I can't believe how much response I've gotten from the story, amazing. The
story is going to move extremely quick from this point forward, and the PG-
13 rating is going to kick in due to violence. Keep reading.
Read and Review Nothing is My Own
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Thirty-Two: Differences Aside
Cho Chang ate her dinner determinately not looking at the dark haired boy across the room staring at her.
"Still not talking to you, huh?" Ginny inquired.
"She won't even listen, I mean you think she'd want me to explain," Harry said annoyed, turning his head.
"I noticed she didn't come to DA last night," Ginny commented.
Harry shrugged, "apparently she's avoiding any place she might run into me."
Ginny patted Harry on the back, "she'll come around."
The youngest Weasley rose from her seat and left Harry at the Gryffindor table. It has definitely been a long week, considering how many people were mad at him. There was Ron who thought he was being a jealous prat, but ironically they were being civil on speaking terms. Probably because Ron didn't have a long list of friends to hang out with. Dean Thomas wouldn't even mutter a hello in Ron's direction and Seamus was to stuck on Lavender to socialize with.
Pavarti and Ron's relationship seemed to have taken a dive for the end after the now famous Quidditch practice. Harry suspected the only reason she hadn't broken it off with Ron completely was to prove Harry's wasn't right.
Obviously, Cho wasn't speaking to him right now, and the Ravenclaw Quidditch team seemed to have taken a personal vendetta against Harry. When he had tripped in the corridor after Potions he could have swore he saw Michael Corner smirking.
Then there was Hermione, who in her words said, "I can't believe you did something so stupid, you're as pig headed as Ron."
"Scarhead! Daydreaming about actually having friends," Malfoy jeered from across the hall, preying on Harry's dazed expression.
Harry narrowed his eyes, "at least I don't pay for my friends, Malfoy."
Malfoy sneered, rubbing his forehead in a mock pain, then laughed.
Harry didn't have the stomach for Malfoy's badgering tonight, so without another word he gathered his things and left.
The memory of the chamber was again haunting his thoughts. Not that it surprised him that Malfoy had joined Voldemort. Dumbledore was almost impossible to find, every time he had tried to talk to the Headmaster about what he had seen that night, he was out on Order Business. Same with McGonagall and O'Riley, leading Harry to believe that things were getting darker outside the walls of Hogwarts. Not that the teachers would ever give him any information. He had written Lupin once, but his former professor hadn't responded, yet. He might have been worried but if anything happened to Remus Lupin, he had a feeling he'd one of the first to know.
"Harry, wait up!"
Harry spun around slightly surprised at the student desperately trying to catch up with him.
"Padma?" Harry asked questionably, since she did look almost identical to Pavarti.
She smiled, "I wanted to talk to you about, my sister."
"I don't want to talk about anything that has to do with Pavarti Patil," Harry said hatefully.
"I don't blame you for hating her, she can be a bit overbearing," Padma confessed, to look so much like Pavarti, her facial expression were completely different.
"I think it is awful what she did to you, and I wanted to you know I understand."
"Thanks," Harry said skeptically.
Padma fidgeted with her thumbs, "Pavarti has always gotten her way on everything. So when you picked Cho over her she decided if she couldn't have you, neither could Cho."
"So are you trying to tell me I shouldn't be mad at her?" Harry asked confused.
"Definitely not, she needs a swift kick in the ass if you ask me," Padma said blushing as she swore.
"There is something strange going on," she glanced back towards the Great Hall to make sure nobody was coming, "I think Pureblood United is up to something."
Harry's eyes widened, "what have you heard?"
Padma looked nervous, "I'm not saying anything bad about my house members, but some Ravenclaws have joined, Purebloods United, and I over heard them talking in the common room the other night."
"What were they saying?" Harry urged.
Padma closed her eyes, "that they were going to take the Dark Mark. What if he who must not be named is recruiting students through that organization?"
"Why are you coming to me with this, why haven't you told Dumbledore?" Harry asked.
Padma shook her head, "I was going to tell the Headmaster, but I only heard rumors. I don't want to be a snitch like some of my other house members that will remain unnamed. I think this is something we should handle."
"We?" Harry inquired.
"DA, isn't that what we're there for, Defense against the Dark Arts, Dumbledore's Army. If you know who is recruiting students from Hogwarts, than there is no darker art," Padma said as if it had been on her mind for some time.
"We're a club that practices, we don't go looking for trouble," Harry lectured.
"That wasn't your philosophy last year, anyways, if we don't do something soon, Hogwarts is in deep trouble," Padma countered.
Harry sighed, "the DA is broken right now, half the members are fighting with one another, we couldn't pull something like that off."
"They'll just have to put their differences aside, this is bigger than who said what, or who's dating who," Padma stated firmly.
Padma sighed, "listen, let me talk to the Ravenclaws, and I'll talk to Susan Bones about rallying the Hufflepuffs. Do you think you can handle the Gryffindors?"
Harry considered for a moment, it didn't sound too risky. After all, how much could Malfoy and his organization honestly do? He nodded, realizing he had the toughest house to mend.
"I'll deal with Pavarti, leave her to me," Padma said sternly.
"Goodluck," Harry said bitterly, causing Padma to smirk.
"I'll talk to Cho," she continued, "she has been so upset since you know what happened."
Harry brought his eyebrows together, "she won't even look at me."
Padma shook her head, "I'll see you at DA tonight."
Harry glanced at his watch noticing that he only had about an hour till DA started anyways, so he decided he might as well head to the Room of Requirements and get everything in order.
The room was not the cozy romantic setting that he been in with Cho, instead it was quite larger. He pulled the pillows off the shelves and arranged them around the room for stunting spells.
"Harry, I thought you might be here early," said a dreamy voice as she wandered into the room.
"Hello Luna," Harry greeted uncomfortably.
She took a seat staring in a daze around the room, "it looks different tonight, must be the moving trolls."
"The what?" Harry questioned.
"Moving trolls, tiny little beast that hide the things you're looking for," Luna replied nonchalantly.
Harry sighed and shook his head, "Luna, sometimes I don't know where you get some of this stuff."
"You're just to narrow minded, there are so many things out there that can never be explained, but it doesn't mean they don't exists."
Harry cracked a forced smile, "Hermione did some research on the Death Journal, it was pretty interesting."
"Let me guess, the whole nonsense with the Torto Scriptures?" Luna questioned.
Wide-eyed he stared at her, he had never heard her say something was nonsense.
Luna lowered her head, "my mother did a lot of research on death, it was what she did as an Unspeakable. She use to tell me stories about the Death Journals. They're real. I know you heard the voices behind the veil Harry, sometimes they need to tell us something and they'll do anything."
The dreaminess of Luna's voice seemed to disappear as she spoke, and Harry appreciated for the first time why she was a Ravenclaw.
"Have you ever talked to a Torto, I mean Death Journal?" Harry inquired.
Luna smiled, her dazed expression once again returning, "oh yes, many times. Mostly just about the weather, I hear it is quite frigid in the Realm of the Dead."
Luckily Harry was saved from the conversation as DA members started filing in. It wasn't their typical Monday night meeting, which everyone usually attended. Only about half the group typically came on Thursday, when it was called.
Hermione arrived with Ginny who was followed at a distance by Ron and Pavarti. Their was Dean and Seamus, Lavender Brown and Susan Bones. Only Hannah Abbott was missing from Hufflepuff, but only Terry Boot and Padma Patil showed up from Ravenclaw.
Padma gave Harry an anxious look and he shook the thoughts of reconsideration from his head.
"We have a mission, being a group, I think we should take a vote on it," Harry started. "Pureblood United is up to something, and if we want we can try to figure out what their up to."
"Do you think it's wise to go starting trouble with other school organizations?" Zachrias Smith questioned.
Ron started to say something but Pavarti poked him in the side, causing Hermione to roll her eyes.
"Well, we have evidence they might be recruiting Death Eaters for Voldemort," Harry answered.
Most of the group shuttered or flinched as Harry mentioned the Dark Lord's name.
"I think we should go to Dumbledore before doing anything," Ernie stated.
Padma finally lifted her voice, "we can't until we get proof. If we go to the professors then they'll have the advantage and can do a cover up. We need rock solid evidence before we go to Dumbledore."
"I agree," Hermione voiced causing everyone to look at her.
"We have a better chance at uncovering a recruiting operations than the teachers would," she continued.
"We'd be breaking no telling how many school rules, I don't want to lose my Captain's badge," Zachrias said quickly.
"Then don't participate, nobody is twisting your arm," Ron snapped.
Harry ignored the comment, "we'll put it to a vote, if we do this, we do it as a group."
A few murmurs filtered throughout the group. Harry was just about to call for the vote when the door to the Room of Requirements opened. In walked Michael Corner, Paul Keebler and Cho Chang.
"He's not a member, he's not allowed," Neville shouted pointing at Keebler.
Harry held up his hand, "hello guys."
"I know we don't normally take new members, but Paul was interested and we offered to bring him along," Michael answered.
"He'll have to sign," Harry remarked, eyeing Keebler.
Michael nodded leading Paul over to Hermione who was pulling the enchanted script from her bag.
"So is this the magical paper that scarred Marietta's head?" Keebler asked.
"No, that one was confiscated last year. This one makes you break out in foul words all over your body," Hermione said bluntly.
Cho didn't let her eyes wander in Harry direction, and she seemed nervous about being at the meeting.
Harry sighed, "we were just fixing to vote on whether or not we should do something about Purebloods United."
Cho's head popped up suddenly.
"What kind of vote?" Michael asked.
"We think their operating a Death Eaters recruiting operation, we need to get some solid evidence before going to the professors," Hermione explained.
Harry nodded, "we're fixing to take a vote, do you guys understand?"
He took their silence as they understood, "okay, all in favor of doing something."
The all but one member of the group raised their hands.
"All opposed," Harry continued.
"I just don't see the logic in this. It isn't our place to defend Hogwarts," Zach argued.
"Than who's place is it? We can't just sit around and do nothing," Ginny retorted.
"If we don't do something, what have we been doing all this training for?" Cho raised.
Smith finally nodded in defeat.
Harry looked around the group, "okay, we need some type of plan. Any ideas?"
"What about sending in a spy?" Michael offered.
Harry shook his head, "the Slytherins aren't to friendly with outsiders."
"Maybe we could use polyjuice?" Ron voiced.
Hermione gave him a look, "it takes a month to brew, and we'd have to break into Snape's personal stash."
"We could use Potter's invisibility cloak," Cho suddenly said.
The group whispered amongst themselves, staring at Harry in awe.
"You have an invisibility cloak?" Justin asked amazed.
Harry swallowed, "yes."
"And what, follow one of the Purebloods into their meeting?" Ernie asked skeptically.
"I've already seen one of their meetings, it looked dark to me," Harry confessed.
"We have to lure them out into a trap, and then confront them. It's the only way we're going to get some rock solid evidence," Hermione suggested.
"Why don't you just save your memory to the pensive and then show Dumbledore?" Ron suggested.
"I didn't seen anybody's face, I have no proof it was Malfoy's group," Harry argued with a certain bitterness in his voice.
"We all need to pull together, and put our differences aside," Cho interjected.
Harry flashed her a smile, but she turned away without returning it.
"All our differences," Cho muttered.
"It isn't going to be easy. We need to tag the members of Purebloods United," Hermione voiced.
"We don't even know who exactly is a member of Purebloods United," Justin complained.
"We know Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle are members, we start with them. Anyone they talk to, in a civil manner is a suspect," Harry answered.
"I'll need everyone's schedule, and I'll tell you who you should trail and when," Hermione added.
Everyone shifted around searching for spare parchment to write their schedule down.
"We won't do anything tonight, everyone just take the night off and brainstorm, anything that might be an idea save it. Whatever we do it has to be calculated, we can't afford to make any mistakes," Harry lectured.
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Thirty-Two: Differences Aside
Cho Chang ate her dinner determinately not looking at the dark haired boy across the room staring at her.
"Still not talking to you, huh?" Ginny inquired.
"She won't even listen, I mean you think she'd want me to explain," Harry said annoyed, turning his head.
"I noticed she didn't come to DA last night," Ginny commented.
Harry shrugged, "apparently she's avoiding any place she might run into me."
Ginny patted Harry on the back, "she'll come around."
The youngest Weasley rose from her seat and left Harry at the Gryffindor table. It has definitely been a long week, considering how many people were mad at him. There was Ron who thought he was being a jealous prat, but ironically they were being civil on speaking terms. Probably because Ron didn't have a long list of friends to hang out with. Dean Thomas wouldn't even mutter a hello in Ron's direction and Seamus was to stuck on Lavender to socialize with.
Pavarti and Ron's relationship seemed to have taken a dive for the end after the now famous Quidditch practice. Harry suspected the only reason she hadn't broken it off with Ron completely was to prove Harry's wasn't right.
Obviously, Cho wasn't speaking to him right now, and the Ravenclaw Quidditch team seemed to have taken a personal vendetta against Harry. When he had tripped in the corridor after Potions he could have swore he saw Michael Corner smirking.
Then there was Hermione, who in her words said, "I can't believe you did something so stupid, you're as pig headed as Ron."
"Scarhead! Daydreaming about actually having friends," Malfoy jeered from across the hall, preying on Harry's dazed expression.
Harry narrowed his eyes, "at least I don't pay for my friends, Malfoy."
Malfoy sneered, rubbing his forehead in a mock pain, then laughed.
Harry didn't have the stomach for Malfoy's badgering tonight, so without another word he gathered his things and left.
The memory of the chamber was again haunting his thoughts. Not that it surprised him that Malfoy had joined Voldemort. Dumbledore was almost impossible to find, every time he had tried to talk to the Headmaster about what he had seen that night, he was out on Order Business. Same with McGonagall and O'Riley, leading Harry to believe that things were getting darker outside the walls of Hogwarts. Not that the teachers would ever give him any information. He had written Lupin once, but his former professor hadn't responded, yet. He might have been worried but if anything happened to Remus Lupin, he had a feeling he'd one of the first to know.
"Harry, wait up!"
Harry spun around slightly surprised at the student desperately trying to catch up with him.
"Padma?" Harry asked questionably, since she did look almost identical to Pavarti.
She smiled, "I wanted to talk to you about, my sister."
"I don't want to talk about anything that has to do with Pavarti Patil," Harry said hatefully.
"I don't blame you for hating her, she can be a bit overbearing," Padma confessed, to look so much like Pavarti, her facial expression were completely different.
"I think it is awful what she did to you, and I wanted to you know I understand."
"Thanks," Harry said skeptically.
Padma fidgeted with her thumbs, "Pavarti has always gotten her way on everything. So when you picked Cho over her she decided if she couldn't have you, neither could Cho."
"So are you trying to tell me I shouldn't be mad at her?" Harry asked confused.
"Definitely not, she needs a swift kick in the ass if you ask me," Padma said blushing as she swore.
"There is something strange going on," she glanced back towards the Great Hall to make sure nobody was coming, "I think Pureblood United is up to something."
Harry's eyes widened, "what have you heard?"
Padma looked nervous, "I'm not saying anything bad about my house members, but some Ravenclaws have joined, Purebloods United, and I over heard them talking in the common room the other night."
"What were they saying?" Harry urged.
Padma closed her eyes, "that they were going to take the Dark Mark. What if he who must not be named is recruiting students through that organization?"
"Why are you coming to me with this, why haven't you told Dumbledore?" Harry asked.
Padma shook her head, "I was going to tell the Headmaster, but I only heard rumors. I don't want to be a snitch like some of my other house members that will remain unnamed. I think this is something we should handle."
"We?" Harry inquired.
"DA, isn't that what we're there for, Defense against the Dark Arts, Dumbledore's Army. If you know who is recruiting students from Hogwarts, than there is no darker art," Padma said as if it had been on her mind for some time.
"We're a club that practices, we don't go looking for trouble," Harry lectured.
"That wasn't your philosophy last year, anyways, if we don't do something soon, Hogwarts is in deep trouble," Padma countered.
Harry sighed, "the DA is broken right now, half the members are fighting with one another, we couldn't pull something like that off."
"They'll just have to put their differences aside, this is bigger than who said what, or who's dating who," Padma stated firmly.
Padma sighed, "listen, let me talk to the Ravenclaws, and I'll talk to Susan Bones about rallying the Hufflepuffs. Do you think you can handle the Gryffindors?"
Harry considered for a moment, it didn't sound too risky. After all, how much could Malfoy and his organization honestly do? He nodded, realizing he had the toughest house to mend.
"I'll deal with Pavarti, leave her to me," Padma said sternly.
"Goodluck," Harry said bitterly, causing Padma to smirk.
"I'll talk to Cho," she continued, "she has been so upset since you know what happened."
Harry brought his eyebrows together, "she won't even look at me."
Padma shook her head, "I'll see you at DA tonight."
Harry glanced at his watch noticing that he only had about an hour till DA started anyways, so he decided he might as well head to the Room of Requirements and get everything in order.
The room was not the cozy romantic setting that he been in with Cho, instead it was quite larger. He pulled the pillows off the shelves and arranged them around the room for stunting spells.
"Harry, I thought you might be here early," said a dreamy voice as she wandered into the room.
"Hello Luna," Harry greeted uncomfortably.
She took a seat staring in a daze around the room, "it looks different tonight, must be the moving trolls."
"The what?" Harry questioned.
"Moving trolls, tiny little beast that hide the things you're looking for," Luna replied nonchalantly.
Harry sighed and shook his head, "Luna, sometimes I don't know where you get some of this stuff."
"You're just to narrow minded, there are so many things out there that can never be explained, but it doesn't mean they don't exists."
Harry cracked a forced smile, "Hermione did some research on the Death Journal, it was pretty interesting."
"Let me guess, the whole nonsense with the Torto Scriptures?" Luna questioned.
Wide-eyed he stared at her, he had never heard her say something was nonsense.
Luna lowered her head, "my mother did a lot of research on death, it was what she did as an Unspeakable. She use to tell me stories about the Death Journals. They're real. I know you heard the voices behind the veil Harry, sometimes they need to tell us something and they'll do anything."
The dreaminess of Luna's voice seemed to disappear as she spoke, and Harry appreciated for the first time why she was a Ravenclaw.
"Have you ever talked to a Torto, I mean Death Journal?" Harry inquired.
Luna smiled, her dazed expression once again returning, "oh yes, many times. Mostly just about the weather, I hear it is quite frigid in the Realm of the Dead."
Luckily Harry was saved from the conversation as DA members started filing in. It wasn't their typical Monday night meeting, which everyone usually attended. Only about half the group typically came on Thursday, when it was called.
Hermione arrived with Ginny who was followed at a distance by Ron and Pavarti. Their was Dean and Seamus, Lavender Brown and Susan Bones. Only Hannah Abbott was missing from Hufflepuff, but only Terry Boot and Padma Patil showed up from Ravenclaw.
Padma gave Harry an anxious look and he shook the thoughts of reconsideration from his head.
"We have a mission, being a group, I think we should take a vote on it," Harry started. "Pureblood United is up to something, and if we want we can try to figure out what their up to."
"Do you think it's wise to go starting trouble with other school organizations?" Zachrias Smith questioned.
Ron started to say something but Pavarti poked him in the side, causing Hermione to roll her eyes.
"Well, we have evidence they might be recruiting Death Eaters for Voldemort," Harry answered.
Most of the group shuttered or flinched as Harry mentioned the Dark Lord's name.
"I think we should go to Dumbledore before doing anything," Ernie stated.
Padma finally lifted her voice, "we can't until we get proof. If we go to the professors then they'll have the advantage and can do a cover up. We need rock solid evidence before we go to Dumbledore."
"I agree," Hermione voiced causing everyone to look at her.
"We have a better chance at uncovering a recruiting operations than the teachers would," she continued.
"We'd be breaking no telling how many school rules, I don't want to lose my Captain's badge," Zachrias said quickly.
"Then don't participate, nobody is twisting your arm," Ron snapped.
Harry ignored the comment, "we'll put it to a vote, if we do this, we do it as a group."
A few murmurs filtered throughout the group. Harry was just about to call for the vote when the door to the Room of Requirements opened. In walked Michael Corner, Paul Keebler and Cho Chang.
"He's not a member, he's not allowed," Neville shouted pointing at Keebler.
Harry held up his hand, "hello guys."
"I know we don't normally take new members, but Paul was interested and we offered to bring him along," Michael answered.
"He'll have to sign," Harry remarked, eyeing Keebler.
Michael nodded leading Paul over to Hermione who was pulling the enchanted script from her bag.
"So is this the magical paper that scarred Marietta's head?" Keebler asked.
"No, that one was confiscated last year. This one makes you break out in foul words all over your body," Hermione said bluntly.
Cho didn't let her eyes wander in Harry direction, and she seemed nervous about being at the meeting.
Harry sighed, "we were just fixing to vote on whether or not we should do something about Purebloods United."
Cho's head popped up suddenly.
"What kind of vote?" Michael asked.
"We think their operating a Death Eaters recruiting operation, we need to get some solid evidence before going to the professors," Hermione explained.
Harry nodded, "we're fixing to take a vote, do you guys understand?"
He took their silence as they understood, "okay, all in favor of doing something."
The all but one member of the group raised their hands.
"All opposed," Harry continued.
"I just don't see the logic in this. It isn't our place to defend Hogwarts," Zach argued.
"Than who's place is it? We can't just sit around and do nothing," Ginny retorted.
"If we don't do something, what have we been doing all this training for?" Cho raised.
Smith finally nodded in defeat.
Harry looked around the group, "okay, we need some type of plan. Any ideas?"
"What about sending in a spy?" Michael offered.
Harry shook his head, "the Slytherins aren't to friendly with outsiders."
"Maybe we could use polyjuice?" Ron voiced.
Hermione gave him a look, "it takes a month to brew, and we'd have to break into Snape's personal stash."
"We could use Potter's invisibility cloak," Cho suddenly said.
The group whispered amongst themselves, staring at Harry in awe.
"You have an invisibility cloak?" Justin asked amazed.
Harry swallowed, "yes."
"And what, follow one of the Purebloods into their meeting?" Ernie asked skeptically.
"I've already seen one of their meetings, it looked dark to me," Harry confessed.
"We have to lure them out into a trap, and then confront them. It's the only way we're going to get some rock solid evidence," Hermione suggested.
"Why don't you just save your memory to the pensive and then show Dumbledore?" Ron suggested.
"I didn't seen anybody's face, I have no proof it was Malfoy's group," Harry argued with a certain bitterness in his voice.
"We all need to pull together, and put our differences aside," Cho interjected.
Harry flashed her a smile, but she turned away without returning it.
"All our differences," Cho muttered.
"It isn't going to be easy. We need to tag the members of Purebloods United," Hermione voiced.
"We don't even know who exactly is a member of Purebloods United," Justin complained.
"We know Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle are members, we start with them. Anyone they talk to, in a civil manner is a suspect," Harry answered.
"I'll need everyone's schedule, and I'll tell you who you should trail and when," Hermione added.
Everyone shifted around searching for spare parchment to write their schedule down.
"We won't do anything tonight, everyone just take the night off and brainstorm, anything that might be an idea save it. Whatever we do it has to be calculated, we can't afford to make any mistakes," Harry lectured.