Magic of the All Hallows Eve

Off my broom!

As a result of the feud the other Friday, Potions lessons were much more calmer and tolerable to the other Houses. News spread fast in the castle that he'd manage to burn down the 'snake' so bad that he had undergone a total transformation. Although he was just as cold and stony as before, it did help lessen the unfair advantage of the Slytherins and made their hopes higher for some other house to win the Cup after seven years.

And Harry was getting encouraging pats and greetings and thanks from the other fellow students when he was strolling down the corridors. Which was, least to say, weird. Anyways, he loved going down to Hagrid's to cool himself off from the stress of 'burning' Snivellus, and was shocked to read about the Gringotts break-out. Although, he felt that Hagrid knew something more about it.

But the most fun of all was the Hogwarts library. It was humungous. With hundreds and hundreds of shelves, each having unique books about various subjects, he was content to just loosening himself down at a desk beside the window where he could smell both the fresh grass and the vanilla smell of the books. Much better than the chaos of the common room or the weird talks of Seamus and Dean. But looking at Seamus and Dean, Neville and Ron, he felt alone a lot more now. They all were indeed acquaintances, the word he'd encountered to describe them, along with a couple of other folks like Hermione Granger. But none of them were adept to just talk with him.

"Madam Pince, do you happen to have the third year Charms book?", Harry asked her one morning on Thursday.

"Why, Mister Potter, last week you'd taken the second year book too! Studying this far ahead at this speed isn't good for your magical core", she said in a stoic demeanour.

"I know, I'm just, you know, trying to find a spell for animating stuff for a bit, like I saw in the Quidditch cup souvenirs last year", he said and engorged the souvenir from his pocket which was a picture of the three Canadian chasers zooming around and switching positions in the blink of an eye.

"Mister Potter, as is evident from just looking at it, it's a NEWT level charm. No wonder you couldn't even find a reference to it in the second year book", she said, handing him the souvenir back.

"Anyways, it must've been tiring to watch the finals, right?", Madam Pince asked pityingly.

"Yeah", Harry sighed. "It went on for five days! We had to sleep in the stands, although I'm glad I was with my father in the cozy Ministerial cabin, unlike those who were suffering the torment outside"

"And Canada won just by 30 points. I don't know how"

"I never thought of you to be... You know... This sort. The rest of the students say that you are too strict and niff their noses with your duster if you see them sighing"

"I am strict. If you don't respect your books, Mr. Potter, you won't dare to step back into this room. Otherwise, what's wrong with obeying the rules? I've seen that your book was in fact in a better condition than it had went", she said and moved on.

He sat down frustrated and found a not-so-standard book about animation charms and began working on it. He did manage to make a paper bird flutter her wings and fly for a bit — but yeah, it was exhausting. He would've continued to study on it till the evening but then Hermione got up from her desk and walked at him and said, "Thought you'd be more like Ron, Harry. You surely can't forget there's a flying lesson in ten minutes", and the mad dash he made should've been the quickest in Hogwarts history.

But after Malfoy stole Neville's Remerball and Harry did his usual seeker dive, the scene that was created would be a thousand times more mad — and that too by Aunt Min.

"HARRY POTTER!"

His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.