Chapter 10
Hermione gave Harry a quick kiss before slipping from under the invisibility cloak and waiting for Harry to emerge himself. He did a few seconds later and Hermione admired the body she had become very familiar with over the last few months. With the help of puberty and not being sent back to the Dursleys to starve for a month, Harry had managed to fill out some. He was now a little taller than her and broader in the shoulder. He still had the willowy build of the seeker, but his frame was now filled with lean muscles instead of the jutting bones. Hermione deftly thought this was a vast improvement.
She kissed him again and had to hold back from running her hands under his already rumpled shirt. It wasn't being in heat anymore, just regular teenager hormones. "I'll see you later Harry. Love you."
She slipped up the stairs to the girls dorms and opened the door as quietly as she could. Harry and Hermione had spent the night in the Room of Requirement, very much enjoying each others' company as they dealt with the complications of her Kneazle side. Now it was early morning, and she needed a shower and to get changed for their first day of fourth year class. That was why she was sneaking into her dorm room; hopefully, she could avoid waking her dorm mates, and Lavender and Parvati's insane need for gossip.
As soon as she put her foot on the floor inside the room, however, there was a buzzing sound and the two girls that Hermione had hoped to avoid for a few more hours sat up and looked directly at her.
"Good morning you *dirty stop-out." Lavender grinned as she teased Hermione. "What time do you call this? What kind of girl are you? Staying out all night." It was at this point the girl lost her battle with herself and started giggling uncontrollably. Parvati took a different track and climbed out of her bed, grabbing Hermione and pulling her over to Lavender's before sitting Hermione between the two of them. Crookshanks jumped off Hermione's bed and jumped up into Hermione's lap, pinning her into the coming awkward conversation.
"So what were you and Harry doing that has kept you out till six in the morning and left you with that huge smile?" Parvati asked suggestively. They both knew what Hermione had done, or more like they had guessed right.
Hermione wasn't going to give in that easily. "I don't know what you mean, Harry and I went for a walk and then fell asleep in front of the fire in the common room."
Lavender snorted. "You know, if you're going to lie you need to do better than that. I went down looking for you and you weren't in the common room."
Hermione stuttered as she tried to think of something else, but then she sighed. "Damn it. OK fine, I spent the night with Harry. You satisfied?" Hermione's face was pink from blushing.
The two girls devolved into giggling and sandwiched her between them in a hug. After a few minutes Parvati was able to get her giggling under control and was able to ask. "So what's it like?"
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The full first week back was its normal chaotic self. September second had been a Friday, so despite the teachers treating it like a normal day the students were far more relaxed. After the weekend (that was filled with way too many people doing their summer homework than Hermione approved of), the week was full of teachers demanding the return of their homework and going over what they would be learning that year.
In the middle of the week, Neville cornered Harry as he was walking down to lunch. "Hey Harry can I talk with you a sec?"
"Sure, what's up mate?" Harry was curious, Neville didn't look nervous or upset so he assumed that whatever his dorm mate wanted to talk about wasn't anything to worry about.
"I want to grab a book from the library anyway so I'll see you two at lunch," Hermione gave Harry a quick bump with her hip as her hands were too full of books to give him a hug then disappeared down a set of stairs.
"I was wondering if you remember the conversation we had last year?"
"You are going to have to be more specific than that mate. We had a few dozen conversations last year. Which one are you talking about?" And they had talked a lot; despite a rather rough start to the year, after which Neville and his grandmother had explained about their history with LeStrange, Neville had confessed to sometimes blaming Harry for the loss of his parents. Through the year, the two of them had talked more and more, and while Harry knew there were still times that Neville may not want him around, they were friends.
"The idea you had when you were helping me repot the Whomping Willow cutting," Neville explained.
Harry wracked his brain, trying to remember what they had talked about. He had had two or three stays in the hospital wing since then. "Oh I remember. The damned shrub was going nuts trying to kill me and you had an idea for a project. Something about Whomping Willows having a brain?"
"Rudimentary memory, not a brain. And technically it was your idea." Neville grinned at him.
"Nope. Plant thing, that makes it your idea. I was just grumbling about the plant trying to beat me to death." Harry grinned back at Neville. While it was true the plant was trying everything it could to hurt Harry, it was also too small and weak to do more than a few bruises and a split lip. Harry often got worse than that playing Quidditch. "So why are you bringing it up now?"
"I just got permission from Professors McGonagall and sprout. I'm dropping Divination and I'm doing a personal project looking into the Willow. Well, I will be, if I can convince you and Ron to help me a little." He looked so hopeful that there was no way Harry could turn him down.
And who could blame him; from what he heard, Professor Trelawney was absolutely horrible to Neville. Not in the same intentionally cruel way that Snape was, but Harry couldn't imagine what it was like having a teacher constantly telling you and the whole class that you were going to die a horrible gruesome death sometime in the near future. Especially when that prediction had less to do with magical leads to the future and more to do with reading a newspaper article about the fact that the person who tortured Neville's parents had escaped from prison.
The two of them made their way towards the Great Hall for lunch as they talked. "What you mean is to be a test subject." Harry joked. "Of course I'll help. Just give me a heads up when you will need me and I'll do what I can." Harry would be glad to help. After last year, anyway he could help the guy who came with him to rescue Hermione, he would. "So how is the new wand working out for you?" They had had a few wand lessons so far and Neville should have gotten used to his wand by now.
"I love it. Every time I use it, it feels warm and inviting. It's the complete opposite to how my father's old wand felt. I wish I still had Dad's wand because it was Dad's, but I much prefer to use my wand. Everything just seems to be so much easier now. You were in McGonagall's class earlier, I never got a spell in its first class before. I was able to transfigure my worm into a slug half way through the lesson. That would normally take me a week of practice in the common room and it would have felt like I was fighting the whole way to get my magic to work. With this wand it feels more like an energetic puppy eager to learn a new trick." Harry had noticed when Neville completed his transfiguration. The whole class had, along with Professor McGonagall who had awarded Neville ten points for 'drastic improvement in your spell work'. Neville had even gotten the spell before a lot of the other students in the class.
They arrived in the Great Hall and the two boys started to serve themselves from the large cauldrons of chicken and vegetable soup in the middle of the table. Harry had just finished filling a second bowl with soup and adding a fresh buttered bread roll to each bowl when Hermione entered the Hall. After putting the books she was carrying on the bench next to her, she sat down next to Harry. Harry handed her her bowl of soup and asked, "Did you manage to get the book you were looking for?"
Hermione added some salt to her bowl as she answered, "Nope, someone has taken it out already. Probably one of the Ravenclaws, there are a few of them who like to check out the reader books early. I'll have to ask around in class."
"Which class?" Neville asked as he dipped a crusty bit of bread into his soup.
"Arithmancy. One of the older years mentioned the 'encyclopedia numarlica'; apparently the book details old ways of doing the calculation. McLaggen said it was easier to see the patterns if you also did the calculations a few different ways." Hermione explained as she stirred the soup in her bowl, encouraging it to cool faster. The warm soup was welcome. While the day wasn't too cold, it was a stark contrast in the northern castle to the city in the south of the country. A few degrees may not sound much but the sudden change was enough to be uncomfortable.
"So what do you think Defence Against the Dark Arts will be like this year?" Neville asked, before popping a bit of soup-soaked bread in his mouth.
"Well, everyone who has had a class with him seems impressed. Maybe we've gotten lucky and gotten another Professor Lupin rather than a Lockhart." Hermione answered before eating her first bit of soup.
"Anything but another Lockhart. I think I would prefer a Quirrel to another Lockhart." Harry shuddered at the idea of the pompous fraud.
"But Quirrell was a supporter of Voldemort and he tried to kill you!" Hermione sounded incredulous at what Harry was saying.
"And that is still better than having put up with Lockhart and his fame obsession. Give me a fight to the death over helping that git with his fan mail any day."
There was a sudden pain in Harry's right ear and a stern voice to go with it. "Harry James Potter, you will do everything you can to avoid fights to the death. Or God help you, I will make your life hell! Now promise me." Hermione was now gripping his ear, angry with his flippant attitude towards fighting for his life.
"OK OK, it was just a joke! I promise I'll try to avoid fighting for my life." The pressure on his ear disappeared and Harry could see a few of the other Gryffindors were amused by the display of loving abuse, but both Neville and Hermione looked upset. Harry mentally kicked himself, of course joking like that would upset them after what happened last year. Until then, apart from with the troll, neither of his friends had actually been in a fight for their lives. The skirmish from two months ago was still fresh in their heads.
"I'm sorry guys I shouldn't joke like that. If it makes you feel any better, I promise if I can ever avoid someone trying to kill me by helping someone with their fan mail, then I'll do the fan mail. Just don't ask me to enjoy it." Harry tried to mollify his companions.
Despite herself Hermione couldn't keep from laughing at him. Once she stopped, she buried her head in his shoulder before saying "Good, I much prefer a miserable Harry that I can cheer up to a dead Harry."
"Same here mate. But I think I'll leave the cheering up to Hermione."
"Good. And it's not like it will be long until we find out." Harry said, as their first Defence Against the Dark Arts class with the new professor was right after lunch.
The three of them ate their lunch and chatted about things of no real importance with the other Gryffindors who were starting to fill the seats around them. Most people were talking about the Triwizard Tournament, and Hermione got drawn into a discussion with the twins about the dangers of past tournaments as she tried to convince them not to enter. Soon lunch was over, and Harry, Hermione, Neville, and the other Gryffindors in their year made their way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
They all filed into the classroom, and for once everyone arrived a little early, eager to see what the new Defence teacher was like. Harry had heard from people who were raised in the wizarding world that 'Mad-Eye' Moody was a bit of a war legend, having taken down more of Voldemort's followers than any other auror. Apparently almost half of the Death Eaters in Azkaban he was either responsible for catching or was credited with an assist.
He was also apparently extremely paranoid. The dark witches and wizards he had spent his career catching often had allies that had attempted to kill both him and people he cared for, and while Moody was still around, most of the people he cared about were not. Now the man was hyper aware of the potential for the dark arts, to the point he wouldn't even drink or eat anything he had not prepared himself.
The man walked into the classroom from the door to the Defence professor's office, which was a unique feature of the classroom used to teach Defence, and before he said anything to the class he cast a load of spells at the teacher's furniture at the front of the room. None of the spells had any effect at all, but Harry recognised some of the spells from the book that had been assigned to them this year. They were detection spell's, apparently the ex-Auror turned Defence teacher thought it was possible that one of the students would have trapped the desk while he was out of the room. harry wanted to scoff at the idea, but considering the number of Death Eaters the man was said have caught, and the number of children of Death Eaters that were in this school, it was entirely possible that Mad-Eye had deprived a number of them from having contact with close family as they grew up. If that was the case, then maybe a little caution was warranted.
Apparently satisfied that there was no trap waiting for him, the new professor tapped the board with his wand and the words 'Professor Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody' appeared on the board. "Right, that's me, 'Professor Moody', your new instructor." He didn't sound like he cared much about the title 'professor'. "Now Mr. Lupin has left me detailed notes on what he covered with you. From what he writes, you are well instructed on the problems that can be posed by dark creatures. What he didn't touch on much, and what I am here to teach you, is how to deal with a dark wizard who is threatening your life."
"Now there are three tools that everyone should use to keep themselves alive can any of you tell me what you think they might be?" Hermione's hand shot into the air like it always did. "OK, miss?"
"Granger, professor. A strong knowledge of counterspells to undo any magic used on you." Hermione answered.
"Not a bad guess, but wrong. Anyone else?"
"A strong shield charm?" asked Neville.
"Useful, but again no."
"A strong curse to send back at them?" offered Seamus.
"No, but a good offensive spell can be a lifesaver in the right situation."
Harry thought about it; what had helped him when he was fighting Bellatrix? Then, it came to him and he raised his hand. When the professor nodded to him, he asked, "Dodging, sir?"
"YES!" Mad-Eye turned to the board and wrote
1.
2. dodge, duck and cover
3.
He turned back to the class "Dodging is only part of it, but the core of the skill is don't get hit. Almost no spells, and this includes the worst spells, can affect you if they don't hit you. There are a few, such as bombarda that if it hits the ground or a wall near you you can be caught in its effect, but even with these spells it is better to be hit with the after effect than the spell itself. So, moving out of the way, or dodging as Mr. Potter put it, is a big part of it. If you can get something between you and the person trying to maim or kill you, then he can't hit you with a spell. That is cover. You should always be aware of potential cover in your environment. Not just obvious ones like walls or trees, anything that can block spells or line of sight can be useful. Oh, and five points to Gryffindor for Mr. Potter. Right, any other suggestions?"
Hermione raised her hand again. "Running away?"
"YES! Abso-fucking-lutely yes!" Moody turned back to the board and wrote 'retreat' in the number 3 position. The class was both surprised and amused by the professor's language. "Running away, leaving the area, retreating. Whatever you want to call it, for the everyday wix that is what you should look to do before you try to fight. You are, and most of you will remain, civilians. It's not your job to take down dark wizards. Your goal is to survive for long enough to escape, and then to let the professionals do their job. Yes, sometimes it's not possible to escape, you could be trapped. But you should always first be looking to escape. Five points to Gryffindor for Miss Granger."
There were a few more guesses from the class for the first answer, but the professor shot them down before giving up and telling them. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he bellowed at them before turning to write it on the board. Moody underlined it and circled it as he talked. "Constant vigilance is the number one, most important part of this list, and it is the very foundation of personal defence. Without it there is no dodging behind a wall or running to somewhere safe. If you don't know that someone is about to attack you, it doesn't matter if it's a dark lord or a muggle with a beater's bat. it's almost always the shot you don't see coming that gets you. The more observant you are, the harder it is for someone to get the drop on you. And the harder it is for them to get the drop on you, the harder it is for them to attack, maim and probably kill you.
"Yes, kill you! Don't look at me like that!" Mad-Eye rounded on the student who scoffed at his rhetoric. "You think after someone attacks you they are going to leave you alive to go tell your story to me and my old colleagues? Stuff like that only happens in bad writing or in school playgrounds. In reality, once they attack you, you are a witness, a liability that needs eliminating. Yes, it's harsh, but I would rather you all live. I have had to tell families that their loved ones are gone too many times. Better you live with a bit of paranoia than risk that."
The man stood at the front of the class for a few moments silently. Harry couldn't tell for sure, but he thought the man was remembering things from his past rather than pausing for dramatic effect. "Three rules. Constant vigilance, duck and cover, and run. Learn them, know them, live them. I want an essay from each of you, expanding one of these three principles and how you intend to incorporate them into your lives. In the meantime, we are going to go over some useful spells that you can use when things don't go according to plan. Who can give me the incantation and the wand movements for the Disarming Charm?"
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"Mr. Potter, I need to have a word with you, could you stay behind a few minutes please?" Professor McGonagall asked at the end of class. Harry wondered what he had done to attract the attention of his Head of House. It was still the first full week of term, and Harry hadn't had a chance to break any rules yet. He hadn't even had an opportunity to be late with any homework yet.
The rest of the class shuffled out, but he could see Hermione and Neville waiting in the hall for him. He walked up to the professor's desk and asked, "What can I do for you, professor?"
"Mr. Potter, have you thought about what you are going to do with your free period this year?" the strict teacher asked from behind her desk.
"I haven't decided yet," Harry replied. "I know I will be helping Neville with his project, but i'm just helping him run his tests. I'd like to go for another Runes project, but I just haven't decided what I want to create yet. I had an idea for temperature-controlled clothing and bedsheets, but when I looked it up it already existed."
Professor McGonagall frowned slightly. "This is what I was afraid of, Mr. Potter. The headmaster has decided that while you could make something impressive again this year using runes, he feels that you would not truly learn anything. He has decided that you need to do a project using another discipline or he will require you to either join a class like Divination or Muggle Studies, as you won't be able to catch up in Arithmancy even with Miss Granger's help, or you still have the option to study and retake your Latin exam."
"But professor, I'm making great progress with Runes. Ollivander has started selling the rings. Surely it's better for me to continue working on that?"
The professor sighed before answering. "I brought that exact thing up to the headmaster, and he said that 'A student's time in Hogwarts is for learning. If Mr. Potter wants to continue to invent once he leaves that is his business; however while he is here he needs to pursue something that will aid his education, and given his talent with Runes another project will not allow that.' He is apparently set on you doing something else.
Harry stood there for a minute while he processed what the professor had just told him. "Professor, is there nothing I can do about this?"
Professor McGonagall looked at him sadly before saying. "You could try to appeal directly to the headmaster, but I don't think it will do you any good. It appears that his mind is set on this subject. Is there nothing else that interests you Mr. Potter, maybe in my subject? You have been doing much better over the last year. You were barely able to scrape an Exceeds Expectations in your second year, but I was a little disappointed you missed out on an Outstanding at the end of last year. You were only a few marks off."
Harry thought about it a second. "Not unless you think I have what it takes to become an animagus."
He had the pleasure of seeing something he didn't often see on the stern professor's face: a look of surprise. "I'm not sure Mr. Potter, becoming an animagus is not something to be undertaken lightly. If I may ask, why are you considering becoming an animagus? If it's just a whim of the moment, then I will have to refuse."
"It's actually something I was considering last year but felt it was more important to focus on Runes. If I can't do that then I might as well ask."
"Why were you thinking about this last year?"
"Professor Lupin. After we found out about his condition, he told me that my father and his friends learned to be animagus to help him. They intended to register once the war was over but then Godric's Hollow happened and they were all dead or in prison. I thought it would be a good way to get to understand him better. I know it's not easy to become an animagus, but that's part of the point. I want to understand how far Dad would go for a friend."
McGonagall looked resigned and completely unsurprised that his father was an animagus. She sighed again. "I'll consider it if you can cast a full Patronus. I know Professor Lupin taught you last year, and that it was strong enough that together with Miss Granger you were able to drive off a fair number of dementors. It takes a similar level of power and control to cast a Patronus as it takes for the animagus transformation, and a similar level of dedication to learn. If you can do that, then it at least won't be impossible for you to learn."
Harry sighed with relief. He moved back from the woman's desk so that there was room, pulled out his wand, and concentrated on the feelings he got from Hermione. Not just happiness, that was too narrow an idea, and while it was an accurate description of the emotions needed it didn't convey the depth you had to feel to fuel the spell. He layered happiness with hope and love and a thousand little things that added up to a sea of positive emotions and with a quick flurry of his wand he shouted "Expecto Patronum!" The silvery mist burst from his wand like a torrent and formed itself into the stag that was his Patronus.
Hermione burst into the room as well, her wand in hand looking for whatever had caused Harry to need to summon his Patronus. Her own silvery mist flowing from her wand and forming her lioness as she moved. "Where is it? Where's the Dem…" it was then that Hermione realised that Harry was showing their professor his Patronus and not that he wasn't in danger. "I… uh… I'm sorry professor, when I heard… I assumed… I'm sorry." Hermione was blushing as she stammered out her apology.
"It's quite alright, Miss Granger. No harm done, though in the future I hope that you consider that I am quite capable of protecting a student if there is a need." Professor McGonagall was looking at Hermione and as such didn't notice the frown that passed over Harry's face at her words. "However, given that you have passed the same test I have just given Mr. Potter, it is only fair that I offer you the same opportunity. Miss Granger, how would you like the opportunity to learn how to be an animagus with harry?"
Hermione's response was predictably intense. First shock at being offered such an opportunity, then pure joy at the opportunity to learn such magic. "Really? It's supposed to be really complicated, but I would love to try and learn." Hermione tried to keep her excitement down but failed to keep the grin of her face and the energy in her voice.
"Then meet me here Friday at 7:00...no, the two of you are busy on Fridays." The older woman looked at them knowingly. "Best make it Saturday at 5:00. We will talk over the procedure and if you still want to go through with it. It is not an easy undertaking, after all. Now off with the two of you."
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Albus Dumbledore sucked on a lemon drop as he contemplated the Potter problem. He had intended to use whatever the boy came up with for his personal project as an excuse to personally tutor the boy so that he could slowly bring the boy, bit by bit, into his influence. A weekly session training the boy to listen to him and to trust his judgement would have been almost too easy: rewarded with a scrap of knowledge when the boy did as instructed, punished with extra essays and assignments when the boy deviated from his plan. Not all that different from how you train a krup.
But the boy had chosen one of the few possible projects that he couldn't conceivably claim to be the better teacher. Even though he was the one who had guided Minerva in gaining her animagus form, he himself had never bothered with going through the steps needed to gain his own form. There always seemed that there was something more pressing to focus on. And in the decades between, Minerva had taken the transformation from a useful skill to an art form. He doubted there was anyone in the whole of Europe who could transform as effortlessly as his former student.
He would have to come up with another way to bring the boy to heel. The prophecy had been clear on the risks, and he wasn't going to let another Dark Lord come to power on his watch. It was his responsibility as the receiver of the prophecy to protect Britain from the horrors of a third Dark Lord. If he didn't, then who knows what disasters could be visited on the people.
A/N
Dirty stop-out - a person, more likely a woman, who spends the night away from home for a sexual liaison. It can be cruel, but is more commonly used in friendly teasing.
I wanted to give Mad-Eye more of an old soldier feeling. What do you guys think?