Disclaimer: My house belongs to the bank, my work belongs to my boss and my money is always confiscated by my wife. And Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling... Damn...
Rocking the boat
By DerLaCroix
Chapter 25 - The eye of the tiiiiger...
Next Monday, exactly on time, Hermione and Harry stepped into Professor Flitwick's classroom for their first Duelling tutoring.
"Ah! Right, come in, come in," the permanently happy man greeted them as soon as they had entered. Nobody could say that Flitwick wasn't perceptive. Duellers figuratively had to have eyes on the back of their head. There even was a spell to achieve that, but it always caused their aim to weaken as their depth perception suffered from all the input, so it was rarely used.
With a few flicks of his wand, the furniture was shoved to the walls and stacked neatly. Another few flicks made some wards on the floor activate, causing an arena shield to flare to life, in order to shield the rest of the room from spells.
"Now, comrades" Flitwick addressed them as Duellers did among each other while he shed his robes. "I would first like to assess your skill levels before we start working on your forms and tactics. Who would like to dance first? Miss Granger?" he invited the girl into the arena.
Nodding, a bit intimidated, Hermione also shed her outer robes and stepped forward.
"Do not be afraid. I will not use anything worse than a bludgeoning hex," Flitwick chuckled. "You, on the other hand, are not to hold back and give me all you got. Just don't use outright deadly spells, I can cope with anything else, believe me," he told the girl in front of him, which was nearly twice as tall as the Professor, but certainly didn't feel that way.
After bowing to Hermione and receiving a bow in return, Flitwick assumed a dueller's stance. "Ready when you are, Miss Granger. Begin at your leisure," he said, his ever-present jovial smile vanishing from his face as a look of complete concentration took its place.
Acting on her orders, Hermione lashed out with three wordless stunners, spread out to bracket him. Flitwick casually sidestepped the first, and dove under the next one. Hermione kept on pressing forward, sending an expelliarmus at her teacher, followed by animated ropes to bind him.
With a slight smile on his lips, Flitwick twirled under her disarming hex, and used a banisher to send the ropes flying back at her. Because she had just sent another stunner at the man, Hermione had no time to dispel the ropes and had to dodge them.
Harry had been cheering his girlfriend silently on, but he knew that she - and he as well - were clearly out of their league as Flitwick cartwheeled away from Hermione's spell, and sent a salvo of pinching jinxes her way while he did so.
Seeing the flurry of yellow streaks racing towards her, Hermione immediately started on a protego, but a fraction of a second too late. She yelped in pain as one of the spells connected with her thigh before she could raise her shield to block the flurry of spells. She instinctively rubbed the forming bruise, wasting valuable time.
Flitwick meanwhile came to his feet in a twirling motion and tapped his head, slowly fading from sight and started to send a spell chain at Hermione. A stunner, a body bind, a rictusempra and a jelly leg jinx battered her shield, but it held. Hermione replied with an atramentum spell and drew the jet of ink over the general area the spells had come from.
The ink splashed against the walls and floor, and while she missed Flitwick, some splatters had hit him, giving away his position, allowing her to cast a couple of finite spells his way, dodging his return jinxes, but getting clipped by a resizing charm that made her shirtsleeve shrink rapidly, constricting her movement.
Still, she had managed to hit Flitwick, who was slowly fading back into view again as she successfully dispelled his disillusionment charm. Giving her an appreciative nod, Flitwick stopped and waited for the girl to recover and retaliate after she had cancelled the charm on her clothes.
Taking risks, she started sending stunners and bludgeoning hexes at Flitwick, who calmly stood and used a dueller's deflecting shield to bat the attacks away with the wedge of energy around his wand.
For another ten seconds, he let her send spell after spell at him, getting more and more winded, before he suddenly dodged a spell and started casting.
Hermione dodged the first stunner coming her way, and conjured a shield against the banishing charm that followed. Flitwick's next spell went a bit wide to her left, not even touching her shield. He then let off a bit, circling her as both eyed each other warily, and then sent a doublet of banishers at her.
The first one crashed into her shield, sparkling against it and messing with her balance, sending her stumbling a step backwards. The second one was aimed low, and bounced off the floor right before her shield, and slipped through under it, smacking into her shins.
Hermione shrieked as she found her legs pulled away under her. She was sent flying in a spin and suddenly found herself stuck upside down in a huge spider web, facing the wall.
"Accio Miss Granger's wand," was the first verbal incantation of the duel so far, and the quiet slap told Hermione that she just had lost that duel. The only relief was that she had chosen standard white cotton knickers today, so at least she didn't lose all her dignity.
ooOOoo
"Now levitate her down slowly," Flitwick told Harry half a minute later, as he started dispelling the web. Slowly, Harry turned his girlfriend upside up and lowered her to the ground. She blushed furiously as Flitwick simply handed her wand back.
"Not bad for a novice, Miss Granger," Flitwick said with his smile back on his lips. "You are powerful, and focussed, but you lack two things to become a great dueller. First, you lack aggression. Although I told you to not hold back, you didn't use anything worse than I did, even when it was evident that I could block all that you sent at me."
"Also," he said with a chuckle, "you lack situational awareness. A proficient dueller would have noticed immediately that I had transfigured the ropes behind you into that net. Or at least grown suspicious as soon as the spell had gone wide. I could just as well have transfigured them into animals to charge you. You must understand that there is more to duelling than exchanging spells."
Harry nodded at this statement, as he understood completely. In the battle of the ministry, he had witnessed what a duel between competent wizards looked like. Every tiny shard of glass or the smallest pebble had become a deadly weapon, a combatant or a shield in that duel, while the wizards still exchanged spells.
Hermione, on the other hand, had only been in fights with Death Eaters. These brutes with white masks were, although educated and more or less capable wizards, little more than rampaging bulls. Their tactic consisted in sending a flurry of dark curses at their targets, without any finesse. In a way, Tonks fought similarly, following Auror doctrine of quickly overwhelming the target with amassed spells, and taking advantage of her physical abilities to not get hit while doing so.
Of course, that was enough in most cases, but against a practiced dueller, they were helpless. Dumbledore, who had been Transfiguration teacher for decades in Hogwarts, had captured all of them in a mere matter of minutes without resorting to anything worse than a stunner.
"Ready, Mister Potter?" The voice of Flitwick pulled Harry out of his reminiscence. With a short nod, he made his way to the duelling arena. He took his spot, bowed to Flitwick, and then took a ready position, waiting for an opening.
"While it is a clever decision not to fight at all, it defeats the purpose of this," Flitwick said after a tense ten seconds into their standoff. Harry nodded curtly, and sent a word- and motionless stunner down the arena. Flitwick reacted far faster than Harry had thought possible, and spun out of the way, returning fire in the same way.
Harry saw the crimson bolt coming his way and bent sideways to dodge under it, sending a banisher in return, which got sidestepped by Flitwick.
The professor immediately started to send a multitude of spells at Harry, all wordless and point-casted, so Harry was left to guess what was coming his way. He immediately started to jump and duck, and finally had to roll to the side as spells came too close. Flitwick changed aim and targeted the point that Harry would end his roll, but Harry had cast a shield as he had to dive, covering himself while getting back onto his feet. Tonks had taught him that lesson the hard way.
Harry held his shield as stunners, banishers and body binds impacted in quick succession. After a few more moments of heavy fire, Flitwick had to ease up a bit to ease the strain, and Harry dove to the side as he noticed a stinging hex coming his way, cancelling his shield and using a serpensortia to distract Flitwick. The man sidestepped the reptile flung at him and simply vanished the cobra, but this small distraction gave Harry the time to regain his footing and get back into the game, sending some spells back at his foe.
As he had done with Hermione, Flitwick just stood, with the same shield as he used against Hermione, and let Harry pour spells at him. Seeing that his attempts were less than useless, Harry used an Archer curse, forcing Flitwick to dodge the physical projectile. Harry didn't have to turn around to know that Hermione was horrified at what he just had done. Her gasp was loud enough.
He followed the man with more of the projectiles, slipping body binds and stunners between, to keep the man on his toes. Flitwick seemed to have a huge advantage in duelling due his body size. His small size and low mass made him a fast twirling shape on the floor, nearly impossible to guess which direction he would move to, raising shields only when unable to dodge, or banishing projectiles when necessary. All the time, he still sent various spells at Harry, and he even diverted his own aim once and used a spell to intercept one of Harry's body binders. Harry, on the other hand, could draw at near limitless reserves, sending high-powered spells at the man without pause.
Flitwick ended this short offense by raising a wall out of the floor and rolling behind it.
Harry immediately sent a reducto at it, shattering half of it, and causing Hermione to shriek in outrage, but Flitwick jumped out of the other side, banishing the rubble at Harry.
Harry dodged the hail of stone coming his way, but had to shield his eyes and cough as the dust cloud enveloped him. Quickly conjuring a gust of wind to disperse the dust, he was hit by one of a series of bludgeoning hexes Flitwick had sent into the cloud in the vague direction of the cough. Hissing in pain, Harry spun with the impact, groaning again as he rolled over his bruised shoulder.
Coming out of the roll onto his knees, he sent a cutting curse into the direction of the incoming fire. His cutting curses came out wider than usual, and the long band of energy forced Flitwick to shield. Harry could practically hear Hermione stomp her leg in protest at his actions.
Flitwick recovered quickly and used a series of various hexes on Harry, of which Harry only identified the body-binding hex and the tarantellagra jinx positively. The fact that he didn't recognize the other spells by their colour made Harry reluctant to find out what nasty things they would cause. One of them barely touched the side of his head and sent a lock of hair flying.
He wasn't sure whether he had actually dodged some spells or they had gone wide, so he used one of his spins to send a reductor behind him in the general direction of where the rubble had landed, and did in fact hit a plant with long vines as it tried to ensnare him. As he had turned back, he was looking at three Flitwicks instead of one. Harry didn't waste a second to send a cloud of ice shards at the tree men, all shielding, but only one shield proved to be solid, and the other two constructs sizzling and failing under the hail, while Harry dodged the three spells coming his way.
Sadly, he had dodged the two illusionary spells, and the real Flitwick hit Harry with another bludgeoner, which hit Harry's hip painfully. The impact toppled the boy, and conversion of momentum converted Harry's spin into a roll over the ground. Clenching his teeth, Harry sent stunners in the general direction of Flitwick as he rolled over the ground.
Flitwick actually laughed out loud as Harry did so, even though he had to shield against the spells, as the boy came up on his knees. Harry took aim and followed up with a huge stunner, which splashed against the Professor's shield, causing it to flicker and the man to stumble slightly under the energy of his spell's impact, momentarily stunned by the unexpected strong spell this far into the duel.
Deciding to use a shield breaker combo, Harry sent an overpowered bone-breaker at the shield, followed closely by a disarming curse. As predicted, the shield failed at the spell, but the blue light of the following spell managed to hit Flitwick. Harry reached out with his free hand to catch the flying wand, as it suddenly reversed its direction. The next thing he noticed was the yellow-orange of a bludgeoning hex filling his vision, knocking him out the hard way.
ooOOoo
"Please hold still, Mister Potter," Flitwick's voice greeted Harry as he regained consciousness and reached for his face. Harry assumed it was the same man who caught and pinned his hand down and hindered Harry to grab his hurting nose. "The spell to set and mend your nose will have run its course in a few seconds, then the pain will fade," the man reassured Harry and slowly released his arm.
Sitting up, Harry shook the cobwebs from his head as the pain indeed faded rapidly. "Damn, that hurt! Couldn't you have used a stunner instead?" he moaned.
Flitwick shook his head in jest. "After you had cast a cutting curse, arrows, a blasting curse and a bone breaker at me, I don't think you are in a position to complain, comrade," the man chuckled, ticking off the curses at one hand while Hermione's eyes narrowed at her prone boyfriend, winding up to tell him off. "Honestly, Harry," was all she could utter in a very indignant tone.
"He did exactly as I asked, Miss Granger," Flitwick interrupted her tirade before it had gained any momentum. At his cheeky grin, Hermione gave Harry an apologetic smile and started casting diagnostic spells at his hip to assess the damage.
"Remember, I told you the same, only you didn't comply with this wish," Flitwick continued while watching Hermione's wand-work with a teacher's eye.
"What happened? I did disarm you, didn't I?" Harry asked from his position on the ground.
"Yes, and being overconfident, you thought this would end our dance and just waited to catch my wand," Flitwick said as he took care of Harry's shoulder as Hermione was still casting healing spells at his hip.
"So you can cast wandless?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Mister Potter, you are aware that I am a Master Dueller?" The small man smiled at the boy lying in front of him, offering him a hand to help him up. "There is a reason this title is earned rarely - clearly you wouldn't be considered a master if something as a simple disarming charm would part you from your wand. Most duellers can at least recall their wands."
Mortified, Harry sputtered a simple "Oh," as he took the hand and came to his feet.
"Oh indeed, Mister Potter. There a reason Professor Snape never taunts me directly - he knows the only way he could defeat me would be to hit me in the back when I'm distracted," Flitwick chuckled. Harry and Hermione both were surprised by that admission which would be the first time that this man had actually slighted Snape, and even boasted a bit.
After clapping his hands, the man drew and deftly flicked his wand to summon three chairs from the stowed away furniture. Climbing into his seat, he waited for the other two to sit down.
"Now," Professor Flitwick began as his trainees were finally seated, "You really surprised me, Mister Potter. Firstly, you are showing impressive stamina when it comes to casting. Most people would be hard-pressed to cast such a number of stunners in such a short time. And that bone-breaking curse was really surprising. Nasty curse, I doubt you found it in the regular Hogwarts library," he let the question linger, although he didn't stop to smile.
With a bit of a flush tinting his face, Harry smiled back. "I had a bit of reading at the place I stayed over the summer," he admitted.
"Oh yes, the vast Black Library. I am quite thankful you spared me of the nastier pieces of magic you might have found there," Flitwick chuckled in return. "Although I hope you might grant me a look into some of the rarer volumes, someday."
Taking the request for what it was, Harry gave a nod in reply. He could trust Flitwick, and the opportunity to train with the man was worth the price.
"Wonderful! Now to your performance. You have quite the instincts and power, Mister Potter, and certainly the drive to win, but like Miss Granger, you lack the imagination to be considered a good dueller. Right now, you are at or approaching Auror level, both, with Mister Potter a bit better, but both of you have to start thinking in more than direct approach magic," Flitwick lectured.
"Take your snake conjuration, for example, Mister Potter. Now that was a quite intelligent move, but why didn't you try something more creative? Look, for instance you could have…"
The rest of the hour, Flitwick told them more and more convoluted ideas and spell schemes, which made the two students question the man's sanity. But maybe you had to be a bit along that road to fight properly. After all, Moody and Dumbledore were also legendary fighters, and both were also known for being way into gaga-land. At least it made them unpredictable.
ooOOoo
"Seriously, who tells the kids about all this stuff," Harry lamented after he found the room occupied, again, this time with a Firsty waiting in line for when it becomes available again.
"We have two dozen of people that know firsthand, due to the DA," Hermione replied as they took the turn back to the staircase. "Given that each one of them has at least 4 friends, we have about 100 people in the second link. In the third, almost all of Hogwarts would know."
"Not that," Harry grumbled as he headed for the first stair that swung their direction. "I mean, why did nobody ever tell us about such things when they were new at Hogwarts!"
ooOOoo
"Ok, folks, since our room of choice has been unavailable for a solid week, now, we need a replacement," Hermione told the others as she lead them into a unused wing in the third floor. When she led them into an room and pulled a trapdoor in the floor open, Neville gave a startled gasp.
"This is the room you discovered in first year?" he said.
"Really? Ron told me about it - he said there were a lot of traps behind it, but he couldn't tell me anything beyond the first few rooms," Ginny babbled.
"Well, he got knocked out in that chess game," Harry allowed.
"So you want to use the rooms the traps were in?" Neville asked.
"Were?" Harry chuckled as he pulled the trapdoor open. Before Neville could question that reply, Hermione produced a jar containing a bluebell flame and dropped it down the hole. Ignoring the slithering sounds from below, first Harry, then Hermione jumped in.
Neville's scared gaze bounced off Luna's lackadaisical face as she simply stepped into the void, so he turned to find help from Ginny.
"I guess that means no one will disturb us there," she said with a shrug, and jumped as well.
ooOOoo
A couple of days later, Hermione found Harry standing near the portrait hole when she came down for breakfast.
"Hey Harry, what's the matter?" she asked as she stepped closer, scanning the bulletin board for new announcements. Following his pointing finger, her gaze fell upon a sign-up list.
"Apparition class? You noticed it just now? That sheet has already been up for all of January."
Harry shot her a stern glance in reply. "I noticed that, thank you very much. I'm simply contemplating whether to sign up or not."
This time, it were Hermione's eyes that sought out Harry's. "And why would you do that? You already know how to apparate. Do you want to practice?" she asked.
"Or just show up," she tried with a big grin when he shook his head in reply.
"I'll show you up if you keep that cheek up," he growled back.
Hermione took a quick glance around before she leaned in. "You will do what up my cheeks?" she whispered, laughing heartily when his head spun around while his face was trying to set a new record in color density.
For a few moments, his mouth hung open as he tried to come up with a reply, but each time he started, her laughter shot him down before he could utter a single word.
"You'll pay for this," he finally hissed.
Another bright giggle was all he got for his effort, as Hermione leaned in again, brushing against him. "I do hope so, Captain," she whispered.
"Minx!"
"Yours..." replied with a smirk that was definitely not lady-like, and caused a relapse of Harry's pigmentation issues.
"Anyway, why do you want to sign up, then?" she changed the topic, less due to mercy than to the fact that some other Gryffindors were beginning to file in and out of the common room.
"I was hoping to see Malfoy splinch himself," Harry replied, his gaze becoming dreamy. Hermione's jaw almost dropped as he said that, and finally did when he continued speaking, smirking diabolically.
"Maybe I could manage to distract him in the right moment..."
The caress of her fist against his biceps drew him out of his reveries. "Honestly, Harry!" she ranted. "Don't you have better things than this in mind?" she snubbed.
"Honestly, I can't think of many things better than a splinched Malfoy," Harry replied truthfully, and not aware of any shortcoming on his part, with another satisfied smile playing on his lips.
"Maybe things that we used to do in the Room of Requirement?" she whispered, trying to bring her point across.
Harry snorted slightly as she said that. "Well that's a given. But since it's occupied all the time, nothing keeps me from enjoying Malfoy making a fool out of himself."
"Harry, all the sixth years will be at these lessons," Hermione diplomatically said as a group of third years passed them on their way to breakfast.
"So? We don't know who uses the room. It could be anyone," Harry retorted.
"Honestly, do I have to do all the thinking for us?" Hermione sighed, once more checking if they could be overheard, before leaning in. "Don't you realize that with all the sixth year Gryffindors at these lessons, your dorm would be completely empty?" she whispered into his ear, pressing tightly against him.
Harry's reply was a simple "oh", as he sheepishly scratched his neck.
ooOOoo
Over the next weeks, both intensified the duelling portion of their training, and Neville and the girls also improved steadily due to the tutoring. Also, Harry's homework was never done better.
Hermione, after a few appointments with Vector and Babble for her extra credit project, finally managed a breakthrough in her ward project during one of these sessions. Harry considered it a personal breakthrough that he actually understood what she was talking about when she filled him in on it.
All the time, they were in daily contact with their friends and family, a fact that pleased Hermione greatly. She really had missed being able to talk to her parents every day while being away from home. Writing a letter was fine, but talking to someone face-to-face, even over a mirror, was much better.
*** Gryffindor common room, mid February ***
Harry was cuddling with Hermione when he suddenly heard Remus' voice from inside his robes. "Can you talk?"
Hermione shifted slightly in his arms so that she cuddled against his chest. "Not freely," she whispered.
There was a short pause of silence while Remus formulated his message. "We know something, find somewhere you cannot be overheard," he whispered.
"We'll call back quickly, " Hermione spoke as she slid her hand into Harry's robes to deactivate the mirror. She then rose, stretched, and pulled Harry to his feet. None of the other suspected anything ill when she started pulling him to the entrance hole.
"Third floor?" Harry asked while the portrait swung open, but Hermione shook her head.
"We can't be absolutely sure that there isn't anyone eavesdropping on us, remember? I'm still not entirely convinced that Dumbledore hadn't something to watch the rooms installed," she whispered in his ear, her arm slung around his waist. Harry nodded grimly. That argument wasn't settled between them, but he had agreed to cease using wandless magic during training to alleviate her concerns.
Instead, they went for the Room of Requirement, but like always, the Room was in use, already. This time, it was a Ravenclaw boy wearing a groove in the flooring near the door, balancing a few books. Seeing Hermione and Harry approaching, he turned too fast and slipped, his books flying and crashing into the door with a huge thud.
"Sorry… I… You…" the poor boy stammered, blushing profusely as he scrambled on the floor to pick up his books with Hermione's and Harry's help, before suddenly squeaking and taking off in high speed, leaving some books behind.
Hermione looked baffled why the boy was acting that way. "What the hell just happened?" she asked as she turned to Harry, one of the books still in her hand.
"You got yourself a potential stalker," Harry returned sourly as he glared at the corner the boy had just rounded.
Tilting her head, Hermione mulled it a bit over. "Possible. But it's not fair to insult him for having a crush on an older girl. Even you had a thing for Cho and the Chaser girls, Harry."
Harry grimaced at her in reply. "Yeah, but I didn't try to sneak a peek under their shirts like he just did with you!"
"He did WHAT?" Hermione screeched, instinctively covering her neckline with her hands.
"When you picked up that book, I saw him leaning over and blatantly checking you out. If he hadn't turned tail at that, I'd have told him off for his inadequate behaviour and advised him to vacate himself from the premises, only in much less numerous and polite words," Harry told her, while aiming a Cheshire-grin at his now fuming girlfriend.
While Hermione complained about teenage hormones and lack of manners in a series of hisses, Harry suddenly had an idea. Telling Hermione about it, they immediately set off for their new destination.
ooOOoo
"You can talk now, Remus, we are in a secure location," Harry told his Godfather over the mirror.
"Really?" the image replied, slightly squeaky. "The connection is rather bad, where are - WATCH OUT - BEHIND YOU!"
This yell had Harry immediately turning and his hand on his wand, but instead of drawing, Harry started laughing heartily, Hermione joining him with her giggles.
"What? What's wrong? Why are you laughing?" the mirror-Remus demanded to know. From his end, all he could see was a dizzying display of a moving stone wall with some torches, upside down.
"You gave us that huge scare for nothing, Remus. Here is nothing that can harm us," Harry replied, still chuckling.
The image of Remus got replaced by Tonks. "Harry, that didn't look safe - it was huge. How can you be sure it won't hurt you?"
Harry angled his mirror in a way that the creature and the room could be seen easier. "Because I dealt with it four years ago, already." The mirror emitted a series of gasps and a long whistle.
"Wow, that thing is huge. I didn't believe it was that big. If anything, you underestimated its size," Tonks admitted.
"Well, I was a small kid and my glasses weren't the best," Harry agreed, and moved the mirror so that they could get a better view.
"Ok, I give you benefit of the doubt for that, Harry," Tonks replied, still slightly awed as she couldn't take her eyes off the carcass.
Next, the mirror squeaked in Margret's voice. "Amazing how good it still looks. For a certain value of good, anyway," she said, wrinkling her nose. "You said it was four years ago, but it looks as if it were still alive!"
"Hi mum," Harry and Hermione greeted her in chorus. Hermione had to pet Harry's back for doing that, her mother had told her once how much she adored Harry for calling her that so naturally.
"Actually, that's to be expected from such a specimen," Remus was heard. "A basilisk corpse is so dangerous that nothing would or could touch it, not even bacteria. It could lie here for decades before any decay would start, and in that cave, it is far too humid for it to dry out."
"Is it useful for something? I mean we could try harvest stuff for ingredients," Hermione asked eagerly.
"While valuable," Remus admitted," it is not safe to do so without special equipment and lots of experience. The only things relatively easy to harvest are the eyes, fangs and the venom, and none of them is something I would like to have stored in a dorm of children, as all are extremely dangerous and only used for the darkest magics and potions."
"Agreed," Harry said as he fought the shivers at the idea of having something like that in the same room as his dorm mates. "What about the skin? Wouldn't it be good armour?"
"Go ahead and try cutting it," Remus chuckled. "You can't cut it with magic, but it might be possible with special tools made to withstand the corrosive effects. That property would also dissolve all stitches, which means you can't make a suit out of it. Also, it is far too heavy and toxic to be worn by men. Just tanning the hide would take years!"
"Darn, I already had hopes to face the tosser in an invincible set of armour," Harry huffed to the amusement of all present. "Ok, back to business, what did you find out about these Horcruxes?"
"Well, pup; this is what I have so far," the Marauder said, and shuffled through his notes before starting to fill the kids in. "As you know by now from our talks about the Dementors, there are magical methods to meddle with the soul of a person…"
ooOOoo
"Wow," Harry commented as he put the mirror away after the discussion had ended. "You know, being scared of death is one thing, but Tom is definitely going too far."
Hermione shook her head in disgust. "The whole concept of splitting your soul is disgusting. It reminds me of the Dorian Gray stories. It amazes me what lengths he was prepared to go in order to reach his goals."
"I knew he was a killer, but several cold-blooded, planned murders, and rituals to change himself - that's completely off the scale. Just look at the facts: the diary, the locket, the ring, who knows how many more that bastard has made. I grow less and less patient with Slughorn - we need to find out how many are out there, and fast! I just hope Remus is able to find the other ones so that I can finally kick his scaly arse to hell," Harry growled.
"Yeah, that's true. He has to go down," Hermione agreed.
"Speaking of going down," Harry chuckled, his eyebrows wiggling like mad.
For a second, Hermione didn't get it, but when it clicked with her, she couldn't suppress the urge to roll her eyes. "Honestly, Harry. You're thinking of that, down here?" she chided her overeager boyfriend.
"I don't remember you ever complaining before," Harry shrugged and shot her his lopsided killer-grin. "And just think of it. We are undisturbed, no time restriction, and given what enormous gits Salazar and Riddle were, I don't think they ever had a women down here. Except for Riddle, but he brought an eleven year old girl, that doesn't count. So we would be the first, a really historic event, don't you think?" he tried to convince her in jest.
To his surprise, Hermione cocked her head and took a long look around, examining her surroundings. "If your cleaning spells are up to the challenge, and we transfigure a bed and some walls so I don't have to look at that," she said, thumbing at the corpse, "I might agree to go down - in history," she finally said with a smirk and laughed out loud as Harry took a short look at the grimy floor and exchanged his normal wand for his battlewand, eager to comply.
OoOOoo
"Professor? Might I ask you a question? " Hermione exclaimed after Potions class. Slughorn looked slightly wary, but waited for her to come forward. Harry waited at his place, keeping her bag as she did so.
"I'm afraid that I came across rather harsh when we had our last conversation, Professor. I want to apologize for that," Hermione began.
"Apology accepted," Slughorn replied, easing up slightly.
"You know, I was very afraid of the simple concept of a Horcrux, and the idea that Riddle had made multiple is awful," Hermione continued in a shy way.
"That is understandable, those things are vilest dark magic," Slughorn said. "What exactly was the question you wanted to ask?" he tried to switch topic.
"Just think about it - he can return from death multiple times, unless someone manages to find and destroy all of them. But without knowing how many," Hermione soldiered on, before she got interrupted by Slughorn's irate voice.
"Miss Granger! I already told you I know nothing about this. If you are just here to repeat that inquiry, I must demand that you get out of this classroom, immediately," he growled.
"Professor, this is import..." Harry tried, but got cut off, as well.
"You too, Mister Potter. Out. Both of you!" Slughorn snapped.
Hermione tried it once more. "Prof..."
"OUT!" Slughorn yelled, and stormed out of the room himself, into his office.
ooOOoo
Harry knocked at the door, waiting for it to be answered. When the door finally opened, Slughorn came into view. His face immediately hardened as his look fell on them.
"We wouldn't disturb you if it weren't that important, but we really must know," Hermione began.
"I know nothing about this, and I have no time now, as I have a pot on the burner," Slughorn said before he slammed the door shut.
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"Professor?" Hermione asked after class, but Slughorn had already left.
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"Professor? Are you there?" Harry shouted as he continued knocking at the door to Slughorn's door. He left after a few more tries.
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"Professor? Do you have a moment?" Harry said from his position near the door as Slughorn entered the Great Hall.
"Sorry, Mister Potter. If you have any school related questions, please pose them in class, I would like to eat undisturbed," Slughorn replied without looking at him or even slowing down.
Sighing, Harry walked to his usual seat and slumped down next to Hermione. When she gave him a questioning look, he shook his head, frowning.
The end of February was closing in, and their quest to find out how many Horcruxes of Voldemort were around still hadn't gained any ground. With their visit at home only a few weeks away, they had agreed that Remus would try to get as much additional information as he could, now that he had a lead, and that the kids would continue working on Slughorn. That work didn't bear any fruit, yet, and probably never would.
"What exactly do you two want from Slughorn?" Neville asked from across the table, with Ginny listening attentively.
"Mission for Dumbledore," Harry murmured in reply. Neville and Ginny proved to be good friends as they took the explanation at face value and didn't ask any further.
Nonetheless, Hermione was starting to get desperate enough to consider allowing Harry to just beat the information out of the man.
AN:
Once more, I'm deeply indebted to the people who spend their precious time to polish the crap I produce. alix33, joelawyer and embirsiphonelilathia...
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This week, I nearly tripped over Baldur, our resident fox on the stable. (My wife named him, after I named our resident hare - I chose Rasputin, proving that I'm cooler than she.)
I just turned around a corner when I nearly stepped on him. As you can imagine, I went "Whoa! A fox!", while Baldur went "Whoa! A human!"
For the next minutes, we mirrored our movements. I stepped forward, he back. I stepped back, he forward, always keeping 10 feet distance to me. We circled each other a bit, until we lost interest and went our ways.
Have fun with the chapter,
Dances with foxes.