He woke up the next morning, thinking about the dream he had had. He decided it was best not to tell the others about his dream.
"Hello Harry," Ron said when he walked into the Great Hall.
"Oh, hey Ron!" Harry said, sitting down next to Ron. Hermione was sitting across from him.
"Is it true you killed twenty-three Dementors without using any wand magic?" Hermione asked him inquisitively.
"Yep," Harry said, going about buttering his toast.
"Wow! Nobody's ever done that before! Nobody's even killed one before!" she exclaimed, impressed by his techniques, "How did you do it?"
"I have no idea," Harry said, very calmly, starting to eat his toast. Professor McGonagall came by and handed them their schedules. Harry looked at his to see what he had that day.
"Just my luck," Harry exclaimed.
"What?" Hermione asked him.
"Potions. My first day back and I have Potions," Harry answered. He compared his schedule with the others. Hermione was in all of Harry's classes, but Harry wasn't in all of Hermione's classes, since she was taking some classes that he wasn't. Ron was in Harry's Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, and Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. An owl came down to his table and Harry untied his copy of the Daily Prophet. He gave the owl four Knuts and it flew away. He looked at the first page and saw something that caught his eye.
Harry Potter, Is He Really a Hero?
Yesterday, the Hogwarts Express was ambushed by a pack of Dementors. Harry Potter was on the train, and was able to take most of them down. He managed to make sure everyone was safe and nobody was hurt. One girl was hurt, a seventh year by the name of Cho Chang. The train was pulling into Hogsmeade Station, when a pack of around thirty Dementors attacked the train. Since You-Know-Who has become powerful again, the Dementors have left control of the Ministry and are no longer guarding Azkaban. Only a few remain guarding the dreadful prison of Azkaban. The Dementors have now joined You-Know-Who in his plan to rule over all mankind, and rid the world of all Muggles and non-purebloods. We all know that since Harry Potter was just a small little baby, You-Know-Who has been trying to kill him. But if it was Harry Potter that the Dementors were after, then is Harry Potter really a hero? It is my advice, that if you wish for your children to live a full life, you keep them away from Harry Potter. He may be the boy who lived, but he is a danger to all those around him.
Rita Skeeter.
Harry spat out his milk after reading this.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, worried. Harry threw the paper at her pointing to the article. She sat there reading it, her frown getting deeper as she got to the bottom of the page. "I hate her!" Hermione exclaimed.
"What?" Ron asked. Hermione gave him the paper and he read the article she had pointed to.
"I thought you guys had a deal. This is certainly material that violates your little agreement!" Harry told her.
"Yeah. And she's going to be in big trouble when I report her to the Ministry of Magic!" Hermione answered, with a little bit of angriness in her voice.
"I hope she does get in trouble!" Ron said, joining the conversation.
"Come on Harry, let's get to Potions," Hermione told him.
Harry and Hermione headed off towards the dungeons for Potions class. They took some seats near the back of the class, away from where Malfoy was sitting. Harry was surprised to see Neville taking this class.
"Neville? Why are you here?" Harry asked him, bewildered.
"Snape insisted that I take this course. Probably so that he could have someone to annoy and make fun of," Neville answered, sadly.
"Oh," Harry replied, feeling sorry for Neville. Snape had always had fun picking on Neville.
"Today class, we will be taking some notes on Veritaserum. Some of us know the use of this very well," he said, glancing at Harry for a split second, "But I hope that this person knows not to interrupt me, Mr. Potter." Everyone turned around and looked at him. Harry felt like he was an animal in a cage at the zoo. "Now where was I? Oh, yes. Veritaserum..." Snape began. The sounds of Snape's voice started to trail away. Harry just sort of blocked them out. He knew that Snape was going to be talking about him the whole time, so why bother pay attention. The bell rang, and Harry stood up to leave. "So, Mr. Potter thinks he can just ignore me when I speak to him?" Snape said when Harry stood up.
"I do not wish to argue with you every class this year," Harry said and then left the room, leaving Snape standing there.
Harry and Hermione walked back to the common room and put their stuff in their dormitories. Harry was free the rest of the day. Hermione still had to go to A History of Magic. Ron had been off all day. Harry, Ron and Hermione all went down to lunch and found their regular seats at the table. They sat there eating their lunches; Harry and Ron went back to the common room. Hermione left for her next class.
Harry and Ron entered the common room, which was completely empty except for a single girl sitting in a chair reading over one of her books.
"Hello. I'm Harry. Harry Potter," Harry said to the girl, trying to make conversation. She looked like she was a new student.
"Oh, hello. My name's Stefanie Riddle," she told him.
"Riddle?" Harry asked, backing off a little.
"Yep. Why?" she said in return.
"Are you a new student?" Harry asked her.
"Yes. I'm in sixth year. I transferred from Ridgely School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's in America. I had to transfer because of...err...certain circumstances I'd rather not talk about," she told him.
"Oh, okay. Are you in any way related to Voldemort?" Harry asked her. Ron gasped at the name.
"Yes," she admitted. Harry backed away.
"Get away! I knew it! You're here to trap me! Voldemort sent you, didn't he?" Harry yelled.
"No!" she shouted back, "I hate him!"
"Why?" Harry asked her, still unsure whether or not he should trust her.
"You know how I said I had to transfer because of 'certain circumstances'? Well those circumstances were that Voldemort killed my parents! We are all telepathes and when my parents refused to join him, he killed them! My dad is his brother. Not by blood though. My dad was adopted by his father after his dad ran away," she told Harry.
"Oh, well, sorry about the whole freaking out thing," Harry said, sorry for yelling at her.
"I'm tired of people judging me by my last name," she said, very sadly, "Now please leave me alone. I'm trying to do some work." She got up and rushed off towards her dormitory.
"Jeez, what crawled up her butt and died?" Ron said. They sat down on the couch and started to talk about Quidditch.
"Okay, so we have me as Seeker. You as Keeper. We need two beaters and three chasers. I wonder how many people will try-out?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. When can we have try-outs?" Ron asked him.
"How about this Sunday?" Harry suggested.
"Sounds good," Ron said.
"Alright, you can be my co-captain, since you probably know more than me at Quidditch anyway," Harry told him.
"Seriously?" Ron said.
"Of course!" Harry answered. They created a sign with the information on it and hung it up on the house notice board in the common room.
QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS
We will be having tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team on the Sunday, September 8th at noon. You must be second-year or older to try-out for the team. We have openings for three chasers and two beaters.
-Harry Potter, Quidditch Captain
Ron Weasley, Quidditch Co-captain.
They sat back down at the couch and started talking about people they would ask about trying out.
"Dean and Seamus would probably be good," Ron told him.
"Yeah. And Ginny would probably be good as Chaser," Harry replied.
"Yeah. She's a pretty good flier," Ron told him.
"So, did you ever get that Nimbus 2001?" Harry asked him.
"Yup. Fred and George sent it to me the day before we left for school. Didn't I show it to you?" Ron said.
"Nope, you never showed it to me," Harry answered.
"Oh, I thought I had," replied Ron.
When Hermione was done with her lesson, she came and sat down right next to Ron.
"Hey Hermione! How was History of Magic?" Ron asked her.
"Oh, it was fine. The same dead teacher," Hermione told him.
"You think he would've stopped teaching by now," Harry replied.
"Yeah. You'd also think he would realize that he was dead," Ron added.
"How can he not notice that?" Harry said.
"Don't be silly. Of course he knows he's dead! He just won't admit it to himself. It came as quite a shock to him!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Yeah. I guess I would be pretty shocked if I woke up dead one morning," Ron returned, "Come on, let's go get some dinner."
"Leave it to Ron to think of food," Harry replied.
"Shut up," Ron said, laughing.
They entered the Great Hall and took a seat. As soon as they did, Ginny showed up and sat right by them.
"Hey guys! Have you had Defence Against the Dark Arts yet?" she asked.
"Nope, not yet. We all have it Thursday," Harry told her.
"Oh, well it's really cool with Tonks and Lupin teaching. They're way better at teaching it than any of the other teachers like Umbridge!" Ginny told them.
"Yeah, I bet they are better. Anybody would be better than Umbridge. Except Voldemort himself," Ron said.
"Good for you Ron!" Harry said.
"What?" Ron asked.
"You said his name!" Harry told him.
"I did? Wow! I guess I did! That's probably because I'm getting used to it, with being around the Order members and what not," Ron replied.
"Yeah, that probably helped out," Harry admitted. The food appeared and Harry ate it all up. He had missed the giant feast last night when he was in the hospital wing. He looked over at the Ravenclaw table, and he did not see Cho. I guess the article was right. She was seriously ill. He decided that he would go visit her the next day after lunch. After eating dinner, they all headed off to sleep. Harry and Hermione had Charms the next day. Ron had to go to Herbology the next day. Harry fell asleep and did not have any weird dreams. He did however, dream about Sirius falling behind the veil. But it was just a normal dream like the ones he had had right after the event happened.
He awoke the next morning and went down to breakfast with Ron and Hermione. But first he had the hard task of waking Ron up. He finally managed to wake Ron up as soon as he said the word 'breakfast'. Harry should've known. Ron lived for food. They went down to the Great Hall and ate their breakfast. Harry had only a piece of toast, not feeling very hungry. The Daily Prophet came, and Harry looked at the front page. It had an article that greatly interested him.
The New Minister of Magic
As you are aware, Cornelius Fudge stepped out of office when the announcement of the return of You-Know-Who came along. Albus Dumbledore has been filling in for him since his absence. But Albus Dumbledore cannot hold on to this position for long, since he is the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Arthur Weasley, the head of the Department for the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Office, and Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, were the two main competitors for this office. Elections were recently held to decide who would be voted as the new Minister of Magic. The votes are in and we are pleased to say, that Arthur Weasley is the new Minister of Magic.
To see some of his plans, go to Page Six
To hear what Dolores Umbridge has to say, go to Page Eight
"Ron! Read this!" Harry said as he passed the paper to his best friend. Ron carefully scanned the article. His grin broadening as he got to the end.
"Wow! My dad's the new Minister of Magic!" Ron yelled out.
"Really?!" Hermione said, grabbing the newspaper. "This is great!" she shouted after reading it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all really happy to see the news, and by the looks of it, so were Professor Dumbledore, Tonks, and Lupin, who were all sitting at the front table with a copy in their hands.
They headed off to their classes, Harry and Hermione going to Charms, while Ron went off to Herbology. Harry and Hermione entered their classroom to see a lot of people taking this class. It seemed as though it was the same class they had been having these past five years, except without Ron. Professor Flitwick was at the head of the class, as usual, still speaking in the same squeaky tone that Harry hated to hear.
"Today class, we will be going over a charm for creating new objects out of thin air. You need to concentrate hard, thinking very carefully about the object you wish to create," he told the class, "You need to imagine every detail very closely. If you do not, you will get a deformed object, not what you are wishing to get. All you do is think about it, close your eyes, point your wand at the desk, and say 'Creo Insumo'. This will create your desired object. Try to create a quill, and then show it to me. Begin."
Harry closed his eyes and tried to block all thoughts, remembering his Occlumency lessons. He thought hard about the quills. He imagined every detail of it. From the top of the quill, all the way to the point of the quill, used for dipping ink. He pointed his wand at his desk, and said, very calmly, "Creo Insumo!" He opened his eyes up, and to his surprise, there laid a single quill on his desk. He picked it up and found that it felt exactly like a regular quill. He took it to Professor Flitwick, who was amazed at his work.
"Nice job Mr. Potter! Fifteen points for Gryffindor!" Professor Flitwick said. Harry went back to his seat and put his stuff on the desk. He was very proud of his work.
"Wow! That was great Harry! You think you could help me a little?" Hermione asked him.
"Sure," Harry agreed. He helped Hermione out, telling her that first she needed to clear her mind of all thoughts. She tried it once more, and got a quill that was full of holes. "Okay, we're making some progress," Harry told her. He instructed her once again on how to clear her mind, and when she tried again, she did it right. She showed Professor Flitwick and then came back to her seat.
"Wow! Harry, you're such a great teacher," Hermione told him.
"Thanks Hermione," Harry replied.
"Have you thought about restarting the D.A.?" Hermione asked him.
"I don't know," Harry said to her.
"You really should! It was great!" Hermione told him.
"I might. I just don't know at the moment," Harry told her.
"Alright," she gave in.
They went off to the common room and dropped their books off before heading off to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron was already sitting there stuffing his face with food.
"Hey Ron, how was Herbology?" Hermione asked him.
"Oh it was fine. Not that many people are taking it. There's only four. Me, Neville, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown," Ron told them, "How was Charms?"
"Fine. We learned a new charm today, to create things with your mind. Here, take this quill I made," Harry said, handing Ron one of the many quills he had managed to make with his mind during his last class.
"Oh, thanks!" Ron said, taking the quill.
"I have to go talk to Dumbledore now," Harry lied. He was actually going off to the hospital wing to see Cho. He got up from the table and went off towards the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione were still at the table talking and eating lunch.
He went down the corridors, and entered the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey stopped him at the door.
"What's wrong this time, Potter?" she asked impatiently.
"I was just wondering if I could see Cho," Harry told her.
"Oh, don't be too long though. You might disturb the other patients. I don't see why you would bother. She can't hear or see anything," Madame Pomfrey told him before stepping into her office. Harry walked down the rows of beds, to the very last one. There she was. Cho Chang was lying on the last bed of the wing; nobody could tell she was there. She was not moving, and Harry couldn't even tell if she was breathing. He had to take her pulse to make sure. When he did, he found that she did have a pulse, just not a normal one.
"This is all my fault," Harry said out loud, "The article's right. Voldemort is after everyone I loved. He's killed all my family, even the Dursleys. I know they didn't love me like a family should, but they're still my family. It's my fault Cho is lying here." Harry felt really bad, but did not know what he could do. Madame Pomfrey came over to him after he had been sitting there holding her hand for about fifteen minutes.
"Will she be okay?" Harry asked.
"I'm not sure. I'm really not. But I hope she is," Madame Pomfrey told him, looking really worried.
"Okay," Harry replied, leaving the hospital wing.
He went back to the common room and sat his books down in the dormitory before heading down to the main common room where Ron and Hermione were sitting. Harry pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and began his Potions homework. Write an essay about the uses of Veritaserum. One and a half scrolls. Hermione was practicing the creation charm. She still had not mastered it, although she did seem to be getting better at it. Harry sat there quietly working on his essay. He had finished his essay just in time for dinner. They went down to the Great Hall where they all ate their dinner. Harry loved eating at Hogwarts. It was much better than at the Dursleys. He hardly got fed there. But here at Hogwarts, he got tons of food.
After dinner was done, he headed to Professor Dumbledore's office for his first Occlumency lesson of the year.
"Skiving Snackboxes!" he said as he reached the gargoyles. They parted for him and gave him access to the stairs leading up to Dumbledore's office. He went inside the office, which looked perfectly normal now. There was not a ton of people in there. In fact, he, Dumbledore, Snape, and Lupin were the only ones in there. All of the shiny metal gadgets were fixed after last year, and everything looked just fine. He took a seat in front of Dumbledore's desk and got ready for some extreme head manipulation.
"Are you ready Harry?" Dumbledore asked him.
"Yes professor," Harry answered.
"Let's begin," Dumbledore replied,
"Legilimens!" Harry felt Dumbledore trying to get inside his head. Harry put up his barrier and immediately tried to repel the force. He could not do it. He began to see memories. Bad memories. Sirius falling behind the veil. His parents dying. Voldemort coming back to life. The Dursleys dead. Harry saw these and fought harder to push Dumbledore out. He tried strengthening his barrier and could feel Dumbledore getting pushed farther out of his mind. Suddenly, it all stopped.
"Harry, you need to be practicing more. You did not succeed in pushing me out of your mind fast enough. That would have been enough time for Voldemort to get vital information," Dumbledore told him.
"Sorry professor," Harry told him.
"Let's try again," Dumbledore said, "Legilimens!" Harry felt the pressure and immediately tried to push him out. It would not work. He began to see very vague flashes of memories. He kept trying to push out Dumbledore, but found it to be too much work. He felt Dumbledore let off and heard Dumbledore's voice.
"Harry, promise me you will practice," Dumbledore said to him, "It is very important that you do."
"Yes professor," Harry replied.
"Alright Harry, go get some rest. Keep practicing. Same time next week you will be here to continue your lessons," Dumbledore told him.
"Okay," Harry said. He walked out the door, Lupin following him.
"Harry, come to my office tomorrow after lunch. I would like to speak with you about something," Lupin told him.
"Okay Moony," Harry replied. "Please don't call me that at school, Harry," Lupin told him.
"Okay Professor," Harry said.
"Alright, see you tomorrow," Lupin said, heading off in the opposite direction of him. Harry entered the common room to find that Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight.
"Oh well, I'll get a head start on sleep," Harry thought to himself, heading up to his dormitory. He entered his dormitory and got into his pajamas before getting into bed. He remembered what Dumbledore had said, "Harry, promise me you will practice. It is very important that you do so." Harry put up a barrier and went to bed, trying not to thing of anything. He fell asleep, and to his surprise, he just had a regular dream like all other kids. No Voldemort. No Sirius. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a regular dream, like he hadn't had in a while.
He woke up the next morning, and surprisingly, Ron was already awake. So was Hermione. They all walked down to breakfast together, and took their seats at the table. The Daily Prophet was brought by and owl, and Harry gave it four Knuts. He looked through the paper, and found that there was nothing in there that was interesting to him.
"Oh well," he said. He threw the paper to Ron, in case Ron would see something interesting. Harry ate his breakfast, which was just his normal toast. He was not really in the eating mood this week. Today he had Transfiguration and then Astronomy at night. Ron was in his Transfiguration class, and so was Hermione. This was the first class that all three were in together.
They entered the classroom and took their seats, waiting for Professor McGonagall to begin her lesson. There were, luckily, no Slytherins in their class. There were only five people there. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, and Stefanie Riddle.
"Hello class," Professor McGonagall said, shutting the door behind her as she walked into the room. "Today we will be going over the theory of transfiguring on living creature into a totally different living creature. It is one thing to transfigure a rat into a mouse, but it is totally different to transfigure a fish into a bird," Professor McGonagall told them. She went on about how it was different, having them take down notes, which Harry didn't hear the end of from Ron. This was perhaps why Ron was not in as many classes as he was. Ron did not want to have to write a lot of things down. Professor McGonagall told them that they would be starting to actually try to transfigure a fish into a bird in two weeks time. She said that they would have to prove to her that they were ready.
"Any questions?" Professor McGonagall asked at the end of class. Interestingly, nobody had any questions. Everybody seemed to understand the class, even Ron. "Potter, I would like to see you after class," Professor McGonagall told him.
"Yes, Professor," Harry replied. He was sick of hearing that. "Potter, I would like to speak with you," he always heard that from people. For once, couldn't they say someone else's name. It was like he was the only one that teachers ever wanted to talk with.
After class, he stayed after, telling Ron and Hermione that he would meet them after his meeting with McGonagall.
"Potter, I would like to talk to you about the Quidditch team," she told him.
"Yes?" Harry asked, cheering up. He thought this would be a very serious conversation, but this was something he was actually interested in hearing.
"Make sure you do not do anything this year that would make you miss practices. Last year was horrible with you and Umbridge. You are the Captain, and I do hope you will not be missing any practices. Good luck with try-outs this weekend. I hope you are able to find some suitable people for the positions. I am getting quite used to seeing this trophy in my office," she told him.
"Yes, Professor," Harry replied, walking out the door towards the Great Hall.
He entered the Great Hall and took a seat next to Ron.
"What did she want?" Ron asked him.
"Oh, she just wanted to talk to me about the Quidditch team. You know, tell me good luck with the tryouts and all," Harry told him.
"Oh," Ron replied.
"Hey Harry, I was thinking about trying out for Chaser," Hermione told him. Ron spat out all his drink.
"What?" Ron said loudly.
"I said I was thinking about trying out for the position of Chaser," she told him again.
"Seriously Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. I'm serious. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.
"I don't know, you just don't seem like the Quidditch playing type," Harry replied.
"Oh, whatever," Hermione said.
"My recommendation is to try for it. I mean, what's to lose?" Ron told her.
"Yeah, I probably will try out," she told them both.
"Alright, I have to go talk to Lupin. He said he had to talk with me today," Harry told them.
"Alright, talk to ya later Harry!" Hermione shouted as he left the Great Hall.
He headed off towards Lupin's office, which wasn't too far off. He knocked on the door and Tonks opened it.
"Hey Tonks!" exclaimed Harry.
"Oh, hey Harry!" Tonks replied, before leaving the office. Harry walked in and took a seat opposite Lupin.
"Harry, I know it's been tough with the deaths of your parents and Sirius. I was really close with them too. But, they weren't my parents or godfather, so I guess you got the worse part of the deal. But I want you to know that I'm here for you," Lupin told him.
"Okay Lupin," Harry replied, feeling guilty once more when Lupin had mentioned Sirius.
"And now that the Dursleys are gone, you have no where to go during the summers, do you?" Lupin said.
"No, I guess I don't have anywhere to go," Harry replied.
"So, what I'm trying to get at is, err...well," Lupin tried to say, but couldn't get his words out.
"What is it Lupin?" Harry asked, confused.
"Well, I wanted to know if you would like it if I adopted you and became your legal guardian," Lupin asked him.
"Wow! You really mean it?" Harry replied gleefully.
"Of course!" Lupin replied.
"That would be great! How do we make it official?" Harry asked.
"Well, just sign here," Lupin told him, bringing out a piece of parchment. Harry signed it. "It's official now!" Lupin told him.
"Can I call you dad?" Harry asked.
"Sure," Lupin replied.
"Thanks dad," Harry said, "Nevermind, that sounds too creepy." They laughed before Lupin told him that he had to go do something. Harry left the office feeling very happy, on his way back to the common room.
He entered the common room where Hermione and Ron were waiting for him.
"Hey guys," he said with a huge grin on his face.
"What made you so happy?" Ron asked him.
"Well, it's official," Harry told him.
"What is?" Ron asked, confused.
"Lupin's my new father!" Harry told him ecstatically.
"Huh?" Ron said, now even more confused.
"Lupin adopted me!" Harry told him.
"Wow!" Ron said.
"That's cool Harry! Your father is a teacher!" Hermione told him.
"Yeah," Harry replied. They hung out until dinner, doing homework and playing chess. Harry beat Ron, but only because Ron wasn't really paying attention to the game. They went down to the Great Hall where they ate dinner, Harry was getting quite used to the food there.
After dinner, they had Astronomy. They were instructed on how to use the new telescopes. They had received new ones this year, which were better and had a better magnification. They were instructed to map out the stars on a star chart and try to name all that they could. Harry tried, and managed to remember a lot more of the names than he thought he could. Astronomy wasn't too bad. He still wasn't very fond of the subject and didn't know why he was taking it. He wished he was like Ron, and didn't have to take Astronomy. That night, Harry once again had a normal dream, after remembering to practice his Occlumency and put up his barrier so Voldemort couldn't penetrate his mind. Instead, he fell asleep very quickly, having a very normal dream, a Voldemort-free dream.
"Hello Harry," Ron said when he walked into the Great Hall.
"Oh, hey Ron!" Harry said, sitting down next to Ron. Hermione was sitting across from him.
"Is it true you killed twenty-three Dementors without using any wand magic?" Hermione asked him inquisitively.
"Yep," Harry said, going about buttering his toast.
"Wow! Nobody's ever done that before! Nobody's even killed one before!" she exclaimed, impressed by his techniques, "How did you do it?"
"I have no idea," Harry said, very calmly, starting to eat his toast. Professor McGonagall came by and handed them their schedules. Harry looked at his to see what he had that day.
"Just my luck," Harry exclaimed.
"What?" Hermione asked him.
"Potions. My first day back and I have Potions," Harry answered. He compared his schedule with the others. Hermione was in all of Harry's classes, but Harry wasn't in all of Hermione's classes, since she was taking some classes that he wasn't. Ron was in Harry's Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, and Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. An owl came down to his table and Harry untied his copy of the Daily Prophet. He gave the owl four Knuts and it flew away. He looked at the first page and saw something that caught his eye.
Harry Potter, Is He Really a Hero?
Yesterday, the Hogwarts Express was ambushed by a pack of Dementors. Harry Potter was on the train, and was able to take most of them down. He managed to make sure everyone was safe and nobody was hurt. One girl was hurt, a seventh year by the name of Cho Chang. The train was pulling into Hogsmeade Station, when a pack of around thirty Dementors attacked the train. Since You-Know-Who has become powerful again, the Dementors have left control of the Ministry and are no longer guarding Azkaban. Only a few remain guarding the dreadful prison of Azkaban. The Dementors have now joined You-Know-Who in his plan to rule over all mankind, and rid the world of all Muggles and non-purebloods. We all know that since Harry Potter was just a small little baby, You-Know-Who has been trying to kill him. But if it was Harry Potter that the Dementors were after, then is Harry Potter really a hero? It is my advice, that if you wish for your children to live a full life, you keep them away from Harry Potter. He may be the boy who lived, but he is a danger to all those around him.
Rita Skeeter.
Harry spat out his milk after reading this.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, worried. Harry threw the paper at her pointing to the article. She sat there reading it, her frown getting deeper as she got to the bottom of the page. "I hate her!" Hermione exclaimed.
"What?" Ron asked. Hermione gave him the paper and he read the article she had pointed to.
"I thought you guys had a deal. This is certainly material that violates your little agreement!" Harry told her.
"Yeah. And she's going to be in big trouble when I report her to the Ministry of Magic!" Hermione answered, with a little bit of angriness in her voice.
"I hope she does get in trouble!" Ron said, joining the conversation.
"Come on Harry, let's get to Potions," Hermione told him.
Harry and Hermione headed off towards the dungeons for Potions class. They took some seats near the back of the class, away from where Malfoy was sitting. Harry was surprised to see Neville taking this class.
"Neville? Why are you here?" Harry asked him, bewildered.
"Snape insisted that I take this course. Probably so that he could have someone to annoy and make fun of," Neville answered, sadly.
"Oh," Harry replied, feeling sorry for Neville. Snape had always had fun picking on Neville.
"Today class, we will be taking some notes on Veritaserum. Some of us know the use of this very well," he said, glancing at Harry for a split second, "But I hope that this person knows not to interrupt me, Mr. Potter." Everyone turned around and looked at him. Harry felt like he was an animal in a cage at the zoo. "Now where was I? Oh, yes. Veritaserum..." Snape began. The sounds of Snape's voice started to trail away. Harry just sort of blocked them out. He knew that Snape was going to be talking about him the whole time, so why bother pay attention. The bell rang, and Harry stood up to leave. "So, Mr. Potter thinks he can just ignore me when I speak to him?" Snape said when Harry stood up.
"I do not wish to argue with you every class this year," Harry said and then left the room, leaving Snape standing there.
Harry and Hermione walked back to the common room and put their stuff in their dormitories. Harry was free the rest of the day. Hermione still had to go to A History of Magic. Ron had been off all day. Harry, Ron and Hermione all went down to lunch and found their regular seats at the table. They sat there eating their lunches; Harry and Ron went back to the common room. Hermione left for her next class.
Harry and Ron entered the common room, which was completely empty except for a single girl sitting in a chair reading over one of her books.
"Hello. I'm Harry. Harry Potter," Harry said to the girl, trying to make conversation. She looked like she was a new student.
"Oh, hello. My name's Stefanie Riddle," she told him.
"Riddle?" Harry asked, backing off a little.
"Yep. Why?" she said in return.
"Are you a new student?" Harry asked her.
"Yes. I'm in sixth year. I transferred from Ridgely School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's in America. I had to transfer because of...err...certain circumstances I'd rather not talk about," she told him.
"Oh, okay. Are you in any way related to Voldemort?" Harry asked her. Ron gasped at the name.
"Yes," she admitted. Harry backed away.
"Get away! I knew it! You're here to trap me! Voldemort sent you, didn't he?" Harry yelled.
"No!" she shouted back, "I hate him!"
"Why?" Harry asked her, still unsure whether or not he should trust her.
"You know how I said I had to transfer because of 'certain circumstances'? Well those circumstances were that Voldemort killed my parents! We are all telepathes and when my parents refused to join him, he killed them! My dad is his brother. Not by blood though. My dad was adopted by his father after his dad ran away," she told Harry.
"Oh, well, sorry about the whole freaking out thing," Harry said, sorry for yelling at her.
"I'm tired of people judging me by my last name," she said, very sadly, "Now please leave me alone. I'm trying to do some work." She got up and rushed off towards her dormitory.
"Jeez, what crawled up her butt and died?" Ron said. They sat down on the couch and started to talk about Quidditch.
"Okay, so we have me as Seeker. You as Keeper. We need two beaters and three chasers. I wonder how many people will try-out?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. When can we have try-outs?" Ron asked him.
"How about this Sunday?" Harry suggested.
"Sounds good," Ron said.
"Alright, you can be my co-captain, since you probably know more than me at Quidditch anyway," Harry told him.
"Seriously?" Ron said.
"Of course!" Harry answered. They created a sign with the information on it and hung it up on the house notice board in the common room.
QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS
We will be having tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team on the Sunday, September 8th at noon. You must be second-year or older to try-out for the team. We have openings for three chasers and two beaters.
-Harry Potter, Quidditch Captain
Ron Weasley, Quidditch Co-captain.
They sat back down at the couch and started talking about people they would ask about trying out.
"Dean and Seamus would probably be good," Ron told him.
"Yeah. And Ginny would probably be good as Chaser," Harry replied.
"Yeah. She's a pretty good flier," Ron told him.
"So, did you ever get that Nimbus 2001?" Harry asked him.
"Yup. Fred and George sent it to me the day before we left for school. Didn't I show it to you?" Ron said.
"Nope, you never showed it to me," Harry answered.
"Oh, I thought I had," replied Ron.
When Hermione was done with her lesson, she came and sat down right next to Ron.
"Hey Hermione! How was History of Magic?" Ron asked her.
"Oh, it was fine. The same dead teacher," Hermione told him.
"You think he would've stopped teaching by now," Harry replied.
"Yeah. You'd also think he would realize that he was dead," Ron added.
"How can he not notice that?" Harry said.
"Don't be silly. Of course he knows he's dead! He just won't admit it to himself. It came as quite a shock to him!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Yeah. I guess I would be pretty shocked if I woke up dead one morning," Ron returned, "Come on, let's go get some dinner."
"Leave it to Ron to think of food," Harry replied.
"Shut up," Ron said, laughing.
They entered the Great Hall and took a seat. As soon as they did, Ginny showed up and sat right by them.
"Hey guys! Have you had Defence Against the Dark Arts yet?" she asked.
"Nope, not yet. We all have it Thursday," Harry told her.
"Oh, well it's really cool with Tonks and Lupin teaching. They're way better at teaching it than any of the other teachers like Umbridge!" Ginny told them.
"Yeah, I bet they are better. Anybody would be better than Umbridge. Except Voldemort himself," Ron said.
"Good for you Ron!" Harry said.
"What?" Ron asked.
"You said his name!" Harry told him.
"I did? Wow! I guess I did! That's probably because I'm getting used to it, with being around the Order members and what not," Ron replied.
"Yeah, that probably helped out," Harry admitted. The food appeared and Harry ate it all up. He had missed the giant feast last night when he was in the hospital wing. He looked over at the Ravenclaw table, and he did not see Cho. I guess the article was right. She was seriously ill. He decided that he would go visit her the next day after lunch. After eating dinner, they all headed off to sleep. Harry and Hermione had Charms the next day. Ron had to go to Herbology the next day. Harry fell asleep and did not have any weird dreams. He did however, dream about Sirius falling behind the veil. But it was just a normal dream like the ones he had had right after the event happened.
He awoke the next morning and went down to breakfast with Ron and Hermione. But first he had the hard task of waking Ron up. He finally managed to wake Ron up as soon as he said the word 'breakfast'. Harry should've known. Ron lived for food. They went down to the Great Hall and ate their breakfast. Harry had only a piece of toast, not feeling very hungry. The Daily Prophet came, and Harry looked at the front page. It had an article that greatly interested him.
The New Minister of Magic
As you are aware, Cornelius Fudge stepped out of office when the announcement of the return of You-Know-Who came along. Albus Dumbledore has been filling in for him since his absence. But Albus Dumbledore cannot hold on to this position for long, since he is the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Arthur Weasley, the head of the Department for the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Office, and Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, were the two main competitors for this office. Elections were recently held to decide who would be voted as the new Minister of Magic. The votes are in and we are pleased to say, that Arthur Weasley is the new Minister of Magic.
To see some of his plans, go to Page Six
To hear what Dolores Umbridge has to say, go to Page Eight
"Ron! Read this!" Harry said as he passed the paper to his best friend. Ron carefully scanned the article. His grin broadening as he got to the end.
"Wow! My dad's the new Minister of Magic!" Ron yelled out.
"Really?!" Hermione said, grabbing the newspaper. "This is great!" she shouted after reading it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all really happy to see the news, and by the looks of it, so were Professor Dumbledore, Tonks, and Lupin, who were all sitting at the front table with a copy in their hands.
They headed off to their classes, Harry and Hermione going to Charms, while Ron went off to Herbology. Harry and Hermione entered their classroom to see a lot of people taking this class. It seemed as though it was the same class they had been having these past five years, except without Ron. Professor Flitwick was at the head of the class, as usual, still speaking in the same squeaky tone that Harry hated to hear.
"Today class, we will be going over a charm for creating new objects out of thin air. You need to concentrate hard, thinking very carefully about the object you wish to create," he told the class, "You need to imagine every detail very closely. If you do not, you will get a deformed object, not what you are wishing to get. All you do is think about it, close your eyes, point your wand at the desk, and say 'Creo Insumo'. This will create your desired object. Try to create a quill, and then show it to me. Begin."
Harry closed his eyes and tried to block all thoughts, remembering his Occlumency lessons. He thought hard about the quills. He imagined every detail of it. From the top of the quill, all the way to the point of the quill, used for dipping ink. He pointed his wand at his desk, and said, very calmly, "Creo Insumo!" He opened his eyes up, and to his surprise, there laid a single quill on his desk. He picked it up and found that it felt exactly like a regular quill. He took it to Professor Flitwick, who was amazed at his work.
"Nice job Mr. Potter! Fifteen points for Gryffindor!" Professor Flitwick said. Harry went back to his seat and put his stuff on the desk. He was very proud of his work.
"Wow! That was great Harry! You think you could help me a little?" Hermione asked him.
"Sure," Harry agreed. He helped Hermione out, telling her that first she needed to clear her mind of all thoughts. She tried it once more, and got a quill that was full of holes. "Okay, we're making some progress," Harry told her. He instructed her once again on how to clear her mind, and when she tried again, she did it right. She showed Professor Flitwick and then came back to her seat.
"Wow! Harry, you're such a great teacher," Hermione told him.
"Thanks Hermione," Harry replied.
"Have you thought about restarting the D.A.?" Hermione asked him.
"I don't know," Harry said to her.
"You really should! It was great!" Hermione told him.
"I might. I just don't know at the moment," Harry told her.
"Alright," she gave in.
They went off to the common room and dropped their books off before heading off to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron was already sitting there stuffing his face with food.
"Hey Ron, how was Herbology?" Hermione asked him.
"Oh it was fine. Not that many people are taking it. There's only four. Me, Neville, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown," Ron told them, "How was Charms?"
"Fine. We learned a new charm today, to create things with your mind. Here, take this quill I made," Harry said, handing Ron one of the many quills he had managed to make with his mind during his last class.
"Oh, thanks!" Ron said, taking the quill.
"I have to go talk to Dumbledore now," Harry lied. He was actually going off to the hospital wing to see Cho. He got up from the table and went off towards the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione were still at the table talking and eating lunch.
He went down the corridors, and entered the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey stopped him at the door.
"What's wrong this time, Potter?" she asked impatiently.
"I was just wondering if I could see Cho," Harry told her.
"Oh, don't be too long though. You might disturb the other patients. I don't see why you would bother. She can't hear or see anything," Madame Pomfrey told him before stepping into her office. Harry walked down the rows of beds, to the very last one. There she was. Cho Chang was lying on the last bed of the wing; nobody could tell she was there. She was not moving, and Harry couldn't even tell if she was breathing. He had to take her pulse to make sure. When he did, he found that she did have a pulse, just not a normal one.
"This is all my fault," Harry said out loud, "The article's right. Voldemort is after everyone I loved. He's killed all my family, even the Dursleys. I know they didn't love me like a family should, but they're still my family. It's my fault Cho is lying here." Harry felt really bad, but did not know what he could do. Madame Pomfrey came over to him after he had been sitting there holding her hand for about fifteen minutes.
"Will she be okay?" Harry asked.
"I'm not sure. I'm really not. But I hope she is," Madame Pomfrey told him, looking really worried.
"Okay," Harry replied, leaving the hospital wing.
He went back to the common room and sat his books down in the dormitory before heading down to the main common room where Ron and Hermione were sitting. Harry pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and began his Potions homework. Write an essay about the uses of Veritaserum. One and a half scrolls. Hermione was practicing the creation charm. She still had not mastered it, although she did seem to be getting better at it. Harry sat there quietly working on his essay. He had finished his essay just in time for dinner. They went down to the Great Hall where they all ate their dinner. Harry loved eating at Hogwarts. It was much better than at the Dursleys. He hardly got fed there. But here at Hogwarts, he got tons of food.
After dinner was done, he headed to Professor Dumbledore's office for his first Occlumency lesson of the year.
"Skiving Snackboxes!" he said as he reached the gargoyles. They parted for him and gave him access to the stairs leading up to Dumbledore's office. He went inside the office, which looked perfectly normal now. There was not a ton of people in there. In fact, he, Dumbledore, Snape, and Lupin were the only ones in there. All of the shiny metal gadgets were fixed after last year, and everything looked just fine. He took a seat in front of Dumbledore's desk and got ready for some extreme head manipulation.
"Are you ready Harry?" Dumbledore asked him.
"Yes professor," Harry answered.
"Let's begin," Dumbledore replied,
"Legilimens!" Harry felt Dumbledore trying to get inside his head. Harry put up his barrier and immediately tried to repel the force. He could not do it. He began to see memories. Bad memories. Sirius falling behind the veil. His parents dying. Voldemort coming back to life. The Dursleys dead. Harry saw these and fought harder to push Dumbledore out. He tried strengthening his barrier and could feel Dumbledore getting pushed farther out of his mind. Suddenly, it all stopped.
"Harry, you need to be practicing more. You did not succeed in pushing me out of your mind fast enough. That would have been enough time for Voldemort to get vital information," Dumbledore told him.
"Sorry professor," Harry told him.
"Let's try again," Dumbledore said, "Legilimens!" Harry felt the pressure and immediately tried to push him out. It would not work. He began to see very vague flashes of memories. He kept trying to push out Dumbledore, but found it to be too much work. He felt Dumbledore let off and heard Dumbledore's voice.
"Harry, promise me you will practice," Dumbledore said to him, "It is very important that you do."
"Yes professor," Harry replied.
"Alright Harry, go get some rest. Keep practicing. Same time next week you will be here to continue your lessons," Dumbledore told him.
"Okay," Harry said. He walked out the door, Lupin following him.
"Harry, come to my office tomorrow after lunch. I would like to speak with you about something," Lupin told him.
"Okay Moony," Harry replied. "Please don't call me that at school, Harry," Lupin told him.
"Okay Professor," Harry said.
"Alright, see you tomorrow," Lupin said, heading off in the opposite direction of him. Harry entered the common room to find that Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight.
"Oh well, I'll get a head start on sleep," Harry thought to himself, heading up to his dormitory. He entered his dormitory and got into his pajamas before getting into bed. He remembered what Dumbledore had said, "Harry, promise me you will practice. It is very important that you do so." Harry put up a barrier and went to bed, trying not to thing of anything. He fell asleep, and to his surprise, he just had a regular dream like all other kids. No Voldemort. No Sirius. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a regular dream, like he hadn't had in a while.
He woke up the next morning, and surprisingly, Ron was already awake. So was Hermione. They all walked down to breakfast together, and took their seats at the table. The Daily Prophet was brought by and owl, and Harry gave it four Knuts. He looked through the paper, and found that there was nothing in there that was interesting to him.
"Oh well," he said. He threw the paper to Ron, in case Ron would see something interesting. Harry ate his breakfast, which was just his normal toast. He was not really in the eating mood this week. Today he had Transfiguration and then Astronomy at night. Ron was in his Transfiguration class, and so was Hermione. This was the first class that all three were in together.
They entered the classroom and took their seats, waiting for Professor McGonagall to begin her lesson. There were, luckily, no Slytherins in their class. There were only five people there. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, and Stefanie Riddle.
"Hello class," Professor McGonagall said, shutting the door behind her as she walked into the room. "Today we will be going over the theory of transfiguring on living creature into a totally different living creature. It is one thing to transfigure a rat into a mouse, but it is totally different to transfigure a fish into a bird," Professor McGonagall told them. She went on about how it was different, having them take down notes, which Harry didn't hear the end of from Ron. This was perhaps why Ron was not in as many classes as he was. Ron did not want to have to write a lot of things down. Professor McGonagall told them that they would be starting to actually try to transfigure a fish into a bird in two weeks time. She said that they would have to prove to her that they were ready.
"Any questions?" Professor McGonagall asked at the end of class. Interestingly, nobody had any questions. Everybody seemed to understand the class, even Ron. "Potter, I would like to see you after class," Professor McGonagall told him.
"Yes, Professor," Harry replied. He was sick of hearing that. "Potter, I would like to speak with you," he always heard that from people. For once, couldn't they say someone else's name. It was like he was the only one that teachers ever wanted to talk with.
After class, he stayed after, telling Ron and Hermione that he would meet them after his meeting with McGonagall.
"Potter, I would like to talk to you about the Quidditch team," she told him.
"Yes?" Harry asked, cheering up. He thought this would be a very serious conversation, but this was something he was actually interested in hearing.
"Make sure you do not do anything this year that would make you miss practices. Last year was horrible with you and Umbridge. You are the Captain, and I do hope you will not be missing any practices. Good luck with try-outs this weekend. I hope you are able to find some suitable people for the positions. I am getting quite used to seeing this trophy in my office," she told him.
"Yes, Professor," Harry replied, walking out the door towards the Great Hall.
He entered the Great Hall and took a seat next to Ron.
"What did she want?" Ron asked him.
"Oh, she just wanted to talk to me about the Quidditch team. You know, tell me good luck with the tryouts and all," Harry told him.
"Oh," Ron replied.
"Hey Harry, I was thinking about trying out for Chaser," Hermione told him. Ron spat out all his drink.
"What?" Ron said loudly.
"I said I was thinking about trying out for the position of Chaser," she told him again.
"Seriously Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. I'm serious. Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.
"I don't know, you just don't seem like the Quidditch playing type," Harry replied.
"Oh, whatever," Hermione said.
"My recommendation is to try for it. I mean, what's to lose?" Ron told her.
"Yeah, I probably will try out," she told them both.
"Alright, I have to go talk to Lupin. He said he had to talk with me today," Harry told them.
"Alright, talk to ya later Harry!" Hermione shouted as he left the Great Hall.
He headed off towards Lupin's office, which wasn't too far off. He knocked on the door and Tonks opened it.
"Hey Tonks!" exclaimed Harry.
"Oh, hey Harry!" Tonks replied, before leaving the office. Harry walked in and took a seat opposite Lupin.
"Harry, I know it's been tough with the deaths of your parents and Sirius. I was really close with them too. But, they weren't my parents or godfather, so I guess you got the worse part of the deal. But I want you to know that I'm here for you," Lupin told him.
"Okay Lupin," Harry replied, feeling guilty once more when Lupin had mentioned Sirius.
"And now that the Dursleys are gone, you have no where to go during the summers, do you?" Lupin said.
"No, I guess I don't have anywhere to go," Harry replied.
"So, what I'm trying to get at is, err...well," Lupin tried to say, but couldn't get his words out.
"What is it Lupin?" Harry asked, confused.
"Well, I wanted to know if you would like it if I adopted you and became your legal guardian," Lupin asked him.
"Wow! You really mean it?" Harry replied gleefully.
"Of course!" Lupin replied.
"That would be great! How do we make it official?" Harry asked.
"Well, just sign here," Lupin told him, bringing out a piece of parchment. Harry signed it. "It's official now!" Lupin told him.
"Can I call you dad?" Harry asked.
"Sure," Lupin replied.
"Thanks dad," Harry said, "Nevermind, that sounds too creepy." They laughed before Lupin told him that he had to go do something. Harry left the office feeling very happy, on his way back to the common room.
He entered the common room where Hermione and Ron were waiting for him.
"Hey guys," he said with a huge grin on his face.
"What made you so happy?" Ron asked him.
"Well, it's official," Harry told him.
"What is?" Ron asked, confused.
"Lupin's my new father!" Harry told him ecstatically.
"Huh?" Ron said, now even more confused.
"Lupin adopted me!" Harry told him.
"Wow!" Ron said.
"That's cool Harry! Your father is a teacher!" Hermione told him.
"Yeah," Harry replied. They hung out until dinner, doing homework and playing chess. Harry beat Ron, but only because Ron wasn't really paying attention to the game. They went down to the Great Hall where they ate dinner, Harry was getting quite used to the food there.
After dinner, they had Astronomy. They were instructed on how to use the new telescopes. They had received new ones this year, which were better and had a better magnification. They were instructed to map out the stars on a star chart and try to name all that they could. Harry tried, and managed to remember a lot more of the names than he thought he could. Astronomy wasn't too bad. He still wasn't very fond of the subject and didn't know why he was taking it. He wished he was like Ron, and didn't have to take Astronomy. That night, Harry once again had a normal dream, after remembering to practice his Occlumency and put up his barrier so Voldemort couldn't penetrate his mind. Instead, he fell asleep very quickly, having a very normal dream, a Voldemort-free dream.