Chapter 6- New Classes
"Hello… Harry Potter," hissed Voldemort again, caressing himself with his spider-like fingers. Unlike his followers, Voldemort looked no different than when Harry had met him last. Pale and skeleton-like skinny all over, with snake eyes and a long, flowing, black robe and cape.
Harry didn't have time to scream or yell. He just reached into his pocket for his wand. He quickly pulled it right out, and pointed it straight at Voldemort.
"Stupefy!" he yelled. The beam shot right out from the tip of his wand… but it just passed right through Voldemort, as if he were a ghost. Voldemort gave a short laugh.
"Oh Harry," he chortled, "don't you think I'm smarter than that? Even though my powers are great, I still wouldn't risk coming into Hogwarts in my actual form… yet anyways."
"Then how are you here?" demanded Harry, still not putting his wand down.
"This… is a dream," said Voldemort, putting his hands up, and spinning around slowly. "I am not real, not even this room; which, I might add, is a very good guess at what the Gryffindor common looks like, seeing as I've never been in it."
"You mean, you created this dream?" asked Harry.
Voldemort gave a smile.
"Oh yes…" he hissed. "My powers have improved so much after you 'gave' me your Order last year, that I am able to do almost anything I desire."
"If you're so powerful, why don't you just have an all out attack on Hogwarts then?" snapped Harry, actually curious as to why. Voldemort ignored his question, and changed the subject.
"Anyway, down to business," he murmured.
"What do you want now?"
"I have a feeling that you know what I want… Harry," he said, smiling. Harry's mind raced. What did he have that he could possibly want? His Animagus Invisibility Ring? No, he could probably get one of those from somewhere else. His other ring, the skull one? Perhaps… but why didn't he just ask for it now if that's what he wanted? No, it had to be something else.
"Well, I can't give it you if I don't even know what it is that you want," said Harry, trying to hide his ring.
"I have a feeling you know what it is I desire…" he repeated.
"Even if I knew what it was that you wanted," spat Harry, "there's no way I'd give it to you anyway!"
Voldemort shook his head.
"Well then… Harry Potter," he said slowly. "Bad things will happen…" Voldemort took out his wand, and pointed it at Harry.
"Expellius!" he yelled. A wave shot out of his wand that twisted and contorted the entire room as it went along. The common room became like some sort of horrible attempt at an abstract painting as it began to curve, melt, fade, and become sharper all at once. As soon as it hit Harry, he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Harry! Get up!" came Ron's voice over him. "Breakfast's started now, and you don't want to miss the first one of the year; that wouldn't look too good!"
"Ugh… what?" groaned Harry, sitting up and seeing that everyone else was already dressed and ready for the first actual day back. He quickly jumped out of bed and over to his trunk of clothes where he quickly picked an outfit, and threw his robes on over that. "Alright, let's go."
The two of them ran downstairs to the Great Hall where most of the school was already seated. Harry and Ron picked seats next to Hermione, and began eating.
"So, you two have any dreams last night?" she asked. Harry choked on his muffin from remembering his.
"Are you okay, Harry?" asked Ron.
"Yeah yeah," he coughed, hitting his chest. "I'm fine."
"Okay then," said Ron, "but no, Hermione, no dreams for me… a perfectly dreamless night." Harry looked enviously at his friend. He hadn't spent the night with Voldemort in the common room.
"How about you Harry?" asked Hermione. Harry looked over at her. Why shouldn't he tell her? There was no reason not to. Maybe they could help him figure out what Voldemort wanted.
"Yeah, I had a dream," said Harry. "Voldemort talked to me in the common room, and told me he wanted something from me, but he didn't say what." Harry looked at Ron and Hermione's faces, which now contained wide eyes. He was impressed, though, that they didn't flinch at him saying Voldemort's name.
"He- he talked to you?" gasped Ron.
"In the common room?" said Hermione.
"Yeah," said Harry, acting as if he had night time conversations with Voldemort every day of his life.
"Well, what did he say he wanted?" asked Ron.
"He didn't really say. He only said, 'I have a feeling you know what it is I desire.'"
"Anything else?" asked Hermione, looking serious.
"No, well, nothing else about what he wanted. And, when I refused, he said bad things will happen then."
"Ah, we've got nothing to worry about!" said Ron, waving his arm as if tossing Voldemort away. "As long as we're here in Hogwarts, under Dumbledore's constant watch, nothing could possibly happen."
Just then, the familiar flapping of wings filled that air, and all head turned to see the owls fly in through the hole in the roof, bringing the student's daily mail. However, no owls came through this time. Only hundreds of black crows, each with a dark letter in its claws. Indifferent to the screaming going on, each crow delivered a single envelope to each student, including Harry, then quickly flew back out the way it came. Harry quickly turned it over, to see what the seal was, and felt cold all over when he saw what it was: a red skull with a green snake coming out of the mouth. That symbol could only mean one thing: recruitment notes.
"Voldemort… is sending letters… here?" gasped Ron, from under the table.
"I can't believe Dumbledore… or anyone for that matter, would let this happen!" said Hermione, right next to Ron. Harry was one of the few who had not hid.
"Still feel safe, Ron?" asked Harry, tearing up his letter, not even looking at it. By now, all the crows had left, and the students started creeping out from their hiding spots. Teachers were coming in from preparing their first lessons to try and help out.
As Harry looked around, he saw that not everyone was tearing up the letters. Some of them were slipping them in their pockets for later, others were even reading them now. Harry stared at the student body… how many of them were already Death Eaters?
"See Harry?" chuckled Neville, his letter in hand. "We have practically already won." Harry sneered at him.
"I don't see how anyone could become a Death Eater," he said with extreme disgust.
"Actually, it's quite simple, as long as you put it into perspective," explained Neville, putting his hands in his pocket and rocking back and forth on his feet. "Here's a simple analogy: the Dark Arts, and the Muggle drug companies. Both kill people for profit, and both are quite successful. At Muggle schools, you're taught not to work for them, or do it, same thing here; we have Defense Against the Dark Arts, they have health class. In the Muggle world, they have companies trying to get rid of drugs, we have Aurors. But, does any of that stop Muggle children everywhere from growing up to work for them? No, not at all. All they care about is money, and it's the same thing here, Harry. The kids see possibilities and promotion in the Dark Arts, and they flock towards it. There's nothing you can do."
Harry stood there for a second, both amazed at Neville's sight and intelligence, and hating him for thinking that way. Luckily, Neville just shrugged and walked away; Harry didn't have anything to say to him. He instead went over to Ron and Hermione and helped them up..
"Oh Harry!" exclaimed Ron, reaching into his pocket and taking out a colorful sheet of parchment. "I made this while you were gone last night." Harry took the sheet from him. It was an advertisement for the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team this coming Friday.
"Looks good," said Harry, eyeing the nice pictures and colors on it. "I'll go hang it up on the bulletin board where everyone can see it."
"Okay, but hurry back!" called Hermione after him. "We're getting our new schedules soon!"
"I'll be back in no time," said Harry, running out of the Great Hall and to the magical bulletin board that wasn't but a few feet away. He merely touched the piece of
parchment to the board and it magically stuck there, expanding slightly so it would be more visible. Harry stood back to admire the work, and smiled at it.
Just then, Harry saw another kid putting an advertisement on the board. He placed it up, and it expanded as well. This one, however, looked even nicer than Ron's. It was practically a three dimensional picture, depicting two people excitedly engaged in a Wizard Duel game. The student who put it up turned around, and Harry saw that it was Ak. He was wearing the same outfit that Tci wore last year: a long jacket with no shirt on under it.
"Hey Ak!" yelled Harry. "So you are starting the club."
"Oh yes," he said, turning towards Harry. "Me and the other four are."
"Wow, the poster looks really nice," said Harry, nodding his head. "How did you make it look so good?"
"Oh… just a few extra little things," said Ak, admiring the poster as well. "Oh! But I see something wrong! I forgot to dot the 'I' on 'Wizard'! Oh no…. Harry, do you have a quill I can borrow?"
"Sure," said Harry, reaching into his pocket, grabbing one, and handing it to him. "Here you go."
Ak reached over for the quill, but stopped as soon as he saw Harry's hand. His eyes grew wide and his mouth opened slightly. He was staring at Harry's ring.
"What- what is it?" asked Harry nervously. "Don't you want the quill?"
"Where did you get that skull ring?" asked Ak slowly, not blinking.
"Um… Ron gave it to me," lied Harry, not wanting to say he got it from a crazy old man back at Knockturn Alley. "He found it in a pyramid on his trip to Egypt."
"Pyramid…" said Ak to himself, turning around, and walking away, back towards the Great Hall. "Yes…."
"Wait, Ak!" yelled Harry to him. "Don't you want to fix the 'I'?"
"Pyramid…" said Ak, disappearing back into the room. Harry shrugged and put the quill away. He began walking back to Ron and Hermione, all the while thinking what Ak and Dumbledore knew about his ring that he didn't.
"Hey there!" said Ron, looking grim, and bringing Harry out of his dazed state. "You won't believe this. Not only do we have Potions with the Slytherins still, but we also have Defense Against the Dark Arts with them too!"
"You're kidding!" said Harry, picking up his schedule. But, it was sadly true. Even though he and Malfoy had started getting along better, he still did not feel like spending another entire class with him this year. Then, Harry noticed something else about his schedule. "What's this? For the last period of the day, I have three things: Advanced Healing, Meteorology, and Spell Invention."
"We have to choose which one we want," explained Hermione.
"What, we just go to the class of our choice at the end of the day?" said Ron jokingly.
"Yep," said Hermione, taking Ron by surprise.
"But, shouldn't they give us more time to think about which class it is that we want?" asked Harry.
Hermione shook her head.
"No," she said. "It's supposed to just be a natural choice, not something influence by our family or events that happen between when we are told that we have the choice and when it comes time to choose. It is a spur of the moment thing."
"How do you know all that?" asked Ron, slightly amazed.
"I think we both know the answer to that," she said.
Just then, the magical bell rang throughout the school, signaling the start of school time. Harry, Ron, and Hermione strutted off to Defense Against the Dark Arts, their first class of the day. All of them were wondering how it was going to be with the Slytherins, and with their new professor. They filed into the classroom and in just a few minutes the rest of the class arrived. Surprisingly, Malfoy took a seat right next to Harry, and Crabbe and Goyle were on the other side of the room, nowhere near him. Professor Quirrell came in soon after.
"Hello everyone!" he said brightly, with his beard (that looked as though it was even bigger than Hagrid's) going all the way down to his stomach. It was a very unpleasant shade of green all over, probably from food and stuff getting caught in it as he eats. "Now, as I have learned, in your fourth year, you learned how to deal with the Imperius Curse, then last year you learned about the Cruciatus Curse. So, this year, we will be looking at ways to protect yourselves from the final Unforgivable Curse… the Avada Kedavra Spell. But, since the spell itself is almost unavoidable, you will not be studying on how to protect yourselves from actual curse, but how to protect yourself from being drawn into the Dark Side and ever having to deal with the spell in the first place. We will be learning what makes wizards turn, and how to stop yourself from doing so… in a nutshell, what makes good wizards go bad…. Yeehaw!"
"I'd rather learn what made your beard grow so big and disgusting," whispered Malfoy. Harry had to stifle down a laugh and he saw Ron do the same.
"Not bad Malfoy, not bad," said Harry, commenting on his joke.
"Eh, I could do better," he replied, cracking his knuckles.
"Hey," said Harry, feeling as though this was actually becoming a good conversation, "why aren't you sitting with Crabbe and Goyle?"
Malfoy shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess I kind of… grew out of them," he said. "They just got boring with their pathetic schemes and constant grunts. We just… don't think on the same level any longer." Harry was liking this more and more. With Crabbe and Goyle gone, Malfoy would be desperate for some new friends… perhaps Harry could show him the light.
The rest of the class went very well. Professor Quirrell talked to them about the letters that they all received at breakfast and how that was a perfect way for them to be tempted to come over. He asked them is any of them had kept their letters, and not very surprisingly, no one raised their hand. Harry suspected that many of the Slytherins, and probably a few of the Gryffindors, had kept their letters too, but were definitely not going to admit to it, especially to a teacher.
By the end of class, Harry and Malfoy were practically as good friends as him and Ron. It was a very good feeling, befriending one of your oldest enemies. Malfoy told Harry that he wished he were a fifth year, because next year, the Sixth Years would be offering three new courses in addition to the three that they had now: Necrology, the study of bringing people back from the dead; Curses, the study of new and advanced
ways to bring about horror; and Time Travel, where they'd try to figure out new ways of changing past events, and seeing the future.
"How do you know all that?" asked Harry after the bell rang.
"My father told me," said Malfoy.
"How would he know the future of Hogwarts?" asked Harry.
Malfoy shrugged.
"I don't know," he said. "But I do know that if I don't hurry, I'll be late for Transfiguration."
"Fine, I'll see you later Malfoy," said Harry.
"Yeah, see you on the Quidditch field, Potter," yelled Malfoy, walking away. "You know… Marcus Flint finally graduated last year. I wonder who the new captain will be?"
"So what's up with you two now?" asked Ron, preventing Harry from commenting on Malfoy's statement.
"Oh, don't worry Ron," smiled Harry. "You're still my best friend."
"I guess having a new class with the Slytherins wasn't so bad after all," commented Hermione, walking along beside them. Harry happily agreed.
The rest of the classes, while okay, did not contain any new friendships like Defense Against the Dark Arts did. In Herbology, they started learning about not plants, but rather soil. Magical dirt that could be grown and formed to act like humans. It would not be until much later into the year that any of the students, even Neville, could make a perfect person.
Transfiguration was pretty good as well. Professor McGonagall began teaching them how to transform each other's certain body parts into different things. She began by making Hermione's arms into crab claws, and then Neville's legs into a goat's. The class applauded and laughed at her transfigurations, but it would be a long time before anyone would be able to do something the well.
Charms was just as good. They began learning how to set magical charm traps, like Ron pretended he did last year. There were hundreds of different kinds: ones that exploded, ones that turned their victims to Stone, and ones that even made the person fall asleep. Harry couldn't wait to begin learning some of them.
If Harry hadn't know better, he would have though he was in the same Divination class as last year. Professor Trelawney did not improve much on her syllabus from last year, she only added that they would be using Wizard Duel cards in helping them to make some predictions. That, and only that, gave Harry hope for that class to be any good.
Care of Magical Creatures, though not as exciting as last year with the dragons, was still an improvement on Divination. Though Hagrid did not know exactly which creatures they would be studying, he did say they would be looking on an average of a new one each week, and by the end of the year, they would know almost ever animal in the world. It was very nice for once to not have Malfoy criticizing Hagrid every second, poking fun at him for everything he did. On the contrary, he talked to Harry most of the time, chatting about Quidditch or whatever. Malfoy was quickly becoming one of the group… if only he wasn't in Slytherin.
In Potions, everyone's favorite teacher, Professor Snape was back. Even before he started telling them what the were going to do during the year, Gryffindor had lost twenty points, Dean had an F for the semester, and Lavender ran out crying. Ahh… the teacher they all knew and loved was back.
Even with Professor Snape back, Potions did not even begin to compare to how bad History of Magic was. Even Professor Binns reading them the outline of the year was enough to make a dead person kill over again with boredom. Halfway into the class, Harry fell asleep, and did not know what they were going to do all year. Oh well, his next major test wasn't until next year's N.E.W.T.s anyway.
Now, the thing that Harry, along with the rest of the Sixth Years, was looking forward to the most came… the time for them to choose their 'bonus' class. Ron and Harry quickly consulted with Hermione on which one was the best.
"Well, Advanced Healing is pretty good if you plan on going into some sort of medicinal position, like a doctor or something. Meteorology is for those who want to go into serious fighting, you learn how to make storms and tornadoes appear out of nowhere. And, if you don't fit into either of those categories, like me, Spell Invention. You do exactly what the class name is… invent spells."
"Really?" asked Ron, sounding amazed. "You can make your own spells?"
"Yeah, but it's not as easy as it sounds," said Hermione. "They recommend having taken Arithmancy; you'll need it to understand the code behind it. MMSC, or Majik's Magical Spell Code, the code for making spells is quite similar to Muggle computer programs. That little second year, Akshay, would be good at it."
"So you're taking Spell Invention, Hermione?" asked Ron, completely ignoring everything she had just said.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean-"
"Well then I'll take it too," announced Ron, not allowing her to finish. Hermione just sighed. She didn't want to influence their decision, but she did.
"Well then, I guess I'll take it too," said Harry, not wanting to be left out.
"Fine! Don't let your subconscious self choose, let me do it for you," groaned Hermione, throwing her hands into the air.
"Okay thanks," smiled Ron. The three of them tried to find their way to their new class by using the Marauder's Map, the only good… well actually, the only map of Hogwarts that Harry had ever seen. It took them no time to find it with the help of the map, so not before long, they found their quite large classroom, and walked in to see a rather small group of students inside. Most of them were people that Harry had seen before, but never really talked to.
"Why are there so few students here?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, I thought this would be one of the more popular classes," said Ron.
"Well I did tell you," said Hermione. "It's not an easy class. Most people in here are from my Arithmancy class."
Harry swallowed hard.
"Do you think we made the right choice, Ron?"
"Well, I don't know…."
"Hey, you've had five other brothers go through this already, you should know," said Harry. "Didn't any of them take this class?" Ron stroked his chin, thinking hard.
"Well, I think Bill might have taken it… but never really went anywhere with it," he said. "But, I was so little back then, I don't remember if he said it was hard or not."
"Well, do you at least know who the teacher is?"
"Um… no."
"Hermione!" called Harry.
"Yeah?" she asked, turning her head from a group of students that she was talking excitedly to. "What is it?"
"Do you know who teaches this class?" asked Harry.
"No," she replied as soon as the bell rang. "But, you'll find out-"
Suddenly, the door opened, and in walked the teacher. Harry's, along with most of the other student's jaws fell to the floor.
"Good afternoon students," announced their teacher. "I will be your Spell Invention teacher… my name, if you don't already know it, is Professor Dumbledore."