YourSide, Their Side and the Truth by Mizzy ( )
Part IX - A Shattered Truth And A New Arrival (9.45)
Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me, this is a fan fiction, by a fan for the fans. No money has exchanged hands during its production.
"How on earth did he do that?"
Dumbledore frowned, concerned. Harry had just related to him everything that had happened down in the greenhouse, and it was a puzzle.
"I don't know exactly, Harry," Dumbledore replied, his voice full of concern. "It's possibly from an old magic that was lost years and years ago… Messing with time itself is extremely dangerous. It certainly corroborates yours and Miss Granger's theory of something else behind the Dark magic movement, a theory I must admit is gaining more and more evidence with every day."
Harry nodded. "It was just so… weird… Like he was just taunting me."
Dumbledore looked pensieve. "I think, though, that we ought to take some kind of comfort. It is generally a tactic of any side to drop the other side a line when we don't have anything quite planned just to let them know we're still there and still want to stop them."
Harry raised his eyebrows and was about to say something when Dumbledore held up one hand.
"Now, Harry, if anything else happens you must tell me even if you think it's small and inconsequential. Oh, and by the way, I have to be the first to inform you. I'm afraid Professor Black has had to leave," Dumbledore said sadly.
"What?"
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "He'll be finished doing his task in time for the summer holidays I'm sure. He said it was personal and that you would understand. Of course he did make sure we had a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the rest of the term who he said would get you through your OWLs much better than he could."
Harry sat there, stunned, for a moment before his brain caught up with him.
"Moony," he said simply. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.
"So you know all about them, then? Ah good, good," he commented. "I suppose you yourselves are pretty much like the original four. I can only hope in your case that there is no Peter among you. I'm pretty sure in yours, Mr Malfoy's, Miss Granger's and Mr Weasley's case the chance of that happening is minimal."
Harry nodded, then thought for a second. "We are quite like, them, in a way I suppose. Siri- I mean Professor Black said we were the new inseparables."
Dumbledore nodded. "I'd like you to all think carefully before you become too much like them, though. Very carefully. Anything you decide, though, I can say on an unofficial level I would much rather help than let you try it on your own."
Harry frowned. "What do you mean sir?"
Dumbledore smiled at him gently. "I won't have to explain it to you, I'm sure. Now get a move on, Harry, I'm sure you can catch your second lesson of herbology."
The black-haired boy got to his feet and adjusted his glasses. "Thanks sir. So are we getting this new teacher for this afternoon's lesson?"
The wise old wizard nodded. "Yes."
"Great. Thanks sir," Harry said, picking his wand up from the table where he'd dropped it and leaving the office to go back to herbology. On the way out he saw Professor Snape and groaned. The hook-nosed professor made his way over to him.
"What are you doing out of lessons, Potter?" He asked. "I don't care if you were going to see Professor Dumbledore, five points from Gryffindor and back outside sharp-ish. Now, Potter."
Harry, startled, nodded and quickly walked back outside and ran to Herbology. Things were getting back to normal too quickly for Harry's tastes.
"Of all the unfair things!" Ron spluttered as they sat down at the table. "He had no right to take five points from Gryffindor! You were inside for a really important reason!"
Draco decided to try and interject to try and calm Ron down a bit.
"But the other part is really interesting, he really made us all freeze? That must be some really old dark magic, I heard my dad talk about a spell like that once. Apparantly the caster has to be on the exact opposite of the world," he explained.
"So Wormtail would have had to be on the opposite side of the world to do it? Would that make him somewhere in Australia?" Harry asked.
Hermione shook her head. "Unfortunately, no… Remember Hogwarts is untraceable and there is no way to be sure exactly where the castle is. It doesn't even necessarily have to be in Britain…"
"Weird," Ron commented.
"You think that's weird, listen to his," Harry said and in a hushed voice explained the other thing that Dumbledore had said. Draco frowned.
"Who on earth are Wormtail, Moony, Padfoot and Prongs?" He asked. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Oh, I guess Malfoy was too busy being a twit to actually be humane enough to actually be there when it all happened," the redhead said sourly.
"Twit? Listen, Weasel," Draco started, then stopped. "Now I remember why I didn't get on with you in the first place. I'm sorry."
Ron stopped short. "You're apologizing!"
"Well if you'd been humane enough to actually be there, then you would have seen me apologise to Hagrid," Draco said airily.
Ron frowned and Hermione quickly grabbed his arm. "Calm down," she hissed. Ron blushed shamefacedly.
"Sorry ferret boy," he apologised back to Draco.
"Ferret boy! Hey, you try to be nice to someone and this is how you get treated! Gryffindor manners these days, they're atrocious!" Draco rolled his eyes and, finally, grinned.
"Well, to continue with what we were saying… Back in our parent's time… You saw the Marauder's Map in the pensieve, didn't you?" Hermione looked at Draco and the blonde nodded.
"Those names were mentioned then, too," Draco offered.
"Right," Hermione agreed. "Well, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew as you may have guessed. You know about Professor Lupin being a werewolf…"
("The whole school knows," Ron interjected.)
"Anyway," Hermione broke back in glaring at Ron. "So he's Moony… with the whole Full Moon werewolf deal. You know what Professor Black is, an unregistered animagi, and he was known as Padfoot. You see, Professor Lupin's friends became animagi to be with him when he had to transform."
Draco thought this through. "Right. And Prongs?"
"Prongs was my father," Harry said softly.
Draco's eyes widened and he looked at Harry, a sad expression on his face. "I'm sorry," he said tenderly. Harry smiled gently in return.
"'sOK," he said.
"I think," Hermione said slowly, "that he's offering to teach is how to do it so that we don't harm ourselves when we'll try to do it on our own. Better to give us help to do the dangerous than not helping us and letting us do it on out own."
"Do what?" Ron asked; confused.
"It's obvious, isn't it," Draco said eventually. "Even with as little as I know… It's obvious we were going to try it eventually. Maybe it will be needed sooner."
Harry nodded. "I agree. So are we agreed? We do it?"
Hermione and Draco nodded grimly. "We're in," they said at the same time, which actually made them both start to laugh. Harry just grinned like an idiot and then turned to stare, baffled at Ron's expression.
"Ron, are you in too?" Harry arched one eyebrow at his best friend.
"In what?" Ron finally demanded.
At Ron's outburst Hermione, Harry and Draco just burst out laughing leaving Ron very indignant.
Hermione recovered just enough to blurt out. "How would you like to become like Snuffles?"
Ron's eyes widened. "Are you sure? Wicked!"
"What's wicked?"
Four heads turned to see Seamus Finnegan, who had just come by and heard Ron's exclamation.
"Ron agreed to be a bridesmaid at our wedding," Draco said, lying quickly on the spot. Ron levelled a glare at the ex-Slytherin.
"Bridesmaid?" Ron blurted, horrified.
"Wedding?" Harry chimed in with a mock-horrified expression.
"Oh, all right," Seamus said, raising his eyebrows. "Hey, wanna see the new spell I got mail-order from Fred and George?"
"Oh no," Hermione mouthed. Seamus got out his wand and tapped it on the desk.
"Winds that soar and rain that beats, fill up this plate with lots of sweets," Seamus intoned, a serious expression on his face. They watched incredulously as the plate filled up with sweets.
"Cool!" Ron said. "They never taught me that one!" He frowned, and folded his arms. "They usually practice them on me, though. I'm not dumb enough to actually buy something from those two --"
Ron's rant was disturbed by the plate of sweets suddenly exploding and covering Seamus in the flaming sweets. The sandy-haired Irish wizard quickly doused the fire with a jet of water from his wand and sat down next to Ron, dejected.
"Why am I not surprised that happened," Hermione said, rolling her eyes to the ceiling and helping him put out a flame at the bottom of Seamus' robes.
Harry, Draco and Ron laughed shortly and Seamus blushed, embarrassed.
"I suppose you could do it better," Seamus grumbled to Hermione.
"But of course," Hermione said primly. She got Ron to pass her the plate (which had also somehow managed to catch fire even though it was ceramic it was of course something only Seamus could do) and she got out her wand. They watched intently as she took a deep breath, tapped the wand on it officiously and in one swift movement reached inside her robes and piled the entire contents of a bag of sweets from her robe and then sat back, looking pleased.
"Much better," she said, smiling.
"Want to place a bet on that?" Draco asked quietly. Hermione stared as Seamus frowned at it and waved his hands.
"Oh no," Hermione moaned as brightly coloured sweets showered down on them and set several more things alight. Seamus just looked even more embarrassed than he was before.
"Is it the spells or is it just me?" He asked dejectedly.
"It's you, dear," Hermione, Draco, Ron and Harry managed to get out in perfect sync, causing everyone who had heard that at the Gryffindor table to complete crack up in hysterics.
In all the confusion and hilarities of the dinner time, Harry had forgotten to tell them about Sirius. It didn't really matter because Dumbledore announced it after the dinner hour had finished (prompting quite a few groans – Sirius' increased experiences of fighting the Dark Arts had made him a widely respected teacher.) Harry thought for a second then grinned.
"I think the curse has changed," Harry said slowly. "Instead of them staying only for a year, none of them can even last as long as that."
Draco made a murmur of agreement. "It's all over our kind that the Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts post is cursed. No-one's willing to take it on any more. I wonder who your godfather got to do it?"
Harry shrugged. "I have no idea," he said frankly.
"We'll see in a few minutes," Hermione said.
"Oh pull the other one," Ron scoffed.
"Excuse me?" The bushy-haired genius glared at Ron. "What do you mean by that?"
"You're just as curious as us," he explained. "And don't pretend otherwise."
Hermione's sudden grin told Ron all he needed to know and he smiled and trained his gaze back to where everyone else was looking. The door opened and once again Dumbledore entered to introduce the teacher. An old woman with bushy grey hair and thin wiry glasses walked in; a dark maroon robe draped over the top of practical work clothes.
"This," Dumbledore said softly, "is Professor Arabella Figg."
In all the excitement of meeting the new teacher, it took everyone a few seconds to realize that Harry had fallen off his chair in shock.
Professor Figg looked over the desks and sighed. "I was afraid that might happen," she stated simply.
It took only a few seconds for Harry to scramble back onto the chair.
"What happened?" Rubbing his head, Harry looked up, blinking owlishly.
"You fell off your chair," Hermione said, her voice low and full of concern. "Why?"
"I dreamed Miss Figg just walked through the door and Dumbledore said she was our new teacher and – " Harry babbled on quickly but stopped short as he saw Professor Figg standing there, grinning toothily at him. He closed his eyes, opened them and still saw her standing there.
"Oh," he said finally, blinking furiously again before smiling at Draco to indicate he was all right. The blond nodded back, trusting in Harry's judgment.
"Yes, I'm sorry about that, I suppose my sudden arrival might shock young Harry, besides I heard he's gone through a lot of stress recently with you-know-who and all. I guess I should have told him it was me before dropping it straight out of the blue like this."
"Who are you?" Ron blurted out, as confused as the rest of the class.
"She used to be my babysitter," Harry said, his eyes widened. "When the Dursleys didn't want me around." He paused. "I didn't know you were a witch!"
"I'm surprised I had you as little as I did," Professor Figg said; sniffing. "They never wanted me around. That's why when you came over I used to stuff all kind of vitamins and nutrients into the cake so you would get all the nutrients you needed."
"That's why it tasted like mould," Harry muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing," Harry protested softly.
"OK, class, however I am not here to reminisce with past contacts, otherwise I presume I'd be here all day, wouldn't I Miss Brown?"
Lavender squeaked and blushed. "Yes, Miss Figg." Hermione could hear her whisper "She used to be my mum's teacher" to Parvati.
"Today, well I've had a word with Professor Dumbledore and it seems you could all do with some review over the Unforgivable curses, and by that I mean that he has given me complete permission to use the Imperius curse on you all as many times as I wish," Professor Figg explained, rolling up her sleeves. "Right all of you, off with your robes your uniforms underneath should be easier to work with."
They all stared at her doubtfully.
"You can put them back on at the end of the lessons," she continued; rolling her eyes. "Come on, sharp-ish, or do you want me to curse all of you to do it?"
Quickly the students pulled their robes off and at her further instructions joined her at the front.
"Right, children, first of all I want to see how your Charms work is coming along. We need a big space in the middle and hop to it!" Professor Figg said, leaning against the desk and watching them with a shrewd expression on her face. "Mr Longbottom! With magic my dear boy! Your dad and your Uncle Albert used to be the same!" She watched as several used the Wingardium Leviosa charm to fly them across to the other side and actually awarded ten points to Slytherin after Blaise and Pansy ran to the other side of the room and used summoning charms to get all the chairs and stack them on top of the tables.
Afterwards Harry realised this was to get the Slytherins on her side, from that initial offering they would of course like her, but at the time he was quite annoyed and barely stopped Seamus from blowing up one of the chairs.
("What? It would have got rid of it," Seamus had protested.)
"Right," Professor Figg. "I already know a few of you are pretty proficient at this already, so I'll just try one of you randomly at a time. Stand in a circle. Hop to it." She clapped her hands together and pointed her wand at Dean as his back was turned. He started to actually hop to the other side of the classroom before he actually realised what was happening. Stubbornly he slammed his other foot down and frowned as he tried to shake it off. Unfortunately his body fell forwards and he bunny hopped the rest of the way. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled a bit, leaving Ron to wonder if they did actually have a brain cell between them.
"Nice try," she complimented. "Take five points for Gryffindor. Harry," she said next levelling her wand at him. "Imperio."
Harry just stared at her as something whispered in his brain for him to start singing the Hogwarts school song. Raising his eyebrows he watched her for a second before shrugging.
"Interesting," she said. "Very interesting indeed."
There were a couple of whispers from the other side of the room. Harry frowned.
"Mr Zabini, do you find something funny?" Blaise jumped, frightened, and proceeded to instruct Pansy on how to roast a chicken properly.
"Hopeless," Professor Figg sighed, taking the curse off.
"So I baste it before I put it in the oven?" Lavender asked Blaise sweetly. Blaise frowned at her and refused to answer.
"Mr. Malfoy," she said. "Step forward. I wish to see how your father instructed you."
Draco raised his eyebrows and stepped forwards.
"Of course I know your father gave you secret instruction of them all before you came," she said; shrugging. "Imperio."
As had happened with Harry Draco had just flatly stared at her. A couple of impressed murmurings ran around the circle.
"Well that just proved a theory, boys, thank you. Two points each for Gryffindor," Professor Figg said; grinning again. "Over exposure to the curse does make your resolve against it much stronger."
Harry nodded, finally getting it. Moody, or Crouch, whomever it was had given him a lot of practice on it and Voldemort hadn't lightened his exposure to the curse. Draco's soft, pained expression made Harry suddenly realise he didn't want to know what Draco had been put under trying to get him to resist the curse. All he wanted the blonde to know was that he was there for him.
"Mr Weasley," Professor Figg instructed suddenly.
Harry blinked. He'd been so deep in his thoughts that he'd missed Lavender doing a cartwheel then in a sudden burst of concentration breaking out of the curse enough to crash into Parvati; sending both girls crashing to the ground.
Ron looked at Professor Figg in terror as she lifted her wand towards him and whispered the curse. Ron scowled fiercely and his arm swung wildly before he threw himself to the ground in an attempt to stop himself.
"Well done, Mr. Weasley," she said softly. "Mr Goyle?"
As Goyle left Crabbe's side, Harry's thoughts drifted away into never never land during while most of the others were tested and missed Neville smash his fist into the desk (narrowly missing Crabbe). He missed Parvati dancing a jig before crashing into a wall and he missed a total of thirty-three points being awarded for Slytherin and twenty-four for Gryffindor. He mustn't have been concentrating at all because he suddenly realized everyone was staring at him.
"Wow, Harry!" Hermione said; her face pale. Blinking, he looked up at Professor Figg who was looking at him sadly.
"You must have undergone the Cruciatus curse a hell of a lot to be able to completely shake it off now," she said, her voice catching. "Ten points to Gryffindor."
Harry glanced up at Neville who was staring at him; an almost rapt expression on his face. "It can be overthrown eventually," he saw Neville murmur and Harry frowned, happy to give Neville some small hope for his parents. If the curse could be overthrown, the effects could surely be overthrown someday soon too.
The rest of the lesson went by very slowly for Harry. He was aware of the stares more than ever and it unsettled him. His thoughts had been going haywire… The rumours would spread that he was unaffected by all three of the major Unforgivable curses… His head hurt, and it took him a moment to realise it was his scar aching again. Frowning he decided to write a letter to Sirius then decided against it. He didn't want to disturb his godfather from his chance for happiness. Perhaps he would mention it to Dumbledore… They would have to see him today sometime to tell him their decision. Harry sort of got the feeling that maybe something else had a say in their destiny too. Whatever it was knew what would be needed in the future and Harry wasn't about to reject the help. They could do with all the help they could get. Especially with the OWLs approaching and all.
"Harry, you all right?"
Harry blinked and looked up as Draco squeezed his hand gently. Nodding he looked around to see if anyone was watching and brushed his lips over Draco's cheek softly before blushing and starting to walk away. Draco grinned foolishly before following Harry along the corridor.
"'Mione, Ron," Harry hissed softly. "We've got some free time now. Want to go?"
Hermione and Ron silently nodded and as everyone else went to the common room or back to their own rooms they padded along the corridors and after a couple of staircases moved they found themselves outside the Gryphon statue guarding Professor Dumbledore's office.
"He'll have changed it from Jelly beans," Harry muttered.
"What?" Draco blinked in confusion. He'd caught Dumbledore in the corridors and hadn't heard the password to get in when he had talked to the Professor about moving house.
"He always has his password the same as some kind of confectionary," Hermione explained.
"Pear drops!" Ron declared with a grin and the Gryphon swung open to reveal the corridor leading to his office.
"Lucky guess," Harry said softly; moving into the corridor. He looked backwards. "Coming?"
Silently, Hermione, Ron and Draco followed him into the darkness. They made it into his office all right and saw the Professor looking into a sphere carefully.
"I knew you'd come," he said softly. "You know this needs to be done, but I need to know if you want it too." He held up the sphere and it locked a silvery beam of light on Hermione and just for an instant a shimmering unicorn appeared in the air, tossing its head and neighing softly. Hermione gasped.
"Is that…" she started. Dumbledore nodded and waved his hand over the sphere again, this time directing it to Ron.
"It shows the image of the animal in your heart, in your soul and in your genes themselves. No animagi truly has the true control of the animal they become. It's something in their genetic and magical makeup."
Ron watched as a silvery beam focussed on him and for a few moments a sleek Himalayan wolf appeared in the air, heckles raised and teeth gleaming. He swallowed and nodded. Without a word Dumbledore moved the sphere on to Draco and the beam shone brightly instantaneously on his chest, displaying a large black dragon in the air. Ron even stepped back but the image of the dragon beat its wings and disappeared as Dumbledore moved the sphere again.
"Appropriate, with your name," the old professor said; his expression astute. "Harry, I think we know what yours will be." Harry nodded wordlessly. Draco opened his mouth to comment but decided against it.
"But we have to do this anyway," Dumbledore finished softly. He held up the sphere and it brightened considerably and a proud stag was displayed, a curious lightning-shaped scar on its forehead and its eyes a curious green colour.
Harry gasped sharply and nodded in understanding.
"It's quite ironic that whatever Voldemort or whatever was controlling him, that he couldn't prevent this." Dumbledore commented softly as all four watched him intently. His tone was soft and delicate and they strained to hear but it was his almost reverent expression that caught their attention and the words he spoke stayed in their hearts for a long time to come. "He couldn't prevent that along with three allies and friends Prongs willride again at Hogwarts."