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Harry Potter and the Maneosioan War by meg2089kul
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Harry Potter and the Maneosioan War

meg2089kul

Chapter 12

Consequences

"But they're going to attack Hogwarts! We must do something!" Harry yelled at Professor McGonagall after class.

"Do what, Potter? What do you propose we do? If you have any idea, I am dying to hear it! There is nowhere left for us to go that is safe!"

"But we have to try, at least!" said Harry, pleadingly. "I saw this, it was real! Voldemort's weak right now, but he said that he would grow in power and come after the school! We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"On the contrary, Mr. Potter," spoke Professor McGonagall in a saddened voice, "that is the only thing that we can do," and she left the classroom, leaving Harry to slam his fist hard into her desk and walk off to his next class.

"The Draining Spell," spoke Narcissa, "is probably just as horrible as the Killing Cruse. It is a spell that drains a witch or wizard of absolutely all of their magical power."

The class listened tentatively, and several gasps emerged amongst it.

"We're not actually going to practice it, are we?" asked Dean.

"No," said Professor Malfoy, "but I will be giving a presentation." She flicked her wand and a small cage containing a shiny orb swam out at her from one of her cabinets. She took it into her hands and placed it onto the table before her.

"A fairy - " she said, referring to the glowing light that came from the confinement of the cage.

"This Spell is quite powerful for it requires a lot of energy, so there are not many wizards, even grown, that know how to perform it. Watch carefully, for I will not repeat this Spell."

Everyone sat up at the edge of their chairs.

"Drai - Drai - " she gasped. "Drainons!"

A sudden bright flash of light took everyone aback as they watched it flicker and dim out as quickly as it had appeared. The fairy that had been in the cage was no longer glowing, but, from what they could see, lay motionless at the floor of it.

The class, including Harry, was staring disbelievingly at the fairy, only to turn their heads to Hermione, who spoke, "Professor Malfoy? Is something wrong?"

Harry's eyes fell onto Narcissa and saw that she had dropped her wand and weakened in her legs. She was grasping her chest as if in pain and taking very deep breaths. She barely walked over to her desk and leaned against it with her hand.

"Are you all right, Professor?" Hermione asked, now getting up along with Harry and some other students that looked quite stricken at what was happening to Narcissa.

"Yes - yes - I'm fine," she said. "Perhaps - perhaps it would be best if - if I released you early today."

"What - ?" said Harry.

"Yes. You - you should go. This class - this class is over for today. There - there will be no homework."

She was still breathing very deeply and clutching the desk. Harry exchanged a nervous look with Hermione and saw that she looked extremely anxious. They exited quietly and waited until the last of them had left the classroom when Harry asked Hermione, "Do you think we should go and see if she's all right."

"I dunno," said Hermione. "Maybe we should..."

They peered inside the classroom and saw Narcissa now sitting at her desk, but still in the same state of either shock or fear or...Harry couldn't really figure out what her expression truly was, but she didn't look too good from where he was standing.

Harry looked at Hermione and saw her bite her lip, meet his glance, and shake her head. "I think it's best we not interfere," she said and left the class. Harry took one last look at Professor Malfoy, frowned, and then followed Hermione out the door.

He watched as she headed for Gryffindor tower. Harry, however, spun around and took the path to the Headmaster's office.

As he reached the stone gargoyle, he hoped that he would be lucky enough to find Dumbledore entering or exiting, but, after waiting for several moments, he realized that this was not so.

He rambled his thoughts for a password and began to say random words that popped into his mind.

"Coralgraze," he said. "No - um, well, then, sea turtles."

The gargoyle didn't budge.

"Aguapaths?" said Harry.

"Order of the Phoenix? No, no, that's too obvious."

"Last War?"

"Prophecy?"

"Maneosioan?"

The gargoyle leapt aside.

"Doesn't keep many secrets, Dumbledore, does he?" Harry said to himself. Harry walked up the stone steps and came to the great wooden door that barred the way to his office. He took a deep breath and knocked with the griffin-shaped knocker.

"Come in," came Dumbledore's voice.

Harry glanced inside. One look at Dumbledore seated behind his desk made Harry be the one to avoid his eyes this time. He felt ashamed to simply be in his presence after what Snape had told him, but he had only come up to his office to tell him about Narcissa, after all.

"Er, sir," said Harry, starring at the floor. "I - I was just in Defense Against the Dark Arts and - and Professor Malfoy, she - she was performing the Draining Spell for us and she - something

happened. I don't think she's feeling too well. I - I just wanted to let you know."

From the little of what Harry allowed himself to see of Dumbledore he

had nodded and spoke, "Thank you, Harry. That is important for me to know. I will see to it that Professor Malfoy is consulted about this."

He picked up a small golden bell at the corner of his desk and rang it once. Harry watched in amazement as there suddenly came a sharp crack trough the air and Dobby the house-elf appeared at the Headmaster's side.

"You rang, sir?" he squeaked.

"Dobby, would you please visit Professor Malfoy in her office and attend to her; she may need something to drink, or perhaps some food. She hasn't been eating properly, I'm afraid, and she hasn't gotten much sleep, either. If she is still not feeling well, please advise Professor Snape to brew the Drought of Peace for her again. I will be down to see her in a moment."

"Yes, sir," said Dobby and disappeared once again.

Dumbledore looked at Harry as if there had been no distraction and Harry cast his eyes down again. "Is there anything else that you would like to tell me?"

Harry hesitated, firstly, but then blurted out, "Yes."

He looked up at Dumbledore and saw that he had raised his snowy eyebrows.

"Sir, I - I had another - another dream," said Harry.

Dumbledore sat up and said, "Go on," sounding more interested than amused.

"I - I was Voldemort again. Only - only this time, I think that he realized that I could see everything he could, and I actually saw his reaction to it. He - he was plotting to go after Hogwarts in the future but he said that he was weak at the moment. He - he said that they were waiting for something to be complete. He also said that someone had weakened him and that she would pay. He was saying something about the veil, as well; that it didn't provide the right information about

something. And - and then I noticed that there was another Death Eater there. I couldn't tell who he was, but I know that he - Voldemort - knew. He was talking about stopping him from doing something. Sir, what does it mean?"

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment and then spoke, "From what I can tell, Harry, I believe that Voldemort was too weak at the moment to block you from his mind. Therefore, Harry, I hope that I can trust you to pay closer attention to some Occlumency before you go to sleep each night. I am more than sure that it would be in his plan to attack the school, eventually. There is no denying it. It has long been a target for Voldemort. I believe that it would be unwise to take up any direct actions until we receive further news of this attack; we would be setting up our own weaknesses for him and his army. In the mean time, Harry - stick to what I just told you. It is important that you strengthen your mind. I must go speak to Professor Malfoy. You don't mind, do you, Harry?"

"But - but sir?"

"I thought so. Thank you for informing me, Harry," he said, getting up. "I trust that you are studying hard. How are your Advanced courses doing? I hope you are having no trouble Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Harry was about to say something, but then closed his mouth and shook his head at him.

"There now. That's good to hear. I hope to see you keep your grades up in Transfiguration as well as Potions. I heard that you desire to be an auror, is that so?"

At those words, Harry froze and found a pang of guilt in his chest. He nodded shyly and left the room, whispering, "Good day, sir," to Dumbledore, who watched him leave with curiosity.

Harry made his way down the stairs and felt an awful ache all throughout his body. How could Dumbldore talk so freely with him about his future when he was about to die for it? He wished that he had never gone up to his office in the first place, but he was glad that Dumbledore was going to speak to Narcissa - he felt as if she was someone who could use some of his advice. No matter what she was going through, Harry knew that Dumbledore would be able to help her.

He nodded to himself and went up to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Hermione sitting by the windowsill and gazing out into the horizon.

"What is it?" he asked her.

She turned her head to Harry and said, "Oh, it's you, Harry. You scared me there, for a bit. Oh, it's nothing, really. I'm just watching the sky."

"Okay," said Harry, who had come up to her and put his arms around her shoulders, "that's fun."

She laughed and shook her head.

"Are you waiting for an owl from someone?" he asked her.

She gave him a quizzical look and then said, "Harry, does there always have to be purpose for doing something? I just felt like staring at the sky. Is that such a bad thing?"

"I guess not," said Harry. "I dunno. I'd rather fly in it than watch it."

At these words, Hermione looked rather uncomfortable and got up, wrapping her arms about her stomach and walking away from the window.

"Where were you just now?" she asked, turning her head towards him.

"I went to see Dumbledore," Harry said, taking a seat in a nearby chair.

She furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "Why?"

"I told him about what happened in Defense class, you know."

"Oh," said Hermione.

"And - and there was this dream I had - "

"Dream?!" Hermione exclaimed, looking concerned.

"Yeah. Voldemort's - Voldemort's going to go after Hogwarts," said Harry.

Hermione's jaw dropped.

"When? How?" she said, disbelievingly.

"I dunno," said Harry. "It was very confusing. But he talked about something being `complete." He got up and began to pace slowly before the fireplace.

"He must know then," said Hermione, searching around the room with her eyes.

"Know?" Harry scowled. "Know what?"

Hermione looked up at him. "About the weapon, Harry. About how to, you know, destroy you! He must know about how you mustn't surrender!"

"But I wouldn't surrender no matter what! You know that! Besides, that can't be it," said Harry.

"He said it was `almost' complete, which makes me think that it's not that. He's working on something. Whatever it is, I have no idea, but it can't be anything good, can it?"

Hermione let out a noise between a laugh and a sigh and said, "I don't even know, anymore, Harry. I thought I did, but...not anymore." Harry could see tears forming in her eyes, and wanted to pull her into a hug, but as soon as she saw that he had extended his arms out to her, she moved away.

"Oh, Harry, don't. I'm not - it's just - "

"Hermione, what is it?" said Harry, surprised by her strange behavior.

He turned her around to face him and took her arms down, which were wrapped around her, only to let his mouth plop open from seeing massive scrapes on them.

"Hermione! How did - when did - how did this happen?"

"It's nothing, Harry," she said, pulling them back to her body. Harry would have grabbed for them, but he didn't want to hurt her.

"What do you mean, `nothing?'" he exclaimed. "That's something all right! Did something happen to you? Did someone harm you?"

"No - no, it's nothing like that. I just - fell," she said, looking away.

"How bad of a fall was it?!" asked Harry. "Did you go to Madam Pomfrey?"

"Yes. It'll be just fine, Harry. It'll just take a while to heal - "

"A while to heal! That's not good enough! It should have healed already!"

"Harry, I'll be fine. Honestly, don't worry about it," said Hermione and went to sit on the couch by the fireplace.

Harry took a heavy breath and found his place next to her on the couch.

"Are you keeping something from me?" he asked, looking at her.

She turned her head towards him, her mouth agape, and said, "Of course not! Harry, how could you say that! I'd never hide anything from you - "

Harry raised his eyebrows.

Hermione sighed, " - unless I absolutely had to."

"So there is something, then," said Harry.

Hermione looked uncertain and avoided his eyes, staring into the fireplace.

"It's all right, Hermione," said Harry. "I trust you."

She looked at him and smiled meekly, her eyes shining.

"Thank you, Harry," said Hermione and leaned towards him, just as he did in return. Fragments apart, they paused and looked into each other's eyes. Their eyes closed very slowly, but just as the two of them were about to kiss, Hermione drew away slightly, whispering, "Class should be over soon. They'll be coming in."

Harry looked at her and saw that she was quite sorry. "Right," he said, nodding and slightly smiling.

Within moments, the Gryffindor common room burst with noise as the portrait hole opened and a crowd of students entered, settling themselves on the couches, tables, and others going up to their dormitories, all rapidly conversing about one thing or the other and some laughing at jokes that they had heard. Harry searched through the crowd and saw Ron emerging at the company of Seamus and Dean, which he quickly escaped and came to join Harry and Hermione on the

couches.

"What are you two doing here already?" said Ron, looking astonished. "Don't tell my you skipped class just to - "

"Heavens no!" said Hermione, looking extremely offended. She looked nervously at Harry and then said in a whisper, "Professor Malfoy wasn't feeling too well and she ended the class early."

"What!?" said Ron.

"She was performing one of the Spells and something happened," said Harry. "But she didn't seem to be hurt," he added quickly, seeing Ron's jaw drop.

"Did you do something?" he asked.

"What could we do?" asked Hermione. "Well, Harry did go and tell Dumbledore, but I'm not sure how much that might help. I mean, Dumbledore's not in his right state either."

"What d'you mean?" Harry said sharply.

"Harry, Dumbledore's death has just been predicted. How would you feel if you knew that you were about to die any day? And he is quite old. I mean, yes, he is Dumbledore, but no one lives forever..."

Harry nodded, looking down at the floor.

"So what else is new?" asked Ron, seriously.

Harry looked up at the two of them and felt his stomach clench. He still hadn't told them about the steps to the fulfillment of the prophecy, but realized that there weren't many people whom he could trust with this information, and he had to get it off his chest somehow before it began to eat him from inside out.

"I - er - " he began, looking at the two of them, "I didn't have to serve my detention yesterday."

"How come?" asked Ron, taken aback. Hermione looked startled.

"It was Snape," said Harry. "He - he had to tell me something - something about...the prophecy."

"He knows about it, then?" Hermione said, shocked.

"Well, he's bound to, wasn't he?" said Harry. "He was a Death Eater, after all."

Hermione looked as if she had been considering it for a while and then shook her head.

Harry took a deep breath and began to explain everything that Snape had told him in his office in a low whisper so that even the few students that were left out in the common room wouldn't be able to overhear.

As he finished, Hermione had a hand over her month and tears glistening in her eyes and Ron just sat there, mouth agape, and stared disbelievingly at Harry.

"But I don't understand," Hermione said finally, removing her hand. "If that's true then that means that the prophecy cannot be fulfilled unless Dumbledore is killed," she said.

"And Scabbers - I mean, Pettigrew,"added Ron.

"No - that I understand," said Hermione, "but why would Voldemort have sent those dementors to the lighthouse if he knew that Dumbledore's death would only lead to his defeat?"

"I don't know," said Harry, thoughtfully. "Maybe he doesn't know about the pattern."

Hermione snorted. "Harry, if Snape can figure it out, I'm sure that Voldemort knows."

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm sure that Snape is a spy for the Order, which means that he didn't stumble on this information by accident. He found it out. From Voldemort."

"Yeah, but -" said Harry, " - I just don't think - how would he know if - ?"

"I don't know, Harry," said Hermione, "but I do know this: if Voldemort it planning to attack Hogwarts - "

"Attack Hogwarts? When?" Ron interrupted, but Hermione ignored him.

" - hush, Ron - then that means that you must really watch yourself. I know that Dumbledore is probably extremely busy at the moment, so we must really work on the D.A. If worst comes to worst, we have to know how to deal with it. You have to be prepared, Harry!"

Harry nodded, but then said, "But how am I supposed to even think of defeating him when our wands perform Priori Incantatem?"

"I don't know," said Hermione. "I really don't have the answer to that one, Harry. But we have to try our best and be prepared for the worst because, truth be told, no one can say just how bad it's going to be..."

Harry had been going back to Snape's dungeon every night that week to perform the rest of his detentions, which were as unpleasant as they seemed. Snape had him dusting the different flasks of ingredients in his office by hand and scrubbing out cauldrons, which was a really pointless task considering the fact that it could be easily done by magic, but Harry did so all the same, and warned him that he would be expelled within moments if he found the slightest bit of ingredients missing. Harry thought that this was a very high advantage that Snape had over him considering the fact that it would be very easy to misplace one of the contained substances and have Snape blame it on him, so he decided to work through it as quickly as possible, trying not to look at the Potions Master, who would occasionally turn his large nose toward his direction to make sure that he wasn't stealing anything.

The week passed and Harry saw no more of Professor Malfoy for a while for she was told to have taken a break from teaching for the next several days. The plus side of this was that he would now have extra time to complete his rather heavy amount of homework, but he had to admit that he did miss Narcissa. She was quite a good teacher, he had to admit and, despite the fact that she sometimes reminded him of Lucius and Draco Malfoy, he tried to ignore the thought and concentrate on the lesson. For all the suspicion that he had towards her at the beginning of the year, he now felt quite different about her and decided that she might not be a spy or someone that would support Voldemort after all. Unfortunately, Sirius' words kept coming back to him and he remembered how he had said that he wasn't proud of having neither her nor Bellatrix as his cousins. At these times Harry's heart would fill with hate, but he somehow couldn't imagine

Narcissa betraying Sirius and himself after all that she had taught them that year.

As Dumbledore had suggested, Harry would try to clear his mind of all thought before going to bed, but, as usual, it wasn't as easy as it sounded. The threatening dream that Harry had had several nights ago kept haunting him and he couldn't seem to rid his mind of the three steps. Flashing pictures of the sacrifices before Voldemort's rise back to power kept coming back to him and he couldn't help but see Sirius fall as Pettigrew muttered several words and a green light

hit him hard in the chest as he fell stone dead on the ground. He kept imagining Wormtail tying Dumbldore up to a phoenix-shaped tombstone and then seeing a bright flash of light as Pettigrew would try to escape it and beg for mercy.

Harry knew that Wormtail had to die; he deserved it. Harry shouldn't have saved his life in the first place, but that would have made things very different. The adventures and life-or-death situations that Harry had experienced through the past five years roamed in his thoughts and he made sure to remind himself why all of this had occurred - to fit the path of the prophecy. But Harry didn't know if the prophecy was worth it anymore. Of course, anything was worth the final defeat of this peril that would do who knows what if Harry didn't stop it, but it seemed as if too much suffering and loss had to come before any such task could be accomplished.

He had kept contact with Cilia and would occasionally speak with her over the Two-Way mirror, but conversing with her only reminded him how much he missed his grandmother, so he decided to avoid it rather than call to her at every possible chance.

Dumbledore was no where to be seen often, either. Harry suspected that he might have began to avoid him again because of the fact that Voldemort might have had the weakness to be a part of Harry's mind. His fear of what was to come of his death had now increased and Harry would occasionally keep a sharp eye out in case he heard anything unusual because he simply did not know what to expect.

What with all of his studying, which proved to be as annoying as school could possibly get, Harry still managed to find time to enable the D.A. meetings, with the help of Ron and Hermione, who would often volunteer to lead some of the lessons in rather simple spells.

After much afterthought and consideration, Harry finally decided to make a crucial announcement to the D.A. members, no matter how much he had wanted to keep the information between himself and the only people that knew about it.

"Settle down, everyone!" he said during a very busy and excited D.A. meeting. "Quiet!" he repeated, this time much louder. He blew his whistle, but it seemed to had been deafened by all of the noise that was going on between the hundred members of the club.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Ron so that the sound finally died down.

"Er, thanks, Ron," said Harry, who wasn't in the exact mood to raise his voice himself.

Harry finally looked around at the massive amount of people gathered around the room, all clueless and staring up at him, and silently gasped for air, debating what their reactions were going to be towards what he was about to say.

"I've been thinking," began Harry, "and I've decided that it would be best if we began to prepare ourselves for what's really ahead."

"Isn't that what we've been doing all along?" said Zacharias Smith in a bold tone.

"Shut it!" said Ron through clenched teeth.

"The truth is - " Harry continued," - the truth is that Voldemort is going to come after Hogwarts."

Several people gasped; some of them looked confused, while others clasped a hand over their mouths and looked quite frightened. Others didn't seem to be very surprised but seemed to rather nod at Harry and look thoughtful.

"So what do we do about it?" Cho asked fiercely.

Before Harry could respond, Hermione said, "I'll tell you what we do about it: we listen to Harry and do exactly what he instructs us to do."

A majority of the people clapped and some even cheered as Hermione looked rather dignified with what she had just said and Cho reddened in the face, narrowing her eyes at Hermione and twitching the corners of her mouth.

Harry smiled meekly at Hermione and said, "All right then, if you all are willing, I think that the first step would be to establish an escape route from the castle in case of an emergency. I'm sure that Dumbledore already has something in mind (Harry gulped at mentioning the Headmaster's name), but it would still be a wise idea for us to remember that it is essential to be prepared no matter what."

Several members applauded.

"So, then," said Harry. "Any ideas?"

A couple of hands shot in the air, but Neville's unusual arm up to a question drew Harry's attention and he called on him.

"I remember Dumbledore mentioning that the Forbidden Forest would be an option if the castle was under attack, so if we could only find a safe way to get there, then I'm sure that would be a plus to our plans," he said.

A noise of agreement filled the room.

"The lake," said Ron. "Doesn't the plumbing lead to the lake? If we could all find a way to breathe under water, then we could get to the forest."

"Or the Chamber of Secrets," said Ginny. Everyone turned to look at her. "Well, I know that it's been pretty much destroyed, but it is a source for the plumbing."

"There's also the Whomping Willow," said Hermione. "One of the secret passageways inHogwarts leads out to it and it is right by the clearing of the forest. There is a way to make it so that the tree doesn't attack anyone who goes near it, which only a few people know of, so I suppose that would be an idea as well."

"Those are all great ideas," said Harry, "but I'm afraid that they are all faulty. Lucius Malfoy knows about the Chamber of Secrets and Peter Pettigrew knows about the Whomping Willow. And it is quite difficult to make sure that everyone gets out safe under water; there are quite a lot of obstacle such as the kappas, merpeople, and the giant squid."

"What about therstrals?" said Luna.

"Nah," said Harry. "There aren't enough."

Everyone seemed to be ranking their thoughts for a while until Mark said, "We could always ask the ghosts if they know of any ways to get out of the castle. After all, they should know the walls pretty well. They pass in and out of them, don't they?"

"I suppose...," said Harry. When no one else seem to have any more ideas that seemed to be quite as plausible as the others, he said, "Well, I guess that we will just have to wait and see. If anyone could find out more information about a way out of the castle, I wouldn't mind - "

"There might be another way," said Matt.

"Oh yeah," said Ron. "What's that?"

Matt looked at him. "Instead of trying to leave the castle, who not try to keep them out?"

"What d'you mean?" asked Harry.

"Well, if we could find a magic powerful enough to hold of You-Know-Who and his army for a while, then we would have time to grab Portkeys and escape."

"But where would we go?" asked Neville.

"Yeah," said Seamus, "if You-Know-Who could find us here at Hogwarts and destroy the school, where else is safe?"

"I think that the fact that the Ministry of Magic is currently not regulating the Portkeys, since it has been destroyed, would be an advantage to our part," said Matt. "After all, if You-Know-Who had spies there, then they would certainly know about the Portkeys. This way, it would be kept secret. Still, there would be the question of holding them off long enough to clear the school."

Harry looked rather impressed and said, "You never cease to amaze me, Matt. I have to say that I think that is the best plan so far. Any objections?"

A questionable muttering filled the Room of Requirements, but there seemed to be no uproars, with the exception of Ron's furious grumbling under his breath, after a couple of moments and so Harry continued, "So that's for the escape route. Now, I believe that it would be quite important for us to also know who our friends are as well as our foes."

Snorts echoed through the room and a lot of people looked amused at Harry.

"I know that this might sound impossible," he said, "but the only way that we might deal with this is if we looked at who is generally on our side. Noting specific, of course. The dementors, as I'm sure many of you may know, have gone over to Voldemort as well as several veelas, though not all. He has also been supported by banshees and vampires and I believe that many of the giants had gone over to him as well."

Harry could hear many worried whispers fill the meeting as he spoke.

"However," he said, "I want to let you know that the centaurs are on our side as well as the aquapaths. There are also the

arachnids that live out in the forest as well as Grawp, who is Hagrid's little brother as well as a giant himself."

Much of his audience was quite amused at hearing this information, even most of those in his year.

"With that said," said Harry, "I would also like to inform you that making yourself part of this defense group has now bound you to the duty to fight against the Death Eaters at all costs. Therefore, allowing you to know that you will be side by side with the Order of the Phoenix, a group composed of those opposing Voldemort and set up by Dumbledore. These include Remus Lupin, for those of you who know him, he was one of the best defense teachers that we ever had, Mr. and Mrs. Weasey, whom some of you might be very familiar with, Professor Snape," - an uproar filled the room - "our Potions master, the real Mad-Eye Moody, and many more."

"How can we tell who all the people are that are on our side?" asked Smith.

"That's what I'm going to find out," said Harry. "The Headquarters for this organization are also held within the castle, so I shall see if I can find out the entire list of the members. However, it is under the suspicion of the Order that there might be a spy amongst them," - worried comments came from the student body - "but we have to get the general idea, nevertheless."

Harry looked around the room and saw that the expressions of the students didn't look too happy at his speech, so far, at all. A majority of the faces that he saw within the crowd looked quite depressed, as if all hope was lost. This wasn't the idea that Harry had in mind, of course, buthe could not see any other way in which this information could be revealed as much of a positive one.

"Now, since we are going to be working on ways to protect us from Voldemort's army, I suggest that it is important that we keep practicing our defensive spells and jinxes. However, I have thought about this, and I've decided that it might be a good idea, after all, if we began to practice some of the Eternal Spells."

Several protests emerged in room.

"But it's not like they will work with us, really. I mean, it's like Professor Malfoy said, we're only kids. We can't really do that much damage.

So I suppose that it would be quite alright if we practiced such Spells like Riscrombia and Avada Kedavra."

He looked out at them again, and saw that they weren't all together reassured.

Hermione spoke, "Harry's right. We practiced these Spells in class, which means that there mustn't be anything dangerous of them for us. However, they would be useful in defense, no matter how weak we may be. There is still a bit of an effect. The important thing is that we know how to do them and we know what they look like!"

"But there's no way of stopping them, is there?" asked Matt.

Hermione sighed and, looking at Harry, said, "No, there isn't. But I have researched a bit of Hogwarts history and found that the Eternal Spells had never been taught at Hogwarts before simply because it would require extremely powerful wizards and witches to perform them. I don't think they saw a point for it, which means that it would be unlikely if many people would know how to perform them."

"So why are they teaching it now?" asked Dean.

Hermione took a breath and said, "Because of Harry. Because of the war.

Because now, they might be getting a bit more popular than they used to be and, as long as we might be familiar with a few of them, that would be a great advantage to us if anything like them were to be faced during the war."

After Hermione finished her speech, Harry had brought out several bogarts this time, and some people had decided to strengthen their skills in producing Patronuses, such as Lavender.

Practically everyone else was practicing one or the other Eternal Spell.

He looked around the room and saw as the rats that he had let loose for the Killing Curse had began to fall one by one as people would perform the spell.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Pain suddenly jabbed itself into Harry's scar and he turned away from the scene, clutching his forehead. As it ceased, he watched as one of the grey and pathetic-looking rats ran past him.

Harry felt an emotion of fury in his heart and he pointed his wand at the rat, shouting, "Avada Kedavra!"

No sooner had he done so, however, than the small jet of green light that had come from his wand missed the rat and bounced off of one of the foe-glasses. Harry watched as the light

traveled across the room and hit a boy, as he was sent crashing into a bookshelf.

A great amount of people, including Harry, ran up to the boy, who lay behind a large pile of books. Neville, Ron, and Hermione helped Harry remove them from him, only to reveal Matt Thompson laying there and, from the looks of it, seeming to be quite unconscious.

Harry's heart plummeted.

"Is he all right?" asked Parvati.

"I - I don't know," said Harry, his voice shaking.

"Move," said Luna. She had come up to Matt and leaned over him. She pressed her hand againsthis forehead and said, "He's paralyzed."

"What!?" said Harry, chocking on the word, as gasped emerged from the surrounding crowd.

"But not permanently," she said. "He'll just be like this until someone can get him a potion made of airborne jellyfish."

"What the hell? What are you talking about, Luna?" said Harry.

"Airborne jellyfish - father says it's the best cure for - "

"They don't exist, Luna!" said Hermione.

"I don't understand," said Harry, panicking, "I thought she said it was practically harmless!"

"Yes," said Hermione, slowly, "for us, Harry...Not you."

Harry felt as if his heart had just stopped. He turned his head at the students standing around them in a circle and noticed that they all revealed frightened expressions; some of them actually backed away from him.

He looked around at Matt and saw the lifeless mask that he bore on his face, though his skin still seemed to retain some color. From the boy, he looked at the others - from Ron, to Neville, to Luna, to Hermione - and realized that, for the first time, he was just as dangerous as everyone had feared him to be and that the worst that he could possibly prepare for would be facing none other than himself.

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