Hey! Thanks to everyone for their reviews--some new readers: Cece, hermione granger, Angel1129 (I luv ya girl) Any- whoo, here's chapter 10
Oh Lanie.....I think I'm gonna dedicate this chapter to you! You'll see why once you read it!
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, but thanks to hermione granger ) who thought I was, you're too kind
Chapter 10: Initio Repello
The next day at Hogwarts was very gray and miserable. The bewitched ceiling of the Great Hall mirrored the state of the sky outside on the school grounds--cloudy with drizzling rain. The only thing Harry and his friends had to look forward to was their first class with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Granita. Therefore, the ambiance of the day did not improve when Hermione received the newspaper that morning.
Harry had almost spilled the jug of pumpkin juice when he heard Hermione give a sharp intake of breath. Both him and Ron snapped their heads around to see what all the fuss was about.
"Look here," Hermione whispered as she pointed at the front page of the Daily Prophet.
A large black and white picture immediately caught Harry's eyes where he recognized various members of the Order of the Phoenix, all of them sporting very grim looks on their faces. In the background, Harry could make out Ron's mother in the brace of Arthur Weasley's arms who appeared to be sobbing heavily.
"THAT'S MUM!" Ron expressed loudly, and Ginny who was sitting quite close by came over to see what was going on. She too, like Hermione, let out a cry of fright when she began reading the headline:
MURDER IN LITTLE HANGLETON
Wizard, Mundungus Fletcher was murdered last night, the first of September while out doing undercover work for a secret society (we are not authorized to say the name for security reasons) in order to acquire further information dealing with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. When Fletcher did not appear at last night's meeting, associates, Remus Lupin and Alastor Moody, along with Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge went looking for him-- although this was not the first time Mundungus had been absent for a meeting. He was found later that night at the former residence of the late Riddle Family in the village of Little Hangleton--dead.
This was apparently the said hideout of the Dark Lord and all his followers, yet when Fudge, Lupin and Moody arrived on the scene, not a single soul was found apart from Mundungus' dead, cold body lying on the floor next to his severely severed head. This unjust deed could only have been the work of very dark magic but we were told otherwise by none other than the Minister for Magic himself.
"Certainly no wand or curse could ever produce such a clean swipe through the neck like that!" comments Fudge. "We have a strong reason to believe that this was the work of not a wand but another very dark weapon..................the legendary Axe of Slytherin, belonging to Lord Voldemort himself."
There have been rumors that You-Know-Who, who is the rightful Heir of the Great Salazar Slytherin has in fact obtained the Axe, however the rumor has now become truth and his only goal now is to take care of some unfinished business, something that he was not able to accomplish 16 years ago--Kill Harry Potter, the boy who lived.
Harry gulped upon finishing the last few words of the article. It was true, his dream that he had before leaving for Hogwarts a month ago. Noticing Harry's state of distress, Ron, Hermione and Ginny turned their sympathizing heads towards him. Ginny was almost in tears, Hermione opened her mouth to comfort Harry but nothing came out. Ron at last was the first to break the silence, "Um.......Harry," he started very quietly but was cut off abruptly by an approaching cold drawl.
"Looks like the Famous Potter won't be with us much longer," it was Malfoy who was pretending to wipe a fake tear from his eye. He had obviously just read the same article in the Daily Prophet.
"You've got a lot of nerve coming over here and saying that Malfoy," Ron sneered as he stood up from the table.
"Oh, and I suppose you, Weasley, are going to stop me?" Malfoy looked at Ron.
"No! We're going to help him!" came two very confident voices. Hermione and Ginny now stood next to Ron with their wands raised. They seemed very determined to put Malfoy in the Hospital Wing.
"Well Potter, looks like you've got yourself a fine army to back you up!" Malfoy said with cold eyes. "A mudblood, and two Weasleys.......Too bad they won't be any good though! The Dark Lord can kill you and all your little friends in one shot." He made a gesture with his hand across his neck and mimicked the sound of a swishing blade.
Harry had enough, "ONE MORE WORD MALFOY AND I'LL......" Harry began raising his wand, his face red with fury.
"Is anything wrong here ladies and gentlemen?" a voice came from behind, which they all recognized--Percy. "Ron and Ginny, you're not causing any trouble here are you?"
"Um........no Percy," Ron gave a phony, angelic smile.
Percy glanced around and saw Draco. "Ah, Malfoy. I should've known it was you causing all of this," Percy's voice was tense with hatred. "All right.........you'd all be getting to class now. Move along!"
"See you in class then, Potter," Malfoy said as he left with Crabbe and Goyle chuckling deeply behind him.
Shortly after, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry were also off in the direction of their first class. Not wanting the news in the Daily Prophet to ruin the rest of his already depressing day, Harry put all his dreary thoughts in the back of his mind and walked down the corridor with the rest of his friends.
Halfway there, Ginny caught up with Colin Creevey, who had matured quite a bit over the past few years. He was no longer that small, mousey- haired boy running around the school taking pictures of Harry every moment he got. Colin was now about half a head shorter than Harry, with short blonde hair and Harry couldn't help but notice that he, like Ginny was sporting a very shiny Prefect badge on the lapel of his robe right next to the scarlet and gold embroidered Gryffindor emblem.
"All right there, Harry," Colin called out as they all stopped momentarily in the corridor to greet each other.
"Hi Colin, I see you've been made a !" Harry said with a smile.
"Oh, yea........thanks!" Colin beamed. "Well Ginny, we'd better be going to Professor Binns' classroom."
"Right......see you later then," Ginny called out to Harry, Ron and Hermione as she departed from the group.
Minutes later, Harry and his fellow 6th year Gryffindors, along with the 6th year Ravenclaws were seated in the large Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, patiently awaiting the arrival of Professor Granita. Soon, the door opened and in walked the tall, black haired man, wearing robes of forest green and his black, square-framed glasses. The sleeves of his robes were rolled up to just under the elbow and with a closer look, Harry noticed that his square glasses were decked out with tiny little gems, silver in colour.
"Welcome to 6th year Defense Against the Dark Arts," Professor Granita said with a smile. "I am of course your teacher Professor Lonnie Granita, although simply Professor Granita will be fine. Now as I understand, you haven't really had a permanent teacher in quite some time. Thus, I have taken the liberty to prepare for you a small pop quiz for part of this morning's lesson."
Scattered groans of disappointment came from all over the class except for Hermione, who seemed very delighted to be having an evaluation so early on in the school year. However, her smile turned into a furrowed expression when Professor Granita said, "Not too much to worry about though, considering that the marks earned on this quiz will not count towards your end of the year mark......I only wish to see were you all stand on the subject, although I WILL be awarding house points to the students with the highest scores........" The grim faces around the classroom eased slightly.
"Now, if you all would be so kind as to clear you desks before we begin," Professor Granita waited until every desktop was cleared up then waved his wand and magically, sheets of parchment appeared on the desks.
Harry's eyes were wide with shock. Professor Granita had said that it would be a SMALL quiz, however, when Harry picked up his quill to begin, he noticed that there were at least over a hundred questions written on the parchment, including: What is the correct incantation for ridding a Boggart?....What is the name given to a black dog seen as a death omen?....List all of the Unforgivable Curses and briefly describe each......What is the spell used to fully disarm an opponent?.....What is the exact function of a Sneakoscope?
Despite the number of questions, Harry was very pleased with himself. He knew practically the answer to every question and was one the first to finish.
Once everyone had completed the quiz, Professor Granita went around the classroom, collected them all and began inserting each piece of parchment into a strange looking contraption sitting on the edge of his desk. As Harry got a better look at this odd device, he realized that aside from all the many different coloured switches and buttons, it closely resembled what Muggles called a photocopier.
With the push of a large, red button, the quizzes began whirring through the machine at top speed until coming to rest in a neat little pile, stacked at the edge of the desk--completely corrected and marked. Immediately, Professor Granita picked up the stack of parchment and began perusing through them.
He gave the class a disturbed look, "Hmm, I don't like these results," he said to the class earnestly. "Many of you failed to remember that a black dog seen as a death omen is called a Grim. But I must say, many of you did quite well.......Miss Granger and Mr. Potter, I believe you both have earned top marks in the class," He looked up from the sheets of parchment and smiled brightly. "Well done, take 10 points each for Gryffindor.....and who's quiz is this?" Professor Granita began searching for a name. "Ah yes, Mr. Maximus our new transfer student, congratulations as well, you have also managed to earn another 10 points for Gryffindor." Every Gryffindor was ecstatic with joy as they cheered.
"Well now that's over with," Professor Granita began after the excitement in the class had died down. "On to the rest of today's business. The quiz that you have just taken has given me quite an idea on where to begin.........it seems that you are well-learned in the Theory of Defensive Magic, and you know quite a bit about dark magical creatures........" he paused as if deep in thought. "So.....I suppose I would like to begin now by teaching the class a new defensive spell, which I will first demonstrate to you."
A large cloud of excitement swept across the classroom. Every Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sitting in that room was looking very much forward to using their wands, considering that it had been so long since they had ever needed their wands for a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.
Once the sound of excitement settled, Professor Granita turned to the class and began to speak again. "Now for my demonstration, I will be needing a volunteer. Ah, yes.....how about you Mr. Potter, will you please come up here." He looked straight at Harry through his black glasses.
Although Harry was not at all thinking about volunteering himself to be subjected to Professor Granita's demonstration, he rose from his chair and walked to the front of the classroom. While Harry carefully made his way through the labyrinth of desks to get to the front, Professor Granita conjured up a large pail filled to the top with small, stones about the size of Harry's fist.
"Okay Harry, take this pail and go stand over there," Harry did as he was told, struggling with the weight of the bucket dragging down his arms, and stood by the end of the teacher's desk, furthest away from Professor Granita. There he patiently waited for his next instructions.
"Harry, I want you to throw one of the stones at me," Professor Granita instructed.
"Excuse me professor?" Harry had never been told to throw something at a teacher before and was rather shocked when he heard this, especially considering that the rocks were quite large and would probably hurt a great deal. "Did you just ask me to throw--"
"You heard me correctly, Harry," Professor Granita laughed. "Pick up a stone and throw it straight at me...the harder, the better." Harry gave him a look of bewilderment then reached in the bucket and pulled out one of the many rocks resting inside. He clutched the stone tightly in his hand before throwing it with all his might.
The stone was speeding quickly, as it whizzed to the other end of the classroom where Professor Granita stood. Just as the stone was about to hit him square in the forehead, he raised his wand and bellowed loudly, "INITIO REPELLO!"
The rock, which Harry had thrown, appeared to hit an invisible wall, protecting Professor Granita from harm and fell to the floor with a loud thud. Judging by their faces, Professor Granita could tell that the class was absolutely awe stricken at the sight of what had just happened.
"Wow Professor, what was that?" called out Dean Thomas.
"Ah my dear boy, you see, the spell that you are about to learn is a very complex repelling charm, as you have just observed the rock being repelled from myself.......yet before we actually start, I ask all of you to please take out a roll of parchment and begin copying this down, " Professor Granita waved his wand once again and words began to magically appear on the chalkboard at the front of the classroom.
INITIO REPELLO is a spell cast to prevent most objects from making contact with the human body. Once the spell is preformed, an invisible shield of protection will form around the one who has cast the spell, and will repel almost anything (although there is no real guarantee as to which objects will be repelled). Warlock, Gilbert Gollaper was saved from death by this spell from a horrible meteor shower, and wizard genius Little Timmy McThorton never had to suffer another strangling hug from his grandmother when he learned this spell.
Professor Granita spoke again once the sound of quills scratching the surface of the parchment had ceased. "That's about all the time we have for today's lesson I am afraid so you may begin packing up your things.......Oh, and by the way, for homework I want each and every one of you to read and summarize pages 130 to 139 on this repelling charm to prepare yourself for our next class together."
"Well, Professor Granita wasn't so bad was he?" Ron asked as the three of them sat down in the Great Hall for supper that evening. The condition outside had improved slightly since the morning and the rain had completely stopped.
"And that new defensive spell seems quite interesting, doesn't it Harry?--Harry??--HARRY!!!" Hermione realized that Harry wasn't paying attention to her question. In fact, Harry's mind had thought back to the morning's paper......Mundungus Fletcher was dead, and Voldemort was still out there. "Harry, what's wrong?......It's that article isn't it?"
Harry didn't reply, he remained deep in thought and neither Hermione nor Ron knew what to say that would lighten Harry's mood. All three of them had been through many life-threatening situations before, but never were they so severe as this one.
"Harry, I'm sure Lupin and everyone else is doing the best they can to--" Ron began but was cut off suddenly by Harry.
"Yea, but don't you see.......doing their best just isn't good enough anymore, look at what just happened! Voldemort (Ron flinched at the name) is back with probably more power than ever, and we don't even know HOW to stop him!"
There was a long pause of silence. Hermione looked as if she was fighting back tears and Ron just stared blankly at his half full dinner plate, lost for words.
"I think I'm just gonna go up to our room, I don't feel very hungry," Harry said after a while. He rose up and crossed over to the entrance, leaving the Great Hall. Harry needed someone to talk to, someone who would assure him that everything would be all right, someone other than his two best friends, but who?
When Harry was a few feet away from the common room entrance, he heard a loud but familiar cackling sound--Peeves. He was right in front of the Fat Lady's Portrait, blocking Harry from entering with a fat magic marker in his hand, scribbling all over the castle walls.
"Why, it's Potty Wee Potter!" Peeves said with a menacing smile as Harry approached.
"Go away Peeves!!" there was a tone of anger in Harry's voice.
"Shouldn't you be eating dinner? What's the matter? Is Ickle Potty feeling a bit down? Does he need old Peevsie to cheer him up?" Peeves teased.
"No, Peeves! I just want to get into the Gryffindor common room."
"I know what'll cheer you up," Peeves went on, ignoring Harry. "A song! Yes, perhaps a wee song would make Potty happy! Hmm, but what shall I sing?......" he paused to think.
"PEEVES!!! Just let me in!" Harry said impatiently.
Peeves just stuck out his tongue and broke into song, "Oh, Potter you're ugly but what can you do?.....If you looked in a mirror it surely would crack....Everyone knows you belong in a zoo but Potter you're ugly so what can we do?" And he zoomed off down the hall, singing loudly, leaving the path free for Harry to enter.
The common room was completely empty since all of Gryffindor was down in the Great Hall, feasting. Harry walked up the spiral staircase, entered his dormitory and sat down on his four-poster bed, deep in thought. Suddenly, it hit him--he knew whom he could talk to. Harry opened his trunk, searching for something but he couldn't find it. He delved deeper, removing all of the trunk's contents until it was practically empty. It was then that he finally found what he was looking for, the other half of Sirius' mirror.
Yet, although he had indeed found the mirror, Harry's heart sank down to his stomach. With all that had been happening with Voldemort's return, Harry had completely forgotten that he'd shattered the mirror and at the bottom of his trunk now lay the four broken pieces of the small mirror.
With very little hope left, Harry carefully picked up each piece and laid them on his bed, forming the rectangular shape that the mirror had once had. "How will I ever talk to Lupin now?" Harry thought to himself. His mind began thinking about the ways he could fix the mirror. "Maybe I could use some of that Muggle super glue that Uncle Vernon always uses.........but where would I get some and would it be able to bond together something so magical as this?.........Or perhaps Spellotape, it worked on Ron's old wand when he busted it, maybe it'll work on this."
Harry got off his bed once more and began rummaging through his belongings scattered on the floor until he found his almost finished roll of Spellotape. He peeled off a strip and started piecing together the broken shards of the mirror, as if it were a very delicate jigsaw puzzle. Soon, the pieces were completely bonded together, although not very strongly. Remembering the instructions on how to use it, he looked into the mirror and said very clearly, "I wish to speak with Remus Lupin."
Nothing happened. Again he tried, "May I please speak with Remus Lupin." Still nothing and Harry was now becoming frustrated. "LET ME TALK TO LUPIN!!" he yelled at the mirror, which remained reflecting the image of Harry's irritated face. Giving up all hope, Harry roughly shoved the mirror in his robe pocket and changed into his pajamas. He felt quite exhausted after a very trying day.
Not wanting to face Ron once he arrived, Harry drew the curtains around his bed and lay there motionless, staring blankly at the ceiling, thinking. If he were to come face to face with Voldemort any time soon, he would definitely not live to tell the tale this time. The Famous Harry Potter.......the brave and valiant Harry Potter who has escaped the wrath of Voldemort countless times before........would be dead within a heartbeat.
Well there you go! Another chapter complete, sorry it was pretty long.....don't forget to REVIEW it!! Stay tuned for the next chapter!!