(A/N: I'm glad to hear that you liked the last two chapters. In the following one, we're going to meet Mark Evans again and I hope you won't mind! A big thanks goes to my wonderful BETA readers IronChefOr and SarahLupin. Enjoy the reading.)
Chapter 22. SECRET TRAININGS
...
And breathing breezes
Which spread over grounds
Without limits or borders
We push aside each other,
But then we find us closer,
And higher and further
Now we are sons of the immensity.
...
"The Hill of Cherry Trees" by Lucio Battisti
The city of London had just been swallowed by darkness and all of its inhabitants were already hurrying to return home.
A passerby was hurriedly walking along Hyde Park. When he crossed the street, his gaze stopped upon an ancient and abandoned building. Suddenly, he felt a chill going down his spine and looked behind him, afraid he was being watched.
He quickened his pace and disappeared behind the corner.
The unaware pedestrian didn't notice that inside that ancient building, someone had just followed him with his gaze... with two cold eyes... eyes red like blood... eyes that were unable to emanate feelings like compassion or love.
"My Lord!"
Voldemort turned his gaze from the broken window to his servant, who was standing with downcast eyes in the darkness of the room.
"Have you any news, Lucius?"
"Yes, my Lord. Mark Evans has been sighted in town."
Voldemort's face lit up with a chilling smile.
"Very well. Bring him to me, then!"
"As you wish, my Lord."
Lucius Malfoy bowed deeply in front of his master and then left the room.
"Soon we'll meet again, Mark..."
The Dark Lord turned again to the window, foretasting his revenge.
***O***
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had returned to Hogwarts two weeks ago and almost immediately, their classes had become more difficult than ever. Final examinations were approaching and teachers were giving lots of homework.
Even Professor Lupin, who was back again, had assigned them a difficult essay about the new subjects learned during his absence.
The first thing Harry did was go back to his parents' grave; he made it a habit to go there on a short pilgrimage almost every day. This daily appointment gave him the strength to go on with his life.
Beyond school lessons, Quidditch practices had started again on alternate evenings and to Harry's disgust, his Occlumency meetings with Snape were also each Friday night.
Despite the continuous criticism from his teacher, Harry was trying his best to close his mind and react to his mental attacks. Unfortunately, these Occlumency lessons always caused him terrible headaches, which often made him feel really bad.
Ron had finally admitted to Ginny and Hermione that he was going out with Luna and he was now trying to spend as much free time as possible with his girlfriend. They were always studying together, taking long walks in the gardens alone, and during weekends, they saw each other after Quidditch practices.
Because of this, Harry now had the opportunity to spend much more time with Hermione. In addition, they had now started secretly training in Defense the Dark Arts.
At least twice a week, they climbed up to the seventh floor, walked back and forth three times, concentrating on a suitable place for their training; suddenly a door appeared in front of them, leading to the Room of Requirement.
As in the previous year, the room was perfectly equipped. The shelves were completely full of books about useful subjects like Charms, Fighting, Healing Techniques, and Potions. There were even several strange crystal instruments filled with colored liquids, puffing and crackling constantly.
According to Hermione, there were also many books that were usually kept in the restricted section of Hogwarts' library.
The room was also furnished with a large and soft rubber mat for practical trainings.
It was a cold Tuesday at the end of January and the two of them had just entered the room. Hermione immediately went over to the book shelves, where she took down a huge and ancient book.
"Today we can start with something more... stimulating!" she said, heading to the center of the room with the big book in her arms and sitting with her legs crossed on the soft carpet.
Harry followed and sat in front of her, staring at the book with curiosity.
"This is the Seer Handbook: A Practical Starter's Guide. In my opinion, it's one of the best. I already read it during Christmas holidays," Hermione said in a confident tone, while skimming through its large pages.
"If you say so!" said Harry, sighing deeply.
"Here we are, listen to me carefully. 'In the known world we mainly find two different types of Seers. The first type is called INACTIVE, and includes all those Seers who manifest the Sight only in particular occasions, and always during a trance state.'"
"This is Professor Trelawney's type!" Harry added, cutting her off, but Hermione went on without commenting.
"'The second type is called ACTIVE, and includes all those Seers who manifest the sight more frequently, during their dreams, but also during their waking hours in the form of visions.'"
"And this is me!" Harry cut her off again; this time Hermione frowned at him before going on.
"'Also, Active Seers possess many other powers which manifest themselves spontaneously reaching maturity. Among those powers are the ability to foresee the future, the ability to do magic without a wand, reading others' minds, mastering the universal elements, telepathy, overcoming time and space, the power to...'"
"Hey, wait a minute! You're saying that I could be able to do all those things?" asked Harry, shocked.
"I'm not saying anything, it's just written in the book! If you don't believe me, why don't you read it by yourself!" answered Hermione, deeply annoyed, while setting the open book in Harry's lap.
"Well, after all, it isn't so bad. Anyway, it says here that if the Seer doesn't exercise his powers, they could disappear forever..."
"That's why we have no time to lose!" replied Hermione seriously, taking the book in her hands and skimming through it again.
"Now, let's try with something simple... 'How to foresee the day after's menu...' 'Thousand different ways to evoke fire...' 'How to communicate with your cat.'" Hermione was carefully reading all the titles.
"Here it is! 'Visualization for Beginners...' We can start with this one."
Harry was listening to her with deep attention.
"First of all, you should sit comfortably. Then, close your eyes and concentrate deeply on someone... let's try with Ron, for example. Now, visualize Ron in your mind and try to feel how he's feeling right now."
Harry followed Hermione's instructions. He closed his eyes and imagined his best friend's face. A few minutes passed by but nothing happened and he was starting to feel like a real idiot. Then suddenly, a whirlwind of images rushed in front of his eyes.
When everything became quiet again, Harry looked around and found himself completely surrounded by darkness. Then, a wand lit up and he jumped in surprise when he saw Luna Lovegood's face very close to his. In that moment, he felt his heart beating faster and faster, full of emotion and his cheeks became incandescent. He realized that Luna was slowly getting closer to him, her eyes half open. Harry was nearly brushing her lips, when abruptly, he came back to his senses, deeply shocked. He opened his eyes and found himself again in the Room of Requirement with Hermione at his side.
"Harry? Are you all right?"
He was pale in the face and was panting heavily; he felt very weak and sick.
"Were you able to feel Ron's feelings?" she asked curiously.
"Yes... I think so!" Harry replied, still confused.
"He and Luna were so close and then... oh, NO! It was disgusting!" Harry made a funny grimace and Hermione burst into laughter.
"I can imagine what they were doing! I think that sometimes it could be dangerous entering someone else's mind, because you'd never know what you might find in there." Hermione used the tone of someone who knew a lot about the subject.
Then she read again from the book and suddenly became very serious.
"Here, it says that inexperienced Seers could find some problems in the beginning."
"What kind of problems?" asked Harry worriedly.
"'The more difficult the foreseeing exercise is, the more the Seer will be weakened by the effort to accomplish it. Only with constant practice will the Seer be able to master his powers and use them wisely.' You should be really careful, Harry!"
***O***
February had just arrived, bringing with it even more cold and bad weather. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the warmth of their common room, surrounded by several other students, busy with homework, while outside a snowstorm was raging.
The three friends were writing a difficult essay about disapparating cats; Harry raised his head for a moment, massaging his forehead while rereading the last sentence he had just written. Absentmindedly, he turned to Hermione who was sitting by his side, busy writing her essay; Harry thought that she was the most beautiful creature in the universe.
He really wanted to open his heart to her, but he believed it would be an impossible task for him to accomplish. How could he tell his best friend that he was in love with her? Maybe she'd laugh at him or worse, she'd get really angry and decide not to talk to him anymore. This terrible thought was now torturing him continually.
The evening flew by quickly and soon it was midnight; all of the other students had already gone to their dormitories, leaving the three friends alone in the common room.
"That's it! I'm finished! Now I don't want to hear about cats as long as I live!" said Ron with determination, rolling up his Transfiguration parchment and throwing it brutally into his school bag.
"Never say never, Ron!" Hermione warned him from the sofa, where she had moved an hour ago after having finished her long essay.
Harry had just finished his homework at that moment, which had left him with a really bad headache. He put his parchment into his bag and went over to Hermione on the sofa.
"I'm dead! This week has been tough for me! Between lessons, homework, practices, and Occlumency, I should have split myself into four people to even have the slightest chance of making it!"
"Don't complain, Harry. There's always someone with a lot more problems than ours. Take Neville! When Professor McGonagall assigned him two more essays for Wednesday, he nearly burst into tears!"
"Poor guy. Maybe he should find a girlfriend, to comfort him!" said Ron, while taking a seat close to them.
"Someone like Ginny, for example?" asked Hermione maliciously, and Ron brought a hand to his heart, horrified.
"Please Hermione, tell me that Ginny isn't going out with Neville! I'm starting to get a heartache..."
"NO, you can calm down. I don't think that they've already reached that point!" replied Hermione, laughing.
"What do you mean? At what point are they? Besides, I thought that she was going out with Dean!" Ron was deeply confused.
"Yes, she was going out with Dean, but shortly before Christmas they split up and now Neville is doing his best to comfort her. I don't understand why you'd be against their relationship!"
"Hermione, you don't understand! It'd be a tragedy, a real suicide, a real..."
"LOOK AT THAT!"
Harry cut them off abruptly, pointing at the crackling fire.
"I just saw..." Harry was nearly going to say "I just saw Sirius" but then he realized that it was impossible.
Then, suddenly, a man's head appeared among the flames.
"MARK EVANS!" They exclaimed in unison, moving closer to the fireplace.
"Hello guys, I hope I didn't scare you!" Mark Evans quietly spoke, showing his usual large smile.
"No, don't worry... we're accustomed to that! How come you're... here?" asked Harry, deeply astonished.
"Just for you, Harry. Remus told me that you'd overheard my discussion with Hagrid."
Harry lowered his gaze, hoping that Mark wouldn't explore the subject, as on that occasion, he had found himself at Hagrid's hut at a forbidden time and hidden under his invisibility cloak.
"I don't care about how you managed to hear, the most important thing is that now you know the truth about your past."
Harry raised his head and stared directly in Mark's eyes, wishing to learn more.
"What're you here for?"
"I need to talk to you... personally! Could we meet during your next Hogsmeade weekend?"
The three friends stared at each other puzzled, and Ron spoke first.
"But it'll be on Valentine's Day!"
"Well, maybe it isn't a good day for you to meet me... maybe you already have other things going on."
"Not at all! It's fine for me on Valentine's Day," replied Harry, determined.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am!"
"Then we'll meet on the morning of February 14th, right in front of the Hog's Head, but please... don't tell anyone about this. Goodbye!" Harry nodded before Mark's face disappeared inside the dancing flames, with a resounding POP.
"I really don't think it's a good idea to meet Mark Evans," said Hermione worriedly, while sitting on the sofa.
"If he's got something important to tell me, I'm going to listen to him. Everybody here has always hidden the truth about my past and now Mark wants to reveal everything."
"Don't you understand yet that Dumbledore has always tried to protect you?" Hermione seemed exasperated by Harry's behavior.
"I'm tired of always being protected by someone else! I want to protect myself now! Do you think I'm asking the impossible?" Harry was starting to lose his temper.
"Calm down mates, there's no need to fight!" Ron was trying to calm the situation, but Hermione spoke again, raising her voice.
"If you've decided to meet him, then I'm coming with you!"
"That's fine with me!" said Harry stubbornly, folding his arms and staring intensely into her eyes.
Then Hermione stood up abruptly.
"I'm going to bed!" she said angrily, before rushing upstairs to her dormitory.
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