Title: Affair With Death...
Disclaimer: ::sigh:: Ok, I know you all will be surprised but... I do not own these Characters because I am not Jk Rowling. Yes I know I know, everyone thinks I am, but I'm not... Also, the curses and spells used in this chapter are not of my own making, I "borrowed" them from the author Aja. I am lacking severely in the creativity part when it comes to writing, so I had to steal some from somebody. So again, I do not own the spells and curses used here, although the affects of them I do own!
A/N: yes, I know I haven't been writing lately, but again, I've been busy. Plus its pretty much impossible to force yourself to write unless you have an idea suddenly pop into your head, or you suddenly get the urge to write, I'm sure all your authors know what I mean... So again, sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I've been having a writing off for awhile, hopefully this current writing streak lasts for at least a couple days so I can get this chapter out shortly!
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Harry sighed and sauntered slowly towards the DADA room. Although he greatly respected Dumbledore, he had to admit, sometimes the old man went a little to far with his ideas.
It was almost 1:00 in the morning when Harry was rudely woken up by an obnoxious pounding on his door. Harry had simply done the very thing any logical person would do-he ignored the evil person knocking on his door and fell back asleep. Unfortunately, he was again awakened less then a minute later by a very loud crash, followed by a muttered curse. Harry, again acting as any normal person would, sat straight up in bed and shot a blinding flash of light at the offender's head. Harry's target sat down quickly and groaned, clutching at his head for a moment. Finally, Harry had woken up enough to realize that the offender was Dumbledore, and quickly rushed over to help his headmaster, apologizing the whole time. Dumbledore though, after he had tending to the horrible headache his pupil had given him, looked absolutely enchanted, waving off Harry's apologies with a dismissive hand.
Now that Harry was fully awake, he realized that he may very well be the only person alive who had ever seen Dumbledore this excited about anything. True the old man was often eccentric, but now he was almost bouncing off walls-actually he probably would have, but for his age. He seemed to be delighted that his pupil had almost killed him by shooting pure energy at his head. When Harry had pointed this out, Dumbledore explained that it wasn't the fact that he had almost died that excited him, it was the fact that Harry had again done wandless magic. Actually, he hadn't even realized he had done wandless magic until that point but...
Dumbledore had left a couple minutes later with the simple instructions that Harry was to meet Lupin in the DADA classroom at 6 in the morning, he would postpone breakfast until they were finished.
Which is why Harry was currently stumbling towards the DADA classroom, still little more then half awake. Personally, Harry had no idea why Dumbledore had decided they needed to practice at 6 in the morning, but hey, like he had said before, many of Dumbledore's ideas were a bit...eccentric.
Harry walked into the DADA room and sat down in one of the deserted desks, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes and look around at the same time.
Lupin was sitting at his desk, looking perfectly awake and cheerful.
"Ah Harry, I was hoping you wouldn't forget Dumbledore's instruction, he told me that he had awoken you rather suddenly last night."
"Damn right he did." Harry mumbled quietly, slumping deeper into his chair.
Lupin smiled, choosing to ignore his pupil's language.
"Take it your not a morning person Harry."
"Well it depends on what you call morning. If you woke me up at, oh say 10, you would find me in a perfectly good mood." Harry stated crankily.
Lupin chuckled, then stood up and walked towards Harry's seat.
"Ah well, I suppose I'll have to use the same method I used to use on Sirius when we were kids. He was never a morning person either you know."
Harry looked at him through sleepy eyes, not completely comprehending Lupin's words until it was too late.
The next thing Harry knew, he was fully awake, soaked with water, and had a now empty bucket dancing merrily above his head.
Lupin grinned wolfishly at Harry's murderous look.
"That always seems to do the trick. Now that you're awake, lets get started, shall we?"
There was something in Lupin's tone the told Harry this would not be an easy lesson.
~*~
Mobili-Corpus!"
"Hydralis!"
"Reciproca!"
"Duplicatem!"
"Incendio!"
"Lumos solarem"
"Reducio Lumos solarem"
"Saligulum"
"Conjunctivitus"
Lupin and Harry had been battling for what seemed like hours. The duel, which had started as a simple lesson on a confoundous curse, had turned into a full-blown battle, both wizards using any curse and hex they could think of to attack the opponent. Harry seemed to be winning by a small margin, despite Lupin's superior knowledge of spells and curses. Harry was being very creative with the spells he knew, combining many to make a completely different result. Still, Lupin was fairly certain he would win in the end, although Harry was younger, and probably a better wizard then himself, he had a lack of knowledge and practice that would be sorely missed in the end.
"Optolis reparo"
"Duplicate Saligulum"
"Humphrendium!"
A large spider appeared in front of Harry, much like the one he had met in the woods a couple years ago, except those didn't have fangs the size of his arm that were glistening, undoubtedly, with poison. Harry quickly pushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes with one hand, trying to keep his panic subdued enough for logical thought. But the only thing Harry could think right now was, rather ironically,
'God, Ron would be having a complete panic attack right about now!'
Which, although it was almost certainly true, didn't really help Harry's position all that much. The spider was still crawling towards him on his eight, hairy legs, and still had enormous fangs that dripped with poison, despite the fact that Ron would be having a panic attack. I know it's surprising, but it's true...
Desperately Harry tried to think of a spell that would harm his opponent, but for some reason, Harry didn't think all that great when he was about to be torn in two by poisonous fangs.
Meanwhile, the spider was crouching about a foot away from his prey, calculating the amount of poison it would take to kill the helpless animal.
Finally Harry raised his hands, intending to shoot the stupefy curse at the animal, hoping it may daze the arachnid for a moment.
But as he raised his arms up to perform the spell, he felt magic sweeping through him for a second time, suddenly pushing away all fear he had felt for the enormous arachnid just moments before.
Suddenly the arachnid started to feel uneasy. His helpless prey seemed to grow larger and more powerful. The green eyes of his victim were somehow glowing, like some of the more magical creatures it had come across in the forbidden forest. Hesitantly it crouched again, this time putting more power in its jump, uncertain how powerful the creature before him really was.
Harry felt more alive then he had in his life, pure untainted energy ran through him, confidence and assertion coursing through his veins. Harry felt a little like he had when he faced Voldemort, but this time the power wasn't tainted with hatred or anger. It was weird, but Harry didn't really feel any stronger, or at least not in a physical sense. It felt almost as if he was completely awake for the first time, as if his whole life he had been walking around in a sort of daze, still the same person, still the same personality, but more subdued, as if all of his energy and personality was in a dormant state until now.
'Its as if I'm truly awake for the first time.' Harry reflected, 'As if everything about me, my personality, my strength, has been doubled.'
Suddenly Harry realized the beast before him was poised to attack, the hairy body crouched low, every one of its cold, pewter eyes fixed on its prey. Confidently Harry raised both hands, then brought them down without a word, somehow knowing he didn't need to speak to release the energy that threatened to burst from his fingertips.
At the same moment Harry released his magic on the spider, it attacked, jumping towards its prey with a shove of its powerful legs. Magic and spider collided in midair, two awesome powers crashing together.
Harry watched in confusion as the spider crashed solidly onto the ground again, looking as if had been blown over by a sudden wind. Mystified the beast stood up again, looking around as if trying to find the cause for the sudden assault. Its eyes rested on Harry, who was standing off to one side, arms crossed, looking puzzled at his own magic.
Slowly it came towards him again, looking a little apprehensive this time.
Harry raised his arms again, calmly shooting magic again at the beast, wondering what kind of spell he was doing.
Gold light shot out of his fingers, like last time, but this time it turned into a wave of water, crashing down on the spider with such force, it would almost certainly kill a person with its force.
The spider stood up again, this time trailing two broken legs behind it, looking around for the attacker. The stupid beast started towards Harry, not being smart enough to put two and two together.
Harry, a little reluctantly, held up his arms again.
This time the gold light became a sheet of fire. The spider gave out an unearthly shriek of pain, and Harry could see the burning body lying on the ground, twitching and shrieking, all eight legs curled up tightly against its body.
Harry watched in horror, every shriek of the helpless beast cutting him deep. He hated causing this much pain and agony to such a helpless beast. Although it had been trying to kill Harry, he knew that it was simply second nature to the animal, it didn't kill simply for the pleasure of killing. Finally Harry couldn't stand it anymore, he had to stop the torture of the poor spider.
Harry raised his arms again and extinguished the flames with a smaller wave of water.
The arachnid lay, still twitching, on the cold, stone floor. Then, slowly it got up again, its legs shaking uncontrollably underneath its massive body, hardly able to hold its own weight. Still it moved towards Harry, unable to stop the instinct to stalk its prey.
Harry looked at it in what appeared to be admiration, then, reluctantly, he raised his hands for the last time, hoping to god that this spell would give the spider a quick death.
The ground under the spider began to ripple and wave, then slowly, the spider began to sink down, as if he were in a thick plasma, steadily being swallowed.
Harry watched as the spider gradually sank into the ground, its legs waving frantically in the air, shaking uncontrollably, burned hair and flesh hanging off of them. Finally Harry had to look away, unable to stand the pain he had caused the beast.
"Harry, you can look now, its gone." Remus' gentle voice cut through the silence, causing Harry to look up, surprised. He had completely forgotten that his teacher was still in the room.
There was more silence while Harry stared silently at the again hardened ground.
Remus stared at his pupil with awe and a bit of respect in his light brown eyes.
"Harry I'm so sorry, I forgot what that spell actually did for a moment, I thought it created a boggart. You know that I wouldn't set something like that on you on purpose, even if we were dueling for out life."
Harry looked up at his teacher, reassurance in his green eyes, a small smile on his face.
"Of course not Lupin, I know that I can trust you, don't worry."
Lupin smiled back, then motioned to the door.
"Come on, lets go eat breakfast, I'm really hungry after such a long duel."
Harry smiled again, his eyes glinting with mirth.
"Don't you know it Lupin, in fact, technically I beat you. Ohhhh, wait till Snape hears about this!"
Lupin simply smiled and rolled his eyes and James son.
"You wish Harry, you know if I didn't stop while you were ahead I would have easily beat you."
Harry simply snorted, then walked out of the room and headed towards the Great hall.
Remus stayed behind for a moment, looking once more at the spot where the giant spider had disappeared, then walked quickly after his pupil, trying vainly to catch up with the lithe boy.
~*~
Dumbledore sat silently in his favorite armchair, feet propped up on the coffee table in front of him, one hand tapping softly on the faded leather of the armrest. His face was a picture of concentration, his half-moon spectacles perched halfway down his nose, eyes staring at nothing, obviously thinking hard about something.
Suddenly Dumbledore leapt up, knocking the old armchair down in his haste and almost breaking his glasses. Dumbledore all but flew towards his bookcase and started searching through his papers lying in neat piles on the shelves. Papers started drifting in the air around Dumbledore, going unnoticed by the eccentric headmaster, who was tossing the offending papers behind him if they were not the one he was looking for.
Suddenly Dumbledore straightened up with a cry, smiling victoriously and looking for the world as if he had just caught the snitch in a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
The old man bounded back to his armchair, hauling the armchair up so quickly the armrest almost broke off.
Dumbledore sat down, slowly, looking for the world like a normal, respectable headmaster once again.
Leisurely he propped his feet up on the desk again, crossing his legs and settling again into the contemplating silence around him, holding Arabic's prophecy thoughtfully in his weathered hands, reading them solemly to himself.
Luckily, Dumbledore usually felt it more interesting to play the dry, respectable headmaster when out in public...
~*~
Harry Potter lay in his bed, looking unseeingly at the white ceiling, trying vainly to catch up on all that had happened in the past three days. Somehow, Harry had lost all sense of reality when he had almost killed Voldemort.
"Yess, well, that doess tend to happen to people who almost kill the most feared wizard in the world with a ssudden bursst of energy, you know."
Arabic hissed quietly at Harry, his voice underlined with mirth.
Harry sat up and tried to glare menesingly at the black snake wrapped around his bed post, but found it very hard to glare at a snake, especially when the snake was obviously laughing quietly at you.
"Oh shut up Arabic." Harry grumbled, trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile.
"Hey, wait, how did you know what I was thinking?" Harry said suddenly, sitting up and staring at his pet in surprise.
This time Arabic laughed out loud, chuckling breathily at Harry's stupidity.
"I do have earsss you know. You ssaid that out loud." Arabic said, still snickering.
Harry blushed slightly.
"Oh"
"Yess." Arabic smiled, his red eyes still glowing with ammusment.
"You know, you really should get some ssleep Harry. Who knows what you will ssay next..."
"Shut up." Harry repeated absently, his mind wandering again to the duel he had had that morning with Lupin.
"Hey Arabic, do you sense anything different about my magic? Something that didn't used to be there?" Harry asked cautiously, looking apprehensively at the snake.
Arabic looked uncertain for a moment, as if he was afraid to answer Harry's question, but finally he sighed, looking at Harry again.
"I don't even have to try anymore Harry. I can see it radiating from you, like rays of light. You-you have more magical skills then I have ever seen in a human Harry, possibly even more then Dumbledore."
Harry sighed and flopped back onto his bed, his hands massaging his temples, as if he had a headache.
Arabic looked wearily at Harry, unsure how to react.
Finally Harry sat up again his voice leaden with weariness.
"More then Voldemort?"
"I didn't ssay that, I said more then any human. Voldemort isn't human."
Harry sighed again, burying his face in his hands.
"So, even after all I have to go through, I still won't be able to beat Voldemort."
"I didn't ssay that either. Voldemort is surrounded by a void of emptyness, I have no idea how powerful he is."
Harry looked at Arabic for a second, uncertain how to react to this information.
Finally Harry groaned and shook his head, as if trying to get rid of bad memories.
"That's it, this is too much, I need to relax for awhile. I'm going to take a bath in the prefects bathroom, I'll see you before dinner, ok?"
Arabic smiled and nodded in agreement, unwinding from the bed post and slithering towards his own bed, made from various comfortable items found around the room.
Harry smiled briefly at his snake, then walked out of the portrait and into the hallway.
Harry walked slowly, completely focused on his own thoughts, eyes unfocused.
Questions and theories were swirling through his mind, each one more farfetched then the last. His whole reasoning was thrown off balance, he hadn't felt so unsure of the world since his first year at Hogwarts. Why could he suddenly do wandless magic? How could he ever even dream of being more powerful then the most powerful human in the world? Why the hell did these things always happen to him?
Abruptly Harry was brought into the real world, bumping rudely into Nearly Headless Nick, almost falling over himself.
"Oops, sorry, I was thinking about something else." Harry said apologetically, stepping around the ghost and continuing his path towards the prefect bathroom.
Suddenly Harry stopped, the reality suddenly hitting him like greased lightning.
Slowly Harry turned around and looked behind him, blinking his eyes in confusion.
Nearly Headless Nick was still there, looking completely dumbfounded.
Gradually Harry walked towards Nearly Headless Nick, the look on his face the same as he had in first year, before the sorting, but this time it wasn't because he had seen a ghost. This time it was because he had bumped into a ghost.
Slowly Nearly Headless Nick turned to Harry, his eyes wide, slight fear apparent on his normally cheery face.
"Uh, Harry, did you just bump into me?" Nearly Headless Nick asked uncertainly.
Harry stared back, an identical look of bewilderment on his face
"Er, ya, I think so."
"Oh."
"Ya."
Harry looked down at the ground, an uncomfortable silence falling on them.
"Er Harry, how did you bump into me? I'm a ghost."
"Umm, I don't know...Can I try to touch you again?"
Nearly headless Nick nodded uncertainly.
Harry slowly reached out a shaky hand towards Nearly Headless Nick's arm. Finally Harry's fingers touched his clothes...
And went through with complete ease, plunging his hand in coldness.
Both Harry and Nearly headless Nick let out identical sighs of relief.
"Well, uh, I guess that settles that. Er, maybe someone confounded us for a moment there." Harry suggested lamely.
"Ya, maybe, anyway, it didn't happen again."
"Ya, so, uh, I had better go now. Bye." Harry said quickly, walking around the ghost carefully and almost running towards the prefects bathroom, his mind swirling with new fears.
'God, what the hell is wrong with me?!' Harry though miserably, his head pounding with unanswered questions.
~*~
A/N: Ok, I was going 2 have this longer, but I had to get it out, I was afraid some of you guys would think I had forgotten about it! Sorry it took me so long to write, I have had soooo much homework, and now I have finals, and well ya you know the routine. Sorry! And I know Draco was going 2 be in this one, but I split this chapter into two chapters b/c it is already 11 pages long... And if I wrote the other half, it would probably be at least 20, which would probably take me ANOTHER 3 weeks to write, so, ya. PELASE read and review, ok?!!!! I know I say that every time, but it helps me more then you could imagine! Oh, and special thanx to iluvhp, your hurry up review made me write the last couple pages of this story! See, told u guys reviews helped me write!
Also, special thanks to Songbreeze Swifteye, who has reviewed all my chapters, as well as my friend Sadimeas, who reiveiws even though she doesn't read HP all that much anymore...
Also, thanks to ALL of you guys who have reviewed, you REALLY encourage me to write more!!!!!
Disclaimer: ::sigh:: Ok, I know you all will be surprised but... I do not own these Characters because I am not Jk Rowling. Yes I know I know, everyone thinks I am, but I'm not... Also, the curses and spells used in this chapter are not of my own making, I "borrowed" them from the author Aja. I am lacking severely in the creativity part when it comes to writing, so I had to steal some from somebody. So again, I do not own the spells and curses used here, although the affects of them I do own!
A/N: yes, I know I haven't been writing lately, but again, I've been busy. Plus its pretty much impossible to force yourself to write unless you have an idea suddenly pop into your head, or you suddenly get the urge to write, I'm sure all your authors know what I mean... So again, sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I've been having a writing off for awhile, hopefully this current writing streak lasts for at least a couple days so I can get this chapter out shortly!
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Harry sighed and sauntered slowly towards the DADA room. Although he greatly respected Dumbledore, he had to admit, sometimes the old man went a little to far with his ideas.
It was almost 1:00 in the morning when Harry was rudely woken up by an obnoxious pounding on his door. Harry had simply done the very thing any logical person would do-he ignored the evil person knocking on his door and fell back asleep. Unfortunately, he was again awakened less then a minute later by a very loud crash, followed by a muttered curse. Harry, again acting as any normal person would, sat straight up in bed and shot a blinding flash of light at the offender's head. Harry's target sat down quickly and groaned, clutching at his head for a moment. Finally, Harry had woken up enough to realize that the offender was Dumbledore, and quickly rushed over to help his headmaster, apologizing the whole time. Dumbledore though, after he had tending to the horrible headache his pupil had given him, looked absolutely enchanted, waving off Harry's apologies with a dismissive hand.
Now that Harry was fully awake, he realized that he may very well be the only person alive who had ever seen Dumbledore this excited about anything. True the old man was often eccentric, but now he was almost bouncing off walls-actually he probably would have, but for his age. He seemed to be delighted that his pupil had almost killed him by shooting pure energy at his head. When Harry had pointed this out, Dumbledore explained that it wasn't the fact that he had almost died that excited him, it was the fact that Harry had again done wandless magic. Actually, he hadn't even realized he had done wandless magic until that point but...
Dumbledore had left a couple minutes later with the simple instructions that Harry was to meet Lupin in the DADA classroom at 6 in the morning, he would postpone breakfast until they were finished.
Which is why Harry was currently stumbling towards the DADA classroom, still little more then half awake. Personally, Harry had no idea why Dumbledore had decided they needed to practice at 6 in the morning, but hey, like he had said before, many of Dumbledore's ideas were a bit...eccentric.
Harry walked into the DADA room and sat down in one of the deserted desks, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes and look around at the same time.
Lupin was sitting at his desk, looking perfectly awake and cheerful.
"Ah Harry, I was hoping you wouldn't forget Dumbledore's instruction, he told me that he had awoken you rather suddenly last night."
"Damn right he did." Harry mumbled quietly, slumping deeper into his chair.
Lupin smiled, choosing to ignore his pupil's language.
"Take it your not a morning person Harry."
"Well it depends on what you call morning. If you woke me up at, oh say 10, you would find me in a perfectly good mood." Harry stated crankily.
Lupin chuckled, then stood up and walked towards Harry's seat.
"Ah well, I suppose I'll have to use the same method I used to use on Sirius when we were kids. He was never a morning person either you know."
Harry looked at him through sleepy eyes, not completely comprehending Lupin's words until it was too late.
The next thing Harry knew, he was fully awake, soaked with water, and had a now empty bucket dancing merrily above his head.
Lupin grinned wolfishly at Harry's murderous look.
"That always seems to do the trick. Now that you're awake, lets get started, shall we?"
There was something in Lupin's tone the told Harry this would not be an easy lesson.
~*~
Mobili-Corpus!"
"Hydralis!"
"Reciproca!"
"Duplicatem!"
"Incendio!"
"Lumos solarem"
"Reducio Lumos solarem"
"Saligulum"
"Conjunctivitus"
Lupin and Harry had been battling for what seemed like hours. The duel, which had started as a simple lesson on a confoundous curse, had turned into a full-blown battle, both wizards using any curse and hex they could think of to attack the opponent. Harry seemed to be winning by a small margin, despite Lupin's superior knowledge of spells and curses. Harry was being very creative with the spells he knew, combining many to make a completely different result. Still, Lupin was fairly certain he would win in the end, although Harry was younger, and probably a better wizard then himself, he had a lack of knowledge and practice that would be sorely missed in the end.
"Optolis reparo"
"Duplicate Saligulum"
"Humphrendium!"
A large spider appeared in front of Harry, much like the one he had met in the woods a couple years ago, except those didn't have fangs the size of his arm that were glistening, undoubtedly, with poison. Harry quickly pushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes with one hand, trying to keep his panic subdued enough for logical thought. But the only thing Harry could think right now was, rather ironically,
'God, Ron would be having a complete panic attack right about now!'
Which, although it was almost certainly true, didn't really help Harry's position all that much. The spider was still crawling towards him on his eight, hairy legs, and still had enormous fangs that dripped with poison, despite the fact that Ron would be having a panic attack. I know it's surprising, but it's true...
Desperately Harry tried to think of a spell that would harm his opponent, but for some reason, Harry didn't think all that great when he was about to be torn in two by poisonous fangs.
Meanwhile, the spider was crouching about a foot away from his prey, calculating the amount of poison it would take to kill the helpless animal.
Finally Harry raised his hands, intending to shoot the stupefy curse at the animal, hoping it may daze the arachnid for a moment.
But as he raised his arms up to perform the spell, he felt magic sweeping through him for a second time, suddenly pushing away all fear he had felt for the enormous arachnid just moments before.
Suddenly the arachnid started to feel uneasy. His helpless prey seemed to grow larger and more powerful. The green eyes of his victim were somehow glowing, like some of the more magical creatures it had come across in the forbidden forest. Hesitantly it crouched again, this time putting more power in its jump, uncertain how powerful the creature before him really was.
Harry felt more alive then he had in his life, pure untainted energy ran through him, confidence and assertion coursing through his veins. Harry felt a little like he had when he faced Voldemort, but this time the power wasn't tainted with hatred or anger. It was weird, but Harry didn't really feel any stronger, or at least not in a physical sense. It felt almost as if he was completely awake for the first time, as if his whole life he had been walking around in a sort of daze, still the same person, still the same personality, but more subdued, as if all of his energy and personality was in a dormant state until now.
'Its as if I'm truly awake for the first time.' Harry reflected, 'As if everything about me, my personality, my strength, has been doubled.'
Suddenly Harry realized the beast before him was poised to attack, the hairy body crouched low, every one of its cold, pewter eyes fixed on its prey. Confidently Harry raised both hands, then brought them down without a word, somehow knowing he didn't need to speak to release the energy that threatened to burst from his fingertips.
At the same moment Harry released his magic on the spider, it attacked, jumping towards its prey with a shove of its powerful legs. Magic and spider collided in midair, two awesome powers crashing together.
Harry watched in confusion as the spider crashed solidly onto the ground again, looking as if had been blown over by a sudden wind. Mystified the beast stood up again, looking around as if trying to find the cause for the sudden assault. Its eyes rested on Harry, who was standing off to one side, arms crossed, looking puzzled at his own magic.
Slowly it came towards him again, looking a little apprehensive this time.
Harry raised his arms again, calmly shooting magic again at the beast, wondering what kind of spell he was doing.
Gold light shot out of his fingers, like last time, but this time it turned into a wave of water, crashing down on the spider with such force, it would almost certainly kill a person with its force.
The spider stood up again, this time trailing two broken legs behind it, looking around for the attacker. The stupid beast started towards Harry, not being smart enough to put two and two together.
Harry, a little reluctantly, held up his arms again.
This time the gold light became a sheet of fire. The spider gave out an unearthly shriek of pain, and Harry could see the burning body lying on the ground, twitching and shrieking, all eight legs curled up tightly against its body.
Harry watched in horror, every shriek of the helpless beast cutting him deep. He hated causing this much pain and agony to such a helpless beast. Although it had been trying to kill Harry, he knew that it was simply second nature to the animal, it didn't kill simply for the pleasure of killing. Finally Harry couldn't stand it anymore, he had to stop the torture of the poor spider.
Harry raised his arms again and extinguished the flames with a smaller wave of water.
The arachnid lay, still twitching, on the cold, stone floor. Then, slowly it got up again, its legs shaking uncontrollably underneath its massive body, hardly able to hold its own weight. Still it moved towards Harry, unable to stop the instinct to stalk its prey.
Harry looked at it in what appeared to be admiration, then, reluctantly, he raised his hands for the last time, hoping to god that this spell would give the spider a quick death.
The ground under the spider began to ripple and wave, then slowly, the spider began to sink down, as if he were in a thick plasma, steadily being swallowed.
Harry watched as the spider gradually sank into the ground, its legs waving frantically in the air, shaking uncontrollably, burned hair and flesh hanging off of them. Finally Harry had to look away, unable to stand the pain he had caused the beast.
"Harry, you can look now, its gone." Remus' gentle voice cut through the silence, causing Harry to look up, surprised. He had completely forgotten that his teacher was still in the room.
There was more silence while Harry stared silently at the again hardened ground.
Remus stared at his pupil with awe and a bit of respect in his light brown eyes.
"Harry I'm so sorry, I forgot what that spell actually did for a moment, I thought it created a boggart. You know that I wouldn't set something like that on you on purpose, even if we were dueling for out life."
Harry looked up at his teacher, reassurance in his green eyes, a small smile on his face.
"Of course not Lupin, I know that I can trust you, don't worry."
Lupin smiled back, then motioned to the door.
"Come on, lets go eat breakfast, I'm really hungry after such a long duel."
Harry smiled again, his eyes glinting with mirth.
"Don't you know it Lupin, in fact, technically I beat you. Ohhhh, wait till Snape hears about this!"
Lupin simply smiled and rolled his eyes and James son.
"You wish Harry, you know if I didn't stop while you were ahead I would have easily beat you."
Harry simply snorted, then walked out of the room and headed towards the Great hall.
Remus stayed behind for a moment, looking once more at the spot where the giant spider had disappeared, then walked quickly after his pupil, trying vainly to catch up with the lithe boy.
~*~
Dumbledore sat silently in his favorite armchair, feet propped up on the coffee table in front of him, one hand tapping softly on the faded leather of the armrest. His face was a picture of concentration, his half-moon spectacles perched halfway down his nose, eyes staring at nothing, obviously thinking hard about something.
Suddenly Dumbledore leapt up, knocking the old armchair down in his haste and almost breaking his glasses. Dumbledore all but flew towards his bookcase and started searching through his papers lying in neat piles on the shelves. Papers started drifting in the air around Dumbledore, going unnoticed by the eccentric headmaster, who was tossing the offending papers behind him if they were not the one he was looking for.
Suddenly Dumbledore straightened up with a cry, smiling victoriously and looking for the world as if he had just caught the snitch in a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
The old man bounded back to his armchair, hauling the armchair up so quickly the armrest almost broke off.
Dumbledore sat down, slowly, looking for the world like a normal, respectable headmaster once again.
Leisurely he propped his feet up on the desk again, crossing his legs and settling again into the contemplating silence around him, holding Arabic's prophecy thoughtfully in his weathered hands, reading them solemly to himself.
Luckily, Dumbledore usually felt it more interesting to play the dry, respectable headmaster when out in public...
~*~
Harry Potter lay in his bed, looking unseeingly at the white ceiling, trying vainly to catch up on all that had happened in the past three days. Somehow, Harry had lost all sense of reality when he had almost killed Voldemort.
"Yess, well, that doess tend to happen to people who almost kill the most feared wizard in the world with a ssudden bursst of energy, you know."
Arabic hissed quietly at Harry, his voice underlined with mirth.
Harry sat up and tried to glare menesingly at the black snake wrapped around his bed post, but found it very hard to glare at a snake, especially when the snake was obviously laughing quietly at you.
"Oh shut up Arabic." Harry grumbled, trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile.
"Hey, wait, how did you know what I was thinking?" Harry said suddenly, sitting up and staring at his pet in surprise.
This time Arabic laughed out loud, chuckling breathily at Harry's stupidity.
"I do have earsss you know. You ssaid that out loud." Arabic said, still snickering.
Harry blushed slightly.
"Oh"
"Yess." Arabic smiled, his red eyes still glowing with ammusment.
"You know, you really should get some ssleep Harry. Who knows what you will ssay next..."
"Shut up." Harry repeated absently, his mind wandering again to the duel he had had that morning with Lupin.
"Hey Arabic, do you sense anything different about my magic? Something that didn't used to be there?" Harry asked cautiously, looking apprehensively at the snake.
Arabic looked uncertain for a moment, as if he was afraid to answer Harry's question, but finally he sighed, looking at Harry again.
"I don't even have to try anymore Harry. I can see it radiating from you, like rays of light. You-you have more magical skills then I have ever seen in a human Harry, possibly even more then Dumbledore."
Harry sighed and flopped back onto his bed, his hands massaging his temples, as if he had a headache.
Arabic looked wearily at Harry, unsure how to react.
Finally Harry sat up again his voice leaden with weariness.
"More then Voldemort?"
"I didn't ssay that, I said more then any human. Voldemort isn't human."
Harry sighed again, burying his face in his hands.
"So, even after all I have to go through, I still won't be able to beat Voldemort."
"I didn't ssay that either. Voldemort is surrounded by a void of emptyness, I have no idea how powerful he is."
Harry looked at Arabic for a second, uncertain how to react to this information.
Finally Harry groaned and shook his head, as if trying to get rid of bad memories.
"That's it, this is too much, I need to relax for awhile. I'm going to take a bath in the prefects bathroom, I'll see you before dinner, ok?"
Arabic smiled and nodded in agreement, unwinding from the bed post and slithering towards his own bed, made from various comfortable items found around the room.
Harry smiled briefly at his snake, then walked out of the portrait and into the hallway.
Harry walked slowly, completely focused on his own thoughts, eyes unfocused.
Questions and theories were swirling through his mind, each one more farfetched then the last. His whole reasoning was thrown off balance, he hadn't felt so unsure of the world since his first year at Hogwarts. Why could he suddenly do wandless magic? How could he ever even dream of being more powerful then the most powerful human in the world? Why the hell did these things always happen to him?
Abruptly Harry was brought into the real world, bumping rudely into Nearly Headless Nick, almost falling over himself.
"Oops, sorry, I was thinking about something else." Harry said apologetically, stepping around the ghost and continuing his path towards the prefect bathroom.
Suddenly Harry stopped, the reality suddenly hitting him like greased lightning.
Slowly Harry turned around and looked behind him, blinking his eyes in confusion.
Nearly Headless Nick was still there, looking completely dumbfounded.
Gradually Harry walked towards Nearly Headless Nick, the look on his face the same as he had in first year, before the sorting, but this time it wasn't because he had seen a ghost. This time it was because he had bumped into a ghost.
Slowly Nearly Headless Nick turned to Harry, his eyes wide, slight fear apparent on his normally cheery face.
"Uh, Harry, did you just bump into me?" Nearly Headless Nick asked uncertainly.
Harry stared back, an identical look of bewilderment on his face
"Er, ya, I think so."
"Oh."
"Ya."
Harry looked down at the ground, an uncomfortable silence falling on them.
"Er Harry, how did you bump into me? I'm a ghost."
"Umm, I don't know...Can I try to touch you again?"
Nearly headless Nick nodded uncertainly.
Harry slowly reached out a shaky hand towards Nearly Headless Nick's arm. Finally Harry's fingers touched his clothes...
And went through with complete ease, plunging his hand in coldness.
Both Harry and Nearly headless Nick let out identical sighs of relief.
"Well, uh, I guess that settles that. Er, maybe someone confounded us for a moment there." Harry suggested lamely.
"Ya, maybe, anyway, it didn't happen again."
"Ya, so, uh, I had better go now. Bye." Harry said quickly, walking around the ghost carefully and almost running towards the prefects bathroom, his mind swirling with new fears.
'God, what the hell is wrong with me?!' Harry though miserably, his head pounding with unanswered questions.
~*~
A/N: Ok, I was going 2 have this longer, but I had to get it out, I was afraid some of you guys would think I had forgotten about it! Sorry it took me so long to write, I have had soooo much homework, and now I have finals, and well ya you know the routine. Sorry! And I know Draco was going 2 be in this one, but I split this chapter into two chapters b/c it is already 11 pages long... And if I wrote the other half, it would probably be at least 20, which would probably take me ANOTHER 3 weeks to write, so, ya. PELASE read and review, ok?!!!! I know I say that every time, but it helps me more then you could imagine! Oh, and special thanx to iluvhp, your hurry up review made me write the last couple pages of this story! See, told u guys reviews helped me write!
Also, special thanks to Songbreeze Swifteye, who has reviewed all my chapters, as well as my friend Sadimeas, who reiveiws even though she doesn't read HP all that much anymore...
Also, thanks to ALL of you guys who have reviewed, you REALLY encourage me to write more!!!!!