Septanic Dueling

Nappamort

Rating: PG13
Genres: Romance, Action & Adventure
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 4
Published: 21/11/2002
Last Updated: 18/02/2003
Status: paused

The summer after his fourth year, Harry discovers that he has a cool new power. Since the Dursley’s leave on a vacation, he ends up staying with Hermione’s family. That’s not all... What happens when Hermione’s family decides to take the vacation they wanted to go on? Deatheaters, Dueling tournaments, fighting in the deserts of Morocco, war, peace, treaty and mysteries all come into play. See how Hermione changes and witness Ron’s ever increasing insensitivity and jealousy.

Chapters

1. CH 01 : Exploring No4 (beta by NATE)

2. CH 02 (beta by NATE)

3. Summer at the Granger’s

4. A New Bookworm & the Gifts

5. CH 05 (beta by NATE)

6. CH 06 (beta by NATE)

7. CH 07 (beta by NATE)

8. CH 08 (beta by NATE)

9. Ali Pasha & the Ukrainian Forest stories

10. The Gift

11. Septanic Games

12. The Dueling Lessons & another Nightmare

13. Carpet Ride and Griffin Watching

14. The day Harry Potter died

15. The Dead Body and the Carcass

16. The Nutcracker

17. Winking at Potter

18. The Dueling Demonstration

19. Button Chicken and Quill Bread

20. The New Potions teacher?*!

21. The Stone of Haguba & the Ferret scaring

22. Hermione doesn't know the answer

23. untitled

24. Early-morning Fun

25. " Class, Meet Cuddles"

26. Cho, Charms and Runes

27. The Big Surprise

28. Alicia & Katie and the hint of war

29. The Plight of a winged beast

30. Incidents, revelations

31. Plans, Parvati & Preconceptions

32. Ancient Magic

33. The long Explanation...

34. The long Explanations...2/3 (Harry’s Mark)

1. CH 01 : Exploring No4 (beta by NATE)

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If you are from schnoogle.com, then know that the writing quality is not good compared to the first chapter. It will get better, but beware that the chapters you are about to read started about a year ago. I was a lot more inexperienced then.
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Beta Edited and Revised Chapters: 01

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Harry Potter and Septanic Dueling
(part 1 of 3 in the Septanic Saga)
~Nappa
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Chapter 01: Exploring No.4 Privet Drive
Japanese Proverb: ‘The beginning of love is the end of Happiness’

After Harry received a clap on the back from Ron, Hermione said good-bye. Then she did something that Harry had never expected her to do- she leaned in close and quickly kissed him on the cheek.

Harry did not have time to think about the kiss as Fred and George materialized next to him. While George whispered a thanks, Fred at his side nodded his head very fast. Harry was afraid that if Fred continued to do what he was doing, something inside Fred’s head might come loose. Then he thought otherwise as he remembered the countless things that the twins had done. He winked at them and then turned to Uncle Vernon.

Harry’s uncle, the plump, bull-headed man with no neck, started heading towards the station exit. Harry followed, giving a last wave to his friends. He looked out the window as the car quickly passed the station and then the busy streets lined with shops. As the car continued slowly into the residential district, Harry comforted himself with one thought.

There’s no point in worrying about it… like Hagrid said, what would come, would come…

A look of harsh determination passed his face for a few seconds, before he finished his thought.

And I’ll meet it when it comes…

Harry’s back ached as he sat upright on the back seat of his uncle’s car. Though it was quite an expensive car and had plush leather seats, it really wasn’t comfortable for Harry to sit on. He was feeling tense from the events of the past year. He looked out the window and watched the number of shops along the streets decrease while the number of houses increased, until there were only houses on both sides of the road with the occasional corner dairy.

Vernon Dursley looked several times at his nephew in the rear view mirror. The statement on Harry’s face was that of a person in great pain and even he did not dare rile the boy. However, it was not because he actually gave a damn about his nephew. No—it was because he was afraid that Harry would lose control of his powers and blow him up like Harry did to his sister Marge two years ago.

Harry had to make two trips to the get all his school things back into his room. His trunk went to the closet in his room as Vernon wanted the cupboard under the stairs free that year to house some of the materials he ordered for the company that he directed. Once his second trip was finished, Harry locked himself into the room and fell onto the bed. He brought up his knees up to his chest and started to shiver slightly as he rocked back and forth.

***

It’s been three days already, thought Vernon as he nervously paced outside the door to his nephew’s room.

Today was the fourth day since Harry’s arrival back at his house. As much as Vernon loved locking Harry up in his room, he was really quite afraid of what his nephew was doing in his bedroom. Several times that morning, he had knelt down beside the cat flap that he had been using to put meals inside Harry’s room. Petunia would usually do this sort of thing but she refused to even look at her nephew this summer.

For the last three days whenever he opened the flap, he saw that the food was still there, uneaten. He was facing a very tough dilemma. If he broke into the room and forced his nephew to eat, Harry might send a letter to Sirius Black, his godfather who was known for murdering good ordinary people, explaining that he'd been forced to do something. However, if he died of starvation the whole of the magical community would come after him. Vernon knew Harry was some kind of celebrity among those he called "the freaks." Also there was no telling what Black would do to him if something happened to Harry.

After pacing for a few more moments, he finally had enough courage to kneel down and check the cat flap. He was simply overjoyed when he saw that the food that had been piled up at the door for the last three days was now all gone. There wasn’t even a crumb of that horrible meatloaf his wife had made left on the plate.

Vernon did not know exactly why he didn’t just go into Harry’s room and give him chores to do but he suspected that it had something to do with the fact that his company’s share price had tripled and the dividend that was due to come this week would be almost three times his monthly pay. His delight could be seen as he walked to the kitchen. There was an unmistakable spring in his step as he walked.

Unknown to Vernon, Harry had spent most of the last three out of four days experimenting with something, in his opinion, so wonderful that he could not be bothered to eat. It had all begun with the nightmare he had on the day he got back from Hogwarts.

***

Four days earlier…

Though Harry had felt that he could meet the challenge of what was to come, he really had no idea that, once back in his bedroom, his optimism would shatter so quickly. Unable to bear the pain of holding back all that he was feeling, he moved to the bed. He tucked his knees against his chest and started to rock back and forth slightly. Shivers passed through his body with each memory that assaulted his mind. Harry didn’t know when he finally was able to sleep but he did fall asleep very soon afterwards.

Yet slumber did not hold the key to Harry’s salvation from the memories as his mind played the events of the TriWizard Tournament with vivid details. As that horrible scene kept replaying in his mind, Cedric’s face was constantly being replaced by other faces that Harry had seen in his life. Try as Harry might, he was unable to wake up from his nightmare until he saw the death of one person that he could not bear to live without.

That was Hermione.

However, once he was awake, he could not remember who the last person who had died was. The pain of loss had awakened him from the nightmare, but it also took away the cause of pain, the fragment of the dream that had ultimately caused him to wake.

Sitting up on the bed, with his blanket covering him from the waist down, Harry considered telling Ron or Sirius about his nightmares. He decided against it seeing as his scar had not been hurting. He did not want to bother them or Hermione to worry about him. Especially since, there was not cause to.

To get his mind off his bad dream, he flicked his gaze to the side of his bed. His bedside alarm clock read 3:00 am. Not wanting to go back to sleep and feeling a bit thirsty, Harry decided to go to the kitchen. In order to avoid awakening the Dursley’s, Harry silently got out of his bed and very gently opened his bedroom door.

Half-way down the corridor, he noticed a blue glow coming from Dudley's room through the door, left slightly ajar. After the events of TriWizard Tournament, Harry had taken to heart the advice that ‘Mad Eye’ Moody, or rather Barty Crouch, had dished out often — "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" — and always kept his wand with him. He reached into his pocket and retrieved it. He shifted his wand from one hand to the other as he moved towards the door. He took a deep breath and poked his head into the room, slowly, attempting to see if — really — he was in danger, without any idea as to what he’d do should he be.

Dudley had grown even larger than the last time Harry had seen him and that was almost a year ago. Harry noted that the double bed in his room looked a bit stressed under his cousin’s overwhelming weight, as he lay there on his stomach, sleeping.

Harry was surprised to see the source of the blue glow. It was the new 29" plasma-whatever TV he had acquired while Harry was gone. But the real surprise came when he actually noticed what Dudley had been watching. It was a late night soft porn flick called "Return of the Arse Avenger." Harry, being at Hogwarts all year, had never seen anything like it. Naturally, he was intrigued but after a few minutes of stupid pickup lines and senseless plot, Harry lost interest. He felt his stomach make a low rumbling noise. He was thirsty again.

It seemed odd to him that just because a man showed up at the doorstep of a woman, they would immediately engage in sex. It was unrealistic. He had asked Cho but she hadn’t wanted to go the ball with him and he had only asked for a date to the ball — it was far less then sex. It made him wonder if people who made the videos actually knew any girls. Real girls like Hermione, Fleur and Cho, seemed to him like mysteries. Hermione with her odd ideas and love for adventure, and then wearing the pretty blue dress and going to the dance — a very girl-like things to do, since she always seemed to like things the boys do. Fleur seemed like a snobby girl in the beginning, but once he got to know her, she was kind and nice.

Harry realized the only way to stop Voldemort from ruling over his life and ruining his childhood was for him to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all. He would never be able to get involved with a girl otherwise. Hermione was just a friend, but she was in a lot of danger because of it. Harry was suddenly glad that Cho had said no. Otherwise, she might have been targeted by Voldemort.

To do what so many had failed to do before, Harry knew that he would have to be more serious in his studies and probably do a lot of extra work. Extra work could mean that he would need more time for his study. Time he would only get if he stopped going to Quidditch practices — and therefore the end of Quidditch playing! He really didn’t want to do that, because it would take away the only way he’d relax and his means of getting back at the Slytherins, like Malfoy, who took pleasure in making his life a living hell.

Harry was surprised at his own determination to face his parent’s murderer. With his nightmare now forgotten and a new resolution for the future, Harry quickly headed to his room. He made sure that he turned the TV off noiselessly as he left. He wasn’t sure that was a wise move, as it could very well have woken Dudley up. Even if it didn’t, it might have made Dudley realize that he had sneaked into his room, when he had been sleeping. Turning the television back on was a risk that he simply did not want to take. It might have been more trouble then it was worth.

Approaching the kitchen, he stepped on a particularly old, squeaking floor board. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, almost sure that his aunt or uncle had heard it and would be soon barging out of their bedroom. Harry turned and walked back to his room, as fast as he could, without making anymore noise – his thirst would have to wait.

Lying in his bed Harry tried actively to think of other things to keep his mind off the nightmare and his increasing thirst. Transfiguration… everything in there. I need to work on Potions — Snape isn’t going to stop making life difficult for me; more chances of him shaving his greasy hair off. Harry mentally smiled. Maybe Hermione can help me in Charms and Defense against Dark Arts… I’m going to need to focus on those. I’m going to be of no use in a duel, if I’m not in those two.

Thinking of Voldemort again was not helping him go back to sleep, so he decided to think of his friends. I wonder if Sirius is okay. I hope Remus knows where to keep him safe. I don’t want him hurt. Maybe he’ll stay over at Ron’s house. It’d be wonderful. I could see him, if I went there. Then Harry’s mind turned sour. Or not. Maybe I should send him an owl, telling him to stay far away from this country altogether.

His thoughts then focused on Hermione. I hope she’s having fun on her holiday. Harry knew that Hermione’s parents usually took holidays when she was home. He was sure she was overseas — far from trouble. He remembered how worried she looked at the station. Harry’s hand moved unconsciously to where she had kissed him, rubbing that spot gently. Hermione had surprised him with the peck on the cheek, but it was probably because she was really concerned, he thought. It had to be, he reasoned, Hermione seemed to like Ron, and that broken arm on the Krum doll must have meant something…

His thought trailed to the Weasley clan. I wonder how long before Ron gets his new dress robes. Fred and George, I’m sure, have already been to Diagon Alley for supplies… Should I owl them about the dream? I guess not. They won’t know what to do anyway – Hermione then?… no. I don’t want to worry her again.

Harry’s thoughts were getting more and more fragmented, as slumber inched closer to him. It was a while before he finally drifted off to sleep.

***

Consciousness brushed his mind, and Harry found himself sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked at the grilled window and found that it was still dark outside. Wanting to go back to sleep he turned to where he usually slept. Surprisingly though, someone was already occupying that place.

It was him.

Suddenly, realization struck him. He was dead. Great! The day I decide to be a better student, I die…, he sulked for a moment. He paced back and forth a little, patiently awaiting the arrival of an angel or a demon to take him to his final resting place or, even, the proverbial bright white light.

That idea quickly went out the window when he noticed something about his body on the bed. Hey! Wait a minute… I can see myself breathing — this is too strange —, if I’m breathing and that is me, then I’m just dreaming… or something like that. Maybe I should try to wake up.

As soon as that thought passed Harry’s mind, he felt himself bolt up on his bed. He immediately jumped straight out of it and stared at it as if it had just tried to pinch his bottom. He felt the need to take a few deep and soothing breaths. Finally, after about half an hour, his heart rate seemed to be back to normal.

Harry was pacing around his bed, careful not to make too much noise. He needed to know exactly what was happening. Telling Ron or Hermione was out of the question since they would just try to get him to warn Dumbledore or Sirius, and he did not want Sirius to worry about him or do something that might lead to his capture. Hermione and they had been worrying about him enough as it was, he did not want to be a nuisance to them.

Harry decided that he’d better try to sleep again in an attempt to take Sirius off his mind. Maybe it won't happen again…, thought Harry foolishly. He was certain that what he was doing could kill him. He had been able to bring himself out of it the last time by trying to wake himself up, but there really was no guarantee that he would be able to get out this time. What if something other than himself had gotten him out of that state? What if the next time he could not do it? What if he was trapped, and people, thinking he was dead, would bury him?

Harry, however, was curious. As his thoughts drifted back and forth between his friends and his own parents, he slowly succumbed to sleep.

Only three minutes passed before he found himself back in the same situation as earlier. Though he briefly panicked, he quickly recovered and attempted to wake up, like he had done before, to escape his dream-like state. When he found himself tangled in his blanket, it felt like only an instant had passed.

From his past two experiences, Harry assumed that exploring whatever it was he was doing wouldn’t be of any harm. He actually started having fun going to sleep and waking up, staring at himself as if it were a mirrored reflection, his already messy hair even more messed up with sweat, and his face with a very slight smile. He stared at himself for a long while, every second expecting his body to take a life of its own and scare the hell out him, which, fortunately, it didn’t.

I can really see myself as others see me. I have a reasonable face, a toned body, but very few muscles, bright green eyes — which I can't see 'cause they’re closed…

Harry gasped at his thoughts. He couldn’t get over himself. Keep it up, Harry, and you'll be a regular Lockhart in no time!, he scolded himself —amusement laced his voice. He decided that since it was almost morning, he might as well experiment some more before the slave drivers woke up.

Experiment, he did. And he did it for three days straight. Though he knew he was overdoing it, the fun of whatever it was, was too incredible for him to stop. Harry had no idea how he was doing it, but he had learned it to be safe since all he had to do was think about waking up and he would.

On the first day, he had not tried to leave his room and instead had opted to explore it — though later he would find out that it might have had been impossible for him to actually leave the room then anyway.

At first, it was hard to touch things. Harry would feel excruciating pain somewhat close to that of the Cruciatus curse, for touching — maybe it should be referred to as attempting to touch, since he passed right through objects — objects that were either metallic or of magical nature. The non-magical or non-metallic objects felt like mere pricks of needles, although such pain was constant as well. Six hours of extensive experimentation and the pain subsided to that of a pencil being stabbed into his arm for both magical and metallic objects, while the stinging for other things totally disappeared.

His biggest challenge was passing through the closet door. Harry’s mind was racing faster than it ever had. He realized that this power or ability that he possessed would come in handy as a reconnaissance tool. Having the ability to walk though walls should certainly prove useful.

The pain almost made him feel like he was going to black out — but Harry quickly realized the irony in that statement.

How can anyone pass out in his sleep?

Harry quickly stopped trying to get into the closet. He had a weird feeling that if he actually passed out there, while he was still in this dream-like state, he might end up dying. At this point Harry looked at the clock on his bed table, which read 2:02 p.m. Vernon had left food near the door but Harry was not hungry at all.

Harry dedicated most of the eight next hours, slowly building up his level of pain tolerance by gradually putting more of his body through the door. When he finally did pass it, he suddenly realized that the further he got from his real body, the harder it was to get through things.

Harry had always loved to seek his limits: to see what he could, and couldn’t do. New things always strike him as intriguing. He knew that this power would probably be of no use to him, if he was not able to use it properly and to its fullest extent. Harry toyed with the idea to see if he was able to leave the room thinking of his newly gained talent. He wondered if it actually was possible to leave the room. If he couldn’t leave the room, what good would it serve?

The pain that Harry experienced when he tried to get through the door was actually ten times higher. At first, Harry attributed this to the fact that, for some reason, the door to his room was much thicker than the closet door — it would not be until later that Harry realized that with practice, the pain could almost become bearable.

As he left the room, he could feel the pain approaching again. A hour and a half were required for Harry to figure out that the fastest way to advance from the room was to take two step forward, and one back, rest, and then repeat the process.

Eventually, after two days of experimenting, Harry thought up of a name to qualify what he was doing. He did not have any idea what it was called in reality — or if it had a name for that matter —, but he wanted to have something short to call it. He chose "Moon Walking" because of the fact that he still had to take a few steps forwards and then back a few. Harry imagined that he looked much like the Muggle dancer he had seen on television and, for some reason, he remembered the name of the awkward dance.

Harry had deprived himself from food and water during this time. His uncle had been slipping meals under the door, but Harry was not interested. It seemed like his body was working off energy reserves that he knew not of. Once he did realize that he did not need food yet, Harry tried his best not to snap himself out of the Moon Walking phase. He wanted to see how long Harry would last. Information, he thought would be very useful, if he was able to survive.

At the end of the second day, Harry discovered something quite new. It happened when he was "Moon Walking" and had stumbled into Dudley's room. Harry could see bubbles above Dudley's head — like those in Ron’s or Dudley’s comic books — as he slept. When Harry entered the room, the white bubble was empty but soon it started to show Dudley's dreams.

Dudley was dreaming that he was on the beach, with several extremely beautiful women, wearing bikinis so small that Harry thought it might have been more decent to not wear anything at all. Suddenly a woman appeared out of thin air and gave Dudley a basket full of hamburgers and a kiss right on the mouth.

Harry did not know what to do first — spill his guts out on the floor in revulsion or laugh his head off.

Oh… I have to tell Ron about this…, he thought, before remembering how Ron had reacted the year before. Ron had refused to believe Harry point blank that he had not entered his name into the goblet. Accusing Harry of lying to him when in his whole life Harry had never told Ron anything that was not true. He had said nothing, if he had not asked for it, but he had never lied or bent the truth to suit himself.

Because of Ron’s belief that Harry was lying, when all the evidence in his opinion pointed at someone framing him, Harry was afraid Ron would abandon him again. It had been bad enough the first time around, and Harry was not going to do anything to let that happen again. He would hide it from Ron, if need be, but he was not going to let a bit of magic come between him and his friend.

But what Harry was more worried about was how Hermione would react. He was very sure that Hermione would not be jealous of him but she could go on for a long time telling him all about the implications of his unethical practices, such as seeing Dudley's dream, even if it had been unintentional. Harry quickly left the room before he witnessed something he did not want to. He had no intention of invading other people's privacy, even if they were the ones who tried to make his entire life as miserable as possible.

Harry was so lost in his thoughts that he did not notice that he had kept walking after he had went through the door out of his room. It seemed that he had easily become habituated to the pattern of going back and forth. It had become second nature to him. It was not long before he was past the entrance door to the house, and was rapidly approaching the end of the driveway. Before Harry could react to his accomplishment, a thick pink barrier went up all around the Dursleys’ residence, trapping Harry within it.

The barrier was largely invisible, but it had a slight pink colouring to it that that could only be seen as the barrier got closer to Harry. Harry saw it as clearly being pink because he was inside the barrier and therefore he was seeing the active part of the shield. Millions of small, but powerful, sparks of pink energy came rushing towards him, as the barrier held him in place – refusing to let go. As soon as they touched Harry, they would discharge leaving Harry to scream in pain as shots of pure energy wracked at his nervous system. This led to something even worse. The energy bolts would seek out his open mouth in an attempt to discharge there. Like it already tried to do in other orifices. The pain that surged through his body was excruciating and it felt like nothing he had experienced before. The unforgivable Cruciatus curse paled in comparison. His vision started to get blurry very fast and all he could see were large blocks of colours that were diminishing in brightness. His hearing was slowly becoming weaker and then suddenly both his vision and hearing stopped.

As a Muggle female jogger passed right by Harry, admiring the expensive looking house that Harry was a resident in, Harry’s last thoughts were, Oh no! I can just see the headlines now! ‘The great Harry Potter died in his sleep!’

Thank you section: My previous beta’s and people that helped me along the way of writing the story: Molley O’Riley, James, Maginker, Twelve Eyes, Jaime, Jeremie, Constantine, Victoria, Yumi, Mia, Armand and more. I am sorry, I can’t recall them all off the top of my head. Thanks to the readers as well. :)

2. CH 02 (beta by NATE)

Title: "Harry Potter and Septanic Dueling" ( 2/? )
Author name: NAPPA
Author email: imran_webjump@hotmail.com
Category: Action/Adventure, Humor, and Romance
Keywords: H/H, 5th year, Dueling, Animagi
Spoilers: All books
Rating: PG13

Summary:
The summer after his fourth year, Harry discovers that he has a cool new power. Since the Dursley’s leave on a vacation, he ends up staying with Hermione’s family. That’s not all... What happens when Hermione’s family decides to take the vacation they wanted to go on? Deatheaters, Dueling tournaments, fighting in the deserts of Morocco, war, peace, treaty and mysteries all come into play. See how Hermione changes and witness Ron’s ever increasing insensitivity and jealousy.

Disclaimer:
This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers include but are not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter Number: 02
Chapter Name: What to do with Harry?

Vernon Dursley had just checked the money news for the third time today. His company’s share had jumped five times over the past few days as the company was supposed to expand operations into Japan and nothing was going to ruin his good mood. He was so happy, that when his nephew finally left his room, Vernon did not give him any chores or even try to rile him.

Vernon was so busy pondering how to use the money, that he did not even notice when his nephew bumped into him.

Harry had been moonwalking for the last two and a half days straight and during that time he had almost nothing to eat. He felt that this explained why he was unable to stand up to the pain or try to get out of the barrier. A loud grumbling noise coming from his stomach that was evidently strong enough to frighten Hedwig confirmed his suspicions.

Harry barely made it to the food that had been piling up for three days and quickly finished all of it, leaving the plates almost clean. The meatloaf was terrible, but for the sake of the vitamins and nutrients that his body craved, he forced it down his throat.

When Vernon announced that the whole family was going to Hawaii, Harry was excited. After all Uncle Vernon did say the whole family was going. Now being the twisted and cruel person that Vernon Dursley was it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Harry was going to be left behind. But Vernon did not want to leave the "freak" alone in the house, fearing on his return he would find a smoldering pile of ash. This fear was not totally unfounded, as accidents seem to constantly happen all around Harry.

Vernon gave Harry three days to arrange to stay somewhere with one of his friends; otherwise they were going to kick him onto the street. Harry, logically, decided that this was a good time as any to write to his friends and to Sirius. He ran to his room, taking his dinner with him, which tonight was a large piece of cucumber and a carrot. Harry quickly went into his room and took out his writing equipment. He decided to write to Hagrid first.

Dear Hagrid,
I know I'm not supposed to know what you're doing, but I think I have an idea. I hope you are well and in good health. I hope "they're" not as bad as people say. How's Madam Maxime? I hope you two are getting along well. Tell me everything when I'm back at Hogwarts, since it’s too dangerous to owl me.
Harry

Harry finally decided that he wanted to write to Sirius, but he planned to conveniently forget about his three days of adventure when writing the letter.

Dear Snuffles,
How are you? I'll be short. I miss you and hope to see you soon. After Lord Voldemort returned, I would have thought there would be a whole bunch of muggles missing or dead, but there has been nothing like that on the muggle news.

I haven’t got anything from Ron, so I’m guessing that nothing is happening in the wizarding world. Do you think he is just biding his time and getting stronger or do you think he is up to something... something big? Well, the Dursleys are kicking me out of the house since they are going to Hawaii, Don't worry this is a blessing in disguise. I'm --- wait a letter just showed up – I’ll be right back....

Harry was surprised to see that a regal looking post owl, which clearly belonged to Hogwarts, swooped down and dropped a letter. It was from Professor Dumbledore.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

I take great pleasure in announcing the fact that you've been chosen to be one of the two prefects from your house. As you might know, each year two fifth year students from each house chosen to be prefects. The other person from your year is none other than your friend Ms. Granger. This should not come as a surprise to anyone in light of her academic achievements.

(* Can’t argue there...*,
thought Harry)

You, however, were chosen because of the astounding amount of courage that you have shown over the course of the last four years. Please know that this is a serious commitment and it is your duty to accept it. Punishments for not following the rules as a Prefect are a lot more severe than they are for other students. So you have been warned.

I recently became aware of the fact that, due to unforeseen circumstances, you can no longer live with your muggle relatives for rest of the summer. I know you would prefer to go to the Burrow, but I do not think it is wise for you to go there, as the Muggle community would be safer for you. Therefore, I have taken the liberty to talk to Ms. Granger’s parents and they have agreed to take you in for rest of the summer.

(* I only found out today...
How did he know? *, thought Harry.)

If you would like to stay with another Muggle family, please owl me with their address and telephone number so that I may arrange it. Otherwise the Grangers will be there to pick you up on Sunday evening. Your school supplies and a list of your books have already been bought for you by Mr. & Mrs. Granger due to the circumstances and the money has been paid out of your vault. Please be ready to leave your house on Sunday evening.

I hope you enjoy your holiday.

Yours truly,
Professor A. Dumbledore
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Ps: (P.S.) I did not tell Ms. Granger that you are a prefect as well. I will let you tell her.

* Wow, a whole summer with the Grangers *, thought an amazed Harry.

Harry did not know very much about Hermione's parents other than that they were both dentists. All the times that he had had the pleasure of seeing them, he was surprised to see how kind and generous they were. But it should not have been such a surprise for him, since Hermione was like that all the time. Harry rushed to finish the letter to Sirius Black.

-- I'm back. It was a letter from Dumbledore. He told me that I could live with my friends till the start of the term. I know you are doing something for Professor Dumbledore, so I’ll tell you this one time. When my birthday comes, I DO NOT want anything from you other that you being safe.

Please be careful

Your godson
Harry

He then decided to write to his two best friends. The first letter he decided to write was to Ron Weasley, his best friend.

Dear Ron,
Hope you are ok. I'm all right and I have not had a scar hurting dream in the short time that I have been here. Did you know I'm a prefect..? Me... The person who probably broke all the rules in the school. Oh yeah, Hermione is one too.

And before you ask me anything about Hermione, I'll tell you something. I don't know where she might go but since I'm staying with the Grangers it's unlikely that she is going to Bulgaria. That ought to make you happy.

Ron, if you like her, you have to tell her. If you keep acting the way you did last year, you will damage your friendship with her. You’re really lucky that she is even talking to you after the way you acted towards her.

Your friend
Harry

Harry reread the letter. He wondered whether or not to tell Ron about his moonwalking but decided that he would tell him and Hermione when he met them in person and, depending on Ron’s attitude at the time. Harry went to his desk and took out some more parchment from his bottom drawer and began to write a letter to Hermione.

Dear Hermione,

Hope you are ok. I'm fine and before you ask I have not had a scar hurting dream in the short time that I have been here. Anyway, congratulations. I hear a certain bushy haired girl with brown eyes is going to be the fifth year prefect. I hope you know how proud Ron and I are of you. Hey, do you know who the other one is? Well, I do!!

He has messy black hair, bright green eyes, and a lightning shaped scar on his head. Give up?

It's me! Your hard work and study finally paid off. But on the other hand with mediocre marks and a reckless disregard for rules I’m also a prefect. Now this has got to be funny. I have something important to talk to you about, when I get to your place. We'll talk more then. Bye.

Your friend
Harry

Harry quickly tied the letters to Hedwig, and she took off quickly but gracefully into the gentle wind. Now that the world around Harry was back on track, Harry decided to go back and experiment a little more. It was four o'clock and there were still quite a few hours before he had to get his stuff ready. As Harry tried to force himself to go to sleep, his thoughts kept turning to the third task and its aftermath. This only made him stay awake longer. When slumber finally arrived at his doorstep he welcomed it fully.

Harry was determined to get better at moonwalking. He had to defeat Voldermort, otherwise his friends would always be in danger. Harry knew he had to become familiar with anything that he might be able to use as a weapon against Voldemort and his forces of evil.

As Harry passed through his door and the front door, he did not even feel a sting. He was pleased with himself for improving so much. When he approached the end of the driveway flashes of the pain that he suffered came rushing to his mind.

Harry suddenly felt weak and dropped to his knees. He tried to block the pain and after some time the pain was gone as quickly as it came before. Harry felt a new wave of strength wash over him. He finally understood that pain builds strength, to do what's necessary next time.

Harry was now very close to where he thought the barrier was. He gently lifted up his arm and tried to reach into the barrier. As soon as his index finger touched the invisible barrier, he could see the pink bolts of energy rush towards him. Though the pink energy bolts did not hurt him as much as they had done the first time he had tried it, he could still feel the sting.

After about four hours of just touching and then letting go of the barrier to increase his pain threshold Harry thought that he was strong enough to walk straight into the barrier. Surprisingly, there was still pain but only as much as the first time he had experienced the crucio curse.

As he stood there, glowing pink with all the energy bolts that were dashing all over his face and body, Harry realized that the pain was subsiding. By lunchtime next day he had managed to completely pass through the barrier without any significant pain. Harry didn’t go any further than just outside the shield. He didn’t know why but something told him it wasn’t safe to go any further than he was.

Harry was beaming at himself.

* I think they can see me from space right now *, thought Harry as he was thinking about how happy he was. * Well, I better get ready. Uncle Vernon and the rest of the family is leaving tomorrow and I'm leaving in about four hours *, thought Harry.

As he considered entering the house, Harry wanted to try and see if he was now good enough to wake up without being in the same room as his body. He tried his hardest but gave up when he wasn’t able to do it. So he decided to go take a shower.

After he re-entered his body, Harry went down to tell the Dursleys that he was leaving in the afternoon. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were mauling over Hawaii brochures and did not even ask how his friends were coming. Harry was surprised, but he didn't say anything. As he was leaving the kitchen, Harry took out a small packet of juice that his Aunt Petunia had left in the freezer and went back to his room for a shower and to get his things organized.

The Dursleys, along with Harry, were awaiting the arrival of Mr. & Mrs. Granger and their daughter in the living room when a very shinny looking BMW pulled into the driveway.

Aunt Petunia's eyes were as big as saucers when she saw the car. She had no idea that the daughter of such a wealthy couple could be a freak like her nephew. Harry rushed to open the door and got the surprise of his life when he saw Hermione.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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3. Summer at the Granger’s

Chapter Number: 03
Chapter Name: Summer at the Granger’s

Harry had one glance at Hermione before she practically threw herself on top of him and in the process almost knocked him over. He quickly grabbed the doorframe to stabilize himself. The longer she hugged him the harder it was getting for him to hold on to the frame.

Harry had noticed in the split second before this, that she had cut her hair very short and now her bushy hair looked more manageable, even without any sleek-ezy potion that she had used during Yule ball.

Harry never told anyone before but he liked her bushy hair more than the one she wore to the Yule ball – though that hairstyle did make him notice. He was sure more of it was from shock – since he thought her bushy mane made her look unique. But this new style suited Hermione better. At the end he really didn’t mind any hair cut – this was Hermione.

She was wearing a bright pale yellow summer dress with light orange flower patterns all over it. Hermione looked quite stunning and Harry was lost for word. Though the reasons might not have been all just how she looked. ‘Might be the light on the dress rather than the dress’ Harry thought about the way light had assaulted his eyes off the bright yellow dress.

" You ready?" she asked very enthusiastically.

" Yes. Just need to get my trunk."

" Need any help?" she asked sounding hopeful.

Harry wasn’t sure if he wanted Hermione in the house. He was too afraid that Hermione would speak her mind to the Dursleys. The last thing Harry wanted was to be locked in a closet in Hawaii. It would be far worse than being locked in Private Drive where he knew fun didn’t exist – then to end up in Hawaii, but not being able to get out of the cupboard.

" Yeah...er.." He said feeling impending doom. " Could you get Hedwig's cage from my room?" When Hermione nodded, Harry continued speaking. " It's the first one to the left."

Harry could feel his heart sinking. He could also feel that his hair was still wet from the shower. Standing there in a t-shirt that Dudley had outgrown several years ago, Harry felt his hear sink, as Hermione quickly brushed past him and into the house.

Harry lifted up the trunk and headed for the car, so he didn’t see Hermione give him a long sour look. She was coming out of the house with Hedwig’s cage, when she noticed how tall Harry looked. Not much more than a few inches – ‘maybe two’. When Harry put the trunk in the car, Harry's sleeve rolled up just enough to show traces of a new scar on his right arm. It was that, which had caused her to give him a sour look. Harry didn’t tell her about it.

* I have to be strong for him * thought Hermione as she buckled herself up in the back – knowing that the new scar was the product of something that he hadn’t explained to his friends about. Namely the events of that fateful day that Cedric died.

The car trip was short. It came to Harry as a surprise to find out that the Granger's actually lived very close. In the car it took only seven and a half minutes in medium traffic – something a watch-less Harry measured without any aid but his new found abilities. Harry had recently discovered that he could keep accurate time in his head though he experienced loss of time between going to sleep and starting "moonwalking", as well as trying to wake up and actually waking up. It was a result of his "moonwalking" or at least he thought it was.

Hermione's parents though they had a lot of money, lived in a medium sized house with four bedrooms in a modest little neighborhood. The only thing of real expense was the car and even that was hidden inside the garage when it was not on the road. The house was of modern construction like all the other houses on the street. Thought Harry wasn’t sure as to how accurate he was.

The inside of the house consisted of one master, one for Hermione and two guestrooms – each bigger than his room back "home". Hermione showed Harry into his room, which was across the one from the Master Bedroom. Harry did not understand why they put him in there, when there was another room near Hermione's, which happen to be very empty. But he did not want to say anything, since he was sure he was burdening them enough as it was.

Harry’s new room didn't really have anything much in it other than a desk and a an empty shelf. Before long Harry would find out that each of the room in the house had a shelf, filled to various capacities. The family really loved books.

Hermione put down Hedwig's cage in corner of the room, near the window and sat down on the single bed on the other side of the small room. She watched quietly as Harry went back and forth bringing his things into the house from the car. Harry did not notice it, but Hermione's parents did. When Harry brought in the last of his items in, they followed Harry into the room and Hermione's mom sat down beside her daughter.

Harry was quietly working away not knowing that Hermione's parents were right behind him, watching him like a pair of hawks. So when he turned around to tell Hermione she had a very nice place to live and he was done all unpacking, he found himself looking straight into Paul Granger eyes.

His mouth dried up in a second and he was suddenly more afraid of him at that moment than VOLDEMORT at the end of his first year. Harry opened his mouth to say something but then thought better of it and closed it very soon after.

"We need to have a talk." Paul motions Harry to pull up the only chair in the room.

" ...err... What about Mr. Granger?" asked Harry in a squeaky voice.

He couldn't see it but Hermione's mom had a small smile as she realized her husband had just scared the living daylights out of the poor boy. She was sure her husband was very pleased with himself to have had done it to Harry.

" I'm letting you stay with us the whole summer." He said in a professional business like manner of a dentist – right before they pull out your teeth. " That means for the duration of your visit you are a member of this family. We all do house chores in this family and since you are here you are no exception." Harry thought that was more than fai, and was going to nodd, but Mr. Granger wasn’t done. " I'll consider you a son. That means HERMIONE IS YOUR SISTER. You do not make a move on my daughter... You do not er.." unsure of what he should say next he used something from his own memory, "...err... No Hanky Panky. Understood. GOOD"

He turned and left the room with his wife by his side. If Paul had looked back after he had left, he would have seen a very confused Harry maul over what had just been told to him. Had Paul Granger been slower in saying what he had said, Harry would not have been confused... well just not as confused as he was at that point. It would also have had given Harry an opportunity to ask what he was talking about.

When the implication of what he had been told finally hit him, after several moments, which he spent blankly looking at the door, he was blushing all the shades of red in the wizarding world. Hermione couldn't help but smile at his embarrassment. She was used to her overprotective father, but Harry was clearly shaken by the experience. She moved closer to him on the bed before speaking. " Don't worry." She said in her most reassuring voice. " That's just the way my father is. He's... well a bit over protective of me. I told him, our relationship is just friends," Harry could tell Hermione meant a hundred folds what she said, "… but they wouldn't take my word for it. Err... Harry?" said Hermione before realizing Harry was not really paying any attention.

" Yeah."

" Did you hear what I said?"

" Yeah..." replied Harry as he snapped out of whatever he was thinking.

" Well???"

" Well... What?" Harry tried his best not to snap but he saw the hurt look on her face and realized that he had not tried hard enough.

" I'm sorry... I'm really sorry".

A look of pure anguish passed his face before, Hermione returned to normal. She hugged Harry so hard that he had a hard time breathing. When she let go she said, " It's OK. I was just thinking about what you went through last year." Harry looked slightly relieved, but not by much. " I wanted to know what you wanted to show me when you got here."

Hermione inwardly hoped it would be an explanation to why he hadn’t told her about his new scar or the events of the day of the third task. " Oh... that. Why didn't you just say that?" Harry smirked, clearly excited about topic.

" Well, I'm bursting with excitement here..." before Hermione could finish her sentence she was interrupted by Harry.

" Well it all started..."

With that Harry told her the entire story – not the one Hermione thought he would, or hoped he would. It was the story of how he learned of his new and exciting ability. How he had had the nightmares all night, then went to investigate the light, seeing advertises (carefully missing out the part about the softporn flick on TV)... how he thought he could never have friends if he did not do something about VOLD-you-know-who, how he thought he was dead, his exploration, then somehow without meaning to the part about seeing Dudley's dream came out of his mouth.

As soon as he said it, Harry cringed at the though that Hermione was probably going to give him a lecture, about how wrong it was of him to peek into someone else’s subconscious – even if unintentionally. But to his surprise, he found himself looking at a girl who had fallen off the bed and rolling on the floor with hysterical laughter.

At the loud noises, Paul and his wife rushed to the room. When they saw Hermione try to get off the floor while holding her sides in a last ditch attempt to stop laughing, they let them be even though they did not know what had caused their daughter to act in such a manner. Mrs. Granger thought it was nice to see Hermione having fun for a change. She always thought Hermione read a lot more than she should and not have enough fun.

When Hermione finally stopped laughing, she saw Harry look at her as though she was mad. She considered that herself. Normally she would be giving Harry a lecture but the story was so funny she could not her herself. Then she had a terrible idea. " You're not gonna try to read my dreams though are you"

" I knew you would ask that. If I wanted to do that I would have to go into your room and I'm not going into your room without your permission first... Besides I tried to see what Hedwig was thinking in her sleep, I saw nothing. I saw a stray cat dreaming about fish. So my guess is I can't see Magic things' dream." He paused then teased. " If you don’t trust me, then I can …"

" Harry Potter!" Hermione said looking particularly furious at his suggestion of her not trusting him. " How dar you suggest something like that! I do trust you."

" No. I didn’t mean it like that Hermione…" he started to say, wildly shaking his head and body to convince her. It was then that he saw Hermione’s mouth curve up into a small smile. It hit him like a ton of bricks that Hermione had just teased him into acting sillyly for her pleasure.

" You sly wench…" Harry leaped on the bed and picked up one of the two pillows and started to pummel it on her. Hermione took the other pillow and gave back as good as she got – and considering how late she really got started, she gave back more than her fair share. After a long time and a lot of feathers still in the air, Hermione and Harry laughing and smiling talked about something that came to Hermione’s mind.

" You know, " Hermione said, " The way you say you’re getting better at managing pain – you suppose, if you-know-who tried to use Cruciatus curse on you – it won’t hurt as much?"

" You might be right. But I think VOL- " Harry paused and corrected himself "...you-know-who was still weak from his rebirth when he did the curse on me, so I probably was lucky. That's why I want to get strong..." All the traces of mirth left for a while. " You think you can help me?"

" Help you to do what??" Hermione asked. Then getting the meaning of what he was asking she continued "..err... You mean me teach you?" with a hint of amusement in her voice.

* Harry Potter, the boy who lived... finally wants to do something other than ride on a broom all day* thought Hermione *... but then again seeing the murderer of your parents coming back to life is bound to change a person...*

"OK then." Harry said a note of thanks to Merlin for Hermione in his mind. " I will." But then when Hermione said, " But there're two conditions", he was almost afraid to ask. " What?"

Harry knew Hermione would help him no matter what... so this was probably something that she needed help with but was afraid to ask. " You'll have to read. Hogwarts: A history. Everyday" Harry was going to groan but then realized it was his idea.

" And the second?" He asked more terrified this time. Hermione usually told what needed to be done quickly. But if she didn't say the second condition right after the first, then it could only mean that it was something either she was embarrassed about or it was something so bad that she was sure he would not agree to. Harry couldn’t think of anything he could hate more than doing the first thing Hermione had asked him.

"..Er..Youhavetoteachmetoflyabroom... OK. GOOD. Now that we're settled lets..." said Hermione in a rush. Her cheeks Harry noticed were slightly inflamed, but she did not get to finish her sentence as Harry cut her off – he didn't really catch what she said.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear it."

Hermione quirked her eyebrow impatiently. " You have to.. teach me to fly a broom... Properly." her cheeks were burning hot as she repeated herself.

Harry had known that Hermione had a really bad time flying, but it wasn’t because she was not afraid of flying or height. No. That would be too normal for her. What she was strangely afraid of was - the broom. Hermione, he knew could completely ignore her broom phobia when needed (like in their first year), but aside from that she was as afraid of the broom as Ron was of spiders. Unlike Ron – Hermione seem to want to get rid of her phobia. Harry wondered how much of it was phobia and how much of it was her wanting to do everything "perfectly".

" Well if it's that important to you..." Harry started to say, but then he remembered something, "but you don't have a broom... do you?" he asked scratching his head.

" Oh.. You see.." Hermione averted her gaze. And All Harry could see was her cheeks flaming further more. " Victor sent me one. It’s bewitched so if I say a correct phrase it'll take me directly to him. Nimbus something or other"

" That's a good broom... Aerodynamic handle, most of the straws are hand picked but they're mass produced so not as good as a fir- " Harry stopped mouthing off the features of the broom when he saw Hermione's blank face. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't want to bore you with broom..."

Harry stopped talking when Hermione ran out of the room. Harry was very confused. He knew he could have a short attention span, but he didn’t think it was bad enough that Hermione would run out of the room without telling him off. * Did I say something? ...* He thought to himself, *...I knew I shouldn't have had started to talk my mouth off. I think I'll go to Hermione and apologize. Yes! That's what I'll do.*

But Harry knew it would not be that easy. Knowing Hermione she would probably quiz him on why he's apologizing, and he did not really want to think of the consequences of getting that question wrong. An entire summer with someone who didn't like you could be ver...." His thoughts were disturbed by a hand on his shoulder shaking him roughly.

When he lifted his face from the ground he saw it was Hermione. With her she had a light blue broomstick and two books under her arm. One was unmistakably was "Hogwarts: A History."

" I just wanted you to see it." she said. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as Hermione continued, " I got the book here and we are going to start your part of the bargain today. You are going to read the book and I'm going to read my 5th year spellbook. After an hour we'll switch books. Now. READ" said Hermione, shooing Harry towards the other end of the bed. Harry didn’t like the way her face lit up when he did as he was told. She seemed to enjoy bossing him around a bit too much. He wasn’t sure what the consequences would be if he didn’t hold his own ground… if that was at all possible.

During his first dinner at the Grangers he found out the first name of Mrs. Granger. It was Diana. Harry noticed that she had the same sort of personality as Mrs. Weasley. Both had the idea that Harry was too thin (they were right) and needed fattening up. They both had a cheery personality and both controlled their families every aspect and could stop other members of the family from doing anything that she did not like.

Like when Paul was about to start the second phase of his "talk" with Harry. One nasty glare from the wife, he shut his mouth. Harry knew that if he was going to stay in the house for the summer he better show that he was a good boy. He offered to do the dishes. No one actually stopped him, or acknowledged that he was a good boy.

* Oh well. I didn't really want an acknowledgement anyway * That night Harry did not try experimenting with his powers.

Being used to sleeping on a fold up bed and a mattress thin enough to feel the springs underneath, the soft bed in his room was like a being treated like a king. It took very little time for him to go to sleep. It felt like he had only seconds after his back touched the bed when, something landed beside him. He desperately searched for his wand next to his hand, almost sure it was Dudley who just landed in the bed next to him. But...

* It can't be. Dudley is in Hawaii... Then… deatheaters. * thought the slightly paranoid Harry.

Harry's eyes snapped open. His eyes almost hurt when the bright sunlight hit his face, but he had other pressing tasks to perform. As soon as he found the wand he leaped off the bed ready for an attack. He was about to yell the spell for disarming when a small giggle reminded Harry that he was at Hermione's house – and just maybe it was her trying to wake him up.

* Besides if they were deatheathers, I would be dead or captured by now * he reasoned with himself – the world still a blur in front of his eyes.

He still could not see clearly, when Hermione put his glasses on carefully from the back. Harry slowly turned around to see Hermione with a huge smile plastered on her face. Harry was going to be annoyed and was going to tell her off, when he realized he had made a big enough fool in front of her already.

* I might as well try to get some of my dignity back *

Harry bowed like they do after a stage play. Hermione giggled a little more before telling him that her parents were at work and they needed to do some housework. Just so they didn't "fool around", their neighbor Mrs. McDougol an elderly witch would pop by occasionally. Not only that but a long list of chores were given to them, hoping they would keep their hands away from each other. Her parents need not have had worried about that, since neither of them had developed any such feeling for each other yet.

Most of the chores involved Harry lifting or re-positioning things – and doing them again when Hermione’s mood suited. He was beginning to regret being so obedient to her. It was one thing to be polite to help her out, it was entirely another to become her slave. Harry did appreciate her family taking him in, so Harry decided to indulge Hermione. If he had thought moving things was going to be hard, he hadn’t seen the garden yet. As he tirelessly weeded the garden, Hermione sat under the tree dozing or yelling out instructions – most of the time without even looking up from a green covered book. It looked like Hermione had made the cover for the book herself from newspaper and a horrible shade of green paint. Thankfully lunch came soon, and Harry could wash away a days word of honest day’s work (sweat, grime and dirt) off himself.

After lunch they would watch TV for a little while. In the afternoon it was either flying lessons or Hermione quizzing Harry on Hogwarts: A history (most of the time Harry would get all of them wrong) and then work on their homework essays. Harry liked his talks with Hermione – even if it was a little. But Hermione straight out refused to let him say one thing while they were doing their homework. Aside from the occasional word to pass the quill’s inkwell.

Having grown up in a family where both parents worked, Hermione was the one who prepared most of the meals, except on Friday nights and in the weekends when her mother controlled the kitchen. Hermione was a good cook but her mother was on a totally different class altogether. In the weekends Harry would try and butter Hermione's mother as much as possible. Harry would complement her so much, Hermione could be seen steaming but Harry took no notice of that. Hermione did not tell Harry about how complementing her mother made her jealous – even if it was just cooking, since she would quickly give Harry a lecture for not reading the school books and Hogwarts: A history every night as it was. She didn’t want to nag him.

By his fourth weekend with the Grangers Harry realized why Paul Granger was so fit. At age 39 he had a body that could be compared to someone ten of fifteen years younger than him – certainly very much better than the time Harry had the misfortune of walking by a room to see Snape in a towel. Even thinking about that made Harry feel sick. Back to the garden… the two women had them out in the garden, digging, shoveling, fertilizing, planting and doing other major work all day long. It is true that after long hours of work, men kind of develop a bond – usually from suffering together. In this case it was Harry and Paul formed bond that would only come about after four weekends of manual labour.

When the day ended on the 4th weekend, and all that was left to do was to water the garden, Harry and Paul Granger did something they had wanted to do for four weeks. Ever since the women got the idea to redo the garden because there was now another pair of "strong hands" to help them do it. GET REVENGE.

" Now?" asked Harry is a low voice. " Wait for it until they turn their backs on us" said Paul in an equally conspiratorial tone.

Spotting the perfect time Harry yelled, "NOW!!!", as he sped across to where Hermione was with the hose in his hand running full blast. On the other side of the garden Paul was doing the same to Hermione's mother. The two women were not pleased with the sudden drenching and decided the "boys" needed to be punished.

NO FOOD they thought as they both finished off any leftover food from previous meal. When the "boys" finally entered the house after properly watering the garden, it was a big surprise for them to find no food for them, not even a juice or small fruits. To top it all off neither of the girls would talk to them.

Paul was going to order some food, but Harry convinced Paul to do otherwise and surprise the "girls", with some home cooked food. They had lot of fun cooking and recounting the events past few weeks and as unlikely as it seems they BONDED. A deep conversation between Hermione and her mother about "men and their childish behavior" was stopped when the breathtaking aroma of freshly cooked food and laughter and loud conversation entered Hermione's room.

At first they were not moved to investigate, but when the noises suddenly stopped they could not help themselves. When they were both there, Paul came out of hiding and led his wife to the table. She inspected the table quickly. There were of three dishes served. None of which looked like any thing that she knew, but they looked and smelled okay and good (respectively). Paul pulled up a chair for Diana and then told her to sit down. Mrs. Granger was asked by Paul to taste the food.

" Sorry about the water spraying thing! We were tired and we needed some fun. It was Harry's idea." he said pointing his finger towards the direction of the door where Hermione was standing."... I don't know what these are but they're good"

Mrs. Granger looked as if she was ready to cry. Whether or not that's why Paul cut a piece of food from one of the dishes and almost shoved it into her mouth is still unclear. * It tastes like Chicken. It's Juicy and tender. I wonder where that boy learned to cook * thought Mrs. Granger before noticing her husband staring at her.

" What?" she asked fearing something was probably sticking out of her teeth.

But Paul Granger surprised her by saying, " You look as beautiful as the day I first saw-"

Hermione could not hear any more since someone had put their hand over her mouth and started to drag her out of the kitchen. She stopped trying to escape when she realized it was Harry from his smell of his spicy cologne. Something she had helped him pickup from the shop.

He explained, "They would want to be alone now", as they towards the garden, where he had put some plates and rest of the food that he had cooked. Hermione could not help but complement Harry.

" ooomm. Isss goooddd" said Hermione with her mouth full of food, making Harry grin a little. After all he liked her cooking better than his own so it was a great complement coming from her. When she finished what was left in her mouth she asked where he learned how to cook.

" Well, living with the Dursley's kind of forces you to learn how to cook and besides I can only cook those three things... I couldn't have done it without your dad's help."

Then she remembered that the next day was Harry's birthday, and she should give him his present, if she wanted to surprise him. She told him to wait a few minutes, she had to get something from the house.

As Harry waited he thought about what had happened during the four weeks he had been at Grangers. He had to admit he had an enjoyable time, even if most of the time was spent studying, and doing manual work. He didn’t regret his decision to indulge Hermione.

In his mind, he ticked off two homework essays that he had done. One was for history of magic -"What effect did Grindelwald have on the war the Muggles call World War II" and "A thousand and one uses of Boomslang" for potions. Well there was still one for care of magical creatures, one for tranfiguation, one for Herbology, one for charms, one for Defence.Against.Dark.Arts… Harry Groaned ruefully.

* Maybe, I'll tackle the dark arts one next and th- * he thought about the hopelessly big amount of homework still to come.

Harry's train of though was derailed severely when Hermione plopped herself down next to him, with a huge grin on her face. He could not see what she had behind her and since his birthday was the next day he guessed it was a present for him. Accuratly it seemed too, when Hermione told him to close his eyes. * Can she be any more obvious.* thought Harry fondly as he did what his friend told him to do.

Hermione put down a nicely wrapped packet in front of him and said, " OK. Open your eyes." Harry could feel the excitement in her slightly higher pitched voice.

Harry saw the package and could guess it was a book – though he wasn’t depressed or even disappointed. Hermione knew him well, and he was sure it would be something on Quidditch. Harry, turned over the wrapped book several times, trying to find a way to open up the present neatly, when a very annoyed Hermione snatched the package away.

She quickly tore open the wrappers and handed the book back to him. She was frowning in a way that told him he was being silly. " Honestly Harry!" *yep! That’s what’s she’s thinking!* " Wrappings are meant to be ripped open. Now have a look at the present and tell me how you like it?"

Harry turned the book around to have a look at the title. The first surprise was the fact that it was not a book on Quidditch. Everyone always assumed Harry loved anything to do with Quidditch but as true as it was he actually liked books on other topics besides Quidditch. Harry gasped when he saw the title of the book. " 66666 muggle and magical ways You can die" Harry was left speechless.

" Gee thanks, Hermione." …*That’s exactly what I need*, he would have had said. Smart boy that he is, he waited for her explantion.

"See now, you don’t have to spend all that time on silly Divination homework."

Harry smiled. " Thanks Hermione. Now... We should hurry, I still have the dishes to do."

" You're welcome. But that's not the only one. My parents are giving you
something too" Hermione said.

" What?" he asked, quite taken back someone would give him anything knowing him just a month.

" I'm not telling..." said Hermione with a mischievous smile on her face.

" Please..." Harry started to move closer to her, ready to start tickling her. During the last four weeks he had come to realize that she was very sensitive to tickling and the slightest touch would send her into feats of laughter. Somehow she anticipated it and a wand materialized in her hand before he could come any more closer to her.

" Just in case you try anything..." Hermione it seems was daring him to do so. " I'm sure the ministry will overlook a first offence" said Hermione waving the wand menacingly.

" Okay...Okay.." Harry said putting his hands up. " Geeze. What a way to burst a guy's bubble." Harry was disappointed. " Do you want to get in some flying lessons done - before we head inside, I mean?."

" Okay" came an enthusiastic reply

Harry thought about her progress over the last four weeks. The elderly witch had been kind enough to erect a charm to make sure muggles didn't notice them flying around in the back yard. The progress had been reasonably good. Though she had great reflexes, sources of which Hermione would not elaborate on – not that he really asked, she was deathly afraid of flying any higher than five feet. This was of a great source of amusement for Harry, though to his credit he did no more than grin when it looked as if the broom might try to go higher than Hermione's tolerance level, amidst her hysterical screaming.

After cleaning up, Harry went to bed with his transfiguration book. Though he was not allowed to do magic, he could read up about his essay topic -"Why do Animagus training have to be carried out in the presence of a ProTem and what is involved in becoming an Animagus."

The book was not really a great source of information -Harry made a mental note to ask Hermione about a better reference.

* WOW! I didn't want to copy her essay... *

Harry could not remember when he went to sleep, only to wake up what seemed to him only seconds later. He was outside his body again. There was no pain, as he passed through the door from his room. He tried to see if Magical things still caused him pain so he tried to touch "Hogwarts: A history" on his desk. He felt a little sting, but the something amazing happened. The book opened to the first page by itself!

4. A New Bookworm & the Gifts

Chapter Number: 04
Chapter Name: A New Bookworm & the Gifts

It didn’t hit Harry until he had read the first twelve pages that the pages of the book that the pages were turning by themselves. As slow as he was in realizing this, he was faster at remembering that Hermione had said that she put a page turning spell on the book so that once the page was read, it would automatically turn over. She said it didn’t have another to do with lazyness. It was more to do with speeding up reading.

It occurred to him that the spell allowed for him mind to be registered as a person who was reading the book. Even if he was astral Projecting. Yep. He had a proper name for him odd ability. According to Hermione, muggles called it on television. Though their version was strictly different to the one that Harry had. For one thing, real people could see the astral Projected person. For another – in their version, astral projected people could see and touch and interact with objects. Hermione also told him that there seemed to be no references to her knowledge about Astral Projection in all the things she had read about the wizarding world. She didn’t think it was a wizarding power – since Hogwarts: A history didn’t mention it.

As Harry began to read, he did not notice how quickly he seemed to be reading the passages, or the pages for that matter. Not did he understand that he was keeping most of what he was reading in his mind. Unlike other times when his mind was more of a seive, this time he was keeping a lot of information.

It was at eight o'clock in the morning when Harry snapped the book. He had finished reading the book, back to back several times, since it was the only book he had with a self turning charm in it – Harry had kept reading. Harry wished himself to wake up and it usually took about a ten minute delay from the time he wished to enter his body again to waking up. This time Harry noticed the delay was only two minutes. Either he was improving, or his time counting was off – Harry betted on the latter.

Harry quickly leaped from his bed, quickly taking off his pajamas and started to collect clothes so that he could get into the shower. It was the last day of the long weekend (Queen's Birthday), so the rest of the family was still in
bed. As Harry left the room, he collided with Paul – who looked suspiciously at Harry.

After a moment Harry realized that he was wearing only his boxers. He took the towel on his shoulder, and wrapped it around his waist. He didn’t say anything Harry, as he walked away towards the kitchen. Harry didn’t know it, but Paul or Mr. Granger was very pleased with himself that he saved his daughter from seeing a half-naked man running around the house. He was heading into the kitchen to cook – it was his turn on the roster to cook that day.

Harry only took a few moments in the shower, as he didn't like to be wet for too long. At breakfast the Granger's had all wished him a Happy Birthday. Then Hermione's parents told him they had a gift for him as they handed something to him. It was a return ticket to Morocco.

Apparently the whole family was supposed to go, including one of Hermione's cousins but at the last moment she had pulled out. So now Harry was bound for Morocco. They told him, it was only going to be for a week and they would be back a day before school. Harry was ecstatic, and didn’t even know that he needed to passport and all those other things ready. If he even had a passport. He had never traveled overseas and now he was going to the mystical Morocco. This almost had him in tears.

Hermione joined in on the conversation and said she choose the location so they could research some exotic magical creature for their Care of Magical Creatures. Hermione was quick to remind him that in the next three weeks they had the monumental task of doing homework essays excluding the one for care of magical creatures. Not to mention, house chores, self-imposed extra studies (by Harry’s will and Hermione’s insistence) and flying lessons to get through.

At this point a swarm of package carrying birds invaded the Granger kitchen. Though Mrs. Granger shrieked and ran away, Harry, Hermione and her father (though he a little shaken) stayed. There was in total five owls carrying two parcels and three letters.

Harry took the one that had been dropped on his bowl of cerial. It had beautifully
penned writing on the envelop and he was surprised to see it was from Fleur.

To Harry, my sister's Saviour
Thank you again for saving my sisters life last year. I'll be your Defence Against Dark Arts teacher this year. I'm sending you this book about the marine-based dark creatures. This book will help you next year and there is a section at the back that will help you write your homework essay. I know I’m not the best with water demon, but I’m fairly adept at others. Perhaps your head master is giving me this task so that I may improve or because he had a lack of candidates, I don’t know. I will try my best to be your teacher. If for nothing else, then to pay you back for saving my beloved sister.
Many thanks from Fleur

The letter had been quite straight to the point. It highlighted a lot of things about the situation with the light side. There were not many candidates that Professor Dumbledore could choose from. Harry didn’t know if it was that he had his people deployed elsewhere or because there was a shortage – but it was clear either way that there were few people that were aware of the situation with the dark lord.

After he finished reading, he looked over the book. It was called "So You need to know about SeaMonsters by Ruben Psidong". The next one was from Professor Dumbledore, and it was carried to Harry by one of the school's better regal
looking owls.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,
This is not a birthday card, though it may have appeared at this time. Please know that I have arranged for you and Ms. Granger to meet Mr. Ali Pasha. He will be your guide to the Magical community in Morocco.

He was one of you father's dear fiends and that you have my blessings for the trip. In times such as these it is important to keep international alliances. I expect your visit to be of the highest importance and as such please do not get yourself into trouble.

Headmaster of Hogwarts
Professor A. Dumbledore

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Ps: Happy birthday

Harry could not help but smile at the postscript. The next letter was from Sirius, as always carries by tropical bird of many colours. Harry couldn’t help but think that using such birds will end in disaster for Sirius one of these days.

Dear Harry
I hope you are Ok. Dumbledore told me that you are going out of the country. I don't know whether it's a good idea or not. The last time I thought it was a better idea to go along with Lily and James’s plan, it did not turn out well, so the old man is probably a better bet. Keep your wand in your hand, Harry. ALWAYS! I can’t stress it enough. The rules about under aged wizards are not applicable over there. There are danger there already, and you’re going to a place that’s barely above nomadic.

You might want to look up one of our friends from the by gone era. His name is Ali Pasha. Last I heard of him, he was selling flying carpets. Just tell him PADFOOT said hello. Be safe. OWL me if you have a dream.
SNUFFLES

The letter kind of left Harry thinking about who this Ali Pasha character was, but he didn’t have time to think much. The next parcel was from Hagrid and an eagle brought it.

HARRY
Hi. Heard you’re with Hermione. I can't tell you where I am, but I'm with Madam Maxime. I got good news. I'll write more when I can. I sent ye some of me Rock cakes. Olympe loves them.
Bye
Hagrid

Harry loved Hagrid. He was the man who told him of his real life. He trusted Hagrid with his life but he would not eat anything that man made.

Mr. Granger however was not aware of the perils of Hagrid’s cooking. So when he saw Hermione open the parcel for Harry, sitting next to her, He reached for a portion. It was then that both Harry and Hermione shouted, "NO!"

Paul Granger was shocked but put the piece down. To demonstrate why they stopped him, Harry took his spoon and hit the cake hard making a loud clink noise as if it had hit another metal. Mrs. Granger entered the room again when she realized that only the snowy owl that belonged to Harry was gone. She sat herself down next to Hermione and started to quietly finish off the food. Her moment of embarassment being over.

The next one was a big parcel that Hedwig and Pig carried it together. It contained sealed envelopes from most of the members and gifts of food and clothes from Mrs. Weasley. The first letter picked out of the parcel was covered in little pink heart that moved all over the envelop. Hermione saw it and snatched it away from him. She quickly took out the letter and to Harry's embarrassment started to read it out loud.

" ooh. Perfumed!" Hermione snickered. " Harry! I'm shocked. Why didn't you tell me about your grrrlfriend" said Hermione trying intentionally to be annoying.

" It's because, SHE. IS. NOT. MY. GIRLFRIEND!" shouted Harry, surprising both Mr. & Mrs. Granger. Harry's face was red but he did not try to get the letter back. Since it would only make Hermione more determined to nag him about Ginny. Harry had realised that though Hermione was a lot more docile at school, she was a lot different in the muggle world.

" Lets see what says than...

Dear Sweet Harry (**GIGLES ** from Hermione)
On your birthday, I hope you are well and know that love from me (and my family) is there with you. My present to you is in the parcel. See you soon... Love

GINNY

While Hermione was reading the letter, Harry found and finished reading the inscription (from Ginny to H.P.) and the instructions for his present from Ginny. It was in a packet covered in similar sort of patterns as the envelop. He thought it was a great way to get back at Hermione. He put on the watch, and did as the instructions had told him. He stood up from his chair, and turned to look at Hermione. Then he pressed the glass on the watch and spoke.
"Hello. Bet you're sorry now!"

But it came out in not Harry's voice but a bit deeper, slightly booming voice and to top it all off in another ancient language. Hermione jumped back twice before hitting the wall behind her. Her parents fell out of their chair and scrambled away to what they thought was a safe distance. There was another effect that Harry did not see nor hear. His eyes were glowing. Satisfied that Hermione was sufficiently and her parents unintentionally scared, he pressed the
glass on the watch. Once he did, his voice became normal and eyes lost some of its glow. But there was still a lingering glow.

" That's what you get for taking other peoples letter" Harry said taking off his watch.

From the shocked look on her face it was obvious she did not get it as to how Harry had scared her. He held up the watch and said, " the present from GINNY".

Hermione looked embarrassed for not noticing the silly toy. She mumbled something about needing to go to the toilet, and headed out of the room with a pink face.

Harry noticed that Mr. & Mrs. Granger had already recovered and were back to eating their food. He looked apologetically at them, they both gave him a look of sympathy at him. Paul Granger actually thought it was a really good joke. It wasn't often that he saw his daughter with surprise written all over her face. Harry decided he would quickly read the other two letters. First one was from Fred & George.

Harry
Happy Birthday. We're both sorry, you couldn't spend your holidays with us. But we hear you're with Hermione. We hope you have a good time there. We were not allowed to send you our gift before because of Professor Dumbledore. The gift is in the white packet. It looks like a ball with a switch on top. When pressed it displays a memory that Ron had of you guys and one of your certain "friend". When we say you'll love it we mean, you'll laugh your head off.
Your buddies
Fred and George Weasley.

PS: Did you ever wonder what happens when you hit someone with the Streaming Rainbow curse – while he’s already under the tickling curse? Well enclosed is a picture of Ron. Enjoy.

The picture was funny. But before he could show save it to give it to Hermione, The picture became blank. Then a small message showed up. " Sorry mate. Your three seconds are up – Another wonderful trick item by the WWW. Then it turned dust in his hand. Harry brushed it off.

Harry was a little apprehensive about pressing the switch, but he decided that the twins would not give him something really bad on his birthday. He did give them a lot of money the year before. That ought to have had given him immunity from their tricks. No matter how hard Harry tried to make himself think that what he was trying to think was true, he could not help but feel otherwise.

Harry held the small spherical object as far from his body as humanly possible, before pressing the button. A small rectangle appeared out of thin air and it showed the event of the fateful day when Barty Crouch masquerading as Professor Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret.

While Harry laughed he noticed that a slightly less colored Hermione had entered the room. She too joined in, as Draco Malfoy was her worst enemy. Hermione started on her cereal again, Harry took out the last letter. He could tell by the messy penmanship that it was from Ron.

HARRY
Did you hear? Probably no. I don’t think you get the Daily Prophet. Anyway, they caught Lucius Malfoy for the using a Flying carpet. Well, as good as that was, he was released by Cornelius Fudge after he donated a lot of money to the hospital - Again. Dad was furious and Percy… Well you know ho he is, we had to hold him down and then tie him to his bed. He wanted to go after that slimy git! It was one of the laws that he helped pass – again - in the
ministry.

I was disappointed when Dumbledore told us you couldn't visit us. Not sure how better off you can be with Hermione. I mean the Dursleys were mean but atleast they didn’t nag you to do homework. I bet that’s what’s she’s doing right now.

And You’re wrong. I wasn’t going to ask about how Hermione was doing. What do I care if she went to Krum’s or not? I'm glad, I'm not in your shoes. I feel sorry for you- being told to study all day long and doing nothing else. It must be awful.

Well, I’ll see you soon at school in a few weeks. If not before. By the way there is a present for you that I found in Diagon Alley.
Yours
Ron Weasley

Harry put the letter down and started to look for what could be his present from Ron. He found it inside one of the folds of the black sleeveless sweater with the Griffindor emblem that Mrs. Weasley had knitted. It was a Chocolate Frog card to be precise it was a Harry Potter Chocolate frog card. The picture was of Harry getting the golden egg from the dragon. Harry was absentmindedly looking at the picture when a loud shriek from Hermione interrupted him from a depressing reminder of the past. Mr & Mrs. Granger were scared once again.

" WHAT??... ...What does he think I am? Does he think I'm always studying? ... Says he feels sorry for you... Wait till we're on the train...," said a fuming Hermione who was reading the letter Harry had deposited on the table. Slightly scared Harry slid his chair a back a bit. Hermione continued in a cold and almost an evil voice "... yes. The tel'shia curse. That's it... a whole week of itching his bottom would sort him out... yessss..."

* Great Merlin! She looks positively evil! * though Harry.

Harry thought of doing a "Hermione" and give her a lecture about reading other people's mail but decided against it seeing as her eyes had glazed over and he was not sure Hermione was Hermione anymore.

Rest of the holidays until the day of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that Hermione kept getting messages from Krum, and she would spend half the day dreaming about him. Two days before the trip Harry was just plain fed up and told her to check his
essays for errors. " You're just jealous that I have a boyfriend"
" Yeah... Whatever. So. Are you going to check my work or not?" though he was a bit angry with Hermione for ignoring him for the last few days, he made puppy dog eyes at her.

Hermione looked startled for a second, and then said, " Yes. Leave it on the desk, I'll do it tonight or in the morning."

Just before lunch Hermione burst out of her room, calling for Harry. Fearing something was wrong Harry ran to where the yelling was coming from, wand ready. (A/N: He’s really paranoid... isn’t he)

When he saw Hermione just standing at the entrance to her room he was confused. He was going to ask what was wrong, but Hermione spoke first. " Look, Who's here?" said Hermione with something in her voice that Harry could not identify.

" What? I came as soon as I heard. Why did you call by the way?"

" I didn't have anytime last night to check your essays. So I sit down today to find thirty odd scrolls on my desk. And to top it off it you did it! Now I say ..."

Harry was getting annoyed and could not help but say, " Get to the point!"

" Well.. Answer this. Did you write all those scrolls?"

" Yes! Of course I did. Unless there is another wizard in this house by the same name I wrote the- wait one-minute... Is something wrong with my essays." Harry panicked. "OH. Great Merlin! What am I gonna do... Oh... It's not long till the start of the school. Oh... Maybe..." but Harry did not get to finish his panic attack as Hermione rushed over and gave him a big hug.

" I'm so proud of you. You have any idea how surprised I was... The quality of research, analogies, anecdotes and even the penmanship..." If Harry had been confused before it was nothing compared to what he was feeling at that moment.

" What're you on about?"

" It's good... too good. Snape is gonna have a fit... he'll give points to Griffindor... well... not really.... Not taking any off..." Harry was getting more and more confused, so put his hands on her shoulder and shook her hard to stop her from babbling.

" Calm down. What. Are. You. Saying?" In response to Harry's questions, she dragged him into her room. She sat herself down on the bed as she shoved Harry into the nearest chair facing her bed.

Harry had been there quite a few times, though they spent most of their time studying in his room. Her room had light pink wallpaper with slightly darker floral print all over. It was well decorated and in one corner she stored all her plush toys from when she was young. The room was always neat and tidy, but her bed was a different story altogether. It was littered with Harry's scrolls and her schoolbooks which where open in different places.

" There were only spelling mistakes that I had to fix other than that it was all well above your usual quality. Look this one..." said Hermione as she handed him the essay but did not pause. "... You potions essay was good. A tad bit on the short side, but you covered all the points and some not mentioned... And here...Your Transfiguration essay it was captivating, fully researched, historical anecdotes and good layout. Oh look... there your Charms essay on
"Kitchen charms and possible dangers to young children" was really good. I think you were the only 4th year to choose it. Personally I didn't think you could pull it off but I was wrong"

* for someone saying they were wrong she was surprisingly happy * though Harry, as he was amazed how confusing Hermione really was to him. "...Hold these...Defence Against Dark Arts. You wrote twelve scrolls and you only had to do six. It was well researched and I especially liked the detailed comparison about some common misconception about some creatures. You even listed some of the good creatures that are sometimes mistaken as evil. See... You worked hard and now you will reap the benefits." Harry was so stunned that he did not speak while she was talking. Several times he opened his mouth but then closed it soon after. Harry knew he had done more work than usual, but did not realize that he had really done quite so well.

Hermione was positively beaming at "her" accomplishment. She had done the impossible task of make Harry like studying. She was well on her way to fix "Harry Potter the boy who lived" to be her idea of what he should be - A high achiever and someone that the Dark Lord would be afraid off.

The day of the trip approached very quickly and except for his Care of Magical Creatures essay, he had nothing left to do, so he read up on Morocco and practiced his astral projection. Harry's skill at it actually had decreased from not using it enough. He only used it at night to read "Hogwarts: A history." So Harry basically had to go through all the pain and suffering he went through to become proficient in it again.

Harry remembered to pack his schoolbooks. He wanted to put page-turning charms on them as soon as he was in Morocco. Harry had an unexpected thought just before they boarded the plane (the Grangers did not want to use Floo powder even though it could have been faster and cost them nothing.) * Wonder how the Dursley's vacation was? *

Review? If you like it please tell me. Tell me what I do to improve.

5. CH 05 (beta by NATE)

Chapter Number: 05
Chapter Name: Vacation

Vernon Dursley was seemingly staring out the window, when he saw his nephew get into a shiny, newish looking BMW. His nephew, was, of course, Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Most witches in his age group (and several outside of it as well) had taken a shine to this fine specimen of a wizard.

"Look at them, Petunia. Them and their kind!" Vernon grumphed. "I bet my set of 2000 drill bits that they never did an honest day's work in their lives." He turned around to look at his wife. She realised she was supposed to do something, and gave an emphatic nod to express her similar opinion. Vernon continued on. "I say...Hawaii. Sun, surf and the sand. Days spent relaxing, nights filled with fun. This is what we love. You work hard, you pour your blood and sweat into your work and you get rewarded."

As a director the only hard work he'd ever done was on the day his secretary was out sick, and he'd had to make his own coffee. Aunt Petunia, in the meantime, had gone to the kitchen to prepare their dinner. She answered Vernon's question of "What's for dinner, sweet pea?", "Steak and kidney pie" over her shoulder.

The drive to the airport the following morning was a quick and uneventful one. They had borrowed a stretch limo taxi to take them there, partly so their luggage could fit in, and partly because Dudley couldn't squeeze into anything smaller.

They arrived two hours before boarding was scheduled to commence, and to Petunia's delight, they visited all the duty free shops, but to her dismay, didn't buy anything..

Once on board the plane, they found Dudley was quite a bit larger than the standard First/Business class seat. As the seats were arranged in groups of four, Dudley occupied two, and his parents had one each. During the seating adjustments, Dudley, being the hormonal teenage boy that he was, noticed how nice the stewardesses all were, and their trim, pert and generally pretty bodies.

After cluing in on the little button on the control panel on his armrest, he kept asking them for small items, just so he could feast his eyes on the women, as they approached, leant over him to make sure he was happy, and left. After noticing his piggy eyes following their every movement, the stewardesses had had enough.

On the eighth call, the young ladies called Martha in. Martha was the head of all the stewardesses, the one who kept things running smoothly in the background.

She was 65 years old-and *very* experienced. She also had a body that could almost, but not quite, rival Dudley's body mass.

"The girls were commenting on the fine young man up in First class, and I thought I'd take a gander meself." she said, smiling. "What would ye like, m'dear?" she leered at him, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Uughh.." Dudley whimpered

"Come on, tell Martha, darling." Martha winked. "You don't need to be shy, y'know."

Dudley managed to form some words, but they were still a little squeaky. "W-w-which way is the b-b-bathroom?" he whispered.

Martha's face fell. "Oh." she said, "Is that all you wanted? The bathroom's that way." she pointed to the back of the cabin. Then, she politely excused herself and made her way back to the little room where she managed the food, drinks, and customer relations. On the way back, she was heard muttering "And there I was, thinking he wanted some more food and drink..."

After that particularly scarring experience, Dudley did not dare call on the services of the flight attendants again, in fear of the return of Martha. However, in the stewardesses' cabin they broke out the party food and opened one of the bottles of champagne reserved for the First Class passengers. At the end of the flight, Martha was found drunk in her cabin, when there was a *small* dispute between two large ladies, a bag of duty-free perfumes, and a large box of Belgian chocolates. Dudley, however, was perfectly sober. A little shaken, but sober. His parents were surprised at his expression, having had a lovely flight with nice food, champagne, chocolate and a lovely romantic movie.

The plane was delayed, arriving at Honolulu three hours behind schedule-mostly because of weather problems, although there were some rumors about the plane being overloaded.

The Dursleys were as mad as hell, as they had hoped to sleep it off. It seemed as though they were cursed-when they reached their hotel, their room had been given away to another group, as they didn't show up at the expected time. Although the concierge had apologized profusely, he couldn't very well kick the poor people out of their room, and thus, the Dursleys had to take another room for the night. They were definitely not pleased with the new room, either. It had two ("Only two?!?" Dudley had complained) double beds, only one small window, and about the only upside to the room was that it came free, complements of the Management. Since the room was pretty small, and they had virtually nowhere else to go, the Dursleys decided a trip to the beach was in order.

Halfway through the day, Dudley met a young woman (he thought she was around 16, or 18) by the name of Serena Blake. He immediately latched onto her, trying to be a ladies' man. He bought her whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Serena was very "impressed" with the way Dudley so wisely spent his money. For the next five days, people staying at the same resort would wonder what the girl saw in him, since she was a shapley, lithe, blonde, tanned woman, who looked as though she'd stepped straight out of Baywatch. Right down to the bright red bathers. Some slightly more worldly (and cynical) folk would have said "money", others who were more romantically inclined thought that the pair were so cute.

On the Sixth day, though, God created man. or rather, two men, who were quite underhanded in their ways, which included conning people out of money. Serena was one of the few they recruited to get a little bit more cash on the side than what their current car "minding" job did. And so, after Serena met with the two shifty characters, she went over to Dudley's room, and found him sitting on the sofa.

"Hello, Dudley.You're looking fine this morning." she said in a low voice

"Oh. Hi." Dudley replied dejectedly, staring out the window

"What's the matter, my sweet?" Serena asked, putting one hand on his shoulder.

"Oh. My parents have stopped giving me money." Dudley said, showing his empty wallet to her.

"Oh, Dudley! What will we do?" Serena sobbed, wrappering herself around him, and giving Dudley a hug.

"You mean, what will I do. I'm the one with no money and no lunch." Dudley said in a monotone.

"Come with me, Dudleykins, and I'll take you out for a ride. After we do lunch, we can stop by that motel on the beach, and we'll have some special fun...you want to have fun, don't you?", she said, batting her eyelashes. Serena wrapped her arms around Dudley's thick neck once more, and started to move her fingers in small circles on his shoulder. Dudley couldn't resist temptation, and jumped off the sofa.

He barged into his parents' room-luckily, they weren't in there. He opened the drawer that he had seen his mother deposit the money in.

"Wow..." he breathed in reverently as he saw the piles of green notes, just waiting to be taken. He heard a noise coming from the ensuite.

"Oh, sh-" he exclaimed softly, and grabbed a few bundles of notes." Then, he "tiptoed" out to his room, where Serena was waiting.

"Quick!" he said, "my parents are coming!" Dudley pulled Serena out of the room, and together they went downstairs to the foyer.

On arrival, he flicked through the bundles of notes, and roughly estimated that he had about $3000 US. Serena looked around hurriedly.

"Here come your parents, I've got to go." she said, and quickly joined a group of passing tourists. So, Dudley was left alone in the middle of the foyer, next to a (fake) palm tree, clutching a helluva lot of money. He whimpered, and looked for somewhere to go. Then, he had a bright idea. He, too, would join a group of passing tourists and pretend to be one of them as he snuck out of the hotel. Once out the door, he wondered what to do next. He obviously couldn't go back in, and he had no idea where to find Serena. Then it hit him. Well, actually, it pulled him off the sidewalk and stuffed him in a car. Dudley looked at his new surroundings in terror.

"Where am I?" he whimpered, looking at the two muscular, black-suited men sitting on either side of him. He instinctively wanted to get out, even though the car was expensively furnished, in good nick, and had a bottle of champagne thoughtfully iced. Then, the blonde (which Dudley didn't previously notice) who was sitting in the front seat turned around. It was Serena.

As soon as he saw her, Dudley's fears were soothed, and he began to calm down.

"Did you bring the money, Dudley?" asked Serena in a husky voice.

"Oh, yes." he said, trying to sound sexy, but actually sounding rather like a five year old.

"Can we see it, then?" she said, smiling.

"Anything for you, my sweet." he said, as he opened his meaty fist and showed her the wad of money. Then, he deposited the money into her outstretched hand.

"So. Are we gonna go to the motel now?" he asked, after a few moments of silence, when she was counting out the cash.

"Yes. Of course we're going to the motel." Serena smiled. At first, Dudley thought she was looking at him. Then he realized her eyes weren't exactly focused, and that he had two *men* sitting on either side of him.

"However, it'll be with these two guys, Dudley. I'm sorry." she smiled. "We had a nice time together, and you're a sweet guy, but these two promised me a good time." Serena gave Dudley another regretful smile.

"Hey! But you promised!" an angry Dudley tried to jump out of his seat and grab Serena, but the two men restrained him. They gave him one good right hook to the chin, and he was out like a shot bulb.

One of the men grunted and asked Serena "How much is there?"

She grinned and replied, "Three, three and a half. Not bad. Last week it took us a month to get this much."

"Yeah."

"So do you two want your share now, or in the morning?" asked the girl, hinting that maybe they should spend the night doing something other than sleeping

"Split the money here and now, then we go back to our places. You know the rules-no contact for at least three days before the next JOB." Said the taller one, obviously the leader of the group, who regularly preyed on tourists.

When Dudley woke up, he was in the Honolulu General Hospital and it was the day before they were due to leave. Both Vernon and Petunia were furious at finding him in an alleyway in the back streets of Honolulu, and would not stop scolding him. But then, Dudley did what he did best. He started whining about how his parents didn’t appreciate him enough, didn’t love him enough, and what’s more, didn’t give him enough money. By the time he was finished, both parents were apologizing and coddling him once again.

Whether or not it was fortunate that the Dursleys had just enough money to get to the airport after they paid the hospital and hotel bills, the Dursleys didn’t leave their streak of bad luck behind when they left the USA. Not only did they lose their luggage, they also managed to board the wrong plane (which was bound for Siberia). And then, arriving home after spending two days in subzero temperature, they found their house covered in graffiti, though, by some miracle, not burglarized.

<<~~~>>

Constructive Reviews are really Welcome.

PS: Thanks Nate for the beta :)

6. CH 06 (beta by NATE)

Chapter Number: 06
Chapter Name: Gremlins on the Wing

Harry had never been on a plane, but when he saw the compartment they were supposed to be in, he knew that this trip must have had cost a lot. The compartment was very spacious, with few seats, only a third as many as there were in the same area in the economy class, but Harry did not know that. The plush comfortable looking leather seats had a lot of room, both in front and the back. There was big screen that Harry assumed was used for in-flight movies.

* I'll ask her later *, he thought.

The soft carpet and expensive looking lacquered wall, made Harry feel very guilty for accepting the gift that Hermione's parents had given him. ‘It must have had cost them a lot of money’ – he kept thinking, and they had only known him for less than two months.

When Harry approached their designated seats, Harry was amazed at the number of buttons that were there. He could identify fair few of them easily, the rest looked, well for a lack of a better word odd. " Which seat do you want, Hermione?" he asked finding the two designated seats for them.

" Well, I like to see the plane take off..." she said, thinking deeply about the question like she always did, no matter how trivial the question was, "... but since this is your first trip, you take it this way. I'll take it on the way back." She gave him a large smile that warmed his heart. It made him feel oddly enough, safe and secure. He thought about all the times Hermione had smiled like that. There was just so many. It was a good thing, since he had so many miserable things happen to him over the years, he was glad that Hermione wad stood by him through it all. The only time she had made him angry was when she told Professor McGonagall about the firebolt. She had assumed that the Firebolt was a gift from the convicted killer, Sirius Black, his godfather. In truth he did send the broom, but he was innocent.

Harry scolded himself for doubting Hermione. She was always the smartest in their pack. * Ron...*, thought Harry. Well Harry knew that Ron could be a jealous git, but when it really came to the crunch time he was always there, Loyal. His thoughts then turned to the twins. It hadn't been a dull moment in Hogwarts, with them around. It was going to be a shame that they would leave at the end of the year.

Feeling himself settling into the soft seat, Harry’s thoughts drifted back to the early morning discussion that he had with Hermione. He had expressed his concern over the amount of money that Hermione's parents had paid, but he was surprised to hear that the trip was not going to cost as much since it had been arranged by a friend of the families.

Somehow in amongst remembering good times, the image of Cedric at the ball with Cho appeared before his eyes. He remembered wanting Cedric to fall off the face of the earth then. Ironically it had come true, but not without baggage. Though Harry knew, it was not his wish, which resulted in Cedric being dead, he could not help himself but think. Harry's thoughts turned to the duel he had with Lord Voldemort, in the graveyard. His mind analyzed the information from that day – he did that everyday. He wanted to come to a conclusion other than the one he had come up with, every day of the week, for the last two months.

Hermione noticed the strange expression on his face. For a while she was unsure of what to do. * He looks scared... No. That's not it. Maybe I should ask him *, she thought, concerned.

" Harry" said Hermione, as she leaned closer to Harry sitting next to her.

" huh..." answered back a puzzled Harry.

" You have this... err.. look on your face. I don't know what you're thinking but it's making me nervous. "

" Oh" said Harry as if that should make her feel better.

" So..." Hermione said in her frustrated voice. " tell me."

" Tell you what?" Harry was always a bit clueless. One should excuse his slowness though. That long summer of studying had to take a toll on him somehow.

" What were you thinking about?" said Hermione as she paused a little waiting for Harry to tell her something, but when he didn't she continued, " I swear I won't tell anyone. Not even-" but Hermione was cut off in mid sentence.

" Okay...Okay... You aren't going like this, but I'll tell you anyway" said Harry as he took a big breath before sitting up to continue. "I don't think Vold- you-know-who was very strong when he attacked me last year... I already told you that part."

More strange expressions passed Harry's face. "...What I didn't tell you was how strong he really was. I doubt he had the same powers at the end of last year as he did when he killed my parents, before he disappeared leaving me behind. Do you want to know what's even worse?"

Hermione tried in vain to sound not to be disturbed by this news, but her counterpart knew her a bit better than she thought.

" What?"

He knew she was afraid when she asked the question, but she would ask it anyway, so that he could get it off his head. Harry thought of dismissing the conversation, but decided that Hermione would think he did not think she was brave enough. " Remember the first year, when we had to get pass fluffy..." Harry paused a second for Hermione to recall the events, before continued.

"...I think when Vold- you-know-who attacked me last year, he was much weaker than he was back in our first year. He could have had killed me if he waited, but decided waiting too long might give me an opportunity to escape, or give enough time for his death eaters to turn on him. With my protection gone I really wasn't much of a threat to him. I shudder to think how powerful he really can become..."

Hermione gasped at the news. She could hardly bring herself to believe it. If what Harry thought was right then he would not be able to survive an encounter with a fully powered the dark lord, much less defeat him. She had the romanticized idea that Harry would one day be the greatest wizard in the world, but she now started to fear for his life. Her body started to shiver slightly.

When Harry noticed her shiver. He gently took hand and used his thumb to stroke across the back of her palm. Hermione felt the panic dissipate, as a wave of warmth started to wash over her. Seeing that Hermione had returned to her normal demeanor, Harry stopped and whispered to Hermione. " Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

Harry did not give a reason why, or how it was going to be all right. But Hermione believed in him. When the final bit of the panic left she joined Harry in watching the three gremlins on the wing of the Airplane. Seeing the gremlins caused a flash back...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.... OK. So does anyone know what gremlins are?" asked Professor Lupin.

" Those ugly creatures that go on the wings of aeroplanes and try to crash them..." asked a muggleborn Hufflepuff called Jemi.

"...err...no... close, but not exactly..." Professor Lupin looked around again. Hermione still had her hands up. She was not going to put it down until he asked her.

"... Anyone?" He looked pleadingly at almost everyone in the class. "... Anyone but Hermione? There's a prize for the person. An extra day at Hogsmede with three other friends".

When no one else put up their hand, Professor Lupin turned to Hermione "...Oh, OK. Hermione - but no trip for you."

Hermione was not unhappy at all, Ron was a different case altogether different, as she put down her hand and said, " Gremlins are fun loving creatures with an odd obsession. They love to get as high as they can off the ground and then jump. They don't have any protective devices to save them from jumping. The reason why was a bit odd to say the least. When they crash into the ground below, they split apart into bits. It takes them a fair few days, for all the bits to get back together, at which time the they repeat the process all over again."

" Excellent answer Hermione. From what Jemi said, it's clear that a lot of wizards and witches have misconceptions about the..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Hermione relaxed, as much as she could do so under the circumstances, into her seat, she saw Harry take out a book. She knew the book almost intimately; its size, shape and texture were so familiar to her that, had she tried to picture it in her mind she would have no trouble at all. Before she knew it she was asleep – with a slight smile in the corner of her lips, happy in the fact that someone else other than her liked the book to read it when they did not need to.

~o0o~

Hermione woke up after a few hours into the journey and there was at least another hour left of it. Most of the people were sleeping or enjoying the last part of the in-flight movie (You've Got mail). She turned her head to the window to see Harry sleeping comfortably on the seat next to her, his mouth was open a little bit as he was drooling slightly. She could not help but grin a little.

*Something to tease him about * she thought smiling.

Then she noticed that the pages of the thick book were turning by themselves. The gasp she made caught the attention of the Harry - who was reading the book in his Astral form.

Harry had been so absorbed in his reading of events leading up to the great wizarding war between the Druids of England and Mages of She'orn in the late 1100's, that he did not realize that Hermione was awake. But as soon as he heard her gasp, he regretted not telling her about reading books when he was in Astral Projection. Her face had a mixture of emotions on it ranging from amazement to disbelief to fear.

Harry made a split second decision to tell Hermione right there and then about it. When he snapped open his eyes, he saw the look on her face had not changed in the time between his waking up and him stopping the projection. He wasn't sure whether or not it was because he had returned to his body, almost instantaneously that her face still held the same expression of fear and disbelief.

" It was me..." he said to softly when he was back.

" Huh?"

Hermione paid no attention to what Harry had said, so he repeated, " I was reading the book."

" How?... What did you say?..." even as Hermione said this her brain was rushing to finish analyzing what Harry had just told her. Once she realized the implications of his statements she was right royally angry.

" ... I don't believe this! HARRY POTTER! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME?" Yelled Hermione, managing to get attention from quite a few people, some sleeping others not.

" shush...." said Harry, trying to get Hermione to reduce the pitch of her voice. " ...calm down. I only found out a few days ago and I was going to tell you when we got to Morocco." said Harry in a low voice to emphasise the need for secrecy. " Think about it. I can now literally study in my sleep. Besides didn't you wonder why I wanted to I want to do Automatic page turning Charm on all my books?... even the small ones. " Harry paused just long enough for Hermione to think about what he had just said and then stared again before she could ask anything else again. " Hermione... I'm really sorry. I should've told you about it when I foun -" he stopped in mid sentences and the tone of voice suddenly changed into total regret, " I'll do anything... Just name it?"

Hermione was not to be satisfied that easily. She wanted to know exactly when and how he learned that he could (rather the charm could sense him) do this. After about fifteen minutes of groveling and detailed explanation, Hermione was calm again.

" You know if you had told me before I would have had Mrs. McDougol put those charms on the books" said Hermione.

" I don't want anyone knowing about my powers just yet." He paused before solemnly saying, "Not even Ron."

Hermione was surprised. * He tells Ron everything. Why would he not want to tell him about the powers... Oh! No! They didn't have another argument did they...but when could they have ha....*

" Why?" she asked frowning. " You didn’t have another fight with him did you?".

" No. You remember last year... remember when he was acting like a big baby that I got to be a champion and he didn't. I had to risk my life in the first task to get him to realize I didn't put my name in it... I don't want that to happen again... and then there's a chance that Vold-you-know-who would come after me too soon, if he knew I was gaining strength – if I’m getting stronger at all."

" You really thought this through...haven't you?" asked Hermione, amazed at just how much thought the "reckless Harry Potter" had put into thinking about the situation. * Well... You grow up really fast if there was a mad man...no mad thing after you... * thought Hermione bitterly as she looked at Harry.

" I guess..." said Harry, then he could not resist adding something more, "...you're rubbing off on me."

Hermione gave him a playful punch before the two friends drifted off topic and started to talk about a variety of other subjects. The subjects were as varied as each second to an hour. They also talked about brooms and Quidditch, and Harry was all too happy to fill her in on some of the finer points of the game. Hermione had many misconceptions about the game and Harry was glad to rectify them.

As time wore on the time for their arrival drew closer. The excitement of exploring a new country could be seen very clearly on Hermione's face, but their landing was a bit bumpy because of the strong winds, but aside from that there was no trouble on the flight.

Errors? Grammar? Plot hole? Anything you want to tell me about?

7. CH 07 (beta by NATE)

Chapter Number: 07
Chapter Name: The Carpet Man

When they had cleared through customs and were appearing where families and friends meet, Harry saw someone that he almost instantaneously recognized as a wizard. It was hardly difficult since he had his wand in hand.

The man was tall like Sirius with sharp blue eyes, a small curly moustache and a very easily identifiable scar that was probably left by a dangerous magical beast on his left arm. As soon as the man saw Harry and the rest of the group he rushed over to them with an expression that was of meeting a long time friend after a long separation.

"... Ahh. You must be Harry" said the man is a voice filled with delight.

" Yes. This is my friend Hermione Granger and those two muggles at the checkpoint are her parents. Mr and Mrs. Granger ... Are you Mr. Ali Pasha?"

" Sweet Merlin! You look like the exact duplicate of your father... except for your eyes. They remind me of someone... I just can't remember who."

Mr. Pasha then seemed to stop in his track and ask in a trembling voice, " No! It couldn't be... Did they? - So he realized..." at this point his voice and thoughts became more composed, " Could you tell me the name of your mother please son? "

" My mother's name was Lily Evans- " Harry wanted to ask more about his father but Mr. Pasha interrupted. He started to laugh confusing Harry.

" Excuse me... Why are you laughing?-" He felt insulted that he was laughing at his mother. If Mr. Pasha had kept laughing a little longer, he wouldn’t laugh ever again.

" Oh! I knew it. I knew it! Your father... that dope finally got it through his head."

" What did you know? What did he realize? ...." asked Harry very curious to find out more about his father.

" Ok, remember you asked. Your father and I met on a trip that we took together to the Ukrainian forests. We became friends quickly and after the trip I went to Hogwarts for about a month and a half. Back then they had an exchange program... Well anyway, your father had a friend at school, Lily was her name. She was beautiful, had wild red hair, kind of like her brown one..." said Mr. Pasha pointing at Hermione.

Harry turned quickly towards Hermione, but then turned back to Mr. Pasha. At this point the whole party was out of the airport and into a large waiting car, which was even bigger inside. The inside of the car was like a limo. It had two rows of four seats facing each other in the passenger part and the front of the car was reserved for the driver.

Harry never saw a head in the front seat, so he assumed the car either drove itself or someone very small was driving it. He did not bother to actually find out anything about the car, as he was very much more interested in what Mr. Pasha was saying about his parents. The whole group settled down on comfortable leather seats, and was relaxing in no time at all.

Hermione blushed when she was compared to Lily Evans. Everyone in the wizarding world knew that Lily was a very beautiful woman and in her days at Hogwarts, she had no shortage of admirers.

Mr. Pasha did not pause, "... Well any way... I knew he was friends with her, I think they were best friends at that time. I thought they loved each other, so I asked him about it. He vehemently denied that they were anything more than friends and that she had a boyfriend that she was very serious with."

Mr. Pasha had a small grin in his face. "...But I could tell by the way they looked out for one another, the way they talked to each other, I knew that wasn't the case. I told him that, but he didn't believe a word of it..."

He had a single tear running down his face now. He paused a few seconds, wiping his face with the back of his hand and then continuing. "... Well, Looks like I was right. One day an owl came with their wedding invitation, but it did not have any information about who he was getting married to. I think your father wanted me to come tell him 'I told you so'. Alas I couldn't go. There was a war here at that time-"

" You mean the Shozar Wars?" asked Hermione.

" -yes. Not many people know about the war. It's nothing compared to what Britain has seen over the years, but it was pretty big here. How did-" Mr. Pasha stopped looking at Harry and turned his attention to Hermione before going back to Harry.

" Top of every class, sensible, most of the time in the library and a little too caring about the house elves?" it was a question he directed to Harry.

" Yes. How did you know?" asked Harry, as he was very surprised at the accuracy of what he just said. Mr. Pasha looked at Hermione again. His intense gaze was making her a little uncomfortable.

" I was wrong girl, when I said you were kind of like Lily..." paused Mr. Pasha. Upon hearing this Hermione was a little hurt. A few minutes ago she was compared to one of the most beautiful women the wizarding world had seen and now it was taken back. "... You are her!" He paused a little to let the words sink in with Hermione.

"The same smile, same intelligence, same beauty, and the same hair...well her hair was more on the red side and a lot longer but messy in the morning if she didn't use that potion –err… I can’t remember it’s name. Hell you even have the same sort of little eccentricities about books and elves. It's uncanny really..." then Mr. Pasha looked at Harry and said, "Well... I think I'll talk to you more about your parents later, as I suspect we have reached our destination." Just as soon as he said this the car started to slow down before coming to a full stop soon after. Hermione had never been compared to a legendary beauty (granted that most of her fame was for bearing the boy who lived).

Though Harry and Hermione wanted to know more about Harry's parents, they didn't object to the abrupt end of their conversation. Harry stepped out of the car and looked at Hermione who was beet-red.

The place that Harry and the rest of the group were taken to was called " Toshok", which is an ancient word for carpet. Mr. Pasha explained how he got into the flying carpet business after the Shozar wars. He cracked a joke about being the number one in his field and how it was very easy since he was the only one who made the flying carpets.

His wife, Mrs. Pasha did not say anything during the car ride but once they all approached the stairs of the house, she took lead.

" Welcome to my humble abode." As she did a small bow and pointed to the closed door. Mr. Granger and Harry were going to follow go in first but Mr. Pasha held them back by their shoulders. " It's traditional that the women from the family and the guest party enter the house first, then they come out and they can give permission to the their male counter part to enter the house." He explained.

Hermione, her mother and Mrs. Pasha entered the house and closed the door behind them. " ... What if they say we can't come in? Do we stay here for rest of the holiday?" asked Mr. Granger with a little concern in his voice.

" My wife likes to leave me outside until its time for dinner. That way I don't mess up the house" as she tells me. Good thing dinner is only in half an hour."

" OH! You poor man!" said Mr. Granger, thinking it was actually true.

" No! I'm just joking. It'll take them a few minutes to finish the inspection of the house. Once they are finished they come out and basically invite us in." At this point the three women come out of the house and tell them to come inside.

The house amazed Harry. It was not terribly big, but it was decorated well and it felt almost as much like home, just as Hermione's house did. They talked through dinner and herbal tea afterwards. While Harry and Hermione were shown to their room (two on opposite side of a t-shaped corridor with another room in the middle occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Granger), by the house elf much, to the dislike of Hermione, the adults discussed wide range of topics, including the fact that Mrs. Pasha was going to the tour guide for Mr. & Mrs. Granger, since she was a muggle!

Mistakes? Ideas? Problems? Plot holes? Dare I think – Compliments?

8. CH 08 (beta by NATE)

Chapter Number: 08
Chapter Name: Exploding Books

After they settled into their room, Harry opened up his trunk and took out all his books. It took him two trips to take all the books to Hermione's room – where he dumped them. He started to skim read the pages of the first volume of his charms book, while Hermione did the other. It took them a little time, but they found it. Hermione of course found it. She was the one reading that book. It happened to be the very last charm on the page.

" I found it..." she said happily, but then she said something else that made Harry's heart stop, " Ah oh!"

" What? What do you mean - Ah Oh!"

" Well... its kind of advanced" replied Hermione.

" How advanced?" asked Harry sounding still hopeful.

" Pretty advanced since a fifth of the OWL exam asks us to answer detailed questions about one of the last five charms."

" Can't you at least try..." asked Harry knowing his best friend could do a lot of things that were well beyond her years.

" Yes. I could." Harry could see Hermione biting her lips – she wasn’t that sure. " I'll. Give me the potions book."

" Here." said Harry, hurriedly giving Hermione the book.

" ...please let it work. Ok.. Here goes nothing."

Hermione squinted at the page a few times, before she did as per instruction. She tapped her wand on book three times and shouted "rotoo volumnus Aki". If the spell had worked, there should have been a small golden drop of metal that should have had formed at the end of the wand. Putting the golden drop on the book creates the charm.

" It didn't work" said Hermione a little disappointed.

" Well that's ok. I'll get Professor Dumboledore to do it once I get to Hogwarts. I'm sure he'll be happy to help" said Harry, to comfort her.

" Why don't you try it?" Hermione said it like it was just as good a reason as any.

" Me?" asked Harry incredulously.

" Well, why not? You stopped the dark lord three times. This should be easy." Harry didn’t know now if Hermione was teasing him or just challenging him. Or just plain curious.

" You know, I'm no good in charms-"

" Harry Potter, you do as I say right now, or there'll be trouble." With a voice that carried more seriousness in it then she intended to.

" OK. OK. Sheesh." Harry said, picking up the book.

" I only asked you to try" Hermione looked really upset that Harry would decide so quickly not listen to her.

" Well OK. But you can't laugh at me"

" When have I ever done that? Well... except the time you -" Hermione paused to grin at him remembering what happened in the library last year-

(A/N: This is a fictional event in which a charm terribly backfires. You’ll learn more a lot later.)

-but she didn't think it would help to rehash to topic so ".. Okay. Point taken. I won’t laugh if you try to do it and fail."

" Here goes nothing."

Harry read the instructions carefully several times, from the book before putting it down on the bed next to him. He placed the potions book in front of him. Harry tapped the book twice and closed his eyes. He tapped the book one more time and the book started to levitate very high.

The whispered the words, but they were slightly different, "Roto-volumnus Aki"

Hermione was surprised to see that book started to levitate. It was not supposed to levitate that high, but she said nothing, as disturbing him can lead to a very big accident – for the books. Harry opened his eyes to see that the book was in the air and there was a gleam of gold on the end of the wand.

As soon as the book touched the golden drop at the end of the wand, it started to expand on the book. Slowly covering the whole book with a golden haze, which grew slightly brighter and then dimmed. This fluctuation went on for a few seconds, with increasing frequency. Then suddenly the book exploded.

Harry thought he had done the spell wrong, but Hermione knew he hadn't. The bits of paper all around them started to float around Harry and after a while seem be picked up by an invisible hand be dropped into a sphere with a hole in it. Inside that invisible sphere the bits of paper still floated around. Each seemingly in front of him. In less than ten seconds the book was back, but one corner of the front of the book now had a golden edge protector.

Happy that he had done a very advanced charm right, he looked up to Hermione to get some praise. He was shocked to see that she was crying silently. He slowly moved next to her and asked, " Why are you crying?"

Hermione stopped long enough to say, " You did it... andd... I... I couldn't..." before she started to cry again, though this time she was not crying silently.

" I think I know what mistake you made. It's a small one. You weren't reading the spell properly. Here...look at me" said Harry as he paused and used his hand to lift up her chin to force her to look at him. "...Now. Listen. One mistake isn't the end of the world."

Hermione looked at his eyes, and saw how much compassion they held. He handed her his herbology book, and said in a whisper, " Do as I tell you. First tap the book two times and then close your eyes." Hermione followed, " Now imagine the book in front of you, and slowly tap it the final time...Good".

" Now say, 'roto-volumnus Aki', but make sure you say 'roto-volumnus' as one word and then accentuate the 'A' in 'Aki'...ok do it...Good".

The same thing happened with this book like the one Harry had done the spell on. The book exploded a few seconds later and the whole room covered in small pieces of pink paper. It took a little longer this time to form, but it did. Though her success seemed to make Hermione feel a lot worse than before.

" Why are you still crying?" said Harry, feeling a bit exasperated.

" ...I..I g-got the spell right..." she snorted and started to cry again.

Her reasoning made no sense to Harry, and he fought valiantly to stop himself from laughing at the nonsensical statement Hermione had made. It took him a while but he did manage to turn that into a boyish grin. He knew teasing her would be the easiest way for him to stop her from crying.

" I promise next time I have to do an advanced charm I'll fail...OK." asked Harry.

" Not ok." Replied Hermione. " You worked hard over the summer and I got all those letters from Victor..." she paused to think about Victor before continuing, "... I haven't been studying enough", suddenly very resolute, "That's it. I'll just study more and that'll fix the problem."

" I think you your problem might be easier to fix then you realize." Grinning broadly he opened the book and pointed at the page... "Look at the book... I bet you can't see a thing."

Hermione squinted at the pages for a few seconds, before giving up.

" Am I right?"

" Yes! But how did you know I've been having trouble reading all summer. I didn't even tell my parents..."

At that point Mrs. Pasha entered the room. She was waiting outside the room to talk to Harry, and had inadvertently heard the conversation regarding Hermione's need for corrective lenses. " Sorry...I couldn't help over hearing you. Did I just hear you say that, someone needed glasses? Because I can help" she said, sitting down next to Hermione on the bed.

" Oh...yeah it's me. I've been having problems focusing. I was gonna tell mom and dad, but with all the homework I forgot." Hermione blushed a little in embarrassment. She knew the real reason and so did Harry. She had forgotten because she daydreamed about Victor.

" Don't worry... We have optometrists here too you know. We can get one of those new contacts for you and-" she looked at Harry, sizing him up. "-don't you need some new ones too?" said Mrs. Pasha pointing at his glasses that were being held together by scotch tape.

She didn't exactly wait for his answer, but more for a puzzled look to pass over his face. " I have a cousin here who runs an optometrist shop very close to where Ali's taking you tomorrow, if you want I'll tell Ali to take a side trip there."

" Oh thanks. Mrs. Pasha" said Hermione, very pleased.

" Not to worry...err...Harry can I talk to you outside. Alone."

She didn't wait for an answer, as from her tone it was clear that it really wasn't a request, but more like an order. Harry didn't mind complying with her, since not only was she polite in asking, but he was also a guest there.

Harry shrugged his shoulder to Hermione, and followed Mrs. Pasha out. He closed the door behind him, as he left. Just after he left, he heard a small-scale explosion.

* Hermione's doing them without me! *

Harry desperately wanted to go back to the room and continue with the magic, but he forced himself to stay. Harry didn't have to wait long to find out why he was taken out side.

" Harry, I don't think you should go into her room, at night time. I know I'm old fashioned and such, but I don't think boyfriends and girlfriends should do that at such an ea-" she stopped talking when she saw, that Harry had just snorted out of laughter.

" I'm not her boyfriend. She has a boyfriend in Bulgaria, and I'm just a friend. Nothing more."

" Oh-" realizing that she had assumed their behavior towards each other for more than it was. "Still, I don't think her parents would like it if you two are in the same room at night, alone and the door is closed. In any case leave the door open, that way they won't get agitated. Ok"

" Yeah. Is that it?" he asked, desperately wanting to get back to the room, when he heard another small explosion followed by Hermione’s giggle. (* She does that more often these days...*)

"I really want to get back in there. I haven't done magic for almost two months now. I can't stand it."

" Before you go, remember what I said. Open door."

" Ok. Thanks." With that Harry went to the room, only to find that Hermione had done all his books except for the DADA and the transfiguration book. He pointed his wand at her and said, " Don't touch those two. I'm doing those two."

Hermione looked a little disappointed, but she recovered quickly. She wanted see him levitate the book; so far she had only made the book hover a few inches off the ground (that’s how much it’s supposed to happen, according to the book.) But Harry's had reached to his chest height, and even without looking he did he had tapped the book, in mid air.

" Ok. So... what do you think we're seeing tomorrow?"

" I don't know..." with that he went back to doing more magic, with Hermione watching all the time.

For the next hour, Harry and Hermione played with an eagle-feather quill that they kept on transfiguring into different things, just taking pleasure from simple magic. Needle, miniature pig, cat, dog, snake (Hermione freaked out at that one) and unicorns to name a few things that small eagle-feather had turned into. At the very end of their small game of transfiguring, they managed to turn it into something that looked like a television, but it was actually just a box with glass.

The ever sensible Hermione, realizing their bed time had approached quickly but gently kicked Harry out of the room – by kicking him in his butt when he stood up to leave.

"-aw. That hurt! Did you have to kick me?" said Harry as he massaged his backside.

" Go. I don't think mom will like it much if she sees you here."

" Ok. If I don't wake up tomorrow morning early, just wake me up."

" I will. Just promise me one thing."

" What?" asked Harry

" Don't have a nightmare. I didn't sleep well, on the plane and I need my beauty sleep."

" You look fine to me" as soon as he said that, Harry turned much the same color that Hermione had turned into when she was compared to Lily Evans.

" Why, thank you kind sir." Said Hermione batting her eye lashes and with a fake southern accent. They both burst into laughter, getting unwanted attention from Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were just finished with the "adult" talk and were now heading for their designated bedroom.

Harry didn't realize it, until he was Astral Projecting that he had left all his books in Hermione's room. Since it would take a long time to get it back and go back to sleep, if she was asleep. He scolded himself for being so stupid, but decided going into Hermione’s room was out of the question, because of his promise. He was also very sure that she was fast asleep by then since it took him exceptionally long time that day to get into his Astral form.

So he started to read about Shozar Wars, in his other favorite book that he got from Hermione's personal collection of books. Moroccan magic ministry was very new. Only 13 years!

Before that two rival clans fought for control. Shozar Sebastian a man belonging to neither group fuelled the fire between the two main clans by killing someone from one group then blaming it on the other. Shozar was a death eater ordered by LORD VOLDEMORT to bring about the destruction of the city most populated by Half-Muggle wizards in the world. Morocco.

(A/N: My brother tells me Morocco is a country. Since then I’ve found out that it is indeed a country. Sorry! Please just think of it as a city.)

The magical community was torn asunder, and it was brother against brother. Then both sides, found out that they had been played and a unique system of deciding between the two clans. Every year, a three-day endurance match is to be held on the 25th of August.

* Hey that's tomorrow... So that's where we're going* thought Harry happily, but his happiness quickly turned into sadness when he read the next paragraph detailing how the voting was carried out.

The people in the audience judged (only eligible voters were allowed in) which clan they wanted to rule the next year. It was called the Septanic games and it decides the fate of a magical community. Only once in its 16 years the loser of the match was the next rule.

It happened when the Shoran's (name of the presiding clan's) youngest fighter was terribly injured by one of the fighters for Tozan (opposition clan at the time) in 1988. The entire Shoran force abandoned their fight to save the life of their comrade. Deaths at the games have been very rare. It only occurs when foolish young men do not get off the field, thinking they are invincible. The voters voted for the losers -" But Harry was interrupted by an astral projecting Ali Pasha.

Liked it so far? Please comment? Didn’t? – Comment. Tell me how I can improve.

9. Ali Pasha & the Ukrainian Forest stories

Chapter Number: 9
Chapter Name: Ali Pasha & the Ukrainian Forest stories

" Hello Harry" said Mr. Pasha.

Harry was so surprised that he jumped off his bed and tried to get his wand lying next to his sleeping body, forgetting that it was impossible for him to do so. Letting out a hiss from the sting, he looked at Ali – expecting some kind of attack.

" You know as well as I do, you can't touch anything." Ali said softly.

" How do you know?" muttered Harry, looking at the wand and willing it move. Nothing happened. He looked back at him.

" I'm just like you. It was your mother that passed on the power to you. She initiated James, so he became an observer."

" What do you mean?" asked Harry very confused.

" If you want to understand this you have to listen to me. You have to listen to me very carefully. Sit down on your bed," said Mr. Pasha, as he took a seat.

Harry kept standing, still not trusting Ali. But then he did, thinking if Ali had wanted to kill him, he had several chances. He was safe even if Ali wanted to kill him. " It's amazing isn't it. We can sit on chairs and tables or anything else. We don't fall through floors, but we can pass through anything. If we try to move things with those areas of our body we simply pass through them." Harry only nodded.

"Well. Like I was saying.... Like your mother I am a muggleborn, and she had the power. I'm not sure how long you've been experimenting with this but I have experimented with it since sixteen. I'm ashamed to admit it but at the beginning I used this power to spy on girls."

Harry was surprised by the man's honesty, but didn't say anything.

" I won't use the fact that back then in school "the bird and the bees" fact was not explained as an excuse. I was a sixteen-year-old, with all the things that came with being one. I was curious and I’m fairly certain, regardless whether or not the topic was explained or not in school, I would have had done it anyway. On my third week, my mother who had the power, found me Astral Projecting into a place I shouldn't have had been. She didn't just punish me – no that would been no punishment at all. She punished me in front of all the girls that I tried to peep on. It was the single most humiliating experience of my life and I learned my lesson then. Erm, sorry… I should get to my point. "

He let out a deep sigh. It looked like he was making a list in his head about what he was going to say. Harry only had to wait a few seconds.

" The power that we have comes with lots of benefits. For one thing, when you sleep, your brain rests and it’s very easy then to learn new things. Problem with it is that you are sleeping, so you can't really learn anything. I know you did the Page turning charm, which by the way took me until my seventh year to figure out, and even then your mother was the one who told me about it – I’m getting ahead of myself.”

" This gift might let you do extra ordinary things like this, but you have to remember not to overexert yourself. That’s why at the beginning, more than anything else, it is very important to get a minimum of one good night sleep every week. This prevents you from getting too edgy after a few days of Astral Projecting. There's a way to give the gift to someone worthy. Someone willing to give their life to save you or someone who cares as much for you as you do for them." Mr. Pasha paused.

" Now this is where everything gets a little confusing so I'll try to be as clear as possible... If I know my self it'll be as clear as mud...” He laughed to himself, as Harry just watched the odd man speak. “ Don't worry about my rambling, I tend to do that often. There is a way to "INITIATE" someone. That is to say that to give a person the ability to "Astral Project", but they can't pass it onto their children. They can walk through walls, but can't do anything other than that. These abilities make us, more than human. Better memory, physical shape... Oh by the way by the time you're gonna be 16 you'll grow to six foot two. Exactly. So, I’m afraid you’ll never be as tall as your father was. He was something like six feet six or seven, anyway-it's Accelerated Growth."

Mr. Pasha saw the puzzled look on Harry's face and before Harry could utter a single word to ask him why he would grow to that height, Mr. Pasha answered him. " I don't know why, but that's the trend... I'm off the topic again. Where was I?"

" We're more than humans?..." prompted Harry.

" Oh yes. I don't mean to sound superior or anything, but it's just the way things are. We have better memory, physical conditioning, and something that you don't have the ability to control. The ability to heal our own injuries comes very handy...not total healing, just small cuts and bruises. There’s some more and I tell you the ones that I know of. There might be more, but no one I know with these sorts of powers has any idea.

" If the person you choose to initiate is a muggle or atleast 1/8th muggle then you don't loose any of your powers. However there is also way to initiate a full-blooded wizard, but it only works on the opposite gender and it come at a great cost. You loose all the powers except for walking through walls – in the astral plane. This is what your mother did for your father. She gave up all that, just so he could walk around at night. That's how the –ah - do you know about the map?"

Harry nodded his head in surprise. Harry had assumed that only the marauders knew of its existence. Mr. Pasha continued from where he had left off.

" Well before that power he and his group had discovered only a fraction of it. After she gave him the power, they did the whole castle. He didn't know what she had given up. Not until we met- even then he only knew fraction of the truth." Mr. Pasha sighed. Remembering old days were hard for him. It reminded him too much of the war he had fought in. Too many good people died in the war. Too many to count. Too many to remember.

" Like I said before, we met in Ukraine... We were both sleeping on camping ground and decided to go exploring in our sleep. Imagine our surprise when we both get out of our bodies at the same time. I asked him how long he had been doing this. When he told me it had been only for four months that I was surprised. You see, it usually takes about six or seven months before the "Initiated" can actually do it without the help of the person who initiated them. I asked him whether he was a full-blooded wizard. When said he was, I explained to him, what the person gave up, for him to have this power. He had absolutely no idea." Mr. Pasha paused.

" What did he do then?" asked Harry

" Nothing. Neither of us could do anything. Next day we explored the jungle and found some interesting looking creature. When we went to investigate it your father saved my life, but not before the creature left its mark on my left arm." Mr. Pasha rolled his sleeves and revealed the scar that was made by a claw. " Well I too saved your father with the help of a surprisingly helpful giantess. Well James, ever the adventurous person that he was went into the jungle without me and managed to become the prey for a Chimera."

" I attacked the beast, quite stupidly, but really was getting no where with it, and then out of nowhere a giantess about some fifteen or eighteen feet tall, came and kicked the Chimera right out of sight."

" Really?" asked Harry in disbelief. " I thought they usually ate humans or something..."

" That might be true, but this one seemed different. I’ll get back to what I saying before...It was amazing. Well, we both wanted to give her money, but she refused. She even shared her food with us. We got around talking about each of us and when she heard that James went to Hogwarts, she wanted to know if he knew if there was a half giant wizard there?"

" Just that? She just wanted to know if any half giants went to Hogwarts"

" Rather odd that was.” Ali said, shaking his head. “ Well, James told her there was, but somehow he was expelled, much to her disappointment but then she clapped really hard and it sounded like thunder when, James told her that he was the best grounds keeper Hogwarts ever had. Not to mention the fact that he was very popular with most of the students."

" When we went back to our camp the next day, James promised me that he would see about getting me into Hogwarts for a while as an exchange student. I never did find out how he convinced that headmaster that I should come to Hogwarts, even if it was only for a few months. But I think it might have had something with the fact that everyone was afraid of how the Dark lord was gaining a foothold in the magical communities around the world."

" The day before I was supposed to go back to Morocco, I got a letter telling me I’m supposed to go with James to Hogwarts for a two month period. We celebrated all night long-" Ali Pasha made a drinking motion.

" We were so drunk the next day, we almost missed the train back. It didn’t take that long for me to befriend his Marauders and… your mother. Saving his life helped. I was totally fascinated by your mother. I could never imagine giving up my perks of the power just because a girl was my friend, and there she was who did that."

" It took until the very last day of my stay at Hogwarts, to get her trust. She finally told me why she did that. She made me promise that I won't tell anyone. Her answer was very moving. She told me loosing all the abilities were nothing compared to what she was going to loose at the end of the year. It was the seventh year and last year. They were all going to go their separate ways. Lily wanted to give something to James for all the years of unconditional friendship that James had provided her with from the very first day they met."

Mr. Pasha wanted to say something but he paused, unsure if he should go ahead or not. " Did anyone ever tell you why Lily and James became friends in the first place?"

This was a question that was highly embarrassing for Harry. He had seen photos of his mom and dad, and they looked very close in all of them. This coupled with the fact that everyone always said that they made a very nice couple, he had assumed that they fell in love with each other from the first time they saw each other. As stupid as it was to think that two eleven years would fall in love in their first year.

" err...No. I was given the impression they were in love with each other the first time they saw each other." Said Harry.

(A/N: The history of allowing of Muggleborn witches and wizards are totally fictional but a necessary evil. Discrepancies with the books are intentional.)

" Not so..." Mr. Pasha laughed a dry laugh before continuing with the tale.

"...The year that Lily Evans came to Hogwarts was the first year Professor Dumboledore was the Headmaster, but it was also the first time after almost a period of 250 years that Muggleborn children were allowed in. There were only five of them and only one was in the Gryffindor. From what your father told me, she was a very timid looking girl with red bushy hair and an easy target for everyone who wanted an easy target to pick on."

" After sorting, (the next day) on her way to her first class apparently a huge crowd of students were waiting to pick on her. The sad part of it was that most of them weren't from Slytherin. They were from Gryffindors." Mr. Pasha paused for the situation to sink into Harry.

" Gryffindors picking on Gryffindors?"

" It was bad times...anyway, your father and his three new friends wiggled past all the people to see what was the center of all the attention. He was disgusted to find out that all those people were actually picking on one girl. There were five or six people who really were doing the teasing the rest were just watching the show, but your father saw no difference. He went ballistic right there and then started to fire curses and hexes in every direction. For a first year he knew quite a few and he did them all very well. According to Lily, James had sent about twenty boys and girls to the hospital wing. He got a month worth of detention from Professor McGonagall using magic in the corridor, when she finally showed up.”

“ I can still recall your mother’s face as she explained in awe, how she couldn’t believe that someone who didn't even know her was willing to get in trouble over her. She fell for him that moment. Thing is your father just thought of her as a friend."

" The marauders actually started to play pranks on people who had insulted her somehow. Before the end of fifth year, few people even looked at her twice. James and his marauders and there was one other person that Lily came to be friends with in her second year. It was a Slytherin boy by the name of...name of Slap, Snug...er...no. Snape. Yes! That's it... Snape would sometimes talk to her about potion -"

Harry couldn't help and yell at the mention of Snape " Did you say Snape? This wouldn't happen to be Severus Snape would it?"

" Sounds familiar... Yes...Yes... Could be… Do you know him?"

" He is my potions teacher" said Harry in a dazed confusion.

" Well... seems like I haven't lost as many details about Lily and James as I thought. Well, anyway, they used to talk about potions and such things. Sirius,” Harry noticed how Ali’s voice was rather stressed, “ hated him but your father liked him. He thought it was good thing that Lily had managed to get herself another friend other than the Marauders. He thought that this would encourage her to be more outgoing. It was getting easier for her then, since the next year several new muggleborn Gryffindors joined."

"She was very good in all her subjects. Lily got the highest in everything other than transfiguration. It made her even more enemies because of that. So whenever she had free time, she would be with James doing transfiguration. As luck would have it your father was great at it. I myself am into Charms. The intricate flicks and swishes and the way to grip the wand, it’s really … sorry, I drifted off. Like I was saying, he would break off dates with all those pretty girls, some of them two years older, just so your mom wouldn't fail transfiguration."

" Lily told me that she didn’t think James did it because he felt pity for her, but he did it because he valued her friendship. He did it for her sake. The fool actually thought that he did it because she was a friend. He didn't even see that he was in love with her... Well it was clear to me and Moon..err Lupin"

" -You don't have to worry about that. I know about him since my third year." Said Harry.

" OH OK. At the end of the fifth year she read about an easy potion, to make her hair soft and straight. The day after she became the most popular girl in school, suddenly all the boys wanted to be with her, some of them were older, better looking and even more rich than your father. But she only wanted him. Unfortunately James saw nothing in her to make him think that she was anything other than what she was before."

" What was that?" asked Harry, very curious as to how his father saw his mother, even after she went through a makeover.

" A GOOD friend. After spending almost three-quarters of a year, trying to get his attention she finally gave up and decided that Snape deserved a shot. That's when she decided to give James the gift as a parting gift."

" Your mom and that Snape fellow apparently dated, until he accused James of trying to kill him. I think this happened a few days before I was supposed to leave. The night before there was an incident where Sirius lead Snape to where Lupin was...you know...but your father saved him. When Snape accused James of trying to kill him, she dumped him right there and then. James was going to go along with Snape’s story too, actually he started to say that he did do that. But she could always see through his lies and this was no exception. She knew James would never do anything like that. He couldn’t stand to see Lily unhappy and she knew that James thought Snape made her happy."

There was a long pause that made Harry uncomfortable. Just as he was about to say something, Mr. Pasha started to talk again, " When I heard her story, I was furious. I couldn't believe James didn't see Lily for what she really was and I went back to the dorm punched your father straight in the face a few times to get rid of all the emotions that had built up listening to the story. I told him he had to be the stupidest man alive if he didn't see what Lily did or why she did it. I told him exactly what she gave up. I asked him why he thought he didn't feel any pain for the first four months and then suddenly he had to learn to tolerate it. When he said he didn't think about it; I was ready to murder him." Mr. Pasha looked to see Harry who had a small tear running down his cheek.

‘ Good! He understands now why his mother wanted to sacrifice herself than see her son die in front of her. Looks like he understands what she had gone through for her love; never showing pain, never faltering in front of James.’ thought Mr. Pasha.

" I told him... because Lily was in her bed screaming in pain. I told him she must really love him to go through all that pain and never even mention it him. I told him I was very surprised that Lily hadn't gone mad, with the amount of mental torture that she must have had gone through, keeping the pain in check when James was off having fun. I now know, it’s because women folk have a higher ability to stand pain – childbearing and what not."

" Before I boarded the train I told him to think about a few things. Why would she want to be put through all that pain if she didn't love him? Where the hell was he ever going to find a person who knowing they didn't have a chance in hell of getting his attention would go through all the pain and never say a thing? If he didn't feel exactly the same way, why would he always break off dates with older, more popular girls just so he could help her with transfiguration? What did she ever give him that those girls that he had dated weren't willing to give him?" He paused to look at Harry.

Harry could just look back in return, with his face still wet from his last sobbing.

" By the looks of you... I can see that dope finally came to his senses. You know your parents would have been very proud of you. You're their love personified, that's why they were willing to die to save you." There was a hint of sadness at the beginning but it was filled with pride at the end.

" I heard James with his wife perished, saving their son, who killed the dark lord. I never knew Lily was his wife. If I had... I would have had cried a hundred times more." As he said this Harry noticed streams of teams were leaving his eyes.

Sometime later they were wiped away. In that time Harry realized why Snape had it in for him from the time he was in first year. Harry knew his parents got together sometime a few months into their last year meaning that, what Mr. Pasha had told his father must have hit home and he realized his love for Lily. Once Snape saw that those two got together a few days after he got dumped he must have had thought that she had been two-timing him from the beginning. Or something like that…

" Thanks, Mr. Pasha. What you just told me answers one question that has been haunting me for the past four years. I can't begin to tell you how much this means to me"

" No thanks is necessary. I 'm - I'm" Mr. Pasha was sniffling, " I'm just happy they realized how much they really loved each other. Well now on to some more pleasant business I hope... The entire reason I told you everything I know was to tell you all the information you need to know before you start to experiment with your powers any further. I was wondering whether or not you had some one in your mind to become your initiate. So who'll it be, Harry?"

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
READ AND REVIEW

Hello. :) I hope you liked this chapter. It’s been edited a bit for clarity. The unedited and more rougher and loger version of this fic is on fanfiction.net – under the name of “ NAPPA ” as the author. The story is right now 46 chapters, and only a few have been uploaded thus far. Beta was by NATE . :)

10. The Gift

Chapter Number: 10
Chapter Name: The Gift

" That's pretty easy.” Harry said in his cheery voice. “ I want to give it to Hermione. She is smart, and sensible. I would have given it to Ron,” Ali quirked his eyebrows for odd reason, “ but since he's not a girl I'll -"

Ali interrupted him. “ You don't have to justify your choice, Harry. It is yours, and yours alone. I'll guide you through it, and that is as much as I should ."

" What do we have to do?"

" First we have to go into her room, and then we would-"

" Wait" he said putting up his hand to show that he wasn't prepared to do it. " I can't do that. I said I'll ask her permission first before I enter her room. We'll tell her tomorrow morning. She'll say yes and we'll go in."

" You can't do that." said Mr. Pasha.

" Why not?" asked Harry, deeply unsettled that he can't do what he wants.

" It won't work if she knows it's a test."

" So I have to break a promise?... No I won't do it."

" You don't see it. Do you? I broke a promise that united your father and mother. Had I kept the promise I had made on my last day at Hogwarts, you would not have had been born. The world would be a hell under the that DarkLord's command…” He paused a moment. “ Sometimes the promises that we make have to be broken. Do you think she doesn't want the gift or is it that you don’t think she's going to die for you?

" No!” Harry said loudly. “ Both Ron and Hermione have always been there for me, when I needed them. They were willing to die for me and I don't need a test to see how much they care for me... The have done it in the past and would do it in the future whether or not I give the gift or not." Harry’s voice tinged of anger and frustration.

" That's exactly why you have to give the gift. The gift is given to strengthen friendships. Not as a reward. If you two are great friends she'll see that you didn't break the promise, since it was there to stop you from peeping on her. Which is not what we are doing... are we Harry?" Asked Mr. Pasha in a soft tone.

" No. You're right."

" Okay then. Lets make a start shall we?... "

Hermione was sleeping in the bed with her whole body covered in a thin blanket and she was sweating profusely. That is the image he saw when he entered. " Harry! Don't do it! Don't go after him! Harry!" she said softly out, throwing half of the covers off herself, and tossing.

" She really cares for you doesn't she? Both her and this Ron person I keep hearing from you two. If he is half the friend Hermione is, he would have had made an excellent initiate. You're truly lucky to have such good friends…” Ali paused. “ Too much mushy stuff. Lets get on with it shall we?.”

Harry gave a nod. Still unwilling to close the rest of the distance.

“ Put your right hand…” trailed off Ali noticing that Harry wasn’t next to him. He turned and said, “ if we don’t get started now, we’ll be here till morning. We do have a reason for doing this Harry.”

Harry gave a small nod, and took his place. ““ Put your right hand on her forehead and think about her. Think of the first time you met, the time she helped you, the first time you helped her. Think about the way she - That's it." Cheered Mr. Pasha as he saw the first signs of white glow coming from Harry's hand on Hermione's forehead.

"... Pace yourself, Harry! It'll happen by itself, you are only a bystander in this play. If she's successful, then it will be done and she'll come out of her body. If she's not you both wake up in your own body, and she won't remember a thing.

Harry was waiting for something to happen when he felt his stomach drop and in an instant the scene changed from Hermione's face to a white room. From where he was, he could see the room being slowly populated by plants, trees, people, insects, and birds, both magic and muggle. Once all the elements for the scenario had arrived, including two real life statutes of Harry and Voldemort. But they looked like they had been drawn there – no life.

Then there was a burst of yellow, and Hermione was in the middle of the room. The scene suddenly burst into life, and had Harry not already seen everything still, he would have had concluded they were always as lively.

It was heart wrenching for him to see Hermione desperately try and warn the Harry-look-alike, but when she could not seem to get his attention she did a desperate thing. She raced to head off the curse before it hit dream Harry on the back, when she was close enough, she pushed his look alike out of the way, getting herself hit by the curse in the process. She fell to the floor with a sickening thud.

It was a terrible scene. One that made him almost physically sick. Hermione was the one person he hadn’t seen die in front of him all summer long. And the scene was a making him sick. He felt unable to really do anything, as first Hermione and then the rest of the scene’s “props” disappeared. Until only he was left there, alone and in that white room, the world seemed like hell.

Then with a spectacular white flash Harry was back to sitting on her bed and Harry's body glowing in a light shade of green. It turned liquid in the air around him and started to gather mass on top of Hermione's sleeping body in the shape of a small tennis ball. As it gathered Harry could see the sphere bob up and down slightly in the imaginary currents in an imaginary river. Seeing Hermione’s face, still with colour made him relax.

As minutes passed, the ball started to diminish in size but at the same time the brightness started to increase at the same rate. When it reached the size of a small coin the sphere could hardly be seen without squinting. Then without warning the small green sphere sped toward Hermione like a bullet and impacted on her chest. The greenness then started to pass right through her body. Once the greenness had enveloped her forehead, Harry could see an imaginary scar shaped leak appear on her forehead for a second before it disappeared. Hermione coughed and sat up on her bed desperately trying to gasp for air.

It was weird seeing Hermione both sleeping and sitting up awake from waist up. Hermione came forward and hugged Harry who was still a little shocked. " Oh!”

“ Harry you're alright! I had a nightm- "

Then she noticed the slight green halo on Harry and mistook him for an angel.

" Wait a minute... It wasn't a dream was it? I must be dead! Wow this is so… so… freaky. So you must be my angel. I died in my dream, so I must have died in real life. Where's the white light? How come you don't have wings and why don’t you have white robes on?" said Hermione trying to analyze what had happened.

‘ Leave it to Hermione to ask death how everything worked. Good thing I'm not death otherwise she might actually get thrown into hell for asking too many questions’ thought Harry. " You're not dead, Hermione."

" Then what's this-" snapped Hermione at Harry before breaking down and crying from the confusion "-I saw you-know-who fire a curse at me-".

Harry gently pulled her closer and using his right hand slowly lifted up her chin and said, " That was a test. A test to see if you were worthy. I knew you were. But it had to be taken. "

Harry made Hermione even more confused, " What test? What are you talking about? Did I pass? I didn’t did I? I mean, I’m dead."

Harry shook her a little with his hands on her shoulder. " You're. Not. Dead. Hermione. It was a test, and you passed. With more than flying colour.” He left out how he felt seeing her die. “I gave you the ability to Astral Project, just like me. I chose you... Well… That’s not exactly true. You're the only one that I would seriously consider giving the powers to and ... you were the only one that fit the requirements."

Hermione was speechless and Harry mistook it for more confusion. So he tried to say it more simply, " I gave you the ability to read books in you sleep."

Before he even finished saying it he saw Hermione's face had lit up as if she had jut received 20 years worth of Christmas presents in one day. It was almost the same as the time he had received the Firebolt, her expression was that of pure delight.

" You mean I can do the same things as you. Wow."

" Not exactly. I gave you the ability to Astral Project and that's it. I couldn't give you anything other than that. There are some things you have to know.” Harry didn’t know where it was all coming from, but he was saying things as they came to his mind. “ First: You can't tell anyone what you know. Not Ron, NOT Victor, NOT your parents, NOT even Professor McGonagall. Not Ever. Is that understood?" He waited for her to nod or say something to that effect.

" Yes." Hermione looked like she was going to bust with excitement.

" Second: You have to go easy on going through things. I have a good tolerance for pain now. But at the beginning I have to bear all the pain for you phasing through things. After about four or five moths apparently you slowly start to feel the pain from what I have deduced from the stories that Mr. Pasha told me."

" Okay." Replied Hermione who was now walking around in circles around Harry, taking in every detail of his Astral self.

Bit surprised at Hermione was doing he asked, " Okay... What the hell are you doing!?"

" I was just checking out one of my theories..." said Hermione as Harry could have sworn he saw her blush slightly.

" You already have theories.... Anyway there is one more thing.... Well it's kind of an apology -" said Harry in a voice that was very sincere.

" For what?"

" Ah I broke the promise I made to you... I wasn't supposed to come to your room and I did." Said Harry grinning broadly while he scratched his Astral Head.

" Did you see me naked? Tell me you didn’t see me change my clothes?" asked Hermione whose face was turning deeper shade of red.

Harry vehemently denied that he did any such thing. " No!"

" Well... That's OK then." She said. " I trust you, and it’s not a promise that’s that important in the great scheme of things. And that was joke promise anyway. I knew you wouldn't sneak a peek at me. You're not a pervert Harry Potter, at least... I hope not." They were close before but then Hermione put her arms around Harry and kissed him on the cheek several times. " That was for giving me the best gift I could have had asked for in my whole life." She pulled herself away from him, before continuing, "You know I've tried to imagine what it was like but it's not really that what I thought it would be like."

Harry was bemused and asked her what she thought it was like. "Well for one thing I imagined you...er... Nothing" she stopped and now she was blushing very red indeed.

Harry couldn't contain himself and from Hermione's level of embarrassment he deduced she probably wouldn't tell him why she was so embarrassed. So he did the next best thing, to asking her politely.

He blackmailed her with the promise that he would take the gift away. He didn't know if it was even possible but the bluff worked immediately, as Hermione yielded very quickly.

She answered the question in one breath." Ithoughtyouwalkedaroundnaked! A-andd just didn't tell me so I wouldn't feel uncomfortable around you!" Hermione blushed even more if that was possible.

" You really thought -" Harry started to say it, but broke up in mid sentence laughing, much to Hermione's relief.

At this point Mr. Pasha put his head part way through the door and asked if it was ok to come in. He told them, that they were going to the Septanic games tomorrow. Since they weren't voting they have to sneak in using Astral Projection. So Harry and Hermione had better get used to going through wall and magical elements and then he took his head back out again.

" Well we'd better practice. It's gonna be hell" said Harry.

" Ok. So want do I do. Just stand here and look pretty."

" NO! You're going to go through the walls, metals and magic. We're gonna head to my room. If anything bad happens or I can't stand the pain anymore, I'll wake up. If that happens, you'll wake up too. OK."

" So what do -"

" Patience. If it's one thing I've learnt, it's that you have to go very slow.

First-" with that the slow crawl to Harry relearning pain tolerance started again.

At the beginning the slightest touch by Hermione on anything sent vicious pain right through his body, but by the time Mr. Pasha came to the room in the morning Harry had gone through and almost managed to go through magical object with severe pain. Neither Harry nor Hermione knew that the level of pain that he suffered through to get to that point in his training was something that would take others months to do.

Mr. Pasha knew, it might be possible to accelerate Harry's pain tolerance if he didn't know that it takes about two to three months to become completely immune to the other person's pain. But even he was surprised to see how far they had gone in only about six hours. He didn't say anything but decided to owl Professor Dumbledore.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

You were right! Partial truths seem to make his abilities better than they really should be. Today he went through six hours of training with Miss Granger and achieved something that the best of us take one or two months to do.

I think he has figured out the part about why Snape hates his father and him very much. It was a mistake on my part to leak that information, but I think he has greater respect for him now. Though I had to pretend I didn't remember Snape's name.

I would be honored to take up the job you had offered me before and as such I have decided that I will give both him and Miss Granger advanced training during their stay. I would like to know one thing. Is it just me or is history repeating itself? Miss Granger could almost be a twin of Lily and Harry is very much like James. Is this part of the prophecy or is this simply fate playing a cruel trick on us?

There is still the matter of me bringing the flying carpet with me to resolve with the Ministry of Magic in Britain. There is no need for worry at this end, but if it is possible, please exert influence on your side. I would need this equipment often, as I’m unable to ride a broomstick because of an old war injury.

Sincerely Yours

Mr. A. Pasha
Minister for International Affairs
Morocco

(Signet Locus of 1st order, Maker of the Finest Carpets for
twelve years, Champion for Freeman Rights, Govan Arichect)

After Mr. Pasha left, Harry re-entered his body and instantly he found himself on the bed. No sooner had he gained his bearings, and recovering from a slight case of a headache, Hermione burst into the room, jumping right on top of him on the bed. Hugging and kissing him like there was no tomorrow. Had it been any other time, he would have had been confused to find out what exactly was the reason for her sudden shower of affection and concern, but he knew the reason this time. He had to literally push her off him, to talk to her.

Hermione was still full of spirit when Harry had kicked her off him and to the floor. And that's not the only thing she was full of. Questions were shot at him faster than his mind was capable of even understanding them, much less attempt answers to them. " How are you feeling? Does it hurt? Do you need a massage? You want me to go and get breakfast -" She was full of concern for Harry.

" It's Ok. The pain isn't there in the morning and besides after a while you grow to like it. What's with the thousand questions?"

" Like...Pain " asked Hermione incredulously, looking at Harry as if he was mad.

" Yes. I know it's a bit strange" replied Harry trying to defend himself, but Hermione cut him off.

" A bit?" retorted Hermione.

" Well, maybe a lot!” Harry said feeling his cheeks flame slightly. “ But the thing is, after a while you become used to it. I just thought of something, and I'm not sure if you'll like it."

" What is it?"

" Well you know Vold- sorry... You-know -" said Harry.

Hermione interrupted, " Harry, you can call him Voldemort." even as she said it she shivered. " But try to use it sparingly..."

He knew Ron would never in a million years agree to say that, no matter how strong Harry got. It was in his blood to call the dark lord, "you-know-who".

" Ok! Voldemort gave me that scar. I haven't had a dream all summer and it looks like he hasn't turned his attention to me yet. When I gave you the power I saw a scar shape appear in your forehead. I'm kind of afraid that you'll get dragged into the nightmare-It is painful, very painful. Specially the first time. If you want I can stop-"

" Don't you dare Harry Potter." said Hermione indignantly, as if Harry had proposed to do something really indecent.

" I always wanted to read all the books in the library and now that I have a chance of memorizing all the books, you want to take it away from me. If you do that I'll personally kill you." She said with mock anger, before smiling broadly as she got off the bed. Then she pointed at the bed and told him to stay in it.

" Stay! I'll be right back. Don't move an inch, if you know what's good for you."

" OK"

Five minutes later, Hermione entered the room, with a tray full of food. She had brought enough for five people. She suddenly took on the personality of her mother who like Mrs. Weasley felt that he didn't eat enough. She basically spoon-fed all the food, taking only a little for herself.

Mr. Pasha had come into the room at that point and told them that they both had an appointment with the optometrists at 10 am. Both of them quickly finished their food and rushed to get ready. Harry was glad he had changed some of this wizarding money into muggle money since he was going to a muggle doctor. The trip was abnormally normal. It only took five minutes to get through the crowded streets.

When they reached the office, they were moderately surprised. Though there was quite a few people there, their number came up fairly soon. Though Hermione originally wanted contacts, she found a set of glasses that she liked better, and in her opinion were better than contacts.

She modeled them for Harry, who had to agree with her. It actually made her seem smarter than she already was. Harry did wonder if that was even possible. She was slightly long sighted; exact opposite of Harry who was short sighted.

As it turned out Harry needed a pair of new glasses anyway. The powers that they had before needed to be replaced with, not something that was more powerful, but something that was of lesser power. But not by much. (After they had finished their shopping, Mr. Pasha explained that it was most likely Harry's self recovery powers kicking in. He told them it was rare, but it was known to happen.) Hermione's barely qualified to be called glasses, since they were of so little in power. She was told not to read the books with fine print or to not hold the books too close to her eyes, and it would eventually remove the need to wear anything like that.

Harry chose a set of glasses with square shaped lenses, actually Hermione chose the frames that she thought brought out the most of Harry's emerald eyes. Harry found it hard to believe that he needed to have that specific pair of glasses, to bring out his eyes. He did not see the need to change from his old faithful round frames to the new rectangular ones that Hermione had chosen for him. He did try to refuse to take them, but Hermione always had a way of making him listen.

Hermione's were similar but hers were made of glittering silver, instead of the plain black of Harry’s. Though she did manage to get Harry to take the fames that she liked, he absolutely refused to take the dark red ones that she had chosen. Even her smile wasn’t powerful enough to make him change his mind the second time about the frames. He settled on getting the plain black one. It was a minor victory. But it was a victory none the less.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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11. Septanic Games

Chapter Number: 11
Chapter Name: The Septanic Games

When they reached home, Mr. Pasha made them eat enough to last three days, though they were going there for only one day but he liked to take precautions. After that Mr. Pasha lead the way into a secret room that had two entrances - one going into Mr. Pasha's bedroom, the other going into the living room.

The room had very high celings and the three beds in the room occupied so little space that it looked like they were in a deep cavern. Harry and Hermione took one next to each other, and Mr. Pasha took the one at the end of the room.

Ali said the games didn't start for another five hours, but he guessed that it would take at least that long to get there, with Harry carrying most of the pain. And Hermione wanted to go back into the house every time she felt Harry's body tense up, while they were on their way. Finally Harry snapped and shouted at her. " I said, I'm fine. If you're not going I'm not going. And I WANT TO GO."

Hermione didn't say anything after that, but she cried a lot more. After about half an hour, she would make Harry stop after a few minutes, by making an argument. Harry knew what she was doing and he played along. He knew she wanted to see the games as much as he did, but she didn't want him to go through the pain. It was like him seeing her dead… he understood what was behind her actions.

When they finally reached the entrance, Harry was apprehensive. He wasn't sure if there was a magical shield anywhere. He had to be certain, otherwise their journey might finish prematurely. He turned to Mr. Pasha, who knew what Harry was thinking so he said, " There was no magical barrier here. You need to show this to enter."

With that Mr. Pasha rolled his sleeve to reveal, a glowing symbol of white and light blue. It looked like the letter 'd' with the bottom of the vertical part extending both ways and ending with an arrowhead. "Wow! It's beautiful! How did you get it?" asked Hermione.

" Well, it's done when you're fifteen. You choose which of clan you want to belong to. If you're 'Shoran' you get a red arrowhead. If you're 'Tozan' like me you get a blue arrowhead. Shoran clan's magic is mostly influenced by how the ancient mages taught magic, through experience. While the Tozan clan teaches it's magic more along the lines of what they do in Hogwarts. Theory and practical. There are benefits to both systems, but... We're wasting timeee -" Mr. Pasha's voice trailed off, just as a loud gong sounded, announcing the beginning of the tournament. Hermione looked disappointed that she wouldn’t get to hear more about this.

"... We have very little time. Hurry or we'll miss the beginning." He said. They rushed, well as much as they could. As soon as he entered the Dome, Harry felt a nice and warm feeling wash over him, like had just ate chocolate after seeing a Dementor. This was the moment that Harry realized that he had started to loose the vicious pain. Just so that his skills didn't become rusty, he paced all around the flat surface, where the battle was supposed to be fought. Harry's eye caught those of an elderly gentleman on the stand for a second. He could have had sworn that man was looking right at him, but dismissed that because no one could ever see him in his Astral form.

" Sonorus" shouted a thick voice, " Welcome to the sixth Septanic Games. I am your commentator, Zahid Khan. The games will begin in half a minute. Now a word from our sponsor."

From no where something like what Fred and George had used to display Ron's recollection of Malfoy turning into a ferret showed up. As Harry moved around the screen kept changing direction to face Harry. Harry guessed that the "screen thingy", has the ability to face every one in the stadium, since no one was complaining that the screen suddenly started to move in odd directions, with Harry’s haphazard movements.

After about half an hour of commercials, as voters started to file into the stadium, which was much larger than the one where they held the Quidditch cup. Just from the clothes that people wore, Harry could see that this event was much more than just voting for a chosen clan. People wore their best clothes, brought enough money to last through three days of mass shopping and extravagant spending.

When Harry saw the vendors were handing out pamphlets about the individuals that made up the teams, he wanted to go read one, but AstralProjecting had it's disadvantages. So when Zahid Khan, the commentator who reminded Harry of Ludo Bagman, detailed how the three-day event was to be held, a few minutes late, he was ecstatic.

The first day was the re-enactment of a battle that was fought about thirteen years ago. It was more of a staged battle, rather than an actual fight. This thankfully lasted only half an hour. Then came the real fights. Whole teams against teams, until sunset. The next day the same thing. Then on the very last day was the one which most people were interested in. Not only that was the day people voted, but also that was the day the two best fighters fought until only one was conscious – and in the worst case dead. That was the fight that brought in more people on that day from all over Morocco. "-Remember, A voter is there for his country.", finished Zahid Khan in his patriotic voice.

Two lines of contestants entered the arena, following two very oddly dressed women. The two lines of the contestants faced each other, with a hundred meter between them. Contestants for each team dressed the same, except for one at the end of both rows. Harry made his way to where Hermione was and dragged her on to the arena. Hermione hadn't moved from where she was sitting, because she was sure that it would send pain through Harry.

" Come on..." he said.

" It'll hurt you..."

" No it won't. It stopped a while ago.." he said, wiping away one of Hermione's tears.

‘ She does cry an awful lot when something bad is happening to me...’ thought Harry, not sure if he should be happy that he had such a caring friend, or to be angry with himself for causing her so much anguish. Harry promised himself that he would never knowingly do anything, that would hurt Hermione.

" You really shouldn't cry..."

Hermione used the back of her hands to wipe away the tears in her eyes. " Is that better?" she said half laughing, half still sad at the pain that she thought he must have been going through a few seconds ago.

" Much..."

It was a bit weird that in Astralform there was no need for the use of glasses. Vision was perfect either way. Harry preferred not to have his glasses on in the astral form. He didn’t know how to not want it, so he always took them off in his astral form. But Hermione was a different case altogether. She loved the feeling she got when pushed them up her nose bridge. This rather odd habit was one that she picked up in matter of minutes from seeing Harry do it, with his new glasses. It was a new sensation to her, and her personality dictated that she explore it fully.

On the other side of the arena, Mr. Pasha was doing something that would have had seemed to Harry and Hermione rather odd. He was softly talking to the elderly man to who Harry’s eyes had met briefly.

" It’s him isn’t it?" asked Mr. Pasha.

" Yes. Hard to believe isn’t it?"

" Are you sure? –I mean it’s been a long time, you know?"

" I know –but you can hardly forget someone like him-" there was something in his voice that Mr. Pasha thought indicated respect. He could see where it was coming from, but still found it really hard to believe, "- tell me Ali, what would have done if he didn’t accelerate this fast in his training –come to think about it, surely you suspected something. Or have you become a lot less sharp in your civilian life?"

" I’m still as sharp as I ever was,” said Ali fast and louder than he really should. “… and as for the matter of recognizing him, it didn’t come to me until last night."

" You know what’s to come then?"

" Yes. I wish it didn’t have to be like this."

" It’s for the best and we both know it.” Sighed the elderly man. “ You still haven’t answered my question"

" I’m the Minister of International affairs, I could have easily convinced the Minister of Magic to let Harry Potter and his friend to be an exception... after all it is election season and it’s good publicity to have the boy who lived in the paper next to you."

The elderly man and Mr. Pasha observed not the re-enactment, which was in full swing, but the pair of teenagers running around and animatedly discussing the things all the people were doing.

" He doesn’t know what he is –does he, Minister?"

" How many times do I have to tell you to call me Professor? I don’t like that title, that pompous git gave me (referring to the Morrocan Minister of Magic). If I had a choice I would have ran the other way."

" As I recall, you did try to run-" said Mr. Pasha ginning.

" Yes. Yes. You don’t have to remind me –Anyway, I suspect he is beginning to see his importance -"

Then the two men started to discuss a topic that would have had made no sense to anyone, unless they knew what they were talking about, which no one besides them did. "-but I wonder how he ended up there. As far as I knew it’s impossible to do it for more than two days."

" I know" agreed Mr. Pasha, " Don’t you think it’s a bit odd...I mean, Harry and that girl with him, Hermione, it’s almost like fate reincarnated them to live the life they had missed. Together."

" You know as well as I do that’s not the case... but I think someone more powerful than fate is guiding his actions" said Professor Dippet.

" Someone more powerful than fate" Mr. Pasha choked on his own words as he said them, " Who do you think it is? Surely you’re not suggesting what I think you are?"

" I am.” The older gentleman was adamant. “ The prophecy of Merlin’s heir in spirit is well known. Not to mention in all the Wizarding cultures it’s there in some form or another. Surely Merlin would have had left some of his own magic behind to protect him, atleast until the appointed hour."

" I guess you could be right. That would explain how he got past the two day limit" Mr. Pasha agreed reluctantly.

" I think they were meant for each other -" said Professor Dippet, indicating Harry and Hermione chasing each other around the arena. " –they seem to care deeply for each other. I think those two are the only ones who don’t realize it."

" They’re going to turn back this way in a few seconds, I have to go" said Mr. Pasha hurriedly, as he made his way back to where he was standing before.

The re-enactment wasn’t actually that much fun for either Harry or Hermione, so they decided to have some fun for themselves. The real fun started when the proper battle against each team began. When it did begin, Harry and Hermione were careful not to get close to spell or curses being thrown around, as spells, they were sure would pack a punch a lot stronger that an ordinary magical object. Neither of them wanted to get out of the arena.

Much to Harry’s surprise the Septanic Dueling turned out to be nothing like what he had expected. The Septanic games were nothing but a dueling match combined with hand to hand combat. At first Harry was disappointed, but as time wore on, he began to see the astounding amount of thinking it required a person to do a simple series of attacks.

The games finished for the day at 9:00pm. Sharp. Ali Pasha wanted to go back to the house, Harry and Hermione wanted to stay behind. They had somehow got the idea that it would be a lot of fun if they playacted their own version of the battle. They fought with imaginary wands and dueled for over five hours. At first it was acting, but then as minutes turned into hours, they kept doing the physical ones for real.

Hermione had had martial arts lessons when she was young. It was her mom who told her to take that particular hobby up when she was young. According to her mother, "these days it's important for a girl to know how to defend herself."

Because of her back ground in physical fighting, Hermione was the one who was flipping Harry from the very beginning. Harry tried very hard not to act like a bull and charge at her at full speed, but never did he manage in all that time that they were there to pull Hermione to the ground.

They ended up in quite a few compromising positions (most of the time Harry's Astral self trapped under Hermione's in some kind of paralyzing position) but they recomposed themselves quickly.

Everything was going well, a little too well. Harry should have had realized something bad was going to happen soon to ruin his fun. And it did.

At about 4:00am, Harry started to feel slight tingling in his scar. Before he had a chance to want to wake up, a massive surge of pain pulsed though him, making the world go black around him. Harry didn't notice it then but Hermione feeling the same pain, had collapsed shortly after he had. Unknown to both, they were experiencing the same dream from the same viewpoint....

They both saw a dark and shadowy valley, with three men...two of them in a cloak and a giant beast in a cage of light that, neither could be certain about what it was. They heard murmuring between two men, one cloaked and one uncloaked. They strained their ears to hear what was being said.

Suddenly the scenery in front of the pair changed. It was almost as if they moved closer to the three people. What they heard chilled both of their blood.

"...Release the beast, Wormtail."

" But master..."

" Are you saying *no* to me...Wormtail -" he said almost enjoying the defiance that his servant was showing him, for he knew that it would be a pleasurable experience for him to torture his greatest servant. " -You know the punishment for arguing with me don't you"

" Yes. Master. Punish me. Please...” Wormtail pleaded.

" Very well. Since you asked so nicely... 'Crucio'"

A very loud scream could be heard echoing the valley, for a while. Harry felt himse writhe in pain. " ... How was that Wormtail?"

" Very painful, Master. If you like you can do more your lordship." said Wormtail.

Voldemort drawled. " Perhaps later... NOW RELEASE the beast."

The bars of light that made up cage of light flickered and then vanished. The beast let out a growl that sounded a lot like that of a lion. The beast turned to face the three.

" Go. Wormtail...Send Lucius and then go do as I have asked you...Get me what I want."

Lord Voldemort watched as the third man, left without any means of protection, ran for his dear life. Harry and Hermione thought that man hard to be a muggle, since he didn’t just apparate out of the situation.

No matter how fast the man ran, it simply made no difference, because the beast, though still in shadows was at least three times as big. It was a Quadrapedal –or at least Hermione thought it was one. It caught up to the man in three jumps. Once the beast had its prey, the creature made short work of him. It used what Harry thought was its claw to swipe the man to one side of the canyon. The body flew right into the wall and made a thumping noise, before falling to the ground with a sickening cracking noise. The pain in Harry’s scar (now shared by Hermione) was becoming unbearable.

The creature of Voldemort then started the task of slicing off bits of the human flesh with it claw and proceeded to eat them. Once in a while it would look up to where Lord Voldemort was and think whether or not it was a wise idea to attack the humanoid creature, who had trapped it in it’s confinement for so long.

There was a small pop and Lucius Malfoy appeared next to his master. He immediately went on his knees. Partly because he was afraid of his master, but most likely that he was afraid of the beast in front of him. His new position allowed him to both kneel in front of his master and allowed him to keep an eye on the beast. Ready to make a hasty retreat at a moment’s notice.

" Malfoy..."

" Yes, master."

" Do you have the centaur?"

" Yes...Yes my lord."

" Good. You’ll be glad to know that I’ve decided to give you the charge of the mission for the end of the year."

Whatever the mission was to be held at the end of the year, it must have been really important, since they could see that Lucius Malfoy was literally bursting with joy.

" Thank you master" though he was happy, he made no move to get up from where he was.

" Come sit by me..." Voldemort patted on the ground next to him, "...we’ll see the ending of the muggle at the hand of his creature of darkness. Marvelous isn’t it?"

" As you wish, sir. It is a beautiful-" said Lucius Malfoy as he got up and moved to where his master has told him to sit. He sat there next to his master. He did not feel as good about it as he really thought it would, as the constant thought of how much evil the man next to him was capable of sent shivers through him.

" This was a good idea, Lucius."

" Thank you master" there was tremble in his voice that Lord Voldemort liked very much.

Right then the creature bit and engulfed the head of the muggle in one swift motion. The pain became unbearable for Harry and he woke up screaming.

" AAAAHHHH" cried out both Harry and Hermione in pain, from the secret room.

Had there not been magic to sound proof the whole room, someone from the house would have had heard them. Harry felt something watery in his hands when he touched the scar in pain. When the pain decreased Harry brought his hands down to see that his fingers were covered in small amounts of blood. But before his mind could think about the blood, he heard the blood curdling screams that kept coming from Hermione.

She was still screaming from the pain in the scar.

He quickly got off the bed and rushed to her side. Harry tried to get her attention, but she was in too much pain to think clearly. He thanked the creator that he wasn't a scrawny little boy anymore. Had he been one, he could never have had done what needed to be done. He quickly picked her up into his arms, started to run up the stairs. Most of that was adrenalin.

When he reached the door leading into Mr. Pasha’s bedroom, it exploded outwards showering a sleeping Mr. Pasha with chunks of wood. The sound from the explosion was deafening and woke up the whole house. Ali went into battle mode, wand ready and blinking off sleep haze, ready to kill anyone who came through the door. He relaxed slightly at the view of Harry, before hearing Hermione’s hoarse cry of pain.

Mr. Pasha might have had some diviner abilities, but he could not see into the future for anything less than a few months time. Even then most of it was almost always blurry and only a few times had his prediction come true. This was not something he was expecting.

‘ He doesn't have his wand... How did he make the door o-oopennn – erm… explode…?’ His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Harry carrying a screaming Hermione.

Mr. Pasha pointed at the bottom edge of the bed and said, " Put her on the bed.".

As Harry followed his order, Mr. Pasha moved quickly to the drawer and got out a blood-colored potion. He handed the glass container to Harry and told him to pour into her mouth, while he tried to force open her mouth. When her mouth was forced open and the contents vial had been emptied, Hermione stopped moving totally, leading Harry to believe that she was dead. Very soon after he thought this, his mind was quelled by one simple fact, and that was Mr. Pasha had no reason to kill Hermione – none that he knew anyway, thought a particularly nasty voice in his head.

Hermione didn't even breathe, then suddenly her eyes snapped open and she turned her head to the side of the bed and emptied the contents of her stomach on the floor, in one go. Her eyes met those of Harry’s for a brief second before she lost consciousness.

" What happened?" asked Mr. Pasha.

Harry explained how they were playacting then he went into his nightmares that are connected to Voldemort. He explained, When he awoke to find Hermione screaming in pain. He brought her up and the door just exploded, by itself. Then he asked a question of his own.

" What was that potion?" asked Harry.

" Blood of Chimera with a small bark from the tree of life. Takes away any pain a person experiencing while they are asleep."

" Tree of life" Harry’s eyebrows went up a bit, knowing that tree of life potions always had some side effect. Like the Wolfsbain potion, which helped to reduce the pain and the length of the transformation, but caused the person to be very sick for a few days after taking the potion. And depending on the person, keep them in a sickly state most of the time. He knew this partially because he did some research in to werewolves after he found out that Professor Lupin was one, but mostly he knew it because Hermione had told him so. " –any side effects?" asked Harry.

Mr. Pasha didn’t answer the question. " Don't worry. She'll be all right. I suppose I should wake up the house-elf" he said, but before he even takes one step, the house elf came in cleaned the carpet, removed most of the bits of the shattered wooden door and even put a little sweet smelling fragrance in the air. The whole process took less than three seconds.

Harry apologized to Mr. Pasha and Mrs. Pasha, who had watched the events, for blowing up their door. He explained that weird things like that seemed to happen to him all the time. Mr. Pasha explained that Hermione was okay and that was all that mattered for the time being.

Harry picked her up in his arms and slowly headed towards her room. He really didn’t want to wake her up by moving too fast, but he was also sure that if he moved any faster he himself would fall over from exhaustion.

Harry carefully laid Hermione on the bed and sat down on the side of the bed. He stayed there for rest of the night occasionally leaving so that Hermione's mom could come and visit her. Whenever he did so, he would go into the large library of books that Mr. Pasha owned and searched through all of them to find something on the potion that Mr. Pasha had given Hermione.

Hermione’s mother was almost hysterical in her behavior, and in the end Mr. Pasha with the help of Mrs. Pasha convinced her, that Harry would take care of Hermione for rest of the night. Harry didn’t know why, but that simple fact made her go back to her own room, though not before telling Harry to wake them up when Hermione was awake or he was feeling sleepy. He later realized it might have been the toast that they had forced her to drink that made her calm.

Hermione took her time to wake up the next morning. It was ten o’clock and a full seven hours had passed since they both shared the nightmare. Her mind was hazy and recollection of the day before was hard. Her body felt so incredibly weak and battered, she thought she might be in bed for rest of the holidays. Her first thoughts were on her unfinished Care of Magical Creature homework, though.

Once her mind focused on the reality around her, she saw that Harry was holding her hand on the bed, with a particularly large book on his lap. But she was surprised to see that his eyes were focused on her face, but then she saw the dried blood on his scar.

‘ He’s been bleeding’ thought Hermione before noticing that his emerald green eyes didn't have their usual glow, but the whites of his eyes were blood shot. " Hermione! You're awake. Your parents just left. I'll be back with -" said Harry excitedly. The centre of his eyes glowing now, and even in the middle of the bloodshot whites of his eyes, he looked ecstatic to see her. Harry couldn’t move because Hermione had somehow managed to gather up enough energy to grip Harry’s hand, which was already in her palm, very tightly.

" Wait..." said Hermione in a cracked voice, emphasizing the point that her voice box did not want to be used again after the way she had abused it a few hours ago.

Harry quickly agreed, as he was just content that one of his two best friends was ok again. " OK"

" You stayed here all night didn't you? Uchh..ssk" said Hermione coughing heavily after the question.

" Yeah... It was nothing. I'll get your pare -" He was interrupted by Hermione.

" Will you stop it? I'm not mad at you." Hermione knew Harry thought that she would be mad at him, but she really wasn’t. " Tell me... What happened after we were practicing those dueling moves? Tell me every single thing you know about it."

" Yes. Well I - we fainted...." and Harry explained what he saw. How he woke up and saw blood from his scar. How he carried her to the door. How somehow the door exploded outwards. How they had to force her to drink the potion. How she had thrown up on the carpet and went unconscious again. How he carried her to the room and had been waiting in the room since then. How her mother had made long visits to see her and had just left the room a few minutes ago to rest a bit, since she had stayed with Harry for two hours before.

" Well that's the story... Anyway... I'm really sorry. You know about the GIFT...I shouldn't have had given it to you. I shouldn't have had told you about the powers-"

" Are we going to have that same conversation again Harry Potter. Give me my wand. I'll kill you and spare Voldemort the trouble..."

Only from the shock on Harry’s face did she realize that she had said something that made her flinch for a long time. Suddenly Hermione's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"... I called him by his name. VOLDEMORT" now she started to laugh as she sat up. " VOL-DE-MORT! VOL-DE-MORT! This is not hard at all. I don't even know why it was hard before."

Then she realized that she had gone off the topic in the middle of the conversation. " ...Now back to the matter at hand. Harry if you even joke about not giving me the gift, I'm going to kill you. GOT IT"

" Yes, MAAM." His eyes sparkled at the strong sentiment that Hermione had shown about her new gift.

" Good. Now what do you think Voldemort was doing?" asked Hermione making Harry uneasy. It wasn't easy to hear Hermione say 'Voldemort', since only a few hours ago she would have had flinched at the name. It was only a few more hours before that she had given permission for him to utter the word in front of her, albeit told to do so sparingly. Hearing her utter the word like it was second nature to her would have been weird enough but Harry noticed that Hermione was practically reveling in the experience.

" I don't know, but I assumed you would want me to send an owl to Professor Dumboledore, So, I told already did it.” Hermione smiled. “ Just the dream, but nothing else." He said anticipating her question.

" You don't trust him?" asked Hermione, more than a little surprised.

" I do trust him, but Hedwig might get intercepted, you know" reasoned Harry.

" What do we do then? I mean we have to do something."

" Nothing now. We wait. In the mean time, you need to eat. What do you want?"

" What do I want? –Let me see -Anything really. I'm starving, and I don't really care what I eat.

" Wait. I'll get something for you" Harry ran out of the room and went into the kitchen.

He was only gone for half a minute and he was back with several items of food as well as a large pile of pancakes covered in syrup (Hermione's favorite as he had learned during his stay with the Grangers.) But he wasn't alone. He had told everyone that Hermione was awake.

" Look who I found" said Harry, but before he was finished Hermione's mother rushed to her daughter and started to cuddle her. Harry took the tray and put it down on the bed next to her.

" Mom!" said Hermione, as she came closer to her mother for a hug. She whispered to her mother, " Stop crying! It's embarrassing. I'm OK. It was just-"

" You don't have to explain it dear. We're just happy that you're alive" said Mrs. Granger, after she had force-fed Hermione little bits of pancakes. It took two hours for Hermione to get her parents out of the room.

Once they were out and Mr. Pasha was the only one who was left, he spoke up. " You should find out that I had an ulterior motive showing you the Septanic Games. I figured, since you both had the powers so I might as well show you what you'll be learning at Hogwarts next year."

" What do mean?" asked Harry who was beginning to feel a little groggy, which he attributed to staying up all night.

" The Septanic duelling technique -I'll be teaching it at Hogwarts."

" Why are you telling it to us now?" asked Hermione in her small, adoring voice that she reserved for the teachers.

" I'll give you two some advanced lessons. By the way -Harry I talked to Professor Dumbledore and unfortunately he doesn't have a clue as to what the beast was. Now both of you have a little rest. Do some exploring around the house...er...Hermione, there are a few little things that I need to tell you...alone." He looked pointedly at Harry, who took the hint and left the room with a banana and a piece of bread in his hand. He had earlier pocketed a few dates that he wanted to have later.

As soon as he left, Mr. Pasha became a little apprehensive. He didn't have any children, so he had never needed to talk about this type of a topic to such a young person. " I’m not sure how much Harry has told you, but we had to give you a potion to subdue you.” Hermione tried to speak up, but he put up his hand to stop her. “ It’s kind of hard for me to explain, so let me explain before I loose my nerve. There are some erm… side effects are not really visible… may be I should tell my wife and she could tell you –” Hermione put an end to Ali’s rambling.

" I know Blood of Chimera was used. Didn't you?"

" -err. How?” Ali looked very embarrassed. “ - Yes. How did you know?"

" Harry told me. You don't have to tell me, I know the side effects or the lack there of." Hermione finished in a worried, but understanding tone.

" OK. Good. Since you know, I'll go now... I'll send Harry in. I ordered “IT” and it’ll be at Hogwarts in about a two to three weeks time." Though they didn't mention any details about the side effect it was surprising to see the redness in his face.

When Harry arrived she told him that Mr. Pasha wanted to explain the consequences of using the blood of Chimera and the tree of life potion. Harry wanted to know what were some of the side effects but seeing that Hermione would only blush at the question he took the hint and stopped asking. There were quite a few reasons for not telling Harry what the side effects were. And she wasn’t blushing because it would make it impossible for her to get pregnant for approximately five years. There were several more embarrassing ones.

Hermione wanted to ask Harry about the scar, and decided it was as good as a time as any. " Harry. You know when your scar hurts... How bad is it compared to Cruciatus Curse?"

" er... I'll tell you another time -" said Harry, before getting interrupted by a Hermione who had had enough of being patronized.

" Stop babying me, Harry. Just answer it!"

" But -but...." Harry was still very reluctant, but he knew Hermione would pester him until she got the information that she wanted " OH...okay. Remember you asked for it..." Harry paused before continuing after a long sigh, " This is the worse that the scar hurt... even worse than last year when I collapsed. But it's not as bad as the Cruciatus curse or the first time you go through magical objects. My scar hurts sometime more, but the amount of time it hurts has gone down a lot."

They talked a little while longer, eating and talking as they went, and it wasn’t before the food was all gone. Unknown to both, Mr. Pasha had mixed, sleeping potions in their food, since they both needed the rest. However because his wife had dragged him away on other “business”, Ali completely forgot about taking Harry away from Hermione’s room. After Harry finished eating, they fell asleep right where they were - Hermione on her bed, while Harry fell face first into his a plate that had the pancakes and syrups in it.

The next day Harry woke up in Hermione's bed, with the bed sheets stuck to his face. ‘ Merlin Help me I'm stuck to the sheets.’ As he slowly separated the bed sheet from his face, he looked up to see Hermione's face only inches from his own. ‘ Wow. Who would have had thought she slept this peacefully.’ He felt a strange sensation in his stomach, as well as tightening of his chest that he identified as hunger. ‘ Aww man. I need some food.’

Once fully untangled he slowly went to his feet and walked as quietly as possible to the door. But sleeping Hermione wasn't actually sleeping. She had been awake for the last half an hour, peacefully dozing on the bed. Harry's hand froze on the handle, when she said, " Could you close the door properly, when you go. I need some privacy."

" You're awake?" Asked Harry a little surprised.

" Have been for the last half hour. Why?"

" How come you're still in bed? For that matter -Why didn't you wake me?"

" The sun feels warm. It makes me sleepy" said Hermione as if it explained everything, but Harry just left anyway. He needed a shower; he could almost feel two days of grim on his body. He definitely needed to get a shower. Definitely.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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(A/N: Hunger??? A quick question to all you folks out there.... Do you think it's hunger?... I didn't think so. Harry in my book is great at seeing when people like each other. He just doesn't have a clue when it comes to Hermione or himself.)

12. The Dueling Lessons & another Nightmare

Chapter Number: 12
Chapter Name: The Dueling Lessons & another Nightmare

Harry went into the room, and quickly discarded his clothes before running into the adjoining shower facility. After the shower, lasting just over half an hour, it must have had been the longest one he had ever had, he stepped out of the running hot water and wrapped a towel around his waist. He opened the door to his room and turned to the mirror over the wardrobe. His vision was blurry without his glasses, but he knew where the glasses were and quickly put them on. He wore his navy blue T-shirt and the sweater from Mrs. Weasley with his best pair of black shorts. Harry hurried out of his room so fast he collided straight into Hermione. She lost her balance and was about to fall when Harry caught her. He apologized to her and together they went into the kitchen.

After breakfast Mr. Pasha took them to an adjoining room. It was noting special except for the fact that the floor was bare. Harry and Hermione could feel the cushioning charm on the floor since it felt a bit soft for something that was supposed to be a hard wooden floor. They both assumed that this was where they would receive their Dueling lesson.

" err...OKAY...The Septanic dueling technique is excellent when it come to dealing with a more powerful wizard, though it has its fall backs." Mr. Pasha turned to Hermione and asked. " What's one of them?"

" mmm. I guess it can be tiring against a more powerful wizard. The technique is only good when the opponent is very close."

" Good. You're right. The dueling is very much the same as normal. Except when you get striking range of the opponent, when you have to choose where to hit and what spell to cast with your body in that type of position. Sometimes you have to think a few blows ahead. Now-" he turned to Harry and said, " -you told me you were practicing moves before the nightmare incident, I want to see how you two fight."

" Well -It wasn't really practicing.” Harry said shuffling his feet. “ Hermione was throwing me around like a stick. "

This comment got Harry a broad smile from Hermione. " Is it true?" asked Ali Pasha, a little disturbed by the fact that Hermione who was several inches shorter that Harry was beating him up. Though it really wasn’t supposed to matter, but Hermione was both a girl and a few inches shorter than Harry was. But more than that he had thought Harry should have shown a lot more prowess, considering what he had learned and heard from Professor Dippet.

"Yes" answered Hermione as if it was normal for Harry Potter to be beaten up by little old her.

" Okay... I want see it, anyway." said Mr. Pasha before he snapped his fingers and both of their clothes were replaced with more easy-to-move-in clothes.

Hermione had three years of experience in martial arts, so combined with the magic she knew she was almost ready to battle for real – well she thought so. While on the other hand Harry had already fought the most powerful dark wizard and lived to talk about it when many older wizards simply would not have fought him at all, but that didn’t mean that he was any good at Dueling. Though both Hermione and Harry knew it wasn't an even match they started to fight. Harry took the early lead by disarming her with magic, but they were supposed to play until only one of them was unconscious or yelled, Mercy. The disarming didn’t stop Hermione, if anything it made her loose all inhibition about hitting and/or hurting Harry. She jumped up and kicked him in the chest, hard. The "playing nice stage" was well and truly over and they went at it full force.

Mr. Pasha stopped the pair often, and told them moves that they should have had done or how to do the move properly to maximize the effect.

By the time that Mr. Pasha left at 10 at night, both were covered in hexes and curses, Harry was the one who was worse off out of the pair. Mr. Pasha spent ten minutes un-hexing the pair. Their physical cuts and bruises had to heal on their own. He told them to go to sleep early as it will heal their cuts and bruises quicker, though the comment was actually directed at Hermione since Harry's ones had already started to repair themselves.

Once Mr. Pasha left the two friends sat on the floor and discussed some of the more difficult things they had been taught today, but in the middle of the conversation Harry lost consciousness.

A man shrouded in a cloak, approached a man on a large serpent throne. Lord Voldemort, Harry assumed...

Then there was a sniggering voice that thought sounded a lot like Draco...It was Lucious Malfoy. He said, " Master, the beast Wormtail released will be up on the city by night fall in three or four days time. Not enough time for them to get ready... It'll be our greatest day when the Mudblood city falls."

Then a cold and eerie voice said, " Excellent job. You planned to do what Shozar my most trusted and obedient servant couldn't. As your reward I want you to co-ordinate the attack. Has he talked yet?..." asked Lord Voldemort.

" No...my lord" Lucius Malfoy was going to say something but before he could, a Cruciatus curse rang through his body.........

Harry woke up from the nightmare clutching to his scar, thanking GOD that Hermione hadn't been in Astral Projection with him. The pain was worse than it had been before... Much worse and he wasn't sure whether Hermione could have had lived through it. When the pain subsided he told Mr. Pasha what happened in the dream.

(A/N: In this story we are led to believe that Morocco, is the place on earth where most of the wizards are half muggles. Shozar Sebastian a death eater was given the task of starting war between half-muggle wizards, so that they might be wiped off the face of the planet.)

" Don't worry. I'll send a message to the ministry, and they'll take care of the beast."

" But I don't know what the beast is. How will they fight it?"

" They'll dispatch all the available wizards to cast a protection spell over the city. It'll stop anything that has been declared as a beast.... Now get some rest!" said Mr. Pasha before he left the room.

Harry paced up and down next to his bed, trying to think of any details about the beast that might help the ministry to better prepare for the attack.

Harry was so deep in his thought that he didn't hear Hermione ask him several times to stop pacing so she could bandage him. Finally when she had enough she took out her wand and yelled, " Impedimenta". This was a big surprise to Harry who had been too busy to listen to her. He didn't say anything when the jinx wore off too quickly, partly because Harry had grown slightly strong over the summer holidays, but it was mostly because Hermione had not tried the curse at full force.

He let her push him onto the bed and bandage his leaking scar, when he saw the frustration on her face. Hermione was a little too enthusiastic about the task. She wrapped the bandages in a way that made it look like he had his skull fractured in several places.

When she was finished she noticed that Harry had fallen asleep in her lap as she was bandaging him. Satisfied that she had done a good job (one that Madam Pomfrey would have had been proud of), she gently put his head down on the soft pillow and covered him with the blanket.

Hermione walked slowly to the door, gave a small lingering look at his sleeping form and then went back to her room. Hoping like hell, no more nightmares for her friend.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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13. Carpet Ride and Griffin Watching

Reviews: Oh My god! I can’t belive two people I worship even looked at my pathetic attempts at writing. Msscribe and Babygrrl! People, if you’ve not read their fics, you’re missing out. They are brilliant! To everyone else :) Thanks for the reviews :) To each one of you - thanks :) Phil - I will try to update soon. Real life is hard, and the site takes away a lot of time.

Chapter Number: 13
Chapter Name: Carpet Ride and Griffin Watching

The next morning Harry awoke to gentle nudges and a soft, sweet voice that belonged to Hermione. " Harry..." more nudges before a violent shake, "Harry,” she was kind of whining, “ Come on love, wake up."

Harry tossed around and tried to cover himself up a little, trying to hide. But a few minutes later, he was up. " I'm up. I'm up." Yelled Harry despite himself.

" Hurry up.” Hermione said frowning at Harry, who was sitting up on the bed, but trying to make sense of the world without his glasses. “ It's seven already. We need to get ready."

" Ready for what?” Harry mumbled. ‘ WAR?!’ he thought to himself. Harry didn't realize why they needed to be up so early. It was an ungodly hour – especially since he was on holiday. And the last few days had been very tiring.

" Oh, nothing really, “ Hermioen said smiling – he could see her mind was filled with mischevious thoughts. His own lips curled up slightly. “ ...unless you don't want to learn how to ride on a flying carpet."

" Did you say 'Flying Carpet'?" He asked, not sure he heard it right. Ofcourse, Harry had read about the carpets, but most of his knowledge came from a muggle cartoon – Aladdin. Growing up he had seen few short burst of that cartoon while Dudley lay on his king sized bed – blocking half the screen from the door. While Dudley turned over, making the bed threaten to give way, Harry had often see the young hero perform dashing moves on his carpet. And Harry had often dreamed of being on one – riding away from the Dursley’s forever.

When Hermione nodded, Harry literally jumped off the bed and flew into the shower facilities – almost sleeping on the wet floor. It took less than five minutes to go through the morning ritual. He brushed his teeth while he was in the shower and he was under the water just long enough to get his body wet. Harry quickly got dressed in his best muggle clothes and left the shower. When he came out wearing his new glasses, he didn’t feel right. He had been using his old ones for so long that it felt rather alien and not quite like himself.

But the effect to Hermione was different. ‘ That can't be Harry...’ His wild hair had spiked up his hair after getting wet. The glasses offset his eyes, and really brought forth his emerald coloured centres of his eyes. She gasped at the sight infront of her. She squinted through her own glasses to make sure that she wasn’t seeing things. WOW! He looks good...’ Just the thought made her blush.

Hermione quickly turned away so that Harry wouldn't see her face. By the time Harry had put on a cloak his hair had lost most of its moisture and Hermione had recovered herself. Hermione didn’t think it was appropriate to suddenly lust after her friend just because he cleaned himself up a little. It was a very silly thing to do, and Hermione Granger did not do silly things. She said something hurriedly, and left the room.

After breakfast Mr. Pasha took both teenagers to a storeroom, which had been unnoticeable until then (enchanted to be only seen when the person looking for the door knew exactly where it is). The whole room was full of shelves and there was only one wall in the room that didn't have anything on it and when Mr. Pasha murmured something while pointing his wand, it simply vanished in front of them.

Harry and Hermione had never seen a wall disappear before; though they had seen some other amazing things happen to them before. Mr. Pasha murmured something and a large red and pale yellow colored rolled carpet dropped to the floor. It unrolled itself and waited to be boarded. Hermione was certain that she had seen the carpet stretch a bit – as if a person getting ready for a marathon by lightly stretching.

Mr. Pasha explained that the carpets themselves are not magical and as such can not do anything unless there is a witch or a wizard on the carpet. They were just tools to be used like a broomstick. Harry got on board the carpet as soon as Mr. Pasha told them to do so, but Hermione needed convincing that they weren't going to go too high. Even with that, she only sat down on the carpet as opposed to her male counterpart who had decided that he would stand.

The three were shown the basics before Mr. Pasha asked Harry to head for the west. " Rise." Said Harry making the carpet even more rigid then it was before. Hermione could have had sworn the carpet felt thicker.

" Mr. Pasha... What about muggles? Won't they see us going out?..." asked Hermione in her adoring voice reserved for teachers.

" I'll come to that Hermione..."

As soon as the carpet went outside, through the wall that had disappeared, the wall reappeared with a small flash of white light. Once outside the carpet rose to the height of six feet and then there were three flickers as three different charms automatically came to being around them. Mr. Pasha explained that there was one to hold the riders to the carpet, one to repel other carpets from colliding with each other and last and the most important one being making them only visible only to people on other carpets.

Mr. Pasha spent good part of next five hours giving the two students practical flying lessons. Hermione, who was less confident in a broom, turned out to be very good at riding on the carpet. Harry thought it was kind of like the situation where some people found it really easy to ride on a motorcycle, but people who were afraid of them were a lot better on cars.

" Hermione..." said Harry, who was standing next to Hermione at the front while a patient Mr. Pasha sat at the back letting the two teenager in front of him.

" What?" she said, getting nervous because they were very close to their destination, and she really didn’t want Harry to get mad at her, because she had ulterior motives.

" You’re really good at this. You should consider moving here when you finish school. I bet you can get a job as anything you want"

Hermione turned the brightest shade of red possible for a human being upon receiving the complements. She just hoped that Harry would feel the same way when they got to their destination. Harry might have been nice about doing homework over the holidays, but he was still Harry. And Harry didn’t like being tricked into going out to do homework.

" The reason that we're here is to observe the Griffins." Said Mr. Pasha pointing at two giant creatures that looked like a cross between a lion and an eagle. As if to just point out what he had said, the creatures emitted a loud screech.

Mr. Pasha explained that the Griffins live in a 'nest' and are very protective of their cubs. That is why one of the parents stays behind, while the other is out hunting. The screech is only a signal that one of the partners is going hunting. He also told them that since the Griffins are very sensitive to magic, the duo should stay as far as possible. He told them that if they wanted to spend more time observing griffins they were quite welcome to do so, but he had to go home and await the arrival of messages from Professor Dumbledore and a few other colleagues of his at the ministry.

He left the pair with food for dinner and emergency portkeys that'll take them right into the house. Harry and Hermione observed the behavior of the Griffins as they both took notes for their Care of Magical Creatures class. Hermione was furiously writing her notes down, mostly to avoid talking with Harry. She thought because she had partly lied to Harry he was upset with her.

On the contrary, Harry was totally fascinated by the Griffins and his silence only reinforced her belief that Harry was indeed upset with her. When Hermione thought that she couldn’t stand Harry’s silent treatment anymore, she started to speak to him...well actually apologize to him for getting him up in the morning.

Harry smiled a while listening to her speak. When Hermione stopped her apology to ask why he was smiling, Harry explained that the reason he wasn’t talking was because the Griffins were so very interesting. Even when they did nothing, they had a mixture of nobility and savageness that interested him.

Hermione was just glad that he wasn’t upset with her.

However, though Hermioe found the creatures endlessly fascinating, Harry found them to be reasonably fascinating. Eventually Harry’s fascination ended. Even the most interesting of diversions become rather dull after a long time of doing it.

Having had enough of the Griffins, he and Hermione agreed to go back – more like Harry begging her to finish writing, so they could go back to the site. As they approached the city, Hermione, who was the driving the carpet, performed more and more astounding feats in the air. Harry wondered, where she got the sudden urge to perform, however neither noticed a big leopard beast that saw them head towards the general direction of the city. The beast was powerful enough to see right through the invisibility charm.

When they got back they practiced dueling...err... No they practiced 'pick on Potter', as Harry it seemed had actually grown worse, than he was at the beginning. Hermione took full advantage and for the next hour and a half Harry was thrown around the room like a small but hot potato. Harry was actually trying to find a weakness in the method that they fought, unfortunately for Harry, Hermione had none that he could find until they finished. Hermione showed Harry some of the moves that she remembered from her early endeavour into martial arts.

To Harry who had no experience in that field at all, he found her exceptionally good in self defence. ‘ I wonder why she never hit Malfoy back for teasing her ,’ thought Harry, but decided it was probably because she thought that would be lowering herself to Malfoy’s level. He thought no more of it for that day , Hermione had a particularly hard grip on his shoulder, and it was taking his mind away from thoughts like these.

The next day was spent fully on Dueling. More of Pick on Potter. Followed by a short lunch, followed by more pick on Potter. More pick on potter. And after Dinner, a match of Pick on Potter infront of Hermione’s parents and Mr. and Mrs. Pasha.

The day after was more interesting. That day started out in a similar fashion as to the one before, but they did dueling practice before Mr. Pasha would let the pair take the Magic Carpet out for a spin. Hermione was severely disappointed and didn't hide it. She liked the freedom the carpet gave her, but more over she liked her adventurous self on the carpet. She felt most of the time like she was the dullest person that ever lived at Hogwarts – well other than Percy. But then he was interesting. She was neither. Without her books, she was nothing…. That’s what she though. The carpet let her be a whole new person… though it was more like bringing out another side of herself, and Harry being on her side while she did these loops in the air – she realised what Harry loved about flying.

When she was on a broom, it always made her feel a little uneasy but now that she was good at flying, and being able to do all fancy moves she wanted to do, she wanted to be out doing it.

So they quickly went through the lesson. Hermione paid for her lack of attention, as she spent almost all of the first hour on the floor. But after a while her proper personality kicked in and Harry was again falling victim to Hermione's skill – repeating the game of “flip Potter”, “ “kick potter” , “make him hurt”.

‘ Ouch! Man I was having fun throwing her around for a change and now she's beating the living day lights out of me.... OW!’ though Harry as he reacted to the knee in the groin.

" Awhhh! What the f**king hell was that for." Shouted Harry in pain, using his two hands to protect his groin from further attack.

" ... Did it hurt?" asked Hermione tentatively, letting go of her guard to approach Harry.

" No!..." said Harry as he jumped, pinning her to the ground, before he continued "... I was just acting... Well not really... it hurt but not as much as this." With that Harry hit her on the face with his elbow making her bleed from her lips. He knew he was being too rough, but he couldn’t stop himself. Hermione really had hurt him, and on a subconscious level he wanted to get back at her. He just didn’t know where he could hurt her the same way.

Hermione was angry. At herself for falling such a stupid trick. Angrey at Harry for using that trick. Angry because her hands couldn’t move, and she felt helpless under Harry. She hated feeling helpless. She was also pissed, because Harry had pinned her using one of the moves, she had shown him the day before. “ Get off me..." Hermione started to struggle under him.

" No..." replied Harry with a tone full of mischief.

" Get off me...” she pleaded in earnes. “ This is embarrassing."

" So what?... You kneed my groin! That hurts! Do you have any idea... OOPS!" blushed Harry. Ofcouse she had no idea how it must feel to have more nerves in one place where it was so vulnerable to attack. Hermione felt the grip loosen a little and took her chance at freedom then. She threw him off her fairly easily, then pinned him to the ground and repeated what Harry did on her face. Four times.

" How does it feel now?... HUH" asked a cocky Hermione.

" Pretty good actually...” Harry said smiling. “ Rememebr the healing power I told you about yesterday, see when the cuts are repaired I get these funny sensations on my face and I love those.” Hermione looked disappointed. “ And did you really think I couldn't get out of the hold?..." said Harry as he not only threw her off him but also almost making her fly.

It had taken him all of last night to practice in his Astral form. " ... oof" moaned Hermione in pain as she landed right on her arse. It took half a second for Hermione to recover and she was furious. She literally was in the process of lunging on top of Harry when both of them froze where they were. Like someone had stopped time – just for them. Well not totally, but for their bodies. They could not move, but still think and blink.

" Okay you two... Break it off. You need to remember you can't get angry. No matter what!" said Mr. Pasha. " So.. I'll leave you two alone and you can either fight for a while or you can go observe those Griffins. I'll leave it up to you to get the details sorted." When Hermione quirked her eyes with an incredible amount of strength, he replied, “ I’ve got some things to take care of…”

Hermione, who was in mid air when Mr. Pasha had stopped their bodies from moving, fell to the floor with a loud thud when he made their bodies unfreeze. Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing and when she came up to him after she had recovered from the abrupt fall she punched the laughing Harry in the stomach knocking the wind right out of him. " oof." Cried out Harry as he grabbed on to his stomach with one hand and with the other he grabbed one of Hermione's legs as he doubled over and pulled them out from under her. Harry took his wand and pointed at her face....

‘ What curse is he gonna do now.’ wondered Hermione in a panic.

But to her surprise Harry didn't curse her. He put one end at the edge of her lip where the blood was still coming out of and started to mutter something under his breath. She felt the tingling start at her lips and then slowly resonating thought her body. As she felt it at different places in her body, she had to use all her mental control to not scream out in pleasure.

‘ Oh God! I never felt like that before.... WOW! Talk about intense...What's he saying? I have to know the spell.... Awhhh ’

" Hermione are you ok?" asked Harry stopping the spell abruptly.

" What was that spell?" asked Hermione who couldn't wait to find out the source of the spell. Fro research reasons.

" OH! It was the one that Rowena used on Goderic...." Harry saw the confused look on Hermione's face so he ventured more information, " ...after the final battle with Salazar."

" I know when they used it... but that's a very powerful spell. I mean... It takes years to master. That's why school nurses have to do three year apprenticeships after they finish school."

" Well. I didn't do it right now did I. Your cheeks weren't supposed to turn pink, now were they."

" er...no.” Hermione said feeling her face flaming more. “ But you came very close." Hermione couldn't bring herself to tell him the way the spell made her feel. " Hey! I need a shower and after that we'll take the carpet for a spin. What do say, Harry?"

" I'm game." Came the reply from her back as Hermione made her way across the room still feeling a little light headed.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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14. The day Harry Potter died

Chapter Number: 14
Chapter Name: The day Harry Potter died

The beast was supposed to arrive at the city the next afternoon, so Harry and Hermione decided that since they had no idea when they might be able to come back and observe the Griffins to take as much information about the creature as they could for that day. The rest of the information they could easily find from reference books. It was Hermione’s idea.

Once they arrived there, Harry wanted to take a closer look, but Hermione forbid him from taking control of the carpet. There was a small struggle when Harry tried to take control of the carpet. It was quickly and efficiently dealt with by Hermione after a little arm twisting. Specifically Harry’s arm.

They worked together for a long time, before Harry remembered that he wanted to ask Hermione a question. It was about something that he had found in Hermione's textbook. Especially the one on Runes. " ...er Hermione?"

No answer from Hermione as she was furiously writing things down on her scroll, careful to keep the carpet controls behind herself.

" Hermione....?" he started again, but Hermione snapped at him. She had thought Harry was going to ask if they could get closer. If it hadn’t been that, it would been about the assignment, she was sure of it. " What?"

Harry didn’t seem to even realise the terseness of her voice. " What do you study in Runes? I mean it's the study of old languages right?” He also did not see Hermione’s face flaming slightly as she realised she had made a mistake about Harry’s question. She put aside the flustered emotions and said, softly, “ Why do you want to know, Harry?” Her curiosity was peaked.

Harry flipped over the pages of his book a second, before answering. “ I was thinking about quitting Divination.”

The bland way Harry made the revelation, made her loose track of all other thoughts. ‘ Finally one of those two morons is coming to his senses.’ thought Hermione, but the first thing that came out of her mouth was very different. " If you do that,” she said sounding disappointed, “ what's going to happen to my gift?"

As soon as she had said it, Hermione couldn’t help but mentally slap herself. She could not believe that she had said what she had. She had been working tirelessly to get both Harry and Ron – well more like dropping hints – very blunt and undisguised hints to quit divination, but now she had told the person who was finally changing their mind to come over, that she would not want them to change. ‘ Why the hell did I say that.’

Harry didn't bother answering that question. He knew Hermione wasn't really thinking when she asked the question. " I saw these symbols in my head when I was doing the healing spell on you..." Harry wasn't looking at her, but had he been looking at her, he could have seen her turn into an interesting shade of pink. " -I think they were runes... May be something to do with the ancients. I've never felt power like that before.” Hermione quirked her eyebrows, and Harry could feel Hermione doing it without looking up to her. “ It was like someone had set of almost all of my nerves on fire… like a Cruciatus curse , only in a good way. I could feel it in my blood. Like I could do anything…” Harry could feel Hermione considering his words. “ Maybe I could get some of that power..."

"... so you can defeat Voldemort" said Hermione without shivering.

This was a new twist in Harry's life and one that Harry had started to enjoy immensely. " Yeah. Don't worry -I'll give the book to Ron. Since I'm not going be doing it anymore, I’m sure Ron could make good use of it. I doubt he'll drop an easy subject and risk loosing all those easy owl points in it - besides I wouldn't let him drop it. He wouldn't be able to pickup anything else this late into the school life."

" I'm pretty sure Professor McGonagall would be delighted to let you change from Divination, but I doubt there'll be any room, but Arithmancy is more fun and only half the class is full..."

" For now I just want to know what those symbols are. Maybe later I'll know how to control them."

Their musing were interrupted when they saw unnaturally colored lightning bolts strike down from the sky near the city in the horizon. The same thoughts crept on to their mind at the same time. " The beast" said both in unison, facing each other.

Harry had started to say, " We’ve got to get back.”

Hermione nodded, taking the control of the carpet, and getting reading to go off.

“ I'll drop you off at the house and then I'll -", said Harry, but was quickly interrupted by Hermione.

" Oh no, You don't! Harry Potter! I'm not a child. I'm coming with you." Harry wasn't really surprised that she said this. She was head strong and he himself had said to Ali Pasha, his friends were willing to risk their lives with him, and he expected her to do the same this time. Deep deep deep deep down he knew.

In the high speed, as they swooped closer to the ground, they created a storm of displaced sand in their wake. When they were within viewing distance they saw that the attack from the beast was coming from the opposite side of the city. They saw hundreds of Wizard, Witches rush to the other side of the city, most of them were running, the clever ones already on broomsticks or carpets. Harry and Hermione saw few of the carpets swoop down and grab people off the street in one spectacular dive.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. A meaningful glance passed between them. They had thought the same thing. They could try to do like other carpet riders were already doing. But they had no idea how to do it, and if they missed they would not only be slow in getting there on time, but also might reduce the number of people who would be able to help.

They flew under two bridges, and over a minar. Both flattened themselves to the floor to reduce the air friction. They saw several people apparate as they passed a columned structure.

Hermione urged the carpet to go fast, and the speed picked up slightly. Hermione made expert turns and loops past buildings and other carpet riders. If it had been under other circumstances, Harry would have had thought Hermione would make a great chaser – as long as she was allowed to use the carpet instead of the broomstick.

When they finally reached the centre of the carnage, Hermione felt sick. Harry could make out five dead bodies in the very least – chewed in half, or smashed and splattered. Some of them had arms and legs severely damaged, yet they kept up the assault with there wands pointed at the beast and firing sparks of light that either bounced off or just were absored. Hermione wanted to throw up desperately, and Harry felt little better. This was their baptism by fire into what war was like.

It was almost as if Harry could sense how difficult it seemed for Hermione, and told her take the carpet and spread the word that hundreds more are coming to help. Not to give up. It would be important to boost the hope of the people who were fighting for their lives and their families. " Were will you be?" she said anxiously.

" On the ground.” Harry said, edging to the carpet’s end. “ Go" he said almost taking the last step. But then Hermione grabbed his arm. “ No. I won't let you go."

" I have to.” He said, with his voice telling her he would do it no matter what she said or did. The typical Harry stubborn voice. He did soften up. “ I'll always love you and Ron. Remember that!" With that he kissed Hermione on the cheek and jumped off the Carpet at a height of over 20 feet. Hermione thought he was going to die but about half way Harry started to descend slowly, as the hovering charm that Harry used came in to effect.

Hermione was determined to do as Harry had asked her to, she used her wand and yelled "Sonorous", before she started to yell, " Everyone! Re-enforcement are coming"

She moved the carpet towards the ground.

Harry descended into the cluster of wizards who were using lightning bolts to attack the beast, but not with any success. Some of the wizards were using spheres of electricity while others used either "Stupefy" or " Impedimenta". All this seemed to only make the beast angrier – and do nothing useful. Harry barged into the conversation of the group and said, " We have to do one thing. And we have to keep it up until there are enough of us."

The oldest in the group was the same person that Harry’s eyes had caught in the arena the first day of the septanic games. His gaze was almost as penetrating as the one the Professor Dumbledore had. It made Harry both uncomfortable and, oddly enough, remind him of home. Hogwarts.

The elderly man could sense wise words coming from the youngest among them, but the rest didn't want to be upstaged. They were going to ignore Harry’s suggestion – prompting Harry to wish that people in that part of the world were aware of who he was. It had become obvious to him that the people present could see his scar in plain view, yet refused to acknowledge him. Few people in morocco seemed to know who he was. And it gave him a feeling of being normal. That is what he had felt after coming to Morocco. Now the reason behind that feeling might be detrimental to the people around him. Before Harry could make a move to try and convert these people, the old man spoke up.

" Listen to him. It's a Nundu. It takes more than a hundred trained wizards to subdue one of them. We'll need a hell of lot more amateurs to subdue it. We have no other choice but to keep using one spell (stupefy) to attack it."

The people around the group reacted as if they had heard of the plan the first time. " Not a problem, Mr. Potter. You have grown. I'm Professor Dippet. We'll talk more soon."

With that he took off to where everyone was going. There was about a hundred wizards now shouting in unison "Stupefy", but they still needed the reinforcements.

Harry noticed that they were gaining ground, making the beast move backward with each passing minute.

It was a not until it was too late did Harry realize that they had been inadvertently cornering the beast in the same direction that Hermione was working to free a wizard, half conscious and into the carpet. The beast’s eyes focused on Harry, and as if it could read his mind, he found Hermione near him . Vulnerable.

It started to move towards her.

Harry felt a blinding rage that he wouldn't be able to save Hermione and with each second she was moving closer to death. He started to feel the same power he had experienced before when he performed the healing spell on Hermione. His blood seemed intoxicating, his senses becoming sharper and clearer. His body started to glow white.

The next second, Harry had taken into a run to the beast. Several of the surrounding wizards were so stunned that they stopped performing the stunning curse. Some of them could only look on as Harry yelled, " No! I won't let you take Hermione!"

At her name, Hermione turned to see what was happening behind her. She was just in time to see the beast within a few feet of her, when, something bright white crashed into the beast. There was a big white flash and massive sonic boom that seemed to be an amplified noise of the pop that one hears when someone had just apparated out. She was thrown backwards from the sonic boom as were hundreds more wizards and witches that were there. Most of them were in shock and could not get up once the residual light had vanished.

Some had seen Harry glow white and then charge at the beast and most recognized that Harry had apparated out with that magical creature. Thing is they didn't know who the mysterious stranger was, as in the panic no one had seen his scar. Not that it would matter yet, no one really knew the characteristics of the boy who lived.

Almost in a blind panic, Hermione looked for Harry. When she couldn’t find him, she felt her heart almost die. She knew in her heart that Harry was not one of the dead. He had apparated with the creture, a feat impossible to do. She started to shake as she finally realised something.

Wherever he was, Harry was now alone. Alone with a massive creature that took the life of several wizards and witches.

" Harry" she cried out. She had just started to run toward the direction Harry had been running, when someone grabbed her.

" You can't go that way... Bloody hell!" said the man as Hermione bit his arm, but the man didn't let her go. Holding a struggling Hermione to himself.

" Please let me go. I have to find him. I have to find Harry Potter. Please let me go!"

" You mean the Harry Potter. The one the..." he said incredulously.

" Do you know any one else?” She spat. “ Please let me go....please..." pleaded Hermione with the young man.

" I'm sorry, but I can't. We have to finish the spell. Otherwise his sacrifice would have been in vain..." Hermione saw the man cry. No matter what kind of martial arts move she tried, the man simply disabled her.

Another man, this one elderly, came to her and asked, " Where's Harry?" It was the man who introduced himself as Professor Dippet to Harry. He looked sad and mortified. " Gather the people still alive. Start the spell immediately. Go. Leave her with me." He said to the younger one who was holding Hermione.

The man followed the order without question. As soon as he let go Hermione started to run toward where Harry was heading. But the elderly man said, form behind. His voice oddly calming and soothing, " He's long gone my dear, and you know it. I know it. By this time tomorrow everyone will know it. But remember he did it for you. He did it so you stayed alive. If you go after the beast, alone and right now, you'll waste his sacrifice... Do you want his sacrifice to be in vain?" The man paused.

Hermione started to cry and fell to the ground crying. The elderly man put a hand over her head and said, " Once the spell is finished, we'll send out search parties. If he's still alive then we'll get him. But for now you need to sleep...." Hermione was going to argue but the man pointed his wand at her and said " Dormis"

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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[Reviewers]

SAME AS THE FANFICTION.NET VERSION ::

This is not the same as the ff.net version. This is more polished and more “correct” Also with less gaps, and better commentary.

When is Chapter 47 coming ::

I can’t really tell. I am trying to finish as fast as I can, but real life is so hectic, and the way the site is taking up time… it’s really a lot of work.

15. The Dead Body and the Carcass

Chapter Number: 15
Chapter Name: The Dead Body and the Carcass

Hermione woke up in the morning in the Pasha household. On one side of her was Sirius, Ron, Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape, on the other side Mrs. Weasley and her mother – both sobbing openly and consoling each other. On the chairs near by, Mr. Pasha and Professor Flitwick were discussing something in a low voice.

Her eyes still didn't get properly focused, when her light groan alerted her mother to her consciousness. She was immediately enveloped in a very tight hug. At first Hermione had trouble remembering what had happened, on what she believed was the night before. Or why there were all those people around her, but then suddenly her mind was flooded with the events.

Actually she had slept for an entire day, because of the strength of the spell. When she looked around she only saw blackened faces with sad expressions. She wanted to ask a question but her voice box would simply not comply. " ... How are you sweetie?" asked her mother.

Hermione's voice was coming back but it hurt when she asked, " Where's Harry?"

Everyone went blank and started to look to each other as if deciding whether or not to tell her anything. Professor Dumbledore stepped up to her and said, " They found his body, his wand, a watch, and the carcass of the Nundu near a Griffins nest yesterday. We know it was his.... I'm sorry, Hermione. If I could do something to take away the pain I would..."

Hermione snapped and said, " I don't believe you.” She said - her voice steeling in resolve that Harry was still there. “ I want to see the body..."

Few hours later when Hermione saw the evidence and the remains of Harry's body she felt as if the world had just ended. She recognized Harry's watch as a gift from Ginny to her crush Harry. When she saw the grubby wand she knew it was his, but there wasn’t enough of the body left to be recognized as Harry. She refused to believe it was Harry's for a long time while her mother consoled her. After a few hours she accepted the fact that Harry was now indeed dead.

Ron tried several times to console her, but she flat out refused to be touched by anyone other her mother. She closed herself in her room with her mother and together they cried and shared stories about Harry. Mrs. Granger was a very good listener and when she finished analyzing her daughter's stories she asked if she loved Harry. " Love..." Hermione thought about it, " May be... I'm not sure." She paused, "... I've never thought of him as anything more than a friend. I might have felt something for him last school year, -but I don’t know. I kissed him in the train station... even then it was to comfort him. No.... definitely not. We were friends. That's the way we like it."

Mrs. Granger had a hard time believing her daughter and she knew from experience, first love or true love was hard to identify even when it's gone. She and her husband were best friends for over fifteen years and never thought of each other as anything other than friends. Then when her fiancée had left her and Paul was there to console her, she realized that she loved Paul more than anyone else in her life.

It took a long time after that for her to come to terms with the fact that, she was indeed in love with her best friend. It took an even longer time for them to admit their mutual love to each other. But Mrs. Granger didn't tell it to her daughter this. She didn’t want to make the lass more than it was. She didn’t want to send her daughter into a pit of unrecoverable depression.

The journey back to Britain was hell. The reporters all wanted to know what happened and just before they existed the airport, Hermione snapped. She threatened that she would kill the next person who asked her a question and reminded them that she could get away with it if she said she was grieve stricken from the death of her friend Harry Potter - the boy who lived.

No one dared mutter another word until she was at the train station on 1st September. That was the first day that she allowed Ron to comfort her – actually that was the first day that she let Ron come anywhere near her. When they entered through the magical barrier she wasn't surprised to see all the people moping about.

But she was surprised to see that a few of the Slytherins were also moping about. * Not all of 'em are bad * though Hermione as she got into the train.

Ron took her trunk inside and Hermione was about to set foot inside the carriage when she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It was almost as if her whole being was telling her something was going to happen. Something big. Almost instinctively she looked up into the sky where she saw a small silver glint.

Parvati Patil broke down crying when she read the headline in Daily Prophet. She was so upset that she didn’t even notice that almost everyone was doing the same all around her as they waited for the train. Some like Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who were best friends with Harry were mortified as the moved towards the train. People who knew how close those three were, came from all direction to offer their condolences.

Parvati was one of the few witches born to wizard houses who didn’t get Daily Prophet and as such she didn’t know the news that had spread across the world before it even went to press. " Harry Potter dies Valiantly." Underneath it said, " Today is September 1st and the world is grieving the loss of Harry Potter, The Boy who lived. writes T. G. McGinities of Daily Prophet. He died valiantly in the desert trying to save his friend and an entire city from the terrible
magical beast known as the "Nundu". Found in east Africa it is one of the rarest of beasts that resembles a muggle leopard but it’s not the hunger for humans, muggles or magical, but its capability to infect entire villages with its potent breath that makes this a nightmarish creature.

Acting on the information received from the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Ministry of Magic in Morocco had started to surround the city with protective magic but when the beast attacked prematurely all hope seemed to be lost. The few wizards that hadn’t panicked and ran away or who hadn’t lost consciousness were desperately trying to subdue the beast. That is when Harry Potter the boy who lived came on a magic carpet with his long time friend Ms Hermione Granger. Details are sketchy, as Ms. Granger and some of the people on the frontline were too grieved to talk.

From what we know the beast and Mr. Potter disappeared when it looked as though the creature was about to attack a large group of wizards. Some eyewitnesses report on seeing Mr. Potter glow white before disappearing with a bright white flash and supersonic pop noise which shook the entire city.

A search party was sent out once the protection spell was set properly, and the half eaten carcass of a human body and the creature was found in an abandoned Griffins nest five day journey from the original site. The body was severely dismembered and missing the head. From the evidence nearby it was determined to be of Harry Potter. The evidence in question was his wand, identified by Mr. Oliverand and a broken watch identified by Ms. Granger to be a birthday gift from one of his many female admirers, Ms. Ginny Weasley sister of the newly
appointed liaison to Moroccan ministry Weatherby Weasley, in the wake of this terrible event.

The evidence point to Mr. Potter apparating the beast to the Griffin’s nest that he was studying for his school homework. As soon as the Griffins spotted the pair, they were attacked and eaten. The world it seems is once again in debt to Harry Potter last of the Potter family line. We only hope that his sacrifice will inspire others to be as brave and valiant in the face of danger. There will be commemorative issue of the Daily Prophet printed this afternoon available to the public free of charge. It is our way to remember a great hero.

The main funeral will be held on 2nd September at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Attendance to the funeral will be limited to Students and selected close friends only. There will be a public ceremony at Ministry Head Quarters at 3:00pm on 3rd September"

When Millicent Bullstrode the Slytherin finished reading the paper out loud she cried openly. Some of her classmates mostly girls joined in some of the boys also tried to console the girls. The majority of the Slytherins were celebrating, until a wave of curses from all direction silenced them. Then someone pointed something in the sky.

" Is it a bird?" asked Lavender Brown.

" No. ITS HARRY POTTER!!!, HE’S ALIVE!!! HE’S ALIVE !!! And He’s on a FLYING CARPET" said Millicent as she jumped in joy. She wasn’t the only one who was happy, but she was one of the few Slytherins to do so. Their was almost a deafening cheer that went across the platform.

‘ Why do I always have to make grand entrances?’ thought Harry as he started to remember the events of the last few days....

Hermione couldn't even dare to believe it, for if it was a mistake she was going to have to go through the pain all over again. But something inside her made her start to move to where that person was landing. ‘ If this is one of Malfoy's tricks, I'm going to kill him.’ , thought Hermione as she moved pass the crowd amidst a loud cheer that went up. ‘ May be it is him’

When she finally waded through all the people that were blocking her way, she started to cry and run towards Harry. She flung her arms around him and started to kiss his cheek and face like a mother, who had just found her lost child after ten years. She didn't care what people thought, nor did she care if Harry was embarrassed. She was happy to have one of her best friends back from the dead and she wanted to show it.

When Hermione separated herself from him, his face was slightly pink. She also noticed for the first time that Harry was standing in his cloak that he wore two and a half days ago, aside from that his glasses were not there either. His clothes were really shredded, and now almost nothing was covering his belly. She could see his chest now sported three deep scars as well as one on his arm. Hermione didn’t know it but the smaller scar was the griffins had attacked him.

There was something different about him, almost as if he looked older. But she didn't get to follow that train of thought for long. The conductors of the train had already started to beep their horn in celebration. Ron had heard the loud cheer that went across the platform and decided to investigate it – and since Hermione wasn’t there, he was worried.

He found Hermione next to Harry. ‘ Is that...him? No it can't be!’

" Harry! Harry!" he yelled at the top of his voice getting the attention from Hermione, followed by Harry. Harry smiled and yelled back, " Ron". Both Harry and Hermione started to make their way toward their best friend Ron Weasley. Harry put both his arms on Ron's shoulder and looked Ron up and down. He had grown to a six feet figure. Harry was happy that he had finally grown past his tall friend.

When he finished his inspection, Ron pulled Harry in for a hug. The hug lasted only a fraction of a second, as anything more is looked down upon by others of the male gender. " Good to see you." said Ron, not even noticing the crowd that was around his friend. This is the first time that Ron wasn't jealous of his friend. Until that point he had assumed his friend to be dead and now that he was back he was too happy for words.

" How was you holiday" asked Harry.

" Fine. How was yours?"

" I died. I came back. I got more attention than I wanted at the beginning of the year and I hate Malfoy. All in all.... same as always"

" Let's go inside you two. We're making the train late..." said Hermione, wiping away her tears, grabbing Harry arm with her bother hands and holding him. Alsmot afraid that he was a dream and would leave her if she let go.

" Yes... It's going to be a good year. I can feel it." Said Harry as he put his one arm around her and the other around Ron. Once they entered the carriage Ron locked it with a Locking charm, so that no one could enter.

" Hermione.... Where is my wand?" asked Harry.

" It's in my trunk.... I'll get it."

" Too late. It's coming to me...." as soon as he said this Hermione's trunk with clothes in it exploded, showering the room with bits and piece of clothes. The bit of clothes showered the trio, but Harry had erected a shielding charm around himself before he came down from the carpet and so he wasn't covered in pieces of Hermione's clothes.

The same couldn't be said for Ron and Hermione. Hermione was covered in little bits as opposed to big bits or whole clothes like Ron. Ron's had one of Hermione's bras stuck to his face and one of her panties over his shoulder. As soon as he realized what the pieces of clothing were, his face turned the same shade of red as his hair.

They both looked at where the trunk was to see the wand floating over the mangled cover. The wand made its way across the carriage and into Harry's open palm...

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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16. The Nutcracker

Chapter Number: 16
Chapter Name: The Nutcracker

Harry grabbed his floating wand and put it in his right pocket. He then turned to Ron and Hermione, who were mildly mortified at what Harry's wand had done. " Wh-What the hell was that?" asked Hermione.

" It's like this..." Harry looked at Hermione in the face and said, " Last year after I came back from the resurrection of Vold... sorry... You-Know-Who, Professor Dumbledore cast a spell on it."

" What spell? I want the name and people who..." asked Hermione before getting interrupted by Harry.

" Calm down, Hermione. I don't know the correct spell but it was ancient magic." This got a gasp from both Ron and Hermione. They didn't think anyone existed who could perform ancient magic. "... Well anyway...The spell now makes the wand try to come to me, wherever it is, if I’m in the same room as it is, but I don’t have the wand with me."

Hermione was reassured at those words. For the first time since the small explosion Hermione realized that the whole room was covered in small bit of clothing. Harry saw that she was visibly upset about the condition of the room so he offered to help. " Hermione... Here..." said Harry as he waved his wand and said, " Tidus ap'ris"

All the clothes that were in one piece quickly arranged themselves in a neat pile while the damaged clothes started to gather in one spot near the mangled trunk. " Reparo" this time, a bright white light shot out of the wand and repaired the clothes.

Harry could feel himself losing magical strength as he repaired more and clothes. He knew he was tired from his journey and as such would not be able to fix Hermione's mangled trunk.

" You think you can do it? I'm feeling a bit weak now" asked Harry turning towards Hermione.

" Ok." Hermione pushed up her glasses up her nose bridge, an action that she had picked up by watching Harry do it too many times. The top student at Hogwarts didn't take long to do it at all. When Hermione finished putting away the clothes, Malfoy barged into the room.

‘ I should have had done the locking charm,’ thought Hermione looking at Ron. He looked disappointed that his locking charm hadn't been that good.

" Potter. I see you're still hanging around with Mudbloods and the poverty stricken... Oh I see the Mudblood needs glasses now... First it was the big teeth and now glasses, what's next...adult diapers."

Malfoy and his gang laughed at his joke. Ron was very unhappy, well, that would be an understatement of the same category as calling Voldemort bad. He was about to jump on Malfoy when Harry grabbed his collar and motioned Hermione towards Malfoy. She had an evil smirk on her face and quite unlike herself she started to walk up to Malfoy. Normally should not be like that. But it was almost as if Harry’s encouragement had made her like that. Hermione said, " Get out, Malfoy, before you really regret it."

Coolness of her voice surprised Ron. " And what if I don’t? Mudblood?" The last part he said like he was spitting out venom.

" That's it." said Ron and attempted to get away from Harry, but he had enough physical strength to restraint Ron. " Simmer down Ron. She's not as defenseless as you think. Just watch." With that he turned back to Hermione, his eyes emanating confidence.

Hermione said " Just this..." before she kicked Malfoy in the groin. Pain unlike any other Malfoy had experienced before went through his body forcing him to double over on to his knees. She followed through by punching his face once and just when he opened his mouth to scream in pain she put her wand tip right inside his mouth.

" I don't know about you Malfoy..." said Hermione with an evil smile, "... but I've always wandered what would happen if I released a jet of hot water inside a person's mouth. If you don't want the find out, I suggest you leave the compartment immediately."

The other four Slytherins were too shocked to do anything. They were afraid that Hermione was going to turn her attention to them soon. When she didn't and walked away with her back fully turned towards them Harry could see their tiny brains thinking if they should attack Hermione from the back. But they forgot all about it when they saw the look on Harry's face. They knew about the incident with the Nundu.

Between the two of them, they had just enough intelligence to know that they should not mess with the friends of a person who had single-handedly took on one of the most ferocious creatures in the magical world and lived to talk about it. Crabbe and Goyle walked up to Draco's body, which was still writhing from the kick in the groins after a full minute and dragged it out of the compartment.

Ron was very surprised at how Hermione handled herself. Harry let go of Ron, who decided he wanted to complement Hermione on her performance. " Wow that was good. I never knew you -" But Ron was cut off by Harry.

" How come you didn't hurt him worse? I mean you could have had made him pay... with all you know you could have had him on a hospital bed for most of the year" said Harry who was puzzled at the situation.

" If I did that you know they would have had expelled me... hello! So how did you two like my performance?"

Ron answered first, " As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by Harry here..." he pointed at Harry, " ... That was very great. Er... What was all that about you knowing enough to put Malfoy in hospital for rest of the year?"

Harry and Hermione explained that this year in light of the dark lord coming back to power the headmaster had arranged it so that students could learn Septanic Dueling. He told them how they had seen the first day of the games and how they practiced moves at night (missing the part about being in astral projection). Hermione took over the conversation after this part and explained that Harry had a nightmare regarding the beast and how they warned the ministry. Ron asked Harry to take over the story when Hermione continuously referred to You-Know-Who as Voldemort. This was a new horrific development for Hermione. Once they came to the part about the battle Harry stopped talking. Hermione took the hint and asked Harry, " So... You didn't answer my question before."

" Which one?" asked Harry.

" How did you two like my performance?"

" Same as always... bland and dull," said Harry, with a mischievous smile on his face. He was teasing.

Hermione tried to punch him in the stomach in retaliation to his comments but Harry sidestepped her, causing her to miss and hit Ron instead. Ron wasn't expecting anything like that and as such absorbed the full impact of the punch. "OOOF" he cried. Harry on the other hand was expecting this and took counter measures. So when Hermione threw the second punch Harry grabbed her arm and bent it on her back using one hand and trapping her other hand by wrapping his other arm around her arm and waist. " Tsk..tsk." said Harry whispering into her ears. " Hermione you really didn't think I was going to fall for the same trick again. Did you?"

" Hey what are you guys talking about?" asked Ron who was still patting his stomach after the punch. He had heard Harry whisper something but didn't really catch what was said. Harry turned to Ron and replied.

" You see in the Holidays when Mr. Pasha gave us Dueling lessons she'd always hit me when I wasn't on my guard. I think beating up boys has become almost as much fun for her as studying... "

Hermione blushed a little. It was partly true... for some strange reason it was fun for her when she fought boys...well actually beat the living daylights out of them. Hermione did notice that the adrenaline rush when she beat up Malfoy was nowhere as high as she usually felt when she was fighting Harry. Harry's quick recovery power meant that her beatings were actually less effective so she could always fight him without holding anything back, knowing he would take it all in his stride... well take it better than most people. A girl she may be, but a pushover she wasn't.

" Yeah... well if you guys weren't so soft then I wouldn't....” Harry pushed her arm further up making her arm hurt. “ aow..aow...". She had to arch her back to lessen the pain from the new position. Harry wanted this banter fight to keep going but he felt himself getting weaker and as such decided that he would pick it up when he was feeling better. " You really shouldn't say things like that, love. I'll let you go, but promise me you'll not hit either one of us again for the trip."

" Ok." Replied Hermione a little too quickly.

Harry should have been more careful when she agreed so quickly... too quickly, but he didn't. She turned around quickly to punch him on his face but Harry moved his head back on reflex and she missed him. Since Hermione hadn't positioned her body properly she lost balance when she missed the punch and Harry had to grab her to save her from hitting the floor. " You OK." Asked Ron as he extricated her from Harry's arms.

Harry had quite enough of the fight and said, " Are you quite done, Hermione?... because I really need to rest after the long trip..." The rest of the comment was mumbled. Though Hermione and Ron managed to pick up that it was something to do with three spells and a carpet not being a carpet. Hermione and Ron dismissed those comments as ramblings of a weakened wizard.

Five minutes later when Harry was asleep on one of the long seats. Hermione sat down next to his head and lifted his neck up to slide her leg underneath his head. Harry's face before this point looked to be restless but once she started to stroke his hair, he seemed to relax. What she was doing was similar to what her mother had done, when Hermione was grieving for her best friend.

Ron saw this, but said nothing to indicate either his jealousy or anger towards Harry for being the center of attention from the girl that he liked. Neither Hermione nor Ron spoke to each other even when they shared sweets. Hermione kept some to give to Harry when he woke up.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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17. Winking at Potter

Chapter Number: 17
Chapter Name: Winking at Potter

Harry woke up to find himself inside the horse-less carriage. He was a bit surprised to see that he was sleeping on Hermione's lap with her hand in his hair. ‘ Hagrid must have put me in here’ thought Harry. He tried to move his head slightly so he wouldn't wake up Hermione. But he need not have had worried about it since Hermione was actually awake. " You're awake!" said Hermione.

" Sorry..." Harry looked apologetic, " I woke you.."

" Don't worry. I wasn't asleep.." she started to fumble in her pocket for something. After about a seconds she found what she was looking for. They were sweets that Hermione had saved for Harry. Harry was ravished and welcomed anything edible... even if it was an every flavored bean. Though the first one tasted like 'rust' Harry ate it anyway. He noticed that Ron was on the other side of the carriage and was sleeping.

" How long have we been in the carriage?" he asked curious to find out how much longer to his home... the castle. " Hagrid just put you in here. You really were tired weren't you?"

" Yeah. The journey from Morocco... well it was long."

" Are you still tired?" she asked, very concerned.

" No. I'm fine now... Thanks for saving these for me." Harry noticed that Hermione was crying silently and his heart stopped.

" What happened, love? Did Malfoy comeback after I went to sleep... 'cause I'll kill tha-" Harry was interrupted by Hermione when she grabbed on to his mid section and started to whimper. Harry hesitantly place his hand on her head and started to caress it. He managed to pick up the reason why he was so upset through all her sobbing. "... its okay, love. I'm not dead and I'm not going anywhere."

" You don't know what it was like, “ she sobbed, “ I thought you were dead. I...I wanted to go and look for you but I couldn't. People wouldn't let me. By the time I woke up... they found that body and everyone thought..." she didn't finish the sentence before she broke down again.

" Hermione listen to me." He forcibly lifted up face from his chest and made her look into his eyes. " The reason Voldemort wants me dead is because he knows I'm supposed to defeat him. That means I will. Have faith." Hermione took comfort in his words and clamed herself down. She let go of his mid section and compose herself on the seat. Harry wasn’t as confident about what he had just said, as he might have had appeared to Hermione. He severely doubted every word, but he didn’t want Hermione to be overly concerned about him. And if he kept her at peace with a few false words, he would be willing to do that.

" I will." Said Hermione solemnly.

They talked a little bit more for about two minutes before Ron finally woke up. " Hey Ron... How is going?"

" Fine." Answered Ron with a sharp edge in the voice. It was quite obvious to Ron and Harry though, Hermione didn't see the harsher connotations to his voice. Hermione passed him some of the sweets that she had kept for Harry.

"Thanks" said Ron when he took them. Though Ron was still jealous and angry with Harry for getting affection from Hermione, he completely forgot about it when Harry asked about Ron's holidays. " Hey Ron. I didn't get to ask you what happened at he burrow in the summer. How's everyone and how come I didn't see Fred and George?"

" Well... It's like this. Ludo Bagman gave back the thousand Galleons that he owed them and they wanted to set-up shop in Hogsmede. Mom wouldn't let them unless they get top grades so the entire summer they have been studying."

" So that's why I didn't see them..." said Harry but Ron quickly interrupted his friend.

" You won't believe how hard they have been studying. Mom's now scared that they'll get good marks and set-up shop, when they could just as easily take up good positions in the ministry. Did you hear about Percy..." Harry nodded a no. " You know Percy got a promotion right?...No...Ok. Percy was under suspicion because he didn't recognize that his boss was under the imperious curse so they gave him a demotion and made him an assistant to the Moroccan Ambassador." Harry was pretty sure that Ron had paused for drama.

" The Ambassador was so pleased with Percy's work he tripled Percy's salary and since then puts all the money into the family finances. Look all my books and clothes" Harry for the first time noticed that Ron was wearing very good quality clothes. "Everything brand new. Including..."

Harry didn't want to hear Ron go on and on about his new things so he interrupted by asking about rest of the family. " What about Bill and Charlie?"

" Charlie's only been to our house three or four times in the holidays, but Bill was a different case altogether. He's been there almost every other day. He stops by talks to dad about things before he leaves after dinner. Dad won't tell us what he's discussing with him. But I think it had something to do with You-Know-Who being back. There is something..." and Ron for the next fifteen minutes gave very detailed account of what all the Weasley's been up to.

Though they were amongst the very first few people to arrive Harry and Co. decided they didn't want Harry to be mauled by people so they stayed in their carriage for a long time until the other students had already filed in.

" Well. If we're any late we'll miss the whole thing." said Harry looking back and forth between his two best friends.

" Yeah! All the food...." Ron started to say but stopped himself when he saw Hermione glaring at him. " er -I mean I can't wait till we start studying again." Ron ended the sentence in a sarcastic note, but Hermione mistook that for a genuine comment.

" Oh. Ron! First Harry starts studying and Now you! Oh! I don't think this year can't get any better." said Hermione beaming. Ron knew the comment he had made was sarcastic but when he heard the praise he quickly forgot that Harry even existed. Hermione said something next that wiped his happiness away and replaced it with childish envy. "... Oh! No it can" she clapped her hands like a six year old child at a circus. " This Sunday I have a date with Victor. Victor is coming all the way from Bulgaria... just to see me. Can you believe it?"

Ron showed remarkable self-restraint when he didn't blow his top off at the name of Victor Krum, the famous Quidditch player and current boyfriend of Hermione Granger. Harry was surprised at how calm Ron was at Victor's name but he didn't say anything as he suspected Ron of liking Hermione as more than a friend. Harry jumped into the conversation, just to make sure Hermione's ongoing description of how good Victor was didn't make Ron loose his cool. " Let go inside."

The whole room was buzzing like crazy as people tried to catch up on their holidays. Surprisingly enough people had forgotten about Harry's big entrance at the train station. But it all changed the moment he emerged from the shadow of the main entrance's archway.

The room went very silent and Harry half expected that the whole hall would come and try to talk to him. But much to his relief no one came. Then suddenly the whole hall burst into conversation again but this time the sole conversation topic was "Harry". He could pick up bits of talking as he headed for the Gryffindor table. " ...can you see those scars...his arm... look at those muscles... when did he get so big...he apparated... with a magical creature... he must be a very strong wizard... his children would be very strong too.." the last stray comment made Harry's cheeks flush a bit.

Majority of the girls including those that were two years older were staring at his half naked body. His shredded cloak only covered his shoulder and a bit more. The three long scar marks on his flat stomach were only evidence of the battle with the Nundu that Harry had and it was visible to all. Harry's body wasn't rippling with muscles but it wasn't skin and bones either. Strict diet at the Dursley's coupled with three years of Quidditch and a lot of hard work over the summer at the Granger's had ensured his body was good enough to be envied by most of the male student population of Hogwarts. The fact that almost all the girls were openly ogling at him like he was the perfect male specimen only added to that.

Ogling was one thing that Harry could tolerate considering that he was just beginning to get used to the staring, well, much more than he was able to in his fourth year. But nothing in those years prepared him for prepared him for what was to come next.

After the girls had seen enough... well if they wanted to see anymore they would need to get him to a more private place, they started to wink at him. Harry took a step back when he realized that there were at least fifty witches winking at him. Most of the girls were third year and up while there were quite a few seventh years in that group.

But that wasn't what surprised and horrified Harry. No it was the idea of being winked at by Professor Nina Hawthorn who taught gnome psychology and some other subject’s that Harry didn’t know about that made him feel almost nauseous.

Harry though for a moment thought that Alicia Spinet the head girl (he’d seen the shiny badge) was looking at him, though unlike most of the girls when she saw Harry had seen her, she blushed and returned talking to George. As much of a surprise as it was to catch her looking at him he was literally stumped to see that some of the better looking Slytherin girls, as well as a few steely faced ones were winking at him too. Some of the girl’s weren’t just winking too – some of their eyes were suggestive enough to make Harry's throat go dry.

Harry reasoned that the new development could have two reasons. One, the girls were under order to seduce Harry and then kill him... or something even more terrifying... Not everyone in Slytherin was like Draco. As much as Harry wanted to believe that all the Slytherins were bad his mind kept telling him that Snape had been a good friend of his mother for a long time – when her own house was against her.

Harry took a quick seat between Hermione and a very excited Parvati. If Harry had thought that he was going to escape the staring of the girls just by sitting down at the table he was mistaken. They kept their eyes firmly focused on Harry until Professor McGonagall brought in the new first years amongst loud applause by all the houses.

[Insert stupid sorting hat song here]

"Abenine, Nikki" said Professor McGonagall when the song was finished with an explosion of clapping. All in all, there as a total of twenty six new Gryffindors, twenty new Ravenclaws, seventeen Hufflepuffs and only ten new Slytherins. Harry couldn't help but think that the shortage in the number of Slytherins was related to Voldemort coming back from the dead and their plan to invade the school pretty soon.

After the sorting the headmaster stood up and said, " Welcome students and staff to another glorious year at Hogwarts. This is for those of you who are new and a reminder for those who have been here before. Voldemort is back. The Dark lord is back. " Few of the first years looked terrified while others from muggle houses were clueless. " Tell your friends and families that. You may want to leave the school in fear that it will the first place he attacks, well you would be right. But I believe that would be a mistake. Hogwarts stood its ground when the dark wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders himself, attacked the school."

‘ That's right... He tried for a week to gain access, finally giving up and kidnapping a muggle child in an attempt to bring Gryffindor out of his fortress and face him.’ thought Harry as he remembered the information from "Hogwarts: A history".

Harry chanced a glance at Cho Chang. Cho looked sad at Professor Dumbledore's words. Harry could see the hatred in her for Voldemort rise up. Harry quickly looked away. Harry had a crush on Cho since his first year, but when her boyfriend died partly because of him. Harry gave up all aspiration of getting involved with her. He would only remind her of the terrible tragedy that she suffered and he couldn't bear to see her in pain, or anyone else for that matter.

" The forbidden forest is still forbidden as the name implies and homework is still mandatory. In light of this new situation all students from year second year up are required to take part in Dueling classes at least once a week. Now we have two new teachers amongst us. Firstly I would like you to welcome Professor Ali Pasha from the Ministry of Morocco. He will be teaching Dueling." The hall was filled with reserved claps. They were expecting someone who looked like Gildroy Lockheart a phony teacher. When Ali Pasha came to view of the students most of them took a shine to him. His face was welcoming and understanding. The level of applause doubled by the time he sat down.

" I would also like you to welcome Percy Weasley, Professor Ali Pasha's liaison officer to the British Ministry of Magic." They saw Percy come to the podium and stand next to Ali Pasha. "...As some of you might remember he was the head boy in his time and it's always nice to see an old student return." There was a polite amount of claps for Percy though Gryffindor made a huge deal out it and started to do cat calls and whistle.

" It seems the next part of the speech has become part of the opening day speech and it looks like it'll be no different next year. We have a new Defence against Dark Arts teacher." Professor Dumbledore then said, " You may remember her from last year. She was one of the contestants for the TriWizard Tournament competition. Though she does not have as much experience with the field as some of our other teachers before, I believe she is a great replacement. She has only agreed to teach for a year, before she starts her new job as the head of Marine creatures and Regulations department for the Ministry of Magic."

Harry was surprised when Ron asked, " Harry, do you know who it is?" It was a stupid question and Harry knew it, but he also knew why Ron asked that question. He was hungry. Before Harry could say anything there was a lot of applause as the part-Veela woman made her way to the teacher's table from the anteroom. Unlike Ron the rest of the male population in Hogwarts remembered Fleur Delacour was the only female competitor in the tournament.

Harry was surprised that Ron didn't get whiplash from how quickly he turned his face back to the teachers table. " Let me introduce Professor Fleur Delacour" Ron and half the male population of Hogwarts were totally mesmerized as she took to the teachers table and sat down next to Professor Snape.

" Ron... I think you better turn the other way. I don't think there is enough holes in this room to drain the amount of saliva coming out of your mouth." said Harry teasing Ron who paid absolutely no attention to his friend.

‘ If he doesn't stop looking at Fluer, he can kiss any chance he has with Hermione goodbye.’ thought Harry when he saw Hermione's face contorted with anger or was it fury. So Harry was glad when he heard the headmaster say, "Lets eat".

Ron's love for food was almost as much as his lust towards Fleur. Ron struggled with his lust for the part Veela woman and food that he enjoyed more than anything in the world. It was a bit funny to see Ron take a bite, look at Fleur and then go back to eating when he saw Hermione grimacing at him, only to repeat it after half a minute.

Half way through the dinner Harry spat out what he was eating when he felt a hand on his shoulder, showering Ginny and Colin who were sitting next to each other on the other side of the table with half eaten, half chewed and not chewed at all bits of food. It didn't look as though either of them actually minded the shower of food. It turned out to be Professor McGonagall. She leaned closer to Harry's ear and said, " The Headmaster wishes to speak with you when you are done putting the first years back in their dorm rooms. The password to the office is 'tooth cavity'."

Harry gave a solemn nod, and went back to eating.

Alicia kept eyeing Harry all throughout the feast. He caught her several times looking at him with an expression that he had associated more with Ron's sister, Ginny. So it was a relief when Professor McGonagall finally signaled the prefects to take their charges to their new habitats. Alicia Spinet and Hermione took the first year girls and headed towards the Gryffindor common room, following closely behind them was Harry and the first year boys. The boys didn't make a pip as they headed for their destination. Halfway to their destination Harry started to walk slower before coming to a full stop.

He turned around to see that the boys had stopped as well. He walked back and forth once, like a sergeant inspecting his troops before a drill. He spoke. " By the looks on your faces, I can see all of you belong to Gryffindor. I'm going to give you a few words of advice that'll help you though the year."

" Number one, in potions Professor Snape is your teacher. He has a very old grudge against the Gryffindors, so expect him to pick on you. He'll be hard on you. That's probably an understatement like Volde… I mean You-Know-Who is bad." Several of the boys shivered at the name but a few, Harry assumed muggleborn, didn't react all. " You have two days till your classes actually start and I suggest you spend the time wisely going over the potions book lightly. It might not be much fun, but it would mean less points being taken off the house."

" Second piece of advice. Watch out for Slytherins. Not everyone from that house is bad but most are." Harry emphasized the word most. He didn’t want to prejudice their minds the other way so early, but he thought they could do with a bit of information.

" Third. If you see some one getting picked on, for any reason, stand up and say something. Even if it’s a Slytherin getting picked on. Help him. You're Gryffindors and that's what this house does."

" I reserved the last advice for you because it's the most important. 'NEVER EVER EAT, DRINK OR LISTEN TO WHAT THE TWINS SAY'. They'll play tricks on you at any chance they get...OK! Now that I have finished my big brotherly speech...any question?"

A timid looking boy put his hand up and asked, " Are you Harry Potter?"

" Yes" the timid looking boy's eyes went as big as saucers. Harry thought, for a moment he had another Collin type situation on his hands but was happy when the boy turned his attention to a portrait on the wall.

" Can we see your scar?" asked another boy who reminded Harry of Draco. Harry could see from the smug expression on his face, he didn't believe that the famous Harry Potter would be wearing such bad clothing. It really wasn't possible to see Harry's scar anymore since in the time he had spent in Morocco his hair had grown covering up the scar unless he moved his hair out of the way.

" No you may not." The reply was swift and cold. " I do not like being stared at for something I did when I was one year old. How would you like it if everyone started to stare at you because you used to take a dump in your nappy when you were one year old."

All the first years laughed at his joke. The boy's smug expression was wiped and was replaced with a blushed face and an embarrassed grin. " OK lets go".

Once they were at the portrait he explained how the door worked. He also explained that the password is changed every two weeks. He explained that keeping the password written form had allowed once a dangerous criminal to enter it. Just before he came to the stairs that led to the boys dorms he pointed at the girls dorm door and said, " I haven't had the pleasure of going in there, yet - That's the way it's supposed to be. If you get caught in there you'll get expelled immediately. That's if you're lucky to escape the girls trying to kill you. Now follow me single file and I'll let you choose your own beds."

As soon as the boys found their way onto the room, a small scuffle broke out as the boys had some trouble deciding who got which bed. It was terribly fun for Harry to see the timid looking boy jump at the Draco clone. He broke the fight by giving the bed to a boy with an Afro.

When it was all finished, he went into the common room to see that all the other levels had finally finished with their feast and were now enjoying a little chitchat. Harry surrounded himself in an illusion spell to disguise himself as the timid looking boy. Harry knew he could only keep the spell going for a few seconds so he ran through the incoming crowd and went into one of secret passageways that finished very close to where the gargoyle to the headmaster's office was.

" Oof" cried Harry when he bumped into something in the passageway. Actually this something was a person and if Harry was right it was a girl. " What's the meaning of this? Get off me you jerk" said the girl.

Harry recognised the voice, ‘ It was Ginny!’ thought Harry before he said, " Lumos", as he got off her. In the dim light of his wand Harry found Ginny, flat on the ground. He picked her up by bending his arm into a hook and sliding it behind her back. He brought the tip if the wand closer to her face to examine it more closely and he saw the mortified look on her face. Harry realized why when he saw that she wasn't alone in there some one was behind her. It was... Collin Creevy!

" Harry! Oh! Blimey!... er... I can explain" said Ginny. Even in the dim light Harry could see her face turn red enough to almost blend in with the darkened passageway. A color that her own brother acquired when he realized that Hermione's bra was on his face.

" You don't have to explain anything... I know nothing. I saw nothing. " said Harry, as quickly went back to going towards his destination.

Right after the conversation Harry started to move. It was a fair few minutes before he was out of the passageway. Once there Harry started to laugh and cry at the same time. Ginny and Collin couple was a very funny one, but thinking about how obsessive their children could be with himself, he was genuinely concerned. Their children are bound to be even more obsessed with him then either of their parents. When he finally composed himself he walked up to the gargoyle and uttered, "tooth cavity". The gargoyle came to life and jumped out of the doorway. Harry went up the spiral steps and waited until he heard the distinctive voice of the professor calling him. " Come in Harry."

Harry looked around the room and was surprised to see that nothing had changed. Harry knew not what the topic of conversation was about so he started towards the seat that the Professor had motioned toward. In midway the Professor came up to him and rather uncharacteristically hugged Harry. " Thank you. Thank you for saving Melina's life."

" You know her?” asked Harry.

" My Niece, to be exact."

" How is she doing now? I mean I haven't seen her for years now. How's Shano doing?"

" They're all fine. I wanted to make sure I got all the facts of the event of the last few days straight." With that the Professor started to tell what he thinks happened and Harry corrected as he went along. After their talk was finished he told Harry that he had brought the trunk and his books and other things from Morocco and he also told Harry to hide his chest well until when it was time. They both knew the meaning of the words, but to anyone who wasn't in on the secret it would have had appeared to be cryptic.

When Harry was back in the common room, everyone had gone to sleep. He tried going to sleep in his bed but after about an hour struggling to sleep in the soft... too soft... bed he gave up and decided to sleep on the long couch that he knew had hard seats. Sleep came very soon to him. Harry wanted to try to do astral projection but even getting out of his body proved to be a challenge. So he decided that the next time he wasn't so tired he was going to try and get back to using his powers. There was just too many centuries of residual magic in the air, and to get past that he would need to do a lot more training, testing and bit of luck – and the results would definitely be better, if he wasn’t so tired.

Hermione hadn’t seen Harry come in and was terribly disappointed that he hadn’t said a good night to her. She didn’t wait up for him though. She wanted to get an early start the next day. There was a lot of reading to be done, and she wanted to see what new books were in the library. In the middle of the night, she however woke up. After several attempts to go back to sleep, she decided to go to the common room and read through her new favorite book.

" Quidditch throughout the ages".

To be exact it was Harry’s " Quidditch throughout the ages" book. She had memorized the book in the days after she had thought Harry was dead. Reading it cover to cover, it had given her the feeling that Harry was still there with her. She hadn’t returned the book to Harry yet.

When she emerged from the doorway she could see, Harry snuggled up near the fire on the long couch. She went and sat down in front of the fire, leaning her back to the front of the couch. Hermione didn't make it to the fifth page before the sleeping fairy paid her a visit.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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Some Historical things:

Originally at one point in this chapter, I had a author note. It went like this >> “ (A/N: Sorry to burst the bubble for all you Ginny/Neville or Ginny/Draco .... ewe ...well it’s better than Draco/Hermione.... fans out there but making Draco good would require me to change the law of universe... I really don't have to explain my self to you...er... sorry I'll stop yelling now. ** Author makes a sly comment under his breath **)”

Compare that to the fact that I’ve now become a D/G fan, and you get an idea on how people change in the fandom over time.

18. The Dueling Demonstration

Chapter Number: 18
Chapter Name: The Dueling Demonstration

Harry was the first to wake up in the morning. Saturday was his usual “sleeping in” day but for some reason he woke up early that day. The wake up itself was very nice. All night long he had smelled vanilla & spice and when he awoke he saw the source. Hermione's head was in front of his nose and he had smelled her conditioner. As he was absentmindedly admiring her locks of frizzy hair, a thought sent him scrambling off the couch. ‘ What would people think if they came in now... more importantly what would Ron think...’ thought Harry, panicking before realizing that it was just before six o'clock in the morning and the likelihood of anyone being awake was the same as Snape giving the Gryffindors a hundred points.

He decided that the best course of action was to wake up Hermione.

" Hermione. Hermione wake up." He said gently to her ear.

" No daddy. I don't want to go to kindy today" She chewed on some of her own saliva making some noises before saying, " No kindy please..."

Harry chuckled at the thought that Hermione actually ever not wanting to go to school. It was impossible to believe considering how much she enjoyed doing her homework. ‘ She probably slept here all night... I better put her in bed.’

He gently picked her off the ground and headed for the girls' dorm. It didn't take him long to find the room that Hermione shared with others of the same year. He just looked for a room that was clean but also had a lot of books and an empty bed.

Fortunately for Harry the door was open and that none of the girls were awake yet or so he thought. There was a solitary figure in the shadows that he had missed. He put her down on the bed and tucked her in and left her a note before quietly leaving the room.

When the warm noon sun finally streamed through the window of the dorm and onto the face of Hermione, she was surprised to wake up in her own bed. Not only that but she was also tucked nicely inside her favorite blanket featuring a flying book and a small girl chasing after it. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out how she had ended up in her own room, but the answer came when she found a small note on her bed written in Harry's unmistakably shoddy penmanship.

Hey Hermione,

You really shouldn't have gone to sleep like that... I mean... Do you know how hard it was for me to carry someone as heavy as you... I'm joking. I could have been expelled for putting you back in the bed. Not that I minded going in there. All those girls and only in their cute little pajamas...

Harry

P/S: I tried "moonwalking" but failed miserably. I can hardly believe mom ever did this. The pain was there almost before I could get out.

Hermione knew for security they had to call his now powers his original stupid name. Having grown up in a muggle orphanage, they were sure Tom Riddle would know what the muggle term Astral Projection was – it was Hermione’s idea to do this. She had thought that their communication should be as vague as possible when they weren’t talking to each other.

Hermione couldn't help but grin at the note. Harry had acquired an unusual sense of humor in the summer and she suspected it had something do with the two days he was missing. ‘ Why does he seem older,’ thought Hermione for the third time after she had found him alive. Her heart was buzzing with excitement, when she thought of all the cookie adventures the three of them would be having that year.

After a quick shower she headed down stairs wearing a shirt that she had "removed (without the permission of the owner)" from Harry's trunk after she thought he had died. When she reached the landing she saw Harry jog into the common room in his light blue T-shirt and swimming togs that Dudley had abandoned several years earlier. The room was empty except for those two. Hermione couldn't wait to talk to him when Ron came crashing through the portrait hole and collapsed on the floor in front of Harry's feet.

" Hey! Ron you ok, Buddy" asked Harry, kneeling down to the floor, with genuine concern in his voice.

" Yeah...I..'m...just...a...litt..le... tired." Ron replied who was still not done with his panting. Ron had agreed to go running with his friend in the hopes that when Harry gets all the attention from the girls, he'll get some as well. But all the girls it seemed had either forgotten about Harry or just weren't interested that day. Though Alicia had jogged with them for about an hour before she had to go to the meeting of the Quidditch captains to organize that years Quidditch games.

" Well, you need to get in shape for..." Harry stopped when he saw Hermione come down the stairs in slightly loose denim trouser and very nice white shirt that she wore with the bottom part tied in a knot in front of her.

‘ Wow! She looks great...’ thought Harry, very uncharacteristically, until he saw that she was wearing his only piece of muggle clothing he had ever bought for himself. ‘ HeY! That's the shirt I bought from Harrad’s! So that's where it went to...’

He debated whether or not to tell her something in regards to her appearance but decided against it as Ron was there. When Harry stopped talking in mid sentence Ron looked up to see the cause. Ron's mind stopped working for a moment before he recovered saying, " You look ...err... nice Hermione."

Hermione waited a few seconds for Harry to say something but when he didn't she said rather curtly, " Thanks. At least one of you have the decency to say so."

Harry quickly caught on to the fact that she had worn the shirt to somehow intimidate him or even worse get a complement out of him. Or at least that's what his brain reasoned. ‘ This could be fun.’

" Are trying to start a fight Ms. Granger?" said Harry in a mock voice that resembled Snape's.

" So what if I am?" retorted Hermione, sounding a bit more serious than Harry had hoped for.

" OK... You name the time and place" said Harry.

Ron was surprised at how easily his two best friends were going at each other's throats just because of a small matter of Harry not complementing her. " Harry, I think you should apologize and complement her" said Ron taking a side with Hermione.

" I think not!" said Harry indignantly, " If I liked what she was wearing I would have had said so! Denim trousers and a white shirt -ugh."

Hermione lost her slight smile. If Hermione hadn't been so worked up about Harry's comment she would have had remembered that it was Harry's shirt that she was wearing and she could easily deflect the insults to him, but she did not. " You...Youu... I'll get you for that Harry Potter. You wanted to know the time and place? Uh!?"

Harry had never seen Hermione so riled up before and though it was a bit mean of him, he achieved his aim in getting her to have a duel with him. " Great hall. After Lunch. I'll organize it with Mr. Pasha. I'll beat you up in front of the whole school and I won't even get in trouble for it." She stormed out of the room after that.

Ron was very surprised at Harry. He had never seen Harry act like that before toward Hermione except when she had told Professor McGonagall about getting a Firebolt. So it was not a surprise when he asked, " What was that about?... Oh! Don't tell me... It's that time of the month again isn't it?"

" Ron. Don't be jerk." Reprimanded Harry for using such a crude expression.

" It's like this.... You know how me and her got taught the Dueling techniques right..." he waited for Ron to nod. " Did you know she did Martial Arts for three year.. THREE YEARS .. before coming to Hogwarts? She also knows a hell of a lot more spells than I did when we practiced. Those two facts combined are a very bad thing. Well, I had to find that out when we practiced together. I was the one getting physically beaten up... I got her good on spells but only three times I managed to hit her physically. I think I can beat her now and this is my chance to get some of my dignity back."

" You do realize if you loose to her that your reputation will be gone." said Ron.

" If I lose, then I deserved to lose and you should know by now the only people's opinion I gave a damn about is you, Hermione, Sirius and Professor Dumbledore. Well, any way... we need to grab a shower and something tells me its' going to be a long weekend either way."

When Hermione mentioned to Ali Pasha and offered to do a Dueling match to help increase the number of participants he was sold on the idea. For the next half an hour the rumor spread around the school that there would be a Dueling match to get students to signup to more than one class of Dueling. Harry ate very little since too much food had a way of making him sleepy. Ron on the other hand had no such compunction; in the middle of his late lunch the plates vanished leaving him very hungry. Ali Pasha stepped in the middle of the tables and loudly cleared his throat bringing silence to the room.

" Ahem. Attention please." When the room noise had died down enough he said, " This year all fourth year and up”, Hermione made a gesture of “two” from where she was, to say that it was second year and up. “ Excuse me, second year and up, are required to take Dueling as a subject at least once a week. With the darklord back in power it's advised that you take it three times a week and as an elective on the weekends as a club type activity. Now, I have taught two students amongst you already a few of the basic moves. The technique is more of a way of thinking than anything else. It teaches you to understand how best to use physical attacks with the magical ones. It's been part of the Moroccan wizarding culture for over a thousand years, though the revival of the technique was during the Shozar wars some thirteen years ago." He paused to see general reaction of the crowd. He could see the students were interested when everyone came closer.

" Now I ask the participants to come up and demonstrate. Harry. Hermione."

The pair made their way to where Ali Pasha was. Surprisingly no one clapped or cheered. They were all too anxious to see what would happen. Most of them had seen the disaster at Lockhart’s attempt at starting a Dueling club was. When he clapped his hands and all the tables disappeared. He then snapped his fingers and Harry and Hermione's clothes changes into more appropriate loose fitting clothes. They bowed to each other and took out their wands.

" Begin" said Ali Pasha. Harry opted to take a stance that he knew, but it was unfamiliar to both Ali Pasha and Hermione. Hermione though surprised recovered quickly.

She yelled " Impedimenta", hitting squarely on his body. Since she was very close to Harry she decided to try a high kick on his face but Harry surprised her by grabbing her ankle in mid air and turning her body a full 360 degrees before letting go. Hermione fell to the floor with a loud thud, but she was back on her feet very soon since Harry tried no counter attack. Harry just grinned.

Again Hermione assumed the role of aggressor. She yelled, " Moms serkia" and a blinding while exploded in front of Harry's face. The light temporarily blinded Harry, surprisingly enough the spell only worked on the person it was aimed at. Hermione followed through by tripping Harry. She then locked Harry in the same position as she had done before in Morocco – the one that she knew Harry couldn’t get out of.

Hermione managed to elbow Harry five times in the face before Harry could see again. When a small treacle of blood came out of his lips Harry saw Hermione regret written all over her face for hitting him too many times.

‘ Don't think that way Hermione. You can't think that way when you're fighting... Well I'll just have to piss you off now don't I,’ thought Harry, as he threw Hermione of him the same way he had done when they were in Morocco.

" You have to do a lot better than that Hermione." Teased Harry, as he wiped away the blood from his lips. Hermione didn't like to be teased and she forgot ever regretting hitting him too many times. So when Hermione went full force all of a sudden the whole room let out a collective gasp. She knew from experience before Harry didn't get hurt as much in his mid-section so she had to target his groin and upper torso.

After three minutes of intense attack she managed to land one good spell on Harry. Harry was fast and he managed to avoid all her physical attacks. Realizing Harry had been trying to make her tired from the beginning she went into a defensive stance. But the defensive stance makes you wait for the other person to hit you. Harry did no such thing. Harry was still trying to off balance Hermione. Harry started to circle her. After a few nerve wracking seconds (for Hermione), Harry did something she hadn't seen before or read about, which by it self was a big achievement.

He yelled, ' Illuoi Mulcast'. Suddenly Harry's clones surrounded her... thirteen to be exact. Though trivial in terms of use it was a very complicated spell and only handful of people knew how to do it since it requires a lot of metal focus to do it. Ali Pasha, gave a knowing smile at that as he knew of only one other person who could do it and that was during the Shozar Wars and that was done by none other than that man who brought about the end of the war. She tried desperately to see which one was the real one when they all spoke making the whole room reverberate with the combined voice of the thirteen Harry Potters.

" Confusing isn't it?"

Hermione though she found which of the clones was the real one but before she could attack it all the clones disappeared leaving only one right behind her. Harry tapped on her shoulder and said, " Tag. You're it".

The room filled with laughter as they realized Harry was just teasing her. Hermione was furious, at Harry for treating the demo a game, though she knew it was a result of a “fight” between them. She started to run after him, causing the great hall to be filled with laughter again. Then she got a brilliant idea to cast a 'quick' spell on herself.

For the next few seconds she was almost a blur as she moved faster than the eye could see properly. When she caught him, she pummeled his face and groin area with punches, elbows and hexes. Though the hexes didn't stay long but the blows made him bleed and bruise. Hermione wasn't the only one who hit the other one during those blurring few seconds. Harry managed to give her some of her own medicine, when he blocked several of her attacks using moves that she had taught him and then retaliating with his own blows. But since she had the head start by the time the 'quick' spell wore off Harry fell to the floor.

" Ha..ha.. Potter getting beaten up by a girl" said Malfoy who had forgotten that the same girl had rendered him useless on the train the day before. " Shut up, Malfoy. I'm concentrating.", said one of the 6th year prefects from Ravenclaw who held his wand tip right to Malfoy's nose.

When Harry fell to the floor after the beating he almost lost grip on his wand. Which would have had meant that he was defeated. His male ego told him it was time he stopped playing. He stood up and cast a spell on himself. It was too low to be heard by anyone else. "Stupefy" yelled Hermione as a bright blue beam of light sizzled through the air before bouncing off something invisible very close to Harry's body. The stray spell went right through the invisible shield that Ali Pasha had erected and hit Draco Malfoy. Draco flew through the air and hit the wall right behind him. Professor Snape, realizing the invisible shield was too weak since the amount of area it covered was relatively large, got Professor McGonagall to join him to set-up shielding charms.

When Hermione saw the stunning curse just bounce off Harry's shield she decided to try the biggest and most powerful legal curse she could do. She yelled, "Aureus Incendio" (meaning golden Flame). Her entire body was engulfed in yellow flames until the flames started to move to her wand. She aimed straight at Harry not knowing the full strength of the shielding charm.

Hermione had expected for the curse to go right through the shield, but when the spell was cast she quickly realized that Harry's strategy had worked. She was too weak to do the spell at full power. ‘ Should be enough though,’ thought Hermione as she put everything she had into it.

Hermione was wrong... but not by very much. When the bright yellow beam reached the shield Harry had no idea, what it was. He felt his shielding charm weaken and collapse behind him. Harry redirected his powers to the front of the shield barely managing to hold on. If Hermione had put an ounce more of her magic in it Harry would have had been consumed by the yellow flame.

When the shielding charm finally managed to deflect the blast it headed back to Hermione. Hermione didn't have enough strength to move out of the way of the bright yellow beam so she resigned herself to think that for the next few days she would be in the hospital wing. Something clicked inside of Harry again, the same way it had when Hermione was under attack from the Nundu. He moved faster than he ever had done before and managed to put himself between the deflected magic beam and Hermione. Hermione saw the beam of light hit Harry on his back and engulfing him from the back in blaze of yellow flames, for his trouble.

He let out a scream that stopped Hermione's heart cold. She knew the flame was an advanced sort of stunning spell that disabled the cursed person for a few seconds but she had no idea that Harry would have had screamed in pain. She couldn't even move to Harry's aid when Harry went to the floor in pain. Her eyes started to well up with tears when....

Amazingly Harry got up and literally shook himself off the pain. He yelled to mainly the crowd who were trying to see what was wrong with Harry, " I'm OK. It's just my ankle. I think I sprained it". Hermione then saw Harry walking towards her with a slight limp.

Harry took only three seconds to literally shake off the advanced stunning spell, which was shocking considering the Aurors used them on deatheaters to disable them for between ten to fifteen seconds. It was as if she put a fork in a muggle toaster while it was on. When they were close she could see he was smiling broadly and it had nothing evil in it. She had expected Harry to come to her and curse her with something really bad but to her surprise he knelt down in front of her and presented his wand to her.

It was a sign of his defeat.

The whole hall cheered. Ali Pasha still had the shield erected so every one wasn't able to rush in there and congratulate them on a fantastic performance.

Harry got up and stood next to her shoulder to shoulder. He leaned his head towards Hermione and said, " I was just joking when I said those things about you in the common room. You did look good... I just wanted to get to rile up so we could have a good fight. I'm sorry." He then turned his body to wards Hermione and said, " You can have my shirt. It looks better on you."

Ali Pasha walked through the three shielding charms and started to speak. " Everyone" The hall went surprisingly quite. "I hope you liked what you saw. If you didn't then think about it this way" he looked around the hall to see if Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape or even Professor Dumbledore was there. Finding no one of authority than himself present he said, "... you'll get to beat up both your friends and enemies and you do it all in the name of learning. Don't you wish all your other subjects were like this too?" in response a thundering cheer went across the room. After he finished he told them to go and see Percy in Ali Pasha's class on Monday morning or in the weekends at lunch times.

Harry's injuries hadn't healed yet, since he didn't want to expose his powers to anyone else yet. Hermione was weak from her last attack and had to be carried by Harry to a table that Professor Pasha made appear out of thin air. Once he put her down, he noticed that she was crying. " What are you crying about now? I said I'm sorry... Look if you want me to go on my hands and knees and beg for your forgiveness..." Harry had started to already go down on his hands and knees when Hermione caught him.

" It's not that... I was just wondering why you took that blast for me?"

" Oh That" said Harry grinning a little, " Well... I was stupid, when I didn't attack you after I did that illusion of my 12 other brothers....". His smile just kept getting bigger. " I didn't think that you should have to spend several days in the hospital and miss all the new things that we're supposed to be learning this year."

There was a hint of blush on her face.

‘ She always gets like this when I say something about her liking school...’ thought Harry as he said, " and all because of me... besides I couldn't risk anyone else." Neither Harry nor Hermione had noticed the other two shielding charm go up after the incident with Malfoy. Hermione knew what Harry meant. If Harry had used the shielding charm someone from the audience would have had been hurt. Then Harry's face went a little serious. " By the way... that was one powerful beam. I almost didn't make back before it hit you... Not to mention it almost went through the shielding charm even though I think it was only half strength. What was it?"

" Golden Flame" smiled Hermione, but that wasn’t all that she did. Her face was blushing the brightest ever at the complement.

" Ahhh.... Was it supposed to be that powerful?"

" Yes. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have done that..." Hermione tried to finish the sentence but she was interrupted by Harry.

" You should be sorry. But-" Harry used his hands to wipe away her tear. "-not because of using a strong attack on me, but for feeling sorry for it. I told you I wanted to become stronger...." Harry broke off when he heard the unmistakable sound of Ron approaching.

It had taken fair lot of shouting on Ron's part to get Ali Pasha's attention, before being allowed through the shield. Ron arrived just in time to hear Harry offer Hermione to heal her wounds. He wondered whether his friend had gone totally Lockheart on him.

" Harry. Are you trying to pull a Lockheart here? You'll do some kind of major damage to her. Let's just take her to the nurse..." he looked at Harry's face to see there were several cuts there too. " You need some attention too."

" No, I'm not trying to be Lockheart. I've actually done it before." Harry was a little snappish when he answered back. " And before you say anything to me about needing to go through three years of training to do it properly. I did it on my self and Hermione lots of times."

Harry didn’t wait for Ron to look astounded before he started to murmur the incantations under his breath. Harry's wand glowed a little before the glow started to stream onto Hermione's face. Ron wasn’t sure if he should be pleased or a bit jealous that Harry could do as he said, when he saw several cuts to Hermione’s face were gone. He saw her face and hands get Goosebumps and her cheeks turn pink, well even more than before. When he saw her grab on to the tabletop and her knuckles turning white, he mistook the action as one for pain, instead of the almost ecstasy that she was feeling.

Ron tackled Harry to the ground stopping the stream and interrupting the flow of the liquid aura. It did come as a very big surprise to Harry, but he didn’t let his mind be clouded with the madness due the sudden attack. " What's the hell is matter with you, Harry? Can't you see she's in pain? Not like Lockheart... My Arse." said Ron in anger.

" Is that what you think?," Harry did not want to laugh but he couldn't stop himself. " Ask her if it hurts?"

After he received injuries at the hand of the Nundu, he tried his hand for the first time at self-healing. This was a lot more complicated than the doing it on someone else, since it required the person to concentrate on two things at once. The way Harry was after his initial fight with the Nundu, he had no choice. He would have had died, if he didn’t try it. It was a lot more difficult since there were three things he had to concentrate on. One, performing the spell. Two, the area where the damage was and three, probably the one that caused most problems, remembering to block the pain.

" Ask her. I saw her grabbing on to the tabletop, like her life depended on it. Her knuckled were white. I don't have to ask her. You have the..." he was interrupted by Hermione in mid sentence.

" Ron..."

" What?", came a snapped reply from Ron, before he realized it was Hermione he was talking to.

Before he could have time to apologize she said, " I wasn't in pain. When he does it the body gets flooded with this tingling sensation. It's actually quite nice. When it happens it's kind of hard to keep control of your body." She blushed once more but neither of the boys could tell since her face was already pink enough as it was.

Ron looked back and forth between his two friends before finally saying, " Oh!"

Before he couldn’t decided between anger and jealousy, but the recent turn of events made the decision very easy for Ron. He was jealous. He was jealous of his friend because he had a talent that would require him to wait for another six years before he would be able to do it as a job. But more importantly because he wasn't the one giving those tingling sensations to Hermione.

Though an apology came out of Ron Weasley's mouth, Harry could see his friend didn't really mean it. Harry decided that he would let Ron get away with it since he had no intention of confronting him about his feelings for Hermione, in front of Hermione and not to mention the whole school. Besides he didn’t want the situation to become like the year before, when Ron did not believe Harry about putting his name in the goblet of fire.

Harry decided that from that point on he was going to be more careful of how he behaved toward Hermione in front of and not in front of Ron. Harry didn't want to loose one of his best friends because Ron was too childish to say how he felt about Hermione or because he thought Harry and Hermione were more than friends. Almost everyone in the school came to shake hands or to pat both Harry and Hermione. Many of the Slytherins actually wanted Hermione's autographs, though it was mainly because she had defeated Harry.

Alicia Spinet waded through the crowd until she was close enough to get Harry's attention. " Harry!" yelled Alicia loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear. Harry started to move towards her. When he reached her she whispered to him, " I need to talk to you after his." Harry wasn't sure what this was about but decided that it was probably about the Quidditch trials. " When?"

" I'll find you before dinner... looks like your public awaits."

Harry though he had seen her blush a little as she left but he wasn't sure why the Headgirl would blush at him. After the match Harry had to politely turn down over a hundred girls asking him to go to the Hogsmede trip with them. Though Harry knew he might have to spend the entire day listening to Ron gripe about Victor and Hermione, he decided that it was better than being gawked at, prodded and pinched at by a million witches he didn't even know. He was sure the events of Morocco would haunt him for a long time to come. More so than his “boy who lived” fame.

For the next five hours Harry had to dodge and evade groups of girls, who thought of Harry's refusal, as a challenge and it was a challenge they all wanted to win. Once he thought he had finally managed to throw the girls off he literally ran into someone....

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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19. Button Chicken and Quill Bread

Chapter Number: 19
Chapter Name: Button Chicken and Quill Bread

When Alicia collided with Harry she completely lost balance, which was rather unusual since chasers usually had an absurd amount of balance. It came in very handy when they had to grab the Quaffle in mid air. Fortunately, Harry was quick enough to grab a hold of her. Before he had a chance to see to whom he had collided with, Harry panicked when he heard the unmistakable sound of the posse of girls chasing him, coming down the corridor. The girls thought of Harry's polite refusal as a challenge that they intended to win. Harry wanting to avoid the girls, quickly shoved Alicia and himself into the closest empty classroom. He locked the door physically and then started to pace. He couldn't think what to do when he remembered a spell he had seen in one of Hermione's personal collection of books.

" benito actrony".

Harry wasn't sure if the spell would work but knew for a fact that the spell could not be broken by a simple unlocking spell. To his enormous relief the door started to blaze in a light blue fire and then the door turned into a wall. It was quite a transformation and Harry was brought out of his trance of watching it when he heard Alicia gasp.

When he turned around he saw Alicia was watching him intently. " I'm sorry... Those girls have been following me around since launch and-" he looked at his watch, " Blime!. It's almost time for dinner-" Harry then stopped his ramblings as he remembered she had something to tell him. " Hey! Didn't you want to talk to me about something?"

Alicia finally stopped staring at him and said, " Well you know Wood is gone this year and the rest of the team suggested that I be the Captain."

" I know... I remember you telling me this in the morning. Congratulations!" said Harry as he went and quickly hugged Alicia. When he let go her cheeks were slightly pink and she had focused her eyes on a particular tile on the floor.

When Harry had first joined the team, that was the first year that Alicia had been out of the reserves and into the playing team. Since that year, she had impressed everyone with her ability as a chaser. She also helped Oliver with the strategies, when he was their captain. She already knew most of the strategies and was probably the best one in the team fit to be captain. So it really didn’t come as a surprise for Harry to hear that she had become the captain.

" Well, I've decided that since I'm leaving next year, I'll teach you the ropes. That way you'll be ready to take over when I leave. That means you're now as involved in this as I am. Well... That's if you want it..." She looked up to see Harry smiling broadly at her.

" Okay." said Harry, " I really don't have any other choice do it -I mean I'm going to be the most experienced player in the team next year...er...What do I have to do?"

" Not much right now. You're going to help me decide on strategies and co-ordinate the practice sessions with me. I had a talk with Madam Hooch and we already sorted out when we have the Quidditch field for our training. The next thing is choosing the new keeper. The trials are next weekend. After that we have practices ev -" She stopped talking when Harry interrupted her.

" Can I suggest something?"

" What?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

" Well... may be we should audition for all the positions." Alicia was a bit surprised at the suggestion so she asked, why he thought that.

" Except for me and possibly the new keeper we have to replace the entire squad next year anyway. The reserve team is going to leave at the end of the year, if we scout out this year we'll be able to have a squad that'll be more experienced. When we train we take them along as well as the reserve side. Maybe after the practice we separate out into two teams and play against each other and then when WE (the main team) have to practice they can practice with the reserve side. This way we'll be able to get some real game type practices."

Alicia was beaming at Harry when he finished, " I knew I made the right decision when I chose you to be the co-captain. Well...maybe we should head out."

Harry looked at the door once and said, " The girls are still there..."

" How do you know?"

" The spell on the door... wait I might be able to channel it to you." Harry stood up and pointed his wand at his left palm and said something that Alicia couldn't hear even though she was very close. A thin red beam hit his palm making it glow with a small red tint.

He presented his hand to her and said, " take it."

Though Alicia was apprehensive to see Harry perform unknown magic, she didn't hesitate to take his hand. As soon as she did, she felt like someone had pulled the world away from her. She felt that way for a second, since everything went black for that period of time. Then everything came back to normal... well not really normal since everything was a bit more focused and colorful.

She looked at where the door was and saw right through it. There were several girls that somehow had managed to find out that Harry was behind that wall and were camping outside the door. They were happily eating food and talking when suddenly everything went back to normal and she could only see the wall.

" What was that? I mean... Can you see through walls?" She asked amazed at whatever Harry had done and partly a combination fear and self-conscious that Harry might be seeing right through her dress.

" No!" Harry laughed a little and then said, " The spell I did on the door -well it let's the caster see through the door. All I did after that was just let you see what I saw. I picked it up in Morocco...." Harry didn't want to be dragged into a conversation about his experiences in Morocco so he changed topic.

" Do you want something to eat?"

Alicia laughed... no giggled a little before saying, " Yes! I'm hungry but I don't think you'll make it past the girls there."

Harry wondered how the girls knew Harry was in the room, but he remembered that seventh years knew a lot more magic and it really would not surprise him if there was something like the marauders map out there. Though he doubted that anything as complicated as the Marauders map was out there. He knew it could not be too hard to hard to bewitch a normal school map to show where a person is, as simple searching spell would reveal where Harry is and since he was not in a secret chamber, his whereabouts must be pretty easy to locate.

" Who says we have to?" Harry waved his wand as he whispered some incantations and two silver plates along with accompanying cutlery shimmered into existence.

" I can only make three things using magic. An Ice Cream Sundae, Roasted bits of chicken and bread. Do you think you'll be able to live on that... Or do you wanna get out of here..."

" You can cook... using a wand?" asked Alicia, surprised at the bit of information.

" What do you think I survived on in the desert?"

" WOW! I can get a look in then?" Alicia in her seven years in the Wizarding world had never seen a meal cooked with a wand alone and now she was going to see the boy who lived cook it. For her. She only hoped it didn't taste like what her muggle father used to make when her mother was out of town on business. Alicia was surprised to see how good Harry was in transfiguration. Considering he had transfigured one of her spare buttons from her cloak into frozen chicken. The seasonings mysteriously appeared out of thin air put themselves on the chicken bits and then disappeared.

She had known that this type of magic was possible but it takes a few months of dedicated study before a person can do this. The ice cream actually just came out of the wand. The bread was a quill that Harry had in his pocket. Once all finished, they sat down on the table that Alicia transfigured from two smaller tables.

" It's not going to taste like buttons and quills is it?" she asked afraid of the answer.

" No! You'll like it. I promise." Alicia had to admit it was better than what her father could cook but it was a far cry from what the house elves make. As if he heard her say those things in her mind Harry startled her by saying, " I know it's not that good but I promise I'll get you the real food when we get out of here."

By the time the food was finished the posse had abandoned hope of getting Harry Potter and went back to their respective common rooms. When the room was back to the way it was Harry lifted the spell on the door and they made their way to the common room to. On their way back they stopped by the kitchen to get some proper food.

When they entered the kitchen a swarm of house elves approached them. Alicia had never been to the kitchen before so she was surprised to see the sheer number of house elves in there. " Is there always this many here?"

" Nope" answered Harry. " Usually there are three times as many working here."

This is when Dobby approached Harry. " ‘Arry Potter. You is here to see me?"

" Yes, Dobby. How are you doing? Where's Winky, by the way?"

" I is happy sir. Dumbledore make me head elf." Dobby said as he pointed at the shiny silver badge on his chest. It was upside down. " Winky no here... she be run away."

" Why did she run away?" asked Harry.

" She be upset sir. She be back soon... she always runs away and be back two days."

" Dobby could you tell me when she is back the next time?"

" Yes sir... why?" asked a curious Dobby.

" I have my reasons. I was wondering could me and Alicia here, get some food. We missed our dinner."

Dobby looked at Alicia, saucer eyes, and then at Harry. " Harry Potter found a new honey?"

" Honey?" asked Alicia and Harry both at the same time as to what that really meant.

" Your honey" said Dobby, as if telling it twice would make it more clear to Harry. Surprisingly enough it did.

" Who's my honey...." No sooner those words came out of his mouth; Harry realised what Dobby had meant. He had thought that Hermione was his girlfriend –i.e. honey. " You mean Hermione?"

Dobby nodded.

" No she wasn't my honey. I never had a honey" Alicia still didn't get it so

Harry told turned around and told what Dobby had meant. " Dobby thinks Hermione was my girlfriend."

" Why would he think that?" asked Alicia.

" Because whenever I'm here I'm with Ron or Hermione, most of the time with her... anyway now that I'm here with you he thinks that you're my honey -I mean girlfriend."

" Ohhh." She blushed but Harry missed it, since he was now taking the tray full of foods that Dobby and the other house elves gave them. Alicia and Harry sat next to each other near the entrance to the common room and started to eat their food. All the while they talked about their families, friends and Quidditch. After they finished their food, the plates disappeared with all the uneaten and unwanted food.

" OK, We better enter separately..." said Alicia just before she was going to say the password.

" Why?" asked Harry. Alicia's cheek only turned slightly pink in response but they entered the room together anyway, since she really didn’t want to tell Harry the reasons. The only two people in the room were Ron and Hermione and they were very busy arguing on the top of their voices to notice either Harry or Alicia had entered the room. When Alicia said good night and left, Harry wished he could talk to her a bit longer. When he was talking to her out side the common room he had found out that they had a lot in common, least of which was the fact that they both loved Quidditch.

They both were orphaned at an early age and raised by relatives. Her mother had died shortly after childbirth and her father had died a few years after that. In her case the relatives were childless, so they raised Alicia as their own. They both had problem getting their relatives to let them come to Hogwarts, though their reasons were different.

Harry's didn't want any "abnormality" in their lives and while, Alicia's didn't want their adoptive daughter to be away for long periods of time. Their favorite class was Defence against Dark Arts and they both hated Potions to the same degree. Harry hated it more since Snape had a grudge against him.

When Harry turned around to Ron and Hermione staring at him. He was perplexed that they had actually stopped fighting. " What?" he asked.

Ron answered, " What were you doing with the, Headgirl?"

Harry looked at Hermione who was also nodding to signal her interest in the topic as well." Well..." he twirled around once with his arms out and said, " You're now looking at the co-captain of the Quidditch team and… no Ron I can't give you a position in the team. But the keeper trials are on next weekend so you better get practicing, if you really want the job. I'll be going to sleep now."

Ron and Hermione both congratulated Harry for his new success, though Ron's felt like only lip service to Harry. He really wished that Ron didn’t get jealous of him that easily. The Hogsmede trip day started okay enough until Hermione entered the great hall in the light yellow dress that Harry had seen when she went to his house. Ron was lost for words, but Harry went to her and kneeled in front of her forgetting the promise he had made to himself about not doing anything that might upset Ron.

" My lady" he said with exaggerated poise "... Would you grant me the honor of escorting you to the banquet?" Hermione giggled at this and gave her his hand reluctantly.

" Harry. What the hell are you doing?" she asked, as he got off of his knee and locked his arm with hers.

" Your servant is just worshipping the ground you walk upon, My lady."

" Stop it. You're embarrassing me" there was hints of red in her cheeks.

" We had that huge fight yesterday, because I didn't complement you. Are we going to have another one because, I'm overdoing it? -" he smiled one of his more mischievous smiles. " –‘cause I would love to do it again."

This comment from Harry made her blush. The distance from the entrance to the tables was a short one, so they didn't have to have their arms locked for no more than two seconds. Harry guided Hermione next to Ron and then he sat on the other side of Ron.

When they finished eating Harry used his wand to conjure up some ice cream for his two best friends. Some of people on the table were surprised to see Harry could do this and soon everyone from the Gryffindor house had a goblet full of ice cream in front of them.

Except for the Slytherins, none of the tables were close enough to see Harry do it. A small first year Slytherin girl came over to the table.

" Excuse me, sir..." she said is a very low and shaky voice.

‘ Sir...hmm. Rather formal’, thought Harry.

Harry had seen her coming from the Slytherin table, but he smiled at her anyway, remembering that Professor Snape, was a friend of his mothers, when even her own house was filled with people who hated her. " What can I do for you? –Umm, what's your name?"

" Jocelyn Everett, I was wondering..." she was stuttering rather badly, but Harry guessed why she was there when she brought out her rather shaky arm from her back. She was holding out a small golden goblet.

" You want some ice cream?" Harry wanted to be sure. The girl could only nod in response to this. " Sure. Give me your goblet."

After he was done he asked if she wanted something else. She said thanks and ran off to join her friends. Harry could see some of her friends were giggling, but received mostly venomous glances from other Slytherins. Ron along with rest of the people in the hall was looking at him like he had just killed someone. The look of disgust on their faces prompted Harry to ask Ron a question. " What is it Ron?"

" What is it?..." he looked flustered and exasperated. " You gave ice cream to a Slytherin! That's what." There was a trace of bitterness in his voice that Harry didn't like. Harry would have had been very upset with Ron, if it was just him, but the rest of the house wanted to ask the same question. It was just that Ron was the only one who was willing to speak their mind. " And that would be bad.... Because?" Harry feigned ignorance.

" Great jumping Merlin!” Ron exclaimed. “ Harry, why the hell did you do it?"

" Not every one in Slytherin is bad. In fact not too long ago, Gryffindors picked on their own." He said, rather testily. " What're you talking about?" asked Alicia who was glaring at Harry for putting down his own house. Harry looked straight in her eyes and said, " When my mom came here she was one of the very first Muggle born witches and wizards to be allowed into Hogwarts after almost two and a half centuries of being banned. On her way to the first class her fellow Gryffindors picked her on. So don't take this high and mighty, Gryffindors can't-do-anything-wrong attitude with me. “

Harry wanted to tell that Snape was one of her few friends, but decided that it was a bit of information that he did not feel comfortable sharing with anyone other than this very close friends – Hermione, mainly.

“ If we can pick on our own..." Harry turned towards Ron, " ... being nice is something they can do without too much of a problem and Ron..." he paused for a split second and finished his sentence, " Don't tell me you've forgotten about Wormtail"

Ron shivered at the mention of the name Wormtail. He was an animagus disguised as a rat. For three years he had shared the same bed with this wizard who could assume the form of his pet rat. The same wizard, who was responsible for the death of Harry's parents, as he had betrayed their location to Lord Voldemort, their killer. Wormtail was a Gryffindor, and one of the closest friends with James Potter.

Harry emptied his goblet of ice cream in a big gulp and left without saying anything. Hermione knew of the story from before so she knew how upsetting it was for him. She didn't even bother to finish the rest of her food as she took off after him. " Hey, Harry! Wait up!" she yelled once they were out in the main corridors.

" What?" his voice was curt but then he apologized, " I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" but Hermione interrupted him.

" I know. Let's go to the library. I still have about an hour before the carriages arrive."

After saying those words Hermione proceeded to drag Harry to the library. He could have had easily wrangled himself out of her grip, but decided that he would like to spend some time with one his friend who wasn't jealous of his achievements. Harry had been in the library countless times before but he had never bothered to check out anything other than spells and Quidditch related books. Hermione seemed to know exactly where she wanted to go and Harry let her lead. Well he actually didn't have a choice like he had a few seconds before. As soon as Hermione had entered the library her excitement caused her to grip Harry's hand stronger than before... too strong for Harry to get out of. In fact it surprised Harry to find out how strong a person she really was.

They sat down on a corner table at the back and started to read the same book, 'History of Spells'. Harry finished the huge book in less than forty-five minutes a full ten minutes after Hermione. " You're getting good at this, Harry. I might actually have some competition for marks this year..."

" Well not really..."said Harry before teasing her by saying, " I'll be wiping the floor with you. "

" We'll see... We'll see" she imitated Harry's smile. Just then, Ron wandered into the library. Ron apologized for being so stupid at breakfast. " It's fine, Ron. You couldn't help it" said Hermione. The trio burst into laughter at Hermione's joke. It was the first time either Harry or Ron had laughed at a joke that Hermione had said.

When Hermione left they both said good bye. An awkward silence between Harry and Ron fell over. Harry was the first to break it. " I've dropped divination."

" Why?... I mean we're both very good at it and it gives three owls just for sitting through the test." said Ron.

" I'm sick and tired of doing that stupid subject. I've changed to Runes and dead languages... The reason I'm telling you this is because I don't want you to drop the subject."

" What? Why? -No if you change I'll change too" said Ron rather reluctantly.

" Face it -you love the subject. I've seen how you love coming up with new ways to die -Oh that reminds me." Harry started to search for something in his pocket. He took out a small green book from his shirt pocket (weekend so he was wearing muggle clothes) and handed it to Ron. "Hermione gave me that as a birthday present. I won’t be using it anymore." Ron took a look at the title '66666 muggle and magical ways You can die' and for a moment looked as though he might actually cry.

" It's still my book -I'm just lending it to you." Ron then said a genuine thank you that Harry took as a sign of them mending their friendship.

After this the pair talked for about two hours about Quidditch before Ron veered off topic and started about Hermione and Victor. After about two hours of Ron making a list as to why Hermione should not be with Victor, Harry just snapped. " Ron you moron! If you thought for one moment I didn't see how feel about Hermione, you're wrong. If you don't have the guts to tell her or at least do the decent thing and be honest with yourself. Stop venting your frustration on me. You don't see me going around moping because of Cedric dying and that's a hell of thing to carry around with you. I am dealing with it. By myself."

Harry left the library without saying one more word. The rest of the day Harry made sure the first and the second years didn't get themselves into trouble. There were very few Slytherins this year so that meant that Harry had to stop his house members from picking on them. Harry actually gave three of the Gryffindors detentions for the next weekend and took off a point each from his own house for starting a fight with the Slytherins. Harry didn't know it but that day he made some Slytherin friends that he'll need in upcoming years.

At lunchtime, Crabbe and Goyle wanted to show off their magical prowess by showing that they could make ice cream come out of their wand as well. Unfortunately they didn’t listen to the stern warnings that Malfoy had given them. Malfoy knew that his goons, barely qualified to be at Hogwarts and what they were attempting to do would require them to be a lot better in magic then they were. Even better than himself.

By the end of the lunchtime, half the Slytherin table was covered with flour, milk, cream, sugar and a variety of other materials. When Professor McGonagall arrived she saw Malfoy yelling at the goons. She thought it wad Malfoy who was at the source of the trouble and his two goons were aiding him. Before Malfoy could protest, his house had lost five points.

If Harry wasn’t so distracted by what had happened at the Library with Ron, he might have had heard all the commotion behind him and Malfoy getting punished for doing something that he didn’t do. No one in the hall said anything to defend him. Malfoy had done plenty of things, which saw innocent people get in trouble for what he had done and most people saw it as revenge from above.

Ron wasn't there at lunchtime... but then again Harry didn't really want to talk to Ron. At seven in the afternoon Hermione showed up with Ron in the common room. Ron apologized for his behavior towards Harry and said that he'll try to get the matter sorted. Hermione was oblivious to the fact that she was the reason the friends had the outburst and neither of them would tell her why they had fought.

" Well, I hope you guys did all you school homework because tomorrow we have school" said Hermione, as her eyes glazed over. Before Ron could open his mouth to say something he thought was funny, Harry grabbed Ron’s mouth shut. He didn’t want to be in the middle of a row between Ron and Hermione. Not tonight after Hermione had helped him so.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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20. The New Potions teacher?*!

Chapter Number: 20
Chapter Name: The New Potions teacher?*!

When Harry and rest of the Gryffindor house walked into the Potions class they found it almost empty. The class wasn't scheduled to start for another five minutes but because of the loud argument between Harry and Hermione on a Dueling move the whole house had woken up about half an hour before they were supposed to.

The Gryffindor students as usual, took their seat as far back as they could from the front of the room without actually going out side the room. Harry took his usual seat between Hermione and Ron with Neville on the other side of Hermione.

When Malfoy and rest of the Slytherins came into the room, they mumbled something as they passed the table where Harry and his friends were sitting. Malfoy headed for a table that was occupied by Pansy Parkinson. Usually she would be all over Malfoy trying to get his affection but today she had decided she was too good for him. As soon as Malfoy sat down on the table she got up and took a seat next to one of her other friends.

This was a surprise that didn't go unnoticed by either of the houses but they said nothing about it. But the day would hold many more surprises that neither Harry nor the Gryffindors could have had seen coming.

A man dressed in bright green robes and nicely parted black shoulder length hair entered the room. The Slytherins were puzzled to see that the man took a seat in what used to be Professor Snape's table. He started to look through the scrolls rolled neatly on one side of the table. Malfoy felt as the Slytherin prefect, he should ask what this stranger was doing. He stood up and was about to say something when the stranger used Professor Snape's voice and said without looking up, "Mr. Malfoy. Can I help you?".

The Slytherins were about as much shocked as a person can be before they die. But the Gryffindors knew the man’s identity, even before he entered the room.

The Gryffindors had all memorized the distinct tap noise his shoes made every six steps, the noise that he made as he took his customary deep breath upon entering the dungeon where the class was always held.

Harry had always assumed that Professor Snape did that to fill him self up with the fear and anxiety of the Gryffindor students. But the one thing that was etched in their brain, more than any other, was the rustling sound his robes made when he would use his left index finger to scratch his bottom once after he entered.

" Good Morning Class. Beautiful day today isn't it" Snape had a silly grin plastered all over his face as he looked through the crowd of students in the class. He did a double take when he saw that Harry was actually on time and reading his Potions book with much enthusiasm. " I came home particularly late... No need to bore you with my life details ... First order of business today is the official speech that I am obliged to give you." He took out a piece of paper and started to read out.

" The OWL were first...." the speech was about when and how the OWL came into being, what was required of them and what they were expected to do. It took almost one and half hours to get through it. Much to his annoyance only two people in the whole class was looking at him when he had finished. And they were Harry and Hermione.

The rest were either concentrating on their quill or something very interesting on the floor – a scratch or a speck of dust on the floor or the ceiling or their table. Malfoy was trying to cozy up to the girl that came and sat with him after Pansy left. Her name was, as Harry recalled from his very first year, Blaise Zabini. Though Snape saw it he did absolutely nothing to stop it. If two Gryffindors were just sitting closer to each other than normal he would have had put both of them in detention.

" Ahem" he coughed a loud false one to get everyone's attention. " Now that I have finished my official act... From the looks on your face a lot of you had a good holiday others however did their homework.

He gave Neville a look, making him shriek. ‘ That was a good start of the year.’ thought Snape, when he heard the nervous Gryffindor make the noise.

" It's hard to believe that even the laziest and clumsiest amongst you have started to work harder now since the OWLS are this year. Mr. Longbottom, I was shocked beyond belief to see that you actually wrote something that made sense, though half the questions weren't answered or done properly. It was a proud day for the Gryffindors, when you finally managed to do a homework without Ms. Granger telling you the answers."

Most of the Slytherins broke out in laughter. He then went through all the student's work until there was only four left. Harry, Ron, Hermione and the teachers pet Malfoy.

" Mr. Weasley... did you have a good holiday?”

Ron opened his mouth, but Snape put up his hand. “ Wait. Don't answer that question. I can see the answer by the shabby work that you handed in. It was barely any better than Mr. Longbottom’s. The only thing you made progress in answering the questions was getting all the spelling right. Yet another big achievement for the Gryffindor House. Three points off the Gryffindors for poor structure of the essay, one for content and two for neatness." He threw Ron's paper at him.

" Now I come to Ms. Know-it-all-Granger.... Oh look you've had a hair cut. I was wondering how long it will take you to realize that long bushy hair only suits a mountain gorilla."

Malfoy burst into laughter at this, as did a few of the Slytherins. Most didn't since they had seen her fight and didn’t fancy meeting her in a dueling class they were taking. They knew Hermione had a great memory and were pretty sure that if they did laugh at her she would remember. They didn’t know whether Hermione would attack them really hard when she had a chance, but they had no intention of finding out. Hermione seemed rather unmoved by the comment unlike Ron who had to be restrained by Harry so that he didn't say anything to Snape. There was no reason to loose anymore points than they already had. Snape continued in his snobbish tone of voice though he had seen Harry restrain Ron.

" I do seem to remember telling you that the essay was supposed to be only three scrolls. I wasn't surprised to see that you handed in nine scrolls of very...very small writing. Ten points off the Gryffindors for Ms. Grangers disobedience."

He then looked back and forth between Malfoy and Harry, before finally holding up one of the two papers left in his hand. " This paper,.." he said " When I read this paper, I was surprised. It was clearly written, thoroughly researched though not as much as Ms. Granger's, then again no ones ever is. Not only did this paper cover all the points I listed in the assignment sheet it covered one that I had overlooked before handing out the assignment sheets." Malfoy looked very happy to hear the praises and was positively beaming.

" ... Imagine my surprise when I find that it was written by none other than our resident celebrity, Mr. Potter." Harry's name came out of Snape's mouth with a hiss.

Everyone in the class looked at Harry like he was Lord Voldemort. " Even the penmanship was good. Three and three fifth points off the Gryffindors for Mr. Potter's inability to write his name in a clear way at the front of the scrolls as asked, instead of putting them on the back of the scrolls."

Malfoy so shocked when he heard that the only thing his archenemy did wrong was the fact that he was written the name in the wrong place. But that was not the only surprise for him. Professor Snape was looking at his class pet like a vermin. " Mr. Malfoy good essay. I expected more from one of my own."

Harry's face had changed from normal to pale white to pale white with a sickening shade of red. He had expected a lot of things for Professor Snape to criticize. The Gryffindor were shocked enough that most of their mouths hung open. Ron looked like he had been petrified. Hermione was the only person in the room who wasn't surprised. She patted him on the back and said, " I told you. Hard work always pays off."

" That's enough public show of affection, Ms. Granger." Hermione blushed and removed her hand from Harry's back. " Now I have a treat for all of you. There is going to be a quiz session now. Every right answer saves the Gryffindors from getting a detention and the Slytherins a point. Wrong answers are automatic detentions. Just to make it interesting I choose the representative from each of the houses."

Everyone was certain Professor Snape would pick Neville for Gryffindors and Malfoy for the Slytherins. Neville expecting this quickly jumped off his seat and hid under the table. But that day was the day of surprises.

" Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy, make you way to the front of the room. Ms. Granger I want you to look the other way since I have a feeling that you'll tell Mr. Potter something, if I’m not looking." Hermione looked offended at the suggestion, however true it might have had been. Hermione would have had tried to give answers to Harry.

Harry and Malfoy took the seats that Professor Snape had pointed towards each of them. " Name two potions that involve the tree of life? Gryffindor."

" Wolfsbane and Soul inhibitor Potion" said Harry nonchalantly. Professor Snape was surprised to see him answer the question but went to the next question after recovering quickly.

" Name two uses of Boomslang? Slytherin" the Gryffindors were outraged. They had just done an essay on the topic so it was hardly fair that the Slytherins would get to answer questions based on that while Professor Snape asked questions that might well been a few years ahead. " Narcotic agent and cleaning agent" answered Malfoy.

" This question isn't on the sheet... Mr. Potter name the main ingredients of the Soul inhibitor potion?"

" Blood of Chimera and a Bach from the tree of life."

" For thirty points for your house Mr. Malfoy I would like you to answer the following question. Name a requirement of the Polyjuice potion?"

" Something like a hair sample of the intended person"

" Good work. Thirty points to the Slytherins..." He looked at Harry and said,

" Mr. Potter if you can answer this I'll award your house thirty points and if you don't I'll give you a detention. But if you answer, and it's wrong, then your Gryffindor buddies would be in detention."

Harry thought that he knew how sinister Snape could be, but the last comment made him appear a close second to Lord Voldemort himself. " While you enjoy a nice relaxing day."

" What's the Question?" asked Harry a bit worried.

" That's the catch, Potter. You don't know.” Snape was snarling. “ Do you give up or answer?" answered back Professor Snape with an evil smirk on his face. Harry took a fraction of a second to think it through. Snape was definitely trying to get him to get a detention. He decided that he wanted to try anyway. " I'll answer."

There was a loud cry from Neville who said, " Don't do it, Harry."

" What is the purpose of the Soul Inhibitor Potion and name five different side effects? Mr. Potter"

Hermione's heart jumped. ‘ I should have had told him about side effects. He won’t know any...’ thought Hermione as she tried to calm her panicked mind.

" Takes away pain from the person. Effective only if administered within ten minutes of the start of the pain." Harry did a quick glance at Hermione and then looked straight at the wall before answering, " Vomiting, Passing out, twitching of the left big toe."

A small pause led Professor Snape to believe that Harry could not think of the rest. He was getting ready to celebrate, when Harry, like his father a long time ago, destroyed his plans. " In a man it causes them to grow toe hair. In a woman between the ages of thirteen and sixty-nine it increases hormonal level. It basically leaves a woman unable to bear children for approximately a five year period or to be exact 1509 days."

Harry saw the look on the faces of many of the boys and thought, ‘ No use guys. The girls had to be in severe pain before you can administer it.’

He inwardly smiled at the boys who looked like had taken a mental note to remember the name of the potion. Hermione's heart jumped. ‘ He knew. He didn't tell me. Why would he do that?’

Her face started to turn red when she heard, " I'm surprised Mr. Potter. It's almost as if you have had experience with the potion yourself."

" No sir. It was in one of the books that Mr. Pas- I mean Professor Pasha gave me." Came the quick reply from Harry.

Professor Snape desperately didn’t want to give any points to the Gryffindor house. He started to grasp at straws, like he always did. "Oh so you admit that you had a teacher's help in preparing for the test. I'm afraid I'll have to take five points off the Gryffindors for cheating."

Everyone knew what Professor Snape was doing, but they dared not to say anything. Harry could have said something, but he really didn't care how many points Snape took off, as there was no way Professor Snape could stop Harry and rest of the Gryffindors from getting them back in other classes. Snape's eyes twinkled and his smile went even more evil then it was before.

The quiz session lasted for another five minutes in which time Harry didn't miss a single question, but Snape didn't offer any extra points to either of the houses. He had made the mistake of underestimating Harry’s intelligence once; he wasn’t about to do it again. Not soon after he made the first one. Deep inside.... Granted very very very deep inside, he felt proud that Harry was beginning to show Lily’s prowess in potions.

More than his life, Professor Snape, hoped that Harry was strong enough to defeat Lord Voldemort. His hatred for the dark lord was only equal to that of a few people. Harry was amongst them. The dark lord had taken so much from him, so many he cared greatly about. Though he knew that Lily, as his first love was amongst them, she was not the reason he had switched allegiances during the darker times of Lord Voldemort’s rule. He was never in love with her enough to cause any reaction like the one that made him change his allegiance.

His reasons for changing sides were to do with an event that occurred about six months before the downfall of the Dark lord. To this day, events of that night haunted his dreams. So much so for the last fifteen years he had been taking a potion to go to a dreamless sleep. Side effects were his greasy hair. But recently something happened that made his life a much better thing. He noticed it a few days ago that he had forgotten to take his potion, before going to sleep. Yet he dreamed not of the event of that night, but of.....

After the quiz session there was only fifteen minutes of the class left and it was abnormally normal. Neville managed to spill his cauldron three times (a record for him). Professor Snape had paired Harry with Pansy Parkinson and she was behaving like a klutz. The only thing that was any different than his normal potion class was the fact that Hermione was avoiding looking at Harry.

‘ She must be a little embarrassed about her situation... I'll have to have a talk with her soon’ thought Harry as he busied himself with the cauldron. From time to time, he patted his right hand side pocket in his cloak to see if the cushioning charm inside was still working. There was something long and thin in there, but someone had to watch for a long time to see.

Once the class was finished, Harry saw Hermione leave so quickly out the door that she didn't notice leaving her potions book behind. He was about to leave the room when he remembered what he had for Snape. He turned to where Ron had been standing to give him the book to give it to Hermione when he saw that Ron was already halfway to catching up with Hermione. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk and busily going over the lesson plan for his next class while he took minuscule bites from the sandwich in his right hand. " ... yes, Potter can I do something for you?" there was a bitterness in it as always but it was less than it was usually.

" Sir. I stayed with Professor Pasha, during the holidays..." Harry started to say but was interrupted by Snape

" So what. I stayed with my cousin Balthazar. Get to the point, Potter."

" He told me the story of how you were friends with my mother even though most of the Slytherins and shamefully the her own housemates hated and picked on her. I would like to express my deepest thanks to you for the invaluable friendship that you no doubt provided her with. As a token of my thanks I would like you to accept this." It was a bowl and a small round bit of stone.

Professor Snape was confounded but when he saw what the boy had given him he was ready to die. " Potter, is this what I think it is?" Professor Snape was shaking uncontrollably when he saw a golden crest on the side of the stone bowl.

" An original Mortar and Pestle made by the famous Alchemist Methyl Magda. I know he died in the Shozar wars and all his works lost... I found it on the streets of Morocco and thought you might like it."

" How much did it cost? Even you can't afford this..." he looked at Harry as he put down the stone bowl from his shaking hands. " It's well over twenty thousand galleons worth..." ‘ Not to mention it's priceless to a true potions aficionado like myself.’ thought Snape.

" You don't have to think of the cost. I'm giving it to you for all that you did for my mother. This is no way anything other than to say my thanks for being there for my mom." As Harry left he thought he heard a mumbled thanks as he left but dismissed the concept of Snape of ever saying thanks to him.

As soon as he was out of the classroom, Harry ran towards the secret passageway that he remembered led right to the great hall. Less than twenty seconds into the passageway, he tripped on something small inside the dimly lighted passageway and fell on top of a person. ‘ Great Merlin! Three days and I'm still tripping on top of people. If this is another girl I'm definitely doing a curse removal ceremony.’

He looked down to see the face of Hermione Granger. With an exasperated sigh he got to his feet very fast. He was a bit too fast, so when he slipped on the back of his robes, he didn't have enough time to actually try and recover. He looked up and saw Hermione trying to stifle a giggle as she offered her hand. He took it. Hermione as it seemed had forgotten that she was trying to avoid Harry.” Thanks... Nice to see you haven't taken off in the other direction" said Harry.

Hermione blushed at the comment. She knew Harry had found out the common side effects of the potion. She was hoping against all hopes that Harry wouldn't know why the Chimera blood made a woman unable to bear children for five years. As if sensing what she had thought Harry replied, " Don't worry... I didn't tell anyone about the potion."

Harry suddenly got a very mischievous grin before saying, " You're free to go on sex rampage anytime you feel..." He didn't get to finish the sentence when she punched him on the arm very fast and very hard. " OW." He said grabbing his arm where she had hurt him and started to rub it. Even when it hurt he didn't stop grinning at her.

‘ Why does he always smile like that?’ thought Hermione. " I just hit you and you're hurting. So why in the hell are you grinning like an idiot?" she asked.

" Because... now you're normal. Well..." he was going to add something more to make her hit him again but thought it was better that he didn't. " Nah... you're too easy. Here take this." Hermione looked at what Harry offered her from one of the pockets of his cloak. It was a small vial with a glowing green potion inside.

" You know about 'Purifying Solutions' too?" she asked astounded. Before that day she hadn't realized how much work Harry had actually done over the summer.

" Of course I do. Didn't you think I would do my research properly?" Harry saw Hermione blush. " It's your own fault. If you hadn't made me do all that studying in the holidays..."

" ...my fault" she burst up in anger. " As I recall someone wanted their powers to grow." Hermione retorted before realizing Harry had done that just to provoke her from the grin he had plastered all over his face. She didn't stay mad long. She emptied the solution in her mouth and waited for a green glow to appear. She glowed green, for about a second and then she was cured of one of the dreaded side effect that Harry didn't tell Professor Snape.

This one is related to the one about not being able to bear children. The potion increased the sexual appetite of the females. It eventually becomes too much for the person to handle and some people end up St. Mungo's hospital. The headmaster told Hermione of this, since even she didn’t know of this particular part of the side effect, on her first day at Hogwarts that year. She then realized that this might have had been the reason that Professor Pasha owled the people making the potion for her everyday since they got back.

But she didn't have to worry about it anymore since Harry had thought to buy it when they were in Morocco though he didn't tell anyone about it. How Harry had got hold of the purifying potion, when it took several weeks to make one was a total mystery to Hermione, but she decided that it was a mystery she had no problem not getting an answer to.

" Thanks" she said. She gave Harry a small peck on the cheek and started to walk back toward the exit. Harry quickly wiped away the area where she had kissed him.

" Did you have to do that?" he asked a little annoyed. His friend knew he didn't like being kissed or hugged for too long and this one was definitely not necessary in Harry's opinion.

" Let's go we have transfiguration next..." she said as she started to walk to the next class.

" But I haven't had my lunch yet..." even as he said this Harry started to look around for something to turn into a bread. The he though about how long he spent talking with Hermione and Snape and realized that there was still over twenty minutes left. " Hey..." he stopped and started to walk the other way.

Hermione noticed that the footsteps that were following her a few seconds ago were going the opposite way. " Where are you going?" She asked, rushing to catch up to him.

" You just want to see Professor McGonagall again. I need food. I didn't have that much in the morning and all the tension in Potions class took its toll." Harry started to move even faster. Hermione had a hard time keeping up and when they finally entered the Great Hall there were a few people about.

Ron was taking part in a contest to see who actually can eat more pieces of the strawberry short cake. Lavender was winning, and that was no mean feat!

Hermione and Harry were both disgusted at the sight of them stuffing food in their mouth like that and decided to seat as far from the pair as humanly possible. Harry only ate a little bit as he was thinking about the summer assignment for Transfiguration. It was to find out about the way to becoming an animagus. The topic was not what the students of the previous years had done. His thoughts about transfiguration were interrupted when Hermione tapped on his shoulder to tell him it was time they left for next class.

<<~~~>>

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21. The Stone of Haguba & the Ferret scaring

Chapter Number: 21
Chapter Name: The Stone of Haguba & the Ferret scaring

On the way to the first transfiguration class of the year, Ron made a lot of noise about spending all of Monday with the Slytherins. Hermione felt the same way but Harry just didn't care whether they were there or not. When they entered they saw the Slytherins had already taken one side of the class so the Gryffindors chose the other side. Ron, Hermione and Harry sat on the front row.

Professor McGonagall entered the room with a small package in her hand, which she put down on a stand that she made appear out of thin air. " Good afternoon class." She said as she looked around the class.

Her eyes froze when she saw Harry. ‘ Merlin's Ghost! He looks like the exact duplicate of his father... I only wish he were as good as that in his transfiguration class. Well he'll get there this year, if he sticks to what he's been doing. ’

" I know you all did well in your summer homework. Ten points to both Slytherin and the Gryffindor houses. " This got a big cheer from the Slytherins as now they were ahead of the Gryffindors by over seventy points and they only had one class.

" Settle down class. I have to go over your homework with you." She turned her face to Hermione and said, " Excellent research as always Ms. Granger. Your writing was as always very conscious and clear. This paper might be included as a part of the future textbook if I have my way. There was two very surprising papers amongst the rest of you. Mr. Longbottom." She looked at Neville with awe and respect.

" I was really impressed with the details in your description of how Goderic Gryffindor felt the first time he transformed into the Lion. I dare say you would do well in class this year." Neville was stumped. He had never been very good at transfiguration and would have had dropped it in the first year had he a chance. " Thank you..." was all he could say when she handed his paper back.

She the turned to face Harry. " The other paper was done by Mr. Potter. It was very good. I'm sorry but I had initially thought it was either plagiarized or written by someone else. I see Ms. Granger has had a good influence on you.."

The whole class turned to Harry when they heard that. Harry's ears were beginning to get red. Professor McGonagall took no notice of the surroundings nor of Harry's growing redness. " Spending the holidays at Ms. Grangers house was a good idea. I have never seen a student with middle of the range marks to hand in work that almost rivals that of Ms. Granger’s essay. Almos. I shudder to think what you could have had achieved had you been more focused on your studies from the beginning. Ten points for both Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter. Twenty points for Mr. Longbottom."

Neville had thought getting the praise from normally strict Professor McGonagall would make his day but he hardly knew what hit him when his homework got the house twenty whole points. The only other time he had got any points was in his first year when he tried to stop Harry and two of his friends from going after the Philosopher’s stone.

Several of the girls had imagined being in the same house as Harry all day long with nothing to do and they were jealous of her. They all started to send her daggers from their eyes and if looks could kill Hermione would have had died a hundred deaths in the short time it took Professor McGonagall to tell the class about whose house he had stayed in.

Professor McGonagall then turned to look at Ron, who watched as both his friends turned pink. " Mr. Weasley, Your assignment was surprisingly easy to read and comprehend even though you didn't have Ms. Granger's help in writing it. Five points to the Gryffindors." She did all the other students until only Malfoy was left. " Mr. Malfoy this homework is not up to your usual standard. I'm afraid I'll have to deduct five points from the Slytherin house for your drop in academic standards... I expected you to produce the second best in the class, but I was very disappointed by your lack of effort."

" Well now that we've lost almost one third of the class time I suggest we pick up the pace." said Professor McGonagall, as she went to the stand where the package was and carefully revealed its content. It was a bright yellow stone, which sometimes glowed randomly.

A few seconds after it's exposure the glow of the stone seeped out of the stone and swirled around the stone in the air around it. Professor McGonagall spoke something that Harry didn't hear but from Hermione's eager hand he could tell that it was a question. Professor McGonagall smiled and asked her to answer the question.

Hermione got up from her chair and said, " It's the Haguba stone. It works as a means of testing whether or not a person can become a Animagi and displays the creature suited for the person to become."

" Good answer Hermione. Now we could use a simple potion to do this but it is an extremely painful process to go through. I'll demonstrate the use of the stone..." she touched the stone and a ghost form of herself appeared in front of her. Neville let out a shriek. It took a second for the translucent Professor McGonagall to quickly turn into a cat. The cat made a small meow and jumped toward the real Professor McGonagall before vanishing in mid air. " Now Slytherins first. Remember even if you have no Animagi form you can still do wand assisted transformations, so don't be disheartened."

Only two of the Slytherins had any effect on the stone. The first one was Pansy Parkinson. She walked up to the stone confidently and put her had on the stone. Her ghost image appeared, (Harry thought it looked like the ghost self of her, might have been a lot easier to talk to then the real one) and after a second, spent looking at the class, she (the ghost) transformed into a Monarch Butterfly.

The real Pansy looked through her tear filled eyes at the beautiful butterfly flap its wings and move all over the class room. When the butterfly settled on Harry's nose, the real Pansy turned pink and the butterfly vanished. She walked back to the line of Slytherins on her side of the room slowly under the hateful gaze of some of her fellow housemates. Malfoy looked furious when he saw that her butterfly form had landed on Harry's nose, but said nothing, as he was the next person to touch the stone.

What happened next... surprised a lot of people. Malfoy put his hand on the stone and his ghost form appeared. It stood there a few seconds and looked around the room. It seemed it was checking to see if anyone was looking. Then the ghost form of Draco turned in to a ferret.

Malfoy was horrified, but the whole class burst into laughter... including his fellow housemates. They remembered Professor Moody turning him into a ferret as a punishment. Professor McGonagall let out a laugh too before she composed herself. " Settle down class. Now the Gryffindor. First up... Ms. Brown."

Lavender was quite surprised to see that her Animagi form was a Parrot, though it didn't really didn't surprise people because of the way she and Parvati always gossiped. There was not an Animagi form for neither Ron nor Parvati and they seemed quite upset by it. In both cases Professor McGonagall reminded them that they can still do wand-based transformations, and people without Animagi abilities are usually better at that. When it was Hermione's turn Harry quickly patted her on the back and wished her good luck. Hermione's hand shook as she placed it on the stone.

To everyone’s surprise Hermione’s ghost started to examine the real Hermione for a little bit. ‘ Just like her. Always looking into how things work’ though Harry fondly.

Then the ghost form of Hermione turned into an exact duplicate of Professor McGonagall's cat. Then the cat did something none of the other transformed ghost-animals had done before. The fur stood on it’s ends and the cat changed it’s colors. It became light grey with tiger stripes. The cat the jumped onto Harry's table. Harry had one chance to pet the cat once before the image faded.

When Hermione took her hand off the stone she was greeted with the claps from Professor McGonagall. " Class, Hermione is what is called 'spotter'. They have the ability to switch between two markings in the same animal. It a very rare ability and only come to very strong wizards and witches."

Hermione beamed as she went back to her seat. Hermione got a big hug from everyone of the Gryffindors though Ron seemed a bit rigid. Dean and Seamus went next. Unfortunately neither one had any ability and quite oppositely to what Ron and Parvati went through they were very happy.

Harry assumed that they were happy since they figured being good at wand based Animagi gave them a wider selection of animals to become. It was Neville who was next. Neville was shaking as he went to the stone. Malfoy probably would have had made a joke about Neville, but he remembered that he had turned into a ferret.

When Neville put his hand on the stone a ghost form emerged that looked more confident that the real one. The ghost form gave the real one a hug and started to walk towards Malfoy. In mid step he transformed into a lion that looked a lot like the one on all Gryffindor crests.

The lion roared at Malfoy causing him to fall from his chair. Malfoy for a small amount of time thought that the translucent lion was going to attack him and so he scrambled backwards until he was backed up against the wall. The lion went right up to Malfoy's face and let out one more roar before disappearing. The whole class was shocked to see that Neville's animagus form was a lion.

Pansy Parkinson started to clap first before all the Gryffindors joined in. Everyone assumed that the reason for Pansy's clapping was that he had managed to scare the hell out of Malfoy. Her ex.

But the truth was even more surprising then anyone could have had guessed. When he transformed she saw in him what no one else saw. Potential.

Professor McGonagall asked for silence and the class quickly settled down.

" Mr. Longbottom... That was quite some transformation. The only other Lion in the registry had been Goderic Gryffindor himself. I do hope you decide to take up the challenge." She looked at Neville for a few more seconds before deciding that she should get back to the task at hand.

" Now Mr. Potter It appears you are the last person."

Harry knew no matter how hard he tried, he was unique and bound to do something that no one expects of him. He knew when it was his turn that he was going to do something that would make him the conversation topic of months to come. So it didn't surprise him when the whole class had to turn their head away as Harry's hand approached the stone. Upon touching the liquid aura erupted and drenched the whole room in an unearthly shade of yellow light.

For the first second nothing happened. But then a searing pain went through his entire body. He could feel every cell in his body scream out in pain. Even with the intense training that he went through to get used to Hermione Astral Projecting with him in Morocco, he had never come across pain as bad as this before. The Cruciatus curse seemed like a harmless tickle against this and he was no longer able to stand it; he screamed in pain. It was heard all over the castle and windows with magical glass shattered in classes up and down and across the hall.

Then, as suddenly as the pain arrived, it was gone. It wasn't like the times when he learned to overcome the pain like he had done with Astral Projection. No. This was more like 'here one second gone the next'. He wanted to collapse to the floor but the stone wouldn't let him. Neither would it allow Harry to take his hand off it. He looked to where his two friends were and saw that Ron and Neville were working hard to stop Hermione from going to Harry's aid. He was sure they wanted to keep Hermione from having the same kind of pain.

Harry tried to make eye contact with Hermione. When she did make eye contact he mouthed the words, "Don't worry". This calmed her down immensely, as she let herself be moved to her seat by Ron and Neville. Right then three shimmering ghost forms of Harry emerged from the Haguba stone.

The ghost forms of Harry shook each other's hands before arguing for a second as to who would go first. Their discussion was done in parseltongue and as such no one in the class knew what they were talking about, except for Harry who knew what was to come and prepared himself for the inevitable return of the days of his second year at Hogwarts.

The first Harry went over to Harry's original table and sat down on it rather than the chair. It then morphed into an exact duplicate of the cat that both Professor McGonagall and Hermione. The cat the walked over to Hermione's table and changed his markings like Hermione had done. Hermione tentatively reached out to pet it but it vanished before she could touch it.

The next Harry went to the back of the room and transformed into a dolphin floating in imaginary water. It did a flip in the air above the imaginary water before disappearing and leaving the field open for the third and last Harry to transform. As soon as the dolphin was gone all eyes fell up on the real Harry. The only remaining ghost form of Harry seemed happy at this fact, until all the attention fell upon him.

The Ghost-Harry groaned and then started to run towards the side that had mild sunlight streaming through a window in it. Most of the students thought, this Harry didn't want to do the transformation, as they knew the real Harry was reluctant to show off. Everyone got out off their seat and followed the ghost version of Harry. When they reached the window, they saw a blinding while flash. Once they saw what it was they scrambled to the back of the room. They were all afraid of the creature that was on the other side of the glass.

It was a dragon.

Hermione had been the last person to get to the window but she didn't runaway from the dragon like the others had. The Dragon unlike all the other ghost transformations appeared to be almost solid.

The dragon had iridescent, pearly scales and glittering multicolored pupil less eyes. There was a lightning shaped scar that started from above the left eye and finished a bit lower than the bottom lid, giving it the look of being wiser and more battle hardened than it really was. The dragon backed away from the broken window and fired its purple flames at the Quidditch field. Noting really happened since it was all an illusion. Hermione knew which dragon it was and knew for a fact that unless the dragon wasn't provoked it wouldn't harm a human, but that was hardly a problem since it was all an illusion.

"Antipodean Opaleye" said Hermione.

The large Dragon blinked its eye once as if to agree with Hermione. The dragon then twisted its body around and headed for the sun. It vanished in mid flight. As soon as the dragon was gone every one looked at Harry like he knew they would.

‘ At least this time, they can’t think I tried to kill someone.’ Thought Harry, seeing only one positive out of the situation.

Professor McGonagall checked to see if Harry was alright before saying, " That... That was extra ordinary... I have to tell Professor Dumbledore." She started to move towards the door but the door opened first.

It was Professor Dumbledore.

" I don't think that would be necessary Minerva. If I may, I would like to take Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter with me."

" Of course" she said rather reluctantly. She wanted to see the last transformation again but she couldn't refuse the headmaster's request. " Harry and Hermione, please go with Professor Dumbledore" she waited a second and said " take your bags, I seriously doubt you'll be coming back here today."

Harry and Hermione left the room together, leaving Ron alone to brew in his own jealousy. He knew it wasn't Harry's fault that he attracted so much attention but he was jealous of the fact that all the attention in the class was now focused on his two best friends, instead of just one. Why did Hermione have to be a Spotter ?

Professor Dumbledore led them to a room they had never seen before though the entrance to the room was very close to the entrance of the kitchen. The door wasn't really a door, rather stones of slightly darker tone. " Rocket fuel" said Professor Dumbledore at the wall.

Amazingly the bricks on the wall came to life. They grew matching arms, legs, eyes, ear, and a mouth before they scrambled behind the three. The 'brick-men' (or brick-people for the politically correct) started to complain loudly amongst themselves about being woken up so quickly after they had their lunch.

‘ I wonder what happens to the door when they are at their lunch, for that matter what do they eat and drink.’ thought Hermione.

Once in the room, the little brick people quickly laid down one on top of another until the wall was back again. Professor Dumbledore snapped his fingers and three comfortable looking chairs appeared. Professor Dumbledore and Hermione took them immediately but Harry looked at the seat like it was a hot element. Professor Dumbledore changed Harry's seat into a school stool. Harry's face burst into a big smile as he took the chair. " Thanks" he said.

" It's my pleasure Harry.... Now on to the business at hand."

He looked back and forth between Harry and Hermione. He waited a few seconds to organize his thoughts before saying,

" I guess you both know that you're quite unique... No that would be putting in very lightly. Hermione you are a very strong witch, I knew it the day you got that 125% in your first year. ... And now being a spotter just proved my point. I really didn't think I would ever see a spotter again, let alone two. Both in Gryffindor as well." There was an unmistakable pride in his voice.

Professor Dumbledore then focused his gaze on Harry. " There have been only two people in the world that managed do what you did. Both of you I assume know about Merlin..."

Harry and Hermione both nodded. Of course they knew about him. He was the father of all the wizards around the world. None before Merlin could cast spells or work magic without the permission of the Goddess of magic 'Mauve'. Merlin was the very first Wizard and from him spawned all the wizards that you see today. He cast a spell to find people with the qualifications he thought they needed to be a magician. He opened up the mystical world for all those with the gift to see.... I'm going off the track. He was the only magician who ever transformed into a magical creature not only that he could transform himself into five different dragons. Each endowed with unique abilities.

Professor Dumbledore paused to look back, almost like he was remembering a piece of his past. " It is said that the Opaleye Dragons were his creation, and it was this one that he had transformed into when he finally finished off Mauve. You also have the ability to do more than one animal. Animagus ability are rare but among those who have this ability, the ability to do more than one animal is very common. It is rare for people with talents such as those that you two posses to choose to do animagus training at all."

" Why?" asked Harry and Hermione both in unison.

" Animagus training is hard. Sometimes it takes a fully-grown wizard/witch to train for almost a year before he or she can usually train for about eight months before they can do it with sufficient speed. The procedure can be very painful without the presence of a ProTem. Those of your friends who choose to train to be an Animagus would have to work at it both this year and the year after that."

" The reason why so many choose not to go through the training is because, those who have the ability to assume more than animal, the pain is much more severe. It’s even more for those who can change their marking. Most prefer to learn wand based transformation which is not really painful though it takes about six to seven months to get through."

" So where do we go from here?" asked Harry.

" Depends if you want to become an Animagus or not... If one of you decides in favor of it I'll teach him or her how to do it."

" I want to do it." Said Hermione eager for a new challenge.

" Me too" chimed in Harry quickly.

" Excellent. " Dumbledore smiled and said, " this is how it'll work. Your training to be an Animagus is different from what the rest of the class is going to learn. The first few weeks will be spent learning the ProTem spell. Once that's done I'll show both how to help the other in their transformation. Now do either of you have any questions?"

Hermione eagerly put up her hand " I have one. When do we start?"

Harry snorted out with laughter at Hermione's question. Apparently, Hermione didn't think her enthusiasm to answer the question by Professor Dumbledore was as funny as what Harry found it to be. Her displeasure would only get worse when Professor Dumbledore joined Harry in laughing, though he had the good sense to stop when he saw Hermione's eyes were set on killing mode.

Harry on the other hand was stupid enough to continue laughing at her when she was obviously getting more riled up. " Ahem... I'm sorry, Ms. Granger." said Professor Dumbledore to stop a fight that he could see coming from a mile away and he wasn't sure if the two students would actually even remember that he was there. " You just reminded me of someone... Well, to answer your question; We'll start right now. First lets get rid of these chairs..." with that their journey into the exciting world of Animagi began.

When the class finally finished neither Harry nor Hermione managed to get the ProTem spell correct. As Harry and Hermione made their way through the crowd of students nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The usual cluster of girls that had followed him the day before was back and they all wanted to go out with him. His polite refusal only made the girls want him more. Harry wasn’t sure if they were after him or if they wanted to win the challenge of getting his first date.

It was of little surprise to Hermione, but a great deal to Harry, when two of the more senior girls started to fight physically. " Hey stop it..." said Harry as he put himself between the two girls.

" She started it..." said the beautiful Seventh year Ravenclaw.

" No she did..." said the equally beautiful 6th year Hufflepuff girl before trying to lunge towards the other girl.

" Stop it!" yelled Hermione in the middle of the scene with Harry trying to keep the two girls apart. " Harry's still worn out from the fight with the Nundu... try again in a few weeks time. I promise he'll be a lot more receptive then" Hermione then dragged Harry out of the middle of the two girls who decided that Hermione was right and took off in opposite directions when they left.

" I can't believe it... a seventh year and a sixth year girl were fighting over me!" said Harry with a dumbfounded look on his face.

" It's not you they're going after...in a way." said Hermione.

" What're they after then?"

" You really don't notice the effect you have around girls do you. Remember sorting... did you see them winking..."

Harry only managed to nod shyly.

" Well the reason all the girls were winking at you was because they had just seen you half naked and they liked what they saw" Hermione blushed very slightly and said, " It was your own fault - you should have had bought new clothes in Morocco." At this point Harry noticed that he was in the corridor leading to the Gryffindor common room and Ron was headed their way.

" Harry, you alright?" asked Ron obviously referring to the incident with the Haguba stone. If the voice didn't sound so hollow to Harry he might have actually believed that Ron cared about what happened to him. But Harry didn't care whether or not it was hollow or not he had decided long ago to let Ron get away with it.

" I'm fine... tell me what happened after I left?"

Ron told Harry and Hermione everything that happened. " Well after you left Professor McGonagall explained why the stone had that odd reaction to you -"

" Why?" interrupted Hermione.

" Well it supposed to hurt a little when you can do more than one animal. But nothing like what you went through. She thinks because of that Dragon transformation..."

Ron wanted the attention of the group to focus on him once more so he said, " Well anyway... Neville and Pansy were the only two who wanted to be animagus. Malfoy and Pansy had a huge fight after the class when she offered to be... well that'll be putting it too lightly... she practically ordered Neville to make her, his ProTem" he paused and snorted out with laughter. " Lavender didn't want the job and Pansy was the only one who could do it. For a moment it looked like Neville was going to decline being an animagus when she actually told him she would kill him if she didn't have a ProTem...poor Neville... can you imagine having Pansy for his ProTem."

Harry didn't think Pansy was actually bad, as her only crime was that until recently she was involved with Malfoy. There was that little incident with her teasing Hermione about being called " stunningly pretty" by Rita Skitter, but Harry thought she was most likely jealous of Hermione, being heralded as a beauty queen.

Harry got the chance to join in Ron's laughter when Hermione asked if there was any homework. The three friends played exploding snaps in the common room until it was time for dinner.

By dinner time that day the entire school knew about Harry's transformation. Everyone knew that Voldemort marked Harry for death a long time ago, but the transformation drove a point home to them. If Harry can change into a dragon then he was a very strong wizard and strong wizards had a way of dying when Voldemort finds out about them. Harry initially thought that the news of his ability would cause the female student population to become even more obsessed with him but he was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.

However the exact reason was beyond him, so he asked the most qualified person to ask this. “ Hermione why do think all the girls are avoiding me... not that I don't like the break from all the attention" said Harry as the trio moved toward their final class after dinner.

" Well, I talked to that Ravenclaw that was following you around yesterday, she said it's because they don't want to get attached to you..." she saw confusion in Harry's face so she tried to elaborate. " They think they'll go through the same think that Cho Chang went through last year," there was palpable sorrow in her voice. Regretting what she had said Hermione started to say " I'm sorry, I so- " But Harry interrupted her.

" I never told you what really happened after I got transported. I'll tell you guys later when I'm up to it.... If I hadn't been so busy working over the summer I think I would be very depressed right now. Okay...enough mush." He turned to Ron and asked, " Where is the new Dueling class?"

" Right here" said a familiar obnoxious snobby voice that belonged to none other than Percy Weasley. He came out of the room and held out his hand to Harry, " Good day, Old Chap! I heard what you did... the dragon thing... I mean"

" How are you doing Percy?" Harry said shaking Percy's hand. " I heard about the promotion, so I think congratulations are in order."

" Well... what can I say? Hard work pays off sometimes." said Percy. Harry was sure he saw Percy blush a little. " Hey I saw the demonstration on Saturday. Excellent work, both of you. But Hermione..." he turned to her and said, " That was some 'Golden Flame'. I haven't seen that since I was a first year student here and that was nothing compared to what you did" Hermione blushed at the complement.

" Though I was disappointed at how long it took you to realize Harry's strategy... Oh my! Did I use those two words in the same sentence? From what Ron always tells at home it was quite unlike what I saw" he, Hermione and Ron, started to laugh at Percy's joke about Harry.

" I know... I couldn't believe that he made me so angry that I wasted my energy attacking him" she replied to Percy before adding, " Before last summer, I wouldn't have thought Harry was capable of doing anything like that either"

" Ha. Ha. Funny! Very Funny!" he said before going into the class ahead of his friends.

(A/N: I know my Percy cracked a joke.... But someone had to. It was too good of an opportunity to miss it. Don't worry it was his last one...I hope. :)

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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22. Hermione doesn't know the answer

At the time when I was writing this, there were few stories that weren’t almost straight into H/Hr. So I had decided to change the plot line at this point and do something different. I have several Au version of how this fic came into being. One of these days, I plan to put them into word.

Chapter Number: 23
Chapter Name: Hermione doesn't know the answer

When the Dueling class was finished Harry was ready to collapse on the common room couch from drowsiness and that is exactly what he did. The class was mandatory otherwise he could have had skipped it, since he and Hermione had already had those classes. " I'm beat" said Harry.

" Me too" Ron echoed the sentiment.

" Me three" said Hermione.

" That class was hard" said Ron " You two made it seem so easy"

" Don't worry... You'll get the hang of it" replied Hermione in her usual optimistic way.

" If you don't... I'm sure Hermione wouldn't mind having another person on close call to be beaten up whenever she wanted to," teased Harry. He saw Hermione start to go for her wand so he quickly said, " I have to check on the first years. I'll see ya all tomorrow."

He headed out of the room towards the door, confident in the fact that Hermione would not do something behind his back. Fortunately for him Hermione had just changed her mind not to curse Harry even though his back was turned.

" Hey Harry, wait up. I'll join you" said Ron as he quickly caught up to Harry.

" Bye" said Hermione putting down her wand.

The first year students were having a great time in their dorm room. Hermione had given similar advice to the girls, so when Snape asked his questions he was disappointed that the students didn't get them wrong. They had managed to get thirty points off the house for their effort. But the first years were determined not to let that get in their way.

When Harry entered the room he was treated like a friendly big brother rather than the celebrity. All of them were eager to tell Harry of the events of the day. Once all the important parts of the day were covered Harry noticed that it was almost time for their bedtime. " Time for bed" said Harry pointing at his watch. The boys went to their bed happy as clams and eager about what surprises were in store for them. Harry made his way back to the common room careful not to make too much noise.

When he saw Hermione sleeping on the chair by the fire he decided that it was too risky putting her in bed again and neither did he want to wake her up, so he went back to his room and grabbed his second blanket before wrapping it around her. Harry watched her sleep for a while before deciding to go to sleep himself.

It took him a while to get to sleep but once he did he was out like a log. When he woke up at six thirty he looked at where Hermione was sleeping last night. She was still sleeping peacefully. Harry didn't want Ron to become jealous so he went to her and started to vigorously shake her.

" What is it?" she said still groggy from the sleep. She did notice Harry was surprisingly well composed for the time of the morning it was. She had a dreadful thought, ‘ Sweet Merlin! I must look like a Hag’

" Rise and shine your Royal Highness.... I mean Hermione." She really didn't want to wake up so she closed her eyes again. Harry knew it was time to use the big gun.

" We have classes in about one and a half hours" Hermione's eyes snapped open and her face lit up like a Christmas tree at the prospect of a new day full of things to learn. Noticing her face go from annoyance to excitement because of the words that he had said Harry started to grin broadly. " I thought that might get your attention"

She sat up real quick and headed for the girls dorm. She stopped midway and said as she turned around, " Thanks for the blanket" before she left.

It took them both half an hour to take a shower and get dressed. They waited for Ron for nearly fifteen minutes when Harry found out about her date with Victor. Apparently it was all that she had hoped for and was looking forward to their next one after the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. But all this talk about Victor stopped when Harry noticed Ron come down the stairs. " Hey Ron..." said Harry "... what took you so long?"

" Neville..." he said grumbling, "...that klutz managed to lock himself up in the public showers." Ron turned to Hermione and said, " So what were you talking about before I came in?"

" Oh...nothi..." Harry didn't get to finish his sentence when Hermione barged into the conversation.

" About Victor and my date with him on Sunday. It was really goo..."

Hermione started to walk towards the entrance but she didn't stop talking about Victor. Since she was walking a bit ahead of them she didn't see Harry holding Ron's mouth shut to stop him from saying something that he would later regret. The breakfast went very fast and it seemed that they had only touched their food when they had to start moving.

The history of Magic was a class that no one could stay awake through. It was funny to see that a lot of students had brought their own pillows to sleep through it. Ron always had a spare shrunken pillow in his bag since the second class of that subject they ever had. Hermione however preferred to either work on memorizing that years textbook or just glancing through the latest copy of "Hogwarts: A history".

The class began like the other two classes had begun. Professor Binns went through their homework assignments. Harry and Hermione's papers were good enough that Professor Binns gave them thirty points each. Ron's paper wasn't that good but he earned five points for effort. When Professor Binns told them of their study topic for that year Harry's heart jumped.

" Shozar Wars and events leading up to and consequences of the war"

Harry's throat went dry and for a long time he didn't breathe. Harry took comfort in the fact that everyone would sleep through the classes anyway but he knew Hermione would not and she was the person who was most likely to put the clues together.

‘ If don't tell her then...’ his thought was interrupted as the consequences of Hermione finding out and telling someone intentionally or unintentionally flashed through his mind. ‘Thousands dead and millions more affected... No I'll tell her. She'll know why she has to keep secret what she has to.’

He decided to tell her about all that he dared to when Ron was busy doing his practice for Quidditch Trials.

Hermione sitting next to Ron was thinking not about the homework she had been doing, nor was her mind stuck on the topic they were going to study that year. She was still on the 'Victor love train' conversation that she had with Harry and Ron in the morning.

‘ Hard to believe I turned down Victor three time before saying yes.’ mused Hermione as a glazed expression washed over her face.

Hermione had originally wished that, Ron would ask her to the Yule Ball. But when Ron asked Fleur Delacour to the dance, she said yes to Victor.

Krum, the world famous Quidditch player. Her crush on Ron started when they met. She sat next to Ron to pretend that she was interested in Harry. Normally she would stay away from people who were popular or well known before that.

That's also the reason she was deeply upset by the comment Ron had made on the morning of Halloween. She still had the crush on Ron and she knew full well what effect mentioning Krum had on Ron. Though they felt the same way she had decided at the time of the Yule ball that Ron had to admit his feelings for her before she would even consider dating him and Ron would only have his chance when Victor did something wrong.

Victor was sweet, kind and very nice to Hermione, and he was the first person to notice her as a girl, something she remembered. Tired of being one of the guys, she was happy to finally get noticed. She was quite happy to be Victor.

Hermione had been quite surprised to see how hard Harry worked, to stop Ron from saying things to Hermione that might effect whether or not Ron and Hermione would ever become boyfriend and girlfriend.

‘ I can't believe how Harry's been doing all these sweet things for me and Ron...’ thought Hermione. ‘ Why doesn't anyone see how wonderful he is? Maybe I should find him someone... Yes! That's what I'll do. Let's see now... Ginny is a good choice...er.. no. Wrong approach. I need to find someone who thinks Harry is deserving of love more than what I think who he should go out with...’

Hermione was so engrossed in her thought's she didn't even hear the question that. Professor Binns had asked her. " Excuse me... but what was the question?"

‘ Did she just say what I think she just said?’ thought Harry incredulously. Harry's head twirled around as soon as he had heard Hermione say that. Fortunately for her he was the only person, besides Hermione, awake - that was exaggerating it. He was half way between sleep and awake himself. Her reputation as being a good student and always paying attention in class was still intact.

Professor Binns was also surprised at this question but he repeated the question none the less, " Name the person who was instrumental in capturing Shozar Sebastian?" in his drawling voice.

" I don't know," said Hermione, who was irritated at that moment as she was interrupted from making up a list of students that she though might be interested in Harry - romantically.

Professor Binns was stunned but he turned his head toward Harry who absentmindedly answered, " Harold Parker"

.

It's ironic really that all those Ravenclaws who hated Hermione for getting top marks slept right through the day she actually didn't answer a question. The reason might have been she was thinking about Harry's love life and didn't want to be interrupted but who is to say that Hermione would have had known the answer.... Well you all know that's not true. She always knows the answer. But did she this time?

<<~~~>>

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23. untitled

Chapter Number: 23
Chapter Name: Painful encounter of the Veela kind

When the class finally finished Harry looked at the concentration on Hermione's face and realized that it was because she had been concentrating on something else in class that she had not answered the question. For a moment he thought that she had realized something that Harry had been dreading to tell her, but his fears were proved to be unfounded when he tentatively asked her why she hadn't been paying attention in class. Her reply sounded totally plausible.

" Just thinking about Victor..." she added a sigh at the end to make Ron jealous. ‘ So easy to set him off,’ thought Hermione.

A relieved Harry barely managed to hold on to Ron's mouth. Hermione smiled as she caught the struggle between Ron and Harry from the corner of her eyes. The trio with the Gryffindors had just joined the line outside the door when they saw someone running frantically in their direction.

She had run all the way from her previous class to make it there before rest of her house got there. As the panting Pansy joined the girls she stood exactly opposite of Harry on the line for the boys. Standing right next to Pansy, Harry could hardly ignore the fact that she kept eyeing Neville every few seconds. Pansy turned a deep scarlet color, before turning away from Harry when she saw that he had seen her look at Neville.

‘ Damn! I'm going to miss this interesting new development when I'm in transfiguration with Professor Dumbledore’ thought Harry just as he saw the door open.

The bright room behind the person who came out of the room made the person appear to Harry, who was at the back of line, as a silhouette. As the person walked further out of the room the more details of the face and body became clear. Pearly white skin and beautiful silver blonde hair was one of her best features.

It was Fleur Delacour. One of the TriWizard champions that Harry had beat the year before.

She walked out into the corridor in a nice red cloak, the back of which was trailing behind her as she almost floated down the corridor inspecting both lines of boys and girls. The all too familiar signs of loathing, hatred toward her from the girls and the unmistakable signs of lust in the hormonal teenagers' eyes... not to mention rest of their bodies were there. The sweat on their faces, the quivering of their lips... it all made her a bit sick.

The boys were using the camera in their mind to capture a million snapshot of her as she walked slowly down the corridor. There was no doubt in her mind that the boys would later use those pictures to fuel their imagination when they had more privacy. All her life most men had lusted after her, so one can hardly blame her for having a very low opinion of the whole male species.

She froze in mid step when her eyes caught those of the third boy from the end of the line. There was no sign of lust toward her from this boy. He had raven black unruly hair and a set of very bright green eyes behind his square glasses.

* Oh Mon Dieu! Ça ne peut pas être...la cicatrice...C'est! C'est lui!*, thought Fleur.

" 'Arry?" she asked as she took one step back just to make sure that this was who she thought he was. The lightning shaped scar barely visible because of his wild hair was the clue that made sure that she was right in her assumption.

Veela women were extremely hard to resist and only those with extreme mental focus could do so. Though part Veela women are not as hard to resist as full-blooded Veela women it would takes an enormous amount of strength of character to resist them. That is why Fleur was surprised to see Harry not been affected by this.

Fleur attributed the no lust towards her as how strong Harry had become since he took on a Nundu, but that was not the real case.

Harry knew he had no chance in hell of attracting this woman and lusting after her was a waste. He had a better chance going after Hermione than Fleur, even though Hermione was currently involved with Victor Krum, world famous Quidditch player. He had ample time to think of such things in Morocco and had decided that if love finds him it was good but he would not seek it out from somewhere there was no chance in getting it. Harry smiled at her and said, " At your service, Madam" with a small bow.

Fleur examined Harry more closely when he finished his bow. Harry was not the same person physically as he was a few months ago when she had last seen him. Harry had changed from the scrawny little boy she had seen months ago to a rather tall and very decently muscled boy. Nature had been kind enough to give him an early growth spurt (even for wizards), making him appear almost a fully-grown man. Being a head taller than most girls and almost all the boys gave him the appearance of a giant in amongst the other students.

She rushed forward and hugged Harry tightly before kissing him on the cheeks a bit more than necessary... especially considering she was a teacher.

All the boys in class and none more so than Ron, were glaring daggers at Harry who had turned pink at the excessive hugging and kissing. The girls in the class were a different matter altogether. They didn't know if they should be happy that for the moment rest of the boys weren't lusting after Fleur or to be furious with Fleur for the excessive amount of affection that she was showing Harry.

Harry knew why Fleur had reacted like this. Last year during the second task of the TriWizard tournament Harry had risked his life and a chance at outright victory to save her little sister, though it was a mistake on both his and her part in assuming that her sister was in any real danger.

" It's good to see you too," said Harry as he vigorously rubbed his cheeks to get rid of the bright shade of red lipstick she was using, before saying, " How is your sister?"

" She's okay... She is in school thish 'ear. Talks about Oou all the time" She looked him up and down once and said, " Oou 'ave changed. Not skinny, short and lanky boy no more" There was a pause as she said " Oou look 'andsome"

As soon as she had said those words, Harry almost wished she hadn't. Being a part Veela woman she had seen a ton of men follow her like puppies, so a complement from her was a big deal, but it also meant that the dagger eyes from the rest of the boys in the class were getting to critical level. After that point they would simply want to kill him. " Thanks," was all Harry could say as his face flushed once more.

‘ If there’s any more, I’ll have to use a shielding charm all night long to be safe.’ thought Harry as he saw Fleur move away from him and open the door to the class.

Ron like all the other hormonal boys had scrambled for the seats at the front of the room once Fleur had opened the door to let the students in. This left only Harry and the girls to take a seat that weren't occupied by the drooling boys. Though Harry and Hermione walked next to each other as the entered the room, he noticed that Hermione was rather cold to him and didn't talk, but he dismissed the thought as they stated to talk after taking their seat behind Ron.

Fleur went to the front of the room and started to search for something on the desk. Frustrated with the search she yelled " Tidus" with her wand pointed at the desk.

A bright beam hit the table and it's contents. Everything started to sort by itself magically. The scrolls arranged themselves to reveal what she was looking for. It was small red bag no bigger than the length of Harry's palm.

" When I give frog to Oou..." she did a gesture to suggest that they had to eat it. "...You ea it."

The frog was actually a chocolate frog. Harry was a bit confused as to why she gave the chocolates to only boys. When it was Harry's turn she didn't give him any. The rest of the boys were enjoying the chocolate frogs, but not as much as the fact that they all got something and Harry didn't.

Once all the boys had finished eating their chocolate Fleur started to talk.

" Zee reason for giving zee 'chocolat frog' was to get rid of some of zee attraction Oou all seem to huv towards me."

" Of course!" cried Hermione, not believing that she had missed the obvious clue. Harry was still uncertain as to why Fleur had given everyone a chocolate frog other than him. So he asked Hermione why he didn't get one. "Er...Hermione?"

" What?" Hermione was still mentally punishing herself for missing the clue so her voice had an edge to it that she was unable to get rid of.

"...er. Why didn't she give me one?..." he blushed and then said, " I mean... does she want me to be attracted to her?"

Hermione couldn't believe what Harry had just said. ‘ He has absolutely no clue...’ thought Hermione fondly. " No!... You're a moron if you think that" Hermione was surprised by how intense her response had been.

Harry looked hurt at what Hermione had said, " I mean... No. You weren't drooling at her like Malfoy or Ron...." she paused and reformed what she wanted to say. " You were the only boy in the class who wasn't looking at her like they wanted to have their way with her right there." Hermione blushed, as that wasn't exactly the sentence that she had wanted to say either.

" OH!" Harry thought for a second and then asked not certain if that was a good thing or not. " Is that a good thing?"

" Honestly Harry!" she said making a face at him. "Yes, it is a very good thing."

" Ok." Harry's face burst into a big smile. Hermione couldn't help but imitate it soon after.

A few seconds after Fleur's sentence finished, all the boys looked positively sick. When they looked up to ask for help, they saw her point to the far right side of the room. All the boys ran to the sinks that lined the wall of the right side of the class. They waited for something to happen. What happened next, Harry would remember for the rest of his life. Malfoy, Ron, Neville and Seamus all threw up simultaneously, while the rest waited until the vomit fairy paid them a visit.

‘ So that's why they were there,’ thought Harry who had noticed the sinks when he had entered the room but didn't understand what their use was. ‘ Glad...I'm not lusting after her thought Harry.’

" Hey Hermione..." he turned to look at her, " ...are those guys going to go through this every time we have Defence against Dark Arts?" he asked. The thought was terrible. Throwing up three times a week.... it was almost enough to make Harry want to go and join the boys in emptying his own stomach.

Hermione was smiling when she saw Ron thrown up. ‘ That's what you get when you go after a Veela woman... I couldn't have had given a lecture that would even come close to this- ’ Hermione's thoughts were interrupted by Harry's question.

" No- Well for about the next month or so, but it'll stop after they learn to control their hormones a little better." Harry was quite surprised to see the evil happiness in Hermione when she said this.

She looked like she was indeed enjoying this more than she really should – Harry thought. Aside from this nothing of importance happened in the class. They learned about Dragons and some of the famous Dragon Slayers...well names of wizard groups that took care of the dragon pest problems in the medieval times.

They were told to read up about a creature called " Blissy", as it was their midyear exam topic. The whole thing would be about that creature and how to handle it. They had to do detailed research without any help from the teacher and prepare themselves for an encounter with the creature. There would not be any help given out for that topic. Harry made a mental note to do some research on the topic to get himself started.

The Charms class was the next, after lunch, but before that the trio had lunch. Fred and George Weasley who were two years ahead of Harry and his two friends had had that class the day before and as such knew what was in store for the boys. Ron took only a few seconds to get angry with his two brothers, because they neglected to mention what to expect. But they were much more interested in Harry's experience in the class. " So Harry... Did you enjoy throwing up?" asked Fred and George with smug faces when the trio sat down on the table.

" I...I..." Harry wasn't sure what to say and as if on cue Hermione spoke up.

" He didn't throw up... actually he was the only boy in class that didn't drool at the mere sight of Fleur, if you must know." She said patting Harry on the back much to Harry's embarrassment.

The answer was not what the twins were hoping for and their jaw dropped in obvious disbelief. The answer was intended for Fred and George but the rest of the table heard her too. Most of the girls looked like they had seen Harry for the first time in their life. Harry could see his normalcy flying away from him after that comment. He prepared himself for another day like the Saturday and hoped like hell for a day like Monday to come around.. soon. Harry decided that he would fake one of his nightmares to stop the girls from taking too much of a notice of him.

<<~~~>>

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24. Early-morning Fun

Chapter Number: 24
Chapter Name: Early-morning Fun

Harry might have had thought that he needed to fake a nightmare, fortunately for him he didn't. At dinnertime it became clear that the girls were still scared to get involved with him, since the dragon transformation incident. This was a delight that he intended to savor for as long a time as he could.

The next day began early... even for him. He woke up at five thirty in the morning, which was rather early compared to his usual habit of waking up at about six thirty. Since he had a whole hour to waste, Harry headed to his room to get his Firebolt, the fastest broomstick that he knew to exist.

When Harry opened the gate to the Quidditch field he took in a deep breath of fresh air. The air was always more crisp in the morning and it made his nose tickle. Once on the field he knelt down on the field and ripped off a bit of grass. As he was standing up straight he let the grass fall from his hand, to determine which way the wind was blowing. He went to the shed with the Quidditch supplies, and took out the practice snitch. It was slightly bigger than the real thing, hence it was slower but that didn't make it any easier to catch it.

By the time he reached the field again the sun was making headway into the sky. Harry used a spell to force the snitch on to the ground. He mounted his broom and yelled, " Finite Incantem", which broke the spell holding the practice snitch down. The snitch whizzed past Harry at in incredible rate. His blood started to fill with adrenaline from the thrill of the search as he felt the first sign when the tip of his tongue became bitter for a split second.

Harry hadn't been the only one who woke up early that morning. Alicia Spinnet the head-girl also woke up from a bad dream involving a circus and a family of poodles. Whenever she woke up this early in the morning she always liked to watch the sun rise over the Quidditch field, against a silhouette of the forest. In fact it’d been happening a lot to her.

Only the other day, the had been there when Harry had put Hermione to bed. She hadn’t said anything as she saw nothing wrong there. Harry did leave as quickly as he came in, and didn’t even kiss Hermione on the forehead – Alicia sighed. ‘ This is not a romantic movie.’

Though she suspected the sun was a fair way up, Alicia decided that it was worth looking at. Small amounts of sunlight filtered through the multi-colored window when she moved the curtains to one side. It took a second for her to get accustomed to the bright light. But she could see a solitary figure on the Quidditch field even before her eyes got there focus back.

‘ I wonder who’s that?’ she thought, it was too far too even make a guess at the gender. She saw the person get on the broom and then release the silvery snitch. The person was very quick at retrieving it and she assumed it was Harry since he was the fastest snitch catcher on the field.

‘ This is a bit voyeuristic... isn't it?,’ asked a faint voice in her mind, sniggering and giggling.

Alicia’s face flushed. ‘ Not really... I'm the captain of the team and I'm just seeing how he's practicing.’

‘ Is that so?...’ The voice said to her in very very intimidating way. ‘ Then tell me this, Why do you always blush when he looks at you?’

‘ Be... Because.... ,’ the logical part of the brain failed to find any reason. Talk about ironic.

‘ You don't know the answer or is it that the answer scares you?,’ asked the faint voice was becoming more clear and resonant all the time.

‘ If you're so smart then tell me why?’ Alicia spat at her other voice in her head.

‘ Remember you asked... You like him.’ there was a hint of mischief in that voice.

‘ Of course I like him. He's not malicious to me is he?,’ said the logical part then tried to elaborate, ‘ He's polite, gentle, caring and handsome... oops.’

The logical part of her brain wanted to withdraw that last adjective, more than anything else in the world. ‘ You said handsome, not 'cute' like you usually say about him.. Could it be that you like him more than you let on?...’ the voice was now more confident than ever before.

‘ I don't...’ She said almost wanting it to be true. ‘ and...and even if I did it would never work... I'm two years older than him.’

‘ Is that so Ms. If-I-was-a-day-younger-I-would-be-in-sixth-year.... if you aren't interested then why do you keep talking to me... You want me to give you reasons to go out with him... well I'll give you some. Like you said, he's polite, gentle, caring and last but not least he's handsome. There's one that I'll add just to sweeten the pot... he's tall – I still don’t how that happened in three months……… Err.. Even if he's younger than you he certainly is taller, so it's not going to be embarrassing for you two go out in public. BUT I highly doubt that would be a reason you wouldn't want to go out with him.’

‘ But I'm leaving at the end of the year...,’ protested the logical part of the brain.

‘ so..’

‘ so we can't continue the relationship after Hogwarts...’

‘ what makes you so certain that you'll want to or even that it would last that long? How many year long relationships have you had so far?’

‘ None...,’ replied the logical part with disappointment dripping from it.

‘ See. As for continuation of the relationship, if this is love, true love then it wouldn't be a problem. Even if it isn't, you'll have a good friend.’

‘ So you think I should...’

‘ Ask your heart, ... WAIT, that's me! YES OF COURSE * shouted the voice.

‘ What do I do? I mean I haven't tried dating since George in fifth year’ Alicia shuddered. ‘ ... I'll be rusty.’

‘ At least you have, he hasn't had any. Well I don’t think he has. He doesn’t look it. He didn’t even kiss that other girl.. Hermione whatever…’

‘ Granger. Hermione Granger.’

‘ Okay, Hermione. He didn’t even kiss her goodnight , like in the movies that night. So you're in good company. I think I should give advice.’

‘ What makes you the expert,’ Alicia asked.

‘ We all those movies and those romance novels under Katie’s bed – that you supposedly don’t know about – it all has to go somewhere.’

‘ Smartaleck.’

‘ No name calling... I'll give you one final advice... take it slow. He's been through an awful lot lately. Become good friends first, then if you want to be more than that tell him. If you do it this way... you'll get to know the real him.’

‘ Thanks... I'll see what I can do – maybe.’

‘ Ohh, you’ll do more than that, if you want to stay sane.’

Once the conversation with her heart or is it the less logical part of her brain was finished she rushed through the morning rituals and headed to the Quidditch field with her very own Nimbus Two Thousand and One in her left hand. She ran all the way to the field, coming to full stop a few meters from the field. Harry was too deep in his search for the snitch to realize that someone was watching from the sidelines. He came to a full stop right in front of her when she caught the snitch that he was going for.

" Nice catch," he said smiling broadly at her.

She smiled one of her own. " It really was nothing..." said Alicia, as she handed Harry the snitch that had quite by chance had appeared right in front of her nose. " Can I play with you...," she blurted out. “ I mean room for one more." – ‘ Mind out of gutter Spinnet!’

‘ She blushes an awful lot,’ thought Harry as he nodded a yes.

" Brilliant!” Alicia said giving a whoop. “ Erm, Well then... what are the rules?"

" We both search for the snitch - whoever catches it most out of ten releases wins?"

" That's hardly fair, I'm not a seeker."

" Well, that's why I'm giving you 2 capture handicap."

" Only two?... let me use your broom and I'll take one capture handicap... how about that" asked Alicia, fairly certain Harry would not give his broom.

" Erm okay." said Harry rather reluctantly, "... just don't crash it."

" Wow.. I really didn't expect you to agree, but...." she snatched Harry's broom as she dropped hers from her hand and took off into the air. " ...since you did, I'm going to make you regret this."

" We'll see" Harry took off after her on her Nimbus 2001.

Her Nimbus 2001 though slower, it was a lot easier to handle since the broom didn't twist and turn at the slightest movement of her grip. She also wasn't required to react so fast all the time. She understood where the phrase 'seeker reflex' came from as well as how Harry had reacted so fast when she collided with him.

Several times during their search for the snitch she was really impressed how fast Harry seemed to move on her Nimbus 2001 and stop dead when it looked as though they might collide. ‘ He's really a born flyer isn't he... No wonder he's got dragon animagus ability.’ thought Alicia in total amazement.

She had only started to notice Harry the year before when he went to the Yule ball. She remembered how uncomfortable he looked being moved on the dance floor like a show dog by his date. She wanted to go and have a dance with him but by the time George Weasley had let go of her he had gone off to somewhere.

" Hey...what's the score?" asked Alicia when she saw Harry catch the snitch. The game went on...

Even with one handicap and the faster broom Alicia still lost. There were two reasons for this. Number one Harry was the seeker for the Gryffindor house and as such used to looking for the snitch, whereas she was the chaser a position that emphasis more on passing and intercepting. The second reason was that Alicia had never handled a Firebolt before and quite frankly looked, for the first few minutes, to be a first year broom student.

On the way back from the Quidditch field Alicia apologized to Harry for her behavior the morning before. Harry told her that she didn't need to since she was defending the honor of the house with the knowledge that she had. When the entered the common room there was only two people waiting for them there.

Ron and Hermione.

" Where the hell have you beeeeeennn?" the last part of the question got elongated when he saw his companion was none other than the head-girl. They were both covered in mud and Harry had a small cut on his elbow that had a small amount of blood leaking from it.

" Playing a Quidditch mini game." answered Harry cheerily to a shocked Ron's face.

" With her..." asked Ron pointing at the head-girl.

" Yes." answered Alicia, " ... we have been playing catch the snitch. Harry won. Maybe next time you two would like to join us." there was genuine friendliness in her voice.

Hermione quickly dismissed the idea though. " Thanks, but no thanks." she said, as she tied her hair in a ponytail. " Brooms have a tendency to run away from me and I really don't care for Quidditch much anyway- " then she pointed at Ron and said, " -feel free to take him with you whenever you like."

Ron turned red at this comment, though Alicia saw no reason for him to do so. She politely smiled at him, before things could get too uncomfortable in the silence that hung in there. She quickly left after that saying she had to get ready for her class and headed for the showers. Harry did the same as well and when he came downstairs he found out that Alicia had left for her first class a few minutes before.

The trio agreed that they didn't have enough time for breakfast and so they went to their first class of the day. Potions with Professor Snape, but when they entered the class five minutes late, something unlike all the other times they had entered late happened....

(VERY BIG AND IMPORTANT AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sometimes I show what a character is thinking. I wanted to do that for Ron, but all things I thought of, made him seem worse than my portrayal of him is supposed be. He's not supposed to be bad... Not yet… Maybe ;)

About Alicia: I know some of you will find the Harry/Alicia aspect to be ‘unreal’ or rather like a teen male fantasy – but you should know that – you’re right. It is the teen male fantasy. However, I don’t think Harry’s first girlfriend should be Hermione. It makes things all too complicated in the beginning. His first girlfriend if I had to choose would be like Hermione. Mature, and able to think past one date frame of mind. )

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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25. " Class, Meet Cuddles"

Chapter Number: 25
Chapter Name: " Class, Meet Cuddles"

Parvati Patil was the first person to reach the Potions class that morning. She muttered angrily at herself for coming into the room so early. And alone. ‘ You just had to wake up so early... didn't you?,’ she thought to herself as she took her seat next to where Lavender was supposed to sit.

‘ Well at least the Slytherins aren't here yet.’

It seemed fate didn’t like Parvati that day. No sooner had she thought that, all the Slytherin boys walked into the room with Malfoy in the lead. They took their usual seats at the front of the class. No words were exchanged between Parvati and the Slytherins, nor were any said between the Slytherins themselves. Malfoy quickly became bored with the situation and decided to terrorize the only Gryffindor present.

His job was made even easier by the simple fact that Parvati was one of the docile types. She had the habit of exploding occasionally, but that rarely happened and Parvati had a feeling that this morning was not going to be one of them. Malfoy intentionally took a long time to get up from his seat. He made sure that Parvati could not miss the malicious expression on his face.

Parvati shifted on her seat and wished like hell someone else from the Gryffindor house would come in. When Malfoy was finally off the seat he slowly made his way towards her at the back of the room. His wand waving in the air menacingly.

" Petrificus Totalus" said Dean Thomas and three other Gryffindors in unison as they entered the room pointing their wands in Malfoy's direction. It took them a split second to determine that Malfoy wanted to intimidate poor Parvati. Malfoy felt his arms stick to his sides and his legs get stuck together, just before he fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Dean and the other three Gryffindors made a point of stepping on Malfoy as they quickly went to where Parvati was sitting.

" You alright, love?" asked Dean, careful to keep an eye on Malfoy's little gang.

" Yes.” Her voice radiated relief. “ Thank you."

" Don't worry about it..." he turned his full attention to the Slytherins now.

Crabbe and Goyle looked as though they might start a fight with the five Gryffindors present, but stopped when they saw Professor Snape walk in the room.

Malfoy had managed to get free of the spell fairly quickly, considering three of the student had combined their magic to do it. Since the teacher was in the class he decided to launch a formal complaint, in the hopes that Professor Snape would take points off the Gryffindor house and hand out detention. " Sir…" he said in a wounded voice.

Professor Snape's entrance was missed by all those present, as they had all been paying attention to what was happening between Malfoy and the Gryffindors.

He did not make his trademark 'Tap' noises every six steps, since he had totally forgotten to wear his normal footwear in the morning. Had it been one of the students, he would have had taken points off them, for it was dangerous for students to work with dangerous potions without protection. He didn’t even take his deep breath of Gryffindor fear in the air.

Most importantly he did not scratch his buttocks once, as his hands were busier holding a piece of equipment that was in his hand. He sat down quietly on his desk and stared at the mortar and pestle set that Harry had given him.

The mortar and pestle set was the only one of its kind in the world and he knew that just by owning it he had become the envy of potion masters all over the world.

‘ Just wait till they see me at the next Potions convention... I'll finally get the upper hand on that ...’ even though he was just thinking he could not help shuddering at the though of the name this person, ‘ Professor Snooty from Cartova Mountain Academy... I'm going to really rub my face into him...’

Professor Snooty was the person that Professor Snape hated almost as much as Lord Voldemort. In reality his hatred was equal to that of James Potter and his marauders, and Harry and his reckless behavior combined.

He was his main rival in potions when they studied together at Hogwarts. Though Professor Snape did not particularly like the subject that he taught, he always tried to make himself known as the best – it was his solemn duty as a slytherin. For years Professor Snooty had beaten Snape at showing off their prized possession to the conference. He was enjoying his daydream so much, that he actually blew up on a Slytherin.

At that point, he really didn't care, on whom he blew up. The only things he could remember correctly were "I hate Snooty"; " I Hate Potters" and " I need some owl droppings for my wart removal potion".

" What in the blue blazes do you want?"

" Th..the.. Gryffindors attacked me without provocat-" Malfoy was interrupted by Professor Snape.

Professor thought for a split second and decided that he'll take some points off. This way he didn't really have to fill up any paper work.

" Five points off Gryffindors..." he said, choosing the least amount he could take off with out filing any paperwork. He did not care whether or not Malfoy was killed at that point all he cared for was going back to his daydream about how he was going to rub Professor Snooty's nose into the work.

" ...Go to your seat Draco.” He said shortly. “ And stay there".

Then an angry Professor Snape turned to the class and said, " Next person to make a peep gets a month of detention in the Forbidden Forest." before going back to looking at the mortar and pestle set with a glazed expression on his face.

He was not sure if he would follow through with the punishment, but he knew just the threat was good enough to keep the class well controlled. For the rest of class Professor Snape was very nice to Gryffindors, not intentionally of course.

He didn't notice when Harry and his two friends showed up to class well over five minutes late. Malfoy didn't dare point it out to Professor Snape, as he was scared of how differently Professor Snape was acting.

Snape also did not really take the class; rather he let the students do what ever they wanted as long as they were quite. He never stopped staring at the mortar and pestle set to actually teach anything that day. The Gryffindors were simply happy to do nothing in class. That is except for Hermione ofcourse.

Her academic mind reeled at the thought of a whole period being wasted because the teacher was not actually teaching anything. She had to be restrained by Harry and Ron all throughout the potions class, so that she did not ask Professor Snape what was going on. When the class finished she was really upset by the situation.

" If you two ever do anything like that again...” there was a crease on her forehead from the anger. “ I swear in the name of the Merlin and his library of Magical books and all that is good in the world, I'll kill you both. Do you realize what just happened?" she asked, looking back and forth between Harry and Ron.

They were a bit tired from holding Hermione down on the floor, so didn’t answer. " Well do you?" the pitch of her voice getting dangerously higher, "... He was staring at that..." she actually did not know what it was that Snape was staring at she did not see it, "...that thing"

" A Mortar and Pestle set to be exact, and a very expensive one." said Harry. " I should know, I gave it to him." said Harry as the moved down the corridor to where the Care of Magical Creatures class would be held.

" Is it enchanted to make Snape forget about class?" asked Neville, who had just caught up to the terrific trio and sounded very hopeful that, for the rest of the year, he would not have to make a fool of himself in front of Professor Snape. Surprisingly enough Hermione though that Harry had done the same thing. She walked a few steps ahead of Harry and spread her arms, effectively blocking the narrow corridor to Harry.

" Is that why you gave it to him?" asked Hermione.

Harry was taken aback by the fact that, Hermione thought that Harry was capable of doing something like that. ‘ Well I have to admit it is a reasonable assumption...,’ thought Harry, as he tried to dodge Hermione. Seeing that she was determined to get an answer, he answered.

" As hard as it may seem, I didn't even think about it. Now that you mention it, maybe I should have done it." Harry paused, a little to see Hermione’s eyes flare up. When he thought she was going to start to scold him again, he started to speak, " The Mortar & Pestle set is very expensive and it's what all potion masters hope to have. The maker of that particular one was very famous all over the world. That's the only one of his work that survived the Shozar Wars", he stopped and tried to dodge her again. She was very persistent and it was one her qualities that Harry found very fitting. There was no hope of him actually getting past her without attacking her, so he decided to cave in for a while. " I gave it him because he was a good friend to my mom, even though he was in Slytherin. You happy, now?"

" Very..." said Hermione.

“ You mom, and Snape.” Ron cried disgusted.

Harry punched Ron in the shoulder. “ Not in that way you git. Remember when I said Gryffindors picked on her – he was one of her only friends.”

“ Ohh.. Well, it’s okay then..” Ron still looked uneasy.

" Well good. Now can we get to Hagrid's class?" asked Harry.

For the first time in history of Hogwarts, the Gryffindors wanted to stay in the potions class rather than go to Care of Magical Creatures. They all knew of the eccentricities of Hagrid and they knew chances were he had something that was bigger, faster, had more teeth and was more dangerous than ever before, just waiting for them in class.

" Maybe he won't have anything dangerous this year," said Neville, trying to convince himself rather that anyone else in particular.

" Chances of that happening and Snape giving you points in class are the same.", Commented Ron.

Indeed this was the case as halfway across the school Hagrid got his arm bitten by a small winged creature as he tried to put it inside it's enclosure. The Gryffindors weren't really surprised to see Hagrid show up for the class with bandages to his right arm. They would have been more scared if he hadn't. Hagrid looked like he always did, Big and gentle. It’s just a shame that Hagrid never brought around any nice and easy to love creatures.

Hagrid scanned through the class for his favorite pupil, a scrawny little boy with round glasses. Lately all the girls in his classes were always talking about him. Since Harry hadn't come and seen him in the first few days of first week, he hadn’t had a chance to see him for a while. When he finally saw him he let out a gasp.

Hagrid appeared happy when he recognized Harry, but his happiness was replaced with something that Harry could not identify. It was almost as if Hagrid was seeing something else around Harry. Harry watched as Hagrid looked between him, Hermione and Malfoy. He gave a small smile to Harry and asked, " Is that 'ye Harry?"

" In the flesh!" he said as he gave the friendly half giant a hug. " How was your summer?" he asked when he separated from Hagrid.

Harry had answered yes to Hagrid's question, and it looked as though he was happy, but when he asked about his holidays Hagrid looked genuinely distressed. Harry wondered what had happened in the summer to make Hagrid act in such a way. He had assumed that him and Madame Maxime were sent as envoys to the giants, to ask them join the side of light.

" It was ok... I'll talk ter 'ye later" answered Hagrid obviously not wanting to elaborate any further than he had to in front of the large number of waiting students. Hagrid then rushed off to get something. Ron looked at the rapidly escaping Hagrid and asked, " Where's he going off to?"

" I don't know, but I think he wants us to talk to him after the class is finished."

" But we'll miss lunch." complained Ron, but a look that reminded Harry of how Hermione’s mother controlled her husband made him stop.

When Hagrid was back he had with him, on a trolley, a large cage and some sort of cloth hid the contents of the cage – mostly. Occationally they could see a silvery flash. The creature inside it didn't sound too happy. Well how can a wild beast be happy to be trapped?

" Good Monin to 'ye all"

There was a mumbled reply to the greeting. The cage was shaking and the hissing and growling noises from cage just kept increasing. The whole class took on collective step backwards. Hagrid didn't seem to notice the fear in their eyes.

" Some err 'ye know, I huv been outer England in the summer"

None of students were informed of this actually, nor did they ever actually wonder what he did over the summer.

" Been doing a bit of critter collecting." He then took one step to the cage and with one yank he took off the cloth covering the cage.

"Class..." his voice filled with excitement, " Meet Cuddles" he said pointing at the blue and silvery creature in the cage.

The whole class took one more step back, while Hermione stood where she was. She was busily trying to remember what creature it was as she scratched her head to get inspiration. She would have had stayed there if Harry and Ron hadn't dragged her back with them once they realized that she hadn't taken a step backwards.

The serpentine creature had scales that reflected a diffused version of sunlight, giving it a surreal appearance. It had wings, each the same length as its body (head to tail). The creature didn't have a claw or grabbing mechanism, but on the end of the wings there was something that resembled three fingers. The tail looked to be strong enough to grab hold of something.

" A Veloron" shouted Hermione, at the top of her voice, once she had figured out what the creature was.

" Good job, Hermione... but could 'ya wait til I ask 'yer a question?" said Hagrid.

Hermione seem to take to complement even though there was a hidden reprimand for her, since she had interrupted what he was about to say. " As Hermione said, its a Veloron. These lil critters are found in the deserts of India. Don't worry 'ye don't have ter deal with this one." When he said that the class took a collective sigh or relief.

Neville went to the ground on his knees and clasped his hands before starting to say, " Thank you. Thank you. Thank you" but he had acted a bit too soon, as neither Hagrid nor the Veloron was done with surprises.

" Nice to see 'yer enthusiasm" said Hagrid, " This is a pregnant mother. In the next few weeks it'll give birth to about fifty little critters and once that happens 'ye all get ter take care of one of 'em"

Before the class could finish their collective groan of displeasure, the Veloron opened its mouth and fired a ball flame towards the students. They had all seen the creature open its mouth, but they hadn't expected anything to come out of it, let alone a large ball of fire. Hagrid quickly put the cloth back on the cage to prevent any future fireballs. Hermione knew this was bound to happen and she was well prepared for this.

She pointed he wand at the ball of flame and yelled, " Iglus", causing the ball of flame to turn into solid ice and shatter on the ground on impact, several inches from Neville's kneeling body. This was too much to handle for Neville, who, promptly fainted.

Most people when they saw the fireball backed away from the scene. Malfoy could have had set the world record on how fast he had ran from where he was standing to a nearby tree. Amidst all this four people made their way to where Neville's body was.

Pansy happened to be the person standing behind Neville when this happened, and was the first one to see if he was all right. She knelt down beside him and poked his unconscious body with her wand.

Ron, ever the gentleperson that he was, nudged Neville's body with the tip of his shoes to see if he was still alive. The other person trying to revive him was Dean Thomas.

Hermione was still examining the shattered fireball. " Pansy, Dean and Ron". Hagrid yelled from the front of the class, where he had just put the cover on cage, " -take Neville back to the hospital wing. You guys can stay with him if you want."

After the events with the Veloron, the students weren't sure if they wanted to go to that class anymore. If it hadn't been for Hermione's quick action, Neville would have been in a serious condition. There was a round of applause for her when she looked up from the shattered remains of the fireball. Hagrid wasn't really concerned about the fireball.

" Class, let me assure 'ye the fire ball is only dangerous if 'ye are within two meters of the beast.... after that there's not 'nuff for a cup of tea and 'ye are all five meters away."

When Hermione nodded her head in agreement from behind Hagrid, the class relaxed a little, though not much. Harry really wasn't worried about the fireball like Hermione had been. He knew Hagrid was capable of bringing something into the class that could severely injure, scar or even burn a person, but not something that could kill one of the students by accident.

Hagrid told Zabini, one of the Slytherins girls, to go and grab Malfoy from behind the tree, while he worked on trying to settle the class after the fireball incident. By the time they had done so both Ron and Malfoy were back.

" Hey Harry" said Ron as he took a seat next to Hermione.

" How's he doing?" he asked.

" Fine... You're not going to believe this but Pansy started to cry, saying it was her fault. She thinks she should have pushed him out of the way." said Ron, before he started to laugh.

He did, however, manage to choke out " -she’s even staying behind with Dean." Ron did not get to finish he sentence as Hagrid started to cough in his usual thundering way to get attention of the class.

" Like I told 'ye, these critters…" said Hagrid. Ron and rest of the class worked hard to keep up with what Hagrid was saying about the creature, while Hermione wrote down whatever she already did not know. That, when Harry peeked at her notes, turned out to be only six lines and two of them were about Victor coming to see her in a few weeks time.

Harry on the other hand was listening to what Hagrid was saying and then copied down what was either not common sense or unusual about the creature. By the time class had finished, Harry had written about a scroll full of notes, while the rest of the class had done several.

As the rest of the class made their way to the great hall, the trio moved towards Hagrid's hut. Hagrid's hut had not changed much except for the fact that he had added some pictures on the wall. French muggle painters did most of them. When Harry noticed the pictures he thought it was best that he did not say anything about them.

‘ Hagrid's taken a real shine to Madame Maxime,’ though Harry as he took his seat. Harry did not know why but his sense told him that their privacy was not assured at that moment. ‘ Almost as if someone is listening...,’ but Harry dismissed the idea as a product of his mind and what had happened in Morocco in his time there.

(A/N: I'm getting tired of doing 'Hagrid's heavily accented dialogue. SO If I get lazy from this point on – sorry about that.)

Hermione and Harry had discussed what might have had Hagrid done in the holidays and they both came to the same conclusion. Hagrid was sent to the giants as an ambassador to bring news of the impending war between light and dark wizards. Suddenly Hermione started to look around the room for something, sensing that their privacy was suddenly not assured. It was almost as if she knew that behind the hut Malfoy was listening in on the conversation with a clear hearing spell.

" Ron you feel that?" she whispered looking around the cabin.

" Feel what?" answered a confused Ron.

" Almost like there is..." Harry did not finish his sentence but Hermione got the message.

Hagrid was looking back and forth between Harry and Hermione as if they were mad. Hermione searched her mind for a spell, which she found, and cast it on the four people present.

" rof tnaem" she said as she pointed her wand one by one until all of them were under the spell. Ron looked taken aback when he was the first person to get hit by a spell he did not even know the purpose of. He shouted something really loud as he stood up from his chair and only Hermione reacted to it.

Harry and Hagrid only saw their lips move. Hermione said something to Ron and he quietly sat down on his seat just before his gaze travelled back and forth between Harry and Hagrid. She cast the spell on her self, before speaking to the other three present.

" That was a privacy spell," she said before getting interrupted by Hagrid.

" What do we need that for?"

" I got the feeling that someone was spying on us." said Harry as he looked at Hermione for support.

" Yeah me too... It was really eerie. Harry and me are spotters right..." she looked at Hagrid who she had no idea if he was aware of what it was. She took it in her stride when he indeed knew what it was. " Well, I did some research and found out that spotters can tell when someone is spying on them."

" I thought I was just imagining things-," said Harry.

" Well, now you know the full story… anyhow…" She said dismissively, turning to Hagrid, " I assume this has something to do with the fact that you and Madame Maxime went to the giants for support... am I right?"

Hagrid looked dumbfounded. He did not expect the topic to arise almost the moment they entered the hut. Hagrid had assumed Harry would slowly pump him for more information, until he eventually slipped. He guessed the fact that someone was listening onto the conversation meant that the topic was going to come up sooner than he had expected.

" Well... yeah. Me and Olimp...Madame Maxime..." there was a slight increase in Hagrid's happiness, as he mentioned the name "...went to mountains of Siberia and Himalayas to look for them. We looked in the Gobi desert and we found some small tribes of Giants..."

" So what happened..." asked an impatient Ron.

" ... We didn't convince them to join the war with our side"

Ron, Harry and Hermione paled at this sentence. If the giants joined with Voldemort the war would be long and disastrous for the light side. " ... You mean they joined Vold-I mean You-Know-Who." said Harry with an audible gulp.

" No!" said Hagrid who seemed seemingly surprised as to how Harry had come to that conclusion, " I said they are not fighting with us. Never said, they’re fighting against us..."

The three friends understood what the statement meant and their faces brightened immediately. This meant that though the giants wouldn’t be fighting with the light side they would not be fighting against them either. The giants had agreed not to participate in the war at all. " That's good then isn't it?" asked Ron.

" It would be but..." Hagrid paused and Ron spoke up. " There is a 'but', this can't be good..."

"... There was a rumor of a big giant tribe somewhere in Europe, but we didn't know where about. We looked all over there and we couldn't find them. If they joined You-Know-Who, then I don't think it'll matter if the other giants join him or not."

" Did you look in Ukraine?" asked Harry suddenly. He was just as surprised to hear what he had said, as those with whom he was sitting. He just could not think of any reason why he would blurt out Ukraine.

" Why would we look there?" asked Hagrid scrunching his enormous nose making his eyebrows almost become one.

Harry did not know why those words came out of his mouth. He was still lost as to how they related to what Hagrid was saying when Hermione came to his rescue. She always knew him better than he knew himself. " I know..." she said eagerly raising her hand to answer the question.

Hagrid nodded in her direction when she spoke ups, " It' like this… When Harry's father James Potter went to look for wild beasts at the beginning of his 7th year, he met this friendly giantess." she stopped in mid speech. Suddenly the implication of what she was saying hit her. ‘ It couldn't be... I mean why would a person with such a vicious record, would help a Human -but she did, and asked about Hagrid,’ thought Hermione, as she kept looking at Hagrid.

" ...Err... I don't know how I can put this..." she gulped and said, "... but I think, I just figured out who Harry’s dad saw.”

“ Who?” Asked Hagrid and Harry at once.

“ Hagrid, I think it was your mother.”

" What?!" shouted Hagrid as he rose from his chair. The room shook as the chair fell he was sitting on fell. " Me mom, she's alive! Still? " Hagrid rushed to where Harry was sitting and lifted him right out of his chair. Harry was too surprised to do anything but be lifted up in the air.

" What're you doing?" asked Harry in a panic. He forgot for a second he was a wizard and he had his wand in his hand.

" Where did he see my mother? What did they talk about? " he demanded in a roaring voice.

Harry understood what Hagrid must have been feeling. For years he had thought his mother was dead and now that there was a glimmer of hope that he would get to see his mother once, his emotions would have overwhelmed him too. It was a good thing that Hermione had her wand out and was not in shock like Harry and Ron seemed to be.

" Nephrite" she said, casting a calming spell on Hagrid.

Hagrid suddenly felt all his emotions dampen a bit. With this also came the realization that he had been holding Harry well above six feet off the floor. He looked deeply ashamed as he slowly put Harry down on the floor.

" Forgive me Harry,” said Hagrid as a single tear escaped his eyes. ... I don't know what came over me…"

" Don't worry about it.” Harry said, dusting himself off – shaking away the fright too. “ I would have had done the same thing if the situation was reversed..." he said and added a joke at the end to lighten the mood, " Though I really doubt that I could have had lifted you off the floor."

Hagrid laughed at the joke and so did the other two in the room. With the mood lightened, everyone sat down again. Harry told him about how Hagrid's mother had saved James Potter from certain death at the hands of the Chimera, and how the only thing she wanted to know was how Hagrid was doing in school. He said she was very proud to hear that Hagrid was a great grounds keeper at Hogwarts and very popular with the students.

After hearing that last bit of information, Hagrid cried for a full five minutes before he finally smiled and asked the trio a question. " Want some of my Rock cakes?" the trio's face faltered, as they politely refused saying they had to get back into the castle.

They promised to come back and visit soon.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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26. Cho, Charms and Runes

Chapter Number: 27
Chapter Name: Cho, Charms and Runes

Author’s Note: One of the hazards of writing stories off the top of your head is that you forget to do things you meant to. Well I forgot to do several things, now I’ve done them in this rewrite.

As the three friends rushed through the corridors and secret passageways of Hogwarts, they laughed (Harry and Ron) and giggled (Hermione) approaching their destination, the great hall. As they approached the hall, Harry noticed a particularly sad looking Cho talking to a few of the Hufflepuffs. The euphoria that he was feeling a moment ago, elation from the escape from Hagrid’s well meaning clutches, vanished.

Cho looked as mortified as the first time he saw her this year and it was plainly obvious to all people that Cho was still grieving for Cedric.

Harry stopped in mid step, making his two friends get a fair bit in front of him. When they realized that Harry was falling behind they backtracked to where Harry was. They saw Harry looking at Cho, with an unrecognizable expression on their faces.

" You okay?" asked Hermione, taking his hand while he walked forward and she walked facing him. She held the books harder to herself in front of her chest.

" I'm okay..." started to say Harry, until he realized that his friends would know that he was lying, " well, actually no - I think I need to talk to Cho..."

Hermione nodded in agreement, as he gathered up his courage to face Cho Chang. Hermione grabbed a hold of Ron, and started to walk off. Harry needed to do this on his own , and without a cheering squad.

Susan Bones and several of the Hufflepuffs had approached Cho to tell that they suspected Harry to have had murdered Cedric to get close to her. The grief-stricken house – atleast the ones that had come to meet her - had convinced themselves that the Minister of Magic was right - the dark lord had not risen, and Harry had used it as an excuse to kill Cedric.

Cho Chang might have been grieving for Cedric, but anger at the loss of the very first glory in a long time had not clouded her judgment. She knew, from what the professors had told them in class, that Harry and his two friends had risked their lives in their very first year to stop the rise of the Dark Lord.

And then in the last year, Professor Sinistra had confided that Harry fought and killed the basilisk of the dark lord when he was in his second year. In Cho’s opinion, someone, who had defied Lord Voldemort so many times, would never kill someone for his or her own gains.

Cho was also privy to a bit of information that none of the other Hufflepuffs knew about. After the ball, Cedric had told her that it was because of Harry that he had managed to get past the first task. He told her that if Harry had never told him about the dragon, he would never have known what to do. He probably would have had died on the first task.

When Cho saw Harry approach her, she did not want to talk to the Hufflepuffs anymore. She had entertained them long enough out of respect for what they were feeling. She left in the middle of Susan’s plans of revenge, making her angry.

" Hello." said Harry.

" Hi" her reply was short. But she did smile at him – in a broken and would never be fixed sort of way.

" I need to...." started Harry but she interrupted him.

" Yeah.... we need to talk."

" Do you want to talk outside? By the lake?"

" Sure...I guess."

It took a while to reach the side of the lake. Both of them sat on the bank leading up to the peer, lazily basking in the warm sunshine. They sat there for a while, neither wanting to really talk. Finally realizing that he should start, Harry spoke in the gentlest voice he could muster. It was hard since his inside felt like stone. " I wanted to talk about Cedric. I’m really so..." Cho interrupted him. She was getting a bit sick and tired being treated like a fragile doll. She was more interested in other matters.

" Can you tell me what happened in the third task?"

" Okay..." said Harry as he covered the events of the tournament.

When he reached the part about getting transported to the graveyard, Harry was feeling sick. But for Cho’s sake, he kept going. When he said the part about the green spark hitting Cedric, Cho broke down next to him and started to cry.

Harry was not sure of what to do. He put his arm around her, and gently brought her closer. While he did this Harry realized something, he didn’t have to force himself to believe that Cho was no longer a romantic possibility, for when he put his arms around her he realized his feeling towards Cho had changed to what he felt for Hermione or Ginny. How a brother feels about a sister – well that’s what he thought it must be. He didn’t have anything to really compare these feelings.

" It’ll be alright..." he said, "...you’ll get past this. Time heals all wounds, just give it time." Words came out of his mouth, that he had no idea he would say. It was as if a part of him was taking over that he didn’t know existed.

" I know," she whimpered in his chest, before she looked up onto Harry’s face and asked, " What happened after that?"

Harry was surprised that Cho would want to talk about what happened after Cedric died. He really wanted to tell his friends what had happened after Cedric died first, but realised that Cho deserved to know rest of the events more than anyone else. So he told her, everything. Including the part about when Voldemort’s wand connected with his own. He did not tell that his wand had the same core as Voldemort’s, or tell her what it was called. He did not think Cho would feel the same way knowing those two specifics of the story.

When he said how his mother and father’s shadow form had emerged, Cho cried in his arms some more. " It must have had been horrible for you" she said, hugging Harry’s midsection with more force than even she had known she could. It was an effort for Harry to breathe, but he did not say anything.

" It was, but then again I had lost my parents a long time ago. I never really knew them, when this happened. I have some pictures now, but I’ve got no real memory of them. I learned something about my parents in the holidays...If the same thing happened again, I don’t know what I would do."

Cho looked up and saw Harry’s face. He looked handsome and in the bright sunlight, his features were even more pronounced. She kissed him - On the cheek.

" You know there can never be anything between us and it’s not because I know reporters would have a field day with me and you dating each other..."said Cho.

" I know... I think my feelings about you have changed... I used to" Harry blushed very slightly, " –have a crush on you, but now…"

" You don’t have to say it. I know how you feel. When you walked in the great hall that day, I wasn’t even attracted to you, like all the other girls were. I knew they were right in being attracted to you, but I just did not feel the same way." She smiled and said, " I think I felt more for that Malfoy creep than you."

" You don’t have to go that low," said Harry, kissing her cheek once. " You look much better with a smile" It was Cho’s turn to turn pink in the cheeks.

Harry got up and extended his palm to Cho. She took it and hand in hand they walked back into the great hall. Just before they entered, Cho let go of Harry’s hand gave him a small hug and one last kiss on the cheek.

" We’ll be friends...no matter what," she said, as she headed to the entrance and then to the Ravenclaw table.

Harry turned around and saw the sun above, shining brightly, he murmured, " We will. I just hope there is something to be friendly about before the end of the year."

Harry and Cho might have thought that they were alone when they drew closer for comfort, but they really weren’t. The highly charged emotions running through Harry’s mind blinded his ability as a spotter to detect that there was a fifth year girl, namely a Hufflepuff by the name of Susan Bones.

From where she was standing their hugs and kisses appeared intimate. This was the final bit of information that proved in her mind that Harry had indeed killed Cedric to get Cho. And it looked like he had succeeded. She really didn’t blame Cho for falling for Harry. He was one of the better looking boys in school, and he was famous and there was no way, in her opinion, Cho could have had resisted a two headed snake like Harry Potter.

Ron and Hermione as always, were in the middle of the biggest fight imaginable over his involvement in S.P.E.W. Though Harry very partially agreed, (the bit about house elves punishing themselves for displeasure of their master) he was against some of the more outrageous things that Hermione wanted for them, namely the masters to serve the elves once a month. This was supposed to create a bond of understanding between the master and the servant.

Harry thought being paid to work and not being punished was the best the house elves could hope for. He wasn’t looking forward to the day Hermione would pass that particular thing into the law books. He knew Hermione was persistent and would pass every single thing she wanted into law, because of the way she was.

‘ Better separate the married couple before they kill themselves,’ thought Harry, referring to Hermione and Ron on the Gryffindor table.

Once he did manage to separate them, by sitting between them, Harry ate like a pig, without a thought to how he was being looked at. He had nothing in the morning and people seeing him eating like a pig was not his problem. His main problem was the fact that Professor Snape was very interested to get back to his class, and that meant that he might not get another scrap of food until the end of the day, as he was very sure that he was going to have to avoid girls all day long. He had been wrong before about that – but he kept thinking that. Maybe he liked the attention for once? – Harry really didn’t know.

" Yum... Well, that was the best meal I ever had." said Ron rubbing his belly slowly to emphasise the point. " What class do we have now?" he asked Hermione.

" Well you have Divination and we, as in Harry and I, have Runes and dead languages"

Ron's face faltered for a second, as this was the first class of Divination that Harry would not be in with him.

" Well... Good luck" said Ron as he made a dash for his Divination class.

Harry was a bit depressed about this as well but consoled himself with the fact that he would be with him in most classes. Hermione then tentatively reached out and grabbed Harry's hand.

" Let's go," she said, as she proceeded to drag Harry by his hand. It amazed Harry to no end that Hermione could actually drag him somewhere when she was both shorter and weighed much less than him.

The class she dragged Harry into was the on the second floor of the west wing. It was large and was occupied by students. The students he recognized were mostly from Ravenclaw. It made sense to him that the Ravenclaws would choose to do this rather than take a fluffy subject like Divination. It also scared him that the whole class was full of people who had been doing the subject for as long as he had been doing the fluffy subject.

‘ I’m doomed.!’

Hermione lead the way to the two empty seats at the back of the class and sat down. Hermione was quick to ask him about how he was feeling since this was a new class and all.

" Probably about as good as Ron felt, after eating Chocolate in Defence against dark arts.”

Hermione giggled a bit. " Don't worry... Professor Hawthorn is the nicest and kindest....", She was interrupted by the Harry, who panicked at the mention of the woman's name. It was quite understandable since Hawthorn was well over a hundred years old and was the reason why he felt nauseous during the sorting ceremony.

‘ But I thought she taught Gnome Psychology... Oh no, It's her... I have to get out of here.’ he thought, as he got up from his chair determined to beg Professor Trelawney to let him back into the class.

But he quickly sat down again when he saw the "woman" come into the class. Before the Professor could see him, Harry quickly went down on the floor and started to whisper to Hermione. " Hermione, I have to get out of here. That woman was winking at me in the great hall..." his whole body shuddered as he said those words.

" Did you think? –“ Hermione started laugh out loud. “ Oh this is funny -I'll have to remember this."

" Why are you laughing? Hsss.. Please keep it down, will ya? " said Harry, who was panicking even more now since her laughter was drawing more attention from the class and eventually the teacher would notice that Harry was in the room.

" Because..." Hermione could not finish the sentence before she burst into laughter yet again.

" Come on... keep it down will you, please? I don't want to draw anymore attention" there was urgency in his voice that did not escape Hermione.

" Ok..." she answered as the amount of laughter from her was decreasing. "... It's just that..." a bit more laughter, "...she winks at every one. She has a muscle problem in her right eye..." Hermione could no longer keep the laughter down; she fell from her seat on and onto the floor, and started to roll around.

Hermione's overt display of laughter caused the whole class to turn around and look at what was so funny. Harry quickly took his seat again before Professor Hawthorn could make her way to the back of the room to see what was the cause of all the commotion.

She was very surprised to see that Hermione was causing all the noise. ‘ It's really sad when the good ones go bad...,’ she thought sadly, but her mood improved quite a lot when she saw the boy next to Hermione's seat.

‘ Yum, new meat.’

Professor Hawthorn cast a calming charm on Hermione, who promptly stopped laughing and returned to her seat. " I'm very disappointed in you Hermione. I expected more from you" with that, she returned to the front of the class, without giving Hermione a chance to defend herself – who looked quite scandalized.

" We have a new student in class," said Professor Hawthorn as she looked up the new name at the bottom of the register. " Potter, Harry...." she choked on the name just as the words left her mouth. She was rather quick to recover from her shock.

" Well... Professor McGonagall told me you switched from Divination but she did indeed forget to tell me you would be coming in here.

This is a complex subject and with the OWLs this year and I doubt it would be easy for you to catch up on the subject..."

" It won't be." interjected Hermione, " I made him go through last year's textbook and he has already done up to the third chapter of the book." Hermione's voice carried with it unmistakable pride in it.

" Well in that case I really have nothing to say. Good thing I did not assign any homework for the holidays, otherwise you would be having a lot of trouble in class, Mr. Potter. Okay, now class, we need to go over the basics of last year and then we will start on this year’s work.

Though Harry had caught up in the holidays, Harry still had a hard time in class applying the theories to practical things they were asked to do. The subject was hard and required Harry to do more thinking then any of his other classes. At the end of the class his brain was going into overdrive just to keep up with the rest of the class. He soon realized that although Hermione might have been confident that he would be an okay student in the subject, he had a long way to go. A very log way to go.

The class left him wanting more of it though, this mind was totally smashed because of the amount of work it had done. Just before he left the class, Professor Hawthorn invited him to the front of the class for a chat. Before Professor Hawthorn had a chance to say anything, Harry asked his question, " Do you think I have a chance of passing this subject?"

"Don't worry just yet about failing. You did well, for your first day. You'll need to work a lot harder in this subject then the others because this subject is more about knowledge than actually performing magic." At this point she winked at him making Harry cringe, "... I'm sure Hermione would be more than happy to help you in your studies."

Though she noticed the cringing Professor Hawthorn let it slide. Students who had been in her class since the beginning of their third year were still not used to her winking at awkward times, and this was Harry's first day.

They talked for another four minutes before she let him leave the room with a warm smile on her face. When he went outside, he found Hermione and Alicia both laughing their heads off about something...

Outside the class, as Hermione waited she was surprised to feel someone tapping on her shoulder. She was quite surprised to see that it was Alicia Spinnet. " Hey... What are you doing here?" asked Alicia.

" Just waiting for Harry to stop talking with Professor Hawthorn..." she noticed that Alicia's interests suddenly left from the conversation, as she tried to look into the room to see if she could see Harry.

‘ Hmmm, I wonder...,’ thought Hermione, ‘ if she is interested in Harry...’

But she quickly dismissed that thought since the headgirl was very popular with the sixth and seventh year boys, so why would she be interested in Harry who was a full two years younger than her?

Alicia quickly caught herself in the middle of her search and quickly turned back to Hermione to answer her question, " Well I have Runes now" then she remembered something and a question, " Why is Harry in this class? I thought he was in Divination..."

" He was," replied Hermione, " ‘WAS’ being the operative word. I convinced him to switch to another class and as luck would have it he switched to Runes."

She would have had asked her why she wanted to know that but before she could Alicia asked her a question. " How was his class? I mean it was his first right so was it easy for him or did he muddle through it?"

" He did well enough... I suspected that he would have had done better if Professor Hawthorn didn't keep winking at him."

Alicia giggled and asked, " How did he take it?"

" Not well. You should have seen him..." then Hermione said what happened at the beginning of the class and Alicia burst into laughter. Her laughter was loud and combined with Hermione's it echoed through the corridors. They both stopped promptly when they saw Harry approach them.

Harry's suspicion that they were discussing his behavior at the beginning of the class was confirmed when both Hermione and Alicia stopped laughing when they saw him. ‘ Oh great... Why did she have to tell her?,’ thought Harry, slightly miffed at Hermione, but then he thought that if Hermione hadn't done it then one of the Ravenclaws could have fabricated a story and it would be all over the school.

Realizing this he quickly forgave Hermione. Harry assumed an expression that said he had no idea what the two girls could be talking to her about. " Alicia... what are you doing here?" He asked politely.

" Well nothing... I mean... I have my Runes next..." she was having a hard time trying to stop herself from laughing out loud. " Oh look, the door is opening... I have to go." She said, quickly taking off in the direction of the class.

Half way to there she turned around and yelled, " I want a rematch for that snitch catching game."

" When?" he answered back. Harry's heart did a flip, but he was not certain as to why it did that.

" Today... how about after dueling class?"

" OK. I'll be there."

The Dueling classes were held for all the levels together. Well, all the people who could show up on the free timeslots. Harry and Alicia ended up in the same Dueling class, by luck. He was glad for his luck.

Hermione watched the exchange with interest. She could not shake the feeling that Alicia, as uncharacteristic as it sounded, was indeed interested in Harry. " Well, Harry..." she said, " Looks like you have another admirer", with a grin spreading across her face.

Harry was in shock. For a moment he thought that using his brain on overdrive must have short-circuited his comprehension, but quickly realized that was not the case when he inspected Hermione's face.

" How would you know?" he retorted.

Alicia was a very beautiful woman. The word woman applied to her more than almost any other female that he had had the pleasure of meeting – at hogwarts. She was both beautiful and smart, not only book smart but also smart in the ways of the world. She had a nice sense of humor and was very easy to talk to. All in all she was a person that Harry could see himself getting involved with, BUT he still thought that the chances of her liking him in return were less than zero.

‘ Probably in the negative territory,’ thought Harry, rather glumly.

It is very odd that in the beginning Harry hadn’t thought of liking Alicia like that, but when Hermione planted the idea in his head, he was actually disappointed.

" Couldn't you tell by the way she was looking at you?"

" How was she looking at you...? I mean me... How was she looking at me?"

" Same way I look when I'm thinking about Victor I suspect?" there was a sigh in there for Ron. It was a habit that she now had, it was a pity he was not there otherwise Hermione would have enjoyed seeing Harry struggling to hold back Ron.

" Are you sure? -" They started walking toward Ron's Divination Class, " -I mean think about it. She is the headgirl -The headgirl for god’s sakes. She can get any boy she wants to. Any boy."

" Well it looks to me that she’s after just one boy."

" Nope. Can't be" said Harry. She wanted to go on and tease him about this, but she knew from the tone of Harry's voice that the discussion was over. As much as Harry liked Alicia, she was out of his league and going after her would only make things worse for him. It was a good thing they spotted Ron coming down the rope ladder when they did, as it destroyed the possibility of having an awkward moment between Harry and Hermione.

" There's Ron... lets go" said Harry as he started to run toward Ron's direction. The three friends entered their next class, which was charms, exactly one minute and thirty three seconds later.

Professor Flitwick looked even smaller than the year before, even taking into account the fact that Harry had a massive growth spurt over the summer holidays. Harry quickly took his usual seat next to Ron and Neville. Hermione sat next to Ron, much to his delight. The delight however increased when the Hufflepuffs joined the class and they had to squeeze together to make room for the new students.

Ron blushed slightly while Hermione just sat there enjoying the closeness though she showed no outward sign of enjoyment. Charms was Harry's worst subject and as always Hermione was great at it like all the other subjects. Ron actually fared better at this subject than Harry, though both were pretty much at the bottom of the class. Harry had no intention of showing off how much he had improved in all his subjects as he suspected this would only make him more of a target by the girls and he had no intention of loosing the normalcy of his life... or what’s left of it… even if it meant that he had to sabotage his own work to do it.

Harry was confident that he could do all the charms in the book quite quickly now, but ruining all of them would take even more hard work then trying to do them right. ‘ This will be an interesting challenge,’ thought Harry as he finally started to listen to what Professor Flitwick had been saying in class.

" The assignments were very well done and the top mark for it goes to... err...wait it's coming" he said shaking a small bit of parchment, "Ahh...it's coming... Here it is... Harry Potter"

Professor Flitwick fell off his chair as he said the name.

It was not as embarrassing as the first time he had done it. It looked like he was more shocked that he had said the name than the first time he had called Harry's name from the class register. " Oh yes. I forgot... 128% " he said shaking his head at himself for forgetting that he had indeed given the mark to him. Harry knew his paper was good – maybe high 80% was what he had expected.

The whole class turned to Harry, making him wish the classroom was a desert and he was an ostrich, so he could bury his head in the sand. His face rapidly became pink and the smile he had on his face disappeared a few minutes ago was gone when he saw the look on Hermione's face.

She had never come second on anything and this was one of her better subjects. She had her mouth open in horror. She was quick to recover, but she felt suddenly very angry with Harry, for stealing her rightful place as the number one in charms. After all, she was the only one of the three who managed to learn how to cast the unlocking spell in their first year.

The rest of the class was very awkward for Harry. He did not even try any of the Charms, explaining that he was no good at them, but the occasional look from the people in the class made him think that they suspected that he just did not want to show how good he really was. When the class finished, Hermione ran from the class and was not seen during the half an hour break. Ron took off after her but lost her after a few minutes.

Harry however made his way to the Dueling class quite unsure of why Hermione behaved the way she did. When he got there after the break a surprise was waiting for him.

<<~~~>>

Thanks to NATE for BETA so far :)

END OF CHAPTER
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27. The Big Surprise

Chapter Number: 27
Chapter Name: The Big Surprise

Hermione ran as fast as her feet would carry her. She was fit, so that was really fast compared to Ron, who had got very little exercise in the summer holidays and had trouble keeping up with Hermione. After two minutes of solid running she managed to loose Ron. Tears were streaming down her cheeks when she found herself in the library.

She was also furious with herself. ‘ Just like me.... any problems go to books...,’ she thought to herself as she stood against the wall between two shelves of books.

Those two shelves of books had in them her favorite books and she liked nothing better than to read them for fun, but even the sight of them now was making her angrier than she had been before. She allowed herself to slide down the wall as she tried desperately to stop crying...

‘ Why did he have to get more than me? I'm the one who studies all the time... I'm the one who can do...,’ she could not even finish the thought when she broke down crying again... ‘ Maybe I should have had studied harder...NO!,’ Suddenly her personality changed.

She became convinced that since Harry had used his powers, it was all his fault. She did not consider thinking about the fact that if Harry had not told her about those powers she would still be in the dark about them. Nor that she herself now had the same ability... even if it'll take another five months for her to do it.

Even amidst a personal crisis like this, a book caught her attention. The small shimmering red book looked like a new edition to this section of the library. The two shelves actually covered famous witches and wizards. From Abu the Arrogant to Web the Wonderer, they were all present here. So either the book was a new edition to the library resources or it was a book on a new Wizard. She loved reading the achievements of those famous people and dream about the day they would write a book about her.

The title of the book was intricately written in golden ink. The contrast of the golden letters to the dark red cover was what got her attention in the first place. "... Tale of the Saviour..." Hermione whispered the title of the book for herself.

At first she thought the book was about Harry, because of the remarkable resemblance, but that was hardly the reason she thought the book was about Harry. The person on the cover was behaving exactly like all the pictures of Harry that Hermione had ever seen. He was desperately trying to escape the confines of the picture frame. Once that failed he tried to hide behind the things in the background.

She was so angry with Harry she actually contemplated getting her wand out and disfiguring the picture on the cover. Some key differences made Hermione reconsider disfiguring the book, but when she noticed the lack of a lightning shaped scar one the forehead she put her wand back inside the cloak. She went back to the title above the picture and read the small subtitle.

It read ' Harold Parker of Morocco'.

Hermione actually thought a few small scars in appropriate places might have made the man appear more than just a pretty face, like Gildroy Lockheart. Her entire body shuddered at the fact that she actually had a crush on that phony man, but she decided not to pass judgment on Harold... just yet. She decided to read the book before passing judgment.

‘ That's the person Professor Binns was asking me about... What did he ask?,’ she thought for a second, before she went back to all the differences between Harold and Harry....

Since the age of the person on the photo looked remarkably like that of Harry now, she was surprised to see so many differences. The person was also missing scars to his belly and the left arm.

There was something odd on his chest that grabbed her attention. It looked like the tattoo... but the detail on the picture was not good enough for her to see the shape... for that matter she was not even sure if that was not just a part of a necklace of some sort.

Harold's hair though was very much like Harry's, they differed in the fact that Harry's was totally unruly while Harold's looked much more in control and half the length of what Harry has now. He also did not wear glasses, which actually made him appear less handsome in her opinion.

She could not really make out the color of his eyes because of the amount of light that had been focused on his face, but Hermione guessed they were vivid blue...

‘ Like Ron,’ she thought dreamily.

‘ THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAROLD AND HARRY IS THAT HE WOULD NOT GET MORE THAN ME IN CHARMS....,’ thought Hermione, as she bitterly walked to the issuing counter.

It was irrational for her to think this way but she could not help it. Madame Pince saw the puffy eyes that Hermione had, but said nothing when she handed Hermione back the issued book. Hermione did not know why, but just holding the book and looking at that person had ebbed away the anger she felt towards Harry.

By the time she left the library with the book safely in her book bag, she was ready to face people again. Hermione decided that Harry would receive silent treatment from her as a punishment for getting more than her until the next time they have an exam or something to that effect.

When she beats Harry in Charms next she'll start talking to him again. On her way there, she found many ways to get even with Harry but she need not have bothered. All her plans involved beating Harry at the mid year exams, but her chance was going to come faster than she had anticipated.

After Charms class had finished, Harry had searched the entire castle, but he could not find her. The only place he had forgotten to look was the most likely place where Hermione was most likely to be.

The Library.

This simple fact did not register with him until much later - when he saw Ron accompany Hermione - out of the library.

‘ You stupid git!,’ Harry scolded himself for not thinking about it. ‘ You looked all over the castle – except in the most likely place!... Ugh... How could you miss it? Why the hell didn't you just use the Marauder's Map! You have it with you!"

He ran towards their direction, coming to a full stop next to Hermione. " Hey there, Hermione. Why did you run out of the Charms cl…"

Not only did Hermione not let him finish the sentence, quite unlike her, she actually pushed him to the ground. Harry was not on his guard and this came as a total surprise. Harry fell backwards on to the courtyard between the library and the main castle entrance. He scraped his hand in two places and it stung as the hard rock cut against his skin.

" Hey! Why'd you do that for?" said Harry.

" Don't come near me... you… you…" she didn't know how to finish the sentence so she just started to walk towards the castle.

Ron stopped just long enough to help Harry up off the ground and tell him the reason why Hermione was so mad with him. " She's upset that someone got more than her in an assignment and on top of that…" he paused to actually make an effort to find a way to say it without making Harry feel like a total loser. " -it was you."

Harry had to admit that he had improved a lot since the ending of his fourth year, but he did not think that he was in anyway close to Hermione's level in terms of academic studies. He guessed that Hermione must have had taken it hard that the first time she was beaten in a subject it was by Harry, the person she helped over the holidays to become stronger.

At this point Ron noticed that Hermione was glaring at the two of them, " err... I have to go with her… you know…"

From Ron's voice Harry could tell that he really wanted to stay a bit longer and help him. This was the first time Ron had acted sincerely with Harry. He suspected that it had to do with the fact that Hermione was paying attention to him rather than spreading it between her two best friends.

He was happy that Ron was finally getting closer to Hermione, even though it was coming at the cost of his and Hermione's friendship.

It was Harry, who had told Ron to stop acting like a brat and show his feelings for Hermione. " Ya, I know." Replied Harry as he started to dust off his cloak. It surprised Harry a great deal that he was not as angry with Hermione as he was with Ron when he became jealous of Harry getting all the attention in his fourth year. When he finally beat the last bit of dust out of his cloak he had a theory that was very sound. He assumed it was because this was the first time she had acted this way towards him. While with Ron it had almost been from day one. He sighed to himself and then headed in the same direction as where Ron and Hermione had gone.

The class seemed to drag on forever and Harry had only one thing to look forward to before Saturday when the Quidditch trials were on. About five minute before the end of the class, Ali Pasha gathered the students into one place and made an announcement.

" The headmaster has approved the organization of a Dueling tournament. It will be held in honor of all the fallen victims of the Shozar Wars.... You'll learn more about that in your History classes over the year so don't worry if you do not know what the war was about." He paused and looked at the expectant face of the students.

" There will be prizes for the victors... " There was a small round of applause from the students so Professor Pasha had to stop. Once the noise level went down he continued, " The prize is a One hundred point increase for the house and- " He paused this time to build some tension in the crowd, " One double pass to the Quidditch World Cup this upcoming summer"

The classroom exploded with applause from both the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws present. Professor Pasha put his hand up in an attempt to stop them from making too much noise. " ... There’s more. The winner gets to meet and have dinner with their favorite team after the finals are over" This time the clapping and catcalls did not stop for anything. Professor Pasha tried a few times to calm the class before deciding to put up the signing sheet for tournament, while they celebrated.

Ron and several other students wanted to take part in it the tournament. Though a lot of people were interested, only few thought they had a chance realistically. Harry noticed some of his friends were among the people whose face lit up at the prospect. Three of them had the last name of Weasley.

One of them was George. George Weasley was the beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch team and as such had a lot of upper body strength. He was very health conscious so his body had very little fat, the six years... to that point... of Quidditch had given him excellent reflexes, but above all he had the motivation to win the tournament. He wanted to impress Alicia Spinnet.

One of the other two from the Weasley family was Ron. Ron, though not that fit, was very quick on his feat in terms of strategy. Last summer his father had been unable to get the tickets to the world cup and England this year had a real chance since they had taken Oliver Wood as the captain of the team. He knew his chances of winning the tournament were very slim but he wanted the Quidditch World cup tickets more than anything else.

‘ Even if I don't, I might be able to get Hermione's attention,’ thought Ron.

The last of the three was most definitely the Weasley with the most to offer to the tournament, this was Ginny Weasley.

Harry knew for a fact that she was at the top of her grade in most subjects and there were only two differences between Hermione and her. First one was that Hermione studied all the time (though Harry and Ron had managed to corrupt her, the incident in the Charms class only proved that they had a long way to go) while Ginny found the subjects easy. The second was the most obvious one. Hermione did not have a crush on Harry like Ginny did. Harry could tell by the way Ginny's cheeks became pink every time he looked at her. Even after she and Collin Creevy became more than friends, or so Harry thought.

Unknown to Harry the reason for her entering the tournament was the same as her two brothers... well mostly, like George... She wanted to impress Harry with all she knew.

Harry scanned the face of his friends and saw that Cho Chang the sixth year Ravenclaw prefect... not to mention the Quidditch seeker and the long-time crush of Harry's... was interested too. She had a real grudge against Voldemort after killing her boyfriend and this was her opportunity to see how she measured up. She knew that if she could not win the tournament then she had no chance of beating Lord Voldemort.

The look of pain suddenly flashed through her face and Harry was forced to remove his gaze. Though the talk with Cho had done a lot of good, that sudden pain was something that Harry would never get used to.

His gaze then fell upon Alicia, who was talking very animatedly to her friend Katie Bell. Harry knew that Alicia would sign up even before he saw her face. The reason being she thought it was her job to win points for the house more than anyone else, since she was the head girl. She was the chaser in the Quidditch team so she had a quick eye and it was her ability to see through most strategies which made the team think that she was going to be a great captain.

She was very fit, which Harry knew from the two times that he had run along side her in the morning. ‘ Very fit...’ thought Harry as suddenly his face flushed a little. He shook his head to get rid of the image of her in the tight running clothes, that she was wearing a few days ago. It was this that had made him flush all of a sudden.

The last person that Harry recognized from the people who looked interested was Hermione. She actually caught Harry looking at her. She glared at him in a venomous way, which made Harry's heart sink. What Harry did not know was that Hermione wanted to enter the competition to beat him. She wanted to beat Harry so badly that she decided from that point on she would spend most of her time in the library reading up on spells and practicing them.

When Professor Pasha put up the signup sheet Hermione was the first one to signup, automatically assuming that Harry would definitely be participating in the tournament. She assumed that since it involved the Quidditch World cup he would enter.

She was wrong, and she would not find out until it was too late for her to pull out of the competition. Hermione quickly dragged Ron to the library after class to do research to find great spells to use in the tournament.

While they were signing up, Harry headed for the Quidditch pitch to get ready for his rematch with Alicia. He still remembered what had happened the last time he was in a tournament. One person died. That death would not have happened if he did not offer to share the prize with Cedric.

Alicia was held back after class for an extra five minutes by Professor Pasha to go over the details of the upcoming tournament. Professor Pasha sensed that she wanted to finish it quickly so he let her go early while he talked to the Head Boy. Alicia raced through the corridors of the castle to get to the common room.

Her mind was racing through all the things that she had to do once she got there. She was convinced that if she knew exactly what she had to do then she could be on the field faster. She came to a full stop at the portrait.

" In a big hurry are we, dearie..." the fat lady did not get to finish her sentence when Alicia said the password.

" Sugar Quill"

The fat lady was upset that she got no greeting, but she swung open the door nonetheless. In her hurry Alicia tripped on one of the loose floor tiles (everyone knew to avoid it) and landed right on top of...

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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28. Alicia & Katie and the hint of war

Chapter Number: 28
Chapter Name: Alicia & Katie and the hint of war

Alicia opened her eyes slowly to see whom she had tripped over. She hoped it was not George Weasley. He always seemed to be following her – for so long that had been happening that she had concluded that her mind was indeed playing tricks on her – or maybe a trick on her by George/Fred. She just wasn’t sure.

As odd as it seemed to other people, she could actually tell them apart. Something even their mother could not do. ‘ It was a handy skill in my second year... I'm getting side-tracked, ‘ she thought.

She was relieved to see that it was actually Lee she had stumbled onto. Alicia quickly rolled herself off him. Fortunately there was no one in the common room as far as she could tell, so no one saw the compromising position they had ended up in right after the collision.

" Lee..." said Alicia, " I'm really sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going..."

" That's ok" he replied, rubbing his head a little where it had hit the floor.

" Are you sure?" suddenly she felt concerned for him, " Do you need to go to the Madam Pomfrey? -"

" No. I'm fine. I have to get going now."

" Why are you in such a hurry?" she asked curiously.

" Snape's called a meeting of the school board in about two minutes"

" Why do they need you there?"

" I don't know..." Lee checked his watch to see what time it was. When he did he wished he had not.

" I have to go... I'll talk to you later" with that he rushed out of the common room and headed for a passageway close by.

Alicia had not noticed, but Katie had moved silently behind her best friend and was waiting for her to turn around so she could scare the hell out of her. When Alicia turned around she found herself almost nose to nose with her.

" Boo." said Katie in a soft voice, but it was enough to scare Alicia half to death.

" Aaaaah" screamed Alicia, as she took a step back. She got very angry, very fast when her brain registered that it was Katie. " I'm going to kill you," she said as she reached into her cloak to get her wand out.

" Sorry... I couldn't resist," said Katie as she lowered her head a little and covered it with her own hands.

" Well...." said Alicia, putting her wand back into the pocket, " Just don't do it again"

Alicia did not say anything to Katie before she headed for the girl's dormitory. A bit surprised that she was not punished, Katie followed her into the room. She watched as Alicia tore through all her outfits in search of something. Katie saw the range of clothes Alicia had in her closet opposite of her four-poster bed. Katie sat down on Alicia's bed and asked, " What are you looking for?"

"...I have to... I have..." Alicia tried several times to start the sentence but in her search she would forget to finish the sentence.

" You know you'd sound a lot more sane if you didn't leave your sentences half finished."

" What? Oh" came a reply from Alicia who actually had paid no attention to what Katie had said.

Katie waked over to her friend and put her hand on her shoulder to get her attention. " What are you looking for?" she repeated the question.

" Well..." Alicia blushed a little and to avoid the topic she made a grab for one of her blouses, but Katie would not let her go.

" Nuh-uh. ‘Well’ what?" asked Katie. She had just seen her best friend blush and she wanted more than anything to find out the reason why.

" I have a game with Harry" she said, making Katie very confused.

" What game?" she asked innocently enough until suddenly it dawned on her, " -Sweet Merlin!" Katie yelled as she stepped back from her friend. She put her hand on her mouth covering it and the other on her chest. " ...You...him... you..." Katie started to stammer, " you..."

" What?" asked Alicia finding her friend's reaction a bit of an insult.

" Well... it's Harry!"

" So"

" I know he's the tall, dark and handsome and all that.... but He's two years younger than you! And you're the head girl!"

" He's handsome and-" Alicia's eyes glazed over very slightly as she said, " Besides he looks really good in running shorts."

Katie's initial shock wore off, after she remembered that Alicia was the youngest Seventh year in the school. The shock would not have come at all if Harry was a year older. The shock turned to curiosity after a little while.

" So... how long have you guys been going out? Don't tell me, all summer and you didn't even tell me," she said with mock anger.

" We're not seeing each other, for your information" she blushed and said, " -I'm just interested."

" So it's not a two way thing?"

" No.” Alicia said frowning. “ Not yet"

" Oh! So you're just trying to get close to him to see if there's interest in his part?"

" Hey! How did you know?" replied an astounded Alicia. Katie did not answer her friend, but rather started to look through all the clothes that Alicia had in her closet. Finding nothing that she felt was appropriate for this type of situation, she went over to her own closet covered in posters of the Irish National Team. She opened it up and started to look through the mess for her friend.

" You didn't answer my question," said Alicia putting her hands on her hips.

" It's common sense... Well actually you didn't think it through did you?" Confused, Alicia asked, "What do mean?"

Katie replied, " If you did think it through, you would have had me involved from the beginning.... Here" she said as she handed two pieces of her clothes to Alicia.

" Why would I want to get you involved?"

" Because... then you would have someone to tell you his reaction when he sees you.... Now let's see what we can do about your hair"

" I don't have much time..."

Katie had a grin on her face when she said, " Don't worry it'll only take a minute..."

As Alicia and Katie headed for the Quidditch field a few minutes (8 and 5/9 minutes to be exact) later they got talking.

" What are you playing anyway?" asked Katie

" Catch the snitch..." said Alicia.

Alicia explained the rules of the game (took half a minute). On their way to the ground Alicia told what had happened the day before and also told how Harry had let her use the Firebolt.

" He let you use his Firebolt..." she was astounded. Katie the proud owner of a soupped up Nimbus 2001 and was reluctant to give it to any one else. She highly doubted that if she was in Harry's shoes, then anyone other than her would even know that she had one, let alone allow someone other than herself to ride on it. Broomsticks like Firebolt aren’t just made to be shared.

When they arrived at the field they saw Harry looking at the hoops from the sideline. They had expected Harry to be waiting from them ready to go, but they were surprised to see that Harry was just staring at the hoops at the other end of the field. He had his book bag with him and he was still wearing his black cloak. A worried glance was exchanged between Katie and Alicia as they headed towards where Harry was.

Alicia tapped on Harry's shoulder bringing him out of his daydream. He slowly looked up to see who it was and he was greeted with the sight of Alicia, a very big smile on her face.

" Aren't we playing?" she asked.

Harry looked at her from where he was sitting on the ground. She had changed from the clothes that she had worn before in class to more casual clothes. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt with long black shorts. Her black hair was tied with a ponytail and the loose portion of it swished back and forth in the air. The bottom part of the t-shirt did the same as her hair.

" Yes..." he managed to stammer out.

" What about me?" asked a feminine voice.

Harry did not actually notice before that someone else was there too. Harry turned to the other side to see that the voice belonged to Katie. She looked rather stunning herself in a vivid red coloured sweatshirt and dark grey trousers. " You want to play as well?" he asked skeptically

Katie had noticed before that Harry had been growing more and more ‘cute’ over the last four years and now over the summer he seemed to have jumped the bridge between cute and handsome. Not only that, he seemed to have also broke the record for it. Even underneath his cloak she could make out the outline of his body. A little pink showed on her cheek as she examined Harry's body.

" Of course I do" she said with a mock-annoyed tone, " I thought that's what I asked."

" Erm… " said Harry as he got to his feet. “ Fine I suppose.”

" I want a rematch first," said Alicia. " ...If that's OK with you Katie."

" Sure go ahead. I'll do some loops in the air for a while" Katie sounded a bit disappointed.

Harry picked that up from her voice and said to Alicia, " Why don't both of you play on one team and I'll be the other one. You'll need all the help you can get from Katie not to loose this time." there was a mischievous smile on his face.

" Well... If you say so but, I get the Firebolt this time," said Katie sounding very happy indeed as she looked around to see where Harry's famous red Firebolt was.

" Where is it by the way?" asked Alicia.

" It's in my room... I'll just summon it," he said as he took out his wand from the left compartment. " Accio Firebolt"

Right after saying the spell Harry started to undo the cloak. He did not notice the way the two girls were looking at him when he was doing so. Harry undid the top part of the cloak revealing that he was wearing a grey t-shirt with black sleeves and sides. When the top of his old faded black trousers became visible, the attention of the girls switched to the red blur heading straight for Harry at an incredible speed.

Katie quickly grabbed it, before giving Alicia her supped-up Nimbus 2001. It was almost as if she was afraid that if she took too long getting the broom Harry might change his mind. Katie might have thought that it would be fun to ride the fastest broom in the world, but she should have been more careful and tested out the controls. No sooner was she three feet off the ground and the broom turned too fast and dived right into the ground. She was thrown of it and landed on a particularly muddy patch on the field.

Harry and Alicia fearing the worst when she did not get up, and ran to where she had landed. Katie was lying flat on the ground. They were not sure if they should move her or not, when Katie started to get off the ground.

" That was a rush," Katie beamed, sitting up on the ground. Alicia came closer to her friend and hit her on the head with the palm of her hand. " Ow... what was that for?" asked Katie.

" Being stupid" stated Alicia as she grabbed one of Katie's hands and helped her off the ground.

"... That was worth it. It's amazing!" Her eyes were glazed as she started to describe all the feelings that she got on her short ten second ride on it. Harry was glad she did not crash until after a full minute of joy riding. He was fairly certain that he would not have been able to stop her from talking about it if she had. Ever.

Alicia and Harry both gave Katie lots of advice before letting her on it again. Once she was used to the controls, the game stared. Alicia conveniently took the soupped up Nimbus 2001 and rode up to where Katie was. Harry did not know that there was a difference between two light blue Nimbus 2001's so he did not object to the girls having both of the faster brooms present

.

A bit further away in the castle the castle, two boys watched from the seventh year dorm room. It was the Weasley Twins. George was the one who looked like he could murder someone.

" See... I told you. The scoundrel’s making a move on both our girls!" said George.

" Technically they aren't our girls... you do know that right?", said Fred.

" That's only because we haven't told them how we feel about them yet. No one can resist the Weasley Charm."

" Is that so? - When are you going to tell Alicia how you feel about her?"

" The same day you tell Katie how you feel about her..." retorted George.

" I never said I like her... that way.... anyway, I know what you're thinking. I'm in if this goes on.... Just remember this is because of you and Alicia I'm doing this"

" And I believe you."

“ He is a scoundrel.”

The game lasted and hour and a half before Katie ‘suddenly’ remembered that she had some homework to finish off so she took off. But before she went Alicia and Katie had a small talk at the edge of the frield. " So what do you think?" Alicia asked Katie's opinion.

" Cute bum.” Katie said looking over at Harry, bending over to put away one of the practice snitches.

“ Be serious!” said Alicia.

“ I am.” Katie giggled. “ Don’t tell me you’ve not thought of it, Alicia, I know for a fact you’ve got a gutter mind… somewhere deep in that mind of yours…”

Alicia flustered. “ Just answer the question, please.”

Katie sighed. “ He seems interested..."

Alicia's mouth spawned a smile. " Really? So you think I should ask him out?"

"What?" shouted Katie, " Are you crazy? - You don't make the first move. You let him make it.”

"Oh OK."

"... And if he does ask you out sometime in the future, say that you're going as "friends" nothing more. You'll know from his behavior after that whether you want to get involved with him.... anyway I better get going. I just remembered, I really have to finish off the Muggle Studies homework"

Alicia nodded. Just before she was turning to go she said, “ Send him my way, if things don’t work out.”

“ Hey! I thought you were supposed to root for me..”

“ Nuh-uh… I just wanted to get an excuse to look at him – like now.”

Alicia started to chase Katie. " C'ya Harry" Katie, as she ran from Alicia.

Harry who was on the other side of the field, struggling to put the practice snitch into the box. Harry did not turn back and face Katie, but rather put up his hand in the air and waved it while he used the other hand to keep the snitch from escaping.

After Katie left, Alicia jumped on the Firebolt and went to where Harry was. By the time she reached him, Harry had managed to put the snitch back in the box. Snitches aren't supposed to fight when being put into a box, but this practice one was rather odd. " You done?" she asked.

" Yep" Harry replied to a mud covered Alicia.

" So how long is it till dinner time?"

" 12 minutes" he said without looking at the watch.

" How do you know? You didn't check the watch."

" ...Err...err... I was looking at the watch rather a long time, when I tried to put the Snitch away..."

" Well... we should head into the castle now. It was a good game" she said a smile, " What was the score? - I forgot"

Harry picked up the cloak and his book bag that he had deposited on the banks of the Quidditch field before they had started to play. " You didn't forget... you just like to rub it in that's all. 6-4 to you and KATIE". Harry emphasized the part about Katie.

" A win is win.... By the way, I was wondering... Are you going to sign up for the tournament, the Dueling one? 'Cause I didn't see your name up there and the deadline is today at midnight. Professor Pasha made the deadline rather short to make sure only the people interested signup."

" No. I'm just going to watch it from the sidelines" there was no regret in Harry's voice when he said that, so Alicia was interested to know why Harry would not want to enter the tournament. When suddenly she remembered the events of the last year.

" Do you think you could… I don't know… help me out getting ready for the tournament?"

" Sure… what do you need help with" he asked.

" I know a lot of spells and things but I really need someone to practice it on..."

" You mean, like a guinea pig?"

" Well when you say it like that, you make it sound so negative. All you have to do is just stand there and let me practice it on you… oh! that does sound like I'm testing things on you."

" Don't worry… I don't mind being tested on…” He said smiling. “ I mean yes I'll help you."

" Good."

When Harry and Alicia walked into the Gryffindor common room everyone was leaving for dinner. They stood to one side of the corridor as the whole house went by. Harry received many venomous glares from older students while at the same time he could see the very young ones suddenly look up to him like he was a god. When the procession finally ended they went their separate ways. After dinner, the two played some exploding snaps before retiring to their own dorms.

When Harry entered through the door, he was surprised to see that Fred and George were waiting for him…

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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29. The Plight of a winged beast

Chapter Number: 29
Chapter Name: The Plight of a winged beast

Right after dinner Hermione sat down on her favorite comfortable seat by the fire. As much as Ron wanted to join Hermione, he had eaten like a pig at dinnertime so he was feeling drowsy. After about five minutes Hermione let him off the hook and said their goodbyes. She opened up the book that she got in the library. Just as she opened the book up to read it, Harry and Alicia walk into the room.

Her experiences in Morocco had changed her personality slightly...er...no more like going from a dolphin to a shark. The adventurous and somewhat domineering Hermione that she had come to know over the summer was still very much ruling over her mind. The anger she felt towards Harry in the library, came back a hundred fold. She had to restrain herself greatly not to go up to him and beat the living daylights out of him.

She turned the book in her hands several times over as she watched the game of exploding snaps progress. Every time either Alicia or Harry burst into laughter she got more and more angry at Harry for getting more than her in Charms. When they finally finished, Hermione quickly opened the book and pretended to read it.

As Harry passed Hermione to go to the dorm room he had one glance of Hermione behind the book. His face betrayed a small grin, when he saw that Hermione was holding the book upside down. It took great restraint on Harry's part not to tell Hermione that she was reading the book upside down.

Though Harry might have had thought that his inwardly smile had not shown on his face, Hermione noticed it. Her anger tripled when she realized the reason for Harry's small grin, but she did not turn the book back to the way it was supposed to be until he left the room. It was as if she was saying to Harry that she intended to do that from the beginning. To give herself a challenge.

After a few minutes when no one was looking, Hermione turned the book the right side up and started reading. Inside the cover the first page read...

{ Tale of the Saviour }

A tale of the Harold Parker

By

Professor Dippit
&
Melina Khan

(c) Cholera & Sanoe Khan Publishers
from the people that brought you 'Menacing Menace' and 'Troubled thoughts' available at a shop near you

She turned the page over quickly. The pages were all blank! It took a while for her to figure out the reason. Morocco is the most populated Muggleborn city in the world. So the chances of a muggle finding the book accidentally are huge. That is the reason the pages are blank. It reveals its contents when a wizard or a witch opens the book with their wand.

Hermione took out her wand and tapped the first page of the book. The writing on the page shimmered into existence. Hermione did a quick scan through the book to see if there were more pictures of the person on the front cover. There were lots of pictures in the book but only one of the person on the cover. Hermione reluctantly went back to the front of the book and started to read.

Foreword

It may seem like a fairly tale, but heroes do exist. They
exist not for glory, not for fame, but to help others. This
is book is dedicated to one person who from the beginning
believed that the war sweeping Morocco was indeed one that
had been orchestrated by it's enemies to bring it down to
its knees.

Heroes do exist. They exist in places and in people unlike
what you would expect of them to be.

I had the privilege of knowing this man. He called himself
Harold Parker. His origins unknown. His history unknown.
This book does not try to reveal information before his
appearance in Morocco, as there is no record of him anywhere.
He was a man of mystery when he left Morocco, but before that
he was a boy of curiosity and intrigue.

I was with him through his journey from the first time he
appeared in Morocco to when he left forever. This book is the
tale of what he did when he was there.

Much of the story is in anecdotal format, but there has been
no exaggeration of his abilities mentioned here. Definitely
not at the beginning nor at the end.

Signed
Professor Dippet

The author's note managed to grab all of Hermione's attention and she quickly flicked to the real start of the book.

Chapter 1 : Time of his Arrival

It was a summer morning that he arrived in Morocco. From what he tells me he was severely injured, when he arrived. He did not mention the specifics of his injuries, but from research done by my assistant revealed that he had severe lacerations to his mid section. Though there are several corroborating accounts of him appearing with injuries, they were not seen by the author (me) when we met.

This is not the only inconsistency surrounding this man. I call him a man because of his achievement, not because of his age. When he first appeared he looked no older than sixteen years of age. Even that would be grossly overestimating his age. He had no stubble, nor any body hair to speak of. This is the basis of my observation.

He was well built, as you can tell from the only picture he agreed to take before leaving. He was a 'freeman', this is a term for those belonging to neither Tozan nor their rival clan of Shoran. Freeman such as him or me were looked down upon. Without the backing of either of the clans freemen had little chance of fighting back....

The rest of the chapter was boring - even for Hermione. It went on and on about the socio-political situation in both Morocco and the rest of the world. Hermione usually was very interested in that topic, but Harry Potter had ruined her mood. Hermione got tidbits of information on Harold during the next five or six pages. Frustrated she decided to read the book when she had more time and felt more energetic. It did not take her long after that to reach her room and sleep like a log until the next day.

Harry was rather surprised to see that two people were waiting for him on the other side of the door leading into the boy’s dorm room. Fred and George came over to where Harry was and both pushed him up against the wall.

"Hey!" said Harry, as he got pushed into the wall, " What's the meaning of this?" he demanded.

" You better leave our things alone, Potter." said George.

" Your things. What things?" Harry asked confused.

" We know what you’re playing at before." this time it was Fred who said the more confusing thing.

" What're you talking about?... I don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About" said Harry, careful to emphasize each word.

" You know perfectly well what we're talking about!" insisted a twin.

" If you don't stop now ..." started Fred.

"... there'll be trouble.”

.. prank trouble!"

The pair then let Harry go and started to talk to each other about what kind of prank they should do on the Slytherins that night, before heading back to their own dorm room.

Harry still had no idea what just happened. After staring at the direction the twins had gone for five minutes Harry finally dismissed the conversation as a new joke the twins had come up with. It took him a while to cast the hardening Charm. Though Harry might have had become really good doing the 'Page turning Charm', he did not have nearly as much control over the charm as he would have had liked. The mattress turned very solid.

Almost rock hard to his dismay.

After reversing the original spell he tried again. This time the mattress was so soft that the top part of it collapsed on the bottom, giving it the appearance of being nothing more than a flat sheet of cloth. ‘ This is what happens when I try a simple charm and Hermione is upset with me about my charms mark. Women...go figure... Maybe I should tell her tomorrow... err ... maybe not.’

Even though Harry wanted to tell her at that very second, he decided that it probably made more sense to tell her when she was she was more receptive. It took Harry almost an hour before he got the wand movement and the series of taps done perfectly. By the time he was finished he was tired and exhausted. He fell to his bed and dreamed of things.

The next day Harry woke up a few minutes before six thirty, but he did not go down to the Quidditch field to do some running. After getting ready for classes in record time, he wandered the corridors of schools until he found himself in the great hall. There was no one there but one of the elves. As soon as elf saw Harry it tried to make a run for a door, in panic.

Unfortunately, for the elf, the door had other ideas and decided to move two meters to the right exactly when the elf reached the door. The elf slammed into the wall with a loud thud, another followed it when it fell to the floor.

Harry rushed to its side to see if it needed help. He kneeled down next to the elf and asked, " Are you alright?"

The elf did not answer, rather it scrambled onto its legs and hurriedly tried to get through the door again. Unfortunately the door seemed have had enjoyed the last trick it played a bit too much and did it again. There was another sickening thud when the elf hit the wall. Harry had to use a lot of self-control not to laugh at the poor elf. This time the elf did not get up from the floor. Harry went to it and helped it up.

" Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. I'm Harry Potter. What's your name?" If Harry had thought that the elf was scared before, it was even more scared now.

" mm..m.my..y..y n..name be Shabby"

" Well Shabby... It's nice to meet you" Harry extended his hand for the elf to shake. The elf jumped a step back in horror. Harry quickly took his hand back and asked, " Do you know where Dobby is? I need to talk to him..."

" He be in the kitchen...."

" Thank you..." he said as Harry started to walk back the secret entrance to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, Dobby was the first person to meet him. He was wearing what probably passed as the most expensive item of clothing to the elves. It was a dirty old sweater with a million bright coloured patches on it.

" 'Arry Potter came to see me..... no?"

" Yes, Dobby. How's the new job going?... Winky back yet?"

" Fine... She's still missing. I reckon she'll be before tomorrow"

" Ok... I just need to talk to her. When she comes make sure she doesn't leave. Ok?"

" Yes...sir"

" umm... Dobby do you think I could get some food?"

" yes of course...." even before Dobby was finished three elves gathered up enough food for him and handed it on a big tray.

" Thank you very much" said Harry as he managed to somehow hold the large tray and also pat Dobby on the back.

Harry did not stay long enough to see what effect his pat on the back had on the tiny little creature. Dobby's chest swelled to twice its normal size. He started to order around the other elves like there was no tomorrow.

Harry started to eat the food as we went along the corridor. Hermione was still angry with him and Harry had a feeling that this might last a while... to avoid confrontation with her, Harry decided that he would try and stay away from her as possible. It would be difficult since she was in all his classes. Harry also did not want Ron to have to choose between him and the girl he loved.

The logic behind this was the reasoning was that he thought that, if he avoided both of them the problem might actually blow over. When he finally paid attention to his surroundings, Harry found himself in a very familiar corridor. It was the one that led right into the infirmary. From his frequent visits Harry was no stranger to this part of the castle. ‘ Might as well visit Neville,’ thought Harry to himself.

When he visited the room, an odd sight greeted him. Neville was trying gently to get his right hand away from Pansy who was asleep sitting on a chain next to the bed, and her head against the soft mattress. No matter how many times he tried to gently pry open her hands, she did not seemed to let go. When Neville spotted Harry, he mouthed helplessly, " HELP."

Harry made his way quietly into the room and whisper into his ear some instructions. Neville smiled and pretended to go to sleep. Harry went back out into the corridor and walked normally back inside. He gently nudged the sleeping Pansy.

" Pansy..." he said softly. Pansy stirred a bit, before her eyes flew open wide with horror.

‘ She probably though Neville was awake,’ thought Harry, as he gently nudged her again.

" It's me... Harry. Harry Potter." He whispered. She relaxed a bit, but then started to blush a lot.

" Oh... I fell asleep...." she said, quickly letting go of Neville's hand.

" That's OK. I'll stay with him a while..." he then looked at her. She was still wearing the same clothes that she was wearing the day before. He continued, " ...you probably need to do morning things anyway..."

" Yeah... thanks" she said, as she headed for the corridor.

Once there, she made a run for her common room. Harry had contemplated talking to her in the hallway, but decided that there was no need for that. Frankly he knew he should say something to her, but he did not know what or how to say it. He went over to Neville's bed and sat down on the chair.

Harry whispered, " She's gone"

Neville sat up on his bed instantly as I someone had just pinched his bottom, very hard. " Thanks... I was so scared..."

" I'll just talk with Madam Pomfrey then I'll come back, OK" said Harry as he headed for the small room about ten or twelve beds away.

It took Harry very little time to comeback. Harry grinned at him and said, " You know what Madam Pomfrey just told me?"

" What?" Neville hoped it was not the news that he was well enough to attend the next class with Hagrid.

" Don't worry... you don't have to go to classes today..." he said noticing the tremble in his voice when he had asked the question, " Pansy stayed the entire night with you"

" She did... why?" Neville was no longer concerned that Pansy actually scared him.

" Yesterday she even cried... She thought that she should have had pushed you away from the fireball" Harry did not think that Pansy would like it if Harry told him that she had a crush on him, so he used the excuse he had heard Ron use the day before.

" Class is about to start in a few minutes… I have to go. Er... do you want rest of the food on the tray" said Harry pointing at a whole lot of food. Neville eagerly nodded and started to dig into the food.

When Harry arrived at the class he was not surprised to see that no one was there yet, not even Hagrid. The only thing there was the large trolley with the cage on top of it. It still had the white cloth on it. The threatening growls and noises from the beast could still be heard. Harry was happy that Hagrid had thought of putting up signs all around the cage that the cage contained a fire-breathing beast.

Harry did not know, but there were several charms that Hermione had set-up in accordance with Hagrid's wishes to protect younger students from trying to take off the cloth. Harry sat down close to the cage and got out the Wizarding comic book that Ron had given him to read.

As minutes wore on, the screaming of the beast subsided a bit, after a while it was totally gone. When Harry first noticed it there was still ten minutes to the class. He also knew the whole class would try and stay away as long as possible after the events of the day before.

Harry was always a bit too curious for his own good, well this time it was actually a good thing that he was. He edged closer to the cage until he thought he heard soft crying. He cast the most powerful shielding charm that he could produce around himself and yanked the cover off the cage.

The beast inside snapped and growled at him. Harry did not know what made the beast not use a fireball, but he was glad it did not. Harry looked at the eyes and saw some white silvery tears flowing down. It astounded Harry by saying, " Thank you"

" You can talk?" he asked. Unknown to him, he was actually speaking in Parseltongue.

" You are the firsssst human," it said as it rubbed it's belly with it's wings.

" Why were you crying?... Do you need something? I can tell them... they'll give it to you.

" My children where going to die..." said the Veloron, as more tears escaped it's eyes, " They need light... white bad for my children..."

" I'll tell the big man. He'll make sure you get more light.... If you promise not to use the fireball anymore, I'm sure Hagrid would let you have lots of light"

" Thankssss. What is your name?" Harry did not think the creature would know the concept of names, but decided to answer the question.

" Harry Potter... Why do you ask?"

" I will name two of my offspring after you"

Harry was quite taken aback by the gesture.

" Thanks... but there really is no need. I'm happy to help"

" I'm magically bound to do so, since I am the female of the speciessss. You have saved my firstbornss. I must repay thisss debt."

" I am honoured that you choose to do so... er ... do you have a name?" asked Harry as he blushed. He had completely forgotten to ask the name of the creature when it asked his.

" My name is Scaly"

" Well Scaly... It was an honour meeting you... Have you decided on any other names?"

" No... I do them asss they are born" the creature then seemed to think for a second and say, " How do you name yours?"

" excuse me" said Harry very confused at the question.

" When a human offspring is born, how do you name them?"

" Ohh..." Harry scratched his head for information on the topic. He had absolutely no idea. After think for a while Harry reached a common sense solution to the question.

" The parents discuss the names before they are born"

" What are parents?"

" Mates" he answered back.

" I miss my mate. Do you have a mate?" Harry blushed at the question. After all he hadn't even got to the stage of dating a girl, much less think about things beyond it.

" I'm much to young for it"

" I choossssse my mate many moons ago.... Why do those humansss behind you look that way to you?"

Harry's head snapped back. He saw that the entire class was there. They all looked very terrified of what was happening in front of them. Several of them had wands pointed straight at the Veloron.

Harry's hearing came back.

He heard the anxious talks between the Gryffindor girls and the cheering of Malfoy and a select bunch of his friends. Ron was kneeling over where he had left the comic book on the morning-frosted grass. When he looked up Harry saw him give a venomous look. ‘ DAMN! I shouldn’t have had left the comic on the grass,’ thought Harry, realizing why he was giving him that glance)

Harry quickly extended his shield around the whole of the cage, before blocking Scaly with his own body. The air around Harry almost crackled like electricity from the power that started to emanate from him. It reminded Ron and Hermione the way sometimes Professor Dumbledore looked when he was angry.

Harry's voice went slightly deep, " Put the wands down". It was not a request... it was an order.

Everyone except for Malfoy put their wand down. It looked as though he was getting ready to hit Harry with a curse when Hagrid came out of his hut.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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30. Incidents, revelations

Chapter Number: 31
Chapter Name: Incidents, revelations

Malfoy was one of the few Slytherins who took their wands out when they saw Harry near the serpentine creature. Most of the Gryffindors did the same, but their reasoning were a world apart. Where Harry’s house were afraid that Harry was in trouble, Slytherins saw it as an opportunity to hit Harry from the back. It didn’t matter to them that it would be a cowardly act – attack from the front or back didn’t matter, the end result did.

The delight that Malfoy had, for an opportunity to “help – and – accidentally – hurt – Harry” in public, was shattered when all but him put their wands down on Harry's order.

Crabbe and Goyle too. ‘ The dunder heads’.

It irked him to no end that, even the Slytherins were suddenly taking orders from Harry and only a few months ago the dark lord made his return from beyond the grave. It was an insult to the DarkLord and his holy quest that he wanted to rectify.

He whispered a curse that he had learned a long time ago.

It was light magic, but it was painful none the less. The tip of his wand grew blue when all of a sudden Hagrid who had just come behind him turned him around.

" What the hell do yer thin yer do... aaahhh" Hagrid did not get to finish the sentence when the blue light from Malfoy's wand erupted, sending Hagrid flying back a fair few meters through the air.

The ground underneath shook when this happened.

Giants were particularly resilient when it came to curses hurled at them, even two of the unforgivable curses ( 'Imperius' and 'Cruciatus' ) had no effect on them. Most light and dark magics need to be performed by two or three wizards together, to make a spell work properly. Though Hagrid was only halfgiant, he still was able to take the curse in stride... well the pain part anyway.

Several of the students rushed to where Hagrid was to see if he was all right, while Malfoy stood there with panic written all over his face. " Malfoy..." boomed Hagrid's voice across the whole of the school ground, as he got on his feet. The voice was enough for Malfoy to fear for his life. He made a mad dash for the castle. " ... that lil ferret... When I get me hands on 'im I swear I'll skin 'im alive"

Hagrid then turned his focus on to Harry who was still standing in front of the Veloron cage. What Hagrid (who was half giant) saw standing in front of him scared him enough to take two steps back.

He could see waves of green emanate from Harry's body like a halo and just reach the group of students in front of him. Giants were blessed with an extra ordinary gift. It was not their size or strength, but they could literally see the magical potential inside a person.

Only the yesterday, when Harry was in class, Hagrid had noticed that as always Harry's slight green glow was brighter than the other students. Hermione and Malfoy were the other two on the in the class that had a above average potential, but they were no where close to what Harry had around him self.

The level of brightness reminded him of two very different people. One was the current headmaster of Hogwarts. Brave, cunning and working for the good.

The other was a man, whose name to this day he could not say without flinching. It was the same man who some fifty odd years ago destroyed his father's dream of seeing his halfgiant son become a wizard. The other man was Tom Riddle.

Also known as, Lord Voldemort.

When the brightness suddenly flickered away he was surprised. Even Professor Dumbledore, was never able to return to his original brightness so soon. It had two possible reasons. Either Harry was very strong or he was too weak to sustain his magical potential.

Hagrid suspected that Harry was too weak to sustain it, but he hoped like hell that Harry was actually so strong that he could reduce his magical potential very easily. He made a mental note to talk to him later about his. Finally recovering from his shock he said, " Ye OK there 'Arry?"

" Yes!" Harry yelled back much to Hagrid's relief.

But it really was a lie as Harry could barely stay in the position that his body was in. He probably would have had fell to the ground right after his magical potential went down, had it not been for Scaly, who had seen her benefactor slowly weakening in her defense.

She had grabbed his cloak from the back with her tail and held him in place. It was not a sense of self preservation that made her do this. It was simply because she sensed that Harry did not want to show weakness. None of the other students dared get any closer to Harry then they already were. They were afraid that the fire breathing beast would harm them. Hagrid slowly made his way to the front of the class. Harry whispered to Scaly, " You can let
go now... I think I'm fine. Thanks."

" No worriesssss...." she replied back.

" Hagrid..." said Harry when he was close enough.
" ... what?" he asked gently.
" Don't put the cloth back on again.... It was cold and the babies – the need the light… I had to take it offfffff......." Harry did not get to finish what he had wanted to say as his speech slurred and then suddenly he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Across the school grounds and in the castle somewhere near his office, Professor Dumbledore came to a full stop before a door. He turned to the west side of the Castle. He knew what was happening to Harry and he knew the benefits it would bring the light side in the upcoming war with Voldemort and his minions. He murmured in a foreboding tone that no one was there to listen to, " So it has finally begun..."

Far from the castle in a place where few dare to travel, Lord Voldemort stopped in the middle of the imperious curse that he was performing on a helpless muggle man. The man was in mid air doing a back flip, when he suddenly regained control of his own body. He fell to the stone floor and with a loud crack that broke several of his bones.

" So he has finally started his journey..." said Voldemort.

Someone in his place would have been very afraid of what was happening, but he was positively thrilled. He knew that the prophesized battle is another three years away and there'll be only one victor.

He made his first mistake as Lord Voldemort when he fought the prophecy and went after the Potters. He had tipped the scale in favor of the boy then and now he was well protected. He had ordered his minions that if they had an opportunity to kill Potter not to do it. It was because the prophecy did not say whether the heir of Merlin would win or not in his final battle. Voldermort had no intention of giving Harry another opportunity to tip the scales more in favor of the light side.

He knew that the only hope he had of defeating Harry was to regain his former powers and that was only possible by creating chaos to mask what he was really doing. He looked at the muggle man on the floor whimpering... but careful not to make too much noise as he did not want to die soon. Voldemort did not even think as he uttered the words, "Avada Kedavra". The room was illuminated with a bright green light for a split second as the spark impacted on the man on the floor, killing him, where he was. Out of misery.

Two men in cloaks quickly came to where the dead muggle was and dragged him away. A strong and confident man with a silver hand emerged from the shadows to face his master. He went on his hands and knees and awaited a signal.

" Rise,” said Voldemort, “ What news do you bring from the giants?" His cool voice was sending shivers through his own followers.

" They had an emissary already my lord.” Voldemort kept his eyes on the ground. “ The grounds keeper from Hogwarts"

" I know of him... they have allied themselves with Dumbledore?"

" Yes, my lord. They do not wish to take part in the war.”

" If they are not with us, they are against us.”

“ What is it that you wish me to do?...."

Voldemort sat up. " What did you do them?"

" I took my wards and destroyed their village... we killed three hundred of the
giants.... they are a threat no more...." he replied.

" Excellent... You'll be rewarded for this." he hisses.

" I seek no reward other than to please you my lord...." Voldemort gave a dry laugh at this.

Back in the castle...

Neville was sleeping peacefully on the bed thinking of things he would like to do to Professor Snape if he was allowed to. Things included Neville being every thing from a barber ("accidentally killing him while he was sitting on the chair") to being a wild-beast removal person (Snape getting attacked by a supposedly "escaped" Manchurian Maneater).... ‘ or maybe be like that Veloron thingy...’

His daydreams were interrupted when Hagrid brought in Harry’s unconscious body. It was only a few minutes ago that Harry had visited him, and he seemed very well back then. Harry suddenly becoming sick, made Neville worry about his own health.

Hagrid put Harry down on the closest bed. Several students in the same class followed him in. " Gerr out all yer..." Hagrid said in his booming voice. All the girls promptly left the room, the guys were a bit more slow but were prompt none the less. Hagrid saw that Ron and Hermione did not leave and as much as it pained him to do so, he did not think it was good of either Ron or Hermione to see what was going to happen to him next. He looked at the pair and said, " I said everyone!"

" But..." started to say Ron, but stopped when Hermione started to pull him back.

" We should go.. We’ll only get in their way and Harry might." she paused as a lump got caught in his throat, " ... something bad might happen to him..." Ron gave up trying to stay.

After they left Hagrid, looked at Neville and said, " Ye got yer wand?" Neville nodded. " Well get it out... if any one tries to get past yer... blast...er.... Ye know how to do a body-binding charm right?..."

" Yes..." said Neville. Not many people knew it but that was the only spell in charms he could do flawlessly. After the end of his first year, he studied that specific curse very well. Over the course of the last three years he had become very good at it, because of his constant practice.

" Lock the door after I leave. Professor Dumbledore will open it when he comes" with that he closed the door behind him and Neville locked the door from inside. He sat down on the bed next Harry’s and waited patiently. He was a bit afraid of the mob (he could hear their loud talk) outside.

About five minutes when Professor Dumbledore had come to a stand still in front of the door, he waited patiently for what was to come next. Sure enough at that very moment, Hagrid appeared at the closest corridor to where he was standing. He looked tired and was huffing and puffing when he reached the headmaster.

" Professor... 'Arry... he fainted..."

" I know. I assume you've put him in his hospital wing?" it was not a question since Hagrid knew the professor already knew the answer to that question already.

He simply nodded. " ... professor..." Hagrid was going to ask the headmaster a question but was interrupted in the middle.

" I know you've many questions, Hagrid. Follow me, please. ..." the headmaster did not head for his office instead started to head for the Hospital wing.

Hagrid saw the professor do something with his wand, when a bright white light exploded for a fraction of a second, over them. Suddenly all the student's walking past them made no noise what so ever. Hagrid saw them open their mouth, but nothing came out. Realizing it was some kind of advanced privacy spell he said nothing about it. After about a minute of silence, the professor spoke. " I assume from your silence you've had experience with something of this sort... Ms. Granger perhaps."

" Yes, Professor." Replied Hagrid.

" You saw him emanate... didn't you?"

Hagrid could only nod in response. Even though the headmaster was actually walking in front of Hagrid, he reacted as if he saw Hagrid nod. " I'm sorry, I should have had told you before..."

" It's the same as I saw with To..." he stopped himself. "... HIM. Is the same going to happen to him? "

" In a way...." he turned his head back to smile at the half giant "... he'll go through it faster... It's a good thing he's going through it here. I can look after him."

" HE turned evil right after that" said Hagrid meaning about how Lord Voldemort became evil after going through the same thing Harry was going through.

" He was a lost soul long before this happened to him and Harry..." his voice held pride as he said the rest of the line, " Well he's Harry. Too much good in him to be tempted to abuse it... I suspect he'd rather want to hide this fact from everyone. He won't change mentally. He's too strong for that. That's why Voldemort wants to kill him...."

It finally made sense to Hagrid why Voldemort had been after Harry from the time he was born. If Harry was weak minded like Tom had been then the transformation would have had corrupted him over the years and eventually Harry would have had joined the dark side. But since Harry was stronger willed; he was a threat to Voldemort's plan for world domination.

" Is that why..." he did need to finish his question when he got the answer.

" Yes, partly." it was an ominous answer.

" Will you tell him?..."

" No... not yet...."

" Why?" asked Hagrid curious.

" He's not ready yet. He has to know himself before, I can give his answer to that question.... Hagrid. I know you know the reasons for Harry's life, if you don't want history to repeat then..."

" I want you to do the memory charm on me Professor... I don't think I can stop myself if he asks...."

" I'm sorry Hagrid, but that is not acceptable. He’ll see the spell on your mind. He’ll want to know what’s there. But if you don't say anything.... he won't know."

" You're trusting me to keep this a secret..."

" No... I'm telling you if you care about Harry, forget what you saw today"

" I will... for Lily's sake... for James and most of all Harry's sake, I'll forget what I know." This time Hagrid decided was not going to be like the first year with Harry. Every sentence involving Harry, Lily and James would go though his brain several times before he'd let it out of his mind.

Voldermort laughed when Wormtail made the speech about how all he did was to please his master. Voldemort knew why his followers followed him. None of his followers were the ‘ Make master happy ’ types. There was only one that had died the year before.

Barty Crouch Jr. He was almost like a son to him – indeed if he had only managed to get a mortal body, and die a natural death – he would have had named the boy his successor. Even if he did have an immortal body, he would have made that boy his other arm, after the LeStranges as his right.

All his other servants had a bigger master than him. It was greed. They all wanted power, fame, or glory and they would do almost anything to get it. That is why they followed him. Then again he did know this. He wanted them to follow something higher than himself – he knew then what motivated them.

" You and I both know that's not true, Wormtail." he hissed at the man crouching before him, ".... But I'll punish you later since your reward out weighs the reason for your punishment – for today."

" What do you wish of me?... my lord" Wormtail said, breathing a sigh of relief.

" You'll lead the attack on the muggle born children of Hogwarts at the end of the year..."

Lucius Malfoy emerged from the shadows and said in an outraged tone of voice said, " My lord... you promised me...." he didn't get to finish the sentence when a Crucious curse went through his body. There was not an incantation or anything of that sort heard by anyone but the caster himself.

Severus Snape.

" Do not interrupt the lord again..." he said as he released Lucius from the forbidden spell.

" Ahhhh... What news do you bring of Harry Potter?...." his red eyes glowed as he said this.

Ginny’s charms teacher was very impressed with her spell to change the color of the pig that was in front of the class. She was the only person who had gotten the charm right on the first go, but it had exhausted her. She asked Professor Flitwick for permission to go outside the class to get some fresh air. Just as she stepped out of the room... she collided with someone moving very fast.

( A/N: The whole of the Gryffindor house seems to under a tripping over each other curse… hmmm )

The force of the blow sent her along the corridor a few meters before friction from the floor brought her to a halt. " Awww..." said Ginny to look up to see who was her assailant. It turned out to be a hyperventilating Dean Thomas.
" Sorry... no time... got to go" said Dean and he made a run for the hospital wing. He didn’t even stop to see if Ginny was alright. She started to grumble to herself about rude boys when someone she didn’t know came over to where she was. He extended his hand and said, " Here... let me help you."

" ...er..thanks..." she said as she got off the floor, with the help of the sandy haired boy. He had a mop of hair much like Harry’s though his were ruffled because it was evident that something big was going on outside the class. " What’s you name?...er... if you don’t mind me asking?"

She could have had sworn she saw him blush, but dismissed the thought since someone actually blushing over her was a concept totally unknown to her. Even Collin her current "not-my-boy-friend" did no such thing. She sometimes thought that Collin was a bit too involved with Harry for his own good, but being close to him also allowed her access to some really good photos of the person she was head over heels for. Harry.

" Ginny..." she paused as she blurted out her name then realized she had forgotten her last name, " Ginny Weasley"

" Well Ginny Weasley..." he beamed a smile at her as though he approved of her name, " I’m Terry Boot. You’re a fourth year aren’t you?"

" Yeah..." she said amazed, " How did you know?"

" errr... I have to go... Harry Potter’s been injured." he said as he was about to leave. She quickly grabbed his hand before he could fully turn away from her.

" What’s happened to him?" she asked. Her voice was loud and it was frightening enough to scare Terry who was a year older to say, " He fell unconscious...."

Ginny didn’t look happy at the news and he thought she was going to hit him really badly. A bit frightened, he tried to get away from her. " Where is he?" she asked.

" Hos....Hospital...." he didn’t get to finish the race when Ginny made a mad dash for the Hospital wing.

When Snape was in school, he wanted more than anything to get acceptance from Professor Dumbledore. He worked hard trying to get James and his band of Marauders to get expelled because of the pranks that they pulled. Professor Dumbledore knew of the activities of the James and his gang, but did nothing to discourage them, only increasing Snape’s hatred for James.

James also was much better than him, academically. Always coming second to James in every thing including to the one girl that he thought he loved was something he did not want to see. When that happened he latched on to the one person that recognized his brilliance.

That being Voldemort.

Even though he was naive in the beginning about Lord Voldemort’s need for him, he soon realized that Lord Voldemort did not really like him the way he wanted Professor Dumbledore to like him, rather Snape was just one of his tools.

Realizing that he set out to correct mistakes of his past... one of the very first things he did was to give warning to James and Lily of the danger to their lives. Even after the warning Snape never felt that he had done enough to prevent their death. That is why he helped Harry in his first year against Professor Quirrell/Voldemort.

It was a risk... a grave risk for him to come back to the dark lord’s side. The dark lord knew of his betrayal, and knew that he was working as a double agent. But this allowed him information from Professor Dumbledore’s side (real or fictional) and in return he fed Snape information, some real - others not. But that did not mean that Voldemort was going to spare Snape from the Crucious curse... not when he had to endure so much, for so long.

" I have only one news my lord, he’s sick. If you wish, I will poison him." said Snape in a toneless voice, almost as if he was an automaton. He did not mean it and both he and Voldemort knew it. Voldemort was happy that finally his enemy was becoming visible... He laughed in his high pitched voice, sending shivers through all the death eaters present in the dark, damp and cold room.

" I know of the his "sickness" as you call it...." he paused. His eyes glowed more red as he spoke, " you can’t poison him..”

Voldemort stopped himself from saying that no poison could kill Harry anymore, as he knew that might tempt his followers to remove him. Together they were a lot stronger than he was right now. He couldn’t expose his own weaknesses. "... I want to kill him myself. Remember that. No one tries to kill him other than me."

" I apologize, my lond."

" Shut up, Severus. I grow tired of you... If you do not want me to kill you right now... leave."

" Yes my lord" Snape did not dare get up from where he was. With a small pop he was gone.

Voldemort turned his eyes on Wormtail, who was still kneeling before his master and said, " Wormtail...."

" Yes my lord..."

" I want you to go to Russia..” he hissed, “ Do you know what you have to do there..."

" ... I think so, master. But I dare not presume to know what you are thinking my lord."

" ... There is a place near Siberia... you know what to get from there?"

" Yes my lord" he replied

" Take 20 of the new recruits with you.” Voldemort was smiling in a cruel way. “ They have yet to taste the blood of the dead – they need to do it. They need to love it. "

" By your order my lord..." said Wormtail as he got up to leave. Half way out of the chamber he heard his master utter the word " Crucio" and his body was wracked with pain as every nerve ending in his body felt as though they were on fire. He was hit with a Crucious curse.

" This was only a taste of what is waiting for you if you fail. Do. Not. Fail. Me. Wormtail."

Voldemort knew it would take him, years if not decades, to reach his true level again. It was his punishment for tampering with fate, that he was forced to live so long without a body. It had been foretold long before that Harry and Voldemort were to face off each other at the age of fourteen... to the victor would go the world, for a long time until another evil or force of good comes up.

Voldemort killed one Centaur to gain that particular bit of prophecy a long time ago and only a few days ago he killed another gaining a brand new one. This one was even murkier than the one before. This one predicted that Harry and Voldemort would fight a battle a day in three years time.

When and where could not be told from the stars, but it was to take place when Harry was a full grown Wizard. For interfering with the prophecies, he was deprived of his body for over a decade and now that he had it back – Voldemort dared not defy the prophecies of the Centaurs again. For this time without his experimentation with immortality like he had done so before, he would certainly die.

When Wormtail left the room, Voldemort focused his gaze upon the shivering body of Lucius Malfoy. " Lucius... It was a good thing that Severus did what he did. Had he not done that You would have been killed... no... I think life worse than death would be more appropriate. More like the ones the Long Bottoms went through..."

" I apologize master..."

" I care not for them, I want you to send messages to the Dementors in Azkaban. They’ll join us soon enough. I want you to organize their revolt. It won’t take you time to organize that, so leave that for now. Organize a group of thirty Death Eaters to hunt down the traitorous scum... Karakauff. I want his head on a platter.”

" As you wish..."

" Lucius,”

“ Yes master.”

“ I will kill your entire family if you fail.”

“ Yes master.”

“ And Lucius, ‘Crucio!’ – ”

Voldemort’s laugh filled the air, as Voldemort threw yet another curse at Lucius.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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31. Plans, Parvati & Preconceptions

Chapter Number: 31
Chapter Name: Plans, Parvati & Preconceptions

Neville was glad, that when the door opened it was Professor Dumbledore. If it had been anyone else he was not sure if he would have had been able to keep the promise he made to Hagrid. The wise wizard’s eyes held pride as he looked over at Neville. The headmaster made his way to Harry’s bed, but made a stop to see Neville first, while Hagrid locked the door behind them. Whatever Neville was expecting what happened next was not it.

" How are you doing, Neville?" said Professor Dumbledore as he gently ruffled Neville’s hair.

" Fine... sir" he replied, pleased with himself for getting some affection from a member of staff other than Professor Sprout and this was the headmaster no less.

" Thank you, Neville for looking after Harry."

" I...it wwa..was my pleasure sir" stuttered Neville. This was the first time in his life he was stuttering, not because he was afraid, but was overcome with feelings that he had no names for.

" You’re well enough to go back..." Professor Dumbledore either paused or was interrupted in mid sentence, when the door to the room burst open and a loud noise echoed throughout the corridors.

On the other side of the door stood and angry looking Madam Pomfrey, her face flustered. She was rather angry to have heard that there was a patient in the hospital wing and no one thought to get her, to top that off she had to hear it from a terrified looking Ravenclaw. " Where is he?" she demanded. Her voice embodied something that frightened, even Hagrid, who was at least five feet taller than her. Professor Dumbledore didn’t flinch.

The Professor then turned to Neville."... go out into the hallway and join rest of the classes." Neville nodded and ran out past the angry woman at the door.

When Neville had left the room, in the castle where Harry was laying unconscious, Professor Dumbledore was getting ready to do something quite drastic to revive him. He had not done this type of advanced ancient magic for a long time, and the only other time he had done it was when he faced off Grindelwald.

" Hagrid? Could you do something for me?"

" Yes professor, what is it that ya want me to do?"

" I want you and Madam Pomfrey to go out of the room..." Madam Pomfrey looked like she was going to start an argument, but something inside her made her stop. "...Clear both sides of the corridor and make sure you post the head boy and girl on each side of the corridor. No matter what you hear or see, don’t try to come into the room."

Hagrid did not need to be told, twice. He knew Professor Dumbledore knew, what he was doing, but the comment bout no coming into the room was one that disturbed him.

" Albus, what’re you going to do?" asked madam Pomfrey.

" Something that’ll hurt Harry a lot...." he said very slowly.

Very soon after Neville went outside the hospital room, three pairs of hands quickly plucked him out of the small crowd. The hands belonged to three people very close to Harry. They were Hermione, Ron and Ginny. " How’s he doing?" asked Ron.

" Is he doing okay?", added Hermione.

" Is he awake yet?" asked Ginny.

" Hold on a sec... will you?..." said Neville.

" Well?" asked Hermione folding her hands in front of her and standing on one foot while tapping the ground with the other.

" He’s still unconscious" said Neville, much to the three of his interrogators’ dismay.

" Well lets go..." said Hermione, as she reluctantly started to move to where her next class was due to be held, "...well come on..." she said to Ron.

As much as Hermione quickly giving up was a surprise to Ron, he thought he saw her point in giving up. It was unlikely that Harry would wake up soon, and if he did it would be at least a day before Madam Pomfrey would let anyone into the hospital wing. But Hermione had not really given up. In fact she was cooking up a plan to go see Harry that very night.

Alone.

Hermione wanted to talk to Harry alone, even if he was going to be unconscious. She did not want Ron present there because Ron had a tendency to get jealous. Hermione was sure she would cry, and she was sure that Ron would see it as affection for Harry. This year more than anything else, Hermione knew, it was important for both Ron and her to be by Harry’s side. Anything that might disrupt that friendship could have dire consequences for Harry, and as a friend she did not think she would be able to bear that pain in her.

" I didn’t think you’d give up so soon," said Ron as they headed for their next class, Neville next to him, "... I mean it’s so unlike you..."

She leaned closer and lied to Ron with a straight face, " I don’t want to talk about that git!"

" Okay,” Ron said putting up his hand. “ It’s just that you were as concerned about him as me." said Ron with a look of confusion on his face.

‘ He looks cute when he’s confused,’ thought Hermione as she replied, " Well... I changed my mind...anyway... you want to go to the Library to do some research for History of Magic Class"

Ron didn’t have to think about the question. Even though it would have been a great opportunity to get close to Hermione, he didn’t really want to do that kind of studying in the library with her.

He grabbed Neville and said, " No...Sorry! I can’t! I promised Neville here I was going to help him practice for Quidditch trials."

" I said that?!" Neville scratched his head in confusion.

" Yes, you did. Remember..." went on Ron.

Hermione could see that Ron was lying, but this turn of event was going to fit in with her plan perfectly. Just to make it easy, " Oh... I need to go back to the common room. I’ll be a while in there... where’ll you two be when you’re doing your practice. If I finish a bit early... may be I’ll watch you guys."

Ron’s smug grin that he had just pulled one past Hermione wiped away. ‘ Damn! Now I really have to help Neville... but then again I really needed to train...,’ he thought.

"...er we’ll be in the Quidditch field..."

" Don’t you need your brooms?" she asked hoping they would say no.

" No... we’ll be using the school ones... er... if we don’t get going we’ll have to stop before we start"

Ron grabbed Neville’s arm and then broke into a run.

Hermione herself broke into a run, but not in the direction that she was supposed to. She headed back to the common room. All the boys and girls other than Ron, Neville and Hermione had decided to stay there. So there was no chance of her getting caught doing what she wanted to. She didn’t stop long enough for the fat lady to complain about how the Gryffindor girls now a days were so rude.

She ran straight into the Harry’s dorm room and went to where she knew Harry had hid invisibility cloak and the Marauders map. She knew that she had very little time so she quickly folded the brown piece of parchment in a pocket in her cloak and wrapped herself in the invisibility cloak. It was a good thing she did, since at that very moment Dean and Seamus came into the room.

They stood on the threshold of the door talking. " You know the end of term ball..." said Seamus.

" There’s one?" asked Dean incredulous.

" Of course there is... my brother told me about it last year... who would you take? Out of anyone..." he asked.

" The head-girl..." said Dean dreamily, before he went totally serious, "...but more realistically... I like Parvati"

" Parvati! Really?" Seamus raised one of eyebrows.

" Yes!" it looked as though someone had insulted Dean, " She’s smart and pretty" Dean’s brown skin made it hard to see it but he was blushing.

" Hey! Don’t get your undies in a bunch" he said, putting up his hands to stop any physical assault that might follow, " Sorry! I didn’t think you liked her...er...in that way..."

"...okay... If you think Parvati is not nice then who do you wanna take?"

" if I could take anyone, it’d be Cho Chang that seeker for Ravenclaw....er.... we both know she’s not in our league... I have my mind set on a Hufflepuff girl... I’m asking her after charms"

" You’re asking someone this early? Why?"

" Remember last year..."?

" I waited a long time to ask her, by the time I got my nerve up, she was already going with someone else. I almost didn’t get a date for the ball..."

‘ Merlin! Are all the Gryffindor boys like this?,’ thought Hermione, remembering that Harry did the same thing the year before. She felt a bit bad listening in on their conversation, but she had to stay where she was, if she wanted a quick escape.

"... so who is it?" asked Dean Thomas.

Seamus had light skin and when he blushed, his head looked more like a tomato. " er.. Hannah... Hannah Abbott."

" Umm... she’s ok... who do you think Neville is going with. Ginny again?"

" I don’t think, she’s going to make that mistake again..." snorted out Seamus amongst his laughter. Hermione felt bad for Neville knowing that he probably would not get a date.

" I think a girl likes him already...." said Dean in a mysterious voice. Hermione’s ear pricked up, even though she was trying not to listen to them a second ago.

" Who? ..." Seamus became very curious when he heard that bit of information. It was hard for him to believe that a girl would actually like Neville. Well except for Hermione, who had been helping him, get along in his classes, but there was nothing there. Everyone could tell by the way Hermione and Ron always fought that they were meant for each other. Even though this was the case, Seamus ventured forth a guess, though he knew it was wrong, "... Hermione?"

Hermione took a step back. She had no idea that someone would think that she had romantic interest in Neville. She had to restrain herself, from talking back to the two boys to make it known that she was not in anyway or shape was attracted to him.

" Hermione.... you’re joking right?" said Dean.

" ... so you think she has a thing for Ron as well..."

Dean nodded. " So does half the school. The way they fight... it’s so obvious"

Hermione took so many steps back that, any more she would not have heard rest of the conversation. ‘ They Know! But how?!’

" ...so who is it?"

" You know that okay looking Slytherin girl that used to hang around Malfoy..." said Dean, before he got interrupted.

" No kidding..." Seamus’ his hand went up to cover his mouth, " Pansy..."

" I know... it’s kind of hard to believe that Malfoy’s ex-girlfriend has a thing for Neville..."

Seamus started to stammer " bu.... but..."

" I know she’s probably the best looking Slytherin girl in her year.... That’s not saying much... but that’s pretty good for Neville."

" Yeah..." Seamus looked uncertainly at his broom on the other side of the room. " You think we should bother to enter the tryout... I mean Ron’s going to be in it and his whole family except for Percy was in the Quidditch team... he’s bound to be good and I hear Harry is the co-captain. He’ll have connections in the high places – he’s bound to get into the team."

" You think Harry would do that..."

" He might... but then again we thought he put his name in the goblet as well didn’t we. Who would have had guessed it was a trap for him..."

" Yeah... when Harry’s concerned, you can’t be sure of anything..." Seamus moved out of the doorframe and started to move to where his broom was. Dean already had his.

When they both stopped blocking her exit path, Hermione made a quick run for the door. Once safely away from dorm room for the boys, she headed straight for her own room. There she took out all of her stuff from the bottom drawer of her closet door and put the invisibility cloak in there. She then covered it up with all her clothes that were originally there.

Glad that her plan was a success, she sauntered merrily down to the Quidditch field to watch Ron and Neville practice... ‘ Well watch Ron anyway,’ thought Hermione had a small blush appear on her face. It still amazed her that according to Seamus and Dean, half the school suspected that they had a thing for each other. ‘ The other half must think I have a crush on Harry...’ remembering all the people the year before had asked her if she was his girlfriend.

‘ Oh well... I can’t really complain... Both of them are quite good looking, and both are my best friend... there’s bound to be some confusion. Good thing, I have my crush chosen already. Ron...’ , the rest of her thoughts were too complicated to be explained in here, “... Oh! I just love that red hair..." suddenly she said it out loud. It was a good thing that no one was there. Otherwise it would have had been a disaster.

In the Quidditch field, Parvati Patil was looking at all the boys on their brooms, naked from waist up. She was so deeply engrossed in her observations, that she did not notice Hermione, sit down next to her. Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus and a few of the Ravenclaws were all practicing together. From what Hermione saw, Ron had about as much chance in getting into the keeper position, as anyone else. They were all mediocre in terms of talent. Though her knowledge of Quidditch only extended as far as watching the matches that Harry played in and even them a lot of the times her nose was in the books.

" How long have you been watching them?" Hermione asked, wanting to make a polite conversation.

" ...Umm...almost from the beginning...." the suddenly she shouted to the boys, " Seeker missile at 3 o’clock.....” Parvati cringed then. “ Ouch... that must have hurt." She turned back to Hermione and said, " seeker missile is not used that often cause it stops the seeker from what he is supposed to do.... oh look it’s Ron’s turn now..."

After that every time one of the boys would miss, Parvati next to her would pipe up and tell Hermione what they did wrong. This was a new side to Parvati that Hermione never known before, but then again they were never really friends to begin with.

"... see how Ron missed the last one, that’s because he kept his eyes on only the front two chasers. The third one was moving much slower so he did not pay any attention to that one... classic beginner’s mistake."

A few minutes later... " Oh see that one that Neville just missed... this one was a bit different from the one before, this strategy only works if the other one happened before. The three of the chasers start moving fast and one of the beaters join in, when they separate the chaser pretends to go after the one of the Quaffle. The beater hides his stick and the keeper thinks that the beater is going to receive the ball... and then bam. One of the chasers put it through the hole.... Who do you think is going to be next?" asked Parvati to Hermione, whose mouth was wide open.

" What?... do I have something in my teeth?" asked Parvati starting to use on of her fingers to see if anything was sticking out in there.

" er... no. You know a lot about this keeping thing. I just didn’t think you’d be interested in Quidditch, what with ...er..." Hermione stopped fearing that she might upset Parvati by the rest of the sentence.

" ...you mean not just focused on my hair and Harry and his fortunes for the week?"

Hermione blushed because Parvati had said what she was thinking about.

" ...Urmm...well, yeah. You and Lavender are always talking all night long about your favorite makeup stuff and which boy scores what on that chart of yours."

" Well... growing up in a Quidditch mad family with eight brothers you pick up a lot of things. The only person who is not interested in Quidditch in my family is Padma."

" You seem to know a lot about being a keeper. Are you going to try out?"

" Me?" Parvati reacted to the question, the same way she would have had reacted to a date with the dark lord himself. Utter amazement.

" Why not?... I’ve seen you on a broom, you’re not afraid. You seem to know a lot more about what to look out for as a keeper than any of the boys up there."

" I can’t...” Parvati explained. “ I’m a girl."

" What does that have to do with anything?" it looked to Hermione, as though Parvati thought the selectors would be biased against another female in the team. "... There’s three girls in the team already and one of them is the Captain."

" None of them have a boyfriend do they?" said Parvati.

" Boys love girls who play Quidditch" said Hermione. It was true, sometimes she wished she was interested in the game so she could talk to Harry or Ron when they started to talk about the game.

" ...No. No. No." Parvati was quite adamant, " Boys love girls who know lots about Quidditch. They don’t like the ones that can play better than themselves."

" You really believe that?"

" I have to, I can play better than three of my older brothers, and I still get picked after Padma who doesn’t like the game at all."

" Oh... I’m sorry... but I’m sure the boys here are different" said Hermione, trying to encourage Parvati to take part. She didn’t want the house to loose the Quidditch cup because they had the second best keeper. She didn’t know if Parvati was any good, but decided is she knows this much she was bound to be good.

There had been two blows already in the morning for the Gryffindors. One was the announcement that Professor Snape took great pleasure in delivering. - Lee Jordan had been removed as the commentator for the Quidditch games because of his ‘bias’ against the Slytherins. Since the commentator could only be removed at the beginning of the season, he took his case to the board of Governors and got them with the influence of Lucius Malfoy to get rid of him. Malfoy who showed up to show evidence of the “injustices” of the Gryffindors.

The second had come only minutes ago, when Harry fell unconscious in front of the whole class. This is something the house did not need. "...don’t you want Gryffindors to win the Quidditch cup"

" I do..." Parvati’s head hung low, " but I don’t want to become unpopular with the boys..."

" So you think becoming a ditzy girl, would impress them?" retorted Hermione.

" Lavender gets lots of attention and so does Hanna Abbott from Hufflepuff... anyway... shouldn’t you be in the library?" teased Parvati.

Hermione got slightly miffed at Parvati for her crack, before realizing that Parvati must have had felt the same way when people assume, just because she was friends with Lavender she is a ditzy girl.

"Okay... I get the point. I shouldn’t think that way about you if I don’t want others to think the same way about me. Right?"

" Yep. Let’s start over, without all the wrong idea about the other person."

" In that case... I’m Hermione Granger. What is your name?" she said, holding out her hand. Parvati took her hand shook it. " I’m Parvati Patil. Nice to meet you too."

Ginny protested more than anyone else when Hagrid and rest of the Gryffindors and quite a number of other students were pushed back out of the room. She was muttering to herself, when she collided with the sandy haired boy again. " Ohh, Sorr..." started Terry, but stopped when he saw who had bumped into.

" I’m soorr.." the same happened to Ginny too.

" You!" said Terry, before deciding that Ginny was trouble and made a run in the opposite direction, leaving Ginny quite confused. She had no idea what she had done to cause that reaction in the boy, so she went back thinking of ways to sneak back into the Hospital wing that night. ‘ I just wish I had an invisibility cloak,’ thought Ginny, as she made her way back to her charms class, of which there was only a few minutes left.

" Ms. Weasley," cried Professor Flitwick, " What is it that you had to do that took that long?"

" Oh.... I’m sorry professor. I heard Harry Potter was in the hospital wing (*gasps* from the classmates), so I ran th..." Ginny did not get to finish as Professor Flitwick interrupted her.

" Potter...did you say?" Ginny nodded, " What happened to him?"

" He fell unconscious..."

Professor Flitwick looked unsettled.

" Do you know why?" he asked her slowly and softly, as though he was asking something very personal.

" Hermione, told me she thinks Harry used a very strong shielding charm for a long time.... We don’t know for sure because Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid close off the hospital wing"

As time went on in the Charms class, sitting next to a person she would probably never enjoy sitting, Hermione kept feeling bad about how she had treated Harry for the last two days. She should have had been proud of Harry, but instead she was angry with him. Parvati was a very good listener when it came to other people’s problems. She had, in a few minutes, put reasons behind Hermione’s actions. Though Parvati had very little information to go on and it happened shortly after they had shook hands to get rid of any old ideas they had about the other person.

" You don’t find it odd that Harry Potter would suddenly start to study?" asked Hermione.

" No. Not after what happened last year. I know, I would have been dead if it was me who was taken to the dark lord. If I survived then I would do everything in my power to get strong... and it seems without being allowed to do magic over the holidays, he did the only thing he could. Learn from books. We both would have had done the same in the same position."

Hermione could only nod at those sentences. Those sentences were already in her mind, she just needed to hear them from someone else. Though she didn’t need incentives to read books – but she knew some people needed them.

" I think you reacted that way, because you were always the brainy one in the group. I still remember what Professor Trelawney said about what you three did in your first year. You were the one who did the logical stuff with the potions..."

Inwardly Hermione knew that Professor Trelawney got her information by asking the other professors, but did not say anything since Parvati had great respect for her. " ... so when Harry finally beat you in something you got really angry. Not because he beat you, but because now you think he has no need for you. In a way you think you’re unworthy of his friendship now that he got more than you. But..." Parvati beamed at Hermione, " ...you know that even if he doesn’t need your talents he needs your friendship.”

Hermione looked unsure.

“ Besides, how smart could he have gotten, if he didn’t even know why you were upset with him.” After she finished ,Hermione looked at Parvati with respect that she gave only to two other female teachers. They were Professor McGonagall and Professor Vector. Very soon after that, the two girls headed for the charms…

A small explosion next to her brought Hermione out of her daze. Parvati had managed to get her shimmering charm to short-circuit. Hermione was not sure, but something in the smile she gave to Hermione, made her think it was a deliberate act to cause some trouble in the class. Hermione just gave her a secretive smile back.

Lavender next to Parvati was very angry with Parvati, for letting bossy Hermione enter their clique. After all, she was the one that had insulted her beloved Professor Trelawney, before leaving the Divination class forever. Parvati was quick to point out that three fifth year girls going to Hogsmede without boys, was not as bad as just one or two of them going together. So they could have a girls day in sometimes – just having fun without the boys acting all silly.

Though Hermione did not really think that she would be left alone, as Harry would always made her tag along to where ever he went for fun, she played along for Parvati’s sakes, who seemed determined to get her new friend get along with her long time one.

Over the next few days Hermione became very good friends with both Parvati and Lavender, as Lavender learned not to take what Hermione say about Professor Trelawney seriously and Hermione learned to keep her thought regarding Professor Trelawney as quiet as possible.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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32. Ancient Magic

Chapter Number: 32
Chapter Name: Ancient Magic

" Is he all right?" asked someone from the back of the small, but growing crowd.

" Yeah... when will he be back in classes?"

" What happened?"

" Did the snake thing bite him" asked Parvati.

" Is he feeling better?"

" Is..." it went on for a whole minute as they all asked Hagrid and Madam Pomfrey about Harry.

" QUITE DOWN!" bellowed Hagrid, finally having had enough of the questions.

" Children..."said Madam Pomfrey in her softest voice, " We need the corridor cleared...now! It’s an emergency"

" But we want to stay" said Ginny, who looked like the ringleader of the whole of the crowd, when they all nodded behind her.

" I’m sorry ter do this Ginny.... but its got to be done."

" But..." she protested

" Not buts, young lady" came the harsh voice of Madam Pomfrey, but it softened when she saw Ginny’s hurt face, " It’s going to be all right, child. Professor Dumbledore is looking after him, but we need the corridors cleared." Said Madam Pomfrey.

" Everyone out!" yelled Hagrid, but this time there were no objections.

After all the children were gone, Hagrid and Madam Pomfrey had their discussion.

" I’ll go and look for the head boy and girl" said Madam Pomfrey, " while you keep and eye on the doors."

" Hurry back soon..."

" I will..." she said going out of the exit, leading to where the staff offices were. She needed to find the register to look up where the head boy and girls were.

A few minutes later, inside the closed room, Professor Dumbledore was deep in thought as he paced the small distance to the next bed, when he sensed the arrival of the two students that he had been expecting. He could almost imagine what they were talking about, but that came from over sixty yeas of teaching at Hogwarts, not one of his many powers.

" It seems we have to start..."

He waved his wand at Harry’s bed and with a small flash all the beds in the room were gone, though Harry floated in mid-air, with his arms draping by his side. He waved his wand again, this time four glass spheres appeared.

* Now the elements...* he thought to himself.

He pointed his wand at the one that was by his left leg, and said, " Elos es domine echos maran Incendio", making something that looked like fire, appear inside the translucent sphere with a small bright flash. He tapped the top of the sphere and a stream of fire like rope connected to Professor Dumbledore’s wand. Then Professor Dumbledore connected the streams to Harry’s body by tapping the end on Harry’s chest.

He went to the other sphere near Harry’s leg and did something similar, though the incantation was slightly different, " Elos es domine echos maran Aquae". This time water appeared inside the sphere. Professor Dumbledore did the same thing on the top of the sphere to connect Harry and that sphere, as he had done for the fire one.

Professor Dumbledore repeated the process, until he had wind (blue misty vapor – " Elos es domine echos maran Tundra" and earth ("Elos es domine echos maran Gaea"). When it was all finished Harry’s unconscious body was connected to the four elemental spheres by a thread of that element and Professor Dumbledore was on the brink of his own unconsciousness.

Using this magic to heal something was not a hard task, but to heal someone very sick, like Harry was, required the summoning of massive amounts of elemental powers. It tended to weaken the wizard and if the summoner became unconscious in the process, then the elemental powers called up vanishes – rendering all healing done totally useless. Professor Dumbledore watched as the four spheres started to move about on an imaginary shell of a sphere, occasionally stopping on top of Harry’s chest before continuing.

Once he had recovered from summoning the elements, Professor Dumbledore started gathering his powers again to summon the fifth and final element. Void. His element.

It was the forbidden element and as such it was only used in the very advanced ancient magic. Most ancient magic however needed so little magic to be called up that they did not show up like it had for this particular healing spell (exception was the protection that Lily had cast on Harry). Void was also the element that only he could call upon, since it was he who was the guardian of the forbidden element. Because of Professor Dumbledore’s mastery of this element, lord Voldemort feared him.

Professor Dumbledore was afraid that Harry’s growth in magic would be stalled, if he were to infuse Harry with this type of magic, but then again he had no choice. At the rate that Harry was deteriorating (Professor Dumbledore did not want to worry anyone... very fast), if he was not treated quickly, he would die of magic poisoning.

When Harry unknowingly used his power, he had caused magic to flow into his bloodstream. His human body had not yet gone through a metamorphosis, which would have had prevented excess magic to go into his muscles by coating the walls of his veins with a substance that would have had absorbed the excess magic. The reason Harry fell unconscious was because the magic had started to seep into his brain, making it impossible for him to controls his own body any more.

‘ The fifth and final element...,’ he thought, as he made something sharp appear at the end of the wand. He used it to puncture one of his fingers, letting a drop of blood appear where it had been punctured.

The blood without any incantations did the will of its master. It formed a sphere of glass around itself, much like the one around all the other elements. In his blood Professor Dumbledore carried the forbidden element and only the one who is the guardian and master of the element can use this power. That is why Lord Voldemort had not tried to take the blood of Professor Dumbledore to rise back into the world of the living. If he had, he would been destroyed from within.

Void can be summoned in two forms...one like he had done here, and the other...was to call upon on it, like he had with the other four elements. He did not dare do it this time as in his weakened state after summoning all the other elements, he was sure his mastery of the element would not prevent the destruction of the whole school if something went wrong.

The fifth element however did not move around like the other three, but it stayed over the exact spot where the threads were connected to Harry’s chest, though out side the sphere that the other four elements made.

Then the most amazing part of the magic began.

First Professor Dumbledore sent a red spark at the ceiling to make it disappear, leaving the room exposed to the sun. Something else happened as well. Then the four elements started to move so fast that they would only be viewed when one of them stopped between Harry and the sphere containing the void element. Professor Dumbledore sent another spark into the sky above, it was different this time. It was orange and it was more like a sustained burst.

Where it disappeared into the sky, a few seconds later, a small dark cloud appeared. It grew rapidly, too rapidly to be a natural phenomenon, until the sky (as far as the eye could see) became as dark as the night. Unearthly shades of lightning dance from cloud to cloud. Though the darkening of the sky was not noticed, the loud rumbling noises made everyone, wherever they were, look up to the sky.

Three separate lightning strikes of different colors danced to one cloud and connected. It was almost as if it were fuelling something in there clouds there, then with a brightness and loudness not usually attributed to thunder, the combined might of the three sizzled through the air and into the room containing Harry.

There it passed through the blood in the smallest sphere and then the sphere of Fire that had stopped below it, before striking Harry’s body. Every nerve endings in Harry’s body was set alight with fire of seven hells. Harry though unconscious before this, woke up. He screamed in pain... but both he and Professor Dumbledore were powerless to stop this. Once it had began, he didn’t not have the power to stop it.

For the next three and a half-hours...this torture continued. The lightning would gather before striking Harry, after passing through the blood (void element) and then one of the other elements. Each time, Harry would scream in pain. And Professor Dumbledore closed his eyes as the white hot lightning smashed into Harry’s body.

When the final lightning strike hit his body, it had passed through all the spheres, destroying them as it went through.

Still in pain from the magic done on him, Harry barely managed to squeak out, " He’s after Karkaroff...." before fainting.

One of the hardest things that Alicia had to do in her whole life was to hear the screaming coming from the room where Professor Dumbledore was with the unconscious body of Harry. She had to force herself to stay where she was, keeping the silencing charms replenished on one of the two doors that lead into the hospital wing.

Very soon after she had cast her spell, as ordered by Madam Pomfrey, the screaming started. That had been well over three hours ago.

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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33. The long Explanation...

Chapter Number: 33
Chapter Name: The long Explanation...

Hermione was not usually as absent minded in her classes – infact she never was like this. Her mind again wondered to what she had thought of a few minutes ago, when Parvati had brought her out of her daze with that small explosion : ‘ How could I think, Harry would be so...so...’ she really did not know what word to use to describe what she thought of Harry before. It was just too horrible think of now. The more she thought about it, the angrier she would get at herself for behaving like a spoilt brat. She just hoped when she was going to visit Harry that night, if he was awake, he would forgive her. She hoped he would be as lenient on her as he was with Ron the year before.

Frustrated with herself, she turned her head towards the window, only to be greeted by an unearthly sight. Something that even in the magical world seemed unreal. " What in heaven’s name is that?" she said loudly, managing to get attention from fair number of the students around her. A set of cries and aw’s broke out that finally grabbed everyone’s attention. " Wha..." started to say Ron, but he stopped when he saw what Hermione had seen. " What are you guys..." started Parvati, "...Oh! By Merlin’s beard! What is that?!"

Parvati managed to get the attention of Lavender, who screamed upon seeing the phenomenon. Hearing the scream, Ron’s dazed mind snapped out of wonderment. He closed his gaping mouth. Everyone other than Ron, Hermione and Parvati had a mixture of panic and horror written on their face, as they thought deatheaters were attacking the school. Ron and the others had thought nothing. They were just too stunned.

Before anyone else from the class could overreact, the people who were paying attention to Professor Flitwick before this scene broke out, saw that he had received a small piece of paper on his desk right, and right after reading it, the teacher had cast a silencing spell on the room. So that none of the other adjacent classes didn’t panic. "Ahem..." he coughed intentionally. "...what you see happening there, over the Hospital Wing is ancient magic."

This revelation was followed by a round of gasping noises. " Professor Dumbledore asks me to inform you that..." he said, reading the paper in front of him, " what you see unfold in front of your eyes, is the magic being used to revive Mr. Potter. Please do not go into the Hospital wing. The rooms are sealed until as such a time as the magic is completed...." he looked up from the parchment and said, " ...that means, get comfortable, we’re staying here for a while. Lunch will be served in the room."

Professor Flitwick waited a while to let the students get over the shock – no one did, but he went back to giving notes.

Ali Pasha did not like teaching pupils whom he could sense were destined to become dark wizards, but he had to teach everyone otherwise his position at Hogwarts was in jeopardy. As much as he hated to admit it, Malfoy was one of the best students he had ever had, with the possible exception of Hermione, but then again no one ever has been.

Harry really was not his student, as what Harry now knows, came from Professor Dippet some 13 years ago. Part of the reason Ali Pasha had accepted the teaching job was to have a chance at seeing Harry fight – maybe even have a sparring session with him. His own teacher and mentor (long time before Harry came to Morocco), Professor Dippet had told him that Harry was to become a very strong warrior. He told him that Harry was really good and was good enough to be his equal or even better than Ali.

That simple possibility made him accept the teaching post at Hogwarts. That is why he was so surprised when it seemed like Harry was barely qualified to be on the same mat as Hermione, on the first few days of Harry and Hermione’s training, as he was getting beaten up by her lot. It made him doubt whether or not he should have had accepted the job.

But his doubt disappeared as soon as he found out Harry had apparated with the Nundu, as it showed great potential for Harry, far more than anyone else. Professor Pasha had assumed that somehow Harry would survive the encounter with the creature and makes it alive to Morocco. There he would increase his powers, until he somehow would be able to jump back in time to during the war and bring about its end, under an alias.

Ali Pasha always wanted to test his strength against Harry, or more like the legendary figure Harold Parker, whom he had heard stories about when he was fighting in the war. Though Ali Pasha was now known as the best practitioner of the arts, he was always regarded as second to Harold Parker, who fought a large number of wizards by himself on both sides to stop both sides from fighting.

It had saddened Ali Pasha that Harry would not be participating in the Dueling tournament, but he understood Harry’s reasons. Harry held back his own potential as much as he could. His encounter with Voldemort that Professor Dumbledore had told him about made Ali realise that Harry held back and second guessed his every action – for they could have consequences he wasn’t ready to deal with.

Ali’s suspicions about Harry were confirmed, sort of, when the Professor Dumbledore refused to confirm them – or deny them.

Hermione ate her dinner in silence - this was not weird. The weird part was the fact that she and the 5th year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were eating them at their Charms class.

When it was time for their lunch, plates and goblets started to appear for each person. Several times during the lunchtime, Hermione had starred out of the window at the amazing lighting and thunder show. She wanted to go and see the magic, but not because she wanted to examine how it was done or any other academic pursuit.

She wanted to see how Harry was doing. Dread, depression and waves of panic hit Hermione as she sat there, moving food around her plate.

Alicia wanted to take the first shift for watching Harry, but Professor Dumbledore was very insistent that it would be Roger Davies who would be the first person on guard. He gave no reason, but as always, he had the last word.

When the student’s were allowed to leave their classes, their teachers told them that the classes for that day had been cancelled. The Hufflepuffs celebrated, since their next class was supposed to be with Professor Snape. Seamus had almost lost his nerves trapped in the room. Finally before they were supposed to leave for their individual classes (it started to rain after the magic had finished), Seamus gathered up all his courage and stepped up to Hannah Abbot.

"ermm...excuse me, Hannah." He said with a definite tremble in his voice.

" What is it Seamus?" she asked very softly.

" I wasss...." he stopped in the middle of his sentence when he found Hanna’s blue eyes glued to his face.

" You were going to..." she offered, with a smile.

Her smile seemed to fill Seamus with unimaginable amount of energy as his demeanor suddenly changed. He became very confident as to what he needed to do. " I was wondering... would you like to go to the end of term ball with me?"

The question shocked everyone present except for Hermione. Even Dean Thomas, who knew about Seamus’s plan, did not think his friend had enough courage to go through with it – let alone that day!

" You what?" was her reaction, while her friends were either giggling or stood with an open mouth.

It took a second for her to realize what Seamus had said. She could not help but be flattered by the very very early invitation. As she figured it, Seamus must have had thought that his only chance to ask her out was now, at the beginning of the term rather than ask at the end of the term and risk the possibility that she already found herself a date. She realized that he was afraid that the older boys would ask her out before he had a chance to do so.

" Well," started to say Hannah, " I would love to..."

Seamus’s smile on his face became twice as big,

" but..."

" Oh! No!" said Seamus. His face faltered, as his heart jumped off a cliff and onto jagged rocks below.

" ...it’s too early. How about we go to the next Hogsmede trip together? If we have a good time until the ball, I’ll go with you."

"WhooHooo!" said Seamus, hardly capable of sustaining his own happiness.

He was not the only one. All the Gryffindor boys let out enough whoops and catcalls at the pair to make them both blush a fairly deep shade of red.

" Well, that certainly was surprising..."said Parvati.

Lavender, equally amused said, " Yeah, I’ll say."

Parvati looked at Hermione to ask how she felt about the situation, but did not ask as there was a very somber expression on her face. She moved closer to Hermione and enveloped her in a hug. " He’ll be alright...Professor Dumbledore is with him. If there was something really bad with him, I’m sure he would have had told us." Parvati stopped hugging Hermione and said, " We’ll go by the Hospital Wing..." her eyes sparkling, she said, " ...maybe they’ll let us see him".

Parvati knew it was not really true about the headmaster telling them, but she wanted to comfort Hermione. The headmaster wouldn’t want to make the entire school upset earlier than it was needed – if needed at all. Hermione knew that as well, but could see no reason for her to mope any longer.

She scanned the pockets of people in the sea of people that were passing the three girls, "...where is Ron anyway?"

" I think I heard him say something to Neville... Oh yeah... He said he was going to the great hall to get some food."

" Well Let’s go." said Parvati, shoving Hermione in the direction of the Hospital Wing.

" WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN. HE’S. NOT. ALLOWED. ANY. VISITORS?" yelled Hermione at the top of her voice. She had emphasised each and every one of the words in that small sentence in the hopes that it would go through the Headboy’s head.

" I..I..I don’t know...I was told not to let any one in. Especially you." He covered his head with his hands, and cowered against the door. He was afraid of the Girl’s wrath. It was quite understandable, since Hermione at five foot eight was a full foot taller. Though he was the headboy and two years older, he had seen Hermione fight with Harry and he did not think he knew enough (specially after the golden flame he had seen Hermione do).

Hermione was going to deal a beating to the headboy right there, damn the consequences, had Parvati and Lavender not jumped on top of her and forced her to the ground.

" Hermione...this is not like you!" said Parvati, as she used her knee to hold down Hermione’s right arm and use both of her hands to restrain the other one. Because she was on her side lying on top of Hermione, this stopped Hermione from getting up. Her legs were held together by Lavender who was sweating at the amount of effort it took to control Hermione.

" Well! I have to see him. I have...have...have to talk to..." Hermione did not finish the sentence, because she broke down crying.

Parvati let go of Hermione, who backed in to the wall and started to cry. Lavender and Parvati both sat on either side of her and held her close. Parvati put her shoulder on Hermione’s and said, " It’ll be okay..."

" Yes, love."said Lavender, " It’s not like he’s dead or something."

Hermione was slowly beginning to stop her flow of tears when Lavender’s words brought her back to tears, worse than ever.

" Good going, Lavender." scolded Parvati.

" He said..." Hermione pointed at the headboy (Roger Davies), " Harry doesn’t want to talk to me..."

Roger was listening to the three girls, he had not intended to overhear them, talking as loud as they did he could not help it. He piped up, still far from the three girls, " I said no such thing!" He paused, " What I said was that, I’ve been told not to let anyone in. Especially Fred and George’s brother and You. I’m only following orders from the headmaster."

" See Harry doesn’t hate you..." said Parvati.

" Well, he hasn’t talked to me...." said Hermione, looking ready to let the dam in her eyes be broken.

" Did you let him?"

" No..." came the almost whispered answer.

" Did he try anyway?"

" Yes..." her voice was so very quite that they had to strain themselves to hear him.

" How long ago this start?" ask Parvati.

" Yesterday..."

" You haven’t even been angry at Harry for 24 hrs...he can’t hate you." Parvati reasoned.

Lavender decided that it was a safe time for her to join the conversation.

" Yeah...We’ll get to see him soon. Besides the way he is about Quidditch, I doubt he’ll not be a 100% for the tryouts..."

Parvati smiled at Lavender. This is a very good way to comfort Hermione.

" She’s right you know..." she stopped dead in the middle of the conversation as the head boy approached Hermione.

" The headmaster did tell me to tell you that Harry would be alright by the end of the day tomorrow. The healing magic was particularly rough on him and it would take the rest of today and most of tomorrow night for Harry to recover."

Hermione brightened up considerably.

" Thanks for telling me this"

Roger was going to say welcome, but Lavender jumped up to him and kissed him full on the lips. Hermione and Parvati exchanged shocked glances. Neither had any idea why Lavender had kissed Roger, and it seemed Lavender did not either as she shrieked, " Ahhh...What have I done?", before taking off really fast from there.

Hermione and Parvati followed very close. Roger was too stunned to do anything other than falling backwards onto the floor with shock.

" That was something" said Ron as he congratulated Seamus on his date with Hannah.

" Yeah..." said Neville patting Seamus on the back.

The twins showed up from their elective class of "Magical Reaction" an advanced potion class that Professor Snape took. " Did I hear it right? Someone ask someone else to the ball already?"

" How did you know?" asked Ron, very surprised that his brothers had found out about the date so fast.

" SO Ickle Ronniekins has a date..." said Fred/George.

" Where is Hermione? We want to tease the little woman a bit..."said the other twin.

" I don’t have a date with Hermione." said Ron turning an awful shade of red.

" Oh... We assumed it was you, since you asked us how we knew..." asked the first one.

" Which by the way is a secret, and we hope to sell to Zonkos very soon..." said the other one handing out small bits of parchment, which turned out to be business cards. Ron took one. It read:

Fred & George Weasley
Proud proprietors of
Weasley Wizard Whizzes (WWW)

Maker’s of all you pranking and joke need.
Everything you can think of including the kitchen sink.
Since 2 months 3 weeks and 2 days ago

" So who is the lucky boy?" asked one of them.

Seamus put his hand up slowly.

" Hmm..." said one of them, circling him one way, while the other circled in the opposite way – they were appraising him. " Hmm...indeed."

" Who is the girl?" they asked together.

" Hannah Abbot...from Hufflepuffs."

" Hmm...she’s beautiful..." said one of them, much to Seamus’s displeasure.

" You sure you don’t want to..." started one of them

" ...go for a Nice Griffindor girl..."

" ...Like Ginny over there perhaps..."

" Or... Elizabeth next to her" (both of the girls blushed when they heard the boys talking about them) One of the twins then got the really good idea of teasing Ron as well.

" Maybe even Hermione..."

Fred and George were behaving quite unlike themselves – normally this love stuff was just too – icky to tease people about. Icky is the word they chose to use. They were breaking their rule about this because they had been doing very little pranking and a lot of studying. Like they say – all work and no play makes the twins desperate. They were just using anything they can to amuse themselves.)

Ron piped up. He really did not want to let any of the other boys to think of Hermione in that way - other than himself. " Hey! The guy has got a date. And all you can tell him is he should have had chosen another girl!"

" Oops! Sorry Ickle Ronniekins. We didn’t want to talk about your Girlfriend..."

" She’s not my girlfriend" he said, almost screaming.

" Well in that case..."said one of the twins with a very serious tone, " You would not mind me asking her out?"

" Fred!" said obviously George since he just called out the other ones, name, " I don’t know you had a thing for Hermione."

Ron grumbled something to his brothers before he headed out of the room. He knew he would never be able to compete with anyone of his brothers if they decided that they like Hermione.

" Ron" yelled Fred from downstairs, " We were only joking" before he broke into laughter.

" What were you two joking about?" asked Hermione, who had appeared behind the boys after her visit to the hospital wing.

" errr...we have to go" said Fred breaking into a run, dragging George along with him.

" What was all that about?" she asked again - this time to Dean Thomas, next to Seamus.

" Nothing really...Well, will you look at that" he pointed at the large wall clock above the fireplace. "...It’s time for our meeting...sorry girls we have to go" said the other boys as they all left in a group.

" What meeting?!?!" she asked very puzzled, but got no answer as all the boys vanished into their common room.

Hermione did wonder what the boys were talking about but stopped when Parvati brought out a packet of exploding snap cards. As she played the game, Hermione thought it was odd how she had not gone totally obsessed with her OWL yet. She needed to draw up a time table soon. Usually she would be going at it a long time before the exams and would have had drawn up revision tables by now. Not to mention the fact that she would have been nagging her two best friends to start studying.

She realized that she had over the years changed. She was no longer the bossy and annoying kid, well maybe just a little, she was when she was in muggle schools. The same things (being bossy, annoying and most importantly being smart) that had made an outcast of her in the muggle school, had brought her two very wonderful friends. She looked across two Parvati and Lavender. ‘ Now I have another two...’ she thought. But these two would not have been her friends if Harry and Ron had not gone to save her in his first year.

‘ I have a lot to thank those two idiots for...’ she thought.

Suddenly she thought back to the reason why she was in that toilet that night. It was because Ron had behaved like all the boys (and girls) at her muggle school. He had pointed out to Harry that Hermione had no friends. It surprised her that even through he was the reason she was in the toilet that day, she attributed her rescue more on Ron.

‘ One of these days I have to find out why they went back to save me?’

Dinner could not have had finished fast enough for Hermione. Every few minutes, she looked at her watch to see how long was left. Each second seemed to take longer than the one before and finally, after playing with her food all night long, she finally put a whole lot in her mouth and left for the common room. Ron saw her leave, and wondered if he should go after her, as he half suspected that Hermione was somehow blaming herself for Harry’s predicament. Just as he was about to leave his favorite dishes filled up his plates.

‘ Right after this’ he thought. But by the time he had finished his dinner, Ron had completely forgotten about why he wanted to talk to Hermione.

It took Hermione over ten minutes to go to the common room and then to her dorm to retrieve the cloak and the marauders map. She closed the drapes around her four poster bed with a spell. Though it was possible to open the drapes by the simple " Alohomora" spell, she did not think any one in her dorm room had mastered that spell yet.

She posted a note on the drapes, telling anyone to wake her up before the next morning would die of a horrible curse or have a face full of acne that’ll stay with them until the day they die. One was for Lavendar, the rest of the threat for Parvati and the other two girls.

She shivered a bit as she put on the cloak. Her senses were assaulted by the memories of her and her two male friends’ escapades under the cloak. Also of the latenight walks that Harry took with her in their 4th year while he was having a fight with Ron.

She took out the map and made her way secretly to the hospital wing. It took her quite a long time to navigate through avoiding everyone. When she saw Mrs. Norris, she flashed back to the time in their first year when Ron wanted to kick her, while they were under the cloak. She almost gave away her position, because it was hard for her to hide her giggles from the memory. She shook her head to get rid of the silly grin that was plastered all over her face.

At the door (more like the corner to the corridor) leading to the hospital wing, Hermione got cold feet. She had never done anything the headmaster had forbidden, without help from Harry and Ron.

But she got over it very fast.

She rounded the corner and walked very silently through the corridors. She saw Alicia sitting outside the door, scanning the hall from where she sat, and looking out for anyone who might be trying to sneak into the hospital wing.

Hermione was only about five feet from where Alicia was sitting when she thought she caught Alicia staring right at her.

That little thing made her heart stop, but relaxed a little when Alicia turned her head the other way. Hermione quickly rushed past Alicia – careful to be very silent.

The only occupied bed was the one that was the furthest from the door. This eased Hermione’s mind a lot, as she was sure that if the bed was close to the door then Alicia might hear her.

One look at Harry’s body (he was naked from waist up), and she broke down and started to sob softly. There were bruises everywhere, and Harry’s scar she could see had been bleeding very slightly from before. She could see his now fairly well muscled arms and hands covered in scratches and scorch marks...well actually it was soot, grime and self-inflicted scratches, when he was trying to escape the ancient and powerful magic done on him. Hermione didn’t know the reasons behind them but the first one.

She went to the nurse’s table and retrieved some water and some spare gauze that was there. She dipped a bit of gauze in the water and started to clean Harry’s scar. " It’ll be a while before I get the scar cleaned so..." she whispered to the unconscious Harry in his sleep as she wiped a tear from her own face, " listen carefully..."

She took extraordinary care to wipe away the dry blood, and clean the jagged edges of his scar. When the gauze was almost crimson, she dipped it in the bowl of water (magical cleaner mixed in to disinfect against and remove blood) and squeezed it to release all the blood. She used the clean cloth to start to wipe Harry’s face and then rest of his body as she spoke to him. Softly.

" I’m really sorry about the way I acted yesterday... I..I ... don’t know what happened to me," she said wiping away yet another tear, " I promise I’ll make it up to you..."

Some more sobbing before, " I remember telling Ron how much of an idiot he was being not to believe you last year...yes... I know I said I wouldn’t tell him that when you asked last year during TriWizard Tournament... but I did."

She wiped off another tear, this time on the other cheek, "...and look what I did because I thought you wouldn’t need me to be your friend anymore... just get better, okay. Then I’ll apologize and kick your butt in that tournament – and everything would be alright again."

She moved onto Harry’s left arm, where there was a scar from the small griffins that had attacked him a long while ago. It was very grimy but Harry’s palm was something she had not expected it to be.

It used to be very slightly harsh form Quidditch practice and poor maintenance of his wand. The result of the poor maintenance was that she had to help Harry remove a lot of splinters over the years. The spell had to be cast by another person. More specifically using another wand, otherwise there was always the chance of the splinter cause damage to nerves in the body.

But after Harry’s return this was the first time she had seen and felt his hands up close and she could see they were different than the ones she had seen and felt only a week ago when Harry was trying to save her. They were alot harsher and worn with time then they should have had been. She attributed it to all the running and physical activity Harry had started doing after coming from Morocco. Not to mention the two days that Harry was missing in the desert.

" Looks like you need to discover moisturizers..." she mumbled, "...your hands are as smooth as the Himalayas... anyway... I’ll tell you what’s been happening."

" You missed the announcement that Lee Jordan was removed as the commentator for the Quidditch games. Snape used Lucius Malfoy to remove him. Said, he was biased. They are going to use another student to do it, but I doubt that anyone can be as good as him. I do admit he was biased, but he was the best that the school has had in a long time... well that’s what the twins told me at dinner time."

" In the morning today, I went to the lakeside to do some practice for the Dueling tournament, guess who I ran into. Cho Chang. Yep, she was there to practice Kung Fu. Well I wanted to train as well, so I asked if I could join her for a bit of one on one. I could not believe how good she was. It took her about ten minutes to make me submit... She’s gonna be a lot of competition, so I’ve decided we’re gonna train for the tournament together."

" He won’t be in the tournament" said a feminine voice, that she knew to belong to Alicia.

" Alicia...How did you..." she started to say, but stopped when she saw Alicia smile. It was more in the range of amusement than anything else. It only took Hermione a second to realise what Alicia might have been thinking. "...It’s not what it looks like?"

" What exactly does it look like, Hermione?" asked Alicia.

" I’m not his girlfriend or anything...I just came to say..."

Alicia interrupted her. " sorry?"

" How did you know?" asked Hermione, looking at Alicia suspiciously.

" He told me yesterday. When we were playing exploding snaps in the common room. I was just wondering how long you would be mad at him....hmmm"

" Hmm. What?" asked Hermione.

" Well I thought it was gonna last more than that... I though until the weekend, but I guess that incident with the Veloron moved up the timetable."

" It did..." Hermione wanted to desperately ask Alicia one question before she wanted to make a run for the common room. "...er...what did you mean about Harry not taking part in the Dueling tournament?"

Alicia lifted one eyebrow and answered, " Harry’s not taking part...I can’t really blame him. I mean, with what happened the last time he was in a competition..." Her voice was very sympathetic.

" I should have had guessed that’s what would have had happened." She twiddled her fingers in front of her, as Alicia took another piece of gauze and dipped it in the water, and then proceeded to clean Harry’s other arm of the soot and grime. It amazed both girls that Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey left Harry in the condition that he was.

" You saw me come in didn’t you?" asked Hermione very curious as to why the headgirl let her into the hospital wing when she was supposed to keep everyone out.

" Yep. I did... don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone. I wanted you and him back to being friends as much as you."

" What do you mean?"

" Well... When you two were fighting, if I can even call it that, I saw how different he was. It’s odd to be around him when he’s like that. He was more reserved, almost as if he was avoiding getting hurt..."

Suddenly Hermione blurted out, " You like him, Don’t you?"

Even in the dim light of the room, Hermione could see Alicia turn pink. " No...No..." she said, trying to hide the truth from Hermione.

" No, you do!.." said Hermione, practically shouting, "... you were the same way when I told you about Harry switching class to Runes...yeah!" Hermione was getting more and more excited, "...and when they were doing the sorting... I saw you blush several times... It was because of Harry wasn’t it?!"

" No!" said Alicia, her voice betraying the outrage that it was supposed to have.

" It is!" Hermione kept going without a thought to what Alicia had said.

" No!" Alicia tried again, but she was really bad at this and Hermione was paying no attention to her denials.

" So?" said Hermione, expecting and answer.

" So what?" Alicia looked very guilty.

" How long have you felt this way for Harry?" Hermione asked giggling.

" I didn’t say I feel a thing..."

Hermione made a face at Alicia, who gave up all pretences,

"...Oh... all right... If you must know. Since last year...well kind of."

" Since when last year?" It even amazed Hermione what she asked next. ("...I want details"), as it was more in line with what Parvati or Lavender would ask.

" Since... don’t tell him. All right?"

Hermione nodded.

" Since the ball... he looked so cute on the dance floor, but it was a bit of a shame how his date was moving him around on the dance floor."

" Wow!... You have no idea... but that’s what Harry told me too. You two were made for each other." Hermione squealing with joy.

" You think so..." Alicia grinned a little, " I mean... Who says I’m interested in him like that..." Alicia did not want to hear any more from Hermione so she asked her to leave.

" I think you should go now... Madam Pomfrey would be back soon, to check on Harry’s progress."

" You don’t want to know if he likes you or not?" Hermione ask tentatively, teasing.

" I do...No. I don’t... If Madam Pomfrey sees you both of us would be in trouble"

" She won’t see me." Said Hermione.

" Because of that cloak?" Alicia asked pointing to the watery cloak near the edge of Harry’s bed.

Hermione nodded.

" Yes!... by the way how did you see through it?"

" Professor Dumbledore gave me this..." Alicia held out her palm.

In it she had a small clear opal like stone. It sparkled like that of the opal eye dragon’s eye. It only took a fraction of a second for Hermione to realize why exactly the stone did look like the eyes of the Opal Eye Dragon. Because it was the eye of the dragon!

" Is that...Wow...Oh...Wow..Is...Is that...Wow oh Wow!" Hermione started babbling.

" Yep! Eye of the Opal Eye Dragon... Ability to see what can not be seen..." Alicia said it with pride, " This is the reason, you have to get out..." now her voice was more nervous than pride, " Madam Pomfrey has the other eye that Professor Dumbledore has. He gave one to her and one to me. I have to give mine to Roger when he comes to take over his shift. This is why you have to go!"

Alicia was basically pushing Hermione out of the door, as she said her final words, " If you tell Harry about anything I said to you... Lets just say I can pair you with Malfoy in anything... including the ball. Not to mention what kind of punishment you’d get for breaking into the hospital wing."

" You wouldn’t?" Hermione said, he voice expressed how much she would hate to be paired up with Draco.

" Oh, Yes I will and you know I’m supposed to choose a couple to promote inter-house relationship. I was going to choose a Ravenclaw with a Hufflepuff, but if you tell Harry anything..." Alicia let her words hang in the air, which made Hermione even more nervous than before. Hermione did not want to take a chance at getting caught by Madam Pomfrey nor get Alicia mad at her. The last thing she wanted was to go to the ball with Malfoy, even that came after her own death on the list of things she did not want to do.

After she left the hospital wing, Hermione felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulder. She was thinking about the assignment that Hagrid had given the whole class to be handed in a few weeks time, when suddenly she remembered something.

‘ I thought I put a charm on the sheet covering the Veloron cage... I know I did.’ Hermione stopped in her tracks. Something odd was going on and she had to find out what it was. ‘ I think I’ll go check it out tomorrow morning.’ she thought, entering the common room very quietly.

Hermione cried to sleep that night, even though she had apologized to Harry and she felt everything would be all right, she cried not because Harry might never forgive him, but because she was ashamed of what she had done. She had put no thought about Harry when she had judged that Harry would participate in the tournament. She cried into her pillow for an hour before slumber over took her.

NEXT DAY...

It took a while for Hermione to realize why her pillow was wet in the morning from her tear. When she looked at herself in the mirror, after splashing her face with water, she saw a pair of puffy and bloodshot eyes stare back at her. When she finally stopped her eyes were back to normal, but the puffiness she couldn’t make go away.

At breakfast Malfoy received a note from Professor Dumbledore. He looked scared, nervous and slightly on the edge as he read the message.

To Mr. Malfoy
Your presence is required in the headmaster’s chambers today at lunchtime. There will be a hearing on your alleged assault on Professor Rubeus Hagrid. The door will open once you reach it.

Professor Dumbledore
Headmaster

Malfoy managed to keep a straight face when he read the letter. This was not because he was afraid of what his punishment was going to be, for he already knew that his father had after receiving his letter blackmailed the board of governors into not expelling him. His father was quite proud in the letter that he sent his son back. He mentioned several times that his son had a great future ahead of him on the dark side. Lucius had not used those exact words but the tone of the letter said it all.

Though he was not going to be expelled Malfoy was afraid that he might be punished, and punished severely. He just hoped it would not be the forbidden forest. He still got nightmares of the time he was in there with Harry and Neville. Ofcourse they were not nightmares – Malfoys didn’t get nightmares. They got curses inflicted upon them.

By breakfast time, Hermione had decided that she would take a lot of notes for the classes that Harry missed. Defence against Dark Arts class was a double one and Hermione was sure Harry would kick himself for missing the class. As with the last time all the boys threw up at the beginning of the class, when Fleur handed out the chocolate. When she went past Hermione’s desk she stopped.

" How iz ee doing?" she asked

" Harry?... He’s doing fine..." she was going to say that when she last saw him he was sleeping very peacefully, but caught herself, " ... The headboy told me he’ll be back to normal by the end of the day."

" When we are allowed to visit ‘im, pleze tell me... I’m busy wiz my classes so I huv a nasty h‘abit of forgetting things."

" Ok..." said Hermione a bit uncertain why Fleur needed to be told how Harry was doing?...for that matter why Fleur wanted to see him when he was feeling better.

" Okay...claaz.. Tozay, we are going to start on the proper curr...currii..." she wanted to say curriculum, but she could not pronounce it. It would have had turned embarrassing, if Hermione had not piped up asking about something that she really wanted to know about and she had not had time to go to the library yet. Her question was one that had been bothering Hermione since the night before, it was about the eye of the dragon.

" Professor Fleur..." she said, " Could you tell us about the eyes of the dragon?"

" Zee eye of the Dragonz is not till the end of zee terms... I’ll cover it then. We neez to get back to zee planned lesson..."

" Okay then can we hear about the ancient magic?" asked Parvati, getting quite sick of sitting next to the drooling (literally) Dean Thomas.

" Zat is not zis year. We’ll.." started Fleur, but all the other girls were interested in what had happened to Harry and this was a perfect opportunity to find out.

" Okay...I will cover zee topic. But zere iz going to be a lot of homework that you’ll have to do.." this was not a problem for the girls. They were all very interested in Defence against Dark Arts and Fleur could make the class interesting, even to the girls. She was almost as good as Professor Lupin.

(A/N: I’m not doing the Fleur speech thing.... it’s too hard to do for long chapters!)

" Ancient Magic is the magic of the art of elemental magic. It’s been around from the time of Merlin. All magic he used was the elemental, wand magic only came about when Merlin decided that some humans were worthy of magic too – not just the immortals. He did not restrict the use of magic for the purposes of good, as it is a subjective term. What is good for one country, spells the end of another."

" Some of the most elite of the magical world, attempt to learn one of the elemental powers. Drawing power from the elements is not simple and takes years of practice...." Fleur went about explaining what the 3028 steps that the wizards had to go through to learn the element.

" Once you master one element, you can use that to summon all the others. It is a very complicated procedure and one is very power consuming. It has led to deaths of many famous wizards. Salazar Slytherin was one such famous wizard. But he was not the only one. His mistake during his battle with Goderic for the hand of Rowena Ravenclaw was the most famous one. He summoned up fire, but he did not control it well, he burned himself to ashes."

" Are there any others?" Hermione asked getting into the topic, though she would have had liked her own question answered much better..

" Yes... The battle of Maenad. It was not one person but a group of wizards and witches, established in France, calling themselves Maenad, had tried to summon a large amount of the element earth. The mistake was made by one of the casters, which summoned up the forbidden element. To this day there is a scorching mark on the same place. No one survived that accident. The loss of magical life was estimated to be thirty three, but the one that makes that place forbidden is the fact that the muggle population of about sixty thousand died because of the accident."

" Professor Dumbledore, your headmaster, is the only known master of the forbidden element. That is why he is the chief warlock... Oh! I forgot to tell you... One wizard can only be a master of one element. Several had tried after Merlin to master more than one, but they never did. The human mind is not capable of rational thinking when they try to control more than one element. Once that happens the best way to neutralize the situation is for someone watching the person do this, is to kill him or her. The summoned element vanishes, when the person who summoned the element is either unconscious or dead."

" Professor Delacour?..."it was Ron. " What do you look for in a man?" The girls were shocked at the question... not only was it highly inappropriate, it was also off the topic. Hermione looked like she was ready to kill Ron at that moment.

" Nothing any of you boys have... I would like to get back to the topic I was discussing before..." it clicked in Fleur’s mind why the boys might have been loosing concentration.

" Okay..." said Ron, his voice dreamy.

It seemed some of the boys were actually not eating the whole of the Chocolate frog. This meant that they would loose focus occasionally. " Mr. Wesley...did you eat the chocolate frog that I gave you?"

" No..." he answered dreamily, before realizing what he had said, " er...i mean yes! I did!" it was not a complete lie – He did have half of it.

" In that caze pleze...have another."

" Oh...do I have to?" asked Ron, looking positively sick at the thought of having to eat another one

" Yez...you all huv to..."

After ten minutes later the class was back to normal again. It took that long because she made sure that all the boys ate their chocolate frogs.

" What waz I zaying?"

(A/N: Going back to normal English)

Hermione helped, " If they fall unconscious or die the summoned elemental power is lost."

" Thank Oou Hermione" she said moving to the other side of the room, " The elemental magic performed yesterday was well beyond anything I’ve seen being performed. Madam Maxime, my former Headmistress showed a small demonstration of her abilities with the element water, in which she created a creature out of thin air. As you all may know creating inanimate objects out of thin air is not a very hard task, but to create a living creature from the beginning (instead of creating an inanimate object and giving it life), is a totally different thing altogether.

" Has there ever been any one who controlled all the elements?" asked Hermione.

" There’s only ever been one... it was Merlin, father of modern magic... thought there’s been a prophecy around for a long time... it’s about the Heir of Merlin"

" But he never married anyone?" said Parvati.

Fleur smiled and said, " You do not need to marry anyone to bear a child..."

This caused almost all the girls in the room the blush, as well as a fairly large portion of the boys (Neville, Crabbe and Goyle were in the dark as to what the hidden meaning of the sentence was).

" What’s the Prophecy?" asked Lavender who was always interested in anything to do with Divination.

" Well, Ms. Brown, mind you that I do not believe in that junk..." at those words the amount of respect that Hermione had for her tripled, almost to the same amount that she had for Professor Flitwick, her second favorite teacher. "... I know I’m going way out of the class plan, but I’ll do it quickly since there are only a few more minutes of the class left."

" The prophecy was foretold by a French fisherman. He was a muggleborn wizard, in the dark time he was born he was not educated in the magical arts. He foretold the Arrival of the ONE."

" He was very cryptic. It went something like this..."

One when One

Peace

When five and five twice more

Is three.

One must see his heart

His heart must choose

He must be the saviour

He will be the end

He will be the end.

Holding the fire and wind in one hand.

Holding the others with the other hand.

He’ll be the void.

He’ll be Parker!

Know thyself.

Know thyself.

Know thyself.

Must happen it is! Must happen or punished he would be.

Punished he would be for defying when the stars align....

" The rest of the prophecy is numbers and letters... only the centaurs know what the rest of the prophecy is and they do not tell humans anything willingly." said Fleur.

" What does that mean?" asked lavender.

" It means nothing!" said Hermione.

" There is something in zere Hermione... zee part about holding the fire and water in one hand and two others with zee fifth being himself.... I think it means that zee One will be zee Heir of Merlin. Not in flez and blood but in power."

" Parker? What does that mean?" asked Lavender.

" It was thought to be a name a long time ago, but some now believe that it’s a code. Hiding something very big. Very important. I would not even know of the prophecy had I not had to do an essay on the seer himself for my last year of school."

Fleur barely had time to give out homework when the signal for the end of the class was sounded.

At lunchtime Malfoy made his way to the headmaster’s chambers. He took the longest route possible and when Malfoy did read the door he hesitated. But he overcame that. ‘ I’m a Malfoy...and Malfoy’s always get what they want ‘ he thought to himself.

The gargoyle jumped out of the way as he reached the entrance to Professor Dumbledore’s office. When the wooden door opened, Malfoy was not sure how to react at the person staring right at him. It was his Mother.

" Mother!"

" Don’t you mother me young man!" Malfoy’s mother was clearly angry.

" I... I..." Malfoy started to stammer.

" You will go and apologize to Professor Hagrid..." she pointed at Hagrid, who looked quite shocked, that Malfoy’s mother would be saying that.

" But mother... he’s a half gia..." Malfoy did not get to finish that sentence when his mother slapped him hard on the cheek.

" I don’t care if he is half flubberworm." She got a hold of Malfoy’s ear and twisted it slightly as she dragged her son towards Hagrid, " He’s your teacher and you will show respect to your teachers...Now, Apologize!" Her tone was deadly.

The smack was not something that anyone in the room was expecting. Hagrid was now even more surprised but he enjoyed the show none the less. " I certainly wil..." Malfoy tried to defy his mother, but one more twist to the ear changed his mind, " I’m sorry..."

"..err...Apology accepted..."said Hagrid.

Hagrid had originally wanted Malfoy expelled and his wand broken, but after this he really did not care what the other three teachers in the room agreed on.

" I must offer my sincere apologies to you, Professor Hagrid. I promise you the next time he assaults a teacher, he won’t be alive to complain to anyone."

" Nice to hear that!..."

"Well then there’s just the little matter of his punishment that is to be decided" said Professor Dumbledore.

" We can’t expel him, since his father has already convinced that it was all an accident"

" It was..." said Malfoy rubbing his cheek.

" Well then, I suggest one month of forbidden forest detentions" suggested Professor McGonagall.

" No!" Malfoy yelped in horror.

" Don’t worry Mr. Malfoy" said Professor Snape as he turned to Professor Dumbledore, " Surely there is something less dangerous... after all, the board did decide that it was an accident"

" You’re right Severus" said Professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling with mischief that he had not had since the end of the TriWizard Tournament.

" You can’t be serious?" Professor McGonagall uttered her protest.

" Calm down Minerva... I never said what the punishment was."

" What is it then?" Malfoy’s mother.

" He’ll be required to clean the old prefect’s bathroom, for a month. Moaning Myrtle’s been flooding the entire floor every day and it’s getting a ripe in terms of smell....if you know what I mean!"

" No! I don’t want to do..." Malfoy refused to do it...well he tried. His mother’s grip on his ear made it otherwise, " Ok...ok...I’ll do it. I guess it’s better than going into the forbidden forest."

" Well since that’s settled... we have to decide on how you have to clean the bath room and at what times..." Professor Dumbledore

It took nearly an hour to decide, whether or not a toothpick or a toothbrush would be an appropriate method of cleaning... In the end it was decided that the toothpick would guarantee a better outcome in terms of how clean the end result would be.

When the Defence against Dark Arts class was finished, Hermione dragged Ron with her to the where the care of magical creatures class was held the day before. But there was something very strange there...

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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34. The long Explanations...2/3 (Harry’s Mark)

Chapter Number: 34
Chapter Name: The long Explanations...2/3 (Harry’s Mark)

When the Defence against Dark Arts class was finished, Hermione dragged Ron with her to the where the care of magical creatures class was held the day before. " Where’re we going?" he asked rather testily, not wanting to miss out on lunch.

" Lunch will still be there when we get back." She replied, making Ron blush.

" err..."

" We’re going to where we had our care of magical creatures class."

" Why?...you want to observe the Veloron again?" smirked Ron.

" No!...well actually, it’s the cage I want to see."

Ron stopped dead, as he had joked about the creature. He had not told anyone but the creature had caused him nightmares. Most of them involving him strung up by his ankles over a fire from the beasts mouth – while Draco poked him with a stick to see if he was soft enough.

" The cage?" he threw up his arms, " Why would you want to do something like that?" he hid his fear well.

" I want to check something."

" With that thing? Still in there?"

" Yeah! So what? Harry did it... he didn’t get hurt by it."

" That’s because I heard him speaking to it in that snake tongue...I mean parseltongue."

Hermione’s mouth gaped open. She started to pace around on the spot that they had stopped. She was very surprised for some reason. She had been very close to the Harry when she saw him fall, but she knew that Ron was much closer and as such heard something being spoken between them. " Really?..."

" You don’t believe me?...why do you look so surprised?" said Ron, apparently affronted.

" No, that’s not it! It’s just..."

" Just what?..."

" er... You know what Hagrid said in class?"

Ron just grinned in reply.

" Honestly, Ron!" her face took on the tell tale signs of a lecture, and Ron being around her for five years knew it was coming, " You should pay more attention in class. The owls are on this year..."

Ron interrupted, " Do you want me to go back to the great hall?" he threatened.

Hermione looked torn between telling him off for the threat or just tell him what he wanted to know. She chose to do the second one and just tell Ron, " Oh! Okay... Velorons are more closely related to dragons, then snakes. You can say because they have wings and a very hard hide, imbued with powerful ancient magic, though admittedly not as powerful as it is in a dragon. But strong enough to throw off a few stunning curses"

Ron did not understand the significance of the statement " So?"

" So...It means when everyone in class took out their wand to defend Harry, I doubt if they even would have been able to make it stagger, let alone save Harry. The second..." Hermione said a bit more dramatically then she needed to, " is a bit more important...but that’s only a concern if you answer the question, ‘Was he taking softly or loudly?’"

" Softly...can you hurry up and answer this already."

" I’m trying to.” Hermione looked irritated. “ It doesn’t help when you…”

“Hermione…”

“ What you heard was probably Drakh." She saw Ron’s face turn even more confused than it had ever before. " It’s kind of like parseltongue...just a bit different. Humans who know parseltongue can control snakes. Drakh is just like any other language. Only dragons can speak it."

" What!" Ron was outraged. Yet another talent of Harry Potter has just been uncovered, and he could not help but feel jealous of him, but then he remembered something which gave him some hope. " I don’t think you’re right!" he said, shaking his head side to side to emphasize his disagreement. Hermione had not expected Ron to object, after all she was always right, and this was not an exception. Hermione felt the need to amuse herself with Ron’s objection, so she asked him.

" Why do say that?" Hermione did not wait for the answer as she slowly started towards their previous destination. Ron followed her without thinking, falling into what Hermione was trying to do, lure him with her to the Velorons cage. She knew her shielding charm was not as powerful as it was for Harry, so, she was planning to get Ron to cast one on her as well. It would increase her shielding charm a lot. She hoped it would be enough to get away from the Veloron if it started to fire balls of fire at her.

" Because then Harry could have had just asked the dragon last year to let him retrieve the egg." Ron sounded very proud of that piece of deductive work. Hermione thought it was almost a shame that she had to discredit it. Almost. She did not like one of her two friends having some ill-gotten ideas that might prevent them from their OWLs.

" Do you really think a mother would let anyone make her believe that her eggs were not in danger. Let alone one, who came from the people that had used spells on it to subdue it."

Ron’s face fell, but Hermione was not done just yet. " Besides, he would not have had been able to speak it, even if he wanted to... You see humans can only speak it, when the dragons allow the humans capable of speaking it. There are some exceptions, but they don’t apply here." Hermione paused to take a breath and then started to explain what the exceptions were, " The first one..."

Ron had recovered slightly, interrupted her, " How do you know so much? You’re like a walking library."

Hermione really wanted to smack Ron at that instance. She had had enough torment over that fact for the last four years and she hated it. Coming from Ron, it hurt more than it would have had from someone else.

" I’m not a walking library." Her voice very cool, " Last year, if you had not been acting like a big jealous prat, you would have been in the library looking up everything about dragons to keep Harry alive. You could have had picked something up" She huffed and started to walk very fast. Ron, surprised from the fact that she had gone so cold at one of his stray comments, fell back a bit.

" I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. " He said when he caught up to her.

" No!" Hermione turned and said in n even colder voice, " The thing is Ron, you did... go back to your lunch..."

" Hermione, I really did not mean to make you upset. Now that I know it makes you upset, I’ll stop. I promise." Hermione looked at Ron’s face and she could tell that he was being truthful. She knew that Ron would not say the walking library comment ever again, but there were still a lot of other things that she had to get him to stop saying to her.

" Ok." She replied.

" Good" said Ron.

He was about to put his arm around her shoulder when the bright sunlight from the door that Hermione had just opened disrupted his vision.

What they saw when they emerged from the castle, to where they had their last class the day before, they saw something very odd.

It was Percy!

He had just finished teaching a very large group of children, whom Hermione identified as a group of third years. The class had just finished, as the children were running toward the direction Ron and Hermione had come from. No doubt going into the great hall for their lunch.

" Percy!" called out Ron in surprise.

Percy looked up see his brother waving at him, " Hello there, you two..." he said, in return when the pair made their way to where Percy was busy putting a variety of glowing creatures into a black jar.

" What are you doing here?" asked Hermione, though she had a vague inkling as to what he was doing. " Oh! I was teaching care of magical creatures class..."

" You’re what? Since when? How? Where’s Hagrid?" asked Ron

" Well, Hagrid had other business to take care of... he left early morning..." he paused and stated to look for something inside his cloak. With a triumphant smile he gave Hermione a piece of parchment. " Hagrid left this with me for you three...well you two can give it to Harry"

Hermione started to read the piece of parchment out loud enough for Ron to hear.

Dear Harry, Hermione and Ron,

Harry, I hope you are feeling well. I’m sorry to leave before saying good bye personally. But it is for a greater good that I have to go now, please forgive my rather untimely and hasty departure. It’s about...well I’m sure you can guess why and where I’m going. If not...ask Hermione. She’ll know. ( ‘ He’s going to try and contact the giants...maybe his mother too’ thought Hermione. Ron had the similar thought as well.) I’ll write to you as soon as possible, though it might be a while before I come back again. Take care so you do not overexert yourself. You know what I mean. Take care.

Hermione, the extra credit assignment that you took on, you can hand it in to Charlie when he comes to teach. Percy was wrangled into doing this class, help him out in your classes. I hope you make up with Harry soon, the headmaster told me that you two were fighting... (Hermione blushed. Telling Percy about her and his squabble was not her intention. The rest of the letter she read out softly, so that only Ron and she could hear it. Hermione knew this was not really of any possible help, since Percy probably read the letter already. * How did the headmaster find out!* she thought, looking at Ron, who had a look of pure astonishment on his face.) I hope you would realize how much you two mean to him. You two are, not only his best friends, but you are also his very first friends. (* Well Hagrid, you don’t have to worry about that now... Harry and I will be back to normal in no time*)

Ron, look after Harry and Hermione, and try to make sure that they don’t have another row once you’ve got them back to being their normal friendly selves to each other again. I’m also warning you that the Velorons have a nasty temper and they tend to take on characteristics of the people they are in care of. Try to control your temper, otherwise you are going to have a rather painful experience. (*Ron does not have to worry about me and Harry, but he better be careful around the baby Velorons. With Ron’s temper and short fuse, he’s gonna have a rather hard year controlling his one.* Hermione almost looked forward to the day they were going to get their little pets to take care of.* It’ll teach him to control his temper...now, if only there was a way to get rid of his jealous side...*)

Don’t try to contact me. It’s very dangerous. I’ll bring you all presents when I come back.

Wishing you all the well for rest of the term...

Hagrid

P.S. Hermione, I have a birthday present in my hut for you... you have to get Harry to find it for you. So... make up with him, other wise there’s no presents for you.

" So how did you end up doing the class?" Hermione asked Percy, who was trying to put one of the glowing things back into the black jar. Her question was tactful enough so that if Percy did not want to answer then he did not have to. Ron, however, was not so tactful about the subject. It was hard enough for him to live up to Percy’s legacy and now he was going to teaching the class that he excelled at, he was sure that rumors of brotherly favoritism would plague him the rest of the year. Somehow he forgot about the fact that half the school knew about their close friendship with the groundskeeper turned professor. " How come you’re doing it? ...You’re no good with magical creatures." Said Ron in an accusative tone.

" Well...it is true that I’m not particularly fond of anything other than humans, but I am the only person they could hire in a jam like this... besides Charlie is going be taking the class. He’ll be here in about a month’s time... He’ll be taking over until the end of the year. Something to do with what Professor Dumbledore has assigned him to... I don’t know and I don’t particularly care. I’ll be happy to get out of this then.... Besides I need the money.”

When the duo looked at him questioningly he answered, “ …for something."

" You need money! What do you need money for! You already get paid three times your old salary?"

Percy blushed.

" Well...." He almost told the pair what he was going to use the money for, but he restrained himself. " Do you have your next class here?" he asked.

" No" answered Ron.

" Then if you don’t have anything to ask, go away. I’ll give you two five seconds... after that I get to give you detention..." Percy thought for a second and then said, "... that goes for you too, Hermione."

" We do have to ask you something..." started Ron, Hermione interrupted by saying " Can we go and check something? It’s for my care of magical creatures, extra credit assignment."

" Sure" said Percy as he walked off in the direction of the great hall.

" Why didn’t you let me ask about why he needed the money for?"

" Because it’s none of our business...and besides, he looked power hungry enough to give us detentions." Hermione quickly made for the back of Hagrid’s hut.

Ron thought back to what his brother looked like and thought it was a good thing he had not challenged his brother right there. It could and would have ended up him in detention and Hermione would have been very upset with him for it. Hermione could tell by the mess it was behind the hut, that Percy had not had a chance to go there yet. It was perfectly understandable, as the only thing there was the Veloron and some of Hagrid’s junk. Ron’s heartbeat started to climb when the faint noise of the snarling beast started to become clearer. " What are we doing here again?"

" Shhhh..." Hermione asked for silence from Ron, as she slowly crept around the hut. Only about ten meters from the hut, she whispered to him, " I’m here to check something... you’re here to cast a shielding charm on me"

" What! I’m not as good as you in Charms, I’m likely to the charm wrong."

" Be that as it may, My own shielding charm might not be strong enough."

Ron looked confused. " Didn’t Harry have a shielding charm around him when he was with the Veloron?... I mean he can’t be stronger than you, can he?"

" He might be. Remember, he’s the one that’s been fighting off Vold..." Ron shivered, " I mean You-Know-Who, for ages. I know, we had a hand in it in the first year, but we really did nothing else other than help him on the way. He’s the one that faced Vold...You-Know-Who... alone. He’s got to be strong to survive those attacks... not to mention he threw off two of the Imperius curses, before he was even 15 and he stood up to Cruciatus curse.... Then..."

" I get it. I get it. He’s strong."

" Wait... I’ll cast mine first and then when I tell you, you’ll cast yours. I’ll only get that..." she pointed to the white cloth on top a pedestal near the cage, " white covering..."

" I think I should go..." offered Ron.

" No... Your shield won’t be strong enough."

" You cast a shielding charm on me then"

" No... Shielding charms are stronger when the person casting it is close by. That’s why.."

" I know..." interrupted Ron, " If we go together, then the charm is gonna be stronger."

" But then there would be no one to get help is anything happens to one of us..." Ron looked rather glum, she kissed him on the cheek and said, " Thanks for the offer anyway. I’m going..."

Hermione’s body was for a short time enveloped in a shimmering blue glow, before another layer of the same glow covered her, though this one was much lighter.

" Good luck" said Ron.

Few minutes later...

" I can’t believe we made it!" said Ron, huffing, " Did...did..you get... it?"

" Yes!... that was a big rush!... Can you believe it!..."

" I can... The way it was doing..."

" yeah and then it..."

" yeah... then the fire..."

Whatever Ron and Hermione were talking about only they understood it. They went to the small bridge, which went over the small stream and sat down. They sat there a while catching up on their breath and contemplating what had happened a few minutes ago.

Hermione managed to get the cloth, but her curiosity got the better of her. She actually started to head for the mother Veloron. Cuddles as Hagrid called it, Scaly its real name. Sufficed to say, when Hermione was a bit too close for the creature’s comfort, it fired a small ball of fire. It missed her by a mile, but it was enough to make Hermione realize that she should not treat the situation lightly. When Hermione reached Ron’s location, making sure to carefully avoid the fireballs, the two of them took off.

" So what did you want to get that dinky little cloth for?"

" I wanted to check something..."

" What?"

" Remember, the white cloth that the Veloron cage had on top of it, when Hagrid brought it out the first day we had our class with him?"

He did, so he nodded and said, " Yeah...so what?"

" Well, after the incident with the Neville fainting, Hagrid asked me to put a charm on it to make it stick on to the cage."

" So? ...Where are you going with this?"

" Yesterday when we showed up in class, the cloth was on the ground and Harry was in front of the cage."

" Ohhhh!... you mean he broke your charm?... He broke your CHARM!" exclaimed Ron.

Harry being strong is one thing, but breaking another wizard’s magic takes an awful lot of power. Specially, something that he was sure could not be removed using a simple "Finite incantem" spell.

" Either that or I did not word my charm properly." Ron looked at her astonished. Hermione had just admitted that done a spell wrong. It was almost as if Christmas had come early for Ron.

" But all your charms are done perfectly...aren’t they?... I mean I remember trying to breakaway from the bodybind curses. I never managed to come close to it..."

" Dunder head, didn’t you listen to what said?..I said I did not word my charm right. I did not say that I did not do the spell right."

" There’s a difference?"

" Yes!... Wait!" said Hermione as she started to examine the cloth’s every stitch and every stain. " Just as I suspected..."

" What?" asked Ron very eager.

" Harry’s magical powers are growing..."

" Really?" Ron was outraged, but he did an exceptionally good job of hiding it.

" You know what else?"

" What?" asked Ron knowing he would regret asking the question.

" I think it’s just the beginning... I think he’s slowly becoming as strong as Voldemort...." Ron flinched, " oops"

" That’s okay..." he said feeling queasy at the name, " How can you tell?"

" Look here..." she pointed to a small green stain on the towel. When Ron looked closely, it turned out to be a small green eye. It was eerie and it shimmered from time to time.

" What the hell is that?"

" It’s the sign that the curse was broken forcibly... that’s Harry’s mark."

After lunch Hermione had Herbology and Runes class and after that she had her extra class of Muggle Studies. Most of the time that she had free, that day, she spent it reading the events that shaped the battle. This time however, there was a lot of more interesting information before she stumbled onto another long section of boring information. Some very interesting information came to light.

Things like how the author and Harry first met.

It had been a humid day. All day long I was expecting something big to happen. Nothing did. Nothing like what I was expecting anyway. I was sitting outside my house, when I saw a couple of local boys beating up another one. He was lighter in color. He was desperately trying to fight back with what little he knew. I knew the local boys, they went around and beat up people from the other clans and freemen. Normally I never took stock of what they did, the beating would never get any further than first blood. This one was different. As harsh as it seems, times were hard, and I did not get involved.

He was a stranger in a strange land, and he was being literally killed on the footpath, because no one dared to speak up for a freeman. I approached the youths and told them to leave him be. They obeyed. They obeyed not because I was respected, but because they were afraid of me, I had never tried to help anyone getting beaten up.

This boy, though unconscious began to heal himself. Admittedly rather slowly and not very well. It is not uncommon ability amongst wizards and witches in Morocco, it’s very rare anywhere else. The only reason he ever made it alive that day was his remarkable healing ability. When he awoke, he wanted to get out of the city and asked for the direction England was in. He said he had to get back there. He had a tone of voice that suggested urgency. I told him of the war raging on, he behaved as though he had first heard of it. It was not until much later that he asked me, whether I wanted to help him reach his destination, Cartova Mountain Range. He never told me why he needed to go there. Not in the time I knew him, close to a year, that is how long it took us to get there while avoiding battles...

I do admit that I would not have done that if he had not paid me generously. But halfway through our journey I regretted the fact that I ever took the money. He was an enjoyable companion and a very good traveling mate. I paid him back every dime of the money before he left my side, to do something that made me proud that I taught him...

He captured Shozar Sebastian and brought about the end of a war lasting over five years.

As we progressed, I taught him how to defend himself. At first I had to get rid of the Tozan variation of the art he knew.... the next few pages had a detailed comparison of how the Tozan and Shoran methods of Septanic Dueling varied.(A/N: Though Hermione read through those with great enthusiasm, I won’t elaborate.)

Problems they had....

Harold had a nasty way of getting into trouble when we had to pass through a town. Something about him, drew people to him. Almost at the end of our journey, there were a lot of cases when, a certain girl would pay attention to him and a local boy thinking that she was his, would cause trouble for Harold. But his lack of attention to the girl was one thing that made me think for a while that he did not favor them. It turned out to be untrue, as he told me how his story.

As it turned out that the girl he loved was in love with another. His rival and himself had taken part in a competition, in which the boy died. He remembered that when he first found out, how he wanted his rival to be dead. But they had grown closer, helping each other. When he died, he gave up all hope of ever achieving love for that girl.

The more Hermione read about Harold, the more that she wanted to know. That night she used Harry’s invisibility cloak to break into the library. She found all the books she could on this Harold Parker person. Hermione was very disappointed to find that there was very little information on Harold. She went back into her dorm room and fell sound asleep... well she had a dream but it was not unpleasant.

It was a dream of a world without the threat of Voldemort hanging over good people.

(A/N: The next part is kind of an anecdote... so I talk in it like I was talking directly to the reader... It’s just much more humorous that way.

Jessica Abernithy, Romano Ketchka, Abby Somerset, Madhu Chopra and Serena Appleby were an odd bunch indeed. A Hufflepuff 6th year prefect, A 5th year Ravenclaw Prefect & Chaser, two seventh year girls and one 6th year Slytherin prefect, though had a lot of differences, they had put them aside to achieve one goal. They had devised a plan that involved two of them keeping the headboy occupied, while the other three retrieve the things that they wanted form the unconscious body of Harry Potter. It would have had worked too, if it had not been for Alicia showing up when she did, a few minutes before she was supposed to be there. They had managed to get take off all of Harry’s clothes off, except for his boxers. Alicia had shown up, just when they were about to take them off.

I know what you are thinking... oh no another story with a Harry Potter fanclub. No, this was not the function of the club. They called themselves the scavengers... well they should have been called that. They had no name for themselves.

If you worshiped the ground a person walked on, there was a lot of that happening in Hogwarts, and wanted to get a hold of their personal items (clothes, tooth brush and paste, shaving blades and things like that) for your personal shrine, these were the people to contact.

As odd as it may seem, there were no school rules for stealing other people’s clothes! Stealing clothes, and other accessories were fine. They had a variety of ways to obtain what they wanted, and at the moment there was a great deal of demand for anything that had been worn by Harry Potter. At the beginning of the TriWizard Tournament championship it was Cedric’s clothes that were in hot demand. They had used one of Cedric’s roommates, back then.This was business, though all of them agreed getting a snapshot of a totally nude Harry Potter could be worth a lot of money to them. For this reason Serena had also brought along her camera.

" What the hell do you think you’re doing?" yelled Alicia.

The girls had not expected Alicia to show up. Serena pointed her camera at Alicia and made it flash a few times at her. Disoriented and severely handicapped Alicia was in no condition to see anyone, let alone stop them from escaping.

" Get back here!... you...you..." said Alicia, before she started to firing random curses down the hallway, still blinded by the flash.

It took her several minutes to recover. In that time she used her wand to make it pour water, which she used then to keep washing her eyes. Once she was okay, she went to check on Harry. She was not sure, who the people she saw, but she knew that they were girls. ‘ Must be his fan club ‘ she thought.

Once she saw, that the girls had removed every, single piece of clothing off Harry, leaving him only in his boxers, she blushed furiously. She didn’t think it was appropriate for her to see him like this, so she quickly covered him up with the blanket. Since Harry was with even less clothes than before she thought that she should get another blanket to compensate for that. So she went to the next bed and picked up the blanket from there and covered him up.

Harry felt bruised and battered when he awoke early on Saturday morning. Sleepy eyed, he looked out of his bed. Early morning gave him the impression that it was still, the same day as when he had fainted. Without his glasses, he could not see clearly. He sat up on the bed with much effort, began to search for his glasses on the table next to the bed. From the corner of his eye, he saw a green blob appear at the doorway. It looked at him, and then headed for where Madam Pomfrey’s office was. Harry guessed someone had come to get something looked at. Harry then started to think about what he remembered about his dream. Voldemort... Karakauff... Snape! (must be on some kind of mission...)... Professor Dumbledore and the painful lightning... Then he thought he remembered two voices talking, but he was not sure.

" ahme..." said a very feminine voice.

" huh? Who is it?" Harry squinted his eyes.

" It’s me... Alicia"

" What are you doing here?...don’t you have dinner now?"

" Dinner?" she laughed, " Why would I have dinner at six thirty in the morning?"

Harry looked out the window and sure enough, he could see that the sun had risen a bit more in the sky.

" I slept for an entire day? Wow!"

Alicia giggled, " One day! No, you slept for two! All day yesterday and the day you fainted."

" By Merlin’s beard! It must be Saturday now then! Todays’ the Quidditch tryouts right?"

" Yeah... Hey! I brought some of your things for you."

" Presents?"

" err no..." she started to things out of her bag and put them on the table next to Harry’s bed, " One trouser, one shirt, " she blushed and squeaked out the rest, "um... clean underwear...., toothpaste, toothbrush aaannnd..." the last word extended beyond what it was supposed to be, as she got something out of her bag. It was Harry’s glasses. She unfolded them and put them on Harry. "... Your glasses."

" Thank..."said Harry, he felt a lump in his throat.

He croaked out something that Alicia could just barely make out. Harry had politely asked her, why she had his glasses?, since the last time he remembered, he had them on before fainting. Alicia rather reluctantly told him about what had happened the day before. When she told him about being in his boxers only, he quickly checked under the blankets, to make sure, he was not missing that too.

" Okay... I’ll leave you to get dressed and then we’ll take a walk. I already asked Madam Pomfrey, I suspected you’d want to leave as soon as possible. She wants you to come back and see her again in the evening... something about a last check up."

" Okay."

After Alicia went outside, Harry quickly went into the toilet. He wanted so much to find out what had happened in the time that he was asleep that he could not wait. In his hurry, Harry forgot his wand. He quickly retrieved the wand from the bedside cabinet and went back into the toilet. Before he did anything else, he made sure he got rid of the five o’clock shadow that he had acquired. He said a word and the tip of his wand glowed a purple colour, which changed to an orange when it made contact with Harry’s face. As the tip glided over his skin the stables disappeared. Once fully dressed, he went out of the hospital wing with Alicia by his side.

" So, where do you want go?" she asked.

" I just want to walk a bit. I feel really tired. I think I haven’t had anything to eat- did I?"

" err...no, I suppose not!"

" Oh... Okay, how about if we go to breakfast then. I think it’s..." Harry looked to where his watch was. It was not there. " Well looks like I don’t have watch. What time is it?"

Alicia checked her watch and said, " about seven. I think the hall is full now." She stopped and asked, " You sure you want go in? There’s bound to be a lot of people there"

Harry thought for a second and said, " Yes! I’m very sure. I would have to face them eventually. Better now then later."

When they entered the great hall, every pair of eyes was on the pair. After a full minute, in which time no one dared to even breathe, except for most of the Slytherins everyone there rushed to where Harry was. It was almost half an hour before Harry could have his breakfast. He answered a variety of questions regarding the incident. Everything from if and what he had dreamed to if it hurt, how bad, what he saw when he woke up. Harry was never so glad to see Professor Snape enter the great hall. He threatened to take of points from all the houses, which got the attention of all the house prefects.

Alicia and the rest of them that were present busily moved the crowd back to their respective tables. Ron was the only person left there. Harry looked around for Hermione, but could not see her. " She’s not here yet." said Ron, correctly guessing what his friend was searching for.

" Oh!" Harry was disappointed and did not hide it. He had hoped that him being close to death she might have had been more receptive to him, but since she was not present, he couldn’t be sure how she would react to him. Ron was happy to see his friend again, he took Harry’s hand and shook it, as he clapped Harry’s back.

" Let’s have something to eat" said Ron, guiding Harry to the table.

" Yeah. We can catch up in while we’re doing this"

" Okay... you’ll love it. The house elves have done something to these sausages... they taste even better they usually do."

Ron sat down on the opposite side of Harry on the table, while Harry took the seat next to Alicia. " So..." Harry looked expectantly at Ron, " What have I missed so far?"

" Well..." began Ron, " You missed the breakfast on Thursday, so I’m guessing you still don’t know about Lee Jordan."

Harry was confused. He looked around the table and when he did not see him, he immediately assumed that something was wrong. " What happened? Is he ok? Did..Did Volde- I mean You-Know-Who get him? Was there an attack on..."

" Hey...hey!" said Alicia patting him on the back, " Relax. It’s nothing serious-"

" Nothing serious!" exclaimed Ron, " I beg to differ. Snape has ousted him, from his commentating duties. The best commentator we’ve had for years...and now he’s gone."

" It’s a shame. Where is he? He must be heart broken." Asked Harry. Knowing that Lee had as much enthusiasm for the game, as anyone that he knew.

" He’s been sulking around." Said Ron.

" Yeah, Right!” Alicia snorted. “ He’s been taking full advantage of the situation and he’s getting any girl who would listen to him, to ‘comfort’ him. I think in the last two days he’s managed to get himself dates until the end of this term."

This information brought a smile to his face. " Ok... what else?"

" Well... remember, just before you fainted how Malfoy had hit Hagrid with that spell that made him fly backwards"

Harry nodded.

" Well, he’s been punished."

" How? Expelled?" Harry desperately hoped that would happen.

" No..." said Ron, barely containing his laughter, "He’s...He’s ...."

Ron tried several times, but he could not finish the sentence because, he burst into laughter and started to roll around on the ground.

" What?" Harry asked.

Alicia came to Ron’s rescue. " He’s been punished to clean the Prefects toilets"

" So..." Harry really did not think that cleaning the prefects’ toile was really that much of a punishment.

" Well..." Alicia giggled, " Harry, He’s been sentenced to clean the old prefects bathroom. Myrtle’s been flooding that entire section of the castle since the middle of last year. She keeps saying something about a boy.... he has to clean the toilet..." Harry’s face darkened slightly, before he heard that Malfoy had to clean the toile. He smiled, " with...with... I can’t say it..." Alicia started to shake with laughter.

" Toothpick!" said Ron, taking a split second to finish off Alicia’s comment, before he resumed his rolling on the ground. Harry burst into laughter as well. It was too much for him to keep his laughter in when he heard the word toothpick.

Hermione had spent the last hour, before the breakfast, convincing Parvati to take part in the Quidditch tryouts. In the end, Parvati agreed, if only to shut up Hermione. When Hermione reached the great hall, flanked by Parvati and Lavender, she saw Harry. All the guilt that she felt suddenly overcame her mind and she forgot all about what she wanted to do. Apologize to Harry. She ran, leaving Parvati and Lavender wondering what was it that made her do this. Until they saw Harry, Ron and Alicia in a fit of laughter, it did not make sense to them. By the time they realized it, Hermione was long gone.

Harry saw from the corner of his eyes, Hermione, he stopped laughing. Alicia noticed this. She leaned closer to Harry, after she stopped laughing, and said, " Go after her. I think, she’ll listen now."

" You think so!"

" I know so.” Alicia said in a all knowing kind of way. “ If she doesn’t tell her that, I said hello. She’ll know what I mean."

" Huh?"

" Don’t worry about it. Just go!" she urged him.

" Okay... Ron. I got to go..."

" Whatever..." Ron was still on the ground rolling with laughter. He did not even notice the strange looks that he was getting from the passing students.

The last time Harry had made the mistake of not looking in the library, this time he made it his first stop. Unfortunately, Hermione was not there. Harry quickly moved towards the Gryffindor common room. He went into his room and started to look for the ‘Marauders Map’. He found it under his Invisibility cloak.

‘ Odd... I remember putting it under the broomstick caring kit...’ Harry stopped thinking about the fact that someone might have had used his cloak or the Marauder’s map, when he saw the caring kit. It was a gift from Hermione and it reminded him of her. He whispered, " I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good."

The brown piece of parchment started to fill with lines and dots. He found the Dot named "H. Granger" in their transfiguration room, the room that only he and she could access amongst the students.

‘ Perfect place to be alone...’

Harry made the mistake of leaving the Marauder’s map, which made it hard for him to navigate through the castle. When he reached the wall and said the password the room opened up in front of him, it had been already fifteen minutes. It was only by chance that Hermione had decided to stay in the same room. He saw Hermione was practicing her stances for the tournament, from the door. There was a pile of books on the floor. Some of them were on Morocco and others were on Martial arts and wizard Dueling. He walked slowly towards her, before he found himself bumping into an invisible barrier. A shielding charm. Hermione’s shielding charm might not have had been that powerful compared of Harry’s, but hers was ingenious. It would take Harry a while to get through it, even though he could sense that only a very small fraction of Hermione’s power was being used to sustain it. She could leave it up all day long and she would not be even weak.

" Hermione we have to talk-" started Harry, but she interrupted him.

" I don’t want to." she said, as she pointed her wand at Harry and started to fire small fireballs directed all around Harry. They left scorch marks wherever they hit the wall, but Harry did not move at all when she did that. Either Hermione was a very poors marks woman – or she didn’t want to really hit him.

" Hermione, do you want me to break through the shield and talk to you. Because I will."

" Try it!” Hermione challenged him. “ You can’t break it."

Hermione was sure of herself, even though she had seen how he broke the seal on the charm that she had placed on the Veloron cage. Hermione focused more on the place where Harry was likely to attack and try and break through it. To her astonishment, Harry did not try to use any spells to break through it.

Harry walked right up to the shield, and started to push the barrier with his two hands. Hermione could suddenly feel pressure building up on herself. She knew not the reason this was happening. She knew not, what Harry was doing. She had to bring the shield closer to herself, so that the pressure that built up would be relieved slightly. She was so busy bring in the shield closer to herself and strengthening it, she did not realise how close Harry was, until they were almost nose to nose. Suddenly noticing Harry in front of her face, Hermione panicked and dropped the shield for a split second.

It was all the time Harry needed to pin her to the ground. Harry was grinning. " Now... Will you listen to me?"

" Lemme go!" she squirmed under him

" No. You have to listen to me." His voice conveyed his mood. Grim determination, " Please listen to me... it’s important."

Hermione looked at Harry’s face and she noticed something that she had not before. He looked just like... " Oh! My God!... It’s you isn’t it?"

" Who? What?" his grip on her loosened. Hermione took the opportunity to try and free her arms and legs. It did not work. Harry had a hold of her that was almost impossible to break. Not unless Harry moved and he knew that. So he did not move.

" It’s you... you’re Harold! I can’t believe that! You little..." Hermione searched for a name to call Harry, but she could not find anything.

" Oh that! Yes... That’s what I was going tell you!"

" When?... after the end of the year... when we graduate?"

" No!” Harry was determined in his conviction. “ On Wednesday. If you hadn’t blown up on me, I would have had told you then!" Harry moved and let go of her, before standing up.

Hermione’s face colored.

" Look..." Harry said, offering his hand to her.

" Thanks." She said, as she took it.

" you’re welcome... Look... I wanted to tell you from the beginning. I thought I was going to tell you today on the first day back, but when I saw how deeply you were thinking in history class, well I thought that I better tell you sooner than that. Then you get mad at me for beating you in Charms and then..."

" That’s not why..." Hermione interrupted.

" Huh?" Harry was confused. He had thought Hermione was jealous of him. Though, if what he thought Hermione had meant, then that would mean Hermione was never jealous of him. This news was a welcome. But then he had no idea what the real reason for it could be then.

Harry saw a brown flash, before Hermione clamped onto him, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. " Oof" he cried. When he got a chance at looking at her face, he was surprised to see that Hermione had a silent tear running down her cheek. They had gone slightly pink, because of how flustered she felt. He put his hand on her cheek and wiped the tear away. " Why are you crying?"

" Harry... please forgive me..." she looked up to his confused face.

" For what?"

" For getting mad at you... for pushing you to the ground... for making you think that I didn’t like you as a friend anymore...for trying to make you break through the shield...for..."

" That’s ok... I was never mad at you..." Hermione made a face at him, " Okay... just a little, but its okay now." He stroked her hair, before very unlike him he hugged her back.

" No... that’s not why I was really upset. You see Parvati explained it to me."

" She did..." said Harry, " It wouldn’t be along the lines of you being in love with me would it" he said, wanting to avoid that area of discussion. He felt for her as the sister that he never had and besides there was Ron who really liked her.

Hermione pushed Harry away, like suddenly he smelled of garbage, " No!..."

" Good. ‘cause, I don’t think I can go another year of that hanging over my head. Remember last year, after Rita’s article...No offence, but I only like you as a friend"

" I’m heart broken!" Hermione faked being hurt, " No... it’s because, I though you wouldn’t need me to be you friend anymore. I was the one who always was the smart one in the group, and now that you could be just as good as me, I didn’t think you’d like to be my friend anymore..."

Harry interrupted, " That’s not the reason that I befriended you! When you go through something like what happened on that Halloween of the first year... you become friends. You can’t help it. You’ve stuck by me at the end of that year and gave me strength to face Voldemort, granted that you would not have had been expelled because of your charms high mark, but you still took a chance with your life to help us. You were the one, who got petrified because, you figured out that the basilisk was the one hurting people. You were the one that was with me when we saved Snuffles and Buckbeak. But you did the most for me in my fourth year...

Harry avoided using the word, "last year", because to Harry his fourth year was almost a year ago.

" ...you were the only person, in the whole school, who believed that I did not put my name in the goblet. You believed me when the entire school didn’t- wait, I said that already. You believed me when Ron didn’t. Because of me you have to share the pain that I go through every time I have a dream involving Voldemort. Because of me you life is always in danger. I can’t ask anything more from you, if I wanted to."

Hermione hugged him again. This time she didn’t let go until Harry started to wheeze, because of the lack of air.

" My life is not in danger because of you. If it weren’t for you and Ron I would be dead and buried now. The shared nightmares... you have a very selective memory. You seem to forget that I told you that, it was a very small price for what I’m capable of doing now. By the way when are we going get to astralproject?"

"err... I’ve tried to do that several time, but it’s really hard. I can’t even get out of my own body. I’ll try a lot harder from today... but it might be a while before we can do it again. Even after I can get out, I have to go to you room and then...."

Harry absentmindedly pushed Hermione’s glasses up her nose, as they were dangerously close to the end of her nose and ready to fall at a second’s notice.

".. I have to..."

" I get the point Harry."

" Well, What do we do now?"

" You’re telling me exactly want happened after you apparated with that horrid creature"

" it’s pretty grim and there’s a lot of blood and violence in there. You might not want to know about it..."

" I’m not a baby and... " Hermione stopped in the middle of her sentence and asked, " Harry?"

" Hmm?"

" how long were you in Morocco. The books vary. One says that you were there for three years and one says that you were there for only three months. How old are you now? How did you get past the two day limit on the time turners, how did you hide you scar, and ...."

" I’ll start way at the beginning. Right after we met the Nundu. Is that ok?"

" Very..."

" Okay..." started Harry," It is one of those days. Not too bright, not to too dark. It was a day like any other, it was a day that I..."

Hermione interrupted, " Will you just get on with it?"

" Okay... Right after, I landed..."

<<~~~>>

END OF CHAPTER
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