Blood From A Stone Chapter 13 - Toil and Trouble, a harry potter fanfic

A/N: I'm glad people said that they like long chapters because this one came out ssuuppeerr long! Hope you like it :)

Warning(s): violence, descriptions of illness and injuries/blood, panic attacks

Chapter 13 - Toil and Trouble

Harry had the honor of dragging James and Sirius out of bed bright and early on Sunday. With an evil smirk, he lured Perdita, who'd been curled up with him on his bed, over to Sirius'. Once he convinced the cat to jump up on the slumbering boy's bed, Harry just stepped back and let nature take its course. After hesitantly leaning down and taking a suspicious sniff around Sirius' blanket covered feet, the cat crouched low, sticking her butt up in the air and giving it a little wiggle, before pouncing on her unsuspecting, slumbering victim.

Sirius let out an undignified, high pitched shriek, scrambling to get away from whatever was attacking him. It was a good thing that Harry had taken a few steps back as Sirius soon came tumbling out of his bed in a tangle of sheets and limbs. He hit the floor with a thunk and eventually extracted his head from the impressive knot he'd managed to tie himself in. Glaring up at the cackling Harry, hair completely disheveled to the point of rivaling Harry and James' own bedhead, Sirius looked almost beyond words.

"You…" He growled, only for Perdita to hop down gracefully off of his bed, landing softly next to the boy on the floor, causing Sirius to jump and scoot a little further away.

"Who's a good kitty!" Harry cooed in an overly sweet, cheery voice.

"What the bloody hell is going on over there," James groaned from his own bed.

Mission accomplished, Harry grinned to himself. "Oh, Perdita was just saying goodbye to Padfoot- you know how sad she is to see him go," Harry said innocently.

"Bloody cat," Sirius muttered, flicking his blankets at Perdita, eliciting a threatening hiss and a swat from her.

"Come on James- you have to get up too," Harry called over to him. "Or do I need to set Pyrrhus on you to drag you out of bed?" He threatened jokingly.

James' eyes snapped open and he immediately sat upright, his mind flashing back to the night that Pyrrhus had woken him up. He did not want to relive anything like that ever again. Harry was a little shocked that his silly half threat had been so effective, but he brushed it off, just glad that it looked like James was actually going to get up without requiring more prompting.

The boys all got ready, tucking the last few things into their trunks, before shuffling out into the kitchen.

"Oh, good- you all are up. I was just about to come and get you boys myself," Mrs. Potter said, eyeing the sleepy teens. "I hope they did not give you too much trouble, Harry," she said with a grin.

"Nothing Perdita and I couldn't handle," Harry assured her, the little cat rubbing up against his leg as he spoke.

Looking down fondly, Mrs. Potter said, "I think she is going to miss you."

"What- are you jealous that your 'precious baby' has been cheating on you with Bambi?" James teased.

Mrs. Potter huffed, turning around to mess with something on the stove, muttering, "She can spend time with whomever she likes."

"That is a 'yes'," Mr. Potter said from his spot at the table, an amused smile on his face.

"I'm sure I'm just a novelty," Harry tried to comfort Mrs. Potter, even as Perdita jumped up to sit in his lap at the table.

When Mrs. Potter turned back around, her eyes softened as her gaze fell on the boy and her cat. "I'm just glad you two got along so well. I was a little worried we were going to have another Sirius on our hands when James mentioned bringing another friend home…"

"Hey!" Sirius protested.

"You know we love you- but can you honestly say that this house- let alone this world- really needs- or could withstand- a second one of you?" Mrs. Potter asked flatly.

"Never fear, Mia- I am one of a kind," Sirius grinned.

"Seriously," Mr. Potter joked, causing Sirius' smile to widen and Mrs. Potter to roll her eyes.

"You lot eat up before my generosity runs out and I change my mind about feeding you," Mrs. Potter told them as she sent breakfast floating over to the table.

As they all loaded back into the car again, Harry took one last long look at Potter Manor. He distantly wondered what had come of it back in his own time? Had it been decimated, like his parents' house in Godric's Hollow? Or sold off? Or seized by the bank? Harry added that to the ever-growing list of questions that needed answers once he made it back.

The drive into London passed much as their drive out to Dover had- rather peacefully. The sun slowly rose as they made their way north, causing the countryside to glow and glisten with morning dew. Harry drank it all in with a fond smile as they pleasantly chatted throughout the drive. When they arrived at King's Cross, Mr. Potter dropped the boys out front with the luggage as he and Mrs. Potter went and parked the car. They had made sure to leave a sizable buffer in their schedule, just in case they ran into any trouble, so they still had plenty of extra time before the boys needed to be on the train. Harry, Sirius, and James waited for the Potters to rejoin them and then together they all headed into the station. They found a little coffee shop where they could wait until it was time to head over to the platform. A businessman kindly switched tables so that they could combine two next to each other and all sit together.

As James and his father went to get everyone drinks, Harry, Sirius, and Mrs. Potter took their seats at the newly formed table.

"So, is there anything you boys are looking forward to this term?" Mrs. Potter asked.

"No," Sirius said dismally, clearly not over the moon about having to head back to school.

"I'm just excited that Care of Magical Creature class is going to be held inside for a bit," Harry gave a little shiver at the thought of spending three hours out on the grounds in the dead of the scottish winter.

"But how will you manage to continue growing your harem of little forest creatures?" Sirius asked innocently.

Harry kicked him under the table. "I don't have a 'harem'," Harry hissed before smirking, "Besides, I didn't need to leave the castle to find Pyrrhus. I'm sure I'll manage just fine, thank you."

As James and Mr. Potter returned with the drinks, Mr. Potter asked, "What are you boys talking about?"

"Harry's harem," Sirius supplied, earning another kick and a glare from Harry along with a raised eyebrow from Mr. Potter.

"I'm going to ban you from using my name when you speak, one of these days," Harry said menacingly.

"You can't do that!" Sirius said confidently. "Free will Bambi, free will."

"Oh? You really don't think a curse exists exactly for such a purpose? Trust me- it's only a matter of how long it takes me to find it, not if I will…" Harry said in a terrifyingly calm voice.

"Merlin, Pads- we weren't even gone for five minutes! How'd you manage to piss him off so royally in such a short amount of time?" James asked in awe.

"Mad skills," Sirius smiled, leaning back in his seat.

At thirty minutes till the train departed, the Potter clan and company made their way to platform 9¾. As they navigated their way through the crowd, Harry couldn't help noticing the familiar sensation of people staring at him. He knew he was likely to draw a few looks, seeing as he was still limping around using his crutch, but the number of people he caught outright staring at him was a little jarring. Do wizards just completely lack any and all tact? Honestly, probably. Harry did his best to ignore the looks while James, Sirius, and Mr. Potter loaded their trunks onto the train. The boys all said their final goodbyes to the Potter parents, Harry thanking them one last time for their kindness and hospitality and even getting another hug from Mrs. Potter, before they climbed onto the quickly filling train.

The three boys made their way slowly down the cars, looking for Remus who was usually the first of their group to board the train- ever punctual and not daring to risk missing it. They found him a little over halfway down, Peter having already joined him. As the last three boys entered the compartment, the others greeted them happily. Remus was looking a lot better than the last time Harry had seen him, much to his relief. The cuts on his face had healed nicely- though, the claw marks still had that slightly fresh, red tinge to them that had not yet faded to a proper scar. As they all sat down, Harry caught sight of another student walking down the aisle of the train pausing outside of their compartment door to stare at Harry for a second through the window.

"Okay-" Harry said, a bit testily, "Is it just my imagination, or are people staring at me?"

"They're probably just surprised to see you," Peter said with a shrug. Dragging his now confused gaze from where he'd been glaring at the window back around to his friend's, Harry caught sight of James and Sirius' slightly guilty faces just as Peter gasped, "You didn't tell him?!"

"Tell me what," Harry bit out dangerously.

"Uhh- There, uh, may've been a rumor going around at the end of last term that you died again," James said rather quickly.

Now, it was Harry's turn to stare. "You can't be serious," he said in an unamused voice. Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but James hit him before he got any words out, effectively shutting him up. Harry dropped his head into his hand and rubbed at his brow. Why was the whole damn school so bloody eager to kill him off?! Harry muttered to himself, "They're gonna start calling me The-Boy-Who-Fucking-Died, at this rate." You'd think the entire student body was in league with Voldy the way they kept willing him to finally get finished off.

"What?" James asked, not sure he actually caught what Harry had said.

"Nothing," Harry brushed off, straightening up. "This is going to be a fun start to term," he said bleakly. As another person paused outside of their compartment, Harry leaned over and sharply pulled the shade down, blocking their view.

"And this is why I didn't tell you," James declared. "No use in you being pissy about it all break."

The train ride passed surprisingly quickly with the friends all catching up and sharing stories about their breaks. Peter and his mum had apparently gone on a mini holiday, staying at a friend's cottage out at the beach. Since the full moon had been on Christmas day that year, Remus had had more of a quiet, family Christmas at home. The boys all chatted and laughed at one another's anecdotes the entire way to Hogwarts.

Once the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station, the students began spilling out onto the platform. There was an immediately noticeable shift in the mood as they made their way to the carriages. Harry noted not only an increase in the number of teachers present, but also a couple of undercover aurors. Or, at least, he assumed that's who the random adults scattered around the platform and path were. If you didn't know any better, they looked as though they were just more teachers, but Harry was fairly confident that he'd never seen any of them up at the staff table before. Apparently, they were taking security much more seriously after the Hogsmeade attack. It kind of reminded Harry of the measures that had been implemented at the beginning of this year back in his own time. He was just glad to be catching the carriages with the rest of the students this time around.

Or he was, until James and Sirius had to literally lift him into the carriage. The unfortunate combination of his short stature and lingering injuries along with the- in Harry's opinion- wildly, impractically high step to climb up into the carriage made the feat impossible to manage on his own, much to his embarrassment.

"Just be glad you're light, Bambi. We'd've left Peter's fat arse behind," Sirius teased.

Harry just let out a huff as Peter shouted an indignant, "Hey!"

Remus just rolled his eyes. Why did he miss these idiots again?

Disembarking from the carriage entailed a similarly humiliating process, but one he was on level ground again, Harry could manage just fine on his own as they made their way up into the castle. The Great Hall was bustling with activity and Harry could hear the whispers breaking out as he walked past, but he steadfastly ignored them as he made his way down the Gryffindor table, looking for a free spot with his friends.

"Harry! Remus!" Lily had jumped up from her spot a little ways along the table and was waving them down. She quickly abandoned her seat and rushed over to greet them, the rest of the 6th year girls trailing close behind her. She pulled each of them into a quick hug before saying, "It's so good to see you- we were so worried. I mean, James told us you were okay- or, at least, going to be okay. But then we didn't get to see you and-" She broke off to draw in a breath, looking them both over, taking in Remus' marred face and the way Harry was still leaning on his crutch. "I'm just really glad to see you all," Lily said finally, her eyes roaming past Harry and Remus to the rest of the boys as well.

After a round of greetings, the Gryffindor 6th years all made their way down to where the girls had been sitting and, for the first time since Harry had arrived, they didn't sit with the girls on one side and guys on the other. Instead, Lily sat between Harry and James and across from them were Gretta, Remus, and Milli. Sirius was on Harry's other side while Haleigh and Peter sat next to Milli. They all began chatting, exchanging the same stories that they had on the train with the newcomers of each respective group. After maybe twenty minutes, up at the staff table, Professor Dumbledore rose, sending a hush through the hall.

"Good evening Hogwarts! And welcome back! It truly warms my heart to see everyone returned, safe and sound. There are things to discuss- but not right now. I know better than to get between a couple hundred hungry teenagers and their dinner, so eat up!" He clapped, eyes twinkling as food suddenly appeared on the tables. Dumbledore tucked himself into his throne-like chair and began merily assembling his own plate, starting up a conversation with Professor McGonagall next to him.

"That was a little weird…" Harry said hesitantly.

"I don't know- he really does have a lot of explaining to do," said Gretta as she grabbed the potatoes.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, he didn't really tell us anything after the attack at the end of last term. That night, he just announced that all Hogwarts students were 'accounted for', that exams were canceled, and that we were all going home early, so we should contact our families. Then we were just sent off to our houses and kept there until we left. I think that's why the rumors got so bad so fast. And of course all of the parents were freaking out. Hogwarts was supposed to be the safest place on earth, but then they see in the newspaper that their children are being mauled in the streets. That's not a very good look on the school," Gretta explained.

"My parents didn't want me coming back this term," Haleigh said quietly. "Only after I spent all holiday begging them to let me return and that letter went out about 'increased security' around the school, did they finally give in. But, I mean, how on earth am I supposed to learn to defend myself against things like Hellhounds if they pull me out of bloody school?! Besides- it's not like home is any safer at this point." She ended adamantly.

"Fear makes people irrational," Remus pointed out.

"Well, they shouldn't get to make irrational decisions about my life," she pointed out angrily.

"I'm just glad that my folks don't get the Daily Prophet," Lily said. "It was hard enough to spin the notification letter about security around school as 'just a precaution' to my parents. I honestly don't know what they would've done if they'd found out the truth of what'd happened. Because they're not used to magic, a lot of the unknowns of the wizarding world scare them, but at the same time, they don't even really know who You-Know-Who is, you know?" She received some thoughtful nods. With a snort, she added, "My bloody sister overheard my parents talking about it and she started going off about how Hogwarts must be full of criminals if they need to up security- like a prison." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Hogwart's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Children," Harry snorted, earning a raised eyebrow from Lily. But he could hear Petunia's shrill voice ringing inside of his head, ranting about how to deal with 'certain elements in society' and he just couldn't help himself.

"Yeah… What about you guys? Did your parents give you any trouble?" She asked the guys.

"Nah-" James said casually. "My parents are diehard Dumbledore supporters. They'd let us go to the moon if they knew he'd be there."

"Mine too," Remus said simply.

"My mum wanted me to learn and the only place I can do that is Hogwarts," Peter shrugged.

"I think McGonagall is technically in charge of me…" Harry said thoughtfully. "It'd be pretty awkward if she didn't want me at Hogwarts." That earned some amused snorts.

They moved on to slightly lighter topics as the meal progressed. At one point, Harry was wrestling with his chicken breast, trying to cut it down into at least somewhat manageable pieces, which was still a bit of a task with his right hand lacking any sense of fine motor skills. Lily, who'd noticed his struggle, opened her mouth and began reaching her hand out to offer to help, but James nudged her purposefully with his elbow and gave a subtle shake of his head. He knew cutting his own food had been one of those stupid little things about his injury that had really rubbed Harry the wrong way. Allowing him to struggle a little without comment in order to let him maintain some sense of independence was a small way that he felt like he could help his friend with this shitty situation. So he waved Lily off when he saw her about to step in. Luckily, she's quick on the uptake and didn't try and push back. She just trusted him on this one.

As the empty dessert plates vanished from the tables, Dumbledore rose once again. "Another lovely meal to start what will hopefully be a lovely term." He beamed out over the hall. "Now, as I mentioned, there are things to be discussed, so I will beg your attention for just a few moments more. First and foremost- in regard to the Hogsmeade attack at the end of last term- I am glad to report that there were no Hogwarts fatalities." Harry noted his careful phrasing of that sentence. "Thanks to the bravery of many witches and wizards that day, the damage- while awful- was limited. Lord Voldemort and his supporters engineered this attack to stoke fear by aiming a blow at the very heart of the wizarding world- our future." Gasps and muttering broke out around the hall when the Headmaster used You-Know-Who's real name. Harry rolled his eyes. "You, the young, who are just getting ready to set out and make your mark on the world, are our future. So I now encourage you to consider what you wish that mark to be. As future voters and policy makers and thought leaders- what kind of world do you want to make for yourselves? I can only hope that it is not one filled with vengeance and fear, but rather love and unity. One where something like the events of last term will never be a concern for your own future children. As an educational institution, it is our role to impart facts and skills and lessons, but what you choose to do with them once you leave Hogwarts' walls- that is up to you. I implore you now- choose thoughtfully, choose wisely, and choose carefully. For these decisions that you make now, you make not only for yourself, but for the world," he said gravely.

A heavy silence blanketed the hall for a moment that seemed to stretch on without end until Dumbledore picked up again, in a cheery tone that just about gave Harry whiplash, "Now, onto more practical matters for the term. You may have seen the notes that were sent out, notifying parents and guardians of some new security measures that will be taken at Hogwarts this term. I want to assure you that the wards around the school have been reinforced and are stronger than ever. The Ministry has also lent us a couple of aurors that will be patrolling the grounds and castle intermittently in addition to the regular staff patrols. I will request that you not interfere with their work or pester them if you see them around the school. Let them do their jobs as they help ensure that you can do yours. And lastly, though I suspect this may not come as a shock to most, all remaining Hogsmeade weekends are canceled until further notice." There were a handful of grumbles heard around the hall, but most students honestly looked relieved at the news. Harry suspected that almost anyone who was there that day would have self-imposed a Hogsmeade ban if the school had not gone and made it official. "I thank you all in advance for your cooperation and compliance with these measures. Now- off to bed!" Dumbledore dismissed them.

Loud scraping filled the hall as benches were pushed back and students began trickling out of the hall, heading towards their dormitories. The Gryffindor 6th years hung back, sadly used to the routine of waiting out the end-of-meal stampede so that Harry wouldn't get trampled on his crutches.

"I actually have to head to the hospital wing, so you guys can go ahead without me," Harry told the others that had all hung back with him.

"Are you feeling okay?" Lily asked, turning concerned eyes on Harry.

"I'm fine," he said quickly. "I just have to check in with Pomfrey. She swore I'd be banned from classes if I didn't come see her first," Harry said exasperatedly. "I'm just hoping I can finally ditch the crutch." He eyed the offending object distastefully.

"We don't mind a detour to the hospital wing," shrugged Gretta.

"You really don't have to-" Harry began, but Sirius cut him off.

Gently bumping his shoulder into Harry's, he teased, "You can't get rid of us that easy, Bambi. You'd think he was trying to ditch us or something," Sirius said, leaning forward to give James an incredulous look.

Looking around, Harry quickly saw that resistance was futile, so he let out a sigh and pulled himself to his feet, seeing that the crowds had greatly thinned. They all made their way slowly up to the fourth floor, James helping Harry up the stairs. It was really the only place that Harry was still having so much trouble with getting around. Since he still couldn't really use his right hand to grab and lean on the railing or anything, there just wasn't a good way for him to maintain his balance on them. But eventually, the group made it to their destination.

Madam Pomfrey was momentarily overwhelmed when she saw a large group of students push through the doors of the infirmary. Not again- was the thought that flashed through her mind as she recalled the last time so many people had flooded into her wing. But the next second, she recognized the group for what it was- an escort, not patients. A slightly irritated looking Harry emerged from the cluster and greeted her with a small smile.

"I'm glad you could make it, even if you brought half the school with you," Pomfrey remarked.

"They seemed concerned that I wouldn't be able to find the place on my own," Harry told bemusedly.

"More like they didn't trust you to actually make it all the way here without finding some fresh trouble," Pomfrey said knowingly, as she motioned Harry over to have a seat on one of the beds. The rest of the Gryffindors settled themselves on the first few beds by the doors, seemingly content to just hang out while Harry and Pomfrey chatted.

Pomfrey started off with her usual spells that she'd been running at every check in so far. Then she moved on to physically testing Harry's arm and leg strength. She gave him a slightly impressed look and he said, "I actually did the exercises you assigned- imagine that," as if the concept was mind-blowing.

"Good. Just keep that up and you may be rid of me sooner rather than later, young man," Pomfrey told him. "Now, do you want to start with the arm or the leg?" She asked, knowing by now that Harry responded more positively when he felt like he had a bit of control.

"Arm," he said quickly- it was definitely his larger concern.

"Okay. Well, you've actually done a pretty good job so far with building up a little muscle, but the dexterity will still take some time yet. We'll be adding in some new exercises to help with that, but simple things like practicing picking up small objects can go a long way. In the meantime though, I'm afraid things like holding your wand will still be a struggle, so I am going to recommend that you practice your spellwork with your left hand for now. I know it may feel unnatural and be a bit more difficult, but with a little extra work, I'm sure you'll be able to cast just as well. As for writing- if you cannot hold a wand, then you definitely cannot hold a quill- so I am going to issue you a Dicta-Quill. It is essentially a voice activated, self-inking quill that will write down whatever the user says. It will be keyed into just your voice, so that no one else might be tempted to use it," Pomfrey said, throwing a look over towards his dormmates. "It activates with the incantation 'scribo' and deactivates with 'scripsi". Unfortunately, such a device cannot be used during lecture, so you will be allowed to just borrow notes and alternative arrangements may need to be made for exams, but your professors will be notified of this accommodation. Any questions about any of that?" She asked, looking down at him.

"Still a lefty, fancy quill- I think I got it," Harry said.

"As for your leg- assuming you are comfortable with it- I am thinking that you might be ready to trade out the crutch-" Harry made a little celebratory gesture, "for a cane."

Harry's face fell. "What?!"

"A cane, dear," Pomfrey repeated. "They are generally considered to be much easier to use as long as the injury is weight bearing and it will be much less cumbersome."

"But I'm sixteen, not sixty!"

Harry's ire was attracting the attention of the rest of the Gryffindors. James leaned over to Sirius and said, "Looks like Bambi's feathers are getting a little ruffled. I think it's your turn to talk him down."

"I think that's a mixed metaphor mate-" Sirius told him. "And why is it my turn?"

"Because you were the last one to piss him off," James said confidently.

"Nu-uh!" Sirius stated, shaking his head. "I pissed him off at the station- you pissed him off on the train," he said smugly.

"Woe, woe, woe- don't shoot the messenger! The school pissed him off on the train- I was just the bearer of bad news. News which you were also privy to, mind you. I maintain- it's your turn," James stated firmly. Sirius huffed, but had apparently run out of argument. The others, who'd been eavesdropping, did their best to stifle their laughs at the ridiculous conversation.

"I know how old you are, Harry. And this doesn't have to be such a big deal. It will only be temporary. We will check in again after a week and see how things are progressing," Pomfrey tried to reassure Harry.

"But what about practical lessons? What about Defense? I've already basically lost a month in that class because every lesson involves being on your feet and moving. Trust me- you can only learn so much watching people learn how to defend themselves," Harry told her imploringly.

Pomfrey let out a sigh. She had known that this conversation wasn't going to be easy. "As long as you are not in a lot of pain, then you may still stand and participate. But you must understand that your mobility doesn't change just because you want it to. It's just going to take a little time and some incremental steps to get you back to full strength on all fronts." Pomfrey really was trying to be fair. She knew how much this whole situation sucked for Harry and Pomfrey took a second to remind herself that if he'd really wanted to, Harry could be making this all much harder on both of them, so she did her best to give him a little grace. After taking a deep breath, she reminded him, "Harry- I am just going to ask you to keep in mind that you are lucky to be alive, and walking, and to still have an arm after what happened. If you can survive all of that, then what can another week or two with a cane really hurt? Your pride will survive this too. And I think you might find that most people other than you will not care about the cane. Everyone is so wrapped up in their own heads and drama that they barely spare half a thought for the rest of the world." She gave him a small smile.

Harry let out a sigh, scrubbing his hand across his face. "I know," he said finally. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry, Harry. I know this has been a lot. This whole year has been a lot for you and, all things considered, I think you are handling it remarkably well."

Harry returned her small smile at that before his expression turned nervous. "But- uhh- what about quidditch?" He asked hesitantly.

Merlin save her from quidditch-obsessed students, Pomfrey lamented in her head. If the matron had one wish, it would be to ban that infernal game from the entire wizarding world- or at the very least, Hogwarts. She contemplated her answer carefully, knowing this was a very touchy subject before taking a breath and cautiously wading into the more volatile waters. "I would say that flying might be on the table in a couple of weeks. Quidditch, however, will need to be a discussion with your captain. Like I said before, the fine motor skills in your right hand will likely take a while to rebuild fully. As a result, it might be very hard to catch the snitch. Now, you could always use your left hand, but that will objectively limit you in some ways. It will be up to your captain if they want to keep you on through your recovery as essentially a one-handed seeker or not." It was a bit blunt, but it needed to be said.

To Pomfrey's surprise though, instead of looking upset at the news, Harry's face was set in determination. All Harry had heard was that he just needed to convince Beth that he made a better seeked with one hand tied behind his back than anyone else in Gryffindor did with two at their disposal. Call him cocky, but he was pretty sure that he could do it.

Embracing Harry's unexpected attitude, Pomfrey quickly walked him through some new exercises before producing the cane for Harry. She stood him up and shrunk it down to his proper size before having him walk around the wing a little to get used to the new motion. Not that Harry would admit it out loud, but it was a lot easier to use than his crutch. But it also made him feel like some kind of Lucious Malfoy wannabe or something, which he did not care for. So he just did his best not to look like a pompous prat as he walked around.

Pomfrey finally released Harry to head back to Gryffindor tower for the night, Dicta-Quill in pocket and cane in hand. Despite the matorn's peptalk, Harry couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed as he limped his way down the corridor.

"Cheer up, Bambi-" Sirius told him, "At least you finally got to ditch the crutch! You're moving on up in the world." He clapped Harry on the back, but only earned a grunt in response. "I'm sure Lily can help you charm it all pretty if you'd like," Sirius offered.

"I'm not sure I want to know what you mean by 'all pretty'," Harry said warily, shooting a glance at Sirius out of the corner of his eye.

James stepped forward past Sirius, thumping him upside the back of the head as he did so, and said, "I think what he meant was that it could look pretty badass."

"Yeah," Milli put in. "You could go classic black, maybe with a silver handle- or Gryffindor red."

"How about invisible?" Harry said dryly. But he knew putting a Disillusionment charm on it was just asking for trouble. Harry would likely just lose the thing and then he'd have a lot of explaining to do with Madam Pomfrey.

"Hey- you lot!" An unfamiliar voice echoed down the corridor. Their group stopped, everyone looking around for who had yelled at them. A man appeared from around one of the corners that they'd just passed and came to stand right in front of the Gryffindors. He wasn't a very tall man, but he had broad shoulders and a stocky build. His face was round and looked a bit young, but it was hidden behind a thick, bushy beard. "What are you doing wandering the corridors so late?" He demanded, arms folded firmly across his chest. Harry thought it might've been an attempt to look intimidating, though he wasn't so sure it was working. He kind of looked like a pouting gopher.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Sirius sneered.

"Auror Monroe," he said returning Sirius' tone. "Now, answer the question."

"We were just in the hospital wing, sir," Lily jumped in before Sirius managed to get them all arrested or something. "We are heading back to our common room now." She spoke in a polite tone, but Monroe did not look impressed.

"All of you?" He asked skeptically.

Harry pushed his way forward, deciding to get a handle on the situation. "Sorry, sir. It was my fault. I needed to see the matron and my housemates here were just accompanying me. After all, it is safer to travel in a large group, right?" Harry walked a thin line between looking innocent and essentially daring the man to contradict him.

"Right," the auror said slowly, giving Harry an appraising look, taking in his small stature and cane. "What exactly is wrong with you, boy?" He asked gruffly.

Well, that was an extremely rude question, Harry thought. But he masterfully maintained his composure. "I was attacked by one of the Hellhounds last term, sir." Harry bit out the honorific. The man gave him a dubious look- to him, Harry didn't look like he could withstand a strong breeze, let alone a Hellhound. So Harry reached over and pulled up his right sleeve, displaying the large and gruesome, but clear, bite mark on his arm. "Got me in the leg too," he said as he put the cane back down, leaning into a bit more than was strictly necessary. "You can check with Madam Pomfrey if you don't believe us- we were all with her not five minutes ago," Harry offered, motioning back towards the hospital wing.

Monroe stared Harry down as he said, "Well, you lot better get moving if you want to make it back to your common room before curfew."

As if he wasn't the very reason that they were delayed! "Yes, sir," Harry said obediently, but he waited for the man to step aside out of their way before continuing down the hallway.

After they had made two more turns, Sirius burst, "What an absolute tosser! That little twit! Who does he think he is?!"

"Auror Monroe," Harry supplied blandly, also not impressed by the school's new 'security measures'.

"We aren't even breaking curfew yet," Gretta pointed out indignantly.

"Welcome to the new Hogwarts era of stop and frisk policing, I guess," Harry shrugged.

"Of what?" James asked, confusedly.

Harry sighed. "It's the muggle term for when law enforcement can just go about harassing anyone they like- no probable cause necessary," he explained. "And he could've been less of a dick about it," Harry added more to himself.

"Where does he get off-?" Sirius began again, but Harry's anger was getting the better of him and he cut Sirius off.

"I'm so glad the Ministry sent some pillock on a power trip here to shake down children. They really have their eye on the bigger picture don't they?" He spat. Harry didn't like being accused of things- particularly when he wasn't even guilty. "I'll eat my right shoe if that guy can find the handle end of his wand if a Death Eater were to actually attack. Fuck-all help he'll be," Harry ranted.

"No arguments here, mate," James said, raising his arms in the air. "Shit hits the fan, I'm finding you, not him- or any other prat in red robes."

"And isn't that depressing?" Harry said. "What kind of shite system are we living in where someone's left to believe that their best defense against a Dark Lord and his deranged followers is a sixteen-year-old with only two out of four working limbs over someone whose actual job description is taking down dark wizards and is literally paid to do it? That's kind of fucked up," Harry remarked. "And for the record- shit hits the fan, I'm finding Flitwick. World Championship duelist, remember? Knocked Fortin on her arse- twice. I duel to survive, but he duels to win. And trust me- winning is way better."

"What's the difference?" Asked Peter.

"It's a completely different mindset, and strategy. Like- I'd wager his duels are a lot shorter than mine because he plays a much more offensive game. It's about taking calculated risks to get the upper hand on your opponent. Whereas when I duel, literally the only thought in my brain is 'don't die'. As a result, my strategy is much more evasive and defense-based. Eventually, in order to 'not die', I still have to take down my opponent, but that is never actually at the top of my priority list. I'm more waiting for them to slip up so that I can capitalize on it than actively trying to gain the upper hand, you know?" Harry said.

"Blimey. You really should teach a seminar or something," Sirius shook his head.

Harry flushed slightly, not having realized that he'd been slipping into lecture mode by accident. "Sorry," he said, embarrassedly.

"Don't be sorry," Lily chided. "I asked you to teach us weeks ago!"

Harry considered that for a moment before asking, "Would you still really be interested in extra dueling practice?"

Lily gasped, "Yes!"

Harry cast a sideways glance at James and Sirius. "Do you guys think you could find us somewhere safe to practice?"

Matching grins spread across their faces. "Aye, aye, captain!" Sirius declared, which Harry took as a 'yes'.

"Now, I make no grand promises or anything, but at the very least, getting a few more practice duels under our belts couldn't hurt, right?" Harry turned around to properly face the group. "And I'm assuming that extracurricular dueling is frowned upon by the staff, so I won't fault anyone for not wanting to participate, but I will at least request that you don't turn us in to 'Auror Monroe'." Harry said the name with contempt. Everyone nodded eagerly, all apparently onboard. "Okay then." Harry turned back around to face the fat lady, but then turned his head back to ask, "Erh- does anyone know the password?"

Thankfully, Lily was able to supply the new password and they all entered into the common room. As their large group dissipated, splitting off to go catch up with other friends or head up to bed seeing as classes were starting bright and early the next day, Harry's eyes were scanning the room.

"Does anyone see Beth?" He asked the guys who were still standing around him.

James and Sirius shared a nervous look. They both knew how much Harry loved playing quidditch and it bloody sucked that he was gonna have to give it up- at least for a little while. "Mate- are you sure you wanna deal with that tonight?" James asked with a sympathetic look in his eye.

Harry raised an eyebrow at James' pitying look. "You underestimate me. I just have to convince her that I make a better seeker one-handed then her next best option does with two hands. Or did you forget that I hurt my wrist during tryouts and was basically playing left handed the whole second half that day anyway?" Judging by the look on his face, James had indeed forgotten that little tidbit. "Pomfrey said that she'd probably let me fly again in a week or two, so I just have to convince her not to give me the official boot until then. So, I ask again, does anyone see Beth?" Harry insisted.

"She's over by the bookshelves," Remus offered. As he stood nearly a full head above basically everyone else, he definitely had the best vantage point.

"Thanks!" Harry said and he set off in the indicated direction. Sure enough, he found Beth sitting in an armchair nestled in the back corner by the bookshelves where she was chatting with another 7th year girl. They paused their conversation when they noticed his approach. "Hey, Beth- can I, uh, talk to you real quick?" He asked.

She looked at him a little sadly, but said, "Sure." Beth's friend quickly got up and offered Harry her chair. He tried to decline, but she insisted, saying that she was about to head off to bed anyway. Wishing Beth a good night, she left and Harry took up her empty spot. "I'm sorry about what happened, Harry. But I'm glad that you're back on your feet," she said kindly.

"Thanks. Me too," he said a little awkwardly. Taking a quick breath, he plowed on with his mission. "Look, I know this is going to sound a little unorthodox, but I am hoping you'll at least hear me out before saying no?" Beth looked a little taken aback by his lead in, but nodded all the same. "Pomfrey said she'll allow me back on a broom in a week or two and I was wondering if you'd let me try out again then before kicking me off the team? My hand- got pretty messed up and it will take a while to fully heal, but I honestly think I can still make a damn good seeker, even playing as a lefty." Harry drew his eyes up from where they had been focused on his stupid hand and looked up at Beth. She was smiling at him.

"How about we see how your first few practices go before I bother arranging any tryouts?" She offered and Harry beamed. "If I recall correctly, your style didn't exactly favor one side over the other, so I wouldn't be all that surprised if this didn't slow you down all that much. And if it goes horribly- we have backup seekers on the team and in the reserves," she shrugged. And Harry almost laughed at her nonchalonce. She'd actually managed to plan her way out of stressing about potentially losing a player. That was some next level captaining, right there. "I won't make you freeze your arse off in the stands watching practice, but I do still expect you to join us for strategy sessions in the locker room, okay?" She compromised and Harry readily agreed.

"Thanks, Beth. You're the best," Harry grinned as he rose from his chair.

"I know," she said cheekily as Harry went back over to rejoin his dormmates.

"I take it by that stupid grin on your face that the conversation went well?" Sirius asked.

"Yup!" Harry said merrily. "She's not even going to make me re-tryout. I basically have until our match with Slytherin to get it together or else she'll play Jamie in my place."

"Nice!" James congratulated.

The next morning, down at breakfast, Harry was starting to see the true impact of the Hogsmeade attack on the school at large. It was like the bubble of ignorance around the Hogwarts population had burst, shattering the carefree attitude that the students used to carry and allowing unease and fear a clear path in. The only place that seemed exempt from the somber atmosphere was the Slytherin table where Harry noticed that many of the students seemed rather cheerier than normal. It was all very unsettling. Even the charmed ceiling above was a dark, dreary gray that morning.

Harry received a lot of sad and encouraging smiles from people he didn't know as he made his way through the hall and down to the open space at the far end of the Gryffindor table. At least the news seemed to have gotten around that he wasn't dead. Harry caught sight of Avery pointing at him from across the way before saying something that earned a ruckus laugh from those sitting around him. Great. Well, at least being the butt of Slytherin jokes was nothing new for him, so Harry quickly shrugged it off. They soon reached the empty spot and all settled around the table for breakfast.

"What's with the ball?" Milli asked with a nod towards Harry's right hand that he'd brought to rest against the edge of the table. Over the past week, Harry had taken to almost constantly fiddling with the silly rainbow hacky sack that Madam Pomfrey had given him as a kind of unconscious, nervous habit. "I'm guessing you didn't pick up playing hacky sack over break?" She joked.

"Erh- no. Pomfrey gave it to me to help retrain the muscles in my arm," he said quickly, moving his hand down to rest in his lap under the table instead.

"Oh," Milli said, a little uncomfortably. She hadn't meant to upset him with the question. "Sorry."

Harry shook his head a little. "Don't be." He knew he was being a little silly about everything, but he also couldn't really seem to help it. "I just- This whole thing is just kind of embarrassing," he admitted, looking back up at Milli.

"Embarrassing? Harry- there's nothing to be embarrassed about," she said, seemingly genuinely confused by Harry's statement.

"Really? I don't see anyone else limping around like a kicked puppy. I can't even hold my bloody wand properly. And this entire school seems to think that I'm made of glass or something. Like the moment I lose a drop of blood I'm done for. If I got a damn nosebleed they'd probably start planning my funeral again. You really don't think that's kind of pathetic?" Harry turned his deep eyes on her, raising a brow.

"No, I don't," Milli said firmly. "And if people knew even a fraction of the story that James told us about what happened, then they'd just be staring at you in awe instead. I'm sorry people care about you, Harry, but that doesn't mean that they think any less of you either. If it were me or James or some random Hufflepuff in your position, would you? Would you want them to feel embarrassed or ashamed or whatever other stupid thing is probably running through your head?" Harry just looked down at the table because of course he wouldn't want that. But he kept just coming back to that fundamental understanding he had that regular rules and expectations just don't apply to him. Being weak was a luxury reserved for other people. Taking his silence for concession, Milli said, "Exactly. So mess with your little ball and anyone who gives you a funny look can fuck off or come find me." The fierce look in her eyes was both comforting and terrifying.

Harry carefully put his arm back on the table and gave Milli a ghost of a smile.

After breakfast, the Gryffindor 6th years all headed off to Transfiguration. Most of the Hufflepuffs were already seated when they entered the classroom, so they took the empty spots on the other side of the room.

Just as Harry was lowering himself into a desk, McGonagall walked in, closing the doors behind her with a flick of her wand. As she walked down the center aisle, she paused next to Harry just long enough to say, "It's good to have you back, Mr. Doe," before carrying on up to the front of the class.

They spent the period reviewing. Even though this specific class had technically sat their exam at the end of last term (well, everyone except for Harry had, at least), the scores had all been voided when the rest of finals had been canceled. So, McGonagall walked through the exam as a class exercise, calling on people to answer the questions and demonstrate various spells. She asked Harry to do that same spell that he hadn't been able to do, what felt like forever ago, that day in the hospital wing- turn a shoe into stone.

Fortunately it wasn't a very complicated spell, motion-wise. It was more the advanced theory behind it that made the spell difficult, which was luckily where Harry was more confident at the moment. But he was still extremely nervous to attempt his first spell for a professor since his injury. McGonagall levitated the shoe over to his desk, rather than making him come up to the front of the class like the others, which was nice of her. Clenching his fist a little and then surreptitiously trying to wipe his sweaty palm on his robes, Harry took a firm grip on his wand. His face set in concentration, he muttered the incantation and tried to will the shoe into compliance. But only the laces hardened as the rest ought to have. Harry let out a disappointed sigh, slumping slightly.

McGonagall waved her wand and reset the shoe. "Try again," she said.

"Hey! I didn't get a second chance!" Protested one of the Hufflepuffs. His spell earlier in the class had been ineffective and McGonagall had just moved on to someone else after telling the boy sternly to practice more.

"You were using your proper wand arm and still had no success, Mr. Smithely. And I do not recall asking for feedback on how I run my class. Another outburst like that and Hufflepuff will be losing points," McGonagall threatened with a harsh look. Her expression softened slightly as she turned back towards Harry and said, "Again, Mr. Doe." It took Harry two more tries, but he was finally able to achieve the full transfiguration. "Very good," McGonagall said with an approving nod. "Just a little practice and you will be back up to speed," she told Harry before moving on to the next student.

During their off period after Transfiguration, the Gryffindors found an abandoned classroom to hang out in. Stairs were still pretty high on Harry's enemies list, so he really didn't want to go all the way back to the common room or library. Nor did he want to go sit in the Great Hall until lunch- he had a mission and it could not be accomplished there. So Harry had suggested finding a classroom instead and the others had easily agreed.

As everyone spread out across the room, rearranging the furniture to suit them, Harry took a seat at one of the desks and began mindlessly tapping his fingers as he thought. Clearly his left handed magic was not as strong as his right handed spells usually were, so he needed to address the issue. And what had McGonagall told him? He just needed 'a little practice'. So practice he would.

"Remus- would you happen to have the Transfiguration syllabus handy?" Harry asked suddenly. Remi was by far the most organized of the group. "And Lily," he said, leaning back in his chair to look over at the redhead, "any chance you have your Charms stuff with you?"

"Sure," Remus said, pulling out his stack of papers for Transfiguration and rifling through them for the syllabus as Lily came over to join them at the table.

"Yeah, Harry. I have my Charms stuff. Why? What's up?" Lily asked as she leaned against the table.

"I wanna practice all of the spells from last term," he told her as he pulled the Transfiguration syllabus Remus had just produced over in front of himself so that he could read it.

"You know exams were canceled, right mate? Not just postponed?" Sirius asked a bit warily.

"I know," Harry rolled his eyes. "But that doesn't mean that I still shouldn't be able to do the spells. And if I want to have any hope of not being desperately behind all term, then I need to get caught back up."

"You only missed two days at the end of term," Sirius pointed out. "And one of those was just exams that don't even count anymore."

Harry shook his head. "You just saw it take me three tries to perform a spell that I could do with no problem last term. Casting left handed is like- it's like trying to write with your wrong hand. It just feels all clunky and unnatural," Harry tried to explain. "So I need to practice." He looked down over the Transfiguration syllabus. "Well, I can't really do anything that involves an animal… Might as well start at the beginning, I guess. Anyone want anything conjured?" Harry asked the room.

"Just nothing animal-based. We don't need you conjuring yourself another pet," Sirius said.

"He's not a pet," Harry scowled.

"You have a pet?" Lily asked with a tilt of her head.

"I'm surprised you haven't met Pyrrhus yet. Little owl is nutty about Harry. Flew all the way to my house just to see him over break," James told her.

"Awe! Harry, will you introduce us to your owl later?" Lily asked eagerly.

"He's not my owl," Harry insisted, but seeing the look on Lily's face, he still agreed, "but I'll see if he's around tonight so you can meet him."

Lily did a little happy dance before saying, "Okay. Why don't we start simple and you conjure me a piece of parchment and then I'll make you a list of every Charm we worked on last term?"

Harry smiled at her and then set to work. He spent the entire free period, and even a little into lunch, practicing everything he feasible could from the previous term until he was fairly confident that he could reproduce any of the spells if requested. Once he was stratified, the others finally managed to drag him off to lunch.

As Harry was finishing up his food, he saw a happy but slightly confused look cross James' face as he looked at him from across the table. Harry jumped when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Twisting around in his seat, Harry was surprised to find a slightly nervous looking Professor Barlow standing behind him.

"I was wondering if I could have a quick word with you, Mr. Doe?" She asked in a slightly tight voice quite unlike her usual relaxed manner.

"Oh, uh, sure, Professor," Harry stammered. Barlow was one of his favorite professors, but seeing her anxious was making him a little anxious as well. All the same, Harry swung himself around and rose to follow Barlow out of the hall. Out in the Entrance Hall, she pulled them off to a secluded corner.

"I hope you had a restful holiday. I'm glad to see you up and about again," Barlow said as her eyes roamed over Harry and she gave him a small smile.

"Thank you for your help last term," Harry told her sincerely. "I didn't know you were a healer."

She gave a small laugh. "Oh, I'm no healer. But living out on the preserves, you do pick up a few things- skills that can come in handy in a pinch. I'm just glad I could help."

"Just a jack of all trades, then?" Harry asked, in an amused voice.

"Something like that," Barlow allowed.

After a beat of silence, Harry asked a little nervously, "Erh- was that all you wanted to talk about, Professor?"

Barlow took a small, steadying breath. "No. I- uh- actually a bit of a request for you. But I want to make it clear that this is exactly that- a request. One which you are more than free to turn down. And your response to which has absolutely no bearing on your grade in my course or our relationship going forward or anything. It really is fine if you say no."

Well that definitely did not put Harry at ease in the slightest. "Okay…"

"Well, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a rather rare creature for our next Care of Magical Creatures lesson. And it will provide us with a rather special opportunity to gain unique insight into the creature- perhaps even discover for ourselves previously unknown information about it. But I can completely understand if you are not comfortable with it," she finished, wringing her hands in front of her.

"Professor-" Harry began hesitantly, "I'm still not quite sure I understand what you are requesting I do?"

"Oh," Barlow said, dropping her hands and letting out a little laugh at her own expense, "I was wondering if you'd be willing to translate?"

"Translate?" Harry asked, a bit bewildered. An image sprung to his mind of Dumbledore leaning down to converse with the merpeople in their screeching, above water language, like he had during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. That was certainly not a skillset that Harry had.

"Yes. It's a serpent. I suppose I forgot to mention that important bit too," she mused.

Ahh. Now it clicked. She wanted him to chat up her snake. Wow- something about that sentence felt wrong, despite its factual accuracy. Harry hesitated. Being a parselmouth was not exactly something that he liked to parade around in front of people and it had brought him seemingly much more trouble than it was worth. But looking into Barlow's excited and hopeful face, Harry felt his resistance crumble. He didn't think he could stand to disappoint one of his favorite professors like that. She had been so kind to him all year- this was the least he could do to show his gratitude. And besides, he was already in pretty deep with his Care of Magical Creatures class at this point. From his disastrous arrival to the parselmouth incident to the thestral- really, what was more spectacular- meant with absolutely no positive connotation- display from Harry in front of them?

After a long moment of Barlow essentially holding her breath, Harry said, "Sure. I think I can manage that."

She let the air out in a puff as a bright smile lit up her face. "Thank you!" She said excitedly before getting a hold of herself a little better. "Only if you really are comfortable with this," she said more firmly, looking Harry in the eye.

Not breaking eye contact, Harry told her, "Yes, ma'am." Then he shrugged, "It's not like they haven't seen it before."

As Harry reentered the Great Hall, he ran into his friends all standing right next to the door.

"There you are!" James said, exasperated. "We thought Barlow had kidnapped you or something. We were about to send out the search party, mate."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I wasn't gone that long."

"No," Remus conceded, "but we really do need to start heading to class."

Harry turned around and headed back out of the hall and up the stupid stairs to Charms.

As they were walking, Sirius asked, "So, what did Barlow want with you?"

Harry smirked, "None of your business." At Sirius' very put out look, Harry said, "You'll find out tomorrow, okay? It's a surprise." Sirius perked up at that- he loved a good surprise.

Charms ended up passing much how Transfiguration had, with review and mock exam questions. Thanks to Lily's help and all of the practice Harry had gotten in that morning, his spellwork was much more up to snuff for Professor Flitwick, much to his delight.

After Charms, they headed down to the dungeons for Potions. And Harry was actually on time for the first time in a while- though it was close. He slipped in just as the door was swinging closed, a little out of breath, and made his way towards the last seat in the class, next to Haleigh.

"Mr. Doe- I will extend your grace period for arriving late to my class if it means that you will not risk injuring yourself or passing out on the way here," Slughorn said as he took in Harry's disheveled state. It was the kind of backhanded help that Harry had now just come to associate with Potions Masters.

"Thank you, sir," Harry said, a bit embarrassed.

Apparently, since most of the class had sat the exam before break for this class as well, Slughorn felt confident with just jumping right in with new content. Harry was pleasantly surprised with how much he seemed to follow from that day's lecture. Without the distraction of scrambling to take notes, he was actually free to just listen closely and process what Slughorn was saying. Who would've guessed that all these years Harry's issue may very well have been that he was trying too hard in Potions? Picturing the look Snape would give him if Harry tried to use that excuse to explain why he wasn't taking notes in his class, Harry had to stifle a laugh.

After class let out, everyone rose and trickled out of the classroom. Just as Harry made it to the doorway, someone knocked into him, causing him to stumble.

"Watch it, Chewtoy," Avery sneered as he pushed his way past. Harry just glared after him.

"Are you okay?" Haleigh asked, reaching a tentative hand out.

"I'm fine," Harry said, straightening up and continuing on his way out the door.

"Woe, woe, woe," Sirius appeared in front of Harry from where he'd been lurking just outside of the classroom. "You know that phrase is banned, Bambi. Why do you think you're 'fine'?"

Harry shifted his glare towards Sirius. "Because Avery is an arsehole, but my feelings are not so delicate that they will not recover."

"What'd he say to you?" Sirius growled, whipping his head around to throw his own glare after the retreating backs of the Slytherins.

"He called me 'Chewtoy'," Harry said with a tone of amusement. Honestly, that was a new one for him and he had to give credit for creativity. It was quite the feat to sound menacing when describing something with a squeaker in it. But judging by the mildly horrified looks on the other's faces, they didn't share in Harry's levity at that particular insult. "Oh, come on. It's almost funny," Harry tried to calm them.

"It is most definitely not funny," Lily snapped.

"That slimy, manky…" Sirius began, but it just turned into a growl.

"And he of all people does not get to be making jokes like that, even if it were," Spat James. "Rumor has it that not a single Slytherin was in Hogsmeade that morning- quite the coincidence, don't you think?"

"Because we all know how true rumors are," Harry bit back.

"Just because some of them are rubbish, doesn't mean that others can't be true," Remus pointed out.

"Whatever," Harry dismissed. "And regardless, I'm pretty sure I get to decide if I am going to be insulted." He pushed forward, heading down the corridor towards the stairs. "What's that phrase again? Claws and teeth may tear my flesh, but words can never hurt me."

Harry left behind a stunned, and still slightly horrified, group of gaping Gryffindors outside of the Potions classroom.

Harry didn't make it too far before the rest managed to pick their jaws up off of the floor and pull themselves together. A fucked up sense of humor was just another one of Harry's many quirks that they needed to either get on board with or get out of the way. So they very reluctantly got on board, taking comfort in the fact that at the very least, Harry hadn't been made to feel any worse about his situation. If anything, the jab had only stoked the fire within him, causing his eyes to burn just a little brighter than they had been all day.

The group decided to return to their abandoned classroom and hang out there until dinner. Harry diligently set back to his review. Having run through all of last term's Transfiguration and Charms spells, Harry moved on to his other most commonly used spells. He still needed to go over the stuff from Defense, but most of those spells would need a slightly more controlled environment to practice in so that he didn't go blowing anything up or hitting someone by accident or something. So instead, he focused on things like a Repairing charm, Summoning spell, and Shield charm.

Gretta and Lily had been hanging out with him while he practiced, helping test his spells and give pointers on things like sloppy wand work.

"Do wand movements have directionality?" Harry asked, dropping his wand arm and looking over at them with a puzzled expression.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, sounding equally confused.

"Like, if I wanted to levitate something, I know it's a 'swish and flick' motion, but does it matter if I 'swish' to the right versus the left?" He explained.

"Hmm… I've never really thought about that. It always just seemed natural to do it the way I've always done it, you know?"

"Me either- until now. I'm pretty sure I would do it to the right- like towards the outside- but those are two different things when you switch hands… Gah- this is all just starting to hurt my brain. Am I supposed to be flipping things around and doing them 'backwards' or does everything remain the same, just shifted over to the other hand?"

"I think you're thinking too much, mate," Sirius called from the table where he, James, Peter, and Milli were playing cards.

"Well, unlike you, I can't not think. Some of us don't have that luxury," Harry told him.

"Isn't Matty a lefty? Why don't you just ask him?" Milli suggested.

Finally, a helpful suggestion. Matthew was one of the alternates on the quidditch team and if Harry's memory was serving him correctly, he was indeed left handed. "Thank you, Milli. That's a good idea."

So after dinner, when they made their way back up to the common room, Harry looked around for Matthew. Spying him at one of the study tables, Harry headed over that way.

Coming to a stand next to the table, Harry said, "Hey, Matty-" The 3rd year looked up, surprised to see Harry there. "Do you have a minute for me to pick your brain about something?"

"Oh. Uh, sure, Harry. What's up?" Matty said uncertainty.

"How do you do a Levitation charm?" Harry asked.

Matty looked at him in utter confusion. "You don't know how to do a Levitation charm?" He asked in poorly concealed shock.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the boy's apparent secondhand embarrassment for him not knowing how to perform a 1st year spell. "No," he chuckled. "That's not what I meant. I meant how do you specifically do one- left handed?"

"Oh," Matty blinked. "I reckon I probably do it the same as everyone else. Why?"

"I'm having to switch wand arms for a while and I've just been struggling a bit with the wand movements and translating them over to the other hand, so I figured I might as well ask an expert, yeah?" Harry said, shooting Matty a little smile. "Would you mind showing me?"

"For sure!" Matty said excitedly. He'd been harboring a bit of hero worship for Harry since the older boy had saved him the day of quidditch tryouts. And having now gotten to know him as a fellow member of the house team, Matty thought Harry was just really cool- kind of a badass, funny, and bloody amazing on a broom. So to think that Harry was coming to him for help with something was beyond flattering.

Matty hopped up from the table and the two of them moved over to the side of the room where there was a little more free space. Setting a book down on the ground, Matty backed up a few steps and brandished his wand.

"Wingardium leviosa," he said, swishing his wand through the air.

Harry watched intently, noting that he did swish to the left instead of the right- so towards the outside then. "Okay," Harry said, leaning his cane up against the wall and pulling out his own wand. He paused for a second, thinking, before shifting his body into a stance with his left foot slightly in front of his right. "Wingardium leviosa," he muttered. The wand movement was still a little sloppy, but the charm worked all the same as the book floated up off the floor before Harry set it back down. "Brilliant," Harry beamed, flashing Matty a grin. "Would you mind showing me an Unlocking charm too?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Sure!" Matty returned the grin. "I'll be right back guys," he told his friends back at the study table that Harry had pulled him away from. And then Matty and Harry made their way upstairs to find a door to practice on.

Tuesday morning saw a small group of Gryffindors tromping across the frozen grounds towards the greenhouses. The icey front steps had proven a little hazardous for Harry and it was only Remus' quick reaction time, shooting an arm out to grab him, that kept Harry's arse from meeting the cold stones. But thankfully, they made it to join up with the gathering crowd outside of the greenhouses without major incident.

As the bell tower tolled 9, the doors swung open to permit the frigid students entry and shelter from the unforgiving January chill. As Harry walked into the greenhouse, he felt a blast of warm, humid air hit his face and a cold shiver went down his spine that had nothing to do with the weather outside. Harry felt his palms start to sweat and his hands getting a little shaky as he made his way over to their group's usual work table. Why was he so anxious about Herbology of all things? Harry felt kind of stupid as he attempted to still his trembling hands and keep his breathing even.

Professor Kerner was in the back of the greenhouse, spraying down one of the workbenches along the back wall. Muddy water ran along the rough stones of the floor, sloshing through the drainage tract, and swirling down the drains in the center of the room. Harry felt his chest tighten as the water suddenly flashed red, turning into blood. Stumbling backward, Harry felt his back connecting with something warm and solid and all he could think was, Lily's body, as he jerked away from the contact, desperately trying to get his breathing under control. Hands reached out to grab him, to drag him away but Harry wrenched himself free from their grip. His ears were ringing as he lost his balance, toppling backward and scrambling away from whoever was trying to yank him forward. Harry's back hit something hard that prevented him from moving any further away, so instead he brought his knees up to protect his burning chest. He couldn't breathe. Why couldn't he breathe?

Professor Kerner was just wrapping up with a little repotting when his morning class began filing into the greenhouse. Sixth year, NEWT-level Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, he reminded himself, bracing for what was probably going to be a long class after the hot mess that was the end of last term. No exams meant no guarantee that the little miscreants had actually retained anything. He sighed. Perhaps a pop quiz will encourage a bit of self review outside of class, he mused as he hosed down his work station.

Just as he was about to turn and head up to begin class, Kerner heard someone yell a panicked sounding, "Harry!" He whipped his head around, sharp eyes quickly finding the source of the commotion. James Potter's wide eyes could be seen from across the greenhouse as he stared down at the floor. Moving forward to get a better view of what was going on, Kerner realized that what James was looking at was a terrified-looking Harry Doe scrambling away from his friends. And towards a bank of Venomous Tentacula.

Letting out a low curse, Kerner rushed forward, shouting, "Protego!" Throwing up a hasty shield between the boy and the nasty plants. Harry ran into the shield, but didn't even seem to notice as he just curled in on himself. "What happened?" Kerner snapped at the boys as he made his way over.

"Nothing! I- I don't know! We were just standing here and then he started freaking out," James stammered, keeping his distance since Harry had reacted so badly when he'd tried to put a comforting hand on his shoulder earlier.

Rounding on Harry, Kerner said, "Mr. Doe- cease these theatrics." But the boy didn't seem to hear him. Crouching down, Kerner tried, in a more even voice, "Mr. Doe- Mr. Doe, can you hear me?" Reaching out, Kerner attempted to pull Harry's arm away from his face so that he could get a better look at the boy, but gave a violent flinch and recoiled at the contact.

Dropping his hand, Kerner took a moment to really take in the scene before him. Here sat the boy that he had been so suspicious of since the day he'd mysteriously appeared and invited himself into their school. Borderline hysterical and clearly panicking, in that moment, Kerner saw Harry in a whole new light. He saw a young, injured boy who was traumatized by something that the rest of them couldn't see. And suddenly, everything that had rubbed Kerner the wrong way about Harry was turned on its head. His reserved manner was perhaps the result of fear, rather than arrogance. His occasional lack of preparedness, maybe something to be expected from any transfer student. His friends doing things or asking for things for him, not a manipulation on his part, but an act of kindness on theirs, doing their best to help a boy who was either unwilling or unable to help himself.

"Harry-" Kerner tried again, in a much gentler voice. "Harry, I need you to listen to my voice, okay? You are fine. We are just in the greenhouse," he said calmly. Kerner carefully reached out his hand once again, settling it on Harry's left arm, maintaining contact even as the boy tried to jerk away again. He slowly drew Harry's arm down until his hand was resting against the floor. "Do you feel that? That's the floor. Try and focus on the ground beneath you." Harry's fingers curled slightly against the rough stones. "Now, I need you to slow down your breathing," Kerner said.

"Can't," Harry gasped, his eyes still clenched closed, right arm wrapped tightly around his chest.

"Yes, you can," Kerner encouraged him. "Try just breathing through your nose. That's it. Close your mouth and concentrate on taking slow, deep breaths. Good. Just like that. You're okay." It took a couple more minutes of Kerner's quiet coaching to get Harry's breathing and body a little more under control and for the boy to become properly coherent. "Do you think you can stand?" Kerner asked, looking Harry directly in the eye. Harry gave a small nod, so Kerner slowly helped him to his feet, summoning his cane and handing it back to Harry, who took it with slightly trembling hands. "Right, now, off to the hospital wing, young man. Mr. Lupin- see to it that he makes it there," Kerner said firmly. It was very telling of just how shitty Harry must've felt right then that he didn't utter a single protest as Remus gently looped his hand under Harry's right arm, taking some of his weight as he began leading Harry out of the greenhouse.

The walk up to the hospital wing was slow and quiet as Harry focused intently on putting one foot in front of the other while Remus looked worriedly on. As they entered the infirmary, they walked in on Madam Pomfrey tending to a young Ravenclaw girl perched on one of the beds. At the sound of the door opening, Pomfrey looked up from where she had been stooped, inspecting the girl's ankle. Her eyes ran over Remus who was still supporting Harry- who looked like he might pass out at any moment.

"Oh, Harry," she said sadly. "Pick any bed, Mr. Lupin." Turning back to the Ravenclaw girl, Pomfrey asked, "Are you okay to hold tight for me a moment Ms. Briggs? I'm just going to make sure he's okay and then we'll get that ankle fixed right up, hmm?" The girl gave a little nod and Pomfrey gave her a reassuring pat on the knee as she rose and made her way over to the bed that Remus had deposited Harry on. Letting out a small sigh, Pomfrey asked, "What happened?"

Remus fidgeted a little nervously before taking a few steps around the bed to lean in and tell Pomfrey in a low voice, "I think he had a panic attack." The matron's eyebrows shot up at the unexpected answer. "We had just walked into Herbology when he sort of freaked out and collapsed and his breathing went all funny. It took Kerner a while to calm him down enough to get him here," Remus explained.

"I see," Pomfrey nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you, Mr. Lupin." Remus looked hesitant to leave Harry, but knew there was nothing he could really do for him right then. His friend was in good hands and Kerner was likely expecting him back in class, so Remus quietly wished Harry well and headed back down to the greenhouses.

"Harry," Pomfrey began, crouching down so that she was eye level with him, "can you tell me how you are feeling?"

"Shaky," he said in a rough voice. "And embarrassed." His cheeks colored slightly as he ducked his head.

Pomfrey tutted, "There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Have you ever had a panic attack before?" She asked as she subtly cast a diagnostic spell with her wand held low at her side.

"No, ma'am. Not that I remember," Harry said quietly.

Satisfied that there wasn't something larger wrong with him, Pomfrey asked, "Would you like a Calming draft?"

Harry shook his head. "No, thank you."

"Well, at least something to drink then- perhaps some hot chocolate?" When Harry didn't protest, she summoned a house elf and made the request. Thirty seconds later, it reappeared with a steaming mug. "Rest. And drink. I expect that mug to be empty when I return from helping Ms. Briggs." Pomfrey gave Harry a stern look which he returned with a small smile before she moved off.

After fixing the Ravenclaw girl's ankle and checking on another student sleeping in one of the back beds, Pomfrey returned to see how Harry was doing. Much to her satisfaction, she found his empty mug sitting on the bedside table next to him.

"Are you feeling any better?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said, shaking his hands out a little, though he was still sitting with his knees drawn up protectively to his chest.

Pomfrey smiled a little at that as she conjured up a chair beside Harry's bed and took a seat. "Do you know what triggered it?" She asked gently, knowing he would understand the question.

Harry shivered, turning his gaze downward. "The blood," he whispered.

"Blood? Whose blood?" Pomfrey asked sharply.

Looking up, having realized that he'd accidentally said that out loud, Harry quickly backpedaled, "No- no one's- there wasn't actually any blood. It was stupid, really. Just a dream I had a while ago…" At Pomfrey's prompting look, Harry sighed and continued, "In the dream, we were in Herbology and… Hellhounds came and killed everyone. I guess- watching the water run across the floor just reminded me of the blood and I don't know- I just lost it a bit." She didn't need to know about the rest of it- and Harry didn't want to think about it any more either.

Pomfrey gave a little sigh. "Harry- it's completely understandable that you'd have a reaction like that. What you went through last term was traumatic. And I can almost guarantee that you will not be the only student to have an episode like this. Your mind- just like your body- has to process what happened in order to heal. And that processing might be a little painful and will take time- you just have to give yourself grace while going through it." Harry didn't look very convinced, but he nodded all the same.

Of all the fucked up shit Harry had seen and been through, it seemed almost laughable that the thing that would send him over the edge into a fullblown panic attack was a damn run-of-the-mill nightmare. Well, to be fair, it was kind of an amalgamation of every bad experience and loss Harry had ever suffered blended into one Herbology-themed hellscape, so maybe it was a slightly more understandable breaking point- but still. It felt very stupid.

"And in the meantime? I have a feeling 'grace' will not extend to missing Herbology…" He said with a note of bitterness in his voice.

"No, probably not all of Herbology, but perhaps to stepping out if you need to take a moment. And that goes for all of your classes," Pomfrey told him.

"May I head down to lunch?" Harry asked with a tentatively optimistic tone.

"You are welcome to stay here and rest for the remainder of the day, Harry. No one expects you to return to lessons today," Pomfrey said gently.

"I really would prefer to go to Care of Magical Creatures class this afternoon," Harry insisted. "I promised Professor Barlow I'd help her with something." At Pomfrey's dubious look, he added, "Nothing too taxing or anything- just a small favor. And I'm pretty sure we're just going to be sitting inside all class." Harry looked at the matron with pleading eyes.

"Oh, alright. If you really are feeling up to it. And know that you are allowed to excuse yourself at any point and come back here to rest, okay?" Harry nodded quickly, uncuring himself and climbing off the bed. "And I should ask- any issues with the arm or leg since I last saw you?"

"No, ma'am," Harry said as he grabbed his cane. "I've actually been getting some tips on my left handed wand work and I think it's coming along quite nicely," he told her happily.

"Well, that's good to hear." She was thrilled to see Harry genuinely happy about something. "Take care, dear. And I'll see you again on Sunday at the latest, hmm?" Harry gave her a playful smile as he left the wing.

Lunch was already underway by the time Harry made it down to the Great Hall. He spotted his friends wolfing their food down at the near end of the table and made his way over.

"You're gonna choke if you don't pause to breathe, you know?" Harry told Sirius, causing the other boy to jump and- funnily enough- choke.

Spluttering, Sirius hacked out, "Merlin- Bambi!" James reached over to thump him on the back as Gretta slid down to make room for Harry on the bench.

"Good to know the cane hasn't hurt my stealth," Harry said mischievously.

"Do that again and I just might follow through on my threat and put a damn bell on you," Sirius glared at him, but then his expression softened as he looked Harry over, asking, "Are you okay?" He looked a little tired, but a lot better than earlier, at least.

"Yeah," Harry sighed. "Sorry about that. I just- I don't know. It was like a flashback or something and I just kind of lost it for a minute…" He looked away from the table as he spoke.

"No need to be sorry, mate. Just, maybe mention something next time before you collapse and scare the pants off of us again, yeah?" Sirius said.

Harry looked back at him with a faint smile. "Yeah."

"Good. Now, eat," Sirius commanded.

Harry looked around the table and said, "That's okay- I'm not very hungry."

"Funny- I don't recall asking," Sirius said with a bemused expression. "Come on- just eat something. You can't keep skipping meals."

"I don't skip that many meals," Harry said, sounding a little offended.

"I'm very much counting all of the ones where you sit there and stare at your food as if that somehow provides you with a valid amount of nutrients. How do you expect to get any taller if your body's got nothing to work with?" Sirius teased.

And that struck a nerve. Harry had always been a little sensitive about his height. It was one of those things that he just couldn't really do anything about, but he absolutely hated being literally a foot shorter than basically everyone around him. He hated that people assumed he was years younger than he actually was. For the longest time, he had just prayed that it was due to shitty genetics, but having now stood next to both Lily and James, he knew that wasn't true. It turns out childhood malnutrition and keeping a kid in a cupboard for a decade can really stunt their growth- who knew? It was one of the truly evil ways that the Dursleys had made sure to ruin Harry's life, even after he'd left their 'care'.

Harry scowled darkly, but grabbed half a sandwich off of a nearby plate.

Lunch ended quickly and Harry, James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily all rose together to head off to Care of Magical Creatures.

"Uh- do you lot know where class is actually being held today?" Harry asked, realizing that he'd forgotten to ask Barlow yesterday during their conversation. She'd mentioned last term that they would be moving inside, but Harry had missed their last class and didn't actually know where.

"Classroom eleven- it's actually right across from the Great Hall," Lily supplied.

They made the short trek across the Entrance Hall and stepped into the classroom. Harry was struck by how much it resembled the classroom eleven from his own time, during Firenze's brief- but glorious- stint as Professor of Divination. Once again, the room resembled a forest clearing rather than a stuffy classroom. The floor was covered in soft grass with trees resembling those of the Forbidden Forest standing tall around the edges of the space. Stumps and rocks and even a few blankets were strewn about the ground, presumably for the students to sit on during class. The ceiling that could be seen peeking through the tree canopy resembled a bright spring day. It was amazing. Even the air smelled fresh in the room and Harry couldn't help but smile as he took it all in.

In the middle of the room, Professor Barlow stood next to a roughly hewn wooden table atop which sat some sort of a box with a black piece of fabric draped over it. She greeted them all warmly as they entered, her eyes lingering on Harry, who met her gaze and gave her a little nod, reaffirming that he was still onboard and willing to assist as promised with the lesson. As they chose seats, one of the stumps grew a little taller as Harry approached, making it much easier for him to sit down and stand up from. It seemed Barlow was always thoughtful like that.

Once the class had all arrived, Barlow began, "I am glad everyone managed to find the new classroom okay. I hope you all had a good break and are ready to hit the ground running this term, so to speak," she said with a small, playful glance at Harry, who just returned the look with a smirk and an eye roll. "Today's lesson is really something special. Over the break, I was fortunate enough to get to spend some time assisting the Ministry with a little black market raid and we found a rather rare creature which I was able to cajole the lead auror into letting me borrow for a day or two before he is sent on his way back home. Furthermore, our class is in the rather unique position to experience something groundbreaking- well beyond a 'once in a lifetime opportunity'," she said excitedly.

Reaching over, Barlow grabbed the black fabric and whipped it off of the cage on the table in a rather dramatic fashion. Many gasps were heard around the room as some students recognized the creature. It appeared to be a snake, about three feet in length and inky black. It had large spikes protruding from its head and tail that were marbled white and red- like blood streaked ivory. Its eyes were such a clear blue that the creature looked as though it might be blind. The 'cage' turned out to actually be more of a tank, filled with water in which the creature was swimming in a tight figure eight pattern. "Can anyone tell me what this is?" Barlow asked in an amused tone. Many hands shot into the air. "Mr. Duff?"

"That's a Horned Serpent," Ewan said in awe.

"Correct! Five points to Slytherin. Specifically, this is a juvenile, Far East Horned Serpent. They are also known as Horned River Serpents. While they are most commonly found in North America, where many subspecies still exist, there are also a few small pockets left of them in the Far East and the rare sighting in Western Europe. Now, other than their rarity, can anyone tell me why these creatures are so special? Ms. Evans?"

"Their horns can be used as wand cores," Lily said promptly.

"Correct. Five points to Gryffindor. While you likely will not find such a wand sold anywhere in Britain- legally, at least- they are still produced in the Americas. Many properties of their horns are still poorly understood as there are just not many of the creatures left to study. And unfortunately, the horn cannot be harvested from a living Serpent, which led the species to being hunted to near extinction in the mid 1600s and again in the early 1800s. Does anyone know their natural habitat?" Barlow paused, but when no hands went up, she continued, "They reside exclusively in the brackish waters of estuaries- where salt and freshwater meet. Now, not much else is truly known about this elusive creature, which leads us to the even more exciting part of our lesson today. Harry has graciously agreed to translate for us so that we may hear firsthand- or, well, almost firsthand- from the Serpent himself. And perhaps he will be willing to answer some of our questions and provide us with some brand new insights into his species!" Barlow was practically vibrating as she spoke. The whole class turned to look at Harry with an interesting mix of hesitancy, fear, and excitement on their faces. "Harry, if you'd be so kind as to come join me up front?" Barlow asked.

Harry hauled himself to his feet and made his way around towards the table. He was definitely a little nervous as he limped up to the front of the class with everyone once again staring at him, but he took a deep breath and reminded himself why he had agreed to do this in the first place. With another glance at Barlow's thrilled expression, he firmed his resolve and joined her. She conjured him a tall chair on the other side of the table from where she herself was standing and Harry took a hesitant seat. And then everyone just looked at him.

After a moment, Harry realized that he was probably going to have to initiate the conversation with the Serpent, so he turned towards the tank and hissed, ~/Uh, hello./~

The snake whipped around, splashing water up over the edges of the tank as it turned its piercing gaze on Harry. It slowly rose its head up out of the water, tongue flickering, eyes never leaving Harry as its head tilted to one side, as if considering him.

~/You speak?/~ The snake asked cautiously.

~/Uh, yeah. Assuming you can understand me?/~ Harry said hesitantly.

~/I do./~ It confirmed. ~/And you, I?/~

~/Yes. My name's Harry. It's nice to meet you. Do you have a name?/~ He asked the snake politely.

~/One once called me Tsunohebi./~ The snake told him. Harry gained a perplexed expression.

"What is it?" Barlow asked eagerly. "What is he saying?"

"Well," Harry began, a little unsure how to do this, "first off, I think it's a female. Her voice sounds a little too high, even for a juvenile." Barlow looked surprised by that, but nodded for him to continue. "And- I asked her for her name and I honestly think she responded in Japanese," Harry said bemusedly. "I'm sorry, but my skillset runs out after the first foreign language," Harry shrugged. "It's kind of interesting too," Harry mused, "She's a little hard to understand- I'd almost say that she's speaking with an accent? But I guess that maybe I've just only spoken with British snakes before…" Turning back to the Serpent, Harry told her, ~/I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I can pronounce your name properly. Would you mind if I call you Hebi?/~

~/Call me whatever you like. The name has no significance to me./~ She responded.

"Well, I know I'm butchering it, but I'm going to call her Hebi, because I think that's as close as I'm going to get for now and she doesn't seem to mind," Harry told the class. ~/Would you mind if my classmates asked you a few questions?/~ Harry inquired.

~/What about my questions?/~ Hebi hissed indignantly.

~/Oh, well, I can do my best to answer your questions as well. Does that seem fair?/~ Harry offered.

~/Fine./~ She snapped. ~/Why am I in this infernal enclosure?/~ Hebi started swimming around in vicious circles again, demonstrating her displeasure. Harry laughed.

"What?" Barlow looked avidly between Harry and the snake.

"She's not a fan of the tank," Harry explained. "I believe her exact words were, 'Why am I in this infernal enclosure?'"

"Oh," was all Barlow had to say in response.

~/You are in the enclosure so that you can be taken back home safely. It sounds like you should be on your way there in a few days, so soon, you will be free again./~ Harry tried to soothe the angry snake.

~/And why are the mouth-breathing bipeds necessary?/~ Hebi sneered, jerking her head towards the class, watching their conversation with wrapped attention. Harry brought a hand up to try and hide his laugh as he bit his lip.

"What's she saying now?" Barlow pressed.

"Um, Professor- I'm not quite sure you want me to translate every word she's saying. She seems a bit angry and appears to have quite the- creative vocabulary," Harry warned.

"Pish! Don't worry about that. I promise not to go taking any house points while you are translating. Everything she says is invaluable, no matter how 'creatively' phrased," Barlow insisted.

"Okay…" Harry said slowly. "She asked why the 'mouth-breathing bipeds' were necessary and I think she was referring to you lot," Harry told the class. Their expressions ranged from insulted to wildly entertained by that tidbit. "So- I don't know- maybe stop gaping at her?" Harry suggested. A few jaws could be heard clicking shut. ~/Those are the classmates of mine that I mentioned. We were hoping to learn a little more about you before you continued on your journey home./~

~/Well, what do they want to know?/~ Hebi asked irritably.

"She wants to know what your questions are?" Harry told them. Hands flew into the air. Harry looked over at Barlow who just motioned him forward to call on someone. Seeing as how basically everyone seemed to have a question for the snake, Harry sighed and said, "Let's just go down the row. Shelby, what's your question?"

"Is she venomous?" The Hufflepuff asked.

Harry translated and Hebi hissed back. "She said, 'Why don't you come over here and find out?' So take from that what you will, I guess, because I, for one, am not sticking my arm in her tank. Next question."

"What does she eat?" The boy next to Shelby asked.

Harry conversed with Hebi for a moment before saying, "Children who ask stupid questions. Next?"

"Wait!" He protested. "How do we know he's actually translating and not just making stuff up?" The boy asked suspiciously.

"You don't," Harry smirked. "But I don't think I'm creative enough to come up with 'mouth-breathing bipeds' all on my own," he shrugged. "Next."

"Can she see?" The next girl asked.

After a rather long exchange, Harry told her, "She doesn't really understand the question, which leads me to believe that the answer is 'no'. At least, in the traditional sense. She knows where stuff is, but when I asked about seeing colors, she didn't really get what I was asking about. She admitted that we are 'a little blurry' because we are 'outside of the river', so I'd guess that the clarity is coming from something like the vibrations in the water rather than seeing with her eyes," Harry tried to explain.

"Fascinating," Barlow breathed.

~/My turn!/~ Hebi demanded. ~/Where am I?/~

~/Scottland./~ Harry told her.

~/And where is that?/~

~/In the U.K./~

~/And where is that?/~

~/In Europe./~

~/And where is that?/~

~/That's about as general as I can be without telling you 'on earth'./~ Harry sighed. ~/Where are you from?/~

~/Nihon./~

Looking out at the class that was watching the two of them chat back and forth like it was some kind of tennis match, Harry asked, "No one here happens to speak Japanese, do they?" Everyone shook their heads. "Damn. She asked where we were and I think the proper nouns are all just getting lost in translation. And if she asks me 'And where is that?' one more time I might quit." With another sigh, Harry turned back to Hebi and told her, ~/Well, the word you are saying sounds like Japanese to me, so I am going to assume that you're from Japan, okay? And if that's the case, then we are very far west- on the other side of the continent- and a little north too./~

~/Okay…/~ She did not seem very pleased with that answer, but also seemed to accept that it was the best that Harry could do. ~/And how will they be returning me to my river?/~

"Hebi wants to know how she will be returned home?" Harry addressed that question towards Barlow.

"Oh, well, she will be brought to a sanctuary. I'm not quite sure which one, but the Ministry usually tries to find one in or as close to the creature's native land as possible," the professor said.

So Harry told Hebi, but the snake started hissing and spitting and splashing all over the place. "Erh- she didn't like that answer," Harry said, unhelpfully. That much was obvious. "She, uh, says she has a- unfortunately, I think the best translation is 'lover'- back home. She demands to be reunited with him."

"Well, that certainly complicates things," Barlow mused. "I wonder if the Ministry might take that into account- given the species on the brink of extinction, it is in their best interest to preserve any and all possible bonded mates. Can she tell you if her species mates for life?"

Harry asked and then said, "She said she loves him, but I have to admit, her tone was more reminiscent of a teenager shouting at her father who doesn't like her no-good boyfriend rather than someone professing their undying love at the altar, you know?"

Barlow smirked at that description. "Well, maybe if she can describe her river to us, the Ministry might be able to send a team out to look for her mate? That way they can both live safely in the sanctuary together- how does that sound?"

Harry relayed that to Hebi and she started nodding and hissing madly. Harry threw up his arms in a placating gesture, seeming to plead with the snake about something. Eventually, Hebi calmed down and Harry turned back to face the rest of the class with wide eyes, shaking his head a little. "Merlin. She's on board with that, but I think it's best if I just stay back after class to help with it because she just started spouting off all kinds of directions that I couldn't understand, so I'm just gonna have to do my best to write it all down phonetically or something- which is probably gonna take a while…"

"That's very kind of you," Barlow smiled at Harry.

"So, what's so great about her boyfriend?" One of the boys in the class asked.

Harry hissed the question to the snake who began violently thrashing and spitting once again. Color rose in Harry's cheeks as he said, "I'm sorry Professor, but I am not repeating what she just said. I'm honestly not sure that I even know the equivalent words in English…" Harry could see Sirius cracking up at the back of that class. He was pretty sure he heard him say to James, 'Does she kiss her lover with that mouth?'

They continued on like that for the rest of the lesson, asking questions and being insulted by an angsty snake with a flair for the dramatic. When the bell rang, Barlow dismissed the class and everyone left except for the Gryffindors.

"Thank you, Harry, for doing this," Barlow told him earnestly. "It really is amazing."

"I'm not sure arguing with a prissy snake for three hours really qualifies as 'amazing', but I'm happy I could help," Harry told her. "Now, you're all absolutely sure none of you speak Japanese?" Harry said with his last bit of hope.

"Sorry, mate. This one's all you," Sirius said, patting Harry consolingly on the back.

"Erh- would someone mind writing for me? I'm not sure how well the Dicta-Quill would handle a phonetic transcription of butchered Japanese…"

"Sure!" Lily volunteered, already moving to pull out some parchment and a quill.

"Hey, Pete," James leaned back to look over at Peter. "Do you wanna run and tell the others what we're up to? They'll be wondering where we are soon and I'm guessing this is going to take a while…"

"Yeah, I can do that," Peter agreed before slipping out of the classroom.

Harry rolled out his shoulders and cracked his back a little before turning in his chair to fully face the tank next to him. Leaning forward to rest his elbow on the table and prop his face up on his hand, Harry told Hebi, ~/Okay. Now, I'm going to need you to tell me very calmly, slowly, and clearly everything you can about where your river is…/~

Over the next few hours, Harry and Lily painstakingly detailed everything last bit that Hebi could describe about her river. The other 6th year Griffindors had returned with Peter not long after he'd left and all gathered around to watch Harry talk to the snake. Since none of them were in Care of Magical Creatures, they'd never actually seen Harry speak Parseltongue before and were all fascinated. By the time they were finished, Harry had a pretty gnarly headache. It required a lot of intense focus and complex thinking to keep code switching like that- hopping back and forth between English and Parseltongue was never easy for him to do consciously and adding the Japanese in the mix just about did him in. But he was at least happy he was able to help the little snake. She was just about purring by the end of their discussion, if that was even possible.

As Lily shook out her hand from hours of writing, Harry turned to Barlow and asked, "Professor- is there anything else that you'd like to ask Hebi? I know most of class was taken up with student questions, but I can only imagine you had a few of your own."

Barlow's eyes gleamed, but she asked hesitantly, "Are you really sure you want to keep going Harry? You've already gone above and beyond what I could've ever expected."

"Hey- why waste a 'beyond a once in a lifetime opportunity', right?" Harry told her.

And she launched into her own slew of questions, which were much more intelligent than the class'. Hebi seemed much more willing to answer them now too, since they had spent so long trying to help her be able to reunite with her mate.

About another hour passed by before Barlow finally called it quits, thanking Harry profusely. "Oh, my! Would you look at the time? I've made you all miss dinner entirely." With a surreptitious look around, she summoned a house elf and whispered into their ear. The little creature gave a quick nod before disappearing. A few moments later, it reappeared with two more elves- all of them were carrying platters of food. "I won't tell if you won't," Barlow winked at them before levitating Hemi's tank and turning to leave the classroom. "Just make sure you're back in your common room by curfew!" She yelled over her shoulder as she crossed the threshold.

As the door clicked closed behind her, Harry let out a long breath, seeming to deflate as the air escaped him until his head thunked down onto the table.

"You okay, mate?" James asked worriedly.

"Do you speak a foreign language?" Harry's voice came out muffled as he didn't bother to raise his head as he spoke.

"I know a little French- why?" James said confusedly.

"Imagine saying every other sentence in French for six hours and you tell me when your head starts to hurt," Harry groaned.

But James decided not to just imagine it- he gave it a go. As a matter of fact, they all gave it a go. James, Remus, Lily all alternated between French and English for the rest of the night while Sirius, Peter and Haleigh used Spanish. Gretta spoke German and Milli actually knew Swedish. It was some Tower of Babble nonsense, but it was kind of funny to watch. Harry didn't even bother to try and follow most of what anyone was saying, content to just sit back and watch them suffer. After just one hour, James admitted to starting to have a headache, much to Harry's satisfaction.

By Wednesday, Harry and Remus had learned not to walk next to one another. The sight of the two of them making their way down the corridor had actually sent one girl bursting into tears. It was no secret that they'd both been injured during the Hogsmeade attack since so many people had seen them in the hospital wing that day, but it seemed like this was one of those situations where ignorance really would've been bliss. And Harry just felt truly bad for Remus. Harry was, at the very least, afforded the option that he could sit down and smile and pretend that everything was okay. Remus didn't have that. His very face served as a chilling reminder that the war brewing outside of Hogwarts' safe stone walls was very real and actively impacting their lives. Whenever someone dared to look him in the eye, the boy's gaze was met with a misty one filled with pity and fear. It was awful.

So Remus made sure to stand at the far end of their group, away from Harry, as they made their way toward Charms that morning in an effort to not overwhelm any innocent passersby. It was absolutely ridiculous, but Remus' life was already consumed with accommodating other people's irrational fear, so what was one more thing on his list?

Harry was moving particularly slowly that morning, his leg rather sore and stiff, not yet used to trekking around the castle and his long day yesterday hadn't helped in the slightest to stifle his body's protests. So, it was with a small sigh of relief that he eased himself into his desk in the Charms classroom. Thankfully, the lesson that day was not a very physical one. They were starting a unit on household charms, which Harry thought was actually going to be very useful. It kind of blew his mind that they waited until the NEWT-level class to teach them. Of all of the charms that they'd learned so far, these were arguably going to be the ones most used by the majority of the students passing through Hogwarts. Why were they such privileged information that the many students who chose not to continue on in the subject were denied?

Well, it turned out the answer was that although the charms are useful and commonplace in many wizarding households, they are actually very complicated as well. And because each charm is designed for a highly specialized and specific activity, there were a ton of them to learn. Apparently, most witches and wizards actually only bother to learn and get good at just a handful of them for those household tasks which they dread the most- like washing dishes or folding laundry or making the bed. Because in order to fully complete all of the chores necessary to upkeep a home, someone would likely magically exhaust themself before they actually finished using charms alone. So these seemingly unassuming charms were nothing to sniff at and were not to be underestimated. They required focus and precision and a firm understanding of their intricacies and complexities. Harry found the whole lecture rather fascinating.

In the second half of the lesson, they moved onto the practical implementation of one of the simpler household spells- the Laundry Folding charm. Flitwick gave everyone a t-shirt and a pair of pants to practice on in pairs.

Sirius leaned over from where he was working with Remus next to Harry and whisper-yelled, "Oi, Bambi- trade shirts with me. This one's not really my style." He wrinkled his nose at the pale yellow shirt with pink flowers on it. It looked like something a grandmother might wear gardening.

Harry gave him a flat look. "And you think it's mine?" Sirius just shrugged, holding the shirt out. "You're a fucking wizard. If you don't like the shirt- change it- instead of bugging me." Harry turned back to face Lily who was trying to stifle her laughter. "Maybe God helps those who cannot help themselves, but I'm not God and he very much could help himself if he gave it even a titch of thought or effort," Harry told her, managing to maintain his bland expression. Lily pulled a very serious face and gave a solemn nod in agreement.

Despite the Laundry Folding charm being among the easiest of the household charms, it still took the class quite a while to manage it. For a long time, Harry's clothes just kept getting tangled up into a ball as they collapsed in on themselves while trying to fold. It was kind of complicated since you needed to maintain tension on the garment as it levitated while also guiding the actual folding process. This led to a lot of ripped clothing throughout the room as students put a little too much force into that tension. But by the end of the lesson, Lily, Harry, and about half of the class seemed to have mastered the spell.

After lunch, they headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts. The atmosphere in the classroom was downright hostile as the Gryffindors and Slytherins filed in. Harry really didn't care for the self satisfied look Avery sent his way or the way Mulciber gnashed his teeth at him. The Neith girl gave Remus a little wave, with her sharp, gleaming fingernails curling around into a claw at the end. And this time, Harry agreed- it was most definitely not funny.

As usual, there were no desks in the room, so they all just stood around, waiting for Professor Fortin to arrive. A minute later, she strode in and spelled the classroom doors closed with a bang.

"Welcome back," she said briskly. "I hope you all had a restful break as we will be jumping right in today. Now, one of the most important things that I want you to learn in this class is that there is a lot more to Defense than throwing around powerful spells. Sometimes, in fact, the fastest way to win a fight is to not be in one at all. Which brings us to our next unit- stealth. Never underestimate the value of hiding. Some may view it as cowardly, but, in truth, it is merely strategic. If you can properly employ stealth, then many of my other lessons may not even be necessary more often than not. Or you can sneak up on an enemy and attack before they even know that they are in a fight. So we will be developing this subtle and sneaky skill set for the next few weeks." There was a bit of muttering and whispering around the room at her proclamation. Apparently, this was a rather unorthodox unit to dedicate so much time to. "Today's exercise will be a simple, but hopefully informative one. We will be playing tag." Now that earned the professor some confused looks. "Blind," she added. "Everyone will be blindfolded- which I will do myself and be sure that I will know if you attempt to tamper or cheat in any way. We will draw names for someone to be 'it' first, but from then on, if you are tagged, then you are 'it'. I will announce whenever someone new is 'it' so that you will know if you've been tagged or just bumped into. Tagbacks are allowed, so I would suggest bidding a quiet, but hasty retreat after tagging someone. In addition, in order to ensure that no one tries to just camp out in order to not make any noise, everyone who is not actively 'it' must touch the opposite walls at either side of the classroom at least once every five minutes. Failure to meet this requirement or any attempt to cheat will result in your hands being bound behind you for the next ten minutes, which I can promise will make your task infinitely harder. I will also count off the minutes until you must touch the next wall for your benefit. All wands will remain with me for the entirety of this exercise. Any questions?" Fortin's hard eyes raked over the class.

Seeing that there were no questions, Fortin started calling them up one at a time to affix the blindfolds and take their wands. The fact that he knew no one could hex him while he was running around blind did help set Harry's mind at ease. He was pretty good at avoiding people, but curses he couldn't see coming would be a whole new level. When it was Harry's turn, he made his way up to the desk and pulled off his glasses, knowing that they would just get in the way. It was not like he was going to need them for the exercise.

Fortin looked at Harry with a slightly softer expression than she usually carried as she accepted his wand and glasses. In a low voice, she told him, "Mr. Doe- while I encourage you to participate to the best of your ability, I also want you to know that you may take a break at any time. Merely raise your arm in the air and give a wave, then make your way over to the nearest wall. If and when you are ready to rejoin the exercise, use the same signal, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," Harry told her quietly, with a little nod.

"Very well," Fortin said as she spelled a snug blindfold over Harry's eyes. Plunged into a world of darkness, Harry took a moment to find his bearings. "Turn directly around, walk fifteen to twenty paces and you will find your fellow Gryffindors on your right."

With another nod, Harry set off, following her directions. He made a point of clicking his cane loudly against the stone floor as he walked, already playing the mental game. Let them think he was useless- he was just dying to prove them wrong. Even his friends had given him worried looks as he'd made his way over to Fortin's desk, as if they'd just assumed that he would not be participating. Pomfrey had specifically not banned him from this class, so Harry was ready to take what little freedome he could get and run with it. Or, well, hobble with it, as best he could.

Once everyone was blindfolded, Fortin gave them a minute to spread out a little more before presumably summoning her favorite hat that she always drew names out of during class. Again, Harry clicked his way closer to one of the walls, listening as everyone around him shuffled about.

"The game will commence once I've read out the first person who's 'it'," Fortin's voice rang through the tense, still air of the room. Then, after a beat, she called out, "Harry Doe!"

Harry heard a couple of people actually laugh at that, which was their mistake because it gave away their position. Picking up his cane, Harry moved carefully to his right, towards the closest bit of laughter. He could still hear the faintly snorting breath of someone getting the last of their chuckles out. They didn't seem to be moving at all, which made Harry's life a lot easier. As he crept closer, Harry crouched down, knowing that the person's instinct would likely be to lash out once they were tagged. Once he was within striking distance of the person- Harry assumed that it was a boy, based on the deep laugh he'd heard earlier- Harry's left hand flew out and then he quickly dropped down so that he was laying on the ground and rolled away towards the wall. Just because he couldn't run away, didn't mean that he couldn't get away quickly.

"Knotting- you're 'it'!" Fortin's voice declared.

Harry heard the boy let out a protest and began shuffling around nearby- probably looking for Harry. But really, he was just announcing to the rest of the class where he was and soon the room was filled with hurried footsteps as everyone moved away from him. There were a couple of 'oofs' and the thud of someone falling over in the mad rush. Harry didn't move from his spot laying against the wall until he heard Knotting making his way towards the shifting crowd across the room. Once he thought it was safe, Harry sat upright against the wall. Taking advantage of the fact that he was already sitting down, Harry reached down and pulled off his shoes and socks. While the stone floor was cold, the rubber soles of his old trainers slapped and scuffed against the ground when he walked and Harry needed every advantage he could get. And at least here in the classroom, it was unlikely that there would be anything too hazardous for him to blindly step on. The main danger was just of his own feet getting stepped on by someone else and that was a risk Harry was willing to take.

"Willus- you're 'it'!"

Once his shoes were off, Harry stuffed them into the pockets of his robes and slowly pulled himself to his feet. It was a bit of a difficult maneuver all the way from the floor, but he managed it. Harry leaned against the wall a little for support and made his careful way to the far back corner of the room where they always left their bags at the beginning of class. When his foot met someone's book bag, Harry slowly shucked his outer robe and set it down on the pile of bags- no sense having it needlessly rustling around. Harry was thankful that he'd put on Sirius' old jumper that morning, because otherwise he was pretty sure he'd be absolutely freezing without his shoes or robes. He kept his cane in hand, just in case, as Harry set off towards the other side of the room to make it to the far wall before the deadline- by his count, he should still have just over two minutes.

"Hawthorne- you're 'it'!"

Harry listened intently to the movement on the other side of the room, keeping tabs on as many of his classmates as he could.

"Hagit- you're 'it'!" But a second later, "Hawthorne- you're 'it' again!"

Poor Milli, Harry spared her a thought just as he reached the other wall and leaned against it. Deciding not to move until he had to, Harry maintained his position at the back of the room. He stood there and just listened.

"Mulciber- you're 'it'!"

It was actually pretty easy to pick out Mulciber's lumbering steps, even amongst all of the scuffling. He was definlety the largest, and therefore heaviest, person in the class, and his footsteps reflected that. People were skittering out of his way as if an elephant were tromping past. He seemed to finally manage to pin someone in a corner.

"Duff- you're 'it'!"

Apparently, Duff wasn't suicidal enough to tag Mulciber back, as the hulking boy hadn't moved away with any speed, but his name wasn't called out again. Duff was much lighter on his feet- the next smallest boy in their class, after Harry. But his steps were a little hesitant and shuffling. Fortin soon called out the first five minute mark, so there was an increase in noise as many people set out towards the opposite wall. Harry hung back, not wanting to get caught up in the rush and confident that he didn't need the full five minutes to make his way across the room. A couple of people ran into each other towards the middle of the room and one of them let out a hiss. Duff took off in their direction.

"Rosamund- you're 'it'!" And a few seconds later, "Swothmore- you're 'it'!"

Gretta didn't waste any time, and began spiraling out from where she got tagged, searching for a new target. After about thirty seconds, she got lucky.

"Evans- you're 'it'!"

Lily was a little harder to track as she moved slowly out of the center of the room, but Harry was fairly certain that she'd made her way over to one of the walls and was creeping along it until she came upon someone trying to hide on the outskirts. Luckily, she hadn't chosen the wall Harry was currently hunkered down against- but it was a good strategy.

"Snape- you're 'it'!"

Harry heard Lily immediately take off into the room. Even at sixteen, Snape moved with near dead silence, just as he did as a Potions Master, creeping up on unsuspecting students. There was just no way that Harry could hear him move- definitely not from so far away. But Snape quickly found a victim.

"Black- you're 'it'!"

Sirius moved with swift, but heavy steps. Fairly confident that he could avoid the other boy for now, Harry pushed himself off of the wall and began to sneak his way back across the room. When he was, by his own estimation, about halfway to his destination, Harry heard someone coming towards him. He froze. At the very least, he was pretty sure that whoever it was wasn't Sirius, so he wasn't in danger of getting tagged, but Harry also would prefer not to give his position away at all if he could avoid it. Thankfully, the person managed to move past without seeming to realize Harry was there. Unfortunately, a few seconds later, it sounded like they tripped over one of the bags in the back corner and made a real racket. Sirius took off running towards them, but it sounded like his trajectory was a little off. Instead of making a beeline for whoever fell, he was actually on a collision course with Harry. The only small comfort was that Harry was pretty sure that Sirius had no idea that he was about to run into him, so praying that he'd calculated correctly, Harry took one silent step back and crouched low. Harry literally held his breath as Sirius barreled towards him because if he was wrong, then this was going to hurt. But Sirius flew past him- so close that Harry actually felt his robes brush against his arm. There was an unfortunate thud when Sirius failed to stop before he collided with the wall just beyond. Capitalizing on Sirius' presumed distraction, Harry quickly uncurled himself and made his way a little more into the room and away from Sirius before continuing his journey towards the far wall.

Harry listened as Sirius fumbled around in the back corner before finally tagging whoever had fallen earlier.

"Pettigrew- you're 'it'!"

Peter actually had a slightly uneven gate, which made his movements easy to follow. Unfortunately, he'd adopted a strategy very similar to Lily's and he was making his way along the wall, dragging his fingers against the stones. And Harry was fairly confident that he was the first person Peter was going to run into. Quickly throwing out his arm to touch the wall as soon as he was close enough, Harry then turned right around and took a few steps back in the other direction and then got low again. Listening intently, Harry heard Peter go past and continue his way down the wall. Straightening up, Harry carefully set his cane against the ground and stood there, head cocked to the side as he waited for something else to happen.

Peter eventually ran into what sounded like a group of people if the rapid calling out of, "Lupin! Potter! Pura! Potter! Pettigrew! Knotting- you're 'it'!" Was any indication. The excitement seemed to have stirred up the class as it sounded like basically everyone was moving now, trying to avoid or escape the fray. In the mad rush, Harry couldn't track anything other than the concept of movement as people flooded the back half of the classroom. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Harry quietly picked back up his cane, listening for all he was worth for anyone who might be getting a little too close to him. Harry rotated a little as someone flew past him on his left and then was forced to take a small step to the side as someone else nearly knocked him off his feet. But once he was fairly certain that there was no one else coming towards him, Harry set off, easing his way in the direction everyone had just feld. He was much better off avoiding a handful of people on the other side of the room- even if one of them was 'it'- than he was praying not to get stepped on in the midst of a mob. With fewer people, he'd also be able to track their movements a lot easier.

So Harry made his way diagonally across the room, knowing that the next five minute mark was about to be called too. Sure enough, Fortin soon announced that they needed to switch walls once again. There was a lot of noise on the far end of the room and Harry heard someone shift pretty close to him.

"Avery- you're 'it'! Black- you're- Avery! Black! Avery! Hagit! Mulciber- you're 'it'!"

Harry was very happy with his decision to abandon his old post after hearing that mess. He carefully made his way around the person he'd heard near him and came to lean against the wall. He did his best to breathe as quietly as possible as he stood there, listening to Mulciber tromp around on the other side of the room. But once again, people were fleeing and coming back his way. With an internal sigh, Harry got ready to move once again. He had a mini debate with himself about the best course of action. It was a little impractical to keep crossing the room in order to keep away from the crowd, but at the same time, the crowd kept moving and he really didn't want to get trampled. And enough people seemed privy to those camping out along the walls now that hiding there wasn't going to be viable long term either.

As Fortin called out, "Lupin- you're 'it'!" The answer struck Harry. Pulling himself upright, he started making his way over towards Fortin's voice. Assuming she hadn't moved too much, she should still be standing at her desk- which would provide the perfect cover. After all, why would someone who was 'it' bother wandering over to the one place where they knew the professor would be? No one in the class was dumb enough to mess with Professor Fortin. And if they somehow ended up over there by accident, then they'd probably trip over the desk before getting to Harry, giving him plenty of time to get away. And Fortin hadn't specified that anywhere was out of bounds. So, why not?

As he drew close to where he thought the professor was, Harry paused, waiting for her to say something else so that he could be sure he wasn't about to run into her or anything. When she gave a four minute warning until they needed to have touched the other wall, Harry was certain that she was standing behind the desk, so he reached out his hand and continued forward until he felt the cool wood beneath his fingertips. Slowly, he made his way around to the back of the desk and leaned up against the right side, next to his professor.

"Are you okay? Do you need to take a break?" Fortin asked him in a low, quiet voice.

"Oh, no, Professor. I'm fine. I hope you don't mind me using you for a bit of cover?" Harry said, just barely audibly.

Fortin gave the blindfolded boy a shrewd look, but didn't say anything further. Harry took her silence as that she didn't mind, so he settled in. A couple of minutes later, he was forced to venture out so that he could touch the wall, but he returned to desk once his task was accomplished.

Harry continued on like that for the remainder of the game- spending most of his time basically sitting on his professor's desk, which gave his sore leg a blessed break, and sneaking out only to touch the walls every five minutes. He ran into a few bits of trouble during some of those outings, but nothing that he couldn't handle and Harry was still pretty certain that no one had even known how close they'd been to him at any point. He spent most of his time listening, trying to track what was going on in the rest of the room. By the end of the exercise, Harry thought he could identify almost everyone in the class based on the sound of their movements. Harry almost laughed when he realized that it was James's fancy shoes that were making the slightest squeaking noise whenever he took a step.

Eventually, Fortin called time and with a wave of her wand, all of the blindfolds disappeared. Everyone blinked as their eyes readjusted to the light of the room and they all began naturally making their way towards Fortin.

The professor, however, turned towards Harry and asked, "Would you mind helping me with a little demonstration?"

"Uh- Sure, professor," Harry said, a little nervously. What exactly was she wanting to demonstrate?

Fortin spelled his blindfold back on before addressing the rest of the class, "I want all of you to watch and- most importantly- listen." She turned back towards Harry and told him, "Please, join me around the front of the desk, Mr. Doe. I am going to attempt to tag you, like in the exercise, and I'd like you to try and avoid me as best you can, okay?" Harry gave a small nod as he made his way around to stand before the desk, in front of the class. Some of the Gryffindor boys noticed, interestingly, that Harry seemed to move more gracefully blindfolded than he did without his glasses. In the dorm, he was often tripping around when he didn't have them on and they'd even watched him walk into the doorframe once when leaving the bathroom after taking a shower. Perhaps it was because he wasn't wasting so much effort trying to see.

As Harry heard Fortin begin to move, he picked his cane up once again, pivoting a little and ducking low. He felt her move past, but then he heard her robes swish as she quickly turned around and came back towards him. She sounded like she was a little off center to his right, so Harry took a small step to his left, leaning over, placing his good hand on the floor for balance. As she passed him again, Harry pulled himself up so that he wouldn't topple over, but Fortin came around a third time, forcing him to take another step back. And this time, she stopped abruptly in front of him and he could sense her reaching out towards him, so Harry dropped to the ground again and rolled away until he met the desk.

"Very good," Fortin said, letting Harry know that he could relax. Harry pulled himself back to his feet with the help of the desk and stood there, waiting for her to remove his blindfold. But instead, she continued, "I hope you all noticed just how little movement was actually required for him to avoid me. Why waste energy unnecessarily? I'd imagine many of you are a lot more tired than him from running around all over the room like you did. In addition, you should have noted just how little sound he made as he moved. You'll notice that he is the only one to have removed his robes or shoes- both of which are major sources of noise during movement and can easily give away your position. I think many of you would be shocked to know how close you had been to Mr. Doe at one point or another during this exercise without even knowing it. Another thing that Mr. Doe did that no one else thought to do is duck. Simple, but undeniably extremely effective." Fortin gave the class a searching look. "And I believe that Mr. Doe may have gone even one step further than I dictated, taking this opportunity to hone another skill. You-" Fortin pointed at one of the students in front of her, "Walk to the wall and back." After a moment's confused hesitation, the person complied. "Mr. Doe, can you tell me who that was?"

"Eh- Mulciber?" Harry offered. He was pretty sure he was right, but it was kind of nerve racking being put on the spot like that.

"Correct. You-" she pointed to someone else, "do the same." Another set of footsteps was heard. "And who was that?"

"Gretta," Harry told her.

"And you-" Fortin called forth a third person. After a few seconds she asked, "Who was that?"

"Probably Snape," Harry said.

"Why do you say 'probably'?" She questioned.

"Because he's the only one who doesn't make any noise," Harry explained.

"Correct." Fortin vanished his blindfold and Harry blinked myopically into the sudden brightness. She handed him back his wand and glasses.

As Harry slid the frames back onto his face, he asked curiously, "Professor- how did you know I was tracking individual people?"

A faint smile crossed Fortin's lips. "You only proactively moved to get out of the way whenever someone who was 'it' came near you. Otherwise, you merely moved just enough to not be run into or detected," she explained. "While you're up here-" She continued, "Do you have a bonus project for our nonverbal spell unit from last term? Everyone else presented on the day you were out sick."

Harry thought for a moment. He'd honsetly kind of forgotten about the project, what with everything that had happened and hadn't really practiced his spell in a while. And he certainly had never done it left handed before. But hey- no time like the present, right? He was a little nervous, going in half-cocked like this, but how often in his life was Harry ever truly prepared for anything?

"Sure," Harry said, as he leaned his cane up against the desk and gripped his wand. Closing his eyes briefly, he took a breath, thinking about eating Christmas cookie s'mores with the Potters on New Year's Eve. He felt a warm, familiar feeling spread through his chest and he opened his eyes just in time to see his patronus take form and canter around the room before coming to rest beside him. Harry reached out and gave him a pat before letting Prongs fade away. At least I could still do that one okay, Harry thought.

"Impressive," Fortin said with a well concealed look of disbelief on her face. "Thank you, Mr. Doe," she dismissed Harry to go rejoin the class, who were all gaping at him. Well, with the Slytherins, it was more of a shocked look with bared teeth. Harry tucked his wand away before grabbing his cane and making his way back over to his fellow Gryffindors, ignoring everyone's looks. Suck it, Harry thought with satisfaction. And to think some of them had laughed at the very thought of him participating today. Oh, how Harry loved to prove people wrong.

The Gryffindors left Defense a little while later, heading back down to their abandoned classroom on the first floor that they seemed to have adopted as their own. Harry had needed to sit down to put his shoes back on, which had taken a minute. But at least that meant that all of the Slytherins had already left by the time the Gryffindors made their way out of the classroom, avoiding any more potential post-lesson confrontations.

"Well, at least I don't need to be embarrassed that you keep managing to sneak up on me," Sirius was saying as Harry wrestled his shoes on. "You move like a damn ghost."

"You're right- that's not why you need to be embarrassed," Harry agreed lightly, earning a glare from Sirius.

"I just can't believe that you can produce a patronus! A bloody nonverbal, corporeal patronus!" Milli said emphatically.

Harry shrugged, "I'm just happy it worked. I haven't exactly had time to practice that one since before the break," he told them as he spelled his laces tied. James and Sirius helped haul Harry to his feet and he put back on his robes. "Thanks," he said.

As they made their way down to the first floor, Harry told the others about how Sirius had nearly taken his head off during the game of tag and how he'd ended up running face-first into a wall instead.

"How'd you know it was me? Walking, at the end of class, I mean?" Gretta asked Harry.

"Oh, well, everyone kind of walks different. For you- the heel of your shoes make a bit of a clicking sound against the stone floor and you walk a little heavier on your right foot," Harry explained.

"And the rest of us?" James asked, curiously.

"You squeak," Harry told him fimly, with a grin.

"I squeak?" James spluttered indignantly.

"Yeah. Those fancy shoes of yours do, at least," Harry teased. He then proceeded to describe how the rest of the group sounded when they walked, much to their amazement.

"How on earth did you figure all that out?" Peter asked, slightly bewildered.

"I listened. We were at it for over two hours- what were the rest of you doing?"

"Running."

"Hiding."

"Thinking about dinner."

"Thinking about quidditch."

"Writing my Charms essay in my head."

"Well, maybe if the rest of you had spent a little more time focused on the task at hand, you lot wouldn't have gotten tagged so much," Harry gloated. Pettily, Sirius reached out from somewhere behind Harry to 'tag' him upside the back of the head, but Harry ducked. "Please- you're gonna need to be much faster than that," he rubbed in.

Once they made it down to the classroom, Lily asked, "Have you guys found a place for us to practice yet?"

"Actually," James jumped to respond, "we just might have! We were gonna go on a little exploration mission tonight to chase down our lead. Wanna come?" He offered casually.

"Sure!" Lily said excitedly, causing an ecstatic grin to spread across James' face. "Where exactly is your 'lead'?"

"Deep in the dungeons…" James said mysteriously. "Where basically no one ever goes or will bother to look for us," he added.

"Smart," Lily admitted, eliciting another smile from James.

"Ugh! You're only encouraging him, you know?" Gretta scoffed, but Lily just rolled her eyes.

"When would we start if this place works out?" Lily pressed on, directing that question over towards Harry.

"Umm- how about Friday afternoon? We all have an off period, right?" He got nods in response. "Well, most people will still be in class then and we'll have plenty of time before dinner and before anyone bothers looking for us, right? It's not like we haven't kind of made a habit of all disappearing for long periods of time at this point…" Harry said, looking around the room in illustration of them doing exactly that right now.

"Perfect!" James said.

The next morning, Harry finally made it to Potions on time and not out of breath. Slughorn gave Harry a slightly exasperated look when the boy beamed at him as he took his seat before the bell rang, signaling the start of morning classes- as if it were some mighty accomplishment and not a basic expectation. Thankfully, he had them brewing in pairs that day, and Lily was kind enough to work with him. He was even more of a hindrance than he usually was since not only was he still pants at potions, but Harry also couldn't really help much with the preparation of most of the ingredients since his right hand was still pretty out of commission for such fine and precise tasks. So he was basically relegated to picking leaves off of stems, grinding various things into powders, and carefully stirring based on Lily's exact instructions while Lily was forced to run around gathering all of the ingredients, chopping, slicing, dicing, and crushing, and meticulously adding everything in while also keeping an eye on the brewing process as a whole. By the end of class, they were able to hand in a pretty respectable looking potion- all thanks to the wonderful Lily.

In Transfiguration that afternoon, they began working on large object transfiguration. Up until that point in their Hogwarts careers, they really hadn't transfigured anything larger than a standard cauldron, so this new unit was all about things that were basically too big to be set on a table. And for their first lesson that day, they were starting with the table itself. McGonagall had them all up, out of their seats, working on transfiguring their desks into different materials and styles. Apparently as the objects scaled up, more and more precision was required in order to produce a complete and coherent transfiguration. Over the course of the lesson, many students ended up with franken-desks that looked like they were cobbled together from the remnants of about ten different desks made of all sorts of things. Harry was quite pleased when he managed to turn his own desk to stone and then back again. James actually turned his to glass which looked pretty wicked. Peter somehow managed to catch his desk on fire- which Harry had hastily put out- earning an extremely disapproving look from Professor McGongall.

As Friday finally arrived, Harry was glad to have almost survived his first week back. It seemed to have lasted an eternity. The disaster that was Tuesday felt like it had been forever ago, not just three days prior. When he'd awoken just a little before 6am, Harry didn't even bother trying to get up. He just lay in his bed staring up at the hangings of his four poster attempting to will his body into going back to sleep. More sleep sounded wonderful, but he just couldn't manage it.

Eventually, movement began to stir in the rest of the dormitory. Harry laid there listening as the others dragged themselves out of bed and began getting ready. He heard a whispered conversation from nearby.

"I'm not waking him up- you do it," someone whispered.

"Hell no! Pete- get in there."

"No way."

"Maybe we should just let him sleep?"

"Are you volunteering to be the sacrifice when he does wake up and is pissed?"

There was a beat of silence.

"Stone, Parchment, Wand?" Someone proposed.

Harry heard a few tapping noises and some quiet curses and crows of triumph. Then the same thing again.

Someone made their way towards Harry. They came to a stop next to his bed and reached a cautious hand out to shake him awake. Just before they actually touched him, Harry snapped his eyes open and said, "Boo!"

Remus jumped about a foot in the air, recoiling his hand and scampering backwards.

Harry sat up, cackling. "You could've just asked if I was awake, you know?" He said through laughing breaths. "But it's good to know you lot have such a robust decision making system in place."

Sirius glared at him. "And you thought you'd just have a lie in and let us fret about it?"

"I'm tired," Harry shrugged. "And once someone brought up human sacrifice, I was curious where you were gonna go with it… And don't think I can't tell that nine times out of ten you're lying over there awake while we have to drag your arse out of bed basically every day- so I wouldn't be quite so high and mighty about it," Harry threw back. "Sorry Remus," he added in a much kinder voice, looking over at the tall, pale boy he'd scared the daylights out of.

"'S okay," Remus said, trying to shake it off.

Harry tossed off his covers, scooting to the edge of the bed. He shivered slightly as his feet hit the cold floor. Reaching down, Harry rubbed at his leg, trying to loosen up the tight, aching muscles there. Just one more day, he reminded himself. Then it'd be the weekend and he could lay around all day long if he wanted. Harry didn't bother showering- telling himself that he'd do it tonight instead- so he just summoned both of his jumpers, layering up because he knew that he'd be going outside in order to get to Herbology. Harry gave another little shiver at the thought of having to face the class that afternoon, but he pushed the unpleasant thought to the back of his mind as he continued getting dressed.

In Care of Magical Creatures that morning, Barlow updated the class that Hebi had made it safely to a preserve in Japan and that the handlers there were going to send out a search party for her mate. Apparently, it had taken a lot of convincing on the professor's part to get the Ministry workers to believe her that she had some secret knowledge of the whereabouts of another Horned Serpent- because she had agreed not to tell anyone about Harry being a parselmouth. But once she showed Harry and Lily's notes to the Japanese handlers and they were able to confirm that they described a real location that would make a viable habitat for Horned Serpents, even that small hope of helping preserve the species was enough for them to assemble a team to check it out.

They spent the rest of the lesson discussing how the preserves system actually works in the wizarding world. It turned out to be one of the most amicable and collaborative examples of international wizarding cooperation. Because those witches and wizards running the preserves were typically the type of people who just wanted what was best for the creatures and often didn't care much for politics or bureaucracy, the movement and exchange of creatures and information was free flowing- all of which resulted in a mutually beneficial and efficient system. Even the handlers and others working on the preserves were not subject to the same, often strict immegration laws of the various countries they reside in, allowing for the right people to easily and quickly get to the right places when needed. The whole system really was fascinating to hear about.

As Harry, James, Sirius, Peter, and Lily were making their way up to Defense, they were all chatting casually about the interesting lesson they'd just had. Sirius was going on about how amazing the hadler lifestyle must be- the freedom, no rules, and getting to work with all kinds of cool creatures. Lily was saying how she'd love to get to visit a real preserve one day. Just as they were rounding a corner on the third floor, Harry's cane flew out of his grasp. He'd been mid step, so the sudden loss of support caused him to over balance and fall.

"You're right, I guess maybe he does need it," a cold voice mused.

Harry's wand was in his hand in the next second as the other's heads whipped around. Avery was leaning casually against the wall, twirling Harry's cane in his hand. Mulciber, Neith, and Snape were lurking just behind him, all with matching looks of disgust on their faces.

"Sorry Chewtoy- just needed to make sure you weren't faking just to get a little sympathy. Really seems to be your style- limping around here like some beaten stray, begging for table scraps and a hug," Avery said in mock sympathy, his face creasing into a pitying expression.

"Is there a problem here?" Remus had appeared around the corner and was standing tall, eyes narrowed at the Slytherins, in a respectable impression of Professor McGonagall. It was interesting- even though Lily was also a prefect, even at sixteen, Remus just had that slightly intimidating professorial quality to him that seemed to add an additional sense of gravitas when he spoke like that.

"Oh, no," Avery said with heavy sarcasm, "I was just warning my friends here about what happens when you feed the animals." He tossed Harry's cane back towards him where it clattered across the stone floor, then turned importantly and headed off towards the Defense classroom, his 'friends' trailing behind him.

There was a war playing out across Sirius' face as he clenched his wand tightly in his hand, staring furiously at the Slytherins' retreating backs, but his look softened and he turned away when Remus asked quietly, "Are you okay?" Because while it went against every fiber of his being to let Avery just walk away, he couldn't let Harry get hurt any more. And starting a fire fight in the middle of the hallway was a recipe for just that, particularly knowing his self-sacrificial friend.

"Yeah," Harry said as he shook out his left arm, releasing his own white-knuckled grip on his wand. Thankfully, Harry had managed to catch himself this time, so he was pretty sure the worst of it would be a bruise on his elbow, where it'd hit the floor. Remus and James helped him up.

"I hate him," Sirius said, looking back down the hallway where the Slytherins had disappeared. "I hate all of those slimy bastards," he spat. He got no arguments.

They slowly made their way the rest of the way to the Defense classroom. The other Gryffindors had already arrived and were giving the Slytherins suspicious looks.

"Any idea what's got them in such a good mood today?" Milli asked as they joined the group.

"Avery's still an arsehole," was the only explanation Harry gave, but it was enough to paint something of a picture for the others who had not witnessed the incident. Well, that, and one look at the dark faces of those standing around Harry told them just about all they needed to know. They all glared over at the Slytherins who just sneered back.

"Today," Fortin began, with no preamble, "we will be continuing our exercises in stealth." She waved her wand and red boundaries painted themselves on the floor of the classroom, running lengthwise from one wall to another, with a small circle in the center of the room. "A caster will stand at the center, blindfolded, while the rest of you will do the same wall-to-wall exercise from last class- though this time you will be able to see and will have to touch the opposite wall every minute. The caster will attempt to stun as many people as possible while the rest of you attempt not to get stunned. All shoes must remain on during this exercise," she added, sparing a glance at Harry.

It sounded simple enough, so, after turning in their wands once again, Fortin divided the class so that half of them were spread out along each wall before summoning her hat and calling out a name for the first caster. "Melanie Pura." The slightly nervous looking Slytherin girl stepped forward into the little circle. Fortin then handed her her wand back and spelled the blindfold in place. After walking back over to her desk, Fortin declared, "Begin!"

Everyone immediately took off. Harry was actually having more trouble avoiding the other people rather than the stunners. There was enough chaos happening with people moving around in the confined space that Harry didn't really see a point in not using his cane- he was better off moving more quickly and making a little more noise in this exercise compared to the last. His strategy mostly involved tailing people, as he could completely hide behind them without ever being exposed if he was able to keep up. The only problem came when his human shield got stunned- they would crumple directly in his path, forcing Harry to go around. But he found that he was thankfully still able to dodge the spellfire pretty easily- mostly just with a little twisting and leaning out of the way. They rotated through casters pretty quickly, since it was a short lesson that day. When it came Harry's turn to be the caster, he took great pleasure in specifically targeting the Slytherins- since he could now identify them by their footsteps. It was with much satisfaction when he looked around after Fortin removed his blindfold and handed Harry back his glasses that he noted he'd managed to take down every Slytherin except Snape with the only Gryffindor 'casualty' being Peter.

By lunch time, Harry was exhausted. Running around like that for an hour plus had just about done him in. When they reached the Great Hall, Harry hastily ate half a sandwich before putting his head down and grunting for someone to wake him up when it was time for class.

Lily's hand on his back startled Harry into consciousness a half hour later. Harry involuntarily threw an elbow at her, causing her to let out a little grunt and bid a quick retreat.

"Well, I guess that answers your question of if it's just us he doesn't like. Sorry Lils- we thought maybe you'd have better luck," Sirius said dryly.

Harry pulled his head up, looking around a little briefly, before flushing slightly when he realized what he'd just heard and probably done. "Sorry," he said as he rubbed at his face, trying to wake himself up the rest of the way.

"It's okay- you barely got me," Lily told him kindly. "But we need to start heading down to the greenhouses."

Harry nodded as he straightened up and twisted around in his seat so that he could stand. He really didn't want to go to Herbology. They slowly made their way out into the cold grounds. All of his friends were giving Harry slightly concerned glances as they made their way down to the greenhouses and Harry felt his anxiety rising with every step. He wasn't even really sure what he was so worried about- it's not like he actually thought that Kerner was going to suddenly turn into Voldemort in the middle of his lecture or that Hellhounds were about to materialize. Yes, his dream had been a bit unsettling, but it had also been just that- a stupid dream. Of all the shit to freak him out… Harry had about a thousand and one real things to be worried about, so why was this Herbology nonsense topping his list right now?

Harry clenched his fist tightly around his hacky sack and shoved his hands into his pockets in order to hide the fact that they were shaking. This was stupid. He was being stupid. But at the same time, his fear was real. There were only a handful of times in Harry's life when he had genuinely believed himself to be dying- when the basilisk bit him, that night with Sirius and the horde of dementors, last year when Voldemort had tried to possess him, and that Tuesday morning. By the end of the episode Harry was honestly more frightened by the fact that he couldn't breath than the stupid dream or the blood or whatever had set him off. And he really didn't want to go through that again. It had been embarrassing and utterly terrifying. But at the same time, he knew being anxious about it was probably only going to make it more likely to happen again. If only his anxiety would listen to his rational brain.

"Are- are you gonna be okay?" James asked him hesitantly. "Because you don't have to do this. We can tell Kerner that you aren't feeling well or that your leg hurts or something."

Taking a slightly shaky breath, Harry shook his head. "No, I- I'll be okay. It's not like I can avoid Herbology forever, right?" Harry tried to say lightly, though it fell a little flat.

"Okay," James said, a little resigned. "But please try and tell us if it's, uh- getting bad."

Harry gave him a small nod before looking away and asking, "So, what did you guys do on Tuesday," needing some kind of distraction.

"Bastard actually gave us a quiz- I guess we probably should've mentioned that earlier… Hopefully he'll let you schedule a makeup one for later and actually give you a chance to study," Sirius said. "But beyond that, we just did some pruning and repotting. Nothing exciting or new," he shrugged.

As the greenhouse doors swung open, Harry took one last steadying breath before making his way inside. As he walked, Harry specifically kept his eyes up, looking around at all of the interesting plants and decidedly not at the ground or the workstations or his classmates. Arriving at their usual table, Harry was shocked to find a tall stool sitting next to it. Looking up with a confused expression, Professor Kerner caught Harry's eye from where he stood at the front of the class and gave him a subtle nod. Hesitantly, Harry approached the stool and cautiously took a seat just on the edge of it. It was honestly a bit of a relief to get off of his leg- even after having sat down for all of lunch, it was still protesting from the whole week of overuse. But as Harry relaxed slightly, looking over at Kerner as he prepared to start class, he understood the stool for what it was- a peace offering from the standoffish professor which he was more than happy to accept.

The short Herbology period passed without incident, much to everyone's relief. The Gryffindor 6th years had decided to all meet up in their abandoned classroom before heading down to their new secret practice room together. Only James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and Gretta had gone down to scope it out earlier in the week. Harry had just been too tired to drag himself all the way down to the dungeons and then back up to Gryffindor tower, while the others had work to do or just didn't really care, as long as they got a place to practice. So, Sirius led the way, deep into the bowels of the school- much farther into the dungeons than Harry had ever bothered to venture in his own time. Eventually, they arrived at an innocuous suit of armor- much like the hundreds of others dotted all around the school- though, this one appeared to be framed for some reason. Sirius politely asked the suit to step aside which it did, clanging against the floor as it sidled off of its pedestal. Once it had moved, it was revealed that what had looked like a frame around the suit of armor was actually a door frame. Sirius grasped the knob and pushed open the heavy door with a slightly manic grin.

"Welcome," he announced, with a grand, sweeping gesture, "to the Knight's Training Grounds!"

As they entered, all of them who hadn't seen the room before looked around curiously. There were a few odd pieces of furniture scattered around, but it was mostly a large, empty space. The room was long and rectangular, with heavy iron sconces all along the walls holding large, flickering candles. The ceiling was low, as most were in the dungeons, but it appeared to be covered in a giant tapestry. Harry looked up, studying it, as he walked the length of the room. It appeared to depict the story of some noble knight's epic quest- like something out of a muggle fairytale. Harry had never seen anything quite like it before- the artistry was beautiful and the thick fabric itself would go a decent way towards muffling any sounds that they made while practicing, so it was dual purpose.

"So, what are we learning today, Professor Doe?" Sirius asked excitedly, drawing Harry's attention from where he'd been inspecting the tapestry at the far end of the room. Harry looked over and found all of his friends facing him, looking rather expectant. Bloody hell- it really was like the DA all over again.

"Please don't call me that," Harry said dejectedly.

"Alright, Coach!" Sirius chirped.

Harry sighed, knowing that was likely the best he was going to get. Sirius was just respectful enough to allow one veto, but hardly ever two. That's kind of how Harry had ended up with the nickname 'Bambi', after all. He'd told Sirius not to call him 'kid' and the next one just stuck, unfortunately.

"Right," Harry said, making his way back over to the others. "Well, I guess it would make sense to start at the beginning? Duels can be won or lost in seconds, so arguably the most important part of a duel is the very start, beginning with your starting position and how you stand. For example, I once saw something start a duel like this-" And Harry leaned his cane against a nearby table so that he could brandish his wand and strike up a pose very similar to the one Lockhart had taken way back in his 2nd year at the very first Dueling Club meeting. He stood, broad shouldered and with one arm held aloft in a flourish above his head, grinning like an idiot. "Now, can anyone tell me what's wrong with this?" Harry asked, holding the position, minus the grin.

"You look like you're posing for a magazine, not prepping for a duel," James snorted.

"Precisely. This stance is presentational- not practical. And it's not even intimidating at that," Harry pointed out. "So, what specifically is wrong with it?" He pressed. But when he got no reply, he continued, "Well, basically everything is wrong with it. My feet are in the wrong position, my weight is on the wrong leg, this hand up here is doing nothing but creating more of a target, and my shoulders are turned the wrong way. I guess technically I do have my wand out in front, which is always a good start, but really beyond that there's not much else going right here," Harry explained. He then went through and corrected each of the things he'd called out, pulling his feet correct, shifting his weight, dropping the ridiculous hand, and finally turning his shoulders so that he was basically standing sideways. "Now, I know that I already make a pretty small target, but you'll notice that if I stand like this," Harry said, motioning towards his narrow, exposed side, "my opponent is gonna need to have damn good aim in order to hit me, even if I don't move. I'd bet from even just ten or fifteen meters none of you could manage to constantly hit me, even with both of us standing perfectly still. And during a duel, it is very likely that you will both be moving, making aiming just that much harder."

The others looked to be listening rather intently, a few of them appearing deep in thought at those last few comments.

"Uh, why don't you pair off and take up a starting position. We'll see if anyone could improve their stance, yeah?" Harry said and everyone moved to follow his suggestion.

Harry made his way around the room, giving people pointers and making tweaks. At one point, Haleigh asked, "So, if you want to stand sideways, which way does your back foot point so that you can still keep your balance best?" Which caused Harry to pause before answering.

He took up his own dueling stance once again, twisting is back foot around to try and find what felt correct, but after a minute, he gave up and switched his feet around before saying, "You basically want your feet perpendicular to one another, I think, with the back one maybe rotated a little bit more out. But I don't think that there is an exact 'right' answer as long as you feel comfortable and can maneuver around well." Harry switched his back the other way before settling into the position again. "Yeah, like this, I think," he told her before sighing, "Sorry- I'm just used to doing all this the other way and it's a bit hard to flip it around in my head. But probably better for teaching though- it's like looking in a mirror now for the rest of you," he smiled.

Harry had them throw Tickling charms at one another to practice their aim and dodging and maintaining a solid stance throughout. "Remember-" he told them, "you never want to really settle your weight. You need to be ready to move in any direction at any moment." A little later, he called for them to stop. "I'll also point out that you don't need to wait to come down here to practice things like dodging or your aim. As far as I'm aware, there are no rules against tickle fights in the dormitories or doing target practice with a concentrated Color Changing charm. While it might not have the exact same feel as some of the heavier hexes and such, a lot of this is just muscle memory, so the more you practice- in any way you can- the better, faster, and easier it will all get. Even something like throwing and dodging a tennis ball will help."

"What's a 'tennis ball'?" Sirius asked.

Harry sighed and said, "Someone else can take that one," waving off the question. Lily helpfully explained it for Sirius and other others who had never encountered muggle tennis. Harry cast a quick tempus and saw that they didn't have too long before dinner. Once Lily was done, Harry asked, "Are there any questions before we wrap up?"

"What about tactics?" Milli asked.

Harry could probably talk for hours about all of the ways not to get killed in a duel, so he thought for a moment about what might be the most helpful bit for this group right now. "Sometimes," Harry began a little hesitantly, knowing that what he was about to say may not be the most well received by everyone, "you need to accept that you're objectively outmatched in a fight. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to lose. If I'm being honest, I would have to say that at least half the Slytherin's are better trained and/or more ruthless duelers than all of us in this room. There's really no point in trying to out curse them, so that's where the strategy comes in. Sometimes the unexpected can do more damage than a well executed hex. Figure out what you do well and then find a creative way to use it. Do something that they won't see coming, like- I don't know- cast a spell at their feet. Conjure a chicken and throw that at them instead of a spell. Come up with something that they won't have a readymade counter for. From what I've seen, the Slytherns' have a very militant style of dueling that is fast and vicious, but not very adaptable or creative. Most of the time, they are just trying to overwhelm you with the sheer number and power of their spells, so if you can throw them off their rhythm, I would expect that they might struggle a bit to recover. The key is just surviving the onslaught until you manage to do that and get your opening," Harry finished. Then he tacked on, "We should probably start heading to dinner."

They all nodded and Sirius surreptitiously checked the Marauder's Map before heaving the heavy door back open and tapping the knight on the shoulder. The armor hopped off the pedestal once again and Sirius shepherded them all back into the hallway before thanking the statue and leading the way back towards the center of the castle.

As they made the long trek through the winding dungeon passages, Harry was doing his best to try and learn the way, but he just felt hopelessly lost. It was kind of amazing that Sirius actually seemed to know where he was going. How much time must he have spent down here exploring in order to know his way around so well in the seemingly identical, damp halls? But, then again, Harry knew that his dad and his friends had made the Marauders Map, which was incredibly detailed, even way down in the dungeons. Harry had just never really bothered to look too closely at the map down there since he didn't ever have a need to beyond Snape's quarters and the Slytherin common room.

Harry was pulled out of his musing by a harsh voice. "You lot!" Looking up, Harry saw none other than Auror fucking Monroe, stalking down the corridor towards them. "Are you lost? What are you doing down here?"

"We were just out for a walk, sir," Harry told him pleasantly, slapping a placid smile on his face.

"You do know that we are allowed to walk around, right?" Sirius drawled.

"A bit of an odd place to walk," Monroe said pointedly. "And I wouldn't think someone in your- condition- would want to be needlessly traipsing around the castle." Monroe eyed Harry suspiciously.

Harry's smile fell away. "Exercise is good for you," he said coldly.

Sirius snarled, "What's it to you, anyway? Are you here to protect us or spy on us?"

Monroe glared right back at Sirius. "I am here to protect the student body from all possible threats," Monroe said harshly. "So I hope you will excuse my due diligence."

"I fail to see how repeatedly insulting me is 'due diligence', sir," Harry said calmly. "Seems more like harassment to me," he added.

"And yet I find myself wondering why you are being so defensive in a simple conversation? Do you have something to hide?" He peered down at Harry.

"I am not being defensive, sir. I am merely pointing out that this is the second time that you've stopped and interrogated us just for walking down the corridor- well before curfew, I might add. Do you do this to all of the students? Because I would imagine it might become a right headache during the passing period," Harry said in mock concern.

"Don't get fresh with me, boy!" Monroe snapped.

"Do not call me 'boy'," Harry said icily.

"I will call you whatever I like, you insolent brat," Monroe spat, "And you will respect me and the work I am doing."

"Respect is earned, sir. And you seem to have a knack for losing it by the second," Harry told him mildly.

"Why you-" Monroe took a threatening step towards Harry, who stood his ground as the others all flinched back, until he caught himself and the auror visibly fought to regain his composure. "Answer my question-" he bit out. "What are you lot doing skulking around in the dungeons?"

"I already told you- sir. We were just out for a walk. Now, please, either arrest me, let me pass, or summon a teacher who may actually have some authority over where I can and cannot walk while in this school."

Monroe sneered at Harry, but eventually, reluctantly stepped aside, letting the group of Gryffindors through, glaring at them until they turned the corner at the far end of the hall and disappeared from sight. He was fuming.

"Uh, Harry- I'm not so sure you should go pissing off the aurors like that…" Gretta said hesitantly, throwing a worried look back towards where they had left Monroe.

"I was exceedingly polite until he gave me about twenty reasons not to be," Harry said firmly. "Just because some idiot gave him a badge doesn't mean that he should have free reign to be an arse."

"That- was bloody wicked!" Sirius whooped.

Harry's dream of having a lazy Saturday was ruined by Beth. She declared a mandatory early morning strategy session to start off the weekend. The only small kindness she granted them was that she held the meeting in the common room, rather than the locker rooms, so the team didn't have to get dressed and wander down to the pitch in the bitter, cold morning. Harry had a feeling that she made that concession purely for his benefit, but, for once, he was not about to complain about the differential treatment. He was quite content sitting by the warm fire, thank you.

Because it was so ludicrously early, there wasn't anyone else awake in the tower- let alone the common room- so Beth set up her board just to the right of the fireplace and jumped right in, all too chipper for the early hour. "As you all know, our match with Slytherin is coming up at the end of the month and it's going to be a rough one. Currently, our plan is still for Harry to fly with us during the match, but Jamie- you're our backup if anything goes wrong, so you will be filling the position until Harry is able to rejoin our flying practices and focusing on seeker drills thereafter, okay?" The 4th year gave a sleepy nod. "Good. Regardless of who our seeker ends up being, our general strategy will remain the same. A match with the Slytherins is all about one thing- ending the game as soon as possible, which means catching the snitch. As a result, we will be flying a missing wing formation. Sirius- your entire job is going to be sticking to the seeker like Spellotape and making sure that they live long enough to catch the snitch."

Harry was relieved that Beth shared his views on getting off the pitch as fast as possible when facing off against the brutal Slytherin team. Although, he wasn't a huge fan of her use of the phrase 'make sure they survive long enough'. And just long enough to 'catch the snitch'- after that, it was really up to Sirius' discretion, it seemed.

"Awe- Bambi- I've got you! Don't you worry- old Padfoot will keep those big, bad, evil snakes away!" Sirius cried, reaching out and wrapping his arms around Harry, pulling the smaller boy into a disgruntled hug. Harry let out a growl which didn't seem to deter Sirius in the slightest as he just tightened his hold, dragging Harry over until he was basically half sitting in his lap.

"Pads- if you don't let him go, I think he might bite you," James warned, causing Sirius to reluctantly release Harry.

As he crankily pulled himself back upright, Harry said, "I would like to formally request a different bodyguard."

"Denied," Beth told him and Harry let out a huff. She rolled her eyes before jumping back into her speech. "The rest of us will, of course, still be trying to score points and block the Slytherins while also running interference and creating distractions for the rest of their team. Our advantage is all about speed and precision versus their brute force. Our goal is to keep the quaffle away from them at all costs, because once they have possession, it is unlikely that we will be getting it back. And Reggie- I just need you to do your best with the bludgers. I know that I am asking for the impossible here, but that is what we need to do in order to get through this match. And everyone needs to accept, right now, that no one is likely to come out unscathed from a run-in with the Slytherin team- you all saw their match against Ravenclaw. If this is going to be too much risk- I will not hold it against you, but I need to know today." She leveled a serious look at them all.

Beth kept up her rant for another impressive two and a half hours before she had exhausted every diagram and play she'd come up with specifically for the Slytherin team. She finally released them to head down to breakfast with a reminder that they had flying practice on Sunday where they were going to start drilling all of their new plays, so everyone needed to 'study up!'.

After breakfast, Harry, James, and Sirius returned to their dorm room and all crawled back into bed. It was late morning at that point and both Peter and Remus were already up, but there was no way that the other three boys were going to be functioning unless they got at least another hour or two of sleep. Well, Harry could've pulled himself together had it truly been necessary, but he just wanted to recover what little he could of his lazy Saturday.

So, it wasn't until around lunch time that the 6th year Gryffindor boys were all up and mildly functional. They all headed down to the Great Hall together, carrying their jackets and winter gear, planning a trip outside after they ate. They invited the girls to join them, who readily agreed, so the guys hung out in the Entrance Hall as they girls ran back up to the tower to get properly dressed for the weather. Once they returned, the group headed outside into the crisp, cold air.

They made their way around to the far side of the lake, far away from any other people who were out exploring the grounds. Harry had really wanted to practice some of his nastier spells left handed and he figured that outside, away from people was probably the best place for such an activity without having to slip away to the Room of Requirement. He was still working on his aim and he really didn't want to hurt anyone or cause any significant property damage. So, Harry found a large boulder along the forest's edge to practice against. He even spelled a little target onto it to make it feel more official.

As Harry practiced his spellwork, the others got into a snowball fight.

"See- look, Coach! We're practicing! Just like you wanted!" Sirius called out, just as Milli got him right in the face with a snowball.

"I think you need more practice, mate!" Harry shouted back.

As the war of the snowballs wound down, everyone came back to gather around Harry once again, who was still diligently going at his task.

Just as Sirius opened his mouth to ask if Harry thought maybe it was time to call it quits, a woman's voice rang out, "What are you doing?" Everyone's head whirled around to face a tall, lean woman with long, dark hair.

"Who are you?" Sirius asked instead of answering.

"Auror Pillmur," she answered in a businesslike tone.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "We are allowed to be outside," he said impudently.

"Of course," Pullmur said, a bit taken aback by his tone. "I wasn't attempting to imply any different. It's just a bit of an odd choice, given the weather," she pointed out reasonably.

Harry stepped forward once again and told her, "I just wanted to work on my aim somewhere that I wouldn't accidentally hit something I shouldn't, so, in that respect, it actually makes perfect sense to be out here, given the weather."

"Well reasoned," Pillmur conceded. Turning to James, she said, "It's very nice of you and your friends to come out here and help your little brother practice."

Trying desperately to contain his laugh, James told her, "Oh, he's not my brother."

Pillmur looked around, taking in all of the teens struggling to keep a straight face and then glanced down at Harry, who looked incredibly offended. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said a little awkwardly. "What are your names then?"

James went around and introduced everyone, ending with, "...And we are all 6th year Gryffindors."

"Well, I am sorry, Mr. Doe. I did not mean any offense," Pillmur apologized.

Damn- these aurors were now officially two for two on saying insulting shit to Harry. But at least Pillmur was apologetic about it, Harry consoled himself.

"That's okay, ma'am. I apologize for my friend's earlier tone. Your- uh- partner- has just made a bit of a habit of stopping us in the hallway when we were doing nothing more than walking around. And, if I may say, he seems to lack a bit of decorum in his interrogation approach," Harry said as tactfully as possible.

"Ahh. I see. Yes, well, Auror Monroe may be a little rough around the edges still, but his heart is in the right place, I can assure you."

"Is there something we can help you with?" Harry asked in his polite tone once again.

"I just saw the spellfire from across the way and wanted to make sure everything was okay over here. Clearly, all is well, so I will leave you to it," Pillmur said curtly, giving them a stiff nod. "Have a good afternoon- and don't stay out here too long. It is dreadfully cold."

As the other auror walked away, Harry said, "Well, at least she doesn't completely suck."

On Sunday, as James and Sirius headed off to quidditch practice, Harry made his way over to the hospital wing for his mandatory check in with Madam Pomfrey. They ran through what had become at this point their normal routine. Pomfrey performed a handful of diagnostic spells and then tested Harry's strength and range of motion. Harry promised her that he hadn't had any other problems since Tuesday aside from just generally being a little sore and tired, which was to be expected.

"Okay," Pomfrey said, leaning back on the stool she'd conjured. "I think going forward I will allow the use of the cane to be at your discretion. Now- that doesn't mean that you can go chuck it in the bin the moment you leave here, young man," she said sternly. "I don't want you leaving the tower without it. As I'm sure you are well aware, this castle is rather large with a great number of stairs, so while you may feel up to it in the morning, it is quite possible that by the end of the day or on a particularly long walk, you may find yourself regretting such a decision."

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said dutifully, but he was still excited by the progress.

"Good," she said with a firm nod before moving on to go over some new exercises for Harry's hand. Pomfrey ended up issuing Harry a small pouch of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts along with a deck of cards to practice with on his own. It was mind-blowingly frustrating how much Harry was struggling with picking up and manipulating the small objects. After half an hour, he was ready to throw the lot of them clear across the room, but Pomfrey kept telling him that he was doing really well, reminding Harry that he was only going to get better with practice. Ugh. Why did she have to be right about that? Hadn't Harry himself just told his friends something uncomfortably similar during their dueling lesson? 'It's just muscle memory,' his brain supplied, 'so the more you practice- in any way you can- the better, faster, and easier it will all get.' But that didn't mean that Harry had to enjoy the experience.

Once Pomfrey finished explaining a couple of other exercises that he could start incorporating into his daily routine, she took a deep breath before saying, "Now, onto what I'm sure you will find to be a much more interesting topic- flying. I am prepared to let you test out how it feels to be back on a broom- under my supervision." She spoke the words very clearly.

Harry immediately perked up. "When?" He asked eagerly.

"I believe you have a free period, second block tomorrow morning, correct?" Harry nodded quickly. "Assuming nothing critical comes up, I should be free then. I will meet you down in the Entrance Hall at 10:30 or will send along an elf to inform you if I get tied up and cannot make it. You will be dressed properly for the weather. And your friends may join us if you wish," Pomfrey allowed. Harry beamed at her, and when he was released, he practically skipped out of the wing and down the corridor.

The next day, Harry paid almost zero attention in Transfiguration. At one point, he accidentally turned Remus' desk into a bookshelf instead of his own because he wasn't looking at what he was doing. When the bell rang, he practically bolted out of the classroom.

"What's up with him?" Gretta asked, as she and the other Gryffindors followed after Harry at a more sedate pace.

"Pomfrey's letting him fly again," James told her. "And he seems to think that if he doesn't meet her right at 10:30 sharp then she's gonna leave without him or something," he said with a bit of exasperation.

The guys had stashed their brooms and winter gear in their abandoned classroom to save themselves a trip back up to the dormitory, but the girls decided to head up and grab their stuff so that they could tag along too, so they agreed to meet the others down at the pitch.

Harry was relieved to find Madam Pomfrey already waiting for them out in the Entrance Hall.

"I take it, you still would like to do this?" Pomfrey asked, one last time.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry told her promptly.

"Okay then," Pomfrey sighed and led the way out of the castle and down towards the quidditch pitch.

Thankfully, it was a bright and sunny day outside which did wonders to chase away some of the winter chill. Harry was surprised to find Professor Barlow waiting for them down on the pitch. Though, upon further reflection, it really wasn't that odd- she was the flying instructor after all. Harry was just so used to seeing her in her role as substitute Care of Magical Creatures teacher that he often forgot that that wasn't actually the job she was hired to do here at Hogwarts. He wondered if he'd ever get to meet the real Care of Magical Creatures professor- Kettle-something? Harry thought his name might be, but he quickly shrugged off the tangent and refocused on the task at hand.

"Thank you for joining us, Professor," Pomfrey greeted Barlow. "I will be the first to admit that I am not much of a flyer, so it is good to have an expert, and someone who can help out in the air."

"It's my pleasure, Poppy. I'm glad I can help," Barlow told the matron with a smile before turning to face Harry. "Now, I've seen you on a broom before, so I know you know how to fly. Luckily, most of the muscles that are used to stay on a broom and steer are not ones that were greatly affected by your injuries. It is mainly your arm that will be the largest hindrance, but even with that- your hands should really only be used for the sake of stability when flying, not to actually stay on the broom or turn or anything, right?" She said reassuringly.

Harry nodded. Really, flying was all about core strength and you used your thighs to remain on the broom. A good flyer could sit straight up with no hands and still properly navigate in the air. You just couldn't go very fast flying that way and it was much harder to keep your balance- hence why most people lean forwards against their broomsticks. And grabbing on with your hands just gives you a little more leverage when making sharp turns and takes some of the strain off of your core by helping you to maintain balance. Now, Harry may not have been bulky with muscles, but years of chores, yardwork, and any other bit of manual labor his relatives could find for him to do had made him deceptively strong for his tiny frame, so he was pretty confident that he would manage.

Funnily enough, it was actually mounting the broom that seemed to give Harry the most trouble. He was once again forced to do it backwards from how he was used to and the motion of kicking his bad leg up and over the handle was very awkward and pulled at his tight muscles. But once he was seated, it was fine. The whole exercise was actually eerily reminiscent of that first day James and Sirius had taken him flying at the beginning of the school year. All three boys kicked off together and rose just a few feet in the air- James and Sirius flanking Harry, ready to help if he needed it while Barlow and Pomfrey watched on from nearby on the ground.

"How does it feel?" Barlow asked Harry.

"Fine," Harry said, adjusting his grip a little.

"Good. Now- we're gonna start off slow. Let's just do a low lap around the pitch, okay?" She said, hopping on her own broom to join them, satisfied that Harry wasn't about to topple off or anything. As the group flew a slow lap in each direction, the girls arrived and joined Remus, Peter, and Pomfrey where they were watching from. Milli had brought out her broom as well and went to go join the group in the air.

As they came to a stop back in front of the onlookers, Harry leaned back a little, shaking his arm out.

"Are you okay?" Pomfrey asked worriedly.

"Yeah," Harry tried to assure her. "My hand's just a little stiff, but it's fine." He then turned to address Barlow, "Can we please go a little faster, Professor? You admitted yourself that you don't even really need your hands to fly if you're doing it properly- and I promise I know how to fly," he pleaded.

"You really don't know the meaning of the word 'patience', do you?" She quirked an eyebrow at Harry.

"No, he doesn't," Pomfrey stated flatly.

Harry huffed, "I've been 'patient' for months. Now that I'm finally here, let's get on with it already." He made a motion as if trying to shoo them into action.

"How about this- I'll let you choose between low and fast or high and slow?" Pomfrey proposed.

"Low and fast," Harry pounced on the opportunity.

"All right," she conceded. "No more than two meters off the ground. You will stay far clear of any objects and absolutely none of those feints or other breakneck stunts you like to pull," Pomfrey warned.

"Yes, ma'am," Harry agreed readily before receiving one last nod from the mediwitch and shooting off across the pitch, Barlow and the rest taking off close behind him.

Watching Harry fly, while nerve wracking, also brought an irrepressible smile to Pomfrey's face. The boy really was a natural on a broom. As he zoomed around the pitch, Pomfrey marveled at how you never would've been able to tell which of the five people up in the air was still recovering from a serious injury- Harry flew with the same grace as ease that he always did. And the sight of the goofy smile on his face as Harry shot past them truly warmed her heart.

Later that night in the common room, Lily came bounding over to Harry, where he was sitting on the floor, working at one of the low tables by the fire with Remus.

"I think I finally figured it out!" Lily said excitedly as she skidded to a stop next to the boys.

"Figured what out?" Asked Remus curiously.

Ignoring the question, she instead asked, "Harry- can I see your cane real quick?"

Harry gave her a confused look, but said, "Uh, sure?" Pulling it out from where he'd tucked it under the table and handing it over with an expression caught between curious and wary.

Lily snatched it up. Then she proceeded to tap it with her wand and mutter something under her breath. Before their eyes, the black cane seemed to fade from view. Harry and Remus both gasped.

"What spell was that?" Harry asked as Lily offered him the cane back. As she held it out in her extended hand, Harry could see now that it hadn't actually properly disappeared, but rather it had taken on the exact same color as whatever was behind it, leaving a still desirable object that you could easily see if you knew what you were looking for, but that at a brief glance would be easily overlooked. It was reflecting the mix of reds that was the Gryffindor common room, but where Lily's hand rested beneath it, the cane had taken on her light skin tone, blending in impressively.

"Well, it's a sort of Camouflage charm," she told him. "Like a step below a proper Disillusionment charm. I basically mixed that with a basic Color Changing charm to make something a little more practical for this purpose since a Disillusionment charm wouldn't work because it'd be nearly impossible to find your cane again if you set it down and it would also be taking on the texture of whatever was behind or underneath it and I'd imagine that'd be wildly uncomfortable against your hand and leg if you were to brush against it or something…" Lily explained in a rush.

"You invented a charm?" Remus asked in awe.

Lily flushed. "Well, I've been working with Flitwick on it all week, so I had a lot of help…"

"That's amazing," Harry said with a note of wonder, carefully reaching out to take back the cane. "This is amazing," he added, indicating the charmed object, causing Lily's blush to deepen.

"Well, when we'd asked what color you wanted to make your cane, you'd mentioned that you wanted to make it invisible, so, well, this was kind of the closest I could get…" She said, sounding a little embarrassed and looking away as she spoke.

"You invented a charm- for me?" Harry asked incredulously, his eyes growing large and a little shiny with emotion.

"Well, yes," Lily shrugged, as if that weren't a monumental undertaking. "Not that it can't be used for other things, I suppose," she said thoughtfully, clearly having already moved on to the next train of thought in her head.

"Thank you," Harry said quietly, looking down at the cane and then back up at Lily. It didn't feel like nearly enough, but he just couldn't think of anything else to do or say. Even thinking about it felt overwhelming.

"You're welcome," she said happily, flashing Harry a brilliant smile. "So, what are you guys working on?"

"That essay for McGonagall," Remus told her.

"Mind if I join you?" Lily asked, already moving to sit.

"Not at all," Remus smiled. He had a feeling that Harry wouldn't mind- although the other boy was still a little frozen next to him, looking at the cane in his hands in reverence.

On Wednesday, the air was a little tense as the Gryffindors made their way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts after lunch. On Monday, Harry had walked particularly slowly on his way from Charms to Potions in order to avoid another run in with the Slytherins before class, taking advantage a bit of Slughorn's offer for him to be a little late arriving to class when he was coming from across the castle. It wasn't like he was scared of the Slytherins- at this point, Harry was barely intimated by most of their fully grown counterparts back in his own time, so he was fairly confident he could handle some taunting from the gangly teenaged versions. However, every time one of the snakes gave them a sideways glance, Sirius looked about ready to blow a gasket and Harry really didn't want to find out what would happen when his restraint finally caved. The ensuing duel would be a bloodbath- and they just didn't need that right now. Keep the inter-house dueling inside the classroom, please.

Well, ask and ye shall receive, apparently, as that day turned out to be another dueling class. The far side of the classroom looked like it had been demolished. There were a couple of bombed-out, crumbling walls and pillars, some smashed pieces of furniture that may have once been a table and chairs, and rubble and debris littered the floor. Well, this ought to be interesting… Harry thought.

"Good afternoon, class," Fortin began speaking as she made her way across the dueling arena to stand before the class. "As you may have already guessed, we will be dueling once again today. The scenario- in the midst of a battle, there is an explosion, but you must adapt to the situation and continue to defend yourself against your opponent. In order to simulate effects of said 'explosion' beyond the physical arena, I will be casting a Confundus charm on both duelists. If you have even been unfortunate enough to be caught near an explosion, then you'll know that the disorientation caused by the two are very similar." Now that was an interesting twist. Harry honestly wasn't sure how he- or anyone in the class, for that matter- was going to handle being confunded.

As always, wasting no time, Fortin summoned her hat of names and called out the first duel, "Ewan Duff and Haleigh Willus!" Both of them looked extremely nervous as they tentatively stepped forward. Ewan was tripping over the debris before he even made it to his starting position, which did not bode well for him for when the duel actually began. "Are you both ready?" Fortin asked and waited until she received two unsure nods. "The timer will begin once the confunduses are cast," she warned before shooting off two rapid fire spells, "Confundo, confundo."

Both students just stood there and blinked for a moment, Haleigh looking confusedly at Duff as the other boy's gaze drifted off to the side to take in the rubble around him. A couple of the Slytherins laughed at the disoriented looking duelists. Duff's eyes shot over to them at the sound and his eyes widened as if he had just realized something. And then he brought his wand up and shot off a spell. It flew wide and was not really much of a danger to Haleigh, but she watched as the light streaked past her with her own look of shock before whipping her head about around to look at Duff, who was still standing with his wand pointed at her. That sight was apparently enough to get Haleigh moving. She brought up her own wand and fired a couple of spells in Duff's direction as ran towards the nearest bit of cover- a half collapsed wall a bit to her right. Her spells were not aimed very well, but they served their intended purpose of cover fire, distracting her opponent while she ran. Duff hastily threw up a shield, but then started making his way towards Haleigh. He was so focused on picking his way through the rubble, relying on his shield charm to protect him, that Duff didn't see the blasting charm that Haleigh threw at him at all. Suddenly, he was blown backwards as the spell collided with his shield. Capitalizing on her brief advantage while Duff tried to shake it off and get back to his feet, Haleigh stepped out from behind her cover, sending ropes flying at the boy on the ground and then disarming him for good measure. The countdown started and soon the buzzer went off, signaling the end of the duel.

As Haleigh proudly made her way back over to her fellow Gryffindors, she told them, "That was wild. It was like- I genuinely forgot where I was and what I was supposed to be doing for a minute. And then all of a sudden- someone was trying to curse me. It was kind of scary," she admitted, her expression falling a bit. And it hit Harry that up until now, even with all of the dueling they'd done in class, many of his classmates still genuinely had never known what it felt like to be attacked. Sure- they'd probably been in fights and such, but it was definitely a unique feeling to be properly under attack. The adrenaline, the way your heart seemed to squeeze in your chest, the instinct to run, but not knowing where, not understanding who or why someone is after you. He could appreciate how that would be frightening to experience for the first time- even in a controlled environment like this. Hell- for Harry, at least, it hadn't stopped being frightening to experience.

Up next were two Slytherin girls- Pura and Hagit. Hagit seemed to recover from the Confundus a lot faster than her opponent and quickly took the confused girl down. Then it was Gretta versus Mulciber. Harry had the petty thought that Mulciber didn't look much different confunded than he did normally. Gretta was the first one to fire off a hex, but Mulciber actually tripped over some of the debris and fell out of the path of the spell. Never underestimate the power of sheer dumb luck in any situation. Once he hit the ground though, the boy seemed to wake up a little more and shot off a few nasty spells from his position on the floor. Gretta was able to dodge them before she chucked some more rubble at Mulciber, effectively burying him where he lay. She quickly followed that up with a series of Engorgement charms, growing the bits of stone and plaster into large boulders and sheets, pinning Mulciber under their heavy weight, despite his size. Unable to free himself before the buzzer sounded, Fortin came forward and shrank and cleared away the debris for him. As the hulking boy stood up, he shot Gretta a death glare which she heatedly returned. Fortin sent Mulciber off to the hospital wing to get the many scrapes and cuts on his arms and face taken care of.

James then dueled Kennieth Knotting. The two of them were actually pretty evenly matched and were the first duel ever so far that year to fully run out the clock with no true winner, which was impressive in its own right- to last that long without making any fatal mistakes.

Then it was Milli and Rosamund facing off. Rosamund was the first to attack, but Milli seemed to come to her senses pretty quick once the curses started flying. She dove for cover and seemed to have really taken Harry's 'think creatively' advice to heart. Harry burst out laughing when she actually conjured a chicken and threw it at Rosamund, soon followed by a plethora of other various fowl. Completely overwhelmed by the chaotic flurry of feathers, Rosamund soon found herself laying on the ground, stunned.

The jovial mood did not last, though, as the next duel was called. "Severus Snape and Sirius Black!"

The two boys exchanged murderous glares and Harry gulped slightly, not sure he really wanted to see how this played out. Sirius really had been trying to reign in his crueler impulses when it came to Snape since that day Harry had blown up at him about it, but by the looks of it, all bets were about to be off. There was over half a decade of animosity, ill-will, and loathing between the two and the hatred was palpable as they took up their positions. Harry was a little shocked that Sirius was the first one to fire- but maybe he shouldn't have been. It was always the other boy's style to shoot first and ask questions later while Snape was much more calculating most of the time. Though, once the first curse was thrown, the air was soon thick with them and both boys set a ruthless rhythm. And Sirius wasn't wasting his time with any prank spells that day- every last one of them was meant to do damage and Snape returned in kind. Neither boy really moved around much, not bothering to waste time seeking cover or perhaps not wanting to risk tripping over the debris. As he watched on, for a moment, Harry saw a frightening flash in Sirius' eye that reminded him chillingly of Bellatrix Lestrange. And the way he smiled, even as he was dodging a vicious curse aimed at his head- Sirius was actually enjoying himself. Eventually, Snape took Sirius down with a spell combination he got off so fast Harry couldn't even tell what exactly he'd done.

When Sirius rejoined his friends, he looked pissed and no one dared to try and comfort him.

In the next duel, Avery took down Peter with a single spell and it was done. Avery almost looked disappointed as he walked lazily away from Peter's unconscious form. After that, Lily and Remus faced off, which was a very fun duel to watch. Both of them were quick, smart, and creative when they wanted to be. And apparently the two of them often thought along the same lines. At one point, Lily set the rubble around Remus' feet to tap dance while Remus transfigured the debris around Lily into spiders and roaches which then scurried around her feet. Lily swept a Freezing charm across the bugs while Remus tripped over the dancing rubble, falling over. But once he was on the ground, he sent a few of the charmed chucks over at Lily, who soon met a similar fate and joined her opponent on the floor. Interestingly, neither of them made any move to get up, but rather hunkered down behind the piles scattered about the room.

The duel turned into trench warfare, which was something Harry had never seen before. They were mostly throwing things, trying to flush one another out since it was nearly impossible to actually hit their opponent directly with a spell from their positions. Lily thought that she'd come up with a winning combination when she flooded Remus with an aguamenti and then sent another strong Freezing charm across the entire battlefield. She rose from her hiding spot in order to get a better angle from which to finish him off, but as her head and shoulders poked out, a stunner flew from across the room, clipping her, but taking Lily down all the same. While her spell combination had been effective, Lily had underestimated Remus' ability to push through. His entire back and legs were frozen and covered in ice, but he was still able to aim his wand and win. Fortin came to help thaw him and then revived Lily. The two Gryffindors grinned at each other as they headed back to the viewing side of the room.

Harry didn't need Fortin to call out the next duel- there were only two names left in her hat and his was one of them. "Phoebe Neith and Harry Doe." Neith's eyes glinted wickedly as they both made their way forwards while Harry's friends cast him worried looks. Harry rolled his eyes- as if they weren't the ones asking him for dueling tips- honestly!

After settling into his dueling stance, Harry felt the confundus hit him and his mind went blank. It was very similar to the dizzying emptiness you feel when you get hit rather hard in the head- minus the pain. The sensation was neither distinctly pleasant or unpleasant- it just felt like you were kind of drifting. But drifting was never a good thing, Harry's brain insisted. On a good day, drifting got you slapped back into reality and on a bad day it got you killed. So Harry gave his head a firm shake and looked around him, trying to assess the situation. It looked like a bomb had gone off and Harry's eyes began frantically searching the rubble for his friends. His gaze swept quickly around him before he caught sight of his friends all watching him from across the room with deeply concerned expressions. Relief swept through Harry at the sight of them all alive and well before everything clicked in his brain and he remembered where he was and what he was doing.

Shit! Was the only thought that flashed through his mind as he instinctively dropped down a split second before Neith sent a flurry of spells at him. Thankfully, they all flew over his head as Harry sent off a few of his own spells from his lowered position. He managed to get her with a Leg-Locker curse, but Neith was able to maintain her balance, merely having to spare the moment to perform the counter-curse. Harry took advantage of her distraction to take a second of his own to clear the rubble out from underfoot on his side of the room- balance wasn't his strong suit at the moment, so getting rid of the obstacles entirely was really for the best. He used a couple of low-level blasting curses to push the debris all over onto Neith's side of the room. Now that he could properly move, Harry turned his focus back to Neith, who was just then pulling her legs apart, having been further delayed when she was pelted with bits of the flying rubble from across the room. She glared at Harry, sending a handful of cutting curses his way, which he carefully dodged as he sent a couple of silent disarming charms in return.

Just as he was preparing to explode the rubble in front of Neith, Harry felt his glasses rip off his face. His spell went wide as his head had been wrenched to the side by the force of the glasses being pulled off. There was a stinging sensation as the frames cut into the bridge of his nose as they were dragged away, and Harry now found himself suddenly basically blind. He did the only thing he could think to do in that moment and dropped to the ground, immediately rolling behind the nearest piece of cover since he had no way of knowing if a spell was coming at him and therefore would be unable to dodge. As Harry sat there, crouched behind a low, crumbling wall, listening to Neith picking her way through the rubble, slowly making her way towards him, he racked his brian for a way out of this one. How on earth do you fight someone when you can't see them? His mind flashed back to the Chamber of Secrets so many years ago- running around like an idiot with his eyes closed as the basilisk stalked him. Well, today he had another snake problem and she was getting closer by the second. How had he managed back then? Especially as a twerpy twelve-year-old against a much more formidable and deadly snake? The real answer was that he didn't manage anything back then. He'd had help. Fawkes had swooped in and blinded the basilisk, saving Harry's arse for the first time that night. But wait- maybe that was still the answer. He hadn't fought blind- someone had evened the playing field.

With a grand sweep of his wand, Harry sent a powerful Extinguishing charm flying around the room and in a rush, all of the candles were simultaneously snuffed out. In the now dim light, Harry could see enough to know where the windows were and he sent a few quick Color Changing charms at them, turning all of the glass panes black- essentially cutting off any last bit of light in the room. As the room was suddenly plunged into darkness, Harry heard Neith halt in her movements. Let's see how she likes not being able to see, Harry thought smuggly. Very quietly, Harry crept out from behind his cover, moving with well trained silence as he made his way around, feeling for the next wall he knew was somewhere over to his right. Just as Harry made it to the next bit of cover, Neith made a fatal mistake. She cast a small lumos, so that she could see where she was stepping and try to find Harry again. Harry immediately sent a volley of silence stunners at her, praying that at least one of them would hit its mark. With a satisfying thud, her body hit the ground, the small light at the end of her wand extinguishing. Harry held his breath for 15 seconds until the buzzer went off.

At the sound, Fortin relit the candles around the room and turned the glass in the windows translucent once again as she made her way forward into the dueling area. "Very impressive, Mr. Doe," she commented as she revived Neith.

"Where the bloody hell are my glasses?" Harry demanded, doing his best to glare at the blurry shape of the Slytherin girl who was still sitting on the ground.

"I want to know the same thing!" James' indignant voice called out. Everyone turned towards the unexpected voice and noticed that James' glasses were indeed missing too.

Fortin looked down at Neith, but noting her confused expression, her gaze swept up and around the class. "Who summoned their glasses?" Fortin asked sternly, reassessing the class before her with a keener eye. Everyone looked around curiously and soon eyes began to settle on a somehow even paler than usual Severus Snape. In the hand hanging limply at his side were two sets of round spectacles. "Mr. Snape!" Fortin snapped. "Such behavior is unacceptable. Not only was that wildly unsportsmanlike, it was dangerous and petty." Snape didn't say anything- he just continued to stare forwards, looking right at Harry with slightly narrowed eyes. "Give them here," Fortin demanded, holding her palm out for the glasses, "and I will see you at 6 o'clock this evening for your detention." Slowly, Snape raised his arm and deposited the frames in the professor's hand, still not looking at her.

Fortin walked back over to Harry and offered him the glasses. Having no bloody clue which ones were actually his, Harry picked the pair closest to him at random, hoping for the best. He did his best to wipe the blood off of his nose before sliding the frames onto his face. He blinked a few times, but the world just seemed to shift a little around him.

"I think you picked wrong, mate!" James called out, looking very taken aback by the incorrect prescription in the glasses on his face.

"Really? I couldn't tell," Harry deadpanned, as he pulled James' glasses off of his face. James, suspecting that he could see a lot better than Harry could without his glasses, made his way over so that they could trade.

"Sorry- I, uh, think I may have gotten a little blood on them," Harry said awkwardly as he handed the glasses over.

James muttered a quick, "Scourgify," before sliding them onto his face. "No problem!" He said cheerily. As Harry put his own proper glasses back on, the world finally came into focus.

"Class dismissed," Fortin announced. "And Mr. Doe- please head to the infirmary to get that cut taken care of," she added pointedly.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Madam Pomfrey's heart clenched uncomfortably when she saw Harry enter the hospital wing, quickly followed by the rest of the 6th year Gryffindors. Having just treated Mulciber not an hour prior, she knew that they were dueling today in the 6th year Slytherin and Gryffindor Defense class and she worried about how her most frequent flyer would fare. It was to her immense relief that this time, it truly was just a scratch and Pomfrey had it healed up in seconds.

"All done, Harry," she declared. As Harry put his glasses back on, she added, "And please do try and keep all of your blood inside your body- that is where it's supposed to be, you know."

"Oh, but I'm so close to filling up my infirmary punch card- I heard that the tenth visit is free!" Harry said cheekily.

"They're all free, Bambi-" Sirius said, reaching out to pull Harry away before he gave Pomfrey a conniption. "Unless you count the toll that they put on the rest of us," he muttered as they left the wing.

"Uh- mate? Gryffindor tower is up, not down," Sirius pointed out to Harry as he started down the steps from the fourth floor landing after they had left the hospital wing.

"Who says I'm going to Gryffindor tower?" Harry asked innocently.

"Well, where exactly are you going then?" Sirius asked, exasperated.

"I have a question for Flitwick," Harry said.

Sirius made a disgusted noise as Lily made an 'ooh'sound, pushing forward to join Harry on the stairs down. "And it really can't wait until next class?" Sirius asked in disbelief.

"No," Harry said simply.

Sirius rolled his eyes and turned away. "Well, you lot have fun with your extracurricular classwork- I'll be upstairs actually enjoying my free time." And he started off up the stairs. The rest of the group looked torn, eyes flickering between Sirius' ascending form and where Lily and Harry stood on the stairs down. But in the end, they were all honest with themselves that they had very little interest in spending any more time in the Charms classroom than was strictly necessary, so they followed Sirius up to the tower.

So Harry and Lily headed down to the third floor together.

"That was pretty amazing- what you did in the duel. I see what you were saying about creativity going farther than fancy spellwork. Though, I'm pretty sure even Flitwick would've been impressed with the force of that Extinguishing charm," Lily said as she nudged Harry's shoulder. "How did you even think to do that?" She asked curiously.

Harry shrugged, "I couldn't see- why should she get to?" Lily's expression read 'well, I guess that's a fair point'. "What I want to know is how you invented a new spell?" Harry pivoted.

"Oh, well, it's a lot easier when you are just modifying an existing spell, like I did. With magic, most spells can be broken down into two component parts- namely, the 'what' and the 'how'. Basically, the outcome and the physiomagical process that is undergone to achieve it. It all actually has a lot more to do with muggle science that most wizards realize or care to admit. Creating new magic is actually not all that hard when you understand the fundamental functioning of how spells actually work. But most magical folk take it all for granted that magic exists and spells just work and they never bother to ask why. Sometimes i'm just blown away at how- uncurious- so many witches and wizards are. I mean- they live in a world of magic for Christ's sake and most of them probably don't even know why you need to breathe air, only that a Bubble-Head charm will let you breathe underwater, you know?" Lily threw her hands up in exasperation.

Harry chuckled. "I guess most wizards were probably never forced to learn that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell- let alone what a cell even is," Harry agreed. "I never really thought about it like that."

Lily looked at Harry curiously. "Are you a muggleborn too?"

"I grew up in the muggle world," Harry said evasively and Lily didn't press him even though she noted his careful phrasing. "A friend of mine once told me that a lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic- she was a muggleborn too. It seems almost silly that they don't bother to teach something like science here. It's not like the rules of nature just don't apply in the magical world- it's just that we can bend them a little. At the very least, they should offer a course on spell theory or something- like what you were describing. Imagine how much more innovation there would be if people realized how attainable creating a new spell was," Harry said excitedly.

They had arrived at the door to the Charms classroom, but class was still in session, so Lily and Harry took up a post leaning against the wall in the hallway. Lily said, "You're right. I always kind of thought that the wizarding world lived a bit in the dark ages, but I guess I'd just assumed that there was a good reason for it. I've always heard that electricity and magic don't get along very well, but that doesn't mean that no technological advancements could've been incorporated. But thinking about it now- it honestly just seems like the wizarding world just got a bit complacent."

"I've been saying for months that Hogwarts should really put in a lift," Harry joked.

"Exactly! They could easily power one with a simple charm. Or even charm the stairs to move like an escalator," Lily said.

"I've always wondered how a wizarding wireless works if it doesn't run on electricity," Harry pondered. "Like- could other muggle items be modified to work the same way? Because I think most wizards would lose their minds if they had access to a telly and a microwave."

Lily burst out laughing. "That's so true! Though that might just bring their laziness to all new heights from which the race may never recover," she said seriously, with a sad shake of her head.

"Probably not what Voldemort meant when he was banging on about 'the muggle threat to the wizarding race'," Harry said without thinking, still chuckling at the image of the wizarding equivalent of Dudley, glued to the telly while a microwave burrito levitated over to where he sat on the couch.

Lily's eyes grew wide at Harry's words, her expression taking on a fearful edge. Looking over, Harry caught sight of Lily's face and his own smile fell. "Shit- I'm sorry. That was a really tactless thing to say," Harry scrambled, trying to figure out how to get out of the lovely little hole he'd dug for himself.

Just then, the classroom doors in front of them banged open and a mass of second years flooded out. Saved by the bell, Harry thought, internally letting out a breath. Once the crowd cleared, Harry spared one last glance over at Lily who nodded him forward, before pushing off the wall and entering the Charms classroom.

"Um- Professor Flitwick?" Harry called hesitantly. He'd never actually sought out a professor so far outside of class like this and he was a little unsure how to go about it.

The small professor looked up from the papers he was looking through on his desk when he heard his name. Seeing Harry and Lily, he smiled brightly. "Ah! Mr. Doe, Ms. Evans- how nice to see you. Is there something I can help you with or is this a social visit?" He asked merily.

"Eh- I was actually wondering if there was such a thing as an 'Anti-Summoning charm'," Harry asked nervously.

"Do you mean, like a Banishing charm?" Flitwick furrowed his brow. Harry was top of his year- there was no way the boy didn't know how to perform a simple Banishing charm.

Harry shook his head. "No, sir. Not a charm that sends objects away. I meant more a charm that prevents objects from being summoned in the first place."

"Ahh. Like an Anti-Theft charm. Yes, such a spell does exist. Although the name is a little misleading, an Anti-Theft charm does not wholly prevent someone from taking an item from its rightful owner, but rather it can be put on one's belongings so that they can only be summoned by the owner themself," Flitwick explained.

"Is there any way that you could teach me? Or point me towards a good reference book?" Harry asked eagerly.

With a small frown, Flitwick asked, "Have you been having trouble with people stealing your things?"

Flushing slightly, Harry hastily said, "Oh, no, sir. At least, not like that. We were just in Defense, you see, and while I was dueling, someone summoned my glasses. And I'd really like to prevent that from happening again."

"I see," Flitwick said thoughtfully before his face brightened considerably, "And I'd be more than happy to show you. I reckon you'll be able to pick it up without too much trouble," he winked. "It's a spell I myself have had to empoy for very similar purposes," Flitwick told Harry, bringing up a finger to tap the frame of his own glasses. "And if I may be so forward, might I recommend casting it on your clothes as well. I, personally, have found summoning someone's shoes to be just as effective as a Tripping jinx- and a bit faster to cast. Particularly if you are aiming to be a serious duelist- and from what I hear, you seem to have the talent- it is a precaution that I highly recommend."

Harry nodded as he considered that. It had never occurred to him to try and summon something that was attached to a person simply because it wouldn't actually come. But now that he thought about it, that would be a very fun way to trip someone up. Harry grinned. "Thank you for the suggestion- and the tip. I just might use that one of you don't mind."

"Not at all, my boy!" Flitwick waved it away. "Now, for the spell itself, the owner must perform the casting, so I can demonstrate on my own glasses here, but you will need to do it for your own items." And then Flitwick showed Harry and Lily the charm, each taking a couple of turns to try it out until the professor was no longer able to summon Harry's glasses or Lily's left shoe that she had taken off to practice on. Once they were satisfied that they would be able to easily replicate the charm back in their dorms, the two students thanked their professor for all of his help. "Of course!" He insisted. "I always enjoy a good discussion about Charms or dueling- please, stop by any time!"

Harry was awake absurdly early on Thursday. He couldn't even remember what he'd been dreaming about- all Harry knew was that his head was killing him and there was no way he was gonna get back to sleep. Despite that, Harry remained curled up in his bed trying desperately to will away those two truths. After a couple of hours, he finally gave up and dragged himself out of bed in the hopes that maybe a nice shower would help- or at least wake him up. And it did- marginally. Once he was dressed, Harry slumped down at his desk, deciding to at least cross something off his list for the day if he was going to be up anyway.

Remus woke with a start in the still dim light of the early morning in the dormitory. He lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to calm his racing heart. In his dream, Moony and the Hellhounds had teamed up in a gory mission to hunt down and kill all of his friends. He'd been stalking around the castle with nothing but blood and violence consuming his thoughts, sniffing out the familiar scent of Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, along with Harry and the girls and his couple of Ravenclaw friends and his professors and… Remus shivered. It was just a dream, he reminded himself. Just a dream…

The full moon was approaching once again- as it always seemed to be- and that invariably set Remus on edge. It wasn't just the physical toll of the transformation that made him look so drawn and tired in the days leading up to the moon. Stress and lack of sleep could do that to you just as well. And the anxiety just seemed to be setting in a little early this month- the full moon was still over a week out.

Remus took a deep breath, trying to let his body relax, forcing away his unpleasant thoughts and instead focusing on the quiet dorm. Peter's snuffling snores and Sirius' heavy breathing could be heard as always. James was sometimes a little restless as he slept- often tossing and turning when he wasn't deeply asleep. And Harry- well, Harry impressively almost never made a sound unless he was having a nightmare, which unfortunately he seemed to be more often than not. But that morning, as Remus listened to the sounds of his friends, he heard a new noise- kind of a faint scraping, clinking sort of sound. Pulling himself up, Remus looked around for the source of the odd noise. He soon spied Harry, already up, sitting over at his desk. Quietly, so as not to wake the others, Remus got out of bed and made his way across the room, curious to see what Harry was doing.

As he walked over, Remus peered over his shoulder and saw that Harry was- sorting change? What a strange activity for 5am.

"What are you doing?" Remus asked quietly, causing Harry to jump, knocking over a small stack of Sickles he'd been trying to place another coin on top of.

"Merlin- And Sirius thinks I need a bell," Harry whispered, putting a hand on his chest, trying to muffle his now racing heart, as he turned to face Remus.

"Sorry," Remus said with a little laugh. "I guess you probably weren't expecting anyone else to be awake for a while, huh?" Harry just gave him a look that said, 'duh'. "So, why are you up, counting your money at 5am?" Remus asked again.

"It's not my money," Harry said, which earned him a raised eyebrow from Remus. "Oh, shove off- I didn't mean it like that. It's just one of the exercises Pomfrey assigned me- and she gave me some coins to practice with," he explained.

Remus smiled. "Harry, if you were a thief, there's a whole lot of other stuff I'd hope you'd've taken- and a lot sooner- than a couple of Sickles at this point in the year. Unless you're just that good that no one's noticed. And if that's the case, I feel I should warn you that after five years cohabitating with this lot, my stuff is all pretty well warded," Remus told him and Harry chuckled. That, he believed. "But, um- Why are you doing it in the dark?" Remus asked in a slightly hesitant voice.

"Because the sun's not up and it'd be kind of prickish to put on the lights while everyone was sleeping?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I mean, why are you doing it before the sun is even up?" He clarified. But Harry didn't answer that time and as Remus looked down at his friend's shadowy, uneasy expression, he said, "You know you can wait and practice in the daylight? And that no one would care if you did it out in the common room, right?" But the look on Harry's face told him that no, he did not think that was the case. And come to think of it, Remus hadn't seen Harry do a single 'exercise' since the start of term- besides messing with the little ball he carried around- even though he'd mentioned them a couple of times.

Remus let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of Harry's bed. "Look- I know how much you hate the idea of looking weak in front of people. And it sucks that we drew the short straws on this one and got cast as the victims while Sirius and James get to play the heros- even though both of them would set the record straight in a heartbeat if anyone was actually willing to listen. But you have to remember that most people are coming from a good place- even when their looks or words are unwelcome, they're still well-intentioned. People just care and they're scared and don't really know how to handle it. So instead of dealing with their own shit, they project it onto us. They take the scars as an excuse- some kind of scapegoat invitation." Remus paused for a moment before continuing, "And I know it's not our job or anything, but I think seeing us get through this is in some small way giving them all hope. No one wants to think about the war, but we don't have that luxury any more. But we are also proving that we can survive it- that they can survive it. Or, at least, that's what I like to tell myself when people burst into tears when they look at me," Remus added with a dry, self-deprecating laugh before giving Harry a serious look. "Your recovery is an act of defiance, not a sad or shameful thing. So when people stare at you, consider them looks of admiration."

"I don't want their attention or admiration or whatever," Harry insisted. "But I don't want their pity either."

"Well, unfortunately life is not quite so à la carte. These are the cards we were dealt for this round, but that doesn't mean that the hand can't be salvaged," Remus pointed out. "So," he said, scooting down until he was sitting at the edge of Harry's desk. Remus gave his wand a little flick and muttered, "Lumos," casting light across the tabletop before continuing, "What exactly is the task here?" He looked down at the scattered assorted coins.

Harry let out a sigh, turning back to face forward in his chair again. "I'm supposed to flip them, stack them, and then pick them up," Harry said, demonstrating each action with his left hand.

"Okay," Remus said easily, leaning forwards a little so that his wand arm was resting on his bent knee, waiting for Harry to start. Eventually, Harry reached his right hand out and began fumbling with the coins once again. And Remus sat there with him, holding the light steady and chatting casually, until Harry was finished.

All throughout Potions class later that morning, Harry kept catching Snape shooting suspicious looks his way and scrutinizing him when he thought no one was looking. It was kind of creepy.

As the Gryffindors were making their way away from the Potions classroom, heading towards lunch, Snape seemed to materialize from the shadows just in time for James to bump into him, causing Harry to run into James when he suddenly stopped walking in front of him

"Watch where you're going, Potter," Snape hissed, sneering at James before his intense gaze slid over to land on Harry once again. "You and the bastard really should watch where you step," he said menacingly before sweeping around them with a flourish that was clearly the precursor to the ominously billowing cloak of the future Potions Master.

"Huh," said James, a bit bewildered.

"Yeah-" Sirius agreed slowly. "That was weird- even for Snivellus."

"He was shooting me weird looks all class," Harry admitted, gaining the other's attention. "Don't know what I did to piss him off so much. I'd have thought of anyone, he'd be mad at you, Pads."

"Maybe he's mad about the detention?" Gretta suggested.

Harry snorted, "Not like that was my fault. He's the one who did something stupid and got caught. I'd honestly thought that Neith had done it, like everyone else- until he was caught red handed."

"Yeah, well, rationality and the Slytherins just do not mix, my friend," Sirius said, throwing an arm around Harry's shoulders and leading him on down the corridor.

While everyone else seemed to accept this and move on, Harry knew that that wasn't true. Rationality was a very Slytherin trait. They- and Snape in particular- were cold and calculating and overwhelmingly logical most of the time. And on top of the misdirected hostility, Snape had called him 'bastard' which was another new insult for Harry- though this one seemed much less creative, and accurate, than the last one. Harry could understand that this Snape might have a lot of reasons that he's not a fan of Harry, but Harry really didn't think that he'd done anything to earn himself that particular title. Maybe it was some kind of slight on the fact that he and James looked so similar? But it was kind of late in the year to be pulling something like that out- kind of low hanging fruit and too little too late in the taunt department. It was all just very- odd.

But in the end, Harry decided to shrug it off. Call him whatever you want- he had pretty damn thick skin.

On Friday afternoon, the Gryffindor 6th years decided to meet up in the dungeons before heading to the Knight's Training Grounds, as Sirius had been calling it, for more dueling practice. Harry, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, and Gretta had been delayed a bit because Herbology had run a little over and they'd volunteered to stay back and clean up so that the Ravenclaws could still make it to their last class of the day on time. Kerner had even awarded Gryffindor five points for their kind offer. So they knew that their friends were likely already waiting for them as the group finally left the greenhouse and made their way into the castle.

As they rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, someone called out, "Oh, no- I think these lions are lost." A group of Slytherins, who appeared to have just left their common room, stood before them in the hallway. The dark haired boy who had spoken stepped forward and peered down at Harry. "Are you lost, kitten?" He asked in a sweetly concerned voice that made Harry grit his teeth. "You really ought to be careful where you step- after all, there are snakes down here and we wouldn't want you to get bit." He bared his teeth in a mockery of a smile.

"Fuck off, Reg," Sirius growled. So this was Regulus. Looking at the boy so close up this time, Harry could actually see the family resemblance. Both boys had the same, wavy black hair- though Sirius wore his much longer and shaggier. Their noses followed the same slope and they shared the same high cheekbones- though, on the whole, Regulus was much pointer than Sirius was. Sirius was all broad shoulders and soft edges whereas Regulus looked like he'd hurt to touch.

Regulus tutted, "Language, brother dear. Do you kiss your boyfriend with that mouth? Or have you still not managed to find someone who could stand to be with such a pathetic excuse for a wizard?" His spiteful eyes raked over Sirius.

Sirius snarled, "Shouldn't you be in class? Or did your master not give you permission to go?"

Regulus' nostrils flared. "I could ask the same of you," he huffed. "Though, I'm not surprised that you've managed to get kicked out again. No one does seem to want you anywhere," he said casually, not even looking at Sirius. Turning back with an evil smile curling his lips, Regulus added, "Dad sends his regards- though mum just said it was a pity that the hounds didn't manage to finish you off. Would've been much cleaner that way- not having you out there ruining the family name. But I guess they got distracted before they could finish the job." He turned his cruel gaze towards Remus before settling it back on Harry. "I wonder if Chewtoy squeaks if you hit him just right?"

Regulus reached out to jab Harry with his wand, but Harry cast a silent Shield charm, knocking the boy back. "Don't touch me," Harry warned in a low, dangerous voice.

Straightening himself, trying to regain his haughty composure, Regulus said, "I guess we'll just find out next weekend on the pitch." Then he pushed his way right through the center of their group, taking care to knock into Sirius as he went by, followed by the rest of his friends as they made their way up the stairs to the Entrance Hall.

Sirius' eyes blazed as he glared after them. "I see why they don't get on," Harry told James quietly.

But apparently not quietly enough as Sirius whipped around to face him. "He's a vile, Death Eater arsehole who's content to lick the Dark Lord's boots and cozy up to mummy as long as she torturing anything who isn't him," he spat, breathing hard.

The others were all looking at him with wide eyes, but Sirius was a little too pissed to care. His hand was still clenched so tightly around his wand that his nails were digging crescent moon-shaped imprints into his palm.

"Pads-" James said softly, stepping forwards, reaching a hand out to gently grab the wrist of his wand arm. Sirius wrenched his arm away.

"Why don't we go blow something up?" Harry offered, seemingly out of the blue, breaking the stifling tension and earning a collection of confused looks.

"What a wonderful idea, Bambi!" Sirius said with a grin. It was like a switch had flipped and he was suddenly back to his bouncy, happy self.

James threw Harry a look that said, 'You better know what you're doing'. Harry gave him a small nod. Clearly, James didn't really trust an angry Sirius with a wand, but Harry knew just how calming and empowering absolutely destroying something with magic could be. The key was just to make sure that you let your feelings out on a safe and appropriate target. "Lead the way," Harry said, gesturing down the corridor towards where they were meeting the rest of their friends. Sirius took off, bounding down the hall at a fast pace, not even pausing as he passed the others who were just made to fall in step or get left behind.

When they finally arrived at their practice room, Harry told everyone to start casting Silencing charms around the walls while he added a few of his own, more advanced silencing spells to the mix. Once he was satisfied that no one would hear them, Harry turned and asked, "Have you lot already covered the Reductor curse?" He received some nods. "Good. It's a useful spell in duel and another example of a spell that can be used rather creatively when needed. During that duel in defense, it was a low-level Reductor that I used to clear the rubble away from my side of the room. But you can also use it to blast larger objects out of your way, demolish someone else's cover, or create a distraction. And it's one of those spells where you can change the amount of magic you put into it. Unlike something like, say, an Unlocking charm, where it either works or it doesn't, a Blasting curse can be scaled up or down depending on your needs. So, I think it might be good to practice it. See just how powerful you can make it and then get a sense for how it feels to reign it in, yeah?"

Harry had everyone line up along the long back wall of the room. He told them all to conjure whatever object they'd like and to place it against the wall. Harry was a little surprised when Sirius conjured an impressively detailed bust of his mother- though, judging by the confused looks of the others, no one else recognized who the woman was. But no one dared to comment on his odd choice in object. Once everything was set, Harry erected a large, Semipermeable Shield charm. It wasn't one taught at Hogwarts or learned by most wizards because it didn't actually stop magic- only solid objects. He'd come across it during his studying for the Triwizard Tournament and Hermione had helped him learn it, just in case. But it was actually a rather simple spell because it was so limited in scope, so he was able to cast it across the entire room at once and wasn't too worried about maintaining it either.

At Harry's signal, they all started blasting. It was a cycle of blast, repair, and blast again that went on for quite some time, but everyone looked to be having plenty of fun. After a while, Harry challenged them to only blast off part of the object or to just knock it back instead of annihilating it. Then he had them practice on the rubble of the destroyed objects until basically everyone seemed to have the spell under their complete control. They quit a little earlier that day so that they could all head back to the tower and get cleaned up before dinner as most everyone had really worked up a sweat, getting into it.

As they left the practice room, James leaned down and said a quiet, "Thanks," to Harry.

Saturday morning dawned early once again for the Gryffindor quidditch team with another ungodly morning strategy session that earned Beth quite a few death glares. She actually quizzed them on all of the plays from the last weekend's session until no one answered a single question wrong for more than ten minutes. But it was all going to be worth it, Harry reminded himself, as he sat there next to Sirius who he was pretty sure was spending the early morning plotting his revenge on their team captain more than paying attention to her speech. Because Harry was at long last going to be allowed to join their flying practice the next day.

So when Sunday finally arrived, nothing could dampen Harry's mood. He was grinning like an idiot all through breakfast, eager to get out on the pitch. The rest of the team didn't seem to share his excitement for having to brave the cold weather for more drills, but they were at least happy to see Harry in such good spirits. And Beth had been kind enough to schedule their practices for when the sun was at its peak and could provide the most warmth to the huddled team. So they all shuffled out onto the pitch and, with varying degrees of enthusiasm and reluctance, mounted their brooms.

Harry was thrilled to finally be able to fly unsupervised. Not that Barlow didn't make for good company, but it just wasn't the same. The freedom was what Harry loved most about flying and he really hadn't gotten to fully experience that again until that day.

They practiced in the same formation that they would be flying in the match, which meant that Sirius was tailing Harry the entire time while he searched for the snitch. Much to everyone's relief, Harry managed to catch the snitch within the first thirty minutes of practice. It was like the defining moment that they had all been waiting for- that he really was back. Even when Reggie was set to harass Harry and Sirius the entire time they flew, Harry still managed to catch the snitch again. And it felt really good.

Then Reggie traded out with Matty so that he could go back to practicing his regular position for the match while Harry and Sirius were still not just having an easy time of it. Harry was making a point of not specifically tracking Matty so that he wouldn't always know where the bludgers were coming from, in order to simulate more of a real match environment. At one point, Sirius was a little ways away from Harry, running interference with one bludger when Harry heard the telltale whistling of another bludger making a rapid approach. Harry spied it heading straight for him from off to his right. Quickly, Harry pitched himself sideways into a roll in order to let it pass over him, but as his weight shifted and he swung around, his right hand slipped off of his broom, throwing his whole upper body down with a lot more force than normal. And then his left hand slipped too. Thankfully, Harry had had his ankles locked- as was the proper form when performing a roll, and he could now see why- so he didn't actually fall. But he was left dangling upside down from his broom. Harry heard Matty yell his name, but he couldn't really reassure him that he was okay just yet. Taking a deep breath, Harry did one hell of a sit up so that he could get his hands back on his broom, bringing his center of weight up enough in order to roll back over.

Sirius turned around just in time to watch Harry pull himself back up and yelled, "Merlin, Bambi!"

Beth came streaking over. "Harry- what the hell happened?!" She asked, hovering next to him with a concerned look.

"My hand just slipped," he told her, stretching out both hands from the tight grip he'd had to use in order to pull himself up.

"Which hand?" She asked skeptically.

"Both, technically," Harry tired. But at Beth's unamused look, he admitted, "When I rolled, it was just a little too much weight and my right hand lost its grip."

"Back down, on the ground- now," Beth ordered in her no nonsense captain's voice.

Harry sighed, but flew down as requested. The rest of the team soon followed, landing just in time to hear Beth saying, "I'm not having you fall to your death, Harry- it's just not worth it!"

"I didn't even know that it was a problem until now! You're really not even going to give me a chance to work around it? I'm sure there's a way I can still do it- safely," Harry added with emphasis.

"Oh, really? And how exactly is that?" She pushed, not backing down.

Harry thought hard for a moment, running the maneuver over in his head a few times before saying, more calmly, "What if I used my elbow? There's nothing actually wrong with my arm- it's my hand that's messed up. So if I were to hook my elbow around the broom instead to take my weight as I swung around, then it should work just like normal."

Beth considered the suggestion carefully. "Maybe…"

"You seem to forget that I don't want to 'fall to my death' either," Harry said mildly. "But that doesn't mean that I can't still play. It just might take a little more outside-the-box thinking than normal. Most problems can be solved if you're willing to put in the effort," he remarked.

Beth regarded Harry with a hard, searching look before saying, "Until you can prove to me that you can perform every single one of the moves you usually do safely, I don't want you more than two meters off of the ground."

"Fine," Harry agreed. He'd meant what he'd said and he was more than willing to put in the effort.

"Jamie- you're flying seeker for the rest of today. Harry- I'll be back at the end of practice and we'll see where we're at, okay?" Beth asked, giving him an intent look.

"Okay," Harry said with a firm nod.

Learning to do a modified roll was definitely not easy- the motion felt awkward and unnatural, but Harry drilled it until it started to feel normal. After all, if his body didn't remember to do it in the heat of the moment, theoretically knowing the modified move would be pretty worthless. Once he'd mastered the roll, Harry started running through all of his other moves, searching for any more that might cause him some trouble. He ended up needing to adjust his grip for coming out of a dive so that he wasn't pulling to the left and the same thing went for feints as well. He even practiced flying upside down and found a good way to hold on and maintain control while doing that too.

As the rest of practice wound down, Beth came to land near where Harry was practicing. "So, what's the verdict?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry came to a stop, hovering next to her. "Like I said- if you work the problem, there's usually a solution. And I think I've ironed out all of the kinks. Do you want me to run through them now, or another time?" Harry asked confidently.

"I have time now," Beth told him, wanting to get this over with and not draw it out any longer than necessary- either way, she needed an answer about her seeker.

So Harry ran through everything that he'd practiced and then Beth took it one step further by making him dodge a quaffle that she kept throwing at him and then they ran through the same seeker drill that they had done at tryouts where he had to catch little golf ball-looking things. And he didn't fall or miss a single one.

As they both landed on the ground, Beth looked Harry right in the eye and asked, "And you're absolutely sure that you want to do this. This isn't just about pride or proving a point or something, right? Because nobody would be mad or disappointed or anything. We'll understand and support you either way," she stated unequivocally.

"Yes," Harry firmly said, looking right back at her. He needed her to understand. "Beth- quidditch is basically the one thing I have any control over in my life. With literally everything else someone is telling me exactly where to go and what to do. This is just about the only thing that I actually chose to do here at Hogwarts- including even coming to this school," Harry added. "And it's fun. And I'm actually good at it." Harry gave her a genuine smile. "And believe me- Pomfrey would probably kill me if I got hurt again, so I have a very vested interest in remaining safely on my broom at all times," he told Beth. "So, did I pass?" Harry asked with guarded hope in his voice.

Beth gave him one last, long look before saying, "Yes, you passed." Harry did a little celebratory dance. "But if anything else like this comes up- you have to tell me and we will work the problem together, okay?"

"For sure," Harry smiled.

The next week of classes passed by in a blur. The school was once again riled up for the game and Gryffindor versus Slytherin was the biggest grudge match of the year. Insults were hurled down the hallways along with the occasional curse. On Wednesday, Harry discovered that his Shield charm had progressed from nonverbal to fully wandless as well. After another long afternoon of running around in Defense class, Harry had been using his cane to walk down to dinner when he heard the faint hissing of a curse behind him. With just a thought and a twitch of his fingers, Harry instinctively threw up a shield to cover his and his friend's backs. As the spell ricocheted off the barrier, everyone whirled around to see the retreating backs of a group of Slytherins.

Looking around curiously, Remus asked, "Who put up the shield?" He, James, and Sirius were the only ones with their wands out and all three of them had clearly not seen the spell coming as they had turned around together only after it had been blocked. But there was no one else in the hallway.

"I did," Harry said, drawing everyone's eyes to him.

Remus frowned. "But you don't even have your wand out," he said skeptically.

Harry shrugged, "I guess if you use a spell often enough, it just becomes second nature or something." With another twitch of his fingers, Harry canceled out the spell.

Sirius scoffed, "He says that like wandless magic isn't insanely hard."

"It was just a Shield charm," Harry dismissed. "And it's not like I meant to do it- it just, happened."

"Oh, no- he's just naturally, accidentally brilliant!" Sirius swooned. "You know, Bambi- some of us actually have to work at it to get this good," he said, pulling at his collar as if he were explicitly not striking a pose. Harry narrowed his eyes and stared intently at Sirius. After a few seconds, Sirius asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Just trying to see if I can do a Stinging hex too," Harry said dismissively, keeping up his look of concentration.

Sirius rolled his eyes before jumping and letting out a little shriek, rubbing at his stinging side. "Bloody hell!" He cursed before looking over at Harry with wide eyes. Harry maintained his satisfied expression for a few seconds before bursting out laughing along with the rest- besides Sirius. He looked around at his friends in confusion until he saw Remus give Harry a low five, twirling his wand between his fingers as he laughed. "Gits," Sirius huffed as he stormed off down the corridor towards dinner.

As Harry made his way down to the Great Hall on Saturday morning, he had a lot of mixed emotions. He was excited to get to play in the match, but at the same time, was slightly dreading it. He just kept thinking about the brutality he'd witnessed when the Slytherins had annihilated Ravenclaw. Even Sirius and James' prat-like behavior was toned down a bit this time in honor of the dark mood. In general, the opinions on Slytherin house had been polarizing for the entire school since the attack at the end of last term and, as always, people were using sports as their outlet. Harry almost felt bad at some of the highly uncalled for insults and geers that were being hurled at the Slytherin table that morning. Almost. Because when Harry looked over and saw Regulus sitting along with the rest of the team and Avery sitting next to Mulciber, he couldn't help but recall all of the awful, vile comments and jokes that they'd made since their return to school and just be thankful that most people were actually on his side for once.

Down in the locker rooms, Harry was anxiously stretching and rubbing out his hand. He hadn't had any major incidents since that first flying practice, but he was still a little nervous. Beth took the opportunity to deliver one last rousing speech before the team shouldered their brooms and headed out onto the pitch. As the players all lined up, Harry got his first, up close and personal look at the entire Slytherin quidditch team. He remembered thinking that they were all built like tanks back when he'd watched their first match, but seeing them from way up in the stands really didn't do them proper justice. Every single one of the players must've genuinely been two to four times Harry's size with the exception of maybe Regulus- though even he still outweighed Harry by a decent margin. They all wore matching menacing expressions as they did their best to loom over the Gryffindors and look intimidating.

After Beth and Dolohov attempted to break one another's hands during the customary pre-match handshake, Barlow said, "All right- I want a clean match," in a tone somewhere between stern and desperate as she looked harshly down the line at the Slytherin team. Dolohov just gave her a frightening grin. They all mounted their brooms and rose into the air. Once everyone was in position, Barlow waited for one last nod from each of the captains before she gave a shrill blast of her whistle and tossed up the quaffle- and the game began.

Keeping to their decided strategy, Harry and Sirius quickly peeled off and got out of the fray, and began circling high above the pitch as Harry liked to do when searching for the snitch. However, it soon became apparent that the Slytherins where doing something else unorthodox besides their genreal fuck-the-rules tactics- they were actually playing a shadow game. It was essentially the equivalent of playing a man-to-man defense like in muggle basketball, where each player picked someone on the other team to basically follow around and guard against. It was generally considered to be bad strategy in quidditch because it didn't really allow for the team playing it to score any points- which was the entire point of the game. You were essentially relying entirely on your seeker to not only beat the other team's seeker to the snitch, but to do it before they managed to score more than one hundred and fifty points as well. And in a tournament structured like the House Cup was, every point mattered, regardless if you win or lose. So it just didn't really make any sense.

But it was very unexpected- and perhaps that was the point. For all of their planning and preparing and drills and strategy sessions, never once had they considered that Slytherin would be playing a shadow game and that really threw a wrench in the works. On top of that, the Slytherins seemed to be out to cause chaos. They were all tailing so close to the Gryffindors that they could hardly move, let alone pass or anything. But Harry barely had time to process all of this and spare a thought for his poor teammates before it became very clear that he had his own problems to deal with- namely Regulus and Dolohov. Presumably Regulus was tailing him and Dolohov, Sirius, but since Sirius was basically tailing Harry, it all just created a giant mess.

Robes whipped across Harry's vision as he dropped into a mini dive to avoid a collision with Dolohov who had swooped in from the side, trying to unseat him. Unfortunately, Harry flew right into Regulus' path and got jabbed in the side by the end of his broom handle before he was able to roll away underneath him too. As Harry gasped slightly for breath, he shot off in the opposite direction from where they had all been heading just a moment ago, trying desperately to gain some distance from the Slytherins, praying that Sirius was fairing okay on his own for the moment. Luckily, the two of them had been training together, so Sirius was much more used to Harry's sharp turns and slightly erratic flying style than their opponents, so he fell in behind Harry soon while the others were still pulling themselves around.

"Shit!" Sirius cursed, throwing a wide-eyed look back towards the pair that were gaining on them once again.

"What the bloody hell is their plan?! Are they just trying to kill us all so that there's no rush to find the snitch?!" Harry called Sirius.

"Honestly- probably," he admitted. "They must've figured we could likely outsmart and out-fly 'em, so they just completely threw away the rules of the game."

Harry turned back towards Sirius with an incredulous look and managed to shout, "Duck!" Just in time for Sirius' head not to get taken off by Dolohov's beater bat. Thankfully Barlow saw it and called a foul, awarding Gryffindor a penalty shot- which was just about the only way that they were likely to get any points in this match, given the way it seemed to be going. However, Harry didn't have time to watch. Play only stopped for chasers and keepers during penalty shots, but the seekers and beaters just kept on going. And Regulus and Dolohov kept on coming. Dolohov tried to kick Harry as he flew past, which he managed to duck and then quickly dodge Regulus who came barreling right at Harry again.

Harry darted upwards, yelling, "The stands!" At Sirius and hoping that he would understand what he meant. Thankfully, he seemed to get it and they both took off towards the nearest seating section. They weaved their way in between the stands, making hairpin turns and taking steep dives to try and shake their tails. Harry and Sirius flew with a little more precision, so they were able to stay just out of reach of the Slytherins for a while like that, but it wasn't a viable long term plan. Harry would have to accidentally swallow the snitch again in order to catch it doing what they were doing. A bludger came flying at them from the center of the pitch. Harry swooped to avoid it while Sirius managed to whack it back and hit Dolohov, but the hulking boy seemed to almost absorb the blow, looking more pissed off than hurt by it.

Harry cut an extremely sharp corner around one of the stands, causing Sirius to actually clip the support beam when he attempted to follow, which sent him spinning out. In a desperate attempt to buy him time to right himself as the Slytherins pounced, praying on his moment of vulnerability, Harry doubled back, flying perpendicular to Dolohov and Regulus' path. Knowing that trying to physically block them would be suicide, Harry flew just above them and did the only thing he could think of that might actually get their attention. He hissed, ~/Hey, idiots! Look over here! Pay no attention to the man spiraling down below you, you mouth-breathing bipeds!/~ And it actually worked. Regulus and Dolohov whipped their heads up and stared at Harry, actually coming to a full stop in the air to gape at him. Note to self- Parseltongue is a valid distraction tactic. Seeing that Sirius had righted himself and was zooming away along the ground, Harry winked at the Slytherins and hissed, ~/Later, losers!/~ Before taking off after Sirius.

Meeting up with Sirius at the far end of the stands, Harry yelled to Sirius, "Beth!" And nodded his head over towards where the chasers were all currently caught in a tangle of limbs and violent shouts. They flew around in a wide arch, trying to catch their captain's attention while still avoiding Regulus and Dolohov, who had come to their senses once they realized that Harry and Sirius had both gotten away. Finally, after a few minutes of frantically flying back and forth, Harry just risked it and dove into the fray in order to get close enough to Beth for her to hear him yell, "Timeout!" Before breaking away in order to avoid being crushed. Beth quickly peeled off and motioned for a timeout. Barlow blew a long blast on her whistle, signaling a stop to play. Someone still managed to kick Harry in the back as they all went to land.

As the Gryffindors made to huddle up on their end of the pitch, Sirius shot Harry a sideways glance. "What the hell did you say to them, Bambi? I've never seen a Slythern so stunned," he asked incredulously. Harry let out a string of hissing, spitting noises. Sirius' mouth fell open. "You didn't?!" He gasped.

"What better way to insult a snake than to call them a 'mouth-breathing biped' in their own language? I was just being courteous, really," Harry said innocently. The rest of the team looked at him, stunned. Although basically the whole school knew that Harry was a parselmouth, no one outside of the 6th year Care of Magical Creatures class had ever actually heard him speak Parseltongue before. "What? Oh, come on. You have to admit- that's funny," Harry smiled.

James burst out laughing. "That's not just funny- it's bloody hilarious! I just might need your autograph after this," he said, shaking his head as he wiped away a tear of laughter.

Beth shook her own head, unable to deal with their nonsense right now- they had bigger concerns at the moment. "Speaking of 'this'- can we focus back on the game of quidditch we are still in the middle of?! Harry, you wanted this time out- what's up?" Beth asked seriously.

"Dolohov is. He is up, down, and sideways along with Regulus and Sirius. I need Sirius to fall back. There's no way I'm ever going to find the snitch flying like that. I can't see shit with all three of them there. I can handle Regulus on my own, but Dolohov is like a damn flying wall with arms, legs, and a bat. I've only got two eyes, so I can't keep looking at four things at once. We're gonna unseat each other if we keep going like this. And it's not like they're even ganging up on me like we expected, so I don't actually need the extra protection. Outflying the other seeker is kind of my whole job description- even though this one seems out for blood rather than the snitch," Harry said.

Beth looked from Harry over to his assigned buddy. "What do you think, Sirius? The rest of us have barely seen a wink of you both since the match began, so I'm gonna just trust your judgment on this one. Our whole strategy has been pissed up a wall already, so whatever you two think might actually work, I'm all ears."

Sirius considered it for a moment before saying, "While I don't like the idea of leaving him alone, it is kind of a fair point. And I do think that right now, Dolohov is causing the most problems, so if I lead him away, Harry might actually be safer." Turning to face Harry, Sirius asked, "Are you sure you want to take Regulus on on your own? Don't let his size fool you- he is just as nasty a piece of work as anyone else on that team," he warned.

"Yes," Harry said adamantly. "And it's the only chance any of us have of making it off that pitch today. I can't find the snitch while I'm trying to keep both of our heads from getting lopped off by Dolohov. Just- watch your own back too, yeah?"

"Oh, don't you worry 'bout me, Bambi- I can handle myself just fine," Sirius smiled, reaching out to ruffle Harry's hair, earning a disgruntled noise of protest and a slap in the wrist from Harry.

"Okay then. Sirius- fall back and I guess we're just gonna do our best to run standard plays while trying to shake our Slytherin shadows," Beth said with an exasperated look. This was not what she'd pictured when she'd envisioned herself as quidditch captain. This whole situation that the Slyterins had created was absolutely ridiculous. "Anyone need medical?" She checked and received a series of thankfully negative responses. All things considered, they were actually faring pretty well out there- despite what the actual claw marks from one of the Slytherin chasers on Leila's face may lead you to believe.

Everyone got back into position and Barlow recommenced the game. When the whistle blew, Harry immediately shot off towards the far end of the pitch, Regulus following close behind him. Harry flew in a chaotic pattern in order to prevent Regulus from getting too close while still moving just slow enough to keep an eye out for the snitch. They were flying high above the rest of the game, so for the first time since the match had begun, Harry could actually see the meat of the action happening. One of the Slytherin chasers was flying so close to Beth that from this distance, they actually looked like they were sharing a broom. James appeared to be wrestling with his shadow and it looked like it was building towards an all out fist fight while Leila actually had the quaffle, but was flying away from the Slytherin goal hoops in an effort to try and shake her own tail. Sirius was leading Dolohov on a wild goose chase very similar to the one Harry and him had been doing before while Reggie was on the other end of the pitch trying his best to dodge Mulciber who seemed to be using himself as a battering ram, trying to charge the poor boy right out of the sky- or into the stands, it looked like. Milli was just forced to look on, helplessly stuck in the scoring area by the forgotten Gryffindor goalposts.

Harry realized that he didn't even know the score of the game. He had completely tuned out the announcers, totally focused on not getting knocked off his broom. He was pretty sure that Beth had made the penalty shot for the foul against Sirius, so Gyffindor must have at least ten points- but beyond that it was a goddam mystery. Beth was right- this whole match had been pissed up a wall. Of the four beaters currently in the air not a single one of them had any idea where a bludger was. Leila had actually thrown the quaffle at the Slytherin chaser in an attempt to get him off of her tail and in order to free up both hands for some more creative flying. Merlin- it was a hot mess.

"Glad to have cut some dead weight?" Regulus called out as he pulled up alongside Harry, jabbing a pointy elbow into his side. Harry put a little more distance between them. "I don't blame you- I've been trying to drop him for years. It just finally took last summer." Harry did his best to ignore him. "You can be honest, Chewtoy. No one's up here to hear you and I promise not to tell. My former brother is a pathetic blood traitor and as annoying as the day is long. You can say it." Regulus crossed overhead to fly along Harry's other side. "Or is it that you empathize with his story- a lost, unloved soul, dumped on the streets and thrown to the wolves? No one's bothered looking for you either, have they? Really makes you wonder what kind of parents don't go looking for their missing son? Or maybe the question is, what kind of son drives their parents to wipe their memory and abandon them, hmm? You must be one sorry excuse for a wizard for your own mother to want to do something like that… Maybe it's just because you were the runt of the litter- failure to thrive and all that. It was either this, or drown you in a bucket out back. It's a real pity you Gryffindors just won't seem to die when presented with the perfect opportunity."

Harry just kept chanting in his head, If he talking, he's not attacking me- If he talking, he's not attacking me- If he talking, he's not attacking me- Over and over again in an attempt to drown Regulus out. And then he saw it- the golden snitch was fluttering over by the Gryffindor goal hoops. Harry wasted no time and took off after it, Regulus was startled for half a second, but then shot off after Harry, hot on his trail. As they neared the goalposts, Harry carefully watched as the little ball wove its way in between the three hoops, almost lazily. Just as Harry took his hand off of his broom to reach for the snitch, there was a sudden jolt and he began slowing down. Snapping his head around, he saw Regulus' smirking face as he dragged Harry's broom backwards, away from the snitch. He shook the broom, sending Harry colliding into one of the goal posts. Milli whipped Regulus in the face with the tail end of her broom, causing him to release Harry- but the snitch was gone. Barlow called a foul, but it was little consolation to the lost snitch.

"Thanks," Harry told Milli as he caught his breath for a second, clutching at his side, lurking behind the goalposts in order to keep some distance from Regulus as they both recovered.

"No problem. Glad I could finally help. The Slytherins haven't taken a single shot all game- unless you count Dittmond trying to scare Leila right through one of the hoops in an effort to get away from him," Milli shook her head.

"Madness," Harry wheezed.

"You got that right," Milli said.

How do you play against madness? Clearly none of the regular or backup tactics are working, so it's time to move onto plan freaking Q, apparently. And what's plan Q, you ask? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. It was an impossible task to stay more than an arm's length away from the opposing seeker when in pursuit of the snitch, so that only left Harry with one option- get rid of the opposing seeker entirely. The Slytherins had no idea just who they had decided to fucked with when they'd woken up on the loony side of the bed that morning.

Harry told Milli, "I promise- I'm not crazy," before he suddenly shot up and then did a corkscrew dive through one of the goal hoops, aiming right for Regulus. The other boy's eye grew wide as he dodged out of the way, but Harry followed him, turning the predator into the prey. Regulus was so caught off guard by the abrupt shift that he fled. In his entire quidditch career, Harry had never once intentionally committed a foul- until that day. He caught back up to Regulus and flew over top of him before suddenly dropping down right onto the other boy's back.

"And- What is this?! It appears that the Gryffindor seeker has gone on the offensive! Go, Doe! Go!" Cried the announcer.

Harry grabbed a fistfull of Regulus' robes to keep him from getting away too quickly and leaned down to whisper in his ear, "I hope you enjoy losing to a runt and your 'pathetic' brother- who is a thousand times better man and wizard then you will ever be. There's a damn good reason that I'm not dead yet- why don't you come find out what it is?" And then Harry pushed off of Regulus with all of his might, shoving the other seeker down as he launched up and took off again.

As expected, Regulus' face filled with rage and he took off after Harry. Harry led him on a bit of a chase, just to make sure he was properly riled up, spiraling through one of the Slytherin goal hoops on the opposite end of the pitch just for good measure. Once he could practically feel the burning heat of Regulus' eyes on his back, Harry swooped upwards in the center of the pitch before throwing himself into a steep dive. As he gained speed, hurtling towards the ground, Harry spared a thought, wondering if the Wronski Feint had actually been invented yet. He hoped not, because that would make it just that much more likely that this might actually work. So Harry plumitted, Regulus hot on his heels- neither one willing to be the first to break. At the last possible second, Harry pulled up, his knees actually skimming the ground, grinding grass stains into his trousers. The problem was that while Harry was playing chicken with the ground, Regulus had been playing chicken with Harry, so when Harry pulled out of the dive, there was a flash of victory before he plowed into the pitch.

Barlow's whistle rang out and all play ceased once again. Harry hopped off his broom onto slightly shaky legs. Looking over at Regulus' crumpled form, for a split second, Harry was worried that maybe he'd killed him or something- they had been going pretty fast and quidditch players had died in that exact way before (at least in his time). But then he reminded himself that Regulus lived long enough to join Voldmorte's ranks after school, so he cannot die today. Yes, he was undeniably injured, but not dead yet- oh, the irony. And the fact that he didn't appear to be moving must just mean that he was unconscious.

As the others started to land for the medical timeout, the Slytherin team all gathered around their downed player while the Gryffindors huddled up.

"'Not crazy' my arse!" Milli shouted at Harry.

"That was brilliant!" Whooped Sirius, clapping Harry on the back. Clearly, he was not too worried about his brother.

"I just hope he stays down," Harry said nervously, throwing a worried glance at the group of Slytherins, absentmindedly rubbing his chest.

"Me too," said Beth. "That's just about the only way we are going to interrupt their shadow game and have any sort of a chance out there. And you were already so close Harry! That was a brilliant move, by the way- where'd you learn it?" She asked curiously.

"Uhh- I don't know. It just seemed like a good way to try and shake him, I guess," Harry shrugged. Well, that answers the question of if the Wronski Feint had been invented yet.

A minute later, a stretcher was conjured and Regulus was levitated off of the field by Professor Slughorn. The Gryffindors let out a sigh of relief. One down- maybe they had a chance now that they would be playing six on seven. Harry could hope at least.

That hope however, was dashed as the players all remounted their brooms and looking over, he could see murder in the eyes of the rest of the Slytherin team. And they were all staring directly at him.

As the whistle sounded once again, Harry took off as usual, but contrary to typical play, the entire Slytherin team came hurtling after him. It was like having six, angry, human bludgers locked onto him. His teammates quickly scrambled to his aid, trying to run interference, but it was like gnats versus a swarm of angry hornets. When James tried to set a pick, Dolohov just plowed right into him, sending him tumbling out of the way. Some of the others tried to grab cloaks or limbs, just to slow the Slytherins down in any way they could. Barlow seemed to have completely given up on calling fouls at this point- or maybe there were just so many occurring that she couldn't actually get a good enough look at one to call it before two more occurred. The one small grace was that the Slytherins didn't seem to have a single thought besides 'annihilate Harry', so they were not mounting a strategic attack, but rather were just trying to catch him in a bloodthirsty game of cat(s) and mouse. They could have easily have a few players split off and out flank him and Harry would've been finished in a matter of seconds, but thankfully their murderous rage had clouded what little jusgement they may have had.

So Harry flew as fast as he could in large loops around the pitch, zigzagging up and down in an effort to slow down his pursuers at least a little, all while desperately searching for the snitch. Harry was so distracted trying not to get caught that he almost didn't see the bludger until it was too late. He just barely managed to dodge it by doing a little twirling maneuver, but he'd basically come to a complete stop in order to do it, which gave the others the time they needed to catch up. The bludger had careened into the Slytherins as well, pinging around and knocking into a lot of them, but it was not enough. Someone actually grabbed Harry by the hair and wrenched him backwards. He just managed to keep his grip on his broom as he was dragged away. Harry had been beaten up enough times in his life to know when to fight back and when to take it- and this was a prime example of when you just had to take it. So he hooked his ankles together under his broom, tucked his head to his chest, and locked his arms around his broom handle, knowing that the most important thing was not falling out of the air.

Harry just kind of zoned out and went limp, willing himself to become heavier. He knew that it was one thing to throw a punch while riding a broom and it was another to do so while holding steady your target, but it was a whole new level to be supporting someone's deadweight in one hand while punching with the other and maintaining your balance on a broomstick. Harry just hoped that that was just a bit too much for their rage-soaked brains to handle right then. And soon enough, Harry was falling. Some combination of his and his teammates' efforts or maybe just the Slytherins got tired and dropped him, but either way, Harry had been released. Once he'd fallen about three meters, Harry brought his descent back under control and took off once again, not even sparing a glance behind him. Thankfully, Barlow had called a foul on that one and the chasers were all forced to return to the goal hoops for the penalty shots. Harry just prayed that Beth would take her sweet time with it and keep them the hell away.

So it was just Dolohov and Mulciber now tailing Harry, which at this point felt like he was getting off easy. Oh, how things had changed since just the beginning of the match when he'd thought that Dolohov and Regulus was cruel and unusual punishment. At least the two of them were slow, allowing Harry to take his speed down a level so that he might actually have a chance of spotting the snitch. Plus, now he had both Sirius and Reggie on his side, so it was technically three on two. Harry flew a couple more laps and thanked Merlin that Beth really was milking her penalty shots. And then, just as Beth made her final shot, Harry saw a hint of gold flickering out in the middle of no man's land. He threw himself flat against his broom and made a beeline for the snitch as the rest of the Slytherins broke off from their mandated penalty shot viewing to return to joining in the Harry hunt. Instead of a race against the other seeker, Harry found himself in a race against the entire opposing team. From where they'd all started, Harry, the Slytherin chasers, and the snitch made an almost perfect equilateral triangle. But once again, thankfully, the Slytherins were not thinking with their brains and rather than heading for the snitch, as Harry was, they headed for him, making their path just a little bit longer in the end than Harry's was. So Harry's fingers closed around the freezing cold snitch and Barlow's whistle blew one last, blessed time just before someone's hand closed around Harry's ankle and yanked him down. Harry slid backwards a little on his broom and desperately kicked at the vice-like grip. Barlow came flying over, shouting at the Slytherin chaser who was still pulling on Harry while Sirius just went ahead and just punched him in the face. That got him to release Harry who then headed straight for the ground. Harry never thought he'd say it, but he'd had more than enough flying for one day.

As he hit the ground, Harry basically collapsed in a semi-controlled descent until he landed on his arse in the cold, wet grass. He kept his eyes carefully trained on the sky, watching the Slytherin team get reprimanded by Barlow in the air. Good. As long as she keeps them together and the hell away from Harry she could tell them fucking bedtime stories for all he cared.

Harry's teammates soon began to land too. "Harry! Merlin! Are you okay?" Beth gasped as she dropped into the grass next to him. Harry nodded, still trying to get his heart rate back under control. Looking around, he was pretty sure he should be asking the rest of them that same question. Everybody was looking rather worse for the ware. Beth had a black eye and Leila's face was streaked in blood from a series of scratches and a bloody nose and she was cradling one of her arms protectively against her body. Reggie was helping hold James upright and Sirius looked like he'd been in a nasty fist fight, which technically, he probably had been. Although, Harry probably wasn't one to talk on that front at the moment- he'd wager that he might be looking pretty similar, minus the bruised knuckles. Milli was the only one who really looked unscathed, if you didn't count her pallor as she looked around at her teammates.

McGonagall came rushing out onto the pitch and over to them. Her eyes swept across the group, taking in all of the bruised and bloody faces, before they landed on Harry. "Are you alright, Mr. Doe?" She asked, face creased with concern.

"Y-yeah," Harry managed to get out, though his eyes flickered from McGonagall over to where the Slytherin team had just landed.

Catching the action, McGonagall turned around to see what he'd been looking at. Facing Harry once again, she said, "I can assure you that they will be properly dealt with for their conduct here today. There is a line between fouls and assault that I believe was crossed," as her gaze swept back across the entire team, she added, "numerous times. And at the very least- the attack after the final whistle will be punished- rest assured," McGonagall said fiercely. Harry nodded again. "Can you stand?"

"Yeah," Harry said, and it came out much more confidently this time. Sirius reached out a hand to help Harry up, but once he was on his feet, he let out a hiss. At Sirius' concerned look, he just said, "Ankle." Sirius nodded and hooked his arm under Harry's in the much too familiar stance.

"Now, off to the hospital wing with the lot of you," McGonagall shooed them away.

Beth and Milli- being the least injured of the bunch- quickly gathered up everyone's brooms and deposited them in the locker room before meeting up with the rest, who were making their slow way back up to the castle. As they entered the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey was stooped over one of the beds at the back of the wing, tending to a still unconscious Regulus. Looking over, Harry felt another little niggle of guilt about the boy's condition, but he did his best to swallow it down. Pomfrey looked up at the sound of the door and let out a sigh at the sight of the entire Gryffindor team entering her wing. Of course, she had expected it, but that still didn't mean she enjoyed seeing them.

"Everyone pick a bed and decide who needs to go first," she called from across the room, wrapping up what she was doing before heading over to check them out. Regulus was stable, and nothing with him was mission critical at the moment, so she could take a break to look at the others before returning to her work.

After a little discussion, a triage order was decided by the team- James, Leila, Harry, Sirius, Reggie, Beth, then Milli, because they were pretty sure Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to let anyone leave without being checked out, even if the most action Milli saw during the match was whacking Regulus in the face with her broom. When Pomfrey made her way over, she followed their directions towards James to start with. His shoulder was a little messed up and he had some nasty bruising running basically all the way down his right side, and a sprained ankle. Leila had actually dislocated her wrist in addition to the bloody nose and scratches on her face- though Pomfrey was able to clean those up pretty quickly. Harry had also sprained his ankle and there was a dark bruise curling around it from where the Slytherin chaser had grabbed him. And in addition to the litany of cuts and bruises basically all over his body, Harry had a rather spectacular bruise across his side and chest from the combination of Regulus flying into him and being thrown into the goalpost. He'd actually managed to crack a rib somewhere along the way.

As Pomfrey was giving the rest of him a once over, she asked, "What's in your hand?"

Harry unclenched his fist and the golden snitch flitted out of his hand- huh. He'd completely forgotten he'd had that in the mad rush to not be murdered by the Slytherin team. The little ball buzzed away.

Thankfully, Sirius and Beth's injuries could all be taken care of with a hefty bit of bruise balm and Milli, as expected, wasn't actually injured. The other three, though, were going to have to stay the night. Harry and James managed to convince Milli and Sirius that they could leave- after all, someone really should go tell their other friend that they were going to be fine. Madam Pomfrey then slathered the remaining three in bruise balm and fixed as much as she could of the soft tissue injuries before handing out some potions.

She even gave Harry the option of taking the Skele-Gro now or waiting until that evening to take it. He opted for later, not wanting to sleep the day away, so she warned him, "You better let me know if it gets any more difficult or painful to breathe, okay? Or if you start coughing."

"Yes, ma'am," Harry told her before adding hesitantly, "Um- Is Regulus going to be okay?"

She gave him a small smile. "Yes, dear. It was a nasty fall, but he should be back on his feet soon enough- good as new," she said reassuringly.

Just as Pomfrey was finishing up with them, the hospital wing doors opened once again, this time admitting a handful of Slytherin players being escorted by Professor Slughorn and Professor Barlow. They all glared daggers at Harry, but when one of them paused in front of his bed, Barlow gave him a prompting shove to get him moving again. Pomfrey led the newcomers towards the back of the wing to be seen, but they were soon treated and released, escorted back out by the professors.

A little while later, the rest of the Gryffindor 6th years stopped by to visit Harry and James. Peter gushed about the match and how exciting and insane it had been to watch. Apparently it had lasted just under three hours in all, but they could've told Harry any number and he would've believed it. It had felt like an eternity while he'd been in the air, but each second had torn by. But soon, Madam Pomfrey came and chased everyone out. Thirty minutes later, Leila's friends stopped by and were subjected to the same treatment.

Later in the evening, a group of Slytherins came to see Regulus. Harry recognized some of them from the confrontation that they'd had down in the dungeons. They too sneered and glared as they walked past. It seemed that Regulus had woken up and was at least able to sit up and talk to his visitors, which helped reassure Harry that he really wasn't hurt all too badly. But as the Slytherins left, Harry couldn't help but wonder if maybe his little lesson in humility might've just added fuel to an already raging fire when Regulus made eye contact with him and then made a motion like he was slitting his throat.

A/N: Please note- I do not speak Japanese and the translations used here were just 'horned snake' and 'Japan' via Google Translate. Feel free to correct me if it's wrong!