Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter and everything recognizable belongs to J K Rowling.

TO KNOW YOUR ENEMY,

by blaugrana-al-vent

A/N: Many people in my reviews have asked me why doesn't Harry go to the Wizengamot, gets emancipated, goes to live with Sirius and maybe gets his parents and Dumbledore in jail for his troubles. I warn you now that this is not the course of action Harry will take due to a couple of reasons. First: Dumbledore and the Potters are idolized and the Wizarding Community relies on them and Karl to get rid of Voldemort. They have too much power, the Potters and his allies having a majority in the Wizengamot, and Dumbledore being the Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump and Headmaster of Hogwarts. The only position out of their control is the Ministry, and that's occupied by useless Fudge. Besides, i don't like the idea of Harry being overly smart, clever and intelligent at such a young age. Second: A huge deal fics of this genre take that turn of Harry getting away from his parents, that's why the Harry in this fic won't. My story would just be turning into a copy of so many others. My first priority was to create an original story (although some clichés are hard to avoid), so I wanted to stay away from that particular turn of events that many authors decided to include.

Harry will indeed end up away from his parents. You'll just have to keep reading to find out how.

[[Apologies for the delay. I've been trying to update since last Monday but for some reason the site wouldn't let me. Fortunately I found a way around the problem (thanks Google) ]]

That said, here goes another chapter. Hope you like it. :)

Chapter 20: Getting Ready

It was Tuesday now. Finally the day of the Yule Ball had come, although it wasn't quite a real 'Yule' Ball as they were holding it a few days before Christmas. The castle and its inhabitants seemed to be livelier than ever. Everyone was excited about the impending Ball. Most girls could be heard talking about what they would wear or what they were going to do to their hair, in between continuous squealing. For the last few days this had been the most discussed topic, after Harry's rumors about his alleged darkness had died down a little bit. With luck, no one would remember about it after the holidays. Or so Harry foolishly hoped.

The boys, on the other hand, were not as excited. Surely the worst moment had passed, when you asked the girl you fancied to go with you as your date, but then came the dancing problem. A very small portion of the Hogwarts male population knew how to dance properly. Fortunately for Harry, he was amongst them. Harry had learnt how to dance the year before. Riley had taught him at the TriWizard Tournament traditional Yule Ball. So Harry didn't have that feeling of dread that kept many wondering if they would do a fool of themselves in front of the girl they fancied. That was another problem he didn't have, as his partner was already spoken for and he really didn't like her in that way. Besides, Neville would have his head if he tried something.

The Hogwarts ghosts were excited too. An unexpected and important event as this was a welcome change in their monotonous and mostly boring… err lives? They could be heard complaining passionately about the inconvenience of wearing to the Ball the clothes they had died with, as they couldn't possibly change into other ones. This wasn't a problem for ghosts who had died wearing acceptable clothes, such as Hufflepuff's and Gryffindor's resident ghosts, Nearly Headless Nick and the Fat Friar. It was for Slytherin's ghost however. He wasn't called the Bloody Baron for nothing. His clothes were stained not only with his own blood from his self inflicted stab wound on his torso, but also Helena Ravenclaw's, daughter to one of the founders of the school. She was now known as the Grey Lady, Ravenclaw's ghost.

That morning Lily Potter glanced at the Hogwarts grounds repeatedly from her window while she marked some end of term exams which had only ended yesterday. Fifth and seventh year were excused from these as they would be taking OWLs and NEWTs and the end of the year. Many students littered the school grounds after having finally finished their end of term exams. They were engaged in all type of winter-like activities. Some spent their time making snowmen and customizing them with many types of charms. Others, Muggleborns by the looks of it, had conjured skis and were teaching ignorant purebloods how to use them. However, the most favored activity still was, and had been since always, the snowball fight. It was a sort of unofficial tradition at the school, were many students would have a huge snowball fight, the teams being determined by the Hogwarts houses.

The continuous yells and laughter from the students made her look every now and again with a nostalgic feeling at them, remembering the years she had spent playing at the snow with her class-mates.

One of the many times her attention drifted to the carefree students he noticed three figures walking along the battlements near the Owlery, which could be found at a defensive tower where two outer walls came at an angle. Two of these figures were clearly the infamous Weasley twins, yet she couldn't recognize the shorter boy that walked alongside them. He seemed familiar and after having a closer look with her omnioculars she recognized her son. The older one, Harry. She watched him stroke the feathers of his beautiful snowy owl, Herbert, was it? Oh she couldn't remember. From the way he walked she could tell he wasn't especially happy or even excited about the approaching winter holidays. She felt sorry for him when she remembered that his best friend had been expelled and that the letters her son was sending him would never reach him. Dumbledore had made sure of that with the consent of both the Potter and Longbottom families. It was a cruel thing to do, but as Albus had told them, it was for the greater good.

.o0o.

After the twins had assured him the previous evening that they had covered tracking charms in their sixth year, they had agreed to meet after breakfast to help him proceed with his plan. The meeting point they had established was the front courtyard just outside the Entrance Hall.

During breakfast, Harry kept glancing at the Gryffindor table while Hannah and Susan kept going on and on about the Ball, and kept trying to drag the males into the conversation. They were wondering who would be taking who, who would show up without a date (Crabbe and Goyle were the frontrunners for this one), which girl would be wearing the most beautiful dress, which guy would look the most handsome in his dress robes, who would make the cutest couple, who would get together that night… Justin and Ernie looked as if they were going to fall asleep. Only their hands kept their heads falling into their breakfast. It looked like History period with Binns all over again.

As soon as Harry saw Fred and George leave their seats he drank the last of his pumpkin juice in a single gulp, excused himself from his friends and followed them on their way out. When he was about to step out into the courtyard he found himself face to face with a group of Gryffindors, Karl's Gryffindors to be precise. Before him were his brother along with Ron Weasley, Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas. They all had at least one hand in their pockets, surely ready to withdraw their wands, if they didn't have them out already, like that bloody idiot, Ron Weasley. How he could have inherited so little brains compared to what his twin brothers had, he could never understand. Harry had his own wand in a holster in his right forearm, ready to be withdrawn in a fraction of a second. His brother Karl stepped out of his little group, his wand gripped inside one of his pockets.

"Well, well, if it isn't my brother, gone to the dark side." Karl said walking around him with an air of superiority.

"Get lost brother, or else find yourself invisible again for the next few days and incapable to attend the Yule Ball." Harry told him defiantly. Karl visibly flinched at that and seemed surprised at Harry's new found backbone, but soon enough he regained his composure and his lips formed into a sneer.

"You know that I'm taking her to the Ball, right?" he said loudly as Harry was walking away from him. "They tell me she won't look at you in the face." he continued as Harry stopped and turned to face him with pained expression he could not manage to hide very well. "And that she was disgusted to have been friends with a dark wizard as you." he continued with a malicious smile. Harry clenched his fists ready to strike, but saw their father emerge from the Great Hall and come to a halt, looking their way as if wondering if there was anything wrong. Harry knew he would get in loads of trouble if he did what he was itching to do right now.

"The time for glorifying yourself will very soon be at an end… brother." Harry responded silently but with a tone that chilled Karl's bones.

Karl and his goons stood there taken aback by the subtle threat Harry had made, whilst the raven haired boy continued on his way to meet the Weasleys. A sad and outrageous expression adorned his face when he reached them.

"You all right there Harry?" asked one of them with concern.

"Yeah." Harry said dismissively in barely a whisper. "Don't worry about it. It was just Karl being his usual asshole self."

The twins kept their silence until they reached the Owlery. Harry's look and the glum silence in which their concerns were received shut them up.

"Want to do the honors?" Fred asked George in a cheerily tone when they arrived at the Owlery, they wanted to get Harry to lighten up a little bit. They took a seat at the stairs that took to the upper landings of the cold and drafty tower.

"I'd be delighted to dear brother. Just hand me the textbook. Harry call down your owl so we can get down to business!" he replied in his trademark cheerful manner.

"There! Page 224, Tracking Charms." Fred told his twin as he loomed over the book's index.

Harry didn't need to call for his faithful owl as she had flown down to greet him as soon as he entered. She pecked his finger lightly and hooted what sounded like a greeting.

"What do you need that textbook for?" Harry asked them worried. "I thought you told me, and I quote 'We know everything about tracking charms' when I asked you yesterday."

"Well, we know that they track things, and we know the words also." his twin added in their defense. "We only lack the experience."

"You have never tried it before? Not even once?" Harry asked flabbergasted. "But you covered it in class last year."

"Truth is we couldn't be bothered to practice it when your mother told us to. We were busy with… some other things, right Fred?"

"You could put it that way, yes." Fred agreed.

"I'm starting to think this may not be a good idea after all." Harry told the twins as he warily glanced between Hedwig and George's wand. "Why don't you give it a try with that small rock over there first?"

Fred shrugged and walked over the straw and owl droppings to the other end of the Owlery. He grabbed the stone and tossed it to his twin, who immediately began working on it. After waving his wand over it, the stone started to glow with a bluish light. It was the sign that told you the charm had worked. Harry was impressed. Seventh year spells and charms were very complicated, and very few people could get one of them to work right in their first try. If they focused more in their studies rather than their jokes and pranks they would easily make it to the top three of their year. Harry thought. However, they were very serious about opening that joke shop of theirs. Harry had gotten Sirius to help them out once they started, economically and in terms of research and development of their jokes.

"Aha!" he celebrated. "See Harry, you had nothing to worry about."

"So how will I know Hedwig has reached Longbottom Manor?"

Fred handed him a piece of parchment. "Hedwig's location will appear on this parchment. It is currently linked to the rock. See, it reads, 'South Corner of the Owlery, Hogwarts, Scotland.'"

George grabbed the stone and walked to one of the glassless windows. "And if we throw the stone off the window and down to the lake, it should change almost immediately."

He tossed it out of the window and indeed the ink on the parchment rearranged itself to read: 'Northern Shore of the Black Lake, Hogwarts, Scotland.'

"It does work." Harry said grinning. He was a step nearer from discovering what was wrong with Neville, with the mail, or both.

"What do you say? Shall we give it a try on Hedwig?"

"Definitely, go ahead."

Hedwig was wary of wands so Harry had to soothe her while George performed the charm. The snowy owl cowered when the blue light sprang around her. Only once she had calmed down was Harry able to attach the letter he had kept in the inner pocket of his robes to her talon. He gave her some owl treats and saw her off, desperately hoping that this would help work out what was going on, to determine if something was blocking or intercepting his mail, or if it did reach Neville and for some unknown reason he was ignoring him.

.o0o.

Harry spent all that morning with the twins. His mind was too taken with thoughts of Hedwig and her safe return, hopefully with a reply, so he tried to amuse himself as much as possible so he could vanish such bitter thoughts from his already troubled mind. Fred and George were only too eager to teach a Marauder's son and godson what they called 'The Noble Arts of the Prank' when he decided to tag along.

Harry was really surprised at their ability to come up with original and elaborated pranks in the blink of an eye and their knack for thinking a pranking use for any object he could come up with. Their pranking talents had always been obvious to Harry, as they were for everyone, but they were now showing Harry the extent of their capabilities.

They had lunch together in the Great Hall and despite Harry's protests they managed to drag him to one deserted end of the Gryffindor Table. He saw his brother sneer at him when he sat there. They were immediately joined by Lee Jordan who didn't appear to have a problem with Harry. 'The friends of my friends are my friends' he said when Harry looked at him expecting the usual reaction he got from people lately. Sometime around mid afternoon, the twins and Harry were walking along the limits of the Forbidden Forest engaged in a small discussion about the twins' future business plans. A few yards after they had gone past Hagrid's hut they were ambushed.

Four figures emerged suddenly from behind a set of bushes in the forest, with their hands raised. Harry, Fred and George reacted out of instinct and withdrew their wands from their holsters. Harry felt as if what had happened some days before when Neville was expelled was happening all over again. He suspected it may be Karl's retribution for his threat earlier that morning. He didn't want to end up in the Hospital Wing again, not having the Yule Ball and even less at his brother's wand, so he quickly aimed to the figure to his right, ready to defend himself. Just when he was about to pronounce the spell something impacted heavily against the side his face. It was something soft, wet and cold.

He blinked a few times before he could make what had happened. The laughs and cheers coming from the Forest helped too. His four Hufflepuff friends emerged from the Forest with some more snowballs firmly gripped in their gloved hands. They didn't give them much time to react as they started bombarding the three of them again. Fred and George started firing back and Harry joined soon after. It was a four on three, but Harry and the twins were more than happy to engage in the snow fight to get revenge at them for the ambush.

It was an equal fight that took them to their limits to try and outmatch the other team. Magic was allowed to create diversions, trip your opponents or help throw multiple snowballs at once. It was like a magical duel only that the offensive spells were replaced with snowballs. Tripping jinxes, silencing charms, temporary blinding charms, and many other safe spells and charms were allowed. The fifth years had a slight advantage in their numbers but it was leveled out with Fred and George's major expertise and knowledge, and Harry's magnificent Seeker reflexes.

An hour or so before the Ball started, the snowball fight was still going on. Hannah and Susan had left a long time ago to get ready. Apparently they needed a good three hours to do so, so now Harry and the Weasleys were slaughtering Justin and Ernie who didn't want to give up despite their robes being all wet. They were all panting and their cheeks had a red tint to them, the chilly temperatures turning their breaths into white smoke.

They finally decided to end it on a draw, or else they wouldn't be ready for the Ball on time. It was agreed by both parts that they would resume the fight after the Holidays.

.o0o.

It didn't take them more than half an hour. The boys from Hufflepuff had arrived to their dormitory three quarters of an hour before the Ball started, and when there were less than fifteen minutes to go, they had been down in the common room waiting for their dates for a few minutes already. The common room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of black. The males who had a date with Hufflepuffs patiently waited for their dates. Every time a girl descended she was normally greeted with his date's flabbergasted expression and some whistles from the crowd. It was pretty embarrassing for the first couples but it became better as the common room was slowly emptied.

Justin was anxious to get to the Entrance Hall where he would meet his date provided that he wasn't allowed to go into the Ravenclaw common room to fetch her. He didn't want to make her wait for him, so he decided to leave seeing that Susan and Hannah were taking their time to get out of their dorm.

It was when he was reaching the exit that they made their appearance. Susan was wearing a light yellow dress and looked rather pretty, while Hannah wore a blue sheath one coupled with a very nice necklace. He wondered what Neville's face would look like if he were here right now. He was breathless himself. If he had to bet, it was pretty safe to say he would look as Ernie was right now, gaping at her partner. Justin was also impressed and was looking at Hannah with a look that suggested he was not as over his crush as he wanted Harry to believe. Harry was the first to snap out of it, as he didn't fancy any of them.

"Hannah, you look beautiful." he said stepping forward. "Neville should like to see a memory of this."

Hannah blushed dangerously. "Thank you Harry. You look pretty good yourself too." she said with a smile.

Harry glanced at Susan and Ernie exchanging pleasantries and altering blushes while Justin came forward and complimented his best female friend. After a few brief words he announced he was leaving to collect his date and made his way to the exit of the common room.

"Hey Justin! Wait up! We'll walk with you to the Entrance Hall." Harry called after him. Then he turned to Susan and Ernie. "Guys? Coming?"

"Yes. We're right behind you Harry. Shall we?" Ernie asked Susan offering her his arm.

"We shall." Susan replied with a small girlish giggle.