Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 28 - Confidants and Champions
Later that night, Ron had a very embarrassing experience in the Gryffindor Common Room that was very similar to Malfoy's experience in the Great Hall. Unfortunately, Harry and Hermione were not there to witness the event. They were training in the Room of Requirement with Sirius and Remus.
When the duel of the night ended, Lupin said, "I'd like to talk to you for a minute about that notebook of Voldemort's. I have an idea of why your scar hurt from it."
"I've been wondering about that myself," said Harry. "Even Riddle's diary didn't affect my scar. Why would his notebook?"
"That's a good question," said Hermione.
"I got a sample of the ink that he wrote his name with and gave it to our Potions Master," he gestured at Sirius, who bowed politely, "and he tested it. He found out that the ink used contained blood."
"Blood," asked Hermione, "Whose blood? Why?"
"As for who's blood, I should think you of all people would be able to figure that out," said Lupin, smirking.
"It has to be V-Voldemort's blood to affect Harry's scar. But why?"
Lupin answered, "Let's just say that there are certain special curses that can be put on a book if you title it using ink that contains your own blood. Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I can counteract the curse. Unfortunately, it will still take about a week before we can read it."
"I hope whatever he wrote in there is worth the wait," said Harry.
"Considering how much trouble he put into protecting it," said Sirius, "I doubt it's a recipe for pumpkin juice."
"I guess not," said Harry.
"Oh," said Sirius, "There was something else I wanted to talk to you about. Tonks thinks you should bring a few other students into our duels. She thinks they're getting too easy for you."
Hermione looked shocked. "But, if we do that, we'll have to tell them about our wandless magic."
"True," said Lupin, "Do you think you can trust anyone that much?"
"Well," said Harry, "Even if we did trust someone enough, they need to learn occlumency so that no one will be able to extract the information from them."
"What about the two that you took into the chamber with you?" asked Sirius, "Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom. They already know some of your secrets. Do you think you can trust them?"
"I trust them as much if not more than any other students," said Harry. "I know Neville is loyal, and I can't imagine Ginny betraying me."
"She owes you a life debt," said Lupin. "It might be a good idea to remind her of that while you're talking to her."
"Alright," said Harry, looking at Hermione, who nodded, "We'll talk to them."
"We should probably bring them here to talk so we have privacy to demonstrate our skills," said Hermione. "It would be easier if one of you teachers would escort us. It is getting late, but I think we should talk to them tonight."
"Alright," said Lupin, "I'll go with you to Gryffindor tower. I doubt the head of Slytherin house is welcome there."
Harry chuckled, "You know Sirius, I've never asked you how that's been going. Do you think you've been reaching any of the Slytherins?"
"Actually," said Sirius with a smile, "It actually seems like most of them, with the exception of Malfoy and a handful of others, aren't really evil. They actually acted like that because Snape and Malfoy would pressure them into it. With Snape gone and Draco being humiliated all the time…"
"…due to those mysterious accidents he has whenever he's near you," added Remus.
"…losing him influence in his house," said Hermione.
"…not to mention the fact that they no longer lose house points for being nice to people from other houses," added Harry.
"…and they actually get in trouble for doing wrong," said Sirius, "They actually for the most part are good kids with ambition. Now they're learning to pursue their goals through ethical means."
"That's great, Sirius!" said Harry, "I have noticed that most of the Slytherins have mellowed out a bit."
"Well anyway," said Sirius, "I think we'd better get going if we're gonna talk to Neville and Ginny tonight. I'll walk with you as far as the portrait of the Fat Lady. I doubt she'd let me in anyway after I slashed her portrait last year."
"Ok," said Harry, "Let's go."
-
A few minutes later, the portrait hole opened to reveal Remus, Harry and Hermione. Most of the room was empty, with the exception of a couple kissing on a couch. Harry did a double-take as he realized who it was. He then smiled from ear to ear as he whispered to Hermione, "I think Ginny is over her crush on me."
"I guess so," she whispered back.
The three of them quietly tiptoed to right in front of them. The new couple was so absorbed in their kissing that they didn't notice until Professor Lupin used his most authoritative voice to say, "Good evening Mr. Longbottom, Miss Weasley. I'd like you to come with me."
They both practically fell off of opposite sides of the couch as they quickly broke apart. Both of their faces were completely red. Remus, Harry, and Hermione all burst out laughing.
"Don't worry guys," said Lupin, still chuckling, "You're not in trouble. We do want you to come with us, though." He indicated Harry and Hermione, who were practically crying from laughter.
"Er, ok," said Neville as Ginny nodded.
"By the way," asked Lupin, "Are you wearing your basilisk suits?"
"Yes," said Neville, "all but the gloves."
"Me too," said Ginny.
"Good," said Lupin. "Let's go."
-
As soon as they were outside, they met up with Black. Lupin, Harry, and Hermione told Sirius about how they'd greeted Neville and Ginny, much to Sirius' amusement and the couple's embarrassment. After that, Neville and Ginny told the story of how Fred caused Ron to leave a puddle on the floor of the common room. Of course, Ron has no idea how it happened, and five Galleons each from the twins assured the couple's silence. When they reached the Room of Requirement, Neville and Ginny both asked questions about the room.
After those questions had been answered, Lupin said, "And now for the reason that you're here. Harry and Hermione need to take two students into their strictest confidence, and they've chosen you. This is a matter of life and death. My question for you is this; can you be trusted that much?"
Both Neville and Ginny now looked very serious, but remained quiet. Harry spoke, "There have been threats on my life, as well as actual attempts at killing me. The most recent was just a few days ago. Voldemort is trying to return." Both Neville and Ginny flinched at the name. "If I weren't wearing my armor, I would have died. Hermione and I, with Professor Black and Professor Lupin's help, have been training in advanced defense, and we need more partners. We don't want anyone to know how well prepared we are. We want them to underestimate us like was done last time. Neville, I believe that you are completely trustworthy. Ginny, I also trust you. I hate bringing this up, but you owe me a life debt, and I count keeping these secrets as part of that. We will be teaching you a branch of magic called occlumency, which will protect your mind from intrusion. Do you both promise not to reveal anything you learn about our training to anyone?"
"Yes," said Neville, as Ginny was looking down.
Ginny looked up into Harry's eyes, "I promise."
Harry said, "Good. The first thing you need to know is that Hermione and I have been becoming very adept at a branch of magic that most people think is impossible.
At that moment, both Neville and Ginny started floating in mid-air. "Who did that?" said Ginny, pulling out her wand. She looked around and said, "No one is holding a wand. What's going on?"
"Wandless magic," said Hermione, as the two floated back down. "Harry levitated Neville while I levitated you."
"Are you going to teach us that?" asked Neville.
Harry looked serious. "We'll teach you nonverbal magic, which everyone can do if they concentrate. After that, we'll try teaching you wandless magic. If you can learn it, then that would be awesome."
"In the meantime, we need more opponents in duels," said Hermione. "As it is, it takes nearly two hours of dueling one of us against everyone else before the outnumbered one finally gets hit. That's without wearing our armor or fighting back against the professors. Every now and then an auror comes in to help us, and even she can't beat us. We need more of a challenge. In exchange, we'll train you."
"Wait a minute," said Ginny with a smirk, "That's how Draco has been having all those `accidents' lately." Everyone in the room laughed at that statement.
-
Neville and Ginny starting practicing with the others, and a week later were beginning to grasp the basics of occlumency, but neither had been able to perform nonverbal magic yet. That Friday, Harry and Hermione got a letter from Dumbledore to meet him in his office after lunch. When they got there, they found Dumbledore, along with Lupin, Black, and surprisingly Professor Brooks. She was sitting next to Sirius.
"Ah," said Dumbledore, "Now that everyone is here, we can begin. Do sit down, both of you. Professor Lupin has now revealed what was written in Tom Riddle's notebook besides his name."
At this point, Dumbledore motioned toward Lupin, who continued, "This notebook talks about various experiments in dark magic that he performed, but the most important ones to this meeting are these. He found a spell for creating a new body. It requires the bones of the father, unknowingly given; flesh of the servant, willingly given; and," He paused for affect, "the blood of the enemy, forcibly taken."
"The Dark Lord will have your blood," said Hermione softly.
"Yes," said Dumbledore, "It appears that this is the reason Severus tried to obtain Harry's blood." There was silence for about ten seconds. "We know that Voldemort is still alive and actively seeking a new body. We can now also confirm something I have suspected for a long time."
Lupin continued. "The journal also talks about how he asked Professor Slughorn, who at that time was potions master and head of Slytherin, whether one could make multiple Horcruxes. Professor Slughorn wasn't sure, but thought that it would be theoretically possible."
"If he's done that," said Dumbledore, "then it would explain a great many things." Both teenagers, along with Sirius, looked at Dumbledore in confusion. "I see an explanation is in order. Simply put, if a wizard wants to ensure that he can't be killed, there is a spell that can be cast to place a portion of one's soul in another object. The caster must commit a murder, which creates a tear in the soul, just prior to casting the spell. The diary that you, Harry, destroyed in your second year was a Horcrux. The portion of Riddle's soul inside it nearly obtained a body of its own." Harry's eyes widened, but he said nothing. "No other wizard has ever created more than one Horcrux before Voldemort. Before he can truly die, we must find out how many he has made and where they are located."
"Seven," said Professor Brooks, "The perfect magical number. My father would want his twisted soul split in seven pieces. One in himself, and the others in other objects." At that moment, every eye except Dumbledore's went to Professor Brooks. "Yes," she said, "you all heard me right. Twenty-six years ago, Voldemort and some Death Eaters attacked a small muggle church where my mother, Brook O'Brian, sixteen at the time, was at. Most of the muggles, including my grandparents, were killed. However, my mother caught the filthy murderer's eye," she said with contempt, as tears filled up her eyes. Sirius put an arm around her shoulder.
"He captured her and kept her for a week. She doesn't know how many times he raped her." Tears were now falling freely from her eyes. "Damn. It's just been so long since I've talked about this. Anyway, when he was done, he apparated her to Diagon Alley and dumped her unconscious naked body in the middle of the street and apparated away. I think he believed she would die from lack of food and water, along with the abuse he gave her.
"Someone took pity on her and took her to St. Mungo's. They managed to help her, and nine months later I was born. She decided not to return to the muggle world, knowing I'd be magical. She posed as a squib and raised me, changing her name to Brianna Brooks, and naming me Adriana, just in case that creature knows her name. When I turned seventeen, my mother told me what happened, and since then I've made it my business to know everything about Voldemort.
"When I was first told, I had trouble dealing with that, and I decided to confide it with Professor Dumbledore. He invited me here to teach because he believed Voldemort was on the move again, and now we have proof."
Adriana Brooks, along with Albus Dumbledore, explained Riddle's obsession with trophies, starting with the lessons she'd given on Tom's childhood and going on from there. They agreed that Riddle would make Horcruxes out of trophies, not just any old thing. Both of them shared some of their memories in Dumbledore's pensieve.
Before the meeting, they'd put together all the relevant memories they could find in order. It started with a ministry employee visiting the Gaunt house over a muggle abuse case. It also included a memory of Dumbledore visiting Tom at his orphanage, as well as Brooks interviewing the lady that had spoken to Dumbledore, getting more details of Riddle's behavior. It showed Mr. Burke bragging about how he'd bought Slytherin's ring from Merope, and how Riddle had met his uncle.
It showed an interview with Borgin about Riddle working for him, and Riddle seeing Slytherin's ring, as well as Hufflepuff's cup. It also had an interview with one of Riddle's former classmates telling how he'd seen Riddle with an ornate gold harp that had a silver raven carved on it. He made sure Riddle didn't know he'd seen the harp. It ended with Riddle asking Dumbledore for a job.
"Well," said Dumbledore after they left the pensieve, "I'd like you all to think about where any of these objects may be. We'll talk about them more later, after I myself have a chance to investigate possible locations. I have quite a lot to do in preparation for the tournament, so I won't have the chance to go until after it begins. Of course, if any of you has any ideas, please bring them to my attention. Even if it seems silly, telling me will do no harm, but not telling me could do much harm. You're all dismissed if you have nothing to add at this time.
Harry and Hermione left first and started down the hall. They had just turned a corner when Harry heard something behind him and raised a shield while pushing himself and Hermione down. Harry turned and saw Malfoy pointing his wand at him. Trying to keep up appearances, both Harry and Hermione pulled out their wands to fight Malfoy. Harry shouted, "Expelliarmus!" at Malfoy, causing him to lose his wand.
Just as Draco was hit by the spell, a light shot out of his wand, missing Harry, instead hitting Hermione in the mouth. Her teeth immediately started growing. Just as Harry was turning to look at Hermione, he noticed Malfoy change form into a ferret and start bouncing up and down. Harry and Hermione, who was laughing through her ever-growing teeth, looked around to find the caster of the spell. Sirius Black was moving his wand up and down as the amazing ferret bounced from floor to ceiling, and Adriana Brooks was standing next to him, laughing hysterically.
Sirius yelled, "Fifty points from Slytherin for attacking a student! You'll turn back to your ugly self in ten minutes. I suggest you run to the Slytherin common room. You'll be reporting to Mr. Filch for detention at 7 o'clock tonight!" At that point, Sirius let Malfoy/ferret run away and turned to Hermione. Harry already had an arm around her, although she was laughing at Malfoy more than anything else. Her front teeth were now a foot long and growing. Sirius said, "Harry, I suggest you walk Hermione down to the hospital wing."
When they got there, Harry said nothing when Hermione had Madam Pomfrey shrink her teeth to look better than they did before. As they slowly made their way toward Gryffindor tower, stopping at ten different broom cupboards along the way to snog, testing how her `new teeth' felt, they accidentally found Ginny and Neville occupying one. Upon seeing Ginny, Harry was reminded of the Horcruxes and his countenance changed, and he and Hermione looked down.
"What's wrong?" asked Ginny.
"Nothing," said Harry quickly.
Ginny said smirking, "I thought you trusted us."
He whispered, "We just found out something new about Riddle's diary, that's all. When we saw you, it reminded us."
Ginny went a bit pale. "What did you find out?"
Hermione whispered, "This isn't the right place to discuss it in detail. The bottom line is that it wasn't unique. Riddle has five other objects like that hidden somewhere."
Ginny now looked like a ghost, while Neville looked scared. Ginny said, "F-Five?"
"Dumbledore thinks so," said Harry, "He wants to locate them all and destroy them."
"Obviously!" said Ginny, "What do you think he'd do with them? Give them away as presents to the best students."
That statement eased the mood considerably.
-
They fully explained the Horcruxes to Ginny and Neville during the next training session. At first Lupin argued about telling them, but Harry argued that Ginny "had the right to know." They said nothing about Professor Brooks. By this time, both Harry and Hermione were able to transform their bodies from the waist up to look like giant versions of their Animagus forms, but it was very difficult for them to do, and they could only hold that form for ten minutes.
Time flew by quickly, and before they knew it, it was October 30th, and the representatives of the different wizarding schools had arrived for the Triwizard Tournament. Harry and Hermione politely clapped, but truthfully weren't interested. The only interesting information they found out that night was that Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian seeker, was still a student. Harry noticed him looking at Hermione during dinner, so he slipped his arm around her. Harry noticed that one of the girls from Beauxbatons had asked Ron for something, but he appeared to be in a complete daze. The girl looked frustrated as she grabbed a plate from the table and left.
"Do you think that girl's pretty?" asked Hermione, obviously following his eyes.
"Not really," said Harry honestly, "I just think Ron's reaction to her is funny."
"Oh," said Hermione.
"Hold on," said Harry, realizing the reason for the question, "You don't think that I'd like one of those French girls instead of you, do you?"
"Er," said Hermione, her ears turning pink.
"You're Mine, and honestly and truly I really do love you, so even in the unlikely event that I see a girl who's more beautiful than you, you'll still be the only one I'm in love with."
Hermione blushed and kissed Harry on the cheek. Harry noticed Viktor Krum glare at him for half a second. With a smile on his face, he whispered in Hermione's ear, "Mine, what do you think of Viktor Krum? He keeps looking at you. He glared at me a minute ago when you kissed my cheek."
"Really," said Hermione brightly, "Let's see what he does if I snog you right here."
-
Harry and Hermione barely listened when Dumbledore talked about the Goblet of Fire, although Harry admitted that it looked cool. As they were leaving the hall, Igor Karkaroff tried to stop Harry before his stomach started feeling a bit upset and he ran off in search of a bathroom. Hermione whispered to Harry, "I didn't like the way he was looking at you. I don't trust him."
At that point Sirius walked up behind them and whispered with a smile on his face, "Which one of you made that Death Eater sick?"
"Death Eater?" whispered Harry frantically.
"Why isn't he in Azkaban?" asked Hermione.
"Because he sold out enough other Death Eaters for his freedom. I'll bet delivering you to Voldemort would get him back in good graces though. Be careful around him."
"I knew I didn't trust him," said Hermione, "That's why I made him ill. How can someone like him become headmaster of a school? Why would parents send their children to learn from him?"
-
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. When they finished their morning training sessions the next day, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny found out that Ron had tried to cross Dumbledore's age line and grown a long white beard after being expelled out of the circle. Harry and Hermione spent most of the day studying for classes, and Harry was happy for the break when it was time for the Halloween feast. When they were done eating, Dumbledore gave a small speech, and then the goblet sent the first name out. Albus caught it and said, "The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum." Viktor shook Dumbledore's hand and left the room. When the next name came out, he said, "The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour." She then shook Albus' hand and left the room. Finally the third paper came out of the Goblet of Fire. "And the Hogwarts champion is…" He paused, looking worried before reading, "…Harry Potter."
-
Please review. Thanks to everyone who has already reviewed this story. I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.
-->