Author's note: Cameos for last chapter were: Obviously, Ranma½, Love Hina (Shinobu), Ah! Megami-sama[Oh! My goddess](Urd), Tenchi Muyo (Ryoko and Ryo-okhi), Inuyasha and finally Slayers.
The Snake-who-lived
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO RAN HOSHINO, BETWEEN HERE AND THERE, SHAUN GARIN AND BF110C4, WHO MANAGED TO CATCH ALL OF LAST CHAPTER'S CAMEOS ^_-
…hmm… maybe I should have put a few more… dunno if people would have caught Sanzan eyes references, hehe…
Chapter 15: Knowledge is power. Power is life.
Harry woke up to the bright light of the sun, filtering through the deep green curtains of his bed. His body still felt groggy and didn't want to move away from the comforting warmth of his blankets. His mind felt hazy, as if he had barely slept.
The thing was: he had barely slept.
Their adventures the previous day, involving him taking a temporary touch with his feminine side, had caused him no end of twisting in his sleep. What if Dumbledore hadn't read the bags correctly and he would end up turning into a girl again? What if the Japanese translation Dumbledore had read wasn't accurate?
The result had been no end of twisting and turning in his bed before he finally managed to go to sleep. Nemesis hadn't helped at all, rolled up as he was around the curtain-holding bars. After hearing a short resume of the day, he had planted a disgusting idea in Harry's head, involving his girl form – older, that is – ropes and a snake-tail.
"Rise and shine, Hailey!" Draco's taunting drawl came through his curtains, a second before they ripped away, allowing the sun coming through the thin windows to aim directly in his eyes.
Although he had himself been cursed in a Ferret and definitely hadn't enjoyed it, the day would evidently remain in Draco's memories for a long, long time, if only to tease "Hailey" and "Peter", name given to Ron originally by Blaise and adopted by the Malfoy heir, although he had absolutely no idea where it came from, having never heard of Spider-man.
"Lemmee alon'…" Harry groaned, twisting away from the light, snuggling deeper in the blanket.
"Aren't you the lively one today." Blaise said dryly, pushing the curtains on the other side open, ridding Harry of his final protection against the world of wakefulness.
With an annoyed growl, Harry sat up quickly, scowling at the two offenders of the sacred law of sleep. Apparently, they were paying him back for his cheerful demeanor of yesterday.
"What time 'zit?" He asked, yawning.
"Late enoufff." Nemesis hissed, sliding down the pole, just in front of Draco, who paled and took a step back.
"Late enough." Blaise replied immediately after.
Harry blinked and sighed. "Great, in stereo." He grumbled.
"Not my fffault." "Eh?" Nemesis and a confused Blaise replied.
"Never mind." He let out another yawn and rubbed his eyes, attempting to jump-start his brain. "Why are you lot so bloody chipper this morning?"
"Christmas." Draco replied.
"Ah, right." The black-haired boy said, allowing himself another wide-mouthed yawn. Then, in the middle of it, his brain finally found the 'on' switch, causing his mouth to lock up and close painfully in a bone-on-bone clacking sound. "Christmas!?"
"You know… presents, party, fun, the reason why there's no classes now, family gathering, feast, religious celebration… although nobody seems to remember that part…"
"Rings any bells?" Draco asked with a smirk, poking Harry's head with a mouth-made and rather long: "Dong".
"Yeah, yeah." Harry replied, stretching. "I'm up, I'm up. Blaise, would you mind leaving?"
Blaise gave him a look. "Why?"
"I need to get dressed."
"So?"
"Blaise!!"
The girl gave a snickering giggle – a rather interesting sound to hear – and quickly strode away.
The common room was different, that day. The dreary stone walls and brightly burning fireplace had not changed, nor had the tall green streamers with the Slytherin blazon on them moved. The dark green couches still looked as inviting as the previous day and the air was still as chillingly cold, albeit the roaring fire helped give a bit of warmth to the occupants.
In the middle of the room, however, was the difference. A truckload of presents had been magically dropped, with few of them already open by Blaise Draco, Ginny and Xu, who were already there. The short Asian girl was tearing apart the yellow wrapping paper covering a box as Harry climbed down the stairs.
"If it's more Jusenkyo powder, I'm going to send a dungbomb to your uncle." He heard Ginny vow.
"It not, promise." Xu said, looking at the box. "Beside, it from Emma."
"Really?" Ginny, now more curious than before, leaned forward to take a closer look.
Before Harry could see what it was, Blaise walked up to him and pushed a small, rectangular box into his hands.
"Here you go, that's from mum."
"For me?" Harry asked, more out of habit than anything else. After ten years of being ignored or hated at the Dursleys, any sign of being liked or welcome came as a surprise, even after two years of intensive stay in the wizarding world.
"I don't think there's any other Harry Potters in here, is there?" Blaise teased with a toothy grin. "C'mon, open up, it's written there's something for me in it."
Harry noticed the ripped piece of Muggle tape still attached to the box, and the open letter in Blaise's hand, where a bit of Mrs Zabini's slightly scrawny calligraphy could be seen. With a shrug, he tore more tape from the paper, rather slowly. Too slowly, in the girl's opinion, as she ripped the box from his hands and tore the paper off in one single sweep.
Inside the box were two smaller rectangular wooden cases with leather bands attached to them. Both were light, apparently empty, with identical holes at one end. Harry also noticed that one of them was a tiny bit longer than the other, but only by about a quarter of an inch.
"Wicked… thanks mum!" Blaise said, taking the bigger case and handing Harry the letter in the process. Curious at what the odd present was, Harry read to himself:
Blaise and Harry,
Since you're going to be learning how to Duel, I figured I might as well give you two a present that will help out at that. Those are wand cases. The leather band will stretch so you can wear it on your hips or on your wrists. Personally, I prefer the hips, but that's just me.
They used to belong to me, but after my first wand stopped working, I didn't have a use for them. I hope you'll both like them. Of course, I had to enlarge Blaise's. Never quite got to 11¼, I'm afraid. The smaller one is yours, Harry. Don't be greedy, yours is smaller.
Love, Elmira
Tying up the holster to his wrist, Harry re-read the letter and frowned:
"What does she mean, 'After my first wand stopped working'?" he asked, his hand unconsciously clenching around the holly wood on his pocket, which gave a comforting wave of warmth at his touch.
"Sometimes people's wands stop working." Draco replied while scavenging the pile for a box with his name. "It just means that it no longer fits the user."
"No longer fits?" Harry repeated, looking dubiously at his own trusty wand, which felt warm to his touch, as if responding to his feelings. "How can a wand 'no longer fit' a wizard?"
"Take for example… oh I don't know…" Draco sighed. "I've never actually heard of it happening to someone around me, so I wouldn't know. I suppose it's rather rare." Then, with a sudden grin, the boy bent down and picked up a rather floppy bag that bore his name.
"I did," Ginny replied. "Charlie's wand stopped working when he finished school and decided to chase dragons in Romania. Ron's using it, actually."
Draco snorted, earning himself a glare from the taller, but younger Slytherin.
"Shut up, Malfoy. Not everyone lives in a manor and can afford to but half a dozen million things."
As if to prove her point, Draco's present ended up being a rather rich-looking silk cloak that was too flimsy to be worn anywhere but great occasions, at the risk of being torn apart. Ginny gave him a glare, which he responded with a brilliant and mocking smirk, while parading in his cloak.
Harry received a box of Treacle fudges – which were left in the box – from Hagrid, and a toothpick from the Dursleys, along with a beautiful picture of a sunset by the ocean, which they said was the view from their villa, quote the letter: "That you'll never set foot in even if it's the last piece of ground on earth".
"Charming person." Xu noted darkly and sarcastically upon reading over Harry's shoulder.
"That's my uncle. Can we switch?" Harry asked in faked hopefulness.
"Only if you want dip in real Nyannichuan." Xu replied good naturedly.
"Nya-what?" Draco blinked.
"Spring of drowned girl." Xu replied with a smirk. "Uncle say want meet Hailey."
"NO WAY!" Harry snapped over every other Slytherins' laughs.
The decorations had been lit brightly in celebration of the day. It was hard to tell which part of the great hall was the brightest: The glittering Christmas tree, lit with a thousand real candles that magically did not burn the tree, a silvery ribbons hanging across the room, reflecting the brilliant mid-morning sunlight, or that rather flashy white and gold robe that Lockhart had decided to attire himself into.
The table was full of rich and very appetizing festive foods, which the teachers were already tucking in when the five Slytherins walked in. The four Gryffindors were already there – Hermione chatting animatedly with Professor Sprout in a debate about cross-bred plants, Ron trying to make Hooch understand that the cannons would finally win this year while she retorted that the Holyhead harpies would take them out easily and Fred and George trying to look innocent as McGonagall glared at them, most likely because the two tricksters had done some infringement to the rules.
"Ah, there you are!" Dumbledore said with a grin, completely ignoring the few green peas stuck in his beard. "I was starting to wonder if we'd have to send Severus to fetch you lot."
Said professor gave a somber sigh and swallowed another mouthful of meat pie. He looked like he wished he was anywhere but where he was. Perhaps the fact that Lockhart was standing just in front of him, grinning while trying to catch the attention of a pretty woman that Harry didn't know wasn't helping. Since the cover book she was reading was covered in a single and exceptionally long and complicated formulae that gave him a headache just by looking at it, he guessed she taught something like mathematics, if wizards studied it.
She was also thoroughly ignoring Lockhart, which proved she actually was intelligent.
Harry served himself some of the food available on the table while the rest of his friends sat down around him – Draco in front, Blaise at his left, Xu at his right with Ginny in front of her. They did likewise, as the levitating jar of strawberry jam revealed, foretelling the soon inundation of the sticky garniture all over foods that were not intended for it. Absentmindedly, he listened to the conversations around him, which was starting to become a bad habit of his.
"All this… genetic engineering and crossbreeding thing feels a bit wrong to me." Sprout was telling Hermione. "I mean, imagine if someone mixed a mundane flower with a devil's snare. You get close to it and chop!" She clapped her hands loudly for effect, "you're plant food."
"I'm telling you!" Ron began again, while Hooch listened amusedly, "they have the best lineup they've had in at least three decades, with Calder as lead chaser; it's going to be a cannon victory for sure!"
"And thirty years ago, they suffered their worst defeat, didn't they?" Hooch said, smirking. "890-10, if I remember? Against the harpies, might I add?"
Embarrassed, Ron grumbled his answer.
Harry chuckled a bit, seeing the Weasley boy's ears color. He was wearing a maroon wool jumper, apparently hand-knitted, with a golden R on it. Both other Weasley bothers wore jumpers of the same kind as well, one red with a green G, the other green with a red F. Of course, knowing them, one could immediately and safely assume that Fred was wearing the first, and George the second. He knew the Weasley matriarch knitted them each year for her many children. Last year, Ron, Fred, George and even Percy had walked out of the Gryffindor common room wearing them.
The sound of a fork clattering against stone tiles attracted his attention to his right, where Ginny was blushing bright red and bent down to pick up the fallen utensil. He chuckled a bit, before frowning as he realized something was wrong.
And where was her jumper?
The question stayed in his mind for the remainder of the breakfast. Possibly, the three Weasleys knew, but Ron wasn't talking to them, and he doubted even Hermione wanted to risk her nine lives asking the twins.
Hermione.
She lived in the Gryffindor common room. Perhaps she knew…?
Catching her eye was easy. She had, apparently, noticed the same thing. Harry had expected nothing less from the girl whose average grades neared Dumbledore's age. Upon seeing his glance, she nodded with a grave air.
"They don't know."
Those were Hermione's first words upon finding themselves alone in one of the many hallways of Hogwarts. This one was well lit, with very few portraits eavesdropping on the wall – come to think about it, virtually every area of the school had at least one pair of ears listening and eyes watching everything, if not a dozen.
Hermione was evidently not very happy. Her face was twisted in a frown, her arms crossed and her eyes set and glaring outside the tall windows out of which the leafless, snow-covered forbidden forest moved softly to an unfelt wind, her expression gave more a sense of furious but repressed and controlled anger.
"Who?"
"The Weasleys!" Hermione snapped, her hands clenching tightly on her arms. "I mean… Mr and Mrs Weasley, they have no idea she's a Slytherin!"
To say Harry was a bit surprised was an understatement. School had started three months ago – and lots of events had happened so far, one of which being the Weasley girl's unexpected sorting dilemma. To say that the Weasleys still had not contacted their parents about this was odd, to say the least. He had expected them to at least ask for help, for some kind of re-sorting – even though he perfectly knew she liked being a Slytherin.
But wait… if the Mr and Mrs Weasley didn't know about it, then Ginny hadn't told them anything, either. Come to think about it, he hadn't seen her really talk about it all to anyone – if she did, someone else had talked about it first. She was keeping it all to herself, bottled up, and he knew it probably wasn't healthy. At least her parents would offer her their love and reassurance – he was certain parents like them wouldn't abandon their child like this – if not a bit of guidance.
He knew she kept a diary, having seen her write in the small, black book, but writing words and talking to someone else were two totally different things. Writing it down meant writing your point of view of something, then, when you re-read them, you only made yourself more certain of your thoughts, or less, depending on how ridiculous they are. And he knew perfectly well that Ginny's thoughts on the subject were nothing ridiculous. The problem was that he couldn't talk to her about this; she would need to go to someone by herself. Writing your thoughts did not offer outside opinions, after all, and offering his own without being asked wouldn't help.
He sighed. "How do you know?"
"Her jumper arrived this morning in the Gryffindor common room, with a letter asking them to write more often." She replied. "Unless one of her brothers likes purple and pink and has a name that starts with 'V', I suppose it's hers."
Chuckling, Harry nodded. "She'll be happy to know that."
"Oh no she won't." Hermione replied darkly. "That big git locked it up somewhere, and he isn't telling me where."
"Ron?"
"Who else?" She snapped back, huffing angrily. "Honestly, that boy, sometimes…" She sighed off her anger for the moment. "Percy's jumper came in, too, and a note for them to take care of their brother, as if he was in the hospital wing for a broken bone or a transfigured nose or something harmless like that."
"That's Dumbledore's work." Harry nodded. "If the victims' parents know about everything that's going on, the Daily Prophet would have a ball. He's keeping it all hidden, including who's been petrified."
"What about Justin? Surely his friends have written to their parents by now—"
"Not if the mail is watched. It probably is, just so there's no information about this whole mess coming out."
"Eventually it will, though." Hermione noted.
"Eventually." Harry agreed.
As much as Harry didn't like it, there was nothing he could do. Telling Ginny where her jumper was would make her angry at her brother – and he didn't want to cause a family rift – while doing nothing would cause her to fall back into the gloomy dark cloud she had spent a long time into, before. He didn't want that, either. Writing the other Weasleys was out of question – the only thing they could do was admonish her brothers, which could either knock some sense into them, or cause them to dislike Ginny even more, and perhaps himself in the process.
Ginny also wouldn't appreciate having her pride being walked on like this.
During the next two days, Harry watched her even more closely than before. Whenever she was with everyone else, her behavior was cheerful, energetic and playful. However, once she thought she was alone, the first thing she would do is whip out her diary and write in it feverishly, a sad glitter in her eyes. Harry had to hand it to her; she hid her bad mood expertly. Had he not been watching so intensely, he would never have noticed.
This brought up the worrying concept that, perhaps, her recent good mood had also been an illusion.
After further reflection, he realized that, perhaps, the best way to help the girl was to distract her. And, thanks to Mrs Zabini, he had the perfect solution.
"Duel?" Ginny repeated.
"Are you interested?" Harry asked, while Blaise was watching closely, seeing as she was the 'most experienced' dueler, and thus would be expected as some kind of teacher. Not that she was qualified to be one – she had never actually been in a real duel, except if one counted her ferocious attack on the white queen on the giant chessboard the previous year.
"Hmm… I don't know…" Ginny mused, frowning. Harry felt his spirits sink. If she refused, then his efforts were for nothing. "I'll think about it."
Harry nodded and strode back, followed by his friend. At least this answer gave him a bit of hope to cling to.
As soon as he was out of her earshot, though, Blaise roughly grabbed his ear and pulled painfully.
"And you didn't ask my opinion?" She asked.
"Thought you-ow-wouldn't min-daouch! Watch eeyeow!"
To his relief, she released him then nodded with a smile.
"Good idea. If anything happens when we're not there to help, she'll be grateful for it."
Watching her walk away happily, Harry could only shake his head in bewilderment.
"Completely mental."
Harry had to hand it to Blaise; what little her mother had taught her of magical dueling and fighting, she had remembered exemplarily. Hermione had been told of the dueling lesson by her and had, quite obviously, decided to come. Unfortunately, Ginny was nowhere to be seen. Draco and Xu had tagged along as well, one wanting to relieve his boredom, the other for 'personal reasons'. Their so-called club was taking place in their out-of-common-room hanging-out spot, in the abandoned classroom.
The first thing Blaise showed them was the proper dueling stance, which Harry had to admit having forgotten. Unsurprisingly, Hermione had it to the book, except the position of her feet.
"Not wide enough, Hermione." Blaise told her. "You need to have good support, or else you'll take more time to recover from dodging spells, and you have a chance to trip and fall."
Draco was rather sloppy in his, although whatever mistakes the girl pointed out, he corrected and kept correctly… at least until more mistakes were pointed out. He gave the feeling of a stubborn, sealed bag of jello – he gave to her prodding, but as soon as she touched somewhere else, he took his imperfect form back.
Harry fared a little better, himself. His only problem being his left arm, which he constantly tucked aerodynamically to his body, as he was used to while flying. His Quidditch-honed habits were, for once, not helping.
The young Asian girl surprised them all with a flawless form, however. Blaise commented on two points – her legs were a bit looser, granting more speed of reaction, but less stability, and the wand hand was higher, which was a good idea if one wanted to block, but would telegraph her offense. Her stance was defensive, as the red-head noted, and to Harry's eyes, it felt obviously practiced.
He did wonder, though, how one so young could know how to duel, while a 'noble' like Draco had evidently no previous notion of it. Perhaps the Malfoy heir was too 'home-schooled' for that… from what he had heard about his mother, perhaps she was the reason why.
The lessons continued well over the remaining days of vacations, though Blaise completely refused to spend all their time on it. Every day, after seven, they would take place, and became known as the "hour of suffering", at Draco's insistence after being sent to the floor for the fifteenth time by a disarming hex.
He didn't know for what reason Ginny had refused to come along. Xu didn't either, when he confronted her about it. All he knew is that without distractions, there was little he could do to help her. His plan had failed.
The vacations ended four days into the new year, and the students were to return a day beforehand. Ginny and Xu were eager to have their friend Emma back, as she had promised a full resume of her trip in Spain for them, with pictures of the landscape. Quite honestly, Harry didn't really care – he didn't know the McKinnon girl all that much.
It was dark outside by the time the scarlet engine pulled in the station on the outskirts of the wizarding village of Hogsmeade, in the distance. Ginny and Xu had already left long ago and he knew they were waiting for their friend in the entrance hall. The older three Slytherins were content of simply watching the horseless carriages roll up the small dirt path connecting the station and the school. There would be a welcome back feast, which he knew of from the previous year's experiences.
"Come on, let's go." Blaise said, grabbing his arm.
The great hall, re-arranged in the usual way, slowly filled. The deserted Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables saw students for the first time since the start of the vacations. Most faces were sullen, apparently unhappy to be back and away from the festive moods of their homes. Those that looked happy were apparently so because of the fact that they would be with their friends again.
"…adoptive parents hate Britain winters, they think it's too cold." He heard Emma's familiar voice say as she and her dorm mates walked toward the Slytherin table. "I don't think so, but I don't mind, going to Spain was the greatest!"
"Show us the pictures!" Ginny asked, pulling a chair to sit in front of Blaise.
Emma nodded and quickly dug through her pockets, pulling out an unsealed envelope.
"We had to take some of those in the Muggle way." She warned. "So they won't move until someone pours an animation brew on them."
Harry, being on the opposite side of the table, was unable to see the pictures, but from the awed "ooh"s and "aah"s from the other two girls, Harry guessed they were interesting.
"Who are they?" Ginny asked, pointing at something he couldn't see on one of the pictures.
"Those are my little adopted brothers, Daniel and Rupert. They're both seven years old and obviously magical. I mean… just last week, Daniel jinxed some Muggle's cell phone into constantly shouting out words in Turkish whenever he spoke in it, just because that muggle had bumped into dad."
The two girls chuckled a bit.
"Rupert look bit like Ginny stupid brother…" Xu noted, but was ignored.
The dueling practice was cancelled for the day, at its victims' – pardon me, participants – unanimous decision. The feast had been rich and very heavy, and none of them wanted to push their bodies in dodging, blocking or attacking and take the risk of suddenly finding themselves in retching motions.
The next day, though, Blaise decided to let them duel with each other. Emma, when Xu had told her about it, had jumped on the occasion and joined in while trying unsuccessfully to pull Ginny in as well. Since they were now six students practicing in the disused room, it allowed them all to fight as pairs. Blaise set them together, however, as not all of them were of the same level.
Unfortunately, Blaise, Xu and Hermione were all quite good, while Harry, Draco and Emma were average at best. And while the latter two found themselves facing each other, Harry ended up against the small and agile Asian girl.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry cast quickly as soon as Blaise gave the signal. The curse was quickly becoming his favorite – how many times had he nailed Draco with it? He had long since forgot.
Unfortunately, Xu was much quicker and better than the Malfoy heir. Effortlessly dodging it, she waved her wand, her mouth moving only a bit to mumble the incantation, giving him absolutely no clue of what she was casting. A pair of blue, obviously magical arrows went straight toward him, forcing him to dodge quickly, stumbling on his knees as he did so. He quickly pointed his wand at her to cast a quick counter attack…
*THOCK*
…but when one of the arrows dug painfully into his wrist causing his hand to spasm and release the holly branch, he found himself losing quickly. In a haze of pain, he released himself from the floor to grab his wrist reflexively…
*THOCK*
…only to find the other arrow planted exactly where his hand had been before.
"Wh—What's the big idea?! Are you trying to kill me?!" Harry gasped, half out of pain, half out of breath.
Xu shook her head and waved her wand. The arrows magically vanished, leaving his skin intact, but a hole in both his sleeve and the rock tiles of the ground.
"Arrows meant to aim at hands, make them useless. Then it easy take out enemy."
Harry blinked at her words. She definitely knew how to duel and defend herself, that much was now certain. For what reason, he ignored. He did find it rather unsettling, however, that the young Chinese girl knew spells as powerful as that one.
And her choice of words, as well. Enemy… although, perhaps, that was due to her poor mastery of English.
"Whoa, look at 'em go…" Draco said, ignoring the pure-blooded girl seething in rage while in the effect of a full-body bind. "Go Blaise!"
Harry blinked and looked. His own duel had been short-lived, lasting nothing but a few seconds. It made him flinch to think of what would have happened if Xu had been a servant of Voldemort. Apparently, Draco and Emma's had been just as short. But Blaise and Hermione were still at it.
Blaise was obviously having difficulty. Her brow was sweating, her face frowning in deep concentration, as she launched two curses in quick succession, one of which Harry had read in one of the duel books. Hermione quickly blocked the first with a counter-curse Harry had no idea existed and avoided the other, tripping on her shoes as she did and stumbling on her knees.
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
"Protego!" Hermione quickly cast, causing a brilliant shield to appear around her, deflecting the hex back at the red-head, who ducked underneath.
"Whoa… Hermione's been holding back on us…" Draco said.
"She didn't seem that good the other day," Harry agreed.
"Knowledge against skill." Xu noted. "Hermione know more spells, but Blaise more experienceful. Make them good in different way."
Harry gave her a look. Her analysis was accurate. Hermione's dodges and blocks were clumsy and obviously telegraphed, sometimes making her tumble. The only reason why she was still fighting was because she cast out spells that neither Slytherins knew existed, or how to defend against, and was using counters and blocks that probably were advanced second year or basic third year.
Finally, though, Hermione tripped one too many times, ending up on her stomach. In her dizzy daze, Blaise was finally able to cast an arm-locking jinx on her, ending the duel as she wasn't capable of defending herself anymore.
"Woo!" Blaise cheered, a large grin on her face. "That was the best fight I've ever had!"
"Nice one," Harry said, impressed. He was light years away from being as good as her.
"How did you get that good with just a bit of practice from your mum?" Draco asked. Harry had to agree that it was rather… impossible.
"Natural skill?" Blaise replied with a smirk and a wink. "Seriously, my mum is tough and rough. She pushed me quite hard. And my aunts and uncles helped me out, too. Underage Italians are lucky, they can use magic in the summer… As long as Muggles don't see them, that is."
"That's because the Italian ministry are a bunch of slackers." Draco drawled with a smirk. "They're nearly as bad as the Swiss."
"As if Britain's is any better." Emma snorted.
"That's all very interesting, but I would appreciate if someone would cast the counter curse for this bloody thing!" Hermione snapped, flopping futilely on her stomach like a shored fish, trying to push herself upright.
Their practice continued much later than usual; Blaise, full of energy, wanted to duel again against Hermione, who wasn't so keen. Xu volunteered, but after defeating Blaise as easily as she had beat Harry, it changed his friend's source of energy from excitement to determination – "I AM going to beat you!!" After the fifteenth defeat, though, Blaise forfeited, leaving a smug Xu, who wondered exactly what "forfeit" meant.
Tired and sore, feeling the now familiar internal fatigue of magical exhaustion, Harry went to lie down in his bed, throwing his robe away. Crabbe and Goyle were both already snoring away, as the noiseless trembling of their silenced curtains told. With a sweep of his arm, he opened his own curtains and let himself fall on the soft, bouncy mattress with the small paper note in the middle of his back.
Erm… replay that, please?
"Wh…" Harry wondered, reaching with his arm to pull at the note.
Knowledge is power. Power is life.
"Weird…" He mumbled to himself, looking up. "Nemesis, who left this?"
The black snake looked down at him from the poles around which he was coiled and shook his head.
"I hafffe no idea… I swear, it jussst appeared out offf nowhere…" The snake reported eerily, a worried tone in his high-pitched, whistle-like voice.
"You fell asleep and it was there when you woke up, eh?" Harry resumed.
The snake harrumphed. "Sssinssse you put it Zsat way…"
Chuckling, Harry re-read the note, trying to see if he recognized the writing. It was rather elegant, its letters shaped somewhat like one would expect of an old-style German style. The calligraphy gave him no clue whatsoever; the way the two 'is' were written – that is, perfectly identical, indicated that the writing was magical in nature, and not hand-done.
However, he recognized the ink. A deep, blood red color he had only seen once before.
Suddenly feeling uneasy, his insides frozen, Harry fished with his hand under his bed, where he had hidden the suspect after it had given him its rather unsettling offer.
The Grey-Paged Book was deceitfully innocent-looking, lying docilely in his hands like a normal, regular book. Only the unusual coloring of its pages and its title broke its image of normality. Quite honestly, the book gave Harry the creeps. Not more so by the fact that it was painfully obviously sentient – could magical objects think? – Nor by the subject it spoke of. It was the fact that talking to it made him feel like he was talking as an apprentice to some dark lord.
He opened the first page, which still bore his name in his own black ink and calligraphy – which brought up the rather unsettling possibility that it could see the world outside of its cover – then the second, where the book itself had asked of him to write, seeing as the front page had sentimental value, of all things.
As soon as he set his eyes on the page, a line, in the very same blood red ink as the note, appeared.
Hello, Harry Potter. I have been expecting you.
Quickly taking his quill from the bag he had dropped on the floor, he wrote: Are you the one who wrote the note?
For a moment, it stayed silent, as if debating to itself what it should do. Finally, it wrote, this time in green.
I'm afraid that I must admit my culpability in the matter, Harry Potter. It wrote. It was, however, the fastest way to communicate with you.
And what do you want?
I still have not received an answer for my offer.
Harry was about to write No when other lines quickly appeared.
We both know you have many enemies, most of whom use the materials and teachings inside of this book. It would not be wise for you to leave your guard down against such deadly weapons as dark magic spells. By knowing the spells, you know how to counter them and, thus, how to protect yourself. Have you not seen an example of this, just a few hours before now?
'How does it know about all that?!' Harry wondered with a start, accidentally dropping a drop of ink in the page. He hadn't told it about his connection to Voldemort, but even more unsettling was the fact that it seemed to know about what happened in their duel practice.
Nevertheless, it had a point. Voldemort and his supporters were after his guts, he knew that. Twice, now, he had stood in his way and thwarted him. Twice, he had survived meeting the darkest of dark lords in a century; Harry didn't doubt for a second that he was the first on his hit list, perhaps behind Dumbledore. Being first or second name on Voldemort's 'To kill' list was not an enviable position, and he knew the better and more varied the weapons he got now, the better were his chances of survival at their next meeting.
Gingerly, he picked up his quill and, after dipping it, slowly wrote three letters on the rough, dark parchment.
Yes.
Few minutes later, somewhere far away, buried under layers of biting cold ice, something stirred…
Author's notes:
I decided to release this chapter early, since I liked the way it turned out – no modifications needed plotwise – and because… well, It's my birthday today, I'm 18, and I want to celebrate! Happy birthday to me ^_- Now I can go to bars, knock myself out on beer, surf porn sites and pay my taxes… ugh. Yay.
I actually started this in the middle of writing chapter 14, because I needed a change of pace from the fast-paced humor of the last chapter.
Hehe, here's a no-brainer: How the hell did I get Emma's name? *snicker* Oh, come on. You HAVE to have guessed, by now. This chapter has to have the biggest hints I gave out so far, though I did give a few before… ^_-.
About the beginning (From the Christmas present scene to the ending), I set out to read the Saotome Gambit, a beautifully written Ranma ½ crossover fic. You can guess from the quality – I tend to write great when I read great. *Sighs in despair* Those are, unfortunately, few and far-between.
I also, strangely enough, took two full weeks to write the last chapter. This one took about three days. *shrug* When I say my writing skill is strange, I mean it!
And for the last line, I'm not telling now. Don't even ask, sore wa himitsu des' ^_-
ANSWERS TO THE ROUGHED UP VOLKSWAGENS DECORATING THE ROOF OF THE REVIEWERS' ROOM:
VMorticia: Heh. I guess I kinda broke the suspense there, at the start. And YES, I "twinned" the Weasley Twins. I'm evil and completely crazy, so sue me ^_-. Gotta love irony, ne?
Mella deRanged: It took a big curve mostly because the whole polyjuice episode didn't happen, and I had a BIG LOAD of free time and an opportunity for chaos. So, I took it ^_-
BF110C4: As I explained above, it was because I had lots of free time to fill on the timeline, and a perfect idea to fill it up. The scene with Dumbledore and Snape sorta… happened out of nowhere. But it fit nicely. There was a sweet little scene with Ginny and the twins, but it got booted out for cause of plot convenience. *Cowers* Ack! Sorry, Baboons! Snape is the one who compared him to you lot!! Not me, he said it! So what I'm the author, he still said it! Love Hina, yes, Tenchi Muyo, definitely, Slayers, spot on… but you missed a bunch ^_-. Here in Quebec, we don't get much animes either, and if they do they're either butchered by the US, or they're rendered un-listenable to by the France Frenchies. I download them off Kazaa, in subbed version ^_-.
(BF110C4, second time:) Well, you missed Ranma, but hell. Good job ^_- And I won't ask you to kill yourself, I'd lose a good reviewer ^_-.
RaistlinofMetallica: Nice job, 3 out of 6 found ^_-. Glad you liked it ^_^. I fear to imagine what would happen if the heaven's central computer gets cursed with Windows. *Shudders in fear of system crashes and fatal errors… literally*
Ran Hoshino: You did it, lol!! You managed to catch all of them, nice one! Well, except for Ranma, but that was plainly obvious, so I'll give it for free ^_-. And glad you liked it ^_^. You were actually the first to get them all, btw.
Simply Myself: Glad you liked it… I seem to be saying that a lot, lately… Hmm… you gave me an idea, actually ^_-.
Zeon Reborn: Yup, there were others, sorry!
Goldenfire: *Laughs*
Neo-Slytherin: Lol, you want some Nyannichuan to help you laugh like her? *snicker* Spring of the drowned death eater, eh? Eek, nasty. And taking "Air Akane" to Hogwarts? Erm… lol?
Between here and there: Pin pon, we have a winner! Nice job ^_-
Blackheart Syaoran: Thank you, causing chaos is a gift ^_-. Heh, shameless plug, ne? Ah, I think I'll look it up…
DaBear: Thnak you ^_-
Flummox: …I take it you liked last chapter… ^_-. Yup for the cameo, yup again, yup and you mentioned Inuyasha before… only forgetting two out of six ^_-.
Shaun Garin: OMG, I knew the name was familiar! Cool, the author of Digital Diaries reads this ^_^ As for the review: hmm… maybe I should have hidden a few more… *shrug* oh well, we have a winner ^_-
Gshans: Heh, I try my best. The fact that English isn't my first language is my biggest problem, but a big advantage, too. Just wait 'till Fleur arrives ^_-. I don't really know how it will turn out myself, though – I merely plan the main events ahead, the characters act through them by themselves. *sigh* I'm going to get personality disorders, yay, lol ^_-
