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 18: Devon's Disaster

"You did tell him he could do it with no hesitation right?"

"Of course, and I will continue to have done so if you ask me twenty more times." Harry and Hermione were standing by Justin, Blaise and Padma away from everyone else so they could talk in private. Ron, Seamus, Dean, Parvati, Lavender, Dennis and Ginny were also here on the other side of the lake by the dark forest. They had needed a place that was big enough for what they intended and open enough so that it wouldn't seem too odd. They had all agreed after the fact that that had been pretty stupid and wanted to see the DA work this year. Dean and Ron even agreed that the Slytherins should be given a chance to prove themselves. After all neither of them could disagree that Blaise had turned out to be much nicer than anyone could have guessed. Besides none of them thought that it was prudent to start a curse brawl right in the middle of a meeting.

"Padma…"

"For the last time YES I did, god Harry you'd think we didn't spend the better part of a day preparing this!" Padma was speaking the truth. After the Gryffindors prepared the meeting they had talked to those who they thought would agree with them and planned the rest of this out whenever they had the time to. Harry was incredibly agitated however as he needed this to work, the last thing he could afford right now was to alienate any portion of the school, especially the Slytherins. He did not want any more Snape's to be created do to him or anyone else while he was here.

"I got them to come, although I still don't know why I bothered, this may work for today but I doubt it will help anything in the long run." Blaise looked dubious, then again Harry as not surprised after all he had almost experienced what Colin had, Colin's sacrifice being the only thing that stopped him from that fate. Colin was still unconscious in the hospital wing.

"Even if it doesn't we still have to try something and soon, we can't afford a war in here alongside the war out there. Even the sorting hat knows that." Hermione was adamant. "And where is he! He should be here by now!" She did a small clock charm on two piles of sand. "He's already late.

"It's not going to be easy after all he has to get the members from three houses when he barely knows anything about them." Padma said, "He will make it, there is very little way he wouldn't."

Harry wasn't certain, "But if he doesn't…"

"He will! Remember to us it may seem odd but to him this is normal, he has known how to do this his entire life even if he never really intended anything by it. He will do it we just have to make our part of the plan work."

Justin looked around, "Where are Fred and George? They aren't exactly required for this to work but it would be nice to have some older faces around that people trust…well maybe not trust but at least respect." Justin's worry showed in this statement.

"Hey, sorry I decided to come after all at the last second." Ernie said rushing into the magically sealed area.

"About time," Justin said to his friend, "and Hannah and Susan?" He asked.

"They are helping him with the Hufflepuffs. After all it is them who are having the most trouble with this. I'm still not sure about our part of the plan." Ernie looked worried.

Blaise spoke up, "I had similar issues, but apparently we're out voted."

Ernie looked around, "Well at least we got some people to our side who weren't before this will at least make it look better, not like there is one side and the other." Harry wanted to point out that Ernie had not been on their side before, or at least hadn't voiced it but decided now wouldn't be the best time.

Suddenly Wesley rushed into the area of the wards. Harry noticed that he was Justin for a split second before being Wesley. Apparently the others who were with him noticed too. Of course Blaise, Justin, Hermione and Padma already knew. Ernie reacted and it was obvious that he had seen it but he hadn't said anything so at least this wasn't going to be an immediate issue. After saying that he joined the others who were starting to form their planned circle.

"I wish these wards weren't two way." Justin said, "It is making me nervous I mean I know we are ready for them but what if they suspect…"

Wesley looked at him, "I don't think that most of them do, but some obviously are at least a bit nervous at a meeting so soon after Tuesday's disaster. I think we should get this over with, it will only make them more nervous to wait."

Harry totally agreed with him to he signaled everyone to get ready. He them made sure he was holding the wand correctly, it would be the first time he was using it in an important situation. Now he knew that they were outnumbered despite that he had been surprised at the number of people who actually wanted to take part in the plan.

Hermione stood in the middle, she was going to remove the wards and thus couldn't possibly help with everything, it had to be coordinated perfectly they couldn't make a mistake.

"Damn, looks like Fred and George aren't showing…" But then the two of them popped into the middle of the circle, George wearing the Santa Hat that had been on Harry's dresser. "I re-enchanted it for a second." Fred explained when Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Remember that the spells will be weaker than normal." George cut in, both the twins had the serious expressions that Harry rarely saw but knew they both had from little experiences with them.

"Ok I'm ready." Hermione said her wand poised to do the final charm.

"Everyone get ready we don't exactly know where they are so we have to get as much area as possible with the initial casting." Harry said. "Dennis, Hermione, Padma you know what to do."

"Yeah, get any that avoid the starting volley." Dennis said. Padma nodded her acknowledgement.

Harry took a deep breath hoping that no one had decided to leave as he wanted everyone here for this. "Blaise you know what to do right?" Blaise nodded and walked off disappearing upon leaving the warded area. "Ok Hermione, on three."

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three…"

Upon the third count Hermione removed the Wards preventing the five groups of people from seeing each other. As they had expected the four groups of students who were not in the center portion of the wards immediately went for their wands. This was the crucial part of their plan if it failed they would all likely end up in the hospital wing and there certainly would be no fixing what had happened. The group in the center of the previous wards immediately yelled, "Omnus expelliarmus!"

Spreads of light went in every direction and as the spread disarming charm worked its power, the center group was pelted in a rain of wands. Before anyone could do anything Hermione, Dennis and Padma immediately followed suite with non spread charms and the remaining wands joined the pile.

Wesley then filled his part and triggered the final ward warping the area around the students so that they could not leave, as well as blocking off the wands from accessibility. When all the light cleared and the deed was done, Harry wasn't exactly surprised at what he saw. The majority of the students that were not a part of the plan looked more shocked than anything. The students in the center then dropped their wands to their sides then tossed them through the wards to join the others making it totally visible that they intended no unfair advantage in whatever strife that might come as a result of their rather dangerous plot.

Harry spoke first, "Ok, now I know this may seem rather stupid of us but we really needed to TALK to you about this as oppose to causing another fighting match." He said quickly. No one responded to it, although no one really seemed angry either, everyone was still too shocked was all Harry could guess. After all it wasn't as if they had been given any choice in the matter.

It was, as Harry expected Zacharias Smith who was the first to throw off his shock and speak. However he was not expecting what he said. "Ok, so everyone is wandless. Great, now HOW are we supposed to get out of here?" He sounded both smug and very annoyed at the same time.

Harry hadn't thought of that, but of course someone else had so it didn't matter. Hermione spoke, "Wesley can remove the wards of course after all he did cast them and any Wizard worth his salt should be able to remove his own wards even without a wand. American wizards are known for wards hence using him." Zacharias' smug expression dropped as he realized just how thought out this was.

Padma spoke next, "Besides, that is not at all what we are here to discuss."

Zacharias opened his mouth as if to speak but stopped as if he thought better of it and remained silent. It seemed that no one wanted to speak, but again it was Blaise who ended the silence. Harry wasn't sure if this was good or bad but at the very least it was something.

"I'm sorry for what I said…it wasn't prudent of me at all to throw that out there. I really wasn't thinking…very Gryffindor of me actually not very Slytherin at all." There were a few nervous murmurs at that comment but Blaise continue before anyone could say anything. "At this point though it looks like the truth is what will solve this if anything will. I was not lying when I told you my parents were death eaters." A few of the students went for their wands only to realize that they were not there. Harry was glad in a way that they had done it this way but he was not so glad at how the conversation was going.

"As many of you know I spent the summer in the United States with the Indian tribe of my ancestors." He shed a tear as he said this, "I…I was sent there by Dumbledore actually. He was gathering students with Death Eater Parents whom he knew wouldn't want to join their ranks and getting them away from them. It was a stroke of luck that I had that ancestry really…It gave me the excuse I needed to get out of there." Blaise looked like he was about to cry. "The fact is that I lost everything this summer. When I left I lost my family and my old acquaintances. I met some interesting people over the summer but at this point I cannot ever return home. I would either be forces into servitude or killed. This place this group of people is my only solace." He began looking around the room. "Great now you're all going to think I'm making a scene to get my way." He snickered, "Whatever is is, but know that I need this club the connections it allows for me. Whether you like it or not I am on your side now."

Ron spoke up next surprising Harry even more, "Blaise wasn't the only one who had this happen to them this summer," he said nervously. "It happened to Crabbe, Goyle and the Ferret too." Harry and a large number of the students snickered at this. Zacharias even smirked before scowling again. "They in fact stayed with Harry here all summer." There was complete silence as he said this. What is Ron thinking? Harry asked himself.

"Believe me, I was shocked at this. Those bloody gits? All summer? And Harry was going on about how Crabbe and Goyle weren't so bad once you got them away from Malfoy. Hell, he even told us that he and Malfoy had stopped being enemies? Got that? Malfoy and Harry on cordial terms with each other? I was shocked as the rest of you." Ron looked around as he said this.

"But then there was the thing with Blaise that first week. Yeah you would remember the one, with the Punch after Care of Magical Creatures? And after that I realized that Blaise could actually be a nice guy. Well…is a nice guy really. Malfoy's still a git, but that's nothing new. What is new is that his cronies are no longer along side him, they are here and for better or for worse we have a decision to make." He then took a deep breath as he had everyone's attention. "We either kick them out and hand them to the death eaters, whether they intended on joining…or not." He then spoke very slowly, "Or we act like Gryffindors take a leap of faith, test our courage and let them stay…"

There was complete silence as Ron finished. Everyone was staring at him, even Vincent and Gregory, who had been standing there alongside Blaise, all three of them disarmed in the initial volley. Harry looked at his friend, "Wow…why?"

Ron shrugged, "It needed to be said," was his only response, apparently having Ron say that was an actual clincher for a lot of people, as it was no secret that Ron had been adamant against the majority of the Slytherins all year. Also the fact that Ron had managed to say all of that with a straight face was not lost on people. Harry had noticed changes in Ron the previous year, just like there were changes in everyone else he knew. But his anger throughout that entire year had made him pretty much ignore what they were. He would have to listen to him more.

Zacharias smiled then and said, "Whatever, I'm no Gryffindor and I still think this is a stupid idea. But if you all think it's THAT important then…" He trailed off, then pointed a finger at the Slytherins and said, "But I will be watching you! Any false move and I mean any and I will personally make you pay for doubting my friend's trust!"

Harry noted the tone of voice, the body language. Harry realized that Zacharias did in fact consider them all friends and even if he had his own way of showing it that he really was trying to do what in his opinion was the best thing. Harry still thought he was quite the git, but at least he was a protective fairly loyal git. Harry smiled at that thought.

Wesley spoke next, "I didn't actually put up any wards besides hiding the wands…I didn't think that was a good idea honestly so I guess what I am saying is. You can go whenever…" At that he closed his eyes for a second, put his finger behind his left ear and the wands all appeared.

Padma talked next, "I don't expect you to decide tonight. But know that we cannot afford to have those who do not trust our motives. Well, Harry's motives I suppose, which I trust by the way. But we all need to be there for each other and anyone who doesn't think they can be there should not continue coming…"

There were murmurs from everyone again and then people started to pick up their wands and walk back towards the castle. Harry and Hermione had told Dumbledore about it and he had presumably told other order members, since the order already knew about this. He hadn't wanted people to get in trouble and he knew that the best way to do that would be to let Dumbledore in on his plans. Whether he thought it was a good idea or not he had not said but Dumbledore had given them his support in any case and so now the students could all go back to their beds for the most part undisturbed.

It was almost a stroke of luck that this had happened when it did, even if it wasn't lucky that it happened at all. The Halloween ball was only a week away now and after only a day of negativity people quickly started obsessing over the dance and while the DA did not forget what had happened it was obvious that they all would rather worry about something trivial like a school dance and so the feel of the school lightened quite a lot. The fact that it was announced that it was going to be a costume ball probably also had something to do with that. People not only had to worry whether to get a date but also what they were going to wear.

The costume ball was apparently Tonks' idea. According to Parvati and Lavender, the Gryffindor source for all things gossip, she had gone to him saying that it was a muggle tradition that might just be the lighthearted thing that everyone needed. Dumbledore had obviously agreed as it was changed officially from a ball into a costume ball a few days earlier.

Harry wasn't sure what he was going to do. Aside of having no idea how to dress up he also didn't exactly have anyone he wanted to take as a date. But he also wasn't so keen on the thought of everyone wondering why he didn't have one so he was divided on the matter. So of course he did nothing about it and it became more and more likely that whether he thought it prudent to get a date at all he was going to go alone. His costume was going to be pretty easy, he would wear his muggle clothing and go as whatever everyone thought he was. The oversized clothes that used to be Dudley's were easy. No one would think twice about them after all this WAS a costume ball and that way he wouldn't have to think. Besides it wasn't like he wasn't used to wearing the things having worn them for most of his life.

Ron, remembering the previous years vividly had asked Hermione to go to the dance with him very quickly after realizing that he had to before someone else did. Harry had stood there for both his friends' moral support thought the entire awkward ordeal. Only very few actual intelligible words were spoken and it took Ron almost twenty minutes to simply say, "Will you go to the dance with me?"

Hermione had blushed and said, "Yes," although it was obvious to Him that it would have been the same had Hermione been the one to as him. It had taken them twenty minutes to get to that point and both of them looked incredibly nervous during the entire ordeal. Thankfully no one decided to interrupt them. Of course many of them were obsessing over their own dates or lack there of and so had little time to worry about embarrassing other students.

Neither of them had told him what they had thrown together for costumes. Although Harry had a hunch that Ron had conjured Chudley Cannons quidditch robes. Not to mention he had seen Ron hiding something that was a rather bright shade of orange.

Dean had asked out Parvati rather instantly after hearing that there was a ball, apparently he still considered them the most beautiful girls in their year. Parvati had teased him about it saying things like "I'll think about it." for the entire evening before saying yes and pecking him on the cheek right before she ran up the forbidden stairs to her dormitory leaving Dean standing there blushing incredibly brightly considering his dark skin. Dean was going as a Vampire, although he had no idea what that entailed. He only knew that he had announced it to the others in his dorm and then left it at that.

Neville had not told anyone who he had asked out however he did say that he had asked someone. Lavender and Parvati cornered him at every chance they got for a while trying to get him to spill. But he held steadfast and eventually even they stopped. Neville was also quiet about his costume, and in fact no one bothered to ask him about it.

Lavender was refusing dates saying that she wanted to go there alone. Harry was surprised at this, but later Hermione clued him in that she was going to try her hardest to steal Roger Davies from his current date. She didn't give him any more details about it only saying that there was a dare involved and that it would be a rather spectacular event. Of course given this, the fact that she would not tell anyone anything about her costume was not a surprise either.

Wesley was apparently going alone or "stag" as he put it, a term that had confused Harry and almost everyone else until he had explained what it meant. Given Wesley's abilities, Harry had no clue what he was going as, and all Wesley kept saying was "I'm still deciding." Most people who talked to him kept insisting he decide soon lest he not be able to get a costume. Harry and Hermione knew that that was irrelevant.

Seamus had declined to talk about the dance at all. Despite working out their differences enough to work together on the DA, it was very apparent that Dean was in fact still very uncomfortable and somewhat angry with him. He wasn't gong to have a date as there would be no point in brining a girl now, it would just put more attention on him and asking out a guy was out of the question. In fact the closer the dance got and the more people got excited about it, the more depressed Seamus seemed to get. It wasn't until the day before the dance though that Neville, George and Wesley approached Harry about it.

"You know I think we really should go talk to Seamus about the ball. He looks rather down and it wouldn't exactly be a party without him." George said a waning smile on his face, obviously forced.

Neville spoke next, "We thought that maybe if all four of us, you know the people that first were on his side when all of that happened talked to him that maybe we could convince him to go as it is pretty obvious that his plan is to avoid the dance altogether."

Wesley spoke next, "And really it is unlikely that anyone will even have a second thought about that unless he brings a date. Especially considering that it is going to be a costume ball." They all agreed with this logic, now the trick was going to be convincing Seamus of it.

They found him in their dormitory throwing exploding snap cards and watching them blow up absent mindedly. This was one of the things he did commonly when depressed alongside setting up gruesome battles in Wizards chess simply to watch the pieces hit each other and conjuring random object simply so he could blast them away. Before this year they had not known about these destructive tendencies but this year they had seen a lot of them.

"Hey Seamus!" Wesley called giddily, a bit to giddily in Harry's opinion, but Seamus responded the way he normally did when he, was acting depressed, he grunted a half hearted "hi" at it and continued what he was doing.

George started next, "You decided on your costume yet?" He asked, very casually as if he were asking whether he would be at tomorrow's lunch. Seamus didn't respond, he did noticeably tense however.

"Seamus…" Neville started, but Seamus turned towards them looking miserable and said. "I don't know…I really do want to go…it's just."

Harry thought he understood what Seamus was worried about. He didn't want to be the center of attention. It also dawned on him that Seamus wouldn't have much time to plan a costume. Them all being wizards it wasn't exactly hard to make a costume once one was thought of but one still had to think it up in the first place. He didn't know what to say.

Wesley however, seemed to be taking full advantage of his natural charm and again Harry was impressed with how he managed to use his "false sense of trust" only in helpful ways. Harry now didn't think of it as a false sense of trust, as much as a gift the boy had. If he used it to manipulate people negatively Harry had never seen it. However he himself had seen how it was helpful in calming others on numerous occasions, including when the person was him. He walked over to Seamus and said, "It's a costume ball. I doubt people will be taking it very seriously as a dating environment. And besides, me and Harry are going stag, and I expect it will be more than just us."

Seamus looked a little less down at this but still looked reluctant. Harry thought for a second and said what seemed the best thing anyone could say at the moment, "I understand what you're thinking, but really I don't think it will be bad. Really what we should be worrying about instead of how people will respond to you being there is what you should wear."

Seamus smiled at that and then sighed saying, "That's the other problem."

Wesley smirked in Harry's direction before saying. "No worries, I'm sure that the girls can help you with this."

Seamus looked at him and said, "Wait, you don't mean…but Lavender and Parvati would have me dressed like a ballerina!" Wesley grabbed the bigger boys arm and led him out of the room, an evil grin on his face, with Seamus struggling against him. It was obvious that he wasn't really struggling though as if he was there was no way that Wesley would have been able to move the bigger boy. George laughed and Neville smiled.

The rest of the night was very uneventful as was the majority of the next day although that was because most people spent the entire day getting ready for the ball. Harry wasn't worried about time in the least so he spent most of the day by himself or with Ron or Wesley as they were the only people who didn't seem to have a worry at all about time. Harry had asked both of them if he had decided what they were going to be. Ron had said to wait and see and Wesley had said he was still deciding. Unlike everyone else though there was no glint of mischief in his eyes. It looked more like he was battling with his conscious. Harry had let it go then, although he had a pretty good idea what one of the possibilities he had planned was.

When there was about an hour until the start of the ball Harry decided that he should probably get into costume sooner rather than later and so he bid the others farewell. Ron had decided to go with him, Wesley had of course declined saying he still needed time to think. Ron didn't get it and insisted that he could help. Harry then pulled him away saying they didn't have enough time as it was to get ready let alone help someone else who wasn't even done yet. Wesley had given him a thank you look, and they had both hurried back to the common room.

Harry's costume as expected had taken almost no time for him to get on. He had changed from his robes into his oversized clothing. He looked in the mirror and decided he didn't look dilapidated enough, so he magically conjured dirt stains onto his face. When that was done he looked for Ron. Ron stepped out of the shower room where he had decided to get dressed in somewhat privacy. He was wearing a bright orange jumper and matching bandana. If he wasn't wearing that bright color then he would almost look like a muggle martial artist but the coloring made him in fact look ridiculous. Most people wouldn't notice however so when Ron asked him how cool his costume was Harry answered with smile and a friendly "wicked." Although he really thought it looked silly.

Ron of course had seen Harry in his clothing at the Dursleys' before so he didn't ask Harry about his costume except to ask what it was supposed to be. Harry answered "a street rat." Ron nodded and that was the last they talked of it.

Harry was actually surprised at many of the costumes, as they had only had a little over a week to prepare them. Dean was wearing an ornate black and red cape that looked rather spooky, instead of wearing fake fangs as a muggle would have it was very obvious that someone had transfigured his front teeth to make them pointier and slightly longer making him look like quite the vampire indeed. He topped the costume off with a very ornate looking muggle suit and a cane with a bat on the top of it. He smiled and raised an eyebrow at Harry as if to ask "you like?" Harry grinned back. He was impressed.

Hermione was dressed in a trench coat and fedora, obviously dressed as a private eye. It wasn't that that impressed him though. It was her attention to detail such as the pen in her ear, and the imprints of a notebook, a gun and a badge under the coat, hidden quite well actually, Harry wasn't sure if one would have noticed them had they not known what to look for. Dean and Harry both looked rather impressed at her costume. Most of the students had no idea what she was.

Parvati had pulled her hair into a braided ponytail and was wearing a pointed hat. She had on very little below that and Harry had no idea what she was supposed to be. She looked more like a promiscuous witch than anything else. Dean of course was just staring at her wide eyed, obvious incredibly happy with what he saw.

Harry wasn't exactly surprised at how the girls had dressed up Seamus, however he was impressed. He was wearing a bandana, an eye patch, very tattered looking off white pantaloons, a brown vest with nothing underneath it and a hook for a left hand. The pirate look fit him so well that it took Harry a second to realize that it was in fact Seamus and not a Seamus look alike who was actually a pirate. Of course the fact that there would never ever be a pirate in the school tipped the scale, but it was rather real looking.

It was Neville that had the best costume however, everyone agreed. It was so good that everyone had been surprised to see their headmaster walking down the stairs from their dorms. He had gotten everything right straight down to the twinkle in his eyes. Of course, Harry realized that Neville had always had a similar twinkle the few times he was happy. But it really showed now. Everyone spent at least ten minutes awing over it and it intricacies. The glasses, the robe and how perfectly silky it was. They even asked where he got such an effective fake beard. When Neville had said that he had gotten a benefactor to spell the beard on him, every one was even more impressed. In fact had the voice that came from the body not been Neville's, Harry was doubtful anyone would have known it was him. Just about the only physical difference was that Neville was slightly shorter and thicker than him, but one would have to be looking for that to notice it through everything else.

Last Wesley came down the stairs, and Harry smiled when he saw that he was playing himself, his real self, not the self that he showed to them everyday. While many of the other students congratulated him on how realistic his costume looked, asking him things like how far the makeup went and other things like that. Harry actually felt somewhat sorry for the boy again. For everyone else this was a time to get away form what they were and become whatever they wanted. For him it was the only time when he could simply be himself.

Lavender wasn't showing but by now all of Gryffindor house knew about the dare. Harry was not sure how but they had somehow managed to keep the secret to themselves and even though every Gryffindor knew about it even the first years, it seemed that almost no one outside of the house had a clue. No one wondered where she was because part of the plan was for her to show up fashionably late. And so the odd looking group of individuals started down towards the great hall.

On their way down they ran into Justin, Ernie and Susan. They could only recognize Justin because of his voice as he was dressed totally in silver. Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to be, it looked to him to just be a totally silver bodysuit. It didn't even have any place on his face for eyes. When asked, Justin wouldn't say what he was and so it was yet another conundrum that he doubted anyone would figure out. Justin did make it clear that he could see completely fine when people started offering him hands.

Ernie on the other had was quite obviously dressed as Robin Hood. He was wearing a brown tunic and puce colored leggings which somehow didn't cause everyone to retch. What really totally gave it away however were the hat with a small raven feather and longbow strapped to his back. Harry was certain that many of the people here had no idea who he was but no one asked so it didn't really matter.

Susan was simply wearing a golden ballroom gown and tiara. When asked she said she couldn't think of anything else so she just chose to be a general damsel in distress. Hannah had thought that wouldn't be obvious enough and so suggested a princess instead.

When they asked where Hannah was they said she wasn't feeling too great and would be sitting this one out.

The sixth year Gryffindors and three Hufflepuffs entering the great hall wasn't as spectacular as one might have expected from the costumes as there were plenty of really impressive things. About the only thing that surprised people was the fact that the headmaster had not worn a costume and had come down with the Gryffindors. No one bothered correcting them.

Of course there was a rather impressive old hag who met the Gryffindor's gazes the twinkle in her eyes was obviously the headmaster's. She smiled her eyes twinkling even more at the sight of Neville's costume. Harry almost felt like he should have put more effort into his. There were all these impressive obviously magical costumes and all he had done was make himself look dirty and run down. Oh well, a bit late to be thinking about that.

Not having anything else to do and not particularly wanting to dance, Harry decided to go sit down and look around and see if he could pick out what the professors were wearing and anyone else who he knew for that matter.

There was a giant Santa Clause there who was obviously Hagrid. Harry has no idea where he had gotten the idea or a costume in his size for that matter but he did. He even changed the color of his hair to white although how he had done it was unknown to Harry.

Professor McGonagall had out done herself this time with transfiguration skill beyond anything Harry had seen before. She had turned herself into a young woman and then dressed herself in the garb of a Muse. She carried a harp in her hand that played itself which wouldn't be all that impressive had the strings not been as fluid as water. She could obviously play it as well as every so often she would pluck a string which would somehow make noise despite being liquid as far as Harry could tell. The only reason Harry was certain this was his professor was the stern expression on her face. Even so it was obvious that she was having fun because every so often she would smile and when she caught him looking she winked his way. It was a wink that only his professor could give, stern but playful, the ultimate showing of the Gryffindor. People thought that Slytherins were the only ones who were tricky. It was obvious that whatever traits were put into Gryffindor often led to plenty of mischief. It was just generally playful instead of manipulative.

Leon was not dressed at all and in fact was obviously chaperoning the thing. Of course since he was blind it seemed a good idea since Harry knew for a fact that he could tell who all the students who he knew were regardless of what costume they were wearing.

Charlie was wearing a singlet which made him look quite the muggle wrestler with his scars and strong physique. Harry had no idea where he had gotten the singlet but he knew that with his father's obsession with muggles it would be impossible to not learn a bit about them. Although it seemed that then Weasley children had a much better grasp on muggles then their father, Harry still remembered the barrage of questions he had been asked by the man when they had met his second year. He still didn't know how to answer some of them as they made little sense. He seemed to recall one about the practical uses of hand puppets, and that was one of the more logical ones.

Harry was about to continue with his costume sighting when the door to the great hall opened and in came the most beautiful sight Harry had seen since the Quidditch world cup his fourth year. For it was Lavender who had made her fashionably late dramatic entrance, her costume the perfect rendition of a veela. After a few seconds of staring Harry came to his senses and looked around. With no exceptions, everyone in the room was staring at her. Nearly every boy was leering in her direction, and Harry could see why. Lavender was beautiful, totally beautiful and if he already didn't think of her as a good friend he would probably have never been able to pull his eyes away.

She walked over to where Roger Davies was dancing. Harry tensed up for a second when he realized that he was dancing with Cho, but she didn't seem to care and in fact seemed more impressed with the costume than anything else. Harry tensed up a bit more when Cho started walking in his direction and so missed the remainder of what was happening between Roger and Lavender.

"Hi Harry, I hope this isn't too awkward but I was hoping we could talk." Harry wasn't sure how to respond. He still remembered how they had left things off the previous year. But he couldn't think of a reason not to talk to her so he nodded. After all it's not like she asked to speak to him in private.

"I actually wanted to apologize…for everything. I was really distraught last year, about you know…Cedric…" She looked him in the eye carefully as she said this. Harry could tell she was feeling out his response. Harry couldn't honestly say he hadn't felt a ping of anger at the memory but he found that it was not directed at her in fact it didn't seem to be directed anywhere in particular and with nowhere to go it simply dissipated as he let it flow over and out of him as he had been doing since that first occlumency lesson.

"Yeah, I was too." Harry said, his tone making it clear that while it was still shaky ground that it wasn't unmentionable. Cho visibly relaxed the tense air between them finally broken.

"It wasn't just that though. I wanted to apologize for using you to get over him and for not even trying to see your point of view with the whole DA thing." Harry wasn't really certain what she was saying although it was obvious that there was more to it then this so he remained silent. The comment about using him to get over Cedric did hurt a little but he could understand the impulse though as he had been using everyone that entire year for that, as targets for his anger at Crouch, Dumbledore, Voldemort and of course himself.

"I was hoping that we could make up and you know…become friends. I want to rejoin the DA. I heard you were still running it? And I wanted to really get to know you, instead of the boy who lived and the boy who saw Cedric die. Oh and another thing. Remind me never to point out mistletoe to you again." She smirked, "It would have been much easier had we never had that first stupid kiss!"

Harry laughed at that comment, it was incredibly morbid and totally out of place. It wouldn't be funny to anyone else nor in any other situation but in this case it was. Harry was certain this would be an inside joke between them for ages to come.

Cho looked over to where Roger and Lavender were dancing. Although it looked to Harry a lot more like they were humping to the music than anything else. "Wow, I knew Lavender had planned on stealing him form me today but…wow. I am impressed."

Harry looked at her surprised. "You knew about this?"

"Yeah…wait you did?" Cho looked equally surprised. Then her surprise dissipated into understanding. "Oh yeah, Hermione would tell you wouldn't she?" Harry was still shocked.

"Truth be told, it was me who dared her to do this in the first place. Although I had to pull in some favors to get the message to her without her knowing I sent it." Cho smiled a not un-Gryffindor like smile. "I needed a laugh and so when Roger asked me for the like umpteenth time to go to the dance with him I said yes. Truth is I rather wanted to just go by myself. I have had enough of dates, as I am sure you will agree that I haven't exactly had the best of luck in that respect."

"Hmm…murder victim and then angry brat… Yeah I would say so." Harry said. He found that the morbid humor of the events of the previous years actually lightened the mood and the air between him and Cho seemed to be clearing quite nicely. Of course the fact that he had gotten over his crush on her was helping considerably. That and he realized that they had an important thing in common. They had both lost a good friend in Cedric. Harry had lost a partner and possible friend and she had lost her first love. It was something in common, morbid as it was, that allowed them to get on with their lives. Harry realized that had they gotten together on a more positive note the previous year that he may have been able to forgive himself for Cedric's death, or even if not at the very least have someone to share the pain he was feeling who felt similar pain.

Harry and Cho continued chatting. At some point Hermione and Ron came over and it looked like other than the fact that Ron was a bit miffed at Cho for how she had treated them the previous year, which was quickly dissipated by a very heartfelt apology from her that Harry thought was a bit overly dramatic. Then again now that he thought about it…she did seem to be the dramatic type, even if it wasn't really an act.

Of course as was the normal rule of anything Hogwarts related, as soon as everything settled down something had to come up to jostle it up again and unfortunately this dance was not going to end on a totally calm note. In fact for many people quite the opposite was true.

At some point during the conversation Hermione left and Ron and Cho had, to their surprise, found that they shared a love of everything quidditch. Harry wasn't that surprised actually after all she was a seeker. This of course ended up with him being a third wheel as he wasn't exactly in the mood to chat abut quidditch and that was fine as they didn't seem to care to include him and so he was again left to his musings.

Of course he let his mind wander, but before he could think of anything he intercepted a communiqué that was obviously mind speak. Realizing that it was from Seamus he decided to listen in after all…he was curious as to how he was doing and pretty much anything was more interesting than sitting there spacing out. He felt a bit guilty listening into the conversation whatever it was but in the end his curiosity won out and he decided to try and perfect his mental eavesdropping abilities.

"…yeah I know. It really sucks. So you're saying that Ernie knows?" Harry had a hunch what this was about after all he had intercepted the little note between Justin and Seamus during class. Of course this made him all the more curious, if nothing else it was certainly more interesting then the general relationship drama that traditionally happened at the school.

"Yeah he does. Actually I am quite jealous of you." Justin's voice rang out.

"You are?" Seamus sounded surprised.

"Yeah you had the guts to do what I couldn't."

Seamus laughed, Harry looked at him, but all he showed to the world was a slightly amused smile. "I didn't exactly choose to tell everyone it just kinda happened."

"Well. In any case I still wish I had the guts."

Seamus got a gleam in his eyes and Harry was certain he knew what he was going to do. Harry knew what this would lead too and he couldn't help but want to know what was going to happen. After all, he had been there for everything else. And frankly the year had been starting to run down. Surely something must have happened by now and if this was what was going to happen then so be it. At least it didn't have anything to do with Voldemort. "This IS a costume party and the next song is a slow dance…" The suggestion in his voice was rather obvious.

"You mean… No…" But of course Harry knew Justin well enough especially now after being in the Psionics and Potions class with him for two months to know that tone said totally the opposite.

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."

Harry could imagine the mischievous smirk on Justin's face as he said this. "Yeah…I don't take enough risks! It's time I just said screw the gits and did something I wanted for a change."

It was then that Harry decided to stop eavesdropping as he would much rather watch the show. And what a show it was. Seamus and Justin simply walked over to the dance floor upon the starting of the next song, which was indeed a slow couples' tune and simply embraced and started dancing.

Harry watched in awe as the majority of the people in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at the newly formed couple. Even most of the other couples stopped dancing. Of the couples who were still dancing were Neville and his partner. Who was so well dressed that Harry still had no idea who it was and Ron and Hermione, who seemed totally oblivious to everything but each other.

The outcome was actually quite anti-dramatic. Justin and Seamus very quickly walked off the dance floor hand and hand, heading out of the great hall towards the courtyard. No one said anything while they were there and the only thing that followed them were whispers. Which were quickly quelled by the gaze's of any number of present Gryffindors and to Harry's surprise a fairly large number of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well.

It was then that Harry realized that he had somehow managed to exhaust himself. Maybe mental eavesdropping took more effort than he thought? So he excused himself from Cho, who was still sitting next to him, and headed up to his dorm.

He was happy to find a dreamless night, and even happier to notice that he had not been the center of attention at all. It was a nice change one that Harry hoped would remain true in the future even though he seriously doubted it.

It was clear over the next few days not only that Justin and Seamus and hooked up. Funnily enough though, not much had come of it. This was possibly do to the fact that they seemed to have the backing of the entire DA, a group it was known was not to be trifled with. But it wasn't that that got truly got Harry wondering what was really going on again.

It began with him waking up really late at night with the incredible feeling that someone needed his help. He wasn't sure who or why. But he couldn't shake the feeling. And it was so strong that he couldn't get back to sleep then.

He thought he would just get up maybe read a little bit. Hopefully bore himself to sleep with school work. That usually worked on sleepless nights that were not caused by his frequent nightmares. But instead he found himself walking down to the common room, to the portrait and outside into the halls.

There he came to his senses the first thing coming to his ears being a whimpering noise. The whimpering noise was coming from a small boy who was sitting against the wall in a t-shirt and shorts, which were obviously night clothes. The obvious first year boy, for he could be no older than eleven unless he was really behind on his growth was sitting up against the wall with his knees hugged up to his chest. His head was between his legs and so all Harry could see was his short dark hair.

Harry walked up to the boy and said, "Are you ok?"

The boy was startled and lifted his head in surprise. However he didn't look at where the noise was coming from as Harry had expected he more just lifted his head in such a way where his ears were fully out in the air and then stopped. Harry instantly knew who this was, Devon Witter. "Harry?" The boy asked, obviously surprised and nervous at the same time.

Harry nodded but then realized that there was no way he would have known that so he responded with a "Yes." Devon's body relaxed at that but it was obvious that he wasn't totally sure what was going on.

"How did you get here?" Harry asked the next question to come to mind. He was pretty shocked and so was still rather playing the situation by ear.

"I have no idea. I woke up on cold stone and I didn't know what to do or where I was so I crawled to a wall and sat there. Only a few minutes later I heard you come." Harry wasn't sure why but he walked over and hoisted Devon into his arms. Devon responded by relaxing a lot and wrapping his feet around Harry's waist and his arms around his neck. Harry found himself holding the boy and wandering aimlessly around the halls near Gryffindor tower.

It occurred to him that he had no idea where the Ravenclaw common room was. He had been to the Slytherin one that time in his second year. Everyone knew where the Hufflepuff one was because it was right off of the great hall. The Gryffindor one was known by all at this point if for no other reason than because Harry himself was sorted into Gryffindor but the Ravenclaw one was the most elusive one. He knew it was in one of the towers but he didn't know which one. He knew that Gryffindor tower was one, that the astronomy tower was another and that Trelawny held residence in a third. However he could not be sure exactly how many towers there were and with the constantly moving floors he was unsure of whether he could find any tower he didn't already know of let alone the correct one.

He also thought to ask a member of the order at the very least if they had seen how he had gotten to the hallway outside the Gryffindor dorms but they seemed to be quite absent at the moment. In fact the entire castle had a lonely feel to it that made chills go down Harry's spine. The torches were not lit when they should have been. The order members that were out at night kept all the hallways lit. But now they were dark. The order members themselves seemed totally absent and Harry found that he was hoping to run into a teacher. He would even be happy if Snape made one of his appearances which he always seemed to do whenever Harry was out of bed after curfew. But it appeared that even he was sound asleep, or at the very least not here.

The entire situation was rather ominous and so rather than search the castle aimlessly for a random tower which he had no idea where it was he thought it was better to take Devon back to the Gryffindor common room where at least he knew it was safe.

The thought of asking Devon where his common room was did occur to Harry. But he realized that if he had any idea where it was in relation to where they were that he would have likely tried to make his way back there. Harry was certain that he would have difficulty finding his way back to his dorm if he found himself in some unknown corridor in the castle even being able to see, so he was fairly certain that Devon likely had no idea which direction to even start to go in.

When they reached the common room, which was empty, Harry felt a lot safer. There was something totally wrong about this entire picture and he really wanted to know what it was. He knew now that he had gotten the urge to get up and go outside and that he had found Devon exactly where he was told to go. Not only that but Devon had somehow gotten there without waking up or being seen by an order member or staff. Of course the fact that the hallways seemed deserted when they were supposed to be swarming with adults didn't stay well with him either.

"Harry…thank you for finding me." Devon said into his ear softly. "This really would have been a disaster had you not come when you did. I was totally lost."

Harry wasn't certain that the night was over or that it wasn't a disaster. But it was clear to him that regardless of what happened he was not to let any harm come to Devon. He didn't know why he knew this, it seemed almost liked it came to him in a dream but he couldn't place a particular one. But it was obvious that he was.

Harry stood very still ready to be put to whatever test he was being put though as he was certain this was some sort of test. He was suddenly quite aware that he did not have his wand. He heard a howl and then he realized in his horror that a full moon was gleaming in the window, silhouetted by the shape of the wolf that standing on its sill…

Afterthoughts

Ok, I would apologize to you guys for this delay but I won't because I am in a bad mood and feel like I have been gypped on my reviews. You know not one of you bothered me on the review board for an update and only a few of you bothered me about it at all?

Ok now that I have pointlessly taken out my horrible week on the lot of you (lets just say I ended up with a broken foot the week before I was going off to school and leave it at that). I have some things to tell you.

I am going off to Santa Cruz for college. If you don't know what that is then it doesn't really matter but what does matter is that I will not have as much time for writing but will likely have more willpower to do it. So I don't know whether to expect longer chapters or more frequent ones but know that there will likely be a change in my posting pattern, hopefully for the better.

To all of you who reviewed I will respond individually later as I am tired enough as it is. For now just keep reviewing please and comment on what you think. After all, as long as you explain yourself I'll even take your rants and raves about how horrible my story is and try to use the info to make it better. I don't care whether my feedback is positive or negative as long as it is explained so I know it comes from someone whoa actually thought about it.

Hope you like this chapter. Oh and sorry for the cliffie. Doesn't beat you yet theKnowItAll but I am getting closer. That and next chapter you are getting your blood and a possible new werewolf.

Nightlit