Chapter 7
A/N thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! I welcome all comments good or bad, and if anyone else has any ideas for this story please tell me in a review! I have a good idea of the plot but it's not set in stone, I'm probably going to change some things anyway, so all suggestions are welcome! In this chapter I attempted to write a sorting hat song, (emphasis on 'attempted') but I am so bad at that kind of thing, so it really is awful! I just wanted to apologise in advance for it, and I know the rhyming is terrible. But I figured a horrible song was better than none at all right? Anyway, here's chapter 7.
It was the morning they were due to return back to school, and despite all of her children's complaints, Mrs. Weasley had them all up at 7:00 to make sure they were on time. Harry wasn't complaining, however, he was so furious with Remus and Ron's parents about keeping the new prophecy from him; he didn't know what it contained, but it was obviously to do with him, and so he was glad he wouldn't have to hide his feelings from them for much longer.
His secret of the dreams though, he knew, was too important to keep from the order of the Phoenix; he didn't want a repeat of last year. Though he had left it too late to tell them, he knew he should tell Dumbledore about them the first chance he got; maybe when he did that the Headmaster would decide to tell Harry the new prophecy. Fortunately for Harry, all the Weasleys and Hermione knew he was not really a morning person, and because he had been forced to get up early, his bad mood went unquestioned.
Last year they had walked to the station to catch the Hogwarts Express, it had only taken them 20 minutes, but luckily this year Mr. Weasley had been able to borrow cars from the Ministry so the journey only took them a few minutes. Remus, Moody and Tonks had come to escort them, and Ron's parents, Bill and the twins had come to see them off at Kings Cross. For the first time, this year they actually managed to make it with plenty of time to spare. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione managed to find an empty compartment quite easily, and left their things there, before going to say goodbye to the others.
"You all be careful now," Mrs Weasley was saying as she gave them all a hug, "make sure to write, and stay out of trouble. You're all welcome to come and stay at Christmas of course."
After all promising that they would, they said goodbye to the others, and by the time they had got back onto the train, they had all disappareted.
"Come on, Ron, we need to go to the Prefects carriage." He groaned in response.
"I forgot about that. Why do we need to go, it's pointless." Harry and Ginny could hear them bickering as they made their way towards the Prefect carriage at the front of the train.
"Come on then," they made their way to their own carriage, and came across Neville, who was trying to find somewhere empty.
"It's alright Neville, you can come in ours," Ginny said to him.
"Thanks, you guys I couldn't find anywhere-" he broke off as they walked into Harry and Ginny's compartment which was no longer empty. Luna Lovegood was sitting there reading her father's magazine the squibbler. Neville had always found Luna 'Loony' Lovegood a little strange.
"Oh, hello," she greeted them.
"Hi Luna," said Harry, Luna didn't bother him that much anymore, or at least not as much as she did Neville.
"Did you have a nice summer, Luna?"
"Oh yes, it was quite enjoyable. We went on that expedition to Sweden I told you about. I didn't find a crumple-horned snorkack though." She looked mildly disappointed, and then went back to reading the magazine upside down, now apparently unaware that they were still in the room." Ginny met Harry's eyes and grinned, trying her best not to laugh.
"Hey, guys, look at this." Neville pulled out his wand from his robes, "My gran bought me a new one over the summer. Dragon heartstring, Beech 10 inches," he said proudly. Neville's wand, which had belonged to his father, had been broken when they were in the Department of Mysteries.
Over an hour later, in which time the witch with the lunch trolley had gone past, and Dean and Seamus had come to see them, Ron and Hermione came back.
"I still can't understand how those two idiots became prefects, it's just ridiculous!"
"Yeah, but at least this year there'll be no 'Inquisitorial Squad.' That was even more stupid."
"Malfoy's just as cocky as ever, of course," Hermione informed the others.
"Well let's see his face after we've played him at quidditch!" This was spoken triumphantly by Ginny.
"If we find some better beaters, that is," Harry reminded her.
"Oh, come on Harry! If we could beat them last year with Kirke and Sloper, without you, I think we could do it this year when you're actually are playing!"
"You're going to have a lot of new players this year then, aren't you?" Said Hermione, "that'll make a big change to the team won't it."
"I guess. I suppose Katie's captain this year, is she?"
"She must be. Her and Harry have been on the team the longest, and she's a seventh year, so it must be her."
"Hey, Harry, when she's left next year, Mcgonagall'll probably make you captain," said Ron excitedly. Strangely enough, Harry hadn't even thought amount that, but now he realised Ron was right. Once Katie had left he would be the player who had been on the team for the longest.
About an hour after Dean and Seamus left their compartment to go back to their own, they got another, less welcome guest.
"Hey look, its Potty and the Weasel King." Came Draco Malfoy's drawling voice.
"Oh, so witty, Malfoy'. What do you want?" This was Hermione, as Harry gripped his wand inside his pocket. If Malfoy was stupid enough to attack him, he was ready. He apparently hadn't learned his lesson since the end of last term; Malfoy had tried attacking him, and had ended up unconscious for the rest of the train journey.
"Not very friendly are we. I just came to see if Potty had survived the summer. Unfortunately, it looks like he has. But don't worry; I'm sure that'll change soon enough."
"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron too, it appeared was ready to attack if Malfoy gave them enough cause to.
"What's the matter Malfoy? Father not out of prison yet?"
"My Father won't be in Azkaban for long Potter. And when he gets out, you're going to pay." Malfoy snarled this at them, before turning and storming out of the compartment. Ron slammed the door shut after him, "Git."
"I would have thought they would have all escaped now actually, you know, with the dementers working for you-know-who."
"Well, I heard they've got Ministry members guarding it now as well. They're not as good as dementers for prison guards though, obviously, so they will most likely escape anyway eventually." Hermione sighed, "I wish the order could tell us more, they still think we're too young, even after what we went through last year…" she broke off, with a nervous look at Harry. He ignored this, and replied normally, "I know, it's annoying. I talked to Lupin a bit though the other day. All he told me was that Voldemort's still lying low, and they're not really sure why."
"Yes, that is a bit strange," she replied thoughtfully, "Now everyone knows about him, I thought he would stop being as secretive. I've tried asking the order about it, but they don't really give me a decent answer."
"I know I've tried to. I guess we don't have the right to know, even after what we went through last year," Ron said bitterly. Again this was followed by a nervous look at Harry, this time by Ron. Harry pointedly ignored this; while wondering how long his friends would wait before they dared try talk to him about Sirius again.
Before he knew it the train was pulling to a stop in Hogmeade station, and they started getting all their luggage together. Holding Hedwig's cage in his arm, Harry climbed of the train with the others, and to his relief, the first thing he heard was a familiar voice calling, "Firs' -years ovr 'ere…firs-years…" Hagrid saw them and waved, but due to the large crowds they could not go and speak to him. Hermione, holding onto a squirming Crookshanks, led Harry Ron and Ginny over to an empty carriage, and Neville and Luna followed them inside it.. Up until last year, Harry had thought these were horseless, but they were really pulled by Thestrals; creatures which you could only see if you had seen death. It had been a huge shock last year for Harry to see these reptilian horses pulling the carriages, and had been even more unnerved when no one else appeared to be able to see them, except 'Loony' Lovegood. Harry, Neville and Luna could all see them, but the other 3 couldn't. Though they had all been at the Ministry at the end of last year, only Harry and Neville had seen Sirius die.
The carriages finally arrived outside the front steps, and they all climbed out, leaving their luggage in the carriage as it was taken up to the dormitories separately. They started making their way up the steps, and entered the brightly-lit entrance hall, where they were unfortunately greeted by Peeves, the resident poltergeist, who had decided it would be amusing to drop water bombs on the student's heads as they came through the main doors.
The six of them ran past, and into the great hall, where they noticed there were a lot of wet students with disgruntled looks on their faces; obviously victims of Peeves.
Luna left them here to go to the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny joined some fellow fifth years, while the other four took seats next to Nearly-Headless Nick. "Good evening. I trust you all had a good summer?"
Harry had last seen Nick on the night of the leaving feast last year. He had decided not to attend the feast, and had ended up running into him. He had thought that maybe Sirius would be coming back as a ghost, and for a few minutes he had thought he would get to see his godfather again. When he had asked Nick about this, the ghost had told him that Sirius would not be coming back, and had basically just confused Harry even more, by trying to explain what happened to someone when they died. He had said that you get a choice to either become a ghost, or to 'go on.' But he could not explain what 'to go on' meant; he had insisted that he didn't know anything of the secrets of death, because he had simply chosen 'a feeble imitation of life.' Harry had not understood this, but now he felt he got it a little bit more, and he knew Sirius would not come back. At the time it had felt like he had lost his Godfather all over again.
Harry was saved replying by Dean, who would just sunk into the seat next to Ron. "What do you make of the new teacher then? Do you think he'll be any good?" For the first time since Harry had entered, he looked up at the staff table, and scanned each of the faces. There were two empty seats, one was for Hagrid, who escorted the first years across the lake, and the other for Professor McGonagall, who met the first years in the entrance hall. The only new face at the table was sat at the third seat from the end, talking to Professor Vector who taught Arithmancy. It would of course have to be the DADA teacher. Harry hoped he was better than the others; he had only liked one of their DADA teachers, the others had all either tried to kill him; torture him; or erase his memory, she Harry thought it was reasonable of him to be a little worried. From what he could tell, the man appeared to be in his late thirties and he had short, thick black hair. For some reason he looked familiar to Harry, even though he was sitting quite far away, and for reasons which he couldn't explain to himself, he disliked the man as soon as he laid eyes on him. He was annoyed with himself when he thought that though, he did not like to judge people before he met them. Besides, laughing at something Vector had said to him, he seemed to be friendly enough. But Harry could not shake off an uneasy feeling as he examined the new professor.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Ron was saying, "I hopes he's better than Umbridge; but then I'm not sure it's possible to be worse."
Any further comments were cut short, when the door opened and McGonagall led the long line of first years up to the front of the hall in front of the staff table. The hall fell quiet immediately as she glared around at everyone; she was the kind of teacher who could keep students under control without even trying to. Everyone's then looked to the hat which was sitting on the 3 legged stool, and the first years, seeing everyone's attention on it, stared at it too.
Suddenly, the rip near the brim of the hat, opened like a mouth, and the hat burst into song:
"I'll tell the story, of long ago
When a great wizard,
Whose name you should know;
Decided that, with his friends
He could make his wish come true.
Together they could teach young sorcerers,
And for a while this plan worked better than he knew.
But soon, from within the school came discord
That fed on their fear,
And their differences did grow,
Until one day it became clear
That Slytherin would leave them.
Now, I was there, and I can say
That division made the friendships fail
But, even now, to this day
Despite the warnings I gave you
The same mistakes you are making
And soon it will be too late,
For the unity we need, you are all forsaking.
Unless you start to work together
I fear the fall of the school is near,
So now, this time, you most listen closely
It's important that you hear;
You must all act quickly,
Now time is running short
You must all unite together,
If this war to be fought;
For we are all in danger.
And though I must split this year, like the ones before
I hope now you all see truth,
Whether you be a clever Ravenclaw or Brave Gryffindor
Pureblood Slytherin, or kind hufflepuff,
It is the same for all.
I have told you now all you need to hear
So join the house whose name I call,
But bear in mind the warning that I gave you."
(A/N see! I told you it was terrible. Basically the hat is just giving the same warning as last year, so please just remember that, and ignore the song!)
Just like the year before, whispers broke out al across the hall; but this year, of course at least everyone believed that Voldemort had returned, so it wasn't as much as a surprise.
The whispers were stopped by McGonagall, who once again glared around the hall, shutting people up immediately.
"First years, when I call your name, come forward sit on the stool and place the hat on your head." She pulled out scroll, and began to read out the names.
"Aguir, Morgana."
GRYFFINDOR!
As the sorting went on, it gave Harry time to think about the sorting hat's warning; he supposed it made sense, because one of Voldemorts greatest weapons was spreading distrust and division. Harry knew this for a fact; Wormtail had been trusted by his parents; they had literally trusted him with their lives, and he had betrayed them. But he didn't see ever making friends with any Slytherins; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, though, maybe. In fact, wasn't that what he had been doing last year? The DA had had members from Gryffindor Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff; they had been working together learning to defend themselves. Was it possible that some Slytherins would like to join it, if he carried it on? After all they couldn't all turn out to be Death eaters.
"Webster, Charity"
RAVENCLAW!
The sorting came to a close, and McGonagall took the hat and stool out of the Hall. Dumbledore waited until she had rejoined the staff table, before he stood up, beaming at them all, and silence fell immediately.
"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! I have a few notices to give out after our wonderful feast, but first I would like you all to welcome your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." The dark-haired man Harry had noticed earlier stood up, and smiled at everyone in the hall. "This is Professor Calhoun Drualtys."
There was a scattering of applause, slightly more enthusiastic than normal; possibly because all the students and staff, (except Filch) had been so glad to get rid of the last DADA teacher, and they knew this one would be better. Harry however, was beginning to think this might not be true; the man was smiling at everyone, and still appeared to be quite friendly, and Harry looked at him he again felt an inexplicable hatred and distrust of him. Where were those feelings coming from?
"And now, let the feast begin!" Everyone cheered; they hadn't eaten anything since the food trolley came on the train. Harry hadn't realised how much he missed Hogwarts food, but now as he helped himself to the steal and kidney pie, he thought that the house elves had outdone themselves; it was just as good as Mrs. Weasleys cooking.
Katie, who was sat with some of her friends nearby, leaned in to talk to Harry and Ron.
"You two, did you have a nice summer?" She didn't wait for a reply; Harry was worried; he had always liked Katie but now he thought she was maybe going to turn out to be as bad as Wood and Angelina had been. "I've been made Quidditch captain."
"Cool, when are you holding tryouts?"
"That's what I want to talk to you about. Listen you saw how terrible those beaters were last year, I was hoping to replace them; unless of course no one better turns up. But I don't want to just throw them off the team. So I was thinking, I know Ginny was really good, and I don't want to make her tryout again for the chaser position, but what if we say to Kirke and Sloper that we're making all the replacements from last year tryout again, to give other people a chance? That way we're not exactly throwing them off, especially if we're making Ginny do the same."
"That's a good idea actually. We have to find some better players."
"Alright, great. I just need to tell Ginny the plan then. How about we hold tryouts Saturday afternoon? I want to do them soon so we can practice; we'll have lots of new members to train up. So I'll put a notice up in the common room, ok? Make sure you're free for 2:00 on Saturday, ok?"
Harry had missed the tryouts last year, because he had been in a detention with Umbridge; he'd have to make sure he didn't do anything to give Snape an excuse to give him a detention.
"We'll be there."
He spent most of dinner talking to Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville about who they thought would come to the tryouts; Dean said that he was thinking of coming, and was trying to persuade Seamus to do the same.
"I still think I'm better at football though, of course," (Ron shook his head at this, he could never understand Dean's obsession with football,) "But I stayed with Seamus for a bit in the summer, and we played a bit; I think I got pretty good. I'm gonna try out at one of the beaters!"
When all the deserts had been cleaned away; Dumbledore stood up once again. "Well now we have all finished yet another magnificent feast, I would like to give you the rest of the notices. First years should be warned that the forbidden forest is out of bound to all students… and some older students should be able to remember this too, by now." Harry, Ron and Hermione had been into the forbidden forest multiple times, and realised that this was most likely directed at them; they grinned at each other.
"Our caretaker, Mr Filch has also asked me to inform you that the list of forbidden objects has increased substantially since the end of last year. The new list can be viewed in his office, and I am sure that many of you will wish to check it." This longer list probably contained all the items that were sold by the Weasley twins; Harry grinned as he remembered the mayhem some of these object had allowed the students to cause last year when Umbridge had become headmistress.
"Now, I think it is bedtime, as I am sure you will all be very eager to enter your lessons on time in the morning!" The great hall started to clear, and Ron and Hermione started trying to round up the first years to show them the way to the dormitory. Hermione whispered the password to him that she had been told in the Prefect carriage, and he and the rest of the boys in his dorm, minus Ron, left together.
"Phoenix Tears," Harry said as they reached the portrait of the fat lady, who nodded to him and opened to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. They climbed the stairs to their dorm which now read, "Sixth years," to find that their luggage had been brought up for them. They had already unpacked a lot of their belongings, when Ron entered muttering to himself; something about "bloody first years."
Half an hour later, Harry was in bed with the curtains around his four poster bed drawn. After what had happened last night, he was definitely going to take some of the Dreamless Sleep potion Remus had given him. He knew he would have to talk to Dumbledore soon; maybe he could find a better way to stop him having the dreams; Remus said it wasn't a good idea to keep taking that potion every night. But for now, it would do; anything to stop him repeating last night's dream.
In the morning, Harry Ron and Hermione entered the great hall for breakfast to see McGonagall handing out timetables. As she past them she leaned in, and said so that only Harry, and Ron and Hermione who were sitting on either side of him could hear, "Potter, the headmaster would like to see you tonight in his office, straight after you've finished dinner. Don't be there later than 5:30."
She carried on up the table, before harry could ask her anything. "What do you think he wants with you?" Ron asked him. "Dunno," he lied.
"Maybe you have to carry on Occulemcy?"
Harry gratefully latched on to this excuse, "Yeah, that must be it." Now he thought about it, that might actually be a part of it; they wouldn't just be talking about the prophecy. If he had to take extra classes with Snape again…It was bad enough last year, but this year he already had more lessons than ever with Snape, as he now took NEWT potions. He had dropped a lot of his old subjects; he was only taking 5 now; Potions, Charms, DADA and transfiguration as he needed them to be an Auror, and also as he needed a fifth he had taken COMC, so he could still be in Hagrid's class.
He now looked down at his timetable and groaned. "What's the matter, Harry?"
"I've got double potions first thing today. I cant believe it."
"You chose the class Harry," Hermione reminded him, while Ron looked sympathetic, "besides, I'm in it too, I can help you."
"Thanks," he said half-heartedly. "What have you got Ron?" Ron had only got an E in the potions exam, and was now looking at alternate career paths. "Herbology. I think I'm with you for all the other subjects though. We won't find out what that Drualtys is like until tomorrow though." He was scanning the rest of the timetable. "Hey, look we have 4 free periods a week! None today though."
Hermione frowned at him, "they're not 'free' periods, Ronald, they're study periods." Being ignored, though, she turned to Harry. "Come on then, we better go, we do not want to be late for Snape's class."
"Alright then. See you , Ron."
As they walked out of the hall, Harry said gloomily to Hermione, "He's going to be worse than ever this year. He'll be furious that I got into his class."
Hermione, however, looked satisfied at this thought, "Yes, I bet he thought you wouldn't be good enough to get an O. Well, you showed him, he can't say you're really bad at Potions, now!" she beamed at him, but Harry was barely cheered by this way of looking at it. "I bet we're the only non-Slytherins in the class. No one else is stupid enough to take it." Especially without Ron, Harry was extremely glad that Hermione was in this class with him.
"Don't be silly, Harry. There'll be people from the other houses that'll need potions. I think we're the only Gryffindors there though."
When they reached the dungeons, they saw the class lined up outside; it was the smallest Harry had ever been in. Because of the grades Snape required them to get, plus the fact that he was the most hated teacher in the school, there was only 10 other people there, and that was from all four houses. There was 1 each from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw; Ernie MacMillan, and Anthony Goldstein, who were standing together looking nervous, and then intensely relieved as they saw the two Gryffindors approaching. "Thank god you two are here. I thought we'd be alone with this lot." Ernie said this quietly, motioning towards the other 8, who were all Slytherins.
Malfoy had been in conversation with a pale boy called Theodore Nott, probably because his usual cronies Crabbe and Goyle had obviously not made it into the class, but looked round as he saw Harry and Hermione.
"Potter? How the hell did you get into this class," he was laughing incredulously, "didn't you take Remedial Potions last year?" he added loudly. The Slytherins laughed, and Harry felt his face burning, but only very slightly. He had not actually been taking Remedial Potions last year, but he couldn't tell them that; it had been Snape's cover for his Occulemcy lessons.
"Shove off, Malfoy. Who did your family have to pay to get you an O on the exam, then?" Came Hermione's scathing reply. Malfoy narrowed his eyes, and both he and Harry had been about to draw their wands, when Snape arrived, stopping the fight that would have inevitably followed. He swept into the dungeons, and they all followed him; Harry, Hermione, Ernie and Anthony taking seats together on the back row.
Snape started the class immediately, as expected, on the importance of the NEWTs they would be taking at the end of the seventh year. "I will not keep in my class anyone who is slowing the group down. You are all apparently the best in your year, or at least most of you are," his gaze lingered obviously on Harry for a moment, and some of the Slytherins sniggered, before continuing. "So anyone I feel is not working up to the standard I expect will be removed from the class immediately. I will be teaching you a wide range of difficult potions that are most commonly tested on in your NEWT exams, and we can not afford to waste any time this year. Most of the potions we will be making can only be found in the restricted section of the library, which means any mistakes made could prove extremely dangerous, and I will not tolerate any bad behaviour this year. You have been warned." He paused here slightly, and Harry go the impression he was speaking mainly to him. He would have to be very careful this year; he needed this NEWT, and Snape would love an excuse to throw him out of the class.
"The first potion we will be making is the Polyjuice Potion." Harry's head snapped up, surprised. This was a very difficult potion, but he Hermione and Ron had taken it illegally in their second year. Although Hermione had done most, well alright, all of the making, Harry had been there most of the time watching what she was doing, so had a decent idea of how to make it. Hermione, sat next to him, met his eyes and they grinned slightly at each other, hoping Snape hadn't noticed.
"Who can tell me the effects of the Polyjuice potion?" As usual, Hermione's hand went up, but she was the only one. Harry obviously knew the answer to this question, but he also knew Snape would pick on him if his hand didn't go up, and he wanted to get an answer right for once, so he kept his hand down.
"No one?" he said, ignoring Hermione, "You should all know, I mentioned this potion to you in your second year…Potter, how about you?"
He had been right. "It allows you to temporarily take on the appearance of someone else. The effects only last for one hour though." For a split second Snape looked surprised, but he recovered so quickly, Harry could have been imagining it.
"Yes." He looked disappointed that he had been unable to take away any points from Harry. "It is an extremely difficult potion, and will take several lessons to prepare. In a couple of weeks, we shall be testing them," he sneered, "any mistakes made could cause the potion to have adverse effects, and so you must follow my instructions carefully." He waved his wand, and a long list of instructions appeared on the board. "You may begin."
The rest of the double period passed without any major problems; as Neville was not there, there was no explosions, and by the end Harry's potion looked almost indistinguishable from Hermione's; always a good sign.
"Well, that could have gone worse, I suppose," Harry and Hermione had said goodbye to the other two, and were making their way to Transfiguration. They walked into the classroom, where most of the students were already assembled, and went over to Ron who had saved them both seats. "How was it?"
"Not too bad. For Snape, of course. We're doing the Polyjuice potion!"
"Yeah, well, still I'm glad I never have to be in one of his lessons again."
The rest of the lessons went by fairly quickly from Harry's point of view; they got more talks about the NEWTs from the other teachers, McGonagall, Flitwick, and even Hagrid, but they still seemed so far away to him. The thing he was mainly worried about was the type of creatures Hagrid would be showing them. They had spent their lesson today reviewing old things, but he was starting to think taking COMC might be a mistake; he just hoped Hagrid couldn't get his hands on another dragon.
After their last lesson, the three of them went into the Great hall, where Harry would be having a quick dinner, before going to see the headmaster.
"Wasn't too bad for the first day back. We haven't got nearly as much homework as last year." Ron was right; this time last year, they had already been given so much work. The twins had warned that fifth was the worst, and they didn't have any major exams in sixth year, so it looked like they would have more spare time, which Harry and Ron, at least, were very thankful for.
"Alright, you guys, I have to go. I'll see you later; I don't know how long this is going to be." He got up and left the table and the Great hall. Now he didn't have lessons to worry about, Harry was feeling very nervous about the conversation he would soon be having. As well as Occulemcy, they would also be talking about the prophecy, and Harry was going to have to admit that he had been keeping the dreams secret. What would Dumbledore tell him about them? Would he mention anything about the second prophecy Harry had heard the order talking about? If he didn't, what should he do, confront him about it, or not?
Lost in thought, it was only when he had reached the entrance to the office that he realised he did not know the password. How could he have been so stupid? Why hadn't he asked Professor McGonagall for it? Oh well, he had guessed it once before; (Dumbledore only ever seemed to chose sweets), so he could do it again.
"Alright, then. Erm…Sherbet lemon; Lemon drop? No. Ok, cockroach cluster?" That had been the password in his fourth year. Since he had guessed it that year, (as a joke, actually) he had been curious as to whether or not Dumbledore actually ate them.
"Bertie botts every flavour beans; pear drop; liquorice wand; er… fizzing whizbees. Oh come on, just open!" This was getting very frustrating. "Skiving Snack boxes, canary creams-"
To his relief, the old stone gargoyle sprung to life, and Harry was finally able to stand on the spiral staircase which moved him slowly upwards until he was outside Dumbledore's office.
He knocked, and after waiting a few seconds, pushed the door open. The first thing he saw was Fawkes, the phoenix, who greeted Harry briefly with a single note. Harry then noticed that there was much muttering from the portraits of old headmasters on the walls. He cringed slightly inside; the last time he had been in here, he had basically been trashing the office, and yelling at Dumbledore. He may have had extremely good cause to be angry with the headmaster, but still, he now felt a little bit guilty.
That was when the headmaster came into Harry's sight from further inside the office, "Harry. Thank you for coming, please sit down." He came and sat in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk, doing his best to avoid eye contact with him; he had been dreading this conversation for more than 2 months.
"Harry, even though you proved last year, Voldemort would find it hard to possess you, however I believe that it is still important for you to practice Occulemcy." So Hermione had been right, that had been at least part of the reason why he had been sent here. He was relieved the Dumbledore had got straight down to business; maybe he had sensed Harry did not really want to talk to him, of all people, about Sirius. Then again he had the feeling that Remus and the others had been reporting to Dumbledore about him. He was also, though, slightly worried about where this conversation was going. It looked as though he might have to carry on taking extra lessons with Snape.
"I realise that I made a mistake last year in asking Professor Snape to teach you; as I told you last year, I had thought he would be able to get past his feelings for your father. Needless to say I was wrong. This year, then I would like to teach you myself. If, of course, you are alright with this arrangement."
Harry looked up, surprised. Dumbledore, teach him occulemcy? He was surprised that the Headmaster had the time to do this actually; he was heavily leaned on by both the order, and now the ministry. Despite his less than friendly feelings for Dumbledore at the moment, he knew that really it was an honour to be taught one-on-one by him, and that not many people got this opportunity. There was no one better in the world to teach him it, at least that he could think of.
"Yes." He said, speaking for the first time since he had entered the office, "that's fine, if you have the time I mean." He was speaking very politely, and also he noticed a bit coldly. He knew he maybe aught to be a little more grateful, but it was hard when he thought of the secrets Dumbledore was obviously still keeping from him. He was also a little disturbed at the idea that Dumbledore would be seeing quite a few of his own memories; personal memories. That's when he realised; the dreams. He couldn't put off telling the headmaster about them, he couldn't risk him finding out during one of their lessons.
Before Dumbledore could continue, Harry spoke again, hesitantly, "Professor, there's something I er… have to tell you." Dumbledore surveyed him calmly through his half moon spectacles; Harry had barely ever seen him lose his calm exposure; even last year when he had been yelling at him and trashing his office. It had been quite frustrating at the time.
"For the last few weeks, I've been having some…dreams. Or, nightmares, actually…" he broke off there, wondering how to continue.
"Remus informed me you may be needing some dreamless sleep potion. He said you'd been having some dreams about Sir-"
"I lied," Harry spoke bluntly, cutting him off. "They're not about what happened that night. Well I have had some, but they aren't the ones that were stopping me sleeping."
He looked up again, for he had been finding it easier just to stare at the desk. "I'm not seeing Voldemort anymore. I haven't had any dreams about him all summer; even though my scars bothered me quite a bit. These are… different." That was one word for them, anyway. He was finding it very hard to talk about them; he wasn't sure he could get across to Dumbledore just how terrifying they had been. But the Dumbledore was regarding him quietly, silently inviting him to continue.
"I know I should have told someone about them. I'm not sure why I didn't. But anyway, at first I thought they were just ordinary nightmares. But the last few times…" he struggled to find the words, "well, they got worse. I've been taking the potion most nights for a while now, and the nights I didn't I wasn't getting them as much; I had hoped that maybe they were stopping. But I had another on the night before I came back here. That one and the one before it; I could tell with them the most that the dreams were not normal."
"What makes you say this? Does your scar hurt right after you have them?"
"No. Like I said, I don't think there connected to Voldemort or our connection. I'm not really sure how I know; this may not sound convincing but I have a feeling, I just know that they mean something."
"What happens in them?"
"The first few times, I don't think they lasted very long. I couldn't remember much about them even when I had just woken up. All I can remember it running away from someone, something. And I could remember being scared. More than scared…terrified, but I'm not sure exactly why. Then one night, I think it was the night after the ministry members came to Privet Drive, they suddenly became more vivid, I could remember more things, and I'm pretty sure they lasted longer. That time, I realised I recognised the place I was running in, but I was so terrified I couldn't even think straight. In the dream I knew that I there was a reason why I was there, but I couldn't remember, I just couldn't focus on anything. All I could think of to do was keep running, because I knew if they caught up to me, they'd kill me."
"Who's 'they' Harry?"
"That's the thing. I don't know. When I'm asleep I know who they are, sometimes at least, but when I wake up, it's just 'they.' I try so hard to remember, but I never can." His frustration showed in his voice, and he looked at Dumbledore for his reaction; but his face was neutral, so he went on.
"Like I said, the last two I had were the worst. They were both different to the others, though. One began the same, I was running, trying to escape them, but this time I was losing them, and I could even see the way out. It was in this dream that I realised I was in a forest. But as I got close to escaping it, there was this man, who suddenly appeared, blocking my way. I cant really remember anything useful about him; except that he was evil; pure evil. At the time though, I remember thinking that he wasn't one of 'them' but he was blocking my way, and they managed to catch up with me because of him. I woke up before I saw them though.
"Then the last one I had…it's the one I'm most worried about. I should have told someone right away. When it started I was alone, they weren't there. But I came across that man; and he was making some kind of potion, I don't know what it was for though. The worst part is, he did just what Wormtail did a year ago. He used some of my blood in it. I remember closing my eyes, and when I opened them he was gone, and 'they' were back. This dream felt the most real, and…"
This part he was even more reluctant to share. "When I woke up, I had a cut; made by a knife, in the same place it was in my dream."
For the first time, Dumbledore showed his surprise, and Harry could almost feel the concern rolling off him.
"You should have come to me, or the order right away." Harry didn't say anything; he knew he was right, but he had wanted to tell them, and had then heard them talking about this new prophecy Dumbledore was keeping secret. Dumbledore asked him to show him the cut on his arm. When he had examined it, and went back and sat down again behind his desks, lost in thought.
"Professor," Harry said tentatively, "do you know what they're about? Do you think they mean something?"
"Harry, you were right to come to me, I think they may be important. But I don't think it would be wise to allow these dreams to continue. I will have to get you some more potion until we can find another way to stop them."
"Good. But do you know anything about what they mean?" Harry wanted to know if he thought they were connected to this new potential ally of Voldemort's; he wanted to know if Dumbledore would tell him anything.
Dumbledore gave him one of his swift searching looks, did he know he knew something?
"I can not be sure, Harry. However I believe I may have some idea what they mean, but it's not a lot I'm afraid. I can't tell you much, mainly because we don't really know anything yet; but we believe Voldemort may have found a new…ally."
"Who? How do you know?"
"We're not sure, Harry, that's the problem we don't know who they are; only that they are extremely powerful I think they have something to do with the fact Voldemort has been lying low. Though they potentially have more power than him, they are weak at the moment and need his help to gain their strength. He seems to be putting a lot of his energy into helping them. We don't know the extent of their powers, but we do know we do not want them on his side."
"But he must want to keep them quiet. How do you know all this?" He wondered if Dumbledore was trying to avoid this question; as it would most likely involve mentioning the prophecy.
"That information is supposed to be kept secret in the order… however, these dreams mean that for some reason you are already involved with them. There was a prophecy made, Harry. Again, it was by Sibyl Trelawney, and I was the only one to hear it; Voldemort does not yet know of it's existence."
"What does it say?"
"I do not wish to give you the exact wording; everyone who knows it is in great danger. But it should be safe to tell you this much; its very hard to understand exactly what the prophecy means, it's very vague. It does however speak of the fact that this new ally may betray Voldemort once they are strong enough, but it does not say anything for definite." But was that true? He thought back to Lupin's words; "The only thing that was certain in it was that it was referring to the same one who could vanquish the dark lord. Harry." But it didn't look like Dumbledore was going to tell him this. Harry felt a small spark of doubt. Was it possible that he misunderstood what they had been saying? He didn't think so, it was pretty clear. But maybe Dumbledore did have a good reason for not telling him; after all he had admitted last year that not telling him the first prophecy was a mistake, would he really want to repeat this mistake? That too seemed unlikely, but what possible good reason was there?
"Professor, if Voldemort knows how strong they are, why is he risking helping them, surely he must know it's likely they would betray him; even without knowing the prophecy?"
"He of course must know that is a likely possibility. But if he manages to get this new force, whatever it is, on his side; it would almost definitely win him the war." Harry was shocked to hear these words from Dumbledore of all people; he was not normally one to be almost admitting defeat.
"They're that powerful?"
"We believe so. The thing is, Harry, we have more chance of beating Voldemort than we do them. We are hoping that Voldemort will not risk it; but they appear to be getting stronger, if your dreams are any sign. If we tell him the prophecy, of course, he may think we are trying to trick him into not joining with them, so that will have to be a last resort."
"What about the man in my dreams. I recognised when I was asleep that he wasn't one of them; but he seemed really evil. Who do you think he is? A follower of Voldemort?"
"It's possible, Harry. I really can't tell; your description of him is not much to go on."
Harry struggled to remember his face, what had he looked like? The eyes; they were all he could remember, but he didn't think that would be much help.
"I'm sorry; I can't remember any more of him. Except his eyes, that's all I can think of; they were really unusual, sort of a deep gold colour, I've never seen eyes like that before. But that isn't really much help, is it?"
Dumbledore remained silent, once again lost in thought. But Harry wasn't finished yet.
"Why is it me having these dreams professor; how could I have known about them before you told me. And how could I have gotten that cut, there's no way I could have left Grimmauld place, is there?"
Harry had never seen Dumbledore's face so grave. "I can't be certain," he answered quietly "we believe they are working closely to Voldemort; and you know of course of the connection you share with him."
That was his answer. He was not going to tell Harry about the fact that he was mentioned in the prophecy; he had just told him half of the story. Harry also noticed that when Dumbledore had answered him, he had not actually lied outright; simply told him a half truth. That, in Harry's opinion, in this case was just as bad as a lie, but he knew that the headmaster would not see it this way. He still wasn't going to find out how he was involved with this new ally; even though he was having the dreams. A part of him just wanted to trust Dumbledore's judgement; most people did, and he must have reasons for not telling him about it. But what if those reasons were that he had just found out the first one, and it wasn't fair to place another burden on him? If he was involved, as far as Harry was concerned, whatever it was, he had a right to know.
"Sir, on the last night of the holidays; after I had that dream I went downstairs; I was planning on telling someone about them. But I was outside the kitchen; I didn't want to eavesdrop, but I heard my name, and … I heard them talking about the prophecy," he confessed. "From what they were saying; well it sounded as though I was involved."
Dumbledore hid his surprise very well, but it was still clear to Harry that he had not expected this. "Harry, I don't know exactly what you heard. I confess that there is a possibility it is talking about you; but as I tried to tell the order, and as I told you, it was very vague and therefore very easy to be misread. We can not be certain it was talking about you, and as I mentioned anyone who knows the full content is in great danger; both from this new ally and from Voldemort. This is why only select order members were told it in its entirety."
Needless to say, Harry was not satisfied with this explanation, but there was a look in Dumbledore's eyes, one he had seen before; he had made up his mind and there would be no changing it now. If Harry was going to find out what the prophecy said, as usual he would have to do it on his own.
A/N Well, there's chapter 7! please review and tell me what you think. i didn't get many reviews for chapter 6, so if you want me to carry on with this story, you'll have to tell me, because if i don't get any more reviews i might not write any more. if no one's reading it, there's not a great deal of point! so any comments are welcome. the next chapter if i write it will have Quidditch tryouts, Harry first Occulemcy lesson with Dumbledore, and we will also meet the DADA teacher properly.
