A/N: Most of the characters and the main plot belongs to J.K Rowling.
Harry woke up the day after his chat with Dumbledore after having a dream of him killing Quirell, it had plagued him since then. He told himself that it was the only option, but then he imagined other ways he could have taken care of it, and it made him feel like a monster. He had killed a man that was just going under the orders of Voldemort because he had been possessed. However, he had to push those thoughts away, he knew he had done what he had to do to protect the stone, which also prevented Voldemort from coming back, he had deducted.
He was glad that the headmaster was at least partially trustworthy. If what he suspected was true, he would need the old man to train him up for the inevitable fight against Voldemort. He knew he could train by himself, which he would be doing, but he needed someone with experience to teach him how to think in a battle, the proper mindset required.
He got up and went by his usual morning routine. When he stood in front of the mirror, he noticed how much he had grown. He had gained about 2 inches since the summer, his body had filled out a bit more, he had gained a bit more weight which was needed because of his malnourishment at the hands of the Dursleys. While the summer, as well as discovering Potter Manor, he was going to train, physically, mentally and magically, it would be far from a relaxing holiday.
He made his way down to the common room, and it went all quiet and whispers started. He had managed to catch a few of the sentences on his way to the door to Ravenclaw tower, he wasn't going to wait in the common room for Hermione if people were whispering about him, he was sure she would understand. From what he heard, he gathered the story of him, Hermione, Tracey and Daphne wasn't a secret anymore.
As he reached the fourth floor, he saw, to his surprise, the person he wasn't up to waiting for in the common room, his bushy-haired friend sitting on a bench reading a book, well some things never changed. He walked over to her and sat down. "Morning Hermione, sleep well ?" he asked.
"Morning Harry, it could have been better, but yeah it was fine, what about you ?" Harry nodded and looked away. Hermione knew he was lying, so she pushed on. "You're lying, what's wrong ?"
An amused looked crossed over Harry's face. "We've known each other for a bit more than 4 months, and you can already read me like that book in your hands" he let out a low chuckle, but Hermione just glared at him as if saying 'I'm waiting !'. He got the message, he let out a heavy sigh, and decided the truth was the best thing at this point. "I had a dream, I was back down there and I killed him again, I keep seeing it over, and I just can't unsee it. I mean I know that it was in self-defence and all, but he was possessed." he said in a defeated tone.
"It wasn't your fault Harry," she said, emphasising on the 'your'. Harry understood where she was coming from, but a part of himself couldn't accept that, a part of him just wanted things to have gone differently down there. "Come on Harry, stop blaming yourself, there's nothing you could have done." Harry nodded accepting what she said, it wasn't his fault, he did what he had to.
With that the two of them got up, and headed off to the Great Hall for their breakfast, mostly in silence. Once they entered the Great Hall, the whispers started over again. They went over to the first year Ravenclaws and sat down with them.
"Is it true what they're saying ? Is it your fault that Quirell isn't here ?" Anthony Goldstein asked as soon as they sat down. Harry let out a long breath before beginning to get up, only he was stopped as the Headmaster got up.
"Good morning to you all, as I'm sure you have all noticed, Professor Quirell is no longer here. While I'm sure some of you do not know why, some of you do, and I urge you to not question Mr Potter about it." At this, Harry felt every pair of eyes fall on him, and he tried to act as if he didn't notice, he thought he did a rather convincing job of it. "On a lighter note, I will personally be taking over the post of DADA for the rest of the year." Excited talking broke out all over the Hall at this announcement. "Now, I believe you all have lessons to attend to, I'm sure you will all be on time." The headmaster regained his seat after he had finished with the announcements for the day.
Students all over the Hall were getting up at the same time, so there was a lot of noise emanating from the benches scraping against the floor.
It was now Thursday and Harry was on his way to Herbology. The whispers had lessened from the previous day, but they were nevertheless present. He was currently talking with the Ravenclaw first years, when Professor Sprout appeared at the door of the greenhouse. "Come on in students, regain your usual groups, and we will continue the work from the last lesson."
Harry went straight to the table where his group table was. Tracey and Daphne joined him quickly, and they set everything up. The two girls looked distracted for some reason, although Harry didn't blame them, as he was also quite distracted at all the whispers that went around the corridors about their little mission. A lot of people had guessed at what happened, although most were far from the truth, some of them came quite close. The fact that Harry had killed Quirell was hinted at by quite a few of the students, but many didn't believe him possible of killing at his age.
He wished they were right, but he had already done it without even trying. "How are you holding up Thunderbird ?" Daphne asked. It surprised Harry that it was her that asked and not Tracey, he didn't think the blond girl had it in her to worry about someone else's feelings. He hid his shock though and tried to keep his voice normal while answering.
"Okay I guess," he responded with a small shrug of his shoulders "I would prefer if people weren't talking about me behind my back and theorizing on the things that happened down there"
"Not to be a mood killer or anything, but people have always talked behind your back because of who you are" This time it was Tracey who spoke. She knew that Harry wouldn't like to know people spoke about him behind his back but what was the point in hiding the truth. Harry turned to look at her with his eyebrows raised into his hair. 'Surely he expected it' she thought to herself.
"Good point actually," he finally said "but now it feels like they talk more."
"Of course they do, but it'll die down eventually, you just have to leave it a bit of time, and next time you do something in a similar sort of fashion, they'll start over again" Daphne said, to which Harry let out a groan and the two girls laughed.
It was the first time Harry had heard Daphne's laugh, and it was like music to his ears, he didn't know why, but when she laughed, for a moment he had forgotten all his problems, they were just some little things on the side of his life that he could deal with later. Right now, he laughed along with the two girls, as they couldn't stop laughing, even when the teacher told them to concentrate and start with their work. They of course had no idea what to do as they hadn't listened to a word of the teacher's explanation due to their little chat.
They eventually calmed down after around five minutes and started copying what the other students were doing. The three of them had a big smile on their faces, and they felt revitalised.
At the end of the lesson, Harry caught up with Hermione, and they went off to their first DADA class with Dumbledore. Hermione was frustrated because her group had consistently asked her questions about what had happened, and because of that it dampened Harry's mood a bit too, but then he remembered her laugh, and his spirits skyrocketed again. They reached the defence classroom and the door was already open, and the teacher motioned for them to enter. Harry and Hermione took seats at the front.
Once everybody was in, Dumbledore stood up from his desk. "Good morning students, now if you would please get up, you will only be needing your wand today." All the students were happy at this, they had done a lot of theory when it was Quirell teaching and not much practice.
"Now today, we will be learning the three spell categories. Who can tell me what they are ?" Harry, Hermione, Padma and Michael raised their hands. "Ah Miss Patil, name one of them please."
"There's jinxes sir." she said with her head raised high, which the whole class had learned, that meant that she was 100% certain of her answer. Of course, Harry knew it to be true as well.
"Very good Miss Patil, Mr Corner, a second one please ?"
"There's the curse sir" he replied with a hopeful voice, obviously he wasn't as sure about his answer as Padma.
"Correct, now Miss Granger, could you name the last please ?"
"The last one is a hex Professor." Dumbledore nodded at her answer, and waved his wand towards the black board and the three categories of spells were written on it.
"Now Mr Potter," he said looking directly at Harry "perhaps you could tell us the order of the lightest categorie to the darkest."
Harry gave a curd nod and launched into his answer. "The lightest is the jinx, it is mainly used as a tool for pranking or as a distraction. The next, is the hex which is usually used in a duel, but the spells used do not generally cause any lasting damage. And finally, the darkest is the curse, the spells in this category can cause extreme pain and lasting damage. Among them falls the subcategory of the 3 unforgivable curses."
"Very good, 20 points to Ravenclaw for all of your efforts. Now in the jinx category, we have for example, the tripping jinx or even the knock back jinx. These will not cause any damage, but they are, as Mr Potter stated, used for distractions during a duel. These are the easiest spells to use, requiring little effort on your magical core. Now, do I have a volunteer to try this jinx and one, of course, to be hit with the spell. Of course your roles will be inverted afterwards."
Harry's hand shot up before anybody else's. Anthony's followed not long afterwards. The headmaster motioned for the two of them to walk up to the front of the class. "Now, for the knock back jinx, there isn't a specific wand movement, you just need to aim at your opponent and say 'Flipendo'. " Both students at the front nodded their heads.
Harry let Anthony try first. He grabbed his wand from his robe pocket and pointed it at Harry, a second later he said as clearly as possible "Flipendo". Harry got sent back a couple of feet, but that was it. "Very good Mr Goldstein, now Harry, your turn."
And so, Harry flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand, he pointed it at his classmate and whispered the incantation. The red light hit Anthony straight in the chest, and he went flying back into the wall. Luckily for him however, Dumbledore was ready for it, and had used a cushioning charm on the walls in case.
All the students stared at Harry in shock at the power behind his spell, even Dumbledore was impressed. "Well Harry, I must say, your spell carried quite the punch, you must learn to control the power behind your spells, if not, I'm afraid you won't be able to practice in class any more" He sent an apologetic look at Harry, who understood, and called up the next group.
A few weeks had passed since the knock back jinx incident, and ever since, Harry had been trying to learn to control his power. Dumbledore had given his some advice about the subject, and Harry had visited the library to collect a book on it. He had managed to lessen the power, but he wasn't fully in control of the amount he put into it.
He had also received a letter from Remus saying that he would meet him in Dumbledore's office on the 18th of April, the day before Easter itself. Harry was really anxious to meet one of his dad's best friends. He hoped he could hear a lot of stories about the both of them, but he assumed that there would be a lot more about his dad. There was just over a month left before they met, and Harry was already preparing questions to ask the man.
His grades were also at an all-time high, now that DADA was properly taught, it reignited a passion in Harry, that he had felt towards the subject when he first started reading about it back in August. He had also wanted to start on his Occlumency shields, but he would need help for that, he needed to talk to a pure blood preferably for that, as they had supposedly learned minor Occlumency when they were young, and he knew just the person, he was also hoping she could help him with his Pure blood etiquette, but that could wait a while, he had to master his power regulator first.
Hermione was trying to help him in any place possible, but she mostly helped him with his homework so that he could work on his power, she knew how much he loved DADA, so she did what she could so that he could rejoin in the class demonstrations. She considered him as her brother, and she would do what was possible to help him. They had a strong bond for the short period of time they had known each other, but they had already started understanding each other just by the face they were making, or even a look at their posture.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews you've all left, I really appreciate it.
Replies:
Thank you for mentioning the missing dialogue, I don't know why, but I must have skipped over it, but it is now fully finished.
I agree with the money thing, but I've already upgraded them, so it should be fine now.
No I looked it up, apparently Cedric is a sixth year in the fourth book, so I have changed it.