(Harry Potter) Worthy of you: Chapter 8 - Closing Ceremony

Chapter 8 - Closing Ceremony

Summary: As the school year draws to a close, one unexpected announcement turns celebration into revelation.

Harry was sitting next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table in the great hall. It was time for the closing ceremony of the year.

Usually in these things the headmaster gives some speech about how the past year was, awards the quidditch cup and then the house cup. Which was usually Slytherin by what the older students like Fred and George said, and with a glance to the hourglasses in the corner of the room with the points total, it seems obvious the green was taking all other three colors by a lot again.

Now that Harry thinks about it, Snape does have a superiority complex and he hates to lose no matter what. So it would make sense that he is going around taking points off other houses while awarding points only to his house so he could be sure his house will win each year.

Harry sighed, another thing the headmaster is blind to inside his own school, how can't he see that this only contributes to the rivalry between all the houses, and if someone wants to they can easily use that hostile rivalry to infiltrate this school easily.

Harry will have to point it out to Dumbledore another day, after yesterday he is sure the old man has enough on his mind.

Hermione seemed to notice something was on his mind and asked, "Hey Harry, is everything okay?"

Before Harry could answer someone familiar ran into the hall and quickly sat on the other side of Harry. The red-head boy immediately began looking for food while complaining, "Oi mate, why didn't you wake me up? I'm almost late."

Harry had to stop himself from rolling his eyes while answering calmly, "I tried..." A lie. "You were snoring so loudly that... well." True, even last night when he and Hermione finished studying he was already sleeping and snoring so loudly Harry had a hard time falling asleep.

Ron shrugged and said with disinterest, "Whatever. As long as I'm in time for the food." He kept looking around before anger began seeping into his voice, "Where the bloody hell is the food?"

Hermione didn't hold back and did roll her eyes as she answered him with an irritated tone, "Honestly Ronald, you should know the food only appears after the headmaster finishes his speech."

Ron scowled toward Hermione and was about to start one of their usual bickering. Harry had no patience for it right now so he quickly spoke up, "Look, the headmaster is about to start."

Both his friends turned to the head table and saw that indeed Professor Dumbledore stood up, his glasses were still missing and his grandfatherly smile still in place as he began speaking, "Another year passed, and I'm glad to see all our students are healthy and well after such a troubling year. Most of you must have noticed that Professor Lockhart is missing from our usual feast, shortly I shall make an announcement that shall shed light on his absence and the events that transpired this year. Shortly after the feast begins your heads of houses shall pass letters, I wish your parents to read during the summer."

That surprised Harry. Last year there was no letter in the closing ceremony. Looking down the table he saw the confused murmurs of the higher years as well, meaning that as far as any student knew nothing like that happened before. Harry began to suspect what the old wizard had planned.

The headmaster clapped his hands a couple of times to quiet the hall. Once all the attention was back to him he spoke again, "I'm sure everything will be understood soon enough, but first our annual awards." The Slytherin table seemed to puff in anticipation, Draco Malfoy specifically had a shit-eating smirk on his face, but that was when the headmaster's eyes stopped twinkling and he said seriously, "As you all know I made it a policy to not intervene in the points taken or awarded by the professors, trusting their professionalism to uphold one of Hogwarts' most sacred traditions."

His eyes scanned the professors, all of whom looked confused themselves as to where this was going, his eyes lingered for a moment longer on Snape, the man did look paler but otherwise no emotion crossed his face.

The headmaster then moved his stare toward the student body when he said, "Some of you might have noticed I had, should we say, free time this year and a chance to review the points after a certain someone..." His eyes lingered on Harry for a brief moment, "pointed out the odds of the results these last years keep producing."

With a heavy sigh the powerful wizard said, "What I found disappointed me greatly. I admit the fault is lying with me for neglecting my duties to the school for so long. As I looked through the records I found that a certain house was awarded points for simply arriving to a class while students of other houses lost the same points for arriving early, for one example."

"I spent all of last night going through this year's records and took it upon myself to declare all points taken and awarded without just reason null and void." He clapped his hands once again, letting the sound echo in the great hall dramatically as he said, "Hogwarts please fix the points accordingly."

Everyone turned as one toward the hourglasses, watching as red, yellow and blue stones began to fall into their matching hourglasses, while green kept being sucked away.

By the time the stones began to reach the finish line green and red were already pretty evenly matched while the yellow and blue kept dropping the few stones left in. It took only a moment for the last, blue, stone to fall into place.

With a smile on his face, and the house award in his hands Dumbledore announced, "The winner of this year's house award is the house of the clever, Ravenclaw!"

There was stunned silence for a moment, even the blue house was in complete shock. Everyone expected that if not Slytherin than Gryffindor would win the house award, like last year. Though to Harry that made sense. Ravenclaws should get points for always knowing the answers, and always handing in their homework; without Snape cutting their points for the sake of his winning it seems to be the fair result.

When Dumbledore handed the award to Professor Flitwick three quarters of the students began to cheer as loudly as possible.

Ravenclaw was obviously overjoyed. High fiving and jumping in their seats, all with proud smiles on their faces.

Hufflepuff were cheering for their ally in the, often overlooked houses club; they were happy it wasn't one of the 'main' houses that won this year. Again, proving the point Harry considered earlier.

Gryffindor would always cheer for when Slytherin loses.

Slytherin was the only table that wasn't cheering at all. Most of the students looked slightly disappointed, but otherwise unbothered by the change. Then there was the expected reaction of Malfoy who was seething in his place and glaring daggers. His two bodyguards seemed to be confused as usual. What surprised Harry was the blonde girl and her group of friends that looked around his age smirking.

The headmaster then turned back to the student body and once again proclaimed dramatically, "And the Quidditch cup this year is awarded to Gryffindor!"

Harry was on his feet and cheering the loudest along with his teammates as Professor McGonagall collected the award. Even Hermione, while still sitting, had a fond smile on her face and clapped enthusiastically.

After all the noise died down the headmaster cleared his throat and spoke again, "Usually at this point I would wish you to have a good feast." Ron perked up hearing something to do with food, but the headmaster kept talking, "This year though, I believe I owe all of you an explanation for all that happened in this school since Halloween."

The entire student body perked up and looked with interest toward the headmaster. Harry could feel the stare of a few students passing him for a moment, but ignored them and elected to listen to what the old wizard would tell everyone.

The headmaster's usual calm and cheerful face was now grim and pained, "Since this Halloween many cases of petrification happened around the school. This was caused by a magical beast that roamed the school's pipes. This creature resided for years in the fabled chamber of secrets and was let out by a dark artifact that someone managed to sneak inside the school with one of the students at the beginning of the year. The creature that caused all the troubles this year was a 60-foot basilisk."

As soon as the words left his lips the students raised in uproar.

"60-feet?!" A student from Ravenclaw squeaked.

"We need to call the aurors!" Someone from Hufflepuff screamed.

"No, we need the magical creature department." Argued a fellow housemate.

"Do you think any of them can take on something like that? And do you want to be anywhere near when they do?" A Slytherin challenged everyone.

People kept shouting until the headmaster shouted, "Silence!" Gaining the attention of everyone in a mere second. The powerful wizard cleared his throat once again, "I assure you there is no reason for worry, the creature has already been slain a week ago..." All the students let out a sigh of relief while many stared at the headmaster with new admiration in their eyes, but that was when he added, "By none other than Harry Potter."

Harry paled as all eyes moved to him, and of course the shouting started immediately.

Someone from Slytherin, and Harry could guess who, screamed, "Lies! There is no way a half-blood would be able to do it."

Someone from Ravenclaw, which usually keep to themselves but seems like they are opening up with the victory this year, asked loudly, "What spell did you use?"

And there were many more shouts of questions, some kept denying it was possible and so on. At some point everything blended together in Harry's ears and he just dropped his head on the table.

Finally the mercy came when the headmaster clapped twice again and said in a raised voice, "Mr. Potter please join me up here."

Harry raised his head to glare at the headmaster for a moment before reluctantly standing up and dragging himself toward the podium the headmaster stood at.

Once Harry stood next to the Professor, he put a hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "While it's my duty to keep my students safe, this year I have failed. Fortunately, Mr. Potter was able to pick up the slack. While he was accused of being responsible for the attacks..." Many of the students looked away uncomfortably, "...he and his friends worked tirelessly to solve the mystery that plagued our school. It was a week ago when a student had been kidnapped by the creature into the chamber of secrets, and Mr. Potter, using Ms. Granger's research, found the entrance to the chamber of secrets."

The headmaster then bowed his head in slight shame as he said the next part, "Make no mistake, Mr. Potter had no intention of confronting the creature, his first instinct was to get Professor Lockhart and have him deal with the situation. Alas, Gilderoy chose to turn on his students when they were deep in the chamber of secrets and tried to cast a memory charm on them that backfired on him and now, he resides in St. Mungo's. Mr. Potter with no other choice moved forward and confronted the Basilisk, as few of you would know no magic can penetrate the scales of this creature."

The old man reached under the podium and pulled out something Harry was very familiar with, even if he only saw it once before in his life.

The headmaster presented the item to the hall and said, "In his time of need as the legend said, the sword of Gryffindor answered the call of a true Gryffindor. Mr. Potter used this blade to kill the Basilisk once and for all."

There were still stares of disbelief aimed at him, but now there were more awe looks, and of course then there was Malfoy and Snape who were grinding their teeth audibly.

The headmaster then put the sword away and pulled out something else. Something that looked like an award and declared, "For these acts of heroism I bestow upon Harry Potter the Award of Special Services to be displayed in Hogwarts' trophy case for decades to come. Please join me in congratulating the young man."

Dumbfounded, Harry accepted the award to the cheers and applause of almost the entire school body. Even most of the Slytherin table was clapping for him, though not as enthusiastically as everyone else. Harry was surprised to see the teachers behind him standing and clapping as well, that's of course except Snape who was sulking in his seat.

Harry's eyes then caught sight of Hermione, and he could feel himself on cloud nine, walking through the clouds and basking in the warmth of her smile, all because he could see the pride shining bright in Hermione's eyes as she smiled at him.