The Protagonist System

I knew as soon as I returned to Hogwarts that Harriet hadn't appreciated my quick retreat. How did I know that? She was in my room with her arms crossed and her face stern. That wasn't the deciding factor for me, though. It was the fact she had Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria around her in similar judgmental stances and giving me similar stern looks.

“How dare you embarrass me like that in the middle of the Great Hall!” Harriet spat, clearly angry. “Do you realize how much of a laughing stock I became because of it? Everyone's talking about how the Girl-Who-Lived can't keep a boyfriend right after getting her very first one!”

I stood there and knew that it was the other girls that had become outraged on her behalf, mostly because I had broken the only rule of the Slytherin dorms. Any conflict was to be kept out of the public and should be settled privately. I also realized that she was the first one to break it, not me.

“I wasn't the one that abandoned me at the doors of the Great Hall and in full view of the students from three different schools, ran over to the Slytherin table to sit with her friends, instead of sitting with me or even leaving me a spot at the table that we've sat at together every other time we've sat there.” I defended myself and Harriet just looked angrier.

However, I had made my point. Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria looked surprised and then their faces went red, because they knew they had made a mistake. Harriet had been wrong and it was because of her that I had left and didn't say anything or confronted her about it.

I had kept to the code by avoiding the confrontation and they had backed the wrong side and made her even more indignant about the situation, blowing it way out of proportion and encouraging her to confront me about it in private.

“You said you would always be there for me and it was you that abandoned me in front of everyone!” Harriet almost shouted and I held in my sigh at her using my promise like that and twisting my words against me.

“Harriet, can we speak to you privately for a minute?” Daphne asked with a soft voice.

“No, you were right.” Harriet said and didn't look away from my face as she glared at me. “Harry caused this mess and I'm the one that was wronged. I'm an even bigger embarrassment because of it and it's all his fault.”

“Yes, it's my fault that I didn't want to ruin a lifetime of sexual expectations and satisfaction for you. What a horrible person I am to care so much about your welfare and mental well being.” I said in a bland voice and without any passion or inflection. “I've refused all other sexual advances from everyone, just so I would stay pure for you and you would have all of my firsts, just as you had planned for me to have all of yours.”

That made all four of them lose the color in their faces.

“But... you... you're...” Harriet whispered and gestured at my height and then my body.

“Does my age actually matter, though? Clearly, you're willing to hurt yourself just to have sex with someone who was adamantly waiting for as long as necessary to make it the best experience you could have ever had.” I said with the same flat voice, because I refused to get angry about it. “You weren't happy with that and had to throw a tantrum in front of the whole school to let everyone know you had a problem with it, and now you're blaming me for not airing our private business in public.”

Harriet's face had an odd expression on it and I didn't bother trying to figure it out.

“As you've proven today, my thoughts and feelings don't matter. You were right and I'm wrong, so I accept all the blame for it and you can continue telling everyone it was my fault.” I said and Harriet looked embarrassed. “We can have a normal tutor and student relationship now without all the sexual tension you've been forcing onto me, just like what we did during lessons today.”

That really made Harriet blush, as did Daphne and Tracey. Astoria just shrugged, because she didn't understand what the big deal was. She would when she was a little older, though.

“N-no, I... I just wanted...” Harriet started to say.

“...to fight about it and then force me into a sexual relationship I've continuously denied you for valid reasons.” I interrupted and she winced. “Since I'm going to keep doing that, there's no need to fight about it, is there? I'm wrong for denying you and that's that.”

Harriet shook her head. “That's not what I wanted.”

I let out the sigh I was holding in. “I'll still be here and will support you as much as I can without violating the tournament rules.” I tossed out and she looked confused. “What? Do you really think having sex and hurting you won't violate the terms of the Goblet of Fire's magical construct of not interfering with a champion?”

That made the four of them gasp and give me scared looks.

“I'll see you in the morning after breakfast in the classroom, since it wouldn't be appropriate to be seen eating with you after what happened.” I said and stepped aside and motioned to the door of my room. “Please excuse me. I need a good night's sleep to prepare for tomorrow's lessons.”

“Harry...” Harriet said, her face sad.

“Have a good night, all of you.” I said pointedly and stayed standing there with my hand out towards the door.

Astoria was the first to leave and she looked relieved to be out of there. Tracey was next and gave me a sad look, then Daphne walked by and her face was both sad and understanding. Harriet ducked her head and wouldn't look at me as she walked past and closed the door behind her.

I would need to put some protections in place to stop them from ambushing me like that in my own room again. I smiled as I remembered how to make moving portraits and took out my multi-compartment trunk with crafting supplies and brought out the right things to do one up. I would set an appropriate password and wouldn't have to worry about unwanted visitors ever again.

*

Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria sat in Harriet's living room and felt bad about how things had turned out. They had wanted to support Harriet to help her get what she wanted, only for it to blow up in their faces. Now Harriet didn't have anything, let alone a hot guy in her bed and making her scream.

“How do I fix this?” Harriet asked and leaned back on the couch to stare up at the stone ceiling.

“I don't know if you can.” Daphne said. “We've pretty much vilified him all evening and everyone thinks it's his fault you two were having problems.”

“After thinking about it, it was his fault.” Astoria said and the three girls looked at her. “If he had just done what Harriet wanted, none of this would have happened.”

“No, it was my fault for pushing so hard.” Harriet corrected her.

“That's not going to work if you tell everyone that.” Tracey said. “No one expects the girl in the relationship to be the aggressive one, not even the muggleborn or muggle-raised boys. Trust me, they really don't.”

“Have a lot of experience with that, do you?” Astoria teased.

Tracey rolled her eyes at the nosiness of her friend's little sister. “You'll find out in a couple years when boys start approaching you wanting to snog you.”

Astoria blushed and turned her head away, which they all noticed.

“You did not!” Daphne gasped.

Astoria didn't say anything to deny it and her face stayed red.

“Father will be angry if he knows you're already kissing boys.” Daphne told her.

“Only if you tell him.” Tracey said in Astoria's defense. “I wonder what would he say about you and Blaise being found in a broom closet after the Yule Ball?”

Astoria gave her a thankful smile as Daphne dropped the subject like a hot potato.

“How do I get things back to normal?” Harriet asked, completely missing the byplay between her friends as she concentrated on the problem right in front of her.

“Harry said things are going back to normal, so you don't have to do anything about that part.” Daphne said. “It's getting him back as a boyfriend that's the problem.”

“After how he reacted to us confronting him, he'll completely refuse you if you ask him directly.” Astoria said, wisely.

“You can't go back to teasing him during class, either.” Tracey said and Harriet turned her head from staring at the ceiling to look at her. “He'll either stop you or ask you to leave until you can restrain yourself. That much I figured out from how strict he was being.”

“It weirded me out that he wasn't angry or shouted at us for being there, even though he knew we were wrong.” Astoria told them and shivered slightly. “I was glad to be out of there and away from his blank face.”

“I thought you adored him after he healed us all?” Daphne asked.

“I do.” Astoria said in her defense. “That doesn't mean I have to like him as a person.”

It was quiet for several minutes as the girls digested that statement.

Harriet let out a sigh. “I've been a complete bitch, haven't I?”

“After hearing his side, I'd have to say yes.” Daphne said. “That doesn't mean your relationship is over.”

Harriet huffed. “Apparently, I was forcing myself on him this whole time with my unwanted advances during class.” She said and looked back up at the ceiling. “I don't know how to undo that or take it back.”

“Do you even want to?” Tracey asked. “By the way you described it, you were having a lot of fun making him squirm every time you flashed a bit of skin or gave him sexy looks.”

“I was.” Harriet said and closed her eyes. She let out another sigh and thought about it, only to realize she really did have a lot of fun being the one in control, then Harry had the gall to stop her when she wanted to take things further.

It made her feel bad that he didn't want her in that way and her unfavorable body issues came rushing back, so she wanted to make him hurt for not fully accepting her. Only it had backfired and she had cost herself the only positive thing in her life, then she felt a hand take hers and she opened her eyes to see Tracey giving her an encouraging look.

No, Harry wasn't the only positive thing in her life, he was just the first. Harriet just had a really hard time letting go of things like that, like her first friend in Hermione and her first boyfriend in Harry.

Harriet smiled back and looked at Daphne and Astoria. “Do you want to have a sleepover?”

“Yes!” Astoria gasped. “This place is so much better than the Slytherin dorm rooms.”

What Harriet didn't say was that she didn't feel like being alone tonight and wanted someone else there to keep her from trying to go into Harry's room again. She somehow knew that would only make things worse between them and she really didn't want that. He was her ticket to succeeding in the tournament and getting a better life than the one she had.

The four girls prepared Harriet's bedroom for the four of them to have a great time, with many pillows, blankets, and a bit of naughty talking that made them giggle and blush. It was exactly what Harriet had wanted and she couldn't thank them enough for being there for her.

When Astoria asked about the Golden Egg, it reminded Harriet that she actually hadn't bothered to look at the thing, let alone opened it to listen to the clue inside. The excited younger girl rushed over to the shelf to grab it and brought it back to their pillow pile on the bed and set it in the middle. The four of them gathered around it and three of them nodded at Harriet, whom opened the clasp.

The thing glowed and loud screeches came from it, making Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria screech in return and they dove away from the loud noise. Harriet on the other hand, blinked her eyes at their reactions. All she heard was someone speaking a disturbing poem that made her quiver inside at the implications it had.

“Close it! CLOSE IT!!!” Astoria yelled, her hand over her ears and her body against the wall as far away from the source of the noise as possible.

Harriet closed it and the three other girls sighed with relief.

“How could you stand it?” Tracey asked and rubbed her sore ears.

“Stand it?” Harriet asked, confused. “It was just someone talking.”

Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria looked surprised, then they exchanged looks.

“What did you hear while we all suffered from the banshee wails?” Daphne asked.

Harriet told them what the poem was and all three of them lost the coloring their faces. They also exchanged looks again and silently asked which of them was going to be stolen from Harriet and set at the bottom of the lake for her to rescue.

“It's definitely going to be Daphne that's picked.” Tracey said and they reluctantly nodded. “What are we going to do about it? Do we try to stop it, complain to someone about it, or what?”

The three girls climbed back onto the bed and started talking about it with the champion that really regretted endangering her friends like this when she didn't even want to be involved in the first place.

*

“I'm telling you, this man can teach anyone.” Griselda Marchbanks told her entire department during the morning meeting. “We've been looking for someone to take over Potions and History...”

“You didn't see him teach those subjects.” Mister Tofty said.

Griselda tried to not glare at the man. “I was too stunned by seeing him teaching Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. His methods are phenomenal and are exactly what Hogwarts needs.”

The other members of the department looked a bit skeptical.

“What if we offer him the History job for a week on a trial basis?” Penelope Padgett asked. “If he can stop the students from falling asleep for more than half an hour, we'll send someone less biased to observe him while he teaches Miss Potter potions.”

Griselda knew that was the best she was going to get, until they saw for themselves how good of a teacher the man was. “Agreed. All in favor?”

Everyone raised their hands, even Tofty.

“I'll send a letter immediately. If we can get that subject fixed, the school board will have no reason to keep objecting to our recommendations.” Griselda stated.

“They're just trying to ensure they keep their jobs, even if we're telling them they are literally not doing them and to get off their lazy asses.” Tofty said with a scoff, which made everyone laugh.

The meeting broke up after that and everyone but Tofty left.

“You have a horse in this race, don't you?” Tofty asked. “You wouldn't be so adamant about this if you didn't.”

Griselda took a large snail out of her pocket, pulled out her wand, and waved it at the invertebrate. It instantly vanished, without any shimmering or fading. It was gone as if it never existed. Tofty stared at the spot and looked shocked, because he knew Griselda always had a difficult time with vanishing spells.

“One lesson from him fixed years of practising and supplementary lessons.” Griselda said and put her wand away. “If he can help an old crone like me without even realizing it, imagine what he could do with a room full of eager students?”

Tofty looked at her happy face and nodded. He would back her up if she needed it. “Do you think he knows anything about Divination?”

Griselda barked a laugh and waved for her old friend to follow her. “Let me show you something I had the records department dig up for me when I returned to the Ministry yesterday.”

Tofty followed her to her office and he was stunned at the exam results she handed over to him. No one had ever recorded so many OWLs or NEWTs and he wondered why it wasn't highly publicized at the time, then he saw the notations on everything but the core subjects. They were all taken as make-up exams and slipped right under the department's nose.

“It's no wonder why we didn't already know about him.” Tofty said and handed the long list back. “Neither of us monitor that part of the department.”

Griselda barked another laugh and shook her head. “Even if we did, it wouldn't have come to our attention. We dismiss them as second chances, since we all assume they blew it the first time they took them.” She stopped smiling and gave him a pointed look. “But, what if he never took the original exam and only signed up for the make-up? What would everyone think about it?”

“Exactly the same thing.” Tofty said and felt shock. “Harry Peverell strolled into the Ministry of Magic and gained 20 OWLs and 15 NEWTs without anyone knowing or caring about the monumental scholastic achievement that it was.”

“Exactly.” Griselda said and leaned back on her chair. “He completely avoided the massive amount of attention it would have gained if he had taken the standard tests when they were first administered. Instead, he registered to only take the make-up exams and passed everything.”

“If he can pass on even a fraction of that intelligence, he could create one of the most educated generations of all time.” Tofty whispered with awe.

“Yes, he could.” Griselda said with satisfaction. “I'd hire him for the Department of Education right now if I didn't think he'd refuse on pure principle. He's needed where he is and he'll stay there until he's no longer needed.”

Tofty's eyes widened. “You want to give him even more reasons to stay at the school!”

Griselda grinned like a Cheshire Cat. “I want to give him all the reasons in the world.”

Tofty grinned right back. “Do you need help composing the letter?”

Griselda laughed and she waved him forward and the two old conspirators put their heads together to write a carefully written letter to entice the man to keep doing what he was very good at, both for his own benefit and for the benefit of everyone else.

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