Chapter 47: The chapter where something happens
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There had been non-stop loud cheering in the Room-at-Will for two hours now. Harry Potter, under Riddle's guidance, was practising new spells on self-healing dummies. It was very handy, no matter what was left of the target after testing particularly destructive spells, after a while the target would rebuild itself from the lying bits and pieces. Under the guidance of the diary, things were looking up for Potter. In a relatively short period of time, Harry had learnt powerful spells that, with the proper skill, could kill a man.
- Seco! Stupefy! Bombarde! Conjunctivitus!
- Kihgn Sapt! Impedimenta! Reducto!
Some of the spells Harry cast were purely for show, because they would come in handy when fighting a real opponent, but the dummy clearly didn't care about being stunned or blinded.
What about the target? - An inscription on the diary appeared.
Harry looked round at what had once been a target for practising combat spells. This time he managed to use all eight spells.
- Destroyed, reduced to atoms," Potter spoke into the void, but Tom still heard him.
Good. But you forgot the most important thing. Don't get caught by the Aurors. Priori incantatem, use it.
Harry mentally scowled, he was finally starting to get good at using combat spells quickly, but he had completely forgotten about the conspiracy Riddle had taught him. Tom demanded that at the end of each successful attempt he use a lot of simple spells so that when his wand was tested, no dark spells would be detected.
- Priori Incantatem!
Images of the spells he had used began to fly out of his wand. The images were barely noticeable, like smoke that had travelled a considerable distance from a fire, but still the effects of Potter's use of forbidden spells were clearly visible in the images.
Well, well, well... Necromancy, dark curses... You, Mr Potter, are going straight to Azkaban. - Riddle commented on the results.
- How do you know? You can't see! - Harry said indignantly.
But I can hear, think and perceive information. That's why I know exactly what spells you've been using and the penalties for them.
- Why do they forbid the use of such things? - Potter wondered aloud. - The spells are effective, and they can be used in self-defence as well as attack. Moody himself said that he used Hellfire and he got nothing for it... I think so.
You claimed Alastor Moody was a great Auror. That's the answer. Some are allowed, others, the less privileged, are not. To use these spells openly, you'd have to deal with the many problems it would cause you. Well, there's another option.
- I already know that option, another solution. I too will become a great Auror, like Mad-Eye, and everything will be forgiven.
Harry sensed that Tom was hurt.
'That's only one side of the coin, that's not what I meant a bit... Okay, go to bed. Your friends have agreed to keep quiet, but they hardly approve of your nocturnal antics. And tomorrow you've got your defence against the dark arts. If you start skipping morning lessons, you'll be questioned, and Dumbledore doesn't need to know that you're here studying dark magic at night.
- Screw it," Harry waved his hand. - I'd better study something else, or Snape will come to DADA again and it'll be a hell of a lesson.
Still, Potter decided not to linger in the Wishing Room and went to bed, after all, he, like most students, was going home for the holidays tomorrow after school.
* * *
Professor Vector asked him to stay after class and questioned him at great length about the reasons for such poor performance in her subject. Potter was released two minutes before the lesson started, but he wasn't in much of a hurry, as he knew that the next lesson was DADA, and Lupin was starting five minutes late.
When Harry entered the classroom, however, he saw that instead of Lupin, Severus Snape was in the room, angry as death. When he saw Potter, he immediately stopped berating the Ravenclaw student Harry didn't know and focused on his new target.
- Had the great Harry Potter himself deigned to come to class? Unbelievable! I understand that only us mere mortals are supposed to be here when the lesson starts. You don't have rules. Well, I guess losing 30 faculty points will teach you to tell time by the hands of a clock.
- Sir, it's not fair, Professor Vector kept me after class. I couldn't make it on time.
- Not fair to you, Potter? Then another minus ten points to Hufflepuff. Now, is that fair, Potter? If it isn't, you say so, you've got plenty of points, we could spend the whole lesson trying to make it fair!
Harry put all his hatred for the professor into one look and sat silently in his seat next to Finch-Fletchley.
- Justin, what the hell is this? - Harry asked quietly as Snape sat down at the teacher's desk.
- What do you mean? - Snape made a surprised face.
Potter stared at Finch-Fletchley in bewilderment. 'Doesn't understand or is he mocking?
- Don't you get it? Isn't that the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor? - Harry pointed at Snape.
- No, that's Professor Snape, he teaches Potions.
Harry's doubts were gone, Justin was kidding. Except after losing forty points Potter wasn't in the mood for fun.
- Stop joking, what's Snape doing in a Defence Against the Dark Arts class?
Finch-Fletchley looked at Professor Snape carefully, made a thoughtful face as if he was analysing something in his head, and then turned towards Harry and answered calmly:
- How's what? Sitting.
- Ahhhh... Yes? Sits? Well, thanks, Justin," Harry started to gather up the things he had just laid out to move to another desk.
- Hey! Come on, I'm kidding! I don't know! We're here and he's on a rampage, all I know is that he got angry after his dialogue with Dumbledore. You're not the only one who got hurt, by the way. He took a 20 off me for asking a lot of questions, he made fun of Bones, she just walked out of class. Smart move. If I hadn't been stupid, I would have done the same thing; Defence Against the Dark Arts is a pretty useless subject, especially when it's taught by Snape.
It was one of the most disgusting lessons this year - and not just this year. Professor Snape spent only about ten minutes on the new topic of werewolves, and the remaining thirty-five minutes on insulting students. By the way, it wasn't even Potter who got in the way, but Justin, who tried to stand up for him. In addition, Lupin also got into the fray; there were no direct insults, but Snape tried to get the message across to every student about how badly Lupin was doing in class.
* * *
This time it was Lupin who was doing the DADA. Harry, like the rest of the Puffenduys, was delighted by this fact. A few students had even "suddenly" recovered and had come to class a little late, apparently their classmates had informed them that the danger - Snape - was gone and the way into the classroom was clear.
After DADA, plenty of free time had been set aside for the students to give them time to pack. Quickly stuffing his clothes into his suitcase, Harry thought about the possibility of not taking the Elemental with him and leaving it at Hogwarts.
- Look, Justin," Harry turned to his friend, who had been fiddling with his suitcase for quite some time. - Do you think I should take the owl with me on holiday?
- I don't give a damn, do as you please," he replied, trying to fit a huge pile of stuff into the rather small opening of the suitcase.
It was a Finch-Fletchley kind of answer.
- I'm serious, I need your advice; I've always taken Element with me on holiday, but I think that maybe she doesn't really enjoy the day's travelling back and forth. I mean, she's caged up all day on a stuffy train to get to another place, and then a couple of weeks later has to relive that horror again.
- Let's do this later, I'll deal with this shit now.
Justin kicked his suitcase for about five minutes while Harry watched the action. He wondered if Finch-Fletchley really thought that beating the suitcase would solve the lack of space problem. However, to Potter's surprise, after one particularly hard kick, Justin tried again to shove things in and succeeded in the attempt.
- 'Hogwarts is where magic happens,' Finch-Fletchley commented on his success. - Okay, what's the big deal, I think you should keep your owl at Hogwarts, there's a special room, other owls that it can socialise with... Although to be honest, I don't know how that happens. And eventually you'd just get tired of driving her back and forth.
- Sounds logical," Harry agreed. - I'll go to the owlery and see if I can get your point across to the owl.- By the way, I'm afraid I won't be able to come to you this holiday, my parents want to go to Paris with me for Christmas.
- I understand, no problem," Potter said and left the bedroom.
The Elemental took the news calmly, she looked at Potter silently as he tried to explain the whole situation to her. In the end, due to the lack of any reaction, Harry never really understood exactly how the owl felt about the situation. On the way back from the owlery Potter ran into Fred and George.
- Harry, just what we need," one of them exclaimed.
- Hi, what are you doing here?- Potter said hello.
- Helping Peeves make a trap for Pansy," the other twin replied calmly. - But you're thinking about the wrong thing, we're about that offer we were talking about near the Quidditch pitch, we won't be able to take you in.
- How, why? - Was surprised and upset Harry at the same time.
- 'No offence, Harry,' said the other twin. - But Fred's right, we always organise all the pranks together, go to the same classes, sleep in the same bedroom. To involve you in our pranks, we'd have to do a lot of extra things, and with the entire teaching staff hunting us without exception, they'd soon realise you were involved.
- We don't even always initiate Lee Jordan... Anyway, I hope you get our point. But you can always count on us for help. Not with lessons, of course, we don't know anything about that, but if anyone bothers you, even Ron, you just say the word, we'll help.
- Okay, I'm not offended," Harry lied.
- Well, that's great, see you later then, we've got things to do.- George winked at Potter and walked through the nearest door with his brother.
Harry looked sadly after them. In fact, he was still a little hurt. After George had accepted his offer almost immediately, he hadn't really expected rejection. And here it was...
* * *
The winter holidays went by quickly. Too fast. Harry quickly got used to having a lot of free time, and didn't hesitate to spend it on all sorts of useless distractions. The only problem for Potter was that he was a little bored spending the holidays without Justin and Tonks. Finch-Fletchley was on holiday in Paris, and Nymphadora was at the Ministry trying to do some sort of investigation that was taking up a lot of her time, so Harry had only seen her two or three times during the holidays. There was only one situation during the holidays that had a place in Potter's mind.
As the day to go to school approached, Harry had stopped worrying and started doing his homework, occasionally turning to his diary for help. And then, on one of the last days near the dining hall, someone quietly crept up behind Potter from behind and covered his eyes with a small blindfold.
- Guess who! - said the mysterious joker in a ringing voice.
Harry immediately recognised the owner of the voice. It was Tonks! Apparently she had finally been freed from her Ministry investigation and was finally able to make a proper visit to the house.
- I don't know, I don't know," Harry decided to play along and made an erroneous assumption. - Justin, isn't that you?
- No!" Tonks laughed oddly. - Keep thinking!
- Um... Colin?
- No!
- Ernie? Ron Weasley?
- Nope.
- Ginny?
- Harry, come on, stop guessing properly!
- А! I got it! You're Dumbledore! - Satisfied with his joke, Harry laughed, took off his blindfold and turned around, only to recoil in horror a second later.
Standing before him was Mad-Eye. Seeing the look on Potter's face, he laughed ringingly, exactly like Tonks, and in her own voice said:
- Well? Did you have a laugh, Potter? I told you to be on your guard at all times! What if it was Sirius Black?!
What he had seen was imprinted on Harry's mind for a long time. That same night, he had a nightmare where he himself, in Tonks' sonorous and carefree voice, was telling Justin with Moody's face about constant vigilance.
Back at Hogwarts, Potter decided that the first thing he would do would be to try out his vigour spell and, if successful, venture into creating a spell called Anti-Gruim.