Harry Potter and the Power of Time

Chapter 16 – Promises Kept

"Hey mate, you look better this morning!"

"Thanks Ron. I finally got some sleep last night." Harry replied. He had just sat down to breakfast on Tuesday morning, after trudging through all his classes the day before. The vision he had from Voldemort Sunday night had woken him much too early, and he had never gotten the chance to fall back asleep. In fact, his scar had prickled with pain even hours after his vision ended.

"What are you two talking about?" Hermione asked. Only Ron so far knew about the vision, owing to the fact that they shared a dorm room. After so many years of living together, it was hard to hide something like that.

"Harry had a dream Sunday night. You know, one of those really bad dreams of his." Ron couldn't be more obvious unless he held up his hands to make quotation marks in the air. Luckily that was a muggle thing to do, and Ron didn't know about it.

"Harry!" Hermione whispered fiercely. "You should have told me. Does Dumbledore know about it? What happened?"

Not wanting to start an argument first thing in the morning on his first day back awake, he looked around carefully for prying ears, and motioned his two friends in closer. Neville and Ginny were sitting a ways down the table, otherwise they would have been included in the conversation themselves. Both them, and Luna as well had been brought up to speed on a lot of things that had happened last year. Harry only felt it right as they had risked their lives going to the Ministry with him. They deserved to know; at least as much as Ron and Hermione already knew.

"It was nothing important Hermione. Voldemort was just pissed about the Quibbler article is all. He didn't know about Wormtail being captured, and blamed his men for not informing him. He cursed Bellatrix Lestrange until she lost consciousness, and got Malfoy and Nott pretty well too. I also think he's pissed about me humiliating Fudge. With him in office, Voldemort's job is easy, because the Ministry isn't taking proper steps to combat him. Now that Fudge seems on his way out of office, that could all change with a competent Minister. Do you know Fudge is even refusing to train more aurors? Tonks told me last week when I bumped into her on prefect patrol. He'd rather spend the Ministry's money on fund raisers and hosting dinner parties with his pureblood chums like Malfoy, then to bulk up the aurors' numbers for what we know is coming. I only hope that article really will do some good to get Fudge out of office."

Ginny and Neville had joined them the last few moments, and Ginny put in her two cents, holding up a letter she got in the morning post.

"It may take longer than you'd like, Harry. I just got a letter from Mum and Dad, and they found out yesterday that Percy got dismissed from Fudge's office." Harry had told them about running into Percy after his speech, so the subject wasn't taboo anymore. "It seems like he's trying to blame his staff for the 'false information' that was provided to him. He really is a snake! Anyway, Percy got transferred to the Centaur Liaison Office, and Dad found out at work. They talked, and Percy seems really crushed about it. He thought that sticking with Fudge this whole time would be good for his career. Now he's in a dead end job, and doesn't know what to do."

"What's so bad about the Centaur Liaison Office?" Harry asked.

"Really Harry, even I know that." Hermione answered. "That's the worst department in the Ministry of Magic. Centaurs don't want any contact with wizards, so the job is mostly shuffling paperwork, and vain attempts at meeting with the herds. But since centaurs are still classified by the Ministry as magical beasts, instead of magical beings, they want nothing to do with wizards. The Liaison Office is the last place people get sent before being dismissed from the Ministry completely."

"Oh!" Harry didn't know what else to say. It made sense now that he thought about it. Merlin knows that his last encounter with centaurs hadn't gone that well. He had almost been trampled to death. He'd have to apologize to Bane and Magorian if he ever got the chance.

"Who's your letter from Harry? I though your relatives didn't write you?" Neville had noticed the parchment envelope in Harry hands. The fact that it was a light pink color didn't help any.

"Ahhh, it's just from a friend. I haven't read it yet. Come on, we'll be late for Transfiguration." Before the others could argue they still had twenty minutes left before class, Harry got up and left the Great hall, stuffing the letter in his bag.

He really hadn't read it yet, but he knew who it was from. Amber, the young clerk who he'd had a lunch date with. As promised, Harry had written her about his first week in school, and the school owl had just brought back her reply that morning. He almost used Hedwig without thinking, but came to his senses at the last moment. It wouldn't do well for a young, defenseless girl to be seen accepting letters from a very recognizable phoenix. He didn't want to risk Amber's safety. So he had sent a trustworthy school owl instead, once he convinced Hedwig he had no other choice. That took some time.

Not knowing what to say, Harry's first attempt at a letter had sounded more like a book report; summarizing his first week of lessons. After he burnt the piece of parchment, he tried again. The second attempt was much better, and only glanced over his classes. Most of the letter let her know how much fun he had during their date. Harry didn't know if it was due to spending time with her, or just simply being out of the house after so many weeks cooped up, but he didn't tell her that. Harry also made a joke about him being thick, and only realizing what her last comment to him about "not all relationships have to be serious" had meant hours after she said it. It took a lot of Gryffindor courage for him to write that last line, but he had managed. He never could have in person, but in a letter was easier.

Arriving early in class, and ripping into the letter before the others arrived, he was relieved to see that Amber didn't mind his bold move. The letter was very flirtatious, and was dripping with enough sexual innuendo to rival a contraceptive sponge. She had little to say about his classes, but did enjoy the story of him cursing Snape in front of the whole class. She told a similar story that had happened at her school in America, but it wasn't nearly as drastic. The rest of the letter was more personal. Amber told him how much fun she had had at lunch, and how he wasn't at all like she thought Harry Potter would be. If Harry was able to visit her again, she promised, he'd be able to find out more about her as well; preferably a meeting at night. No loss on the hidden message there.

She certainly wasn't a girl to take home to mother, that was for sure. But Harry didn't exactly have a mother to take her home to. Besides, regardless of how things developed, Harry just liked the fact that he had someone to write to while at school. He looked forward to morning much more now that he might be receiving the next steamy letter from her.

Transfiguration passed quickly enough, with Hermione and Harry still being the top students in the class. Hermione must have really studied over the weekend, because Harry noted he didn't even come close to beating her in class exercises. He still managed to finish second; but there was a clear leader in the pack.

Arithmancy in the afternoon was the same, but Harry made sure to pay attention to Ginny this time as he left class. They had to patrol later that night, and agreed to meet early again in the common room. Climbing the final staircase to the Gryffindor common room, they nearly collided with Professor McGonagall.

"Ah, Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley." She said. "Just the two students I was looking for. We have some things to discuss, so please meet me in my office after dinner tonight. That is all."

Ron, Hermione, and Neville had just come back from their lessons, and had heard McGonagall speak.

"What's that about?" Ron asked. "You haven't been caught doing anything against school rules yet, have you? It's only that second week of classes!"

"Hermione?" Harry joked. The two had been spending more time around each other, and it was a private running joke between the close friends. Harry got a hit on his arm for his attempt at humor.

"Ouch!" Harry rubbed his arm. Ron had really gotten him good. "I don't know what she wants. Maybe it has something to do with our prefect patrol?"

Ginny agreed. "I can't imagine what else it could be. Just the two of us don't have anything else in common besides Arithmancy, and that doesn't concern her. We'll just have to wait until later to find out."

Soon after dinner, they did find out. What Harry and Ginny had in common, according to McGonagall, was the opportunity to become the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. They were the only two surviving members of the year's previous team who were eligible. Because of his unsatisfactory grades last term, it was decided by McGonagall that Ron wasn't suitable.

Harry might have liked to be the captain years earlier, but with all his extra training, advanced classes, the D.A. to worry about, and prefect duties, he already felt like he had enough on his plate. Ginny felt the same way. She didn't even have a guaranteed place on the team yet, and because she had to sit for her OWLs that year, she was nervous about accepting the position. Plus there was the fact that she had never even considered it.

"Are you sure Ron can't be the captain?" Harry asked. "He'd love the job, and I'm sure he'd take his studies more seriously if it was explained to him. He's wanted this ever since I've known him."

"I'm sorry Mr. Potter." McGonagall replied. "While I do agree that Mr. Weasley would make an excellent captain, I have no doubt that his studies would suffer from it. Angelina last year was a prefect, and even Wood had top marks in his class. So far this year, Mr. Weasley has continued to do only the amount of work that requires a passing grade. I don't want to have a captain fall apart on me next year, when the NEWTs approach. So that's why I can't offer him the position. You two say you have a lot on your plates already, but you're still two of my top students. According to the other professors, it's the same in their classes as well. Mr. Weasley just doesn't have the marks."

Neither really wanted the job, as they were both afraid of upsetting Ron. This last bit of news might push him over the edge. Harry actually argued all the reasons he thought Ginny should get the job, but she rebutted all his arguments with her own. She was feisty when she wanted to be.

In the end, McGonagall made the decision for them. If neither wanted the honor of being the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain individually, then they would have to share the responsibility. Seeing as how they were the only two members on the team allowed the position, they didn't have much of a choice. Without another word, Professor McGonagall dismissed them from her office.

"Ron's going to never talk to me again, once he finds out." Harry wined. Neither had any homework to do, and had to kill some time until their prefect patrol. Not wanting to run into Ron, who would demand to know what the meeting was about, Ginny suggested they go someplace and talk about holding tryouts.

"Good idea Gin. Follow me." Harry knew a perfect spot.

He led her away from the transfiguration corridor, and towards the familiar tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. It was close to the Gryffindor common room, so they were heading in that direction anyways. After walking past the tapestry three times, a door opened in the hall, known to access the Room of Requirements.

"Whoa, this room sure has changed since I last saw it." Ginny commented. The room which housed D.A. meetings last year was now much larger, as well as more equipped. There were actual desks and chairs against the walls, instead of just cushions and pillows. There were more books as well, along with a teacher's desk, four dueling platforms, and some practice dummies which Harry knew well.

Harry had spent the last two days setting the room up, with some help from Remus. He had gotten back late Sunday night from whatever mission he had been on, and had met with Harry early Monday morning. The two had collected the D.A. sign up sheets, and gone over how Harry wanted to run the meetings.

"Yeah, well, we got more students this year." Harry answered. "The advanced class has twenty six returning students, and the beginners have almost eighty. I'm hoping to move some ahead into the advanced class within the first month."

"You already have the meeting days set, then?" Ginny asked.

"Yep. The advanced class will meet every Wednesday the hour before dinner, starting tomorrow. Same time on Thursdays for the novices. Then Remus will hold an open three hour session Sunday afternoons for anyone who wants extra practice. I won't be able to attend most of those meetings, but it's really just a practice session anyways. Remus won't be teaching new spells; only overseeing the practice of ones I've taught. He'll also be able to privately tutor any students who want the help. He's making four half hour session available each day, during lesson times. That way if a student has a free period, and wants to do some work, he or she can sign up with Remus."

"If we're supposed to start meeting tomorrow, why don't I know yet?" Ginny asked. Currently, she was walking around the room, inspecting all the new gear.

"Oh, Hermione started to put the fliers up right after dinner. We just haven't been to the common rooms yet. Since we don't need to meet in secret anymore, we don't have to use the coins from last year. She's letting everybody keep them though, kind of as a memento. I'm thinking about having mine framed, along with a copy of the Quibbler article from last year." Harry joked. Those articles had been hot contraband last year, and very few of the original ones survived.

Once Ginny came back from inspecting the table of Dark Art detectors, Harry asked the room to provide him with a chalkboard, and he began to list the positions they needed to fill on the team. He made Ginny blush when he assured her she was as good as a chaser already. They just needed the formalities of tryouts so no one could say he played favorites. With Ginny in that position, there were two other chasers that they needed, along with two beaters as well. Harry also insisted on auditioning a back up seeker, in case something happened to him. He wasn't looking forward to getting hurt, but every year so far he had missed at least one game. Ginny made a great seeker as well, but they couldn't afford to lose her as chaser.

"Besides," Harry assured her, "I've only got two more years anyways. I better start training my replacement. We should pick someone still young, but with potential."

The next hours flew by, as Ginny and Harry talked nothing but Quidditch. Unlike the previous Tuesday night, this time Harry enjoyed their talk. Ginny knew almost as much about the game as her brothers did, and had some great ideas about strategies and tactics. She also explained the essentials about the chaser and beater positions to Harry, who had never paid much attention before. Even in backyard pick up games at the Burrow, he had always played seeker.

Ginny also made sure to list the other team's players, and wanted to find out their weaknesses. Both Ravenclaw and Slytherin needed at least two chasers each, and both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff needed new keepers as well. Only in the position of seeker were there no new players. Harry had his work cut out for him this year.

Before they knew it, it was time to meet the earlier patrol in the Great Hall, and the two made their way down the stairs. Harry didn't have time to collect the Marauder's Map this time around, so the two had to patrol the old fashioned way. Hours later, they both tucked into bed after an exhausting day, and fell asleep.

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With no more Potions class on Wednesday, Harry had a lot of time to get ready for the DA meeting that night. He had already decided that it would primarily be a review session, but he also planned to show the class a few of the things that they'd be learning during the current school term. The advanced class took a lot of planning, while the novice one was basically a repeat of what he had taught the previous year.

And so at 4:30 that afternoon, a half hour after classes ended, Harry made sure he was ready waiting with the door to the Room of Requirements open. At five he welcomed in all the members, and was disappointed to see two not show. Once he figured out who the two were, it made more sense.

After everyone filed in the room, with Remus already seated inside, Harry went to close the door, only to have it held open by a foot at the last moment. When Harry turned around to see who held it open, a sour look crossed over his face.

"What do you want, Draco?"

The blonde boy sneered at being called his first name, but kept his calm. "Why we're here for advanced defense training, of course. That is, if you prove to actually know what you're doing." Malfoy jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the group of Slytherins in tow. Besides the usual Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Theodore Nott were also in attendance.

"Sorry Draco, but this is the advanced group. No new members until you prove yourself in the novice class. If you bothered to read the sign up sheets, which I know you didn't because none of your names on them, then you would know that. Better luck next time." Harry really was enjoying refusing the students point blank to their faces.

"I don't care about stupid sign up sheets or novice groups, Potter. I'm a Malfoy, and I'm sure you'll be hearing plenty from my father and the School Board of Governors if you don't let us in. We have as much of a right to join this group as anyone."

"Sod off, Malfoy!" Ron yelled from somewhere in the back. Harry heard Hermione and Remus shushing him, but didn't turn his head any. Instead he continued the starring contest with Malfoy, adamant about not being the first one to give in.

"Like I said, Draco. This is for the advanced group only. I don't care what you think your father can do. Personally, I'd love to see him in person again. I have a special present in mind, next time I run into him. So scurry back down to your dungeons, and cry to your daddies all you want. I could care less." As Draco's sneer faded ever so slightly, Harry kicked his foot out of the way, and shut the door. He could hear banging and spells on the opposite side, but the door remained shut.

"I don't understand, why can't they get in?" Hannah Abbot asked.

"That the first new thing you need to know about the D.A. this year." Harry explained. "The door has been charmed to only allow professors and the club president. Filch was worried about this room becoming another Astronomy tower, and he demanded that something be done now that so many people will know of it's location. So from now on, make sure to arrive no later than five minutes after meeting times. After that, I'll shut the doors and you won't be able to get in."

"But what if we want to use the room for practice by ourselves? How will we get in?" Someone else asked.

"That's the point, you won't be able to." Harry thought that was clear. "There are plenty of empty classroom you can use if you really want, or you could go outside. Bu the school staff is worried about the room being used for other purposes, if you know what I mean. So unfortunately, they have to keep it locked. But Rem..., I mean Professor Lupin will be available for four half hour shifts everyday. There's a sign up sheet on his office door, which is just down the hall from here. Just remember that he isn't a full time professor this year, and won't always be around the castle. Please don't monopolize his time with questions or comments that should be asked the DADA teacher instead. I know he wouldn't mind spending time with everyone, but I'm hoping he'll be able to fill all four of his extra session each day." Lupin nodded from the back of the room. Harry had guessed correctly. If it was up to him, Lupin would tutor the students in any subject they asked of him, as long as he got to teach. If thing went the way that Harry wanted, hopefully he wouldn't have that time.

"Secondly, I want to make everyone aware that this group is to be known as the Defense Association." Harry continued. A few gave quizzical looks around the room, but nobody spoke u about the group's other nickname. "I know there were some jokes last year, but Professor Dumbledore got fired over a simple piece of parchment that had 'Dumbledore's Army' on it. Besides, I for one am not fighting for Dumbledore. I'm fighting for myself. I plan to teach you all how to defend yourself if needed, not to follow someone else blindly into battle. If you have any other notions as to what this group was set up to do, you can always leave."

No one said a word. The animosity Harry had towards Dumbledore was subtle, but picked up by his immediate friends. Just that fact that Harry said so was good enough for everyone else.

The first half of the meeting was review, and Harry noted that a lot of the students were rusty. None except his close group of friends had any practice over the summer, and it was very apparent. So Harry spilt up with Luna to go around the group correcting their stances and incantations, while Hermione and Neville, and Ron and Ginny did the same thing. Terry Boot and Susan Bones did the best out of the group besides the six friends, but none were too horrible.

Harry quickly went through the disarming spell, the stunning spell, summoning charms, shield charms, and all the other basics they had touched on last year. After the first half hour was over, the group all practiced the Patronus Charm. Harry managed his bright silver stag with ease, but only he and Remus knew it was a disappointment. Harry had still not managed to repeat the golden stag that had killed the Dementors at Hermione's house.

Hermione also managed to summon her otter, as did Ginny with a barely formed bird. It wasn't clear yet, but it definitely took flight. Luna, Ron and Neville all had strong wisps of silver vapors coming from their wands, as did a few others. Harry was impressed, considering none had practiced the spell since the last meeting. That was over four months ago.

The first DA meeting officially ended with a mock duel, between Harry and Remus. They had planned the short five minute fight earlier in the day, and they made sure to use some of the advanced spells Harry had in mind to teach the group later in the year. Remus had had no input with the spell list Harry put together, and he himself didn't even know all of them. Most came from the books that Harry had purchased.

The duel opened with all the familiar sights, but soon incorporated some more difficult spellwork. Harry mostly played defense in the duel, while Remus took the offense. He used some mild pain curses (nothing too serious), distraction spells, and a variety of charms. Harry demonstrated an advanced shield, some artful dodging, the rebound charm he had used in Dumbledore's office, and a small selection of the wand binding spells he had discovered. Those really impressed the group, including Remus, and even Hermione was shocked that Harry had managed to find such a useful defensive spell. None of them had ever heard of such spells, and couldn't wait to try them out.

It was one of those wand binding spells that Harry used to end the duel. Remus had cast a pain curse at him that would give him a pounding headache, and Harry had time to block it. While Remus was busy dodging his owl spell rebounding from Harry's shield, Harry chose to bind Remus's wand against casting the stunning and disarming spells, and then he pretended to fall down, hurt. Remus, taking advantage of his "injured" opponent, went to stun Harry, only to find himself unable to do so. He then tried to disarm Harry, with similar results. He knew what would happen of course, but none of the others did. They all thought Remus was making fun of Harry's weakened position, until Harry sat up with a smile on his face, and cast Expelliarmus at Remus. The werewolf got thrown clear across the room, and safely landed in a pile of cushions, as his wand flew to Harry's hand.

With a quick explanation of what the spells used in the duel were, as well as a tentative order in which they'd be learning them, the group exited the room in excited conversation.

"Harry, that was brilliant. I don't know where you found some of those spells, but you've really put a lot of work into this. Well done!" Hermione was positively glowing, and it looked like Ron had noticed as well. He couldn't keep his eyes off of his other best friend, but unfortunately she was only looking through the conjured books on the shelves.

"Can I borrow some of these, Harry?" She wanted to know.

"You can't." Ginny answered. "They disappear as soon as they leave the room. You can't take anything out of the Room of Requirements."

"How do you know?" Ron demanded.

"I found out last year." Ginny simply shrugged. "I thought it would be a good idea to put a foe glass up in the common room, but it didn't work. I tried to take other stuff as well, but that didn't work either. I just figure that nothing will leave the room."

"Well, you're right Ginny. It we were able to take anything out of this room, there would never be a need to go shopping again." Remus had finished stretching from his flight across the room, and came over to where the small group was sitting on the floor. "Imagine; you'd be able to find everything from the rarest potion ingredients, to the most expensive dress robes if there weren't limitations on this room. There'd never be a need for Galleons. Anyway, I'm off everyone. See you all at dinner, and don't stay up to late badgering Harry about those new spell. See ya!"

"Goodbye, Professor Lupin." Neville said. Luna joined him, but the others still called him Remus or Moony when they were the only ones around.

The next night's meeting was much more chaotic, due to all the new members, and especially at the beginning. True to their threat, Draco and the other Slytherins showed up once again, and caused a lot of the younger students to shy away in fear. Only when Harry had shut them out of the room did they all relax.

Draco had refused to accept the fact that Harry didn't have to allow them in the group, and even went as far as to complain to Remus. Although, calling him "werewolf" didn't earn him any brownie points. Remus quite calmly informed them all that Harry had the full support of the Headmaster, and had complete autonomy as club president who was allowed membership. Besides, as Harry pointed out, none of the students had signed up on the D.A. sheets, which Harry had based his class projections on. Not wanted to further embarrass himself in front of the other students, Draco huffed off in anger after another minute of protests, and was followed by his clique.

Not all the Slytherins were banned from the meeting though. Of the nearly eighty students in attendance, a full quarter were dressed in green and silver. Most were comprised of the younger years, and the oldest Slytherins were a pair of forth year twins, but it was an impressive turnout nonetheless. It seemed Harry's tour of the first year students had done his reputation some good, because six of the nine firsties showed up, and had spread the word to some of their housemates. The Gryffindor students were mostly younger, as the older ones were already part of the advanced D.A. group. Between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, the numbers were spread evenly among the age groups.

Ron and Hermione had accompanied Harry that night, as they promised to do until he could sort out which students would be moved into the advanced group. Once that happened, he would have a more manageable number for just him and Remus to teach. Cho and Marietta Edgecomb had also showed up, after Harry politely asked them to at breakfast that morning.

The reason they had missed the meeting the night before, was because they were unsure if they would be welcomed back. Harry had already forgiven them both months earlier (due to his time tuner, he'd had a lot of time to think things over), and let them know there were no hard feelings. As an act of good faith, he even gave Marietta the counter curse to Hermione's handiwork from the year before. That morning she was wearing a lot of muggle make up to hide the word "SNEAK" still prominently displayed across her forehead. When she showed up to the D.A. meeting however, the make up was gone, and she had a bright smile on her face.

Due to the first year's lack of knowledge, they mainly watched as Harry instructed the large group on the first two spells. Expelliarmus and Stupefy, while being third year material, were among the most useful spells in defense, and that's where Harry started. Marietta too needed some brush up work, as her memory had been altered the year before by Kingsley Shacklebolt. She was almost starting D.A. lessons from scratch.

Cho joined Harry, Remus, Ron, and Hermione in circulating throughout the room, and towards the end of the hour, she and Harry demonstrated some of the more advanced spells the group would get to learn if they advanced to the next level. Harry was happy to see that Cho was still able to cast her swan patronus, as well as the other advanced work he had the D.A. practice the night before.

This group too left that night in excited conversation, and already the newly reformed D.A. was a hit.

Thursday and Friday were slow days as far as Harry's schedule went, so he decided to take the time to reevaluate his training progress. Not having a class Friday afternoon due to his dismissal from potions, Harry crawled into his trunk, took a blank sheet of parchment from the drawer in his library, and set to work.

His work with his personalized stunning spell was coming along nicely, and he hoped to be finished with it in about a month. Harry still had problems meditating on an animagus form, but he thought that he might just not have the talent for it. Every time he tried to visual his "inner animal" in his mind, a block would appear. He also decided to start using the pensieve he bought, but didn't want to loose access to Rosier's memories while doing so. So Harry conjured up a glass jar with an air-tight lid, and emptied the swirling silvery substance into it. The glass jar wouldn't allow him to access the memories (only a pensieve could do that), but at least Harry could store the memories for future use. He could always put them back later if he wanted to.

His work with the Cruciatus had also improved, once Harry figured out on how to concentrate on one aspect of the pain, instead of trying to ignore it all completely. Harry could now almost regularly fight through the pain enough to fire off one curse, although that took at least a minute. The ultimate goal of course was to be able to throw the curse off completely, but Harry thought that might take years. He'd be happy enough to be able to cast three or four spells with only a moderate pain to worry about.

His new goals, as Harry wrote down on his parchment much the same way he did that summer, were simple. One, he wanted to really get good with potions. Besides having to keep up with Snape's class, and suffer from Hermione's possible pop quizzes, Harry wanted to be able to brew Veritaserum correctly, among other more difficult potions. The batch of the truth serum he had just finished didn't turn out right, although it was close. The final potion had a slight brown tint to its color, and a test by a kind of wizarding litmus paper had ensured Harry that he had made a mistake somewhere in the brewing process.

Secondly, Harry wanted to finalize the design and testing of his personal stunner, and possibly move onto another new spell. Personally, Harry didn't know why more personal spells weren't available to the public, as they were easy enough to create with enough practice. With less than a year's experience in the field, Harry's Arithmancy skills were great enough to create spells. He wondered why there weren't more professional spell inventors at work.

And lastly, Harry wanted to continue working on his arsenal of combative spells. It wasn't enough to just learn the spell once, and make sure he could cast it. Harry had to continually practice until casting them came as second nature. It wouldn't do well for Harry to be in the heat of battle, and only be able to remember a handful of his favorites. He had to make them all easily accessible, so he'd have access to a multitude of spells when the time came.

As the weekend rolled around, Harry swore to himself that he'd take the time off from studying to spend some time with his friends. It was now the end of the second week of school, and Harry had spent so much time with his advanced work and training, he had hardly seen them outside of classes and meals. Seeing as Ron had been bugging him all week long to go flying, Harry agreed to a pick up game of Quidditch Saturday morning.

Ron wanted to practice his keeper skills, as did Ginny as chaser. Harry just wanted to fly, so he decided to give the position of chaser a try as well. None of their other friends wanted to join in, so Harry played a game against Ginny with Ron as the all time keeper. The quick game reminded Harry of a basketball game of one on one.

At first both Weasleys had been surprised when Harry arrived in the common room with a strangely shaped black case, but Hermione recognized it immediately.

"Harry? Since when did you start playing the trombone?"

Both Ron and Ginny were confused as to what a trombone was, so Hermione quickly explained as they all walked down to the Entrance Hall. Hermione had decided to watch the game from the stands, but brought two books along with her as well.

"It's not a trombone." Harry explained. "It's just the case that my new broom came in. It actually works well. The hard case keeps the broom from being damaged, while the soft interior protect the broom's finish. There's also room for a polishing kit, a set of pads, and some other stuff as well."

"I don't get it." Ron exclaimed. "Didn't McGonagall give you back your Firebolt? Why do you need a new broom?"

"And what type is it?" Ginny asked. "I've never heard of a broom packaged in a tom-brone case before."

"I did get my Firebolt back, but I wasn't sure that it was even still around till school started. For all I knew, Umbridge took it with her. And even if it was still available, I promised myself that I wouldn't use it, because it's one of the only things given to me by Sirius. I don't know if I could stand to see it destroyed like my Nimbus was. So I got a new broom this summer to use for Quidditch. And it's a new model, that's why you don't recognize the packaging."

"But there are no new models that are as good as a Firebolt!" Ron voiced his concern. "If you use another broom, we might as well be handing the Quidditch cup over to Slytherin! Harry, you've got to use the Firebolt!"

"Don't worry Ron." Harry sighed. "I've been promised this broom is far better than my Firebolt. From the little I've flown it, I think it will do just fine. And before any of you ask, the reason you haven't heard of this broom is because it's not even available yet. It doesn't even have a name. This is the prototype, and the maker agreed to let me use it as long as I write him regular letters on its performance. Hopefully, it will be made available sometime next year."

Ginny and Hermione were satisfied with Harry's last outburst, but Ron was still muttering under his breath; something about a perfectly good Firebolt wasting away in a school trunk.

All of Ron's complaints were put to rest though within the first five minutes of them flying. They hadn't started a game yet, they were just warming up, but already Harry was doing tricks and stunts that made his Firebolt look like an old Cleansweep 5.

"Whoa Harry, you were right. We're gonna kick Slytherin's tail this year with you on that! Man, can it fly! Let's start the game."

And so they did, and Harry managed a fairly good job of pretending to be a chaser. Ginny even commented on his skill as Harry managed to get his fourth goal past Ron, but Harry just brushed off the compliment.

"Well, it's in my blood I suppose. My father was a great chaser. Besides, there aren't any Bludgers or anything, so it's not that hard."

Ron got motivated by that last remark, and his game increased dramatically after that. Ginny was however the better chaser of the two, and managed more goals against Ron than Harry did. With a final goal of 130-60, the group called it quits after nearly two hours in the air.

"Harry, mind if I have a go on your new broom?" Ron asked as the group headed for the ground. "If it's really better than a Firebolt, than I gotta try it out."

Harry didn't mind, and the two traded brooms mid-air as only practiced broom fliers could. They heard Hermione shriek in the distance, but only laughed it off. If she saw half of what went on during Quidditch practice, she'd know that this little stunt wasn't much danger.

Ron flew around for a few minutes, and Ginny took some practice shoots at him with the Quaffle, most of which he missed. All the shots knocked Ron off course, and he couldn't make it back to the three goals in time to save the next attempts.

"Harry, this is ruddy awful!" Ron told him as the two traded broom again in mid-air. "The damn thing is so light, you can't keep your place in the air. I'd rather play with Bill's old Silver Arrow!"

Harry laughed. "That's because it's a broom made for seekers, Ron. It's made to be light and fast, not sturdy and stable. The new line will have a different broom for every position. Here Ginny, you try it out. Let's see what you think."

Ginny thought it very kind of Harry to give her a try, and went to land only to see Harry still hovering mid-air. She flew back up towards him, and swapped brooms nervously. She had never done it before, but with so many older brothers growing up to play with, she was still very comfortable in the air.

The one little boggle she did have was when Ginny threw her last leg over the broom handle, and got carried too far by her momentum. She almost toppled off the side, and was about to perform a Sloth Grip Roll to avoid falling to the ground below, when Harry reached out from her new Comet 260 to get a grip on her. The broom had been a gift from her parents for making prefect, but right now that was the last thing from the girl's mind. More important was the grip Harry had around her waist, which accidentally was a litter higher than he aimed for.

Realized that his hand was brushing up against the underside of Ginny's breast, Harry quickly drew his had away as soon as he was sure that she wouldn't fall. Both had gone beet red by then, and luckily Ron wasn't paying attention. After all the heat he had been giving Dean these past two weeks, Harry had no doubt that Ron would scream bloody murder if he saw his best friend fondling his baby sister. The circumstances be damned.

"Sorry." Harry murmured. He didn't know what else to say, and he couldn't even look Ginny in the eyes to apologize properly. If he wasn't so properly embarrassed, he might have found a little humor, and even some pleasure in the experience.

Ginny dismissed it quickly, and flew off before the situation could get any more embarrassing. Harry flew back over to where Ron was talking with Hermione, and from the stands watched as Ginny made spectacular dives and feints on his new broom. Harry could actually hear her screaming with glee as she flew at top speed, attempting daring moves. She had never even flown Harry's Firebolt, and the best broom Ginny had previously flown was the Nimbus Fred and George had bought the year before.

Once Ginny landed by the stands, the two's previous altercation was forgotten.

"Harry, that was splendid! I never knew flying could be so much fun! It's no wonder you enjoy playing seeker so much with a broom like that. I can't wait for Malfoy to see it. He'll never know what hit him!"

"Yup, but let's keep this secret until out first match. I don't want Slytherin or the other teams to find out about my new broom until they have to. It'll be a great secret weapon."

Ginny and Ron both grinned madly, and even Hermione had a smirk on her face. Together the four friends made their way to the equipment shed, to return the Quaffle they had borrowed. Harry unlocked the door with the key McGonagall had given him and Ginny, when Hermione noticed it. She had already been in the stands when the got the ball in the first place.

"Harry? Why do you have the keys to the equipment shed? I thought only Madame Hooch was supposed to have access."

"Team captains too." Ron corrected her. "Congratulation then, Harry. I reckon that was what McGonagall met with you the other night about. But what was Ginny there for?"

Harry was surprised that Ron didn't seem upset, but answered Ron's question. Ginny looked on nervously. They had hoped to hold off telling Ron about the news of them being team captains till tryouts started.

"Actually, McGonagall offered both of us the position as captain." Harry explained. "Neither of us wanted it though, because Ginny's got OWLs this year, and I've got the D.A., my independent studies, and Voldemort to worry about. I actually wanted you to be captain Ron, but McGonagall said she wouldn't let you. So instead, she made Ginny and I co-captains. We'll have to split all the work, but it should lesson the workload for the two of us."

"Really? Way to go, Gin! At least one of us got to be a captain this year. Wait until Charlie hears."

Ginny frowned. "You're not mad, Ron? It really should have been you."

"Nah. I expected it to tell you the truth. After I got my OWLs back, and got dismissed from being prefect, I knew that Quidditch captain was a long shot. No worries."

Both Harry and Ginny were greatly relieved, and Ginny even gave her brother a short hug for being so understanding. It may be taking him a little longer than the others his age, but Ron was indeed growing up.

"Speaking of your independent studies, Harry." Hermione informed him. "Professor Dumbledore asked me last night to check up on your potions work. I know it's only been one week since you've been on your own, but I haven't even seen you schedule time to go down to the dungeons yet. You really can't procrastinate this much longer."

Harry smiled. "I haven't been procrastinating Hermione, and I have been brewing potions. I'm just not using Snape's classroom to do it in. I've got my own potions lab."

Hermione looked very suspicious, as did Ginny. Ron might have also, but he had seen Harry enter and exit his trunk daily for two full weeks. He had an idea where the potions lab might be.

"Really Hermione," Harry assured her, "I'll show you tonight. It's in the new trunk I bought this summer. It's got rooms in it like Mad-Eye Moody's trunk. I've got a library, living quarters; everything I need."

Hermione's eyes lit up at mention of a library, and she reminded Harry of his promise to show her his collection of books that he made on the train ride to school.

Ginny and Ron looked equally interested in seeing the inside of his trunk, and Harry promised they'd get the chance. Ron had already been asking for a solid week, but Harry had so far refused. He'd been too busy training as of yet.

"Tell you what." Harry promised. "Let's get washed up for lunch, eat some because I can already hear Ron's stomach growling, and then we'll grab Neville and Luna. I'll go up to the dorm to grab my trunk, and we can all meet at the Room of Requirements to see it."

They all agreed, none worrying about how Harry was going to carry his trunk halfway across school, and happily went inside. They all washed up quickly, and just made it to lunch in time for the first helpings of burgers and chips to appear on the golden platters. Because it was a weekend, house mingling was allowed, and Luna joined the group at the Gryffindor table. She had been treated better by her housemates lately, but still preferred the company of those who liked her, to those who simply tolerated her.

When lunch was over, Harry headed up to Gryffindor tower, while the rest branched off at the corridor that held the Room of Requirements. It only took Harry an extra five minutes to run up to his room, peak his head into his trunk and scream a warning to his double, and then shrink his trunk and run back down the stairs to meet his friends. By now they knew only he could open the door to the room, which he did as soon as he arrived. The room provided was plain and small, but suited their needs just fine.

"Alright everyone," Harry began his spiel as he enlarged his trunk, "this is the trunk that was commission by my grandfather over twenty years ago. He died before it was completed, and the family forgot about it after that. My father was still in school, and then he joined the Order. The trunk was made to be able to house a family of four; to be able to hide in plain sight. That's why the inside is so nice, and the outside is so secure."

Hermione and Ginny were running their hands over the smooth finish and intricate bronze work, admiring the trunk. Ron and Neville had seen enough of the outside already, and were just impatient to see the rest. Luna for once was focused on the object of discussion, but didn't do more than stare.

"When I went in to buy a new trunk this summer, I was only thinking of getting something bigger for all my new stuff. I didn't know that this even existed. But once I found out who it belonged to, I had to have it."

The others nodded in agreement. As long as one had the means to buy such an expensive item, anyone in Harry's position would have done the same.

Harry proceeded to tell them about some of the security measures, and opened the trunk's first two compartments to show them both the size and some of the new items he had bought. Ginny enjoyed the empty Pensieve, Ron got a thrill out seeing both brooms lined up side by side, and Neville and Luna admired the selection of clothes Harry had. They even made Harry model his black and white phoenix dress robes which the Quibbler article had so much to say about. Hermione paid close attention, but eagerly awaited the books.

So it was her that Harry let enter the third compartment first. The others soon followed, and Harry brought up the rear. By the time he entered and closed the trunk lid behind him, Hermione already had three large tombs open on the study desk in the middle of the room. With all six of them inside, the room was a little cramped, but manageable.

"Oh Harry, these are wonderful!" Hermione gushed over an advanced transfiguration text. "When you said you bought some advanced reading, I had no idea your collection was so extensive. This must have cost a fortune!"

"Only about fifty of these are from a bookstore, Hermione. The rest came from my family vault, which I also stumbled into this summer. I took out all the books I could find, but left all the art, furniture, weapons, and money. Once I turn seventeen, I'll have full access. There's also another hundred or so books back at my Hideaway, but those I've already read."

The others were just browsing the shelves, while Ron unhappily sat at the desk, waiting for Hermione to finish. Harry was also eager to move the tour along, as he didn't want Hermione to discover some of the darker books in his collection. None of them really stood out leaning up against the shelves, but just opening the pages of a few would tell his secret. More than one of the books let loose screams and curses if the reader handled the text improperly. Harry also got nervous about his copy of "Hogwarts: A History," but was glad to see it gone from his shelves. His double must have hidden it, knowing that Hermione would beeline straight to that title if she saw it.

"Alright, Ron's getting bored, so we're moving on. Hermione, I promise you can borrow some books anytime you want." Harry had no choice to promise her at her disappointed look.

Having already explained the portal, Harry moved the group into the next chamber, which was his potions lab. Upon entering, Harry was surprised to see an illusion covering up Dobby and Winky's side of the room, but figured his double did it again. The space just appeared to be a blank wall, and no evidence of house-elf dwelling could be found.

Taking the time to show off his full set of potions equipment and stock of ready-made potions, Hermione was more than impressed with Harry's work to date. The Polyjuice Potion was the most difficult potion on hand, and as they had practice making it already Hermione was only mildly impressed, but Harry assured her he had made other advanced potions as well. His copy of "Rare and Powerful Potions" was nearby, and Harry appeased her thirst for knowledge by showing her the recipe for Wolfsbane. He had guessed that she might like to take a shot at the potion for possible extra credit, and boy was he right. Her eyes lit up with hunger, but again, the others were getting bored.

"Come on Harry, I thought you said there was cool stuff in here!" Ron whined.

"You want cool, Ron? Here, you can be the first to go through into the next room." Harry was excited to see his friend's reaction to the dueling chamber. At first he had been worried his friend might be jealous of Harry's possession, but so far today Ron had been nothing but supportive.

The others followed Ron into the dueling chamber, and were very impressed with the work out room. Hermione, and strangely Luna recognized, the muggle work out equipment, and Harry was forced to demonstrate how each machine worked. Ron and Neville were jokingly boasting who could lift the most weight, and Ron won after he bench pressed one hundred sixty five pounds. Harry privately thought he might be able to outdo his friend, but didn't want to show off. Hermione gave him a look that said she knew he'd be able to also. After all, it was his equipment, and he must have been using it. While Ron was still much taller than Harry, Ginny wasn't the only one to notice Harry's impressive build. Hermione had gotten a good look during Quidditch that morning, which Harry had only worn a tee shirt and jeans to. While wizard robes did a good job of hiding a person's physique, a tight, thin shirt couldn't do the same job.

Harry also let the guys all have a go at one of the training dummies, which even the girls tried out. They all cast a cutting curse, and Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all had the most powerful spells ranging from a six to seven on a scale of ten.

"Let's see you take a go, Harry." Neville commented. He was in a great mood, as his spell had just come in under the others'. He really liked his new wand.

Knowing he could outdo all his friends with the simple spell, Harry thought about refusing. But his friends would badger him endlessly, so he gave in and approached the target. Already committed, Harry grinned as he pulled Hedwig's wands out of his boot, and took aim.

"New wand holster, Harry?" Ron asked. He hadn't really paid attention to where Harry usually drew his wand from, but he was pretty sure it wasn't from his boot.

Harry nodded, and then motioned for the others to back away. They all raised their eyebrows (they were already far enough back they thought), but did so without question. Harry took a deep breath, concentrated on the task at hand, and then spoke loudly, not quite yelling, "Diffendo!"

As he knew if would, a strong light escaped his wand's tip, measuring at least twice as wide as it should have. His spell also registered somewhere between nine and ten on the gauge, and was closer to the ten side than the nine. Using the extra focus Hedwig's wand provided, along with his extra understanding of how the spell worked thanks to his reading on magical theory, Harry had cast a cutting curse few could improve upon.

"Whoa, Harry. That was powerful!" Ginny praised him. "I never knew you were that good. I'd bet not even seventh years could do that well."

Harry blushed as he replaced his wand. He didn't take compliment well, and this wasn't the first one of the day.

"Well, you've got to remember that I've been practicing all summer long. Plus, that's a third year spell, so I've been using it for awhile. I'm sure you could do the same with enough practice."

The others thought not, and argued slightly as they moved into the next room; Harry's personal quarters. To say the group was impressed was an understatement. They all marveled at the comfortable furniture and Potter family tapestries in the sitting room, and when moved into the kitchen, Ron couldn't help but snack out of the stocked ice box. Harry had to explain the spells that kept a never ending supply of food available, and Ron thought that was the most brilliant thing he had ever heard of.

The girls all thought it brilliant as well, but not as much as Harry's bedroom. When they stepped inside the large master suite, all the girls' mouths dropped open. The room was exquisite.

Even Neville and Ron could appreciate the room's beauty, though they didn't feel the need to bounce on the bed, on rummage through the dresser drawers. Harry showed them all how the cots in the closet worked, and he even told them all that the clothing had already been in the closet when he bought the trunk. Ginny and Luna each found a favorite dress on the rack, and had quite a lot of fun holding up hangars to their bodies in front of the three way mirror.

The bathroom was great too, especially since it was a personal one, not like the prefects' bath. In fact, Ginny politely informed the group to leave her alone in the room, as she wanted to christen it herself. "Never again will I get the chance to use such a fine facility," she said.

Harry and Neville laughed, while Ron thought she was bonkers. "A loo's a loo," he thought.

When Ginny rejoined the others in the sitting room, Harry had already summoned six bottles of butterbeer from his stash, and had passed them around. All were pleased, even Hermione. She had wanted to scold Harry for breaking school rules, but couldn't think of a rule that prevented students from keeping butterbeer in their trunks. Besides, as long as the house-elves didn't have to suffer for the work, she was happy. Thank Merlin she didn't know about Dobby and Winky yet.

Another hour passed as the six played games and talked lightly about the first weeks of school. Harry and Hermione teamed up against Ron on Harry's new muggle chess set. Ron still won, but only barely. It had taken him awhile to get used to making his own moves, and that had given Hermione and Harry an early advantage which they slowly lost.

Neville, Ginny, and Luna played a game of Exploding Snap, and had a lot of fun. Apparently the deck of cards were made to follow an old set of rules, so it was interesting for the youngsters to experiment with.

When the last card exploded, they also gave the Potter family tapestry a closer look. Ron, Ginny, and Neville recognized many of the names that Harry didn't, and told him a lot about the other families. Luna found a common ancestor on her mother's side of the family, but it was generations back. Hermione was just happy to see that the Potters had historically no problems intermarrying with muggles.

The group of friends returned to their common rooms well before dinner started, but all in a good mood. Harry too was happy that he finally shared a little more with his friends. They still knew far from the whole truth (he didn't show them his prison compartment for instance), but at least he was opening up. It was his good mood that allowed Harry to eat a hardy dinner, and then slip off unnoticed afterwards to the second floor. There was a moaning someone he had to greet.

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Sunday morning, while the castle's students caught up on the week's homework, Harry used the secret passage to Honeyduke's, and then apparated to Diagon Alley. He had a bag on him with his recent horde of goodies, his invisibility cloak, and his money bag, but he didn't have much planned. He just came to fulfill his promise to Mr. Olivander, which he made earlier that past summer.

The deal made; in exchange for creating his new wand, and provided one to Neville at no cost; was to provided Mr. Olivander with the story of how Harry killed a basilisk his second year, as well as to provide the remaining fangs for wand cores. Because the basilisk was not only rare, but also extremely deadly, Olivander had never used the ingredient as a wand core before. But any wand maker would love the chance to experiment, and Harry was giving Olivander that chance.

The night before, after dinner while everyone else wasn't paying attention, Harry had slipped into the second floor girl's lavatory to access the chamber of secrets. He had to hold a conversation with Myrtle for awhile so she wouldn't cry, and then he opened the sink's entrance, and disappeared. Hedwig had decided to come with him this time, as she probably detected Harry was a little nervous.

Not wanting to disrupt classes, Hedwig had taken to staying on her perch in Harry's dorm room most of the day. She occasionally made an appearance at meals, but even then Harry got swamped with questions from the other students. Only in his dorm room and the Gryffindor common room could Hedwig comfortably come and go as she pleased. Harry hoped that with enough time, that would change.

The dank chamber was much as Harry remembered it, only it seemed smaller. Either because it didn't hold as much fear for him, or because he had grown, Harry didn't know. Even the size of the basilisk wasn't the same, although that could be attributed to the decaying and rotting corpse it was now. Harry smelt it before laying his other sense on it, and had to cast a bubble head charm over his head before he could progress into the depths of the chamber. The second entrance door had been left open this whole time, so all the insects and vermin had three solid years to feast upon the snake's grotesque body. Only the sheer size of it prevented the remains from being totally stripped down to the bone.

After pulling all the salvageable fangs that remained (there were thirty one left), Harry banished the body away. It was so large that he had to do it in sections, but magic still made quick work of the rather large job. Harry then cleaned and freshened the room as best he could, and explored some of the pipes as well. The chamber was much larger than Harry originally thought, and he promised himself to come back at another time to further explore. After placing the fangs in a thick leather pouch he conjured, Harry returned to his dorm. Ten of the fangs he added to his store of potion ingredients, and the other twenty one he carefully wrapped for the next day. It wouldn't do good to accidentally stab himself with a sharp tooth.

Olivander appreciated the story immensely, and appreciated the fangs even more. He also inquired as to how Harry's new wand was treating him, and Harry assured him it was working beyond his expectations. That made Olivander even happier, and Harry left before he could get further creeped out. Mr. Olivander's version of happy showed an almost maniacal look on his face.

It was when Harry was leaving the wand shop did he feel the first real twinge on his left wrist. At first Harry didn't know what the pain was, but then he remembered the Dark Arts detector in his watch. He had set it to pick up signals of a Dark Mark buy using Snape as a guinea pig, and the expensive watch was finally paying off. As opposed to making a siren sound, or flashing lights, Harry had set the detector to prickle his wrist in warning. Looking around he didn't see anyone take notice of him (he was in disguise again), so Harry slipped into the small space behind Olivander's wand shop to put on his invisibility cloak.

Once flung over his head, Harry reemerged into the busy street, careful not to bump into anyone. He followed the twinge in his wrist until it became stronger, and narrowed down his list of potential Death Eaters to three people. There were two men and one woman walking in a group, and Harry couldn't tell where the signal was coming from.

He had to follow the group another twenty minutes, and into three different shops, before they split up separately. The couple wanted to shop for some new robes, while the single man headed towards the apparition point in Diagon Alley. Luck was with Harry as he turned out to be the one where the signal was coming from, and Harry followed.

Once past the cauldron shop, the street thinned out enough for Harry to make his move, and he quietly stepped closer to the man, drawing his wand from his sleeve as he went. Harry was getting a little nervous, but this is what he had planned on doing for almost a year now. He just didn't think the opportunity would present itself so soon.

Without making a sound, Harry cursed the man mute, and then summoned him to an empty alleyway where they could have some privacy. The man put up a struggle once he realized he was being attacked, but since he couldn't see his attacker, and couldn't scream out for help, he didn't stand a chance.

Once alone, Harry stunned him, blindfolded him, bound him with ropes, and only then removed his invisibility cloak. He packed it away in his bag, and apparated them both out of there before someone might notice. Forced apparition, the means to bring someone along with you under your own power, was incredibly draining, and was one of the Ministry spells Harry had illegally learned months ago. The method wasn't all that different from regular apparition, it just took a lot more power. And of course it could be very painful for the person along for the ride. Somehow, Harry wasn't concerned with the Death Eater's feelings.

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After tying up loose ends that night, Harry made his usual trip into the past, while his other self climbed out of the trunk, and got to bed as soon as the patrol with Cami was complete.

The next week passed by quickly, and classes came easier to Harry the more he read ahead. The D.A. was a confirmed hit, and Harry already had an idea of which members from the novice group he wanted to move ahead. Draco and his goons had made one last ditch attempt to join, but even their girly whinning to Professor Snape did no good. When presented with the news that Malfoy and the others weren't allowed in because Potter had refused them admission, Snape had gone right to the Headmaster to complain. But when Dumbledore presented him with the fact that over twenty other Slytherins were part of the D.A., Snape couldn't argue that Harry was playing favorites. Draco was outraged when he found out, and Ron had a grand time teasing him that day in lessons.

Soon the weekend approached yet again, and with it, the long awaited Gryffindor Quidditch team tryouts. Ron was excited, Ginny was worried about securing her spot as chaser, and Harry was nervous about running the competition. Gryffindor needed an excellent team this year in order to compete with the other houses, and filling in four positions was no easy task. However Professor McGonagall assured Harry that he would do a good job, and he swore not to let her down.

So early that Saturday morning, after not being able to eat more than a piece of toast for breakfast, Harry made his way down to the pitch carrying his trombone case. Time to fly!

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AUTHOR NOTES:

Well, there you go everyone. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter more than the previous one, as it was a bit more fast paced. I'm finally getting the school year off its feet (and it's about bloody time!), and the next chapter will stretch out over nearly a month. For those action fans out there, you can expect Quidditch tryouts, the first Quidditch game, and Harry capturing a few more inmates all in the next chapter. We'll also soon see what Voldy's up to, and what he has planned for Harry this year. For those romantics out there who've been bothering me about Harry's relationship with Ginny, hopefully you can see the start of some stuff in this chapter. From here on in it simply snowballs, but still at a respectable pace. I'm also keeping Amber, Cami, and Cho around to utterly confuse Harry's hormones. He is a teenage boy after all. And for you perverts out there, we'll be seeing more of Harry's X-Ray vision soon as well. One credit I'd like to give is that line about the sponge contraceptive. It's modified from the original line (this girl oozed sex more than a sponge contraceptive), from the movie "100 Girls." I don't think it ever hit theaters, but it's a great teen comedy for those movie buffs out their. Got a great cast as well. 5 house points if anyone's seen it. Don't know what else to say really. Schnoogle posting is going well (3 chaps up), as is my yahoo group. So thanks for sticking with this story everyone, and I'll try to keep you all thoroughly excited. Ross.

Tombadgerlock – you make an interesting point about how according to the number of phoenixes in the world according to my fic, and how many feathers they donate for wands, there's not nearly enough for all the wands of the 100,000 people attending the World Cup in GoF. I do have a defense though. First off, that's wizard in the world (World Cup), not just the UK. And we know that Olivander's shop isn't the only provider of wands in the world. So maybe other wand makers use other cores than the three that Olivander uses. And who says that phoenix feathers aren't the most rare of those three? Besides, I get the feeling from cannon that Mr. Olivander has an extreme bag log of wands to last for many generations. I've doen the math, and I estimate only 6,000-8,000 magical people in the UK. Here's my reasoning. Figure the average life span of a witch or wizard is 150 years old. There are 7 years at Hogwarts, so 150/7=21.4. At Hogwarts at any one time there are about 300 students (10x7x4=280). That's 10 kids per house per year, times seven years, times four houses. So we can see, 300x21.4= 6,400. So we can see, there's no way that all those in attendance at the World Cup came from Britain. I know I didn't really have to do all this math to answer your question, but it might come into play later in my fic, plus it was just fun. Has anyone attempted to justify the number of magical people in the UK before according to cannon? I haven't seen it.

Faraway – I'm glad you're liking this story so much. I'm sorry that you feel disappointed with the lack of ships in my fic, but you have to understand this is a cannon story, and JKR does not write ships. I'm going to involve some slight H/G, but not much. But hopefully you've seen from this chapter that I'm getting their. After all, Harry got to second base with Gin, without even getting kissing her first! Now that's my type of guy!

Numba1 & Csferosha – I think Dumble always knew Snape was hard on his students, and even harder on Harry, but he never knew the extent Snape's verbal abuse went. I don't see any Headmaster condoning that type of verbal assault on students as frail as Neville (1st 4 years), so I can't believe that Dumble really was aware. Many of you think that Dumble knows everything that goes on within the castle, but obviously from cannon he doesn't. He's not aware of the basilisk, of impersonating Crouch Jr., the cup portkey, etc. Also, do you happen to realize that whenever Harry and Dumble talk, Dumble always asks, "Do you have something to tell me Harry?" I think that Dumble just projects knowledge, and lets people think he really knows that much.

Lauren – Hopefully you're back to liking my writing. Glad you liked the Rita Skeeter article, you're the only person to mention it. I like it too, even though writing it was a challenge. I don't do news reporting to well I've found out, but I think the end result was fine. Maybe I'll tweak it later, like I'll tweak my sorting song. Good to have you back.

Miss Teinge – Good question about both Harry's scars hurting. To answer your question, no, only the present Harry fells it. This is just a made up answer of course (I doubt I'll be addressing this issue in my fic), but I reason it this way. The Harry in the trunk has already experience the vision the first time around, so he's prepared for it, and can block out it's effect, or something like that. Or maybe Harry can only experience the visions once, because of his unique link with Voldy. Whatever, I 'm just making this stuff up. AS if my time traveling scheme wasn't confusing enough already. Anyways, I hope I've sorta answered your question.

Lisienna – I know that my average reviews isn't 100 per chapter, I just wrote that I'm getting close to a hundred per chapter now. The first five chapters didn't have many reviews (maybe 50 in total), so it's all picked up from there. Chapter 15 had about 75 reviews, and 16 so far had close to 90. Thanks for reading. Maybe you can appreciate the math in the first AN above.

Tanydwr – Feel free to use my trunk idea, or any others for that matter, as long as you don't use too many at once, or do the cut and paste thing. And of course if the ideas are real specific, it would be nice for you to give credit in author notes. Thanks for reading.

AlphaPhi – Wormtail spent a month in a cell between the time he was captured by Harry and Remus, to the time he was unmasked by Harry at the press meeting. If you read more carefully, you'll see that Harry's the one to stun Wormtail before unmasking him. Hope that clears up your confusion.

Amarilis – I like you. You like all my favorite parts, so I like you.

Illucia – A summary is tricky to write, because there's only a limited space to use. If you can think of something else (or anyone else for that matter), please send it my way, and I'll take a look.

Kateydidn't – Glad to see you stuck around. I loved your story, so it's nice to hear from you. Yes, I know the Crucio scene needs some work, and I'll probably rework that in my Schnoogle version so that Harry has a little more difficulty agreeing to use that curse. Keep up the good work, both your writing fic and in writing reviews.

H-Ruf – Glad you made it past the first two chapters. In my defense, all JKR's books have a few pages of summary, so I felt I had to do it in the first chap as well. 2nd one wasn't all bad, but it was kind of boring, that's why I made it short. Anyways, at least you like it now. I promise no more going back to the way things were. Thanks for reading.

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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.