Chapter 60: 3rd September 1991, Tuesday: Part 1

George woke up in a pool of his saliva whilst being smothered by his pillow. Every bone in his body was grinding together and, although faint, the headache was still thumping away. It was hardly as pleasant of an experience as his first night at Hogwarts' hospital wing. He groggily pushed himself away from his bed and opened his eyes to look around the room. The light from the window was extremely bright, forcing him to squint. After his eyes adjusted to the light, George realised that he was back in his dormitory and no one else was present.

All of the other beds were empty and there were no signs of his roommates being in the bathroom, it was just him and the owl. Blinkie was glaring at him with an angry scowl, it probably wasn't happy about not being fed for over a day. George twisted his body off the side of the bed which caused him to fall to the ground, his legs didn't seem to have woken up. He waited a moment to allow the feeling to return to his legs before trying to stand. He managed to get back on his feet before stumbling into the bannister of the bed.

George pinched the bridge of his nose and waited for the nausea to pass. He always felt like this after sleeping too long, it would take a minute or two for his heart rate to return to normal levels. After a minute, George yawned whilst stretching his arms into the air. Loud popping noises came from all over his body like a bone xylophone. He lowered his arms and realised he had gone to sleep in his uniform, but it miraculously still looked in nearly perfect condition without a single crease. The only evidence of damage was a few small burn marks that were slowly fading, the self-ironing feature had proved itself exceptionally useful for weird circumstances such as this.

Now that his brain was turning back on, George felt now would be as good of a time as ever to check his body. He took off his robes and shirt only to find subtle evidence of purple marks appearing around his elbows and shoulders. This was not good news, it had been just under four days since he transformed at Remus's house and the tears were already starting to reappear. Under 'normal' circumstances, he shouldn't be seeing any bruises until the second week. George estimated that he would only have another two weeks before he would have to transform again.

The window between each transformation seemed to be getting shorter and shorter. The possibility of changing weekly didn't seem like such a crazy concept. The list of things he had to do was getting longer whilst the amount of time to do it was running out fast. The sooner that George could arrange to start his new fitness regime and potion supplements, the better. It would hopefully push the gap between transformations back to a month. Until then, he would have to be careful not to receive any injuries within the next two weeks so that Pomfrey wouldn't have an excuse to examine his body.

George looked at the watch on his opposite arm to see that the time was currently ten minutes to nine o'clock, his eyes went wide after realising how long he had slept. Not only had he missed breakfast, but his first lesson was about to start in ten minutes and he hadn't even gotten washed or dressed. George pulled out Remus's alarm clock and realised he hadn't bothered to set it up before he'd fallen asleep. That could have proven itself extremely useful today, it was a missed opportunity to test his gift. He'd been extremely tired yesterday so there was no point in crying over spilt milk, it was just one of those things.

But, there was someone worth getting angry over, the culprits for his oversleeping. It was particularly annoying that Theodore, or one of the other roommates, didn't try to wake him. George might be a heavy sleeper, but he had always woken up if he was touched by another. Any skin-on-skin contact and he'd be up like a light. It was a side-effect of his past trauma, all thanks to his generous patron. It wasn't the nicest way to wake up, so that's why George had always encouraged Ellie to use her less traditional methods.

That being said, his dorm mates shouldn't have his step-sister's reservations. Surely they wouldn't deliberately allow him to miss his first lesson or more importantly his breakfast. Now he was going to have to wait until dinner to eat, how irritating. There was going to be a talk with Theodore sooner rather than later, more than a few important matters needed to get ironed out. George wasn't going to put up with this disrespect in the future, a little human decency wasn't too much to ask. For the time being, the only thing he had to worry about was getting to the lesson on time.

George didn't have the time to put on a new set of clothes or get washed, he resorted to picking up his discarded sweaty shirt and robes and ran out of the dorms. The bird was going to have to wait a little bit longer before it could have something to eat, if George didn't have the time for breakfast then neither did Blinkie. To arrive at Herbology on time, he needed to get dressed on his way there. Although he couldn't see clearly at the time, anyone in the Slytherin common room would have gotten a good view of George running with his chest exposed with a shirt covering his face.

George ran out of the Slytherin common room tunnel with his shirt and robes back on his body. The tie and collar were a mess, but he couldn't afford to stop. He practically leapt up the empty staircases and didn't wait for them to stop moving. He jumped the gaps between the staircase and the next-floor corridors which saved him a few precious seconds, it was a good thing that vertigo wasn't one of his irrational fears. If Filch had seen him treating the moving staircases like his own personal jungle gym, then George would have spent the next month in detention for personal endangerment.

Luckily, he didn't encounter that old pain in the arse or any student for that matter on his way to the greenhouses. George reached the ground floor in record time which gave him a brief opportunity to try and straighten himself out whilst power walking. The only thing he could do to look presentable was to comb his hair and wipe the sleep from his eyes. Hopefully, his dishevelled appearance wouldn't reflect too poorly on Sprout. It wasn't the end of the world if Sprout didn't like him since none of his plans required her involvement. That being said, he didn't want to burn that bridge by being late when he might need her in the future.

George surprised himself by arriving outside of the greenhouse with five minutes to spare, he'd flown through the castle way faster than he'd anticipated. He could still see students entering the greenhouse with crumbs around their faces. George's stomach growled fiercely after he imagined what he had missed out on during breakfast, saliva started pooling in his mouth which threatened to drip from his lips. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and swallowed his drool, he needed to distract himself or he'd look like a starved wild animal. George decided to focus on the students he would be sharing his class with, finding the right people to mingle with was essential.

Herbology was one of the many subjects that Slytherin wasn't paired up with Gryffindor, instead, the other house was Ravenclaw which George didn't have too much interest in. Besides Luna Lovegood who wouldn't join Hogwarts for another year, there was no one that George was particularly interested in getting to know at this current point in time. But just like Sprout, he was still open to making a good impression just in case. In the opposite regard, there were plenty of predominantly Slytherin students he'd be better staying away from. Watching Draco annoy someone else was one thing, being annoyed by him was another.

All the Ravenclaw and Slytherin students were entering a small room connected to the greenhouse. George followed in after them and found himself in a conservatory with stone walls lined with coat hooks. Every hook had an old dull white robe hanging on it and the students were exchanging them for their robes, this was presumably to prevent the student's robes from getting dirty or damaged. The white robes were loaned free of charge by Hogwarts and had evidence of years of use by previous owners. They were covered in green stains and scratch marks as if they had been dragged through a hedge.

Herbology was known to be hazardous for students because the greenhouses were filled with dangerous plants. The white robes would also offer a little protection in this regard, hence the wear and tear. George walked over to a corner of hooks void of students and swapped out his slightly scorched robe for one of the white robes that were large enough for him. Just as he was about to enter the main greenhouse, he saw something that instantly made his blood boil. There was a little twig of a boy called Theodore putting on a white robe whilst happily talking to a couple of Slytherin students, and they were loitering right in the middle of George's path.

Something about seeing Theodore smiling and chatting away annoyed George more than he cared to admit. He felt somewhat betrayed for being left behind. Not only that, but this boy didn't even seem to care his dorm mate was about to be late for class. If anything, Theodore was relishing in the fact George might get in trouble, the twig was practically laughing at his expense. That was the last straw, he decided the 'talk' was gonna happen right now. George walked over and forced himself directly between Theodore and the two boys. He somewhat casually leaned against the wall whilst supporting his weight from the hook Theodore had hung his robes on.

The cheerful conversation stopped instantly after the abrupt interruption. George did not care about the boys behind him as he stared down at Theodore with a face void of happiness. He wanted to see this worm squirm and Theodore didn't disappoint him. Theodore recognised George and immediately turned into a scared deer in headlights just like he had been acting yesterday. The boy's mouth kept bobbing up and down, he was probably trying to think of something to say along the lines of an apology, something suitably pathetic no doubt. In the end, all Theodore did was stare back at George with dilated eyes whilst slightly shivering.

You are reading story Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon at novel35.com

George lost his patience and decided to lead Theodore on, "don't you think you might have forgotten something this morning?"

George did not hide the massing irritation in his voice, looking at Theodore was only making him angrier.

Theodore looked terrified as he stuttered like Quirrell, "I..I…I don't know what you mean?"

George's expression darkened as he loomed over Theodore, he was only two inches taller but still cast a shadow over him.

George stared deeply into Theodore's eyes, "really, well isn't that odd? Perhaps I'm just crazy, but I think it would be normal for a roommate, such as yourself, to wake up their fellow roommate, such as myself, so they don't miss breakfast and more importantly the first lesson of the day. What do you think, am I crazy or am I right?"

Theodore seemed to realise at that moment what George was referring to, the realisation clearly came with a strong sense of dread. Theodore's stress levels appeared to shoot through the glass ceiling, his entire body started vibrating like George was electrocuting him through his stare.

A boy's voice came from behind George, "excuse me, can't you see we were in the middle of a conversation."

Another slightly deeper voice came right after, "yeah, who do you think you are?"

George didn't like people interrupting his conversations either, luckily for them, Theodore currently had all of his attention. He didn't react to the comments from behind and instead continued to stare down at Theodore, he wanted to hear what this weasel had to say.

Theodore ended up spitting out an excuse in a feeble attempt to escape George's wrath, "I didn't... I mean we didn't want to bother you. After yesterday…"

Theodore stopped talking mid-sentence after he saw George crush the wooden coat hanger with his bare hands. Theodore's robe along with a bunch of splinters fell to the ground next to his feet. After hearing the dribble coming out of Theodore's mouth, George's anger reached another level.

All George could think was, "not only is Theodore not owning up to his mistake, but he also tried to drag his roommates under the bus with him like a coward."

George grabbed Theodore by his collar and pulled him up close so that their faces were only a few inches apart. Theodore looked so scared that he might have wet himself. George felt it was time this boy learn who he was dealing with.

He spoke in a hushed voice so the other students would not overhear, "don't bullshit me. Trust me when I say you don't want to lie to me. I don't care what you think I am or where I'm from, and that goes for all the little turds you call friends as well. You fall in line and do as I say. Because if you don't…"

George formed a terrifying smile, which exposed his razor-sharp teeth, as he whispered into Theodore's ear, "not even your death-eater daddy could save you from me."

You can find story with these keywords: Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon, Read Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon novel, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon book, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon story, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon full, Harry Potter and the Fractured Dragon Latest Chapter