Soul of the Enemy

By Willow Spirit

Disclaimer: I only own the plot. Everything else belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

Chapter 16 – Revenge is Sweet

"Are you sure you're ready to do this, Harry?" Hermione asked carefully. "You're okay with it?"

"Well, it's not like I have much of a choice," Harry muttered.

Harry, Hermione, Alex, and Ron were sitting alone in an empty classroom, waiting for Harry's "students" to show up. Naturally, there had been lots of frightened students after the news of the Death Eater attack. Someone came up with the brilliant idea that the students should receive extra lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts as a precaution. Who knows what would happen now, and many felt that they were unprepared.

"Hey, mate, these people just want the chance to defend themselves," Ron tried to reason with Harry, who was feeling very temperamental at the moment.

"Yeah, but why me? Why do I have to be their teacher?"

"Oh, Harry, you know the professors are helping as much as they can," Hermione said. "Mr. Callaghan has his hands full with the younger years. Seriously, though, I think you're even more qualified than him to teach DADA. You could be the professor for that class if you weren't still underage. Besides it'll be like two years ago, teaching the DA."

Harry couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought of their current DADA professor; Andrew Callaghan, a young Auror who was very intelligent but lacked any real-world experience. Unfortunately, he had been the only option for the position. Mad-Eye was a bit too busy with Order business and the general public wouldn't have allowed Remus to come back, even in such desperate times.

"Come on, Potter, let's cheer up a bit," Alex said. "After all, you'll get to boss people around. That should be barrels of fun."

"Sure," Harry snorted softly.

After a few minutes, other students started showing up for the session. It wasn't mandatory and it was only for fifth years and above, but there were still plenty of people interested. It was their chance to work with Harry Potter, and maybe even see a demonstration or two from him.

To Harry's annoyance, he saw Malfoy enter the room with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. The three imposing Slytherins sat down near the back in one of the corners. It was obvious that they didn't want to participate; they were there to see if Harry was going to make a fool of himself. Harry tried his best to ignore them as he turned to the forty or so people who had turned up.

"Okay, everyone," Harry said loudly to their attention. "I know that it's only been a week since the attacks, and that some people are still worried about them, but that's why we're here. We're going to practice some DADA. You will already know some of these spells, but that's not the point. Some of us haven't used these spells since we learned them, and others didn't learn them due to an evil and incompetent DADA professor from two years ago."

A few snickers rippled through the class as most caught the reference to Dolores Umbridge.

"So let's start with the basics," Harry said. "I want to see everyone pair up and work on your disarming spells."

Soon all the students were hard at work, except Malfoy and his gang, of course. Hermione and Ginny were working together, though neither were having any problems. Ron had paired up with Alex, who was being very patient with him when he occasionally missed. Harry circulated around the class, correcting people's progress as he traveled. He paused for a moment when he reached Neville and Luna.

"Good job, Neville," Harry nodded in approval. "I can definitely see an improvement from two years ago."

"Really?" Neville beamed with pride.

"Of course," Luna said absentmindedly. "I have to actually watch what you're doing here. At least his efforts are keeping away the Wrackspurts."

"Err, thanks…I think."

"Oh, you're quite welcome."

When Harry was satisfied with the progress of his students, he decided to switch things over to body binding charms. Everyone got a bunch of pillows from the corner and started practicing. Harry stopped by Hermione and Ginny for a moment.

"So, what do you think?" Harry asked them, gesturing to the rest of the group.

"Hmm…not too bad," Hermione replied. "I don't know, though. I still think people are a bit shaken up. I can really see potential in some of them. All they need is a bit of work."

"Maybe they need something else, too," Ginny looked deep in thought.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we're talking about how everyone is so frightened right now," Ginny explained. "Maybe that's exactly what we need. These are darks times, nothing's going to change that. Most of us will face our fears eventually and we need to be able to keep ourselves together."

"Face our fears…" Ginny's words echoed through Harry's mind. Suddenly, the answer came to him. "That's it! Ginny, you're brilliant, it's the perfect idea."

"Well, I know I'm brilliant, Harry," Ginny teased him. "But what's this perfect idea?"

"You'll see," Harry smiled secretively. "Alright, everyone! Good work, I think that'll be it for today. We'll pick this up tomorrow, same time, same place."

-----

As much as they tried, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Alex couldn't get Harry to talk about the secret plan. He refused to reveal what it was. To make matters worse, they knew Harry had gone to visit Dumbledore about something. Of course, they had no idea why, but they suspected it had something to do with the plan.

So they were especially anxious when they assembled together the next day for the second session. They quickly noticed the trunk that was placed near the front of the classroom. Harry stood casually beside it. This had to be it, this must be the surprise!

"Welcome back," Harry spoke up as soon as everyone was present. "Now, we're going to take a slightly different angle for this session. We're still going to work on a spell, but we'll also be focusing on something else, something very important."

Harry scanned the room and looked critically at his students. He skipped over Malfoy and company, who showed up again.

"Now," Harry continued on. "All of you, especially those who I worked with two years ago, know that practicing spells in a classroom is much different from real life. There are many other factors out there in the real world. Sometimes you have to improvise, other times there are distractions. It's awfully hard to duel when there's fighting going on all around you. Sometimes you may find yourself looking out for someone else. That's a really big distraction. But there's one thing I haven't mentioned, and it may be the biggest distraction of all: yourself."

Malfoy shot Crabbe and Goyle an uninterested glance, complete with rolling eyes.

"Some of you might not understand this," Harry said. "But when you're out there in a duel, your own thoughts can be your worst enemy. That's when you can doubt yourself and hesitate, which is very dangerous because you can get yourself killed that way. Sometimes you might be frozen with fear. That's what I want to concentrate on today."

Ron and Hermione exchanged a quick glance. He wouldn't do what they were thinking, would he?

"Your fears are very important. It's good to know what they are so that you can work on overcoming them. You want to control your fears, not the other way around. You don't want someone to use them against you, or let them affect you when you're in a fight. Today, I have a special treat for you. We're going to conquer our fears."

Oh, Lord, he is going to do it.

Harry reached over and patted the top of the trunk. "Those of you older students should already know what's in here by now. For those of you who don't know, I have a boggart locked away in this trunk." Several students gasped out loud.

"I know it may seem a little extreme, but this is the best way to face your fears, in my opinion," Harry explained. "Now I want everybody here to take a shot at the boggart and try to make it change into something funny."

Most students looked very nervous as they lined up along one of walls. Alex, though, barely even moved from where she had been sitting with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Although the expression on Alex's face remained neutral, the color of it was a deadly white.

"Alex?" Harry asked with concern. "What's wrong?"

"I…" Alex forced the words out of her mouth. "I don't think I'll be participating today."

"It's okay, Alex," Ginny tried encouraging her. "Everyone's a little nervous. We'll all be revealing our fears."

"No," Alex said firmly. "I won't. I'll just sit at the back."

Before anyone could say anything else, Alex turned around and made for the back corner of the room, opposite the back corner from Malfoy and his lackeys. They sneered at her as she sat down, but she refused to look at them.

"Alright," Harry got into position. "Here's how we'll do it. One person at a time will step up in front of the trunk. When the boggart changes into your fear, think of something funny, then shout 'Riddikulus!' This will make the boggart change. Then the next person can go, and so on and so forth. Now, I don't know how long this boggart will last against so many people, but we'll just have to see."

The first person, a sixth year, stepped out the line. He nodded to Harry, who carefully lifted the lid of the trunk and quickly stood out of the way. To the horror of most people present, a rather larger snake slithered out from inside the trunk. The student stared at the snake for a second before finally collecting himself together.

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and the snake suddenly twisted around into an odd sort of balloon animal.

"Next!" Harry shouted. Another student stepped forward, as the first one went to the opposite side of the room. The new seventh year girl gasped as the balloon animal turned into a snarling grizzly bear. She bravely held her ground and tried to speak out loud and clear.

"Riddikulus!" the large grizzly bear was suddenly replaced by smaller teddy bear. Several people laughed at the sight.

"Next!"

So the process continued for a few more people. Ginny finally stepped up and the boggart turned into a fairly good looking young man. The scariest part, though, was the expression on his face, which was so cold and harsh. Many obviously didn't know who he was, and only two people in the room were able to recognize him. Ginny blanched at sight of him, and despite herself, took one step back away from him.

Harry, on the other hand, looked thoroughly disgusted. This was the last person he wanted to see. Harry had to remind himself that the person wasn't real. Otherwise, he probably would have raised his wand to him by now.

Somehow, it didn't really surprise Harry that Ginny's boggart would be Tom Riddle.

"Riddikulus!" Ginny cried with determination. Suddenly Tom was doing a very bad version of disco dancing. Harry chuckled softly to himself.

A fifth year girl stepped forward for her turn. Tom had now changed into a demented looking circus clown. It was holding a bundle of colorful balloons. The girl paused for a second, then cried out, "Riddikulus!" The clown's balloons started going crazy. Some started exploding, while others were letting out air and swirling around the clown. Suddenly the swirling balloons went flying around the room. One balloon flew towards the back of the room, straight towards Alex.

That's when everything seemed to move in slow motion.

The balloon settled on the floor before Alex. No one knew why it landed there. Maybe the boggart felt a large amount of fear coming from her. Alex looked like she was frozen to her spot. Then the boggart started to change again.

In the blink of an eye, before anyone else knew what was happening, Alex had her wand in her hand and had it pointed at the boggart. It didn't even have a chance to finish its transformation.

"HHHAAAA!" Alex let out an earth shattering scream, a bizarre combination of a shout and a laugh. The boggart suddenly blew up into hundreds of tiny pieces.

The room was totally and completely silent after that, except the sound of Alex's deep breaths. No one dared move as they tried to figure out what just happened. They just stared at Alex, whose eyes were filled with a dangerous fire.

"Alex…" Harry bravely tried to speak to her.

"Don't," Alex hissed, then she spun around and ran out of the room.

-----

No one really knew what happened that day in Harry's defense class. Harry himself had decided to run after Alex, only to find that she refused to talk about the whole thing. Typical Alex.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were once again willing to put it all behind them and forget it, but others were not so courteous. Malfoy and his gang chose to use the incident against Alex, much like they often did to Harry.

"Hey, Reid!" Malfoy called out to her one day in the Great Hall. "Make anything else explode today?" That earned him several laughs from the Slytherin table.

"Just ignore him," Hermione said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, don't worry, I will," Alex glared at him. "He's not worth my time."

Apparently, though, Malfoy wasn't quite finished with her. Something must have been in the water that week, either that or Malfoy finally decided to be creative in dealing with his enemies. About a week after the incident in defense class, another incident occurred in Potions class…or just before Potions class.

For some odd reason, Malfoy and company decided to show up early for Potions class one day. That in itself should have been fair warning that something bad was about to happen. Then the Gryffindor quartet came through the door. It was Malfoy's lucky day; Alex was the last to come into the classroom.

But just as she passed though the door, a huge pile of green goo was dumped out of an invisible bucket that was hanging above the doorway. Alex was standing directly in its path.

A collective gasp echoed through the classroom, as Alex was quickly covered in the green mess. Snape, who had just entered the classroom from his office area, also saw the entire thing. Even he was frozen in astonishment.

Alex didn't move at first. She didn't shout or cry out, though some thought they saw her gasp in surprise as it happened. She was probably trying to gather herself together before doing anything else. In reality, Alex was trying to calm herself down. She knew who was responsible for this. It could only be one person, but she was not going to give him any satisfaction.

Ever so delicately, Alex reached up wiped some goo out of her eyes so she could see. And with all the calm in the world, she looked straight at Professor Snape.

"Professor," she said in a strange, innocent tone. "I seem to have a small mess here. I think I should go get it cleaned up."

"Agreed," Snape replied in an awed tone.

What! Many of the Gryffindors turned to stare at Snape. He wasn't going to blame the whole thing on Alex? He wasn't going to take points off Gryffindor for making a mess? Apparently not.

Alex carefully shuffled her way out of the classroom, while Malfoy and his gang tried the best they could to stifle their snorts of laughter. Some would swear later that they saw Snape quickly glare at the three young men before he abruptly started the day's lesson. Alex didn't come back to class, and many didn't blame her.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were finally able to catch up to her after class. They were on their way to Charms when they saw her walking the other way. She was nice and clean again.

"Alex?" Harry called out to her, but she kept on going.

"Sorry, Potter, can't stop to chat," Alex replied over her shoulder. "I'm on a mission before Charms so I have to hurry."

"A mission?" Hermione asked the others with a puzzled look. "What does she mean by that?"

"I'm hoping she means payback," Ron thought out loud. "If anyone in the school could get to Malfoy, it would be Alex. I hope she nails him, the bloody bugger…and I mean that in a pranking sort of way."

Meanwhile, Alex found who she was looking for in a crowd of sixth years. "Oi, Creevey!" she bellowed out to Colin, the eldest of the Creevey brothers. Colin turned around and spotted her, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw who it was. Sure, Alex Reid was a friend of Harry Potter, but she was still kind of spooky, especially after what had happened with the boggart.

"Oh, hi!" his voice nearly squeaked. "All right, Alex?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Alex waved her hand dismissively, wanting to get straight to the point. "I need a favour, Creevey. I was hoping you could give me a hand with something."

"S-sure, anything."

"Excellent. Here's what I'm planning on doing..."

-----

The next morning at breakfast, everyone was sitting around their house tables when the owls came soaring in with letters and packages.

"Watch this," Alex whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione. She looked over her shoulder and seemed to be glancing at the Slytherin table. The others curiously followed her gaze and noticed that an owl had landed in front of Malfoy. The most surprising thing about it was it actually looked like one of the school owls, and not some fancier owl that might have belonged to the Malfoy family.

With a slight frown on his face, Malfoy carelessly removed the letter attached to the owl's leg. He tore open the envelop and pulled out a small piece of parchment. His eyes scanned the note and his frown deepened. When he peered cautiously back into the envelop, Malfoy's eyes grew wide with shock and alarm. That's when his head snapped up and he glared harshly in their direction.

"What was in that letter?" Harry was almost scared to ask.

"Oh, nothing much," Alex shrugged. "I just borrowed Creevey's camera, and with a little help from your favourite house elf, I got some classic shower shots of our dear Malfoy. Now I finally have proof to show how small he really is. I sent him his own copies plus a note telling him that I have the originals. If he ever does anything to annoy us again, I'll post the pictures all over the school."

And just to piss him off even more, Alex sent him a goofy grin and a cute little wave, twiddling her fingers at him.

Having had enough, Malfoy stood quickly and stormed out of the Great Hall, taking the entire contents of the envelop with him. He was no doubt on his way to destroy the evidence.

"This is too wonderful," Ron beamed happily. "Malfoy finally got what he deserved."

"Exactly," Alex calmly turned around and returned to her breakfast.

"Maybe he'll understand that no one messes with me and gets away with it."

-----

A/N: Tell me what you think. I'm not a mind-reader. Please review!

Next Chapter: Hogwarts is having a dance to ease the growing tension...maybe not such a good idea...