Chapter 13

Harry felt as if lightning was blazing through his head, and a volcano had exploded through his scar. He bit his lip until it bled, trying to keep from screaming. Unable to do so, he pointed his wand at himself and yelled, "Silencio!"

With his voice removed, he allowed himself to scream in pain. It was worse than his capture, it was worse than loosing Sirius—he guessed it was worse than death.

The elements heard Harry despite his silence and rose to help him. Wind picked up in the room, the plants outside rioted, and shadows leapt free from their shapes.

NO! He thought as fire appeared out of thin air, don't hurt anybody! He cast out his elemental magic, freezing the wind, flames, shadows, and plants.

Why? Demanded the elements.

It was my CHOICE! It's to help me! He replied desperately.

Then we shall help. Their voices relaxed, and Harry felt them lend him strength.

Though the pain continued, Harry knew that Snape had recoiled as soon as Harry had silenced himself. Slowly, Harry shoved the Legilimency magic out, along with the pain.

Gasping, he opened his eyes as someone barged into the room—Splikvin. On her shoulder rested a shadow sprite, showing how she'd known something was amiss. She looked at Harry with wide eyes then—of all things—laughed, if harshly.

"Merlin, Potter!" she cried in exasperation, "The rules really don't apply to you!" Closing the door behind her, she walked over and gave Harry the wet rag that appeared in her hand, "Your scar is bleeding." she explained.

Harry put a hand to his forehead and found that it was incredibly warm. Great, he thought, then wiped it off with the rag. Its coolness felt good against his hot skin. Hedwig appeared and began to attack Snape. Harry tried to call her off, but his voice was still gone. He turned into a phoenix and mentally sang out, "Hedwig, no! He was trying to help!"

Slowly, Hedwig looked back and forth between the phoenix Harry and Snape as she hovered. 'Helping?' she repeated skeptically.

Harry was nearly shocked out of his form by the fact that he could actually understand her. "Yeah, helping."

'Alright then, I trust you to know what it is you're doing. But TELL me the next time he is going to 'help' you.'

Harry sand his laughter and transformed back.

"What happened?" Splikvin asked as Hedwig perched on Harry's shoulder.

Harry opened his mouth only to remember that he couldn't speak. "Finitae Incantantum." Snape murmured; Harry's voice was restored.

"Occlumency." Harry croaked in answer.

Splikvin rubbed the back of her neck. "Explain further please."

"Well, I got Professor Snape out, and I asked him to go harder on me, 'cause I think Voldemort won't go easy."

She looked at Snape. "How hard?"

"Full extent," he replied.

She shook her head with a sigh. "You warned him, right?" Snape nodded. "And how much did you use to stop the elements? Smuck here nearly had a heart-attack!"

Harry looked at the sprite 'Smuck'. "Umm—a lot?"

"An absolutely wonderful answer," she said dryly, Harry couldn't help a tired smile, "But, I suggest that you lighten it a bit Sev, the intensity level, I mean. Merlin knows what could happen next time." She tilted her head towards Smuck, listening to what it said. "Good point. Smuck here suggests that you go into a room specialized to keep anything you don't want, out. I think there's a room at Hogwarts that should do—if you get Dumbledore's permission, that is."

"I will ask about it." Snape told her, then looked at Harry. "We will end now, and I advise you to sleep earlier than usual." With that, he exited the room. A small gurgle came from Smuck, causing Splikvin to chuckle. "Very true."

"What?" Harry asked, rubbing his furiously aching head.

Splikvin grinned apologetically, "Sev is the better of us two at Occlumency; if you think that was bad, think again."

Harry gulped. "Lemme guess, you're worse?"

Her grin widened, "Much worse."

The following day, mayhem erupted. The Ministry got calls from various wizards and witches, saying that some people were acting strange, others deadly. By the afternoon, word was out: the Imperious Curse had returned.

Harry and the rest of the Order spent the entire time of the next two days hunting down victims, as well as the castors. Little luck was with them. Each time, they came back tired; you never knew what people were going to do.

Despite the tiring routine, Harry and his friends found themselves in the dueling room practicing drills and dueling. This time Harry versed Moody; Parsloz magic was his only advantage and a good one too; he finally beat Mad-Eye.

Harry went back to The Hideaway and studied a bit with the founders, branching out in his knowledge of curses, potions, and Arthrimacy. He also updated them on current events; Salazar was pleased that his potion had worked well on others as well, and then retreated to the dungeons, most likely to experiment some more; Harry hoped he wasn't about to blow the house up. Meanwhile, Harry practiced some more Quidditch with Godric.

It was a relief to get into the air for a bit, chase around the snitch, and release his energy by swatting the bludgers away with all his might. He smiled as he remembered how Oliver Wood had said, 'Not bad Potter, you'd make a fair beater.' The two of them tried some newer passes with the quaffle, and also a set of Seeker feint moves.

Unfortunately, Harry's pendant vibrated and Tonks alerted him that a group of muggles were in trouble—he teleported there immediately after a giving a hasty explanation to Gryffindor about his sudden cause for departure. Since Harry was still on his broom, it was an interesting fight.

By the time the Death Eaters fired curses at him, he was already gone and shooting some of his own. Ron, who was also there, said he didn't even have to do anything but watch. Harry laughed, releaving the tension of the fight; at least no one had gotten hurt. Harry visited Alex once the muggles were safe and memory-wiped and the two of them went to the park again.

The next evening, right after Harry's painful but necessary Occlumency lesson with Snape in the Room of Requirement, there was another Order meeting.

Dung had gotten ambushed and hadn't been able to get out of the wards to dissaperate, portkey, or even teleport away; that was a problem. "We need to think of a way to avoid that issue, or a way to manage it." Dumbledore told them.

"How about learning to create solid patroni?" Harry suggested. "If it's big enough, you can ride it."

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. "That is a possibility. However, if something happens to our wands, or if it is not large enough…"

Godric spoke up from his frame. "Then do something easier: become animagi." The Order starred at him.

"I don't recall it ever being 'easy'." McGongall informed him stiffly.

The founder grinned. "That's because you picked your shape; your mind and body wasn't already tuned to it. Ask those three, they know it's easy." He pointed at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who shifted uneasily. The six who'd been teaching them knew only about Ron and Harry, but the rest of the Order didn't know about any of them other than Harry. 'Know one's bothered to ask,' Splikvin had explained a while ago.

"You're animagi?" Mrs. Weasley squeaked.

Ron, blushing, nodded and turned into a thestral, then a German Shepard, and lastly and alligator. His brothers applauded.

"You're one to?" Tonks said, looking at Hermione with surprise.

Smiling shyly, Hermione revealed her owl and unicorn forms. "Ginny's one too," Ron said. Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened. "And it is pretty easy… fun too."

Godric smiled at McGonagall, "I told you so."

Salazar sneered. "Honestly, there is not one humble bone in your body!"

"There's not one in yours either!" Godric retorted. Salazar opened his mouth to reply.

"Gentlemen, please!" Remus said, stopping the argument before it could begin; living at The Hideaway had taught him how long the two could debate something, even if it was pointless to do so. "Thank you." He finished when they shut their mouths.

"You're welcome," Godric said, Salazar rolled his eyes while the other two founders shook their heads. "Do you want to learn or not?"

"We would be most grateful," Dumbledore answered.

Godric nodded. "Well, if any of you were Slytherins, you might want to go with Sal, don't know why—it's just what he thinks."

The founder in question sniffed. "It is because you do not understand the qualities those of my house posses." He explained haughtily.

"And the ones you lack," Godric muttered, then shrugged. "Whatever." Harry hid a grin behind one hand and Snape, Splikvin, and Draco left with Salazar.

The other members of the Order then got comfortable after Gryffindor said it would take about five hours to do it completely. Harry, meanwhile, went up to the dueling room with his two friends to practice the Patronous Charm. By the end of the third hour, Hermione's otter was solid, and Ron's revealed its shape: an eagle.

They then moved on to practice dueling for the remainder of the time. Finally, at ten o'clock, the sounds of various animals reached their ears. The three of them went downstairs and were met by quite a few creatures.

"Can you guess who's who?" Godric asked, Salazar looked quite expectant as well.

Harry grinned and looked around, recalling what people's masks had been at the masquerade last year. "Professor Dumbledore is the phoenix," he said, "Remus is the wolf, and Hagrid's the hippogriff." He observed the others, "That's all I can tell."

"Fred 'n' George are the red-orange weasels," Ron said promptly, "Dad's the raccoon, and Mum's the bear."

"I can't tell any of them…" Hermione said with disappointment. A large black horse in the corner made a noise that sounded very close to a snigger. Harry saw a black mare next to it and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure you meant that in a nice way, Professor Snape." He said.

The stallion glared at him while the mare whinnied a laugh. "Professor Splikvin is the mare," Hermione said immediately; the mare nodded.

"Any more guesses?" inquired Slytherin.

Harry noticed Helga's eyes flick upwards, and so Harry tilted his head back. His gaze was commanded by a very large, dark red Hungarian Horntail hovering silently above them all. "Hiya Neville!" he called with a smile while thinking, did he join the Order early too? Or is he allowed in the meetings?

The dragon looked down and barred his teeth in a grin.

"Give up yet?" Godric asked in a bored voice, they nodded. "Alright, one-formers change back." Remus, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Neville and Dumbledore were the ones they'd recognized. A black eagle became Sirius, the yellow and blue parrot was Kingsley, a grey unicorn turned into McGonagall, Moody took the place of a lizard, the starling was Tonks, and Charlie had been the hedgehog.

"Next shapes!" Godric said, "Smooth transformations, if you please." The remaining creatures shifted into new forms. Harry sighed.

"This is going to take forever," he complained.

"It is rather amusing, however." Salazar replied, "Now guess." None of the creatures had stayed in the same spot, so the three had no idea who was where and what. A set of cackles drew their gaze to two transparent, yet solid, Weasley twins. "Oh no…." Hermione groaned, "Poltergeists?"

Harry laughed, "Wait 'til Peeves finds out!" Looking around, he noticed something odd, there were seven left now, when he'd seen about five left earlier. "Were some of you smaller before?" he asked.

"Yes, there was a wasp, a beetle, and a rodent." Salazar told him.

Harry now saw a hawk, which he knew was Snape, a thestral, which had to be Splikvin, a basilisk, he guessed that was Draco, a turtle, a griffin, and a bright red butterfly. "Draco," he said, looking at the closed-eyed serpent, "Were you the wasp, the beetle, or the-- rodent before?"

The serpent shifted its coils uneasily, then turned into a pure white ferret; Draco quickly appeared in its place, glaring. "Say anything and you'll wish you hadn't." he growled, mainly looking at Ron.

Harry grinned, "Won't say a word." He promised, while fighting back a roar of laughter. Hermione and Ron fervently nodded their agreement, but laughter shone in their eyes like fireworks at midnight. "Do you know what everybody else is?" Harry asked.

Draco nodded, "But you have to guess," with a smirk, he sat down in an armchair.

Harry sighed, "Professor Snape is the hawk, Professor Splikvin is the thestral, and I'm guessing Dung is the turtle, formerly the beetle?"

"Yup," the last wizard said, becoming human.

"Bill's the griffin," Ron said firmly, "and was the wasp." His brother appeared with a grin and nodded.

"Mrs. Weasley is the butterfly." Hermione said. Molly appeared with a smile, now only the two Snapes were left.

"Alright, try your third forms." Gryffindor said, "You can either smoothly transform, or return to normal if it makes it easier." The two chose smooth transformation and switched, becoming two bats: a flying fox and a fruit bat.

"I didn't know you were a vegetarian Severus," Moony joked. The bat flew at Remus' face, and turned into black werewolf at the last moment, pinning the other to the floor.

Remus smiled despite the growling animagus, "Alright, not so vegetarian." The werewolf glared at him.

"Sev," Splikvin sighed, now human, "You need to get a sense of humor." Snape release Remus and changed back.

"Are you going to do your last form?" Salazar asked.

She raised an eyebrow, "And die soon after?" she drawled, Harry remembered that her mask had been a shark, "I don't think so; maybe in water."

Snape flicked his wand with a smirk, and Splikvin was encased in a sphere of water. "Now try," he said.

She glared at him and rolled out of it, sending the water crashing to the floor. "You're the one who needs a hair-washing," she grumbled as water dripped all over the floor like rain.

"You need to get a sense of humor Sel," Padfoot told her with mock-seriousness. Splikvin rolled her eyes and dried herself off as the others laughed.

Coming Up:

An Army Arises

'I am NOT tired!'

Then:

Dementors Evolved

Review Response:

tuxedomac: Sorry about that; homework, chores, finals, it's all catching up to me now. Thank you for the advice, I hope this one was better. (response to review of ch.12)