I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Twelve

Sirius was up in the stands watching Harry play in his second first match against Malfoy. Remus, Tonks, Neville, Ron, and Hermione were sitting around him. Neither Tonks nor the students knew why Remus and Sirius looked so worried. But that didn't last long because they saw that a rogue Bludger was after Harry.

The boy in question looked as though he was having the time of his life. He was dodging the Bludger best as he could. But Fred and George kept getting in the way of looking for the Snitch. He had to get the twins away from him.

When it started to rain Harry quickly put an Impervius charm on his glasses so he could still see clearly. Not that it help with George in front of him. Eventually, George called a time out.

"What's going on? We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina from scoring?" He sounded pretty angry.

"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry." George was angry as well. "Someone's fixed it..."

"I don't think it was a student. It would have taken some powerful magic to fix it to go after me. Remember what I told you in the summer George. It's the same culprit." He looked into each of the twins eyes to stop them from saying anything. "I can deal with the Bludger with you two around me I can't do anything. I'll be fine, I promise."

"Don't be thick," said Fred. "It'll take your head off."

"Oliver this is insane," Alicia confronted Wood. "You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's..."

"I can do it. I don't want to have to forfeit the game because of a crazy Bludger." He looked as though he was ready to beg. "Please." He had his puppy-dog pout in full blast.

"This is all your fault. ' Get the Snitch or die trying,' what a stupid thing to tell him." George spat at Wood.

Then Madam Hooch joined them and asked if they were ready to resume play. They nodded as Wood told he twins to stay away from Harry. With one last angry look towards Wood, they were all back on their brooms.

And thus began a dance with a Bludger. Harry dived, swooped, and flipped to avoid the Bludger. He was actually enjoying himself despite know what was about to happen. He wasn't looking forward to having a broken arm.

"Training for the ballet, Potter?" That was Harry's cue. He looked at Malfoy and saw the Snitch above his head. He refused to take his eyes off the golden ball. He refused to smile at his victory. Then he felt his arm snap.

While Malfoy was still laughing, he dived toward the obnoxious boy. Malfoy looked terrified. Harry only smirked as he caught the Snitch.

He headed to the ground hoping Sirius or Remus could at least bandage it up so he could see Madam Pomfrey. Three feet from landing, he passed out.

A few minutes later, he came to and saw a blur of black. His arm was in a bandage.

"Oh, hey dad." Harry said this without thinking. "Can you take me to the Hospital Wing? I feel a bit woozy."

Sirius quickly got over the shock of being called 'dad' and bent to pick Harry up. When he heard Harry groan, he knew that Lockhart was behind him. He picked Harry off the ground and turned to face Lockhart. He had his wand out.

"Please move out of the way. I have to get Harry to the Hospital Wing." Sirius sounded rather cold. This shocked many (the girls) in the crowd. Colin just took pictures.

"Not to worry, I can fix his arm. " Lockhart wasn't even fazed by Sirius' tone. All the males in Harry's family hated the cocky attitude.

"Move." Remus' amber eyes gleamed dangerously. When Lockhart didn't budge, Remus punched him so hard that he was knocked out cold. Sirius stepped over him and took him to the Hospital Wing. He left an hour later his arm fixed but still sore so he wore it in a sling.

He told his friends his 'theory' that Dobby was acting on his own. They were reluctant to believe him. House Elves can't usually use their magic unless they had permission. Harry, however, told them that clever House Elves could find loopholes in that rule.

It was late at night when Harry remembered that Colin was going to be Petrified that night. He knew that the boy was star-struck and would go see Lockhart in the Hospital Wing. He had to stop him. He ran down one flight of stairs to check if Colin was in his room. He wasn't.

Harry didn't care about losing House points. He ran out of the Tower to try to find Colin. Fortunately, he grabbed his two-way mirror before he checked on Colin. The feeling of dread that he felt grew with every step. He knew that he was going to be too late.

He finally saw Colin on the third floor landing. He was too late. The boy was Petrified. He had to move or he'll be caught by Professor Dumbledore. Unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere he could hide on this landing. He quickly put up his shields as he made up a story as why he was out of bed. He had to once again have to put his acting skills to use.

"Colin! Colin, wake up. Please, wake up!" Harry shook the 'statue'.

"Harry, what happened?" he looked genuinely confused. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I'm sorry Professor Dumbledore. But I was having this really bad feeling, as if some thing wrong was going to happen. I went to check on the First Years but Colin wasn't in bed or even in the Common Room. I just knew that something was going to happen to him." He looked as though he was close to tears.

"It's alright. Go back to your dorm and try to get some sleep. However, I expect in my office in the morning so we can discuss what happened tonight."

Harry couldn't sleep that night. He just felt too guilty about what happened to Colin. He knew that it wasn't his fault but he couldn't help thinking that if he remembered Colin wouldn't miss his First Year. He was also dreading what Dumbledore was going to say to him. He got out of bed and headed toward the headmaster's office. He would grab a quick bit to eat at the kitchens before Potions.

"Lemon drop," asked the professor. Harry shook his head no, knowing that the candies were laced with potions. "Harry, I just want to know what happened last night."

"I was trying to get to sleep after our victory party but I kept having this really bad feeling that something bad was going to happen. I checked the First Year dorms because something was telling me that there was something wrong in there. When I opened the door, I saw that Colin Creevey was gone. The feeling started to grow stronger. I just found him like that, as though he was suspended in time. He was Petrified just like Mrs. Norris." Harry's story was basically the truth.

"Alright, I believe you." Dumbledore said this as a dismissal. However, Harry saw a gleam in his eyes that he didn't like.

Time passed and soon it was nearing the end of December. And that meant the dueling club that Lockhart was organizing. He was debating whether or not to go to it. He even asked Sirius if it would be a good idea.

But soon enough it was December 17th, the day that Lockhart started the club. It was half an hour before the meeting that he decided that he would go. He just had to keep his mouth shut when the snake appeared. So at eight o'clock Harry found himself in the Great Hall.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!"

"Yeah, but I wish I couldn't," whispered Harry to Ron, who just sniggered at Harry's comment.

He ignored Lockhart as he spoke. But he did pay rapt attention to the 'duel' between Snape and Lockhart. He had to admit, even though he hated him, Snape was powerfully magical.

As he knew he would be Harry was partnered with Malfoy. His spells were weak compared to Harry's. In fact, Harry didn't even cast a spell; he just dodged them all. It was only a few minutes later when Lockhart called everything to a halt. Harry knew what was coming next and knew what he had to do. When Snape called him and Malfoy to the stage, he did it without any hesitation.

He saw Snape whisper into Malfoy's ear. He looked up the Serpensortia spell in the Black library and saw that the spell was somewhat Dark. But it was perfectly alight to use if it was meant to use as a distraction and not as an actual attack.

He noticed that he wasn't paying attention when Lockhart dropped his wand.

"Scared?" Malfoy saw he had Harry's attention again.

Harry smirked as he said, "You wish."

He was ready. His wand was out and he was determined not to open his mouth. A few moments after Malfoy shouted the spell the serpent was gone. Harry didn't say a word but he used Vipera Evanesca on the snake.

Everyone was silent after the impressive display of wordless magic. Not even Lockhart attempted to steal Harry's glory. Harry stormed out of the room. Ron, Hermione, and Neville followed after him in case they were needed for damage control. They were surprised to see that Harry wasn't upset at all.

"What just happened back there?" Hermione demanded. Harry decided to go with the semi-truth.

"There's something that I haven't told you about. I needed to have your trust before I could tell you."

"What is it?" Hermione put a hand on his arm.

"I'm a Parselmouth. I found out a few years ago that I could talk to snakes. I asked my Uncle Remus about it and explained everything to me. When I found out that wizards saw it as a Dark trait I thought it would be best if I hide the ability for as long as possible." That story was believable, thought Harry. "You can't tell anyone, Alright?"

"But how did you get rid of the snake?" asked Neville.

"he very well can't go around talking to snakes. If he opened his mouth he would have hissed or something." Ron sounded rather knowledgeable.

The Three nodded and went back to the Common Room where the entire House (except for Percy who was huffy because a second Year could do Wordless magic before he could) was awake and waiting to see what Harry had to say. Harry groaned and went up to his dorm; not wanting to explain himself again.