"So what crawled up your arse and died?" Ron said entering the common room.
"You seem to forget that not even a year ago I was considered 'loony Harry Potter' with his ridiculous stories of 'he-who-for-no-particular-reason-shall-not-be-named' coming back."
"Sorry mate. I guess she just makes me nervous. Every time she sees me she talks about Quidditch captain... "
"You'll probably get it, so don't worry." Harry said with a pang of disappointment, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to be Quidditch captain with all his other responsibilities.
"Thanks Harry."
"I mean you have to be good at something, and since you suck at Quidditch-" Harry was unable to finish his sentence, Ron had tackled him.
Later that day Ron had indeed been named Quidditch captain, along with Draco Malfoy of Slythern house. Harry deduced it might have something to do with the brand new Quidditch robes the Slythern team received this year.
Harry could hardly sleep that night, knowing the next day he would be teaching, it was a group of first years, but it was scary nonetheless. He didn't mean to but with all his tossing and turning he kept Hermione up for most of the night too. Around one in the morning he got up and went to the Gryffindor common room. He sat there with his transfiguration book in his lap, trying to read something but nothing really getting through.
He found himself in a dark room, he was looking in the face of Narcissa Malfoy. Harry said the first thing that came to his mind, "I can't wait to see you behind bars in Azkaban." The voice that came out was not his own but one that was familiar all the same.
"Master?"
"The boy! He's in my thoughts!" He heard the same voice he had used just moments earlier.
He felt his hands coming up an rubbing his head, he stopped them and slapped her instead. Harry remembered why Narcissa was in front of him. He was ordering her to do something.... what was it? He tried harder to remember... kill her family? A sacrifice showing her loyalty... Her son....
"STOP!!" He heard himself yell.
He thought harder, the plan... Narcissa had to kill her son because that was how the plan was going to work... The plan to kill-
Harry woke up with a start. He had to see Dumbledore right away. He had to know what it was he had just seen. He ran from Gryffindor tower to the statue of Dumbledore's office. He didn't know the password... but he needed to see Dumbledore.
"Sherbert lemon... lemon drops... I don't know, tootsie roll pop...." Harry said not expecting the staircase to move. He was surprised when it did, but ran up the staircase all the same.
He knocked loudly, not caring that he was being anything but polite, and almost sure he was waking Dumbledore up. After about five minutes of knocking Harry heard Dumbledore invite him in.
"I'm sorry for waking you Professor, just that I think this might be important. I had a dream well I don't know if it was a dream or what, but I was Voldemort. But it wasn't like last year with the snake, I was controlling everything. And Narcissa Malfoy was there, and I thought about why she was there, I think Voldemort asked her to kill Malfoy- I mean Draco Malfoy, they were planning to kill someone else, and his death was the way they were going to get it done." Harry said as he opened the door to the room and sat down facing Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I know it sounds weird, and I know its late but considering its Voldemort..."
"You were quite right in coming to me Harry. I does seem rather odd that this is the first time this has happened though. I believe you might have been able to keep control of the situation because Voldemort wasn't suspecting it, and the fact that you have been doing exceptionally well in occulmency. But you should have had more dreams with Voldemort considering your connection with him."
Dumbledore said as if he were figuring this out loud.
"Is there anything different you did tonight before you went to sleep than usual?"
Harry thought for a moment.
"Well I was worried about teaching so I couldn't go to sleep, I went out into the common room, read some of my transfiguration book, then I fell asleep. I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up..."
"Alright. Can you go to the dungens and tell Professor Snape to bring Draco Malfoy to my office? Once you've done that I suggest you get a good night's sleep."
Harry nodded and made his way out of the office. He was down a couple of flights of stairs when Filtch caught him.
"Wat are you doin? You think-"
"Professor Dumbledore sent me to go down to the dungens to give Professor Snape a message."
"You expect me to believe you?" Filtch smiled thinking he had Harry right where he wanted.
"No, but if you go up to Professor Dumbledor's office you can believe him. Besides, why would I want to go see Professor Snape if I didn't have to?"
Filtch sneered. He turned and left Harry alone.
Harry made his way to the dungens but as soon as he made it to Snape's class room he remembered he didn't know where to find Snape now. That of course wasn't an issue for very long.
"Potter." Snape said from behind him, making Harry jump.
"Professor! I -er- Professor Dumbledore wants to speak to you... you and Draco Malfoy."
"At this time of night? Why would he send you?"
"That's what he wants to talk to you about, I'm just the messenger." Harry said.
He didn't give Snape time to ask another question, he sprinted back up to Gryffindor tower.
Once he got to the common room he felt tired again.
"Harry!" Hermione half yelled/half whispered. She was standing next to the tapestry with her arms folded in front of her and a worried look strewn across her face.
"I woke up and you were gone... you scared me to death!"
"Sorry. I just didn't want to wake you. Look, I'm tired, I'll tell you everything in the morning."
* * *
"Today Professor Lupin is feeling under the weather. I'll be teaching you, those of you who don't know my name is Harry Potter. You can just call me Harry. Right then, Any questions?"
Almost all the hands in the class were raised.
"Any questions pertaining to the material you've covered in the class?"
Most of the hands went down. Harry pointed to one of the girls in the front row.
"Do any of the spells we've learned actually work against... you know..." She asked.
"Well my first year me and Ron Weasley took down a mountain troll with a first year spell." He said.
"I mean can it work against him?" She asked.
"Him who?" Harry asked even though he knew exactly who she meant.
"He who must not be named..." She whispered.
"Do you mean Voldemort?"
The class gasped.
"I just said his name, do you see me turning into a newt? To answer your question, it depends. It depends on whether you can get the entire spell out of your mouth before him. Look, you want to do me a big favor, everyone say something for me out loud. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Come on, the entire class."
The entire class did as they were told, but didn't seem to understand why.
Harry took the chalk out and wrote Tom Marvolo Riddle on the board. He then drew arrows to where he would move each letter and wrote 'I am lord Voldemort.' Mumbles and gasps were heard from the students.
"You've all called him by his true name, and you're not dead. No broken bones? It's just a name, it can't hurt anything. Be afraid of him, not some stupid name he gave himself just to be cool."
The class laughed nervously at that.
"So since you are the Ravenclaw class, and are in fact a head of all the other classes Professor Lupin doesn't have a lesson planned for you. You can all do what ever you want as long as it's quiet enough where the other classes aren't disturbed, and you wont get expelled."
A young boy near the back of the class raised his hand.
"Yeah?"
"Can we just ask you questions that aren't about the stuff we've learned?"
"Does everyone want to do that?" Harry asked the class.
Surprisingly they all nodded.
"Alright, yeah, go ahead."
"Are you really a parseltounge?" the boy asked.
"Yeah, I can talk to snakes."
A girl raised her hand, "Does your scar ever hurt?"
"Yeah, when Voldemort's angry, or happy.... or when he's near. When he's near I can't remember my own name it hurts so much."
"How many times have you been near him?" Another student asked.
"Well my first year, then my second year... but I don't really know if that counts because that was the memory of Tom Riddle, then my fourth year, that was when he came back to power, then my fifth year... "
Harry didn't know why he was sharing this with them, he usually hated it, but it didn't feel like it used to. It felt more like they were worried what was going to happen to them, and they wanted to know more about the wizard that was starting another war.
"You were a first year?" A girl asked.
"Yeah, well he wasn't up to full power. He was drinking unicorn blood just to stay alive."
"Were you scared?"
"Of course. Every single time I see him I'm scared. But there are worse things than death, and in my first year if he had come up to full power that would be one of them. Being brave isn't about being stupid and never being afraid. It's about knowing the right thing to do, and no matter how scared you are, you do it. A lot of wizards could do what I've done, they just don't."
"What's the right thing for us to do in this whole thing?" A boy asked.
"Stay safe. I know if I was hearing this I wouldn't listen, but you, since you're Ravenclaws, you're probably smart enough to listen to what I'm telling you. You need to stay safe now because we don't know how long this is going to last. Every last one of you could be great wizards and help a lot in the fight, but we wont know that if you go out and get yourself blown up."
Right when another student was about to ask a question there was a knock at the door. A third year Harry had seen only a couple of times came in and handed him a note.
"Talk amongst yourselves." Harry said as he opened the note.
'Harry,
Meet me in the 'uncommon room' at lunch. Tell Ginny and Luna to come with you. Bring your invisibility cloak and some earmuffs for Luna.
Hermione'
The 'uncommon room' was what Ginny had dubbed the room behind the tapestry. Harry found this note odd, but knew not to ask questions. He would get the fifth year Ravenclaws and Gryffindor right before lunch.
Harry looked at his watch, "Class dismissed. Oh, I want seven inches on Tom Marvolo Riddle for next class."
He did not get the moans he expected, but rather students smiling and saying "Bye Professor Potter." He was going to correct them but they were out the door before he could manage to open his mouth.
* * *
"But why do I have to wear the earmuffs?" Luna asked under the invisibility cloak as they made their way up to Gryffindor tower.
"So you can't hear the password." Harry whispered, "Now put them on."
Once they were in the uncommon room Harry helped Luna out of the cloak.
"Oy! What's she doing here?" Ron asked.
"This concerns all of us. Here, I have some food for us." Hermione placed the food on the table and sat down.
"What's this about?" Ginny asked as she picked up some grapes.
"I think I have a way to help Harry. It is dangerous, and we'd be expelled for sure if anyone found out, we may even be put into Azkaban. So I suggest anyone who doesn't want to do it to leave now."
She waited but no one moved.
"Alright. I've been researching the subject thoroughly and I... I believe we should become anamagi."
"Are you crazy?" Ron asked.
"What's that going to help?" Neville asked.
"Well you know how the Marauders map shows where you are, even if your in an animal form?"
"Yeah, what's your point?" Ron asked.
"I thought it was any anamagi, but really it's only the marauders. They did it I think just so they know where the others are, if anything bad should happen around the full moon. I remember in our fifth year, I was in Mcgonagal's class and I looked down at it when she turned herself into a cat, it changed into a question mark. I researched and it seems the only way they can track you is if you register with the Ministry, they perform almost the exact same spell the marauders must have used. Harry could go undetected, we all could. If something were to happen we could hide that way, no one would expect it of us." She said.
"Yeah," Ginny snorted, "Two prefects, the headmaster's favorite student, the best herbology student... ever, one insane Ravenclaw, and the boy crazy Weasley... This could actually work. But what if one of us gets into trouble? What if Ron nearly gets himself killed while he's in animal form, what will we do?"
"I've thought about that, we can't make a marauder's map, its too easy to misplace or for it to get into the wrong hands. We have to do something different... Something only we can use."
"Uhhh guys.... I don't think you're paying particular attention to what the huge problem with this is, how are we going to learn how to be anamagi... and how the heck are we going to do it this year, let alone next year when we have NEWTs." Neville asked.
"Yeah, it took Harry's dad and all them at least three years..."
"They were in their second year when they started, and they had Wormtail dragging them behind... besides Reta Skeeter told me she did it in only one year and if that dolt of a woman can learn it in a year we can learn to do it in a couple months..." Hermione said.
"I think you're putting way too much faith in us." Ron said.
"I can help you if you have any problems Ronald." Luna said rather sweetly.
"Hermione, I don't know if I can take any more information, I think my head might explode..." Harry said.
"I don't know about you, but with the OWLs this year I just don't know if there are enough hours in the day, even if we do prevent Harry's head from exploding." Luna said.
With the sheepish look Hermione was giving him Harry knew she was prepared to answer that question.
"Hermione Granger...." Harry said.
"Is it really considered stealing when McGonagal had it out in the open like that... in the locked cupboard, behind the enchanted knives...." Hermione said.
"What?" Ron squeaked.
"She stole the time turner! Hermione, do you know how much trouble we'll be in when they find out you've stolen that thing?"
"Oh really, It's not like she checks to see if it's there. Once we've become anamagi I can just put it back and no one will ever know..."
"How can you of all people be so calm with all the rules... all the laws you've broken, with all the laws you're about to break?" Ron asked.
"It's for the greater good. It's not really breaking the laws... it's more ignoring them excessively." Hermione said.
Ginny shook her head and raised her cup, "Well, here's to all the years we'll be spending together in Azkaban."