******Author's Note:
The response to my plea for reviews was overwhelming. Thanks everyone! I promise not to beg anymore, or to threaten to quit writing. You've really made my day. Your comments… guesses… suggestions… and criticisms really make a lot of difference. My responses this time ran a bit long, so I've moved them to the bottom of the chapter to avoid header-clutter.
In your honor, I offer you this Two-for-one Week! Yes, that's right! An update on Wednesday, and you must only wait 3 days for Saturday's update! Yahoo! And Saturday's will be a DOOZY! They've got potions class, and wait'll you see what happens with--*cough* sorry, nearly gave something away.
In response to the response to the "Glad you're not dead," comment: That was a bit of good-natured ribbing! It was Dean that said it. I imagine Dean either knew for sure (from talking to Ginny) or strongly suspected that Harry was still alive. So, it'd be just like him, with his easy-going, smoothing-things-over ways to tease Harry in a friendly way, right? RIGHT??
Once again, enjoy this chapter. I enjoyed writing a bit about their classes, one of my favorite parts of Harry Potter. :)
'Til next time,
neoepiphany******
Chapter Eight
Wraiths and the New Professor
People were still equally eager to see Harry the next morning. A crowd formed around him as he made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. He spent such a long time greeting other Gryffindors and shaking hands that by the time he was able to break away, breakfast was nearly over.
Hermione yawned widely as Harry sat down. "Morning," she said. She wasn't eating, but leaning on her hand and dozing.
"What's with you?" Harry asked.
"She was up all night," Ron said. "Some first years in the girls' dormitory."
"Homesick," Hermione frowned. "Up all night crying. Those new twins." She nodded toward two tiny fair-haired girls who were poking their porridge dismally. "Flora and Fauna Brandywine. What kind of cruel people would you have to be to name your children Flora and Fauna?" Hermione said, shaking her head slightly.
Ron shrugged, shoveling sausages into his mouth. "Same kind that would call their son Draco."
A sudden fluttering and screeching announced the arrival of the morning mail. Harry watched as owl after owl dropped parcels of forgotten items into the laps of students all over the hall. Neville, whose memory hadn't improved at all, received a particularly large package, and as soon as he received it, he jumped out of his chair and ran out of the hall, a relieved expression on his face. A large tawny owl dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet on the table. As she fished sleepily in her pockets for a few knuts, Harry quickly scanned the paper.
To his surprise, he spotted himself on the front page. There was a large photo, clearly taken yesterday on Platform 9 ¾. His photographic self was talking to Neville and holding Hedwig's cage, his back mostly turned toward the camera.
"Geez, Harry," Ron said. "Can't we have a solid week without you making the papers?" Harry scowled at him, but Ron was clearly only teasing in a good natured way, so he let it go. He twisted Sirius's ring around his finger under the table while he read the paper.
"Harry Potter Lives!
The Boy who Lived Returns to Hogwarts.
Young Harry Potter, famous for having triumphed over You-Know-Who, was seen boarding the Hogwarts Express yesterday, despite rumors that he had been killed by dark wizards earlier this summer.
Witches and wizards worldwide rejoiced at the news. 'I knew he wasn't dead,' said Parikrama Patil, 43. 'He's a good friend of my daughters, after all, and, well, I fancy I know him well enough to know he'd make it okay. I saw him myself, you know.'
Ms. Chloe Gladwaiter, 42, of East Bartlett, noted that she too was confident that Harry Potter had survived the attack. 'Well, I heard the rumors, of course, but I never really believed them. He is the Boy who Lived, after all! It's not as if he's just some layabout teenager! No, I never doubted him for a minute.'"
Harry handed the paper to Hermione. She folded it over and tucked it into her bag. "I'm too sleepy to read right now," she explained. "I'd drop right off."
Suddenly, Professor McGonagall's voice rose over the hum of breakfast conversation. "Sixth Years! Sixth Years, your attention please!"
The talk died down slightly around the table as the sixth years turned their heads toward McGonagall. She held a stack of papers—presumably their new schedules—which she used to gesture as she spoke. "I have heard some concerns expressed about your OWL results. In light of the… unusual circumstances surrounding last years' OWL examinations, Professor Dumbledore has asked all teachers to alter their requirements for NEWT level courses accordingly. Therefore, some teachers have lowered their minimum grade by one level, wherever their exam might have been affected by outside circumstances."
"That was all of them, then," Dean muttered to Seamus and Ginny a few seats away. "Umbridge was here for them all."
"That explains why you both had potions books on your schedules," Hermione said. "You must have done just well enough to get into Potions."
Ron dropped his head to the table, rattling all the plates and spoons nearby. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve Snape? If I had known, I would've stopped at an A."
"You?" Harry moaned, his stomach turning. "What about me? Snape hates me. I'll probably be getting zero marks every lesson…"
"It's not as bad as all that, Harry!" Hermione said. "He can't just arbitrarily fail you!"
"Yes he can," Ron grumbled.
"He'll kind find a way," Harry nodded, remembering the look on Snapes face last year as he knocked Harry's potion onto the floor.
"Don't worry," Hermione said, a determined look in her eyes. "I'll help you outside of class if I have to—he won't fail you."
McGonagall passed by and handed them their schedules.
"Well, on the bright side, we have Double Care of Magical Creatures first, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione smiled.
"But Care of Magical Creatures is with the Slytherins," Ron pointed out.
"Maybe they all failed the OWL," Hermione said encouragingly, "and it'll be just us. They always were useless in that class."
After breakfast, they trooped down to Hagrid's cabin for the lesson. The class was much smaller than it had been the year before; it was mostly Gryffindors in the group. Unfortunately, Harry spotted Draco hanging around with Pansy Parkinson near the back of the crowd. The absence of Crabbe and Goyle, however, seemed to show that Hermione was at leat partially right; some of the Slytherins had failed the OWL. Everyone was staring around anxiously. Considering the kinds of dangerous monsters they had dealt with in the regular level class, they were all a little nervous about what kind of brutes Hagrid might consider NEWT standard.
Hagrid greeted them all with a big smile. "I'm glad ter see yeh've all done so well on yer OWLs," he said in a cheery voice. "Now, this year, as we've moved into the NEWT levels, we're on to bigger, trickier, and more interestin' creatures." Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged a glance at this. They knew that what Hagrid considered interesting, most people considered horribly terrifying. Parvati and Neville appeared to have made this connection as well.
"I thought about startin' yeh off with lots of differen' creatures, but I decided that it was best ter just dive right in. We're goin' ter spend this term studyin' a very dangerous, very rare, but very interestin' group of creatures. Today we're startin' Spirit creatures."
An "ooh!" of excitement escaped Hermione. The rest of the class looked baffled, however.
"Now," Hagrid went on, unperturbed. "Who can tell us what Spirit creatures are? Hermione?"
"They're a very rare type of creature. They have very strong magical properties, but they lack any type of physical body. Most of them can't be seen by the human eye without magical aid, and, if angered, they can be very dangerous."
"Good," Hagrid said. "Five points to Gryffindor. They're also very highly regulated by the Ministry of Magic, but they're dead difficult to control. Can anyone name the three kinds of spirit creatures?"
Hermione's hand shot up again, but no one else's did. Hagrid nodded toward her. "The three main groups of spirit creatures are the Benign, the Active, and the Theoretical. Benign spirit creatures don't interact with humans, but can be observed. The Active, which are more common and more dangerous, can and often do interact with wizards and muggles. The Theoretical are creatures that wizards have claimed to have discovered, but could not locate again."
"That's right," Hagrid nodded, smiling. "We're going ter start with some Benign creatures, jus' as practice. Spirit creatures take some getting used to. Today we're going ter study the Common European Wraith."
A few people's eyes widened in surprise. Harry's did as well—there was an ominous sound to that.
Hagrid pulled a little sack out of his pocket, and, opening it up, dumped a stone about the size of Harry's fist onto the ground. It was shiny and dark, like hematite, but it was humming very faintly. "This," Hagrid explained, "is a Wraith-stone. It draws 'em closer. It starts off just as soon as yeh take it out. By now, there should be plenty of 'em around."
Harry looked around. He didn't know what a wraith looked like, but he was pretty sure he didn't see any. Hermione and Neville both looked a bit pale; Hermione's eyes were darting back and forth frantically, her expression a mix between excitement and terror.
"Everyone take out yer wands," Hagrid said, "and repeat after me. Manes Acclarare!"
The class repeated the incantation. As soon as Harry said it, he felt bathed in chill air. The bright morning sky seemed to darken, and the color seemed to drain out of his vision.
He heard a few shrieks before he understood why things seemed so colorless. Then he realized. The air was thick with indistinct, ghostly shapes moving around them very quickly. They were a sort of grayish color, and they were shaped like billowing sheets. Each one had a vague, grotesque face, as though there were a person behind it, trying to push through. They were swirling around the Wraith-stone, faster and faster, like they were being flushed into it. They moved through solid objects—Hagrid's hut, trees, even students—without resistance. One passed through Harry—he expected it to feel cold, like it did when a ghost walked through him, but he didn't feel anything at all. It was eerie.
Hagrid snatched up the stone, and put it into its bag. The wraiths froze instantly as the humming stopped, and hovered in the air, looking confused and a little despondant. Most of the students were wide-eyed as they stared at the wraiths. The staring, ugly faces of the wraiths were horrible; they looked like drowned faces poking through the ice of a frozen lake.
"Are those… things… always around us?" Neville asked, his voice tremulous. He dodged as a gruesome looking wraith floated through him.
Hagrid nodded. "Yep. They aren' visible until yeh do the incantation. But don' let that bother yeh. Wraiths are blind. They can't see what yer doing, only sorta feel where yeh are."
Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown shrieked again as a particularly large Wraith suddenly sped toward them. A Slytherin boy flattened himself on the ground.
"They won' hurt yeh," Hagrid reassured them, smiling a little.
"But what's the point of them?" Draco demanded. He was trying to sound cocky, but he was looking as frightened as everyone else. His eyes kept darting back and forth between the swirling wraiths.
"They're a connection to another level of existence!" Hermione snapped. "They're living beings without bodies! What more could you need?"
"But they don't do anything besides float around, do they?" Pansy Parkinson snapped back.
Hagrid shook his head. "They're a Benign spirit. Whatever they do, it doesn' much affect us. We've seen 'em influence animals a little bit… make 'em change their mind abou' where they want ter go, an' that sorta thing, but it don' seem to do much to wizards. But that's not to say that we migh' not find out they can do somethin," he added in a menacing tone. "A lot of spirit creatures that we once thought were Benign turned out to be fighters if you bother 'em. That's why spirit creatures are very carefully regulated. Now, everyone take out your books, and read the chapter on wraiths. I want ten inches on what wraiths are useful for by next Monday." By the way Hagrid lingered on the word "useful," Harry guessed that he had just assigned the homework as payback to Draco and Pansy.
"That was a really good lesson, wasn't it?" Hermione said as they lounged in the courtyard during their break some time later. They had wanted to talk to Hagrid after the lesson, but he had hurried off toward the forest. Harry had a good suspicion what he was going to do there. "Especially for Hagrid. It was really informative, wasn't it?"
"Ugh, it was dead creepy. Really gave me the shivers, seeing that lot floating around," Ron said.
"Can you imagine? There could be dozens of them around right now," Harry said, looking around. They weren't quite as creepy when you couldn't see them, though, and thankfully, the incantation that made the Wraiths visible seemed to wear off after a little while.
"I doubt it," Hermione said. "Most Spirit creatures are pretty solitary. Humans are dangerous to them, especially wizards. The stone was the only thing that drew them last time."
"How do you know all this?" Harry frowned at her. Even for Hermione, she seemed to know a lot on the subject.
She smiled a little, and fiddled with her bag. "Actually, I read up on them a while ago. It was… well, in third year, when I had the time-turner. I was reading up on it, and there was a note that the wizard who invented the time turner also suggested the existence of one of the theoretical spirit creatures. I was curious, so I looked into it," she said, shrugging. "I just think this is a funny place for us to start the year. The wraiths are benign, but what if we get into Thairlings or Soul Eaters?"
"Soul Eaters?" Ron said, wheeling around to face her, wide eyed.
"Don't worry, it's a misnomer. They're not like dementors," she said dismissively. "They don't actually suck your soul out. Mind you, they are rather like a dementor's second cousin. Rather than sucking out your soul, they kind of infest it, like a parasite—"
"Stop now, Hermione," Harry said. "You're going to make me sick." A lot of the other sixth years, most of whom hadn't already been in Care of Magical Creatures, had turned to look at them. There were a lot of nervous glances. "Anyway," Harry added in a whisper, "knowing Hagrid, the more dangerous it is, the more likely we are to do it."
"They have a lot of possibility, though, Spirit creatures," Hermione said, thoughtfully. "There are quite a lot of them that can interact with wizards. If we could convince them to help us fight against Voldemort, we'd have a really powerful ally."
"Better than the giants," Ron nodded. "Especially if they're invisible and can float right through walls like that."
Hermione smiled at Ron. "Exactly, Ron. They'd be better than ghosts, even. Actually, there's a possibility that Hagrid is teaching us about them now for that very reason. If Dumbledore were to convince some of them to be our allies, then knowing more about them would be essential."
"Yeah, but then why'd he be teaching the Slytherins too? If they know, then if they join Voldemort, they could warn him," Harry pointed out.
"Possibly," Hermione said, fiddling with her bag again. "But I still think that's probably the answer."
"We'd better get going," Harry said, peeking at his watch. "I want to get to class a bit early and tell Tonks good luck." Hermione and Ron both agreed, so they set off for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
To their surprise, even though class wasn't set to start for another ten minutes, the room was already full. Everyone was murmuring about the new teacher. Tonks herself, restored to her normal heart-shaped face and short spiky hair (bright purple), had forsaken the muggle clothes Harry was used to seeing her in, and was instead wearing artfully faded robes in the same color as her hair. She was sitting on top of her desk, swinging her legs over the edge.
"Wotcher, Harry, Ron, Hermione," she murmured with a wink. "Don't give me away just yet, okay?" They nodded, grinning, and took their seats.
"I wonder what she'll be like," Seamus was murmuring to Dean. "I heard she was appointed by the ministry."
"I hope it won't be another Umbridge," Dean replied, rolling his eyes.
"Nah, couldn't be," Neville piped in. "The Ministry's admitted they were wrong now, haven't they? But did you see her? She looked like my gran. I hope she's not that strict."
Harry and Ron exchanged a smirk.
Lavender and Parvati were peering at Tonks. "Who does she think she is, sitting there like that? When that teacher woman gets here, she's going to be in trouble, all right," Parvati muttered.
"Does she look like a seventh year to you? And why's she out of uniform?" Lavender said, frowning.
Tonks peered at her wristwatch. "Let's get to it," she said, jumping off the desk. A few people looked at her, confused.
"B-But you're not—I mean—" sputtered Neville.
"Who are you?" demanded Parvati, frowning.
"Glad you asked. I'm your new professor—Tonks," she said, grinning.
"How old are you?" Lavender demanded, her eybrows raised. "You're only… what, eighteen or so?"
"I'm a bit older than that," Tonks shrugged, "but I am a fully trained Ministry Auror."
A few people raised their eyebrows, impressed or surprised. It was hard to tell which.
"You're not the same person as yesterday," one girl suggested, suspicious.
"I am," she said, grinning. "I just wore my more teacherly appearance yesterday. Thought it was best to give you the kind of look you were expecting."
"What?" Seamus asked. "Was that a wig or something?"
"No, I'm a metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance at well. Very handy for stealth. Observe," she said, jumping off the desk.
She stood before them, and screwed up her face in concentration. Suddenly, her spiky purple hair sprouted into a mane of blond curls, not unlike Mira's. There was an impressed "Oooh!" from the class. She concentrated again, and it became a short crop of sleek raven hair. Now, most everyone was staring openmouthed, not unlike the way they watched Professor McGonagall turn into a cat. Hermione, however, seemed to be fighting giggles, and even Harry couldn't help but smile. Tonks moved on to various other facial features, making herself look truly bizarre in the process.
The demonstration finished, and Tonks returned her hair to its original spiky purple. Most people looked impressed, but a handful still looked a bit skeptical. Tonks raised her eyebrows. "Any other questions?" she asked.
"Yes," said Hermione. Harry and Ron both looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"Go ahead, Hermi—er, I mean, Miss Granger," said Tonks. She hefted herself back up onto the desk. There was a loud crash, and the class erupted into giggles as Tonks jumped back up, the back of her robes covered with black ink. She had sat on her inkwell. "Oh devilment," she muttered, and flicked her wand, vanishing the spreading ink. "Go ahead."
Hermione smiled apologetically before she spoke. "You're an auror. With all the dark wizards running loose, and attacks happening every few weeks now, why would they send you here? Don't they need you out there?" There were a few nods around the room.
Tonks actually blushed. The pink flush creeping across her pale, heart-shaped face made her look a bit like a badly made Valentine. "The thing is… er, I'm a bit of a butterfingers. I had a bit of trouble, and… well, the Ministry thought that, for now, I would be most valuable here, teaching you how to protect yourselves."
Harry and Ron grinned at each other discreetly. Harry could imagine what had happened. Tonks had probably been on a mission, tracking down Death Eaters, and, just as she closed in on them, knocked something over. Harry could almost see the scattering Death Eaters, the withering looks of the other Aurors, and Tonks's face as she said "Oops?" He bit his lip to keep from laughing.
"Anyway," Tonks went on, "I don't think there's too much point in impressing on you how important these lessons are. After last year's little fiasco, you're way behind, and the way things are at the moment… well, self-defense is pretty important, you know. So, I think we ought to start with dueling. Take out your wands, please, and everyone stand up." Tonks jumped off the desk, and, with a swish of her wand, the desks rose over their heads and flew to the sides of the room. Unlike when Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick did it, however, the desks did not stack themselves in tidy rows. Rather, they banged together loudly, and fell in tangled heaps along the walls.
"Now, I know that you already know the Shield charm, the Disarming charm, and some other rather useful little tidbits, but I think today we'll practice the Reversal Jinx," she said, brandishing her wand. "This is a very tricky, but very useful little spell. When you are attacked--" (Harry couldn't help noticing that she said "when" rather than "if") "--then you can use this spell to reverse the effects of jinxes that your opponent throws at you. You have to be extremely careful, though! Not only do you have to know what spell your enemy is going to use, you have to understand the precise effects. It's not pretty if you reverse what you think is going to be the Jelly-legs curse, and it turns out to be the Tickling curse."
Harry cringed. He didn't know exactly what the opposite effects of the tickling curse might be, but it didn't sound pleasant.
"Also, bear in mind that you should never use this Jinx against the Killing curse. No one knows exactly what the effects would be, and I don't think you'd want to be the one to find out," Tonks went on, wiggling her eyebrows. "Now, let's practice the incantation without wands, shall we? This is the wand movement," she said, demonstrating the quick swish. "Reversio!"
"Reversio," the class repeated dutifully.
"Good," Tonks said. "Now, let's give it a try. Who wants to go first? Harry, fancy a go?"
Harry sighed inwardly. Somehow, he'd known that she'd call on him. He walked to the front of the room, and faced Tonks.
"Now, I'll curse you, and you just reverse the spell, okay? I'll start with a nice easy one" she said, smiling. Harry just nodded. Knowing what a klutz Tonks was, he was a little nervous about being her guinea pig.
"Ready? Tarantallegra!" she shouted.
"Reversio!" Harry shouted, swishing his wand in front of him. Rather than his legs suddenly dancing of their own accord, Harry felt suddenly very stable and well grounded. He was sure that no matter how far he leaned, he wouldn't fall.
"Excellent, Harry!" Tonks said, pleased. "Now, who's next?"
Tonks cast a variety of curses at the class, and almost everyone managed to at least lessen the effects. (Neville missed on the first try an got hit by the Twitchy Ears Curse, and Parvati messed up the wand movement, so the Tripping Jinx that Tonks had sent at her made her flip upside down. It took three people to get her righted again, and her robes kept trying to fly up over her head.) Ron had reversed a Memory charm, so he was immersed in his own memories, which, he murmured to Harry, had become unusually acute.
"It's like watching my own life happening over again. I can remember everything—I can remember being a baby, I can remember the names of every person I've ever met—I even remember what Binns said in our last History of Magic class before the OWLs," Ron said, pleased. He frowned, suddenly. "Wish someone'd taught us this last year. We could've cast memory charms on each other and not had to study at all!"
The class was punctuated by squeals and shouts as Tonks's curses alternately hit their victims, or had bizarre effects in the reverse. At one point, Seamus turned into a hedgehog, and Tonks worried that she'd have to fetch Professor McGonagall to reverse the effects. Fortunately, Hermione was able to set him right again. Once they'd all successfully managed to reverse a simple curse, Tonks flicked her wand, and the desks moved back out into the room, where they arranged themselves in crooked rows. "Now, I'm going to give you a list of curses that you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever reverse, no matter what. I'd suggest you write it down..." They spent the rest of the lesson taking down lists of spells. When the bell finally rang, they stood up to go, everyone grinning.
"Before you go—" Tonks shouted over the din of students gathering their things, "—I just wanted you to know that if anyone should want to have… I don't know, study groups or something, well, that wouldn't bother me at all. In fact, I'd encourage it."
The Gryffindors looked around at each other, smiling. It looked like Dumbledore's Army would be re-forming.
*****************
Reference for Spirit creatures: OotP, Chapter 7 ("The Ministry of Magic.") Spoken by the elevator: "'Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisons.'"
Reviewer Responses!
Szihuoko: I won't say for sure whether there's something actually *wrong* with the ring, but don't worry—I'm taking care to keep things (in general) well within the realms of believability. I'm going to great lengths to follow JK Rowling's patterns of laying all those little hints inside the text for you to find, so that at the very end you say, "Ooooh, of course! Why didn't I see it before?" Hopefully, that will keep things from getting unbelievable. Alas, no Harry-Cho ship in this story. I think that was pretty much over at the end of the fifth book. Harry seemed to have lost his interest. Cho just popped by the car to say she was glad he wasn't dead; you might have noticed they seemed pretty business-like about the whole conversation? (I was never a Harry/Cho shipper either. I am a Harry/somebody shipper, but I honestly doubt even that will manifest in this particular fic. Sorry!) Do keep the theories and the advice coming. Especially the advice.
Wynjara: Bear with me! All will be revealed in time! Mwahaha! I promise that by the end of the story, you'll know all you need to know about both things.
Queen Cari: Thank you very much. ^_^ I'm glad you liked the Hat. I was pretty proud of it myself.
Iniysa: Thanks! Don't worry, I won't stop writing.
Wiccan Pussy Kat: Thanks! Especially thanks for liking the Sorting Song. Yep, not a H/G shipper. Although I think the two of them have some kind of potential, I'd be very disappointed if anything ever came of it. Does that make sense?
As to your observations about Mira… well, there's a lot I'd like to say in response… but, well, right now there are three mysteries we're supposed to be pondering. (For those playing at home: 1) How did the death eaters get onto Privet Drive? 2) What's up with Mira? And 3) What's up with that ring?) Since Mira is one of those mysteries, I don't want to say anything much… But, I will say this: you have some astute observations in there. And you think she's evil, huh? Interesting…
mpe: An excellent question. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.
Rathien1: *grin* Yeah, that was a bit of goodnatured ribbing. Chuckles all around sort of thing.
Scorpion Lord: I can't say how many chapters I'm planning, because I honestly don't know. I have the story all planned, but I don't know how many chapters it will take to actually get it on paper. Sometimes something that I think will take only a few pages ends up requiring its own chapter. What started as a little fic has rapidly turned into a novel of Goblet of Fire proportions…
I'm glad you like Tonks as the DADA teacher! I wouldn't say this particular lesson was hilarious, but stay tuned. *wink wink* Wish I could hear your suspicions about the ring! (Mwahaha!) I hope this early post keeps you from imploding. :) And you're right about not pleading for reviews anymore. I won't do it from now on, promise. Of course, that's not to say people can't review.
The response to my plea for reviews was overwhelming. Thanks everyone! I promise not to beg anymore, or to threaten to quit writing. You've really made my day. Your comments… guesses… suggestions… and criticisms really make a lot of difference. My responses this time ran a bit long, so I've moved them to the bottom of the chapter to avoid header-clutter.
In your honor, I offer you this Two-for-one Week! Yes, that's right! An update on Wednesday, and you must only wait 3 days for Saturday's update! Yahoo! And Saturday's will be a DOOZY! They've got potions class, and wait'll you see what happens with--*cough* sorry, nearly gave something away.
In response to the response to the "Glad you're not dead," comment: That was a bit of good-natured ribbing! It was Dean that said it. I imagine Dean either knew for sure (from talking to Ginny) or strongly suspected that Harry was still alive. So, it'd be just like him, with his easy-going, smoothing-things-over ways to tease Harry in a friendly way, right? RIGHT??
Once again, enjoy this chapter. I enjoyed writing a bit about their classes, one of my favorite parts of Harry Potter. :)
'Til next time,
neoepiphany******
Chapter Eight
Wraiths and the New Professor
People were still equally eager to see Harry the next morning. A crowd formed around him as he made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. He spent such a long time greeting other Gryffindors and shaking hands that by the time he was able to break away, breakfast was nearly over.
Hermione yawned widely as Harry sat down. "Morning," she said. She wasn't eating, but leaning on her hand and dozing.
"What's with you?" Harry asked.
"She was up all night," Ron said. "Some first years in the girls' dormitory."
"Homesick," Hermione frowned. "Up all night crying. Those new twins." She nodded toward two tiny fair-haired girls who were poking their porridge dismally. "Flora and Fauna Brandywine. What kind of cruel people would you have to be to name your children Flora and Fauna?" Hermione said, shaking her head slightly.
Ron shrugged, shoveling sausages into his mouth. "Same kind that would call their son Draco."
A sudden fluttering and screeching announced the arrival of the morning mail. Harry watched as owl after owl dropped parcels of forgotten items into the laps of students all over the hall. Neville, whose memory hadn't improved at all, received a particularly large package, and as soon as he received it, he jumped out of his chair and ran out of the hall, a relieved expression on his face. A large tawny owl dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet on the table. As she fished sleepily in her pockets for a few knuts, Harry quickly scanned the paper.
To his surprise, he spotted himself on the front page. There was a large photo, clearly taken yesterday on Platform 9 ¾. His photographic self was talking to Neville and holding Hedwig's cage, his back mostly turned toward the camera.
"Geez, Harry," Ron said. "Can't we have a solid week without you making the papers?" Harry scowled at him, but Ron was clearly only teasing in a good natured way, so he let it go. He twisted Sirius's ring around his finger under the table while he read the paper.
"Harry Potter Lives!
The Boy who Lived Returns to Hogwarts.
Young Harry Potter, famous for having triumphed over You-Know-Who, was seen boarding the Hogwarts Express yesterday, despite rumors that he had been killed by dark wizards earlier this summer.
Witches and wizards worldwide rejoiced at the news. 'I knew he wasn't dead,' said Parikrama Patil, 43. 'He's a good friend of my daughters, after all, and, well, I fancy I know him well enough to know he'd make it okay. I saw him myself, you know.'
Ms. Chloe Gladwaiter, 42, of East Bartlett, noted that she too was confident that Harry Potter had survived the attack. 'Well, I heard the rumors, of course, but I never really believed them. He is the Boy who Lived, after all! It's not as if he's just some layabout teenager! No, I never doubted him for a minute.'"
Harry handed the paper to Hermione. She folded it over and tucked it into her bag. "I'm too sleepy to read right now," she explained. "I'd drop right off."
Suddenly, Professor McGonagall's voice rose over the hum of breakfast conversation. "Sixth Years! Sixth Years, your attention please!"
The talk died down slightly around the table as the sixth years turned their heads toward McGonagall. She held a stack of papers—presumably their new schedules—which she used to gesture as she spoke. "I have heard some concerns expressed about your OWL results. In light of the… unusual circumstances surrounding last years' OWL examinations, Professor Dumbledore has asked all teachers to alter their requirements for NEWT level courses accordingly. Therefore, some teachers have lowered their minimum grade by one level, wherever their exam might have been affected by outside circumstances."
"That was all of them, then," Dean muttered to Seamus and Ginny a few seats away. "Umbridge was here for them all."
"That explains why you both had potions books on your schedules," Hermione said. "You must have done just well enough to get into Potions."
Ron dropped his head to the table, rattling all the plates and spoons nearby. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve Snape? If I had known, I would've stopped at an A."
"You?" Harry moaned, his stomach turning. "What about me? Snape hates me. I'll probably be getting zero marks every lesson…"
"It's not as bad as all that, Harry!" Hermione said. "He can't just arbitrarily fail you!"
"Yes he can," Ron grumbled.
"He'll kind find a way," Harry nodded, remembering the look on Snapes face last year as he knocked Harry's potion onto the floor.
"Don't worry," Hermione said, a determined look in her eyes. "I'll help you outside of class if I have to—he won't fail you."
McGonagall passed by and handed them their schedules.
"Well, on the bright side, we have Double Care of Magical Creatures first, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione smiled.
"But Care of Magical Creatures is with the Slytherins," Ron pointed out.
"Maybe they all failed the OWL," Hermione said encouragingly, "and it'll be just us. They always were useless in that class."
After breakfast, they trooped down to Hagrid's cabin for the lesson. The class was much smaller than it had been the year before; it was mostly Gryffindors in the group. Unfortunately, Harry spotted Draco hanging around with Pansy Parkinson near the back of the crowd. The absence of Crabbe and Goyle, however, seemed to show that Hermione was at leat partially right; some of the Slytherins had failed the OWL. Everyone was staring around anxiously. Considering the kinds of dangerous monsters they had dealt with in the regular level class, they were all a little nervous about what kind of brutes Hagrid might consider NEWT standard.
Hagrid greeted them all with a big smile. "I'm glad ter see yeh've all done so well on yer OWLs," he said in a cheery voice. "Now, this year, as we've moved into the NEWT levels, we're on to bigger, trickier, and more interestin' creatures." Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged a glance at this. They knew that what Hagrid considered interesting, most people considered horribly terrifying. Parvati and Neville appeared to have made this connection as well.
"I thought about startin' yeh off with lots of differen' creatures, but I decided that it was best ter just dive right in. We're goin' ter spend this term studyin' a very dangerous, very rare, but very interestin' group of creatures. Today we're startin' Spirit creatures."
An "ooh!" of excitement escaped Hermione. The rest of the class looked baffled, however.
"Now," Hagrid went on, unperturbed. "Who can tell us what Spirit creatures are? Hermione?"
"They're a very rare type of creature. They have very strong magical properties, but they lack any type of physical body. Most of them can't be seen by the human eye without magical aid, and, if angered, they can be very dangerous."
"Good," Hagrid said. "Five points to Gryffindor. They're also very highly regulated by the Ministry of Magic, but they're dead difficult to control. Can anyone name the three kinds of spirit creatures?"
Hermione's hand shot up again, but no one else's did. Hagrid nodded toward her. "The three main groups of spirit creatures are the Benign, the Active, and the Theoretical. Benign spirit creatures don't interact with humans, but can be observed. The Active, which are more common and more dangerous, can and often do interact with wizards and muggles. The Theoretical are creatures that wizards have claimed to have discovered, but could not locate again."
"That's right," Hagrid nodded, smiling. "We're going ter start with some Benign creatures, jus' as practice. Spirit creatures take some getting used to. Today we're going ter study the Common European Wraith."
A few people's eyes widened in surprise. Harry's did as well—there was an ominous sound to that.
Hagrid pulled a little sack out of his pocket, and, opening it up, dumped a stone about the size of Harry's fist onto the ground. It was shiny and dark, like hematite, but it was humming very faintly. "This," Hagrid explained, "is a Wraith-stone. It draws 'em closer. It starts off just as soon as yeh take it out. By now, there should be plenty of 'em around."
Harry looked around. He didn't know what a wraith looked like, but he was pretty sure he didn't see any. Hermione and Neville both looked a bit pale; Hermione's eyes were darting back and forth frantically, her expression a mix between excitement and terror.
"Everyone take out yer wands," Hagrid said, "and repeat after me. Manes Acclarare!"
The class repeated the incantation. As soon as Harry said it, he felt bathed in chill air. The bright morning sky seemed to darken, and the color seemed to drain out of his vision.
He heard a few shrieks before he understood why things seemed so colorless. Then he realized. The air was thick with indistinct, ghostly shapes moving around them very quickly. They were a sort of grayish color, and they were shaped like billowing sheets. Each one had a vague, grotesque face, as though there were a person behind it, trying to push through. They were swirling around the Wraith-stone, faster and faster, like they were being flushed into it. They moved through solid objects—Hagrid's hut, trees, even students—without resistance. One passed through Harry—he expected it to feel cold, like it did when a ghost walked through him, but he didn't feel anything at all. It was eerie.
Hagrid snatched up the stone, and put it into its bag. The wraiths froze instantly as the humming stopped, and hovered in the air, looking confused and a little despondant. Most of the students were wide-eyed as they stared at the wraiths. The staring, ugly faces of the wraiths were horrible; they looked like drowned faces poking through the ice of a frozen lake.
"Are those… things… always around us?" Neville asked, his voice tremulous. He dodged as a gruesome looking wraith floated through him.
Hagrid nodded. "Yep. They aren' visible until yeh do the incantation. But don' let that bother yeh. Wraiths are blind. They can't see what yer doing, only sorta feel where yeh are."
Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown shrieked again as a particularly large Wraith suddenly sped toward them. A Slytherin boy flattened himself on the ground.
"They won' hurt yeh," Hagrid reassured them, smiling a little.
"But what's the point of them?" Draco demanded. He was trying to sound cocky, but he was looking as frightened as everyone else. His eyes kept darting back and forth between the swirling wraiths.
"They're a connection to another level of existence!" Hermione snapped. "They're living beings without bodies! What more could you need?"
"But they don't do anything besides float around, do they?" Pansy Parkinson snapped back.
Hagrid shook his head. "They're a Benign spirit. Whatever they do, it doesn' much affect us. We've seen 'em influence animals a little bit… make 'em change their mind abou' where they want ter go, an' that sorta thing, but it don' seem to do much to wizards. But that's not to say that we migh' not find out they can do somethin," he added in a menacing tone. "A lot of spirit creatures that we once thought were Benign turned out to be fighters if you bother 'em. That's why spirit creatures are very carefully regulated. Now, everyone take out your books, and read the chapter on wraiths. I want ten inches on what wraiths are useful for by next Monday." By the way Hagrid lingered on the word "useful," Harry guessed that he had just assigned the homework as payback to Draco and Pansy.
"That was a really good lesson, wasn't it?" Hermione said as they lounged in the courtyard during their break some time later. They had wanted to talk to Hagrid after the lesson, but he had hurried off toward the forest. Harry had a good suspicion what he was going to do there. "Especially for Hagrid. It was really informative, wasn't it?"
"Ugh, it was dead creepy. Really gave me the shivers, seeing that lot floating around," Ron said.
"Can you imagine? There could be dozens of them around right now," Harry said, looking around. They weren't quite as creepy when you couldn't see them, though, and thankfully, the incantation that made the Wraiths visible seemed to wear off after a little while.
"I doubt it," Hermione said. "Most Spirit creatures are pretty solitary. Humans are dangerous to them, especially wizards. The stone was the only thing that drew them last time."
"How do you know all this?" Harry frowned at her. Even for Hermione, she seemed to know a lot on the subject.
She smiled a little, and fiddled with her bag. "Actually, I read up on them a while ago. It was… well, in third year, when I had the time-turner. I was reading up on it, and there was a note that the wizard who invented the time turner also suggested the existence of one of the theoretical spirit creatures. I was curious, so I looked into it," she said, shrugging. "I just think this is a funny place for us to start the year. The wraiths are benign, but what if we get into Thairlings or Soul Eaters?"
"Soul Eaters?" Ron said, wheeling around to face her, wide eyed.
"Don't worry, it's a misnomer. They're not like dementors," she said dismissively. "They don't actually suck your soul out. Mind you, they are rather like a dementor's second cousin. Rather than sucking out your soul, they kind of infest it, like a parasite—"
"Stop now, Hermione," Harry said. "You're going to make me sick." A lot of the other sixth years, most of whom hadn't already been in Care of Magical Creatures, had turned to look at them. There were a lot of nervous glances. "Anyway," Harry added in a whisper, "knowing Hagrid, the more dangerous it is, the more likely we are to do it."
"They have a lot of possibility, though, Spirit creatures," Hermione said, thoughtfully. "There are quite a lot of them that can interact with wizards. If we could convince them to help us fight against Voldemort, we'd have a really powerful ally."
"Better than the giants," Ron nodded. "Especially if they're invisible and can float right through walls like that."
Hermione smiled at Ron. "Exactly, Ron. They'd be better than ghosts, even. Actually, there's a possibility that Hagrid is teaching us about them now for that very reason. If Dumbledore were to convince some of them to be our allies, then knowing more about them would be essential."
"Yeah, but then why'd he be teaching the Slytherins too? If they know, then if they join Voldemort, they could warn him," Harry pointed out.
"Possibly," Hermione said, fiddling with her bag again. "But I still think that's probably the answer."
"We'd better get going," Harry said, peeking at his watch. "I want to get to class a bit early and tell Tonks good luck." Hermione and Ron both agreed, so they set off for the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
To their surprise, even though class wasn't set to start for another ten minutes, the room was already full. Everyone was murmuring about the new teacher. Tonks herself, restored to her normal heart-shaped face and short spiky hair (bright purple), had forsaken the muggle clothes Harry was used to seeing her in, and was instead wearing artfully faded robes in the same color as her hair. She was sitting on top of her desk, swinging her legs over the edge.
"Wotcher, Harry, Ron, Hermione," she murmured with a wink. "Don't give me away just yet, okay?" They nodded, grinning, and took their seats.
"I wonder what she'll be like," Seamus was murmuring to Dean. "I heard she was appointed by the ministry."
"I hope it won't be another Umbridge," Dean replied, rolling his eyes.
"Nah, couldn't be," Neville piped in. "The Ministry's admitted they were wrong now, haven't they? But did you see her? She looked like my gran. I hope she's not that strict."
Harry and Ron exchanged a smirk.
Lavender and Parvati were peering at Tonks. "Who does she think she is, sitting there like that? When that teacher woman gets here, she's going to be in trouble, all right," Parvati muttered.
"Does she look like a seventh year to you? And why's she out of uniform?" Lavender said, frowning.
Tonks peered at her wristwatch. "Let's get to it," she said, jumping off the desk. A few people looked at her, confused.
"B-But you're not—I mean—" sputtered Neville.
"Who are you?" demanded Parvati, frowning.
"Glad you asked. I'm your new professor—Tonks," she said, grinning.
"How old are you?" Lavender demanded, her eybrows raised. "You're only… what, eighteen or so?"
"I'm a bit older than that," Tonks shrugged, "but I am a fully trained Ministry Auror."
A few people raised their eyebrows, impressed or surprised. It was hard to tell which.
"You're not the same person as yesterday," one girl suggested, suspicious.
"I am," she said, grinning. "I just wore my more teacherly appearance yesterday. Thought it was best to give you the kind of look you were expecting."
"What?" Seamus asked. "Was that a wig or something?"
"No, I'm a metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance at well. Very handy for stealth. Observe," she said, jumping off the desk.
She stood before them, and screwed up her face in concentration. Suddenly, her spiky purple hair sprouted into a mane of blond curls, not unlike Mira's. There was an impressed "Oooh!" from the class. She concentrated again, and it became a short crop of sleek raven hair. Now, most everyone was staring openmouthed, not unlike the way they watched Professor McGonagall turn into a cat. Hermione, however, seemed to be fighting giggles, and even Harry couldn't help but smile. Tonks moved on to various other facial features, making herself look truly bizarre in the process.
The demonstration finished, and Tonks returned her hair to its original spiky purple. Most people looked impressed, but a handful still looked a bit skeptical. Tonks raised her eyebrows. "Any other questions?" she asked.
"Yes," said Hermione. Harry and Ron both looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"Go ahead, Hermi—er, I mean, Miss Granger," said Tonks. She hefted herself back up onto the desk. There was a loud crash, and the class erupted into giggles as Tonks jumped back up, the back of her robes covered with black ink. She had sat on her inkwell. "Oh devilment," she muttered, and flicked her wand, vanishing the spreading ink. "Go ahead."
Hermione smiled apologetically before she spoke. "You're an auror. With all the dark wizards running loose, and attacks happening every few weeks now, why would they send you here? Don't they need you out there?" There were a few nods around the room.
Tonks actually blushed. The pink flush creeping across her pale, heart-shaped face made her look a bit like a badly made Valentine. "The thing is… er, I'm a bit of a butterfingers. I had a bit of trouble, and… well, the Ministry thought that, for now, I would be most valuable here, teaching you how to protect yourselves."
Harry and Ron grinned at each other discreetly. Harry could imagine what had happened. Tonks had probably been on a mission, tracking down Death Eaters, and, just as she closed in on them, knocked something over. Harry could almost see the scattering Death Eaters, the withering looks of the other Aurors, and Tonks's face as she said "Oops?" He bit his lip to keep from laughing.
"Anyway," Tonks went on, "I don't think there's too much point in impressing on you how important these lessons are. After last year's little fiasco, you're way behind, and the way things are at the moment… well, self-defense is pretty important, you know. So, I think we ought to start with dueling. Take out your wands, please, and everyone stand up." Tonks jumped off the desk, and, with a swish of her wand, the desks rose over their heads and flew to the sides of the room. Unlike when Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick did it, however, the desks did not stack themselves in tidy rows. Rather, they banged together loudly, and fell in tangled heaps along the walls.
"Now, I know that you already know the Shield charm, the Disarming charm, and some other rather useful little tidbits, but I think today we'll practice the Reversal Jinx," she said, brandishing her wand. "This is a very tricky, but very useful little spell. When you are attacked--" (Harry couldn't help noticing that she said "when" rather than "if") "--then you can use this spell to reverse the effects of jinxes that your opponent throws at you. You have to be extremely careful, though! Not only do you have to know what spell your enemy is going to use, you have to understand the precise effects. It's not pretty if you reverse what you think is going to be the Jelly-legs curse, and it turns out to be the Tickling curse."
Harry cringed. He didn't know exactly what the opposite effects of the tickling curse might be, but it didn't sound pleasant.
"Also, bear in mind that you should never use this Jinx against the Killing curse. No one knows exactly what the effects would be, and I don't think you'd want to be the one to find out," Tonks went on, wiggling her eyebrows. "Now, let's practice the incantation without wands, shall we? This is the wand movement," she said, demonstrating the quick swish. "Reversio!"
"Reversio," the class repeated dutifully.
"Good," Tonks said. "Now, let's give it a try. Who wants to go first? Harry, fancy a go?"
Harry sighed inwardly. Somehow, he'd known that she'd call on him. He walked to the front of the room, and faced Tonks.
"Now, I'll curse you, and you just reverse the spell, okay? I'll start with a nice easy one" she said, smiling. Harry just nodded. Knowing what a klutz Tonks was, he was a little nervous about being her guinea pig.
"Ready? Tarantallegra!" she shouted.
"Reversio!" Harry shouted, swishing his wand in front of him. Rather than his legs suddenly dancing of their own accord, Harry felt suddenly very stable and well grounded. He was sure that no matter how far he leaned, he wouldn't fall.
"Excellent, Harry!" Tonks said, pleased. "Now, who's next?"
Tonks cast a variety of curses at the class, and almost everyone managed to at least lessen the effects. (Neville missed on the first try an got hit by the Twitchy Ears Curse, and Parvati messed up the wand movement, so the Tripping Jinx that Tonks had sent at her made her flip upside down. It took three people to get her righted again, and her robes kept trying to fly up over her head.) Ron had reversed a Memory charm, so he was immersed in his own memories, which, he murmured to Harry, had become unusually acute.
"It's like watching my own life happening over again. I can remember everything—I can remember being a baby, I can remember the names of every person I've ever met—I even remember what Binns said in our last History of Magic class before the OWLs," Ron said, pleased. He frowned, suddenly. "Wish someone'd taught us this last year. We could've cast memory charms on each other and not had to study at all!"
The class was punctuated by squeals and shouts as Tonks's curses alternately hit their victims, or had bizarre effects in the reverse. At one point, Seamus turned into a hedgehog, and Tonks worried that she'd have to fetch Professor McGonagall to reverse the effects. Fortunately, Hermione was able to set him right again. Once they'd all successfully managed to reverse a simple curse, Tonks flicked her wand, and the desks moved back out into the room, where they arranged themselves in crooked rows. "Now, I'm going to give you a list of curses that you should never, ever, ever, ever, ever reverse, no matter what. I'd suggest you write it down..." They spent the rest of the lesson taking down lists of spells. When the bell finally rang, they stood up to go, everyone grinning.
"Before you go—" Tonks shouted over the din of students gathering their things, "—I just wanted you to know that if anyone should want to have… I don't know, study groups or something, well, that wouldn't bother me at all. In fact, I'd encourage it."
The Gryffindors looked around at each other, smiling. It looked like Dumbledore's Army would be re-forming.
*****************
Reference for Spirit creatures: OotP, Chapter 7 ("The Ministry of Magic.") Spoken by the elevator: "'Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit Divisons.'"
Reviewer Responses!
Szihuoko: I won't say for sure whether there's something actually *wrong* with the ring, but don't worry—I'm taking care to keep things (in general) well within the realms of believability. I'm going to great lengths to follow JK Rowling's patterns of laying all those little hints inside the text for you to find, so that at the very end you say, "Ooooh, of course! Why didn't I see it before?" Hopefully, that will keep things from getting unbelievable. Alas, no Harry-Cho ship in this story. I think that was pretty much over at the end of the fifth book. Harry seemed to have lost his interest. Cho just popped by the car to say she was glad he wasn't dead; you might have noticed they seemed pretty business-like about the whole conversation? (I was never a Harry/Cho shipper either. I am a Harry/somebody shipper, but I honestly doubt even that will manifest in this particular fic. Sorry!) Do keep the theories and the advice coming. Especially the advice.
Wynjara: Bear with me! All will be revealed in time! Mwahaha! I promise that by the end of the story, you'll know all you need to know about both things.
Queen Cari: Thank you very much. ^_^ I'm glad you liked the Hat. I was pretty proud of it myself.
Iniysa: Thanks! Don't worry, I won't stop writing.
Wiccan Pussy Kat: Thanks! Especially thanks for liking the Sorting Song. Yep, not a H/G shipper. Although I think the two of them have some kind of potential, I'd be very disappointed if anything ever came of it. Does that make sense?
As to your observations about Mira… well, there's a lot I'd like to say in response… but, well, right now there are three mysteries we're supposed to be pondering. (For those playing at home: 1) How did the death eaters get onto Privet Drive? 2) What's up with Mira? And 3) What's up with that ring?) Since Mira is one of those mysteries, I don't want to say anything much… But, I will say this: you have some astute observations in there. And you think she's evil, huh? Interesting…
mpe: An excellent question. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.
Rathien1: *grin* Yeah, that was a bit of goodnatured ribbing. Chuckles all around sort of thing.
Scorpion Lord: I can't say how many chapters I'm planning, because I honestly don't know. I have the story all planned, but I don't know how many chapters it will take to actually get it on paper. Sometimes something that I think will take only a few pages ends up requiring its own chapter. What started as a little fic has rapidly turned into a novel of Goblet of Fire proportions…
I'm glad you like Tonks as the DADA teacher! I wouldn't say this particular lesson was hilarious, but stay tuned. *wink wink* Wish I could hear your suspicions about the ring! (Mwahaha!) I hope this early post keeps you from imploding. :) And you're right about not pleading for reviews anymore. I won't do it from now on, promise. Of course, that's not to say people can't review.