Sorry for the late update :S I've been busy with interviews for my project... and I still have another mid-term test to come next week ToT
This chapter is mainly about the DA, and there's a large part on Harry elaborating on his views on House traits and rivalry. It's not extremely important, just that Harry emphasises it as a main part of his values and ideals for DA. If anyone finds this part boring, you can actually skip it, and wait for the next chapter - think of it as leading up to changing and shaping the Slytherins' view of Harry.
For my dearest reviewers: *muacks* I love you all!
charm13insomnia, littlesprout, aliengirlguy - Thanks! I'm trying my best to keep the standards :D
Stardust of Orion - Since I'm envisioning that both Harry and Draco are more mature than canon, they are supposed to work together well :S for the last chapter it's still very tentative, but in the upcoming chapters they'll have a better relationship. For Severus, I think he mainly just needs a chance to see Harry as Harry, and not Potter.
Angel-Miyu, KendaO, Cherrie-san - Yupp, Draco's veela simply loves Harry :) and I really think that the rivalry between the both of them could very well be sexual tension *kekeke*
Transaper - Thank you :D Hmmm actually the secret behind writing this foursome pairing is... I simply couldn't decide which I prefer :S So I thought I might as well just put them all together muahahaha
yngoldfogee - Thanks! I'm hoping that mid-terms end soon, but then I'll be worrying about finals...
Phaedra Coopers - sloth brain... to tell the truth, I won't be able to stand using the potion when I know what has gone into it... but well, took me a long time to figure out how to write the potion-making process...
Gracealma - I'll secretly tell you... the next one to actually notice/sniff Harry would be Lucius, but it won't be very soon... still have to get the Sanctuary explanation out of the way!
Chapter Seven: Setting the Rules
Harry surveyed the room setup that the Room of Requirement has provided upon his request for a place for the DA meeting; there were several bookshelves of books on the topic of Defence at the end of the room, and there were a couple of soft pillows and dummies at both sides of the room, but most of the part of the room was just left empty.
Ron shook his head in exasperation as Hermione darted off immediately towards the books, while Neville turned to look at Harry, "How did the talk with the First and Second Years go?"
"They were quite upset at the beginning," Harry conjured cushions so that the members could sit comfortably when they arrived, "but after explaining about the instability of immature magical core and possible risks, I think they were accepting in the end."
Ron snorted, "Accepting? You should have seen their faces, Neville, they practically worshipped Harry after his little speech with them."
Neville quirked his brow, only Ron accompanied Harry for his talk with the First and Second Years, Hermione had consultation with her Arithmancy professor, while he had to help out at the greenhouses, so both of them were clueless about how Harry managed to convince the lower years.
"They did no such thing, Ron," Harry glared half-heartedly at him, "They just understood the consequences and backed off."
"Seriously, Harry, they were like Creevy multiplied in number!" Ron exclaimed, flailing his arms wildly, "You should have seen it, Neville! Those First and Second Years were staring at Harry like he's some beacon of light when he was talking about the theory, and then when he was talking about inter-house rivalry – can you believe it, even those slimy little snakes were ogling him half the time!"
"Ron…" Harry tried to stop him but Neville was faster, "So that was why all attention was on Harry during breakfast today, then? I thought we missed something big about Harry in the Daily Prophet…"
Harry rolled his eyes and refused to answer. He had had enough of being stared at without the First and Second Years adding fuel to it, thank you very much! And it wasn't as if he did something great… Just a bit of magical theory background on magical cores, and a little persuasion thrown in back there, why on earth were they so affected by it?!
Casting a tempus and checking the time, he ignored Ron who winked at him and spoke to Neville instead, "Ginny will be bringing the Gryffindors here, and Luna and Ernie will be leading the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs here. I'll go and show the Slytherins the way. Try to control Ron a bit, would you, Neville? And…" Glancing at Hermione who was still immersed in whatever book she had in hand, "please get Hermione to prepare the namelist and the fake coins. Merlin knows how to pry her away from those books…"
Neville made a face and nodded, "No problem, I'll just… try. Be careful though, Harry."
"Yeah, if the Slytherins do something…" Ron added.
"I'll be fine, don't worry," Harry rolled his eyes again as he walked towards the door.
Really, he had to try to find a way to make his friends less worrisome. Yes, it is nice having someone caring about you, but this was simply exhausting… He just hoped that the meeting today will show them that everyone can get along just fine… at least he hoped that no one would try to hurt and kill another off or something.
Sighing softly as he made a turn to the dungeons, he saw Draco Malfoy, his father and a group of Slytherins waiting near their dormitory entrance.
"Mr. Potter," Lucius Malfoy greeted him.
Harry nodded to them, "Professor Malfoy," Turning towards the other Slytherins, he continued, "Good evening. I don't know if all of you know how to access the Room of Requirement, so I'll bring you there for this time."
Gesturing for them to follow him, he started making his way back to the Room on the seventh floor. Telling the others to stay there for a moment, he paced in front of the Room three times as some of the Slytherins gave him weird looks, before the door appeared.
Just as he opened the door, he heard a muffled shout and a red beam of light sped towards him, forcing him to duck instinctively before remembering that the entire group of Slytherins were behind him. Raising his wand, he erected a shield and quickly dissipated the spell.
Harry moved aside to allow the Slytherins to enter the door before going into the room and closing the door. He whisked around and sent a death glare to the group already present in the room, "Who thought that it was a great idea to fire a spell towards anyone who was entering the room just now?"
His tone was deadly cold as he stared at the others, his emerald eyes glowing in silent rage as he asked again, "Who was it?"
"It was Mclaggen," Neville provided the name, as he and Ron struggled to restrain the large boy to the wall, "I'm sorry, Harry, we couldn't stop him from casting in time…"
Turning towards the Slytherins, he gave a soft comment to "get yourselves comfortable" before stalking towards Mclaggen, pinning him with a cold stare, "Why did you do that?"
Mclaggen showed no sign of guilt as he huffed a response, "You countered the spell just fine, and everyone else except the Slytherins are here anyway, what harm could it have done?"
The look on Harry's face immediately made it clear to everyone else in the room that it was a very wrong answer.
"What harm could it have done?" Harry's voice was soft, but carried through the room with a frozen edge, "A cutting hex powered too strongly can rip a limb, aimed carelessly can take out an eye or ear, chanted inaccurately can even kill. Are you prepared for the consequences, Mclaggen? Can you bear the guilt of impairing someone permanently simply because you were ignorant for a moment? Are you willing to be called a 'murderer'? Can you live while knowing that you destroyed a person's dreams and wishes, that you ripped a family apart? You have no idea, Mclaggen."
Mclaggen gulped nervously as Harry stepped closer. He was much taller and larger than Harry physically, but the raw magic and pressure stemming from the raven-haired teenager was overpowering him.
"Consider this a warning, Mclaggen," Harry continued, his gazed fixed onto Mclaggen's fearful eyes, "Next time something like this happens again, I will not dissipate the spell; I will simply reflect it. Maybe that will help you learn to think before you act."
Turning back towards the crowd, he continued speaking in a gentler tone, "Perhaps I should make some of the rules clear before anything else. Firstly, there will be no House rivalry within the DA. It doesn't matter whether you're from Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, you're all members of the DA. I will not tolerate silly fights between members of DA themselves, or between members and other students in the school. I don't care whether you have a grudge against someone else, or someone wronged you, sort it out without insults and fights. All DA members will help and support each other. Any questions about this?"
A Third Year Hufflepuff raised her hand timidly, "But- but no one would really want to help us, nobody really cares about Hufflepuffs anyway…"
Harry stared at her for a moment before sighing, "I've talked about this with the First and Second Years yesterday, but I guess I'll have to say it to you all as well."
Hermione and Neville eagerly shifted to make space for him on the couch, accidentally pushing Ron off his seat. They muttered their apologies with eyes still locked on Harry – they were really really curious about Harry's little speech (as advertised by Ron).
Harry sat down and swept a glance at everyone, "Tell me, what is Gryffindor, Colin?"
"Courage!" Colin piped out cheerfully.
He gave a small smile before turning to Parkinson, "And what is Gryffindor for you, Parkinson?"
Parkinson hesitated for a moment but decided to be honest, "Impulsive, reckless."
"Then tell me, Malfoy, what is the Slytherin pride?"
"Observant, self-preservation," Malfoy answered without a thought.
Harry nodded, and asked casually, "And you, Ron? What did you think about Slytherins before?"
Ron stared at Harry before blushing as he answered truthfully, "Cowardly, Dark and evil."
"There is no definite description for all Houses, it is a matter of perspective – there is always two sides to the coin," Harry swirled his wand and conjured crests of the four houses in the air, "Gryffindors pride themselves for courage and determination. But what is courage when it stands alone? Bravery without brains is simply recklessness, without loyalty is aimless, without self-preservation is suicidal. A lion is only strong when it belongs to a pride, knowing who and what to defend, and when to back down. Do you always have to charge ahead to be brave? Must you fight your fears to be courageous? No, sometimes bravery is to acknowledge your fears and to try to avoid it. Why do you fear something, or someone? Because you instinctively know that it is dangerous in itself, or it may harm your family and friends, or simply because it may kill you."
He manipulated the conjured images to change as he spoke, "Think of the House Crest, silver complements gold," The golden lion shimmered brightly as the silvery snake slithered around it, "Blue complements red," The fiery red background flared as the calm blue encompassed it, "and flames renew the earth," The brilliant red shone brightly for a moment before dulling and the Hufflepuff yellow became a brilliant hue.
"Slytherins describe themselves as ambitious, cunning and with a strong sense of self-preservation. How can you be ambitious without the courage to seek what you want? How do you find cunningness without intelligence? And how to you persevere without someone to support and live for? Some would accuse them of being cowardly for they think snakes slither away and hide in times of danger, but think again, the serpent would strike fast and hard when time needs be, it is relentless in battle when it matters."
Harry conjured a swirling ball of light mixed with darkness, "Being Dark is not evil, Dark is the energy, evil is the intent. Even the label 'Dark' no longer refers to the magical energy itself, it has been given arbitrary boundaries by the Ministry, equating Dark to evil. Some forbidden Dark spells are better healing spells than Light ones, but so difficult to master that it has been categorised as Dark to prevent people from trying it. Perhaps Slytherins simply have a better affinity to master these spells than we do. The intent is most important – one could kill using a Light spell if you intend to do so, and you could save a life with a Dark spell if you want to."
"And Ravenclaws, they are proud of their learning and wisdom. But you need courage to face your failures to gain wisdom; a sore loser never learns; you have to be ambitious to yearn for learning, and you have to be loyal to ensure knowledge applied well in motive. The eagle is the lord of the skies, it is a strong-willed predator, but even it does not know the limits of the skies, neither does it know the wonders of the earth, so it depends on other beings to impart that knowledge, and it perseveres to survive harsh conditions.
"Hufflepuffs are known for patience, humility and loyalty. Perhaps some people think that Hufflepuffs are not particularly strong at any trait, but that in itself proves them to be a formidable opponent. They have no apparent strength, so you don't know what to expect when you face them in a battle, and you may easily overlook their powers, giving them the element of surprise. They are patient and humble, making learning a much easier and efficient task for them; they are loyal, so they may be the best comrades you wish to have."
The images combined to continually shift and melt into each other's image, "Simply said, your house trait is just one of the many strengths and weaknesses that you possess, only that it may be somewhat more prominent than the others. Of course, it could also be a result of moulding after you socialise with your housemates for seven years. But would you want to confine yourself to the strict boundaries of house traits when you can gain so much more by combining them while emphasising yours?"
Harry paused for a moment, pleased to see many faces in deep thought, "So there will be no house rivalry within the DA; you can be a Gryffindor, but at the same time, you are also partially Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The same goes for everyone else. Have I made myself clear?"
After receiving nods from them, Harry continued, his tone apparently much lighter than before, "Good, then for the other rules: Everyone must be responsible for their own learning, once you have made a commitment, you have to follow through. You must not gossip around about what we do in the DA, I'd like to keep only those really interested in learning Defence involved in these matters. No one is to use any spell learnt here with the intention to harm someone else unless it is a life and death situation – definitely not during practice or as pranks. If you think that you cannot abide to the rules, you may leave now, or else you will sign the parchment with your name and confirm your commitment to the DA."
Hermione passed the parchment, already adorned with Harry's, Neville's, Ron's and her own signatures, around for members to sign their names.
As the first person picked up the quill, Harry hastily added, "Oh and just a warning here, that parchment is charmed. If you signed and went against the rules, we will know because the charms on the parchment will point it out to everyone. Don't worry, you won't find yourselves with the word 'SNEAK' over your faces, we've decided on a less obtrusive method."
Some of the previous DA members snickered at the memory but most of the students in the room signed without hesitation.
As Hermione checked the list of names against people in the room, Ron and Neville started passing out the list of spells that will be practiced for the first few session.
Harry started explaining to them how the sessions are going to work, "For this session, I'll need to divide all of you into beginner, intermediate and advanced groups to moderate the learning speed; I'll test you on some of the basic spells and assign you to a group – hopefully, no Seventh Year will end up in the beginner's group, you do have to take your N.E.W.T.s, you know. So, let's-"
"These are all defensive-only spells, it's useless!"
Harry narrowed his eyes as he turned towards the source of the voice – Zacharias Smith. "What did you say?"
"What's the use of learning these when you can't even attack your opponent?" Smith sneered, "You can't keep defending yourself in a battle, you'll die in the end anyway."
Harry gave him an assessing glance before breaking into a cool smile, "Then let's try this. Let's have a duel, you may use any spells of your choice, and I'll only use defensive spells. We'll see how it ends then."
Everything was going according to plan.
Read and Review, please! Reviews motivate my inspiration xp
YUU
