Chapter 72: 6th September 1991, Friday: Part 1

The next day, George woke up with another book being thrown at his face. This time the book was 'Magical Drafts and Potions', kind of ironic considering the night he'd just had. George didn't bother to pay any attention to Theodore fleeing out of the dorm room, yesterday's potion-brewing trials were still fresh in his head. He had spent over six hours brewing in Myrtle's company and every attempt had failed with no lessons learnt in the process. This infuriating waste of time meant that he would have to spend every second he had to spare today to try and find out what he was doing wrong before he ran out of ingredients.

To top it all off, George had his first Potion class with Snape today so he couldn't start brewing right away. Truanting was always an option, but the negative attention he would get wasn't worth the trouble. Also, his mission absolutely needed him to interact with Harry today, he'd been putting it off all week. Leaving the planned introduction with the boy who lived had already been delayed four days longer than intended. He might as well get it over with since this class was the only one, except flying lessons, that Gryffindor was paired with Slytherin.

George ran his fingers through his hair and sighed loudly in his empty dorm room, he felt he was in dire need of a day off. It was just the same cycle over and over again, get up, pretend to be a normal child, work his arse off researching and brewing potions, and fail miserably. At least he didn't have much more time to fail, two more days and he'd be out of Calming Draught. George checked his eyes and got dressed begrudgingly. He wasn't in the mood to see Snape or spend another six hours brewing potions. Sadly, he had to do both. The lack of motivation was definitely a side effect of the Calming Draught. Something in the back of George's head kept telling him to climb back in bed and give up.

Instead of giving in to his sloth, George took the time to do a headstand and start doing some upside-down push-ups. This exercise always helped clear his mind in the past, perhaps it was all the blood rushing to his head. After counting to five hundred, he performed a catherine wheel and landed back on his feet. George felt much more invigorated and reminded himself that exercise needed to be included in his schedule as soon as possible. He got dressed, left the dormitory, and once again stole his breakfast from the Great Hall. Today was sizzling bacon and poached eggs which he quite happily munched on his way back down to the dungeons. The feeling of a full stomach also contributed to improving his mood.

In order to not miss Harry, George decided to wait outside of Snape's potion classroom until his classmates started turning up. He positioned himself in a shadow behind one of the corridor's pillars so that none of the other students could see him as they walked by. This was quite easy since the corridors weren't lit well and shadowy nooks were abundant. George intended on blending in with the crowd without anyone noticing his presence, he would appear out of thin air just as a large group walked past. He neither wanted to be that child who would come far too early or far too late, with a bit of luck no one would even notice him. That way, no one would notice if he was to pull the chosen one aside.

After another ten minutes of waiting, the first few students started turning up to class. The majority of them seemed to be the Slytherin students such as Draco and his goons. George presumed that the reason they were so enthusiastic to attend Snape's class was due to the bias Snape had towards Slytherin students. It was a shame that he couldn't share their sentiments. George did not doubt that they would all sit at the front of the class like a line of well-trained dogs and would pretend to be interested in whatever miserable dribble came out of Snape's mouth. He could not see Theodore so he presumed that he must have been on the far side of the group, either that or he didn't come to class.

Another minute passed and the rest of the students turned up in a big clump, this group predominantly consisted of the Gryffindor students. George saw Harry walking to class by himself, he was tailing slightly behind the group whilst looking backwards repeatedly. He guessed that Ron had insisted on eating seconds so he'd stayed in the Great Hall, Harry must not have been willing to risk being late after the incident with McGonagall on Monday. After seeing Harry all alone, George knew he couldn't miss this perfect opportunity.

One of the first steps in the original mission was to introduce himself to Harry in the first week, the sooner the better. But due to unforeseen circumstances, George had been more than a little distracted. That being said, brewing the Calming Draught hadn't been the only problem. George had massively underestimated the amount of time Harry would spend with Ron, those two were practically joined at the hip. He'd been wanting to meet Harry without Ron present because of all the problems the unpredictable and emotional Weasley would create.

To put it plainly, Ron was nothing more than an obstacle to the mission and had no benefit outside of being a glorified meat shield. Any time invested into befriending that ginger-haired boy was time wasted, especially since George was put into Slytherin. Ron had a strong prejudice against anyone from Slytherin, in many ways he was a mirror image of Draco. Therefore, Ron would only drag Harry's and Hermione's opinions of George down if he was around during their talks. Getting involved with all three members of the trio was unavoidable, but it was only in George's interest to manipulate Ron in the new year.

George only needed one second to modify the plan for baiting Harry into befriending him in the future. Given the iconic lesson they were about to have, he might be able to work his foresight into the performance. The addition to the introduction just required a hastily made prop. George reached down into his enchanted sack and pulled out a piece of parchment with a quill to quickly write down a message for Harry. He folded the paper in half and held it against a stone pillar so he had a surface to write against. Then he proceeded to write in his quickest handwriting;

Do not read this letter aloud and do not repeat its content to anyone you do not completely trust. This is for your eyes only, Harry Potter.

Things are not always as they seem at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you are destined to play a part in a great conspiracy. There is a professor at Hogwarts that must not be trusted, you need to remain vigilant at all times. If you need help, you need only ask. I will always be available but I cannot guarantee I can solve your problems. Remember to trust your friends and no one else, not even the headmaster. Most importantly, stay safe.

Sign this paper like I had asked you to and hand it back to me. Do not ask me any questions related to what's written above as I cannot answer them here. The walls have ears. If you want to contact me so that we can talk face-to-face, come up to me after any lesson or during breaks and ask me, "do you know how to train an owl?". I will then handle the rest.

Right in the nick of time, George finished writing as Harry was about to walk past him. He pocketed the quill and deliberately walked into Harry as if by accident. The two of them stumbled after the impact, Harry recovered his footing and gave George a confused look. Harry appeared to look like an ordinary frail eleven-year-old boy with black hair and thin round glasses, his head was marked with a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. His uniform was worn neatly but not to the extent that Hermione would go to ensure her perfect appearance. George found it hard to believe that the person in front of him would be so pivotal in events to come.

Considering how many of his memories revolved around this person, besides the scar, Harry just looked like an ordinary boy. According to George's memories, he was never destined to meet Harry. But, he had to ensure the success of his mission, even if it meant completely changing the future. George acted surprised as he pretended to only just realise who Harry was, his eyes widened and his mouth hung slightly open. He paused for a few seconds whilst staring at Harry before shaking his head exaggeratedly as if to clear his thoughts.

George held his hand out towards Harry apologetically, "sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going. You must be Harry Potter, it's a great honour to finally meet you."

Harry seemed to be going through a similar experience of realisation, he looked at George with an equal amount of surprise after hearing his voice.

Harry quite loudly responded, "you're George Linwood. Everyone's been talking about you in the great hall, Neville keeps on..."

There was no need to tell the whole corridor, George had to cancel the handshake as he held his index finger to his lip. Harry seemed to instantly understand his body language and quieted down towards the latter half of his proclamation.

George pretended to be startled by Harry's sudden outburst as he whispered, "don't talk so loudly, you'll get everyone's attention. My infamy is something I'm not particularly proud of, being famous isn't very fun but I'm sure you of all people already know that.

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Can I have a quick talk with you for a minute? Just over there."

George pointed behind the pillar that he had just been hiding behind. And just as he'd anticipated, Harry nodded and willingly followed him to the secluded part of the corridor. The other students continued to walk by them without realising they were even there. George knew Harry wasn't someone who enjoyed the limelight that came with the fame associated with his boy-who-live title, his personality was reserved and didn't suit the life of a celebrity. Therefore, Harry should be able to understand George's need for discretion and would comply with his request.

Now that there weren't any prying eyes, George held out his piece of parchment towards Harry.

Then he made his request, "I have to say that I'm a massive fan and a great supporter of your work.

If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you sign this parchment for me?"

Harry appeared quite confused after hearing George's request, it wasn't every day that an eleven-year-old would get asked for their signature. Not only that but even fully-grown wizards don't sign their names unless they absolutely have to. There weren't generally many wizards that were willing to hand out their signature due to fear of hidden dark curses, George had his patron to thank for that information. Only the particularly prideful and stupid wizards such as Lockhart would throw around their signatures willy-nilly.

Harry was far too polite to make any assumptions about George, "I haven't got a signature, I mean, I've never written one before. I don't think that my name is really worth that much anyway.

I think you must be confusing me with someone else."

George returned Harry's scepticism with a warm smile as he reassuringly said, "you have no idea how wrong you are. I really must insist, I would be incredibly grateful."

George held out the parchment, practically forcing it into Harry's hand, whilst taking a quill out of his pocket with his opposite hand. Harry hesitated for a second before shrugging his shoulders, he took the parchment and quill. He was about to begin writing his name before he noticed that the parchment already had something written on it.

Harry looked up at George and asked, "are you sure you want me to sign this piece of parchment? It looks like it already has something written on it."

George nonchalantly waved his hand whilst stating casually, "it shouldn't be a problem, just give it a read and tell me if it's anything important. It's probably nothing to worry about though."

Although the request probably sounded very weird, George needed Harry to read what was on the parchment before he handed it back. He was banking on the fact that Harry would be too polite to refuse his request. Harry looked confused whilst trying to understand why George was behaving the way he was, he probably didn't understand why George kept wanting him to do these odd things. As expected, Harry couldn't work out what George was thinking and ended up giving in. The boy did as he was told and began casually reading the parchment.

Harry's expression progressively changed to shock as he continued to read the parchment to its end, George was happy to see that Harry was taking it seriously. After he finished reading, Harry didn't sign it but instead looked with great alarm and doubt back toward George.

George pretended as if he hadn't noticed Harry's expression as he pointed toward the parchment, "are you going to sign it?"

Harry's brain seemed to have frozen after hearing George's request, it took him five more seconds before he realised what George was asking him to do. He looked back towards the paper and signed it quickly before handing it back to George. His expression didn't change as he kept staring at George, he was probably waiting for an explanation that wasn't going to come. However, George knew that he couldn't afford to leave without giving Harry a little bit more bait. This would come in the form of some short-term proof of George's predictive abilities.

George leaned over towards Harry and whispered very quietly, "I know you're probably wondering if I'm just having a laugh at your expense, it's what I would be thinking in your shoes. I don't blame you for being confused and there's not much I can say at the moment that would help change that. You just need to know we both have the same goals.

To help you understand, remember these three things, it won't make sense now but it will in about five-minutes time. They are the Draught of the Living Dead, the stomach of a goat, and they're the same plant called Aconite.

I wish you good luck, Harry Potter."

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