Chapter 10: Troubled.
Harry woke up the next morning in a good mood. He had had a great time the night before in the common room, laughing and joking with his friends. When everyone else had gone to bed, he and Ginny stayed up most of the night talking about Dumbledore's plan. He spent the entire time grinning widely as he realized what it would mean for him, and everyone else close to him, after it had been carried out. He was soon to be a normal person. He had had a nightmare free sleep, dreaming instead of what he would do once the Second Dark War was over. Harry was still worried about Ginny and could happen to her if the plan backfired and something went wrong, but she stubbornly refused to hear any of his concerns on the matter, dismissing them with a simple, "everything will be fine."
Harry made his way down to the Great Hall alone, Ron having already gone down to breakfast. He found him and Ginny having a whispered conversation at the Gryffindor table. Ron seemed anxious about something and constantly kept looking around the room, while Ginny seemed unconcerned about anything and was calm and collected.
"Good morning," said Harry as he sat down next to Ginny.
"'Morning," she smiled at him and leaned in, giving him a quick kiss.
Ron's eyes were glued to the Slytherin table and he didn't seem to notice Harry was sitting in front of him. Ginny rolled her eyes, and handed Harry three sheets of parchment paper. "McGonagall said that the Quidditch training schedule and the tryout sheet is attached to your class schedule." She lowered her voice so only Harry could hear him. "She said she had arranged the practices so that we could still take our classes at night."
Harry nodded and skimmed the Quidditch-related pages. He made a mental note that tryouts were that Friday at six. Hermione joined them soon after, and again, Ron failed to notice that someone had just joined the table. Hermione looked questioningly at Harry, who shrugged, then at Ginny, who merely shook her head.
"We have Potions first today," said Hermione, choosing to ignore Ron just as he had ignored her. She examined her schedule thoroughly.
"Which means we'd better get going or we'll be late." Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron, who was still nervously looking around the room. "Are you alright, mate?"
"Huh? Oh, hey Harry," the redheaded boy turned to look around the room once more.
"Ron, what's going on?" asked Hermione.
Ginny, who was turning red in suppressed rage, answered for him. "Ron is worried that Malfoy might try something against me after what happened during the summer."
Harry immediately turned to look at the Lsytherin table. Draco Malfoy, surrounded by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, was sitting there quietly, glaring maliciously at Ginny. He turned back to look at his friends. "Maybe we should walk you to class, Gin."
"I can take care of myself, thank you," she said coldly. She stood up and picked up her bag and walked out.
Ron scowled deeply. He noticed Neville and Seamus getting ready to leave as well. "Hey, Neville, Seaumus, can you tail Ginny for me?"
Neville frowned. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Just Malfoy was looking at her oddly through breakfast. And knowing the bastard, he's probably planning something."
Neville looked at Malfoy, who was now shooting daggers at the Gryffindors, and silently nodded, then followed Seamus out.
"I can't believe you are having your sister tailed!" exclaimed Hermione.
"I'm looking out for her," Ron defended himself. "Look, Malfoy is pissed because we put his father in jail. Then Ginny accidentally kills him. He'll be looking for some revenge. And I'm not taking any chances where Ginny is concerned. She'll be a little upset, but I'd rather her be angry at me than hurt."
They reached the dungeons to find the rest of the class outside the potions room. Their class had been cut in half from the year before. Only two other Gryffindors were in the class: Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown. The Slytherins, however, were only missing three students: Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson. The rest had managed to score Outstanding on their O.W.L.S.
Draco Malfoy leaned against the wall with Theodore Nott. "Well, if it isn't Weasley, Potter, and Granger," Nott said quietly in a superior tone.
The other Slytherins turned their attention towards them, while the five Gryffindors glared back at them.
"So, Weasel," Malfoy said. "I hear you and Granger are going out. Is your pathetic family so desperate for money that you're whoring yourself to a mud blood?"
Ron lurched towards Malfoy, but Harry held him. Ron struggled so forcefully that Hermione, Dean, and Lavender had to help him. "Let me at him!" Ron was saying furiously. "I'll make him regret his words, the fuc-"
"What is going on here?" The door to the classroom opened to reveal Snape, looking between the smirking Malfoy and the still struggling Ron. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley," Snape said quietly. "And if I catch you fighting one more time, it will one hundred points and two months of detention."
Ron stopped fighting against his restraining classmates, and they let go. They followed Snape and the pleased Slytherins into the dungeon.
"I do have to say that I am pleasantly surprised," Snape said, beginning the class. "This is will be the largest N.E.W.T level class that I have ever taught. I must warn you, however, that should anyone's grades start slipping, I will not hesitate to kick them out of this class. I expect nothing less that an Outstanding performance from all my N.E.W.T. level students. And there will be no exceptions. This is a pass-fail class. You either get Outstanding or Dreadful, a ten or a zero. So I expect you all to work hard."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before turning back their attention on the potions master. Harry took a second to look around, and was happy to see that some of the Slytherins looked worried.
"Now," continues Snape. "We will begin the year by studying medical potions. The potion you will brew today ias called Pepper-Up potion, which I'm sure you have all taken at least one in your life. The ingredients and instructions are on the board. You have an hour. Begin."
"An hour?" whispered Hermione scandalized. "This potion takes about an hour and a half to brew!" Ron glared at Snape one more time before rushing to get the necessary ingredients.
Harry took extra special care to read the directions, even writing them down and checking them off as he followed them. If he wanted to become an auror, he needed to pass potions, and he wasn't going to give Snape the pleasure of kicking him out of class. At the end of the hour, only Hermiona and Harry had finished their potion, Ron was adding the last ingredient when time ran out. They handed in their potions in a vial, Snape grimacing at Harry's perfect potion. 'Probably coz now he knows he's not going to kick me out of this class,' he thought with contempt.
"That was impossible!" cried Ron, as soon as they were out of the potions classroom. "Only five people were able to finish in time!"
"The trick is to put in the next ingredient while you are stiring," Hermione exlained calmly. "It cuts down the time it takes to brew a potion."
"Well how was I supposed to know that?"
"Because Professor Snape has already said it in class. Last year, remember?"
Harry rolled his eyes as his best friends argued , knowing that even thought they loved each other, they would never going to change.
The day had been very long and very boring for Ginny. She was tired and exhausted because all her teachers insisted on doing extra work to prepare for their O.W.L.S She had reached the common room very late after spending an afternoon in the library completing her homework for the day. She sank down into an armchair, not wanting to get up ever again.
"Long day?" asked Hermione, dropping a ridiculous number of books on a nearby table. Harry and Ron plopped down into the couch next to Ginny.
"Extremely long. I'm not ever, ever moving this chair ever again," replied Ginny childishly.
"You'd better get up, or Snape will kill you," said Harry, standing up and offering her his hand. Ginny gave a fake sob, but grabbed Harry's hand nonetheless.
"Snape?" asked Ron.
"He's got me tutoring some Hufflepuff in Potions," lied Ginny.
"It's the first day of class."
"I've been tutoring him since last year, and Snape told me to see him today to 'refresh' his memory from last year."
Ron nodded, then turned to Harry. "Where are you going?"
"Occlumency," he said simply. Still holding Ginny hand, he waved to his friends , then led her downstairs.
"I don't know how you have been able to maintain your sanity," Harry said to Ginny when they were out of the Gryffindor Common Room. "I could not take an extra class with Snape. I tried last year, and it was a disaster."
Ginny laughed. "So where are your lessons going to be?"
"The Shrieking Shack. It's the safest place."
They kissed and separated at the Entry Hall of the castle, Ginny turning to go down to the dungeons, Harry continuing to the outside grounds. Reaching the Whomping Willow, Harry bent down and pressed the knot at the base of the tree, entering when it stopped moving. He crawled through the passage and came into the room he had when he had been there the first time, when he met Sirius. His teacher was already. A pretty blonde woman who was thin and short smiled at Harry when he entered.
"Well, Harry Potter," she said, shaking his hand. "I haven't seen you since the day you were born. I'm Jennifer Peralt."
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Peralt," said Harry.
"Oh, please, call me Jenny." She looked at him critically. "You know, I don't know what Remus was going on about. I mean, you do look like your father, but your hair is longer, your nose smaller, your lips not as thin as James's, and you're shorter than he was at your age. I guess you can blame Lily for that."
Harry smiled at Jenny. "He was happy to hear someone tell him he looked like his mother for a change. "So you knew my parents?"
Jenny laughed, a playful and melodious sound. "I knew your mother better than she knew herself. We were best friends at Hogwarts, until I had to leave to train at Classical Academy in Plisvert."
"Hey, are you related to Abigail Peralt?" asked Harry, remembering the name of the author to 'The Lives of Paxturus Wizards of Britain.'
"Yes, she's my mother," she answered. "Now, we have a lot of work to do." She clapped her hands together and a blue light enveloped the room. When the light vanished, the walls, the floor, and the ceiling were clean and the old, ripped furniture were gone.
"Cool," whispered Harry.
"Transformation is probably going to be your easiest thing for you to learn, as you have had some practice with McGonagall. It's very much like transfiguration," Jenny informed him.
"Now where to begin?" she muttered to herself as she waved her hands and two chairs dropped into the center of the room. "Oh, I know, a history lesson,"she led him to a chair and they sat across from each other. "All right, well, before I begin, I have to make you promise that you will not say a word to what is going on in here to anyone. Not even onceborns."
"Onceborns?" asked Harry.
"Regular witches and wizards. You must never ever tell anyone what happens in Paxturus training. That's why we have our own separate school: Classical Academy, right outside of Plisvert."
The need for secrecy raised Harry's curiosity. He nodded shortly, "I swear I won't tell anyone."
Jenny took a deep breath. "Okay then. It was believed for years that Paxturus got their powers because they had been reincarnated many times, and they brought back the knowledge from their previous lives. Around the time that Hogwarts was founded, Kathryn du Gwann discovered that it was in fact a gene that caused Paxturus. There were too many purebloods around at the time, and they intermarried, causing the amount of magic in their offspring to rise at such levels that they had more power than normal wizards. Of course, this gene meant that this was hereditary. The child's powers, however, are dormant until the age of sixteen, when there is an initiation for him or her to welcome then into the Paxturus community.
"As I'm sure you know, the Ministry of Magic is filled with idiots. That's never changed. They became terrified that purists, people who practiced pure, or wandless, magic, and the Paxturus were plotting to overthrow them. So they outlaw pure magic with the excuse that it was Dark Magic. They then outlawed Paxturus. They even made a spell that was powerful enough to cause the amount of magic in the pureblood families to go down, and there's still a law in place that says that at the time of your birth, the hospital has to cast the spell on you. That's why there are Squibs; the amount of magic in the family has been lowered to such levels that, while the parents can use magic, their children have so little magic in their blood that the spell complete erases any trace of magical powers.
"In retaliation, Kathryn's son, Mikael, invented the Parititic potion. Of course, that was outlawed. It's still against the law for us to practice. That's why we founded the city of Plisvert, in Ireland. We have our own school, our own government, everything that we need. If we were to practice in any other part of Britain, other than Plisvert, we would be facing a lifetime sentence in Azkaban."
"But that's so unfair!" exclaimed Harry. "Why would we want to overthrow the Ministry?"
"Those imbeciles are afraid of their own shadow, Harry," Jenny said sadly. "They just like their position too much to risk losing it."
A moment of silence passed between them. Harry looked down at the newly polished floor, thinking. He was going to work hard. He was going to make sure that the plan succeeded. Then, he was going to give the Ministry a piece of his mind.
Ginny netered Snape's private office as she did everyday. She found the professor sitting at his desk, a group of vials in front of him.
"You're late, Ginevra," he said, not looking up.
"Ginny flinched at the sound of her first name being used. "I'm sorry, Proffesor."
Snape glared at her for a moment, then stood up. "Ginevra, what do you know of the Unforgivable curses?"
Ginny's eyes widened and her face lost all its color. "Just that they are three illegal curses used to control, cause pain, and kill someone."
Snape nodded, accepting her answer. "We'll start with the Imperious Curse today. Then we'll continue with the Cruciatus, and finish today's lesson with the Killing Curse." He stood and cast a silencing charm, and locked the door with a few locking spells.
Jenny led Harry through all the rooms of the Shrieking Shack. They practiced changing objects using wandless magic. At first, Harry had a few problems. He had accidentally turned the chair he was supposed to transfigure to a table into an armchair. But once he had gotten the hang of it, he realized it was very easy. All he had to do was concentrate. Jenny's encouraging words also helped.
"This is so cool," laughed Harry as he transformed the final set of torn curtains into red, velvet drapes. Thanks to him, the whole house now had brand-new furniture.
"If we keep this is up, we might just make this place fit for someone to live in," said Jenny, inspecting the drapes. "Wow, Harry, these are nice! I might just have you come and redecorate my apartment."
Harry laughed, and Jenny dismissed him, telling him to come back on Thrusday at seven. Harry made his way happily to the castle, feeling reenergized. Jenny was nothing like his teachers. She laughed and joked, and she told Harry stories from when she had been at the Academy, and even some from when she had gone to Hogwarts with his mother.
He entered the castle to find Ginny coming up from the dungeons. Her face was pale, and she was trembling as though she had jumped into the lake in the dead of winter. Tears rolled down her cheek and she seemed to be having trouble breathing. Harry immediately rushed over to her. "Ginny, are you ok?"
She shook her head, and leaned on him for support. She asked to be taken to see Madam Pomfrey, but other than that, stayed quiet. "Gin, what happened? Are you sick?" She shook her head again and kept her mouth closed.
They entered the Hospital Wing quietly. "Oh my goodness, Miss Weasley!" yelled Madam Pomfrey upon seeing the state of the young girl. "Oh, dear, what happened?"
Ginny let out a small sob and collapsed to the floor. Harry knelt besides her, and picked her up gently, laying her on a bed the nurse prepared for her with a wave of her wand.
"I'm sorry, Mr, Potter," but I have to ask you to leave," said Madam Pomfrey, bustling around Ginny, checking her pulse and taking her temperature.
"But-"
"No buts, Mr. Potter," she answered sternly. "It's almost your curfew. Get back to your common room immediately." And she gently pushed him out the doors.
A/N: I couldn't bring myself to write this chapter. See, it was supposed to be longer than this, and something else was supposed to happen, but I couldn't bring myself to do that to poor- well, I won't tell you because I'm writing it in the next chapter, even though it's tearing me apart. So, if the next chapter takes along time to post, I apologize in advance. Know that I'm having a hard time writing it.
Love, Amalia xoxo
Harry woke up the next morning in a good mood. He had had a great time the night before in the common room, laughing and joking with his friends. When everyone else had gone to bed, he and Ginny stayed up most of the night talking about Dumbledore's plan. He spent the entire time grinning widely as he realized what it would mean for him, and everyone else close to him, after it had been carried out. He was soon to be a normal person. He had had a nightmare free sleep, dreaming instead of what he would do once the Second Dark War was over. Harry was still worried about Ginny and could happen to her if the plan backfired and something went wrong, but she stubbornly refused to hear any of his concerns on the matter, dismissing them with a simple, "everything will be fine."
Harry made his way down to the Great Hall alone, Ron having already gone down to breakfast. He found him and Ginny having a whispered conversation at the Gryffindor table. Ron seemed anxious about something and constantly kept looking around the room, while Ginny seemed unconcerned about anything and was calm and collected.
"Good morning," said Harry as he sat down next to Ginny.
"'Morning," she smiled at him and leaned in, giving him a quick kiss.
Ron's eyes were glued to the Slytherin table and he didn't seem to notice Harry was sitting in front of him. Ginny rolled her eyes, and handed Harry three sheets of parchment paper. "McGonagall said that the Quidditch training schedule and the tryout sheet is attached to your class schedule." She lowered her voice so only Harry could hear him. "She said she had arranged the practices so that we could still take our classes at night."
Harry nodded and skimmed the Quidditch-related pages. He made a mental note that tryouts were that Friday at six. Hermione joined them soon after, and again, Ron failed to notice that someone had just joined the table. Hermione looked questioningly at Harry, who shrugged, then at Ginny, who merely shook her head.
"We have Potions first today," said Hermione, choosing to ignore Ron just as he had ignored her. She examined her schedule thoroughly.
"Which means we'd better get going or we'll be late." Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron, who was still nervously looking around the room. "Are you alright, mate?"
"Huh? Oh, hey Harry," the redheaded boy turned to look around the room once more.
"Ron, what's going on?" asked Hermione.
Ginny, who was turning red in suppressed rage, answered for him. "Ron is worried that Malfoy might try something against me after what happened during the summer."
Harry immediately turned to look at the Lsytherin table. Draco Malfoy, surrounded by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, was sitting there quietly, glaring maliciously at Ginny. He turned back to look at his friends. "Maybe we should walk you to class, Gin."
"I can take care of myself, thank you," she said coldly. She stood up and picked up her bag and walked out.
Ron scowled deeply. He noticed Neville and Seamus getting ready to leave as well. "Hey, Neville, Seaumus, can you tail Ginny for me?"
Neville frowned. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Just Malfoy was looking at her oddly through breakfast. And knowing the bastard, he's probably planning something."
Neville looked at Malfoy, who was now shooting daggers at the Gryffindors, and silently nodded, then followed Seamus out.
"I can't believe you are having your sister tailed!" exclaimed Hermione.
"I'm looking out for her," Ron defended himself. "Look, Malfoy is pissed because we put his father in jail. Then Ginny accidentally kills him. He'll be looking for some revenge. And I'm not taking any chances where Ginny is concerned. She'll be a little upset, but I'd rather her be angry at me than hurt."
They reached the dungeons to find the rest of the class outside the potions room. Their class had been cut in half from the year before. Only two other Gryffindors were in the class: Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown. The Slytherins, however, were only missing three students: Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson. The rest had managed to score Outstanding on their O.W.L.S.
Draco Malfoy leaned against the wall with Theodore Nott. "Well, if it isn't Weasley, Potter, and Granger," Nott said quietly in a superior tone.
The other Slytherins turned their attention towards them, while the five Gryffindors glared back at them.
"So, Weasel," Malfoy said. "I hear you and Granger are going out. Is your pathetic family so desperate for money that you're whoring yourself to a mud blood?"
Ron lurched towards Malfoy, but Harry held him. Ron struggled so forcefully that Hermione, Dean, and Lavender had to help him. "Let me at him!" Ron was saying furiously. "I'll make him regret his words, the fuc-"
"What is going on here?" The door to the classroom opened to reveal Snape, looking between the smirking Malfoy and the still struggling Ron. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley," Snape said quietly. "And if I catch you fighting one more time, it will one hundred points and two months of detention."
Ron stopped fighting against his restraining classmates, and they let go. They followed Snape and the pleased Slytherins into the dungeon.
"I do have to say that I am pleasantly surprised," Snape said, beginning the class. "This is will be the largest N.E.W.T level class that I have ever taught. I must warn you, however, that should anyone's grades start slipping, I will not hesitate to kick them out of this class. I expect nothing less that an Outstanding performance from all my N.E.W.T. level students. And there will be no exceptions. This is a pass-fail class. You either get Outstanding or Dreadful, a ten or a zero. So I expect you all to work hard."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before turning back their attention on the potions master. Harry took a second to look around, and was happy to see that some of the Slytherins looked worried.
"Now," continues Snape. "We will begin the year by studying medical potions. The potion you will brew today ias called Pepper-Up potion, which I'm sure you have all taken at least one in your life. The ingredients and instructions are on the board. You have an hour. Begin."
"An hour?" whispered Hermione scandalized. "This potion takes about an hour and a half to brew!" Ron glared at Snape one more time before rushing to get the necessary ingredients.
Harry took extra special care to read the directions, even writing them down and checking them off as he followed them. If he wanted to become an auror, he needed to pass potions, and he wasn't going to give Snape the pleasure of kicking him out of class. At the end of the hour, only Hermiona and Harry had finished their potion, Ron was adding the last ingredient when time ran out. They handed in their potions in a vial, Snape grimacing at Harry's perfect potion. 'Probably coz now he knows he's not going to kick me out of this class,' he thought with contempt.
"That was impossible!" cried Ron, as soon as they were out of the potions classroom. "Only five people were able to finish in time!"
"The trick is to put in the next ingredient while you are stiring," Hermione exlained calmly. "It cuts down the time it takes to brew a potion."
"Well how was I supposed to know that?"
"Because Professor Snape has already said it in class. Last year, remember?"
Harry rolled his eyes as his best friends argued , knowing that even thought they loved each other, they would never going to change.
The day had been very long and very boring for Ginny. She was tired and exhausted because all her teachers insisted on doing extra work to prepare for their O.W.L.S She had reached the common room very late after spending an afternoon in the library completing her homework for the day. She sank down into an armchair, not wanting to get up ever again.
"Long day?" asked Hermione, dropping a ridiculous number of books on a nearby table. Harry and Ron plopped down into the couch next to Ginny.
"Extremely long. I'm not ever, ever moving this chair ever again," replied Ginny childishly.
"You'd better get up, or Snape will kill you," said Harry, standing up and offering her his hand. Ginny gave a fake sob, but grabbed Harry's hand nonetheless.
"Snape?" asked Ron.
"He's got me tutoring some Hufflepuff in Potions," lied Ginny.
"It's the first day of class."
"I've been tutoring him since last year, and Snape told me to see him today to 'refresh' his memory from last year."
Ron nodded, then turned to Harry. "Where are you going?"
"Occlumency," he said simply. Still holding Ginny hand, he waved to his friends , then led her downstairs.
"I don't know how you have been able to maintain your sanity," Harry said to Ginny when they were out of the Gryffindor Common Room. "I could not take an extra class with Snape. I tried last year, and it was a disaster."
Ginny laughed. "So where are your lessons going to be?"
"The Shrieking Shack. It's the safest place."
They kissed and separated at the Entry Hall of the castle, Ginny turning to go down to the dungeons, Harry continuing to the outside grounds. Reaching the Whomping Willow, Harry bent down and pressed the knot at the base of the tree, entering when it stopped moving. He crawled through the passage and came into the room he had when he had been there the first time, when he met Sirius. His teacher was already. A pretty blonde woman who was thin and short smiled at Harry when he entered.
"Well, Harry Potter," she said, shaking his hand. "I haven't seen you since the day you were born. I'm Jennifer Peralt."
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Peralt," said Harry.
"Oh, please, call me Jenny." She looked at him critically. "You know, I don't know what Remus was going on about. I mean, you do look like your father, but your hair is longer, your nose smaller, your lips not as thin as James's, and you're shorter than he was at your age. I guess you can blame Lily for that."
Harry smiled at Jenny. "He was happy to hear someone tell him he looked like his mother for a change. "So you knew my parents?"
Jenny laughed, a playful and melodious sound. "I knew your mother better than she knew herself. We were best friends at Hogwarts, until I had to leave to train at Classical Academy in Plisvert."
"Hey, are you related to Abigail Peralt?" asked Harry, remembering the name of the author to 'The Lives of Paxturus Wizards of Britain.'
"Yes, she's my mother," she answered. "Now, we have a lot of work to do." She clapped her hands together and a blue light enveloped the room. When the light vanished, the walls, the floor, and the ceiling were clean and the old, ripped furniture were gone.
"Cool," whispered Harry.
"Transformation is probably going to be your easiest thing for you to learn, as you have had some practice with McGonagall. It's very much like transfiguration," Jenny informed him.
"Now where to begin?" she muttered to herself as she waved her hands and two chairs dropped into the center of the room. "Oh, I know, a history lesson,"she led him to a chair and they sat across from each other. "All right, well, before I begin, I have to make you promise that you will not say a word to what is going on in here to anyone. Not even onceborns."
"Onceborns?" asked Harry.
"Regular witches and wizards. You must never ever tell anyone what happens in Paxturus training. That's why we have our own separate school: Classical Academy, right outside of Plisvert."
The need for secrecy raised Harry's curiosity. He nodded shortly, "I swear I won't tell anyone."
Jenny took a deep breath. "Okay then. It was believed for years that Paxturus got their powers because they had been reincarnated many times, and they brought back the knowledge from their previous lives. Around the time that Hogwarts was founded, Kathryn du Gwann discovered that it was in fact a gene that caused Paxturus. There were too many purebloods around at the time, and they intermarried, causing the amount of magic in their offspring to rise at such levels that they had more power than normal wizards. Of course, this gene meant that this was hereditary. The child's powers, however, are dormant until the age of sixteen, when there is an initiation for him or her to welcome then into the Paxturus community.
"As I'm sure you know, the Ministry of Magic is filled with idiots. That's never changed. They became terrified that purists, people who practiced pure, or wandless, magic, and the Paxturus were plotting to overthrow them. So they outlaw pure magic with the excuse that it was Dark Magic. They then outlawed Paxturus. They even made a spell that was powerful enough to cause the amount of magic in the pureblood families to go down, and there's still a law in place that says that at the time of your birth, the hospital has to cast the spell on you. That's why there are Squibs; the amount of magic in the family has been lowered to such levels that, while the parents can use magic, their children have so little magic in their blood that the spell complete erases any trace of magical powers.
"In retaliation, Kathryn's son, Mikael, invented the Parititic potion. Of course, that was outlawed. It's still against the law for us to practice. That's why we founded the city of Plisvert, in Ireland. We have our own school, our own government, everything that we need. If we were to practice in any other part of Britain, other than Plisvert, we would be facing a lifetime sentence in Azkaban."
"But that's so unfair!" exclaimed Harry. "Why would we want to overthrow the Ministry?"
"Those imbeciles are afraid of their own shadow, Harry," Jenny said sadly. "They just like their position too much to risk losing it."
A moment of silence passed between them. Harry looked down at the newly polished floor, thinking. He was going to work hard. He was going to make sure that the plan succeeded. Then, he was going to give the Ministry a piece of his mind.
Ginny netered Snape's private office as she did everyday. She found the professor sitting at his desk, a group of vials in front of him.
"You're late, Ginevra," he said, not looking up.
"Ginny flinched at the sound of her first name being used. "I'm sorry, Proffesor."
Snape glared at her for a moment, then stood up. "Ginevra, what do you know of the Unforgivable curses?"
Ginny's eyes widened and her face lost all its color. "Just that they are three illegal curses used to control, cause pain, and kill someone."
Snape nodded, accepting her answer. "We'll start with the Imperious Curse today. Then we'll continue with the Cruciatus, and finish today's lesson with the Killing Curse." He stood and cast a silencing charm, and locked the door with a few locking spells.
Jenny led Harry through all the rooms of the Shrieking Shack. They practiced changing objects using wandless magic. At first, Harry had a few problems. He had accidentally turned the chair he was supposed to transfigure to a table into an armchair. But once he had gotten the hang of it, he realized it was very easy. All he had to do was concentrate. Jenny's encouraging words also helped.
"This is so cool," laughed Harry as he transformed the final set of torn curtains into red, velvet drapes. Thanks to him, the whole house now had brand-new furniture.
"If we keep this is up, we might just make this place fit for someone to live in," said Jenny, inspecting the drapes. "Wow, Harry, these are nice! I might just have you come and redecorate my apartment."
Harry laughed, and Jenny dismissed him, telling him to come back on Thrusday at seven. Harry made his way happily to the castle, feeling reenergized. Jenny was nothing like his teachers. She laughed and joked, and she told Harry stories from when she had been at the Academy, and even some from when she had gone to Hogwarts with his mother.
He entered the castle to find Ginny coming up from the dungeons. Her face was pale, and she was trembling as though she had jumped into the lake in the dead of winter. Tears rolled down her cheek and she seemed to be having trouble breathing. Harry immediately rushed over to her. "Ginny, are you ok?"
She shook her head, and leaned on him for support. She asked to be taken to see Madam Pomfrey, but other than that, stayed quiet. "Gin, what happened? Are you sick?" She shook her head again and kept her mouth closed.
They entered the Hospital Wing quietly. "Oh my goodness, Miss Weasley!" yelled Madam Pomfrey upon seeing the state of the young girl. "Oh, dear, what happened?"
Ginny let out a small sob and collapsed to the floor. Harry knelt besides her, and picked her up gently, laying her on a bed the nurse prepared for her with a wave of her wand.
"I'm sorry, Mr, Potter," but I have to ask you to leave," said Madam Pomfrey, bustling around Ginny, checking her pulse and taking her temperature.
"But-"
"No buts, Mr. Potter," she answered sternly. "It's almost your curfew. Get back to your common room immediately." And she gently pushed him out the doors.
A/N: I couldn't bring myself to write this chapter. See, it was supposed to be longer than this, and something else was supposed to happen, but I couldn't bring myself to do that to poor- well, I won't tell you because I'm writing it in the next chapter, even though it's tearing me apart. So, if the next chapter takes along time to post, I apologize in advance. Know that I'm having a hard time writing it.
Love, Amalia xoxo