Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or the fantasy world created in this story, I just used the fantastic mind of JKR to make my own version of it.
Chapter 7: Settling everything to improve.
Their departure the following morning was smoother than usual. The Ministry cars glided up to the front of the Burrow to find them waiting, trunks packed; Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, safely enclosed in his traveling basket; and Hedwig; Ron's owl, Pig-widgeon; and Ginny's new purple Pygmy Puff, Arnold, in cages.
"Au revoir, 'Arry," said Fleur throatily, kissing him good-bye. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur's feet. Furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye.
After that Harry realized that he had to endure two grim face aurors to escort him in the station, then when he wanted to warn Mr. Weasley about Malfoy he wasn´t listened which put him on the edge, because nobody truly believed him. During the train ride, he sat with Luna and Neville and put up with a girl named Romilda Vane in the compartment until they were both invited to the Slug Club which Harry hated. Then while he spied on Malfoy he got caught by him and if it wasn´t for Tonks probably nobody would have found him until he was in the station again.
Harry had really bad luck that day, because the message that Tonks sent with her patronus was intercepted by Snape, so he took 50 points from Gryffindor and make Harry embarrassed as he entered the great hall, which with its four long House tables and its staff table set at the top of the room was decorated as usual with floating candles that made the plates below glitter and glow. It was all a shimmering blur to Harry, however, who walked so fast that he was passing the Hufflepuff table before people really started to stare, and by the time they were standing up to get a good look at him, he had spotted Ron and Hermione, sped along the benches toward them, and forced his way in between them.
"Where've you — blimey, what've you done to your face?" said Ron, goggling at him along with everyone else in the vicinity. I
"Why, what's wrong with it?" said Harry, grabbing a spoon and squinting at his distorted reflection.
"You're covered in blood!" said Hermione. "Come here —"
She raised her wand, said "Tergeo!" and siphoned off the dried blood.
"Thanks," said Harry, feeling his now clean face. "How's my nose looking?
"Normal," said Hermoine anxiously. "Why shouldn't it? Harry, what happened? We've been terrified!"
"I'll tell you later," said Harry curtly. He was very conscious that Ginny, Neville, Dean, and Seamus were listening in; even Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had come floating along the bench to eavesdrop.
"But —" said Hermione.
"Not now, Hermione," said Harry, in a darkly significant voice. He hoped very much that they would all assume he had been involved in something heroic, preferably involving a couple of Death Eaters and a dementor. Of course, Malfoy would spread the story as wide as he could, but there was always a chance it wouldn't reach too many Gryffindor ears.
He reached across Ron for a couple of chicken legs and a handful of chips, but before he could take them they vanished, to be replaced with puddings.
"You missed the Sorting, anyway," said Hermione, as Ron dived for a large chocolate gateau.
"Hat say anything interesting?" asked Harry, taking a piece of treacle tart.
"More of the same, really . . . advising us all to unite in the face enemies, you know."
"Dumbledore mentioned Voldemort at all?"
"Not yet, but he always saves his proper speech for after the feast doesn't he? It can't be long now."
"Snape said Hagrid was late for the feast —"
"You've seen Snape? How come?" said Ron between frenzied mouthfuls of gateau.
"Bumped into him," said Harry evasively.
"Hagrid was only a few minutes late," said Hermione. "Look, he's waving at you, Harry."
Harry looked up at the staff table and grinned at Hagrid, who was indeed waving at him. Hagrid had never quite managed to comport himself with the dignity of Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House, the top of whose head came up to somewhere between Hagrid's elbow and shoulder as they were sitting side by side, and who was looking disapprovingly at this enthusiastic greeting. Harry was surprised to see the Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney, sitting on Hagrid's other side; she rarely left her tower room, and he had never seen her at the start-of-term feast before. She looked as odd as ever, glittering with beads and trailing shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size by her spectacles. Having always considered her a bit of a fraud, Harry had been shocked to discover at the end of the previous term that it had been she who had made the prediction that caused Lord Voldemort to kill Harry's parents and attack Harry himself. The knowledge made him even less eager to find himself in her company, thankfully, this year he would be dropping Divination. Her great beacon like eyes swiveled in his direction; he hastily looked away toward the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy was miming the shattering of a nose to raucous laughter and applause. Harry dropped his gaze to his treacle tart, his insides burning again. What he would give to fight Malfoy one-on-one...
"So what did Professor Slughorn want?" Hermione asked.
"To know what really happened at the Ministry." said Harry.
"Him and everyone else here," sniffed Hermione. "People were interrogating us about it on the train, weren't they, Ron?"
"Yeah," said Ron. "All wanting to know if you really are 'the Chosen One' —"
"There has been much talk on that very subject even amongst the ghosts," interrupted Nearly Headless Nick, inclining his barely connected head toward Harry so that it wobbled dangerously on its ruff. "I am considered something of a Potter authority; it is widely known that we are friendly. I have assured the spirit community that I will not pester you for information, however. 'Harry Potter knows that he can confide in me with complete confidence,' I told them. 'I would rather die than betray his trust.'"
"That's not saying much, seeing as you're already dead," Ron observed.
"Once again, you show all the sensitivity of a blunt axe," said Nearly Headless Nick in affronted tones, and he rose into the air and glided back toward the far end of the Gryffindor table just as Dumbledore got to his feet at the staff table. The talk and laughter echoing around the Hall died away almost instantly.
"The very best of evenings to you!" he said, smiling broadly, his arms opened wide as though to embrace the whole room.
"What happened to his hand?" gasped Hermione.
She was not the only one who had noticed. Dumbledore's right hand was as blackened and dead-looking as it had been on the night he had come to fetch Harry from the Dursleys. Whispers it the room; Dumbledore, interpreting them correctly, merely smiled and shook his purple-and-gold sleeve over his injury.
"Nothing to worry about," he said airily. "Now ... to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back! Another year full of magical education awaits you …"
"His hand was like that when I saw him over the summer,"
Harry whispered to Hermione. "I thought he'd have cured it by now, though ... or Madam Pomfrey would've done."
"It looks as if it's died," said Hermione, with a nauseated expression. "But there are some injuries you can't cure... old curses…and there are poisons without antidotes. . . ."
"…and Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a blanket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
"Those wishing to play for their House Quidditch teams should give their names to their Heads of House as usual. We are also looking for new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise. And for the house that is the champion of the Quidditch cup there will be a special award or opportunity, so I highly advice that you put your best effort this year" this was said with a special twinkle in his eye. Harry instantly wondered what it might be and so the rest of the students by the noise he heard; but he wasn't prepared for what came next.
"We are pleased to welcome a new member of staff this year, Professor Slughorn"— Slughorn stood up, his bald head gleaming in the candlelight, his big waist coated belly casting the table into shadow — "is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of Potions master."
"Potions?"
"Potions?"
The word echoed all over the Hall as people wondered wheel they had heard right.
"Potions?" said Ron and Hermione together, turning to stare Harry. "But you said —"
"Professor Snape, meanwhile," said Dumbledore, raising voice so that it carried over all the muttering, "will be taking the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
"No!" said Harry, so loudly that many heads turned in his direction. He did not care; he was staring up at the staff table, incensed. How could Snape be given the Defense Against the Dark Arts job after all this time? Hadn't it been widely known for years that Dumbledore did not trust him to do it?
"But Harry, you said that Slughorn was going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts!" said Hermione.
"I thought he was!" said Harry, racking his brains to remember when Dumbledore had told him this, but now that he came to think of it, he was unable to recall Dumbledore ever telling him what Slughorn would be teaching.
Snape, who was sitting on Dumbledore's right, did not stand up his mention of his name; he merely raised a hand in lazy acknowledgment of the applause from the Slytherin table, yet Harry was sure he could detect a look of triumph on the features he loathed so much.
"Well, there's one good thing," he said savagely. "Snape'll be gone by the end of the year."
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
"That job's jinxed. No one's lasted more than a year… Quirrell actually died doing it… Personally, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for another death…"
"Harry!" said Hermione, shocked and reproachful.
"He might just go back to teaching Potions at the end of the year," said Ron reasonably. "That Slughorn bloke might not want to stay long-term. Moody didn't."
Dumbledore cleared his throat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not the only ones who had been talking; the whole Hall had erupted in a buzz of conversation at the news that Snape had finally achieved his heart's desire. Seemingly oblivious to the sensational nature of the news he had just imparted, Dumbledore said nothing more about staff appointments, but waited a few seconds to ensure that the silence was absolute before continuing.
"Now, as everybody in this Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."
The silence seemed to tauten and strain as Dumbledore spoke. Harry glanced at Malfoy. Malfoy was not looking at Dumbledore, but making his fork hover in midair with his wand, as though he found the headmaster's words unworthy of his attention.
"I cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is, and how much care each of us at Hogwarts must take to ensure that we remain safe. The castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, but we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. I urge you, therefore, to abide by any security restrictions that you teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them — in particular, the rule that you are not to be out of after hours. I implore you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others' safety."
Dumbledore's blue eyes swept over the students before he smiled once more.
"But now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish, and I know that your top priority is to be well-rested for your lessons tomorrow. Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!"
With the usual deafening scraping noise, the benches moved back and the hundreds of students began to file out of the Great Hall toward their dormitories. Harry, who was in no hurry at all to leave with the gawping crowd, nor to get near enough to Malfoy to allow him to retell the story of the nose-stamping, lagged behind, pretending to retie the lace on his trainer, allowing most of Gryffindors to draw ahead of him. Hermione had darted ahead to fulfill her prefect's duty of shepherding the first years, but Ron remained with Harry.
"What really happened to your nose?" he asked, once they were at the very back of the throng pressing out of the Hall, and out of earshot of anyone else.
Harry told him. It was a mark of the strength of their friendship that Ron did not laugh.
"I saw Malfoy miming something to do with a nose," he said darkly.
"Yeah, well, never mind that," said Harry bitterly. "Listen to what he was saying before he found out I was there…"
Harry had expected Ron to be stunned by Malfoy's boasts. With what Harry considered pure pigheadedness, however, Ron was unimpressed.
"I wonder what the special prize for winning the Quidditch cup will be" Ron said, but when he saw the exasperate face of Harry he realized his mistake and he said "come on, Harry, he was just showing off for Parkinson….
What kind of mission would You-Know-Who have given him?"
"How d'you know Voldemort doesn't need someone at Hogwarts? It wouldn't be the first —"
"I wish yeh'd stop sayin' tha name, Harry," said a reproachful voice behind them. Harry looked over his shoulder to see Hagtid shaking his head.
"Dumbledore uses that name," said Harry stubbornly
"Yeah, well, tha's Dumbledore, innit?" said Hagrid mysteriously.
"So how come yeh were late, Harry? I was worried."
"Got held up on the train," said Harry. "Why were you late?"
"I was with Grawp," said Hagrid happily. "Los' track o' the time. He's got a new home up in the mountains now, Dumbledore fixed it — nice big cave. He's much happier than he was in the forest. We were havin' a good chat."
"Really?" said Harry, taking care not to catch Ron's eye; the last time he had met Hagrid's half-brother, a vicious giant with a talent for ripping up trees by the roots, his vocabulary had comprised five words, two of which he was unable to pronounce properly.
"Oh yeah, he's really come on," said Hagrid proudly. "Yeh'll be amazed. I'm thinkin' o' trainin' him up as me assistant."
Ron snorted loudly, but managed to pass it off as a violent sneeze. They were now standing beside the oak front doors.
"Anyway, I'll see yeh tomorrow, firs' lesson's straight after lunch. Come early an' yeh can say hello ter Buck — I mean, Witherwings!"
Raising an arm in cheery farewell, he headed out of the doors into the darkness.
Harry and Ron looked at each other. Harry could tell that Ron was experiencing the same sinking feeling as himself.
"You're not taking Care of Magical Creatures, are you?"
Ron shook his head. "And you're not either, are you?"
Harry shook his head too.
"And Hermione," said Ron, "she's not, is she?"
Harry shook his head again. Exactly what Hagrid would say when he realized his three favorite students had given up his subject, he did not like to think.
Nearly at midnight and when Harry was sure his friends in his dorm were all asleep he got up and got out his cloak and the map and went on a quest, he wanted to have a place where he could practice all the things he had learn over the summer and learn the new spells that were in the book that Tonks had given him. When he was out of the fat lady portrait he started searching abandoned classrooms or places in where he could practice without being overheard but he couldn't find one which satisfied him plenty, he was ready to abandon the searching forty minutes later because he couldn't find the place he wanted; sure he found a couple of isolated classrooms but none of them had the size he wanted because he was sure that in the future he might be practicing some dangerous and powerful spells and for that he needed a big space, he was ready to return to his original plan of using the room of requirement which he had abandoned because now all the people of the DA and the ex inquisitorial squad knew of it and he didn't have the privacy there, then a thought passed through his mind the one that told him about the room of requirement maybe knew of other place that he could use and that would be Dobby, so he entered a class, took off his cloak and called Dobby. Instantly there was a pop.
"Hello Harry Potter sir! What can Dobby do to help great Harry Potter sir?!" asked the little creature.
"Hello Dobby" Harry said with a small smile for his awkward friend, whom was using two different socks as always. "I need to ask you a favor, my friend"
"Anything to help the great Harry Potter, Dobby will do sir"
"Thanks Dobby, I need a place to practice spells, one that is no classroom and nobody should know about it, and I can't use the Room of Requirement because I don't want anybody knowing what I am going to do, not even Ron and Hermione, so please don't tell anyone okay?"
"Yes, sir. Dobby will die before he betrays Harry Potter"
"Um…thanks again Dobby" Harry said because the loyalty that this little elf had in him was too great "so, do you know a place?"
"Well there is the old dueling room, which is no longer use. Dobby heard from the other elves that in hasn't been used in a long time and a few years ago it was transformed into something else, so me's don't know if it can be used again"
A dueling room in Hogwarts? Harry thought he never heard of such a thing maybe Hermione had while she read Hogwarts a History, maybe he did need to read that book after all, but for now that room was all he wanted and needed even if it was no longer used as a dueling room it probably still had the size he required.
"Take me there Dobby" and before he could say anything else Dobby grabbed him and he felt the uncomfortable feeling of dissapparition. When the sensation faded away, Harry was standing in the dark "Dobby?" he said.
"I is here Harry Potter sir" replied his little friend next to him.
"Lumus" Harry said and when his eyes became accustomed with the sudden light, he saw a big room that had a door at the end of it, but in the walls there was nothing it was all clear not even a paint was there, no windows either, after that he saw that there were some torches in the walls, maybe for lightning the room. "Where are we Dobby?"
"We are in the chamber before the dueling room, that is in the end of the third floor corridor" he said.
"What?" Harry asked, amazed that here was where probably Ron, Hermione and him had ended after they passed the devils snare, so probably after that room was the room where they found the flying keys, he started walking towards the door at the end, and he was surprised that it wasn't locked, maybe because the main door from the third floor was the one locked, when he passed the door he genially surprised, the room there was huge, was way bigger from what he remembered probably two or three times it's size; how could this be? "Um…Dobby, I was here before, back in my first year at Hogwarts and I know this room wasn't this big" certainly the room was big and there were lines draw in the floor, some formed a big rectangle where Harry supposed that duels were taken, then there were another ones than form another rectangle but this one was facing one of the walls, where there was a big square painted on the wall, but this one was different, it was like a portrait he realized once he looked closer, but there was nothing on it, it was just blank or rather black, there was nothing painted on it.
"That is a reflector sir" Dobby said.
"A what?" Harry replied.
"A reflector sir is like a mirror, but when yous direct a spell towards it, the spell backfires, this is common used when a wizard wants to train alone so his own spell would backfired and he didn't need a partner to practice Harry Potter sir"
"Oh, okay" Harry said, but he thought this was fabulous, now he could practice alone way better than he had expected to.
"The other elves told Dobby, that this room was changed a few years ago sir, this room probably was transformed to be smaller. That is why yous think this time is bigger".
Probably the room was divided, so there were several rooms where he found the flying keys, the big chess board, the dead troll, and the room where the riddle with the potions was and the final room where he faced Quirrell and Voldemort for the first time "maybe" was all he said. Certainly this place was the best to begin his training, where he fought Voldemort consciously for the first time, maybe it was destiny like in the prophecy.
He saw that there were more torches and with his wand he begun lightining the hole room, when it was all bright he saw that in the corners where two line united there were small stones "Dobby what are those?" he asked.
"Ah, those Harry Potter sir, are special stones that when are touched by yous wand they create a barrier, so the spells won't pass from the dueling into the spectators. Yous only have to touch one with yous wand and it will appear, and one more time to make it disappear. Yous can touch it from inside and outside sir"
Harry slowly made his way to one of the stones and touched it with his wand and instantly a kind of force field appeared uniting all of them, and taking a half sphere form on the top, where easily a really tall person could stand. Again he touched the stoned and the barrier disappeared. Harry was amazed, he never saw that, but with the corner of his eye he saw a door in the wall, between the two rectangles, he made his way there and when he opened the door he saw that this room wasn't nearly as big as the other one, but it had a lot of things in it; there were some weapons, real size dummies, like mannequins, and some things that he didn't knew what they were. When he saw, really saw the size of the room, he almost instantly recognized it as the room where he faced Voldemort in Quirrell, now it was a storage room. He really didn't knew what to think or what was he feeling, but he was interrupted from his thoughts by Dobby.
"Oh, Harry Potter sir, here there are things that are useful in dueling. Those dummies are can duel with you sir!"
"How can they do that Dobby?"
"You just have to carry them into the dueling room, and hit them with your wand in the head, and they will achieve all the techniques you know almost instantly. To start the duel you just have to say, START and to end the duel STOP and it will be deactivated".
"Amazing" Harry said, now he could really train he thought, he could see the speed of his spells and how strong they were if they came from the dummies.
After that they returned to the first chamber and Harry realized that he didn't knew how to return, he really was afraid if Fluffy was still there. "Um…Dobby, there isn't a giant three headed dog in the entrance chamber is it?"
Dobby just looked at him with a funny face "what is great Harry Potter sir talking about?"
"Um…eh, just…I need to return to my dorm lets go by the door Dobby, I will be using my invisibility cloak, so no one will see me if they are around, maybe it's the best that you make yourself invisible too, so no one will know that I am with you" Dobby nodded and he disappear, Harry put his cloak and started walking through the stairs that Dobby had pointed out before. If they were invisible Fluffy wouldn't see them if he was there, was what Harry thought; but when he reached the chamber were the giant dog would have been he saw nothing, he moved towards the door and checked his suspicions were correct when he realized that the door was locked, but with a quick alohomora he opened it, then he locked it again.
"Goodbye Dobby, thanks for your help, please tell no one about this goodnight I will return to my dorm now" he whispered once he checked they were alone in the corridor.
"Goodnight Harry Potter sir, Dobby won't say a thing" the elf said, and then Harry heard a pop, making it clear that he was gone. Slowly he made his way towards his dorm, and when he was in bed he drifted to sleep, really ready and anxious to start training the next day.
A/N: Sorry for the delay, but I got a new job, and with studies it make things hard, but now I have organized myself better and hopefully can publish the next chapter in four or five days maximum. In the chapter there is a big part from the original book, but again I think it was a bit necessary because I wanted to introduce the special prize for the winner of the Quidditch cup, next time Harry will really begin his training, sorry I didn't do it in this chapter as I said before but I was really busy these past days. Hope you enjoy it, although it is not as interesting as I thought I could have been, but now Harry has an isolated place to train which is what I wanted. R&R.
