CH 8
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Draco had studied with Potter about four times in the last two weeks, ever since that meeting during the second week of October. He read the analysis that same day and knew that if he wanted to be proficient, be more than just barely competent he'd need more that one two hour time-slot a week. He kept the Wednesday date for appearance's sake and managed to get Harry to agree to allow him to come during his Saturday sessions in the morning time-slot.
'I don't understand why he needs to go twice in one day,' the blonde thought. He shuddered at the thought of practicing magic for two hours in the morning and then disappearing again for another three hours in the afternoon.
Little did he know that the afternoon slot was really to enable Harry to review his other courses from school in much the same manner as the one essentially considered appropriate, for the Boy-Who-Lived, which was Defence Against the Dark Arts. The Gryffindor was using the Room of Requirement to improve his knowledge of the Charms, Potions, Herbology, etc… from his previous years in pretty much the same manner as his Defence training.
Harry zoomed through the first, second and third year studies quickly because they tended to be simple and easier, as is the standard case with most school subjects. His studies were doubled though because he added a few Muggle subjects to his learning process. He was curious about some of the sciences and about the mathematical differences from Arithmancy and the base Muggle Mathematics of Calculus, Geometry, Computing Logic, etc…
He was happy in his independent study world now that he had been basically kicked out of the Gryffindor Tower, but that didn't mean that the Gryffindors had forgotten about him.
Ron made a nuisance of himself and was pissed when Harry refused to return to the Quidditch team. The red-head had ambushed his supposed best friend during the last week of September in order to announce that Harry's ban from playing Quidditch had been lifted and that he was nominated to be the Captain of the Gryffindor Team.
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Flashback"Harry, wait up," Ron said chasing after the Boy-Who-Lived. They had just finished taking their shared Charms class and the red-head knew that in order to catch up to his best friend he'd have to run. "Harry, we need to talk, wait up."
Harry paused and waited by an empty classroom. Empty was right there were no desks, chairs or even a teaching podium in that room. It was like they had been vanished as soon as the two Gryffindors had stopped outside the room.
"Aren't you going to be late for D.A.D.A.," Harry asked, as he glanced in the room, noting the last of the vanishing school equipment. He smirked knowing that if he needed the room to talk privately with his ex-friend that the house-elves were making it possible. One of them winked at him before leaving the space empty of anything that could potentially harm the boys or be used as a weapon to cause harm.
'Perfect,' he thought. 'I think they believe that we'll be fighting.' He waited until Ron caught up and then thought, 'There's a strong possibility of it with his temper. Who knows what will set him off this time?'
"Harry," Ron said huffing, as the pace that his friend had set when he left the room had forced the red-head to run in order to catch up. He didn't know that once Harry had left the room and once out of sight of the other students, he sprinted down several different corridors in order to escape the pending confrontation.
Harry figured that if Ron was truly determined to seek him out that he'd get directions from the portraits. He looked at his, one time, best friend and sighed, "Yes Ron?"
He stepped into the room, quickly followed by Ron Weasley. He quietly put up silencing charms and a couple of notice-me-not spells on the door to prevent peepers and curiosity seekers from looking in and spreading rumours. "What is it?"
"I needed to tell you that the Headmaster has lifted your ban from Quidditch," Ron said and then he explained sourly that, "The whole team voted and you've been named Captain."
Harry could well believe that. He didn't think that the older students wanted that responsibility because this was their N.E.W.T.s year after all. He was the only six year student that had been on the team the longest. However he had never once cared about leading the team and it didn't sit well with him that when the ban had been lifted no one on the team ever approached him about it to tell him or to even ask if he was even interested in being Captain.
"Well I didn't know that the ban had been lifted," Harry said in a surprised tone. "It's a great honour to be named Captain, but I'm afraid you're going to have to tell the others that I decline. Tell the guys thanks, but I'm just too busy with my studies to continue playing on the team with any form of seriousness."
"But Harry," Ron said in shock. "It's Quidditch. You can at least tell them yourself and why, the bloody hell don't you want to play anymore? You can't tell me that you're studying more than you ever did, I won't believe you. You love Quidditch."
Harry snorted and then said calmly, "No Ron! 'You' love Quidditch. I just played it because I liked to fly and when I was on the team I learned to fly in many different ways. Did you know that there is not even a club at this school for just broom flying?"
"Who cares about that," Ron said loudly, as though the volume of his voice would help his point. "What about Quidditch? You're the bloody Captain now. It's your responsibility to lead the team."
"I never asked to be Captain nor did I accept the position," Harry said calmly, but getting slightly angry. "Ever since I was banned, I've had the time to reflect on a few things and I've decided to become a better student. During this summer when I could fly outdoors, I realized that I didn't quite like Quidditch enough to give it a go professionally. Therefore I knew that I would have to allow someone else, whose ambition and future career plans involved Quidditch, the chance to play on the team. It's the best place for them to gain that kind of valuable experience."
Ron stared at him in shock, shaking his head he persisted. "You love Quidditch and you're going to play because you're the best Seeker that this school has ever seen."
"No Ron," Harry said with a frown that the Gryffindor's attitude. "I refuse the nomination and I no longer care about the ban. Just because you believe me to be the best Seeker now, doesn't mean that someone else should not be given their chance to show you that they could do just as well on the team."
"You're playing," Ron said loudly and stubbornly.
"No I'm not," Harry returned just as stubbornly and loud. 'Who the hell does he think he is? He can't force anyone to play.'
"You are," Ron said stepping up to him with clenched fists. "You are going to play Quidditch for Gryffindor because you have House Pride and all that."
"No way," Harry said actively relaxing his muscles in order to prepare for an attack that he could sense was coming. "You've made me feel so unwelcome in Gryffindor that I can't even visit the common room of Gryffindor Tower. Why should I have any House Pride, if I'm not 'Welcome' in my House?"
"You 'are' welcome," Ron said. "Where would you get the idea that you aren't welcome?"
"Probably from the last time I visited and had that cold bucket of water dumped over my head, drenching me," Harry replied. "I squelched with every step I took to get back to my rooms in order to change and prevent a cold. The students laughed at me when I walked through the halls leaving bloody wet spots from my 'Welcome'. I couldn't even use magic to clean up and dry off because of the bloody ever-wet and chill potion in the water."
"Yeah, well that was your fault," Ron returned in anger. "You deserved it."
"What!" Harry exclaimed. "How the bloody hell did I deserve something like 'that'?"
"Yeah, you deserved it, all right," Ron said nodding his head and pointing a finger in Harry's direction. "You should have stayed in Gryffindor Tower and 'we' were supposed to be sharing a set of rooms together. It would have been fun. But, 'no' instead of staying in those separate rooms like I had been told I would be and all during summer too, I find my things back in the Tower with the other male Prefects, only to find that 'you' moved out of there completely and didn't need your best friend to keep you company."
"First of all, it would 'not' have been fun," Harry said. "Next, I was never told that I would have to 'share' a bloody set of rooms that I had already fully paid for. I requested rooms from our Head of House like any sixth and seventh year student is allowed to do, if payment or compensation is given. Did you even request a separate set of rooms and offer to pay for them in order to get out of the dorm in Gryffindor? You know you're allowed."
He looked closely at the fuming face of the boy that had once befriended him on the train to school six years ago. He sneered and said, "I didn't think so."
"You know my family can't afford it," Ron yelled. "Why didn't you just leave things as they were?"
"Because…," Harry, paused a moment emphasis before continuing, green eyes blazing with controlled anger and frustration stemming from the last two years of school and from the last two years of the red-head's wishy-washy, up and down, hot and cold, treatment of that friendship.
"Because Ron…I didn't 'want' to pay for you or for anyone else to live with me when I had requested and paid for a private set of rooms. The main reason I requested a private room was to prevent my school things from being stolen by opportunistic little thieves like 'Seamus, Hermione, Creevy' and 'everyone' else, including 'you', who profited from the name of Harry Potter and announcing that they were my 'Close'or 'Best Friend'."
Ron saw red at that moment. He yelled loudly, "Aaargh...", announcing his attack and swung a sluggish fist in Harry's direction, who even though he hadn't been on the team last year, his Seeker reflexes kicked in to prevent the loss of his glasses and a beautiful shiner from appearing. He was caught by the second wild swing on his right shoulder and which made him quickly remember that this boy had brothers who taught him how to fight in the cruel way of brothers, mainly dirty.
Harry ducked the third punch. He threw and landed one directly in Ron's midsection causing the red-head to double over from the force. However that didn't stop him from tackling his dark-haired ex-friend and using awful wrestling tactics to pinch, pin and punch the boy on the ground.
Harry twisted and was out of that tangle quickly, kicking the taller boy away from him and rolling back up into a standing position. He stepped back and waited to see what the other Gryffindor would do. Sure enough the boy attacked again only this time he remembered that he was a Wizard and had pulled out his wand.
"Titillandus," Ron yelled, swinging his wand in a motion that would call forth the spell to cause Harry to fall into uncontrolled laughter because of a tickling sensation.
Harry side-stepped that. He waved his wand up to erect a shield silently, as the next spell flew forward and crashed against the shield in a spark of light.
Ron was getting more and more desperate to beat Harry Potter that he quite forgot that he was supposed to be begging for the green-eyed boy to return to the Quidditch team. "You'll get yours Potter," he snarled while sending an, "Impedimenta!"
The shield was still up when Harry sent a 'Jelly-Fingers Curse' (…i…) in order to stop Ron from using his wand. Unfortunately the spell was easy to side step if someone saw it coming.
Harry tried to talk to Ron. He cast another spell 'Ter-glacies Telums' (3 ice darts) (…ii…), as he said, "Ron this is ridiculous. Why are you fighting me this? It's obvious that you don't want me on the team or in the tower. So why are not you letting me step down for someone who has the greater ambition to be on the Quidditch team?"
Ron yelled, threw down his wand and charged the Boy-Who-Lived again. This time his swings connected with the shield making it flash a couple of times before collapsing under the physical assault of human fists. The shield was good against magic, but poor against this kind of onslaught.
'Interesting,'Harry thought, as tucked his wand away quickly. He wasn't going to throw his down on the ground like the other Gryffindor had done. It might have gotten broken. In the meantime he was defending himself with the hand-to-hand methods that he had been learning and that was just frustrating the red-head even more.
"What's the matter Ron," Harry asked in a semi-angry, but thoughtful tone. It was as though an idea had just now occurred to him regarding something about Ron and the reason for his increased, unceasing attack. "Did I say something wrong?" He counter attacked and landed a few hits in order to keep the bruises slightly even between the two of them. "Did I say a bad word? Perhaps a dreaded A-word... could it be 'Ambition'?"
Ron swung out and clocked Harry hard in the jaw. "Don't say that we are Slytherins, we're Gryffindors and I thought you knew what that meant."
"Is that what you're afraid of," Harry double-tapped him, once in the left eye and once to the jaw too knocking the taller youth down. "That having any ambition automatically makes you a Slytherin." He stopped defending when Ron stopped attacking him to stare at him in hurt, frustrated anger. "Ambition doesn't mean you're a Slytherin you bleeding idiot! It doesn't make you Dark or mean that you'd follow a Dark Lord or anything like that."
"What would you know about it," Ron stated. "You don't know what it means to be a Gryffindor."
"And you do?" Harry retorted. "Maybe you should read Hogwarts: A History, because Godric Gryffindor was a Knight of the Realm. He defended the weak and those unable to do so for themselves. He was not a bully and to become a Knight you have to have 'ambition' to past the tests. You have to want it bad enough to do what is needed in order to become a Knight."
Ron just looked away, red-faced and confused.
"You want to be known as a Knight," Harry said in a questioning tone. "Knights don't bully people and they certainly don't order someone to give up their own ambition or force them into doing something that they don't want to do. They certainly don't judge a person by their race, colour of skin or what effin' 'House' they were sorted at when they went to a Magical School. You do know that not all Magical Schools have this ridiculous House System."
"What would you about it," Ron shouted. "You had everything given to you. You don't have to do anything and the world will give you whatever you ask without you even having to work for it."
"Why the hell would I want something like that," Harry asked, spitting out the question. "You've known me from year one. Was there ever a time I asked for anything that I got? I didn't ask to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team in first year, I was told I had too by Professor McGonagall and Oliver Wood. Besides it's only in the Wizarding World that this kind of shite happens to me."
"You got the fame," Ron stated. "Money, everything!"
"I didn't ask for it and I certainly didn't want it, if I lived in the Muggle World I'd be classed just the same as you, poor and nobody important enough to notice," Harry said. "The money I have was not given to me by strangers on the street. It was my school trust and it was set up by the Potter Estates on the day that I was born. Every Potter automatically gets a school trust, not that that is any of your business nor is it your business to tell me how I can spend that money or any money I earn."
"You still got onto the Quidditch team as a first year, when you were only eligible to try-out in second year," Ron said trying another approach.
"Again," Harry said. "I 'didn't' bloody ask to be on the bloody Quidditch team. I didn't even know what Quidditch was until I saw my 'first' game here. Last chance Ron, what the hell is wrong with having ambition? You have to realize that in order for 'all'of the Founders to create this amazing magical school they had to have ambition and the skill to do it. Ambition back then was not limited to just Salazar Slytherin."
"You're wrong," Ron shouted, as though being louder would make Harry agree with him.
"I'm not," Harry shouted right back. "You're just lazy because you don't want to work for your goals, yet. In the Mirror of Erised, which is the Mirror of Desire just so you know, you saw yourself as older, good-looking, the Captain of the Quidditch Team and Head Boy, but you've never once worked toward those goals. Second year students are allowed to try out for the team, but you didn't, did you?"
He continued to yell loudly as they were currently now having a shouting match. "You became a Prefect in fourth year, which is a step in the proper direction to becoming Head Boy, but you don't care about the responsibility of being a Prefect. You just wanted the Prefect Badge and were proud because it was something that Harry bloody Potter didn't get. It wasn't handed to him. But let me tell a secret, I NEVER WANTED IT."
"Shut up," Ron yelled.
"You're family is full of ambition," Harry shouted and then he continued softly which had the red-head's attention, who also had tears floating in his eyes caused by the frustration and his overwhelmed emotions at the ideas that his friend was bringing forward.
"Your father works at the Ministry of Magic because that was his goal, his choice and he needed 'ambition' just to get in there. It helped that he found a Department that he loved, but that's not enough for you to respect him for that choice, is it? Bill followed the path of a Curse-Breaker, a dangerous yet very 'ambitious' profession that could get him recognition if he develops new spells to break curses in the process of working at it. Charlie works as a Dragon Tamer on a Reserve because he loves them and the work is full-filling to him. If he wasn't 'ambitious' for the job he'd have been putting his life in danger because of it. The twins are absolutely 'ambitious' because they knew what they wanted to do from an early age. It takes a set of steel bullocks and lot of ambition to compete with against a market that has been dominated by only three companies in those particular areas. Even Percy is following his dream and 'ambition' to get into the Ministry of Magic because it's obvious that his 'ambition' is to become the Minister of Magic someday and God help us if he does because he follows rules too much to be normal."
"Don't you talk about my family that way," Ron shouted. "They're not DARK."
"Why does having ambition mean that you're Dark," Harry shouted. "Explain that to me because I don't understand it. The are plenty of 'ambitious' Muggles in the world, with no magic which means they 'can't' become Dark, so explain to me why you think that having a little, some or a lot of ambition makes you Dark or that it even means that you'll become Dark?"
Ron's head tilted back at everything that Harry was saying. It was like he was being struck by something that he had never once thought of in his life and it came to him like physical blows. They were just as painful.
Finally he shouted out, "Because the bloody Sorting Hat said so."
Harry's eyes widened. "Because a magical 'hat' told you," he said incredulously. "A device created to separate students into like minded Houses, told you that being ambitious is a sign that you are Dark. Are you mad?"
Ron swung a fist one last time, knocking the Boy-Who-Lived to the ground who only twisted his legs up and took the tall red-head down with a sweep of them. The air was knocked out of him and then he heard, "You when you passed McGonagall's giant chess set. You chose the position of the Knight on the board because you knew that you'd have to be sacrificed. You put me in the position of the Bishop, they're usually known as advisors and Hermione in the position of the Rook, an unbending tower. As a knight you guided us on the board, but where do you think the Founders would fit on a chess board."
"I don't know," Ron said winded from his fight and from the fall. He didn't know where Harry was going with this, but for some reason he was glad that there was a change of topic.
"Godric Gryffindor was a real knight," Harry continued. "He was a defender of the realm and he guided those with magic to come to a school, like you guided us in on the board. Salazar Slytherin was an adviser to a king from what I've read before joining with the other Founders to create this school. He too felt the need to gather the young and ensure that the magical race of Wizard Humans survived by any means. I think he'd be a bishop too, on the chess board. Rowena Ravenclaw was a woman and women back then had one purpose and that was to have children in order to continue the species, but she favoured knowledge and was probably a Seer, I think."
"So what, you think she'd be a Tower," Ron said getting the gist of what Harry was saying.
"Yeah," Harry said. "A right solid one too and secretive, she had to be secretive about it because she wouldn't have been able to show what she knew to any Muggle men back in those days, if that was her only choices for marriage."
"What about Hufflepuff," Ron said wondering just where the original Puffer would fit on a large chess board.
"She'd be one of the most dangerous pieces," Harry said. "She's a pawn."
"You're nutters," Ron chuckled.
"Nope," Harry said with a wicked grin and looking at the Gryffindor, he explained. "She's the kind of pawn that struggles completely across the board through patience, determination and then becomes a queen."
He sat up looking at the red-head and then said, "I may have played the bishop in the game, but I'm not an advisor for anything. I have too many things to do regarding Voldemort and you know it. That bastard is still out there and even the adults of the Wizarding World are looking to me to know what to do and I can't tell them anything because I haven't learned how to guide, lead, strategize or even fight properly in all of the time that I've been coming to this school."
He was standing tall and yet there was some child-like vulnerability that Ron had to acknowledge because he was seeing it, but he gave no voice to it. Harry just continued, "I haven't even been allowed the chance to figure out what my own ambition will be or where I'd fit in when everything is over. I don't want to even be an Auror anymore. I barely have a year and a half left of school before I'm thrown out into the 'adult'world and everyone, including you expects me to 'be a kid, live like teenager, play Quidditch', but I can't, not anymore. If you want to remain my friend, then be a friend. Respect my choices and let me be."
Harry sighed, walked to the door, leaving the other Gryffindor lying there and said, "We're done here. Don't ask me to play when I can't and you know it. I still consider 'you' to be one of my close friends, but I can't live with you guys in the Tower with all I have yet to learn."
Ron watched him leave and knew right then that whatever they had linking them like Best Friends was over. He recalled the entire fight and wondered why he strongly believed that 'Ambition' was such a terrible thing and then he knew. In his heart he knew that it was because he didn't have it yet. It never hit him that he would be out in the world soon because his parents, all of his brothers and his sister were there supporting him and his need to 'be a child, for now.
He stood and was at the door watching Harry Potter walk away. The Boy-Who-Lived greeted some fourth year Hufflepuffs kindly and answered the many D.A.D.A. questions that they peppered him with, with the calm patience of an adult. It was then that he saw the Gold Boy Gryffindor, as a possible the Knight of the House because he was doing something just like what he had told Ron a Knight was. He helped however he could with the tools he had and Harry really knew stuff about D.A.D.A. that even Ron had found odd sometimes last year during their rebel period with their secretive lessons.
Knights back in the day of Godric Gryffindor were soldiers, fighters and they were called on by Kings to maintain peace, order and fight enemies. They defended larger kingdoms, as well as small towns and they did so with everything that they learned and they did it for everyone that asked for help.
Harry was fighting for the Wizarding World in much the same manner, but his abilities and knowledge were limited because he hadn't trained for it during his younger years. The Dark Lord is currently over seventy years old, if Ron remembered correctly, because Hagrid's about that age and according to Harry the Dark Lord was a Prefect when Hagrid was a younger student.
'How much knowledge did the Dark Lord gain over time in order to still be the stuff of my nightmares,' Ron thought. 'Nightmares... I bet that's one of the main reasons why he's chosen to have private rooms.'
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Flash-forward
Ron looked out over the sea of faces looking at him in his Keeper position. It was an easy position to fill because he'd always been a Keeper when his brothers played. He'd learned a few tricks, but now was the time to prove he earned his place on the team.
In the sea of watching faces was a dark-haired youth with a very distinguishing mark on his forehead. Just because he didn't play anymore didn't mean that he wouldn't be there to cheer on his old friend. He was sitting next to a bushy-haired girl who'd insisted that he come watch the game with her. He didn't need convincing, he wanted to go despite keeping the company of one who continually passed on miss-information to her fellow students because she wanted to remain at the 'Top of the Class'. That situation was neither here nor there that moment.
Harry Potter watched and cheered every time Ron successfully stopped a goal. He booed the Ravenclaw team and held his breath when the Snitch was being chased by the two Seekers.
All attempts at getting a goal against the Gryffindors were admirable and difficult because for some reason the Ravenclaws couldn't get the Quaffle through even one hoop this game. The Seekers were chasing the Snitch and the Bludgers buzzed through the players being batted about by the Beaters from both teams. Still not one gong rang because Ron defended the goal with perverse determination.
A loud buzzer halted the game and one hand in the air held the fluttering snitch. "270 points to Zero, for Gryffindor," Seamus Finnegan shouted excitedly from his position as announcer. "Gryffindor pulled off a miracle today folks as our own Mr. Ronald Weasley prevented the valiant Ravenclaws from even scoring ten points. Well done Ron!"
The crowds in the Gryffindor stands were jumping up and down, insane and high on that revelation, while the other Houses made their way down the stairs and back to the school. The Gryffindor team did their flyby three times before landing to go change.
During the flyby Ron heard Harry shouting loudly and with pride in his voice, "I knew you could do it. Well done!"
Ron was grinning all the way back to the showers and he knew that despite the lack of being 'best friends' with the Boy-Who-Lived or even hanging out with him at all hours of the day, he knew that he still had someone that believed in him and could be known as a just and good friend.
'Just a friend who could one day become a close friend or a best friend again,' he thought with a strange regretful smile. 'But right now being just a friend with just Harry…,' he paused in his thoughts with another rueful grin. '… not Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived, but just Harry. Yeah, I think that I can do that.'
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Harry was about to walk into Charms class when someone called his name. He looked around and saw that it was Ron. He smiled and said, "Hey Ron. That was a bloody brilliant game Saturday, think you'll be able to pull it off again?"
"Don't know," Ron said rubbing the back of his neck. "Share a desk," he asked looking into the room.
"Okay," Harry said acknowledging the fact that they were still students and still friends, good enough not to let a few bad thoughts change things. There was time enough to figure it out in the future, when they were older, just how much of their friendship would remain.
"Pygmy Puffs," Ron whispered.
"What?"
"Password to the Tower," Ron said, not repeating it. "Want to study together after I finish D.A.D.A? I have some questions about what we're studying and I'm wondering if you've seen these spells during your independent study."
"We'll see," Harry said with a smile. He sat down and soon they were busy reviewing the history of Charms, how some have been improved over time and how some have been lost.
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TBC...
(…i…) Found on web site known as, "A-Z Lexicon of Harry Potter"
(…ii…) Latin-English Dictionary - Love dual-language dictionaries. Making up spells for HP stories is fun!