Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K.Rowling, I'm only borrowing him for a while…

"Are you all right, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked him, worriedly. The man's gaze was still fixed on Harry.

"Hey… Harry," he finally croaked out. Mrs. Weasley turned around, she hadn't noticed Harry follow her. Harry stared at him, he could hear his pulse racing, he could feel the man's heart beating almost painfully against his chest…

Percy Weasley was very, very nervous…

Chapter 8

Duelling

Percy bared his teeth in what he probably imagined to be a smile. "Glad… glad to see you're fine. No lasting harm, eh?" This came out in a high pitched squeak. Mrs. Weasley hurriedly whispered a few words in his ears. Percy simply stared at her, and Mrs. Weasley started to whisper again, presumably to repeat herself.

Harry wondered why she was whispering. It wasn't as though his amnesia was a big secret or something. He spoke up, "It's all right, Mrs. Weasley. No need to whisper." Mrs. Weasley flushed as Percy stepped past her, his eyes scrutinizing Harry behind his horn-rimmed spectacles.

"Hello, Harry." His voice seemed more normal now, Harry noted. "I'm Percy Weasley." As Harry shook his hand, he idly wondered whether to use Legilimency to find out what the matter was. But he remembered an oath he'd made…

He was sitting at the feet of the great stone statue of Salazar Slytherin in the Chamber of Secrets. The only light was from the flickering torches high on the walls of the Chamber. The great shadows of the stone pillars moved irregularly, like a badly choreographed shadow-dance.

"Naina," he hissed in Parseltongue. He waited for a few moments, and repeated with a hint of impatience in his voice, "Naina!"

There was movement in the shadows, he turned quickly, his senses on high alert. The snake emerged from the shadows, about four feet long, and a sickly white in colour. Of course, it could have been of any colour, perhaps it only appeared white because of the darkness in the Chamber. "Young master," the snake greeted, when it slithered over to him, inclining it's head slightly.

"You promised," he said briefly.

The snake nodded slowly, "Yes, indeed I did."

"Well, let's start then." The excitement in his voice was exceeded only by impatience. The snake looked at him for a long moment, he looked away quickly, feeling the hypnotic effect of it's gaze.

"A word of warning before we begin, young master." The snake paused, apparently choosing it's words carefully. "You should know that the gift you are going to…acquire, is quite valuable." The snake paused again, Harry was sure that it was more for effect than anything else. Snakes apparently had a flair for drama...

"The mind," it continued, "is the most important part of the body…perhaps of the soul as well. Mind Magic is an art that should not be abused, for the mind is sacred, it must not be…"

"Very well, Naina," he interrupted, holding up his hand, "I, Harry James Potter, solemnly swear not to use my skills in Mind Magic except when the need is absolute. And," he continued with a bit of a snicker, "I promise to treat the mind with the respect it deserves…"

The snake nodded seriously. "Let us begin then…"

Harry took a deep breath. It was tempting, yes, but an oath was an oath. Even though he did not quite know the full circumstances under which he'd hade the oath, he felt obliged to stand by it. With a sigh, he turned to go back to the kitchen. Just as he turned away, he could have sworn that Percy let out a small sigh of relief.

Harry gritted his teeth as he sat down next to Ron. He was struck by an idea, and he turned to Ron, who was shoveling down great amounts of food, "Ron, your brother Percy's here…" He stopped as a scowl appeared on Ron's face. With some difficulty, Ron swallowed his food, "Oh, he's here is he?" he said darkly, looking over at the doorway. "Yeah, listen, why is he…" he trailed off as Percy entered with his mother. He was surprised when Ron and the twins completely ignored him, while Ginny gave him a lukewarm welcome. Only Mrs. Weasley was fussing around him, continuously talking, much as she fussed around Harry. Evidently, Percy Weasley had had a fallout with the rest of the family.

Ron looked at him quizzically, but Harry shook his head. They would discuss Percy in the privacy of their bedroom afterwards.

The rest of the meal passed in relative silence. Percy's presence seemed to be an efficient dampener on the twins' exuberance. He kept shooting odd looks at Harry throughout the meal, when he thought Harry wasn't looking. Harry quickly tired of this, and he smiled at Percy, who visibly flinched and turned away.

Afterwards, Ron and the twins marched off to their room, leaving Harry and Ginny to say goodbye to Percy. As they walked upstairs, Harry remarked, "Well, he doesn't seem to like me much."

Ginny laughed. "Oh, the git doesn't trust you, he even tried to warn us to stay away from you once. It's a long story really," she added, as Harry was about to ask what he'd done. Harry nodded, not really satisfied, but decided to worry about it later.

They spent the rest of the day with the Pensieve. Harry watched as he, Ron, Hermione and Neville were nearly eaten alive by a giant, three-headed dog, which oddly enough, as Ron informed him, was called Fluffy. He watched as he and Ron saved Hermione from a mountain troll, forging the friendship that was to last from then on. He couldn't help laughing as his younger self stuck his wand up the troll's nose. After dinner, Hermione bored them all stupid by making them sit through one of McGonagall's Transfiguration classes in their first year.

After about five minutes, Fred yawned and looked at his watch. "Interesting as it was to relive my Hogwarts days…"

"We have to be off now," George finished. "Busy day tomorrow."

"I'll see you off," Ron said gratefully, and the three of them disappeared from the memory.

"Er… Hermione?" Neville said cautiously after a few minutes. "We'll never get done if you show Harry every class he's ever attended… Plus, I think he's asleep…" Sure enough, Harry was sitting on the floor with a dreamy expression on his face, as McGonagall explained the principles behind the transfiguration of a matchstick to a pin.

"Oh, all right," snapped Hermione, looking rather put out. Her expression softened slightly as she looked at Harry, "I think we should all turn in anyway. It's been a long day."

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The next day, Harry woke up late. As he went down for break fast, he saw that everyone had nearly finished, and Mrs. Weasley had just paid an owl which had delivered the newspaper.

"Really, the delivery owls get later by the day," muttered Mrs. Weasley distractedly, trying to read the paper while buttering toast for Harry at the same time. Mr. Weasley gently took the paper from her, and opened it.

"No news of your release yet, Harry," he informed him, handing Ron the sports section. Harry could make out the title, 'Wigtown Wanderers win wands down'. Ron would not be pleased, he had informed all of them yesterday that they were playing the Chudley Cannons…

Harry bit into the toast that Mrs. Weasley offered him. "Maybe they didn't think it was important enough to put in the paper," he offered, chewing his food. It took about five seconds of silence at the table for him to realize that he had said something stupid.

"Believe it, Harry," Ron told him, waving the paper in front of him. "If you made a public statement regarding the colour of your underwear," he tapped the paper, "it would make the front page." His face darkened as his eye caught the headlines, and he retired from the conversation, poring over the offending article instead.

Harry coloured slightly, as the rest of them laughed. "Succinctly put, but essentially true," Mr. Weasley said with a smile. "Dumbledore must be keeping it quiet for now…"

"There were all sorts of rumours in the papers after Halloween last year," Neville informed him. "That you were dead, or that You-Know-Who had captured you, or that you had joined You-Know-Who…"

"Or that you had joined a Muggle rock band and were touring America at the moment," Hermione broke in, with a disapproving glance at Luna.

Not knowing whether they were still pulling his leg, Harry simply nodded uncommittedly, as Mr. Weasley questioned Hermione interestedly, "Rocks, you say?"

"Harry," Mrs. Weasley approached him with a gleam in her eye, "Would you like me to trim your hair a bit, dear? It's a tad too long you know." She fingered her wand lovingly.

"Er…" Harry put his hand to his hair. Eight months without a haircut had left an impact of sorts… but he was loath to let it go, the hair did a good job of covering his rather thin face. Fortunately Ginny, Hermione and even Luna came to his rescue.

"C'mon mum, he's not Bill…"

"It's the current fashion in the Muggle world, Mrs. Weasley…"

"He looks a bit like Kirley McCormack this way," said Luna.

Ginny looked at Harry critically, "Nah, his nose is much shorter, but yeah, the resemblance is there."

"Who's Kirley McCormack?" asked Harry, drinking orange juice from a rather heavy silver goblet.

"He's the lead guitarist of the Weird Sisters," replied Ginny. She sighed when Harry continued to stare at her blankly. "A famous wizarding band, Harry…"

"Oh…"

They spent the rest of the morning looking at their memories from Harry's first year. Harry had a sudden idea. He turned to Hermione, who had just deposited a memory in the Pensieve, "Hermione, do you remember which memory you put in?" Hermione frowned for a moment, "Well, the details are a bit hazy, but I remember the overall event. It was a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, Snape was the referee, and we won it…"

Harry nodded thoughtfully. Putting memories in a Pensieve did not erase the ones in your head. So, his memory was erased by some other method…

After lunch, Hermione decided to test Harry's Defence knowledge again. This time, however, she took the precaution of clearing the furniture and placing Cushioning charms on the walls and floor.

Hermione looked at him thoughtfully. "Harry, I have a theory." Ignoring the 'Surprise, surprise!' from Ron, she continued, "It's possible that your previous knowledge… comes back to you in times of need."

Harry pondered over this and nodded slowly. "So," Hermione continued, "We're going to skip the theory and have a duel instead." Giving an evil glare to Ron who heaved a great sigh, she continued, "Who wants to go first?"

Neville volunteered, so the others moved over by the wall while Harry and Neville faced each other and bowed. Harry tried to let himself be guided by instinct, like when he faced off against Ron, and tried not to think too much about the duel.

Something clicked in his head, and he changed his stance, holding his wand in front of him and presenting his profile to Neville, who did the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione nod approvingly.

Neville acted immediately. 'Stupefy' he shouted. Harry didn't bother putting up a shield, the spell was going to miss him, but he took a step left anyway. 'Expelliarmus' muttered Harry, but the red beam of light gave Neville plenty of warning and he managed to put up a shield.

This continued for a few minutes, with neither of them having an advantage, although Harry seemed to rely more on dodging the spell than shielding himself, when Hermione called out, "All right Neville, you can step it up a bit."

Without as much as a nod of acknowledgement, Neville pointed his wand at Harry, and spoke softly, imitating Harry's technique. A jet of fire shot out from his wand. Harry simply stood there as the flames headed towards him.

"Do something," his brain screamed at him.

Fire… fire…water puts out fire… and the water spell is…

"Aqueous," cried Harry. In his excitement, he forgot his policy of speaking the spell-words softly. Nevertheless, a jet of water emerged from his wand, and managed to consume the flames that were heading towards him. There was a hiss, and white smoke hung in the air, obscuring his view of Neville.

Harry didn't wait for the smoke to clear, he ran softly to a spot ten feet from where he guessed Neville would be, from his side. A sudden gust of wind told him that Neville was trying to clear the vapour.

'Expelliarmus," he cried as the smoke began to clear. To his delight, Neville's wand came soaring towards him. Neville smiled sheepishly at him, "I didn't really expect you to move there when you did." As Harry handed Neville his wand back, he noticed the others clapping. Hermione looked exceptionally pleased with herself.

"Bloody brilliant, Harry," Ron said, clapping his back, "Though I notice that you didn't give him a concussion like you did me…"

"I was right," said Hermione, excitedly, "Perhaps if you use some Transfiguration in the duel next time, we can see how much you remember in that. Potions may be a little difficult to test you in, though. And History of Magic as well…"

"Hermione," Ginny said patiently, "Harry wasn't even enrolled in the History of Magic class last year. Neither were you for that matter…"

"That's not the point, Ginny. It's about his learning back whatever he's forgotten."

Apparently no one felt like arguing with Hermione at this point, so they let it slide.

Harry duelled with Hermione and Luna after that, and defeated both of them, much to his surprise. He nearly met his match in Ginny though. Like him, she favoured dodging the spells instead of countering them and she was a difficult target to hit, as she was moving around most of the time. He grew tired quickly after a few minutes, and started panting heavily. 'Courtesy of Azkaban' he thought, feeling that his lungs were about to burst. He finally managed to defeat her by conjuring a deep blue concave shield, with deflected spells right back at the caster. Hermione later assured him that it was quite a complex charm he'd used, well beyond N.E.W.T syllabus.

They continued with the Pensieve later, with a brief interruption from Hermione after tea, who wanted to see if Harry remembered anything from the History of Magic classes.

"D'you know why goblins didn't attend the Convention of Magical Beings in 1705, inspite of being personally invited by the then Minister of Magic, Harry?"

"Er… Goblins? They really exist?"

That was the end of their History lesson.

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The next few days were spent in a similar fashion. Harry watched with a mixture of horror and fascination when he, Ron and Hermione broke through the series of obstacles guarding the Philosopher's Stone. He thought it was a miracle that they continued to be at his side even after he'd put their life in danger, it was unbelievable that they chose to follow him down the trapdoor in the first place. How he was able to command such loyalty he did not know…

That night, Mrs. Weasley handed Ginny and Luna two envelopes. "Your O.W.L results," she told them.

"But… but," Ginny said puzzled, "They aren't due for another three weeks…"

"Dumbledore pulled a few strings at the Ministry. I managed to convince him to let all of you go to Diagon Alley tomorrow, so you all can buy your books. Staying cooped up in the house," she glanced at Harry, "isn't good for anyone. Besides, no one knows that we've found you yet, Harry, so now's really the best time to go."

"So, how'd you do, Ginny?" Hermione seemed keener to see her results than Ginny herself.

"Not too bad," she replied, "Nine O.W.Ls. How about you, Luna?"

"The same," Luna told her, handing the letter over to Neville after giving it a cursory glance."

There was a chorus of congratulations all around the table, which Harry joined, though he really didn't know whether nine O.W.Ls were good or bad.

"You got eight," Ginny told him, spotting his expression. "So did Ron and Neville. Hermione on the other hand, got twelve…"

"The highest possible score," Ron finished, while Hermione tried not to look too pleased with herself.

Mrs. Weasley shooed them off to bed early, telling them that they had a long day ahead of them the next day. In their bedroom, Ron told Harry about Diagon Alley and what it had to offer, he went on for a rather long time about a certain shop named Quality Quidditch Supplies. He was describing a certain broomstick called Firebolt Excelsior when Harry fell asleep, tired from the day's activities.

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A/N: Hey all, I know this is a little late, it's cos I'm working on another story at the moment as well… it'll be up soon. About Percy… three people got it right, but I thought it would be better to reveal it after about three chapters or so…

Thanks to the reviewers… nonjon, shinigami, fhippogriff, gaul1, Rachel Sedai, Quillian, Slytherin-Angel44, Lady Foxfire, wackey, DestroyerDRT, firelegs, Dragonero, Calen, Silver Warrior and wiley73. All your reviews are much appreciated. Special thanks to Kaede Laelithar for a supportive e-mail and a list of great fics…

A lot of questions, sorry, I don't want to give anything away!

Nonjon: Does Harry really appear to be rather inept and powerless? Well, he did manage to get the better of Dumbledore after all, and this isn't quite a superharry fic, but his powers are growing… And I think you have some serious issues with romance stuff, this story hardly has any! Cliffies, yeah, guess it's time someone told me off about them!

Rachel Sedai: Sorry, nope!

Firelegs: Yep, I've read the Earl of the North… You're right, it's pretty good.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter… See that little Go button near the left bottom corner of your screen? Click on it!

Next Chapter, Diagon Alley!

shadylion