Harry Potter is owned by the illustrious J.K.Rowling. I am merely borrowing this magical world to tell a story.

Chapter 26: Training

When Harry left the hospital wing the next morning, Durry on his shoulder, and his skin pink and new looking, he found Ron and Hermione waiting for him. Harry could see Hermione let out a breath that she had been holding, obviously relieved to see him whole.

He himself felt a great deal better, though his back was still slightly sore, and he moved a bit stiffly. He couldn't, however, seem to bring himself to smile at them when they fell in beside him, providing him escort back to the common room. Harry actually got the feeling that they were acting as bodyguards, something he felt confirmed when Ron stared hard at every cluster of students who crossed their path.

Harry pursed his lips as Ron glared at a small group of first years, who looked startled before scattering.

"You don't need to watch over me." Harry commented crossly.

Hermione looked prim while Ron looked guilty.

"We just want to make sure you're all right, Harry." She told him. "Everyone wanted to come and see if you were okay but Ron and I overrode them."

"Everyone?" Harry asked with a lift of one jet eyebrow.

"Pretty much everyone." Hermione demurred.

Harry shrugged his shoulders, testing the tightness of the skin on his back.

"What happened after I left?" He asked with a grim look, wondering if Malfoy had managed to get away with it.

"Well, mate." Ron commented with a shrug. "After Flitwick removed the sealing charm he had put on my hands so I could take you to the hospital wing, the class was nearly over."

Harry glanced at Hermione.

"Professor Flitwick was angry." She told him quietly. "I've never seen him quite so furious. He threatened to give everyone detentions if whomever had done it did not give themselves up."

"So Malfoy got away with it." Harry muttered very darkly.

"Not entirely," She corrected him. "But Flitwick determined the general area from which the potion was thrown. And, well, everyone knows how things are between you and Malfoy."

"What did he do?"

"Malfoy or Flitwick?" Ron asked.

"Either...both." Harry said.

"Malfoy was going to get away with it, I think." Hermione said, a small smile blooming on her face, "Flitwick really wasn't about to give all of us detentions..."

"And..." Harry prompted.

He spied Ron grinning out of the corner of his eye. "I just got back in time to see it."

Hermione coughed slightly, perhaps covering a satisfied laugh. "Snape came in."

"SNAPE." Ron repeated with emphasis.

Hermione eyed him. "Yes, Ron I do think that's what I said the first time." Ron looked abashed, and Hermione shook her head before reaching across Harry to touch his arm. "As I was saying, then. Snape came in, and he looked really angry. And you know how Snape gets when he's angry."

Ron jumped in. "He called Malfoy out into the hall, but didn't even shut the door all the way before he called him ten kinds of fool and gave him detention for a week."

"And Malfoy's his favorite." Harry commented.

"It sure didn't seem like it yesterday, mate." Ron shrugged. Harry looked to Hermione, who nodded.

"Maybe he was more angry that Malfoy was so easily caught, than by the fact that it was ME he was after." Harry mused.

He caught Hermione looking at him repressively. "I really don't think that was it, Harry." She said quietly. "It may've been that he was forced to punish him, there was no way around it. It could have been something else completely."

Harry made to protest, then remained silent, his thoughts turning to the year before and the incident with the Pensieve. He couldn't share the experience with his friends, he wouldn't even. Not even Snape had deserved that kind of treatment, he thought wryly, and he would not share it around, particularly because his father and his godfather had been the ones responsible.

But he thought that that incident may have been one of many, and perhaps something similar had once happened to Snape at the hands of his tormentors. That, in itself, could have incited the anger Hermione had described.

His friends must have noticed his silence, but allowed it as they accompanied him back to the Gryffindor common room. He was at the same time grateful that they were letting him order his thoughts, but he also wished they would turn the subject to something else so he could turn his mind away from Snape.

As they trod through the hallways, up stairs and through tapestries Ron seemed to get more and more fidgety. He scratched his nose, glanced at Harry, opened his mouth, thought better of it and closed it again.

Finally, after several repetitions of this, when they were nearing the common room, Harry tired of watching him and asked. "Something else on your mind, Ron?"

Ron glanced at Hermione, who nodded.

"Well," He began. "Remember how Professor Lanya told us to come back the next day after we overheard her talking to Snape?"

"Yes, I remember." Harry said. He thought briefly about telling them about her distress of the night before, but then he would have to go into other things he wasn't ready to talk about yet.

"Well, we figured that we should go ahead and take her to the Room of Requirement, and Neville and I decided to go."

Harry looked to Hermione questioningly.

"I was working on something and couldn't get away." She provided.

"We went to her office, and we heard something." Ron gulped nervously, as though this had made him uncomfortable. Harry motioned at him to go on. "It...sounded like someone was crying. We...er...decided it might not be the best of times."

Harry hesitated, then nodded sadly. "I think Lanya got some bad news." He said finally. "Perhaps we should wait for her to bring it up again before we go ahead."

Ron looked at him oddly, obviously wondering what Harry wasn't telling him. He felt Hermione's stare as well on his other side, curious and calculating. He was spared, though, from further questioning by their reaching of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Splendiferous." Hermione said, and the portrait swung open to reveal the common room entrance.

Harry and his friends entered to find a nearly completely empty common room, most of their fellows already down at breakfast. The exception to this was one slightly pudgy boy who was sitting at one of the tables, a book and several papers spread before him, his hands in his sandy hair. Neville looked up briefly as they entered.

"All right, Neville?" Harry asked.

"I...wanted to get an early start on my Potions homework." Neville said with an edge of despair in his voice.

Harry had to fight to get his face to remain still. Of all the people in Hogwarts, Neville was the last one that he had expected to get into NEWT level Potions. He wondered how on earth Snape had been persuaded to keep Neville in his classes.

"That's from yesterday?" Harry asked. The one good thing about being stuck in the hospital wing overnight was that he hadn't had to go to Potions.

"Yeah," Neville said. "He wants an essay on time released Potions, twelve inches."

"We started on timed Potions?" Harry asked, gulping. They were some of the most complicated and difficult of potions to brew.

Neville nodded grimly, picking up a cup of coffee from among the papers and peering in it before taking a sip. "The way he talked about this year in Potions, I think we're all going to be seeing poisons everywhere we look."

"Constant vigilance." Hermione said under her breath.

Harry glanced at her, seeing the mischievous twinkle in her eye as she winked at him. "Was there any more homework assigned?" He asked.

"Flitwick only gave us a few chapters to read, one to four, he was too distracted by what happened to order his thoughts properly, I think." Hermione told him. Harry nodded. "For Potions, the essay Neville is working on." She peered at him closely. "You might want to work on it this afternoon when you have the free time slot."

Harry had forgotten that he had no classes between Transfiguration on Wednesday mornings or on Thursday mornings. He thought that this year he should use his time more wisely and perhaps get his homework done early rather than at the last minute. With all his free time, he could also put in more effort on the DA, and quidditch.

"Well," Hermione shrugged. "I don't really have any free time, but I suggest you fill up a couple of those empty hours with the optional courses that will be offered. I'm going to have to make time for the Apparition class."

"Do you know the others?" Ron asked, obviously hearing this, as Harry was, for the first time.

"Well, Professor McGonagall told me about a class for students who are interested in becoming animagi."

"Cool!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yes," She agreed with some resignation. "I may have to find time to squeeze that in as well."

"Careful, Meow," Harry said quietly as she walked up with them to their dormitory so that Harry could collect his books for Transfiguration, leaving Neville in the common room. Harry could faintly hear him gathering up his papers and wondered if he was in Transfiguration as well. He continued after a pause, during which Hermione gave him a disgruntled look. "Or you may need a Time Turner again."

She gave him a half smile, "It did turn out to have many uses, though." Then she frowned, turning away almost before Harry saw the glint of tears in her eyes. She sniffed quietly, "If I have to I'll just speak to the Professors about tutoring in the evenings."

Ron moved over to her and placed an arm around her shoulders, squeezing gently as Harry deposited Durry on his bed and picked up his Transfiguration textbook. He glanced at the title, 'Advanced Transfigurations,' and in small print beneath it, in a very unfriendly looking font, 'NEWT level 1.'

He put in his bag, spared a pat for Durry, and was just about to turn away when he noticed something. "Have you two seen Cord?"

Ron pursed his lips, scratching again at the side of his long nose. "I haven't. But he's probably out hunting, right?"

Harry hesitated, looking at the bed that was empty save for Durry for a very long moment then shook his head wryly. "I'm sure you're right. I was just worrying...because, well..."

"You did give order him not to bite anyone, didn't you?" Hermione asked pointedly.

Harry felt himself relax a bit, "Yeah," he nodded. Then he looked at his watch. "We'd best be going." He told them. They turned and trooped out, gathering Neville on the way.

Harry took his seat with his friends surrounding him. He noticed that Neville sat behind him and wondered if that was in order to deflect any chance attacks from the sullen looking Malfoy, who was sitting without his usual lackeys, but with Pansy Parkinson leaning in next to him, whispering in his ear.

He seemed to be ignoring her for the most part, though at one point when she glanced at Harry's group and with a very unattractive smirk whispered something to him, he sneered.

Harry didn't really care what the pug-faced girl said to the sharp-faced boy. He was frankly disdainful of the two of them, and after all, he hadn't even recovered from the attack Malfoy had made on him the day before.

He found great delight on thinking through his litany of curses and hexes that he would be happy to use on Malfoy. Maybe he had something with potential in the bag of tricks he had bought from Fred and George.

He was quickly distracted from his thoughts of revenge when McGonagall entered, swinging her long staff rather than leaning on it. It seemed she didn't need it often but had grown used to carrying it around. She leaned it on the side of her desk as she took her chair and peered around at them.

"This is NEWT level Transfiguration. Because you have made it this far, I assume you are prepared to take on the hard work and long hours that are required in order to pass your NEWT examinations." The stern faced witch peered at them over her square framed glasses. "And I fully expect you to pass."

She stood, bracing herself on the smooth desktop. "I fully expect you to pass." She repeated for emphasis. "And this means you will perform to the best of your abilities throughout this year and the next." She looked at them as though daring them to protest. The silence reigning through the room was cloying.

She seemed satisfied with the results of her small speech. Professor McGonagall nodded and took up the roll sheet, glancing at it, then at the room. Apparently she was familiar enough with their faces to no longer call them out.

"Very well then, the best time to start is right away." She said in clipped tones. "Take out your quills, and be prepared to exercise cramped hands by the practical part of the lesson."

Harry did indeed find the need to stretch his fingers back into normal shape by the end of class, when his hand wasn't clasped around a quill, busily scratching away on the transfiguration of small stones into guinea pigs, concentrating on the change in mass, it was clasped around his wand, trying to accomplish it. He was sitting at his desk, his abnormally small guinea pig squeaking on the desk before him, massaging his hands, when McGonagall got around to mentioning the extra classes Hermione had been talking about.

"Before you go to your lunch hour," The mention of lunch made Harry's stomach grumble, protesting the small breakfast Madame Pomfrey had made him eat, "I would like to have a list of names of those interested in Apparation class, and a class that has not been provided here in former years, Animagus Training." An excited murmur passed through the class.

McGonagall silenced them with a stern look. "The animagus training is offered only to those in NEWT Transfigurations, and you must expect to do a lot of work in addition to your normal class work. It is not a simple process. The class will be meeting on every other Thursday afternoon beginning next week." She continued after passing her gaze significantly around the class.

"Now, as most of you know, Apparition is something that you will also be tested in before you are able to get a license and you will only be able to freely use this skill until you reach the age of seventeen. This class is open to all students, and meets Friday morning of every other week, starting the week after next. Professor Flitwick will be your instructor."

She picked up her quill from the quill stand on her desk and looked around. "May I see hands for those who are interested in the Animagus Training? Be reminded that I will permit no lagging in either this class or, if you choose to take it, the training."

She looked satisfied at the number of hands that were raised, Harry and Ron's among them. Hermione looked vastly disappointed, and mouthed 'Arithmancy' at Harry's questioning glance.

There were a great deal more hands, practically everyone's really, for the question of those who would attend the Apparation classes, Hermione again leaving her hand down and looking terribly disappointed.

She stayed a moment, however, to speak with McGonagall after the class had been dismissed, her friends waiting in the hall for her. She emerged much more cheerful and Harry knew, though he had had no doubt that McGonagall would agree, that they had come to an arrangement.

"Thursday evenings," She announced cheerfully as they made their way down to the Great Hall for lunch. "She thinks I will do well in the class, and urges me to seriously consider the cat form."

"Speaking of cats...?" Ron said.

Hermione looked disgruntled. "Mum doesn't want to give him up yet."

Ron patted her shoulder, making commiserating noises. "I'm sure she'll let him go sooner or later." He told her as they pushed their way through the heavy doors, their opening admitting the raucous noises of the lunching students.

"Sometimes I worry," She said in a loud whisper, "How he'll react to Cord."

Harry hadn't considered that. He often found himself forgetting that Cord had been one of Voldemort's creatures. He merely shrugged at Hermione's look. "We'll just have to see, I suppose."

He looked up at the head table, scanning their faces, noting Professor Lanya's absence. Yes, he'd just have to see about a good many things.

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