January came, and with it came the start of increased patrols from the teachers and Hagrid. Everyone, from the smallest first year to the strongest seventh year, was on high alert and even Harry was being forced back into Lockhart's class, much to his dismay. This outraged him, but there was nothing he could do about it. When he asked Professor McGonagall about it, she answered that the staff wanted to be able to keep track of the students as much as possible to try and prevent further attacks. They figured the extra security would put the attacker off.

It didn't work.

It was the last week of January and it had been just over a month since the last attack, the patrols were vastly increasing and yet the attacks continued.

During one of her very rare free periods Professor McGonagall was patrolling the halls, nothing particularly eventful had happened today. She had caught a couple students skipping class to make out, which she had put a stop to. She was getting ready to head to her next lesson, when she rounded a corner and came face to face with Ginny Weasley. The girl's eyes were as red as her hair, in a very unnatural way, and her expression was one Minerva was unfamiliar with from one of her Gryffindors.

"Ginny Weasley, what on earth are you doing out here?"

"Hello there Professor, I'm so happy to see you, however someone else here is much more excited."

Minerva's face fell, the one causing the petrifications to happen was nearby, she looked around to try and locate them, before catching a reflection of yellow eyes off one of the windows. That reflection was the last thing she would see for months.

The school's atmosphere had darkened even more. The attack on Professor McGonagall at the end of last month had shaken everyone.

Not even the Slytherins could make a joke about the Professor. Harry was sitting in the common room at midnight one night when Rigor slithered up to him and climbed into his lap.

"I have seen many things, Master, and eaten many new prey. I approve of your nest, it's warm even under water," the snake hissed at him and Harry scratched him under the chin. If a snake could purr, this one would be right now.

"I'm sick of the level of scrutiny I have to go through everyday, you wouldn't happen to know of any secret places nearby," he inquired hopefully.

"Let me search and you will know, Master, there may be one or two places." Rigor immediately slithered off once he had his goal. Harry hadn't realised how loyal the snake was and found himself feeling proud of him...

"I can't take it anymore, I refuse to waste a second year with an incompetent Defence Professor. Last year we had Quirrell, Voldemort aside, I'd rather have him back," Dudley whinged in the common room to Harry the morning of Valentine's Day. "We need someone who at the very least knows all the material for this year, but hopefully third year as well," Dudley finished to a distracted Harry.

"I know all that already," his Cousin answered back in an offhand comment. Dudley's face immediately brightened.

"Oh perfect, I thought I'd have to ask an older student. Cedric was my obvious choice but…" he trailed off before continuing. "If I knew you would volunteer I'd have asked sooner. You're the best, I've got to go tell Draco and Ron." With that Dudley ran off, Harry only paying attention to the last part, finally realised what he had agreed to.

"Oh great!"

When Harry had finally caught up with Dudley it was in the Great Hall, just in time to hear Lockhart's decree about his Cupids. They were to follow people around reading aloud any love letters they were tasked to carry.

It was meant to endear the students to Lockhart a little, however it had the opposite effect, causing more to hate him than before.

After eating breakfast, and leaving the Great Hall, Harry was getting angry.

"Couldn't he go more than five minutes without tooting his own horn? I mean honestly, what is Lockhart playing at? I want to be alone for a bit." And with that Harry walked off, rising up to the fourth floor and to the Hospital Wing to see his friends. While he was there he started talking to the Matron, Madam Pomfrey, about healing magic and how busy she had been lately. He offered to help her with some of the more menial tasks, something that she greatly appreciated.

After he had finished helping her clean, he went over to his friends and took in every detail of their horror stricken faces. He grabbed Theo's hand to promise him that he would stop the person who did this. He did the same for Neville and left for the Library, he would look up petrification every day until he had answers.

On his way to the library he saw a winged cupid flying towards him and, with a single red flash in his eyes, it turned around and flew away as fast as it could.

A week after the Valentine's disaster saw Harry sitting in Professor Snape's office learning Occlumency, he was doing a lot better ever since the new year and his determination kept rising.

He could organise his emotions, recall all of his memories, and most importantly keep his calm. It wasn't easy to do any of them, but progress was progress. After Harry had spent an hour deflecting mental attacks Professor Snape decided to switch focus to Legilimency.

"The exercises we're going through won't allow you to read minds at this stage, they simply allow you to envision the mind of others. Usually as a prelude to a substantial psychic attack, but today I want you to envision your mind while calm and practice seeing the calm state of mind superimposed over your rage and anger."

Harry attempted to visualise his own mind, using pictures of brains that Professor Snape had provided. The only issue was that the area behind his scar looked different to the scans he had seen. He raised his concerns to the Professor, who immediately investigated it, but couldn't find out what it was.

Whatever it was Harry would keep an eye on it from now on.

Dudley was proud of himself, he had improved a lot with magic this year, and on top of that, he had lost weight and hoped to continue to do so at the same rate. He had mastered Harry's invisibility spells and silencing charms, and could get anywhere he wanted without struggle.

He was coming back from practicing transfiguration when he saw Ron's little sister, she looked lost and, seeing as it was his friends sister, so Dudley went over to her and asked if she was alright. She looked up from the floor and stared right into his eyes, her's were red. Blood red. He didn't know what to do and so he looked at his ring and tapped it. Before he could say Harry, he saw a glimpse of yellow in the face of his ring, and fell to the floor.

He had no more choices, he had to solve this now. As he held his cousin's hand and promised him freedom from his petrification, though it would be months off.

Allowing his fury to guide him, he marched right to The Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom to confront Lockhart. He felt like he had a dual thought track, an occlumency technique he was apparently not ready for, according to Professor Snape. He was feeling the benefits of being able to think about two different topics. One half of his mind was thinking about how his cousin was attacked, the other was thinking about dealing with Lockhart.

As soon as he was outside the classroom he shouted out

"BOMBARDA", blowing the door off its hinges. Lockhart scrambled for his wand, but, seeing it was Harry, didn't aim it at him.

"Dreadfully sorry there, Professor, your door wouldn't budge and you know what things are like with these attacks lately. I'm actually here to offer you a deal. Give me a note to access the restricted section and I will write you up some proper lesson plans. We need a proper education, not learning about you." At this Lockhart flashed his "winning" smile and replied.

"Oh Harry, my dear boy, you've come back into my classroom and want to improve it. You'll be a famous dark wizard fighter like me in no time. However it is very important that you know how a famous wizard lives his life and helps people, that's what my books teach and it would be a shame to deny you such a resource, selfish really." That was the wrong thing to say to Harry right now. He levelled his wand with Lockhart's eyes and his rage was evident in his voice.

"My cousin has been attacked, Professor, if you don't agree with me I will ruin your image and your financial status. They'll revoke your order of Merlin and you'll be lucky to be able to write Muggle story books." This took all the colour out of Lockhart's face as Harry's magical aura rose around him like a tornado, blowing parchment about.

"Of course, when you put it like that it makes perfect sense for me to hone you into my Protégé, allowing you to plan lessons and do advanced research," he chuckled, but it was hollow. Harry, however, grinned and, upon receiving his Library pass, smiled at the Professor, his face proclaiming innocence.

March came, and with it came new problems.