Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Course, you know that by now...
Author's Note: Not sure how I feel about this chapter...oh well. Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter!
Fraternizing with the 'Enemy'
Chapter 2
Harry darted towards the manor, keeping a shield up the entire time now that the telekinesis wards were down. There were, of course, spells that could get through the shield, but the Unforgivables didn't affect him a whole hell of a lot, and the rest were Dark Curses that were only still legal because they were practically obsolete.
He knew the people attempting to take the wards down would need help, as the wards that the Death Eaters had put up blocking port-keys, and most likely apparition, completely, were most likely interwoven into the wards for the manor. Actually, Harry reflected as he moved ever closer, they could have simply modified the wards. If no one was really paying attention, they never would have noticed, unlike the alarms that would have sounded should the Death Eaters have tried to put new wards over the old ones. As such, the wards, especially if modified, would have to be taken down from the inside, and would have an amazing amount of power behind them. He was just glad that, as telekinesis was so rare, there had been no need for the Potter who had completed the wards to ward against someone using that particular kind of magic.
He finally reached the spot the Death Eaters had broken in through, and slipped through the opening, hoping to remain unnoticed. He quickly found the Death Eaters. They were trying to get through a door that apparently led to the people working on the wards, and were apparently close, if the shouts from inside were any indication.
He watched nearly helplessly as the Death Eaters finally broke through. He knew he couldn't do anything now but try to take out as many as he could, helping the people inside. After all, even if there was only one person inside, although from the shouts he knew there were at least three as two had been yelling and talking about at least one more person trapped with them, his odds were improved. The duel against five Hogwarts professors hadn't been nearly as hard as a duel against five Death Eaters would be. After all, most of the Professors had taught him, so he knew their style. They also were afraid to use anything truly Dark, where a Death Eater would have no such qualms. The best Order member would probably be able to duel three, if they weren't powerful enough to use wandless magic or have other efficient ways of defending themselves. However, as he entered the room, he knew his odds were still roughly the same. After all, what person would abandon two people who were, for most purposes, still children? Especially if one was their son and the other someone they loved like one.
No one had noticed him yet except for the teens. Taking advantage of that, he disillusioned himself, slipping around the edge of the fight, not bothering to fire any curses to alert them to his position just yet, as two Death Eaters had shields up that would stop any curse that he could use that wouldn't completely convince the adults he was a Dark wizard in disguise. As he approached the teens, he realized that, had Dumbledore hired decent teachers, they wouldn't be this unprepared. After all, it wasn't a question of could they use magic. They could, as this would definitely be considered an emergency. They barely, however, knew a strong enough shield to block a Summoning charm, much less something much stronger.
"Are the pair of you good enough at Transfiguration to conjure something to block spells?" he whispered.
James and Sirius both nodded, albeit shakily, before casting the desire spell. The brick wall appeared for a second, then wavered. 'Crap,' Harry thought. 'Although it's definitely no surprise they can't concentrate enough.'
"How about we all cast," Harry suggested, eyeing the situation. The senior Potters were holding their own, but barely. "Then you keep it going." They cast together this time; Harry providing the focus while the other two provided the power. Seeing as they could hold the brick wall, Harry turned to the battle. Deciding it was time to become visible, especially as the Death Eaters had most probably noticed his spell work, he quickly dropped the Disillusionment Charm. The majority of the Death Eaters weren't all that surprised, although Mr. and Mrs. Potter sure were when they saw his first spell fly by. The Potter's had gotten the number of Death Eaters down to seven in the time Harry entered the fight. Apparently Edward Potter didn't have too much problem with using the occasional Dark curse to protect his family. Of course, few people did in that type of situation.
Soon, there were only two Death Eaters left standing. Edward and Amanda left them to Harry, opting instead to check on the teens. Taking advantage of their distraction, Harry used one of the rare Dark curses that could harm even him. The Death Eaters were down and twitching in no time. He heard gasps from behind him. Shit, one of them had seen that. He didn't have time to dwell on that thought, however, as he felt a burning in his pocket.
"Yeah?" he snapped.
"Where are you?" Severus growled.
"In the manor. About to attempt to take down at least some of the wards. Why?"
"We need help." Harry could hear the sounds of the battle quite clearly, but they didn't sound much worse than usual. "Voldemort's here." Harry swore, ignoring the gasps behind him at hearing Voldemort's name, and the stares he got after.
"Alright. I'm coming." He closed the connection, turning to the others in the room. "You need to get out of here. Now."
"And just why do you think you can order us around?" Edward asked, stepping forward.
"I'm not ordering you around. I'm pointing out the practical approach. If Voldemort wanted the two of you, he could attack anywhere, like somewhere with a huge muggle population, and you'd come running, right? So why would he attack here? What would possibly be here he couldn't get some other way?" Leaving them with that thought, he jogged out of the room.
Scanning the grounds outside the manor, he quickly found Voldemort. He had been dueling Dumbledore, until he got a Cruciartus through Dumbledore's defenses.
"Where is he? I'm going to destroy him anyway, so there's no point in making yourself suffer uselessly," Voldemort was taunting.
"Keeping people away from you is never useless, Tom," Dumbledore gasped out. He had managed to keep from screaming so far, but he was unable to remain standing. Taking advantage of Voldemort's preoccupied state, Harry sent a spell at Voldemort's back. One that, while technically legal, definitely shouldn't be. Voldemort spun around, visibly fighting to not let the effects show, as well as visibly losing the fight.
"So you're the one that's supposed to be my downfall," Voldemort sneered. "Doubtful."
"I'm not the ones whose eyes are watering in pain," Harry pointed out snidely. Voldemort glared, not dignifying the statement with a response except to fire off a curse, expecting Harry to break the spell he was under to defend himself. He hadn't counted on Harry having more ways than one to use magic. Harry blocked the spell. Voldemort hadn't counted on that. He decided that he needed to rethink this, and quick.
"Death Eaters!" he boomed across the grounds. "Retreat!" Instantly, all Death Eaters still mobile enough to activate their emergency port-keys disappeared.
"Are you okay, sir?" Harry asked, helping Dumbledore up. Dumbledore nodded wearily, although it was glaringly obvious he was anything but. "Uh-huh. We'll see what Madame Pomfrey has to say about that." Dumbledore frowned, but allowed Harry to port-key him to Hogwarts.
"About time you came," Madame Pomfrey snapped, bustling over. "All of the Order members who were seriously injured, which wasn't many, were taken to St. Mungo's." Dumbledore nodded wearily before sitting down on one of the unoccupied beds. "Just what happened to you?"
"He was under the Cruciartus," Harry answered when it became apparent that Dumbledore wasn't about to tell the nurse. She looked horrified.
"How long? No matter, get to St. Mungo's immediately!" Madame Pomfrey ordered.
"It'll be okay," Harry said, trying to pacify the nurse. She was, after all, a new Healer, and was trained in minor injuries, not battle magic like Ginny was. In his time, she was a very good mediwitch, and had taught Ginny most of the Battle Magic Healing. Now, however, she was too new at this, too uncertain about what she should do. "I'll just go get a potion-"
"There is no potion to help with this!" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed.
"Yes, there is," Harry said, trying to pacify her. This was, after all, something he was good at. No, not pacifying mediwitches, but people in general. "Lance?" he called, ignoring the stares of some of the Order members that hadn't been deemed injured enough to be moved to St. Mungo's.
"What?" Severus snapped as he approached. Then, however, he caught sight of Dumbledore. He handed Harry the Cruciartus potion without a word.
"What's that?" Madame Pomfrey asked curiously.
"Extremely strong pain potion; so strong it can block the after effects of the Cruciartus, so it's commonly called the Cruciartus potion." Pomfrey nodded before checking on some of the other patients.
"Granger!" Harry heard someone yell. He turned, spying Edward Potter standing in the doorway.
"Yeah?" Harry responded, moving closer.
"I wanted to apologize for doubting you. If you can teach the students how to do even some of that stuff, you're more than worthy to be the Defense professor. As you can saw, though, they're much farther behind than kids their age are supposed to be."
"They can't be worse off than my class was. We had a teacher that actually wouldn't let us do spells, saying that if we understood the theory, the practical would be no problem. Then," he continued, seeing Severus approach. "There was one that decided we needed to know the exact differences between ghosts and inferi. Simply knowing that one was solid and one wasn't just wasn't good enough."
"You have to know the difference to be able to fight them," Severus glared. Harry could tell he was really amused, but the others thought Harry was about to be torn to pieces.
"Nuh-uh," Harry countered. "Solid things burn, while…not solid things don't. If it's an inferi, light it on fire. If it's a ghost, it can't hurt you anyway."
"But you have to-" Severus was cut off by Pomfrey.
"If you're not injured, get out!" she yelled, glaring at the two men. "You, what are you doing up?" She continued, approaching Edward. "I told you that you needed rest!"
Harry shot a sympathetic look at his future grandfather before scurrying out of the wing, afraid Madame Pomfrey would decide he should stay as well, Severus following close behind.
About an hour later, Harry was wondering the dungeons. He kept getting lost, but luckily, as this was, after Slytherin territory, there were lots of painting of snakes, which were more than happy to point him in the right direction once they realized he could understand them. He had just come out of a passage, and actually knew where he was for a change. He was near the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He heard whispers coming from down the hall.
"No…has to last…no one's here yet."
"So? Won't matter…work anyway…right spells…"
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Harry asked, startling James and Sirius from where they were staring avidly at the blank space of wall concealing the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
"Nothing," both replied with practice ease.
"Oh good. Because you see, I would hate to think you were planning a prank. After all, there are so many better targets. You see, I seem to recall hearing that one of the new Heads of Slytherin is one for revenge, while the other has access to pranking items you've never even heard of," Harry stated calmly.
"Where did Professor Slughorn go?" James asked curiously.
"South America, most likely. Anywhere away from the threat of Voldemort," Harry said.
"I take it you don't like him," Sirius said, amused.
"From what I've heard, as I've never actually met the man," Harry lied quickly, starting to steer them to higher parts of the castle. "He was very knowledgeable in both subjects he taught. He was also, apparently, the ideal Slytherin, having lots of connections and concern for his own skin. He does not, however, strike me as someone who would have been a very good head of house. Now, why don't you two get to your rooms. I'd hate to hear that you've booby-trapped Filch's office, or, worse yet, the staff room." Harry quickly turned, leaving the gob smacked Gryffindors to ponder whether or not he had actually just told them to prank the staff room.
A few days later, all of the teachers minus McGonagall and Hagrid were seated at the staff table, awaiting the students' arrival. As the older students started pouring in, most eyed the staff table appraisingly, wondering just who would be teaching them this year. The Slytherins in particular shot many glances towards the staff table, curious as to who the new Head of Slytherin House would be.
Soon, McGonagall entered, leading a line of scared first years. She brought the Sorting Hat over, and the sorting began. As soon as it was over, Dumbledore stood.
"Welcome new students, and to the older years, welcome back. There are introductions that need to be made. I'm pleased to introduce Madame Hooch, our new flying instructor and Quidditch referee, Professor Collins, our new Potions professor, and Professor Granger, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Professors Collins and Granger have also agreed to co-head Slytherin house. Now, I do believe the rest of the announcements can wait until you have all eaten your fill, so let the feast begin!" Cheers rang out at this statement, although the appearance of food didn't stop the glances being shot at the staff table.
Over at the Gryffindor table, the Marauders were whispering frantically.
"He didn't seem like a Slytherin when we talked to him," Sirius said, puzzled. James nodded.
"Just because he's a co-head of Slytherin doesn't necessarily mean he is one," Remus said. "Maybe they were the only two who would head a house. I know I'd hate to be in charge of any of them, even Gryffindor. Or especially Gryffindor, however you want to look at it."
"And just what do you mean by that, Mr. Moony?" James asked.
"Would you want to be in charge of one fourth of the student population?" Remus asked logically. "Especially Gryffindor, given how much McGonagall's been dragged to Dumbledore's, or some other teacher's, office, because we've gotten in trouble, again."
"So?" Sirius asked. "What do you think, Peter?"
"I don't know. What Remus said is most likely, really." Sirius and James stared at him incredulously. After all, he usually agreed with them. "What? After all, who would want to be head of Slytherin? They had to give it to the two new professors who didn't know the system." James and Sirius nodded approvingly.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it!" Remus groaned, although he couldn't' say that he didn't expect them to come to that conclusion. The other Marauders ignored that outburst with almost practiced ease.
"You said on the train that Professor Granger was really nice," Peter mentioned. "What about the other two?"
"We don't really know," Sirius answered. "We didn't talk to Madame Hooch all that much, but when we did she seemed fairly nice. Professor Collins stayed in his lab the entire time. We tried to get it, but he had too many wards; we'd never even heard of an eight of them!"
"Did you really expect to have?" Remus asked. "After all, he's a fully qualified wizard, not to mention a potions master. Most of them were probably potion based, which isn't exactly a well-known branch of magic."
The meal continued in much the same fashion, although the topic of debate varied from classes to homework to upcoming pranks. Soon, dessert disappeared from the plates and Headmaster Dumbledore stood up.
"The Forbidden Forest is just that; forbidden. For the complete of items banned by Mr. Filch, please consult the list outside his office. I'm told it has reached quite an impressive length, although I must admit I've never felt the urge to go read it. Now, I believe that's enough for tonight. Off to bed!"
Author's Note: Again, thanks to those who have reviewed, and please do so again! Also, tell me if you want slash...you can still vote on this for another few chapters, so vote now!
