Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That would violate anti-slavery laws.
After a few days, Harry grew accustomed to the new, stronger wards. At the end of each day, he was no longer completely tired, but he still ached slightly. Harry wondered how Dumbledore did it, night after night, guarding the entire castle.
"Where are you going, Harry?" asked Fred. Harry stood, poised at the edge of the commons with his trumpet. He was slightly surprised that nobody had asked yet where he went almost every night after curfew.
"What? Oh, I'm just practicing something," Harry explained.
"Oh, is that what you call it?" George asked. Harry grew a little afraid; George's voice certainly wasn't friendly.
Harry slowly asked, "What are you talking about?"
Fred glared at him and said, "I'm talking about Ginny. You told her she could over to Durmstrang, and now you're leaving the commons every night. Do you think we're stupid?"
Harry gulped. They thought he was cheating on Ginny! But before Harry could explain, Colin Creevey loudly said, "Leave him alone, you two. He's not going out to see a woman. Actually, tonight, Dumbledore asked us to go with him."
Harry looked over at Colin, and saw that he and his brother were holding cases as well. They both were sporting giant grins. Seeing the obvious question on Harry's face, Colin volunteered, "Clarinet."
Dennis excitedly squeaked, "Trombone." Harry laughed. He wouldn't have imagined Dennis playing a trombone, considering the trombone was probably bigger than he was.
The three musicians set off out of the commons.
"Clarinet?" wondered George.
"What's a trombone?" pondered Fred.
"Wow, I didn't know anyone else played music here," Harry said.
Colin looked at him and said, "You know there are muggle-born students here. You must have figured that some of them played instruments before they knew they were wizards."
Harry realized he hadn't even thought of it that way. He had just assumed that wizards didn't play musical instruments. Colin drew his wand and for Harry began to worry – fearing another attack. However, Colin didn't even notice this, and started up some music with his wand.
Harry recognized it as 'In the Mood', and was impressed. Colin appeared to have the song internally memorized, because the recording sounded exactly like the real thing. Colin quickly said, "It's in F for you. Try to play along," and started playing his clarinet. Dennis appeared to know what he was doing as well, and started to play the trombone. Harry hesitantly tried to pick out how the song went, but Colin stopped the music and said, "Harry, you're not playing the right part."
"What?" Harry asked.
Colin sighed and said, "Harry, not everyone plays the melody. Listen to the song carefully." Colin started the song back up again, and Harry closed his eyes. He realized what Colin was talking about – the clarinet was playing the melody. There it was! The trumpets came in little sections after the melody. And they had a real simple part!
Colin saw the comprehension on Harry's face, and restarted the music. Harry was by far the worst member of the trio, but eventually got the hang of the song.
"Wait a minute! You didn't play the same thing as last time!" Harry exclaimed.
Colin and Dennis looked at each other, clearly confused what Harry was talking about. Dennis figured it out and said, "Oh, Harry, that's called improvisation. You just make it up as you go."
"What?" Harry asked, bewildered.
Colin looked at his brother and said, "Oh, dear." With a sigh, he stopped 'In The Mood' and started a swing song that didn't appear to have a melody. That was soon fixed, as Colin started playing his clarinet again. He's just making that up? Harry wondered, blanching slightly.
Sure enough, the melody Colin played never seemed to repeat or do the same thing twice. After a minute or so, Colin stopped playing and looked at his brother. Dennis started playing, and Harry was again amazed. While Dennis didn't do nearly as well as his brother, he was still making something up at the top of his head.
Finally, Dennis stopped playing and the Creeveys both looked at Harry. Uh oh, he thought, they expect you to do it, too. "Come on, Harry, give it a try." Dennis said.
Harry shrugged his shoulders and tried to play something. However, every note he played seemed to sound horrible. He couldn't help but notice Colin and Dennis cringe every few seconds. I stink! Harry's mind screamed, I stink!
"You stink!" Dennis said.
Colin lightly swatted Dennis and said, "Ok Harry, try this…" For the next hour, Colin and Dennis began to help Harry out with his music. While by no definition did Harry sound good, at least by the end of the hour Colin and Dennis didn't involuntarily cringe when he played.
"That's enough," said Harry. Colin and Dennis looked down at their watches and nodded. It was nearly curfew; they only had eight minutes before they had to be back at the commons.
Harry felt that the classes this year would make him insane. After all, not only did Harry have to attend his ordinary classes, but also the classes of students he was escorting. While he certainly wasn't required to actually do anything in the class, trying to stay awake during several consecutive sessions of History of Magic was extremely annoying.
It appeared that Hagrid noticed Harry's problem, after listening to yet another Goblin Revolt in full monotone. While the 4th year Care of Magic Creatures class was working with Nifflers, Hagrid pulled Harry aside to talk to him. "Yeh alright there, Harry?"
Harry smiled and said, "No."
Hagrid laughed and cuffed Harry on the back. "Well," he said, "I was over at Durmstrang last weekend. Goin' to see what the champions are doing. Well, as yeh know, we can' send any owls, cause of all the stuff goin' on here, and I happened to run into someone who wanted to see yeh."
Hagrid watched as Harry's face lit up. "Ginny?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Too right!" Hagrid boomed, and handed Harry a stack of parchment.
Hagrid watched with a smile as Harry read through the message.
Dearest Harry,
Hagrid told me about the Christmas Dance up there. I'm so proud of you, and I'm going to kill Parvati when I get back for asking you to it!
I'm so sorry I haven't been able to write to you! I sent a letter as soon as I got here, but a week later it returned with another note which said that Hogwarts was temporarily closed to Owl Post.
Just thought I'd write you about the second task. Hermione's taken the lead!
It was really weird. The 2nd task was to 'Get Past Yourself'. Each of the champions was put in this enclosure which was enchanted to look like a barren wasteland. And there was this magic mirror in there that reflected only the champion. Hermione by far did the best. I'll let her write what she did.
Harry noticed a definite change of handwriting, which he easily recognized as Hermione's.
Harry,
Ginny's exaggerating a little. I didn't do much better than the other two champions, although Ron would have you believe that they didn't even come close to matching me.
I didn't cast anything right away, since I figured that my counterpart would do the same thing. So I counted the clouds behind their back, and came up with 19. 'S' is the 19th letter of the alphabet, so I cast Stupefy. However, my opponent did the same thing. I managed to dodge the spell, and then looked behind me. There were only three clouds, so I figured it had to be some sort of reflection, not a copy of myself. Otherwise, how would they have come up with the same spell?
Well, it only makes sense that a mirror was making the reflection, so I cast 'Quassi' on it, like Petrina did last year. The mirror shattered, and I ran over and grabbed what was behind it.
It was a broomstick. Do you know what this means, Harry? It means I'm going to have to fly the next task. I am so dead!
Well, I know how much Ginny has been aching to write to you, so I should let her get back to it.
Love from Hermione
The letter continued, back into Ginny's handwriting.
Well, the other two champions didn't do so well, but Jean DeGalle did ok. He seemed to realize that it was a sort of duplicate as well, and he purposely dropped his wand. Of course his reflection did as well, so Jean assumed that the reflection would do whatever he did.
Jean cast 'Obsisto', but he wasn't aiming at his reflection. Hermione tells me that Obsisto is one of the few spells that will react violently if it comes in contact with itself. Jean noticed that the two spells seemed to go through each other, which meant that one really didn't exist. Finally figuring out that it was a mirror of some sort, he cast 'Quassi' as well.
The Durmstrang champion, Alex Lysenko, was funny. He thought it was supposed to be some sort of duel, and went in there casting every spell he could think of. I don't know how, but he managed to escape the first barrage with only a few scuffs. So he decides to pick a fight with himself and goes up and tries to poke his reflection. Well, when his finger hit the mirror, Alex must have thought he felt his reflection's finger instead. So the throws a punch, and the mirror wobbles a little. So he conjured this giant mallet and hit the mirror. It took him several times, but he finally broke it and saw what was going on. I feel a little sorry for him, but it was hilarious watching him try to beat himself up!
Classes over here are Ok, I guess, but I really wish I was back there. Hope the ward duties aren't getting you down. I'll be back as soon as I can.
Love,
Ginny
Harry felt a tear in his eye, but managed to hold it back. Hagrid seemed to know anyhow and said, "It's ok, Harry. I'm sure she'll be back as quick as she can."
Harry gave Hagrid a smile and hopefully asked, "Are you going back up? I'd really like to send something back to her."
Hagrid frowned and said, "I'm sorry, but I can'. I'm goin' to be busy organizin' the…"
Harry caught onto Hagrid's familiar habit of saying something he wasn't supposed to. "Yes, Hagrid?" Harry asked eagerly, "What are you organizing?"
"Er, Yes, Well, Ah! It's the end of class. Well, Harry, I guess you'll be escortin' the students back up to th' Great Hall."
Harry looked down, disappointed, and saw that the students were indeed waiting for him to escort them back. Oh well, Harry thought, I guess I'll find out soon enough.
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WOW! I don't know how, but 5 people managed to review in the 8 hours between postings. You people are amazing!
AllAboutMe: You know, I got a ribbing from three different people on my last story about how I kept them from studying, simply because they spent their time reading the story…
Dumbledore: I don't plan on having Harry surpass Dumbledore in the trilogy at all. Well… the ending I have planned for the third story makes it a little more complicated, but… well… I really can't say too much, otherwise I'll give it away. Hehe…
Ariel: Yes, Ariel, I will keep posting… :)
Melissa: Same as above… :)
Seifer: I was actually kind of worried about the beach ball scene, so I cut it back a little. I was originally going to show Harry forming up the teams, creating the beach balls, and having the students gradually start the game up; but I felt that was a little overboard. So I just had McGonagall come in to view the end result. I'm glad you like it!
Please Review!