Harry Potter and the Power of Time
Chapter 15 – How Harry Spends His Week, Take Two
The meeting with Cami Mitchell that afternoon went better than Harry expected. Actually, it was nice to have a normal, peaceful conversation after the eventful morning he had had, berating the Minister of Magic. As only Hagrid and Professor Dumbledore from the school had been present in town during the press conference, no one yet knew the things Harry had brought to light.
Cami was a shy Hufflepuff, a year younger than him, but not shy enough to not ask questions he felt less than comfortable with. If the two of them were going to be partners for the full year, she said, she really wanted to get to know him. For instance, would he expect her to go off on one of his hair brained adventures if they found something during a patrol? Or should she expect to be bothered by the Slytherins, now that she was partnered up with him?
It was nice to know that she could ask these uncomfortable questions, even if Harry had to struggle to answer them. Besides, the answers were what they both wanted to hear. Harry didn't want her to become any closer than she had to (like Luna and Neville had become close last year), in case she was hurt by association. Harry could maybe except the risk Ron, Hermione, and the others took in being associated with him, but Harry had no inclination for others to put themselves in jeopardy. Cami was likewise pleased. She thought they could be good friends, and patrol partners, and she even admitted to signing up for the DA, but that was as far as she was willing to take any relationship. She didn't want to risk her life, or that of her family, by being too close to him.
After the interrogation given by her, it was Harry's turn to learn some about Cami. He learned she was an average student at best, but hard working and fair, and that was what led to her appointment as prefect. Astronomy and Arithmancy were her two strongest subjects, and her least favorite was Potions. Not an uncommon answer there.
She also admitted to being rather clumsy at times, and told Harry some of the stories she had been through. Getting caught in a trick step at least once a week, falling out of her bed at night and not even knowing it, and accidentally getting dragon dung fertilizer in her school bag were only some of the things she was willing to tell Harry at first. She promised she'd tell him more as the year went on.
Almost a whole hour after they met in the library, Harry and Cami each took their leave, and went back to their common rooms to wash up for supper. Once there, Hermione and Ron were already actively engaged in a debate about a Herbology assignment, and Harry was able to enjoy a peaceful meal talking to Ginny and Neville.
The next morning during Sunday brunch, Harry didn't have the same luck. The whole school was talking in excitement when he entered the Great Hall, and he soon found out why.
"Harry!" Hermione admonished him. "Why didn't you tell us you went into Hogsmeade yesterday? We have to find out from a newspaper article? Not that I don't love what you've done, but really! You should have told us what you had planned."
"Sorry Hermione," Harry said between bites of his omelet, "I didn't tell anyone what I was up to. No one knew until the press conference. I couldn't risk Fudge hearing anything about my plans. How's the Quibbler article anyways?"
"It's bloody brilliant, mate!" That came from Ron. "Never thought I'd find a newspaper so much fun to read. This is better even then last year's article. They even mention me, by name! Here, take a look."
Harry already knew what the majority of the article would say, but decided to take a break from his porridge and have a read. After all, he had been the one to write the letter to Rita Skeeter three days ago, to give her all the background information.
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The Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, Tells All
By Rita Skeeter
In a shocking press conference held yesterday morning in the sleepy
town of Hogsmeade, a scandal the likes this reporter has never seen
broke out, implicating Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge himself among
others. Supposedly in attendance to accept the Order of Merlin, Third
Class for his heroic actions in combating Death Eaters and You-Know-
Who himself in a Ministry attack last June, and for working with
Ministry personnel, Harry Potter surprised all by refusing the award
for his "utter lack of respect for Minister Fudge."
Fudge, who hadn't expected a thing until Potter spoke out against him,
was telling bold faced lies about the current state of affairs in
relation to crime in our community. The tall tale he made up, about
how Harry single handedly fought off a group of Death Eaters to keep
them from a prophecy that would increase their master's supposed weak
power, was a blatant disregard for the real heroes of the night, and
an attempt to gain more political power. It's no secret that Fudge
has long attacked the reputation of both Harry Potter and Albus
Dumbledore, and this press conference was an obvious attempt to patch
frayed relations in light of the truth regarding the rebirth of You-
Know-Who.
"I wasn't by myself." Harry Potter wrote me in an exclusive letter,
which contradicts the Minister's fabricated lies. "I was accompanied
to the Ministry building my by best mates, Ron Weasley and Hermione
Granger. First we had to get past that hag Umbridge (Delores Umbrige:
still under investigation for her behavior while serving as Fudge's
personally appointed first ever High Inquisitor of Hogwarts), who
attempted to use the Cruciatus curse against me, but the three of us
managed to outsmart her. There were others who went with me too, but
I'd rather not give their names. He-Whose-Name-Must-Be-Hyphenated
(Harry used the dark wizard's real name here, but insisted that if we
don't publish it, we at least use this ridiculous name instead) is
cowardly enough to go after anyone to get to me, including supposedly
helpless students. If he's supposed to be so powerful and scary, why
is it he hasn't ever fought in a fair fight? No, he's got to pick on
school kids like me, and even then he can't win. I've faced him
(again, Mr. Potter used the name without so much as flinching) four
times now, and I've yet to suffer any permanent injuries.
Indeed, young Harry's story, which he promises can be verified by at
least a dozen other witnesses including Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus
Dumbledore, went on to shock us even further. Proving Minister
Fudge's statement about no one dying at the siege to be false, Harry
admitted that his own godfather, escaped convict Sirius Black, died
while fighting against, not for, the Death Eaters that night. All
this time, while Fudge has convinced the writers at the Daily Prophet
and the public at large that Black was the right hand man of You-Know-
Who, he in fact was innocent of his crimes. Furthermore, he was
sentenced to a life in Azkaban, under the guard of Dementors, without
even a trial.
"The real criminal this whole time has been Peter Pettigrew." Harry
again informs me in his letter. "He was my parents' secret keeper
when they went into hiding using the Fidelius Charm, and it was he who
told him (the V word again) my parent's location. The only reason
people thought Sirius was the secret keeper, was because it was agreed
that he would try to draw attention away from Peter. He was the
obvious choice after all, being my father's best friend, so that's why
he gladly took the role. He was much more capable of fighting off
Death Eaters than Peter ever was, who's still barely above the level
of a squib."
If this all sounds like too much to believe, then I agree. I too
doubted these accusations without proof. But during the press
conference yesterday, proof is exactly what Harry Potter offered. In
a stunning turn of events, the least of which was when a beautiful yet
unidentified white phoenix (see story, page 23B) perched on Harry
Potter's shoulder, Mr. Potter produced a live Peter Pettigrew from his
robe pocket, in his animagus form of a rat.
It seems that Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter all
became illegal animagi during their school years to accompany their
fourth friend, known werewolf Remus Lupin, during his transformations.
That secret was kept until now, and in his rat form is how Peter
Pettigrew managed to escape Ministry notice fifteen years ago, after
killing a street full of muggles, and cutting of his own finger to
falsely implicate Sirius Black. The same ability is how Sirius Black
managed to escape Azkaban three years ago, in his form of a large
black dog.
"Sirius told me the dementor's effects were less in his animagus
form." Harry explained. "That's how he kept his sanity, and how he
eventually escaped Azkaban, and remained a fugitive for three years.
The only reason he escaped at all, was because he saw a picture of
Pettigrew, in his rat form, in the Daily Prophet posing as my friend
Ron's pet. He was afraid Pettigrew was coming after me. 'Scabbers,'
as we knew him then, was given to Ron by his older brother Percy
Weasley. I find it ironic that such a wanted criminal was kept as a
pet by one of the Minister's most trusted aids."
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The article went on for another seven pages after that, and recounted the scene in the Shrieking Shack in Harry's third year, as well as the events as they really happened in the veil room last June. None of the other students or Order members were mentioned by name, but merely reported as "forces working in cooperation with Dumbledore." Harry didn't need to read that part of the article, as he already knew what happened. Writing the letter to Rita had been hard enough, but Harry had no wish to pour more salt on still open wounds.
As soon as brunch ended, the group of friends escaped back up to the common room to avoid the barrage of questions they were being asked. For once, Ron got a taste of what it was like to live life as Harry Potter, and he seemed to be enjoying it. So Harry let him, and he and Hermione were the first to get away, leaving Ron behind to his adoring public.
"How about some Quidditch practice?" Ginny asked Harry as they settled down on a few couches. Ron had just got back in the common room ten minutes behind the rest, and plopped down with a noisy grunt. "You probably need the practice, don't you?"
In truth Harry did. It had been almost a full year since he'd flown his broom, not counting the small circles he had flown in his trunk earlier in the summer. McGonagall had given Harry back his Firebolt after his transfiguration class on Thursday, and it was burning a hole in his trunk waiting to be flown. Harry still had to decide if the new broom was as good as his trusty Firebolt.
"Can't fly today." Ron let them know. "Hufflepuff has preliminary tryouts on the pitch pretty soon. They need just as many new players as we do, but they're awfully worried. Speaking of which, we should talk about the team soon Harry. We're going to need a new captain this year too."
"That shouldn't be too hard. Even counting Ginny, there's only the three of us on the team. Not too many options if you ask me. We still need to wait to meet with McGonagall first though. Let's put off Quidditch for another week at least. We'll still have time before tryouts." Harry knew that Ron wanted the position, and enjoyed teasing the redhead when he got the chance. Harry himself had no time to be the team captain along with all his other duties, so letting Ron control the team was just fine with him.
"What about visiting Hagrid? Didn't we agree to have tea with him this weekend?" Ginny second suggestion got shot down as well.
"Sorry Gin," Harry said, "but that was supposed to be yesterday. When he came to the press meeting with me, we agreed to meet next Saturday instead. With the press meeting, there just wasn't enough time."
"We'll I'm going to go do some research in the library." Hermione let them know. By now, Ginny and Ron were involved in a game of wizarding chess, and Neville had gone straight to the greenhouses from brunch. "This is my favorite time of year to study. No one else uses the library so soon after summer, and it's nice and peaceful. And I get first dibs on all the books too. Want to join me Harry?"
"No thanks." He said. "I think I'll go upstairs and do some work. I have to set my own lesson plans now for Potions, so I guess I better get that out of the way. See you all later."
Harry really didn't plan on coming up with lesson plans for his potions work, but it was a good excuse. As long as he kept to the same rate of studying as he had over the summer, he'd be fine with the work load. In fact, he'd probably even be far ahead of the rest of his class.
Once upstairs, Harry changed into some comfortable clothes, corduroy pants, a tee shirt, and his Birks, and went right inside his trunk. The first stop he made was his library.
It had been weeks since he had reorganized the bookcases, and he couldn't put it off any longer. All the texts he had read the second half of the summer, along with the ones he had already exhausted, he moved to their proper positions. His sixth year textbooks, which he now had a need for, he brought out from his school bag and placed on the shelves. They hadn't been touched for the most part of the summer, and it was time to rectify that.
His other self was doing something else in another compartment, so Harry had plenty of quiet to read the first few chapters in all his texts. That wasn't a lot considering he had already read most of his Arithmancy and Potions books, so that only left Transfiguration, Charms, and DADA. Harry wanted to get a good jump start on the rest of his class though.
For four straight hours Harry read, not stopping at all. The assigned reading in his classes didn't go past one or two chapters a piece, but Harry read at least the first four. His extra reading had really paid off. Although it was at first boring, the theory of magic books he had purchases really made the difference. Harry was able to pick up new spells and concepts much quicker than he had last year.
When he was done with that, Harry used the trunk's portal to enter the sitting room, where he found Dobby doing some last minute folding. He always did laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays, so that wasn't uncommon. As he was almost finished anyways, Harry didn't feel bad asking Dobby for a game of chess.
Playing chess with Dobby was much more fun than playing with Ron, as Harry found out soon after he hired him. In those first weeks trapped at the Dursleys', Harry had a lot of time to kill, and had decided to teach the elves how to play. He didn't dare use Hermione's nice marble chess set, but instead used a wizarding one he had found in the trunk when he bought it. Dobby probably wouldn't have liked the muggle chess set anyways. He had more fun watching the pieces demolish each other than he did anything else. In fact, Dobby still hadn't gotten the concept of winning. He was too busy directing his pieces into harm's way.
"Wheee! Dobby likes his pawnies getting blown uped. Wheee!" The game ended not long after it started. Harry had managed to stretch the game out to nine minutes this time. That wasn't long, but it was an improvement over how they had started. Harry couldn't believe he'd actually ever get the change to make a four move check mate, until he had played Dobby.
"Good game Dobby. Is Winky here by the way, or is she at the Hideaway?"
"Winky is back at home, sir. Winky is spending day watching strange sport called curling on the telly. But sport has brooms in which to clean, not to fly, so Winky likes it very much Harry Potter, sir."
The other Harry came into the room right then, as Dobby made his leave. He had magicked the clean, folded clothes to their trunk compartment, and popped away back to Winky, to spend his night off.
"Got time for some dueling before you leave?" The other one asked Harry.
"You tell me." He answered. "You've been through this before, you should know."
The other one smirked. "Well in that case, you do have time. And if I'm not mistaken, you're in for an ass kicking too."
Both Harrys laughed. "We'll see about that."
Once in the dueling chamber, both changed into their workout clothes, the Harrys set to work. They each had some ideas about how to challenge their DADA professor when the time came to duel her, and wanted to try out some stuff before then.
As opposed to when he had three of himselves to duel, Harry got to use more of his wits and cunning when dueling against only one person. With three, he had to rely more on speed and easy, quick spells to throw his attackers off balance. But Harry vs. Harry, he had to use more of a strategy compared to just quick thinking. It really was exhausting work.
The duel (or duels) lasted over an hour, with both Harrys winning a fair number of the fights. It seemed that in the next week Harry would learn a new curse that caused double vision, because he had been beaten with that by his future self in the last match.
"Want some food?" The victorious future Harry asked his younger self. "I put some steak and kidney pies in the oven earlier, and they should be ready soon."
"Let me jump in the shower first." He answered. "I don't want to be all sweaty when I make the leap. I don't remember you taking a shower last Monday night.
"I didn't." Was the laughing answer. "I had a shower in my trunk before the leap, right before I had some delicious steak and kidney pie."
The hot, steamy shower was just what Harry needed after the intense workout. Leeds really did a good job in designing it. In the past week, Harry hadn't used the dorm or prefect bathrooms once. He was too spoiled by his own.
Dinner was eaten relatively fast. The clock above the table had the time at 7:37, and there was only about twenty minutes until it was time to leave.
Making sure that he had his wand, dagger, holsters and dragon hide vest, and was wearing the same clothing he had seen on himself a week ago, Harry spent the last few minutes thinking about what he would soon learn. He was always a little excited before jumping back in time, to see what he had missed the first time around. Now that he was back at Hogwarts, it would prove to be even more adventurous.
"It's time." His other self reminded him. There was less than a minute till eight o' clock, which was the scheduled departure time. Both Harry's were back in the library now, where they had decided to always make the leaps from. In his hands, the other Harry held a large tomb.
"You know, Hermione would really have it out with us if she knew about this." He said. He was sitting in one of the four study chairs now, and handed the text over to Harry.
"True, but at least we bought it finally. She's only been after us to do so since first year. That's more than Ron's done at least. Even if we haven't read it yet."
Harry was talking about, of course, "Hogwarts: A History," which was the large tomb he held in his hands. Opening it up, Harry carefully took the small time tuner out of its hiding place, an empty hollow carved into the pages of Hermione's favorite read. Once placed back on the bookshelf, Harry had figured it to be one of the best hiding places he could think off. Nobody would ever think to look there, and no one except Hermione would give the book a second look.
With a last goodbye, Harry turned the small hands back six days exactly, and disappeared from sight.
The second Harry, who was now the one in his proper timeline, crawled out of the trunk after taking a shower himself. Ron and Dean were both in the dorm, and asked him about missing dinner, but Harry just shrugged. It wasn't uncommon for a student to skip a meal on the weekends, and his dorm mates had already seen him crawl into his trunk on more than one occasion. They were all still dying to know what was inside it, but Harry hadn't yet told them. In due time maybe, but not yet.
Meanwhile, six days earlier, Harry, wearing comfortable corduroy pants, a tee shirt, and his Birks, winked into existence in the library. The only noticeable change was the reorganizing of books he'd just completed in the future. Entering into the sitting area, he bumped into his other self, now the earlier version, leaving from talking to Dobby and Winky.
"Hey, aren't we missing someone?" He was asked. This sounded familiar.
"Nope." He replied. "You decided that while at school, you didn't need to push yourself so hard. So we'll only be traveling once each week from now on. Sunday nights at eight o'clock, we go back six days. The current us will worry about classes, the DA, Quidditch practices, prefect patrols, and so on, while the future version of us will keep up with advanced training, and do all our homework for next week. Trust me, it works out great. And boy, are you in for an exciting week!"
Harry laughed at himself, remembering how confused he had been when he had heard this answer, which was certainly how the other Harry was feeling right now. Time traveling still hadn't lost its sense of humor in his opinion, and Harry retreated to his trunk's bedroom as the other climbed back out into the dorm room.
With a quick change of clothes, and after reading fifty pages of a novel and doing his Occlumency exercises, Harry fell asleep after a long day of hard work.
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Tuesaday
When he woke up the next morning, after a nice lie in, the other Harry had already been and gone. Because he had to show up to breakfast, plus attend morning classes, Harry had agreed that while living in the trunk, he would sleep in late to allow the other to have access to the dueling chamber and showers. That way, he could get in a decent workout and have a fresh shower before school started. While that Harry ate breakfast and went to morning class, Harry (the one living in the trunk now) would have free access to everything.
The first thing he did, like every morning, was to start on the treadmill. He walked at first, to stretch his muscles and wake his body up, but then gradually reached a heavy jog. The treadmill didn't have any advanced mechanisms on it, being completely manual (not electric), so Harry didn't even know how fast he was running. He guessed he was running about ten miles an hour. No inclines, no resistance, just plain old fashion running.
After a half hour, Harry got on the floor to do some light exercises. Push ups, sit ups; those type of things. Alone in the privacy of his own trunk, Harry only wore the boxers he had worn to bed the night before. Since they were going in the hamper anyways, it made no sense to dirty another pair of clothes.
The multi functional exercise machine was next, and Harry completed the circuit he had developed months ago. He worked his arms, shoulders, legs, chest, back, and butt. His workout goals weren't to increase muscle mass, but rather to tone and strengthen. For instance, while bench pressing, instead of trying to lift as much weight as possible, Harry instead did large numbers of reps. He was up to lifting eighty lbs. now, and doing three sets of ten reps each. He'd alternate sets so as not to tire his muscles, but the job got done.
After bench pressing the first set, Harry adjusted the weights and worked his arms. The butterfly movement worked his triceps and shoulders. After that were squats, then chin ups, then curls with the free weights, leg lifts, and then he went back to the bench press.
Forty minutes later Harry was done. It amazed him still how much commitment he showed in his daily workout. It had taken a lot of willpower at first to commit to the training regimen. Often after just a few minutes, Harry had felt like throwing in the towel. But he kept at it, and even had Dobby and Winky "spot" him occasionally. Dobby had tried the treadmill once even, and tripped over his large sweater, losing all seventeen of his knitted hats. They got caught in the conveyer belt, and had taken the rest of the day to get out.
Workout complete, it was his turn in the shower. Thanks to magic, he didn't have to worry about hot water running out or anything. There were extra towels in place, and Harry wrapped one around his waist when he was done.
Winky had breakfast waiting for him in the kitchen, and it was a delicious selection of poached eggs, waffles, kippers, and fresh fruit. One of the benefits to having your own personal house-elf was the attention to detail. Not even the Hogwarts house-elves could be so attending, because they had all the students and staff to look after. For instance, Harry never liked potatoes much, so they rarely made an appearance on his kitchen table. The only kind of potatoes he liked were crisps and chips, because of the salt and flavorings, so that suited him just fine.
With the morning half gone, Harry retired to the library to begin some work. With the reading fresh in his mind still from last night, he decided to knock out the home work he'd been assigned. Just as he told his counterpart last night, it was his job while living in the trunk, to make sure all the homework assignments were completed on time. That way, the other Harry could worry about patrols, Quidditch, attending classes, the D.A., etc. All the Harry in the trunk had to do was homework and advanced training.
He decided to write Rofordit's essay first, as it was the easiest one to write. This wasn't the first time he had had to sum up his defense training for a new DADA teacher, and briefly Harry wondered if he could just use his essay from third year, and add on to it. He thought not.
The essay came easy enough, and Harry had no problem meeting the required eighteen inches. He even went over by a few, doing Hermione proud. This was the one subject he had no problem using details with. The hardest part was keeping his advanced learning separate from the school learning in his essay. All the things he had learned extra, going as far back to his Patronus, he had to keep out of the paper. He had to be fair to the class after all, as none of them knew as much as he did.
In both Charm and Transfiguration, Harry had to summarize the first chapters in his books, and list some of the spells he wished to learn during the current term. That wasn't hard to do, and he got both assignments done quickly after a short lunch break. Not having to do his Potions homework anymore, and already having done his reading for Arithmancy, Harry was done with his homework for the week. Piece of cake!
"Hey, how was class?" He asked the other Harry, who just entered the room. If he remembered correctly, he had just agreed to meet Ginny early for their first patrol together. They had both left class, and Harry had practically run away from her by accident.
"Not bad. In fact, it was almost too easy. I think we should have stopped studying Arithmancy once we got to a forth year level. I was bored to tears in class. I got some more work done on the stunner though. Although, you already knew that, didn't you?"
Yes he did, but it was still fun to talk to himself. Harry never tried to remember what he had said to himself in the past, so sometimes it was fun to see what struck a note of familiarity, and what came as a total surprise.
"Got some time to spar?" He was asked. Neither Harry had anything to do at the moment, so he agreed. Both changed into their workout robes (with the built in cooling charms), and made their way to the dueling chamber.
For the first twenty minutes, they tossed each other around like rag dolls. Long ago they had felt out their individual limits, and knew how rough they could be without permanently hurting the other. Every once in awhile one suffered from a sprained ankle or broken rib, but those were easy enough to fix with healing spells and the potions Harry kept on hand.
Today, Harry got the advantage early on over his younger self. Distracted by Dobby who had popped in to watch, Harry grabbed the collar of the other's robes, and neatly flipped him over his knee. The padded ground cushioned the fall, but Harry didn't wait to follow up on the attack.
Placing his foot over the other's arm, Harry grabbed the other's wrist, twisting it around his leg, and then sat down on the floor. The leverage Harry now had on the twisted appendage was applied full force, and the second Harry was in no position to get out of the submission move. After his opponent tapped out, Harry let go of the hold.
"Nice one!" He got complemented on. "Where did that come from?"
"Just now." Harry answered. "I'll show you a few more times this week. You'll be able to avoid it by Thursday."
Dobby had to leave, and with no more distractions, the fighting was much more evenly matched after that. There was no clear winner in the other bouts, but each got a good workout, and learned some new moves.
"OK, it's time. Ready?" Harry hated to hear this question, but knew he had no choice.
"Yeah, just go easy, would you. It's been over a week since we did this." Harry stood in front of the other, breathing deeply and waiting for the curse to come. He also took a ping pong ball from the shelf, which he had conjured weeks ago. That was his failsafe.
"OK, here we go. Three, two, one....Crucio!"
The pain wasn't as bad as it had been one month ago, but it still hurt like a bitch. After Harry had enough practice throwing off the tickling charm, they had switched to the Cruciatus. Everyday since then, with the exception of his first week back at Hogwarts, Harry spent a half hour cursing himself with the Cruciatus, trying to build up an immunity. It was working a little so far, but not much. Only twice had Harry been able to cast a spell through the immense pain the curse simulated.
Sharp knives dragged their way across every inch of his body, making shallow but painful cuts in their paths. Hot pokers were forced into his joints, making them burn and scream, causing Harry to collapse to the floor. Salt was rubbed in his wounds, reminding him of the pain, and causing greater harm. These were but some of the feelings he endured, as he held onto that ping pong ball with all the concentration he could muster. Both the ball, and his wand in his other hand, were the only two things he concentrated on.
The object, of course, was to cast a spell through the pain, so he'd be able to end the curse if a real situation ever presented itself. But he also had to keep his sanity, and that's were the ping pong ball came in. Harry had to concentrate not to drop it, or else the curse would stop. That was their signal, in case the pain ever became too much, or in case the curse was held too long.
This time however, Harry managed to hold onto the ball. Usually he would drop it about two minutes after dropping to his knees, which was another two minutes after the curse began. When he first started, Harry only held the curse on himself for at most thirty seconds. Over time, he extended that. Voldemort wouldn't be so unforgiving, so Harry forced himself to not be either.
"Ex-Expelliarmus!" He managed to say after god knows how long of being torn apart. Immediately the pain stopped, and Harry felt a dull thump on his chest, which was his opponent's wand being summoned to him. He managed to stay on his knees, but only barely.
Soon he felt a vial pushed to his lips, and drank what he knew would make him feel better. The potion to counter the effects of the Cruciatus was perhaps his most used potion, and Harry always made sure he had a liberal supply on hand. The pain dulled, feeling came back to his limbs, and within a minute, Harry was back on his feet.
"Congratulations. That's the third time now we've been able to cast a spell through the Cruciatus. How did it feel that time?"
Leaning against the wall, Harry found his voice, and tried to explain what he had felt.
"It started the same." Harry explained to the other. "At first the pain just assaulted me, and I didn't know what was happening. I concentrated on my hand, so as not to drop the ball, and soon my vision went. You know; blackness everywhere, only a dim light at the end of the tunnel. But then I started to concentrate on the pain, instead of trying to ignore it. I tried to split up the different feelings I was experiencing, and then I only concentrated on one of those. This time, I chose the dull pain. It felt like Dudley was beating me over every inch of my body, but at least it wasn't a sharp, searing pain, like knives or burning. Once I got that dull pain in my head, I was able to ignore the others. It still hurt, a lot, but then all of a sudden I was able to cast a spell. I think that might be the key; trying to segment the feelings, instead of trying to overcome them. I don't remember what happened the other two times I fought through the spell, but this worked better than those times I think."
"I agree. Since you haven't done this in over a week, why don't we stop here today. We'll work more later. I got to go get ready for supper anyways. See you tomorrow."
A friend might have stayed to see Harry through the full recovery of the pain spell, but since the man leaving the trunk wasn't a friend, but a version of Harry himself, he didn't. He already knew Harry could handle himself, and would make a full recovery within an hour.
Normally, both Harrys would take turns casting the curse on each other. But because one Harry had to make appearances in class and at meals, it would look awkward if he showed up still feeling the lingering effects of an unforgivable curse. So while at school, it was agreed that only the Harry living in the trunk would have the spell cast against him. He'd have a week full of practice, then a week of rest. Not a bad schedule, considering.
After a second shower, followed by a soak in the tub for his aching joints, Harry made his way back to the sitting room area. Dinner was still more than an hour away, and he spent the time doing some light reading, and talking with Dobby and Winky.
The elves made numerous trips back and forth between London and the trunk each day, but since they only had to pop back and forth, it wasn't anymore trouble than walking into a different room. And they always seemed to know when Harry required their company. Amazing beings, house-elves were.
Dinner was just as delicious as always, and all three enjoyed it together this time. It had taken a lot of effort to get the elves, Winky especially, to join him in his meals, but they had finally relented. "Only because Mister Harry Potter is alone, and needing company," they said, but Harry liked to think differently. He liked to think they were becoming more friends than employer/employee.
After supper, Harry went back to his library to make a list of what he wanted to accomplish over the next few days. With his homework done, he had a lot more free time now.
Three hours later he was done. With tomorrow's plans all set, Harry retired for the night. Once more, after some pleasure reading and Occlumency exercises, Harry tucked himself into his king sized sleigh bed, and cast a "Nox" to dim the lights, put his wand on the bedside table, and went to sleep.
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Wednesday
After his workout, late breakfast and shower, Harry got to work on the list he had made the night before. Knowing that he'd turn in Wormtail later that week, and that presently the rat was still locked in a cage back in London, Harry made that his first order of business.
The seventh compartment of his trunk; the large, empty room covered in stone surfaces, was Harry's first destination. Until now it had been left empty, and in fact, Harry had only ever been in it twice. The first time to take a look around, and the second, when he had tested out his new broom.
Now he had to use the space though, in a way he had been planning on for quite some time. Harry trusted Dobby and Winky to look after one single prisoner back home, but no more than that. And since Harry's plan was to have more than one, he had to have a place to put them. Time to redecorate.
The next two hours, Harry spent creating stone walls in the large room, forming cells, about the same size as Wormtail's. Because he had already done this once, it didn't take a lot of research or trail and error, just time.
Harry started off creating ten cells, all along the shorter wall in the back of the room. Each stone wall that separated the cells were a foot thick, and charmed to be soundproof. Harry added a ceiling as well, as the room was too tall otherwise. He's didn't want to give Wormtail or any others a vaulted ceiling. This was a prison cell, and was meant to be uncomfortable.
The front of the cells each had a door, four inches thick made of solid oak, also charmed to be soundproof. They had an additional charm though, to make them see through as well. That way, Harry could see into the cells by muttering a simple word. The doors weren't transparent from the inside, so the finished product was like a one way mirror, only with no refection on the other side. He could have used his magic lens to see through the doors of course, but that took active concentration. If Harry charmed the doors see through, it would be less taxing on him.
Furnishing the cells took only a few minutes. Each got a thin mattress pad, which was secured by magic to the floor, so it couldn't be used for any other purposes. A thin blanket was folded at the end of each bed, and there was a bucket too, in a far corner. The famous bucket.
Remus had thought the bucket was a bit medieval, as mean of using as a toilet. But Harry had no practice making indoor plumbing, either using magic or without, so that was the best he could do really. Once a day he'd have to go by to vanquish any waste the buckets might contain, but that was their only upkeep. When he delivered food and water twice a day, he'd give any unfortunate persons who occupied the cells some extra water to wash up too.
In London, Wormtail was given some muggle paperbacks to read; the only way to spend his time. Harry had bought them in a bookshop early on, and had about twenty novels so far. Those he had, he brought out from his library, and made a separate shelf for in the seventh compartment, which Harry realized he now was thinking of as his "prison." Twenty novels wouldn't last much longer, and Harry made a note to himself about getting some more at the first chance he got.
With the structural building complete, Harry took a break for lunch. The elves weren't around for this meal, so Harry made do with a sandwich and a butterbeer. His original supply had run out a long time ago, but Harry had sent Dobby for more. There were now five cases of eighty bottles of butterbeer stashed in his pantry, and that would last a long time.
After lunch, Harry went back to his prison and started the second stage of the building; the spells. Besides the soundproofing and one-way sight spells, which had to be cast on the materials when they were created, Harry still had a lot to do.
The first spell Harry cast was one he learned from the auror handbook he had bought. It was a standard ward used for interrogation rooms, holding cells, and all prisons. It basically was a suicide prevention spell; it made it impossible for anyone to harm themselves without the aid of magic. If one had a wand, they could probably overcome the spell, but Harry was sure to properly search anyone before putting them in the cells. He still had Wormtail's wand in his trunk's second compartment. Remus had left it with him that night after the attack, and it hadn't been mentioned since.
Next came the anti-apparition wards, which weren't Harry's strong suit. He had tried casting the spells on his apartment building when he first moved in, and wasn't able to. Then he tried just to cast it on his floor, and again was unsuccessful. They were some of the hardest wards to erect, and Harry still had little experience. Only when Wormtail was captured, and they needed to make sure he didn't escape, had Harry successfully cast the ward. That time, it had just been around the small cell Wormtail occupied. Now, months later, Harry thought he might be able to cast the ward over all ten cells at once, but he didn't want to take that chance. He already knew it was possible to apparate out of his trunk if the lid was open, and Harry didn't want to take any chances. He cast the ward ten separate times over each of the cells.
Harry looked everywhere through his books for a spell to prevent the animagus transformation, but he never was able to find one. The best he could come up with was the spell to transform an animal back to a human, like the one he used on Wormtail at the press meeting. No matter, the cells he had made were air tight, which led to his next need.
A spell to circulate the air was cast on all the cells, so occupants wouldn't suffocate to death. Not that that would be a bad thing necessarily, but Harry didn't want to be responsible for any undeserving deaths. He'd much rather see them suffer. If a Death Eater happened to die by accident, then fine, as long as it hadn't been caused by him.
After that, most of the spell work was done. The rest was all strictly for decoration and effect. A full set of chains and shackles got conjured, one to be attached to the far wall of every cell. Harry also stained the stone walls with some rust colored markings, to make it look like blood. It wasn't real of course, but any Death Eaters lucky enough to find themselves prisoner wouldn't know that. Harry hoped to convince them that they were imprisoned in a far less forgiving space then a school boy's magic trunk. Since his trunk was a one of a kind, Harry thought it would work.
It was mid afternoon by the time Harry had finished. Each cell was even more secure than his original back at the Hideaway, and Harry couldn't think of another way to improve them. Time to test them out.
Using the portal to travel back into the sitting room, Harry found Dobby and Winky in the kitchen, preparing supper. Breakfast and dinner were the two meals they usually cooked for him while locked in the trunk, and lunch he had to fend for himself.
"Winky?" Harry asked. "Has Wormtail been fed a meal yet today?"
"Yes Master Harry Potter, sir. Dirty evil wizard has been fed and bucket cleared. Crying was heard from his cell last night again, but Harry Potter said not to do anything besides clean and feed nasty man, so Winky did nothing about crying. Is there something Winky can do for you?"
"Yes, I need to bring Wormtail here. I'm moving him, so you'll no longer have to look after him. But I can't use a portkey to bring him into Hogwarts, and I can't leave this trunk either. I was wondering if you could pop him here with you. You can stun him first, just to make sure he doesn't cause trouble."
Winky had a horrified look on her face. It was possible for her to bring others with her when she popped, the elf version of apparition, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"Oh no, Master Harry Potter, sir. Winky must not bring wizard or witch that way. Popping is very painful for witches and wizards, sir. Cruel man would not be liking that, no he wouldn't."
"Winky," Harry explained, "I know that it will hurt him, but no permanent damage done, right? Anyways, I need to get him here, and this is the only way I can thing of right now. I can't make a portkey for him to use, because that might alert Professor Dumbledore. I'll have to check that out in the future. And I'd go get him myself if I could, but I can't leave the trunk to fetch him. So please, can you do it this once? I promise I won't ask again."
If Winky wouldn't agree, Harry wasn't worried. Dobby surely would, and he was but a finger snap away. If worst came to worst, the other Harry could always sneak out a secret passage, apparate to the Hideaway, and stun Wormtail then, bringing him back in his pocket as a rat. That would take too long though. Besides, he never did that last week, so that's why he knew either Winky or Dobby would bring Pettigrew.
"Alright sir, Winky will do just this once. But I is telling you, hurt really good this will. Shall I go now, Master Harry Potter, sir?"
'Whenever you're ready Winky. Bring him back here please; I'll be waiting."
With a last look of horror on her face, Winky closed her eyes and snapped her fingers, disappearing in a puff of smoke. She was gone for over a minute, and Harry spent that time drawing his wand, and waiting for their return.
The second they showed up, Wormtail screamed out in agony, and Winky hurried away, hiding behind the legs of her master. Wormtail's pain caused him to break out of whatever elf body bind he had been in, and he crumpled to the floor. Still in pain, he looked around at his new surrounding. But Harry stunned him before he got more than a glimpse of the room. Then he stunned him a second time, just for good measure.
After that, it was simply a matter of hauling the limp body through the portal, into the "prison" compartment, and unlocking the closest cell. Harry felt no compassion as he threw his captive in, and threw the solid oak door shut, making sure it was locked with both a spell, and the heavy iron bolt fastened on the outside. There was no way Pettigrew was worming his way out of this cell.
Winky had gone already when Harry returned to the nicer compartment, and she obviously forgot to bring the muggle paperbacks with her too. No matter, it was a trying day for her. And Harry had forgotten to remind her. Dobby would have to bring them in the morning.
The male house-elf had left as well, but had left dinner warming in the oven. Another culinary delight, much tastier than the gruel Wormtail had been eating this past month. Dobby had prepared a chicken dish with what Harry suspected was goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It assaulted Harry's senses, but in a good way. Two breasts were polished off before Harry knew it, and he spent time savoring the flavor of the third. A forth chicken breast was left over, which Harry wrapped up and put in the cooler, just perfect for a late night snack, or a light lunch. Those house- elves thought of the littlest things.
After dinner, Harry read some more of the advanced books he had purchased in Diagon Alley. He was concentrating on mainly offensive spells now, and he wasn't afraid to study some of the darker choices that he came across. Harry still had not attempted any of the truly dark art pain curses, or the foreign equivalent unforgivables, but those were the only items Harry drew the line at. Everything else was fair game.
He stayed up much later than normal that night, and had no time for pleasure reading, but feel asleep content nonetheless, after fifteen minutes of his meditation.
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Thursday
Morning was the same. It always is. Wake up, run on the treadmill, work out, take a shower, than eat breakfast. Sometimes the monotony did get to Harry, but he pushed that feeling back. What he was doing was necessary, and in just a few days, he'd be back among the living, with all his friends and teachers.
Before lunch he filled his time in the dueling chamber, practicing some of the new curses he had read about last night on the practice dummies. They had got old too, but they were still dead useful. They just stood there, not moving, taking the full brunt of the spells. The first few weeks Harry had tried the dodging feature they were installed with, but that was ridiculous. He didn't know if it was because the dummies were two decades old, or because he was just ahead of their level, but the dummies couldn't manage to avoid his simplest attacks. They would be great against a toddler, but even a first year muggle-born would be able to hit the targets nine times out of ten. It didn't bother Harry much. When it came to a worthy opponent able to dodge curses, he had his other self to practice on.
One of the dummies was already damaged beyond repair, or rather, burnt beyond belief. Harry had gotten a little over excited with an incendiary spell awhile back, and the doll's inherent magic was unable to fix the damage. It was still useable, but the spell gauge no longer worked, and it looked rather ragged. Harry always made sure to try out new spells on that dummy first, to not chance damage to any other. That had only increased the beat up look to the doll, but at least it protected the others.
A salad and the leftover chicken was what Harry had for lunch, and this time instead of a butterbeer, Harry had a glass of lemonade to drink. Variety was nice every now and again.
After lunch, the other Harry popped back over for another round head to head. Because he always had only one class in the afternoons, and the two other periods were free for him, he always made the time for some sparing or dueling in the afternoons. Yesterday was an exception, because he had to construct the cells. So today they were back on schedule. They alternated with the dueling and the sparing, and today was more muggle fighting. Harry showed the submission move he had used on Tuesday again, and true to his word, by the end of the session, both were able to apply and avoid it.
Another round of the Cruciatus followed, but this time he was shown no mercy. They went a full half hour, with Harry being subjected to the curse six times, before they quit for the day. He drank six restorative potions as well, and that was the limit one should drink at any one time. Twice he had fought through the pain to disarm his attacker, and that was high success as far as Harry was concerned. He felt proud of himself, no matter how much he hurt, as he took a long soak in the bathtub.
After dinner, rather than pick up on the reading he had left off on last night, Harry entered into his potions lab. He felt bad that Dobby and Winky had to share the smelly room when they were here, but at least now they had a more comfortable place to stay. Harry hadn't set foot into the elves' room after he presented it to them back at the Hideaway, so he assumed they either enjoyed it, or had changed it to their liking. As a result, the curtain opposite his cauldron tables was taken down, but there was still a workspace and two small cots off to the side. When the elves were in the trunk, they still needed a place to do their work, or to rest if they wanted. Dobby had gotten hooked on infomercials last month, and sometimes stayed up late to watch them. He had a habit of dozing off during work, and sometimes needed a short nap to get him through the day.
Currently, Harry only had one potion brewing; Veritaserum. It was almost impossible to brew, and took a full lunar cycle too. Before now Harry had been using more simple truth serums, but attempted the stronger one three and a half weeks ago. It had been simmering in his copper cauldron since, and he had to periodically add ingredients and stir the clear liquid. He didn't know if he got it right yet, as he still had to wait almost another week. He was trying to get it done to use on Wormtail, but now that he knew he'd be releasing the rat on Saturday, Harry knew that won't be. He'd have to find something else.
The problem was, if Wormtail was handed over to the Ministry on Saturday, what was preventing him from telling them about Harry? More specifically, his ability to cast a golden patronus, and the less than legal methods he had taken to capture the man who betrayed his parents. Harry had gone a full four weeks without trading more than three words with the man, but now it was time to talk. Harry had to know exactly what Wormtail had seen that night, and had to find a way to make him keep quite.
As he thought about his possibilities, Harry added the necessary ingredients to the Veritaserum, and started to brew more of the potion for the Cruciatus. Man, he used a lot of that stuff. Luckily, it was an easy potion to make, and it kept in storage for a long time too. This was only the third batch Harry had to make.
With the potion soon complete, and the Veritaserum back on a slow simmer, Harry cleaned his workspace, replaced his instruments, and did a final washing up for the night. He felt like taking a shower, but that would have been his third for the day. There was such thing as overkill.
Another seventy pages later in his fiction, Harry put the book aside. It was a good story; a tale about a young wizard apprentice, who had to impersonate his teacher when the old wizard accidentally blew himself up in a potions accident. The young wizard had to face down a dark lord (not nearly as evil as Voldemort) to uphold the honor of his teacher, and along the way, win the heart of the witch he loved. It was mostly an adventure piece, but had a fair smattering of romance. Harry knew it was silly, really, but sometimes he wished his life were as simple as in the fairytales. His life was more of a nightmare.
Filing those thoughts into their appropriate subsets, and finishing his Occlumency training for the night, Harry turned out the lights, and rolled over on the large bed, waiting for sleep to find him.
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Friday
Morning, the same. Lunch, not the same, but similar. Only in the afternoon did this day turn out any different from the day before. When Harry's counterpart came back from his afternoon Potions lesson, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"Had fun with Snape, did we?" Harry asked innocently.
"That was the most fun I've had all year long!" Was the answer. "I've never seen Snape so livid. It was better than Quidditch! I almost wish I could tell Ron and Hermione about this, but I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't tell a soul. I don't know how you didn't tell me about this all week long."
"It was hard." Harry answered. Thinking back on the incident now, it really was. How he had wished to be able to share the scene with some of his friends. Or even Remus, who admittedly Harry had bumped into only once since school started. Remus was doing some last minute errands for Dumbledore while the D.A. still hadn't been set up, and he had promised Harry a time next week to sit down and talk about it.
As his double got changed into some grey robes, ready for some exercise, Harry thought back to how that scene in the Headmaster's office played out, and how much worse it could have been.
****FLASHBACK****
"How dare he do that!" Harry thought to himself as he tore up the stairs, making his way to Dumbledore's office. He had managed to keep his cool in the potions classroom, most of it, but now on his own, his anger was getting the best of him.
"He was going to attack me! Remove my bones and force me to drink that vile potion. Even if I did get it correct, which I know Susan and I did, it still wouldn't have been right. And knowing Snape, he would have used someone else's potion instead 'accidentally,' and made me suffer anyways. The git!" All these thoughts Harry had to himself, climbing out of the dungeons into the empty hallways. Everyone else was still in class, and not even a ghost was around to take his anger out on. Boy, would he love to bump into Peeves right about now.
"Come in, Harry." He didn't even know how he had gotten to Dumbledore's office so quickly. If he didn't know better, he thought he might have used a bit of accidental magic to walk extra fast.
"To what do I owe this pleasure? Shouldn't you be in class right about now? Potions, I believe." Harry had just taken a seat, not because he felt more comfortable, but because he didn't want to wear a hole in the rug, pacing back and forth.
"I just left there, sir. I was kicked out of class. Or rather, I kicked myself out of class."
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling with mirth, even though they shouldn't have. If he knew the actions Harry took, he wouldn't be joking.
"And what caused you to remove yourself from class, Harry? And how did Professor Snape mange to prevent you from leaving? I dare say, they only way he would have let you out of class, was if it were his idea to begin with. He no doubt wouldn't allow it if the credit could be given to you. No, Professor Snape wouldn't have enjoyed that one bit."
Harry starred at his hands. His last conversation with Dumbledore had gone nothing like this. He once again felt like he had just been sent to the principal's office, just like those many times in primary school.
"Snape didn't have a choice." Harry muttered.
"What was that Harry?"
"I said, Snape didn't have a choice. When I left, he was still in the body bind I put him in. I left Hermione in charge of the class, and told her to release him after I left. No doubt, he's on his way here now."
"That's Professor Snape, Harry." His eyes were still twinkling, unbelievable. "And those are serious actions you claim to have taken. Would you care to tell me why you felt it necessary to curse your Professor?"
Harry mumbled again, and had to restate his answer. "Because Professor Snape was going to remove my bones, to make me test the Skele-Gro we brewed the other day. He always picks on me, and I told him no this time. I wasn't going to let him remove my pelvis. My pelvis for god's sake, and drink that nasty stuff! So when I refused, politely I might add, he threatened me with force, and went to pull his wand. I petrified him before he could. Then I punished myself in front of the class, and then I left. I'm surprised Snape's not here already."
"Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore corrected him again. "And I believe that's him, storming up my stairs now."
Harry turned his head and had a look for himself. Sure enough, with the aid of his x-ray lens, Harry got a glimpse at one pissed off potions master.
Snape didn't even wait for an invite into the office, but instead threw the door open, and burst into the office with his black cloak billowing behind him.
"Albus, what has this arrogant brat been telling you? I've put up with his stunts for far too long. I demand that he be expelled for attacking me! This has gone on long enough!"
"Sure has." Harry swore under his breath. He of course, was talking about Snape's attitude in potions class, which had been sour since Harry's first day at Hogwarts.
"Shut up Potter!" Snape screamed. "Don't you think you've done enough for one day? Just like your father, I swear! I knew from day one that you wouldn't amount to more than a pain in my backside, but you've gone too far now. Don't think you won't get what you finally deserve for this."
"Severus, calm down." That was Dumbledore, who at least had enough sense to not offer up any candy at the moment. "Why don't you take a seat and tell me what happened. Harry had time to tell me only a little, and I'd like to hear what happened from you."
Snape didn't sit down, but he did tell his story. Story, being the operative word. By the way he made it sound, Harry had been out for his blood that day. According to Snape, he had just been going about class as usual, when Harry rose out of his seat for no reason, wand in hand, and used it against him. Then he had threatened him at wandpoint, and left after cursing the Slytherins as well."
"That's not true!" Harry interrupted. "I only disarmed them when they drew their wands. And it was only Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle; not all the Slytherins. The rest were fine, I never touched them!"
"You expect the Headmaster to believe that, Potter? It's well known that you hate all Slytherins, and who do you think he'll believe? Me, a member of his staff for over ten years, or you, who's been known to constantly break rules. You always think you're better than everyone else!"
"Shut up! You're the one always thinking that, not me! Why don't you just shut the bloody hell up!" Harry was really loosing it now.
"Harry! That's no way to talk to a professor. Please apologize to Professor Snape for your use of language." Dumbledore was afraid he'd have to split these two up if things became more heated. Cautiously, he moved his wand in hand in case the situation arose.
Harry fumed silently for a few moments getting his temper back under control, and Snape likewise took the time to get a grip on himself. It wouldn't be wise to throttle a student in the presence of the school headmaster.
"Sorry I used bad language." Harry mumbled. He couldn't bring himself to apologize for more.
"Do you have a different version of how things transpired, Harry? If so, now's the time to say. As it stands, you're in for some very serious punishments."
"I already punished myself." Harry said. At Dumbledore's raided eyebrows, he explained more. "When I put Snape in a body bind, I knew I was breaking school rules. So I voluntarily took 25 points from Gryffindor, and I convinced Hermione, Draco, and Susan Bones to take 25 points as well. I also volunteered myself for a week's detention, as long as it's not with him." Harry gestured at Snape. "I said I'd serve with Mr. Filch, but anyone would be fine really."
Dumbledore thought about that, and privately was surprised at Harry's decision. It was very adult-like, and proved that he truly deserved to wear the prefect badge he had missed out on last year. Dumbledore was glad that he got the chance to rectify the problem.
"I admire your decision to punish yourself Harry. It was deserved, and I dare say the punishment doled out is more than fitting for the crime. However, the fact that you still attacked your teacher needs to be addressed. If anything, the fact that you admitted your indiscretion and sentenced punishment could be argued that this was all premeditated."
"But it wasn't!" Harry pleaded. "I told you, he was going to remove my bones, and force me to drink Skele-Gro. When I politely refused, he threatened me, and went to draw his wand. The whole class saw it! That's the only reason why I acted. It was self defense."
'Really!" Snape snorted. "Do you expect us to believe that I'd force an unsafe potion on a student after removing a bone, and threaten that student if he refused? What kind of idiot are you, Potter?"
"That's enough, Severus. You had your say, now I'd like to hear Harry's version of things."
"How about I show you?" Harry asked. It was just a random idea, but he was thinking about maybe using a pensieve, either his or Dumbledore's, to show the Headmaster his memory. Thinking more clearly, he had a better idea.
"What do you mean, show us?" Snape was getting a little nervous.
"Headmaster, remember what you did last week in this office, which I didn't take too kindly? Do that again, and I'll show you how potions class went." Even as he said this, Harry was gathering the memories in his head, pushing them all into a single subset. They were recent enough to call upon quickly, and Harry even added in the class he had on Wednesday. No doubt Dumbledore would be amused by Harry's quirks to Snape about his headgear, but he'd also get a chance to see how Snape always went after him, never anyone else.
Wand still in hand, Professor Dumbledore raised it to point to Harry, with the twinkle back in his eye. In the background Snape was demanding to know what they were talking about, but neither Harry nor Dumbledore heard him. They were too focused on each other's eyes.
"Legilimens."
Again, Harry felt the cold fingers probing his mind, this time in full force. Dumbledore wasn't trying to sneak into his head this time, and he had spoken the curse aloud, so it made sense the feeling was much stronger. Still, Harry brought up his inner defense walls, just in case Dumbledore tried to take advantage of his hospitality, and brought out the memories he had arranged. They began with Wednesday's class.
The whole class passed in front of his eyes, yet only a few seconds passed. In an odd way, Harry could almost sense when Dumbledore became amused, and when he became displeased. The sensation of cold fingers changed for each emotion he felt, both in texture and in temperature. It was hard to describe.
After that class ended, the next one began. Harry had stored much more detail in this memory, both because it had just happened a short while ago, and because he was actively involved in it. He could be wrong, but Harry though he sensed a lot less amusement, and a lot more anger from the feelings he associated with Dumbledore. Beyond anger even, maybe disappointment.
When the memory ended, and Harry stormed out of the classroom after leaving Hermione in charge, Dumbledore withdrew from Harry's mind voluntarily. Harry was still seated, and it only took a few seconds to recollect himself, and draw his attention to Dumbledore's face. He didn't look pleased.
"Severus, I am disappointed in you. Please stay after Mr. Potter leaves to discuss this further. Harry, I think we'll let the punishment stand. Our only problem now, is what to do about your Potions lessons. Clearly, it would be very hard for the two of you to work together again. But unfortunately, Professor Snape is the only one qualified to teach NEWT preparation classes. Do you have any thoughts?"
"What just happened? What did that boy show you? It's lies I say, nothing but lies!" Snape was screaming again, clearly displeased at how things had turned out.
"How am I supposed to lie in a memory, huh Snape?" Harry asked. He was starting to like this. The fact that no one corrected how he addressed the older man only further satisfied Harry. "That's almost impossible in Occlumency. Besides, according to you, I don't even have the skills to block out another person, much less redirect a thought."
"Shut up, you insufferable brat! That's another thing, Albus. Potter never showed up for his Occlumency lesson Thursday night. Why do you insist I waste my time if he won't even show up when he's supposed to." Snape might have been trying to change the topic, and blame something else on Harry, but Harry didn't care. He turned to look at Dumbledore.
"I think I made it very clear already that I don't need any lessons. Besides, I never agreed to them in the first place. You went ahead and made the decision without me, even after I swore last year I wouldn't do them with Snape again. I don't think I should be penalized for skipping lessons you know I never intended to show for, nor agreed with."
"What in blazes is he babbling about?" Again, Snape had to know everything.
"It seems Severus," Dumbledore explained, "that our young Harry became quite the Occlumency expert this past summer, as I had the unfortunate pleasure of finding out last week. I don't know where he got his instruction from, but he has far surpassed the level we require of him. I doubt Voldemort will pose a threat to Harry's mind again."
"Nonsense! How am I supposed to believe that? I took three years learning the art, and that was under your direct supervision. I refuse to accept that Potter has reached a sufficient level."
"Maybe I'm just smarter than you are." Harry muttered. It was loud enough to be heard though, which Harry later wasn't sorry about.
"Why you little...." Snape had had enough. No pompous brat was going to insult him, especially after humiliating him in front of his students. "Let's just see how advanced you are, Potter. Legilimens!"
Harry was totally unprepared for the assault, but luckily that didn't matter. His training would protect him, plus his inner sphere walls were still up to maximum alert from Dumbledore's entrance. Snape was fishing without bait.
Rising out of his chair to face Snape, Harry quickly thought of what he could use against him. The time was moving by slowly, with Snape sifting through meaningless memories, thinking he had full access to Harry's mind. He'd show him. Harry had just come up with the perfect thought to use, and boy was it a doosy.
Part of the subset of what he felt ashamed about knowing, was the memory of Snape as a child; hanging upside down, being teased by Sirius and his father. Quickly, before Snape could pull out of his mind, Harry separated that thought, and pushed it full force into the outer layer of his mind. When it hit Snape, both Harry and Dumbledore recognized the signs. Snape's eyes slammed shut, he staggered and fell to his knees, and he dropped his wand.
Normally, that would have ended the spell. But for some reason, it didn't this time. Perhaps it was because, as Snape relived the "Snivilus! Snivilus!" teases from his youth; the graying underwear and humiliation he had felt; he was actually reliving one of his own memories. Not the foreign memory of Harry. In a way, Harry soon realized, he was now performing Legilimency on Snape. Because the memory had not originally belonged to him, he was able to turn the tables on Snape.
What was even more impressive, was that while Snape continued to suffer the assault, Harry was able to access more of the man's mind. He was still a weak Legilimens, but had enough practice against the Dursleys to sift for thoughts. He couldn't pull out any additional memories, but he did feel what Snape was planning. Little did he know, Harry would be prepared.
Moving his hands behind his back, Harry drew his wand, and pointed it towards the floor, casting a rebounding charm. Snape couldn't see it from his vantage, and if Dumbledore noticed it, he didn't let on.
Once the charm was in place, and Harry had touched a small button on his watch (still behind his back), he let the memory assault fade. He pulled back little by little, until Snape was able to push the rest of Harry's mind away himself. He took an additional minute to realize he was on the floor and had dropped his wand, but soon enough he was back on his feet, with daggers shooting out of his eyes. Dumbledore hadn't said a word since the attack began.
"You little shite! Flipendo!" Dumbledore was more surprised than Harry, and made to block the spell, but it was too late. It had already traveled the short distance across the room, and hit Harry dead on the chest. If it hit correctly, it probably would have knocked Harry clear across the rest of the room, and halfway through the wall. Madame Pomfrey no doubt would have had a patient for the next few days to say the least. Luckily though, the spell fizzled out on Harry's chest. His dragoon hide vest helped block the curse, as did the shield charm he had activated from his watch moments ago. One of the watch's functions, Harry had read months ago, was a shield charm that would encompass the body, and work for most mild offensive spells. It had to be recharged after every use of course, but it was still as powerful as any other shield charm. The small button Harry pressed behind his back had activated the shield, and it had stopped the curse beautifully.
Before Snape had the chance to attack again, Harry brought out his wand this time, and pointed it at the floor. Snape paused momentarily confused, but reacted when Harry voiced a complex restraint spell. As expected, he forwent the simple "Protego," which wouldn't have worked against the powerful restraint spell anyways, for a more complex and powerful shield spell. Unlike the Protego charm, this version of the shield spell conjured up a physical barrier to block spells. Voldemort had used something similar during his battle with Dumbledore, at the Ministry building last June. Voldemort's shield then had been silver, and Snape shield was now brown, but it didn't matter. The shield failed all the same.
Because Harry's spell wasn't aimed at Snape; it was aimed at the floor in front of him. And thanks to the simple rebounding charm he had cast already, the spell bounced off the floor harmlessly, and hit Snape dead center from a downward angle. He was out for the count.
The restraint spell Harry used he had learned just two weeks ago. It was one of the most powerful ones available, and had the advantage of restraining both a wizard's hands and feet, as Snape soon found out.
Just after the spell hit Snape in the waist, four silver blurs traveled from the impact point, and headed towards each limb. Once at his hands, the silver blurs formed metal gauntlets around his wrists. The same was happening at his ankles, with the metal bands cutting through the black robes with ease. Once all four metal bands were secure, they tightened significantly. So hard in fact, that Snape was forced to drop his wand. Then, with a final flick from Harry's wand, the metal bands' magnetism kicked in, and all four bands snapped together.
It was quite funny really. It looked more like Snape doing a reverse jumping jack than anything else. His two hands jerked down together in front of him, so now his wrists were touching. At the same time, his ankles snapped together, and the metal click echoed through the circular office. Then the last final movement happened, as Snape's feet and hands were attracted to each other. His feet actually left the floor as the restraints left him in a hog-tied position mid-air. A second later, Snape landed on his ass with a yelp of pain.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Release me at once!"
"Silencio!" Ahhh, nice and quiet. Just the way Harry like it. At least, the way Harry liked it when Snape was in the room. Harry enjoyed the momentary peace, until an indistinct sound interrupted his thoughts. It was Dumbeldore clearing his throat. Harry had almost forgotten about him.
"Sorry sir, but he attacked me. I just defended myself." Harry walked over to Snape now, and bent down over him, pushing more buttons on his watch. He also pushed up the sleeves of Snape's robe, not caring about the venomous looks Snape was directing his way.
"I was here Harry, and while I don't support unauthorized dueling against the staff, I agree that you handled yourself admirably. If Severus ever had a chance to convince me you were at fault for your attitude in class earlier today, he has just lost it. I'll speak with him later about this of course....Er, Harry? What are you doing?"
"Sorry, sir. This new watch I got, besides having a built in shield charm, which you've seen works, also has a built in dark arts detector. It can work any number of ways, but I decided to set it to detect a certain dark art spell. I'm using the Dark Mark on Snape's arm to set the detector. Hopefully, this way whenever I'm in the presence of a Death Eater, I'll have some forewarning."
"Interesting. I'd never heard of a dark arts detector working like that, but I'm interested to see if it would work. I'm certain you won't encounter any Death Eaters while at school, but in the presence of Professor Snape at least, the alarm should go off. Please keep me informed."
Harry nodded, and worked his way back to his chair. He momentarily thought about kicking Snape as he passed by, but held back the temptation. Instead Harry just stepped over him, as if he wasn't there.
"Now Harry," Dumbledore picked up where he left off, "we still need to discuss your schooling. Potions is a subject you can't drop out of, and you already have the bare minimum of subjects as it is. I was most disappointed to learn that you only elected to take five classes. But now that I've seen your, eh, extracurricular studies, I'm confident you won't whittle away the time. Do you have any suggestions about continuing potions though?"
It was awkward talking civilly with the Headmaster, while Snape was still screaming in silent protest on the floor behind him, but Harry was able to address the problem. He took a few minutes to think of a solution, but finally gave up.
"I can't think of a thing, Headmaster. It's obvious I can't be in class with Snape, and as you said, he's the only professor qualifies to teach NEWT level potions. Not that he teaches us much." Yeah, Ron had said something similar like that earlier in the week. What was it exactly? Oh yeah.
"You know, Professor. I was just reminded of something Ron said at breakfast a few days ago. He said he was glad he was in remedial potions, as now he finally had a chance to learn something. He figured Snape really hasn't taught us much in the last five years. Only by reading our texts, and by being bothered by Hermione, have we learned the material at all. I was wondering, it there's no one else to teach me Potions, can I just do it myself? I was already doing some advanced reading myself this summer. It wouldn't be hard to continue like that. After all, all Snape does in class anyways is write the recipe on the board, and then make us figure out everything ourselves anyways. I think I could manage on my own."
Dumbledore paused to think about it. Individual study wasn't unheard of, but it was rare. Usually it only happened when a student requested to study a subject that wasn't currently on the curriculum. Rodger Davies had been the last student, a Ravenclaw boy who had wanted to study magical law. Still, if there were a safeguard in place....
"I think that would be a fine idea Harry, as long as we made sure you were keeping up with your class. Perhaps you could meet with Professor McGonagall once a month to show your competency. Or another professor perhaps, who could borrow Professor Snape's lesson plans for the day."
"How about this professor?" Harry suggested. "I can just compare notes with Hermione every so often. She can even evaluate my work every once in awhile. I'm sure even Snape would agree, were he able to talk, that she's one of the best Potion students of our year. And there's no way she would lie for me about schoolwork. She won't even let me or Ron copy notes from class. I'm sure she'd be willing."
Dumbledore was smiling. "Yes, Ms. Granger is a fine student, and I think that plan will do nicely. I still want to reserve the right to call you to my office though, to test your skills myself should I see the need. I'll also have a few discussions with Ms. Granger, to keep you on your toes, so to speak. Think of it as a pop quiz, if you need. Yes, I think this will work out nicely indeed. Now we only need to arrange you some lab time. There's only the one NEWT potions laboratory, and we'll have to work around Professor Snape's schedule."
"Professor..." Harry interrupted. "If it's OK, I have my own place to brew potions. I bought a full cauldron set this summer, along with a NEWT level potions kit, extra ingredients, scales and measuring spoons, and everything else I need. I won't have to bother Snape this way."
Clearly, Dumbledore was surprised. He still didn't know about the extent of Harry's Diagon Alley purchases, and it was beginning to dawn on him how much he still didn't know. The pieces he thought were fitting together, concerning the whereabouts of Harry during the summer, were once again falling apart.
"It seems," Dumbledore said, "that you purchased more in Diagon Alley than the texts you indicated in your letter. I wonder, what else did you buy?"
Harry smiled. "Now much more. Only more books, this new watch, a ring, a pensieve, a new trunk, some robes, more clothes, and a few other things I'm not ready to tell you about yet. I wanted to be prepared after all. If not for life, then at least for Snape's class. I planned to brew my homework ahead of time, so he couldn't mess with my formulas."
"Harry," Dumbledore admonished, "while I accept the fact that Severus had been hard on you this year, and possibly last year as well, you can't expect be to believe that he actively tries to ruin your potions. He's the teacher in the subject, after all. It's his job to correct your mistakes, not encourage them."
Harry was starting to get mad again. Did Dumbledore really believe Snape was incapable of purposely ruining a student's potion just to embarrass them. If he did, then he didn't know his staff well.
"If you don't believe me, take another look Professor. I've got a special part of my mind dedicated to how unfair Snape's always been to me."
This time Dumbledore wasn't as eager to enter Harry's mind, but he did anyway. Much more time passed than before, but that's because Harry had more memories to share. In fact, there was hardly a single class he took that didn't have something to show Dumbledore. And he didn't just bring up memories about him, either. He also brought up all the memories of Snape making fun of Neville because he melted a cauldron, or when he took points from Hermione for giving too thorough of an answer. Even the times Snape showed favoritism to Draco, while ignoring all the Gryffindors in his class, Harry had the good sense to recall. When he was finished, the Headmaster was looking just as upset as he had earlier.
"Really Severus, was all that necessary." He was looking right at Snape now, who was shooting death glares back at Harry. "I know it's required that you show some favoritism to the children of those who keep council with Voldemort, but that doesn't excuse your horrific behavior.
"Harry." Dumbledore had turned his attention back now. "I'll make sure to discuss this further with Professor Snape so it doesn't happen again. And while your detention with Mr. Filch still stands for next week, I'm willing to replace the hundred points you lost to Gryffindor for the times professor Snape took them away from you and the others undeservingly. If you wish to let Mr. Longbottom and Ms. Granger know, that is fine, but please keep that to the extent of your conversation. All else that took place here today is to remain confidential. I trust you with that fact. Please don't disappoint me."
"I won't sir. Is there anything else?"
"No Harry, I don't believe so." Dumbledore made an over exaggerated gesture to look at Professor Snape on the ground. "I think once you release our potions master from his bonds, you're free to leave."
Harry got up and stood. "Thank you, sir. I guess I'll see you at the press conference tomorrow,"
As he walked towards Snape, Dumbledore didn't agree with or deny Harry's statement. He remained silent, as he hadn't yet decided if he should attend tomorrow's activities.
Harry canceled the muting spell, and then stepped towards the door. As he made to open it, Dumbledore called back his attention. Snape had the good sense not to say anything.
"Ah, Harry? Perhaps you could release Professor Snape from the manacles as well?"
"Sorry Professor." Harry answered with a grin. "But I just learned that spell. Undoing it is next on my list though, I promise. Goodbye." As he climbed down the stairs, Harry could have sworn he heard one professor curse and swear, and the other laugh quite happily. Wonder which one was laughing?
*****END FLASHBACK*****
Both Harry's spent more time than normal in the trunk that night. One didn't have a choice, and the other was avoiding the rumors spread around the school. Both got in a great workout, and just for old time's sake, they each used the same restraint spell on each other when they got the chance. And yes, they knew how to counter it as well.
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Saturday and Sunday
The weekend passed quicker than any other two days did, possibly because Harry slept in late on both days, and played a lot of games with Dobby and Winky as well. He did his training and everything, sure, but with the other Harry busy with the press conference, and then handling his friend's reaction to the newspaper article, the Harry in the trunk had to pass time by himself. Plus not having Wormtail to take care of anymore was another blessing. He didn't miss clearing the rat's waste in the slightest.
In the end, to find out what Wormtail really knew, Harry resorted to using the standard truth serum he had on stock. He told Wormtail it was Veritaserum though, and it seemed to work.
Luckily, Wormtail hadn't broken free of the stunner at Hermione's house until after the Dementor attack was over. He had seen some non-descriptive ghosts or spirits, but never had the chance for a closer look. And as for where he had been, the only thing Wormtail had seen, either in the trunk or at Harry's Hideaway, was the inside of a stone cell. More concisely put, Wormtail posed no risk. Harry thought briefly about obliviating him, but in the end decided not to chance it. He still needed his memories in tact to prove Sirius's innocence, and Harry didn't want to mess that up.
Just for good measure though, Harry reminded Wormtail of the wizard's debt he still owed, and promised to make his life even more miserable if he revealed any secrets about Harry. After the painful transfer by house-elf he had suffered, not to mention being conscious as his hand was melted off, then haphazardly cauterized, Wormtail every reason to obey anything Harry asked of him, and he did. Hopefully he'd be kept in Ministry custody, where the one person he was more afraid of, Voldemort, would be unable to get to him.
A few meals later, and after some more showers, workouts, soaks in the tub, and new learned spells, Sunday night approached.
He had just put a steak and kidney pie in the oven, and found his other self in the trunk with him. He had just finished a game of chess with Dobby, and had some free time.
"Got time for some dueling before you leave?" He asked the other.
"You tell me." Was the answer. "You've been through this before, you should know."
Harry smirked. It felt good to turn the tables around this time. "Well in that case, you do have time. And if I'm not mistaken, you're in for an ass kicking too."
Pretty soon things had gone down just the way they had a week ago, except this time, the other Harry grabbed the time tuner from the hollowed out edition of "Hogwarts: A History." He winked out of existence, wearing his cords and comfortable tee, and left one single Harry alone. Sometimes it was nice to be the only one.
Climbing out of his trunk for the first time in almost a week, after taking a shower himself, Harry was asked about missing dinner by Ron and Dean. He just shrugged. It was allowed on the weekends, and besides. Harry had undoubtedly eaten better than the others had.
The next hours, before curfew, Harry spent in the common room, in the company of others. A week of near solitude made him appreciate friends al the more. He had his patrol later that night with Cami, and looked forward to seeing how that went as well. He and Ron wasted the time playing chess, and Harry was just beaten in time to put on some robes, his badge, and scrabble to the Great hall in time to meet Cami.
The patrol was uneventful, but more tiring than the one Tuesday night with Ginny. Because he couldn't use the Marauder's Map, Harry had to cover a lot more ground. Next week, he'd have to remember to take a nap Sunday afternoon. All the workouts and late night reading really took their toll on him. As they patrolled, he and Cami got to know each other better. Sure enough he had to pull her out of a trick step, and he even got the chance to tease her when he claimed to discover seeing a giant acromantula in a boy's lav. He said he was going to "slay the beast," and she believed him for all of the five seconds before he burst out laughing.
After a very long day, and an even longer week, Harry finally got to bed around one in the morning. He'd have to attend classes for the first time in a week tomorrow morning, and he drifted off to sleep, reminding himself to pick up his DADA homework from the trunk's library.
He awoke two hours later from a searing hot pain in his forehead. Voldemort wasn't happy.
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AUTHOR NOTES:
Well, there it is, the second half of my original chapter. Hopefully now that you've seen the length, you can appreciate it being split up. Also, I know for the most part this chapter is boring (the endless training descriptions, yada yada yada), but I felt it necessary to show everyone what Harry's doing with all the extra time. Plus, the cool scene with Dumble and Snape should make the chapter good enough for you to read. I had a lot of fun writing that scene. That's about it really. Next chapter shouldn't be too long, as long as I don't find more authors plagiarizing my stuff. J/K. I'd also like to take the time to thanks Joe Buck, who's gone back and proofread my first six chapters so far. I'm in the process of updating them, and will get all the spelling mistakes like "Occulmency" and "Thestreals" under control. Keep up the good work Joe Buck! Later y'all.
Blk Phoenix – Hey Rob, thanks for the correction about the Hogsmeade trip. It's not changed yet, but I will update it in the future. Yes I agree, that Dumble will know about the passages that Filch knows about too, but those won't come into play in my story. There might be another passage in the future, but you'll just have to wait and see.
Samyjoc, BigDaddy 753, & Stevie – Thanks for reporting the plagiarism by the other authors. The problems have all been taken care of now, and most of the stuff removed. I don't mine people using ideas (if given credit) or borrowing stuff, god knows I have, but I don't like the cut and paste jobs these authors had done. So thanks for letting me know.
Molly Morrison – You're not the only one to notice the improved relationship between Harry and Dumble. Let me explain. Both are avoiding the subject of Harry's disappearance, and are talking about other, random things. It's a bit like not mentioning the huge honking elephant in the room, if you've heard that expression before. Both characters are aware about the other's unease, so they ignore the most important topics of conversation, and instead talk about meaningless dribble. They aren't best friends or anything like that, they're just pretending for the moment that everything is OK. Obviously it's not, and we'll see more squabble later.
Xenocide – I didn't really work out the math behind phoenix populations, so thanks for the warning. I'll work out the numbers later to change everything, but at least you get the gist of what I meant. I haven't done real math since 10th grade (I placed out of AP Calc 2), so it's been awhile for me. Time to pick up the old TI-82.
Stellaluna Melonballer – I'm sorry that you don't like my version of Harry, but honestly, I don't see how he's that different from normal Harry, with the exception of being more aggressive. Tell me what you don't like about him (name examples), and tell me what you'd like to see, so I can either work with the character, or see the logic behind your decision. Describing him as "insufferable" and "going to die a virgin" are kinda harsh, so I'd like to see what brought you to those conclusions.
Linky2 – Not that I don't enjoy even the smallest reviews or anything, but yours don't make sense, and I'd appreciate it if you either stop making them, or say a little more. Just reviewing to say "Chapter 11" or "Just read Chapter 14" is a little annoying. Next time, please leave a real review.
Elven-Warrior-Princess – Sorry to disappoint you, but Nick Flamel really did die over 700 years old. I got his birth date off of the HP Lexicon. But no matter how old he really is, the point I was trying to make is that he's old. Real damn old!
Templar1112002 – I know about Occlumency, but I haven't the time to go back through all 14 chapters to fix, so I'm not right now. It's on my list to do though. And don't worry about Hermione, she'll not mother Harry much longer. I only thought it proper of her to do with the tour and such. That seems to be right up her alley. She'll relax soon, don't worry.
Cubs9911 – Sorry you don't like my portrayal of Ron, but I said from the start that I don't like him. And while I won't change his character from cannon, he'll have more prat-like moments than best-mate moments. Think of Ron as a see-saw. He'll have his ups and his downs in my story, just more down than up. Sorry if that bothers you, but I can't bash on Malfoy too much. I need someone else to pick on, and my muse pointed me towards Ron Weasley.
Grey Mirror of Erised – You say that at the end of OoTP, Sirius was cleared of all charges. When was this? If you can provide a page number or some proof, I'd be surprised. Who cleared him? So for now, unless you can prove otherwise, I'll be continuing my fic as if he was still an escaped convict at the end of Book 5.
Aconite Snape – Good catch on Lorne. I'm a big fan too, but I only got the idea for the name from the show. I never meant to copy it directly. I actually had a friend in HS named Loryn (girl), and I always liked the unique spelling of her name. She was a Mormon though. Weird.
Lucius-Is-Luscious – Thanks for your enthusiastic reviews. I'm glad I converted you from the dark side (aka Lady Ur____). I hope you're enjoying the story, and that you continue reading. Thanks again.
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I don't respond to everyone's reviews personally, just those that have comments or questions. Especially now that I'm receiving almost 100 reviews per chapter, I just can't fit them all in. So if you've written to say you liked my story and are waiting for more, than thank you.
I also now have a Yahoo! group addressing new updates my story, as well as pictures, info about live chats, etc. If interested, please visit. A link to the site is on my bio page.
Chapter 15 – How Harry Spends His Week, Take Two
The meeting with Cami Mitchell that afternoon went better than Harry expected. Actually, it was nice to have a normal, peaceful conversation after the eventful morning he had had, berating the Minister of Magic. As only Hagrid and Professor Dumbledore from the school had been present in town during the press conference, no one yet knew the things Harry had brought to light.
Cami was a shy Hufflepuff, a year younger than him, but not shy enough to not ask questions he felt less than comfortable with. If the two of them were going to be partners for the full year, she said, she really wanted to get to know him. For instance, would he expect her to go off on one of his hair brained adventures if they found something during a patrol? Or should she expect to be bothered by the Slytherins, now that she was partnered up with him?
It was nice to know that she could ask these uncomfortable questions, even if Harry had to struggle to answer them. Besides, the answers were what they both wanted to hear. Harry didn't want her to become any closer than she had to (like Luna and Neville had become close last year), in case she was hurt by association. Harry could maybe except the risk Ron, Hermione, and the others took in being associated with him, but Harry had no inclination for others to put themselves in jeopardy. Cami was likewise pleased. She thought they could be good friends, and patrol partners, and she even admitted to signing up for the DA, but that was as far as she was willing to take any relationship. She didn't want to risk her life, or that of her family, by being too close to him.
After the interrogation given by her, it was Harry's turn to learn some about Cami. He learned she was an average student at best, but hard working and fair, and that was what led to her appointment as prefect. Astronomy and Arithmancy were her two strongest subjects, and her least favorite was Potions. Not an uncommon answer there.
She also admitted to being rather clumsy at times, and told Harry some of the stories she had been through. Getting caught in a trick step at least once a week, falling out of her bed at night and not even knowing it, and accidentally getting dragon dung fertilizer in her school bag were only some of the things she was willing to tell Harry at first. She promised she'd tell him more as the year went on.
Almost a whole hour after they met in the library, Harry and Cami each took their leave, and went back to their common rooms to wash up for supper. Once there, Hermione and Ron were already actively engaged in a debate about a Herbology assignment, and Harry was able to enjoy a peaceful meal talking to Ginny and Neville.
The next morning during Sunday brunch, Harry didn't have the same luck. The whole school was talking in excitement when he entered the Great Hall, and he soon found out why.
"Harry!" Hermione admonished him. "Why didn't you tell us you went into Hogsmeade yesterday? We have to find out from a newspaper article? Not that I don't love what you've done, but really! You should have told us what you had planned."
"Sorry Hermione," Harry said between bites of his omelet, "I didn't tell anyone what I was up to. No one knew until the press conference. I couldn't risk Fudge hearing anything about my plans. How's the Quibbler article anyways?"
"It's bloody brilliant, mate!" That came from Ron. "Never thought I'd find a newspaper so much fun to read. This is better even then last year's article. They even mention me, by name! Here, take a look."
Harry already knew what the majority of the article would say, but decided to take a break from his porridge and have a read. After all, he had been the one to write the letter to Rita Skeeter three days ago, to give her all the background information.
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The Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, Tells All
By Rita Skeeter
In a shocking press conference held yesterday morning in the sleepy
town of Hogsmeade, a scandal the likes this reporter has never seen
broke out, implicating Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge himself among
others. Supposedly in attendance to accept the Order of Merlin, Third
Class for his heroic actions in combating Death Eaters and You-Know-
Who himself in a Ministry attack last June, and for working with
Ministry personnel, Harry Potter surprised all by refusing the award
for his "utter lack of respect for Minister Fudge."
Fudge, who hadn't expected a thing until Potter spoke out against him,
was telling bold faced lies about the current state of affairs in
relation to crime in our community. The tall tale he made up, about
how Harry single handedly fought off a group of Death Eaters to keep
them from a prophecy that would increase their master's supposed weak
power, was a blatant disregard for the real heroes of the night, and
an attempt to gain more political power. It's no secret that Fudge
has long attacked the reputation of both Harry Potter and Albus
Dumbledore, and this press conference was an obvious attempt to patch
frayed relations in light of the truth regarding the rebirth of You-
Know-Who.
"I wasn't by myself." Harry Potter wrote me in an exclusive letter,
which contradicts the Minister's fabricated lies. "I was accompanied
to the Ministry building my by best mates, Ron Weasley and Hermione
Granger. First we had to get past that hag Umbridge (Delores Umbrige:
still under investigation for her behavior while serving as Fudge's
personally appointed first ever High Inquisitor of Hogwarts), who
attempted to use the Cruciatus curse against me, but the three of us
managed to outsmart her. There were others who went with me too, but
I'd rather not give their names. He-Whose-Name-Must-Be-Hyphenated
(Harry used the dark wizard's real name here, but insisted that if we
don't publish it, we at least use this ridiculous name instead) is
cowardly enough to go after anyone to get to me, including supposedly
helpless students. If he's supposed to be so powerful and scary, why
is it he hasn't ever fought in a fair fight? No, he's got to pick on
school kids like me, and even then he can't win. I've faced him
(again, Mr. Potter used the name without so much as flinching) four
times now, and I've yet to suffer any permanent injuries.
Indeed, young Harry's story, which he promises can be verified by at
least a dozen other witnesses including Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus
Dumbledore, went on to shock us even further. Proving Minister
Fudge's statement about no one dying at the siege to be false, Harry
admitted that his own godfather, escaped convict Sirius Black, died
while fighting against, not for, the Death Eaters that night. All
this time, while Fudge has convinced the writers at the Daily Prophet
and the public at large that Black was the right hand man of You-Know-
Who, he in fact was innocent of his crimes. Furthermore, he was
sentenced to a life in Azkaban, under the guard of Dementors, without
even a trial.
"The real criminal this whole time has been Peter Pettigrew." Harry
again informs me in his letter. "He was my parents' secret keeper
when they went into hiding using the Fidelius Charm, and it was he who
told him (the V word again) my parent's location. The only reason
people thought Sirius was the secret keeper, was because it was agreed
that he would try to draw attention away from Peter. He was the
obvious choice after all, being my father's best friend, so that's why
he gladly took the role. He was much more capable of fighting off
Death Eaters than Peter ever was, who's still barely above the level
of a squib."
If this all sounds like too much to believe, then I agree. I too
doubted these accusations without proof. But during the press
conference yesterday, proof is exactly what Harry Potter offered. In
a stunning turn of events, the least of which was when a beautiful yet
unidentified white phoenix (see story, page 23B) perched on Harry
Potter's shoulder, Mr. Potter produced a live Peter Pettigrew from his
robe pocket, in his animagus form of a rat.
It seems that Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter all
became illegal animagi during their school years to accompany their
fourth friend, known werewolf Remus Lupin, during his transformations.
That secret was kept until now, and in his rat form is how Peter
Pettigrew managed to escape Ministry notice fifteen years ago, after
killing a street full of muggles, and cutting of his own finger to
falsely implicate Sirius Black. The same ability is how Sirius Black
managed to escape Azkaban three years ago, in his form of a large
black dog.
"Sirius told me the dementor's effects were less in his animagus
form." Harry explained. "That's how he kept his sanity, and how he
eventually escaped Azkaban, and remained a fugitive for three years.
The only reason he escaped at all, was because he saw a picture of
Pettigrew, in his rat form, in the Daily Prophet posing as my friend
Ron's pet. He was afraid Pettigrew was coming after me. 'Scabbers,'
as we knew him then, was given to Ron by his older brother Percy
Weasley. I find it ironic that such a wanted criminal was kept as a
pet by one of the Minister's most trusted aids."
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The article went on for another seven pages after that, and recounted the scene in the Shrieking Shack in Harry's third year, as well as the events as they really happened in the veil room last June. None of the other students or Order members were mentioned by name, but merely reported as "forces working in cooperation with Dumbledore." Harry didn't need to read that part of the article, as he already knew what happened. Writing the letter to Rita had been hard enough, but Harry had no wish to pour more salt on still open wounds.
As soon as brunch ended, the group of friends escaped back up to the common room to avoid the barrage of questions they were being asked. For once, Ron got a taste of what it was like to live life as Harry Potter, and he seemed to be enjoying it. So Harry let him, and he and Hermione were the first to get away, leaving Ron behind to his adoring public.
"How about some Quidditch practice?" Ginny asked Harry as they settled down on a few couches. Ron had just got back in the common room ten minutes behind the rest, and plopped down with a noisy grunt. "You probably need the practice, don't you?"
In truth Harry did. It had been almost a full year since he'd flown his broom, not counting the small circles he had flown in his trunk earlier in the summer. McGonagall had given Harry back his Firebolt after his transfiguration class on Thursday, and it was burning a hole in his trunk waiting to be flown. Harry still had to decide if the new broom was as good as his trusty Firebolt.
"Can't fly today." Ron let them know. "Hufflepuff has preliminary tryouts on the pitch pretty soon. They need just as many new players as we do, but they're awfully worried. Speaking of which, we should talk about the team soon Harry. We're going to need a new captain this year too."
"That shouldn't be too hard. Even counting Ginny, there's only the three of us on the team. Not too many options if you ask me. We still need to wait to meet with McGonagall first though. Let's put off Quidditch for another week at least. We'll still have time before tryouts." Harry knew that Ron wanted the position, and enjoyed teasing the redhead when he got the chance. Harry himself had no time to be the team captain along with all his other duties, so letting Ron control the team was just fine with him.
"What about visiting Hagrid? Didn't we agree to have tea with him this weekend?" Ginny second suggestion got shot down as well.
"Sorry Gin," Harry said, "but that was supposed to be yesterday. When he came to the press meeting with me, we agreed to meet next Saturday instead. With the press meeting, there just wasn't enough time."
"We'll I'm going to go do some research in the library." Hermione let them know. By now, Ginny and Ron were involved in a game of wizarding chess, and Neville had gone straight to the greenhouses from brunch. "This is my favorite time of year to study. No one else uses the library so soon after summer, and it's nice and peaceful. And I get first dibs on all the books too. Want to join me Harry?"
"No thanks." He said. "I think I'll go upstairs and do some work. I have to set my own lesson plans now for Potions, so I guess I better get that out of the way. See you all later."
Harry really didn't plan on coming up with lesson plans for his potions work, but it was a good excuse. As long as he kept to the same rate of studying as he had over the summer, he'd be fine with the work load. In fact, he'd probably even be far ahead of the rest of his class.
Once upstairs, Harry changed into some comfortable clothes, corduroy pants, a tee shirt, and his Birks, and went right inside his trunk. The first stop he made was his library.
It had been weeks since he had reorganized the bookcases, and he couldn't put it off any longer. All the texts he had read the second half of the summer, along with the ones he had already exhausted, he moved to their proper positions. His sixth year textbooks, which he now had a need for, he brought out from his school bag and placed on the shelves. They hadn't been touched for the most part of the summer, and it was time to rectify that.
His other self was doing something else in another compartment, so Harry had plenty of quiet to read the first few chapters in all his texts. That wasn't a lot considering he had already read most of his Arithmancy and Potions books, so that only left Transfiguration, Charms, and DADA. Harry wanted to get a good jump start on the rest of his class though.
For four straight hours Harry read, not stopping at all. The assigned reading in his classes didn't go past one or two chapters a piece, but Harry read at least the first four. His extra reading had really paid off. Although it was at first boring, the theory of magic books he had purchases really made the difference. Harry was able to pick up new spells and concepts much quicker than he had last year.
When he was done with that, Harry used the trunk's portal to enter the sitting room, where he found Dobby doing some last minute folding. He always did laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays, so that wasn't uncommon. As he was almost finished anyways, Harry didn't feel bad asking Dobby for a game of chess.
Playing chess with Dobby was much more fun than playing with Ron, as Harry found out soon after he hired him. In those first weeks trapped at the Dursleys', Harry had a lot of time to kill, and had decided to teach the elves how to play. He didn't dare use Hermione's nice marble chess set, but instead used a wizarding one he had found in the trunk when he bought it. Dobby probably wouldn't have liked the muggle chess set anyways. He had more fun watching the pieces demolish each other than he did anything else. In fact, Dobby still hadn't gotten the concept of winning. He was too busy directing his pieces into harm's way.
"Wheee! Dobby likes his pawnies getting blown uped. Wheee!" The game ended not long after it started. Harry had managed to stretch the game out to nine minutes this time. That wasn't long, but it was an improvement over how they had started. Harry couldn't believe he'd actually ever get the change to make a four move check mate, until he had played Dobby.
"Good game Dobby. Is Winky here by the way, or is she at the Hideaway?"
"Winky is back at home, sir. Winky is spending day watching strange sport called curling on the telly. But sport has brooms in which to clean, not to fly, so Winky likes it very much Harry Potter, sir."
The other Harry came into the room right then, as Dobby made his leave. He had magicked the clean, folded clothes to their trunk compartment, and popped away back to Winky, to spend his night off.
"Got time for some dueling before you leave?" The other one asked Harry.
"You tell me." He answered. "You've been through this before, you should know."
The other one smirked. "Well in that case, you do have time. And if I'm not mistaken, you're in for an ass kicking too."
Both Harrys laughed. "We'll see about that."
Once in the dueling chamber, both changed into their workout clothes, the Harrys set to work. They each had some ideas about how to challenge their DADA professor when the time came to duel her, and wanted to try out some stuff before then.
As opposed to when he had three of himselves to duel, Harry got to use more of his wits and cunning when dueling against only one person. With three, he had to rely more on speed and easy, quick spells to throw his attackers off balance. But Harry vs. Harry, he had to use more of a strategy compared to just quick thinking. It really was exhausting work.
The duel (or duels) lasted over an hour, with both Harrys winning a fair number of the fights. It seemed that in the next week Harry would learn a new curse that caused double vision, because he had been beaten with that by his future self in the last match.
"Want some food?" The victorious future Harry asked his younger self. "I put some steak and kidney pies in the oven earlier, and they should be ready soon."
"Let me jump in the shower first." He answered. "I don't want to be all sweaty when I make the leap. I don't remember you taking a shower last Monday night.
"I didn't." Was the laughing answer. "I had a shower in my trunk before the leap, right before I had some delicious steak and kidney pie."
The hot, steamy shower was just what Harry needed after the intense workout. Leeds really did a good job in designing it. In the past week, Harry hadn't used the dorm or prefect bathrooms once. He was too spoiled by his own.
Dinner was eaten relatively fast. The clock above the table had the time at 7:37, and there was only about twenty minutes until it was time to leave.
Making sure that he had his wand, dagger, holsters and dragon hide vest, and was wearing the same clothing he had seen on himself a week ago, Harry spent the last few minutes thinking about what he would soon learn. He was always a little excited before jumping back in time, to see what he had missed the first time around. Now that he was back at Hogwarts, it would prove to be even more adventurous.
"It's time." His other self reminded him. There was less than a minute till eight o' clock, which was the scheduled departure time. Both Harry's were back in the library now, where they had decided to always make the leaps from. In his hands, the other Harry held a large tomb.
"You know, Hermione would really have it out with us if she knew about this." He said. He was sitting in one of the four study chairs now, and handed the text over to Harry.
"True, but at least we bought it finally. She's only been after us to do so since first year. That's more than Ron's done at least. Even if we haven't read it yet."
Harry was talking about, of course, "Hogwarts: A History," which was the large tomb he held in his hands. Opening it up, Harry carefully took the small time tuner out of its hiding place, an empty hollow carved into the pages of Hermione's favorite read. Once placed back on the bookshelf, Harry had figured it to be one of the best hiding places he could think off. Nobody would ever think to look there, and no one except Hermione would give the book a second look.
With a last goodbye, Harry turned the small hands back six days exactly, and disappeared from sight.
The second Harry, who was now the one in his proper timeline, crawled out of the trunk after taking a shower himself. Ron and Dean were both in the dorm, and asked him about missing dinner, but Harry just shrugged. It wasn't uncommon for a student to skip a meal on the weekends, and his dorm mates had already seen him crawl into his trunk on more than one occasion. They were all still dying to know what was inside it, but Harry hadn't yet told them. In due time maybe, but not yet.
Meanwhile, six days earlier, Harry, wearing comfortable corduroy pants, a tee shirt, and his Birks, winked into existence in the library. The only noticeable change was the reorganizing of books he'd just completed in the future. Entering into the sitting area, he bumped into his other self, now the earlier version, leaving from talking to Dobby and Winky.
"Hey, aren't we missing someone?" He was asked. This sounded familiar.
"Nope." He replied. "You decided that while at school, you didn't need to push yourself so hard. So we'll only be traveling once each week from now on. Sunday nights at eight o'clock, we go back six days. The current us will worry about classes, the DA, Quidditch practices, prefect patrols, and so on, while the future version of us will keep up with advanced training, and do all our homework for next week. Trust me, it works out great. And boy, are you in for an exciting week!"
Harry laughed at himself, remembering how confused he had been when he had heard this answer, which was certainly how the other Harry was feeling right now. Time traveling still hadn't lost its sense of humor in his opinion, and Harry retreated to his trunk's bedroom as the other climbed back out into the dorm room.
With a quick change of clothes, and after reading fifty pages of a novel and doing his Occlumency exercises, Harry fell asleep after a long day of hard work.
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Tuesaday
When he woke up the next morning, after a nice lie in, the other Harry had already been and gone. Because he had to show up to breakfast, plus attend morning classes, Harry had agreed that while living in the trunk, he would sleep in late to allow the other to have access to the dueling chamber and showers. That way, he could get in a decent workout and have a fresh shower before school started. While that Harry ate breakfast and went to morning class, Harry (the one living in the trunk now) would have free access to everything.
The first thing he did, like every morning, was to start on the treadmill. He walked at first, to stretch his muscles and wake his body up, but then gradually reached a heavy jog. The treadmill didn't have any advanced mechanisms on it, being completely manual (not electric), so Harry didn't even know how fast he was running. He guessed he was running about ten miles an hour. No inclines, no resistance, just plain old fashion running.
After a half hour, Harry got on the floor to do some light exercises. Push ups, sit ups; those type of things. Alone in the privacy of his own trunk, Harry only wore the boxers he had worn to bed the night before. Since they were going in the hamper anyways, it made no sense to dirty another pair of clothes.
The multi functional exercise machine was next, and Harry completed the circuit he had developed months ago. He worked his arms, shoulders, legs, chest, back, and butt. His workout goals weren't to increase muscle mass, but rather to tone and strengthen. For instance, while bench pressing, instead of trying to lift as much weight as possible, Harry instead did large numbers of reps. He was up to lifting eighty lbs. now, and doing three sets of ten reps each. He'd alternate sets so as not to tire his muscles, but the job got done.
After bench pressing the first set, Harry adjusted the weights and worked his arms. The butterfly movement worked his triceps and shoulders. After that were squats, then chin ups, then curls with the free weights, leg lifts, and then he went back to the bench press.
Forty minutes later Harry was done. It amazed him still how much commitment he showed in his daily workout. It had taken a lot of willpower at first to commit to the training regimen. Often after just a few minutes, Harry had felt like throwing in the towel. But he kept at it, and even had Dobby and Winky "spot" him occasionally. Dobby had tried the treadmill once even, and tripped over his large sweater, losing all seventeen of his knitted hats. They got caught in the conveyer belt, and had taken the rest of the day to get out.
Workout complete, it was his turn in the shower. Thanks to magic, he didn't have to worry about hot water running out or anything. There were extra towels in place, and Harry wrapped one around his waist when he was done.
Winky had breakfast waiting for him in the kitchen, and it was a delicious selection of poached eggs, waffles, kippers, and fresh fruit. One of the benefits to having your own personal house-elf was the attention to detail. Not even the Hogwarts house-elves could be so attending, because they had all the students and staff to look after. For instance, Harry never liked potatoes much, so they rarely made an appearance on his kitchen table. The only kind of potatoes he liked were crisps and chips, because of the salt and flavorings, so that suited him just fine.
With the morning half gone, Harry retired to the library to begin some work. With the reading fresh in his mind still from last night, he decided to knock out the home work he'd been assigned. Just as he told his counterpart last night, it was his job while living in the trunk, to make sure all the homework assignments were completed on time. That way, the other Harry could worry about patrols, Quidditch, attending classes, the D.A., etc. All the Harry in the trunk had to do was homework and advanced training.
He decided to write Rofordit's essay first, as it was the easiest one to write. This wasn't the first time he had had to sum up his defense training for a new DADA teacher, and briefly Harry wondered if he could just use his essay from third year, and add on to it. He thought not.
The essay came easy enough, and Harry had no problem meeting the required eighteen inches. He even went over by a few, doing Hermione proud. This was the one subject he had no problem using details with. The hardest part was keeping his advanced learning separate from the school learning in his essay. All the things he had learned extra, going as far back to his Patronus, he had to keep out of the paper. He had to be fair to the class after all, as none of them knew as much as he did.
In both Charm and Transfiguration, Harry had to summarize the first chapters in his books, and list some of the spells he wished to learn during the current term. That wasn't hard to do, and he got both assignments done quickly after a short lunch break. Not having to do his Potions homework anymore, and already having done his reading for Arithmancy, Harry was done with his homework for the week. Piece of cake!
"Hey, how was class?" He asked the other Harry, who just entered the room. If he remembered correctly, he had just agreed to meet Ginny early for their first patrol together. They had both left class, and Harry had practically run away from her by accident.
"Not bad. In fact, it was almost too easy. I think we should have stopped studying Arithmancy once we got to a forth year level. I was bored to tears in class. I got some more work done on the stunner though. Although, you already knew that, didn't you?"
Yes he did, but it was still fun to talk to himself. Harry never tried to remember what he had said to himself in the past, so sometimes it was fun to see what struck a note of familiarity, and what came as a total surprise.
"Got some time to spar?" He was asked. Neither Harry had anything to do at the moment, so he agreed. Both changed into their workout robes (with the built in cooling charms), and made their way to the dueling chamber.
For the first twenty minutes, they tossed each other around like rag dolls. Long ago they had felt out their individual limits, and knew how rough they could be without permanently hurting the other. Every once in awhile one suffered from a sprained ankle or broken rib, but those were easy enough to fix with healing spells and the potions Harry kept on hand.
Today, Harry got the advantage early on over his younger self. Distracted by Dobby who had popped in to watch, Harry grabbed the collar of the other's robes, and neatly flipped him over his knee. The padded ground cushioned the fall, but Harry didn't wait to follow up on the attack.
Placing his foot over the other's arm, Harry grabbed the other's wrist, twisting it around his leg, and then sat down on the floor. The leverage Harry now had on the twisted appendage was applied full force, and the second Harry was in no position to get out of the submission move. After his opponent tapped out, Harry let go of the hold.
"Nice one!" He got complemented on. "Where did that come from?"
"Just now." Harry answered. "I'll show you a few more times this week. You'll be able to avoid it by Thursday."
Dobby had to leave, and with no more distractions, the fighting was much more evenly matched after that. There was no clear winner in the other bouts, but each got a good workout, and learned some new moves.
"OK, it's time. Ready?" Harry hated to hear this question, but knew he had no choice.
"Yeah, just go easy, would you. It's been over a week since we did this." Harry stood in front of the other, breathing deeply and waiting for the curse to come. He also took a ping pong ball from the shelf, which he had conjured weeks ago. That was his failsafe.
"OK, here we go. Three, two, one....Crucio!"
The pain wasn't as bad as it had been one month ago, but it still hurt like a bitch. After Harry had enough practice throwing off the tickling charm, they had switched to the Cruciatus. Everyday since then, with the exception of his first week back at Hogwarts, Harry spent a half hour cursing himself with the Cruciatus, trying to build up an immunity. It was working a little so far, but not much. Only twice had Harry been able to cast a spell through the immense pain the curse simulated.
Sharp knives dragged their way across every inch of his body, making shallow but painful cuts in their paths. Hot pokers were forced into his joints, making them burn and scream, causing Harry to collapse to the floor. Salt was rubbed in his wounds, reminding him of the pain, and causing greater harm. These were but some of the feelings he endured, as he held onto that ping pong ball with all the concentration he could muster. Both the ball, and his wand in his other hand, were the only two things he concentrated on.
The object, of course, was to cast a spell through the pain, so he'd be able to end the curse if a real situation ever presented itself. But he also had to keep his sanity, and that's were the ping pong ball came in. Harry had to concentrate not to drop it, or else the curse would stop. That was their signal, in case the pain ever became too much, or in case the curse was held too long.
This time however, Harry managed to hold onto the ball. Usually he would drop it about two minutes after dropping to his knees, which was another two minutes after the curse began. When he first started, Harry only held the curse on himself for at most thirty seconds. Over time, he extended that. Voldemort wouldn't be so unforgiving, so Harry forced himself to not be either.
"Ex-Expelliarmus!" He managed to say after god knows how long of being torn apart. Immediately the pain stopped, and Harry felt a dull thump on his chest, which was his opponent's wand being summoned to him. He managed to stay on his knees, but only barely.
Soon he felt a vial pushed to his lips, and drank what he knew would make him feel better. The potion to counter the effects of the Cruciatus was perhaps his most used potion, and Harry always made sure he had a liberal supply on hand. The pain dulled, feeling came back to his limbs, and within a minute, Harry was back on his feet.
"Congratulations. That's the third time now we've been able to cast a spell through the Cruciatus. How did it feel that time?"
Leaning against the wall, Harry found his voice, and tried to explain what he had felt.
"It started the same." Harry explained to the other. "At first the pain just assaulted me, and I didn't know what was happening. I concentrated on my hand, so as not to drop the ball, and soon my vision went. You know; blackness everywhere, only a dim light at the end of the tunnel. But then I started to concentrate on the pain, instead of trying to ignore it. I tried to split up the different feelings I was experiencing, and then I only concentrated on one of those. This time, I chose the dull pain. It felt like Dudley was beating me over every inch of my body, but at least it wasn't a sharp, searing pain, like knives or burning. Once I got that dull pain in my head, I was able to ignore the others. It still hurt, a lot, but then all of a sudden I was able to cast a spell. I think that might be the key; trying to segment the feelings, instead of trying to overcome them. I don't remember what happened the other two times I fought through the spell, but this worked better than those times I think."
"I agree. Since you haven't done this in over a week, why don't we stop here today. We'll work more later. I got to go get ready for supper anyways. See you tomorrow."
A friend might have stayed to see Harry through the full recovery of the pain spell, but since the man leaving the trunk wasn't a friend, but a version of Harry himself, he didn't. He already knew Harry could handle himself, and would make a full recovery within an hour.
Normally, both Harrys would take turns casting the curse on each other. But because one Harry had to make appearances in class and at meals, it would look awkward if he showed up still feeling the lingering effects of an unforgivable curse. So while at school, it was agreed that only the Harry living in the trunk would have the spell cast against him. He'd have a week full of practice, then a week of rest. Not a bad schedule, considering.
After a second shower, followed by a soak in the tub for his aching joints, Harry made his way back to the sitting room area. Dinner was still more than an hour away, and he spent the time doing some light reading, and talking with Dobby and Winky.
The elves made numerous trips back and forth between London and the trunk each day, but since they only had to pop back and forth, it wasn't anymore trouble than walking into a different room. And they always seemed to know when Harry required their company. Amazing beings, house-elves were.
Dinner was just as delicious as always, and all three enjoyed it together this time. It had taken a lot of effort to get the elves, Winky especially, to join him in his meals, but they had finally relented. "Only because Mister Harry Potter is alone, and needing company," they said, but Harry liked to think differently. He liked to think they were becoming more friends than employer/employee.
After supper, Harry went back to his library to make a list of what he wanted to accomplish over the next few days. With his homework done, he had a lot more free time now.
Three hours later he was done. With tomorrow's plans all set, Harry retired for the night. Once more, after some pleasure reading and Occlumency exercises, Harry tucked himself into his king sized sleigh bed, and cast a "Nox" to dim the lights, put his wand on the bedside table, and went to sleep.
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Wednesday
After his workout, late breakfast and shower, Harry got to work on the list he had made the night before. Knowing that he'd turn in Wormtail later that week, and that presently the rat was still locked in a cage back in London, Harry made that his first order of business.
The seventh compartment of his trunk; the large, empty room covered in stone surfaces, was Harry's first destination. Until now it had been left empty, and in fact, Harry had only ever been in it twice. The first time to take a look around, and the second, when he had tested out his new broom.
Now he had to use the space though, in a way he had been planning on for quite some time. Harry trusted Dobby and Winky to look after one single prisoner back home, but no more than that. And since Harry's plan was to have more than one, he had to have a place to put them. Time to redecorate.
The next two hours, Harry spent creating stone walls in the large room, forming cells, about the same size as Wormtail's. Because he had already done this once, it didn't take a lot of research or trail and error, just time.
Harry started off creating ten cells, all along the shorter wall in the back of the room. Each stone wall that separated the cells were a foot thick, and charmed to be soundproof. Harry added a ceiling as well, as the room was too tall otherwise. He's didn't want to give Wormtail or any others a vaulted ceiling. This was a prison cell, and was meant to be uncomfortable.
The front of the cells each had a door, four inches thick made of solid oak, also charmed to be soundproof. They had an additional charm though, to make them see through as well. That way, Harry could see into the cells by muttering a simple word. The doors weren't transparent from the inside, so the finished product was like a one way mirror, only with no refection on the other side. He could have used his magic lens to see through the doors of course, but that took active concentration. If Harry charmed the doors see through, it would be less taxing on him.
Furnishing the cells took only a few minutes. Each got a thin mattress pad, which was secured by magic to the floor, so it couldn't be used for any other purposes. A thin blanket was folded at the end of each bed, and there was a bucket too, in a far corner. The famous bucket.
Remus had thought the bucket was a bit medieval, as mean of using as a toilet. But Harry had no practice making indoor plumbing, either using magic or without, so that was the best he could do really. Once a day he'd have to go by to vanquish any waste the buckets might contain, but that was their only upkeep. When he delivered food and water twice a day, he'd give any unfortunate persons who occupied the cells some extra water to wash up too.
In London, Wormtail was given some muggle paperbacks to read; the only way to spend his time. Harry had bought them in a bookshop early on, and had about twenty novels so far. Those he had, he brought out from his library, and made a separate shelf for in the seventh compartment, which Harry realized he now was thinking of as his "prison." Twenty novels wouldn't last much longer, and Harry made a note to himself about getting some more at the first chance he got.
With the structural building complete, Harry took a break for lunch. The elves weren't around for this meal, so Harry made do with a sandwich and a butterbeer. His original supply had run out a long time ago, but Harry had sent Dobby for more. There were now five cases of eighty bottles of butterbeer stashed in his pantry, and that would last a long time.
After lunch, Harry went back to his prison and started the second stage of the building; the spells. Besides the soundproofing and one-way sight spells, which had to be cast on the materials when they were created, Harry still had a lot to do.
The first spell Harry cast was one he learned from the auror handbook he had bought. It was a standard ward used for interrogation rooms, holding cells, and all prisons. It basically was a suicide prevention spell; it made it impossible for anyone to harm themselves without the aid of magic. If one had a wand, they could probably overcome the spell, but Harry was sure to properly search anyone before putting them in the cells. He still had Wormtail's wand in his trunk's second compartment. Remus had left it with him that night after the attack, and it hadn't been mentioned since.
Next came the anti-apparition wards, which weren't Harry's strong suit. He had tried casting the spells on his apartment building when he first moved in, and wasn't able to. Then he tried just to cast it on his floor, and again was unsuccessful. They were some of the hardest wards to erect, and Harry still had little experience. Only when Wormtail was captured, and they needed to make sure he didn't escape, had Harry successfully cast the ward. That time, it had just been around the small cell Wormtail occupied. Now, months later, Harry thought he might be able to cast the ward over all ten cells at once, but he didn't want to take that chance. He already knew it was possible to apparate out of his trunk if the lid was open, and Harry didn't want to take any chances. He cast the ward ten separate times over each of the cells.
Harry looked everywhere through his books for a spell to prevent the animagus transformation, but he never was able to find one. The best he could come up with was the spell to transform an animal back to a human, like the one he used on Wormtail at the press meeting. No matter, the cells he had made were air tight, which led to his next need.
A spell to circulate the air was cast on all the cells, so occupants wouldn't suffocate to death. Not that that would be a bad thing necessarily, but Harry didn't want to be responsible for any undeserving deaths. He'd much rather see them suffer. If a Death Eater happened to die by accident, then fine, as long as it hadn't been caused by him.
After that, most of the spell work was done. The rest was all strictly for decoration and effect. A full set of chains and shackles got conjured, one to be attached to the far wall of every cell. Harry also stained the stone walls with some rust colored markings, to make it look like blood. It wasn't real of course, but any Death Eaters lucky enough to find themselves prisoner wouldn't know that. Harry hoped to convince them that they were imprisoned in a far less forgiving space then a school boy's magic trunk. Since his trunk was a one of a kind, Harry thought it would work.
It was mid afternoon by the time Harry had finished. Each cell was even more secure than his original back at the Hideaway, and Harry couldn't think of another way to improve them. Time to test them out.
Using the portal to travel back into the sitting room, Harry found Dobby and Winky in the kitchen, preparing supper. Breakfast and dinner were the two meals they usually cooked for him while locked in the trunk, and lunch he had to fend for himself.
"Winky?" Harry asked. "Has Wormtail been fed a meal yet today?"
"Yes Master Harry Potter, sir. Dirty evil wizard has been fed and bucket cleared. Crying was heard from his cell last night again, but Harry Potter said not to do anything besides clean and feed nasty man, so Winky did nothing about crying. Is there something Winky can do for you?"
"Yes, I need to bring Wormtail here. I'm moving him, so you'll no longer have to look after him. But I can't use a portkey to bring him into Hogwarts, and I can't leave this trunk either. I was wondering if you could pop him here with you. You can stun him first, just to make sure he doesn't cause trouble."
Winky had a horrified look on her face. It was possible for her to bring others with her when she popped, the elf version of apparition, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"Oh no, Master Harry Potter, sir. Winky must not bring wizard or witch that way. Popping is very painful for witches and wizards, sir. Cruel man would not be liking that, no he wouldn't."
"Winky," Harry explained, "I know that it will hurt him, but no permanent damage done, right? Anyways, I need to get him here, and this is the only way I can thing of right now. I can't make a portkey for him to use, because that might alert Professor Dumbledore. I'll have to check that out in the future. And I'd go get him myself if I could, but I can't leave the trunk to fetch him. So please, can you do it this once? I promise I won't ask again."
If Winky wouldn't agree, Harry wasn't worried. Dobby surely would, and he was but a finger snap away. If worst came to worst, the other Harry could always sneak out a secret passage, apparate to the Hideaway, and stun Wormtail then, bringing him back in his pocket as a rat. That would take too long though. Besides, he never did that last week, so that's why he knew either Winky or Dobby would bring Pettigrew.
"Alright sir, Winky will do just this once. But I is telling you, hurt really good this will. Shall I go now, Master Harry Potter, sir?"
'Whenever you're ready Winky. Bring him back here please; I'll be waiting."
With a last look of horror on her face, Winky closed her eyes and snapped her fingers, disappearing in a puff of smoke. She was gone for over a minute, and Harry spent that time drawing his wand, and waiting for their return.
The second they showed up, Wormtail screamed out in agony, and Winky hurried away, hiding behind the legs of her master. Wormtail's pain caused him to break out of whatever elf body bind he had been in, and he crumpled to the floor. Still in pain, he looked around at his new surrounding. But Harry stunned him before he got more than a glimpse of the room. Then he stunned him a second time, just for good measure.
After that, it was simply a matter of hauling the limp body through the portal, into the "prison" compartment, and unlocking the closest cell. Harry felt no compassion as he threw his captive in, and threw the solid oak door shut, making sure it was locked with both a spell, and the heavy iron bolt fastened on the outside. There was no way Pettigrew was worming his way out of this cell.
Winky had gone already when Harry returned to the nicer compartment, and she obviously forgot to bring the muggle paperbacks with her too. No matter, it was a trying day for her. And Harry had forgotten to remind her. Dobby would have to bring them in the morning.
The male house-elf had left as well, but had left dinner warming in the oven. Another culinary delight, much tastier than the gruel Wormtail had been eating this past month. Dobby had prepared a chicken dish with what Harry suspected was goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. It assaulted Harry's senses, but in a good way. Two breasts were polished off before Harry knew it, and he spent time savoring the flavor of the third. A forth chicken breast was left over, which Harry wrapped up and put in the cooler, just perfect for a late night snack, or a light lunch. Those house- elves thought of the littlest things.
After dinner, Harry read some more of the advanced books he had purchased in Diagon Alley. He was concentrating on mainly offensive spells now, and he wasn't afraid to study some of the darker choices that he came across. Harry still had not attempted any of the truly dark art pain curses, or the foreign equivalent unforgivables, but those were the only items Harry drew the line at. Everything else was fair game.
He stayed up much later than normal that night, and had no time for pleasure reading, but feel asleep content nonetheless, after fifteen minutes of his meditation.
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Thursday
Morning was the same. It always is. Wake up, run on the treadmill, work out, take a shower, than eat breakfast. Sometimes the monotony did get to Harry, but he pushed that feeling back. What he was doing was necessary, and in just a few days, he'd be back among the living, with all his friends and teachers.
Before lunch he filled his time in the dueling chamber, practicing some of the new curses he had read about last night on the practice dummies. They had got old too, but they were still dead useful. They just stood there, not moving, taking the full brunt of the spells. The first few weeks Harry had tried the dodging feature they were installed with, but that was ridiculous. He didn't know if it was because the dummies were two decades old, or because he was just ahead of their level, but the dummies couldn't manage to avoid his simplest attacks. They would be great against a toddler, but even a first year muggle-born would be able to hit the targets nine times out of ten. It didn't bother Harry much. When it came to a worthy opponent able to dodge curses, he had his other self to practice on.
One of the dummies was already damaged beyond repair, or rather, burnt beyond belief. Harry had gotten a little over excited with an incendiary spell awhile back, and the doll's inherent magic was unable to fix the damage. It was still useable, but the spell gauge no longer worked, and it looked rather ragged. Harry always made sure to try out new spells on that dummy first, to not chance damage to any other. That had only increased the beat up look to the doll, but at least it protected the others.
A salad and the leftover chicken was what Harry had for lunch, and this time instead of a butterbeer, Harry had a glass of lemonade to drink. Variety was nice every now and again.
After lunch, the other Harry popped back over for another round head to head. Because he always had only one class in the afternoons, and the two other periods were free for him, he always made the time for some sparing or dueling in the afternoons. Yesterday was an exception, because he had to construct the cells. So today they were back on schedule. They alternated with the dueling and the sparing, and today was more muggle fighting. Harry showed the submission move he had used on Tuesday again, and true to his word, by the end of the session, both were able to apply and avoid it.
Another round of the Cruciatus followed, but this time he was shown no mercy. They went a full half hour, with Harry being subjected to the curse six times, before they quit for the day. He drank six restorative potions as well, and that was the limit one should drink at any one time. Twice he had fought through the pain to disarm his attacker, and that was high success as far as Harry was concerned. He felt proud of himself, no matter how much he hurt, as he took a long soak in the bathtub.
After dinner, rather than pick up on the reading he had left off on last night, Harry entered into his potions lab. He felt bad that Dobby and Winky had to share the smelly room when they were here, but at least now they had a more comfortable place to stay. Harry hadn't set foot into the elves' room after he presented it to them back at the Hideaway, so he assumed they either enjoyed it, or had changed it to their liking. As a result, the curtain opposite his cauldron tables was taken down, but there was still a workspace and two small cots off to the side. When the elves were in the trunk, they still needed a place to do their work, or to rest if they wanted. Dobby had gotten hooked on infomercials last month, and sometimes stayed up late to watch them. He had a habit of dozing off during work, and sometimes needed a short nap to get him through the day.
Currently, Harry only had one potion brewing; Veritaserum. It was almost impossible to brew, and took a full lunar cycle too. Before now Harry had been using more simple truth serums, but attempted the stronger one three and a half weeks ago. It had been simmering in his copper cauldron since, and he had to periodically add ingredients and stir the clear liquid. He didn't know if he got it right yet, as he still had to wait almost another week. He was trying to get it done to use on Wormtail, but now that he knew he'd be releasing the rat on Saturday, Harry knew that won't be. He'd have to find something else.
The problem was, if Wormtail was handed over to the Ministry on Saturday, what was preventing him from telling them about Harry? More specifically, his ability to cast a golden patronus, and the less than legal methods he had taken to capture the man who betrayed his parents. Harry had gone a full four weeks without trading more than three words with the man, but now it was time to talk. Harry had to know exactly what Wormtail had seen that night, and had to find a way to make him keep quite.
As he thought about his possibilities, Harry added the necessary ingredients to the Veritaserum, and started to brew more of the potion for the Cruciatus. Man, he used a lot of that stuff. Luckily, it was an easy potion to make, and it kept in storage for a long time too. This was only the third batch Harry had to make.
With the potion soon complete, and the Veritaserum back on a slow simmer, Harry cleaned his workspace, replaced his instruments, and did a final washing up for the night. He felt like taking a shower, but that would have been his third for the day. There was such thing as overkill.
Another seventy pages later in his fiction, Harry put the book aside. It was a good story; a tale about a young wizard apprentice, who had to impersonate his teacher when the old wizard accidentally blew himself up in a potions accident. The young wizard had to face down a dark lord (not nearly as evil as Voldemort) to uphold the honor of his teacher, and along the way, win the heart of the witch he loved. It was mostly an adventure piece, but had a fair smattering of romance. Harry knew it was silly, really, but sometimes he wished his life were as simple as in the fairytales. His life was more of a nightmare.
Filing those thoughts into their appropriate subsets, and finishing his Occlumency training for the night, Harry turned out the lights, and rolled over on the large bed, waiting for sleep to find him.
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Friday
Morning, the same. Lunch, not the same, but similar. Only in the afternoon did this day turn out any different from the day before. When Harry's counterpart came back from his afternoon Potions lesson, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"Had fun with Snape, did we?" Harry asked innocently.
"That was the most fun I've had all year long!" Was the answer. "I've never seen Snape so livid. It was better than Quidditch! I almost wish I could tell Ron and Hermione about this, but I promised Dumbledore I wouldn't tell a soul. I don't know how you didn't tell me about this all week long."
"It was hard." Harry answered. Thinking back on the incident now, it really was. How he had wished to be able to share the scene with some of his friends. Or even Remus, who admittedly Harry had bumped into only once since school started. Remus was doing some last minute errands for Dumbledore while the D.A. still hadn't been set up, and he had promised Harry a time next week to sit down and talk about it.
As his double got changed into some grey robes, ready for some exercise, Harry thought back to how that scene in the Headmaster's office played out, and how much worse it could have been.
****FLASHBACK****
"How dare he do that!" Harry thought to himself as he tore up the stairs, making his way to Dumbledore's office. He had managed to keep his cool in the potions classroom, most of it, but now on his own, his anger was getting the best of him.
"He was going to attack me! Remove my bones and force me to drink that vile potion. Even if I did get it correct, which I know Susan and I did, it still wouldn't have been right. And knowing Snape, he would have used someone else's potion instead 'accidentally,' and made me suffer anyways. The git!" All these thoughts Harry had to himself, climbing out of the dungeons into the empty hallways. Everyone else was still in class, and not even a ghost was around to take his anger out on. Boy, would he love to bump into Peeves right about now.
"Come in, Harry." He didn't even know how he had gotten to Dumbledore's office so quickly. If he didn't know better, he thought he might have used a bit of accidental magic to walk extra fast.
"To what do I owe this pleasure? Shouldn't you be in class right about now? Potions, I believe." Harry had just taken a seat, not because he felt more comfortable, but because he didn't want to wear a hole in the rug, pacing back and forth.
"I just left there, sir. I was kicked out of class. Or rather, I kicked myself out of class."
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling with mirth, even though they shouldn't have. If he knew the actions Harry took, he wouldn't be joking.
"And what caused you to remove yourself from class, Harry? And how did Professor Snape mange to prevent you from leaving? I dare say, they only way he would have let you out of class, was if it were his idea to begin with. He no doubt wouldn't allow it if the credit could be given to you. No, Professor Snape wouldn't have enjoyed that one bit."
Harry starred at his hands. His last conversation with Dumbledore had gone nothing like this. He once again felt like he had just been sent to the principal's office, just like those many times in primary school.
"Snape didn't have a choice." Harry muttered.
"What was that Harry?"
"I said, Snape didn't have a choice. When I left, he was still in the body bind I put him in. I left Hermione in charge of the class, and told her to release him after I left. No doubt, he's on his way here now."
"That's Professor Snape, Harry." His eyes were still twinkling, unbelievable. "And those are serious actions you claim to have taken. Would you care to tell me why you felt it necessary to curse your Professor?"
Harry mumbled again, and had to restate his answer. "Because Professor Snape was going to remove my bones, to make me test the Skele-Gro we brewed the other day. He always picks on me, and I told him no this time. I wasn't going to let him remove my pelvis. My pelvis for god's sake, and drink that nasty stuff! So when I refused, politely I might add, he threatened me with force, and went to pull his wand. I petrified him before he could. Then I punished myself in front of the class, and then I left. I'm surprised Snape's not here already."
"Professor Snape, Harry." Dumbledore corrected him again. "And I believe that's him, storming up my stairs now."
Harry turned his head and had a look for himself. Sure enough, with the aid of his x-ray lens, Harry got a glimpse at one pissed off potions master.
Snape didn't even wait for an invite into the office, but instead threw the door open, and burst into the office with his black cloak billowing behind him.
"Albus, what has this arrogant brat been telling you? I've put up with his stunts for far too long. I demand that he be expelled for attacking me! This has gone on long enough!"
"Sure has." Harry swore under his breath. He of course, was talking about Snape's attitude in potions class, which had been sour since Harry's first day at Hogwarts.
"Shut up Potter!" Snape screamed. "Don't you think you've done enough for one day? Just like your father, I swear! I knew from day one that you wouldn't amount to more than a pain in my backside, but you've gone too far now. Don't think you won't get what you finally deserve for this."
"Severus, calm down." That was Dumbledore, who at least had enough sense to not offer up any candy at the moment. "Why don't you take a seat and tell me what happened. Harry had time to tell me only a little, and I'd like to hear what happened from you."
Snape didn't sit down, but he did tell his story. Story, being the operative word. By the way he made it sound, Harry had been out for his blood that day. According to Snape, he had just been going about class as usual, when Harry rose out of his seat for no reason, wand in hand, and used it against him. Then he had threatened him at wandpoint, and left after cursing the Slytherins as well."
"That's not true!" Harry interrupted. "I only disarmed them when they drew their wands. And it was only Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle; not all the Slytherins. The rest were fine, I never touched them!"
"You expect the Headmaster to believe that, Potter? It's well known that you hate all Slytherins, and who do you think he'll believe? Me, a member of his staff for over ten years, or you, who's been known to constantly break rules. You always think you're better than everyone else!"
"Shut up! You're the one always thinking that, not me! Why don't you just shut the bloody hell up!" Harry was really loosing it now.
"Harry! That's no way to talk to a professor. Please apologize to Professor Snape for your use of language." Dumbledore was afraid he'd have to split these two up if things became more heated. Cautiously, he moved his wand in hand in case the situation arose.
Harry fumed silently for a few moments getting his temper back under control, and Snape likewise took the time to get a grip on himself. It wouldn't be wise to throttle a student in the presence of the school headmaster.
"Sorry I used bad language." Harry mumbled. He couldn't bring himself to apologize for more.
"Do you have a different version of how things transpired, Harry? If so, now's the time to say. As it stands, you're in for some very serious punishments."
"I already punished myself." Harry said. At Dumbledore's raided eyebrows, he explained more. "When I put Snape in a body bind, I knew I was breaking school rules. So I voluntarily took 25 points from Gryffindor, and I convinced Hermione, Draco, and Susan Bones to take 25 points as well. I also volunteered myself for a week's detention, as long as it's not with him." Harry gestured at Snape. "I said I'd serve with Mr. Filch, but anyone would be fine really."
Dumbledore thought about that, and privately was surprised at Harry's decision. It was very adult-like, and proved that he truly deserved to wear the prefect badge he had missed out on last year. Dumbledore was glad that he got the chance to rectify the problem.
"I admire your decision to punish yourself Harry. It was deserved, and I dare say the punishment doled out is more than fitting for the crime. However, the fact that you still attacked your teacher needs to be addressed. If anything, the fact that you admitted your indiscretion and sentenced punishment could be argued that this was all premeditated."
"But it wasn't!" Harry pleaded. "I told you, he was going to remove my bones, and force me to drink Skele-Gro. When I politely refused, he threatened me, and went to draw his wand. The whole class saw it! That's the only reason why I acted. It was self defense."
'Really!" Snape snorted. "Do you expect us to believe that I'd force an unsafe potion on a student after removing a bone, and threaten that student if he refused? What kind of idiot are you, Potter?"
"That's enough, Severus. You had your say, now I'd like to hear Harry's version of things."
"How about I show you?" Harry asked. It was just a random idea, but he was thinking about maybe using a pensieve, either his or Dumbledore's, to show the Headmaster his memory. Thinking more clearly, he had a better idea.
"What do you mean, show us?" Snape was getting a little nervous.
"Headmaster, remember what you did last week in this office, which I didn't take too kindly? Do that again, and I'll show you how potions class went." Even as he said this, Harry was gathering the memories in his head, pushing them all into a single subset. They were recent enough to call upon quickly, and Harry even added in the class he had on Wednesday. No doubt Dumbledore would be amused by Harry's quirks to Snape about his headgear, but he'd also get a chance to see how Snape always went after him, never anyone else.
Wand still in hand, Professor Dumbledore raised it to point to Harry, with the twinkle back in his eye. In the background Snape was demanding to know what they were talking about, but neither Harry nor Dumbledore heard him. They were too focused on each other's eyes.
"Legilimens."
Again, Harry felt the cold fingers probing his mind, this time in full force. Dumbledore wasn't trying to sneak into his head this time, and he had spoken the curse aloud, so it made sense the feeling was much stronger. Still, Harry brought up his inner defense walls, just in case Dumbledore tried to take advantage of his hospitality, and brought out the memories he had arranged. They began with Wednesday's class.
The whole class passed in front of his eyes, yet only a few seconds passed. In an odd way, Harry could almost sense when Dumbledore became amused, and when he became displeased. The sensation of cold fingers changed for each emotion he felt, both in texture and in temperature. It was hard to describe.
After that class ended, the next one began. Harry had stored much more detail in this memory, both because it had just happened a short while ago, and because he was actively involved in it. He could be wrong, but Harry though he sensed a lot less amusement, and a lot more anger from the feelings he associated with Dumbledore. Beyond anger even, maybe disappointment.
When the memory ended, and Harry stormed out of the classroom after leaving Hermione in charge, Dumbledore withdrew from Harry's mind voluntarily. Harry was still seated, and it only took a few seconds to recollect himself, and draw his attention to Dumbledore's face. He didn't look pleased.
"Severus, I am disappointed in you. Please stay after Mr. Potter leaves to discuss this further. Harry, I think we'll let the punishment stand. Our only problem now, is what to do about your Potions lessons. Clearly, it would be very hard for the two of you to work together again. But unfortunately, Professor Snape is the only one qualified to teach NEWT preparation classes. Do you have any thoughts?"
"What just happened? What did that boy show you? It's lies I say, nothing but lies!" Snape was screaming again, clearly displeased at how things had turned out.
"How am I supposed to lie in a memory, huh Snape?" Harry asked. He was starting to like this. The fact that no one corrected how he addressed the older man only further satisfied Harry. "That's almost impossible in Occlumency. Besides, according to you, I don't even have the skills to block out another person, much less redirect a thought."
"Shut up, you insufferable brat! That's another thing, Albus. Potter never showed up for his Occlumency lesson Thursday night. Why do you insist I waste my time if he won't even show up when he's supposed to." Snape might have been trying to change the topic, and blame something else on Harry, but Harry didn't care. He turned to look at Dumbledore.
"I think I made it very clear already that I don't need any lessons. Besides, I never agreed to them in the first place. You went ahead and made the decision without me, even after I swore last year I wouldn't do them with Snape again. I don't think I should be penalized for skipping lessons you know I never intended to show for, nor agreed with."
"What in blazes is he babbling about?" Again, Snape had to know everything.
"It seems Severus," Dumbledore explained, "that our young Harry became quite the Occlumency expert this past summer, as I had the unfortunate pleasure of finding out last week. I don't know where he got his instruction from, but he has far surpassed the level we require of him. I doubt Voldemort will pose a threat to Harry's mind again."
"Nonsense! How am I supposed to believe that? I took three years learning the art, and that was under your direct supervision. I refuse to accept that Potter has reached a sufficient level."
"Maybe I'm just smarter than you are." Harry muttered. It was loud enough to be heard though, which Harry later wasn't sorry about.
"Why you little...." Snape had had enough. No pompous brat was going to insult him, especially after humiliating him in front of his students. "Let's just see how advanced you are, Potter. Legilimens!"
Harry was totally unprepared for the assault, but luckily that didn't matter. His training would protect him, plus his inner sphere walls were still up to maximum alert from Dumbledore's entrance. Snape was fishing without bait.
Rising out of his chair to face Snape, Harry quickly thought of what he could use against him. The time was moving by slowly, with Snape sifting through meaningless memories, thinking he had full access to Harry's mind. He'd show him. Harry had just come up with the perfect thought to use, and boy was it a doosy.
Part of the subset of what he felt ashamed about knowing, was the memory of Snape as a child; hanging upside down, being teased by Sirius and his father. Quickly, before Snape could pull out of his mind, Harry separated that thought, and pushed it full force into the outer layer of his mind. When it hit Snape, both Harry and Dumbledore recognized the signs. Snape's eyes slammed shut, he staggered and fell to his knees, and he dropped his wand.
Normally, that would have ended the spell. But for some reason, it didn't this time. Perhaps it was because, as Snape relived the "Snivilus! Snivilus!" teases from his youth; the graying underwear and humiliation he had felt; he was actually reliving one of his own memories. Not the foreign memory of Harry. In a way, Harry soon realized, he was now performing Legilimency on Snape. Because the memory had not originally belonged to him, he was able to turn the tables on Snape.
What was even more impressive, was that while Snape continued to suffer the assault, Harry was able to access more of the man's mind. He was still a weak Legilimens, but had enough practice against the Dursleys to sift for thoughts. He couldn't pull out any additional memories, but he did feel what Snape was planning. Little did he know, Harry would be prepared.
Moving his hands behind his back, Harry drew his wand, and pointed it towards the floor, casting a rebounding charm. Snape couldn't see it from his vantage, and if Dumbledore noticed it, he didn't let on.
Once the charm was in place, and Harry had touched a small button on his watch (still behind his back), he let the memory assault fade. He pulled back little by little, until Snape was able to push the rest of Harry's mind away himself. He took an additional minute to realize he was on the floor and had dropped his wand, but soon enough he was back on his feet, with daggers shooting out of his eyes. Dumbledore hadn't said a word since the attack began.
"You little shite! Flipendo!" Dumbledore was more surprised than Harry, and made to block the spell, but it was too late. It had already traveled the short distance across the room, and hit Harry dead on the chest. If it hit correctly, it probably would have knocked Harry clear across the rest of the room, and halfway through the wall. Madame Pomfrey no doubt would have had a patient for the next few days to say the least. Luckily though, the spell fizzled out on Harry's chest. His dragoon hide vest helped block the curse, as did the shield charm he had activated from his watch moments ago. One of the watch's functions, Harry had read months ago, was a shield charm that would encompass the body, and work for most mild offensive spells. It had to be recharged after every use of course, but it was still as powerful as any other shield charm. The small button Harry pressed behind his back had activated the shield, and it had stopped the curse beautifully.
Before Snape had the chance to attack again, Harry brought out his wand this time, and pointed it at the floor. Snape paused momentarily confused, but reacted when Harry voiced a complex restraint spell. As expected, he forwent the simple "Protego," which wouldn't have worked against the powerful restraint spell anyways, for a more complex and powerful shield spell. Unlike the Protego charm, this version of the shield spell conjured up a physical barrier to block spells. Voldemort had used something similar during his battle with Dumbledore, at the Ministry building last June. Voldemort's shield then had been silver, and Snape shield was now brown, but it didn't matter. The shield failed all the same.
Because Harry's spell wasn't aimed at Snape; it was aimed at the floor in front of him. And thanks to the simple rebounding charm he had cast already, the spell bounced off the floor harmlessly, and hit Snape dead center from a downward angle. He was out for the count.
The restraint spell Harry used he had learned just two weeks ago. It was one of the most powerful ones available, and had the advantage of restraining both a wizard's hands and feet, as Snape soon found out.
Just after the spell hit Snape in the waist, four silver blurs traveled from the impact point, and headed towards each limb. Once at his hands, the silver blurs formed metal gauntlets around his wrists. The same was happening at his ankles, with the metal bands cutting through the black robes with ease. Once all four metal bands were secure, they tightened significantly. So hard in fact, that Snape was forced to drop his wand. Then, with a final flick from Harry's wand, the metal bands' magnetism kicked in, and all four bands snapped together.
It was quite funny really. It looked more like Snape doing a reverse jumping jack than anything else. His two hands jerked down together in front of him, so now his wrists were touching. At the same time, his ankles snapped together, and the metal click echoed through the circular office. Then the last final movement happened, as Snape's feet and hands were attracted to each other. His feet actually left the floor as the restraints left him in a hog-tied position mid-air. A second later, Snape landed on his ass with a yelp of pain.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Release me at once!"
"Silencio!" Ahhh, nice and quiet. Just the way Harry like it. At least, the way Harry liked it when Snape was in the room. Harry enjoyed the momentary peace, until an indistinct sound interrupted his thoughts. It was Dumbeldore clearing his throat. Harry had almost forgotten about him.
"Sorry sir, but he attacked me. I just defended myself." Harry walked over to Snape now, and bent down over him, pushing more buttons on his watch. He also pushed up the sleeves of Snape's robe, not caring about the venomous looks Snape was directing his way.
"I was here Harry, and while I don't support unauthorized dueling against the staff, I agree that you handled yourself admirably. If Severus ever had a chance to convince me you were at fault for your attitude in class earlier today, he has just lost it. I'll speak with him later about this of course....Er, Harry? What are you doing?"
"Sorry, sir. This new watch I got, besides having a built in shield charm, which you've seen works, also has a built in dark arts detector. It can work any number of ways, but I decided to set it to detect a certain dark art spell. I'm using the Dark Mark on Snape's arm to set the detector. Hopefully, this way whenever I'm in the presence of a Death Eater, I'll have some forewarning."
"Interesting. I'd never heard of a dark arts detector working like that, but I'm interested to see if it would work. I'm certain you won't encounter any Death Eaters while at school, but in the presence of Professor Snape at least, the alarm should go off. Please keep me informed."
Harry nodded, and worked his way back to his chair. He momentarily thought about kicking Snape as he passed by, but held back the temptation. Instead Harry just stepped over him, as if he wasn't there.
"Now Harry," Dumbledore picked up where he left off, "we still need to discuss your schooling. Potions is a subject you can't drop out of, and you already have the bare minimum of subjects as it is. I was most disappointed to learn that you only elected to take five classes. But now that I've seen your, eh, extracurricular studies, I'm confident you won't whittle away the time. Do you have any suggestions about continuing potions though?"
It was awkward talking civilly with the Headmaster, while Snape was still screaming in silent protest on the floor behind him, but Harry was able to address the problem. He took a few minutes to think of a solution, but finally gave up.
"I can't think of a thing, Headmaster. It's obvious I can't be in class with Snape, and as you said, he's the only professor qualifies to teach NEWT level potions. Not that he teaches us much." Yeah, Ron had said something similar like that earlier in the week. What was it exactly? Oh yeah.
"You know, Professor. I was just reminded of something Ron said at breakfast a few days ago. He said he was glad he was in remedial potions, as now he finally had a chance to learn something. He figured Snape really hasn't taught us much in the last five years. Only by reading our texts, and by being bothered by Hermione, have we learned the material at all. I was wondering, it there's no one else to teach me Potions, can I just do it myself? I was already doing some advanced reading myself this summer. It wouldn't be hard to continue like that. After all, all Snape does in class anyways is write the recipe on the board, and then make us figure out everything ourselves anyways. I think I could manage on my own."
Dumbledore paused to think about it. Individual study wasn't unheard of, but it was rare. Usually it only happened when a student requested to study a subject that wasn't currently on the curriculum. Rodger Davies had been the last student, a Ravenclaw boy who had wanted to study magical law. Still, if there were a safeguard in place....
"I think that would be a fine idea Harry, as long as we made sure you were keeping up with your class. Perhaps you could meet with Professor McGonagall once a month to show your competency. Or another professor perhaps, who could borrow Professor Snape's lesson plans for the day."
"How about this professor?" Harry suggested. "I can just compare notes with Hermione every so often. She can even evaluate my work every once in awhile. I'm sure even Snape would agree, were he able to talk, that she's one of the best Potion students of our year. And there's no way she would lie for me about schoolwork. She won't even let me or Ron copy notes from class. I'm sure she'd be willing."
Dumbledore was smiling. "Yes, Ms. Granger is a fine student, and I think that plan will do nicely. I still want to reserve the right to call you to my office though, to test your skills myself should I see the need. I'll also have a few discussions with Ms. Granger, to keep you on your toes, so to speak. Think of it as a pop quiz, if you need. Yes, I think this will work out nicely indeed. Now we only need to arrange you some lab time. There's only the one NEWT potions laboratory, and we'll have to work around Professor Snape's schedule."
"Professor..." Harry interrupted. "If it's OK, I have my own place to brew potions. I bought a full cauldron set this summer, along with a NEWT level potions kit, extra ingredients, scales and measuring spoons, and everything else I need. I won't have to bother Snape this way."
Clearly, Dumbledore was surprised. He still didn't know about the extent of Harry's Diagon Alley purchases, and it was beginning to dawn on him how much he still didn't know. The pieces he thought were fitting together, concerning the whereabouts of Harry during the summer, were once again falling apart.
"It seems," Dumbledore said, "that you purchased more in Diagon Alley than the texts you indicated in your letter. I wonder, what else did you buy?"
Harry smiled. "Now much more. Only more books, this new watch, a ring, a pensieve, a new trunk, some robes, more clothes, and a few other things I'm not ready to tell you about yet. I wanted to be prepared after all. If not for life, then at least for Snape's class. I planned to brew my homework ahead of time, so he couldn't mess with my formulas."
"Harry," Dumbledore admonished, "while I accept the fact that Severus had been hard on you this year, and possibly last year as well, you can't expect be to believe that he actively tries to ruin your potions. He's the teacher in the subject, after all. It's his job to correct your mistakes, not encourage them."
Harry was starting to get mad again. Did Dumbledore really believe Snape was incapable of purposely ruining a student's potion just to embarrass them. If he did, then he didn't know his staff well.
"If you don't believe me, take another look Professor. I've got a special part of my mind dedicated to how unfair Snape's always been to me."
This time Dumbledore wasn't as eager to enter Harry's mind, but he did anyway. Much more time passed than before, but that's because Harry had more memories to share. In fact, there was hardly a single class he took that didn't have something to show Dumbledore. And he didn't just bring up memories about him, either. He also brought up all the memories of Snape making fun of Neville because he melted a cauldron, or when he took points from Hermione for giving too thorough of an answer. Even the times Snape showed favoritism to Draco, while ignoring all the Gryffindors in his class, Harry had the good sense to recall. When he was finished, the Headmaster was looking just as upset as he had earlier.
"Really Severus, was all that necessary." He was looking right at Snape now, who was shooting death glares back at Harry. "I know it's required that you show some favoritism to the children of those who keep council with Voldemort, but that doesn't excuse your horrific behavior.
"Harry." Dumbledore had turned his attention back now. "I'll make sure to discuss this further with Professor Snape so it doesn't happen again. And while your detention with Mr. Filch still stands for next week, I'm willing to replace the hundred points you lost to Gryffindor for the times professor Snape took them away from you and the others undeservingly. If you wish to let Mr. Longbottom and Ms. Granger know, that is fine, but please keep that to the extent of your conversation. All else that took place here today is to remain confidential. I trust you with that fact. Please don't disappoint me."
"I won't sir. Is there anything else?"
"No Harry, I don't believe so." Dumbledore made an over exaggerated gesture to look at Professor Snape on the ground. "I think once you release our potions master from his bonds, you're free to leave."
Harry got up and stood. "Thank you, sir. I guess I'll see you at the press conference tomorrow,"
As he walked towards Snape, Dumbledore didn't agree with or deny Harry's statement. He remained silent, as he hadn't yet decided if he should attend tomorrow's activities.
Harry canceled the muting spell, and then stepped towards the door. As he made to open it, Dumbledore called back his attention. Snape had the good sense not to say anything.
"Ah, Harry? Perhaps you could release Professor Snape from the manacles as well?"
"Sorry Professor." Harry answered with a grin. "But I just learned that spell. Undoing it is next on my list though, I promise. Goodbye." As he climbed down the stairs, Harry could have sworn he heard one professor curse and swear, and the other laugh quite happily. Wonder which one was laughing?
*****END FLASHBACK*****
Both Harry's spent more time than normal in the trunk that night. One didn't have a choice, and the other was avoiding the rumors spread around the school. Both got in a great workout, and just for old time's sake, they each used the same restraint spell on each other when they got the chance. And yes, they knew how to counter it as well.
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Saturday and Sunday
The weekend passed quicker than any other two days did, possibly because Harry slept in late on both days, and played a lot of games with Dobby and Winky as well. He did his training and everything, sure, but with the other Harry busy with the press conference, and then handling his friend's reaction to the newspaper article, the Harry in the trunk had to pass time by himself. Plus not having Wormtail to take care of anymore was another blessing. He didn't miss clearing the rat's waste in the slightest.
In the end, to find out what Wormtail really knew, Harry resorted to using the standard truth serum he had on stock. He told Wormtail it was Veritaserum though, and it seemed to work.
Luckily, Wormtail hadn't broken free of the stunner at Hermione's house until after the Dementor attack was over. He had seen some non-descriptive ghosts or spirits, but never had the chance for a closer look. And as for where he had been, the only thing Wormtail had seen, either in the trunk or at Harry's Hideaway, was the inside of a stone cell. More concisely put, Wormtail posed no risk. Harry thought briefly about obliviating him, but in the end decided not to chance it. He still needed his memories in tact to prove Sirius's innocence, and Harry didn't want to mess that up.
Just for good measure though, Harry reminded Wormtail of the wizard's debt he still owed, and promised to make his life even more miserable if he revealed any secrets about Harry. After the painful transfer by house-elf he had suffered, not to mention being conscious as his hand was melted off, then haphazardly cauterized, Wormtail every reason to obey anything Harry asked of him, and he did. Hopefully he'd be kept in Ministry custody, where the one person he was more afraid of, Voldemort, would be unable to get to him.
A few meals later, and after some more showers, workouts, soaks in the tub, and new learned spells, Sunday night approached.
He had just put a steak and kidney pie in the oven, and found his other self in the trunk with him. He had just finished a game of chess with Dobby, and had some free time.
"Got time for some dueling before you leave?" He asked the other.
"You tell me." Was the answer. "You've been through this before, you should know."
Harry smirked. It felt good to turn the tables around this time. "Well in that case, you do have time. And if I'm not mistaken, you're in for an ass kicking too."
Pretty soon things had gone down just the way they had a week ago, except this time, the other Harry grabbed the time tuner from the hollowed out edition of "Hogwarts: A History." He winked out of existence, wearing his cords and comfortable tee, and left one single Harry alone. Sometimes it was nice to be the only one.
Climbing out of his trunk for the first time in almost a week, after taking a shower himself, Harry was asked about missing dinner by Ron and Dean. He just shrugged. It was allowed on the weekends, and besides. Harry had undoubtedly eaten better than the others had.
The next hours, before curfew, Harry spent in the common room, in the company of others. A week of near solitude made him appreciate friends al the more. He had his patrol later that night with Cami, and looked forward to seeing how that went as well. He and Ron wasted the time playing chess, and Harry was just beaten in time to put on some robes, his badge, and scrabble to the Great hall in time to meet Cami.
The patrol was uneventful, but more tiring than the one Tuesday night with Ginny. Because he couldn't use the Marauder's Map, Harry had to cover a lot more ground. Next week, he'd have to remember to take a nap Sunday afternoon. All the workouts and late night reading really took their toll on him. As they patrolled, he and Cami got to know each other better. Sure enough he had to pull her out of a trick step, and he even got the chance to tease her when he claimed to discover seeing a giant acromantula in a boy's lav. He said he was going to "slay the beast," and she believed him for all of the five seconds before he burst out laughing.
After a very long day, and an even longer week, Harry finally got to bed around one in the morning. He'd have to attend classes for the first time in a week tomorrow morning, and he drifted off to sleep, reminding himself to pick up his DADA homework from the trunk's library.
He awoke two hours later from a searing hot pain in his forehead. Voldemort wasn't happy.
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AUTHOR NOTES:
Well, there it is, the second half of my original chapter. Hopefully now that you've seen the length, you can appreciate it being split up. Also, I know for the most part this chapter is boring (the endless training descriptions, yada yada yada), but I felt it necessary to show everyone what Harry's doing with all the extra time. Plus, the cool scene with Dumble and Snape should make the chapter good enough for you to read. I had a lot of fun writing that scene. That's about it really. Next chapter shouldn't be too long, as long as I don't find more authors plagiarizing my stuff. J/K. I'd also like to take the time to thanks Joe Buck, who's gone back and proofread my first six chapters so far. I'm in the process of updating them, and will get all the spelling mistakes like "Occulmency" and "Thestreals" under control. Keep up the good work Joe Buck! Later y'all.
Blk Phoenix – Hey Rob, thanks for the correction about the Hogsmeade trip. It's not changed yet, but I will update it in the future. Yes I agree, that Dumble will know about the passages that Filch knows about too, but those won't come into play in my story. There might be another passage in the future, but you'll just have to wait and see.
Samyjoc, BigDaddy 753, & Stevie – Thanks for reporting the plagiarism by the other authors. The problems have all been taken care of now, and most of the stuff removed. I don't mine people using ideas (if given credit) or borrowing stuff, god knows I have, but I don't like the cut and paste jobs these authors had done. So thanks for letting me know.
Molly Morrison – You're not the only one to notice the improved relationship between Harry and Dumble. Let me explain. Both are avoiding the subject of Harry's disappearance, and are talking about other, random things. It's a bit like not mentioning the huge honking elephant in the room, if you've heard that expression before. Both characters are aware about the other's unease, so they ignore the most important topics of conversation, and instead talk about meaningless dribble. They aren't best friends or anything like that, they're just pretending for the moment that everything is OK. Obviously it's not, and we'll see more squabble later.
Xenocide – I didn't really work out the math behind phoenix populations, so thanks for the warning. I'll work out the numbers later to change everything, but at least you get the gist of what I meant. I haven't done real math since 10th grade (I placed out of AP Calc 2), so it's been awhile for me. Time to pick up the old TI-82.
Stellaluna Melonballer – I'm sorry that you don't like my version of Harry, but honestly, I don't see how he's that different from normal Harry, with the exception of being more aggressive. Tell me what you don't like about him (name examples), and tell me what you'd like to see, so I can either work with the character, or see the logic behind your decision. Describing him as "insufferable" and "going to die a virgin" are kinda harsh, so I'd like to see what brought you to those conclusions.
Linky2 – Not that I don't enjoy even the smallest reviews or anything, but yours don't make sense, and I'd appreciate it if you either stop making them, or say a little more. Just reviewing to say "Chapter 11" or "Just read Chapter 14" is a little annoying. Next time, please leave a real review.
Elven-Warrior-Princess – Sorry to disappoint you, but Nick Flamel really did die over 700 years old. I got his birth date off of the HP Lexicon. But no matter how old he really is, the point I was trying to make is that he's old. Real damn old!
Templar1112002 – I know about Occlumency, but I haven't the time to go back through all 14 chapters to fix, so I'm not right now. It's on my list to do though. And don't worry about Hermione, she'll not mother Harry much longer. I only thought it proper of her to do with the tour and such. That seems to be right up her alley. She'll relax soon, don't worry.
Cubs9911 – Sorry you don't like my portrayal of Ron, but I said from the start that I don't like him. And while I won't change his character from cannon, he'll have more prat-like moments than best-mate moments. Think of Ron as a see-saw. He'll have his ups and his downs in my story, just more down than up. Sorry if that bothers you, but I can't bash on Malfoy too much. I need someone else to pick on, and my muse pointed me towards Ron Weasley.
Grey Mirror of Erised – You say that at the end of OoTP, Sirius was cleared of all charges. When was this? If you can provide a page number or some proof, I'd be surprised. Who cleared him? So for now, unless you can prove otherwise, I'll be continuing my fic as if he was still an escaped convict at the end of Book 5.
Aconite Snape – Good catch on Lorne. I'm a big fan too, but I only got the idea for the name from the show. I never meant to copy it directly. I actually had a friend in HS named Loryn (girl), and I always liked the unique spelling of her name. She was a Mormon though. Weird.
Lucius-Is-Luscious – Thanks for your enthusiastic reviews. I'm glad I converted you from the dark side (aka Lady Ur____). I hope you're enjoying the story, and that you continue reading. Thanks again.
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I don't respond to everyone's reviews personally, just those that have comments or questions. Especially now that I'm receiving almost 100 reviews per chapter, I just can't fit them all in. So if you've written to say you liked my story and are waiting for more, than thank you.
I also now have a Yahoo! group addressing new updates my story, as well as pictures, info about live chats, etc. If interested, please visit. A link to the site is on my bio page.
