Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.
The Halloween feast was as good as Harry remembered it, but it just wasn't the same without being able to laugh with Ron about things they had done during the weekend. And Hermione? Well, Harry was tempted to torch the library. Hermione had spent almost every waking hour up there, looking for her mysterious topaz. Harry wasn't too optimistic of her chances – there had to be a lot of famous gems to search through and even Hermione couldn't read every book in the library.
Unfortunately, a few hours after the good food at the Halloween feast, Harry had to report to the Entrance Hall for McGonagall, who was ready with a muggle-style mop.
"What?" Harry cried, "I'm cleaning the hall without magic?!"
"Of course," McGonagall replied, as if she couldn't imagine using magic for something like cleaning. "I'll come back after the hour and see how well you've done."
Harry grumbled, assembled the mop, and got it wet. Harry had thought the Great Hall was large when he arrived as a first year, but today he finally appreciated how many square meters of bare stone floor it contained. He was barely a third of the way when the half past chime sounded. Well Harry thought I guess I'm not going to finish it tonight.
Suddenly, the large oak entrance door was thrown open, and 7 muddy Slytherins faced Harry in their filthy green robes.
"No!" Harry warned, "You enter someplace else. I'm cleaning."
"Cleaning, Potter?" Malfoy sneered, after taking a disdainful look at the mop and bucket.
"Yes, Malfoy. Problem hearing? Clear off!" Harry yelled.
"5 points from Gryffindor," Snape silkily said, coming in from behind his students. "I don't appreciate you yelling at my Quidditch team, Potter." Snape then turned to his team and vindictively said, "Head down to the commons, team. I'll see you tomorrow at the same time."
Harry's mouth dropped, and the Slytherin team quickly walked through the main hall. Where there used to be shining wet stone floor there was now a speckled sea of mud. Harry glowered angrily as he saw that the Slytherins cast cleaning charms on themselves after they had passed through the hall.
"Well, Potter, I do say you should get busy," Snape whispered, and parted himself.
Harry resumed mopping, fully intending to complain to McGonagall when she arrived.
"You seem rather angry," Hector remarked, as Harry grumpily sat down in front of the wisp's cage. The weather was just starting to turn nippy, and the fact that Harry didn't bring a cloak didn't help his mood any.
"Very good," Harry curtly hissed back, silently cursing the dark November night and dirty Slytherins.
"Hmmm," considered the snake, "maybe you're not as noble as I thought."
Harry took a deep breath, calming himself, and replied, "I'm sorry. It's been a rough couple of weeks."
"And why is that?" Hector curiously asked.
"My best friend isn't talking to me," Harry softly said.
The wisp took a moment, finally replying, "I understand. I didn't have anyone to talk to for awhile, either."
Harry looked at the greenish-brown ball and said, "I don't understand something. You speak the same language as when you were alive. So why don't you talk with living snakes?"
Hector blinked dimly a couple of times before asking back, "What was your first reaction when you saw the ghosts in Hogwarts?"
Harry thought back to when Nearly Headless Nick and the Fat Friar burst through the stone wall before they were sorted. "I was afraid, I guess."
Hector laughed. "Exactly. But what stopped you from running away?"
Harry thought some more. "I guess I was just curious."
"There are only two animals," Hector finished, "that are inquisitive enough to talk with their own ghosts: humans and cats."
"Interesting," Harry said, filing away yet another bit of information for his report for Hagrid.
As Harry settled into his seat for Defense, Seamus whispered to Dean, "Who had what?"
"Ron said Vampires. Neville guessed Unforgivables. You said vampires too, and I think it'll be minor curses," Dean responded.
Harry sniggered. Ever since Dumbledore had told them that they'd be covering a broad variety of subjects, the students had been guessing what the next topic would be.
However, the four stifled groans as Dumbledore said, "Today we'll be covering Shades." – Apparently all four were wrong again.
Everyone turned to look at Hermione in anticipation of Dumbledore's next question. Sure enough, Hermione's hand was quickly raised as the headmaster asked, "Does anyone know what Shades are?"
"Shades are invisible spirits," Hermione promptly answered. "They spy upon the living and report back what they see."
"Excellent," Dumbledore said, smiling. "Shades themselves aren't very dangerous. Even the strongest shades aren't capable of killing anything. But don't underestimate their importance – they can provide value information to dark wizards. Now, the hardest part of dealing with shades is finding them. Shades become visible momentarily when 'flashed'."
Most of the students became confused at this; Dumbledore simply said, "Watch." An extremely brief green flash flew flew through the room – so fleeting that Harry wondered whether he imagined it. However, there was something floating next to Dumbledore now. It was an almost transparent green, and looked like a haggard old woman. The woman's clothes were extremely tattered and she appeared to be gnawing on a deceased rat. As soon as she noticed the attention from all the students, she ambled hurriedly to the door, but Dumbledore pointed his hand at her and said, "Resolutum."
The old woman fell on the floor and screamed piteously "I'm melting, I'm melting!" before vanishing.
A few of the muggle-born students laughed, and Dumbledore smiled. "They usually don't die so dramatically," Dumbledore admitted.
Harry raised his hand and asked, "Are all shades green, or is it because you flashed green light?"
"Neither," Dumbledore explained. "Shades can be any color. Flashing them only works if you choose the right color. Ron, will you flash a red light in the room? And Terry, will you flash the room blue?"
Ron lit the room with a bright red light for a split second, but it was far slower than Dumbledore and several students blinked to clear out their eyes. Terry cast his, and fortunately managed to do it a bit quicker than Ron. Suddenly, there were two new 'students' in the room. But instead of the Hogwarts robes, they were wearing red and blue robes more in the style of a dementor with loose hoods almost covering their faces. Harry wished that they did, because he caught a glimpse of the most hideous faces he had ever seen. It wasn't ugly in the conventional sense, but the emotions that they portrayed were even worse than Voldemort was capable of. The two shades snarled nastily and tried to flee as well. However, Sally-Anne quickly cast "Resolutum" at them, and they quickly vanished as well.
"Excellent," Dumbledore said, smiling broadly. "Now please follow me." Everyone followed him, and it was soon clear that they were headed to the Experimentorium. Sure enough, they were soon entering the doors of the mysteriously colored building.
"The Shade Scenario?" the replica of the headmaster asked.
"Of course," Dumbledore replied. It was sort of surreal Harry had to admit – the four twinkling eyes and the two quirky grins.
However, instead of a sphere, an oblong shape descended, as though the sphere had been squished at the top and bottom. The reason for this was quite clear, as there was room for the entire class within.
Sure enough, Dumbledore motioned them all in the sphere, and as soon as Harry entered the sphere the background turned completely black. He could still see his classmates as they entered the sphere, but it was as if he was hanging in nothingness beside them. Dumbledore's voice fell over them. "The Shade Scenario. There are 30 shades within an abandoned manor which you must hunt down. Try not to let any of them escape through the main entrance." Suddenly, the black space warped into dust covered oak paneling before Harry's eyes. The class looked around and saw that they were in an extravagant entrance hall, although it looked as if it hadn't been walked in for decades.
Harry figured he might as well start the class off. "I'll help guard the door."
Neville quickly volunteered as well, along with Lavender, Parvati, and a few of the Ravenclaws. Ron glared a bit at Brown and Patil taking their place by Harry's side, but drew off with a group to sweep the house.
Harry and his group quickly huddled and decided how they were going to guard the door. Sally-Anne came up with the idea for each of them to take a color and periodically flash it, and everyone immediately agreed. After a short fight between Lavender and Parvati who would get pink, the group of 7 sat down on the floor by the large dark oak door. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Harry flashed his red. Neville flashed yellow right afterwards, and soon the entrance hall echoed briefly with brown, pink, blue, purple, and green. Yet nothing out of the ordinary appeared.
Harry quickly grew bored. He had been casting his spell every ten seconds or so for the last 20 minutes, yet no trace of shade had appeared. Finally, 25 minutes into the scenario, a greenish old man appeared when Parvati flashed her color across the room. All seven immediately yelled "Resolutum" finally having some excitement. Yet that was the only shade that ever wandered to the entrance hall, and 10 minutes later an excited group of Gryffindors bounded in.
"We just met with the Ravenclaw team," Dean said excited.
"They said they've banished 16 of the shades. And we got 13," Seamus added.
"Well, we got 1. I guess that's 30," Harry responded, happy the scenario was finally over.
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Ok, ok, I know the Shade Scenario was pretty boring – but Harry can't have all the action all the time.
Darkhorse: Thanks! To tell you the truth, I don't have anything special planned for Hector in this story. However, if I do write a complete trilogy, he will play a role in the third story (I've got a few basic ideas for a 6th and 7th year pair of stories)
Erinamation: Uh… 'we'?
Beefywpac: Thanks!
Kaelli: Thanks! (I'm scared)
Micro-Chick: Thanks!
Katani: Haha, I'm glad you liked the jewelry store saleswoman!
Lakergurl13: I'm assuming it's possible to tell whether an object is authentic or just conjured. Otherwise the Gringots Goblins would have quite a situation. Harry and Hermione went to Hogsmeade, but they used the floo network there to travel to Pretoria's. I guess it doesn't make much sense that they wouldn't floo from Hogwarts.
DragonLord: I decided I wanted to have a doomed attempt at romance in the Experimentorium, but I figured that Lavender, Parvati, and Padma were too obvious. So I went with the good ol' Hufflepuffs.
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