Chapter 11: Dark Thoughts
The next days he woke up in the same mood as he was in the evening when he read from the Dark Book. He tried many spells and ways to make the text show up; but with no effect. He wondered why did he have that feeling that the book was hiding something? Maybe it was nothing out of the ordinary with that pages... but still... he didn't know what to think. Listen to his brain or to his feelings? He decided the last one, because it was not the first time when something similar happened... repeating the story with Riddle's Diary in his second year.
And, feeling that bad, he hadn't even thought of talking to Cho these days.
His mood didn't change a bit until Friday. He was in the same bad state, and there were very few things that could turn it any worse -- and Harry encountered one, an unexpected one.
The last class he had on that day was Divination. After he waited a few minutes for Professor Trelawney to show up, a few minutes in which he stood quietly at the same table with Ron, who seemed to have given up in trying to make Harry happier, he heard the mystical voice of the insect-like professor.
"Welcome, dears. Today we will start a more precise branch of future telling, image summoning."
"What?" Ron whispered in Harry's ear, quite loudly, and Trelawney heard him.
"Image summoning, dears!"
Still no one seemed to know what she was talking about.
"It is the way of predicting the future by creating an image of the future -- and project it in the air."
But no one understood much.
"Let me show you," she said, and she took her wand. She closed her huge eyes and concentrated a little, and after that she said, "Projecto!" and pointed her wand on her desk.
Some small figures were moving on the table, they looked like red ghosts -- transparent, but with a very strong red color.
Looking more attentively, Harry saw that one of those forms was a miniature figure of Trelawney. But she had something different -- the figure's hands were holding something -- Harry couldn't realize what that was, due to the small size of the projection.
"Engorgio!" said Harry automatically, his curiosity pushing him to do it. He just wanted to know what Trelawney looked like in that miniature thing that she said that was her future. But Harry knew better than to trust her. Even though she said that this image summoning was a more precise branch of future-telling, he could never believe anything she said. Some of the things she predicted were lucky guesses, but most of them were never happening.
The figure enlarged itself, making the image about four feet tall. It was a lot easier to look at the thing she was holding. Harry's jaw dropped. It was a badge, a badge he had rarely seen before; he read on it:
Sibyll Trelawney,
Order of Merlin,
First class
Ron started lauhghing, and Harry too; Trelawney, to have an order of Merlin??? She was not good at anything, and Harry could not imagine her doing anything to give her an Order of Merlin. Not to speak about a First Class one!!!
She looked at them very annoyed, and said, "Ten points for both of you are taken from Gryffindor for disturbing a class!" Looking at Harry, she said, "And learn to not laugh of a teacher."
After the silence that followed those moments, Ron swore; lucky that the professor didn't hear it. They had just lost twenty points from Gryffindor!
Turning to the rest of the class, she continued her boring useless lesson. Lavender and Parvati were listening carefully, but none other seemed to be interrested.
"This spell is very complicated to do," she started. "It needs a great Inner Eye to be done correctly."
"No wonder why she can't do anything good," whispered Ron in Harry's ear.
"I do not think that any of you will be able to do it in the first class. You should concentrate on a thing that you will like to see how it will look like in the future, and when your Inner Eye is all set and fixed, you will cast the Projecto spell.
"Who wants to try it the first?" she asked. Lavender raised her hand up. "Mrs. Brown," she said, and made a sign with her hands that told Lavender to go in the front of the room. "Remember? Concentrate, and Projecto!"
Lavender closed her eyes, waited for a few minutes until her mind was clear and not thinking about everything else, and then she whispered, "Projecto!"
But nothing happened. Trelawney nodded and told her that it was quite good for the first time.
Seamus came next, still nothing happened; then Dean, and then Parvati. Harry fell asleep again in the class, and Ron had to tell him that only Dean managed to make a yellow image get out from his wand, but it vanished in less than a second.
And then Trelawney called, "Mr. Potter!"
Harry raised on his feet and walked to the front of the class. He was sure that everything was just stupid rubbish, but he had to continue for the sake of house points, and of good marks.
He wondered what to try to summon, and he decided to try the same thing that Trelawney did -- he wanted to see him in the future.
Even though he had no belief that he could project an image of the future that would be happenning, he just concentrated on himself after half of an year. He wished to see if he was playing for the Quidditch team... to see what happened with Cho...
His mind was going empty except for the fact of seeing himself in the future. He had the feeling that Trelawney spoke the truth when she said that it was a more precise way of future-telling, so he took it more seriously than he did to the other things he had to make at Divination. It seemed a lot more convincing when he had to do it.
When he was sure that he concentrated enough, he pointed his wand to the floor, and he shouted, "PROJECTO!!!"
He opened his eyes and saw a think green beam emit from the top of his wand. The light was forming a greenish ten-inch figure on the floor. He saw the entire class staring astounded at him -- he was never good at Divination...
The projection was of himself, and small as it was, he could not see anything different with him. What if he would not be a Seeker for England? What if he could never be a more-than-just-friend of Cho's?
Without thinking anything, he pointed his wand at the tiny figure on the floor, and said, "Engorgio!"
He made the figure tall as himself, and staring at the projection, he saw a few small differences between himself and the assumed projection of the future.
He could not believe it. There was a very evil look on his face; he was staring at everyone as if he wanted to kill them; he wore some different robes -- not Hogwarts robes, for sure -- and he seemed to mouth the words, 'Who are you talking about? I know no Harry Potter.'
There was no mistaking it. Unbelievalbe as it was, it was the dark version of himself. He didn't want to look at it, seeing how he said that he didn't know about Harry Potter -- that meant that he wanted to forget all his previous life and start a new, Voldemort-like, one.
Parvati and Lavender stared between the figure and himself for some time, horrified. They wanted to leave their seats and go out of the classroom, but Trelawney didn't allow them to leave.
They seemed to be the only ones terrified about that; no one actually believed anything that they saw in that class. As precise as it was, that spell couldn't actually tell Harry's future. Maybe tell his fate, yes; but Harry did not believe in that, and he knew he could overpower it.
He would never go evil.
It took several minutes until someone managed to break the hurting silence. "I - I think it was -- enough for today, dears," Trelawney said. She seemed to desire that Harry would leave faster. If there was anyone who believed that except for Parvati and Lavender, that was Trelawney, who became scared of Harry from that day.
When he and Ron climbed down the staircase that led to her classroom, they started talking.
"The image was really shocking," said Harry, horrified that it may become true.
"Oh, Harry! How can you ever believe something like that? You know how true they turn out to be --"
"No, Ron; This time there is something different..."
"Still, why so pessimistic?"
That was a hard-to-answer question. If someone told him before that he would be that scared of something that he predicted in a Divination lesson, he would have laughed loud -- but that turned out to be true and disturbing.
And then, he asked himself, why to believe that? And why to be scared of it? It was only a Divination class, after all! Nothing anymore than stupid guesses...
"Ron," Harry decided to say, "This is not the first time when I see myself a dark wizard..." Ron's attention solely turned to Harry, making him forget about one trick stair that was in everyone's -- except Neville's -- instinct. "I had the feeling that I would go dark a few times before... the image just keeps popping into my mind... and now I guess it'll turn even worse."
That was enough to shut Ron up until they met Hermione. Harry told her the same story, and she seemed to be even less frightened than Ron was. She gave up on Divination believing that it was a too stupid object, and she could never believe something like that.
But when Harry told her that he had that feeling lots of times before, she didn't take the idea that easily. That was not one of Trelawney's predictions, and it was a lot easier to believe something that had nothing to do with Divination.
Harry was very sure that it was a natural feeling, and not the result of a dark spell. The memories the Death Eater had given to him felt like he knew those things since he was born, but no; these didn't. And the first time he had pictured himself dark was in the summer, before Voldemort sent anyone to attack Harry...
Indeed, it was a bad thing. They had nothing to do, and Harry was sick of going to the Common Room after classes. He decided to go and talk to Niffler, so he set off to the entreacne hall, to get out of the castle and talk to the captain.
And on the stairs, he saw one person coming out from the dungeon, and the person seemed to want to meet Harry. It was Cho herself. Harry felt like a stone was taken off from his heart; he waited for a moment to talk to Cho for a long time.
"Harry! Harry!" she said, and hurried towards him. "I've found a thing!"
Harry remained like petrified. His feeling turned out to be true; she indeed found something about the Death Eater.
"I heard Malfoy talk about his father today at lunch. He was telling his sidekicks about you. Just after the lunch was over, he was whispering to them, and I had hidden myself under a table -- You-Know-Who's second in command was sent to kill you..."
"I already knew that, the dream, remember?"
"Oh right -- but that's not all. He said something like 'He sent someone so high in the Ministry'. Can you guess who that is?"
It was no good clue for Harry. The only thing he could do about it was to ask Arthur Weasley about who disappeared from the Ministry -- what person. It was pity that Harry didn't know many people from the Ministry.
"And they said something about the spells they are going to use on you," she said, this time her voice started trembling. She paused a few soconds, looking frightened straight into Harry's eyes. Even though the news were that bad, his heart gave a jolt when she looked in his eyes.
"What spells?" asked Harry.
"Loads of dark spells I heard -- that memory spell, for one... and, er... a very strong dark freezing spell -- I heard its effects are like the petrification's, except that your body gets cold. And you... die, after a while, that is."
Harry remembered that spell; it was one of the spells he had read from the Dark Book of Dark Arts. But one thing was haunting Harry more than ever.
"Did they say anything about me getting dark?" he asked.
Cho didn't seem to like picturing Harry dark either. And then, she answered, "I haven't heard... only one more thing." She stopped, and when Harry mouthed the 'what' word, she continued, "The Shadow of Darkness."
But that was something with no meaning for Harry. "The what?"
"Shadow of Darknes... Malfoy said it is a strong dark spell, but he said that his father didn't tell him what its effects were."
That hit Harry with a little shock -- he had never read about that spell in the Dark Book, even though he read every single page of the book. Except...
The blank pages!
Those erased pages from the Dark Book of Dark Arts had to hide information about the Shadow of Darkness. But what was it? There was only one way to find out, and even that was improbable --
"I should go ask Dumbledore," said Harry fast. He was trying to remember anything about that spell. He knew there was something familiar about that name -- but then there came the memory modifications that could introduce that in his mind... or maybe it wasn't; he knew that Voldemort transferred a few of his powers into Harry when his curse was reflected.
Harry told her that he wanted to go and see Niffler, and then he told her about his new worries. He felt like spilling his thoughts to someone -- but he wondered why he hadn't even asked himself if it was safe to tell Cho things like that.
Harry didn't even realize that they were heading to Niffler's settlement. He was telling Cho about the Divination class he had only a few minutes ago when he realized where they were.
"Oh..." he said, more to himself, but Cho got the idea.
"Well, I think I should go back, no? Maybe Niffler won't like me around --"
"There is no problem with that," came Niffler's voice, who just stepped out of the door.
Harry and Cho jumped -- they weren't expecting that. They started to laugh ('Look why we get scared!'), and then Cho told Niffler, "Thank you, sir".
"There's no problem," he repeated, and invited them inside.
As they stepped into the large house, Harry was suddenly attracted by the beautiful rooms. Compared to these rooms, those in the Hogwarts Castle were nothing; the walls were quite similar; the same color, the same material, the same lighting; they couldn't see the ceiling in some places, either because it was too high, either because the halls were dimly lit.
Harry saw how big the house was from the outside, but from inside it looked extremely huge. From the main hall, loads of doors were leading to the other team members's rooms. They seemed to be big, too.
The windows were large, positioned quite high -- and even though they looked great, Harry couldn't imagine how sunlight could enlighten the everything. Of course, that was easily explained by the large number of torches that were regularily placed on the walls.
Niffler led them in the halls until they reached the greatest door of all. It had a gold locker, and there was a stone ferocious animal carved from it -- a manticore.
"Come in, come in," he said and then the three of them went in that room. Harry was sure that if that was NIffler's room, he chould be extremely rich. And thinking again, he surely was; his name, Niffler, fit perfectly; Nifflers were used to detect buried gold, Hagrid showed them a few only the last year. "Take a seat..."
They sat on some very comfortable sofas. The material they were made from was very good at touch, and it was keeping warm, too.
"What brought you here today?" he asked.
"I was thinking of a little Quidditch practice," answered Harry, who was still admiring the room. He was looking at the distinguishable ceiling that was supported by a few high pillars.
"Oh... quidditch... Yes, that would be a good idea... When?"
"I was thinking of today," said Harry, knowing that he would have no chance to go unannounced and then go to Quidditch. He looked so stupid. He should have informed Niffler one day before.
"The team is free to practice at anytime," said Niffler, and that took Harry with a big surprise. "It's a nice time for Quidditch, I'd say... And what about you, Miss Chang? I heard you are on the Quidditch team too -- you are playing for Ravenclaw?"
"Yes."
"Well, let's let Harry decide what you will do. That way it will be fair, no?"
Both Cho and Niffler looked at Harry, waiting for his answer. He wasn't sure of what to do himself. He wanted Cho to stay there, he really did; but she was going to get bored just watching them. And there was a strange tone in Niffler's voice when he asked her if she was playing for Ravenclaw; a tone that just gave Harry an idea... but he didn't think that Niffler would accept it...
He thought of asking Cho to join them in the practice.
Niffler wouldn't accept that. But still, he said that it was Harry's decision... or Maybe she wouldn't want that?
"Come with us," Harry said, "And I will think on the way to the pitch." Niffler nodded, and the three of them walked again through the large hall, Niffler gathered the rest of the team and they went out of the house.
They were getting closer and closer to their destination, but Harry still couldn't decide on what to do about Cho. He didn't feel like saying anything about that matter, because he couldn't find the words for it -- everything was so confusing.
They finally reached the stadium, and Harry didn't manage to decide anything. When Niffler and Cho asked him what he thought, he remained without words to say -- and then he said it, without wanting to do so.
"Would you like to come and fly, too?" he asked Cho. Harry saw Niffler grinning a little. Harry was relieved to see that no one complained anything, and Cho said, "Thanks!"
"But keep in mind that we are here to train Harry, not you, Miss Chang."
Harry summoned his own broom, and when Cho wanted to take hers, Niffler stopped her and took a Firebolt. "If you are going to stay with us, we will make sure that it will be the most comfortable."
The practice wasn't too different from the normal Quidditch practices they did for the Gryffindor team. The main difference was that they were advancing faster between moves, and sometimes Harry's head had begun spinning fast, lost between revising what he had just heard and memorising the new ones. Cho was making her own tries at the moves, and she was doing quite well; and that was the first time when he felt that Cho shouldn't be there -- they might lose the House Cup if Cho learnt too much...
But, that would be fairer; in that way Harry would have no huge advantage in playing for England and in learning more good moves -- very advanced moves, in fact -- they would see the skills they had at chasing the Snitch and avoiding Bludgers. That was if he didn't take into account that Cho had a much slower broom than he had.
Even though he had flown for more than two hours, he couldn't realize it. Time seemed to pass very fast when he was on a broomstick, and with the new moves the other players and Niffler taught him, he felt like it was his only world. Not to forget that Cho was there, sometimes talking to Niffler things that Harry couldn't hear, sometimes practicing her own. They even did a contest of who catches the Snitch faster -- and no wonder who managed to win it. Harry was a much better seeker than Cho was.
The practice ended too fast for Harry("We're leaving already?"), and they had to say good-bye to Niffler and the rest of the Quidditch team. They decided that they would practise again on Monday.
On the way back to the castle, Harry told Cho about every single thing that made him feel like he would be going to be a dark wizard. Lucky that Cho always seemed to know words to comfort him...
"You won't turn evil," she told him when he finished retelling the divination class.
"I will... everything points--"
"Do you want to turn evil?" she asked him.
"Well, of course not," Harry answered without knowing what she wanted to say.
"Then you won't... if you don't want it, you won't... Everything you do is your will, and only your will."
"Except the times when someone forces me --"
"No, Harry. Even if someone uses an Imperius on you, or a memory modification spell, you aren't dark... you are not dark until you do it from your own will."
That was true... "Yes... you're right..." Cho smiled at him, and she immediately changed the subject, because even though she convinced him that he won't turn dark, the idea of seeing himself like that was still shocking and quite convincing.
"So what about your research in the Death Eater's work? Haven't you noticed anything?"
Harry started to think about that. No, he did not find anything that could help him... He didn't like to say it, but he couldn't tell a lie either, so he answered, "Nothing..."
"The only thing left is to find out what the Shadow of Darkness is..." she said, at the same time as Harry pushed the entrance doors open.
"Well I guess that'll be a problem." Harry paused to think, and then he reminded himself of Dumbledore -- he could know it... or maybe Snape, because he was a Death Eater... there were more persons who could possibly know about the spell.
They soon had to go their separate ways, and Harry headed to the Gryffindor Tower. There was only one thing he could not get out of the head... would he turn evil or not? Everything that pointed that he was going to be like Voldemort was quite convincing... but he didn't want to turn dark, he just didn't... and he wouldn't accept it... Cho was right, after all.
In the Common Room, Harry told Ron and Hermione about the things that happened.
"We should go to the library," Hermione told him, "It's the only place where we can find about the Shadow of Darkness. I haven't ever heard of that spell myself... I guess you won't find it in the most books... but there have to be some books that have at least a little bit of information about a spell. We only need one thing."
Harry knew what that thing was. "Permission to go to the restricted section..."
"Exactly."
Ron didn't like going to the library too much, but this time he had nothing to object. Instead, he asked, "So, when should we go?"
"Now," said Hermione.
"NOW?" Ron blowed up. "Oh c'mon, Hermione, give me a break --"
"The faster, the better. And it's not late yet...", said Hermione, and Harry seemed to agree with her. "Let's go..."
Hermione pushed the portrait open, and she went out of the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry came just after her, and after some time, Ron went out, too... he didn't want to leave them alone.
They didn't have a permission to go to the restricted section, but Hermione said that they didn't need it that day; because the allowed section was huge anyway.
They looked for hours, taking different types of books, starting with those on ancient spells, and ending with books about dark wizards, but with no result.
"Very rare spell, this shadow of darkness," said Ron. "It's no use searching --"
"You never know," Hermione said stopping him.
"Or maybe Malfoy just said that to make us look for something that doesn't exist --"
Hermione was shut up by those words, but Harry immediately found proof for the contrary. "Well, it was Cho who heard him... and Malfoy didn't know that Cho was going to tell us. Not to forget that he didn't see her..."
But Ron didn't give up. "Maybe Cho lies --"
Harry felt like slapping Ron, and he didn't know why. He just didn't like anyone saying something bad about Cho. And as he went closer to Ron, a voice stopped them.
"I don't."
It was Cho.
"I've been looking for anything about this spell, too.", she said, looking at Harry. "But I didn't find anything."
"Neither did us," Ron added.
"We shouldn't give up... there must be something about this... maybe in the restricted section. And that won't be a problem... If I'll ask Flitwick, he will allow us to continue our search there... he always allows me to go there."
Harry seemed very astounded. "Why?"
"Well, Hermione isn't the only one very good at school."
"Well, we'll talk after you ask Flitwick..."
"Tomorrow is saturday. We'll met at twelve o'clock, here. Everything will be set... So much for hard-to-find spells."
"Okay, then... see you tomorrow," said Harry.
Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the common room, taking guesses about what the spell could be. They spent their entire evening like that, and Harry didn't give a thought about what happened until he went to his four-poster bed.
He decided that everytime he was with Cho he forgot about everything else. This time he walked to Niffler's house without realizing... he didn't even feel the nervousness he felt before that evening when he was supposed to practise for the first time. It was her who managed to make him forget about his worries; she told them that if he didn't want to be evil, he wouldn't be; and she was completely right.
Now she started helping them with lots of things... she became interrested in Harry's worries... but was she interrested only in the danger?
Could she possibly like him?
That brought him the memory of Cedric. He kept wondering how it would be if Cedric would still be alive... it was very hard to picture the possibility because Harry didn't know him too well -- and Cho didn't talk about him at all. Not one word.
The next days he woke up in the same mood as he was in the evening when he read from the Dark Book. He tried many spells and ways to make the text show up; but with no effect. He wondered why did he have that feeling that the book was hiding something? Maybe it was nothing out of the ordinary with that pages... but still... he didn't know what to think. Listen to his brain or to his feelings? He decided the last one, because it was not the first time when something similar happened... repeating the story with Riddle's Diary in his second year.
And, feeling that bad, he hadn't even thought of talking to Cho these days.
His mood didn't change a bit until Friday. He was in the same bad state, and there were very few things that could turn it any worse -- and Harry encountered one, an unexpected one.
The last class he had on that day was Divination. After he waited a few minutes for Professor Trelawney to show up, a few minutes in which he stood quietly at the same table with Ron, who seemed to have given up in trying to make Harry happier, he heard the mystical voice of the insect-like professor.
"Welcome, dears. Today we will start a more precise branch of future telling, image summoning."
"What?" Ron whispered in Harry's ear, quite loudly, and Trelawney heard him.
"Image summoning, dears!"
Still no one seemed to know what she was talking about.
"It is the way of predicting the future by creating an image of the future -- and project it in the air."
But no one understood much.
"Let me show you," she said, and she took her wand. She closed her huge eyes and concentrated a little, and after that she said, "Projecto!" and pointed her wand on her desk.
Some small figures were moving on the table, they looked like red ghosts -- transparent, but with a very strong red color.
Looking more attentively, Harry saw that one of those forms was a miniature figure of Trelawney. But she had something different -- the figure's hands were holding something -- Harry couldn't realize what that was, due to the small size of the projection.
"Engorgio!" said Harry automatically, his curiosity pushing him to do it. He just wanted to know what Trelawney looked like in that miniature thing that she said that was her future. But Harry knew better than to trust her. Even though she said that this image summoning was a more precise branch of future-telling, he could never believe anything she said. Some of the things she predicted were lucky guesses, but most of them were never happening.
The figure enlarged itself, making the image about four feet tall. It was a lot easier to look at the thing she was holding. Harry's jaw dropped. It was a badge, a badge he had rarely seen before; he read on it:
Sibyll Trelawney,
Order of Merlin,
First class
Ron started lauhghing, and Harry too; Trelawney, to have an order of Merlin??? She was not good at anything, and Harry could not imagine her doing anything to give her an Order of Merlin. Not to speak about a First Class one!!!
She looked at them very annoyed, and said, "Ten points for both of you are taken from Gryffindor for disturbing a class!" Looking at Harry, she said, "And learn to not laugh of a teacher."
After the silence that followed those moments, Ron swore; lucky that the professor didn't hear it. They had just lost twenty points from Gryffindor!
Turning to the rest of the class, she continued her boring useless lesson. Lavender and Parvati were listening carefully, but none other seemed to be interrested.
"This spell is very complicated to do," she started. "It needs a great Inner Eye to be done correctly."
"No wonder why she can't do anything good," whispered Ron in Harry's ear.
"I do not think that any of you will be able to do it in the first class. You should concentrate on a thing that you will like to see how it will look like in the future, and when your Inner Eye is all set and fixed, you will cast the Projecto spell.
"Who wants to try it the first?" she asked. Lavender raised her hand up. "Mrs. Brown," she said, and made a sign with her hands that told Lavender to go in the front of the room. "Remember? Concentrate, and Projecto!"
Lavender closed her eyes, waited for a few minutes until her mind was clear and not thinking about everything else, and then she whispered, "Projecto!"
But nothing happened. Trelawney nodded and told her that it was quite good for the first time.
Seamus came next, still nothing happened; then Dean, and then Parvati. Harry fell asleep again in the class, and Ron had to tell him that only Dean managed to make a yellow image get out from his wand, but it vanished in less than a second.
And then Trelawney called, "Mr. Potter!"
Harry raised on his feet and walked to the front of the class. He was sure that everything was just stupid rubbish, but he had to continue for the sake of house points, and of good marks.
He wondered what to try to summon, and he decided to try the same thing that Trelawney did -- he wanted to see him in the future.
Even though he had no belief that he could project an image of the future that would be happenning, he just concentrated on himself after half of an year. He wished to see if he was playing for the Quidditch team... to see what happened with Cho...
His mind was going empty except for the fact of seeing himself in the future. He had the feeling that Trelawney spoke the truth when she said that it was a more precise way of future-telling, so he took it more seriously than he did to the other things he had to make at Divination. It seemed a lot more convincing when he had to do it.
When he was sure that he concentrated enough, he pointed his wand to the floor, and he shouted, "PROJECTO!!!"
He opened his eyes and saw a think green beam emit from the top of his wand. The light was forming a greenish ten-inch figure on the floor. He saw the entire class staring astounded at him -- he was never good at Divination...
The projection was of himself, and small as it was, he could not see anything different with him. What if he would not be a Seeker for England? What if he could never be a more-than-just-friend of Cho's?
Without thinking anything, he pointed his wand at the tiny figure on the floor, and said, "Engorgio!"
He made the figure tall as himself, and staring at the projection, he saw a few small differences between himself and the assumed projection of the future.
He could not believe it. There was a very evil look on his face; he was staring at everyone as if he wanted to kill them; he wore some different robes -- not Hogwarts robes, for sure -- and he seemed to mouth the words, 'Who are you talking about? I know no Harry Potter.'
There was no mistaking it. Unbelievalbe as it was, it was the dark version of himself. He didn't want to look at it, seeing how he said that he didn't know about Harry Potter -- that meant that he wanted to forget all his previous life and start a new, Voldemort-like, one.
Parvati and Lavender stared between the figure and himself for some time, horrified. They wanted to leave their seats and go out of the classroom, but Trelawney didn't allow them to leave.
They seemed to be the only ones terrified about that; no one actually believed anything that they saw in that class. As precise as it was, that spell couldn't actually tell Harry's future. Maybe tell his fate, yes; but Harry did not believe in that, and he knew he could overpower it.
He would never go evil.
It took several minutes until someone managed to break the hurting silence. "I - I think it was -- enough for today, dears," Trelawney said. She seemed to desire that Harry would leave faster. If there was anyone who believed that except for Parvati and Lavender, that was Trelawney, who became scared of Harry from that day.
When he and Ron climbed down the staircase that led to her classroom, they started talking.
"The image was really shocking," said Harry, horrified that it may become true.
"Oh, Harry! How can you ever believe something like that? You know how true they turn out to be --"
"No, Ron; This time there is something different..."
"Still, why so pessimistic?"
That was a hard-to-answer question. If someone told him before that he would be that scared of something that he predicted in a Divination lesson, he would have laughed loud -- but that turned out to be true and disturbing.
And then, he asked himself, why to believe that? And why to be scared of it? It was only a Divination class, after all! Nothing anymore than stupid guesses...
"Ron," Harry decided to say, "This is not the first time when I see myself a dark wizard..." Ron's attention solely turned to Harry, making him forget about one trick stair that was in everyone's -- except Neville's -- instinct. "I had the feeling that I would go dark a few times before... the image just keeps popping into my mind... and now I guess it'll turn even worse."
That was enough to shut Ron up until they met Hermione. Harry told her the same story, and she seemed to be even less frightened than Ron was. She gave up on Divination believing that it was a too stupid object, and she could never believe something like that.
But when Harry told her that he had that feeling lots of times before, she didn't take the idea that easily. That was not one of Trelawney's predictions, and it was a lot easier to believe something that had nothing to do with Divination.
Harry was very sure that it was a natural feeling, and not the result of a dark spell. The memories the Death Eater had given to him felt like he knew those things since he was born, but no; these didn't. And the first time he had pictured himself dark was in the summer, before Voldemort sent anyone to attack Harry...
Indeed, it was a bad thing. They had nothing to do, and Harry was sick of going to the Common Room after classes. He decided to go and talk to Niffler, so he set off to the entreacne hall, to get out of the castle and talk to the captain.
And on the stairs, he saw one person coming out from the dungeon, and the person seemed to want to meet Harry. It was Cho herself. Harry felt like a stone was taken off from his heart; he waited for a moment to talk to Cho for a long time.
"Harry! Harry!" she said, and hurried towards him. "I've found a thing!"
Harry remained like petrified. His feeling turned out to be true; she indeed found something about the Death Eater.
"I heard Malfoy talk about his father today at lunch. He was telling his sidekicks about you. Just after the lunch was over, he was whispering to them, and I had hidden myself under a table -- You-Know-Who's second in command was sent to kill you..."
"I already knew that, the dream, remember?"
"Oh right -- but that's not all. He said something like 'He sent someone so high in the Ministry'. Can you guess who that is?"
It was no good clue for Harry. The only thing he could do about it was to ask Arthur Weasley about who disappeared from the Ministry -- what person. It was pity that Harry didn't know many people from the Ministry.
"And they said something about the spells they are going to use on you," she said, this time her voice started trembling. She paused a few soconds, looking frightened straight into Harry's eyes. Even though the news were that bad, his heart gave a jolt when she looked in his eyes.
"What spells?" asked Harry.
"Loads of dark spells I heard -- that memory spell, for one... and, er... a very strong dark freezing spell -- I heard its effects are like the petrification's, except that your body gets cold. And you... die, after a while, that is."
Harry remembered that spell; it was one of the spells he had read from the Dark Book of Dark Arts. But one thing was haunting Harry more than ever.
"Did they say anything about me getting dark?" he asked.
Cho didn't seem to like picturing Harry dark either. And then, she answered, "I haven't heard... only one more thing." She stopped, and when Harry mouthed the 'what' word, she continued, "The Shadow of Darkness."
But that was something with no meaning for Harry. "The what?"
"Shadow of Darknes... Malfoy said it is a strong dark spell, but he said that his father didn't tell him what its effects were."
That hit Harry with a little shock -- he had never read about that spell in the Dark Book, even though he read every single page of the book. Except...
The blank pages!
Those erased pages from the Dark Book of Dark Arts had to hide information about the Shadow of Darkness. But what was it? There was only one way to find out, and even that was improbable --
"I should go ask Dumbledore," said Harry fast. He was trying to remember anything about that spell. He knew there was something familiar about that name -- but then there came the memory modifications that could introduce that in his mind... or maybe it wasn't; he knew that Voldemort transferred a few of his powers into Harry when his curse was reflected.
Harry told her that he wanted to go and see Niffler, and then he told her about his new worries. He felt like spilling his thoughts to someone -- but he wondered why he hadn't even asked himself if it was safe to tell Cho things like that.
Harry didn't even realize that they were heading to Niffler's settlement. He was telling Cho about the Divination class he had only a few minutes ago when he realized where they were.
"Oh..." he said, more to himself, but Cho got the idea.
"Well, I think I should go back, no? Maybe Niffler won't like me around --"
"There is no problem with that," came Niffler's voice, who just stepped out of the door.
Harry and Cho jumped -- they weren't expecting that. They started to laugh ('Look why we get scared!'), and then Cho told Niffler, "Thank you, sir".
"There's no problem," he repeated, and invited them inside.
As they stepped into the large house, Harry was suddenly attracted by the beautiful rooms. Compared to these rooms, those in the Hogwarts Castle were nothing; the walls were quite similar; the same color, the same material, the same lighting; they couldn't see the ceiling in some places, either because it was too high, either because the halls were dimly lit.
Harry saw how big the house was from the outside, but from inside it looked extremely huge. From the main hall, loads of doors were leading to the other team members's rooms. They seemed to be big, too.
The windows were large, positioned quite high -- and even though they looked great, Harry couldn't imagine how sunlight could enlighten the everything. Of course, that was easily explained by the large number of torches that were regularily placed on the walls.
Niffler led them in the halls until they reached the greatest door of all. It had a gold locker, and there was a stone ferocious animal carved from it -- a manticore.
"Come in, come in," he said and then the three of them went in that room. Harry was sure that if that was NIffler's room, he chould be extremely rich. And thinking again, he surely was; his name, Niffler, fit perfectly; Nifflers were used to detect buried gold, Hagrid showed them a few only the last year. "Take a seat..."
They sat on some very comfortable sofas. The material they were made from was very good at touch, and it was keeping warm, too.
"What brought you here today?" he asked.
"I was thinking of a little Quidditch practice," answered Harry, who was still admiring the room. He was looking at the distinguishable ceiling that was supported by a few high pillars.
"Oh... quidditch... Yes, that would be a good idea... When?"
"I was thinking of today," said Harry, knowing that he would have no chance to go unannounced and then go to Quidditch. He looked so stupid. He should have informed Niffler one day before.
"The team is free to practice at anytime," said Niffler, and that took Harry with a big surprise. "It's a nice time for Quidditch, I'd say... And what about you, Miss Chang? I heard you are on the Quidditch team too -- you are playing for Ravenclaw?"
"Yes."
"Well, let's let Harry decide what you will do. That way it will be fair, no?"
Both Cho and Niffler looked at Harry, waiting for his answer. He wasn't sure of what to do himself. He wanted Cho to stay there, he really did; but she was going to get bored just watching them. And there was a strange tone in Niffler's voice when he asked her if she was playing for Ravenclaw; a tone that just gave Harry an idea... but he didn't think that Niffler would accept it...
He thought of asking Cho to join them in the practice.
Niffler wouldn't accept that. But still, he said that it was Harry's decision... or Maybe she wouldn't want that?
"Come with us," Harry said, "And I will think on the way to the pitch." Niffler nodded, and the three of them walked again through the large hall, Niffler gathered the rest of the team and they went out of the house.
They were getting closer and closer to their destination, but Harry still couldn't decide on what to do about Cho. He didn't feel like saying anything about that matter, because he couldn't find the words for it -- everything was so confusing.
They finally reached the stadium, and Harry didn't manage to decide anything. When Niffler and Cho asked him what he thought, he remained without words to say -- and then he said it, without wanting to do so.
"Would you like to come and fly, too?" he asked Cho. Harry saw Niffler grinning a little. Harry was relieved to see that no one complained anything, and Cho said, "Thanks!"
"But keep in mind that we are here to train Harry, not you, Miss Chang."
Harry summoned his own broom, and when Cho wanted to take hers, Niffler stopped her and took a Firebolt. "If you are going to stay with us, we will make sure that it will be the most comfortable."
The practice wasn't too different from the normal Quidditch practices they did for the Gryffindor team. The main difference was that they were advancing faster between moves, and sometimes Harry's head had begun spinning fast, lost between revising what he had just heard and memorising the new ones. Cho was making her own tries at the moves, and she was doing quite well; and that was the first time when he felt that Cho shouldn't be there -- they might lose the House Cup if Cho learnt too much...
But, that would be fairer; in that way Harry would have no huge advantage in playing for England and in learning more good moves -- very advanced moves, in fact -- they would see the skills they had at chasing the Snitch and avoiding Bludgers. That was if he didn't take into account that Cho had a much slower broom than he had.
Even though he had flown for more than two hours, he couldn't realize it. Time seemed to pass very fast when he was on a broomstick, and with the new moves the other players and Niffler taught him, he felt like it was his only world. Not to forget that Cho was there, sometimes talking to Niffler things that Harry couldn't hear, sometimes practicing her own. They even did a contest of who catches the Snitch faster -- and no wonder who managed to win it. Harry was a much better seeker than Cho was.
The practice ended too fast for Harry("We're leaving already?"), and they had to say good-bye to Niffler and the rest of the Quidditch team. They decided that they would practise again on Monday.
On the way back to the castle, Harry told Cho about every single thing that made him feel like he would be going to be a dark wizard. Lucky that Cho always seemed to know words to comfort him...
"You won't turn evil," she told him when he finished retelling the divination class.
"I will... everything points--"
"Do you want to turn evil?" she asked him.
"Well, of course not," Harry answered without knowing what she wanted to say.
"Then you won't... if you don't want it, you won't... Everything you do is your will, and only your will."
"Except the times when someone forces me --"
"No, Harry. Even if someone uses an Imperius on you, or a memory modification spell, you aren't dark... you are not dark until you do it from your own will."
That was true... "Yes... you're right..." Cho smiled at him, and she immediately changed the subject, because even though she convinced him that he won't turn dark, the idea of seeing himself like that was still shocking and quite convincing.
"So what about your research in the Death Eater's work? Haven't you noticed anything?"
Harry started to think about that. No, he did not find anything that could help him... He didn't like to say it, but he couldn't tell a lie either, so he answered, "Nothing..."
"The only thing left is to find out what the Shadow of Darkness is..." she said, at the same time as Harry pushed the entrance doors open.
"Well I guess that'll be a problem." Harry paused to think, and then he reminded himself of Dumbledore -- he could know it... or maybe Snape, because he was a Death Eater... there were more persons who could possibly know about the spell.
They soon had to go their separate ways, and Harry headed to the Gryffindor Tower. There was only one thing he could not get out of the head... would he turn evil or not? Everything that pointed that he was going to be like Voldemort was quite convincing... but he didn't want to turn dark, he just didn't... and he wouldn't accept it... Cho was right, after all.
In the Common Room, Harry told Ron and Hermione about the things that happened.
"We should go to the library," Hermione told him, "It's the only place where we can find about the Shadow of Darkness. I haven't ever heard of that spell myself... I guess you won't find it in the most books... but there have to be some books that have at least a little bit of information about a spell. We only need one thing."
Harry knew what that thing was. "Permission to go to the restricted section..."
"Exactly."
Ron didn't like going to the library too much, but this time he had nothing to object. Instead, he asked, "So, when should we go?"
"Now," said Hermione.
"NOW?" Ron blowed up. "Oh c'mon, Hermione, give me a break --"
"The faster, the better. And it's not late yet...", said Hermione, and Harry seemed to agree with her. "Let's go..."
Hermione pushed the portrait open, and she went out of the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry came just after her, and after some time, Ron went out, too... he didn't want to leave them alone.
They didn't have a permission to go to the restricted section, but Hermione said that they didn't need it that day; because the allowed section was huge anyway.
They looked for hours, taking different types of books, starting with those on ancient spells, and ending with books about dark wizards, but with no result.
"Very rare spell, this shadow of darkness," said Ron. "It's no use searching --"
"You never know," Hermione said stopping him.
"Or maybe Malfoy just said that to make us look for something that doesn't exist --"
Hermione was shut up by those words, but Harry immediately found proof for the contrary. "Well, it was Cho who heard him... and Malfoy didn't know that Cho was going to tell us. Not to forget that he didn't see her..."
But Ron didn't give up. "Maybe Cho lies --"
Harry felt like slapping Ron, and he didn't know why. He just didn't like anyone saying something bad about Cho. And as he went closer to Ron, a voice stopped them.
"I don't."
It was Cho.
"I've been looking for anything about this spell, too.", she said, looking at Harry. "But I didn't find anything."
"Neither did us," Ron added.
"We shouldn't give up... there must be something about this... maybe in the restricted section. And that won't be a problem... If I'll ask Flitwick, he will allow us to continue our search there... he always allows me to go there."
Harry seemed very astounded. "Why?"
"Well, Hermione isn't the only one very good at school."
"Well, we'll talk after you ask Flitwick..."
"Tomorrow is saturday. We'll met at twelve o'clock, here. Everything will be set... So much for hard-to-find spells."
"Okay, then... see you tomorrow," said Harry.
Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the common room, taking guesses about what the spell could be. They spent their entire evening like that, and Harry didn't give a thought about what happened until he went to his four-poster bed.
He decided that everytime he was with Cho he forgot about everything else. This time he walked to Niffler's house without realizing... he didn't even feel the nervousness he felt before that evening when he was supposed to practise for the first time. It was her who managed to make him forget about his worries; she told them that if he didn't want to be evil, he wouldn't be; and she was completely right.
Now she started helping them with lots of things... she became interrested in Harry's worries... but was she interrested only in the danger?
Could she possibly like him?
That brought him the memory of Cedric. He kept wondering how it would be if Cedric would still be alive... it was very hard to picture the possibility because Harry didn't know him too well -- and Cho didn't talk about him at all. Not one word.