A/N : I am not J.K Rowlings so cut me some slack
"He should be waking up any time now."
"It's about time, he has a long road to full recovery."
Harry could hear faint voices having a conversation as he slowly gained consciousness.
"Ughhhh" Harry groaned as he covered his eyes with his arm to protect it from the sunlight streaming in through the open window.
"Welcome to the land of the living." Healer Yates said with a smile as she walked into the room from her adjoining office. Headmaster Gabriel and Professor Morgan walked in behind her. This was the first time Harry was seeing the Headmaster since he arrived at Emry's Academy.
"Why do I feel like I have been trampled by a horde of rampaging hippogriffs?" Harry asked. His through was very sore and it caused him some discomfort as he spoke.
"That's what happens when you have been unconscious for two weeks."Professor Morgan said as the Healer started fussing over Harry, running several scans on him.
"No talking yet, drink this first. It will help with the soreness." Healer Yate said, handing harry a vial. Harry took the vial and drank its content, he immediately felt relief from his sore throat.
"What happened? How have I been out for 2 weeks." Harry asked after drinking the potion.
"You have no recollection of what happened?" Headmaster Gabriel asked stroking his beardless chin in thought.
"What is the last thing you remember?" Professor Morgan asked. Harry closed his eyes as he tried to remember the events that led to him being in the Infirmary.
"The last thing I remember was leaving Professor Morgans office, trying to remember anything after that gives me an headache." Harry said rubbing his forehead.
"Understandable, it'll take a while for you to fully recover mentally. "
"Mentally? What is wrong with me?" Harry asked in panic.
"There is no need to panic, you are fine now."
"Take this." Healer Yates said handing Harry another vial. Harry raised his eyebrow at her. "It's a calming drought, you will need it." She continued. Harry downed the content of the vial and immediately began to feel the effects, he was no longer panicking about his memory issues.
"I will leave Professor Morgan to explain the details of your situation to you. I have an important appointment to catch. Have a nice day." Headmaster Gabriel said before leaving the Infirmary and closing the doors behind himself.
"Now, where do I start?" Professor Morgan said with a sigh as she took her seat on the chair beside Harry's bed.
"I'll leave the two of you to it. I'll be in my office if you need me." Healer Yates said leaving Harry and his Professor alone in the room.
"I found you unconscious on the floor in the hallway outside my office, you were bleeding profusely from the scar in your forehead. Thank goodness I found you, otherwise you might have been there all through the night." Professor Morgan started before taking a pause.
"Why did I faint? I was fine when I left your office." Harry asked.
"We can never really be certain of what happened, no one witnessed you fainting. But I do have some ideas." Professor Morgan said. "You were bleeding from your curse scar when you were found. Has the scar ever caused you to bleed before?"
"No. Sometimes it causes serious headaches and blurred vision but it had never bled in the past." Harry answered rubbing his forehead.
"I thought as much. I spoke to your former Headmaster and we came to the conclusion that the dark lord must have tried to attack you through your curse scar. Dumbledore had an altercation with the dark lord recently."
"What happened? Is everyone okay?" Harry asked, interrupting her explanation.
"Everyone is fine, but the dark lord has taken notice of your continued absence from Hogwarts. We believe your fainting was a result of him trying to find you using the connection you share through the horcrux." Professor Morgan explained.
"Can he find me here?" Harry asked. Harry had enjoyed his time away from Hogwarts and from the Dark Lord plans. No more possessed professors, giant snakes and polyjuiced professors. He had made giant strides in his time and Emrys but he was still far from being ready to face the dark lord. While he was happy with his time away from the war, he did not want to bring it to his new friends. If the dark lord knew he was here, away from Dumbledore's protection, there is no telling the lengths the dark lord would go to get to him. While Harry had no doubts about the skill and ability of the Professors and Headmaster at Emry's to defend their school and students, there was a reason why Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort feared.
"Not to worry, he will never find you here. The protections here are some of the best in the world. Except he was led by the hands right into the school by a Professor, he will never find it." Professor Morgan reassured Harry.
"Do you remember our discussion concerning the horcrux in your scar?"
"Ohh shit!" Harry swore loudly. During his last discussion with Professor Morgan, they had discussed performing a ritual to remove the horcrux on the night of Samhain which had definitely past now.
"Can we still do the ritual even though it's past Samhain?"
"I have good news for you. We performed the ritual as planned on the night of Samhain even though you were unconscious. In fact, you being unconscious increased the odds of success."
"Did it work? Were you able to remove the horcrux?" Harry asked excitedly.
"Yes, we were able to remove the horcrux successfully with minimal side effect" Professor Morgan said with a smile on her face.
"Thanks." Harry said as tears dropped from his eyes slowly. He put his face in his hands to hide his tears as he sobbed softly.
"It's all right, you are fine now." Professor Morgan said as she rubbed Harry's shoulder comforting him.
"I'm sorry, it's just … "
"You don't have to apologize for crying Harry, I understand. Getting rid of the soul piece of a genocidal maniac from your head is a big deal." Professor Morgan said as she handed Harry an handkerchief.
"I am just glad to be rid of it. Now my mind is fully my own." Ever since the dark lord had tricked him into the department of mysteries he had not been able to trust his own mind. He was never sure if what he was seeing was real or if he was being influenced by Voldemort.
" While you are fine physically, it might take a while for you to recover psychologically? There are no records of an horcrux existing in a living human, so we are in uncharted territory when it comes to your recovery. We are unsure if there will be any long term effects of your exposure to a piece of another wizards soul." Professor Morgan explained to Harry who listened attentively.
"There might be no long term effects, but to be sure, we will be meeting twice monthly for the foreseeable future so I can examine and evaluate you regularly. I will also be teaching you Occlumency, it will be useful in managing whatever psychological effects might arise as a side effect of the ritual."
"Thanks for everything. I am looking forward to learning Occlumency" Harry said, his inability to learn Occlumency had left him vulnerable to manipulation by the dark lord so learning Occlumency was a priority to him.
"No need to thank me, I am happy to help." Professor Morgan replied with a soft smile. "I will inform your friends that you have gained consciousness, they have been asking after you. For now, get some rest."
"I welcome you all to this meeting of Dumbledore's Army" Hermione said. She was standing in front of a crowd of about 30 students. Dumbledore's Army had been started due to Umbridge's insistence on not teaching any form of Defensive magic. To pass their OWLs Hermione had convinced Harry to teach the students practical magic, he was the best in their Level. The magic they learnt in Dumbledore's Army had also come useful against the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. Since the threat of Voldemort and his Death Eaters were still present, Hermione had decided to continue the group. Dumbledore had given his support and often provided them with some learning material even though he didn't have the time to teach them himself.
"We really should change the name." Seamus Finnigan said rolling his eyes. He was one of those who were reluctant to join the group last year, but since Voldemort's appearance in the Ministry of Magic he had quickly signed up when Hermione reopened the group.
"No one cares about the name. We just want to learn to protect ourselves." Susan Bones said. She had become Hermione's assistant in the new Dumbledore's Army. Ron rarely attended the meetings, he preferred spending his free time with his new girlfriend, Lavender Brown.
"You have been complaining since the first meeting Seamus, no one is forcing you to be here." Padma Patil said. Ever since the first meeting of the year, Seamus always had one complaint or another to make. He had questioned the name of the group, the quality of spells they learnt. He had even challenged Hermione to a duel, questioning her ability to lead the group in the first meeting.
Flashback
"Welcome to the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army. I have decided to restart the group so we can learn to defend ourselves from the threat of the Death Eaters. Professor Dumbledore has given his blessing to continue the group." Hermione said. Gathered in an abandoned classroom were about twenty students. All the members of the group who hadn't graduated were present, they also had a few new members.
"Now that the dark lord is out in the open it is important that we keep learning to defend ourselves and our families. Hopefully we won't have to use what we will learn but we must be prepared." Hermione continued. The gathered students nodded their heads in agreement. Although the dark lord had been quiet except for a few seemingly random muggle attacks, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before he struck again.
"We will be going over the spells we learnt last year so new members can catch up, then I will be teaching a few new spells."
"Are you going to be the one teaching us the spells?" Seamus Finnigan asked. He was one of the new members of the group, he was not invited last year since he made it clear his grandmother thought Dumbledore was lying about Voldemorts return.
"Yes, do you have any problem with that." Hermione responded. She looked around at the faces of the students gathered and saw that some of them agreed with Seamus questioning her ability to lead the group.
"Shut up Seamus, she is the best student in our level and one of the few who have experience fighting death eaters." Susan Bones said in support of Hermione. This was one of the times Hermione wished Ron was around to support her. He had promised to attend but had backed out at the last minute, saying something about having to practice for the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin.
"If you doubt my ability to lead the group, step forward" Hermione said. She decided to put an end to any questions about her ability once and for all. Very few had questioned Harry's ability to lead the group mostly because of the stories about him and his reputation. Her reputation was that of a bookworm, she would have to prove herself worthy of leading the group. Seamus stepped forward confidently, a few other students looked like they wanted to step forward but were not brave enough.
"So are we going to duel?" Seamus asked arrogantly.
"Yes, best of three. Standard rules, no lethal spells or unforgiveables. The duel is over when one party is disarmed." Hermione replied confidently. The rest of the students stepped back to give room for the duel. Hermione cast a protection spell to protect other students from stray spells.
"Susan, will you be our referee?" Hermione asked.
"Sure" The gathered students were murmurign among themselves, they were excited to witness the duel. For some of them it would be the first Wizard duel they ever witness.
"On the count of three, you start." Both duelers had their wands in their hands ready to unleash their spell at the count. Seamus held his wand pointing forward with his feet together, to an experienced eye it was obvious Seamus didn't have any experience with duels.
"One Two Three."
"Impedimenta." Seamus shouted his first spell hoping to catch Hermione quickly and end the duel. Hermione stepped to the side dodging the spell as she cast her non-verbal spell chain. Non-verbal spell casting was one of the things she had learnt over the summer once she recovered from her stay at Saint Mungos. Professor Lupin had given her some pointers and she had all but perfected the art of non-verbal casting.
Seamus was caught by surprise, Professor Snape had only just introduced non-verbal casting in their DADA class. They had yet to even practice it in class.
"PROTEGO" Seamus cast a shield spell jus in time to block the spells. Hermione kept peppering Seamus shield with spell after spell, weakening his shield rapidly. Eventually he couldn't hold the shield up any longer and it collapsed.
"Expelliarmus" Hermione chanted as she disarmed Seamus.
"Hermione is the Winner." Susan Bones said. The gathered students looked at Hermione in awe. Most of the new members were unaware of her skills with the wand.
"Do you still want to continue?" Hermione asked Seamus as she handed him back his wand. Seamus was breathing heavily, his hands were on his knees as he breathed from his mouth.
"No. There is no need to waste any more time. I am sure you have a lot to teach us." Seamus said accepting defeat.
The rest of the students nodded their heads in agreement. Even those who were skeptical about Hermione's ability previously were satisfied with the performance and were eager to learn.
End of Flashback
"From now on we will be learning more advanced and lethal spells. The Dark Lord has been attacking several muggle settlements over the past few weeks, it is only a matter of time before he shifts his focus back to the Wizarding World. We need to be ready to protect ourselves and our families." Hermione said.
Usually Hermione was not one to take matters into her own hands. She often preferred leaving matters like this to the authorities. But the Battle at the Department of Mysteries and the injuries she had sustained had made her realize how unreliable authorities in the magical world were. The Minister of Magic had refused to accept that Voldemort was back until he staged an attack inside the Ministry. She had a lot of time to think in Saint Mungos and she came to the conclusion that if she was to have any hope of surviving this war with her friends, they would need to be better prepared.
"If you have any objections to this, you are free to leave now." No one left the room, they were all determined to learn how to protect themselves.
"Today we will be learning about fire spells, how to use them and how to protect against them. Fire spells are very useful in protecting against Inferi, Voldemort made use of them a lot in the last war so I expect he will be using them again." Hermione started her explanation.
"What is an Inferi?" A student asked. The student was one of the new members of the group, she was quite young. Hermione had decided to open the group to students from third year and above, so they had some new members who were young.
"What is your name?" Hermione asked.
"Piper Pimbleton" She answered with a shy smile. She was a muggleborn student like Hermione, who she looked up to a lot. Hermione had become a role model for younger muggleborn students at Hogwarts. Her reputation as the best student at Hogwarts was one other muggleborn students aspired towards.
"Inferi are dead bodies reanimated by a dark wizard, very similar to zombies. They are immune to most spells and their weakness is fire." Piper's face turned green at Hermione's explanation.
"We will be learning different fire spells to protect against them. The first spell we will be learning is Incendio, a basic fire spell. Most of you already know this spell, you can maximize the damage by adding maxima after the spell. I will demonstrate. Everyone step back." The students took several steps back as Hermione conjured several dummies that looked like inferi.
"INCENDIO MAXIMA" She shouted. A huge stream of fire erupted from her wand and quickly consumed the dummies, turning them into ashes in minutes.
"Augumenti" Hermione cast a jet of water quenching the flames to prevent it from going out of control.
"We will also be learning the flame whip spell, it is a very lethal spell and should not be used lightly. In fact only those from fifth year and above will be practicing it, it is too advanced for junior students." Hermione conjured another dummy as she prepared to demonstrate the flame whip spell.
"IGNIS FLAGELLUM" A whip about eight feet long burst out of her wand, Hermione used her wand as the handle of the whip and swung it towards the dummy. It wrapped around the dummies torso and burnt into it, Hermione pulled the whip back and it tore the dummies torso into two smoking halves.
"This spell is very lethal as you can see so it should not be used lightly. Now who wants to try it first." Hermione said as she stepped back to observe her work. Hermione knew they still had a lot to learn if they wanted to protect themselves against Death Eaters, but this was a good start.