Chapter 7- New alliances
"Harry! How long have you been down here?"
Harry looked up from his mug, and grinned at the shocked look on his red-headed friends face.
"I don't know…I woke up to do some exercise and just came down here after…" Harry told him after downing the last of his drink.
Ron sat down next to him, and started piling food onto his plate all the while muttering what Harry thought was 'bonkers…absolutely bonkers'.
Harry shook his head grinning crookedly, "Where's Hermione?"
"Right here? And here are your schedules Professor McGonagall gave them to me" Hermione said sitting on Harry's other side.
Harry glanced down at his, why am I in potions? Snape would never let me in.
"Wicked! We got DADA first up…but we still don't know who we got for our teacher" said Ron.
………….
Harry's neck was itching…now that was not an odd occurrence except right now Harry had the intense feeling of someone staring at him.
He was currently standing outside the DADA classroom with the rest of his class mates, Gryffindor and Slytherin, waiting for their new DADA teacher.
Harry looked around; no body was visibly staring at him…
Harry shook his head and secretly checked his weapon holsters: his two wands and his 2 guns.
The feeling of being watched washed over Harry again, and again Harry looked around when an idea popped into his head.
Harry's wand slipped into his hand with a thought, Harry brought it up discreetly and whispered the summoning charm…in this case…with an invisibility cloak.
And suddenly Mad-Eye Moody appeared in the hallway opposite to where everyone was standing, more than a few girls screamed when Moody seemed to pop into existence right next to them.
"Well done Potter!" Moody told him gruffly.
Harry smirked lightly and handed out the Invisibility cloak to Moody.
"What the hell just happened there?" Ron asked loudly.
"I was waiting to see if any of you could tell that there was an unseen watcher…and apparently Potter could" Moody announced to them while opening the door to the class room.
"How were we supposed to know you were there? You were invisible!" Nott exclaimed.
"By being perceptive" Moody replied.
"Now…the first thing we are going to be learning is how to cast non-verbal spells after you get the basics you will have ½ hour to practice before we test your skill" Moody said, rolling his sleeves back for a demonstration.
…….
Harry, Ron and Hermione had it quite a bit easier than the rest of the class as they already had practice with non-verbal spells.
So they were relieved when Moody called them to a halt, as they were all tired from the questions on their knowledge.
"Now we are going to have a duel…using ONLY non-verbal spells" Moody announced, Harry glanced at Ron in a silent question. In his mind he was trying to convey the question you want to duel me?
And apparently Ron got it…or miss-read Harry's silent question because the red-head nodded at him.
"I will be randomly picking pairs" beside him Ron groaned at Moody's comment.
…….
"Malfoy, Potter"
Why does that always happen…like…always?
Harry faced Malfoy, there was no trademark smirk on the blonde's face…so Harry relented to not totally humiliate him.
"Bow"
"Fight"
Harry waited for Malfoy to make the first move.
Malfoy sent a Disarming hex to test Harry's defenses; Harry stepped to the left and let the spell brush past him.
Malfoy shot out 5 spells, one after the other, shooting them right to left.
So that Harry couldn't dodge them.
Harry calmly put a shielding spell that he had been working on; it was easy to hold off the blonde's spells as they had lost a lot of their power without being verbally pronounced.
But, Harry noticed with shock, his shield was way below his standard as well, as Malfoy's spells started having an effect on his shield.
Now it was Harry's turn to test his opponent.
He shot a weak banishing hex at Malfoy and predictably Malfoy dodged…and came back to his exact same position as before.
Harry mentally noted the detail as he sent another weak spell to Malfoy…and he dodged and came back the same way.
Harry fought to keep a smirk on his face as he sent a weak disarming hex right at Malfoy's chest.
Again the blonde dodged, eyes on the spell as it sped past him, and stepped back into his position…just in time to take a powerful stunner to the chest.
Malfoy was knocked off his feet as the spell impacted.
Applause erupted around them as the duel ended.
Moody clunked up onto the stage and revived the Slytherin on the ground, "That was a well fought duel; both had the initiative to test the opposition. But in the end Malfoy was duped by tactic called "Spell Chaining" it is a non-verbal move, where you trick the opponent by sending two silent spells in quick succession with the first one with intent to distract".
"10 points to both houses"
Harry actually went up, surprising everyone, and shook Malfoy's hand.
Malfoy, shocked, returned the handshake and went down to sit next to the boy Harry had seen him with yesterday.
As Harry sat down with his own friends, he wondered how Malfoy and the other boy were faring in the civil war of Slytherin…
…………
"Did you see my duel Harry?" Ron exclaimed, practically bouncing right next to his friend.
"3rd spell Harry, third, only took me three spells!" Ron told him proudly.
Harry grinned crookedly, "Very nice Ron".
"What have we got now?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione, as she knew most of the answers relating to school.
Hermione sighed and shook her head at Ron, "Well, Harry and I have Potions…I think you have Divinitiation".
"I bet Snape will take one look at me and send me out" Harry said gloomily.
"We'll see Harry" Hermione told him.
"Bye Ron, cya later" Harry told his friend as he and Hermione took the stairs down towards the dungeons.
………
"Welcome to NEWT Potions…I see some expected faces…and some not…so expected" Snape said as he swept into the room, his eyes lingered on Harry's face before he waved his wand at the board.
"A small warm up, I expect flasks on my desk in 20 minutes" Snape told them.
Harry started to unpack the ingredients when Snape tapped him on the shoulder, "Potter…my office…now".
Harry stood and followed the head of Slytherin into his office, carefully taking the books and potion jars…but surprisingly the office was quite cozy with leather adorning almost everything, and dark background of green.
"You may be wondering why I took you in this class…" Snape said interrupting his thoughts
"The Headmaster persuaded me to accept you in this class…but heed my words, if make so much as one wrong move you'll be out of my class so fast you won't have time to blink".
Harry said nothing.
"You are dismissed…I want that potion finished".
……..
"What did he say?" Hermione whispered as Harry sat back down and started on his potion.
Harry glanced up at Snape, the Professor was inspecting Malfoy's potion, "That if I stuff up once…I'm gone".
Hermione frowned but said nothing.
…….
Harry finished his potion just as the lesson ended, he packed up quickly and put his potion on Snape's desk.
The Slytherin head of house inspected it, "You put too much spider blood in Potter".
"I will not do it next time Sir" Harry said emotionlessly.
Snape looked up sharply, expecting cheek from the Gryffindor, "See that you do".
Harry nodded and left the room.
Hermione and Ron were waiting for him outside, "Harry…are we going to continue DA this year?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Of course…but things are going to be bit different this year" Harry replied, grinning wickedly.
……………
Harry's muscles were screaming in pain, but he couldn't stop…not now…
Harry took a deep breath and started his exercise again.
It was a series of verbal and non-verbal spells, physical moves, and acrobatics.
Dummies popped up at his thought for his wand aiming, and attacks with his katana, Harry had repeated this drill so many times that he swore the Room of Requirement put up the obstacles by itself.
Harry collapsed at the end of it, willing for rejuvenation potions to appear in his hand, Harry downed two and rose to his feet feeling renewed energy coursing through his body.
That's probably enough for now
Harry draped the invisibility cloak over himself and stepped out of the room, Harry glanced at his map, looking for patrolling teachers….but found a dot labeled Draco Malfoy…stationary right down the hall.
I'll check it out…just in case…
Harry swept down the hall, stopping just in front of Malfoy…
The blonde chest was heaving up and down as he tried to gulp in air.
His robes were soaked in blood, Harry took off his cloak.
Malfoy looked at him with wide eyes but could do nothing else.
"What was that healing spell…I practiced 2 days ago" Harry muttered to himself.
Harry drew his wand and pointed at the Slytherin whose breath was coming in even quicker bursts.
"Rejuvio" Harry whispered as blue light washed over the Slytherin, easing his breathing and giving him some energy.
"Now…what happened?" Harry asked crouching down next to the boy.
"I feel down the stairs…" Malfoy replied defiantly.
Harry snorted, "bullshit"
"I'm taking you to the hospital wing"
"No, I'm fine" Malfoy protested, attempting to stand and failing.
Harry smirked and heaved the boy up, "Looks like you were in a fight…and lost badly"
"I fell" Malfoy said rebelliously.
"You need help with the Slytherins" Harry said seriously.
"I'll deal with it"
"No, you won't…you will get killed"
"Why do you care anyway?" Malfoy asked stopping walking.
Harry turned to face him, "You've changed…for the better I think and I want to help you"
"Come to the Room of Requirement on Wednesday, you know were that is right?" at Malfoy's nod he continued.
"Bring your true friends…and we'll go from there".
Harry stopped again, "We're here"
Malfoy turned around before entering, "I don't want your charity".
"It's not charity…think of it as an investment…I help you out…you help me out"
A/N:What do you think?
I don't really like it, because I wanted this fic to be mostly action…but I guess I had to have an interlude somewhere eh?
Thanks to:
Firebirdgs: Thanks for your review, my updating has been really hard lately sorry.
Mi Ana I Numen: Thanks for the encouragement
Angelic Moon: I suppose it could go that…but I don't really want to go that way, too unrealistic for me. And no, this will not be Harry/Ginny…sorry, but I still haven't decided on whether a ginny/Draco relationship is going to happen.
Gaul1: Thanks
Limeincoconut09: Thanks for the review
Wytil: glad you think so
Yenom: I'm glad as well, thanks for the review
White Tiger Black Lion: yeah…I just couldn't write that, it just seems kinda weird to me.
Glow Box: Thanks for the review
Bloodless Ace: thanks