Chapter Three
Spiders
Saturday October 2, 1993
A few days later, Susan, Hannah, Hermione and Harry were in the Great Hall having breakfast together when the Daily Prophet arrived.
Dumbledore retires from all positions – Decides to teach potions
Augusta Longbottom named Head of Wizengamot
Hogwarts Search Committee to be formed
Hannah asked, "What do you think of that?"
Susan replied, "Maybe it was time. He didn't seem to be doing very well at any of those positions. He's a great potions instructor."
Hermione asked, "Is that Neville's Grandmother?"
Harry replied, "Yes. Hopefully less gold exchanged hands than usual."
… - …
In the Common Room that night there was a new sign on the bulletin board.
Team Tryouts – All positions
Dean asked, "What's going on?
Ron announced, "Somebody bought the team 14 new broomsticks. Wood's going to have a full backup team."
Katie Bell added, "Everyone should try out for their position."
Alicia and Angelina agreed, so naturally Fred and George agreed.
… - …
The next evening, Oliver posted the results of the tryouts. Hermione looked at the notice.
First Team
Chasers
Alicia Spinnet
Angelina Johnson
Katie Bell
Beaters
George Weasley
Fred Weasley
Keeper
Oliver Wood
Seeker
Ginny Weasley
Second Team
Chasers
Parvati Patil
Lavender Brown
Demelza Robins
Beaters
Jimmy Peaks
Ritchie Coots
Seeker
Colin Creevey
Keeper
Ron Weasley
Hermione asked, "Why didn't you try out?"
"Maybe I'd rather sit in the stands with you under a blanket."
"Oh... Oooh... That does sound like fun." She whispered, "That was nice of you to donate those broomsticks and not make a fuss about it."
"Ginny's dream is to play for the Harpies. I'd rather she pursue that goal than continuing some fangirl obsession about becoming Mrs. Potter. That will never happen."
Smiling at his comment, she asked, "How will the practices go?"
"Wood will go over an offense and a defense play and they'll do a few run throughs to practice it. Honestly, it will be easier with two sets of chasers. The beaters will do their own sets of practice; same with the seekers."
With a coquettish smile, she suggested, "Maybe we should practice being spectators for a bit."
Who was he to disagree?
… - ...
Harry and Hermione were outside walking, holding hands. Hermione asked, "Can you help me pick out a bow?" He gave her a quizzical look and her one-word answer explained it all. "Hagrid."
He looked around a bit to ensure that no one was around and said, "I like this one." He opened his shirt and opened the magical bag then took out the little Bowmaster bow and effortlessly conjured five arrows. He notched an arrow, took aim and let it fly. He explained, "It magically adjusts to the user in terms of bow size and pounds of pull. It was a bit shorter when I had my first lesson."
She examined the arrows. They were identical. She smiled at him and observed, "I knew there was a reason that your transfiguration and conjuring were so good; you've practiced."
He replied, "A lot of practice. Making an object is easy. Making fifty identical objects takes focus."
She looked around and didn't see any practice targets stuffed with straw. She asked, "Where do you practice?"
"I usually go practice in the Chamber of Secrets. I come out here to hunt." At her unasked question, he added, "Squirrels, rats and mostly spiders. It's a lot harder hitting moving targets and letting loose several arrows a minute. If I get something good, I bring it to Hagrid. He'll either cook it or give it to the hippogriffs or thestrals."
She said doubtfully, "I don't know if I could afford a bow like that. Was it dear?"
He replied, "You can't buy these; they're gifted. I'd be happy to gift one for you. You'll need to keep it a secret."
Harry decided that he really enjoyed her hugs."
…. - …
Hermione watched as he showed her how to nock an arrow with one of the three fletches (vanes) pointed away from the bow and how to point the bow with the arrow level with the ground. She pulled the string back as far as she could. It was considerably harder than she'd expected. She let the arrow loose. It hit the ground 45 feet in front of her. She commented, "That was awful."
"The adjective you're looking for is pathetic. That's exactly what my instructor, Walt, told me last July. There's no substitute for a bit of arm strength. Pullups and pushups, aided me but a few potions will help a lot. Don't worry; you won't become Crabbe or Goyle; just incredibly fit. You can use a stairway to make pushups easier or harder. If you're head is pointed up, they will be easier. If it's pointed down, it will be harder. I don't know of any cheats, one way or another for pullups. Let's look at arrows."
They sat down at a table. Harry took some out of the case that he had. He said, "There are differences, but there are similarities as well. The pointy end is called the arrowhead. They can be plain, or have sharp edges designed for cutting or penetrating. The stick part is called the shaft. Most arrows are 30 inches long. The feathers are called the fletching. The little notch at the back end is called the nock."
She asked, "Are the shafts all made of wood?"
"No. Wood arrows are normally used for practice, or short range, as they're lighter than the other kinds and won't penetrate as deep at a distance. On the other hand, they're easier to conjure or transfigure than aluminum or other materials. I always use wooden arrows with a plain metal tip. When I'm out hunting spiders, I dip the front end in a little bottle of basilisk venom."
"How far can you loose an arrow?"
"I can send a conjured wooden arrow a bit over 100 feet in a level flight. If you angle the arrow upward, you can get it to fly quite a bit farther but being accurate takes practice."
There was a small bale of straw 25 feet away. He handed her an arrow and she drew back the string, aimed and let loose the arrow. It hit the bale. He handed her another arrow. She hit the bale. He handed her another. As she pulled on the string, her right arm began shaking slightly as she was getting tired. She missed.
She declared, "I missed."
"No. You hit it twice. Same answer, different perspective. I'll put the bow away; we'll go have dinner."
She gave him a hug. He was a nurturing instructor. She kept the string fully pulled back a long time in an attempt to have a perfect aim. She was certain that he'd point it out in a positive way the next time.
… - ...
Harry stopped after potions class one day and asked, "Professor, I have a few questions if you have a few minutes."
Dumbledore flicked his wand to close the door and replied, "Go ahead, Harry."
"In the reading that you've done, would you consider a soul to be more like a pie, or a river? In other words, is it a finite thing, or infinite? In context, could Riddle have split his soul 1,000 times, or is the term literal – ½, ¼, 1/8th and so on?"
The old professor considered Harry's insightful questions for a moment. Clearly the answers wouldn't be found in any published book. He replied, "The best evidence that we have would seem to be from the dementor. If the soul was infinite and a dementor attempted to suck out a person's soul, it wouldn't work. I would think their horrible effort would be like trying to empty a river using a tea cup - no one would die, as there would always be more."
Harry asked, "How reasonable is the pie theory?"
Dumbledore encouraged him, "Keep going."
"I seriously doubt that any student is going to wake up one day and say, I'm going to make six soul splits and somehow chop of 1/6th each time in perfect slices like a blueberry pie. The only thing that makes sense is halves. Ginny Weasley's a pretty tough, strong-minded person. Yet a few dozen or so hours exposure to the diary and she turned into putty. That said, it doesn't make sense at all that the same amount of force couldn't overtake an infant. The only thing that makes sense are halves – ½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64."
Harry thought for a moment and added, "Unless he went on a killing spree as a first year, the diary must have been about the first one that he made. So here's my question, then we should go to dinner. What would happen to a person when half their soul is destroyed? I'm not saying removed, but destroyed."
Dumbledore replied, "I'll give it some serious thought and give you my best guess when we see each other again next week."
Harry left for dinner but the old professor was so shocked by the amount of thought that had been put into the questions that he just went into his office to think about it. Tom collected treasures. The Riddles were murdered in the summer of 1942. Tom would have been a rising fifth year. He remembered him wearing Slytherin's ring in his fifth year. Harry stated that the Tom in the diary was his memory at age sixteen. So the ring and the diary must have been the first two that he made.
… - …
Ironically, Barchoke and Ragnok were having almost the identical conversation. They'd examined the piece that had been in Harry, the ring and the cup. They were far better at weighing and measuring than Dumbledore could ever even imagine. They concluded that between the ring and the diary, 75% of Riddle's soul had been destroyed.
Their questions were; when Riddle eventually returned, how diminished would he be and would the effect manifest itself as a loss in the raw power of an individual spell, or a loss in stamina, or both? They were convinced that it would be one, or both of the two.
… - ...
The next weekend, Harry went to Gringotts before breakfast and was given an extra Bowmaster bow and case.
He was out on Halloween morning, just south of the spider section. Looking into the forest, he saw five large spiders. He carefully conjured fifty wooden arrows and opened one of his two-ounce jars of the basilisk venom. He dipped each of the arrows into the venom and resealed the jar.
Harry had a good position. He was in easy range of the five trash bin sized spiders. Twang, twang, twang, twang, twang. With the aid of the basilisk venom, the spiders went still within seconds. A moment later, he saw six others. He let loose six arrows, hitting six spiders.
As quietly as he could he moved to a different position. His disillusion charm held. He sat still and waited. A minute later, a very large, apparently old spider came by, accompanied by four others. Five arrows launched resulted in five hits. A moment later, the arrows that he'd conjured had vanished.
He decided that it was time to leave.
The dead spiders were found within the hour. The spiders who found them were terrified; they could clearly smell their mortal enemy.
… - …
The next weekend, he went back to the forest wearing his new basilisk vest. After conjuring twenty wooden arrows and dipping the fronts in his jar of basilisk venom, he walked in. Within a minute, he found himself on the defense; for every trash can sized spider he put down, it seemed like two more arrived. Five turned into ten, which turned into twenty. He conjured a second, slightly larger batch of arrows and hurriedly dipped them into the venom and he began loosing arrows again. Thirty... Forty... Forty-five... Several spiders had gotten disturbingly close.
Believing that he'd been seen, Harry concluded that simply moving again wouldn't improve his situation. He portkeyed into the Chamber in retreat.
… - …
Back in the forest, the spiders grimly celebrated that they'd driven off the great snake. They mourned the loss of so many adults but knew that there would still be many hundreds of newly hatched young spiders to watch over in the spring.
It was getting to be time for them to go into their caves and holes for the winter.
… - …
Back in the safety of the Chamber, Harry watched as the memory cube replayed the event. Harry quickly concluded;
He didn't start with enough arrows. A handful should have been marked and transfigured for emergency use.
He didn't change positions enough. He should have moved after every eight or ten arrows.
His attempt at moving quietly through the forest was weak. His disillusion charm still needed a massive amount of work. He brushed against many more branches than had been necessary as he moved.
He really needed to learn to apparate.
Finally, he'd let his supply of arrows go dangerously low before conjuring more. In short, he'd stumbled into a far larger group than he'd originally envisioned. Worse, he'd stayed; playing a weak hand the entire time.
As with every encounter, he sent the cube, along with his written assessment to Walt.
… - …
When he met Hermione afterward, she asked, "How did it go?" She had no love of spiders – of any size, but didn't feel that her skills were good enough yet to join him.
He summarized the details, mostly focusing on his shortcomings.
Her response was, "It was a good thing that you left when you did; don't get yourself into a situation that you can't get out of." Her dad did his fair share of upland hunting at the club. The only difference was the pheasants didn't have a deadly bite, or were the size of trash bins. She'd seen TV programs of hunters going after wild hogs. They seemed far more comparable to the spiders than rooster pheasants.
… - …
Fred and George found Harry in the common room one evening, early in December. George asked, "Was Padfoot really your Godfather?"
"Yes. My dad was Prongs. I've also met Moony. If I ever find Wormtail, I'll cut him. Peter Pettigrew betrayed my parents and got them killed."
"Fred said, "We've got something for you. This is the Mauraders' Map. Tap your wand on it and say, "I solemnly swear, I'm up to no good."
As he did, Ron's rat suddenly burst from his pocket and ran out the open common room door.
Fred yelled, "What the..."
Harry connected the dots and said, "Scabbers is Wormtai!" In the minute that the exchange had taken place, Pettigrew had taken a solid lead. He was down to the third floor, onto the second, then the first floor before the teens reached the front door, and he vanished into the night.
"Dammit," cursed Harry.
"Potter, what is the meaning of this?" admonished McGonagall. "Stop this disruption at once."
As he walked away, he muttered, "There's a reason why no one tells you anything valuable."
… - …
After the students had been sent home for the Christmas holidays and Albus set off to introduce Barty Crouch as Britain's ICW delegate, Filius got to work. The device made from the soul piece extracted by the cursebreaker worked like a three-dimensional compass. After ten minutes, Wick concluded that the Horcrux was somewhere on the seventh floor. Unfortunately, the needle moved back and forth so much that he couldn't tell where.
A fundamental difference between Filius and Dumbledore was Flitwick wasn't hesitant to ask for help when he was stumped. He called for an expert - the head elf from Hogwarts. "Nobby?"
"Yes, Professor Wick?"
"Is there a hidden room on the seventh floor?"
"Yes. Elves use it for storing lost things and call it the Come and Go Room. It was made by Professor Ravenclaw long ago."
"Can you show me the room please?"
"Yes, Professor. You stand here, thinking that you need to find the room of lost things. Sometimes it opens right away, sometimes it doesn't and you need to come back."
He thought, I need to find the room of lost things. After he had walked back and forth three times, a solid oak door appeared. Nobby said, "Good luck, Professor."
Flitwick opened the door and stepped in. The room was dark. He took a chance and said, "Lights. At that point, many other magicals would have gone off on a tangent – exploring what else the room could do. Wick stayed on task. The room was immense. It almost appeared endless; perhaps it was. Flitwick wondered how difficult it would be to find his way out again. He did an incredibly smart thing; he found a desk and used it to keep the door propped open.
Again, a person with less focus could easily become distracted. There were old desks, hats, boots, armor, broomsticks, cases of mead, tall cabinets, hundreds of trunks and thousands of boxes in no obvious order.
He used the compass. It no longer gave the wonky spinning motion that it had when he first walked the corridor on the seventh floor. After a ten minute walk, Wick came across something that he'd seen a statue of everyday – Ravenclaw's lost diadem. He'd normally be overjoyed, except for the knowledge that a priceless object had been so badly corrupted.
As soon as he levitated the object, he could sense the seduction and compulsion charms at work. Rather than test his own willpower, he quickly levitated the diadem into the lead box that he'd brought with him; thankful that it fit. The compulsion charm feeling stopped the moment that he closed the lid.
Again, it felt like it was a serious test of his will power to remain focused on getting out and not allowing himself to become distracted. He was careful not to touch anything, or allow his direction to waver. He was certain that most people who walked into the room, or at least this version of it, never found their way back out.
As he walked within 100 feet of the door, the Grey Lady ghost appeared and said, "What you are carrying out doesn't belong to you; it is mine."
He replied, "I believe you, my lady. I do not take this for myself. Your diadem has sadly been corrupted by a wizard named Tom R..."
"Do not speak his name. His lies and seductive words weakened my will to the point that I showed him my greatest treasure. If I let you pass, what would you do with my diadem?"
"I will take it to my clan and have the finest curse breakers remove the evil which has been imbued within your masterpiece. Then I will return it to this room, or place it on a place of honor, on display, so that others can see it for the masterpiece that it really is."
She said, "I will allow that, Professor. Do not keep it long, or allow those not involved in restoring it to touch it. That is my condition. Do I have your word, Professor Flitwick?"
"Yes, my lady."
"You may pass. You have a month to finish your task."
Wick had no intention of testing the unspoken, or else.
… - ...
Barty Crouch Senior was harboring an ugly secret. For ten years, he'd been hiding his son, Barty Junior, who he had smuggled out of Azkaban prison at the final request of his late wife. He'd held Junior under the Imperius curse, which he faithfully reapplied every evening.
While Senior was confident that his Imperius curse would last at least a week, he hadn't tested the duration; certainly not in years.
Perhaps it was coincidence, but the morning after the curse on the diadem had been lifted, and the horcrux that it contained measured, weighed and destroyed, Barty Junior woke up with a clear mind. After quickly searching the home, stealing a few hundred galleons, as well as his mother's wand, Junior transfigured a floor lamp into a copy of his body and torched the home. He set off to find his master.
... - ...
During one of the breaks, Barty Senior received a message that his home had burned down and a badly burned body had been found inside. It was requested that he contact Inspector Connie Hammer and identify the house sitter. Crouch had previously prepared for such an eventuality and quickly wrote back that the house sitter was Melvin Hoon, an orphaned refugee from Singapore. He wrote that he'd contact Hoon's friends when he returned.
Feeling a sense of closure, Crouch went back to his meeting with a newfound sense of purpose.
… - …
Back at Gringotts, Flitwick was receiving instructions from Ragnok when the runner brought back the cleansed diadem. It truly was cleansed; not only had the horcrux been removed but the diadem shown as brightly as the day that it had first been crafted for Rowena a millennium ago.
Ragnok's closing words were, "Should the Potter boy request any assistance or extra instruction, please offer it to him without question."
Flitwick nodded and replied, "I will gladly help Mr. Potter. I shall return this to the school now. Thank you, Director."
… - …
The Grey Lady looked pleased when she saw the condition of her mother's diadem. She told Flitwick, "A second year, Luna Lovegood will wear this someday. She has the gift to see different futures and unseen beings. She is being bothered by her older housemates because of what she can plainly see.
"Like Harry Potter, she is especially worthy of your protection."
… - …
A day after Christmas Break had arrived, the first thing that Harry asked was, "When can Hermione and I start apparition lessons?"
Andy kept her word and said, "This afternoon, if she's available."
Now that he had the coordinates for their house, he said, "I'll go get her." Holding his watch, he said, "Activate Granger." Five minutes later, he returned with Hermione and Emma.
Dr. Granger and Healer Tonks had first met a year ago and had developed a solid friendship. The fact that their children's' growing friendship had been cemented by a 12 foot troll and a 62 foot snake were just some of the quirks of living in the magical world as far as Emma was concerned.
The irony was that most people learned apparition as a means of getting to someplace, while Harry and Hermione were at least equally interested in the ability to quickly get away from someplace.
As both students had done their reading and meditation, along with their practice focusing with conjuration - the mental aspects of apparition, the battle was half won already. She side-alonged them each a few times in their back garden. After a short rest, with a sugary orange drink, she told them, "Decide exactly where you want to be and do it."
Pop. Far louder than Andromeda but he had traveled 30 feet.
"Good. Now check yourself to ensure that you have everything. Eyelids, eyebrows and tackle for males, bits for females are the most common missing pieces. Harry, you don't want to leave your man bits someplace where they might get eaten."
The two adults did everything that they could do not to laugh as Harry less than subtly verified that everything was where it was supposed to be. In reality, hair was the most common new apparition loss, though theirs was a longstanding prank that Emma had previously been told about.
Pop. He was back to his original spot.
Andy said, "Good. Hermione?"
POP!
She'd done it, though a Jackhammer may have been quieter.
Andy commented, "It will be a while before she's sneaking boys in her room, sounding like that. She'll get quieter in time. Harry will probably be silent by the end of break."
Emma asked, "Why would you say that?"
"Monsters seem to be attracted to him. He'll be highly motivated to master this form of transportation." Neither realized that both teens felt exactly the same.
… - ...
While Andy and Em were having fun at the teens' expense, Harry and Hermione were quietly talking. Harry commented, "Do it a bit slower. Don't rush it. You'll be loads quieter." She gave him a hug and tried his suggestion. Pop! It was noticeably quieter. She tried again. Pop! Harry apparated next to her, pop, and gave her a hug while whispering a few words of encouragement in her ear, Pop. Noticeably quieter still.
… - ...
Meanwhile, the adults were continuing their discussion. Emma admitted, "I'd be worried sick. I was every day when Daniel was deployed."
Andy admitted, "I'm not saying that I'm not. Nym's in law enforcement. Every time she picks up a shoplifter, or the really bad calls – trying to settle a domestic, it could go very bad, very quickly. I have faith that she'll handle herself well and prevail. It's all a mother or spouse can do. The same applies with Harry and his adventures at school. I have faith in him; that's far more than I can say about Dumbledore."
Emma asked, "Tell me again why, out of all of the schools for magicals in the world, we're sending them to Hogwarts?" She'd never forgive McGonagall for failing to notify her when Hermione had been injured – either time.
Andy replied, "The search committee will be forming soon. In the mean time, Dumbledore is doing a better than average job teaching potions. He doesn't seem to be causing any trouble at all."
As promised, she sponsored both teens for early apparition with cause single licenses. It was a little known loophole that was occasionally used by those families who knew about it and who had high-achieving teenagers.
… - ...
January 1994
When school resumed after Christmas break, the gem counter showed a significant drop in the Ravenclaw hourglass. Three fourth year students had been told that they each had a month of detention and if they wished to remain at Hogwarts. they were to never bother Miss Lovegood in any way, shape, or form again.
… - …
After potions class, Dumbledore gave Harry a meaningful look. When the other students had left, he closed the door and said, "I thought long and hard about the possible effects of pieces of Tom's soul being destroyed. I envision two likely possibilities. First, the horcrux serves a purpose something like a ship's anchor. If too much is destroyed, the anchor would be ineffective and the ship would drift away. As to what percentage is insufficient, nothing has been written either way."
Harry replied, "That makes sense."
Dumbledore continued, "As to the impact on a reembodied Tom, common logic would say that he'd somehow be diminished. Whether the loss is to his humanity, his raw magical strength, stamina, or something that we haven't yet considered is mere speculation.
"In any event, I believe that it is to our common benefit that as many pieces be found and destroyed as soon as possible – irrespective of how vile I personally find the destruction of a soul to be."
"No one wants this, Professor. Riddle made the decision decades ago that he wasn't going to color within the lines."
He added, "Thank you for taking the time to think about this."
… - …
February 1994
A few weeks later, at the ministry, plans were being made at a furious rate for two upcoming events; the first being the World Quidditch Cup.
At the most recent meeting, Ludo Bagman had reported that everything had been going to plan on the assembly of the traveling stadium, which seated 102,000 people. The only hitch that he'd mentioned was that one of his new employees was a week overdue from her first vacation after the birth of her first child.
Until three weeks ago, she'd worked for Crouch, who admitted, "She was a few weeks late coming back from leave last time too. I wouldn't worry about it." He wasn't being entirely honest in his remarks. In reality, she'd dropped some papers off at his house and accidentally saw Junior. In his haste to cover it up, Senior had botched his obliviation, causing permanent, persistent bouts of short-term memory loss. He'd unsuccessfully tried sacking her, but managed to fob her off on Ludo by paying off one of his gambling debts.
… - …
Late in March, it was a sunny day. Harry decided to go search for spiders. He'd spent hours working on the disillusion charm and could walk around the castle corridors without being noticed. With respect to stealth, his apparation wasn't silent by any means; it was about the same volume as a beverage can being opened. His woodsmanship was exceptional for someone his age. Taking away the qualifier, he could move without attracting attention, but if someone/something was looking for him, he could still be seen if he was moving in a hurry, or lost focus.
Harry overlooked an area where the acromantula were clustered, feeding on a pair of deer that their huge webs had caught. There were 100 trash bin sized young adults. In terms of the lethality of their bites, from what Hagrid had mentioned, they were in their prime.
Harry conjured 120 arrows and dipped them in the basilisk venom that he carried with him. Since his goal for the day was practicing stealth in a live-fire situation, he took ten arrows with him and decided to fire five before returning to his stash. He'd found four spots where he could get to and loose his arrows without being seen; one north, one south, one east and one west of the group of spiders.
He quietly crept to the south spot and let five arrows fly at different parts of the group then silently took the portkey to his original spot. He took 20 arrows with him and quietly went to the east spot. To this group of spider's disadvantage, they were mostly looking for trouble from the branches and didn't notice Harry moving. Since they were so clustered, Harry tried using two arrows at once. They each hit a spider about five feet apart. He tried again and again until he'd hit ten spiders, then used the portkey watch to get to his stash.
Next, he went to the west spot and let loose another ten arrows within three minutes. Again, they were looking in the wrong direction. They hadn't seen him. He went back to the stash.
He grabbed the remaining arrows and slowly made his way to the north spot. Here his luck changed. After launching the fifth arrow, the others vanished. As he began conjuring new arrows, he was either seen or heard. He'd made about 50 arrows and had dipped them when the spiders turned to his direction. Rather than sit silently and wait until their attention shifted to another direction, he began loosing two arrows at a time as fast as he could. Fifty arrows with forty hits later, he left and went back to his original spot.
Again he conjured 50 arrows and dipped them. He brought them to the southern spot. The remaining 35 spiders were agitated and weren't in clusters. He let loose 25 arrows and walked to the western spot. Again, his disillusion charm failed and the remaining ten spiders had definitely seen him. He resorted to run and fire, fire, run, fire, fire. Finally he reached what he thought was a defensible spot and let loose on the remaining five spiders.
He recast the disillusion charm and walked back to the original spot with an arrow notched as he walked. Miraculously, no additional spiders had appeared. He took the portkey back to the Chamber.
… - ...
As the adrenaline rush subsided, he re-cased his bow and examined his memory. Excitement turned into disappointment as he quickly concluded that his clever plan had been so badly flawed.
His conjured arrows lasted between 15 - 20 minutes. Given that it took 10 minutes to make 120, he literally didn't have time to launch that many.
His disillusion charm consistently failed when he was highly focused on something else.
Attacking a group that large wasn't a great idea.
Continuing to launch arrows once he knew that he'd been spotted had been a horrible idea, only augmented by the reality that he had the ability to make a quick exit with hia portkey watch.
Finally, he'd gone off of his plan almost immediately. Loosing five arrows then moving was never going to work with a group that large. Ten to fifteen would have been a better choice.
Thinking about it more, once he had been spotted, he had obligated himself to finish off the group of spiders. He didn't know about their ability to communicate. He watched his memory again with an eye on making improvements.
Conjure no more than 50 arrows at once. He wanted to avoid the alternative of transfiguring some and trying to retrieve them, Transfiguring 100 arrows, dipping them in poison, launching them, then calling, Accio Arrows after he was done felt like a truly bad idea.
Practice loosing two arrows at once.
Let go of the idea that he had to get every one if he hadn't been spotted.
Find hiding spots that were farther away; he easily could have hit them from farther away. That would likely let him launch more arrows before moving.
Satisfied with his analysis, he sent the memory cube and his planned improvements to Walt, the archery instructor.
… - …
Two days later, he received a message back from Walt.
Harry,
First, you were smart to have counted the group of spiders before doing anything else. Given that you were out for practice, you should have walked away and found a smaller cluster. Archery, as you're practicing it, is half stealth, half archery, not a suicide charge.
If you hadn't had the ability to make a fast escape what would you have done differently?
That said, I was pleased with your analysis and suggestions for improvement. Enclosed is a small vial of acromantula anti-venom, which I'll be highly disappointed if you ever have to use. Also find enclosed six new memory cubes.
Send another next week,
Walt
… - …
After charms class one day. Harry asked Flitwick, "Professor, why would my disillusion charm fade at inappropriate times?"
Having communicated with both Barchoke and Walt recently, Wick knew that Harry wasn't referring to spying in the girls Quidditch locker shower as he would have expected from the Weasley twins. He replied, "People who are new to magic have a harder time multi-tasking; especially in stressful situations. You're a third year doing well with some sixth year charms."
He continued, "To your specific question, excluding yourself, I doubt that there are half a handful of students in the school who could maintain the charm while in the direct vicinity of 100 acromantula. Excluding Miss Granger, no one else in the school knows of your activities. As for the specific charm, my only suggestions are to keep practicing and to continue your hunts. When do you plan on going again?"
Harry replied, "Saturday morning."
Flitwick, nodded and said, "Good hunting."
… - …
Late April
The Saturday evening after the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match, Harry was sitting in the common room, listening to Katie Bell describe the win with Ginny grabbing the snitch, winning the quidditch match, just as caretaker Frank Bryce made the fatal decision to investigate the lights on inside at the old Riddle place.
Avada Kedavra. The humunculus took special delight in using his favorite spell again after so many years.
After the two wizards and the homunculus retired for the night, Nagini began consuming the old caretaker. She was delighted to discover that her prey was still breathing.
While she was pleased to have someone to talk with again, she didn't feel the same degree of bond that she'd remembered from thirteen summers ago. She concluded that it was because her human was smaller this time.
Fortunately the rat man had vanished the clothing from her prey after the other one had emptied his pockets. As such, there were no sharp objects. After two hours, the old veteran had been consumed. Nagani would go outside and sleep for two weeks.
… - …
Back at Hogwarts, the green-eyed teen was having pleasant dreams about snogging the girl with the interesting hair. Since they no longer had a shared connection, there had been no bad dreams about snakes eating old people.
In the adjoining dormitory, the girl with the independent hair was having dreams of her own; snogging her archer.
… - …
At one of the endless planning sessions for the World Cup, Amelia invited herself to the meeting. Fudge, Umbridge and Finance Director Basil Debt were there, along with Ludo Bagman. They all seemed to be discussing booth rental fees and collecting the 3% sales tax from the souvenir and concession sales. Given that the campground fees and event ticket money went to the ICW, it sounded to her like they were a pack of dogs discussing table scraps.
She asked, "How many people are expected?"
Ludo explained, "At least 100,000 for the game, though some people just come for the party." He was describing it with the same glee as if they were all coming to buy some of his signed photos.
She asked, "When is the extra security arriving?"
Silence.
Finally Umbridge simpered, "Whatever are you talking about?" She had been completely focused on accepting bribes for the choice vendor locations.
As if explaining to someone who had never even considered the topic, Amelia replied, "According to Ludo, you'll have better than 100,000 people within a two square mile area. Most of those people will be there to watch the game, enjoy camping and have a good time. There will also be robbers, thieves, and other bad guys who are there to steal, take advantage of intoxicated teens, or worse. You're going to have 50,000 intoxicated people; half of whom will be angry because their team lost. That's a risk that can't simply be ignored."
Debit and Fudge quietly conferred for a minute. Previously they'd specifically excluded the recommended 200 ICW security team and pocketed the security allowance between them. Umbridge, seeing the two discuss the problem that they'd created for themselves simpered, "Amelia can take care of it."
Bones had anticipated Umbridge's idiotic suggestion to leave her responsible for an unwinnable situation. She replied, "Out of the question. I will not take care of it. Excluding Azkaban, the entire Auror force is only 60 people over four shifts; meaning that there will be 15 people on duty who already have standing commitments to watch Diagon and Knockturn Alley, Merlin way, Hogsmeade as well as what are likely to be full holding cells."
Fudge replied, "The DMLE is bigger than that."
"Yes, there's the ministry door guards, the lunchroom staff, along with Arthur and Perkins. I suppose you can add Wilkie Twycross. You can tell Malfalda to shut down her muggleborn spying operation and send her eight people to the campgrounds. They can wear their little green ribbons and keep everyone in line. Send the lunchroom crew, Arthur and Perkins out too. That's sixteen people split over six shifts. You're the two who took 60 Auror positions away in the last five years and used the money to fund other positions. The ICW is supposed to send 200 Aurors out for this. Why aren't they coming?"
Umbridge stated, "They simply aren't needed."
Amelia left, saying. "Good. I'll remember your words and quote them in the Daily Prophet. I hope you're right."
After Bones left, Bagman declared, "They're all a bunch of good lads at the games." He added, "I wouldn't worry about it," as if his saying the words made it so.
Debit added, "I'll send the finance team out at the end of each shift to collect the sales tax money." Mentally he was thinking, one for you, one for me, one for the ministry. He had no personal concern if a couple of tents were broken into, or a handful of drunks got into an argument.
He suggested, "Give all of the Aurors free tickets. Half will show up when they're off duty."
To Fudge, it sounded like the issue was settled.
To Ludo, who had been in charge of the 200 complimentary tickets, and had, in fact, already sold most of them to his pals, he gritted his teeth and nodded that he'd take care of it. In reality, he only had 15 tickets left.
Thus the four embezzlers had unwittingly set the conditions in place for the perfect storm.
… - ...
Saturday June 25
It was Saturday the day of the final Hogwarts quidditch match – Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff. Harry and Hermione had gotten up early. This would be Hermione's second hunt. After selecting their spot, they each conjured 50 arrows then quickly dipped them in the venom. His arrows lasted 15 minutes, hers about 10. They moved to their spot and stood nearly back-to-back.
Twang, twing, twang. A large group of beach ball sized spiders walked by. They loosed arrows continuously. When they got down to about ten between them, by previous agreement, Harry knelt down and began conjuring arrows and dipping them in the basilisk venom. As Hermione was still loosing arrows, the pile grew slowly. After ten minutes, he was about fifty ahead, and rejoined her in hitting spiders.
Harry made a third batch of fifty and they continued sending arrows into the spiders. When they were down to five arrows each, she called out, "Three each, then we go."
They sent their last arrows, grabbed their watches and were back in the Chamber in moments. They put their bows away and carefully washed up, Harry opened two bottles of butterbeer and was met with an intense kiss and a long hug. She exclaimed, "What a rush! How many were there?"
"Let's watch."
As they examined his memory, it was evident that they had both taken Walt's mantra – AFF – Accuracy, Farther, Faster to heart.
Harry pointed out, "You've gotten loads faster this year."
She admitted, "It took me a while to realize that a hit anywhere is still a hit. You were great." He was still about twice as fast as she was, In reality, deep down, she still appreciated the precision of a well placed arrow, whereas he relied on the effectiveness of the venom.
When it was all tallied, he was comfortable sending six arrows a minute where she held herself to three. Had the spiders all been together, he'd have tried for five pairs of arrows a minute. In this instance, the spiders had been everywhere, but not in pairs.
They still had a 10% miss rate; neither was particularly skilled in predicting the moving spiders and their sudden stops, turns, or jumps. Given the low velocity of the arrows, it was to be expected. When they were done, Hermione suggested, "Let's conjure some aluminum arrows." Harry thought about his for a moment. He had a broad head design with a thicker aluminum shaft two yellow and one red fletching. (vane)
She commented, "That looks good."
He pointed out, "I tried all aluminum arrows until I realized that the fletchings gouged my bow and the arrows always went to the left."
She observed, "Good point. Why don't you use these all the time? Wouldn't you get more distance?"
He said, "I expect so but dipping the aluminum in the venom is futile. That's why I went with the broad head when I choose to make them. I'm still working on getting the edges to be sharp on the metal arrows."
She said, "I thought you liked the pheasant feathers for the fletchings?"
"I do, but having two color ones makes a lot more sense when we're launching them as fast as we can. Hunting herds of spiders that can do serious harm isn't the same as sending arrows into paper targets tacked onto straw bales."
She admitted, "The black arrows have a good look." She thought about his arrows for a minute while he started a second butterbeer. She asked, "What wood are you using in your wooden arrows?"
"Dunno." He'd never thought about it.
"I'll do a quick bit of research in the library. We'll need a bit of help from Hagrid."
"I'll go with you."
Ten minutes later, they concluded that white or red oak would be twice as heavy as the I dunno wood that Harry had been using. Hagrid found them a branch and they split it so they could carefully examine it.
By the time Ginny had beaten Cedric to the snitch, both Harry and Hermione could reliably conjure red oak arrows.
… - …
Without the aid of chronographs, they could only go by observation. It was their opinion that the heavier arrow flew a bit slower. It was their observation that it penetrated half again as deep as the lighter arrows. Then it was back outside by the beech trees by the lake for discussion and debate.
Hermione pointed out, "If the lighter arrows fly faster, there would be less guesswork of the aim point involved at spider distances of 50 feet or so."
Harry said, "I completely agree with that but we might be aiming at something with tougher skin sometime."
"True. Having basilisk venom arrows is a serious advantage. So far, penetration hasn't mattered. On a different subject, I wonder who the new school head is going to be?"
"Didn't Susan say that her Aunt mentioned that they had a search committee formed?"
Hermione replied, "She did a while back but never mentioned anything since. Hopefully we can talk with her for a while on the train ride back to London."
Harry asked, "What plans do your parents have for you this summer?"
"They mentioned going to Nice or Salem. How about you?"
"I dunno. The Dursleys never took me anywhere."
"Oh Harry. When we get home, I'll ask Mom and Dad if you can come with."
A/Ns
Should anyone be interested, there are several Archery discussion groups on Facebook.
Several people mentioned Story Tropes. Let's be fair, after 25 years and better than 100,000 HP stories, there aren't too many ideas that haven't been tried at least a time or two. Part one of this tale is Hogwarts centric and the Canon storyline is at least referenced a few times. After that, the tale goes its own way
Again, please be aware of the dates and time skips in the next chapters.
Thanks for reading.
… - …