Booya people! Next chapter, fresh out of the machine! Well…not literally…I still have a few chapters left but…I'm rambling! Anyway! Join the list, post the fanfiction, live long and prosper, thanks for all the reviews…I'd better stop typing or poor old Blossom is gonna chuck a fit waiting for this…heh heh. I'm cruel. *starts singing* Your eyes can be so cruel, just as I can be so cruel…
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Chapter Eighteen
Harry scowled as he pulled his dress robes over his head. He really didn't want to go to the ball, especially after the day's events, but Ron had asked Hermione – strictly as friends, of course – and they had begged and pleaded, saying that it just wouldn't be the same without him. He had eventually given in just to shut them up. He hadn't been asked to the ball by anyone and he didn't feel like asking, especially with all the rumours about him going around so he had decided to go alone. He fixed the cuffs of his robes, and glanced quickly into the mirror. His hair was just as wild as it was normally, but he had given up on it by now. In a fit of childishness he poked his tongue out at his reflection, picked up Sebastian and Echolalia, and headed down to the common room.
"You took your time, Harry! Come on, or we'll be late!" Hermione exclaimed, grabbing his arm and dragging him and Ron after her. She was dressed in the same periwinkle blue outfit that she had worn last year, and her hair was tied up in an elaborate knot on her head. Harry thought that he caught a glimpse of make-up on her face, but he wasn't sure. Ron was dressed in the navy blue robes with gold trimming that the twins had gotten him for Christmas, and was looking extremely proud. Harry was glad that the money he had won was being put to good use. He had decided over the time with the Dursleys that he would not allow himself to drown in self-pity. Too many people would expect that of him, and he wished to prove that he would not just give in and bow his head to fate, or destiny or anything that those kind of people rabbited on about.
"Harry? You still alive in there or has your brain gone on permanent vacation?" Ron's voice startled Harry out of his reverie.
"Pardon? I was off with the faeries…"
Ron rolled his eyes. "I was asking you if you wanted to eat first and dance later, or dance first and eat later."
Harry shrugged. "It doesn't bother me either way…" Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, shrugged, and headed out onto the dance floor. Harry sidled over to the drinks and picked up a glass of water, then sat down in one of the chairs around the sides of the great hall. The decorations were amazing. Streamers hung from almost every available place and kept changing colour, and balloons that couldn't be popped bounced around the floor. The band playing was fairly good, and the roof of the hall reflected a clear, starry sky, which seemed to be more of a royal blue than black.
"How are you, Potter?" Moody's voice growled from behind Harry, making him jump two feet into the air. Moody laughed slightly.
"However amusing your impression of a rabbit is, I would prefer it if you answered the question," He said as he took a seat beside Harry.
"Fine," Harry muttered, his ears turning slightly red.
'If I'm supposed to be so brave and courageous, why did I jump?' He thought sourly to himself. Moody, who hadn't noticed his look of slight disgust, turned around to look at him.
"How have you been doing in class?"
Harry shrugged. "Okay, I guess."
Moody grinned, or at least gave the impression that he was trying to. "From what I've heard you've been doing a lot better than just 'okay'."
Harry shrugged again, and directed his attention towards the couples on the dance floor. The partners twirled and spun, making Harry feel a little dizzy.
"Not very talkative today, are you?" Moody said, turning to watch the partners as well.
Harry sighed, and shook his head.
'Was there any point in him coming over here?' He asked himself, then voiced his question out loud.
Moody grinned. "You aren't one to muck about, are you? Yes, there is a reason to me coming over here besides wanting a conversation with someone who doesn't shrink away from me or act as if I'm mad. Dumbledore was wondering if you might like to have some…extensions…in your classes, so to speak."
Harry looked at him blankly. Moody sighed. "With your abilities. We figured that if you have them, you might as well learn how to use them."
Harry thought for a moment. "I guess it would be pretty stupid to have the chance and not take it, wouldn't it?"
Moody grinned and nodded, before standing up and stretching. "I'd better go. Can't be seen with you for too long, or some people might think that I had favourites." He grinned again, and stomped off, his wooden leg clicking on the polished floor.
Harry sat there for a little while longer, before standing. He was about to head up to his room, when he heard a quiet sound coming from behind him.
"Psssst!"
"No I'm not. There's no alcohol here, so that's fairly impossible."
There was a snort of laughter which was quickly muffled, then Fred's voice reached his ears.
"Get over here, Harry! We need your help."
"What is it?"
Harry had gone against his better judgement, and was standing in a small corridor away from the Great Hall with Fred, George and Lee.
George glanced at him, before looking away. "It's kind of embarrassing…"
Harry snapped. "I'm tired, extremely frustrated, I've just been dragged out into a cold hall to help you three and now you won't tell me what's wrong! If you want help, talk fast."
"Okay, okay! Jeez…Well, Fred, Lee and I were trying to invent a kind of sweet which would create a clone of the person who ate it for a while, so they could get the clones to do homework and stuff, you know? Ron wasn't exactly willing to try them – I can't imagine why – so we all had one instead. Everything was going fine, except for the fact that they didn't disappear when they were supposed to. We figured that we had just miscalculated slightly, and thought that they would go away in an hour or so. But the hours became days, and the days became weeks and now…The worst thing is that if they don't have something to do, they start acting up. We have them following Snape right now and influencing people to walk in his way or put objects in his path when he really needs to get somewhere, but they'll forget what they're supposed to be doing eventually…"
"And this means exactly what to me?" Harry asked, groaning and running a hand through his hair impatiently.
"Well, you're pretty advanced in class, and we were wondering if…" Fred started.
"You would try and help us undo it," George finished. Harry sighed.
"Fine. Was it a potion or a spell that you used?"
"Potion."
"Well, come on. The way to counteract the potion is probably through another potion, so we'd better get to the Potions classroom."
"Thanks, Harry."
"You owe me."
"Ouch!"
"Sorry Lee," Fred said, grinning. The four boys were shifting a large cauldron out of one of the cupboards in the classroom, and Fred had just stepped on Lee's foot.
"Would you lot just hurry up and get the cauldron over here?" Harry snapped. He had pulled out all of his potions ingredients and was arranging them on the bench in front of him in a way that would make it easy for him to get them without having to look up from what he was doing. Fred, Lee and George managed to move the cauldron over in front of Harry, who lit the fire beneath it, and half-filled it with water.
"Do you have a list of the ingredients you put into it?" Harry asked them, silently praying that they did. He wouldn't be able to do much if he didn't know what they had added in the first place.
"What do you think we are, idiots?" Fred asked him indignantly as he pulled a piece of parchment out of his robes. Harry simply stared at him for a moment, before taking the piece of parchment.
"Did you add them in this order?" He asked, studying the piece of crumpled paper carefully.
"Well, yes. Does it make a difference?" Lee asked, his face puzzled.
Harry sighed. "Yes, it does. For example, if you had added the beetle eyes before the dragon's liver, you would have been drinking a potion for healing cataracts, and if you had added the dragonfly wings before that you would have been drinking a highly concentrated form of hydrochloric acid."
The three boys blanched, and backed away from the cauldron.
"Now, lets see…if you mix lizard gut with worm skin it should counteract the boggart eyes and grispik kidney, and if I boil some mandrake leaves and redcap teeth together that should nullify the effects of the dragonfly wings and cobra venom…"
Harry began to work, shredding and boiling and drying ingredients, mixing some and grinding others into a fine powder. Fumes rose from the cauldron and filled the air with a bitter, acrid smell. Plumes of smoke rose and wreathed Harry's head, making it look like he had a multi-coloured halo around his head, and giving off an extremely eerie effect.
"I need some scales," He said suddenly.
"I'll get them," Lee said, starting to his feet. Harry shook his head.
"No, I can. Accio scales!" He said. A pair of small, golden scales flew towards him, and landed on the desk lightly. Harry weighed the last ingredient – beetle eyes – and threw them into the cauldron. It glowed a bright green for a moment before fading and changing to a brilliant, shining silver. Harry took three vials and filled them to the brim with the luminous liquid and handing them to the twins and Lee. They looked at them doubtfully.
"Are you sure this will work?" Lee asked.
Harry shrugged. "Either that or you'll be extremely happy for a little while, before passing out and dreaming of things like giant, hairy spiders."
They laughed nervously, but stopped when they saw he wasn't smiling.
"You're not…serious, are you?" Fred asked in disbelief.
"What do you think?"
They looked nervously at each other again.
"Well, bottoms up," George said after a pause, and downed the potion in one shot. The other two were quick to follow. They stood for a moment with uncertain expressions on their faces, before smiling. Suddenly three streams of white mist shot under the door and hit them. They shouted in surprise, then turned to Harry as the vapour died away.
"What was that?" Lee asked suspiciously.
"That was the clones," Harry answered, smiling slightly. 'Did you think that they'd just disappear? What you did was separate a little of your essence from yourselves and give it another body. If you hadn't been rejoined, eventually you would have gotten sick and died." The three boys paled.
"Come on. I'm going to bed, and I think you should do the same. That potion sometimes has some side-effects, and it's best to sleep them off."
The trio of troublemakers nodded, and the four headed out of the room. No one noticed the scales shrink turn into a small ball of glowing golden light, and slip into one of the pockets in Harry's robes.
