Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
By:Krystal Lily Potter
Chapter Thirteen: Confusing Happenings
Rating: PG-13 (more on the AA side)
Couples: HP/HG, DT/LB, PP/SF, LL/NL, DT/GW, LB/RW, LL/RW, HP/PP (other twin), HP/EM, HP/CC…you know the whole raging hormone thing…
Summary: As Harry and his friends enter their sixth year at Hogwarts they don't enter the cheerful world they left behind. They enter a world covered in a thick blanket of fear. It only hits Harry how important he really is when people start seeing him as the light that allows them to see under this blanket. Along with his friend he must battle the horrors of the past, present, and possible the future to begin the end of the war, hopefully before it hits Hogwarts. What happens when people start disappearing from under Dumbledore's protection, and one of the famous 'trio' disappears? It's up to the last two, plus some more friends, to find a way to save all the people that disappeared because they can't fight this war on their own…
Warning: Dark themes will be mentioned a lot and there's going to start being a lot more dark themes described and if worst comes to worst I'll rate this R because of that. There's swearing, mentions of suicide, murder, rape, gore/bloody scenes, and other dark things like that…
Perfect by nature
Icons of self indulgence
Just what we all need
More lies about a world that
Never was and never will be
Have you no shame don't you see me
You know you've got everybody fooled
Look here she comes now
Bow down and stare in wonder
Oh how we love you
No flaws when you're pretending
But now I know she
Never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
Without the mask where will you hide
Can't find yourself lost in your lie
I know the truth now
I know who you are
And I don't love you anymore
It never was and never will be
You don't know how you've betrayed me
And somehow you've got everybody fooled
It never was and never will be
You're not real and you can't save me
Somehow now you're everybody's fool
-Everybody's Fool, Evanescence
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPH
Harry was digging through his trunk with determination clearly on his face. His eyes moved from item to item as he touched them, looking for one particular thing. He knew it wouldn't be that easy to find though.
After talking to Professor Dumbledore the other day, he knew that it was futile to depend on the Headmaster and his followers anymore. He just didn't like the style that the Dumbledore was taking the war so far and planned on doing something about that because he knew he could. People looked up to him and students listened to him. He had ignored it for the past five years but now he decided it was time to use him fame for the good of all the students in the school.
He would start where he could, which was simply seeing who wanted to help. Trying to force people to fight in the war was something Harry would never do; he didn't want to sink to Voldemort's level. He also wanted to be higher then Dumbledore's level, which sounded as selfish as it did improbable. If you thought about it though, and the reasons for wanting to be a better leader then Dumbledore were actually not as selfish as it might seem.
He wanted the others to be told the truth, not lied to like he had been. He wanted them to know exactly what they were facing, unlike he had. He wanted them to understand that in the end people would die…he had never got the chance to understand that before it actually happened.
Smirking to himself he picked up the golden galleon he found at the bottom of his trunk and stared at it to make sure it was the right one. It was.
Yes, Harry was planning on starting the DA up again, but not without major precaution this time. He was stronger, more aware and smarter then he had been last year and wasn't about to leave it up to Hermione this time to make sure no one betrayed them. He had heard his best friend be the butt end of jokes many times, even after everything she helped accomplish, just because she loved books and was smart. People didn't always listen to her, but Harry was planning on changing that.
He flipped the coin in his hand and then shoved it in his pocket and started putting books back in his trunk. He noticed with amusement that he had all his books, including the ones from first year.
After he finished putting everything away he stood up and headed downstairs to the common room. He looked around, ignoring the people that were waving for him to join them. His eyes finally fell on Hermione, who was behind a wall of books in a corner, and strode over to her.
Before he could get to her though Katie jumped in front of him and said with a frown, "Don't you dare ignore me Mister! I want to tell you that Quidditch tryouts will be this Friday, and you are I are the only ones on the team so you better not get detention this time!"
"I won't," he replied. "By the way…about Keeper…what if Ron comes back?"
"If Ron gets back he'll have to catch up on his studies…and if he can then yes he'll be Keeper again. I know Ginny wanted to be a Chaser this year but she just doesn't have any experience being one so she'll have to wait until I leave next year," Katie said quickly. "Anyways I can tell you want to talk to Hermione so I'll talk to you later. Bye." With that she turned around and walked back to her friends, ignoring the amused looks Harry sent her before he turned back towards his friend.
Hermione looked up at him before he even reached her and raised a curious eyebrow. He gave her a look that clearly said 'come on…I need your help with something'. She nodded slightly and set the book she was reading on top of all her other ones and followed him out of the common room and into the hall.
"Be careful," the Fat Lady warned them. The portrait felt terrible about not being there when little Kathy Vance was kill. Had she have been there then she most certainly would have got into the common room in time, or at least they'd know what attacked her.
"We will," Hermione said back as they continued walking down the corridor. Her eyes shifted to Harry and said, "What do you need help with?"
"You'll see," Harry said with a mysterious smile.
"How do I know it's really you? Not a fake Harry?" she tested him.
"Ask me something only I'd know," he suggested.
"Well…alright…what did I say makes a great wizard?" she said.
"Friendship and bravery," Harry said, remembering back to their first year when they were going after the Philosopher's Stone.
(Note: That's from the movie…she might have said something a little different in the book)
She smiled then said, "You're the real you."
"I hope I am," he replied then started walking back and forth in front of a spot.
Hermione looked at him like he was insane then said, "Of course, the room of requirement!"
He nodded then grabbed the door handle that appeared and wrenched it open. He walked in and she followed.
She looked around and said, "It looks almost as if you're planning making something…out of metal."
"That's the thing, I am," Harry explained and reached into his sweater and pulled out his mother's pendent, making sure the Time Turner stayed out of sight. He hadn't used it yet but he was sure he'd need it later on.
"Oh wow, that's beautiful," Hermione said and took the pendent into her hands.
"Right, I want to make something similar to this but not quite the same. I've made a design for it already," he said and pulled a piece of folded paper out of his jean pockets and unfolded it for the girl to see. It was in the shape of a shield with the initials DA on it. "I was hoping you could come up with something else for it…only having the letters DA is kind of stupid."
Hermione stared at the drawing, at Harry's pendent, then at his forehead and said, "I'd say a wand crossed over with...well...a lightning bolt works nicely, it shows who our leader is. Unless you want Dumbledore to take the…credit again."
"Like hell he is," Harry said with a frown. "What I was thinking was making them then giving them to the permanent members of the DA, but…" he trailed off as if not sure he should continue.
"But what Harry?" she said, urging him to continue.
"Is there a spell where the letter's DA will change after the medallions are made? I want to change the name because we both know I don't see eye to eye with Dumbledore," he said, sounding almost reluctant.
"I think we can pull it off," Hermione replied thoughtfully. "But why do you want to make them?"
"It'll be our symbol! Besides…I think Dumbledore caught onto the galleon thing already so we need something different, something people will constantly have with them. Plus I was thinking of putting a tracking Charm in them, just in case," Harry said.
"That's brilliant Harry," she commented. "It'll take a lot of magic but I'm here to help, but what about the members that already left school? You know, Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia and Lee?"
"I've already owled all of them," Harry said with a smirk and it was obvious he had planned this out in advance.
"Well we better get to work making at least one of these things. Once we make the first one it'll be easier to copy it," Hermione said.
"Good," Harry agreed and they went to work, planning out what they had to do.
When Harry reached the Quidditch Pitch on Friday afternoon after classes with his Firebolt in hand (he had spent much of the time last night examining it just incase those security trolls from last year touched it or Umbridge did something to it) he saw Katie pacing back and forth.
"You're going to make yourself tired before even starting the match if you keep doing that," he said to her.
She jumped and looked over at him then said, "Thank god you're here. I just thought of a problem…there are only two of us so well we're up in the sky with the others we would be able to watch all of them and take notes!"
"I thought of that too, and I've got the solution here," Harry said and Hermione walked out with a muggle notebook and a pen.
Katie's face broke into a smile and said, "Hermione you're a life saver! Thank you!"
"Oh it's no problem. I know enough about Quidditch to know that what I'm looking for, curtsey of Harry and Ron," she noted with a bored voice, causing the older girl to laugh.
"Well I'm thankful they talk about it a lot! Alright here comes the pledges," Katie said as she watched second through seventh years walk into the pitch. Everyone was a little nervous and looked even more so as they saw Hermione smirk at them and walk towards the stands so she could get a better view of everything and the highly amused looks both Harry and Katie were giving them.
"Alright, I'm Katie Bell, Quidditch captain this year. We're looking for two Beaters, two Chasers and a reserve Keeper. The Keeper spot is saved for Ron Weasley for when he returns. Now we're working with Beaters first so everyone else take a seat and watch."
The Beaters walked forwards and Harry automatically looked at two fourth years. One had brown hair and blue eyes well the other had blond hair and brown eyes. He smirked and nudged Katie then whispered, "Those two over there seem close…just keep an eye on them, trust me."
She shot him an odd look but nodded all the same. "Alright, here's how it's going to work. We're taking up two Beaters at a time. We'll see how well you can defend yourselves, plus Harry and I for five minutes. Alright…Athena and Brian…lets go."
The two walked out and took the Beaters clubs that Harry gave them and rose into the air. Harry let the Bludgers out of the box then he and Katie flew into the air.
Within those five minutes Harry almost got hit about 50 times, and Katie did get hit three times.
Hermione was on the stands shaking her head with disappointment…she was hoping this would be over quickly but thought otherwise now.
After three more sets of Beaters went up…and didn't do too good, Katie was almost near tears when the last two, the one's Harry pointed out went up.
Apparently their names were Scott and Shayn and they were friends since they could remember, and obviously he paid off. The two worked amazingly together and didn't let the bludgers get anywhere near Harry, Katie or themselves.
Hermione was happy and wrote down their names under people she recommended for the position…the only ones. She could tell that they had gotten the positions already.
Next went up the Chasers. Their tryouts were simple. They each took turns shooting at the goal posts, which were being guarded by Katie who was as good a Keeper as she was a Chaser. They got 20 shots and had to get at least 15 of them in. Hermione was keeping a look on who had the most surprising technique and who would work best with Katie, considering she was now the star Chaser. That wasn't an official position but everyone knew there was one…for the last five years Angelina was the star Chaser.
Those didn't go too badly, but then came the Keeper tryouts. Harry proved to have another talent in him, that of a Chaser. He and Katie would both throw the quaffle at the candidate 10 times each. They, like the Chasers, had to get 15 out of 20.
Those didn't go as good as the Chaser tryouts. Harry threw the quaffle and the person tried to dive for it, smacking his head on the golden goalposts.
Harry felt guilty but he could see both Katie and Hermione giggling behind their hands. "Girls…"
After the tryouts were over the two flew over to Hermione and they all compared things they saw.
"Scott and Shayn were the best by far," Harry said. "They were brilliant actually."
"No question about that," Katie said and Hermione nodded then she spoke up.
"I was looking for people that would work well with Katie as Chasers and I found two that I believe would. Halle and Tessa, their both fifth years and really impressive," Hermione noted.
Katie looked back at them then said, "Yeah they are. What do you think Harry?"
"They were pretty good. Halle got 19 out of 20 and Tessa got 18 out of 20," Harry said well looking at Hermione's records.
"Right," Katie said and wrote their names under the two Beaters. "Now there's only one problem, our reserve Keeper."
Harry shook his head and said, "We're just not used to playing without Wood, he was the best Keeper I've ever seen. Ron was getting better at it, as far as I know, even though I didn't see the game between us and Ravenclaw last year."
"I guess," Katie said. "Well it's a toss up between Vivian and Nate…neither of them are really good so we'll really be relying on you to catch the snitch before the other teams can pull too far ahead. Oh I can't wait until Ron gets back."
"Ok," Harry said and took a knut and flipped it then said, "Heads or tails?"
"Pardon?" Katie asked.
"Heads or tails is a muggle game," Hermione explained. "Heads will be Nate and tails will be Vivian."
"Alright…go for it," Katie said.
Harry looked at it then said, "Heads. Nate's in."
Hermione giggled and Katie ordered, "Alright, lets go tell them…then we'll just have a practice after this."
The two flew down and Hermione watched with interest for once.
"Alright, we've chosen our team. Now if you didn't get chosen you can come back next year for Chaser tryouts. Anyways, Harry would you do the honors?" Katie asked and handed him the list.
"Sure. And our Beaters are Scott Levison and Shayn Norton," Harry said then passed the list back to the older girl.
The two both smiled and bowed playfully as they joined Harry and Katie.
"Our reserve Keeper is Nate Jones," the Quidditch captain stated and the shy boy also joined them.
"Finally," Harry said. "Our Chasers that will be joining Miss. Bell here are Halle Morgan and Tessa Berry."
The two girls smiled widely and joined them.
"Sorry to everyone else," Katie said and the older students walked back towards the castle with hanging heads and heavy hearts. "So, here's the deal, we're going to see how well we work together! Nate, guard the goals, Halle, Tessa and I will be trying to get past you. Shayn and Scott, you two do what you do best and Harry, well there's no need to explain anything to you. You've been on the team as long as I have."
They all nodded and Harry let all the Bludgers, then the Snitch out as everyone flew into the air. He then threw the Quaffle up and the practice began.
He chased the snitch around on his own time. Sometimes he stopped to watch the team, sometimes he stopped to talk to Hermione, and sometimes he never gave the poor snitch a chance to get away from him as he caught it repetitively. Soon he was actually getting bored of it, which shocked him greatly.
Suddenly something caught his eyes, an run away bludgers that neither of the two beaters noticed…and he knew why…they were both chasing one…this was a third one!
He followed it's path and yelled, "HERMIONE! LOOK OUT!"
The girl in question looked up his way. She was leaning slightly over the stands and gasped in shock as the bludgers crashed into it and shattered the part of the waste high wooden 'wall' that kept her up.
Hermione let out a scream as she fell forwards and down towards the ground, which was about 60 meters below her.
Harry went on a sharp, straight dive down to get his friend but soon realized that with her weight added to his there was no way in hell he'd be able to catch her then turn up in time, so he did the next best thing. When he got level with her he threw himself off his broom and caught her and cushioned her fall as they crashed into the ground. Luckily neither one of them were hurt very much but Hermione's eyes were wide with shock.
"Are you ok?!" Katie yelled as she landed and ran over to them. Katie was a different captain then Wood or Angelina had been. They thought of winning first then people's health, Katie thought of both the same.
"Yeah," Harry called out and Hermione nodded as they moved off the ground. He then looked around and said, "Where's my broom."
"When you pushed yourself off it I guess it decided it needed target practice," Scott said sarcastically and landed and passed Harry his broom. "It was aiming for Tessa."
"Sorry Tess," Harry said to her then turned to Hermione and said, "Are you ok?"
"As good as I will be…but now I hate heights even more…"
For the next week Harry was on the look out for potential members for the DA. He decided to do the 'recruiting' on his own. It was proving to me more difficult then he originally thought it would be.
He had to find people that were at least willing to learn, which did include first years. He had to find people that wouldn't betray him to Dumbledore like Marietta had last year. Honestly he wasn't that tempted to ask Cho to come back either but they knew they needed everyone they could find.
He was currently sitting in potions class actually listen to Snape's boring talk.
"Now, Veritaserum is the strongest known type of truth potion known to mankind. There are no loopholes when using this and there are no escapes from it," Snape said in his cold voice. "I could give it to anyone of you at dinner and you would not notice it until people started asking you questions."
Much to everyone's surprise, including Snape's, Harry actually raised his hand.
"What now Potter?" Snape growled.
"Sir, you said there are no loopholes when using Veritaserum…that's not accurate," Harry said in a respective tone.
"What did you say?" Snape replied in a challenging voice.
"I read about it in a book of my mother's. It says that if the person who is under the effects of truth potion believes that the truth is better told another time or if he or she believes that vague answers are the right ones then they can just say that," Harry explained.
"Give me an example," Snape ordered.
"If you asked me anything to do with my personal life I'd just say it's none of your business, because that's the truth," Harry said.
Snape sneered at him but said nothing directed towards that. "I will be pairing you up to see how well you do with a different person from who you normally work with." Everyone groaned.
Luckily for them the number of students in that class went from 11 to 12 (another person joined in) so they didn't have to worry about one person not being able to have a partner.
"Now let's see…" Snape muttered. "Patil and Nott. Bones and Bulstrode. Macmillan and Malfoy. Boot and Finch-Fletchy. Granger and Zabini. Goldstein and MacDougal. Potter and Moon. Now like every other class that you dimwits have with me the instructions are on the bored. Now start working."
Everyone shifted seats to go with their partners. Harry walked over to Ebony because he thought it'd be the polite thing to do. She was one out of two Slytherins in his year that didn't make him cross just yet so he was willing to give her a chance.
She eyed him for a second then said, "Alright, I know you're doing better in this class and all but I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess this up anyway…I really want to do good."
"Hey I had no plans on messing up on purpose," Harry said and frowned. "You think I'd actually do that?"
Ebony looked a little surprised and said, "Yeah I guess…from what I heard from everyone else anyways…" She got up and walked across the room to get the potions ingredients they needed. Harry exchanged a look with Hermione, it seemed that they had both found a Slytherin that might be worth their time.
The black haired girl came back and said, "Alright I'll read the first part of the instructions. Wow there's a lot of things to put in it, and its day one!"
Pretty much all of the class got done half way through it so they had to stay with their partners and start their essays, which actually was a partnered thing too, surprisingly.
"So Ebony…you don't mind if I call you Ebony rather then Moon right?" Harry said.
"Umm…sure…" Moon said and raised a delicate eyebrow at him.
"This potion takes about a month to make so obviously we'll be working together for that amount of time. I guess I just want to know a bit about you since you probably know about me already," Harry said.
"Oh," she looked highly surprised. "Well I guess the first thing I should say is I don't give a damn about types of blood. Sure I'm a pureblood and a Slytherin but that doesn't mean I have to act like Draco, does it?"
"Absolutly not," Harry agreed. "Hermione and I were talking about that on the train. I mean not all Slytherins can be evil, can you guys?"
For the first time ever Harry saw a Slytherin give an honest smile as she said, "Well I'm not, neither is Blaise."
"I didn't think you two were, otherwise I'd have known more about both of you by now," Harry admitted. He then lowered his voice and said, "Would you want the chance to fight against the Death Eaters? The ones that give every good Slytherin a bad name?"
"Hell yeah," she replied.
"What about Blaise?"
"I'm 110% positive he would love that chance too," she said.
"Right, well here's what I want you to do…"
"Harry," Hermione said as they sat in the Room of Requirement. "I think I did something wrong."
"What?" Harry asked her, looking extremely surprised.
"It's just…I asked Blaise Zabini to come here in potions class the other day…" Hermione said and trailed off.
"Oh, is that all? Well I asked Ebony Moon to come and bring him with her anyway so you're ok, don't worry about it Mia," Harry said with a warm smile. "Don't ever think you made a mistake like that Hermione. I trust you to do some recruiting too you know."
"You really trust me that much?" she asked skeptically.
"Yeah, I do," he replied as people started filing into the room. All the people from last year (except Marietta) were welcomed back and everyone that was being offered a spot this year had a special paper with them that they had to give to Harry.
"What are they doing here?" Cho asked angrily as she saw Ebony, Blaise and Richie, who were the last to arrive.
Harry slammed the door shut, scaring a few people. He looked over at Cho and said, "I asked them to come just like I did with the rest of you. I don't care if you're Headgirl, while in here I'm in charge." She looked a little put out at that. "Now the reason you're all here is because I want to start the DA up again. This time we have a better way of communicating and knowing when meetings are if you want to join. If you don't I'll have to erase your memories…sorry…"
Hermione had a quick quotes quill that actually copied everything Harry said word for word and was listening with interest.
"This isn't like last year though. We have a good teacher. This year around this won't be a class…it'll be a training course. The war is coming and like our previous name, Dumbledore's Army, states I am actually trying to make an army this year. Yes Dumbledore does have is own and so does the Ministry but it's not enough! I know I'm not staying behind when the big battles come."
Everyone was hanging off his every word right now.
"Here's the deal, if you want in, you sign the notebook Hermione has. A notebook is a lot of pieces of paper stuck together (The pureblood's had given him confused looks), we don't want another mistake like last year where we just leave the list in plane sight. If you notice we've got first to seventh years here plus I contacted some people that already graduated. That was the best thing to do…I mean Voldemort attacked me when I was a year old…what's going to stop him from attacking a first year rather then a graduate? Nothing, that's what?"
He realized he was rambling and blushed lightly.
"The point is, this year I won't be your teacher, I'll be your leader. I'm going to teach you every goddamn thing I know and everything I'll learn," Harry explained. "Now anyone who wishes to rejoin or wants to join sign up then I'll give you something…"
They all pretty much rushed over. Everyone wanted to get a chance to prove themselves and this seemed like an ideal way to do so.
After the signed it Harry went around and passed out the medallions he and Hermione had made.
"This medallions will be worn under your cloths at all times," Hermione explained. "Tap the lightning bolt to speak to Harry directly and tap the wand that's crossed with it to talk to another person or everyone. Harry has the primary medallion so he will be able to tell your health, where you are, if your in danger and things like that. Harry and I will go around later putting the personalization spells on them."
"Those are to make it seem less suspicious if another student or teacher sees it," Harry continued. "The backgrounds of them are your house color, like red for Gryffindor, the lightning bolt and the wand change colors and the initials on the front will be your secondary house color. Also your name will be written on the back. Whenever there's a meeting that'll warm up and the date will appear on the back of it, got it?"
The all nodded, everyone seemed really impressed.
"I have a question," Tessa asked.
"Yeah?" Harry inquired.
"Well, no offence to you guys or anything, but why are there Slytherins here?"
A few other people muttered in agreement.
"You heard the sorting hat; we all need to stand together. Even if it only starts with three Slytherins its better then none," Harry explained. "This isn't house rivalry, this is war."
"Well," someone said. "Well all know who the Leader of Gryffindor is."
"What?" Harry asked, slightly confused.
The boy sighed then said, "Follow the leader of Gryffindor, listen to the leader of Ravenclaw, trust the leader of Hufflepuff, and forgive the leader of Slytherin."
"The sorting song…" someone else said with shock and people soon began discussing this.
"Hey Harry…" he turned to see Richie, Blaise and Ebony staring at him.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for giving us a chance," Blaise said and smiled.
"No problem," Harry replied to the Slytherins. "We all need to work together. I repeat, this isn't house rivalry…this is a full fledged war…and I'm not sure if there's only two sides anymore…"
Author's Random Babbling
Just so you know the song lyrics at the beginning refer to the fact that Slytherins aren't all what they seem and some of them just wear a mask to fool others.
Thank you to everyone for giving sympathy to poor Emily…I know everyone in my small hometown is too! The last chapter was sad because I was sad at the time. Some people call it overdone…some people say it was sad and nice…it's your own opinions!
Now I've changed my mind about only answering questions in reviews, I'm just not going to ramble on for paragraphs or people like I used to.
Well I don't really have anything to say today, I'm tired and I want to go to bed…I'll probably post this tomorrow sometime…it's 12:30 right now.
Thank you to:
Destined Enchantress – Damn straight good minds think alike.
The Shadows – I know it sounded odd but I was in a hurry to write it, I know I could have done better.
Wise Man Domingo – good question…read more to find out (lmao)
CastusAlbusCor– well people were complaining about me lacking emotion over Charlie before...
Doughgirl2008 – is it? I don't know…what do you think? (about your question)
Jess the Rockstar Psychiatrist – I might hold you up to that
Athenakitty – No, only someone that studies them a lot (hint), he will remember eventually, I'll just say of course they will…think about the ending of the books…
Trumpet-geek – no problem
Gorav1 – (Smiles innocently) When am I bringing the Weasleys back? Do you really think I'll answer that?
HarryNDracosDarlin – look at the reply above for your first question. Harry and Hermione things will come later on…trust me on that…
PotterFreak15 – Wow, thanks for saying this is one of your favorites
SpikesandSevsGurl – Well here's more…
Aqua Mage – Yes I've got the whole story planned out…and maybe I've even planning on the seventh one already (Winks). And the answer to your second question is no, but look carefully at the wording you put your question in before assuming something
I'm not the weakest link – thanks
Ironic-humour – Writing always helps me deal with things…and thanks!
SilveDagger – I might get my friend Jess to beta some chapters when he gets back from vacation…if he wants to that is
Thanks for reviewing and see ya'll later!
X – Krystal Lily Potter