A/N: I'm really sorry I took so long to post this. I tried to earlier and the blasted site wouldn't let me. Arg. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Cheers!

-Julia Holtemore

Chapter Seven
Eavesdroppers

The next day Harry felt considerably better. He was very restless and wanted to get out of bed, but no one would hear of it. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had to go to class, so Harry was left alone for hours at a time, leaving him incredibly bored. His side was still hurting a lot and the bleeding hadn't stopped yet, but he had felt much worse before. He was particularly annoyed that he was not able to teach his classes.

"Don't worry about it," said Ron when he came up for his free period. "They've cancelled Defense classes until you're well."

This didn't really make Harry feel any better. He wanted to get up and teach, or at least do something. Being confined to a bed had him very irritable.

Also, according to Ginny, rumors had been flying about Harry's disappearance from lessons. Some fifth years were originally saying he'd been kidnapped by a band of giants, and a first year swore he saw Harry jump off of the Astronomy Tower. Dean, Seamus, and Neville set them right for a little bit, describing what happened when Harry collapsed on Sunday morning. But soon they had twisted their own story so that a masked werewolf came in the middle of the night and stabbed Harry several times with an Acromantula pincer.

"You'd think that they would find the real story exciting enough," said Harry, laughing a little.

"The real story was much too exciting if you ask me," said Ginny earnestly, making Harry stop laughing immediately and apologize.

Throughout the week Harry's condition steadily improved. He didn't have to take the potions nearly as often and Madam Pomfrey relaxed a bit, allowing him to get up and about occasionally. While everyone was at class he would go down to the common room and work on homework that he had to make up for missing so many lessons. He also read more into his copy of Advanced Defense, deciding what new things he would have to learn to teach the seventh years. He found a very interesting spell, the Mucilage Curse. It causes an incredibly sticky substance to spray from your wand onto the ground, walls, your attacker, or anywhere of your choice. Harry thought he might teach them that when he found the time.

By Friday Harry was completely cured and felt like running around the castle a few times. He insisted upon teaching the seventh years and there was nothing Ron, Hermione, Ginny, or Madam Pomfrey could say to convince him otherwise.

"Well, at least rest until it's time for your lesson," said Madam Pomfrey exasperatedly. "Then you can go and teach."

So Harry hung around Gryffindor Tower until it was time, and then he walked downstairs with Ron and Hermione to his classroom on the fourth floor. The bell rang and everyone took their seats.

"All right," said Harry, "Today we will be reviewing the Unforgivable Curses. I trust you all remember when Professor Moody taught us that?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Please tell me what they are and what they do."

Everyone shouted out various names and functions, and Harry wrote them on the board.

"Right. The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Avada Kedavra. Control, torture, and death. These three curses are rampant these days. How many of you know some one who has been hit by one of these curses by someone intending to hurt them?"

Harry knew that Neville would raise his hand, and perhaps a few others. But to his complete surprise, every single member of the class raised their hands into the air.

"All of you!" said Harry, raising his eyebrows, slightly sickened.

"Well, Harry," said Hermione quietly. "You have been hit by all three of those curses at least once. And by Voldemort himself, no less."
Harry's eyes widened. He realized this to be true. Voldemort had tried to kill him as a baby, and in his fourth year he had hit him with both the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse.

"Er... Harry?" said Ernie McMillan hesitantly. "Forgive me for asking this – you don't have to answer - but... what was it like?"

Harry felt suddenly cold. The Cruciatus was more pain than anyone could imagine. Voldemort had hit him with it several times, and he could remember it leaving him in such a weakened state that he could barely move. And the Imperious Curse, though not painful, was what Voldemort tried to use on Harry to make him obey whatever he was commanded to do, which was an absolute horror at the thought. And as for the Avada Kedavra? It had left him with a scar that caused him great pain often. It also took away his parents, his friend, his godfather, and his mentor.

"Completely unforgivable," he mumbled, becoming aware again of how deep his hatred of Voldemort ran through him. He glared at the back wall unseeingly.

"Er... Harry?"

He jumped and realized everyone was looking at him. He continued with his lecture.

"Sorry. The point is, these curses are illegal, but used constantly now that Voldemort is back in power." There was a shudder at the sound of the name. "You need to be prepared to fight back, and that is why we have this class." He turned and wrote on the board in big bold letters as he said, "Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The rest of the period they practiced shield charms against strong stunning spells that Harry sent at them. Most people were knocked out and had to be revived. But Harry was pleased to see that three people managed to block his stunners: Ron, Hermione, and Neville. He told everyone else to practice the shield charm for homework and vaguely hinted that perhaps next time they could work on Patronuses. Everyone left the classroom in a state of excitement. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked up the stairs to the common room, talking about how hungry they were.

"You think you have it bad? At least you haven't had to guzzle down potions for a week!" said Harry in aggravation when Ron mentioned not getting enough for lunch.

Ron and Hermione looked sadly at Harry. "Well, at least you're better now," said Hermione. "Anyway, I've got to hurry to the Owlery. I'll see you at dinner, all right?" She started to walk away when Ron called to her.

"Why do you have to go to the Owlery?" he asked.

"To send a letter, Ron," she said, rolling her eyes and continuing down the crowded corridor.

"To whom?"

She stopped. Without turning around she mumbled, "Viktor."

Ron's jaw dropped. "You're still writing him?"

"Yes," said Hermione defiantly, turning around. "He sent me an owl the other day. He says hello to Harry, by the way."

"Oh," said Harry, not exactly sure how to respond. He hadn't seen Viktor Krum since his fourth year. "Er, okay."

Suddenly someone pushed passed him, nearly knocking him over.

He looked around to see Vladimir Omega running down the corridor.

"What's up with him?" Ron asked, staring at the first year as he bolted down the stairs. Harry shrugged, bewildered. Ron turned back to Hermione, presumably to shout at her, but she was gone. Harry continued up to the common room, closely followed by a grumbling Ron.

Dinner was a quiet occasion for Harry and his friends. Ron and Hermione were not speaking to each other, so Harry and Ginny spent a lot of the time forcing conversation. Soon they gave up, though, and just left them in peace to glower at each other.

Over the next month or so things started to level out. Schedules and lessons went back to normal (or as normal as they can be for Hogwarts). Harry enjoyed teaching all of his classes, but noticed that the first years were progressing particularly fast. They picked up things extremely quickly, and seemed resolute to master everything.
One day when Harry was teaching them how to light their wands and they all got it straight away, he asked them appreciatively why they were so determined.

"Well, sir," said Alena, her hand in the air. "You-Know–Who is out there, and we want to be prepared." The rest of the class nodded in assent. Everyone except for Vladimir Omega and a few other Slytherins, who Harry noticed were glaring at Alena with the deepest contempt. "And," Alena continued, hand still raised, "we know that if we want to be as good as you, we have to work hard."

Harry was taken aback by this. He couldn't really think of anything to say. "Er, thanks. I appreciate your hard work. If you all keep it up we may be able to progress a lot further, like into second and third year curriculum."

The first years jabbered away excitedly, but Harry wasn't paying attention. He was watching Vladimir carefully. There he was, sitting in the back with his Slytherin cronies, whispering behind cupped hands.

They all gave Harry a shifty glance and stopped talking suddenly, turning to face him.

"Yes, sir?" said Vladimir coolly. "Is there something wrong?"

Harry eyed him for another moment and then shook his head. "No. But will you please show me how to light up your wand tip?"

September and October flew by quickly, and before Harry knew it two things were hurtling toward him. He was still the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and he had to train his players vigorously for the next match. There was also the first Hogsmeade weekend, which would take place the day of Halloween. When the weekend arrived Ron and Hermione, who had started speaking to each other again and wanted a little more time together, decided to meet Harry and Ginny at the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer at noon. Harry and Ginny agreed and they broke off to explore the village of Hogsmeade.

They strolled down the main street, enjoying the open air and looking in various shop windows. Ginny insisted upon buying a bag of Dungombs at Zonko's, no matter how many times Harry told her that she wouldn't be able to get it into the school. She said she would find a way. And in Honeydukes they bought all of their favorite wizard candies, including Fizzing Whizbees and Chocolate Frogs. Harry couldn't help rubbing it in that he had gotten the coveted Carlotta Pinkstone card, which Ginny had been wanting for quite some time. After a pleasant morning they realized it was almost noon and headed over to the three broomsticks.

They walked inside and loud jabbering and warm air reached their ears. This was the most popular stop in the whole village. Aside from the many Hogwarts students third year and above, all sorts of beings were there, including a few Hags and a group of Goblins. Ginny went and got a table while Harry bought two bottles of butterbeer. As he pushed through the crowd to where Ginny was sitting he got quite a few hellos and pats on the back. Ever since he had started teaching he had rarely been treated rudely and everyone had been pretending to be his best friend. He smiled at them and sat down next to Ginny.

"Quite popular, aren't you?" she said darkly, looking threateningly at a hoard of giggling fifth year girls at a nearby table.

She shook her head and took a swig of butterbeer. Harry just smiled. Ginny wasn't the possessive type, but she had a jealous side to her.

"They probably just want good grades," he said, shrugging it off.

"Oh please," Ginny scoffed. "They may want good grades, but they also want the protection, fame, and good looks of 'the Chosen One'." She smiled. "Lucky I'm here."

The door to the pub opened and Ron and Hermione walked in. While Ron went to get some more butterbeer Hermione came and sat next to them.

"How was your date?" said Harry, thinking to himself that it sounded odd to say that about Ron and Hermione. They had been just friends for so long.

"Oh, it was... fun..." said Hermione, blushing a little.

Ginny and Harry laughed knowingly as Ron came over and sat down, handing Hermione a butterbeer.

"So, what have you two been up to?" he asked.

"Oh, not much," said Ginny carelessly. "Fighting vampires and killing skrewts. The usual."

They chuckled and Harry told them the somewhat truer story of the morning's activities. Ron and Hermione simply refused to say what they had done and so they changed the subject to a much more serious matter.

"So have you done any more research about the Black Powder?" Harry asked, mainly to Hermione. They had all stayed up late many nights discussing how none of them remembered the jar being at headquarters two years ago, and how the powder gotten in there in the first place. Hermione had said she would go to the library and look up some things, but Harry hadn't heard anymore about it.

"Well, actually, I did find some-"

"Shh," said Ginny, looking around. All three of them stared at her, startled. "Is it just me," she asked them, lowering her voice, "or do we have half the pub listening in on our conversation?"

Harry looked around. Blaise Zabini and a group of Slytherin seventh years looked away as he made eye contact and few of the regular drunk wizards that hung around suddenly became very interested in their drinks. Harry turned back to his friends.

"I'll see you back a school in about half an hour," he said, standing up. He took a few steps toward the door.

"Harry," said Ginny, standing as well, "where are you-"

"I'll see you in half an hour," he repeated, and he walked briskly out the door into the cool autumn air.

So people were eavesdropping, were they? Harry thought turning up a side street that lead to the Shrieking Shack. How could I have been so stupid? People have been following me around all day, and I never noticed! That was the last time he would let himself be lured into a false sense of security. He reached the place he had been looking for and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He had been carrying it around all the time. That was what Dumbledore had advised him to do as a matter of security, so Harry had been dragging it with him everywhere. He hadn't told anyone else this, though. He felt that would sort of defeat the purpose.

He waited there, watching the road, for several minutes. Then he suddenly heard a crackle of leaves behind him. He realized he hadn't been watching the trees and whirled around. Forgetting he had the cloak on for a moment, he pulled out his wand and snuck around as quietly as possible, trying to get behind the person that had been following him. He heard another crackle after a moment and was satisfied to hear that it was now directly in front of him. He pointed his wand at the source of the noise and thought, "Petrificus Totalus!"

There was a crash in front of him and he rushed over to see who he'd hit. When he'd pushed his way through the bushes his jaw dropped and he pulled off his cloak.

"Ron?"

Ron just stared up at him, not able to move a muscle.

"Oh, sorry." Harry hastily muttered the counterjinx and Ron sprang back into motion.

"What did you do that for?" he said, allowing Harry to help him up.

"I was trying to catch whoever was following me. But it was you. Why didn't you tell me?" said Harry angrily.

"I wasn't following you originally. It's just that...now don't get mad, Harry," said Ron defensively, "but after the whole Black Powder fiasco, McGonagall doesn't really trust you. She's asked us to keep a close eye on you."

"WHAT!" Harry burst out.

"B-but we weren't tailing you or anything. We've just been... well..."

"Treating me like a little child that can't take care of himself," Harry grumbled.

Ron couldn't seem to find anything to say to that. They were quiet for a moment, staring at each other. Finally, Harry broke the silence.

"Well, there's no hope of catching the person now," said Harry, shoving his invisibility cloak back into his bag. "We might as well go back up to the castle and meet up with Hermione and Ginny. Unless they're somewhere around here too?" Harry added, looking around quickly.

"No, no," said Ron, sounding relieved that Harry wasn't going to yell at him. "They're up at the castle. I came alone." Together they walked back to the main street and then up the lane through the winged boar flanked gates and up to the castle. Hermione and Ginny were waiting in the common room.

"Well, what happened?" Hermione asked expectantly.

"Nothing," Harry sighed, sitting down. "Well, I caught Ron following me and hit him with a full body bind jinx on accident."

"On accident? You snuck around and hit me from behind!" said Ron.

"Well, I thought you were someone else," said Harry, still disappointed that he hadn't caught the person.

The rest of the day they discussed who could have been tailing Harry and why. Harry was very curious as to why Blaise Zabini would be interested in his conversation with Ginny, but no one else seemed to worry too much, so he shrugged it off. The hours wore on, and after several games of wizard chess an Exploding Snap, the group headed down to the Halloween feast.

As usual, the feast was spectacular. There were decorations lining the walls of the Great Hall, including black burning candles and Hagrid's giant pumpkins. There was also a kick line of dancing skeletons and the ghosts put together a very mournful singing performance. The food consisted of all sorts of treats and desserts, including several of Harry's favorites. He wasn't in the mood, however, and kept finding himself glaring at Zabini and his little Slytherin gang. Finally he could no longer handle the loud and happy chatter of the great hall and decided to go to bed early. He stood and walked out the door, saying that he was tired. As he headed up the marble stair case he heard footsteps behind him.

"Harry, wait for me!"

Harry whirled around to see Ginny running up the steps to him. He stopped and let her reach him, and then they slowly walked up the stairs together.

"Why are you coming?" he asked, perhaps a little harsher than he had intended.

"Hmm... love you too," she replied with a pretend frown.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." They were quiet for a moment. Harry waited expectantly for her answer.

"Something weird always happens to you on Halloween," she said quietly. "I figured... just in case..."

Harry though about that for a moment. Yeah, odd things did tend to happen to him on Halloween. There was a mountain troll attacking Hermione, then a deathday party and a petrified cat, then a supposed murderer attacked the Fat Lady, then his name came out of the goblet of fire...

They reached the portrait hole. "Witching Hour," Harry muttered, and the portrait swung forward. He and Ginny climbed in. The common room was deserted. Everyone was still down at the feast.

"Well, I don't see any banshees jumping out at me, said Harry, not able to help grinning a little.

"Oh well," Ginny sighed, smiling. "I guess you get a quiet Halloween this year."

"That's fine by me," said Harry wearily. "I'm going to go to bed. Good nigh-"

Suddenly Harry's scar exploded with pain. He jerked backward, slamming himself against the wall and then falling to the floor. The pain was blinding him. He was no longer aware of where he was. He felt sure that his head would split along his scar. And in the midst of the pain he heard a high-pitched hiss in his ear. "What are you waiting for, Harry? I know you desire revenge." Then Harry saw again before his eyes what had been visiting his nightmares all summer.

Snape stood on the wall of the Astronomy tower. Dumbledore was pleading with him. Snape snarled, raised his wand and shouted "Avada Kedavra!" Dumbledore's body flew into the air, over the wall, and then fell to the ground far below.

"I did it, Harry," the voice hissed. "I am the reason for his demise, and I am looking forward to destroying you as well."

And then Harry found himself panting on the floor, clutching his scar that was still burning painfully. Ginny was standing over him, talking loudly.

"Harry! Harry! Are you all right? I knew this would happen. Are you okay?"

Harry was sweating and shaking all over. He took a deep breath and sat up.

"Why..." he gasped, hand still over his forehead, "does everything... happen... to me?"

"Come on," said Ginny, helping him up and looking relieved that he was coherent. "Sit down here in the chair."

Harry let her lead him over to the chair, where he sat down gratefully. His scar wasn't hurting so much now, but he was incredibly sore from smashing into the common room wall. He gingerly touched a large lump on the back of his head, which was stinging.

"What happened, Harry?" said Ginny calmly, sitting across from him and looking deep into his eyes. "What did Voldemort want?"

Harry realized that this was the first time Ginny had said Voldemort's name and suddenly felt immensely grateful that this was Ginny he was talking to. She was someone who would take him seriously and keep a cool head. He sighed and explained to her what he had heard and seen.

"You haven't been practicing Occlumency, have you?" she asked sternly.

"Well, no," said Harry shamefully. "But even if I had it wouldn't have done any good. You saw it. I wasn't even asleep. How am I supposed to keep my head clear when I'm thinking about you?"

Ginny smiled sadly. "Aw, that's sweet. But you have to try. Voldemort is clearly trying to get at you, Harry. You need to fight back."

Harry was about to protest and say it is ridiculous to wipe your mind blank while trying to teach Defense, but at that moment the portrait hole opened and a loud babble of voices filled their ears. People were flooding into the common room, talking excitedly.

"Let's go to bed," said Ginny, standing. Harry followed in suit. "We'll talk about it in the morning."