The Crystal Council

Chapter 8

Defense Against the Dark Arts

The first years entered the Great Hall and began staring in awe at the wonder around them from the floating candles to the house banners on the walls to the ceiling displaying the cloudy night sky. While the rest of the first years were entranced by the magic around them Hermione turned her eyes to the head table where the rest of the main teachers sat. She knew most of them already Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, and Dumbledore but there were two she didn't recognize one of who was sitting in the Defense against the Dark Arts professor and the other standing behind the woman. Hermione felt her eyes act up as soon as she looked at the woman as if trying to see something that was being hidden and a name popped into her head Valler Valler. Hermione kept her eyes on the woman as something about her seemed draw Hermione's attention and hold it, at least until the group reached the sorting hat. McGonagall began reading out names and the sorting began and soon Hermione heard a name she recognized

"Amelia Benoit!" called McGonagall

Hermione turned and met Amy's eyes and gave her a smile before she walked up to the chair and sat down. McGonagall placed the hat on Amy's head and soon after it yelled out "Gryffindor!" which caused both Hermione and Amy to smile. The sorting continued and soon Hermione heard

"Hermione Granger!"

She took a deep breath and walked up to the chair and the hat was placed on her head.

"Hmm… you are a difficult one so much potential for growth and yet so limited by your own mind." Whispered the hat

"What do you mean by that?" asked Hermione

"You would do well in every house particularly Ravenclaw or perhaps Slytherin" replied the hat

"What?! No not Slytherin. I was sorted into Gryffindor last time why not this time?" asked Hermione

"I thought as much your memories are a jumble and I cannot access some of your memories which has never happened before, regardless you have accomplished much in your time. You managed so much despite the circumstances. However, you still have much to learn, the true history of Hogwarts awaits you and the secrets of this castle await your discovery." Warned the hat

"Wait what do you mean true history? Is there something unknown about the school that no one knows?" asked Hermione

The hat laughed "Oh you have no idea sweet child there is much for you to find here at Hogwarts. I would recommend going to the seventh floor a room there can provide what you need." Advised the hat

"The room of requirement!" exclaimed Hermione

"Yes. The room can help you find what you seek. Now back to the business at hand. Which house will you go into?" asked the hat

"Now you have to decided not to go into Slytherin and I feel as if Hufflepuff is not a possibility either. However, with your mind you could go far in Ravenclaw and with your desire to unite others would fit well into either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor…Hmm." Argued the hat to itself

"Gryffindor." Said the hat aloud

Everyone in the hall was stunned the hat which had always managed to sort an individual quickly had spent almost ten minutes sorting Hermione and instead of yelling her house it had simply spoken it and fallen silent immediately after. McGonagall removed the hat and motioned for Hermione to join her new house. She got up and with all eyes on her made her way towards the Gryffindor table.

"Well so much for staying under the radar." Though Hermione

She found her seat next to Amy who had a big grin on her face and was quite happy that the two of them had been sorted into the same house. The silence reigned for a few more moments until McGonagall cleared her throat and called the next individual to be sorted. Hermione could feel several sets of eyes watching her closely and decided not to meet any of them. The sorting continued but Hermione refused to watch further knowing where the others would be sorted and hoping everyone would forget her before the end of the night. Harry, Ron, and Neville all ended up in Gryffindor with her. The sorting eventually ended, and Dumbledore took his turn at the podium to begin his start of the year speech.

"Greeting and welcome to all our new students! This year at Hogwarts promises to be interesting and as such a few warnings. The normal ones still apply do not wander into the Forbidden Forest and do not swim in the Black Lake, as for the new warnings a particular corridor on the third floor is now off limits to all students and anyone found trespassing with be punished severely. Now then with the warnings out of the way I wish you all the best possible year here at Hogwarts. Please enjoy the Welcoming feast." Spoke Dumbledore

Food appeared on the table and soon all the students were stuffing themselves full of food with conversations filling the air. Hermione still feeling the eyes of some of the teachers on her took her plate and piled it with food and began eating hoping to avoid further attention and talked only with Amy whenever she was not stuffing her face full of food. Soon the feast came to an end and Dumbledore sent the students to their dorms, and as Hermione got up to follow Percy Weasley the Prefect of Gryffindor her eyes met the eyes of one of the teachers. She was one of the younger members of staff appearing to be in her early thirties with pitch black hair and striking silver eyes and wine-red lips. The moment their eyes met Hermione got the same feeling she had felt earlier that day at the train station when the red-haired girl had hugged her a warm tingling sensation throughout her body. The two could not break eyes contact a clearly powerful link between them holding them in place. Hermione felt as if she recognized the woman looking at her and yet she couldn't place were from. When Amy grabbed Hermione's shoulder it broke her out of her trance and pulled her towards the group of first year Gryffindors.

Hermione soon found herself in her dorm room and to her surprise it was only her and Amy in the room with several three beds empty out of the five available. Amy was ecstatic to have the entire dorm for themselves and claimed her bed quickly and Hermione followed suit. However, Amy was too worked up to get any sleep whereas for Hermione it was all she could do to not fall asleep. Amy recognizing this excused herself to go talk to other students in the common room. Hermione changed into her PJs and climbed into bed and fell asleep quickly.

Hermione was running, fast, spells flying past her. Her destination was clear an area on the other side of a battlefield where Voldemort and Harry were battling it out for the future of the magical world. Hermione ran past old friends fighting death eaters. McGonagall and the other teachers battling the older more experienced death eaters, students ganging up to bring down death eaters, and the members of Dumbledore's Army paring off to fight the high-ranking members. Hermione continued to run towards Harry but before he could reach him an individual wearing a gold mask intercepted her holding her at wand point an the two began to duel. Every spell Hermione could think of she cast towards the masked man however, he deflected or blocked each one with ease. The masked man slowly began to approach her while continuing to deflect her spells pushing her back until she tripped and fell. The next moment the golden mask loomed over Hermione wand pointed at her throat and with a green flash and a loud scream, everything went black. Hermione was alone now in pitch black area and she could feel tears running down her face. She tried to move but was unable to due to unseen black chains that held her limbs. Floating directly in front of her was a featureless gold mask which acted like it was studying her or perhaps it was taunting her, she couldn't tell. The mask began to move towards Hermione's face however, before it could affix itself to her face four colored lights blocked the mask's path and surrounding it. One light was red another white, the third was blue, and the fourth was black they began to glow brightly eventually causing the mask to shatter and the chains binding Hermione to dissolve allowing her the freedom to move but the light produced by the four was overwhelming and by the time she was able to see again Hermione found herself in a cave with glowing crystals. Hermione gave a sigh and began following the cave and soon enough it widened into a large, empty cavern with an opening in the ceiling with light pouting down. Hermione felt herself calming down but before she could truly relax a fog began to shroud her vision and felt herself being pulled from her dreams.

Hermione awoke suddenly her eyes snapping open and with the small amount of light filtering through the windows told her it was morning. Hermione stretched waking her body from its rest even as her mind wandered back to the nightmares she had endured. The Battle of Hogwarts was only the beginning and soon after Voldemort took control of the Ministry. IT would only take a year for the Death Eaters to control all magical Britain and two months later Voldemort declared war on the muggle population seeking to enslave as many as possible and kill those that resisted. This gave rise to a underground resistance group made of free magicals and muggles that managed to put up a strong fight against the Death Eaters. The underground managed to merge magic with technology to create powerful new weapons, unfortunately it had been to little too late and in the end, most would flee the country and those that did not, died.

Hermione shook her head. It was too early to be thinking such thoughts. She looked to where her best friend was sleeping to find Amy slowly waking up from her rest. Hermione stood and began to prepare for the first day of classes. The two got dressed and soon headed down to the common room to find Neville waiting for them and the three made their way down to breakfast. During breakfast McGonagall handed out the class schedules for the Gryffindor house. It would seem that the trio would have their two morning classes, Charms and Herbology together but would be split up in their afternoon classes Amy and Neville had potions after lunch and Hermione had Defense Against the Dark Arts. The three finished their meal and headed off to class, Charms and Herbology went just as Hermione expected, boring. Hermione already knew the material by heart and was able to preform to expected standards at least until she walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Hermione was the first to arrive and chose a seat near the front of the class and decided to read one of the books she had pilfered from the orphanage library. Hermione looked up when she heard the door open again and to her surprise saw Harry enter the room and find his way into the chair next to her.

Hey, you must be Hermione. You made quite the impression yesterday." Said Harry as he sat down.

Hermione was a little surprised by Harry's forwardness but took it in stride and responded. "I'm not the only one. You have quite the reputation yourself."

Harry's story in this timeline was a bit different from what Hermione remembered but after reading a bunch of old newspapers she understood that when Voldemort had attacked the Potter home both Lily and James had been prepared. The fight between the three lasted hours and pretty much destroyed the street the lived on and in the end the Potters emerged victorious, but both had been gravely injured. Both Lily and James sent over a year in the intensive care unit at Saint Mungo's and were rumored have been horrendously disfigured. Harry himself had been relatively undamaged suffering only a few cuts and bruises.

Harry let out a sigh "Ya I guess I am…" as he slumped over the desk.

Hermione gave a small smile "You don't like the attention that much, don't you?" she asked

"Nope." He mumbled back

Hermione let out a quiet laugh. "I can understand that. I'm not much for attention myself."

Harry raised his head and gave Hermione a big grin "Glad to see we think alike in that respect. So, are you looking forward to this class? I hear the professor is particularly hard on her students."

"I'm not too worried so far all of my classes have been rather easy." Replied Hermione with a slightly dismissive tone in her voice.

"Oh that sounds like a challenge Ms. Granger. I truly hope you're prepared to back those words of yours up, otherwise your first class with me might be your last." A voice emanated from the office at the front of the classroom.

Harry and Hermione turned to look at were the voice came from and noticed that the woman Hermione had seen at the staff table during the sorting. She was watching her two students from the top of the stairs leading to her office. Hermione and Harry both stared silently at their professor, Harry with a look of terror knowing well what happened to students this professor didn't like. Hermione o the other hand was once again entranced by the silver eyes of her teacher they managed to both hold her attention and make her want to avert her eyes completely, to Hermione the professor's eyes felt wrong as if they did not belong to the person Hermione was looking at. Before either could respond the professor continued

"Regardless it really doesn't matter right now as class is about to begin and I need to unlock the door again, after all it would be unwise for me to allow the rumors to spread further. Time for class!" as she unlocked the classroom door with her wand.

Harry let out a sigh of relief as students from Slytherin and Gryffindor poured into the room. Hermione kept her eyes on the professor and blinked in order to active Viskara's eyes, however when she tried to look at her professor, she could only see a colorful blob moving down the staircase followed by another much darker blob. Hermione blinked again and her eyes returned to normal and the blobs became clear again one was her professor and the other was a man wearing a red turban who looked rather meek. The professor took her place at the head of the class and began speaking,

"Hello, my lovely first-years I am professor Sherry Valler you may call me professor Valler or Ms. Valler. The man behind me is assistant professor Quirinus Quirrell, he's here to learn much like all of you. Now… welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts this class is meant to prepare you for any potential encounters with the darker side of magic including dark wizards and the more dangerous magical creatures you might encounter. My class is split into three parts theoretical, practical, and tactics. You will learn everything about what it means to use magic in combat and hopefully the skills you will gain will save your life in the future. Now for today I will teach you two spells Stupefy and Protego. Can anyone tell me what these spells do?"

Two hands went up as soon as she finished talking, Hermione and Harry's.

"Hmm… Mr. Potter why don't you tell us about the spells." Said professor Valler

"Stupefy is known as the stunning spell the purpose of which is to knock your target unconscious. Protego is the shielding spell which creates an inviable wall to protect you from both spells and physical objects." Answered Harry

"A good answer. Now Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger would both of you join me up here at the front of the class." Requested Professor Valler

Both Harry and Hermione were taken by surprise but after a quick glance at each other and a curt nod of agreement both joined the professor at the front of the classroom. The assistant professor had already cleared the area to allow for two individuals to duel and the room was larger than before as well. Hermione and Harry took positions across from each other and Professor Valler spoke.

"Before I let these two begin their demonstration, I need to explain a few more things. First whenever you duel an opponent you must always show your respect by bowing to your opponent. Second, when a duel is official there is to be no killing of an opponent though accidents have occurred in the past that have led to the death of duelist. Third, students at Hogwarts are never allowed to duel without receiving approval from their head of house or the headmaster himself. Finally, any duel that is granted will take place with both student's heads of house present and will follow all official dueling rules. If any students is found dueling without permission… the punishment will be severe. This is your only warning."

The class was silent.

"Good, Now Mr. Potter will cast Stupefy while Ms. Granger cast Protego. Can anyone tell how we can expect the spells to react based on their power?" asked Professor Valler

No one raised their hand and Valler ignored both Harry and Hermione's raised hands.

"Right, then let me explain. If an attacker's spell is stronger than the defender's, it will break right through. Should the two spells be roughly even in power the attacker's spell will bounce off the push back the defender. If the attacker is weaker the spell will shatter or simply fade upon impact. Now Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger please begin your demonstration." Ordered Professor Valler

Harry and Hermione both turned and bowed and took a ready stance then cast their respective spells.

"Protego" yelled Hermione

"Stupefy" yelled Harry

Hermione was surrounded by her spell but had held back her full power not wanting to draw more attention to herself. Harry had put a good amount of force into the spell, but he too held back worried he could hurt Hermione. Harry's spell crashed into Hermione's and the two spells clashed for moment when Harry's stupefy was deflected into the ceiling though it did no damage once it impacted the stone.

"Well done! The two of you can stand down for now." Said Professor Valler

Hermione and Harry both relaxed their stances and lowered their wands.

"Now with that demonstration over, all of you will pair with the person you are sitting next to and they will be you partner for the rest of the year so get along with them." Spoke Professor Valler

The students all looked at their partners and with the way the class was split Lions worked with Lions and Snakes with Snakes. Harry and Hermione became partners and Hermione couldn't be happier that she had been paired with her old best friend. However, her joy was sort lived due to what Professor Valler would say next.

"Right, now, one partner to the right side of the room the other to the left. Those on the right will cast Stupefy and those on the left will cast Protego. The assistant professor and I will be around to help… Oh and Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger will also be assisting those who need help." Valler finished

Harry and Hermione were taken completely by surprise as Professor Valler simply smiled at them and moved around to the right side of the classroom. The two of them looked at each other shrugged and began helping their classmates. An hour passed and Valler ordered a ten-minute break then switched the spells each partner was using the other spell. After another hour Professor Valler ordered another break and afterwards called the now tired students back together.

"Well done everyone, most of you are now more than capable of basic combat and self-defense. Now I know most of you are rather tired for casting spells all afternoon and while I could let you go early. However, I would rather appeal to your competitive nature and suggest a tournament with the winning individual earning their house one hundred house points." Said Professor Valler

The class cheered as the competitive spirit between Gryffindor and Slytherin was ignited and the class immediately split in half with one house on each side.

"Very well then! Each house will compete within themselves to bring forth their best and then the two best will duel in the final round. Assistant Professor Quirrell will supervise the Slytherins and I will take the Gryffindors and remember duel with honor and may the best duelist win!" said Professor Valler

The duels began in earnest and soon three individuals stood out among the rest Draco Malfoy, Harry, and Hermione. Draco's cunning combined with a fair bit of power allowed him to crush his opponents quickly. Harry used his training and developed power to breakthrough his opponent's defenses and defeat them quickly. Hermione focused more on a defensive approach allowing her opponents to wear themselves down before quickly knocking them out. All three quickly rose to the top of the class with Draco taking the top of Slytherin and Harry and Hermione meeting at the top of Gryffindor. The duel between Harry and Hermione was about to begin.

wierdhead: I thought about making both Harry and Ron female. However the majority of the characters I will be introducing will be female and i wanted some male characters to balance them out. I'm also a male myself and as such writing female characters will pose a challenge for me so the male characters are a chance for me to flex my creativity in a different way.

Arial Wolf: That is a wonderful review. Can I borrow part of the line for something one of the characters might say later? Please.

House Point Distribution

Hufflepuff: 55

Ravenclaw: 86

Slytherin: 64

Gryffindor: 33 (Fred and George got in trouble for turning a corridor into a chocolate river which took Filch and Flitwick several hours to clean.)

Yay the next chapter is done and published on my birthday, took me long enough. I will begin working on the next chapter immediately and hopefully get it done before Christmas but I make no promises when it comes to deliver chapters. I also want to thank everyone who favorites or follows this story I figured I might as well finish this chapter and release it as my birthday present to all of you.