Disclaimer; Hp is owned by JK Rowling and co, I am writing this just for fun, and won't make any profit from it.
missyVidel, SheWolfe7, Nphipps, chaser1, Numba1, Rocky235, sharpe(), athenakitty, Ash Knight, saxistwriterchick, leggylover03, harrycrazy432 Thank you all for reading and reviewing.
Drajjen, Thanks for reading thus far, sorry you didn't like the Draco story line, but I appreciate your honesty. Just for the record though I don't believe Draco was abused by either of his parents, he is just a product of living with bigotry, which will ultimately effect how any child grows. Hope you will read any other stories I post later, bye for now.
Chapter 15 Second Chances.
The next morning passed quickly and Harry found himself outside Dumbledore's office at 11am, feeling nervous. When Dumbledore invited him in, he found himself face to face with a slim, red haired boy, with pale blue eyes.
"Harry, I'd like you to meet Charles Blake, his mother has just moved here from America, and I have decided to let him join the school in preparation for his final exams. Would you please take him to Gryffindor tower and show him where his dorm will be. He will be joining 6th year." Dumbledore smiled at Harry.
"Yes Sir, follow me Blake," Harry managed to reply. Blake cast a 'locomotor trunk' spell and followed Harry out of the office. Harry walked wordlessly along the corridor with 'Blake' keeping pace beside him. When they reached the tower Harry said the password and motioned Blake to go in first. Neville stood up at the sight of the new boy and smiled.
"Hello, my name is Neville Longbottom."
"Charles Blake," Blake extended his hand to shake Neville's and Harry was surprised to see a shy smile form on his pale face.
"Neville, Charles is joining 6th year, so Dumbledore thought it would be good for him to come a bit early and get to know his way around," Harry supplied, trying to keep his voice natural. "Come on Blake, the dorms are up here." Harry led the boy up the stairs and showed him into the 6th year boys' dorm. Only one of the five beds was made up, so Harry said, "I guess this one is yours."
"Do you know why I'm here?" Blake asked quietly, without a trace of his Malfoy arrogance.
"To learn, like the rest of us," Harry replied.
"OH, I just thought maybe you knew about the… um… special circumstances,"
"Why would you think that?" Harry was curious to know.
"Well you don't seem to like me much, I thought maybe you were just a little abrupt with people, but then when you spoke to that boy Neville down stairs, you sounded friendly," Blake's voice was even quieter than before, "So I guess you just don't like me."
"I just don't know you and I don't really trust people that I don't know very well," Harry replied cautiously. It would be so easy to pick on Malfoy now, Harry realised, yet that wouldn't be fair. He had no idea why Harry wouldn't like him, and the whole purpose of this was to give Malfoy a chance to redeem himself.
"Look," Harry began, "I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression okay. Store your trunk here and we'll go down to lunch."
"Thank you Harry," Blake replied. Then he followed Harry back down to the common room, to collect Neville, who was waiting to go with them to lunch.
"So where have you transferred from?" Neville asked Blake.
"My mother and I lived in The States, she taught me at home, and I sat my exams at the Ministry," Blake replied.
Harry thought it wise not to mention attending another school; you never knew who had relatives or friends attending abroad.
"So this must seem a bit strange to you then," Neville continued.
"I guess, I'm sure I'll get lost a lot, this place is huge," Blake said looking around. "Is it very old?"
"Yes, but I'm sure the other students in your classes will make sure you don't get too lost," Neville answered.
"What subjects are you taking?" Harry asked.
"Transfigurations, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle studies," Blake answered. "Dumbledore suggested them when my mother and I came for a meeting with him, he thinks they are closest to the subjects I was studying at home."
Harry had to smile at the idea of Draco Malfoy studying Muggle studies. This would be an interesting year, and what would Malfoy think when he had his memory restored.
"You don't talk like an American," Neville pointed out.
"No, my Mother is British, I was actually born here," Blake responded.
"Well this is the Great Hall," Harry opened the doors, "It's usually a lot louder than this."
The three boys made their way to sit at Gryffindor table beside the two first years. The teachers where sitting at their usual table. Harry watched the other four boys chatting away throughout the meal, they all seemed quite happy to explain things to Blake. Who in return seemed to appreciate their offer of friendship. Harry thought it ironic that Neville seemed to be making friends so easily with Blake, when Malfoy had never bothered to get to know him.
After lunch Professor McGonagall stopped to introduce herself. Harry watched all this in surprise; no one seemed to recognise Malfoy. To him, Malfoy hadn't changed so much, he could still see Malfoy's basic bone structure, though he thought maybe because he knew who Charles Blake actually was, that he saw the resemblance. Charles Blake's manner was nothing like Malfoy, he was quiet, polite and shy.
Harry wandered up to the common room with the little group of boy's, anxious to escape their cheerful chatter. Neville asked him if he wanted to show Blake around the castle, but Harry declined, claiming he had homework, letting the others go without him. Harry retreated to his room, and spent the next half hour feeling guilty about letting Neville make friends with his former enemy. What if Malfoy was not truly changed and tried to harm Neville or the other two boys. Sighing Harry grabbed his wand and set off to look for them.
Heading down the stairs Harry wondered where to begin, and then he remembered the locator spell he had learned. Placing his wand on the palm of his hand he thought, 'point me Neville,' his wand spun around and finished facing east. Harry looked up and decided that they had probably started the tour by showing Blake the various classrooms he would need to know for lessons. The Transfigurations classroom was to the east of his position, so Harry quickly made his way there.
As he came down the staircase, Harry heard a scream, breaking into a run; he reached the source of the noise. Wand drawn, he held it in front of him, "What's going on here?" he addressed the group.
"You couldn't give me a hand could you?" Blake was asking, his foot was stuck in one of the many trick steps.
Harry laughed in relief, Neville always forgot about these steps and the two first years had obviously not been there long enough to know them all. So they were not really prepared to show Blake all the secrets Hogwarts had to offer. Harry helped Neville pull him out, and Blake sighed in relief.
"Why on earth would they leave those steps there?" Blake asked.
"To keep you on your toes," Harry shrugged. "Actually I have a theory; I think these are left over trick played by previous students. Hogwarts is full of weird things like that."
"Why do you think it was students though?" Blake asked.
"Well two years ago some friends of mine set up a swamp in one of the corridors," Harry grinned naturally for the first time all day, "And when they left school, Professor Flitwick cleaned it up, but he left a little bit of it behind, just because he was impressed by it."
"You know I never thought about that before Harry," Neville smiled, "Do you reckon that some of these might be from Dumbledore and McGonagall when they were students?"
"Well I don't know about McGonagall, can you imagine her playing pranks on anyone?" Harry asked, as they continued their journey up the stairs. "I think she was probably a lot like Hermione when she was here."
"Hermione? Is that your girlfriend? Blake asked politely.
Harry's eyes flashed for a moment, was Blake being sarcastic, Harry answered anyway, "No she's one of my best friends, she goes out with Ron, my other best friend." Harry voice held a note of challenge, but Blake seemed not to realise, he just nodded his head at the information.
Harry spent a dull afternoon wandering round after the other boys as they showed Blake around. He spoke only to warn them of various trick steps and changing corridors, other than that he let Neville and the other two boys talk to Blake and explain the different rules of Hogwarts. Eventually it was dinner time, and then they all retreated to Gryffindor tower. Harry was glad of the excuse for some privacy; he made an excuse of having a lot of homework and retreated to his room.
Harry didn't sleep very well that night, he half expected Malfoy to try and kill him whilst he slept. The last time Malfoy attacked, Harry had not been able to use his magic. But it did not comfort Harry that he could easily deal with Malfoy now. The idea that he might have made a mistake in judgement, through his pity for Malfoy, was what bothered him most.
The next morning Harry went down early to breakfast, he was not in the mood to listen to the others cheerful chatter. It was Christmas Eve, and he was missing his friends. Dumbledore called him as he was about to enter the Great Hall, Harry watched as the regal looking old man swept down the last stair case and beamed at him.
"Good morning Harry, did all go well in Gryffindor tower yesterday?"
"Yes Sir, it was fine," Harry muttered.
"Good, Good, Well I have a small surprise for you," Dumbledore said, "Shall we go in?"
Harry allowed himself to be steered into The Great Hall, the first thing he noticed was the lack of tables, all the house tables had gone and only one long table sat in the middle of the room. As they approached the table, Harry noticed that Snape and McGonagall were already there, and beside them sat Moony, smiling at him.
"Moony! What are you doing here?" Harry grinned as he approached the man.
"Nice to see you too Harry," Moony replied, grabbing Harry for a quick hug.
"I thought Remus might be a little lonely this Christmas, so I invited him to join us for a few days, before he goes back to work," Dumbledore told Harry.
"Work?" Harry asked.
"I'll tell you about it in private," Moony said quietly, indicating with his head the other four students entering the room.
Harry took the seat next to Mooney as Dumbledore took the empty seat next to Snape. Neville approached the table ahead of the others and greeted Moony politely, "Hello Professor Lupin." The other boys looked a little unsure of where to sit; they were not accustomed to eating at the same table as their teachers.
Dumbledore smiled and said, "Well, do sit down or these delicious pancakes will get cold." The boys sat in the empty places and helped themselves to breakfast. Harry was dying to talk to Moony, but he knew he shouldn't say much in front of the others, so he asked. "How have you been Professor?"
"Oh you know, busy, busy," Moony replied with a smile, "how about you boys, keeping up with your studies?"
Neville and the two first years nodded, and Harry said, "Well they do work us very hard here." Harry noticed Dumbledore smile, McGonagall raise her eyebrow in question and Snape sneered even more than usual.
"Just hard enough to keep you out of trouble," Dumbledore said.
Breakfast was over quite quickly and Harry lingered in the Hall to catch a quick word with Moony. He waited until the other boys left before saying, "It's so cool that you could come, do you have anything to do today?"
"Well hopefully visit with my friend," Laughed Moony, "Come on lets go for a walk, and you can tell me your news."
"Only if you don't want to go out in the snow," Harry replied.
"Alright, where to?"
"Um where are you staying? Do you have a room?" Harry asked.
"Yes, Dumbledore gave me one of the extra teachers quarters on the second floor," Moony answered. "I even have a sitting room with a nice warm fire."
"Sounds better than walking through that snow any day," Harry laughed as he followed Moony up the stairs.
They walked along and Harry looked at the portraits on the way, he smiled as he remembered how surprised he had been to see them walking and talking when he had first arrived. Then he remembered his theory about the trick stairs and things, and said to Moony, "Do you know if all the tricks in this place were made by students."
"Ah you mean like the steps that grab you and won't let you go?" Moony laughed. "You know the one on the way up to the Astronomy tower? I always forgot about that one, and it trapped me every time." Harry laughed. "I know some of them are from the students, I even know a few that a certain group of troublemakers planted."
"The Marauders? Where?" Harry asked.
"Well, you know the painting of a door on the fourth floor west wing?" Moony asked. "That used to be a tapestry, I forget what was on it, but your father and Sirius decided it was too ugly so they charmed it to look like an open door, until you got close enough to look inside, then it would slam on your face, and the word 'nosey' would appear on your forehead. They got a week's detention for that one, but Dumbledore left it, said it was a nice piece of magic."
"Wow, and to think Sirius used to tell me to behave and not get into trouble," Harry laughed, making a mental note to go visit that tapestry soon.
"Have you been keeping out of trouble? Moony asked as they reached his quarters and went in to sit in front of the fire.
"Mostly, did Dumbledore tell you Snape caught us one Sunday in Hogsmead?"
"Yes, I think that's why he agreed to my visit, to try and keep you out of mischief," Moony laughed. "Though he said Snape didn't actually catch you and the other boys felt duty bound to protect you, as it hadn't been your idea."
Harry smiled and told Moony the whole story, including how he had threatened Snape, and then raced back to the castle. Harry spent the morning telling Moony about his first term, his extra lessons with Dumbledore and Hagrid. He also told him Ron and Hermione's reactions to the idea of him being encouraged to attack the teachers. Moony spent most of the morning laughing. Before they knew it, it was time for lunch. So they trooped back down for a quick bite, and then returned to finish their stories.
Moony had actually laughed when Harry had told him about Megan Jones, "How can you find that funny?" Harry demanded.
"You have to admit, only you could attract the sort of girl willing to illegally drug you, to know if you liked her," Moony laughed even harder. Harry began to see the funny side of it, and he went on to tell Moony all about Ron and Hermione. By this time Moony was waving his hands in surrender, gasping, "That's it, no more, I'm going to burst my sides." Harry joined him and the two sat howling with laughter, tears pouring down their eyes.
After they had both stopped laughing, Harry brought up one of the two reasons he had been so keen to talk to Moony in private. He told him all about Malfoy and how he was now a sixth year student called Blake.
"That was forgiving of you," Moony said seriously. "But are you worried you made the wrong choice?"
"Yes, is it fair of me to let him make friends with the others, and then they will discover who he really is, what if he hurts someone, it will be my fault," Harry said.
"No it will still be his fault, but for what it's worth, I think you are brave to allow him this chance," Moony looked serious as he continued, "I know that your Mum would have been very proud of you. She always believed in giving people a second chance; she used to go on at your Dad to give Snape another chance."
"Thank you, that does help," Harry said quietly, "So what do I do now?"
"I think you let him get on with making his own friends and wait to see what he does in the end," Moony replied.
"There's something else I wanted to talk to you about, I don't know if Dumbledore told you about my lesson in the Dark Forest," Harry said. "When the Centaurs attacked Hagrid and I frightened them away." Moony shook his head. "Well, for a moment Dumbledore actually looked afraid of me. And he said he was sorry that I was really an Elemental."
"I knew he was afraid of that Harry, we all are in a way."
"But why? He says it's because it could destroy me, but I get the feeling there's more to it than that." Harry said.
"Well I can't tell you exactly why he's afraid," Moony began, "But I can tell you why it scares me." Harry shifted in his seat until he was looking directly at Moony. "I used to spend a lot of time reading when I was younger, because of what I am; it left me with a lot of time alone. Anyway, I have read a little about Elementals."
Harry didn't dare interrupt, so he held a breath and waited for Moony to continue.
"The last Elemental was born 461 years ago in 1536, and lived for about 300 years, a recluse afraid to use his powers after he saved his fathers village. He changed the direction of a tidal wave, to save the small village his Father lived in. The tidal wave hit further along the coast instead, killing thousands of innocent people."
Harry gasped, the image of Dumbledore holding a small Harry in front of a ruined village came to his mind. "I saw that in my dream," he whispered.
"The previous elemental was born in 1092, 444 years before the last one," Moony went on.
"She only lived for about 44 years, which is not long for an Elemental, but she managed to destroy a huge part of Romania with her. But no one knows why," Moony told him.
"1136, that number keeps coming up," Harry commented, as he did the quick calculation in his head. "Isn't that what the story of Cassandra is based on, the fight between an Elemental and an Evil witch?" Harry asked.
"Not quite, only you have read that version remember, the book changes to fit the readers' magical profile," Moony reminded him. "From all accounts of the era there was a volcanic eruption in that region at that time, but the magical world's history books show nothing of an Evil witch at that time, except the Elemental."
"The Elemental was evil?" Harry whispered.
"Yes, she became so absorbed by her powers that they consumed her," Moony replied quietly, "And I think that's what frightens Dumbledore the most. Throughout recorded history, Elementals who come into their powers as young as you have, have destroyed themselves."
Harry sat trying to absorb this new information, would it happed to him? Is that what his dreams meant? Could he harness the power of the Elements and not be destroyed? Harry's brain swirled around all the implications.
They sat for a while in silence until Moony said, "It doesn't mean that you will die young, or become evil Harry."
"I wish Dumbledore was so sure," Harry replied.
They went down quietly to dinner that evening, Harry remained withdrawn, too busy thinking about what Moony had told him. He was aware of most of the others casting glances in his direction periodically. But he couldn't bring himself to meet anyone's eyes. If an Elemental was born every 444 years, Dumbledore must have suspected that one of the students Harry's age would be one. He had watched from the beginning, Harry supposed, especially after Trelawney's prophesy. The one thing Harry couldn't figure out was if Dumbledore was aware of the possibility, why he had helped Harry to trigger the Elemental magic in the first place.