Chapter 5: Preparing for the Worst.
After the break in, Harry spent a few days in the library studying the restricted section. Most of the protections for these forbidden tomes came in two forms: enchantments to alert staff when someone entered without proper permissions, and the books themselves. Many of the tomes in that section were like the monster book of monsters and had minds of their own and could likely recognize when someone was using them without permission.
After one week of analysis, Harry had formed a plan around both these defenses and set that plan into motion. After lights out that Friday, Harry checked the brain activity of his roommates to make sure they were all asleep. Then he slipped under his invisibility cloak, levitated to the window and with a quick alohamora unlocking spell along with a muffling charm he was out into the cold night air.
The castle had enchantments to keep people from flying up to its walls but they were aimed outward against intruders not inward against people seeking shortcuts. Harry made his way around the walls to the section of the castle that contained the library. Looking in through the windows Harry spotted one that led into the restricted section itself. Since the castle kept people from reaching this spot it was unguarded and Harry slipped in with the same combo that got him out of the Gryffindor dorms.
Harry felt the mental gazes of a dozen sleepless magical books wondering how he had arrived and what he was doing there after hours. Now Harry revealed his second trick and called out his monster book from his pack where he had hidden it. The monster book cast a long gaze on these lesser tomes that dare scrutinize its master, sized up the largest of them and then attacked. As the magical book was partially restrained and of a scholarly persuasion it was unused to such treatment and soon was at the monster book's mercy. Harry stopped the impending act of literary vandalism with a short click of his tongue and called the monster book back to his side.
The monster book cast one last gaze across the assembled ancient and forbidden books of arcane knowledge and none dared meet its magical eye. The shelves were nicely cowed and Harry was free to get to work. Over the next few nights he scoured the forbidden section of the library looking for more powerful spells with which he could defend himself. He found such spells quite easily. The trick was finding spells he could stomach to use.
He found spells to make a man's eyes explode. Spells to make all the bones in a target's body vanish so their internal organs would be smothered under the weight of their muscles. Hexes that would cover the inside edges of a person's arms and legs with spikes so they couldn't let their body rest naturally without stabbing themselves. Curses that killed nerves to leave limbs useless and paralyzed for life. Jinxes that would force a man to scream until he lost his voice and so couldn't cast any spells. Charms to transfigure blood into molten brass and the list went on and on.
Strangely almost every spell came with an explanation of why such horror was not only necessary, but good since it ended a fight quickly without necessarily killing the target. Many of them were also listed as being designed by men in service to their king, their god or their people. Who had vowed that with this power at last they could be sure that no one would ever dare threaten them and so peace could be achieved.
Most of the worst spells it seemed were made up during the goblin rebellions, such as the means of transfiguring steel into acid. Or the hex that made all the metal in an ax or sword break into shards and then fly at high speeds in different directions. Others stemmed from the crusades when wizards had devised three entire books worth of enchantments that could make a muggle knight into a force any wizard would dread to face. The most frightening of which was probably the Green Knight's Armor, a set of memory enchantments that would impress a knight's will into his armor, allowing it to keep fighting for even a whole day after the knight wearing it had died even from decapitation.
Eventually Harry found a set of spells he liked. His main idea wasn't to develop the power to capture or kill Black, Harry wasn't certain he could build that ability up in the perhaps few weeks he might have before Black tried to break into the school again. Instead his goal was to either avade Black entirely or hold him off until help came. Harry found a very useful set of infiltration spells in one of those muggle fighting books which had apparently once been used to help the Hassasin order of assassins sneak up on their targets. This included an actual invisibility spell that looked very complicated, but for now Harry focused on the disillusionment charm to make himself fade into the background, the silent steps charm so even across the ground he could move unheard and a few misdirection jinxes that could confuse Black about which way he was going.
For actual combat Harry picked up a quartet of elemental hexes. One to make waves of fire to force Black back and break his line of sight, another was a smoke conjuring spell that could make a screen to further obscure himself. Finally Harry found two lightning spells, fulmitten a direct lightning strike, not powerful enough to kill unless it hit the heart but which would hurt like heck and the linpuls curse which constantly shocked the victim over and over again. Both of these curses were quick to cast, hard to block or dodge since they hit almost instantly and could make a target's body spasm so they couldn't move much.
Finally Harry found a spell datimor omnis which would alert everyone within thousands of feet that Harry was in danger. Harry was quite surprised to find such a useful spell restricted, but the book did explain why. Apparently it could be half cast, that is if someone said only the first part of the spell but still performed the full motion of the wand part of the effect would still go off. In this case that meant everyone around the caster would be filled with the caster's sense of fear and unease but wouldn't know why. If anything happened to spook those people it could lead to a sudden panic and people getting hurt.
Harry also couldn't help himself from making copies of a few spells he found that just looked very interesting. There were a host of mind related spells that Esharry thought might indicate the extent to which regular wizards understood psychic power. Obliviation for instance which could erase and alter memories. Legillimens which could copy thoughts or allow the caster to read the target's mind. And oddly enough the patronus charm, which could be used to encode a message from one's own thoughts that would be repeated verbally to the recipient.
And Harry found three transfiguration spells that could work on the wizard that cast them. One gave the caster's body properties associated with dragons, such as a dragon's spell resistant scales which was a very useful thing to have in a fight. Another was a full body transformation into a demonic form that was supposedly very useful for terrifying muggle soldiers. Finally was the animagus ritual, which if fully and completely performed allowed a wizard to assume the shape of a certain animal at will. These spells wouldn't help Harry deal Black, but such human transformations might eventually give him a cure for his impending ceremorphosis.
Harry copied out all of these spells on his own parchment, making sure to include every bit of information that might in anyway help him learn to cast them. Practicing fighting magic in the restricted section of the library seemed stupid, and Harry didn't want to know what kind of enchantments might be present to keep him from leaving with a restricted book. Plus the days were getting wet and cold, the nights freezing and drenched, so Harry looked forward to once again spending his every night safe, warm and dry in bed.
Harry sought out Ron and Hermione's help in learning these new spells. He would have enlisted their help in breaking in to the restricted section, but he hadn't wanted to deal with their inevitable resistance to the idea. As it turned out he once again proved it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission as they both objected to his self defense preparations.
"You're mental mate." Ron said. "It's restricted for a reason, there's dark magic in there. If anyone finds out you broke in you'll be expelled."
"It was a terrible risk, Harry." Hermione pressed. "You could've asked a teacher for help, I'm sure Professor Lupin would've loved to help you learn some better protection. They might even have found these spells for you or much better ones more likely."
"The teachers aren't going to help." Harry rejected. "They've been shadowing me to classes and treating me like I'm made of glass. I'm not even allowed to practice quidditch these days without a babysitter. If I asked them if I could learn some more powerful spells they would think I'm planning on going after Black and would shut me down."
"No they wouldn't." Hermione argued. "They would understand that you're worried."
"Hermione you think I'm planning on going after Black," Harry accused and Hermione blushed in response. "They wouldn't understand. They would just tell me to trust in Dumbledore. That's all well and good, but Black got past Dumbledore once already, and he's not going to make that mistake about missing the passwords again. Mark my words, he'll get in next time. And I for one will feel much better going to sleep at night knowing I can wake up and throw a lightning bolt at someone."
It took a bit more but eventually he talked the both of them around to help him. They had to admit that it would be a good idea to learn something with a bit more oomph if someone was actively trying to kill Harry. Although Hermione did get Harry to swear on his parent's memory that he wouldn't go hunting for Black. He would only take steps to protect himself and those around him.
Working with Ron and Hermione went very well. Despite everything else that would happen, Harry had a very good grasp on all the fighting spells he wanted to learn by the end of December. He hadn't told Ron or Hermione about the memory spells or the transfiguration spells he had picked up since they were Illithid business and he could work on them at his leisure. For now he focussed hard on mastering the means to protect himself.
Hermione helped them master the spells themselves. She grasped the practical aspects of each spell, its proper pronunciation based on its apparent roots, the details of its motions and the precise state of mind each spell required. It took her a few days with each to get them to work, but eventually she had the means of casting each bit of magic and was ready to help Ron and Harry cast the spell as well.
Ron helped with learning to properly use each spell. Harry had considered joining the dueling club to get some combat practice in, but with Quidditch practice intensifying at the same time Harry didn't have the time. So instead he trained against Ron. Hermione as well but she just wasn't a very good duelist. She lacked the stamina to keep up with either of the boys for too long, she also took a bit too long to pick which spells she wanted to cast. She was good on the defense since she knew a great deal of counterspells, but she was too easy to keep on the defensive and eventually overwhelmed.
Ron on the other hand was actually in better health than Harry was. Three years of Hogwarts meals had done much to revert the damage from the childhood of neglect Harry had endured. But Ron had never suffered so, and his brothers kept him active and on his feet. Thus he was larger and faster than Harry was. And while Ron took longer to learn a spell than Harry did, once he knew it he almost never made any mistakes casting it.
Fighting Ron was tricky. He easily built momentum in his attacks, piling on jinx after jinx to grind down his opponent. On defense he could endure hits even when his shields failed and even power through such reversals to go back on the offensive. Harry quickly learned that the only way to deal with Ron was either to overwhelm him with a really big attack or else take him off guard with an unexpected attack.
The biggest thing that Harry learned from these practice fights though was how to use his psychic powers in a new way. By pushing his power out of the side of his brain, Harry could make a kind of link between himself and others. This link allowed him to get the translation of what was going on in their mind. Harry could see brain activity with his psychic sight, which allowed him to see nerves fire off just before muscles began to move. This was very useful but it just meant he had a half second to react to what someone was doing rather than a fourth of one. This new power let him tell what those never signals in the brain really meant, now he could tell what his opponent was about to do, rather than what they were just starting to do. This was incredibly useful.
Harry felt he could press this connection deeper into Ron or Hermione's minds. But Esharry warned against this. In fact he was damned emphatic about it.
You would be pushing your own thoughts into their minds. Esharry said. They would displace their own thoughts and take root in their minds. They might be able to fight you off, but if they didn't you would take over their bodies. You could force them to do whatever you wanted. A very useful thing, but it can not last. You could only keep up such a connection for about an hour then they would be free. Afterwards they would know what you did. Definitely not something to do with your friends.
Harry agreed with that. Which was a bit of a shame. He liked how much closer to his friends this made him feel. He liked feeling Ron's brotherly competitiveness, his eagerness to prove himself to Harry and be seen as his equal. He loved feeling Hermione worry a little bit whenever she fired off a spell at him, afraid she would actually hurt him. And he loved how she pushed down that fear and fought anyway so that she could help him.
Even when they weren't practicing Harry often found himself brushing the minds of his friends to feel their affection for him or, even better, for each other. How wonderful would it be if Harry could return to the favor? He badly wanted to let the two of them know how much he cared for the both of them. He wanted Ron to know how impressed he was by his fighting skill, how he was just as good as Harry, just as brave, just as capable. He wanted Hermione to know that he worried about her just as much, and that he would never do anything that would leave her alone. Would it be so bad to push those thoughts into their minds?
Yes. Esharry warned. You would be displacing their own thoughts about what they think, you think of them. You would overwrite their own preconceptions of who you are. You would make yourself into what you want to be in their thoughts. It would bind them to you. But it wouldn't be who they really are. Pushing your thoughts into their heads is not the same as letting them know your thoughts.
Could he do that then? Could he make the connection mutual? Let Ron and Hermione read his thoughts the same way he read theirs? Esharry didn't answer these questions. Harry didn't press him. If Esharry was holding back then it likely related in some way to their Illithid nature. Esharry might be wondering if perhaps this desire might indicate their accelerating ceremorphosis. Harry was confident that when he knew more he would speak up.
Time marched ever on and on as Harry made his preparations. By the time he had made his first trip into the forbidden section of the library, there was only a week left before the first big quidditch match of the year. This match was traditionally against Slytherin and the rivalry between Slytherin and Griffindor was so fierce that it was almost always a terribly exciting and competitive game. But this time events conspired against them.
"I just got word from Madam Hooch that we aren't going to play Slytherin next week." Oliver Wood announced the Sunday before the next match. "They're complaining that their seeker is out of commission with a bad arm and so they can't play."
"They're lying." Harry pointed out. "There's nothing wrong with Draco's arm. And even if there was, shouldn't they just replace him with a substitute?"
Harry was made especially mad at this. Last year when he got out with a bad injury, Gryffindor didn't get to delay their match and instead played with a substitute and lost, costing them the quidditch cup. Why was Draco getting special treatment when he wasn't even injured? What little sympathy Harry had once felt towards Draco over the hippogriff attack was thoroughly exhausted now.
"They know he is." George pointed out.
"They just don't want to play in this weather." Fred finished his twin's thought. And he had a point. Storms had wracked Hogwarts castle on and off since mid October by that point, and with the temperature dropping they were only getting less and less pleasant to be out in.
"That or they're afraid of going up against Harry again and want to delay their trouncing for as long as possible." George offered as an alternative.
"Whatever their reason, they've got what they wanted." Wood shut down further speculation on that topic. "They got their first match delayed until next term, meanwhile we'll be up against Hufflepuff."
"Well at least we're in for an easy match." Fred said in relief. "Last year we beat them in just five minutes."
"Don't be so sure." Wood countered. "Hufflepuff isn't the same team they were last year. They've got a new captain, Cedric Diggory, who's also playing as their new seeker. And he's put together a pretty good line up. You'll have to watch out for him, Harry. He's a good bit larger than most seekers, that gives you an advantage in the turns. But he'll want to spend the match high up to get a bird's eye view of things for his team so when he goes for the snitch he'll be diving and bloody fast at that."
Wood had a lot more advice for everyone. He had them practicing every day that week and often ambushed them between classes for extra theory sessions. Once he held Harry up so long after lunch that he was late for his defense against the dark arts class.
That class was a particular disaster. Professor Lupin was out sick and so they had Professor Snape as a substitute. He took ten points off Harry just for being late and another ten for asking after the health of his colleague. That was just typical Snape dickishness. Harry could endure that.
Snape ignored Lupin's progress through their text book and jumped right to the end to cover werewolves instead. All the while he made snide comments about how Lupin wasn't teaching this class properly and how much better he would be doing the job.
It was no secret that Snape wanted the defense against the dark arts post since he found the dark arts deeply fascinating. Harry was half tempted to just say that Snape should have the job so that with any luck he could get cursed by the jinx on the post and be driven from the school. But Snape soon proved just how especially terrible he would be at the job.
"Can no one tell me how to tell the difference between a werewolf and a true wolf?" Snape said, pointedly ignoring Hermione's hand that had shot into the air as he usually did in his potions class. "Has Professor Lupin really taught you so little? Very well, turn in your books to-"
"Please sir." Hermione interrupted him, desperate to come to the aid of the best defense instructor they had ever had. "The werewolf has several distinctive features that can be easily identified such as their nose which is-"
"I do not recall calling on you Ms. Granger." Snape interrupted right back. "I can't imagine anyone in the class wants to hear from a know-it-all like you."
Hermione went silent and blushed in embarrassment at being shot down like that. And the class all glared unearthly hatred at Snape, despite the fact that most everyone in that room had complained about Hermione acting like a know-it-all. Ron, who called Hermione a know-it-all at least once a week, came to her aid. After all Hermione was their know-it-all and there wasn't a person in that room other than Snape who didn't appreciate the fact that Hermione was always willing to help explain something or work through a tricky bit of wand work with anyone who needed help.
"If you don't want to hear the answer to that question, why did you ask it?" Ron demanded to know.
"Detention Weasley." Snape condemned, which made Ron smolder with anger but back down. "I will book no further interruption to this lesson. Now open your books to-"
"There isn't a lesson here to interrupt." Harry declared. He was absolutely furious. Snape never failed to make Harry mad but seeing him bring the same level of persecution on his two precious friends, who cared so deeply for him, left him seeing red. He couldn't have stopped himself from coming to their aid. If Sirius Black had stormed into this room to kill him right now, Harry would've paid him no mind and continued to lay into Snape. "All you're doing is grandstanding and making yourself feel better about how poorly your life must've gone."
"Detention-" Snape started.
"I don't care." Harry ignored him. "Tell me Snape what did happen in your life for you to become so bitter and hateful? Did a dementor devour your ability to feel happiness from the cradle? That's the only reason I can think of why a teacher would go so far to crush any joy a student might feel to learn. Everyone else in the school loves having Hermione in their class for a chance to feed her hungry mind. Just as much as the love how passionate and diligent Neville is to do his best at every thing no matter how much he struggles at it. You're the only one tries to break them down or belittle them just so that you can feel like a big man."
"Potter, you are completely out of line." Snape roared. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and if you say another word you'll lose another."
"Better just make it hundred now." Harry defied him. "Nothing you can do could be worse than standing here and letting a bully get away with hurting my friends."
"You dare Potter!" Snape roared. "You of all people dare to-"
"You know." Dean Thomas suddenly announced just as Harry was about to launch another attack on Snape's character. "I don't see any reason to stay here and listen to Harry argue with the air. Professor Lupin must be sick or else he would've come to teach us by now. We should go back to the Gryffindor common room. I'm sure Hermione can tell us everything the Professor wanted us to know about hinkypunks."
Most everyone nodded in agreement as the Gryffindors decided to just ignore the fact that Snape had been sent to teach them. So everyone got up and started filing out of the room while Snape looked on in stunned fury. Harry was hesitant to go as this seemed a fine time to finally have it out with his most hated professor, but Ron and Hermione grabbed his shoulders and urged him to go. Luckily they got out of the room before Snape could decide what about this he hated the most.
"Thanks Dean." Harry eventually managed after they were half way back to the common room and he had a chance to cool off. "I think I was about to yell away all our house points there."
"No problem and I understand." Dean responded, "Snape gets under my collar just as much. I have no idea why the man is a teacher. Surely he's a good enough potion brewer to make a living with it on his own. Though I do kind of wonder how you tell the difference between a wolf and a werewolf."
"Well the first sign," Harry responded, he had spent a long time digging through the werewolf chapter trying to figure out how to cause magical explosions powerful enough to stop one. "Is usually that you've spotted a wolf in England, they've been extinct in this country for two hundred years after all. The next would be the size of the wolf. Werewolves don't lose any mass when they change and humans are usually twice the size of a wolf, so werewolves are a lot bigger. Oh and some werewolves have hands instead of forepaws and walk upright."
"The tricky bit is telling whether a human is a werewolf." Hermione chimed in. "If they got the condition from being attacked they'll have a cursed scar on their body. But there are lots of ways to get cursed scars besides werewolves."
"You're telling me." Harry chimed in.
"If they're taking the wolfsbane potion then they'll get sick in the weeks leading up to the full moon." Hermione continued. "But if they're taking wolfsbane then you don't have to worry about them since they aren't a danger to anyone. And if they're not taking it then the only sign would be that it's hard to pin down their location during a full moon."
"I've heard that some Americans and African wizards claim that werewolves are harmless if you let them live together as a pack." Seamus Finnigan put it. "That they only attack wizards cause they're lonely and want to make more werewolves. But if there's a chance for them to make new werewolves just by getting married they aren't a danger to anyone."
"There's been a bunch of different proposals to make werewolves safe." Ron put in. "I remember back when I was little my dad was part of a movement to get the ministry to provide every werewolf in Great Britain with the money to regularly buy wolfsbane. But then Fenrir Greyback, this barking mad werewolf extremist who thinks all wizards should be werewolves, protested the idea of being forced to drink wolfsbane by attacking Hogsmead village one night. He mauled a dozen different people in that attack before he was chased off. Been on the run ever since, but they say a lot of werewolves secretly help him cause they're proud of him for standing up to the ministry. So they've never caught him and ever since the ministry hasn't been willing to even entertain the idea of helping werewolves out."
This wasn't the end of it of course. They had barely been back in the common room for half an hour when Professor McGonagall stormed in looking like she was ready to unleash hell on someone. She called out Dean, Ron and Harry and demanded they come to her office.
"What's this preposterous news I hear about the three of you leading an uprising in Professor Snape's class?" She demanded to know.
"It's my fault, professor." All three of them said at once. Eventually they explained what had happened doing their best to emphasize Snape's injustice, though they were forced to admit that they had disrupted class and defied a professor. By the end McGonagall was giving them her very best disappointed look.
"I understand that Professor Snape can be difficult to work under sometimes." Professor McGonagall started when they had finished. "More often than not if I'm honest, and damn if the man doesn't need to learn the value of positive reinforcement. But he does do his absolute best to teach his subject. Understand that of all the classes we cover here in Hogwarts: potions, transfiguration and defense are the most serious and demanding. A miscast transfiguration can make even the most ordinary object highly volatile and dangerous or leave a living creature in terrible pain. An improperly brewed potion can have effects far more dreadful than any disease. And if your defense training fails you at the wrong time you might lose your life. Professor Snape and I have always taken out work very seriously to ensure that none of our students ever risk such failures."
"And whatever you may think, Professor Snape has done his job well." Professor McGonagall continued overriding the objections that each student was about to unleash. "To my knowledge no student Professor Snape has ever trained has harmed themselves with a poorly brewed potion, and an O on his O.W.L. tests are worth more than a N.E.W.T. grade from any other institution in the world. Snape trained is a quality that any profession that even remotely involves potions will jealously seek after for recruits. That skill and his commitment to your education and futures deserves your respect even if you don't like the man himself."
"I will not take house points from you for standing up for schoolmates." The professor pronounced in conclusion. "That is after all the exact quality I would hope you would show as Gryffindor students. But I will be giving you each detention for failing to show the dignity, self control, and respect I demand from my lions. And none of you will show this kind of behavior again. You can make your support for a student known without disrupting a class and refusing to learn things that might save your life one day. Do I make myself clear?"
She had and they said so. Harry had to admit that this was, as usual for Professor McGonagall, very fair. Harry understood the importance of learning all he could during his time at Hogwarts. But despite that he couldn't really make himself regret any of his actions. Professor McGonagall then continued handing out their punishments.
"Mr. Weasley, you will be spending your evenings in the hospital wing cleaning out anything that Madam Pomfrey needs cleansed. Mr. Potter you will be cleaning cauldrons for the potions class, and Mr. Thomas you will be helping Professor Hagrid muck out the school's horse stalls. All of you will be doing this for the next week, and will do so without using any magic. Finally each of you will apologize to Professor Snape during dinner tonight. And it had better be a sincere apology at that, or else you'll be doing the same tomorrow night."
In the end it was better than Harry expected. The apology to Snape was a far harder thing to do than cleaning out cauldrons for him but Harry managed it. The fact that Snape spent the whole time glaring across the table at Professor McGonagall made it much easier to do, since that made it clear he had wanted far harsher punishments for all of them.
Between his detentions, his new training sessions with Ron and Hermione, his regular school work and quidditch practice, Harry hardly had time to think for the next few days. But there was something about the whole incident that niggled at the back of his mind, demanding attention that he couldn't find the time to pay it. Before Harry knew it the day for their quidditch match had come.
The day proved every bit as miserable as Harry had feared. The rain was coming down in sheets, the air was gusting at speed, and the temperature was only a couple of degrees above freezing. Nonetheless the whole school seemed to turn out for the match. Harry even saw a large shaggy black dog poking around the stands as if searching for a way up into them. Harry half joked in his mind that it was the Grimm that Professor Trelawney had predicted was haunting him for the last two months now. But much like those predictions, Harry paid it little mind.
The bad weather of course made the game rather difficult. Harry could barely hear the starting whistle that sent them all up in the air. He couldn't hear the usual commentary at all. And since the rain made it nearly impossible to see out of his glasses he had almost no idea what was going on in the game, nor any idea where the snitch might be. He was badly tempted to activate his psychic sight, track the snitch's magic and end the game as soon as he could. After half an hour, Oliver Wood called a time out.
"We're up fifty points." He reported as they all gathered round on the soggy earth. "But this weather is getting worse and worse. If the game doesn't end soon I fear someone is going to have a nasty accident."
"I can't see a thing with my glasses like this though." Harry complained. Luckily Hermione had an idea and cast an impervious charm on Harry's glasses to make them resistant to rain water. Wood had to report this to Madam Hooch but she approved the spell given the dangerous flying conditions. However Cedric Diggory was allowed to put a charm on one of his teammates to make it fair. He chose a hearing charm so he could send orders to one of his chasers.
As Harry got back up into the air he quickly noticed the advantage this gave the Hufflepuffs. Their strategy relied on Diggory keeping above the match to watch what was happening and better coordinate his team. In the bad weather no one had been able to hear him. Now one of his chasers could relay his orders and their play greatly improved. Luckily the Gryffindor chasers and beaters were such a well coordinated machine that the lack of communication hardly slowed them down, and for every goal the reinvigorated Hufflepuffs got the Gryffindors got one as well to hold their lead. It seemed it would all come down to the snitch.
After another ten minutes or so, Harry finally caught a glimpse of gold. Unfortunately the snitch was closer to Diggory, though he hadn't spotted it yet. Harry tried to slowly make his way up the pitch without drawing notice. Once he got close enough to have an even chance of getting the snitch before Diggory, Harry felt an unnatural chill fill his bones.
Esharry pushed something away from his mind which made Harry feel much better. But it also let him realize what was happening. There was a dementor close by, trying to suck the happiness out of him. Harry's first instinct was to alert Madam Hooch to halt the game since the dementors were not supposed to be on school grounds and shouldn't be anywhere near his classmates. But at that moment Cedric finally realized what Harry was up to, spotted the snitch and went diving for it. Harry took off after him without thinking.
The feeling of cold soon returned, and Esharry continued to protect Harry's mind, but each attack was coming after him faster and faster. Since the Snitch was already spotted, Harry had no objections to looking out over the field with his psychic sight. He noticed dozens and dozens of dementor minds crawling about the field, shielded from sight by the unnatural darkness they wrapped themselves up in. Shadowy hands of dark emotion were reaching up for him from their assembled ranks. They weren't sucking in the happiness around themselves, feeding on those around them in general like the one on the train had. This was a coordinated and deliberate attack on him. They had formed the despair, fear and helplessness they made others feel into weapons that were trying to bring Harry down.
Harry fought back against them even as he lunged for the snitch. Focusing his power through the front of his mind, he formed his telepathy into deadly knives of hate and determination with which he cut through the hands that reached for him. He saw dementors below him shudder in pain and collapse, while others cried in terror. He reduced a dozen of them to wrecks, but dozens more still reached for him. He couldn't cut them down fast enough.
Two hundred feet from the ground, less than a hundred from the snitch, and fast gaining on Cedric, Harry felt the first hand reach him. Esharry knocked it away in an instant. A hundred and fifty feet from the ground, fifty from the snitch, the first hand latched on his mind and Esharry couldn't knock it away without letting six more take its place. Harry felt cold and despair sink into him. He stabbed the hand with all his psychic might and burned it away from to nothingness. Twenty feet from the snitch, just a broom's length behind Cedri, three dark hands grabbed his brain, and it was over.
"No! No! No!" Cried the lost voice of his dead mother, thundering in Harry's head. "Not Harry! Don't kill my son! Not Harry!"
"Stand aside! Stand aside!" Ordered the harsh voice of Lord Voldemort that Harry knew all too well. "Do not make me destroy you like his father did!"
"Noooooo!" Shrieked the voice of his mother, and then that cry devolved into a terrible, soul rending scream as the sound of rushing wind and crackling lightning filled Harry's ears. Then he blessedly knew no more.
Esharry tried to carry on the fight. But as Harry slipped under their power waned for a moment. That was all the dementors needed as dozens of hands now piled on to their mind trying to drown them in psychic pain. Esharry's hands went numb and he slipped from their broom. As he too was overwhelmed and dragged into unconsciousness he heard the dementors speak into his mind.
"Give in. Give in, great one. Submit to us mighty survivor. Let us take away the boy's pain. Let us give him the peace of oblivion. Then we will make you into one such as us. You will be our king and we shall plunge this world into eternal despair."
Harry awoke in a bed in what he quickly recognized as the school's hospital wing. He first felt a tremendous sense of relief coming from Esharry as he also regained his senses and felt that Harry was still alive. Harry quickly found himself wrapped up in a bone crushing hug from Hermione as Ron and the Gryffindor quidditch team piled in around him.
"We thought you were a goner." Fred commented almost casually. "You must've dropped a hundred feet after you fell off."
"What happened?" Harry asked. "How am I alright? And what happened to the dementors?"
"Professor Dumbledore happened." Ron said.
"I've never seen him so mad." Angelina Johnson added. "He was furious that the dementors had invaded school grounds. He chased them off with some bright white bird he summoned from his wand and caught you mid air as you fell."
"What about the game?" Harry pressed as he began to gradually disentangle himself from Hermione. She had been shaking as she held him but seemed to have calmed down now. "Is there going to be a rematch?"
"Sadly not." Oliver Wood put in from where he had been standing at the back of the group. "Cedric Diggory caught the snitch just after you slid off your broom. He tried to refuse the win because he hadn't noticed that there were dementors on the field or how badly they were affecting you. But he still caught it fair and square. Just more bad luck for us."
Harry was very disappointed to hear this news. It was the first time he had ever failed to catch the snitch. He would've loved to blame it all on the dementors, but the truth was that Cedric had been ahead of him just before the end and probably would have caught it had the dementors not been there.
"Don't worry about it Harry." George encouraged him. "You can't win them all. And we only lost by a hundred points."
"If Hufflepuff goes down to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin we have a good chance of beating them over all." Fred added. Everyone in the team chimed in with agreement on that. The Hufflepuffs had played well, but they were a pretty young team with lots of new members, up against the more experienced teams from the other houses they would be hard pressed to get any more wins. Of course this meant that Gryffindor absolutely couldn't lose again or else they would be out of the running.
After the team wished him a quick recovery and left, Harry asked after what had happened to his broom. Sadly this led to more bad news.
"After you fell the wind caught it." Ron reluctantly explained. "Everyone was worried about you or was caught up in watching Dumbledore chase off the dementors. So we didn't notice it drifting away until it was too late. Sorry mate but it got caught by the whomping willow."
Harry cringed. The whomping willow was a magical tree capable of moving on its own. If anything came too close to its branches, they would form into fists and pummel the intruder until it was forced away. Harry and Ron had learned this the hard way last year when they had crashed a flying Ford Anglia into it. The car had taken such a beating for the tree that after they had escaped it dumped the two of them out and escaped into the forbidden forest. As far as Harry knew it was still out there, living its best car life going on adventures and rescuing children from giant spiders.
Hermione held up a sad looking bag that was definitely not broom shaped. Harry wasn't surprised. If a car could take such a beating from the whomping willow then he was honestly surprised they rescued enough of his broom from the tree to fill a sack.
It was probably the single worst thing about this whole experience. That broomstick had been like an old friend to him. Flying had been the one thing that more than anything else convinced Harry that has life was going to be better away from the Dursleys. The sheer exhilaration and freedom it had brought him was tremendous. The only loss that might cut worse would be the loss of Hedwig, his pet owl, or God forbid: Ron or Hermione.
That thought gripped his heart like a vice and it took a monumental act of will to keep from breaking down and bawling like a child then and there. But he did manage to. He kept up conversation with Ron and Hermione for a while, talking about why the dementors might have gathered, or what kind of broom he might get for his next game. Eventually Madam Pomfrey conveyed them out of the room insisting that Harry needed his rest. This turned out to be true as Harry quickly fell asleep.
November passed well after that. Harry's classes were going well. Professor Lupin returned the next week from his sickness. He thanked the class for standing up for him, and then scolded them for not listening to the man he had picked for his substitute. Luckily his lesson on hinkypunks went very well and was quite enjoyable.
Snape came down hard on Ron, Harry and Dean during their next few potion lessons. But they had been prepared for that. They kept polite, read ahead in the book to be ready for whatever curve balls Snape might throw at them, and worked diligently through the lessons. Despite his best efforts, Snape couldn't manage to get more than twenty points off any of them. And Ron even managed to pull his grades up a bit thanks to the grim power of spite. Even better, since Snape was focussing so hard on the three of them, he didn't have the time to berate poor Neville who performed much better without the added pressure.
Draco dropped the act of pretending his arm was hurt the very first day Harry came back from the hospital wing. He celebrated his "recovery" by making an impression of how Harry had fell from his broom. When Harry next saw him leaning against one of the brass guardrails that ran up one of Hogwarts' many spiraling and moving staircases, he sent a little lightning spell through the guardrail to make the boy almost jump over the side and panic as he scrambled back into place. Then Harry put on a performance of that embarrassment for the Gryffindors during the next dinner. How Malfoy glared daggers in response to that.
Hagrid's care of magical creatures class had a rough few weeks following the hippogriff incident. Hagrid had managed to spend a few more classes teaching about the hybrid horse birds but after that went on to teach about flubber worms which were much less interesting. By the end of November, his confidence was back and he had moved on to teaching about more interesting creatures.
"This is a kneazle." He explained holding up what looked an awful lot like a house cat, save for its much larger ears and longer tail. "Highly intelligent beasts they are, and unlike cats they tend to move in packs. Never try and catch a kneazle they're too clever for that, but ya can lure them to ya with a bit of meat or fish. Try it out."
The class set about trying to get one of the dozen odd felines to come close to them. Some had near instant success like Neville and Hermione. Some took a while like Ron and Dean Thomas. Harry, Draco and about half the Slytherins couldn't get one to come within ten feet of them. Hagrid showed those that got a kneazle near them how to brush and scratch them properly to get them puring and happy. Near the end of class he gave them a quick lecture that stuck in the back of Harry's mind for the next few days.
"Kneazles are very particular about who they'll hang out with. They've got an uncanny ability to tell who's trustworthy and who's hiding things from em. If you can earn their friendship then nothing short of trying to kill em will lose it. And they'll help you out with almost anything even if it puts them at risk. They make great guard beasts, perfect for watching after a shop or home that yer often away from."
"Mind you they ain't easy to keep as pets," Hagrid continued. "Since they're always getting into mischief. Can't train it out of them, it's in their nature. A kneazle will take risks to keep the rest of its pack safe. So if they think something around you might be dangerous, like a fast running river, a friend that always gets into trouble or a nick nack kept up high where it might easily fall over, then they'll never stop bothering it until you've seen and recognized the danger. This can get them into a piece of trouble if ya don't keep an eye on em."
"It's what we call magically encouraged behavior." Hagrid explained. "Creatures with magic in them often have parts of their personality or behavior that they just can't keep from practicing. Sometimes it's something they can't stop from doing, that's what we call magically enforced behavior. Like how sphinxes make ya answer riddles before they let you pass or attack. Or like how a hippogriff won't hurt ya if yer polite to it. And sometimes it's only encouraged, like kneazles getting into trouble or unicorns not letting boys touch em. The creature can ignore a magically encouraged behavior, but they're not likely to."
"Where things get tricky," And here Hagrid got very serious. "Is when you're dealing with magical beings that are as smart as any witch or wizard. How can ya tell the difference between magically enforced or encouraged behavior and what's just part of their culture? I've never known a centaur that didn't love nature, carry a bow, refuse to wear more clothing than a coat and think that any forest they were trotting through was their own property. But is that part of their nature or their culture? And how could you ever tell the difference. Most people agree that goblins and centaurs don't have any magically enforced tendencies. Largely because the last time someone suggested to a goblin that they did, they almost got an ax in their skull."
"And those are just the ones we have an easy time getting along with." Hagrid continued and now he has the undivided attention of the class. "Most agree that giants are so dangerous because their magic doesn't let them trust anyone that might compete with them for food and resources. Makes sense. Giants are big they need a lot of vitals to keep em fed. Obviously they wouldn't want trolls, dragons or even other giants moving in and taking their stuff. And they don't trust wizards or muggles not to rob em. But is that magically enforced behavior or just encouraged? Back in the dark ages muggles used to bribe giants with food and tribute to make em live nearby. The giants would see the muggles as a source of supplies, not a threat and they would protect those muggles and make no trouble for em. Giant lords they used to be called. And those few wizards that will deal with giants will tell ya that a giant can be made safe to be around if ya give em gifts and act scared of em. Convinces em ya aren't a threat."
"Begs the question don't it if maybe giants might be made safe to live around if they were kept near communities that knew how to handle them." Hagrid said and most the students that came from wizarding families cringed back from the very idea. "Yeah it's a scary thought isn't it? Giants are bigger, smarter and tougher than trolls and as resistant to magic as dragons are. If anything went wrong doing that it could get a lot of people hurt. So most people say, they've got to be kept in their reservations. But giants don't like to be around each other. They fight amongst themselves and the losers get kicked out to cause trouble for all of us. Dozens of muggles die every year because of giants that are forced from the reservations and try to take revenge on muggles or any wizards they happen to come across. And back during the bad old days You Know Who convinced a lot of giants that if they fought for him he would treat em better than the ministry does. Hundreds died because of that. So maybe something new needs to be tried. These are the sorts of things ya got to think about when yer older. For now though I think it will be good enough if ya spend six inches or so of parchment thinking about whether a kneazle would make a good pet fur ya or not."
November gave way to December. Rain turned to snow. Harry finished mastering his restricted spells during his spare time and turned his attention to what he might try and learn next to better protect himself. Esharry suggested they try to learn the Patronus Charm, as it seemed to Esharry that the dementors might be attracted to Harry's psychic power and so future attacks might be something they just had to live with. When Harry suggested it to Hermione she suggested asking Professor Lupin for help. He knew how to cast the spell and after what had happened on the train and the game he could hardly argue that Harry didn't need to know it. This seemed a sensible course of action, so Harry did just that.
Professor Lupin was most agreeable to the notion. He knew Harry needed such protection since he had suffered more in his life than most and so made a particularly attractive target to the dementors. However the Professor was already hard pressed himself as his sickness had left him behind on his work. He promised he would help Harry but he couldn't do so until after Christmas and the start of second term.
During the last days before the Christmas break another Hogsmead weekend was scheduled. Harry resigned himself to being the only third year student to be left behind, again. But then he received something of an early Christmas present from the Weasley twins.