Author's Note
Wow! I didn't expect everyone to like my story so much, LOL! Nor did I expect a few of you to add me to you C2 Archive. It's an honor to know that you all like this story so much you'd be willing to add it to your favorite Buffy's Long Lost Past, and Fav Stories C2's.
I hope this chapter is long enough for you; it's nearly seven pages long. LOL!
Anyway, down to business or reviewer responses.
Reviewer Responses
Smask- Thank you for reminding me about that. :makes note to change chapter: Thanks for reviewing and reading my fic, keep on reading.
Aynot- Thanks for accepting my apology and for your sympathies. Sorry if I ruined the book for ya. And thanks for the advice and the compliments. Keep reading and reviewing.
Nixinox- LOL! Too funny girl. Don't worry, here's the next chappie just like I promised.
Cyndur- Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your comments. Personally I don't care if anyone writes femslash or slash of any kind, it's just not my cuppa tea. As for pairings…you'll just have to wait and see.
Arica, Princess of Rivendell- I'll try and keep that in mind, LOL. Just have to keep reading.
Chailyn Cole Runewood- You are so right! Thanks for reminding me. Keep reading.
Heavens Demise- LOL! Sorry it is kinda nice to know that I'm so loved by my adoring public LOL. And I completely agree on the fact that she killed Dumbledore off, but I wonder…was Snape acting on Voldemort's orders and protecting Draco or was he following Dumbledore's or both? Guess we'll have to wait till the final book. Keep reading!
Chapter 5: Training and O.W.L.S.
Same Day...Rome, Italy: July 6, 2004
Harry, after sending Hedwig out with the letters, quickly made his way to the training room where he found Dawn waiting and watching their older sister sparring with Spike.
Harry stopped just outside the door in shock as he watched his sister take on the 'master' vampire. He had been with his family and the rest of their friends for nearly a week now and he was still amazed at the fact that the once feared William the Bloody, a member of the 'Scourge of Europe', and a vampire no less, had his soul, and was helping his sister, the Slayer in training the new slayers and watchers.
It also looked like Spike was going to help with their training. The out of the corner of his eye he saw a red headed woman walking towards him. It was Willow, so she must be helping with the training as well.
'Wicked',' he grinned mentally. Not only were he, Dawn, Ron, Ginny and Hermione going to be trained in hand-to-hand, and weapons, they were also going to be taught Wiccan magic. He turned back to watched the sparring between Spike and Buffy and couldn't help but think of how much like a dance it seemed.
Dawn giggled slightly. "That's what Spike calls it too," she told him.
Harry looked at Dawn in surprise, "Did I say that out loud?"
Dawn nodded. "Yep. Don't worry; it happens all the time with Buffy and me. Must be a Potter family trait huh?"
Harry grinned slightly at that. "Yeah," he agreed, "that and our penchant for getting into trouble."
Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Getting into trouble? It that a family trait or something?" she echoed.
Harry nodded. "Of course, though the kind of trouble dad got into was more because of the pranks he pulled and for getting into fights with Snape…" Harry trailed off at Dawn's look of confusion and began to explain. "Snape would be Severus Snape, the Potions teacher at Hogwarts. He went to school with mum and dad. But he was in Slythrin house and because of that he, dad, and Sirius never got along."
Dawn looked confused and asked, "Why would being in different houses cause people not to get along?"
Harry shook his head. He had a lot of things to tell Dawn about Hogwarts.
"Well," Harry began. "One reason is because about 90 of all the dark wizards throughout
wizarding history came from Slythrin. The second is because Snape would torture other students
who didn't have all magical families, their called muggle-borns or half bloods. And the last is because Snape always called mum a mud-blood, which is a derogatory term for a muggle-born or half-blood."
As he finished telling Dawn about the fights between their dad and Snape, he looked at his sister and gasped. She looked ready to kill. Her eyes were all black and her hair was streaking with black as well. When he saw this, Harry knew, from descriptions about the Darth Willow incident, that when a witch got black hair and eyes like Dawn was it was sooooooo not of the good.
"Um…Dawn," he said shakily, not sure of what he should do. "You need to calm down sis."
Dawn blinked and looked at her brother, the dark magics fading away. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I just hate people who are prejudice."
Harry snorted. "You need to get over that, cause once Snape finds out that you're my sister he's going to hate you automatically. He hates anything to do with dad. Especially me since I am like a carbon copy of him physically, well except for my eye color, that's all mum's."
Dawn groaned. "Great," she said sarcastically. "Anything else I should know about this doophus?"
Harry chuckled. "Well he looks like an over grown bat with a greasy haircut and he is also a spy. He works for Dumbledore and the Order spying on Voldemort as a member of the Inner Circle."
Dawn looked at Harry. "So he's kind of like a more unpleasant version of Spike?" she suggested.
After thinking about it, Harry had to agree. Spike was a lot friendlier, but when he hated you, he was openly hostile about it. Snape was never friendly. He was also openly hostile with anyone he didn't like but he had a penchant for brooding, unlike the bleach blonde undead.
Harry was about to respond when Buffy called them over to being their lessons.
As the twins walked over Buffy grinned evilly and said, "Welcome to Hell."
The last thought Harry had before being put through that work out was; My sister is a slave driver.
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One Week Later…Rome, Italy: July 13, 2004
During the last week, Harry had not only been learning hand-to-hand combat (which included a couple forms of martial arts), he was also learning meditation, and Wiccan magic. At one point Dumbledore had stopped by to take him, Buffy and Dawn to Diagon Alley so that Buffy and Dawn would be able to get their wands and supplies.
Dumbledore had gotten the new Minister, one Mr. Arthur Weasley, to lift the ban on underage magic for Harry and Dawn since Dawn was behind and needed time to prepare for her NEWTs. So whenever he was not working out with Buffy, Dawn, Spike, and Xander, or practicing magic with Willow, he was teaching Dawn and Buffy from his 1st and 2nd year school books.
Harry walked into his room after one of the grueling training sessions and was ready to drop when he noticed a couple of owls. One of which he recognized.
"Errol," Harry grinned as he walked over to the bird and untied the envelopes. They were letters from Ron, Ginny and Hermione. He set the letters down and was about to go to the next owl and thick letter, which he noticed had the English Ministry of Magic seal on it. "I wonder," he said quietly.
Before he could untie the fourth letter from the Ministry owl, Errol nipped at his hand. Harry rolled his eyes. "Gimme a few minutes ok Errol," he said to the elderly bird. "Let me send the Ministry owl on its way."
Errol hooted and went to settle himself next to Hedwig on the owl perch. Harry shook his head and retrieved what he was sure were his O.W.L. scores. As he held the envelope, he thought about whether he truly wanted to spend the rest of his life dealing with evil wizards. He stood there for a moment before giving the Ministry owl an Owl treat and sending it on its way.
He was about to open the letter when there was a knock on his door.
"Enter," he said. Whoa, okay, getting to be little too much like Dumbledore, he thought. Looking up he saw Buffy, Dawn and Professor Dumbledore.
Harry was slightly shocked to find the Professor there. "Hello Professor. What brings you here?" Harry asked curiously.
Dumbledore smiled slightly. "I am here because of your O.W.L. scores Harry," he said.
Buffy grinned. "Come on Har-bear, let's see how you did," She and Dawn said at the same time.
Harry groaned but obliged them and began to read the letter.
Dear Mr. Potter,
On the next page are your O.W.L. results. We here at the Ministry would like to congratulate on your completion of the O.W.L. board and on your excellent scores.
Please consider very carefully your course selection for your N.E.W.T. level course. As these courses tend to be the most intense of your magical education we do not recommend that you exceed more than eight courses.
On another note, you have received the highest score in DADA ever recorded in the last 300 years. Because of this, you have been awarded the Student Excellence Award in DADA. Congratulations.
We wish you the best of luck.
Griselda Marchbanks
Head of Wizarding Examinations Authority
P.S. On another note I personally would like to congratulate you on being able to produce a fully corporeal Patronus at your age. Not many fully trained wizards are able to produce even the mist.
O Outstanding 2 OWLs
EE Exceeds Expectations 1 1/2 OWLs
A Average 1 OWL
D Dreadful ½ OWL
P Poor 0 OWLs
(1) Denotes score was re-weighted due to disturbance during exam.
(2) Special Award
O+ 3 OWLs
Overall OWL Scores for Harry J. Potter
Astronomy EE(1)
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defense Against the Dark Arts O+(2)
Divination D
Herbology EE
History of Magic A
Potions O
Transfiguration EE
Total: 15/18 OWLs
Now that you have completed your OWLs you need to take a total of at least eight courses. Listed below are some additional elective classes you may choose from.
Dueling
Healing
Apparition (second semester class only)
Animagi Training
Wizarding Government and Economics
Harry looked at the letter in shock. He could not believe it. He had gotten 15 OWLs out of 18 on his OWLs. Silently, he handed the letter to his sisters and Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked up from the letter after he had read it and Harry could see the twinkle in his headmasters eyes.
"These scores are wonderful Harry; they are very similar to the scores your father received when he took the exam," Dumbledore told Harry. "Actually I was here for another few reasons as well."
Harry looked at his headmaster curiously. What is the old man thinking? He wondered.
Dumbledore just smiled benignly and continued, "Harry, did you know that every student who was a member of the D.A. scored no less than an EE on their OWL or NEWT exam?"
Harry shook his head. He couldn't have possibly done that well in teaching the club…did he? He was about to protest but was hushed but Dumbledore once again.
"What I wanted to ask you Harry is if you would lead the D.A. once again, this time as a dueling
club. You would have all the privileges of the Head Boy and be able to either accept or reject members. But the only thing I ask is that you have a faculty advisor," Dumbledore said.
Harry thought for a moment and asked, "Who is going to be the DADA professor?"
"Well that would be split between your sister and Remus Lupin, why?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry looked from the old man to Buffy. "You're going to teach at Hogwarts?" he asked surprised.
Buffy nodded. "Well, yeah I mean I do have a lot of experience with a lot of Dark Creatures and besides Remus will need me to cover for him three days a month," she said. "Not to mention I'll be able to keep an eye on you and Dawnie and get tutoring to pass my own OWLs, Apparition test and NEWTs."
"Wicked," Harry grinned before looking at Dumbledore. "All right, I'll do it…as long as either Buffy or Remus will be the advisors."
Dumbledore smiled an all-knowing smile and his eyes twinkled as he replied, "Excellent. Well I shall leave you to your studying then." And with a quick "pop" Dumbledore apparated back to Hogsmeade.
Harry then went to his desk where the letters from Ginny, Ron and Hermione were laying and began reading them, completely ignoring the fact that his sisters were in the room. He grinned as he read the letters from Ron and Hermione telling him to be careful and hat they would be glad to come visit for the rest of the summer. He laughed when he read the part in Ron's letter that told him how Ron had broken up Ginny and Dean, and how Ginny had got him back for it by giving him her famous bat bogey hex and telling their mother who had given him the lecture of a lifetime. Then came the thing that caused his jaw to drop to the floor…Ron finally admitted his feelings for Hermione.
Dawn and Buffy looked from Harry to one another each quirking and eyebrow up. Deciding to find out what was so amusing Buffy gave Harry a little kick and asked, "Want to share?"
Sitting up and wiping the tears of laughter from his face and getting over the shock, Harry said, "You remember me telling you about my friends Ron and Hermione right?" at their nod he went on, "Well it looks like Ron's finally pulled his head out of his arse and admitting he likes her as more than a friend. He's just scared that she'll say no when he asks her out..."
"…even though she'll say yes, right?" Dawn finished; Harry nodded, grinning widely.
Chuckling Dawn and Buffy had to agree that he was right; it was kind of funny. Harry then noticed that the last letter he had was still unread and that it was from Ginny. He wanted to read that one by himself so he quickly ushered his busybody sisters out of his room and began to read the letter.
Dear Harry,
Hi Harry, it's me…Ginny. Never thought I'd write to you did ya? ;-) Anyway I wanted to know how your summer has been. Mine's been ok, except for when Dean dumped me because Ron threatened to call our brothers (all except Percy, he's still being a git) and have them beat him up.
That boy…sometimes I don't think he has a brain and that everything just goes to his stomach.
At that Harry had to laugh, it was true, and Ginny would know better than anyone.
I know you must've gotten letters from just about everyone who's close to you to not close yourself off from the world and going on and on telling you that Sirius' death was not your fault. I'll only say it once…STOP BLAMING YOURSELF! It leads nowhere good…I should know, especially after I spent a year wallowing in self loathing and self pity after the Chamber of
Secrets.
Well I just wanted to let you know that mum said Ron and I could come stay with you for the rest of the summer starting on July 16, so we will be where ever you are around noon our time. We'll see you in three days.
Love, Ginny
Harry read and re-read the letter five times before he began to pen his responses. He told Ron and Hermione each to just give up and tell each other how they feel for one another and that he couldn't wait to see them.
Ginny's letter was the hardest though. As he began to write the letter, he couldn't help but think about how he had never gotten to know her really well prior to the last year. He knew that she was his soulmate, but he wanted to get to know her a friend first.
Dear Ginny,
Thanks for the letter. I really appreciated that you didn't go on and on about Sirius. I am a lot better since I have been staying with Dumbledore's friend. She's helped me a lot, and I'm even getting better at Occlumency and learning some muggle fighting techniques.
I want to apologize for not trying to get to know you sooner. I was a prat and I realize it now. Feel free to call me that to my face when you get here in a few days. :-) I think that it's time the two of us became friends.
Well, I better be going now. Tell everyone I said hello.
Love, Harry
Harry sent the letters off, Errol with his letters for Ron and Ginny back to the Burrow and Hedwig to Hermione.