawing at him almost immediately. Potter was beginning to enjoy the fact that he could dare to do such a thing. And it started just after dinner. Fred and George Weasley knocked on his bedroom door. They expressed their admiration for the genius of the joke and assured him that if there was anything wrong with the incident, it was that they hadn't been in the Great Hall when the action itself had unfolded and they hadn't been able to savour the moment. As they left, one of the twins had already seriously said that Snape deserved what had happened to him with his horrible treatment of students from all faculties except Slytherin. After Fred and George left, Justin walked into the bedroom and headed straight for Potter's bed.

- I know you've been through a lot with this whole thing, but I still have a favour to ask of you: can you please involve me next time you and Tonks pull something off? I want to be involved too! - Finch-Fletchley said firmly.

Harry remembered the words of Dumbledore, Steble, Flitwick... But despite all that, his mouth spread into a satisfied smile of its own.

- Of course, Justin, next time you're in," Harry said, forgetting that he wanted to avoid the next prank at all costs.

The incident in the Great Hall with Snape and Filch was discussed for the next week, but as it always was, it was quickly forgotten. In its place came a new incident. Draco Malfoy had become Slytherin's new Seeker.

This event broke a lot of school rules at the same time, but Snape didn't care, he gave Malfoy a Nimbus 2000 broom and agreed with the Headmaster of Hogwarts to adjust the rules and let Draco join the faculty team.

After this incident, Malfoy became even more important. He carried his broomstick with him at all times and only went to eat in the Great Hall in the presence of two classmates Harry already knew. Potter realised that they were acting as bodyguards. He hadn't yet decided if he would accept Draco's invitation to visit his mansion over the winter holidays. He had an invitation from Tonks for the same holidays, and looking at Malfoy's important face, Harry was leaning more and more towards the idea of turning him down.

Snape had stopped paying attention to Harry in Potions lessons and practise. He just handed out the necessary assignments or potion components and never looked in his direction again. Potter was only glad for this change. He thought he got off very lightly since the Potions professor had decided not to retaliate.

Potter didn't return to the wishing-room again. He just didn't particularly need anything there. He had discovered the secret of that room and now he simply had no idea what purpose it could serve. At first it seemed to him that this room was very useful and would be of constant use to him, but how to use it, Harry had not yet thought of such a thing. He decided to just remember that there was such a room, and if he needed anything, he could use it.

There was still no way to make contact with the Puffenduys. But Harry wasn't too upset, as he had managed to establish relationships with some of his classmates. Thanks to Justin, he was able to make friends with his roommates. Zachariah Smith initially made no secret of his disdain for Potter, and Ernie Macmillan disliked him because of his loss of Hufflepuff points. But they all bonded when Finch-Fletchley suggested they play a board game called Collapse. It could only be played by the four of them, Justin said his parents had given it to him for his birthday over the summer. The game was based on modern technology and wasn't due out until three years later.

After a couple of rounds, everyone got bored with the game and decided to just socialise. Zachariah suggested that they take turns telling about the scariest moment in their lives. Justin told about an incident when his parents found out he was lying in the mud with a school friend. Smith - about a serious car accident he had been in with his parents. Ernie blushed a little, but still decided to tell the story of how he had run into the girls' changing room on a dare.

When it was Harry's turn to tell the story, he hadn't decided which of the many moments of his childhood was the worst, so he decided to stick with the time when they tried to drown him in the toilet. Almost at the beginning of the story, when Harry was just starting to describe Pierce's speech, he was stopped by Justin. He said that Potter might not continue. Macmillan and Smith kept a surprised look on Harry's face for the rest of the evening.

A week later, Potter was working at the same table with fellow students from his department - Hannah Abbot, Megan Jones and Susan Bones. At the beginning of class, Hannah Abbot asked him sternly about the reason why he was constantly breaking the rules. Harry didn't answer the question, but vowed that he would try his best not to lose any more Hufflepuff points. His answer pleased not only Hannah, but Megan and Susan as well, so the class had a friendly atmosphere.

Another week later at breakfast in the Great Hall, Ron Weasley received a thunderclap from his mother. Harry had just started eating at this point, so like everyone else, he turned his attention to the Gryffindor table after Ron's loud exclamation. The red letter lit up, flew up, and started screaming loudly:

- Get three Trolls on your theory test! Hang on, I'll get to you. I think you know you're the only one in our family to get a Troll grade in your first year! Even Fred and George did much better! We put you in Hogwarts so you could study, not sit in your trousers! If you get one more grade lower than "Weak", your father and I will take you out of school immediately!

The letter burned into the air and fell to the table with a small handful of ashes. All the seated students in the Great Hall immediately began to banter and laugh at a red as cancer Ron Weasley.

Harry quickly ate his breakfast and left the Great Hall. The event had a small effect on his view of the world.

It was nice to be cared for by someone, but to get such a humiliating comeuppance in front of everyone was horrible. And he's had one Troll, too. And if his parents were alive, he could get the same thunderbolt now... Maybe it's a good thing he doesn't have parents?

And so a month and a half went by. Harry tried to study for his lessons, occasionally chatting with Justin and Tonks. He was able to get Flitwick to entrust him with a spellcasting project, "The proper use of the Diffindo spell and the limits of its cutting capabilities." So for a fortnight Harry did nothing but sit in the library around the clock for information on the scissors spell. By the end of October he was able to complete and hand in his project. The main reward for Harry was not getting the thirty points he deserved, but learning how to use the scissors spell.

Finally the long awaited spell practice began. In the joint Hufflepuff and Gryffindor class, only two people had managed to use the levitation spell - it was Harry and Hermione Granger. Potter was very happy about this fact, but Hermione was the opposite for some reason. When all the students were leaving the spellcasting class, Hermione Granger ran past Harry and Justin in tears.

- What's wrong with her? - Justin asked.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders.

There had been no other special events during those forty-five days. Harry had already thought that he would be able to finish school like a normal person, without anything happening. But his dreams remained dreams. On the thirty-first of October, the silence in the Great Hall was shattered by Professor Quirrell's loud scream:

- Troll! Troll! In the dungeon! I've come to tell you!

And the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher collapsed to the floor, unconscious.