A/N Thanks again to all you out there who are reviewing, you make my day…I
had a hard time deciding what to do in this chapter, not writers block,
more writers choice. I couldn't decide whether to follow Harry or
Sirius…ooh hard decision. Well don't kill me if I chose wrong…
Btw I think I'm gonna change the title of this fic bcos there are so many. What do you think about Harry Potter and the Time of Betrayals? Let me know…
After a night's sleep Harry felt perfectly fine and was ready to return to school the following day. He didn't want to know what Malfoy would say if he had to spend another day in the hospital wing…
After a breakfast of horrible hospital food, Harry received one last check up from Madame Pomfrey before he was free. After a day of being stuck in a spotless bed, he was anxious to get back to school. Of course that was until he discovered he had double Potions first.
Professor Ignia was not in a better mood than the first time they had met. As before, the entire class resorted to treading on needles so as not to anger him. Even Malfoy seemed to quieten down, although he didn't miss the odd chances to whisper taunts into Harry's ear when Ignia was occupied elsewhere. Harry for the most part ignored him: he was concentrating on making his Synide Potion turn a vibrant blue. He was all too aware of the fact that he would be taking O.WL.S later this year. Unfortunately, Professor Ignia seemed to be thinking along the same lines and gave them three times as much homework as Snape had.
Harry finally succeeded in persuading his potion to turn blue and received a small amount of grudging praise from Ignia: even Hermione was having difficulty. Neville on the other hand, was having an uncommon amount of trouble. He had always regularly fallen into pieces in Snape's lessons, burning the occasional cauldron or spilling the odd fatal potion, but in Ignia's lessons he simply shattered. Never before had he actually succeeded in exploding three cauldrons, drenching half the class in a potion that was supposed to make the drinker levitate, singed the wall and burnt a hole in the floor. The half of the class that were unlucky enough to be soaked promptly began to sink into the floor much to the surprise of the seventh years below.
Professor Ignia growled threateningly at Neville and advanced with wand outstretched. Neville paled and shrank behind the small twisted blob of metal that had once been his cauldron. Ignia's face twisted into a mask of disgust and hatred: it reminded Harry of the way Snape looked at him. Without taking his eye off Neville, Ignia pulled the disappearing heads up from the floor and mopped up the mess with a flick of his wand. The class waited in silence to see what would happen. Neville watched with growing fear, the other Gryffindors with anxiousness and the Slytherins with expectation.
Professor Ignia was positively fuming and Harry would have sworn that smoke was pouring out of his ears. In fact, he looked like a smaller version of Uncle Vernon when Harry had walked in, sort of like there was dung underfoot. Professor Ignia stood silent and contemplating for a moment before advancing further upon Neville who tried to push his back through the wall behind him. "Detention Mr Longbottom for a month and you will be paying personally for all three cauldrons. And let me see…yes! One hundred points from Gryffindor." The bell rang abruptly which was lucky for Malfoy because he said something very rude to Neville. But Professor Ignia, with his bat-like hearing, whirled around, his face deepening to a dark purple. "And twenty from Slytherin," he bellowed. "Dismissed!"
The class trooped out in a very dejected manner. Ron mutterd some very rude things about Ignia that Hermione pretended not to hear: it seemed to Harry that they still hadn't managed to completely patch up the remnants of the last argument.
"Really," complained Ron. "He's unbearable. A hundred points! A hundred! You'd better win the quidditch match Harry or I might just commit suicide…"
The rest of Harry's week didn't fare any better. In Divination, Professor Trelawney acted as if he were going to drop dead any second. After the first exciting Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid seemed to inexplicably lose enthusiasm: they were now working with giant sloth like creatures that seemed to hibernate forever. Transfiguration was unusually boring, full of scribbling notes and reading hundreds of books in preparation for animal transfiguration. And it seemed that the only lesson that could have cheered him up was Defence Against the Dark Arts and, of course, he had contrived to miss that.
The only thing that Harry could take real pleasure in was Quidditch. He was up every morning training with the rest of the team for the match coming up in mid-October. Gryffindor seemed to be the first team to start training but they were closely followed by Hufflepuff who, in Harry's opinion, needed the practice. He noticed that Cho Chang was looking particularly strained and restless since Cedric's death. Thankfully, she hadn't gone so far as to blame him for Cedric's death, and for that matter no one else seemed to blame him either: evidently Dumbledore's speech at the end of last year had convinced them of the truth. For the most part, however, the students didn't let the current events worry them.
The Gryffindor quidditch team could be seen training at precisely six every morning in fair weather or in foul weather, sun and rain and even on one occasion hail. Harry secretly thought that the other houses didn't have a chance this year. They had the best three Chasers in the school, a pair of human bludgers, a phenomenal Keeper and…well…the youngest house Seeker in over a century.
The first week went in the most horrible way, drawing out every unpleasant second of work but, finally, it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry waited in the same excitement as the rest of the class; he couldn't wait to see what made it so exciting and the teacher was obviously magnificent.
And so it was that Harry met his teacher with a great amount of surprise. They had been waiting patiently for ten minutes chatting excitedly about the upcoming lesson, when Professor Figg finally swept in. Harry gaped. Professor Figg who was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts was none other than his old baby-sitter Mrs Figg. Harry could remember clearly the time when Mrs Figg had broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and it was that event that had led up to his speaking with a Brazilian Boa Constrictor in London Zoo.
It was hard for Harry to comprehend that the doddery old muggle he had known all his life was, actually, a witch. His astonishment must have shown clearly because Professor Figg looked up, smiled and spoke to him.
"Mr Potter, I would like to see you at the end of the lesson if you don't mind." Harry nodded dumbly, then fixed his attention on the relevant page in the text book.
The page dealt with any number of hexes and charms that one could perform and the counter courses and blocks that would repel them. Professor Figg informed them that she wished them to work in fours, practising the hexes and charms on one another, and that they would have a mini duel at the end of the lesson in which the winner would receive five galleons.
Harry, Ron and Hermione got into a four with Neville and spent roughly three quarters of an hour practising on each other. Somehow, Harry seemed to get hit with the more painful curses. On one occasion he sat with four eyes until Professor Figg came over and turned him back. Neville apologised deeply for the misfiring of the curse. After Harry had grown an extra arm, had his mind turned upside down, hallucinated several times and even oozed a thick green liquid from his pores, it was time for the duel.
Harry wasn't overly worried but it seemed that almost everyone else in the room was. Neville sat in his chair twiddling his thumbs nervously without noticing that he still had a tentacle in his ear. Hermione was thumbing hurriedly through the book again and Ron was gradually growing redder and redder. Across the room, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were having a practise battle which resulted in a brief trip to the lavatory to empty suddenly overlarge bladders.
Professor Figg looked at the expressions on the faces of the children and laughed softly. "Don't worry, this isn't a test. It's just to see how well you would react under real duelling conditions." Harry shifted uncomfortably: he knew exactly what real duelling conditions were. Professor Figg quickly scanned the room. "First I think we'll have Mr Finnigan and Mr Weasley."
Ron groaned loudly and Seamus swallowed visibly. They both got up and walked to the front of the class room which had been magically expanded.
Professor Figg spoke. "Now, I want a good clean fight you two. No bad play. When you're ready…Go!"
Ron and Seamus both stared at each other for a second or so, then simultaneously raised their wands. Their shouts drowned the others' out. A jet of red light shot out of Seamus' wand and a green out of Ron's. Seamus' missed entirely and hit the wall creating a large black hole. Seamus had to duck ungracefully to avoid Ron's attack and he rolled under an abandoned desk. Ron's next blast didn't miss and Seamus broke out all over in red and green spots. The entire class roared with laughter and a very humbled Seamus returned to his seat after having been de-spotted.
Ron's next opponent turned out to be Lavender Brown. Harry could see the slight discomfort on Ron's face at being made to duel a girl. Lavender had no such qualm and opened the duel with a well placed jelly legs curse. Ron wobbled around for the next ten minutes having been defeated by Lavender on the first stroke. Lavender remained champion for the next three duels until she was defeated by Paravti Patil who in turn was defeated by, surprisingly, Neville. Neville lasted for the next six duels much to everyone's, including Professor Figg's, surprise. Neville was very weak at actually attacking but, as his opponent's discovered, he was incredibly good at avoiding the curses thrown at him. Hermione beat him with a cunning charm that first split into two, confusing the opponent and she proceeded to disarm Neville with a well placed tickling curse.
Finally, it was Harry's turn to face Dean who had beaten Hermione by going for the simple approach. Dean and Harry watched each other warily for a few seconds and Harry made sure that he had a desk nearby to hide underneath should there be no alternative. Dean started the duel by aiming at Harry's chest and performing the Impediment jinx. Harry, with the reflexes born of quidditch, dodged easily and sent Dean a jinx that sent him to his knees to avoid it. Scrambling up, Dean fired the tickling curse at Harry who had to leap under the desk to avoid it. The jinx hit the desk and Harry could hear the leg breaking off. Instinctively, he swerved to the right to avoid the shard of wood that he knew would come sailing past him. The class gasped as they saw Harry dodge the chair leg which he couldn't possibly have seen and a few clapped appreciatively.
This was already the longest duel so far and neither Harry nor Dean had yet been hit. As Harry turned around to face Dean once more he saw the curse coming out of the corner of his eye. He had been too slow and Dean had taken the opportunity to use the Impediment jinx again. Harry didn't think: as the curse neared him, he reached out, connected his wand to it and flicked it away. A few seconds later and he was standing holding Dean's wand as well as his own having used the Disarming spell to grab hold of Dean's wand. It was only then that Harry thought clearly about what he had done and he realised that he had finally learnt the blocking technique that Professor Lockhart had tried, and failed, to teach him in his second year.
Professor Figg regarded Harry with a new expression and he wasn't sure it was one he liked. She spoke softly. "You know Potter, you've a natural talent for this. You might want to think about taking up a career as an auror. Where did you learn that?"
Harry had to cough to hide the sudden pain that the question had aroused in him. "I…um…had a little…err…practice last year. With the Triwizard Tournament and all…"
Professor Figg's eyes widened and he saw that she understood the truth. One had to learn pretty quickly when duelling Lord Voldemort. Harry also saw that half of the class had guessed what he had really meant. Harry shuffled up to the front to receive his galleons and returned quickly to his seat, well aware of the curious glances coming his way.
Luckily, the lesson ended a few minutes later. Harry watched as the others file out before going up to Professor Figg. She was rooting around in her top drawer for something muttering incoherently. Harry waited patiently for her to finish her search. Finally she looked up and blinked in surprise several times as if she had forgotten about him.
"Ah yes. Mr Potter…It seems that I may need to explain a few things to you. Take a seat."
Harry took the proffered seat and watched Professor Figg closely as she too took a seat. Harry had never really bothered to take much interest in Mrs Figg: she had been yet another muggle oblivious to the existence of magic. He never dreamed that she might have been a witch. She simply hadn't seemed the type.
She regarded Harry with a strange look for a while until Harry started to shift uncomfortably.
"Tell me Harry, exactly how much do you know about the death of your parents?" Blunt and to the point. Harry almost flinched. But he didn't answer immediately. What if she didn't know that Sirius was innocent and he somehow let slip that he was in contact with his Godfather…. She must have seen his hesitation and even possibly the reason for it because almost immediately: "Don't worry, I know of Sirius' escape. In fact, it was he that contacted me."
Harry vaguely wondered how she had known that was what he had been thinking. "Right umm, well not much more except that it was Peter Pettigrew."
Professor Figg nodded and Harry idly wondered where she was going with the conversation. "Do you know of the Fidelius Charm?" Harry nodded; he had a small understanding of how it worked. So what if that understanding had been acquired whilst hiding secretly under a table? "And you know the role of a Secret-Keeper?" Again Harry nodded, mystified. Professor Figg sighed. "Harry, what has Professor Dumbledore told you of the protections placed on you?"
Harry frowned. He knew that they were there; Voldemort had said as much and Dumbledore had hinted at it but he didn't know any details. "Not much," he replied warily.
Professor Figg almost smiled. "One of them is the Fidelius Charm and I am your Secret-Keeper. It was Albus' idea. I've never really been one for mixing with other witches and wizards; goodness knows why I took this job. I've always lived the muggle way, even when I was an auror. That's what made me such a small target: hardly anyone knew I existed and that meant that they would have a hard time finding you."
Harry could see the mystery starting to fall into place but there were still two things that mystified him. The first: "But Dumbledore said that I needed to be with my relatives to make the protections work. That doesn't make sense if it's the Fidelius Charm."
"Well, you see…normally the one seeking protection would cast a few of the base spells. But because you were too young, Albus had to…um…*bend* the rules to use the spell. He managed to perform the spell, but one of the drawbacks was that you needed to live with relations, something to do with the bloodlines, I'm not crystal clear on that bit."
"But…um…"
She cut him off. "Why didn't I tell you before?" He nodded. "That would break the spell, I couldn't. I'm sorry." And she really did look sorry. He frowned there was something she had said that didn't seem quite right…
"But wouldn't this be breaking the spell now then?"
She shook her head, almost sadly. "No. The spell ended on your fifteenth birthday. That was another drawback of changing the rules. Albus was almost out of his mind this summer with worry; he needed to find a substitute for the Charm but just couldn't find one. Lucky really, that this Order thing has stepped in. That is, of course, if we can protect you from the link."
Harry nodded in understanding, but he preferred not to think of the link. He could feel it now, faint but ever present and it was immensely annoying. To say nothing of the fear it installed in him. It would definitely be good if he could learn to stop Voldemort from doing whatever it was he had done.
Suddenly, the door flung open and a group of Gryffindor seventh years trailed in looking curiously at Harry. Professor Figg stood up hurriedly. "I hope that has cleared a few things up for you." Harry nodded and got up to leave. "Oh, and Mr Potter…" Harry turned around. "I shouldn't really take sides but I was in Gryffindor…. Please win that quidditch match. The Slytherin students are becoming almost unbearable."
Behind her, the seventh years grinned.
A/N Okies, hope ya liked it. Maybe you weren't expecting that thing with Mrs Figg but you probably were much smarter than I am.
There's a quidditch match either in the next chapter or the one after that. It depends on whether I follow Sirius' escape or have lots of quidditch. Tough decision…we could put it to the vote…
Let me know what you think about the title change.
And please review!
Thanks
Luv baasheep
Xx
Btw I think I'm gonna change the title of this fic bcos there are so many. What do you think about Harry Potter and the Time of Betrayals? Let me know…
After a night's sleep Harry felt perfectly fine and was ready to return to school the following day. He didn't want to know what Malfoy would say if he had to spend another day in the hospital wing…
After a breakfast of horrible hospital food, Harry received one last check up from Madame Pomfrey before he was free. After a day of being stuck in a spotless bed, he was anxious to get back to school. Of course that was until he discovered he had double Potions first.
Professor Ignia was not in a better mood than the first time they had met. As before, the entire class resorted to treading on needles so as not to anger him. Even Malfoy seemed to quieten down, although he didn't miss the odd chances to whisper taunts into Harry's ear when Ignia was occupied elsewhere. Harry for the most part ignored him: he was concentrating on making his Synide Potion turn a vibrant blue. He was all too aware of the fact that he would be taking O.WL.S later this year. Unfortunately, Professor Ignia seemed to be thinking along the same lines and gave them three times as much homework as Snape had.
Harry finally succeeded in persuading his potion to turn blue and received a small amount of grudging praise from Ignia: even Hermione was having difficulty. Neville on the other hand, was having an uncommon amount of trouble. He had always regularly fallen into pieces in Snape's lessons, burning the occasional cauldron or spilling the odd fatal potion, but in Ignia's lessons he simply shattered. Never before had he actually succeeded in exploding three cauldrons, drenching half the class in a potion that was supposed to make the drinker levitate, singed the wall and burnt a hole in the floor. The half of the class that were unlucky enough to be soaked promptly began to sink into the floor much to the surprise of the seventh years below.
Professor Ignia growled threateningly at Neville and advanced with wand outstretched. Neville paled and shrank behind the small twisted blob of metal that had once been his cauldron. Ignia's face twisted into a mask of disgust and hatred: it reminded Harry of the way Snape looked at him. Without taking his eye off Neville, Ignia pulled the disappearing heads up from the floor and mopped up the mess with a flick of his wand. The class waited in silence to see what would happen. Neville watched with growing fear, the other Gryffindors with anxiousness and the Slytherins with expectation.
Professor Ignia was positively fuming and Harry would have sworn that smoke was pouring out of his ears. In fact, he looked like a smaller version of Uncle Vernon when Harry had walked in, sort of like there was dung underfoot. Professor Ignia stood silent and contemplating for a moment before advancing further upon Neville who tried to push his back through the wall behind him. "Detention Mr Longbottom for a month and you will be paying personally for all three cauldrons. And let me see…yes! One hundred points from Gryffindor." The bell rang abruptly which was lucky for Malfoy because he said something very rude to Neville. But Professor Ignia, with his bat-like hearing, whirled around, his face deepening to a dark purple. "And twenty from Slytherin," he bellowed. "Dismissed!"
The class trooped out in a very dejected manner. Ron mutterd some very rude things about Ignia that Hermione pretended not to hear: it seemed to Harry that they still hadn't managed to completely patch up the remnants of the last argument.
"Really," complained Ron. "He's unbearable. A hundred points! A hundred! You'd better win the quidditch match Harry or I might just commit suicide…"
The rest of Harry's week didn't fare any better. In Divination, Professor Trelawney acted as if he were going to drop dead any second. After the first exciting Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid seemed to inexplicably lose enthusiasm: they were now working with giant sloth like creatures that seemed to hibernate forever. Transfiguration was unusually boring, full of scribbling notes and reading hundreds of books in preparation for animal transfiguration. And it seemed that the only lesson that could have cheered him up was Defence Against the Dark Arts and, of course, he had contrived to miss that.
The only thing that Harry could take real pleasure in was Quidditch. He was up every morning training with the rest of the team for the match coming up in mid-October. Gryffindor seemed to be the first team to start training but they were closely followed by Hufflepuff who, in Harry's opinion, needed the practice. He noticed that Cho Chang was looking particularly strained and restless since Cedric's death. Thankfully, she hadn't gone so far as to blame him for Cedric's death, and for that matter no one else seemed to blame him either: evidently Dumbledore's speech at the end of last year had convinced them of the truth. For the most part, however, the students didn't let the current events worry them.
The Gryffindor quidditch team could be seen training at precisely six every morning in fair weather or in foul weather, sun and rain and even on one occasion hail. Harry secretly thought that the other houses didn't have a chance this year. They had the best three Chasers in the school, a pair of human bludgers, a phenomenal Keeper and…well…the youngest house Seeker in over a century.
The first week went in the most horrible way, drawing out every unpleasant second of work but, finally, it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry waited in the same excitement as the rest of the class; he couldn't wait to see what made it so exciting and the teacher was obviously magnificent.
And so it was that Harry met his teacher with a great amount of surprise. They had been waiting patiently for ten minutes chatting excitedly about the upcoming lesson, when Professor Figg finally swept in. Harry gaped. Professor Figg who was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts was none other than his old baby-sitter Mrs Figg. Harry could remember clearly the time when Mrs Figg had broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and it was that event that had led up to his speaking with a Brazilian Boa Constrictor in London Zoo.
It was hard for Harry to comprehend that the doddery old muggle he had known all his life was, actually, a witch. His astonishment must have shown clearly because Professor Figg looked up, smiled and spoke to him.
"Mr Potter, I would like to see you at the end of the lesson if you don't mind." Harry nodded dumbly, then fixed his attention on the relevant page in the text book.
The page dealt with any number of hexes and charms that one could perform and the counter courses and blocks that would repel them. Professor Figg informed them that she wished them to work in fours, practising the hexes and charms on one another, and that they would have a mini duel at the end of the lesson in which the winner would receive five galleons.
Harry, Ron and Hermione got into a four with Neville and spent roughly three quarters of an hour practising on each other. Somehow, Harry seemed to get hit with the more painful curses. On one occasion he sat with four eyes until Professor Figg came over and turned him back. Neville apologised deeply for the misfiring of the curse. After Harry had grown an extra arm, had his mind turned upside down, hallucinated several times and even oozed a thick green liquid from his pores, it was time for the duel.
Harry wasn't overly worried but it seemed that almost everyone else in the room was. Neville sat in his chair twiddling his thumbs nervously without noticing that he still had a tentacle in his ear. Hermione was thumbing hurriedly through the book again and Ron was gradually growing redder and redder. Across the room, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were having a practise battle which resulted in a brief trip to the lavatory to empty suddenly overlarge bladders.
Professor Figg looked at the expressions on the faces of the children and laughed softly. "Don't worry, this isn't a test. It's just to see how well you would react under real duelling conditions." Harry shifted uncomfortably: he knew exactly what real duelling conditions were. Professor Figg quickly scanned the room. "First I think we'll have Mr Finnigan and Mr Weasley."
Ron groaned loudly and Seamus swallowed visibly. They both got up and walked to the front of the class room which had been magically expanded.
Professor Figg spoke. "Now, I want a good clean fight you two. No bad play. When you're ready…Go!"
Ron and Seamus both stared at each other for a second or so, then simultaneously raised their wands. Their shouts drowned the others' out. A jet of red light shot out of Seamus' wand and a green out of Ron's. Seamus' missed entirely and hit the wall creating a large black hole. Seamus had to duck ungracefully to avoid Ron's attack and he rolled under an abandoned desk. Ron's next blast didn't miss and Seamus broke out all over in red and green spots. The entire class roared with laughter and a very humbled Seamus returned to his seat after having been de-spotted.
Ron's next opponent turned out to be Lavender Brown. Harry could see the slight discomfort on Ron's face at being made to duel a girl. Lavender had no such qualm and opened the duel with a well placed jelly legs curse. Ron wobbled around for the next ten minutes having been defeated by Lavender on the first stroke. Lavender remained champion for the next three duels until she was defeated by Paravti Patil who in turn was defeated by, surprisingly, Neville. Neville lasted for the next six duels much to everyone's, including Professor Figg's, surprise. Neville was very weak at actually attacking but, as his opponent's discovered, he was incredibly good at avoiding the curses thrown at him. Hermione beat him with a cunning charm that first split into two, confusing the opponent and she proceeded to disarm Neville with a well placed tickling curse.
Finally, it was Harry's turn to face Dean who had beaten Hermione by going for the simple approach. Dean and Harry watched each other warily for a few seconds and Harry made sure that he had a desk nearby to hide underneath should there be no alternative. Dean started the duel by aiming at Harry's chest and performing the Impediment jinx. Harry, with the reflexes born of quidditch, dodged easily and sent Dean a jinx that sent him to his knees to avoid it. Scrambling up, Dean fired the tickling curse at Harry who had to leap under the desk to avoid it. The jinx hit the desk and Harry could hear the leg breaking off. Instinctively, he swerved to the right to avoid the shard of wood that he knew would come sailing past him. The class gasped as they saw Harry dodge the chair leg which he couldn't possibly have seen and a few clapped appreciatively.
This was already the longest duel so far and neither Harry nor Dean had yet been hit. As Harry turned around to face Dean once more he saw the curse coming out of the corner of his eye. He had been too slow and Dean had taken the opportunity to use the Impediment jinx again. Harry didn't think: as the curse neared him, he reached out, connected his wand to it and flicked it away. A few seconds later and he was standing holding Dean's wand as well as his own having used the Disarming spell to grab hold of Dean's wand. It was only then that Harry thought clearly about what he had done and he realised that he had finally learnt the blocking technique that Professor Lockhart had tried, and failed, to teach him in his second year.
Professor Figg regarded Harry with a new expression and he wasn't sure it was one he liked. She spoke softly. "You know Potter, you've a natural talent for this. You might want to think about taking up a career as an auror. Where did you learn that?"
Harry had to cough to hide the sudden pain that the question had aroused in him. "I…um…had a little…err…practice last year. With the Triwizard Tournament and all…"
Professor Figg's eyes widened and he saw that she understood the truth. One had to learn pretty quickly when duelling Lord Voldemort. Harry also saw that half of the class had guessed what he had really meant. Harry shuffled up to the front to receive his galleons and returned quickly to his seat, well aware of the curious glances coming his way.
Luckily, the lesson ended a few minutes later. Harry watched as the others file out before going up to Professor Figg. She was rooting around in her top drawer for something muttering incoherently. Harry waited patiently for her to finish her search. Finally she looked up and blinked in surprise several times as if she had forgotten about him.
"Ah yes. Mr Potter…It seems that I may need to explain a few things to you. Take a seat."
Harry took the proffered seat and watched Professor Figg closely as she too took a seat. Harry had never really bothered to take much interest in Mrs Figg: she had been yet another muggle oblivious to the existence of magic. He never dreamed that she might have been a witch. She simply hadn't seemed the type.
She regarded Harry with a strange look for a while until Harry started to shift uncomfortably.
"Tell me Harry, exactly how much do you know about the death of your parents?" Blunt and to the point. Harry almost flinched. But he didn't answer immediately. What if she didn't know that Sirius was innocent and he somehow let slip that he was in contact with his Godfather…. She must have seen his hesitation and even possibly the reason for it because almost immediately: "Don't worry, I know of Sirius' escape. In fact, it was he that contacted me."
Harry vaguely wondered how she had known that was what he had been thinking. "Right umm, well not much more except that it was Peter Pettigrew."
Professor Figg nodded and Harry idly wondered where she was going with the conversation. "Do you know of the Fidelius Charm?" Harry nodded; he had a small understanding of how it worked. So what if that understanding had been acquired whilst hiding secretly under a table? "And you know the role of a Secret-Keeper?" Again Harry nodded, mystified. Professor Figg sighed. "Harry, what has Professor Dumbledore told you of the protections placed on you?"
Harry frowned. He knew that they were there; Voldemort had said as much and Dumbledore had hinted at it but he didn't know any details. "Not much," he replied warily.
Professor Figg almost smiled. "One of them is the Fidelius Charm and I am your Secret-Keeper. It was Albus' idea. I've never really been one for mixing with other witches and wizards; goodness knows why I took this job. I've always lived the muggle way, even when I was an auror. That's what made me such a small target: hardly anyone knew I existed and that meant that they would have a hard time finding you."
Harry could see the mystery starting to fall into place but there were still two things that mystified him. The first: "But Dumbledore said that I needed to be with my relatives to make the protections work. That doesn't make sense if it's the Fidelius Charm."
"Well, you see…normally the one seeking protection would cast a few of the base spells. But because you were too young, Albus had to…um…*bend* the rules to use the spell. He managed to perform the spell, but one of the drawbacks was that you needed to live with relations, something to do with the bloodlines, I'm not crystal clear on that bit."
"But…um…"
She cut him off. "Why didn't I tell you before?" He nodded. "That would break the spell, I couldn't. I'm sorry." And she really did look sorry. He frowned there was something she had said that didn't seem quite right…
"But wouldn't this be breaking the spell now then?"
She shook her head, almost sadly. "No. The spell ended on your fifteenth birthday. That was another drawback of changing the rules. Albus was almost out of his mind this summer with worry; he needed to find a substitute for the Charm but just couldn't find one. Lucky really, that this Order thing has stepped in. That is, of course, if we can protect you from the link."
Harry nodded in understanding, but he preferred not to think of the link. He could feel it now, faint but ever present and it was immensely annoying. To say nothing of the fear it installed in him. It would definitely be good if he could learn to stop Voldemort from doing whatever it was he had done.
Suddenly, the door flung open and a group of Gryffindor seventh years trailed in looking curiously at Harry. Professor Figg stood up hurriedly. "I hope that has cleared a few things up for you." Harry nodded and got up to leave. "Oh, and Mr Potter…" Harry turned around. "I shouldn't really take sides but I was in Gryffindor…. Please win that quidditch match. The Slytherin students are becoming almost unbearable."
Behind her, the seventh years grinned.
A/N Okies, hope ya liked it. Maybe you weren't expecting that thing with Mrs Figg but you probably were much smarter than I am.
There's a quidditch match either in the next chapter or the one after that. It depends on whether I follow Sirius' escape or have lots of quidditch. Tough decision…we could put it to the vote…
Let me know what you think about the title change.
And please review!
Thanks
Luv baasheep
Xx