A/N:
Ugh…I don't know what possessed me when I wrote this to use some variation of the word *grin* about once each paragraph. It's actually kind of funny, because that's one of the things I'm great at doing now, avoiding the reuse of the same word twice. Anyways, here's the next chapter!
R/R
Chapter 20
The crowd ood and awed in anticipation.. They had heard stories about Harry, but only a select few had actually seen him battle. Harry grinned and walked out to the dueling area, pulling out his wand. Hermione grinned at him and he wished her luck-she knew that she would need it.
The second that the battle started Harry was on the move. He immediately silenced Hermione, put her in a leg locker curse, and disarmed her in what seemed like one smooth motion.
The crowd stared at him in awe.
Harry grinned and turned to Dumbledore. They had been working on more than just occlumency lately.
Harry muttered the counter curses and Hermione grinned curiously at him, she knew he was good, but had no idea how much he had actually improved over the year.
Hermione tried an impediment jinx but Harry was to quick and her spell only bounced off of his shield charm. This time Harry put her in a full body bind, people looked on in awe as the spell had gone right through Hermione's shield, and then lifted her up in the air with wingardium leviosa and let her float harmlessly back to the ground.
Once again Harry murmured the counter curse and grinned at Hermione. She tried a stunning spell next, but Harry twisted and let the spell hit his non-wand arm, making it numb, and then knocked Hermione's wand away with a well placed expelliarmus.
A thought occurred to Harry just then.
Wouldn't it be funny to make Hermione dance around the entire hall, doing whatever Harry demanded?
Harry grinned and bellowed, "Imper-" but stopped himself just in time and keeled over in pain as his scar exploded.
Hermione, realizing instantly what had happened, ran to Harry and started to try and comfort him. Harry was only dimly aware of a concerned McGonogall ushering all of the confused students out of the hall, none realizing quite what happened.
But Harry knew. He'd let his guard down again, and Voldemort had nearly made him do something terrible to Hermione.
When he looked up again he saw that there were now only a few people left in the Great Hall. A scared Ron, crying Hermione, flabbergasted Mark, concerned Neville, and, to his surprise, a smiling Dumbledore.
"Very good Harry," Dumbledore said nodding. "He tried it again, but you fended him off. A lesser wizard would have crumbled under the pressure."
"But still," Harry panted, giving an apologetic look at Hermione. "I still let my guard down. I got caught up in the excitement of dueling. If I hadn't caught it, I, I," he trailed off, dreading his next words. "I could have killed her."
Hermione gasped, but looked otherwise unsurprised.
"But you did not Harry," Dumbledore convincingly replied. "You resisted him, now for the second time in a year. I daresay I do not believe he will waste his time trying it again."
Harry didn't believe what he had said. Voldemort would never give up on possessing him would he?
"I know what you are thinking Harry, and I must tell you that you are wrong. Voldemort is smart enough to realize that he cannot use you any longer." His voice dropped, and he looked at all of them in turn. "But he will try to use your friends."
He let this sink in, all the surrounding students wore expressions of fear. "But alas, I do not believe that he will try to posses any of them, as they know that he can and will be able to stop him, just as you did Harry. No I daresay he will be trying to draw your closest friends out of the school now, stopping at no means. I will be writing to all of your families tonight, and they will leave to take refuge at Grimmauld Place where Voldemort cannot touch them."
With that he turned and left, the rest of them following suit. Hermione was grasping Harry's hand to support him, but he was dimly aware of it. All of his friends and their families were in danger because they were in league with Harry, but Harry could not abandon them now, he got them in the mess, and he would get them out.
The next morning the Great Hall was full of speculation on what had happened the previous night. No one came and asked questions, but there were many stares and whispers directed at Harry and Hermione.
"What's wrong Potter?" Came the voice of Draco Malfoy. "Your mudblood girlfriend beat you up last night?"
"Not half as bad as we beat you father last summer Malfoy." Harry retorted. Draco stalked off, his face beat red. He had been walking around the school like he owned the place ever since his father had escaped from Azkaban.
Harry saw Marcus Owen give him a slight grin from the Slytherin table, and Harry returned it. It was nice to know that not all the Slytherins were bad.
It was a very subdued DA meeting that night, no one quite sure what to say. Harry grinned at Marcus Owen when he came in, as Harry had invited him to join the DA after the tournament.
"Today we are going to learn the anti-apparation jinx." The DA members looked around questionably, not sure what help this would be.
"If you are ever in a duel with a death eater you can use this jinx to make sure they cannot apparate, and therefore not escape a losing battle." The DA looked around nervously again.
"This is not to be used lightly, as you obviously do not want to trap a death eater who is superior to you. Understand?" The DA nodded their heads and got to work.