Unofficial Portkey Archive

AN: Eeps, sorry for the lack of H/Hr moments, but of course, many to come I suppose =P I'll probably spent a chapter or two getting them going...hehehe...we'll see.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters in Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling does. The plot and any extra characters belong to me :)

Harry Potter awoke muttering to himself as he reached towards his night table for his glasses in the grim darkness. He blinked, trying to see through the blackness of the room when he suddenly realized that his forehead felt awfully warm.

"Ow.." He grumbled and winced in pain while he placed a tentative finger on his scar, almost frightened at why his scar tingled. Bringing down his finger, all his fears were confirmed. Blood. He knew it was blood. Blood from his scar that had never bled until now? Harry was confused, and memories of his dream came floating back to him.

"It felt real...awfully real," Harry sat up and glanced out the window which he had forgotten to pull the curtains over. It was still dark out, and Harry assumed that it was probably four in the morning or so. "That voice..."

He shook his head as he got out of bed. He might as well clean off the blood if he didn't want to scare anyone with a bleeding forehead. Harry reached the bathroom connected to his room and lazily turned on the lights, wincing as the brighness startled his weary eyes.

His hair wasn't sticking up as high as usual, in fact it seemed slightly matted upon his head. A bit of the blood seemed to have dried but some was making its way slowly down towards the bridge of his nose. Not a very pretty sight.

"Why is it bleeding.." Harry wondered out loud as he dabbed a damp cloth on the wound. "I mean...its been seventeen years since I've had this thing, and it has never caused me any trouble..." He finished cleaning off the wound and washed off the cloth hastily, flinging it onto one of the many racks against the wall afterwards. "Damn dreams..." He muttered while walking out of the washroom and back towards his messy bed.

But it seemed too real... Harry sighed as he slipped under the scarlet covers once again, blinking at the white ceiling that stared back at him. Oh now you're just being a coward...you're seventeen and you're worrying over some weird...nightmare. He rolled over onto his side and stared blankly at the wardrobe that met his gaze. But it wasn't just a nightmare..it was real..darn real...I could feel it..Feel it? Geez Potter, when did you become the one to believe in these things that most likekly Tralawney would believe in? Maybe I'm getting that whole inner eye thing...ooo... Harry rolled his eyes mentally to himself as he thought of Divination. Yet the thoughts quickly left his mind and was replaced with the cold voice that hissed like a snake... Your end is drawing near...dramatic person wasn't he? But that dream is just so..surreal..

Harry Potter frowned as he took off his glasses and placed them silently onto the table next to him. He turned restlessly again, and realized that before he would even fall asleep or notice, the sun was up, and it was time to rise.

Hermione shifted her honey brown eyes towards her freckled friend who was pacing rentlessly on the wet grass. She tilted her head, causing her bushy mass of hair to sway in that direction before she finally opened her mouth. "Ronald Weasley!"

"What?! Yeah mom?" Ron answered, a sudden grin popped onto his face at Hermione's scowl. "Ok, ok! What Hermione?"

"What are you doing?" She asked innocently, but the note of annoyance was not hidden from her voice.

"I..I'm uh.."

"Pacing back and forth on this Quidditch Pitch for the last half hour?! You're wasting time Ron! You could be..doing your Divination homework...or trying to.."

Ron threw his arms up in the air and stared at Hermione, "Well I would love to be able to think straight like you, but right now my brain is doing flips!"

"And so is your stomach," Hermione added as Ron's stomach growled.

He smiled sheepishly at her and shrugged, "I guess I missed breakfast."

"That's amazing! You. Missed. Breakfast!" Hermione exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Yeah...so?"

"But you're like...the bottomless pit!"

Ron quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'll take that as a compliment 'Mione. But really, there's only fifteen minutes left before the tryouts, and no one except me and you, are out here!" He walked forwards a few steps, his scarlet Quidditch robes bellowing out behind him. "What am I going to do?!"

"Oh stop worrying! They'll show up," Hermione encouraged as she flipped a page in her book.

"What are you reading anyways?" Ron questioned with an air of curiousity. "Let me guess..you're on chapter 52 of The Dark Arts: Unmasked ! Am I correct?!"

Hermione glared at him in a friendly way but shook her head. "No, I'm actually re-reading Hogwarts: A History."

"NO WAY! That would make it your...like...billionth time reading that bloody book!" Ron stared at his friend in disbelief. "I mean, no one could do that! Don't you ever get bored of that thing?!"

"Not really, I mean...everytime I read it, I kind of get more out of it you know," Hermione replied with a smile. Ron just gave Hermione a glance and sighed. "Ten more minutes..." He muttered as he scanned the whole field.

Hermione sighed and scanned the field. "Oh look!!" Her sudden exclamation startled Ron, causing him to jump slightly. "See Ron, someone's coming! And you were here pacing back and forth like some.."

"HARRY!" Ron cut her off before she could finish, a wide grin on his face as he clapped a hand on the young man's back causing him to stumble forwards a few steps but he quickly regained his composure.

"Harry?!" Hermione stared at the boy with messy dark hair standing in front of her.

"...Yeah?" He stared at the two with confusion written across his face before scratched the back of his head. "Is there something wrong? Did I come at the wrong time? I was pretty sure the notice.."

"No, no! Not at all," Ron interupted. "Hermione's probably just surprised because you it's yo.."

"You came early!" Hermione quickly finished off for Ron while giving him a stern glance. "So uh, you're trying out?" She tried to keep the shock from her voice but she seemed to fail as Harry nodded with red cheeks.

"I just..I don't know what got into me actually," Harry confessed as he leaned against the broom he had been holding. "I don't have a broom of my own, so I just borrowed one from the school if you don't mind.."

Ron shook his head quickly, "Course not mate! A broom's a broom right? I mean, Firebolts are all that, but still, as long as you can fly!" He fingered his own Nimbus 2000 before grinning again. "So, you up to the challenge?"

"Well, I guess," Harry replied, not much confidence in his voice. Hermione smiled softly, "You'll be fine."

Harry nodded numbly, "Er..yeah, ok. So what do I do exactly?"

"Well, I'm going to send a volley of different sized balls at you. Don't worry, they won't be rock hard and they won't be HUGE so that it's not catchable. When I think I've seen enough, I'll stop the balls and...yeah!" Ron looked around him and shrugged. "And when more people show up...I'll compare your skills."

Harry simply nodded again, and he suddenly felt awfully nauseas and dizzy at the thought of a thousand different sized balls raining down on him. He frowned. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of Hermione...uh and Ron...and everyone. He glanced quickly towards his right at the head girl who simply gave him a reassuring smile.

He then looked over at the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain who seemed to be strangely excited over the whole matter. "So uh...should I start?"

Ron snapped out of his goofy grin and nodded, "Oh right! Ha, sorry Harry, kind of got lost in thought there..hmm..right, so all you have to do is catch as many balls as possible. Once you've caught it, the ball will disappear from your grasp. I'll keep track on how many you've caught, ok?"

"Ok..." Harry hopped onto his broom slowly and hovered above the ground a few feet before nervously glancing at the crate beside Ron's feet.

"Ok then! Ready....set....go!"

Before Harry knew what was happening, he found himself up in the air with the cool afternoon wind blowing in his face, causing his messy locks of ebony hair to fly in every possible direction. The sun shone directly above him and his right arm was constantly outstretched towards the multi-coloured balls that came out in random directions.

A bright green one caught his eye and he noticed it was technically grazing the grass below it, but way above but slightly behind it he could see another medium sized pink ball heading towards his right. Harry squinted his eyes in concentration as he pulled the old school broom downwards and shot down at the ball in a veritcal line before pulling up again abruptly in almost a nintey degree angle and catching the pink ball seconds after.

"BLOODY BRILLIANT HARRY!!" Harry beamed at the sudden comment from Ron and was caught off guard for a moment, which allowed a canary yellow ball to hit him square in the face.

"Ouch!"

"You alright there?" Ron called up towards him as Harry lowered his broom and swiftly landed on his feet.

"Yeah...it was squishy anyways," Harry commented as he glanced at Ron expectantly. "So...what do you think?"

Ron blinked and then shook his head quickly, "Oh! About your seeker abilities?! Wonderful! It's bloody brililant! I wonder who else could match your skills! I mean, I think you might even be better than Dean! Maybe I'll set the Snitch out for you and you can try catching that."

Harry turned red but a smile crept onto his face nonetheless. His silent victory was interupted when three more figures appeared onto the field and approached them.

"Hey, we're here to tryout. I'm Matthew Allen, sixth year. " A tall boy with messy copper hair declared before grinning and running a hand down his polished Nimbus 3000, the closest you could get to a Firebolt itself.

A slightly shorter girl stood behind the boy, with sleek straight dirty blonde hair and a few freckles sprinkled on her nose. "I'm Amara White, fifth year if you're wondering. And this is my younger brother Charles...he's in fourth year." Amara waved a hand at the shortest member of the group with the same dirty blonde hair as his sister.

Ron nodded, grinning like usual. "I thought no one would want to try out except Harry here!"

The three newcomers gave a sideways glance at the boy who stood silghtly winded with the ancient school broom tightly clutched in his right hand. "Who's he?" Matthew raised an eyebrow.

Hermione bit her lip, glancing at the stuttering Harry and decided to answer for him. "Harry..Harry Potter."

Matthew glanced at the young man standing next to Ron and shook his head, "Oh, I thought you were a Hufflepuff."

"I guess he isn't," Hermione muttered under her breath, not really liking Matthew already. Ron didn't seem to notice though, becuse his infamous grin was still plastered over his face. "Great! So now I have four people trying out! Ha, I knew that there had to be some brave Gryffindors out there."

Harry's stomach churned, wondering if his skills could surpass the three that stood confidently infront of Ron as the red head explained the rules. A sigh escaped his lips without him noticing until her familiar voice broke his revere. "Relax Harry, you were great out there.."

His jaded eyes widened as he quickly took notice of the grass at his feet instead of her. "Um, thanks."

"Really. Better than I thought, no offense." Hermione said sheepishly and smiled. "You heard what Ron said, he says your skills are ...'bloody brilliant'...so have more cofidence in yourself mister."

"...Ok.."

"What was that?"

"Ok."

"Hmmm?"

"OKAY. I'm confident, and I'm going to be the darn bloody seeker of Gryffindor."

Hermione beamed, her radiating smile suddenly made Harry's embarrassment wash away as Ron and the rest stared at him with utter confusion.

Ron scratched his head thoughtfully and shrugged. "Right, anyways! Back to the tryouts..."

"Please flip to page 63 of The Dark Arts: Unmasked." Professor Dawkes' hollow and slightly scratchy voice echoed through the room as the sound of flipping pages sprung up in the air. "I am sure all of you have learned of banshees in the past, am I correct?"

The class nodded, a slightly bored air hung in the atmosphere. Professor Dawkes was already known to ask typical questions that would waste class time, and it made the students rather agitated. There could have been so many other things they could be doing instead of listening to her mindless quesitons that she probably had the answer herself.

"Right, I was correct." She added with a slight smirk on her deep maroon lips. The class shared looks and most of them rolled their eyes at their professor's unintelligent remark. Hermione couldn't help but huff and blow her honey brown bangs out of her eyes. I never knew Defense Against the Dark Arts could be so...so lame!

"Now, since you've all learned about banshees, this question should be simple. Why are they deadly?" Some of them couldn't help but snort at the question. Dawkes said it was a simple question? Then yeah, it was just that simple that no one in the class even bothered to answer the ridiculous question.

Hermione sighed and raised her hand. Always up to me, isn't it?

Professor Dawkes eyed her with her steely hazel eyes and nodded, indicating that she could speak. "The screams from a banshee can kill." Hermione mumbled, but clear enough for everyone to understand. Yet they didn't need to hear it from Hermione, haven't they learned this fact sometime in the very very distant past?

Dawkes curtly nodded, "Miss. Granger is correct. Like I said, it was a simple question what not. So today, we are going to work with banshees."

There was a loud gulp that filled the room, and everyone turned towards the source of the sound. They were all clearly surprised it wasn't Neville, in fact, it was Seamus. "Real ones?" He stuttered, trying to keep his voice even.

"No, I believe you've faced this type of issue before. We're going to use boggarts. A special type that are rarer to find then the common boggart. These type of boggarts have a lower defense and can be brought down with a number of spells and not just the 'Riddikulus' spell. "

A sigh of relief came from Seamus, and new confidence seemed to fill him again. "So we can just imagine the banshee in some hot pink bikini?"

Dawkes didn't seemed amused. "No Mr. Finnigan. We're going to let it turn into a banshee and have it attempt its scream."

"What?!" A couple of the students let out a cry, even some of the composed Slytherins.

"But of course, since you are all such intelligent students, you won't let the banshee finish its scream before you shut it up." She explained. "Second paragraph down from the top, there are instructions on a fairly complicated spell to silence a banshee's scream."

"Couldn't we just use the silencing charm?" Pansy Parkinson stiffled a yawn.

"If you want it to scream even louder, then yes." Professor Dawkes eyed her warily, causing a few of the Gryffindors to chuckle and Pansy sent daggers at them without a seconds thought. "We're not talking about normal creatures class. We are dealing with the Dark Arts. Dark creatures...demons." She literally hissed. "They wouldn't easily be finished by a normal charm. That is why we have certain precautions and why we're learning all this anyways!"

She retreated to her desk and bent down so she was no longer in the student's view. A few seconds later she popped up again with a case in one hand, most likely containing the boggart. "Ok, wands out. Did you all read the paragraph? It's not that long."

Harry nervously took out his wand, glancing around the room to see if he was the only one who seemed to be hesitating. Professor Dawkes was never a very comforting presence. "Oblivio Voiginta.." He muttered softly under his breath over and over again. His nervous eyes darted towards a mass of bushy hair and slowly his breath became even again.

"Come to the front and line up, please." She intructed as chairs were pulled back and everyone gathered to the front of the classroom in a straight line.

Hermione's hand suddenly shot up. "Professor!"

"Yes Miss. Granger?"

"Aren't boggarts suppose to..change into our worst fear? What if our worst fear isn't a banshee?"

Professor Dawkes actually broke into a small smile, but Harry noticed that she seemed better without one. "Ah, excellent observation Hermione. That is why each of you will be taking a bit of this before you face the boggart." She held up a small vial that held a strange bright orange liquid inside it. It looked pasty, and something that you wouldn't want to swallow on a regular basis.

"It will alter your mind slightly, in only what you fear. Thanks to Professor Snape this potion has been made. It is very complicated and few are able to brew it. This potion has been set so that all of you will at once have the banshee as your worse fear."

"What if you're worst fear is a banshee already.." Seamus trailed off, looking awfully embarrassed.

"Well, it doens't hurt to have some of this potion anyways. Just in case." Professor Dawkes finished off quickly and handed the vial to the first person in line, Neville. He was trembling from head to toe and looked like he was about to faint before he managed to choke down a bit of the pasty neon orange liquid.

"Ready Neville?"

"Um...yeah...I suppose.." He didn't get a chance to finish because the boggart had already been released from its case and was looming over Neville's chubby form. "Oh...my uh.."

It had already taken the form of a banshee, and alot of the students decided not to look at its disturbing features. Hermione was one of the few that kept her eyes on the thing, and noticed that its mouth was begining to open into an 'O' shape. "Neville! Hurry!"

"Um..um.." He was getting paler by the second as he raised his wand with one shaky hand. "..OO..OBLIVION...VOIGINTA..!!" He clamped his eyes shut before he heard Dawkes snap, "Mr. Weasley, you're up next!"

Ron quickly gulped down a bit of the potion and the boggart quickly changed from its form of Mrs. Weasley scolding him to a banshee once again as the potion kicked in. Before it could even open its mouth Ron had the spell out of his mouth in a blur. The banshee flinched but stayed intact. "Slowly, don't blurt it. Boggarts are known not to have excellent hearing." Dawkes stated.

The youngest Weasley boy quickly took a breath and tried again. This time it worked and another student was quickly pushed to the front. This went on for the another ten minutes, Hermione breezing past it with a flick of her wand.

At last, Harry flushed the potion down his throat, not wanting to taste it. The boggart seemed confused for a moment, blinking from a series of different images. Once it was a strange bright green flash that caused the whole class to shield themselves.

"Oooh, look at that! Potter's got too many fears for the boggart to take only the form of one!" Draco Malfoy called from the back of the classroom.

The Slytherins sneered but Dawkes paid no attention to them. "The potion will make it turn into a banshee."

Suddenly the altering boggart froze and finally took on a form. A misty black figure was in place of where a banshee should have appeared, and near the top of the figure where a head would most likely be, two red slits hung there glaring menacingly straight into Harry's horror stricken eyes.

He heard a scream, and he didn't know who it belonged to. It might've been his own but all at once fire seemed to erupt in his head and he doubled over in pain. The last words he heard before darkness was a girl's voice saying 'Riddikulus!'.