In Every Darkness
Chapter Forty: Dreaming
12.10.1996
Harry had been sleeping for some time before he entered the dream world in which he met with Sirius – he was not sure how he knew this, but he did.
"Sirius?" He called, hoping that it would not be Voldemort again.
"I'm here Harry," the voice came from the right, and Harry turned to see nothing but a tree standing there.
"You can do that?" Harry asked his godfather, and the three was suddenly Sirius.
"Sure I can!" he replied. "I can be anything I want, including trees."
Harry laughed softly. "Whatever you say Sirius," he told his godfather with a smile.
Sirius grinned at him. "So, how have you been?" he asked. "I haven't been talking with your or Tatsu much lately – the times been all wrong."
Harry told his godfather all that had happened.
"Well … that's interesting. So Hogwarts was attacked … To pick up Snivellus," Sirius mused. "I guess that's why his dreams have been chaos lately."
"Probably," Harry agreed. "He's staying in Voldemort's fortress now, but we don't know where that is. If you can find out anything from his dreams about what's happening now, could you tell me? I could find some way to tell it to Dumbledore. Dumbledore thinks that Snape might be dead, and since he's the only Death Eater spy we have …"
"Of course," Sirius said, nodding in agreement. "I'll have a look, so Dumbledore knows what's going on. But for now, you need to practice Ancient Runes!"
Harry groaned, but nodded his head. "Alright, let's practice," he said wearily.
Time passed, though Harry had no idea how much. He and Sirius practiced Ancient Runes for a while – Harry was getting better, though he did not know enough yet.
"This is getting boring," Sirius remarked. "Let's duel."
Harry laughed slightly, standing up. "Yes," he agreed, more than happy to leave Ancient Runes behind and learn some more curses.
When Harry woke the following morning, he was happier than he'd been since they came to school – the Death Eater attack had put a blight on his happiness.
Now, though, he was ready to face anything with a smile and a laugh, a change which his friends noticed.
"What's put you in such a happy mood?" Ron asked him, at breakfast that morning.
"I don't know," Harry replied with a grin. "I'm just … happy!"
"We noticed," Ginny muttered from beside him.
Harry just grinned at her and began wolfing his breakfast. "Why are you eating so much?" Hermione asked, eyes dancing.
"We've got Defence first – Tonks'll likely wear us out. Wasn't she saying that she wanted us all to have practice in duels? Against her?" Harry replied.
"Oh yeah," all sixth years in the NEWT defence against the Dark Arts class began wolfing down food too – they'd need the energy. All too soon the bell rang, and Harry and his fifth year friends headed towards the Defence classroom.
"This will be interesting," Hermione remarked softly, so that only Harry and Ron could hear her. "I wonder what sort of spells she'll be using, and in what order she goes in."
"I hope it's alphabetical," Harry replied softly, "that way I'm near the end, after Malfoy, so I can tease him about how badly he lost, and remind him of his failures if he tries the same on me."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but Ron nodded eagerly at the thought. "I hope so too," he decided. "I'll be the second last, only that Zabini girl is after me."
"Well I'd have to be one of the first ones, and I don't want that," Hermione remarked.
Tonks arrived suddenly, bounding through the crowd of students at the door to her classroom. "Good morning all!" she cried cheerily.
"Good morning!" Harry was the only the one to reply to her greeting with any sort of cheer.
Tonks gave him an approving nod, and Harry's classmates watched him with almost wary expressions – why was he so happy?
The class wandered into the classroom, and Harry took a seat right at the front. He wanted to be closer to the action, if possible. After a brief hesitation, Ron and Hermione joined him there. Tonks winked at them, but Harry wasn't sure if this were a good sign or not.
Tonks called the roll, and, once she'd determined that everyone was present, smiled brilliantly at the class. "Like I said, today you lot are going to start duelling with me, I'll go through all of you – don't think I won't!" her eyes sparkled with unholy delight.
"Now, since those of you at the back chose those seats either to keep away from my eyes, or to cause trouble of some sort, you'll go first, starting from the fellow in the corner," she indicated Vincent Crabbe with a slight wave of her hand.
The boy lumbered to his feet, too stupid to know that he was about to get hurt – probably badly.
Harry noted that the main occupants of the back row were Slytherins, and that Malfoy was next. Ron seemed to have noted the same thing, and was smiling hugely.
Hermione was leaning forward with a look of intense interest on her face. Most of the class was copying her as Tonks shoved Crabbe off centre stage for the moment.
"One thing about Death Eaters is that they rarely fight fair. They generally favour unforgivable curses. I'm going to demonstrate duelling against an honourable opponent, and at the same time, you'll pick up enough spells so that if you ever happen to meet a Death Eater, you'll be prepared."
She beckoned Crabbe a little closer, and showed the class how to hold the one properly. "Now, we'll go by the traditional conduct used in duels and bow," Tonks demonstrated, and Crabbe copied her clumsily. "Then attack."
Crabbe was lying on the floor, stupefied, before he knew what happened.
"Enervate," Tonks muttered, and watched as Crabbe got clumsily to his feet. "Despicable," she told him sternly, shooing him back to his seat. "Mr. Malfoy, I hope you'll do at least a little better than that," she added.
Malfoy stood up, looking slightly more confident. The Slytherin girls watched him with adoring expressions, Pansy's gaze was possessive
Malfoy drew his wand easily, holding it perfectly, and he and Tonks bowed to each other. Even before Malfoy had straightened up, he had a curse flying at Tonks, who blocked it with ease.
"I don't know if anyone's taught you defence spells," Tonks said, in between voicing her own curses, "but the one that I used to block Malfoy's first spell is a common one, which I'll teach you once I know how many know it."
Malfoy lasted a lot longer than Crabbe had done, but that wasn't saying much, in within the next five minutes, his wand was in Tonks's hand.
"Better," Tonks told him. "Off you go."
She called Goyle forward next, who lasted as long as Crabbe had, and was replaced by Pansy Parkinson. She got three spells in before Tonks put her in a full body bind.
Slowly, people trickled forward, and then back to their seats. Mainly Slytherins at first, but soon a few Gryffindors began to get called forwards.
It was about half way through the lesson that Harry noticed that Tonks had organised things so that he, Harry, would be the last dueller. Why, he wondered.
"Probably so that she can spend more time with you," Grypis remarked from Harry's shoulder.
"Probably," Harry agreed, though he wasn't all that certain.
"It's not like it matters anyway," Grypis told him. "You're last and that's it, it's not like you can do anything about it."
"You're right. I'll try not to think about it," Harry agreed after a moment, watching Neville, who'd managed to get into the NEWT group, probably through his practical ability, which Harry had taught to him the year before.
Neville lasted longer than a lot of the Slytherins had, and used the shield that Tonks had used on Malfoy's first spell. Harry had taught it to DA the year before.
"How come you could use that spell, and no one else could?" Tonks asked Neville.
"Harry taught it to DA last year," Neville replied immediately. "Anyone from DA could use it – Harry made sure of that."
"Did he now?" Tonks smiled wolfishly. "Interesting. Well, back to your seat, Longbottom, you did a good job."
The bell rang just as Tonks got the first row. There were now only four people between her and Harry, but that would have to wait until the next week.
Harry left the room with Ron and Hermione, heading for the next class.
That day passed quickly, Harry completed most of the homework that he had for that week, and was looking forward to Monday morning, which would be his first real potions lesson with Michael McGonagall.
After dinner, Harry joined DA in the Room of Requirement for an hour, teaching them some new spells and defensive moves. After that, while his companions headed back to their own common rooms, Harry went to see Dumbledore, who'd asked him to come for a single lesson that night, the only one that would take place on a Friday, just to test out the grounds.
When he got to the gargoyle, he found Dumbledore there, waiting. "Come in Harry, I've been expecting you."
***
There we go. I'm shortening the chapters a little again, that way I can keep up with updating! BTW, I TRIED to update yesterday, but ff.net was down or something.
~WolfMoon~