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Chapter 25 - The premonition
After the explosive events of the valentines weekend, the rest of February seemed comparatively dreary. The month was mainly filled with revision for the imminent exams, with even Ron getting a bit worried with them being just a month off. Harry however, made sure to maintain Quidditch practises and his lessons with Professors Snape and McGonagall. He also made the decision to restart the D.A.
He wasn't quite sure what had made him decide to do it. He knew that now they had a great defence against the dark arts teacher in Professor Diggory, and that also there had been not even a whisper of death or violence from Voldemort, but he still felt that he should help his students however he could. He was especially anxious to teach them the Patronus charm, what with Dementors roaming far and wide under Voldemort's banner.
After talking to Professors Diggory, Dumbledore and McGonagall, along with Ginny, Ron and Hermione, Harry was given permission, (indeed, blessing from Professor Dumbledore), to start the D.A. He chose to carry on using the room of requirement however, even though there was now no need for the secrecy.
Word seemed to get around extraordinarily fast, and Harry was surprised to see almost the entire of the original D.A return, along with several extras. There were of course, no Slytherins, but the numbers were now boosted to over fifty. There were so many people that Harry decided to stagger it over two hours, so as to incorporate two groups for an hour each. Ron, Hermione and Ginny of course, stayed for both.
In the first group, Harry had all the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. This now included Henry Peters of the Ravenclaw team, and Ernie Macmillan had also returned. Cho and Marietta had of course, not returned.
The first session went well. Harry gave a quick talk about what he wanted to go over, (surprising himself with how easy it was to deliver the speech), before assigning them into pairs to have a catch up lesson on all the basic spells. He was particularly impressed with Peters, who seemed to show an adeptness to pick up spells very quickly, and was quickly becoming the best in the class at the shield charm.
There was no rest for Harry between sessions, with many of the Gryffindors arriving early enough to see the end of the meeting with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
Harry waited for all the Gryffindors to get into the room before starting. Even with just one house being there instead of two, the Gryffindors had still somehow managed to be more numerous than the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Everyone from Harry's year was there, as was all of Ginny's year. The entire Quidditch team had turned up, as had any siblings of those already mentioned. All in all, most of Gryffindor house had arrived for the meeting. Harry waited for them all to be quiet before starting.
He cleared his throat. "Err... hi," he said, suddenly awkward in front of all of them, "I'm sure you know why you are here. This is the D.A. or "Dumbledore's army," as named by Ginny." He chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw Ginny blush slightly at her name being mentioned. He grinned, and several of the Gryffindors grinned back at him. Feeling slightly encouraged, he continued.
"Now, I thought we'd do a catch up session today..." he trailed off and raised his hands to the small out burst that had accompanied this suggestion, quickly thinking how to placate them. "But..." he waited for quiet before continuing. "But, I think none of you require it and so we will move onto other things. I have decided, that what with the Dementors joining Voldemort, we shall learn Patronuses."
The small intake of breath that had accompanied Voldemort's name was let out on the mention of Patronuses. The Patronus charm was a complicated charm that could be used to defend against a Dementor, as a sort of force of good, which the Dementor could not harm.
Harry separated the group into pairs and went amongst them as he explained the charm, before setting them to do it. Many of the D.A had learnt this the previous year, or tried to, but many had either forgotten or still had difficulty with it. He knew he had to get a Boggart or something, but where he did not know.
He walked amongst them for most of the session, just watching and talking to a few of them, but he couldn't help his eyes being drawn to Ginny. He watched her closing her eyes, obviously focusing vividly on a memory. She opened her eyes and scanned the room, before their eyes met. Looking straight at him, that small shy smile creeping across her face, she took a breath.
"Expecto Patronum!" she cried loudly, and something silver, something enormous erupted from the end of her wand. It was bigger than any Patronus Harry had ever seen, seemingly filling the room. Several people backed up against the wall, and one of the girls screamed. It was a huge, shimmering silver dragon. Its shining tail whipped around lethally as it bared its huge teeth, looking for the Dementor. As there was no Dementor, it soon started to fade into mist, and the D.A, as one, broke into applause, which Harry lead enthusiastically. Ginny blushed and her ears reddened, in a way that reminded Harry forcibly of other one of the Weasley family.
The session ended with many of the D.A able to perform the Patronus charm, and Harry congratulated them, although reminding them that when they actually used the charm it would be under very different circumstances.
"Oh don't be such a spoil sport," said Hermione loudly and everyone laughed, Ron particularly loudly. Harry shot him an enquiring look as the others rose to leave, and he blushed slightly and left with Seamus and Dean.
Ginny and Hermione waited for Harry. "Well done Harry!" Hermione said excitedly, hugging him quickly. Ginny laughed slightly before hugging Harry also.
"You were both really good," Harry replied, though his eyes were on Ginny. Hermione had been able to do it the year before, and her otter now seemed rather pitiful compared to the spectral dragon that Ginny was able to conjure, although Harry didn't say so. Instead he contented himself with a small smile at Ginny as they re-entered the Gryffindor common room. Harry settled himself down next to Ron, who had already collected his books.
"I brought yours down for you," said Ron quickly, indicating the chair next to him.
"Thanks," Harry replied, before placing the books on the table and sitting back in the chair. "What are you revising?"
"Goblin revolts," said Ron ruefully, "Mum had a go at me in fourth year for making some of the names up, so she's making sure I read all the notes beforehand." He groaned. "She's as bad as Hermione." Ron shot a wistful glance in Hermione's direction before carrying on with his work, but Harry didn't ask about it.
As was usual for Harry and Ron, they were the last two in the common room that evening. Long past midnight they still sat revising, although now on the properties of the Llyandra plant they were studying in Herbology. Professor Sprout had hinted that there might be a test the next day, so Harry was especially frantic to get this revised.
"Triple potions and am exam," Harry muttered angrily, as the clock struck one o'clock. He let out a yawn and closed his book in disgust. "I'm going to sleep," said Harry, slowly rising to his feet and gathering his books. Ron nodded and followed Harry up the stairs, and soon both had dumped their books by their respective beds but Harry didn't sleep for a long time.
"Harry! Harry! Harry wake up!" Harry opened a bleary eye, and the blurred form of Neville materialised above him.
"Wasamatter?" he said groggily, pulling himself up right into a sitting position and reaching for his glasses.
"Harry its nearly nine o'clock!" said Neville urgently, throwing Harry his black school robes. "Potions in five minutes!"
Harry was awake now. Pulling on his robes quickly and grabbing his school bag and stuff, he met Neville and Ron outside in the common room. Ron handed him a bit of toast.
"No time to waste," he said quickly. He had black marks under his eyes that told Harry that Ron had not slept quite enough either. Ron departed for his care of magical creatures lesson with Neville, while Harry found Hermione in the Entrance hall, and they both headed for the dungeons.
They were just in time. Harry and Hermione sat down in their seats at the back of the class just as Professor Snape entered the classroom. Potions had not improved much since the previous year, but Harry definitely was under the impression that Professor Snape was losing some of his edge. He was no longer going out of his way to make things bad for Harry, although he would never treat Harry on an equal level with the others in the class. In truth Harry was not necessarily the best potions maker in the class, but he was certainly better then some. The group was a fairly small one, (with very few people wanting an extra year with Snape save the Slytherins), and the potions were becoming more interesting.
However, no matter how interesting the potion was, Harry couldn't keep his eyes open. He was very tired after his sleepless night, and even with Hermione's frequent nudging he couldn't stay awake for long in double potions. He proudly survived into the second lesson, before he closed his eyes and was instantly into a dream.
He wasn't sure exactly where he was at first. It seemed vaguely familiar, and then Harry realised; he was in the cave where he had met Sirius. In his dream he walked out of the cave and onto the ledge outside it, before looking down on Hogsmeade. It was a terrible sight.
The houses of Hogsmeade were on fire. Indeed, all the buildings seemed to be on alight with a fierce burning, although Harry noted that Godric's hollow was not burning. But this was not was due Harry's gaze the most. It was the vast army that was displayed below him.
Harry knew instantly that it was an army, and he had no trouble in working out whose army it was. Death Eaters stood, their arms aloft and their hooded and masked faces pointing up at him, cheering victory. Hordes of Dementors roamed freely around the village, and his stomach felt icy cold. He wrenched his gaze from them to another movement that had attracted his gaze,
Out of the Forbidden forest, which ran parallel with part of the village, came the most fearsome of all the creatures. There were about twenty of them, each at least 20 foot tall, their stone like bodies crashing out of the undergrowth and towards the carnage the death eaters and Dementors had left. The giants tore through the crumpling remains of Honeydukes, lifting huge sections of the building structure and hurling them upwards into the air before they came crashing down many metres away. Harry looked up into the sky and saw the Dark Mark floating there, and his head erupted with pain. He rolled off his chair and landed on the cold dungeon floor and noise exploded around him.
"Harry?" he heard Hermione's urgent voice. "Get Professor Dumbledore someone, quick!"
"No, he is very busy at the moment." An icy voice spoke the words, and Harry opened his eyes to see Professor Snape and Hermione crouched over him.
"Are you ok Harry?" said Hermione carefully. At Harry's nod, she looked at Snape with something resembling anger. "He needs to see Professor Dumbledore."
"No he doesn't," Snape replied. "Class dismissed. You too Miss Granger." Hermione gave him a horrified look, but dared not argue with a Professor, and trusting him as a member of the Order of the Phoenix, she left.
"Sit up Potter," Snape said sharply, indicating the chair that Harry had fallen off. Harry rose gingerly to his feet before sitting back on his chair. Snape paced in front of the desk and looked straight into Harry's eyes.
"What did you see?" he asked simply. Harry took a deep breath before replying as simply as possible.
"I saw Voldemort's army," he answered. Snape, who had started pacing, whirled around suddenly.
"What did you see?" The question was repeated, although Harry understood perfectly what Snape meant. He glanced up at Snape, and decided that, as an Order member, he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
"I saw many death eaters," he said, frowning slightly, "probably about 50. There was also a – a huge army of Dementors. They were in Hogsmeade, and it was all burning... And then about twenty giants came out of the forest and..." Harry trailed off. He didn't tell Snape about the screams of the residents that he had heard; he could not bring himself too.
Snape glanced at Harry, before striding to the window. He looked out of it for a long time before turning back to Harry.
"What ever you saw Potter, its not happening now," Snape returned to standing in front of Harry's desk. "You may go Potter. But do not tell the Headmaster of this dream of yours, he worries enough about you as it is." Harry looked at Snape with an intention to argue, but the dangerous glint in his eye warned Harry not to. Nodding to show he understood, he picked up his books and hurried from the room to tell Ron and Hermione about his dream.
Chapter 25 - The premonition
After the explosive events of the valentines weekend, the rest of February seemed comparatively dreary. The month was mainly filled with revision for the imminent exams, with even Ron getting a bit worried with them being just a month off. Harry however, made sure to maintain Quidditch practises and his lessons with Professors Snape and McGonagall. He also made the decision to restart the D.A.
He wasn't quite sure what had made him decide to do it. He knew that now they had a great defence against the dark arts teacher in Professor Diggory, and that also there had been not even a whisper of death or violence from Voldemort, but he still felt that he should help his students however he could. He was especially anxious to teach them the Patronus charm, what with Dementors roaming far and wide under Voldemort's banner.
After talking to Professors Diggory, Dumbledore and McGonagall, along with Ginny, Ron and Hermione, Harry was given permission, (indeed, blessing from Professor Dumbledore), to start the D.A. He chose to carry on using the room of requirement however, even though there was now no need for the secrecy.
Word seemed to get around extraordinarily fast, and Harry was surprised to see almost the entire of the original D.A return, along with several extras. There were of course, no Slytherins, but the numbers were now boosted to over fifty. There were so many people that Harry decided to stagger it over two hours, so as to incorporate two groups for an hour each. Ron, Hermione and Ginny of course, stayed for both.
In the first group, Harry had all the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. This now included Henry Peters of the Ravenclaw team, and Ernie Macmillan had also returned. Cho and Marietta had of course, not returned.
The first session went well. Harry gave a quick talk about what he wanted to go over, (surprising himself with how easy it was to deliver the speech), before assigning them into pairs to have a catch up lesson on all the basic spells. He was particularly impressed with Peters, who seemed to show an adeptness to pick up spells very quickly, and was quickly becoming the best in the class at the shield charm.
There was no rest for Harry between sessions, with many of the Gryffindors arriving early enough to see the end of the meeting with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
Harry waited for all the Gryffindors to get into the room before starting. Even with just one house being there instead of two, the Gryffindors had still somehow managed to be more numerous than the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Everyone from Harry's year was there, as was all of Ginny's year. The entire Quidditch team had turned up, as had any siblings of those already mentioned. All in all, most of Gryffindor house had arrived for the meeting. Harry waited for them all to be quiet before starting.
He cleared his throat. "Err... hi," he said, suddenly awkward in front of all of them, "I'm sure you know why you are here. This is the D.A. or "Dumbledore's army," as named by Ginny." He chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw Ginny blush slightly at her name being mentioned. He grinned, and several of the Gryffindors grinned back at him. Feeling slightly encouraged, he continued.
"Now, I thought we'd do a catch up session today..." he trailed off and raised his hands to the small out burst that had accompanied this suggestion, quickly thinking how to placate them. "But..." he waited for quiet before continuing. "But, I think none of you require it and so we will move onto other things. I have decided, that what with the Dementors joining Voldemort, we shall learn Patronuses."
The small intake of breath that had accompanied Voldemort's name was let out on the mention of Patronuses. The Patronus charm was a complicated charm that could be used to defend against a Dementor, as a sort of force of good, which the Dementor could not harm.
Harry separated the group into pairs and went amongst them as he explained the charm, before setting them to do it. Many of the D.A had learnt this the previous year, or tried to, but many had either forgotten or still had difficulty with it. He knew he had to get a Boggart or something, but where he did not know.
He walked amongst them for most of the session, just watching and talking to a few of them, but he couldn't help his eyes being drawn to Ginny. He watched her closing her eyes, obviously focusing vividly on a memory. She opened her eyes and scanned the room, before their eyes met. Looking straight at him, that small shy smile creeping across her face, she took a breath.
"Expecto Patronum!" she cried loudly, and something silver, something enormous erupted from the end of her wand. It was bigger than any Patronus Harry had ever seen, seemingly filling the room. Several people backed up against the wall, and one of the girls screamed. It was a huge, shimmering silver dragon. Its shining tail whipped around lethally as it bared its huge teeth, looking for the Dementor. As there was no Dementor, it soon started to fade into mist, and the D.A, as one, broke into applause, which Harry lead enthusiastically. Ginny blushed and her ears reddened, in a way that reminded Harry forcibly of other one of the Weasley family.
The session ended with many of the D.A able to perform the Patronus charm, and Harry congratulated them, although reminding them that when they actually used the charm it would be under very different circumstances.
"Oh don't be such a spoil sport," said Hermione loudly and everyone laughed, Ron particularly loudly. Harry shot him an enquiring look as the others rose to leave, and he blushed slightly and left with Seamus and Dean.
Ginny and Hermione waited for Harry. "Well done Harry!" Hermione said excitedly, hugging him quickly. Ginny laughed slightly before hugging Harry also.
"You were both really good," Harry replied, though his eyes were on Ginny. Hermione had been able to do it the year before, and her otter now seemed rather pitiful compared to the spectral dragon that Ginny was able to conjure, although Harry didn't say so. Instead he contented himself with a small smile at Ginny as they re-entered the Gryffindor common room. Harry settled himself down next to Ron, who had already collected his books.
"I brought yours down for you," said Ron quickly, indicating the chair next to him.
"Thanks," Harry replied, before placing the books on the table and sitting back in the chair. "What are you revising?"
"Goblin revolts," said Ron ruefully, "Mum had a go at me in fourth year for making some of the names up, so she's making sure I read all the notes beforehand." He groaned. "She's as bad as Hermione." Ron shot a wistful glance in Hermione's direction before carrying on with his work, but Harry didn't ask about it.
As was usual for Harry and Ron, they were the last two in the common room that evening. Long past midnight they still sat revising, although now on the properties of the Llyandra plant they were studying in Herbology. Professor Sprout had hinted that there might be a test the next day, so Harry was especially frantic to get this revised.
"Triple potions and am exam," Harry muttered angrily, as the clock struck one o'clock. He let out a yawn and closed his book in disgust. "I'm going to sleep," said Harry, slowly rising to his feet and gathering his books. Ron nodded and followed Harry up the stairs, and soon both had dumped their books by their respective beds but Harry didn't sleep for a long time.
"Harry! Harry! Harry wake up!" Harry opened a bleary eye, and the blurred form of Neville materialised above him.
"Wasamatter?" he said groggily, pulling himself up right into a sitting position and reaching for his glasses.
"Harry its nearly nine o'clock!" said Neville urgently, throwing Harry his black school robes. "Potions in five minutes!"
Harry was awake now. Pulling on his robes quickly and grabbing his school bag and stuff, he met Neville and Ron outside in the common room. Ron handed him a bit of toast.
"No time to waste," he said quickly. He had black marks under his eyes that told Harry that Ron had not slept quite enough either. Ron departed for his care of magical creatures lesson with Neville, while Harry found Hermione in the Entrance hall, and they both headed for the dungeons.
They were just in time. Harry and Hermione sat down in their seats at the back of the class just as Professor Snape entered the classroom. Potions had not improved much since the previous year, but Harry definitely was under the impression that Professor Snape was losing some of his edge. He was no longer going out of his way to make things bad for Harry, although he would never treat Harry on an equal level with the others in the class. In truth Harry was not necessarily the best potions maker in the class, but he was certainly better then some. The group was a fairly small one, (with very few people wanting an extra year with Snape save the Slytherins), and the potions were becoming more interesting.
However, no matter how interesting the potion was, Harry couldn't keep his eyes open. He was very tired after his sleepless night, and even with Hermione's frequent nudging he couldn't stay awake for long in double potions. He proudly survived into the second lesson, before he closed his eyes and was instantly into a dream.
He wasn't sure exactly where he was at first. It seemed vaguely familiar, and then Harry realised; he was in the cave where he had met Sirius. In his dream he walked out of the cave and onto the ledge outside it, before looking down on Hogsmeade. It was a terrible sight.
The houses of Hogsmeade were on fire. Indeed, all the buildings seemed to be on alight with a fierce burning, although Harry noted that Godric's hollow was not burning. But this was not was due Harry's gaze the most. It was the vast army that was displayed below him.
Harry knew instantly that it was an army, and he had no trouble in working out whose army it was. Death Eaters stood, their arms aloft and their hooded and masked faces pointing up at him, cheering victory. Hordes of Dementors roamed freely around the village, and his stomach felt icy cold. He wrenched his gaze from them to another movement that had attracted his gaze,
Out of the Forbidden forest, which ran parallel with part of the village, came the most fearsome of all the creatures. There were about twenty of them, each at least 20 foot tall, their stone like bodies crashing out of the undergrowth and towards the carnage the death eaters and Dementors had left. The giants tore through the crumpling remains of Honeydukes, lifting huge sections of the building structure and hurling them upwards into the air before they came crashing down many metres away. Harry looked up into the sky and saw the Dark Mark floating there, and his head erupted with pain. He rolled off his chair and landed on the cold dungeon floor and noise exploded around him.
"Harry?" he heard Hermione's urgent voice. "Get Professor Dumbledore someone, quick!"
"No, he is very busy at the moment." An icy voice spoke the words, and Harry opened his eyes to see Professor Snape and Hermione crouched over him.
"Are you ok Harry?" said Hermione carefully. At Harry's nod, she looked at Snape with something resembling anger. "He needs to see Professor Dumbledore."
"No he doesn't," Snape replied. "Class dismissed. You too Miss Granger." Hermione gave him a horrified look, but dared not argue with a Professor, and trusting him as a member of the Order of the Phoenix, she left.
"Sit up Potter," Snape said sharply, indicating the chair that Harry had fallen off. Harry rose gingerly to his feet before sitting back on his chair. Snape paced in front of the desk and looked straight into Harry's eyes.
"What did you see?" he asked simply. Harry took a deep breath before replying as simply as possible.
"I saw Voldemort's army," he answered. Snape, who had started pacing, whirled around suddenly.
"What did you see?" The question was repeated, although Harry understood perfectly what Snape meant. He glanced up at Snape, and decided that, as an Order member, he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
"I saw many death eaters," he said, frowning slightly, "probably about 50. There was also a – a huge army of Dementors. They were in Hogsmeade, and it was all burning... And then about twenty giants came out of the forest and..." Harry trailed off. He didn't tell Snape about the screams of the residents that he had heard; he could not bring himself too.
Snape glanced at Harry, before striding to the window. He looked out of it for a long time before turning back to Harry.
"What ever you saw Potter, its not happening now," Snape returned to standing in front of Harry's desk. "You may go Potter. But do not tell the Headmaster of this dream of yours, he worries enough about you as it is." Harry looked at Snape with an intention to argue, but the dangerous glint in his eye warned Harry not to. Nodding to show he understood, he picked up his books and hurried from the room to tell Ron and Hermione about his dream.