Chapter 29: I've taken what you'll sorely miss

Harry couldn't keep Zephyr out of his thoughts for the rest of the evening, though he did not yet tell Ron and Hermione, wanting to keep this for himself just a little bit longer...

He even dreamt about the dragon, about flying through the air on him and doing a lot of small stunts he would normally only do on a broom. But then his dreams slowly changed...

ooo

He entered the building like any other visitor. Asking the lady at the counter with a smile where a Severus Snape was staying - she didn't even seem to mind that it was already long past the visiting hours when answering him - before thanking her with a wink and a bow and walking up to the First Floor, "Creature-induced Injuries". In front of a non-descriptive door he stopped, quickly putting on a ring, making his skin shimmer a little - settling to a paler degree, looking almost boney now - before walking straight into the room, without so much as knocking.

A quick sleeping spell took care of the only other patient in the room, ensuring they would not witness what would be happening right now. A small privacy ward followed, before he stood at the bed of Snape. Who was already awake it seemed, looking at him with an expressionless face. As always.

"Severus," he said, his voice high and clear as he looked down to the man from the side of his bed. "What happened? I have heard you got bitten by a snake... But I do wonder what kind of snake it was that you had to be kept here... And, what's more: How did this happen?"

The question was asked quietly, sounding almost friendly, even. Snape didn't seem to agree though.

"It was an unknown species. Potter had it with him," the man spat, sounding very restrained. "He obviously couldn't control it."

"Potter has a snake with him? A venomous snake, even?", he asked, sounding surprised.

Snape just shrugged very lightly, before wincing. Obviously he was still in pain, despite the bandage around his neck.

"Dumbledore said it was a conjured snake. The boy was training or something..."

"The question of how still remains."

Snape actually looked a little uncomfortable as he answered. "I may have antagonised him a little."

He sighed. "Very well. That is sufficient."

He turned around as if to leave, but after walking two steps he turned around again. "Oh, and Severus? I will be expecting a resignation. You know why."

The man in the bed swallowed hard, but nodded a little. "Of course."

"Good."

With that, he cancelled the privacy ward with a flick of his wand and left the room...

ooo

When Harry awoke the next morning he remembered little of what he had dreamt, except for that his beautiful dragon-dream had in the end turned to one with Snape... Not the best turn of events, really...

Still, he needed to get up and working, for they had classes in the morning. Divination, not exactly his favourite subject - in fact, it was probably the only one his performance didn't change at all and he would so drop it after this year. He even regretted not taking Ancient Runes, for runes were really helpful when warding and while he had no idea yet of what he wanted to do with his life, at least wards seemed damn helpful...!

He woke up Ron and Neville after reading a bit in one of his darker books - it was a more reasonable time by now - and together they made their way down to the common room, just moments before Hermione arrived. She had Arithmancy first class and so she had no problems with joining them to the Great Hall, together with most of the student body, some looking more tired than others. But Dumbledore had told them at dinner the day before that it would be good if as many students as possible where there at eight o'clock for two more announcements, so most had managed to get out of bed by now.

Just when it turned eight Dumbledore then rose from his chair at the teacher's table and people who saw him quietened down, bringing the rest of the students to silence soon after.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said, looking at them with a content face. "I just wanted to let you know that, starting this very morning, we have found a temporary replacement for Professor Snape, who should be joining us again around the beginning of next week. You may remember him from last year, though this time it is definitely the real one: Professor Alastor Moody." With that, he turned around a little and, true to his words, Moody stepped out from the shadows where he had managed to hide himself from plain sight rather spectacularly. "As he was once an auror, Professor Moody has more than enough skills in potion making to be able to teach that class. He will not be able to give or take points in his position as a substitute teacher, but he is allowed to give out detentions, so I would advise you to behave."

The students had already begun to whisper among themselves again.

"You think he'll be anything like last year?", Neville asked, nervously looking up to Moody. Since the other three had basically spent part of their summer holidays with the man but couldn't really say so, they mostly just shrugged.

"I guess, after all nobody noticed that it wasn't him last year, so the behaviour must have been like him...", Harry commented, but actually his thoughts had already wandered off. Hagrid had, after all, just yesterday told him about Moody once following Voldemort... But Harry wasn't sure if he could even broach that subject without getting hexed, really... And then there was this fact, almost forgotten at the back of his mind, that he was even somehow related to that man... But he didn't think that this would help...

He was still pondering these problems when Dumbledore continued to talk.

"The second announcement will be made by Professor Pyrites."

With that he sat down and motioned for the teacher to take over, which he did just then.

"So... as some of you might remember, I was sent by the Ministry to see how this school fares in terms of teaching standards and so on. And while I think I can evaluate your progress in Defence pretty good by now, I'm still missing knowledge about the rest of your classes. So starting today I will randomly watch some of your classes to check what's going on there and if everything works out the way it's supposed to. I may also question you on some things but I will try not to disrupt the flow of the classes if possible, so don't worry. I just wanted to announce this so none of you get confused later... And of course, nobody has to answer any of my questions, it's just additional feedback, really. Thanks for listening."

He sat down again, bringing the student body back to whispering and wondering about what this would mean... Some were even slightly hopeful that maybe they would, for once, get someone who could do something against some of their worse teachers... And Harry supported that fully, just imagine if Binns was finally kicked out... But even if that would happen, it would still need some time, so instead he should focus on his more current problems, really. After all, he had a busy day before him...

ooo

The day went by rather quickly and since the next day was a Thursday he had another lesson with Professor Pyrites in the morning. Harry was now motivated more than ever to master Occlumency, so he asked if there was actually a quicker method of learning Occlumency than meditating. His teacher seemed surprised by the question.

"Well, there is, but it's also more... exhausting. And a lot less private. Why do you ask?"

Harry bit his lower lip as he wondered on how to answer this. He couldn't just tell his teacher about Snape after all... Instead he changed his words a little.

"Well... I have noticed that Legilimency is still pretty much unblockable for me. I mean, I can block it a little bit, but... I think it would be nice to be properly protected now instead of in a few years..."

Professor Pyrites looked thoughtful for a moment.

"It's not that I cannot understand your request, but I am not sure if you would want me to be the person to teach it to you...", he said slowly, before explaining what he meant with that. "The fastest way to learn Occlumency that holds against attempted Legilimency would, of course, be the practice of just that. Someone would have to cast the Legilimens spell on you again and again, making it stronger once you successfully diverted a weaker attempt... But that would mean showing this person a lot of your memories, as it is decidedly difficult to tell somebody to stop when your mind is being invaded..."

Harry cursed inwardly. He really wanted to learn how to defend against those attacks, but who could he trust enough to actually let them see everything he had seen and done in those last months? In his entire life, even? For example, would this privacy ward from Voldemort regarding their meeting even hide his memories from outsiders? Probably not... So what to do...?

"Take your time to decide that, it doesn't need to be today... Maybe tell me next week? I could offer you a privacy ward though, ensuring that I will not be able to talk to anyone about what I saw, except for those participating in what happened and knowing of it."

Harry just nodded for the time being, after which they commerced with their dodging lesson once more. Although Harry was beginning to get rather good at it, using his environment for protection, always moving around to be able to dodge much better than by standing around, waiting for the spell to get cast.

He was even able to hold out a little longer by now than back when they had started, but he was still horribly exhausted afterwards. Once more, he was very glad he had some free time before Potions with Moody, so he could calm down a little and eat some lunch before they all stood in front of the Potions classroom, waiting for their substitute teacher.

Thankfully he didn't let them wait as long as Snape at times did, so they could quickly enter the room, taking their normal tables to brew. Once they were all sitting down, Moody went to the front, the door closing with a bang after a wave of his wand, making the students jump.

"If you jump like that every time a loud noise happens nearby you will have a hard time today," he barked at them, shaking his head. "You need some stronger nerves than that..."

Then his gaze fell on Harry. "Potter, why are you sitting in the Slytherin part of the room?"

Harry blinked in surprise, gulping before giving an answer. "Well, Professor Snape wanted me to sit here..."

Moody just stared for an uncomfortable moment, before shrugging. "Oh well. Now..." He looked back at the whole class. "Since I have no idea what Snape was last doing and don't really care, we will be making a Sleeping Draught."

"But that's a second year potion!", somebody complained, making Moody glare at him.

"I know that perfectly well, whoever you are. But since I will not be grading you or anything I don't care. Especially since I would not be too sure that you will be able to have a correctly brewed draught in the end. That goes for all of you. I won't be sitting around doing nothing for the lesson. Now start, you have the whole two hours for it, whoever gets it actually done... Well, we'll come to that should it happen. Go!"

There was a lot of bustling around as always as the students raided the ingredient shelves, while Harry stayed put - like a few others - and waited for the students to finish before getting his own stuff. Meanwhile he wondered what Moody was up to... This whole 'banging the door' thing already screamed of his usual 'constant vigilance!' attitude and since one normally needed thirty minutes at most for the very simple Sleeping Draught they were supposed to brew there was definitely something shady going on if Moody expected them to take more than two hours...

But he couldn't very well ask, so he just took his ingredients after most students were gone and began preparing them...

The first five minutes everything went by quietly - with having Snape as a teacher for years they knew by now that any kind of talking was not tolerated at all and Moody did not look any less menacing - before suddenly, Parvati spoke up, even if it was quietly. "That was not supposed to happen...!"

"Learn to brew, then," Pansy Parkinson commented snidely, making Parvati glare at her.

"I can brew this potion perfectly alright!"

Pansy just snorted and turned back to her own potion, before gaping. "What's happened, this was supposed to simmer a little, not change colour."

"Well, maybe if you had paid attention to your own cauldron instead of that girl's there, you would have seen," Moody barked at her, making her - and most of the class - stare at him.

He didn't seem to care, instead he seemed focused on moving his wand... Which put not only Harry on guard, but nothing seemed to happen, until Seamus cried out that his potion was ruined too. Shortly followed by Theodore Nott.

Slowly, people seemed to gather what was going on, although it was hard to believe at first: Moody was actively trying to manipulate their potions!

"Sir, how can we focus on brewing if you keep trying to prevent us from succeeding?", Hermione finally asked frustratedly as something happened with her potion too.

"It's called multitasking," Moody just answered easily. "I am not here to teach you how to brew a simple potion. I want to see if you can actually brew something decent and check for hidden manipulations at the same time. Be creative!"

That was easier said than done though, for in fact, creativity wasn't something they had been taught, really. Still, a small Protego helped Harry once against something that was rather obviously thrown in his direction - although his potion still turned awry as he had forgotten to stir while casting the Protego. And his next try went bad despite his Protego, for whatever Moody had done avoided the Protego, that was cast like a shield in front of his cauldron since he needed to put stuff in there himself after all...

He could see Blaise Zabini with some sort of powder in front of him, which moved whenever something passed through it, making him more aware of invisible things and Hermione had resorted to simply put a lid on her cauldron, although that made it rather difficult to judge the status of the potion...

All in all, it was a horribly chaotic Potions lesson and despite their best efforts, none of them had managed to circumvent Moody's efforts in the end... Harry had no idea how he did it, maybe with some help from his magical eye, but Moody always had a backup plan and always knew whenever somebody was close to finishing the Potion, thus ruining it next. Or just causing some random noise to startle them and make them forget either their potion or their protection...

"Time's up!", he finally shouted, looking at them as most of the students seemed horribly relieved. Especially Neville, if Harry judged his facial expression correctly. "And while some of you had some nice ideas, all of you missed the two most simple solutions, really: Option A would have been just leaving the room to brew somewhere else."

As he was met with incredulous and frustrated stares he just shrugged. "I never said you weren't allowed to leave, I just wanted to have a finished draught at the end of the lesson. Learn to exploit the rules you are given and never try to brew with a lot of other people nearby. And Option B would have been even easier: Teamwork. If you would have tried to combine your ideas or just took turn in brewing with one or two people guarding the cauldron of a third one, passing those defences would have been a lot harder. I never said not to partner up either."

"But Professor Snape-" Pansy started before getting interrupted. "-is not here, girl! Just because he might not tolerate this, don't assume everyone thinks the same. Never assume two people think alike just because you found some similarities. In fact, if something is unclear about a person and you are able to, just ask! If they won't kill you - and this would fall under the 'you are not able to ask'-part - you will be fine!"

There was a lot of grumbling and Harry couldn't quite believe it either, but at the same time, Moody did have some valid points...

And still, it was pretty obvious that everyone was happy that the lesson had ended... It had been probable the most infuriating Potions lesson ever, at least Snape let everyone brew quietly... Most of the time. But he didn't sabotage his student's potions that openly...!

Harry took his time packing his things together anyway, gathering all of his Gryffindor courage meanwhile... He knew he probably wouldn't get a chance like this again any time soon... So when he was one of the last remaining students he walked to Moody, trying to squash his nervousness as the man looked to him.

"What's it, Potter?", he almost growled.

"Well... I know it's probably a bad time, and that you might be pretty busy-"

"Stop rambling and come to the point!", Moody barked and Harry quickly complied.

"I wanted to ask you something about Voldemort."

That seemed to take Moody by surprise, though.

"Voldemort, you say? Why do you think that I am the best person for that? Ask Dumbledore for all I know."

"If he would tell me anything...", Harry grumbled before he could stop himself, but quickly continued as he realised his quiet outburst, hoping to distract Moody from it. "I just think you are the best choice for it regarding the nature of my questions..."

Moody looked at him for a long time, long enough to make Harry wonder if he should just leave, before finally answering, just moments before Harry wanted to go.

"Alright. But we will doing it in my office."

With that he left the room, leaving Harry with no choice but to follow him. Outside of the room, Ron, Hermione and Neville had waited for him, but one look from Moody had them excusing themselves with apologetic looks to Harry.

"I won't eat him, so don't look so horrified!", Moody called after them before motioning for Harry to continue following him.

Harry was a little wary to return to Moody's office after last year and found walking behind a slightly crazy old man - that was really Mad-Eye Moody now, hopefully! - didn't help much, but thankfully for the time being Moody had gotten another office it seemed, so they quickly arrived, with Harry getting ushered into the rather blank room first. Nothing like the office full of spyglasses and sneakoscopes and much more stuff from last year. Although Harry could see one of both things anyway, planted on the windowsill. Other than that, a desk and a few chairs, the room was empty, there weren't even any portraits on the wall or anything.

"So. What did you want to ask me about Voldemort that not even Dumbledore should know about, huh?", Moody asked once the door was closed behind both of them.

"Well...", Harry began nervously, still trying not to think back too much on his last experience with 'Moody' in his office, no matter that it had not been Moody back then... "I was wondering about... How Voldemort was when he was still younger... Everyone knows the crazy mass murderer part of course, but... was there never a time when he was different?"

Moody stared at him again, his Magical Eye swirling around wildly, giving him a rather creepy look...

"Why do you think I can give you the information you need?"

"Well... I want a overview about Voldemort as a whole. Everyone seems to expect me to fight him in the end and Merlin knows how often he tried to kill me now, but I still know almost nothing about him. So I thought it would be useful to know how he acted as a teenager... He can't always have been that crazy, right...? And since you probably understand the principle of "know your enemy" best, I thought you surely have some information about him..."

Again, silence stretched between them, but this time Harry waited patiently. He didn't know just how paranoid Moody was and what he might deem safe to tell, he could only hope...

And then finally, Moody actually started to talk.

"Well, when he was still in Hogwarts he was charming, managing to get basically everyone to like him. He never really had any friends though, even back then most of the people he surrounded himself with were followers. He also had a rather difficult childhood, living in a muggle orphanage during the Second World War. I personally think he tried to compensate his lack of friends with followers."

He paused for a moment, as if remembering something, before continuing. "In the beginning his goals seemed innocent enough. He wanted to separate wizards and muggles completely and promoted equality for all wizards and all kinds of magic... The type of things expected for someone with his background. Although he was exceptionally talented even back then, making people believe he actually had a chance at accomplishing it. And while many of his pure-blood followers didn't believe it was a good idea to give muggleborns the same treatment as them, most of those had some magic or another that wasn't exactly known for being innocent so they wanted to be able to use that freely. It was an easy way to gain supporters, really, although I think back then he really believed in those goals."

Harry frowned. Actually, this equality didn't sounds half bad, how the hell had that morphed into 'Dark Magic is the best let's kill all muggles and muggleborns'?

But Moody wasn't finished yet.

"He held on to this goals until shortly after he had finished school. I remember how he even came back once to apply for a teaching post, but Dumbledore - who was headmaster by then and already distrustful of him - did not want him there... After that Riddle vanished for a few years and when he came back he was already calling himself Voldemort. Most people who knew him before in the end thought he had been deceiving them and was finally showing his true colours now, but I think he went crazy somewhere on the way. I know a lot about deceiving people but Riddle had been serious in the beginning. Still, whatever the reasons, since those days he has been what everyone knows of him."

Harry thought about that. So... it might in fact be true that creating the Horcruxes had driven him mad? Although he had already had the diary in his sixth year, so it didn't necessarily have to be connected... But if even Moody thought so...?

"Do you think he could become sane again?" Harry knew the question must seem ridiculous, but he couldn't help wondering what Moody's opinion of that was.

The man scrunched up his face, as if in thought.

"Taking Dumbledore's 'Everyone deserves a second chance' philosophy to heart, are you?", he grumbled, but answered anyway, thankfully. "Well, the possibility is there, of course, you should never think something is impossible, otherwise it will one day come back to bite you. Always stay vigilant. But also don't think that you can be the one to change him, that will just lead to disappointment and your death, probably. So if he tries to kill you, don't argue with him, run. Don't try playing the hero and get killed. Understood?"

Harry nodded quickly. He knew Moody didn't know that he had already met with Voldemort and that right now, there actually seemed to be not as much killing involved, although Harry had no idea why, but still... Not that this meant he would just go up to him and trust him with anything, so he would still keep to Moody's advice. Should Voldemort decide to try and kill him again, he definitely needed to run. He wasn't even close to being prepared enough for having chances to win an actual fight.

"Good. And now, off you go, I have another class after this and need to prepare some new ways to circumvent their protections as they're seventh years."

"Of course. Thank you, sir."

"Knowing one's enemy is essential, so you're welcome. But now leave."

Harry nodded, before quickly leaving the office, breathing out a sigh of relief as he closed the door behind himself.

Well, this had gone better than he had feared, at least.

ooo

After talking to Shiva about what he had heard they both decided that, while it was interesting information to say the least, they would not yet act upon it. After all, even if all of this was true, the chance of it being a trick were still there and besides, they really had no reason to contact Voldemort, so Harry pushed it to the back of his mind for the time being and focussed on school...

On Monday there was another announcement from Dumbledore, surprising a lot of students as he was saying that Snape was, in fact, resigning. Nobody quite believed it but it had to be true, for the headmaster already continued, saying that Moody would stay as an intermediate teacher until he had found a replacement for Snape, causing quite a few people to groan.

Honestly, while Snape had never been very popular, Moody was downright horrible as a Potions teacher. He only assigned them the simplest of potions and still nobody ever managed to successfully finish them! There were even quite a few people that were wishing Snape back, and while most of them were, of course, Slytherins, certainly not all of them were. It was giving Harry almost a bad conscience, as he had been responsible for sending Snape to St. Mungos in the first place... But nothing could be done for the moment, so except for Hermione complaining at times that this was not fitting preparation for their O.W.L.s there was not much going on.

Professor Pyrites had inspected a few of Harry's classes, but true to his words he was mostly keeping in the background, only asking the student's opinion after the class was over or at times during the practical assignments.

Regarding their private lessons, Harry had in the end accepted the offer of learning Occlumency the fast way, which meant Professor Pyrites was now actively casting the Legilimens spell on him, although he always cast a Secrecy Ward around them and most of the time tried to keep to innocent memories while Harry did his best to keep him out. It was exhausting, but he knew that he was getting better, growing accustomed to the feeling of somebody else trying to invade his mind and finding it easier to drive that person out as long as they did not power up their spell a lot.

Still, he preferred that very much over the potential alternative of having somebody who was out do discover his secrets getting everything without him being able to defend himself against it.

ooo

Because of that he was in a rather good mood when he went to his third lesson of active Occlumency training on the first of February. Just yesterday Dumbledore had finally found a replacement for Snape too - an older man called Professor Slughorn, who would not only take over the Potions class but also the position as Head of House Slytherin - so today's Potions lesson would hopefully not be the hell he had begun to dread.

He knocked happily on Professor Pyrites' door as he always did, but the "Enter." that followed was not the usual chipper one, but in fact sounding rather resigned.

Frowning a little he opened the door and stepped in, just to freeze where he stood when he saw that Professor Pyrites wasn't alone.

Next to him stood none other than Dumbledore, looking thoroughly disappointed.

They were busted. Crap.

"Harry," Dumbledore said, as if it deeply pained him. "What are you doing here?"

Harry just looked at Professor Pyrites, but it was obvious that he couldn't make up a convincing lie quick enough. His teacher nodded very lightly.

He sighed. "I... came here to take a private lesson from Professor Pyrites," he said quietly, mentally cursing whatever had betrayed them. Judging from the way Professor Pyrites looked it hadn't been him, at least not voluntarily, and really, that would not have made any sense anyway. After all, he could have just told Harry if he had wanted the lessons to stop.

"But Harry, surely you realize that private lessons need to be approved by the headmaster before they are taken...?", Dumbledore asked.

"That would be my fault," Professor Pyrites interjected calmly. "I did not tell him that the lessons I offered were not authorized by you."

"But why did you feel the need to do so? Surely you realize that I cannot condone having a teacher offer private lessons to one student but not to all the others as well?"

"Of course. I just thought he might need them more urgently, with what I have heard about his adventures as of now... I know this is not an excuse, but my reasoning."

Dumbledore looked at the teacher now.

"What did you teach him, if I may ask?"

Professor Pyrites shrugged. "Nothing much. The lessons have not been going on for long. We were mostly working on his dodging skills."

Harry tried hard not to look surprised at that - not that Dumbledore would have noticed as he was fixated on the teacher, but still. His teacher was actually lying to the headmaster? Well, not really lying as to mostly omitting information, but still... That was quite surprising.

When Dumbledore looked at him for confirmation he had brought his face back under control again, nodding once he saw Dumbledore's eyes on him. The man still didn't look into his eyes, but that was all the better, really.

"Very well," Dumbledore said after a moment of silence. "This one time I will let it go, but under the premise that you will both not try such a thing again. Aquila, if you want to tutor a student privately in the future, please consult me beforehand. And Harry... I can understand that you must feel frustrated, but I assure you that I am not doing this to be mean. I just want the best for you. How about you use your new found free time to hone your Quidditch skills a little? I believe there will be a match against Hufflepuff in a month. Or you could spend some time with your friends, I am sure Mister Weasley and Miss Granger would love to see more of you after coming back from their prefect duties."

"But... what about Voldemort?", he asked, ignoring the slight flinch of Professor Pyrites. He couldn't believe Dumbledore was just telling him to basically 'go and enjoy his life' while at the same time they both knew that Voldemort was out there... targeting him, for all Dumbledore knew!

"Now, while the man is certainly a threat you are perfectly safe at Hogwarts. As you are with your relatives. You know that too, don't you? So do not worry, everything will work out in the end."

"Yes sir...", Harry mumbled quietly, trying his best to not let the anger show that was slowly starting to course through him, instead focussing on sounding as dejected as he was feeling.

"Good. Then off you go."

It was said almost merrily and Harry just muttered a quiet goodbye before leaving the room. He hurried away from it once the door was closed and to the only place where he could calm down now: The Room of Requirement.

He was slightly out of breath when he arrived, as he had run the whole way, but when the door appeared in front of him he was unbelievably relieved.

He quickly entered the room and was glad that besides his usual comfy room this time there was a larger area behind it that held a few training dummies. Some were straw, some wood and some metal, so he had a variety to work with. Quickly calling his wand into his hand - he had long since gotten used to his wand holster, so it was like a second nature to him to catch it as it shot out - he began taking out his anger on the innocent dummies. He cast mostly destructive curses, raging from Diffindo to Reducto - though firmly on the light or neutral side of the spell range - and after a good fifteen minutes of casting and seeing all the mutilated dummies he felt much better for the moment, though still pretty angry. He sat down into one of the comfy chairs by the fire and Shiva slid out from under his robes.

"Alright, what was going on? I could smell the headmaster inside of Pyrites' office... Did he caught you?", she asked, coming straight to the point. He liked that about her, at least they did not need to have pointless discussions.

"I don't get how he managed it, but yes... And the bastard even forbid me of ever training with Pyrites again! Damn it, how am I supposed to get stronger if he forbids any kind of training? He just said that I would be safe at the Dursley's and of course 'perfectly safe at Hogwarts'." He made air quotes around the last part because honestly, the worst things that had ever happened to him had happened in Hogwarts. Almost being killed by Voldemort? Almost being killed by a Basilisk? An Acromantula? A werewolf? Kidnapped by Voldemort himself? That was certainly not what he considered 'perfectly safe'.

"Really?", Shiva hissed angrily, oblivious to his internal thoughts. "He thinks sending you back to those humans is the best course of action? Another summer without any possibility of magical training or education in general?"

"Exactly! Although, since I am officially emancipated now, I think I could even use magic without any problems..." The possibilities of being able to cast magic near the Dursleys sounded pretty funny, but he was still sure he preferred not staying with them at all. He would need to see if that was possible. Shiva meanwhile still wasn't satisfied with that.

"But he does not know that you know, since he did not tell you when he had the chance! Honestly, sometimes I wonder if he even wants you to survive all of your meetings with Voldemort...!"

Harry frowned. He had thought so too at times, but still, hearing it out loud kind of made the whole thing more creepy...

"But honestly, what reason would he have to hope I won't survive?"

"That I do not know... Maybe he doesn't want to share the fame of defeating a Dark Lord and hopes you and Voldemort kill each other?"

Harry blinked. "No... honestly, I don't think he would be that evil, really. Maybe if there is something else he is not telling me besides that prophecy... Some reason why he thought me being dead was better for everyone..."

He grimaced. He really hoped he was imagining things... But the way he had been treated today...

How was he supposed to act if Voldemort ever gave up on his weird quest to make peace with him and attacked outright again? Harry wasn't sure if he would survive that. Hell, he had survived up until now only because he seemed to have a huge amount of luck and lucky coincidences surrounding him... And that wouldn't hold forever of that he was sure. So if he wanted to survive this brewing war he needed to change his tactics, obviously.

"Shiva...", he finally hissed after a moment of quiet. "I think we need to send a letter..."


Well, that escalated quickly... This chapter was not originally intended to be this long, but in the end, it just happened... I don't think the next one will be just as long, but in the end, I am mostly writing as it comes, so you never know. ;)

But disregarding the length of this chapter I wanted to say something else: I'm positively surprised that so many people voiced their opinion on my two questions from last chapter, and I thank all of you for that, it was not only highly motivating to read, it also gave me quite a bit to think about. (More suggestions, opinions and arguments are still welcome, by the way.)
Regarding the Romance Genre, I will probably leave it for now, since in the end, there will be romance... And we are actually nearing a rather crucial turning point in the story for the relationship between Harry and Tom to get away from hate... Let's see how that will work out though.

Also, regarding the asexual topic: I haven't decided for sure yet, since this will still be way off, but both sides had interesting arguments, so the decision is pretty difficult. I just hope that no matter the outcome people will not turn away this story simply because a character does not have the desired sexual orientation... But I will stay optimistic for the time being, after all, you reviewers have been mostly (if not completely as I cannot remember something different right now) polite, so whatever will be said hopefully will be done in a civil matter. :)

Anyway, the chapter is long enough as it is, so I hope you liked it and next chapter... Well, it will most certainly feature a young man that definitely had not enough screentime as of now... Wait and see. ;)

Regards, Violet-san