DISCLAIMER- I own nothing you recognize. I am forever in debt to J.K. Rowling for creating such a wonderful world to play in.
AN- Many thanks go to my beta Amber. Without her work this story would be a lot more incomprehensible.
Chapter 10- Under The Leadership Of A Sixteen Year Old Wizard
October brought cooler weather and Quidditch tryouts. Harry was a nervous wreck; this was his first responsibility as captain. Katie and Ron, the only other holdovers from last year's team, stood with Harry as he surveyed the field. He was astonished that half of Gryffindor house seemed to have turned up.
Harry decided to start with a basic test, asking all applicants for the team to divide into groups of ten and fly once around the pitch. This was a good decision: The first ten was made up of first years and it could not have been plainer that they had hardly ever flown before. Only one boy managed to remain airborne for more than a few seconds, and he was so surprised he promptly crashed into one of the goal posts.
The second group was comprised of ten of the silliest girls Harry had ever encountered, who, when he blew his whistle, merely fell about giggling and clutching one another. When he told them to leave the pitch, they did so quite cheerfully and went to sit in the stands to heckle everyone else.
The third group had a pileup halfway around the pitch. Most of the fourth group had come without broomsticks. The fifth group was Hufflepuffs.
"If there's anyone else here who's not from Gryffindor," roared Harry, who was starting to get seriously annoyed, "leave now, please!"
There was a pause, and then a couple of little Ravenclaws went sprinting off the pitch, snorting with laughter.
After two hours, many complaints, and several tantrums, Harry had found Gryffindor two Chasers: a new find called Demelza Robins, who was particularly good at dodging Bludgers, and Ginny Weasley, who had out flown all the competition and scored seventeen goals to boot; as well as two Beaters, neither of whom had the old brilliance of Fred and George, but he was still reasonably pleased with them: Jimmy Peakes, a short but broad-chested third-year boy who had managed to raise a lump the size of an egg on the back of Harry's head with a ferociously hit Bludger, and Ritchie Coote, who looked weedy but aimed well.
After fixing the time for the first full practice, everyone wandered back to the castle or on the grounds. Harry returned to the common room to prepare for the DA meeting that night.
Harry walked around the DA room observing as everyone practiced his or her shield spells. He saw Hermione's shield absorb the Stunner Ginny fired at her. Next to them Neville was partnered with Luna. Not surprisingly, instead of the blue shield like everyone else in the room, Luna stood behind a different shield. It was teal in color, more green than blue, and where the normal shield curved at the edges forming an oval shape hers' stood before her in a flat rectangle, and it didn't absorb Neville's Stunner but reflected it back at him. Harry just shook his head as he revived Neville. He turned to find Ron staring openmouthed at Luna and her shield before his eyes unfocused for a second and he slowly walked around Luna.
"Luna, can you move that shield slightly to the side?" Ron asked, placing his hands to show her where he wanted it moved to.
She smiled slightly and the shield moved to the right, leaving her left arm just barely covered and a large gap on the other side. Everyone else stopped practicing to watch.
He turned to his sister. "Ginny, can you go stand on Luna's right side?" Ginny moved over, a questioning look on her face. "Now put your arms around each other. Keep the shield in place." They complied and Hermione gasped. Ron turned to her. "You see it too?"
"See what?" Ginny asked.
"Luna, how do you do that spell?" Hermione asked.
Harry looked questioningly at Ron, as Luna showed Hermione and Ginny the spell. It was the same incantation just a different wand movement. "Just watch, Harry." Ron said with the same expression on his face that he reserved for the chessboard.
Hermione managed to cast the shield and Luna helped her move it to the left side, causing Ron to smile wider. Hermione pulled Ginny over next to her, throwing her arm around Ginny's shoulders. Luna stood next to Ginny and recast her shield already skewed to the side. Luna's shield overlapped Hermione's by about four inches in the middle and completely covered Ginny who was sandwiched in between them. Harry dropped his wand.
"Two shielders and a shooter in the center to make up a strike team," Ron said.
Harry smiled. "Everyone split up into groups of three," he instructed. "Decide who will be the shooter and who will shield." Everyone immediately shuffled around forming teams.
"All the teams need to practice moving together," Hermione said, as she used a light binding charm to secure the shooter's ankles to the shielders' ankles. Harry smiled as everyone got used to moving as a team; it looked like some kind of twisted three-legged race. After about an hour of lots of falling and laughing, Harry called a halt and asked that the teams find time to practice on their own, and everyone left the room with smiles and giggles.
October also brought the first Hogsmeade weekend, and for the first time Harry was not spending the day with Ron and Hermione. The six friends had mutually agreed to spend the day with their significant others.
Hand in hand, Harry and Ginny walked below the changing leaves down the path to the village. They hit Honeydukes first for a candy re-supply, after which she dragged him into This and That, a store that as far as he could tell, sold junk. They visited the Shrieking Shack and several small nooks for stolen kisses.
They had lunch at the Three Broomsticks much to Harry's relief. He never wanted to set foot in Madam Puddifoot's again. But Ginny was not really the type of girl to enjoy the teashop anyway.
After lunch they went to Zonko's joke shop because Ginny said she needed to scope out the competition for the twins. Harry didn't see anything he wanted that the twins didn't do bigger, better, and louder.
They headed back up to the castle early and ensconced themselves in a quiet corner of the common room for a prolonged snog session.
Harry met with Maura that weekend and invited his five friends. He needed their opinions; so far he hadn't gone wrong trusting them.
Ron was aghast at the idea of someone poking around in his head, and couldn't believe Harry was even considering it.
Ginny was focused on Harry. She told him to weigh the pros and cons carefully. He would have good memories of his parents but he would also have a horrible one.
Hermione was intrigued and got into a long and technical discussion with Maura about the shield she was working on.
Neville was also intrigued but what sold him was when he allowed Maura to pull out a childhood memory of his parents.
Luna abstained from commenting saying it was Harry's head and therefore Harry's decision.
Harry told her he would have to take more time to consider it and she left him with a copy of the standard privacy contract regarding anything she would see.
Hedwig flew to him at breakfast the next morning, dropping a note on his plate and snatching his bacon.
It was from the had worked fast and were coming to show Harry some of the things they had developed for him. They would meet him tomorrow night in the abandoned classroom across from the trophy room. Harry had no idea how they were planning to sneak back into the castle but if anyone was capable, it was them.
The next night, the Weasley twins revealed their genius. They had brought him six new products with enough supplies to outfit the whole DA.
Disappearing drops, a small candy that makes you invisible when swallowed but is unfortunately limited to about ten seconds. They were looking for ways to make it last longer.
SNEAKers: they were two straps with a built in Silencing Charm that wrapped around your feet or shoes and to Harry's surprise, fastened around the ankle with Velcro. George smiled at his surprise "You have to love Muggles. They have some brilliant ideas."
Along the same idea was a fingerless glove-like holder that attached to your hand and in the center was an adjustable semi-permanent sticking charm that once activated prevented you from being disarmed.
They had improved their Extendable Ears. They had found a way to disillusion them to further prevent notice of the victims.
A Lightstick: which was a small stone pendent that either hung round your neck or clipped to your robes. It shone with a small steady light about the size of a typical Lumos spell. Which while handy enough were even better as they could be tuned to certain people, and once so tuned, only that person could see the light.
Ball bombs: stored a powerful Concussion spell. Throwing the ball breaks it and casts the spell in a shockwave from the ball affecting everyone it hits. Of course it weakened the further it spread.
And their counter: a small pin that when attached to your robes shields you from the ball bombs effect. Harry had no idea how. They explained it but it was over his head.
Of course they also gave him a generous supply of Wheezes. They were the twins after all.
As per his instructions, Harry turned up at the Room of Requirements just before lunch. Hermione had six comfy chairs set facing a blank wall with an elaborate looking machine behind them. Between the chairs and the wall was a low table with several pizzas on it.
Harry had good memories of pizza. He had never been allowed any but he thought it smelled good when the Dursleys ordered it. It made cleaning the kitchen after dinner very simple since only Aunt Petunia put hers on a plate. Vernon and Dudley ate from the box and there was only so much mess you could make with it.
The five were hooked just as millions of teenagers around the world. After stuffing themselves, they sat back in the comfy chairs and Hermione started the machine, which projected a movie on the blank wall, actually three movies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Hermione spent more time watching the enthralled looks on her five friends' faces then the movies, but she had already seen the movies and her friends were much more amusing. She was going to have to do this again.
Harry passed out the new stuff at the next DA meeting. They then moved on to something he had wanted to try: power measuring. He asked the room for targets and had everyone fire Reductor spells. There was a massive power spread among his students, but Neville and Ginny surprised everyone. After struggling all the time to force non-compatible wands to work, now that they had a wand that was properly attuned to them they blew everyone, even the target dummies, away.
After the meeting ended and the Ministry Six were the only ones left in the room, Harry plopped down onto a loveseat, his head in his hands.
Ginny sat next to was paler then usual. "Harry, are you okay?"
"Not really. I guess the reality just hit me. I commissioned war items, and tonight taught spells designed the kill or seriously maim. Do have the right to teach people how to kill?"
"Harry, we are heading into a war."
"I know, but this is real. We are just students."
"You laid out the rules of the game for us, Harry. You knew the stakes before you stepped on the pitch. There is no second place. You're either the winner… or you're dead."
That night Harry sat in the common room fretting over the fact that he had quite a lot of people looking up to him to lead them. He was not pacing for more than five minutes when Hedwig ghosted through the window and perched on his shoulder.
"You are a great wizard, my Harry."
"Not really. Hermione is much smarter than me," he protested.
"Being smart doesn't make you great."
"If Dumbledore and the Order hadn't shown up that night in the Department of Mysteries we all would have died."
"If you believe in the Prophecy, my Harry, then you have to believe in the whole thing. That neither can live while the other survives, but also that you have the power to vanquish Voldemort."
Harry stopped and stared at Hedwig. He had never thought about it from that point of view before. She was right. The Prophecy stated that he had the power to vanquish Voldemort, that he had been marked as his equal. Maybe he was stronger than he thought. Did he have the power to do this?
"Trust me, you have the power. You just have to learn how to wield it."
"How do I do that?" he asked.
"You know. You have been doing it all this time. Pulling your friends to you has produced your magic bond and awakened your powers. Just keep doing what you're doing and you will not even recognize yourself at the end of this."
He really hated it when she did that. She had complete faith in him and his abilities but he wouldn't mind some more detailed answers. What kind of powers had awakened and how did he wield them?
The end of October brought the Slytherin/Ravenclaw Quidditch game. Harry didn't go since it drove him crazy when he was not playing and he spotted the Snitch while the games' seekers were oblivious. Ravenclaw squeaked out a win over Slytherin.
Halloween passed quietly despite Harry mood swinging from edginess to sadness. November blew in with colder weather. Harry was more than capable of a warming charm, which he used liberally the night he took Ginny up to the Astronomy tower to lay out and look at the stars. They both knew the popular use of the tower and decided to just enjoy a night together without expectations or pressure.
Two days later, the Ministry Six were finishing up homework at their usual table in the library. Harry and Luna were lugging over more books when the Headmaster, Professor Flitwick, and a younger witch in blue robes found them.
"Miss Lovegood,can we speak with you in my office for a few minutes?" Professor Flitwick asked.
"It's not necessary professor, I know my father died this morning." Neville quickly grasped her hand and Hermione and Ginny gasped, only Professor Flitwick seemed unsurprised. "With no more living relations you have come to discuss my placement for the next year until I come of age."
The young witch moved forward, placing her hand on Luna's shoulder. "Yes, my name is Mrs. Anderson; I'm from wizarding child services. I'm sorry for your loss. With no one to claim you as family we have a couple of choices to make."
"I will," Harry mumbled.
Everyone turned to look at him. "Pardon?" asked Mrs. Anderson.
Harry colored slightly at the attention but stood straighter. "I claim her as family," he said in a firm voice. Neville's jaw dropped open and Ron just gaped at him in shock, while Hermione and Ginny beamed at him.
Everyone looked at Luna. She turned calmly and placed her hand over his heart. "Before in deed, now shall it be in name."
Harry placed his hand on her chest. "Sister of my heart."
Luna smiled. "Now and forever."
"Now and forever," Harry repeated. Points of pink light swirled around the two of them like sparkling dust motes in a shaft of sunlight before winking out.
Mrs. Anderson smiled, writing on a parchment she pulled from her bag she indicated a line where Dumbledore signed his name, an unreadable expression on his face. Then gestured to Harry and he signed on one of the lines as well. She looked at his name and her eyes flicked to his forehead only for a second before she signed the last line. "Then I leave you in the custody of your brother." She said, and with another quick glance at Harry's forehead the three of them left.