Harry Potter and the Masilitory Curse
Harry woke up early, and slipped on his clothes. He felt the same unbreakable enthusiasm that Oliver Wood, the old captain of the team used to possess. Now it was all up to him. He was the captain this time, an it was time for the first Quidditch match of the season. He looked at his watch. It was a little early to wake the team, so he sat down on his bed, and pulled out the photo album of his parents and began flipping through it. He looked at his mom, and dad, and Sirius Black. The time passed as his parents smiled and waved at him. Finally it was time.
The first person he woke up was Ron, who was the new keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "Hey Ron. Get up. It's time."
"Huh, whaddyamean--oh my god. The Quidditch match. Its time, really, wow!"
"Shh, you'll wake the others."
Harry proceeded to wake the rest of the team. When every on was awake and ready they headed down for an early practice before the game.
When they opened the doors to leave the castle Harry realized for the first time what the weather was like. Apparently no one else had noticed it either. They all looked very surprised.
"Uggh, we aren't gonna play in this, are we, Harry?" asked Alicia.
"Surely we aren't flying in this weather?" questioned Ron.
Harry sighed, and cleared his throat, "Come on, men," he said thinking of Oliver, "We've all played in rain before."
"Yeah, but this is ridiculous," protested George. He was right it was ridiculous. Harry had never seen it rain so hard, and the lightning was unbelievable. It lit up the sky for several seconds at a time.
"George, we have no choice. The game will be played no matter what, and it can only help us to practice first. We can get used to the conditions; by the time the game starts we'll know how strong the wind is, and we'll be so wet it won't matter if we get any wetter."
It was clear that Harry was sticking to his decision so nobody argued. The team went into the locker room, changed into their Quidditch robes and went out onto the field. Harry had to get the balls first. When they were finally ready to start Madam Hooch had arrived. "Are you guys practicing or what, get a move on!" she yelled through the howling wind, and roaring thunder.
"Yeah, all right," replied Harry, "Come on team, mount your brooms." It was by far the worst practice they had ever had. Part of that was do to the fact that the Slytherens had arrived early, and were taunting the team about there lousy flying in the gale force winds. Another part of it was that Fred's Cleansweep 7 had broken, so he was using a shooting star.
The faint sound of a whistle hit Harry's ears. He looked down to see Madam Hooch gesturing him down to the ground. Harry signaled the rest of the team, before making a landing. "What's the matter?" he asked.
"The game is starting in 20 minutes, and I just thought you might want to get some breakfast into your team."
"Thank you Professor, I think I will."
Harry looked up. Everyone on the team was looking down at him. He waved them down.
"What's going on?" asked Fred.
"Time for breakfast," Harry told the team. Lets go," he started walking toward the great hall. The team followed. Breakfast was pretty good, and even though he didn't feel like eating Harry had to set an example. "Eat up, Ron," he urged, "you need your energy.
"I'm really not hungry. . ."
"Just eat. Here have a piece of bacon. He shoved some bacon into Ron's hand.
Ron bit of a small piece, then shoved the whole thing into his mouth, chewed a for a couple seconds, closed his eyes, and swallowed. "That was disgusting."
Breakfast was pretty short. They had arrived very late and had to scarf down their food in a matter of minutes. When they were finished they ran out to the Quidditch field. Everyone was already there. The crowd cheered as the darted into their locker rooms. "All right!! Let's win this game," encouraged Harry. They grabbed there brooms and ran out onto the field into the storm.
"Mount your brooms. 3, 2, 1!" The whistle sounded.
"And they're off," announced Lee Jordan who was, as always, doing commentary. He could barely be heard through the wind and thunder. Harry couldn't see 10 feet in front of him, even with the water repelling charm Hermione had taught him ages ago. The clouds blocked out the sun, and made it as dark as night, the rain was thick and like a wall in front of him. Every so often a flash of lightning would blind him. Besides the fact that there was no way he could see the snitch, he couldn't see the game, and he could barely hear the commentary. He strained his ears to hear 20 to zero, Slytherin. Come on Ron, he thought. Your gonna have to do a better job then that.
"30 zero to Slytherin," he heard Lee say. It wasn't looking good.
"Penalty shot for Slytherin," announced Lee. Harry groaned. "And its forty to, WOW, scratch that. An outstanding save by Ron Weasley. Wow, that was one of the best saves I've ever seen!!" Harry smiled.
Then he heard something. He could just barley make out Ron's voice saying, "Snitch...here by...griff...goal" Harry felt a lurch of excitement. He put on a great burst of speed and started flying down to the Gryffindor goal. He was only a few feet away from it when he saw the snitch, about a yard in front of him. He used his quick reflexes to reach up and grab. Nobody realized he caught the Snitch except Ron, who left the goal to tell Madam Hooch. While he was gone one of the Slytherin chasers scored, and Lee, not knowing about the snitch announced it was 40 to zero. Finally the whistle blew, but a little to late. The final score was 150 to 40. Harry started his victory lap. He was half way through it when he was blinded by lighting, heard the loudest thunder of the night, then blacked out.
When he woke up he was in the hospital wing, with Ron, and Hermione standing next to him.
"What happened," he asked.
"You were struck by lightning, Harry!!" Said Ron very fast.
"You fell off your broom, and broke your jaw," continued Hermione. "We thought you were dead." Now that Hermione had mentioned it he felt a severe pain in his jaw. Harry suddenly remembered something that was painful to think about.
He groaned. "What happened to my broom?" he asked, barely moving his lips.
Ron grinned. Then reached under Harry's bed, and pulled out the Firebolt, just as shiny and nice as it always was. Harry grinned back.
Madam Pomfrey walked into the room. "Out," she screeched at Harry and Ron, "he needs his rest."
"Just 5 more--"
"Out!"
"Oh fine."
"Bye," said harry as his two best friends in Hogwarts left the room. Harry tried to sleep but couldn't. Finally he did manage to drift off, but not for long. He had a horrible nightmare where he saw his father trapped in a small dark cell. He was staring blankly at the wall. There was a strange white glow radiating off of him. Just before Harry was going to say something he woke up, sweating.
Harry finally woke up the next morning after a long night of having the same dream over and over again.
"Madam Pomfrey," he asked, "can I go now? I feel fine."
"I don't know, I think you should stay another day."
"Please?"
"Oh, all right."
"Are you sure it was your father?" asked Hermione.
"Yes," replied Harry, "I've seen that face a million times."
"Well if you have it again tonight you might want to ask Madam Pomfrey for a dreamless sleep potion."
"Yeah, maybe. Come on, let's go to Transfiguration." So they started toward Transfiguration. This year, they had started turning living creatures into other living creature, a type of Transfiguration that is much more difficult than most.
"Today we are going to be turning snakes into rats," Professor McGonagall announced to the class, and she started going off into her 15 minute long spiel. When she was finally finished, she passed out the snakes.
"Hey there," Harry whispered to his. "I hope you don't mind."
"This is my fifth time today, don't worry about it," it whispered back, surprised to see someone who can speak Parseltongue.
As usual the only person in the class who got it perfectly was Hermione.
"Excellent," said Professor McGonagall sounding very impressed, "I didn't even expect you to get this one right away, Hermione, ten points to Gryffindor." Hermione smiled.
After Lunch was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The new teacher was Professor Kildon. He was an old wizard, who was very strict and very boring. Not much unlike Professor Binns. The class always spent the lesson copying notes. Very boring.
Dinner was very good, but very short. Ten minutes into it he had to round up his team for an evening Quidditch practice.
By the time practice was over Harry was very tired. He went up to bed and fell straight to sleep, but not for long. He had the same dream he had had the night before. His father in a small cell, glowing like a ghost. And just like the last time, he woke before he could say anything. This must have happened ten times in the one night. Harry was very glad to see the sun come up, and know that his night was over.
"Just ask Madam Hooch for a dreamless sleep potion," Ron urged, "It'll all go away."
"No," said Harry, "I think what I need is something that will keep me asleep. That way I can talk to him without waking up."
"Well you could try the Raynog potion," Hermione suggested
"And that is?"
"Oh come on, don't you guys do any reading? The Raynog potion is a potion that makes you sleep 1 hour for however many drops you take. The only problem with it is, once you take it, its impossible to wake up until the time is up. That makes it kind of dangerous."
"Sounds good, can you make it for me before tonight?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, sure. I'll do it during lunch, but I need you to get a hold of some ingredients for me. I have everything in my dormitory but the sagon roots, and the dragon eye, which is the most vital part. Do you think you snatch those somehow?"
"Sure thing," replied Harry, "Come on Ron, let's do this." There was half an hour before breakfast so they had just enough time. Harry grabbed the Invisibility cloak.
"How exactly are we getting these ingredients," Ron asked looking nervously at the invisibility cloak, "We're not going to, you know," Ron pointed at the cloak.
Harry grinned. "Yes Ron, that's exactly what were going to do."
"You mean sneak into Snape's office!!!!"
"Yep."
"Come on Harry, this isn't worth that much, we could be expelled, and all because you want to stay asleep for a dream! You now what would happen if Snape were to catch us!"
"Oh come on, he won't catch us if we're under the cloak!"
"But he already knows about the damn cloak. It's a stupid idea Harry, and it isn't even that important."
"Look, I'm going whether you like it or not." Harry walked out of the dormitory, and into the common room. He waited until no one was looking then slipped on the cloak.
"Wait!" It was Ron. He seemed to have changed his mind.
Snape's office was quiet and empty. Harry and Ron sneaked into the back room, to find non other that Professor Snape sitting at his desk. He was writing something. they walked up behind him, and reached slowly to the shelf in front of them, reaching, reaching, CRASH. A bottle of frogs blood fell onto Snape's desk, which broke, and spilled all over his parchment. Harry's arm slipped out from under the cloak.
"POTTER!!!!" Screamed Snape. Harry quickly put his arm back under, but it was too late. Snape knew what had happened. Harry grabbed the dragon eyes, and sagon roots then elbowed Ron. "Lets go" he whispered very, very softly so that Snape wouldn't hear, which was unlikely anyway, as he was practically foaming at the mouth.
They ran out of Snape's office and back to the common room. They quickly told Hermione what had just happened, then Harry ran up to put back the cloak. When he got back to the common room, Snape was there, and everyone was quiet.
"Potter," he said, not so loudly, but Harry could detect the pure anger in his voice, "where were you ten minutes ago?"
"Er, I was here with Ron and Hermione. Wasn't I?"
"Oh, yes of course you were," Hermione said, a bit to quickly to be convincing.
"Where is your invisibility cloak, Potter?"
"Oh that, it was stolen. Just yesterday actually. I was going to use it to scare Ron, when I found it wasn't there, Professor."
"Yes of course, then you wouldn't mind if I searched your dormitory."
"I wouldn't professor, but some of the others might."
"Silence. I did not ask you if you thought anyone would mind. Do you think that would stop me!" Snape walked up the stairs to the dormitory. He started searching everywhere. Harry closed his eyes as Snape started to search his trunk. He couldn't bear to watch. This was it. He was going to be expelled.
"All right Potter, I've searched everywhere. I can't find it. Ten points from Gryfindor for not making me believe you." Harry's mouth fell open.
"Do you wish to argue, I could always make it 15." Harry struggled to close his mouth. Snape walked out.
"Unbelievable!!!!!!!!!! 10 points!," Harry yelled at Ron.
"At least he didn't find the cloak. then you would have been expelled... Say, where is the cloak anyway?"
"It's right here," came a voice. It was the voice of Neville Longbottom who was somehow standing in the middle of the room, and in his hand was Harry's invisibility cloak.
"How the. . ."
"When I heard the conversation between you and--and--and"
"Snape?," said Ron
"Yeah, him, well I heard him ask to search the dorm," Neville was trembling, "so I came up here and took your cloak out. I was still deciding what to go with it when the door opened, so I quickly threw it over me. The I just sat down in the corner until--until he left."
"Thanks, Neville! I owe you one."
"Your welcome," replied Neville who seamed a little less afraid.
"Oh no, we're 20 minutes late for breakfast!," exclaimed Ron after a glance down at his watch.
When they got down to the Great Hall, the mail was in the middle of arriving. Hedwig, was sitting on the table looking sadly at Harry's empty chair.
"Hedwig!" Harry called to his snowy white barn owl. Hedwig saw, stretched out his wings and started to fly. He dropped the letter he was carrying at Harry's feet. Harry bent over and picked it up. It was written in the very familiar neat and loopy hand writing of Albus Dumbledore. It said:
Dear Harry,
I know what happened this morning. I'm not going to hold it against you, but I am warning you, that if you get caught by someone other than me, I can not stop them from expelling you, so I wouldn't suggest doing anything like that again.
Harry was amazed that he could know about it this soon, and still have time to write him an owl, but he learned in his first year, that it was pointless to try to figure out the mysteries of Dumbledore.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Neville, melted his cauldron in Potions, but this happened so often it could hardly be considered an event. After Potions was lunch, where Hermione ate very quickly, so she could start the mixture.
Finally the day was over and Harry was ready to go to bed.
"Now, how long do you want to stay asleep. 14 hours?" Hermione asked Harry.
"Sounds good to me."
"You know this is really dangerous. If there's a disaster and you need to wake up, nothing can wake you, and there is a million things that can go wrong."
Hermione! Just give me the potion."
"All right. 14 drops is what you need"
Harry took the dropper and counted 14 drops. Immediately he felt drowsy and tired. The room started to spin. His eyes closed. When he opened them again, there was his father, alone in the dark cell.
"Dad?" As he spoke his voice echoed in his mind.
"Harry! Is that you! You're alive, are you really alive! How did you survive!" A billion questions popped into Harry's mind.
"Are you James Potter, my dad, are you really my dad!!" Tears started to come out of Harry's eyes.
Yes, I am!" Apparently he was crying to, except his tears were silver.
"Are you a ghost?"
He sighed, "Yes, and a trapped one at that."
"Can't you just walk through the walls?"
"If only I could. You see when I died, Voldemort, used a special curse on me, which would not only kill me, but lock my soul in here forever, with no one able to see me. That's why I am so puzzled, how did you get here. "
"Well, I'm actually asleep. A few days ago I was struck by lightning. That night I kept having this dream that you were locked in here. I had it the next night too, and the next, and every time before I could say anything I would wake up, so I had a friend make a potion that would keep me asleep. That was today."
"Wow! Clever. Tell me Harry, how on Earth did you manage to survive."
"It was Mum. She died trying to save me. Voldemort couldn't stand the feeling of love, and when he tried to kill me, he lost all of his powers."
"Amazing. Well Harry, come and visit more often. I hate this bloody Masilitory Curse, it leaves me here forever. Imagine how boring that's going to be."
Harry woke up.
Everyone else was up already. Ron was sitting by his bed.
"You put in 16 drops harry, but luckily it's Saturday, so you didn't miss classes."
"Oops, look Ron, the most amazing thing happened!, where's Hermione. I need to find out about the Masilitory Curse. He ran down to the common room, and told Ron and Hermione everything.
"The Masilitory Curse!!!!," Hermione said stunned when he was over. "My God! There is only one place we can find that, and is probably the most restricted book in the library. I don't think we could get it even with a signed note from a teacher!"
"What book is it Hermione!"
"It doesn't have a name, but it is full of the worst curses in the world, how to use them, and what if any their counter curses are. It has a long history. That's how I read about it. It was in Hogwarts, A History. The school put an enchantment on it so that if anyone who is not supposed to opens it, it shrieks."
"Oh my God!," exclaimed Harry, "I opened that book our first year. When I first got the invisibility cloak, I went to the restricted section of the library to try to find out who Flamel was!"
"Did you really. Did it scream?!" Ron asked loudly.
"Yes, and it almost got me caught.!"
"Look," said Hermione, "How are we going to get that book. It shrieks!!"
"You could make it shut up! You're smart enough Hermione," Ron Half taunted, and half said seriously.
"No I couldn't! Its an advanced enchantment, and I couldn't possibly. . . wait a minute Harry. Do you still have the Marauder's map."
"Yeah"
"Well we could bring it inside the secret passage to Honeydukes. Nobody would hear it there, and I could make us all deaf for a certain period of time so that the shriek doesn't bother us all. That is a very simple spell, which I picked up in--"
"Lets go," interrupted Harry. "I want to get my dad back, I'll go get my cloak" Harry went and got the invisibility cloak, then walked back down to the common room.
"I'll go get the book," he said to the Ron and Hermione. Harry walked out of the common room, and to the library. Madam Pince was looking at a book on her desk. He Had no idea how he was going to find the right book. It, among most of the books on the shelf had no name. He looked up and down the shelves to see if he could recognize it. Then he saw a book that looked familiar. A book that had something that looked like bloodstain on the cover. He looked next to it and saw it. It was defiantly the book that shrieked at him that one Christmas, so many years ago. He grabbed it, and quickly put it under the cloak, then turned, and went back to the common room.
"Here it is Hermione, I'll get the map." Harry ran up to the dormitory as fast as he could. He lifted up his mattress and pulled out the map from underneath it. He put his mattress back on his four poster, and ran back down to the common room. "Lets go," he said in-between big heavy breaths.
When they got the on eyed witch, Harry looked at the map, and groaned. There was a little dot coming toward them, marked: Severus Snape. Harry tapped the parchment with his wand and muttered, "Mischief managed." Snape walked through the door.
"Why do I always find you here Potter!! You should not be wandering around the school without permission. Five points from Gryffindor! And what's that," he pointed at the map, "Why I do believe its that old parchment again, that insulted me when I tried to find out what it was hiding. I thought Lupin took that from you!"
"He did sir. This is nothing but the parchment I am going to write my Vampire essay on"
"Silence! Five points from Gryffindore for talking back." Harry couldn't believe it. Snape was being unbelievably horrible. "Five more for not apologizing to now get back to your common room. Now!!"
"That slimy maggot," said Ron as soon as Snape was out of hearing distance, "Well lets get going before that fat git comes back!" Harry tapped on the witches hump, and crawled though. He gestured for the rest to come.
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The book exploded. Harry had dropped it and it had fell open. The hump was still open. "Come on!!!!!" He shouted at the others, but doubted they could hear him. Ron jumped in. Harry looked at the map. Snape was running toward them. They would be in so much trouble if he ever saw. . . Hermione fell in on top of Ron. Harry quickly closed the hump. "Lumos," he muttered. He felt his lips move but could not hear what he said through the high pitched screaming. A light cam out of the tip of his wand onto Hermione, who was waving her wand at him. Suddenly the screech was gone. So was his hearing. Harry waved his wand to form the glowing letters: Lets read about the spell, and get this done with.
The book was very plain and boring looking. It had no illustrations, and was all in very fine print. They looked in the index and found it. The Masilitory Curse. It was a long section, but they read through it. Harry found out that the countercurse could only be used by someone who had the power to visit the cursed, which was almost, if not always (except in his case) the person who used the curse in the first place. The countercurse was actually fairly simple, the only reason it is never used, is because nobody had the power to use it.
Harry felt, for the first time in his life, hope, that he would be able to get his father back.
They closed the book. Hermione waved her wand and formed the words: We have to wait 10 minutes after we close it for it to stop shrieking.
And so Harry sat down against a wall, and thought about his dad.
Harry spent the rest of the day practicing the spell against the wall. It took him several hours to get, and when he finally did, it burned a hole through the stone. He started having negative feelings about doing that to his father.
When it was finely time to sleep, Harry tried to think of how to take his wand with him. He decided just to try holding in his hand.
Harry put the potion in a cup so he wouldn't fall asleep while putting the drops in his mouth like he did last time. He took it down in one gulp. The room started spinning. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in the cell with his father. Someone else was there too. It was Voldemort.
"Hello, Harry," he said calmly, "I have been expecting you here." His voice was crackly and evil. It added a chill to the tiny dark room. "There is no escaping me now, Harry. You can't wake up, and there is no where to run." He pulled out his wand, or was it? It looked longer than it did before. Much longer.
"Your curious about the wand? Oh come on, you know I wouldn't be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. This isn't mine, its, "He put on an evil grin. "Why its his." He pointed hat James. "Killed by his fathers wand, the wand that lost his owner trying to protect you. Oh the irony of it all. Now, Harry Potter, It is time to die." Harry looked at his dad. He didn't think James could see a thing of what was going on.
"Dad!!" he cried helplessly. But he made no response. All of a sudden harry remembered what he came to do. He took his wand, and shouted the countercurse. It hit his dad right in the stomach. All of a sudden he was gone.
"NOO!!" yelled Voldemort. "WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT, BOY!!" Voldemort raised his wand, and was about to bring it down. Harry didn't even think. He pointed the wand at himself and yelled the countercurse to the Masilitory curse. His eyes closed, and he drifted into dreams.
Harry woke up Ron and Hermione standing over him. There was another face to. It took a little while to make it out. It was a face of a ghost. The face of his father's ghost.
"Harry, Harry!! What happened!?!" So Harry told them everything. When he was finally done, Dumbledore walked in. Harry had never seen him looked more stunned.
"James! Is that you my dear friend!!"
"Yes, Albus its me. And its thanks to Harry that I'm here." And so Harry told the whole story yet again, plus the lightning and potion.
"Fascinating," said Dumbledore, taking off his half moon glasses.
"Professor?" Harry asked, "Why couldn't my dad see what was happening?"
"Well, the Curse, was only meant for a certain number of souls to be in there at a time. Any more that, and one of them gets tuned out."
"Oh. And sir, I hope you aren't upset that I took this," he reached up to one of his bed shelves and grabbed the book, "I needed it to get the countercurse, and nobody else could have performed it so I just thought--"
"Harry, Its fine. You did the right thing. If everybody sticks to the rules all the time, there are some things that will never be gained."
"Well said, Albus," commented James.
"Oh yeah, one more thing, Professor. What happened to me when I performed the countercurse on myself?"
"Well, this is going to sound weird, but, you went to sleep. You see when you were in the cell, you were not asleep. Your soul was just in another place. So really Harry, you got about 2 hours of sleep."
"No wonder I'm so tired." That was true. And as soon as everybody left the dorm Harry went to sleep.
A/N: R & R, please
