"Harry, now that you've made some progress in occulmency I believe it's time for you to try some legetimines... Miss Granger are you ready?" Dumbledore asked.
Hermione made her way to the middle of the room and stood in front of Harry.
"Now Harry, when you try to get into Miss Granger's mind you'll see flashes... things that wont make any sense... I want you to try and hold on tightly to one of those passing images... concentrate..."
Harry nodded. He said the spell and saw images flashing so quickly before him he thought he would throw up from seasickness. Harry saw a flash of himself and quickly held onto that.... He didn't know why but he felt nervous... Why did his hands feel sweaty?
Before he could finish the thought he felt Hermione falling to the floor. He broke off the connection and went to help her back up.
"I'm sorry..." Hermione said holding onto her head.
"It's alright, it could have been my fault anyway... it was my first time too." Harry said.
"I'm afraid we must cut this lesson short, the Order meeting should start any minute. Miss Granger, I trust you will study for the next lesson. Harry, you too. Here is the portkey for the five of you to use, I fear I have some school business I must attend to before the meeting. Please extend my apologies to the rest of the order for being late."
He stayed in the room while Hermione and Harry practically ran to the great hall.
They went to the threshold and whispered over to Neville, "It's time."
Neville got up and made sure no one was watching him. Of course the exact moment he got up and left the room Professor Snape saw him. He got up from the teacher's table with a self-satisfied smile, and went where Neville was seen exiting. Professor Lupin saw this and went after Snape. Not many saw this exchange, but Malfoy did, and when no one was looking he went after them too, the chance that he would see not only Potter and Granger getting yelled at by Professor Snape, but Longbottom and Lupin was just too exciting.
"Great performance Snape, for a second there, I forgot you're on our side." Lupin said with a broad grin.
"Professors." Harry motioned for one of the empty classrooms. They turned and entered.
"Come on Potter, We'll be late." Snape said tapping his foot.
"My Legetemins lesson ran a little late, Hermione's got too much on her mind."
Both Lupin and Neville snorted a bit while Snape rolled his eyes.
Harry held out the box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and once everyone grabbed it they felt the familiar tug behind their navels.
Draco Malfoy just stared at the empty room before him.
* * *
The meeting was not all that exciting, although Harry thought that was probably a good thing. The only thing that made most of the order members complain is all who were to be at the first Quidditch match at Hogwarts had to be on their guard to make sure Draco Malfoy didn't die. It was made clear that they were to try to protect Draco while Snape made sure Narcissa didn't try anything.
The several days before the match seemed to be the longest in Harry's life. Most likely because technically they were. They were studying how to become animagi hours upon hours, which was hard work since they had to move every time they wanted to turn back time and study more.
Neville helped Ginny on the harder passages; especially with the potions they were going to need to do, while Luna was practically reading the books to Ron, although she didn't seem to mind.
The signal for Hermione to start helping Harry was every time he slammed the book shut and walked away from it. They were almost done all that they needed to do before their first transition. They needed to drink a potion to help calm their muscles, and the way the brewing had progressed it would happen the day after the Ball.
The Quidditch match was thankfully between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, since neither Harry or Ron had any time to actually set up practice. Harry and Ron stood at the bottom of the pitch with two brooms nearby in case they needed to do anything.
The game started and within the first five minutes Madame Hooch called at least two penalties against the Slytherin team, this of course was most likely due to Malfoy's position as team captain. Harry watched the stands and the other order members, but saw nothing out of sorts.
"Doesn't seem like Mummy dearest's going to try anything today." Ron said watching Snape intently.
Harry looked over to the Gryffindor section. Ginny waved and started to make her way down. Hermione looked over to Harry and shrugged.
"Harry... something weird... Narcissa looks like she's got a headache."
Harry knew that look; a split second later he heard a gasp behind him. He looked over to see who it was and once he recognized the figure who wobbled then started to loose their footing, he got on his broom and flew over to the Gryffindor section of the pitch. Halfway there Hermione fell while Hagrid tried to grab wildly at her, trying to catch her before falling. Harry raced over and caught her a mere six feet from the ground.
He touched down and tried to wake her, although he knew it would do no good. He then turned and with all he could muster tried to attack Narcissa Malfoy's mind. If she was being attacked she could no longer try to hurt Hermione. The hatred for the woman surfaced and Harry found himself wishing the woman great pain, that is when she began to do as Hermione did.
Harry could hear Hermione's voice in the background, but did not stop. Then Narcissa did something Hermione didn't, she screamed out in pain and grabbed her skull.
Harry heard others from the order coming down to the field.
"Harry stop!" He could hear Ron say.
He didn't though, he just kept concentrating harder, he didn't know how he was doing what he was doing, but he kept at it just the same.
"Harry you'll kill her!!" Hermione screamed.
Harry felt himself being turned away from Narcissa Malfoy and stopped his concentration to look in the questioning eyes of Dumbledore. Harry had never seen this look from Dumbledore and would be happy if he never saw it again.