"You're going about it the wrong way. Magic isn't something that just happens. It's not a button you press to get a result. Doing magic will only work as well as the effort you put into it. If you really, truly want something to happen, then magic will make it happen, logic be damned." -Harry Potter to the DA. November, 1995.
~Chapter 10: Off With Its Head~
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was hectic as ever for a Monday. Paper memos flying around at high speeds just a few feet above everyone's head, multiple office workers running around trying to get a hold of each other for something semi-important. Someone was always shouting about something. There was a lot to keep track of after all. The only section of the department that was actually relatively quiet was the one dedicated to tracking magical usage by registered underage wizards. They were all in school, be it at Hogwarts or another one, so theoretically they had it easy until the winter holidays at least.
Or so Tonks had heard. Considering what it was like during the summer, particularly these days, you couldn't pay her to go in there… Well, it'd have to be a lot at any rate.
"Good morning, Auror Tonks."
The young woman's attention was brought to the attendant who was sitting the front desk. "Oh, hey, Anne. Good weekend?"
"Passable," she responded with a shrug. Anne didn't speak much, but taking into account all the crap she had to deal with as the face of the DMLE to anyone who walked through those front doors, she really ought to be considered a regular, chatty woman. "My husband and I went out to dinner last night, which was quite nice. What about you? Visit some boy or another this weekend?" For the first time her gaze lifted from the magazine she was reading, a homeowners issue. Tonks could see the mischief hiding behind her bangs.
"As a matter of fact, I did," Tonks said lightly, brushing her hair, which was a medium length dark brown this morning, over her shoulder. "Spent my time in the company of the extremely rich and famous. See ya."
Passing through the security scanner, Tonks navigated her way through the main room, heading for the next one. The DMLE was split into essentially three sections. The main section was the regular law enforcement department. Everyone from purely office workers to hit wizards had a place in here. Any other sub department that had to do with some form of law enforcement was connected to here. As that was a fairly large number, this tended to be the most hectic area on the entire floor. The Improper Use of Magic Office was the second section and located off to one side. They often operated like they weren't a part of the DMLE, but they still reported to it. Finally, her office was located in the other direction where the Auror Department was. It was fairy well separated from the rest of the chaos and had a more serious atmosphere. Not like that really made a difference for her in the end.
"Morning, Shaklebolt."
"Tonks. Good weekend?" he asked, eyes still focused on his Prophet. While they were both friendly in the Order, they interacted about as much as they would with any other from their department, which was to say fairly infrequently. Aurors acted in groups when on serious assignments, usually in pairs, and she was still too new to the department to have a stable partner. It wasn't very usual for Aurors who weren't partners at some point to get too friendly unless they knew each other outside of work. In a place where your co workers often put their lives on the line, it was usually better not to get attached to too many people anyway.
"Better than my last few at least," Tonks replied with a shrug. She continued down the row of cubicles until she got to her own one which was towards the end. As one of the newest Aurors she was pretty much just placed where she fit. She emptied her pockets on the desk and sat in the large comfy chair that took up most of the floor space in the tiny thing. When she had first started there was nothing but a scrawny wooden chair sitting there. As if she were going to subject her cute rear to that thing for the majority of the day. Not bloody likely.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to take the manual out of my pocket at home," she mused, noticing the shrunken book among the regular things she kept in her DMLE robes. Harry had said that he made notes in it? Making sure to keep an eye out in case someone decided to poke their head in on her, Tonks grinned as she un-shrunk it and leaned back in her seat. This would certainly be interesting.
She didn't have to go far before she found the first notes. The table of contents had a few things scratched on it.
Chapters 1-3 are useless apart from pages 22, 50, and 51. What a waste of paper.
Indeed, all three chapters had black lines through them as if telling you to skip them. Tonks snorted at the cheeky note. The first three chapters were dedicated to the fine line that Aurors walked with the legality of their actions and the spells they used. There was a lot that was banned by the Ministry due to it being labeled Dark Magic. Chapter 4 had nothing next to it but 5 and 6 did.
Good stuff.
She opened the book half way and paged ahead into Chapter 5.
"What the..."
She couldn't help it. Every damn spell had a comment. Sometimes it was something simple like, Useless, or Neat, but most of them had something further.
Stupefy: incredible in certain situations. Not for fighting multiple opponents.
Incarcerous: Excellent spell. Does it always have to be ropes though? Will experiment.
Immobulus: Underrated. Difficult to put on a person but works well on smaller things.
Contego: More important to know than Protego.
"Wow," she muttered, flipping the pages absently. He actually had some pretty insightful notes buried in the pages. And Harry wanted her to just erase this all?
He had less to say on the spells that were just there to harm. Cutting, piercing, and bludgeoning spells, along with anything of the like that did serious direct damage just had the same thing next to them: Lethal, not for teaching.
Not for teaching? What could that mean?
The final chapter had a number of simple spell combinations that worked well together to achieve various results, as well as outlining a great deal of strategies for apprehending criminals who were at different levels of dangerous. This section was surprisingly blank, or at least so Tonks thought until she got to the last page.
Good in theory but none of this matters when you're in the heat of the moment. Besides, half of these are just different ways of saying blow your target to pieces and worry about it later.
Tonks couldn't help but laugh at that. Harry was turning into quite the fighter. She wouldn't be seeing him until the Christmas holidays, but when she did they would definitely need to duel. She could only imagine how far he had come since they last faced off. Training on your own could only take you so far, but he seemed to be doing well enough by himself.
Not really having anything to do at the moment, Tonks leaned back in her chair and put put her feet up with a smile, looking forward to the next time she'd get to spend with the messy haired boy.
Xx~xX
"It's Johnson again! She's tearing down the pitch with the Quaffle! No! Warrington swoops in with a steal, bringing Slytherin back in possession! He ducks Bell and—What a hit from Weasley! I'd be surprised if Warrington can tell which way is up after that Bludger hit! Spinnet now in possession, smoothly dodges Montegue and makes for the Keeper! She shoots—GRYFFINDORS SCORE! This ties them back up at seventy to seventy! Those girls are really making Slytherin work for it today!"
Harrry glanced over at Lee who was giving the play-by-play like usual. That was honestly the most unbiased piece of commentary he'd ever heard out of the boy's mouth. Usually it was something like—
"Alicia with the Quaffle again! She moves to pass—Hey, you can't crash into her like that, you cheating little—"
"Jordan!"
Ahh, there it was.
"Come off it, Professor, did you see that? Knock them off their brooms!"
Bitter.
If he had to pick one word that most accurately described how he felt, that would be it. Bitter at stuff.
Playing Quidditch on the team had meant a lot more to him than he thought. It was easy to push it off when he was spiting Umbridge at the time, but to watch his his team play from the stands really hurt. What was worse was that every now and then Umbridge would turn in her seat and give him a look of pure satisfaction. The feeling of having caused this whole situation must have made her very pleased, and she didn't hesitate to rub it in at all. Why else would she sit in the Gryffindor stands instead of with the other professors when the whole House hated her to a certain extent? Harry had only returned her look once, face indifferent. He had to resist sending the strongest banishing charm he could at her back when she turned around though.
Another loud groan came from the Gryffindor stands as Ron was scored on again. The Slytherins of course were ecstatic, cheering uproariously. He'd failed to save anything so far. Definitely nerves were affecting him, but the "Weasley Is Our King" song was really what was causing the most damage. The only reason they weren't losing horribly was because the Gryffindor Chasers were doing amazingly well, though their stamina wouldn't hold for much longer at this rate. It would come down to Ginny catching the snitch for Gryffindor to stand a chance of winning. Which was why she was the only person Harry had been watching since practically the start of the match. He had been completely ignoring everything else.
Slytherin scores.
Gryffindor scores.
Slytherin scores.
Gryffindor misses.
"Weasley is our King!"
Slytherin scores again.
"How do you do it?"
Hermione looked at him in confusion.
"What was that?"
"How do you do it?" he repeated, looking at her. He wasn't speaking loudly. His voice was no higher than during a regular conversation in the common room. But Hermione was still able to hear him, mainly due to the fact that because the stands were so packed she was practically sitting in his lap.
"Do what?" Hermione was watching him with a small frown on her face.
"Keep it together," he elaborated, glancing back at the flying players. Slytherin was pulling ahead now. "I swear there are times that I think I'm really going to lose it. I'm honestly afraid of what I might do if that ever happens. But I look at you, bogged down by twice as much work as me and still looking after us, having to put up with all of Umbridge's shit just like everyone else, and you just keep it going without a problem."
Hermione smiled sadly. "I appreciate that you see me as someone who's so strong, but I'm not as secure as you think I am."
"You are."
She just sighed heavily. "I don't know about that Harry. I've come close to breaking a lot this year."
"And why haven't you?" he asked.
Hermione just looked at him unblinkingly. "Why haven't you?"
"Because I keep telling myself if I slip by accident then it won't be as good as when I actually snap on purpose." He glanced at the girl before returning his attention to the match, once again looking for Ginny.
"Harry, please, whatever you do, just don't get expelled," said Hermione softly, leaning into him.
"Ginny's seen the snitch."
Hermione looked back at the game in time to cheer with the other Gryffindors for their housemate. The Slytherins were also making a great deal of noise, shouting on Malfoy who was hot on her heels. It was all for naught though. Ginny had too much of a head start for Malfoy to overtake her quickly enough, and her hand had closed around the madly fluttering golden ball after a few swipes. Inwardly Harry let out a sigh of relief. The snitch hadn't been that troublesome and more or less kept to a straight path. He was afraid for a while that it would try to be difficult. If that had been the case then Malfoy likely would have gotten it just from having more experience chasing the things over the years than the girl.
Lee's shouting of the final scores was lost amid the cheering from the Gryffindor stands. They had won by ninety points, a lucky break considering that the Gryffindor chasers had begun to lose steam. They overextended themselves by trying to make up for Ron's abysmal performance. Speaking of his friend, Harry couldn't make him out among the team below, who was milling near the Slytherin team. A shiny blond head moved forwards from the group a bit, gesturing to the Gryffindors and saying something he obviously couldn't hear. No doubt he was taunting them, having been sore that they just lost the game.
Someone walked in front of him just as the entire stadium erupted into shouting. Standing up, Harry pushed a boy aside to see Fred and George laying into Malfoy like he was a particularly deserving punching bag. Crabbe and Goyle moved in to defend him but were unable to get in more than a hit before Madame Hooch pulled her wand and took control of the situation.
"Damn, wish I was down there..."
"Why do I get the feeling you aren't talking about Quidditch anymore," mumbled Hermione, pulling him through the packed stands towards the winding wooden stairs that led back to the ground.
Harry couldn't help but grin. "I'm sure he deserved it," he replied at once.
Hermione shook her head but said nothing. Knowing Malfoy, Harry was probably right. "You realize that Umbridge won't pass up this opportunity to hurt the team further, right?"
Harry sighed heavily. "Yeah, Angelina's going to cry when she finds out," he said. "I mean, we were lucky with Ginny being halfway decent, but I don't think there's anyone in the House up to her level that can play Beaters."
"What do you think Malfoy said to make them lose it like that?" wondered Hermione.
Harry just shrugged. "We'll find out eventually."
x~x
"Angelina. Hey, don't space out on me."
"What do you want, Harry?"
"To be honest, I want you to not be so sad, but there really isn't that much I can do about that."
"No, there isn't. I lost both of my Beaters not three weeks after losing my Seeker. Did Slytherin lose their Beaters? Doubt it. It's only a matter of time before Ron quits too. And who could blame him after today? Why even bother at this point?"
Harry gave a small sigh and exchanged a look with Alicia and Katie who were standing a few feet behind her, framed by the evening light coming through the window in the back. They both wore sad expressions, but he just grinned.
"Well, if there's nothing I can say then I guess I'll just have to sit here and keep you company instead."
He plopped down next to Angelina in the large armchair she was occupying. Admittedly, the chairs weren't exactly made for two people so it was a rather tight fit. Especially considering that the occupants were a fifth- and seventh-year.
"H-hey!"
"Problem?"
"You're half on top of me, you bloody idiot!"
"Then move over a bit, you can squeeze." He wiggled himself a bit until they were both sitting tightly in the chair.
Angelina was giving him a look of deepest annoyance. "Potter, I'm not in the mood. Get up."
"Clearly," he said dryly. "Relax a bit, it's a party. Or at least was one," he amended, looking around. The common room was practically empty by that time. "Besides, if you're uncomfortable then get up. The chair's mine though. Nice and warm too."
"I said get up."
"No."
"I'll dump butterbeer on you," she said flatly.
Harry just looked at her in disbelief. "You wouldn't."
Unaware to both of them, Alicia and Katie were watching the exchange with slightly open mouths. Angelina held up her open, almost full bottle. She had barely touched it all night.
"I will."
"Not moving."
"Fine." And just like that Angelina steadily poured the entire thing on his head.
Sputtering, Harry pushed his soaked hair out of his eyes and glared at the girl who looked half taken aback and half satisfied by her own actions. Pulling his wand, Harry levitated two full bottles of butterbeer over the girl's head and vanished the glass, allowing both drinks to drench her as well, though a lot of it ended up splashing onto him. Still worth the sacrifice.
Alicia and Katie, as well as the few remaining party goers, were now holding on to each other and laughing at the looks on Harry and Angelina's faces. They were both glaring at the other darkly, sopping wet and dripping. After about a minute Harry could hold back no longer and gave a snort of laughter, which made Angelina crack a small smile as well. Pretty soon they were both laughing with the others, the sad atmosphere broken up.
"You're unbelievable, you know that?" sighed Angelina after she finally regained control.
Harry just shrugged. "I've been known to do some pretty crazy stuff."
"Well, I'm off to take a shower now," said the girl, extricating herself from the chair.
Harry caught her arm before she could go. "Angelina, I know it's crap right now and things might even get worse, but I promise you it'll get better in the end."
She sighed, though her face still wore a small smile. "I know, Harry. Thanks for the laugh."
"Any time, Captain" he replied with a grin. Angelina's smile grew, though it was looking a bit more predatory than he thought necessary.
"But if you do it again I'll kick your ass."
Harry let out a weak chuckle. She could be so much more terrifying than Wood ever had been.
"Noted." He watched her head up to the girl's dorms before his vision was obscured by the remaining Chasers.
"Thanks, Harry, she really needed that," said Alicia.
"Butterbeer all over her body?"
"The laugh, you dope," said Katie, giving his head a small knock with her knuckles. "We'll make sure she doesn't relapse and try to drown herself in the showers. Night, Harry."
"Night, you two."
With Alicia and Katie heading up the girl's staircase as well that actually left the common room empty with the exception of himself and Hermione. The windows were completely dark with night. He hadn't realized it had gotten so late.
"Do you always just do the first thing that comes to mind?" she asked him, finally approaching with her wand out. She cast a few cleaning charms to remove the dampness and stickiness from the drying drink that covered his upper body and repeated the action on the chair. "After all, what if it didn't work?"
Harry just shook his head. "Not a chance. Angelina's the type who pushes people away when she's upset, though she really needs the company to feel better. Katie and Alicia are her best friends, but she needed someone to take out some frustration on who wasn't them. Angelina feels really bad otherwise. I just gave her an outlet that wouldn't run away when she started attacking."
Hermione tilted her head to the side a bit. "And since when have you known her so well?" she asked.
"She's my captain. Well, was my captain, and my teammate for a while," he said with a shrug. "I know we never hung out like we ever did, but don't you think I should know her pretty well regardless?"
"Really... How about Alicia? How would you cheer her up?"
Harry frowned in thought, missing the fact that Hermione was just joking with him. "Well, she generally just needs a morale boost of some sort. As long as it's from someone she cares about at any rate. She's pretty good at getting herself out of a rut with a little push."
"Katie?"
"Anything funny to get her out of whatever mood she's in. Katie doesn't resist once you calm her down, but she's pretty unapproachable before that though. She's really weak to stupidly corny jokes. The ones that make you groan because they're that bad. She told me her dad tells them to her every chance he gets."
By now Hermione had raised her eyebrows slightly.
"What?" said Harry defensively.
"How about Lavender?"
"Wha—why her?"
"You're on a roll, don't stop now."
"Uhh, well, she usually gets caught up on silly things and that just needs some explaining, but if it's serious she's always gotten better with a hug and some support from Parvati. If Lavender is ever depressed I'd usually go find her. Parvati's actually pretty much the same way, but sometimes she could use a small laugh. I wouldn't push her too much though, she's pretty sensitive. I think a lot of that comes from issues with her sister topping her in most things at school. The DA's been really good for them to work together. I think it's improved their relationship a lot."
"You're surprisingly good at understanding people," said Hermione in interest.
"What do you mean surprisingly?"
Perhaps just in time, the portrait door opened to admit the remaining Gryffindor who was still out of bed: Ron. Still wearing his Quidditch gear and everything, he sulked in and immediately made his way to the armchair that Angelina had been sitting in earlier. It was still a bit damp with butterbeer, but Ron gave no notice.
"Ron, where were you?" said Hermione at once. "We were worried about you."
"Right, you and the rest of the House, I'm sure," he said sarcastically, looking into his lap.
"Ron, don't be like that," she continued, her voice softening. "You tried hard this match-"
"Not hard enough."
"-and you'll do better next time," she finished steadily. Ron looked over at her.
"Next time? There won't be a next time," he said tiredly. "I'm going to resign from the team. There's no hope with this."
"Ron you're being stupid," said Harry, leaning against the sofa. "You're a great Keeper, you just have problems with nerves. If Angelina didn't think you could do it she never would have put you on the team." He sighed a bit before continuing, "Besides, you can't quit. Fred and George were banned from the team for fighting." Ron looked up in shock.
"What?"
"Umbridge, who else?" he said with a shrug.
"Damn toad," Ron cursed. "At least Ginny ended up being pretty good. Who could possibly replace Fred and George?"
"No idea."
"Hey, I know something that should cheer you up," said Hermione, now looking at them with a wide smile on her face. Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks before returning to Hermione. She tapped the window lightly. "Hagrid's back."
Xx~xX
"Well, it could be worse."
"What do you mean?"
"We could be doing Acromantulas, or Chimeras, or Manticores..."
"Please, as if Hagrid could get a hold of a Manticore."
"…"
"… Alright, I suppose it could be worse."
Harry nodded smugly at Hermione as she returned her attention back to Hagrid's lesson, taking notes on everything he said. She had spent a long time the previous night and today during lunch basically forcing Hagrid to restructure his class to something that was more appropriate for regular children. Or as he put it, "more boring." Professor Grubblyplank had a basic outline of what she would be covering which had been left to Hagrid, and fortunately Hermione managed to get a hold of it before he got rid of it. The result? They were getting a lesson on Thestrals.
O.W.L. level? Not quite. Hagrid's assessment?
They were pretty cool.
Considering the other things he thought were cooler, they had gotten off lightly. In all fairness though the class was excellent. The main problem was that there was no way that Hagrid would ever pass Umbridge's inspection, even if he were Merlin's own son. Even the small interaction the three Gryffindors had witnessed in Hagrid's hut had been fairly aggressive on Umbridge's part. Now in the large group, she posed incredibly insulting questions to the students, some of whom had absolutely no issue offending Hagrid as well. Hagrid, while certainly flushed in the face, managed to ignore most of it and continue the lesson while the Gryffindors, who as a whole liked Hagrid a lot, made plans to get the offending Slytherins back, viciously.
As Hagrid told the class about how Thestrals lived, Umbridge was now moving around the Slytherins of the group and asking very directed questions. Obviously she had done her research into the more rocky parts of Hagrid's career.
"I was slashed by a crazy Hippogriff once," Malfoy drawled, too far away from Hagrid to hear but certainly close enough for many of the students to roll their eyes.
"A Hippogriff?" repeated Umbridge in apparent shock, making hasty scribbles on her clipboard. "That sounds terrifying."
"It was," he reassured her, smirking at his friends. "I was only in my third year at the time. Naturally my father tried to get us a proper Care of Magical Creatures teacher, one who wouldn't put us in such danger, but he was blocked by the headmaster. I'm always worried about what we might have to face in this class."
"Wow, Malfoy, I always knew you were stupid, but I never saw you as a coward," said Harry in an even voice, beckoning to what most could only see as thin air. The Thestral eyed him unwaveringly for a few seconds before walking over and butting his outstretched hand. Hagrid really had done well with the herd. "By the way, you've only mentioned your wonderful father twice today. You still need to do it at least three more times to meet your usual standard."
"Mr. Potter, you should not be antagonizing a fellow classmate, no less an esteemed member of the Ministry," said Umbridge severely, a hand preventing Malfoy from retorting. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for your rudeness. Please apologize."
"Sorry, Draco, I really hope I didn't hurt your feelings. I know you can be pretty sensitive at times. Professor Hagrid?" he called, raising his voice slightly to get the man's attention.
"What is it, Harry?"
"We know you have to witness someone die to be able to see Thestrals," he began, still petting the one at his side which had closed its eyes in apparent enjoyment. "I'm curious about two things though. First, do you have to see a human die or is it just death in general?"
"Excellent question," said Hagrid, clearly please that he had more to talk about. The man was always bursting to share everything he knew about magical creatures. Apparently, quite a few of the students were interested as well, now that the point had been brought up. "And a tricky one at that. The key part is that yer witnessing a life endin'. Works for most things, but it's not all death. Like if yeh saw a fish get killed it wouldn't mean nuthin'. Too far away from what we are ta matter in that way. So the simple answer is yes," Hagrid nodded down at Harry. "Yeh had another question?"
"Yeah, if being able to see them means you need to have seen death, then would a Memory Charm to make you forget seeing that death happening make you unable to see them again?" Hagrid grinned.
"Well, what do yeh think?" he replied.
"I've honestly got no clue," he said, completely baffled. Every time he considered each side the other seemed more right.
"Anyone else?" asked Hagrid, looking around at the group of students. No one seemed to have an answer to this. Of course, the Slytherins weren't paying attention and talking with Umbridge again about awful things that had to do with the class, but no one was paying them any attention now. "Well then, yer homework will be ta think about that question and write five inches of parchment on it for next class. Just give yer reasons, nuthin crazy. We'll make a discussion out of it. Should be fun I reckon."
A bell rang out over the grounds, signaling the end of class.
"Well, looks like that'll do it. Off with yeh then."
Not wanting to hang around Umbridge any longer than they had to, the class disbursed quickly, heading back up to the castle. The woman stuck around to give her short post-inspection speech before heading back to the castle as well.
"Well, that wasn't too bad in the end," said Ron.
"I hope she dies," said Hermione darkly.
Harry and Ron both blinked at the girl in surprise.
"Don't give me that, you heard how she was speaking to him at the beginning of class. Asking those demeaning questions and in that tone of voice too, as if he couldn't understand her. What a repulsively evil woman!"
"Honestly, it didn't bother me much, I practically expected it with Hagrid being half-giant," said Harry. "Besides, I don't think I could hate her anymore than I do already. Well," he amended, "she's not my Uncle, but it's a different kind of hate. It'll be fun putting her down permanently."
"Jeez, Harry, you sound like you're planning her murder," joked Ron, sending the raven haired boy a smirk. Harry said nothing, making Ron's grin slip slightly. He pulled Hermione back as they turned a corner. "Uh, he isn't planning to kill her, right?"
"I don't think so, but if she ever does have an 'accident' then don't expect me to weep."
Ron just looked at her in a deadpan. "Brilliant, good to know I'm the only sane one left."
x~x
"Hey, so do you guys want to get dinner? I know we passed the Great Hall already, but…" Harry turned around to find the corridor behind him empty. "Aaaaand they're completely gone. Uh, guys?"
Doubling back, he walked to the closest intersection and looked around. There were a handful of students moving through the area, but Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be found.
"Did they take a passageway?" he muttered, thinking of the different branches off the path they had been walking together. One, two, three... okay, way too many.
Ducking into a nearby room, he pulled the Marauder's Map and scanned it for his friends. He found them a minute later entering the Gryffindor common room. He had no idea how he'd lost them, but at least that answered his question.
About to put the map away, he noticed another name drawing closer to his position, clearly without any particular destination as instead of walking in a straight line like most people did, the dot poked around in random places, very distinctly meandering about. Harry grinned at the name before pocketing the map and heading off to intercept.
"Luna."
The girl looked up quickly in surprise, blonde hair bobbing slightly about her head. He could see her radish earrings swinging back and forth. "Oh, hello, Harry," said Luna, face lighting up. "I haven't seen you in a while."
"Well, apart from the DA, not really, yeah," he said with a nod. "It's been pretty busy lately."
"How have you been?" she asked, trotting over to him.
"As well as I can be," he said with a shrug. They began walking in in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. Harry figured the girl probably didn't have a destination in the first place, and her lack of input on the matter only supported that. "Classes are crazy, and I'm about one step away from being expelled if I slip up just once. People trying to provoke me into making a mistake and all that."
"So, the same as usual then," said Luna cheerfully.
Harry couldn't help but feel cheerful in turn. Luna just had the one of the most relaxing moods of anyone he knew. "Yeah, same as usual," he agreed. "Hagrid finally came back to the castle too, which I'm pretty happy about. I haven't seen him in ages. Care of Magical Creatures will probably get a lot more dangerous now, but that makes it a bit more interesting too, I suppose. What about you? Have you been doing alright?"
The Ravenclaw nodded, momentarily distracted by a window before returning her attention to him. "Oh, I found another interesting place we can explore this weekend, if you'd like."
"That would be nice. Being studious is a good idea, but too much will do more harm than good." Not that he ever took his own advice. He still trained almost constantly during the week and on the weekends, often running himself ragged by the time night came around.
"That's very wise of you."
"Um, Luna…"
"Yes, Harry?"
"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?" Indeed, he had only just noticed that his feet were the only ones making the distinct sound of shoes tapping on stone. "Aren't your feet cold?" he asked, pointing at her sock clad feet.
"Well, yes, I suppose, but as I can't find my shoes I've had to go about without them lately."
"Did you misplace them somewhere? Have you covered summoning charms yet?" he asked, smiling slightly at her absent mindedness.
"Oh, no, Nargles take my things and hide them, so that doesn't always work," she said blandly.
Harry's eyes narrowed. "Nargles?"
Dreamy eyes met his own. "Yes."
Yes, he'd heard about the little thieving, potentially imaginary creatures before. He reached out and grabbed her arm lightly, pulling them to a stop in the deserted corridor.
"Luna, what's been happening to your things?" he said seriously, looking her in the eye. "Tell me."
She held his gaze for a few seconds before her eyes lost some of their dreamy look and she refocused on Harry's feet. "Ah, people…take my things…"
Harry froze, lingering smile sliding right off of his face. "People take your things?" He must have heard her wrong. It wasn't just what she had said. The plain tone that her voice took was almost lifeless.
"That's right," she continued, her whimsical voice back to normal now. "It's been happening since I started here," she said with a shrug. "Usually I find the stuff before long, and it all comes back by the end of the year, but my bag with my homework has gone missing this time, and I really need it for class. Oh and my shoes I suppose..."
"Why—why would anyone do that?" he said flatly, still having trouble believing what he was hearing. Members of her own House were really doing that? Her homework? Her shoes?
"Oh… Well…" She shifted a little uncomfortably. "They think I'm a bit odd, you know. Maybe more than a bit? A lot of people call me 'Loony' Lovegood, actually."
Harry already knew of the nickname that many in the school called her, but that was hardly the issue here. He was no stranger to labels after all, but no one messed with him like that. They were probably too afraid to do anything of the sort actually. And her own housemates? Who else had access to her things?
Anger bubbled down in the pit of his gut. "Have you told someone about this?"
"No, it's alright."
"The hell it is," he retorted at once.
"Really, Harry, there's no harm done. I told you I get it all back."
He held her gaze for a few seconds before letting out a frustrated puff of air. How could she stay so serene about everything? "Would you like me to help you find your stuff, then?" he asked. "It would go faster with us both. I can talk to someone about this to put a stop to it, you know," he tried, one last time. "Flitwick would be pretty pissed—"
"Thank you, but it's alright, I'll be fine," she said with a smile. "I'm sure you have somewhere to be right now anyway. See you around, Harry."
"Wait." Harry pulled off his shoes, stepping onto the cold floor with a grimace. "Use these for now alright? Reducio," he muttered, shrinking his shoes a bit so that they would fit her properly.
Luna just blinked at him, seemingly taken aback. "Oh, but I couldn't—"
"Luna, shut up and put the shoes on," said Harry flatly.
Looking like a girl who had been scolded by an older sibling, Luna slipped his shoes on, letting out a happy sigh. "Oh, they're warm," she said. "Thank you, Harry."
"They're worn out but should work fine for now. Just give them back to me when you find your own pair, alright?" He quickly cast a warming charm at his feet. There was no way his toes would survive otherwise on the stone. "And if this keeps happening, come tell me. Alright?" He didn't let her go until she nodded.
"I will. Take care, Harry." She trotted off down the corridor and out of sight.
Harry just frowned after her, torn between respecting her wishes and just heading straight to Flitwick. Remembering that he wasn't wearing shoes now, he decided to think about it after he found himself another pair in the meantime.
Xx~xX
Before Harry knew it, December had arrived. Snowfall was beginning to become a little ridiculous, and Hagrid was often seen helping out a random professor keep the path to the castle clear. Midyear exams were approaching rapidly, and as they always did, professors piled on the work. With a very large part of the DA being fifth-years, this meant that sessions had dropped by about half from their usual twice a week. When discussing the amount of things everyone had going on outside of the group, Harry had asked them if they would rather temporarily put the group on hold to give them more time, but no one was willing to stop completely, even for a couple weeks. That made him pretty happy.
Harry was finding that the DA was one of the most enjoyable things he had ever done at the school. Even though they were still only doing fairly average material, all of which he had covered either before or during the summer months with Sirius, it was still a great deal of fun and highly rewarding. Especially the looks of accomplishment that everyone had when he pushed them through something particularly challenging. He had even succeeded in getting the group to accept the Slytherins to the point where anyone, even Ron, would practice with one of them, and didn't avoid talking to them, though he never went out of his way to do so.
Of course, that wasn't to say the group didn't have its hitches.
"We just have a couple weeks before break, and that gives us about three more full sessions counting this one, so I'd like to devote the rest of this term to stunning and review of what we've done so far. This way over the next couple weeks I'll be able to give each one of you a good chunk of individual help with whatever you need the most. Grab someone you don't work with often and get started. It's nothing new so you should be alright, and I'll be right over here. Neville, you're with me first, mate."
As Neville walked over, Harry couldn't help but grin at how much he had improved, not only with his magic, but with his self-esteem. Not being able to keep up with anyone for the first four years in anything but Herbology, which he constantly set the bar in, had really brought him down a lot. The primary culprit had been his wand. During the third DA session, Harry asked Neville out of curiosity about his wand and had found out that it had belonged to his father. One somewhat bullying conversation and side chat with Professor McGonagall later and Neville was pulled from school for a Saturday afternoon to go to Ollivanders. After that it was just a matter of getting the boy to be more confident in his abilities. Neville was actually talented, he just required a different approach than what he'd been dealing with for most of his life.
After working with Neville for about fifteen minutes, Harry grabbed Susan and pulled her off to the side to work with. The session went much the same way for the next hour and a half, him pulling students out one at a time, and letting the group just practice what they either felt they needed to improve on or the specific things he had told them to after seeing them. He was in the middle of working with Padma when things began to go south.
Fred and George had gotten into a rather heated argument with, surprise surprise, Zacharias Smith. What was a surprise, however, was that Michael Corner was also in the argument, apparently against the twins as well. Many of the other students around them had gathered closer to watch.
"…and tired of just doing all these defensive spells. You can't tell me you're actually fine with this!"
"Smith, if you want to learn how to make someone's skin rot then that's the other camp," said George.
The other boy flushed slightly. "You know that isn't what I'm talking about," he shot. "There's way more to dueling than dodging out of the way and doing a body bind or something. What if you're fighting more than one person? The other one could just cancel it. Then what?"
"That's true, but I'm wondering when you'd end up in a situation where you'd be facing a bunch of Death Eaters," said Fred, arms crossed.
"You guys sound like Umbridge," said Corner. "You've heard Harry. He's told us how dangerous it's going to be getting. There could be a Death Eater attack on a town or something where you live and then what?"
"Then you take your family and run away. As fast as you possibly can."
Everyone turned to find Harry standing a number of feet away, Padma just behind him.
"Run away?" Smith repeated. "That wouldn't fix anything. We can't just let the Death Eaters ruin our lives. You're always on about protecting what's yours. How are we supposed to do that by just giving up?
"So you want to fight?"
The words were calm but they carried an edge that froze everyone in the room. Almost subconsciously everyone was backing away from the two boys, leaving them and Harry with a good deal of space.
"Work on dodging, shield charms, disarming, and all the other protective stuff you've been teaching us, what good is it if we can't win the duel?" said Smith, clearly frustrated. "You know way more than just this stuff, why won't you teach us any of it?"
"So you'll hurt the Death Eaters if they ever attack you?" Harry continued. "Take them out."
"Well, I would if I knew the spells," agreed Smith with a nod. "If we just keep learning like this, we won't survive those duels."
"He's right, Harry," agreed Corner. "You can't win a fight unless you actually fight."
"Wands out."
"What?"
"Defend yourselves!" he snapped, bring his wand up and sending a blasting curse at them. Both teens had the sense to jump to either side, letting the curse destroy the cabinet against the far wall in a shower of debris.
"Harry!" shouted Hermione in alarm, but he ignored her, putting more pressure on the two boys in turn. The other students were now as far away from the fight as they could be without being in danger.
"Stupefy! Incarcerous!" shouted Smith. Harry sidestepped each spell, responding with a pair of Cutting Curses, one for each of them.
"Protego!" said Corner hastily, barely half a step behind Smith. Both shield spells worked, Smith's actually deflecting the spell back at him as opposed to Corner's which fizzled out from the single spell.
Once again, Harry dodged the incoming spell easily and returned fire, mixing basic destructive spells with more individual and dangerous curses, never aiming to cause them serious harm, but close enough that the danger they were in was quite real. Spending hours upon hours firing precision spells at targets more than three times the distance of a normal duel made such a thing actually fairly trivial. Especially considering exactly who he was fighting.
Smith was more of the threat though, and as he was years ahead of Corner, who was a fourth-year himself, that was expected. However, they were still just average Hogwarts students with little formal training going against someone with heaps of talent who had been training against seasoned Aurors at times. Neither boy could get even remotely close to him while they were both barely keeping themselves from being rather badly hurt. Hermione and others were no longer trying to get them to stop and had just settled for watching in fear of the outcome. Nobody was missing what Harry's spells were doing to the things they hit, and none of it was pretty.
Harry shielded against a Reductor spell and sent it into the ground between them, sending up splinters of wood and obscuring their view for a few moments. Using the chance, he gathered the ropes from the failed Incarcerus Smith had sent at him and launched it back at the boys, getting it to land around them.
Both were breathing rather heavily, especially Corner, who simply had less to fight off of than Smith did. Harry just watched them blankly as they tried to catch a quick breather.
"Is that all you've got?" he asked, voice unimpressed, letting his wand hang at his side. Neither boy spoke, either too out of breath or angry to do so.
"I think you've severely misunderstood what I'm trying to teach you here," he said coldly, flicking his wand at each of their sides. The ropes on the ground came to life, moving at the boys like snakes. Smith burned his before backing away from Michael who was entangled. "I haven't been teaching you to fight. Any of you," he added, looking at them all. Everyone was watching him as if they had never seen him before. Well, he couldn't blame them. They hadn't really ever seen this side of him before. The side that trained every night. The side that had fought Voldemort once and desperately wished never to again. "I've been teaching you to survive! To run and live! You think you seriously have any chance against a Death Eater? A fully grown and trained wizard? You can't even win against me!"
"Don't need to be a genius to see that..." muttered Fred, still a bit wide eyed at the one sided duel. Harry glanced at him but said nothing.
"But what about you!" Corner shouted, finally having been released from the ropes by Smith, though neither of them attacked. "Look at what you just did to us! You obviously aren't just practicing how to stun or shield! You're learning how to fight back!"
"Of course I'm learning how to, I have to fight!" Harry barked, all amount of restraint gone. "I train every damn day with the small hope that if I never stop I'll be able to live to graduate this school. Use your brain, Michael, Voldemort wants me dead. I've avoided it far too many times for him to let go. Me simply being alive represents some kind of hope to everyone who is against him, and he will do anything to hurt me. It's probably only a matter of time before he starts going after my friends and their families too. That's what this is all about! So don't talk like you know anything!" He looked around at them all but no one would meet his eyes. Cho was determinedly looking at the floor, her fists clenched.
"What about this?" asked Padma, her soft voice cutting through the silence. Harry looked at her, causing the Ravenclaw to flinch slightly, though she didn't stop. "Will us being trained by you put us and our families in danger?"
No one said anything, but it was clear that the girl's statement had affected everyone in the room. How could it not? Harry sat heavily on a mid sized stool that materialized behind him. The fight was over. He'd hoped he would never have to have this conversation with the group, but that was wishful thinking at best. Who was he kidding?
"If I were to be one hundred percent honest with you, the less you even associated yourself with me the safer you'd end up being," he said truthfully. "I don't know exactly how much they could find out, but yes I suppose if it got out that there was a group of students that I was training in Defense and that I actually liked you guys then you would be more interesting targets than say, the Weird Sisters." Harry shrugged. "Still, I doubt any of you are going to proclaim your connection to me when talking to a Death Eater. In the grand scheme of things, this group will only help you by teaching you to defend yourself and others. Any amount of skill there will go a long way, for you and those you care about. But really, the only ones who would be in real danger are the people who have been really close to me." He jerked his thumb over at Hermione and Ron. "Like her and all the redheads."
"Great job, Ron, you just had to become friends with him," said George, giving his brother a mock glare.
"Hey, it's not like I could have known a murderous dark lord was going to come back to life," argued Ron. "Next Boy-Who-Lived I meet, I'll just turn around and keep walking, promise."
There was some scattered laughter at the exchange, which certainly helped lift the grim mood, but Harry could still tell that it hadn't left entirely. He cleared his throat to bring the attention back on himself.
"Anyway, it is what it is. I told you at the beginning it would probably frustrate you, drive you mad, and make absolutely no sense at times. This is the Defense Association. We're about living on to see another day. Unfortunately for some of us that's a harsher reality than for others. I wish it weren't so, but ignorant safety just isn't something we have anymore. Not like we used to. And so I do my best to make you better. But you need to trust me if you're going to be here, and if not then you should leave."
"I'm sorry, Harry," said Corner after a few seconds of silence. "I appreciate what you're doing for me, and the rest of us too."
Harry met the boy's eyes and nodded, glad for his change of heart. He turned to Smith, who was still scowling, though it was his usual one, as opposed to what he had been wearing earlier.
"I still don't understand how any of this has helped," he said finally. "Never mind, I guess I just need to think about it."
Taking the resolution for what it was, Harry looked over at Padma. "Padma, we were interrupted but we've pretty much run out of time for the meeting today. Would you like to finish up now or continue next time? I can get you back to your common room without being seen."
She tapped her foot for a second before saying, "Let's continue next time, but don't cheap out on me. We should start over."
Harry just raised his eyebrows at her for a second before smirking. "Alright, we can start over. Just this once though."
Cheered greatly, Padma made to join her housemates only to be waylaid by Parvati who accused her of cheating. Padma just stuck out her tongue at her sister and darted off as the irritated Gryffindor grabbed some of the random stunning cushions and began throwing them. Lavender just watched, shaking her head slightly.
"Harry?"
"Hmm? What's up, Cho?"
She had approached him quietly but wasn't meeting his eyes, instead focusing on his chest. He couldn't really see her face well. "I, well…" Eyes flicked up for a fraction of a second before they were down again. "Never mind, don't worry about it."
"You sure?" he asked in concern. She had been rather quiet since the duel started. She shook her head and gave him a smile, expression back to normal. Had he imagined it?
"Yeah, you're pretty fierce with that wand, winning two on one."
"Ah, thanks, I practice a lot," he said, pleased from the complement.
"Harry, are you staying behind again?" asked Hermione, walking over to them. Cho said good night before trotting off to her friend who was waiting by the door. As soon as she was out of earshot Hermione continued, "Never mind what I just asked, are you alright?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine Hermione," he said at once. She looked at him skeptically and he sighed a bit. "Alright, I'm a bit drained from that. I didn't want to scare everyone, but that's just what ended up happening."
"I don't care about them, Harry," she replied, giving him a level look.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?"
Hermione blushed slightly but held his gaze. "Well, you did save my life. I suppose we could start there."
"Hermione, I've saved a lot of people."
"You saved me first."
"Yeah." They began to walk to the door where Ron was waiting for them impatiently. The rest of the room had cleared out. "I suppose I did."
Xx~xX
The fifth-years let out a collective breath of relief as their midyear exams ended. They had been worked to the bone and were certainly looking forward to a well-deserved break. Harry was pleased with how he had done, knowing he had improved across the board in all of his subjects. Even Potions had been getting better, though it was without a doubt his most difficult class. Most of all, he was looking forward to seeing Sirius and Tonks again. It had been too long since he had dueled either of them, and he was really itching for a go against them both. Tonks was always happy to put him in his place and show him how much he had to learn. Dueling aside, he was just eager to spend some time with them.
Sirius had informed him that they would all be spending the holidays at Grimmauld Place again. Dumbledore still didn't feel that things were either safe enough or prepared enough for them to split up yet, and the Weasleys were never ones to argue with the man. Of course, it wasn't like it was a bad idea. Staying all in one place would help keep them all safe, especially considering the extra protections the Black household was equipped with.
He had never really thought there would come a winter where he would be leaving for the holidays, even less that he would look forward to such a thing.
"Harry?"
He was brought out of his thoughts by none other than Cho, who was watching him with an unreadable expression. They had been looking at one another on and off for the past hour or so. The DA had just finished their final session of the term. Tomorrow evening was the winter feast and students would be traveling back to London the morning after, not to return until the seventh of January.
"Harry, we'll see you back at the common room!" called Hermione from the other end of the room. He looked over to see her shoving Ron out the door. Tracey watched in slight amusement before giving Harry a quick thumbs up and following, with Daphne walking close behind her. Their eyes met for a second before the door closed behind them, bring the room back into peace.
Turning back to Cho, they regarded each other in silence for a few moments. They had gotten on well all semester, and had even enjoyed a morning together in Hogsmeade. That wasn't counting all the small but no less pleasant interactions they'd been having whenever they passed each other. This month he had seen very little of the girl, but they were all busy so he didn't blame her in the slightest. Even with all the second guessing of himself, Harry was pretty sure that things were going right between them. This seemed like the logical next step.
Of course, there was the small complication that he hadn't exactly ever asked a girl to be his girlfriend before.
"What's up, Cho?" he asked finally, not wanting the silence to continue.
"I wanted to talk with you… about us," she said, only half meeting his eyes.
"Uh, me too actually. I—"
"I like you a lot, Harry," she said bluntly. "But I can't date you."
Harry blinked twice in shock before laughing a bit. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm serious Harry, I can't be your girlfriend."
"Wha—why not?" His mind was adding everything up between them since the start of term and none of it came to that result, no matter how many times he did it. "Everything's been alright, hasn't it?"
"But it isn't," she said emphatically. "Everything isn't alright! He's still out there!"
Harry almost felt like he had been doused in ice water. Of course. It always came back to this for him didn't it. Honestly, he was an idiot for not thinking about this possibility.
"Voldemort."
Cho winced, though it was very small.
"Yes."
"You're afraid?"
"Afraid?" she repeated, looking at him with a humorless smirk. "Honestly, Harry, I'm terrified. Last year I really loved Cedric a lot, and He took him away from me," she said softly. Her eyes were bright but no tears fell. She had certainly come a long way from how she used to be. "I don't want to go through that again. I can't go through that again." She sank into a small chair that appeared for her. "And my mum and my dad could be in danger as well, as a way to get to you..." Cho took a deep breath to steady herself. "What happened at the meeting at the beginning of the month really hit me. I tried to ignore it, but I'd get nightmares about my family being killed. It took me a while to get the courage to talk to you though. I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier."
"Cho, it's alright, I understand," he said soothingly, placing a hand on her shoulder. This was for the best anyway. Or at least that's what he kept repeating to himself in his head. "I'm not the safest or most secure person to be with. Anyone around me puts themselves at risk, and it won't get safer any time soon."
They fell into an awkward silence for a minute before she spoke again. "I'm sorry, Harry. I really am."
"Stop apologizing, Cho," he said with a small smile. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
Xx~xX
The walk back to the common room felt much longer than it actually was. It was amazing how different his mood had been from earlier.
"Dearest, are you alright?"
Harry looked up and found that he had arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was looking down at him in concern. Usually she was as distant with the students as the majority of the other portraits throughout the castle were, but as the guardian of the Gryffindor House, she did have her her soft spots. Especially for one who she often saw going off to get into all sorts of trouble, whether he asked for it or not.
"Have courage," he replied, speaking the password. Damn Gryffindor and its annoying passwords. The Fat Lady smiled despite the less than cheerful air he was giving off.
"Please do, dear," she said with a nod, swinging forwards to reveal the entrance.
Harry walked in without another word.
The common room was mostly empty. There were a few students milling around, playing games, or studying as the term would be ending the next day. Most midyear tests had already been completed, but there were still a couple left. Likely the remainder of the House was in bed early hoping to bring the holidays faster. It had been a long handful of months. Seeing Ron and Hermione sitting by the fire, he decided that hanging out with them would probably be better than just heading to bed, as much as he wanted to. Besides, they were giving him knowing looks that he'd need to straighten out before they accidentally pushed him too far.
"So," said Ron slowly as he approached. "Looks like someone started their Christmas cheer a bit early." It was clear that he was trying to hold back a grin.
"Our Harry is growing up so fast," said Hermione, the same tone to her voice as Ron's.
Harry felt anger bubbling in the pit of his stomach, but he squashed it as well as he could.
"So, how was it?" asked Ron, looking somewhat eager.
"Ron, is it really necessary for him to describe how it was?" hissed Hermione.
Harry was apparently forgotten for a moment as Ron lowered his voice.
"Of course! If they're gonna start dating—"
"Don't just jump to conclusions, you can't be sure if they kissed or even decided to date."
"Come on, you know it was going there—"
"Shut up, the pair of you. Cho and I didn't kiss, and we sure as hell aren't dating," Harry said coldly, well beyond aggravated. Heh, so much for the plan to keep cool.
"Wait, but—"
"She's too afraid," he said simply. Anger and sadness were battling for dominance in his mind, but it eventually just ended up bitter. It always ended up bitter. "Of Voldemort," he clarified, at their confused expression.
Ron frowned but Hermione's face fell greatly. "Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry."
"Can you honestly blame her? What kind of girl would be willing to risk her and her family's lives just to be close to me like that?"
"I dunno, mate," said Ron, leaning back in his seat. He was looking at the ceiling but not really seeing it. "You know my parents don't have much money, but we've got each other and that's kept things together more than I'd usually admit. Doubt I'd be willing to risk them for anything if I had the choice."
Harry's face just saddened greatly as he slumped onto the couch.
Hermione was torn between beating Ron within an inch of his life and giving Harry some support. Fortunately for Ron, she chose the latter. "Harry, I think that what Ron means to say," she began, throwing him a scathing look, "is that you shouldn't be down about Cho and to have some hope."
Harry just shot her a withering glare. "It's not about her, Hermione," he said shortly. "Replace her with any other girl I fancy and the result will be the same. Unless Voldemort gets hit by a bus randomly, he'll be haunting my life until I die."
"It won't be like that forever, Harry," said Hermione fiercely. "Voldemort will eventually be gone, and we'll all be laughing about it one day. Besides, you can't just assume all girls will make that choice. You're always the one telling us to not judge a group based on a few members."
Harry just looked at her flatly, unconvinced.
"Look," she continued. "Let it go for tonight. You're upset, and it's influencing the way you think. You'll feel better after some sleep, you always do." Her voice was stern, but not without care. He knew that she meant the best. She always did. Hell, even Ron did, though he was always more liable to shoot himself in the foot than actually contribute. Bless his idiocy.
"Alright, I'll talk to you both tomorrow then. Night." Harry got up from the couch and headed off to the staircase.
"Good night, Harry," said Hermione. "Ronald Bilius Weasley," she continued, freezing the other boy in his tracks. He had made to follow Harry. "Sit. Down. Now."
Harry heard a loud gulp before he pulled the door shut behind him.
x~x
It was two hours later and Harry still couldn't fall asleep. Ron had eventually returned muttering about crazy girls before slipping into his bed, nodding off at once. Unfortunately, while Harry could get comfortable enough, his mind was just far too active. He needed something to help him relax…
"When was the last time I meditated?" he muttered, letting his eyes close as he steadied his breathing. There was his magic, always ready to be called on for whatever. Instead of doing his normal exercises with his meditation, however, Harry let himself sink deeper into it. His awareness of anything beyond his own magic fell away, including his own body. Eventually, even that seemed to vanish. There he floated, in a sort of nothingness within himself…
Or was it?
Was he moving? He felt different than normal somehow, though he didn't understand it. Shapes were beginning to form. Walls, moving on either side of him. A floor and a ceiling as well. Smooth stone, but dark. Small flares passed by on either side of him at set intervals. Torches? He was in a hall. The corridor that he had been dreaming about.
But why was he so low to the ground? The torches were so high on the walls, the ceiling even further away.
'Beware.'
The voice was there and then gone. A whisper in his mind. He had the odd sensation of tasting the air, only to be rewarded with a vast amount of information. And he responded? But it couldn't be him.
'There is a man ahead. He slumbers.'
'Kill him,' the first phantom voice replied.
Harry could taste the air again. A man was squatting against one wall, close to a door at the end of the hall. Silently, he drew ever nearer until he was close to him, his perspective shifting upwards slightly? And the man—!
'Mr. Weasley! No, DON'T!' All at once, Harry realized who the man was and shouted out of desperation. Miraculously, the snake that Harry was somehow connected to had diverged at the last moment, fangs drawing a bloody line against the man's limp arm and crashing into the door with a loud thud. Mr. Weasley scrambled awake, his wand out in a flash, his dominant hand uninjured.
'KILL HIM!'
'NO!' Harry screamed back at the phantom voice in his head. The mental battle managed to make the snake hesitate, unable to decide what to do, and it cost the creature dearly. A flash of light and Harry felt the distinctly odd sensation of having his head leave his body and flop to the floor. A great number of feet of enormous snake lay on the floor unmoving. Mr Weasley was breathing heavily, attempting to stem the flowing blood from his arm with what appeared to be little success as it spattered loudly on the cold stone floor. The voice was screaming in fury, though growing dimmer rapidly. Suddenly his senses were engulfed by terrifying flames and he awoke in his bed, shouting in panic. It took him a moment to regain his bearings. So distracted he was that he barely even noticed the crowd of people around his bed. Ron's dad had been attacked and was hurt. He needed to tell Dumbledore!
Leagues away, another man had returned to his body, also shouting. Though this was no shout of panic or fear. This was a scream of pure rage.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Author's Note: Chapter complete! So yeah, I killed Nagini.
I think that about covers it. Nothing much to say here, so thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you like or ask if you have any questions!