Chapter 13
The day after Gryffindor's brilliant 230-0 win over Ravenclaw, Harry awoke to see a fuming Ron standing by the window, obviously angered by what he saw outside. Harry looked out next to Ron and rolled his eye's as he saw Ginny and Dean playing football out on the grounds, and laughed when he saw Hagrid playing the position of goalkeeper.
Harry winced though, when Dean leaned in and softly kissed Ginny on the lips. "Oh that's it," Ron said, moving towards the door. "I'll show him.."
He was almost to the door when he turned around to see Harry laughing.
"What?" Ron demanded loudly.
"Oh come on Ron," Harry replied, giggling. "You don't get angry when me and Hermione kiss."
"Well Hermione isn't-"
"Your sister, I know." Harry said, clutching his sides. "Come on mate, Ginny's 15, let her do what she wants."
Ron opened his mouth in protest but Harry cut him off.
"Come on, let's go get breakfast." Ron muttered something unintelligible under his breath and then followed Harry to the Great Hall.
The two ate without speaking for a while, Hermione nowhere to be seen. "I'm going to go visit Cho." Harry
announced suddenly. Ron gave him a surprised look, but Harry ignored it and walked off to the hospital wing.
Harry had to convince Madam Pomfrey, but finally she let him by. He found Cho at the end of the room, there was an older man and woman sitting there, presumably Cho's parents, but Harry walked up to her nevertheless.
"Erm, hi there Cho." Cho looked at him for a moment and then to his surprise she smiled.
"Hi there Harry." She rolled her eyes at her parents, whom obviously had never seen a celebrity before, and Harry had to suppress a laugh.
"Look Cho, I just wanted to come and say I'm sorry. I-"
"Oh don't say that Harry," she said grinning. "I know you didn't want to hurt me. I'm just not a brilliant flier like you are." Harry grinned back.
"No, I guess you aren't." Cho feigned like she was hurt by those words, and playfully punched Harry in the arm.
"Maybe you could teach me that Wronski Feint sometime eh?" Cho asked him hopefully.
"Yeah sure," Harry returned grinning. This exchange was going much better than he had expected. "Well, see you then." Harry said turning to leave.
"Hold on, Harry?" Cho said pleadingly. "Do you think it would be okay if me and Marietta, i mean, you know, do you think, we could uh, come back to the DA?"
Harry grinned at her. "Of course, just don't let Marietta tell anybody." They both laughed at this and Harry said good-bye to both of Cho's parents and Cho, and walked out into the hall, where Hermione was waiting for him, beaming.
"Harry," she squeaked, hugging him. "That was such a nice thing to do." She took his hand and they sped off towards Hagrid's for their next class.
Hagrid's NEWT class thus far had been very interesting, as they were learning all about Grawp. Grawp was loads better now, and apparently when Dumbledore had come into the forest the year before to save Umbridge, he had also smoothed things over with the centaurs, whom were being perfectly friendly again.
After an hour of Grawp telling them all about the mountains in which he used to live (he spoke almost fluent English now) they headed back to the castle for lunch. Harry told Ron all about his conversation with Cho, and Hermione hit Seamus in the face with roll after he joked that Hermione had competition now.
When Neville and Harry showed up for their occlumency a few weeks later, they were astonished to see a sneering Snape there waiting for them with Dumbledore.
"Today," Dumbledore said powerfully. "We will begin double attacks on the mind. Professor Snape and myself will both be attacking your minds at random, to see how well you can react under stress. Let us begin."
This lesson was harder than any other that Harry had experienced, but he was able to fend them both off for quite some time.
Neville, however, was not so lucky. Harry had to pull him off the floor many times before Dumbledore said they could leave for the night.
"That was terrible." said a trembling Neville, he was so weak from the attacks that he could hardly stand. "Snape was so...relentless. I couldn't stop him."
"It's alright mate," Harry told him smiling as they entered the Gryffindor common room. "You did much better against him than I did my first time."
Neville gave him a weak smile and headed off for bed. Harry however, stayed downstairs and told Ron and Hermione all about the lesson.
"Wow, Harry, you must be really good, to fend them both off like that." said an impressed Hermione.
"Yeah," Harry replied, taking a nervous look upstairs. "I just hope Neville's alright."
A few days later Harry was beaming around at all of the DA members, now including Cho and Marietta, as they had mastered all of the spells he had given them, excluding maybe Mark, but he was coming very close.
As they were practicing multiple spells, Neville came up to Harry just as Harry had been successfully disarmed by Mark, and Harry knew immediately that something was wrong.
"Neville, what-" But Harry never finished his sentence as Neville's eyes blazed and he raised his wand and bellowed, "CRUCIO!"
Harry's scar immediately erupted in pain, as did his body, but it all stopped suddenly. Harry got up quickly to survey Neville, whom had just been hit square by nearly 30 stunner blasts.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Mark immediately bent over Neville, they were the only one's who knew what had truly happened. Neville was in a bad state. Not many people could survive 30 stunner blasts simultaneously.
"We have to get him to Madam Pomfrey." Harry announced, and without thinking, knowing that they could never carry him there in time, Harry made Hermione, Ron, and Mark hold on to him as he grasped Neville and hoped feverishly that it would work.
CRACK!
They were in the hospital wing, and Madam Pomfrey got over the shock of seeing Harry do something that was supposed to be impossible and immediately grabbed Neville.
"What happened?" she asked, getting Neville into bed.
"30 stunners," Harry gasped. "All at once." Madam Comfrey's eyes widened with shock, but she nodded and immediately started tending to Neville.
With another CRACK! the four of them were in Dumbledore's office, staring at a surprised Dumbledore. "It's happened," Harry gasped again. "Voldemort's possessed Neville."
A/N:
Sorry, I have stuff to do today, so this'll be the only update, except maybe one late tonight.
Sora