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Harry Potter and the Unexpected Visitor | ||||||
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Category: Post-OotP Characters:All Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Fluff Warnings: Disturbing Imagery Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 223 Summary: Harry James Potter has come back to Privet Drive after his abysmal fifth year at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, as Albus Dumbledore asked him to do. There, he mourns around everything that happened the last months, especially his Godfather's death, but all will change when someone he did not expect comes... The author has stated this story will not be continued. SIYE Hitcount: Story Total: 176723; Chapter Total: 8024 Author's Notes: Summary: Harry talks with Dumbledore in his office about his speech and Harry's new position as a professor. Professor Trelawney appears in the office and surprises Harry with a new prophecy. Voldemort is very pissed off. In their first day of classes, Harry meets the new DADA professor and Moody "repeats" a lesson. |
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A Very Interesting Chat When Harry reached the High Table, Dumbledore stood up. “Harry, I’m sure you have lots of things to ask me, so why don’t we go to my office? I will be able to explain everything there, and we will be more comfortable.” Harry nodded and followed Dumbledore out of the Great Hall. To his surprise, Dumbledore didn’t go upstairs, to the seventh-floor, but to the corridor that lead both to the kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room. Nobody was around when they arrived, and Dumbledore smiled. “I’d rather ask Fawkes to take us there. There is much we have to talk about, and having to walk all those stairs is a bit slow, if you ask me,” Dumbledore replied, chuckling. In that moment, Fawkes appeared between flames, and landed on Dumbledore’s shoulder. He then took Harry by the hand and Fawkes ‘flashed’ them to the office. There, Dumbledore sat down in his chair behind the desk, while Harry took one of the chairs in front of it. “Well, Harry. I’m sure you now have a few questions, as well as I do. Where should we start?” “For example, why did you decide to appoint me a professor?” Harry asked with interrogation written on his face. “That’s the first I knew you would ask,” Dumbledore said, smiling. “When you act as the teacher of the DA, there may be moments in which you do have to impose your authority. For example, if two of the students started to fight among themselves, it would be very difficult for you to convince them to stop. Having an authoritarian position would certainly help a lot in those circumstances. And since nearly all prefects are into the group, making you a prefect would only raise you to be an equal to them, so I decided that a professor position would be most helpful. “As a professor, you would have the possibility of assigning punishments and docking points from the houses, as well as your own office. I would offer you some quarters, but I think you would reject them out-right. but I advise that, should you abuse your position, you would lose it. I have to tell you that some professors will be watching closely on you and your behaviour.” “That’ll be Professor Snape, no?” Harry asked with a humourless smile. “Yes, Harry. He was the most adamant against this situation, and has been arguing with me about it. I have to say that I was most displeased with his contempt towards you, which I believe is only based on the grudge he holds against your father and his friends. The fact that you are practically a physical doppelganger of your father only reinforces his beliefs about you and your behaviour.” “Then I’ll make sure to show him how wrong he is,” the young man replied. “I expect so, Harry,” Dumbledore conceded. “Now, I’d like to ask you about what happened at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Remus, your godfather and Kingsley Shacklebolt have told me as much as they could, but I feel that your version has a few details that the others didn’t know.” Harry nodded and, slowly, started to describe the battle at the train station as accurately as he could. Dumbledore praised him when he heard that he had been able to resist the Imperius Curse and his ability to both deduct that all the Death Eaters had Portkeys and command his elementals to destroy them. That also clued him into something that Kingsley had told him before about the last Death Eater who had remained at the place, shouting a word that would have activated all the Portkeys and wisk all of them to safety. Only when Harry related the part about creating something with a move of his hand that swallowed the Cruciatus Curse that was meant for Ginny was Dumbledore really surprised. “Are you telling me that you made something that was able to stop an Unforgivable Curse, not just deflect it?” he said with a mix of happiness, shock and awe. “I’m not very sure about that, Professor,” Harry confessed. “I don’t know what I was doing, exactly. I just — twisted my hand like this,” he said, demonstrating, “that thing appeared from nothing and when the curse touched it it disappeared.” “Harry, do you have your genealogical tree here?” the Headmaster asked, struck by inspiration. “No, but I can do something else. Dobby!” Harry shouted. The house-elf appeared in the room with a ‘POP’. “Did Harry Potter call?” Dobby asked, beaming. “Yes, Dobby,” Harry replied with a smile. “I need you to bring me my trunk. It’s in my room.” “I’ll do that soon, Harry Potter,” Dobby replied, and in two ‘POP’s he had come back with the magical trunk, from which Harry took the genealogical tree and the factfinder Dumbledore had given him. “Thanks, Dobby. I’ll take this back to my room when I have to, don’t worry.” “Good night, Harry Potter!” the house-elf said, and disappeared. Harry put both the parchment and the magical instrument on the big table and did what it was necessary for the information about him to appear in the parchment attached to the factfinder: Harry James Potter (1980-...) Son of: James Michael Potter and Lily Marie Evans Patronus: Stag Animagus: Badger, Lion, Phoenix, Raven, Snake Magical Abilities: Metamorphmage, Mindspeech, Occlumency / Legilimency, Parselmage, Spell Crafting, Wandless / Wordless Magic Elemental Magic: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Space-Time, Unknown “The fifth element is Space-Time? What that does mean?” Harry asked “Indeed, Harry, it means what it looks like: that you are able to control both space and time. That thing you created at Kings’ Cross was, if I’m not mistaken, some instinctive way of controlling space. And, as for why they are together when they should be separated, have you ever heard of Albert Einstein?” The question shocked Harry: what did a Muggle scientist have to do with magic? “Mmmm, yes, sir. At primary school our Science teacher talked about him once or twice, but he never explained a thing about his theories.” “Well, he was one of the most brilliant scientists in the world, and he developed some interesting ideas thanks to his theories. I once found that one of his works touched a bit with the subject of magic, when he talked about the quanta, which is the real thing that magic changes when you Transfigure it. “One of his ideas was that time and space were not separated, but that they were rather joined in what he called space-time continuum. I think that’s what you used and that with time you will manage to control it. Maybe you will be able to even stop time at your surroundings.” Harry was amazed to hear that, but before he could say anything, someone knocked on the door with insistence. Harry managed to pick his things before Dumbledore let Professor Trelawney in. “Good night, Sybill,” Professor Dumbledore said, a genuine smile reaching his eyes. “To what do I owe you this pleasure?” Harry could smell the odour of the cooking sherry Professor Trelawney had started to drink since last year, when she had received the results of the test Umbridge had done when she decided the old Seer was as bad as everybody thought. “Good night, Albus,” she replied, rather forcefully. Then she took the free chair in front of the desk, ignoring Harry completely. “The problem is that I don’t know why that stallion still usurps my rightful position as the Divination teacher!” “Now, now, Sybill, we have discussed this during the summer,” Dumbledore said without losing his smile. “You know that Firenze is not able to come back to the Forest without risking his life, and I believe that the distribution of the hours is great more inclined in your favour.” “I don’t care! I thought that he would at least leave his position once I recovered my position, but no! He won’t do that because ‘I am not very good when guessing the future!’ and that I don’t teach my students properly!” she said, angry. “Sybill, could we have this discussion later? I am talking with Mr. Potter here about a very important subject and he has to get back to Gryffindor’s tower before curfew starts.” “Oh, Harry! How nice to see you!” she said when she found her favourite death omens recipient. “I missed having you in class last year, but I fully expect you will be as hard-working as then this year!” Harry didn’t have the stones to tell her that he was not going to keep studying Divination, but Dumbledore solved the problem for him. “Sybill, I’m afraid that Mr. Potter chose not to continue with your subject this year. He found that there were rather more useful subjects for him.” Harry prepared himself for the possible blow up of the old Professor, but it didn’t happen. When Harry looked at Trelawney, she had a blank look that Harry had seen twice in his life: first time three years ago, and second just a few months ago: “They who gather together, They who can beat the Dark Lord, They who are eight friends, Four boys and four girls: The Leader is the Chosen One, the Heir, The Bravery is his banner, The Phoenix his herald. The Healer is the Soul Mate, the Seventh, The Medicine is her banner, The Lioness her herald. The Axeman is the Brother, the Strategist, The Strength is his banner, The Tiger his herald. The Archer is the Sister, the Scholar, The Accuracy is her banner, The Vixen her Herald. The Swordsman is the Other One, the Green Lord, The Agility is his banner, The Bear his herald. The Seer is the Bonded, the Loner, The Foresight is her banner, The Owl her herald. The Assassin is the Former Enemy, the Nobleman, The Cunning is his banner, The Dragon his herald. The Musician is the New Friend, the Noblewoman, The Companionship is her banner, The Unicorn her herald. Work together they must, To make the Darkness recede, Or it will win against Light And make it disappear.” Both Harry and Dumbledore were visibly astonished while Professor Trelawney recovered from her newest prediction. When she fainted from the apparent stress she had been through when she had been talking in that harsh voice Harry knew it announced that what she was saying was a true prophecy, the young man reached her so that she wouldn’t fall to the floor. Dumbledore conjured a stretcher and magically put the professor on it. “Harry, it seems that our dear Sybill has just made her third prophecy. And I have to say that this is one that we can say from now that it is true.” “Yeah,” Harry replied, absent-mindedly. The reference to “the Chosen One, the Heir / The Bravery is his banner / The Phoenix his herald,” was clearly talking about him. He was the Heir of the Four Founders — or the Heir of Hogwarts, one could say — and he might be the Chosen One since he was the boy Voldemort had chosen as his nemesis. And then his herald was his Animagus form and also the being that would go out of the egg Hedwig was sitting on in a few weeks. The other mentioned people were, obviously, his friends: Ginny was the Healer, Ron the Axeman, Hermione the Archer, Neville the Swordsman and Luna the Seer. He could bet that Draco was the Assassin — the Former Enemy and the Dragon — but he was still clueless about who was the Musician. It was a girl, without a doubt, but nothing more apart from that. “Since I have to take our Divination Professor to the hospital wing, I’d say it would be nice if you came with me. On the way, we can discuss this new prophecy.” Harry nodded, stood up and followed Dumbledore, who was using his wand as a means of directing the stretcher towards the hospital wing. As promised, Dumbledore and Harry chatted about the subject of the prophecy Trelawney had just made a few minutes ago. Harry told the Headmaster his suspicions about the identity of all the mentioned on it and Dumbledore not only agreed, but did point out a few things Harry had not realised: the Nobleman — Draco Malfoy — and the Noblewoman — the unknown girl — could be noble because of their ancestors. Dumbledore knew that the Malfoys were descendants from a mixed Muggle-Wizard French noble family from the 1500s — There goes your pure-blood ascendance, Harry thought, amused — and there were a few more students at the school that came from similar backgrounds, so it would be easy to find the Musician between the thousand students living at Hogwarts. By the time both wizards had arrived to the Fat Lady’s portrait — Dumbledore had decided to escort Harry to Gryffindor’s tower so that they could keep talking — they had exhausted the subject of the Prophecy and had switched to the new plans for the Defence Association, the division of people in two groups — Beginners and Veterans — for easier teaching and the limits of age that would stop first- and second-years from attending the meetings. “Well, here is where I have to leave you, Harry,” Dumbledore said. “I expect you have a good sleep before your classes. Good night, Harry.” “Good night, Professor,” Harry replied. When Dumbledore was out of sight, Harry went to the portrait that opened the passage to Gryffindor’s tower, but then he remembered that he didn’t know the password. “Password,” the Fat Lady asked. “Erm…” Harry said, noncommittally. “Oh, excuse me, Professor Potter,” she said, smiling. “You may pass” “Thanks,” Harry replied when he went through the portrait. There, in the Common Room, his friends and his girlfriend were waiting for him, anxiously. Nearly everybody else had gone to their beds, fortunately, so they wouldn’t have problems with eventual eavesdroppers. “Hi, mate,” Ron said when Harry sat down on one of the couches, next to Ginny. “What did Dumbledore tell you about being a professor, Harry?” Neville asked with curiosity. “Well, he said that he had thought of giving me an authoritarian position and, since nearly all prefects are in the group or will probably join it, he chose to appoint me as a professor. Apparently, I get my own office with that, and I can hand detentions if I need to.” “Phew! That’s great, Harry!” Ginny said, smiling. “But it is also a big responsibility,” Hermione reminded them. “You can’t go and start punishing whoever displeases you or things like that.” “Relax, Mione,” Harry replied to his friend. “I don’t intend to abuse my position. I may plan to make a good use of it, but I’m not going to be like Snape, who just goes and mollycoddles the Slytherins while punishing the hardest to everybody else,” he added with a grin. The others laughed, even Hermione, who attempted to scowl at him but failed. “But that’s not the important thing that happened tonight,” Harry said. “Trelawney came to Dumbledore’s office while we were talking and…” Harry told his friends about the Divination Professor and how she had suddenly made a prophecy. Hermione was clearly sceptical about it, but Harry reminded her that Trelawney had predicted both Voldemort attacking him fifteen years ago and Wormtail escaping to help Voldemort to recover his body. That seemed to soothe her thoughts and also to ask Harry to tell her the new prophecy as accurate as he could remember. “OK,” she said when she wrote everything on a piece of parchment. “Obviously, this prophecy is talking about eight people who will be able to defeat Voldemort, and since it says they are ‘boys and girls’, we could think that they are not of age yet. “The first person it talks about is, hands down, Harry,” she said, with a small giggle. “It’s obvious,” Ron said, amused. “We have always considered you our leader, and don’t dare to say you are not that, mate.” “Well, I happen to think that Hermione is right. I mean, with my Herald being the Phoenix, which is one of my Animagus forms.” Harry replied. Hermione smiled again and continued. “The second person, the Soul Mate, must be Ginny, because Harry saved her in her first year. Besides, it’s like in Harry’s case; the Herald mentioned is her Animagus form.” “It’s nice to see that I am so important to you, Harry,” Ginny said, kissing him on the cheek. Hermione kept talking about the subjects of the prophecy, correctly guessing who the other ones were, but failing to do so when it came to the last ones on it. “What do you think about the last two, Harry?” Neville asked. “I talked about this with Dumbledore while he was escorting me here, and when I told him that it could be Draco, he said it was the most probable, since he is a descendant from some nobles in the Middle Ages. He also told me that he would try to search for any possibilities for the last spot between Hogwarts students, and that he would tell me that whenever he could.” “I think we should be getting to bed,” Hermione said. “It’s rather late, and tomorrow it’s going to be very busy for us just to get used to the timetables again.” The teenagers groaned but did as the older girl had told them. Slowly, they stood up from their chairs and went towards the stairs that led them to their rooms. Harry gave Ginny a long, kind goodnight kiss that sent both teenagers shivers through their spines. The former was surprised that Ron had not said anything to them, but when they got separated they saw that it was because he was even more engrossed in Hermione than someone could consider possible. Finally, Harry decided to pull a joke on his friend: “Hey, mate, would you mind not to do that in front of me? That’s my sister the one you are kissing.” It worked like a charm: Ron jumped so fast and far from Hermione that one would have thought she was a spider. “Sorry, Ron, couldn’t resist,” Harry said, chuckling at the discomfort of his best friend. Ron just scowled at him and said, softly: “Good night, Mione.” “Good night, Ron.” Ginny also went upstairs after wishing a good night to her boyfriend, but Hermione remained behind, a bit anxious about something Harry could not guess until she pulled him so that he didn’t come upstairs. “Harry, I need to talk with you about something.” “Sure, what’s the matter?” “Why… did you say that… thing about me being your… sister?” she asked, shyly. Harry smiled sheepishly. “Well, I have always considered Ron and you as my brother and sister, as I told you when I knew you two where an item. I know it’s not as good as having real siblings, but…” Harry was cut off when Hermione hugged him fiercely. “Wow! What’s that?” Hermione was smiling when she let him go off, but a few tears were going down her cheeks. “I didn’t know that, Harry. I always had thought of you as some kind of younger brother, but I didn’t know that you felt the same. Thanks.” “No problem, sis. Remember about the prophecy? You are my Sister, and Ron is my Brother. Surely you should have seen that.” “Yeah, but I didn’t make the connection,” she replied, drying her tears. “Good night, Harry.” “Good night, sister.” Harry snickered. Hermione smiled at him and went upstairs, too. Soon, Harry was in his bed, and was slowly placing all his new thoughts in the proper places, as he had been doing since he had learnt Occlumency from Fabian Jennings. The newest improvement for his mind defences, the labyrinth, had been ‘constructed’ one or two weeks before that day, and he had scattered the safe boxes throughout it, the most important of them being the most far from the entrance. The only one that was out of the labyrinth was the one with the Patronus memories, and that one was pretty well hidden in the building that gave entrance to the labyrinth. The short mental exercise helped Harry to calm down and soon he was dead asleep. ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~** *~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~ “CRUCIO!” Harry watched Lucius Malfoy writhe in the floor with pain. His right hand — no, Voldemort’s right hand, Harry reminded — was holding a dark wand which was pointed to the silvery-blond man. There was other man beside him, covered with one of the masks. “Just tell me how, Lucius. How could the perfect plan I had set up, the perfect attack you had been given command, go so badly that not only fifty Death Eaters didn’t manage to capture Harry Potter or one of his friends, but they didn’t kill anybody and all of them were captured? Just tell me, Lucius. Because I want to know how someone could have been so incompetent that this attack has been a complete failure!” Lucius Malfoy didn’t open his mouth, and was trembling like a leaf, because he didn’t know what to say, but also knew that not answering a direct question would take the Cruciatus Curse over him again, and that it did, for approximately one minute in Harry’s count. Harry was relieved that he had intensified his shielding before going to sleep, because he knew he wouldn’t have been able to stand the pain that was being transmitted to him through the link between Voldemort’s mind and his. When Voldemort lifted the wand, Malfoy fell to the floor, panting and breathing without a rhythm. The Dark Lord then turned his head to the other Death Eater. “Ambrosius, what did your son say about this abysmal failure in Lucius’ attack?” “My Lord,” the man said, “my son Theodore called me with a special communication charm I had taught him a few minutes after the train departed. I told him that he was to get into the train and not to go out of one of the compartments. Apparently, someone within the Aurors must have been told about it, because the Head Auror asked everybody to get into the train since they had been warned about the attack. My son was not able to tell me in time because there were too many people that could have heard him talking with me.” “Very well. Tell your son to keep spying on Hogwarts, and to report anything useful to you. If he finds something important, he shall be rewarded.” “Yes, my Lord.” “You may go now.” Ambrosius Nott bowed and retired slowly towards the door, happy that he was going to escape punishment this day. “Lucius,” Voldemort said, turning his head towards the elder Malfoy, “have you solved that problem with your money?” “N-no, Lord. My wife decided to take all the money out of our vaults and put it in another vault, one I do not have access to. Even though, I still have one vault in which I put a big deal of money, but I do fear it won’t be enough to support your efforts for the war.” “Is that right? Well, then you shall do everything on your hand to procure me more money, or I’ll make sure you will regret not being in Azkaban,” Voldemort said with an infuriated tone. “Yes, my Lord,” Malfoy said, trembling while he started to move towards the door. “I didn’t give you permission to leave, Lucius. CRUCIO!” ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~* **~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~ ~ Harry woke up from his vision agitated and with his scar hurting, but did so with a little smile on his lips. Malfoy was really having a really bad night! And he deserved that and more, if possible! Then he went back to sleep again without a problem. ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~* **~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~ ~ The next day, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny went downstairs together to have a good breakfast before the first class in the morning. While they came down, Harry told them about what he had seen in his last vision, and said he was going to try to talk with Dumbledore as soon as he could. Neville met Luna in the Great Hall and, after a short talk they separated again with a smile on their faces. While they talked noncommittally, McGonagall started to deliver the timetables for the Gryffindors. “Ohhh, I’m going to enjoy my first Snape-free year,” Ron said, smiling. “So am I,” Neville replied. The boy was certainly glad of being far from the scary Potions Professor. “Sorry for you, Harry.” “No problem, Nev. At least, I have been able to show Snape how mistaken he was when he was talking about my skills, although I’m not sure if he will recognize it,” Harry replied, causing chuckles between his friends.” “What I wonder now is how will he treat Draco when he steps into the class,” Ginny said. In a point of the summer, all of them had realised that Snape had to spoil the Death Eater’s children so that his cover as a spy wasn’t blown up. “Yeah, it’ll be ‘I love Slytherins and Death Eaters’ against ‘I hate Potter’s friends and deserters’,” Ron summed. “That is sadly true,” Harry replied with a smile. “We have Charms right now, and then DADA. I expect Professor Martin is not as idiot as Umbridge.” “Honestly, I doubt it,” Hermione replied. “Ginny, what do you have today?” “Transfiguration, Double Potions and Muggle Studies. Damn, when you guys told me this year was difficult, I didn’t believe you, but now I do!” “Don’t worry, Gin. In the afternoons, we can always help you with your homework. Hermione can even lend you her notes on History of Magic.” “Harry!” the older girl said, like she was scandalized. “Hey! Nobody should have to face Binns’ lessons if helped. I’m sure that you are the only person in the whole school who is able to stand his battering enough time to take notes. I for one have never been able to stay awake the whole hour.” Everybody laughed, even Hermione. “It’s time to go,” Neville reminded them. “If we are fast, we may even be able to get the bests seats.” “Sure,” the sixth years said. The five Gryffindors stood up and joined Luna while they went upstairs. On the corridor that lead to the Transfiguration, Ginny and Luna separated from the main group (Ginny gave Harry a good long kiss before that) and the older teenagers kept going upstairs. When they arrived at the door, they waited patiently for Professor Martin to show up while the other DADA N.E.W.T. students arrived from having their breakfasts. A few minutes before the bell rang the professor arrived to the classroom and opened the door, allowing the students to enter the room. Ron and Hermione picked the nearest seats, while Harry and Neville claimed the second line for themselves. Harry looked around to see which students had managed to get into the class; he knew that with the dreadful lessons Umbridge provided to them, it was a little miracle the fact that there were so many people there. Harry counted the eight Gryffindors in his year (including himself), five Ravenclaws, four Hufflepuffs and only three Slytherins (Draco, Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass). Except the Slytherins, all of them had been part of the DA last year, and that made Harry proud of them. “OK, people,” Professor Martin said to attract the attention of his pupils. “As I’m sure you remember, my name is Jonathan Martin, and I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year. I have read the syllabus of last year’s professor, and, frankly, I am really impressed to see that so many people have been able to pass the O.W.L.s with that idiot teaching here.” The students laughed. “Could anybody enlighten me on who was the master mind behind that particular task?” All the members of the DA pointed automatically to Harry, who blushed with the — more than usual — attention he was getting. “I suspected it. After your speech yesterday, it would have been really hard to miss it. Mr. Potter, could you tell me what did you teach these boys and girls last year?” “Erm, the basic things to know for a duel, I suppose. Disarming and Stunning spells, the Shield charm, the Reductor curse… that kind of things. On our last lesson before we got caught, we were covering the Patronus charm.” Professor Martin’s eyes lightened. “The Patronus charm? Interesting, as I had planned this lesson to be about it. Who has ever managed to cast a corporeal Patronus?” Harry, Hermione and Seamus raised their hands this time. “Three people out of twenty, and with only a few days of practice? I’ve seen everything now,” he muttered, chuckling. “Harry’s the expert here,” Neville said with a smile. “He has been able to do it since he was thirteen.” Not even the hardest nudge from Harry on his ribs shut him up. “Impressive. Now, to the unpleasant part. Who is able to tell me how is a Patronus charm cast to make it enough powerful to drive a Dementor away?” Twenty hands were raised into the air. The DA members still remembered what Harry had told them last year, Draco had been told by Harry how he had to do it and Blaise and Daphne must have read it in a book. “Mr. Finch-Fletchley?” “The first thing you need to do is to recall a good memory about something that has happened in your life, one that brings happiness to you, and then picture it clearly in your mind. When you have done that, you hold your wand pointing at where the Dementor stands, and say ‘Expecto Patronum!’ while concentrating on the memory.” “Very good, ten points to Hufflepuff! Although everything you said is right, it is not complete. Does anybody know why?” Only Harry raised his hand this time. “OK. Mr. Potter?” “It doesn’t really need to be a good memory. You only have to think of something that makes you really happy, it doesn’t matter if it is a memory or if it’s something you want to happen.” “Ten points to Gryffindor! Where did you find that?” “On my O.W.L. DADA exam, my examiner asked me to make the Patronus charm. I imagined that Umbridge was sacked from the school and there it is.” “Congratulations, Mr. Potter. Well, students, today we will spend the hour trying to do the charm.” For the next fifty minutes, all pupils tried to cast the Patronus charm. The professor gave ten points for each corporeal Patronus and five for each person who managed to do a mist which could be big enough to stop a Dementor by the end of the class. Gryffindor won seventy points (Dean and Lavender had not been able to cast the corporeal, but they still managed the mist), Ravenclaw twenty points (one corporeal and two mists) Hufflepuff twenty points (all mists) and Slytherin fifteen points (all mists, but Draco seemed to be about to make the corporeal). “Congratulations to you all. I’m not going to ask you to do any homework, just practice the Patronus Charm and those who didn’t manage it keep trying. You would never know when it is going to be useful.” Everybody thanked him and rushed to the Charms classroom, where more people joined them for the next lesson. After fifteen minutes in which Professor Flitwick reminded them of the importance of the N.E.W.T.s, they reviewed a few charms they had been through the five last years, and then they left, telling them to read for the use of the Water Conjuring Charm, which they would learn the next class. Harry now had a free hour since his friends were having Herbology. He didn’t know what to do, but he thought he could have a look at that book about Hogwarts School’s construction. It could be nice to see if he could build something that he and his friends would be able to use without many problems, some kind of a Haven that would help them to meet whenever they needed it, without being discovered… … and the Room of Requirement won’t be useful because it is too far away from the dungeons, and if we are ever caught with needing to meet at midnight, Draco would have a really hard time… Then it struck him: why didn’t he make a room that could communicate with all the common rooms of the castle? A way in which Draco could meet him and his friends whenever it was needed, maybe even where he could give his friends all the weapons? Well, I will now if it works only if I read this book, no? Harry took the book and looked in the index about how to construct new rooms and, specially, the part about the Room of Requirement. It would be very nice to have a special room made only for him and his friends. ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~* **~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~ ~ “Good afternoon, everybody,” Moody growled to the students. “Good afternoon, Professor Moody,” everybody said. Moody took a list out of his pocket and started to ask if each person was at class. Nearly all sixth-years had signed for the Advanced Practical Defence N.E.W.T. course, and the classroom was full. “Welcome to Advanced Practical Defence,” he said in his usual tone. “Dumbledore has set up this class so that you can get a few combat abilities that you may need in the future, especially if a Death Eater tries to attack you anywhere you are. The first thing you have to remember is to have CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” he shouted, but only a few people jumped. Harry had seen this coming, because he still remembered the fake Moody from his fourth year. Moody also remembered that, because he said, “I see that Barty Crouch Jr. managed to do a good job with all of you. Very well, onto the next thing. “One thing I am going to teach you is how to resist the Imperius Curse. It is not easy to do as so, but I know that all of you will be able to resist it. You may say that it is not very useful to learn that, but I can tell you that lots of people did really gruesome things just because they weren’t prepared for facing a Dark wizard using the Unforgivables on him. Who wants to be the first?” he ended abruptly. Harry stood up almost instantly. “That’s a good lad, Potter! Dumbledore told me what happened at the train station, and I don’t think that ability of yours has vanished in only one day. Come here and look at the others. The rest, look at Potter’s eyes, you’ll see the difference there. Imperio!” he said, pointing his wand at Harry. Again, like yesterday, Harry felt completely devoid of any feeling and like he was floating in the air. Put your wand over the table, Harry heard in his mind. I’m not really going to do it, you know, Harry heard from the back of his mind, the one that prevented him from doing that kind of things. Smiling inwardly, Harry took out his wand, but he pointed it at the ex-Auror and said “Expelliarmus!” Moody’s Protego came out in milliseconds, deflecting with ease the Stunning Spell, and the sudden attack also stopped the Imperius Curse. “Very well, Potter! Ten points to Gryffindor for your originality.” Moody praised him. “As you have seen, Potter has attacked me when I had ordered him to put his wand on the table. If you manage to resist the Imperius Curse, always try to disable your opponent, whether it is with a Disarming Spell, a Stunning Spell or something in that league. Did anybody see what Potter showed to prove he wasn’t affected by the Imperius?” Hermione was the only one who raised her hand. “Miss Granger?” “His eyes,” she said. “When you first threw the curse, Harry’s eyes were a bit whitened and his pupils moved a lot, like if he was distracted, but a bit before he casted the Disarming Spell, he was concentrated on you and his eyes were not so misty.” “Exactly! Ten points for Gryffindor for your accuracy and your ability to see that little detail. Who wants now to be subjected to the Imperius? ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~ ***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~ ~~ One hour later the thirty-six students were out of the classroom, practically running away from Mad-Eye Moody, who had taken as a personal task the fact that everybody had at least one round under the Imperius, with a promise that the next day he would start to show them new charms and spells for a battle situation. When Harry arrived to the common room, he saw a few fifth-years sitting around a table with some books, and one of them was a fiery-haired brown-eyed girl who had Harry around her little finger. Ginny was incidentally with her back to Harry, so he went straight to her and put his arms around her. “Hi, gorgeous,” he said, kissing her neck softly. “Hi, stranger,” she replied, smiling. “Are you very busy? Because I could use some company right now, you know.” “Just researching for Muggle Studies. We have been asking Colin about how televisions work, but so far he has only talked about how you can use the remote control,” she said. “You could ask Hermione later. I’m sure she would be happy to introduce you to the wonder-world of vacuum tubes,” he replied nuzzling on her neck. “Uh?” Ginny said, both distracted by the pleasant feeling on her neck and the odd thing Harry had said. “Sorry, that’s something televisions have to work. So, do you want to sit with me for a few minutes?” “Mmm…” Ginny muttered, like if she was thinking about it. “Yes. This is the only homework we have been given today, so…” she stood up, took Harry by the hand to one of the couches next to the fire and sat with him. “So, what did you do today in class?” Ginny asked “The usual. Some talks about the importance of the N.E.W.T.s, a revision of everything we have learnt, and a good show with the Patronus and resisting the Imperius.” “The Imperius? Who was the idiot who did that?” “Moody, who else?” Harry said, smiling at the choice of words of his girlfriend. “It was for the Advanced Practical Defence class, and I can tell you that he was very impressed when I shot a Disarming Spell towards him.” Ginny giggled. “I can bet that. now, how about we have some good quality time before dinner.” “Thought you would never ask,” Harry said, and kissed her passionately. ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~*** ~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~***~~~~* **~~~~ That’s all for now! I’m sure I have surprised you with the choice of the fifth element (there was somebody who said time and space as the fifth and sixth element, but it was incorrect because space-time is one element, as it is explained before. Please, have lots of patience, since the next chapter is not going to be out in a very long time due to me having to study for my exams. P.S: Vote for the Alhambra at www.new7wonders.com!!! |
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