A/N: Again, like with the invisibility cloak, I'm not trying to dictate how the magical world works. . .These here are merely theories. Take them or leave them. BTW, guess what my favourite magical creature is ^_^

The Darkness of Harry Potter

Chapter Four

***

Lessons began the next day, and the Seventh Years finally discovered the meaning of hard work. Ron was horrified in their first lesson, Transfiguration, when they were given a surprise test to find out how much of the previous year's work they remembered. They were also given a huge amount of homework from each teacher. Even Hagrid, didn't go easy on them, and when they went down to his hut on the second day, after supper, he sent them away again as soon as they admitted they hadn't done all their homework yet.

But Defence Against The Dark Arts was something else altogether. When they arrived, the classroom was empty. Everything had been removed from the room, from the desks and chairs, right down to the last quill and sheet of parchment. It was a plain, empty room.

"Maybe we're meant to be somewhere else?" Hermione suggested.

"But our timetables say we're having our lessons in the same old room," Ron pointed out.

"Must be a misprint. We could go and ask Professor McGonagal, she'll know where we're meant to be."

The rest of the class agreed, and Hermione began to lead them away when a soft voice spoke from within the room.

"You may all enter. Your lesson will take place here as normal."

Harry peered back through the doorway. The room was still perfectly empty. "Er?" he asked, "hello? Professor?"

"Yes?" the soft voice replied. "I said you may enter. Now enter, before I lose my patience."

Harry glanced at the others and shrugged. Hermione gave him a gentle nudge, and he walked into the room, closely followed by Hermione. The others seemed reluctant to follow.

"All of you, please," said the voice. "I can hardly teach a class of two."

Hesitantly, the rest of the class gathered around Harry and Hermione. The door shut behind them, making them jump. Harry realised he was gripping his wand, and let go, trying to keep an air of calm about him. But the sound of footsteps startled him once more, and his fingers closed on his wand again. As they did so, he heard a quietly muttered spell, and suddenly he was shooting up into the air, banging his head on the ceiling, and tumbling back towards the floor. He heard Hermione scream, but before he hit the floor, a huge, soft mattress appeared below him, and he bounced a couple of times before rolling off and sprawling on the floor, at someone's feet. He groaned quietly, and looked up.

"Mr Potter, I presume?" asked the man looking down at him. Harry nodded. "Thought as much. That was awful, Potter. You were acting as if you had been threatened, when you hadn't, and when you were you failed to react. I'll have to take five points from Gryffindor, I'm afraid."

The man helped Harry back to his feet. He was tall and thin, and had a shock of silver hair. His long robes were bright green silk, and he wore a faint smile which reminded Harry of Remus for some reason.

"Wha'. . . ?" Harry began, but the professor had walked over to the chalk board, which had conveniently reappeared, and was writing something on it. At the top he wrote the words "Professor Rinaldi", and underneath, "Unfamiliar situations."

"Change!" said Rinaldi, spinning round to face the class again. "When things are different from what we expect, we get nervous. Oh, don't stand on my account, take a seat."

Harry blinked. The desks and chairs and everything else had come back. He poked the chair cautiously to make sure it was real, then sat down.

"And not only change. Many things make us nervous. Unexpected things. Mysterious disembodied voices, for example." Rinaldi smiled again. He had very sharp little teeth, Harry noticed. "But we have to learn, not everything unexpected is out to get us." He pointed his wand rather randomly at Ron, and a huge chocolate cake appeared on the desk in front of him. Ron jumped, but grinned when Rinaldi caught his eye. "You can eat it, it's not poisoned or anything. But I refuse to be held responsible should you become ill from eating it all by yourself. Now then." He addressed the class again. "When you entered, you could not see me, but you could hear me. Potter seemed very keen to blast me with his wand, but he had no idea where I was until I shut the door. Why didn't you react when I shut the door, Potter?"

Harry shrugged slightly. "Couldn't think of a spell, sir."

"Right. Why?"

"Er. . ."

"Because you didn't know what the threat was. Was I not in the room, and merely using telekinesis? Was I merely invisible? Was I pointing my wand at you, or doing something else? Of course, you have no idea. When you cannot see your opponent it is difficult to know how to react. They don't have to be hidden from you, either, you may simply not be able to predict their next move, and when things get unpredictable, we get nervous. And when we get nervous, what do we do, Potter?"

Harry shrugged again. "Bash our heads on the ceiling?"

"We make mistakes. But there is a solution, in the form of a spell which I intend to teach you today. A spell which will make all things in a tense situation clear to you. However, this is a very difficult spell to learn, and all I can do is give you the instructions. It is up to you to find the ability within yourself to perform the spell." Professor Rinaldi picked up his wand and waved it. "The appropriate spell is this: Acclaro!"

He watched them wave their wands and say the word for a few moments, then interrupted. "But that is not all. This is a spell which requires not only strong magical power, but mental power also. If your mind is weak, this spell could be dangerous to you in life-threatening situations. If it goes wrong within the classroom, you may be left with a migraine, but nothing more. When you cast the spell, you mind must be open. In a normal frame of mind, human beings – wizards and muggles – ignore many things. Muggles are especially good at not seeing what shouldn't be there yet is; but we do it all the time as well. When a wizard conceals himself, what he is doing is not making himself invisible, unless of course he has an invisibility cloak. What he is doing is appealing to that part of the mind of others which ignores things that shouldn't be there, and makes others ignore him. Even if he is expected, a good wizard can persuade anyone he is not there. For this spell to work, you need to be able to switch off that part of your brain, the part that clings to normal everyday things and ignores the unusual, and allow yourself to see what is really there, not just what you want to see. This is one of the most difficult things to do."

Someone had their hand up. The professor nodded at them.

"But that's not magic." It was Dean Thomas speaking. He looked puzzled. "That's psychology."

"And you think what goes on inside the human brain isn't a kind of magic?" Rinaldi retorted. He sounded annoyed at being interrupted, but his smile was still there. Harry wondered if his pointy teeth made it impossible for him to relax his mouth. Dean had shrugged.

"Well it is," Rinaldi continued. "It is the most basic magic of all, and the most difficult to master. All everyday magic is based on perception and conviction. Mind magic, headology, psychology, whatever you call it, is under appreciated and often passed off as too difficult to teach young wizards, who then grow to know nothing about it. Now then. There are several things in this room which you can't see – I don't know why you're all suddenly looking around, you can't see them, that's the point. If and when you successfully cast the spell, they will be revealed to you. It is merely my will which is keeping them concealed. . . Let's see who amongst you can defeat my will."

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances, then picked up their wands. Harry concentrated on the floor, in case there was something concealed lying there, and waved his wand and said the word "acclaro", and absolutely nothing happened. Hermione seemed to be having similar problems. He glanced at Ron, who had shut his eyes.

"You're not going to see anything that way," Harry commented.

"Shh," said Hermione, "Look at him."

Harry looked. Ron seemed to be in a sort of meditative trance, still seated, with his eyes closed and his want poised. He looked serene and calm, and almost as if he wasn't really there at all, his mind was somewhere else. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he shouted "Acclaro!"

There was a moment of silence, as everyone looked at Ron, whose terrified gaze was fixed on Professor Rinaldi's desk.

"What is it?" Hermione hissed anxiously. "What can you see, Ron?"

Rinaldi was watching from behind his desk. He reached out his right hand and picked up something which, although apparently quite large, was completely invisible to Harry. Ron followed it with his horrified gaze.

"Mr Weasley's got it," said Rinaldi softly, stroking the thing in his hand with his left forefinger.

"Sp. . .sp. . ." muttered Ron.

"Don't you like her?" Rinaldi asked, looking slightly hurt. "I call her Rosali."

Ron seemed to snap out of his trance. "Rosali!? It's a ruddy great spider!"

The class relaxed. Rinaldi put the spider into the top drawer of his desk, and asked for everyone to put their wands down. "Now then. Why can Mr Weasley let himself see Rosali, and the rest of you can't?"

Malfoy spoke from the back of the class. "Because he's a wimp who expects to see spiders everywhere."

Ron span round and snapped "I could see everything else he'd concealed too, Malfoy! I just happened to get preoccupied with the spider, that's all."

"Alright, Ron, what else had I hidden?" asked Rinaldi.

"A cauldron, a stack of books, a big poster of a unicorn on that wall over there, and Professor Dumbledore." As he said the headmaster's name, Dumbledore appeared in front of the class, smiling at them.

"Very well done indeed, Ron, ten points to Gryffindor. Have you any idea what the answer to the Professor's question is? How come you could do it, but no one else has mastered it yet?"

Ron shrugged. "Because I don't waste brain power studying?" he suggested, giving Hermione a funny look.

Dumbledore laughed. "That's very nearly it. What do you do when you should be studying?"

"Oh that's easy. I sit there and stare into space."

"I bet when Miss Granger isn't studying, her mind is buzzing with thoughts, isn't it, Hermione?" Dumbledore waited for Hermione to nod. "Which is good, of course, but doesn't leave much scope for introspection. Rather than thinking about potions and spells and people and lessons and Turkish delight, and other such wonderful things, we should take time to think about our minds, and not only that but take control of them. Isn't that right, Professor?"

Rinaldi, who had his feet up on the desk, nodded. "It's all about control. First learn to control your mind. Then you can control the situation by knowing what the opponent doesn't know you know, and you've as good as won. Lesson over."

"My head hurts," muttered Dean, as they left the classroom for lunch.

"Mine too," muttered Harry. "And it's not as if I study more than I should, so why can't I do it?"

"It's not about studying or not, Harry," said Hermione briskly. "it's about clearing your mind of thoughts and everyday worries. I think we could all do with some practice at that."

"'Scuse me." Somebody pushed past them as they made their way downstairs. Harry recognised Rinaldi's green robes and silvery ponytail from behind, as the professor skipped down the stairs three at a time. "Wonder why he's in such a hurry?" he muttered.

They didn't have a lesson that afternoon, but at nine o'clock, they had Astronomy. A fat full moon hung over the castle as the class shivered their way up to the astronomy tower. Harry disliked this lesson, and wasn't particularly bothered if he passed his NEWT in it or not. He spent the entire time with his eyes shut and his unconscious mind slowly opening to conscious control.

"Acclaro," he whispered, and opened his eyes. He didn't know how to tell if the spell had worked if there was nothing being hidden, but then his gaze fell on Lavender Brown, who's hair this year was long and blonde. It took Harry a moment in the dark to notice that her hair was now light brown, and had in fact been magically altered to look blonde. He smiled to himself. There was nothing he couldn't do if he put his mind to it.

To Be Continued. . .?