Chapter 5 – Patronus, Quidditch and a Grudge.
The rest of the Christmas holiday was fairly quiet, Hermione spending most of her time in the library with Mel, researching cases for Buckbeak, the others writing out their witness statements for the hearing.
"Think we could just get Jax to 'take care' of McCarthy?" Ron asked, Ginny and Andrew frowned at his implication, but Harry grinned.
"We probably couldn't afford his 'services'" he answered.
The night before term started again, the common room was crowded again, Wood came looking for Harry, asking if he had had a good Christmas, then asked if Harry could do anything regarding his reaction to the Dementors.
"I'm working on it," Harry answered. "Professor Lupin said he'd train me to ward them off. We should be starting this week."
"That's great, I really don't want to lose you as a Seeker, Harry. Any news on a new broom?" Wood asked. Harry explained that he'd been given a Firebolt for Christmas, which made Oliver ecstatic, until Harry adding that Andrew had taken it to McGonagall.
"What the hell for?" Wood exploded, jumping to his feet.
"Just to be safe, Oliver," Andrew answered calmly, explaining about Black being after Harry and the chance that he had sent the broom. "Black's on the run, Payne, how could he have gone into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?"
"You make a fair point," Andrew conceded with a shrug. "But as Harry's bodyguard, I'm taking no chances, McGonagall and Flitwick think they'll have it returned to us in time for the next match."
"Still, I'll go talk to McGonagall, see if I can get it back now, you'll need some time to train on it before our match against Ravenclaw." Oliver said, making to move over to the portrait hole.
"Harry could always use my Nimbus Two Thousand and One," Andrew called, since that's what they had been doing in training.
"I'm going to need you both against Ravenclaw, we need as many points as possible." Wood said, looking at Andrew over his shoulder.
Andrew chuckled. "'Shoot like crazy'?" he asked, Harry laughed and Oliver just walked away.
The next morning, as the boys entered the Great Hall, Andrew noticed Professor Sinistra. She was showing her engagement ring to Professor Sprout, who was examining it through a jewellers eye glass. Andrew smiled and made a beeline for her.
"Good Morning, Professor," he greeted. "I believe congratulations are in order?"
The soon to be 'Mrs Cooper' blushed a little, Professor Sprout released her hand, taking out the eye glass, so she could show Andrew the ring. It was a simple silver band, with, strangely enough, an emerald instead of a diamond.
"From Master Cooper's first blade, yes?" Andrew asked.
"Yes it is, how did you know?" Aurora asked in return.
"Jedi tradition, since it's so rare for a Jedi to never replace a lightsaber, they use a cutting of their first lightsaber's gem for an engagement, which they make themselves. In one proposal, the Jedi in question actually had to make a new blade." Andrew explained with a laugh. "You should ask him what happened to his first blade, always an embarrassing tale."
"So what happened to yours?" Professor Sprout asked, not missing a beat.
Andrew blushed. "I'm technically on my third," he said, causing the ladies to giggle. "But nothing happened to my second one!" he said defensively. "I just built a new one during my first year here," he took his lightsaber from his belt and pointed out where his wand was inserted, so that he could channel magic through it.
"My second one is still safe, I keep it in my trunk upstairs." he added.
"You didn't answer my question though," said Sprout.
"Well … my first one … I'm not sure I remember," Andrew lied.
"Codswallop!" chuckled Professor Sprout. "I happen to know for a fact that you've never forgotten a thing in your life, so come up, come clean."
Andrew mumbled something as he stared at the floor and his cheeks burned red.
"I'm sorry?" asked Aurora.
"It got run over by a tank," Andrew said, ashamed.
"What on earth were you doing near a tank?" Sinistra asked, shocked.
"Long story, but the good news is, the sapphire doesn't need cutting ... much." Andrew laughed, then excused himself to go and eat.
The first lesson of the day was expected to be a freezing one, as they had Care of Magical Creatures, but Hagrid surprised everyone, by giving a lesson on Salamanders, lizards which lived in fires and sometimes molten lava. The class spent a thoroughly enjoyable lesson, collecting firewood to keep the Salamanders happy.
Between trips to get more wood, Hagrid lectured on the facts of Salamanders and the class took notes.
Divination was becoming less of a lesson, and more of a chore. Professor Trelawney had moved the class on to Palmistry, losing no time in informing the class that Harry had the shortest lifelines she'd ever seen, before telling Andrew and Mel that theirs weren't much better.
"No shocks there, we're Jedi," answered Mel scathingly. "We go into war zones for a living and spend our spare time acting as human shields!"
It was Defence Against the Dark Arts that Harry and his friends were most keen to get back to, Harry lost no time in reminding Lupin about Anti-Dementor lessons, and Lupin said to meet him at eight o'clock on Thursday evening in the History of Magic classroom.
"Still looks ill, doesn't he?" Ron said as they walked away from his class, Hermione stopped at the foot of a suit of armour ahead of them, trying to repack her bag.
"What do you suppose is wrong with him?" Ginny asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione asked, hoisting her bag back to her shoulder.
"I've got my suspicions, but I don't want to voice them in case I'm wrong." Andrew answered.
"Why?" asked Ron.
"Because in our experience," Mel began, "people have a tendency to be extremely prejudice, if they're given a reason to be."
"Let's just say that Snape was more than happy, to give us a hint when he covered that first lesson, and leave it at that." Andrew added, Hermione nodding as they continued to their next class.
On Thursday evening, Harry and Andrew made their way down to the History of Magic classroom, it was empty when they got there, so Andrew had Harry practise with the Force a little, by lighting the lamps from his spot just inside the door. Slightly sweaty from the exertion, Harry finished just as Lupin arrived.
He was carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk. "What's that?" Harry asked.
"Another Boggart," Lupin answered, taking off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr Filch's filing cabinet."
"Couldn't you have left it there?" Andrew blurted out, making Harry and Lupin laugh.
Still chuckling, Lupin continued. "Well, this is the nearest we'll find to a real Dementor. Since Dementors are Harry's greatest fear, the Boggart will turn into one when he sees him, meaning we'll be able to practise on him rather than a real Dementor. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk that I think he'll like."
The Jedi nodded, pulling out his wand, as did Lupin and Harry. "The spell I'm going to try and teach you both is highly advanced magic, well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It's called the Patronus Charm."
"How does it work?" Harry asked, his voice wavering a little.
"Well, when it works correctly, it conjures up a Patronus, which is a kind of Anti-Dementor," explained Lupin, "a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor."
"What does one look like?" Andrew asked.
"That differs from castor to castor," Lupin answered. "Professor Dumbledore, for instance, conjures a Phoenix Patronus."
Andrew's mind was suddenly flooded by the image the Hufflepuff match, and Dumbledore shooting what must have been a Patronus at the Dementors. He also imagined himself conjuring a Patronus, his mind made it take the form of a Siberian Husky.
"Is it a conscious choice?" Andrew asked.
"The form of the Patronus? No, I don't believe it is, rather in the same fashion that a wizard doesn't choose which form he will take in order to become an Animagus." Lupin answered.
The boys nodded and Lupin continued. "The Patronus, is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you both, that this Charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it."
"You miss every shot you never take." Harry responded, taking the words right out of Andrew's mouth.
"Exactly, we'll never know if we don't try." Andrew added.
"In that case," said Lupin, smiling, "you'll need to know the incantation, which, by the way, only works if your are concentrating, with all your might, on the single, most happy memory you have."
He gave them both a moment to think of something, Andrew quickly recalled reading the letter he got from his Master over Christmas, saying he was going to be married.
"Right," Harry said, Andrew nodding to say he was ready too.
"The incantation is this," Lupin cleared his throat, "expecto patronum!"
The boys repeated the incantation. "Concentrating hard on your memory?" Lupin asked them. They nodded, still repeating the incantation, their wands let out a wisp of silvery gas, which made Harry extremely happy, and left Lupin rather impressed.
"Can I try something before we continue?" Andrew asked, pulling his lightsaber from his belt, sliding his wand inside. Lupin nodded and Andrew focused, holding the hilt in his left hand and hovering his right over the ignition point, where the blade would ignite from. He normally did this when trying a new spell through his weapon. "Expecto … Patronum!" he shouted, flinging his entire right arm outward, as his lightsaber ignited into a pure white blade.
"Very good," said Lupin, impressed. "Right then, ready to try it on a Dementor?"
They both nodded, Andrew getting into position behind Harry, after deactivating his lightsaber and retrieving his wand, they both stood ready.
Lupin grasped the lid of the case and pulled, a Dementor rose slowly from the box, it looked at Harry and he tried the Charm, but instead he fainted and Andrew stepped in, the Charm only made silvery mist, which seemed to be useless at Andrew's distance. With no other option, Andrew switched to his lightsaber, creating a Patronus blade, leapt forward and plunged his saber into the Dementor's belly, the Boggart lost its form and retreated back into the case. He was a little disturbed to suddenly find himself remembering his duel to the death with Mel in the Chamber.
Lupin went around, relighting the lamps which had gone out when the Dementor showed up, he then tried to wake Harry, who jerked awake and sat up, coated in a cold sweat. "Sorry," he muttered as Lupin and Andrew helped him to his feet.
"Are you alright?" Lupin asked.
"Yeah," Harry answered, leaning against a desk as Lupin handed out Chocolate Frogs.
"Eat these before we try again," he told them. "I didn't expect you to get it the first time. In fact, I would have been astounded."
"I wouldn't count the lightsaber version though," Andrew said, perching on a desk as he ate his Frog. "It's not exactly magic, more like … channelling spells, like I'm using my saber as a conduit."
"It's getting worse," Harry muttered, biting his Frog's head off. "I could hear her louder that time – and him – Voldemort –"
Lupin looked paler than usual. "Harry, if you don't want to continue..." he started.
"I do," Harry interjected, stating his main concern was the upcoming Ravenclaw match. Lupin agreed to continue and advised that they both find a stronger memory to focus on. When they said they were ready, they had another go, Harry fainted again and Andrew fell to his knees, seeing visions of Mel attacking him and Jax.
Lupin forced the Boggart back into the case this time, and when they brought Harry around, he said that he heard his father's voice for the first time in his life, tears leaking from his eyes.
"You heard James?" Lupin asked, pretending not to notice the tears, for the sake of Harry's pride.
"Yeah," Harry answered, looking up at him once his face was dry. "Why? You didn't know my dad, did you?"
"I – I did as a matter of fact," answered Lupin. "We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry … perhaps we should leave it here for tonight." he tried to say the charm was ridiculously advanced, but Harry would have none of it.
"I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is." Harry said, racking his brains.
Andrew agreed and thought hard for something happier, he thought of when Mel had been run over, holding her bleeding in his arms, but then he also thought of when she was discharged from the halls of healing, the happiness he felt when he knew she would make a full recovery. Then he remembered when Dumbledore came to the temple to say she had become a witch.
Beaming without realising it, he heard Lupin ask, "Ready? Concentrating hard? All right – go!"
Lupin opened the case for the third time, and this time Harry's Patronus halted the Dementor's advance, Andrew threw in his own Patronus and the two together forced the Dementor back.
"Riddikulus!" roared Lupin, causing the Boggart to turn into the silvery orb again, Andrew and Harry fell, Harry to a chair and Andrew to one knee on the floor, as Lupin forced the Boggart back into the case.
"Excellent!" Lupin cried out, striding over to the two boys and helping Andrew off the floor and into a chair. "Excellent, boys! That was definitely a start!"
"Can we have another go? Just one more go?" Harry asked.
"Not now," said Lupin firmly. "You've both had enough for one night. Here.." he passed them both a large bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate. "Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?"
"Sure," said Andrew, taking a piece of chocolate and letting it melt on his tongue, he let out a long, satisfied sigh.
"Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, Lupin was going around the class extinguishing the lamps. "If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well."
Lupin turned very quickly. "What gives you that idea?" he asked sharply.
"Nothing – I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too." Harry answered defensively.
Lupin's face relaxed. "Yes, I knew him," he answered, his face taking on a sad look. "Or I thought I did. You two had better get off, it's getting late."
They left the classroom and slowly made their way up to their common room. Harry stayed quiet all the way, but his thoughts were betraying him, he couldn't stop thinking about how he had heard both his parent's voices, even though he tried to tell himself, "(They're dead, and listening to echoes of them won't bring them back!)".
Andrew sighed to himself, wishing there was something he could do to bring them back.
Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term, and only just lost. This spurred Oliver into increasing the team's training to five nights a week, telling them that if they beat Ravenclaw then they were in second place. So between Quidditch and Anti-Dementor lessons, Harry and Andrew only had one night a week to get all their homework done, but thankfully, Ginny and Mel were happy to take a night off case research to help them cram it all in.
Ginny had started helping with the research since Hermione was starting to struggle with her workload. Nowadays she could be seen every night in a corner of the common room, with five tables taking up her books, snapping at anyone who interrupted her.
"How's she doing it?" Ron asked the other boys while they worked on their Undetectable Poisons essays for Snape.
"Doing what?" Harry asked, briefly looking up.
"Getting to all her classes!" Ron hissed, not wanting Hermione to hear him talking about her. "I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't've been there. She was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them, either!" Ron was ranting at this point.
"No idea my friend," Andrew answered, not looking up from his parchment. "But me and Harry have to get on with our work, we can't afford to let Snape take points from Gryffindor, so best not to give him one more reason to."
Sadly, at that moment, Wood sat down and told them about his latest meeting with McGonagall, and how she had given him a stern telling off when he'd tried to get Harry's broom back. "I reckon it's time you ordered a new broom, Harry." Wood said with a sigh. "There's an order form at the back of 'Which Broomstick' … you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got."
At this, Harry finally did look up from his essay. "I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good," he said flatly.
"Hey!" Andrew cried, indignantly. "I have one of those brooms you know."
As January moved into February, the weather stayed bitterly cold. With the Ravenclaw match growing nearer and nearer, Harry had taken to asking McGonagall after every Transfiguration lesson if he could have his broom back, Ron standing nearby and looking hopeful, while Hermione excused herself so she could get to her next class.
The twelfth time this happened, McGonagall didn't even look up from her work or let Harry open his mouth, she'd become used to him asking. "No, Potter, you can't have it back yet. We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex." she told the boys.
"Any idea how much longer it might take?" asked Andrew, fishing for any clues.
"Is it still okay?" Ron asked, McGonagall ignored him.
"Not yet, however I shall tell you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop bothering me."
Sadly, the Anti-Dementor lessons were not going well either, Harry was only able to make the Boggart-Dementor stop, he wasn't able to make it back off. Andrew's frustration was that whenever he tried to take the lead and give Harry a break, the Boggart just took on the form of his Dark Side and tried to kill him.
"You're expecting too much of yourselves," said Professor Lupin sternly, this was during their fourth week of practise. "For thirteen-year-old wizards, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement, plus, the Boggart-Dementor isn't affecting either of you while you're casting your spells, is it?"
Harry sighed and sank into a chair. "I thought a Patronus would … charge the Dementors down or something," he said dispiritedly. "Make them disappear or something."
"The true Patronus does do that," said Lupin. "But you've both achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, you will be able to hold them off long enough to get back to the ground."
"I thought you said it was harder if there's more of them," said Harry.
"I have complete confidence in you, besides, Andrew's Patronus blade seems to be more effective than his wand Patronus, if in doubt you could simply attack them." Lupin joked and Andrew couldn't help but laugh and order Lupin not to tempt him. "Here, you've both earned a drink. Something from the Three Broomsticks, Harry, you won't have tried it before." he pulled three bottles from his briefcase.
"Butterbeer!" said Harry, without thinking. "Yeah, I like that stuff!"
Lupin raised an eyebrow. "I brought him back a bottle after my first visit," Andrew said, trying to kill Lupin's suspicion.
"I see," he said, still looking suspicious. "Well – let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher..." he finished hastily.
"We won't tell if you don't," Andrew chuckled as the three of them clinked their bottles together and started drinking.
After a moment, Harry voiced an interesting question. "What's under a Dementor's hood?"
Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. "Hmm … well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor only lowers its hood to use its last and worst weapon."
"Which is?" Andrew pressed.
"They call it the Dementors' Kiss," Lupin said, with a twisted smile. He then explained that it was what a Dementor did to someone they wanted to completely destroy, literally sucking a person's soul out of their body, through lip contact.
"What … they kill.." Harry started.
"Oh, no," Lupin cut him off. "Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, as long as your brain and heart are still working." he went on to tell them that victims of the Dementors' Kiss couldn't recover, they just existed as an empty shell.
"I think I'd prefer death." Andrew stated, taking another swig from his bottle.
"As would I," answered Lupin. "Sirius Black won't get that option. It was in the 'Daily Prophet' this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him."
"I hope, for Black's sake, that Jax gets to him first." Andrew said, looking down sadly.
"I don't," Harry said darkly. "He deserves it."
Andrew shook his head. "Harry, remember what Mel and I have been telling you about anger, don't let your feelings for Black cloud your judgement. Trust me, he may deserve to die, but this Kiss sounds worse."
"He's right, Harry." added Lupin.
They finished their Butterbeers, thanked Lupin and left the classroom. Half-way up to their common room, they bumped into Professor McGonagall, literally in Harry's case.
"Do watch where you're going, Potter!" she said rather indignantly, Harry apologised and she handed him his Firebolt. "I've just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room. Well, here it is, we've done everything we could think of, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it at all." Harry took the broom, his expression going from brooding to ecstatic quicker than one could blink. "You've got a very good friend somewhere, Potter..."
"I can have it back?" Harry said, his legs going weak from the session with Lupin and his current shock. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," answered McGonagall, she was actually smiling. "I daresay you'll need to get the feel of it before Saturday's match, won't you? And both of you, do try and win, won't you? Or we'll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night ..."
Speechless, the two boys ran back to the common room, bumping into Ron half-way. "She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it?"
"Let Harry have a go first, why don't you?" Andrew half-yelled, patting Ron on the back as they turned and headed back.
"Where are the girls?" Harry asked.
"In the common room, Mel and Ginny are playing Magic, I swear they're obsessed, and Hermione's working, for a change." Ron joked.
As they got to Gryffindor Tower, they found Neville there, pleading with Sir Cadogan. "I wrote them down," Neville cried, tears in his eyes, "I must've dropped them somewhere!"
"A likely tale!" roared Sir Cadogan, then he spotted Harry, Ron and Andrew. "Good evening, my fine young yeomen and fellow Knight! Come clap this loon in irons, he is trying to force entry to the chambers within!"
Andrew sighed and just gave the password, forcing Sir Cadogan to let them in. Once inside, there was a sudden commotion as Harry was swarmed by people asking him about his broom and exclaiming that Ravenclaw didn't stand a chance.
After the Firebolt was passed around the room, the crowd dispersed and the boys made their way over to Hermione. She looked up from her work and smiled. "I'm glad it's safe," she said. "Have you had a chance to ride it yet?"
"No, it's too dark now," Harry answered. "I'd better put it upstairs.."
"I'll take it!" Ron said eagerly. "I've gotta give Scabbers his Rat Tonic."
Harry and Andrew sat with Hermione, looking over her workload. "How are you getting through all this stuff?" Harry asked, the question had been bothering him since the New Year.
"Oh, well … you know … working hard," Hermione said evasively.
"Jeez, Hermione, you look exhausted." Andrew pointed out, concerned by the bags under his friends eyes.
"Why don't you drop a couple of subjects?" Harry asked while Hermione looked for something.
"I couldn't do that!" she answered, looking scandalised as she found her Rune dictionary.
"Arithmancy looks terribly complicated," Harry said, picking up a number chart.
"It is, but it's also wonderful!" Hermione replied earnestly. "It's my favourite subject! It's..."
Just then, a strangled yell came from upstairs. The entire common room fell silent, then Ron came banging back into the common room, carrying blood-soaked bedsheets.
He bellowed in Hermione's face that the blood belonged to Scabbers, that he'd found ginger cat hairs on the floor. He kept shouting that Hermione's cat had killed his rat until Andrew had to drag Ron back up the stairs so he could cool off.
The next morning, Ron hadn't stopped blaming Hermione, and Hermione had taken to being enraged that Ron was blaming her cat. Harry didn't help matters by trying to tell Hermione that the evidence pointed that way, she lost her temper with him too.
"Andrew, help me out here!" Harry pleaded.
"I'm staying out of it," Andrew answered, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Why?" Ron demanded, having just walked in.
"Because I don't want to take sides, and frankly? I think you both owe each other an apology." he answered calmly, causing both Ron and Hermione to start shouting at him. "ENOUGH!" Andrew bellowed, silencing them both as he jumped to his feet. "Fine, you want me to wade in, I warned you. Ron, you're right, Crookshanks has been after Scabbers from the moment we met him, but allow me to point out. He is. A fucking. CAT!"
The common room, silent until now, gasped when Andrew swore. "Have you never wondered why blind people who are allergic to dogs are so screwed? Because it's impossible, to teach a cat anything, except how to shit a litter tray!" Andrew, in full-rant mode, now turned to Hermione. "And you! I've told you, Harry's told you, Ron's told you, in fact, EVERYONE IN THIS BLOODY ROOM COULD TELL YOU! Your cat's had it in for Scabbers, but did you listen to anyone? NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T! 'Oh he's a cat, it's natural', 'Oh why not just keep a closer eye on Scabbers?' Why didn't you listen and keep your cat away from the sick rat?!"
Ginny had her hands in her mouth, Mel was ready to jump in if she had to, Ron was sagging and Hermione looked ready to cry. "You know what? I'm done with you two and your near-constant bickering. OUT OF MY WAY, HARRY!" Andrew got up, shoved his way passed Harry and stormed out of the portrait hole, Cadogan shouted something at him and they distinctly heard Andrew shout "Piss off!" at the Knight.
The common room was so silent after he'd left that you could have heard a pin drop. "Well … that was unexpected," said Fred. "You alright Perce?" Percy sat stock still, stuck between shock and outrage at Andrew's language.
Hermione was in tears as she turned to Ron. "He's right, Ron, I'm so sorry, I should've done something to keep Crookshanks away."
"I'm sorry too, Andrew's right, he is a bloody cat," Ron was tearing up too. "It still hurts though, I know I complained about Scabbers a lot, but I still loved that rat."
"All he did was eat and sleep, you said it yourself," George said, trying to be consoling.
"He bit Goyle for us once," Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"
"Yeah, that's true," answered Harry, still a little numb from shock as he stared at the portrait hole and rubbed his shoulder.
"His finest hour," said Fred, fighting to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory."
Ginny sighed. "You're not helping!"
"Harry? Didn't you promise Ron a ride on your new broom?" Mel asked.
Harry said it was a great idea, and suggested Ron come to their team's last practise before the Ravenclaw match. Ron could ride his broom after they were done.
Nobody saw Andrew outside of class again until Quidditch practise that evening, he'd refused to sit near his friends in any class, which was something that prompted one or two teachers to ask Harry what was going on. They didn't get a chance to ask Andrew because as soon as the bell rang he was out of his seat and out the door before anyone could blink.
"He lost his temper with Ron and Hermione this morning, I think he's avoiding them until he calms down." Harry explained to each one.
After dinner, Andrew hadn't shown up, Harry and Ron made their way down to the Quidditch stadium where they, at last, found the Jedi. He was sitting in the lotus position in the centre of the pitch, meditating.
He stayed there, in his Quidditch robes, ignoring everyone. Madam Hooch took a while to fawn and gush over Harry's Firebolt until Oliver asked for it back. At that point Andrew got to his feet, summoned his broom to his hand and got on, quickly getting airborne.
Wood scowled at Andrew for not staying to listen to his final pep talk, but he was there that morning and decided to give the Jedi some space. He told Harry he was going against Cho Chang for Ravenclaw, but he wasn't too worried since her broom was nearly nothing next to the Firebolt.
Finally, Harry got to mount his new brook and kick off, he took a minute to get used to the speed and manoeuvrability, before Wood called out that he was letting out the Snitch. Harry raced a Bludger to the goalposts, winning easily, he saw the Snitch dart out from behind Wood and within ten seconds, he'd caught it.
It was the best practise ever, Andrew had been told that he was going to be a Chaser tomorrow. So he and the other Chasers, taking turns, worked on new attack patterns, to try and score as many goals as they could, before any opposing players could have a chance to stop them.
After the session was over, Wood having nothing to criticise, the whole team was sharing good feelings about tomorrow's match.
"I can't see what's going to stop us tomorrow!" Wood exclaimed. "Not unless … Harry, you've sorted your Dementor problem, haven't you?"
"Between me and Andrew, yes, we've got something sorted," Harry said, looking to the Jedi, who nodded.
"Not that any Dementors should show up." Andrew added.
"Exactly, Dumbledore'd do his nut!" Fred said confidently.
"Well, let's hope not," Oliver said, looking concerned for his youngest players. "Anyway – good work, everyone. Let's get back to the Tower – turn in early."
Harry announced that he was staying out to let Ron ride his Firebolt, Andrew then said that he would stay to guard them and the others headed to the changing room. Ron vaulted the barrier to the stands and ran over.
"Andrew ..." Ron started, "… I'm sorry."
Andrew sighed, "No, I'm sorry, I've not meditated for a while, I'm guessing this morning just shows how relaxing meditation is."
"No! You were right!" Ron said hastily. "Me and Hermione have been idiots, we've apologised to each other."
"Well then, I'm glad my outburst had some positive results." Andrew answered as Harry passed his broom to Ron.
Ron kept flying until after dark, where Madam Hooch woke with a start, she'd fallen asleep during practise. She shouted at the boys for not waking her and insisted that they head up to the school immediately.
As they were walking back up to the castle, they boys came across Crookshanks, which annoyed Ron and caused him to throw a rock at him, he missed.
"You told me you'd apologised to Hermione," Andrew said, getting agitated.
"Doesn't mean I don't hate that bloody cat!" Ron snapped miserably. Andrew conceded Ron's point with a shrug and the carried on.
They got up to the common room and Hermione threw her arms around Andrew's neck, crying into his shoulder and begging him to forgive her, he calmed her down and told her what he'd already told Ron. "It was my fault really, I should meditate more."
The next morning, Harry and Andrew got a guard of honour from the boys in their dormitory, as they walked down to the Great Hall, probably because of the Firebolt. When they walked in, all heads turned to watch the broom as Harry carried it over to his team. Wood insisted that it be placed on the table in the middle of the team, so everyone could see it.
People from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables came flooding over just to look at the Firebolt, Cedric Diggory patted Harry on the shoulder and congratulated him on a great replacement for his old Nimbus. Penelope Clearwater, the Head Girl and Percy's girlfriend, asked if she could hold the broom, which caused Percy to make a joke about sabotage and explain that they had a bet on the match.
"Harry, make sure you win," Percy whispered to the team. "I haven't got ten galleons. Yes, I'm coming, Penny!" he called and walked over to sit next to her.
"Think you can manage that broom, Potter?" said the cold voice of Earon McCarthy, he'd come for a closer look, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.
Before Harry could answer, Malfoy came up. "Wow, that looks awesome!" he breathed, Jax was smirking at his friend, while McCarthy scowled.
"I don't know what's come over you Draco, but it's disgusting!" he turned and stalked away, Crabbe and Goyle looking puzzled for a moment, before they too glared at Malfoy and followed their new leader.
Malfoy had completely ignored McCarthy and just kept looking at the Firebolt in wonder, "I'll make a deal with you, Potter," he said. "If I catch the Snitch in our next match, you let me ride this beauty?"
Ron laughed, mockingly. But Harry offered his hand and said, "You're on." they shook hands and Malfoy went back to his seat, Jax grinning a little as he followed.
"What was that all about?" Fred asked, point with his thumb over his shoulder.
"Funny that Jax is proving to be a good example to Malfoy, but a bad one to Mel," Andrew mused.
"If you're on about her swearing, you've got no room to talk!" George laughed, causing Andrew to wince.
At a quarter to eleven, the Gryffindor team, got up and moved down to the changing room, the weather was, in a word, perfect! Cool, clear and nearly no wind, there was no chance of any visibility problems today. As they got into their Quidditch robes, Andrew helped Harry to attach his wand to a T-shirt he was going to wear under his robes, Andrew took the time to attach his lightsaber to the belt on his robes, his wand securely sealed inside.
"What's with the wands?" Alicia asked.
"In case of Dementors," Andrew answered.
"Okay, we know what to do, if we lose this match, we're out of the running, so just fly like you did yesterday and we'll be fine!" Oliver cheered, the team cheering with him. "Katie, are you alright with warming the bench first?"
"Absolutely!" she answered.
They walked out, onto the pitch, to thunderous applause, striding straight to the centre of the pitch so that Oliver could shake hands with the Ravenclaw captain.
Once Madam Hooch gave the order to mount brooms, Katie picked hers up and made a mad dash for the team bench, tagging Andrew onto the field. As soon as they were in the air, Andrew tuned out the commentary, his job was to score as many goals as possible. The match started and he dived forward, grabbing the Quaffle from the air.
"Alright girls, attack pattern, Charlie, Tango, Alpha!" he shouted to Alicia and Angelina, they had come up with 'attack patterns' so that other teams didn't know what tactics they were using. The other two chasers shot forward, Alicia on the right, veered to the left, across Andrew's nose, as Angelina swooped under her. Andrew feigned a pass to Alicia, then passed to Angelina, who whipped it forward with the tail of her broom.
Andrew moved to catch it but, at the last second, rolled over in the air, the Quaffle sailed past his legs while he was upside-down, and Alicia caught it. She shot past the last Ravenclaw beater, aiming for the left goal, but then she tossed the Quaffle in the air, where Andrew came out of nowhere and drop kicked it into the centre goal. Angelina caught it and threw it back to Alicia who shot at the right-hand goal, Andrew bicycle-kicked the ball, over the goals, to Angelina, who kicked out the tail of her broom again and scored in the left goal.
At that point they had to call off their attack as the Ravenclaw chasers had caught up to them. Oliver called for a substitution and Alicia was swapped for Katie, the crowd going wild at the spectacle they had just seen. Just then, Andrew was distracted by a loud groan from the crowd, he listened to the commentary, which announced that Harry was diving for the Snitch when a Ravenclaw beater forced him off course with a well-aimed Bludger.
The chasers made another attack on Ravenclaw's goals, scoring an extra six times, bringing the score to ninety-nothing. "HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN!" Andrew heard Wood bellowing, he turned and saw Harry swerving to avoid colliding with Cho, it was obvious to him what had happened, Harry had gone for the Snitch again and she blocked him.
Ravenclaw made an attempt on goal, they had beaten Oliver and were aiming for centre goal, but Andrew swooped in, leapt off his broom to barrel-roll through the goal, catching the Quaffle, landed painfully back on his broom and called out, "Attack pattern, Echo Two!" in a high-pitched voice. That manoeuvre netted the team another seven goals, mainly because the Ravenclaw Chasers were stunned by Andrew's dive through the goal hoop, but partly because the Gryffindors were on faster brooms.
Just as Andrew, Alicia and Katie, there had been another substitution, were high-fiving each other, the crowd screamed in fear. Andrew whipped his head around, seeing nothing he looked down in time to see Harry using a Patronus Charm on three Dementors who were standing on the pitch and staring at him. A huge animal of some kind shot out of Harry's wand and mowed the Dementors down. Harry wasn't watching though, he just turned his focus back on the Snitch and caught it.
Andrew shot towards his best friend, followed by Alicia and Katie, Angelina jumped on her broom and flew up to join a mid-air group hug. The girls kissed Harry and the boys roared like the Gryffindor lion itself. Once they eventually got to the ground, they were mobbed by Gryffindor supporters, Lupin shouted into Harry's ear that his Patronus was brilliant, then pointed over to the 'Dementors'.
Everyone followed his pointing, to see McCarthy, on Goyle's shoulders, Crabbe and Flint being told off big time by Professor McGonagall, who deducted fifty points from Slytherin. Things only got worse when Dumbledore marched over, looking livid.
"Come on boys!" George shouted, a hand on Andrew's and Harry's shoulders. "Party! Gryffindor common room, now!"
"AMEN!" Andrew shouted, punching the air.
Back in the common room, Hermione was still working on Muggle Studies. When asked, she insisted that she had been at the match, but she had to read her book by Monday. Andrew snatched the book out of her hand, threw it up to the ceiling and fired some webbing to hold it there. "I'll get it down for you tomorrow, you need a break Hermione!" Andrew told her firmly, she sighed and agreed as long as Andrew got it down before breakfast in the morning.
Just then, Fred and George came in, loaded with things they could have only gotten from Hogsmeade, when Angelina asked how they'd gotten their hands on all of it, George whispered to Harry and Andrew, "With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs."
This party lasted long into the night, Hermione eventually relaxed a little, and admitted that she would have found it hard to read with all the noise. The Gryffindor Common room continued to rock until one in the morning, Andrew having disappeared for ten minutes to grab a Karaoke Machine from The Room of Requirement.
At five to one in the morning, Andrew set up a song for the team to sing together. "We've paid our dues," Andrew started, singing into a microphone stand while pretending to press the keys of a piano. "time after time. We've done our sentence, but committed no crime."
By this point, every muggle-born in the room knew the song and a few started waving their arms in the air.
"And bad mistakes, we've made a few," an electric guitar and drums picked up as Andrew raised his voice. "We've had our share of sand kicked in our face. But we've come through!"
"And we need to go on, and on, and on, and on!" the rest of the team sang, before they all belted out the chorus together.
"We are the champions, my friends!" Andrew punched the air with one hand and encouraged the common room to join in with the other. "And we'll keep on fighting, till the end." everyone in the room was now holding their lit wands in the air and waving from left to right like it was a real rock concert. "We are the champions, we are the champions! No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions, of the world!"
As the music cut back to just a piano, Professor McGonagall came in through the portrait hole, looking torn between wanting to celebrate with her house and wanting everyone to get to bed.
"We've taken our bows," Andrew sang alone, "and our curtain calls." he motioned to the team's audience. "You've brought us fame and fortune, and everything that goes with it." he stopped singing.
"We thank you all." the crowd chucked as he went back to singing. "But it's been no bed of roses! No pleasure cruise." he pulled his microphone from it's stand, charged into the crowd and leapt onto a table, singing right into McGonagall's face. "We consider it a challenge before the whole human race. AND WE AIN'T GONNA LOSE!"
The crowd was laughing so hard at the look on McGonagall's face here that the music had to be turned up. "We are the champions, my friends! And we'll keep on fighting, till the end!" Fred moved over to the window and opened it while all of Gryffindor house sang as one. "We are the champions, we are the champions! No time for losers cause we are the champions."
They chose to end the song early there as the team, minus Andrew gathered at the window to shout the last line to the sky. "OF THE SCHOOL!"
McGonagall waited for the cheering to die down before she tried to speak. "I realise we have a good reason to celebrate, but I insist that you all go to bed, now." she told them sternly.
"Fair enough," Andrew chirped, hopping off the table. "What do you think though, should we take it on the road?"
"Get yourselves some instruments first," their head of house smirked.
A few jaws dropped. "Well I'll be leaving Hogwarts now, I've seen everything!" George exclaimed.
They all climbed their respective staircases to bed, climbed in and passed right out. Hours later the boys in Harry's dormitory were woken up by Ron screaming. "Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"
Having heard the door slam just after Ron screamed, Andrew summoned his lightsaber to his hand as he tore towards the door. He heard others entering the common room as he shot out of the portrait hole, his lightsaber igniting, he looked up and down the corridor but saw nothing.
"Payne, what are you doing out of bed?" McGonagall asked, looking extremely annoyed.
"Ron just woke me up screaming, shortly afterwards, our dormitory door slammed shut. He was screaming that Black was there with a knife." Andrew explained, not looking at her, as he kept looking for any signs of Sirius Black.
McGonagall told Andrew to step back into the common room with her, they walked in just as Ron started shouting. "IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE! Professor!" Ron noticed McGonagall standing there. "I woke up, Sirius Black was standing over me, holding a knife!"
McGonagall stared at him, trying to gauge if it was his imagination or not. "Ask him!" Ron shouted, pointing a finger at the portrait hole. "Ask him if he saw..." McGonagall turned on her heel and walked back out.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" she asked the Knight.
"Certainly, good lady!" he cried, leaving stunned silence both inside and outside the common room.
"You – you did?" McGonagall was shocked. "But – but the password!"
"He had 'em!" Cadogan said proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Andrew groaned and turned to Neville, who suddenly looked on the verge of tears. "Which person," said Professor McGonagall from the portrait hole, her voice shaking in rage. "Which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
Neville whimpered and raised his hand.
Nobody in Gryffindor Tower slept that night, regardless of having two Jedi standing guard at the portrait hole. The castle was searched again, but McGonagall came back at dawn, causing Andrew and Mel to ignite their blades by reflex, to inform them that Black had escaped again.
Security was tightened in the castle even more, Flitwick was teaching the doors to recognise a picture of Sirius Black, Filch was boarding up the tiniest of cracks all over the castle and Sir Cadogan had been sacked. The Fat Lady took back her old post, but under the condition of extra security, which Dumbledore had provided in the form of a couple of uniformed trolls.
The Jedi, however, had chosen to contact the council, stating that they had failed twice in their assignment, that Harry was now only alive because Black got the wrong bed. However, amazingly, the council ruled unanimously that the two Padawans were not to be replaced, they were to just come up with a way to double their efforts. So they had started to take turns sleeping in Andrew's bed, Andrew would stay up one night, guarding the door to Harry's dormitory while Mel slept in his bed; then the following night, Andrew would sleep in his bed while Mel guarded the door.
They moved Hermione and Ginny into the boy's dormitory, Harry gave his bed up for Ginny and Ron gave his up for Hermione, the two boys slept in a web hammock that Andrew had to make for them every night. Nobody commented on Hermione, Ginny and Mel sleeping in a boy's dormitory as everyone in Gryffindor House was by now aware of everything. Why Black was breaking into Hogwarts, the Padawans assignment and why Harry and his friends were all being crammed into one room.
Harry had noticed that the statue of the witch, which was hiding the passage to Honeydukes, was still not being blocked or guarded. He voiced his concerns to his friends, asking if they should tell someone. Ron however was completely convinced that Black would be caught if he tried to get in that way, because the owners of the Honeydukes store slept right above the shop, the owners would hear someone breaking in and report it, meaning the Hogwarts students would hear about it too.
"You're not thinking about going to Hogsmeade again?" Mel said in a hushed voice, it was meant to be a command, but it sounded more like a question.
"He should be fine if he wears his invisibility cloak again and stays with us," Ron answered for Harry.
"I agree with Mel, Harry, it's just too dangerous," Ginny said.
"Well you would say that, you're her best friend," Ron said, a little snappishly, to his Sister.
"Well, Andrew and Mel are in charge of Harry's security, so what do you two say?" Hermione asked.
Andrew was looking thoughtfully out the window, he sighed and looked sadly at Harry. "We've come close to failing this assignment twice now, so on the one hand, I'm tempted to lock you in Gryffindor Tower, unless you're going to class or to eat."
Ron didn't like where this was going. "However," Andrew continued, "I'm not going to do that, and if you happen to decide to sneak out to go to Hogsmeade, then we have no choice but to follow you and protect you."
Hermione didn't much like the logic, but had to admit that it did make sense. There was no point in keeping Harry safe from an escaped murderer, by making him a prisoner.
On a, sort of, happier note, Ron was actually getting more attention than Harry for once, and he was loving it. He happily told and retold the tale of Black's second break-in to anyone who would listen.
"… I was asleep, and I heard this ripping sound, thought it was in my dream, who wouldn't? But then there was this draught and I woke up, saw that the curtains on one side of my bed had been ripped down, I rolled over and there he was. He was standing over me, looked like a skeleton with a lot of hair. So I yelled and he scarpered."
"I don't know why though," Ron added to his friends as an afterthought. "Why didn't he just kill me?"
Hearing him ask this, Jax stopped. "As an assassin, I think I can answer that," the Gryffindors turned to him and he continued. "You weren't his target, his plan was to sneak in, slit a throat and creep out. Once he saw you weren't his target, he probably planned to crawl to another bed. But because you yelled, you raised the alarm and forced him to flee. No chance he could take on the entire Gryffindor house without alerting the rest of the castle."
They couldn't help but agree that Jax made good points. "Voice of the experienced?" Andrew joked.
"Odd training session or two gone wrong," he answered with a shrug, referring to scenarios where he had to 'assassinate' a training droid.
Unfortunately for Neville, everyone in the school knew that it was his list of passwords that Black had used. Leaving the poor lad in disgrace.
"Personally I blame that bloody Knight!" Andrew shouted when a Slytherin sixth-year chose to bully Neville in the Great Hall one morning. "If that useless idiot didn't change the damned password every hour on the fu-rickin' hour," he just stopped himself from swearing in front of the teachers. "Neville wouldn't have had to write them down!"
This didn't stop Professor McGonagall from punishing him, he'd lost his visits to Hogsmeade, got a detention and the rest of the house was forbidden from giving Neville the password to get into the common room. This left him stranded outside the common room until someone let him in, watching the Trolls as they compared the size of their clubs and leered at him.
The worst thing for the poor kid, was that his grandmother sent him a Howler, giving the Jedi their first experience of one, and why Hogwarts students dreaded getting them.
Neville grabbed the letter and ran for it, he got as far as the Entrance Hall before it exploded, causing his grandmother's voice to be magnified into the Great Hall. When the Slytherin students roared with laughter, Andrew calmly got up and walked to the teacher's table, leaning in towards his head of house. "Neville has suffered enough now," he told her calmly, and if you don't do something about that," he turned to Snape and pointed at the laughing Slytherins – but before he could say anything else, there was a sudden commotion.
All heads turned as there was the unmistakable sound of a fist making contact with a skull and a body hitting the floor, before Melanie Jacobs, calmness personified, let out a shrieking battle cry and started punching any Slytherin student who was still laughing.
When a Slytherin Prefect drew his wand on her, he was knocked to the floor by Jax, sliding feet first across the table and effectively drop-kicking the guy into the next table, causing a group of Hufflepuffs to scatter. Even Malfoy had dived across the Slytherin table to tackle a seventh-year girl who had grabbed Mel by the throat.
After getting over the initial shock, McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore stepped in to break up the brawl. Once Mel, Jax and Malfoy had been separated from everyone else, Dumbledore decided to make an announcement.
"All three of you will have detention with me tonight. And if any more cruelty is directed at Neville Longbottom, the person or persons responsible will be expelled," Dumbledore then glared hard at Snape, "or dismissed!"
Madam Pomfrey then checked any injuries, healed a few minor cuts and Mel, Jax and Malfoy were ordered out of the Great Hall. Harry then got nipped by Hedwig, who had a letter from Hagrid. He wanted to see Harry and his friends that evening. At six o'clock, just after dinner, the six of them met Hagrid in the Entrance Hall, the letter had told them to meet him there.
He escorted them down to his hut, where they found a hairy brown suit and a yellow/orange tie hanging on Hagrid's wardrobe door.
"Court case?" Mel asked, pointing at the suit.
"Yea', this Friday. Me an Buckbeak'll be goin' down ter London together. I've booked two beds on the Knight Bus."
"I'm sorry I couldn't do more Hagrid," said Harry, feeling bad.
"Believe me, yeh've done enough," Hagrid assured him. "Yeh've written yer statements, helped me find a lot of stuff fer the case, an' even gotten Professor Dumbledore to come to the hearin'."
Andrew decided not to mention that Dumbledore had said he was going regardless, without anyone asking him. Hagrid mainly wanted to talk to Ron and Hermione about their falling out regarding their pets.
"We've, somewhat, managed to agree on that," Hermione told him. "Ron's promised to stop saying anything about Crook-, my cat."
"And she's promised to make sure I don't see the little," Ron stopped himself, "furball. At least until I get over Scabbers."
"Sensible enough I 'spose," said Hagrid, stroking his beard.
They then enjoyed a nice cup of tea together while talking about Gryffindor's increased chances at winning the Quidditch cup this year. "Just the one match to go," supplied Ron. "Thanks to the whitewash against Ravenclaw, we just need to win the game."
"Easy with Harry as the Seeker!" Ginny called.
After that, they talked about poor Neville, who the rest of the Gryffindor third-years had taken to dragging around so he was never left alone, and the brawl that Mel, of all people, had started.
"I still don't know what came over me, after we were kicked out of the Great Hall, Jax lectured me about control." Mel explained.
"Really?" asked Hermione, shocked.
Mel nodded. "Then he congratulated me on a fantastic punch."
"Oh, on that, I have got to agree, that guy was four times your size!" Andrew exclaimed, mimicking her right hook. "Yet one punch, ding ding! K.O!" causing the lot of them to laugh.
Hagrid escorted them back to the castle at nine o'clock, after which they made their way back to The Fat Lady and gave the password, they stepped into the common room to find another Hogsmeade weekend had been announced.
"I still don't think you should go, Harry," Hermione said, worriedly, the other girls agreed.
"Come on mate, you haven't even been in the joke shop," Ron pleaded. Harry looked at Andrew.
"I'll guard you wherever you go, if you stay, I stay, you go, I go. Simple as that." Andrew told him. "But I still think the girls are right."
Harry considered all the options. "I'll take the invisibility cloak again, meet me at the Honeydukes counter?" he asked Andrew.
Andrew sighed, not liking the answer, but he nodded anyway. "Ron, Hermione and Ginny can walk in front when we're outdoors, Harry you stay by my side at all times, Mel, you bring up the rear." he ordered everyone.
"With Jax, I've no doubt." Ron blurted. Just then, Crookshanks leapt into Hermione's arms and Ron glared. Then he sighed and looked away. "Please get him away from me Hermione," he begged her miserably. Hermione nodded, held a little tighter onto her cat, and ran for the girls staircase.
On Saturday morning, they all sat at Breakfast, Mel, Jax and Malfoy having been permitted back into the Great Hall after serving their detention with Dumbledore. They had to spend the night completely cleaning his office, without magic and without waking him up. After they finished eating, Harry made a show of climbing the marble staircase, while waving to his friends and calling that he'd see them later.
They had to linger longer than expected, when Harry finally showed up, he told his friends via telepathy that he'd bumped into Neville and Snape, which was why he was delayed.
"(Got some bad news for you mate,)" Ron told Harry, "(Malfoy's hanging around with Jax.)"
Deciding that Malfoy wouldn't see him under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and Andrew left, the others followed and quickly got into formation outside. Ron, Ginny and Hermione were in front, Andrew was behind them, and behind him came Mel and Jax, holding hands, and Malfoy.
"Morning, Potter," Malfoy said quietly, causing everyone to look at him in horror.
Jax laughed. "I've been teaching Draco the basics, like you have with Potter," he explained. "It wasn't hard to pick up telepathy after the trip to the Chamber last year."
"You're not going to tell are you?" Ginny begged, almost crying.
"Tell what?" Malfoy asked. "I've not seen him."
Ron couldn't stop himself chuckling. "Starr's right Malfoy, you're not all bad."
They went to the Post Office first, Ron telling Andrew about all the various owls in there, Harry was standing between them and listening to every word. What made Andrew laugh was the smallest owls, which were labelled "Local Deliveries Only".
"Where exactly is local to Hogsmeade?" he asked.
"Put simply?" the manager said, hearing the question. "Anywhere up here in Scotland."
"We're in Scotland?" Andrew asked, having never known, the satellite navigation and radar on the car he'd stolen last year had stopped working as soon as he had gotten close to the Hogwarts Express.
"Didn't you already know that? You flew here last year." Ginny said.
"All the readouts stopped working when I got close to the train." Andrew explained. "Hell, even the Altimeter and fuel gauge stopped working!"
"That'll be wards, they scramble Muggle technology, like radar and satellites, to keep places like Hogwarts undetected." Hermione explained.
"I take it that the Express' route is laced with them," Mel said, Hermione nodded.
Their next stop was Zonko's, Andrew paused before going in, sensing a lot of people inside. "Maybe we should come back later," he suggested, thinking that Harry might have a hard time avoiding contact with people with the place being crowded.
Harry insisted that he would be fine and they went in, half an hour later they came back out, laden with a fair few bags of jokes.
"Man, that place was amazing, how anybody manages to get Fred and George out I've no idea!" Andrew exclaimed.
"My guess is Jordan waits until they're out of money and then drags them out." Draco said, before apologising to Ron. "That wasn't meant to sound like another crack about your family being poor."
"Need a shovel?" Jax asked.
Andrew grinned and started walking off, whistling the tune to "We Dig, Dig, Dig!" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, causing Mel to giggle.
"What?" Malfoy asked, before Jax joined in with Andrew's whistling.
"We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, in a mine the whole day through," Mel was now laughing hysterically. "You dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, it's what you like to do!"
By now, everyone was laughing, even Draco, which was good, because Harry was laughing too and the others were drowning out his voice.
None of them felt like staying indoors, so they moved passed the Three Broomsticks and visited the Shrieking Shack. "It's said to be the most haunted building in Britain." Ron said, standing as close as he dared.
"You should visit the Jedi Temple sometime." Mel answered him. "The place is swarming with Force Spirits."
"Yeah but only the Jedi can see them," Jax said enviously.
"Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid this place," Draco muttered, leaning on the fence. "I asked the Bloody Baron, he says a very rough crowd used to inhabit the place."
"Nobody can get in," Ron added, "Fred and George have tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut."
Just then, they heard voices coming from the other side of the hill, McCarthy, Crabbe and Goyle came striding into view, talking about Buckbeak's hearing.
"… should have an owl from Malfoy's father any day now. He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm, how I couldn't use it for three months..."
Crabbe and Goyle were sniggering. "I really wish I could hear that oaf trying to defend himself. Trust me, that Hippogriff is as good as dead!"
"And the second he dies, I'll send you to join him McCarthy!" Jax shouted, getting their attention.
"What're you lot doing here?" McCarthy demanded, then he glanced at the Shrieking Shack. "Weasley showing you his dream home?"
Ron went for him, but Mel held him back. "Do you really want to pick a fight right now?" Andrew asked calmly. "You have noticed who's here, and you do remember that they took on your entire house … there's only three of you here right now." he warned.
That was when they realised that Malfoy was there too. "Your father would be disgusted, Draco. Hanging around Mudbloods?"
Jax roared and ignited his lightsaber, "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"
"Hold on Jax, let me handle this, without killing anyone." Andrew said, placing a hand calmly on the Sith's shoulder, Harry crept off and circled around behind the three Slytherins. "Offer you blokes a challenge," Andrew continued, igniting his lightsaber and hurling it to his left, where it embedded itself in a tree. "You three, against me … no lightsaber," he drew his wand and flung it like a knife, where it stuck in the ground by its tip, Ron quickly picked it up so that nobody would step on it. "No wand. Let's do this like Gents shall we?"
Grinning, Crabbe and Goyle circled behind the Jedi, cracking their knuckles. Crabbe went for him first, Andrew slammed his elbow into Crabbe's gut, then swung his other fist right into Crabbe's face, finally the Jedi sent the other guy flying with a drop kick to the chest, landing on his palms and performing a kip up to land back on his feet.
"I never said I wouldn't use my natural agility though," he added with a grin.
While Goyle tried to drive his foot through Andrew's spine, Harry distracted McCarthy by hurling a handful of mud at him.
While McCarthy had his back to them, Andrew grabbed Goyle's ankle, pulled him closer and elbowed Goyle in the gut, before throwing him over his shoulder, causing the thug to land heavily on his leader. Crabbe got up and made to kick Andrew in his spine, but Andrew spun and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying back, where he landed on the hem of Harry's cloak and pulled it, revealing Harry's head.
For a second, nobody moved, except McCarthy and Goyle, trying to disentangle themselves from each other. McCarthy caught sight of Harry's head and screamed, getting up and flat out running for the castle.
"Quick, Potter, get out of here!" Malfoy hissed. "He'll go straight to Snape and you know he's got it in for you!"
Harry nodded, pulled his cloak back over his head and ran for Honeydukes. Ron and Andrew looked at each other and started sprinting for the Castle, Andrew using the Force to help him move faster while calling his lightsaber and wand back to his hands.
Andrew raced straight for the common room, freaking out a little when he found that Harry wasn't there, it wasn't until a few minutes later, while in the library, that Ron sent him a message to say he'd gotten to Harry.
Back in the common room, Harry explained what had happened. "Snape caught me, right after I came out of the statue. He took me to his office and told me that McCarthy had gone straight to him, just like Malfoy said he would. He tried insulting my Dad to get me to talk and when I told him to shut up, he ordered me to turn out my pockets."
"What was in them?" Ginny asked.
"A bag of Zonko's stuff and the Marauder's Map." Harry answered.
"Oh crap," Mel breathed.
"Snape quickly caught on that the Map was more than some piece of parchment, and then he tried to get it to reveal its secrets," Harry then started sniggering. "Hang on a sec, thinking back on it now, it's too hilarious!"
Once he'd laughed for a bit, Harry continued. "The map started acting a bit like Riddle's Diary, letters were drawing themselves on the parchment. Snape said 'Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!'" Harry paused for a moment to giggle again.
"So on the Map comes this; 'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.'"
The others burst out laughing. "Oh, I'm not done yet!" Harry called over their laughter. When they calmed down he told them the next line, "'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.' Then the next line was; 'Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a Professor.'"
They all had tears of laughter in their eyes now. "Finally it said; 'Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.'"
Wiping his eyes and laughing so hard it hurt, Andrew cried out, "Oh that is priceless! I wish you had a camera, I'd pay good money to have seen Snape's face!"
"Well it went downhill after that, Snape called Lupin, claiming that the Map was full of Dark Magic." Harry told them.
"That's where I came in, ain't it." Ron blurted out.
"Yep, so after Lupin got us out of trouble, he told me he knew it was a map, he thought Filch still had it, then he told us off for not handing it in." Harry finished.
"So what's going to happen now?" Hermione asked.
"Well, Lupin's kept the map," Harry said sadly.
To make matters worse, an owl chose that moment to sail through the window and drop a letter into Hermione's lap.
She opened it quickly, read through it, and gasped. "It's from Hagrid, Buckbeak is to be executed!"