Chapter 90: 21st September 1991, Saturday: Part 1

George started his new regime to maximise his mental recovery and he hated every second of it. He had planned to continue this farce until the end of the month, but, he may have been overzealous when he had arbitrarily set that date. The rules he'd set only permitted him to attend classes and complete his homework whilst maintaining friendly relationships with the students and professors. His free time had to be spent either exercising or meditating, he wasn't allowed to brew potions or practise spells that weren't relevant to his education.

In essence, he was forcing himself to live like the other students for a while. George had read in a psychology book that limiting his activities would relieve his mind from burden and allow him to recover from his mental trauma. Unfortunately, understanding the way the human brain worked didn't make the treatment any less maddening. Using the same book as a reference, George was starting to think he might have A.D.H.D. His instincts told him to use his time as efficiently as possible and not to waste a single second, every hour that went by without him having something to show for it was becoming torturous.

Perhaps this feeling was shared by the house elves and that's why they were willing to be enslaved so they could occupy themselves endlessly. George would compare the maddening sensation to Chinese water torture since it involved tieing someone down and dripping droplets of water onto their scalp for days until they went insane. The first few days were easy for him but by the time the second week of term ended, George was ready to throw in the towel.

He kept repeating in his head, "I've got so much to do and so little time to do it. Why aren't I preparing for the troll? It's only six weeks away. Maybe I should end my holiday here since I'm already feeling way better than I did during the first week."

Regardless, George knew that it was for the sake of his mental welfare and this pain was necessary to ensure his judgement wasn't impaired. There will be a time in the near future when he couldn't afford to make the mistakes he had during his first week at Hogwarts. Although excruciating, he needed to endure and learn to control all of his impulses including his productivity as too much of anything was dangerous.

That being said, George did find ways to keep his mind active during his relaxation period. He mainly focused on restricting his use of the Calming Draught as often as possible so he could practise controlling his panic attacks. Just like he had done on the eighth of September, he attempted to avoid consuming the potion even in stressful environments, such as during class or eating lunch in the Great Hall. For the most part, George barely touched his abundant potion supply.

The only exception to the rule was during Snape's class which tended to evolve into intense conversations with the miserable man. Snape usually implied George was up to no good with every question even though he had next to no proof for his allegations. The day Gemma and George broke into the potion class to retrieve Snape's book came up a few times during the thinly-veiled interrogation but George could tell he was just trying to bait him into accidentally confessing. George presumed that his special treatment had to be due to Dumbledore's curiosity and his isolation from the other Slytherin students in class.

Snape was a proud man and enjoyed making Slytherin look as successful as possible. Unfortunately for him, George, who happened to be one of his best students alongside Hermione, was sitting with the other Gryffindor students. George knew that Snape wouldn't show him so much hostility if he sat in the front row like the rest of the Slytherin suck-ups. He didn't change seats in the end because getting involved with the Slytherin students would only guarantee more bullying and attention.

His fellow Slytherin students didn't bother George if he kept out of sight since the spotlight was still on Harry, bigots like Draco had a pretty single-track mind. They could only focus their attention on one person at once and George was using Harry's fame as a shield, all he had to do was act like he didn't exist. The bottom line was simple, sitting with the Gryffindor students would result in fewer occasions where he would have to drink the Calming Draught.

Another benefit of sitting at the back of the class was the improvement of his relationship with Neville since they paired up every lesson. Neville was useless at brewing potions and yet had never failed because George's skills made up for his deficiencies. George practically spoon-fed Neville the brewing techniques and stopped him the moment he was about to do anything wrong. Outside of the potion class, Neville asked George to help him with their homework which he was more than happy to oblige. It was through this simple one-off favour that George secured a consistent schedule in the Library where he could meet with Neville and help complete any homework he was struggling with.

This two-man homework club went on for many hours since there wasn't a single subject Neville didn't struggle with besides Herbology. George successfully made Neville have an almost complete reliance on his support which was perfectly in line with what he hoped to achieve by the end of the year. He was quite happy to have accomplished that goal within a month with minimal effort, children like Neville were far too easy to manipulate. If George didn't know any better, he would have guessed that he was Neville's best friend. Although, he couldn't be certain since he didn't have much more experience than Neville in making friends.

Neville liked to talk about plants he had read about during their time together and George mimicked his curiosity by adding to Neville's findings with more relevant facts and trivia, Neville's reaction was always positive and seemed to help with building his confidence. Within the space of a week, Neville had transformed from a timid boy on the train to an excited and infused student around George. He was keen to talk about everything he liked about Hogwarts and asked a lot of questions about George's life in an obvious attempt to further befriend him.

George kept his life story simple since Neville knew nothing about muggle life, he only gave the boy a brief overview of his family and the fact he was adopted. Neville listened to every word that left his mouth like he was recounting an action movie, George didn't understand what was so interesting about his bog-standard living arrangements. When it came to George's true feelings; he considered Neville to be an immature and idiotic child with a pure heart and humble character, almost the complete opposite of himself. These contrasting personalities were pleasantly refreshing and helped George wind down in the afternoons.

George hoped their relationship would continue to flourish since it was doing wonders for his mental health. If Neville kept helping him relax, George would consider aiding him in regards to his grandmother and his mentally-handicap parents, but, that would have to come in the far future. George's intentions for Neville weren't all so pure because his time in the Library was one of the few occasions he could interact with Neville alone, this meant he could gain easy access to information relating to other Gryffindor students such as the trio.

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

It was interesting to hear trivial information about Harry, Ron and Seamus which helped George build a better portfolio of their character so that when the time came, he could leave the right impression. Neville had less to say about Hermione because their relationship had become estranged. She had been showing up the other students in class and using all of her spare time to read in the Library. Hermione's actions consequently resulted in all of her potential Gryffindor friends avoiding her, this gave her a reputation for being a loner. That was perfect for George's plan since he needed her isolated and depressed by the end of October.

Whilst on the topic of Neville, there had only been one occasion that George was close to taking a sip from the Calming Draught and that was during his first flying lesson. He learned that day that not only did he not feel comfortable around large bodies of water but he also didn't like being suspended in the air by a frail wooden stick between his legs. The brief moment where he allowed the broom to lift his feet off the ground resulted in George's body screaming danger signals as if he was in extreme peril.

Since this was another perfect opportunity to practise controlling his emotions, George forced himself to stay in the air as long as possible whilst regulating his breathing and lowering his heart rate. During his unconventional meditation, he'd pushed himself too far and almost snapped the broom in two by squeezing the shaft with both of his hands. Only the loud creaking, which sounded like the broom begging for mercy, prevented George from accidentally turning it into splinters. Luckily for George and his fractured broom, that stressful lesson had been cut short by the accident with Neville flying off and breaking his wrist.

George had been tempted to prevent the accident from occurring because it would massively increase Neville's affection for him, and might result in the boy even idolising him, but he decided to stick to the plan and stand aside and watch. He hadn't acted because this accident was pivotal to the important events that needed to occur this year for his grand plan to succeed, it was a simple case of the Butterfly Effect.

If George prevented Neville from breaking his wrist then Draco wouldn't have stolen his Remembrall. Draco stealing the Remembrall resulted in both Harry joining the Quidditch team as a seeker and the trio coming across Fluffy the three-headed dog that evening. The trio not finding Fluffy that evening would change the timing at the end of the year when Harry would go up against Quirrel and Voldemort. George's foresight was his greatest asset and he couldn't afford to compromise future events just to get some short-term gains.

In the back of his head, George apologised to Neville and watched his new friend get hurt. This was just the start of the hard decisions he would have to make to get his desired outcome. Without George's intervention, the lesson played out just as he remembered and Harry was taken away by McGonagall to go and meet the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It's worth noting that George and Hermione had a brief confrontation at the start of the lesson which was short and sweet.

They were standing opposite each other since the Gryffindors and Slytherins were split into two rows facing each other with Hooch in the middle. They locked eyes for a second, George smiled and nodded and she nodded back with a neutral expression. George had asked Neville earlier that week about his relationship with Hermione and Neville guessed that she had probably forgiven him but he wasn't sure. This interaction was all the proof George needed to know that Neville hadn't been wrong, his letter and notebook were enough to earn her forgiveness. George wondered if she had learnt any of his fire magic techniques yet, he would have to remember to ask her in a month's time.

That stressful flying lesson would have been the relatively boring end of his first relaxation week if it wasn't for George's Charms class on Friday. The class wouldn't have been of any significance if it hadn't been for the potential manslaughter George almost committed at the end. The lesson itself was normal but, as the class was leaving the room and heading to the Great Hall for their lunch, Flitwick asked George to stay behind. Flitwick wanted to know how George had progressed with his alarm clock project and to ask whether he needed any help.

Since his 'modification' on Sunday, George had been using the alarm clock for the past week and had been successfully woken up every single time the alarm activated. However, the way that he woke up was far from ideal. Waking up after a good night's sleep felt like a taser being pressed against his arm and sending one-hundred-thousand volts into his body, this consistently caused him to rocket out of his bed and convulse on the floor. Each morning he had to spend half an hour just to stabilise himself, both mentally and physically. In some regards, George had made the world's most effective alarm clock. He could die in his sleep and this alarm clock would still wake him up.

Since he had committed to no longer relying on Theodore to wake him up, George had to keep reluctantly using the alarm clock. Afraid that Grant or Quinton might be tempted to play with it while he wasn't in the room, George carried the alarm clock around with him everywhere. With hope clouding his judgement, he handed over the alarm clock to Flitwick and explained the problems he'd been having. Although he was quite confident that there was nothing that could be done to repair the clock, George thought there might be a chance that Flitwick knew of some methods that hadn't been documented in the Library.

To George's horror and surprise, Flitwick offered to help but insisted that he saw the alarm clock activate to better diagnose the problem. He practically begged for Flitwick to not set the alarm on himself but the half-goblin insisted that if an eleven-year-old child could take it then so could he. George knew that comparing his physiology to an eleven-year-old child was a gross and potentially fatal error but he could hardly correct Flitwick since he couldn't admit to that fact.

Whilst crossing his fingers behind his back and praying for a miracle, George watched nervously whilst Flitwick set the alarm and waited for it to go off. Flitwick saw his nervous expression and smiled whilst reminding him not to worry which did nothing to relieve his anxiety. Just like every morning for the past week, the alarm went off and a ball of sparks flew towards the nearest target which happened to be Flitwick. The orb made contact with the back of Flitwick's palm and George got to witness the almighty power of the clock from an outside perspective. The little man bounced into the air and flew backwards into a stack of books that proceeded to fall on top of him.

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