Blasting and Shielding
When Harry's new classes started, he suddenly found himself with more work then he ever had remembered having. Most of the new classes were just added on to their normal day, which cut out the time they would normally have between the end of classes and dinner. The first class he experienced was the parenting class with Heather.
Before he even walked in, Harry knew this would be, well, an episode. He had the class with both Hermione and Ron. They all sat in the seats that they would normally in Defense. The class was made up of only forth years, but there were students from all four of the houses present.
When Heather walked in, it was with Sirius in his dog form trotting behind her. "Good morning class. You all know my dog Sparky. Oh my, look at this class. Well, this can't be a defense class, so this must be my new one. Ah," Heather bit her lip. "Which class are you?"
"Parenting, Heather," Harry said with a smirk.
"Oh, right! It would be, as Professor McGonagall isn't here hounding me. That will be an interesting class." Heather fell down in her chair, scratching Sparky behind his ears. "Well then, parenting is the first thing we learn here. And everything that goes along with it. How many of you plan on having children?"
A few hands shot right in the air. Others went up more slowly. Harry paused. It was another one of those things that he should have given more thought. Did he want children? He loved kids, but what kind of father would he make? Would he become his uncle? He couldn't subject a child to that. But then, Randy was an angle. If that was what raising a kid was like, then he would want a hundred of them.
Heather was the first to see Harry's hesitation. "Harry Potter, you put that hand up in the air. I want grand godchildren. Besides, you're to good with children to pass up having one or seven."
Harry couldn't help but smile. "Seven? Are you trying to kill me?"
"Kill you? Harry dear, it is your wife it will kill. But she's going to be pretty tough, so I think she can handle it. This is of coarse after you've won the world cup twice, replaced Dumbledore when he decided to retire, and become the minister of magic."
The dog by Heather's chair, to informed eyes, was laughing. Heather looked down at him. "Do you think something is wrong with my planning my god son's future, Sparky?"
The dog nodded. The class had seen stranger things, so nobody was too surprised. "Do you want to sleep outside tonight?"
Harry snorted, and Hermione and Ron started to giggle behind their hands. Only they could know what that actually meant. Sparky, or Sirius, whimpered. "I didn't think so."
She turned her attention to the class. "The place to start would probably be where it starts. I really do hope that you all know where babies come from. I don't want to have to give the birds and the bees talk. It was weird enough getting it from my mother, when I was twelve. It was a little late. Anyway, as we go through this, if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask. Trust me, none of your questions are going to surprise me. When I was twelve, four of my best friends were sixteen-year-old guys. I have heard it all."
It was probably the most Harry had ever learned in one of Heather's classes. When he left, he knew more about the human reproduction system then he ever wanted to know. Ron's ears looked like they would never lose their red color. Today, he walked beside Harry instead of Hermione, who seemed to find this all rather funny.
When Ginny met up with them at dinner, she noticed something was up right away. She turned to Hermione. "What's up with the boys?"
Hermione grinned. "They just have a new found respect for what women go through to bring them into this world."
Ginny grinned. "I'm sure Heather made that a lovely experience. She's rather blunt, no easing into the embarrassing."
The next day, they had Dueling instead of their break, and after that, they had Advanced Defense. Dueling, they had down in a very large room in the basement. Heather was here too, but it appeared Professor McGonagall was going to lead most of this.
"There is a room in this school that was made specifically for the purpose of having a dueling class."
Draco suddenly was snapped to attention. He panicked. That was his room. Had he left anything in there? Something of his father's? That could destroy all his plans.
"However," Professor McGonagall continued, "Professor Dumbledore is most insistent that we do not use this room, for reasons beyond my knowledge."
Draco wanted to sag onto the floor, his knees suddenly felt very week. But then his heart sped again. Why would the old man not want them to use that room? It was certainly big enough, even if they had almost the whole year in here.
'Could he know? Would he allow it if he did? How much does he know? Or does he only think he knows? Maybe he only knows I use it to get away from the dorm, and not what else I use it for. Draco, stop picking it apart. Maybe he thinks there are mice in there. You have no idea what he thinks, just be grateful they won't go in the room.'
Finally comforting himself, Draco turned his attention back to what McGonagall was saying.
"In order to pick out your partners, we want to match you with somebody who has about the same amount of power at this time. To test this, you are going to be constructing the shield spells you have learned in Defense. Some of you older students may have learned it last year with Professor Lupin."
Draco tuned it out for a while again. She was going over the spell, and he knew it. Despite being so very, Gryffindor, Heather was a good teacher.
Before they knew it, all the students where in a line with their wands, starting the shielding spell. This spell required a special stance, but once up, would protect you from the amount of power you were putting into the spell. Id your opponent was stronger, you were protected from your amount of power, but the amount they had more then you still reached you. It would cut a very powerful curse into something that you could live through. It did nothing against physical attacks, only magic.
The downside was that you could not move, or the spell would break. To include somebody else in the spell would make it require more power, and therefore, make it less effective. It also was useless against the killing spells.
This was one spell that Harry did not like. He could do it, easily, but it seemed, wrong somehow.
"Now, put everything you have into this. We can't judge your power unless you use it. You will benefit from an opponent that is a challenge."
Harry set the spell, set the stance, and activated it. He could feel it start, all his power going through the line toward this spell. But this wasn't right either. There was more, it was there. He reached, pushed. Something was blocking him, only letting out a drip instead of the waterfall.
And then it came. Not all of it, but he pushed, and pulled, and the spell's power multiplied. A wave of fatigue washed over him. If he moved, then the spell would break, before they tested it. He kept still. The spell was easy to hold, it was his body that wanted to sag. He didn't move. How much longer?
His eyes flickered around to see if Heather or McGonagall were near. Only then did he notice his shield. It looked, different, then all the others around the room. More solid, stable. He couldn't hold it anymore. Forget embarrassing himself.
Harry sagged to the floor, expecting to feel the spell fade out. But nothing faded. The line that connected him to the spell didn't break, or fade. He tried to stand up again, but stumbled, and fell against something solid.
He placed his hands against it. It was like glass, but even more transparent. The shield was physical. He grinned, though it seemed a lot harder to do then normal. This felt right, not too controlled like the other way did.
He sat down again, and followed the line of power to the spell that was the shield. He felt every inch of it. Carefully, he pushed a little. The part in front of him expanded.
"Mr. Potter, what have you done? This is not the spell I described."
Harry looked up at her. "Yes, Professor, it is. I'm not sure what I did to it." He pushed again, expanding the whole shield, then pulled, bringing it into him.
"Professor Deleve, come here!"
Heather walked over, and looked at Harry. She reached out, and touched the solid shield. "Well bloody hell, Harry, it's a physical shield too. What in Merlin's name did you do?"
"I'm not sure."
"Test it, Professor Deleve," McGonagall instructed.
"Alright, Minnie, give me a second." The students who had already finished their testing crowded around to see. They wanted to know how Harry was sitting down, instead of the odd balance stance they had done.
Heather laid a hand against the shield. Harry could feel it through the magic. Then, he could feel the magic that she did. The spell almost repelled it; almost saw it as an attack. But all it was doing was looking, not attacking. Harry felt it look at the surface, then dig a little to see what was happening.
Heather screamed. The magic that was looking cut of abruptly. Professor McGonagall had to keep Heather from falling. Any students still holding their spells broke it to come see what was going on.
Harry's first instinct was to go to Heather, and before he knew what he was really doing, he created a hole in the shield and ran out of it to her.
"Harry," she said through a deep breath. "How can you stand it?" She steadied herself, but she was shaking.
"What? Heather was is it? What did I do?" He couldn't live with the thought that he had hurt her.
"You, you didn't do anything, its just there was so much power. So much, that it burned to look at. How are you doing that without burning yourself out from the inside? I haven't seen a flow that huge, that complete, since, since I tried, to make a very large mistake."
'Since she tried to kill herself.' But Heather wasn't done yet. "But it wasn't complete. Not all of it was there. It should have been even bigger."
"Mr. Potter," McGonagall started. "Do you think you can do it again, so that I can look. I will be prepared for it, so it shouldn't effect me as much."
"I don't have to do it again, Professor, it's still there."
"But, you are here."
Harry walked over to his shield, and leaned against it. "It's still there, I'm just not inside it."
McGonagall walked up, having to test it herself to believe it. "Can you get back in?" McGonagall's hand suddenly fell though the shield. She jumped back in surprise, but Harry was still leaning against his part of the shield. She reached out, and traced the hole in the shield with her hand.
"How can you do that?"
Harry was actually leaning against the shield because he didn't trust himself to stand. He felt like he could sleep for a week. "I follow the line, and the reach the shield, and mold it how I want."
"You follow the line?" she asked, confused.
"Yes, the line. Everything we do has a magical line that connects it to us. Where is pulls the magic from us. You taught us that."
"Yes, but that is only a theory, a way to explain what's happening. Some have been able to sense these lines, even create some of them without using a wand to start it, but nobody had ever, followed one. Nobody has ever been able to."
"Professor, my wand doesn't start it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the line doesn't travel though my wand. I can feel it, directly from me to the shield."
McGonagall placed her hand on the shield, just like Heather had done. Then Harry felt it again, that searching magic, only looking. It examined the surface with a fine-toothed comb. Then dug to see inside. McGonagall herself sank to her knees, but the magic didn't leave. It looked, and poked gently, at this energy. It sensed that there was more, a huge chunk missing. It reached for that chunk, and hit something. That something flung out. It shoved the looking magic away, pulled the energy back, and clamped shut, stopped letting anything though.
The shield disappeared, and Harry fell down. McGonagall was bent over holding her head. And this is how they looked when Professor Dumbledore arrived with Sally.
When Harry came to, all the students had left the room, and Dumbledore was sitting beside him.
"Professor, what happened?"
Dumbledore smiled at him. "While Professor McGonagall was searching your energy, she hit something that didn't like her. You unconsciously shoved her away."
"Is she okay? Professor?" Harry tried to sit up so he could see McGonagall, but found that he couldn't do it.
"She's fine. Now, Miss. Sally decided that she wanted me to come down here, and who am I to refuse a very pretty lady? So I followed her, and this is what I find. I'm sure you are exhausted, so why don't you go back to your dorm, and skip your next class. That was some spell you cast."
"But how, how did I do it? What did I do?"
"You completed the spell. A spell that has not been completed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. When our powers started to weaken, thousands of years ago, we had to adapt the spell to fit the amount of power we could put into it. You Mr. Potter, had enough power to complete it in its entirety. Now, why don't you go take a little nap, huh? I'm sure Heather will not be too upset that you missed her class."
When Harry was gone, Dumbledore walked over to where Heather was tending McGonagall. "Are you okay, Minnie?"
"I'm fine. What did I hit?"
"His block," Heather said. "I should have figured it out. We thought he might have a block, hiding some of his power. We think he may be learning to reach through it. Today, he pulled through it. As much as he could, like you told them to do. The block still held back as much as it could. When you touched the block, you gave it a magical boost to throw you out, pull back the power it was blocking, and close. Therefore, you end with a slight magical shock of having your power controlled, Harry passes out at the shock of losing that amount of power so fast, and then is exhausted from reaching through the block."
"Well, it seems you have it all laid out for us."
"But what are we going to do? If he keeps reaching through the block, he might break it, and burn himself out from the power."
"We'll have to tell him not to do it anymore," Dumbledore said.
That was when Sally made her presence known. She hissed at Heather, and was clearly not happy.
"What's wrong with her?" McGonagall asked.
Dumbledore stroked his beard, and studied Sally who glared back at him. "I believe," he said after a moment, "that Miss. Sally thought that Heather was on Harry's side, and is rather upset to find out that she is plotting with us."
"Plotting, how can she know what we're doing?" McGonagall scoffed.
"Sal knows English as well as you and I. Sally, I am on Harry's side. I know you know some things about him that you've kept from him for his own good, isn't that right?" Sally nodded reluctantly. "Well, that's all we're doing. We are trying to help him. You have to keep this to yourself. Don't tell Rose, either."
Sally hissed and rolled her eyes, but then nodded, and slid away.
After History and Herboligy the next day, the Dream Team had to split even farther. Ron had Divination, Hermione had Arithmacy, and Harry had his Advanced Charms class.
He walked to the small classroom. The four other students, including Malfoy, were already present. Nobody was seated, they stood against the wall. Harry did the same, and before too long, Dumbledore walked in, and behind him came Heather, Flitwick, and Snape.
Dumbledore smiled at all of them, and leaned against the wall. "Due to schedule problems, sometimes all of us will be in here, sometimes some of us will be missing. This class is not really a class; it's a training coarse. All of you in here have the ability to do great things. That is why you are here. I can only hope that you will use that ability to a good cause."
And that was it. He then launched right into which spell they would be using first. It was a defensive spell. When your enemy attempted to power blast you, this held it back if you were strong enough, and if you were much stronger, shoved it back at your enemy.
"Mr. Malfoy, I would like you to pair with Mr. Unijill. Miss. Guild, please pair with Mr. Jeffen. Mr. Potter, please come here."
As the others paired themselves up, Harry walked up to where all the teachers were. "After that amazing work yesterday, Mr. Potter, we are going to test you. The four of us are going to combine our power, and we would like to see how well you hold up against it."
Harry swallowed. Snape, Flitwick, Heather, and Dumbledore, all against him? He would hardly last a second. But on the other side of the room, Malfoy was ignoring the Ravenclaw seventh year that was his partner. Instead he had his eyes on Harry.
"Mr. Potter, are you ready?"
Harry nodded, spacing his feet in the stance that Dumbledore had showed them. He held his wand with a tip in each hand, the block.
Harry watched as Flitwick, Snape, and Heather prepared a power blast. They threw it at Dumbledore. No, not at him, through him. Then Dumbledore prepared one, and Harry braced himself.
Just as the power, invisible to the eye, came at Harry, he sent his against it. It stopped, but was slowly moving still toward him. Something wasn't right, there wasn't enough there. He had felt it yesterday, and now it wasn't there again. So he reached, and pulled, then pushed. Something stretched, unwillingly but easier this time, and suddenly the blast was moving the other way. This felt familiar. Like at some point, he had already performed this spell, but he had only learned it moments ago.
It was beyond Harry now. The power blast was rushing toward his Professors, and if it hit them it could land them in the hospital for a week, and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't pull it back. His eyes went wide as he tried to stop it, pull it away, but the power blast was still moving.
There was a movement beside Harry, and another energy combined with his, and it pulled. This encouragement made his energy finally change its mind, and the blast moved away from the Professors. He wasn't sure what he was doing, but he stopped the blast, and put it out. He shoved the power down into the ground, where it scattered away harmlessly.
He turned to look at his help, and there stood Draco Malfoy, his composed look gone for the moment. Sweat covered his face, and there was a spot of blood on his lip where he had bit it.
Malfoy looked over at Harry. "That's a way to get yourself expelled Potter, blow up the headmaster and three other Professors."
This jerked Harry's attention from Malfoy to the Professors. "I, I couldn't stop it. Once it was moving, it wouldn't stop." Flitwick was collapsed against the wall. Heather was leaning on Snape, who was breathing hard. Dumbledore's lips were pressed together, but he looked at Harry.
"It is not your fault Harry, we underestimated you. But tell me, when you turned it around, and sent it away from you. What did you do? How did you change it?"
"It, wasn't the same. As yesterday. There wasn't as much energy as I had yesterday. So I, I don't know how to describe it. I knew it was in me, I just wasn't allowed to have it, but I took it anyway. It used to hurt, but now, it doesn't feel right if I don't. It feels like something is missing. But even when I do that, there's still something missing. A lot missing. I won't give it to myself."
Dumbledore nodded. "You are reaching. You say that it doesn't hurt anymore?"
"Yes Professor."
"Are you tired?"
Harry thought about that for a moment. "No, I'm not. Not this time. I was every other time that I did it."
Dumbledore nodded again. "You're body has become adapted to the amount of power that you pull. But Harry, if you pull anymore, it could burn you out. Only do that in emergencies. Understand?"
Harry nodded. Malfoy beside him laughed. "Potter's got a block! Who'd have thought? I bet a lot of people would love to know that."
"What are you talking about Malfoy?"
"Mr. Malfoy," said Snape on the other side of the room. "That will be enough." Malfoy shrugged, his calm collected look now restored.
"That was a very nice save, Mr. Malfoy. We all thank you." Malfoy looked at his feet. He couldn't say anything smart to the headmaster. "You combined power with Harry very well. You two would work well together, if you ever put aside your differences."
"Working together is one thing, Professor," Malfoy said with as much respect as he could muster. "It's finding a common goal that's the problem."
Dumbledore's eyebrows lowered as he stared at Malfoy. But Draco met him eye for eye, refusing to look away. "Twenty points to Slytherin."
Malfoy smirked. "Thank you Professor."
Harry's next class was with Sirius, which didn't really have a name, but in his mind, he called it Death Class. Heather dropped him off at her room. There was a class gathering here, third years, but Harry walked back to the office.
Behind him, the door closed and locked. Harry turned to see Sirius. It was good to see him as Sirius, not Paul or Sparky. "Hey Little Man. They have Heather teaching so many classes, that she has classes at the same time she's supposed to be teaching you. Actually, she isn't teaching you, that's just what everybody thinks."
"I know." Harry sat down. He didn't want to do this.
"I'm sure you did. I'm going to be teaching you the stuff that the school isn't allowed to, Harry. As I'm not really part of the school, nobody gets hurt."
"The killing spells?"
Sirius paused. "What do you know about them Harry?"
"Not much. There's more then one. They are different, and Dark Magic, which means they hurt to use. They are one some of the most powerful spells."
"That is all it's going to say in your text book. There are more then one. There is the regular killing spell. This one will kill anything, anybody, and it is the one that requires the most magical power. Not very many are powerful enough to use it. The other kind is a personalized killing spell. This one will only kill one person, and is harmless to everybody else. It takes less power, but is less effective. For if someone where to jump in front of this spell it would not kill anybody."
"Which one was used on me?"
"We don't really know. I could have been either. Nobody's sure what really happened that night." Harry nodded. It didn't really matter all that much.
"Now, it's a spell, not a charm. Which means it requires more then just the words. Now Harry, you're smart. What do you think it requires?"
Harry thought for a moment. "I, I guess you would really have to want to kill them. If you don't, then you're heart isn't in it, and it wouldn't work right."
"Correct. In a spell this powerful, the magic follows what you want, follows you. If you don't really want to do something, the magic isn't going to do it. In the personalized killing spell, you also need to be thinking of the person. There's also the way you have to hold the wand, and the word."
"What's the word, Sirius?"
"Axynovit."
"Axynovit," Harry tested the word, and it left a horrible taste in his mouth. He shuddered. "Sirius, I don't like this."
Sirius placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "That's all we're learning on that subject for now. We're going to go look at some of the spells Voldemort's followers use."
Harry's Advanced Transfiguration and Advanced Charms classes proved to be no more then exactly what the title said. The same class that he normally took, only with a lot more work and a lot more homework.
As time passed, five more children disappeared. Three from the school, first or second years. The entire student body was tense, even worse then the year of the Basilisk
Harry had so much work to do that his days were beginning to become a blur. Wake, work to you fall over, and then sleep. He hadn't arranged to go hunting for the lion statue with Ginny again since the first night. But this time, it wasn't that he didn't want to, it was that he had no time.
In Sirius' class he was learning some of the most common Dark Magic spells. Not only learning what they were, but also learning how to do them. When he asked Sirius if this was right, he replied; "They are called Dark because it causes the user pain. They are not evil unless they are used so. If one man shoots another out of hate, he is evil. If one man shoots another to protect his wife and children, is he still evil? It's the same reasoning."
"Sirius, using these spells makes me want to hurl. What are the killing spells going to do to me? I know you're going to teach them to me, even if you are avoiding it."
Sirius smiled at him slightly, and then frowned again. "The killing spells are nasty Harry. The pain that accompanies them is not always pain, but rather awareness. You feel the victim die. Feel the life, and magic, drain out of them."
Harry stared at his Godfather for a minute, then shuddered. "When?"
"During Easter."
"That's only a few weeks away."