Chapter 18: In the Wolf Pack

They sat in the Great Hall later for lunch, the sixth years chatting happily, waiting for the fifth year girls to join them. Harry had let the others read Malfoy's essay, along with a note he had quickly jotted about his aura and telling them Draco and Tuesday the prophecy, they were careful not to let Draco find out what it really was so they had cast a charm on it similar to the marauders map, with the pass word being 'Snape is a git'. When Luna and Tuesday arrived they informed them of the meeting that night and asked where Ginny was, and Luna responded a little uncertainly, "Dean needed to talk to her about something, he seemed really mad."

"Yeah, I suppose he would be," Harry said and quickly filled them in on the argument, leaving out the part of it where he punched the wall.

Unfortunately for him Draco was not so inclined, and he related the rest of the story to them, they laughed so hard that Luna fell out of her chair, and Tuesday had tears streaming down her face.

Harry concentrated hard and using his metamorphagus power turned into Professor Umbridge, only distinguishable from her, by the lightning scar on his forehead, "Mr. Malfoy, you must not tell nasty evil attention seeking lies!" And switched back, this caused the girls to laugh even harder and they were then joined by Ron, Hermione and Neville, and they all laughed hysterically until the Merlin table was for the second time that day drawing the attention of the entire Hall.

Their laughter died down as Ginny came up to the table clearly annoyed, "Does anyone know what has Dean in such a bad mood? He was fine when I talked to him this morning."

"Sorry, Gin, I think that's my fault," Harry said blushing slightly, and hoping that no one would tell her that he had punched the wall. "I announced at the end of defense that we were having a House meeting tonight and he was upset because he was supposed to meet you tonight."

Ginny looked confused, "That's odd we didn't have plans to meet tonight. Oh, well what's the meeting about then?"

"We'll discuss it later, this isn't the time or place for it. In the common room right after dinner." Harry seeing that she planned to press the issue, gave her a look and shook his head, she seemed to get his message. Lunch passed pleasantly and Draco's essay left with Ginny, along with a note from Hermione on how to read it and they split up to go to their afternoon classes.

Harry's first period after lunch was free so he decided to go up to his classroom and practice using his powers, he could now cast almost all spells wandlessly and had developed the ability to teleport in his ferret, wolf, and panther forms, he hadn't bothered trying with the phoenix from because they could more or less teleport on their own. He hoped that he would be able to learn to do wandless magic while in his animal forms, he was having limited amounts of success, he could produce a shield, do a disarming spell, it had been extremely funny the day he hid in Snape's room in his ferret form and kept causing Snape to drop his wand, although he did think that might have been why the entire class ended up with detention, for 'disrespectful attitudes,' which Harry was relatively certain meant that they had been laughing at him. He couldn't however seem to produce any offensive spells. Maybe he could ask McGonagall sometime; after all she had been an animagus for years.

The rest of the day flew by, and before they knew it they were all assembled in front of the fire, waiting for Harry to join them, he had stopped to talk with a student about their essay; the student was worried that the essay would be shared with the entire class and Harry couldn't convince them otherwise. As they sat there no one spoke they didn't know what to say, weren't sure what the evening would bring. Harry teleported on to the couch next to Ginny, "Man, I hope I was never half that annoying, that kid wouldn't stop talking, so everyone ready to begin?"

"We have been ready for nearly half an hour, Harry, we were just waiting for you," said Hermione her voice laced with laughter.

"Right, here we go, I asked most of you to read something before coming, did everyone get a chance?" He looked around at the group everyone, but Draco nodded. "That is the issue I would like to address first. I asked them all to read your essay, so I hope your request to have them do so, was serious," he said all of this looking directly at Draco, looking somewhat anxious about how they would all react he nodded. "I would like to say that regardless of what the others say, I forgive you and ask that you forgive me for any wrongs that I committed against you."

Draco looked like he might lose all of his composure at this point, "I forgive you, Harry."

"Same goes for me," said Ron with a shrug. A chorus of 'me too's' came from around the room.

A single tear slid down Draco's cheek, he didn't say anything, but they all understood his gratitude. As he looked around the room he could not help but think that he had done nothing to deserve these people, to deserve friends like this but he had every intention of doing everything in his power to make sure they never regretted their decision.

"Good, now that we have covered that there is something that I feel anyone who is close to me should know, most of you know this already, since I told you over the summer, but Tuesday and Draco I think that you have the right to know as well." Harry told them about the prophecy and about the expansion of power that they had all undergone on Harry and Neville's birthday. Neither of them seemed to surprised by all of this information this, but they were amazed at the level of power that their friends possessed.

"Harry," Tuesday said tentatively, "do you think that you or Hermione could look at my aura? I would like to know what it says about me."

Hermione cleared her throat, "I've already done that, here have a look." Hermione took out a parchment and added something else to it before handing it to her. "I added you to the list the night that we were resorted, I hadn't added you yet Draco, your power level has been stable, but your personality band was constantly shifting." The list now read:

Harry Emerald Green gold, warm red, light blue, pink, deep blue, white, silver, yellow, teal, grey

Ginny True Green pink, gold, warn red, yellow, deep blue, light blue, silver, teal, white

Draco Grass Green deep blue, warm red, yellow, light blue, silver, teal, white

Hermione Lime Green white, pink, light blue, gold, deep blue, warm red, yellow, teal, silver

Ron Lime Green light blue, warm red, pink, deep blue, gold, yellow, white, silver

Luna Aqua Green deep blue, white, pink, light blue, warm red, gold, teal, yellow

Neville Aqua Green light blue, pink, warm red, white, gold, yellow, deep blue, purple (fading out)

Tuesday Sky Blue deep blue, pink, yellow, light blue, warm red, gold, silver, teal

Hermione briefly explained the list, and what the colors meant. When Tuesday finished reading over the list, she handed it to Draco, who read it and shook his head, "Well who would have thought. I think while we are all sharing I should tell you about a few powers of mine, first I am a teleporter, which is how I snuck up on you those few times Harry, and I'm an animagus, a white wolf actually."

Tuesday sighed, "Guess it's my turn, I can be invisible at will and I a deer animagus."

They all laughed, and then Luna asked, "So is there anyone else in the school that's even close to our power levels?"

"Well, I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I don't think so, the closest I have seen a few pinks among the students, and Snape and McGonagall are in the purple range, and of course Dumbledore is somewhere between Harry and Ginny," Hermione said in matter of fact tone.

"What? There is no way that I am more powerful that Dumbledore, guys, come on he knows so much, and Voldemort's afraid of him and…"

"Wake up, Potter, you have to kill the bastard, Dumbledore can't and why do you think he keeps trying to kill you, if your dead you can't kill him," Draco said rolling his eyes.

"He's right, Harry, he's after you not Dumbledore, he tried to kill you as a baby, to keep you from growing up if that's not fear I don't know what is," Ginny reached out and put a hand on Harry's shoulder as she spoke.

Harry seemed to calm down for a minute before he remembered all of the reasons why Ginny was off limits. He stood up abruptly, "It's late, I'm going to bed. Good Night."

Ginny looked slightly hurt by this, but gathered up her stuff and quickly went into her room. Hermione headed into their library, muttering something about Arithmancy, and the others drifted off to their own rooms. Later after he heard Ginny enter Harry's room, Draco slipped out and walked quietly to the library, he was relieved to find Hermione still seated at a table studying. "Can I talk to you for a minute, Hermione?"

"Oh," she said caught slightly off guard, "yes, of course."

"Well, first I want to tell you that I am truly sorry for the way I have treated you, I was raised to think that pure bloods are better than half-bloods or muggle-borns. I know that doesn't excuse any of it, but I have seen since the Resorting that you are a great witch, not just powerful but you really care for the people around you and you never complained about my presence in the house and that means a lot to me."

"I'll be honest with you Draco, I thought something was wrong when the Hat put you in our House, but after Harry was sorted there was something in his face that told me everything would work out. So I kept my mouth shut, and I really didn't mean you that day, when we were talking about the essay Harry assigned."

"That really wasn't the issue anyway it was more about me feeling sorry for myself or whatever."

She nodded, "Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah, I think it's about time that Harry and Ginny got together, and I was just wondering what you thought about that."

"Officially, I will have to deny knowing anything about this little plan of yours, I made a promise to Harry that I would say out of it. But, unofficially, I would have to say that you are definitely right, did you have anything in

particular in mind?"

He grinned wickedly and explained his plan to her, she smiled and nodded, "It just might work."