Chapter 4
It was Friday, that evening after dinner all the students above third year who wanted to be in the optional class stayed after. The chairs were rearranged in a large circle with three rows of students and Dumbledore took the center.
"All of you who are here wish to enter in one or both of the half-year optional classes. These classes will take place on Friday evening at 7:00. The first half of the year the class will be devoted to dueling, the second half to healing. The dueling class will be taught by Mundungus Fletcher, a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Healing will be taught by one of the Order's healers, Sertisa Rowan. The dueling class will cover the basics and some more advanced dueling, you'll be learning new spells and using ones you already know. Healing will be done on fake injuries, and any other injuries students get on Friday will be used by the class to practice on, always over seen by the teacher. Healing will include learning a bit about how to use magical plants, and a number of useful spells and potions. The signup sheet will be passed around." He finished and handed the sheet to a student.
"Let's take both, it could be really useful." Hermione whispered as they leaned together to talk.
"Yeah, I hope we don't get homework though. What could they give us? Break and arm and heal it, best gets full marks?" Ron asked, Harry took the sheet from the student next to him and signed up for both.
The next morning Harry and Ron woke up really early and ran down to the kitchens invisible. They turned themselves into crickets to get under the door and hopped to the tables where the food was set out, ready for breakfast. Here they proceeded to fill the salt and pepper shakers with enchanted salt and pepper. They were having eggs and bacon so both would be used a lot.
During breakfast well over half the school got turned into Penguins, Harry and Ron were careful not to use and salt or pepper. In the middle of the meal Harry went to one end of the hall, invisible, and took a picture, only a score or so of students managed to avoid being transformed. The picture showed a hall full of students and penguins and even some students in the middle of the transformation. The funniest part came when Hermione shook some salt onto her eggs, not noticing Harry and Ron grinning like maniacs and watching gleefully she ate. Her eyes bugged out and she began to change, suddenly Hermione the penguin sat there. Harry thought he might break a rib from laughing, it only took Hermione a minute to figure out who had enchanted the food
"You two are in for it! You're PREFECTS!!! And pulling a prank like this! Just wait until the teachers find out! You'll lose tons of points and get more detentions then the twins ever have!" Her angry red face only made them laugh harder, of course the entire school had found out by lunch. Most were content to laugh it off and carefully check the lunch food. But Harry and Ron got a detention each, Harry though that Professor McGonagal was trying to hold back a laugh as she gave them the detention. She hadn't been transformed. Sirius gave Harry a big grin and a thumbs up as Harry and Ron both gave their head-of-house sad puppy faces and she couldn't help laughing.
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A week later a thunderstorm shook the castle. Thunder pounded all day long, lightning flashed. By that evening everyone was sick and tired of it. After dinner Harry realized that he'd left a book in the astronomy tower. He hurried up the steps to the room, from here he placed a spell on himself to keep off the rain and hurried up. Thankfully his book was under a telescope and was only slightly wet. As he stood with it in his hand lightning flashed down to him. It struck Harry's hand and he dropped the book in shock. A moment later he realized that the lightning hadn't harmed him, he looked up, the huge storm was centered above the castle, the moon was invisible behind the clouds. Harry raised his hand to look at it, a memory came to mind. A figure on a tower top raised its arms, lightning flashed down to it, blindingly. Then he could see through, the lightning jumped from the figure to the death eaters, electrocuting a group of five with bright glowing bolts. The figure glowed as more lightning lashed down to it and off into the trees, a shield of lightning formed as a spell shot up from below at it. Harry shook himself, and frowned, not all of that had been in his dream, suddenly comprehension dawned on him and he raised a hand and concentrated. Lightning lashed down and hit him, with his mind Harry instructed it, the lightning lifted his book back to his hand. Harry grinned and sent the lightning and storm off. Ten minutes later Harry looked out his dormitory window, and the moon shone brightly on everything, there wasn't a cloud to be seen.
Harry told no one about his discovery but everyone noted that there were more thunderstorms then usual, they came from nowhere and vanished just as quickly. Harry was practicing, he could now summon lightning from blue sky and call up a storm in minutes, the only other weather-related thing he could do was call up tornadoes he could control. He stopped however when he though Ron and Hermione were getting suspicious.
The quidditch team held tryouts on Sunday, as newly-voted on captain of the team Harry got to decide when the tryouts were and for what positions. Harry finally decided that they needed a new Keeper and a reserve Chaser and Beater. The tryouts went on all day, the next morning at breakfast after the final decisions had been made, Harry gave an announcement to the entire House.
"Sonarus, would everyone please come down to the common room?" He waited until everyone was there. "The team and I have spent hours deciding which students out of those who tried out yesterday should be picked for the team. For Keeper we have Ira, reserve Chaser, Morgan, reserve Beater, Fillip. All of you will be expected at all practices starting tomorrow at 7:00." Harry sat back down amid cheering, now the team had 5 seventh years, 3 fifth years, and 1 fourth year. And next year when they needed to replace the Chasers and Beaters they would already have two trained ones. Harry went over to Ron, who looked very disappointed. "Sorry Ron, you'll might make a good Chaser next year, but not a Keeper. Besides I have a feeling you'll be the one to replace Lee as commentator when he graduates. We've got to keep a Gryffindor at that post, if only to keep a Slytherin from it." Ron nodded.
"Anyway we have OWLs this year, the team won't be having as much study time, not like you need it." He added, showing that he hadn't missed that Harry was better then any other fifth year. Harry shot him a quick look, normally it was Hermione that got teased about being to good a student. But Ron was now running around attempting to catch pig.
It was a good thing Harry had started preparing, the first match, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin came a month later. As he walked out onto the quidditch pitch Harry felt like he was in a dream, he shook hands with the new Slytherin Captain and too off on the whistle.
"And there off! There's quite a wind today! About twenty mph coming from the west, sky's clear. Both teams have one new player this match, should be interesting. Alicia of Gryffindor's got the quaffle, headed down the pitch passes to Angelina, passes to Katie, passes to Angelina, passes to Alicia, passes to Angelina who scores! Ten to zero Gryffindor!"
Harry cut out Lee's commentary as the crowd cheered, a Bludger came flying his way, Harry dodged, Malfoy was following him as closely as he could. Harry put all of his skill into play and went into a series of moves, Lee saw and brought the crowds attention to Harry. Oohs and aahs filled the air, Harry came out of a dive spinning, did a double roll and dove. A Bludger was flying at Katie, who didn't see it, Harry dove down, when he was level with the Bludger he tilted his broom sharply. There was a loud crack! And the Bludger changed direction, hitting Malfoy in the stomach. Harry looped Katie and zoomed to ward the Gryffindor goal, rolling and turning and zipping around Slytherin players, causing most to lose their balance briefly. He bounced another Bludger off his broom and rose up above the game, then he saw a faint glitter near the Slytherin goal posts. Harry did a backwards loop and plummeted toward it. The entire Slytherin team flew over, a Beater swung his club, Harry went into a complicated series of moves, finally bouncing a Bludger straight into a Chaser's face, he dropped out of the mass of angry Slytherins and did a dive. Malfoy came racing along, Harry knew he could beat Malfoy to the Snitch, but it was going to vanish soon. Harry tilted back up, leaving Malfoy and the Snitch behind.
"What on earth is he doing? He's giving Malfoy the Snitch!" Lee yelled angrily, then the Snitch vanished, and appeared near the Gryffindor goal posts. Harry was very close to it, but it was below him, Harry rolled himself, dropping below his broom, hanging upside down with his knees he let go of the broom and grabbed the goal post with one hand. Harry swung around the pole and grabbed the Snitch from the air with his other hand. He righted himself and held the Snitch high above his head.
"He's got the Snitch! With an amazing move that's never been done before Potter grabs the Snitch while flying Upside down! Swinging around the goal post!!! 230 to 20 Gryffindor!" Lee yelled happily, Harry did a quick victory lap, swirling and rolling on his broom before landing and handing the Snitch to Lee. Gryffindor supporters swarmed over the barrier cheering.
"Come on hero! Party in Gryffindor tower!" George Weasely yelled, pulling the team out of the mass of happy students.
The party lasted until midnight, Colin Creevy had taken numerous pictures of Harry's amazing moves and pictures of the Keeper doing stunning saves, Chasers scoring and Beaters pelting Bludgers at the Slytherins. Many of the photos were enlarged and hung on the wall above the fireplace while copies were sold for a sickle each.
The days passed slowly, Harry was having dreams on a nightly basis, all of which he gave to Sirius. Harry was spending increasing amounts of time practicing his dueling, fencing, and martial arts, he'd even taken up archery and knife fighting. Then one day Ron and Hermione cornered him, alone, in the common room.
"Harry, we've got a few questions for you." Hermione said, pulling up a chair. Harry looked up, he'd been keeping a lot from them, wondering when they were going to notice. Besides his training he'd been doing more magic without a wand then with and had been designing defense plans for the school incase they were attacked.
"Well, ask away." He replied, Ron and Hermione looked startled, then Ron started.
"Well you have been disappearing a lot, we know you run in the mornings, or swim, but you can't always be doing that. And yesterday when your homework fell out the window you used a wandless spell to get it back, what's up?" Harry looked at them thoughtfully, they'd probably never give him a moment of peace until he told them.
"Ron, Hermione, there's a lot going on you don't know about, come on." He got up and led them up to his dormitory. "Firstly I made a hidden room behind here. To enter you go like this. Gryffindor." He lay down, his feet towards his pillow, and rolled into the wall, and through. Soon Hermione and Ron followed. They gaped around at the room with a door leading off it.
"You made this Harry? Wow! Can you show us around?" Hermione asked, looking at the door.
"Yeah, I'll give you a tour. This is just a room, nice place to relax, I didn't make this room, it was already here. Now." He opened the door to the hallway. "Here is where my realm begins, this is a practice room. See that human-like thing over there? It's programmed to fight, I practice against it. Dueling, Fencing, Martial arts, Knife fighting, Archery, it's a bit better then I, it always will be. Now in here is a potions room, I'm doing research on a few potions I've invented, testing them on mice and such." He opened the door to reveal a small room, the wall lined with shelves covered in ingredients. Two caldrons bubbled on the stone table. Harry showed Ron and Hermione everything, a library of books he'd found and copied from school library books in the restricted section. A room with weapons all along the walls, a shield he'd made, swords, knives, bows arrows and more. A room, his special room, with a table, on the table in a small blue box lay two stones. Now his most treasured possessions, he'd made them himself, they were probably the most powerful objects on the planet.
"Harry! Is, is, is this a Power Stone?" Hermione whispered in awe, reaching out, then drawing her hand back, Ron's jaw dropped as Harry nodded.
"They both are, remember when I left for a full day and half the night a month ago? I was creating these. One's a Power Stone, the other is a different sort of Power Stone. I mean it's the same but I'm using it for a different purpose. They're not finished yet, they'll be completed in maybe a little over a week." Ron recovered from his shock.
"Remind me, what are Power Stones?" Hermione answered before Harry could.
"Power Stones are Stones, made of an unknown combination of metals, made by wizards of old. You can store power in them, an almost unlimited amount, then take it out and use it when you need to, a Power Bank without interest. It holds someone's pure power, no spells or anything. No one has made one in over a millennium. How did you do it Harry?" Harry smiled, and shook his head.
"It almost killed me, I had to discover how to make them all over again. I've got to much power, it makes learning new spells with a wand difficult. You may have noticed how hard I struggle with the easiest spells. Well I can do the most advanced spells there are easily, but I can't do what most people consider easy. Wandlessly it's the same, but a bit easier. But with a wand I have the easiest time performing what most people call the hardest spells. I'm all turned around, it's taken me years to figure it out. If I drain off some of my excess power I can function as a regular wizard. The second stone I plan to trap Voldmeort inside. I can't explain how, I don't really know myself." He knew he was surprising them, scaring them, he'd told no one else, and didn't plan to for a while.
"Wow, this would take a lot of work, um Harry? Do mind teaching me some of those types of fighting you mentioned, I'd like to learn." Ron asked, looking hopeful, Hermione looked up eagerly.
"Well, okay, but you'll have to keep in shape. Don't tell anyone about this though, I plan on telling, but not yet, not till I know enough, I don't know if I'm allowed to do this you see." Hermione and Ron nodded.
All three of them quit the dueling and healing class the next Friday, they could learn all they needed. Visits to the restricted section of the library at night, and practicing every spare moment would be enough for them.
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"Uh oh, look here. Death eater attacks again." Ron murmured, showing Harry a copy of the daily prophet.
DEATH EATERS ATTACK HOGSMEAD, BACKED BY DEMENTORS!!!!!!!!
Order of the Phoenix, Aurors, and Hit Wizards save thirty lives.
Harry groaned, not again, he scanned the article, two deaths. That made twenty three wizards and witches dead from Death Eater attacks since the school year began, and four over the summer. And thirty-eight muggles in all, fourteen squibs. This wasn't good. Hogsmead visits had been cancelled, thank the Lord! Or there would be dead students as well, cancelled because of a dream Harry had had a week ago.
Fire burst from a wand point. A mob of death eaters and dementors appeared in the center of Hogsmead. Screams and cries rang out. Almost instantly Order of the Phoenix members, Aurors, and, a little late, Hit Wizards appeared. A huge duel raged for over an hour, no sign of Voldemort. A man from the village ran from a building as death eaters entered, a green spell hit him and he dropped dead. A screaming witch was also murdered, death eaters laughed as a group of people were tortured, until a group of Order members drove them away, killing all the dementors in the group. Swarms of black cloaks, shouts screams, bright flashes of light. Suddenly the death eaters and dementors vanished, and the vision faded in mists.
Harry woke up sweating, his scar burning in his forehead. He grabbed the dream recorder and sent it off with Hedwig to Sirius.
"Harry? You okay? Harry!" Harry jerked back to reality, the memory of that night fading, he handed the paper back to Ron.
"I'm fine, looks like we should go, the match will be starting soon." They filed out of the hall to watch the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin match. So far Gryffindor was one of the leading teams. They had defeated Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Slytherin beat Hufflepuff, and now it looked like Slytherin might defeat Ravenclaw. Then there was Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff, Then came the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff and the final.
"And he's got the Snitch! 170 to 160 Slytherin wins! Lee shouted, not happily, Ravenclaws moaned. Harry was disgusted it had been one of the dirtiest matches he'd seen, tons of cheating from Slytherin. Not as bad as some, but bad. Malfoy was gloating with his friends as the rest of the school left unhappily.
"Well team, looks like we'll have to really start working." Harry said sadly to the other Gryffindors, Hufflepuff's Seeker was a second year, and a bad one too. They shouldn't be much of a problem. Then came the cup, hopefully Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, not easy.
Christmas was near and the halls were full of happy students anticipating the holidays. This year some of the prefects would be chosen to decorate the great hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to a staff meeting to ask if they could be the ones.
"…We already have it all planned out you see. It won't take away any of our class time, once we start up the spells they'll do it all at night without us." Hermione finished their speech, the staff were still thinking.
"Lets have a vote, all in favor raise your hands." McGonagal took a count, alright, you can be the decorators. Enjoy yourselves." The trio ran off, they already had all the spells made, they just needed to activate them.
It was finished in two days, the walls were covered in sparkling white with swirls and elaborate designs on them. The floor was covered in a thin layer of non-melting snow. Into this designs were engraved in gold. There were wreathes on the doors and red ribbon bows above them. The tables were covered in paper-thin white/pale blue ice, the napkins were red white and green. The silverware had tiny red white and green bows tied around each fork, spoon, and knife. The plates were white with glittery snowflakes on them. The goblets were made to resemble glistening white flowers coming out of a golden stem with a layer of rubies and one of emeralds around it. Snow fell from the ceiling, Gryffindor was given twenty points for their excellent decorating job.
Sirius left on some "Order business" a week before the Holidays began. All Defense classes were canceled that day until a substitute could be found.
"I wonder where he went? And how are they going to find a substitute this close to Christmas?" Harry asked Ron over a game of chess.
"Not sure, its just like Voldemort you know, a Christmas Eve attack?" Ron asked, moving one of Harry's pawns off the board.
"Well he won't attack the castle over the Holidays. There'd be no point, not enough students to bother enslaving." Harry said with great certainty, earning him nervous looks from Ron and Hermione. They'd been wary of any strange behavior from him ever since school started.
The new teacher turned out to be a young witch. Miranda Lilac Flairgold, as she introduced herself. She arrived just before dinner one evening, most of the students were heading to the great hall and were startled into silence when the door opened.
A very pretty witch in periwinkle robes with green beads sewn onto them in runes entered, she looked around at the students and professors, all looking at her.
"Hello, I'm your new defense professor. May I ask why you are all staring, unless I'm greatly mistaken I haven't just grown horns." There was a smothering of laughter, then everything went back to normal, the noise level rose above usual. The Professors hurried over.
"Hello Minerva, good to see you again. I guess I chose a good time to arrive." McGonagal grinned, and signal students to hurry up.
"Yes you did, quite an entrance, nice robes by the way." She introduced the new Professor to the others and they all made their way into the hall.
"Thanks, I was just at the Ministry, looking for some people who I know are death eaters. Sirius asked me to get their records and current positions. The Order should start making arrests any day now." They all came into the hall, the Professors taking their usual seats, the new one looked around, looking disgusted at seeing the only seat left was between Snape and Sinastra. She sat down, and pointedly ignored Snape while talking happily to the others. Dumbledore rose to speak. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been watching them from behind a door and now hurried into the hall.
It was Friday, that evening after dinner all the students above third year who wanted to be in the optional class stayed after. The chairs were rearranged in a large circle with three rows of students and Dumbledore took the center.
"All of you who are here wish to enter in one or both of the half-year optional classes. These classes will take place on Friday evening at 7:00. The first half of the year the class will be devoted to dueling, the second half to healing. The dueling class will be taught by Mundungus Fletcher, a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Healing will be taught by one of the Order's healers, Sertisa Rowan. The dueling class will cover the basics and some more advanced dueling, you'll be learning new spells and using ones you already know. Healing will be done on fake injuries, and any other injuries students get on Friday will be used by the class to practice on, always over seen by the teacher. Healing will include learning a bit about how to use magical plants, and a number of useful spells and potions. The signup sheet will be passed around." He finished and handed the sheet to a student.
"Let's take both, it could be really useful." Hermione whispered as they leaned together to talk.
"Yeah, I hope we don't get homework though. What could they give us? Break and arm and heal it, best gets full marks?" Ron asked, Harry took the sheet from the student next to him and signed up for both.
The next morning Harry and Ron woke up really early and ran down to the kitchens invisible. They turned themselves into crickets to get under the door and hopped to the tables where the food was set out, ready for breakfast. Here they proceeded to fill the salt and pepper shakers with enchanted salt and pepper. They were having eggs and bacon so both would be used a lot.
During breakfast well over half the school got turned into Penguins, Harry and Ron were careful not to use and salt or pepper. In the middle of the meal Harry went to one end of the hall, invisible, and took a picture, only a score or so of students managed to avoid being transformed. The picture showed a hall full of students and penguins and even some students in the middle of the transformation. The funniest part came when Hermione shook some salt onto her eggs, not noticing Harry and Ron grinning like maniacs and watching gleefully she ate. Her eyes bugged out and she began to change, suddenly Hermione the penguin sat there. Harry thought he might break a rib from laughing, it only took Hermione a minute to figure out who had enchanted the food
"You two are in for it! You're PREFECTS!!! And pulling a prank like this! Just wait until the teachers find out! You'll lose tons of points and get more detentions then the twins ever have!" Her angry red face only made them laugh harder, of course the entire school had found out by lunch. Most were content to laugh it off and carefully check the lunch food. But Harry and Ron got a detention each, Harry though that Professor McGonagal was trying to hold back a laugh as she gave them the detention. She hadn't been transformed. Sirius gave Harry a big grin and a thumbs up as Harry and Ron both gave their head-of-house sad puppy faces and she couldn't help laughing.
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A week later a thunderstorm shook the castle. Thunder pounded all day long, lightning flashed. By that evening everyone was sick and tired of it. After dinner Harry realized that he'd left a book in the astronomy tower. He hurried up the steps to the room, from here he placed a spell on himself to keep off the rain and hurried up. Thankfully his book was under a telescope and was only slightly wet. As he stood with it in his hand lightning flashed down to him. It struck Harry's hand and he dropped the book in shock. A moment later he realized that the lightning hadn't harmed him, he looked up, the huge storm was centered above the castle, the moon was invisible behind the clouds. Harry raised his hand to look at it, a memory came to mind. A figure on a tower top raised its arms, lightning flashed down to it, blindingly. Then he could see through, the lightning jumped from the figure to the death eaters, electrocuting a group of five with bright glowing bolts. The figure glowed as more lightning lashed down to it and off into the trees, a shield of lightning formed as a spell shot up from below at it. Harry shook himself, and frowned, not all of that had been in his dream, suddenly comprehension dawned on him and he raised a hand and concentrated. Lightning lashed down and hit him, with his mind Harry instructed it, the lightning lifted his book back to his hand. Harry grinned and sent the lightning and storm off. Ten minutes later Harry looked out his dormitory window, and the moon shone brightly on everything, there wasn't a cloud to be seen.
Harry told no one about his discovery but everyone noted that there were more thunderstorms then usual, they came from nowhere and vanished just as quickly. Harry was practicing, he could now summon lightning from blue sky and call up a storm in minutes, the only other weather-related thing he could do was call up tornadoes he could control. He stopped however when he though Ron and Hermione were getting suspicious.
The quidditch team held tryouts on Sunday, as newly-voted on captain of the team Harry got to decide when the tryouts were and for what positions. Harry finally decided that they needed a new Keeper and a reserve Chaser and Beater. The tryouts went on all day, the next morning at breakfast after the final decisions had been made, Harry gave an announcement to the entire House.
"Sonarus, would everyone please come down to the common room?" He waited until everyone was there. "The team and I have spent hours deciding which students out of those who tried out yesterday should be picked for the team. For Keeper we have Ira, reserve Chaser, Morgan, reserve Beater, Fillip. All of you will be expected at all practices starting tomorrow at 7:00." Harry sat back down amid cheering, now the team had 5 seventh years, 3 fifth years, and 1 fourth year. And next year when they needed to replace the Chasers and Beaters they would already have two trained ones. Harry went over to Ron, who looked very disappointed. "Sorry Ron, you'll might make a good Chaser next year, but not a Keeper. Besides I have a feeling you'll be the one to replace Lee as commentator when he graduates. We've got to keep a Gryffindor at that post, if only to keep a Slytherin from it." Ron nodded.
"Anyway we have OWLs this year, the team won't be having as much study time, not like you need it." He added, showing that he hadn't missed that Harry was better then any other fifth year. Harry shot him a quick look, normally it was Hermione that got teased about being to good a student. But Ron was now running around attempting to catch pig.
It was a good thing Harry had started preparing, the first match, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin came a month later. As he walked out onto the quidditch pitch Harry felt like he was in a dream, he shook hands with the new Slytherin Captain and too off on the whistle.
"And there off! There's quite a wind today! About twenty mph coming from the west, sky's clear. Both teams have one new player this match, should be interesting. Alicia of Gryffindor's got the quaffle, headed down the pitch passes to Angelina, passes to Katie, passes to Angelina, passes to Alicia, passes to Angelina who scores! Ten to zero Gryffindor!"
Harry cut out Lee's commentary as the crowd cheered, a Bludger came flying his way, Harry dodged, Malfoy was following him as closely as he could. Harry put all of his skill into play and went into a series of moves, Lee saw and brought the crowds attention to Harry. Oohs and aahs filled the air, Harry came out of a dive spinning, did a double roll and dove. A Bludger was flying at Katie, who didn't see it, Harry dove down, when he was level with the Bludger he tilted his broom sharply. There was a loud crack! And the Bludger changed direction, hitting Malfoy in the stomach. Harry looped Katie and zoomed to ward the Gryffindor goal, rolling and turning and zipping around Slytherin players, causing most to lose their balance briefly. He bounced another Bludger off his broom and rose up above the game, then he saw a faint glitter near the Slytherin goal posts. Harry did a backwards loop and plummeted toward it. The entire Slytherin team flew over, a Beater swung his club, Harry went into a complicated series of moves, finally bouncing a Bludger straight into a Chaser's face, he dropped out of the mass of angry Slytherins and did a dive. Malfoy came racing along, Harry knew he could beat Malfoy to the Snitch, but it was going to vanish soon. Harry tilted back up, leaving Malfoy and the Snitch behind.
"What on earth is he doing? He's giving Malfoy the Snitch!" Lee yelled angrily, then the Snitch vanished, and appeared near the Gryffindor goal posts. Harry was very close to it, but it was below him, Harry rolled himself, dropping below his broom, hanging upside down with his knees he let go of the broom and grabbed the goal post with one hand. Harry swung around the pole and grabbed the Snitch from the air with his other hand. He righted himself and held the Snitch high above his head.
"He's got the Snitch! With an amazing move that's never been done before Potter grabs the Snitch while flying Upside down! Swinging around the goal post!!! 230 to 20 Gryffindor!" Lee yelled happily, Harry did a quick victory lap, swirling and rolling on his broom before landing and handing the Snitch to Lee. Gryffindor supporters swarmed over the barrier cheering.
"Come on hero! Party in Gryffindor tower!" George Weasely yelled, pulling the team out of the mass of happy students.
The party lasted until midnight, Colin Creevy had taken numerous pictures of Harry's amazing moves and pictures of the Keeper doing stunning saves, Chasers scoring and Beaters pelting Bludgers at the Slytherins. Many of the photos were enlarged and hung on the wall above the fireplace while copies were sold for a sickle each.
The days passed slowly, Harry was having dreams on a nightly basis, all of which he gave to Sirius. Harry was spending increasing amounts of time practicing his dueling, fencing, and martial arts, he'd even taken up archery and knife fighting. Then one day Ron and Hermione cornered him, alone, in the common room.
"Harry, we've got a few questions for you." Hermione said, pulling up a chair. Harry looked up, he'd been keeping a lot from them, wondering when they were going to notice. Besides his training he'd been doing more magic without a wand then with and had been designing defense plans for the school incase they were attacked.
"Well, ask away." He replied, Ron and Hermione looked startled, then Ron started.
"Well you have been disappearing a lot, we know you run in the mornings, or swim, but you can't always be doing that. And yesterday when your homework fell out the window you used a wandless spell to get it back, what's up?" Harry looked at them thoughtfully, they'd probably never give him a moment of peace until he told them.
"Ron, Hermione, there's a lot going on you don't know about, come on." He got up and led them up to his dormitory. "Firstly I made a hidden room behind here. To enter you go like this. Gryffindor." He lay down, his feet towards his pillow, and rolled into the wall, and through. Soon Hermione and Ron followed. They gaped around at the room with a door leading off it.
"You made this Harry? Wow! Can you show us around?" Hermione asked, looking at the door.
"Yeah, I'll give you a tour. This is just a room, nice place to relax, I didn't make this room, it was already here. Now." He opened the door to the hallway. "Here is where my realm begins, this is a practice room. See that human-like thing over there? It's programmed to fight, I practice against it. Dueling, Fencing, Martial arts, Knife fighting, Archery, it's a bit better then I, it always will be. Now in here is a potions room, I'm doing research on a few potions I've invented, testing them on mice and such." He opened the door to reveal a small room, the wall lined with shelves covered in ingredients. Two caldrons bubbled on the stone table. Harry showed Ron and Hermione everything, a library of books he'd found and copied from school library books in the restricted section. A room with weapons all along the walls, a shield he'd made, swords, knives, bows arrows and more. A room, his special room, with a table, on the table in a small blue box lay two stones. Now his most treasured possessions, he'd made them himself, they were probably the most powerful objects on the planet.
"Harry! Is, is, is this a Power Stone?" Hermione whispered in awe, reaching out, then drawing her hand back, Ron's jaw dropped as Harry nodded.
"They both are, remember when I left for a full day and half the night a month ago? I was creating these. One's a Power Stone, the other is a different sort of Power Stone. I mean it's the same but I'm using it for a different purpose. They're not finished yet, they'll be completed in maybe a little over a week." Ron recovered from his shock.
"Remind me, what are Power Stones?" Hermione answered before Harry could.
"Power Stones are Stones, made of an unknown combination of metals, made by wizards of old. You can store power in them, an almost unlimited amount, then take it out and use it when you need to, a Power Bank without interest. It holds someone's pure power, no spells or anything. No one has made one in over a millennium. How did you do it Harry?" Harry smiled, and shook his head.
"It almost killed me, I had to discover how to make them all over again. I've got to much power, it makes learning new spells with a wand difficult. You may have noticed how hard I struggle with the easiest spells. Well I can do the most advanced spells there are easily, but I can't do what most people consider easy. Wandlessly it's the same, but a bit easier. But with a wand I have the easiest time performing what most people call the hardest spells. I'm all turned around, it's taken me years to figure it out. If I drain off some of my excess power I can function as a regular wizard. The second stone I plan to trap Voldmeort inside. I can't explain how, I don't really know myself." He knew he was surprising them, scaring them, he'd told no one else, and didn't plan to for a while.
"Wow, this would take a lot of work, um Harry? Do mind teaching me some of those types of fighting you mentioned, I'd like to learn." Ron asked, looking hopeful, Hermione looked up eagerly.
"Well, okay, but you'll have to keep in shape. Don't tell anyone about this though, I plan on telling, but not yet, not till I know enough, I don't know if I'm allowed to do this you see." Hermione and Ron nodded.
All three of them quit the dueling and healing class the next Friday, they could learn all they needed. Visits to the restricted section of the library at night, and practicing every spare moment would be enough for them.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Uh oh, look here. Death eater attacks again." Ron murmured, showing Harry a copy of the daily prophet.
DEATH EATERS ATTACK HOGSMEAD, BACKED BY DEMENTORS!!!!!!!!
Order of the Phoenix, Aurors, and Hit Wizards save thirty lives.
Harry groaned, not again, he scanned the article, two deaths. That made twenty three wizards and witches dead from Death Eater attacks since the school year began, and four over the summer. And thirty-eight muggles in all, fourteen squibs. This wasn't good. Hogsmead visits had been cancelled, thank the Lord! Or there would be dead students as well, cancelled because of a dream Harry had had a week ago.
Fire burst from a wand point. A mob of death eaters and dementors appeared in the center of Hogsmead. Screams and cries rang out. Almost instantly Order of the Phoenix members, Aurors, and, a little late, Hit Wizards appeared. A huge duel raged for over an hour, no sign of Voldemort. A man from the village ran from a building as death eaters entered, a green spell hit him and he dropped dead. A screaming witch was also murdered, death eaters laughed as a group of people were tortured, until a group of Order members drove them away, killing all the dementors in the group. Swarms of black cloaks, shouts screams, bright flashes of light. Suddenly the death eaters and dementors vanished, and the vision faded in mists.
Harry woke up sweating, his scar burning in his forehead. He grabbed the dream recorder and sent it off with Hedwig to Sirius.
"Harry? You okay? Harry!" Harry jerked back to reality, the memory of that night fading, he handed the paper back to Ron.
"I'm fine, looks like we should go, the match will be starting soon." They filed out of the hall to watch the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin match. So far Gryffindor was one of the leading teams. They had defeated Slytherin and Ravenclaw. Slytherin beat Hufflepuff, and now it looked like Slytherin might defeat Ravenclaw. Then there was Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff, Then came the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff and the final.
"And he's got the Snitch! 170 to 160 Slytherin wins! Lee shouted, not happily, Ravenclaws moaned. Harry was disgusted it had been one of the dirtiest matches he'd seen, tons of cheating from Slytherin. Not as bad as some, but bad. Malfoy was gloating with his friends as the rest of the school left unhappily.
"Well team, looks like we'll have to really start working." Harry said sadly to the other Gryffindors, Hufflepuff's Seeker was a second year, and a bad one too. They shouldn't be much of a problem. Then came the cup, hopefully Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, not easy.
Christmas was near and the halls were full of happy students anticipating the holidays. This year some of the prefects would be chosen to decorate the great hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to a staff meeting to ask if they could be the ones.
"…We already have it all planned out you see. It won't take away any of our class time, once we start up the spells they'll do it all at night without us." Hermione finished their speech, the staff were still thinking.
"Lets have a vote, all in favor raise your hands." McGonagal took a count, alright, you can be the decorators. Enjoy yourselves." The trio ran off, they already had all the spells made, they just needed to activate them.
It was finished in two days, the walls were covered in sparkling white with swirls and elaborate designs on them. The floor was covered in a thin layer of non-melting snow. Into this designs were engraved in gold. There were wreathes on the doors and red ribbon bows above them. The tables were covered in paper-thin white/pale blue ice, the napkins were red white and green. The silverware had tiny red white and green bows tied around each fork, spoon, and knife. The plates were white with glittery snowflakes on them. The goblets were made to resemble glistening white flowers coming out of a golden stem with a layer of rubies and one of emeralds around it. Snow fell from the ceiling, Gryffindor was given twenty points for their excellent decorating job.
Sirius left on some "Order business" a week before the Holidays began. All Defense classes were canceled that day until a substitute could be found.
"I wonder where he went? And how are they going to find a substitute this close to Christmas?" Harry asked Ron over a game of chess.
"Not sure, its just like Voldemort you know, a Christmas Eve attack?" Ron asked, moving one of Harry's pawns off the board.
"Well he won't attack the castle over the Holidays. There'd be no point, not enough students to bother enslaving." Harry said with great certainty, earning him nervous looks from Ron and Hermione. They'd been wary of any strange behavior from him ever since school started.
The new teacher turned out to be a young witch. Miranda Lilac Flairgold, as she introduced herself. She arrived just before dinner one evening, most of the students were heading to the great hall and were startled into silence when the door opened.
A very pretty witch in periwinkle robes with green beads sewn onto them in runes entered, she looked around at the students and professors, all looking at her.
"Hello, I'm your new defense professor. May I ask why you are all staring, unless I'm greatly mistaken I haven't just grown horns." There was a smothering of laughter, then everything went back to normal, the noise level rose above usual. The Professors hurried over.
"Hello Minerva, good to see you again. I guess I chose a good time to arrive." McGonagal grinned, and signal students to hurry up.
"Yes you did, quite an entrance, nice robes by the way." She introduced the new Professor to the others and they all made their way into the hall.
"Thanks, I was just at the Ministry, looking for some people who I know are death eaters. Sirius asked me to get their records and current positions. The Order should start making arrests any day now." They all came into the hall, the Professors taking their usual seats, the new one looked around, looking disgusted at seeing the only seat left was between Snape and Sinastra. She sat down, and pointedly ignored Snape while talking happily to the others. Dumbledore rose to speak. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been watching them from behind a door and now hurried into the hall.