Chapter Seven: Quidditch, Detentions, and the D.A

AN: Few things I want to say: First; thanks to everyone reading the story. Second; all reviews are appreciated, positive or negative, so please review. Third; a lot of this chapter will be told in first person: either in Harry's view, or Xavier's view. This should add a new dynamic to the story. I may not use first person that often, but I will alert you in case I do. Oh, and sorry about taking so long between updates.

Xavier's POV:

I walked towards Snape's detention, not really knowing what to expect. Sure, I've faced tough discipline before, that's part of a prankster's life. But based on what I've seen, and what my friends have told me, this Snape guy is on a whole other level. I wasn't really scared, but more apprehensive than anything else. I walked down a flight of trick stairs, and remembered just in time not to step on the seventh step, or I would have sunk waist deep into the floor. I reached the dungeons and knocked once on Snape's office door, heard a gruff "Enter, Mr. Dalton" and walked into the Potions master's office.

The walls were dark gray stone, and I saw tanks and vats of various potions ingredients. I also saw some of Snape's personal effects: his green and black traveling cloaks, his Slytherin Quidditch pennant, and his various Potions awards from his time you are at school. He gave me a few seconds to look around, and I muttered, "Nice place." I was trying to appease him, and hope he would let me out quickly so I would have time to do some of my homework. The Professor heard me, but my clever ruse didn't work.

"Nice try, Mr. Dalton. I must admit you sounded quite sincere. But as I am a skilled Legilimens, I could tell that you were just trying to appease me, and get off easy tonight. What I have for you tonight will not be easy. I will be invading your mind, seeing what makes you tick, seeing what makes you Xavier Matthew Dalton, and how I can use that to prevent more cockiness out of you in this class. Before we start though, I will give you ten minutes to prepare yourself. Your head will hurt after this, and you will feel sick tomorrow. Hopefully, that alone will teach you a lesson."

I was absolutely terrified at this point. Harry and Ron were right Snape was going to try to break me. The worst part of this is that I had never had any Occulmency training. I had no shot at keeping Snape out of my mind. What if he saw some of my private memories? What if he saw the revenge pranks was already planning to pull with Harry and Ron on him? What if he saw the one event I will always regret, and make me relive it again?

I did the only thing left I could think of: I stared Severus Snape down, I tried to intimidate him. But he simply sneered and said, "No Occulmency training? Too bad. It is time… Legilimens!" I could feel him pressing deep into my mind…

Harry's POV (Same time period as Xavier's beginning of chapter)

I walked towards Umbridge's detention as Xavier walked the other way. I wondered what I would have to do for the woman. She seemed to be nice on the outside, but I had bad feelings about her. She seemed like the type that would give me some sort of unusual punishment, one that would test me. I walked up to the DADA teacher's office and knocked once on the door…

"Ah, Mr. Potter. Good evening, come in."

"Good evening, Professor Umbridge."

I stepped into her office and was shocked at what she had done to the place. It was all pink, frilly, and filled with posters and plates with meowing cats on them. It looked much different than the Dark Detector office that Moody had, or the office with a new exotic creature when Lupin was the professor, or the narcissistically themed office when Lockhart was the teacher. I couldn't help a small look of disgust of what Umbridge had done to the place. It looked horrible. She smiled at me, and spoke again.

"You will be doing lines for me tonight, Mr. Potter." I reached into my bag to take out my quill but she said tartly, "No, Mr. Potter, you will be using a special quill of mine tonight."

"Professor, what do I have to write, and how many times will I have to write it?"

"You will write I must not tell lies, and you will write until the message sinks in..."

I picked up her special quill, it was pink with a large black feather, and began to write. Something unbelievable happened, and I let out a gasp of pain. The words were etching themselves into my hand…

Xavier's POV (continues immediately from where it let off originally)

I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do as the sadistic Potions professor dug through everything I had done in my life. He started with my happy memories, playing Quidditch and football. He saw me scoring with the Quaffle, and breaking tackles as I ran to the end zone in football. Then he saw me in various secluded corners of my American school with various girls. Then he saw me with the guys, playing poker and hanging out on the beach. He saw happy times with my parents and my brother, James and my sister Jessica. Both are wizards as well, and are still in America getting their education there. He saw me getting my e-mail that told me about being a wizard, and the celebration that I had. He saw me as a small child, playing with other children, and I always had a smile on my face. He saw me pulling pranks with my crew on various students and teachers.

But then Snape switched tactics, and moved to my bad memories. Loosing in Quidditch. Loosing the state championship in football when I got tackled at the three yard line on the final play. Seeing every breakup fight with every girl I had ever had a relationship with. He saw me all the fights I got in growing up, and I had to relive every punch I ever took. He saw me fighting with my parents and siblings. He saw me get up and leave America and come across the Death Eaters after arriving in England by accident and almost dying. He saw me almost arrested by Umbridge for saving Harry. But he got to my worst memory of all: He saw me holding the dying, bloody body of my former best friend, Steve, as he died from his wounds in a brutal street wizards duel. He saw me crying and then he let me out of his mind trap.

A solitary tear fell from my face, remembering that day like it was yesterday. It was after the Quidditch national title game, and Texas had beaten us 330-310. The game was brutal, and both teams were violent. The fighting continued as both teams went to leave, and spells were soon flying all over. Snape interrupted my flashback, sneering and whispering

"Not so high and mighty, are we Mr. Dalton. I knew you must have some skeletons in your closet. You have no consistency though, you're either on top of the world, or laying on the bottom. And by the way, if you try a prank on me, you'll regret it. You may go, Mr. Dalton."

I was relieved to finally get out of that torture, and I walked out of his classroom, mind whirling on all the things Snape had seen. I saw it was pitch black, and the corridors were deserted, and I started to sprint back to Gryffindor tower, and I was going to get some sleep before class the next day.

Harry's POV (After his detention is complete: detention same as canon)

I couldn't believe what happened in that detention. That evil woman made me write lines into my own hand. It still hurts like crazy, and you can almost see the carving of "I must not tell lies" I'm telling lies my ass. She's the one telling the lies. Her and the damn government. They make me and Dumbledore look crazy, but we'll show them. They'll find out the truth soon enough. But for now, how much longer am I going to have to deal with this? People avoiding me in the halls, whispering about me in the Great Hall, this is bullshit.

I needed to get back to the dormitories and I broke off into a run. I was using all the secret passages I knew, and I was almost to the dorms when I heard two sets of footsteps. I sprinted around the corner…

WHAM! I collided into Xavier, and our stuff flew all over the place. His hat got flung off, and our bags went careening into the wall as we went down to the floor

"Sorry, man. Didn't see you there. Snape's detention was brutal."

"Couldn't have been worse than mine, Xavier. Bloody lines for four hours."

"Well, at least your mind wasn't getting hacked into. Snape knows all my secrets and memories. The whole time, he was using Legilimency on me. He wanted some dirt on me, and damn he got it."

I was about to ask what this dirt was when Ron burst out of a door masquerading as a solid wall, looked at us on the ground and asked, "Are you guys all right? What the hell happened?"

I looked at him and noticed that he was wet, dirty, and that he was holding his broom.

"Yeah, we're fine, Ron. What's with the broom?" I asked him. I thought I already knew the answer, but I gave him a chance to say it.

"I just fancied a walk, that's all. And then I decided to fly around for awhile." I decided to let him have his secret, and the three of us walked to the dormitories. I was the last one to fall asleep, and I could soon hear Ron's snores and Xavier's deep breathing.

Back to third person…

The week went quickly, and soon it was Friday; the day of the Gryffindor Keeper tryouts. Xavier and Hermione went down to the pitch together to cheer on Ron. Ron didn't know that his friends knew about his intentions to tryout for the keeper position. Ginny was walking down with her brother and Harry, and the three of them were talking about the upcoming Quidditch season. When they got to the pitch, Ginny went back to the stands, and the team captain, seventh year Chaser Angelina Johnson addressed her team, and the potential Keeper candidates, telling them the instructions for the tryout. The team would scrimmage, and the potentials would rotate playing Keeper, and the best candidate would join the team. There were six other people trying out besides Ron, who had taken on a shade of green. Harry looked at his friend with concern and noticed that Ron was the fourth keeper in line to play. Harry wasn't really involved, as the Snitch didn't matter, and he instead watched the Keepers play. The first three were horrible, and then Ron was up. He saved the first shot, then the second, and the third was a phenomenal save, as Ron batted away Katie Bell's shot with the tip of his broom. Ron missed the next two horribly, and then he was done, The next three keepers were pretty good, and Harry knew Ron could make the team, but he might not. The team conferred, and Angelina addressed the Keepers.

"Thank you all for coming. You all played well, but we can only take two of you. One as starter, and the other as a reserve. Our reserve Keeper will be Vicky Frobisher. And our starter this year will be Ron Weasley. Congratulations Ron and Vicky."

Ron whopped in celebration, and he was quickly joined by Harry and Ginny. Hermione and Xavier soon followed, and the five of them walked happily to Gryffindor Tower.

A couple of weeks later, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Xavier was still in detention for pulling a prank on Umbridge, which turned her hair pink to match her clothing, and also turned her kitten posters into snakes. Ron had been struggling with his goalkeeping at Quidditch practices, and Harry found it hard to keep his friend's spirits up. Hermione finally spoke after a long silence:

"Harry, I was thinking… Since this is our O.W.L year, and we need to do well in all of our classes. And Umbridge refuses to teach us anything this year. We should teach ourselves Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Like look jinxes up in the library and stuff? That wont really do much, will it?" Harry was puzzled about Hermoine's idea. How were they supposed to teach themselves Defense Against the Dark Arts, he thought.

"No, we would have you teach us." Hermione answered plainly, almost as if she was bored of the conversation.

"What!?!? I cant teach. I barely do well in the subject myself. No one wants to learn from me."

Ron had been sitting silently the whole conversation until this point, and finally spoke, "I don't think I want someone this stupid teaching us, Hermoine." Ron then launched into a detailed monologue of all the things Harry had done.

"So will you please at least think about it, Harry?"

"Yea, sure Hermoine."

"Hey, what's up everybody? How was not being in detention with a sadistic hag?" Xavier burst into the common room, soaking wet. He had been making it a habit of being in detention with Umbridge, having six already in the first two weeks of school. Most of these detentions were punishment for talking in class, not doing homework, or the one for getting busted on a prank.

"Why the hell are you soaking wet?" Harry and Ron both asked at the same time. They did not see any reason for Xavier to have gone outside.

"Well, after my detention, I felt like going for a quick fly before bed. Good night everyone." Before Harry or Ron could point out that Xavier didn't have a broom, Xavier had run up the dorm stairs, and gone to bed. Shrugging, Harry and Ron soon joined him, not really contemplating why Xavier was lying to them.

"Harry, why is everyone all excited about this trip to Hogsmeade anyway? I don't see what's so exciting about going into the same village all the time." Xavier asked Harry as he buttoned up his traveling cloak and pulled on his blue winter cap for the October trip into Hogsmeade.

"I won't say anything until we get there, but you'll see. But we do have to meet Hermione in the Hog's Head later, which won't be too great." Harry was surprised about his friend's negative attitude, but didn't really think about it. Xavier after all, had been not able to kick back and have some fun, spending most of his time in detention or finishing homework at three in the morning.

"But there's Honeydukes, Xavier. That's only the greatest sweetshop in the world!" Ron shouted as Xavier and Harry walked out of the dorms. Ron quickly folled his friends into the common room, where they met up with Hermione and Ginny, who were coming from the girls dorms.

"Now boys, its ten now. We are all meeting in the Hog's Head at one. Don't be late. Especially you, Harry. We need to see who's interested in our D.A.D.A plan." Hermione spoke to the boys as if they were five, which greatly annoyed the three of them.

"Who's going to be interested in taking defense from me? I'm a nutter according to the Daily Prophet remember?" Harry asked, and everyone chuckled except Hermione, who scowled.

"Let's go guys, we need to get everything done before Hermione's little meeting." Ron muttered under his breath, and the three boys left the common room, and began the long, windy walk to Hogsmeade village. They were planning another prank on Professor Umbridge, and were going to buy supplies from Zonko's Joke Shop, and visit Honeydukes, and get a quick butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks.

The three boys were carrying bags of merchandise when they walked into the Hogs Head at 1:03 in the afternoon. Harry was shocked to see that there were almost 25 people in the room, and they all turned and looked at him. Harry was speechless, and Xavier elbowed him in the ribs, and Ron led him over to the large table were everyone was sitting.

"I knew you three would be late!" Hermione yelled at them "That better not be more pranking equipment, Xavier. How much more trouble can you really afford to get in?"

"I can get in a little more, Hermione. Don't worry about me. Now let's listen to Harry's little speech." Xavier whispered to her

"Speech?" Harry had not been told about this particular piece of the plan "What speech?"

"Fine, Harry. I'll start talking." Hermione shot back at Harry, who had yelled this at her. "Thank you everyone for coming. I was thinking that we aren't learning anything in D.A.D.A this year. And with the threat of Lord Voldemort ever present, we must learn to protect ourselves. So I thought that we could teach ourselves defense, and that Harry should be our leader."

The room soon became chaotic, with people shouting back and forth about Harry's sanity and qualification, and whether Lord Voldemort was actually back. Eventually, everyone was convinced to join the group, named Dumbledore's Army, and signed the list, passed around by Hermione. Soon the group disbanded, and everyone left except for Harry , Ron, Hermione, Xavier, Ginny, and Cho Chang. Cho walked over to the table that Harry and Xavier were at, said hi to Harry and Xavier, and slipped a note to Xavier that no one saw. Xavier read it quickly, and smiled. Cho was out of the bar before anyone noticed this exchange, and Xavier burned the note with a flick of his wand.

The atmosphere in the school was wild. It was the morning of the first Quidditch match of the year: Gryffindor v.s Slytherin. Harry had been in high spirits the past two weeks, with the success of the D.A, and the fact that he was spending more time with Cho. Ron was so nervous he was shaking, and nothing that Harry or Xavier could say helped at all. When it was finally time for the match, Harry and Ron separated from Hermione, Xavier and Ginny, who found a seat in the Gryffindor section of the stands.

The game had begun, and it was soon clear to Harry that Ron's first game was going to be a disaster. The Slytherin fans continued to sing "Weasley is Our King" and Ron continued to miss saves. The Gryffindor crowd was silent, even as Harry managed to catch the Snitch to end the game quickly, and eke out a win for Gryffindor. Just as he raised the ball in triumph, he was hit with a cheap shot by Crabbe, the Slytherin beater, and fell of his broom and hit the ground. He was only a few feet in the air, and got up and pumped his fist and the crowd roared; except for the Slytherin supporters.

"Hey, Potter. Way to save Weasley's skin. Did you like my lyrics?" Draco Malfoy had popped up behind Harry and the Gryffindor team, who had been celebrating. "We wanted to write more, but we couldn't rhyme fat and ugly; for his mother, or useless loser; for his father."

Fred and George turned at this point at this point and started to charge towards Malfoy. But the three Chasers held Fred back, and Harry managed to hold George back. Harry was about to loose his grip when Xavier jumped the fence on the stands and helped Harry hold Fred back.

"I suppose you like the Weasley's, Potter, because they remind you about what you remember about your own parents."

Harry released George, and Xavier was trying to hold the two back. He couldn't, and the two eventually reached Malfoy. Xavier gave up, and let them at their target. Fred and Harry started on Malfoy, reducing him to a quivering, bloody mess on the ground before the teachers stepped in, and hit the two of them with impediment jinxes. Hermione and Ginny looked on in horror from the stands, and Umbridge and McGonagall ran over to the two boys.

"Potter, Weasley!" Professor McGonagall shrieked. "This is disgraceful. A week's detention for each of you. And if I ever see anything like this again…"

"I would like to add to that punishment, and I can, according to the latest Educational Decree. I think a lifetime ban from Quidditch for the twins, and Potter here. This is not unreasonable, the rest of the team will be allowed to keep playing. They were perfectly peaceful."

Harry, Fred, George, and Xavier just stood shocked at what transpired, and Harry did not even notice Ginny and Hermione run down to them, and hug him in comfort. Harry did not know what to do, and without a word, took off on his broom. He flew back up to the school, ran up to the Gryffindor tower, and went to bed before anyone could talk to him.