Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
The Second Darkness.
Chapter 6: The Assassins' Duel.
Harry and Ginny spent the next hour walking around Hogwarts' grounds talking about anything that sprung to mind. Eventually they returned to the castle and headed into the Great Hall for dinner.
"Oh Jesus!" swore Ginny annoyed,
"What?" asked Harry.
"Look at either end of the Gryffindor table." Harry looked, and at the end furthest away from the door sat Ron with Seamus and Dean and at the end closest to the door sat Hermione with Parvati and Lavender.
"Great, now they're avoiding each other!"
"So I go sit with Hermione, you go sit with Ron?" Harry thought about this for a minute before replying.
"No, I've had enough of trying to make them see sense for one day. We'll sit together." Ginny nodded and followed Harry over to a place in the middle. They sat down opposite each other and ate in companionable silence.
They talked for a few minutes after they'd finished eating before Harry saw Cho stand up and leave the Great Hall with a group of her friends.
"Listen Ginny, I've had a really great day with you but is it all alright if I go spend some time with Cho?"
"Of course, I'll see you later." Harry turned around and started to walk away. "Oh and Harry," Harry turned around again, "I've had a really great day with you too." Harry smiled at her and walked out of the Great Hall.
He caught up with Cho and her friends just before the marble staircase. He quietly approached Cho, who had her back to him, and put his hands over her eyes.
"Guess who?" He asked, he winked at her friends who began to giggle.
"Ooh, could it be the most handsome, charming, fantastic boy to ever grace the earth." Cho's friends' giggles subsided and smiles took their place.
"It could." Cho turned round and gave Harry a quick kiss. One of her friends pretended to vomit and another, without changing her expression, kicked the other on the leg.
"I'll see you guys later." Cho said to her friends before taking Harry's hand and leading him towards the lake. As soon as she was gone the friend who had pretended to gag turned angrily towards the girl who kicked her.
"Why'd you kick me, Sophia?" Sophia rolled her eyes.
"Take a wild guess." When her friend continued to look blank Sophia patiently explained it to her, "Because you pretended to throw up, they've both had rough lives recently, they deserve a bit of happiness. Not you taking the mickey out of their love lives." Her friend shrugged and followed Sophia and the rest of them towards the Ravenclaw common room.
******
The sun was setting and the sky was painted purple, orange, yellow, pink. The colours were cast over the lake and the rippled water reflected them gave off the impression of a second sky. The long shadows cast by the trees of the forbidden forest bordered the edge of the water like a picture frame. Everything was still and peaceful, the world seemed to be holding its breath for in these troubled, war-threatened times peacefulness was rare, and was to be treasured.
However, there was not total peace for the Boy-Who-Lived was trying to make one of the hardest decisions of his life.
Forget Voldemort, love is scarier.
******
Cho and Harry sat against the boulder by the lake that they usually sat by. Harry held the young women in his arms and half-heartedly listened to her talk about quidditch. His troubled thoughts were interrupted by Cho's voice,
"Harry, Harry?"
"What-? Oh, sorry Cho, what were you saying?" Cho lifted her head off his shoulder and looked at him,
"You haven't been listening to a word I've said have you?" Harry dropped his eyes.
"Sorry."
"Harry, what's wrong?" she asked concerned. Harry looked up at her, tears brimming in his eyes,
"If I were to tell you it would break your heart and mine." Cho squeezed Harry's hand.
"Tell me."
"No, I need to think first." Harry leaned over and kissed her gently, "Don't worry, I still love you." Cho was reassured slightly but not completely. Harry kissed her tenderly again before standing up and walking back to the castle leaving an extremely worried Cho.
He gave the password to the Fat Lady and climbed into the common room. Ron was involved in a half-hearted game of chess with Seamus and didn't look up when Harry called his name.
Hermione on the other hand was sitting at a table by the window with a book in front of her, her eyes never moving. Harry moved towards her. As soon as she saw him coming she stood up and tried to walk past him, her eyes on the floor.
Harry took her by the shoulders and sat her down on a seat at the table and then he sat opposite her.
"You think I'm lying don't you." It was a question, it was a statement. For some reason it came out harsher than it was meant to. Hermione looked up fearfully and then looked down again.
"About what?" asked Hermione shakily, trying to bluff her way out.
"You know what." Said Harry shortly
"Yes." She said in a small voice.
"Why would I lie about a thing like that?" Harry asked incredulously. Hermione shrugged slightly still staring at the table,
"For a joke?"
"When have I ever played a practical joke on you two?" Hermione shrugged again,
"You haven't, but that doesn't mean you never will." Harry groaned in frustration. The Portrait Hole swung open and Ginny and a group of her friends climbed in laughing loudly.
"Ginny," called Harry loudly, every head in the crowded common room looked up and the noise died down, "Try and make Hermione and Ron realise that we're not lying and that they both fancy each other, 'cos I've given up." Hermione and Ron looked horrified and ran up to their dormitories. Harry strode angrily out of the common room. Ginny sighed and followed him. She caught up with him just outside of the Room of Requirement.
"That was actually pretty cheap." She said fairly,
"Yeah, well," said Harry angrily, he was far more angry then he needed to be and he knew it but he couldn't do anything about it, "Maybe it will knock some sense into them and make them realise that we aren't lying."
"Or maybe it will make them not talk to you for the rest of the month."
"Then at least that way they won't be able to annoy the hell out of me by being so goddamn BLIND!" Ginny looked completely unaffected by his sudden outburst.
"At least it won't be for much longer."
"What d'you mean?"
"They can't ignore it for much longer, they no longer think that the other doesn't fancy them. They'll start to do something about it soon. Definitely. Probably. Hopefully." Seeing Harry's sceptical look she sighed,
"Ok, maybe they will need a few more nudges in the right direction." Harry nodded in agreement.
"They will." He said. Harry searched around for a different topic of conversation.
"How's things with Dean?" he asked.
"Finished, mutual decision, we just decided that there was less pressure on us when we were friends so we decided we wanted to be just friends." Harry nodded. Ginny looked at her watch.
"C'mon, we'd best be getting back now." They walked back to the common room. They climbed through the Portrait Hole. At the bottom of the two sets of steps leading up to the dormitories they stopped.
"I've had a really great day, Harry." Ginny said.
"Me too." Harry gave her a hug and planted a swift kiss on her cheek before climbing the stairs to the boy's dormitory. He entered the room and saw that Ron was already asleep. On Harry's pillow however was a folded piece of parchment. Harry picked it up and read it quickly.
As of the moment you read this we are no longer friends.
Ronald Weasley.
Far from making him upset the note made Harry smile, he looked over to Ron's sleeping form.
"You'll thank me for this someday." Harry then changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed. Within minutes he was fast asleep.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling slightly refreshed. He got up and started to pull on his school robes when he remembered. Sighing deeply he took of his robes and pulled his armour over his head. Picking up his sword belt with his sword attached he put it on and pulled it tight. Shoving his wand in the belt aswell he walked down to the common room.
When he got down there he saw that Ginny was sitting on one of the couches reading a book. When she saw him she raised her eyebrows and grinned at him,
"Don't you look the hero." Harry rolled his eyes,
"Shut it, Ginny, you coming down to breakfast?"
"Yeah ok." Ginny dog-eared the page she was reading, put the book down on the table next to the couch and followed Harry out of the common room
They reached the doors of the Great Hall and Harry hesitated.
"It'll be fine, come on." Said Ginny bracingly. Harry nodded.
"I hope so." He said, nerves making his voice tremor slightly. He breathed deeply once and then pushed open one of the doors. The moment he stepped through the door conversation ceased. Harry tried to fight down the urge to sprint from the room. Breathing deeply he slowly began walking towards the Gryffindor table trying to ignore all the looks of curiosity he was receiving.
He sat down between Dean and Seamus and Ginny sat opposite. Dean raised his eyebrows,
"I suppose you don't want me to ask..."
"No, but I get the feeling you're going to anyway." Dean grinned,
"What's with the armour?" Harry sighed,
"Dumbledore's orders. Can't say anything else." Dean nodded, satisfied with that answer. Harry ate his breakfast as quickly as possible and left the Great Hall.
Harry's day was hell. Even though he kept his head down and got on with his work quietly he could feel everybody's eyes on him. The one small mercy was that he didn't have potions or any classes with the Slytherins. Harry was extremely grateful when his final lesson, transfiguration, ended. He immediately ran up to the Gryffindor common room.
When he arrived up there he saw Ginny, Ron and Hermione sitting at a table in the corner, although Ron and Hermione looked less than happy at being made to be near each other. The moment Harry stepped through the Portrait Hole Ginny beckoned him over. Ron glared at him as he approached and Harry merely smirked back.
"Sit down, Harry." Ordered Ginny. By the tone of her voice Harry could tell that she was in no mood to argue. Harry obediently did as she said.
"Listen," She said to Ron and Hermione, "I'm getting pretty sick, and Harry is as well, of you two avoiding each other as if your lives depended on it. It's getting annoying, if all you want is to be friends then could you just be friends from now on?" Harry's smirk grew broader,
"Yeah, all you have to do is kiss and make up." Ginny turned and glared at him,
"Your not helping..." she muttered angrily so that only he could hear. Harry grinned at her before turning to Ron and Hermione.
"Seriously though," he said, his grin fading, "What's so difficult? You've both admitted you like each other so what's the problem? Why don't you just tell each other? This isn't some joke or...or some conspiracy against one of you. So just tell each other for God's sake!" When neither Ron or Hermione made a move or said anything Harry groaned,
"Ok, time for a little blackmail, and believe me this is for your benefit not mine," he said to them firmly, "Here's the deal, the longer you take to start going out with each other the more I embarrass you, what I did the other day was only a taster, eventually I'll start embarrassing you in front of whole classes and, if need be, I'll embarrass you in front of the whole school." Ron and Hermione looked terrified. Feeling that his point had been well and truly made he stood up and went to get his homework.
******
Wormtail sprinted as fast as he could to the main hall. He threw open the door and then threw himself at Voldemort's feet.
"What?" asked Voldemort coldly.
"An assassin is ready to be sent to Hogwarts." Voldemort nodded.
"Good, send him right away." Wormtail bowed low.
"Of course, my lord." He turned to leave,
"Wormtail."
"My lord?"
"Make sure the assassin does not fail."
"Of course, master." Wormtail turned and ran out of the room
******
Ron and Hermione seemed to do as Ginny requested for the four of them and Cho were sitting outside in the grounds enjoying one of the few days of sunshine in February.
Ron and Hermione looked less than happy at being near to each other. But what infuriated Harry most was that he would catch them stealing little glances at each other when they thought no one else was looking. He finally mentioned something when he caught them for the sixth time.
"You're both about a subtle as a sledgehammer." They looked up at him in surprise and blushed when they realised what he was talking about.
"Listen, could you two just start going out with each other 'cos I'm really missing my best friends now that you're avoiding me at all costs." Harry said ruefully. Hermione opened her mouth to say something when they heard the distinct 'crack' of someone Apparating in the distance. Suddenly they heard terrified screams,
They turned their heads and they saw a lone Death Eater running towards. The Death Eater pointed his wand at Hermione,
"Avada Kedavra" The jet of green light flew towards Hermione.
"HERMIONE, DUCK!" Hermione was too stunned to move, Harry forced her head down and the curse flew over her head, missing her by millimetres and hit a second year girl sitting behind them. Fury boiled in Harry's blood.
He stood up and drew his wand,
"Go get Dumbledore." He snapped to them, Ron opened his mouth to argue, "Don't argue, I'm the only one who can handle this." They jumped up and sprinted towards the castle. Harry watched them for a second before running towards the Death Eater.
He could immediately see that this was no ordinary Death Eater. For one he carried a sword at his waist. For another he had a black mask instead of a white one and the Dark Mark on his robe sleeve was silver instead of white. He could also perform the killing curse.
Harry quickly let of a short burst of stunners to test the Death Eaters reactions. The first stunner had barely left Harry's wand when the Death Eater had a shield charm up.
Harry's stunning spells flew back towards him and he fell to one knee to avoid them. The Death Eater retaliated with a slashing curse. Harry rolled to the right, unleashing a torrent of stunners and slashing curses. The Death Eater performed a shield charm; side stepped and fired a barrage of stunners towards Harry. Harry threw himself forward and the spells flew overhead. He stood up again and fired off a few slashing curses. The Death Eater ducked them and retaliated with a stunning spell. Harry wasn't quick enough and the stunner hit him square in the chest but fortunately it merely bounced off the dragon skin armour.
Harry began to suspect that the Death Eater did not want to kill him, but merely wanted to capture him. Harry knew that he wasn't going to be able to stun the Death Eater so he began to fight defensively to give him time to think of a plan.
He remembered Lupin telling him why he was doing sword training. It was because you couldn't always rely on your wand. If your opponent was an expert in shield charms you won't be able to affect him with magic because spells did not have the continuous driving force required to push through a magical barrier, whereas a sword did.
A plan was beginning to form in Harry's mind. First he needed to disarm the Death Eater, which would prove to be difficult seeing as he couldn't get a spell to touch him. Suddenly he remembered a tactic Ron had used against him.
Harry side stepped a stunner that was flying towards him and unleashed a few slashing curses. As he had predicted the Death Eater sent up an advanced shield charm. Harry counted to eight and fired a few disarming spells. The advanced shield charm deflected the first one but the next disarming spell hit him and the Death Eater's wand flew towards Harry who caught it and snapped it in half.
The Death Eater let out a bellow of rage. Harry grinned and slipped his wand into his sword belt. He knew that he could end the fight with a simple slashing curse to the throat but he wanted to kill this Death Eater up close. Harry was furious and he wanted revenge for that second year's death.
Harry drew his sword and ran towards the Death Eater, about to cross swords with an enemy for the first time. Possibly about to cross swords for the last time.
******
Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho sprinted towards Dumbledore's office.
"What's the password?" panted Ginny as they approached, they reached the stone gargoyle and Hermione gasped out,
"Honeyduke's Chocolate." The stone gargoyle began to move and they dashed into Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall, Moody, and Dumbledore looked up in surprise. Without waiting for them to speak, Ron blurted out,
"Death Eater in the grounds...Harry's duelling with him." The three professors looked horrified and ran out of Dumbledore's office with the teenagers hot on their heels.
******
Harry swung his blade at the Death Eater's head and was immediately forced to step back and parry the Death Eater's counter-attack. Harry dodged the Death Eater's lunge and spun round to bring himself behind the Death Eater, the Death Eater reverse-lunged; Harry jumped back but slipped and fell over. This saved his life as he hadn't reacted quickly enough and he would have been caught in the stomach if he hadn't of slipped.
The Death Eater's sword missed him and Harry lunged his sword upwards and caught the Death Eater in the back of the thigh. The Death Eater let out a roar of rage and pain; spun round and stabbed downwards. Harry rolled to the right. He was then forced to roll to the left to avoid another downward stab. Harry knocked the Death Eater's sword aside when he stabbed down again and struggled to his feet.
After a few more minutes of hard attack, parry, counter attack, parry again, attack, parry, counter attack, parry again, Harry was beginning to tire. The Death Eater was fighting hard to get the mission completed quickly.
Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat the Death Eater easily. He was just too tired, whereas the Death Eater was only beginning to show signs of tiredness. Suddenly an idea came to his mind and he knew that it was his only option left. Neither of them saw the professors and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho arrive.
Harry lunged and as he expected the Death Eater simply knocked his sword aside. However Harry didn't put up any resistance, he let his sword get knocked aside easily. The Death Eater gave a shout of triumph and lunged at Harry's shoulder.
Harry gave a shout of pain as the blade pierced his armour and then his skin.
But that was the Death Eater's fatal mistake. For Harry's sword had pierced his gut. Harry thrust his sword in deeper and twisted it. The Death Eater looked up at Harry in surprise, with blood dribbling out of his mouth.
"That's for the second year." Harry growled, he twisted again, "And that's for me." Harry pulled his sword out of the Death Eater's gut. The Death Eater fell backwards dead.
Carrying the bloodied sword Harry turned around and walked towards the teachers and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho. There were looks of horror on their faces. They had seen Harry get stabbed. His face was etched with determination and there was a fury and grim satisfaction in his eyes. He approached the teachers and walked past them without a word. The four teenagers ran after him.
Professor McGonagall watched Harry as he entered the castle. Few things scared or awed Minerva McGonagall. But as she saw Harry kill that Death Eater and then not show any signs of regret, but merely look as if he had been doing it all his life, Minerva McGonagall could safely say that she was awed, and even scared, by the ability of the young man.
Moody watched Harry with a mixture of pride and respect. Alastor Moody respected few people and all of them were older than him. All apart from one. To kill a Death Eater and be that close took an enormous amount of guts. To not show any regret, to mask your feelings took even more. Harry had earned a lot of respect from Moody. Moody realised something that left him stunned, he voiced this thought to the other two adults.
"He's become a killer." McGonagall and Dumbledore nodded in agreement.
A/N IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Ok, another chapter done. I have a problem that many other authors seem to be facing. I think I am not receiving most of my reviews. I will see how the reviews for this chapter go and if I get substantially less than I expect I will take further action.
LogicalRaven – Thanks for the review.
Anime-Master7 – Thanks for the review.
Colm – Great minds think alike. As I was writing the end of chapter five I had the idea of a one on one between Harry and one of Voldemort's assassins. Hope you enjoyed the fight. Let me know if you did or didn't in a review. I am sorry about not updating earlier, I had a problem concerning floppy disks which made me unable to update.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy
The Second Darkness.
Chapter 6: The Assassins' Duel.
Harry and Ginny spent the next hour walking around Hogwarts' grounds talking about anything that sprung to mind. Eventually they returned to the castle and headed into the Great Hall for dinner.
"Oh Jesus!" swore Ginny annoyed,
"What?" asked Harry.
"Look at either end of the Gryffindor table." Harry looked, and at the end furthest away from the door sat Ron with Seamus and Dean and at the end closest to the door sat Hermione with Parvati and Lavender.
"Great, now they're avoiding each other!"
"So I go sit with Hermione, you go sit with Ron?" Harry thought about this for a minute before replying.
"No, I've had enough of trying to make them see sense for one day. We'll sit together." Ginny nodded and followed Harry over to a place in the middle. They sat down opposite each other and ate in companionable silence.
They talked for a few minutes after they'd finished eating before Harry saw Cho stand up and leave the Great Hall with a group of her friends.
"Listen Ginny, I've had a really great day with you but is it all alright if I go spend some time with Cho?"
"Of course, I'll see you later." Harry turned around and started to walk away. "Oh and Harry," Harry turned around again, "I've had a really great day with you too." Harry smiled at her and walked out of the Great Hall.
He caught up with Cho and her friends just before the marble staircase. He quietly approached Cho, who had her back to him, and put his hands over her eyes.
"Guess who?" He asked, he winked at her friends who began to giggle.
"Ooh, could it be the most handsome, charming, fantastic boy to ever grace the earth." Cho's friends' giggles subsided and smiles took their place.
"It could." Cho turned round and gave Harry a quick kiss. One of her friends pretended to vomit and another, without changing her expression, kicked the other on the leg.
"I'll see you guys later." Cho said to her friends before taking Harry's hand and leading him towards the lake. As soon as she was gone the friend who had pretended to gag turned angrily towards the girl who kicked her.
"Why'd you kick me, Sophia?" Sophia rolled her eyes.
"Take a wild guess." When her friend continued to look blank Sophia patiently explained it to her, "Because you pretended to throw up, they've both had rough lives recently, they deserve a bit of happiness. Not you taking the mickey out of their love lives." Her friend shrugged and followed Sophia and the rest of them towards the Ravenclaw common room.
******
The sun was setting and the sky was painted purple, orange, yellow, pink. The colours were cast over the lake and the rippled water reflected them gave off the impression of a second sky. The long shadows cast by the trees of the forbidden forest bordered the edge of the water like a picture frame. Everything was still and peaceful, the world seemed to be holding its breath for in these troubled, war-threatened times peacefulness was rare, and was to be treasured.
However, there was not total peace for the Boy-Who-Lived was trying to make one of the hardest decisions of his life.
Forget Voldemort, love is scarier.
******
Cho and Harry sat against the boulder by the lake that they usually sat by. Harry held the young women in his arms and half-heartedly listened to her talk about quidditch. His troubled thoughts were interrupted by Cho's voice,
"Harry, Harry?"
"What-? Oh, sorry Cho, what were you saying?" Cho lifted her head off his shoulder and looked at him,
"You haven't been listening to a word I've said have you?" Harry dropped his eyes.
"Sorry."
"Harry, what's wrong?" she asked concerned. Harry looked up at her, tears brimming in his eyes,
"If I were to tell you it would break your heart and mine." Cho squeezed Harry's hand.
"Tell me."
"No, I need to think first." Harry leaned over and kissed her gently, "Don't worry, I still love you." Cho was reassured slightly but not completely. Harry kissed her tenderly again before standing up and walking back to the castle leaving an extremely worried Cho.
He gave the password to the Fat Lady and climbed into the common room. Ron was involved in a half-hearted game of chess with Seamus and didn't look up when Harry called his name.
Hermione on the other hand was sitting at a table by the window with a book in front of her, her eyes never moving. Harry moved towards her. As soon as she saw him coming she stood up and tried to walk past him, her eyes on the floor.
Harry took her by the shoulders and sat her down on a seat at the table and then he sat opposite her.
"You think I'm lying don't you." It was a question, it was a statement. For some reason it came out harsher than it was meant to. Hermione looked up fearfully and then looked down again.
"About what?" asked Hermione shakily, trying to bluff her way out.
"You know what." Said Harry shortly
"Yes." She said in a small voice.
"Why would I lie about a thing like that?" Harry asked incredulously. Hermione shrugged slightly still staring at the table,
"For a joke?"
"When have I ever played a practical joke on you two?" Hermione shrugged again,
"You haven't, but that doesn't mean you never will." Harry groaned in frustration. The Portrait Hole swung open and Ginny and a group of her friends climbed in laughing loudly.
"Ginny," called Harry loudly, every head in the crowded common room looked up and the noise died down, "Try and make Hermione and Ron realise that we're not lying and that they both fancy each other, 'cos I've given up." Hermione and Ron looked horrified and ran up to their dormitories. Harry strode angrily out of the common room. Ginny sighed and followed him. She caught up with him just outside of the Room of Requirement.
"That was actually pretty cheap." She said fairly,
"Yeah, well," said Harry angrily, he was far more angry then he needed to be and he knew it but he couldn't do anything about it, "Maybe it will knock some sense into them and make them realise that we aren't lying."
"Or maybe it will make them not talk to you for the rest of the month."
"Then at least that way they won't be able to annoy the hell out of me by being so goddamn BLIND!" Ginny looked completely unaffected by his sudden outburst.
"At least it won't be for much longer."
"What d'you mean?"
"They can't ignore it for much longer, they no longer think that the other doesn't fancy them. They'll start to do something about it soon. Definitely. Probably. Hopefully." Seeing Harry's sceptical look she sighed,
"Ok, maybe they will need a few more nudges in the right direction." Harry nodded in agreement.
"They will." He said. Harry searched around for a different topic of conversation.
"How's things with Dean?" he asked.
"Finished, mutual decision, we just decided that there was less pressure on us when we were friends so we decided we wanted to be just friends." Harry nodded. Ginny looked at her watch.
"C'mon, we'd best be getting back now." They walked back to the common room. They climbed through the Portrait Hole. At the bottom of the two sets of steps leading up to the dormitories they stopped.
"I've had a really great day, Harry." Ginny said.
"Me too." Harry gave her a hug and planted a swift kiss on her cheek before climbing the stairs to the boy's dormitory. He entered the room and saw that Ron was already asleep. On Harry's pillow however was a folded piece of parchment. Harry picked it up and read it quickly.
As of the moment you read this we are no longer friends.
Ronald Weasley.
Far from making him upset the note made Harry smile, he looked over to Ron's sleeping form.
"You'll thank me for this someday." Harry then changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed. Within minutes he was fast asleep.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling slightly refreshed. He got up and started to pull on his school robes when he remembered. Sighing deeply he took of his robes and pulled his armour over his head. Picking up his sword belt with his sword attached he put it on and pulled it tight. Shoving his wand in the belt aswell he walked down to the common room.
When he got down there he saw that Ginny was sitting on one of the couches reading a book. When she saw him she raised her eyebrows and grinned at him,
"Don't you look the hero." Harry rolled his eyes,
"Shut it, Ginny, you coming down to breakfast?"
"Yeah ok." Ginny dog-eared the page she was reading, put the book down on the table next to the couch and followed Harry out of the common room
They reached the doors of the Great Hall and Harry hesitated.
"It'll be fine, come on." Said Ginny bracingly. Harry nodded.
"I hope so." He said, nerves making his voice tremor slightly. He breathed deeply once and then pushed open one of the doors. The moment he stepped through the door conversation ceased. Harry tried to fight down the urge to sprint from the room. Breathing deeply he slowly began walking towards the Gryffindor table trying to ignore all the looks of curiosity he was receiving.
He sat down between Dean and Seamus and Ginny sat opposite. Dean raised his eyebrows,
"I suppose you don't want me to ask..."
"No, but I get the feeling you're going to anyway." Dean grinned,
"What's with the armour?" Harry sighed,
"Dumbledore's orders. Can't say anything else." Dean nodded, satisfied with that answer. Harry ate his breakfast as quickly as possible and left the Great Hall.
Harry's day was hell. Even though he kept his head down and got on with his work quietly he could feel everybody's eyes on him. The one small mercy was that he didn't have potions or any classes with the Slytherins. Harry was extremely grateful when his final lesson, transfiguration, ended. He immediately ran up to the Gryffindor common room.
When he arrived up there he saw Ginny, Ron and Hermione sitting at a table in the corner, although Ron and Hermione looked less than happy at being made to be near each other. The moment Harry stepped through the Portrait Hole Ginny beckoned him over. Ron glared at him as he approached and Harry merely smirked back.
"Sit down, Harry." Ordered Ginny. By the tone of her voice Harry could tell that she was in no mood to argue. Harry obediently did as she said.
"Listen," She said to Ron and Hermione, "I'm getting pretty sick, and Harry is as well, of you two avoiding each other as if your lives depended on it. It's getting annoying, if all you want is to be friends then could you just be friends from now on?" Harry's smirk grew broader,
"Yeah, all you have to do is kiss and make up." Ginny turned and glared at him,
"Your not helping..." she muttered angrily so that only he could hear. Harry grinned at her before turning to Ron and Hermione.
"Seriously though," he said, his grin fading, "What's so difficult? You've both admitted you like each other so what's the problem? Why don't you just tell each other? This isn't some joke or...or some conspiracy against one of you. So just tell each other for God's sake!" When neither Ron or Hermione made a move or said anything Harry groaned,
"Ok, time for a little blackmail, and believe me this is for your benefit not mine," he said to them firmly, "Here's the deal, the longer you take to start going out with each other the more I embarrass you, what I did the other day was only a taster, eventually I'll start embarrassing you in front of whole classes and, if need be, I'll embarrass you in front of the whole school." Ron and Hermione looked terrified. Feeling that his point had been well and truly made he stood up and went to get his homework.
******
Wormtail sprinted as fast as he could to the main hall. He threw open the door and then threw himself at Voldemort's feet.
"What?" asked Voldemort coldly.
"An assassin is ready to be sent to Hogwarts." Voldemort nodded.
"Good, send him right away." Wormtail bowed low.
"Of course, my lord." He turned to leave,
"Wormtail."
"My lord?"
"Make sure the assassin does not fail."
"Of course, master." Wormtail turned and ran out of the room
******
Ron and Hermione seemed to do as Ginny requested for the four of them and Cho were sitting outside in the grounds enjoying one of the few days of sunshine in February.
Ron and Hermione looked less than happy at being near to each other. But what infuriated Harry most was that he would catch them stealing little glances at each other when they thought no one else was looking. He finally mentioned something when he caught them for the sixth time.
"You're both about a subtle as a sledgehammer." They looked up at him in surprise and blushed when they realised what he was talking about.
"Listen, could you two just start going out with each other 'cos I'm really missing my best friends now that you're avoiding me at all costs." Harry said ruefully. Hermione opened her mouth to say something when they heard the distinct 'crack' of someone Apparating in the distance. Suddenly they heard terrified screams,
They turned their heads and they saw a lone Death Eater running towards. The Death Eater pointed his wand at Hermione,
"Avada Kedavra" The jet of green light flew towards Hermione.
"HERMIONE, DUCK!" Hermione was too stunned to move, Harry forced her head down and the curse flew over her head, missing her by millimetres and hit a second year girl sitting behind them. Fury boiled in Harry's blood.
He stood up and drew his wand,
"Go get Dumbledore." He snapped to them, Ron opened his mouth to argue, "Don't argue, I'm the only one who can handle this." They jumped up and sprinted towards the castle. Harry watched them for a second before running towards the Death Eater.
He could immediately see that this was no ordinary Death Eater. For one he carried a sword at his waist. For another he had a black mask instead of a white one and the Dark Mark on his robe sleeve was silver instead of white. He could also perform the killing curse.
Harry quickly let of a short burst of stunners to test the Death Eaters reactions. The first stunner had barely left Harry's wand when the Death Eater had a shield charm up.
Harry's stunning spells flew back towards him and he fell to one knee to avoid them. The Death Eater retaliated with a slashing curse. Harry rolled to the right, unleashing a torrent of stunners and slashing curses. The Death Eater performed a shield charm; side stepped and fired a barrage of stunners towards Harry. Harry threw himself forward and the spells flew overhead. He stood up again and fired off a few slashing curses. The Death Eater ducked them and retaliated with a stunning spell. Harry wasn't quick enough and the stunner hit him square in the chest but fortunately it merely bounced off the dragon skin armour.
Harry began to suspect that the Death Eater did not want to kill him, but merely wanted to capture him. Harry knew that he wasn't going to be able to stun the Death Eater so he began to fight defensively to give him time to think of a plan.
He remembered Lupin telling him why he was doing sword training. It was because you couldn't always rely on your wand. If your opponent was an expert in shield charms you won't be able to affect him with magic because spells did not have the continuous driving force required to push through a magical barrier, whereas a sword did.
A plan was beginning to form in Harry's mind. First he needed to disarm the Death Eater, which would prove to be difficult seeing as he couldn't get a spell to touch him. Suddenly he remembered a tactic Ron had used against him.
Harry side stepped a stunner that was flying towards him and unleashed a few slashing curses. As he had predicted the Death Eater sent up an advanced shield charm. Harry counted to eight and fired a few disarming spells. The advanced shield charm deflected the first one but the next disarming spell hit him and the Death Eater's wand flew towards Harry who caught it and snapped it in half.
The Death Eater let out a bellow of rage. Harry grinned and slipped his wand into his sword belt. He knew that he could end the fight with a simple slashing curse to the throat but he wanted to kill this Death Eater up close. Harry was furious and he wanted revenge for that second year's death.
Harry drew his sword and ran towards the Death Eater, about to cross swords with an enemy for the first time. Possibly about to cross swords for the last time.
******
Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho sprinted towards Dumbledore's office.
"What's the password?" panted Ginny as they approached, they reached the stone gargoyle and Hermione gasped out,
"Honeyduke's Chocolate." The stone gargoyle began to move and they dashed into Dumbledore's office. Professor McGonagall, Moody, and Dumbledore looked up in surprise. Without waiting for them to speak, Ron blurted out,
"Death Eater in the grounds...Harry's duelling with him." The three professors looked horrified and ran out of Dumbledore's office with the teenagers hot on their heels.
******
Harry swung his blade at the Death Eater's head and was immediately forced to step back and parry the Death Eater's counter-attack. Harry dodged the Death Eater's lunge and spun round to bring himself behind the Death Eater, the Death Eater reverse-lunged; Harry jumped back but slipped and fell over. This saved his life as he hadn't reacted quickly enough and he would have been caught in the stomach if he hadn't of slipped.
The Death Eater's sword missed him and Harry lunged his sword upwards and caught the Death Eater in the back of the thigh. The Death Eater let out a roar of rage and pain; spun round and stabbed downwards. Harry rolled to the right. He was then forced to roll to the left to avoid another downward stab. Harry knocked the Death Eater's sword aside when he stabbed down again and struggled to his feet.
After a few more minutes of hard attack, parry, counter attack, parry again, attack, parry, counter attack, parry again, Harry was beginning to tire. The Death Eater was fighting hard to get the mission completed quickly.
Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat the Death Eater easily. He was just too tired, whereas the Death Eater was only beginning to show signs of tiredness. Suddenly an idea came to his mind and he knew that it was his only option left. Neither of them saw the professors and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho arrive.
Harry lunged and as he expected the Death Eater simply knocked his sword aside. However Harry didn't put up any resistance, he let his sword get knocked aside easily. The Death Eater gave a shout of triumph and lunged at Harry's shoulder.
Harry gave a shout of pain as the blade pierced his armour and then his skin.
But that was the Death Eater's fatal mistake. For Harry's sword had pierced his gut. Harry thrust his sword in deeper and twisted it. The Death Eater looked up at Harry in surprise, with blood dribbling out of his mouth.
"That's for the second year." Harry growled, he twisted again, "And that's for me." Harry pulled his sword out of the Death Eater's gut. The Death Eater fell backwards dead.
Carrying the bloodied sword Harry turned around and walked towards the teachers and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Cho. There were looks of horror on their faces. They had seen Harry get stabbed. His face was etched with determination and there was a fury and grim satisfaction in his eyes. He approached the teachers and walked past them without a word. The four teenagers ran after him.
Professor McGonagall watched Harry as he entered the castle. Few things scared or awed Minerva McGonagall. But as she saw Harry kill that Death Eater and then not show any signs of regret, but merely look as if he had been doing it all his life, Minerva McGonagall could safely say that she was awed, and even scared, by the ability of the young man.
Moody watched Harry with a mixture of pride and respect. Alastor Moody respected few people and all of them were older than him. All apart from one. To kill a Death Eater and be that close took an enormous amount of guts. To not show any regret, to mask your feelings took even more. Harry had earned a lot of respect from Moody. Moody realised something that left him stunned, he voiced this thought to the other two adults.
"He's become a killer." McGonagall and Dumbledore nodded in agreement.
A/N IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ Ok, another chapter done. I have a problem that many other authors seem to be facing. I think I am not receiving most of my reviews. I will see how the reviews for this chapter go and if I get substantially less than I expect I will take further action.
LogicalRaven – Thanks for the review.
Anime-Master7 – Thanks for the review.
Colm – Great minds think alike. As I was writing the end of chapter five I had the idea of a one on one between Harry and one of Voldemort's assassins. Hope you enjoyed the fight. Let me know if you did or didn't in a review. I am sorry about not updating earlier, I had a problem concerning floppy disks which made me unable to update.
Keep reading and reviewing, 'cos I'll keep writing.
Fireboy