Disclaimer: Still Not mine still don't sue.
A/N: Wow..I'm really impressed. Only ONE or TWO reviews on my last chapter. I thank you for those few reviews, as I'm a very gracious person, however I'm not sure why I should waste my time if I do not get more. I know my story never shows up on the front page, and I don't know why. If you know why, please e-mail me or post it in the reviews. I really like reviews and would probably be inspired to write more if I received more. Nonetheless, I will continue…Here you go…
Chapter 8- Detention and the D.A
Harry hurriedly collected his things and headed towards the door where Harper was standing. He was last in line to present his exit pass. Standing right in front of him was Draco Malfoy. He heaved an impatient sigh. Surely Ron and Hermione would be waiting for him, and they did have twenty minutes before they had to face Snape, but he wanted to be out of that room as soon as possible.
"Mr. Malfoy," Harper snapped her fingers and held out her hand, expecting something.
"Miss Harper," Malfoy snapped back. Never before had Harry seen Malfoy act this foul to a professor, yet she seemed to favor him. She blocked the doorway as Malfoy tried to push his way passed her.
"You may not leave this classroom until you have presented your exit pass to me. I believe I made myself quite clear in class today about the new procedure." She stood strong, following every one of Draco's swift movements. Harry looked up at the clock.
Finally he decided he would have to push his own way passed, so that he may have a little time to discuss the class with his friends. "Er- P-Professor Harper. If I may," Harry waved his pass quite close to her face. She grabbed it and let him pass, without letting Malfoy pass.
As he swept passed Malfoy, he thought he heard the words 'Stupid Bitch,' In fact, he was quite sure he had heard it, but it had not been Malfoy's voice. It had come from his head, his own voice. He had not done it intentionally, nor did he even think about saying it. "What the-" Harry began to himself, but Ron finished it for him.
"-Hell is going on Harry!" Ron dragged him by the arm around a stone corner. Hermione was also looking quite worried. Her eyes narrowed as she examined him.
"I-I don't know," He said, wondering the same thing.
"What was that—outburst—you had? Who were you praising?" Hermione began her usual questioning as they walked toward the dungeons.
"Not me," said Harry simply, hoping they would get the point. Hermione gasped. Ron shook his head.
"You meamn--" Began Ron, but Harry cut him off.
"Look, I just don't want to talk about it. I'll be fine. I'm sure it was nothing. What did you think about that ay?" He shoved a thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the classroom.
"I thought it was great." Harry did a double take, then stared at Hermione, completely perplexed.
"Are you mad Hermione!?" Ron paused, "Wait, no, you don't even have to answer that." He shook his head.
"I didn't say she was great. Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Malfoy. Honestly. If anymore teachers favor him, I will throw myself down the staircase," It was very funny that she said that, as they were going down the stairs at that moment. She tripped, and was caught by Ron just before she hit the stone. The three laughed.
"Looks like there will be another after all," joked Ron.
"Like I was saying. I didn't like her, but the lesson was brilliant." They had reached the bottom of the dungeon stairs when Ron gave a loud tut.
"We learned quotes Hermione. I signed on to fight the dark arts, not to discuss quotes." Ron's face was screwed up in disgust as they reached the door of the potions room. They were about five minutes early.
Harry remained quite and listened to Ron and Hermione's discussion. "Important quotes Ron. Especially Ambarrassa's." It wasn't hard to tell which statement Hermione would do her essay on.
"Say Hermione," said Harry at last. "Why did you make that noise after she told us about that Ambar-whatsit's statement?"
"Noise?" She questioned.
"Yeah! You did this," Ron drew in an extremely loud, and very dramatic breath. Hermione glared at him.
"The seven people by his deathbed?" She questioned as if Harry and Ron should know. The two exchanged confused glances. "Oh come on! The eight ancient families!" Harry was still lost, Ron however seemed to realize something.
"Oh. I've heard something about that. Mum was saying something about it a few months back. They practice the ancient ways or something. I wasn't really listening." He said nonchalantly.
"They are the only ones who live by the ancient ways. They live by the ancient laws, practice ancient magic, oh never mind. I'm pretty sure they are all gone. I just found it interesting though." The bell was about five seconds away from chiming as the three stepped into the damp, murky, foul smelling potions room.
Their greasy haired potions master sat at his desk scribbling something on a piece of parchment. His head shot up when the door closed behind the trio. He snarled. "Five points from Gryffindor." He spat.
"What!?" Ron protested. He really had become more outspoken since last year.
"You are late, we have already begun. I would hate to have to doc more points from Gryffindor," He smirked as he said this. Harry knew full well that nothing would make Snape happier than to doc a few more points. Ron did have a point though. Harry looked around the room. No one had fires lit underneath their cauldrons, the ingredients were not up on the board, and they had definitely not begun. Harry could feel himself boiling inside. Oh how he hated the one his eyes were cutting into.
"Funny, I don't see any one work- OW" Harry jabbed Ron in the ribs before he could finish his sentence.
"Sit down Weasley! You are disrupting my class." Snape jumped up as the three found seats close together. He waved his wand and an extremely long list of ingredients appeared on the board. "I expect this to be done by the end of class!"
Potions went horribly, as Harry expected. Gryffindor ended up losing fifteen points, and Harry had received bottom marks for the potion he thought had been rather good. He was anxious to get to lunch.
The three hurried out of the dungeon an found their selves in a completely packed great hall.
"Great. Everyone's decided to have lunch at the same time." Ron said as he squeezed between two third years. Harry and Hermione took seats opposite him. "You know, I don't even see the point in Snape being a teacher, he doesn't teach. All he does is wave his wand. I wish my job is that easy when I get older." He had already begun filling his plate with every sandwich that was near him.
Harry gave a grim laugh as he looked up at the staff table. There were only two present. Mcgonagall and Flitwick. He didn't give this much of his attention, but the two seemed unbelievably caught up in copying notes out of a muddy-brown, metal bound book.
As soon as his mind began pondering why the other Professors did not bother to show up for lunch, a distinct whoosh filled the room. Owls of all kinds swooped down delivering mail to their owners. Two landed in front of Ron, two in front of Hermione, and three in front of Harry.
All three of Harry's owls were school owls. Carefully, he undid the letter from the legs of each owl, and they were off in the direction of the owlry. Hermione had gotten a copy of the Daily Prophet, and a letter from a school owl. Ron the same.
"Don't know why mum bothers sending me copies of this thing," he said tossing it over his shoulder, "Not like I read them," Harry and Ron both laughed, secretly dreading what they knew was inside the school letters. Hermione however, was in no fit state.
Her eyes seemed to be very misty, and her mouth was quivering as she stared at the school letter.
"Oy! What's wrong Hermione?" Ron said, noticing this.
"I-Its just that it's," She sighed and opened the letter, "My first detention since first year." She read the words on the parchment quickly, then neatly rolled it and placed it in her pocket.
"Aw. It's only detention Hermione. No big deal. One spell with Snape and it's over. Not like you don't see him everyday anyway." Said Harry, perhaps trying to be comforting.
"I-I suppose you're right, but I don't have detention with Snape." Harry head gave a more than obvious jerk towards the staff table at the empty defense against the dark arts chair.
"Oy!" Ron ripped into his letter. "Yes you do Hermione, look!" He held out his parchment to her. "Right there," He said, pointing to a signature, if you could call it that.
"No, I don't!" She took out her own letter again, and shoved it toward Harry and Ron. "Right there," she said mockingly.
Miss Granger,
You will report to my room, ten-o-clock, tonight. Do not be late or risk further punishment.
x N. Harper
The two looked at Harry. He took this to be the cue to open his own letters.
Potter,
You know where, ten-o-clock. Be late and pay the price!
S. Snape
"How tactful." Snorted Hermione.
"Yeah! At least he used Mr. on mine." Ron suddenly stopped the joke when he realized that Hermione would not be serving detention with Harry and him.
"Hermione," began Harry.
"No. She's not fooling me. Don't worry about it," By the sound in Hermione's voice, she was formulating some sort of plan. Harry didn't dare ask what it was. Instead, he opened his other letters. The first made Harry beam.
Heya Harry,
Sorry I couldn't be there ta greet ye. Had some business ta take care of, ye know how things are. Sorry about ye not having my class. McGonagall seemed to think it wasn't required for something or other…suppose it has ta do with ye career. Would love if ye and Ron would come have tee with me. Hermione too.
Always,
Hagrid
"Look!" Harry quickly shoved the letter at Ron. "From Hagrid!" His smile was bright. All his cares seemed to fade away if just for that one second.
"I was wondering why we didn't have that class! I yelled at me mum for half an hour that I would rather have Hagrid's class than Snape's, but she just yelled back that we didn't really learn anything useful with Hagrid as a teacher, and I gave up. Can't beat Mum in a screaming match. But I think we learned plenty." He read the letter then tossed it to Hermione who had curiosity written all over her face.
"I don't have that class either! I didn't realize it until now! In fact, I haven't talked to anyone who does have that class. At least not in our year!" She said tucking the letter inside one of Harry's books.
Truthfully, Harry hadn't even noticed that Care of Magical Creatures was not on his class list. He wanted to march right up to the staff table and shake his schedule in the Gryffindor Head's face, but he seemed to be glued to his chair. He gave an indistinct grunt into his glass of pumpkin juice as he proceeded to open his third letter.
He sprayed the contents of his mouth all over Hermione and a few third years. They screamed and jumped up, running quickly in the direction of the door.
"Well Harry, you're making new friends already!" said Ron with a smile. Hermione was now dabbing furiously at her robes and her open charms book.
The words on the paper swirled around in his head. His day got worse and worse as he read the first part of the letter.
Dear Harry,
I am terribly sorry that you have to go through this again. It was not my intention at first for this to happen. As such, I have come to the conclusion that while Voldemort himself may not be able to posses you, his dearest followers may have that option. You will need to continue with your Occlumency lessons. I had every intention of teaching you myself, but I am usually extremely busy, so much so, that I have only been able to sleep for about fifteen minutes in two weeks.
Harry grinned at this part of the letter. He could imagine the irritated, but pleasant smile on Dumbledore's face as he wrote these words. He continued.
Your first Occlumency lesson will be tomorrow precisely after dinner. I was informed of a certain gift that you received. I have to say, I was most surprised. I highly recommend that you bring that gift to your lessons. I have also been informed that you needed a word with me. I believe I will be available for about five minutes at 10:13 tonight.
Sugar Crystal,
Professor A. Dumbledore
Sighing deeply, he put the letter into his pocket without showing the other two. He looked at them in turn and got up from the table and began walking toward Gryffindor common room by himself.
"10:13?" Thought Harry. "Guess he wasn't kidding about having a busy schedule." He hadn't even reached the stairs when the bell rang, and he ran at break-neck speed for his next class.
The days that you want to be over usually drag out, and the days you want to drag out, seem to be over in a matter of seconds. Today was the latter. Harry couldn't even remember the content of his after-lunch classes. They all seemed to melt into one another. A great, swirling mass of seemingly useless information. Harry pleaded with his watch to slow down, but it seemed to enjoy taunting him by moving twice as fast every time he glanced at it. He once again found himself in the Great Hall with his fellow students, staring absently at his roast beef and potatoes.
"Cheer up mate, detention isn't that bad," Harry couldn't tell whether Ron was speaking to him or Hermione, as they both looked equally dreading. He didn't answer, and neither did Hermione who was scribbling something on a piece of parchment. "What are you writing?" inquired Ron.
"Something for the D.A." she said hastily.
"Oh!" Said Ron with a curious start. Then his enthusiasm faded. "But we don't even know if that is allowed yet!" He smacked his forehead. "Why waste your time?"
"I waste my time Ron, because there is no way Dumbledore can say no. We learned more in the D.A. than in any of our Defense against the dark arts classes. Besides, when he does say yes, I'll already have the letters ready to send out." She held up the letter, which was charmed to look like gibberish.
"That doesn't look like much to me." Ron tilted his head to the right trying to decipher the words. There was a small circle in the bottom left hand corner of the paper. Hermione placed her wand tip to it and the real letter revealed itself. It was a very informative letter, and for the most part, complete. That is except for the time and place.
"You see?" Hermione took Ron's hand and lifted his sleeve to look at his watch. "Oh!" she threw her books into her bag and hurried out the door.
"What has gotten into her?" Ron talked to the statue that was Harry. "Hullo? Anyone at home? Man you're acting different." Ron shook Harry gently.
"Huh? Oh right--" He hadn't heard a word of what Ron had said.
"You okay mate? Your acting really strange." Ron peered at his friend through narrowed eyes.
"Oh—Yeah—well—I'm fine." He had to keep telling himself this. It helped if he said it aloud.
"Fine are you? Well not for long Potter" Harry almost fell out of his seat as he spun around to face whoever had spoke to him. He looked up at the violently blonde haired boy who was known as Draco Malfoy.
"Shove off Malfoy!" Ron stood up, his hands clenched into fists.
"No. No I don't think I will. I've been meaning to have a word with Potter here." He glared at Harry, his face reddening more with every second.
"Malfoy, why don't you take your friends and go be a low life, pompous bastard somewhere else. I'm sure you could at least beat that first year in a duel. Otherwise, I wouldn't even bother." Ron motioned to the scrawniest first year he could pick out. Harry was thankful that he wasn't the one talking.
"Sit down Weasley," Malfoy grinned, "I wasn't talking to you."
"I'll stand thank you." Spat Ron.
"Fine!" Malfoy hissed back. "Potter, not only did you land my father in jail, you made my life a living hell. Do you have any idea what I had to go through this summer?" Malfoy was now gripping his wand at his hip. Crabbe and Goyal were on either side of him.
"Malfoy, how may times do I have to tell you that your father landed himself in jail, and I could give less than a severed flobberworm half about what you have been through." Harry said this coolly without even touching his wand. If there was one person he was not afraid of, it was Malfoy.
"You shut your fat mouth Potter!" Malfoy drew his wand and touched it to Harry's temple. This, however, did not bother Harry. In fact, he was so unbothered by it, that he grabbed Malfoy's wand and pressed it further into his temple.
"You want to curse me Malfoy? Then go ahead. Come on now, I haven't got all day. Just curse me right in the middle of the Great hall in front of every teacher with the exception of Dumbledore, that Harper character and your dear, precious Snape. God knows we should be rid of filthy toilet scum like yourself." Harry words were scathing. They cut deep into Malfoy, and by the look on his face, Harry could tell Draco had no such courage. Malfoy dropped his wand to his side.
"You're lucky that we're in the Great Hall, Potter. You'll get yours. You watch your back."
"Don't need to Malfoy, but thanks anyway." Harry grinned coolly, then sat back down and watched the three Slytherin's stomp angrily away.
"Bloody son of a bastard! Do you believe him! I mean? Honestly!" Ron stabbed his fork into his beef moodily.
"He doesn't bother me. He never would have done it anyway. He's a bloody coward." Said Harry noticing the time. "It's nine already?" He screwd up his face pensively. "Oh my—" Hary slammed his fist on the table, causing the drinks to rattle.
"What is it Harry?" Ron steadied his glass.
"Dumbledore told me to meet him at 10:13," He said, realizing that he hadn't showed Ron the letter.
"But we'll be in detention!"
"I know that Ron!" He huffed irately. "I bet you anything Snape planned that!"
"I could just-" Ron began stabbing his now ice-cold meat repeatedly.
"Okay, Ron, I get it." Harry was trying to figure out a way to get out of detention. "It's pointless," He said aloud finally. "Snape's never going to let us out."
"Good call mate,"
The dungeon air was stale and tainted with foul fumes. Harry and Ron walked in silence, in fear that they might lose Gryffindor points for even breathing down here. They reached the open door to Snape's class room at two-till-ten.
"So nice of you to show up, five points from-"
"But we're early!" Ron held up his wrist to show Snape the time. Harry smacked it down.
Snape pointed to a dust covered clock that was obviously set fast. It read two after ten. "You here," He pointed to Ron, then at a chair on the far left side of the room. 'And next time you speak out of turn it will be fifty points. I am getting rather bored of handing out warnings." Ron clenched his teeth so tightly that ever muscle in his face became distinct. "You, here," Harry made his way over to the chair on the far right of the room.
On each table there was a huge cauldron, a large, brutal looking knife, and a large metal pale. If Ron wasn't in here with him, he would be quite scared that Snape would decapitate him and make some sort of potion, but he didn't bother himself with that for long. Snape brought out two very large sacks that reeked with the foul stench of death. What in the name of god was he planning to make them do? He sat one bag smack in front of Ron's face. The other he 'accidentally' dropped in Harry's lap, transferring some of the stench onto his robes. Snape grinned at this.
"What are you waiting for? I do not plan on being here all night, however I will if this does not get completed." He sneered, baring his yellow teeth.
Harry was the first to empty the contents of the bag onto his table and discard the sack behind him. Over five dozen dead bats lay in a pile in front of him. He cringed. Ron also emptied his while he pinched his nose.
"Wow, dead bats, now get over it and milk them." Said Snape mockingly.
"Milk them? Professor. Are we that sick?" Ron grimaced at the thought.
Snape sighed. "No, not that milking. If you paid any attention in Potions," Snape grabbed the knife from Ron's table and in one swift motion separated the head of the bat from its body. He held the body of the bat over the cauldron and squeezed it, so that all of the blood came pouring out into the container.
Ron placed his hand over his mouth and made a few distinct gagging noises. Harry could detect a shade of green in his face from across the room. Snape tossed the body into the pale and wiped his hands on his robes. "Now get to work."
They must have worked for two hours. It's very surprising how long squeezing the insides out of a bat can take. When they were finally done, Snape gave them a lecture about not wanting to catch them doing anything wrong again, and then they were released.
"Awful. Sick. Just plain sick." Said Ron staring at his blood covered robes. "I never want to look at another bat as long as I live. "Eep!" At that precise moment, a bat fluttered over their heads. "Okay, I want to see bats everyday for the rest of my life," He thought this would be very clever, but about five more bats followed the first one. "I GIVE UP!" Shouted Ron. "Can you believe that one mate? If Hermione's detention was anything like that I imagine she is in her room crying over bat rights or something."
Harry laughed as Ron went on and on about the detention. As they reached Dumbledore's floor, Ron turned to him. "Go on mate, I'm sure he can spare two minutes once he finds out where you were. Go on."
"Yeah, okay," Said Harry staring up the hallway to Dumbledore's guardian.
"Just watch out for Peeves." They both laughed and went their separate ways.
The corridor looked exactly the same as the night before, dark. Utterly dark. He made his way silently to the gigantic statue and took out the letter from Dumbledore.
"No way!" Harry read the letter over and over, as best he could in the dark. "He didn't tell me a password!" he squinted his eyes and reached for his wand. "Lumos" He whispered and the words were flooded with a soft light. "That's it! Sugar Crystal!" He muttered, and the statue began to spiral upwards. It came to a halt with a thud, and Harry ran up the stairs and swung open the door.
"Profes-Oh…Sorry, I'll just be leaving." Harry looked around the silent room. He felt very ill at ease. These people looked like the strangest bunch he'd ever seen. He recognized one of them. Harper stared straight at Dumbledore while the rest of the room stared straight at Harry. At first, Harry thought these were member's of Harper's family, as they all had extremely pensive expressions and eerily blank eyes, but not one of them looked like any of the others, and there were about ten of them all together. Harper's circlet added a soft glow, like firelight to the room. It was all very hypnotic.
Dumbledore looked at Harry through sunken eyes. He had previously had his head down on the table, with a quill in one hand.
"Hello Harry. It is quite all right. Would you like to speak to me about something?" He rather forced a smile onto his face. Harry didn't blame him. Being surrounded by this lot? Harry wasn't sure he could take their silent, pensive faces.
"Er-" He tried to find the right words, so suspicion wouldn't be raised. "-ehem- D.A. Yes? No?" He thought that would be blunt enough without making anything too obvious to the group of strangers.
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes. I believe there is an empty classroom in the north tower. It is extremely late Harry. You know your way back to the tower?" He looked around the room gesturing at the people. Harry got the point. There was some sort of strange meeting taking place here, though the people were very sort on words.
"Of course sir, thank you sir. Goodnight."
"Harry, where are Ron and Hermione?" asked Dumbledore hastily before Harry turned.
"I suspect back in the common room, sir."
Dumbledore let out a very deep sigh. "You will need to remember our agreement for next time. Goodnight Harry." He said this in a deeply comforting way, but Harry was still a little angry inside as he turned and closed the door.
"Remember the agreement?" Ron gave a small tut.
"It is-"
"For the best. We know Hermione." Ron rolled his eyes at her.
"So how was it Hermione?" asked Harry, quickly changing the subject.
"Different," she scratched her head. "Very different,"
"Can't be anymore 'different' than ours!" Ron shuttered at the thought.
"Oh Ron, I would have much rather done something than do what I did!" Hermione looked at Harry's bloody robes disapprovingly. "You went to his office dressed like that?"
"Well, what was I supposed to do? Strip down to my underpants?" Harry shrugged his shoulders and Hermione blushed.
"No, I suppose not." She shook her head and turned back to Ron. "Anyways, she just told me stay out of her way. That's it. 'Do whatever, just stay out of my way' she said."
"Well, what was she doing that she wanted you to stay out of her way?" Asked Ron inquisitively.
"She kept summoning books and perfoming these spells I've never heard performed before. Then she wrote in this huge, old book. She seemed to forget that I was in the room, and I was able to glance at what she was writing, but I didn't understand any of it. It was in some sort of strange language. I was also able to get these," Hermione pulled two of the photographs that Harry had seen in Defense against the dark arts class out of her pocket.
"You stole from Harper?!" Harry's eye's widened.
"Borrowed. I plan on putting them back tomorrow. She won't notice anyway, she has about ten more photographs on that desk. These are the only two I found interesting." She laid them on the table.
The first picture was that of a teenage girl. The piercing emerald eyes told Harry that is was a young Harper. She was very pretty in this picture. Perhaps it was because she had expression in her eyes. They were bright, and alive. Or perhaps it was because she didn't look so tired and pensive. He couldn't figure it out, however, it looked nothing like the Harper of today. She was performing a fancy dueling sequence and shooting bright blue sparks from the edge of her dark wand.
"Who's that?" asked Ron.
"That's her Ron!" snapped Hermione.
"No way! Look at her eyes. They don't make me shiver. It's so not her." Ron tilted his head. "Oh, wait, I see it now—sort of."
"That's not the point. Look. At first I thought she was in Slytherin as a girl. The way she acted around Snape, and made him nervous. The way she seemed to favor Malfoy today. But look." Hermione pointed to a miniscule spot on the photograph.
Harry had to adjust his glasses, but he saw it. A crest with a blue eagle.
"Ravenclaw? Boy the hat screwed up on this one." Ron shoved a finger at the picture. "A personality like that should have been considered an advanced Slytherin."
"I just thought that was interesting to know." Hermione continued. "But this," She shook her head and pointed to the second picture. "This is just bizarre."
The second picture was that of Harper, still young, and still bright-eyed holding something in her arms, and leaning over to kiss something else. However both of these things were invisible.
"Well there's something to look at. I didn't know anyone could love air that much." Ron smirked, but Hermione hit him gently on the shoulder.
"Be serious! There's got to be something I missed." She sighed. "No matter. I'll just ask her about it."
"What? Are you—Okay, we've established that you are indeed mad, but do you want to get verbally slaughtered?" Ron snatched the picture off the table and put it in her bag. "Just put it back, and forget it. They're pictures Hermione. Pictures. They don't matter." He also placed the second picture in her bag. Harry just listened.
"No, I think they do. And whatever she's writing in that book matters to. And whoever it was that showed up halfway through my detention that said 'it was time' mattered to. But how?" She started to slowly massage her temples.
"Wait-who came into her office?" Harry finally spoke up. Hermione's eyes met his.
"A strange looking man. Seemed very paranoid. She told me to get to bed, then she left." She shrugged her shoulders.
Harry smacked his forehead. "Of course."
"What is it Harry?" Ron looked anxious.
"She was in Dumbledore's office when I went to talk to him. Her and about nine other people. The strangest lot I've ever seen. They all looked like they were thinking hard about something. They kept looking around the room, like they were taking mental pictures. All except for Harper. She just watched Dumbledore. Didn't even notice me come in. It was all very eerie." Hermione's eyes seemed to widen as he talked. Without warning, she leapt off the sofa and ran for her dormitory.
"What's gotten into her?" Ron seemed to be saying this more and more often.
"I dunno."
"Blimey! It's almost two in the morning! We'll have to eat breakfast soon! And I didn't even write my essay for Harper! Or McGonagall!"
"Well Harper said it didn't have to be long. Just make something up. We can do McGonagall's during breakfast." Harry sighed. He was not looking forward to the coming day.