CH 11
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The New Year arrived without much fanfare, but many of the students were pleased with the outcome of their class exams. The only thing of note was the mass marketing of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes brand new product called 'Pensieve Paper'.
It was a five inch by seven inch piece of parchment that acted like a pensieve, but only preserved one memory. A specific memory couldn't be mass copied unless a business required it for marketing purposes.
They had primarily invented it to be specifically used by Witches when they created 'Scrapbook Albums'. It was a trend that was taking off in the Muggle World under a creative art category called 'Scrap-Booking' and it had been slowly coming into the Wizarding World.
They had been able to successfully market their specialty paper with the slogan 'Parchment of Truth' because it worked exactly like a true pensieve. It can contain a memory perfectly preserved. They were marketing it as an object for the quick distribution of news and they had the cooperation of several balloon dispersal companies that would insert the paper and distribute it to all magical places like villages, the transportation platforms, the magical alleys, etc…
The Ministry of Magic had already approved them as being a 'Magical Authority of True Events' and they could be used in legal proceedings just like Pensieves and Veritaserum. So with the UK Ministry of Magic's backing and law supporting them, it was a perfect device for when Harry wanted to distribute one very specific memory to everyone. They agreed that balloons would be the best way to launch their product en masse.
The memory selected was very memorable and no one siding with the Dark Lord Voldemort will ever forget it. It was acknowledged as a true memory because that the only thing that can go on such a Pensieve Paper. Once it was released, it had launched a series of investigations into the Family line of Riddle.
Harry's specially selected memory was of Riddle's confession that he didn't want to keep his 'filthy muggle father's name' and so he fashioned himself a new one. The memory showed a young Tom Riddle spell writing his real name and switching the letters to show the anagram from his original name of 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' to that of 'I am Lord Voldemort'.
Adults saw this. The Slytherins and anyone contemplating on joining the Dark Lord saw this. Marked Death Eaters saw this and tried to protest its validity in the face of their children's accusing eyes filled with bitter disappointment and betrayal. Nearly everyone in the United Kingdom Wizarding World saw it.
The Daily Prophet had it thoroughly investigated as an historical column article, one that was not written by Rita Skeeter, but by an anonymous writer with the penname of 'Ghost Writer RCMM'. (…i…)
The Pensieve Papers were released in self-popping balloons that would automatically and magically banish the papers should the balloon wander into the Muggle World by the breezes and winds. It wasn't uncommon in the Muggle World to see deflated balloons. If they thought there were an abnormally large number of them then they figured it was because there had been a fair or party nearby and shrugged away that anomaly.
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All the students returning to school had a copy of that paper and many were planning to keep it as an historical fact for future generations, just in case. However that simply amazing parchment did not detract from the shock that they received upon entering the Great Hall and finding that one of the sixth year Gryffindors had been pranked.
The one unhappy person was the subject of giggles, whispers and stares, but at least the prank was slowly wearing off. It wasn't like he wasn't used to being stared at, but this time he wasn't buffered by the presence of his known friends.
Harry Potter was sitting at the Gryffindor table a little ways away from the other students and definitely far away from Ronald Weasley. He had fluorescent dark green streaks in his dark messy hair, green-tipped black cat ears were twitching on the top of his head at every little noise and he had his green-tipped black cat's long tail wrapped around his waist to prevent others from stepping on it. On top of everything else he bore the indignity of having to wear a cat collar with a couple of small gold and silver bells which really sucked because he couldn't proper spells unless they were silent and they couldn't be silenced with a spell unless he never moved when casting.
"HARRY!" Hermione screeched at seeing him and he gave her a foul look.
"Keep it down would you," he said with a yowling hiss of upset cat, covering his poor sensitive ears. His sharp cat teeth were very evident when his mouth was opened. "The ears are sensitive, as you darn well know."
"Harry," Hermione said with a disapproving look. "Watch your language."
"You know what Hermione," Harry said getting up to leave as he wasn't really in the mood to listen to all of the students whispering about his looks. He figured that he'd take his meal in his private rooms. "You're not my mother and I don't care if you approve of my damn language or not. The ears are painful to the level noise in here and it's beginning to give me a migraine, your screeching didn't help any, so leave me alone."
"Mr. Potter," Professor Snape said stepping into the Great Hall as the young man was stepping out of it. "Three points from Gryffindor for using an offensive tone and language."
Harry only nodded and took off, slightly bounding up the moving stairs with his tail swinging back and forth in irritation. He was currently working on something that would hopefully reverse the prank because it felt like a mix of Wheezes, plus a charm or transfiguration spell.
The Potions Master had laughed when he saw the young man a few hours after he had sent the syllabus to the other Chamber of Secrets adventurers. It looked like school unity might become fact, if the volatile red-headed Gryffindor and the cool collected Slytherin were the cause of Harry's unfortunate situation.
'A common enemy will often result in a reluctant truce,' he thought derisively. 'That's certainly the case with that mangy were-wolf and myself in the Order of the Phoenix.'
It took five more days into the school year, before Ron and Draco released Harry from their prank spells because the Boy-Who-Lived was getting too much attention from all the girls who thought he looked 'soooo cute' and 'aaawwwww, just adorable'. Of course the hidden Slytherin side of Harry was soaking up the attention and rubbing it in the other guys' faces, but he'd had been stuck like that since the twenty-eighth of December. It felt like there was no end in sight so he allowed the girls to gush when he was around, but he did 'not' permit anyone to pet him because really he wasn't a cat.
The three boys had received the Owls on the twenty-eighth at dinner time, after the previous day of being subjected to a lecture on the dangers of going down to the Chamber of Secrets without adult supervision. They all just knew that the scrolls were not going to contain cheerful holiday greetings.
They also figured it was because they hadn't been able to explore the three rooms marked on the map because Harry refused to take them after a long day of learning to properly harvest the great snake without actually doing much harvesting.
The Potions Master was not pleased to have that adventure put off for another day. He did caution the boys that should he find out that they had gone through those rooms without him he'd be using them to test experimental potions that would be the result of his brewing from the book that Harry had given him for Christmas.
Needless to say, neither of Harry's study partners were pleased with the 'extra' schoolwork, so their displeasure was very much known by the Boy-Who-Lived's altered appearance. However now with the fawning he was getting and the fact that he had cancelled their study sessions without good reason they agreed to lift their spells, if Harry would continue their 'independent' studies with them.
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"Please Harry," Ron begged his friend on their way to their sixth year transfiguration class. "I can't continue the potions study without you there. Malfoy promises to show up and to help remove the charms."
Harry sighed and then said, "All right." He looked at how pleased the red-head was about the outcome. "Don't look too happy," he said. "I'd have removed the spells myself, but you both cast them at the same time, so both of you are needed to remove them."
"We will," Ron said. "We'll meet you at the usual place after supper tonight."
"Okay," Harry agreed.
"What usual place," Hermione asked. "You two are not going to get into trouble again are you? You know we'll lose points if you do."
"Why do you automatically assume that we'll be getting into trouble and losing points," Ron asked.
"Because you usually do," she replied.
"I don't think so," Harry said. "Everyone loses points now and again, but we are not the ones that are consistently losing House Points for Gryffindor this year."
"Of course you are," Seamus said, butting into their conversation.
"Have you even looked at the House Point Logs," Harry said. "You're name and Dean's are in there three times as much as ours. The total number points that you two lose over time is not even equal to the large losses that we had in previous years."
"Don't lie," Seamus said.
"He's not," Neville said sitting down at a desk once they had entered the classroom. "The logs are available for review. He's right you two have lost Gryffindor the most House Points and that is usually because of your poor schoolwork too." He turned to the front of the class in order to not see their outraged expressions.
Harry just shrugged and sat down at a desk that he preferred, which was usually in front of Neville. Ron sat next to him and Hermione sat next to Neville behind Harry.
"All right," Professor McGonagall said. "Be seated and be quiet. Today we'll be studying an area of Transfiguration that is unique and rare. It's a type of personal Transfiguration that will lead you to your potential Animagus form. Now normally this topic is only discussed during your sixth year and I usually assign essays on the matter during your seventh year only. However all the professors feel that with the upcoming conflict that any of you that have the potential of discovering your form early may gain an advantage of having an emergency form to use in order to escape. The Ministry of Magic is prepared to delay the mandatory registration of your forms until after the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. If any of you have strong objections or would prefer to study for your form independently, see me and I will assign you a different set of course work for the first part of this term."
She looked over at all of the excited expressions on many of her students. Only a few were thoughtful and then she said, "However those of you who chose to do this independently will have to schedule a few times with me after school hours in order to be monitored during your physical changes. We cannot allow you to do a first or second change unsupervised."
"Could we go to our own Head of House for that," a Ravenclaw student asked. "To keep the advantage private," she stumbled and continued on with her reasoning. "Some of us might feel more comfortable going to someone they trust, not that we don't have trust in you, Professor. It's just that some of us might already be more comfortable doing this in the presence of another Professor, m'am."
"As long as you do go to another Professor for your first full transformation," she said quickly, as though the Professors had already agreed on the matter. "It must be supervised in case you get 'stuck', so to speak. I will take names after class of those who wish to study independently, however you will still have to attend classes in order to get the full grasp of the Animagus process. Are we clear?"
Every student in the class agreed and at the end of sixth year Transfiguration she wasn't surprised when Harry, Ron and Hermione chose the independent study option.
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Harry was waiting for the other 'amiable zanies', as he called Ron and Draco in his mind, to show up to remove their joint charms and spells. He was currently starting out his research both for his independent studies, one for Transfiguration and one for Potions.
He grinned and thought, 'Still a competition between Gryffindor and Slytherin by having to write these two papers.'
The Room was set up pretty much like it was for his D.A.D.A. studies, but this time he had a desk near the library section and was pulling books into two piles on the table he had charmed to follow him and hold the books. He was only going to begin his papers once he chose his appropriate references and a fun place to begin.
The chime he programmed on the Room to let him know whenever someone wanted access to the Room rang out. He guided the table back to settle near the desk before he cancelled the charm that made it move on its four legs like a slow moving horse or donkey. He reinforced the charms to keep the books in the towers that they had been sorted into and then he called out, "Enter."
Ron and Draco came in, but were quickly followed by Hermione and Ginny.
Harry's eyebrows rose and he asked the two girls, "What are you two doing here?"
"We followed Ron to find out where he was going," Ginny said. "Then we continued because he met up with the Ferret and we wondered just what was going on. So, what's going on?"
"Ginny this is none of your business," Ron said. "We're here to help Harry get out of the prank charms he's under."
"What would you know about that," Hermione asked with her eyes narrowed looking between the two boys unaffected by a prank. "You two had something to do with it, didn't you? Couldn't you two have fought some other way, like with words? Where was your mind when you did this? I bet that neither of you thought about the effect it would have had on the other House students watching you."
"Hermione," Harry said interrupting her.
"And you," she said in his direction, her rant growing with her anger. "Why didn't you stop them, instead of getting into the middle of it? Children could have been..."
SPLASH
"IIEEeeeeek," Hermione shrieked due to the downpour of cold water. She looked around and noticed that Harry had his wand out. "What do you think you're doing?"
"You will calm down," Harry said with a glaring hiss. "You do not have all the facts and I for one am so tired of you ranting on subjects that are truly none of your business. This was a harmless prank. That is all. It's not the result of a fight, duel or what have you. Now if you can calm down and dry yourself off, they may choose to tell you about it or not, but I refuse to have you come in here during 'my' scheduled time in this Room and have you mouth off at those that I asked to come and help me train. Am I clear?"
Ginny's mouth was open during the entire time. She didn't know that it was a prank and had told Hermione that it was the result of a duel gone wrong. That was what the rumours were and she couldn't get her brother to tell her otherwise.
Hermione had dried herself off and at the same time the two pranksters sent their counter charms in a synchronized motion that looked completely natural. She turned to point her wand at Harry in order to undo the charms that he had been stuck under and found that he was back to normal, although his hair still had dark green streaks in ends of it.
"Sorry about the colour, Potter," Draco said. "I think that was a different charm. I don't remember if I used an Anglo, French, Italian or German incantation for it. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the charm to wear off."
Harry just shrugged and said, "I don't mind that, as long as my ears are no longer twitching to every sound. Didn't mind the being able to see in the dark though as that was pretty cool, but the tail was murder on my trousers."
Draco nodded with a chuckle and then made his way over to the strategy corner. He was setting up a battle campaign of Dark versus Light creatures. He didn't include the Witches or Wizards because they didn't have a clear cut view of Dark versus Light, but this set was like using miniatures to re-enact battles and test out different strategies. The games corner was one of his favourite places, although he really hated getting trounced by Potter during some of the obvious campaign re-enactments because the Gryffindor never bothered to learn the actual historical set-up first.
Ron snickered and recalled the two pairs of pants that Harry had to have modified to allow his tail to go through. He was in Harry's rooms for supper when Winky was making the alterations. He had threatened the Boy-Who-Lived with a permanent tail if he didn't help him with the Potions task. He joined Malfoy in his corner and waited to see how Harry would handle the girls.
Hermione and Ginny had taken a look around the Room and noticed that it was almost set up similarly to match last's clandestine training group called Dumbledore's Army. "I see you did away with the mirrored wall," she stated. "Why?"
"I don't need one to know if I'm doing the proper wand movements," Harry said. "If I'm doing them properly, then the spell will be cast."
"What about the spell words you usually have trouble with that, so I'll help you," she said, as she started to go over to the library wall, when Harry stood in front of her. "What?"
"This isn't the D.A.," he said. "This is my scheduled time and I'm going to have to ask you and Ginny to leave now."
Hermione was shocked and couldn't figure out a way to get him to let her stay. She looked at Ginny who shrugged and asked, "What are you doing in here then?"
"Studying D.A.D.A.," Harry said. "I gained permission to use the Room at different times and this is one of those times."
"But it's not during the regular school hours," she said. "Why would you be permitted to use the Room after school hours?"
"Hermione," Ron said from the other side of the room, where he was having a gentle argument with Draco about including the Wizards and Witches because they provided the 'unknown chaos' factor, as Harry called their point of view. "This Room is like the Quidditch Pitch. You have to book it in order to use it and you have to have a legitimate reason for using it. In case you didn't notice Harry's in fourth year Runes and fifth year Arithmancy classes now. He has other things to do and his class schedule is full."
"That's not possible," Hermione said. "I would have noticed."
"Apparently you didn't," Harry said. He gently took both girls by their arms and guided them to the door of the Room, as it swung open. "Now I've asked you nicely, please leave. I have too much to do."
"But I we can help you," Hermione said as she found herself in the stone corridors.
Ginny was just glad that Harry was even touching her, but he only moved her to the corridors and didn't offer her his arm like a gentleman was supposed to. That disappointed her. "What about me," she said. "Can't I help you?"
"Sorry, but no," Harry said. "You have O.W.L.s this year and Hermione, I know that you're too caught up in your studies, so I'm not going ask for help from either of you. See you around." He quickly shut the door and warded it so that they wouldn't be interrupted by them again. He did set the alarm to ring to notify him when his time was up.
He huffed and then made his way to the corner where the other two boys were still arguing about using the Witches and Wizards battle figures. He took them from the other boys' hands and said, "I'm playing them. We'll play a three-way battle, we'll take turns using negotiation tactics first and then battle, if that is our choice."
Harry called the room to change his figures to resemble some of the Famous Witches and Wizards from the past with varying alignments towards good and evil. He asked the Room to make them truly random so that the ones they were familiar with would either play as they normally were, meaning 'good' being 'good' or playing out the battle with a random chance of someone known as 'good' actually being 'evil' or vice versa.
He chose not to include the current players of the War taking place right now because there was no way that he could view those Witches and Wizards objectively or without gaining the additional consequence of questioning his current choices and decisions. It felt wrong, somehow to use images of people still alive, so there was no Voldemort, Dumbledore, etc... on the board.
(Tic-Toc Tic-Toc Tic-Toc Tic-Toc Tic-Toc Tic-Toc)
Time passed. An hour and half later Ron threw up his hands in the air and said, "I surrender."
The remains of his army of light action figures drew up little white flags to wave them. "That's your own fault Weasley," Draco said. "You didn't negotiate enough to allow for partial 'good' characters to join your army."
Harry's army was the largest because his strategy had been to recruit from the other two armies, but some of his Wizards and Witches walked between the two armies mixing in and doing strange things like trading information or choosing to inform both sides that they were neutral and not the mess with them. It was the strangest game that they had ever had to date and his mind was tugged in the direction of simulation games that he came across on the Internet.
He asked the room to change the figures back and then store them away. He looked to his table of books and nearly swore. "Damn," he said. "I have to get to work on that."
'That' was the two independent projects waiting for him to begin his research. He used his wand to make to notes on parchment about the book titles, the authors, the table of contents and the rear index in each of the books pertaining to a specific subject. He used his lists to pick out four books to begin with, in each subject and sent the rest back to the library wall.
The other two watch as he put the books into his backpack and then proceed to walk out of the door. "Wait a minute," Ron said. "You can take books out of this room?"
Draco looked on to see what the response would be.
"I can," Harry confirmed. "I've made a magical promise to the Room to bring back the books every time I enter the Room. So I only take what I need and make notes or copy what I need with magic before bringing the books back to exchange for others or retake the same one. I promised not to harm the books or allow harm to come to the books while they're in my care. I was only able to take out three in the beginning of the year, but now I'm allowed ten at a time."
"Why," Ron asked.
"I don't need all of the information in the books and the Library is always full of other students or the books are limited in number," Harry said. "This is the Room of Requirement and therefore the magic of this Room creates a copy of the Library book for temporary use by me. I'm not Hermione."
"Obviously Potter," Draco said. "Why would you say such an inane thing?"
"I only meant that I don't need all the information contained in a book and I certainly don't read them all the way through, if I'm only looking for specific information," he explained. "Ron looked like I was about to become book absorbed like her and I was just pointing out that I'm not."
"Could we take out a book or two as well," Ron asked and in a flash a parchment floated in front of him. "Whoah... how..."
"What is it," Draco came to stand beside him to read what was on the parchment. "Fascinating..."
"It's the magical promise, oath, or whatever you want to call it," Harry stated. "It's what I had to do in order to be able to take the books. Looks like the Room will let you do the same, but your limit will be two books to start."
"How do you figure that," Ron said.
"Key word, 'Duo'," Harry replied pointing it out on the parchment. "It also looks like your limited to the Library Wall that I call forth though because neither of you are formally scheduled during my times."
Draco was interested in some of the books that he had been reading while learning in this Room, so he had no problem taking out his wand to chant the binding spell written on the parchment.
"Will I be able to take a couple out tonight or will I have to wait til our next training session," he asked the Room. He felt a warm positive glow in his core and looked at Harry to figure out what the hell that was.
"That means yes," Harry said. "I'm going to have to alter the Room for Ron's books because he comes here for Potions studies," he explained for the Slytherin. "Unless the Room chooses to allow the two of access to both subjects today." He felt the room respond with an expanded wall that contained all of the books from the two different subjects. "There's your answer and it's your choice Ron."
"Thanks," Ron said to Harry and the Room.
"Yeah thanks," Draco said. "But does that mean I could choose from either subject..." He felt the positive response from the Room again. "Does it also mean that I have to bring books back on all subjects the day I'm scheduled to come..." He received his reply just as quickly. "All right then," he said. He looked to the red-head and said, "It seems like we can take out the books from whatever subject, but we have to bring all of them back during our scheduled times here."
"But does that mean I can only come here during my scheduled time...," Ron felt a shiver of cold to denote a negative response. "So I can come when Draco is in here with Harry..." He felt the same warmth that the Slytherin felt earlier to indicate a positive reply. "Does that mean I have to bring back all books when I come during Draco's time in the Room?" A cold chill slid down his back and caused him to shudder from the sensation. It was like an icicle was dragged down his spine. "Thank you," he said to the Room and shook his head to let the Slytherin know about the response.
Ron began his chant at the same time as Draco and when they both spoke at the same time, cast at same time the Room glowed from the power of the magical Oath. It was stronger and the parchment's total number of books changed from 'duo' to 'quattuor' in the middle of the verse, but both students continued without hesitation. Once the magical promise was rendered and a loop of the school's House colours appeared on their right wrists and was absorbed into their skin. The two looked at the spell light and then looked to Harry for an explanation.
"Yeah," he replied their unvoiced question. "That's your reminder. Sometime in the morning you'll feel the invisible bands heat up and cool down quickly to remind you to bring the books back. If you're sick or in the infirmary I suggest you call a house-elf that you know to do it for you or else you'll lose the privilege." There was a pop on the table near the shelves with two scrolls. "Those are your contracts with the Room of Requirement."
"This room is wicked," Ron said shaking his head at the magic that had just happened.
The two young men took the small scrolls and read the terms of their agreement. It was only when they read the part regarding the total number of books that one of them voiced the question. It wasn't the Slytherin who asked, "I thought it was only going to be two books, why four?"
"Idiot," Draco said. "Now the magic in the Room will change it. Why did you say anything?"
"I doubt it," Harry said taking out two slim books from his backpack. "Go ahead and take out four books. Here I got these for the two of you." He was holding out two slim hardcover books in fancy binding with a gold script title of 'Basic Guide to the Synchronus Magic of Animapar'. He had already charmed them against damage, destruction and to conceal them from the prying eyes of others. It would only show a book that they would most likely be reading, but nothing of its contents and nothing that would get the book taken from them by a teacher.
Harry's magic was significantly stronger and slightly altered because of his legacy from Natalia Grindelwald, so it wouldn't interfere with any magic that the other two would do to protect them. He had a front plate added so that once they touched the books the plate would automatically fill with ownership data. He was holding out the books, the other Gryffindor and the Slytherin were looking at the title as though it was something poisonous.
"What's the matter," he asked.
"We're not soul-mates, Potter," Malfoy said with a sneer.
Ron looked pale and nervous, which was quite normal for him, but his emotions slowly burned towards anger and he too said, "That's only for soul-mates. What are you playing at?"
"No it's not," Harry said. "Animapar is only Latin for Soul Match; it does not mean mates or marriage or whatever the two of you are thinking. I've checked every possible variation and if it was talking about marriage it would be called something quite different. Take them or not, I don't care. I just thought that you two would like to know the reason why I didn't undo your prank from the Holidays, when I have the ability and power to do so." He put the books on the table and left the room, knowing that this was something that they would have to sort out for themselves.
The library wall was still there, so the other two boys quickly picked out four books that had caught their eyes during their training sessions with Harry. They both picked up the book that the Boy-Who-Lived had given them without looking at the other and they too left the room.
All talk of joining up for joint lessons ended when they took the book that Harry had gotten for them.
Draco stuck with his Wednesday lessons and Ron with his Saturday ones, but for some reason, a perverse feudal type reason they did not want to open the book on about Synchronus Magic or even discuss the matter with each other. However, that was about to change soon and in the most astonishing unexpected manner.
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TBC…(…i…) Ghost Writer RCMM = Ghost Writer Ravenclaw Moaning Myrtle (Q: How could she write a column… A: Using a dicta-quill provided by Harry! (duh))