Well, a very Merry Christmas to you all! Although it's Boxing Day for me now, I know that it is Christmas, or nearly so, for most people in the Northern Hemisphere. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and for those of you who are reading it, Harry Potter and the Seeker of the Shadows has been updated also. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.
Shines A Light
Chapter Thirteen: New Recruit
The last week of the holidays was spent on peaceful Privet Drive, and Harry spent a lot of his time wandering around the neighbourhood, as he had the previous holidays. He no longer worried about Dudley's gang, because the majority of the group had gone away for the holidays, and only two of them remained – those two did not bother Harry after he broke one of their noses with a punch, the one time they tried to corner him.
Soon enough, they went back to Grimmauld Place to meet up with the Weasley's and Hermione for the journey to the train station and back to Hogwarts. They were all a little subdued on the ride, because all of them missed Lily's outgoing nature and cheerful conversation.
Blaise came into the compartment that they claimed after the Prefect meeting, and Ron left. He still didn't trust Blaise, and gave the excuse of needing to find the Quidditch team to tell them what the new practice regime would be like. At a look from Harry, Hermione excused herself to go and patrol the train and make sure no one was doing anything against the rules.
"Where's Draco?" Harry enquired politely.
"Minding my seat in the compartment that seems to have become the Slytherin courtroom," Blaise replied, wrinkling her nose slightly, "They're all even more eager to fawn over him, and therefore me, now that he's got the Mark."
"Is their fawning getting annoying?" Harry asked, knowing exactly how it felt. He'd only been putting up with it for six years now.
"Yes," Blaise muttered darkly. "I don't know how you cope with it!"
"By having my true friends with me, the ones who don't care if I'm famous or not, who'll stick by me no matter what. That is, Ron and Hermione, to start off with, and all of DA, these last couple of years," Harry replied, smiling faintly in remembrance of some of the times he and his friends had been through together.
Blaise made a face, "Fat lot of good that does me," she remarked, "There's no one in Slytherin who wants to be friends for friends sake – except for the younger couple of years, of course, but they aren't all that interested in being friends with someone so much older than they are."
"Then look outside your own house," Harry said, "You always have me, and there are plenty of people in DA who were willing to befriend you."
"True, I guess …" Blaise replied slowly. "Look, the main reason I came was that I wanted to tell that I'm joining Draco and Professor Snape. They've been teaching me for months to get me ready to join the Dark Lord."
Harry's eyebrows rose, "What brought this about?" he asked.
"If me and Draco want to stay together, Draco's father has to be assured that I'll make a nice pureblood wife who'll support her husband in everything," Blaise said, making a face. "I don't know how long Draco and I will last, but I'd like to have the option, if I want it."
Harry nodded slightly, "I can understand that," he remarked, "So, when are you going to receive the Mark?"
"Soon, Snape'll call me when it's time," Blaise replied. "Just thought you might like to know. You're gathering a whole little group of spies now, aren't you?"
Harry smiled back at her, "I sure am," he replied, "Listen Blaise – don't get hurt, will you?"
"I'll try not to," she replied. "I want to do my part in the war too, and I think this is the part that I was meant to play. Snape's been teaching me Occlumency."
Harry nodded, "Good to hear," he said, "Well, I'd better go and find my friends, before Ron gets jealous, and you should probably head back to the Slytherin's before they start wondering where you are."
Blaise nodded, and the pair of them parted ways again, Harry leaving the carriage with a lot more on his mind than when he had entered it at the beginning of the ride. Yet another student would be placing themselves in danger because of him …
He shook his head slightly – Blaise could take care of herself. Snape would have stopped teaching her if she hadn't managed to perform satisfactorily, and certainly wouldn't have allowed to join the Death Eaters until she was ready. She had chosen her path, now he had to let her walk it. It wasn't really any of his business what she did anyway.
Harry sighed – he wished he didn't always feel responsible for people … It got annoying sometimes, especially at times like these. He found Hermione first, and then they found Ron together before all going back to the compartment that they'd claimed.
"Found the team?" Harry asked Ron.
"Yeah. What did you two talk about?" Ron asked, sounding a little bitter. He still really didn't like Blaise at all, which Harry thought was a little sad, because she was a great person.
"Plans on how to make sure the Slytherin's stay unsuspecting," Harry replied evasively.
"Are you ever going to tell us what those plans are, exactly?" Ron demanded.
"If you're needed in them, of course I will," Harry stated firmly, "But until then, the fewer people who know about them, the fewer ways any information can leak."
"You aren't being very careful," Hermione remarked, "What if there was someone listening outside right now?"
"I've warded the compartment," Harry said, grinning, "I did when we first arrived, just in case – I thought it might be necessary."
"You knew Blaise was coming to see you?" Hermione asked.
"No, of course not," Harry replied, "But in case one of us slipped up something about the Order, I thought it was best that no one could actually hear what we were saying."
"Oh – makes sense, I suppose," Hermione said thoughtfully, "I wish I'd thought of that before …"
Harry just shrugged, and they went back to talking, Ron having forgotten about his questions concerning Blaise and what she had been talking to Harry about. Harry disliked keeping a secret from his friends, but he wasn't sure how Ron would react when he found out what was going on.
The three of them left the compartment a couple of times to wander up and down the train and make sure no one was doing anything wrong. It was hardly crowded at all, especially compared with the normal train-trips Harry took.
When they reached Hogwarts, long after night had fallen, the group found a carriage and headed up to the school. "Well, the holidays were fun, but it's good to be back," Hermione remarked, looking around the Entrance Hall as they walked inside, shaking the snow from their clothes.
"Hermione, are you insane?" Ron demanded, staring at her, "You're happy to be back here? We're lucky if we don't have ten essays due in every bloody day!"
"Some people can keep track of their work loads," Hermione said irritably, glaring at Ron, "Harry and I are perfectly on top of everything, and we never have ten essays due in on one day, five has been the maximum you know."
Ron stared at her for a moment, then looked at Harry, "I still think she's mental," he remarked, so that only Harry could hear.
Harry gave a slight sigh. All of this was starting to get repetitive really, he thought. Well, hopefully Ron would learn to keep track of things soon, because Harry didn't want his friend to fail seventh year any more than Hermione did.
Up in the Gryffindor tower, Harry and his friends settled in quickly, exchanging Christmas greetings with those who had remained behind for the holidays, as Harry had done so often in the past, and showing off new Christmas presents (Harry's included clothes, books, quills, sweets and much, much more).
They all trooped downstairs for dinner, then came back up for bed, everyone feeling rather worn out, despite the fact that most of the day had been spent sitting down.
Harry's dreams that night revisited an often occurring dream that been haunting him since the previous year. It came on and off, and Harry was sure that it meant something significant, but he wasn't about to go to Professor Trelawney and ask her for help translating it, and apart from the Divination teacher, he wasn't sure who to go to … he could have tried Firenze, he supposed, but he wasn't sure how much of dream-lore the centaur would know.
He circled warily, his eyes watching a spinning silver blade. It looked familiar, and it felt so … right in his hands. He spun it, fast and faster, over his head, behind his back, jumping into the air to whirl it round his feet.
Suddenly his rhythm changed, though he made no conscious decision to start something new. Now he was moving as if blocking something, then parrying.
Somehow, his body knew the patterns he had to make, his mind felt devoid of any thoughts, let alone those that might control his movements.
His body moved in perfect sync with the sword in his hands, twisting, leaping, a dance of death that he had no control of.
Harry woke the next morning feeling as confused as he always did after having that particular dream – it was very annoying. He had no idea what it meant, and no idea why he kept dreaming it … but there had to be a reason.
Two weeks later, partway into January, Blaise sent Harry a message by owl saying that she had been successfully initiated into the Death Eater ranks, and was currently being swamped by Slytherin's offering their congratulations, so she couldn't get away long enough to tell him anything in person. She added that she and Draco would keep them as up to date on the Death Eater meetings as possible, but added that they were still not going to be summoned to many of them.
Harry was once more plagued with worries for the safety of the two Slytherin students. He didn't worry about Snape, who he knew perfectly well could protect himself, but Malfoy and Blaise … he worried about them.
Classes were getting harder as seventh year progressed, and the homework load increasing dramatically. Ron finally started thinking about doing his homework before it was due in, to the relief of Harry and Hermione, though he didn't make all that much of an effort.
All through this time, Harry was steadily improving in physical shape. He was quite proud of his efforts through the year, and was happy to finally be able to join in Tatsu and Neko's classes without thinking that he'd do himself more damage than good.
Despite the fear that he'd be very rusty compared with the other students, Harry was surprised to find that they were nowhere near a match for him. He guessed that all of the extra training with Tatsu through this year, and the fact that he had been so far ahead last year made up for the months of little activity that he had had to face.
He was just on par with the other students in Neko's classes, because he hadn't gotten very far with the Katana before he had injured himself, but again, the lessons with just Neko through the year had kept him just up to date with the rest of the class.
"How can you be so good at this?" Ron complained one night as they walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower with Hermione. Despite the fact that she had been a little … against Harry's interest in martial arts, Hermione had been going to the classes all year along with Ron, and enjoying them too.
Harry shrugged, "Remember, I had a years more practice than you, and that was with one on one tutoring," he replied, besides, I have advantages that no other student does – the Centre, for one thing.
"I guess," Ron muttered, "Can you give us some extra tutoring?"
"I'll see," Harry replied, "Depends on all of our schedules really – Hermione and I have to plan the end of year party with the rest of the Prefects, you have Quidditch to attend to, we all have homework and the NEWTs are only a couple of months away now."
"Three and a half months," Hermione muttered distractedly. Harry had reminded her of the upcoming exams, which was never a good idea. "Um, I'm going to the library for some extra studying," Hermione told them, "I can't remember whether or not Binns said that we had to know things on the pre-Founders goblin wars …"
"You were insane, taking History of Magic," Ron told her, shaking his head.
"History is a fascinating subject Ron," Hermione said huffily and disappeared down a corridor, heading for the library.
"Totally mental," Harry agreed with Ron as they headed up to the Gryffindor tower.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I won't go through and name you all because even though it's Boxing Day, I still have a fair bit to do ... I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review again!
WolfMoon