A/N: Chapter 34 Review Responses are available in my forums. Thank you for reading!
Chapter Thirty-Five: Violence Inherent in the System
Harry had Defense Against the Dark Arts the day after the late night mirror conference, and shuffled in with the rest of the Fifth Year Gryffindors. As always seemed to be the case, they were paired with Slytherin. Harry looked at the Snakes, unconsciously searching for Malfoy. It seemed strange he hadn't seen the boy on the train, since the annual taunts were something of a tradition.
When he saw him, he felt a tinge of…well, not intimidation, but certainly surprise. Malfoy had grown taller than Harry, and though he was thin he had obviously entered his magical maturity as well as puberty. He sat in front of his two thugs, but behind Daphne Greengrass, who was speaking to him in a low, urgent voice. Both of them happened to look across the room at Harry as if speaking of him. Daphne frowned, but Malfoy looked away with a casual air that made Harry angry. Which, he realized a moment later, was the point.
Snape blew into the room like a vortex, the door slamming shut behind him, until he stepped behind the podium. His eyes immediately latched onto Harry's, and just as quickly Harry felt a probe against his much-strengthened Occlumency shields.
"You know who I am," he said. "This is Fifth Year Defence Against the Dark Arts. This is your O.W.L. year, and so we will be working especially hard to make up for the past four years of incompetence. Potter!"
Harry was proud of the fact he did not jump. "Yes, Professor?"
"What is the name of the kinetic/magical shield?"
Harry's mind accelerated as he considered the hatred behind the question. He knew the answer, but only because he'd read Auror-level books. There was no way a student could have known the answer to that unless they had extra-curricular training. It was just like his very first day of potions as a First Year.
Harry could do it again, even if he hated it. "I don't know, Professor. Where in the book would that be?"
"Book?" Snape asked with delight. "Why would you need a book, Potter? Aren't you the prodigy of DADA? Wasn't it you who helped defeat servants of the Dark Lord after the Quidditch Championship summer before last? Wasn't it you who supposed faced the Dark Lord and somehow lived after the tournament?"
The rest of the class stared in shock at the malice with which Snape asked impossible questions. Harry refused to look away from the Professor. "Yes, it was."
"Then answer the question!"
"I do not know, Professor."
"Pathetic," Snape snarled. "Either you are lying, or grossly ignorant. Either way, twenty points from Gryffindor for your abysmal behavior. Now, everyone open your books to chapter one. We will begin with basic protective spells and charms."
Harry ground his teeth and hunkered down to his book, while behind him he heard Hermione muttering in outrage. Ron looked sad and just shrugged as if to say, What can you do?
~~Unspeakable~~
~~Unspeakable~~
Harry, Ginny and Luna waited one long, horrid week before they resolved their training space problem. Or rather, Luna resolved it. Her father smuggled her an invisibility cloak in the lining of a box of old Quibbler issues that was not quite as good or large as Harry's, but which gave her added security when slipping out of the Ravenclaw tower after curfew.
Armed with the Marauder's Map and his own cloak, Harry and Ginny clung together as they made their own way to the seventh floor where Luna's brief note told them to meet. The map told him that Luna was there when they arrived, even if he could not see her. Although it was a Saturday, the curfew remained, so the halls were otherwise empty.
"What's on the ceiling of your bedroom?" Harry whispered into the air.
"What I wish more than anything," came the reply whispered reply. They felt her brush against them. "The portraits report everything to Dumbledore, but they cannot actually see the entrance. So as long as we stay hidden and quiet, we should be safe."
"What entrance?" Harry asked.
"You walk in front of the tapestry of Barnabas and his trolls three times and think about what you need," she said. They heard the scuff of her shoes as she paced before the tapestry, and a moment later a door formed right out of the wall beside the tapestry.
They went inside to find a near replica of the training course at the Rookery, although the corner with the large daybed was a new addition. Once inside, Luna pulled off her cloak, and Harry did the same. Both stared at their blonde friend in surprise, and then Ginny snickered.
Luna was dressed in white cotton pajamas decorated with Winnie the Poo characters. "Is something wrong?" she asked, with a tilted head.
"Your jammies are so cute!" Ginny gushed.
"Why, thank you." Luna's cheeks flushed brightly as she walked over and collapsed on the daybed. "I slept half the day with a new potion," the blonde said. "My roommates tried to prank me because of sleeping most of the day, but they didn't realize I'd warded my bed. They know I'm on a potion, though. Professor Flitwick has asked me to meet with him tomorrow to discuss my 'behavior issues.'"
"What happened?" Harry asked.
Luna looked up with a mild frown that on her might have been sobbing despair. "This summer father walked in on me while masturbating, and seemed upset for some reason. So now my mind healer has placed me on a new potion to lower my libido."
By this point in their relationship, Ginny didn't even blush. Instead, she asked, "Who would want to make a potion to lower a woman's libido?"
"No one. Evidently the elderly potions master was trying to make a potion to increase his wife's sex drive. It did not work as he wanted." She sighed tragically. "The last potion dose started to wear off yesterday, and last night I was reading when I started to think about you two. It was such a wonderful daydream. Cho caught me and reported me to Flitwick for lewd behavior. I will have a detention, I'm sure, and that will interfere with our training."
They finally got to why she was upset—not that Cho Chang caught Luna openly masturbating in the Ravenclaw common room—but that the consequence could interfere with training.
It took ten minutes to calm Luna down, but once they accomplished that they were able to go through the training maintenance regimen Adonis had developed for them when they could not do any new training. It was two solid hours of work and left all three of them, since Luna went through as much as her power allowed, sweaty and tired.
After they finished the last of their program, Harry grew nervous when the far corner of the spacious room slowly morphed into a broad, open shower. "You're joking," he muttered.
"Why?" Luna asked as she started to undo her pajamas.
Harry stopped her gently. "Luna, we're not ready for that. We…you're a part of what we have, yes. But that also means you have to wait too."
"Oh poo," the thin blonde muttered. "So, no showering together?"
"Not for a long time," Ginny said, though there was a strange gleam in her eyes, as if she were envisioning it.
Harry certainly was.
~~Unspeakable~~
~~Unspeakable~~
School buckled down to an unusually somber routine. Though Harry could not put his finger on it precisely, things felt strange. For one thing, the Slytherins walked around the halls of the castle speaking loudly, with a confidence that Harry at first attributed to the change in Professor Snape's position. However, they made a point of staring at him whenever he walked by that made his skin crawl.
Perhaps because of the Slytherin's confidence, the rest of the school seemed more jittery than normal. Harry and Ginny were pleased that Susan Bones' classmates seemed a little more accepting around her this year, but she still joined them during breakfast or lunch and looked nervous.
"The whole place feels like it's about to explode," she complained during the second week of classes.
And that was just it—the whole castle felt like a tinder box about to ignite. Harry just hoped it was not he or Ginny who provided the spark.
~~Unspeakable~~
~~Unspeakable~~
"Potter!" an unfamiliar voice hissed at Harry as he tumbled out of the Gryffindor common room a week after Hermione's birthday party. Ginny had already left for her morning class, while Harry was just rushing out to get breakfast.
He spun until he found the voice. He saw a student in Slytherin robes standing slightly behind a statue of Edelbert the Erudite who once put down a goblin invasion with the inspirational speech he gave to his own men. The speech was so long and boring the Goblins simply left the field of battle while his own men fell asleep.
With a flick of his wand Harry cast a detection spell, but did not find anyone else there. "Who're…Greengrass?"
He had never spoken to Daphne Greengrass in his life—in fact to his knowledge no Gryffindor had ever exchanged words with the Slytherin beauty. But there she was, motioning for him to hush. "Don't go to DADA today," she said quickly.
"Why not?"
"Just…don't," she said.
"Not good enough," Harry said firmly. "What's going on?"
"Professor Snape had everyone in Fifth Year practicing curses last night. He said they're going to be for you. He taught some really dark stuff, Potter. If you know what's good for you, you'll miss class today. Something's changed. Snape said you're fair game."
"Why are you telling me?"
"So I won't have to get sent to Azkaban for using a dark curse without also making a target of myself in my house, why do you think?" She said the last as if it was the most obvious statement in the world, and that Harry was a complete idiot for not thinking of it himself.
Harry, though, shook his head. "If he's got it in for me, skipping one class will just delay the inevitable. But don't worry; if I survive I'll be sure to tell the Aurors you tried to cover all your bases."
He left the fuming Slytherin by the statue and walked to class, taking deep breaths to calm himself. He beat Daphne into the room by a few moments only—he noticed she sat by Malfoy and Parkinson with a cold expression. Snape came in a split second later and slammed the door behind him. Harry could not miss the hungry gleam in the man's eyes.
"Potter," Snape called as soon as he reached the head of the room. "Stand there, against the wall."
Harry ignored the snickering from the Slytherins and did as he was told. Snape strolled to the center of the room. "Since Mr. Potter is so very accomplished in Defence, he will demonstrate the Protego shield for the class. Everyone form a line, single-file."
Because of their position to Snape, the first ones in line were the Slytherins. "You are to cast a jinx at Potter," Snape said, drawling. "Potter, if you move I shall take 100 points from Gryffindor. You are to shield only. Begin."
Daphne Greengrass was first. She glared at him but dared not make any sign of their previous conversation. Without hesitation, and to the gasping horror of the other Gryffindors, she cast not a jinx, but a full-on blasting curse that only a seventh year should have known. Harry's brows furrowed angrily as he quietly pronounced the shield charm and blocked the curse cold. The blonde Slytherin stared at Harry in surprise, having expected her curse to break his shield.
"Next," Snape said, completely disregarding the blatant violation of his orders and the sheer danger of the curse his student cast.
Some of the Slytherins cast minor hexes—such as the Hair Loss Hex. Others cast curses designed to cause pain, such as the Conjunctivitis Curse or the Gouging Spell, which when used against another was classified as a curse as well.
Harry stood perfectly still, his face set like granite, and blocked each and every one. Nearby, Snape stood with an intent stillness, his face as expressionless as Harry's, while those who sat down after casting grew steadily more nervous as it became apparent that Snape intended every student in Slytherin to curse Harry.
The last Slytherin stood before Harry with an angry smirk—it was Malfoy, of course. He slowly pointed his wand at Harry and shouted, "Aesuomk'ak Aep T'akh."
Harry should not have known what the pronunciation for the entrails-expelling curse was as a fifth year, but because of his training he did. He knew it was a usually a lethal curse, and he knew for a fact that the standard Protego charm could not stop it. Moreover, Draco aimed the curse perfectly, so it would be impossible for Harry to avoid it without moving.
"Aegis," Harry called. The silver, mirror-like shield snapped into place before him and reflected the deadly spell not back at Malfoy, but because of its intentional angling, right at Snape. The former Potion's Master's eyes widened in alarm as he ducked out of the way of the black magic, which slammed into the wall behind him and gouged out a speck of dust.
Malfoy stood dumbfounded that anyone in class could have blocked such a spell. "Your turn, Malfoy," Harry said. "Raise your shield."
"Potter!" Snape shouted in warning.
Harry loudly called "Stupefy!" so there would be no doubt what spell he cast. Malfoy raised a perfect Protego spell, as Harry had no doubt he would, which is why he circled the tip of his wand when he cast. It was one of the many, many tricks Adonis showed him over his last three years of training. The result was a stunning spell that formed a piercing tip of almost solid magic that penetrated Draco's spell enough to allow the rest of the magic to flow through. To outsiders it appeared Harry's simple stunner broke Draco's shield and sent him somersaulting through the air.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Snape shouted.
"Yes, sir," Harry said with a tight grin.
Snape stomped across the space until he stood an inch from Potter. "Do you really think your performance was that impressive?" he growled.
"Do you really think you can allow your pet Death Eaters to hurl restricted spells at me and not have my guardians or the DMLE find out about it?" Harry countered. "I'll have you and your entire house in Azkaban for this, and your name plastered across every publication in the wizarding world.
"The Headmaster's office, now!" Snape sputtered. "Class dismissed. Get out!"
Harry had time enough to see Hermione's outraged expression and Ron's slightly less angry but still concerned look, before he allowed the taller Snape to herd him out of the room and into the hallway. However, Harry walked as quickly as he could without running, forcing Snape to keep up with him rather than allowing the other man to herd him.
Finally they reached the headmaster's office and headed up. Dumbledore was there, as always, sitting serenely behind his desk as if he had spent his whole life waiting for this day. "Ahh, Harry, Severus, what can I do for the two of you today?"
"Mr. Potter saw fit to challenge me in class; he hexed another student without provocation; and then had the gall to threaten me with the DMLE!"
"Well, Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself?" Dumbledore said.
"I'm guilty, better expel me," Harry said with forced calm. "In fact, I'm also feeling an urge to assault a professor, so add that to the mix. You might actually have to have Aurors come and arrest me for assault."
Snape snorted. "Always acting the…aaarrrgggh!"
Before the Potions Master started his fourth word, Harry dropped to a kneeling position and swung back his elbow with as much non-magical force as he could muster, right into Snape's groin. He then reached up, grabbed Snape by his greasy hair, and flipped him over his shoulder.
The man doubled over, clutching his crotch and groaning in agony. Harry straightened and was not surprised to see Dumbledore unmoved, watching with that damnable twinkle in his eyes. "That's for teaching Malfoy the entrails-expelling curse, you greasy-haired bastard." He stood and wiped his hands on his pants, while grinning angrily at Dumbledore. "Oops, looks like I assaulted a professor. Better expel me for sure, now."
"Feel better, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked.
"I don't know, I'm feeling a few homicidal tendencies coming on too."
Between Snape's groans, Dumbledore said, "Severus, please go see Madame Pomfrey for a pain potion if you would. It's been long time since Mr. Potter and I had a talk."
"Albus, he struck me right in front of you!" Snape virtually screamed.
"And your entire house shot illegal curses at me in your class, including some that would undoubtedly include jail time," Harry said. "I'm tired of playing your games. If you're going to honestly believe I don't know what the hell an entrails-expelling curse is then you're as big an idiot as Sirius believed." He turned to Dumbledore. "And if you think I or others can't get word out that you allowed Snape to have his entire house toss dark curses at me, then you, Sir, have finally fallen into your dotage."
The serene smile broke somewhat. "Severus, leave us," Dumbledore said in an unusually commanding tone. Grimacing with rage and pain, Snape picked himself off the ground and left the room, walking with decided care.
"So it comes to this," Dumbledore said. "Tell me, Mr. Potter, do you have a headache?"
Harry fought with all his will not to tremble as he faced this twisted, but admittedly powerful wizard. "You know I do. You're feeling it too."
"Yes, though I admit I'm surprised. Originally, I was going to plan our mutual deaths so that neither one of us would have to suffer through the sheer tedium of clashing magical auras. Unfortunately, your friends in the Department of Mysteries decided they knew better than the most powerful wizard alive how to raise a Sport."
Harry stared incredulously at the man. "Raise me? You…you…bloody, arrogant git! You gave me to Muggles who hated me! They beat me and treated me like a fucking animal! Anyone with half a brain knows more than you how to raise a Sport!" He caught himself when he realized he was screaming, having lost all self-control. It took a deep breath and an exercise in Occlumency to gain even a semblance of his normal tone. "One more year, headmaster. You keep doing everything in your power to make me hate you, and I just can't understand why. What do you have to gain from my hating you? Why do you lavish as much attention on Malfoy as me? Why does it seem like you care more about evil than you do light?"
He was expecting Dumbledore to slam his hands on his desk and rise up and shout; he was at least expecting the headmaster to flare his aura in a threatening manner. Instead, Dumbledore simply sat in silence and stared at Harry for the longest time. Finally he leaned forward and said, "Harry, do you really think Draco's life is any less important than yours?"
Harry blinked, thought it over for a moment, and then said, "Yes, I do. He's the son of a Death Eater, is probably a Death Eater himself, and knowingly cast a lethal curse at me that the shield I was under orders to use could not stop. He tried to murder me today, probably because Snape told him so, but that doesn't matter. He still tried to murder me today. And we both know it was he who Imperiused and assaulted Luna a couple of years ago. So, yes, I do think my life is worth more than his."
"Do you think, Harry, you could murder Draco Malfoy?"
"Murder? No. Kill…" Harry took a deep breath. "We both know I've killed before. We both know I'll have to kill again. It's really easy to die for your cause, Professor. It's even easier to make other people die for your cause. It's offensive to me that you ask that question, when the real question is why you weren't willing to kill Voldemort? Or Grindelwald before him?"
Dumbledore paled, showing an open response for the first time since the conversation began. "How could you…?"
"I have a support structure in place, Professor. I'm no longer the abused, clueless boy I was. I won't pretend I know everything, but it would not be wise to continue to proceed as if I know nothing. So answer me this—why? What could you possibly hope to gain by making me and those behind me your enemies? Sports aren't impervious—they've been killed before. And frankly, professor, I think my life is worth more than yours as well. And some very, very powerful people agree with me."
Very quietly, in a voice just above a whisper, Dumbledore said, "I owe you no explanation. I did what I must."
Harry cocked his head to one side, studying the stony face of a man he once worshipped as a god. "Then I owe you the same, and I will also do what I must. The next time Snape intentionally puts me in harm's way, I will kill him. The next time Malfoy uses a lethal curse on me or mine, I will make him pay. I will kill every child of every Death Eater in this school if it comes down to a choice between them or my people, and I suspect, deep down, you know I will. I won't enjoy it—Merlin knows that. But I'll do it. Because unlike others, I have the courage to truly do what it takes to win."
Harry stood and left the office, waiting for Dumbledore to call him. He barely made it to the door when he heard a voice said, "Detention, Mr. Potter. See Professor McGonagall at 8 p.m."
At least, Harry thought, he'd had the sense to send him to McGonagall and not Snape. "Very well, Professor."
With that, the door opened and Harry left the room.
Once he left the headmaster's tower, he saw it was fast approaching lunch. Though his stomach was in knots over a conversation that went much different than he thought it would, he still forced himself to walk straight with his shoulders thrown back. It was the look of confidence, Adonis told him. It was a way of using one's body language to project danger and confidence at the same time. Sometimes, the older man said, the right approach could stop a fight before it even began.
Unfortunately for Harry, by the time he reached the Great Hall, Malfoy was just returning from the Hospital Wing. Harry was walking through the doors, having caught sight of Ginny, Hermione and Ron, when he felt a brush of buzzing in the sub-audible range. No, it wasn't even hearing. He realized it was a similar feeling to the pressure he felt when he was close to Dumbledore. It was the feeling of magic approaching his aura.
"Harry!" he heard Luna's voice warn from his left.
Harry ducked and spun about while bringing his wand up to produce not a full Protego, but a smaller, rounded shield called a Parma barely visible to the naked eye, with which he batted the offensive curse away. He didn't see exactly what the spell was, but he had no doubt it would have hurt.
"You think you're so good, Potter!" Malfoy said, spitting his name. "So brilliant? Boy Who Lived? You sent my dad to Azkaban you half-blooded bastard!"
"Your dad is a filthy Death Eater. He's right where he belongs," Harry snapped back.
"Damn you, Potter!" Malfoy screamed. "Sectumsempra!"
Harry burst forward while throwing up another Aegis shield, this one angled at Crabbe. The larger boy cried out in pain as Malfoy's magic bounced off Harry's shield and shredded into his body like a massive cheese grater. Malfoy and Goyle both looked at their fallen comrade in horror before Harry dropped the shield a moment before grabbing Malfoy's wand-wrist. He spun under the startled Pureblood's arm but continued to hold the wrist, forcing the arm behind the taller boy's back.
With a down-thrust of his elbow, Harry snapped Malfoy's arm with a sickening crack. Before Malfoy could even scream Harry released the broken arm and grabbed the Slytherin's other, snapping it just as quickly. He followed with a leg-sweep that landed Malfoy on the floor and only then did the Slytherin begin screaming in pain.
After the initial moment of shock wore off, Goyle jumped to his friend's defense, only to receive a magic-driven kick to the chest that sent him flying back against the wall, where he slid to the floor and lay still. The whole fight took less than a minute.
Harry surveyed the three fallen boys with a numb feeling before he turned and saw Professor McGonagall and most of the Great Hall staring at him in shock.
"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall said, aghast.
"Bloody 'ell," Ron said around a mouth full of food.
"Can I kick Draco too?" Luna said with a happy hop and a little clap of delight.