Book of Shadows
Chapter 20 – Little win, little loss
…
"Wow! This is a lot more people than I was expecting."
The group that grinned back at him consisted of a very large chunk of Gryffindor, all his own cohort plus the Quidditch team, all the first and second years, most of the third and fourth, and a smattering of the older years he didn't well recognize.
And this was just the largest chunk. Susan, she who instigated the whole thing, had brough a fair number of her own cohort along, and somehow, because he knew Luna hadn't told them, a bunch of extra Ravenclaws.
Slytherin, to no one's surprise, was not represented, yet.
"Quite the crowd you've pulled," said a smirking Tonks.
"Yeah. Hope this works out."
Marching to the center of the room he called for attention, silence falling over the room.
"Right, so, uh, thank you all for coming. It took some work to put this all together. You can thank Susan there for getting the ball rolling."
The bouncy Hufflepuff went bright red when all eyes turned to her. Harry just grinned.
"I think we can all agree, due to recent events, learning to protect ourselves has become more important than ever. And, since the things we have to protect ourselves from are not part of the Hogwarts curriculum, we've had to get a bit creative.
"For example. I'm sure most of you saw that little spell I was using when the shadow specters invaded the great hall."
There was a round of chuckles at his reference to the 'little spell'.
"I wasn't aware lightning bolts were a little spell," someone shouted.
"Depends who you ask."
A brief round of laughter.
"Anyway, I will be demonstrating this spell, with the help of Auror Shacklebolt," pause for applause, "but, before I do, I need to make something very clear. There is a reason this spell is not part of the curriculum while the fire spell and water spell are. It is very advanced, and very dangerous. The first time I tried to use this spell I held it for about two seconds before it backfired and knocked me out. If Ron hadn't been there, I would have lay on the floor all night, sparking."
He let this sink in a few moments before continuing.
"That said, I will not be teaching this to any of the younger students, and don't groan at me. The book was absolutely clear, screw this up bad enough and you can kill yourself. This is not a joke."
"They why can you do it?"
The question came from a Ravenclaw he didn't recognize, but he'd been expecting it, "Firstly, I was dumb enough to try. Secondly, thanks to our former 'Professor' Lupin," pause for applause, "I have some experience with advanced magic. Those who were here a couple years ago will remember the dementors. Perhaps you remember the rumors of how much they affected me."
A few people looked quite embarrassed at the mention, likely they'd been among those laughing at the time.
"Professor Lupin offered to teach me an advance charm, called the Patronus, useful for driving off Lethifolds, and, Dementors. I attribute most of my success to his tutelage."
Remus looked abashed at the raucous round of applause he received, "I think your being too humble Harry."
"No such thing. Now, I know the Grimoire improvement books have been going around, who has not yet learned the shield charm?"
Far too many hands went up.
"I see. Well that's fine, we were planning to teach the little ones that spell anyway. With that said, Auror Shacklebolt, you've got a good shield, don't you?"
"Hasn't failed me yet," the large black man said, stepping up, wand at the ready.
"Good, cause if something goes wrong this is a lot of witnesses."
That set the tone for the demonstration, as Harry squared up with Shacklebolt and everyone watched with bated breath. The fish took the bait, and everyone jumped when lightning flew from Harry's wand and bounced of the auror's shield.
"And there you are. The shield spell is only good for deflecting magical attacks and does nothing with physical objects so keep that in mind. Now, lets break into groups and everyone can try this out."
The number of people who could perform the shield charm were far outnumbered by those who couldn't. Of all the first years there was only one that could, and he quickly became very popular.
There was no intention of teaching the lightning spell that night so Harry was glad when everyone threw themselves so wholeheartedly into the shield charm. The two auror's proved passable teachers and everyone was eager to hear what the best defense professor in the past five years had to say.
Things were in full swing and going well when the inevitable happened.
The perfectly normal door was blasted to pieces and Dolores Umbridge stomped in with her bully squad right behind her. She searched the room, quickly finding what she was looking for.
"So Mr. Potter, thought you could get away with it did you?"
"Get away with what?"
The toad like woman glared, "Don't play dumb with me boy."
"I'm not playing anything. Exactly what am I getting away with?"
"You know perfectly well…"
"I'm afraid I don't. If you think I've done something wrong, you'll have to tell me what it is because I really can't think of any rules I've broken."
His tone was even, a bit rushed but perfectly calm. The ministers lackey scowled the harder.
"I'm sure I made very clear that student organized meetings of more than three people were strictly prohibited without prior permission."
"Yes."
"Yes? Then you understand what you've done wrong."
"No."
He kept his face blank as hers cycled through several ugly colors, reminiscent of Uncle Vernon when he was in a particularly foul temper.
"This meeting you've organized…"
"I didn't organize this."
She sputtered angrily at being interrupted, "This meeting you…"
"I didn't organize this," he repeated.
"Then who did?"
"We did."
Umbridge turned her glare to the speaker and found herself glaring, not at some easily cowed teenager, but a full grown and not at all easily intimidated adult. Her composure failed momentarily, and she took a reflexive step back.
"Who are you?"
"Kingsley Shacklebolt, auror," he said. "Ministry sent auror Tonks and myself to assist with the situation. We've been here for several weeks Madam."
Several weeks in which Umbridge had hardly left her office. Harry stood back, fighting the grin that threatened to give away the game as Kingsley did what Harry would never have been able to do; completely shut down every objection the vile toad could make.
"Did you see the look on her face? Cor! Priceless," Ron crowed later that night as they headed back to Gryffindor.
"I especially liked that weird color her face turned when he mentioned that wall scroll that attacked him."
"And then Tonks jumped in with the cat, 'It's head was nothing but teeth'; Blimey! Bloody brilliant!"
Between the two aurors they had been able to cut the woman off at the knees, figuratively speaking. She couldn't bully them like she could the teachers, students, and even Dumbledore to a degree. They were ministry too, and Shack had a direct line to Amelia Bones, the Director of Magical Law Enforcement.
Harry didn't fully understand all the political maneuvering involved but it had been enough to put a stop to her there and then, though Harry had little doubt she'd be back. So long as the aurors were involved in this he'd be fine, but she had time, she could afford to wait, wait for him to do something.
Understanding her well enough to have pulled this off meant he understood it was only temporary, but he'd take it.
"I think everyone did pretty well, don't you? Especially the first years, I was pleasantly surprised."
"It's not a hard spell once you get the hang of it. Lockhart was just useless."
"Yeah he was."
"Too bad about Hermione."
"She'll be fine. We did tell her to be careful."
Hermione had been exhausted before she arrived, it hadn't taken much to drain the little she had left. Lupin had carried her to the hospital wing and returned shortly after assuring them it was nothing to worry about and Madam Pomphrey had everything well in hand.
"She'd work herself to death if we weren't there to stop her."
It was hard to disagree with his ginger friend, so he just kept walking, around the corner when he came to a sudden halt, going for his wand.
"Harry, why'd you…" his words failed when he saw it, the gangly frog like body standing over a prone form, clinging to a book the gangly frog was suckling on.
"Hey!" was the only warning it got before the banisher hit him, knocking the Spell eater off his victim.
The toady beast glared at them and their wands, hopping to his feet and waiting. They weren't stupid though, and the hall was lined with things. Telekinetic spells like levitation were a prime part of the charms curriculum and they put them to use, taking up anything nearby and hurling it at the magical vore.
He dodged with the sort of agility you'd expect from a frog man but didn't stick around to do it for long. He understood, they had him figured out and he wasn't going to get the drop on them now.
Leaping to the ceiling he bounded away, two vicious glares burning holes in his buttocks.
"We need to catch that guy," said Ron.
"First we have to figure a way 'to' catch that guy."
"Wouldn't your chain spell work?"
"Maybe. We'd have get him to stand still long enough for me to use it though."
Leaving the spell eater for later, they went to examine his victim.
"She's still breathing," Harry said.
"Was he sucking on her book?" the disgust in his tone fully shared by his friend.
"That can't be good. Come on, grab the other end. Let's get her to the hospital wing."
So, while the two young men carried the unfortunate Hufflepuff to the hospital wing, the spell eater went in search of its next victim. And it was not alone, as another stalked the halls more menacing, more terrible than the froggy magic eater could ever hope to be.