Last Chapter Ending:
They arrived in front of the door gasping for breath, grinning at the sand all over the floor in front of them, and flung open the door to look onto a scene of unfolding chaos.
Chapter Twenty:
Just as they arrived the class began tripping over the many wires and strings that criss-crossed the room, the furniture was sliding in every direction and there were yells of surprise and pain from several of the students.
Harry and Elisa stood in the doorway surveying the scene with expressions of surprise and worry, carefully manufactured for the occasion.
It took almost twenty minutes to clear everything up, and no one was too badly injured. "Who did that?" Sirius demanded, he looked at his two children, who looked back at him with looks of injured innocence.
"You suspect us?" Harry both looked and sounded astounded and hurt. "We've just run from the Great Hall up to the Gryffindor Tower and back here – and might I remind you that I am still recovering from using as much magical power as I did yesterday? I'm not stupid enough to attempt something like this."
Sirius looked at him for a moment. "Of course not," he conceded. "Your record, however, is against you, but presented with your case I can see that it could hardly have been you. This means that it is someone else, though I doubt that they will come forward and face the consequences of their actions."
At the same time he signed to Harry, You don't fool me you know. I am the master.
I know that. But it's a plausible explanation and I didn't think that you'd punish us for it, Harry responded lazily. He was rewarded with Sirius's brief nod of approval.
The class began with no more surprises, and the Gryffindor and Slytherin students seemed to take Harry's word for it that it hadn't been his fault, though they looked murderously from one to another as if trying to find out who it was who did do it.
The rest of the lesson passed fast and then it was time for Charms. Harry wished that he could have booby-trapped all of the classrooms, but he knew that that would have worn him out.
The day passed in relative peace, as there was no Potions, and all of the teachers were very supportive of Elisa, who seemed a little overwhelmed by the school.
It didn't help that all of the guys were staring at her, but as Harry was always nearby and watching, they kept their distance from her, and she was grateful.
"They scare me. Not your friends, but the other ones, the ones who aren't in your immediate circle," she told him that night, as they made their way up from dinner.
"I know, I was watching them all day," Harry growled. "And don't worry Eli, if they ever even try something that you don't want them to do, they'll have me to deal with – and I don't think any of them are going to risk that."
"The only thing that worries me is the Halloween Ball – Dad said that Dumbledore was seriously considering having one this year," Elisa replied.
"That's alright, I'm sure that one of my friends will fill in for a 'date', one of the ones who is mature enough to know that there isn't anything behind it. That is, if you haven't found anyone to go with when the time comes," Harry told her, smiling.
Elisa relaxed with a laugh. "You know, we should probably ask Dad if he can help us with training me in fighting techniques, and how to break other people – namely you – out of a physical attack," she remarked after a little more walking in companionable silence.
"That's a good idea … and we should spend more time on fighting techniques too, what with that attack on the Hogwarts Express. It clearly shows that the Death Eaters are getting bolder – too bold, in my opinion," Harry remarked.
"Whatever happened to that Death Eater on the train?" Elisa tried to summon a memory.
"Your mother took him to the Ministry office and is keeping him under arrest there. I'm going to his trial in three weeks time," Harry replied. "I'm hoping to get him freed, but no one knows what we could do with him after that …"
"You'll think of something … or I'll think of it for you," Elisa told him with a grin. "Now let's go find dad!"
Sirius wouldn't let either of them much that night, but he and Harry were able to teach Elisa a few things, and before they left, he gave them both vials of the strength-gaining potion.
"I know the recipe, and I got some from Madam Pomfrey to give to Harry anyway," he told them. "That way you'll both be able to do whatever you need to within a few days, hopefully."
"Thanks dad!" Elisa yelled over her shoulder, her and Harry already halfway out of the door.
The two teenagers hurried up to the Gryffindor Common Room, wanting to spend more time with the students, since Elisa wanted to make some friends, and Harry wanted to catch up with old ones.
"I'll leave you to make friends on your own," Harry murmured to her, and wandered off to watch Dean and Seamus playing a game of Gobstones.
"Hey Harry," Neville greeted him cheerfully, looking up from a huge book on Herbology that he was studying.
"Hi Neville, how was your summer?" Harry asked, smiling back and remember Neville's parents who were lying in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries after being tortured by Death Eaters and completely loosing their sanity fourteen years ago, just after Harry had defeated Voldemort.
"Oh, alright. Gran got sick so I spent a lot of the holidays at St. Mungo's visiting her," Neville replied, but his face was a little pale.
"And your parents?" Harry's voice was so soft that no one but Neville could have overheard.
"You know about that?" Neville's head shot up, eyes wide with surprise. "How?"
"I heard it in one of my dreams about Voldemort in forth year, and I asked Dumbledore about it, because I wondered if Frank was a relation of yours. Dumbledore told me, but he asked me to keep it to myself, because you'd tell us when you were ready too," Harry explained.
"Oh. I would have told you, but the time was never right," Neville said, looking a little uncomfortable.
Harry reached and gripped Neville's arm in a companionable gesture. "Don't worry – it was a touchy subject, and I haven't said anything until now because I didn't want to awaken any sleeping giants," he said. "Although it does help to talk about it – I'm always around, if you need to talk."
"Thanks Harry," Neville said.
"And Neville? Your parents would have been proud of you, no matter what you did," Harry said softly, sensing that his family would probably have often unintentionally mentioned that Neville was a poor substitute for his lost father.
Neville smiled at Harry thankfully and went upstairs, Harry knew that even though he could sense that Neville was sad, and probably going to cry, it was going to do him good.
He returned his attention to the game of Gobstones in time to see Seamus get squirted with foul smelling liquid.
Laughing, he made his way passed the game and joined one of Exploding Snap – everyone was getting back into the school spirit and meeting up with the friends they hadn't seen all holidays.
The first few weeks of school passed almost without event, save for the fact that Harry was made the Quidditch Captain, something that thrilled both Sirius and Elisa.
Harry and Elisa recovering fast from their magical drain and playing numerous pranks, all of which they managed to avoid getting the blame for.
Finally the day of the Quidditch Trials came along, and, miraculously no pranks were played – Harry and Elisa were letting everyone have a day off.
Out on the Quidditch Field the try-outs had all gathered. Harry looked over them and smiled as he looked down the list. There were a couple of other likely Seekers, a few Chasers and one other Beater – this meant that competition for his 'sister' would be little.
"I will not be judging the try-outs," Harry said, cutting into the conversations that were going on. "As you know, my god-sister is one of those who is going to try out, and so me judging the trials wouldn't be fair. I'll leave that to the rest of the team, but I'll be watching anyway."
The trials began, Harry watched the other person trying out for a Beater – the boy was good, but he didn't work as well with Colin as Elisa did. It was obvious to him that she'd make the team.
As, when the time for the decision come, she did, smiling in triumph, she bounded up to where Harry was seated and delivered the news in person, rather than speaking over the mind link.
Harry laughed and headed back down to the stadium floor with her, green-gold eyes sparkling gently. "I think it's time for us to resume animagus training," he muttered to her. "I've told Ron and Hermione that I'm going to have you changed before I get them to, because it'll be easier – Ron and Hermione will be on the same level, but it won't be the one that you are on."
"Wicked," she replied, grinning. "When, and where?"
"After dinner in the Forbidden Forest," Harry replied as they stepped down onto the grass-covered ground. The team bounded forward to congratulate their newest member, even the boy who'd lost the place to her came over to do so.
The rest of the afternoon passed easily and dinner came and went – no one really noticed that Harry and Elisa had disappeared, they were always off somewhere doing something, usually with Sirius.
Out in the forest they sat on the hard ground and focused on the lesson at hand, as it was going to take them some time to get back to where they were before the end of the holidays.
They didn't spend too much time on that, deciding to build their way up to where they'd been before, and turned the lesson into a practice of fighting.
Elisa was progressing well, she'd obviously inherited something from her parents in this nature, as both of them where fighters themselves. She had taken will to hand-to-hand combat and knife work, though she was having some difficulty mastering the sword and other arms.
"You're doing great," Harry assured her, although nothing he could say would convince her of that. She was doing well, too. Harry had seen some of the new comers to the Academy with a lot less potential than she had.
With the gathering darkness the lesson ended, though Harry had some things to do before he returned to castle, he and Elisa both agreed that he should be doing them alone.
The first thing to was to check on the Dothea's progress, as he hadn't in some time … not since the end of the last year, in fact. It didn't take him long to find the unicorn camp, and he smiled when he was welcomed with a little less frost than the time before.
He spent a little while with the paired Dothae, who were getting along well and growing up slowly, but he excused himself not that long after, not wanting to impose on the unicorns, who were still nervous around him. He hoped that would change one day soon.
The other thing he had to do was go to Seekers Academy and talk to Tiger – Shadow Master – again. He wanted to see what the man said in response to the Seeker aided attack on the train.
Getting himself to the Shadow Masters office turned out to be easy enough, and the man himself was seated behind his desk working away at something.
Harry coughed softly to make his presence known, and Tiger almost immediately had a knife in the air heading for Harry's head. With a laugh, Harry ducked to the side, one hand snapping up to catch the knife and twirl it around his fingers for a moment, before it disappeared.
"Panther! I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you … my rule here has been somewhat challenged of late, with more of ours going over to the Death Eaters every day," the man said, standing up.
"I'm sorry to hear that, and you are forgiven," Harry said, directing a slight bow in the mans direction. "Perhaps you would be thinking of my school for the teaching of your methods of combat isn't a much better idea now?"
"Yes, I was," Shadow Master admitted. "I know at the time I certainly didn't like the sound of it, but no more do I like Voldemort. I am ready to think about your wishes and come to an agreement."
"What sort of agreement would that be, Shadow Master?" Harry asked, stressing the title just a little to say that he was behind Tiger and not about to run over to the opposition. Of course, being a Seeker, and an elderly one, Tiger wasn't going to accept that easily.
"I will not even thinking about sharing the secrets of our trade with anyone who is untrustworthy – I do not wanting to train any more Death Eaters what is happening … are the rooms warded well?" he suddenly interrupted himself.
Harry checked the warding and strengthened it. "I do not know why you are asking me, Shadow Master," he replied calmly.
"Because the question I have to ask is one that you will not want the rest of the Keep to know of," Shadow Master replied. Harry's eyes flickered slightly, and Tiger took this to mean that it was safe to continue, "Harry Potter."
Harry smiled faintly. "So you have guessed who I am … although it is not that difficult – I have made little move to try and hide who I am," he remarked.
"That is true," Shadow Master agreed. "Very well, Harry Potter, my conditions for your proposal are these – I will send ten of the Seekers that I know I can trust – in so far as they will not go over to the Death Eaters – the students who come to the 'school' will swear a blood oath to tell nothing of what they learn there to anyone who is not already tipped to be allowed in.
"There will never be more than seven students at a time, and they will remain with their true nature hidden until such time as their help is needed in defeating the Dark Lord.
"The people I send to you will be sworn to your service, and will not come against their will – I assure you," Shadow Master continued. "They will be under your over-all command, and you should probably elect a captain for every day basis from among them."
Harry rose and bowed slightly. "My thanks to you, Shadow Master, this is more than I could have hoped for. Is there anything that you want in return?" He asked.
"Only that if I should be supplanted and manage to escape with my life, that I may stay with you for a while," Shadow Master replied. Harry was shocked, but hid it completely – the Shadow Master actually afraid for his life, and was planning on something if he escaped … Harry was fairly sure that something like that had not happened before – ever.
"Of course," he said calmly, and turned to leave. "I have things to do, and people will question my absence if I am gone for much longer, but when can I expect the Seekers to arrive, and where?"
"They'll come to Hogwarts as soon as I can organise it," Tiger promised, and Harry left the room after nodding.
He knew that Tiger was telling the truth, which was another odd thing that had happened, but he was glad of that, all the same.
Heading back to Hogwarts, he went to Sirius to tell him what had happened at the Academy, and he was as astounded as Harry had been. "Well, he's helping us, and that's the main thing," he remarked at the end.
Harry laughed and nodded. "I'd better get back to the common room – there's a party to celebrate having a full Quidditch team," he remarked.
Sirius laughed and waved him out of the room. "Wouldn't dream of keeping you away from that!" he laughed.
Harry raced off, heading for the Tower as fast as he could go – which was to say, very fast. He arrived, hardly panting, outside of the Portrait Hole.
"Godric," Harry said smiling at her.
She swung open onto a scene of chaos – the entire room was set up for a party, magical streamers playing in the air, balls of light darting everywhere food and drink had taken over the study tables and everyone was laughing and talking at once.
'This is almost as fun as playing pranks!' Elisa sent to Harry, it being a little too loud to talk properly. 'Not quite though …'
Harry laughed, grabbed a butterbeer and joined in the party.
The next day Harry resumed his teams training, they needed to be going perfect for the match against Slytherin – Harry wanted to beat them really well.
"I've got my new broom, so we should be able to win the match, but it's up to you to see how well that's done," Harry told them on the first practice. "Elisa and Colin, you need to practice hitting Bludgers at targets, I'll set them up for you, Chasers, you need to work mainly on passing the ball for the moment, so that you can get to know each other and your moves – Ron, I'll get a second Quaffle and charm it to try and get passed you – and I'll let the Snitch loose for myself."
The team grinned and headed out of the changing rooms, mounting brooms and heading into the air. Harry waved his wand but used Wandless magic to create opponents that were invisible to those who weren't up against them
The Chasers didn't have these because they weren't practicing evading anyone for the moment. Harry let the Snitch out and mounted his broom, not looking in the direction it had gone. He hurtled into the air and did an abrupt half turn to look around him.
He smiled to see all of the players moving well. The Chasers were working fairly well together and Ron was blocking almost every Quaffle that headed for the goals. He missed a few, but that was only to be expected.
Turning his attention momentarily for the Beaters, Harry saw them signal out a target together and both hit the balls straight into the illusion, hitting at almost the exact same time.
He smiled and returned to his own search, practicing flying manuvers that he'd probably need during the game to avoid the other players. It was a little over an hour later when they landed again, because they could see the Slytherin team coming down to the Pitch – they'd booked it right after the Gryffindors.
They left the stadium when the Slytherins were already in the air, Harry smiled to himself, the other teams brooms were starting to lag slightly in the air, he remembered Madam Hooch telling him that the Nimbus models did this. His old Firebolt was a lot better, and his new broom … there was no competition for that.
Ignoring the Slytherin's yelling that they'd be beaten into oblivion in the upcoming game, the Gryffindors wondered off.
Harry knew that they Slytherins were very jealous of the Gryffindors at the moment, because Slytherin had only gotten three new students while Gryffindor had got twelve, Ravenclaw had seven and Hufflepuff the same.
The three new Slytherins were not teased by the rest of the school, because Harry had talked to the Young Phoenixes and the word had been spread that just because they were Slytherins didn't make them bad – it just meant that they were more strategic thinkers and cunning planners.
They even had some friends, although they rarely talked to them outside of classes, since the older Slytherins beat up anyone who didn't show 'house loyalties'.
Harry felt sorry for them, and wished that the Slytherin students could be nicer, though he didn't have all that much hope of this wish ever being fulfilled.
Heading back up to the Common Room with the team, Harry and Elisa slipped away half way up to visit Sirius for a training session, promising to join up with the team later in the Common Room.
The next few weeks passed quickly, and Elisa was fast approaching being able to change form to her Animagus form, Harry thought that they could try the first transformation not too long after the game against Slytherin, as they would have more time to work on it then.
The game, too, was coming up fast, and the team was training as many extra hours as possible. Everyone was worn out a lot of the time, and so Harry, Sirius, and Elisa didn't have much time to work on fighting techniques – these training sessions would also become more frequent after the game.
Finally the morning of the match dawned, Harry woke early, as was his habit, and Elisa woke at pretty much the same time. 'Let's go down to the kitchens and eat there,' Elisa suggested. 'I think that the team will be the centres of attention if we go to the Great Hall.'
'Good idea, can you wake the girls up, I'll get the boys, that way we can leave the castle when we are ready to, and no one will see our 'secret weapon' either,' Harry responded, dressing quickly.
He woke Ron and up and left his friend getting dressed while he went to find the others, who all grumbled about getting up so early, but agreed that having breakfast privately was a good idea.
The team gathered in the common room and headed down to the kitchens together, where they were served by Dobby with light but filling foods that were good to eat before playing a sport.
They headed out to the pitch before the opposition arrived, while the school was just getting around to standing up and coming down to the stands.
Harry and his team changed quickly and Harry gathered them for a brief pep-talk. "Ok team, usually winning isn't the big thing for us – two out of three games, anyway. But this game – we want to win! We don't need those dumb Slytherins lording it over us for winning one game," Harry told them.
"We've worked hard, perfected techniques and you all know what to do! Now we just have to get out there and do it!" The team cheered him and headed outside.
They arrived in the middle of the field as the school settled, and waited for the Slytherins to get changed and come out, while the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students yelled out encouragement which completely drowned out the heated insults from the Slytherin part of the pitch.
Finally the other team arrived and Madam Hooch got Harry and Draco Malfoy, who had been made Quidditch Captain despite his ban from the team for the year before, shake hands.
"Teams, mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch yelled. "Take off on my whistle! Three … two … ONE!" The whistle blew and Harry hurtled upwards – it was only now that Malfoy even noticed that Harry had a different broom, as the Gryffindor Seekers hurtled into the sky like a speeding bullet, faster than any of the other brooms.
The Slytherin Captain also noticed that Elisa had Harry's old Firebolt, which seemed to annoy him no end – he still hadn't gotten over her complete and utter dismissal of him, even if he would never even think of having a relationship with Sirius Black's daughter.
Harry smiled faintly as he swooped and dove in circles around Malfoy, keeping the other Seeker moving at all times and not looking for the Snitch.
Harry himself kept a careful eye out for both the Snitch and watching his team knock the Slytherins down at every turn. Elisa and Colin proved to be deadly, ganging up on various members with both of the Bludgers, which wasn't against the rules unless it was the Keeper they were attacking.
By the time the first ten minutes were up they'd already had one of the opposing Beaters out of the game and were currently trying to get rid of one of the better Chasers.
They hadn't even bothered to take a shot at Malfoy as yet, for they were waiting for Harry's signal – they kept an eye on him when they could spare it.
Smiling, Harry gave it and waited to see the Bludgers come speeding up towards both of them before he flipped out of the way and Malfoy took the brunt of one blood against his right shoulder, the other smashing into the tail of his broom and sending him into an uncontrolled spin in circles.
'Perfect,' Harry sent to Elisa.
'She's just like her father – he was a terror as a Beather too,' James remarked, Harry could hear the laughter in his fathers voice. 'You're doing good kid, now you just have to keep an eye out for the Snitch.'
'James, I forbid you to help,' Lily warned him sternly.
'I forbid you to help too, Dad,' Harry added, grinning wildly as Malfoy got his broom under control again, obvious uncomfortable, Harry was fairly sure his shoulder was either fractured or very close too.
Suddenly he saw a glint of gold way down below him, so far away that he was fairly sure only his super-human eyesight allowed him to glimpse it, and even that was difficult.
Harry set his broom in a dive straight down, Malfoy was heading down too, seeing where Harry was headed. Harry was paying no attention to anything but the Snitch, as he overtook Malfoy.
He didn't notice the too black blurs that were the Bludgers come out of nowhere and strike Malfoy on the same shoulder and a vicious blow to the head, the other Seeker was falling, but Harry failed to even see it, so intent was his concentration.
Suddenly the little ball darted upwards, straight into Harry's outstretched hand, and as he pulled out of the dive, he saw Malfoy's unconscious form falling downwards, slower than his own decent had been.
Without letting anyone notice it was him, he used Wandless magic to slow down the other boy's fall and settle him gently on the ground. The Snitch still firmly held in his hand, Harry knelt over him, wand in his other hand, he muttered a few spells – he could see the life slipping away fast from his old opponent as the teachers shoved back the students to reach them.
"Potter, what are you doing?" Snape demanded harshly, about to snatch Harry back from his prize student.
"I am attempting to save his life – he's dying, Professor Snape!" Harry snapped back. "I'm an assassin, I can see the life leaving him, but the spells I'm using should keep him alive long enough for better medical treatment to come. Eli! Take my broom and get Madam Pomfrey down here fast!" he added aloud, although he'd already put the request to his god-sister, this way it seemed more natural.
Elisa was on the broom and moving towards the school at a breakneck place – she was a good flier, Harry thought absently, weaving another spell around Malfoy using Wandless and Elemental magics to see what he could do to keep his long-time enemy alive.
Behind him he could sense the teachers fidgeting, the crowd pushed and shoving, attempting to see what was going on. He could hear the muted roar of their conversation, but couldn't even manage to try and make sense of the words anyone was using, so caught up in his magic was he.
A moment later Madam Pomfrey arrived, riding behind Elisa on Harry's broom, her kit in hand. She shoved her way through the crowd to kneel beside Harry.
Seeing the state that Malfoy was in, her expression became very grave indeed. "I'm not sure how long he'll last," she admitted to the teachers and students alike, and there was an instantaneous lull in the conversation.
"Mr. Potter, your spells are the only thing keeping him alive, can you maintain them while I do what I can to heal him?" She added.
"Of course," Harry replied, voice slightly hoarse. "I can only keep them up for an hour at the most though."
"An hour will do, if anything does," was his grim response. "Professor Dumbledore, please take the students back up to the school, I can't work with them crowding around like this!"
"Of course Poppy," Harry didn't hear what the headmaster said, but he did realise that the students left, because the drop in noise was immense.
Only Elisa remained, and she simply sat down silently on the grass in front of the three people and watched, without a word.
Poppy looked at her only once, but she seemed to realise that Elisa was not going to leave Harry any time soon – everyone knew that the pair were almost inseparable – and didn't try and make her go away.
After a little while, Elisa realised that Harry still held the Snitch, and reached over to gently remove it from his hand, then returned to her former position.
They sat that way for half an hour, Madam Pomfrey using spells and potions on Malfoy in a fast but sure manner. Elisa felt a little guilty, it was partly her fault that Malfoy was there, even if it was Colin's ball that had hit Malfoy in the head.
Finally Madam Pomfrey sat back on her heels. "He can be moved now, and he won't be need your spells any more, Mr. Potter," she said. Harry broke of his spells immediately and stood, nearly falling over, but Elisa was already at his shoulder, steadying him.
Madam Pomfrey created a stretcher and wafted Malfoy gently onto it. "Get him up to the Gryffindor Common room and make sure he sleeps," she instructed Elisa.
Elisa nodded and led Harry along in a slow but sure gait up to the castle, Madam Pomfrey hurrying up ahead of them with Malfoy on the stretcher.
Harry slept through the rest of that day, but woke up refreshed the next morning at his usual time, and got up to go for a quick training session with Sirius.
"That was a good thing you did yesterday, kid," Sirius remarked. "Saving Malfoy."
Harry looked at his godfather. "I know, but I couldn't just let him die … I should have, any other Seeker would have," he remarked.
"I wouldn't have, but then, we weren't like the other Seekers, now where we?" Sirius replied coolly. "Besides, you're a good guy, Harry, and you couldn't just leave someone to die like that if you could help it."
"I left Wolf to die," Harry pointed out, obviously in a depressed mood this morning.
"That was different – he was trying to kill you," Sirius told him firmly. "Come on, lets train, maybe it'll take your mind off things."
Harry smiled and threw himself into the complicated sword movements, combining them with kicks and punches whenever he could.
Elisa turned up not long after, and she and Sirius did a work out together, leaving Harry alone for the moment, which Elisa knew that he was grateful for.
When they heard the rest of the school waking up, the three of them headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The whole school looked up at Harry as he walked into the room.
'Bloody hell, here we go again,' Harry thought to Elisa, who smiled gently at him. The three of them ate at the Gryffindor Table this morning, Sirius not really wanting to be in the company of his fellow staff members.
At that moment the doors slammed open.
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Hmm, wonder who came? Or went? Or what happened … well, that'll wait for next chapter! Review!
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