Chapter 21

Thoughts Of An Interesting Matter

Before the holidays came to a sad end, Harry found himself receiving his apparation liscense. He received high marks on the written and practical test and now apparated back and forth from Grimmauld Place to anywhere else. Wandless magic lessons were improving faster than Harry would have ever guessed. He found that Professor Hund was more than just a professor and like Remus when he taught Harry defense against the dark arts, he liked to sit and talk to the man he regarded as a mentor.

As Christmas Break came to a sad ending, the Hogwarts students poured into the castle much to the displeasure of the residents of it over the holidays.

After an emotional goodbye the day before term began, the Weasley clan left the castle but not before giving each teenager a talk. Mrs. Weasley gave each and every child a quick pep talk about staying out of trouble and to concentrate on school. Although the other Weasley children rolled their eyes at her talk, Harry couldn't help but smile that she cared so much as to talk to him about safety.

Sirius and Remus gave Harry a talk about girls before they mysteriously left. Harry was scarred for life as Sirius recalled a very interesting date he had in his fourth year.

"Harry! Ron! Hey, how was your holiday?" Dean asked approaching the two boys as he came back to the castle.

"Hey Dean, good yours?" Harry asked. Ron gave him a look, he never quite got over the relationship he and Ginny had.

"It was good, hard though. My parents being muggles, I had to cook, clean, and eat muggle as well. Quite annoying," he replied before saying a quick goodbye and sitting over by Seamus and Parvarti.

"I still think he's a bit shady, don't you? Him and his girlfriends and all," Ron grumbled shoveling more food into his mouth. Harry chuckled and continued eating his food.

"Hey boys," Hermione said yawning as she sat down for dinner with Ginny behind.

As she sat down next to Ron, Ginny blushed and pecked Harry on the cheek as she sat down.

"Hey," Harry said blushing that Ginny had kissed him in front of Ron.

"Look mate, I may have let you snog my sister in our dorm ONCE but I don't really want to see any of that in front of me or else I'll be forced to punch you," Ron told Harry, pointing his fork at him.

"Back at you mate, I may have let you snog Hermione a bunch of times while I'm watching but I still don't want to see you guys doing that stuff. I consider Hermione as a sister too you know," Harry pointed out. Hermione smiled at Harry who smiled back.

"Well, well, well, look here boys? We have potty, the two weasels and a mudblood," Malfoy sneered at the four Gryffindor as he passed. Harry and Ron immediately stood up.

"Shut it Malfoy, go and sit with your cronies over there and talk about your death eater fathers," Harry snapped. Malfoy's pale face flushed and his eyes narrowed at Harry.

"Look here Potter, don't talk about my father. Your time will come and it will be soon," Malfoy shot back.

"Well, Voldemort hasn't bothered me at all this year so what makes you think he'll just come out and kill me?" Harry asked laughing slightly.

Malfoy smiled at the comment, "don't you find it odd Potter? That he hasn't bothered you all year long when all of last year, he tried to get you? Haven't you ever really thought about it?" Malfoy strutted away with Crabbe and Goyle glaring menacingly at them as they passed.

Harry stood there for a moment contemplating what Malfoy had said. It was odd really. Voldemort hadn't bothered to invade his mind all year. It was half-way through the year already and he hadn't been bothered once since over the summer. He never really thought about it.

Harry sat down and kept thinking as he looked at his unfinished meal in front of him. What if Voldemort was planning something and keepings his emotions hidden from Harry using occlumency?

"Harry, don't listen to Malfoy, he's probably just trying to get to you," Ginny reassured him. Harry smiled but couldn't stop thinking of it.

"Look, I got to go see Dumbledore, I'll see you guys later," Harry said before kissing Ginny on the cheek and running out of the Great Hall before Ron could throw his roll at his head.

"Professor?" Harry called as he walked into the empty office of his elder headmaster.

Nobody answered so Harry decided to sit down. He looked around the office and saw all the small trinkets the headmaster owned. Upon closer inspection, Harry saw the various photos' he owned that were either sitting on his desk or hanging on the walls.

Harry got up from his seat and went around the desk to take a closer look. The pictures were of many people; some were of the original Order of the Phoenix, the inner-circle. Others were of every class that graduated under Dumbledore. Harry saw photos on the walls of his parents and Frank and Alice Longbottom. More recent photos occupied the wall and as Harry looked at them he noticed something odd… wait… how could that be?

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked walking out of a room. He looked quite anxious as he stepped out. Harry jumped away from the picture he was examining and looked at his professor.

"Professor, I have a question for you," Harry said trying to keep his composure. Although he sot out the headmaster's advice sometimes Harry still gave him a somewhat cold shoulder. The pain from the beginning of the year still hadn't worn off.

Dumbledore nodded and instructed Harry to take a seat. Harry did so and sat across from Dumbledore.

"What is it you would like to talk about Harry?" he asked sneaking a glance at the door he just exited from.

Harry noticed and brought his gaze to the door. He watched it for a moment before turning back to the older man.

"Malfoy said something to me and I just thought about it and I thought you should know. He asked me why I never thought about how Voldemort hadn't bothered me all year when all of last year he wanted to enter my mind. It made me sort of think about it. He may be planning something," Harry explained. Dumbledore's face came to a realization and he went into a state of thought.

"I understand your concern Harry. Mr. Malfoy seems to have something there. It makes sense though; there haven't been any known attacks all year long. Well, I will definitely look into it, is that all?" Dumbledore asked Harry as he snuck another glance at the door he had exited.

"Yeah, thanks," Harry said suspiciously as he got up off his chair. He saw Dumbledore get up and slowly edge towards the door as he walked out. Before he went down the stairway, Harry heard a bang and whipped around, wand in hand.

Harry saw nothing, nothing at all, not even Dumbledore. He looked around a moment before he too slowly edged toward the door.

He reached it and hesitantly stuck his hand out to grab the knob. It turned without a creak and he looked inside the room.

Nothing.

"Interesting," Harry thought.

He walked into the room looking at it incredulously before leaving for his first class.

Four people sat in a hidden room in Dumbledore's office. They held their breathe knowing that on the other side of the door was Harry and the headmaster speaking.

They sat there quietly watching the door. Any sudden movements would give Harry the idea someone was in here.

Suddenly the door opened quickly and with a loud bang Dumbledore came in. He looked unhappy with the sound and quickly gave everyone the instruction to put a disillusion charm on themselves. They did so in the knick of time because a moment later Harry opened the door with his wand out.

He walked into the room and looked around, walking past them one by one. When one of them let out a shaky breathe, Harry stopped. He pointed his wand at the seat and when nothing happened he left.

Dumbledore stood up after everyone made themselves visible and said, "now down to business." And so the meeting began.

"Did you talk to Dumbledore Harry?" Hermione whispered in Potions class. Today Snape was in a rather foul mood ever since he returned from his "meetings" over the holiday. He was sitting at his desk giving P's on all the essays the class wrote.

"Yeah, he was sort of weird actually, he said he'd look into what I told him then when I turned to leave he was gone into this room and when I checked to see if anyone was in there, it was empty," Harry whispered back. They were preparing polyjuice potion and since Harry, Ron, and Hermione had already prepared it once before they were finishing it easily. They had prepared some of the ingredients before Christmas Break and were ready to make a cauldron full.

"Professor," a Ravenclaw girl asked from behind Harry, "do we get to use the polyjuice potion?"

Snape looked up and sneered at the girl, "no. Ten points from Ravenclaw and next person who asks a question will get a detention with me and Mr. Filch."

The class immediately stuck their heads into the cauldrons and began to add the boomslang skin.

"Well, mate, I guess Dumbledore'll look into it, right?" Ron asked quietly adding some ingredients to his cauldron which sizzled and turned orange.

"Yeah, I guess," Harry answered.

"Put down your ingredients and put some potion into a vial. Bring it up and go to your next class," Snape snapped. All the students obeyed quickly and everyone exited the classroom.

After a quick lunch, the trio made their way to another DADA class. They walked in expecting to see Professor Hund standing at his desk but found Professor McGonagall sitting in a seat.

"Where's Professor Hund?" a blonde girl asked.

Professor McGonagall looked up at the class, "he is not able to teach today. You will be happy to know that you will have time to do your assignment during class today. Please sit down and open your books to page 354 and begin reading that chapter. Then I would like an essay on how to figure out if a person is in a disguise with polyjuice potion and tell me how you can make it wear off immediately."

The class gave a collective groan and sat down. Harry sat down and unhappily opened his text book to the assigned page.

Behind him, he could hear ogling girls whispering things about him. He turned around and they all waved flirtatiously. Harry rolled his eyes and continued his assignment.

"That was a fun defense class don't you think?" Ron said sarcastically as he, Harry, and Hermione gathered up their books.

"Oh, yeah. Delightful," Harry agreed.

He looked over at Hermione who seemed to be deep into thought. She still had her book opened to their assignment page and every once in awhile she would sneak a glance at it.

"Hermione, something wrong?" Ron asked watching as Hermione fervently turned the pages of the book.

Hermione's head shot up quickly as she came out of her trance.

"Yeah, yeah. Everything is fine, it's just that… never mind, I'll see you guys later, I have to go check on something," Hermione answered still slightly in her trance. She pecked Ron on the cheek and ran out of the room, her satchel flopping on her hip.

"Wonder what she's on about," Ron muttered as he and Harry walked out of the classroom.

"Yeah, I wonder."