Chapter 3
Harry sat staring at his plate of eggs and toast, but not really seeing it. The events of the night before were still playing in his head. Once Harry and the others had arrived at the Great Hall they all took their seats in their usual corner of the Gryffindor table. Ron, Harry noticed, took the seat right next to Hermione forcing him to take the only available empty seat across from them. Had he been looking at himself in the mirror, he would have seen his eyes flash from green to black once again. Too busy staring daggers at Ron, Harry didn't see Hermione's eyes widen at his change or look at him in concern.
"Harry-"
Harry turned to Hermione, but the doors of the Great Hall opening and Professor McGonagall entering with the first years cut off her words. Everyone immediately quieted to listen to the ceremony. The hat sang a similar song to the one he'd sung fifth year about unity and inner house relations. When all the children were sorted, Dumbledore stood with his arms open in welcome.
"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts…."
Harry didn't hear the rest of the old man's speech for the hatred that grew inside him blocked out his surroundings. He didn't understand it, but he wanted to hurt the annoyingly jovial man with twinkling eyes. Harry wanted Dumbledore's blood spilling in front of him. He wanted to see the light fade from his eyes. Shaking with anger and hate he didn't realize what was happening until everyone in the Great Hall screamed with fear.
The large colorful glass windows of the hall imploded. As shards of glass flew everywhere some students hid under the table. Harry could still feel the darkness inside him and watched with mild interest as students got slashed and cut by the flying glass pieces. He knew without thought that Hermione would not be harmed. He made sure to protect her with a wandless Protego. Harry's eyes darted to the Slytherin table of their own accord and they landed on Malfoy. He was in the same position as Harry, staring around with an air of boredom as everyone screamed in fear. He noted that the glass shards seemed to bounce off some kind of shield that surrounded him. He must have cast a Protego charm on himself as well.
After seeing Malfoy wasn't harmed Harry looked over at the Professors table and smiled. All of the Professors had their wands out trying in vane to stop the flying glass from hurting any more children.
"HARRY! HARRY!" Hermione yelled over the screams.
Harry eyes turned to Hermione. He saw her eyes widen at him and she stared at him in an awe filled trance. Harry couldn't hold back a smirk. Hermione shook her head as if to clear it.
"Harry, y-your eyes. They're black." Hermione said.
Everyone was in such a commotion that no one paid attention to neither Harry nor Hermione. Anyone that is but for a certain blond Slytherin who watched them in interest. Harry reached for Hermione's hand stroking the back of it softly.
"Are you afraid 'Mione?" He asked softly though he was sure she heard him.
He watched Hermione take a shuddering breath. "A little."
Harry continued to stroke his thumb over her petal soft skin. "Don't be. I would never harm you. I'd kill anyone who tried to."
He could see in the widening of her brown eyes that she knew he meant it.
"Harry are you doing this? If you are you must stop. People are getting hurt." Hermione said looking around at the frightened students.
Harry shrugged. "You're not getting hurt. I could care less about them." Well, he didn't want to admit it but he cared if one other person got hurt as well.
His eyes once again darted to the Slytherin table but this time his emerald met silver. Harry raised his eyebrow at Malfoy and watched in amusement as the Slytherin saluted him with a smirk on his face.
"Please Harry." Hermione pleaded. "What about Ron? And Ginny? And everyone else that we're friends with?"
Harry looked around for Ron and saw that he had ducked under the table his arms covering his head. They had a couple of deep gashes and blood had trickled down to the sleeves of his robes. He didn't bother to look for Ginny.
"Please." Hermione said once more grasping Harry's hand in hers.
Sighing Harry reined in his temper and the shards of glass that had once been flying about with powerful gusts of wind stopped. The glass rained down like dangerous hale onto the floor. Once everything had quieted down though cries from the younger students were heard, the professors took action.
"Everyone! Stay calm and take your seats. Everything is going to be fine." Dumbledore said loudly. He turned to Madame Pomfrey and spoke quickly. She nodded before she, Professor Sprout, Snape, and a Professor Harry assumed was the new DADA teacher, started milling around the tables.
The students with the worst injuries were treated first before the ones with shallow cuts. Harry just sat and watched still holding Hermione's hand.
"Bloody hell!" Ron said coming out from under the table. "What the hell was that!" He looked at both Harry and Hermione in shock. "How did you?-you're not hurt!?"
Hermione cleared her throat. "We covered our heads when we heard the explosion and luckily Harry remembered how to do a shield charm and cast it over us before the glass could do any damage."
Ron looked down at his bleeding hands. "Why didn't you cast it on me too?"
Harry felt the sinister evil inside him simmer down and an overwhelming sense of guilt take over. "I'm sorry Ron," he said genuinely meaning it. "When I cast the charm I looked for you but you had hidden. Had I seen you I would've covered you as well."
The look of hurt left Ron's face and a sheepish look remained. "I know mate. I was under the table."
Madame Pomfrey chose that moment to walk over to them. "Where are you hurt?"
Ron showed her his hands and she quickly disinfected the cuts and stitched them up with a quick healing spell.
"And you two?" she asked eyeing Harry as if she would suddenly find a piece of one of the windows protruding from his body.
"We're fine Madame Pomfrey." Hermione answered. "We cast shield charms."
Madame Pomfrey did a quick checkup on both of them before moving on to the other Gryffindors.
Once everyone had been taken care of, Dumbledore asked the Prefects to take the first years to their houses and the heads to come up so he could have a word. Ron and Parvati Patil stood to gather up the first years of the Gryffindor house.
Harry walked to Gryffindor alone taking the shortcuts so he'd reach his bedroom fifteen minutes before everyone else. He climbed into his four-poster bed, closing the curtains with his mind. What the hell was wrong with him? What if he would've killed someone tonight? Closing his eyes tightly he knew deep down he wouldn't have cared. The only people that mattered to him were Hermione and he grudgingly thought Malfoy. He needed help. He needed to find out what was going on with him soon before he really did kill someone.
"Harry? Harry!"
Harry jerked out of his thoughts and looked over at Ron. "What Ron?"
"Where were you mate? I asked you a question." Ron said.
"Just thinking about last night." Harry said pushing his eggs around in his plate. "What were you trying to tell me?"
"I wanted to know if you knew where Hermione was? I didn't see her in the common room and she hasn't come in for breakfast." Ron stated.
Harry frowned realizing that he hadn't seen her all morning either. "I don't know. Why do you ask?"
Ron turned a deep shade of red and mumbled a low, "Just wanted to know."
The boys didn't see Hermione until their first class with her in the afternoon. They were heading to DADA when she came running and out of breath behind them.
"Hermione! Where were you this morning?" Ron asked as they entered the room.
"The library. I was um," she glanced over at Harry. "Researching something."
Before Harry could ask what it was the new Professor entered the room. He was fairly young for a Professor no older than thirty with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Harry heard all the girls sigh in appreciation. He looked over at Hermione wondering if she was staring at the new Professor like the other girls but noticed she was reading over something in her notes.
"Levels of power," The new Professor began and everyone's murmuring quieted down. "is an important factor when dealing with the dark arts. What good is defense if one is dealing with a witch or wizard far more powerful than them? Today we are going to be learning how to find out what our level of power is. Please open your books to page two hundred and twelve."
"Harry." Hermione whispered from her seat next to him. "I need to talk to you. Let's head to the library after class."
Harry nodded. He wondered what she could possibly need to talk to him about.
