Harry Potter and the Mind Mage
By James Milamber
A/N: Once again, a huge apology for the rather long wait, but I've been really busy over the last few weeks. On top of that, I'm posting this while on holiday, so I reckon I'm not doing too badly. Bah, what do you know, on with the chapter!
One more thing, before we start. If any of you haven't yet read Harry Potter and the Power of Truth by CreativeQuill, I'd suggest you go do so very soon. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I call it my favourite story. Well, maybe equal with Not Myself. Bah!
Harry had thought, back in forth year, that the Hungarian Horntail had been a big dragon. He had been wrong. Norbert was bigger.
They found the massive form of the Norwegian Ridgeback reared up above the very small looking forms of several trainers, who were obviously trying to subdue him. Charlie swore and hurried to help them. A large crowd of students had already gathered to gawk, watched closely by Professor Sprout and James.
'Are you sure this is safe, Professor?' Hermione asked Dumbledore nervously.
'Quite sure, Miss Granger,' the Headmaster replied serenely, gazing at the dragon which, under Charlie's practiced hand, was now settling down. 'Norbert is simply excited to be back at his place of birth. Wouldn't you be?'
'But it's a dragon,' Ron said. 'How can it even remember?'
Dumbledore chuckled. 'Dragons are among the most intelligent of all Fantastic Beasts,' he said. 'I should imagine you will be having a few lessons on them in Care of Magical Creatures soon enough, if Hagrid's reaction is any indication.'
Looking closer at the scene, Harry realised that Hagrid was standing dangerously close to Norbert, beaming up at the dragon happily, trying to entice it into eating a large carcass of some unidentifiable animal.
'Is he mad?' Ginny asked incredulously.
'Hagrid?' Dumbledore asked, his eyes twinkling. 'It is, I must admit, entirely possible. Of course, most believe me myself to be mad, so I daresay I am in no position to talk.' He looked speculatively down the hill. 'It would seem Charlie has everything under control here, so I believe I will take my leave. I'd like to see all of you in my office tomorrow night straight after dinner, if you would.' And with that he turned and strode away.
'Come on, lets get closer,' Alex said, tugging on his sister's arm and hurrying towards where Charlie was trying to get Norbert into a huge enclosure that had been magicked up.
'I think I'll pass,' Isabelle said firmly.
'Yeah, we had plenty of Norbert the first time around,' Ron declared. 'Honestly, if I got told off one more time for "frightening" it, I think I would have hit Hagrid.'
Harry, Ginny and Hermione laughed; Isabelle looked at them quizzically. 'Never mind,' Harry said. 'Just something that happened last time.'
'Ah,' Isabelle said delicately, and let the matter drop. 'Well,' she said as they started for the castle, 'I don't know about you four, but I want to find out what those colours were about. They have to mean something, and I'm betting the information is in the Library somewhere.'
'I already know,' Hermione said absently, still watching the dragon over her shoulder.
'Then tell us what they meant!' Ginny said.
Hermione turned to look at her. 'It's not all that important, really, it's a sort of personality test. The colours indicate what sort of person you are, and how you're likely to react in any given situation.'
'You call that "not very important"?' Isabelle asked with one eyebrow raised. 'I'd hate to see what you call "earth-shatteringly important".'
'Alright, I'll tell you,' Hermione said as they climbed the stairs and entered the castle through the main doors. There was a lot of noise coming from the Great Hall where the majority of the students would be eating lunch. 'We need somewhere quiet to talk,' she stated.
'How about the Room of Requirement?' Ron asked.
Hermione shrugged. 'It'll do, I suppose.'
They were halfway across the Entrance Hall when the doors to the Great Hall opened, and several students filed out.
'Well well, if it isn't the new heroes of Hogwarts,' Draco Malfoy said with a smirk.
'Sod off, Malfoy,' Ron said, turning to face the new arrivals with his fists clenched.
'Very original, Weasel,' Blaise Zabini rolled his eyes.
'Just leave, Malfoy,' Harry said wearily. 'I'm not in the mood.'
Pansy Parkinson snickered. 'He's not in the mood! Oh no, we'd better leave before we get in trouble from big bad Potty!'
'Come on,' Harry muttered to his friends, and they once again began walking for the marble staircase.
'So, Lestrange,' Malfoy sneered, 'how does it feel to kill your own mother?' Next to Harry Isabelle stiffened and stopped walking. 'Bet it was satisfying, wasn't it? I mean, she was a Death Eater. How did it feel to get revenge for all the time she was –'
Malfoy's sentence was cut off abruptly as a fist took him cleanly in the jaw. He spun once and collapsed to the ground.
'Don't ever speak to her again,' Alex growled, his eyes flashing. Nearby, Cassie stood with her wand on the other Slytherins, her expression grim.
'What is going on here?'
Harry winced as Snape stalked out of the corridor leading to the dungeons, his narrowed eyes taking in the scene. Just exactly how the Potions Master always managed to show up at exactly the wrong moment would always remain a mystery.
'Just teaching Mister Malfoy a lesson in good manners, sir,' Alex said, pointedly turning away from the prone boy.
'I see,' Snape said silkily. 'In that case, detention for you and your sister, and twenty points from Gryffindor.'
Alex shrugged. 'Fine,' he said shortly, striding across the room to join the Gryffindors at the bottom of the stairs with Cassie trailing behind. 'Shall we go?'
Harry nodded, and the group began to climb the stairs. At the rear of the group, Isabelle fell in beside Alex.
'I thought you were going to see the dragon.'
Alex shrugged. 'I had a feeling there were more interesting things happening, and it's not like Norbert's going anywhere. Plenty of time to go look at him later. As in, some time when Hagrid isn't there making cooing noises at it and trying to hand feed it.'
'I can see where that might cause some problems,' Isabelle agreed. They walked in silence for a long moment steadily dropping behind the rest of the group. Finally Isabelle spoke again, her voice quiet. 'Thank you.'
Alex snorted. 'Malfoy's a bloody tosser, and I'm not going to let him push my friends around. Especially not you, you have enough to deal with without him making his snide little comments.'
'Only a friend?' Isabelle asked a little sadly.
Alex stopped walking, a frown creasing his brow as he stared at her. 'I'm not good at this sort of thing,' he said plainly. 'I've never had a girlfriend, and I've never really wanted one, either. After the incident in the forest…' He shrugged. 'I really have no idea what I'm doing,' he added a bit ruefully.
'Well, what do you want?' she asked, closing the distance between them.
'I have no idea,' Alex said, staring down into her eyes. She smiled, and they seemed to light up in a way he was sure defied the laws of nature.
'Well then,' she breathed, leaning closer. 'I suppose I'll have to give you an idea, won't I?'
The sound of someone clearing their throat nearby almost made Alex jump out of his skin. 'Don't DO that!' he said in annoyance, turning to face his grinning twin.
'If you two lovebirds haven't forgotten,' she said impishly, 'we were on the way to discuss something important, remember?'
'We remember,' Isabelle said primly, 'now get out of here.'
'Yes ma'am,' Cassie mock-bowed and hurried away, trying to suppress her giggles.
Alex sighed, running one hand through his hair. 'Can we continue this later?' he asked Isabelle.
'If we must,' she said in mock resignation, linking her arm through his and starting down the corridor. 'Later it is.'
They entered the Room of Requirement to find everyone already seated around a replica of the Gryffindor common room.
'What kept you?' Harry asked curiously as they sat. 'Not Malfoy again, was it?'
'Not quite,' Isabelle said with a straight face.
'My brother was about to get a crash course in –'
'Cass!' Alex said warningly. She just grinned at him.
'A crash course in what?' Harry asked, a little confused.
'Never mind,' Isabelle said. 'It's a long story, and we're not here for that, we're here so Gryffindor's resident genius can tell us what those colours meant.'
Hermione turned a bit pink at the compliment. 'Well, like I said, they're a kind of personality test. Dumbledore must use it to weed out any potential traitors, after last time.' None in the room had to ask what she meant.
'So what do the actual colours mean?' Ron demanded impatiently.
'I'm getting to that,' Hermione said. 'Ancient wizard lore states that there are seven 'rays' of energy that govern all things, and that these base energies all have their own traits and corresponding colours. Every living thing is supposedly made up of different combinations of these energies, and the different quantities give us our own personalities.'
'Hang on,' Alex interrupted. 'What do you mean, they give us our personalities?'
'Well, if you have more or less of a certain ray, it will affect your personality in different ways. Like when you're making a potion, if you change the ratio of ingredients you change the properties of the potion. Does that make sense?'
'Only you would use Snape's class as an example for something important,' Ron said.
'It's not just Professor Snape's class, Ron,' Hermione said impatiently. 'It's an important part of wizarding life, and you'd do well to remember that.'
'Guys,' Harry held up a pacifying hand. 'Okay, we get the idea Hermione, everything is made up of these ray things, but what do the colours mean?'
Hermione took a deep breath. 'Okay, like I said, there are seven rays, and each one represents a different quality.'
'We get that,' Ron said, 'just tell us what they mean!'
'I would if you'd stop interrupting,' Hermione said testily.
'Ron, shut up. You were saying, Hermione?' Ginny asked, ignoring Ron's spluttering.
'Thank you Ginny. Ron, close your mouth, you look like a goldfish.' Ron's mouth snapped shut. 'Anyway, as I was saying, each ray has different qualities, and they're represented by colour. Ron, since you're so eager to find out I'll do you first. Your colours were red and indigo, correct?'
'If by indigo you mean really dark blue, then yeah,' Ron said, leaning forward eagerly.
'Well, red is the colour of the first of the seven rays, and it represents Power. Indigo is the sixth, and represents Devotion, which we can probably translate into loyalty.'
'They've got you pegged, mate,' Harry laughed. Ron beamed.
'Yeah, reckon they do at that,' he replied. 'So what do the others mean?'
'Okay, Isabelle, your light was green, yes?' Isabelle nodded, a curious expression on her face. 'Okay, well green has nothing to do with Slytherin in this case, it's actually the colour of the fourth ray, which is Harmony through Conflict.'
'What's that supposed to mean?' Ginny asked.
'I'm not entirely sure,' Hermione admitted. 'But it's the ray of the artist.'
'How do they get art from conflict?' Ron asked in confusion.
'It's not just conflict, Ron,' Cassie pointed out. 'She said Harmony through Conflict.'
'How are you an artist, then?' Alex asked Isabelle. She stuck her tongue out at him.
'It's not just artists,' Hermione interjected. 'It includes anything creative, and also creative thinking. A lot of really inventive people have a lot of fourth ray.'
'Okay, I'm next,' Cassie leaned forward. 'What does light blue mean, oh great dispenser of wisdom?'
'Actually, light blue is the colour of the second ray, which represents the twin forces of Love and Wisdom, with an emphasis on the Love part,' Hermione said with a smile.
'Cool,' Cassie said with a grin.
'Okay, me next,' Alex said. 'Why did everyone freak out when I got dark red?'
Hermione frowned. 'Like I said for Ron, red is the colour of Power, but a really dark red represents the negative aspect, which is usually something like an intense thirst for revenge, or something like that. Without it, your colours would probably have been different.'
'A thirst for revenge I can handle,' Alex said bleakly. 'It's not far from the truth.'
There was silence for a moment, until Harry asked, 'What did your colours mean, Hermione?'
'The blue means more or less the same as Cassie, except with more emphasis on Wisdom,' she said matter-of-factly. 'The yellow is of the third ray, which is Active Intelligence.'
'No arguments there,' Ron muttered, earning a blush from Hermione and a laugh from everyone else.
'Okay, lucky last,' Ginny said. 'What does white represent? Both Harry and I got white, except mine was pink as well.'
Hermione sighed. 'White light isn't actually one of the rays, but rather a balance of all of them. If someone shows up as white under that test, it means they are more than willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect another. They also usually come in pairs.'
Harry swallowed hard. It wasn't really something he wanted to think about too much.
'The pink in Ginny's light would represent Unconditional Love, the ultimate sacrifice,' Hermione finished in a small voice.
Harry caught Ginny's eyes, and was a little startled to find them full of tears. She nodded decisively as if to confirm Hermione's words, however. Harry reached out to grasp her hand, squeezing it tightly.
'Well, on anther note, I'm starved,' Cassie said abruptly after a long moment had passed, rising to her feet and breaking the tension that had built. 'Come on, let's eat before Lunch finishes.'
There was a murmur of agreement, and everyone rose to leave, bar Alex and Isabelle, who ignored everyone else. The room emptied, leaving the couple in a pensive silence.
'Well, that was…enlightening,' Isabelle said eventually. 'I'm beginning to wish I hadn't asked.'
'It's better we know,' Alex said stubbornly. 'Obviously some of the Order wasn't happy about me joining, and I'd rather know why than fumble around in the dark.'
'I suppose,' Isabelle sighed, dropping her head to rest on his shoulder.
'So what do you reckon?' Alex asked finally.
'About what?' Isabelle asked, craning her head so she could look at him.
Alex shrugged slightly. 'Life, the Universe and everything?'
'That cleared things right up,' she said dryly.
Alex smiled. 'Just answer the question.'
She thought a moment. 'I reckon a lot of things, but first and foremost I reckon that it's pretty private in here.'
'You may have a point there,' he agreed.
'Well then, I believe I was promised a 'later' by a certain someone,' she almost purred, climbing around until she was straddling his lap. 'And I believe I have some persuading to do.'
The next hour passed far too quickly, in Alex's opinion.
A/N: Ye Gads, I've wanted to do that to Malfoy for the longest time. It may be concieted to cheer on one's own OC's, but...go Alex! I love Isabelle too, even I have no idea what she's going to do next. Ah, good times.
Review Responses:
Before I start, apologies to everyone who reviewed and doesn't get a mention, but if I answered everyone I'd have a chapter that was shorter than the Review responses. So this is a general thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, and told me what they thought. Cheers!
Whimsical Firefly: There you go, a bit of Alex/Isabelle for you. Happy now? You were close with the whole colour thing, though.
AKA Hummer: I can't help it if the Aussies are the best. ;)
C.H.I.C.K: Death by annoyance? That's a new one…
gpotter: Aye, milady, snow it is! Stay tuned…
siriusblack08: Snape get his head out of his arse? Is that even possible?
Alima: If I told you that, then I'd have to kill you. So I'd really rather not…
athenakitty: Let's see…not yet, yes, unlikely, of course, more likely to be flattened, not yet, WHAT THE?!?
Merusa: Erm…sorry, no James again. He'll be in the next one, I swear it! Promise!
jwhit-moony: Turn one of my OC's evil?!? SACRELIGE! Of course, I do have a few surprises planned…
Whispyraven: I'm probably going to get yelled at for saying this, but I did kinda base Alex's appearance on me…but don't tell him I said that (although I don't have long hair anymore, and he does, but meh). There will be a nice little H/G scene soon, so long as my blasted muses co-operate. As to Beta'ing, as much as I'd love to, I'm simply too busy. I barely have enough time to write this, hence the lengthening wait for chapters. Sorry, but I can't really help you there.
Melindaleo: I have a distinct feeling that Molly's going to blow up rather spectacularly at Dumbles at some point in the not-so-distant future…
