Harry Potter and the Kid and the Tiger
Disclaimer: Taa daa! Ch. 13 is here! This one advances the plot a great deal, and does a little bit of foreshadowing for the chapters ahead. And always 1 review to continue although I wouldn't mind more *hint, hint* Read, review, and enjoy!
In Defense Against the Dark Arts the next day, Hobbes was late for class. This was very unusual, especially since Hobbes had told Harry the other day to be sure to come. Just as Harry was wondering where the teacher was, a tired Hobbes Siberia, wearing dirty robes and with bags under his eyes walked in.
"Can anyone tell me what the Grindewald Curses are?" Hobbes said, as he placed a few things around his desk. To no one's surprise at all, Hermione's had was the only one in the air.
"Yes, Hermione?" Hobbes asked expectantly.
"The Grindewald, or Incomplete, Curses are five extremely powerful Dark curses the wizard Grindewald attempted to invent in the early and middle 1940's during his attempt to take over both the Muggle and wizard worlds."
"Perfect," Hobbes commented, "Can you tell me what the five curses were, Hermione?"
Hermione nodded confidently, "The first was an easier one Cruitatus Multiply. Simply put, you could place several people at a time under the Cruitatus Curse. Rumors were that he perfected this curse, but there is no real evidence.
"The second is the Hitlercane Curse, named for Grindelwald's main Muggle follower Adolph Hitler, this curse was to twist the air in front of the person who performed the spell into a mini-hurricane that would be so powerful that a full-sized hurricane that big would wipe out the British Isles and mix them with Eastern Europe, and would go on for about ten feet. In other words, it would tear anything in front of it to shreds,
"The third curse was Avada Crucio, he had no other name for it and achieved some limited success with it in 1945, shortly before his downfall. It was to be a mixture of pain and death, holding under more pain then the Cruicatus Curse could allow and let you writhe in agony, unable to anything but scream. Then, you died.
"The fourth was supposed to be a Second Unblockable Curse, but it couldn't kill. Many believe it was either an variant of the Cruicatus or Imperious Curse. Should it have been an Imperious Curse, it is supposed to be one that only a wizard more powerful the fierier of the curse could resist.
"Grindewald kept the fifth in secret, it was, according to some of Grindewald's main followers, his largest project. There are two main ideas for what it was, both have their own separate evidence for being the Fifth Incomplete Curse. One was that the curse could raise the dead to life. An impossibility with what we know now, as supposedly no spell can raise the dead. The other was that it was a great blow of energy that could destroy an entire city from any point in the world, with an energy rivaling that of Muggle atomic weaponry."
The entire class was white-faced as Hermione finished.
"Excellent," Hobbes said softly, "One hundred and ten points to Gryffindor. Ten points for the answer to my first question, and twenty for each curse."
"What?!" exclaimed Draco Malfoy, shocked. "One hundred and ten points!"
"Draco," Hobbes stared at him with his black eyes, "If you continue your outbursting I will take off points from Slytherin."
"I don't care," Draco said, jutting out his chin with defiance.
"Ten points from Slytherin, Draco." Hobbes said in a warning voice.
"See what I care," Malfoy smirked.
"Ten more points, and you'll be reporting to detention in the dungeons with Mr. Filch tomorrow night."
"I don't care!" Malfoy yelled, wild-eyed. He yanked out his wand and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"
And with that, both Hobbes and Malfoy crumpled to the floor.
The first thing Harry did was rush over to Hobbes. He knelt by the fallen teacher and took his pulse. Pretty strong considering he was just hit with a Killing Curse. He pushed Hobbes a little bit, and even pounded on his chest. Around then he noticed Hermione and Ron were huddled around him.
"He's alive," Harry said to both of them, "Pretty strong pulse, too. Funny. What happened to Malfoy?"
Ron's face was white, "Harry...they think he's dead."
Harry turned around and noticed all of the Slytherins had crowded around Malfoy.
"They probably just forgot to take a pulse," Harry said trying to cheer Ron up, "In any event Ron, you got get Dumbledore, passwords...um...Cauldron Cake."
Ron nodded and rushed out of the room.
"Herms, get me some water please."
Hermione nodded and Summoned a cup from across the room, then utilizing the Hydroelement Charm she conjured some water in the glass and gave it to Harry, who splashed it on Hobbes' face. Hobbes muttering something about tuna, and Harry asked Hermione for another glass of water. Hermione obeyed, and Harry splashed more water on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who finally woke up.
"One hundred points from Slytherin," was the first thing out of his mouth. Then, yawning and rubbing his eyes, Hobbes got up.
"Fool Malfoy," Hobbes said, "Just like Lucius."
"You knew Lucius Malfoy?"
Hobbes nodded, "He was a year ahead of me one at Hogwarts. He was the worst kid I've ever seen. In any event, where is Draco."
Hermione looked up at Hobbes, "Er, they think he's dead."
Hobbes' eyes widened and he walked over to the crowd of Slytherins.
"Clear the way, please, clear the way. Somebody go get Dumbledore."
"We've already sent Ron," Harry called out.
Hobbes nodded as he sat next to Malfoy and reached over for his neck vein and felt for a pulse.
"He's alive," Hobbes announced after a few tense seconds. "Barely, but alive just as well. Poppy'll fix 'em up in no time.
"But what about you, Hobbes?" Parvarti Patil called out.
Hobbes smiled, "I'll live, trust me, it's not the first time some tried an Avada Kedavra on me and it failed because they'd never used it before. I'll bet Mad-Eye said something about that to you guys, you have to have practiced it before to kill with it. Old Jimmy Flint tried to pull that on me when we were in school after we first learned about it. He got himself expelled but good."
"Will Draco get expelled?" Pansy Parkinson said.
Hobbes shook his head, "I don't know. I don't think so."
"Why not?" asked Hermione, "After all you can get a life sentence in Azkaban for that."
Hobbes pursed his lips, at that moment Ron ran in banging the door of it's hinges. Following him was Madam Pomfrey, and Professor Dumbledore.
Dumbledore stared at Hobbes, "What happened?" he spoke crisply.
"Mr. Malfoy started disrupting the lesson and questioning my judgement. I told him to be quiet or I'd take points from Slytherin, he continued his defiance. I took ten points from Slytherin. He went crazy, yanked out his wand and tried to kill me."
"Do you know why?" Dumbledore looked at Malfoy who Madam Pomfrey was taking care of Malfoy while tut-tutting.
"I guess he was under the Confoundus Charm, or even Imperious. Best bet on Confoundus. He just went plain mad."
"Professor Dumbledore, sir?" Harry asked timidly.
"Yes, Harry?" Dumbledore looked at Harry and gazed at him with steely blue eyes.
"This has nothing to do with Malfoy, but with the Grindewald Curses?"
Dumbledore snapped to attention, "What about them Harry?"
"I just remembered, it was in my dream were I learned of the Beauxbatons plot, Voldemort said "Cruciomulia". I think Voldemort has the Cruitatius Multiply Curse."
Dumbledore went pale, "That gives him two...and the most painful ones."
"What do you been Professor?" Ron interjected.
Dumbledore sighed, "My intelligence tells me Voldemort perfected Avada Crucio."
Hobbes looked stunned, "No.....do you think we may have to..."
Dumbledore nodded gravely, "We must prepare the Order of the Phoenix. Immediately. Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, Mr. Arrow, you of course will come. Mr. Weasley, I would like you to come, but you need to stay behind and...well...just teach the class for awhile."
Ron smiled and went up to the front of the class, as Hobbes, Calvin, Hermione, and Harry came forward, following Madam Pomfrey, who had Malfoy on a conjured stretcher. As they left they heard Ron yelling at a Slytherin, "You must call me Professor Weasley! Two hundred points from Slytherin!"
Harry could have sworn he saw Dumbledore smile.
At Dumbledore's office, however, there was no smiling.
"Calvin Shawton Arrow, Harry James Potter, Hermione Elizabeth Granger, and Hobbes White Siberia. Welcome to a small meeting of the Phoenix Underground."
They all nodded.
"Do any of you know what exactly the Order of the Phoenix is?"
They all shook their heads save Calvin and Hobbes.
"The Order can only be activated by the second greatest Light sorcerer of the age. In the reign of Voldemort," Harry noticed that no one flinched, "That was James Potter. Fortunately, we never had to use the Order. In actuality no one knows exactly what the Order does, but we know how to activate it. Each of the Hogwarts founders enchanted one of their items to do good for the school's future. Godric Gryffindor left the Sorting Hat, Rowena Ravenclaw left Fawkes here, Helga Hufflepuff enchanted a quill that senses and writes down the names of all magical born humans in Britain that how we know to admit you all, and Salazar Slytherin left the Key."
As he said this, Dumbledore pulled a small key out of his robes, it looked like a golden serpent, but had a point like a normal key.
"When the other three are each touched simultaneously by the second most powerful Light wizard, supposedly a keyhole will appear that the Key goes into. The reason why the Order was never used for battles against past Dark wizards was that the Key was lost. We were franticly looking for it during Voldemort's first reign. Somehow, Harry's defeat of the basilisk in his second year caused the Key to materialize on my desk. Perhaps, Slytherin wanted to be sure the Key would never be used unless his Heir was gone, or perhaps it was a coincidence. We'll never know. Also, the Order can only be used in the confines of this school."
Harry gulped, "Sir, who is the second best Light wizard."
Albus Dumbledore looked into Harry's eyes, "I am."
Harry was bewildered, then who was first, surely Dumbledore was kidding, nobody was better then he was at magic. He was the Headmaster after all.
"Then whose the best?" he asked incredulously.
"You are Harry."
Harry stared at Dumbledore's eyes, he was kidding, he was kidding, he was kidding. He was not the best sorcerer in the world. Now way, no how.
"I see that you don't believe me, is it something that Sirius told you?"
Harry had to fight vigorously to nod, after all he was related to Slytherin, but Sirius hadn't been supposed to tell him and he didn't want anything bad to happen to Sirius. What if he was sacked?
"No, sir," Harry shook his head.
For a second Harry could've sworn he saw a trace of relief flicker across Dumbledore's blue eyes. In an instant, however, it disappeared. Still, Harry figured he didn't imagine it, and felt as guilty for lying to Dumbledore as he had when he lied to Hagrid the year before.
"Well, then, you may go. I believe your next class is Charms. Hobbes, I would suggest you go and relieve 'Professor Weasley' and return to Slytherin however many points he has taken off, and deduct the points he gave to Gryffindor."
"What about Malfoy?" Hermione spoke up as they were leaving.
"I'll deal with him, don't worry about it. It's rather lucky he didn't have enough power to use the curse. I suppose Alastor taught you about that?"
They nodded and walked out.
As Harry put his arm around Hermione's waist, Hermione spoke aloud, "So that's what the Order of the Phoenix is."
Calvin nodded.
Harry turned to Calvin, "Why didn't you tell us you were a Phoenix?"
Calvin shrugged. "I dunno."
Harry sighed, "I can't believe it."
Hermione put her arm around his shoulder reassuringly, "Don't worry Harry."
"But, the Order has to be used in the school! That's impossible!"
"No, it's not," Calvin said quietly.
Harry and Hermione's head snapped to Calvin.
Sighing at the attention Calvin began speaking, "The real reason that the Order of the Phoenix must have been created was to defeat Dark wizards if they ever got within the school. L'Kurse was probably the last one ever to do that."
Harry nodded, "It's gonna be an uphill battle isn't it?"
Calvin and Hermione nodded.
