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Post by Harry Potter on Feb 22, 2011 8:18:28 GMT -5
"Maybe...but I doubt it..." Harry felt like he was on the wrong side of the argument here, defending Snape. But he didn't want to go around accusing Snape of trying to get him in trouble for two reasons. One being that if it got back to Snape that Harry was talking about him like that behind his back, his already dismal potions grades would go even lower and he couldn't afford that.
The other reason was that just last year he, Ron, and Hermione had been convinced that Snape was trying to kill Harry and well that didn't turn out so well.
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Post by am on Feb 25, 2011 6:29:43 GMT -5
Ainsley looked a bit deflated. “Oh.” He realized that it seemed like he wanted Snape to be out to kill Harry so he waved his hand once casually. “I don't mean that I want you dead or something. You know what teacher is scary? That one with the glasses.” He didn't know Trelawney by name, and had only run into her once by chance. After all, she didn't leave her room that often.
“So... Have you ever been in Filch's office?” he asked, imagining that there must be wondrous things there. Although he'd gotten into a little bit of trouble the year before it was never serious enough to warrant a visit to the weird old guy's office. But a lot had been confiscated from other students, so it was probably a nice sight.
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Post by Harry Potter on Feb 25, 2011 6:56:30 GMT -5
Harry was glad when Ainsley changed the subject to a different teacher, though he couldn't be much help as he hadn't met "the teacher with the glasses" yet. He had seen her once or twice at the staff table but that was the extent. He shrugged, feeling bad that he couldn't offer much on either topic that the other boy mentioned this time. "Not yet, though I'm sure he wants me to...especially after his whole cat fiasco."
Now they were back on the Mrs. Norris being petrified subject again, even though he had tried hard to stay away from it. Unfortunately, a cat being petrified and hung by its tail next to a message in blood was a tricky subject to avoid.
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Post by am on Feb 25, 2011 7:01:20 GMT -5
“You know, I almost feel bad for Filch. Actually, I do. I thought about setting off some dungbombs nearby so that he would have someone to punish but I don't think that would have distracted him. I would be in trouble and on his list for the rest of my life for upsetting him while his sweet was petrified.” Ainsley rolled his eyes, though he was being serious to an extent. He really would have let himself get in trouble if it would help Filch to relax. He was causing even more misery than usual by being upset. “By the way, good to know you're not stuck up, Potter,” he added randomly.
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Post by Harry Potter on Feb 25, 2011 7:18:12 GMT -5
Harry smiled at his feet when Ainsley mentioned setting of dungbombs to try and distract Filch. It just sounded so much like a Weasley twin prank that for a moment he forgot what they were talking about but then Ainsley reminded him by explaining why he hadn't gone through with it. "That was probably a good idea." He nodded thoughtfully. Filch would probably have gotten angrier instead of relaxing. And while Harry by no means felt sorry for Filch like his hallway companion seemed to, he did have to admit that making him angry during his stressful period was not the nicest thing to do.
"Er...thank you?" Harry wasn't sure what else to say to a comment like that out of the blue. He shuffled his feet awkwardly.
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Post by am on Mar 1, 2011 8:42:04 GMT -5
Ainsley laughed at Harry's reaction. Admittedly Ainsley shouldn't have said something like that out of the blue. “You're welcome!” He was starting to think that not only was Harry not stuck up, but maybe even shy or anti-social. Which was something that Ainsley could work with, only because he himself was something of a chatterbox. “I know that was kind of from out of nowhere. I just mean... You're kind of a celebrity here, aren't you? My dad is a wizard but he didn't raise me as one so I had no idea who you were until last year.” He paused for a moment, thinking through that sentence. “Well, no, I only know who you are this year. Last year I knew of you and all the rumors about you secretly being a dark wizard or something. So you can see why I'm relieved, can't you?”
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Post by Harry Potter on Mar 1, 2011 9:33:08 GMT -5
The explanation made the whole thing a lot less weird, though he was still not entirely sure what to say or how to make himself stop fidgeting."Yeah, yeah, I get it" he assured the other boy hastily. "I'm glad to know I could help squash those rumors for you. It's not exactly a picnic having everyone you go to school with thinking things like that about you." He happened to look up over Ainsley's shoulder at that moment in time to see Malfoy and his goons strolling by inside the castle. Harry stayed very still until they had passed out of sight, glad they had decided to move their conversation outdoors.
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Post by am on Mar 1, 2011 9:48:25 GMT -5
Ainsley shook his head after realizing what (or who in this case) Harry was looking at. No matter how many rumors were banished by Harry's true nature, he was probably always going to have enemies. Unlike Ainsley who could fade into the background if he wanted to. Unfortunately, the people who don't have attention are often the ones that crave it. “I didn't actually believe it, you know. Not most of it. People lie about celebrities all the time. They love to see other peoples' lives get ruined even if they're the ones that do it.”
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Post by Harry Potter on Mar 1, 2011 9:58:20 GMT -5
It was odd to hear himself described as a celebrity but the more Ainsley talked, the more it made sense to him. He really did have a LOT of people who loved to see his life get exponentially harder than it already was, whether they were the ones who caused it or not. Harry suddenly realized that he had a class to get to and he had been talking with Ainsley longer than he had meant to. He began walking away quickly. "I've got to go, see you later" he called over his shoulder, almost running into a few ravenclaws who were exiting the castle as he tried to enter it.______________________________________________________ What in the world had just happened? One minute he was dueling that prat Malfoy and the next, three quarters of the school was staring at him like he...well, like he had just talked to a snake. Which wasn't such a big deal...was it? After being hauled aside by Ron who very quickly briefed him on why hissing at snakes with your wand out near Justin was not a good sign, he booked it from that room, trying to keep his head clear. He was walking so fast and only paying attention to the fact that he needed to put as much distance as possible between himself and that crowd of suspicious, angry, judging people, that he walked right into someone and found himself flat on his back on the ground in seconds.
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Post by am on Mar 1, 2011 10:11:46 GMT -5
Ainsley had decided to skip out on this dueling club thing until he'd heard good reviews from it. A huge part of that was because of Lockhart. After his pathetic classes Ainsley was sure that one of the students would end up leaving Hogwarts in a casket with that man at the helm. Dueling club... If it turned out that the blond eye-candy really could duel, Ainsley swore that he would eat his hat. But at this point, he literally didn't seem to be good at anything. Instead of the dueling club Ainsley had been looking around the school for something to do. It was boring with everyone off in that club... Better alive and bored than dead and entertained! Could you be entertained when you were dead? One couldn't tell with the ghosts that haunted Hogwarts.
He walked with his head down, looking at his shoes and thinking that he should probably clean one that had some potion spilled on it. Maybe it would eat through and he would have an excuse not to go to classes. He started thinking about what color his foot might be when he took his shoe off, but that was about the time when Harry ran into him. The impact barely made Ainsley sway on his feet for a moment, but the other person had hit the ground. “Harry!” he said with surprise. There were voices around them suddenly, though when he looked around, no one was there. It seemed that the people in one painting were up to their gossiping. Something had happened judging by Harry's speed and the excited tones from the painting. “I'm a jinx, aren't I?” he asked, holding his hand out to help him up. Harry did seem to lose balance a lot when he was there.
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Post by Harry Potter on Mar 1, 2011 10:19:02 GMT -5
Harry looked up from his position on the ground to see Ainsely holding out a hand to help him up. It did seem that lately every time he was around the other boy, he somehow fell over. "It's probably me, not you" Harry muttered about the whole jinxing thing, as he grasped the outstretched hand of his companion and scrambled to his feet, using his free hand to check his body (mostly his skull) for any bumps or bruises. The only thing he found was a scrape on his elbow that, in the current state of things, was not a huge deal. He would clean it up and slap a bandaid on it later...if he remembered to.
He pivoted sharply to shoot a dark look at the whispering paintings but this had no effect on them as they continued to point and whisper. And then the doors of the dueling club were opening and the students were pouring out. Most stared at Harry, like he was some kind of poisonous plant that they were interested in watching, but needed to keep a good distance from, as they passed. Harry's sole focus was the floor, as though it was the most intrieuging thing ever invented.
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Post by am on Mar 1, 2011 10:30:45 GMT -5
Ainsley shrugged at Harry's words. Maybe it was true. He did get hurt and into trouble a lot, so it was like he was a curse on himself. That sounded mean in a way that Ainsley wouldn't have intended so he didn't say it out loud. Most times he would have to lighten the mood but he got the feeling that right now, lighthearted mockery probably wasn't a good idea. He'd test the waters in that area if Harry didn't run off or something. He looked at the paintings, then shifted his gaze when students started to emerge from the dueling club.
“Oh, that's where it is, right,” he said to himself, nodding to a few people as they passed by. He noticed that they didn't nod back, too intent on staring at Harry. It was extremely creepy how they were looking. Suddenly Ainsley blurted out. “Good lord, Harry, you didn't kill someone, did you? It was a defective curse or something that Lockhart taught you, wasn't it?” Why else were people looking at him as if he was something that would kill him on touch? Looking at his hand Ainsley wondered if Harry was the one who was cursed with some flesh thing. Great, then Ainsley wouldn't have a wand hand anymore.
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Post by Harry Potter on Mar 1, 2011 10:40:20 GMT -5
Harry couldn't help it. He flinched when Ainsley demanded if he had killed someone, which probably made him look way more guilty of a crime he didn't commit. "No, no, I didn't kill anyone" he replied, to which an old man in a poster behind him added skeptically, "yet" and Harry whipped around to snarl "Shut up" which sent the occupants of the nearby posters and paintings into hysterics, running to hide behind their frames.
Harry hadn't meant to sound so angry or to scare anyone, he was just frustrated with his life right now. He turned back to Ainsley, his face a bit paler than usual and gave a sort of helpless shrug. "Who knew talking to snakes was a rare, bad thing?"
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Post by am on Mar 1, 2011 10:48:35 GMT -5
Ainsley's eyes widened a bit as Harry snapped at the painting. Then he said that he talked to snakes? “Err, well, I suppose that it wouldn't be a good thing. I don't even think that talking to cats is the right idea, or you'll turn out like Filch. Why does it matter anyway? There aren't any snakes at Hogwarts, are there? I mean, besides the ones in green and silver.”
He smirked slightly, at this point not quite understanding what had happened. After all, he didn't attend the club and so he wasn't sure what Harry even meant about talking to snakes. “Well, that is bad, though. What happened in dueling club then if no one died?” he paused for a moment. “Oh, please tell me that you set Lockhart's hair on fire.”
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Post by Harry Potter on Mar 1, 2011 11:08:03 GMT -5
"I wish" Harry groaned, imagining how everyone (or at least the guys) would be crowded around him, laughing and enjoying the spectacle, instead of hiding from him like he was a whacko who might off them at any point in time. "But there just so happens to be a certain snake who produced an actual snake during our duel and...it didn't end so well." He had no desire to relive the whole story but one of the braver occupants of the painting directly behind him started wheezing, "you should watch out if you are muggleborn young man because" which caused the badgered, exhausted Harry to wheel back around and snap, "Knock it off, will you!" and the paintings fell silent again, terrified.
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