Chapter 4 - Holiday & Owls
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Potter universe!
AN: Ah! Here it is :P, thanks Turnlach for his BETA work :P
*SSSSS*
Hermione had fallen asleep during the plane flight; after all it was only five in the morning. Harry though was too excited to sleep, looking out the window he watched as the plane passed over towns and cities, which from up here seemed like little toy sets.
With a large yawn Harry looked away from the window and his eyes settled on Hermione, who was currently asleep leaning against his shoulder. She's beautiful… rrrggg… what am I doing! She's my best friend! Harry sighed, looking down at her, he didn't know when his feelings had changed from best friend, to more… he knew he finally realized after the ministry, when he nearly lost her.
But thinking back, he knew he had loved her subconsciously, even in his second year. The feeling of loss within him
when she was petrified. She doesn't feel the same way though… and her friendship is more than I could ask for…
I won't ruin it! Taking one last look, he kissed her softly on the cheek before also falling asleep.
*SSSSS*
Hermione stirred from her sleep. She was having the best dream… Harry had admitted his feelings to her and the last bit
she remembered was him kissing her on the cheek. Looking over at her best friend, the person she desperately wanted to
be more than a fried to. She sighed to herself knowing that was all it was, a dream. Harry is too good for me…
I'm just his bookworm friend… she thought, her heart sinking. I'll take what I can though, even if
it's only his friendship… was her last thought before she fell back to sleep against Harry's
shoulder.
*SSSSS*
Harry woke up, finding that he was still sitting in the plane; Hermione still snuggled up against his shoulder. This
fact caused him to smile. Taking Hermione's hand, he turned it slightly to look at her watch, I have to get a
watch for myself… he though while doing this. Hermione's watch read 11am, she having already set it to match
the time at their destination. He remembered Jane saying that they would arrive at around one or two in the afternoon.
Relaxing back into his chair Harry gently let go of Hermione's hand, though he must not have done this gently
enough as a groggy Hermione woke up.
"Good morning Harry." she said in the middle of a yawn.
"Morning Hermione, how did you sleep?" Harry asked giving her a warm smile.
"Quite nice actually… you make a rather good teddy bear." Hermione said smiling at him.
Harry just shook his head in amusement, though he was thinking the exact same thing about her. "So… what have you got planned for us this trip?" Harry asked her.
"Well… I found a book on all the magical places in different countries. It has a lot on America… there's a number of villages, and there is also a huge village that's made up of just shops. Apparently it's about seven times the size of Diagon Alley!"
"Wow… so are we close enough to go there?" Harry asked, excitement dancing in his eyes.
"Yep! Apparently we are staying only a five minute walk away." Hermione answered. "There is also the world's largest library there too." she added quickly.
Harry just grinned at her, knowing that she really, really wanted to go there. "Sounds like fun." Hermione turned to him and smiled back at him.
They talked about a number of things, remembering funny things that had happened to them in the past, and talked about
what they wanted to do this summer. Harry felt like one of the luckiest people alive, his summer had just turned from
hell to heaven, and it was only an accidental apparation away.
*SSSSS*
Landing in America, Harry looked around the airport. It was rather different from the one they had come from; it was
also a lot more crowded. This last fact made Harry a little uneasy and he hoped no one would notice him.
Grabbing their trunks, the group headed out of the airport and hailed a cab. The ride to the hotel took about forty minutes, which Harry and Hermione spent talking quietly to each other.
"So, what you want to do today?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper.
"Hmm… I don't know, I don't think I'm up to going out anywhere today." she answered.
"Yeah… I feel the same."
"We could study… if you wanted to of course…" Hermione said quickly. She really did doubt that Harry wanted to study while they were on holidays.
"Yeah, that's a good idea… but we don't have any courses yet…"
"Umm… I think that we should learn Occlumency together." she said softly looking away from him.
"Hermione… it's ok… and you're right, we should learn it, if only to keep me having lessons with Snape again…" Harry said giving Hermione a little squeeze with his hand.
"Thanks… I have a book that has a little bit on Occlumency… buts it's not much… we will have to buy one some time." Hermione said.
"I have a book on it…" Harry said, then seeing Hermione's questioning look, after all she knew every book that Harry had he continued, "I got it this summer… along with some other books…" Harry said, he knew he had to come clean about the Dark Arts books. She would see them anyway when he showed her his new trunk.
"OH! What new books did you get?" Hermione asked, obviously happy that Harry had some new books.
"Err…um… I'll tell you later…ok?" Harry said fiddling with his hands.
"O...Kaayy…" Hermione said slowly looking at him at his like he was some strange looking creature.
"I will show you, when we get settled in." Harry said looking straight at her.
That was the last Hermione mentioned of Harry's new books for the rest of the ride to the hotel.
*SSSSS*
The hotel was brilliant! It was amazing. They were on the ninth floor and had an excellent view of the ocean. They had
settled in fairly quickly. Daniel and Jane had taken the master bedroom, while Harry and Hermione had taken the other
two, which were across from each other.
Hermione was sitting down on Harry's bed, while Harry paced nervously in front of her. It was time to come clean about the dark arts books, and he dearly hoped that Hermione wouldn't kill him.
"Come on Harry, what are you pacing for?" she asked.
"Ok, fine… I'll just show you." he said.
Pulling his trunk out of his pocket Harry set it down and enlarged it. Opening the first storage area, Harry started to descend the stairs. He stopped halfway, looking back at Hermione who was just sitting there stunned.
"Well you coming?" he asked, and laughed as she jerked out of her daze and came rushing over.
Once they were inside Hermione gasped at what she saw. In her eyes it was the most perfect place in the world; Quiet, Peaceful, Comfortable and had two very large bookshelves.
"This place is amazing!" she said in awe, before turning to Harry, "You have to let me study in here!" she said seriously. Harry just shook his head in amusement.
She then went over to his bookshelves and started looking through his books. Harry held his breath while Hermione scanned though his advanced dueling books, school books, Quidditch books and what ever books he had. She gasped as she came along his Dark Arts books.
"H-Harry… these are books on the Dark Arts… where did you get them…?" she said slowly, not taking her eyes off the books.
"This summer… I… thought it would be best to know what I'm up against… Please don't hate me for this!" he said, pleading the last part.
"I don't hate you Harry… I never could." She said. "I actually had the same idea… and after Sirius's will, I was going to try and pick up some this summer… so have you read them yet?"
"I started… but then stopped, and started on the advanced dueling books, mainly the parts about stances and wand drawing… stuff you can do without using magic." Harry said, not wanting to admit, that the memory of casting an Unforgivable had caused him to stop.
"Well, we will read them together… but first I think we should start on Occlumency." she said looking back through his books. "Ah here." she said as she pulled one of them out. She sat down in one of the armchairs next to Harry and started to read aloud.
'Occlumency is a skill used to protect ones mind from attack. There are three levels of Occlumency. The first is where you build a wall around your mind, when attacked, the attacker will bounce off the wall, the attacker will not be able to enter your mind and will only see the wall. This is ok to stop penetration, though if you are trying to keep a secret it is not as good, as the person will know now you are hiding something.
The second level is when the person can put forward a 'fake' memory, the attacker will only be able to see this memory that the person is displaying, therefore protecting the mind. The problem with this level is that the wall is not there. The person is in your mind, but viewing a 'fake' memory. Therefore if the person is skilled enough, they will be able to push past this memory and enter your mind.
The third level is when the person can project the 'Fake' memory outside their shield. Therefore if the
memory fails the attacker will hit the wall and be stopped. This level also allows people to project thoughts towards
others.
If two people practice this skill together, in time they would be able to communicate telepathically. Though
depending on the bond between them will determine how easily they can communicate. One who masters Occlumency is also
able to lie easily, sometimes to the point of fooling the most powerful truth potions. The person will also be able to
easily detect if someone is lying, this is the beginning of Legilimency, a skill that is rather close to Occlumency and
is usually learned after one masters Occlumency.'
"That would be very useful, being able to tell if someone is lying and talk privately between each other."
Hermione said softly.
"Yeah… with that, team dueling would be a lot easier and we would be able to tell if someone were spying on us." Harry added.
"Hmmm… but I really want to look at how to start." she said flipping through a couple of pages. "Ah here..."
'Occlumency can also be used to block spells made to affect the mind, such as the 'Obliviate' spell, which erases ones memory. Learning Occlumency also makes learning wandless magic easier since you have more control over you mind.
To begin building a shield, the person must clear their mind. There are a number of ways that you can clear your mind. The easiest and the way covered in this book is though meditation…'
"Bloody Snape never said anything about meditation, or how to clear your mind… all that greasy git did was yell at me to 'clear my mind' and attacked with force…" Harry grumbled, Hermione just took his hand in hers and gave him a squeeze of reassurance.
'If one has not cleared their mind, before being attacked this can cause a number of injuries. If attacked too
many times, the victim can become slow to respond and not work well under heavy stress situations and will have trouble
concentrating.
Since the Legilimency spell allows one to read another's mind it is classified as an illegal spell, and is
punished with a two-year jail term. Masters of Legilimency can 'probe' the mind. To someone not skilled in
Occlumency they will not notice a thing. To silently probe someone's mind, the victim must be looking at the
attacker's eyes; usually the attacker has a projection which seems to draw the victim's eyes. This is covered
in the later chapters of the book.'
"I knew there was something about Dumbledore's damn twinkle!" Harry yelled. "I knew it! He must be constantly reading people's minds!" Realization dawned on Harry, "Snape's glare… that's Snape's projection… and Voldemort has those glowing red eyes…" Harry trailed off.
"Oh my God, you're right!" Hermione practically yelled.
"Hey! I'm not always wrong…" Harry wryly defended himself.
"Oh, I know! And I wasn't implying that anyway." Hermione said "Let's just start."
"Yeah… ok so what do we do?"
"Well it says we have to…"
The rest of the day was spent practicing meditating and bringing up a wall around their minds.
*SSSSS*
The next day Harry and the Grangers went out sightseeing. This was fun, but Hermione had other things that she wanted
to do today. Like going to see the world's largest wizarding library, buying new books and other wizarding
things.
After half a day of sightseeing Hermione finally got her parents to allow her and Harry to head off to the wizarding village. According to Hermione's book, entering the village was very similar to entering Diagon Alley. In the back of a pub called, 'The Crazy Witch' was a brick wall that reformed to allow entry.
Knowing that they were going into a wizarding village, Harry had cast small glamour charms on himself and Hermione so that they wouldn't draw attraction. He didn't know if he was famous in America, but he wouldn't be surprised if there were Death Eaters here recruiting new members.
Both Harry and Hermione gasped when they entered the village. Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade being the only wizarding villages they had seen they were unprepared for the size of the American village, this place was huge! There were hundreds of witches and wizards walking around. Walking down the first street and looking in store windows, they kept doing until they came across a dueling shop. This intrigued both Harry and Hermione; there wasn't a shop like this one in Diagon Alley.
Entering the shop they noticed a number of things; there was lots of different dragonhide armour, cloaks hanging around the shop, there were also a number of items that Harry had no idea what they were. The one thing that caught Harry's eyes was the wand holsters. He had read about them in his dueling book, but didn't know where he could get them. He guessed that Ollivander had them, but going in there would have been too dangerous for him at the time.
Harry walked up to the counter and a short man came up to serve them.
"How my I help you young man?" the man asked.
"I was looking at your wand holsters. I was wondering what different types you had and the advantages of them."
"Ah yes, yes. What price range were you looking at? They range from around twenty gallons and go up as high as about one hundred." The short man asked.
"Money is not a problem." was all Harry said, and the short man's face soon broke out in a smile.
"Very well, the best one we have is this one. It can attach to any body part. Has anti-summoning charms on it, it will turn both your wand and itself invisible to anyone else but yourself. It is also made out of dragonhide, so it offers a little protection to yourself wherever you decide to place it."
Harry's eyes widened at the description, he hadn't expected that they would have this many advantages. "I'll take four." was all Harry said.
The short mans eyes widen at this, "Y-Yes Sir-r certainly." he said before heading out the back of the store and coming back with four small boxes.
"That will be 380 galleons." the man said.
"Do you take the new Gringotts debit card?" Harry asked.
"Yes we do, the whole village is fitted for them." he man said taking Harry's card and making the payment.
"Is there anything else we can go for you? Dueling armour perhaps?" the man asked hopefully.
"Not today I'm afraid. Though I will be coming back here for some more items." Harry said.
"Very well, good day to you sir."
"Good day." Harry said before going to find Hermione.
He found her looking at the dragonhide armour. "Hey you done?" Hermione asked, "What did you get?" she asked noticing the boxes in his hand.
"Ah… that's a surprise." Harry said grinning at her, "Come on, let's go look somewhere else."
The next store they stopped in was a magical bag store. After all Harry didn't want to be carrying around packages all day. After about ten minutes both Harry and Hermione were the proud new owners of two bottomless bags, both with featherweight charms on them. The next store that Hermione saw nearly caused her to almost faint. It had to be the biggest book store they had ever seen in their lives.
Hermione practically dragged Harry there as she ran to it. Once they entered her eyes lit up in delight. Though they then fell when she realized that she didn't have much money left after she had bought her bag. Harry seeing this decided to act.
"Get anything," he said to her, "I'm paying."
"No Harry I can't do that… that's you money!" she protested.
"Hermione… I have enough money to buy this store with my spare change… and anyway, I want any book that may be helpful, we can stock up my shelves." he reasoned with her.
She saw the logic with what Harry was saying and finally agreed and started to go wild, pulling many books out and stacking them on the counter. Harry only picked out a couple of books; the one that really interested him was "Using your Surroundings in Duels". He remembered Dumbledore using the statues to help fight Voldemort. He had also picked out some books on advanced Occlumency and some very old books on wandless magic. One of these books was rather rare and cost 200 galleons on its own.
The store owned was in a state of shock when they announced that that was it. There were nearly forty books there… only ten of which Harry had chosen.
"Um that comes to… 1448 galleons." the owner squeaked.
Harry's face betrayed no emotion towards the amount it had cost as he handed over his Gringotts card and started shrinking the books, placing them in his bag. After they had packed up all their new books, they left the store leaving a flabbergasted shopkeeper.
They stopped at a clothes store which sold both wizarding and muggle clothing. Harry desperately needed new clothes. He only had Dudley's hand me downs and a couple of robes. They spent around an hour in there. Hermione playing dress up, where Harry was the doll, much to Harry's displeasure. Though at the end, Harry left with two brand new wardrobes, one muggle the other wizard. His hand me downs were thrown away for good.
They spent another hour or so walking around the village looking through different shops. There was so much here, that they didn't know what to do next. They turned right down an alleyway and then found themselves on a different street. This one seemed different from the others, more… gloomy.
"Must be the American version of Knockturn Alley." Harry commented.
"Yeah… do you want to go back?" Hermione asked.
"Let's have a look around first…" Harry said before heading over to the nearest shop.
When they entered Harry was surprised to see a number of muggle items here.
"What the hell are muggle things doing in a dark wizard shop?" Harry whispered to Hermione.
"Well you don't really think that all Dark Wizards hate muggles and muggleborns do you? After all most Dark Lords crave power not blood purity." Hermione whispered back.
"Hmm… guess you're right… never thought of it before." Harry said looking around the shop, his eyes landed on a muggle pistol, the sign above it saying that it had magical enhancements. "You know, a pistol would be a big advantage, especially since most Death Eaters are so close minded when it comes to anything muggle…"
"It would be a large advantage… but we have no idea how to use one…" Hermione said.
"We could always ask… maybe the store owner knows someone that will teach us." Harry said looking around for the shopkeeper.
"That's a good idea."
Spotting the shopkeeper Harry and Hermione walked up. The man had a number of scars covering his face and sort of resembled Mad-eye Moody, except for the magical eye and missing leg.
"Hello, sir… we were wondering, is there anyone that you know of that can teach us how to use the muggle pistols?" Harry asked the man.
The man eyed them for a little while before answering, "I give lessons, though they will cost yeh 50 gallons each." he said in a gruff voice.
"Do you want to?" Harry asked Hermione.
"It won't hurt I guess." she said.
"When are we able to have the lesson?" Hermione asked the clerk.
"Tomorrow morning, come around eleven." he simply said.
Harry just nodded and they turned and left the store before leaving the Dark Alley and returning to the hotel.
*SSSSS*
Once they got to the hotel, Hermione remembered the first thing Harry had bought and not told her about, claiming that
it was a surprise.
"Harry?" she asked sweetly.
"Yeah?" Harry asked looking up from his book on magical beasts.
"You remember, in the dueling shop, you brought some stuff? What was it?" she was sweetly again, smiling at him.
"Ah… yes my surprise, come here." Harry said grinning from ear to ear.
Hermione walked over to Harry and sat down on the couch next to him. He then pulled out his bottomless bag, pulling out the four small boxes from earlier that day. He then handed two over to her.
"Those are yours, open them and see what's inside." he said.
Hermione loved presents and ripped open the two boxes, revealing two very good looking wand holsters.
"Wow… they're beautiful…" she said before jumping up and throwing Harry into a back breaking hug, "Thank you, thank you so much." she said giving him a kiss on the cheek before letting him go leaving Harry blushing like mad.
Hermione was admiring her new wand holsters, then it hit her… two of them? Why did she need two? She only had one wand…
"Umm… Harry? Why did you get two for each of us?" she asked.
Harry looked up and smiled slightly at her, "Well for starters, we need to get you another wand, one without the ministry tracking devices on it, and mine… well it doesn't work very well against Voldemort… other than that, I think it's probably best to have a back up wand." He said shrugging his shoulders as if it was nothing.
"Yeah, I agree that's a good idea… you been having a lot of good ideas lately Mr Potter! I think you're
turning in to me." she said grinning madly at him. Harry just threw a pillow at her.
*SSSSS*
The next day Harry and Hermione walked down to the weapon shop. Hermione had told her parents that they didn't get
enough time to visit the library yesterday and that they were going to have a look today. Her parents had finally
agreed, but not before having Hermione and Harry promise to spend the next five days going sightseeing with them.
Walking into the shop at exactly eleven they noticed that the shopkeeper was waiting for them.
"I believe that I never got to introduce my self before, I am Malcolm Holmes." he said holding his hand out to Harry.
"My name is James Evans." Harry said shaking his hand.
"And mine is Lily Smith." Hermione said also shaking his hand.
"It's nice to meet you both. Now yesterday you said you were interesting in learning how to use the muggle hand gun? Is that correct?" he asked.
"Yes that is correct." Hermione answered.
"OK, well we have a number of different types, though there are two groups that we have, the muggle ones and the ones with magical enhancements. Such as a slight silencing charm, anti-recoil, they won't set off muggle metal detectors and they are also as light as a feather."
"The one with magical enhancements I think we will go with." Harry said for both of them.
"Alright then! Come over here and you can see our range."
After looking at many different guns both Harry and Hermione settled with the new GLOCK 36. They were magically changed to suit their hand sizes; Hermione's a touch smaller than Harry's.
"Now the ammo, there are a couple of different kinds. We have ammo with a Reducto charge in it, there is one with a piercing charm, it will penetrate three inches of steel easily and still carry on and of course your normal muggle bullets. You only need one clip, as they are charmed to replace any of the bullets that you use. Though they are more expensive than the normal muggle clip."
"Would we be able to get… two of the piercing and two of the Reducto charged clips thank you." Hermione said.
"Certainly ma'am." Malcolm said, collecting up her choices and taking them over to the counter with their other stuff.
"Now last but not least, holsters. These are charmed to fit onto anybody part, they will become invisible to anyone else, with just a tap of your wand. These are on the house." he said. "Now including the lesson's that comes to a total of two thousand two hundred galleons." Harry simply handed over his Gringotts card.
"Ah… the new Gringotts Debit card… grand update for the wizarding world, carrying around a load of gold can be hard sometimes." he said to himself mainly to himself as he made the payment with Harry's card.
"There you go! All done, now if you'll follow me, we will start your lessons." Malcolm said handing Harry
his card back and motioning them toward the back door of the shop.
*SSSSS*
Seven hours later Harry and Hermione left Malcolm's shop. He had told them of a wand maker just around the corner
and they were heading that way now.
The shop wasn't hard to find. It seemed a little run down, but then again so did Ollivander's and there were apparently the best. Entering the shop a hunchback man served them.
"What would you lot be needing?" he asked.
"Malcolm said that we should speak to you about getting a second wand." Hermione said.
"Second wand eh? You know its illegal without a permit?" he man said.
"Yes… but we are willing to pay a little extra for you to forget that little detail." Harry said and the man smiled largely at this.
"And it seems my mind has went blank." he said before going back behind the stacks. He came out a couple of minutes later holding two beautifully designed wands. "These should do it, for you sir, ten inches, Basilisk Fang, Maple wood. And for you ma'am, Manticore blood, 9 inches and Beachwood."
They both took the wands and felt the familiar warm felling spread around them. The same feeling that they had felt the last time they chose their wands.
"That will be two hundred galleons for them two." the man said.
"That's fine, just charge it to this." Harry said and handed the man his Gringotts card.
Four minutes later they were out of the store and headed back to the lighter side of the village. On their way back though Hermione had Harry stop at a bookstore where they brought some more books on the Dark Arts. They had decided that they would start looking through them soon.
Once back out in the main part of the village, Harry and Hermione had about two hours to burn. They started walking around and having a look in the stores that they didn't have a chance to yesterday. It was then that Harry spotted a Quidditch shop; he didn't know how he missed it yesterday since the shop stood out quite a bit, the large sign above it reading 'Everything Quidditch!'
Harry dragged Hermione over there; she just rolled her eyes and followed him. Looking through the window he stopped in his tracks. There in the window was a new broom the 'Firebolt Series II'. Harry was practically drooling at the broom, 0-500 in only three seconds… he had already made his decision; in fact he had made his decision as soon as he saw the name. Walking up to the front counter Harry waited for the clerk.
"Now how may I help you young sir?" he asked.
"I would like to buy two of the new Firebolt Series II, two sets of Quidditch armour, and one of those Nimbus 2004's thank you."
"Harry…" Hermione started but was cut off by Harry, "You promised to let me teach you how to fly."
Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find a way out of this predicament, but she knew she couldn't, she had promised, and anyway, maybe it wouldn't be so bad since it was Harry teaching her. So she just nodded her head.
Meanwhile the clerk had not moved. He was stock still, the only part that had moved was his mouth, which now hung open.
"Umm… is there a problem?" Harry asked.
"Oh, oh! No, no problem… I'll be right back!" he said hurrying off.
He came back a couple of minutes later with everything that Harry had asked for. He still seemed a little shell shocked at the order and had not said anything once he brought it back.
"Err? How much?" Harry asked eyeing the man; he didn't know what was wrong with him. But there was something.
"What? Oh... yes that comes to six thousand five hundred galleons." the clerk said rather quickly and Harry only just understood him.
"Just put it on this." Harry said handing over his Gringotts card. A few short minutes later, their new
Quidditch gear put away in the bags, Harry and Hermione were back out in the street and heading back to the
hotel.
*SSSSS*
Two weeks had passed and both Harry and Hermione had been heavily studying Occlumency, Legilimency and the Dark Arts.
They had decided to leave wandless magic until they got back to school, where they could do it in the safety of the
Room of Requirement. They were currently onto the second level of Occlumency and it was Hermione's turn to try and
break Harry's shields.
Harry's goal was to try and show Hermione a memory that is not real, a 'fake memory'.
"Legilimens!" Hermione shouted with her new wand.
She instantly started to receive flashes of images in her mind from Harry.
Harry is making breakfast for the Dursleys. They thank him before Harry leaves the room.
Harry and Dudley are cleaning up the garden together.
Harry is showing the Dursleys some new spells that he had learned.
The Dursleys are celebrating Harry's birthday.
Malfoy is talking to Ron about Quidditch... Peacefully.
Harry and Professor Snape are having a friendly conversation together, about the fine art of potion making.
Hermione stopped the spell, her heart swelling in pride at Harry achievements, though at the same time she was a touch disappointed that she couldn't break through his shields. She then started giggling a little at the nature of Harry's fake 'memories'.
The two of them had started noticing the telepathy forming between them. They seemed to know what the other was thinking, or feeling most of the time. Though if Hermione thought back she realized that they always seemed to have this connection, only now it was a lot stronger.
They were broken from their practice when two owls started tapping the windows. Getting up Hermione shakily undid the two letters and dropped them on the table. Harry looked up at her and then down at the letters. He then knew what they were. Their OWL results…
"Well are you going to open it?" Harry asked her.
"I-I can't…" she said.
"Oh come on Hermione, we both know you did fine… ok here look, I'll open yours and you open mine, ok?" Harry said picking up the letters and handing his over to her.
"Great idea." she said sighing in relief, she really couldn't have opened hers.
Harry opened up her results and scanned it,
Dear Hermione Jane Granger
Listed below are your OWL results. Congratulations and good luck
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Herbology |
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O = 2 Pass
E = 1 Pass
A = 0 Pass
D = 0 Fail
T = 0 Fail
OWLS = 19
You have passed all of your classes; you also scored the highest accumulated score this year. You are able to join any NEWT subjects of your choosing.
A small grin crept across Harry's face, which he quickly hid. He was going to have some fun. Looking up at Hermione he gave her an apologetic face.
"Hermione… I don't know how to say this…"
The look of pure terror crossed her face and she looked like she was about to explode into tears. He couldn't be that mean to her so he decided to put her out of her misery.
"You got the highest mark in the school, congrats!" he said smiling broadly at her.
She let out a girly squeal and jumped at Harry hugging him nearly to death. It was at this time that Hermione's parents walked into the lounge room. They both tried to hide their smirks as they noticed Hermione hugging the boy to death.
"I guess they got those OWL things Jane." Daniel whispered to his wife.
"I guess they did, and Hermione is using it as another excuse to hug the boy." she said grinning madly.
"SO? How did you do?" Daniel asked loudly, nearly laughing as Hermione sprang to her feet, both of the teens blushing.
"Hermione did great, highest mark in the school actually. I don't know how I did yet…" Harry answered him.
"Here you go Harry! And congratulations also." Hermione said handing him his results. After reading it his eyes were wide.
Dear Harry James Potter
Listed below are your OWL results. Congratulations and good luck
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Herbology |
E |
O |
O |
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O = 2 Pass
E = 1 Pass
A = 0 Pass
D = 0 Fail
T = 0 Fail
OWLS = 11
You have passed most of your classes, and have received eleven OWLS. This mark places you in the top ten highest scores this year, leaving you in fifth place. You are able to take NEWTS in all of your classes except Divination since an 'E' or higher was required.
*SSSSS*
That night they went out to celebrate their scores, having dinner at a fancy restaurant before going to see a movie.
After everyone had gone to bed, Hermione had snuck into Harry's room. She had taken to sleeping with him at night,
since it was the only way to keep the nightmares at bay.
Her parents had caught them a couple of times, but Hermione had explained why, and they fully understood. They had taken to studying before they headed off to sleep and tonight they were looking over some of their dark arts books. Hermione was reading though them while Harry would take down notes of potentially useful spells.
So far tonight's list was rather small, but this was only from tonight. They had pages and pages of parchment of spells written down. Both light and dark. This studying would make it easier to learn the practical side of them while at school, instead of having to try and find them and learn them all at school. Tonight's list was dark spells…
LIST - Dark Spells
Ossein Diffindo Bone breaking charm
Merhersag Shoots a blade, powerful enough can cut someone in half
Stein Skulptor Turns a person to stone, then use Reducto.
Neken Causes internal bleeding
Syre Pil Shoots a jet of acid
Deletrius If powerful enough can cause someone to just disappear
Pugile Bludgeoning hex can break bone
Sectumsempra A spell that creates a gash on the victim in the way the wand is moved
Morendo Causes stone spikes to shoot up from ground
Harry looked over at Hermione, who looked like she was falling asleep; he also felt the same way that she looked.
"Common, I'm too tired to do this tonight… let's go to sleep." he said in-between yawns.
All Hermione did was nod and then crawl into his bed, wrapping the covers over herself.
"Oh come on… stop being a blanket hog." Harry joked and she gave some of them up. "Thank you." he said chuckling and Hermione just grinned.
Harry lay down in bed and Hermione leaned her head against his shoulder, snuggling into him.
"I don't know what I'm going to do at Hogwarts…" he said softly.
"Guess we will have to sleep on the couch." she said softly.
"Guess so." he said before falling off to sleep.
*SSSSS*
Dumbledore's stood up in front of the Order of the Phoenix. Looking around Dumbledore for once felt his age, his face was tired and worn… there had been no signs of Harry anywhere after his disappearance, and it had begun to make Dumbledore feel every one of his one-hundred and fifty-three year.
"Has there been any news of Harry Potter?" he asked tiredly, already knowing the answer.
After a moment of silence, one of the lower level Order members spoke up.
"Headmaster… is it possible that vol-vo-You-know-who has… killed him?"
This question caused a cry of disbelief from Molly.
"I very much doubt it. If Voldemort had indeed killed Harry, it would be publicly displayed in order to cause panic and disorder." Dumbledore said, knowing full well that it would happen. "No, I don't think that Harry is dead… I think that he must be in hiding. There is only a week until term starts and we must hope that he is among the students." Dumbledore finished as the Order left the room.
*SSSSS*
The last week of their holiday went very quickly. By the end both Harry and Hermione had basically mastered Occlumency and Legilimency. They now had a vast knowledge of both light and dark combat spells as well as a number of combat tactics. During the last week they had started reading more on team combat.
The telepathy from the Occlumency training had greatly increased and they could now 'hear' each others thoughts, though it took a fair amount of concentration to do. According to the book, after time and training it would get easier until it came as easily as breathing.
They had left off the practical side of their training until they got to Hogwarts where they could use the Room of Requirement. Hermione had brought up the question of how to get around Dumbledore, since he always seemed to know where people were. After hours of research through their now rather large library Hermione had found the answer. Magical signatures and auras. Apparently each wizard or witch had a different magical signature and a different aura. There were a number of ways to mask their signatures, assassins usually used these techniques. It was another topic they decided to broach once they got back to Hogwarts.
After packing everything up Harry had one last look around to make sure he had not forgotten anything. Satisfied that he hadn't Harry went out into the living room and waited for the Grangers to be ready. He didn't have to wait long as they were in a cab heading to the airport about five minutes later.
Once they got to the airport they went though the usual security details. Both Harry and Hermione had left their pistols in the bags, they had not wanted to test the anti muggle metal detector charms. They had to wait for around an hour before they boarded their plane and left for England again.
*SSSSS*
Well that's all! If the grades came out all messed up for you, you can see them properly at my yahoo group, the chapters are in the files area under 'HP & HG - DL & DL'
Here is the link for ya, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hhr_fanfics/
Luke