A/N: This is probably one of my favourite chapters. My sister had me read it to her over and over, so even I'm starting to get a little tired of it. I hope you like!
Disclaimer: I hate writing disclaimers. One day, I'll actually write a story that I can get paid for, and I won't have to.
Chapter Fourteen -
Vector's Philosophies
Harry's fears of becoming the second Lord Voldemort were quenched quite brutally the next morning at Philosophy of Magic. They had been grouped with a number of Hufflepuffs, and the class was chattering eagerly as professor Vector walked in.
"Hello everyone! For those who don't know me, I'm professor Vector!" She bellowed exhuberantly. She was a tall, thin witch with a long greying braid woven with a green ribbon. She was wearing an immaculate set of light blue robes, and many coloured metal bangle bracelets up both arms. The bracelets rattled as she waved her arms about enthusiastically in greeting.
"We're all here to learn about the Philosophy behind Dark and Light Magics! I would like this class to be more of a discussion period than a class at all, so anything you wish to say will be our forum for discussion! First of all, does anyone have a question!?"
Harry wondered whether this teacher would ever be saying anything quieter than an exclamation. He thought he should probably ask something, so he raised his hand.
"Yes!" Professor Vector asked loudly.
"What is your definition of a 'dark wizard'?" He felt like whispering to counter the professor's volume and enthusiasm.
"GOOD QUESTION!" Professor Vector leapt in excitement, jingling her bracelets, and the rest of the class leapt in surprise. "Does anyone have any remarks regarding this subject!? Just speak up please, don't bother to raise your hand!"
"A dark wizard is an evil one." Said Seamus, as if he were slightly confused as to why this were a good question in her eyes.
"I resent the idea that you would call it a 'dark WIZARD' as if you would never see a witch turn dark!" interrupted a haughty sounding Hannah Abbott.
"Don't worry dear, we'll discuss that subject next class!" Professor Vector called to her eagerly. "for now, we have to leave it alone! Go on!" she told the class at large.
"How do you determine what is evil?" said Harry back to Seamus, ignoring Hannah's outburst.
Seamus didn't answer.
Instead Justin Finch-Fletchley spoke up. "You could say that a Dark Wizard is someone who does magic for selfish reasons."
"EXACTLY!" Professor Vector nearly exploded. "For instance, the most well known dark wizard of our time wishes most fervently to make himself immortal! Now say he were to succeed! I know most of you don't want to think about it, but just for instance! If he were to become immortal, what would he do then?!" She was sounding as if she were one of Aunt Petunia's gameshow hosts, asking 'You've just won the lottery! What are you going to do now?!'
Harry thought about it. "He would try and use his immortality to control the rest of the Wizarding world."
"Right! But wouldn't that get a little tiresome after awhile?! What would he do after that?!"
No one answered.
Obviously she didn't really need a response from them. She answered it herself. "He doesn't seem to have thought that far ahead has he?!
"He wants to gain this immortality for selfish reasons, so he is what we call a 'Dark Wizard"!" Professor Vector said enthusiastically. "He doesn't see the future very well at all, and he can't see immortality being any sort of curse! Just ask any Vampire you meet if they would rather have died as a human, and most of the older ones would tell you that they would!"
Harry felt a little as if he were watching a quiddich game. This teacher was a bit overenthusiastic, but she seemed to be able to pull the rest of the class along with her. Harry could see many of the Hufflepuffs smiling at her, and looking utterly enchanted.
"Right! Now that we have defined the term of 'Dark Wizard', what about the term, 'Light Wizard'?!"
"Well! I would say the exact opposite of a dark one!" said Ernie MacMillan, one of the Hufflepuff prefects. "Someone who does everything to provide for those who can't help themselves!" He was sounding as though he really appreciated professor Vector's style, and was trying to emulate it.
"EXACTLY!" professor Vector made the class jump again. "For instance, our own 'light wizard' here – Harry Potter," she smiled at him, and gestured as if she were introducing him to the rest of the class. Harry felt like hitting his head on the desk in embarrassment, "– is often found dueling you-know-who in order to save those he holds most dear!"
Oh Darn, thought Harry, I shouldn't have chosen to take this class.
Ron was laughing silently in his seat while Harry blushed, and tried very hard to pretend that they were not talking about him.
"I must stress that Dark and Light magics have nothing to do with power!" Professor Vector yelled to the class. "Mister Potter here, was dueling directly with you-know-who in his fourth year, and he survived! He was even able to survive the killing curse at the age of one! So when it comes to down good and bad, the amount of power you have in you is irrelevant!"
I'm going to regret this so much. Harry thought to himself, but he still spoke up. "And do you believe that a Light Wizard can ever turn Dark?"
"It certainly is a possibility, but from what I've seen and heard about you Mister Potter, you needn't fear something like that!"
Harry felt like locking himself in the nearest broom closet.
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The sixth-year Gryffindors were all sitting around the lunch table, laughing uproariously at what Ron was telling them all about professor Vector's class. Harry was scowling and blushing alternately. Harry truly regretted ever having asked his question to begin with, and he hoped she wouldn't continue to name him as an example of 'light wizard' throughout the year. If he remembered the list of subjects she had given them, dark and light magics were top priority. He'd flipped through much of his philosophy text, and almost the whole thing focused on different aspects of the same topic.
He sighed with resolve, and leaned on his elbow.
"Harry you just put your elbow in the butter dish." Ginny whispered to him, and giggled. "A little preoccupied?" she asked.
"A little." He answered, trying to inconspicuously wipe the butter from the sleeve of his robe.
"Profesor Vector getting you down?" She giggled even more, and continued before he could answer. "Don't worry, a little hero-worship never hurt."
"You have no idea." Harry told her, thinking about the differences between what Hagrid thought about him, and what professor Vector thought.
He decided to change the subject. "Ron's put the tryouts for quiddich on Friday, so I figured while we're still reasonably quiet on the quiddich front, we should have another DA meeting. What do you think?"
"Sure!" she answered enthusiastically. "The first one was awesome! I can't wait!"
Again, he pulled out his fake galleon, and touched his wand to it.
Ron and Hermione, who hadn't been paying attention, jumped a little as they felt their coins grow warm. Harry smiled at them.
"Hermione, have you had a chance to give Mark a galleon yet?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked surprised. "Oh, you know I totally forgot! I'll get one to him as soon as possible!"
"In the meantime," Harry continued. "I need to tell him about our meeting." He stood from the bench, and walked down the table to where he could see Mark and the young blond girl chatting animatedly.
Harry caught Mark's eye, and the boy excused himself from the conversation. He stood, and walked over to Harry. "Are we having a meeting again?" he asked looking flushed.
"Yes. Tonight, eight o'clock. Same place."
Mark nodded. "Um...maybe could I bring a friend?"
"Which one?" Harry asked.
Mark nodded toward the blond girl. "Her name's Sarah Kettleburn. Apparently her grandfather used to teach here."
Harry nodded, trying inconspicuously to size her up. "I never met him properly. He left after my second year. Hagrid got his job." Harry turned back to Mark. "Do you trust her?"
Mark looked astonished that Harry would take his word for it. "Yes. She seems quite nice. A little quiet, and not overly intelligent, but nice."
"All right, bring her along. But don't tell her any details. You can both come half an hour early, and I'll explain it all to her. I might be able to do some things with you in that time too. Just say you've been invited to some sort of meeting, and you thought she might want to come along. Tell her as much as I told you."
Mark nodded.
Harry decided to make the rounds now, and he went and asked both Luna and Hannah if they had any recommendations for younger students interested in the DA.
He asked them to bring them along to the meeting half an hour earlier to meet at the same time as Mark and Sarah.
He went back to his seat, and told Hermione to find a few Gryffindors for him as well, then asked her to prepare as many extra fake Galleons as she could.
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They had Herbology that afternoon, and Professor Sprout had them working with tiger cactuses.
Hermione had a transfiguration book sitting on her lap which she was obviously trying to keep hidden from professor Sprout. It was open to the page on 'basic animal to animal transfigurations', and she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing as she liberally heaped dirt around the base of her plant, as the cactus growled quietly to get her attention. She unwittingly threw some into her tiger cactus' mouth.
It spat the dirt out directly in her face, and all over the page she had been reading. Neville quickly did a scourgify charm on her, and helped her to place the dirt properly, all without letting professor Sprout see what he had done.
"Thank you so much!" she said, sounding flustered, and closing the book. "I didn't realize it would do that!"
"Neither did I, but I kind of figured we shouldn't put the dirt in their mouths. I thought they wouldn't like it much."
Hermione blushed, and Neville grinned. He had been helped out by Hermione on all of his own work so much in the past, that it was a little odd to be seeing things in reverse.
"Say, Neville," Harry asked, "How are things going with your new wand?"
Neville grinned. "You were right! I've been able to do things with this one that I've never been able to completely figure out! I think my new wand likes me or something."
They all laughed.
Neville leaned closer to Harry, and whispered enthusiastically. "I conjured a patronus!"
"Really?!" Harry answered, astounded. "What animal did you get?" Harry's own patronus was a stag.
"It was a fish!" Neville said happily. "A huge one, like a carp."
"That's amazing Neville!"
Harry had forgotten that Neville and quite a few other people in the DA had still not been able to conjure patronuses. They had been forced to leave the DA lessons in the middle of March, when Professor Umbridge had discovered them, and they had been right in the middle of that particular study when they stopped.
He was going to have to continue with that vein too.
Just how was he supposed to teach everyone in the DA different things at the same time?
Harry leaned over to whisper so that no one else could hear. "If you don't mind me asking, what good memory did you use to power it?"
Neville smiled. "I got a letter from my Gran about my parents. She says they've started talking again, and I'm going to visit with them next weekend."
Harry stared at Neville. "Wow, that really is good news! You'll have to tell me all about it when you get back."
"All right. I'm not really sure what to expect. I've never... never heard their voices before." Neville was sounding a little choked up, so Harry patted his back a bit in comfort.
"By the way, Gran says thanks for helping them."
Harry nodded. "It's good to know I'm not just some pathetic Voldemort radar."
Neville chuckled. "Even a Voldemort radar needs thanks sometimes, so he doesn't think he's pathetic."
Harry gaped at Neville. "You said Voldemort's name!"
Neville shrugged, his lips in a semi-confident smirk. "Apparently it's supposed to be empowering or something."
"So I've heard." Harry answered with a chuckle.
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At the pre-meeting DA, Hannah, Hermione and Luna had brought along their selections for the DA. Hannah had actually decided to bring -along with those of her own house- two Slytherin first-years. Harry's initial reaction was to kick them out of the room, but after he had spoken with them for awhile, and explained the situation of the DA to everyone he realized that these Slytherins were actually good people, and quite smart. Maybe they were a bit more ambitious than most, but in their case it didn't seem to be a bad thing. He had each of the beginners link their pinkies with him in promise.
In all, he had six first-years and four second-years.
It was quite lucky that they all seemed to be on the same level as Mark, and it was only then that the young boy realized just how little their past teachers had done with these students.
"You taught all those things to the older group?" he asked in astonishment. "They didn't learn most of it in class?"
"Not last year, at least." Harry answered. "I'm sure if you asked any questions about magical theory to the second years, they could tell you something. Even if it's something a bit wrong. Professor Umbridge wouldn't let us use magic in her class, so we spent the entire year reading from the text. The only people you might see able to do anything productive defense wise is anyone from fourth-year and up. Rem... Professor Lupin was the only good teacher we had."
"You were right about professor Trelawney." Mark chuckled. "She's another of the same sort as your last year professor."
Harry scowled. "She's nowhere near as conniving, but the result will be the same, yes."
Harry turned back to the others. They were learning the 'lumos' spell, and doing quite nicely. "Everyone, when the others arrive, I'm going to pair you off and show you the disarming charm. I'd like you all to practice it while I go about the older students. I'll come back later, and help you perfect it."
Half an hour later, the senior members began to arrive and Harry quickly explained the disarming charm to his beginners. Shouts of "expelliarmus!" began to circle around the room, and things began to fly everywhere. Wands, robes, hair, and in one case, a girl's glasses flew off her face, and onto the top of the bookshelf. Harry summoned them to him, and repaired them with a wave of his wand. He handed them back to her, and quickly made some suggestions to the younger group about their technique, then he asked that they continue without him.
He turned to the older group that had assembled, and noticed that many of them were giving the two young Slytherin boys looks of loathing.
Harry looked back, and saw that they were chatting kindly to a young Hufflepuff boy, and hoped that it would be enough to convince the rest not to discriminate againt them from the green colour of the badges sewed on their black robes.
Harry had to nearly yell over the shouts of the first and second years."All right, as you can see, I've decided to get the younger generation into the thick of things. What I'm going to do today, is catch up with our Patronuses.
"I know you're all eager to keep experimenting with wandless and soundless magic, but I realized that we still haven't completed that side of things, and if you run into a dementor, you're going to need it. The dementors aren't on our side any more, so they're going to be even more ruthless about just sucking everyone's souls right out of their bodies without a thought."
Harry then turned to Neville. "Neville, would you like to demonstrate?"
Neville smiled, and pulled out his new wand. "Expecto Patronum!" he called, and out of the tip of his wand, swam a large silver fish. It circled the Room of Requirement once, and the younger group stopped their practice to watch it.
The fish swam back to Neville, and he let it dissipate.
"Well done Neville!" said Harry amidst the applause.
"All right, those of you who have already been able to conjure a patronus may keep going with wandless and soundless magic. Just keep practicing with charms and hexes you know, and I'll circle the class and give pointers. Everyone who is still eagerly awaiting their patronus, please give it another try. I'll do my best to get to everyone. All you older students, don't hesitate to offer pointers to each other, and to the younger students. Please use constructive critisism. I won't have any insults thrown!" He said this mostly to Ron, who looked incredibly angry to be in the presence of the two young Slytherins.
The rest of the meeting was bedlam, what with shouts of 'Expelliarmus!" making books and things fly into the air around them, and silvery mists of semi-patronuses obscuring people's vision every once in awhile. Slowly they each improved, and by the time they went to leave at nine o'clock, Harry was satisfied that this new 'grouping' style of training could work very well.
He was even more enthused about his 'bigger better DA' when he saw Ron giving one of the Slytherins a few pointers on his grip. Ron had already successfully conjured a falcon patronus, and had moved over to help the young group with their disarming spell.
"Yeah, bend your index finger around, but keep a space here between those two. That's right, try it now."
"Expelliarmus!" the boy shouted as he pointed his wand.
His friend's wand went sailing out of his fingers, and across the room.
"I got it!" the boy looked as though he wanted to jump up and down. He beamed at Ron brightly.
"Hold on." Ron held out his hand to stop them from retrieving the displaced wand. He held up one hand and said "accio!" the wand flew to his fingers, and he grinned. "There's a way to get the wand to come directly to you when you disarm someone, so the enemy won't be able to retrieve it. Here..."
Yes, thought Harry. This should work very well indeed.
