AN: A new week, a new chapter. As always, thank you to everyone for your support of this story.

Arctic Wolf Fury - One must always be prepared to nerd harder than anyone has ever nerded before.

Nightwing2013 - Good critique. Perhaps I could have cut it a bit to make it less wordy. I'm definitely trying to have more canon-divergence in this story, and I definitely feel like I've grown a ton as a writer since Friends Effect on Life, so it's nice to see someone agrees! Dimensional Warriors alone I thought was better. I'm certainly still proud of my first story, especially since it started this all off, but I still think I'll go back one day and revise that story and improve it.

I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find the answers to your questions!

Jet22345 - Thanks! Always enjoy your steadfast reviews.

scrappy8 - Thanks! It was definitely a talk they needed to have.

GreengrassRebel - Thanks! Yeah, Harry's support system is top notch. Happy to see people are enjoying my electives and development of the educational system. I thought about extracurriculars, but Harry's too busy as you said. The side mysteries will continue, and yes I fully intend to have Fleur be a friend/competitor for the year so you'll definitely see some rivalry. Cedric is going to represent well, as will Krum. I have no intentions of making the others incompetent. Fleur's just a noted duelist. Granted, technically Cedric is too, and Krum's an unknown other than his flying.

There will definitely be some ups and downs for the tournament. That was half the fun trying t come up with other tasks so that the points could mean more and there could be more variation.

Chapter 30

In many ways, the next few days were some of Harry's worst at Hogwarts, but in others, they were some of the best. It was similar to his second year when most of the school had thought he was the Heir of Slytherin, but back then Ron had been helping him . . . and also back then he'd understood his fellow students' fear and reasoning a bit more, unlike now. Now, however, Ron wasn't supporting him at all, and even seemed to be glaring more than before now that Harry had found greater support in the form of his Quidditch team, including the Weasley twins, who the chasers and Ginny had wrangled in for occasional help and support, not that the two older boys were really all the reluctant to help, both having shown their support and belief in his words.

The school might mostly hate him, but because of his friends, he was shielded from a great deal of outward hate. During meals, Harry sat with Katie, Angelina, Alicia, Ginny, Hermione, and often Fleur, Fred, and George, who all believed him . . . though Hermione still didn't like Fleur. Any attempts to actively bully him were faced with glares, retorts, and threats from his "new elder sisters" as well as Katie, Hermione, and Ginny, and even Fleur, and many of those who tried generally found themselves the recipients of pranks that bore the calling card of the Twins.

In classes, he and Hermione dug into their studies, ignoring most everyone else, and outside of classes and meals, he and various combinations of the girls and occasionally the twins were generally found in the library or in an empty classroom actively assisting each other with their homework or working to understand the advanced magic that Harry had been recommended to learn.

Still, Harry wasn't completely free from the harsh looks, the muttered curses and insults, the cold and indifferent glances, and the jeers, and his friends were in no way capable of preventing Malfoy's best efforts to tear Harry down.

Unfortunately, it occurred after a run-in with Ron, who threw the fact that Harry now had a group of "fangirls" as proof that Harry was enjoying his position in the tournament. If it weren't for the fact this was in the Entrance Hall, and far too public a place, Harry was sure his group of "fangirls" would have cursed Ron six ways to Sunday, but instead, Ron, Dean, and Seamus managed to walk towards the Great Hall, leaving a fuming Harry and his equally angry friends behind in the far side of the Entrance Hall, perfectly positioned to see a great many Slytherins come in wearing badges.

"Hey, Potter!" Malfoy called out gleefully. "Check these out!"

Harry glanced at the badges, which he saw all bore the same message, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly:

SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY- THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!

"Like them, Potter?" said Malfoy loudly, which of course drew a crowd, including Ron, Seamus, and Dean who had stopped at the entrance to the Great Hall and moved back to see what was going on. "And this isn't all they do - look!"

He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glowed green:

POTTER STINKS!

The Slytherins howled with laughter. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message POTTER STINKS was shining brightly all around Harry. He felt the heat rise in his face and neck. It didn't help that when he glanced around briefly, he saw there were plenty of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws also wearing the badges.

"Oh very funny," Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, "really witty. "

"For them that is" Katie said with a roll of her eyes.

"Want one, Granger?" said Malfoy, holding out a badge to Hermione. "I've got loads. Definitely enough for all of Potter's whores, but don't touch my hand, now. I've just washed it, you see; don't want a Mudblood sliming it up."

Some of the anger Harry had been feeling for days and days seemed to burst through a dam in his chest at the insult to his friends. Faster than anyone in the room could follow, he had his wand in his hand, and people all around them backed away, including people behind Malfoy.

"Harry!" Hermione said warningly.

"He's not worth it!" Alicia hissed.

"Go on, then, Potter," Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. "Moody's not here to look after you now - do it, if you've got the guts - We all know Witcher threw the match this summer. You're certainly no dueling champion."

Harry glared.

"Alicia's right," Harry spat with a scowl. "You're not worth it. You're just a bug. An annoying little fly that isn't quite annoying enough to squash, but only because you're barely even noticeable."

Malfoy gained an ugly look at that and immediately his wand flashed.

"Densaugeo!" Malfoy screamed.

"Protego," Harry said, with an almost bored voice, and Malfoy's spell was reflected back in his direction, striking a glaring Gregory Goyle, whose teeth started growing at an alarming rate.

"Stupefy," Harry said quickly, and with a flash of red and little time to do more than for his eyes to widen in surprise, Malfoy dropped like a sack of potatoes unconscious in the middle of the Entrance Hall.

A couple other Slytherins drew their wands, but soon found themselves facing Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Hermione's wands next to Harry, Ginny's from a short distance away where she'd come in with some of her yearmates, and a now growling Astra, who had grown to her full size.

To Harry's shock, several more Slytherins drew their wands, making it so that Harry's friends were outnumbered, but to his mixture of pride, concern, relief, and overall gratitude, not one of his friends even blinked and only scowled harder, their grips tightening a bit as they prepared for an actual skirmish. It really showed him their willingness to stand with him no matter what. He didn't need the help, but he appreciated it more than words could describe.

"Tene umbra," Harry whispered, and his shadow shot out from his body, and rapidly made it to the now wide-eyed and slightly panicking Slytherins, who reacted poorly to Harry's spell which answered his desire and intent, locking every Slytherin that had been near Malfoy in place, by holding their shadows. "They're no longer a threat," Harry told his friends. It was so easy now, with his growing power due to age, practice, skill, his bond to Astra and her own growing strength feeding his, his ring, and his patronage to Hades. "They can't move unless I move or unless one of them can counter my spell, and I doubt they can."

"Brilliant, Harry," Angelina said proudly, putting away her wand which was copied by the rest of the girls.

"Gods, I wish I could do that," Alicia said wistfully.

"I knoooww," Katie moaned, "and that's one of the first things he learned. He can do soo much more."

Harry laughed. "I guess I'll just have to teach you how to do it one of these days."

"Teach me that, and I'm yours," Katie said with a wink, and Harry blushed, causing her to smirk in triumph at getting him flustered once again.

"What is going on here?!" McGonagall's angry voice broke through the silence that had permeated the Entrance Hall as a large portion of the school had watched Harry effectively neutralize nearly twenty Slytherins with one spell. She broke through the crowd and took in Malfoy, still unconscious on the ground, Goyle with his teeth still growing, and Harry's shadow firmly attached to the large group of Slytherins behind Malfoy, all of whom had their wands drawn and pointed mostly towards Harry and his friends. "Mr. Potter! Explain yourself!"

"I took offense to Malfoy calling my friends some vile slurs and drew my wand, which Malfoy matched. I was going to put my wand away, after Alicia and Hermione rightly warned me, but Malfoy didn't like my finishing barb and tried to hex me, so I deflected his spell, which hit Goyle there, and then I stunned Malfoy," Harry said, looking his Head of House in the eyes, and noting her surprise at his lack of nervousness. "The Slytherins you see trapped by my shadow drew their wands on me and my friends, so I stopped them from casting any spells. You can examine my wand to verify the events, though I'm sure everyone else in the room will agree with me."

McGonagall's nostrils flared, and glanced around the room and noted many nodding hesitantly or firmly, but all glancing at Harry with varying looks of awe, fear, or intrigue. Harry had certainly done many impressive things both in Hogwarts and outside, but this was the first time he'd really shown something like this to a large group of students, and Harry didn't realize it, but it had opened many people's eyes to just what Harry Potter might be capable of.

"Very well, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said. "Release your spell and I will examine your wand."

Harry did so, and noted that instead of immediately coming over to verify his spells, she first went to Goyle and stopped and countered Malfoy's reflected spell, putting Goyle back to normal, which meant the boy was once again throwing a hate filled look Harry's way. He, like all of the other affected Slytherins, hadn't forgiven Harry for embarrassing and capturing their relatives this past summer.

McGonagall then revived Malfoy who immediately got up and looked about ready to start casting spells again when he saw who had revived him and scowled.

"Your wand, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall demanded, and Malfoy grudgingly gave it up. "Priori encantanto!"

Harry watched as Goyle's face, with his teeth growing at an alarming rate, came out of Malfoy's wand before McGonagall swiped it away. She then marched over to Harry, and took his offered wand and did the same, noting the elemental spell, the stunner, and then the shield charm.

"Mr. Potter, five points will be given for an excellent use of the shield charm in defense, and five points will be given for preventing any further dueling, but thirty points will be taken for verbally escalating a situation and for casting an offensive spell when it was clear there was no need to do so to prevent harm to yourself or others," McGonagall said, and Harry grimaced, but nodded, seeing her point.

She turned to Malfoy and the Slytherins. "Mr. Malfoy, for verbally instigating a fight, and then starting a fight by casting an offensive spell, fifty points will be taken from Slytherin and you will spend a week in detention with Mr. Filch. In addition, five points will be taken from everyone else that drew their wand, with intent for offense or defense in this altercation. Now, everyone be gone!"

"Professor, wait!" Angelina said, and McGonagall turned to her. "What about the badges that a lot of people are wearing? They insult Harry."

McGonagall's eyes narrowed, looking closely at the badge on Malfoy's chest, and her lips thinned seeing the first message, before she used her wand to activate the badge and read the second message, and Malfoy shuffled under her glare. Then she glanced around the room, and by then it was too late for everyone wearing a badge to quickly remove it without her noticing.

"This childish and pointed bullying is not something we tolerate at Hogwarts," McGonagall said, sounding angry. "Twenty points will be taken from everyone wearing a badge and if I see those badges again, you will face a month's set of detentions and possible suspension."

Harry saw the a mixture of shocked, angry, and guilty looks around the room, but he hadn't noticed several other staff members who had joined the crowd, Professors Sprout, Chester, Hawkworth, Flitwick, Sinestra, and Vectorall of whom had severe frowns on their faces.

"All of my Badgers wearing the badge will remain out here so we can discuss House values and how they have dishonored our House and our Champion," Sprout said in a far firmer voice than Harry had ever heard from her. "All prefects as well."

"All of my Ravenclaw Prefects will meet me in my office after dinner for a similar discussion," Flitwick said sternly.

"Everyone else will proceed into the Great Hall for the evening meal," McGonagall said, brooking no argument.

Not wanting to test the angry and stern witch anymore, everyone not from Hufflepuff that had been wearing a badge quickly made their way into the Great Hall and to the tables. It was a quiet fifteen minutes before the rest of the Hufflepuff's made it into the Hall, some looking close to tears and downtrodden, some looking ashamed, though there were still a few who threw angry, bitter glances towards Harry and Angelina in particular.

Harry noticed that Cedric was looking particularly stiff, his face a mixture of guilt and ashamed, a look that was reflected on most of the Hufflepuff prefects faces, except for one that was crying, which Harry would learn was because he had been wearing the Support Cedric badge and had lost his prefect badge because of it.

Dinner was a quiet affair that night, and it wasn't until after dinner that everyone managed to see just how many people had been wearing the badges. The Slytherins had lost nearly three quarters of their points, bringing them so low it was ludicrous to think they had any shot of participating in the House Cup this year. The Hufflepuffs too had lost nearly forty percent of their points and the Ravenclaws had lost almebarring no major punishments in Gryffindor, that the Gryffindors would win the House Cup, though it was noted that the Gryffindors too had lost a hundred points, something which drew a thunderous expression from most of his Housemates.

By the next morning, it wasn't just a Hufflepuff prefect who had lost their badge but also a Ravenclaw one. Needless to say, the message had been clearly sent throughout the school. Public bullying would not be tolerated. It wasn't going to stop the name calling in the halls, where the Professors weren't but it did significantly reduce people's open hostility, and the Ravenclaws were reeling in those that had been the most openly hostile, bringing their house closer to indifference for the most part, which Harry was quite happy with, since that was frankly where he had expected them to be for the most part.

**HP**

"Bloody hell, this is hard," Harry said in frustration, and he heard partial mutters of agreement mixed with amusement echo around the room.

"There's a reason they don't start nonverbal casting until sixth year, Harry," Angelina said with a sigh. "It is difficult, but I think you're capable of it. Besides, think of how much of an advantage will come from you being able to use any of your spells nonverbally!"

"I know, I know," Harry said, glancing back at Katie who he had been working with as his primary helper while the others attempted to study what she and he had researched together. She certainly made studying interesting, what with her occasional comments designed to get people laughing or flustered, depending on the comment.

"Let's try the spell again verbally," Katie said. "We still really haven't mastered it, and if we can get a feel of it better verbally, then hopefully we have a better shot nonverbally."

Harry nodded, and turned his attention back to the row of targets that McGonagall had kindly conjured and reinforced for them. The targets had held up so far, but Harry noticed the room was starting to show signs of disarray from the magic they had been using. It was going to take them a bit to clean up, even with magic. He really wished they could find a better place to practice.

Harry focused on the target, thinking about the intent of the spell, and the outcome he expected, and he thought about what nonverbal magic took, concentration and mental discipline.

"Confringo!" Harry yelled, and the fiery-orange spell flew from his wand, striking the left target and to his shock, the target was ripped apart in the explosion, and he and his four friends quickly turned away shielding themselves as they were peppered with debris from the destroyed target.

"Sweet Merlin," Ginny said, looking at the wreckage and then looking at him with awe.

"I already knew not to piss Harry off, but now I really know not to piss Harry off," Katie muttered, also looking at Harry with awe.

"Not like he'd hurt any of us even if we became complete bitches," Angelina said with a roll of her eyes, and Katie giggled in agreement.

"Language," Hermione muttered, almost like she couldn't help herself.

"I'd say he's got that spell down," Alicia said dryly, glancing around. "I think we need to consider moving this outside, or finding a new place if we're going to use such potentially destructive curses. Or at least, one of us needs to be ready to put up a shield after the spell has been cast."

There were a bunch of nods around the room.

"I knew what we were having you learn," Hermione said in a small voice, "but at the same time, I'm shocked that your guardians and mentor want you to learn spells like these. That is a lethal spell."

"That's defensive and offensive magic," Katie said simply.

"Now that we've seen the powerhouse that is Harry Potter, perhaps he can shield while we all give it a go. After that rousing display, I think I have a better idea of the intent and outcome I need to visualize," Alicia said, and the rest of them nodded, even if Hermione's smile was a bit small and nervous.

Harry, of course, had no issues doing this. Sure the focus was overall on him, but he still wanted all of his friends to learn what they could while working with him. They had agreed ahead of time, and at his insistence to at least give everyone a shot of learning whatever it is they were working on, even if he learned it before they did and was, in theory, ready to move on. Of course, they were still insistent that they wouldn't spend too much time past when he had learned something.

It's not like it was an issue, in Harry's opinion. Alicia and Angelina were both sixth years, and further along in their magical education. Sure, Harry's list of topics and spells were all quite advanced, but the two girls had already had more practice working with advanced and complicated magic. It didn't hurt that both were quite talented and powerful witches.

In fact, all of his companions were talented, from what he'd seen and observed. Sure, Hermione, he had always known, was skilled, strong, and scarily brilliant. However, she was actually the weakest of the group, magically, but quite likely the smartest, and even being the weakest, she was a fairly strong witch. With his Sensing training over the years, he was able to sense magic around him, which expanded to him being able to feel and evaluate magical strengths and potentials in those around him.

As a whole, there were very few people at Hogwarts that were well below the strength of what was considered average in Wizarding Britain (Harry had done some research on this on Mad-Eye's orders). In fact, Hogwarts didn't really admit witches and wizards below a certain power potential rating, which was recorded at the Ministry upon the birth of any magical child, muggleborns included. People who fell below the rating were unlikely to be able to actually learn or manage many of the spells from OWL level and on. It was one of the reasons there were plenty of jobs that only required OWLs. That was for the people who were homeschooled for various reasons, to include power rating, and for dropouts, also for various reasons including power rating.

As power went, Hermione was slightly above average. It wasn't a huge deal. Power ratings really only came into factor if someone was below an acceptable level to learn more powerful or demanding magic, or if witches and wizards were advanced enough to figure out how to overpower or underpower spells compared to the standard use of a spell. With Hermione's frankly prodigious learning abilities and memory, and her slightly above average power level, she was not someone who anyone should think about crossing by the time she was a fully qualified witch.

Angelina, surprisingly, and tied with Alicia, were the next lowest levels. Angelina was a strong leader and had a dominant personality, but powerwise, she was only a bit above Hermione. However, she was a tremendous athlete, had a keen and strong mind, and was quite skilled with her wand. Alicia, kind, friendly, and caring, was likely to make a fantastic healer and indeed would not struggle to cast any spell she might face. Add in her also stellar athletic ability, and her more refined finesse with magic, and it meant she tended to pick up charms and transfiguration quicker than the rest of them.

That left Harry's two remaining companions. Katie and Ginny. Both, as he'd just been described, powerhouses as witches. It was no wonder that all of Ginny's brothers feared her wand and her hexes. When she was pissed off, and likely accidentally overcharging her spells, they probably did a lot of damage. Honestly, Harry had been forced to evaluate his own magical potential and he had realized that he had the potential to be stronger than everybody in the school, except Dumbledore, though strength certainly didn't mean much in a duel against someone like Dumbledore, but his potential was only about ten percent below what the Headmaster's was. Boy had that been a shock for him to admit. Still, Katie and Ginny were both in that top one percent.

Of people he'd observed recently, only Dumbledore, himself, Malfoy, Neville, Marina Witcher, Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, and a small group of others he didn't know were fairly close or stronger than them. There were two older Ravenclaws, two younger Ravenclaws, one older Hufflepuff and three younger Hufflefpuffs, and four Slytherins, three younger, one older that all were barely weaker, tied, or stronger than the two girls.

It didn't hurt that, in the few days since they'd started studying and training together, he'd noticed that both girls were intelligent, hard workers, and had a thirst to learn.

Regardless, all of his companions were either intelligent or advanced enough that they were doing a solid job of staying with him when it came to studying their material. Since they'd started, they'd taken a bit more realistic approach from their initial plans.

Occlumency and Sensing were still both taking a group block from all of them each morning, and they all practiced it individually at nights before bed. Even the Twins had for Mind Arts lessons, though he figured it was being able to better lie to teachers and better feel out where people might be which was what drew their interest. Ginny was a good teacher when it came to the defense of the mind, and the initial work involved them working on controlling their emotions, sorting through their memories, and organizing their mind. While they were doing that, Ginny was working to learn the basics of Legilimency so that she could use it to help them improve. Harry was very close to mastering Sensing, so he had no issues leading the girls and the Twins through the same meditative exercises he'd gone through. He had warned them it would be a while before they saw results, but all seven were determined to succeed, so he had no doubt they would.

In contrast, getting ahead in Runes and Arithmancy had been nixed, since they all could agree that, if he needed the two subjects, he would have time and their help to research and learn. Otherwise, should he run into Runes during the competition, he was just going to have to hope it was something he knew, or something he could overpower or avoid.

Once they'd decided on that, they had then come up with a valid schedule. Some things they worked on everyday. Each morning and before bed each night, they worked on Sensing and Occlumency. Everyday, they also worked on nonverbal magic. Some of that was done while working on whatever new spells they were learning, but other times it was as simple as trying to do first year spells nonverbally. Unsurprisingly, Alicia and Angelina were the only two able to competently do it, though both girls still struggled, even with having to do it in their normal classes each day.

Mondays, when homework and revision was done, they spent dedicated time to advanced charms and tracking magic. Tuesdays, they focused on potions, with Alicia forcing Harry to learn fifth year Potions, to hopefully prepare him in case he ran into any potions during the tournament. Also, Tuesday nights, he would go to the Shrieking Shack and work on his elemental magic with Astra, though now that they knew he did so, all five of the girls had expressed interest in coming to his practices just to watch, and if needed, offer assistance in any way possible, though they hadn't come to a practice yet.

Wednesdays, which it was, was their defensive and offensive magic day. After spending time working on the spells that he'd researched with Katie's assistance and worked on in class, they planned to have dueling practice, to help keep his skills sharp, and to help possibly even improve his and the five girls' skills.

Thursdays were Herbology and elemental magic, done in much the same way as Tuesdays, and Fridays were Transfiguration and concealment charms. The weekends varied at times, depending on what everyone was doing socially, what people had for school, or other personal things, but Saturdays were focused on magical creatures and again, elemental training, while Sundays focused on healing magic and general survival magic.

It certainly helped them all that with three, really four when you counted Hermoine, of them further in most classes than Harry, they really only had to revise specific topics for things like Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, and Potions to help tutor Harry rather than them all doing research to learn brand new things like they were doing for all of the rest of their goals.

Harry focused back on his five friends, as they prepared to try and cast the blasting curse.

"Confringo!" Alicia started off, doing just as Harry and Katie had explained, and Harry watched the fiery-orange spell leave her wand, impact another of the targets, and destroy it, just like Harry had done.

This time though, Harry was ready.

"Protego!" Harry said, casting a shield, which, from where he was standing, shielded them all from the debris.

"Much better!" Alicia said, looking overjoyed to have done the spell correctly and to the results they'd originally expected.

"My turn!" Angelina said eagerly, and Harry continued to cast the shield charm as the rest of his friends cast the blasting curse.

Angelina, Katie, and Alicia had clearly all mastered it, like Harry had. Hermione's spell was clearly almost there, but not as destructive, though he suspected that had more to do with her nerves and intent, and less on her ability. Ginny's ended up being similar to Hermione's, which was an improvement for her, but still not up to being a perfectly executed blasting curse. Though, considering she was a third year, and her first year had been a near wash, it was quite impressive to see her getting any results, especially as good as results as she had. Still, Harry, Katie, Angelina, and Alicia had destroyed four of the five targets, to a degree that wasn't fixable, and the one remaining target, having taken both Hermione and Ginny's spells, looked worse for wear. He suspected this part of the night was over.

"We'll have to do a bit more looking around to find a better place, and we might need to learn how to conjure targets and reinforce them ourselves," Angelina said, looking a bit excited. "That'll be a bit of a drag, but if we're getting these results, I'd say it's worth it!"

"I agree," Katie said with a nod. "Still, I think we should move on to dueling. I'm not sure that last target can take anymore."

"Okay," Alicia said with a frown. "How are we going to do this? Obviously Harry needs the most practice, but he's also the best duelist here. Should we each individually try to duel him, to give him a workout?"

"Harry, any suggestions?" Hermione asked. "I know Tonks, Professor Moody, Professor Lupin, and Sirius have put you through a bunch of drills and tasks to help train you. Can we do those here?"

Harry grimaced.

"We could do those, though most of them wouldn't be great in this room, and some of them require targets, which we don't really have. Honestly, it's our first night. Maybe we just see where everybody's skill lies, and then we can see who matches up the best and where we could all improve the most."

"That makes sense," Ginny said, though she glanced at Harry with a frown. "The thing is, can any of us last against you in a duel?"

Angelina, Alicia, and Katie exchanged glances.

"I don't know," Katie said. "You basically toyed with me this summer, and I'm sure you've only gotten better. I want to believe that I would stack up against Diggory, but Moody said you wouldn't have to worry about Diggory."

"To be fair, we don't have to win," Angelina pointed out. "We just need to give him a challenge. I'm sure we can do that, right? I don't think you can completely wipe the floor with me or Diggory, and we know he's comparable to me."

Harry shrugged. He didn't know. He knew he was starting to prove to be a challenge to Sirius, Mad-Eye, and Dora who were all exemplary duelists, but he certainly had no hope of beating them yet. He also knew that he didn't pose much of a challenge to them early on, but with the spell restrictions that they'd have, he didn't see why they wouldn't be able to compete, especially his three chaser friends, whose reflexes were nearly as good as his. All three had certainly done very well in the Dueling Circuit, and while he agreed he was better, he didn't think he was that much better, not if he didn't utilize his elemental magic.

"How about I go first then?" Angelina said, giving him a predatory grin. "Let's see just how good you really are, Harry."

Harry smirked at her in response, feeling his competitive side come into play, and knowing his "sister" was trying to intimidate him, and they moved to opposite sides of the room, while the rest of the group scrambled to the sides and out of the way of spell fire.

"How do you want to do this?" Harry asked. "From the draw or Under 18 and 16 brackets dueling circuit rules?"

Angelina paused, looking thoughtful.

"From the draw!" she called out, and Harry grinned, putting his wand into his pocket rather than his holster to make it fair and then getting into a ready stance, his hands down. Angelina's eyes narrowed, but he saw her shift a bit nervously, now that she seemed to realize Harry was properly trained for this sort of situation.

"Ready, sis?" he called out knowing what it would do to her, and her eyes widened before they narrowed, and she smiled wide, nodding at him.

"Duelists . . ." Alicia called out with a grin. "3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . GO!"

Quicker than almost all the girls could follow, Harry's wand was in his hand and he had it pointed at Angelina, who had also drawn her wand fairly fast, but not nearly as quick.

"Gelata digitos! Expelliarmus! Petrificus totalus!"

Angelina's reflexes slightly saved her as she managed to dodge the first spell, but Harry's three spells had pretty much boxed her in on the sides, so her moving left to avoid the jellyfingers jinx meant she was hit by Harry's disarming charm and was thrown back as her wand went flying towards Harry, and he caught it.

"Bloody hell," Ginny muttered, and Harry glanced to see his friends staring at him in disbelief, while Angelina got up slowly, rubbing her back slightly.

"Dammit, Harry," Angelina said, her eyes wide. "I knew you'd be good, but holy shit, you got off three spells before I got even one! I think you're a lot faster than you were this last summer!"

Harry blushed.

"The Dueling Circuit was early in the summer. I still had all summer with Mad-Eye working me hard to continue improving, and to help me learn some of the things we saw at the Circuit."

"Bloody hell," Katie said. "Now I know why Moody said nobody can take you in a duel. I doubt anyone in this school can even get close, and that would be if you were going easy and using at most lower level spells like you just did. You could eviscerate people if you used your most powerful spells."

Harry blushed again, and looked down a bit uncomfortable with the praise. He felt someone pull his face up by his chin, and he saw Alicia standing there giving him a soft smile.

"Harry, we're impressed. We can't help that, and don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're not a braggart going around proving you can smite us all, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be proud of what you can do, because we're certainly not going to stop being proud of you or praising you when you deserve it."

Harry smiled at her and nodded, and she grinned and ruffled his hair fondly, and he shook her off with a playful swat of his hand and she laughed, and he turned back to the rest of his friends.

"Alright, so obviously, we need to work with Harry to get better so that we can last more than five seconds against him," Katie said, grinning at his eye roll, and she smirked. "Not that spending extra time with him will be hard," she continued, eyeing him up and down, and he blushed, and she grinned triumphantly once again. "I mean, after multiple losses, we might be able to possibly get a feel and last enough to counter with a few spells, but I still doubt any of us can make it more than fifteen or twenty seconds against Harry. He wasn't using his holster either, which means his draw is going to be even faster"

"What about multiple duelists?" Ginny said, and they all glanced at her and she blushed. "Well, what if he faces two or three of us? Then we can try and cover for each other and still cast at him. We might be able to survive longer and give him more of a challenge if we do that."

Harry tilted his head and thought it through. "It's worth a shot, but we might have to wait until we find either a bigger place or go outside so that we can put distance between us all."

"Even if it takes all five of us, I'm sure we can try and give you a challenge," Angelina said with determination. "Let's figure this out."

**HP**

Dora narrowed her eyes at Rita Skeeter, from where the menace of a woman was sitting with her photographer, and talking to Ludo Bagman on the other side of her. Dora was currently in a small classroom, with most of the desks pushed to the back of the room. Three desks had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered in a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the desks.

In the Room were Skeeter and her photographer, Ludo Bagman, Viktor Krum, standing moodily in a corner, skulking and not talking to anybody. Cedric Diggory and Fleur Delacour were talking, standing in the middle of the room.

Dora smiled as Harry finally walked in, and Bagman got up quickly and bounded forward.

"Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come. . . nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment -"

"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.

"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman. "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photo shoot. This is Rita Skeeter," he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. "She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet. . . . "

"Maybe not that small, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry. "I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. "The youngest champion, you know . . . to add a bit of color?"

"Anything written about Harry better be factual, and he'll do no closed door interviews with you," Dora said firmly, moving forward, and Harry looked at her and smiled, while Rita glanced at her and scowled, before she put on a fake smile. "If you want to talk to him, it will be with either me or Sirius Black present.

"Such a harsh tone," Rita said with an evil glint in her eye. "He's a champion, dear. It might be time for you to loosen the strings . . . unless there's some ulterior designs on your guardianship with Mr. Potter. I mean, the public has a right to know about him being in this public event, and at such a young age! Are you proud of him? Happy that he managed to enter a tournament when he wasn't of age to do so?"

Dora glared.

"I believe the Ministry has documented that Harry made a magical vow proving he didn't enter the tournament of his direct or indirect volition, so no I'm not happy that he's being forced to compete, and if you print anything other than that, my recording spell is going to have a field day tearing Barnaby Cuffe a new one before we bring litigations against you and him."

Rita glanced down at Dora's wand, and Dora smirked when the vile witch realized that her wand was indeed glowing, giving off the telltale sign of a recording spell being used.

"Now, now, Miss Tonks," Bagman said with a hint of nervousness. "This is all in good fun. There's no need to start any hostilities."

"Based on what the Prophet wrote about Harry this summer, I disagree," Dora said firmly. "It seems to me the paper has an unhealthy position on trying to ruin a fourteen year old's reputation by printing libel and slander. Being that he's underage, I won't have him being interviewed on his own, and I expect the Ministry representatives to help look out for Harry's well being. This was part of the reason Champions were supposed to be of age."

Bagman winced. Any further conversation was halted as the classroom door opened once more and Dumbledore walked in with Karkaroff, Maxime, Crouch, and Mr. Ollivander.

"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" said Dumbledore, taking his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."

Dora gave Harry an encouraging nod, and he moved to take a seat along with his fellow champions. Dora moved off to the side and out of the way. She was glad that Sirius had fought to make sure one of them would be around for this ceremony. She could only imagine what Skeeter would have written about Harry if she'd gotten to him.

"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.

Dora took a good look at the girl who Harry said was becoming a decent friend. She was absolutely gorgeous, that was for sure. She seemed relaxed and confident, though she could see why Harry would say the girl could be a bit haughty, and was probably a little high maintenance. A beauty like her probably had to be a bit standoffish or every boy in the castle would be trying to get into her knickers.

Delacour swept over to Mr. Ollivander and handed him her wand.

"Hmm. . . " he said.

He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it close to his eyes and examined it carefully.

"Yes," he said quietly, "nine and a half inches . . . inflexible . . . rosewood . . . and containing . . . dear me . . . "

"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela," said Fleur. "One of my grandmuzzer's."

Interesting. A part Veela. Dora had to wonder if she had the same innate control of fire as pure Veelas, and whether she was able to use the Allure as much as a pure Veela.

"Yes," said Mr. Ollivander, "yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands . . . however, to each his own, and if this suits you . . . "

Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.

"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr. Diggory, you next. "

Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at both Harry and Diggory as she passed them. Dora almost wanted to smirk. Maybe Sirius had been right to get him the language rituals. If it had helped him get friendly with a girl like Fleur. She had to wonder if he'd even thought about actually going on a date, and if there was anyone he fancied. She knew the Ravenclaw Seeker from the year before had caught his eye, but she also knew after he'd finally found the courage to talk to her about relationships a bit, and crushes, he'd decided to observe Cho a bit more before deciding on whether his crush was purely physical or whether there was any shot for anything more. He'd never told her what he'd decided, but he hadn't mentioned her since either. She also knew he'd noticed Katie, and that was certainly a girl that Harry had much more in common with. Dora also was quite fond of Katie herself, and figured she and Harry were a pretty good match. Ginny probably had a shot, and she was another one that Dora though would be good for Harry. She was sure her brother had noticed Fleur, but had he thought about asking her out?

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Cedric handed over his wand. "Yes, I remember it well. Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn . . . must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail. Twelve and a quarter inches . . . ash . . . pleasantly springy. It's in fine condition . . . You treat it regularly?"

"Polished it last night," said Cedric, grinning.

Christ, where was Sirius when she needed him. They could have been laughing, making stupid wand polishing jokes in the back corner together. Now she just had to hide her chuckle lest she attract the notice of a sixth year boy. Gross.

She wanted to smirk again as she saw Harry looking at his wand and grimace, before wiping it surreptitiously in his robes, causing gold sparks to shoot out the end. Fleur shook her head at him, though Dora could see the playful smirk as she whispered something which caused Harry to go beet red, and Dora grinned, always happy to see anyone capable of discombobulating her little brother.

Mr. Ollivander sent a stream of silver smoke rings across the room from the tip of Cedric's wand, pronounced himself satisfied, and then said, "Mr. Krum, if you please."

Krum got up and slouched, round-shouldered and duck-footed, toward Mr. Ollivander. He thrust out his wand and stood scowling, with his hands in the pockets of his robes. Dora couldn't say that she was all that impressed by the world famous seeker. Seemed like a bit of a jerk, all things considered.

"Hmm," said Mr. Ollivander, "this is a Gregorovitch creation, unless I'm much mistaken? A fine wand-maker, though the styling is never quite what I . . . however . . . "

He lifted the wand and examined it minutely, turning it over and over before his eyes.

"Yes . . . hornbeam and dragon heartstring?" he shot at Krum, who nodded. "Rather thicker than one usually sees . . . quite rigid . . . ten and a quarter inches . . . Avis!"

The hornbeam wand let off a loud blast, and a number of small, twittering birds flew out of the end and through the open window into the watery sunlight.

"Good," said Mr. Ollivander, handing Krum back his wand. "Which leaves . . . Mr. Potter."

Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand. Dora wasn't worried. While Harry wasn't polishing his wand nightly (she still couldn't stop sniggering at that . . . she was not immature), she knew his wand worked just fine.

"Aaaah, yes," said Mr. Ohlivander, his pale eyes suddenly gleaming. "Yes, yes, yes. How well I remember."

Remember what? Maybe she ought to ask Harry about getting his wand if it was something that memorable, unless Ollivander would spill the story now?

He didn't, though he did spend much longer examining Harry's wand than anyone else's. Eventually, however, he made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed it back to Harry, announcing that it was still in perfect condition.

"Thank you all," said Dumbledore, standing up at the judges' table. "You may go back to your lessons now - or perhaps it would be quicker just to go down to dinner, as they are about to end -"

"Photos, Dumbledore, photos!" cried Bagman excitedly. "All the judges and champions, what do you think, Rita?"

"Er - yes, let's do those first," said Rita Skeeter, whose eyes were upon Harry again. "And then perhaps some individual shots. "

Dora watched the photographs commence, which took longer than they should have, mostly due to Maxime being too large, the photographer wanting to focus on Fleur, and Rita trying, but failing upon Dora's complaints and Harry's own reluctance, to bring Harry into more and more importance in the shot.

Finally they were released, and Harry finally came over and she hugged him.

"Wotcher little brother," Dora greeted. "How's everything coming?"

"Everything's about the same," Harry said with a shrug. "The girls are great and are helping me to make sure I'll stay alive. Astra has stopped jumping out of certain people's shadows or approaching them, deliberately showing who she doesn't care to be friendly with anymore, which seems to be actually making people feel bad, so I love that little menace. She's also really helping me with my elemental magic a couple nights a week. Otherwise, not much has changed."

Harry's eyes brightened though, and he turned and then immediately dragged her over to where the French champion was just finishing a conversation with her headmistress.

"Fleur!" Harry called out, and the French beauty turned his way and gave a friendly smile, glancing at Dora with a curious look.

'So she doesn't seem to be romantically interested,' Dora thought. Then again, there is a three year age difference. Other than a snogging partner for the rest of the year, it probably was not worth attempting a long-distance, international relationship, even if she had been interested.

"Fleur, this is my sister, Nymphadora Tonks," Harry introduced, causing Dora to slap his arm.

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" she nearly growled at him and he smirked at her.

"She obviously doesn't like her name and generally goes by Tonks," Harry said with a grin. "Dora, this is Fleur Delacour."

Fleur's friendly smile turned into a beaming one.

"Eet es a pleasure to meet you, Tonks," Fleur said. "'arry 'as told me a lot about you."

"He's told me quite a bit about you too," Dora said with a grin. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Harry's descriptions of your beauty didn't quite do you justice."

Harry blushed bright red. "Dora!" he hissed, and Fleur laughed.

"I don't zhink zhat 'arry is one to go writing about a woman's beauty, non?" Fleur said. "I do know zhe wickedness of a sister, zhough. I zhink you would get along with my younger sister, Gabrielle. She also likes to embarrass me."

"It's what we do best," Dora said, smiling. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Fleur."

"Oui, eet was nice to meet you as well," Fleur said, before turning to Harry.

"Au revoire, 'arry," Fleur said. "Je te verrai au dîner?" (Will I see you at dinner?)

"Oui," Harry said with a smile, and Fleur departed.

"Well, well, well," Dora said grinning. "My little brother is attracting quite the bird there. Wait till I tell Sirius and Remus! Hell, wait till I tell Lexie, Savage, and Kingsley! Even Siobhan and Alexis will love to hear about this!"

"There's nothing going on with me and Fleur!" Harry protested, his face red, and she just loved that he was getting this embarrassed and worked up.

"Oh, I don't know," Dora said teasingly. "I saw that smile she threw your way, and the teasing smirk while you were polishing your wand," she said with a slight lilt to her voice that caused Harry to laugh a bit. "Then the way she spoke in French to make sure she'd see you at dinner, in just a few moments. Seems like that girl has her eye on you. What did she say that caused you to go beet red when you were attempting to clean your wand?"

"Something about wizards having troubles not having their wands go off," Harry said, turning red again. "Besides, she spoke French because she's helping me work on my accent," Harry said, still red. "Nothing more. Besides, she's three years older than me! I doubt she has a crush on a pipsqueak like me."

"Hey, while you're probably right and she just really appreciates a guy like you who doesn't treat her like a piece of meat, don't discount your beautiful eyes, and fairly well built body," Dora said with a frown. "Merlin knows we don't need you being as cocky as Sirius is, but that doesn't mean you need to be thinking negatively about your body and your looks. Okay? I think you're bloody handsome, and if you weren't my little Harry," she said in a singsong voice, squeezing his cheek, getting her hand slapped away but with a fond grin, "and you were a few years older, then I might have been interested, and would not keep calling you a brother. I'm sure your other adoptive sisters and friends would agree with me. Okay?"

"Okay," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "Can I go now?"

"Twerp," Dora said fondly.

"Klutz," Harry responded, and they hugged one more time, before he grinned and walked back out of the classroom.

Dora smiled, and then started heading towards the Headmaster's office, since she and Sirius were going to have another session with Dumbledore, assuming Sirius was able to get out of the Auror's office.

**HP**

Rita Skeeter's article, which came out only a few days later, now ten days ago, might not have transformed Harry or Dora's words into anything terrible, but Skeeter had taken to interviewing other people about Harry to create a rather unflattering article about him, his friends, his guardians, and his mentor. It also had not helped that her piece about the Triwizard Tournament had turned out to be a more highly colored life story of Harry, with the article taking up a fair part of pages one, two, six, and seven. Fleur and Krum had been barely mentioned, and their names had been misspelled, and Cedric hadn't even been mentioned, which did not increase Harry's popularity in Hufflepuff whatsoever.

The article had only contained partial truths about his deadly adventures with Quirrell, the Chamber of Secrets, and Pettigrew and the dementors. It made a lot of his stuff seem rather made up or far fetched, and made it seem like someone had been there helping him the whole time, while he claimed credit. Granted, he did feel like he had been helped, but not in the way Rita made it seem.

It didn't help that she had people like Umbridge go after Dora, and others like Lucius Malfoy going after Sirius, Remus, and even Mad-Eye, wondering about their actions, their neglectful watch that had allowed Harry to seemingly be in all these bad places at the wrong time, and wondering how much more Harry Potter could take now that he was taking place in a tournament he "claims" to have been forced into

From there, Rita had gotten a great many Slytherins, and even some other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws, whom Harry hoped hadn't realized what they were getting into, to say that Harry was often seen in the company of five women of various ages, and then she took a step further when she got a couple people to assert that Virginia Wesley ("IT'S GINEVRA WEASLEY!") was quite infatuated with him since he'd saved her, and that he'd rarely ever been seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, (since he also saved her), and that he was now also accompanied by the older girls of his Quidditch team (a team that he got on by breaking the rules). She made it easy to insinuate that Harry was doing his best to save young girls' lives so that they were indebted to him, and that he was fond of breaking the rules and attracting women (like Katie, Alicia, and Angelina) by being a troublemaker, and throwing around his fame and abilities. Apparently all five women, (and possibly Dora too, because obviously Harry hadn't wanted to eat breakfast that morning) were all fighting over him, or sharing him, depending on who was asked (exclusively Malfoy's group of Slytherins).

All in all, he and his friends were furious, and were constantly having slurs, insults, and sneering comments, often quoted from the article thrown at them. It didn't help that the reprint with edits and a light retraction a few days later only fixed Ginny's name, and said that the relationships were rumors only, but neither confirmed nor denied anything, and it did correct much of Harry and his friends adventures, but it still left many dubious insinuations about his sanity and his tales, since apparently the Ministry refused to comment. On top of that, Support Cedric Diggory Badges had made a return, though Harry was happy to see no insult to him was posted on the badges anymore, but it still hurt a bit seeing so many in the school wearing them, not even bothering to show him any sort of support.

The only brightside Harry could find in the article was that he and his friends were so livid with most of the school, and angry that they often sequestered themselves to the library, out on the grounds, or in a classroom to study, do homework, and train, occasionally accompanied by the Twins, Lee, and Katie's friend Leanne, though only the Twins ever came to the training sessions. Because of this, and Harry and Angelina were both convinced their anger helped, they had made large improvements in several different branches of magic.

Harry felt bad about his friends having a smear campaign thrown against them in the paper, but his apology didn't work very well since it only ended with all of his friends, sitting him in a chair and literally yelling at him for even thinking this would make them regret helping him. All it apparently did for them was show them that some of their own friends weren't worth knowing, and wouldn't be getting forgiven anytime soon.

It was with a lot of relief though when the Saturday before the first task, a notice for a Hogsmeade weekend was put up. It wasn't hard for any of them to be convinced to go into town to get away from the castle.

Harry though couldn't look at Hermione with a bit of confusion when she brought it up eagerly.

"What about Ron, though?" he said. "Don't you want to go with him?"

"Oh . . . well . . . "Hermione went slightly pink. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks . . . . "

"No," said Harry flatly.

"Oh Harry, this is so stupid -"

"Why should Harry be trying to mend bridges?" Katie asked, an edge to her tone.

The three chasers were far less understanding in why Hermione kept pushing for Harry to try and talk to Ron and work out their issues. They all felt Hermione was prioritizing her enjoyment of their past friendship over Harry's current feelings and Ron's actions.

"He's the one who refuses to apologize for calling Harry a liar, and he keeps seemingly supporting the opinion that Harry's a liar!" Alicia pointed out. "Plus, he told off Ginny the other day, trying to stop her from hanging out with Harry."

"Stupid git," Ginny muttered darkly, still angry about the incident.

"If you can't convince Ron to talk to Harry, then why should Harry talk to Ron? Why does he have to be the bigger man when he didn't even start the problem?" Angelina asked, and Hermione just sighed sadly at the three girls, but none of them cared.

"Hermione, we've been hanging out a lot," Harry said, "and I know you've been doing your best to balance time with Ron, but let's face it, you've spent a lot of time trying to help me research stuff for the Tournament. I won't be mad. Go spend the day with Ron and whoever else might be there. I'll see you afterwards. Ginny's going off with some of her yearmates, Kate's heading off with some of her other friends, and Leash and Angie both said I can hang with them, so I'll be okay. Merlin knows you probably could use a day away from my brand of crazy. These two are just insane," he said, flashing a smile as he pointed towards the two oldest chasers who scowled playfully at him.

"You sure?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Positive," Harry said with a nod, and she nodded and smiled.

"Thanks, Harry."

**HP**

It ended up being a nice day. The girls guided him around town, taking him to many of the places he hadn't been able to see, only making it to Hogsmeade a handful of times the previous year, due to Sirius's escape. He'd seen Dervish and Banges, but he hadn't seen Wiseacre's, and it was interesting seeing the many different magical devices and other wizarding equipment for sale. He suffered through Gladrag's Wizardwear for his two female friends, who wanted to browse. He shuddered when confronted with Madam Puddifoots, but thankfully the girls took one look at his scared face, and laughed before dragging him elsewhere. They restocked on some potions supplies from the apothecary, since they were essentially doing double potions each week, with the older girls teaching their younger friends the fifth year potions. They browsed in Tomes and Scrolls, though Harry had enough magical books to get through, and all got some chocolate at Honeydukes, before Harry, despite the girls' complaints, bought lunch and butterbeers for them all at the Three Broomsticks. He was rewarded for his kindness with two kisses on his cheeks, and ruffled hair, even though he felt they'd more than earned lunch from him forever due to their support and friendship.

It was midway through lunch when they ran into Hermione, who was nearly storming away from Ron, angrily muttering about House Elves, so Harry, despite not wanting to hear about S.P.E.W welcomed her over to the table, and to get her to shut up, agreed to take her to the kitchens when they got back to the castle so that she could talk to some house elves.

It was nearing the end of a wonderful time at the Three Broomsticks when Hagrid and Mad-Eye came walking in and then Mad-Eye waited back while Hagrid approached and quietly told Harry to meet him in his cabin that night, at midnight, and to not be seen. Almost immediately, he said his goodbyes and he and Mad-Eye were off.

"I wonder what he's up to?" Hermione said nervously. "I'm not sure you should go, Harry."

"It's got to be about the tournament, don't you think?" Alicia said with a curious frown. "If it's not, we all know you won't get caught out, so I say you take the risk."

"Going out isn't even a challenge," Angelina said. "Couldn't Astra even travel you from the tower to Hagrid's place and back? I agree. See what he wants you for."

With Hermione outvoted, Harry made plans to go see Hagrid that night, but first, he had a different promise to keep.

"Alright, Hermione, here is how you get into the kitchens," Harry said, tickling the pear on the portrait to let her in, along with Alicia, Angelina, and Katie who had joined them as they returned to the castle, muttering about stupid boys. He honestly hadn't been here yet this year, but it was a nice place to come for a quick snack every now and then.

Harry's plans to quickly show her the place, let her talk to some elves and leave were quickly hightailed though when not even a minute after he'd entered, seeing the high-ceilinged room, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans, he had something small hurtle into him squealing, "Harry Potter, sir! Harry Potter!"

"D-Dobby!" Harry gasped out, shocked to see the little elf.

Next to him, Hermione gasped in shock, and he noticed all four girls looking at Dobby curiously, having heard Harry's stories about the excitable and odd little elf.

"It is Dobby, sir, it is!" squealed the voice from somewhere around his navel. "Dobby has been hoping and hoping to see Harry Potter, sir, and Harry Potter has come to see him, sir!"

Dobby let go and stepped back a few paces, beaming up at Harry, his enormous, green, tennis-ball-shaped eyes brimming with tears of happiness. He looked almost exactly as Harry remembered him; the pencil-shaped nose, the batlike ears, the long fingers and feet - all except the clothes, which were very different. He now had a weird assortment of garments. He was wearing a tea cozy for a hat, on which he had pinned a number of bright badges, a tie patterned with horseshoes over a bare chest, a pair of what looked like children's soccer shorts, and odd socks. One of these, Harry saw, was the black one Harry had removed from his own foot and tricked Mr. Malfoy into giving Dobby, thereby setting Dobby free. The other was covered in pink and orange stripes.

"Dobby, what're you doing here?" Harry said in amazement.

"Dobby has come to work at Hogwarts, sir!" Dobby squealed excitedly. "Professor Dumbledore gave Dobby and Winky jobs, sir!

"Winky?" said Hermione in surprise. "She's here too?"

Harry had only briefly met the elf in the box at the Quidditch Cup, and thus had only heard of her firing from his friends after the fact.

"Yes, sir, yes!" said Dobby, and he seized Harry's hand and pulled him off into the kitchen between the four long wooden tables that stood there. Each of these tables, Harry noticed as he passed them, was positioned exactly beneath the four House tables above, in the Great Hall. At the moment, they were clear of food, dinner having finished, but he supposed that an hour ago they had been laden with dishes that were then sent up through the ceiling to their counterparts above.

At least a hundred little elves were standing around the kitchen, beaming, bowing, and curtsying as Dobby led Harry past them. They were all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest, and tied, as Winky's had been, like a toga.

Dobby stopped in front of the brick fireplace and pointed.

"Winky, sir!" he said.

Winky was sitting on a stool by the fire. Unlike Dobby, she had obviously not foraged for clothes. She was wearing a neat little skirt and blouse with a matching blue hat, which had holes in it for her large ears. However, while every one of Dobby's strange collection of garments was so clean and well cared for that it looked brand-new, Winky was plainly not taking care of her clothes at all. There were soup stains all down her blouse and a burn in her skirt.

"Hello, Winky," said Harry.

Winky's lip quivered. Then she burst into tears, which spilled out of her great brown eyes and splashed down her front.

"Oh dear," said Hermione. She and the other girls had followed Harry and Dobby to the end of the kitchen. "Winky, don't cry, please don't . . . "

But Winky cried harder than ever. Dobby, on the other hand, beamed up at Harry, and started telling him about how he'd been struggling to find work, since he wanted paid, and then, upon finding out Winky had been freed too, decided that the only place they could find work together was Hogwarts, where Dumbledore had been more than happy to pay Dobby.

It was a bit awkward, with Winky screeching and sobbing next to them, but Harry was able to catch up with the excitable elf, asking after him, and seeing how he was enjoying his freedom, and how he was adapting to Hogwarts, though while Hermione was approving of his desire for pay, it was clear the rest of the Hogwarts elves were not, and thought he was an oddity.

"Oh, it's wonderful here, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said. "Dobby enjoys the work very much, and Dobby enjoys learning about the castle. There's all sorts of secrets here, Harry Potter, sir."

Harry thought about that for a moment, and thought about a struggle he and his friends had been having.

"Hey, Dobby, speaking of learning about the castle. Is there any place that my friends and I could go to to practice magic? We're struggling in the classroom we're using."

Dobby smiled at him to Harry's hope and surprise.

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby exclaimed happily. "Dobby knows the perfect place, sir! Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!"

"What's that?" Harry asked eagerly, and the rest of his friends also gazed at the elf with interest.

"it is a room that a person can only enter," said Dobby seriously, "when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir. It is a most amazing room, sir"

"How many people know about it?" asked Harry.

"Very few, sir. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, sir, but often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, sir. "

"Can you show this to me, Dobby?" Harry asked. "It sounds perfect!"

"Any time, Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, looking delighted at Harry's enthusiasm. "We could go now, if you like!"

Harry eagerly followed the elf to the seventh floor, to a blank stretch of wall opposite an enormous tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

Harry followed Dobby's instructions, walking past the place three times, wishing for a place to practice magic and dueling, and when he heard gasps, he opened his eyes and saw a door.

Grinning at his friends, they all rushed to the door, which Harry opened, and then went in, finding a spacious room, lit with flickering torches. The walls were lined with wooden bookcases, filled with books. There was a set of shelves at the far end of the room carrying a range of dark detectors like Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, and a Foe-Glass. The floors were lined with large silk cushions, except for a section of the floor where he recognized the outline of a dueling circle. Near the dueling circle, Harry also could see several training dummies and practice targets that seemed to glow with enchantments.

"This is brilliant!" Katie exclaimed, looking around the room.

"I'm never going back to that classroom again," Alicia said in awe, while Angelina nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"And just look at these books!" exclaimed Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "I think there might even be a couple books here you don't own!" She looked around at Harry, her face glowing. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"

"And this room can become anything?" Katie asked eagerly, looking at a happy Dobby, now that Harry and his friends were ecstatically examining the room.

"Yes miss," Dobby said with an excitable nod. "Anything."

"That means this can be a potions lab, a study hall, or even just a place to take naps and relax!" Alicia said. "Hell, if these books showed up, maybe this place can even become a library that even rivals the Hogwarts one."

Seeing the eager glint in her eye, Harry knew what room Hermione would be testing out next. Harry turned to his little elf friend.

"Dobby, you have no idea how much help this will be to us," Harry said. "Thank you very much."

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir," Dobby said, looking like he wanted to cry at Harry's kindness. "Anything for you, sir."

"If there is ever anything you need, you only need to name it," Harry said seriously.

"Harry Potter . . . can Dobby come and see you sometimes, sir?" Dobby asked tentatively.

"Course you can," said Harry, and Dobby beamed.

Harry looked forward to exploring the capabilities of this room further with his friends, especially since he had time before he had to meet Hagrid that night.