Hello, people! So, another chapter for you all! I have also decided what to do with the ball. He's going by himself. Sorry, but he becomes a little more withdrawn in later chapters and going with someone would be OOC at that point in time. Halfway through chapter eighteen, by the way, and I've only reached Halloween! At the rate I'm going this will end up having something like sixty to eighty chapters!!! BTW, does anyone here like the movie 'Labyrinth'? If you do, email or ICQ me. I love that movie!! This is a fairly long chapter for me, so enjoy! Also, I know some of you want longer chapters, but this is how I write. If I did longer chapters, you'd have to wait longer for updates, so…Anyway, on to the disclaimer!
Disclaimer: Not mine. I ain't getting any money from this, so bugger off all you lawyerly-like peoples out there!
Chapter Nine
After the trio and Seamus had finished breakfast, they headed off to their first lesson, Defence against Dark Arts. The majority of the class were complaining about the seating plan, which had been specifically arranged so that there was at least one seat between each person. Ron, Hermione and Harry were busy discussing the session.
'Great! I heard that the proper Defence Against Dark Arts is arriving today!" Ron said enthusiastically as he rummaged through his bag searching for a quill.
"Who was standing in while I was out of it?" Harry asked curiously. Although he seemed to be able to remember everything they had learnt over the past few weeks, he could not actually remember anything of what had happened.
"Arabella Figg. She's a retired Auror that Dumbledore hired to help protect the school. You'll probably see her around the school every now and then," Hermione told him, sitting down in her seat and dragging out her books. Just then the door swung open and a familiar figure entered entered.
"Good Morning. I am sure you all remember me from last year," Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody said, setting a cage which had a variety of coloured lights flying around in it and twittering madly, on the table.
"Professor Moody!" Dean, who had fallen off of his chair in surprise, exclaimed. "You said that you would only be teaching us for one year!"
Moody smiled grimly. "Change of plans. After what happened last year, Headmaster Dumbledore thought it would be best if someone who had dealt with the dark arts before was at the school." As he was talking, both his normal and magical eye shifted to gaze at Harry for a moment, before turning back towards the rest of the class.
Harry felt a hot swoop of anger surge through him as Moody turned to glance at him, before looking at the class again.
'He's here to look out for me especially. I know it. I bet all the teachers will have been told to keep an eye on me,' Harry thought angrily, before smirking slightly. 'It's not my fault Voldemort can't resist my charming good looks…" Moody's voice interrupted his chain of thought, as he began to talk.
"These here, are faeries (A/N – pronounced 'fey-ries'). They a distant relation to the common fairy, and are often mistaken for them. In fact, they have become so confused with each other that most people, both magical and muggles, think they are one and the same. The faeries have their own language, unlike the fairies, who speak the common language of whatever area the come from. The ability to talk to the faeries is very rare, although not as rare as the ability to talk to snakes." As Moody said this his eyes again drifted towards Harry, who unconsciously raised a hand to pet Sebastian. "Helga Hufflepuff herself was one of the few who had the ability to talk to the faeries. Now, the faeries have many uses. They are generally mischievous but are not evil in any way. They do not usually take kindly to humans. However, if you can convince one of your good intent, they will try to help you in any way they can. Now, today we will simply be trying to communicate to them using hand gestures and gain their trust. Do not be too disappointed if they are wary of you. Let them come to you, and let them make the first move. Later in the term we will be learning exactly how they can help you defend yourself against the dark arts." When Moody had finished explaining the lesson to them, he released the faeries. The lights moved quickly out of the room, and headed towards the ceiling. They hovered there, twittering between themselves.
Harry was not watching the faeries. The rest of the class was staring at the ceiling, captivated, but Harry had a strange feeling that the faeries disliked being stared at like animals in a zoo.
'I know what that feels like, and I don't like it, so why should they enjoy it any more than I?' Harry thought. He idly began doodling a picture of the Whomping Willow on a piece of parchment he had removed from his bag at the start of the lesson. Suddenly he felt a tap on the side of his head, and a dark blue, almost black faerie drifted into view. It looked at the piece of parchment, made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle, then settled on the desk beside Harry's ink bottle. It giggled again, then pointed at the parchment, then to itself. It kept doing this, and Harry wondered what it wanted. Suddenly he had an idea.
"Do you want me to draw you?" He asked it. The faerie tittered, then nodded excitedly. Harry shrugged, then picked up his quill and began to sketch it roughly. Ten minutes later he had finished a rough picture of it. He showed it to the happy little being, who began to dance about. Harry, who was quite amused by the little creature's antics, tore around the picture and offered it to the faerie. It took it, smiled brightly, then said two words very clearly.
"Thank you."
"The pleasure was all mine," Harry answered, watching it fly up towards its counterparts, and laughed as it began to show them all the picture proudly. Harry was quite sure that it was bragging to them about it. He turned back to see what everyone else was doing. He supposed that some of them would have been approached by the faeries, simply because they seemed too happy and cheerful to be suspicious of everyone. However, this was not what he saw. The class was staring at him, agog, and not one of them had a faerie nearby. Harry swore in his mind, then asked the same question he had asked when he had found out he was famous. 'Why me?' He simply returned the stare until everyone averted their gaze, except for Moody, who continued to stare shrewdly at Harry.
Moody sat back slightly in the chair he had settled in, before straightening.
'Constant Vigilance,' He reminded himself, and began to watch the students. He didn't really know why Dumbledore wanted him to teach them about faeries, it was extremely rare that they chose to trust a fully grown, powerful wizard let alone a bunch of young, irresponsible teenagers. He had just started to relax slightly when one of the faeries descended slowly. It hovered hesitantly for a moment, then headed towards Harry, and tapped him on the side of his head to get his attention. It settled on his desk and began to gesture. The boy seemed to understand what it wanted, and began to draw on the piece of parchment in front of him. The rest of the class had realised what was happening by now, and were all watching, fascinated. Harry ripped a piece of the parchment apart and handed it to the faerie, who said something, then returned to the ceiling with its prize. No one else saw Harry's lips move to shape words that were not English, words that were not even human. The boy, who seemed to have no idea what had just happened, turned to stare at the rest of the class until they turned away, before returning his gaze to the desk. Moody smiled grimly, and murmured two words under his breath.
"Constant Vigilance."
Ron and Hermione hurried towards Harry, who was hurrying out of the classroom.
"Excellent, Harry! That was amazing!" Ron exclaimed, thumping Harry on the back.
Harry mumbled something vaguely under his breath, before asking what their next lesson was. Ron pulled out his timetable, glanced at it and groaned.
"What?" Harry asked apprehensively.
Ron looked up, despair in his eyes. "Double potions with Slytherin."
The three friends made it to class just in time. As soon as they were seated (in separate parts of the classroom because of the lack of room in the dungeon) and had gotten their parchment and ink out, Snape walked into the classroom. He looked like he was in an even fouler mood then usual, and Harry silently thanked whatever spirits watched over him for letting him be on time for once.
"Today we are moving on to ancient potions. Hopefully some of you will do better in this then you did on the Japanese varieties," Snape glared around the room as he talked. His gaze fell on Neville for a moment, and he sneered, before continuing his lecture. "Today we will be attempting to make the Fortuna potion. This particular potion protects its user from weak curses and hexes. Now, I expect at least some of you to complete this potion using the correct formula. You will need shredded lizard skin, powdered beetle eyes, gillyweed…"
As Snape began to list the ingredients, the door to the dungeon creaked open and a familiar blonde, whale-sized boy waddled in. Harry groaned silently and sunk lower in his seat, praying that Dudley wouldn't notice him.
Snape stared at the muggle boy, and frowned. "I believe the Headmaster has specifically told you on numerous occasions not to wander around the castle unescorted and during class times!" To Snape's everlasting surprise, the boy did not show any sign of fear or awe at all. In fact, he scowled.
"I'm bored. There is nothing to do, and Mum just sits and reads. Besides, I want to see what Harry learns here." Dudley folded his arms across his chest, and scowled again. Snape was silently weighing up his options. He could either curse the boy, resulting in a warning from the Ministry, he could knock him out except that it would probably take two or three hits to succeed on a person of his magnitude, or he could let him sit down the back and watch the class.
"If, and I mean it, if I let you sit down and observe the lesson, will you stay away from here from now on?"
Dudley nodded eagerly, and lumbered down the rows. To Harry's horror he stopped beside the bench Harry was sitting on, and plopped himself down. The end Harry was on shot up, and he had to grab onto the table to prevent himself from sliding down closer to Dudley. The boy who was closest to Harry, another Gryffindor, was gazing at Dudley in disgust. Harry, trying his best to ignore Dudley, began to shred the lizard skin. He was silently counting under his breath. He didn't have to wait long. Dudley leaned over, squashing the other Gryffindor in the process.
"What're you doing?" He asked, looking at the lizard skin.
"What does it look like I'm doing? Shredding lizard skin for this potion," Harry replied, frowning slightly.
"Oh."
There was silence for a few minutes, except for the sound of beetle eyes being ground up in a pestle and mortar.
"Hey Harry?" Dudley grunted suddenly, leaning back towards him and narrowly missing the Gryffindor, who had anticipated Dudley's further questions and moved to another bench.
"What?" Harry ground out, trying desperately to concentrate on his potion and not the disgusting feeling of Dudley breathing all over him.
"Who is this You-Know-Who everyone's talking about?"
A dull roaring filled Harry's ears.
"Ask someone else," He managed to whisper in a deadly quiet voice. "Anyone but me."
Dudley shrugged, then did the worst thing he could have. He stood up and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Who is You-Know Who?"
Complete silence fell over the classroom (Oops, sorry. I'm Utter's clumsy cousin…). Snape glared at him, before glancing around the classroom. His eyes fell on Ron and Harry, and he sneered.
"Perhaps we should have somebody explain to you…Weasley, you will take him to the Gryffindor Common Room, and give him an explanation," Ron's face paled in horror.
'At least he didn't ask Harry to explain it. What would he say? You-Know-Who is the most powerful, evil wizard in the world, and killing me is first on his To Do list?' Ron thought as he packed up his cauldron.
"And Harry, you will go with them to make sure your cousin doesn't break anything, and to answer any questions he may have."
Harry didn't do anything. He simply stood, packed up his things, and walked out of the classroom, tossing a glare Snape's way as he walked out the door. Ron and Dudley followed him. A few corridors away from the Potions classroom, Harry stopped and pulled out his wand. He blew up and repaired all the tapestries he could reach, then continued towards the Gryffindor classroom. Ron glanced at Harry's face nervously. His eyes had darkened, and he was scowling. For some reason a feeling of deja vu echoed into Ron's mind, before disappearing.
"Would've liked to have done that to Snape," Harry muttered, and Ron agreed. Dudley followed at a distance, slightly bewildered by Harry's reaction. Eventually they reached the Gryffindor classroom, and, after whispering the password so that Dudley couldn't hear it and pulling him through, they settled themselves into the overstuffed armchairs. Ron glanced at Harry again. He now had a resigned and distant expression on his face, and was staring into the fire. Ron sighed and turned towards Dudley, who was watching them both quietly.
"So, you want to know who You-Know-Who is, do you?"
