The New Trio and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 15: Cornelius Fudge

The weeks after Valentine's Day passed quickly, filled with blushes and hand-holding, as well as secret kisses where no one could see. This held true for both Harry and Draco, and Fred and Hermione, while the other members of their friendship group simply rolled their eyes or teased them. Their planned Ravenclaw prank went off without a hitch, although it was rather chaotic, as they hadn't planned for Peeves to decide that the Great Hall was the best place to ambush the victims. It had been dinnertime, and there still hadn't been a sign of Peeves' prank, and Harry and his friends were starting to feel uneasy. Then, all of a sudden, there came a loud cackling from behind the doors, and the poltergeist barged in with a sackful of the paint-balloons. He spotted the Ravenclaw table, yelled out, "This is for Looney!" and immediately started hurling the paint-balloons. Harry was glad they'd thought to add Luna's bullying from an unknown number of Ravenclaws to the note they'd left him, otherwise there was no clue how many people would have been filled with paint. The reason they'd written that was because even though Peeves was crazy and his only goal in life involved mass pranking of all Hogwarts inhabitants, he actually had a sense of fair play, and a fierce protectiveness for them. If he heard about someone being bullied, he would hunt down the bully and mercilessly prank them. However, if he found troublemakers out after curfew, he felt it was his duty to make sure they were put safely back in their common rooms at least. It didn't really make sense, but then again, neither did the rest of him.

The weeks passed quickly, and before they knew it, April had arrived. Harry had mixed feelings about April. The good bit was that on the first, it was the twins' birthday, and they were holding a party in the common room. He knew that 70% of the food and drink there would be pranked in some way, but everyone knew, or at least suspected this, and so it was accepted. The bad part was that after the fourth of April, the restraining order he had against Lockhart would no longer be valid. Harry also wasn't sure whether or not it would be worth it to renew the order, since there would only be three months left of term. At least they wouldn't have to have Lockhart as a defense teacher, since luckily Dumbledore had agreed, albeit reluctantly, that switching teachers with so little of the year left would be detrimental to their education.

By the end of the twins' birthday, everyone in the common room had been turned into a giant canary at least once, had their skin coloured in red and gold stripes that wouldn't fade for another ten hours, and had an enormous amount of fun, which is really the only thing that matters.

Luckily for Harry, the fourth passed by without remark or word from Lockhart, but it was three days later when disaster struck. Harry, Draco, Neville, and Hermione were happily eating breakfast, when Neville just happened to look towards the Slytherin table when an owl landed in front of Blaise. He was about to look back at his food again, when he noticed how the blood drained from Blaise's face as he read the letter the owl had brought.

"Draco, look at Blaise," he muttered in a low voice.

Draco did so, and immediately noticed the lack of colour in his friend's face. Just as he did so, Blaise stood up hastily and ran from the hall, the letter clutched in his hand.

"I'm going after him," said Draco, and rushed out. Harry, following his boyfriend's lead, ran out of the hall as well, trying to catch up to him. He heard Neville and Hermione close behind him. When the four of them caught up with Blaise, they found him in an alcove not far from the entrance to the Slytherin common room, and he was close to a panic attack.

"Blaise," called Draco gently, kneeling before his friend and putting his hands on the shaking shoulders, "It's okay, Blaise. I'm here, just breathe."

Blaise didn't respond much beside his eyes locking with Draco's. Harry pulled out a Calming Potion from his bag. He'd made it a habit to carry one around after Draco's panic attack at the beginning of last year, since he hadn't known if he might have an episode again. He pushed it into Draco's hand, and while he gave Harry a funny look, he quickly turned back to Blaise. "Okay, Blaise, I've got a Calming Potion here. You're going to need to swallow it, and then you'll be able to breathe again. I promise."