Disclaimer: not mine, just playing on J. K. Rowling's sandbox.
AN: Hi! I hope you haven't completely forgotten me already. I'm sorry for the chapter taking so long, but here it is finally. There's too many reasons for the delay with this chapter to list them all, but suffice to say that real life has been intervening with my writing, and I also had some trouble with finding the motivation to work on this story. Fortunately, one day, I just happened to read ahead what I had written, and reading the end of this story really rekindled my fire to get the story edited and posted for others to (hopefully) enjoy it.
Alas, some of the following chapters require quite a lot of editing too, since I have decided to do some changes to the story (nothing really major, but still things that take some work), thus there might be some further delays, but I'll try to post at least one chapter in every two weeks.
Harry Potter and the White Phoenix
Chapter 5 – Unravelling
The next morning Harry woke up feeling quite sleepy, not knowing what had woken him up, and for a moment he tried to go back to sleep, but it was no use, as his body seemed intent on waking up. So, a bit grudgingly, he got up from his bed, put on some clothes, and left the dormitory. In his sleepy state he didn't immediately remember what had happened the night before, but when he made his way down to the common room, he automatically glanced around the room to see if Hermione was in there. She was nowhere to be seen, and he thought that she was probably already in the Great Hall at the breakfast, and thinking about Hermione also reminded Harry of something else, although for a moment he couldn't quite grasp what. Then he was suddenly struck by the memory of last night and he was quite shaken to remember his feelings about Hermione. He had to sit down to think about it, and for a while all his brain managed was to admit that Hermione had looked really beautiful last night. Then he realised that she was so much more than just that; she was a brilliant witch, his best friend, and he also really liked her company – it seemed that he really had developed a crush on his best friend.
Harry had no idea what to do about his feelings and he actually felt somewhat scared about them, because he didn't think that he was supposed have that kind of feelings for a friend of his, especially as she probably didn't feel the same – he was almost certain that he would have noticed if she felt like that about him. He quickly came to the conclusion that there was basically two things that he could do; he could either tell her about his feelings, or try to suppress and ignore them. The first option was too risky, because if she didn't feel like that about him – which was very likely, he thought – she would most probably feel weird about it or even hate him for feeling like that about her, and thus he reached the easier decision of just ignoring his feelings for now, although there was a small voice in the back of his mind saying that he was being a coward for doing that. Still, he was sure that that was the reasonable thing to do, since he could still look for any hints that Hermione might be interested in him as something more than just a friend.
Harry was suddenly reminded of the crush he had used to have on Cho Chang, but now he realised that he hadn't felt like that about her for a long time. He had seen her a couple of times lately, mostly during the meal times in the Great Hall, and she was still just as pretty as she had ever been, but he didn't feel anything special about her anymore. He now realised that he didn't even really know Cho Chang at all, and he thought that he had been stupid about crushing on her. The fact that he didn't have that crush anymore, made Harry quite certain that his crush on Hermione would pass too if he just managed to ignore it for long enough. That thought, however, caused a faint feeling in him that he couldn't quite place, except for it being something akin to sadness, but he wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, so he just ignored the feeling for now.
As he continued thinking about the matter, he realised that last night Hermione had been wearing a fancy dress, and she had also had her hair done and some make-up on, and he thought that he wouldn't probably have any trouble in ignoring his feelings now that she was back to her normal shelf – she was just Hermione, his best friend, after all.
With that in mind, Harry headed out of the Gryffindor Tower and towards the Great Hall to have breakfast, and he was only slightly dreading the possibility of meeting her there. He briefly wondered if she would bring up the subject of the last night, and what she would say about it, but he decided that there was no use in dwelling on that, since he would most probably meet her soon.
When he got to the Great Hall, he saw that Hermione was indeed there, and she was eating breakfast at the Gryffindor table. Harry was a bit annoyed to notice that he was starting to feel really nervous about meeting her, and he tried to push the nervousness away by reminding himself that it was just Hermione, his best friend, and that there was no need to feel nervous about meeting her, even if she was a girl, and a pretty one at that. When he was just a couple of steps from the table, she heard him approaching and turned to his direction.
"Good morning, Harry," she said cheerily with a small smile, when she saw him, and Harry's stomach did a nasty flip-flop – Hermione was looking just as pretty as she had looked the night before!
Harry's mind started racing and with a start he realised that Hermione was really pretty even without fancy dresses or make-up and that she had changed a lot since their first year, but somehow he hadn't really noticed the change in that way. But then he quickly brought himself back to the present, because he had no time to think about that now, as he had to answer her.
"Good morning, Hermione," he replied quickly and he thought that his voice sounded awful (had it always been like that?) and he could also feel that he was blushing just a bit. She didn't seem to notice anything off, however, and he sat down next to her, making sure that there was at least a few inches separating them on the bench, and quickly he started gathering some breakfast on his plate to distract him from thinking about her.
He couldn't help it, though, and he found himself wondering how he had never noticed how pretty she actually was; her face was of a lovely shape, she had always had very nice and smooth skin, her eyes were very nice shade of brown, and even her hair looked cute on her and it somehow fit her other features very well, despite being somewhat bushy and perhaps not something that most people would consider beautiful. But the best feature of her looks was easily her smile and the way her whole face lit up when she smiled, especially when she was truly happy about something.
Thinking about her smile made Harry's thoughts stray on her lips and he suddenly caught himself wondering what it would be like to kiss her, and that thought shocked Harry so much that for a second he was caught in a vertigo. With all his willpower he tried to wrench that thought out of his head, as he thought that it most definitely was not appropriate at all to think something like that about a friend! He could feel himself blushing more and quickly he started searching for something to distract him from the disturbing thoughts, that would surely drive him out of his mind, if he didn't find something else to think about – especially as Hermione was right next to him.
He looked around, finally letting his eyes rest on the windows and the scene he could see through them. He took deep, calming breaths, as he tried to push the thoughts out of his head, and he could feel himself calming down, as he noticed the serene view outside and continued watching it. There were light clouds in the deep blue sky, and they were painted in a mixture of colours from yellow to purple by the rising sun, and the fresh snow on the ground and trees was bright white and faintly reflected the light of the sunrise, while everything seemed perfectly still without a wind and with no one to disturb the scene. For a moment Harry just stared at the view, captivated by it, but soon he was interrupted by the sound of Hermione's voice, and he turned to look at her.
"Harry? How about we go for a walk outside?" she asked, looking at him, and he noticed that she seemed to be quite cheerful this morning. "The weather seems very nice, although I think it's quite cold," she added, turning to look through the windows, with a far away expression.
"Uhm, yeah, that sounds good," Harry answered without a thought and turned his attention back to staring outside and eating, as he was having a bit of trouble watching at her, with what he had just thought about her.
She seemed to have already eaten and she was just sitting there, waiting for him to finish. "It's so good that we finally mastered that Summoning Charm wandlessly and can continue with other spells," she said conversationally. "What do you think about practising the Alohomora Charm next? It could be useful in many situations," she asked him.
"Oh, uhm, yeah, I think that's good," he replied to her and he didn't exactly turn to look at her as he did. From the corner of his eye, he could see her expression turning to slightly puzzled and he cursed himself for not being able to act normally, and he really hoped that she wouldn't ask if there was something bothering him. He could always say that he hadn't slept well – and that was somewhat true – but that wouldn't really explain him blushing at odd times.
Fortunately for him, Hermione didn't speak any further while he quickly ate the rest of his breakfast, which didn't take very long since he wasn't exactly feeling hungry at the moment. While eating, he managed to get his thoughts in control, at least somewhat, and when he was finished, he turned to look at her, feeling just a small flutter in the bottom his stomach.
"Shall we go then?" he asked her, trying to appear cheery, and he thought that he succeeded quite well in that.
"Yeah, let's just get our coats first. We don't want to catch a cold now, do we?" she said and ended with a small smile, as they stood up from the table and started walking out of the Great Hall.
"Oh, I guess not," he replied. "Perhaps if it was a school day, but definitely not during a holiday," he added with a neutral tone, thinking that the best way to get rid of the weirdness he felt was to joke a bit. When she turned to look at him with a disapproving expression, just like he had expected, he smiled at her.
She huffed at first, but then she too smiled, shaking her head a bit, knowing that he was just having her on, and they continued walking in a comfortable silence.
"Right, let's just get our coats and meet down here?" Hermione asked him, when they entered the Gryffindor Tower.
"Okay," he replied, and they separated to go to their dormitories. Just a moment later they both returned to the common room at the same time, and they met at the entrance to the room.
"Let's go then," Hermione said, and they started walking in silence. They had just got out of the Tower, and were walking along a corridor towards the entrance hall, when Hermione broke the silence.
"Have you thought of anything you want to do today?" she asked him.
"Oh, uhm, not really," he replied. "I just thought that we could play chess, and practise for most of the day," he added, telling her what he preferred.
"Yeah, that sounds okay, but I also want to study ahead some the spells were going to have in Charms and Transfiguration the next term, and, well, I doubt you're interested in that?" she asked him, slightly uncertainly.
He thought about it briefly, and he decided that he wouldn't really mind spending the time with her, even if it was studying. "Oh, I don't mind really," he replied. "I could join you, if that's okay with you?" he asked.
"Really?" she asked a bit surprised. "You don't have to do that, you know, but it's fine if you want to," she added.
"Well, that wouldn't really matter that much, would it? We need to learn the spells anyway, and usually just the classes aren't enough for that, at least for me, so I would most likely end up spending some extra time on them anyway. Doesn't really matter whether I spend it now, or later," he reasoned.
There was a short pause, as he thought about it, before continuing. "Is that why you're almost always the first to learn the new spells? Because you spend some extra time on them beforehand?" he asked her questioningly.
"Well, yeah," she replied a bit sheepishly. "I know we aren't supposed to study ahead on our own – except for the theory, that is – but there are just so many interesting and useful spells, that I just want to learn them immediately when I read about them," she told him.
"Oh," he replied simply, as they stopped in front of the door outside, in the entrance hall. He opened the door, and held it open for her – something that made her smile at him – and they stepped outside to the cold morning air, before he continued speaking. "Well, I really won't mind studying ahead with you, so I guess I'll join you then," he said distractedly, because he had just noticed the beautiful play of the colours in the sky again.
He heard her reply with an "okay", but almost all of his attention had been captivated by the sky. He had been quite distracted by his thoughts when he had watched the sunrise at the breakfast, but now he noticed that for some reason he felt slightly sad at the view, especially as the sun had risen fully above the horizon by now, and the scene wasn't so impressive anymore. It was still beautiful to watch, but some of the colours had disappeared, and now the most striking feature of it was the blindingly bright, yellow of the sun. He was brought back to the present by Hermione's voice, and he noticed that they had already walked some distance from the castle.
"Harry? Are you okay?" she asked, and when he turned to look at her, she was looking just slightly concerned.
"Yeah, I am," he replied and smiled to reassure her. "I just... it's a bit silly actually," he said uncertainly, feeling slightly foolish about his feelings.
"Tell me?" she asked him softly.
"Well, I just noticed the sunrise while we ate breakfast, and it was somehow so... beautiful and impressive that I feel kind of sad about it, though I don't know why," he told her, feeling somewhat embarrassed, but also puzzled.
"When did you get so deep?" she asked softly in an amused tone, and with a smile. It wasn't a teasing smile, but rather something that he couldn't quite place, although he thought that it looked sweet on her. But then she sobered before speaking again. "You've never felt that before?" she asked a bit surprised, but continued before he had time to answer "I have sometimes, several times actually, and I guess it's just one of those weird things in life; some things can be so beautiful they hurt," she told him, and he could detect a trace of embarrassment in her too.
"Yeah, that's how it felt," he replied thoughtfully. "I think I have heard that expression, but I haven't really understood it before," he added wistfully.
"Now the sun has risen, and it looks different, and it is still beautiful, but not as much as it was just a moment ago, and..." he continued after a second, speaking his thoughts directly, but he trailed off when he couldn't find the words.
"And you still have the memory of it?" she suggested.
"Yeah, exactly," he said. "And that just isn't enough," he added dreamily.
They lapsed to another silence, and Harry suddenly felt stupid at talking about something like that with her. But that lasted only for a brief moment, before it was replaced by a feeling of weirdness, although it was a positive feeling. He also noticed that at that moment, he felt closer to Hermione than he usually did, like their talk had somehow brought them closer together, and he also realised that for some reason he felt better and lighter than he had felt for some time.
Both occupied by their thoughts, they continued walking in silence for a moment, and Harry started feeling slightly cold – the weather was quite chilly, just like she had predicted. It wasn't really unpleasantly cold, as the sun somehow made it feel warmer, even if its rays didn't really warm in the middle of the winter.
As they approached the lake, and started walking along the shore, Harry's previous feelings started somehow weighing on him, and he suddenly felt the need to return to normalcy.
"So, what spells did you think of studying today?" he asked Hermione to get them talking again.
She had been thoughtfully staring in front of her, but now she turned to look at him, and her features changed to enthusiastic and interested, just as always happened when the subject of studying was brought up with her, and she started telling him about the spells they would soon have in their Charms and Transfiguration classes. And just like that they were back to normal, and Harry had all but forgotten the discomfort he had felt earlier because of his crush on her.
After the walk they went to play chess, and then they spent the rest of the day practising wandless magic and learning ahead spells for Charms and Transfiguration, that Hermione had already memorised but not practised yet, and so it was after dinner when they finally returned to the Gryffindor Tower. When they entered the common room and glanced around, they saw Ginny sitting in an armchair, and she seemed to brighten up when she noticed them, and she immediately stood up and started walking towards them.
"There you are Hermione, I've been looking all over for you," she said with some excitement, when she got nearer to them. "Could I talk with you for a moment?" she asked Hermione, but then she turned towards Harry. "It'll only take a moment," she added to him and Harry noticed that she seemed to be very eager to talk with Hermione.
"Sure," Hermione replied, giving Harry a glance that he interpreted to mean "I'll be right back".
Hermione followed Ginny to an unoccupied corner of the room, and Harry couldn't help feeling somewhat curious about what the girls were talking about, but he didn't want to invade their privacy, and he looked around the room for a distraction. He noticed Ron sitting in one of the armchairs in the room, and to Harry's surprise, Ron seemed to be doing homework, despite there still being plenty of time to do it before the classes started again. Harry and Hermione had, of course, finished all of their Christmas homework already, but Ron didn't usually touch his homework, before he had to. So, Harry made his way towards Ron and he managed to startle him when he abruptly sat down on an armchair next to Ron's.
"What's got into you? Doing homework with more than a week to spare?" Harry asked Ron with a grin.
"Oh, I just thought I'd get started early. You know, to have more free time later," Ron replied and seemed to be just slightly uncomfortable about something.
"Well, good for you," Harry said distractedly, as most of his attention had been diverted back to Hermione and Ginny; from the corner of his eye he had seen them talking, and he had absently noticed that Ginny seemed quite excited about something, but the thing that really got Harry's attention was Hermione blushing when Ginny said something – Hermione usually wasn't the one to blush.
"Yeah," Ron replied and he too seemed to have noticed Ginny and Hermione talking. "What are they up to?" he asked Harry.
"Dunno," Harry replied with shrug.
"Uh-oh, they're coming this way. Better take my books away before Hermione throws a parade or something when she notices me doing homework," Ron said darkly, when he noticed Hermione and Ginny heading their way, and started quickly gathering his books and supplies.
Harry felt a bit irritated at Ron talking Hermione down like that, and he shot Ron a dirty look, but Ron didn't even notice it as he quickly left towards the boys dormitories with his stuff, just before Hermione and Ginny reached them.
"See you, Harry," Ginny said cheerfully when she passed him and she continued on her way towards the girls' dormitories.
"See you," Harry replied after her quickly, but he wasn't exactly sure if she heard him.
Hermione didn't say anything, though, as she sat down on the armchair that Ron had vacated, next to Harry's chair, and he noticed that she seemed to be still just slightly flushed. She also looked to be deep in thought.
"Uhm, so, what did she want to talk about?" Harry asked her after a moment.
Hermione turned to look at him, and she needed a second to grasp what he had said, before she answered. "Just some girl talk," she replied evasively.
"Oh, okay," Harry replied with a feigned indifference, although he was actually curious to know what had made Hermione blush like that. But he didn't want to seem intrusive, and so he let the matter be.
For a moment they both just sat there in silence, Hermione being lost in thought and Harry observing her from the corner of his eye, but then he decided that he might as well go and get the book Hermione had given him as a Christmas present and continue reading it. When he stood up to go, Hermione turned to look at him questioningly.
"I'll just go and get a book to read," he told her.
"Okay," she replied with a distracted nod and returned to her thoughts.
Harry went up to his dormitory and when he returned with the book, Hermione was still sitting there with a thoughtful look, but when she noticed him returning, she turned to look at him and she smiled a bit when she saw the book he was carrying, and Harry couldn't help responding to the smile. As Harry sat down to read, he wasn't able to concentrate for a moment, because he thought that Hermione seemed to be bothered by something and he was mostly paying attention to her instead of the book, but just as he was thinking of asking her about it, she sighed and got up.
"I'll be right back," she said and she left towards the girls' dormitories and disappeared up the stairs, just to appear a moment later, now carrying a couple of large books, parchment, ink and a quill with her, and she returned to the armchair she had been sitting on.
As she settled to read and scribble some notes, she seemed to forget whatever had been bothering her and Harry too could now concentrate on his reading, and he quickly forgot everything else around him, as the book turned out to be quite interesting. He didn't even really notice Ron returning a moment later and sitting down on another chair close to them. Ron sat with them for a while, but then he seemed to get bored with both Harry and Hermione being immersed in reading or taking notes, and he left them just a few minutes later.
Harry lost the sense of time, as he continued to read the book, but some time later he was interrupted by a frustrated sigh from Hermione. He turned to look at her and he saw that she was reading a large book about magical creatures, or so it seemed, judging by the pictures he could see in the book, and looking at it closer, he noticed that she was reading about house-elves in particular.
She hadn't noticed him looking at her, so Harry continued observing her for a moment, lost in thought. Her expression was clearly frustrated and Harry was quite sure that she was doing some research for the SPEW, and it didn't seem to be going too well. His mind wandered, though, as he continued to observe her, and he was soon wondering again how he had never noticed how pretty she actually was, and he smiled to himself unconsciously.
When he noticed where his thoughts had strayed to, and realised that he had been staring at her for while, he quickly turned his gaze back to the book he was reading, despite not being able to concentrate on it at the moment. Instead he scolded himself for staring at her like that, and after that he found himself thinking about the whole SPEW thing. He couldn't help wondering if Hermione was going at the whole house-elf issue the right way, and for a moment he thought of talking about it with her, but then he decided to give the matter some further thought and bring it up with her later, if she still continued with it. Having that decided, he couldn't help watching her from the corner of his eye again for a moment, but soon he managed to concentrate on the book again.
When Harry went to bed that evening, his mind was occupied by the past day and especially his crush. He was very glad that he had mostly got past the uneasiness he had felt in the morning, and he had managed to get through the day without any problems about being in her presence. He had also been paying more attention to Hermione than what he usually did, but despite that he hadn't noticed any indication that she might harbour feelings similar to his, and he decided that he'd just have to continue hiding his crush for now, looking for hints about her feelings. Very briefly he thought of doing something to try to get her to fall for him – acting differently in her presence, being nicer to her and such – but then he realised that he didn't want to deceive her like that. And even if he would have managed to get her to fall for him like that, then what would have happened when he returned to his old, real shelf? Surely he didn't want to go on acting for the rest of his life. No, instead he decided to just be himself and continue being her friend, and see where that would lead to, although he wasn't totally sure if he could act totally normally in her presence anymore.
The next day, something happened that got Harry's mind off of his crush, at least for a while. He had woken up quite early again and he met Hermione in the common room, feeling quite good at seeing her the first thing in the morning, and together they had made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They hadn't eaten for long when they were interrupted by a swarm of owls that flew inside to deliver the Daily Prophet and one of them brought Hermione one.
"You're still getting that?" Harry asked Hermione with an obvious dislike towards the paper.
"Well, what better way to know what kind of lies they publish next?" she asked him rhetorically, as she opened the paper. She started to read through it, and soon her face twisted to a scowl.
"Ugh, she's written another article," she said with disdain. "Here," she added and held the paper closer to him to give him a better view of it.
Harry still had to lean in closer to her to be able to actually read the paper, and he could feel a slight fluttering in his stomach about being so close to her, but he just tried to ignore it the best he could. He immediately noticed a large article in the inner page that mentioned him in the headline, and it was written by Rita Skeeter, of course.
"Harry Potter Disrespects an Esteemed Wizarding Tradition," Harry read the headline aloud, puzzled.
"Oh, it's just a bunch of rubbish about you not being in the Yule Ball," Hermione said scornfully.
"– blatant dismissal of a highly esteemed tradition, that shows that Harry Potter has no respect for the traditions of the magical world," Harry read aloud from the article. "Was the ball really that important?" he asked then, turning to look at Hermione with genuine curiosity.
"Well, it is a tradition with the Triwizard Tournament and the champions are expected to take part in it, but there's no reason why you couldn't stay out of it, since you weren't a champion anymore," she told him. "She's just made it seem like a huge thing, when in fact many other students stayed out of it too," she added with a slight huff.
"Great," Harry said morosely, looking around the Great Hall inconspicuously to see if he was already being stared at. There weren't too many people there, that early on a day without classes, and it was impossible to say what most of the school would think about the article yet, but at least there weren't any stares or glares sent at his direction.
"I think she was just frustrated with the lack of anything real to publish," Hermione said mostly to herself.
Harry sighed tiredly. "Yeah, I guess so," he then replied noncommittally.
Hermione's features softened to sympathy. "I don't think too many people are going to care about the whole thing, you know. You weren't the only one not to go to the Ball, and it really isn't such a big thing," she consoled him and he realised that she was probably right, and he felt a bit lighter, despite there being a small part of him that always feared for the worse, and was expecting the other students to ridicule him about the article.
Glancing around the Great Hall once more, Harry saw that there really wasn't a singly stare sent his way. "I really hope so," he replied in a little cheerier tone.
It turned out that Hermione was right about the newspaper article and it just seemed to blow over without anyone paying too much attention to it, and Harry was really glad that he didn't have to endure being at the centre of the attention of the whole school again. While he was sure that Malfoy would have had some comments to make about the article, even if it was quite lame, they didn't happen to meet during the following days – fortunately the castle was large, and change encounter with someone from other House was quite rare during holidays, especially as Harry and Hermione spent a lot of time practising, or reading in the Gryffindor common room.
The rest of the Christmas holidays passed quickly even though Harry was bored at times; he wasn't lacking things to do, but he was slowly growing more and more restless with the feeling that there was something that he was supposed to do growing in his mind, and that feeling made it difficult for him to concentrate on anything at times. He was quite sure that Hermione had noticed his restlessness, or at least something being off with him, but so far she hadn't said anything about it, and Harry was actually quite glad for that, since he wasn't sure that he could quite explain it to her, if she did ask about it.
Besides Hermione wanting to study ahead, another thing that kept both Harry and Hermione busy during the holidays was their practising. Now that they had plenty of free time, they also spent a lot of it on wandless magic, and that was really showing; they were progressing very fast and it took them only about a week to learn their next spell, The Unlocking Charm, "Alohomora".
"You know, we seem to be learning much faster than I initially thought that we would," Hermione said one evening, as they were just finishing their practising, and she was looking slightly puzzled.
"Oh, really?" Harry asked her interestedly, not really knowing about it.
"We are," she said with conviction. "It used to take me about a month to learn a new spell, sometimes more than that, and we've learnt the Alohomora charm in just a week!" she added keenly.
Now that Harry thought about it, he too realised that they were learning very quickly. Admittedly they had spent a lot of time practising, but they were still learning at a very fast pace, and they were actually progressing faster than what they usually did on their classes, and if they would have had this much time to practise all the time, they might have actually learned large part of the spell curriculum wandlessly by the time they had their NEWTs.
"You know what's even more surprising?" Hermione asked him, interrupting his thoughts.
Harry thought about the question for a second, and he couldn't come up with anything in a short time, but Hermione continued before he even had time to ask what she meant.
"The fact that you're learning as fast as I am. When I was just starting, it took me two or even three months to learn just one spell, and for a long time I needed extreme concentration to be able to do even the simplest of spells, while you are already able to do spells with almost as little effort as I am. I have over a year more experience than you have, but now you are already learning as fast as I am," she told him, speaking rapidly, just like she usually did when she had a lot to say.
She kept a small pause, and her eyes focused somewhere in front of her during that, and she was looking downwards. "Sometimes it actually seems like you're learning faster than I am," she added, with a slightly sad tone.
Harry felt the need to lift her spirits somehow, and he quickly came up with just the thing that might cheer her up. "Well, you said it yourself that some people learn some things faster than others, and perhaps this is just one of those things. I mean, you're better than me at almost everything else, regarding magic," he said to her.
She turned to look at him and smiled sweetly. "Oh, you don't have to do that, Harry. You're smart too, whenever you just apply yourself, and you'd probably be as smart as I am, if you just spent as much time studying," she told him with the smile, but then she turned thoughtful and sighed. "I guess I'm just too used to being the best when it comes to studying, and I think it's an important lesson to learn that I can't be the best all the time, no matter how much I try," she added with just a hint of sadness.
Harry actually felt like hugging her in hopes of comforting her, which was a bit surprising, since he didn't usually care much for physical affection. He didn't really know if hugging was something that he was "allowed" to do in the name of friendship, despite Hermione hugging him at times, and he decided not to risk that. So, as he didn't know what to say to make her feel better, he had to settle to just giving her a sympathetic look, trying convey as much as possible of his feelings in that expression.
"Well, how about we get back to the tower? It's not that long until the curfew, and I'd like to do some reading before going to bed, anyway," she said, changing the subject.
"Okay," he agreed with her and they left towards the Gryffindor Tower, walking in silence.
That night Harry had some trouble getting to sleep, as there was a myriad of thoughts running through his head. Like Hermione, he was curious about the fact that they were learning wandless magic so quickly, but that thought didn't occupy his mind for too long, since he quickly reached the conclusion that whatever it was making them learn that fast was a good thing, because he really liked being able to do wandless magic. Especially the reduction of the amount of effort they needed for doing wandless spells was something great, since they could now both do the spells that they had practised a lot without needing more than a few seconds to focus themselves, and they didn't even need elaborate hand movements anymore – just small motions with their hands or fingers were usually enough. Harry thought that he was being a bit self-centred, but he couldn't help feeling that it was great to be able to do something that very few other witches and wizards could do.
Thinking about their wandless magic practising turned Harry's thoughts to another thing that he had noticed lately; the fact that he was spending very much time with Hermione. There was nothing unusual about that – they were close friends, after all – but ever since the first task it seemed that he had been spending quite literally all of his time with her; they played chess together, had meals together, practised together, did homework together, and he even usually joined her in the library or the common room when she read. He now seemed to enjoy her company more than anyone else's, even including Ron's, and he briefly wondered when that had happened. At first he was a bit startled by the change, and he wondered if it was another product of his crush on her, but then he realised that there was nothing bad about that – it just meant that he had a bit less time for other people, and that didn't really bother him, since he didn't have any other close friends besides Hermione and Ron.
And that was another thing bothering Harry. It seemed that they, him and Hermione, were drifting apart from Ron, and Harry wasn't exactly sure what to feel about that. At first it felt like something that should be stopped from happening, but then Harry realised that, as far as he knew, none of them was really hurt by the change – he hadn't noticed any indication of Ron and Hermione yearning for each others company – and Ron could spend more time with them, if he just wanted to. In the end Harry decided to just let the matter be, as he thought that it was just one of those things that happened with time; people changed and friendships changed with it.
The final thing that kept Harry's mind too busy for him to fall asleep, was Hermione – or his crush on her, to be more specific. He had caught himself staring at her a few times, and he thought that he really needed to keep a better control of himself, if he wanted to keep his crush to himself. He thought that a few very small hints might be okay, if they were something small enough to be only noticed by someone who was looking for them, just in case Hermione was in a situation like he was in.
And that's when it hit him. He suddenly realised that if he could keep his feelings hidden from Hermione, then she would most likely be able to do the same! But if he, on the other hand, did something about his feelings, gave her more obvious hints or outright told her, then she would almost certainly feel weird about it, if she didn't return the feelings – he could still remember how uncomfortable he had been about Ginny having a crush on him.
It took a long time for Harry to fall asleep that night, and despite that, the only thing that he really came up with was the fact that there just didn't seem to be a right thing to do in the situation he was in.
It was an evening of one of the last days of their holidays, when Harry finished reading the book he had received from Hermione, and for the rest of the evening he thought about what he had learnt from the book. While it dealt with all kinds of forms of magic that could be done without a wand, it really sparked Harry's interest in the Animagi, despite the book being more about the history of them, and not practical information about becoming one. Apparently the Animagus transformation had first been described by Merlin himself, but he hadn't actually been an Animagus. He had learnt the Animagus transformation from his tutor, a witch that Merlin called Alanna the Everliving, who was the first known Animagus, but according to the book, almost nothing is known about her; Merlin wrote a large series of "journals of magic" during his lifetime, documenting his studies of magic as a protégé of Alanna, but he wrote almost nothing about his or Alanna's personal lives. Harry was quite sure that Hermione would know more about the Animagus transformation, and so he decided to ask her about it the next day.
The next morning, Harry didn't immediately remember it, but while they were playing chess after breakfast, and Hermione was silently thinking her next move, concentrating on the game, his thoughts started straying from the game, and he remembered what he had thought the night before.
"Hermione?" Harry said, getting her attention, which had been fully on the game they were playing.
"Yeah?" she asked, lifting her gaze from the game to him.
"Uhm, how much do you know about the Animagi?" he asked her directly.
"Well, I know the history of the Animagus transformation, including the legal history of it, and I also know some famous Animagi, but I doubt you're interested in those?" she asked with a teasing smile.
"Uhm, no, not really," he replied and her smile widened to a grin for a brief moment. "I mostly meant the practical side of it," he then clarified his question.
Her smile was replaced by an interested expression. "Not much really. I only know that most witches and wizards aren't able to become Animagi, although it is not known why, and that learning the transformation takes a long time. Oh, and the actual transformation usually doesn't require a wand, although you can use one, if you can't do it naturally," she told him, and then she frowned before continuing.
"The Animagus transformation is actually restricted by the Ministry and anyone who wants to learn it or try it must register in the Ministry, before you can legally get an access to the books that describe the transformation process in enough detail to actually do it," she told him, and she paused for a moment to think about something, and her frown deepened before she continued.
"It's quite silly actually; all the books that have too detailed information about the Animagus transformation, are either restricted, or those parts are removed from the books. Even the publicly available editions of Merlin's Journals of Magic are not complete because of that!" she said and seemed scandalised.
"Oh," Harry replied, a bit surprised about her tirade. "So, it's not possible to learn to become an Animagus without registering to the Ministry?" he asked her then.
"Well, not legally anyway, and under-aged witches and wizards aren't even allowed to register for it," she remarked darkly, but then she seemed to remember the chess game they were playing, and she made her next move, before looking back at him.
"I really wanted to learn about it, you know, to be able to try the transformation later, since it requires your magic to have matured somewhat before you can really transform, but I really didn't fancy taking a stroll in the Knockturn alley, trying to find the books about it, or something like that," she said with a slightly bitter tone.
"Oh, I didn't know about that," Harry replied slightly distractedly, as he was now trying to think his next move too. "I actually wanted to learn it too," he added, his attention still at the chess game.
"Really?" she asked slightly surprised, and Harry nodded, but then she turned thoughtful. "Technically it would be illegal, but I don't see what harm there could be in only learning to do it, especially as the Animagus transformation is actually more safe than what most people think it is. We could then register to the Ministry when we are of age," she said thoughtfully.
They lapsed into a silence, both deep in thought. Harry concentrated on the game, until he made his next move, but then he continued thinking about the Animagus transformation, and it didn't take long until he came up with a way they just might be able to get an access to the books they needed for it.
Harry looked around to make sure that there weren't anyone nearby before speaking. "You know, we could ask Sirius about it – they did the transformation illegally, and he might still know where to get the books from," Harry said to Hermione in a slightly hushed voice.
Hermione had been entranced by their game, and needed a second to process what Harry had said, but then she smiled brightly. "Oh, that's great Harry! Why didn't I think of that?" she said enthusiastically, but then her expression fell a bit. "I don't think we should ask him about that in a letter, though, as letters can be intercepted, but instead we should wait until we can actually meet him," she added, frowning slightly.
"That might take some time," Harry interjected, as they hadn't actually met Sirius since the end of their third year, although he did agree with Hermione.
"Well, better safe than sorry, don't you think?" she asked him in return.
"Oh, definitely," he replied earnestly. "And there's no rush, anyway," he added.
Hermione just smiled as a reply, and they continued their chess game in silence for a moment, before starting to talk about other things. Harry was left hoping that they could meet with Sirius as soon as possible.
After the holidays, school started again and with relief Harry noted that no one seemed to be paying him much attention any more. It was a long time since the first task and nothing strange or unusual had occurred to him after that, except for the newspaper article about the Yule Ball, and even that seemed to have passed and forgotten already. It made Harry's days significantly easier and lighter to be just one of the students again, and not having to endure the animosity of most of the student body, like he had to before the first task. Now he wasn't even stared at, like after the first task, and the only thing that was really bothering him was the fact that Snape seemed to have become even more unpleasant than usual.
Harry hadn't yet talked with Hermione about the SPEW and house-elves, but when the classes started again she didn't have much time for the research and that seemed to make her quite frustrated, and Harry finally decided to talk her about it. He had thought about the issue a few times, ever since he had first noticed her still going on with it, and one evening, when they were once again in the library, and Harry was just taking a short break (he was searching their old Charms and DADA books for some useful spells they could practise), he decided to talk with her about it and tell her what he thought.
"You still continuing with the SPEW, Hermione?" he asked her, a bit tentatively and shirking around the issue, since she had a tendency to get quite worked up about the elves. He also made sure to pronounce the acronym correctly.
She looked up from the book she was reading and seemed surprised at the interruption for a moment, but then her expression changed to determined. "Of course I am!" she said firmly. "I just haven't had much time for it and I almost forgot the whole thing after the first task, but the house-elves are still being abused and enslaved!" she continued.
"So, have you found anything interesting?" he asked her, trying to sound as interested as possible and he still didn't quite get to the point.
"No, there's almost nothing written about the house-elves," she huffed with frustration. "There's just a short description about them in most books about magical creatures, and all of them say pretty much the same things about them being 'magical creatures of near human intelligence', and also that they are used as servants, as they seem to like working," she continued with a more neutral tone, although her frustration still showed through in her expression.
"Oh," Harry said, not knowing what to say about that. He thought about it just for a second, and feeling slightly hesitant, he decided to voice his opinion. "Hermione, are you sure that you are going the right way with this SPEW thing?" he asked her.
"What do you mean?" she asked him challengingly.
"Well, I agree that the house-elves are treated poorly and something should be done about it, but aren't there laws against their mistreatment or something like that?" he asked her.
"Yes, there are, but they are absolutely barbaric! Physical abuse of the so-called 'magical creatures of near human intelligence' is forbidden, so what the Malfoys were doing to Dobby was illegal, but otherwise their enslavement is completely legal! And even worse, those laws aren't even enforced usually, especially as many of the elves feel obliged to hurt themselves whenever they don't manage to satisfy their masters, and that is completely legal and even encouraged!" she said scandalised.
Harry was momentarily distracted by her words, since they made him realise just how badly the Wizarding world was treating the house-elves – he had used to believe that only Malfoys' and such would stoop low enough to abuse house-elves, or let the elves hurt themselves, but now he wasn't so sure. He caught his wandering mind soon, though, and returned to his original train of thought.
"But perhaps you should try some other way of trying to help them? You know, even if you managed to get a lot of people to support you and join SPEW, would it really change that much?" he asked her.
She seemed thoughtful. "Go on," she urged him.
"I mean, the people who would want to support SPEW wouldn't want to have a house-elf anyway, and those who have them wouldn't want to join in it, so shouldn't you try to influence the public opinion and try to get the laws changed or something like that?" he asked her, feeling slightly foolish actually – the things that had sounded very sensible when he had thought about them, didn't sound so good now that he said them aloud.
For a moment she looked like she was going to argue, but then she sighed and seemed to deflate a bit. "I already knew that," she sighed sadly.
"That was one of the points of the whole SPEW, you know – it is for promotion of elfish welfare after all," she told him. "I just wished that I could have done something for them immediately, you know? I wished that if I just told people about it, they would start caring more for the house-elves, and would tell their friends and everything. But instead, I guess it will take a huge campaign and everything to influence the public opinion enough, so that people would want the laws to be changed, and the enslavement of house-elves to be abolished," she told him. "But that would take years and years and loads of effort," she added despondently.
"But is there anything else that you, or we, could do to stop it completely?" Harry asked her.
"I guess not," she sighed. "So, I guess I should start researching for ways to make that happen?" she asked rhetorically. "I'll need to come up with ways to get publicity for the cause, and, most of all, I think, I need to think of something to make people see that the house-elves are mistreated horribly, despite being intelligent and sentient beings," she said mostly to herself.
"Anything I can help with?" Harry asked her earnestly – originally he had only wanted to help her, but now he was starting to feel determined to help the elves too, if at all possible.
She looked at him with surprise. "No, not at the moment, but thanks anyway," she said with a pleased tone, and smiled at him, although he could tell that she was still slightly unhappy about the whole matter.
"You know, I don't think I told you that Dobby and Winky are here in Hogwarts," he told her, remembering what Dobby had told him after waking him up on the Christmas morning.
"Really?" Hermione asked and she brightened visibly.
"Yeah, Dobby woke me up on the Christmas morning, and he told me that they are both working here at Hogwarts and Dumbledore is even paying Dobby," Harry told her.
"Oh, that's great!" she replied happily. "I really should find out where the elves work and go visit them. I could have a talk with them, and really learn about them from themselves," she said eagerly, before turning thoughtful.
For a moment she seemed to just think about it, but then she turned her attention back to the book she had been reading. Harry caught himself staring at her again, and quickly he too resumed his reading.
As the January passed, they were once again more busy than what they used to be during the holidays, and they were also spending more time away from each other, as Hermione had several classes that Harry didn't take. Harry was slightly sad about that, especially as with all the schoolwork they didn't have that much time for wandless magic, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it. But at least he was very happy about the wristwatch he had received from Hermione, since he always had the watch with him, and whenever he checked the time, it reminded him of her.
Harry hadn't noticed it during the holidays and had almost completely forgotten it, but now that they had classes again, he saw that Professor Moody was still paying him a lot of attention, and Harry again couldn't help feeling that something was going to happen soon. The feeling wasn't waning either, but it was just getting stronger, as the days passed. Harry was actually starting to feel quite paranoid – he kept expecting something to attack him almost all the time – and he wondered if he had caught that from Professor Moody. But still, paranoid or not, it was true that whoever had put Harry's name in the Goblet was still out there, and hadn't done anything for a long time.
Despite his paranoia, the only notable thing that did happen, was the return of Pig. One morning he brought a very short note to him from Sirius, that only told him to be careful, and that Sirius was relocating and, as a result, probably wouldn't write for some time, although Harry could still reach him with an owl, if he needed to. Harry felt relieved to know that Sirius was still okay, but he also couldn't help being slightly concerned about Sirius having to move around – it would increase the risk of him being caught.
Harry and Hermione had continued their wandless magic practising by studying to do more spells without a wand, but they had also noticed some advantages that wandless magic had over normal spellcasting. Namely, when they did spells wandlessly, they noticed that they could have a much better control of the spell, and they could do more complicated things with simpler spells.
"You think we're about done with Incendio?" Hermione asked one evening, referring to the Fire Spell that they were currently practising. They both seemed to have quite a good grasp of the spell already, and they were both eager to move on to their next spell already.
"Yeah, I think I've got a hang of it," Harry replied and then he smiled.
He concentrated for a second, before clenching his fist, and then slowly opening it almost fully. A small flame appeared just above his palm and Harry's expression turned to satisfied, but then it was replaced by concentration again, as he shook his hand a bit, exhausting the flame, and he suddenly pushed forward with his hand, bending his wrist down so that his palm pointed forwards, and he did a kind of throwing motion with his hand. A small ball of fire appeared in front of his palm and flew some feet forward, before colliding with a wall and dying out. Harry turned to look at Hermione again with satisfied expression.
"Show off," Hermione replied with a teasing smile, and Harry couldn't help responding with a grin, but then she turned thoughtful again, before continuing. "You know, I've thought that we could start trying to practise doing spells with less effort instead of just studying new spells. I'm quite sure we could manage at least the simple spells without having to concentrate so much and maybe even without hand gestures at all, if we just practised enough," she told him enthusiastically.
"Oh, really?" he asked a bit surprised. "I've actually thought about the same thing, since the only reason I wouldn't want to use wandless magic everyday is the effort it requires to do even simple spells. With wand you just swish and flick and say the incantation, but for wandless magic we still need our full concentration, even if we don't need to concentrate for several seconds anymore," he told her. "Or I do, anyway. You can already do some spells with almost no visible effect," he added dejectedly. While Harry usually learnt a wandless spell about as quickly as Hermione, or sometimes even a bit faster, he still needed much more effort to actually cast the spells than she did.
"Well, I'm sure you'll get better at it too, as you get more experience," she encouraged him. "So, what do you think, should we start with simple spells or more difficult ones?" she then asked him.
"Oh, I don't know. I guess it would be easier to start with the simple spells, but the harder ones would be more useful, since we can both do the easier spells quite easily already," he said thoughtfully.
"Well, lets start with the Summoning Charm then?" she asked, but then she frowned. "How should we practise it, though?" she asked, mostly to herself.
"We could just Summon random things, without really concentrating on it beforehand," he said, and she turned to look at him. To demonstrate his point, he turned around, looking for something small enough to summon, and the first thing he noticed was their wands, lying next to their backpacks in one corner of the room. He just lifted his hand to be ready to catch the wand, before focusing on his own wand. In a few seconds he was looking very intensely focused, when the wand finally jumped in the air and flew to his hand.
"Like that," he said, turning back to her, and he was a bit surprised to notice that he was slightly out of breath as a result of the intense concentration on the spell. "I'm sure that if we'll do it enough, we'll be able to do it faster and faster, as we learn to concentrate more quickly on it," he continued.
"I guess that will do," she said, nodding her approval.
"The Banishing Charm would be really useful, though," Harry said, looking at the wand in his hand, and frowning a bit. They had studied that Charm in their Charms classes for some time now, but he still couldn't do it. "Or I'll have to take all the objects I summon back to their places, before I can continue," he said.
Hermione chuckled lightly, good-naturedly. "How about we first spend some time on that Charm? I'll help you with it, if there's anything specific you need help with," she said to him.
"Thanks," Harry replied earnestly. "I guess it's just like the Summoning Charm – it took me ages to learn that Charm too," he said rather unhappily.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm sure you'll learn it soon if we just work on it," she replied encouragingly. "And, you know, that's the only thing you seem to be having trouble with in you classes. You're even doing well in Potions," she consoled him.
It turned out that she was right, and he needed just two days of practising to finally learn the Charm, and after that they could continue fully with their wandless magic again. She was also right about his classes; he was doing better than usual, thanks to spending more time studying with her, and he even doing better in Potions than ever before. Unfortunately, that just seemed to make Snape dislike him even more – not that Harry really minded it that much, as he was quite used to Snape's verbal abuse, but it really wasn't fun either.
One Saturday evening, as the January passed and made way for the February, Harry and Hermione were just sitting in the common room, not really doing anything – their weeks were full, and it was really nice to just sit down and relax together at times. Harry was deep in though, thinking about the feeling of needing to do something that seemed to be still growing in his mind. It was starting to get really bothersome, since now the feeling kept popping up almost constantly in his mind, distracting him from whatever he was doing, and he had trouble concentrating on pretty much anything because of the feeling, and it was starting to have ill effect on his studies. He was just thinking of what to do about it, when his thoughts were interrupted by Hermione's voice.
"Harry, is there something bothering you?" she asked him, and when Harry turned to look at her, he saw that she was looking at him questioningly, but she also seemed slightly worried.
"Why?" Harry asked a bit surprised, not really knowing what she was talking about. He was slightly afraid that she had caught on his crush and was talking about that, but he was hoping that she had only noticed his restlessness and nothing more.
"Oh, you know what I'm talking about," Hermione said with a no nonsense voice. "You have been growing restless since, at least, late December, and you're often distracted from what you're doing, or trying to do, and sometimes you're just staring off to distance," she added, but then her features softened. "You know you can tell me about anything, if there's something bothering you, don't you?" she asked him.
Harry sighed. He didn't know exactly what he felt and why he felt so, and especially he didn't quite know how to put it into words, but despite that he decided to try explaining it to her.
"It's just... I feel like there is something that I'm supposed to be doing or something like that. Like I have an urge to do something, but I just don't know what that is," he explained thoughtfully, lapsing to a short silence, but then he perked up a bit when he thought of something.
"You know, I feel like that about our practising; when we're busy and don't have time for wandless magic for a day or two, I feel like I'm missing something, but the feeling goes away the next time we practise. I guess I also feel like that about something else, but I just don't know what it is," he explained to her.
Hermione seemed intrigued, although she seemed to be puzzled about it too. "Since when have you felt like that?" she asked with her brows furrowed in contemplation.
"Well, I've had a kind of... craving for the wandless magic ever since the first task," he said and a shadow passed on his face, but he shrugged it off, before he continued speaking. "But there's also something else that I've felt since... about the beginning of December. Or maybe even right after the first task, but I just didn't notice it at first," he said. "And it's only got worse over time," he added unhappily as an afterthought.
"Is that why you've wanted to practise wandless magic so much?" she asked with feigned disinterest, but Harry saw through her ruse and knew that she was more interested about his answer than she wanted to show, although he wasn't exactly sure why. He presumed that she was afraid that he was only spending time with her, studying wandless magic, because the feeling was forcing him to do that.
"Well, maybe just a tiny bit," he admitted. "But mostly I do it because it's really interesting," he added.
"I mean, not very many are able to do it and we've become quite good in it, haven't we?" he continued fondly with a smile, and he almost added that he also really liked spending time with her, but he caught himself just in time to stop himself.
She seemed satisfied by his answer and she smiled to herself, and that made Harry feel very pleased, because it seemed that she too wanted to spend her time with him. But then he realised that she might also be satisfied because he was showing interest in studying – that's what their wandless magic practising really was – as she thought that studying was something really important. Not that he really disagreed with her on that, but he just wasn't as eager to study as she was.
"So, you have no idea what the other thing might be?" she asked after a second of silence, returning to the thoughtful look she had had earlier.
"No, not really. It's getting quite disturbing at times, though," he said and some of the frustration he felt about the disturbing feeling showed in his expression.
"I don't think I've ever heard of something like that," Hermione told him, and she was looking sympathetic. "Sounds like something to do with psychology to me," she added.
"Yeah, maybe," Harry answered noncommittally with a shrug.
The following day Hermione (being Hermione) of course checked the library for any books that might explain Harry's weird feelings. She didn't find any books about psychology, nor anything that resembled it, and it seemed that the magical people simply didn't have a branch of science similar to muggle psychology. Hermione seemed bothered by the fact that she wasn't able to help him, and that in turn made Harry feel bad for making her worry, but he also felt good for her caring about him that much.
The second task was slowly nearing and the students paid more attention to the champions once again. Harry noticed to his surprise that he too cared about the Tournament somewhat, now that he wasn't one of the champions anymore, and he really wanted for Hogwarts to win.
On the morning of the second task the seats that had been used in the first task, and had been around the dragon enclosure, were now on the bank of the lake. All the students were to go there after breakfast to watch the second task, and Harry, Hermione and Ron were just on their way there, when they were interrupted by Professor Moody.
"Mr. Potter, I have something to talk with you," he said gruffly and it was obvious that Hermione and Ron weren't wanted for the discussion. Harry just shrugged at the questioning look Hermione sent him.
"We'll save you a seat," Hermione said and she and Ron left towards the lake, leaving Harry alone with Professor Moody, although Hermione briefly turned her head to cast a concerned look at Harry.
"Let's go somewhere where we can't be overheard," Moody said and started leading Harry towards the Forbidden Forest. Harry felt that something important was about to happen and he wondered if Moody had found out who had put his name in the Goblet.
"Professor? Do you know who put my name in the Goblet?" Harry couldn't help asking impatiently as they walked.
"I do indeed, Potter, but that's not something we can discuss here, out in the open," Moody answered and continued straight into the forest, after looking around and making sure that no one was nearby.
Harry was starting to get suspicious as they continued on their way towards the heart of the forest and the hairs in the back of his neck were starting to stand up, indicating that something dangerous was about to happen, but Harry held himself back, knowing that he could trust Professor Moody. Just when Harry was about to ask Moody where they were going, Moody stopped in front of him.
"Come here," he said and gestured for Harry to come closer. Moody was looking around, seemingly nervous about something, and he had his wand in his hand, but it wasn't aimed at Harry.
Harry hesitated a second, but then he did as he was told, and took a careful step closer to Moody. He was prepared to run at the slightest hint of danger, despite trusting Moody, and he also mentally prepared himself for doing wandless magic, although he thought that he was being paranoid for nothing. Then Moody suddenly grabbed a tight hold of Harry's arm, and he could feel an item on Moody's hand pressing against his arm. The sudden move caused panic to well in Harry's mind, but before he had time to react on it, Moody tapped the item in his hand with his wand, and Harry felt a tugging sensation behind his navel – he was being Portkeyed to somewhere!
Harry didn't know what was happening, but during the Portkey trip he decided that the moment they touched ground, he would try to get away by any means possible. Just seconds later they landed suddenly, and Moody's hold on Harry's arm loosened and Harry fell down. He was acting on an instinct and he immediately rolled away, and during the roll, he quickly got his wand from his pocket and he shot the Stunning Spell, that he had practised with Hermione before the first task, at where he thought Moody was standing. Moody was too quick for him, however, and he dodged the spell and returned the fire with a spell of his own.
Harry didn't know what spell it was, but he rolled away from it, behind a slab of stone that was next to him. He quickly got up to a crouching position, and he was going to try shooting another Stunning Spell at Moody from behind the stone, but before he had time for that he heard an incantation from behind him and he instantly turned around to look that way. He didn't even have time to see what spell it was or who had cast it, before he was already hit by the spell, and ropes that appeared out of nowhere quickly tied him to the stone. While he tried to struggle against the rope binding him, he could see that it was Wormtail who had cast the spell.
"You," Harry said with loathing, but Wormtail didn't answer.
Instead, Wormtail walked away, and as Harry continued to struggle against his bindings, he saw that he was on a small cemetery and that he was tied to a tombstone. There was a large house near the cemetery and Wormtail was walking to that direction, but Harry didn't have time for any further circumspection, since he could hear steps approaching him from behind him and he was sure that it was Moody. The steps stopped just behind Harry.
"Thought you could catch me off guard, did you?" Harry heard from behind him, in a gruff and aggressive voice that was somewhat different from Moody's voice.
Harry's mind was on the edge of panic, as he waited for something to happen, but all thoughts left his mind suddenly, when he was hit hard against the side of his head. The strength of the punch had Harry feeling dizzy for a moment, and he could also feel blood trickling on his skin where he had been hit. He closed his eyes and shook his head to clear it, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Professor Moody appearing from behind him. As he walked past Harry, Moody took away Harry's wand, and continued to the direction where Wormtail had gone.
Harry could feel a nasty headache developing as a result of the hit, but he was also aware of the fact that his scar was burning and he knew that Voldemort was somewhere near. That thought had him feeling panicky again, but he knew that he had to calm himself down, or he would be useless in wandless magic, which seemed to be his only hope of escaping, despite the fact that he wasn't sure what he could do to the ropes that were binding him. He didn't even know the counter spell to the whatever spell Wormtail had used on him, never mind being able to do it wandlessly, and the only thing he could come up with was setting the ropes on fire. He was quite sure that he would be able to do the fire spell even without hand gestures, if he could only concentrate enough, but that would also risk getting himself burned.
So, Harry tried to calm himself with deep breaths, but he was interrupted soon, when Moody and Wormtail came back towards him, dragging a huge stone cauldron with them. They settled the cauldron in front of Harry, just a couple of meters from him, and Moody started a fire under it, while Wormtail left again. He returned just a moment later with a bundle of robes and he settled them carefully on the ground, near the cauldron.
"Hurry," said a high and cold voice from inside the bundle of robes. Harry thought that there was something distinctly familiar in the voice and he was quite sure who was inside the robes, although he didn't know how it was possible. But whoever it was, the voice seemed to make Wormtail nervous, while Moody seemed to be quite calm, as they both waited for something to happen.
Harry was very glad for the calm moment, since he could feel the panic leaving his mind, even if he wasn't calm yet, and he just observed the scene, while he tried to frantically think of something to help him escape. Soon the cauldron started steaming and bubbling, as the liquid inside it started boiling, and Moody seemed to be entranced by the cauldron, while Wormtail seemed to get just more nervous and he seemed really scared now, as he turned back to the bundle of robes again.
"It is ready, master," Wormtail said with a light tremble in his voice, and then he opened the bundle of robes.
What was revealed from inside, was the most disgusting and evil-looking thing that Harry had ever seen. It was shaped a bit like a child, an infant, but there was something distinctly snake-like in its shape, and the skin of the ugly creature was scaly and dark red-black, and the whole creature looked like a thousand times larger version of something you might see crawling from under a stone. Besides looking nasty and evil, the creature seemed to be emanating an aura of evilness and hatred around itself, and that just served to make the impression of horror even stronger.
Wormtail lifted the ugly creature from the robes – he was looking disgusted as he did so – and he put it down in the cauldron, and Harry found himself wishing with all his might that the evil thing would just drown. His scar was really burning now and he had trouble concentrating on the scene because of the intense pain, but despite that, he forced himself to watch, as Wormtail stood next to the cauldron, and started some kind of a ritual. Harry knew that whatever was happening was something of huge importance, and if he managed to escape, he'd have to remember as much as possible, and tell it all to Dumbledore.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given," Wormtail said, talking loudly to the night, in a steady voice that didn't seem to reflect any of the fear that was visible on his face, and he waved his wand.
A grave cracked open and some very fine, white bone dust flew from the tomb into the cauldron, and despite his pains, Harry found himself staring at the scene with morbid fascination, just like Moody was doing.
"Flesh of a servant, willingly given," Wormtail intoned again and he hesitated for just a moment, before taking a dagger from inside his robes. He put the dagger against his wrist, and Harry couldn't help wincing, as Wormtail cut his own hand from wrist down with with a slightly shaky, but strong wrench of the dagger. Wormtail let the hand fall into the cauldron, and his face was twisted into a pained expression, but that didn't seem to stop him from continuing with the ritual. Now he came right in front of Harry, still holding the dagger in his other hand.
"Blood of the enemy ... forcibly taken ... you will ... resurrect your foe," Wormtail said, slightly out of breath, but with a wild and almost insane expression on his face, and he reached with the dagger towards Harry.
Harry tried to struggle against his bindings but they held him fast, and Wormtail slashed the dagger down on Harry's arm. It was a deep, clean cut and, though it didn't hurt nearly as much as it might have, it started bleeding profusely. Wormtail dropped the dagger, took a vial from inside his robes, and gathered some of Harry's blood into it, and then he walked back to the cauldron and poured the blood into it. Wormtail stepped back, cradling his injured arm, as the cauldron started simmering, and soon both him and Moody were totally entranced by the sight of it. Harry too stared at the cauldron for a short moment, but then he noticed that Wormtail and Moody weren't paying him any attention, and he had a perfect moment to look for a way to escape.
Harry was now having a very nasty headache, although he barely felt that under the intense burning sensation he felt on his scar, but despite his pains, he tried to calm himself down and bring his thoughts in control again. That proved out to be somewhat easier now, as most of the panic he had felt earlier had disappeared, and he managed to push everything else to the back of his mind, as he looked around for something to help him get rid of the rope that bound him. He soon noticed the dagger that Wormtail had dropped on the ground, just a few feet from him, and he closed his eyes and concentrated almost desperately on it – he knew that he was good enough in the Summoning Charm to do it even without a hand gesture, if he could just focus enough on it.
After a few deep breaths he opened his eyes and looked intently at the dagger, concentrating fully on the thought of summoning it to his hand, all but forgetting the scene that still played on in front of him. The dagger only twitched at first, but as Harry put even more mental effort on the spell, the dagger finally jumped through the air towards his awaiting hand, and he just barely managed to catch it, even with the rope binding him – his hand had very little space to move, and the catch was mostly thanks to the accuracy of the Summoning Charm.
Meanwhile, Moody and Wormtail were still totally entranced by the cauldron, especially as it had started emitting sparks and now spouted heaps of thick, white smoke that drowned everything inside it. Even in the bright light of the day, it was soon impossible to see more than vague shapes through the smoke, and hidden inside the smoke, Harry started using the dagger to cut the rope that bound him. It was very difficult at first, but slowly he managed to cut through the rope and it started loosening, and soon he managed to wrench the rest of the rope off of him, and he was free.
Harry stood up quickly, and he was about to turn away and run, when he remembered his wand. So, he took another moment to gather his thoughts, this time focusing on his wand, and as he could now make a hand gesture, he had no trouble with the Summoning Charm. His wand sailed through the air towards his hand, and he caught it easily. Just as he turned around, ready to make a run for it, he heard a high, cold voice from behind him that stopped him on his tracks.
"Leaving so soon, Harry?" the voice asked with a mocking tone.
Harry immediately recognised the voice, but as he turned around he wished that he had misheard it. His wish was not granted, and he found himself face to face with the monster that had haunted his life ever since he had been an infant; he was staring at the white, snake-like face of the newly reborn Voldemort, and Harry could feel his heart plummeting, as he realised that his change of escaping or even surviving the situation had just diminished. Despite his inner feelings, Harry stared defiantly at the bane of his life, at the person who had caused most of the misery of his life, and he didn't budge an inch under the evil gaze of the darkest and most feared wizard of the century.
"Expelliarmus," Voldemort said suddenly, his expression turning aggressive, and he flicked his wand at Harry.
On an instinct Harry shouted "Protego", doing a circling motion with his wand, and a glimmering shield appeared in front of him and deflected Voldemort's spell.
"I see you've learnt some new tricks since our last meeting," Voldemort said with an evil smirk. Then he suddenly swished his wand again and grumbled "Crucio".
Harry was too slow to dodge the spell and it hit him on his side. He was immediately drowned under an ocean of pain and he fell on the ground, screaming in agony. It was a thousand times worse than anything he had experienced before, and he felt like he was being cut and burned all over his body simultaneously, like he was being shred to pieces. The pain was so all encompassing that at that moment, nothing existed for Harry but the pain, and it drowned all feelings and conscious thought under it. Even time lost its meaning and the pain seemed to stretch on for an eternity, and Harry wasn't even aware that he was writhing in agony on the ground, until suddenly the pain was lifted and he was left breathless, lying on the ground, shivering from the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse.
In just a second Harry was back in the reality, but he could still feel a deep pain all over his body. He tried to get up, but his muscles didn't obey his command and he absently noticed that he was still grasping his wand in his hand, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not bend even his hand under his will, and he could do nothing but lie helpless on the ground, gasping for air, and cursing his weakness.
"Obviously, you have no idea of what kind of a power you are dealing with," Voldemort hissed at him from a close distance. "The Black Serpent shall rise again and, despite my fears after that fateful Halloween night, this time there will be no White Phoenix to save the day. I will make sure of that now," he continued with a triumphant voice that turned baleful towards the end.
"You were saved twice by a very ancient form of magic that was initiated by your worthless mother's sacrifice, but now with your blood running through my veins it won't protect you anymore, and we'll see just how helpless you are against Lord Voldemort," he hissed in a superior tone.
Voldemort crouched even lower towards Harry, took a hold of his face, and forcefully turned it so that Harry was looking straight at Voldemort's face. "And now you will die," Voldemort hissed nastily with so much suppressed anger in his voice that Harry could feel a shiver run down his spine. Voldemort pushed him back down on the ground, and Harry was still too weak to do anything, but fall on the ground limbless, quickly losing all hopes of surviving.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort said loudly, flicking his wand at Harry's direction, and there was a clear tone of triumph in his voice now.
But before Voldemort had even finished saying the curse there was a trilling note of ethereal song and it renewed Harry's hope and gave him just enough strength to roll over and avoid the Killing Curse that slammed uselessly on the ground next to him. Before Voldemort had time to react to the new twist of things, a crimson bird flew straight at Harry so fast that it looked like a bolt of lightning struck him. The swan sized bird grabbed a tight hold of Harry with it's claws and flew away just as quickly as it had appeared, carrying Harry in its talons like he was weightless, leaving behind just another note of it's unearthly song.
"Fawkes," Harry said, feeling strengthened by the Phoenix song. "Thanks," he said with all his heart to the magnificent bird that had saved his life again. The bird answered him with another note of its song, and it invigorated Harry somewhat, as they flew high in the air, towards an unknown destination.
To be continued...
AN: I was very tempted to end the chapter two paragraphs earlier, but I doubt many would have liked that (grin). And before you ask, there will be an explanation of why Moody/Barty Crouch jnr. kidnapped Harry so easily.