Chapter 17

'Dead' was an understatement.

Sirius and Remus held nothing back when they ranted at Harry for running off to fight. Yes, they'd allowed him to join the Order. Yes, he had promised to protect others. But they had not said he could risk his life foolishly.

"And you never did?" he responded coolly.

"We were younger then," Remus answered irritably.

"Yeah, younger as in my age," Harry said firmly, "Or even younger." The conversation ended just like that, neither Sirius nor Remus could think of a suitable reply.

Harry received only a reproachful look from Dumbledore, no words of criticism or worry, just that one look. Harry went back to The Hideaway to clean up, he was starting to smell. His jeans were ruing, coated with a mix of sweat and blood, and numerous tears revealed shallow, but not dangerous, cuts. He healed those, then took a shower. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the grime out of his hair. With a sigh, he cut it back to the short length he'd had it for most of his life. It actually wasn't that bad looking. The three stripes in his hair looked better short than long.

Harry also noticed something else: he didn't look the same. Yes, his hair still stuck up in the back, and he still had his mother's eyes, but he wasn't a mirror image of James anymore. His chin was sharper, his shoulders had broadened, he was tanner, and his nose was straighter than before. Weird, he thought, but left it at that.

After checking up on Alex, receiving a scold from her as well, and taking her to dinner, Harry scouted London in his phoenix form. He breathed a sigh of relief; no trouble was happening.

In fact, there was absolutely no trouble the next day either. Draco told Harry it was because Voldemort was trying to find the basilisks again, and who had killed some of them—Voldemort was livid. Harry didn't let that put a dampener on his mood, and ignored it. Since Sirius and Remus were still a bit 'off', Harry went back home and practiced the founders' spells for the rest of the day—he'd only really practiced Helga's and Salazar's.

Voldemort must have either given up on the basilisks, or found more, because trouble sprang up the next day. Almost every Auror's family had to go into hiding, due to the several attacks they'd suffered under Death Eaters. The Order played a part in helping the Ministry come up with places to put them. Because even if they used the Fideleus Charm, it didn't mean Voldemort couldn't blow up the entire area around where he knew they live, as he had done to one family—few things could stop something like that from harming somebody.

Harry released his bitter anger at Voldemort during training. In Occlumency, he managed to get Snape out after only five minutes—a record for him; of course, it left them both with extreme headaches. In the Auror Class, Harry finally when up against Splikvin.

When she put up Parsloz shields around their platform, Harry got suspicious. "What're those for?" he asked.

"Any stray spells," she answered.

"We've been practicing accuracy for three weeks now!" he protested, "And you still think I'll miss?"

She grinned. "I know you'll miss; hopefully, so will I."

He starred at her, thoroughly confused. "Huh?"

Splikvin laughed. "Just duel Harry, no holding back."

Harry nodded, and on the count of three, they began.

Neither of them fired at first, watching the other. Then, it was a flurry of Parsloz spells. Harry ducked, swerved, jumped, and dropped, fighting to keep from being hit. He fired back, causing her to do the same. Calling up her anger at Voldemort's slaughtering of fifty muggles in one explosion to get an Auror family, Harry vented it out at Splikvin. It gave him greater speed, greater power, and greater evasion. Now he understood what she meant by 'I know you'll miss; hopefully, so will I,' they were both moving too fast for their spells to hit.

Harry blocked her flame hex, and returned with an ice-needle curse of his own. The storm of miniature icicles flew at her; Splikvin reflected them back.

Harry turned them to water with his elemental abilities and pushed it towards her side of the platform. Splikvin cleaned it up with a quick charm as Harry cast a stunner. It hit the opposite wall; she'd turned into a thestral and jumped over it.

Tallon responded by becoming a werewolf; they charged at each other. Harry lashed out with a paw at her foreleg. Splikvin swatted him across his snout with a wing. Harry toppled backwards but scrambled to his feet. He sprang onto her bang, holding on as she bucked. "Claws are fine!" she reprimanded him, "That's whatmy scales are therefor!" Then she bucked him off.

Harry slammed into one of the shields and quickly regained his footing; he charged again, becoming a chimera. Splikvin jumped into the air and Harry tried to stop, claws digging into the wood, tearing up splinters. She circled overhead, and Harry turned human, then called up some wind. He pulled the wind down, and Splikvin with it. She also became human, and threw a curse at him despite the wind.

Harry's concentration broke as he ducked and Splikvin conjured up a chair, then proceeded to attack him with it. "Godera Contego!" Harry said, the shield appeared and he blocked the legs of the offending chair.

Splikvin's eyes widened for a moment, then she grinned. "Salithren Excalibera." She said, and the sword appeared in place of the chair. Block! Harry thought to the shield.

His arm moved and halted the oncoming sword. His arm felt completely separated from his body, but at least he could still cast spells. He fired off stunners, freezers, hexes, jinxes, anything. The sword nicked him on his wand arm; Harry growled in frustration. "Finto!" he shouted the cancelling spell Rowena had taught him; the shield and sword both disappeared and they resumed exchanging spells.

Sweat began to drip into his eyes; it already plastered his shirt to his back. His breath came in quiet gasps; they must have been fighting for at least an hour. Through the shields he noticed that the others had finished and were watching.

"Harder or easier?" Splikvin asked, ducking his stunner.

"Bit harder," Harry replied, "Any spell."

"You sure?" she asked, then shot a jelly-legs.

"I'm sure—it's not like Voldemort'll hold back, or any of his followers either."

She nodded. "True. You can use any spell too. Bone-breakers, burns, pain spells, anything."

Harry wondered if the fumes from all the potions were getting to her had, but he nodded. "Alright."

The duel took on a new ferocity, with both of them getting new energy out of seemingly no where. He fired small pain curses, which she returned; neither of them received a reaction even when they hit the other. He got her arm with a burn hex, she got his knee with a cutting curse. Harry used his patronous to escape an unknown jinx, which caused both to vanish. Then, the space within the shields began to fill with water. Soon enough, it was up to Harry's neck. He fought to keep from panicking, how had the other champions breathed during the task? That's it! Harry thought, and cast the bubble head charm on himself.

Once it was past his head, Harry heard Hermione screech. Harry swam up to the surface and looked for Splikvin. Sure enough, the pale, ivory fin of a shark was coming towards him. The music from the movie 'Jaws' sprang up in his mind and Harry couldn't help laughing; Moody and Tonks looked at him like he was nuts.

Harry ducked under the water and waved cheerily at the hammerhead Splikvin. Even though Tallon was unnerved by the ten foot long shark with too many razor sharp teeth for a dementor's comfort, but he didn't let it show as Splikvin swam closer.

Is she going to bite my leg off or something? He thought wryly, Snape definitely would. He gripped his wand firmly.

Splikvin turned sharply at Harry braced himself, and whacked him with her tail. The force was like a bludger in the ribs, and sent him tumbling backwards head over heels. Tallon slammed into the shields and became a chimera. His bubblehead charm was still workings, so he swam towards his opponent with surprising speed. Tallon slashed at Splikvin with a paw, she darted away. Harry followed, and jumped on top of her back when he was in range.

His ears picked up the sound of a scream—Hermione or Ginny—as they wrestled. Splikvin executed several barrel rolls, making him dizzy and snapping at Harry as she thrashed wildly, smacking him with her tail when she could. Harry clung tighter, trying to stop her movement. Her dorsal fin jabbed him in his stomach, then a pressure point Tallon hadn't known about. He would have turned grey if he was normal when her fin stabbed him where his werewolf and cobra parts joined. He let go with a pained roar, and Splikvin was away in a flash, smacking him with her tail for what seemed to be the millionth time. That's it, Harry thought savagely, massaging his beak. He became human, swam hurriedly to the surface, and whispered a charm that made the water disappear.

He fell to the ground and fired a flaming hex at the now-human Splikvin. She dodged, and fired a mild pain curse.

The water had cooled him off, but also soaked his clothing; his wet jeans made it hard to move and that touch of slowness made all the difference. After a few minutes, Harry noticed that Splikvin was starting to look different. She seemed paler, her cloak was darking anddidn't seem to makeany noise, andher hair didn't have one strand out of place—something odd for a person who was jumping and skidding out of the way of jinxes; he got her with a bone breaker on the wrist.

As Tallon fired a lightning curse, she jumped—and didn't come back. He saw her holding onto the wall, and then she disappeared. Frantically, Harry looked around but couldn't find her, even with the special lenses. "Finitae incantantum," he whispered, she didn't appear.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and Ron let out a yell of surprise. Harry spun around and found a knife an inch from his throat.

"Hello," Splikvin said as she appeared with a grin, revealing very large canines. Harry instinctively kicked out, catching her in the shin. She jumped back, Harry followed. Forgetting his wand, Harry punched wildly. He aimed for her stomach and head, she dodged with inhuman speed. Harry's dagger jumped into his hand and he sliced at her with it. She smiled and slashed back.

One of his lucky shots got her on the shoulder, another on her face. He starred in shock as they began to heal themselves. His moment of hesitation allowed Splikvin to grab his wrist and throw him over her shoulder into the shields, he dropped both his wand and his knife.

The shield fell and Hermione screeched again, "Harry!" Tallon couldn't look away from Splikvin's pale face, her teeth here much too sharp to be normal. "And why don't you normally duel that hard?" She asked, lowering her own knife; he didn't seem able to answer.

"Y-you're a vampire?" Sirius croaked.

Splikvin laughed, looking at their faces, Snape was the only one who didn't seem concerned, only amused. "No Sirius, don't worry."

"Then why are your teeth so bloody creepy!" Ron exclaimed.

Splikvin chuckled, "No pun intended I take it?" heflushed,"Good point though. I'm not a real vampire, it is one of my animagus forms."

"That makes absolutely no sense at all," Remus told her with a crooked smile. "That would mean you have..." he counted silentlt, "five forms."

"I am a polymagus," she explained with a shrug, Hermione's eyes widened. "Always have a trick up your sleeve, is what I say. The shark and thestral are forms I chose to become. The mare, bat, and vampire are those I recently found."

"But how can you be a vampire?" Tonks asked as Splikvin offered Harry a hand up. He took it warily, "They're part human."

Splikvin shrugged, "How come Sev and Harry are able to become werewolves?Werewolves are part human as well.ButI don't really know—I'm not the one who found this way of animagus training." She noticed that Ron was still watching her. "What is it?" she asked boredly.

"Do you need to drink blood?" he asked nervously.

She laughed, "No, I don't think I could do that—too odd for my tastes."

"No pun intended?" Sirius asked with a slight laugh.

She grinned, again showing those large teeth. Ginny squirmed, clearing her throat. Splikvin nodded and shifted back to human, then looked at Harry. "Back to my question: how come you don't duel that hard normally?"

Harry blinked at the sudden change of topic. "Not sure," he mumbled, "Guess I don't want to hurt anybody."

She tilted her head, showing him her broken wrist, "Does that not count?"

Now it was his turn to squirm, "But you're better at dueling than I am, I know it won't hurt you that much, not like if I did that to someone else, like one of my friends, or a muggle."

She nodded. "What about Voldemort and his followers?"

He ignored the flinches some of the others gave. "Voldemort, I don't know yet; I probably would. But with the Death Eaters, it feels like I'm cheating… just because I'm faster, doesn't seem to make it right to hurt them."

"I doubt they think like that," Sirius commented.

"Huh?"

To everyone's surprise, it was Snape who answered. "Black is right, surprising as it is.The followers of the Dark Lorddo not care if someone is weaker than them. In fact, they enjoy it. Much like the Dark Lord enjoys torturing others."

"Don't hold back against the scum," Moody growled, "We go easy on them, but that only makes it harder for us, and gives them chances they wouldn't even think of giving us."

Harry nodded; he had a lot to think about all of a sudden.

(A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter, it was fun to write)

Coming Up:

St. Mungos

Surprises

Then:

The-Boy-Who-Lived

Review Response:

Dranix: Maybe yes and maybe no…

WildRaven: No, not always, but he does do it often, and usually when it's the worst time to do it.

Snuffles629: Yes, it is part of Voldemort's plot. Remember, he doesn't know the complete prophecy, but he knows that Harry can defeat him. He's wants to wear Harry out or destroy him completely so that doesn't happen. Good question though, thank you for asking.

(A/N: The next chapter might be late, I'll try to make it so it's not, but I am just letting you know now. My apologies for the not-yet-certain-but-could-happen inconvenience. A.S.Leif)