The Protagonist System

Harriet, Luna, and I spent the rest of the day discussing what was going to happen next, with Dobby providing both lunch and supper. We eventually made a decision and I had a surprisingly fun evening enjoying a sleepover with both Harriet and Luna, which was similar to what I had done with Carrie and her friends back in Cyberpunk.

The problem was, I technically wasn't a school and was only a tutor, which meant I couldn't keep Luna at Hogwarts. Harriet was a champion and was allowed to stay, as was I, since I was registered as her tutor and she needed me as a mentor for the competition.

However, Luna was no longer a student at Hogwarts. She even had the paperwork to show it after an early morning meeting the next day with Minerva McGonagall. So, I had to take her to my newly acquired mansion to let her live there for the rest of the school year.

Luna wasn't disappointed by that, though. I introduced her to my little brother Greg, who would be taking the same makeup lessons as she was. She also adored her room that overlooked the immaculate gardens that were behind the mansion and used to cost a lot to maintain. Now they were sustained by the building's enchantments and a lot of little magical creatures had moved in.

I left a very happy girl with my split body and went back to the school. The relief I saw on Harriet's face almost made me laugh as her mind went through several mixed thoughts and emotions over not having to share her room with anyone else and it would remain only hers. Her most prevalent thought was not having to share my attention.

I let her stew on that and didn't try to tell her to not have those feelings, since that was how she felt and she needed to come to grips with it on her own. It did give me an opportunity to ask to see her Gringotts key and she took it out of her trunk to show me. I used several detection spells and it was the same key as the one I had and I knew my scheme would work.

We went to breakfast after that and many conversations came to a stop when we entered the Great Hall. That was probably going to happen every time we entered, for a little while anyway, so I ignored it and looked at Harriet.

“Should we sit with the Slytherins this time?” I asked, jokingly. The Ravenclaw table was half empty after the curse had activated and a good portion of them had checked on the things they had stolen to make sure they were still hidden.

Harriet gave me a pointed look for a moment, then she glanced over at the table of the snakes and shrugged slightly before she nodded acceptance. I was so surprised by her response that I let her lead me over to the table before I mentioned in a whisper that I had only been joking.

She gave me a smug look back and then schooled her face as we reached the table full of heavy stares and judgmental looks.

“What are you doing here, Potter?” A nasal voice asked and I turned my head to look at Draco Malfoy.

For some reason, I had fully expected a female version. Seeing classic Draco and his Snape sneer instead, kind of threw me off for a second.

“Oh, give it a rest, little brother.” An exasperated voice said from further up the table. “Everyone knows you only hate her because she rejected your oh so generous offer to pick her friends for her.”

Both I and Harriet turned to look, only to see a quite regal young platinum blonde teenager that was 16 years old and had only just missed out on qualifying for the tournament.

“Shut up, Druella!” Draco spat and crossed his arms. He would later claim he didn't pout like a little boy and no one would believe him, because his pout was quite pronounced.

Druella let out a little laugh and shook her head at him. “I don't know how you managed to gather a group of loyal friends around you...”

“He paid them, of course.” Harriet interrupted and everyone at the table turned to stare at her, some accusingly and most with appraising and approving looks. “His bodyguards might enjoy their work a bit too much; but, we all know they're only bodyguards and do whatever he says. Friends don't act like that.”

“Hey!” Pansy Parkinson shouted and stood to point an accusing finger at her. “You can't say things like that about him!”

“Says the bimbo that only wants him for his money and social status.” Harriet snarked.

“Wh-what? NO! I really love him!” Pansy shouted and lunged to hug the boy in question, only for her face to meet Draco's hand and he pushed her away and she fell backwards onto her seat.

A few people laughed and turned away to hide that it was them.

“We're betrothed and everything.” Pansy defended herself.

“We're in negotiations for a betrothal.” Draco corrected and seemed as enthusiastic about it as a flobberworm was about being fed to a snorkack.

“Would you mind if we sit with your house, Lady Malfoy?” I asked, to test the waters of her authority. “The Gryffindors hate Lady Potter for leaving, despite them already ostracizing her, the Ravenclaws have already had the pleasure of our presence, and the Hufflepuffs have formed a physical barrier around the Hogwarts Champion and will fight off anyone trying to approach their table.”

Nearly everyone at the table blinked their eyes at the respectful tone of my voice, Druella included. After a moment of silence, the platinum blonde nodded and motioned to the seats near us.

“Thank you for the hospitality.” I said and sat Harriet in one spot and sat down next to her.

Luckily, we were several seats away from Draco's now very pronounced pout and he didn't say anything. A slight touch of everyone's thoughts let me know I had correctly guessed who was the queen of Slytherin House. It wasn't because of her money or her father, either. She had become that influential on her own.

“We don't need many guesses to figure out what House you were in when you attended school.” Someone commented.

I had to chuckle at that and served myself some bacon and eggs. “With me around, despite the various houses the members of my family came from, there was no question what house their children would be in.”

Harriet let out a soft lady-like snort before she stopped herself from letting out a bark of laughter. “You pretty much dragged them all right into Gryffindor, didn't you?”

I winked at her and she tried to keep her laughter contained and served herself the same foods I was taking.

“Who are you, anyway?” Another female voice asked me from Harriet's other side.

“Oh, I've forgotten some of my manners in the need to eat. My apologies, Miss Greengrass.” I said and this surprised a few people at the table, especially her. I used a napkin to dab at my mouth and wiped off my hands, then I stood and peered around the table to make sure I met everyone's eyes and ended with Druella. “Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Harold Peverell.”

Several of the older students at the far end of the table let out surprised sounds and Druella's face paled slightly to almost match the color of her hair. Surprisingly, no one accused me of lying or even asked me to prove my claim.

“It's nice to meet you all.” I said and bowed slightly, making sure to include the whole table. “Both I and my companion wish to thank you all for ignoring the forced animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin for this meal.”

I sat down to complete silence and glanced at Harriet, only to see her surprised face. I nodded at her plate and then started eating again.

“What...” Daphne paused and took a moment to compose herself. “What do you mean by forced animosity?”

I swallowed the bite of food I had in my mouth and took a sip of pumpkin juice. I was surprised she hadn't asked how I knew her name. “Dumbledore thinks forcing the Gryffindors and Slytherins to work together in most of their classes, will make them hate each other less and force them to forgive past transgressions and be kind to one another, despite all of Professor Snape's efforts to do the exact opposite.”

That comment earned a lot of scoffs and huffs from the Slytherin students.

“I always knew he was a bit barmy.” Crabbe grunted and Goyle nodded.

“Only a bit?” I asked and smiled, which made the boy bark a laugh.

That seemed to break the tense atmosphere and everyone relaxed and went back to eating. Conversations started up again and it was almost like neither Harriet nor I were considered interlopers that were invading their sovereign territory. Once we were accepted, that was all there was to it.

Well, except for Draco. He kept glaring at Harriet and myself, probably for causing his sister to publicly admonish him for his unreasonable behavior. I didn't feel guilty about that, since I was going to rob their family this evening and then we would see how he acted without the vaunted Malfoy wealth behind him.

I felt a small tap on my arm and turned to look at the fifth year Slytherin prefect, a fairly pretty girl named Flora Carrow. She handed me a note under the table and I slipped it into my pocket without reading it. She looked disappointed I hadn't looked at it, then her eyes widened when I nodded slightly in agreement and went back to eating.

I had stored the note and read it right away, since it seemed important. It contained a request from Druella Malfoy about a private meeting after class this afternoon and I agreed, just because I wanted to see what she would say or do with the knowledge she had about either the Peverells or what she suspected I was going to do about her Death Eater parents.

It made me wonder what had given me away, only to realize me showing up out of the blue would cause enough suspicion for her to speculate that I was here for more than just Harriet. I was, and I had to respect her for guessing correctly. My visit to the bank to clear out the vaults I had keys to, might have to happen a lot sooner than tonight.

Maybe I could convince Harriet to have lunch with me in Diagon Alley at the Leaky Cauldron? I'll have to set her loose in Flourish and Blotts after that to pick out any books she wanted, no matter what the subject, while I slipped away to go visit the bank to do a little cleaning up.

*

The goblins acted the same as they did the last time I had pulled this stunt. They did check each of the keys before they allowed me to access each of the vaults, though. Since they hadn't called them fakes or declared me a thief, I emptied all 32 vaults without trouble.

I then surprised them by buying a different vault, paid up for a year, and dumped the contents of the previous Malfoy vault into it. I put the new key into my pocket and had a nice bargaining chip for my meeting with Druella Malfoy later.

I returned to Harriet at the bookstore and laughed at the stack of books she had piled on top of the front counter. I couldn't even see the clerk behind them, because the stacks were so high. They teetered and they tottered; but, they didn't fall down.

Harriet had actually recruited a stock boy to help and they carried several more books, saw the overloaded counter, and didn't know what to do. I laughed and took out an expanded trunk and set it beside the counter and told the clerk to start ringing everything up and they could put the books into the trunk.

All three of them looked relieved and the counter was quickly cleared and more books were put on the counter and then added to the trunk.

“I think...” Harriet paused and walked back over to a close shelf and grabbed a book from the display about curses and counter curses. “I think that's everything.”

I glanced around the store and half of the shelves were empty, so I had to joke and pointed at a completely untouched shelf. “I predicted that you would leave behind those divination books.”

Harriet groaned and gave me an annoyed look, which made me laugh. Her face flushed red when the clerk presented the fairly high and slightly outrageous bill for all of the books. Since it was all free money anyway, I happily paid and even tipped the clerk and the stock boy twenty galleons each for the trouble of having to refill the shelves.

They thanked me and I shrunk the trunk and put it into my pocket. I took Harriet's hand and we left the picked over bookstore behind. Harriet seemed to become shy and I gave her a raised eyebrow as we walked down the street towards Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

“That was a lot of money you just spent for me.” Harriet whispered.

“No, a lot of money is what you have in your vault. It'll last you for a very long time and you never have to work if you don't want to.” I countered and she blushed. “What I just spent made you happy, didn't it?”

“Y-yes.” Harriet answered.

“Then it was worth every galleon, sickle, and knut.” I said and stepped into the ice cream parlour. “What do you feel like having today? Peanut Butter and Jelly or Mint Surprise?”

“Mint, please.” Harriet said and I ordered. We received our cones and sat down at one of the tables.

“If it makes you feel any better about it, I'll be using the books to expand the library trunk. There will probably be some copies of ones I already have, so the ones we just bought will become reading ones and the old ones on the shelves can remain protected and untouched.”

Harriet nodded and did feel better about it, so we enjoyed the ice cream and went back to the Leaky Cauldron and used the floo to go to the Three Broomsticks and went back up to the castle. We didn't have to sneak around, since I had cleared the trip with Minerva McGonagall as an official supply run for the tournament.

*

Luna was having the best time of her life as Greg showed her around the magical backyard and described all of the various magical creatures that had moved in after they found out the entire place was protected. Some had even left to go and bring back even more of their kind, since the place was huge inside and there was plenty of room for them to spread out and not crowd each other.

She wasn't sure when her hand had taken his and he hadn't mentioned it, so it just kind of happened and stayed that way. She couldn't help but look down at their clasped hands occasionally, just to make sure she wasn't imagining it or wishing really hard or daydreaming. That had happened a few times and she needed to make sure she was seeing what was actually there and not what she imagined to be there.

Greg kept a smile on his face the whole time and led her around, taught her a few little spells to maintain things and make them look prettier or more colorful, depending on the creature that liked the spot. It was exactly what she had always thought magizoology was supposed to be like and not how the things they taught in school were like.

A low rumbling broke through the nice quiet afternoon and Luna stopped walking and stared at the red-faced boy holding her hand.

“We missed lunch and I forgot to make us something.” Greg said to defend himself and his growling stomach.

Luna blinked her eyes at him. “You can cook, too?”

Greg smiled and motioned back to the house. “I've been taking care of myself for a long time.”

“Me, too.” Luna said and they walked towards the mansion. “Are we harvesting anything from the garden? I know a great recipe for dandelion and leek soup.”

“Really? If we do that, I can make Dirigible Plum pudding! They always go great together.”

“PUDDING!” Luna gasped and stared at him. “You know how to make pudding?”

Greg grinned like the Cheshire cat and looked proud. “I know six different recipes.”

Luna's heart went pitter-patter after hearing that and she wavered a little on her feet as she felt faint.

Greg caught her before she fell over and led her over to the garden. “I'll show you how after you show me how to make the soup.”

“O-okay.” A lightheaded Luna agreed and absently pointed at different things for Greg to harvest for her. She needed a little time to recover after hearing the best news she could have ever heard. Her new friend knew a lot about creatures and how to make pudding, and she couldn't feel any happier if she tried.