Harry was surprised as the christmas holidays approached . This would be the first year where nothing had happened before the end of the first term.
He hsd become closer with many of the students in Hufflepuff, as well as, Luna. He even had a couple of conversations with some of the less atagonistic slytherins.
He had bought many of the christmas presents that he planned on giving to his friends at the most recent Hogsmeade visit.
Harry was curruntly sitting in his favorite chair by the fire thinking about the most recent Hogsmeade visit.
Sirius had invited Harry, Susan, Neville, and Hermione to hang out with him, Mary and Natalie (Amelia couldnt get away from the DMLE). Harry really appreciated hearing about his parents and really enjoyed hanging out with Natalie. He could also tell that Sirius was happy to travel through memory lane with Mary concern James and Lily. Natalie alway sat next to Harry and the two appeared to have similar interests concerning quidditch. Harry also told her about some of the cool places he had found in Hogwarts.
While he was staring into the flames reminiscing, Susan , Hannah, and Neville walked in and sat in the chairs around Harry.
Harry heard Susan ask Neville and Hannah about their plans for Christmas.
"My Gran and I usually stay around the house and we visit some family on Christmas Eve." Neville replied. Harry wondered if the family Neville was talking about were his parents in St. Mungos.
Hannah shrugged. "I am not sure yet. I was hoping we could hang out at some point.
The three friends looked at Harry as he said he wasnt going anywhere careful not to look at any of his friends. Sometimes he really hated the emotions of his younger self. There were times when he wasnt able to contol his emotions as well as he had been able to before.
"Harry, I thought you knew better after this summer." Susan started. "Your coming with me to Bones Manor. "Auntie said the both of you are welcome tt stay with us until you and Sirius are able to move into Potter Manor."
Harry grinned. "I had hoped to leave, but nobody said anything to me about it. I have always just stayed at Hogwarts, not being welcome at the Dursleys.
He saw the expressions of his three friends darken and could tell that Susan really wanted to do something about it.
The four went down to breakfast the next morning and looked around the Great Hall and saw that most of the students were going home. Most of the students who would be staying slept in, while those who left usually woke up in time for an early breakfast. None of the Weasley's appeared to be leaving as none of them were present.
The train ride was uneventful. Hermione and Luna had joined the four puffs and the six spent most of the time either talking, playing exploding snap, or reading.
As Harry and Susan walked up to Sirius and Amelia they noticed the two discreetly holding hands. Susan and Harry raised their eyebrows and approached the two. Susan ran up to her auntie and gave her a hug while Harry did the same with Sirius. Harry still had a difficult time reconciling with the death of sirius in the previous timeline.
"Hey pup, Its good to see you. How was the semester you two."
Harry grinned. "Compared to the other two years I've attended this year is extremely quiet. Nothing of note has happened, we have an excellent teacher for defense in Professor Lupin, my defense club has been approved, and i now have friends in all four houses. The only problem I've had is the fight with Ron at the beginning of term that caused our resorting and a lot of people are upset that I am no longer playing quidditch. I could care less either way as long as I get to go out and fly. Flying is what i enjoy the most, not quidditch."
The four headed to the floo area of the platform and flooed to Bones Manor. Susan and Amelia headed upstairs while Sirius and Harry headed into the back yard.
"Alright Pup, we are going to work on exercising your animagus form and your abilities in that form. Go ahead and transform." With that Harry shifted into his panther form. He had gotten a bit bigger approaching the full height and growth of the panther. Harry had been working on the speed of his transformation by performing the transformation everyday before Neville woke up.
Sirius shifted into his Grim form and started chasing Harry playfully. Amelia and Susan came out to the back yard in jeans and tank tops and watched the two. At one point, Sirius had lunged at Harry and playfully bit him and then ran off. Harry fell behind and everyone could hear the frustrated growl coming from the panther.
Susan and Amelia gasped as the air around the panther grew darker and the panther dissappeared and reappeared on top of the massive dog. While Harry and Sirius had known about the possible shadow abilities Susan and Amelia had not.
The two shifted back, grinning, as Amelia and Susan approached.
Harry whooped. He was hoping the shadow abilities would appear and he could start working on them.
"What was that?" Susan asked.
"Harry just confirmed that he is a shadow panther. It is a magical animagus form that will allow him to use shadows in a number of different ways. The two most common known abilities are shadow travel and melting into the shadows, thus making him practically invisible in shadows if he chooses to be. With enough practice he should be able to use the abilities in both his human and panther forms. Though the effects will be much stronger in the panther form. He also should gain excellent hearing, sight and a much better sense of smell. Panthers are known to hunt based on their enhanced senses of hearing and sight."
He then turned to Harry. "What were you thinking when you shadow travelled.
Harry couldnt help but grin. "I wanted to catch you and get you back for that bite. Also the senses are already enhanced they appeared at the first transformation and have only gotten better since. It can get extremely distracting at the school." Harry blushed as he said this.
Sirius grinned and shook his head knowing some of the things that Harry would be able to Hear and smell.
"Why are you blushing, Harry?" Susan asked.
"I dont know the distances yet but i can hear almost everything in the school amd can smell everything on any floor that I am on at the moment. The smells coming from everyone can be overwhelming."
Amelia understood almost immediately and put her hand on Susan's shoulder. "I'll explain it to you later, Susan."
Harry looked at the woman he was beginning to see as family gratefully, glad that he would not have to say anymore on the subject.
Dobby and the Bones family elf, Lucy, were in the manor kitchen preparing a dinner and dessert of shephard's pie and treacle tart while the four had been outside.
Harry was pleased that the bones had allowed Harry to have Dobby around the house and were ok with letting Dobby join them at the dinner table. he had even seen Lucy startung to accept the changes. more often then not the elf was seen to be wearing either a uniform with the Bones crest on it or a child's dress. The little elf was still relunctant to sit and eat with Susan and Amelia she felt it was her responsibility to serve make sure everyone had what they needed but she was coming around.
After dinner they began discussing Harry and Susans plans after the Christmas holidays. Harry had exhuberantly started describing his plans for his defense club.
"I have talked with Flitwick and Lupin and they will be helping me to lead a defense study group that will help everyone learn what they need to know and should allow us to make sure that everyone can protect themselves. More often then not the defense teacher is subpar and this club should allow us to fill in the gaps for those who have had bad teachers and help when the teachers who are awful."
"What i would like to do is have a general study group with whoever wants to attend from all houses and then have a second group with some hand picked students who are excelling or who we can trust without a doubt. The best way i can think to describe this would the split between Voldemort's death eaters. All of them participate but he also has an inner circle. I learned this past term that my grandfather had been a part or a group who fought against Grindelwald. I would like to have something similar to that with my group. I plan on calling them the "Shadow Legion", a subtle nod to my panther form. While the defense club will be held in the Great Hall, i am thinking that i will use the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement for the meetings of the Shadow Legion. Dobby and I have spent some of the weekends in the chamber exploring and cleaning it up. I am hoping to find some way to make it easier to access than all of us using moaning myrtles bathroom."
Harry took a moment to drink some water before continuing.
"While cleaning and exploring in the chamber we found some interesting rooms behind the statue of salazar slytherin. We found a personal library of books that Salazar had hoarded, both in our language and in parsletongue, that i have been studying when i get a chance. We also found a room that has much less dust then the rest of them that have a bunch of handwritten notes and sleeping quarters. After looking at some of the note we found that Voldemort had been staying in the chamber occasionaly and used the room to hash out his plans. We found notes on the dark marks, notes on escaping death, and plans for recruiting likeminded people to join him in his pureblood cause. I have learned a great deal about the Dark Mark. How it is applied, how to earn it, how to remove it, and even what it does. The Dark Mark gives him a connection to his death eaters that he can draw strength and magic from, gives both him and his followers a means of location for apparition by following the mark and a means of punishing his followers without a wand."
"Thanks to these notes and my second chance at defeating him i have been spending a great deal of my free time messing with his plans for the mark and have created my own for the members of the Shadow Legion."
Harry then showed the Susan, Sirius, and Amelia his drawing of a panther leaping out of shadows. Harry then told the three how his would be different and that the mark could be placed anywhere they wanted and showed them the left side of his chest. Just above the nipple was mark that was on the table. "Unlike Voldemort, i too will have the mark of my friends, family, and legion."
Harry then looked at the three and asked if they wanted to be the first to join. All three agreed, and it was decided that in an effort to prevent Voldemort and his followers knowing that Harry knew all about the dark mark, everyone would have the mark on their left pectoral/breast. Harry pulled out his wand and tapped the three on the spot where the mark would be located, the magic would obviously pass through the clothing, and hissed in parseltongue "Umbra Signum" once for each of them.
Immediately the four could feel the connection to each other and were eager to see how this would change the course of the upcoming war.
Before the kids knew it they were on their way back to Hogwarts. Harry had sent Hedwig to each of his friends houses during the christmas break. Dobby had offered to pop the presents to their houses but Harry had told him that he didnt use Hedwig very often and wanted to give her some work to do. Even though she spent most of her time in the evenings and overnight, if she wasnt out hunting, in his and Neville's dorm, she didn't often get sent with mail. He had also sent her to fly to hogwarts instead of join them on the train.
After dinner, Dumbledore stood up and informed the school of the new club.
"Students, Mr. Potter has asked me to allow a new DADA group to be formed. All houses and all years will be allowed to join. Professors Lupin and Flitwick will be joining Mr. Potter as the faculty sponsorship for this club. Those who would like to join the club can remain here after dinner tomorrow night for the first session. At this session we will be planning out the future sessions and will likely give a presentation and answer any questions. You are all dismissed for the night." With his speech done, Dumbledore sat back down.
Many of the students were talking as they got up and headed to their various common rooms.
The next evening it seemed as if almost all of the students third year and below showed up for the club. Most of the students who attended the club from the years above him were people that knew him from either being in Gryffindor or playing against him in Quidditch. The upper years he did not know were mainly those that had ambitions that would require a decent grade in DADA. As Head Boy and Girl, Percy and Penelope Clearwater, Penny, were there to help out.
AN: Sorry for the long hiatus on this story. i went back to school in an attempt to chabge careers. The last six months were hectic with all that i had to do. I have also changed my username from AhsokaTano to Ben-Jammin2291.
With regards to my to my two stories, i feel that typing them whenever i get inspiration has caused the quality of the story to decline. I will go ahead and post this chapter and start handwriting future chapters. I will attempt to leave a note on my profile as to the progress of the current chapters at least once a week.