Hogwarts Year 3

Chapter 4

Life settled down to semi-normal at Hogwarts, except for the frequent visits from the DMLE to Draco Malfoy seeking any clue as to the location of his father Lucius. The first Gryffindor Quidditch match was this coming weekend. The match was against Hufflepuff the Gryffindors were not very worried about this game. It's not like they were playing Slytherin. But first there was today's CMC class with Hagrid and he had said he would have a real surprise for them, this thought made even Harry nervous. As the class was walking into the forest Harry remembered the first class when almost nobody knew how to safely open their books without getting bitten. It had been a toss-up as to who was funnier Ron or Draco. Ron lost his shoe to the book when he dropped it, but Draco lost part of his robe and almost lost a finger. It had been funny to watch Ron "dance" around trying to keep his toes and then see Draco so involved with laughing at Ron he tripped and his book took off the sleeve of his robe and was going for a finger with Draco "crab-walking" backwards on the ground.

"Alright now, here we are" Hagrid said pulling Harry out of his thoughts. Where they were was at a corral in the forest, inside the corral was a line of dead ferrets hanging up, every girl in the class let out an involuntary squeak while half the boys shuddered at the line of ferrets. Hagrid told them to open their books to a specific page and there Harry, and the rest of the class, saw a picture of a Hippogriff. When Harry looked up he saw Hagrid leading one these creatures into the corral. Hagrid explained that the Hippogriff was a very proud creature and was known to attack if it felt insulted. Hagrid explained how to approach a Hippogriff and what not to do, then asked for a volunteer to try and approach this one. Surprisingly it was Neville who stepped up first.

Neville entered the pen and slowly walked to within 10 feet of the Hippogriff and stopped. Next Neville made a very deep bow towards the creature, keeping his eyes on it and making sure to maintain eye contact. The Hippogriff seemed to study Neville then bowed in return. Hagrid told Neville to slowly approach the creature and see if it would let him carefully pet its head. Neville found out that this Hippogriff liked to have its head scratched. But the biggest surprise was when Hagrid place Neville on the creature's back and told him to enjoy the ride as the Hippogriff took a running start and took off into the air. You could probably hear Neville's shout of joy a mile away. Once they landed Hagrid gave the creature a dead ferret as a reward.

Then it was time for the rest of the class to try, so Hagrid brought out five more of the creatures and said for the students to approach carefully and remember what they had been told. Harry and Hermione both approached the same Hippogriff that Neville had petted and were surprised when the creature bowed almost as soon as they started to bow. After leaving the creature so another student could approach, Harry tossed the Hippogriff a ferret which it caught in midair. Draco walked into the pen and immediately insulted the Hippogriff which rared up to attack. The only thing that saved Draco was Harry's loud shout of "STOP", which the Hippogriff did and bowed to Harry.

Hagrid picked Draco up by the back of his robes and informed him that he had lost 20 points for his actions, then Hagrid turn around and gave those points to Harry for his quick thinking and actions. Ron came up to Hermione and asked if she would explain again how to approach the Hippogriff safely, this was a complete surprise for both Hermione and Harry. When Ron walked into the pen Harry watched closely as Ron bowed, but the creature didn't bow back. Still bent over, Ron asked what to do now. Hermione just walked up to the creature and started scratching its head and told Ron to back away slowly, which Ron did with relief on his face.

After class on the way back to the castle Ron came up and thanked Hermione for her help and asked if maybe her and Harry could show him a few things about defense as he didn't understand a few spells. "I know I've been a prick in the past but I can't afford to fail this, it could save my life some day. I thought about asking Neville but the two of you seem to know more about it. Please help me out.", were the words coming from Ron's mouth, and they sounded sincere. Hermione said they would be glad to help me out, they never refused a request for help if it sounded honest and sincere.

After supper that night Harry approached Remus and asked if he, Hermione, and Ron could use the Defense room to help Ron practice. McGonagall heard the request and thanked Harry for helping another student and said that if Remus had something else to do she would be glad to help out, since it was a full moon tomorrow night. Remus said he did need to do something and would accept McGonagall's help.

The first spell Ron wanted help with was the spell to repel a Boggart. McGonagall watched as Harry explained the spell and then as Hermione preformed it as a demonstration, McGonagall was impressed with both students teaching methods. When the Boggart came out for Ron it was a very large spider, Ron fainted and Harry had to take care of the Boggart which couldn't seem to decide what to turn into. That was interesting since a Boggart usually turned into whatever scared the person the most. It took three more tries before Ron was able to handle the Boggart by having it wear skates. The three kids worked on a few more spells and most of the problems were Ron not saying them correctly, which Hermione corrected.

The next day was the regular Defense class and Remus told his classes that since the school was having to experience the effects of Dementors at this time he thought it best if the class learned the spell needed to handle them. He cautioned them that it was a hard spell to do as it took a very strong happy thought to cast this spell. He gave then the incantation which was Expecto Patronum. Remus then had them all say the spell without wands to make sure they got it right. He broke them up into groups of four and had them try the spell. Most of them couldn't get anything, a few did produced a silver mist. Harry, Hermione, Susan, and Luna didn't even try as they knew they could do this spell, but they did offer help to others. One smart-mouth asked why Luna was trying to help when she hadn't even tried the spell, the next thing he knew a silvery eagle was flying all over the place. "Now you do it!" was all Luna said as she walked away smiling.

It was time for the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff and it should be an easy one, except it was raining very hard. The game started off okay with Hermione getting the ball and going straight down the field to score the first goal. The Hufflepuff seeker was Cedric Diggory and he was good. Things were going fine until five black cloaked figures appeared at the end of the field. Everyone thought they were Dementors, but Harry knew better. The five figures got a surprise when several patroni came after them, and one of those was a very large bear – Harry saw Neville standing behind the stands grinning and putting his staff away. On the ground the five figures were now missing their robes and revealed as Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, and someone Harry didn't know at first. While Harry was watching the "Dementors" Cedric caught the snitch and won the game for Hufflepuff by 10 points.

After the game there were two big questions to be answered, why would anyone want to impersonate a Dementor, and who cast that bear Patronus? The second question remained unanswered, but it was general consensus that no lower class-man could have done it so it had to be an upperclassman. The answer to the first question was so they could try to alter the outcome of the game by costing Gryffindor the game. Each of the five lost 30 points and then Ms. DuPrie got involved, none of the five were seen after supper for the next week. Harry had recognized several of the patroni, Hermione's, Neville's, Luna's, Susan's, and Remus'; Harry did wonder what would have happened if he had cast his using his "secret" wand?

It was Halloween weekend and also the first Hogsmead weekend of the year. The weekend started out with a bang, a very loud bang and a blood curdling scream from the forest. The bang was caused by the arrival of six auror at the main gate, the scream was found out to Lucius Malfoy caught in the wards. Lucius had tried to apparate into Hogsmead, probably to talk with his son the next day, but had landed too close to the wards and been caught up in them. No one had told about the new wards so they were a big surprise, almost as big as seeing several Dementors coming towards him only to be held at bay by the other wards.

The story the next day was that Malfoy had been running from the Dementors and the wards saved his life by keeping them away until the DMLE squad arrived to retrieve him. Hogwarts told a different story to the heirs and friends. But Susan asked why the wards didn't pick up on any of the older students who were thought to be Death Eater soon-to-bees? Harry explained that the wards only picked up the magic in the marks and not on a person's thoughts or feelings. Otherwise over half of Slytherin house would have been caught when school started and they entered the grounds, maybe even a few other houses as well.

Hermione went on to explain that since the marks were applied by Voldemort, and he was thought to be dead, there could be no new marks in the past 14 years. This caused Harry to wonder if maybe the marks were made using Parseltounge magic, after all he had just used the shape and slight magical feel that had been described to make the wards. That brought up another question, had Peter Pettigrew been marked? If so would his being an animagi hide that from the wards since the mark wouldn't show in animal form? That was a question he needed the answer to and soon.

Harry knew about the map his father, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had made; but that map had been lost many years ago right here in the castle, or had it? "accio Marauders map" Harry said and watched as said map appeared in his hands. Sirius had told him enough that Harry knew how to operate the map. But before he could do anything he heard the Weasley twins shouting about their map flying out of their trunk. Harry walked up to the Weasley dormitory, is this the map you were shouting about? The map made by my father and Sirius Black? Were the questions Harry asked as he walked into their room. The boy's faces said it all. They finally admitted they had "borrowed" the map from Filch's office their first year, they had found it in a drawer marked "Dangerous Items". That was how they had been able to get away with so much mayhem over the years and get stuff from Hogsmead, like Butterbeer and items from Honeydukes. But they had the secret passages memorized now and didn't really need the map, but didn't want Ron to get it either. Maybe Ginny but not Ron, never Ron he would get caught and the map lost again. Harry kept the map.

The next day Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Susan went to Hogsmead, it wasn't as if three of them hadn't been there before. Harry used a floo to call Sirius and ask him to come meet them. Once Sirius showed up Harry asked if it would be possible to get access to a Death Eater for about 10 minutes so he could check out the dark mark? Sirius said no, until Harry explained why he wanted to do this. The Death Eater could even be knocked out, as long as he was marked and Harry could actually touch the dark mark. Sirius finally agreed and said they still had Snape in custody and he was marked.

Harry explained to the others what was going on and left with Sirius to go to the MOM so he could see a dark mark up close and examine it to determine if it was in fact Parseltounge magic. Severus Snape wasn't happy to see both Potter and Black at the same time; but when Harry told him why they were there he agreed to let Harry examine his mark, it was agree or be stunned. Harry ran his finger over the faded mark and could feel the magic inside it. "Sirius, we need a bed for Snape. I think I can remove this mark, but he will have to be awake and still. If worst comes to worst it will only cause a moderate amount of pain. That is if he is willing to be a Guinea Pig for this, it has to be his choice just as it was his choice to take the mark" Harry said.

"Potter do you really think you a third year student can undo what was done by one of the most powerful wizards in recent times? And do you think I would risk my arm to your petty attempt?", Severus said.

"Well, look at it this way Snape. If Harry can remove the mark then we would have little reason to hold you, since we can't prove you have done anything real dark in the past few years. But, as Harry said it has to be your choice. But it is now or never." Sirius told him quietly.

Snape thought it over and agreed but asked that St. Mongos be available to him if it was too traumatic. Harry and Sirius both agreed to that request. Sirius transfigured the table in the room into a bed for Snape. Sirius suggested at least one more person be available just in case, Amelia was asked and accepted. With both Sirius and Amelia standing there with wands drawn, Harry pulled out his phoenix feather wand and started probing the mark. Several ghostly runes appeared and floated over the mark and Harry studied them closely and copied the runes down onto paper. Then Harry started hissing, casting a spell in Parseltounge, Snape started sweating then screamed as the mark slowly faded even more and a cloud of black smoke rose out of the mark and disappeared. The mark was completely gone, and after catching his breath Snape said he could feel the difference. Snape asked how Harry had been able to do that, Harry explained that since he was a Parseltounge himself he could do a counter spell. Snape suddenly had a very blank look on his face as Sirius removed the memory of what had happened and who had removed the mark.

As soon as Harry was in the atrium of the ministry he activated his portkey and went back to Hogwarts, straight to the Gryffindor chambers to await the others. While waiting Harry started to review the wards and found it would be easy to adjust the wards to detect the magic of the dark mark. The wards then would detect the magic even in a person who was in animal form, like Peter Pettigrew. Harry explained all this to Hogwarts, the catch was that to do this he needed to take that ward down long enough to inscribe the runes. Harry estimated that the ward could be kept up with three of the heirs supplying the power, but only two would be available while he inscribed the new runes. This would have to wait until later as it was too dangerous to do it now with LeStrange wandering around.

When the rest finally returned from Hogsmead Harry explained what he had done and what he had come up with to change the wards to make them stronger. Harry told them the only way he could think of to do this now was if Grimstead was there to inscribe the runes. Luna asked why Hermione couldn't do the inscribing while Harry helped keep the current wards up? After all she was almost as good at runes as Harry, she got an O on her OWLs the same as he did. Neville asked what would happen if the runes were not exact? Harry told him then they would have to do it again and remove the new runes, that would be easy if they had a backup rune stone handy.

"Could you just add another stone to the wards and if it didn't work then remove it?" Hermione asked, since Harry was the warding expert. Harry thought about that and said it was possible, that way he could inscribe the new stone and one of the girls could do the switching since nobody but the heirs could enter the warding chamber. The problem was they didn't have an extra ward stone available right now.

A/N: Well, I guess they wait until after Christmas to upgrade the ward. That way Harry can obtain another ward stone.

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