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Harry Potter and the Black Unicorn (Chapter 11) - Understanding
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Harry had not slept a wink in the hour before lunchtime, but when Ron came to get him he put on a suitable performance when being 'woken up'.
Lunch seemed to last forever yet Harry could not remember a word of what was being said on the Gryffindor table. At some point someone had tried to include him in a conversation but had given up after they had got no response the few times they tried. Harry hadn't stopped being deep in thought since after the Order's meeting in the morning. His anger had died down and was now just a mild irritation. His desire to be treated like an adult by the two people he thought understood him was growing rapidly. Both Dumbledore and Sirius should have understood why he felt he should be part of the Order. He knew they had said that they understood but they clearly didn't or they'd not have cut him out so obviously. He felt that Lupin had possibly understood more but Lupin was the quite kind and was unlikely to openly oppose Dumbledore. Harry just hoped Lupin and Sirius were secretly trying to persuade Dumbledore into involving him more.
A cough brought Harry back to the present again. He glanced up and realised that he'd been so far out of it that he'd walked straight past the Defence of the Dark Arts room and Hermione had tried to catch his attention.
He backtracked sheepishly and joined the other Gryffindor's and the Slytherin's in the classroom.
"Now we're all here we can get started" stated Professor Hidellbank lazily, spinning her wand in her hand whilst sitting on her desk. She seemed far more interested in her wand than the class in front of her.
"I here you learnt a bit about the unforgivables last year," she continued calmly "I'm going to teach you some more."
Most of the students bristled at the mention of the unforgivables and Hidellbank grinned. She jumped forward of her desk and waved her wand at Goyle, muttering the Imperius curse. Goyle froze in front of her and then to everyone's amusement she began to swish her wand like a conductor and Goyle began to sing. Harry didn't recognise the song, which could have been because he'd never heard it...or possibly because Goyle was that bad at singing. Not content to leave the demonstration at that, Hidellbank next made him dance whilst singing and after a minute or so she said the counter-curse.
Goyle looked round the classroom truly horrified at what he'd just done. This made the whole class laugh but one person (apart from Goyle) was not.
"I'm glad you find it funny," cut in Hidellbank "but imagine how you'd of reacted if I'd made him kill one of you not dance."
There was silence. Complete and utter silence.
"Makes you think doesn't it," she spoke calmly "How easily we can be controlled and made to kill"
She paced behind her desk and looked back at them all, eyes firmly fixed ahead, almost looking through the class of people.
"I don't expect any of you in this class to use it...well, maybe a couple may," her eyes fixed firmly on Malfoy "I'm not going to teach you how to effectively perform the curse, I'm here to show you how to fight it. Some of you will be able to, some of you wont. Some of you may not want too. However, whether you believe he-who-must-not-be-named is back or not, it is a vital defence."
For the second time there was silence, even Malfoy looked taken aback. Perhaps, Harry thought, he didn't like the idea of being used as a pawn in Voldemort's chess game either.
"I see I've got my message through. Good." She smiled half-heartedly at them and sighed.
"Down to work. I'm going to teach you how to fight the Imperius curse and how to tell who has cast it."
***********************
The lesson had been interesting and informative, that was for sure. However, it had left many of the Gryffindor's slightly freaked, especially Neville. Ron and Hermione had looked very take aback too but Harry couldn't quite work out why, after four years of trouble he thought they'd have got over it by now.
This had led him to question them over the matter whilst everyone was leaving the classroom. He had been surprised by their answer. Hermione had tried to shrug it of but Ron told him straight out, irritating Hermione no end. Both had been scared that one of them could be used to hurt Harry, a possibility Harry had never considered. He had simply responded by saying that they would all have to make sure they learnt how to fight it then. He doubted this would really calm their fears though.
So now Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and the Weasley twins (who had joined them in the class room at the end of the lesson) were waiting to have an extra defence lesson. Ginny, Fred and George were there for the first time, mainly because Dumbledore felt it would be beneficial and partly, Harry guessed, because Mrs Weasley knew they'd all probably follow Harry into danger if he found any. It was probably a wise move then to have them better prepared just in case it happened.
Hidellbank had cone to fetch Lupin as he was to help and it took them a full 10 minutes to return. Meanwhile Harry found out that Fred, George and Ginny had been told about Sirius this morning before the meeting and were sworn to secrecy. The twins were very excited about how normal he seemed, taking into account the fact he'd been in Azkaban for nearly 14 years of his life. Harry had replied that he probably was quite normal if you looked at it in that way. However, he had told them, if you considered the fact he spent at least 50% of the time as a big black dog he could hardly be called normal.
This conversation was interrupted by Lupin and Hidellbank's entrance.
"Nothing wrong with canine's Harry" said Lupin, a lopsided grin taking over his facial features. Harry smiled and half hugged Lupin who seemed pleased to have that kind of attention.
"I'm sorry about this morning Harry," said Lupin cautiously "I could see you were angry, but for now Dumbledore's adamant he should keep students out."
"Yes," cut in Hidellbank "He's really put his foot down, and you don't argue with Dumbledore when he's made up his mind."
"S'ok" muttered Harry feebly, not even managing to sound vaguely convincing.
Lupin shot Hidellbank a sort of 'oh dear' look and clapped his hands together, trying to brighten the mood.
"Well," he said merrily "I want to see what kind of defensive hexes you can do. Neville, you go with Ginny, the two twins can go together, Ron and Hermione, Harry, you're with Sirene."
Hidellbank raised her eyebrows at the use of her first name and winked at Harry, holding her wand like they were about to have a sword fight with them.
"Just because you're practicing with a student doesn't mean you have to act like one," said Lupin in his best teacher voice, smirking at her whilst he said it.
An hour later Harry was pretty damn sore, he'd been thrown onto the floor far to many times to count during that practice, but it was comforting for him to see that his Professor looked worse for ware too. Poor Neville looked the most pained as he had staid on his feet for no more than 2 minutes throughout the entire session. The two Weasley's were covered in green goo, flower petals and a paint like substance as after about 20 minutes of serious hexes they had resorted to more humorous means of defence. At one stage George had been growing a flowerpot on his head and Fred was lying on the floor, wobbling like jelly. Lupin had been very complimentary over this hex as Fred had been rendered truly helpless. Ron and Hermione had been fairly equally matched but they had stuck to practising more conventional hexes to try and improve at them. Harry guessed that this was because neither wanted to do any damage to the other so they had tread carefully. Obviously Lupin had picked up on this too and had declared that next time we should swap partners for variety. Harry pitied the two people who had to practice with Fred and George.
"You've done well," stated Lupin "I could see you getting better and more powerful with the hexes as you went along. Next time we'll try a couple of more new ones."
"You can have the fun of watching us demonstrating," said Hidellbank, almost as an afterthought.
"Indeed you can," Lupin laughed "Go on, you better go get ready for dinner. Harry? Do you want to come with me for a bit?"
Harry nodded at Lupin; he presumed they'd be going to see Sirius. Everyone else thanked the two teachers and then piled out of the classroom.
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Lupin led Harry down a length of old grotty corridors that Harry had never been down before. They were underneath the school but not as far down as the dungeons according to Lupin. They were poorly lit, only one or two lamps lit the way and Harry felt sorry for Sirius being trapped down here. After a couple of minutes inside these corridors they came to two doors, one on either side. Lupin patted the door to his right and it opened to reveal a much better lit and fairly comfy living area. There was a desk, a couch, a bed and a door that looked like it led to a bathroom. Sirius was lying across the couch asleep with a copy of the Daily Prophet on his chest.
"Hey!" exclaimed Lupin "Wake up you lazy animal!"
Sirius shifted lazily and sat up, knocking the newspaper of him. He smiled sleepily and rubbed his eyes in an obvious attempt to wake him up a bit more.
"Afternoon Harry" said Sirius sleepily "Lessons going okay?"
Harry nodded and walked further into the room so Lupin could close the door behind them. Lupin joined Sirius on the couch but Harry remained standing, rooted to the spot.
"So," Harry spoke up "how are things?"
"Boring" replied Sirius "Damn boring actually. Nothing to do but laze round here, go for walks in the Forbidden Forest and annoy Snape...damn boring after a while, although the last one is still entertaining."
Harry smiled at his God Fathers comment and he felt a bit more relaxed. He was not entirely sure why he was here, he had presumed that Sirius had wanted to speak about something important but it seemed unlikely now.
"Suppose you're wondering why your here" stated Sirius, giving Lupin a small grin. "Well, thought it would be nice for you to come visit if you want too. Now you know where I am you can come visit me in James' invisibility cloak or something if you want too. Anyway, I just wanted to see that you were okay, not had much of a chance to speak to you except during the meal."
"I'm fine," said Harry "Anything interesting in the Daily Prophet?"
"Isn't there always" spoke up Lupin "An interesting work of fiction in some places is this. They still deny along with the Ministry that Voldemort's back and they claim that any suspect incidents are due to ex Death Eaters believing the stories that he's back."
"Its ridicules" said Sirius coldly "the whole lot of them are fools".
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Harry had not spent long with his godfather as he needed to get back to clean himself up for tea but it had been nice speaking to him.
He had told Hermione and Ron and had promised to take them down with him the next time he went to see Sirius. Tea time had been a bit more lively than lunch time because Harry was feeling slightly better after seeing Sirius and having a fairly fun afternoon.
However, two hours after tea had finished Harry found himself bored and contemplative again. His thoughts had again slipped back to Snape and the Concateno magic when he had returned the books to the library after tea. He couldn't help but wonder if Snape had gone to research the same thing after the dinner with Dumbledore or if Snape even knew what had happened that night at all. All in all Harry was frustrated with the situation. He and Snape had been getting on slightly better since they had been recalled to school and he really didn't want to risk angering the temperamental git by landing this on him. Privately hiding in the corner of the library were no one dares venture was not solving any problems but probably increasing them as his friends would be wondering where he was and he was sitting in the potions section. Just the area you don't need to be in when trying to stop thinking about matters that do involve your potions teacher. A potions teacher who Harry now realised was standing directly in front of him.
"Jesus Potter" muttered Snape "What the hell are you doing here, I'd take 10 points away for giving me a fright if I knew I wouldn't be too embarrassed to explain myself to your Head of House."
"Am thinking," muttered Harry quietly, wishing he wasn't sitting on the floor looking up at the man looking like an idiotic child.
"What a novelty, and in the potions section two" Said Snape sarcastically "Miracles do happen."
"Are you sure," muttered Harry "I'm still waiting for one."
Snape gave him an inquisitive look and squatted down in front of him so they were on a similar level. His expression was one of curiosity and worry and Harry knew he was about to be quizzed.
"Potter, what's wrong?" Snape asked, tilting his head to the side to watch his reaction closely.
"Nothing" stated Harry as he stood up "Just being a typical teenager I guess and sulking about the woes of life."
Snape raised his eyebrows at Harry and stepped up and aside for the boy to walk past him. As Harry did so Snape saw fit to comment,
"I could take points away for lying to a teacher" he pointed out "but I suppose everyone as secrets or worries that they don't want to share."
Harry had merely nodded and kept walking, unsure about what to say to Snape or what to think about their little encounter. He decided an early night would do him good and took that course of action.
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This is a bit of an intermediate chapter too as its set the scene for all the issues Harry has to deal with (although you may not realise it) when school starts. This will be the next chapter up so stay tuned.
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Harry Potter and the Black Unicorn (Chapter 11) - Understanding
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Harry had not slept a wink in the hour before lunchtime, but when Ron came to get him he put on a suitable performance when being 'woken up'.
Lunch seemed to last forever yet Harry could not remember a word of what was being said on the Gryffindor table. At some point someone had tried to include him in a conversation but had given up after they had got no response the few times they tried. Harry hadn't stopped being deep in thought since after the Order's meeting in the morning. His anger had died down and was now just a mild irritation. His desire to be treated like an adult by the two people he thought understood him was growing rapidly. Both Dumbledore and Sirius should have understood why he felt he should be part of the Order. He knew they had said that they understood but they clearly didn't or they'd not have cut him out so obviously. He felt that Lupin had possibly understood more but Lupin was the quite kind and was unlikely to openly oppose Dumbledore. Harry just hoped Lupin and Sirius were secretly trying to persuade Dumbledore into involving him more.
A cough brought Harry back to the present again. He glanced up and realised that he'd been so far out of it that he'd walked straight past the Defence of the Dark Arts room and Hermione had tried to catch his attention.
He backtracked sheepishly and joined the other Gryffindor's and the Slytherin's in the classroom.
"Now we're all here we can get started" stated Professor Hidellbank lazily, spinning her wand in her hand whilst sitting on her desk. She seemed far more interested in her wand than the class in front of her.
"I here you learnt a bit about the unforgivables last year," she continued calmly "I'm going to teach you some more."
Most of the students bristled at the mention of the unforgivables and Hidellbank grinned. She jumped forward of her desk and waved her wand at Goyle, muttering the Imperius curse. Goyle froze in front of her and then to everyone's amusement she began to swish her wand like a conductor and Goyle began to sing. Harry didn't recognise the song, which could have been because he'd never heard it...or possibly because Goyle was that bad at singing. Not content to leave the demonstration at that, Hidellbank next made him dance whilst singing and after a minute or so she said the counter-curse.
Goyle looked round the classroom truly horrified at what he'd just done. This made the whole class laugh but one person (apart from Goyle) was not.
"I'm glad you find it funny," cut in Hidellbank "but imagine how you'd of reacted if I'd made him kill one of you not dance."
There was silence. Complete and utter silence.
"Makes you think doesn't it," she spoke calmly "How easily we can be controlled and made to kill"
She paced behind her desk and looked back at them all, eyes firmly fixed ahead, almost looking through the class of people.
"I don't expect any of you in this class to use it...well, maybe a couple may," her eyes fixed firmly on Malfoy "I'm not going to teach you how to effectively perform the curse, I'm here to show you how to fight it. Some of you will be able to, some of you wont. Some of you may not want too. However, whether you believe he-who-must-not-be-named is back or not, it is a vital defence."
For the second time there was silence, even Malfoy looked taken aback. Perhaps, Harry thought, he didn't like the idea of being used as a pawn in Voldemort's chess game either.
"I see I've got my message through. Good." She smiled half-heartedly at them and sighed.
"Down to work. I'm going to teach you how to fight the Imperius curse and how to tell who has cast it."
***********************
The lesson had been interesting and informative, that was for sure. However, it had left many of the Gryffindor's slightly freaked, especially Neville. Ron and Hermione had looked very take aback too but Harry couldn't quite work out why, after four years of trouble he thought they'd have got over it by now.
This had led him to question them over the matter whilst everyone was leaving the classroom. He had been surprised by their answer. Hermione had tried to shrug it of but Ron told him straight out, irritating Hermione no end. Both had been scared that one of them could be used to hurt Harry, a possibility Harry had never considered. He had simply responded by saying that they would all have to make sure they learnt how to fight it then. He doubted this would really calm their fears though.
So now Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and the Weasley twins (who had joined them in the class room at the end of the lesson) were waiting to have an extra defence lesson. Ginny, Fred and George were there for the first time, mainly because Dumbledore felt it would be beneficial and partly, Harry guessed, because Mrs Weasley knew they'd all probably follow Harry into danger if he found any. It was probably a wise move then to have them better prepared just in case it happened.
Hidellbank had cone to fetch Lupin as he was to help and it took them a full 10 minutes to return. Meanwhile Harry found out that Fred, George and Ginny had been told about Sirius this morning before the meeting and were sworn to secrecy. The twins were very excited about how normal he seemed, taking into account the fact he'd been in Azkaban for nearly 14 years of his life. Harry had replied that he probably was quite normal if you looked at it in that way. However, he had told them, if you considered the fact he spent at least 50% of the time as a big black dog he could hardly be called normal.
This conversation was interrupted by Lupin and Hidellbank's entrance.
"Nothing wrong with canine's Harry" said Lupin, a lopsided grin taking over his facial features. Harry smiled and half hugged Lupin who seemed pleased to have that kind of attention.
"I'm sorry about this morning Harry," said Lupin cautiously "I could see you were angry, but for now Dumbledore's adamant he should keep students out."
"Yes," cut in Hidellbank "He's really put his foot down, and you don't argue with Dumbledore when he's made up his mind."
"S'ok" muttered Harry feebly, not even managing to sound vaguely convincing.
Lupin shot Hidellbank a sort of 'oh dear' look and clapped his hands together, trying to brighten the mood.
"Well," he said merrily "I want to see what kind of defensive hexes you can do. Neville, you go with Ginny, the two twins can go together, Ron and Hermione, Harry, you're with Sirene."
Hidellbank raised her eyebrows at the use of her first name and winked at Harry, holding her wand like they were about to have a sword fight with them.
"Just because you're practicing with a student doesn't mean you have to act like one," said Lupin in his best teacher voice, smirking at her whilst he said it.
An hour later Harry was pretty damn sore, he'd been thrown onto the floor far to many times to count during that practice, but it was comforting for him to see that his Professor looked worse for ware too. Poor Neville looked the most pained as he had staid on his feet for no more than 2 minutes throughout the entire session. The two Weasley's were covered in green goo, flower petals and a paint like substance as after about 20 minutes of serious hexes they had resorted to more humorous means of defence. At one stage George had been growing a flowerpot on his head and Fred was lying on the floor, wobbling like jelly. Lupin had been very complimentary over this hex as Fred had been rendered truly helpless. Ron and Hermione had been fairly equally matched but they had stuck to practising more conventional hexes to try and improve at them. Harry guessed that this was because neither wanted to do any damage to the other so they had tread carefully. Obviously Lupin had picked up on this too and had declared that next time we should swap partners for variety. Harry pitied the two people who had to practice with Fred and George.
"You've done well," stated Lupin "I could see you getting better and more powerful with the hexes as you went along. Next time we'll try a couple of more new ones."
"You can have the fun of watching us demonstrating," said Hidellbank, almost as an afterthought.
"Indeed you can," Lupin laughed "Go on, you better go get ready for dinner. Harry? Do you want to come with me for a bit?"
Harry nodded at Lupin; he presumed they'd be going to see Sirius. Everyone else thanked the two teachers and then piled out of the classroom.
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Lupin led Harry down a length of old grotty corridors that Harry had never been down before. They were underneath the school but not as far down as the dungeons according to Lupin. They were poorly lit, only one or two lamps lit the way and Harry felt sorry for Sirius being trapped down here. After a couple of minutes inside these corridors they came to two doors, one on either side. Lupin patted the door to his right and it opened to reveal a much better lit and fairly comfy living area. There was a desk, a couch, a bed and a door that looked like it led to a bathroom. Sirius was lying across the couch asleep with a copy of the Daily Prophet on his chest.
"Hey!" exclaimed Lupin "Wake up you lazy animal!"
Sirius shifted lazily and sat up, knocking the newspaper of him. He smiled sleepily and rubbed his eyes in an obvious attempt to wake him up a bit more.
"Afternoon Harry" said Sirius sleepily "Lessons going okay?"
Harry nodded and walked further into the room so Lupin could close the door behind them. Lupin joined Sirius on the couch but Harry remained standing, rooted to the spot.
"So," Harry spoke up "how are things?"
"Boring" replied Sirius "Damn boring actually. Nothing to do but laze round here, go for walks in the Forbidden Forest and annoy Snape...damn boring after a while, although the last one is still entertaining."
Harry smiled at his God Fathers comment and he felt a bit more relaxed. He was not entirely sure why he was here, he had presumed that Sirius had wanted to speak about something important but it seemed unlikely now.
"Suppose you're wondering why your here" stated Sirius, giving Lupin a small grin. "Well, thought it would be nice for you to come visit if you want too. Now you know where I am you can come visit me in James' invisibility cloak or something if you want too. Anyway, I just wanted to see that you were okay, not had much of a chance to speak to you except during the meal."
"I'm fine," said Harry "Anything interesting in the Daily Prophet?"
"Isn't there always" spoke up Lupin "An interesting work of fiction in some places is this. They still deny along with the Ministry that Voldemort's back and they claim that any suspect incidents are due to ex Death Eaters believing the stories that he's back."
"Its ridicules" said Sirius coldly "the whole lot of them are fools".
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Harry had not spent long with his godfather as he needed to get back to clean himself up for tea but it had been nice speaking to him.
He had told Hermione and Ron and had promised to take them down with him the next time he went to see Sirius. Tea time had been a bit more lively than lunch time because Harry was feeling slightly better after seeing Sirius and having a fairly fun afternoon.
However, two hours after tea had finished Harry found himself bored and contemplative again. His thoughts had again slipped back to Snape and the Concateno magic when he had returned the books to the library after tea. He couldn't help but wonder if Snape had gone to research the same thing after the dinner with Dumbledore or if Snape even knew what had happened that night at all. All in all Harry was frustrated with the situation. He and Snape had been getting on slightly better since they had been recalled to school and he really didn't want to risk angering the temperamental git by landing this on him. Privately hiding in the corner of the library were no one dares venture was not solving any problems but probably increasing them as his friends would be wondering where he was and he was sitting in the potions section. Just the area you don't need to be in when trying to stop thinking about matters that do involve your potions teacher. A potions teacher who Harry now realised was standing directly in front of him.
"Jesus Potter" muttered Snape "What the hell are you doing here, I'd take 10 points away for giving me a fright if I knew I wouldn't be too embarrassed to explain myself to your Head of House."
"Am thinking," muttered Harry quietly, wishing he wasn't sitting on the floor looking up at the man looking like an idiotic child.
"What a novelty, and in the potions section two" Said Snape sarcastically "Miracles do happen."
"Are you sure," muttered Harry "I'm still waiting for one."
Snape gave him an inquisitive look and squatted down in front of him so they were on a similar level. His expression was one of curiosity and worry and Harry knew he was about to be quizzed.
"Potter, what's wrong?" Snape asked, tilting his head to the side to watch his reaction closely.
"Nothing" stated Harry as he stood up "Just being a typical teenager I guess and sulking about the woes of life."
Snape raised his eyebrows at Harry and stepped up and aside for the boy to walk past him. As Harry did so Snape saw fit to comment,
"I could take points away for lying to a teacher" he pointed out "but I suppose everyone as secrets or worries that they don't want to share."
Harry had merely nodded and kept walking, unsure about what to say to Snape or what to think about their little encounter. He decided an early night would do him good and took that course of action.
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This is a bit of an intermediate chapter too as its set the scene for all the issues Harry has to deal with (although you may not realise it) when school starts. This will be the next chapter up so stay tuned.
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