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FOURTH YEAR – The return of evil
The Young Phoenix Society
Darkness covered the greenhouses as the discussion and questioning began.
"I have to make sure to let you know that I disagree with my cousin. I think you would be safer if you knew as little as possible, but it's too late for that, so ask away" said Ely Swanson.
"What do the initials by the families' names mean and why did you write those?" asked Hermione.
"The initials stand for the members of the order that are coordinating the protection of that specific family. You and Harry have S&S standing for Snape and Swanson. The Snapes are in charge of any student in Hogwarts and my parents are in charge of their families. Estella shouldn't have written that down" said Ely exasperatedly.
"Why is the order protecting Estella and worried about me?" asked Harry.
"I'm..." said Estella hesitating. She seemed unlike her unemotional self and Ely moved to squeeze her hand. "I have certain abilities and come from a bloodline that would interest anyone that wants to relive the days of the old war. Have you ever heard of an Emomaster?" she asked. The boys looked confusedly at each other. Hermione nodded and began to speak as if answering a question in one of her lessons.
"An Emomaster is a powerful witch or wizard born with the ability to feel other people's emotions, take those and even incite emotions inside others. They are very rare and only a few have been known to survive pass the age of twenty because the feelings surrounding them drive them to madness and they commit suicide or turn into dementors. Those that do survive become extremely powerful."
"Trust me all the power that comes with it might not be worth the prize of surviving " said Estella.
"Are you saying you are..." but Hermione was cut short by Estella's quick "Yes"
A short silence followed until Estella spoke "Harry I know you are frustrated about your parents sharing information with us and not you. But, you see if it wasn't for your dad I would have died already. He has been teaching me occlumency and legilimency since I was five. I've only been able to survive by closing my mind and all my feelings and if someone happens to hit me with a strong emotion legilimency lets me read their thoughts and understanding those helps me to control myself. So, you see I know your dad extremely well and I might not have access to his thoughts, but I can still read his feelings and he can't hide much from me."
"What about your line?" asked Ron thinking that this sounded like some pureblood crap. Silence followed. "You said you come from a line that interests evil people, which line?"
"Slytherin"
"What?" the trio said in unison.
"I'm one of the heirs of Slytherin"
"That's impossible, I read about the war. The last heir of Slytherin was the Dark Lord" stated Hermione completely sure of herself. Estella looked to the floor and leaned against one of the long tables.
"Yes, he was, but now the last heirs are his two children" Ely replied.
"He had children?" Harry asked filled with disbelief.
"Twins, a boy and a girl. I was taken from the death eaters by your parents the night your dad defeated the Dark Lord. Your parents said a baby couldn't be evil and they told me they would have raised me themselves, but the death eaters that were around after the war would have easily figured out who I was. Instead the Swansons made up the story about me being their orphan niece and moved with me to Spain. They only came back to England once they realized they needed your dad's help with my 'gift'. Your parents couldn't rescue my brother so he was raised by death eaters and is now involved with the Black Hand."
"Who is your brother?" asked Ron.
"McDavol, Marcus McDavol. I know he's a seventh year, but that's because his guardians petitioned for him to start school before he turned eleven since our birthday is the first week of school. I couldn't start until professor Snape was sure my abilities wouldn't hurt anyone so Marcus is ahead and I'm behind. We both should be sixth years."
"What about Harry?" asked Hermione "Why does he need to be protected?"
"Harry is the son of the man who defeated the Dark Lord, one of the strongest wizards in all of Europe. The Black Hand loathes Severus Snape and our side is sure Harry is meant to do great things" Ely stated.
"What things? What am I supposed to do?" asked Harry with concern.
"We can't tell you that Harry. Only your parents can and they won't do that until it's the right time" said Estella.
"TELL ME! RIGHT NOW! YOU WILL TELL ME!"
"She can't tell you! Your dad put a jinx on us so that anytime we say anything regarding the p..." Ely never finished instead he began to gag.
"If we ever begin to speak about this subject we choke and our tongue gets stuck in our mouth just like that" said Ella pointing at her cousin who was recovering from the effects of the jinx in question. Harry groaned in frustration.
It was difficult to accept that they couldn't get more information from the Swansons and even more distrubing was the fact that at least for now they had decided to side with the daughter of a truly evil wizard. They began to discuss the training of students to fight the Black Hand and agreed that they should begin working with the students involved in the periculum incident last year and then recruit the other students that they had been thinking off.
"Mel has already convinced Christa and I have Leah and Sam almost there. All three were basically obliviated and really want to understand what happened to them. Sam especially is very suspicious about how he was unable to graduate being that he's a bloody Ravenclaw. I reckon we can at least tell them the truth about last year and they would probably join" said Ely.
"I'll bring Draco, he doesn't need convincing" Estella uttered.
"What!" Ron screamed in disapproval.
"Oh please, stop being juvenile. Draco has been working with me as a spy since last year, we trust him" stated Estella.
"How dare you?" yelled Hermione "Ron has every right to question him, he's been nothing but foul about muggles and muggle-borns!" Ron felt a tingle in his stomach and was filled with pride to see Hermione defending him.
"Yes, but he's done with that, he's betrayed his father. If anyone can tell with certainty, it's me, I've read Draco Malfoy's feelings and thoughts too many times to be wrong" said Estella sternly.
"Why?" asked Harry.
"Why what? As much as I could read you, I'm not doing it this minute, so ask what you want to know!" she said angrily.
"Why did Malfoy betray his father?"
"That's private" she said.
"His dad is evil and mistreats him and his mother" said Ely.
"ELY! BLOODY HELL!"
"You started with the 'we have to tell them everything crap', so don't get mad now!" Ely replied.
"Fine! Draco's mum was beaten by his father badly last year because she didn't want her young son involved in the Black Hand yet. Draco tried to defend her and ended up really hurt himself; we saw some of that when he came back from Christmas last year. I was able to help him deal with the emotional mess he was and he helped me with spying. I reckon he will do anything to ruin his dad's plans, especially if the order can help defend him and his mum from Lucius as it has been promised" Ella stated.
"Fine, you can bring Malfoy" Harry uttered.
They agreed to meet in two days after lessons finished and bring the other students. The meeting place was a chamber hidden behind a broken mirror on the seventh floor.
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The first meeting of the Young Phoenix Society went quite well. They began by telling Christa, Leah and Sam about what had happened last year and the reasons why their families were in danger. Ella then gave them a potion that allowed them to recover some of their memories and soon they were not only convinced, but ready to learn to defend themselves. They had decided on the name of the group and their first lesson began.
"Now that we are ready let's pair up and start. Harry you are with me. Ella and Draco you will demonstrate first" Ely stated.
"The most basic things we should learn are off course how to avoid curses and create shield charms. I know all of us have already learned some form of Protego charm in class. But, I hope that before Christmas holiday we all master the Protego Horribilis and Protego Totalum charms and also learn to set up many different wards. Your homes are protected, but it can't hurt if you add more wards yourselves. Now Draco, I want you to try to curse Estella while she runs and then she'll use Protego Horribilis."
The duel began and Draco threw curses as Estella ran through the room jumping by some of the others in the process and eventually created a shield so strong the entire room was light up. Draco's curse bounced through the walls until it hit a chair that exploded. Everyone stood with their mouths agape for a moment, not knowing if they were more impressed by her physical ability to run from the curses or the incredibly strong protective charm.
"There is not enough room for all of us to run around avoiding hexes so for now everyone will practice the shield creation except for Harry and me."
They all began working on the hand motion and words. Ely approached Harry and whispered "I know you already are quite capable of creating strong shields so you and I will focus on avoiding hexes. You can be just as good as Ella, probably better since you are good at quidditch. I also would like you and Ella to take the lead in teaching occlumency and patronuses after the holidays. She can help you practice occlumency since I'm no good at that." Harry agreed.
They practiced for almost two hours and Ely closed the meeting by asking everyone to think of alternate places to meet because the room was not big enough for everyone to fully practice being chased. They decided to meet again in two days.
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Time seemed to fly by as they learned many new things. Harry, Ron and Hermione were feeling confident on their new skills with protection spells and wards. Harry was also making great progress in his occlumency and he continued visiting with his parents in hope that they would reveal what their big secret was. Hermione couldn't wait to see her parents and put all the wards she has learned in place so that they were safe, but Ron was still feeling uneasy. He knew they had learned the spells and were much better able to protect themselves, but he still worried about Hermione and her parents. He really wished he could go to her place for Christmas, but knew his mum wouldn't have it. "I can't stand it, if anything happens to her... She's, she's... what the hell is she? The girl I wank to every other day. NO! She's my best mate, just like Harry except she's maddening and stubborn and... No, no it's just stupid hormones. Stupid hormones that act out because she's the only girl around all the time. That's all it is" he thought, working really hard to convince himself.
It was finally close to the end of the term and they had had their last Young Phoenix meeting. Hermione walked calmly to her usual spot in the back of the library where she could read with no interruptions. She sat at her favourite table and revised some of her homework. She soon finished and began reading "An Advanced Guide to Wards and Protective Spells", but was disrupted when she heard a very low sniff coming from the area behind the last shelf in this corner of the library. She sat still and soon heard another soft sniff and moved to see what was there. She was surprised to find Estella Swanson leaning against the shelf as she looked down at a book with fresh tears streaking down her face.
"What's wrong?" asked Hermione, clearly shocked to see her like that. As much as this girl had been an arrogant pain, Hermione had come to admire her strength and felt bad that she had to act so impassive and be scary at times. Estella quickly cleaned her tears and closed her book.
"Nothing, I thought I was alone, no one ever comes here" she said as she got ready to leave. Hermione grabbed her arm.
"I'm sorry if I was mean or distrustful with you. You have done nothing but help us, first with the kyklos proctais and now with training Harry and in the meetings. I would like to help you now, tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing, really, George and I, nothing, I'm just being silly, it really isn't a big deal. Now, I have to go meet Ely and Mel" she said and soon moved away from Hermione's grip. Before she was beyond the bookshelf she turned to look back at Hermione and said "I'm really ok, but thank you, you are kind girl" and then she departed.
Hermione went back to the common room and asked Ron if he knew anything new about George and Ella and he shrugged to show he didn't and wanted to know why she had asked. For some reason she didn't feel it would be right to tell others about seeing Estella crying, so she simply said that she hadn't heard anything about them and was just wondering if they were still an item. Ron accepted her explanation, but thought it was weird of her since she usually didn't like to gossip.
"I wonder what happened. They seemed to have a lot in common and like each other a lot, at least when we saw them. Estella seemed happy not like the unemotional girl she usually is. Would it be like that if Ron and I got together? Would we have fun for while and then ruin everything? What am I thinking? Ron and I are friends, nothing more. Stop being daft, we're friends, that's all" she thought.
Too soon they were all riding the Hogwarts Express and making their way home for the holidays. As the train got close to the station Ron realized he really didn't want to say good bye to his friends. Both of their families were on that bloody list and he would be nowhere close to them to help if they needed him. Harry got off the train and Ron was to follow but instead he grabbed Hermione's hand and made them go back.
"You have the amulet right?" Hermione nodded. "And you know which wards to put and..." But, Hermione interrupted. "Ron I have it all written down and ready. But, thank you" she said and she slowly approached him and kissed his left cheek briefly before running off. The contact made his skin burn and his cock felt instantly hard. He hoped no one had seen that and proceeded to run to the loo thinking it would be better to be late meeting his parents than to have everyone see his hard-on. Once in the loo he pulled his jeans down and began rubbing at his erection using the bit of liquid it had already let free to move faster. He thought about her bathing suit last summer and their hug and now this kiss. "How would it be like to kiss her lips or hold her for a long time?" he wondered. Soon, he thought of kissing her hard and what it would be like to see her starkers and he felt the strongest release he ever had.
Once he got off the train he saw his parents talking to the Grangers and his ears immediately went red. He waived Hermione and Harry good bye as they left the station, but felt a twist in his chest as he watched her disappear into the crowd.