Chapter 18: The Dark Book of Dark Arts
Everything was becoming even worse than Harry thought it would be. The memory of the Shadow affecting him was making him more worried than he ever was. He just worried about the Shadow managing to totally conquer him, and that would be the end of everything in the world as he knew it. Voldemort wouldn't focus on Harry anymore, he would go and kill everyone who tries to oppose him in his way to glory.
He even had a few Quidditch Practices for the National Quidditch team, but he used to leave as soon as possible because he couldn't play very well with all the thoughts raging in his head. The Shadow of Darkness could make him take a bad turn at any time, and he knew all it needed to affect him even more was just time.
Time, he said to himself; time. And he could do nothing about any pressing matter...
The only place where he could find peace was the lake. Every time he sat on the cold grass, in the cold air of november, he felt alive and his worries seemed to leave him alone, relaxed... worryless. He enjoyed the feeling when worries always left him alone while he was in that atmosphere... He didn't go to the lake only the morning anymore; he went there in the evenings, too. He met Cho there quite a few times, and he enjoyed spending a morning -- or an evening, deppending on the case -- with the girl he liked. He thought of telling her that he liked her a few times, or to just ask her out in the next Hogsmeade visit, but he could never bring himself to do it. He always felt guilty about Cedric and all that happened at the end of the last year.
Two weeks passed until Harry was reminded that the Quidditch Season was about to start -- and he hand't done any practicing for the upcoming match, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, a match which was only a short time away. He decided it was time to tell the new Gryffindor team to have a meeting discussing their future practises. That was because he wanted to have the Quidditch Cup that year as well.
He told the team that they would have their first practice that year on friday, right after the classes. For that reason he went straight to Professor McGonagall because he needed to book the Quidditch pitch for that day before the Slytherins or another team would.
However, it was not Friday yet, there were two more days to go; two more boring days, that was without counting that Wednesday still wasn't over. He hoped to manage to stay calm in snape's Potions class, where they did potions with so many ingredients it took them all four hours of the Double Potions class to make it, and half of the class didn't manage to finish it -- including Harry.
Divination was the worst class that day because it passed so slow. Although it was one of the most interresting ones, it seemed to pass much longer than the ordinary Divination classes. He hoped his mind would be fine and clear before going to Quidditch Practice, but the Divination class didn't help at all.
The image summoning was becoming worse than Harry firstly anticipated. Now Trelawney started teaching them spells, and not only stupid tea-leaves reading or crystal gazing. Everything now seemed to be more mysterious, each student's spell seemed to predict such things that made the others what exactly that was. Harry even believed all she said in class, with very good reasons, too. It didn't seem just stupid rubbish anymore, it was actually magic.
"Today we will study Advanced Image Summoning," Trelawney said in her usual dreamy voice. "Though I do not expect this of you, this is maybe the only way we will find out the complete truth about the future -- considering that the other ways of predicting may have had erroneous resusts in some cases."
Harry was surprised to hear Trelawney that Divination could have erroneous results, for him that was just admitting that she was more of a fraud.
"As I was saying," Trelawney continued, "The advanced Image Summoning is a very precise branch of future prediction. It's not only that it always says true things, but it shows about whatever we desire. And a very advanced spell tell the future not in a direct way, but through a messenger."
Parvati and Lavender let out an 'oh' that could be heard in the entire classroom quite clearly. Even if Harry started believing what Trelawney said, he could never understand Parvati and Lavender. They admired her ever since their first class, and that made a great difference comparing to Harry, who didn't believe anything until the fifth year.
"Let me give you an example," she said.
"I hope we will predict herself getting into trouble," Ron whispered to Harry.
"Shh!" Harry told Ron and pushed him away. That lesson could be very interresting. If Trelawney told them herself that other future telling ways were not so accurate, and she says this was better, he was sure she`d say true things this time... And he remembered their first Image Summoning class where Harry predicted himself turning evil... That had to be a true prediction, wasn't it? It just showed Harry what was happening to him at that moment... He was indeed turning dark.
Harry was surprised to see that Trelawney put her wand away. "We do not need these for the spell -- not wands, not words. It is a spell that comes straight from the Inner Eye. Now let's see. I will try to predict one thing. How about -- well I will decide later what I want to ask."
She slowly walked to her desk and sat on the chair, closing her eyes slowly. Everything reminded Harry of a Slow Motion version of reality, until he saw her fall in something that looked like a deep sleep, though she was still moving --
Looking again, Harry saw that her chair was moving by itself. He guessed the Shadow of Darkness could have secondary effects, too, just like this communication with the Inner Eye had on the chair Trelawney sat on.
The chair was truly slipping on the floor, heading to the wall in the right -- but with the small speed of the chair nothing could happen. Nothing unusual anyway, Harry thought, imagining Trelawney waking up and realizing that she was laying on the floor, the chair half broken in the wall besides her.
Back to reality, Harry watched her closely, the chair still moving by itself -- he wondered what force pushed it sideways. He didn't see anyone doing a spell, and she said she would only be using her inner eye...
Suddenly, the chair went to a halt just before it hit the dark wall. Trelawney still lay on the chair, but after a few seconds of deep silence, Trelawney lifted off the chair.
Harry felt that he was going numb. What was that ?
Every single student around him had his mouth open. They all stared amazed at the things that happened to Trelawney. Harry had never seen any person flying like that -- the Mobilicorpus didn't seem to ignore gravity as easy as this spell did. Was it a spell or Trelawney was really using her Inner Eye and now she was in a kind of a hypnotize or something?
She opened her eyes, but she didn't look at any of the students gazing at her. She didn't seem to express any feeling through her facial expression. Everyone stared confuzed either at the lifting Trelawney, or at the chair under her that was slowly pulling itself back to the place where it originally was.
Harry felt as if his heart stopped when he saw that she emitted like a golden aura around all her body. It lit the classroom very well, Harry had never seen it as lit as that. He saw exactly how the room was, it was actually a normal classroom. Where there had to be the door was a large painting that he had never seen before -- probably because it was too dark. Or maybe he was always sleepy in class so he never payed attention to it?
The painting represented a tall middle-aged witch wearing dark green robes, holding her wand tightly and pointing it to the sky.
As unexpected as it started, the aura around Trelawney started to wear off. She seemed to be back to a normal state and after a few seconds, still being in the air, the insect-like teacher fell on the floor.
"Ouch," said Ron when Trelawney landed on the floor as if she was falling on another chair. "That had to hurt."
But when Trelawney woke up, they saw that in the place where she was standing after she fell was a witch what looked a much older Trelawney. That had to be the messenger she mentioned at the start of the class.
"Come, help me, if you please," The old Trelawney said in a trembling voice to her much younger version. "Give me a hand."
The teacher helped her older version to get up on her feet. "W - What are you?" Trelawney asked. "I've -- I've never managed to do this spell before!"
"I am just an image of you before you died. Come from the future, know all my past... and I know your present. This present. To warn, just, do you mind, Seamus, of not trying to conjure a snail in this class? You know, you`ll burn the table you are at."
But before Seamus could ask what, he could be heard saying a long incantation, and then the table he was at was set on fire.
"Well, even though I held this class such a long time ago, I could remember it well," the old Trelawney said in a warning voice. "So, Sibyll, I know what you wanted me to ask, I were yourself once... I will answer it for you. Yes, you will get the Order of Merlin, First Class for predicting the truth in many critic situations. Using me, of course... that's for the beginning only anyway.
"Now that I have your question answered, I will have to go. My time is up, see you, my young version!"
And she suddenly disappeared just like vapor.
The entire class went so quiet, even Trelawney Froze. She had a good reason to do it, Harry thought, she managed to do one very complex spell in a class -- a spell she never did before. But why did she show it in front of the class if she knew she wouldn't manage to do it?
Maybe she was such a fraud that she told the students they will learn one thing and she taught them another.
A few minutes passed quietly, nobody managed to find any words, until Trelawney managed to form a sentence.
"I don't give any of you chances of doing this spell," Trelawney managed to say. "Class dismissed," she ordered them.
"So she said she will get an Order of Merlin?" Hermione asked as if it was the most ridiculous idea she ever had. "Because she does some true predictions?"
"Yes, that's what she said --", said Harry but he was stopped again.
"Predicting that she will predict," said Hermione. "How nice. If I'll tell you... If I'll predict that she won't do any proper prediction in the future, will that mean I have a very good Inner Eye? Ha!"
"Hermione, you don't understand. This one was not --"
"Come on, Harry, what's got into you?" Hermione asked exasperately. "This old fraud won't predict --"
"Well, she predicted that Lord Voldemort will be back," Ron continued.
"That was another --"
"Shut it, Hermione!" said Harry angrily. "Just listen! You should have seen her, the spell -- or whatever force she used -- moved her chair, lifted her into the air and made her look like a -- like a... How can I explain that?"
Harry was thinking about the golden aura. If that was the result of communicating with the Inner eye or something, it was much more mysterious than he could have expected.
He did not have much free time because the time for Quidditch practice he wanted so much to come was very close indeed. They had to train their new keeper, Peter Nutstone. He did the keeping quite well in the training session, he was quite skilled at flying and he had the gift for catching the Quaffle. His only problem was dodging the bludgers, an art where he had managed to get hit quite hard several times. However, he didn't get hurt at either of the impacts.
The Gryffindors practiced almost every day, Harry knew they needed some very serious practicing to beat the slytherins that year. He didn't have enough time for homework, but he never went to class without having it done. He was very thankful to Hermione for that.
In another two weeks the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match was to be played. Harry had another mushy Saturday Morning where he felt like doing anything except eating breakfast; the upcoming match would be the first one of the season, and the first one where he was captain!
And he didn't play a Quidditch Match for a long time... only practices but that was nothing like having a normal match. Last year there was no Quidditch because they had the Triwizard Tournament, cancelling all Quidditch throughout the season.
As they went to the locker rooms, Harry felt very hungry making him feel angry on himself because he refused to eat anything. With everyone around him asking him to eat, why in the world didn't he accept it? If only he knew how hungry he would be a few minutes after...
After they had all dressed, he had to replace Oliver Wood's speech about the following match -- but he had nothing at all to tell the team. He was thinking of anything, but he couldn't decide on what to say. So he decided not to say anything important.
"I hope you`re all ready for this match, team," Harry said, "because we can't afford to lose in front of the Slytherins... Peter, are you feeling alright?"
"Yes, it's nothing... Just a bit nervous," Peter answered.
"Yeah, I know how it is. I can remember my first time quite well."
"What happened?"
"Nothing really. Someone was trying to put a jinx on my broom, making me almost fall off it..."
"And?"
"Well... well, except for the frightening, it was quite cool."
"Really amusing, wasn't it?" asked Fred sarcastically. "You should encourage your team mates not make them feel worse!"
"Well, whatever. Now, know that we really need to win this game... I hope we will do it. We practiced long enough, you all did excellent -- I will not accept a loss. Play fair, it's the only way we can beat the hell out of those nasty cheating slytherins. Now, let's go."
And with that, they all headed off to the Quidditch Pitch. The Slytherin team was already there, booing the Gryffindors as they were walking towards the middle of the pitch. Harry could see that the stands were as usual -- the only ones who supported the slytherin team were the slytherins themselves, all others supported Gryffindor.
Harry was looking in the crowd to spot his friends and supporters. The first one that came into sight was Hagrid himself, because he was taking quite many seats in the crowd. But no matter how much he searched the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw crowds, he didn't manage to spot Hermione nor Cho.
They must be here anyway, Harry said to himself, and with that in mind, he mounted his broom on Madam hooch's command, and took some height. He had to shake hands with the Slytherin captain, and Harry didn't realize if it was him or Malfoy who was closer to breaking the other's hand in the grip.
Lee Jordan was, as always, commentating the match. The game began in a quite short time, and in a few seconds Harry was back to a world he enjoyed very much. He was flying again, playing Quidditch... he would be enoying beating the Slytherins once again, he knew it, he knew that there was nothing that could go wrong with the Gryffindor team. Peter Nutstone did very well in his training, he managed to defend ninety percent of the quaffles thrown by Angelina, Alicia and Katie at him.
In the first few minutes, neither of the teams scored -- both the Gryffindor and Slytherin keepers seemed to do their job very well.
"Just don't start to act like a mad evil wizard this time, will you, Potter?" asked Malfoy as he flew past Harry, with such a speed Harry could barely see him.
But how in the bloody world did Malfoy know that, Harry asked himself, but it couldn't be hard for him to know after all those Divination classes predicting his Evil Transformation. He was feeling quite optimistic because he did not have any bursts in the past few weeks, and he never even got close to the Dark Book of Dark Arts.
Harry went to look for the Snitch anyway, going around the Quidditch Pitch and sometimes catching Malfoy's eye, which was showing Harry an enormous hatred.
As he was thinking of Malfoy, the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw seats were suddenly all filled up with happy echoing voices, as Angelina Johnson managed to pass the Quaffle through the Slytherin goalposts.
Harry was back to looking after the Snitch, which was nowhere to be seen yet. As he was flying around the Pitch, he felt a Bludger pass only by inches near his head -- he turned to see who shot it and saw Fred who was trying to say "Sorry" in the distance.
"Fred, be careful!" Harry heard Angelina say with a very angry voice, "This is all we need now! Harry out and this game is lost!"
The Gryffindors scored twice, and Harry saw Fred aiming his bludgers at the Slytherin Keeper constantly after the previous incident. George did the same, and Harry just wished they would make him fall off his broom or something, that was what the Slytherins wanted to happen to the Gryffindors anyway.
Peter, the new Gryffindor keeper, managed to do some quite good defending, as the enemy Chasers shot the Quaffle many times in just a few seconds, and he blocked them all. But at another strike, he failed to stop it and as a result the Slytherins scored. The score was thirty to ten for Gryffindor.
A few minutes later, Katie and Alicia shot towards the Slytherin goal posts, and as Katie shot the Quaffle and the Slytherin Keeper tried to save it, a well-aimed Bludger missed him and distraught him, but immediately after, it hit the goalposts and came straight back to him, hitting him hard in the back of the head.
"Take that, you filthy cheating bastards --" Harry could hear Lee's comments, but then Professor McGonagall told him off again.
"Right, professor -- the Gryffindors score and lead the game with fourty points, while the Slytherins have only ten -- and no keeper, so we Gryffindors think of a really nice win after all..."
The Gryffindors scored with no big problems when the goalposts were keeper-free, so they had more than a hundred points in a quite short time. But still the Snitch was nowhere to be found, and Harry was looking around hoping dumbly to see it before Malfoy did.
Harry dodged a few bludgers shot at him, this time by the fierce stupid Slytherins, and suddenly, he almost fell off his broom when he heard a very scary unexpected voice in his ear that made him froze, saying "This is a warning..."
Getting back in a comfortable position on his Firebolt, he gave a thought to the voice, and it was not hard to tell that it was the Voice of the Shadow speaking.
But how could it speak, there, in the middle of a Quidditch Match? It never said anything until Harry was very relaxed, and when he was tired and trying to get a little rest... But this time it was nothing of the likes of that, he was just playing a Quidditch Match...
"What?" Harry whispered, trying to talk to the scary voice that almost made him fell off his broom.
"Be warned... The Shadow of Darkness... It is acting more than ever! It radiates so much magical energy that Dumbledore can feel it perfectly..."
"What now, you joined our side?" Harry asked the Shadow remembering that it was not supposed to take sides.
"Harry Potter, this does not matter right now!"
Harry caught a glimpse of the Snitch, but he was distracted from the match already. The happenings had to be too important for the Voice to come and talk to him in the middle of such an event.
"So what is it?" Harry asked curiously.
"Listen to me, Harry! Go... Ask for a timeout... Head to the Great Hall... IMMEDIATELY!"
"What is happening there?" asked Harry, who was not at all agreeing with the idea if him leaving the Gryffindors alone. That would surely get the Slytherins a win, and he would never accept that.
"JUST DO IT! YOU'LL UNDERSTAND!!!"
Harry went straight to Madam Hooch thinking up of a story to get him a timeout, but none came to his mind. In almost no time, he was face to face with the referee.
"What is it, Potter?" she asked.
"Professor... I need... a timeout."
"A timeout? Why?"
"Something..." but he didn't know what he could tell her. "Something very important."
"Potter, I hope the reason is good enough. Oh well," she took her whistle and gave a loud blow on it. "TIMEOUT!!!" she shouted, and both teams were heading towards her to ask what happened. Unfortunately none could talk to Harry, for he was flying with a high speed towards the gates of the Castle. Once he was in the Entrance Hall, he mounted his broom, flying to the Great Hall.
He landed, taking a deep breath. He looked around, but it was nothing strange there at the first sight. Nothing was moving in the silence... He wondered if the Voice wasn't actually just a trick from a Slytherin, a spell that they weren't supposed to do...
But there was one unusual thing there which he managed to spot -- a black large book lay opened in the middle of the Ravenclaw Table, a book Harry wished he didn't have to see again in his life.
The Dark Book of Dark Arts.
But what was it doing left in the middle of the Great Hall, just there for anyone to see it?
For the good of other people who would eventually see it and look to see what it was, Harry had to take it, to bring it back to the Gryffindor Tower, to hide it in his trunk, or anywhere else where nobody would see it.
He decided it would take too long to walk to it and mounted his Firebolt. But as he was getting close to the Dark Book, someone spoke.
"Leave it there!"
It was a cold girl's voice. Harry didn't recognize it, and turned to see who was talking.
It was Hermione. But not a normal Hermione, her hair was messy and untidy, she was wearing an expression of disgust and hatred on her face, and her voice was nothing like her usual. Her eyes reminded Harry of Voldemort's when he was torturing his Death Eaters back in the graveyard, and he could swear they weren't her usual color, but a bit redder.
"Hermione?"
"Hermione it was, Harry Potter. And Hermione is, partly," she replied coldly. "Leave the book there."
"Why should I?"
"Because that's where it needs to stay for the students to read it. That's the place where the tryumph of the Dark Wizards will begin."
"They will never tryumph! And not with the Shadow of Darkness!"
"You know you can't stand its power, Harry Potter! Not you, not Dumbledore, not anyone! Either here, or anywhere else, sooner or later the entire school will read the Dark Book of Dark Arts! That would make a large army for us..."
"Dumbledore won't allow anyone to do that! How can you think you will manage to -- show it to everyone? Dumbledore's the only wizard even Voldemort feared, and if Voldemort feared him, so should anyone! He will always know what you are doing."
"Harry, this is so wrong of you."
As they talked more and more, Harry soon realized he enjoyed a conversation with a normal Hermione so much better. But what was it -- was it just the shadow possessing Hermione? Or was she acting on her free will lead by a dark, corrupted mind?
"I started with showing one student the Dark Book, luckily that nobody told her about the Shadow of Darkness... and luckily that she knew about the book and was eager to read it... After I showed her the book she went to the Quidditch Pitch anyway, but the Shadow managed to enter her mind."
She already knew about it...
It was clear who the corrputed Hermione showed the book to. The first Hogwarts student -- except Hermione and himself -- who had the Shadow of Darkness inside was Cho Chang.
Harry's optimism suddenly left him entirely weak and alone. His lips slipped a mumble saying "Cho," and he knew that the corrupted Hermione hit him in his weak point.
"Hermione..." Harry said, feeling so week that he couldn't remember a feeling like that in his entire life.
"Get used to it, Harry... Because this will happen to you, too..."
"The shadow... Why did it affect you more than me?"
"You mean why I am evil and you are not yet? Well this is a though question. But now the Shadow leads me. Maybe as I was before I was too weak to stand it. I like how I feel now, it's so much better... I feel so powerful now! You are talking not to Hermione, but to both me and the Shadow. About you, you fought the Shadow that was placed on you with your entire powers, although even you couldn't resist it completely. There were some moments when my brother managed to take possession of your body completely, but they lasted a short time. This time, it is a permanent bind between me and the Shadow. Between me and Hermione Granger."
"No, it can't be!" said Harry, feeling that he would soon be left all alone with no powers to resist the evil taking over his best friend, and soon over Hogwarts. If Hermione was suffering from a permanent corruption, the entire school could be -- without even Dumbledore noticing... the spell was something he never faced before, so he would not be aware of it...
"It will be, Harry Potter! And you will never talk to the Hermione you got used to -- never! All you'll find is me... the Shadow of Darkness. I guess I should find a new name -- what about Hermydark?"
As she finished her sentence, Harry could hear loud cheers from the Quidditch Pitch outside, he guessed it meant that the match was over. Soon, a whole bunch of students and teachers would be entering the castle, and they would become witnesses to the effects of the Shadow of Darkness.
Hermione took her wand out of her robes and turned to face the door leading to the Entrance Hall.
As the Front Gate opened, she casted a spell that knocked down a few Gryffindors from the third year, who were accidentally leading the group. Harry knew he had to do something, and he shouted with all his power, "IMPEDIMENTA!"
Hermione stopped in her tracks, and, as the shocked crowd took a step sideways, a fierce Dumbledore hastily appeared staying exactly under the gate.
The curse on Hermione wore off, and when she saw Dumbledore Harry could swear she had an urge to run away -- but she didn't... Something stopped her. Something about the Shadow of Darkness.
"Dumbledore..." she said, giving him a threatening look and pointing her wand towards him.
"Leave her body immediately," Dumbledore said to the corrputed Hermione.
"Hermione and the Shadow of Darkness have become as one right now," the currpoted Hermione said again, threateningly. "There is no way to separe us even if both of us wanted."
Harry was almost shocked about the thought of never talking to Hermione as he knew her again -- but Dumbledore, strangely, kept his calmness over the limits Harry could imagine. Or maybe he knew a way to drive the Shadow of Darkness out of Hermione?
"You know it will be foolish to try to face me," Dumbledore threatened the corrupted Hermione. "I will take you down as easy as Voldemort took down wizards."
"Remember that you are not talking to Hermione right now, but to a combination of Hermione and Gregor the Vanquisher, the creator of the Dark Book of Dark Arts, a book that hid the Shadow of Darkness perfectly, and that was intended to help the Evil Lords in their hard times. Remember that I possess the whole knowledge of the Ancient Wizards, I know them just like they used to be. And it was so lucky to be combined with a top student."
"Gregor the Vanquisher had no more power than I do," Dumbledore said, and he waved his wand, causing a jet of purple light to fly to Hermione, who seemed to block it and send it back to Dumbledore, who avoided it quite easily.
"Gregor the Vanquisher was the strongest Dark Wizard of his time," said the corrupted Hermione.
She waved her left hand and shot an even greater jet of purple light to Dumbledore, who sent it back to the caster as well.
"Do not mess with me, Gregor," said Dumbledore, and Harry felt that the small duel would finish quickly.
"Then say something about this," the corrputed Hermione said, and pointing her wand to the crowd of students at the back of Dumbledore, she shot a large jet of fire to them.
Dumbledore didn't seem to manage to stop it, and the spell caused an explosion in the center of the crowd, throwing several students several feet backwards.
"This was enough, Gregor!" Dumbledore said, "Just say what you are really looking for."
"I am looking for nothing."
"What do you want then?"
"I want the Evil to tryumph... and this is the only place where I can do something really useful."
"The Shadow of Darkness will not affect the students studying at my school. Not for as long as I am still the headmaster here."
"It already did, Dumbledore, already affected two -- soon three -- of the students that are studying here, and they will not be the last ones!"
Dumbledore, instead of replying anything, just waved his wand again and summoned some heavy chains that binded Hermione to the ground so fast that she didn't even react. She fell on the floor as a result, paralyzed, staring at Dumbledore, who lowered his wand and pocketed it.
"This won't be the end," Hermione said, "This won't be the end."
"Nobody said it will. Now, I will have to ask everyone," Dumbledore continued calmly, turning to face the crowd of students, "to go to their Common Rooms... If anyone was hurt, he will be transported to the Hospital Wing immediately -- Mr. Potter, Mr. Ronald Weasley... will you, please, come to my office..."
He pointed at Hermione's body, lifting her about ten inches above the ground, and as Dumbledore went down the corridors and up to the second floor, where the Headmaster's Office was, the flying paralyzed Hermione followed him. The effect remembered Harry of the Mobilicorpus spell.
"By the way, Harry," Ron managed to say to him through sad thoughts about Hermione, "Malfoy caught the Snitch but we still won. We had three hundred points already and they had fourty -- Malfoy thought it'd be better to catch the Snitch until the Gryffindors would give them too many goals."
The thought of winning a Quidditch match didn't bring any comfort to Harry anyway.
As they were heading to the Stone Gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office, Harry just hoped it was all nothing more than a dream, a nightmare... The whole thing was turning bad, worse than Harry could ever think. The Shadow of Darkness not only corrupted minds, it could take over persons completely... What if the Shadow would manage to take him, too? Gregor the Vasquisher said that the corrupted Hermione had his powers, and that it was lucky for him that the Shadow of Darkness was casted on the top student. But Harry knew somehow that if the Shadow would possess him, he could do things a lot worse than Hermione did. What if Dumbledore couldn't stop a corrupted Harry?
If that happened, he together with Gregor the Vanquisher would rule the world...
Everything was becoming even worse than Harry thought it would be. The memory of the Shadow affecting him was making him more worried than he ever was. He just worried about the Shadow managing to totally conquer him, and that would be the end of everything in the world as he knew it. Voldemort wouldn't focus on Harry anymore, he would go and kill everyone who tries to oppose him in his way to glory.
He even had a few Quidditch Practices for the National Quidditch team, but he used to leave as soon as possible because he couldn't play very well with all the thoughts raging in his head. The Shadow of Darkness could make him take a bad turn at any time, and he knew all it needed to affect him even more was just time.
Time, he said to himself; time. And he could do nothing about any pressing matter...
The only place where he could find peace was the lake. Every time he sat on the cold grass, in the cold air of november, he felt alive and his worries seemed to leave him alone, relaxed... worryless. He enjoyed the feeling when worries always left him alone while he was in that atmosphere... He didn't go to the lake only the morning anymore; he went there in the evenings, too. He met Cho there quite a few times, and he enjoyed spending a morning -- or an evening, deppending on the case -- with the girl he liked. He thought of telling her that he liked her a few times, or to just ask her out in the next Hogsmeade visit, but he could never bring himself to do it. He always felt guilty about Cedric and all that happened at the end of the last year.
Two weeks passed until Harry was reminded that the Quidditch Season was about to start -- and he hand't done any practicing for the upcoming match, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, a match which was only a short time away. He decided it was time to tell the new Gryffindor team to have a meeting discussing their future practises. That was because he wanted to have the Quidditch Cup that year as well.
He told the team that they would have their first practice that year on friday, right after the classes. For that reason he went straight to Professor McGonagall because he needed to book the Quidditch pitch for that day before the Slytherins or another team would.
However, it was not Friday yet, there were two more days to go; two more boring days, that was without counting that Wednesday still wasn't over. He hoped to manage to stay calm in snape's Potions class, where they did potions with so many ingredients it took them all four hours of the Double Potions class to make it, and half of the class didn't manage to finish it -- including Harry.
Divination was the worst class that day because it passed so slow. Although it was one of the most interresting ones, it seemed to pass much longer than the ordinary Divination classes. He hoped his mind would be fine and clear before going to Quidditch Practice, but the Divination class didn't help at all.
The image summoning was becoming worse than Harry firstly anticipated. Now Trelawney started teaching them spells, and not only stupid tea-leaves reading or crystal gazing. Everything now seemed to be more mysterious, each student's spell seemed to predict such things that made the others what exactly that was. Harry even believed all she said in class, with very good reasons, too. It didn't seem just stupid rubbish anymore, it was actually magic.
"Today we will study Advanced Image Summoning," Trelawney said in her usual dreamy voice. "Though I do not expect this of you, this is maybe the only way we will find out the complete truth about the future -- considering that the other ways of predicting may have had erroneous resusts in some cases."
Harry was surprised to hear Trelawney that Divination could have erroneous results, for him that was just admitting that she was more of a fraud.
"As I was saying," Trelawney continued, "The advanced Image Summoning is a very precise branch of future prediction. It's not only that it always says true things, but it shows about whatever we desire. And a very advanced spell tell the future not in a direct way, but through a messenger."
Parvati and Lavender let out an 'oh' that could be heard in the entire classroom quite clearly. Even if Harry started believing what Trelawney said, he could never understand Parvati and Lavender. They admired her ever since their first class, and that made a great difference comparing to Harry, who didn't believe anything until the fifth year.
"Let me give you an example," she said.
"I hope we will predict herself getting into trouble," Ron whispered to Harry.
"Shh!" Harry told Ron and pushed him away. That lesson could be very interresting. If Trelawney told them herself that other future telling ways were not so accurate, and she says this was better, he was sure she`d say true things this time... And he remembered their first Image Summoning class where Harry predicted himself turning evil... That had to be a true prediction, wasn't it? It just showed Harry what was happening to him at that moment... He was indeed turning dark.
Harry was surprised to see that Trelawney put her wand away. "We do not need these for the spell -- not wands, not words. It is a spell that comes straight from the Inner Eye. Now let's see. I will try to predict one thing. How about -- well I will decide later what I want to ask."
She slowly walked to her desk and sat on the chair, closing her eyes slowly. Everything reminded Harry of a Slow Motion version of reality, until he saw her fall in something that looked like a deep sleep, though she was still moving --
Looking again, Harry saw that her chair was moving by itself. He guessed the Shadow of Darkness could have secondary effects, too, just like this communication with the Inner Eye had on the chair Trelawney sat on.
The chair was truly slipping on the floor, heading to the wall in the right -- but with the small speed of the chair nothing could happen. Nothing unusual anyway, Harry thought, imagining Trelawney waking up and realizing that she was laying on the floor, the chair half broken in the wall besides her.
Back to reality, Harry watched her closely, the chair still moving by itself -- he wondered what force pushed it sideways. He didn't see anyone doing a spell, and she said she would only be using her inner eye...
Suddenly, the chair went to a halt just before it hit the dark wall. Trelawney still lay on the chair, but after a few seconds of deep silence, Trelawney lifted off the chair.
Harry felt that he was going numb. What was that ?
Every single student around him had his mouth open. They all stared amazed at the things that happened to Trelawney. Harry had never seen any person flying like that -- the Mobilicorpus didn't seem to ignore gravity as easy as this spell did. Was it a spell or Trelawney was really using her Inner Eye and now she was in a kind of a hypnotize or something?
She opened her eyes, but she didn't look at any of the students gazing at her. She didn't seem to express any feeling through her facial expression. Everyone stared confuzed either at the lifting Trelawney, or at the chair under her that was slowly pulling itself back to the place where it originally was.
Harry felt as if his heart stopped when he saw that she emitted like a golden aura around all her body. It lit the classroom very well, Harry had never seen it as lit as that. He saw exactly how the room was, it was actually a normal classroom. Where there had to be the door was a large painting that he had never seen before -- probably because it was too dark. Or maybe he was always sleepy in class so he never payed attention to it?
The painting represented a tall middle-aged witch wearing dark green robes, holding her wand tightly and pointing it to the sky.
As unexpected as it started, the aura around Trelawney started to wear off. She seemed to be back to a normal state and after a few seconds, still being in the air, the insect-like teacher fell on the floor.
"Ouch," said Ron when Trelawney landed on the floor as if she was falling on another chair. "That had to hurt."
But when Trelawney woke up, they saw that in the place where she was standing after she fell was a witch what looked a much older Trelawney. That had to be the messenger she mentioned at the start of the class.
"Come, help me, if you please," The old Trelawney said in a trembling voice to her much younger version. "Give me a hand."
The teacher helped her older version to get up on her feet. "W - What are you?" Trelawney asked. "I've -- I've never managed to do this spell before!"
"I am just an image of you before you died. Come from the future, know all my past... and I know your present. This present. To warn, just, do you mind, Seamus, of not trying to conjure a snail in this class? You know, you`ll burn the table you are at."
But before Seamus could ask what, he could be heard saying a long incantation, and then the table he was at was set on fire.
"Well, even though I held this class such a long time ago, I could remember it well," the old Trelawney said in a warning voice. "So, Sibyll, I know what you wanted me to ask, I were yourself once... I will answer it for you. Yes, you will get the Order of Merlin, First Class for predicting the truth in many critic situations. Using me, of course... that's for the beginning only anyway.
"Now that I have your question answered, I will have to go. My time is up, see you, my young version!"
And she suddenly disappeared just like vapor.
The entire class went so quiet, even Trelawney Froze. She had a good reason to do it, Harry thought, she managed to do one very complex spell in a class -- a spell she never did before. But why did she show it in front of the class if she knew she wouldn't manage to do it?
Maybe she was such a fraud that she told the students they will learn one thing and she taught them another.
A few minutes passed quietly, nobody managed to find any words, until Trelawney managed to form a sentence.
"I don't give any of you chances of doing this spell," Trelawney managed to say. "Class dismissed," she ordered them.
"So she said she will get an Order of Merlin?" Hermione asked as if it was the most ridiculous idea she ever had. "Because she does some true predictions?"
"Yes, that's what she said --", said Harry but he was stopped again.
"Predicting that she will predict," said Hermione. "How nice. If I'll tell you... If I'll predict that she won't do any proper prediction in the future, will that mean I have a very good Inner Eye? Ha!"
"Hermione, you don't understand. This one was not --"
"Come on, Harry, what's got into you?" Hermione asked exasperately. "This old fraud won't predict --"
"Well, she predicted that Lord Voldemort will be back," Ron continued.
"That was another --"
"Shut it, Hermione!" said Harry angrily. "Just listen! You should have seen her, the spell -- or whatever force she used -- moved her chair, lifted her into the air and made her look like a -- like a... How can I explain that?"
Harry was thinking about the golden aura. If that was the result of communicating with the Inner eye or something, it was much more mysterious than he could have expected.
He did not have much free time because the time for Quidditch practice he wanted so much to come was very close indeed. They had to train their new keeper, Peter Nutstone. He did the keeping quite well in the training session, he was quite skilled at flying and he had the gift for catching the Quaffle. His only problem was dodging the bludgers, an art where he had managed to get hit quite hard several times. However, he didn't get hurt at either of the impacts.
The Gryffindors practiced almost every day, Harry knew they needed some very serious practicing to beat the slytherins that year. He didn't have enough time for homework, but he never went to class without having it done. He was very thankful to Hermione for that.
In another two weeks the Gryffindor versus Slytherin match was to be played. Harry had another mushy Saturday Morning where he felt like doing anything except eating breakfast; the upcoming match would be the first one of the season, and the first one where he was captain!
And he didn't play a Quidditch Match for a long time... only practices but that was nothing like having a normal match. Last year there was no Quidditch because they had the Triwizard Tournament, cancelling all Quidditch throughout the season.
As they went to the locker rooms, Harry felt very hungry making him feel angry on himself because he refused to eat anything. With everyone around him asking him to eat, why in the world didn't he accept it? If only he knew how hungry he would be a few minutes after...
After they had all dressed, he had to replace Oliver Wood's speech about the following match -- but he had nothing at all to tell the team. He was thinking of anything, but he couldn't decide on what to say. So he decided not to say anything important.
"I hope you`re all ready for this match, team," Harry said, "because we can't afford to lose in front of the Slytherins... Peter, are you feeling alright?"
"Yes, it's nothing... Just a bit nervous," Peter answered.
"Yeah, I know how it is. I can remember my first time quite well."
"What happened?"
"Nothing really. Someone was trying to put a jinx on my broom, making me almost fall off it..."
"And?"
"Well... well, except for the frightening, it was quite cool."
"Really amusing, wasn't it?" asked Fred sarcastically. "You should encourage your team mates not make them feel worse!"
"Well, whatever. Now, know that we really need to win this game... I hope we will do it. We practiced long enough, you all did excellent -- I will not accept a loss. Play fair, it's the only way we can beat the hell out of those nasty cheating slytherins. Now, let's go."
And with that, they all headed off to the Quidditch Pitch. The Slytherin team was already there, booing the Gryffindors as they were walking towards the middle of the pitch. Harry could see that the stands were as usual -- the only ones who supported the slytherin team were the slytherins themselves, all others supported Gryffindor.
Harry was looking in the crowd to spot his friends and supporters. The first one that came into sight was Hagrid himself, because he was taking quite many seats in the crowd. But no matter how much he searched the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw crowds, he didn't manage to spot Hermione nor Cho.
They must be here anyway, Harry said to himself, and with that in mind, he mounted his broom on Madam hooch's command, and took some height. He had to shake hands with the Slytherin captain, and Harry didn't realize if it was him or Malfoy who was closer to breaking the other's hand in the grip.
Lee Jordan was, as always, commentating the match. The game began in a quite short time, and in a few seconds Harry was back to a world he enjoyed very much. He was flying again, playing Quidditch... he would be enoying beating the Slytherins once again, he knew it, he knew that there was nothing that could go wrong with the Gryffindor team. Peter Nutstone did very well in his training, he managed to defend ninety percent of the quaffles thrown by Angelina, Alicia and Katie at him.
In the first few minutes, neither of the teams scored -- both the Gryffindor and Slytherin keepers seemed to do their job very well.
"Just don't start to act like a mad evil wizard this time, will you, Potter?" asked Malfoy as he flew past Harry, with such a speed Harry could barely see him.
But how in the bloody world did Malfoy know that, Harry asked himself, but it couldn't be hard for him to know after all those Divination classes predicting his Evil Transformation. He was feeling quite optimistic because he did not have any bursts in the past few weeks, and he never even got close to the Dark Book of Dark Arts.
Harry went to look for the Snitch anyway, going around the Quidditch Pitch and sometimes catching Malfoy's eye, which was showing Harry an enormous hatred.
As he was thinking of Malfoy, the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw seats were suddenly all filled up with happy echoing voices, as Angelina Johnson managed to pass the Quaffle through the Slytherin goalposts.
Harry was back to looking after the Snitch, which was nowhere to be seen yet. As he was flying around the Pitch, he felt a Bludger pass only by inches near his head -- he turned to see who shot it and saw Fred who was trying to say "Sorry" in the distance.
"Fred, be careful!" Harry heard Angelina say with a very angry voice, "This is all we need now! Harry out and this game is lost!"
The Gryffindors scored twice, and Harry saw Fred aiming his bludgers at the Slytherin Keeper constantly after the previous incident. George did the same, and Harry just wished they would make him fall off his broom or something, that was what the Slytherins wanted to happen to the Gryffindors anyway.
Peter, the new Gryffindor keeper, managed to do some quite good defending, as the enemy Chasers shot the Quaffle many times in just a few seconds, and he blocked them all. But at another strike, he failed to stop it and as a result the Slytherins scored. The score was thirty to ten for Gryffindor.
A few minutes later, Katie and Alicia shot towards the Slytherin goal posts, and as Katie shot the Quaffle and the Slytherin Keeper tried to save it, a well-aimed Bludger missed him and distraught him, but immediately after, it hit the goalposts and came straight back to him, hitting him hard in the back of the head.
"Take that, you filthy cheating bastards --" Harry could hear Lee's comments, but then Professor McGonagall told him off again.
"Right, professor -- the Gryffindors score and lead the game with fourty points, while the Slytherins have only ten -- and no keeper, so we Gryffindors think of a really nice win after all..."
The Gryffindors scored with no big problems when the goalposts were keeper-free, so they had more than a hundred points in a quite short time. But still the Snitch was nowhere to be found, and Harry was looking around hoping dumbly to see it before Malfoy did.
Harry dodged a few bludgers shot at him, this time by the fierce stupid Slytherins, and suddenly, he almost fell off his broom when he heard a very scary unexpected voice in his ear that made him froze, saying "This is a warning..."
Getting back in a comfortable position on his Firebolt, he gave a thought to the voice, and it was not hard to tell that it was the Voice of the Shadow speaking.
But how could it speak, there, in the middle of a Quidditch Match? It never said anything until Harry was very relaxed, and when he was tired and trying to get a little rest... But this time it was nothing of the likes of that, he was just playing a Quidditch Match...
"What?" Harry whispered, trying to talk to the scary voice that almost made him fell off his broom.
"Be warned... The Shadow of Darkness... It is acting more than ever! It radiates so much magical energy that Dumbledore can feel it perfectly..."
"What now, you joined our side?" Harry asked the Shadow remembering that it was not supposed to take sides.
"Harry Potter, this does not matter right now!"
Harry caught a glimpse of the Snitch, but he was distracted from the match already. The happenings had to be too important for the Voice to come and talk to him in the middle of such an event.
"So what is it?" Harry asked curiously.
"Listen to me, Harry! Go... Ask for a timeout... Head to the Great Hall... IMMEDIATELY!"
"What is happening there?" asked Harry, who was not at all agreeing with the idea if him leaving the Gryffindors alone. That would surely get the Slytherins a win, and he would never accept that.
"JUST DO IT! YOU'LL UNDERSTAND!!!"
Harry went straight to Madam Hooch thinking up of a story to get him a timeout, but none came to his mind. In almost no time, he was face to face with the referee.
"What is it, Potter?" she asked.
"Professor... I need... a timeout."
"A timeout? Why?"
"Something..." but he didn't know what he could tell her. "Something very important."
"Potter, I hope the reason is good enough. Oh well," she took her whistle and gave a loud blow on it. "TIMEOUT!!!" she shouted, and both teams were heading towards her to ask what happened. Unfortunately none could talk to Harry, for he was flying with a high speed towards the gates of the Castle. Once he was in the Entrance Hall, he mounted his broom, flying to the Great Hall.
He landed, taking a deep breath. He looked around, but it was nothing strange there at the first sight. Nothing was moving in the silence... He wondered if the Voice wasn't actually just a trick from a Slytherin, a spell that they weren't supposed to do...
But there was one unusual thing there which he managed to spot -- a black large book lay opened in the middle of the Ravenclaw Table, a book Harry wished he didn't have to see again in his life.
The Dark Book of Dark Arts.
But what was it doing left in the middle of the Great Hall, just there for anyone to see it?
For the good of other people who would eventually see it and look to see what it was, Harry had to take it, to bring it back to the Gryffindor Tower, to hide it in his trunk, or anywhere else where nobody would see it.
He decided it would take too long to walk to it and mounted his Firebolt. But as he was getting close to the Dark Book, someone spoke.
"Leave it there!"
It was a cold girl's voice. Harry didn't recognize it, and turned to see who was talking.
It was Hermione. But not a normal Hermione, her hair was messy and untidy, she was wearing an expression of disgust and hatred on her face, and her voice was nothing like her usual. Her eyes reminded Harry of Voldemort's when he was torturing his Death Eaters back in the graveyard, and he could swear they weren't her usual color, but a bit redder.
"Hermione?"
"Hermione it was, Harry Potter. And Hermione is, partly," she replied coldly. "Leave the book there."
"Why should I?"
"Because that's where it needs to stay for the students to read it. That's the place where the tryumph of the Dark Wizards will begin."
"They will never tryumph! And not with the Shadow of Darkness!"
"You know you can't stand its power, Harry Potter! Not you, not Dumbledore, not anyone! Either here, or anywhere else, sooner or later the entire school will read the Dark Book of Dark Arts! That would make a large army for us..."
"Dumbledore won't allow anyone to do that! How can you think you will manage to -- show it to everyone? Dumbledore's the only wizard even Voldemort feared, and if Voldemort feared him, so should anyone! He will always know what you are doing."
"Harry, this is so wrong of you."
As they talked more and more, Harry soon realized he enjoyed a conversation with a normal Hermione so much better. But what was it -- was it just the shadow possessing Hermione? Or was she acting on her free will lead by a dark, corrupted mind?
"I started with showing one student the Dark Book, luckily that nobody told her about the Shadow of Darkness... and luckily that she knew about the book and was eager to read it... After I showed her the book she went to the Quidditch Pitch anyway, but the Shadow managed to enter her mind."
She already knew about it...
It was clear who the corrputed Hermione showed the book to. The first Hogwarts student -- except Hermione and himself -- who had the Shadow of Darkness inside was Cho Chang.
Harry's optimism suddenly left him entirely weak and alone. His lips slipped a mumble saying "Cho," and he knew that the corrupted Hermione hit him in his weak point.
"Hermione..." Harry said, feeling so week that he couldn't remember a feeling like that in his entire life.
"Get used to it, Harry... Because this will happen to you, too..."
"The shadow... Why did it affect you more than me?"
"You mean why I am evil and you are not yet? Well this is a though question. But now the Shadow leads me. Maybe as I was before I was too weak to stand it. I like how I feel now, it's so much better... I feel so powerful now! You are talking not to Hermione, but to both me and the Shadow. About you, you fought the Shadow that was placed on you with your entire powers, although even you couldn't resist it completely. There were some moments when my brother managed to take possession of your body completely, but they lasted a short time. This time, it is a permanent bind between me and the Shadow. Between me and Hermione Granger."
"No, it can't be!" said Harry, feeling that he would soon be left all alone with no powers to resist the evil taking over his best friend, and soon over Hogwarts. If Hermione was suffering from a permanent corruption, the entire school could be -- without even Dumbledore noticing... the spell was something he never faced before, so he would not be aware of it...
"It will be, Harry Potter! And you will never talk to the Hermione you got used to -- never! All you'll find is me... the Shadow of Darkness. I guess I should find a new name -- what about Hermydark?"
As she finished her sentence, Harry could hear loud cheers from the Quidditch Pitch outside, he guessed it meant that the match was over. Soon, a whole bunch of students and teachers would be entering the castle, and they would become witnesses to the effects of the Shadow of Darkness.
Hermione took her wand out of her robes and turned to face the door leading to the Entrance Hall.
As the Front Gate opened, she casted a spell that knocked down a few Gryffindors from the third year, who were accidentally leading the group. Harry knew he had to do something, and he shouted with all his power, "IMPEDIMENTA!"
Hermione stopped in her tracks, and, as the shocked crowd took a step sideways, a fierce Dumbledore hastily appeared staying exactly under the gate.
The curse on Hermione wore off, and when she saw Dumbledore Harry could swear she had an urge to run away -- but she didn't... Something stopped her. Something about the Shadow of Darkness.
"Dumbledore..." she said, giving him a threatening look and pointing her wand towards him.
"Leave her body immediately," Dumbledore said to the corrputed Hermione.
"Hermione and the Shadow of Darkness have become as one right now," the currpoted Hermione said again, threateningly. "There is no way to separe us even if both of us wanted."
Harry was almost shocked about the thought of never talking to Hermione as he knew her again -- but Dumbledore, strangely, kept his calmness over the limits Harry could imagine. Or maybe he knew a way to drive the Shadow of Darkness out of Hermione?
"You know it will be foolish to try to face me," Dumbledore threatened the corrupted Hermione. "I will take you down as easy as Voldemort took down wizards."
"Remember that you are not talking to Hermione right now, but to a combination of Hermione and Gregor the Vanquisher, the creator of the Dark Book of Dark Arts, a book that hid the Shadow of Darkness perfectly, and that was intended to help the Evil Lords in their hard times. Remember that I possess the whole knowledge of the Ancient Wizards, I know them just like they used to be. And it was so lucky to be combined with a top student."
"Gregor the Vanquisher had no more power than I do," Dumbledore said, and he waved his wand, causing a jet of purple light to fly to Hermione, who seemed to block it and send it back to Dumbledore, who avoided it quite easily.
"Gregor the Vanquisher was the strongest Dark Wizard of his time," said the corrupted Hermione.
She waved her left hand and shot an even greater jet of purple light to Dumbledore, who sent it back to the caster as well.
"Do not mess with me, Gregor," said Dumbledore, and Harry felt that the small duel would finish quickly.
"Then say something about this," the corrputed Hermione said, and pointing her wand to the crowd of students at the back of Dumbledore, she shot a large jet of fire to them.
Dumbledore didn't seem to manage to stop it, and the spell caused an explosion in the center of the crowd, throwing several students several feet backwards.
"This was enough, Gregor!" Dumbledore said, "Just say what you are really looking for."
"I am looking for nothing."
"What do you want then?"
"I want the Evil to tryumph... and this is the only place where I can do something really useful."
"The Shadow of Darkness will not affect the students studying at my school. Not for as long as I am still the headmaster here."
"It already did, Dumbledore, already affected two -- soon three -- of the students that are studying here, and they will not be the last ones!"
Dumbledore, instead of replying anything, just waved his wand again and summoned some heavy chains that binded Hermione to the ground so fast that she didn't even react. She fell on the floor as a result, paralyzed, staring at Dumbledore, who lowered his wand and pocketed it.
"This won't be the end," Hermione said, "This won't be the end."
"Nobody said it will. Now, I will have to ask everyone," Dumbledore continued calmly, turning to face the crowd of students, "to go to their Common Rooms... If anyone was hurt, he will be transported to the Hospital Wing immediately -- Mr. Potter, Mr. Ronald Weasley... will you, please, come to my office..."
He pointed at Hermione's body, lifting her about ten inches above the ground, and as Dumbledore went down the corridors and up to the second floor, where the Headmaster's Office was, the flying paralyzed Hermione followed him. The effect remembered Harry of the Mobilicorpus spell.
"By the way, Harry," Ron managed to say to him through sad thoughts about Hermione, "Malfoy caught the Snitch but we still won. We had three hundred points already and they had fourty -- Malfoy thought it'd be better to catch the Snitch until the Gryffindors would give them too many goals."
The thought of winning a Quidditch match didn't bring any comfort to Harry anyway.
As they were heading to the Stone Gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office, Harry just hoped it was all nothing more than a dream, a nightmare... The whole thing was turning bad, worse than Harry could ever think. The Shadow of Darkness not only corrupted minds, it could take over persons completely... What if the Shadow would manage to take him, too? Gregor the Vasquisher said that the corrupted Hermione had his powers, and that it was lucky for him that the Shadow of Darkness was casted on the top student. But Harry knew somehow that if the Shadow would possess him, he could do things a lot worse than Hermione did. What if Dumbledore couldn't stop a corrupted Harry?
If that happened, he together with Gregor the Vanquisher would rule the world...