Chapter 15 Defense Club
"Two hundred to ten!" Ron exclaimed, "quite a game, I'd say!"
"Sorry, about not deflecting that Bludger from you Harry," apologized Jack, glancing at Harry's leg, where the Bludger had hit,
"I didn't see it coming at you!"
"Me neither," seconded Andrew Kirke.
"No problem, guys, you can't protect me all the time," said Harry laughing. Besides, he could certainly identify with the idea of soembody missing something in a quidditch game. As he thought about how he had gotten distracted from looking for the Snitch in order to watch Ginny play for a moment, he decided that he would really have to make sure he held on to this one. It wasn't everyday he found a girl who could distract him from searching for a Snitch. Harry's attitude toward Snitch-hunting was the same as Moody's attitude toward Death-eaters- "Constant Vigilance!"
It had only been a momentary slip, him allowing his mind to be drawn off the snitch, and it certainly wouldn't happen again, but Harry still attached some significance to it.
They were all celebrating the first Quidditch victory of the year, and they were really feeling awfully good about it. "I don't know though, it seems like you guys are slacking… only making 5 goals in the time it took the Slytherins to score one… we're going to have to start scheduling extra practices, I think," grinned Harry.
Everybody laughed. Yes, things were going well for Harry, and they continued to go well for him basically until Tuesday night, which is when the thread of the story picks up, during Harry's last scheduled "detention" with Tonks.
As mentioned before, these detentions had actually turned into a sort of dueling club for students. As far as the students involved go, they were pretty much the same as had been in the DA the previous year, except, of course, for Cho and her friend, who diplomatically declined to show up.
Harry was the first to arrive, and Tonks greeted him. "Hello, Harry,glad that tonight's your last detention?" Tonks asked.
Actually, the thought hadn't even crossed Harry's mind. "We're still going to keep the club going, aren't we?" he asked, somewhat concerned.
"Of course, I was only joking," replied Tonks, laughing slightly, as other members of the club began to trickle in.
After about 20 peple came in, Tonks said, "Okay, we're going to pair off into dueling groups, like normal, but tonight, we're going to learn a new spell before we begin."
Everyone listened attentively. "This spell is called 'the silencer' The reason for the name is rather obvious... It renders the wizard or witch upon whom it is cast speechless until a reversal spell is performed. Thus, it keeps the victim unable to perform any spells at all. Obviously, under certain circumstances, there may also be other, less battle oriented reasons that someone may want to cast this spell." Tonks smiled, and then continued, "The incantation for this spell is 'silentium,' and the countercurse is 'vox.' The rules for tonight's duels are as follows: The spells allowed are disarming, the deflecting spell, and the spell I just taught you. Victory, obviously, is achieved when you steal your opponent's voice. You should also all spread out, as you should practice your ability to dodge spells that are coming at you, as sometimes this is the only way to break a situation in which two wizards keep deflecting each other's spells back at the other indefinitely. Okay. Begin."
Harry paired off with Ginny, and Ron with Hermione. After moving to their own corner of the room, Harry and Ginny eyed each other, wands raised, seeing who would make the first move.
Finally, Ginny said, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry quickly deflected the spell, watched Ginny's wand fly to the ground, and calmly pronounced, "Silentium."
He then chuckled as Ginny mouthed her voiceless frustration at having lost the first match. He performed the counter-curse immediately, and said, "Come on, didn't you hear Tonks? You should work on dodging." Mind you, Harry didn't mean for this to sound condesceding or anything... he was really trying to help her learn how to defend herself. Unfortunately, Ginny took it as being rather more haughty than Harry had intended.
"It's hard to try to concentrate on a duel and move around at the same time!" she defended, adding, "I'd like to see you try."
Never one to back down from a challenge, Harry cast the first spell. "Silentium!" he said, over the ambient noise in the classroom, which was getting louder as other pairings dueled as well.
As Ginny deflected the spell, Harry ducked out of the way, simultaneously yelling "Expelliarmus!" Once again, Ginny's wand hit the ground, and Harry called "Silentium"
Ginny, who had been distracted by the fact that Harry had actually been quick enough to dodge her spell (chalk it up to seeker-reflexes...) was too distracted to dodge this spell. Ginny mouthed curses at Harry, who grinned and said, "Satisfied?" before aiming his wand and adding, "Vox!" to reverse the spell.
Ginny, now eager to prove herself, after two losses in a row, called "Expelliarmus," and ducked before Harry even deflected her spell.
The flash of light from the spell whizzed over her head, leaving the wand intact. Feeling somewhat more confident in herself, she yelled, "Expelliarmus!" again.
Harry deflected, and she deflected right back. This time, Harry ducked, and sent a "Silentium!" back at her.She quickly deflected the spell back down at him (of course, the deflecting spell sends the spell back at the same angle from which it came), and Harry, who was already in a crouching position, could not immediately think of anywhere else to go, and the spell hit him. He was going to say, "Good job, Gin!" but, of course, was rendered unable to do so. Ginny pointed her wand at him, and then hesitated, as if contemplating the situation.
"You know what?" she asked thoughtfully, "I think I like it better this way... no boasting, no condescension... Yes, this way's definitely better." She stuck her tongue out playfully.
Since there was really no telling when he'd get his voice back now, Harry took this opportunity to scan the rest of the room to see what kind of progress everyone else was making. Neville and Luna seemed to be pretty evenly matched, as did Ron and Hermione. As Harry was watching, Dean silenced Seamus, and Dennis Creevy shut Colin up. Harry thought that was somewhat odd, as Colin was the older of the two. In fact, Colin's magic hadn't seemed quite up to par (even judging by his own standards from the previous year) during the dueling club meetings. Harry shook his head and decided it wasn't something worth thinking about. Maybe Dennis just had some talent.
Tonks strolled over. "That was quite a volley you two had going there. And it's good to see that you won this time, Ginny... you've got to stop going easy on Potter just because he's your boyfriend." Tonks and Ginny both laughed, before Tonks finally cast the countercurse to allow Harry to talk again.
"I would have done that," said Ginny, "I really would have... eventually."
"You know, I really didn't mean to come off as condescending... I know you're excellent at dueling without my help," said Harry truthfully. Harry beat Ginny slightly more than half the time when they dueled, but even Tonks only beat him about half the time, so just the fact that she didn't quite have a winning record against him couldn't be held against her. Frankly, he was glad that he knew the only time he'd ever be dueling against her would be in the safety of this club.
"I know you weren't being condescending... I was just joking around," then she got thoughtful for a second. "Do you think I'm better at dueling than Ron is?"
Harry looked over to where Ron and Hermione and were dueling, just to make sure that Ron hadn't heard the question. He nodded seriously. "Well, I hope that means that next time your testosterone level gets so high that you feel like you need to duel Malfoy, you'll call on me as your second instead of Ron then," she said, and grinned, just so it was clear that she wasn't really mad at him.
"Whatever you say Ginny," he said, and then quickly pointed his wand, adding "Silentium." without so much as a pause. Ginny deflected the spell, and Harry ducked. The battle was back on.
The next time Harry met McGonnogal for potions, he asked her if they could make that potion that Hermione had suggested. When McGonnogal asked him where he had gotten such an idea, he stated, truthfully, that Hermione said that the potion often showed up on the NEWTs. Seemingly impressed with Harry's willingness to learn, she agreed to get the ingredients ready so that he could work on it the next class.When Harry reported back on his progress with the ingredients-collecting, Hermione seemed somewhat hesitant. "Are you guys sure this is a good idea?" she asked, tentatively. Ron's jaw dropped. "You're the one who suggested the project!" he said.
"I know, but as you'll recall, that was only several hours after Draco tried to get Ginny killed. I wasn't thinking rationally. This potion's not even legal, and it's a terrible invasion of privacy," said Hermione calmly, apparently trying to prove that she had now definitely regained her rationality.
Ron, however, seemed to think otherwise. He sputtered, "Wait! You said it yourself. Draco tried to kill my little sister! And you're worried about his privacy!"
"Ron, stop shouting!" cautioned Ginny, even though she was having a hard time avoiding shouting herself. "You'll wake people up!" They were, after all, in the common room, in the late night hours on a Thursday night. Although the room was deserted, shouting would probably be audible from the individual rooms.
"Anyway, he's right," opined Harry, "we've got to see if we can find anything out that will stop Malfoy from leading us into a trap with Deatheaters again. If we can find out where Wormtail's hiding, then we'll all be a lot safer."
Hermione seemed to be considering this. He had taken the correct persuausive route by arguing that he was not actually looking for trouble, but simply trying to preempt it. "Why can't we just tell Dumbledore that we think Malfoy knows where Wormtail is, and let him take it from there?" Hermione asked, although from her facial expression, it seemed that she knew the answer.
"Because he can't mix illegal potions! He'd get canned if anybody found out. And he wouldn't even be able to expel Malfoy on the grounds that we claim he's been misbehaving. He could lose his job for that too. Whereas, if we got caught, Dumbeldore would keep us from getting in too much trouble. Seriously, how are they going to expel the boy who lived on the eve of the second war?" asked Ron, who seemed to be trying, though failing, to keep his voice down to a reasonable volume.
"See, there you go," agreed Harry brightly, "I'll even volunteer to be the one who uses the potion to read Malfoy's mind."
"Fine... That's two in favor of making the potion... over my cautions against it. What're your thoughts, Ginny?" asked Hermione solemnly.
"I think we still need to make it," said Ginny carefully. "But you're still going to help us make it, right? You're not going to abandon us now, are you? I mean, if we're going to make this potion, we might as well at least make it right, and you're the only one who got an Outstanding on O.W.L. level potions out of all 4 of us."
Hermione, seemingly flattered at the compliment, said, "No, of course I wouldn't abandon you to make the potion on your own. I was the one who suggested it in the first place... Besides, I don't know, maybe you guys are right. Maybe it does need to be done"
So in the next weeks, with a renewed resolve, the four friends went about finding ingredients for the complicated potion. By the end of November, the potion was complete, and all that needed to be done was to find a way to slip Malfoy some of the potion so that Harry could take his dose (they differed in only a few ingredients) and read his mind.
A/N So, um... too bad they couldn't read his mind this chapter, eh? Now you'll have to wait until my next update to see whether or not there really is anything at all to be read in Draco Malfoy's mind. But this chapter was getting too long as it is.