Chapter Eight:
Heirs of Mischief
The next morning came swiftly. Harry awoke and the first thing that greeted him after he groped for his eyeglasses on the nightstand, was Sirius' smile from his portrait on the end table next to Harry's bed.
"Good morning, Sirius," greeted Harry groggily.
"You too," said Sirius and with a frown he added, "You'd better hurry, I saw everyone else leave already."
Harry nodded, and quickly changed to his robes. With one last wave to Sirius Harry went down to the Common Room where he found Ron and Hermione.
"You've been ages!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Shall, we go then?" asked Ron.
As all three of them made their way through the portrait hole on their way to the Great Hall, Hermione asked,
"Who were you talking to?"
"Sirius," answered Harry before he remembered that he hadn't told her about the portrait.
"Sirius?" asked Hermione as though questioning Harry's sanity.
"Yeah, Dumbledore gave me a picture of him for my birthday last night," stated Harry.
"That was really thoughtful of him wasn't it?" asked Hermione as they drew nearer to the Great Hall.
"Yeah, it sure was," replied Harry as they entered the Great Hall and found seats at the Gryffindor Table.
The ceiling was a wonderful blue this morning, Harry noticed as he helped himself to generous amounts of kidney pie. Ron was eating his fair share of food this morning as well but Hermione hadn't touched any of her food.
"Back on a hunger strike are we?" asked Ron through a mouth full of porridge.
Hermione snapped out of her reverie and retorted, "No, just thinking."
Ron looked at Harry and added, "You know most people can think and eat at the same time."
Hermione frowned but said nothing and defiantly ate her grapefruit. Harry was just about to ask them to stop sniping at each other for what felt like the umpteenth time when the owls arrived with the morning post. They came swooping in from above with a flurry of wings.
A tawny delivery owl dropped a copy of The Daily Prophet next to Hermione's bowl, stopping her from making saying anything to Ron. Hermione paid the owl and read the headline. This caused her to drop the paper into her bowl.
"What?" asked Ron snatching up the Prophet.
Ron read the headline and almost dropped the paper himself. He handed it to Harry with a look of shock on his face. Harry seized the paper and read:
Ministry Break-In
The Ministry of Magic has faced yet another break-in last night, one on their very own premises. The culprits broke into the Department of Ancient Languages, a sub-department of the Department of Magical-Cooperation. Several items capable of aiding with manuscript translation were taken and the only person present was placed under an excessively powerful Memory Charm. He is currently in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies No other damage was done to him or anyone else near the Department.
"Another break-in?" asked Harry, "So?"
"Harry, think. An original copy of The Forgotten Arts: Ancient Self-Protection is stolen, then items that enable the user to obtain ancient translations are taken too," stated Hermione, "In the original copy of that book there is bound to be something or some things in it that weren't translated completely, or some king of hidden message or…," Hermione paused, gulped and finally blurted, "Voldemort wouldn't be so keen to get is hands on this stuff."
"Are you saying," inquired Ron with realization dawning on his face, "that You-Know… uh… okay, Voldemort, took this translating item?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. There has to be something very important in those original books of ours. But, I already looked though mine and I haven't found anything," replied Hermione.
The conversation ceased as Professor McGonagall appeared at the head of their table passing out course schedules. Harry, Ron and Hermione each took one and Harry looked down at it scanning the page eagerly.
"Divination, first?" asked Harry in disgust.
"Afraid so, mate," replied Ron, "What have you got first Hermione?"
"I have Arithmancy," answered Hermione quickly finishing her meal.
Harry and Ron set off in the direction of North Tower for Divination together and Hermione went the opposite direction for her class. Once they reached the rope ladder that leads to the room in which they studied Divination Harry climbed up it and entered the all-too familiar room which still smelled of that heavily-scented perfume.
When Harry found a table to sit at he took out his copy of An Introduction to Legilimency. Then Ron sat down uneasily and asked,
"You took those Occlumency lessons from Snape last year, right?"
Harry nodded and Ron added, "So…um… can you give me any pointers?"
"I don't think we'll get to anything of that sort today," replied Harry suppressing a smile.
Ron nodded weakly and Professor Trelawney entered the room. She looked much more like her old self today then she had towards the end of the year last year when she was nearly thrown out of the castle. Even though Harry was ecstatic to be rid of the nefarious Professor Umbridge, he couldn't help sighing over Divination and Trelawney's untimely return. She smiled and began in her mystical voice,
"Welcome, back to Divination. As you all surely remember the confusion last year with job status I am glad to report that I am still here and that Firenze has been accepted back into his clan. All the suffering and despair that was around me has clarified my Inner-Eye of the remnants of fog that was covering it."
Ron chortled and leaned Harry's way, "Whatever that means."
Harry laughed softly as Professor Trelawney continued, "I predict that-"
"-this will be the most boring year ever," Ron whisperingly finished for her.
"-this will be a stupendous year," finished Professor Trelawney with a look in their direction, clearly disgruntled that not everyone was glad she was back or that they were in her class.
"The Headmaster would like me to kindly instruct you of the basics of Legilimency, or what the Muggles call "Mind-Reading." For ten points who can tell me what the counter-art to Legilimency is?" stated Professor Trelawney.
Harry was the only one that raised a hand and when Trelawney pointed at him he said, feeling really good about himself, "Occlumency."
Clearly surprised Trelawney replied, "Very good. Ten points to Gryffindor for Mr. Potter. That's right class, Occlumency is how to stop people from seeing your thoughts, and we will be studying and practicing the basics of this art this year as well."
"I would like to show the class a demonstration of Legilimency," stated Trelawney, "Mr. Potter can you please come up here."
Harry went up uncertainly. Professor Trelawney brandished her wand and said, "Now, Mr. Potter, please allow me to see your thoughts the first time then we will see your skills at Occlumency."
"Legilimens!" exclaimed Professor Trelawney.
Images raced through Harry's mind indistinctly. Harry managed to see glimpses of Dudley's face and then at the end Voldemort's…
The connection broke and Harry became conscious of screams of fright. Professor Trelawney and Lavender Brown were wailing and Harry saw all the crystal balls on the tables had been displaying the thoughts that raced through Harry's mind.
Harry then noticed that he was on the floor. He got up and Professor Trelawney gathered herself together and replied, "Yes… again Mr. Potter and this time you may try to stop me."
"Legilimens!" exclaimed Professor Trelawney again.
This time Harry built up a defense in his mind trying to use the techniques he learned last year. He erased all emotion and thought from his head, and he felt the effects of the spell bounce off him like a rock hitting a gong. Harry opened his eyes to find Professor Trelawney standing there in shock. Clearly she had not expected Harry to be able to defend himself and she said quite exasperatedly, "Good… five points… to Gryffindor."
She slumped down in her chair as Harry sat down next to Ron again. Then snapping back to reality she straightened and said,
"Class, please turn to page five in your books and read "The Five Steps to Determining Legilimency in Your Dreams.'"
The whole class turned to page five but Harry and Ron didn't read. Ron looked at Harry and said,
"Cripes Harry, That was really scary you know-I mean, I guess that was um Voldemort-None of us knew what He looked like before."
Harry didn't want to talk about this so he said in place of a response, "You! Yes, I think you should be in charge of Chaser Try-Outs and I'll handle the Beater Try-Outs. If we split things up we'll have more training time once we do select the team."
Ron took his cue, and agreed, "right then, makes sense mate." They bent their heads over their texts.
The class ended with the assignment of using the Five Steps to determine if your dreams were really Legilimency. Seizing the moment to relieve tension as they looked for Hermione, Ron stated,
"That's a waste of bloody time if you ask me. I mean we can't be affected by Legilimency from outside the school. You don't have to be Hermione to know that."
Harry forced a laugh and found his schedule.
"Care of Magical Creatures next and then…" began Harry.
"What?" asked Ron.
"I have Potions after that!" cried Harry, "I am never going to survive that and I haven't even been to a class yet."
"I took up Muggle Studies so I can be in the Department of Muggle Relations, so I have that after Care of Magical Creatures," replied Ron, "Don't sweat it. You can just drop it if it gets to be too much."
"He's not doing that," stated a voice from behind them.
It was Hermione and she added, "Obviously Harry … has a… hidden talent. I mean he did get an O."
Harry laughed and said, "Yeah, so well hidden that I don't even know it's there."
Ron laughed as Hermione frowned. The three of them said nothing as they neared Hagrid's cabin. When they reached it all three of them took out Monsters' Care for Maniacs.
They found Hagrid and a large ape-like creature, nearly as tall as him, with a horn that looked like it had been crumpled like paper protruding from its forehead. Hagrid waved jovially to them and the three of them waved in return.
"What is that?" asked Hermione.
"Don't know," replied Ron and after looking though his Monster Index he added, "It's not in here either."
Harry looked around to see that almost all of Gryffindor House had made it into N.E.W.T. Care of Magical Creatures and none of Slytherin House had. Harry wheeled back around to direct his full attention to Hagrid.
"Hullo… um… this is N.E.W.T. Care of Magical Creatures and… um… I'm yer teacher," began Hagrid.
"We're studyin' a newly discovered magical creature for the Ministry all term," continued Hagrid with more confidence, "This creature has been properly named the 'Crumple-Horned Snorkack,' or as the Muggles call 'em 'Bigfoot' and as I said before we're learnin' as much as we can abou' it."
"So far I've found out he likes carrots, so we're all gonna feed him carrots today," finished Hagrid and he disappeared momentarily.
He returned rather sheepishly with a barrel full of carrots and everyone grabbed one. Then everyone formed a line to feed the perfectly docile Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Ron took the opportunity to tell Hermione about what happened in Divination.
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Hermione nearly dropping her carrot.
"Yeah, but the second time Harry just closed his eyes and the spell bounced off and made this big echoing sound," said Ron with a grin on his face.
"She wasn't as good as Snape. Snape could've broken though my defense easily," stated Harry humbly.
"I don't know. I think you've gotten better," replied Ron with a frown on his face.
"Defending yourself from any full-grown witch or wizard against Legilimency is an achievement, Harry," reminded Hermione, "This proves that you've gotten better.
It was then Harry's turn to feed the Snorkack. Harry simply outstretched his arm and the creature seized the carrot and stuffed it into his mouth with a stupid grin of his face. Harry walked away and waited for Ron and Hermione.
Once everyone had finished feeding the Snorkack, the class was dismissed with a half-foot essay on what they learned about the Crumple-Horned Snorkack for homework. Harry, Ron and Hermione headed for the Great Hall for lunch.
They were stopped by Argus Filch with his cat Mrs. Norris at his heels hissing. He was telling off a group of first year girls. The three of them were about to make their way around the group when Harry glimpsed Jack Abersum holding a copper flask and his brother Will holding a small pellet that Harry could've sworn he'd seen before.
Then, before Harry knew it, Jack opened the flask and a swarm of what looked like angry red fleas flew out and began attacking Filch and Mrs. Norris. Then Will threw down the pellet and a thick mist issued from it as they made their escape.
"That was a Miniscule Mist!" cried Hermione as they swept their way through the mist and found the Great Hall.
Harry, Ron and Hermione found the twins laughing between pants at the Gryffindor table. Harry ran over to them and asked,
"What was that?"
"What this?" asked Jack holding up the copper flask.
Harry nodded and Will replied, "That's a Fleas in a Flask. It's from Weasley Wizard Wheezes, real clever shop in Diagon Alley."
Harry laughed and then sternly asked, "What did you do that for?"
Jack answered with, "That Filch is such a git. He was telling off those girls for giggling too loudly. We had to protect them from the injustice."
Harry chuckled as he thought that those two were very similar to another set of twins he knew. Harry found Ron and Hermione and told them everything. Ron laughed but Hermione said in her best Prefects voice,
"What if the fleas attacked students?" Perhaps I should just have a word with them.
"They only attack the people you intend them too," ginned back Ron in a very un-Prefect like manner.
"I'll let them slide this time, but if I ever catch them again I am going straight to McGonagall!" exclaimed Hermione as they made their way to table with their food.
They ate fairly quickly and it was time for Harry and Hermione to leave for Potions. They both waved good-bye to Ron who was headed for Muggle-Studies. As they headed down to the dungeons it grew colder and colder so Hermione drew up her shoulders inside her robes.
They entered the room just behind Draco Malfoy to find what appeared to be all the Slytherins, one Hufflepuff, one Ravenclaw and…
"Longbottom?" exclaimed Malfoy who had spotted Neville, "You? In N.E.W.T. Potions? How did you do it? I bet that's why you were in that masquerade with Potter at the Ministry of Magic. You were sucking up to Dumbledore."
Neville's ears went pink and Harry said, "If what you said is true at least he only sucks up to one person when you suck up to everyone else. But I don't think it's true at all."
Malfoy turned around with a smirk on his face," You too Potter? And Granger… should've known."
Hermione went as pink as Neville but said nothing and Malfoy drawled on, "Maybe you can discover a remedy to your big-headedness Potter."
"Maybe, you can discover a potion that gives your father half a brain," countered Harry and just then Snape entered the room with a smirk on his face and a vein throbbing on his forehead.
"Potter… Granger… Longbottom… the usual troublemakers," said Snape, "I think this is ten points each for intending to start a fight. Who knows what could have happened if I hadn't had stepped inside at the appropriate time."
"Hermione never said anything!" roared Harry, "Malfoy-"
"Detention Potter!" countered Snape, "You can't blame Malfoy all your life."
Harry stormed over between Hermione and Neville and set up his cauldron.
"In my O.W.L. I was supposed to be making a Wit-Sharpening Potion but I accidentally made a Vanishing Potion and once my test-giver found me he gave me an O because it was the best Vanishing Potion he had ever seen," whispered Neville mournfully, "That's the only reason I'm here."
Today we will be learning a very complex potion. So complex that will take three days to brew. It is called the Malevolent Mixture. We will learn this and it's antidote this week. The first part of the potion is up here, that is," Snape curled his lip at this, "if some of the people who had obviously performed miracles on their O.W.L. can read it."
Harry's hand shook and Neville was sheet white, Hermione said,
"Calm down. Listen if you two are going to survive in this class you're going to need help. You can measure everything. Then let me check to see you measured it right and then you can begin to brew. I'll supervise adding ingredients into the caldrons"
Harry and Neville looked at her thankfully and began their work. The rest of the class was dull work and very uneventful. Hermione checked both their measurements and had to completely re-do Neville's who was losing his grip extremely quickly. When the class was finally over, Harry grabbed his things and stormed out.