Disclaimer: I do not own any of the familiar characters, scenes, or locations from the Potterverse that are found within this fic. They all belong to J.K. Rowling and whoever publishes the books/ebooks. If at any time the owner/s of the Potterverse wish for me to take down this fic then I will.
Warnings: Rated T right now for swearing, rating will go up as the story progress and the overall themes darken with the coming of the war.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Book Titles
Spells
-Break-
A Long Road to Peace Series
The Sorcerer's Stone: The First Step to Peace – Chapter 05: Explanations and Broomsticks
-Break-
It's been a week since the whole troll trying to kill us thing. I had a fun four days in the Hospital Wing under the sadistic…I mean tender care of Madame Pomfrey. For some odd reason I thought medical potions would end up tasting far better than Muggle medicine, you know since it's magical-ish. Oh how wrong I was, potions are much, much worse. Not to mention the ingredients to some of them are just plain disgusting. No matter how fast a pain relief potion works, I may never be able to take it again after looking it up in my book. Nope I'll stick to good ole fashion wee…I mean aspirin, that's right aspirin. Remember kid drugs are bad M'kay.
The majority of my time stuck in bed was spent staring into a hand mirror, focusing intently at my eyes. I've been attempting to reactivate the Sharingan almost constantly since getting my a** handed to me by the troll. There are only two things that kept me alive that day, the Sharingan and my friends' timely intervention. Unfortunately I haven't had any luck activating them again. I think I may have seen them change red for a split second once or twice but other than that nada. Speaking of the Sharingan, I had a fun time explaining it to my friends.
-Flashback-
It's the second day of my Hospital Wing stay, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione have decided to join me for lunch. Hermione being the kind, sweet, and loving girl that she is, brought a rather large pile of the Food of the Gods…Bacon! We all enjoy some quiet and friendly conversation during our lunch, me happily chewing on my delicious bacon-e goodness chatting with Hermione while Harry and Ron adamantly talk about Quidditch. It's not long until Madame Pomfrey joined our group, giving me a quick check-up and subtly ordering my friends to get her if anything suddenly happens to me, before she makes her way to the Great Hall for her own meal.
"Alright Lina, are you ready to tell us why your eyes were glowing red that day in the bathroom?" Harry asked me after Madame Pomfrey left, waiting a few minutes to make sure she didn't return suddenly.
"What was happening with that? It was creepy and cool at the same time." Ron added eager to learn something outside of Quidditch statistics…for once.
Hermione was nodding her head next to me, a little shine, similar to the twinkle that sometimes appears in Dumbledore's eyes, appearing in hers.
Seeing all of their expectant looks I sighed. Pausing the rapid consumption of the F.O.T.G. and began explaining about the Sharingan, though not telling them the entire truth of where it came from or how I know about it. I gave them the basic rundown of the Sharingan. I began explaining the different abilities that I could gain from it, once I figured out how to use it consciously. First thing I explained to them were the tomoes. How, depending on how many there were, was how you could tell just what I would be able to do.
With one in each eye, I am able to see magic. This basically makes me immune to illusions. That's why the walls, floor, and ceiling of Hogwarts looked like an almost solid wall of color. What I saw was all of the magic that runs through the castle. With two tomoe in one eye I am able to read and predict movements and trajectories faster than a normal Witch or Wizard would be able too. That's why everything seemed to slow down while I was dodging the troll. It was my brains way of coping with the information my new eyes were feeding it. Two tomoes in each eye will give me a near photographic memory of anything and everything I view with it active.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were staring at me in awe. I'm not too sure how well they were processing all the information I was dumping on them. After giving them a couple minutes to process, I continued my explanation.
"Now when the last tomoe appears in each eye the Sharingan is fully mature." I told them all while nibbling on my bacon again. "Two things are gained when the Sharingan fully matures…and that…" I trailed off mysteriously, all three of them leaning forward in anticipation.
"Well what happens?" Ron asked demanded excitedly.
"…is a s-e-c-r-e-t." I sing-songed to them. All three anime dropped so hard I could swore I felt the whole castle shake. And where was I you ask, why I was right there on the floor with them, rolling around laughing like crazy.
-Flashback End-
Now I did eventually tell them that with a fully mature Sharingan I can slightly hypnotize weak minded people as well as being able to almost perfectly copy, not only wand, but any kind of physical movement after seeing it once. After finally being discharged with orders to take it easy with my shoulder and ribs, I spent all of my free time in the library. Doing my best to catch up on all of the homework I missed while out of class and researching wandless magic once I was all caught up.
Wandless magic works by channeling magic from your core to your hands to cast different spells instead of it going to your wand. A witch or wizard's wand acts a focus or a magical lightning rod, which naturally and almost instantly calls forth the magic from your core and makes spell casting with the wand simple compared to without one. My theory is that since what I am trying to do, channeling magic to my eyes; is basically the same as channeling it to my hand for wandless casting. Now I have come to the conclusion that I won't be able to do the cool glowly eye trick whenever I want for a while…depressing.
So after almost a full week of hiding in the library under a mountain of books and research, I only have one thought stemming from my attempts to find a way to help me activate the Sharingan again. 'Stupid F***ing Uchihas! They get everything easy! Broke a** Doujutsu that does all the work for them AND they can just switch it on and off right away whenever they want with no work. Glad Itachi went all Michael Meyers on them!' …Yeah I can be a petty and vindictive b****, sue me.
-Break-
It's the day before Harry's first Quidditch game of the year. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I are all relaxing in the Common Room. Well Ron and I are relaxing. Harry was sitting off to the side brooding over Snape making up some BS rule and using it to take the copy of Quidditch Through the Ages that Hermione lent him away. Hermione is sitting on my right, grumbling quietly while she double checked the boys' Charms essays for them. They wanted to just copy off one of us but that so wasn't happening. We flipped a coin to see who would have to proofread for them tonight, I won. Ron and I are currently in an epic battle of titanic proportions, me getting slaughtered in Wizard's Chess.
"Just how in the hell can you destroy me at chess yet you can never get your bloody homework done without either me or Hermione forcing you to do it? I asked him, eyebrow twitching as I stare at the board.
"Language." Hermione scolded me with a light swipe to the back of my head, all without looking away from the paper she was correcting.
Ron just shrugged, "Well chess is interesting." He commented while ordering his Queen to take my last Rook. "Checkmate," he finished with a smirk.
"You're terrible at this!" One of my own chess pieces yelled up to me, the rest of my pieces agreeing with the first one…loudly and in some cases obscenely.
I was slowly reaching for my wand while a large tic mark appeared on my head. 'Urge to kill…rising.' Unfortunately my thoughts of chess piece genocide are foiled by Hermione. Without even bothering to look up from her work again, she grabbed my hand gently and pulled it away from the pocket where I keep my wand.
"No." She told me sternly.
"But…"
"No buts," she finishes before looking up from Harry's parchment and seeing the mischievous grin slowly spreading across my face. "And yes you do have a butt and it is very cute." I pouted when she cut me off, putting a stop to my fun before it could begin. Harry just sat there brooding away, not reacting to any of our witty back and forth banter.
All of the sudden Harry randomly stood up and started making his way to the portrait hole. "I'm going to see Snape," he told us over his shoulder.
"And you willingly want to do that because…" I asked him slowly, like you would a small child, as Ron and Hermione tilted their heads in confusion or curiosity.
He paused and turned to us. "I going to get my book back, he had no reason to take it in the first place." He told us before turning to leave again. We all shrugged our shoulders and went back to what we were doing.
"Good luck with that." I called to his retreating form, Ron and Hermione voicing similar farewells. Not sure how he did it but Ron talked me into another massacre that he called chess. My pieces were loudly, very loudly, yelling their protest. Hermione having finished with the essays rested her head on my shoulder to watch us play, trying to help me every now and then. Even when playing him two on one we only lasted a little bit longer than either of us does separately. It was about twenty minutes later that Harry came rushing back through the portrait hole.
"How did it go?" Ron asked him before check mating me and Hermione once again.
"Filch was with Snape in the teacher's lounge. He was bandaging up Snape's leg." He told us, breathing heavily, with a worried look. "Snape mentioned not being able to keep his eyes on all three heads at the same time. You know what this means don't you?" he asked us hurriedly.
"Nope, I have no idea what you're talking about," I told him,
"What are you trying to say Harry?" Hermione asked him, her confusion giving way to curiosity.
"He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween!" He turned to Ron "That's where he was going when we saw him. He must be after whatever it's guarding!" Ron's eyes widened, my brow furrowed and an incredulous look appeared on Hermione's face. "I'd bet my broomstick that he's the one let that troll in…to make a diversion!"
"No…he wouldn't," Hermione told him. "I know he's not very nice," she was cut off by three identical snorts, which she expertly ignored before continuing. "But he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."
"Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something," Ron snapped at her. "I'm with Harry. I wouldn't put anything past Snape. But what's he after? What's that dog guarding?" Hermione huffed in annoyance at his dismissal before the three turned to me.
Holding my hands up in surrender I got up from my seat and backed away. "Don't look at me. I hate the grease ball as much as the next non-Slytherin and I agree that he is most likely up to something." Ron sent a smug look in Hermione direction before I continued. "But just because he's up to something doesn't necessarily mean he's trying to steal whatever the dog is guarding. Maybe it was time to clean up after the dog. I mean a dog that big must take some massive hmmp." Hermione quickly covered my mouth before I could finish my sentence. Harry and Ron gave me matching horrified looks as they realized, then visualized, what I was about to say.
"Well we should all be getting to bed. Especially you Harry, you're going to need your rest for tomorrow." Hermione told the boys while she dragged me toward our staircase.
"Trying to get me in bed aga…" My words are cut out off as she brandishes a roll of Spell-o-Tape, that she pulled out of who knows where, threateningly. "Shutting up now," I hastily told her with a nervous smile. Our antics earned quite a few sweat drops, not only from Harry and Ron but the rest of the common room as well.
-Break-
"You need to eat something." Hermione told Harry as she stole one of my plates and pushed it toward him."
"Hey that's mi…" My indignant cry of outrage was stifled by Hermione's harsh glare. "I mean, sharing is caring eh hehe." I laughed nervously the glare turn into a sweet smile as she continued her attempts to coax Harry to eat something.
'Gahh her mood swings are worse than the troll's were.' I thought grumpily before returning to my breakfast.
"I'm not hungry." He muttered to her.
"Blasphemy!" I cried before diving over the table and tackling him to the ground. While holding him down Hermione handed me the piece of toast she had and I jammed it in his mouth, which was wide open in surprise from my sneak attack.
"Oww! Lina I said I wasn't hungry." He yelled at me after swallowing the toast. Hermione handed me another one as I fought with him to get it in his mouth.
"Uhh, shouldn't you be stopping her?" I heard Neville ask Hermione while she continued handing me different things to force feed Harry with.
"Normally I would, but he needs to eat. It's unhealthy to do any kind of strenuous active without a proper meal for energy." She answered him before finally pulling me off him.
"Was all that really necessary?" Harry grumbled; glare switching back and forth from me to Hermione.
"Of course it was…" I answered him with a cheeky grin. "…you're not excessively freaking out over the game anymore are you?"
He froze, contemplating my words for a moment. "Thanks…" he deadpanned. "...who knew that physical assault was just the thing to get my mind off the game."
"Anytime Harry…anytime," I patted him on the back before aiming my wand at Ron's last piece of bacon and summoning it right out of his hand.
"Oi!" He glared at me while. I just gave him an innocent pout before popping the bacon-e goodness into my mouth.
'Food of the Gods!' I thought blissfully.
-Break-
"You know what, Seekers must be beyond bored for like 99.9 percent of the game." I commented to no one in particular. Almost the whole castle is out in the stands of the Quidditch pitch watching the first game of the year. It's been about a half hour since the start of the game. Every single person on a broomstick is battling it out like world war 3…except Harry and the random Slytherin Seeker I don't know.
Ron gave me an incredulous look. "What are you talking about? The game can't end until the Snitch is caught. That makes Seekers one of the key players."
"Well, all the action is down here," I told him pointing to the battling Chasers as they raced up and down the pitch. "And Harry has been up there just floating around, looking incredibly bored if you ask me." With the look he gave me you would think I just sprouted a second head or something.
Hermione nodded, agreeing with me. "I just don't understand the fanatical draw that this game has." Ron does the smart thing for once, keeping quiet with a disbelieving shake of his head he focused back on the game.
"Oi that's cheating you dirty snakes!" He jumped up and yelled to one of the Slytherin Chasers who attempted to ram Angelina Johnson, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, into the stands. Madame Hooch who was refereeing the match of course missed this entirely as a Bludger was "accidently" sent in her direction
"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" Lee Jordan, a friend of the Weasley twins, whom was the one announcing the game, roared into his microphone. Loud cheers erupted all around us at our team taking the lead.
"Budge up there, move along now." A deep and booming voice called out from behind us.
"Hagrid!" Ron and Hermione greeted the groundskeeper with surprise while I waved a hello. Ron and Hermione quickly scooted over to make enough space so Hagrid could sit with us. Not sure how it happened but Hermione ended up in my lap. Our eyes locked on one another for a moment before we both looked away quickly with matching blushes.
I glanced at her again and quickly attempted to diffuse the awkward situation. "And your forwardness continues Miss Granger. I am seriously beginning to worry about my chastity." I grinned, waggling my eyebrows.
My words had the desired effect as the awkward atmosphere disappeared. She puffs out her cheeks in annoyance and slapped my shoulder playfully. "Oh just hush up and watch the game…unless you want the tape again." She finished with an evil grin and pulled a roll of tape out of nowhere.
"Oh look Quidditch, yay!" I cheered nervously looking to the game again.
'She is really scary when she wants to be.' I thought.
A few minutes later we heard Lee mention seeing the Snitch. Harry and the Slytherin Seeker took off after it as it flew by another Slytherin player's head. Hermione clutched my arm tightly in fear when Harry started an extremely fast dive/race with the opposing Seeker. Everyone in the stadium seemed to freeze, watching the battle for the Snitch, even the rest of the players. Everyone unfroze as Harry, who was about to catch the Snitch, was rammed off course by the Slytherin captain and sent spinning in the air.
Hermione, Ron, and I all jumped to our feet voicing our displeasure along with the rest of the Gryffindor, as well as some of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff stands.
"Oi!/Cheater!/A**hole!" All three of us yelled at the same time. Judging from the actual red I saw for a few seconds my Sharingan must have activated unconsciously again. When my vision returned to normal a random thought crossed my mind.
'If I ever figure out how these damn eyes work I would make a killing as a professional Seeker.'
Play resumed after Gryffindor was given a free shot for the foul. We all sat back down again after seeing Harry, looking relatively unharmed; start to circle the pitch again. Hermione settled back on my lap, wiggling a bit to get more comfortable, with no sign of the awkwardness this time around. It's not long after Harry narrowly dodged a Bludger sent for his head when his broom started bucking around wildly.
"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hagrid mumbled as we watched him stare through his binoculars. "If I didn' know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom…but he can't have.…"
"Dammit Harry." I muttered as more people were finally noticing something was up. Many in the stands pointed up at Harry as his broom started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. I swore loudly when another powerful jerk had nearly knocked Harry completely off, him only managing to hang on by one hand. Hermione overcome with worry tore her gaze from Harry and hid her face in my shoulder while I absentmindedly rubbed her back in an attempt to calm and reassure her, keeping my eyes trained on Harry.
"Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" I heard Seamus ask to no one in particular.
"Can't have," Hagrid answered, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic. No kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand."
At these words, Hermione jumped off my lap and seized Hagrid's binoculars before she quickly began searching the crowd.
"What are you doing?" Ron moaned.
"I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape."
"What!" Ron grabbed the binoculars and looked towards the teachers stand, quickly finding said Dracula wannabe. "Greasy headed git!" He swore before I snatched the binoculars from him and had a look for myself. Snape had his eyes locked on Harry and he was muttering something nonstop.
"He's doing something. Jinxing the broom," said Hermione angrily.
"What should we do?" Ron asked her.
"Leave it to me." She told us before rushing off.
"I'll go with her, keep an eye on Harry!" I said over my shoulder as I ran after Hermione.
We made our way through the stands dodging spectators left and right, knocking over Professor Quirrell as we reached Snape. I ignored the sudden chill traveled up my spine as we crouched down and pulled out our wands. We nodded to each other before casting a quiet Incendio targeting his robes. Once his robes were lit we made our escape without being seen. A few seconds later we heard Snape's yell of surprise telling us that our plan worked.
"Look Mione he's fine!" I told her, excitedly pointing up to Harry. We watched as he swung his leg back onto his broom and took off in another suicidal dive after a glint of gold that had flown by him moments before.
"Not again," She moaned hiding in my shoulder again. "We saved him just so HE could be the one to kill himself."
I chuckled as I rubbed her back again. "Well we could always just kill him ourselves," I whispered to her. "Save him and Snape the trouble."
She snorted and looked at me. "It would save time wouldn't it?" She said in an annoyed tone.
"HE'S DONE IT! HARRY POTTER AS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS!" We heard Lee's excited announcement and the deafening roar of the crowd.
"Come on, I think we have some lumps to dish out." I told her with a mischievous grin, gesturing to the middle of the pitch where Harry was being swarmed by his teammates and the rest of our house. "You can have first crack at him."
With a grin that mirrored my own she pulled out her wand again as we made our way to Harry. With a flick of her wand bucket of water appeared above Harry's head. It tilted before simultaneously drenching and falling on his head. "HARRY JAMES POTTER!" She roared at him while he sputtered and peeked from under the bucket, looking just a tad bit terrified…smart boy.
'Ah feminine fury, the most dangerous magic of all.' I mused as I watched Hermione rip into Harry like a lioness rips into an antelope.
-Break-
After Hermione finished taking Harry apart verbally, we made our way to Hagrid's for a celebratory/calming cup of tea. Though the calming part didn't last too long as a small argument/debate broke out between Hagrid and us.
"It was Snape, we all saw him," Ron explained to Hagrid and Harry while he gestured to himself, me and Hermione. "He was cursing your broomstick Harry!"
"Rubbish," Hagrid answered, I don't think noticed our worried conversation during the game. You would think he would since his binoculars were snatched right out of his hands. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another before turning to me. I just shrugged my shoulders, telling them I'd go with whatever they decided.
Harry made up his mind a moment and started with the truth. "I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."
Hagrid dropped the teapot, I flicked my wand and the pieces flew back together. He muttered a quiet thank you before continuing.
"How do you know about Fluffy?" he asked us.
"Fluffy!?" We all asked in unison.
I fell down laughing a few seconds later "Fluffy, that's a good one Hagrid, name giant three headed dog Fluffy!" I looked up at him holding a stitch in my side. "You're Serious?" I asked him when I saw he wasn't laughing.
I thought I heard him mutter something like, "No he's in Azkaban," but forgot about it a minute later when he continued. "Yeah he's mine. I bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year, I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…"
"Yes?" We asked eagerly and maybe too innocently.
"Now, don't ask me anymore," Hagrid said gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."
"But Snape's trying to steal it." Ron tried.
"Rubbish," Hagrid answered again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher; he'd do nothin' of the sort."
"So why did he just try and kill Harry?" Hermione cried out in outrage. I patted her on the shoulder and Harry sent her a look of thanks for the support. "I know a jinx when I see one Hagrid. I've read all about them! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all. We all saw him!" She finished with mad gestures to Ron and me.
"I'm tellin' yeh, yer wrong!" Hagrid replied hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! Now, listen to me, all four of yeh. Yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin'. That's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel…"
"Aha!" Harry grinned triumphantly, "So there's someone called Nicolas Flamel involved?"
Hagrid looked furious with himself as he let us out, muttering quiet curses.
"Well that was informative." Hermione started as we made our way back to the castle.
"Yup," I agreed with her. "You know what this means don't you?" I asked her with a grin.
"TOO THE LIBRARY!" we cheered in unison, Harry and Ron groaned loudly and hung their heads.