Unofficial Portkey Archive

"Is it about done yet?" Seamus Finnigan demanded of Hermione as she balanced a thick book in one hand whist sending tiny puffs of hot dry air into the cauldron in front of her. They were making a special dust that would seek out jinxed surfaces, cover them in a bright colorful powder and work to nullify the spell.

"It'll be done when it's done Seamus," Harry said crossly as he contorted himself with effort as he attempted to measure out the precise amount of ingredients necessary.

"Seamus get back and be quiet, this is the most delicate part of the procedure," Hermione snapped at him.

Ron pulled Seamus back somewhat puzzled at why he was being so pestering. "Comon mate, give'm some space. I think those ingredients cost Harry quite a bit and if they mess up now they'll have to start over again."

"I didn't mean, it's just that you know Hannah? She nearly got her hand blown off yesterday," he said sadly. Ron didn't know that Seamus had a girlfriend, but he sympathized with his sentiment.

"Harry conjure up a porcelain tub, hurry," Hermione instructed. Harry flicked his wand and the large white basin appeared. Harry hurriedly dug a pouch out of his robes and stuck his fingers in. Ron thought he heard a whimper from him as he sifted whatever the material was into the cauldron. As soon as he finished Hermione hit it with other blast of superheated air so dense that Ron could see it by the distortions it made.

"We need to knock it out now," Hermione said as she flicked her wand. The cauldron levitated away from the flame and hovered over the tub. Harry had conjured a large hammer that he then used to beat the bottom and sides of the cauldron. Large chunks of dry caked pinkish powder fell out into the basin.

"Alright Hermione, do we need anything special to pulverize this with?" Harry asked.

"I think so, let me check the book," Hermione said as she flipped pages. "Yes, conjure up two porcelain crowbars with bell ends."

"Any idea what she's talking about?" Seamus asked Ron as Harry began conjuring.

"Don't look at me, I never managed to figure this one out," Ron said as his two best friends as they began pounding the blocky mass. Before long he could see sweat standing out on their brows as they struck the contents of the basin in perfect rhythm. After about ten minutes of this they stopped and banished the crowbars.

"Harry you're a mess and just what did you do to your hand?" Hermione asked.

"I had to measure the crushed rune stone properly, couldn't use a dragon glove, it nullifies the dust," Harry said as he grabbed his wand with his left hand. Three of his right hand's fingers were swelling and breaking horribly.

"I'll finish this, you start healing yourself," Hermione instructed.

Harry sat down on the sofa and began bathing his fingers in a soft blue light that emanated from the tip of his wand. Ron could see some immediate success, or at least the injury stopped getting worse. Meanwhile Hermione was conjuring up a large quantity of what appeared to be incense lamps that were beautifully embossed with gold trimmings. Next she conjured a scoop and carefully put a measure into each of the lamps.

"Finally, that should do it," Hermione said wearily as she shuffled over to where Harry was sitting and slumped next to him. She took her wand out and pointed it at his hand as it lay next to her on the sofa.

"Thanks Hermione," Harry said softly as a soft blue light from her wand joined with his.

Seamus looked odd for a second, he hadn't known that they could do healing spells.

"Here mate, take one," Ron said as he thrust a lamp at Seamus.

"Are you going to be ok Harry?" Hermione asked. His hand looked much better, but it was still a little red and inflamed.

"Yeah, I'll be good enough for class," he replied.

"Good, we're starting apparation today, you don't want to miss that," Hermione said.

"Hey, aren't you guys going to take a lamp?" Seamus asked as Harry and Hermione headed to the door.

"No need," Hermione grinned as she lit up her wand with pink light.

"Must be nice," he muttered as he followed the trio out the door.

Transfiguration was interesting despite being a double note taking session. Professor McGonagall started out by lecturing them on the dire consequences of taking apparation too lightly. In addition to all the legal ramifications it wasn't a good idea to splinch oneself and leave one's loose parts laying about to get stepped on or eaten by passing animals. Professor McGonagall also informed the class that they would be portkeying out of the castle to work on their apparation skills once they had mastered the theory. Harry looked forward to this since the twins had always maintained that apparating was the greatest. It was definitely one of the more useful skills for a wizard to master, even if it was difficult.

After transfiguration the trio split up as Hermione and Ron had different classes while Harry had the rest of the day off. Harry decided to go ahead and make himself comfortable in the Room of Requirement. Hermione had been so busy between classes, training, and making extra potions that she had barely even mentioned S.P.E.W. since last year. Harry knew that she was putting off something she believed in deeply because she thought that there were more important duties for her to attend to first.

Harry pulled out some parchment and a quill as he sat down at the rectangular table that the Room of Requirement had provided. Hermione might not know it, but Harry had actually been paying a lot of attention to her numerous rants on elfish welfare. Her heart was in the right place, but he methods needed some refining and after eleven years of being diplomatic around the Dursley's Harry had some idea of how to meet people half way. Of course he usually ended up meeting the Dursely's the entire way, their way, but it was worth a shot.

Hermione had always been dead set on freeing all the elves, giving them wages, and other benefits. Even Hagrid knew that this approach wouldn't work and would probably insult the elves immensely.

1. Elves shall retain the right to demand their master release their bond of service for any or no reason.

Now the elves would be able to enter into service like they wanted to, but they'd also have a legal out if they came to despise their master like Dobby did. Of course convincing the elves to use their option would be hard.

2. Elves shall retain the option to be paid whatever wages and benefits, if any, that both they and their master shall find mutually acceptable.

Not too pushy, not too weak, the elves are basically in control of their salaries if they should want them and if not then they don't have to negotiate for any.

3. Elves shall retain all protections granted to wizards under Common Law with equal status and all entitlements and privileges afforded under the Law.

Harry studied number three for a moment. Hermione had always pushed for wand usage rights and representation on councils, but this would be far more comprehensive. Elves would be full equals with wizards, entitled to patents, property, licenses, and everything else that free wizards everywhere took for granted.

Next, after finishing the three main legal goals of his pamphlet on elfish rights, Harry outlined his experience with elves based mainly on Dobby and Winky. Harry knew how much he hated reading long things so he kept it as short and generic as possible. He didn't mention Dobby or Winky by name, but he used their basic stories to draw analogies and explain why the proposed changes would help prevent that kind of abuse. Harry had been thinking on this for some time so he wrote confidently and was nearly finished when the door to the Room opened to let Hermione in.

"One second, I want you to read this and tell me what you think," Harry said as he hurriedly scribbled a last few sentences before thrusting it at her.

"Harry, what is all this?" Hermione asked solemnly as she scanned the page.

"It's just suggestions that's all, you can toss it right out if you don't like any of it. I just thought since you've been so busy I'd make some suggestions for S.P.E.W." Harry said sheepishly.

"I notice you've cut out a lot of my original goals," she said as she neared the bottom of the page.

"I was thinking that some of those might be more of a second stage sort of agenda. Start with small voluntary measures and then work our way up after everyone goes accustom to the changes," Harry said tentatively.

"I'm really shocked Harry, but you've really done a good job, I'm proud," she gushed at the end as she saw his expression start to drop when she said, "shocked."

"So you think that this might work?" he asked.

"Well it is a more moderate approach. I suppose I was a bit overeager when I drew this list up during fourth year." Hermione said slowly.

"We could post these on the house bulletin boards and pass them out to students and patrons at Hogesmeade," Harry suggested.

"I really appreciate this Harry, I didn't know you cared," Hermione said seriously.

"I care about the things that matter to you," Harry said sincerely. Hermione smiled fondly at him before shaking herself back to more pressing matters.

"All right, but enough of this for now, we've got to finish with the elemental book tonight because my conjured copy won't hold in the restricted section jinx much longer," Hermione said as she dug a big moldy tomb out from her bag. It had a picture in the middle of it's cover depicting a big white gust of air colliding with a shard of ice, a tongue of fire, a drop of water, and a dark glass like stone.

"I think I've got all the basics of the spells down. I just need to practice casting them to get their full potential," Harry said.

"I think so too, but we should give them a final go before I put the book back," Hermione said.

The couple summoned shields and practiced shooting elemental spells at each other. It was quite taxing to reflect elemental attacks since they didn't usually come at a person in a tight beam like curses or hexes. Harry winced as a rain of deadly shards impacted on his shield just as Ron came through the door.

"Watch it you two," he shouted as a shard ricocheted near him, "bloody scary is what you guys are."

"Sorry Ron, just making sure we knew how these spells worked before I return this book," Hermione explained.

"We're going now, care to join us in the library?" Harry asked.

"Might as well, I've got a ton of homework you know." Ron grumbled.

The trio walked through the corridors of the castle toward the library. Harry and Hermione had their wands out searching for jinxes though with the advent of their powder jinxing incidents had gone down dramatically.

"I've never seen you kids in the library so much before," Madam Prince said when they walked through the doors, "Well, except you of course Hermione."

Hermione flushed with embarrassment and glanced around nervously. She was still insecure about her bookish tendencies after so many years of relentless teasing by other students.

"All part of your charm," Harry whispered into her ear as they headed toward the back. Hermione blushed even deeper before ducking quickly into the restricted section.

"Ok, I put it back, no one the wiser," she whispered when she returned to the table.

"Did you get us another one?" Harry whispered back.

Hermione opened her bag enough for Harry to see some books on curses, jinxes, and a midnight black colored book on the dark arts.

"Dark arts?" he hissed.

"You need to know what you're fighting Harry," Hermione said stubbornly. Harry was surprised that Hogwarts' library even contained such books, let alone that Hermione would want to study them. She had a point though, it would be easier to defend against something they were aware of themselves.

The trio worked on their long neglected homework until curfew forced them to return to the Gryffindor common room. Harry, Hermione and Ron stayed to themselves in a dark corner of the room so they could view their illicit books in peace. Ron shivered as Harry and Hermione traced their air with their wands in their familiar spell memorizing technique. These weren't just powerful spells that they were learning, but lethal dark curses. Spells designed to eviscerate an opponent, or to punch through their defenses and bore through their exposed body, or to melt the flesh from their bones. He couldn't imagine why these spells weren't unforgivable but Hermione reasoned that it was due to the possibility of blocking these spells, unlike the killing curse.

"I can't control these spells and I don't want to," Ron said suddenly. Hermione looked around nervously before glaring at him.

"Sorry," he whispered, "but I won't be a part of this anymore. Go ahead and learn ever trick who-know-who knows."

"Ron, it's not like that," Harry whispered, "they're just spells."

"Fine, but I'm not going to study them. I'll help with anything else but not dark magic." He said emphatically as he got up and stalked off.

"He kinda has a point," Harry said guiltily.

"Magic is just a tool, its power, what matters is how you use it not what it is," Hermione said hotly. "You can abuse a shield charm to inflict harm on someone just as easily as protect yourself."

"Yeah, I suppose," Harry replied.

"Honestly Harry, fine, let's go to sleep, we can pick this up again tomorrow after we've had a nice long talk about it," she said.

Harry groaned as he changed for bed. His dream sharing with Hermione wasn't going to be as pleasant as usual if they had to debate the proper use of dark arts all night long.

There was a cool breeze blowing out over the lake as Harry walked toward the still standing figure of Hermione. He gently wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she looked up at him rather grimly as they began to slowly walk.

"I know the dark arts are considered dangerous Harry, but we really don't have any choice," she said tentatively.

"I trust your judgement on matters such as these Hermione, you know that. It's just that I don't want us to be consumed by the evil we're fighting. I've shown you what Voldemort has become as the result of his deep involvement with dark magic," Harry replied.

"There is a fundamental difference though Harry. Voldemort has sacrificed lives to accomplish his goals, his intentions are evil, his actions have shaped what he has become, not the tools he used to get there," Hermione replied.

"Why do so many wizards fear the dark arts then?" Harry asked.

"Who knows Harry, so much of what most wizards do still mystifies me to be honest. What makes them treat house elves so poorly or use people like tools whenever it suits them? I suspect that it's just the way it's always been so they continue doing it since they don't know to change." Hermione said.

"Well I understand it even less. You've read tons more about the wizard world than I have and our upbringings were equally uninformative about wizard customs." Harry said, repeating the obvious that Hermione was already aware of.

"Maybe it's not even cultural apathy, maybe wizard's would rather blame some inherently dark outside force for all that is wrong in the world rather than put the blame for people's decisions on the people who make them," Hermione continued.

"In the end I think that these sorts of attitudes do more to harm us all than even Voldemort can accomplish. Voldemort only got where he is now because of the climate that unwillingness to accept responsibility has created." Harry said thoughtfully.

"How so?" Hermione asked. Since when did Harry get philosophical? Since when did she put the ends ahead of the means for that matter?

"Voldemort is just one person, however powerful. If not for the stereotype of pureblood superiority he would have no base of followers to draw from. If not for wizard mistreatment of giants, werewolves, goblins, and many other creatures then he'd have no armies to raise from their ranks. He can offer them the rights they should have already had." Harry said.

Hermione nodded slowly before the cool outdoors suddenly morphed into the Gryffindor common room. "I don't feel like walking anymore, let's snuggle."

Harry looked at her rather incredulously. Since when did Hermione want to snuggle? Not that he had anything against snuggling he thought to himself as Hermione pressed herself against him gently.

"Sure, anything you want," he said as they sat arm in arm in front of the fire. Harry just stroked her hair softly as they rested up for the next day. All too soon their warm safe dream evaporated into a bleary eyed morning of running around checking various potions they had boiling, getting their lessons together, running to the great hall, and then running off to classes.

Charms was both easy and time consuming at the same time for Harry. On one hand he could perform every charm required of him nearly flawlessly. Even Hermione, who was usually the only over achiever in the class, was impressed. On the other hand he didn't have time to write up long essays on the theory of each spell and he wasn't particularly motivated to write about the theory of a spell he had already mastered using. As a result his grades on practical tests were carrying his essay grades which were worse than usual due to inattention.

"Have fun in potions guys," Ron said smugly as he headed off for quiddich practice.

"You need to catch up on our notes Ron, you're getting behind," Hermione shot back at him. Ron grimaced and sputtered some kind of hasty excuse before beating it on out of her presence.

"I don't think he'll ever change," Hermione said indignantly, "but he really needs to study potions. Especially if he still wants to be an auror."

"Maybe it would be better if he wasn't an auror. I don't think I'll pursue it anymore," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Oh Harry, why not, we could be aurors together," Hermione said.

"I don't think I want to take orders from the ministry. Especially not with all the decrees coming out of Fudge's office these days. I think I'd rather just go along and do whatever I think would help the most people at the time," Harry explained.

"I don't care what we do Harry so long as we can do it together," Hermione said wistfully as she gazed at him.

"Well if it isn't Precious Potter and his faithful dog the mudblood," Malfoy said as he saw the two of them round the corner.

"Malfoy, still with us I see, and how is Lucious?" Harry asked. He simply oozed politeness and civility, which seemed to enrage Draco.

"He's a lot better than you'll ever be Potter, your time is drawing to a close," Malfoy spat back.

"Well then I'll be sure to enjoy myself," Harry said noncommittally as he continued toward the door.

"Maybe I'll help you on your way," Malfoy said as he grabbed his wand. There was a flash and then a sharp bang as Malfoy's hasty spell bounced off of Harry's shining silver shield harmlessly.

"POTTER, what is the meaning of this?" Snape roared as he rushed out of his room to see what the commotion was about.

"Malfoy tried to curse us," Hermione said huffily.

"Shut up you stupid little girl," Snape growled, "you'll pay for this one Potter. Fifty points and a week's detentions."

"Sir, I didn't attack Draco at all," Harry said, bristling at Snape's tone toward Hermione but realizing that he couldn't lose his temper.

"Oh really, well then maybe we'll just see what the last spell your wand cast is to get the whole story," Snape said sarcastically.

"Of course, that's an excellent idea," Harry said with fake politeness as he held his wand out. Snape took it and muttered the incantation to bring out a shadow of the previous cast spell. His face contorted in rage as Harry's shield floated in front of his face, mocking him.

"Fine Potter, no punishment. Class, now, all of you," he hissed as he spun back into his room. Harry and Hermione walked quickly by Draco and Harry couldn't resist smirking at him as they went passed.

"Potter, Granger, opposite sides of the room," Snape said curtly as they moved to sit down. Snape slapped a paper in front of Harry. It was a perfect grade on a potion he had turned in. "I don't know how you're cheating Potter but I'm going to be watching you very closely."

Snape kept his word and watched Harry excruciatingly close for the entire double potions period. Harry had to worker harder than ever to concentrate and not snap at the evil potions master. Hermione's soothing voice chanting in his mind helped immensely.

"I thought I'd never get out of there," Harry said as they left the class afterwards.

"It could have been worse Harry, you could have had detention. Plus I'm really glad we got to do blood replenishing potions. Did you put all your excess into vials?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, they're all tucked into my hat. That was really a brilliant piece of work by the way," Harry replied as he patted his hat. Hermione had charmed them to contain a big empty space where they could store all types of things. Both of them were keeping an ever-increasing number of potions hidden away in case they needed them quickly.

Classes were getting more hectic as the professors all began to sense the oncoming winter holidays were getting near. Ron had increasing quiddich duties, Harry and Hermione continued their rigorous training, and all their classes appeared to suffer. None of them cared, not even Hermione, because they realized that the training they did in the Room of Requirement now far outstripped anything they were being asked to do as sixth years.

Snape's vendetta was getting worse as well. Harry was often given a zero for no reason on days when Snape was feeling particular malice. Harry and Hermione were always on the opposite side of the room and Draco spent most of each class mocking them. Defense Against the Dark Arts on the other hand was more enjoyable than ever, if only because the professor wasn't out to get them.

"Class, settle down, class, you all need to pay close attention today. This training is very important," Tonks said. She looked even more nervous today than usual and her clumsy factor seemed to be skyrocketing as well. Since they had come in Tonks had dropped her book twice and even the words that she magically put on the board had more errors than normal.

"I know that you've all had experience with the Imperious Curse before, in fourth year, but Professor Dumbledore feels that the time is right for a refresher. All of you need to be familiar with this curse so you can fight it should you ever find it being used against you." Tonks explained.

Tonks made them take agonizingly thorough notes on the Imperious Curse despite the fact that fake Moody from fourth year had given them a similar assignment. The only plus side that Harry could see is that much of this was review. During the second half of class Tonks began calling them up one at a time to practice resisting the curse.

"This shouldn't be difficult for us Harry now that we have a firm link," Hermione said as they watched yet another student do a funny dance as they unsuccessfully tried to resist the curse.

"I hope not, last time it was terribly difficult to resist and I was still incapacitated as far as fighting back with a wand was concerned," Harry replied.

"Hermione Granger." Tonks called. Hermione went to the front of the room and stood next to Tonks. Tonks waved her wand and called out the enchantment. Harry felt a flash in his mind, but it was off to the side, like it only indirectly affected him. He realized that this was the effect of the curse bleeding through his connection with Hermione. He focused on Hermione and realized that she hadn't even moved to obey Tonks' demand for her to dance. Tonks tried again, but Hermione just stood there unconcernedly. The curse couldn't even take hold.

"Er, uh, well done Miss Granger," Tonks stammered. Clearly she had never seen anyone resist the Imperious Curse so successfully.

When Harry's name was called Tonks watched him with apprehension as he approached. Clearly she was expecting some kind of repeat performance like the kind that had happened with Hermione since Harry was the best of his class in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Tonks cast the spell and this time the flash happened in Harry's mind. Last time Harry had been put under the curse he had been put into a kind of mental fog. This time however the flash that would have turned to fog in a weaker mind simply dispersed like the light quickly fades after a lightening bolt. He didn't even have to convince himself not to give in to Tonks demands.

"Too weak," he whispered to Tonks as he went back to his seat. Her curse hadn't even been as strong as fake Moody's. Harry suspected she didn't have the temperament required to control someone else very well.

"Nicely done Harry," Tonks said, "Ok class, you've seen two completely successful resistances now. I want everyone to continue working on the theory and I need two feet of parchment on resisting the Imperious Curse from everyone except Harry and Hermione."

Care of Magical Creatures was particularly boring of late. On this day Hagrid had some slimy lizard looking creatures with unpronounceable names and Harry, for the life of him, could not figure out how they were useful for anything. He decided that it must be a thing of Hagrid's to pull out some dangerous useless creature ever now and then just for amusement's sake.

"Comon you two quit dawdling," Hermione chastised Ron and Harry who had fallen considerably behind her.

"What's the rush Hermione, classes are over today," Ron wheedled.

"We're port keying out for apparation practice tomorrow or did you forget?" Hermione said.

"Right, right, but we've already done the homework, what more is there to do?" Ron replied.

"Well Harry and I are going to go over the advanced apparation techniques from the book I lifted out of the restricted section," Hermione replied, "I suggest you join us."

Harry gave Ron a look that said "don't get me involved." Ron rolled his eyes.

"You know I can't understand that stuff, its supposed to be for people who already know how to apparate anyway and none of us have done it even once." Ron said stubbornly.

"Seriously Ron, if you understand the theory then you should be able to do it right off. Isn't that right Harry?" Hermione argued.

"We'll see tomorrow I guess. Apparating rapidly and silently is something we need to master though. That's how Dumbledore fought against Voldemort last year." Harry said.

Ron continued to grumble but in the end he sat up with Harry and Hermione until the early hours of the morning trying to prepare for apparation. Toward the end of their study it mainly consisted of Harry and Hermione peppering him with suggestions on how to apparate properly.

"Just think Ron, you'll already be able to apparate as soon as school lets out," Harry said encouragingly.

"I spose," he replied sleepily as he crunched some toast. None of them had got much sleep but Ron wasn't as used to it as Harry and Hermione had become.

When they arrived at class they were surprised to see two people accompanying Professor McGonagall that they'd never seen before. They were wizards from the accidental magic reversal squad on hand to undo any splinching that might be beyond McGonagall's ability to reverse and to eventually act as counter certification for apparation licenses that would be handed out to those who demonstrated mastery in the skill. Professor McGonagall revealed that competence would result in their being licensed immediately but that even licensed wizards were forbidden to apparate until they came of age. After giving them all a brief lecture on safety and being on their best behavior one of the wizards produced a long thin pole. Everyone grabbed a section of it and portkeyed away to what Harry guessed was a dedicated apparation training facility.

There were platforms standing around at various heights all around a large open field. Their job was to eventually apparate to each of them as quickly as possible in a particular order. First, however, Professor McGonagall took them to a long flat patch of ground that resembled a sprinter's track to practice simply learning to apparate from one end to the other.

The first group lined up and tried to apparate but didn't meet with a great deal of success. Neville landed in the wrong place, one girl left her feet behind, and two other boys couldn't do it at all.

"All right enough, next group, and you lot had better start studying that performance was abysmal," Professor McGonagall chided them.

Harry and Hermione were in the next group. They traded some silent words of luck at they stepped up and waited to be given the signal to begin. Harry pictured the place where he wanted to go and then fed his power into that place. Harry was expected a tug rather like a portkey, but instead he felt a sensation that reminded him of how one might imagine water would feel as it flowed down a hill; if water could feel of course. A gentle pouring of himself from one cup to another and suddenly the crowd of students was several hundred feet away.

Harry glanced to his right and saw Hermione standing next to him. "Silent casting really made this easy didn't it?"

"We did a lot of studying," Hermione said. Studying always got the credit whenever Hermione had her way.

Harry didn't disagree instead he jumped back to where he started. Hermione appeared next to him an instant later and together they rejoined the rest of the students.

"It's good to see someone studied," Professor McGonagall said curtly as she summoned the next group. McGonagall had always subscribed to the Hermione theory of giving all the credit for any success to studying.

The rest of the students continued to take their turns. Ron also successfully apparated on his first try but Harry noticed that a loud cracking noise accompanied his jump. He thought perhaps that when you apparated you couldn't hear the noise because you had already left but he recalled that Hermione had jumped silently too. After everyone had taken their turns Professor McGonagall assigned them more homework and portkeyed everyone back to their classroom.

"We'll be doing this every day now until you all get it properly mastered. Class dismissed. Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, a word if you please."

Harry and Hermione approached her desk as everyone else filed out of the room. Ron cast a curious glance over his shoulders at them as he left but he didn't dawdle because his herbology class hard enough to make on time as it was.

"Biscuit?" Professor McGonagall asked as she pushed a tray toward them. They each took one before settling into chairs that had pulled up behind them.

"Mr. Potter your grades are as mediocre as usual. Your practical use of magic is superb but your theoretical work is abysmal. I didn't think too much of this until I noticed Miss Granger's theoretical works taking a dive as well." Professor McGonagall looked down her long nose at them. Hermione turned pink with embarrassment and Harry bristled slightly.

McGonagall continued, "Then today what do I see but apparation well beyond NEWT level qualification. The Headmaster can hardly apparate better than that and this was the first time for the both of you is it not?"

Both of them nodded, uneasy at where this was going.

"Are you doing it deliberately?" McGonagall asked bluntly.

"Doing what Professor?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"I've been checking into your other classes quietly and I've noticed the same thing. The two of you are immensely powerful, much more so than your grades would indicate." McGonagall noted the appalled looks on their faces and then hastily added, "Don't worry, no one else has noticed this, which is why I asked: Are you hiding your talents deliberately?"

"Actually, we've just been really busy and so we've not been putting so much effort into theory papers we already know," Harry said evasively.

McGonagall "harumphed" loudly and peered down her nose at them again. "Well you'll fool the casual observer that way but if you continue to display too many advanced skills people are going to begin asking uncomfortable questions." She lowered her voice before continuing, "Voldemort would be very interested to find out that you are far more powerful than any sixth year should be. I smoothed over the apparation incident with the ministry wizards but I suggest in the future you both make a few more mistakes in all your classes except potions."

"Why potions Professor?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"I like hearing Professor Snape complaining to the Headmaster every morning that you're cheating somehow," she said with a rare smile. "Now you'd best get going and if anyone asks I was giving you more homework."

The pair left quickly and bid each other a short goodbye at the door as Hermione went off to arithmancy and Harry went to the Room of Requirement. Professor McGonagall's advice sat prominently in their minds as they developed strategy for keeping their newfound strength a secret as long as possible.