Harry Potter & the Tainting of the Light
Chapter 3
A/N: I don't own anything. I will be starting a date system now because of the fact that I can't keep track of when the story is, and with a set calendar it would be much easier. I will use the calendar of 2004 for all the day-number relations such as July 22 being Friday.
(September 1, Wednesday)
A horn screeched, awaking Harry from his nap. He looked around and found himself in a compartment and remembered where he was. Harry was currently sitting in one of the last compartments in the Hogwarts Express. He looked at his watch and found that he had slept for an hour, having gotten to the station and to the train extra early.
Harry's arrival to Platform 11 ¾ was completely the opposite of the routine with the Weasleys. With the Weasleys, everything was frantic and done at the last minute. However Moody, Moony, and Tonks were not the type to do things at the last minute. Well maybe Tonks, but Moody being a former Auror and being a complete paranoid psycho, and Moony a mature and responsible adult who had been a professor, made sure Harry was ready 3 hours before departure.
Harry guessed that even now Moody and Moony along with a few other Order members were watching the train. Even Aurors were supposedly going to be stationed on the train to make sure the train was safe. At least that was according Tonks and Kingsley.
It was amazing how much had changed in the last few days. Fudge got kicked out of his office after a vote of no confidence. Harry remembered the moment he found out about Fudge vividly.
(Flashback)
(August 28, Saturday)
"Harry! You have got to see this!" Tonks almost screamed as she entered the kitchen in which Harry was cooking breakfast.
Tonks ran up to Harry and stopped at the last moment tripping over her own feet. Harry held the pan with eggs in it on one hand, and caught her in the other. He set her back on her feet and patiently waited for Tonks to continue.
"Look!" Tonks almost jumped as she handed Harry what looked like a newspaper. Harry unfolded the wrapped up newspaper and read the headline.
b
Rotten Fudge Thrown Out! By Penelope Clearwater
Officially at 7:23 of August 28 XXXX, Ex-Minister Cornelius Fudge has been removed from his office after the Heads of the Ministry stepped into his office and unanimously voted a state of "No Confidence" in the Minister. Many officials say that the struggles that former Minister Fudge put up were monumental and that it took 3 Aurors to detain and escort him out.
Currently not only has the Ex-Minister lost his office, but he finds himself in the Ministry Holding Cell, being held for suspicion in the crimes of: enforcing media screening, over abusing his power, accepting bribes, blackmailing, and shielding the public with the knowledge of You- Know-Who's return.
It is obvious now that Fudge slandered Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and Albus Percival Dumbledore, defeater of the Dark Wizard Grindewald and owner of numerous awards and titles amongst the wizarding world, after their valiant and ever resolute attempts to voice the truth about You-Know-Who's return. It was also brought up that Headmaster Dumbledore brought up the criteria about the instability of Azkaban to the former minister, who ignored the words of wisdom.
It is sad that because of the incompetence of the Ex-Minister that Azkaban was broken into a several days earlier, with the former Death Eaters liberated and Dementors working for You-Know-Who.
Also the Ex-Minister's former Under Secretary Dolores Umbridge, who also finds herself kicked out of office, is currently also in a holding cell for the suspicion of: using illegal blood quills on students, setting dementors on a minor, attempted casting of one of the unforgivable curses, allowing torture methods on students, and screening free speech of students and teachers within the Hogwarts institute.
Ms. Umbridge is suspected of using blood quills on numerous students at Hogwarts when she was residing as the DADA teacher first and then the Headmistriss for a whole year. Amongst them was Harry Potter for speaking out about You-Know-Who. Apparently Ms. Umbridge has also admitted to have set dementors on Harry Potter during his summer before his 5th year at Hogwarts, in attempts to have him expelled.
Last to be kicked out of office and being is being currently held in a holding cell until questioning is the Ex-Minister's former Secretary Percival Weasley. He is being brought up on charges for aiding screening the media, spreading lies and blantant propaganda to misinform the public, and setting up biased trials against numerous people.
There are many others within the Ministry that is considered to be corrupted by Fudge. Thankfully Madam Amelia Bones, who is currently acting as Temporary Minister, assures the readers that a through investigation will go into every Ministry worker.
/b
Harry couldn't believe that Fudge finally got kicked out of office, but also the irony of the fact that the person writing the article was Percy's ex. Kingsley also jumped for joy at having the incompetent bastard kicked out. Apparently the Minister personally got on his back for his failed attempts at catching Sirius Black.
(End of Flashback)
Harry smiled remembering when he last met Kingsley. The last time Harry saw him, which was two days ago, Kingsley was still miffed and sulking about how Harry downed him so easily during the duel a week ago. He seemed to have gotten to talking to Harry again, but he still seemed to be giving Harry mock glares every time Tonks brought up the duel.
Tonks just laughed and told Harry good job. Supposedly the Auror was getting a bit arrogant over the last year, having obtained the rank as one of the best duelers amongst the Aurors.
Moody just gave Harry a small smirk, while Moony gave a cheerful laugh. Harry sighed; he was going to miss the three, even the pissed off Kingsley. Training with them gave Harry a feeling of confidence, knowing that he was doing something to prepare. Now Harry would have to worry about school, Quidditch, and god knows what else.
As the train started to move, Harry had to admit he longed for a normal life, but he couldn't just ignore the problem at hand to have it. He couldn't just turn a blind eye at what was going on, not when he knew he was the center of it all.
Harry sighed, if he lived through this, he promised that he would be the most immature and childish person anyone met. Harry laughed wondering if that was why Dumbledore was as he currently was.
That was another thing, Dumbledore. The man that manipulated his life, yet even now seemed to be doing what he thought was best. Harry had to admit, he didn't hate the man. He was wary of him, he was mad at him, but Harry couldn't hate him for doing what he did.
Harry came to understand that no matter how mature and wise Dumbledore seemed, he was still human. He wasn't god, he couldn't know everything that happened in Harry's life, and it was very clear that he made mistakes life any other human.
Harry took off his trunk-ring and enlarged it. He opened the compartment to one with all the books in it and accio-ed a book to him. After all it wouldn't do well for anyone to see him walking into his trunk if they were to walk in at that very moment.
Harry caught the book that sailed through the air towards him. He looked at the title and smiled at how informative his personal library was. Harry strongly believed that only 10 copies of the book he was currently holding were even in existence.
Harry knew that Hermione would scream in anger and jealousy at the book that he was reading. Even the title was written in golden weavings. Harry laid down on the seat and traced his fingers over the title.
"To Increase Proficiency in Elemental Magic"
The book was incredibly interesting. It seemed that many of the elemental magic that Harry knew barely scratched the surface of what could be done. The book explained that there were levels of complexity of elemental magic. Ranging from 1 to 10, a basic incendio charm would be 1, a drought charm would be 2, and even Harry's lightning spell would be around 6. Harry at first couldn't believe that such advanced magic such as the lightning spell was only on the scale 6 out of the 10.
However after he read deep into the rest of the elemental magic Harry could understand why his spell was only 5. Truth be told, Harry's lightning spell was one of the most powerful elemental spells in existence, however anything beyond the scale of 7 reached into the magic where no spells were cast.
They reached into chants and rune magic type of magic casting. The highest elemental magic noted to day was an incident that required synchronized chanting with 10 people profound at advanced wind elemental magic. The 10 also required the use of highly advanced rune magic. Unfortunately chanting was an incredibly precise art.
Chants were only used when the more then one magic user wanted to combine their magical power into a certain magic, and with the chanting of the same words they would be able to intertwine their magic together to fuse the potency of their magic.
The runes were also used to stabilize the magic and to help the magic be more "willing" to bond with the other elemental's magic. However stability goes only so far and the higher the power behind the magic the less stability the runes can provide.
That was why when one elemental miss pronounced one syllable of the chant the magic became unstable and the elemental magic they were trying to perform backfired unto the casters.
Sad to say no one survived the hurricane that engulfed the 10 elementals and the towns surrounding them. Harry guessed that incident was one of the main reason advanced elemental magic was untaught nowadays.
Harry didn't want to do elemental magic such as those, but was merely satisfied learning advanced elementals spells similar to the lightning spells. Harry even learned the name of the spell that took down 2 of his 3 trainers. Needless to say "Zeus' Wraith" became one of Harry's more favored spells.
Then Harry's learned the "Hell's Inferno." The spell shot a tidal wave of fire that seemed to take a somewhat liquid appearance. It looked like to anyone on the receiving end a huge wave of molten lava coming at them. The spell was incredibly lethal and gave 3rd degree burns immediately on contact, and just about anyone under the spell for 2 seconds would be roasted alive. At least that was what the book said as Harry never got to try his spell on anyone. The spell was level 6 according to the book.
Then there was the spell "Breeze's Fickle" it sounded harmless yet was of level 7 on the scale. The spell was highly "Reactive" and the name was appropriate. Fickle meaning unexpected and the spell to anyone that didn't focus enough could have the spell turn on them or not be cast at all. The spell actually shot numerous "blades" of wind at opponents.
And being that the "blades" were formed of solidified air it was incredibly sharp and other then something of great density and thickness the "blades" would cut through the defenses made by the victim. Needless to say the victim would find themselves less whole if they could not evade or block the spell.
There was also the fact that the number of "blades" and its accuracy was never exactly certain. Although chances are the caster would always hit the victim, there was no telling who else the caster would hit. Anyone within the victim's proximity was liable of being chopped up by the spell also.
The only reassurance was the spell ended after shooting 10 meters. Truth be told, the spell was too unpredictable for Harry's taste. Only in a fight to the death situation would Harry ever even think about using the spell. Even now Harry was only able to use the spell somewhat under control with his Amber Wand that was proficient at mainly elemental magic. His other wands shot the blades at everything but the target and himself.
The beauty of elemental spells was the fact that they were hard to block. While any other spell took the form of manipulated magic until hitting the opponent then the magic activated to cause some sort of physical change, the elemental magic immediately took a physical change upon leaving the wand
There were shields against physical magic, but they were usually unstable and took a lot of concentration to conjure. The shields however were complex and mostly a waste of time to use in a duel. There were really strong ones that took just about any physical attack short of a raging hippogriff, but those took a high level of concentration and the wand movement and spell uttering was more complex then what would be good in a duel.
After all shields were usually needed to quickly defend the victim against attacks, but doing a 3 second wand movement wouldn't be productive in an active duel.
Then there were quicker casted shields but they were so weak that having a person lean on it could break it. It was more efficient to just conjure things to block the attacks as they are quicker and the conjured objects could take a lot more blow before being destroyed. However they usually depended on the caster's proficiency at conjuring.
But the best thing that came out of reading the book was Harry's developing interest in runes. At first Harry thought they were just ancient writings or whatever in his 3rd year, but runes in fact were like "written" magic. It could be written in the air, on stone, staffs.
The possibilities were endless, and Harry vowed to start learning more about Rune Magic as soon as he can. Harry even found a book on it, but waited until after he was done with the Elemental book before starting to read it.
The door to his compartment opened and Harry wandlessly cast an illusion charm on the cover of his book. Now no one would question Harry reading the "DADA" curriculum book in the compartment.
Harry looked over his book to see Blaize Zabani at the entrance. She looked really unhappy at finding the Golden Boy of Gryffindor sitting in the compartment.
"Get out Potter, this is my compartment." Blaize said.
Harry just lazily raised his eye-brow. "There is more then enough room for you Zabani, although it may be hard for you to fit your arrogance through the doorway."
"Arrogance! Look who's talking Mr. Boy-Who-Lived and has a broomstick up his arse!"
Harry just gave Blaise a withering look and said, "I'm not the one that believes that they own a public compartment. Now look Zabani, I'm not leaving so either close the door on your way out, or sit down and shut up."
Zabani huffed and entered the compartment. She sat down on the seat opposite of Harry and opened her trunk pulling out a book. Harry planned to pay the temper mental Slytherin no mind for the rest of the trip as he kept reading his book.
The door to the compartment opened again some time later. Harry didn't put his book down and instead preferred to see through the book for who was at the door. Harry found that it was the two youngest Weasley and Hermione. Harry still didn't put his book down slightly miffed at how he was ignored all summer.
"Well there's Zabani and no Harry. See Hermione, he isn't here, I bet he's going to Hogwarts in style with guards and all." Harry easily heard jealousy as Ron closed the door.
"Trouble in paradise?" Harry could feel Zabani's smirk.
Harry laughed bitterly replying with a, "You have no idea."
"So the Golden Trio is breaking apart now?" Blaise asked.
"Zabani, if you weren't so daft you would know that it has been falling apart since the 4th year." Harry replied exasperated.
The Slytherin sneered at Harry, who finally lowered his book down and turned his head to face her. "Not everyone wants to know everything about you Potter."
Harry merely smirked at the Slytherin annoying her to no ends.
"What are you smirking at Potter!"
"Nothing you would understand Zabani." Blaise merely huffed to express her annoyance and went back to reading, as did Harry.
The silence of the compartment lasted for another hour until the door opened again. Harry was vaguely annoyed at how little privacy he was getting but held his emotions in. Harry had his book once again in front of his face and peered through it to see who was at the door.
'Surprise, surprise.' Harry thought as he found Malfoy flanked by his usual two idiot trolls. Malfoy didn't even spare Harry a glance as he immediately faced Blaise.
"So Zabani, still in your usual compartment I see. At least you aren't alone; I guess I was wrong about you being a loner, you filthy traitor." Malfoy sneered at Zabani.
Harry rolled his eyes at how annoying and predictable Malfoy could be. However Malfoy did supply Harry with the useful information of how Blaise wasn't liked by Malfoy. Harry planned to store the information for now and find out more about this later.
"Just because I don't kiss You-Know-Who's arse and plan to serve only myself, doesn't mean I'm a traitor." Blaise retorted to Malfoy.
"You're a muggle-lover, your family is a disgrace to the Zabani name. They were well respected pure-bloods until your whore of a mother and that squib of a father took on the family name! They brought shame upon your ancestors!" Malfoy all but yelled.
"At least my parents aren't sucking up to another wizard! They stand proud for their beliefs and bow to no-one!" Blaise yelled at Malfoy. "I can't say the same for your parents can you? I'm sure arse kissing You-Know-Who got your family a lot of respect in the wizarding world. I mean I can't believe that my family missed out on the chance of being on the run and being a common criminal!" Blaise said sarcastically.
Malfoy drew his wands, with his two dimwitted friends following his example. Blaise had her wand drawn too. It seemed that a fight was inevitable, and Harry was not pleased to be in a small compartment, sure to be caught up in the duel's cross-spells.
Harry drew his wand without drawing any attention to himself ready to defend himself if the need arouse. He also put the book under his robes intent on not letting it be damaged in the fight that was sure to come.
Blaise, Malfoy, and Malfoy's troll-like friends were currently eying each other with extreme hate waiting for the other to start the duel. It was easily known to the four that the first one to cast a spell would be punished, while the others could say that the returning spells were in self- defense.
Goyle was the first to crack as he sent a spell at Blaise. She quickly ducked the spell, sending a pink one back to the attacker. Goyle wasn't quick enough and developed boils all over his body. Goyle thrashed in the pain of the boils, bumping into Crabbe.
Crabbe swayed almost losing his balance, but quickly regained it. He tried to send a spell to Blaise but Goyle, after having his boils come into contact with Crabbe bring a fit of pain, reflexively thrashed again, this time hitting Malfoy.
Unfortunately for Malfoy he lost balance being knocked into Crabbe's line of fire, and developed 2nd degree burns on the immediate area of contact. The spell wasn't lethal or anything, just creating a burn mark on the victim, along with the pain that came from burn marks.
Blaise quickly used advantage of the stupidity of the three and fired two more spells at the three. Crabbe found himself turned partially into a pig, as Blaise's spell wasn't completely effective, and Malfoy was forcibly knocked back into his two friends. They hurdled through the compartment door and were knocked unconscious in the hallway.
To Harry the duel wasn't even a duel. It was a complete and utter massacre on Malfoys part and it took all Harry had to not laugh at Malfoy's current condition. Harry didn't even have to do anything to defend himself from a stray spell because Blaise was so effective in her dueling.
Harry had to admit, he was somewhat amazed at the Blaises dueling skills, not that Harry would say that to her. Blaise on her part was all smiles, she was incredibly happy at kicking the three idiots' arses in a duel. However she was angry at the fact that she had to do it all alone.
"Thanks for your help Potter!" Blaise glared in Harry's direction.
"Wasn't my fight, and besides are you saying that you wanted my assistance?" Harry raised his eyebrows slowly in mock confusion.
"No! I would never want your help-"
"Ok then, problem solved." Harry interrupted.
"...So much for your Gryffindor bravery." Blaise grumbled as she took a seat.
"Bravery had nothing to do with it Zabani, besides you're a big girl, figured you could handle yourself?" Harry asked.
She didn't reply merely contending to read her discarded book.
The train ride ended in relative silence after that, the only other interruption being an Auror that entered the room questioning the duel that took place earlier. Blaise explained the situation with Harry only giving vocal confirmation of her story.
The only other event during the train ride was Blaise exiting to change into her robes, while Harry didn't have to as he was already in the robes that was the last gift from Sirius.
Harry stepped into the Great Hall without much emotions showing. He wanted to sit with his best friends, but he remembered Ron's departing word from before. The last thing he needed right now was to get into a row with them in the Great Hall so Harry chose to sit with Neville.
Harry struck a brief conversation with the somewhat plump Gryffindor. Neville told Harry that he got a new wand, and how his grandmother was extremely proud of how he fought against death eaters at the Ministry. Harry nodded slightly not truly wanting to talk, but not wanting to seem rude to the shy but brave Gryffindor that stuck by him for all his years at Hogwarts.
The sorting passed by quickly as Harry didn't pay any attention to it, then like usual, Dumbledore stood to give his usual annual start of the year speech.
"Students new and old, welcome for another year at Hogwarts. I wish to start this year off jolly; however I have another interruption for you before you may feast. It seems that this year instead of just the usual first years joining us, a large majority of transfer students have applied for Hogwarts. Now usually I would just quietly sort any transfer students into a house, but because of the rather large number, I would think it more productive if they are introduced to the school."
Harry had truthfully been wondering why the sorting hat was still in the middle of the room. Again from the great halls entrance, students of various sizes walked through. This time they were lead by the minute charms professor.
The sorting happened yet once again, distributing about a 100 students to their respective houses. Gryffindor itself received about 30 new kids. Dumbledore once again stood to bring attention to himself.
"Now that, that is over, I do not like being the ones to inform you, however what I hate more then bad news, is bad news kept in secret."
Harry tried to keep in a snort, he really did, but the outright lie of Dumbledore's statement was too much for Harry to keep the snort in. Unfortunately for Harry silence swept the Great Hall just before his snort, and it seemed to have echoes all around the room drawing stares from everyone to him.
Harry just glared at the staring faces and looked back undisturbed to Dumbledore. As he looked back Harry noticed that Dumbledore looked sad and tired after Harry's outburst.
"A war had started in the magical world, a war between ideals and prejudice, a war that will no doubt affect us all in some ways, if it hasn't already. Because of the recent events curfew will be strictly enforced, with the penalties being dire for /b caught out after curfew. Also the Forbidden Forest is of course forbidden. Hogsmeade trips will be short and few, I am sad to say." Here many children groaned.
"There will also be Aurors situated at Hogwarts, pay them no mind and I strongly advise you to not bother them unless a dire situation arises that require their services. Anyone playing a prank on them or calling a false alarm will face expulsion." Dumbledore peered intently around the room.
"However on happier note, Quidditch is still on and we are going to have a winter ball this year." Dumbledore paused for effect, or maybe because girls and boys loudly chattered, drowning his voice. The girls were obviously happy however the boys mostly weren't, Harry himself was indifferent to it all, as the childish event seemed non-important to him.
"The Winter Ball shall take place December 24, a day before Christmas and on a Friday. Hogsmeade weekend will be allowed a two weeks in advance for any last minute shoppers. And the age limit this year for the ball will be 4th year and up." Again the noise rose, annoying Harry to no end.
"Now let me introduce you to the new professors; I dare say we have quite a few of them this year. First let me present to you the DADA professors this year." Harry's ears perked at hearing the plural form of professor. "Returning from retirement is Remus Lupin, and Alastor Moody."
Harry's eye budged as he saw the very two people that were his instructors walk up to the teacher's desk from the back room that Harry stepped into in his 4th year.
"Professor Lupin shall teach 1st and 2nd year along with 5th to 7th years, while Professor Moody shall handle 3rd through 7th years. So the 5th to 7th shall have them both for their lessons."
"Also we now have an extra elective the "Magical Dueling" shall be taught by former Tri-wizard participant Victor Krum-," Here a bulky man that was the Quidditch Star of Romania stepped out of the back room.
",-and assisted by Professors Moody, Lupin, and Snape from time to time. Now the MD is an elective that can only be taken by 5th years and up, and this class will provide absolutely no help to your grades. It is merely for an experience sort of thing. You will report to the great hall for the lessons."
"Also because of the rather abrupt increase in students, Mr. Krum will be Professor McGonagall's assistant in Transfiguration."
"Another new elective is the "Healing Art" also held in the Great Hall, which will be taught by Madam Pomprey and assisted by Professor Firenze, who will introduce the advanced healing methods of the centaurs, and another former Tri-Wizard participant Fleur Delacour-," The stunning veela that came to Hogwarts in Harry's fourth year stepped into the room from the back room. Harry vaguely noticed that many of the boys within the room started drooling, Ron being one of the most obvious.
",-she shall help introduce the healing arts that are native to France as she has already taken and passed the license to be a Novice-Healer. Now this course will also not affect your grading and only 4th years and up may take it. Ms. Delacour will also help the charms professor."
"Now these subjects must be signed up for, but may be dropped at any time. These courses will not affect each other or any other of your subjects, and if you wish to not take it you will find an extra hour's worth of free time in your schedule. The MD shall take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4pm, while the HA shall takes place at Tuesday and Thursday at 4pm also. You will find the application sheets in your respective common room."
Harry could hear many people whispering that they would immediately sign up for HA, and Harry couldn't but help roll his eyes at how male half would be wasting the teacher's valuable time, applying only to spend time with the veela.
Dumbledore then clapped his hands together making the food appear.
Harry stepped into the common room following the regular mass and as he entered he saw the application sheets. The HA was already filled to the brim with signatures, and Harry wondered if applying for the lesson will be worth it or not. The knowledge gained from the subject would no doubt help Harry tremendously, but he wondered if he would even learn anything because of the horny boys.
Harry sighed guessing he could just drop the lesson and signed his name for both subjects. Harry then headed up to his room and after seeing that no one was there, he enlarged his trunk. Harry put away his robe and his outer clothing and lay down on his bed. Harry closed the curtains to his bed, and after casting a security charm on the curtains to wake Harry if anyone opened the curtains, Harry went to sleep.
(September 2. Thursday)
Harry woke up at 5:30 and changed into his running clothes. Just because Harry went to Hogwarts didn't mean that he was going to stop his morning exercises. He ended up jogging for 40 minutes before heading in and stretching.
He took a shower and after he changed into his normal clothing and putting on his robe, which he uttered the cleaning charm, taking off whatever filth got on it yesterday.
Harry then went to the great hall where there were a few people there. Harry just took his seat and started eating. Harry never noticed it before, but he started eating a lot. A lot didn't cover it actually; Harry thought that no one would be able to compete with his eating habit now, with the exception of Crabbe, Goyle, and Ron.
Soon the Great Hall started filling with more people and Ron and Hermione entered the Great Hall. They immediately went towards Harry and sat down with Hermione in between Harry and Ron. Ron seemed to be giving Harry the cold shoulder, not that Harry really expected anything less from him after hearing him on the train.
"So where have you been Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Here." Harry answered vaguely not getting what she was asking.
"No, from what Ron said you weren't in your bed in the morning." Hermione emphasized by saying, "At 6 o'cloak in the morning."
Harry rolled his eyes at Hermione's nosiness, but relented, "Exercising."
"Oh doing what?" Hermione asked.
"Running." Harry said getting a bit annoyed at what seemed like an interrogation coming from Hermione.
"Oh." Was all Hermione said, she tried to start the seemingly dead conversation. "Did you sign up for the electives Harry?"
"Yeah, but I think HA will be a waste of time." Harry said.
Hermione seem eager at Harry responding with more then one word answers. "Why you got to admit learning healing magic will be extremely useful."
"I'm not saying the subject is useless, I'm saying that the class will be a waste of time. Most of those joined only joined because of Fleur." Harry said.
Hermione seemed to understand. "Yeah I agree."
Ron didn't like the two way conversation that didn't include and spoke up also. "I think that lesson will be great."
Harry rolled his eyes while Hermione said, "I know you would think that Ron."
"Hey what is that supposed to mean?" Ron exclaimed to Hermione.
Then they, like usual, bickered like an old married couple not that Harry gave a damn as it provided an excuse not to talk to the two for a while. Soon a 7th year prefect handed Harry and his friends their electives. Harry checked his list.
b
Harry Potter: 6th Year.
Example:
Day: Class (Other House) - Time
Monday: N.E.W.T. prep D.A.D.A. (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 8:00am – 10:00am -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Charms (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 1:00pm – 3:00pm M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Tuesday: -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Potions (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep C.o.M.C. (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 1:00pm – 3:00pm H.A. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Wednesday: N.E.W.T. prep Transfiguration (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 8:00am – 10:00am N.E.W.T. prep Herbology (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep D.A.D.A. (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 8:00am – 10:00am M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Thursday: -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Charms (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 1:00pm – 3:00pm -Blank- H.A. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Friday: N.E.W.T. prep Potions (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep C.o.M.C. (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 1:00pm – 3:00pm N.E.W.T. prep Transfiguration (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 8:00am – 10:00am M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
/b
Harry looked at his watch and found it to be 30 minutes till Transfiguration started. Harry decided to leave now as he wanted to get away from his friends who started to bicker again. He left for the classroom without drawing attention from his bickering friends.
Harry walked up to the Transfiguration room and entered the unlocked door. He saw Professor McGonagall's head look up from where she was reading a book. She seemed surprised to see him, and Harry couldn't blame her.
"Something I may help you with Mr. Potter?" The professor asked curiously.
"Sorry professor, had nothing better to do." Harry shrugged.
Harry sat down in one of the front seats and sat down. Harry took out his Transfiguration book from his handbag and began reading it. Harry didn't have time to read it over the summer, considering that he paid more attention to slightly more powerful books.
So the lessons in the subject were relatively new to Harry. However like most other things he had an easy time understanding the spells. Somewhere in Harry's head he felt like he was cheating for having such an unfair advantage.
But he push the thought aside, with every advantage comes with disadvantage, and Harry knew that he would rather have his parents again then having Voldemort transport his knowledge to him that night. He had to risk being murdered by a disfigured freak to obtain such an edge.
Harry was already through 3 chapters by the time Krum entered the classroom. They exchanged greetings and Harry talked with Krum about his life.
"Hello Harry, nice to see you again." Krum said cheerfully.
"Hello, Professor Krum." Harry grinned as he said the professor.
"Just Victor, Harry, at least when were alone. Wouldn't want the students to think I'm treating you special just because you fly good and the fact that I know you from my 7th year." Victor grinned.
"Okay Victor... So why did you come to Hogwarts?" Harry asked intrigued.
"Well, you see-," Krum began explaining.
It seemed that Krum came to Hogwarts, recognizing the danger that was rising in England. Krum postponed his quidditch in favor of somehow helping England and hopefully stopping the war from reaching his homeland and family.
Harry learned that Krum had two younger sisters, lost his mother in the first rise of Voldemort, and his father was a top official in the Bulgarian Ministry. Harry vaguely remembered Moody explaining that the first rise of Voldemort lead the war to all over Europe.
Krum explained that having experienced Voldemort's first rise, Bulgaria is lending their full support behind the English Ministry, now that they had a more competent Minister who was dealing with Voldemort.
Krum also explained after having to live without a mother, Krum wouldn't want to sit back and allow someone else to suffer the loss, if he could do anything to help, and wanted to help also. However Krum didn't want to train as an Auror or anything seeing that his fame might somehow make it so that he wouldn't actually fight, but only be used for the government's balls and such.
So Krum saw that the best way for him to help was to teach the students of Hogwarts how to defend themselves, and he was more then qualified. Harry was told that Krum was the top of his class in Transfiguration, his previous incomplete animagi in Harry's 4th year proved that adequately, and Krum was unmatched by even his teacher's in dueling back at Durmstrang.
Harry was at first surprised that Krum threw aside life as a quidditch star to throw himself headfirst into what was a war. But that was until he heard about the loss that he endured and when Harry thought about it, it made sense.
Harry soon got somewhat depressed at all the war talk and went to more pleasant conversation. It seemed that Krum and Hermione broke off their relationship on good terms, knowing that their long distance relationship wouldn't work out.
Krum was hoping to teach as a fully qualified professor after the war, Krum confided in Harry that after seeing Bagman, a former star quidditch player who had gambling problems and was recently rumored to have become officially called for bankruptcy, didn't reassure him of the stability of staying in quidditch.
Harry backed Krum up on his views, and encouraged his decision about teaching. Then Krum went to asking about Harry after realizing that most of the talk had been focused on him. Harry was sheepish to explain that his social life wasn't all that great, which Krum sympathized with him on, knowing full well on the life of a celebrity's.
Soon the rest of the class started walking into the classroom and the two separated. Hermione and Ron entered the classroom and sat to Harry's left as he was all the way in front but at the right-most edge of the class.
The class started in usual back-to-school fashion, with McGonagoll introducing herself and Victor. Everyone turned in their over the summer assignment, which Hermione over stepped the minimum requirement of the length by 1 foot. Then they had the usual back-to-school quiz. To show the teacher how much each student remembered their previous lessons.
Harry looked at all the questions and laughed at the simplicity of it all. Of course if Harry didn't review all his past books on Transfiguration it wouldn't exactly be a laughing matter. What normal kid would remember "the significance of over pronouncing the 'Oh' in the spell to Transfigure a leaf to a stone"?
However to Harry all the information came at a breeze, however he wouldn't be flaunting his knowledge just yet. He didn't want to raise suspicion from the teacher at his over-the-top knowledge all of a sudden. After all, McGonagall would probably believe that he cheated.
So Harry purposely got several wrong, and thought nothing more about it. Later, much later, the tests were collected and just before the bell rung, homework was assigned to the class.
Harry was about to leave the class when he got called back by Professor McGonagall. Harry abruptly stopped causing a girl behind him to bump into him and lose balance. Harry quickly caught and put her upright. Harry looked to see who the girl was, but couldn't identify her. Harry guessed she was one of the exchange program kids and let go of her.
The girl just smiled in thanks and walked out of the classroom. Harry raised his eyebrows at the girl, there was something weird about her. Harry would have thought more but a chough at the front of the room returned Harry's attention to the situation at hand. He gulped, wondering if he didn't get enough of the questions wrong to make her raise some suspicions about him.
Harry walked stiffly up to the teacher's desk and waited to see what she wanted.
"Mr. Potter, you do realize that last year you were banned from quidditch." Professor McGonagall said.
"Yes..." Harry replied.
"Well the ban is lifted, and you are back on the team. Furthermore I believe that you should be this years Quidditch Captain." McGonagall took out a badge from within her desk drawer and brought out Harry's firebolt from underneath her desk.
Harry sighed, knowing that what he was about to say would drastically change his year at Hogwarts. "With all due respect, I believe that it would be wise to spend the many hours spent practicing for quidditch doing something else.
I have re-evaluated the importance of Quidditch and I can't say that the sport is a great. Albiet it does enforces house pride, but however it is at the expense of school pride. I have seen fearsome rivalry rise before every quidditch match, fights arise between people of different houses just for a game.
I won't lie and say that I do not like flying, but I can say that when I think about quidditch that it might be a mistake to have it at Hogwarts. So I will take back my broom, however I will not take the quidditch badge, and furthermore I will not fly for Gryffindor." Harry took his broom and after nodding at a shell shocked McGonagall and an understanding Krum, Harry exited the room. Harry ran back to his room and put his broom back in his trunk.
Harry dearly wished that he didn't have to leave his trunk in his room, but it would arise suspicion at the fact that his trunk went missing everyday, and Harry didn't want it to be public knowledge that he had a trunk that could change into a ring.
The rest of Harry's classes for that day were in that order. Even DADA was boring. Just because they had competent teachers this year, didn't mean that learning how to send curses that Harry himself was teaching the DA last year was very interesting.
The only time that Harry paid attention was when the paranoid Auror recalled one of his first hand experiences in the war. The bell rung soon enough, but once again Harry was called back to the desk.
Moody was standing at the side of the room, while Moony was sitting on the desk grading the summer papers. He stood stiffly waiting for them to explain why he had been called up.
"Potter-,"Moody started ",-you and I know that it is a waste of time learning all these useless spell, it would be much more efficient for you to screw school and go strait to our regular lessons." Moody snorted, "Dumbledore strongly emphasized the need for appearance, /b that doesn't mean that we will let you sit on your ass getting more and more stupid learning these childish spells just for appearance."
Here Remus took over. "I agree Harry, just because Dumbledore doesn't want anyone to know that anything is out of the ordinary, it doesn't mean that you won't be actually be training. You will have lessons with us every morning, and hell will pay before you're getting out of it."
"That's right Potter, I don't care if you have to wake up at 3 in the morning and get only a wink of sleep, but you will /b be slacking off just because you're at this ruddy school. Now at first you will wake up at 5 and report to us at the Room of..." Moody stopped thinking deeply.
"Requirement, Moody." Remus supplied.
"Yes! That room, you will report to that room by 5 o'clock. After tomorrow we will see if you need to come earlier or later, but you better be there Potter, or you will see how many ways to gut a person without killing them." Moody threatened.
Harry rolled his eyes at the threat. However he did nod to show them that he understood. With that Harry left the room thinking.
'That mean's I will have to wake up at about 4:45 to have my morning jog...'
Harry walked to the great hall anticipating the M.D. program. As Harry entered, he was glad to note that not that many people were there, only around 80. That meant that Harry would get a better experience of the program, rather then sitting in a room full of horny guys and jealous girls, like he expected for the H.A.'s.
Harry noted that the usual desks and chairs were cleared showing off the grand size of the Great Hall. Situated at the front of the great hall were Victor, Remus, Moody, Snape, Madam Pomprey, and even Fleur Delacour. It seemed that since this was the first lesson of the elective ever, they wanted to ensure how things went and see if they would need healers.
5 minutes later after guessing that no other students would arrive, the doors to the great hall closed. Harry looked around and guessed that a hundred people showed, and Harry noted somewhat prideful that all but one of his DA members showed up.
Krum spoke, "Hello, I am Assistant Professor Krum and you may call me Krum. However you will not be allowed to call the respective teachers around me anything other then their respective titles. That is unless they tell you otherwise.
Now in this class, I will teach everyone here all I know about Magical Dueling. The professors around shall also help out too, seeing as most of those here have had quite some experience in Magical Duels. Now Magical Dueling isn't limited to just spell casting, but any formal dueling that is approved of by the International League of Magical Dueling is considered Magical Dueling.
Now I emphasize the word "Dueling," because I find that not many people truly know the definition of this word. Dueling is the /b fight between two opposing forces where they /b have a second, but no more.
Dueling by legal standards means that the two duelers have an impartial official of the I.L.M.D. present, the official himself signing a magical contract that says he approves of the duel, and that the two duelers sign a magical contract binding them to the standard I.L.M.D. rules of the duel. If any of the two breaks the rules not only will they be immediately disqualified, but they also face a chance to have their wands snapped and sent to prison, depending on how sever the breaking of the rules are.
Now the I.L.M.D. has three standards of rule. The three standards have been dubbed by fellow duelists as the Death Standard, Honor Standard, and Friendly Standard.
The Death Standard is obvious to what the duel will be like. Anything short of Unforgivables is allowed in this duel, even lethal curses that will kill. However don't hold your breath at trying to get into a Death Standard Duel with someone you hate hoping to be able to legally kill them. The Death Standard Duel is on the brink of being erased from record, and I will find it highly unlikely that any official will approve of the Duel.
The dueling standard is the Honor Standard. The reason this standard had been dubbed so is usually that the reason why the duelers call a challenge to the other dueler in this standard, is because the person's or his family's honor has been called into question by the other person. Anything short of actually killing the man, Unforgivables, and long lasting brain trauma is allowed in this duel. Also the reason why it is called the Honor Standard is because an official usually wouldn't approve of such a duel without the participants showing just reasoning to be in the duel.
The last and most commonly used Dueling Standard is the Friendly Standard. This Standard is the standard we will be using. The Friendly Standard does not allow any spells that kills, Unforgivables, and /b spell considered Dark Arts, unless the two user formerly agree the use of it.
In none of these duels are anyone allowed to wear magical protection, and the only magical focus allowed is a wand and staff.
Now since we are getting to wand and staffs let me tell you weapons allowed by the I.L.M.D. The I.L.M.D. allows the use of swords, magical swords, daggers, magical knives, knives, wands, staffs, and bows. However don't get your hopes up and slashing your opponent to bits, the only weapons you will use in this duel maximum are magical swords, magical knives, wands, and staffs.
Magical swords are actually I.L.M.D. swords and knives, are blunted weapons that is charmed to provide the victim of the hit in a dull pain in the immediate area of the hit. There is no lasting affects, but the pain, you will find, does kill the victim's concentration quite a bit, and the victim's mobility is also cut down. Don't worry though, after the duel a special healing potion can be applied to get rid of the pain easily enough.
The magical weapons also help take the brunt of a spell's effect if you aren't able to dodge the spell. However it will be good to not rely on the magical weapons for blocking seeing as it isn't fully effective.
Now as I stressed the forbiddance of magical protection, any jewelry is to be taken off and robes aren't allowed to be worn in the duel. Now Magical Dueling ends when the other duelist surrenders, or had been down for the count for 10 seconds."
Here Harry's head was racing, 'Would that include my watch too? Now that I think about it my watch's portkey system, where should I place it? And what if someone steals my robes, there is always a chance they may realize the value of my robes and take it. Oh right there's a security spell is it that can't be broken without effecting the robes, making them useless. Jewelry though... Maybe I should have them keyed to me also...'
"Now a Friendly Standard Duel between me and Professor Snape shall be done for practice-," Krum was interrupted.
"Actually I think it would be most interesting for Mr. Potter," Here Snape sneered, "and I to have a friendly spar. To show the students how a former duel between a /b dueler and a wanna-be's differ."
Here Krum seemed hesitant while Moony was grinning, and Moody was smirking. Pomprey looked as if that was the most stupid idea she has ever heard, while Fleur looked worried. "Now, now Prof-,"
"Is that a challenge Professor Snape?" Harry spoke up.
"Why yes it is, I want the class to see how the famous Boy-Who-Lived stacks up against a real dueler." Snape sneered.
"Then I would think a more competent wizard or witch would challenge me, but seeing as you want to /b you worth I accept. Where is the contract and what are the terms?" Harry said easily. He could hear the shouts of Hermione trying to persuade him otherwise.
Snape seemed to glower, even ignoring Harry's insult. "Wands only, Dark Arts allowed. Unless you're scared, Potter?" Snape sneered at the fact of using Dark Arts, knowing that it was his forte.
Harry gave a somewhat insane looking grin, that seemed to even make Snape reconsider his offer, "That means I'm allowed to use Dark Arts also, right?"
"Yes, you dimwit, or are you too stupid to understand that?" Snape practically snapped.
"I accept now let's sign it, and who's the official that will overview the legality of this duel?" Harry said.
"I will Mr. Potter, now are you-," Krum said.
"No need to worry about me Professor. Let me just get this clear though, in case I forgot. Anything short of killing and Unforgivables now that Professor," Harry spat the word, "has agreed to the terms of the Dark Arts?"
"Yes, now if you're sure sign here and step onto the platform." Harry quickly signed with the quill that Krum offered him and took off his robes and jewelry. Then he practically bounced to the platform.
Harry looked at the platform to see that it was a large round mat that covered from one end of the Great Hall to another, and the length was half of the Great Hall's length. Harry saw Snape sign and walk up to the mat.
"Professor Krum, why is the mat so large? There was a dueling club in my 2nd year and it was a narrow platform."
Krum seemed surprised and then ashamed. "Oh how embarrassing. Class! One more thing that I forgot to tell you, in the I.L.M.D. the platform is actually not limited and can be anything the official chooses. That will be all, now professors let us create the perimeter shield." Krum and the rest of the professors raised their wands and a silver dome arouse around the dueling mat. "Now, on my count duelers, you will start."
Harry and Snape faced each other with their wands raised. Snape sneered and said, "You will find that your arrogance will bring you incredible pain, Potter."
"3."
Harry just smirked coldly and made no acknowledgement to his professor's comment.
"2."
"1."
"Go!"
Snape immediately sent a spell towards Harry who merely side-stepped. Snape sent another spell at him while he merely dodged. This went on for another 5 minutes when Snape finally got fed up with him and yelled out to Potter.
"What's wrong Potter too stupid to fight back?" Snape yelled at him.
"Stupid? Well I guess I can't expect much brains from you. Let's look at my condition, and look at yours and let us see who the stupid is." Harry replied.
The class took notice of Snape's condition. You could see his sweat and he portrayed a fatigued expression while Harry was merely smirking showing no signs of exhaustion.
"So we see that the /b dueler has feel for the /b mistake of being led to waste his energy."
Snape seemed to have realized his mistake.
"And you call Gryffindors rash professor." Harry smirked at turning Snape's usual insults for his house against him.
"Gryffindors /b rash, Potter!" Snape shouted in anger at having been mocked by his hated student.
"Then you must be a proud member of the house of Gryffindor." Harry smirked.
Snape seemed to snap again and started sending incredibly advanced Dark Spells. He had until now, remarkably, been sending Light Spells. Harry was finding it more and more difficult dodge spells and began blocking more of the spells.
Harry started to retaliate with sending spells of his own. A pain curse hit Harry in the legs and Harry retaliated with bludgering spell. A solid black ball shot formed at the end of Harry's wand and shot towards Snape. Snape sent a Reductor Curse at the ball and it exploded, however the ball still had momentum. The shards imbedded themselves into Snapes body, making him bleed extremely.
Snape then banished the shards out of his body, wincing as he did. Snape transfigured hundreds of shards into ravens. The ravens surrounded Harry and started piercing his body with their claws and beaks. Snape then spent the time healing himself.
Harry got fed up with the ravens and unleashed a wave of force all around his body and expanded the force. The ravens were blasted away and they hit the floor, walls, and the shield dead. Harry took a page out of Snape's book and transfigured the dead ravens into snakes.
"Attack him! Don't kill!" Harry yelled in parseltongue.
By now Snape was fully healed and realized what was going on. The advancing snakes were met head on by a stream of localized fire. They couldn't advance, but Harry only used the snakes as a diversion tactic while he cast many pain curses at Snape.
Snape even though distracted, blocked the first pain spell, but got bombarded by the other pain spells. The spells were actually tolerable but not when Harry added the lasting pain spells on each other. He although at first was affected, managed to ignore the pain. Harry considered it was because he got "crucio"ed by Voldemort so many times, even a multiple amount of pain curses would pale in comparison.
Snape sent a shredder curse at Harry who jumped out of the way. In mid jump Harry sent a localized gravity spell over Snape, surprising the hell out of him. The spell was incredibly complex and required a great deal of knowledge and concentration.
Harry didn't waste any time as he sent a "dementor" charm at Snape. The spell was of the darkest black imaginable and basically re-enacted the feeling of a dementor in the area. However it was a directed spell so only the one hit with the curse will be affected. The underside, or beauty if a person wants to view it as such, is the fact that the victim feels as if there are close to 20 dementors just surrounding the victim.
Snape apparently knew what the curse was and paled a bit.
There were many different types of spells in the world. The most commonly known were Transfiguration and Charms. However the charms subject was very vague subject and applied an incredibly diverse number of different magic to be taught in the class, emotional magic being one of them.
Spells such as cheering charms and what not were one type of emotional magic, while pain curse and fear curses were another. The dementor charm like many other pain curses and cheering charms couldn't be blocked by magical shields and was an incredibly complex emotion charm that was only rivaled by the Patronus Charm.
Snape once again surprised by the complexity of Harry's spell was too dumbfounded to dodge the spell. He got hit with it full force and started screaming in pain. Harry could only guess that the dementor charm brought up a painful memory for Snape.
Snape shouted in pain while Harry disarmed him. Then Harry shot a more powerful version of the "Stunner" at Snape point blank range. Krum counted to 10 before saying that Harry won the duel.
Harry then walked towards the place where he left his clothing and jewelry, strangely not satisfied by the duel. Harry had an urge to do something more lethal, at least something more painful to Snape. Harry was incredibly disturbed by such thought, but hid it well.
Krum was somewhat shocked at the duel, while Fleur and Madam Pomprey ran to the duelers. Pomprey went towards Snape, while Fleur went to Harry. Obviously Pomprey viewed Snape as the one that needed greater help or she would have gone towards Harry.
Fleur mumbled something and did some complicated swish and flicks that made the end of her wand glow, she then started poking the cuts on Harry immediately making them heal, all the while congratulating Harry.
"That was incredible dueling Harry. I myself was a top dueler at Beauxbatons Academy, and you were far by better then any dueler I saw before." Fleur told Harry.
"Thank you Professor Delacour, so how is Gabrielle doing?" Harry asked.
"I would have hoped that we were close enough to drop formalities," Fleur mock pouted, "but she is fine, she told she was going to owl you, but wanted your permission first. It's so cute how eager she was when she heard I was going to teach at the school you went to. If I am not wrong she has a major crush on you." Fleur teased.
Harry blushed. "I didn't mean to insult you or anything it's just that some people would want to act professional and being on first name basis with a student isn't professional. I really didn't mean anything Fleur. And of course she can owl me, I don't mind at all."
"Oh she would be so happy!" Fleur smiled.
Harry smiled back and looked at her fixing more of Harry's incredibly numerous cuts all around the body, "So you actually want to be a healer? I would never have guessed."
"Oh yes, a healer is an incredibly respected job at my school. France's healers are reputed to be the best amongst the world, but I'm sad to say that they are also one of the most arrogant. I passed the Healer's Academy, held in France and it's believed to be the best Healer school ever, but I need a year's worth of apprenticeship.
Needless to say, prejudice for the fact that I'm part veela made many people refuse my application. Well, the females did, and the men accepted, but I didn't want the position just because of my veela blood so I declined. And it seemed that Headmaster Dumbledore was kind enough to allow me an application at Hogwarts, knowing that he isn't affected or succumbed by my veela charm I accepted." Fleur finished her story with a smile.
"Why not work at your school then, I'm sure Headmistress Maxime would hire you."
Fleur looked sad, "She was removed from her position after word about her being part veela got to Beauxbatons Academy and the French Ministry."
Harry looked shocked and then angry "It's amazing how much prejudice is in the wizarding world. There are so much unfair views on muggles, muggleborns, halfbloods, werewolves, giants, veelas, and what not. Funny thing is I've found better friends amongst muggleborns, werewolves and giants then amongst the supposed better purebloods. Maybe they become more loyal to people after having a constant affinity of hate placed against them." Harry looked sad, and mumbled, "What am I really fighting for?"
Being a veela meant having better then normal eyesight and hearing like their bird counterpart, so she easily heard what Harry said. She felt incredibly sad at hearing his doubt.
Harry seemed to have realized something and nearly shouted, "It takes only a year to become a Healer?" Harry's expression was of one who was surprised and scared out of his mind that people who trained to save lives only had a year of schooling on them.
Harry's shock and fear broke Fleur previously morbid air and she laughed. "Oh no, I don't mean to brag, but I'm not just about looks. I passed top of my class and I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I'm a bookworm. I passed what would have taken 4 years of schooling in 1, but it also helped that I wanted to become a healer ever since my 3rd year and I've been studying for it since."
Harry relaxed and smiled at Fleur, "You're very dedicated then; I can't imagine preparing for something 4 years in advance. I mean actually having to study for something 4 years earlier then I have to what kind of sane person would do that..." Harry mock shuddered.
Fleur shoved Harry. "You're insulting me!" Fleur grinned, "Just kidding, I know you're joking, so then Mr. Last-Minute, what do you want to be Harry?"
"I'm not sure... I wanted to be an Auror, but after seeing them last year made me reconsider. I don't want to be a Ministry worker, and I can't say that I've been too impressed with those arse kissers." Harry said while looking thoughtful.
"All done, I seriously hope that other duels won't be like yours or I'll have my work cut out for me." Fleur said.
"I'm pretty sure they won't." Harry smirked. "I doubt anybody in here know half of the spells that were used now. Such naivety amazes me and saddens me. Although I may have to see you soon, seeing as how the boys in the class wants to kill me." Harry laughed and then looked confused. "Hey, I've been wondering about this a lot, why am I and Professor Dumbledore not affected by your charm?"
"I would guess that it may be the fact that you're incredibly strong willed or be incredibly powerful in magic terms, probably both in my opinion." Fleur said looking thoughtful.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Harry was intrigued at learning what made the veela charm work.
"Well the theory behind the veela charm doesn't exactly have a study done on it. But from my experience with magic I would guess that the charm is basically magic that forms itself into an alluring aura, a weird manifestation of emotional magic. It tempts a person by over inflating their hormones, but to do that it must affect the mind first. If a person is strong willed enough their mind could resist the foreign thing that is trying to manipulate the mind. Or if they have enough power, their natural magic will negate the charm."
"So are you saying a person can be totally in control over themselves?" Harry asked.
"No, I don't think anyone is ever truly unaffected by the veela charm, but there are levels at which people are affected. Take you for example, you don't act like a drooling dog like your friend the Weasley boy, but you might act somewhat nicer to me then you would usually to others. The Professor Snape, I have heard is miserably cruel to others, but even though he isn't kissing my feet he does act incredibly civil to me." Fleur explained.
"So the weaker willed or the less power a person possesses makes them more susceptible to your charms?" Harry asked.
"Yes, that is at least my theory." Fleur said.
Harry grinned at the fact that Ron must be incredibly weak willed /b weak in terms of magic. Then he frowned. "That means you're wasting precious magic on your charm instead of what could be used for other things."
"Well that is true, veelas are naturally powerful in terms of magic, however many doesn't seem so because of their charms. The charms require an incredible amount of the veela's natural power. The problem is that the charm can't be "shut off," it's like natural thing produced by veelas, but being part veela helps me somewhat control it. I can lower my charm enough so that my power can be better redirected to things like spells. That is also why I guessed that I was a tri-wizard competitor, because I was powerful and could actually use that power."
"Oh..." Harry said. "So there are levels at which you can have your charm on, so what level is it now?"
"Lowest, it wouldn't do well for the lesson for the duelers to all of sudden loss their focus. That can be really dangerous." Fleur explained.
"Wait, are you saying that even though your charm is at its lowest there are still guys who are acting like idiots over you?" Harry asked disbelieving.
"Yes." Fleur said simply.
"Your power level must be incredible then." Harry said looking back to the class where another duel seemed to be underway. Harry looked down and noticed that he still didn't put on his jewelry and robes. Harry did just that put it on, while still asking, "So what do people do when your charms on full?"
Fleur looked at Harry and replied, "Well you see them now drooling over me?" Harry nodded. "My charm makes them not only lust over me; I can basically command them to do anything I want. It really depends on the person really; I think if I had my charm on full even you would be affect to the point where you would notice." Harry paled.
"I'll take your word for it." The rest of the class passed with relatively little event. As soon as the class was over Harry went to exit the class but was stopped by an angry Ron.
"So you're using your fame to speak to Fleur?" Hermione seemed to want to slap Ron, but Harry interrupted.
"It might be hard for you to understand, because you have never truly been one, but friendship does exist between people. Just because of the fact that I talk to Professor Delacour doesn't mean that I used my fame to succumb her to my will." Harry rolled his eyes at that; chances are if anyone would succumb to anyone it would have Harry to Fleur if what she said of her full veela charm potential was true.
"I've been your friend forever; you are the one that hasn't been a friend!" Ron yelled.
"Really? So a true friend would be constantly jealous of his other friend? Always whining and complaining about his friend? Having his jealousy blind the obvious truth?" Harry asked.
"And what truth is that?" Ron asked.
"...The truth that I would give anything to have my family again. Obviously you're such a bastard that you would want your family to all die, in exchange for my fame." Harry said venomously. "You could never appreciate what you had Ron, it's people like you that become Death Eaters, people who would look at power and money over family." Harry stormed out of the room.
uten: I just want to say that the reason why Harry was so angry at Tonks was because she was the first one he had to really talk to in a while. He was incredibly annoyed and angry at being left to the muggles, it was just unfortunate that the first one he had the talk to was Tonks. So he unloaded his shit on her, and when Harry talked to Dumbledore it was after exhausting himself from fighting the duel and from Dumbledore's reasoning. It's almost like trying to get mad after you ran several miles or had a practice boxing match. You exhaust your anger and you're too tired to work up a fight.
Alberforth Dumbledore: Well as I explained to uten, Harry didn't get as mad as he could to Dumbledore because he just didn't have it in him. If Harry met Dumbledore first at the beginning of the story, instead of Tonks, then a hell lot of yelling would have taken place. However I am trying to relate to how I express emotions, I at first get really pissed, but after time I cool off.
Shadow Phoenix: I have seriously considered giving Harry a gun, and most likely I probably will, but not at the moment. I want Harry to realize how effective guns will be, not just to all of a sudden go, "Hey I need a gun!"
Fred: Harry might get a sword, but he has to learn how to use it. I mean I can't imagine Voldemort learning swordsmanship so Harry will have to star from scratch there.
Chapter 3
A/N: I don't own anything. I will be starting a date system now because of the fact that I can't keep track of when the story is, and with a set calendar it would be much easier. I will use the calendar of 2004 for all the day-number relations such as July 22 being Friday.
(September 1, Wednesday)
A horn screeched, awaking Harry from his nap. He looked around and found himself in a compartment and remembered where he was. Harry was currently sitting in one of the last compartments in the Hogwarts Express. He looked at his watch and found that he had slept for an hour, having gotten to the station and to the train extra early.
Harry's arrival to Platform 11 ¾ was completely the opposite of the routine with the Weasleys. With the Weasleys, everything was frantic and done at the last minute. However Moody, Moony, and Tonks were not the type to do things at the last minute. Well maybe Tonks, but Moody being a former Auror and being a complete paranoid psycho, and Moony a mature and responsible adult who had been a professor, made sure Harry was ready 3 hours before departure.
Harry guessed that even now Moody and Moony along with a few other Order members were watching the train. Even Aurors were supposedly going to be stationed on the train to make sure the train was safe. At least that was according Tonks and Kingsley.
It was amazing how much had changed in the last few days. Fudge got kicked out of his office after a vote of no confidence. Harry remembered the moment he found out about Fudge vividly.
(Flashback)
(August 28, Saturday)
"Harry! You have got to see this!" Tonks almost screamed as she entered the kitchen in which Harry was cooking breakfast.
Tonks ran up to Harry and stopped at the last moment tripping over her own feet. Harry held the pan with eggs in it on one hand, and caught her in the other. He set her back on her feet and patiently waited for Tonks to continue.
"Look!" Tonks almost jumped as she handed Harry what looked like a newspaper. Harry unfolded the wrapped up newspaper and read the headline.
b
Rotten Fudge Thrown Out! By Penelope Clearwater
Officially at 7:23 of August 28 XXXX, Ex-Minister Cornelius Fudge has been removed from his office after the Heads of the Ministry stepped into his office and unanimously voted a state of "No Confidence" in the Minister. Many officials say that the struggles that former Minister Fudge put up were monumental and that it took 3 Aurors to detain and escort him out.
Currently not only has the Ex-Minister lost his office, but he finds himself in the Ministry Holding Cell, being held for suspicion in the crimes of: enforcing media screening, over abusing his power, accepting bribes, blackmailing, and shielding the public with the knowledge of You- Know-Who's return.
It is obvious now that Fudge slandered Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and Albus Percival Dumbledore, defeater of the Dark Wizard Grindewald and owner of numerous awards and titles amongst the wizarding world, after their valiant and ever resolute attempts to voice the truth about You-Know-Who's return. It was also brought up that Headmaster Dumbledore brought up the criteria about the instability of Azkaban to the former minister, who ignored the words of wisdom.
It is sad that because of the incompetence of the Ex-Minister that Azkaban was broken into a several days earlier, with the former Death Eaters liberated and Dementors working for You-Know-Who.
Also the Ex-Minister's former Under Secretary Dolores Umbridge, who also finds herself kicked out of office, is currently also in a holding cell for the suspicion of: using illegal blood quills on students, setting dementors on a minor, attempted casting of one of the unforgivable curses, allowing torture methods on students, and screening free speech of students and teachers within the Hogwarts institute.
Ms. Umbridge is suspected of using blood quills on numerous students at Hogwarts when she was residing as the DADA teacher first and then the Headmistriss for a whole year. Amongst them was Harry Potter for speaking out about You-Know-Who. Apparently Ms. Umbridge has also admitted to have set dementors on Harry Potter during his summer before his 5th year at Hogwarts, in attempts to have him expelled.
Last to be kicked out of office and being is being currently held in a holding cell until questioning is the Ex-Minister's former Secretary Percival Weasley. He is being brought up on charges for aiding screening the media, spreading lies and blantant propaganda to misinform the public, and setting up biased trials against numerous people.
There are many others within the Ministry that is considered to be corrupted by Fudge. Thankfully Madam Amelia Bones, who is currently acting as Temporary Minister, assures the readers that a through investigation will go into every Ministry worker.
/b
Harry couldn't believe that Fudge finally got kicked out of office, but also the irony of the fact that the person writing the article was Percy's ex. Kingsley also jumped for joy at having the incompetent bastard kicked out. Apparently the Minister personally got on his back for his failed attempts at catching Sirius Black.
(End of Flashback)
Harry smiled remembering when he last met Kingsley. The last time Harry saw him, which was two days ago, Kingsley was still miffed and sulking about how Harry downed him so easily during the duel a week ago. He seemed to have gotten to talking to Harry again, but he still seemed to be giving Harry mock glares every time Tonks brought up the duel.
Tonks just laughed and told Harry good job. Supposedly the Auror was getting a bit arrogant over the last year, having obtained the rank as one of the best duelers amongst the Aurors.
Moody just gave Harry a small smirk, while Moony gave a cheerful laugh. Harry sighed; he was going to miss the three, even the pissed off Kingsley. Training with them gave Harry a feeling of confidence, knowing that he was doing something to prepare. Now Harry would have to worry about school, Quidditch, and god knows what else.
As the train started to move, Harry had to admit he longed for a normal life, but he couldn't just ignore the problem at hand to have it. He couldn't just turn a blind eye at what was going on, not when he knew he was the center of it all.
Harry sighed, if he lived through this, he promised that he would be the most immature and childish person anyone met. Harry laughed wondering if that was why Dumbledore was as he currently was.
That was another thing, Dumbledore. The man that manipulated his life, yet even now seemed to be doing what he thought was best. Harry had to admit, he didn't hate the man. He was wary of him, he was mad at him, but Harry couldn't hate him for doing what he did.
Harry came to understand that no matter how mature and wise Dumbledore seemed, he was still human. He wasn't god, he couldn't know everything that happened in Harry's life, and it was very clear that he made mistakes life any other human.
Harry took off his trunk-ring and enlarged it. He opened the compartment to one with all the books in it and accio-ed a book to him. After all it wouldn't do well for anyone to see him walking into his trunk if they were to walk in at that very moment.
Harry caught the book that sailed through the air towards him. He looked at the title and smiled at how informative his personal library was. Harry strongly believed that only 10 copies of the book he was currently holding were even in existence.
Harry knew that Hermione would scream in anger and jealousy at the book that he was reading. Even the title was written in golden weavings. Harry laid down on the seat and traced his fingers over the title.
"To Increase Proficiency in Elemental Magic"
The book was incredibly interesting. It seemed that many of the elemental magic that Harry knew barely scratched the surface of what could be done. The book explained that there were levels of complexity of elemental magic. Ranging from 1 to 10, a basic incendio charm would be 1, a drought charm would be 2, and even Harry's lightning spell would be around 6. Harry at first couldn't believe that such advanced magic such as the lightning spell was only on the scale 6 out of the 10.
However after he read deep into the rest of the elemental magic Harry could understand why his spell was only 5. Truth be told, Harry's lightning spell was one of the most powerful elemental spells in existence, however anything beyond the scale of 7 reached into the magic where no spells were cast.
They reached into chants and rune magic type of magic casting. The highest elemental magic noted to day was an incident that required synchronized chanting with 10 people profound at advanced wind elemental magic. The 10 also required the use of highly advanced rune magic. Unfortunately chanting was an incredibly precise art.
Chants were only used when the more then one magic user wanted to combine their magical power into a certain magic, and with the chanting of the same words they would be able to intertwine their magic together to fuse the potency of their magic.
The runes were also used to stabilize the magic and to help the magic be more "willing" to bond with the other elemental's magic. However stability goes only so far and the higher the power behind the magic the less stability the runes can provide.
That was why when one elemental miss pronounced one syllable of the chant the magic became unstable and the elemental magic they were trying to perform backfired unto the casters.
Sad to say no one survived the hurricane that engulfed the 10 elementals and the towns surrounding them. Harry guessed that incident was one of the main reason advanced elemental magic was untaught nowadays.
Harry didn't want to do elemental magic such as those, but was merely satisfied learning advanced elementals spells similar to the lightning spells. Harry even learned the name of the spell that took down 2 of his 3 trainers. Needless to say "Zeus' Wraith" became one of Harry's more favored spells.
Then Harry's learned the "Hell's Inferno." The spell shot a tidal wave of fire that seemed to take a somewhat liquid appearance. It looked like to anyone on the receiving end a huge wave of molten lava coming at them. The spell was incredibly lethal and gave 3rd degree burns immediately on contact, and just about anyone under the spell for 2 seconds would be roasted alive. At least that was what the book said as Harry never got to try his spell on anyone. The spell was level 6 according to the book.
Then there was the spell "Breeze's Fickle" it sounded harmless yet was of level 7 on the scale. The spell was highly "Reactive" and the name was appropriate. Fickle meaning unexpected and the spell to anyone that didn't focus enough could have the spell turn on them or not be cast at all. The spell actually shot numerous "blades" of wind at opponents.
And being that the "blades" were formed of solidified air it was incredibly sharp and other then something of great density and thickness the "blades" would cut through the defenses made by the victim. Needless to say the victim would find themselves less whole if they could not evade or block the spell.
There was also the fact that the number of "blades" and its accuracy was never exactly certain. Although chances are the caster would always hit the victim, there was no telling who else the caster would hit. Anyone within the victim's proximity was liable of being chopped up by the spell also.
The only reassurance was the spell ended after shooting 10 meters. Truth be told, the spell was too unpredictable for Harry's taste. Only in a fight to the death situation would Harry ever even think about using the spell. Even now Harry was only able to use the spell somewhat under control with his Amber Wand that was proficient at mainly elemental magic. His other wands shot the blades at everything but the target and himself.
The beauty of elemental spells was the fact that they were hard to block. While any other spell took the form of manipulated magic until hitting the opponent then the magic activated to cause some sort of physical change, the elemental magic immediately took a physical change upon leaving the wand
There were shields against physical magic, but they were usually unstable and took a lot of concentration to conjure. The shields however were complex and mostly a waste of time to use in a duel. There were really strong ones that took just about any physical attack short of a raging hippogriff, but those took a high level of concentration and the wand movement and spell uttering was more complex then what would be good in a duel.
After all shields were usually needed to quickly defend the victim against attacks, but doing a 3 second wand movement wouldn't be productive in an active duel.
Then there were quicker casted shields but they were so weak that having a person lean on it could break it. It was more efficient to just conjure things to block the attacks as they are quicker and the conjured objects could take a lot more blow before being destroyed. However they usually depended on the caster's proficiency at conjuring.
But the best thing that came out of reading the book was Harry's developing interest in runes. At first Harry thought they were just ancient writings or whatever in his 3rd year, but runes in fact were like "written" magic. It could be written in the air, on stone, staffs.
The possibilities were endless, and Harry vowed to start learning more about Rune Magic as soon as he can. Harry even found a book on it, but waited until after he was done with the Elemental book before starting to read it.
The door to his compartment opened and Harry wandlessly cast an illusion charm on the cover of his book. Now no one would question Harry reading the "DADA" curriculum book in the compartment.
Harry looked over his book to see Blaize Zabani at the entrance. She looked really unhappy at finding the Golden Boy of Gryffindor sitting in the compartment.
"Get out Potter, this is my compartment." Blaize said.
Harry just lazily raised his eye-brow. "There is more then enough room for you Zabani, although it may be hard for you to fit your arrogance through the doorway."
"Arrogance! Look who's talking Mr. Boy-Who-Lived and has a broomstick up his arse!"
Harry just gave Blaise a withering look and said, "I'm not the one that believes that they own a public compartment. Now look Zabani, I'm not leaving so either close the door on your way out, or sit down and shut up."
Zabani huffed and entered the compartment. She sat down on the seat opposite of Harry and opened her trunk pulling out a book. Harry planned to pay the temper mental Slytherin no mind for the rest of the trip as he kept reading his book.
The door to the compartment opened again some time later. Harry didn't put his book down and instead preferred to see through the book for who was at the door. Harry found that it was the two youngest Weasley and Hermione. Harry still didn't put his book down slightly miffed at how he was ignored all summer.
"Well there's Zabani and no Harry. See Hermione, he isn't here, I bet he's going to Hogwarts in style with guards and all." Harry easily heard jealousy as Ron closed the door.
"Trouble in paradise?" Harry could feel Zabani's smirk.
Harry laughed bitterly replying with a, "You have no idea."
"So the Golden Trio is breaking apart now?" Blaise asked.
"Zabani, if you weren't so daft you would know that it has been falling apart since the 4th year." Harry replied exasperated.
The Slytherin sneered at Harry, who finally lowered his book down and turned his head to face her. "Not everyone wants to know everything about you Potter."
Harry merely smirked at the Slytherin annoying her to no ends.
"What are you smirking at Potter!"
"Nothing you would understand Zabani." Blaise merely huffed to express her annoyance and went back to reading, as did Harry.
The silence of the compartment lasted for another hour until the door opened again. Harry was vaguely annoyed at how little privacy he was getting but held his emotions in. Harry had his book once again in front of his face and peered through it to see who was at the door.
'Surprise, surprise.' Harry thought as he found Malfoy flanked by his usual two idiot trolls. Malfoy didn't even spare Harry a glance as he immediately faced Blaise.
"So Zabani, still in your usual compartment I see. At least you aren't alone; I guess I was wrong about you being a loner, you filthy traitor." Malfoy sneered at Zabani.
Harry rolled his eyes at how annoying and predictable Malfoy could be. However Malfoy did supply Harry with the useful information of how Blaise wasn't liked by Malfoy. Harry planned to store the information for now and find out more about this later.
"Just because I don't kiss You-Know-Who's arse and plan to serve only myself, doesn't mean I'm a traitor." Blaise retorted to Malfoy.
"You're a muggle-lover, your family is a disgrace to the Zabani name. They were well respected pure-bloods until your whore of a mother and that squib of a father took on the family name! They brought shame upon your ancestors!" Malfoy all but yelled.
"At least my parents aren't sucking up to another wizard! They stand proud for their beliefs and bow to no-one!" Blaise yelled at Malfoy. "I can't say the same for your parents can you? I'm sure arse kissing You-Know-Who got your family a lot of respect in the wizarding world. I mean I can't believe that my family missed out on the chance of being on the run and being a common criminal!" Blaise said sarcastically.
Malfoy drew his wands, with his two dimwitted friends following his example. Blaise had her wand drawn too. It seemed that a fight was inevitable, and Harry was not pleased to be in a small compartment, sure to be caught up in the duel's cross-spells.
Harry drew his wand without drawing any attention to himself ready to defend himself if the need arouse. He also put the book under his robes intent on not letting it be damaged in the fight that was sure to come.
Blaise, Malfoy, and Malfoy's troll-like friends were currently eying each other with extreme hate waiting for the other to start the duel. It was easily known to the four that the first one to cast a spell would be punished, while the others could say that the returning spells were in self- defense.
Goyle was the first to crack as he sent a spell at Blaise. She quickly ducked the spell, sending a pink one back to the attacker. Goyle wasn't quick enough and developed boils all over his body. Goyle thrashed in the pain of the boils, bumping into Crabbe.
Crabbe swayed almost losing his balance, but quickly regained it. He tried to send a spell to Blaise but Goyle, after having his boils come into contact with Crabbe bring a fit of pain, reflexively thrashed again, this time hitting Malfoy.
Unfortunately for Malfoy he lost balance being knocked into Crabbe's line of fire, and developed 2nd degree burns on the immediate area of contact. The spell wasn't lethal or anything, just creating a burn mark on the victim, along with the pain that came from burn marks.
Blaise quickly used advantage of the stupidity of the three and fired two more spells at the three. Crabbe found himself turned partially into a pig, as Blaise's spell wasn't completely effective, and Malfoy was forcibly knocked back into his two friends. They hurdled through the compartment door and were knocked unconscious in the hallway.
To Harry the duel wasn't even a duel. It was a complete and utter massacre on Malfoys part and it took all Harry had to not laugh at Malfoy's current condition. Harry didn't even have to do anything to defend himself from a stray spell because Blaise was so effective in her dueling.
Harry had to admit, he was somewhat amazed at the Blaises dueling skills, not that Harry would say that to her. Blaise on her part was all smiles, she was incredibly happy at kicking the three idiots' arses in a duel. However she was angry at the fact that she had to do it all alone.
"Thanks for your help Potter!" Blaise glared in Harry's direction.
"Wasn't my fight, and besides are you saying that you wanted my assistance?" Harry raised his eyebrows slowly in mock confusion.
"No! I would never want your help-"
"Ok then, problem solved." Harry interrupted.
"...So much for your Gryffindor bravery." Blaise grumbled as she took a seat.
"Bravery had nothing to do with it Zabani, besides you're a big girl, figured you could handle yourself?" Harry asked.
She didn't reply merely contending to read her discarded book.
The train ride ended in relative silence after that, the only other interruption being an Auror that entered the room questioning the duel that took place earlier. Blaise explained the situation with Harry only giving vocal confirmation of her story.
The only other event during the train ride was Blaise exiting to change into her robes, while Harry didn't have to as he was already in the robes that was the last gift from Sirius.
Harry stepped into the Great Hall without much emotions showing. He wanted to sit with his best friends, but he remembered Ron's departing word from before. The last thing he needed right now was to get into a row with them in the Great Hall so Harry chose to sit with Neville.
Harry struck a brief conversation with the somewhat plump Gryffindor. Neville told Harry that he got a new wand, and how his grandmother was extremely proud of how he fought against death eaters at the Ministry. Harry nodded slightly not truly wanting to talk, but not wanting to seem rude to the shy but brave Gryffindor that stuck by him for all his years at Hogwarts.
The sorting passed by quickly as Harry didn't pay any attention to it, then like usual, Dumbledore stood to give his usual annual start of the year speech.
"Students new and old, welcome for another year at Hogwarts. I wish to start this year off jolly; however I have another interruption for you before you may feast. It seems that this year instead of just the usual first years joining us, a large majority of transfer students have applied for Hogwarts. Now usually I would just quietly sort any transfer students into a house, but because of the rather large number, I would think it more productive if they are introduced to the school."
Harry had truthfully been wondering why the sorting hat was still in the middle of the room. Again from the great halls entrance, students of various sizes walked through. This time they were lead by the minute charms professor.
The sorting happened yet once again, distributing about a 100 students to their respective houses. Gryffindor itself received about 30 new kids. Dumbledore once again stood to bring attention to himself.
"Now that, that is over, I do not like being the ones to inform you, however what I hate more then bad news, is bad news kept in secret."
Harry tried to keep in a snort, he really did, but the outright lie of Dumbledore's statement was too much for Harry to keep the snort in. Unfortunately for Harry silence swept the Great Hall just before his snort, and it seemed to have echoes all around the room drawing stares from everyone to him.
Harry just glared at the staring faces and looked back undisturbed to Dumbledore. As he looked back Harry noticed that Dumbledore looked sad and tired after Harry's outburst.
"A war had started in the magical world, a war between ideals and prejudice, a war that will no doubt affect us all in some ways, if it hasn't already. Because of the recent events curfew will be strictly enforced, with the penalties being dire for /b caught out after curfew. Also the Forbidden Forest is of course forbidden. Hogsmeade trips will be short and few, I am sad to say." Here many children groaned.
"There will also be Aurors situated at Hogwarts, pay them no mind and I strongly advise you to not bother them unless a dire situation arises that require their services. Anyone playing a prank on them or calling a false alarm will face expulsion." Dumbledore peered intently around the room.
"However on happier note, Quidditch is still on and we are going to have a winter ball this year." Dumbledore paused for effect, or maybe because girls and boys loudly chattered, drowning his voice. The girls were obviously happy however the boys mostly weren't, Harry himself was indifferent to it all, as the childish event seemed non-important to him.
"The Winter Ball shall take place December 24, a day before Christmas and on a Friday. Hogsmeade weekend will be allowed a two weeks in advance for any last minute shoppers. And the age limit this year for the ball will be 4th year and up." Again the noise rose, annoying Harry to no end.
"Now let me introduce you to the new professors; I dare say we have quite a few of them this year. First let me present to you the DADA professors this year." Harry's ears perked at hearing the plural form of professor. "Returning from retirement is Remus Lupin, and Alastor Moody."
Harry's eye budged as he saw the very two people that were his instructors walk up to the teacher's desk from the back room that Harry stepped into in his 4th year.
"Professor Lupin shall teach 1st and 2nd year along with 5th to 7th years, while Professor Moody shall handle 3rd through 7th years. So the 5th to 7th shall have them both for their lessons."
"Also we now have an extra elective the "Magical Dueling" shall be taught by former Tri-wizard participant Victor Krum-," Here a bulky man that was the Quidditch Star of Romania stepped out of the back room.
",-and assisted by Professors Moody, Lupin, and Snape from time to time. Now the MD is an elective that can only be taken by 5th years and up, and this class will provide absolutely no help to your grades. It is merely for an experience sort of thing. You will report to the great hall for the lessons."
"Also because of the rather abrupt increase in students, Mr. Krum will be Professor McGonagall's assistant in Transfiguration."
"Another new elective is the "Healing Art" also held in the Great Hall, which will be taught by Madam Pomprey and assisted by Professor Firenze, who will introduce the advanced healing methods of the centaurs, and another former Tri-Wizard participant Fleur Delacour-," The stunning veela that came to Hogwarts in Harry's fourth year stepped into the room from the back room. Harry vaguely noticed that many of the boys within the room started drooling, Ron being one of the most obvious.
",-she shall help introduce the healing arts that are native to France as she has already taken and passed the license to be a Novice-Healer. Now this course will also not affect your grading and only 4th years and up may take it. Ms. Delacour will also help the charms professor."
"Now these subjects must be signed up for, but may be dropped at any time. These courses will not affect each other or any other of your subjects, and if you wish to not take it you will find an extra hour's worth of free time in your schedule. The MD shall take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4pm, while the HA shall takes place at Tuesday and Thursday at 4pm also. You will find the application sheets in your respective common room."
Harry could hear many people whispering that they would immediately sign up for HA, and Harry couldn't but help roll his eyes at how male half would be wasting the teacher's valuable time, applying only to spend time with the veela.
Dumbledore then clapped his hands together making the food appear.
Harry stepped into the common room following the regular mass and as he entered he saw the application sheets. The HA was already filled to the brim with signatures, and Harry wondered if applying for the lesson will be worth it or not. The knowledge gained from the subject would no doubt help Harry tremendously, but he wondered if he would even learn anything because of the horny boys.
Harry sighed guessing he could just drop the lesson and signed his name for both subjects. Harry then headed up to his room and after seeing that no one was there, he enlarged his trunk. Harry put away his robe and his outer clothing and lay down on his bed. Harry closed the curtains to his bed, and after casting a security charm on the curtains to wake Harry if anyone opened the curtains, Harry went to sleep.
(September 2. Thursday)
Harry woke up at 5:30 and changed into his running clothes. Just because Harry went to Hogwarts didn't mean that he was going to stop his morning exercises. He ended up jogging for 40 minutes before heading in and stretching.
He took a shower and after he changed into his normal clothing and putting on his robe, which he uttered the cleaning charm, taking off whatever filth got on it yesterday.
Harry then went to the great hall where there were a few people there. Harry just took his seat and started eating. Harry never noticed it before, but he started eating a lot. A lot didn't cover it actually; Harry thought that no one would be able to compete with his eating habit now, with the exception of Crabbe, Goyle, and Ron.
Soon the Great Hall started filling with more people and Ron and Hermione entered the Great Hall. They immediately went towards Harry and sat down with Hermione in between Harry and Ron. Ron seemed to be giving Harry the cold shoulder, not that Harry really expected anything less from him after hearing him on the train.
"So where have you been Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Here." Harry answered vaguely not getting what she was asking.
"No, from what Ron said you weren't in your bed in the morning." Hermione emphasized by saying, "At 6 o'cloak in the morning."
Harry rolled his eyes at Hermione's nosiness, but relented, "Exercising."
"Oh doing what?" Hermione asked.
"Running." Harry said getting a bit annoyed at what seemed like an interrogation coming from Hermione.
"Oh." Was all Hermione said, she tried to start the seemingly dead conversation. "Did you sign up for the electives Harry?"
"Yeah, but I think HA will be a waste of time." Harry said.
Hermione seem eager at Harry responding with more then one word answers. "Why you got to admit learning healing magic will be extremely useful."
"I'm not saying the subject is useless, I'm saying that the class will be a waste of time. Most of those joined only joined because of Fleur." Harry said.
Hermione seemed to understand. "Yeah I agree."
Ron didn't like the two way conversation that didn't include and spoke up also. "I think that lesson will be great."
Harry rolled his eyes while Hermione said, "I know you would think that Ron."
"Hey what is that supposed to mean?" Ron exclaimed to Hermione.
Then they, like usual, bickered like an old married couple not that Harry gave a damn as it provided an excuse not to talk to the two for a while. Soon a 7th year prefect handed Harry and his friends their electives. Harry checked his list.
b
Harry Potter: 6th Year.
Example:
Day: Class (Other House) - Time
Monday: N.E.W.T. prep D.A.D.A. (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 8:00am – 10:00am -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Charms (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 1:00pm – 3:00pm M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Tuesday: -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Potions (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep C.o.M.C. (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 1:00pm – 3:00pm H.A. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Wednesday: N.E.W.T. prep Transfiguration (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 8:00am – 10:00am N.E.W.T. prep Herbology (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep D.A.D.A. (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 8:00am – 10:00am M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Thursday: -Blank- N.E.W.T. prep Charms (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 1:00pm – 3:00pm -Blank- H.A. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Friday: N.E.W.T. prep Potions (Gryffindor & Slytherin) 10:00am – 12:00pm N.E.W.T. prep C.o.M.C. (Gryffindor & Hufflepuff) 1:00pm – 3:00pm N.E.W.T. prep Transfiguration (Gryffindor & Ravenclaw) 8:00am – 10:00am M.D. (All) 4:00pm – 6:00pm
/b
Harry looked at his watch and found it to be 30 minutes till Transfiguration started. Harry decided to leave now as he wanted to get away from his friends who started to bicker again. He left for the classroom without drawing attention from his bickering friends.
Harry walked up to the Transfiguration room and entered the unlocked door. He saw Professor McGonagall's head look up from where she was reading a book. She seemed surprised to see him, and Harry couldn't blame her.
"Something I may help you with Mr. Potter?" The professor asked curiously.
"Sorry professor, had nothing better to do." Harry shrugged.
Harry sat down in one of the front seats and sat down. Harry took out his Transfiguration book from his handbag and began reading it. Harry didn't have time to read it over the summer, considering that he paid more attention to slightly more powerful books.
So the lessons in the subject were relatively new to Harry. However like most other things he had an easy time understanding the spells. Somewhere in Harry's head he felt like he was cheating for having such an unfair advantage.
But he push the thought aside, with every advantage comes with disadvantage, and Harry knew that he would rather have his parents again then having Voldemort transport his knowledge to him that night. He had to risk being murdered by a disfigured freak to obtain such an edge.
Harry was already through 3 chapters by the time Krum entered the classroom. They exchanged greetings and Harry talked with Krum about his life.
"Hello Harry, nice to see you again." Krum said cheerfully.
"Hello, Professor Krum." Harry grinned as he said the professor.
"Just Victor, Harry, at least when were alone. Wouldn't want the students to think I'm treating you special just because you fly good and the fact that I know you from my 7th year." Victor grinned.
"Okay Victor... So why did you come to Hogwarts?" Harry asked intrigued.
"Well, you see-," Krum began explaining.
It seemed that Krum came to Hogwarts, recognizing the danger that was rising in England. Krum postponed his quidditch in favor of somehow helping England and hopefully stopping the war from reaching his homeland and family.
Harry learned that Krum had two younger sisters, lost his mother in the first rise of Voldemort, and his father was a top official in the Bulgarian Ministry. Harry vaguely remembered Moody explaining that the first rise of Voldemort lead the war to all over Europe.
Krum explained that having experienced Voldemort's first rise, Bulgaria is lending their full support behind the English Ministry, now that they had a more competent Minister who was dealing with Voldemort.
Krum also explained after having to live without a mother, Krum wouldn't want to sit back and allow someone else to suffer the loss, if he could do anything to help, and wanted to help also. However Krum didn't want to train as an Auror or anything seeing that his fame might somehow make it so that he wouldn't actually fight, but only be used for the government's balls and such.
So Krum saw that the best way for him to help was to teach the students of Hogwarts how to defend themselves, and he was more then qualified. Harry was told that Krum was the top of his class in Transfiguration, his previous incomplete animagi in Harry's 4th year proved that adequately, and Krum was unmatched by even his teacher's in dueling back at Durmstrang.
Harry was at first surprised that Krum threw aside life as a quidditch star to throw himself headfirst into what was a war. But that was until he heard about the loss that he endured and when Harry thought about it, it made sense.
Harry soon got somewhat depressed at all the war talk and went to more pleasant conversation. It seemed that Krum and Hermione broke off their relationship on good terms, knowing that their long distance relationship wouldn't work out.
Krum was hoping to teach as a fully qualified professor after the war, Krum confided in Harry that after seeing Bagman, a former star quidditch player who had gambling problems and was recently rumored to have become officially called for bankruptcy, didn't reassure him of the stability of staying in quidditch.
Harry backed Krum up on his views, and encouraged his decision about teaching. Then Krum went to asking about Harry after realizing that most of the talk had been focused on him. Harry was sheepish to explain that his social life wasn't all that great, which Krum sympathized with him on, knowing full well on the life of a celebrity's.
Soon the rest of the class started walking into the classroom and the two separated. Hermione and Ron entered the classroom and sat to Harry's left as he was all the way in front but at the right-most edge of the class.
The class started in usual back-to-school fashion, with McGonagoll introducing herself and Victor. Everyone turned in their over the summer assignment, which Hermione over stepped the minimum requirement of the length by 1 foot. Then they had the usual back-to-school quiz. To show the teacher how much each student remembered their previous lessons.
Harry looked at all the questions and laughed at the simplicity of it all. Of course if Harry didn't review all his past books on Transfiguration it wouldn't exactly be a laughing matter. What normal kid would remember "the significance of over pronouncing the 'Oh' in the spell to Transfigure a leaf to a stone"?
However to Harry all the information came at a breeze, however he wouldn't be flaunting his knowledge just yet. He didn't want to raise suspicion from the teacher at his over-the-top knowledge all of a sudden. After all, McGonagall would probably believe that he cheated.
So Harry purposely got several wrong, and thought nothing more about it. Later, much later, the tests were collected and just before the bell rung, homework was assigned to the class.
Harry was about to leave the class when he got called back by Professor McGonagall. Harry abruptly stopped causing a girl behind him to bump into him and lose balance. Harry quickly caught and put her upright. Harry looked to see who the girl was, but couldn't identify her. Harry guessed she was one of the exchange program kids and let go of her.
The girl just smiled in thanks and walked out of the classroom. Harry raised his eyebrows at the girl, there was something weird about her. Harry would have thought more but a chough at the front of the room returned Harry's attention to the situation at hand. He gulped, wondering if he didn't get enough of the questions wrong to make her raise some suspicions about him.
Harry walked stiffly up to the teacher's desk and waited to see what she wanted.
"Mr. Potter, you do realize that last year you were banned from quidditch." Professor McGonagall said.
"Yes..." Harry replied.
"Well the ban is lifted, and you are back on the team. Furthermore I believe that you should be this years Quidditch Captain." McGonagall took out a badge from within her desk drawer and brought out Harry's firebolt from underneath her desk.
Harry sighed, knowing that what he was about to say would drastically change his year at Hogwarts. "With all due respect, I believe that it would be wise to spend the many hours spent practicing for quidditch doing something else.
I have re-evaluated the importance of Quidditch and I can't say that the sport is a great. Albiet it does enforces house pride, but however it is at the expense of school pride. I have seen fearsome rivalry rise before every quidditch match, fights arise between people of different houses just for a game.
I won't lie and say that I do not like flying, but I can say that when I think about quidditch that it might be a mistake to have it at Hogwarts. So I will take back my broom, however I will not take the quidditch badge, and furthermore I will not fly for Gryffindor." Harry took his broom and after nodding at a shell shocked McGonagall and an understanding Krum, Harry exited the room. Harry ran back to his room and put his broom back in his trunk.
Harry dearly wished that he didn't have to leave his trunk in his room, but it would arise suspicion at the fact that his trunk went missing everyday, and Harry didn't want it to be public knowledge that he had a trunk that could change into a ring.
The rest of Harry's classes for that day were in that order. Even DADA was boring. Just because they had competent teachers this year, didn't mean that learning how to send curses that Harry himself was teaching the DA last year was very interesting.
The only time that Harry paid attention was when the paranoid Auror recalled one of his first hand experiences in the war. The bell rung soon enough, but once again Harry was called back to the desk.
Moody was standing at the side of the room, while Moony was sitting on the desk grading the summer papers. He stood stiffly waiting for them to explain why he had been called up.
"Potter-,"Moody started ",-you and I know that it is a waste of time learning all these useless spell, it would be much more efficient for you to screw school and go strait to our regular lessons." Moody snorted, "Dumbledore strongly emphasized the need for appearance, /b that doesn't mean that we will let you sit on your ass getting more and more stupid learning these childish spells just for appearance."
Here Remus took over. "I agree Harry, just because Dumbledore doesn't want anyone to know that anything is out of the ordinary, it doesn't mean that you won't be actually be training. You will have lessons with us every morning, and hell will pay before you're getting out of it."
"That's right Potter, I don't care if you have to wake up at 3 in the morning and get only a wink of sleep, but you will /b be slacking off just because you're at this ruddy school. Now at first you will wake up at 5 and report to us at the Room of..." Moody stopped thinking deeply.
"Requirement, Moody." Remus supplied.
"Yes! That room, you will report to that room by 5 o'clock. After tomorrow we will see if you need to come earlier or later, but you better be there Potter, or you will see how many ways to gut a person without killing them." Moody threatened.
Harry rolled his eyes at the threat. However he did nod to show them that he understood. With that Harry left the room thinking.
'That mean's I will have to wake up at about 4:45 to have my morning jog...'
Harry walked to the great hall anticipating the M.D. program. As Harry entered, he was glad to note that not that many people were there, only around 80. That meant that Harry would get a better experience of the program, rather then sitting in a room full of horny guys and jealous girls, like he expected for the H.A.'s.
Harry noted that the usual desks and chairs were cleared showing off the grand size of the Great Hall. Situated at the front of the great hall were Victor, Remus, Moody, Snape, Madam Pomprey, and even Fleur Delacour. It seemed that since this was the first lesson of the elective ever, they wanted to ensure how things went and see if they would need healers.
5 minutes later after guessing that no other students would arrive, the doors to the great hall closed. Harry looked around and guessed that a hundred people showed, and Harry noted somewhat prideful that all but one of his DA members showed up.
Krum spoke, "Hello, I am Assistant Professor Krum and you may call me Krum. However you will not be allowed to call the respective teachers around me anything other then their respective titles. That is unless they tell you otherwise.
Now in this class, I will teach everyone here all I know about Magical Dueling. The professors around shall also help out too, seeing as most of those here have had quite some experience in Magical Duels. Now Magical Dueling isn't limited to just spell casting, but any formal dueling that is approved of by the International League of Magical Dueling is considered Magical Dueling.
Now I emphasize the word "Dueling," because I find that not many people truly know the definition of this word. Dueling is the /b fight between two opposing forces where they /b have a second, but no more.
Dueling by legal standards means that the two duelers have an impartial official of the I.L.M.D. present, the official himself signing a magical contract that says he approves of the duel, and that the two duelers sign a magical contract binding them to the standard I.L.M.D. rules of the duel. If any of the two breaks the rules not only will they be immediately disqualified, but they also face a chance to have their wands snapped and sent to prison, depending on how sever the breaking of the rules are.
Now the I.L.M.D. has three standards of rule. The three standards have been dubbed by fellow duelists as the Death Standard, Honor Standard, and Friendly Standard.
The Death Standard is obvious to what the duel will be like. Anything short of Unforgivables is allowed in this duel, even lethal curses that will kill. However don't hold your breath at trying to get into a Death Standard Duel with someone you hate hoping to be able to legally kill them. The Death Standard Duel is on the brink of being erased from record, and I will find it highly unlikely that any official will approve of the Duel.
The dueling standard is the Honor Standard. The reason this standard had been dubbed so is usually that the reason why the duelers call a challenge to the other dueler in this standard, is because the person's or his family's honor has been called into question by the other person. Anything short of actually killing the man, Unforgivables, and long lasting brain trauma is allowed in this duel. Also the reason why it is called the Honor Standard is because an official usually wouldn't approve of such a duel without the participants showing just reasoning to be in the duel.
The last and most commonly used Dueling Standard is the Friendly Standard. This Standard is the standard we will be using. The Friendly Standard does not allow any spells that kills, Unforgivables, and /b spell considered Dark Arts, unless the two user formerly agree the use of it.
In none of these duels are anyone allowed to wear magical protection, and the only magical focus allowed is a wand and staff.
Now since we are getting to wand and staffs let me tell you weapons allowed by the I.L.M.D. The I.L.M.D. allows the use of swords, magical swords, daggers, magical knives, knives, wands, staffs, and bows. However don't get your hopes up and slashing your opponent to bits, the only weapons you will use in this duel maximum are magical swords, magical knives, wands, and staffs.
Magical swords are actually I.L.M.D. swords and knives, are blunted weapons that is charmed to provide the victim of the hit in a dull pain in the immediate area of the hit. There is no lasting affects, but the pain, you will find, does kill the victim's concentration quite a bit, and the victim's mobility is also cut down. Don't worry though, after the duel a special healing potion can be applied to get rid of the pain easily enough.
The magical weapons also help take the brunt of a spell's effect if you aren't able to dodge the spell. However it will be good to not rely on the magical weapons for blocking seeing as it isn't fully effective.
Now as I stressed the forbiddance of magical protection, any jewelry is to be taken off and robes aren't allowed to be worn in the duel. Now Magical Dueling ends when the other duelist surrenders, or had been down for the count for 10 seconds."
Here Harry's head was racing, 'Would that include my watch too? Now that I think about it my watch's portkey system, where should I place it? And what if someone steals my robes, there is always a chance they may realize the value of my robes and take it. Oh right there's a security spell is it that can't be broken without effecting the robes, making them useless. Jewelry though... Maybe I should have them keyed to me also...'
"Now a Friendly Standard Duel between me and Professor Snape shall be done for practice-," Krum was interrupted.
"Actually I think it would be most interesting for Mr. Potter," Here Snape sneered, "and I to have a friendly spar. To show the students how a former duel between a /b dueler and a wanna-be's differ."
Here Krum seemed hesitant while Moony was grinning, and Moody was smirking. Pomprey looked as if that was the most stupid idea she has ever heard, while Fleur looked worried. "Now, now Prof-,"
"Is that a challenge Professor Snape?" Harry spoke up.
"Why yes it is, I want the class to see how the famous Boy-Who-Lived stacks up against a real dueler." Snape sneered.
"Then I would think a more competent wizard or witch would challenge me, but seeing as you want to /b you worth I accept. Where is the contract and what are the terms?" Harry said easily. He could hear the shouts of Hermione trying to persuade him otherwise.
Snape seemed to glower, even ignoring Harry's insult. "Wands only, Dark Arts allowed. Unless you're scared, Potter?" Snape sneered at the fact of using Dark Arts, knowing that it was his forte.
Harry gave a somewhat insane looking grin, that seemed to even make Snape reconsider his offer, "That means I'm allowed to use Dark Arts also, right?"
"Yes, you dimwit, or are you too stupid to understand that?" Snape practically snapped.
"I accept now let's sign it, and who's the official that will overview the legality of this duel?" Harry said.
"I will Mr. Potter, now are you-," Krum said.
"No need to worry about me Professor. Let me just get this clear though, in case I forgot. Anything short of killing and Unforgivables now that Professor," Harry spat the word, "has agreed to the terms of the Dark Arts?"
"Yes, now if you're sure sign here and step onto the platform." Harry quickly signed with the quill that Krum offered him and took off his robes and jewelry. Then he practically bounced to the platform.
Harry looked at the platform to see that it was a large round mat that covered from one end of the Great Hall to another, and the length was half of the Great Hall's length. Harry saw Snape sign and walk up to the mat.
"Professor Krum, why is the mat so large? There was a dueling club in my 2nd year and it was a narrow platform."
Krum seemed surprised and then ashamed. "Oh how embarrassing. Class! One more thing that I forgot to tell you, in the I.L.M.D. the platform is actually not limited and can be anything the official chooses. That will be all, now professors let us create the perimeter shield." Krum and the rest of the professors raised their wands and a silver dome arouse around the dueling mat. "Now, on my count duelers, you will start."
Harry and Snape faced each other with their wands raised. Snape sneered and said, "You will find that your arrogance will bring you incredible pain, Potter."
"3."
Harry just smirked coldly and made no acknowledgement to his professor's comment.
"2."
"1."
"Go!"
Snape immediately sent a spell towards Harry who merely side-stepped. Snape sent another spell at him while he merely dodged. This went on for another 5 minutes when Snape finally got fed up with him and yelled out to Potter.
"What's wrong Potter too stupid to fight back?" Snape yelled at him.
"Stupid? Well I guess I can't expect much brains from you. Let's look at my condition, and look at yours and let us see who the stupid is." Harry replied.
The class took notice of Snape's condition. You could see his sweat and he portrayed a fatigued expression while Harry was merely smirking showing no signs of exhaustion.
"So we see that the /b dueler has feel for the /b mistake of being led to waste his energy."
Snape seemed to have realized his mistake.
"And you call Gryffindors rash professor." Harry smirked at turning Snape's usual insults for his house against him.
"Gryffindors /b rash, Potter!" Snape shouted in anger at having been mocked by his hated student.
"Then you must be a proud member of the house of Gryffindor." Harry smirked.
Snape seemed to snap again and started sending incredibly advanced Dark Spells. He had until now, remarkably, been sending Light Spells. Harry was finding it more and more difficult dodge spells and began blocking more of the spells.
Harry started to retaliate with sending spells of his own. A pain curse hit Harry in the legs and Harry retaliated with bludgering spell. A solid black ball shot formed at the end of Harry's wand and shot towards Snape. Snape sent a Reductor Curse at the ball and it exploded, however the ball still had momentum. The shards imbedded themselves into Snapes body, making him bleed extremely.
Snape then banished the shards out of his body, wincing as he did. Snape transfigured hundreds of shards into ravens. The ravens surrounded Harry and started piercing his body with their claws and beaks. Snape then spent the time healing himself.
Harry got fed up with the ravens and unleashed a wave of force all around his body and expanded the force. The ravens were blasted away and they hit the floor, walls, and the shield dead. Harry took a page out of Snape's book and transfigured the dead ravens into snakes.
"Attack him! Don't kill!" Harry yelled in parseltongue.
By now Snape was fully healed and realized what was going on. The advancing snakes were met head on by a stream of localized fire. They couldn't advance, but Harry only used the snakes as a diversion tactic while he cast many pain curses at Snape.
Snape even though distracted, blocked the first pain spell, but got bombarded by the other pain spells. The spells were actually tolerable but not when Harry added the lasting pain spells on each other. He although at first was affected, managed to ignore the pain. Harry considered it was because he got "crucio"ed by Voldemort so many times, even a multiple amount of pain curses would pale in comparison.
Snape sent a shredder curse at Harry who jumped out of the way. In mid jump Harry sent a localized gravity spell over Snape, surprising the hell out of him. The spell was incredibly complex and required a great deal of knowledge and concentration.
Harry didn't waste any time as he sent a "dementor" charm at Snape. The spell was of the darkest black imaginable and basically re-enacted the feeling of a dementor in the area. However it was a directed spell so only the one hit with the curse will be affected. The underside, or beauty if a person wants to view it as such, is the fact that the victim feels as if there are close to 20 dementors just surrounding the victim.
Snape apparently knew what the curse was and paled a bit.
There were many different types of spells in the world. The most commonly known were Transfiguration and Charms. However the charms subject was very vague subject and applied an incredibly diverse number of different magic to be taught in the class, emotional magic being one of them.
Spells such as cheering charms and what not were one type of emotional magic, while pain curse and fear curses were another. The dementor charm like many other pain curses and cheering charms couldn't be blocked by magical shields and was an incredibly complex emotion charm that was only rivaled by the Patronus Charm.
Snape once again surprised by the complexity of Harry's spell was too dumbfounded to dodge the spell. He got hit with it full force and started screaming in pain. Harry could only guess that the dementor charm brought up a painful memory for Snape.
Snape shouted in pain while Harry disarmed him. Then Harry shot a more powerful version of the "Stunner" at Snape point blank range. Krum counted to 10 before saying that Harry won the duel.
Harry then walked towards the place where he left his clothing and jewelry, strangely not satisfied by the duel. Harry had an urge to do something more lethal, at least something more painful to Snape. Harry was incredibly disturbed by such thought, but hid it well.
Krum was somewhat shocked at the duel, while Fleur and Madam Pomprey ran to the duelers. Pomprey went towards Snape, while Fleur went to Harry. Obviously Pomprey viewed Snape as the one that needed greater help or she would have gone towards Harry.
Fleur mumbled something and did some complicated swish and flicks that made the end of her wand glow, she then started poking the cuts on Harry immediately making them heal, all the while congratulating Harry.
"That was incredible dueling Harry. I myself was a top dueler at Beauxbatons Academy, and you were far by better then any dueler I saw before." Fleur told Harry.
"Thank you Professor Delacour, so how is Gabrielle doing?" Harry asked.
"I would have hoped that we were close enough to drop formalities," Fleur mock pouted, "but she is fine, she told she was going to owl you, but wanted your permission first. It's so cute how eager she was when she heard I was going to teach at the school you went to. If I am not wrong she has a major crush on you." Fleur teased.
Harry blushed. "I didn't mean to insult you or anything it's just that some people would want to act professional and being on first name basis with a student isn't professional. I really didn't mean anything Fleur. And of course she can owl me, I don't mind at all."
"Oh she would be so happy!" Fleur smiled.
Harry smiled back and looked at her fixing more of Harry's incredibly numerous cuts all around the body, "So you actually want to be a healer? I would never have guessed."
"Oh yes, a healer is an incredibly respected job at my school. France's healers are reputed to be the best amongst the world, but I'm sad to say that they are also one of the most arrogant. I passed the Healer's Academy, held in France and it's believed to be the best Healer school ever, but I need a year's worth of apprenticeship.
Needless to say, prejudice for the fact that I'm part veela made many people refuse my application. Well, the females did, and the men accepted, but I didn't want the position just because of my veela blood so I declined. And it seemed that Headmaster Dumbledore was kind enough to allow me an application at Hogwarts, knowing that he isn't affected or succumbed by my veela charm I accepted." Fleur finished her story with a smile.
"Why not work at your school then, I'm sure Headmistress Maxime would hire you."
Fleur looked sad, "She was removed from her position after word about her being part veela got to Beauxbatons Academy and the French Ministry."
Harry looked shocked and then angry "It's amazing how much prejudice is in the wizarding world. There are so much unfair views on muggles, muggleborns, halfbloods, werewolves, giants, veelas, and what not. Funny thing is I've found better friends amongst muggleborns, werewolves and giants then amongst the supposed better purebloods. Maybe they become more loyal to people after having a constant affinity of hate placed against them." Harry looked sad, and mumbled, "What am I really fighting for?"
Being a veela meant having better then normal eyesight and hearing like their bird counterpart, so she easily heard what Harry said. She felt incredibly sad at hearing his doubt.
Harry seemed to have realized something and nearly shouted, "It takes only a year to become a Healer?" Harry's expression was of one who was surprised and scared out of his mind that people who trained to save lives only had a year of schooling on them.
Harry's shock and fear broke Fleur previously morbid air and she laughed. "Oh no, I don't mean to brag, but I'm not just about looks. I passed top of my class and I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I'm a bookworm. I passed what would have taken 4 years of schooling in 1, but it also helped that I wanted to become a healer ever since my 3rd year and I've been studying for it since."
Harry relaxed and smiled at Fleur, "You're very dedicated then; I can't imagine preparing for something 4 years in advance. I mean actually having to study for something 4 years earlier then I have to what kind of sane person would do that..." Harry mock shuddered.
Fleur shoved Harry. "You're insulting me!" Fleur grinned, "Just kidding, I know you're joking, so then Mr. Last-Minute, what do you want to be Harry?"
"I'm not sure... I wanted to be an Auror, but after seeing them last year made me reconsider. I don't want to be a Ministry worker, and I can't say that I've been too impressed with those arse kissers." Harry said while looking thoughtful.
"All done, I seriously hope that other duels won't be like yours or I'll have my work cut out for me." Fleur said.
"I'm pretty sure they won't." Harry smirked. "I doubt anybody in here know half of the spells that were used now. Such naivety amazes me and saddens me. Although I may have to see you soon, seeing as how the boys in the class wants to kill me." Harry laughed and then looked confused. "Hey, I've been wondering about this a lot, why am I and Professor Dumbledore not affected by your charm?"
"I would guess that it may be the fact that you're incredibly strong willed or be incredibly powerful in magic terms, probably both in my opinion." Fleur said looking thoughtful.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Harry was intrigued at learning what made the veela charm work.
"Well the theory behind the veela charm doesn't exactly have a study done on it. But from my experience with magic I would guess that the charm is basically magic that forms itself into an alluring aura, a weird manifestation of emotional magic. It tempts a person by over inflating their hormones, but to do that it must affect the mind first. If a person is strong willed enough their mind could resist the foreign thing that is trying to manipulate the mind. Or if they have enough power, their natural magic will negate the charm."
"So are you saying a person can be totally in control over themselves?" Harry asked.
"No, I don't think anyone is ever truly unaffected by the veela charm, but there are levels at which people are affected. Take you for example, you don't act like a drooling dog like your friend the Weasley boy, but you might act somewhat nicer to me then you would usually to others. The Professor Snape, I have heard is miserably cruel to others, but even though he isn't kissing my feet he does act incredibly civil to me." Fleur explained.
"So the weaker willed or the less power a person possesses makes them more susceptible to your charms?" Harry asked.
"Yes, that is at least my theory." Fleur said.
Harry grinned at the fact that Ron must be incredibly weak willed /b weak in terms of magic. Then he frowned. "That means you're wasting precious magic on your charm instead of what could be used for other things."
"Well that is true, veelas are naturally powerful in terms of magic, however many doesn't seem so because of their charms. The charms require an incredible amount of the veela's natural power. The problem is that the charm can't be "shut off," it's like natural thing produced by veelas, but being part veela helps me somewhat control it. I can lower my charm enough so that my power can be better redirected to things like spells. That is also why I guessed that I was a tri-wizard competitor, because I was powerful and could actually use that power."
"Oh..." Harry said. "So there are levels at which you can have your charm on, so what level is it now?"
"Lowest, it wouldn't do well for the lesson for the duelers to all of sudden loss their focus. That can be really dangerous." Fleur explained.
"Wait, are you saying that even though your charm is at its lowest there are still guys who are acting like idiots over you?" Harry asked disbelieving.
"Yes." Fleur said simply.
"Your power level must be incredible then." Harry said looking back to the class where another duel seemed to be underway. Harry looked down and noticed that he still didn't put on his jewelry and robes. Harry did just that put it on, while still asking, "So what do people do when your charms on full?"
Fleur looked at Harry and replied, "Well you see them now drooling over me?" Harry nodded. "My charm makes them not only lust over me; I can basically command them to do anything I want. It really depends on the person really; I think if I had my charm on full even you would be affect to the point where you would notice." Harry paled.
"I'll take your word for it." The rest of the class passed with relatively little event. As soon as the class was over Harry went to exit the class but was stopped by an angry Ron.
"So you're using your fame to speak to Fleur?" Hermione seemed to want to slap Ron, but Harry interrupted.
"It might be hard for you to understand, because you have never truly been one, but friendship does exist between people. Just because of the fact that I talk to Professor Delacour doesn't mean that I used my fame to succumb her to my will." Harry rolled his eyes at that; chances are if anyone would succumb to anyone it would have Harry to Fleur if what she said of her full veela charm potential was true.
"I've been your friend forever; you are the one that hasn't been a friend!" Ron yelled.
"Really? So a true friend would be constantly jealous of his other friend? Always whining and complaining about his friend? Having his jealousy blind the obvious truth?" Harry asked.
"And what truth is that?" Ron asked.
"...The truth that I would give anything to have my family again. Obviously you're such a bastard that you would want your family to all die, in exchange for my fame." Harry said venomously. "You could never appreciate what you had Ron, it's people like you that become Death Eaters, people who would look at power and money over family." Harry stormed out of the room.
uten: I just want to say that the reason why Harry was so angry at Tonks was because she was the first one he had to really talk to in a while. He was incredibly annoyed and angry at being left to the muggles, it was just unfortunate that the first one he had the talk to was Tonks. So he unloaded his shit on her, and when Harry talked to Dumbledore it was after exhausting himself from fighting the duel and from Dumbledore's reasoning. It's almost like trying to get mad after you ran several miles or had a practice boxing match. You exhaust your anger and you're too tired to work up a fight.
Alberforth Dumbledore: Well as I explained to uten, Harry didn't get as mad as he could to Dumbledore because he just didn't have it in him. If Harry met Dumbledore first at the beginning of the story, instead of Tonks, then a hell lot of yelling would have taken place. However I am trying to relate to how I express emotions, I at first get really pissed, but after time I cool off.
Shadow Phoenix: I have seriously considered giving Harry a gun, and most likely I probably will, but not at the moment. I want Harry to realize how effective guns will be, not just to all of a sudden go, "Hey I need a gun!"
Fred: Harry might get a sword, but he has to learn how to use it. I mean I can't imagine Voldemort learning swordsmanship so Harry will have to star from scratch there.