To break out of a shadow
A/N: And I'm back with chapter 11 everyone.
Now then there's probably only one thing to talk about here the roger/fleur argument. Thanks for all those who reviewed concerning this I must say that you've given me a lot to think about. Since so many of you wonderful readers have such strong feelings concerning roger I leave you with 2 options:
The first which is what I was planning to do anyway was to have the roger/fleur relationship ends with the both of them deciding to take a step back. (I was going for this as I thought it would bring some reality into the mix. After all its doubtful that teens are able to find their soul mates so quickly right, there are supposed to be misses and I thought the roger/fleur would be a good opportunity to paint one of those misses.
The second option, I am slightly against as it takes much more work. Basically I go through all 11 chapters and swap out Roger Davies in place of someone else. So ill lead this to a vote, it would be appreciated though if those who vote for option 2 give me a name for his 'replacement'.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter. I'm not too pleased with it but hey what can you do, we all have our ups and downs
Disclaimer... read chapters 1 to 10
On with the story.
Chapter 11
Harry muttered dejectedly as he trudged towards the third floor corridor, as he entered a room he gazed at the floor but unlike the last time he was here there was no trap door guarded by a Cerberus. Instead there were seven Griffindors sitting on chairs chatting silently. Harry cursed under his breath once again, when he had made that deal with Dumbledore he had agreed to take part in the second task with them. The old man though had decided that the Hogwarts 'team' needed to have a strategy meeting, as if one day was enough to come up with some strategy.
Harry guessed that they had as of yet failed to notice his presence and decided to stealthily walk closer to the seven Griffindors.
"So where is he?" Sean muttered, cringing slightly as if speaking hurt, Harry found himself smirking at the chosen ones discomfort.
"He doesn't even deserve to be on the team." Ron Weaseley muttered his back facing Harry.
Harry moved behind him as the rest of the Griffindors eyes widened as they noticed the entrance of the black haired youth.
"Would you like me to show you if I deserve to be on the team or not Weaseley?" Harry asked silently, as the red haired boy paled visibly.
"I thought this was a Hogwarts team meeting not a Griffindor team meeting?" Harry asked snidely.
"well Ron and Hermione do have some useful input." Charlie offered.
"I'll believe that granger has some uses but i highly doubt that THAT contributes at all." Harry exclaimed while pointing at Ron, who sputtered indignantly.
"At least we can trust him." Sean commented, he cringed though when Harry raised an eyebrow in response.
"Um moving on, what about the second task." Rose asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"What do you know about the second task?" Harry asked, as everyone looked at him curiously.
"The audience isn't given much information about the tasks until the day itself remember." Harry asked exasperatedly.
The chosen ones shared a glance with each other before Charlie taking out the golden egg that the chosen ones fought two dragons for. After a few moments of twisting clicking and turning the egg opened as music played, resounding throughout the classroom.
"A jewellery box?" Harry frowned visibly.
I am worth nothing physically
But you should still defend me unequivocally
Those who succeed rejoice those who don't regret
Although I am not a primary concern to your main goal I should not be dismissed easily
For I may hold secrets that those who see do not perceive
Harry frowned slightly as the words played before he reached out and took a necklace from the egg, inside the egg remained four other necklaces all with the same design but with different colours.
"So what do you think about that?" Charlie asked.
"Not really sure, although from what i gather each of us will be given one of these necklaces that we are to protect, although it doesn't seem to be a primary objective it still has to be rather important for them to put a clue for it." Harry muttered, intrigued by the turn of events.
"What do you know about the second task itself?" Harry asked, when he noticed several confused glances hi sighed.
"There was a briefing right?" Harry asked.
"They were rather vague in the description." Charlie offered.
"They only mentioned that we would have to make our way through in an obstacle course.
Harry frowned, "Then what about the first task." Harry wondered.
"They told us we would need to retrieve something." Celia answered
"Then how is it you were able to prepare a conjunctivitis curse for the dragon." Harry wondered, as the seven Griffindors tried to keep their poker face. It was a rather pathetic attempts though as Harry read them as easily as he would an open book.
"The headmaster helped you didn't he?" Harry asked, although it was more of an answer than a question.
The Griffindors tried to play it off but after another moment of silent staring they cracked, "Yes it was the headmaster." Neville answered as Harry pondered silently for a moment.
"And why didn't he help you this time?" Harry asked.
"He said we should work together to figure it out." Celia muttered.
"That old fool wants me to cooperate... with them?" Harry thought incredulously to himself.
Harry didn't pay the rest of the meeting any mind, mainly it was a disgrace to even call it a 'meeting' in the first place. The seven Griffindors simply bounced ideas around, ideas which were pretty much useless as the Griffindors seemed to have some allergy to concentration and would drift off and talk about the most useless things. The only thing that Harry actually learned during the meeting was about the Griffindors themselves, after being given an opportunity to observe them at a close range Harry began understanding the group dynamic better.
Amongst the seven Griffindors Charlie was basically the defacto leader along with Sean, Rose and Celia tended to be the conscience that drove the group. Neville was rather reserved so Harry guessed he was one of the few who injected a sense of rationality into the group. Weaseley... Didn't really bring much to the group and Harry classified him as the third wheel.
The last person in the group, the brains of the show apparently, was the one that had actually brought forth the most curiosity amongst the ravenclaws, Hermione granger had shown a high level of intelligence and learning charisma that seemed to indicate she should have belonged in ravenclaw. After a few moments of conversing with her though Harry had easily found out why the girl was in Griffindor. Under all of that intelligence was a recklessness and stubbornness that could only belong to a Griffindor. Arguing with her was an exercise in futility, as she constantly seemed to believe that she was right and couldnt be persuaded otherwise. One such example was her steadfast dedication to an organization named SPEW. Her desire to free house elves was completely off track as the people she was trying to help didn't even want her help.
Harry had tried explaining things to her and found that he would have an easier time killing a dragon with a butter knife. Her continuous refusal to accept the fact that she may be wrong was probably what kept her out of ravenclaw, as one couldnt learn if you refused to accept that mistakes could be made.
"If these Griffindors are going to be our saviours when voldermort returns we might as well just blow up Britain and be done with it." Harry thought sarcastically.
"Do we even know where the competition is going to be held?" Harry heard Celia asked.
"And now their back on track again..." Harry muttered under his breath.
"I think it's going to be in the same arena" Charlie muttered, as Harry brightened up as an idea came to him.
"If there's anyone who has any idea what's going on it has to be the grounds keeper." Harry thought as he made his way to Hagrids hut.
"Where are you going?" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry shrugged slightly, seeing no need to tell them anything as he made his way out of the room; in truth he was dying to visit the half giant. He made good company what with his fascination with dangerous creatures, and he also made a mean cup of tea, although his rock cakes could break teeth.
Harry knocked on the door, waiting impatiently; tapping his right foot till the door opened and a rather tall and stocky man opened the door.
"Harry! It's been a while." Hagrid greeted.
"It has hasn't it?" Harry chuckled, as Hagrid practically dragged him into the hut.
"Would ya like some tea?" Hagrid asked, as Harry nodded in affirmative he took out a long stick and waved it over the fireplace which immediately burst into flame.
"I see the magic lessons are coming well." Harry commented.
"All thanks ta ya Harry, I should be able to take owls this year." The half giant laughed.
"Still, you picked up on it pretty quickly; it's as if you never lost practice." Harry chuckled conspiratoringly, as he spared a glance at Hagrids umbrella which they both knew had the broken fragments of his old wand hidden within.
Hagrid laughed loudly, a hearty laugh that seemed to shake the hut at its foundations. "nothing gets by you does it." He answered, as Harry laughed in return.
"Have you heard Hagrid?" Harry asked.
"That you're taking part in the competition?" he answered.
"Yes well, the old man on top was pretty insistent that I take part" Harry laughed mirthlessly
"Dumbledore has his heart at the right place Harry, although he does show it wrongly." The half giant laughed.
Harry smiled; Hagrid had changed after Harry's continuous friendship over the past two years. One of the more drastic changes included his new perception of the headmaster. Hagrid may still trust Dumbledore, but he was definitely not the man's puppet anymore as he realised that Dumbledore was still a human that could make mistakes.
"Well I was wondering if you could give me a hint as to what would be involved in the second task." Harry asked slyly, as Hagrids eyes widened at Harrys request.
After a few moments of what seemed like Hagrid deep in thought the half giant immediately smiled happily at Harry before adding. "The organisers have been keepin rather quite but I do notice them bringing in a few doors and contraptions." He answered.
"That doesn't really help much, but thanks Hagrid." Harry answered before sipping some of his tea.
"So what are ya going to do?" Hagrid asked.
"I don't really care, weather Hogwarts wins or not really doesn't concern me." Harry shrugged, before the two closed the subject.
Harry stood with the other Hogwarts champions in the champion's tents moments away from the second tasks commencement.
Ludo bagman was at the moment addressing the audience while crouch was briefing the champions, crouch looked at everyone ensuring that he had their attention.
He lifted a golden egg before opening it, "all of the members of each team will have to wear these necklaces around their necks, during the second task." He started.
"Each of these necklaces will award the team different values of bonus points at the end of the competition." He explained.
"For your main task though you will have to make your way through a test or logic and practical thinking, each of you will be starting at a separate gat before making your way through an obstacle course." He further explained.
The five teams entered the arena amongst a huge amount of cheering, as they made their way to their respective gates as they gazed at the huge dome in the centre of the arena.
"Well this is going to be pretty boring." Charlie muttered.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.
"A test on logic..." Charlie answered, as Harry frowned visibly before he smacked Charlie on the back of the head.
"Ow! What was that for?" Charlie asked.
"Think for a moment will you." Harry scolded.
"What?" Rose asked.
"The necklaces are worth bonus points." Harry scolded.
"So? Keeping it safe isn't so difficult." Neville asked.
As Harry sighed exasperatedly, "crouch said that there are bonus points for each necklace, right?" Harry started.
"Yes." The four chosen ones answered back.
"Did he say there was a limit to how many necklaces a team could have?" Harry asked, as a knowing look came to the four other members of the Hogwarts team.
"This is part of the logic you're supposed to use." Harry growled irritably, he was suddenly tempted to just stun all four of them and do the task himself.
"The fact that we're doing this all at once instead of one team at a time like the first task shows that they want us to compete against each other for the necklaces." Harry lectured.
The rest of the team nodded solemnly just as a bang sounded and the second task began. As the Hogwarts team entered the dome they found themselves in a narrow room. The group approached the end of the room they found a door with writing over it.
"I am always beneath you but nothing is beneath me, what am I?" Harry read out, but began writing the answer immediately.
"Earth." He thought. While tracing the word on the blank space with his finger. At that moment though the room immediately started shaking violently.
"What's going on!?" Charlie exclaimed as each of the students tried holding on to something.
"That shouldn't happen." Harry frowned, as he lost his balance as he went sprawling across the floor, Harry felt something on his hand, as he lifted it up he noticed dirt on his hand.
"What could it hurt?" Harry thought as he traced the word earth in dirt on the spot again.
Once he did that though the room stopped shaking and the door opened, "couldn't they have found a key that wasn't so disgusting." He frowned as he looked at his filthy hand.
As they exited the room they found they were in another corridor as they made their way along the corridor they soon found themselves face to face with the American team.
After a second of shocked staring the 3 girls and 2 boys of the American team waved their wands and started flinging spells. Rose and Charlie responded with a shield that deflected the spells.
"It seems that they figured it out as well." Harry thought.
"bombarda." Harry exclaimed as an explosion rocked the corridor knocking some of them down.
"stupefy." Neville and Charlie continued, stunning one of them.
Harry went over and grabbed the necklace before dashing through a wave of spells and running through the door followed swiftly by the other four members of the Hogwarts team.
"This is going to be a long day." Harry muttered as he took a break before going on to the next door.
If anyone bothered to follow the Hogwarts team they would have heard the irritated cries of one very pissed off Ravenclaw.
"I said follow my footsteps exactly!" he growled, as Neville gulped nervously.
"Not that one! The other one..."
"What the hell are you idiots doing?"
Half an hour later the members of the teams were going through a mandatory inspection by madam Promfrey, with the Hogwarts team being the last on the inspection list.
To Harry's surprise the Hogwarts team actually came in first place followed closely by the Albanian team with Durmstrang in third place and beauxbaton and Salem tied for fourth place.
Hogwarts would have pulled away but it seemed that the Albanian team collected enough necklaces to pull back the gap putting them on even point footing with the Hogwarts team.
Harry sat on a bed as Madam Promfrey checked him over; Harry winced as she swabbed one of his burns with an alcohol solution causing him to wince in pain.
"With all the times you get injured I would think that you would be used to the pain right now." She commented dryly.
"You've been getting rather sadistic lately, should I be worried." Harry commented snidely, earning himself a smack on the head.
"You're going to be fine." She laughed.
Harry looked around and noticed that only the Hogwarts team remained in the hospital wing, Harry frowned visibly though when Dumbledore entered the room followed swiftly by the Michaels longbottoms and the potters.
"Well done everyone, I must say that you have done Hogwarts and me proud." The headmaster.
"Harry I must say that you worked exceedingly well with the five-" He started.
"Never again Dumbledore." Harry growled, as the man looked taken aback.
The potters walked steadily towards Harry, as Harry sighed audibly. He hadn't spoken to them in months and he had honestly enjoyed every moment of those few months.
"What do you want?" Harry asked irritably.
"We were worried about you." Lily started.
"Well as you can see I'm fine, and there really isn't much of a reason for you to care." Harry answered.
"Harry we still care despite the emancipation." James answered.
"No, you never did I highly doubt that you ever will." Harry commented, it seemed that Darren was listening in.
"Maybe because you're not worth it." he sneered, as lily and James frowned at him.
"Darren..."
"You forget that your son lost to this person who 'isn't worth it'." Harry smiled mockingly.
"Why you..." he started, but madam Promfrey came in between them.
"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She scolded.
"But." Sarah tried to defend.
"No buts this is a hospital not An arena." She scolded fury in their eyes as the adults were forced from the room.
"Thank you." Harry started.
"Yes well you're staying for observation." She started.
"I take that back." Harry moaned.
"Why me." He started.
"Because I love your sparkling personality." She started chuckling slightly, as Harry groaned audibly again.
Harry waited at the gates of Hogwarts for Daphne, anxious about what would be their first date. Harry watched as students from several schools exit the castle to visit Hogsmeade. Harry guessed that other schools did not have such visits so it was a unique experience for the foreign students. Harry's musings were turned aside when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around he saw a certain blue eyed Slytherin standing behind him.
"Hi." Harry stammered out, his heart beating at an increasingly faster pace.
"Hi." Daphne greeted, while flashing him that incredible smile. Harry flushed slightly but returned with a smile.
"You wore it?" Harry commented stupidly upon noticing the necklace Daphne was currently wearing. Harry had given her the necklace for Christmas; it was a silver coloured star on a mithril chain. She fell in love with the necklace, so much so that she had 'thanked him' profusely after receiving it. Harry had completely forgotten to mention though, that the necklace was originally from the potter vaults and held rather powerful charms. It wouldn't stop any of the unforgivable curses, but it was still pretty useful.
"Of course I did, are you ready to go?" She chuckled.
"Sure." Harry smiled back, a bubble of happiness rising from the pit of his stomach.
Harry gently took Daphne's right hand in his left before the couple walked hand in hand to Hogsmeade. Harry felt butterflies in his stomach as he held Daphne's hand; the warmth from her hand sent a rather comfortable tingling sensation through his arm.
Hogsmeade was packed with people as the students of Hogwarts and those from the visiting schools seemed to pour into, Harry though hadn't even noticed the crowd as he was thoroughly enjoying his time with Daphne. The couple had visited the usual stores in Hogsmeade including Honeydukes and Scrivencrafts. Harry and Daphne were drinking some butter beer in the three broomsticks when they ran into Cho and cedric who were also on a date. Cedric and Cho sat down at their table ordering their drinks when cedric leaned into Harry.
"So how's the date going?" he asked.
Harry frowned at the Hufflepuff in an attempt to cover up the rather obvious blush on his face, "Shut it." Harry hissed menacingly.
It had the reverse effect though as Cedric laughed heartily at Harry's reaction, "You don't need to worry though I think she's pretty happy with you." Cedric pointed out, as Harry stole a peak across the table seeing Daphne smiling happily.
"I must admit though she's pretty isn't she." Cedric teased.
"Keep this up and I'll tell Cho you said that." Harry joked, he noticed though that cedric paled suddenly.
"Is she that scary?" Harry teased.
"You have no idea Harry." Cedric answered seriously.
Harry frowned visibly while glancing interestedly at Cho, it was clear that he was going to have to watch out for that one.
Harry was slightly upset as it became clear that their date was coming to an end, the couple walked along the outskirts of the town eventually coming up on the infamous shrieking shack.
Harry glanced at the shack with keen disinterest, the shrieking shack was an abandon house that was boarded up and looked incredibly creepy. While the shack acted as an interesting point for many students to Harry it didn't hold much interest after all he knew the secrets behind the house.
Why did it look so scary? Because it was built with the key objective of keeping people away from the house during the full moon, when Remus would undergo his transformation. it was the noise Remus made on these nights that would eventually lead to the rumours of the shack being haunted. It was in this aspect alone that Harry still held that little bit of respect for the old man, for constructing the shack for Remus.
"I wonder what it's like in there." Daphne commented, turning Harry's attention back to his date.
"Why don't we go and take a look." Harry answered simply, as Daphne balked slightly at the idea.
"Isn't it supposed to be haunted, I hear even the ghosts wouldn't go there." Daphne commented.
"It's not really haunted you know." He laughed, as Daphne looked at him curiously
"What do you mean it's not haunted?" She asked
"Do you remember professor Lupin?" Harry asked, as Daphne nodded he decided to continue.
"You heard about his lycanthropic problem right?" Harry added, as Daphne continued nodding.
"This was built while he was in Hogwarts so that he could hide here during his transformation." Harry explained.
"So all those sounds people heard..."
"Was him in his werewolf state." Harry answered, as a look of understanding came to her.
"So? Do you want to go and take a look?" Harry asked, as he began dragging Daphne along with him.
The inside of the shrieking shack had fallen into disrepair, as broken tables and chairs lay across the floor. Daphne studied the inside with a keen interest, the shrieking shack held such mysteries for the students of Hogwarts and she was taking the chance now to understand it completely.
"It's pretty much just a filthy house if you ignore the rumours." Harry laughed.
"Well don't you know how to show a girl a good time?" She laughed, as Harry blushed slightly.
As they exited the shack though Harry found that the shrieking shack did have some benefits, as the shack was up on a hill the view was an amazing one, as they practically overlooked the entire village with an amazing view of Hogwarts. As the sun set it painted the village with hues of yellow that harry admitted made a rather romantic scene.
The couple stared out at the view before Harry facing each other once again, "Well I promised Stacy that I'd meet her at Gladrags" she commented.
"I would go with you, but I kind of have a fear of clothes store." Harry laughed; Daphne though didn't respond with a laugh but instead kissed him deeply on the lips.
When the two finally broke apart Harry stared at her dumbly, "I could work on it though." He stuttered.
Daphne broke out in a warm smile, "its fine, I like you just the way you are." She commented, as it was Harry's turn to kiss her.
Ten minutes later after a few more bouts of kissing, the couple finally left the shrieking shack, as they walked back to the main village though, Harry made a note to write a letter to the goblins, asking them to help him purchase the shack.
Harry walked back to the castle alone, as Daphne had gone to meet Tracy. Harry had walked her to the store of course, and upon seeing the slightly dishevelled robes the two had on Tracy had smiled at the two of them slyly.
Harry smiled merrily at the memory, while tracking his way back to the castle. It had just occurred to him that he had begun smiling openly much more ever since that night at the Yule ball. His thoughts centring on Daphne most of all, he had only gotten together with her for little over a month but he couldn't imagine a world without her anymore. Was this what it was like to be in love? Harry had never felt such feelings before so he couldn't be sure.
Harry was pretty much new to such feelings, it had become pretty clear that he didn't love his parents, even in the past he only craved their approval it was a pathetic substitute for love. The only ones that could even come close previously would probably be Sirius, Remus and Emilia. These feelings for Daphne were not only new to him, they were swiftly overwhelming him. He couldn't even focus in class, not that he would focus if he could, but one got the idea.
Harry's pleasant thoughts were interrupted when a peculiar smell wafted through the air, the metallic smell was unmistakable causing a frown to appear on Harry's face.
"Blood?" Harry thought to himself, as he made his way towards the source. He soon found himself at the edges of the forbidden forest; he entered the forest unable to control his curiosity. To be able to emit such a strong odour, there had to be quite an amount of blood.
Harry wasn't disappointed as he found himself at what could only be described as a massacre; a pack of Traxians had been completely slaughtered. Traxians were basically magical wolves whose distinctive feature was their left paw which was larger than their right paw. Hagrid had mentioned that Traxians were pretty much docile only becoming really aggressive when threatened. A pack of Traxians would easily be able to take on two to three mountain trolls. Which begged the question, what could have done this?
Harry went closer to scene of the fight, and upon closer inspection of the bodies found that they were all drained of blood. There was a huge amount of blood all over the place but it did not equal all the blood from the Traxians. If Harry's estimates was correct over half of the blood was gone, after noticing bite marks Harry wondered if the killers sucked the blood away. There were only a handful of creatures that sucked blood, but none of them are supposed to reside near Hogwarts.
The bite marks were close to a human's but slightly larger; "Vampires?" Harry thought, as the pale Albanian students came to mind. Vampires were known to have worked with Voldermort in the past, Harry had begun to assume that anything wrong was tied to Voldermort, so it was possible. But the bite marks were bigger than a human heads. Harry cursed; he hated not knowing what was going on, he decided to bring Hagrid back with him. He had no doubt though that something was going on in the background of the International Wizards Youth Cup.
Harry would continue to investigate along this avenue for over two months, to his surprise and increasing agitation though he wouldn't be able to come to any conclusions. Whoever was behind the attack was being incredibly careful, after he had found out, Hagrid had made it a point to visit the dark forest almost every day but still couldn't seem to even catch a glimpse of the perpetrators. Harry had begun using the marauders map to look out for the perpetrators but to no avail. Harry's prime suspects were still the Albanian students; Voldermort had been known to be hiding in Albania so it was possible.
Unfortunately, Harry wasn't able to discern what they were hoping to achieve here, Harry wasn't used to not knowing what was going on and honestly it had made him slightly irritated over the past few weeks.
Harry sat in the audience, watching the start of the third task in a terrible mood. He had a feeling that whatever was going on would be happening today. After this all of the foreign students would return home and so would the perpetrators. Harry frowned slightly as he looked at the empty seat beside him. Harry leaned forward to tap Draco, who was seating in front of him with Ana and Tracy on the shoulder.
"Where's Daphne?" Harry asked.
"She said she needed to go and get something from the library, she said she would meet us here." Draco explained.
"It shouldn't be taking this long though." Tracy added.
Harry frowned as he watched Ludo Bagman announce the beginning of the second task as the five chosen ones entered a huge maze.
Harry felt a slight nudge against his right arm and noticed a folded paper airplane beside him, it was simple spell work but Harry still unfolded the plane noticing some writing on it.
Come to the third floor corridor classroom
Come alone or else
Harry frowned visibly at the enigmatic letter, he realised he dropped something though. Upon picking it up though his blood froze. He immediately recognized it; in his hand was the necklace that he had given Daphne for Christmas.
And that's the chapter for you.
I don't know why but I seriously had a tough time writing this.
Anyway hope you enjoyed it, and I'll hopefully be able to send up chapter 12 by next Friday.