Chapter 4 – Friendship

He looked at her as she said "Mr. Potter? Could you show us some? What can you do?"

Harry smirked but addressed her politely. "Well I can do most of the simple things Wandlessly... I um... well what do you want me to do?" What was he meant to say? 'Yeah, I can do all of the Unforgivables wandlessly, without even saying the words.'? Honestly, some people.

Morana seemed slightly surprised but carried on in her gentle, smooth voice. "Hmmm... could you possibly levitate your table a few inches off of the ground for us?" Harry rolled his eyes. No, he couldn't do that could he? That would take far too much effort. He replied by looking at the table and then looking upwards, his face a perfect mask that showed no concentration. The table immediately shot up and came to a sudden stop when the legs were only two feet above the ground.i The class gave a round of applause as the teacher looked at him thoughtfully. She snapped out of it and spoke to the rest of the class. "Well, I don't expect you to be able to do that straight away. We will be going back to First Year spells and starting with a feather." She looked over to Harry and Hermione. "Oh, you can put the table down now Mr. Potter."

The class went on uneventfully until the end of the lesson. Professor Tace stopped Harry on his way out, asking if she could have a word with him during lunch time, after History of Magic. Said lesson went by very quickly, with Harry ignoring Draco's hurt looks and questioning glances. He would make it up to him soon. He was sure that Draco wouldn't mind. Draco wouldn't mind at all.

Harry stepped back into the DADA classroom, just over 80 minutes after he had left the first time that day. He looked around for Morana and found her in the room through a camouflaged door that she had turned into her office. "Hi, Prof... Morana. You said you wanted to talk to me?"

She turned around, surprised and then relax as she smiled at him. "Ah, yes Harry. Now there's something that I think you want to tell me," At this point, Harry opened his mouth to speak but Morana raised her hand to stop him. "Yes, I know that you think it is none of my business, but it is. More than you know. Probably more than you will ever know, however there is something that I need to tell you. Something about me, about you and about... well I think you know." Harry did know, he was thinking about that person right now. "So, I guess I'd better start. I haven't really talked to anyone else about this and I can guess that you haven't either. I'm not in my mid-twenties, as many people seem to think I am. In fact, I don't know how old I am. Everything seems muddled in my head before when your grandfather found me. That was around 50 years or so ago. I know that he told you about your mother..."

Here Harry's eyes seemed to glaze as the scene played over in his mind.

:%: FLASHBACK :%:

Harry had apparated into a room where he would await his grandfather. It was an Inner Circle meeting about another raid that would be planned. This one would be on the German Ministry of Magic. He smiled to himself – it wouldn't work. The Wizarding World just wasn't ready for all of Lord Voldemort's great ideas. He asked Lucius Malfoy how long they would be and, after being told he would have to wait for around five minutes, sat down to have a glass of magipaneii and relaxed.

He watched Bella Lestrange (with a hint of malice), Kaeran Nott, Tabinion McNair, Rae Avery and Kirtis Hu'janikabolokoffiii walk briskly out of the room before standing and entering.

"Good evening sir, I have been practising as you commanded. My wandless magic has been coming on nicely – all simple charms and hexes et cetera are perfected and I have even practiced Imperio and Crucio which are improving each time I try... but Avada Kedarvra is still struggle..." Here, Harry broke off. He knew why his grandfather had had to kill his parents, but it still hurt. He knew it shouldn't – his wand version was even more powerful than the one of Voldemort himself! That was why he had encoraged Harry to start heavily training in Wandless Magic. It was much harder and some people – usually Mudbloods – couldn't at all! It was also very useful, if you find yourself, for any reason at all, locked up with your wand taken away from you.

"Yes, well you know that I did what I had to do. They did not accept me. I couldn't have another heir of Slytherin on the loose could I? I had to get rid of your father, and I had to make people believe that you were dead so that I could smuggle you away. I knew that the curse would not kill you, but what I had not anticipated was that you already had your inner magic awakened. I did not need to kill your mother. Of course, now I know that it was probably best that I did..."

Harry was surprised and confused by this last sentence. Why was it for the best? He decided to ask.

"Well, didn't you... oh, of course you didn't know. It was from your mother's side..."

"My mother's side?" Harry cut off. "But she was..."

"Muggleborn? No. Your Aunt Petunia is a squib. That's why she was so jealous of your sister. Haven't you ever wondered why you never see your grandparents on that side? That remindes me, we have to pay those Dursleys a visit. Anyway, you mother was a Griffindor. Have you ever wondered why the sorting hat had such difficulty sorting you, even though you were my heir? No, I didn't think so. Dumbledore probably filled your mind with lies about it. Well, your mother was the heir of Griffindor. You are more of a Slytherin but you begged the hat not to put you there, so it placed you in your other ancestor's house. I must say, a very Slytherin thing to do."

Harry processed this information before simply nodding.

"Of course, I am ecstatic about your success with the other two... and I have the perfect person for you to show me on! Lucius! Seeing as you have worked so hard this month, I have a treat for you. Go get the prisoner, and then you can watch." Voldemort smiled and let a short laugh out. "This will be fun."

Harry wondered who it was that he would torture, but he hoped it was someone he knew. Maybe it was a deatheater who had failed in a mission or something. He thought about this for a while, before a smirking Lucius reappeared, with a pale and shaking Dean Thomas. Dean had a gag on and a few scars on his body. Harry looked at his grandfather. "Sir, what do you wish me to do?" He asked, straight backed and smirking slightly.

"Do whatever you wish, just have fun."

:%: End of Flashback :%:

"Harry? Harry!" Morana's voice seemed to echo slightly in the room and he sat up, startled.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just... remembering some things."

Dean had been missing for a week before that and was killed a month later when they found that they could get no more information from him. Harry smiled, it had been fun – the guy refused to show any pain for the first two minutes, then he did.

"Of course – I'm sorry. I guess it's just that I needed someone to talk to about it... maybe. Do you...? Do you miss him?"

"All the time. I wish that I hadn't had to do it and I'll never forgive myself. Never. Sometimes I make myself believe that I had to. That I needed to and that now he's happy... I wonder who he'll be reincarnated as. Maybe then he'll have a better life. Maybe then, the..." Harry couldn't say it. He looked at his feet.

"Maybe then, the evil won't take over?" Morana suggested. Harry nodded. "But always remember, you can't let the evil, or the grief take over you. That would be the worst thing to happen. To start with, he only killed when he needed to. After that, he started killing for fun. That is something that must never happen again. I know it sounds bad, but it was the best thing to do. But we shouldn' talk about that. Merlin knows that too many people are saying bad things about him already."

"I agree, you were telling me about when he found you? What happened then?"

"Ah, well my name isn't actually Morana Tace. I don't know what it is but your grandfather named me. It's very unusual, isn't it? That's because it has a meaning. It actually means 'Silent Death'. That was my job you see. But..." Here Morana looked at her watch. Oh, good gracious! Look at the time! It's 10 past 2! I'm sorry about this, but I have 3rd year Hufflepuffs next. Are you going to the Dueling Club this evening? I'll be running that. But don't do anything too bad. I'll see you there!"

Harry then left the room, nodding his head to Morana. He had twenty minutes left – he didn't want to eat lunch and... oh great – there was Hermione.

"Harry! I was... well I was kinda hoping that we could talk. I mean, I don't know much about what happened last year but I..."

"Shut up Granger. I have nothing to say to you."

Hermione started to get tears in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "Listen then, because I have something to say to you. I want to know. I'm sorry about the fact that I stopped talking to you when you told me about... well you know but I'm sorry. I know it's too late for me to say this but I wish I had accepted you. It's just that Ron... well he said some things about... and I guess I... do you understand?"

Harry looked away. He didn't want to listen to her. He didn't want to make up. He didn't want, but he knew that he couldn't stay cold for the rest of his life. She hadn't used him. She had remained a true friend and, if what she was saying was true, she still wanted to be. "Fine." He then followed her as led the way to her rooms – she was Head Girl – talking all the way. "Ok, there's just one thing I have to do. It's just to make sure that you're not lying. Legilimens!"

He saw her sitting in the library, searching a book. What was it? Family Trees? Why would she be looking at that? There was a book about the founders, one about recent magical developments. He saw her, himself and Ron, walking around the grounds. He saw how sincere she was, and how long it took her to pluck up the courage to talk to him. He saw her arguing with Ron and then he saw something that made him want to be sick. Hermione, terrified, crying and bloody, with Ron on top of her... Harry quickly withdrew.

Hermione looked away from Harry. "I... I... I'm so sorry. I did... didn't think that you'd... well... that you'd find out. I didn't want you to feel sorry for me and now it's all ruined." He could see the tears running down her face. He didn't know what to do – his mind told him that he should just laugh and leave her here but... his grandfather always said that he was too kind, that it would be his downfall one day. He looked at his feet.

"Gr... Hermione. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I just needed to make sure... you understand... don't you? I didn't realise that he... it makes me feel sick just thinking about it. Didn't you tell anyone? Professor McGonnagol?" Hermione shook her head. "Well I'll just have to make him pay."

"No! Don't! Please... he... he said that... that if I told anyone then he'd... well... you know." Hermione was almost in hysterics by this point and Harry was really worried for her.

"Listen Hermione. You didn't tell me, I forced the information from you. I know that he'll believe that because of who I am. Besides, it's not as if he'll get a chance to hurt you again once I'm finished with him..." Harry smirked, thinking of how he was going to get the red-head back for hurting his only true friend.

"What are you going to do? You're not going to... k... ki... kill him... are you?" Hermione's worry was mainly for Harry's continued placement at Hogwarts if he did such a thing, but was also for herself, having brought on such a punishment.

"No, no no no no. I won't be that easy on him. By the time I'm finished, he's going to wish he were dead. Oh, and don't worry about me – why do you think that I'm still here after what I did last year? Why do you think that I've been made Head Boy? They're scared of me. They're afraid that if they do anything, I'll end up like Grandfather and they do not want that. Don't worry Hermione, you weren't the one who brought this punishment onto him. That was Weasley himself. He was going to get something anyway." With that, Harry left a red-and-puffy-eyed Hermione standing in her rooms as he walked towards the self-defence classroom – lunch was about to finish as he had been talking to Hermione for so long.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for your wonderful reviews! Due to fanfiction taking some stories down because they post review responses, I'll be e-mailing people their responses from now on. Thanks for reading, and please review.

i One foot is around 30cm. Twelve inches make a foot.

ii Champagne with a hint of magic-y freshness.

iii Try sounding it out - I got it from a joke about a Russian man with 3 balls.