Harry Potter and the Mind Mage
By James Milamber
A/N: Another long one, to make up for the last few which have been short (but good, one hopes).
Lourdes: You don't have to be a Kung-Foo master to kick someone's hand, my friend. It was his left, for one, so it's not as strong as his right being that Harry's right handed, so it wouldn't take much for him to lose his wand. If he was holding it low, it would be an easy target for Ginny's foot.
With his relationship with Ginny repaired and Voldemort once again banished, Harry's nightmares stopped. He was beginning to strongly suspect that James' theory was right.
Life at Hogwarts settled back into routine quickly, for which Harry was glad. The students had seen so many strange things happening around the castle that the rumours about Ginny's possession barely lasted for a few days before some other silly nonsense took their place.
Since they had once again missed out on getting their robes, Harry and Ginny selected some out of a catalogue and sent away for them. Alex and Isabelle had found robes for themselves, although they refused to tell anyone about them. The Slytherin was becoming a regular sight in the Gryffindor common room by now, to the point where Harry had given up all pretences and simply told her the password so she could come and go as she pleased. There had been some angry muttering about that until Alex had quite casually offered to hex the next person who spoke. Since he had been flanked by both Cassie and Isabelle at the time, and had been idly throwing his wand into the air and catching it again, it was not surprising how quickly the room silenced. The Milton twins had quickly replaced the Weasley twins as "Trouble-Makers-In-Chief" in the Gryffindor common room, and nobody who valued their life and dignity was silly enough to mess with them. The last person who had done that had quite suddenly sprouted feathers at dinner that evening, which had stubbornly resisted all attempts to remove them and had remained for a full three days until they all fell out. The fifth year in question now got very quiet whenever either of the twins were around, and several times Harry caught him looking almost ready to bolt at a sudden noise or movement.
Cassie had casually informed them that she was going to the ball with Seamus, because she thought his accent was "cute". Seamus, who had been standing nearby at the time, had gone very red when she had pirouetted around and planted a kiss on his cheek as if to prove her claim. Harry had noticed Lavender Brown glaring daggers at the other girl's back after she turned away, and foresaw a confrontation in the not too distant future.
With everything that had happened over the last six weeks, Harry found himself constantly at the centre of attention. Quite often students would approach him through the day and ask him for advice on anything from schoolwork, which he could handle, to girls, which he couldn't. Where last year everyone had tried to avoid him as much as possible, this year everyone wanted to be seen with him and the change was a little unnerving. Zith proved to be extremely useful in those situations, as a quick word from Harry and she would emerge from under his robe, hissing warningly. More than one person quickly found something else to do at that point.
The snake seemed to be quite taken with Ginny, and spent almost as much time with her as with Harry. The first time he had seen her enter the Great Hall for breakfast with Zith wrapped around her neck he had gone into an extended coughing fit, with Ron pounding him on the back and Alex and Cassie trying hard not to laugh. Soon enough, however, he got used to seeing the two of them together.
The other way Harry managed to get rid of potentially annoying students was to hold extended conversations with Ginny in Parseltounge whenever anyone tried to speak with him. Hearing the two of them hissing at each other was usually unnerving enough to make the students seek advice elsewhere.
'We probably shouldn't do that,' Ginny commented after one such encounter, watching the Ravenclaw girl fleeing up the corridor.
'Probably not,' Harry agreed placidly. Ginny smirked, her eyes almost seeming to glow in the flickering torchlight. Harry had the sudden urge to kiss her, but refrained as a voice came to them distinctly from somewhere nearby.
'Piss off, alright?'
Harry and Ginny, recognising the voice immediately, hurried up the corridor and turned the next corner to find Isabelle and Alex. Standing in front of them, blocking the passage, were a group of Slytherins, most of which Harry didn't recognise. Alex had his wand out and trained on the girl standing slightly ahead of her fellows, obviously the leader.
'What the bloody hell is going on here?' Harry said loudly. Several of the Slytherins flinched, and the girl glared at him.
'Fuck off, Potter,' she said harshly. 'This doesn't concern you. Turn around and walk away before we have to hex you.'
Harry almost laughed at her audacity. Beside him, he felt more than saw Ginny draw her wand.
'I'd like to see you try,' he sad calmly, stepping up so he stood beside Alex, who was scowling darkly down the length of his wand.
'It's an internal Slytherin matter, Potter,' a boy standing just behind the girl said haughtily, 'between us and the traitor here.'
'Oh?' Harry looked around in mock confusion. 'I don't see any traitor.'
'We're talking about Lestrange, fool,' another boy hissed, pointing at Isabelle, who was watching the proceedings with a faint smile. 'She's betrayed her house by associating with your lot!'
'Betrayed her house?' Alex said incredulously. 'How do you figure? Because she can actually see past the end of her nose and realise that House rivalries are a crock of shit?'
'Shut it, Milton,' the lead girl said coldly. 'You're not Slytherin, so you wouldn't know.' By now, a small group of students had gathered to watch, and Harry was painfully reminded of the Malfoy incident. He was determined not to lose control this time, however.
'What's all the fuss?' Cassie said mildly, threading her way through the crowd to join her twin and Harry. Several DA members along with Neville and Luna closely followed her, and the Slytherins were suddenly looking much less sure of themselves.
'Look, we don't want a fight,' the lead girl said in a slightly condescending tone. 'We just want a word with the traitor, and we'll go.'
'Fine,' Isabelle said, crossing her arms and staring impassively at her housemates. 'Go ahead.'
The girl looked around at the assembled students, who were all watching the proceedings avidly, and licked her lips. 'A private word,' she said finally.
'Let me think,' Isabelle looked thoughtful for a moment. 'How does no sound? Okay with you?'
'Damn you Lestrange!' one of the Slytherins shouted, pointing a finger at Isabelle. 'You're a bloody traitor, and you'll pay for it!'
'Oh shut up, Grice,' Isabelle said in disgust. 'Go eat some more of Malfoy's shoe polish and leave me be.'
'What's all the fuss?' Professor Milton pushed his way through the crowd, unwittingly mirroring his daughter's earlier words. The Slytherins were now looking extremely nervous, and several were trying to edge away.
'Nothing, sir,' the lead girl said, looking like she'd been forced to swallow Stinksap. 'We're just trying to have a private word with Lestrange here, and these Gryffindor's won't let us.'
'Ah, I see,' James said, glancing around at the now quite large group of watching students. Harry thought he saw Malfoy's platinum hair near the back, although he couldn't be sure. 'And do you wish to have a private chat with these students, Miss Lestrange?'
'Not really, sir,' Isabelle shrugged. 'Considering it would probably just consist of them calling me a traitor some more, when they've pretty much established that fact already, I think I can live without it.'
'Very well then,' James nodded. 'Twenty points from Slytherin for disturbing the peace, and if this corridor isn't empty in five seconds, it will be fifty more from each house.'
The students vacated immediately, leaving Harry, Ginny, Alex, Cassie and Isabelle alone with the Professor.
James looked at Isabelle steadily for a moment as she smiled back innocently. 'I know what you're going through,' he said finally in a voice so quiet Harry barely heard. 'It's not an easy decision to make. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here.' He nodded briefly to Harry, turned, and strode away.
'What was that about?' Ginny asked curiously. Isabelle didn't reply, but stood gazing after the departing Professor, her expression unreadable.
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That evening, some time before dinner, Harry was sitting in the common room with Ginny doing homework when Alex and Cassie approached him.
'Can we have a word, Harry?' Alex said in a quiet voice.
'Sure,' Harry said, standing and rolling up the parchment he had been working on.
'You too, Ginny,' Cassie added. Ginny nodded and packed up her stuff too.
'Where?' she asked as she finished.
'We need somewhere private,' Alex said, glancing around at the almost full common room. 'Somewhere we won't be disturbed.'
'How about the Room of Requirement?' Harry suggested.
'Perfect,' Cassie agreed. They crossed the packed common room and climbed out through the portrait hole, and Harry led the way towards the seventh floor.
The room they ended up with surprised Harry quite a bit. There was a low fireplace built into one wall, surrounded with several couches. That much was normal, but what filled the rest of the room was most definitely not.
One wall was covered in a massive bookshelf stuffed with books, the titles things like, "So You've Been Slighted And Need Revenge" and "101 Ways To Get Even". There was a table in the middle of the room covered in what Harry recognised as Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products, and standing in one corner was a large cauldron filled with what Harry was fairly sure was Polyjuice Potion.
'What exactly did you two want to talk about?' Harry asked cautiously.
'It's pretty self explanatory, isn't it?' Cassie said, pulling a book titled "The Art Of Troublemaking" from the book shelf and flipping through it. 'You saw what those Slytherins did today.'
Alex nodded. 'We've decided that they need to be taught a lesson, and we thought you could help.'
Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance, and both smiled. 'We're in,' Ginny said.
'Knew we could rely on you,' Alex beamed, clapping Harry on the shoulder.
'I knew the son of a Marauder wouldn't let us down,' Cassie added.
'How do you know about that?' Harry asked curiously, remembering them referring to the Marauders back on the Hogwarts Express.
Alex smiled slyly. 'State secret,' he said, throwing his sister a sideways look.
'More than our lives are worth to tell you,' Cassie agreed.
'Fine,' Harry smiled, amused by their antics. 'What do you want to do to teach these Slytherins a lesson?'
'Well…'
========
By dinner, everything was ready. The four sat at the Gryffindor table, each trying hard not to laugh as the Hall filled with people.
'What have you four been up to?' Hermione asked suspiciously as she and Ron took their seats.
'Nothing,' Ginny said innocently. 'Just homework, you know, stuff like that.'
'You two haven't been off snogging again, have you?' Ron asked bluntly.
'Relax, Ron,' Cassie said soothingly. 'They were with us all afternoon, I swear.'
'Oh,' Ron nodded. 'That's all right then.'
Suddenly there was a commotion from the Slytherin table. A girl Harry recognised as the leader of the group from earlier had leapt onto the table and was loudly professing her undying love of Snape, who was staring at her in horror from the teacher's table.
One of the loud mouth boys was on his knees begging Malfoy to go out with him. Draco didn't seem to know what to do, aside from kick the boy repeatedly trying to get him to shut up. Soon every Slytherin who had been a part of the group was professing their love to someone else, amid many curses and not a few spells being hurled at them from those unlucky enough to be the targets of their sudden infatuation. Malfoy finally Stunned the boy after him, glaring around at the rest of the hall which was by now in hysterics. The girl who had led them had made her way to the front of the Hall, and was kneeling in front of Snape begging him to marry her. Much to the amusement of the students, Snape seemed flabbergasted, and he couldn't quite seem to summon his usual sneer.
At the Gryffindor table, Ginny was doubled over in her seat, tears of mirth streaming from her eyes as she clutched her side, her breath coming in sharp bursts. Harry wasn't much better off. The Milton twins just sat and watched, both wearing satisfied smirks.
Finally Dumbledore managed to restore order by the simple expedient of putting all the affected students to sleep. As all the teachers who weren't busy laughing helped him get the sleeping students from the Hall, several Gryffindors were putting together what had happened.
'Nice one,' Seamus whispered aside to Alex.
'Yeah, good one,' Dean echoed.
'Cheers,' Alex said, wiping his eyes with the back of his sleeve and grinning broadly. 'The look on Snape's face made it all worth it, believe me.'
Someone cleared their throat loudly, and Alex and Cassie whirled to find James standing just behind them, his arms crossed and tapping one foot on the ground. The broad grin spoilt the angry effect, however.
'You two know the rules,' he said, snapping his fingers. Instantly both twins' hair turned from midnight black to bubblegum pink.
'Thanks, Dad,' Cassie said mournfully.
'You're welcome,' he smirked. 'Nice job, by the way. What'd you use?'
'Befuddlement Draught,' Alex said, still smirking.
James nodded. 'Not a bad effort,' he said, glancing over to where the teachers were loading the sleeping students onto stretchers. 'Now if you'll excuse me, I have some teacherly duties to attend to.' He winked at Harry. 'Looks like a new generation of Marauders are born, eh?' He walked off quickly, joining the other teachers. He said something that made several of them laugh, including Dumbledore, who threw a quick glance in the direction of the Gryffindor table.
'A new generation of Marauders,' Harry mused. 'I think I like the sound of that.'
'Sounds good to me,' Ginny agreed, placing one arm around his shoulder and pulling him to her.
He kissed the top of her head, then glanced over at the twins. 'What say you?'
The twins glanced at each other, then simultaneously nodded. 'The Marauders reborn,' Alex said with a smirk, reaching one hand out and placing it on the table. Cassie placed hers over his, followed by Ginny, with Harry's hand going on top. Harry felt a slight jolt as their hands united, and he couldn't help but feel that what had just happened was somehow very significant.
