Disclaimer: I own...wait for it...NOTHING! Well, except for stuff you don't recognize...
Author's Note: Gosh, this seems to take forever. Well, actually, this chapter didn't take that long. I was working on the next chapter for Out of Our Hands, and I'm having severe writers block for that story. I think I got past it, though, so the next chapter for that should be up soon. In the here and now, however, I give to you...
Heart's Desire
Chapter 5
-----Severus's Point of View-----
I have no idea why I'm being nice to Harry Granger and, by association, his friends and sister. Although, if they want to spend their lunch hour in the library, they can't be too bad. There is just something about him that pulls people towards him. He's got a certain charisma that almost anyone would be jealous of.
"So do you know any tracking or invisibility spells that would work?" Harry was asking Felicia.
"Not really. I guess that's just something else we can look for, isn't it?" Felicia said. "What all are you going to teach them?"
"Well, I guess we'll teach them the shield spells, the Patronus charm, and definitely work on aim, especially with the under estimated spells, like the Disarming charm."
"For starters, that's fine," Felicia said. Then, what Harry had said sunk in completely.
"You can do the Patronus charm?" I blurted out. "And just who are you going to be teaching?"
"Yes, I can perform the Patronus charm. We're teaching Lily Evans and Alice Glenshee, for certain. Anyone else who wants to come is welcome. And before you ask, since I was 13, and defensive spells," Harry grinned.
"What are the tracking and invisibility spells for?" I asked suspiciously.
"A prank. James so foolishly challenged us to a prank war," Felicia grinned.
"And you accepted?" I was amazed. I'd never seen anyone out-prank those four.
"Yeah. It was easy enough to turn the last prank on them, we figured we might as well," Harry smirked.
"What do you mean?"
"Harry was the one who put the firework in the cauldron," Felicia clarified.
"You did that?"
"I can't take complete credit. If Sirius hadn't been trying to put it in our cauldron, it wouldn't have happened. I do need to apologize to Lily, though," Harry sad thoughtfully. "If I had known she was 2nd in Potions, I woulda let it drop in Sirius and Ron's cauldron, even if it was James's idea."
"How do you know it was Potter's idea?"
"They whisper way to loud," Harry grinned. By this time, we had arrived outside the library. We pushed open the doors and walked inside.
"Oh! Hello, Professor!" Felicia said, startled. I looked over to see Professor Dumbledore striding forward.
"Hello, Miss Granger, Mr. Granger, Mr. Snape," he said, smiling. "It's so nice to see students making good use of their free time, instead of leaving homework for the last minute." I saw Felicia give Harry a pointed look. Apparently, he liked to procrastinate.
"Actually, Professor, we aren't here for homework. Felicia and I wanted to look up some things, and Severus was nice enough to offer to show us the way up here," Harry said, shooting the Headmaster a smile I knew I seen before. Suddenly, however, the smile vanished. "Professor, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do that," Harry said, a cold look on his face.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Granger," Dumbledore said, an apologetic look on his face. "In times of war, we need to be sure who we can trust."
"And using Legilimency on an innocent student inspires trust?" Harry asked. "Although, not unsuspecting, I must say."
"Yes, I must compliment you on your skills. Where did you learn them?" Dumbledore asked, genuinely curious instead of the fake emotions that were usually present.
"That, Headmaster, is none of your business. Now, if you'll excuse us, we only have 30 minutes left," Harry said, a fake smile in place. He shoved passed the Headmaster, and out of sight. Felicia smiled apologetically and followed.
"Are you coming?" she asked me, turning back around. I nodded, and hurried after her.
"What was the Headmaster trying to do?" I asked, catching up to her. We continued deeper into the shelves of books, searching for Harry.
"Legilimency. It's kinda like reading minds, only its not. You can't see or hear what the person is or was thinking, but you can look at memories, and cause the person who's mind you're in to see them. You can feel all the feelings that went along with them. Voldemort is very good at it. Have you ever heard about how he knows if a person is lying?" I nodded. I had heard lots of stories about it, but had assumed they were just stories. "It's because he can feel the dishonesty and nervousness. What Harry did to block it is called Occlumency. It keeps people out. He's fairly skilled at it when he wants to be. I've never had the need to learn, but according to him, there are three ways to use it. One way, which he says is the easiest to use but also the easiest to slip up with, is to project memories you deem of little importance, keeping the ones that you think the person is after well hidden. However, you could still give them clues, or exactly what they need if they're a decent actor. Another, which requires quite a bit of power, lets you actually throw the person out of your mind. That's what Harry did to the Headmaster. The third is the hardest, but usually gets the best results. You simply don't think. It makes them think they are doing something wrong." She paused. "Harry, damn it, if you don't come out right now, I'm throwing your new broomstick out into the Forest!"
Harry, somewhat sheepish, came out of one of the last rows we had looked down. "Sorry. But I'm here, so you can't take my broom."
"Whatever. Lets just look up some spells in the next 25 minutes," Felicia said, sitting her bag down by an empty table. "Now, where are the Defense books?"
For the next 15 minutes or so, we sat in relative silence. They were each pouting over a Defense book. I was trying to figure out the charm we had learned today. I could get it eventually, but not without a lot of practice and research of the theory behind it. Charms, needless to say, did not come naturally. Potions were about the only thing that did. Arithmancy wasn't too bad, as I could figure that out and it didn't require a wand to get it. I was fine with most spells, however, after I had known them for a while.
"What do we have so far?" Harry asked suddenly. I glanced up to see Felicia looking at the piece of paper she had been writing on. Oddly enough, Harry didn't have one.
"Both Shield charms, Stunners, Full-body bind, Leg-locker curse, Disarming charm, Patronus Charm, Jelly Leg jinx, and that's about it so far. Of course, these are basic defensive books."
"Yeah, well, the basics are where you have to begin. It doesn't matter what you can cast if you can't aim," Harry pointed out. They lapsed into silence, staring at each other. Then, Harry shrugged. "If it gets like that, yeah." He said it as if they had been carrying on a conversation the entire time. 'It must be a twin thing,' I thought.
"Hi there," a voice called out from behind me.
"Hi!" Felicia called out, waving to someone approaching from behind me.
"Whatcha doing?" Remus Lupin asked, slinging his bag down across from me, next to Felicia.
"Looking up some defensive spells," Harry said, somewhat distracted. "What are you doing?" He finally looked up, shutting the book he had been going through. Felicia looked up at the noisy disapprovingly.
"Trying to figure out the shield charm that was taught today," Lupin sighed. "I can get the spells just fine if they're shown to me. If I have to figure them out on my own, though, I'm usually completely lost."
"We'll teach you," Harry offered. He was leaning back on the back legs of his chair, much to Felicia's obvious annoyance.
"Would you? That'd be great," Lupin said. He looked flustered, as if he was trying to think of something that he hadn't gotten done. "Crap, I still need another two inches for my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay!"
"What's the topic?" Felicia asked calmly.
"Avoiding the Killing curse," Lupin moaned. "I've said 'Dodge it' in everyway I can think of."
"Call a phoenix to you. If you don't have one bonded to you, showing great loyalty to a person who has one calls it to you as well. The phoenix can swallow the Killing curse. It causes the phoenix to burn, and be reborn from the ashes, but it's effective," Harry said, still leaning back on his chair. He was leaning against the wall, his eyes shut. If he hadn't just said something, I would have thought he had been napping.
"Are you sure that will work?" Lupin asked doubtfully. Harry nodded.
"Personal experience," was all he would give in explanation. Lupin started scribbling madly, trying to add as many adjectives as he thought he could get away with. It didn't really matter. Our Defense professor wouldn't actually grade the essays. She would assign us another chapter to read, glance at the essay, measure it, and then grade it based on the length. I once handed in an old Herbology report and got extra credit for the added length. Just then, the bell rang.
"So, what's next?" Harry asked.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Remus said, finishing his essay with a flourish. We stood and hurried towards the classroom.
-----Harry's Point of View-----
I was, quite frankly, worried. Don't get me wrong, everything had been going along fine until now. I still consider arriving on the full moon a blessing in disguise. Without that, we wouldn't have made such good friends with the Marauders. However, it was the fact that everything had been going so well that had me worried. Ron would have simply laughed if I would have told him, but if there's one thing that being the Boy-Who-Lived teaches you, it's that nothing is ever normal. Granted, most people wouldn't consider being 20 years in the past, going to school with your dead parents, along with some of your friends and their parents, not to mention the fact that we could and probably would be attacked any day now. The teachers seemed a lot more jumpy in this time, even more so than right after they heard about the second rise of Voldemort. The only thing that would really make sense is that they're expecting an attack.
We settled down in our seats, arriving about a minute ahead of James, Sirius, Neville, Ron, and Pettigrew. I had been trying to be polite, at least until I could think of a plausible reason not to like him. I had tried that with Snape and found out that, so long as he doesn't have any real way to associate me with the Marauders, he's not too bad.
We settled into our seats as the Professor walked in. She was tall, with limp brown hair and blue eyes that looked as if they'd seen everything and didn't want to see any of it ever again.
"Class, today, we are going to watch a duel between two Aurors. Dumbledore demands that you see a real duel. Afterwards, if they're not too tired, they will duel with each of you. Anyone who actually manages to win will be awarded 100 house points. Auror Moody, Auror Podmore," the professor called. She hadn't introduced herself like the other professors had done.
Mad-Eye Moody and Sturgis Podmore immediately walked in and began dueling. It shocked most everyone. Hell, it shocked me a little, I was just able to hide it.
Eventually, Moody won and they started challenging students. I: was fairly confident. I had trained with the Mad-Eye of my time over the summer, and if anything, he had only sped up with age.
"Miss and Mr. Granger," Moody growled, beckoning Hermione and I forward.
We bowed, and the duels started. Hermione and I fell into a much-practiced pattern backs to each other with Moody and Podmore on either side of the room, Podmore dueling Hermione, Moody dueling me. Finally, I managed to get in a Disarming charm. I quickly stunned and bound Moody after catching his wand, and then turned to help Hermione. Within seconds, he was stunned and bound, Hermione having disarmed him, and I finished the work.
The professor seemed to be speechless. I walked over to Moody while Hermione approached Podmore. I awoke Moody before I untied him.
"You two will survive," he said grudgingly. "That's more than I can say about the way some of them duel." I grinned and untied him. He immediately tried to knock me over, which would have caused me to drop both wands. I was ready for it, however, and jumped back. Hermione, however, wasn't so lucky. I heard a soft 'Oh!' as she was knocked to the ground, and heard the stunner and binging charm. I quickly did the same to Moody only a moment after dodging his kick. I turned to see Podmore, two wands aimed at me.
"Stupefy!" he cried, apparently figuring I would be too stunned to do anything. Red light poured out of both wands.
"Protego Maximus!" I whispered. The blinding light surrounded me just before the red light could make contact. They both rebounded back on Podmore, knocking him unconscious, which is something only multiple spells could do. Usually, the person is still aware, even if they don't look like it. I tied him up, and turned to face the Professor, who was still speechless.
"How'd I do?" I smirked. She just stared. I walked over and untied Hermione, then brought her out of the Stunner. Next, I woke Moody. "Do I win?" I smirked. He growled something that sounded like an affirmative. "I'll untie you, but when I do, you have to promise not to attack. If you do, I'll break your wand."
"Fine, fine," Moody growled, obviously not happy about being beaten by a student. "Miss Granger should get 90 points. She didn't beat Podmore on her own, but she was getting close. Mr. Granger should get 300 points. He beat us 3 times, after all." I grinned, and cast the counter to the binding charm from a good distance away, knowing full well that Moody still would have attacked me, even knowing I would break his wand. Well, he didn't really know that. With most people, that would be an idle threat. However, I had been in too many duels to not know how to follow through. "How did you know to dodge my second attack?"
"Constant vigilance," I grinned. I heard Neville, Ron, and Hermione laugh through the bond, knowing that if they had dared to do it out loud, they would have been in big trouble. I started towards my seat, but Moody called me back.
"I think the two of you should continue with the duels. I want to see how long it takes you to get tired," Moody said thoughtfully. I just nodded, walking back to the front. Hermione hadn't left yet. She had been trying to wake up Podmore, but without success. I walked over, adding my own 'Enervate' to the mix, and he awoke. We untied him and, after some explaining, he went to stand with Moody.
"Next up, Miss Glenshee and Miss Evans," Moody growled. Lily and Alice seemed to be having a silent argument. I really don't know who lost, but I assume it was Alice, judging from the expression she wore as she came to face me. I grinned. She seemed even more wary.
None of the duels took long. Hermione and I kept our real power level hidden for most of the time, usually putting it on the same level as our opponent, at least until they grew cocky. After that, we quickly finished them. Lily had been Hermione's longest duel, while Remus had been mine. He had been called at the same time as Peter, and he had let Peter go to Hermione, apparently judging her as the less dangerous. Finally, Neville and Ron came up.
"Should we give them a show?" I asked through the bond.
"Sure, why not?" Ron smirked. He would be dueling with me. Hermione and Neville both nodded.
"Sir, what spells are we allowed to use?" I asked Moody. He thought about the question for a second.
"I suppose anything that isn't illegal. However, are you sure you want to be messing with darker curses and such?"
"Sir, this class is to teach us how to fight for our lives against dark magic, correct?" I asked. Moody nodded, awaiting my next point. "In a fight for your life, nothing is dark. Anything you can think of can be used, so long as it's not illegal. The only thing stopping you should be your conscience, not your pre-conceived notions of good and evil. If you've never seen dark curses, you can never fight dark curses."
"Excellent point, Granger," Moody smiled. He looked even more sinister. "Anything that's not illegal, then."
"Of course, that still isn't like a duel with a Death Eater," I said thoughtfully. "They don't stick to legal curses. Whatever. Lets begin." Ron and I bowed to each other, as did Hermione and Neville. We were still going to keep it down, not revealing how powerful we really were. However, we were going to give them one hell of a show, using what would appear to be nonverbal spells and wandless magic. The nonverbal spells would be said through the bond, while the wandless magic was part illusion, part real. We could all do enough to untie ourselves and summon our wand. That was the most they could do. I could do more, however.
We started dueling. All that was coming through the bond were whispers. In a real duel with a Death Eater, we could yell however loudly we wanted. However, in this duel, and most of our practice duels, we whispered.
Suddenly, Ron smirked. "Accio sword!" he cried. I dove out of the way, just in time to avoid being pierced through the middle.
I echoed his spell. Conjuring up a brick wall, I turned and caught it. It was Godric Gryffindor's sword, the one I had pulled from the Sorting Hat. Professor Dumbledore had given it to me when we had begun the training with swords. We continued dueling, shooting spells and swinging swords.
"Legilimens!" I cried. Ron tried to dodge, but it didn't work. I saw lots of memories, most of which I had seen before. I had learned what a valuable dueling spell this was after I had tried it in a duel with Hermione. She had become lost in her memories, and it was easy after that.
I quickly stunned and bound Ron, taking his wand, even though I knew it wouldn't do any good if he woke up. I turned to watch the end of Neville and Hermione's duel. Neville had managed to conjure some kind of plant that was taking most of Hermione's blows. She managed to get a Full-Body Bind through, however, and he went down. She shot snake-like ropes out of her wand, and turned around. The class, Aurors, and teacher just stared.
"I think that was too big a show," Hermione whispered. None the less, it carried throughout the entire classroom. The bell rang, startling everyone out of their thoughts as they started gathering their things for the next class. Hermione and I were untying Ron and Neville when Moody and Podmore walked over.
"Just where did you learn to do that?" Podmore asked, clearly impressed. That was probably saying something. He looked like a fairly new Auror, who still thought of himself as invincible. Well, maybe not anymore, but he had thought that until the duel with Hermione and I.
"Our old school," Hermione shrugged. "We've had lots of dueling lessons."
"Alastor Moody," Mad-Eye said, offering his hand. "Most people call me Mad-Eye. This is Sturgis Podmore."
"Harry Granger," I said, shaking his hand. "This is my twin sister, Felicia. These are Ron Welker and Neville Jones. Ron's little sister Ginny and our friend Laura Anderson, both fifth years, are here as well."
"Well, we are here to scout new talents for our Auror training program," Moody said, examining the four. "You were definitely the best duelers in this class. We would like to offer you each the chance to become an Auror after your seventh year."
"That's very kind of you," Hermione smiled. "However, we will have to go back to our old town, and help defend it from Voldemort." Ron and Neville flinched, as did Podmore. Moody didn't flinch, but he didn't look happy that she had said is name.
"What town is it?" Moody asked.
"That information can't be given freely," Ron said. "It's not that we don't trust you, but just about everything has ears, especially at Hogwarts."
"Fine," Moody said, although the expression on his face said it was anything but.
"Good," I said before he could say anything else. "We need to go. We've got another free period, we're going to the library." I waltzed out of the room, followed by the others.
"You're going back to the library?" James asked. They had apparently been waiting outside the door.
"Yes. You don't have to come if you don't want to," Hermione grinned. "We're just looking up some defensive spells. I think we'll be able to find it on our own."
"Nah, we'll come with you," Remus said before the others could answer. The others didn't look completely happy with that, but decided not to complain. We walked to the library as one big group, and sat down at a table in the back. We picked out several defense books and got to work.
Author's Note: Well, how was that? Thanks for reading. Now that you've done that, REVIEW! hehe. Also, tell me your opinions on relationships for this fic. I've got some ideas, but... Do you want het, slash, or is it fine how it is? Anyway, tell me in a review!