I gaze out the window of the Hogwarts Express, watching the countryside go by. Ron is sitting across from me, sorting through his chocolate frog card collection. Ginny is sitting to my right, doing absolutely nothing, presumably because her emotional state is still fucked up. If the utter lack of emotion I experienced in her head last year is anything to go by, I wonder if she even can find things fun. Hermione is sitting diagonally across from me, her nose buried in a book, and seemingly trying very hard to avoid interacting with everyone else.

'Do you have any idea what's been bothering Hermione?'

Why the hell would I know? She's your friend, isn't she?

'I'm just wondering if you noticed anything that I might have missed.'

Tam is silent for a while.

Harry… I don't know if you've noticed this, but I am quite possibly the least qualified person to answer that question. I literally had no friends until I met Tessie in my fifth year. Why in the world would you think I could give you any insight into this?

'I mean, you're usually pretty good about dealing with people.'

I am good at manipulating people. This is beyond me. Sorry.

'I don't suppose you could manipulate her back into being my friend?'

I might be able to manipulate her into being your sycophant if you're fine with me torturing her and tinkering with her mind, but I know nothing about friendship.

'Nothing? Tamelyn, you wound me. What about yours truly?'

Harry, you are my dearest friend, and I deeply appreciate your company and support, but neither you nor I are bothered by the trivialities that obsess the masses. As such, I am quite certain that attempting to replicate our relationship with any other person would easily land them in the permanent spell damage ward.

I laugh aloud, earning me odd looks from Hermione and Ron.

"I just remembered something funny. You had to be there." I say dismissively.

I pause for a minute, taking in the sight of the countryside once again.

'You don't think she knows about you, do you? She's said a few things that make me wonder if she suspects…'

Not possible. That oath you swore to me is very comprehensive, and there's no way you could have alluded to my presence without the oath tripping you up. I mean, it stopped you when you almost spilled the beans to that crazy girl.

'I guess you're right. Still, I can't help but worry.'

I glance over at Ginny. She's not looking at me, but I've gotten good enough at legilimency that I can at least check her surface level thoughts without having direct eye contact. I skim across the surface of her mind, confirming that it's still as empty as it was months ago.

'You really did a number on her, didn't you, Tam?'

Soul damage takes a long time to heal. Years, at least. She'll be fine… eventually.

'Is there anything we can do to help her? Like, I was able to use legilimency to fix the mind of that one Ministry employee. Would that work here as well?'

No. There's nothing you can do for soul damage but let it heal naturally.

'That's kind of fucked up, huh?'

Yeah, it is. Good thing soul damage can only be inflicted internally. Imagine if we had to find ways to defend ourselves from that.

'Ugh, I'd rather not.'

…

'You know a lot about soul damage, don't you?'

Well I do know quite a bit about the soul, so…

'You damaged your soul, didn't you?'

I feel Tam wince in the back of my mind.

Was it that obvious?

'I don't know about obvious, but it wasn't exactly hard to guess. Is that why you've been putting off showing me the next memory?'

It's… yeah. It hurt. A lot. And it could have been avoided if I kept a cooler head instead of freaking out.

'You aren't exactly good at staying calm when things go badly for you.'

No, I'm not… Want me to show you the memory, then?

I raise an eyebrow in surprise.

'You're volunteering?'

I mean, if you figured out this much, then I may as well. It's not like we have anything to do in the hours before we get to Hogwarts.

'Fair enough.'

I close my eyes and let Tam's memory engulf me.

I gaze into the mirror and look myself in the eyes. I'm almost ready. I've obtained a copy of Abraxas's schedule and I plan to make a move on him in a few days. One last petrification incident and then I go in for the kill. I'm as ready as I can be.

I turn to the rest of the second floor bathroom, my eyes sweeping over it. There's no one here, so I hiss at the sink to open the passage for Tessie to come out.

She's not there.

I feel a spike of concern at her absence. She'd always been on time before. Had something happened to her?

I close the passage and make my way over to the staircase. The water in the chamber hasn't managed to miraculously dry up since last time, so I charm my shoes and get moving. Some part of me is dreading what I'll find there. Tessie is very old, and I have no idea what the natural lifespan of a basilisk is. It's not like there have ever been enough around to test, but the fact that Tessie is over a thousand years old certainly implies tremendous longevity. Still…

I make my way into the deepest part of the chamber, where she usually sleeps. She's lying there, incredibly still, but jolts slightly when I touch her.

"§Tessie? Are you okay?§" I ask, concern creeping into my voice.

She huffs and stretches, muscular coils writhing about. "§Hmmmm… I just needed to rest.§" She hisses. "§I'm not used to being awake for so long without rest. I'll need to hibernate again soon.§"

Well, the timing of this could certainly stand to be more convenient, but I have been pulling her out of the Chamber quite a bit lately.

"§It's fine, Tessie.§" I reply. "§But we're almost done. Just one more after today, alright?§"

She slithers about a bit. "§Of course — one more time. Let us be off.§"

I sigh in relief knowing that everything is okay. Tessie seems as energetic as ever as she makes her way to the entrance, so it at least seems that the sleepiness isn't affecting her behaviour or anything. I climb to the top of the stairs and open the entrance for her. "§Okay, let me just…§"

The sound of a thump behind me distracts me. My eyes widen in horror as I see a girl slumped on the floor.

She… does not look petrified.

Shit. Shit shit shit! This wasn't supposed to happen! Who is this girl!? How did she get in here!? If she's dead, then that means-

That's when it really hits me.

She's dead.

And if she's dead, then… I might not get another chance. Killing Abraxas was going to be a last step, so I could frame him as the culprit. But if this girl's already dead, then there's no way they'll let this slide.

Accident or not, I need to make the horcrux now.

"§Tessie, block the door. I have stuff I need to do.§"

I focus on my occlumency, tuning out the noise of her movements, the light of the room, and the frantic beating of my own heart. This step is best done beforehand, but it can be done afterwards. I find the break in my soul and start pulling all of my memories out of the half I intend to put in the horcrux. It takes longer than I'd like, but it's now or never. Eventually, I'm satisfied that I've removed all of the memories from that half of my soul. Now, I need to prepare the vessel.

I open my eyes and root through my bag, looking for the… I pause when I realise it's not there. Of course it's not there. It's in my dorm room, because I didn't plan on making the damn horcrux today!

Okay, there's no time to get it. What do I have available? Textbooks, ink, quills, blank parchment, my wand, but I can't use that…

I dump my bag on the ground in frustration, hoping that something there will work. I refuse to put my soul into something so common as a quill or a textbook. Surely I have…

I look at my diary — the one I was preparing for my NEWT project. It would be a pain to have to make a new project, but a pensieve thousands of times more effective than any existing one… It might not be quite what I had in mind, but it would certainly work.

I cast several spells on it, designed to make the object near-indestructible and receptive as a vessel for my soul. Extremely potent pieces of magic, but they fade quickly if a soul isn't placed in the object soon.

Now or never. I focus on the ritual and touch the tip of my wand to the centre of my chest. This process should be similar to drawing out a memory for use in a pensieve, but I need to focus it on the core of my body, and I need to tug at something deeper than a memory. Once I'm sure I've got a good grip on it, I pull my wand away from my chest.

Nothing happens. I felt a tug in what I can only assume to be my soul, but it didn't split from me, nor did it exit my body.

"No… no no no no no!" I mutter at the failure. I cannot fuck this up. There is too much riding on this. I need it to work now!

My second, third, and fourth attempts all meet with an equal lack of success, and feeling my frustration and paranoia grow with each passing minute, I decide to brute force it. I press my wand to my sternum and channel all of my available magic into the spell. I get a firm grip on my wand and rip it away from my body.

I feel a brief sense of relief and success as I feel the part of my soul finally pull away from my body, appearing briefly in front of me as a vibrant, crimson mass of light, but that sense of success is quickly overwhelmed by a sense of total and utter agony. I scream at the top of my lungs and black out.

"-arry! Harry! Can you hear me?"

I hurt everywhere. I hurt in areas that I didn't even know could hurt. I open my eyes slowly, as even they ache. "What?" I gasp out before groaning.

'Tam, what the fuck was that?'

Ow…

'Tam?'

I hate that memory…

'And I get that but why did it hurt me?'

I don't know! I mean, okay, let me just speculate for a bit. You're experiencing my memories from a first person perspective, which probably had something to do with it. And when doing that, you sometimes feel any pain associated with those memories, but that pain doesn't normally affect you because your body isn't actually in pain. It's just a memory of pain. However, if I were to take a guess, I would assume that because the pain associated with soul damage isn't tied to your body, and because of soul bleed and other crap, it affected you more acutely and made you actually experience the pain, which in turn made me experience the pain.

'Well, that sucks.'

Yes, it does.

'I didn't damage my soul from that, right?'

No, no, you're fine. As intensely painful as that was, it would take more than that to actually damage your soul.

'Silver lining, I suppose.'

I slowly, delicately push myself upright and move back into my seat. I feel like I just ran a marathon and then had a tonne of bricks dropped on me.

"Are you alright, mate?" Ron asks. "I mean, you screamed loud just then, and you're moving like you're all sore."

"I'm fine." I say. "I just…" I pause as I try and fail to think of an excuse. Seeing that I have no way to explain this one away, I shrug and turn to look out the window some more.

"Well, let's just hope that screaming and passing out on the Hogwarts Express doesn't become a tradition. I mean, between this and the dementors on the train last year? Seems like a trend if you ask me."

I laugh and immediately regret it as it sends aching pain through my body.

'How long is this going to last?'

No clue. A few hours, maybe?

'You don't know? Didn't you do this to yourself?'

Yes, well, after I made the horcrux, Tessie carried me, it, and the rest of my things off. I don't really remember how long I was out, and my mental state was… not exactly the best when I woke up.

'I suppose it's understandable that splitting the soul would damage it. I mean…'

No, it doesn't. Or rather, it's not supposed to. See… I really fucked up there. I don't think I had any choice besides the one I made, but the problem was that… I didn't murder that girl.

I pause to take that in.

'Tam, I know that you can be a little… off at times, but I can assure you that Myrtle was and is most definitely dead.'

No, that's not what I'm talking about!

'Oh. You mean that Tessie did it?'

No, it's…! Okay, look. I killed Myrtle yes, and even though it was Tessie's eyes that actually took the girl's life, I was controlling Tessie, so from a magical perspective, I technically killed her. The problem is that I killed her, not murdered her. I didn't mean to kill her when it happened — she was just there through a fluke. I can only assume that she snuck in when I went to retrieve Tessie. However, because I didn't mean to kill her, I created a fracture in my soul, not a clean break. I had to essentially rip that half of my soul out…

'And that soul became you. So what, soul damage fucks with your emotional state?'

It sort of locks it in whatever position it was in before and amplifies the feelings so they're stronger. So when I tore my way out of Ginny's soul…

My eyes glance over to her, and I try to ignore the slight ache that even that little movement gives me.

She was feeling depressed, empty, alone, and so on. And that's why she's like that now. She wasn't feeling much of anything, and she won't for some time.

'That sounds… really horrible honestly.'

Yes, well… When I damaged my soul, my emotional state was-

'Frustrated and paranoid. So frustrated and paranoid you remained.'

Yeah… I don't know how long it takes soul damage to heal. Like I said, I didn't become aware until two years ago. My soul obviously healed in the interim, but I have no idea how long that took. I know it was at least a few years, based on the few memories I have from after my creation.

'I might want to take a look at those, but… later. I feel fucking awful and I don't think I'm going to be up to that for a while.'

No complaints here.

'Frustrated and paranoid, huh? That sure would explain a lot about Voldemort.'

I feel Tam twinge in irritation in the back of my mind.

Hey, I thought you trusted me!

'I trust you, Tam. I've reserving judgement about your core self, though. I'm not saying that I won't be willing to work with her if she feels likewise, but I don't know… Frustrated and paranoid seems to be her MO, from what little I've seen.'

Of course she's going to act that way! She's been disembodied for over a decade! She'll be fine once she gets her body back.

'If you say so…'

I glance over to Ginny, not wanting to dwell on the Voldemort issue any longer.

'So, there's nothing we can do to help her?'

Nope. She's just going to have a bad couple of years while she waits for her soul to heal.

I feel a pang of guilt about that. I mean, she's not able to feel any emotion, or what little she does is incredibly muted.

'I feel bad for her.'

Yeah?

'I mean, I don't know, the idea of not being able to feel any emotions for that long just seems… I don't know. I can't imagine dealing with that.'

…I'm not going to apologise for it, if that's what you're going for.

'No, no, I just-'

I mean it, Harry. What she's going through is probably miserable and all that crap, but if I didn't do that, then she'd be dead. And… so would you. I'm… I'm glad I got to meet you.

I feel a slight flush in my cheeks.

'Thanks, Tam. …So, I guess I need to find a way to entertain myself for the next few hours while moving as little as possible.'

Mmhm.

I manifest in my mindspace and look around. I still feel a little achy even here, but it's not quite as bad. Tam manifests next to me a few seconds later and falls over.

"Ow, what the fuck? Even here?"

I shrug. "Soul damage is fucked up, apparently, even if it's just a memory. Well, I learned one valuable lesson from all this — I am never looking at that memory of yours again."

"No kidding." She says as she gingerly pushes herself upright. "Although knowing how volatile it is… maybe I'll consider using it as a backup occlumency defence. I'd just have to hope that it doesn't backfire on me."

"Please save any testing of this until after you get your body back. At least that way, only one of us will be incapacitated."

"Sure, sure… so, anything you want to do?"

I shrug and glance over at her. "Know any good games?"

I'm still achy when the Hogwarts Express arrives at Hogsmeade, though it no longer crosses into outright pain like it did before. As I sit down in the carriage, I see Hermione gazing at me.

"Something on my face?" I ask.

"Just reevaluating some theories." She says, explaining nothing.

I just raise an eyebrow. What a weirdo.

Luna doesn't join us in the carriage, meaning that we have a comparatively normal ride to last year. Nothing of note happens as we make our way into the Great Hall, and as the new first years start being sorted, I begin to tune things out.

'So, blood alchemy, huh? How hard do you think that's going to be?'

I think it's going to vary pretty heavily depending on what part we're doing. See, blood alchemy has a very specific order of transition. When starting from blood, you can only make tissue from the blood, but you can then use the tissue to make fat, the fat and tissue to make organs, and so on. The hardest part is that, in order to make a full body, you need to keep full control over everything. The last component in the chain is bone, but you need bone to act as the literal skeleton that everything else gets built on top of.

'This sounds troublesome.'

I'm sure it will be, but do remember that I am a genius.

I roll my eyes.

'Yeah, yeah…'

The last student is finally sorted, at which point the food finally appears and we can start eating. I pile a medley of assorted foods onto my plate and dig in.

"This is always the best." Ron says, his mouth full of food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Ron!" Hermione chides.

I roll my eyes. "Lay off him, Hermione. It's not that big a deal."

She harrumphs at my reply but returns to her own plate of food. We go back to eating in silence until Nick rises through the table.

"Hello everyone!" He says jovially. "Enjoying the feast?"

"Yes." Ron moans in ecstacy, his mouth still full of food.

Nick just chuckles. "Well, you should count yourselves lucky there even is a feast. Peeves caused a nasty incident with the house elves in the kitchen down below — frightened them all to bits."

"There are house elves here?" Hermione asks. "Does Dumbledore pay them or something?"

Nick laughs. "No, not at all. It's terribly offensive to offer to pay an elf, you know."

"They don't get anything in exchange for their work!?"

"They get a place to live."

"But that's slavery!" Hermione exclaims, trying to hush her voice.

I shrug. "So long as they're fine with it, I don't see what the problem is. It's not like it's hurting anyone."

"What about that elf who came to your house before second year? He was being hurt! And even if they don't want anything in exchange, it's still an exploitative practice."

"I don't know if I'm feeling particularly sympathetic to the elf who got me locked in my room, in trouble with the Ministry, and who tried to sic a bludger on me in a quidditch match. I'm just glad I haven't seen anything of him since."

"Harry-!"

"Look Hermione," I say, cutting her off, "If you want to start some ridiculous crusade for a species that doesn't even want the help you're offering, then fine, go waste your time. Just leave me out of it."

She gives me a positively murderous glare and turns back to her food without saying anything.

The food vanishes shortly thereafter, being replaced by dessert. I quickly grab myself a slice of treacle tart and begin eating. I'm halfway through when Tam speaks up.

Mind if I take over for a bit?

'Uh… why?'

I want to experience some dark chocolatey goodness firsthand. It's been a while.

I feel my gaze being drawn to the dark chocolate puddings to my left and shrug.

'Alright, go ahead.'

Tam grabs one of the puds from the platter and takes a scoop out of it, moaning as it hits our tongue.

Mmmmm… hot, rich, bitter, and sweet. I love these things. It's a shame that they don't serve the dark chocolate ones often.

'You like bitter things, huh? I mean, between the dark chocolate and the coffee…'

Chocolate was a luxury during the great depression. You'd be lucky to get them even if you weren't trapped in a poor orphanage, and if you were, well…

'Not at all?'

I only tasted chocolate for the first time at Hogwarts, and it was the best thing I'd ever had. It still might be, honestly.

Tam takes her time with the pudding, savouring each bite. When she finally takes the last bite, she sighs contentedly.

Okay, I'm done. Thanks for that.

I take back control and go back to my treacle tart, stopping when I see Hermione giving me another weird look.

"What?" I ask her.

She just shakes her head. "Nothing."

Pushing that out of my mind, I go back to eating my tart. I'm about to take the last bite when the food vanishes and Dumbledore stands up.

"I hope that you have all eaten your fill, but before I send you to bed, I have a few announcements to make. The first is to of course announce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor, though given that he seems to be running late, the introduction will have to be in absentia. Nonetheless, I want you to all offer your warmest welcomes to-"

Dumbledore is cut off as the door to the great hall slams open with such force that I find my wand in my hand on pure instinct. The man has greying, frizzy hair and an electric blue eye whizzing around in his left socket. He's wearing a large leather jacket that covers most of his figure, but what little I can see is covered in scars. The thing that catches my attention the most, though, is that this man is dangerous. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as he walks by, and it takes all my self control to not react to his presence.

Dumbledore seems unperturbed. "Ah, here we are. May I introduce to you all, Professor Alastor Moody, a retired auror who has kindly offered his services to the school for this year."

Aw fuck.

'What?'

He's a retired auror, Harry. Aurors don't usually live to retirement. If this guy retired, it means that he's good. Really good.

'And we have to deal with him being here this year.'

Yeah. That's a bit of a hurdle to overcome. Let's hope there aren't anymore…

"Now, onto the biggest announcement!" Dumbledore continues. "This year, there will be no quidditch tournament…"

That causes a wave of boos to move through the crowd. I find myself dismayed at the loss of it, but Tam is positively ecstatic.

"…Because for the first time in centuries, Hogwarts has the honour of hosting the Triwizard Tournament!"

Holy shit…

'The what?'

An extremely dangerous inter-school competition that was discontinued ages ago due to the high death toll. Why are they bringing it back now?

'Beats me, but this seems like a hell of a distraction to keep attention off of us.'

It better be.

"The other schools participating in the tournament, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute, will be arriving near the end of October, at which point a champion from each school will be selected by an impartial judge. Due to the safety concerns that led to the tournament being closed down in the past, however, entry will be restricted exclusively to those of age seventeen and older."

That causes another wave of boos to move through the crowd, but I just sigh in relief.

'Okay, adults only and you have to choose to enter. I was genuinely worried that I might be picked as a champion against my will and have no way out.'

Yeah, that's good.

Dumbledore claps loudly, quieting the commotion. "I am sure that many of you are disappointed to hear this, but rest assured that the tasks are still quite dangerous. I ask that everyone who is considering entry think long and hard about the risk that you would be taking. The winner of this tournament will have their name immortalised as a Triwizard champion, as well as receiving a prize of one thousand galleons. I also ask that each and every one of you be on your best behaviour when the other schools arrive. You will be representing not just Hogwarts, but our entire nation to the world. And with that, you are all dismissed. I hope that each and every one of you sleeps well and has a fine day of education tomorrow."

I sigh as I throw the covers over myself, eager to get to bed. Hopefully the last of the aches will be gone tomorrow.

"Can you believe that, Harry? I mean, wow." Ron says beside me.

"I'm just glad the attention will be focused somewhere besides me for once." I say. "Let the rumour mill have a field day with someone else for a change."

"Yeah, but having your name immortalised and a thousand galleons? I mean, surely you'd at least consider entering if you could."

I laugh. "Sorry, Ron, but hell no. I've had enough life or death experiences that I'll gladly avoid willingly putting myself into one. Besides, I've got a lot of studying that I want to do this year."

"More studying, mate? I mean, you do you and all that, but I don't want to see you turn into Hermione or anything."

"I mean, even I'm pretty sure that I'd be less pissy than Hermione's been lately. You've seen how she's been acting, right?"

Ron's brow furrows. "Yeah, I think something's bothering her, but she won't say what when I ask."

I didn't even think of asking her. Oh well. "I'm sure she'll tell us when she wants to."

"Yeah, I guess. Still, being immortalised…"

I sigh and start to close my curtains. "If you want to try to find a way to enter yourself, go ahead, but I am going to stay safe in the crowds. Or, relatively safe, at least. I don't think Hogwarts is ever really safe, not after the past few years."

Ron laughs. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Goodnight, Harry."

"Night, Ron."

If you ever really want to immortalise yourself, you need only ask me for guidance, you know.

'Yeah, yeah. Ask me again when I'm older, then I'll consider it.'

Gladly.

I'm not sure what to expect from my first defence class with Moody, but he's not standing behind the podium, and I still feel my hair raise when I go into the room. We all take our seats and wait as the minutes tick by. Three minutes after class was supposed to start, Malfoy stands up and moves towards the door, and that's when instinct takes over.

I barely manage to get a shield up in time to block the spell coming at my back, but I hear laughing coming throughout the room before I can return fire.

"Marvellous reflexes, Potter!" Moody says as he pulls an invisibility cloak off of himself. "I was wondering how you dodged that assassin's curse at the world cup, but if you can react that quickly, then it's no wonder! I haven't seen anyone move that quickly since I fought the Dark Lady herself back in seventy-eight."

'Um…'

Don't give anything away, Harry.

'I know that…!'

I take a moment to calm myself despite the adrenaline in my system, but I don't say anything to Moody. What would be the normal thing to say to being positively compared to Voldemort? I'm not sure I know anymore.

Moody seems to accept my lack of answer and moves to the front of the class. "Let this be a lesson to all of you. Had I wanted to, I could have easily killed at least half of you before most of you could have reacted. I stood there invisible for ten minutes and not one of you noticed me, even though I didn't silence myself. The past few years of this course have prepared you for all manner of dark creatures, but I'm going to be training you how to defend yourself against a far more dangerous foe. A basilisk might be able to kill you with a passing glance, and a nundu might be able to kill you with a single breath, but a dark mage can kill you with a few muttered words, and far worse if they were so inclined."

The class says nothing, either too scared or too enraptured by his words, or possibly both.

"Because I'm acting as a 'teacher', I'm expected to have 'grades' and a 'curriculum' and 'homework', but I say that you'll have passed when you've lived to old age. To start with, we're going to talk about curses, how to defend against them, and which ones you can't defend against. How many of you are familiar with the Unforgivables?"

I am, rather intimately, but I opt not to admit that.

Eventually, Hermione raises her hand. "Er… they're the spells whose use guarantees a life sentence in Azkaban."

"That's right, lass." Moody says. "Each one of them, if you successfully cast them at a person, is a life sentence. Do any of you know what the three unforgivable curses are?"

Ron reluctantly raises his hand. "Um, I think I heard my dad talking about the imperius curse?"

"Yes, that one was troublesome. The imperius curse allows the caster to take complete control of the victim, like controlling a puppet's strings. The Dark Lady used it a lot during the war, made people question who they could and couldn't trust. Many of those who were freed from her influence took their lives soon after, unable to escape the horrors of the things they had to watch themselves do while they were powerless to resist."

'That sounds horrifying.'

If it makes you feel better, we're probably borderline immune to it. It's not meant to work against beings with more than one consciousness. We should be able to bring each other to our senses due to our connection.

'Right, it's possible to resist the spell. I remember Lupin doing something like that last year when I cast it on him.'

Moody scrawls "Imperius curse - control" on the board and turns to the class again. "Anyone else know of an Unforgivable?"

The class is silent for a long while until Malfoy slowly raises his hand. "Um… the cruciatus curse?"

Moody laughs. "I bet your father would know all about that one. The cruciatus curse is used for torture. I've been hit with it a few times, and each time, I was willing to do almost anything to make it stop. Imagine every single nerve in your entire body screaming in every type of pain imaginable at the same time. It hurts worse than you'd ever believe, leaves you shaking for hours, if not days, and if you stay under it for too long…" I see him glance towards Neville for the briefest of moments. "Well, it's not pretty."

I've never been on the receiving end of that one, and I don't plan to.

'I can't blame you there.'

Moody writes "Cruciatus curse - torture" on the next line. "And the last one?"

Neville raises his hand. "The… the killing curse."

He nods. "Indeed. No complexities to this one — it hits you, you're dead. No shield can block it, though chunks of stone and metal can if you don't mind them getting blasted to bits afterward. I've cast this spell once in a life or death situation and swore that I never would again. Only one person has ever survived this curse, and no one who remembers exactly how that happened is still alive."

Well, that's not technically true, but no need to point that out.

'Tam, shut up.'

The entire class's gaze is on me, but Moody ignores it as he writes out "Killing curse - death". When that's done, he whirls around so quickly that everyone jumps. "Now, let's see if any of you have any reasoning ability in those heads of yours. You can kill with just about anything if you're creative enough, so why is it that these three curses are the ones that send you to Azkaban if you even cast them? What makes these three special?"

The answer is fairly obvious to me from firsthand experience, but no one in the class seems to know. After a solid minute passes and Moody starts berating the class, I raise my hand. "They're all esoteric magic." I say. "Each of them is driven by an emotion."

Moody nods. "Aye. You can manipulate somebody using mind magic, but to cast the imperius, you have to actively quash their free will, their agency, their autonomy. To cast the cruciatus, you need to want someone to experience unimaginable pain. To cast the killing curse, you need to want someone dead, and not for revenge or the greater good or any of that crap. You need to want them dead for no other reason than pure hatred with every fibre of your being."

The class sits in awkward silence for a moment before Moody starts scrawling on the blackboard again.

"Every year at the auror academy, we'd get at least one naïve recruit who was spouting some crock of shite about 'oh, you can kill with anything so surely the curses aren't that bad', or 'oh, but the spells could be good if you used them this way'. Complete and utter bollocks. You need to mean it!"

Moody turns away from the board, where he has written "You need to mean it!" below the list of curses.

"And that's not the only thing that makes it dangerous to use these spells. Anyone know the other? What makes dark magic so dangerous? How about you, Potter?"

'Um, Tam?'

I guess just answer him?

"It's… it's addictive." I say hesitantly, not wanting to appear too forthcoming with this knowledge. "It feels good to cast."

"That it does, and therein lies the problem. Some people might start out using it only in dire emergencies, but the problem is that it feels good. They start using it more than they need to, using it when other magic would suffice, and if they go too far, then they might start seeking out reasons to use it even when they don't need to. It's a slippery slope, and while some can resist, most don't. I've used each of the Unforgivables once, each time in a truly dire emergency. The imperius is the only one I cast more than once. I don't recommend that any of you do it even that much. It can and will ruin your life if you let it get the better of you."

Oopsie~

'Tam, shut up.'

"I am going to break my own rule, for a future, optional class, though. The imperius curse can be resisted, and if you volunteer, then I'll cast it on you and give you a chance to resist. I won't be able to go full power on any of you, but if you can learn to resist the curse even a bit, it should at least make it easier to throw it off at higher strengths if you ever need to, and gods help you if you do."

'Tam?'

Oh, so now I can talk?

'I'm asking for your input this time, so yes. What do you think?'

Hmmmm… I'm genuinely not sure. It could be useful to make sure we actually can throw it off, but if we can't, we'd be essentially helpless at the whims of the greatest dark mage hunter in the past half-century.

'So what, high risk, moderate reward?'

Yup.

'Well, something to think on, I suppose.'

"No homework today." Moody says as he moves over to his desk. "Or ever, probably. I've done enough godsdamned paperwork in my life already, and I have no intention of grading essays. You're dismissed."

Well, that was a short class.

'Yeah, no kidding. Um… we don't have to worry about that addiction thing, do we?'

Of course not. You heard how he said that not everyone falls down that slippery slope. Obviously that's something that normal people need to worry about, and we are exceptional.

'Yeah, yeah, okay. If you're sure.'

Positive. It's not like I started using dark magic after I possessed you. I've been using it for years now, and I never had an issue with it. Just make sure you don't use it unnecessarily, and you'll be fine.

'Nothing unnecessary, huh? That doesn't seem too hard.'

Of course. See, I knew you'd understand.

I keep my wand pressed hard against the ball of wood, desperately trying to coax out a spark of life that I know has to be there, if only I could find it. I've been at it for ten minutes when Tam butts in.

I see this is going really well.

'Shut up, Tam.'

What was it you'd said earlier? I don't suppose you could refresh my memory?

'Shut up, Tam!'

I believe it was something like 'Oh Tamelyn, you are so foolish for trying to learn blood alchemy by manipulating hair. Clearly we would be better off using my superior alchemy skills to manipulate wood into being alive'.

'Tam, please shut up.'

So how's that working out for you?

"Oh my god…" I mutter to myself.

"Having problems, Harry?" Katie says as she plops down onto the sofa beside me.

"Alchemy issues." I say as I place the ball on the table and glare at it. "I'm trying to… resurrect it, I guess, but it's not working."

"Ooooh, is ickle Harrikins attempting his first necromancy?" She teases.

I roll my eyes. "It's a piece of wood Katie. I hardly think resurrecting a tree counts as necromancy."

"But it's in the spirit of necromancy! I respect that. So, what's the problem?"

"I just… can't find that spark of life that I need to draw out." I complain.

She rolls her eyes. "Well duh. If you're trying to do it with alchemy, then you're missing a vital ingredient."

"And what would that be?"

Katie grabs a glass of water from the table and dumps it on the sphere, splattering me generously in the process.

"What the fuck?" I shriek.

"Give it a go now." She says, gesturing at the piece of wood.

I glare at her for a moment, but grab the damp sphere and press my wand to it. Much to my surprise, I can find it now, and with a few minutes worth of coaxing, I'm able to slowly grow a thin layer of bark on top of the wood, with a few green branches sprouting from it. "How did you know?"

She shrugs. "I mean, alchemy is all about conservation, right? You can't make what isn't there. The thing is that most wood is dried before you buy it, so in order to properly resurrect it, I assumed you'd need water."

"Huh." I didn't know that most wood was dried, though that did explain why it was easier with the fresh wood I had at the Burrow.

"Yup. Dad does a lot of wood carving, so I picked up a few bits and pieces of how it works. He makes a lot of 'new agey' type carvings and such. He sells them at the same place where mum sells her 'herbal supplements'." She says, adding air quotes at the end.

What does that-

'Drugs, Tam. She sells drugs.'

Oh.

"Are your parents hippies or something?" I ask, remembering the vocal complaints the Dursleys had about "those types".

"Oh, totally." Katie replies. "It made for an interesting childhood, that's for sure. They were the total 'drugs and sex' types until I came along, at which point they toned it back, though I'd say it still wore off on me a bit. I'm not interested in drugs at all, but I do think I have a bit of a 'free loving' personality, if you know what I mean."

"I think I've got a hunch." I say, trying to keep my focus on my alchemy as I tease a branch out of the wood.

She grins at me for a while before giving a pleasant sigh. "You are pretty cute, you know. If you ever want someone to show you the ropes, feel free to hit me up, alright?"

Harry, please do not let her "show you the ropes".

'I wasn't going to!'

Oh thank gods. Okay, look, if you want to talk to this girl, then that's fine, but I'm going to duck out. I don't think I can handle much more of this.

As Tam vanishes into the recesses of my mind, I stand up and toss the chunk of wood into the fire. "I'm, uh, probably not going to do that, Katie."

She just smiles. "I know, but I still wanted to offer. So, what are you expecting from the Triwizard Tournament?"

I blink at that appalling segue. "I am hoping that it will be loud, distracting, and have nothing to do with me for once."

Katie laughs. "Harry Potter having a normal year at Hogwarts!? Impossible."

I groan. "Please don't jinx it, Katie. I just want to be able to…" Research blood alchemy so I can give the girl in my head her own body. "…Do normal stuff like homework and classwork without having to worry about death or drama or being the centre of attention."

"Yeah, sure. What I'm hoping is that there will be lots of hot people coming here from the other schools that I can-"

"Can we please talk about something else?" I interrupt.

She huffs. "Fine. I am hoping that we'll get to see some interesting applications of magic, though. I mean, I'm sure that whatever tasks they've got lined up are going to require some creative problem solving. I mean, they are deadly and all that. I would honestly consider entering if I wasn't both too young and too self-preserving."

I laugh. "If we were at a party, I'd declare a toast to self-preservation. The less time I spend having to avoid dying to someone else's bullshit, the better."

She hums quietly for a bit. "So, you said you're a legilimens, right? Mind testing my occlumency barriers? I've been trying to practise them after what you said last year, but…"

"No way to know if you're doing it right without a proper test. Alright, look me in the eye and I'll give it a go."

Katie has actually managed to build up some half-decent occlumency barriers, which is fairly impressive. It's not enough to stop me, of course, but it is enough that I actually have to try to get through. I apply some additional force to my probe, piercing my way through the barrier.

"Ouch! Damn, you're good." She mutters.

I just shrug. "I mean, I've had a lot of practice, and the fact that I actually had to push hard enough that you felt me is pretty impressive. Most people don't even notice when I look at their thoughts."

"I bet you've seen some real interesting stuff in other people's heads." Katie says as she adjusts her position, leaning against me.

"Interesting? Sure. Pleasant? Rarely."

"Hmmmmm… That's too bad."

I shrug. "Maybe. That said, I got in most of my practice on muggles, so that might be why."

She turns her head to look down at me. "You think so?"

I glance up at her. "Have you spent much time looking inside muggle's heads?"

She hums. "No, I guess I haven't."

The two of us sit in silence for a bit before she speaks again.

"My feelings about the muggle world are… complicated. I'll tell you about them sometime, but… not now. I'm not quite sure how to articulate them just yet."

I watch in silence as the fire burns away the alchemised wood that I made, the branches being reduced to charcoal as flames devour the sphere.

Katie stands up and plants a quick kiss on the top of my head. "You're a good friend, Harry. Never change." She says before walking away.

"Never change, huh?" I repeat.

I look down at my hand and think about the past few years.

'I think I already have.'

A/N (Tendra): I like this chapter. It's shorter than a lot of the other ones I've put out recently, but I like all the scenes.

I'm not sure how obvious I made the lead-up to Tam having experienced soul damage. I did do my best to hint at it in previous chapters, what with Tam being extremely knowledgeable about soul damage, having mentioned making a mistake with the horcrux, as well as having her specifically say at different points that a horcrux requires a deliberate murder and that Myrtle's death was an accident. There might be a few other breadcrumbs I've left that could lead you to some other interesting conclusions if you know where to look…

Tam likes chocolate for no other reason than I thought it would be cute.

For Moody's lesson, I tried to do a combination of the unforgivable lesson in canon and a DARE lesson. For the non-Americans in the audience, DARE was a thing in the nineties and early noughties in which cops would come to schools and tell elementary and middle schoolers that drugs were bad and specifically how drugs would ruin your lives. It was eliminated after years of… less than successful results. I'm sure Moody's lesson won't have any unintended consequences.

I do really like Katie as a foil to Harry. Outgoing and boisterous to his reclusive and reserved. I debated on a few ideas for Katie's parents, before deciding that I thought "hippies" had the most potential. Her parents are fairly accepting of her "activities", though her extended family is… less approving. Katie is going to be a fairly important character in fourth year, so expect to see her fairly often in the upcoming chapters.

I did really like the very ending. For however much of an unapologetic flirt Katie is, she does care about Harry, and is the closest to him of any of the members of the quidditch team.

E/N (MANNAT): Great chapter! The Horcrux scene illustrates exactly why Tam needs Harry so much to keep her calm in emergency situations, there's some cute fluff, and the Katie scene was honestly really good. She's a great complement to Harry and adds a lot to the story.