Thanx all for reviewing! Sorry this took so long.
Chapter 13 The Mind Reader
After the attack on Venice Order agents were permanently stationed at Hogwarts. The uniform change went by smoothly, and now emerald-robed figures could be seen striding warily along the halls or stationed at the front doors. After Venice the death eaters stopped large scale attacks, preferring to "pick off wizards one by one and muggles by the dozen," Sarlan, the Spy Master had put it with a weary sigh. Every two days or so news of another attack came in, three wizards here, fifteen muggles there, another wizard here, eight muggles there. The Order was run ragged dealing with it all. Harry did his best to help, an occasional dream now and then, or maybe a vision, though those were few and far between. It was he who figured out the best points to be used as stations by the Order agents so that the entire castle was covered, and it was he who got them all maps of the entire castle and all the hidden chambers and passages so that they could use them in a battle. And then the
Minister started brewing trouble.
It started when the school governors lost it and tried to get rid of Dumbledore, hardly a wise move, seeing as how it brought on the wrath of all the students, their parents, a very powerful and respected wizard, and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry personally thought that this was just as if not more ludicrous then their removing Dumbledore when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, but he knew, as did everyone, that Lucious Malfoy had probably threatened the governors again. They claimed the Order was recruiting students from Hogwarts, students whose only purpose to the Order was as sacrifices to bizarre gods or were being made to feel powerful, then thrown at "the terrorist impersonating he-who-must-not-be-named" to die to gain time for the Order's plots to overthrow the Ministry. This caused uproar, the wizarding world was neatly divided, ith Dumbledore and the Order, with the Minister. And the students and wizards and witches everywhere who were thinking about joining
the Order sent the Minister seven and a half pounds of hate mail, according to the Daily Prophet. But Cornilius Fudge still had power, he still had the Ministry and many others, and he could use it. He fought with everything he had, still denying Voldemort's return to the point that he accused the Order of the Phoenix of being corrupt and of attacking Venice themselves. So as to kill off members of their Order who were insubordinate to a convict ruler, or refused to believe Voldemort's return, or actually thought they were fighting Voldemort. He openly stated that Sirius's trial had been had under "corrupt" conditions, Harry, who joined the Order council for about half of their meetings, knew that the Patrol Leaders had each sent the Minister a howler, each delivered by a Hippogriff. The Minister just got worse, he accused them of being in league with the "terrorists", of being fanatics, worshipers of gods who demanded muggle and wizard sacrifices, of trying to resurrect
Voldemort for their own wicked ends, and with the support of a few reporters to write convincing articles (he was grossly overpaying them) he won some support.
In addition Harry was having trouble. He was starting to hear things. After weeks of answering questions in class before they had been asked he finally figured it out. When Ron and he were playing chess he heard Ron say "queen to D2," he had therefore countered with a move.
"Hey I'm not done yet! I didn't take my move!" Ron said, startled Harry blinked at him.
"You just said queen to D2!" Ron gasped in shock.
"No, I never said it, out loud... I was thinking it, did you read my mind?" Hermione broke in.
"That's not possible Ron! There haven't been any mind readers since Merlin, Ambrosius, and Godric Gryffindor, there aren't any more." Harry felt like he'd been slapped in the face. *My ancestors were mind readers, and I am? Shit.*
"Hermione? Those were all ancestors of mine! What if I am a mind reader? I don't want to read people's minds!" He gasped out, horrified at the thought.
"Lets take this chat upstairs folks." Ron said cautiously, they all hurried upstairs and into Harry's secret rooms. There Hermione and Ron sat on one side of the table and Harry on the other.
"Harry I'm going to think of a number, Ron of a color, tell us what those are." Hermione said, Harry nodded. It was as though he could see inside their minds, and every thought floated in his, the thoughts came fast, they just jumped into his mind and he knew them instantly.
"Twelve blue. Thirteen magenta. Eighty green. Zero Orange. Fifty pink. Forty three pink." There was a silence, Ron was gaping at him and Hermione looked very excited.
"Oh, this is great Harry! You-
"I should tell Sirius." Harry finished for her, "neither of you has to say a word anymore, yes Ron, you were thinking that. I can hear it all, but I can't stop hearing it, even if I want to I'll still hear your thoughts. Isn't there a spell to block off your minds? This could be very annoying, people think constantly." There was a long pause, Harry analyzed all of his friends thoughts, why had this ability started now? It was cool, but might drive him mad.
Eventually Hermione suggested, out loud for Ron, that they try the library. Since it was still open they hurried off.
After three hours of searching, with Harry reading the minds of every person around him they found it. A book written by Ambrosius's second cousin about mind reading. Harry was earning to divide his attention, he could concentrate on the spoken world and barely hear others thoughts, but they were still there, and if it was quiet, if no one was talking anywhere, he started hearing thoughts. Following guidelines in the book he learned to distinguish between thought a word of mouth. By the time the weekend was over he'd mastered the art. But he still hadn't told anyone besides Ron and Hermione, and Ira. Then the Phoenix returned to Hogwarts for a while to be closer to the wizarding world and Harry was faced with the decision, tell Sirius or not? After weighing each side he decided to tell, he didn't want to hear everyone's thoughts during a council meeting, but how would they react? Sure this ability could be very useful to the Order, but Harry wasn't and Order member, would
they be horrified at the idea of him reading their minds?
"Of course not Harry, they trust you, it'll be fine, quit worrying so much." Ron said when Harry voiced this thought, Hermione and Ira agreed so Harry calmed down and waited for the Phoenix to call.
**
It was just after dinner on Wednesday when Sirius called the Order to a meeting. Harry arrived right on time and found his seat, it had his name on it in small letters. Sirius and he were the only ones there for a few moments.
"Phoenix?" Sirius looked up, "recently I discovered that I can read minds." Sirius's eyes opened wide with shock. "As my powers seem to have finally settled down I can only assume I will always be able too. Do you think the Order, or atleast the Council, should be taught to block their minds from me?" Sirius thought on it for a moment.
"Yes, I'll tell the Council, then how about you explain how to block you, I'll tell the Order via telepathy. Is it hard to block a mind reader?"
"No, it may take two tries, but it's not that difficult." Sirius nodded and the Council trooped in, each giving him a small bow.
"First, I'd like to start this meeting with an announcement. Harry here recently informed me that he can read minds, because being a mind reader means that it is impossible to block out people's thoughts on your own all of us here should learn how to block him. Harry?" Harry nodded and began, amused by the shock they were all experiencing.
"To block a mind reader you don't even need a wand, just think to yourself, strongly so that no part of your mind escapes it, Blockarius, I'll tell you if I cans till hear your thoughts, it may take more then one try." He turned to Remus next to him and listened closely.
Blockarius. I hope this works. Abruptly Harry saw a sunset, and boy walking about as the full moon rose, then a werewolf leaping the fence and attacking the child, the wolf was beaten off by the boy's father and mother, but a bite mark showed on his ankle. Harry blinked and tucked it away for later. Did it work? He clearly heard Remus think.
"No Remus, it didn't, try again." Remus gave a start, then tried again, this time it worked. Harry looked to each person in turn, eventually they all got it, Sarlan had to try five times. Again Harry got visions, from Sirius one of being taken to Azkaban, from Severus one of being tortured by Voldemort for failing to kill some wizard or other. From Miranda one of a huge asteroid hurtling towards earth, and her powers being the only thing that stopped it, Harry got the impression that she had once been nearly as powerful as he, before she had nearly burned herself out by deflecting that asteroid and fighting off a dark wizard all at once. He didn't say anything about his visions to them, not yet.
It was arranged for professor Figg to teach the mind-blocking spell in her Defense classes, so that hopefully most of the student's minds would be inaccessible to Harry. But Harry had read the entire book on mind reading, and he learned that if he put "hooks" into a person's mind then the mind blocking spell didn't work right, he could still hear their thoughts whenever he wanted to. He sued this ability, without informing anyone, to make sure that he would be able to find out if any students joined Voldemort.
Between quidditch, training, homework, and his work with the Order Harry had no time at all to relax, he was always busy and always fell asleep at night exhausted. He was only too happy for a break in the routine when the first quidditch match came about, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.
**
"And they're off! Alicia of Gryffindor's got the quaffle, she's heading up the field, ooh that had to hurt! Clobbered by Warrington of Slytherin, and it's a penalty shot for Gryffindor, Katie scores! 10-0 Gryffindor! Slytherins have the quaffle, they're heading up the field, ducks a Bludger hit by Fred, or is that George? Anyhow is hit by a second Bludger courtesy of a nice bit of broom-tail hitting by Potter, I swear that kid can play ANY position! Drops the quaffle, its caught by Angelina and she's off! Whoa! That was some triple loop by Angelina, passes to Katie, passes to Alicia, and ducks the Bludger and scores! 20-0 Gryffindor!" Ron shouted from the box, where he had taken over from Lee who had a sore throat, commentating. Harry did a few twirls and loops, a Bludger headed his way, he bounced it to George who bashed it at the Slytherin keeper, making him miss the shot, "and it's 30-0 Gryffindor!" Harry shot off in search of the snitch, Malfoy was flying around the
Slytherin goal, berating their keeper angrily. Harry flew high up over the field and watched for that elusive glimmer of gold. Slytherin was playing rough, the three chasers and a beater came down at Katie, Harry dove, they scattered as he shot past, then they came back, but Katie didn't have the quaffle. Harry had hit the quaffle to Angelina who went streaking up the field. The second beater came in and whacked her hard with his club, she tossed the quaffle to Alicia and fell off her broom. Katie and Harry swooped in and caught her and got her back to her broom. Harry applied a quick wandless healing spell to the side of her head as Angelina scored, and then also scored the penalty shot. 50-0 Gryffindor!
The came got dirtier and dirtier, Malfoy rammed Ira and slammed her into a goal post, the Slytherins scored but the Gryffindors got the penalty. Harry dove for the snitch and was hit by the clubs of both beaters, he flicked his broom tail and twisted about, the scratchy twigs, turned sharp by a wandless spell, scratched them both up. He flew off, racked with pain from his side. His ribs were probably broken, but the snitch had gone. Harry applied a wandless healing charm and flew on, ignoring the pain he felt whenever he took a breath. Gryffindor scored the penalty shot. Malfoy and two chasers attacked Katie, slamming her into the stands, Gryffindor got two penalty shots, but Katie was badly hurt and sent to the hospital wing. Harry whacked a Bludger at Malfoy and winded him. Angelina scored again, 90-10 Gryffindor.
The game continued, Harry and Malfoy were flying side by side, straight at the stands, harry saw the snitch, it was flitting about behind the last row of teachers. He rose up a bit, and slapped Malfoy's broom with his, Malfoy did an arch and went shooting off, Harry dove, swooped down behind the teachers and grabbed the snitch!
"Gryffindor wins! 240-10 Gryffindor!" Ron yelled, Harry landed holding the snitch up high as red robed fans came streaming onto the pitch.
The part lasted all night long, it was a spectacular defeat. Harry dropped into bed, exhausted but very happy.
Chapter 13 The Mind Reader
After the attack on Venice Order agents were permanently stationed at Hogwarts. The uniform change went by smoothly, and now emerald-robed figures could be seen striding warily along the halls or stationed at the front doors. After Venice the death eaters stopped large scale attacks, preferring to "pick off wizards one by one and muggles by the dozen," Sarlan, the Spy Master had put it with a weary sigh. Every two days or so news of another attack came in, three wizards here, fifteen muggles there, another wizard here, eight muggles there. The Order was run ragged dealing with it all. Harry did his best to help, an occasional dream now and then, or maybe a vision, though those were few and far between. It was he who figured out the best points to be used as stations by the Order agents so that the entire castle was covered, and it was he who got them all maps of the entire castle and all the hidden chambers and passages so that they could use them in a battle. And then the
Minister started brewing trouble.
It started when the school governors lost it and tried to get rid of Dumbledore, hardly a wise move, seeing as how it brought on the wrath of all the students, their parents, a very powerful and respected wizard, and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry personally thought that this was just as if not more ludicrous then their removing Dumbledore when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, but he knew, as did everyone, that Lucious Malfoy had probably threatened the governors again. They claimed the Order was recruiting students from Hogwarts, students whose only purpose to the Order was as sacrifices to bizarre gods or were being made to feel powerful, then thrown at "the terrorist impersonating he-who-must-not-be-named" to die to gain time for the Order's plots to overthrow the Ministry. This caused uproar, the wizarding world was neatly divided, ith Dumbledore and the Order, with the Minister. And the students and wizards and witches everywhere who were thinking about joining
the Order sent the Minister seven and a half pounds of hate mail, according to the Daily Prophet. But Cornilius Fudge still had power, he still had the Ministry and many others, and he could use it. He fought with everything he had, still denying Voldemort's return to the point that he accused the Order of the Phoenix of being corrupt and of attacking Venice themselves. So as to kill off members of their Order who were insubordinate to a convict ruler, or refused to believe Voldemort's return, or actually thought they were fighting Voldemort. He openly stated that Sirius's trial had been had under "corrupt" conditions, Harry, who joined the Order council for about half of their meetings, knew that the Patrol Leaders had each sent the Minister a howler, each delivered by a Hippogriff. The Minister just got worse, he accused them of being in league with the "terrorists", of being fanatics, worshipers of gods who demanded muggle and wizard sacrifices, of trying to resurrect
Voldemort for their own wicked ends, and with the support of a few reporters to write convincing articles (he was grossly overpaying them) he won some support.
In addition Harry was having trouble. He was starting to hear things. After weeks of answering questions in class before they had been asked he finally figured it out. When Ron and he were playing chess he heard Ron say "queen to D2," he had therefore countered with a move.
"Hey I'm not done yet! I didn't take my move!" Ron said, startled Harry blinked at him.
"You just said queen to D2!" Ron gasped in shock.
"No, I never said it, out loud... I was thinking it, did you read my mind?" Hermione broke in.
"That's not possible Ron! There haven't been any mind readers since Merlin, Ambrosius, and Godric Gryffindor, there aren't any more." Harry felt like he'd been slapped in the face. *My ancestors were mind readers, and I am? Shit.*
"Hermione? Those were all ancestors of mine! What if I am a mind reader? I don't want to read people's minds!" He gasped out, horrified at the thought.
"Lets take this chat upstairs folks." Ron said cautiously, they all hurried upstairs and into Harry's secret rooms. There Hermione and Ron sat on one side of the table and Harry on the other.
"Harry I'm going to think of a number, Ron of a color, tell us what those are." Hermione said, Harry nodded. It was as though he could see inside their minds, and every thought floated in his, the thoughts came fast, they just jumped into his mind and he knew them instantly.
"Twelve blue. Thirteen magenta. Eighty green. Zero Orange. Fifty pink. Forty three pink." There was a silence, Ron was gaping at him and Hermione looked very excited.
"Oh, this is great Harry! You-
"I should tell Sirius." Harry finished for her, "neither of you has to say a word anymore, yes Ron, you were thinking that. I can hear it all, but I can't stop hearing it, even if I want to I'll still hear your thoughts. Isn't there a spell to block off your minds? This could be very annoying, people think constantly." There was a long pause, Harry analyzed all of his friends thoughts, why had this ability started now? It was cool, but might drive him mad.
Eventually Hermione suggested, out loud for Ron, that they try the library. Since it was still open they hurried off.
After three hours of searching, with Harry reading the minds of every person around him they found it. A book written by Ambrosius's second cousin about mind reading. Harry was earning to divide his attention, he could concentrate on the spoken world and barely hear others thoughts, but they were still there, and if it was quiet, if no one was talking anywhere, he started hearing thoughts. Following guidelines in the book he learned to distinguish between thought a word of mouth. By the time the weekend was over he'd mastered the art. But he still hadn't told anyone besides Ron and Hermione, and Ira. Then the Phoenix returned to Hogwarts for a while to be closer to the wizarding world and Harry was faced with the decision, tell Sirius or not? After weighing each side he decided to tell, he didn't want to hear everyone's thoughts during a council meeting, but how would they react? Sure this ability could be very useful to the Order, but Harry wasn't and Order member, would
they be horrified at the idea of him reading their minds?
"Of course not Harry, they trust you, it'll be fine, quit worrying so much." Ron said when Harry voiced this thought, Hermione and Ira agreed so Harry calmed down and waited for the Phoenix to call.
**
It was just after dinner on Wednesday when Sirius called the Order to a meeting. Harry arrived right on time and found his seat, it had his name on it in small letters. Sirius and he were the only ones there for a few moments.
"Phoenix?" Sirius looked up, "recently I discovered that I can read minds." Sirius's eyes opened wide with shock. "As my powers seem to have finally settled down I can only assume I will always be able too. Do you think the Order, or atleast the Council, should be taught to block their minds from me?" Sirius thought on it for a moment.
"Yes, I'll tell the Council, then how about you explain how to block you, I'll tell the Order via telepathy. Is it hard to block a mind reader?"
"No, it may take two tries, but it's not that difficult." Sirius nodded and the Council trooped in, each giving him a small bow.
"First, I'd like to start this meeting with an announcement. Harry here recently informed me that he can read minds, because being a mind reader means that it is impossible to block out people's thoughts on your own all of us here should learn how to block him. Harry?" Harry nodded and began, amused by the shock they were all experiencing.
"To block a mind reader you don't even need a wand, just think to yourself, strongly so that no part of your mind escapes it, Blockarius, I'll tell you if I cans till hear your thoughts, it may take more then one try." He turned to Remus next to him and listened closely.
Blockarius. I hope this works. Abruptly Harry saw a sunset, and boy walking about as the full moon rose, then a werewolf leaping the fence and attacking the child, the wolf was beaten off by the boy's father and mother, but a bite mark showed on his ankle. Harry blinked and tucked it away for later. Did it work? He clearly heard Remus think.
"No Remus, it didn't, try again." Remus gave a start, then tried again, this time it worked. Harry looked to each person in turn, eventually they all got it, Sarlan had to try five times. Again Harry got visions, from Sirius one of being taken to Azkaban, from Severus one of being tortured by Voldemort for failing to kill some wizard or other. From Miranda one of a huge asteroid hurtling towards earth, and her powers being the only thing that stopped it, Harry got the impression that she had once been nearly as powerful as he, before she had nearly burned herself out by deflecting that asteroid and fighting off a dark wizard all at once. He didn't say anything about his visions to them, not yet.
It was arranged for professor Figg to teach the mind-blocking spell in her Defense classes, so that hopefully most of the student's minds would be inaccessible to Harry. But Harry had read the entire book on mind reading, and he learned that if he put "hooks" into a person's mind then the mind blocking spell didn't work right, he could still hear their thoughts whenever he wanted to. He sued this ability, without informing anyone, to make sure that he would be able to find out if any students joined Voldemort.
Between quidditch, training, homework, and his work with the Order Harry had no time at all to relax, he was always busy and always fell asleep at night exhausted. He was only too happy for a break in the routine when the first quidditch match came about, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.
**
"And they're off! Alicia of Gryffindor's got the quaffle, she's heading up the field, ooh that had to hurt! Clobbered by Warrington of Slytherin, and it's a penalty shot for Gryffindor, Katie scores! 10-0 Gryffindor! Slytherins have the quaffle, they're heading up the field, ducks a Bludger hit by Fred, or is that George? Anyhow is hit by a second Bludger courtesy of a nice bit of broom-tail hitting by Potter, I swear that kid can play ANY position! Drops the quaffle, its caught by Angelina and she's off! Whoa! That was some triple loop by Angelina, passes to Katie, passes to Alicia, and ducks the Bludger and scores! 20-0 Gryffindor!" Ron shouted from the box, where he had taken over from Lee who had a sore throat, commentating. Harry did a few twirls and loops, a Bludger headed his way, he bounced it to George who bashed it at the Slytherin keeper, making him miss the shot, "and it's 30-0 Gryffindor!" Harry shot off in search of the snitch, Malfoy was flying around the
Slytherin goal, berating their keeper angrily. Harry flew high up over the field and watched for that elusive glimmer of gold. Slytherin was playing rough, the three chasers and a beater came down at Katie, Harry dove, they scattered as he shot past, then they came back, but Katie didn't have the quaffle. Harry had hit the quaffle to Angelina who went streaking up the field. The second beater came in and whacked her hard with his club, she tossed the quaffle to Alicia and fell off her broom. Katie and Harry swooped in and caught her and got her back to her broom. Harry applied a quick wandless healing spell to the side of her head as Angelina scored, and then also scored the penalty shot. 50-0 Gryffindor!
The came got dirtier and dirtier, Malfoy rammed Ira and slammed her into a goal post, the Slytherins scored but the Gryffindors got the penalty. Harry dove for the snitch and was hit by the clubs of both beaters, he flicked his broom tail and twisted about, the scratchy twigs, turned sharp by a wandless spell, scratched them both up. He flew off, racked with pain from his side. His ribs were probably broken, but the snitch had gone. Harry applied a wandless healing charm and flew on, ignoring the pain he felt whenever he took a breath. Gryffindor scored the penalty shot. Malfoy and two chasers attacked Katie, slamming her into the stands, Gryffindor got two penalty shots, but Katie was badly hurt and sent to the hospital wing. Harry whacked a Bludger at Malfoy and winded him. Angelina scored again, 90-10 Gryffindor.
The game continued, Harry and Malfoy were flying side by side, straight at the stands, harry saw the snitch, it was flitting about behind the last row of teachers. He rose up a bit, and slapped Malfoy's broom with his, Malfoy did an arch and went shooting off, Harry dove, swooped down behind the teachers and grabbed the snitch!
"Gryffindor wins! 240-10 Gryffindor!" Ron yelled, Harry landed holding the snitch up high as red robed fans came streaming onto the pitch.
The part lasted all night long, it was a spectacular defeat. Harry dropped into bed, exhausted but very happy.