Notes: Still struggling with my crappy keyboard, so I might have to replace it soon (just writing this note without mistakes took like 5 minutes). Thanks to everyone that has been following up until now and I apologize if feedback replies are slow, but I do have to balance several other things in my life and I try to be as personal as possible with every reply.

This chapter goes to those of you who've expired the intense boredom of being bedridden.

….

(ARC)

To Guest:

Zidane probably chose the forest thinking of how nostalgic it would be to practice in it (and then remembering that he hates forests for a good reason).

Well the general consensus that genomes were created by Garland as soul-less bodies so Terran souls could eventually live in them once Gaia became Terra, the exception being Kuja, Zidane, and Mikoto, who do possess souls and were meant to speed up the process by massacring the peoples of Gaia. So as a general rule genomes aren't killers, though they are apathetic, and their souls weren't really stolen by Garland (at least that's mentioned), rather, they didn't have them to begin with.

Zidane's way back is already planned out, though I'd rather not spoil. Thanks for reviewing!

…..

Chapter 17: Bedridden Blues

Nobody saw Zidane the next morning, which only served to increase the trio's suspicions. Harry told Ron and Hermione about what he saw in the map, or rather who he didn't see. Neville had gone to the Hospital Wing to visit the blonde, but Madam Pomfrey did not allow his visit, claiming that Zidane needed to rest. This only caused further suspicions to arise since Harry was most certainly sure that Zidane wasn't there the night before, at least according to the map. Other than that, no explanations were given to explain how the blonde ended up in the Hospital Wing in the first place.

"Do you think we should tell him?" Ron asked. The trio obviously felt bad for Neville. The round-faced boy had just made a good friend and now they had found out that the exchange student was probably keeping things from him.

"Well, I don't think he would mind. He never minded Lupin. But still, it feels wrong to tell. We aren't even fully sure yet, as suspicious as it may seem." Hermione said, and Harry found himself agreeing with her.

Harry's thoughts however, were focused on his left hand, where 'I must not tell lies' was now written in scabs. Just as George predicted, Angelina was furious. She had swooped down earlier, fire in her eyes, and had given him a mouthful that had earned the attention of pretty much all of the school. McGonagall had soon confronted both and subtracted a total of ten points from Gryffindor; five for the outburst, and another five for getting in another detention with Umbridge.

"She's taken points off Gryffindor because I'm having my hand sliced open! How is that fair?" Harry said with frustration.

"I know mate." Ron said sympathetically, Hermione didn't say anything from behind her copy of the Daily Prophet.

"You think McGonagall was right, don't you?" Harry asked, his temper flaring.

As it turned out, Hermione did think the right thing was done. Though she disliked the idea of losing points, she really thought Harry could better control his temper. With a sigh, Harry finished his food and then the trio headed for their first class.

…

The first thing that Zidane noticed when he woke up was the copious amounts of white that invaded his sight. At first he thought he was dead, but he simply couldn't remember how he could have possibly died since the last thing he remembered was walking back to the castle, tired, but relatively unharmed. When his mind registered the thick scent of antiseptic that stung his nostrils, the genome then knew that he was definitely not dead.

'Not to mention every inch of my body hurts.' Zidane mused and it made sense. He shouldn't be able to feel pain if he was truly dead.

He got up, his vision clearing only to find himself in a brightly lit room with stone walls and white curtains surrounding the bed he woke up in. It quickly became clear to the blonde that he was in the Hospital Wing, which in reality caused him more worry than relief.

Zidane quickly removed the crisp white sheets over him only to see that he was wearing his white T-shirt and pants. His boots were propped up on the floor next to the bed, while his hoodie and cloak were folded at the foot of the bed alongside his bag. But what really caught his eye and made him curse under his breath was that his tail was currently flicking in irritation and fully visible.

'Zidane you idiot! You forgot to make it invisible again!' The teen berated himself. He could almost hear Dagger's voice lecturing him. She had lectured him over stuff like that for so long that it was almost an automatic response. Nobody was supposed to know what he was. What if somebody had seen him while visiting the Hospital Wing? Whoever dragged him here had definitely seen his tail, but who else witnessed it?

The curtains from his bed were quickly drawn, which snapped Zidane out of his thoughts and made him curse himself for being so distracted. He pulled the sheets over him, still hoping that by some miracle, the person had missed his now bristled tail completely.

"Glad to see you decided to join us." A stern woman said as she walked up to him holding a tray of food. Zidane recognized her as Madam Pomfrey, the head nurse. "Dumbledore brought you late last night, and I'll have to admit, I don't usually get students who literally drop due to sheer exhaustion, not until OWL week at least. Not to mention that cut you got and the fact that you nearly caught your death of a cold!"

Zidane just gazed at her intently, as if trying to find any slight hint that she knew his secret. The fact that Dumbledore brought him calmed his nerves, but still. Did the matron know? Madam Pomfrey seemed to realize this and after setting the tray on the stand next to the bed, she turned to look at Zidane, her eyes softening.

"I already spoke to Dumbledore and he explained everything to me. Do not worry, your secret is safe with me. Even if I wanted to, my code as a healer forbids me to release information about a patient." The healer said and Zidane visible relaxed. It was then that his stomach decided to announce its presence with a large growl. "Well I see you're hungry, I'm afraid you missed breakfast, but I managed to get the house elves to whip something up. You need your strength if you want to get better."

'Thanks…" Zidane said a bit lamely, but Madam Pomfrey gave small smile and handed him the tray. The teen inhaled the delicious scent of food and the matron just looked on with a bit of confusion when she heard dull thumps. Her expression turned into one of concealed amusement when she realized that it was only Zidane's tail thumping against the bed railings. The blonde just shrugged and started eating. It wasn't like he could help it.

"No need to thank me, it is my job as a healer to help where I can. I should also let you know, a friend of yours came to visit earlier. Indeed Mr. Longbottom looked quite worried." The matron said eyeing him critically. This information weighed heavily in his mind. They were friends, but Neville knew next to nothing about him. Maybe he would tell Neville about his life…someday.

'I mean, it's not really a subject that one can just simply include in a normal conversation.' Zidane thought and then imagined it. 'Hello Neville, I'm the angel of death!'

"I'm afraid you will also have to remain here for now. I do not know what kind of wild excursion you went on yesterday, Mr. Tribal, neither is it my job to know, but I do know that you must have overexerted yourself to end up in your current state. While normally I would dose patients with some Pepperup Potion for the cold symptoms, and an Invigorating Draught for replenishing energy, I was afraid you would react differently to the treatment."

Zidane winced, he hated being cooped up in a room for long periods of time. He would really go insane if he had nothing to do. Then again, he was pretty much sick of class, maybe he could use this time to catch up on his reading, and besides, he could still run away if he really wanted out…probably. He still had no idea what to expect from the matron.

'But today is Tuesday, that means I am missing out on Charms right now. I did promise to protect Harry, and I couldn't tackle the quills yesterday, but maybe I can do it while the toad is inspecting some teacher. Yeah, that could work. Then I could be back here like nothing happened and skip for rest of the day.' Zidane thought and then his mood brightened. 'I can miss out on Herbology! Gods I hate that class, I mean why would we even need to know how to tame wild rice?'

"I will do a full scan to see if there are any injuries that still need tending to, but first I need to know if you have ever had any adverse effects with potions." The stern witch said as she took out her wand and waved it over sections of him while a light was glowing at its tip.

"I don't really have much experience with potions here, but the ones back home work well enough. Though now that I think about it, there was this little incident, but it wasn't with potions per say." Zidane thought with a wince. Madam Pomfrey looked at him questioningly, and Zidane thought it would be okay to tell her. "I accidentally ate this Canary Cream without knowing that the twins made it. I didn't turn into a canary, but I did sprout a few feathers, my hair turned silver too. It went back to normal overnight, though I had to pluck the feathers out myself."

The matron just nodded, her lips thin, and finished her scan with a sigh. "It will be safer to avoid potions then. I can see that there is still bruising on your abdomen, but I can fix that with magic. I will need you to lift your shirt."

Zidane gave a small sigh and followed instructions. Madam Pomfrey bit her lip, her frown becoming more pronounced as she saw the large scars on the genome's torso. Shaking her head after assessing the damage, she spoke. "I believe some dittany could also do some good. It will not make the scars disappear completely, but it will definitely help."

A few healing spells and a short nap later, Zidane found himself finishing the chapter about time magic in his spell book. He never really realized just how complex those spells were, especially spells like stop or haste. It made the respect he held for Vivi and Eiko increase more than just a few notches.

'I mean, Eiko was what? Like six when she learned the spell? And Vivi, he wasn't even a year old, black mage or not! Those two really put everyone here to shame.' Zidane thought with some amusement.

Zidane soon got bored of reading and his attention was drawn to a fly that had decided to buzz around his bed. With a hint of amusement, the blonde decided it would be a good time to put what he just learned into practice. He gathered the energy at his finger tips, hoping that the spell wouldn't be flashy enough to get the matron's attention. He released his first spell, Haste, and watched it miss his target entirely, instead hitting the wall behind it and leaving a scorch mark.

'Okay, so maybe I bit less output.' The teen thought with a wince, but then relaxed when he noticed that Madam Pomphrey hadn't come back to see what the racket was about.

Pushing his luck to the limit, the teen tried once more, making a nearby candle burnt itself out, and then again with better results. On his tenth try, the genome finally hit the fly, making a small clock face of light appear in midair. The clock's hands sped up and after the clock disappeared, Zidane watched with some satisfaction, as the fly zoomed rapidly in the air at extremely high speeds. That is, until it flew towards the window and slammed against it with an audible thud.

Zidane winced as the now-unconscious fly fell flat on the window sill. 'Well at least I know it works.'

Madam Pomfrey came soon afterwards, claiming she would be going to fetch the dittany from the dungeons and that she would be back soon, thankfully ignoring the mess he'd made. When Zidane saw the small window of opportunity, he inwardly grinned like the Cheshire cat. He would have to be fast if he hoped to be able to pull this off. But then again, this was what made it all the more fun.

'On your marks…' Zidane thought as he cast his invisibility over himself. Madam Pomfrey was now at the doors.

'Get set…' The genome charged a haste spell over himself, making the whole world appear to have slowed down considerably. Madam Pomfrey too had slowed down and was now exiting the Hospital Wing in slow-motion.

'GO!' Madam Pomfrey was now out of sight and Zidane ripped the bed sheets off of him and headed to the nearest window. He didn't want the Matron hearing his footsteps after all.

He climbed up, fully taking advantage of the small crevices on the ancient stones. Once at the top, he dashed towards an open window that landed him in a corridor in the second floor. He was still a bit sore from what happened yesterday, but he was even more thrilled with the feeling of pure adrenaline rushing through his veins and the intense beating of his heart. It simply felt wonderful, not to mention being under the influence of Haste made the experience all the more spectacular.

Wasting no time, he ran towards the stairs, ignoring the ringing of the school bell and the throngs of students that flooded the corridors to get to their next class. He dodged the students that were moving almost painfully slow in his eyes, and in order to avoid the crowds that littered the winding stairs, Zidane literally jumped up the banisters. The teen grinned with some amusement as he crossed paths with the Golden Trio, who were all heading over to Transfiguration while muttering quietly amongst themselves.

There were no other accidents on the remainder of the trip, except for a couple of students he brushed against and when he accidentally ran through what apparently was Hufflepuff's house ghost, the Fat Friar. Once he reached the DADA corridor, Zidane exited through the window and re-entered through the toad's office.

Things from there followed the same routine as last time, the only differences being that he didn't pick Umbridge's drawer open and instead cast the spell over the whole thing, since he already knew what was kept inside. Zidane also opted to do this because it would less likely attract the attention of the kittens currently napping in the plates. The biggest reaction he got from them was when one woke up abruptly from the small noise of his spell, but after not seeing any threat to report the porcelain feline just went to sleep again.

With his job now done, Zidane hurried back to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was most likely on her way back already. He sprinted down the halls as fast as he could, not really caring if his footsteps made noise. There were no students there to hear him anyways.

When he caught sight of the matron walking up the stairs from the dungeons, Zidane quickened his pace. He practically jumped out of a nearby open window and made his way back to the empty Hospital Wing, slipping inside once again and dispelling his invisibility without a second to spare.

"Would you mind telling me what you are doing out of bed, Mr. Tribal?" The stern witch asked as she saw the genome standing in the middle of the room as bold as brass.

Zidane just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, the matron's eyes then moving towards the several scorch marks adorning the stone wall opposite to his bed.

"I had to go to the bathroom."

…

"How do you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I don't generally permit people to talk when I am giving a class."

McGonagall said, leaving Umbridge stunned and looking as if she had just been slapped. The toad scribbled furiously on her little clipboard, while the Transfiguration Master turned to address the class, wholly unconcerned with Umbridge's reaction.

Today they would be vanishing mice, which would be a step further than the snails they had been working on. This was fine by most of the class, since most were already used to McGonagall's methods. The only real issue was their rather unwanted guest. Yes, today Umbridge was inspecting McGonagall's class and Harry could confidently say that his respect for the Animagus had soared. He had never really seen someone hate a person with such control, dignity, and professionalism. All his anger towards her from the morning had simply vanished.

"How can she lecture me about not losing my temper with Umbridge!" Harry muttered to Ron with a grin.

To make manners worse for Umbridge, there was simply no way she could call McGonagall out like she did with Trelawney. McGonagall was simply the one of the oldest, most professional, and most competent teachers Hogwarts had. But seeing the two women confront each other certainly sent warning signals all around. It was a feeling that made his muscles tense, and his mind think of imminent danger. Harry did not know what would happen if the two did clash in an epic duel of magic, all he knew was that if it DID happen, he was rooting for McGonagall.

'Zidane used this word to describe it. What was it? Oh yeah, a 'cat fight'.' Harry agreed wholeheartedly and imagined how it would play out. Umbridge wouldn't stand a chance. 'McGonagall might just turn her into an actual toad.'

After a long period of attempting to vanish mice, the class bell finally rung and they were finally dismissed. The whole classroom emptied out in a matter of seconds, leaving only the Golden Trio and the teachers behind.

"How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" Umbridge asked.

"Thirty-nine years this December." McGonagall said brusquely as she snapped her bag shut. Umbridge made a little note, while the Gryffindor Head made no acknowledgement.

"Very well, you will receive the results of your inspection in ten days' time." The toad said.

"I can hardly wait." Professor McGonagall deadpanned before walking over to the door. "Hurry up you three."

The Golden Trio left through the door as the Transfiguration Master ushered them out. At that moment, Harry couldn't help but give her a faint smile, one that he could have sworn was returned.

Lunch was greeted enthusiastically by two thirds of the trio, especially by a certain redhead, whose table manners left much to be desired. Their quick appetite left them some extra time before Care of Magical Creatures. Rather than going to the library like Hermione suggested, they ended up joining Neville and Luna in their visit to the Hospital Wing.

To be perfectly honest, Harry was a bit reluctant at first. Their reason for visiting Zidane was, admittedly, more out of curiosity than actual concern. Harry did care for the blonde exchange student, the blonde had helped him in times nobody else would have bothered. As a result, an odd sort of bond had formed between the two. The blonde was… he was like a breath of fresh air in a room that was so stagnant that it made one feel as if they were suffocating. But lately with all the mysteries surrounding the blonde, Harry wasn't sure what to think anymore. The fake Moody and Voldemort's return had done nothing beneficial to his paranoia. It really made him wonder if Zidane too was in some way allied with Voldemort or even the Ministry (as unlikely as it seemed).

Harry was simply torn in two. Should he forget about the secrets and just blissfully continue their friendship, or should he pursue the truth and risk losing any positive relation they may have had.

Ron and Hermione were another story. While both were clearly suspicious of the blonde, they both operated in different ways. Ron was the type to be easily swayed, thus his opinion of the teen could have easily changed from one morning to the next. Hermione however, was more level-headed and unlike Ron, she was not quick to judge people. That wasn't to say that Hermione wasn't capable of paranoia; if she suspected something, she wouldn't stop until finding the truth. Harry knew that her suspicions were driven by sheer curiosity and the desire to learn. It physically pained the girl to NOT know about a certain topic. Though she probably cared about the blonde to some extent, her real reason for going was to satiate her thirst for knowledge.

"Mr. Tribal, you have visitors." Madam Pomfrey called once they were led to one of the beds whose occupant was obscured by several hangings. After a few rustles and a 'come in', Madam Pomfrey ripped the curtains apart and the group was allowed entry.

Harry's imagination was running rampant at this point. They had no idea why Zidane was here, which meant it could have been anything. What he didn't expect however was a cheery-looking completely unscathed Zidane looking back at them with bright cyan eyes. He still looked a bit tired, but it was definitely an improvement from yesterday.

"Hey guys! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at lunch?" Zidane asked. He was clad in a white T-shirt making Harry wonder if there was some sort of warming spell on the blankets that were covering him from below the waist. Strangely enough, he was also wearing his usual white gloves, which, along the crisp white bed sheets and white curtains, gave the golden haired teen an almost surreal look.

Neville was the one that answered, and quickly reproached the blonde (much to everyone's surprise) about making everyone worry. The blonde apologized with a smile that was all too contagious.

"Yeah, why are you here Zidane?" Hermione asked and the blonde rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well I went for a walk yesterday when Dumbledore invited me to come to his office to know how I was doing so far. I guess I must have been really tired because I managed to trip down a set of stairs." The trio shared a knowing look, and if Zidane saw it, he didn't comment on it.

"But you look fine now, why doesn't Madam Pomfrey release you yet?" Neville asked.

"Yes you do look exceptionally well, except for the Nargles, of course." Luna said dreamily, making Hermione rolled her eyes at the mention of the imaginary creatures.

"Well, she did say she would release me this afternoon. But I guess she hasn't done it yet since she wants to make sure I get proper rest first." Zidane said with a shrug.

"Why not just use a potion?" Hermione asked. "A re-vitalizing potion should do just fine."

Zidane shook his head. "I'm allergic to those potions. And besides, sometimes the natural way is the best way."

Hermione seemed to grudgingly accept the answer and after some idle chatter about what happened today, the group of Gryffindors, plus one Ravenclaw said their goodbyes, and then excited the Hospital Wing, heading to their respective classes.

Though Harry expected to see Umbridge again in his detention that day, the Toad had decided to drop in on their Care of Magical Creatures class too, despite Hagrid's continued absence. While Harry was less than amused having the pin-clad woman sniff about like a bloodhound on a hunt, Malfoy and his goons were just giddy at the chance to make the half-giant look bad. Still, Harry took notice of how insistent the Toad was when it came to questioning Hagrid´s whereabouts.

'Well she certainly didn't come here for Professor Grubbly Plank.' Harry thought as he noticed how most of the Toad's questions focused on Hagrid.

After questioning the students at random, Harry had to smile, they certainly made Hagrid proud. There was no way Umbridge could call the half-giant unfit to teach. After the toad asked about any injuries during class, Malfoy wasted no time in bringing up the Buckbeak incident from their third year. The toad woman listened intently and wrote a few notes on her clipboard. After Harry went to protest blaming Malfoy's injuries on his own inability to do what was told, Umbridge simply added another night to his detention.

'Just great.' Harry muttered angrily, his hand burning at the mere thought of writing with those quills again.

….

Zidane was finally released after dinner once the dittany settled in and finished working its magic on his scarred torso. Just like Madam Pomfrey predicted, the scars did not vanish completely, but they had healed to the point that they no longer looked as painful or gruesome as they once did. From a distance, the scars were almost impossible to see. All that was left were patches of lighter-toned shiny skin where the worst of the damage had been.

'And best of all, I'm not sprouting feathers after it.' Zidane thought as he entered the common room.

The first thing he noticed was that Hermione and Ron were talking to Harry, whose left hand was in a bowl filled with something that Zidane did not recognize. At first he was extremely confused. If Harry was somehow treating the injury on his hand, the better question was 'why?'. Zidane had taken care of the Blood Quills, there was no reason as to why Harry would be treating any new injuries. When the genome saw that Harry's other hand look red too, Zidane suddenly realized that it wasn't because of the quills.

'Zidane:5 Umbridge:4. Dammit, it looks like she is finding ways around me. I'll just have to keep up.'

"Hey guys." Zidane greeted and was greeted in return. He then cut to the chase and turned towards the Boy-Who-Lived, putting on a face of confusion and concern. "Harry, what happened to your hands?"

The Golden Trio shared a look, but after apparently judging him 'trustworthy', since he already knew about the detentions, they spilled.

"Well you know what happened during that detention with the toad? When all the quills suddenly stopped working? Well, it happened again with the new ones she got. But instead of letting me go, she made me clean the classroom by scrubbing every inch of it with soap. When I was done my hands were sore and the cuts from the last detention reopened." Harry said with a sigh.

"I still think you should report this. I'm surprised you haven't either, Zidane. What that woman is doing is unacceptable by school rules." Hermione said with exasperation.

"Really? Huh, I just thought that, being from the Ministry and everything, Umbridge wouldn't break rules to punish students." Zidane played along frowning. Before Hermione could reply, he completely switched gears and pointed to the bowl with the questionable liquid that Harry was soaking his hand in. "What's that?"

Hermione looked taken by surprise, but suddenly looked very happy that he had asked. "It's a solution of strained and pickled Murtlap tentacles. It's a bit of a home remedy for cuts, but they will still take time to heal of course."

"Hey Zidane, I was thinking. Could you…I dunno…do that thing you did last time? You know, when you healed it?" Harry asked, and his companions visibly perked up, especially Hermione.

Zidane ran over his options quickly. He wanted to avoid using his normal spells in front of the other two, particularly Hermione since she was a lot sharper about these things. On the other hand, Harry already probably mentioned it to his friends, not to mention it would be odd if he suddenly refused. In reality the only option was clear.

"Sure, why not?" Zidane said and he searched his pockets for his wand. To his luck they were the only ones in the common room at the moment.

He repeated the same steps from last time to make it appear as if he was casting the spell with his wand. Hermione looked at the whole process intently, her expression mixed between curiosity and skepticism. The genome made sure that the random words he muttered under his breath (to make the spell more believable) were far too low for her to hear. The green/white aura once again enveloped his hand and then Harry's own as the spell began working. Soon the spell died down, leaving the genome feeling a bit drained, but on the plus side, Harry's hands were no longer that angry-red color.

"Thanks." Harry said and Zidane just waved his hand in dismissal.

"Anytime. I think I'm going to hit the hay now, so goodnight." Zidane said and walked off towards the dorms.

Ron and Hermione stood looking on in amazement, and in Hermione's case, disbelief.

"How did he do that? Only skilled healers can do that, yet I've never seen Madam Pomfrey use a spell that looked like that!" Hermione protested.

"Maybe the bloke just has a lot of experience." Ron suggested.

"Yeah and maybe spells are different overseas." Harry suggested.

"Maybe you are right." Hermione said, biting her lip, but Harry could see that she was not fully convinced.

…..

Zidane went up stairs after the conversation so he wouldn't have to answer any questions. What the trio didn't know was that he was still listening in to their conversation.

'So I was right, they DO suspect something.' Zidane thought. 'I'll have to be careful, ESPECIALLY around Hermione.'

Their conversation soon turned to Umbridge and the possible reasons as to why her quills stopped working. As Hermione said, one time could have easily been a coincidence, but twice was more unlikely. There was definitely something fishy.

"She's an awful woman." Hermione said in a small voice that cut through the silence that had settled between the three. "Awful. You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in…we've got to do something about her."

Zidane's head perked up to the new information.

"I suggest poison." Ron said grimly and the blonde silently agreed.

"No… I mean, something about what a dreadful teacher she is, and how we are not going to learn any Defence from her at all." Hermione said, her tone serious.

"Well, what can we do about that? It's too late, isn't it? She's got the job, she's here to stay. Fudge'll make sure of that." Ron said with a yawn.

"Well, I was thinking today." Hermione said, and judging by her pause, Zidane knew she was slightly nervous. "I was thinking that…maybe the time's come when we should just…do it ourselves."

"Do what ourselves?" Harry asked, suspicion laced his voice.

"Well, learn Defence Against the Dark Arts ourselves." Hermione said and the eavesdropping genome suddenly realized what she was getting at. It seemed like a pretty innocent idea, but Zidane could find various ways it could backfire.

Ron and Harry both protested at first, Hermione going far as claiming it was more important than homework, a statement that seemed almost blasphemous to her persona. Suddenly her voice was filled with the same enthusiasm she had shown when she had spent hours explaining SPEW to him.

"We've gone past the stage where we can just learn things out of books. We need a teacher, a proper one, who can show us how to use the spells and correct us if we're going wrong." Hermione said. By now Zidane had a pretty good idea where this was going, too bad Harry didn't.

"If you are talking about Lupin…" Harry began, but Hermione shook her head. Zidane agreed, Lupin was far too busy and wouldn't be able to show up most of the time, not to mention Umbridge would likely target him, thereby hindering his actions to help the Order in whatever it is they actually did most of the time.

"Who then?" Harry asked and Hermione heaved a very long sigh.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione said. "I'm talking about you, Harry."

There was a moment of silence until Harry answered as if he had somehow heard wrong. Zidane silently sighed, this was going to be troublesome. When Ron joined Hermione's side, suggesting the same, Harry just gave a laugh as if it was all just a giant joke, because surely his friends were messing with him.

"But I'm not a teacher, I can't-"

"Harry, you're the best in the year in Defence Against the Dark Arts." Hermione said seriously.

"No, I'm not. You've beaten me in every test." The scarred boy shot back.

"Actually, I haven't." Hermione said. "You beat me in third year, the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew what he was doing. But I'm not talking about results. Think about what you have done!"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

Zidane sighed, it was pretty obvious after all. Even he had heard of all the feats Harry had accomplished in his rather short life. Harry however, wasn't very happy to hear them. Zidane could almost feel the boy's temper flaring even if he couldn't see the trio from where he stood.

"Listen to me!" Harry said angrily. "Just listen to me, all right? It sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I didn't plan any of it. I just did whatever I could think of, and I nearly always had help-"

Harry was cut off from his words, and Zidane didn't really know why, but soon the boy started his rant again.

"Don't sit there grinning like you know better than I do, I was there, wasn't I? I know what went on alright?" The scarred boy said heatedly, and Zidane felt a bit of sympathy. " I didn't get through any of that because I'm brilliant at DADA, I got through it all because- because help came at the right time, or because I guessed right. But I just blundered through it all, I didn't have a clue of what I was doing. STOP LAUGHING!"

A sound of breaking porcelain followed and Zidane winced at the sound. If that didn't wake up Gryffindor Tower nothing else would.

"You don't know what it's like! Neither of you!" The green-eyed boy continued in a smaller voice.

He spoke about what it was like to actually face death and survive through it. Zidane just thought about his own experiences and he agreed with Harry. Feats like that sounded amazing until you were actually living them. But it was for that reason why he found himself siding more with Hermione. If this world was going to face a war soon, then they needed to learn. Had he gotten more preparation for their journey, he would have certainly gotten hurt a lot less. Many more lives could have been saved too. Just like Harry, his group had been extremely lucky at times. Surviving the crash of the Prima Vista in the Evil Forest, getting out of Cleyra right before it was destroyed by Odin, getting out of Terra right before it was also destroyed, too; it had all been luck and good timing. It was for that exact same reason that he had decided to learn magic.

"Harry," Hermione said, her voice timid. "Don't you see? This…this is exactly why we need you…we need to know what it's r-really like…facing him…facing V-Voldemort."

There was a pause of shocked silence. Zidane had never heard Hermione call the evil wizard by name, even though he had only been here a relatively short time. But based on the reaction of her friends, it seemed that they had never heard her say his name either.

"Well…think about it…please?" Hermione said trying to make her stricken voice seem natural. With a small sigh, she got up from her seat, her footsteps echoing on the stone floor. "I'm heading off to bed, 'night."

Zidane gave a small sigh, and seeing as the conversation was over, he too headed off to bed. Instead of facing a dreamless sleep like he had during his stay at the Hospital Wing, Zidane once again found himself in that vast field. Walking through the tall grass Zidane made his way to the only landmark that existed in this odd world, a lush tree with vibrant green leaves. Standing under it was an unmistakable figure clad in white and orange.

"Dagger…"

The young queen turned around and faced him, a smile graced her lips, and her expression turned into one of joy…and relief?

"Zidane!"

To be continued…

…

A/N: Madam Pomfrey would later come to reconsider the ancient practice of charming unruly patients to their hospital beds.

Also, have I ever mentioned how much I love McGonagall?

Potion names and other magical substances are canon. Any questions or comments, just review or PM me, and I'll try to get back to you. See you guys next week!