Coincidence or Curse? The Favorite of Chaos
With the end of exam season finally arriving, Hermione had truly gone crazy for a couple of days; even her hair looked more chaotic than usual, and her competitive side exploded to the maximum as she challenged Harry and Draco to get the best grades.
What made her happy was beating Draco, although she was left slightly annoyed about tying with Harry for first place. Meanwhile, Daphne… well, she was smart, but she tended to get distracted often; besides, academic competition was one of the few things she didn't bother to fight for.
Now everyone was resting in the inner courtyard, since they would be returning home the next day.
This time, as an apology from both the Ministry and the school, it wasn't mandatory to go back on the Hogwarts Express. They could return home however they wished. Obviously, if someone wanted to enjoy the long-hours train ride, they could still take it.
But since the aurors would have far more work if they had to monitor every student traveling back through different routes, the special permission was granted.
The only reason why students are required to take the train to the school of witchcraft and wizardry is something very specific. Many people live in the magical world and there are countless ways to travel; if a bunch of students arrived at random times and in random places using all kinds of transportation, it would truly be chaos. That's why the Express was created; to gather everyone and have them arrive at the castle punctually. Even so, it didn't change the fact that the nearly full-day journey was extremely boring, especially considering they could appear right at the entrance with a snap of their parents' fingers.
Neville, who hadn't joined the group for a while because he had been busy with something, was now sitting with them eating chocolate frogs. Still, he didn't want to tell them what he'd been so occupied with; for some reason he was stubbornly refusing to say anything. Even Daphne's tricks to pry the truth out of him had failed completely.
"You know," Daphne said suddenly with a thoughtful look. "It's true that we always say Hogwarts is the safest school in the world; what must the others be like, right? But… did you ever stop to think that maybe the issue isn't the school, but us? Or, to be more precise, Harry," she added simply and concisely.
Hermione, Draco, and Neville all looked at Daphne, then at Harry, who was peacefully eating some snacks. He also seemed a bit thoughtful at hearing her comment.
"I mean," Daphne continued. "According to the Weasley twins, their school years weren't that entertaining unless they made them entertaining themselves. But since we arrived… first year Quirrell had that strange thing on his head, which was obviously after Harry. Second year in Beauxbatons, there was that crazy elf who stole Harry's wand and mutated into a legendary creature. And this year two things piled up: Peter Pettigrew escaped Azkaban to find Harry, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was a psychopath who attacked the school with a group of lunatics. Oh right, and Harry almost killed Professor Snape. So that's three things," Daphne said quickly.
All of them opened their mouths, realizing she had far more of a point than they wanted to admit.
Draco looked at his friend and nodded slowly. "Yeah. You're cursed," he said with a seriousness that seemed to come straight from his soul.
Harry, hearing that from his best friend, could only roll his eyes.
"Don't say nonsense. He's not cursed," Hermione said in a thoughtful tone. "They were just coincidences… repeated ones… all related to Harry." The more she talked, the more doubtful she sounded.
"Maybe he's not cursed; maybe he just… just has really bad luck," Neville said, attempting to help.
Though it didn't really help at all.
"Are you sure you didn't step on an Indian burial ground when you were a kid?" Daphne asked, clearly enjoying teasing Harry far too much at this point.
"I'm not cursed. If anything, I solved most of the problems. Maybe you are the ones cursed and I have to solve your problems," Harry added quickly.
But they all shook their heads; that theory wasn't convincing at all.
"Harry, are you cursed?" a sudden voice asked from behind him. Harry turned around, instantly recognizing it. Astoria; accompanied by Luna and Ginny, truly an inseparable trio.
"If you are, you may need to smear hippogriff-poop on your face; that breaks every curse," Luna said while nodding.
"Yeah. I'm not doing that," Harry replied immediately. "And I'm not cursed."
"In case you don't remember," Harry continued, "first year Quirrell wasn't after me, he was after the Philosopher's Stone. We interfered and thanks to that we gained our master. Then there was that problem with Sirius, who was obviously the culprit, but we also found a way to control an army of immortal golems. And in Beauxbatons, I recall I wasn't the first one to get my wand stolen," he said, glancing at Hermione, who showed a slightly embarrassed expression. "And lastly, this year the matter involving me didn't harm Hogwarts; that was the prof… Dominic," Harry said, refusing to call him professor. "And anyone would have lost control after discovering something of that magnitude."
Hearing it laid out like that, it really did seem like every problem had given them some kind of benefit. And yes, Harry had a very valid point.
"Uh, but…" Ginny suddenly spoke. Normally she didn't get involved in their conversations since she felt a bit distant. But after being rescued by Draco earlier, and protected by Daphne and Hermione while her brothers saved Ron and Percy, she seemed more comfortable. "When they checked Professor Dominic's office they found a board with photos of Harry and notes about his magic," she said.
Meaning that, yes, it was all directly connected to Harry.
"Oh, and there are also the Slytherins and their weird unity thing," Astoria added quickly.
Everyone looked at Harry again; this year really did seem to revolve around him, and in many different ways.
"You're not helping," Harry said to Ginny and Astoria with a serious look.
"Careful, Ginny, he might infect you with his curse just by looking at you!" Astoria yelled teasingly before running off. Luna looked at Harry, handed him her strange glasses, and then ran after Astoria.
Ginny blushed for a moment before following them as well.
Harry released a long sigh and looked at Daphne.
"Get to the point. Why did you start this stupid conversation?" he asked in a tired tone.
Daphne showed a small, wicked smile. "If you're not cursed, then we have to prove it. Now that summer break is starting, we have plenty of time," she said, already imagining dozens of ways to test the theory.
Harry could only roll his eyes.
…
Next chapter: back home with new members in the family.
N/A: Yes, I know; this chapter is a bit short. But my head hurt the whole day. Even so, I still wrote the HPPJ and PJFD chapters, and by the time I reached this one I was completely exhausted, so forgive me. Anyway, the previous chapters were quite long, and this one is a transitional chapter because of that. My head still hurts; sorry again. Hahaha, love you all.