Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I am writing this fanfiction for my own amusement and make no profit, all recognizable characters in this story are the property of J.K Rowling, Scholastic, Warner Brothers, etc.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts, 1/17/1996, 18:28
Harry was the first one in the room today which was unusual as Tonks seemed to always beat him here for their evening training sessions.
The last few days had been eventful in the wider world though at Hogwarts not so much. The attacks on muggleborns families had become more frequent yielding shocking headlines with every new edition of the Daily Prophet. To make matters worse, the ministry was still in chaos from the events of last week and it was clear the aurors had no clue how to deal with these constant attacks.
Runcorn had been called back to the ministry and the ministry decrees had been repealed at Hogwarts but that was about the only exciting thing that had happened. The teachers were trying their best to keep things as normal as possible though in Harry's opinion that was a losing battle with the Daily Prophet bringing more bad tidings every morning.
Today Harry was hoping to convince Tonks into teaching him something that could help him carry out some of his larger plans.
At the moment, he was restricted to broom travel which would complicate things if it took him hours to fly to his target's homes. There was also the Knight Bus but that wouldn't be very useful either since he couldn't very well use it to drop him off where he wanted to go.
He needed to learn to apparate and he prayed that Tonks would be agreeable to teaching him.
Harry had been reading the papers and it seemed like every other day there was an attack somewhere with innocent people getting killed. The fantasy he had a few weeks ago about attacking death eaters himself was starting to seem more like a viable option as the days went by. The ministry was still in chaos from the assassination of Fudge and the aurors were doing little more than processing the crime scenes after the attacks. The order was doing even less and from the tidbits he had gotten from Tonks, Harry knew that they were just gathering information and not acting on any of it.
"You're early," Tonks said pulling him from his thoughts.
He turned in time to see her step into the room still looking like Wendy McDonald.
"I wanted to ask you for a favour," Harry said as he looked her in the eye.
"I wanted you to teach me something," Harry said feeling a bit nervous.
"What?" Tonks asked, shooting him a curious look.
"I want to learn how to apparate," Harry said as he shrugged off his outer robes.
"Alright, what do I get out of it?" Tonks asked shrewdly.
"What do you want?" Harry asked feeling a bit taken aback by the question.
"Take me to muggle London so we can see a movie and get some fried chicken," Tonks said a smirk playing on her lips.
"Alright," Harry agreed at once feeling relieved she wanted something simple.
"Then we have a deal," Tonks beamed.
"When do you want to go?" Harry asked kind of liking the idea of a trip to Muggle London.
"I'll let you know, just know that you owe me," Tonks shrugged as she transformed her features into her usual pink-haired appearance.
"I owe you, so can you teach me how to apparate already?" Harry asked somewhat impatiently.
"Yeah, keep your shirt on," Tonks chuckled as she came to stand in front of him.
"Sorry, I just really want to learn this," Harry said somewhat sheepishly.
"I guess the first thing you have to know about apparition is that willpower is key. You have to really want to appear somewhere else and you have to want to appear there intact," Tonks explained.
"Intact?" Harry asked.
"You've heard of splinching, haven't you?" Tonks asked before she disappeared with a soft 'pop.'
"Yeah that's where someone leaves a part of themselves behind... oh," Harry said in realisation as he heard a 'pop' behind him and felt a wand pressing into his back.
"Apparition does have applications in combat but if you get distracted, it could get you killed," Tonks whispered into his ear.
"Like if you apparate out of the path of a spell and leave your leg behind," Harry nodded.
"But if used correctly You can use it to surprise your enemy," Tonks said softly, her breath tickling the back of his neck.
"Yeah, y-you definitely got the drop on me," Harry agreed feeling a bit flustered.
"Alright, we'll start simple. I want you to try and apparate into that hoop in front of you," Tonks said as she came to stand beside him.
"Just like that?" Harry asked as a wooden hoop appeared on the floor about five feet away from him.
"That's how ole Wilkie Twycross does it. Just be thankful I'm not going over the three D's," Tonks chuckled.
"What are the three D's?" Harry asked warily.
"Destination, determination, and deliberation and it's a bunch of bullocks in my opinion," Tonks explained as she picked at a piece of lint on her tie.
"So how do I do it then?" Harry said, shooting her an exasperated look.
"Just imagine yourself inside that hoop and will your magic to take you there," Tonks explained with a shrug.
"Alright," Harry said as he concentrated on the hoop in front of him.
"Good, now when you're ready I want you to spin your body it doesn't matter which way and will your magic to take you there," Tonks instructed.
Harry focused all of his energy on taking him to the hoop and spun hard to his left only to topple to the floor when he overbalanced.
"Getting it to happen the first time can be a pain but once you get it once then it gets much easier," Tonks said as Harry was getting back to his feet.
"You certainly make it look easy," Harry snorted.
"We had to learn precision apparition in the academy. We spent weeks practising apparating as a team and apparating during a battle. I got to where I can apparate in my sleep," Tonks chuckled as Harry got back into position.
"Oh," Harry said thinking about all of the other possibilities apparition could offer that he hadn't considered.
"Go ahead and try again," Tonks said gesturing for him to make another attempt.
Nodding Harry took a deep breath and focused on the feeling of his magic before turning on the spot... nothing.
"We'll keep trying for the next half hour before we start you on accuracy drills," Tonks said as he prepared to try again.
"But what if I don't get it?" Harry asked.
"I was planning on teaching you this anyway, so we'll keep at it until you get this down," Tonks assured him, giving him a smug smile.
"And you tricked me into getting you a bucket of chicken," Harry accused.
"And a movie. Now quit your bitchin'. I'll pick a movie that we'll both like," Tonks promised.
"Fine, I haven't been to muggle London since Hannah and I went on a date last October," Harry admitted feeling the familiar pang in his stomach when he thought about her.
"I bet she made you watch a chick flick," Tonks said, giving him a look of surprise as he hardly ever talked about Hannah unless she brought it up first
"She did, it was awful but Hannah loved the movie," Harry said with a sad smile.
"I think we'll see an action flick," Tonks said thoughtfully.
"That works for me," Harry agreed, glad Tonks hadn't pressed him to talk about his date.
"Good, now try it again. We really do have to hurry," Tonks said, giving him an expectant look.
Harry got back into position and tried his best to focus on apparating into the hoop.
Harry spun on the spot and this time he felt a sort of pressure in his chest but nothing happened other than him spinning clumsily around.
"I felt something that time," Harry muttered.
"Good, I think we'll call it a day on the apparition.," Tonks said after checking her watch.
Harry watched the room take on the wack-a-mole configuration and prepared himself for accuracy drills.
"Alright today we're going for speed," Tonks explained.
"So they're going to move faster than usual?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yep, you will only have two seconds to hit the dummies before the next one pops up.
"Okay," Harry shrugged as he drew his wand.
"On your mark, get set, go," Tonks said grandly as the first dummy popped out of a hole about twenty feet away.
Harry was taken aback at how fast these dummies sprang out of the holes in the floor. He was forced to track his target and cast in one fluid motion and barely had time to cast a spell before the dummy disappeared.
Harry missed on the first few dummies but after a while, he began to hit the dummies in non-vital areas as his spells caught them before they vanished into the floor.
"Hit them in the chest or the head, Potter. A shoulder shot doesn't count," Tonks called out as he grazed another dummy in the shoulder.
"Right," Harry grunted as he saw a dummy pop up twenty feet away.
The problem he was having was that he was aiming for the dummy's chest but by the time his spell reached the target, the dummy had already begun sinking into the floor.
It took him a few tries but eventually, Harry figured out that if he aimed for the stomach area, the spell had time to make it to the dummy's chest before it sank into the floor.
"Better," Tonks nodded approvingly as he began to hit the targets more consistently.
The rest of the evening passed like this with him slowly getting the hang of this speed drill. By the time Tonks called it a night, Harry was hitting every target that popped up.
"Alright, that's the warning bell. You got this quicker than I expected," Tonks beamed as she tossed him a bottle of water.
"I don't see how this helps," Harry admitted as he caught the bottle.
"It will help you learn to hit moving targets or targets popping up from a covered position," Tonks shrugged.
"So when are you going to teach me some good spells?" Harry asked hopefully.
"You already know the ones in my auror textbook, don't you?" Tonks asked as she transformed her features into the familiar face of Wendy McDonald.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, pulling on his outer robes.
"My instructor told us that those are the only spells you need to win a fight. The trick is to be a better fighter than your opponent not memorize more spells," Tonks chuckled.
"But-
"But that instructor was a moron. When I was sent to train with Mad-Eye he pretty much told me that you could never know too many spells and to not limit myself to the textbook," Tonks continued, cutting Harry's protests off.
"Oh," Harry said agreeing with Mad-Eye Moody on this one.
"I will show you a real nasty hex tomorrow, it's called the fulminis hex," Tonks said as she hooked her arm through his and led him out into the corridor.
"What does it do?" Harry asked his curiosity peaked.
"It sends a blue bolt of electricity at your enemy," Tonks smirked.
"That could be useful, like a magical taser or something," Harry said thoughtfully.
"It causes nasty burns, the arc of electricity burns any part of the body it touches," Tonks corrected.
"Oh, so this is a big spell," Harry nodded.
"It is, it's also draining as hell," Tonks admitted as they stepped onto the main corridor.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, the hall was deserted tonight minus a few paintings that watched them pass and they made it to the staircase in no time at all.
"So what movie are we going to see?" Harry asked as he looked over at Tonks.
"No idea, I don't even know what's playing" Tonks shrugged as they came to a stop at the top of the stairs.
"I guess I'll see you in the morning," Harry said after checking his watch.
"Yeah, don't be late otherwise I'll make to practice the pin I'm going to teach with Granger," Tonks threatened.
"I won't be. Good night, Wendy," Harry said before he pulled her in for a quick hug.
"G-good night, Harry," Tonks mumbled before she darted down the stairs, seeming a bit flustered.
Harry waited until she disappeared down the stairs before he made his way to the common room.
Harry knew that he would be focusing all of his energy on learning to apparate. Being able to go wherever he liked was the first step then he would have to find a way to beat the damn trace or at the very least, work around it.
Harry gave the Fat Lady the password and stepped into the common room before making a beeline for his dorm. He decided to turn in early for a change, darting up the stairs before Ron and Hermione spotted him..
After getting a quick shower, Harry crawled into his four-poster bed and pulled the Marauder's map out from under his pillow. Whispering the passphrase, Harry watched lines appear on the blank piece of parchment as the map began to form before his eyes.
Harry quickly searched for Malfoy's dot on the map surprised when he couldn't find him in the Slytherin common room. He finally saw Malfoy's dot walking along the fourth-floor hall next to Megan Jones who had been made the new Hufflepuff prefect.
Harry instantly noticed that no teachers were shadowing him on his prefect patrol. The only people on that entire floor were Malfoy and Megan Jones.
"Son of a bitch!" Harry exclaimed as he realized how he could get at Malfoy.
Harry stayed up for hours watching Malfoy's dot on the map. He took careful note of Malfoy's route back to the Slytherin common room and what time the seventh-year prefects took over. This would take a bit of planning but he was pretty sure he could work with this. Now he just had to get the prefect's schedule from Hermione and he could finally catch the ferret alone.
Harry watched Malfoy's dot enter the Slytherin common room and decided it was time he got some sleep. He had stayed up much later than he had planned. His dormmates had gone to bed an hour ago and were already asleep if the loud snoring from Ron's bed was anything to go by.
'Soon,' Harry thought to himself as he cleared the map and tucked it under his pillow before rolling onto his side.
As he ran through his occlumency exercises he couldn't help but smile as he slowly drifted into a peaceful sleep.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts, 1/20/1996, 12:28
Harry was feeling in a particularly good mood today. Yesterday evening he had successfully apparated into his hoop for the first time. He was surprised to learn that Tonks wasn't lying all of those months ago, apparition wasn't nearly as uncomfortable when he was the one controlling it.
Tonks had already informed him that over the next few days they would be focusing on perfecting apparition so that he could do it with little to no preparation.
Currently, Harry was walking towards the room of requirements. Today was their first weekend D.A meeting since Umbridge had been arrested. Now that the educational decrees had been repealed, they could go back to weekend meetings again without having to worry about being discovered.
Harry was surprised that so many wished to return to the D.A now that they were getting proper defence against the dark arts lessons.
The students were shocked when they arrived in defence against the dark arts class last Monday and found the headmaster waiting for them. Due to Runcorn leaving on such short notice, the headmaster had not had the time to hire another instructor yet and had opted to teach the class himself. Apparently, Dumbledore had taught the defence class back in the twenties before he transferred to the Transfiguration department.
Harry couldn't complain about the lessons with Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster was a very good teacher and there was no doubt he was qualified to teach the course.
To be honest, some of Dumbledore's methods reminded him of Remus' style of teaching. Dumbledore began each class by bringing up the topic of the day and asking for the basic information about the subject or spell they would cover from the students. He did not lecture the class preferring to engage the class in a sort of open discussion instead. This made things feel so much more relaxed and Harry had considered borrowing that method himself.
After the class understood the theory of the new spell, Dumbledore would ask them to practice the spell on training dummies while he moved around the room helping the students improve their technique.
Quite a few members had already opted to leave the D.A now that they had a proper defence teacher again. Most of the other house quidditch teams had dropped the D.A, both Harry and Ron were thrilled at this because it meant they didn't have to deal with Zacharias Smith any longer. The D.A had also lost all but the Greengrass sisters from Slytherin much to Ron's delight. Quite a few of the Ravenclaws had decided to not return so they could focus on studying for their other O.W.Ls. Then there was Marietta Edgecombe, who Harry was pretty sure had only joined the D.A because Cho Chang had.
All in all, they had a little over twenty members now which was a much more manageable number as far as he was concerned.
Harry entered the room to find most of the members assembled and waiting on him to arrive.
"Ah good you're right on time," Hermione beamed.
"Yeah, I would make a pretty bad teacher if I didn't show up to teach," Harry snorted, noticing that the Gryffindor quidditch team was missing today.
"Angelina said to apologise but a spot opened up on the quidditch pitch and she wanted to practice for the Hufflepuff match," Hermione explained.
"It's fine with me we're just doing the reducto spell today," Harry shrugged as he took off his outer robes.
"No more dodging?" Daphne asked hopefully.
"No today we're going to review the reducto and focus on putting as much power into it as possible. It really is useful as a defence. I used it last summer when my house was under attack," Harry admitted.
"Auntie said you were the one who really killed Dolohov," Susan said getting the attention of the rest of the class.
"I did, I tackled him out of a two-story window and broke his neck," Harry admitted, feeling a bit uncomfortable by the awed looks he was getting from the other D.A members.
"He was one of the death eaters that attacked my Uncle Edgar and his family," Susan said, giving Harry a grateful smile.
"I didn't know that," Harry said realizing why Susan was probably trained so thoroughly in defence.
"I don't like to talk about it, they died when I was a baby," Susan shrugged.
"Trust me Bones, I get it," Harry said, knowing exactly how she felt.
"The reducto, Harry," Hermione cut in.
"Right, today we're going to focus on the reducto again. Specifically, I want you to try and put some power into each spell," Harry said, giving Hermione a grateful nod.
"You want us to blow some shit up?" Dean asked looking like he liked the idea.
"Yeah mate, that's the idea," Harry chuckled.
"That's my speciality," Seamus chuckled.
"Everybody pick a training dummy and start hitting them as hard as you can," Harry instructed.
"If you start to feel dizzy take a seat and give your core a break," Harry warned, giving Astoria Greengrass a pointed look.
Harry stood back and watched the others make their way into the duelling portion of the room. The room had expanded so there was about five feet between the dummies that were lined up along one wall of the training room.
Aren't you worried that their spells will damage the room?" Hermione asked nervously as Neville's reducto vaporized his dummy and blasted a crater into the wall behind it.
"No, the magic of the room will fix any damage they cause," Harry said as the stone wall repaired itself before their eyes.
"Hermione, I need a favour," Harry said as he watched Astoria's reducto cut her dummy in half sending its wooden torso flying across the room.
"What is it?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"I need a copy of the prefect's patrol schedule," Harry said casually.
"Why?" Hermione sighed.
"I need to do some research after hours and I don't want Malfoy or Parkinson getting an excuse to give me a month's worth of detention," Harry lied.
"I can't give you the schedule all I can tell you is you shouldn't go out on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday that's when the fifth-year Slytherins or on patrol," Hermione said, giving him a meaningful look.
"Thanks," Harry smiled as glanced over to see that Seamus had somehow managed to set his dummy on fire with a reducto spell.
The rest of the lesson went on like this and his students seemed to enjoy destroying the training dummies.
When Harry called time, he noticed a table with vials of pepper-up potion on it had appeared by the door.
"You all did really well, if you are feeling particularly tired there are doses of pepper-up potion on the table help yourself. Since there are no Weasleys here, the only one that will look like they're on fire is Susan," Harry chuckled.
"She is on fire, mate," Seamus beamed as he wrapped his arm around Susan's waist.
"Thanks, Lucky," Susan chuckled as she led the Seamus over to the table of potions.
"That was fun but it takes a lot out of you," Daphne commented to her sister who looked to be feeling a bit dizzy.
"That exercise should strengthen your core," Harry explained as the Greengrass sisters passed him.
"I think I may start doing that more often then," Astoria said thoughtfully.
"Just don't push yourself too hard," Harry warned.
"She won't," Daphne said, giving her sister a pointed look.
Harry waited until it was just him and Hermione in the room before turning to her.
"Care to give it a go?" Harry asked.
"Alright but you can do it with me," Hermione said as she unbuttoned her outer robes.
"Fine but I can't wear myself out, I have to train this evening," Harry said as they approached the training section of the room.
Harry enjoyed the next half hour as he and Hermione unleashed reducto spells on the defenceless dummies, turning them into powder with every spell they cast.
As he cast the spell over and over he began formulating a plan for next Sunday evening. He would have to scout the area beforehand and set up the wards but it should work.
Harry felt giddy at the thought he might finally get some answers about Hannah.
'Soon, Malfoy we'll have our time,' Harry thought to himself, not paying attention to how much Harder his spells were striking the dummies since his thoughts had drifted to his plans for revenge.
Dungeons, Hogwarts, 1/28/1995, 23:58
Harry was leaning against the wall in a dimly lit corridor not too far from the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He had been here since the start of curfew waiting for Draco to return from his prefect patrols.
It really was a sad state of affairs that he was forced to stoop to the methods of a criminal to get justice for Hannah. It seemed that no one was doing anything and he wasn't about to let the people responsible for her death get away with it. Dumbledore was already on Harry's shit list for making Malfoy's safety such a priority that he had to plan this meeting out so thoroughly.
Since he had discovered a way to get Malfoy alone he had been studying the dungeon corridors in his spare time to pick out the perfect spot based on the route he had observed Malfoy using to come back in the evening.
He had also been reading up on a silencing spell to ensure they had privacy tonight as well as a spell to erase his magical signature. This second spell had required an after-hours trip to the restricted section under his invisibility cloak but he had managed to find it easily enough.
Harry watched the two dots on the map moving towards two other dots in the entrance hall. It was about time for the seventh-year prefects to take over for the fifth years. Tonight Draco was paired with Padma Patil making what was about to happen that much easier since Harry didn't have to worry about Parkinson getting in the way.
Harry watched the map as the dot labelled Draco Malfoy began heading down the stairs leading to the dungeons. Harry readied himself as he heard the footsteps echoing down the stone corridor and watched as the blond-haired boy came into view.
Taking a deep breath, Harry watched Malfoy getting closer completely oblivious to the silencing spell he had just stepped through.
Harry waited until Draco was almost next to him before he let the cloak slide to the floor and moved in.
In one fluid motion, Harry stepped forward and wapped his arm right arm around Draco's left shoulder and shifted Malfoy's body weight over his right leg, at the same time, Harry kicked Draco's right calf with the heel of his boot dropping him to the dungeon floor.
Malfoy was caught completely by surprise and before he could process what was happening, he was slammed onto the stone floor crakng the back of his head in the process.
Harry had took the opportunity to draw his wand while Malfoy was still trying to figure out what was happening.
"Owwwwww, what the hell!" Malfoy groand as he looked dazedly up at his attacker, who's wand was aimed at Malfoy's chest.
"Go ahead and scream your lungs out Draco. I covered this entire corridor in silencing wards," Harry said, looking down at the dazed boy, his eyes glowing a faint green in the dimly lit corridor.
"P-Potter," Draco gasped out a note of panic in his voice as his eyes darted around looking for a possible escape.
"Ah, so you remember my name. Do you remember what I said would happen if Hannah got hurt?" Harry asked coldly.
"I-I was trying to warn you!" Draco screeched.
"You're aunt told Lord Abbott that you informed Voldemort of her association with me," Harry said as he looked into Draco's fear-filled eyes.
"She's been teaching me occlumency. She's seen all of my memories," Draco panted out.
"I wish I could believe you," Harry said as he drew his wand making Malfoy crawl backwards away from him.
"I promise you, Potter, I didn't willingly tell her anything," Draco exclaimed his eyes widening in terror.
"And that incident on the train?"Harry asked as he tracked Malfoy with his wand tip.
"Mother sent me a letter, she said the Abbotts were going to be targeted, and that I should pass along a warning as discreetly as possible," Draco answered sounding borderline hysterical.
"Then why not just fucking tell me that?!" Harry roared, green sparks shooting out of his wand and singing Malfoy's robes.
"Weren't you listening, my aunt is teaching me occlumency," Draco stammered out.
Harry understood what Draco was trying to say, if Bellatrix was teaching him occlumency then she would have seen his memories. So if Draco were to come out and tell Harry the death eaters' plans for the Abbotts, then he would no doubt suffer for that. Whether Harry believed him was another matter entirely but the logical part of his brain knew this was a likely possibility. Still, there was no way in hell he was going to take Malfoy's word on this.
"Very well, I will give you two choices," Harry said after pondering his options.
"Giving me options?" Draco asked incredulously.
"You can swear an oath that you were not involved in the attack on the Abbotts and then you can help me get your aunt," Harry said his eyes boring into Malfoy's.
"W-what's the other option?" Draco demanded looking more panicked than he was a minute ago.
"The other option is that I can go with my original plan for you," Harry said in a cold voice, a viscous grin starting to play on his lips making Malfoy involuntarily shudder.
"W-what did you plan f-for me?" Draco stammered.
"I can't kill you directly, that would point probing fingers in my direction. So you would have an... accident," Harry said conversationally.
"I'll swear the oath," Draco exclaimed.
Malfoy was pale as a ghost now, his forehead was starting to gleam in the flickering light from the torches as beads of sweat ran down his brow. It was obvious he was terrified but of what Harry couldn't be sure.
"And your aunt?" Harry pressed.
"I can arrange a meeting but you have to know that you aren't a match for her," Draco said, looking up at Harry like he'd lost his mind.
"You let me worry about that. Now let's have that oath and be very specific about your lack of involvement in the attack on the Abbotts," Harry said keeping his wand trained on Malfoy.
"Alright but I have to get up to get to my wand," Draco said nervously
"Go ahead but move slowly," Harry warned as he stepped back to allow Malfoy to stand up.
Harry watched Malfoy stumble to his feet, slowly he drew his wand from a holster on the small of his back. With his wand clutched in his hand, he placed his wand over the left side of his chest.
"I Draco Malfoy do hereby swear on my life and magic that I...
As Malfoy trailed off, Harry knew something was about to happen but he wasn't expecting Malfoy to do what he did next.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Draco exclaimed, bellowing the incantation for the killing curse and directing his wand at Harry's chest.
Malfoy had moved much faster than Harry expected but he was still able to avoid the killing curse easily, the green spell striking the stone wall behind him and sending chunks of stone flying like shrapnel and cutting into his back.
Harry didn't hesitate and sent a trio of bone-breakers at the blond boy. Malfoy barely managed to conjure a shield but it wasn't strong enough to hold back Harry's spells and popped after the second bone-breaker struck it.
Draco barely avoided catching a spell to the shoulder and glared at Harry murderously.
"You weren't supposed to ask for me an oath," Draco sneered as they stared at each other, neither casting a spell.
"Malfoy, I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of your mouth without an oath to back it up," Harry snorted before sending three nonverbal piercing hexes at Malfoy's chest.
"I was involved Potter, I gave Auntie Bella the idea to attack the Abbotts. I wanted to watch the memory of them playing with her, it was going to be my Christmas present," Draco taunted, barely avoiding the decapitation curse Harry sent his way.
"Then I guess I'm just going to have to kill you and then find your aunt on my own," Harry growled, using his occlumency to keep himself calm and not let his anger overwhelm him.
"You're assuming that you can beat me, I have been trained by Bellatrix LeStrange, Potter," Draco smirked before bellowing, "CRUCIO!"
Harry lazily avoided the torture spell and began chaining piercing hexes at Malfoy who was forced to cast a protego as the blue jets of light filled his vision. Every spell that struck the shield caused a loud 'BOOM' followed by a bright flash of light that lit the corridor like a camera flash.
"You talk too much, Malfoy," Harry snorted as he continued to cast nonverbal piercing hexes at Malfoy's shield, pleased to see the look of panic on Malfoy's face.
Malfoy's eyes bulged in alarm as a particularly powerful piercing hex slammed into his shield with tremendous force. Cracks were starting to appear on the surface of Malfoy's shield as the barrage of spells was quickly overpowering it.
Harry watched in satisfaction as the eighth piercing hex shattered Malfoys shield and Malfoy was forced to dive to the floor as the ninth spell hit the wall where Malfoy had been standing with a deafening 'BOOM!'
Harry shielded his eyes as a cloud of stone dust obscured his view, his ears ringing from the sound blast.
Harry lazily waved his wand, casting a spell to clear the dust and saw Draco trying to scramble to his feet. Harry sent another piercing hex as Malfoy raised his wand again.
Malfoy jumped out of the path of the spell and waved his wand wildly in Harry's direction, " AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Harry avoided Malfoy's second killing curse with little effort and cast a chain of bone-breakers back at his opponent.
Malfoy tried to avoid the incoming curses, he managed to avoid the first spell that was aimed at his chest and dove to the floor to miss the second spell aimed at his pelvis.
Unfortunately for Malfoy, when he dove to avoid the second spell he inadvertently jumped right into the path of the third spell that was aimed at his knee.
The bone-breaker hex caught Malfoy square in the back of the neck, causing a sickening 'crack' to echo down the hallway before he hit the stone floor with a muffled 'thump'.
Harry watched in shock as Draco's lifeless body hit the dungeon floor, his sightless grey eyes staring into Harry's own. Harry felt sick to his stomach at the realization that he'd really done it. He had been thinking about it for weeks but it never prepared him for this.
Harry stood there staring at Malfoy's body as he tried to get a handle on the situation. With a bit of assistance from his occlumency, he calmed himself down and began to think about what he was going to do now. He had never planned to outright kill Malfoy he had thought about it but he did not want to be accused of the other boy's murder. Now he needed to start covering his tracks, he had to remove any clues that he was involved and he needed to find a way to cast the suspicion in another direction. It was as he was looking at Malfoy's green and silver tie that he had an epiphany.
Leaning down, Harry pried Malfoy's wand from his lifeless hand and began using it to cast the spell to remove his magical signature from the corridor.
It took him almost an hour before all traces of the fight here were removed from the corridor the craters from the killing curse were particularly difficult to repair. Once he had fixed the corridor Harry had to remove the silencing wards on either end of the corridor and erase his signature there as well.
Coming to stand over Malfoy again, Harry took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he went about levitating Malfoy's body down the hall towards the Slytherin common room.
When he came to the stretch of wall that led into the Slytherin common room, Harry pulled the map out of his pocket and read the word written in the thought bubble that appeared over the dot labelled Harry Potter.
"Resurrection," Harry read in s soft voice before throwing the cloak over himself and casting a disillusionment charm over Malfoy's corpse as the portal into the Slytherin common room opened.
Harry guided the body into the common room taking care to not make a sound as he scanned the empty room.
Harry knew it would cast blame in the other direction if they found Malfoy in the Slytherin common room. He couldn't afford to be under the microscope as it would interfere with his bigger plans so this should keep the attention off of him.
The Slytherin common room was a large low ceilinged room with only one set of stairs leading down from the main room. The lake was over the common room so it made sense that the dorms were even deeper underground. He had assumed that the boys' and girls' dorms were separated like in Gryffindor but apparently, he was wrong.
Levitating Malfoy down a steep set of stairs, Harry found himself in a long corridor lined with doors on either side. Each door had a nameplate affixed to it and it seemed that the Slytherins got their own dorm
"Lucky bastards," Harry muttered as he began moving Malfoy's body down the corridor.
As he walked and read the names on the doors he noticed that the girls' dorms were on the right-hand side of the corridor and the boys' dorms were on the left. The corridor itself was incredibly long and winding, reminding him of the serpentine motion a snake made.
The names seemed to be in alphabetical order because he didn't find Malfoy's room until he had walked quite a ways down the corridor.
Harry tapped Malfoy's wand to his door and was rewarded with a soft 'click' as the door unlocked. Levitating Malfoy into the room, he guided Malfoy onto his bed and let him drop.
Looking around the room a bit Harry noticed that the room was half the size of the Gryffindor boys' dorm. There was a highbacked leather armchair and an end table by the fire. The Slytherin crest was painstakingly etched into the wall over the mantle and there was an ornate rug covering the stone floor, a door directly across from the door he had entered led into an ensuite. There was a large wardrobe to the left side of the bed. All of the furniture seemed to be made from the same wood. There was a large four-poster bed with emerald green drapes and an end table on the right-hand side. It was pretty clear that Slytherin had much better accommodations than Gryffindor.
Harry saw something that caught his eye when he was looking at the bedside table, there was a journal lying next to an old-fashioned alarm clock. This wouldn't have been unusual if there wasn't a name engraved on the cover in striking gold-leaf lettering.
Bellatrix Druella Black
Harry moved without thinking and scooped the book off the nightstand and moved to stand by the small fireplace that was casting the room in a flickering orange glow.
Harry opened the book to find page after page of conversation written in three different handwritings. Reading through them, he felt his blood boil.
5 September,
Auntie,
Potter has made a new friend, she is a Hufflepuff name, Wendy McDonald. I believe he may be courting her.
D.M
10 September,
Dragon,
We have found no records of this girl anywhere, we believe she may be a ministry spy. Do not approach her.
N.M
19 September,
Mother,
Someone attacked the new defence professor and tried to frame Pansy. I believe Potter is behind this but I cannot prove it.
D.M
22 September,
Auntie,
Potter has begun courting the Abbott girl, pass this along to the dark lord as she would be a perfect way to make him suffer.
D.M
24 September,
Nephew,
I have passed the information on to our master and he believes you may be onto something. Keep watch on Potter and report anything you see.
Bx
Harry was seething as he read the moment that Malfoy had got the wheels for the attack in motion. He kept skimming the pages, most of October was filled with entries of Malfoy asking to be sent things. There wasn't much of note for November either besides Malfoy crowing about the attack on Halloween.
It was when he reached the first week of December that he found more useful information.
December 9,
Auntie,
I have been following Potter and his cohorts and I believe they are starting a group of their own. I do not know the purpose of this group but the Greengrass sisters are involved, perhaps they should be taught a lesson.
D.M
December 17
Dragon,
Give Potter a warning about the Abbotts, this will give you a way to gain his trust in the future. It may be necessary for him to believe that you were trying to help her and you could get closer to him.
N.M
December 18
Mother,
Potter struck me! That filthy half-blood had the audacity to strike me! I warned him of the attack and he hit me!
D.M
December 18
Nephew,
His half-blood whore will pay for his impudence, Auntie Bella will have her minions play with the little Abbott girl. When you get home Auntie Bells promises to make her little Draco feel all better.
Bx
January 8
Auntie,
The Bones, attack the Bones, their filthy daughter attacked me!
D.M
January 29
Dragon,
The Bones' will fall tomorrow, we will make them pay for harming my baby!
N.M
Harry closed the book and pocketed it trying to process everything he'd read. It seemed that Draco had been far more involved than he had first thought. If the last entry were true then he may be able to use this to save Susan's parents. Harry took a minute to compose himself before he turned to look at the body laying on the bed.
"You got off easy, Malfoy," Harry growled as he pulled the boy's wand from his robe pocket.
He knew that he'd been here long enough. Checking his watch, Harry noted that it was almost two o'clock and he had training in three hours.
Nodding to himself, Harry used Draco's wand to remove the disillusionment charm from Draco's body before casting the spell to erase his magical signature from the body.
Using his robes, Harry wiped away his fingerprints from Malfoy's wand before he dropped it on the bed. Harry did the same with the door knob before draping his invisibility cloak over himself and slipping out of the dorm, hearing the door click shut behind him.
Harry slipped through the Slytherin common room with ease and was soon sneaking his way down the dungeon corridor.
He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he crawled into his bed twenty minutes later, already dreading his morning training.
'One down, one more to go,' Harry thought as he drifted into a restless sleep.
Great Hall, Hogwarts, 1/29/1996, 08:28
Harry was running late this morning and rushed into the great hall, right off the bat he noticed that something was wrong. The Slytherin table was completely empty and Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall were absent from the head table as well.
Harry hadn't slept well last night, and he was still feeling a little jittery from his confrontation with Malfoy.
When he had killed Dolohov last summer it hadn't registered at the time because he was barely able to think through his injuries. Last night had been a different story, he had watched the life leave Malfoy's eyes and it had stayed with him in his dreams.
Harry had no regrets about killing him but it was not as easy as he thought it would be to kill someone.
"You look like shit, mate," Ron said as Harry took a seat beside him.
"Nightmares, mate," Harry shrugged as he fixed himself a light breakfast.
"Oh," Ron said sounding a bit wrongfooted.
"So what's up this morning?" Harry asked changing the subject.
"A whole team of aurors showed up half an hour ago and Snape led them to the dungeons," Hermione said, giving Harry a worried look.
"Huh, maybe the Slytherins offed each other," Harry said sounding hopeful.
"I just hope Daphne and her sister weren't hurt," Hermione said sounding anxious.
"I'm sure everything is fine," Harry said, feigning a look of worry.
"I hope so too, Daphne is the second best-looking girl in the D.A," Ron said after looking to make sure Lavender wasn't within earshot.
"Thank you, Ronald," Hermione said, giving him a wide smile.
"I was talking about Lavender, not you," Ron snorted.
"Hm, I guess we can agree to disagree on that," Hermione shrugged.
"So what are we doing for the D.A this weekend?" Harry asked before Ron could say something to upset her.
"You are going to be teaching the fundamentals of dodging," Hermione said between bites of her porridge.
"I don't like where this is going," Harry said as he noticed the smirk playing on her lips.
"Well a demonstration is required and I am looking forward to shooting spells at you," Hermione admitted.
"I disagree, I think you should show how to properly dodge spells," Harry countered.
"Disagree all you like, you made me the group leader. What I say goes," Hermione said, giving him a smug smile.
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Harry sighed.
"No, I rather like bossing people around," Hermione admitted.
"No kidding," Ron muttered.
"Keep it up, Ronald and you'll be sparring with Susan this Saturday," Hermione threatened.
"Is it too late to hold another election?" Harry asked looking at Ron.
"Yes, the new election cannot be held until the start of the new school year according to the D.A charter," Hermione answered.
"We have a charter?" Ron asked.
"We do, I wrote it over break," Hermione answered matter of factly.
"I think I made a mistake, I should have made Ron our group leader," Harry muttered.
"Then nothing would get accomplished," Hermione huffed.
"I would still be the one teaching," Harry pointed out.
"Yes, but Ron would have you teaching flying techniques or the best way to nap in Binns' class," Hermione pointed out.
"I am not that lazy and there is no wrong way to take a nap in Binns' class," Ron shot back as Dumbledore entered the hall looking stricken.
Following Dumbledore into the hall were the Slytherin students. Most of them looked bored or slightly confused.
"The Greengrass sisters are fine," Ron pointed out.
"Thank god but something bad happened, Dumbledore looks upset," Hermione said gesturing to the headmaster who was having a whispered conversation with Professor McGonagall.
Before Harry could reply, McGonagall stepped up to the lectern, getting the attention of the entire hall.
"May I have your Attention, please? The morning classes will be cancelled for the day, we wish you all to remain in the hall while the aurors search the castle.," McGonagall announced.
"Whoa, whatever happened must be big," Ron muttered.
"Whatever it was must have something to do with Malfoy. He's not with the rest of the Slytherins," Hermione said as she scanned the Slytherin table.
"Then there is no telling what he's done, I hope they arrested the little bastard," Ron muttered.
Harry listened to the conversation going on around him, trying his best to keep a straight face. He felt a little bad that his actions had caused so much chaos but he couldn't honestly say that he regretted anything. He was l more worried that he had made a mistake somewhere that would lead the aurors to him.
Harry ate his breakfast feeling like he had actually accomplished something for a change, he just hoped that he was able to save the Bones' from the attack coming later tonight.