Chapter 11 - Strength and Weakness
Over the next week back at Hogwarts, Harry tried very much to keep his own council. Hermione tried to get him to talk by inviting him to help with her lectures, but he had declined. He found it very surreal that, all around him, students were milling around with their ordinary business, absolutely unaware of the death of Kingsley Shacklebolt. Kingsley had been such a regular part of Harry's life that Harry felt that he had taken Kingsley for granted. How often had Kingsley been there to help the Order? And how often had anyone really stopped to thank him? Harry found himself mortified by the conclusion that this final question seemed to bring him to, and when he did think about Kingsley's death, he often found himself soaring around the castle as a phoenix.
There was something very relaxing about flying between the towers: wings gliding across the tiles, skimming along the rooftops, occasionally scaring students in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor towers, once or twice even entering the Gryffindor common room, without changing form, just to say hi to Ginny. His visits to Ginny often confused the other Gryffindors, especially when Ginny would laugh and reach out a hand for him to perch on. More was exchanged in those looks than any bystander could interpret, and although some seemed to know it was Harry, (he thought this might have been because of his transformation at the end of the battle of Hogwarts in his sixth year, where several girls had seen him transform when he had returned Ginny to the castle after she had fallen off her broom), by and large Harry knew that these moments had been largely unnoticed. It was also through these visits that Harry found out about Matt Taylor.
Matt Taylor was a seventh year Gryffindor whom Harry had never really come across, despite the fact that he had been in the same common room as Harry for four and a half years. A year younger than Ginny, he was now in her year and, seemingly, in all her classes. It was also very apparent to Harry that, despite her status as a married woman, Matt had taken a liking to her. He often sat with her by the fire, (a lot closer than Harry approved of), and Harry couldn't help but notice that Ginny didn't draw away. "I trust Ginny," he told himself sternly and, as he analysed this thought, he knew he truly did. Despite anything Harry might have been able to interpret had he wanted to he knew that Ginny would never come close to cheating on him. That thought reassured him greatly, although it didn't make him much happier about the movements of Matt Taylor.
Sat now inside his living room, Harry pushed these thoughts out of his mind. He forced himself not to think of either Kingsley or Matt Taylor, and his thoughts resolved themselves on Dumbledore. Harry couldn't help but notice that, not only had he not had any lessons with Dumbledore since Kingsley's death, but that Dumbledore had not been visible around Hogwarts much at all. Harry dwelt upon this for a few moments as a shiver ran down his spine. Dumbledore would have to have a very good reason for leaving the school, (although Harry was certain he would've left extra protection around the school whilst he was gone), and Harry couldn't help but feel this reason would have been to combat the Secret Elite in some way. Or was he visiting the child?
Harry had not thought much about Brian Hinks for a while but, as his mind retraced his memories to the night in the lair where Harry had been forced to take the potion to find the child, the image of the raging toddler settled in Harry's mind. He had certainly been an angry boy; livid in fact. Harry had not seen that kind of rage in anyone other than Voldemort himself, and the recollection of the tantrum being thrown made Harry extremely nervous. This feeling did not improve when Harry remembered the end of the vision, where the toddler had looked directly at Harry, seemingly as though he knew he was there. His eyes had been the same startling green as Harry's, and Harry couldn't help but wonder if the events in the next realm had effected Voldemort's rebirth more than another witch or wizard's.
Harry was snapped out of his reverie by the clock chiming on the mantelpiece. Ten o'clock. It took Harry a moment to place why he was suddenly feeling anxious, and then it clicked. His heart beating rapidly as panic filled him, he tore out of the house and transformed into a thestral, zooming across the sweeping Hogwarts' lawns. Just as he began to hear a roaring crowd noise he transformed back and raced up the stairs of the quidditch stadium. Had he missed the start of Ginny's game? As he sat down next to Hagrid, (who, having saved him a seat, chided him on being late), he looked up to see the quaffle being thrown into the air. He relaxed a little, his eyes scanning the sky for Ginny.
Ginny was sweeping across the furthest side of the stadium, soaring past a Ravenclaw beater, one arm held out to receive the quaffle. Having remained in her role as chaser, Harry had been slightly annoyed to discover that Matt Taylor was the Gryffindor seeker. He looked up to see him looping above the stadium, eyes scanning for the snitch, but Harry noticed that, more than once, his gaze would switch to Ginny. Harry turned his attention to Leanne Filroy, whom had been made captain by Ginny before she had taken her year out, Ginny having been made captain by Harry when he had left for Auror training. Leanne smashed a particularly vicious bludger at the keeper, whom Harry recognised as the Ravenclaw captain Henry Peters, and as Henry was forced to duck, Ginny threw the ball straight through the central hoop to open the scoring.
Harry found it very surreal watching Gryffindor playing quidditch without him actually taking part. Several times he had to stop himself from calling out instructions to the team, although he did soon notice that half the rest of the crowd appeared to be doing this anyway. Harry had watched quidditch many, many times before; of the other Hogwarts teams playing each other, and most of the Kingston Kites professional games this season, but for some reason watching his old house playing felt very strange. He even contemplated for a few moments turning into one of his flying animagus forms so as to see Gryffindor play as he was used to seeing them.
Gryffindor were playing very well. Harry had seen a couple of their training sessions, enough to know that the new keeper was more consistent than Ron, but without that flair that made Ron nigh on unbeatable when he was having a good game. Leanne was leading superbly by example, zipping across the stadium launching bludgers in all directions, fighting back almost every attack. Within half an hour Gryffindor were 100 – 20 up, and Ravenclaw were showing little sign of responding. Indeed, if it hadn't been for Peters, the game would have been comfortably over by now. Despite the score line Peters had been playing superbly, with all the goals being scored by wonderful cooperation between the Gryffindor chasers and beaters.
Ginny was also playing possibly the best quidditch Harry had ever seen her play, and he watched her proudly as she span her broom around in mid air, throwing the ball directly underneath Peters and into the furthest hoop. Just as play resumed Harry saw Matt go into a spectacular dive, the Ravenclaw chaser right behind him. In two minds as to whether or not he wanted Matt to catch the snitch Harry watched and, as the Gryffindor seeker clasped his hand around the futilely struggling snitch, he was ashamed to find himself disappointed; a feeling worsened when Ginny flew across and gave him a hug.
"Not jealous are yer?" Hagrid had been watching Harry's expression and spoke with a very strange mixture of sarcasm and alarm, as if unsure as to how to react to Harry's apparent jealousy and having compensated by addressing both possible interpretations. Hagrid's face was also a mixture of emotions, something Harry couldn't help but find slightly amusing although, unlike Hagrid, he managed to keep these thoughts from showing on his face. Instead he address Hagrid's query.
"No, no," he said quickly, and Hagrid looked reassured. "It's just a bit weird watching Gryffindor play quidditch."
"Thought you watched them when you were banned?" Hagrid asked, confused.
"Detentions with Umbridge," Harry stated simply, and Hagrid laughed. As the crowd began to filter out, (Gryffindors crowing loudly about their demolition of Ravenclaw), Harry made his way across the quidditch field to the Gryffindor changing room and waited outside for the team to emerge. After about ten minutes, the door opened, and Leanne Filroy emerged, and she gave Harry a wide smile.
"Hey Harry!" she said, beaming with the warmth only a win as quidditch captain can bring, and she stepped forward and gave him a hug. "How come you haven't been teaching at any of Professor Granger's lessons? Or Professor Hilier's?"
Harry laughed and gave a small shrug. "Not been called for many yet," he replied, slightly untruthfully. "None from Emily – Professor Hilier – yet anyway, although she did mention that I might be called in for a project soon with the seventh years."
"Wouldn't that be odd teaching Ginny?" she asked slyly.
"Considering I've lived with her and taught her before..." Harry couldn't help but laugh though. Leanne carried on into the castle, followed by two chasers, the keeper and the other beater, as Ginny and Matt Taylor emerged, laughing from the changing rooms. Matt stopped laughing as soon as he saw Harry and, after shooting a furtive glance at Ginny, gave Harry a curt nod and followed the rest of the team into the castle, glancing back once over his shoulder as he left. Ginny, having not noticed this, jumped forward to give him a hug, laughing happily.
"You were great!" Harry said, kissing her on the cheek. The smile on his face did not quite extend to his eyes as he embraced her, his thoughts dwelling for a moment on Matt Taylor. He removed any hint of the expression from his face as she drew back to look at him, smiling.
"Thanks!" she said, taking his arm and leading him up into the castle, "And Matt's catch was good as well! I mean, not as good as any of yours..." Harry caught the fact that she had covered over her admiration of Matt's performance, but appreciated the gesture all the same, and he escorted her up to Gryffindor tower, where he left her to enjoy the post-match party. Harry again found it very bizarre to not be a part of the celebrations, and he felt a tinge of something that felt like a mixture of resentment, jealousy and disappointment welling up inside him. Once he was in the grounds, he pushed this to one side by transforming into a lion, a form he hadn't taken for a while, and pounding his way into the enfolding dusk.
*
Harry had, to his mind, a very rare stroke of genius the next day. Marvelling at the simplicity of the idea, he headed up into the castle as the sun reached its zenith, following the familiar route up to the room of requirement. Harry had been pondering how to relieve his boredom, (it seemed Hermione had given up trying to invite him to help with lessons, something which Harry was considering making an about turn and taking some action about), when suddenly the flash of inspiration had come to him. Harry had to admit, whilst he was on his way up to the room of requirement, that he was intrigued as to what the room would produce, and it was with mounting anticipation he paced outside the room.
"I need something to do," he thought, striding outside the entrance to the room, turning around every few steps, "I need something to stop me being bored." On the third turn, a wooden door had appeared in the wall which Harry opened immediately.
Even though he had seen what the room could do before, he was astounded by what had happened. The room was truly cavernous, far bigger than when he had formed the D.A., and yet far more cluttered. It was almost as big as a quidditch field, and the room was higher than any of the hoops. Small walls similar to those in the experiment chamber at the ministry ran haphazardly around the room, dividing it into sections which the room had labelled with large banners which hung from the roof.
The area nearest to Harry was marked "Muggle games". Harry could see that this was a very broad description indeed: he could see packs of cards, board games, (the room seemed to intend for him to bring company with him), jigsaw puzzles, a couple of games consoles with a television, and even a bouncy castle. Making a mental note to ask Hermione as to how the electrical items could work given what she had told him about how they all went haywire around Hogwarts, Harry followed the wall around to the next section, labelled "Current Events". Here Harry saw about twenty piles of newspapers and magazines, sorted in terms of subject. Harry could see the Daily Prophet stacked on top of The Wizarding World and other newspapers, a small stack of quidditch magazines, some travel guides and even some foreign newspapers. Harry spotted The Quibbler lying on the floor all by itself, and he couldn't help but give it an affectionate smile.
Harry knew instantly that the next section would hold Hermione's attention as soon as he had a chance to show her the room. Simply entitled "Library", the walls enclosed one of the largest sections of the room, in which were shelves of books that Harry knew would not exist in the Hogwarts' library. Even from where he stood he could see "A Guide to Runes and Symbolism in Hogwarts" and "Wizarding Genealogy: Tracing Magical Families Through the Ages". Grinning to himself slightly as he imagined the enraptured expression on Hermione's face, Harry continued around the edge of the library to the section furthest from the door.
The title of the section was simply "Not Yet". It was a relatively small section, but all that it held was a small platform, barely a foot higher than the ground. There was nothing on top of this platform, but Harry could sense that something would appear there sometime soon. Harry entered the area but, as he lifted his foot to step onto the platform, he found himself stood back at the entrance to the room of requirement. Puzzled and intensely curious Harry headed directly for the section again but, at the same moment as last time, he found himself back at the entrance again. Completely bemused as to why the room of requirement would create something such as this, Harry proceeded to the next section, which drove all thoughts of the "Not Yet" section out of his mind.
Entitled "The Quidditch Chamber", it was unlike the others in that it was entirely enclosed, creating a small booth in which Harry found a broom hovering in the air. As soon as Harry entered the room, the door closed behind him, and as he got onto the broom, he felt the room of requirement melt away, to be replaced by a quidditch field. Harry, an experienced seeker, immediately noticed that there were four hoops instead of three. They also seemed to have writing on them. He flew towards them and read the signs slowly.
"Keeper; chaser; beater; seeker," he read aloud, slightly bemusedly. Seeing as it was the only action that seemed to make any sense, he directed his broom towards the hoop labelled "seeker", and flew straight through it. Instantly, a snitch appeared in front of Harry which zoomed straight over his head and, before he had a chance to turn around fully, vanished. As he turned though, he was completely distracted by the appearance of two quidditch teams. One was robed entirely in gold, the other in a shimmering silver, but all the players seemed strangely faceless. From a distance they all seemed to be average height, average build, with medium length brown hair, but as he drew near to the nearest player, the silver team's keeper, their face seemed strangely blurred.
"Hello?" Harry said tentatively, unsure as to what the reaction would be. This elicited no reply, and Harry quickly discovered that the same was true of the other players. Just before the quaffle was thrown into the air by a similarly generic black-robed referee, Harry's own clothes suddenly flashed into a shimmering gold colour. As the quaffle was thrown into the air Harry did the only thing that seemed sensible: he started looking for the snitch.
The game beneath him seemed to be very one-sided with the golden team steamrollering their silver opponents. After a mere ten minutes of play, with the score at 90 – 10, Harry spotted the snitch. It took him just moments to catch it and, as his hand closed around the snitch the field faded, and he found himself back in the room of requirement. After becoming accustomed to being back within the realms of normality, Harry's initial reaction was of disappointment. That had been far too easy. However, as he turned to exit the chamber he spotted what he had, subconsciously, known would be there. Although he had been unaware of the form in which it would present itself, Harry had known that, due to the nature of the room of requirement, there would be some way of increasing the difficulty of the game and, as he reached the exit to the room, there was a list of spells to increase the difficulty of the game. Deciding that he would try them out later, Harry headed back out into the open room of requirement.
The penultimate section was also the largest. Excitingly titled "The Animagus Training Area", the walls of this zone enclosed just under half of the room yet, like the room itself, it was cluttered with objects. There were ramps and runways along the floor, traps and tunnels layered into the floor, hoops and ropes suspended in the air, and even a clutch of wizard models; fake wands held in their hands, their torsos supported by swivelling metal shafts. His smile becoming more and more pronounced, Harry traced the borderline of the area back towards the front door, pausing only briefly at a small fenced off area entitled "Relaxation Area", which was about the sized of his cabin which contained a couple of sofas and some enormous pillows, along with a few potions lined across a side table. Harry quickly discovered from the little notes in front of them that these potions were designed to relieve stress. He even recognised one as being created using the juice of the fruit from the plant that he had been shown in his very first lesson with Professor Hilier, which had left the entire class with a warm glow of self-satisfaction. Unsure as to whether or not he would take them, (mentally adding this to the list of things to ask Hermione about), he made to leave the room, a broad smile on his face.
He pulled out the invisibility cloak and put it on just before he left the room, not wanting to be pestered by students on the way back to his hut. To the same end, he pulled out the marauders map as he closed the door behind him, but before he had a chance to open it, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps. Looking around, he quickly unfolded the map and tapped it with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said quietly. He glanced over it quickly; Hagrid was striding out of the forest near where Harry assumed his cabin was, but Harry's eyes were drawn to the figure labelled "Harry Potter". He scanned the area quickly and was immediately struck by the name of the person nearest to where he was stood.
Striding off in the opposite direction was Severus Snape. Feeling very suspicious, Harry stuffed the map back in his robes and edged quickly and quietly towards the corner, but just before he could peer around the corner there was a loud cracking sound; the sound Harry knew as being one of apparition. Harry looked around the corner to find an empty corridor. Fumbling slightly, Harry drew out the map again and peered at it. He scanned the area around him as quickly as he could, but he could not see Snape anywhere. His eyes stopped their scanning as he spotted a familiar name.
Ginny was sat in the library a few stories below and, to Harry's annoyance, she was not alone. Matt Taylor was sat next to her. Harry was unsure as to whether he should go down and see her and, as he briefly scanned over the rest of the map, the only other difference he could see was that Dobby was back inside the cabin, Harry having sent him to Godric's Hollow to keep Winky company for a few days. He was on the verge of deciding to just go home when Ginny left the library and, to Harry's surprise, did not head towards Gryffindor tower. As a Sunday, he knew she had no lessons, so he followed her little dot on the map and met her, a couple of minutes later, as she was walking past the charms classroom.
"Hey, Ginny!" Harry called after her, and she turned to face him. She gave him a small smile, but Harry could see that she had her hand on her stomach. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," she said, grimacing slightly, "just ate some sweets that don't seem to agree with me!" She forced a smile onto her face, and Harry put his arm around her shoulder and started walking with her to the hospital wing.
"I didn't think you were allowed food in the library?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"Matt brought some which he kept under the table..." Ginny trailed off. "How did you know I was in the library?" Harry told Ginny what had happened, and she surprised him by not being very concerned about it. "Harry, you are determined to hold a grudge against Snape!" she laughed. "People are allowed to walk in the corridors here!" Harry tried to remain serious, but couldn't and he laughed with her. As they reached the hospital wing Madam Pomfrey came out and assured Harry that she would take care of Ginny and, without pause or ceremony, she showed Harry the door.