Author E-Mail: agathad@look.ca
Category: Action/Adventure
Keywords: 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix
Rating: PG-13 (just to be safe)
Spoilers: All Four Books
Summary: During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Chapter 5: Meet the TeachersThe trio were now sitting in the carriage, after making sure everyone got off the train. They had quickly finished, but they would probably miss the sorting anyways. As they got out of the carriage and to the small door inside the large door, they could just hear the Sorting Hat finish with Zarish, Antony, who went into Hufflepuff. Ron started running up the stairs to get to the Great Hall, towards the food that had most likely just appeared, as they could hear the din of all the students old and new talking about their summers.
As they crept in through a side door Farione mentioned, they saw several redheads sitting at the closest table, which happened to be the Gryffindor table. Sliding in beside the Weasleys, they sat down and automatically started grabbing for the food.
Soon they were very stuffed and satisfied, waiting for Dumbledore's speech. They didn't have to wait long, several minutes after they had finished, Dumbledore stood up and everybody promptly shut up.
"Now, as you are all well stuffed, I would like to proceed with this years announcements. First, the Forbidden Forest is just that, Forbidden. This is for your own safety, as I doubt you would like to be eaten by the assorted creatures of the forest.
Next, I would like to introduce the new professors, 3 this year in fact. Hagrid has taken temporary leave, and we therefore need another Care of Magical Creatures professor. I would like you all to welcome Charlie Weasley!" Charlie quickly stood up, grinning, before quickly sitting back down, among the polite clapping from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, whooping and whistles from the Gryffindor table, and a mixed reaction from the Slytherin table, as they were wondering if they should clap because Hagrid was gone, or to boo, since a former Gryffindor took up the place.
"Yes, Yes, we are all excited to have Mr. Weasley back. He has been studying abroad for several years, working with dragons. I hope your lessons with him will be educational and interesting.
Now, we all know about the jinxed Defence Against the Dark Arts position. We can't seem to get the right professor for the job, it seems. I hope this next person will stay for longer then a year. Please welcome Ms. Ashley Salcez!"
A rather dumpy, dark woman stood up, glared at everyone, and sat back down. There were a few scattered claps, mostly from the Slytherin table, as she looked quite a bit like a Slytherin.
"Great, Another Snape. Do we really need two?", Ron whispered, sounding rather depressed. Harry just nodded and sighed quietly.
"Now, now, I'm sure you'll warm up when you have your first class with her.
I have decided to hold another class, of Foreign Magic, as when you go out into the world, you will meet other types of wizards. Our professor for this has a surprising amount of experience for one so young. She has been teaching at Gryphon Institute of Magic for the past 2 years, and we hope you welcome her, Ms. Jennifer Ashten, your professor for Foreign Magic. "
Everyone politely clapped as a mostly ordinary woman stood up. She had brown hair and wore simple dark blue robes. Her brown hair had large streaks of white, making her look older then she probably was. Her eyes were a bright blue, similar to Dumbledore's, twinkling merrily. She smiled, waved, and sat back down.
"Now, as you have all met the new professors, to the next announcement, which you may not like very much. Quidditch will not be played this year, I am sorry to say." A loud chorus of boos followed this announcement, as Dumbledore looked at all of them sadly. "Yes, yes, I know this is horrible. This is due to safety precautions, and we may start Quidditch again if the threat lessens. To compensate for this, we will be reinstating the Duelling Club and will be having a tournament with the North American school, Gryphon Institute of Magic, from which our new professor is from. I know the Triwizard tournament last year ended with the tragic death of a student, but I seriously doubt the same will happen this year. We need allies at this time, and G.R.I.M. is the stronghold of many powerful wizards. We will be sending the Duelling Club to G.R.I.M., where they will receive lessons from the professors there. The Duelling Club is open to all students, and I wish them the best of luck. The sign-up sheet will be up sometime tomorrow.
Now, with that final announcement, the prefects will lead you to your rooms now, as you are probably all sleepy from all the wonderful food. " He sat down and watched as the prefects rounded up all the first years and began walking toward their respective common rooms.
: Harry, time for your first real prefect duty at the school, trying to control the little buggers. The password for the Gryffindor common room is Canary Creams, by the way. : Farione seemed rather happy, as Harry and the rest of the prefects tried to round up the Gryffindor first years to their common room.
"Were we ever that small and annoying, Harry?" Ron grabbed the collar of a tiny boy looking wondrously at a picture of two wizards duelling.
"Well, the rest of us were that small, not you though. I remember you being taller then the prefects who led us around. I don't think we were that annoying though." Harry opened a door and led the first years through.
"Yes you were. I remember before we were friends, you were very annoying." Hermione pulled out a cute little girl out of a disappearing step.
Ron and Harry just huffed and led the first years to stand in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.
Harry looked at all the bright faces and smiled. "Now, this is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. To get in, just tell her the password and she'll let you in. The password's Canary Creams. Any questions?"
"Are you really the Harry Potter??" A little girl nervously asked.
Harry sighed, but nodded. "Yes, I am, but it doesn't mean anything. Now, when we get in, we'll help you all get comfortable, ok?"
They all nodded and soon they were all in their dorms. Harry and Ron, being the youngest prefects, got to go help the boys get settled in, which was not an easy task.
"Where's my Mouchi? I WANT MY MOUCHI!!" A young boy was running around, looking for his "Mouchi".
Ron looking rather confused, helped the little boy find "Mouchi", which happened to be a ragged stuffed teddy bear.
After finally settling the boys in, Harry and Ron walked down, looking just as ragged as "Mouchi".
Seeing Hermione sitting by the fire, they dragged themselves over to her and collapsed onto 2 large puffy armchairs.
"Having a bit of trouble with the boys? They seemed like such darlings." Hermione snickered and grinned at the ragged boys. "The girls were so sweet, they weren't trouble at all."
"Bah, you didn't have to look for Mouchi…" Ron began to mumble, but was so tired, he nodded off before he finished the sentence. While Ron was talking, Harry had fallen asleep, to tired to think about anything.
* * *
It was dark. Very, very dark. You could feel the damp through to your bones. Drip, Drip, Drip. Off in what seemed the distance, a weak light flickered on.
"What have you brought, Lucius?" A hissing voice, like an impersonation of death itself.
"Master, We have begun the corruption of our agent at the school. We will soon be ready to begin attacks. The boy is happy, nothing has happened, lulling him into a false sense of security. Your plan with his friends is going well, no one suspects of the importance of where they live. The death eater recruiting is going well, we have most of the Slytherin batch from last year." The man named Lucius was hiding the fear behind his voice well; he seemed to know something bad would happen to him.
"Most? I was expecting all! You will pay for this. Crucio!" A scream sliced through the air, magnified by what seemed to be a network of caves. After several minutes of this, the screaming stopped, replaced by a pitiful whimpering.
"Wormtail! Take him away! Bring him to the cells and let him go in...let's say a week." A sinister laugh rent through the air, drowning out sounds of a scuttling and dragging of a body.
* * *
The next day, Harry remembered having a vague dream about Voldemort. It had included Lucius Malfoy and caves. When he told this to Ron and Hermione, both of them told him to go tell Dumbledore. Harry just mumbled yes and finished his breakfast. Waiting for Ron to finish, they were handed the 5th year timetables to pass out. Harry grabbed theirs and passed them down the table. Handing Ron his, he looked at his own and groaned. They had DADA with the Snape Lady first thing.
"Snape Lady first thing. Does the world have no justice??" Ron groaned and stopped eating his scrambled eggs. Ron, who didn't have much of an appetite anymore, got up and sulked off towards the Gryffindor common room, before Hermione stopped him and pointed toward the timetable.
DADA is wands only today.
"We wouldn't have time to get our stuff anyway, class is in 2 minutes!" Harry and Hermione started running towards the DADA classroom, Ron just behind them.
When they got there, the door was open, but no professor in sight. They could hear their classmates gossiping inside, so they quietly slipped in and sat in the back. Hermione looked around quizzically, the professor was a couple minutes late already. She stated this and received a series of grunts and shrugs in reply.
A canary yellow bolt suddenly flashed through the air and hit Lavender, who shrieked and started running all around the classroom. Her classmates seeing this, immediately panicked and chaos ensued. When Harry saw a blue bolt shooting towards him, he whipped out his wand and quickly put up a basic shield, the bolt turning on itself and shooting towards what ever shot it.
A loud whistle sounded and in the middle of the room, Professor Salcez was standing calmly among the scattered students, who had frozen when the whistle sounded. She incidentally, had blue hair, which was the exact same colour of the bolt that had shot towards Harry. She turned to Harry and smiled.
"Well done, Mr. Potter. You were the only one to think in the situation and attempt to defend yourself. 10 points to Gryffindor. " Ignoring looks of shock, she righted her desk, which had fallen when Lavender crashed into it, and leaned on it.
"I have lesson plans from the past 4 years and am rather disappointed in the professors before. Professor Lupin did quite well, as did Professor Moody, but neither of them taught you to be ready for any attack, both muggle and magical, anytime, any place. I would think Moody would have taught you that, but I guess he didn't. From now on, I'll be leaving clues in this room to where you will all go to have class. It may be anywhere, inside or out. We will be doing magical duelling until Christmas, then muggle methods for the rest of the year. Remember, you have OWLs this year, so you are reminded to study very hard this year. I will be spending a very small amount on each unit, no more, hopefully less. There will be a test on the unit at the end, both practical and written. As we have a duelling club and tournament this year, I hope you all enter. " She assigned a bit of reading from Practical Defence and lectured them on the basic rules of duelling, asking several questions along the way. By the end of class, Gryffindor had earned 15 more points and Ravenclaw had earned 10 points.
"Well, she wasn't that bad, a little on the nutter side for attacking us, but I guess she was trying to prove a point. Where'd you learn that shield charm, Harry?" Ron and Harry had looked at their timetables and found that they had Ancient Runes next. They had finally decided that Divination was a waste of time, so they changed to Ancient Runes, where they might actually learn something useful.
Harry shrugged and stopped at the small group of 3rd years in front of the Ancient Runes classroom. "I was looking on duelling stuff in the books I got and found it somewhere. I found some other stuff too."
Just then, Professor Vetus, professor of Ancient Runes, walked up to them and grinned. "Hehe, finally decided Divination's junk? Good. You won't have to catch up as much. I'm hoping to have you up to 5th year by Christmas." With the toothy grin plastered on his face, he opened the door to a very dusty, very large room full of stone slabs and little else, even the professor's desk was a large stone slab of sandstone, runes engraved all over it.
"Now, welcome to Ancient Runes. This class doesn't usually have a very large workload, so you can all relax. Now, will all of you sit on those slabs over there, if you please?" All of the students scuttled over to the slabs in the middle of the room and sat on one each.
"Good, good. Now, stand up and look at the rune you were sitting on. Try to find it in your Rune Dictionary." They all took out their dictionaries and soon, all of them were sitting on their slabs, waiting for the professor to give their next instructions.
"Now, who ever has the same rune as you will be your partner for the next while. " Harry looked around for someone with the same rune as him and saw Ron looking excited. Looking where Ron was sitting, they saw they had the same rune and grinned.
"Ah good, you both got the same rune. I was hoping you would, as I will be giving you extra work to catch up to the 5th years. I'll be telling your friend Hermione to help you a bit, so it won't be that bad. Just be ready for a bit of extra work. There will be a Diabooth in the school soon, so I will have to ask you to get these books when it gets here." He handed them a book list and turned back to the rest of the class. He set them all to work on translating a slab of runes, with help of the dictionary. Every time that someone solved a stone, they burst in laughter, as they were translating very funny jokes.
All too soon, class was over and they were walking down to lunch with Hermione, who had met up with them after her Arithmancy class.
"Finally you decided to stop taking that crock with "professor" Trelawney. I really wonder why you didn't stop earlier. I still think you should of taken Arithmancy, but I guess Ancient Runes is okay too. How'd you like Professor Vetus? He's nice, isn't he?" Hermione looked very happy that they weren't taking Divination anymore.
"Yes, he even told us he'll tell you to help us. He's trying to make us catch up to 5th year, I don't know how we'll be able to, but he said it won't be too hard." Harry seemed a bit nervous about the prospect of catching up on 2 years of work.
"He's right, it won't be that hard at all. Ancient Runes always has had a pretty light workload. It's mostly memorizing of the different runes. I know for a fact that both of you have a decent enough memory, so I wouldn't worry. Did you know Neville is doing Ancient Runes and isn't doing bad at all? And you know he had a terrible memory, so I doubt you'll have trouble."
: You know, she's right. I'll be helping along the way too, so don't worry at all. Now, I would be worrying about your next class, as it's Potions with Snape:
Harry groaned loudly and Ron and Hermione just stared at him. "Farione just told me that we have Snape next." They all groaned and quickly finished lunch, hoping they would not be late for Snape's lesson.
Walking down into the Potions Dungeon, they saw that they were early and that only a couple Gryffindors were in the room. Sitting in the back, they pulled out their books and cauldrons, which Harry had been carrying in his bottomless bag.
"You know, I'm surprised we haven't seen Malfoy ye-" Ron cut off as he saw Draco Malfoy walk in.
"Speak of the Devil, or Malfoy, same thing." Ron groaned and put his head on the desk as Malfoy walked towards them.
"Well well, if it isn't Mudblood, Potty, and Weasel? Finally got some money Weasel? Guess all of them put together could beg for a large amount of money, hmm?" Hearing Snape's footsteps on the stone, he smirked and sauntered off to the front of the room.
As he sat down, Professor Snape walked in, looking slightly harried and annoyed. He walked to the front of the room and glared at everyone.
"I will not take any of your laziness this year. We are having the OWLs this year, which I doubt many of you to pass." He glared again, this time at the Gryffindors, and began writing on the board.
* * *
The Chapter has now Ended