Disclaimer: Standard, J.K. Rowling owns the universe and the characters that appear in her books. I own my additions to it…yadda yadda yadda. For the full disclaimer (that applies to the whole story not just the first chapter, see chapter one).
Chapter 7: Unforeseen Faces: One Old, One New
The room was a real mess the next morning as seven boys rushed to get ready at the last moment. They had all woken up with only ten minutes to get to breakfast, and of course their stuff wasn't unpacked yet. It was chaos utter chaos. Seamus and Dean had somehow managed to get their robes mixed up despite Dean being significantly taller than him. Fred and George had not been helpful in any way by continually suggesting that they had found some lost item that someone was looking for and then apologizing sarcastically when there was nothing there. Wesley was trying desperately to bring some order to what was going on but he kept getting shoved out of the way as the larger boys looked frantically for some such thing or another.
Harry himself had decided to wait patiently until the others were done and then get dressed afterward. He didn't really care if he was a few minutes late to breakfast, and if he missed the schedules he'd just ask Ms. McGonagall for it later, if Hermione didn't grab his, which was quite likely.
At some point during the frantic preparation Neville was shoved onto Harry's bed where it appeared that he had decided on a similar course of action. "I am not looking forward to potions." He said nervously to Harry as they watched Wesley get barreled over again trying to help Dean put on his robes by Seamus who was frantically searching for his wand which had disappeared in the mess of the morning.
"I don't know, I hope that there are others in the class besides us and the Slytherins though." Neville nodded as he handed Seamus his wand which had been shoved onto Harry's bed near where Neville was sitting.
"Well, Hermione is in the class right?" Neville looked like he was praying she was as he said this.
"I think so. She signed up for it at least." Harry caught a half pushed half flung Wesley as George rushed across the room obviously looking for something else that had been lost in the confusion. Wesley just moved off of Harry and sat next to him panting silently, obviously deciding to let the bigger boys finish and not get shoved anymore.
"I'm glad I wouldn't want us to be the only Gryffindors in the room. We would be eaten alive for sure not to mention that we would never keep enough points to get the house cup, ever." Harry laughed and nodded as Seamus and Dean left the room, finally ready for their classes.
"Ow…" Wesley finally spoke as he rubbed his neck and cracked a few joints. "Remind me not to get in that Irish boy…"
"Seamus." Neville supplied the name.
"Yeah, Seamus' way again I'm not sure I can take any more of that." Harry snickered and Wesley groaned again in obvious pain.
"You ok?" George asked again. "Sorry about that we can get rather rowdy when were late. You need to go to the medical wing?" He asked apologetically.
"Naw, I'm not really that hurt just achy that's all. I'm more worried about the fact that we don't have time to get clean, nor clean this up." Wesley looked at the now dump of a room.
"I think I can take care of the lack of a shower at least." Harry remembered the spell that Nymphadora Tonks had used to clean the bird cage, he figured it would work on anything else so he tried it. "Scourgify!" he said pointing his wand at himself. It was the oddest feeling he suddenly felt cleaner, but without the nice feeling of a shower to go with it. At least it was better then feeling dirty all day. After being sure that it had worked he then cleaned the others. "As for the room I have no idea how to clean this besides the long way."
"We can deal with that you guys get ready so that we can actually GET breakfast before class." Fred said and then he waved his wand and all the clothing and other things on the floor sprung up into a twister around the room. Depositing themselves folded around the dorm in various places. After that was over and Harry could see again he got out his trunk and got dressed making sure to keep his wand where he could see it. Wesley and Neville followed suite and since Fred and George had already gotten ready (they had gotten dressed during the earlier chaos) after they were done they all set off to breakfast, somehow managing to get there before the feast had started.
Hermione called the five of them over to her, motioning Wesley specifically to sit next to her. Ron stiffened again but said nothing as he sat next Harry opposite Dean and Seamus. Fred and George took places next to Ron and Hermione, surrounding the four students.
Almost immediately after they sat down Professor McGonagall walked by them and handed them their schedules. "I do hope you intend to get to your classes on time. If you two are ever late to potions I will never hear the end of it." She said seriously but with a small smile. Neville blushed at this and then looked at his schedule. Harry then did as well.
The NEWT schedule was completely different from the OWL one. The day was split into 4 two hour periods. Two before and two after lunch, with fifteen minute passing periods between them. Were gonna have to rush to get to class on time. Harry thought miserably. He also noticed that every so often there was a study period to be spent in either the dorms or the library. They seemed to coincide with times that were not being used for classes and also seemed individual to the person in question.
"Care of magical creatures first." Ron said, obviously a bit wary. After all Hagrid was known for his eccentricities as far as monsters go. And considering that this is a NEWT class, he would have to expect anything.
"Did either of you notice that our Care of magical creatures class is meeting by the quidditch field rather than at Hagrid's hut?" Hermione's asked.
Harry looked at the location, "You're right, I wonder why?" He asked no one in particular.
"Who knows?" Ron said shrugging nonchalantly.
"You have care of magical creatures too?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, I wonder about it though. Isn't there a big field by the quidditch patch? That doesn't bode well for that class especially with Hagrid's past track record. Bigger field means more space."
"Which means bigger beast." Hermione, Harry and Ron shivered alongside Dean as he finished Harry's thought.
"As long as it's not another spider I'll be fine." Ron shivered even more as he said that.
At that point everyone started getting up to go to their first classes. Wesley, Neville and Seamus, who apparently had study periods together first waved at the others before they walked off towards the dorms and Harry, Dean, Hermione, and Ron headed off towards the quidditch pitch followed by Fred and George who seemed quite happy to chat between themselves and mostly ignore their younger protégés.
They ran into Justin Finch-Fletchley and Susan Bones on the way there as well as Ernie McMillan, whom he was surprised to see. Justin told them he continued with the class to learn more about how to defend himself against the more dangerous creatures out there, "such as basilisks." He had stated, Harry nodded knowingly remembering his second year vividly. Harry thought this was a good idea after all, Justin was a muggleborn. Ernie and Susan had taken it because Justin had, standing along side him. That and they needed another class anyway and they had to admit that the OWL had been fairly easy.
As the pitch came into view they did not see any sign of a large man or any very dangerous large animals. Something all of them were looking for. However what caught Harry's eye, was a large group of students of various sizes staring at a red topped blur whizzing around the pitch.
Harry noticed a bunch of Slytherins there too as he got closer. Why would Malfoy take this class? He hates Hagrid… He also noticed Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bustrode. Well, maybe Blaise isn't that bad… He thought knowing full well that even just Malfoy and Millicent were going to be a pain. Zacharias Smith and Padma Patil were also in the class adding one Ravenclaw and making it have people from every house.
No one noticed them walk up as everyone was busy watching the incredibly fast flyer above the pitch. Harry was impressed, even with his seeker eyes he could barely make out anything but red hair.
The blur quickly set down near a group of Slytherin and Hufflepuff first years who were watching in awe. Off the broom steeped none other than Charlie Weasley.
"Charlie?" Ron whispered behind him obviously more to himself than anyone else. Fred and George smiled but remained uncharacteristically silent.
"Thank you for the kind demonstration Mr. Weasley." Madam Hooch said as the group of older students walked across the pitch to see what was going on.
"That's professor Weasley now." Charlie said giddily.
"Of course how silly of me, well I need to get to my class and it looks like the remainder of yours is here now." Madam Hooch smiled at him as she said this. Harry guessed that Charlie was one of her best students, after all he was a seeker and she was the quidditch coach as well as the flying instructor.
At that Charlie walked over to where the sixth year students were standing. "I hope you're not too disappointed at the change of instructors. Hagrid is a great grounds keeper but he tends to get carried away. And he will be leaving the school at various times over the semester. Because of this, Professor Dumbledore wanted the NEWT level classes to have a more constant instructor rather than constantly switching so he hired me."
There was an almost universal sigh of relief from the group. In fact it seemed that Draco Malfoy was the only one in the group who seemed annoyed even angry at the change. "How did YOU get to be an instructor here?" He said incredulously.
Charlie's features suddenly changed into an unhappy glare that would have been intimidating even if he didn't have his built up frame. Draco immediately shut up at this, but not fast enough. "Well, frankly I would think that you of all people would be HAPPY about this change given your track record with Hagrid and his beasts." Harry remembered Buckbeak and what had happened to him. "Oh and don't think that that trick of yours will work on me. I know how you think remember and I will not let you think you can walk all over me just because of your family. I will remind you that your father is no longer here to bail you out." Draco visibly shivered at this but kept his angry scowl. "If you make another silly error do to not paying attention I may not be able to bail you out, so pay attention and don't do anything stupid or I will have you out of my class and out of this school before you can blink an eye. Oh and lose a point from Slytherin for the outburst towards a teacher. Everyone follow me." After that he got back a slightly happier demeanor however it was obvious he was still very much annoyed as he walked everyone to the field behind the pitch.
The field itself was rather empty except for one white winged figure on four legs in the center of it. As they got closer Harry could see that it was a winged horse. But not a skeletal horse with skin covered bat like wings like a thestral. This was a beautiful white horse with large feathered wings. Also its whinnies were more like a horse's except much more composed and fluid. Almost like it was singing. Harry knew what this was from his muggle schooling on Greek mythology. It was a pegasus.
"As this is the first class I was decided to start us off with something less dangerous. Does anybody know what this is?" Unsurprisingly, Hermione raised her hand. Harry raised his had too as did Dean and Justin. Apparently pegasi were not that known in the Wizarding world as they were in the muggle one.
"Harry? What do you know about it?" Hermione still had her hand in the air, but it looked like Charlie was purposely avoiding calling her. Everyone knew she knew the answer.
"That is a pegasus." Harry said.
"Yes you are correct. Can you tell me anything else about pegasi?"
"Not really, other than the fact that a Greek hero named Perseus rode one." Harry hadn't learned about this in a very long time and it wasn't really his favorite subject at least when he was younger.
"Okay, well anyone else?" Dean and Justin raised their hands again and of course Hermione had never put her hand down. "Justin?"
"It was born from the blood of Medusa at least in Greek myth." He said.
"Very good, yes it was. Now you have started to touch on more practical knowledge of pegasi, such as why they are so rare. Anyone care to comment on this?" Dean didn't put his hand up again. With no one else responding Charlie turned and finally called on a very anxious Hermione.
"Pegasi may have been born from Medusa originally as they are born from pools of venomous blood left behind by monstrous snakes that are left standing for a period of at least twenty four hours, but more commonly after a few months. This makes them incredibly rare. They have many useful things about them including being very nice to most people but able to protect themselves and their allies with great ferocity when they need to. They also are immune to most natural venoms and their blood acts as an anti-venom against many venoms including all known snake venoms."
Charlie smiled as she finished. He then looked at Harry and in a more gruff voice that sounded a lot more like the Charlie he remembered and not this studious instructor that seemed quite out of place to him. "This Pegasus was born form the Basilisk in the chamber of secrets that Harry Potter killed."
Everyone stared at Harry at that. Harry was embarrassed to say the least. But it was true he had slain it and almost died in the process.
"Now everyone can pet and touch the Pegasus they are very social creatures who rather like contact with anything. They are very slow to anger but an angry Pegasus is more dangerous than any stallion you'll find so I wouldn't recommend teasing it." Charlie seemed to have gotten his happy Dracoless gleam back. He was obviously in his element. He loved magical creatures.
The rest of the class consisted of flying around with the Pegasus and some old school brooms from the quidditch supplies. "Sorry I forgot to put that anyone with a broomstick would probably want to bring them as quite a few of our lessons will be using them." This comment had made Harry frown, he hadn't gotten his broom back after Umbridge had taken it and as time went on it became less and less likely to him that he would ever get it back.
Everyone who wanted got a chance to ride the Pegasus which seemed to like Harry, Dean and Ron the best out of all of the students there. Although that wasn't much as it seemed to like everyone even Malfoy. Even Hermione rode it after much pushing from him and Ron. The Pegasus was much more fluid and graceful then the thestrals or Buckbeak were. It was almost like riding a living broomstick that swayed a bit more.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dean talked about this on their way back to the school after class when they heard a voice they all didn't expect from behind them.
"Interesting class wasn't it?" Blaise Zabini had walked up to them happily. Ron was obviously not happy about this and the scene seemed to freeze as everyone was put to awkward silence at any lack of response to Blaise's question.
"I liked it the Pegasus was a nice change." Harry lived up to his thought on giving the Slytherins another chance. Ron and Dean didn't look too happy. Hermione had continued walking towards her next class, disappearing into the castle grumbling about boys.
Blaise was about to respond when they Ron spoke up. "I have no idea what you're up to Zabini but I suggest you go back to your death eater friends before you get hurt." Blaise cringed a little at Ron's comment but didn't move off towards the other Slytherins that were quickly approaching.
"I suggest we all stick to our own." Dean said, Harry noted that it was not just to Blaise he had looked to Harry as well. This made Harry a bit nervous. All his little more Slytherin idiosyncrasies stood out to him greatly.
"You know Thomas, not ALL of us Slytherins hate your guts." Blaise said a bit more uptight then before. "I was more afraid of Malfoy and what might happen to me if I ever talked to anyone out of house." While what Blaise was saying made perfect sense, Dean and Ron didn't seem to by it. Harry didn't see this going anywhere good especially considering that he and Ron at least had a free period after this meaning this could easily escalate with no previous requirements to make it stop. And right then as if he could feel the heat in the air between them, Malfoy decided to step in and as usual make things worse.
"Hey Zabini, what are you doing over there talking with the Mudbloods and Mudblood lovers? Trying to get on their good graces? After all you could probably get a very good grade from the bigger Weasel if you were friends with them. Good thinking, maybe I'll try that sometime if my marks slip." At that he walked off laughing. That was the last straw, Ron lashed out, not towards Malfoy as Harry had expected but towards Blaise. Harry found himself moving to help Blaise for some unexplained reason. The scene seemed top play out in slow motion as the Ron's fist connected with his face instead of Blaise chest, Harry could barely think do to the pain and shock, more so at what he had just done then what Ron had before he passed out.
The next thing Harry knew he was sitting in the hospital wing with a very concerned Charlie Weasley looking at him he noticed that neither Ron, Dean nor Blaise were there. Why did I notice that Blaise isn't here? He thought to himself oddly. He wouldn't have expected the Slytherin to be there, at least he thought he wouldn't.
"What happened?" Charlie said in a very stern tone. "All I know is that I heard a shout from a student about a fight near the quidditch pitch and me and Madam Hooch ran up and then found you and Mr. Zabini on the ground, you unconscious and Ron looking entirely shocked at his own clenched fist." Harry normally wouldn't tell teacher about something like this. But he was finding it incredibly difficult to think of Charlie as a teacher and not a Weasley and the fact remained that we had never really had any trouble telling the Weasley kids about anything, except Percy of course but he was the odd man out in the family.
"Well, Ron, Dean, Hermione and I were walking back towards the Castle after class talking when Blaise walked up." He's Blaise to me now and not Zabini? When did this happen? "He asked us how we thought that class was, so I answered." Harry found that while his face felt fine normally that talking made his jaw ache. "Well, Ron and Dean weren't too happy about this after all he is a Slytherin, and they both told him to leave. Long story short Malfoy walked up, called Dean and me mudbloods and Ron a mudblood lover and insinuated that Blaise was only trying to get on our good side to get better marks from you. Then Ron lost control I guess I don't really know what cause that but he tried to punch Blaise and for some reason, I don't understand at all I jumped between them." Harry then just realized that he had not only told someone about something that he would have previously kept to himself but that he had told a teacher about it.
"Hmm…" Charlie said, looking rather thoughtful but still a bit annoyed. "I am going to have to have a talk with Ron and Dumbledore about this. This is a serious thing, it's lucky you stepped in and there isn't a Slytherin in here. Otherwise we would have to get Snape involved and that would most certainly get Ron's prefect badge removed." He then thought more. "Not that McGonagall is going to be much better. Thank you Harry."
Harry sat up and quickly winced through saying, "You won't tell Ron I told you this right?" Harry was sure that he wasn't going to be the best liked person around the Gryffindor dorms at the moment if his past experience meant anything. Probably not around anyone actually, the last thing he needed was his best friend getting any madder than he already was.
"I won't. Although you should know that after he hit you, Ron was so distraught that he ran off towards the dorm in obviously guilt. He didn't seem mad at you or anything if anything he was mad at himself. I don't know about Dean but he waked off after Ron, looking quite blank faced. You may find this disconcerting. But it was in fact Blaise who picked you up and carried you here before going to his common room for his study period. He didn't even flinch or wait for me to ask him to do so or anything. He just picked you up and asked if I thought he should. On the topic of who will know about this conversation I will have to tell the headmaster and professor McGonagall the whole truth though."
Harry has expected this and so it didn't bother him that much. If Harry knew anything about Albus Dumbledore it was that he could keep secrets. Ms McGonagall was a trickster at heart, and he couldn't get out of it anyway so it didn't really matter in the end.
Harry noticed that it had been about almost two hours and so he was almost supposed to go to lunch. He was not looking forward to it. He was sure that the confrontation between Ron and Blaise had gotten around school by now and he had no idea how they were going to react. No, he had a good idea but it wasn't anything he was looking forward too.
Harry then realized that the Weasley twins were nowhere to be found. He doubted that they could have done anything about what had happened as he didn't even expect that. But he wondered what they were doing.
Harry was joined by Remus Lupin as he left the medical Wing, something that did not surprise him in the least bit. "Substitute bodyguard?" He asked Lupin with a smirk.
"Pretty much," was his only response. They walked the rest of the way to the great hall in silence Harry lost in thought and worrying about what was going to happen when he got there.
What he got was not exactly what he expected but he wasn't sure if it was good or bad. No one was staring at him, but that was because everyone was staring at Ron who was, apparently apologizing to Blaise who was smiling again.
Harry tried to go to sit by Hermione without making a big racket but of course that was impossible. "Harry! I am sorry I'm sorry I'm so stupid! Are you ok?" Ron made everyone in the room look at him when he said this.
"I'm fine." Harry said, even though it still ached to speak. He then sat down wanting to avoid too much staring at the moment. He knew this was impossible considering but at least he would be less noticeable around his taller housemates. He took a seat next to Wesley who apparently had become a permanent resident next to Hermione for some reason.
"Hey Harry you ok?" Blaise asked from right behind him earning more stares then even when he and Ron were talking. "I realize that that punch was meant for me and I wanted to thank you… Well thank you with you awake anyway." He then smiled that new un-old Blaise like smile.
"I'm fine and you're welcome I suppose." Blaise seemed happy at this and walked back towards his own table where he took his new seat next to the Bloody Baron who waved at Harry happily. An action which more so chilled him than anything else.
"So it's true then? That Ron tried to punch Blaise and you got in between them?" Hermione's voice rang out from his right as Ron sat down next to him. It was completely silent like the whole room was listening for the answer.
"Yeah it's true…" He mumbled to himself. There were immediately too many voices at one time to make sense of it all.
"Ron! I can't believe a prefect!" "Why would you protect a Slytherin?" "Why in the world?" "He must have started it right?" "This is stupid why is everyone…" "Nothing could be worse right now for Gryffindor." "Look at Snape he is probably pissed."
Harry felt himself being pulled up from his right and taken out of the room. "Harry, are you ok?" Wesley's voice asked simply once they were out in the hallway.
"No I'm not!" Harry surprised himself with this outburst and Wesley visibly shrunk from him as Harry had seen him do before when there was such an outburst directed his way. But he didn't budge beyond that. Harry suddenly felt guilty Wesley had after all just tried to help. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired of every little thing I do being watched and commented on like I'm some hero or villain and not just a simple student."
"I know that's why I pulled you out of there. Because I do know what it's like. Maybe not for the same reasons, but I understand what it's like to be the center of attention like that and you were just looking angry and were just holding it in so I figured..." He trailed off at those last words and looked at Harry again.
"Thank you. You know I normally would have lashed out at you for even thinking you could know what I feel. But for some reason I just trust you. I don't know why."
Wesley frowned a bit at that and then looked at his watch. "Oh we need to get to our next classes now!" And then just like that he was gone. All that was left was the sounds of his fast paced footsteps on the castle floor.
"Harry are you ok?" Ron's voice echoed Wesley's from earlier almost perfectly and he remembered why he loved his friends so much. Even his new one, they actually cared about him as a person beyond being the Boy Who Lived.
"Yeah we heard the conversation with Wesley, he seems rather nice." Hermione's voice followed Ron's form behind him.
"Yeah, he is." Harry had come to that conclusion a log time before that however. "But we need to get to our Psionics class now."
"Oh right, that stupid class that we were put in by Dumbledore. I hope there isn't too much homework in this class I am going to be swamped already with my prefect duties and NEWTs work." Ron sighed and started towards the room where their next class was.
"Oh honestly it is not that much work!" Hermione was adamant as usual about Harry and Ron's questionable study habits but Harry was not in the mood to listen. Some thing about Wesley's response to their conversation bothered him. When it ended he seemed more uncomfortable then Harry did, Harry could see no viable reason why, after all he hadn't really said anything that he thought would do that to anyone.
He pondered why and came to the same lack of a conclusion all the way to the psionics classroom, a small room relatively near Gryffindor tower. The room itself was rather different than any classroom he had ever been in muggle or wizarding. It was about half the size of the other class rooms at Hogwarts and there were no desks or even chairs. Instead there were little pillows of various colors laid out on the floor in a similar manner to how the desks in a classroom might be laid out. The walls were quite filled with plaques and rugs and a rather nice tapestry depicting what looked like the four founders of the school looking down on a miniature version of their creation.
The room was nothing compared to its single inhabitant besides the small group of students that were gathered at the door. Hovering, for lack of a better description about a half meter off the ground was the young blindfolded man Harry had seen talking with Snape. Now that he got a closer look at him he noticed more of his features. The man looked like he would be pretty tall if he were standing upright. He had very jet black hair that seemed to shine much like Severus Snape's hair but without the greasy look to it. It was also a lot shorter than most of the other professors hair, the longest part being his bangs which hung over the blindfold he was wearing. He was wearing a muggle wife beater and very short denim shorts. He did not stir from his position so Harry walked into the room and chose a red pillow and sat down. Hermione took a blue pillow next to him and Ron took the single Black one next to her. Harry then noticed that there were only ten pillows in the room, four red pillows, three blue pillows, a black pillow and two yellow ones. It did occur to him that they were the house colors and that they were arranged in such a way that none of them were adjacent to any of the other ones. They were also arranged so that there were two rows of five pillows. This is likely going to be a small class then. Harry thought.
Harry Ron and Hermione were the first people in and the young man who Harry could hardly believe was a NEWTs professor but was the only person in the room appeared to be meditating. Harry turned towards the door and waited. He remembered that Seamus was in this class but wasn't sure of anything else. It was then that he noticed Fred and George standing on the corners looking around the room like it was the strangest thing they had ever seen. When Fred caught Harry looking, he mouthed Now isn't this odd? Then winked at him, Harry nodded in response.
A minute or so later Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan walked into the room where they walked up to the three Gryffindors and said "hi" then predictably commented on how odd the room looked. Not far behind them came Seamus who took a pillow next to Hermione, then Padma Patil and Terry Boot and Michael Corner who Harry recognized as sixth year but did not really know at all. That was nine out of ten and Harry wondered who the one black pillow was for. He had already figured out that these pillows were likely a seating arrangement. He was glad there was only one Slytherin if there had to be any at all. He wasn't too happy that there was a red pillow to its left though. He or Hermione would have to be on that pillow if the class was to remain sane.
Not far after the Ravenclaws entered the room a lone person in a Slytherin robe entered the room. It was Blaise Zabini. Harry let out an audible sigh of relief. For once he wouldn't have to worry about the Slytherin's in a class. Blaise understandably walked over and sat by himself on the last corner pillow between Michael and Terry who didn't seem at all happy that he was there.
As soon as Blaise sat down the man stood up, he walked towards the front of the class and then seemed to concentrate on something for a second before saying. "Hello, I am your psionics instructor Leon Saren, while I know you are technically supposed to call me 'Professor Saren' I prefer a much more casual environment in a classroom especially a classroom where people are working with each others minds. For that reason you all must get to know each other as if you were dorm mates, siblings or possibly closer and thus I would prefer you call me Leon when we are not in the presence of other faculty. For this reason I have assigned seats, at least until your houses no longer matter. You will not be sitting next to anyone in your own house for the first few weeks of class. After that we will likely not be having lectures and so it is unlikely that seating will matter as much." There was a lot of grumbling at this and people were glancing at Blaise furtively.
Professor Saren walked back towards the tapestry behind at the back of the room. "Look at this tapestry. I left it there for a reason." He then turned his head towards the confused students. He was wearing a blindfold wasn't he? How could he see? He seemed to have expected this line of thought so he continued with. "I remember this from my years here because it was the thing that I saw the clearest immediately before the accident that blinded me." The silence in the room became palpable at that comment. "Oh come now, it's not that bad and me being blind is not the point. The point is that it was never intended for the houses to be at odds with each other as they are today. Look at this depiction of the four founders looking down at their creation. This is what the sorting hat was talking about this is what we must foster in this room in order to effectively take this class."
The response to his statements was quite surprising to Harry. Ernie Macmillan grunted and said. "Maybe three of them meant it that way but Salazar Slytherin didn't!" He said angrily.
Leon simply turned to face the class and then said calmly, "And how would you know that? True he spoke parcel tongue. But other than that we cannot really know what the man was thinking other that that he seemed to value wizarding blood. But even that is not the main thing that concerns the house. I was in Slytherin when I went here, and I am half-blood at best."
Ernie wasn't beaten yet. "Of course a Slytherin would say that. But you weren't here our second year when the BASILISK that came from Slytherin's chamber was petrifying people including two of my friends who are in this room!" At that he put his hand on Justin's shoulder who was visibly shaken. He then looked over at Hermione, which slightly surprised Harry before continuing. "You would probably want that to happen I didn't see any of the Slytherin's looking for it they were all fine because they are all blooded!" Ernie was getting really angry now. Professor Saren still seemed unaffected by his outburst.
"I may not have been here for that but I did hear about it. And I did not really enjoy being in Slytherin I thought it was a horrible place. No one trusted me for essentially no reason, including my own housemates and we were expected to cheat lie and battle for power. While this is the traits that Slytherin is known for, it was troublesome that everyone seemed to think, and continues to still think apparently that these are the only things that make up the people in Slytherin. I wonder which of you did the hat consider for Slytherin before it put you in your current houses?" Harry shivered slightly at this as did Ernie, and Ron, neither which honestly surprised him.
The professor then smiled before saying. "But that's exactly what I am trying to get at. Your houses are chosen for you based on your traits and I am not convinced that the hat is correct when it says that it has never made a mistake. Who you are should not be defined by an arbitrary position. And in this class it won't be. However arbitrary repositioning is required to undue the arbitrary conditioning you all have received because of the previous house rivalries. For that reason you do not have houses in this class. If you lose house points you all lose them. So now I assume you all can see the colored pillows that I have arranged on the floor. Pick one whose color matches your current house. And that is pretty much the end of my lesson for the day. Talk to those people next to you, get to know them. Get to know me, if you want to ask me something ask me I'm not shy."
He then sat cross legged on the floor again before smiling and finishing with. "Oh and I know I am not wearing standard attire for school. I am wearing what I find comfortable because just as house rivalries cannot exist in a class like this we do not have the luxury of formalities either. You will all have to be as comfortable as possible or you will never succeed. For that reason I will start class twenty minutes after the normal starting time so that people can go to their dorms and change into more casual clothing and of course end it early as well. Of course I will start when everyone gets here if it is before the announced time. Which I suspect you will all want to do. The magic of the mind is fascinating and once you all get away from your houses and get to know each other as people you will be happy to have a place where the only thing that matters is the subject and each other. I know I would have been. In any case go ahead. Sit where you are supposed to and chat."
Blaise went to sit on the only black pillow (something Harry thought was quite unfair) and of course everybody scrambled to take the seats that were not next to him except Harry who as he had planned before stood up and walked directly to the red pillow adjacent to the black one where a very indignant but slightly hurt Blaise sat. Harry watched the others and in the end it ended up being Ernie from Hufflepuff (Justin was still spooked by his memory of the Basilisk) and Padma from Ravenclaw, "Whatever it's not like were being asked to marry him or anything!" She had said after Terry and Michael had looked at the seat in horror. Ron, Hermione and Seamus chose pretty much random seats and started chatting with whoever was next to them. Harry was more interested in sitting there looking over the room and watching everyone else, especially professor Saren, but Blaise and Ernie had other ideas.
"Don't you dare try anything on any of us Zabini! I'll be watching you!" Ernie's voice was stern, protective of the other people in the class most of which were his friends and all of which were members of the DA.
"Ernie I have no intention of doing any such thing." Blaise responded quite calmly Harry thought considering the current conversation. Ernie seemed surprised about something, probably Blaise using his first name.
"I'll still be watching you." Ernie responded evenly.
"What is with you guys! You act as if having a Slytherin in this class is the end of the world or something!" Padma seemed shocked at such a thought.
"Well it is a magic of the mind class and I don't want some stinking Slytherin getting all of my most precious thoughts!" Ernie was adamant. And although Harry thought it was a bit silly to think that Blaise wanted to do that to anyone he did have a point.
"I'm curious what made you guys take this class?" Harry asked the four of them.
Blaise responded first. "I learned some meditation techniques this summer and learned a lot about mental and other forms of wandless magic. So when I was this class I couldn't not take it. It was a formal school run class about what I had been dabbling into and finding fascinating all summer. That and to learn Occlumency because I know for a fact that some of the more dangerous and nosy Slytherins are studying Legillimency in their spare time. I suspect that the reason they are not in this class is because they don't want people to know about it also because they don't want someone to accidentally take any of their secrets."
Ernie responded next immediately almost challenging Blaise' statement, although Harry thought this was pointless as nothing seemed confrontational in what Blaise said. "I am taking the class because I want to learn as much magic as I can. That and I did figure that it would be a good thing to learn about protecting my mind with he who must not be named around. And others like him." Ernie stared Blaise in the eyes obviously challenging him to respond.
"I for one simply wanted to widen my horizons. After all what would be the point in not taking such a class if it was available. Apparently not many others agreed. I was honestly expecting a bigger class." Padma's words seemed quite reasonable if not Hermione like. Although she was a Ravenclaw so that wasn't exactly the most unexpected thing.
The three looked at Harry who should have expected them to want to know why he had joined the class. He mentally hit himself for bringing it up. He had to very quickly think of a lie to avoid blowing the cover of his occlumency lessons with Snape and his perilous connection to Voldemort. "It just seemed like an interesting class that went along with my plans to become an Auror." He thought that was pretty lame actually. Since this class had nothing to do with being an Auror and from the looks from his friends they weren't buying it either. But none of them said anything.
"So what did you guys do this summer?" Blaise asked the four of them curiously.
Padma responded first, "Studied for the most part. It was dreadfully boring to tell you the truth but I have to get good marks on my NEWTs to become anything important in the magical world. That and since I wasn't first in my class." She glared at Hermione as she said this. "I have to make sure that I work extra hard to make sure I get that honor next time." It was all Harry could do to stop himself from laughing. Of course the Ravenclaws would have a rivalry with Hermione. After all she was a Gryffindor who often did better than they did on everything academic related.
"That sounds rather dull." Ernie said with a sigh. "Not that I did anything that spectacular either. Mainly I just hung out and practiced curse dodging with a tennis ball. Me and Justin did hang out a few times too but it was again nothing special. What about you Harry what did you do." It was obvious to Harry that he had deliberately avoided asking Blaise.
"I had one of the oddest summers I have had in a long time. The first half of it was spent wasting time being lazy in my room. However at the end of July I got a nasty surprise. Professor Snape delivered none other than Malfoy, Gre…Goyle and Vin…Crabbe to my doorstep. I ended up hanging out with them and Hermione while brewing a potion for Snape all summer. He said that if I successfully brewed it I could get into NEWTs Potions without an O on my OWL." Harry felt odd telling them all of that. He didn't really know why until he realized that he had never told anyone but Ron and Hermione that much about anything before. He was beginning to trust a lot more something that honestly scared him a bit.
"Ouch, having to brew a potion and hang out with Malfoy… wait did you almost call his cronies by their first names?" Ernie looked at him oddly. Harry wasn't sure what to say to that so he figured the truth would yet again suffice. He would have to figure out why he was being so honest all of a sudden. It seemed rather odd to him.
"Well I got to chatting with them over the summer and they were actually not nearly as bad as I thought they would be. If you get them away from Malfoy other than being a bit blunt they are actually not that bad." Ernie looked a bit taken aback at the comment and Padma looked intrigued.
"Yeah I would have to agree. Draco's a git. But Vince and Greg aren't that bad when they aren't following him. Goodness knows I wouldn't have survived five years dorming with the three of them if that weren't the case." Blaise started with a half grin on his face. "Now on my summer I actually had an interesting summer I went abroad to find my roots. I found out that one of my ancestors brought back an Indian witch from the Americas and that she, not his wife is my great great grandmother. My great great grandmother, sell step great great grandmother I suppose apparently couldn't have children for some medical reason and so was not against taking care of the wayward child. After all he was still of wizarding blood even if it wasn't all European." Ernie's eyes narrowed at Blaise's nonchalant comment.
"More important than that was the fact that it meant that I had an entire legacy that I knew nothing about. So I did some research over the time I was at Hogwarts and eventually found out what tribe she had been from. Over the summer I went to visit the tribe and learned quite a bit about my heritage and a very different way of viewing and doing magic. Did you know that many American Wizards and Witches don't even use wands nor even call themselves those things? I didn't until I met some of them. There are Shamans and Mages and all sorts of other neat things. I even learned a bit about wandless magic although I admit it was rather odd. Like one charm they were doing, at least it seemed more like a charm than anything else, required all of them to sit in a circle and then smoke out of this tobacco pipe while chanting to the spirits. I tried to do this once but I coughed when I took the pipe and so they all laughed and told me they thought I should sit it out if I couldn't handle the pipe. My lungs agreed." Harry had never seen Blaise this talkative before apparently this summer of his has had a greater effect on him than anyone could have guessed. Ernie seemed a bit less wary of the Slytherin and Padma seemed simply intrigued. Harry was about to ask about that when the class ended.
He was going to ask anyway on his way out but Professor Saren called out to him saying "I need to talk with you privately after class." So Harry waved bye to the rest of them. Ernie and Justin walked off towards their common room and Padma surprisingly walked off with Blaise towards the library. Terry and Michael walked towards their common rooms but not before suspiciously watching Padma walk off with Blaise. Harry noticed that Ron, Hermione and Seamus were waiting with him and showed no inclination to leave. In fact they all seemed rather odded out. Harry noticed something too. No one had asked why he was being told to stay. He found it odd as generally being nosy was something Hogwarts students were masters off, especially Ernie Macmillan.
After everyone had left besides them, Professor Saren wasted no time talking to the four very confused Gryffindors. "You are all probably wondering why I called to you four specifically. You also may be wondering how I called for each of you individually without calling anybody else." Hermione even looked intrigued at this thought. Seamus and Ron looked quite stumped. Harry had an idea what he had done after all he WAS a psionics instructor.
"Well, this was an example of some of the more interesting and useful applications of the class, purely mental communication however that was not why I asked you four to stay. I used that trick simply because professor Dumbledore wanted this to be fairly discreet. While I doubt people won't notice you all staying later than everyone else I am sure you can come up with some excuse on your own that will suffice that has nothing to do with me." He smiled and looked (how else could pointing your face directly at someone be described?) directly at Hermione as he said this.
"Now for the important bit, I have been asked by professor Dumbledore to instruct Harry, Ron and Hermione specifically as well as any other sixth year Gryffindors that ended up in my class in occlumency." This peaked Harry's attention. Learning occlumency from an instructor other than Snape would be preferable. And it was obvious that this man was a real specialist in the magics of the mind rather than someone with simply a knack for it.
Hermione and Ron did not look surprised Seamus on the other hand looked completely lost. "What is occlumency and why should we specifically learn it over everyone else?" He asked
"Occlumency is the magic of defending the mind from outside invasion. It allows one to resist the effects of Obliviate, Legillimency and once one is powerful enough it can even throw off Imperius. The reasons for learning it are fairly obvious. Harry here as well as his closest friends are now direct enemies of Voldemort." Seamus' eyes grew wide at the uttered name and Ron still shivered slightly but was otherwise unaffected. "Because Voldemort is a skilled mental wizard occlumency is a must for them. Because you are in a psionics class with them and thus could through any number of things be privy to information that would be of use to him and of course because being as close to them as you are being their dorm mate makes you a prime target for information." Seamus shivered but made no further inquery. It was quite obvious once Harry thought about it. He thought about Dean and Neville… they should be learning this too.
"The others in the class with us will be learning it as the year goes on you I expect will be practicing your spells with each other and will be more privy to the information faster and with less adult supervision around. And so you all get it extra in addition to the actual class. Another thing, while you are all required to be here in the extra classes as long as you stay in psionics." Seamus looked kind of annoyed at this statement but didn't say anything. "Your dorm mates, all of them, are welcome to come to the lessons as well. This is my doing as I believe that that would be prudent even for those not taking my class. Only your dorm mates however, this should still be rather hush hush as to not raise too much suspicion."
He then turned to Seamus and looked at him apologetically. "Seamus, I am sorry to have to do this to you but it really is for your safety as well as the safety of your mates here. They are required to take the class and to take this class do to their outstanding circumstances. You on the other hand are not required to take this however you are required to take it at the order and request of the headmaster as long as you continue the psionics NEWT. I will give you some more information before making you decide. And again I greatly apologize for putting you in this situation to begin with."
He then turned to all four of them again. "In class you will be using Penseives to hide your deepest thoughts. In this more specialized class you will not. And so you all must be willing to share with each other and with anyone else you bring in to these private lessons any and all of your thoughts as it is likely that they could get access to anyone of them. They must also be equally willing to let you see theirs. The reason for this is that if or when Voldemort or any other legillimencer wanted to take your thought you will not likely have a penseive conveniently with you to store them especially in the time that the fairly quick legillimens charm takes to cast. For this reason you must all practice hiding you're most secret memories which is why it is important that you all trust each other explicitly. Also anyone who tells anyone anything that is found out in this room without express consent from its owner will be expelled. This rule is not even courtesy of myself. It is directly from professor Dumbledore."
He turned to Seamus again who looked positively spooked. "As you can see it is obvious that these three trust each other enough to do this. The question is… are you willing to put yourself on the line? I can get you into another NEWT if you so choose…"
"I'll honestly have to think about it… I think so though…" He looked at Ron and Harry awkwardly before saying. "I'll really have to think about it."
"That is perfectly reasonable although you do not have infinite time to consider it. Show up here after dinner on Friday. I will be ready for your first lesson then. Seamus you can tell me then whether you wish to continue and again I wish I didn't have to put you in this position, and for that I am truly sorry. Oh and as I said please do think about bringing your other dorm mates to the sessions as I believes it would be better for all. However please do not tell them about this unless you intend to bring them as I said before. It would be better to keep this under wraps for everyone involved."
He then walked over to where he was levitating at the beginning of the class, sat down and started levitating again before saying. "Good day. You four run along now."
Seamus looked rather spooked as he left the room. Harry was sure he had some secret he didn't want exposed but he wasn't sure what. Of course it also looked to him like he really wanted to take the class now more than ever. He didn't walk off as Harry had expected him too. Instead he walked with the three of them quietly which in tern caused the three of them to delay their inevitable conversation about professor Saren and the assigned occlumency. Eventually Seamus broke the tension. "I really want to do this… But I…" He then really looked Harry in the eyes for what he could tell was the first time. "I don't want to…" Before either of them could respond he ran off towards Gryffindor tower leaving all of them staring in his wake.
"Well that was quite unexpected." Hermione said as Seamus disappeared around a corner. "I would have thought that he would have been perfectly ok with something like that. After all he doesn't seem the type to harbor a secret. He always seemed rather open and actually a bit vulgar to me."
"Well he obviously has something he's worried about people finding out." Harry looked at Hermione who had a quizzical expression on her face as he said this.
"We'll find out about that at some point either that or he'll find another NEWT as professor Saren said. Now I'm more interested in this professor. Was I the only person who noticed just how young he was?" Ron started walking towards the common room for their free period and Harry and Hermione followed.
"No I actually noticed that when I first saw him in the great hall during the sorting. I had no idea he was even a teacher until he sat down next to Snape and started chatting with him." Ron looked at him oddly as he mentioned Snape.
"Well if he knows Snape than that can't be a good thing. I mean how can we be sure he's not a death eater trying to kill Harry?" Ron seemed adamant and quite accusatory as he usually was where Snape is concerned.
"That is unlikely after all why would he invite us and all of our dorm mates if he wanted to kill Harry? That and Dumbledore wouldn't let any death eaters on campus if he could avoid it." Hermione was logical as usual.
"Well there was Moody and Quirrel though and they were quite effective at almost killing Harry," Ron said, "Speaking of which I wonder who the new defense against the dark arts teacher is?"
Hermione looked at Ron thoughtfully before responding. "I have no idea. But it is likely not Saren if he's already another NEWTs teacher. Returning to Saren for a moment I think we should watch him but I don't think we have any reason to doubt him at the moment. After all Snape may hate you and may wish you and your father never existed but he has never tried to kill you and he has tried to save you on multiple occasions."
Harry thought about this for a moment, yes that made sense after all he seemed like a nice enough guy. And not every teacher Dumbledore had brought in was horrible. There was Remus Lupin after all. "Yes I agree, and since you are going to be there in the class with me at least it's not like I am alone or anything."
"Fine! Fine!" Ron threw his hands up in the air as they reached the fat lady's portrait. "Guardian Force" the portrait opened with a slight nod at a few of its more common annoyances, "but I still want to know who the new Defense teacher is, after all we haven't exactly had the best luck in that department over the years."
Harry was glad at the change of subject. He apparently wasn't the only one curious about this either as Dean, Seamus (who still looked a bit wary), Parvati and Lavender walked up to them. "Heard something about the new Defense teacher, if anyone would know who it is then you would. Come on let us in." Dean seemed excited to be let in on a secret, as did everyone else except possibly Seamus who was still apprehensive presumably about the talk with Professor Saren. Unfortunately Harry had as much clue as they did and so had to disappoint the lot of them.
"Sorry guys but we were just wondering the same thing. Your guess is as good as ours. But as long as it's no Lockheart or…Umbridge," a universal shiver of disgust fell through the small group at the portrait hole at the horrible professor from last year's name. Harry almost felt blasphemous simply uttering the accursed thing, "I assume it will be at least ok. Although with our luck though…" He turned to Ron and Hermione who had been the only people to truly know about his issues with the previous defense instructors.
"Well, I have to say that other than the fact that he tried to kill you and did kill Cedric, Moody was a decently good defense teacher." Fred chimed in after which he was promptly smacked on the head by George.
"Oh come on Fred! That's enough out of you…although he did teach us a lot though…" After that he smacked his own head similarly to how he smacked Fred's. "Bad me!" He said sillily.
Harry didn't want to think about that year. It had been the worst year of his life even worse than his horrible last year. It had been the year his innocence had been taken away from him that fateful day when he and Cedric had been sent to that nameless graveyard. He felt anger and pain pull themselves out of him. That hadn't been his fault however the fact that it wasn't made it all that much worse. At least he had someone to blame for everything last year namely himself. But his fourth year it had all been orchestrated perfectly. He couldn't say that he had been fooled like his fifth year. In that year he had simply been part of everyone else being fooled. He remembered Cedric's face as he fell to the ground expressionless. It has not been what he expected a dead body to look like. It had no signs of life at all not even a face skewed in fear or loathing or anger it was just there. It was like the corpse was the only thing that had ever existed. The person erased from the world in the excruciating pain in Harry's scar and the little blink of an eye.
He rushed upstairs as tears began to overtake him. It brought back too many bad memories. Quirrel burning at his touch which although at the time had saved his life when he thought about it later it had always sickened him. Quirrel for all his problems had been a victim of Voldemort just like everyone else was. His memory fell on Ginny and the diary. An image of Ginny's pale body as Tom Riddle drained the life out of her burned itself into his mind. It had been the first time he had witnessed death. She hadn't actually died but he couldn't deny that that was exactly what he was seeing. She was dying, and he had saved her but that did not negate the fact that she was. Back then he didn't really understand what was going on. Now he did and it was that much more frightening, that much more saddening. Then came Sirius, he felt anger with himself with Snape, with Dumbledore even with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He felt anger with everyone he had ever known. His mind vented itself in a rush of fresh tears as he rushed into his dorm room straight to his bed.
"Harry…" He heard Ron's voice and saw Fred and George behind him looking forlorn and guilty.
"Go away!" He yelled at them not wanting to see them at all. Ron and Fred looked hesitant but George took them away. Both Fred and George had apologetic looks on their faces.
Harry was crying and angry at himself for crying and crying ever more because of that anger. He was angry at Sirius for dieing angry at Fred and George for bringing it up. Angry at Dean and Seamus for reminding him of it, angry at Ron for not being able to do anything about Sirius do to his out of it state. He was angry at Hermione for not figuring everything out and stopping him from making that crucial error, angry at Lavender and Parvati just for being there. But most of all angry at himself because if he wasn't born if he hadn't been a part of that stupid prophecy if he hadn't been so stupid as to tie with Cedric for the win and try to find what was in the Department of Mysteries when he had been told time and time again to study his occlumency. Snape had been right, but he wasn't mad at Snape anymore, he was mad at himself. It was odd but he felt his hatred for Snape waning and he felt more anger at his own name then his professors. Potter was a horrible legacy it led to only death and destruction and misery. Everything he had ever seen about his parents had been bad. He had seen them die to protect him but had that not happened he would never have had this scar and these horrible things would never have happened. He saw his father do horrible things to Severus Snape for what he could tell was no reason. Then he was horrible to Harry's own mother, how they had gotten together was a mystery to him because he certainly couldn't imagine that brat and that beautiful smart girl liking each other at all. They had been the marauders the trouble makers of the school. But it looked like they had been infinitely worse than the Weasley twins ever were. They genuinely wanted to make people laugh he saw no such notion in his father and Sirius. They broke the rules because they could and because they wanted too.
His mind became foggy and lost all line of coherent thought as his conflicted emotions about the people he loved and yet hated at the same time filled it blinding him to anything else. He felt someone site next to him but he didn't know who it was and strangely he didn't have any felling towards the person at all. Another person sat next to him on his other side one who he knew but didn't hate for some reason.
"Are you ok Harry?" Neville asked from his right.
"Yeah, are you?" The two voices brought him out of his block and he fell backwards laying across his bed crying. He couldn't really feel anything other than the tears. Neville and Wesley just sat there with him. He didn't realize how much he needed that. Wesley had not been a part of any of this and so he was a great neutral wall to brace himself upon while Neville was the only person who honestly could understand a similar kind of Pain he had been through. With Wesley as his emotional bridge back to himself and Neville coaxing him along it with his friendly but concerned face he felt himself leveling out and his anger and sadness fading back into his mind's ether where it started.
"Are you ok?" Neville repeated. Wesley remained silent simply looking at him with a concerned look.
"I think so… Thanks." Harry smiled at his two friends whether he was before Wesley was certainly a friend now. Being one's bridge back to himself is not something easily forgotten.
Neville was now even closer to him than ever. He knew what he had to do, he wasn't exactly ready to tell anyone else this but he was going to tell Neville the prophecy, he deserved to know it as he was a part of it whether it referenced him or not. After all it had been part of the reason his parent were made insane.
Ron, Fred and George entered the room cautiously followed by Hermione who also looked quite concerned. Seamus and Dean followed equally cautiously.
"Are you ok?" Ron asked, echoing Neville's tone almost exactly.
"Yeah I think I am, thanks to these two." He said nodding at Wesley and Neville. "Now I'm tired and I have both potions and defense against the dark arts tomorrow so I'm going to sleep."
"I'm sorry about that." Fred and George looked horribly identical and Harry was unsure which of them had said that but it looked like it didn't matter. It was simply that one of them had beaten the other to what was written obviously on both of their faces.
"Well what are we waiting for wouldn't want another morning like this one!" Seamus smiled and jumped on Harry's bed between Neville and Harry where he draped his arm over his dorm mates in a brotherly fashion. Dean simply laughed at his friends shenanigans and it wasn't long before all eight of them were laughing.
Hermione who had been silent the whole time mouthed 'we'll talk later' before leaving amused, but still with a slightly concerned expression underneath her slight smile.
Harry felt a lot closer to his less known dorm mates than he had ever felt before. He looked at Ron who looked completely horrible. He would have to bridge that soon as well. Despite everything he had told himself it was not Ron's fault and now that he had gotten over that bit of emotional outburst he knew he would have to patch things up with him. He hadn't had enough contact with the boy last year and his friendship was becoming less and less personal. He thought about where and when he would talk to Ron about this as the group got up to go off to dinner. Oddly happy considering what had just transpired.
