Fate's Request: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Hermione, David, Sue Li and Padma were sitting in the Library together, huddled up behind a large stack of books.

"Are you sure about this, David?" Padma asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah. I am. This is too important, Padma," David answered solemnly.

She bit her nail in worry, thinking of the consequences of Hermione's plan for David to teach Defence to the students in Umbridge's stead.

"I get it Padma. We're Prefects… but this is more important than that. This is our education, our future at risk here," David added seeing her dismay.

"Well. I'm all for it," Sue added with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Oh!" Hermione said suddenly, taking a look at her watch, "I need to go guys, I need to speak to Professor McGonagall about our recent essay."

"Take care," David said, giving her a peck on the cheek.

Hermione flushed slightly at that, still not completely used to the occasional display of public affection, but she was the one who greeted David with a peck when arriving at the library, so he only returned the favour.

"Bye, Hermione," Sue and Padma said in unison as she scooped up her books and placed them into her bookbag.

After she left, David drew his wand to check on the Muffliato Charm he had up around them. Getting feedback that it was still in effect, he took a deep breath and decided to broach the topic of Voldemort and what happened at the Final Task.

"We never did speak all that much about what happened at the end of last year, did we?" David asked his friends.

Seeing Sue and Padma shake their heads, David began to talk, "We spoke of Karkaroff, but not of Professor Moody. See, it wasn't really the ex-Auror, Moody who'd been teaching us defence the past year, but an escaped Death Eater."

"Who was the Death Eater?" Padma asked David with a slight shiver.

"Mr Crouch's son Barty Crouch Jr. Went to Azkaban for torturing some people into insanity after Voldemort disappeared," David answered, causing both girls to flinch at the name.

"I swear, Sue, Padma. I watched as he interrogated Harry on what happened that night of the Final Task, he was obsessed, excited, he wanted to know so badly as to what happened, he was obsessed. Once Harry explained, he tried to attack us as the effects of the Polyjuice faded, I stopped him. I was there. I know you two have your doubts, but this is me, telling you. Voldemort is back and Umbridge and the Prime Minister are going to get a lot of students killed once he makes his return public," David finished, looking at them both in the eye with full seriousness.

Sue and Padma were quiet for a while, thinking about what David had just told them.

Seeing they were still struggling with the return of Voldemort, David spoke again.

"Have you two been following the Daily Prophet?"

Sue nodded while Padma said, "Yeah…"

"You've seen the snide comments, Dumbeldore's losing it, too much on his plate and whatever else they've been saying?" David asked with a raised brow. .

"Well, have you noticed what they've been saying about Harry?" David asked them.

They both had faces of disgust as David mentioned the continuous bullying of Harry Potter that was taking place in the premier Newspaper of Magical Britain.

"Yeah. We noticed… most of the school has, a lot of people are talking about it," Sue explained.

"Well. I'm sure you haven't heard, but Harry was attacked by Dementors during the summer. Dementors. Maybe you don't believe Voldemort is back, but you can't deny something is going on here. Either the Ministry is trying to silence a student, permanently, or someone else out there wants Harry gone," David explained, twisting the truth just a tad.

He knew it was Umbridge that tried to get Harry killed by Dementors, and not in fact Voldemort siccing them onto him.

"Dementors? No way," Padma said in disbelief.

David was about to reply, but it was Sue who responded first, "I don't know Pads. I heard something from my Uncle who sits on the Wizengamot. He was cagey but he said a student was attacked during the summer but there was a question of whether the Minister believed it was true or not."

"But how did Harry even survive?" Padma asked, knowing that the defence against Dementors was the Patronus, a highly advanced spell that even ȧduŀt witches and wizards failed to cast at the best of times.

"Patronus. Don't tell anyone about it, but he used it in front of his cousin. That's why there was a hearing. And by the way, there was no follow up hearing as to how two Dementors ended up in the Muggle suburbs," David explained.

"The Patronus? Truly?" Sue asked in awe.

David just nodded, and said, "Yeah he can cast it. I can too, it's one of the major lessons I've planned out."

"Wait. You can cast a Patronus? That's it, even without all this You Know Who mess, I would be in just for that!" Sue said in an excited voice.

"Shhh!" Padma hissed but seemed to also be excited about the prospect of David teaching them how to cast advanced magic.

"Yeah, I can. It's a bit of work, but in my opinion, the hype around its difficulty is more due to bad teaching than anything else," David explained.

"Wow… What form does it take? Or is that not a thing?" Sue asked quickly, making sure to whisper this time around.

"I'll get into details during the lessons… but yes it does take a form of an animal. Magical or otherwise," David explained.

"Can we see it?" Padma asked suddenly.

"Uhh…" David said, but Sue added onto the request.

"Please David? We can go into an empty classroom and you can show it to us," she asked in a pleading tone while leaning even closer to him.

"Sheesh. Alright, alright. Help me put these books away and I can show it to you two," David answered with a shake of his head.

Padma and Sue rose quickly, each taking a pile of books in their arms and returning it to the correct shelves with breakneck speeds.

While they did this, David just packed up his own materials into his book bag and went to ȧssist them.

---

"Wow…" Sue said in awe as the three of them walked back from David's show and tell in an empty classroom.

"I know! It was bigger than I thought it was going to be as well and it was so pretty… especially when he made it do that thing," Padma added.

"Not to mention shiny," Sue further added, nodding along, excitement not having died down just yet.

This conversation happened the entire way to their common room, but David couldn't help feeling there was something really wrong with it without the proper context. Something that was confirmed and only made worse by the looks they were getting from a couple of seventh-year girls they walked past.

Eventually, they made it the Common Room but didn't enter immediately, standing outside the entrance near the Raven latch.

"We believe you, David. Sue and I'll start working on Anthony and the rest, shouldn't be too hard to convince them to join or at the very least go to that meeting Hermione has planned," Padma said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah. Don't worry about the logistics of getting people to join, a lot of people are fed up with Umbridge. We'll do the leg work and you just focus on those lessons," Sue added, with an even bigger grin on her face, excited to learn the Patronus and other martial magics.

"Thanks, Sue, Padma. Your help really means a lot…" David said wholeheartedly.

"Aww," they both said in unison, moving towards David and pulling him into a group hug.

Enjoying the warmth for a good moment, David eventually broke apart and said, "Okay, okay. I'm going to be late for detention with Umbridge at this rate."

"Ugh, that toad. Hate her," Sue said with disgust colouring her face and tone.

"Get a move on then, David! You can't afford to get another detention, you're a Prefect!" Padma said quickly, ushering David towards his hour-long torture.

---

Knocking on the door, David waited patiently for her to invite him into her office.

"Hem, hem. Yes, come in Mr Cross," she said in her usual tone, but it was slightly off, a little pained.

Entering and closing the door behind him, David did his very best to ignore the decor, but it was everywhere… just everywhere.

If he didn't find Nala so adorable, this would have put him off from cats for the rest of his life.

"Take a seat…" she said after a painful pause.

Not verbalising his acceptance, David did just as she asked, taking his seat.

"Y-you'll be doing some lines for me, Mr Cross. I think the words… 'I must not speak out of turn', would be appropriate, don't you?" she asked with a twitching smile.

"If you say so, Professor," David said, placing his wand in his left hand and preparing to break the curse on the blood quills as often as he needed to.

"Well… take out your ink and quill and get to it. A thousand lines should do it… for now," she ordered, placing clean parchment before him.

David paused for a moment, confused as to why he wasn't given the 'Blood Quill' treatment like Harry and Lee Jordan.

Getting his writing equipment out, David took a brief look into her mind to see what was going on.

After searching through her turmoil filled mind, David found what he was looking for. A meeting she had just had earlier in the day with the Minister himself.

---

"Do I have to repeat myself, Dolores?" Fudge asked while seething and gripping his glass of fire whiskey tight enough it might shatter in his hands if not for it being goblin made crystal.

"I don't understand, Minister," Dolores Umbridge replied, hiding her fear.

"How many times. Have I told you? Not to mess with David. Blasted. Cross, Dolores?" Fudged asked, doing his best to control himself.

Dolores' mind whirred, thinking about just how the Minister learnt that she'd been trying to give the boy detention soon after she arrived at Hogwarts for basically nothin and struggling, she might add, as he was most definitely not the daft, hormone riddled child Potter was.

She had eventually 'succeeded' even if it was paper-thin at best, but she got there.

"Are you stupid, woman?!" Fudge roared, spit flying and eyes bulging, "I asked you a question. How many times?"

Gulping she replied, "Quite, quite a lot Minister…"

"Yes. Quite a lot," Fudge said, downing the full glass in quick repeated gulps.

"So why did you? Hmm? Why?" Fudge asked.

"He broke the rules Minister, as a Professor, it is well within my rights as to issue out detentions," she began to explain.

"Enough!" he roared in anger, almost throwing the glass at her toad like face.

"Mi-minister," Dolores mumbled.

"Do you now understand he has me by my fuċkɨnġ bollocks? Hmm? That fiasco with his vaults last year could very well have ended my career! Luck! Luck is what saved us, that damnable Tournament focused all the headlines and the boy, luckily, didn't go to the papers during the entire debacle!" Fudge roared with even greater anger this time.

"But the papers are signed. He can't do anything," she protested.

"I've been paying the Prophet left, right and centre out of my own pocket, woman! He can still talk and then what? What do we do? Deny? The entire Wizengamot knows, you utter fool!" He said with bulging eyes and sweat dripping off of him. Fumes of smoke were spilling out of his nose thanks to the glass of fire whiskey he'd downed earlier.

Filling the glass to the brim again, he calmed himself and spoke, "I gave you a job at Hogwarts Dolores. Do it and do it while leaving David Cross out of it."

"Of course, Minster… apologies Minister," Umbridge mumbled, all meek like.

"Good. It's good that you understand… Now, what news of Dumbledore and that blasted Potter brat?" He asked while pouring another glass full of Ogden's finest.

---

David hid a smirk as he left her unorganised mind. Seeing the Minster rip into her for giving him detentions was therapeutic, even if it was the oaf Fudge doing so.

He almost laughed when he saw her return to her office via the floo network and tear it apart with her wand.

But that wasn't the best part, the best part was when she struggled for hours to put everything back as it was, her lack of skill with a wand causing her to struggle for hours.

She even had to reference some sixth-year textbooks on the spells required to undo her own work.

But it did leave David with the question of just how Fudge found out about how Umbridge had it out for him.

He pondered that question as he sped through the lines with ease.

David eventually came to the conclusion that the only way he was going to find that out is if he used Legillimency on the Minister himself.

That would prove to be difficult, but he decided he would have a decent shot if events for the Prophecy played out similarly to what they would have been without his influence.

Who was helping him wasn't a truly important issue, but it certainly piqued his curiosity.

It was a better use of his time than focusing on 'lines' after all.