Chapter Eighty-Eight: Good Versus Evil
As soon as they reached the classroom door Draco turned to face Hermione once more. "Don't forget, if you faced a mountain troll and won, you can certainly win against the troll that's in there." He told her before leaning close to her ear. "I have faith in you." He whispered and Hermione smiled while he kissed her on the cheek and they both walked inside to the classroom and sat down at their desks but soon realized that the classroom was empty, and the bell had already finished ringing.
"What's going on?" Draco wondered while he looked around.
"I don't know, but I'm not complaining." Ron told him.
"Me neither, but this is just odd." Hermione said as she turned her head and looked out the window and saw DJ talking to Umbridge and a bunch of wizards restraining Spike with ropes and chains. He let out a great painful shriek and this had caught both Harry's and Draco's attention and Harry heaved a rather loud and astonished gasp.
"Spike!" He cried out. "No they can't!" He hollered before turning around and hurrying back out of the classroom.
"Harry wait!" Hermione cried out, but it was already too late as he was already gone.
"Leave my dragon alone!" Harry yelled as he ran down to the Hogwarts grounds.
"Mr. Snape, you are skipping class." Umbridge told him.
"Oh yeah? Well so are you, so now we're even." He pointed out while he made his way angrily towards her.
"Calm down Harry, I'm taking care of it." DJ reassured him while putting both of his hands in front of his face and then turning back to face Umbridge. "Now, as I was just finished telling you,.. this dragon legally belongs to Harry, and you don't have any right to take him away. He's not dangerous, and only Dumbledore has that authority as headmaster of this school." He told her as Harry glanced down at the palms of his hands and realized that a light was shining through both of them. His eyes widened as he saw two enormous holes going right through them.
"Now,.. give Harry back what's rightfully his." DJ said as he slowly started walking towards Spike and then stopped in front of him and looked at him and made all of the ropes and chains vanish and Umbridge gasped out in horror.
"What kind of wizard are you?" She questioned him in complete and utter disbelief.
"I'm in a class all by myself. Now go!" He exclaimed with a point towards the castle, and she let out a scream and ran away and the other wizards quickly followed suit. "It's okay Spike, you can relax now. They're all gone." He told him softly with a warm and affectionate smile as he placed a tender hand upon his nose and Harry just gaped his mouth open.
"Hold on a minute!" He cried while hurrying over to him. "That wasn't magic was it?" He questioned him before a few moments of silence passed between them. "I saw your hands. You're Him, aren't you?" He wondered as he slightly nodded without looking at him.
"Yes Harry, I am Him." He replied.
"Right, so mind telling me what you're doing at Hogwarts?" Harry wondered.
"Simple. I am here, to help my children learn how to fight back. After all, there is evil in the world now, and you need to learn how to become stronger and how to defend yourselves." He explained.
"But how are we supposed to do that?" Harry asked him as he looked up at him in the face and DJ finally whirled around to face him.
"You will know once you are ready to know my son. For now, I must ask you if I might have the use of your dragon. I am planning a very special lesson this afternoon." He explained.
"Why are you asking me? You can do anything that you want to can't you?" Harry inquired.
"Yes I can, but as I recall it's like you told Draco Malfoy. When you love somebody, you give them the free will to say no." He told him.
"Sure you can borrow him then,.. but you know, you're not at all how I pictured you would be." Harry pointed out as DJ chuckled.
"Let me guess, old man,.. white beard,.. white robes?" He asked him.
"Well,.. yeah!" Harry cried out as DJ chuckled again.
"Yeah, most people do,.. but just because I'm older than the whole entire universe doesn't mean that I have to look like it. I already feel like it and that's enough for me." He told him while cracking his back. "Anyways, you better get to class and best not to mention this to anybody alright?" He questioned before throwing Spike a bicorn steak that he caught inside his mouth and chewed up hungrily.
"Okay." Harry responded with a nod before hurrying back to the castle.
…..
"You met Him didn't you?" Hermione whispered over to Harry once they were at lunch. "I saw you speaking to Him."
"Yeah, He's seems really nice. Not at all that He's displayed in the Old Testament." He began softly before looking up at her. "Wait, how do you know Him and who he actually is?" He wondered as Hermione took a deep breath.
"I've known who he was ever since I was going to jump off the Gryffindor tower. He said that He was here to help me become stronger or something." She explained as Harry nodded.
"He said the exact same thing to me, but after being in the class with Umbridge today I can see why. For one she still believes the lies that I'm dangerous and that Voldemort isn't the one who killed Cedric, and for two she's not even letting us use magic at all. Claiming it's helping us learn defensive spells in a risk free way." He told her before DJ sat down beside him.
"Nothing's ever risk free Harry." He told him.
"Umm excuse me, but who exactly are you and why do you keep following my friends around?" Ron wondered having returned from the restroom as DJ turned to look over at him and chuckled.
"You can just call me Professor James." He told him before turning his attention back to Harry and Hermione.
"So why exactly aren't we allowed to use magic?" Ron wondered as he joined them again.
"It's simple." DJ began again. "There's been some trouble down at the ministry of magic. Half of them believe Harry's story and what was written in the Daily Prophet, and half of them believe the lie that Harry murdered Cedric because his ability to speak parseltongue and he truly is the heir of Slytherin after all." He explained as Ron rolled his eyes.
"Seriously! We're back to that again?" Ron wondered.
"It gets worse as you haven't heard anything yet." DJ told him with a shake of his head. "You see, because of this Cornelius Fudge suspects that Dumbledore will be training his students to rebel and form a wizard arm against the ministry, so they've now forbidden any use of defensive magic spells." He explained.
"So then what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked him as a wide grin stretched across DJ's face.
"Boy am I glad that you asked me that even though I knew you would." He began. "The point is, you need to learn how to defend yourselves, and since Cornelius is worried that you're building up a wizarding army I say you should,.. but not against the ministry. Against Voldemort. After all, that should be an epic battle of good magic versus evil magic." He told him.
"Yeah, but who's going to teach us?" Ron wondered as Hermione turned her head and silently looked over at Harry, followed by Neville, and Ginny, and the rest of the Gryffindor table.
