Chapter 8: Constant Vigila… – DUCK!
Harry reluctantly got out of bed and launched his feet into his slippers, only to jump in surprise as the right slipper started chewing merrily away on his big toe. It wasn't exactly painful, it was just a very unnerving feeling. If Harry hadn't been properly awake before he certainly was now, and he was weary of everything he touched while he got a shower and dressed himself, but nothing else seemed to have been within Tonks' reach. When he entered the living room the three aurors were sitting at the table all feasting on a delicious breakfast no doubt coked up by Dobby and Winky. Tonks had a face of determined innocence on, and Moody kept eyeing her suspiciously but couldn't seem to find anything wrong. Harry decided it would be best to just act like nothing had happened at all, and just sat down and greeted everyone with a cheery "Good morning". This seemed to irritate Tonks a bit and so Harry did his utmost to keep his face calm.
While they ate their breakfast Harry speculated madly on how to get back at Tonks without letting the two other aurors know what was going on.
When they had all more or less finished eating Moody and Kingsley started a hushed conversation and leaned a bit towards each other while Tonks merrily chewed away at a bit of buttered bread. She absentmindedly reached out for a pitcher of juice and Harry recognised it as the perfect opportunity it was. With a tiny wave of his hand and a wriggle of his finger he sent a very weak banishing charm at the pitcher to move it just about an inch. However as Tonks was still occupied by her bread that inch was sufficient to make her tip over the pitcher instead of grapping it.
Orange juice immediately flooded the breakfast table and sent napkins floating like small white rafts over the edge of the table and down the first and last juicefall of their life. Tonks immediately launched into a fit of apologies; however it must be something not entirely new to her colleagues as they just shook their heads and continued their conversation.
Harry on the other hand had a very hard time keeping his features schooled, and as soon as Tonks looked at him her face broke into a grin, and mouthed "I'll get you for that!"
The rest of they day followed the pattern of the previous one relatively good, however as the day lagged towards an end and Harry's head had been filled more than he thought possible once again, and Tonks still stood at the blackboard droning away on the finer finesses of producing a powerful shield, he decided that enough was enough.
Kingsley and Moody had already left as they apparently had a meeting somewhere. Harry realised that he really hadn't listened for the last 5 minutes and decided to let Tonks know he had had enough. He was just about to clear his throat when he decided that Tonks were getting a bit too serious for his taste. Harry grabbed his wand and whispered the Jelly Legs curse as forcefully as he could without actually shouting it. Apparently for Harry the strength of Harry's spell was not determined by the volume of his voice but rather of how strongly he felt about it. Apparently Harry was pretty tired of listening Tonks' droning as her legs immediately buckled under her own weight. Within a few moments the crumbled heap on the floor were laughing merrily and 1 minute later when Tonks had recovered spells started flying like bees after a honey farmer. Harry had taken cover behind his turned over desk while Tonks were hiding behind the blackboard. Tonks were shouting every weak hex she could think of and Harry had plenty to do with defending himself. After a few minutes of furious defence Harry ducked behind the desk completely for a quick breather. He was completely lost for what to do – Tonks was a much better dueller than he had imagined. The only thing Harry could think of was that he needed to do something surprising as he spell for spell had no chance of matching a fully trained Auror.
He was looking around for anything that could tip the match to his favour, but the only thing available was his quill. Seconds later Tonks were lying flat on the floor, desperately trying to fend of the attacking quill. A weak stunning charm from Harry allowed the quill to finish its job, and soon Tonks had "I loose!" printed on her forehead in black ink.
Harry walked over to Tonks to look at his handiwork, and almost burst into tears so hard was he laughing. Tonks entire face along with most of her upper body and forearms were covered in ink spots. On top of that was the words "I loose" written rather shakily across her forehead. Harry was laughing so hard his legs had trouble carrying him and he sat down on the floor so he wouldn't fall. If anyone had been able to see him just then, a safe bet would be that they would have thought he had gone mental. A couple of minutes later Harry was slowly getting his laughter under control only to have the laughter replaced by silent tears streaming down his cheeks. He just sat there next to Tonks, head hung down, sacking shoulders and soft trembles coursing trough his body with every other sob. Having all that fun and now seeing Tonks lying on the floor like that had brought back some very painful memories of a lost friend, almost father, who should have been there to share the fun. Who should have been there to teach him how to deal with all the pressure fate had put on his shoulders.
"I miss you Sirius. I miss you so much. I wish you could come back to me. I hope you are in a better place now, and that that you can finally spend time with your friends. If so, please tell mum and dad hi, and tell them that I miss them too. It's just all so hard. How can this all be true? Why am I the one?"
Harry dried his eyes and gathered himself, then enervated Tonks. Her arms immediately started flaying to fend of the quill that she still thought was there. This brought a weak smile back on her face. When Tonks realised that the quill was gone, and that Harry was standing over her, she started laughing and stammered out in between laughs "what did you do?"
Harry stretched his arm out and helped Tonks up without saying a word. He beckoned Tonks to follow him and then left the training hall, heading for toilet. When they reached the door to the bathroom Tonks, still with a wide grin on her face, grabbed hold of Harry's arm.
"Why have I got spots all over my forearms Harry?"
Harry just gave a small laugh and opened the door to the bathroom and dragged Tonks inside and pointed at the mirror.
"Ohh…. OHHH…. OHHHHHH you are so going to pay for that!"
Tonks spun around fast as lightning and before Harry could even register what was happening, both his face and his bare arms were spotted purple and green. Harry had the distinct feeling that the colouration wasn't limited to those parts of his body, and he didn't like it. But then again it was rather funny he thought.
Tonks just stood there smirking as Harry tried every spell he could think of to remove the creepy coloured spots, but nothing seemed to help. Harry figured that since he couldn't get his spots away right now, and since it didn't look like Tonks were going to help him, he might as well do her the favour back. Hermione had once taught him and Ron a spell to make ink permanent; she found it very useful and had made both of them use it on their exam notes so they would last at least thru school. Harry wasn't sure what would happen if he used the charm on Tonks, but he figured that it was worth a shot. He quickly got his wand out and firmly spoke the words of the spell, "Inkus Permanentus", while he did a fanning motion whit his wand.
Immediately hot air streamed out of his wand and hit Tonks straight in the face. The heat wasn't intense enough to scald her but it did look like it toasted a bit of her eyebrows.
When Harry removed his wand after 2 seconds, Tonks' eyes flew open and she turned around to look her reflection in the mirror. "A permanent ink drying charm? You wouldn't! OH! What's happening? AARRGHHHH!"
At first it looked like the spell hadn't done anything, but soon the words were sucked into her skin and now looked like a tattoo. That however wasn't the reason for Tonks' scream. It appeared the spell wasn't supposed to be used on human skin as it apparently had a nasty side effect. The words started growing and soon the borders of the words met and still the ink started spreading. 1 minute later Tonks' head was completely black, and Harry was rolling on the floor laughing.
Apparently the ink only reached so far, because it stopped spreading once it reached her neck and ended in a ragged, faded line.
While Harry had big trouble stopping laughing Tonks just stared at her reflection in the mirror, unable to speak. Harry figured he better cheer Tonks up a bit, and so he hit her with a weak cheering charm. It was immediately obvious that Tonks had been balancing between finding it funny and wanting to cry, because she launched directly into another fit of laughter. This only amused Harry more, and soon they were both laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. That was how Dumbledore found them when he arrived to have an Occlumency lesson with Harry.
"Good evening Harry, Nymphadora. I asked the house elves to prepare us a light supper, so if you would please join us in the living room?" Dumbledore kept his voice calm and his facial features didn't flinch at all at the sight before him, but his eyes twinkled with life, and if eyes were able to transmit laughter, Dumbledores eyes would tell tales of 1000 clowns parading in front of him, performing all the most insanely funny tricks one could imagine.
To Harry and Tonks the appearance of the stoic headmaster in the middle of their fit of laughter had the effect of an entire oversize cauldron of water being emptied on their heads. They immediately collected them selves, helped each other of the floor, and headed into the living room, completely forgetting their rather bizarre appearance.
They all sat at the table and waited for the food to be brought in, and Dumbledore, unsurprisingly, was the first to speak. "I assume that you have had a couple of good days training? You had no trouble handling Harry alone when Alastor and Kingsley left for the meeting toady, Nymphadora?" Dumbledores eyes twinkled madly at his last words and Tonks hurriedly stammered that there hadn't been any trouble at all. This apparently was more than the old mans self control could handle and he started laughing merrily. I can see that, indeed. I can recognise the spell that you put on Harry, but it seems your protégé here takes after his father and his friends. What ever did you do to get Tonks' head black Harry?" Harry didn't look up once while he explained what had happened during the afternoon up until they got to the bathroom door. At this spot Dumbledore was laughing heartedly, and motioned for Harry to pause. When he had taken a couple of seconds to calm himself down, he spoke again his voice full of mirth.
"I must admit that was brilliant Harry. I wish I had come up with that! But how on earth did your head get all black my dear?"
Tonks started explaining what had happened next, using a lot of words not suited for any Hogwarts student to hear. Dumbledore just held up his hand and interrupted her.
"I'm sorry but my old ears must be failing me. I only caught very few words out of what you said could you please repeat it?"
Tonks blushed at the well disguised tell of, and started her explanation over again, this time using a less colourful vocabulary. She ended of with: "… and then this little geezer cast a permanent ink drying charm on my face!"
Dumbledore chuckled a bit, well actually quite a lot, at this and drew out his wand and performed a series of complex swings, flicks and jolts and when he was finished he said with a satisfied grin. "I'm afraid I can't remove the permanency Tonks, that is, well, permanent. However I have been able to reduce the extent of the ink to what was originally intended. If you are unhappy with this I suggest you take a trip to St. Mungos – they might be able to do something for you." Tonks swallowed hard at this then shot a death glare at Harry. "You will pay for this my friend, ohh you will pay!"
Faster than Harry had ever thought possible Tonks launched a sausage right at him which hit him directly between his eyes, only to be quickly followed by 3 peas and a tomato. By the time the peas had hit him Harry finally recovered enough to duck the tomato which splattered on the wall behind him, and then he started launching anything he could get his hands on back at the enemy. Dumbledore apparently didn't mind too much as he just conjured up a shield and watched the battle from safety, occasionally conjuring a pie and throwing it at one or the other, apparently not caring which side he was supporting.
Some time later Tonks and Harry were totally covered, mostly in pie, and looked somewhat like giant bizarre gingerbread men. They slowly realised that neither of them were winning, and that it was actually Dumbledore who had bested both of them, while he remained completely spotless. Tonks apparently found that a bit unfair as she tentatively sent a bloody steak flying towards Dumbledore. The steak hit shield with a soft "splat" and proceeded to slide down it leaving a faint trail of meat juice. Dumbledore just sat there and smiled back at Tonks, conjured a pie, and masterly sent it flying to hit a gawping Tonks right in the face. This appealed to Harry's sense of justice and within moments both of the one time enemies were bombarding Dumbledore's shield with anything they could reach. Dumbledore just looked rather amused by this and sent another pie at Tonks, and added one for Harry just for good measure.
Soon the partners in crime were getting sore from all the throwing and from the excessive weight of pie covering them. Reluctantly they stooped throwing and accepted their defeat with bowed heads. Dumbledore let his shield down and with a flick of his wand cleaned both Harry and Tonks right up. Apparently Dumbledore wasn't done with his fun, because both of them were left with the feeling of being scrubbed inside the mouth with a rather large and very soapy brush. As if thinking with one mind Tonks and Harry started throwing spells at the old man in front of them, with every intent to have his head turn purple, grow a tail, make his nose disappear and make his eyelashes grow as long as his beard; Just about any spell they could think of that they would find funny. To their great frustration their aged mentor was if possible more adept at prank duels then at food fights and every thing they threw at him he just beat aside with a small flick of his wand. He even found time to throw a single spell at both of them although they didn't notice anything happening and so they just continued fighting. Harry decided that his headmaster was so much more of an experienced dueller that it wouldn't be unfair to tip the scales a bit in their favour, and so he started using his off hand to send the very limited contents of the table flying towards Dumbledore's face, while still firing of the most ridiculous curses he could think of. While he searched his mind for anything to get an upper hand, anything to make the old man look ridiculous, he suddenly got an idea. So far the unexpected had worked out well for him today and so he squared his shoulders, stood tall and shouted with all his might "ridiculous"! He had no idea if it would work as the spell had been developed to battle a Boggart, but he figured that it couldn't hurt to give it a try. Apparently it was true that one of his strengths was that he was able to think fast in the heat of the battle, because the result was hilarious.
Immediately big acid green ice cones started growing out of Dumbledore's ears, while purple and light blue gummy bears started raining from his nose. His hair turned into long rather yellowish and dry grass, and his skin took on a look of candyfloss. The strangest part however was that his legs turned into a rather beautiful scaly fish tail. Within seconds all the occupants around the table were rolling on the floor laughing so hard, Dumbledore leaving traces of gummy bears and candyfloss everywhere. When Harry and Tonks caught sight of each other they shrieked and laughed if possibly even harder than before. They both had big shiny red noses, Harry was completely white in his face, while Tonks was again black. Their mouths and lips had swollen to at least double size and were stuck in the stupidest grin imaginable and were painted in a bright red colour. Harry's normal jet black hair was bubblegum pink and had somehow gotten afro curls – Tonks' hair was exactly like Harry's but one didn't notice that as much. Last but not least their feet had grown about 3 inches each to complete the look of a muggle clown perfectly.
It took them all a good 10 minutes to get control of their laughter, and even then their were still bursts of sniggering every few seconds which made it very hard to concentrate on getting themselves turned back to normal. Every time one of them were casting a counter curse on one the others, it would be followed by some weak but annoying curse, like jelly legs or "Petrificus partialus" a not so know variant of the complete body bind. After half an hour of removing curses only to replace them with new ones, they finally calmed enough down to get rid of the last bits of stray magic manifesting itself around their bodies. Only Tonks' black words scribbled across her forehead remained. Dumbledore and Harry said goodbye to Tonks who stated that she better visit the hospital before she went home. Harry and Dumbledore agreed that would probably be for the better.
Dumbledore and Harry quickly cleaned the room with some quick cleaning charms and then settled in two cosy armchairs across from each other with a nice cup of hot chocolate each. They worked on Harry's mental shields for a little while but Dumbledore didn't want to try to force his way in, as he thought that they had better have a look on the human transformation spell that Harry had to learn on top of everything else. As Dumbledore didn't know the spell either they both sat down and studied the intricate instructions McGonnagal had produced. Dumbledore would like to learn the spell as well as he had never had the chance before, but he mainly focused on helping Harry and getting him to understand how the spell was supposed to work. They worked well into the night, but had to finally give up as Harry's attention started slipping and his eyelids got heavier. Dumbledore said his good nights to Harry and sent him straight to bed, and then flooed directly to his office.
The next morning Harry was awake early, and was sitting eating breakfast when Moody and Kingsley arrived trough the fireplace. They exchanged good morning's and Harry invited the aurors to sit down and have some breakfast, which they gladly obliged to. Harry could see by the way they kept glancing at him that there was something they longed to ask him, but clearly didn't know how. When they had kept shooting glances at him and each other for 5 minutes while otherwise eating in comfortable silence, Harry grew irritated by their behaviour.
"Speak up – You never struck me as a man afraid to say his opinion Moody, Sir." Harry figured it didn't hurt to add the last "sir".
Moody laughed his very special hoarse laugh, before he spoke. "Why thank you Harry. I guess the reason we were" he glanced at Kingsley "reluctant to ask are that we don' fancy spending 6 hours in St. Mungos."
"6 hours?" Harry sprayed orange juice all over the table. "Why on earth was Tonks there for so long? It was just ink…"
"And a permanent drying charm, and a rather powerful one at that – don't forget that. It appears that they after the 6 hours gave up trying to get rid of the words, and Tonks needs to go back today to see if they can think of something to help her so that she doesn't have to brand you with something equally unpleasant."
The face Harry pulled must have shown a great deal of horror at that prospect, because both aurors laughed out loud.
"Don't worry Harry, I'm sure they'll figure something out. Some of the very best healers in the world work at that hospital. Now although I must admit that you need to practise your spell work, I don't fancy you practising like you did yesterday – not on me at least. So we have to figure out a way for you to practise in a somewhat combat like situation. The way aurors get this training is rather simple. Simply have two opposing forces try to outbattle the other either head on, or with some kind of objective. These kinds of battles are usually conducted with a range from 10 to 50 aurors on either side, but that of course is not what we will have to train you for as you will most likely be alone when the time comes." Moody had been speaking in his usual brisk, no nonsense matter until he got to the last sentence where his voice faded away to nothing more than a whisper.
Harry nodded his head, but needed a couple of moments before he was willing to look up from his plate. However when he did his face showed nothing but determination. It was the haunted, sad and most of all lonely look which only showed in his eyes that worried the younger of the two aurors. Neither Harry nor Moody had any way of knowing it, but he would speak to Dumbledore later that day to voice his concerns.
"So how am I going to train? Duel the two of you?"
"Well we have been thinking about that Harry, and we feel a good way to start you up would to be to create kind of an obstacle course for you. Needles to say it would probably remind you a bit of the final task of the Tri Wizard Tournament, and therefore we wanted to consult you on the idea before we prepared anything. If you are in any way uncomfortable…" Moody's voice trailed of and he looked Harry square in the eye.
Harry had a feeling that his decision on the subject would determine the way the old auror looked at him in the future but he wasn't certain what was expected of him, or for that matter whether he cared to know what was. Because of all the sorrow that had taken permanent residence in his heart after the loss of Sirius, the guilt he felt for the death of Cederic had been kind of numbed but now that he thought about it again, he was fairly certain that it was not something that he wanted to add to the burden he was already carrying on his shoulders.
"To tell you the truth I really don't want to think about that… However I realise that I would have no way of completing this task without you guys helping me. So as long as there are no hedges or other closely confined spaces I guess I will be all right with it."
"I'm glad you are taking this seriously Harry. It will probably take until lunch to make the necessary preparations. Dumbledore wants you to continue with your other studies while we prepare. Understood?"
Harry nodded his head, excused himself from the table and gathered his notes on what he had come to think of as the Morpheous charm. He had decided on the name because it was part of the incantation needed to perform the spell and… well it sounded kind of cool.
Harry found the spell to be extraordinarily difficult to understand, but he was determined to get it right – and get it right soon. Not only was the incantation to perform the spell rather lengthy, also the wand movement was amazingly complex. Where most spells could be completed with a simple swish, flick or thrust the wand movement for this ancient spell was complex. The movement was actually split in 2. The first part was drawing a sharp edged 5 point star and then keeping the wand dead still pointing forward. Upon completion of this a translucent image of the caster would appear in front of him. From that point the caster needed to use mental focus to change the image in front of him to that of what he wanted to change into. This was the crucial part of the spell as it was not enough to simply think: "I want to look like someone else and have red hair". One would need to have a complete mental image of who you wanted to change into, whether the person was real or imagined. Real persons were by far the most difficult to copy as there were so many details to get right. You would be able to transform even if you didn't get it all right but the result would in best case be unbelievable to the observer, and the worst case… Well let's just say that people had been known to loose a nose or an ear as a result of lack of mental strength. The mental image had to be altered within a few seconds or the spell would fail completely. When the caster was happy with the transformed projection he would start moving his wand again this time in an inwards spiral while he with every circle would pull his wand towards his own chest. At the exact moment he reached the centre of the spiral the back of his wand was supposed to touch his chest.
Harry used 2 hours practising the wand movements. At first he had a bit of difficulty with it but soon his Quidditch derived dexterity kicked in and the shapes were getting cleaner and more precise with every try. After the 2 hours of practise the only thing that was still causing Harry a bit of trouble, was getting the timing of the spiral move exactly right. His restless spirit caused him to rush the backwards movement and the result was of course that he hit his chest before the spiral was completed. As Harry was getting frustrated with the lack of progress on this final part of the spell, he realised that his frustration was part of the problem. He decided to drop the practise for now and instead sat back in his chair crossed his legs beneath himself and closed his eyes. At first he just sat there relaxing his muscles until the point where he almost slumped over because he was concentrating so hard on getting ever muscle in his body to relax. He then proceeded to let his mind wander. He found that when he was semi meditative and let his mind roam freely it seemed capable of dealing with the problems nagging him, faster than he were able to do it on his own. While Harry was sitting there trying to let his mind empty itself, Kingsley and Moody were silently finishing setting up the obstacle course they had prepared for Harry.
There actually weren't that many obstacles, they had spent the most of the time discussing how hard to lay into Harry. Moody seemed to think the best approach was to hit him full strength, so Harry knew what was expected of him, while Kingsley believed in a more lax approach. In the end they had come to a compromise. The objective for Harry was simple. Get to the other side of the room, to the green square they had marked on the floor. While Moody had won on wanting to use most of their spell power, Kingsley had gotten his will and had added low walls and rubble spread over most of the room, all of which Harry could use as cover in varying degrees.
When they finished they went to get Harry, but the sight that met them when they entered the living room rooted them to the spot and rendered them speechless for a good 3 minutes. Their eyes registered the impossible in the situation before them immediately but it took a good deal of time before their minds would process the information it received. In a situation like this Moody only know to do one thing. He went over to the fireplace and silently grabbed some floo powder and whispered "Headmasters Office" into the green flames. As soon as the connection was established he stuck his head into to flames only to pull back out seconds later only to be nearly pushed aside by a very worried looking Dumbledore.
"What is it Alastor? You look like you've just seen Salazar Slytherin right here in this house…"
Moody Tried explaining but apparently he was still to flustered by the impossibility of what he had just seen, to be able to speak and so nothing more than grunts and hoarse coughs erupted from his mouth. Instead he just pointed his arm past Dumbledore to where Harry was sitting completely hidden from Dumbledore's view.
Dumbledore sent Moody a confused look and then turned right on the spot, only to almost hurt his jaw as it were heading towards the floor with an alarming speed.
The only thing running trough the minds of the 3 people in the room besides Harry was: "This is impossible. No one can do that. This is simply impossible!"
Dumbledore finally got enough of his sense back to realise that now was probably NOT a good time to disturb Harry, and silently motioned for Moody and Kingsley to take seats next to him on couch from where they could easily watch Harry.
They sat in silence watching Harry sitting in his chair, obviously not asleep but obviously not quite aware either. The odd thing wasn't the look of relative peace on his face, although that would have gotten a lot of attention if it was not for the circumstances at hand. It wasn't his half awake, half not there state either. And even though it was a bit odd that his right index finger kept doing small, lacy circles while pointed in a weird downward angle, that was not at all what had them all so stomped.
You would have been able to hear a snitch drop in the silence of the room. Neither of the three men, who combined had seen most of what anyone would want to see in a lifetime and a great deal they wouldn't, were hardly breathing. In front of them sat a teenager whom they all believed to be destined to become the greatest wizard of the next era, and hopefully the vanquisher of The Dark Lord. The thing that bothered them was that from the circling index finger flowed a soft red/orange mist which formed a cushion beneath Harry. The best way to describe it would be that Harry was sitting 15 inches above his chair resting on a small cloud, which had a colour that suggested that it was being hit by the last rays of sunshine from a late summer sunset. It was a truly beautiful sight but none the less Harry was still floating in a lotus position in mid air. This was something that people had tried to achieve in millennia but had long before present day been deemed impossible. Most inanimate objects could be levitated by a powerful witch or wizard. Humans or other living forms took a very powerful wizard to levitate, but levitating your self was – impossible.
By silent agreement they just sat there watching Harry, neither of them wanting to find out what would happen if they broke the young wizards focus.
Harry on his side was not at all aware that he had company in the living room, in fact he wasn't even aware of the fact that there were anything unusual going on with his body. He had a weak recollection of feeling that he was sitting uncomfortable at some point, but as soon as he had thought that he better do something to get comfortable if he were to focus properly the feeling of discomfort had vanished. If he had stopped to think of it, which he didn't, he would have noticed that he couldn't even feel the chair he was sitting in.
When Harry had enjoyed the comfort of just drifting around in nothingness for some time he decided that it would probably be a good idea to practise some of his Occlumency. One of the things he had read about in the books The Order had gotten him, was that it was not enough to stove away ones thoughts behind the mental door. You also had to create some kind of defence to keep intruders away from the door. Harry quickly stowed away all his conscious thoughts behind the door, and closed it firmly. Harry remembered that the book had described that a common way to start practising conjuring some defences in ones mind, was to "build" a mental wall out of bricks.
This seemed like as good a place as any to start for Harry, only problem was that he was in his mind, and as far as he knew, minds weren't exactly filled with bricks. "I wonder where I'm supposed to get bricks from?" he thought out loud. Unbeknownst to him he also spoke it out loud in the living room which startled the three men sitting on the couch opposite him a great deal. Moody and Kingsley looked from Harry to Dumbledore with a "Has he gone mental?" look on their faces. Dumbledore however looked as lost as they did, and stared even harder at Harry's peaceful face.
Back in Harry's mind a brick simply appeared out of thin air and laid on what apparently was the ground. I need more bricks… a simple garden wall isn't going to be any use against Voldemort. Apparently Harry's mind didn't mind taking orders from him, because immediately a mountain of bricks appeared next to him. Hmm… the book said to build a wall. I guess I'll just have to get going. How hard can it be to build a wall?
10 minutes later, Harry was sweating badly and his "wall" was now 1 meter long and 40 centimetres high. In frustration he kicked the wall and to his dismay everything just crumbled and landed in a pile in front of his feet. Harry's knees almost buckled under him and he sat heavily down next to his former wall. I need to get this right! All I wanted was a wall so I can keep Voldemort out of my head – away from the prophecy.
1 millisecond later the mountain of bricks doubled in size and kept growing for another half minute. Harry just watched in awe as brick after brick after brick appeared out of thin air. When it finally looked like no more bricks were appearing the pile had reached a height that Harry, in relation to his own apparent height, guessed was about 300 feet. Wow… now I just need then all formed into a wall to keep intruders away from the door. At first Harry couldn't see that anything was happening, but soon the sound of falling stones reached his ears. When he bent his neck all the way back and stared up towards the top of the brick mountain he could see that apparently a single brick had started rolling down the mountain and were now slowly but surely starting an avalanche of bricks heading straight for him. Harry was rooted to the spot not knowing what on earth to do. There was no place for him to go really, and somewhere in the back of his conscious a small voice whispered to him that this was his own mind, and that it definitely wasn't going to hurt him in any way.
Still Harry was growing really nervous when seconds later a full scale brick-slide was advancing down the slopes of the pile towards him. I asked for a wall not a way to get me killed he thought. The slide just continued.
As the first brick reached the bottom it landed flat on its biggest side and laid completely still. The next brick rolled over the first, and then settled neatly against the first 1. It was seconds later before Harry realised what was happening. All he could think was: It's magic! The slide was in fact what he had asked for, in a weird sort of way. The bricks were rapidly forming themselves into a circular wall around the door with a diameter so big, that you could easily fit a small town on the inside of the wall. Harry watched in awe as the bricks started falling on the sides of the wall making it thicker while the centre of it was still growing in height. When all the movement finally stopped minutes later, Harry was looking at a 150 feet tall wall that separated him from the door. He could only guess on how thick the wall was, but as far as he had been able to tell while it was still forming, it would be at least 10 feet thick. Amazing! Hmm… Did I just do something really stupid? How on earth am I supposed to get to the other side of the wall? As usual his mind obeyed him and a portion of the wall in front of him, roughly the size of a door, grew transparent right in front of his eyes. Harry tentatively approached the slightly shimmering translucent part of the wall, and when he was only inches away, he reached out his hand and, even though it seemed obvious that it would happen, he was still amazed as it passed right trough it. A second later he was walking quickly trough the passage the wall had opened for him. To his wonder, the wall was actually not 10 feet thick. It was closer to 30 feet! Harry wondered what would happen if the wall were to suddenly close the passage, but quickly abandoned that thought as the passageway immediately narrowed by a foot.
Back in the living room the three men were growing steadily uneasy. It was now more than 4 hours since they had found Harry sitting floating above a sunset lit cloud, and in the last hour they had noted a change in Harry's appearance that worried them considerably. It had started with his facial expression growing a bit more sombre, but rapidly it escalated into his entire posture freezing up as they could literally see most of the muscles in his body tensing up. 5 minutes later tiny beads of sweat were appearing on his forehead, and now almost three hours later the boy floating in front of them was completely drenched in sweat. Moody had at 1 time aired the idea of just shaking him until he returned to the present, but Dumbledore had quickly squashed that idea though, as he had a hunch about what Harry was doing, and that was not something that one should disturb. And so without any real possibilities at their disposal the three men just sat there with concerned expressions on their faces. Even Moody's magical eye wasn't spinning in its socket; instead the clear blue orb was focused completely on Harry's face, as if he could see into his mind if he looked hard enough. They were so intent on studying their ward, to monitor his well being, that they did not even realise that they themselves had been watched for some time. Because of their complete disregard of their surroundings, the three men were startled out of their wits when someone cleared their throat only a few feet from the couch they were sitting on. The voice was strangely inhuman and all three men had their wands out and drawn and trailed on the intruder in what appeared to be record speed. "Stupefy!"
Moody's policy of fire first, ask questions later, resulted in 2 very scared house elves, and a delicious looking roasted chicken now looking like a rather ashen carcass. Dumbledore felt a desperate need to laugh out loud, but his ancient conscious told him that was not what was appropriate here – What was need was someone to comfort the two scared house elves.
Dumbledore kneeled down, and even though his increasingly weak knees gave him some discomfort he kept his facial expression schooled into a gentle smile. It took some time for Dumbledore to apology and explain what was going on, but when he was done Dobby and Winky wore tentative smiles on their small pointed faces.
"Mr. Dumbledore Headmaster, sir… I know sir is worried about Master Harry; Dobby was too when he first saw master sitting on his cloud. Now Dobby knows Master is fine – Master always seem more…" Dobby fell silent and looked as he frantically searched his mind, his big round eyes almost rolled back in to his head as if they might be able to see what his mind couldn't. Suddenly his eyes snapped back and focused on Dumbledore's artificially calm face. "Master Harry seems more calm and…. Dobby knows not the word… Master seems smarter with him self… Does Mr Dumbledore sir understand?" Dobby's huge eyes pleaded with Dumbledore to understand.
Dumbledore gazed thoughtfully at the small house elf in front of him: "I do understand Dobby, Thank you. Could you please set the remaining dinner at the table please? Oh and Dobby? Do you know how long Harry usually stays still like this?" There was a trace of a hint of worry in Dumbledore's voice, but thankfully the house elves didn't seem to notice. "Dobby knows not Mr Headmaster sir. Dobby doesn't spy on Master." Dobby had gotten an offended look in his eyes, but Dumbledore quickly smoothed it over, by assuring Dobby that he hadn't meant to imply anything. Dobby looked thoughtfully at Dumbledore before he spoke. "Dobby is not sure, but Dobby thinks Master has been like this for hours before, but Dobby knows not. Dobby always leave if Master is like this. Dobby and Winky will not risk disturbing Master."
Dobby's last statement hung heavily in the air 5 minutes later when the three men sat at the table eating, all lost in their own thoughts only stooping their forks relentless travel to gaze at Harry still sitting on his cloud. Every few minutes the three men would look away from their dishes and from Harry, to silently discuss whether they should disturb Harry, but they all seemed reluctant to take a decision that could possibly harm Harry.
When they had ate in silence for 15 minutes Dumbledore finally pushed his plate away, stood up and walked over to the couch opposite of where Harry was sitting and sat down. Slowly he drew out his wand, focussed his gaze on the closed lids of Harry's eyes before softly whispering "Legelimens!"
Harry was wandering along the inside of the circular wall checking if for cracks, and in general just inspecting his work when something foreign suddenly entered his mind. The presence was clearly on the other side of the wall, and Harry was from the lack of pain is his scar pretty certain that it wasn't Voldemort that had come to visit. On the other hand Harry had a strange feeling about the presence on the other side of the wall, like he knew it. The only person other than Voldemort Harry could think of that had forced their way into his mind was Snape. Harry felt a lot of things about his potions professor, but wanting to have him inside his mind again was very low on his things to do in life list.
"Time to practise this repelling thing a bit" Harry thought. He wasn't too sure of how he was supposed to force intruders out of his mind. He considered for a moment trying some of the things Snape had taught him, but immediately decided that it had all been useless and that he would just go with his instincts, and the few hints he could remember from skimming the later parts of his books. The trick as far as he could remember was gaining control of your own mind, and not letting the intruder get anywhere near where you hid away your memories and thoughts, The problem with this Harry thought, was that he couldn't remember just how to do it. It was something along the lines of using any means necessary to get the intruder out, including playing on their fears, using brute force or even have an imagined duel in the mind. The trouble was that the strongest mind would set the rules for what was possible in the mind. Of course the owner of the mind had a clear advantage here, but if the difference in strength were too great, it would be possible for the intruder to take control.
All this rushed trough Harry's head in a split second and much to his surprise he immediately got an idea of what to do.
Dumbledore was a bit disorientated when he appeared inside Harry's mind. He had expected to be met by a stream of memories as he figured Harry was sorting trough some unwanted memories. Instead he was met by never ending darkness both in front of him, to his left and right and above and below him. When he slowly turned himself around he was startled as he realised what Harry had really been doing. The wall that stood in front of him looked enormous and Dumbledore was very impressed. He knew however that a wall like that would not be able to keep him away from Harry. He tried calling out Harry's name but his voice was lost in the darkness. The moment he started moving closer to the wall he was startled to realise that Harry had apparently realised he was there. The sound of millions upon millions of bricks forming a huge wall behind Dumbledore didn't exactly make him afraid, but he was getting very curious about what Harry thought he had gained by making a second wall around the first 1, with the apparent intruder captured between the walls. It didn't take any longer than for the wall to form fully before Dumbledore realised that Harry had thought further than just capturing him. The outer wall started shrinking in diameter as soon as it was completely formed and immediately there after the inner wall started growing in diameter.
Dumbledore stood dazed for a second, amazed by the aptitude this kid had for magic. From reading vague hints in a book, he had taught himself some pretty impressive mind defence techniques. As he stood pondering the best cause of action; whether to bring the walls down or simply to make a door in the inner one, a movement caught his eye to the left of him. A small orange, almost golden, Siamese kitten came walking towards him. Another movement. A black, not so small, Siamese kitten coming now running towards him from the other side. Startled Dumbledore realised the two kittens were rapidly growing and speeding up until they were in a full sprint. Dumbledore realised that his visit in Harry's mind was about to come to a rather painful end, when he looked up to realise that there were no kittens sprinting towards him anymore, rather a very large and angry looking Lion mother on one side, and a rather hungry looking panther jumping at his throat from the other side.
Harry was shaking with effort as he drew himself out of his mind after expelling the intruder from his mind. None the less he knew someone was in his apartment with him, and they had just tried to invade his mind. Moody's constant nagging about, "Stun first, ask questions later" echoed loudly in his mind and without really thinking about what he was doing, he started wandlessly shooting stunners in every direction. He could only see a few blurry shapes as he had taken of his glasses and his eyes were rather blinded from the light in the room compared to the twilight setting of his mind.
Someone was screaming in the room, Harry figured they were screaming at him, but he couldn't hear above the rushing of blood in his ears. He more felt than heard the distinct sound of a heavy body hitting the ground – then he passed out.
Kingsley was hit straight on the side of his face with the first stunner, as he and moody were bent over Dumbledore who had suddenly been thrown violently back in the couch. Moody alerted by his now slumped over partner and the red light streaming towards him jumped up, ready to hex any intruders. In his shock to see Harry blindly flinging stunners around, he was caught by one on the hip. Dumbledore who wasn't at all ready to fend for him self yet was only grazed by the last stunner, but it was enough to take him out as he was already very shaky from the rather violent expelling from Harry's mind.
Harry was having the nicest dream. His mother was stroking him softly across the forehead mumbling gentle words in his ear. Her small soft hand gently took his and held it, giving it a small squeeze now and again. Slowly the voice got more distinctive and Harry realised it was urging him to wake up. He didn't really want to wake up, but the voice seemed so friendly. A light turned on in Harry's head. Friendly voice. That voice didn't belong to his mother – but – he was sure he knew it, and it still felt comforting to him. The small hand in his was also comforting and the persistent stroking of his hair almost lulled him back to sleep. He felt SO tired. Slowly he managed to open his right eye just enough to see a red blurry shape sitting next to him. Mrs. Weasley he thought. No - his mind answered.
With an effort he managed to open his eye a bit more and to his surprise Ginny was sitting at the side of the bed in his own bedroom in his own apartment staring into nothingness. An apartment which she was not under any circumstances to know about.
"Gin…" The rest of her name got caught in his throat. Harry felt like a sandstorm had raged trough his mouth and throat for days, and he wasn't able to say anything at all.
Ginny was startled a bit by the sudden sound from Harry, but she immediately reached forward and gave him a tight Weasley hug. "Oh Harry. Are you alright?"
Harry noted absentmindedly that even though the hug would contest that of Mrs. Weasley in tightness ad gentleness, it felt rather different. Pleasant.
Ginny suddenly blushed profoundly as her hand had slipped into his hand again on its own accord and she immediately made to pull it away. Harry without thinking about it tightened his grip on her hand, gave it a slight squeeze and caressed it a bit with his thumb before he loosened his grip and let her pull it back.
Harry suddenly found it very hard to meet Ginny's eyes and he hoped he had a severe fever, because his forehead felt red hot. Ginny however knew for a fact that Harry's face hadn't been so red only 1 minute before as she had spent hours studying it for any signs of him waking up. She considered teasing him mercilessly about it, but decided that it would definitely be wisest not to say anything as it was her who had put her hand in his in the first place – and if she was brutally honest with her self she knew that she was blushing herself. A smile formed at her lips as her mind sang out for every cell in her body to hear: "Harry caressed my hand – and he's blushing!"
Harry decide a quick change of topic (not that there really had been one in the first place) was in order, and looked up at Ginny with pleading eyes.
"… 'a'er… "
Ginny looked at him with a confused face, then a light sprang into her eyes and she immediately jumped up and hurried out of the room only to enter seconds later with a large glass of clear liquid in her hands. She put it down at the desk opposite from his bed, then turned around and helped him into a sitting position. At first it hurt a bit to move but as soon as Ginny saw the pain in his eyes she slowed down and redoubled her efforts in being gentle. She was yet again amazed by how much could be read in those huge emerald eyes of his. Pain, embarrassment, confusion and a strong part of gratefulness. There was also a flicker of something else there, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it and so she pushed the thought aside and took the water from the table and helped Harry drink.
When Harry greedily had finished the glass he smiled up at her and said weekly. "Thank you, Ginny. What are you doing here?"
"Well… " Ginny looked everywhere but at Harry. "Now Harry don't get mad at me…"
"Why would I be mad at you?" Aside from the fact that you are here puts you in even greater danger then ever Harry added in his mind, but managed to keep his face curious rather than let it show the growing irritation within him.
"I suppose you've got a right to know why your wishes were overruled like this. I walked in on an emergency Order meeting… And I kind of heard them talking about how you had stunned 2 aurors…. And somehow hurt Professor Dumbledore…" Ginny's face fell as she saw the horror rapidly creeping into Harry's face. She quickly added "He's alright Harry, just his body is old, and he needs to rest for a couple of hours in the hospital wing. Just to be sure." There was a rather long silence after this until Ginny – who looked decidedly uncomfortable all of a sudden – spoke again. "Ehmm… Harry don't get this the wrong way… But the order was discussing who was to stay with you until you woke up. I wasn't really allowed to hear, but it sounded as if they were a bit afraid of you…" Harry was close to tears by now, and Ginny tentatively slipped her small delicate hand into his and gave it a small squeeze. "They decided that the one to be here with you should be someone who you would trust without question…. So they didn't get hexed…. Their first choices were of course Ron and Hermione, but Ron was helping the twins out today with some experiments and they had a small accident, and Hermione – well she's apparently on vacation somewhere in the Mediterranean."
Ginny's voice kind of faded out after that and for a long time she just sat there her hand still slipped into Harry's afraid to move so he would let go. Harry himself was staring into nothingness silent tears running down his cheeks.
Slowly the silence was beginning to grind on Ginny's nerves and carefully choosing her words, she tentatively spoke again. "Is it really true that you stunned two aurors Harry? And why would you do that...? And Professor Dumb…." Ginny choked on her words as Harry's eyes suddenly found hers and sent her a silent plea not to ask him those things. "I…. I am not allowed to tell you Ginny. It's for your own safety. Can't you just… Just tell me about your summer?"
"Are you sure Harry? I'm here now and I think it's more important to talk about you. Why won't you talk to us Harry? We are all worried sick about you. Dumbledore comes by every now and again and tells us that you are… Well he says that you are as good as can be expected – what ever that means. Mum is really worried about you, you know. She was completely frantic after that day at St. Mungos. First she cried non stop for almost 4 hours ranting about how thin and worn out you looked. Then she started shouting at me for an hour straight because I slapped you. By the way I don't think I want to apologise for that – I think you deserved that."
Harry turned his eyes towards Ginny again, with an amused smile on his face. "Well then you might as well slap me again Gin. I have a feeling that you might wish you had the opportunity to do exactly that in a short time."
Ginny looked into Harry's eyes with a speculative look in her eyes. "Harry James Potter! What ever you are up to, you better not go trough with it. I will have your hide if you hurt Ron and Hermione any more. They are already beside themselves with worry. You should see Ron. He walks around with saggy shoulders and black circles around his eyes – and worst of all he almost never smiles. The twins have been trying to cheer him up by taking him to the shop and have him help them out with their experiments, but whenever they do something that would have the old Ron cracking up, he just smiles this sad smile and gives them a pat on the back and says good job. And now you better tell me what you are going to do so I know why I'm slapping you!" She added the last sentence with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
"I can't Ginny. Even if I'm pretty sure they'll obliviate you before you get to go home I just can't risk anyone knowing about my plans. It'll put every one I care about in too big danger. It'll put you in more danger and I can't live with that. I don't want to have any more lives on my consciousness" Ginny open her mouth to contradict him but Harry silenced her with a wave of his hand. "I know it's not my fault. Professor Dumbledore have helped me a lot in realising that but that still doesn't change the fact that a lot of people have died indirectly because of me. I can't take any more of that."
Ginny was silent for a little while and Harry thought he could almost hear the wheels spinning in her mind. "Do you really think they'll obliviate me Harry? I mean I'm just a kid. And it's not like I'll go running of to tell You Know Who all your plans. One would think I would be the last person they would ever expect to talk to him after what he did to me"
"I'm pretty sure they will Ginny. Actually if they weren't going to I would insist they do it. I know Dumbledore already obliviated some of the order Members who have been here. Only Dumbledore and Remus are supposed to know about this place." As an after thought and more as note to himself Harry added "Well I guess Moody, Tonks and Kingsley have been trusted with the information too…"
Ginny jumped at the opportunity as she had been told in very strong terms not to ask anything about where she was going. "Well… Where exactly are we Harry? This isn't exactly how Ron and the twins described your room at the Dursley's." She knew she wasn't allowed to ask but if she was going to be obliviated anyway… Well who cared then. Just for good measure she put up her biggest puppy dog eyes and gave Harry's hand a gentle squeeze. "Plleeeaassseee Harry. You haven't told me anything yet. You can at least show me how you live."
Harry was suddenly very happy that he wasn't standing because he found that even though he knew she was trying to manipulate him his legs simply got weak at the smile the little redhead sent him. He shook his head and made sure he was decent before he threw the covers of and tentatively swung his legs over the edge of the bed. As he swayed a little bit Ginny put a steadying hand on his elbow and Harry swore under his breath before he mumbled, "I swear I've been spending way too much time in that bed lately."
Ginny practically bounced on her feet as Harry led her towards the door out into the hallway. "Oh thank you so much for showing me Harry."
Harry quickly skipped the bathroom and let Ginny into the living room. Seeing the splendour in there had the desired effect on Ginny and while she just stood in the doorway gawping at everything Harry went over to Moody who was sitting on the couch with a worried expression on his face and whispered something in his ear. The old auror looked up at he boy with doubt in his eyes but as he saw the steely expression on his face the look changed into one of respect. As Moody got up from the couch Harry went back to Ginny's side.
"Is this really where you live Harry?" Ginny's eyes were round as teacups and it looked like she had trouble taking it all in. "This is so cool!"
"I'm sorry you won't be able to remember it Ginny…"
Ginny slowly tore her gaze away from the many suits of armour lining the walls and the expression on her face changed into something that mimicked a question mark rather well as she saw the 3 silent tears running down Harry's cheeks… "Harry…?"
"I'm sorry Ginny" Harry said and pulled her into a tight embrace. Then he softly whispered "Stupefy!" and Ginny's body grew slack in his arms and Harry carefully picked her up and carried her to the couch.
"That was the right thing to do Harry. I'm proud of you." Moody's voice was not as gruff as it used to be and when Harry later recollected that day it was the first time he could remember Moody ever using his first name.
"Please just make sure you obliviate her good Sir. I don't want any harm to come to her because of me." Harry turned around and headed towards the bathroom although he stopped in the door to the hallway and called over his shoulder. "I'll just take a shower and then I'll be ready to continue my training Sir." By now his voice had descended into its usual place of sheer determination.
As Harry closed the door to the bathroom he heard Moody obliviate the youngest of his best friends.