"You know," Harry heard Sirius' voice from the doorway "you remind me so much of your mother when I see you like that."
"See me like how?" Harry didn't bother looking over his shoulder to address his godfather.
"With that guitar," he clarified "whenever she was nervous about something, upset or just lost in thought, she'd play that thing and be practically dead to the world," Sirius explained wistfully as the object of their discussion lay comatose before them.
Harry didn't reply, he merely just continued playing the Spanish sounding tune absentmindedly. It was Christmas yet again and, as expected, he was spending it with his mother alone until Sirius arrived.
"Do you come here often?" Sirius asked softly while pulling up a chair beside his godson "I notice the fresh flowers whenever I come visit, but I never see anyone here."
"I have one of the house elves at Moony Nights replace them every week," Harry confessed quietly "I remember that she liked gardening."
"She did," Sirius agreed "almost hexed my bits off when I apparated into one of her rose bushes once," he chuckled nervously "she's the nicest person you'd ever meet, until you piss her off," he winced at some memory "she was scary when angry. There was a reason many referred to her as a Charms mistress."
Harry snorted in amusement "Is that right?" he looked over to Sirius "It never occurred to you to not piss her off then?"
Sirius grinned "Call me a slow learner," the grin then turned into a frown "You really should be spending today with your friends, there's an awesome party at Moony Nights that Cedric and Monty organized. I came here because Remus told me you'd definitely be here . . ."
"Then you should go back," Harry advised his godfather neutrally "I don't intend on leaving until the nurses force me to."
Sirius sired wearily "Harry," he pleaded "your mother wouldn't want you wasting away in here on one of the happiest days of the year, in fact, I'd imagine she'll castrate Remus when she finds out he didn't try and put a stop to this."
"Sirius, I spend one day, and one day only, a year with my mother, if you don't want me to castrate you, you'd best drop the issue and go home," Harry looked at the clock on the wall "I'll be here for another three hours and forty seven minutes."
Sirius sighed and dropped the issue, knowing full well that Harry could and would follow through with his threat. Harry resumed the Latin tune as if Sirius weren't in the room with him while Sirius listened silently.
"You know MBMC's sales are going through the roof," Sirius chuckled "those contraceptive potions are selling like crazy, I had to help make a whole new batch . . ."
"It was expected," Harry answered dully "otherwise I wouldn't have backed Archades in the first place."
"Monty tells me your vampire friend and you are undergoing a new business venture together," he chuckled "should we be worried?"
"It's a night club in France," Harry rolled his eyes "hardly anything nefarious. It was mostly Lucile begging Lestat for something to do with her spare time, I'm just putting forward half the money. I trust she knows what she's doing in running the place."
"When's the grand opening?" Sirius asked "I haven't had sex in over a decade, I think a night out at a club is just what the doctor ordered. Those potions Monty's been cramming down my throat seem to have worked, if I do say so myself."
It was true, Harry reasoned. Sirius looked more like the man he was when he was thrown into Azkaban than the skeletal being he looked like not long ago.
"It's a muggle club, mostly," Harry informed the grinning man "not that magicals aren't welcome, just don't do anything stupid. If you think my mother is scary when angry, you don't want to anger Lucile."
"You can get me in?" Sirius asked with surprise "Usually clubs, especially muggle ones, are very hard to get in for guys, especially guys without the company of females."
"I'm part owner," he told Sirius with a frown "of course I can get you in, don't be stupid."
"You're stupid!"
"Clever," Harry praised while rolling his eyes "Lucile already asked me to get the English team to go for the grand opening, technically, I'm still too young, so I won't be going."
"As if you would anyway," Sirius chortled "I can't believe you sometimes, you could have any girl you want, in groups, and yet you stay holed up in your room with your books," he sounded disgusted "James is probably rolling in his grave, though he wouldn't let Lily know, otherwise she'd kick his ass."
Harry shook his head at his godfather's antics "You wouldn't be so bold in your words if she were awake," Harry motioned to his mother. Sirius felt a little guilty about talking about his godson's sex life (or lack thereof) with Lily right there, coma or not.
"Can't blame a guy for trying," Sirius shrugged "you worry me sometimes, I'm starting to believe some of the rumours about your sexuality."
Harry shook his head in disbelief "If I prove to you hat those rumours are false, will you leave me alone?"
Sirius looked like Christmas had come early – well, earlier than now but you get the idea.
"How do you intend to do that, oh godson of mine?"
"In my second year, I kissed Professor Vector," he dropped the bombshell on the disbelieving man "tongue and all, she was rather peeved, to be sure, but it was worth it. I won't have people thinking I'm gay," Harry shuddered "some of the fan mail I get is bad enough as it is, I don't need to add to the weirdness."
Sirius was wiping fake tears from his eyes "I'm so proud of you," he faked choked sobs "she used to go to school with us," Sirius informed "a few years below us, but I remember how sexy she was back then," he then winced "I asked her out once, tried a bit of the 'Sirius Black charm', I'm never doing that again," he shuddered "she may be sexy, but she gives off one of those vibes that if you even try looking at her the wrong way, she'll slice your balls off."
Harry nodded "You'd be surprised how many people get that vibe," he shook his head "are you satisfied? Can I spend time with my mother in peace?" he asked dryly.
Sirius shrugged "Okay," he grinned "but you have to come home sometime, and when you do, I'll have a whole group of girls ready to spend some quality time with you," he chuckled perversely.
"You do that," Harry encouraged "Just be sure to sleep with one eye open – for the rest of your life."
Sirius left his godson to his own devices, having done as promised and tried to get him to come home before he misses the bulk of the party. Remus had tried to reason with him that being the boy's godfather, and not having asked him to skip the Christmas visits before, that he'd have more success at it.
Clearly, the werewolf was delusional. Perhaps if he pulled his tongue out of Tonks' throat for a second, he'd be able to think straight enough to realize how stupid it was to even try. When that boy had his mind set on something, it was almost impossible to change his mind.
Sirius left the hospital with the tune of Harry's guitar in his ears.
"So Remus and Tonks are officially dating now?" Archie sat down on the chair beside Harry and Luna in the Ravenclaw common room. He hadn't been too surprised by the news, especially with the way they were acting on Christmas, but it was good to hear nonetheless. A good steady woman was the one thing Remus was missing in his life, in his opinion.
"You already know the answer to that," Harry said dryly "So, did you finish reading that Transfiguration tome I gave you?"
Luna nodded "I did," she spoke airily "I also learned every law and general rule by heart, what's next?" she sounded determined, which is why Harry would like doing what he was about to do all the more.
"Good," he nodded "now you can forget everything in that tome you learned."
Seeing the shocked look on Luna's face, Archie suddenly realized why it was a bad idea for Harry to be your tutor.
"Well, I'm off to teach my minions," Archie said dramatically "enjoy, Miss Lovegood!"
"What do you mean forget it?" Luna asked angrily, Harry was surprised because it was the first time she really showed any sign of emotion other than playfulness or cheerfulness "I spent so much time memorizing all those laws and theories in there! Do you have any idea how much of my time that took?"
Harry nodded "I have an idea," he answered "I read it when I was eight, and promptly threw it out when I was done with it. Now, are you going to cry like a little girl, or are you going to learn?"
"I am a little girl!" she countered.
"So is Archades, but you don't see him crying," he pointed out cleverly.
Luna tried to smother her grin; if nothing else, having Harry as a teacher always assured that you'd get a laugh or two; he was rather funny sometimes, she had to admit. She took a few calming breaths before speaking again, trying to reign in her temper "What was the point of me reading that tome then?"
"To show you how stupid people are in general," Harry shrugged "tell me one of the laws of Transfiguration right now."
Luna, caught by surprise that she was put on the spot, stuttered before answering with the first rule that came to her head "It is impossible to transfigure an object into gold unless its base composition is gold itself."
Harry picked up an empty glass for Luna to see "This glass," he began "I think its safe to say that its makeup contains no gold, do you agree?"
She nodded, eyeing the glass curiously.
"Good, oops," he faux exclaimed as he dropped the glass to the floor. Luna was ready to use her magic to clean up the broken glass when Harry himself drew his wand and swished it in the direction of the falling cup.
Luna watched with wide-eyed shock as the glass morphed into a plain, yet very much golden goblet before her very eyes.
Harry levitated the goblet into her hands where it dropped and she caught with a grunt. If she doubted the cup's composition before, she didn't now. It was heavy.
"You can take my word for it that that's real gold," he said dryly "for as long as the spell lasts at least. Care to name another law? Never mind, I'll do it for you."
Not waiting for the girl to respond, Harry conjured a glass of water and poured it into the goblet until it was full. With a more complicated set of wand movements, Luna watched, mouth agape, as the liquid in the goblet turned thick, and red.
"Is that . . .?"
"Blood?" Harry finished for her "it most certainly is. According to that book, I just performed two impossibilities, did I not?"
Luna nodded, too shocked to think of anything clever to say.
"The point of reading that tome is so you can know what other wizards think are impossible feats," he lectured "now that you know it's anything but, you can forget about what books or some professors would tell you. Transfiguration is all in he mind," he tapped his head for emphasis" with enough focus, magical power and finesse, you can do pretty much anything. I had you read that book so you can look at it now and realize how stupid it really is."
"But," she sounded shocked still "Dumbledore wrote in that book, famous masters in the field wrote in that book, how can they all be wrong?"
"You technically can't be wrong if no one has tried to fail," Harry shrugged "influential transfiguration masters tell people that its impossible, who are they to try otherwise?"
Luna was still trying to wrap her mind around what she'd seen, something that Harry had done so casually had completely destroyed any faith she once had in the books she cherished and the knowledge they contained.
The door to the common room opened up with a crash as Roger Davis barged in while panting heavily "Dementors broke into the Gryffindor common room!"
With that announcement, he turned on his heel and headed back to most likely the scene of the crime.
Seeing nearly the entire room empty out, Harry shrugged and figured he'd see what was going on. Perhaps they found a lead to the real betrayer of his parents in the house of their origin? Dementors are rather vigilant in hunting down their prey, especially when they were promised a soul in return for their efforts.
"What happened here?" Harry asked Archie curiously, the boy was looking over the crowd of students in front of him that were blocking their path. The Minister and Dumbledore were both arguing again, the former looking rather flustered as they did. Looking over the crowd, Harry saw the portrait of the fat lady blown clear off the wall and the entrance to the Gryffindor common room in clear view.
"Two Dementors burst into the Gryffindor common room with brute force," Archie began to explain what he had learned so far "the Minister says they found a lead on Pettigrew, but all they did is knock out Weasley number six."
Harry scrunched his face in thought, he asked "Ronald?"
"Yeah, that's the one," Archie said, "The boy wonder over there wasn't too happy about it either, apparently he was in the room when the Dementors stormed in," Harry didn't miss Archie's eyes narrow angrily with the mention of the hellish creatures.
"Well, this is all rather boring," Harry said dryly "what happened to the Dementors?"
"That's the thing, Fudge just sent them back outside to patrol the grounds, apparently their actual target managed to escape."
Now that was interesting "Did you happen to discover exactly who their target was?"
Archie snorted "Yeah, a rat," he missed the look of surprise on Harry's face "Longbottom was telling everyone who would listen that the Dementors chased Ron's pet rat around the place. They say that it jumped out the window and got away before they could catch it though," Archie snorted in amusement "The Dementors weren't too happy about that."
"You said it was Ronald's pet?" Harry asked Archie, the boy was looking at his friend strangely; more strangely than usual, that is.
The second he nodded in the affirmative, Harry pushed passed the students crowded around the scene and made his way towards Hogwarts' notorious prankster twins.
"Frederick, George, how long has Ronald's pet rat been in the family for?" Harry asked urgently, surprising the twins and those who were in hearing range.
"Scabbers?" George asked with a frown "I'd say about twelve years or so, that's when Percy got him I think, you'd have to ask him. Why do you care Potter?" he asked with curiosity.
"Twelve years?" he asked suspiciously "are you absolutely certain?"
"Well, no," he admitted sheepishly "but I do know that it's been around ever since I can remember, rather strange now that you think about it."
"What do you mean 'strange'?" his brother asked him curiously.
"What he means Frederick is that twelve years is a curiously long lifespan for your common sewer rat – Headmaster!" Harry called over the crowd, surprising the aged old man who recognized his celebrity student's voice instantly.
"How did he know you were Fred?" George asked his shocked twin, who just gaped stupidly at the spot Harry had just been standing at.
"I'd say lucky guess, brother of mine, but I'm not entirely sure I'd be correct in that assumption."
"Yeah, I have to agree mate," George exclaimed, slugging his brother in the arm and snapping him out of his daze.
"Wait, did he just call me Frederick?!"
Harry made his way over to the where the Minister and the Headmaster were in their heated discussion, completely ignoring the pudgy, red-faced man who was glaring at him angrily.
"What is it Mister Potter? As you can see, I'm rather busy at the moment," he motioned to the Minister with his eyes twinkling merrily.
"You seem to be forgetting an important bit of information about Wormtail," Harry said dryly, almost letting out a snort of amusement when Fudge just looked on in helpless confusion.
"What's the boy talking about Dumbledore? What does that have to do with anything? Who the devil is this 'Wormtail'?!" Fudge asked angrily, not appreciating being out of the loop.
"Scabbers has been in the Weasley family for over a decade," Dumbledore said, his eyes widening as the ever present twinkle in his eyes faded away. Dumbledore quickly locked eyes with Harry and flicked them over to the Minister and his Senior Undersecretary desperately, hoping Harry would get the message.
"Cornelius," Harry addressed the minister, both he and his Senior Undersecretary bristled at the disrespect "Wormtail is the nickname of our resident poltergeist, he derives pleasure from terrorizing the students, this was probably his doing. Nothing more."
Harry pat him on the shoulder condescendingly while Fudge bashed his hand away angrily, not willing to put up with the whelp's actions any longer than necessary.
"Delores," Harry greeted with false enthusiasm "passed any racist laws recently?" he pat her on the head also as she yelped in pain and grabbed her head.
"What the devil was that you hooligan? You're going to pull my hair out!" she turned to the Minister "Minister, do something, he's disrespecting us!"
Fudge turned to his senior undersecretary while Harry placed his hands in his coat pockets and watched happily "Let it go Madam Umbridge," he turned to Dumbledore "the Dementors are staying here and that is final, I have them scouring around all over Britain and beyond, I will not leave our only school unprotected when a madman is on the loose!"
With a huff and a wave at the students as he passed them by, Fudge, followed by Umbridge, made their way out of the school, leaving a group of whispering children behind.
"Mister Potter, if you'd please follow me to my office where we may discuss the events of this evening. Minerva," he addressed the stern Transfiguration professor "please see to it that the students return to their common rooms, I daresay it is past curfew already."
With a nod, she did as asked while Dumbledore motioned for Harry to follow him up to his office. They passed the stone gargoyle guarding the stairs up to his personal tower with a whispered password so he would let them pass. Once they ascended the spiralling stairs, Dumbledore motioned for Harry to take a seat in his familiar looking office. The odd trinkets and clutter were still about, however, this time, there was a rather magnificent Phoenix perched on a golden stand by his desk.
Dumbledore stroked his feathers tenderly and whispered a few choice words to it as it eyed Harry shrewdly.
"You are one of a few who have had the pleasure to actually see Fawkes," the headmaster motioned to the fiery bird "he usually prefers to frolic in the Forbidden Forest if he is not needed."
"That's," Harry paused, wanting to find the right words "enlightening. What do you intend to do about Pettigrew, it's obvious he's been hiding out with the Weasleys since that night over a decade ago."
"Yes," he agreed "I must apologise for not realizing such an important fact sooner, had I been in the right state of mind, I, too, would have questioned young Ronald's pet rat," he sighed "unfortunately, the presence of the Dementors has served to provide me with a constant source of headache and worry. I cannot sit idly by and run the risk of having one of my students being permanently injured by Dementors that are, what's that muggle phrase?" He looked at Harry over his half-moon spectacles "Trigger-happy?"
"Sure," Harry nodded at the use of phrase "What are we going to do about Pettigrew though? I may have stopped our idiot minister from bringing more Dementors from Azkaban, but you must admit they are rather effective at tracking down their target."
"Indeed," the headmaster popped a yellow candy in his mouth and began to stroke Fawkes' plumage, the man looked to be in deep thought.
"Mister Pettigrew must be aware of how the wards at Hogwarts function," he reasoned "for if he transformed into his human form while on school grounds, the wards would alert me immediately of a foreign presence and he would be discovered, and apprehended."
"So if he transforms, he does so outside the wards," Harry reasoned "Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest are the most likely options, I doubt though that you could add Animagus detection wards to the entirety of the forest . . ."
"Indeed," the twinkle was back in the headmaster's eyes "I am quite capable of warding Hogsmeade for those purposes exactly with the town's mayor's approval, but we seem to be at an impasse on how we can monitor the Forest," he sighed "it is times like this I wish I was able to communicate with one of the native creatures of the forest . . ."
"To do such a thing would be against school rules headmaster," Harry said innocently "The forest is forbidden, after all, you couldn't possibly, in good will, ask me to do such a thing when my very life could be at risk . . ."
The merry twinkle in the headmaster's eyes only increased "That rule is more of a deterrent than anything else," he reasoned "it stops the less talented students with overly large imaginations or an urge to collect rare and dangerous potions ingredients from doing so and getting killed in the process."
Harry frowned and looked at the headmaster levelly for a few moments before speaking again "That's how you knew I was a cat Animagus," Harry leaned back in his chair "you were there when Archades was attacked by the Vorpala, but didn't assist because you assessed I had the situation under control."
The headmaster didn't respond to his unasked question directly "Archades would have died without your help, or my own," he stroked Fawkes again "I am made aware of any student who trespasses into the forest and have an eye on them as soon as they do. Should they be in any danger, I am informed and I go to assist."
Harry eyed the Phoenix, who was still peering at him with its beady eyes, and raised a brow in its direction.
"Clever little chicken, aren't you?"
Dumbledore began to crawl under his desk while giving Harry one last piece of advice as Fawkes squawked indignantly "I would run if I were you," he said "Fawkes doesn't much appreciate being called a chicken."
In a flash of fire, Fawkes was upon him and thwacking him on the head with its powerful and long tail feathers. Harry was aware how powerful Phoenixes were, and knew that if it really intended to cause him harm, it could do much more. It was just playing with him.
Quickly wrapping the long feathers around his forearm, he pulled the bird close to his mouth and began speaking softly to it.
"I can feel you reading my thoughts, that isn't very polite," the bird didn't put up a fight or try to get away, which Harry took for a sign that it wanted to hear what he had to say, "you also must know of what I need from you. I don't care if you like me or not, but I will get those tears one way or another, I would prefer it if you did so willingly."
Fawkes gave him a long hard stare as it perched itself on his shoulder while Harry met its gaze unflinchingly. Dumbledore got up form under his desk to observe the strange spectacle with a raised brow.
"Well, that was interesting," Dumbledore said pleasantly "the last time Severus called Fawkes that evil word, he burnt off all of his hair, and I don't just mean the hair on his head."
Fawkes looked at Harry smugly while the boy merely raised a brow. How did he get through the clothes?
"As you can imagine, I have places to go, snakes to speak with. I'll leave you with your deranged chicken headmaster."
Harry quickly closed the door behind him just as a green ball of flame impacted on the place where his head just was.
"He's an interesting one, isn't he Fawkes?" the headmaster was back to stroking the legendary bird's plumage "I wonder what he needs those tears for? Nothing nefarious I hope?"
His familiar remained tight-lipped, not even meeting his gaze when he asked. Albus was certain, though, that his friend wouldn't offer something as valuable as his tears unless there was a true cause for it.
That was his second true meeting with the boy, the last one having been a couple of years ago with the Mirror of Erised incident. The boy is truly one of the most remarkable and determined young individuals he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Perhaps they could have a chat one day when the circumstances weren't as dire – yes, he'd like that.
"Hey, what was all that about earlier?" Archie asked his friend, having been left clueless when Harry ditched him earlier.
"The rat being chased earlier was Pettigrew," he answered dryly while changing out of his clothes to get ready for bed.
"Oh, is that all?" Archie asked dryly "I thought it was something important!"
"Shut-up for a second," Harry said calmly while pulling out two pieces of hair from a handkerchief in his coat pocket "these here are hairs from Cornelius Fudge and Delores Umbridge, do you think you could make a timed, and DNA reactive Polyjuice potion out of them?"
Archie looked interested at the prospect of making a complicated potion "How do you want it to work?"
Harry grinned "Say, if the person who ingests the potion," he motioned to Umbridge's hair in his left hand "comes into contact with someone with the same DNA as this person "he motioned to Fudge's hair "the potion would then activate and hilarity would ensue."
"By DNA, do you mean in the form of saliva?" Archie asked with a grin, catching onto his friend's thought process.
"Indeed," Harry's grinned as Archie snatched the hairs from his hand and placed them in separate, labelled, vials.
"Are we going for maximum public exposure with this one?" Archie asked as he began to jot down some quick notes.
"Of course," Harry answered "we'll have someone slip the potion into Cornelius' wife's drink before they meet up, Nymphadora can do it while she's at work."
"She can also hang around for a bit to take a picture, I'd imagine," Archie grinned "you may not know this, but she was almost as hysterical as Remus when you went inside, you should have seen her," he sighed "I believe she threatened to AK the minister several times before Remus calmed her down."
"Huh," Harry frowned thoughtfully "you learn something new everyday."
Winter quickly turned into Spring at Hogwarts and the fifth years were starting to feel the pressure of their OWL examinations that were soon approaching. Harry, however, had other issues to attend to, such as training for the final of the Quidditch World Cup.
Their last three games in the final series had been against Germany, America, and most difficult of all, Ireland. The first two matches were still difficult compared to the games they played in the group phase, but nothing compared to the match they played against Ireland. It was the first time Harry hadn't been the dominant player on the field with Ireland's famous chaser trio; Troy, Mullet and Moran.
In the end, even though Harry was still the highest scorer on the field, the Irish chasers ended up outscoring them; their teamwork was truly a remarkable sight to behold. Redbridge was obviously not pleased with that and had them training even harder for the final he assured the players was theirs in a few months time.
Aside from Quidditch training, Harry spent the majority of his time in the Room of Requirement, pushing himself and the room to its limits and beyond. It was now a common sight for Harry's dorm mates to see him return to the common room late at night covered in sweat and dead tired – they all wrongfully assumed that it was because of Quidditch; not that he was complaining.
Teaching Luna was an interesting experience for him. The girl was weird and spacey for the majority of their time together, but when he was telling her something important, she would listen with rapt attention he wasn't aware she was capable of. He would completely shatter her view on certain aspects of magic, and other than a few moments of gaping stupidly at him, she would readily accept it and factor it into her own learning, Harry could respect that. What better way to learn things than by experience?
Not that he made any time to go and watch, but the rumour mill around the school was more than enough to inform him that Cedric's new Firebolt was working wonders for him. Without his old ad crappy broom slowing him down, Archie had informed him on more than enough occasions that Cedric could go pro if that was what he really wanted.
The students, at least, thought he was good enough to play on the international level, according to what they'd seen. Harry mused that it was a good thing they were students and had no say in what happened in the real world, because it was clearly obvious that school Quidditch and International level Quidditch were almost completely different games.
The club Lestat and he were both funding, according to Lucile, would be ready for its grand opening on the eve of whenever the World Cup finished. Harry had to admit, that when it came to running, organizing and coming up with ideas for a club, Lucile seemed to know what she was doing. He hadn't been told much other than its name (Three sixty) and that the entire building is to be circular, including the interior, but the vampire had assured him that with the world class DJ line-up they already had hired and the star-studded guest list, it would be nothing but a hit. Lucile had told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he wanted to find out more about the club itself, he would have to come and find out himself.
On a more serious note, the snake he had conjured and ordered to the Forbidden Forest to search for Pettigrew (with the help of the forest's slithery inhabitants) had yet to come up with anything concrete. There had been a few rats, but none of them were Pettigrew so far, and he seriously doubted the rat was stupid enough to risk the dangers of the forest in order to escape.
With that, Harry also assumed that Dumbledore had little luck with finding the traitorous rat in Hogsmeade either, assuming he'd even be told if he had. The man was able to hide his presence entirely for over a decade though, Harry doubted he'd slip up so easily now that the entire ministry was looking for him, one could hope though.
Harry was quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he was forced to quickly leap to the side to dodge the flamethrower charm his 'clone' sent in his direction. Twirling his wand in circles several times in quick succession, the tip of his wand facing the ceiling, he conjured a gust of wind that quickly formed into tornado that he sent into the flame's path.
The mini-tornado tore towards the flame and enveloped it in its dangerously violent current, creating a ten-foot tall whirling inferno of death that headed straight for his clone.
Harry rolled forwards so that he could dodge four basketball size fireballs being shot at him from his right. That sneaky bugger!
"I thought it was generally assumed that apparation wasn't accepted?" he smirked at his 'clone' who returned his look with dead eyes. Harry honestly didn't think it was possible, but he guessed that as long as he remained within the room when he apparated, it didn't disobey the anti-apparation wards placed within Hogwarts. He needed to remember to thank Lucile later for the apparation lessons; they definitely were useful in a duel situation, especially when you can manage it silently.
Harry duelled with his clone, going full out, for another ten minutes non-stop until he called it quits. It wouldn't do if he passed out from a lack of energy within the room, surely his dorm mates would find that slightly suspicious.
Harry began the long and tiresome trek back to his common room, intent on having a nice long shower before having an early night's rest. He only had to pass five large windows however when those plans were completely ruined.
A pack of thirty Dementors floating over towards the forbidden forest isn't something one could easily miss, after all.
Harry briefly wondered what they could possibly find so fascinating in the dark forest, surely if the rat had surfaced, his snakes would have noticed him first . . .
'Unless,' Harry mused 'Pettigrew avoided the snakes at all costs, or disposed of them, knowing I could communicate with them,' it wasn't completely farfetched and out of the realm of possibility, it was commonly known that he was a Parseltongue after all, one would only have to put two and two together to reach that conclusion. Pettigrew was either smarter than he gave the rat credit for, or he was well informed.
Ronald did have a notoriously big mouth, perhaps he gleaned said information from the overly loud and idiotic Gryffindor, that too, was a viable possibility.
'Wait a minute,' Harry frowned as a thought popped into his head 'didn't Archades say he would be going into the forest tonight to get more ingredients?'
As if Murphy himself was fucking with his life from the grave, a brilliant white light flashed from within the forest, the light travelling well beyond the tree tops and out into the night. Harry didn't need to be told what was happening, it was pretty fucking obvious.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" he cursed into the mostly empty corridor. This shit wasn't even funny anymore; the kid was a human magnet when it came to attracting trouble!
"What's his problem?" Neville Longbottom asked Hermione Granger, as the two headed towards the Gryffindor common room after successfully rescuing Hagrid's pet Hippogriff from a brutal execution.
"Isn't it obvious Neville?" she shook her head in exasperation "the OWL examinations can be very frustrating, that is why you must start studying now before it's too late!"
"Right," he looked to his bookish friend dubiously. As if he'd ever do that, he had more important things to worry about, like getting himself a Firebolt so he wouldn't lose to Hufflepuff again so easily. As if he needed to learn at a school of magic!
Why does this shit keep happening to me?
A valid question if you were one Archades Montague. Getting ambushed by a Vorpala, being forced to fight a Basilisk, and now a small horde of Dementors out for his soul. If he made it out of this alive, he vowed to never come in this god forsaken forest again just to save a couple of galleons, it's not like business wasn't booming anyway.
More painful shrieks filled the air as Archie fended off the Dementors using his imperfect Patronus charm. He hoped that someone would see the brilliant white light and come to his aid, it's not like it wasn't practically bathing the entire area in brightness.
Archie sent his wand from left to right, causing the large, silvery werewolf to charge in the same direction and fend off the Dementors trying to flank him; it was no use however, Archie knew he couldn't hold the spell for much longer. The spell was quite the draining one; Archie didn't know how Harry could conjure one so easily. It took him two times to get the werewolf to appear at all in the presence of these hellish beings.
Clumsily, he dropped to one knee and used his free hand to support his wand arm. He could feel the pitiful reserves he had left running out and leaving him. He was a goner, his soul about to be sucked by the Dementors.
Never would he live to invent the cure for lycanthropy, as he had promised his deceased mother he would.
Never would he live to see if Harry actually succeeded in rescuing his mother.
Never would he get to see beloved Stephanie again . . .
'Oh my fucking god!' Archie thought desperately 'I'm going to die a virgin!'
Just as the most severe of realizations had dawned on him, Archie found his vision flooded by a familiar pair of pointed dragon hide shoes. There was only one person who wore shoes like that at Hogwarts! The thought brought an odd sense of relief to his heart.
"You're so useless," Harry sighed, his back turned to Archie as he used his body to shield his friend from the Dementors "at least you were able to conjure a semi-corporeal Patronus in this situation; if I don't kill you myself for making me run all the way out here again to save your ass, I might just give you a cookie."
Archie let out a weak bark of laughter. It felt oddly reassuring to be insulted by his best friend again. His little moment had made it abundantly clear to him that he'd actually come to enjoy the banter with the spectacled Quidditch star, not that he'd ever tell him that.
"Fuck you douchebag," Archie insulted his friend with a tired slur "be a good little minion and get me out of this situation, will you?"
"Go to sleep you idiot," Harry shook his head while never taking his eyes off the furious Dementors who were now circling him wildly "we'll discuss who's the minion later."
Without further ado, Archie passed out on the dirt floor of the Forbidden Forest, safely behind the one person he trusted with his life. As he passed out, his Patronus also disappeared in a wisp of silvery smoke, removing the last thing stoping the Dementors from swarming Harry.
"You know," Harry began loudly, speaking up over the Dementors angry screeching so that he could be heard. He knew the Dementors couldn't speak his language, but the could definitely understand it if they could take orders from the Ministry "I've been thinking for a while how I could pay you dumb bastards back for the trouble you caused me back in Azkaban, and I think I found the perfect solution," his wand hand was moving in an extremely intricate set of movements as he prepared to cast his spell "I know I can't kill you bastards, you're already dead," Harry could almost feel the smugness oozing from the Dementors after hearing that comment "nobody said anything about you being immune to pain though, and I promise, pain is what you'll feel, let me know how it feel to burn to death without being able to die – Fiendfyre!"
The Dementors were so close to him that even if they wanted to avoid his spell, there was no way they could. From the tip of Harry's wand leapt a large panther the size of a small house that ripped into the first Dementor to cross its path savagely with its huge claws.
What followed next was something akin to a slaughter, without the killing.
Wraiths, like the Dementors, are indeed immortal in the sense that they cannot be killed by any physical means. Just because they couldn't die didn't mean they couldn't feel pain though – and burning is one painful thing to experience. The unfortunate thing about burning Dementors though is that it's usually impossible with the aura of cold they passively exude to anyone within their immediate radius; you try and conjure a fire in freezing temperatures, its not an easy feat.
It was too bad, for the Dementors that is, that Harry could conjure a fire so hot that it made their aura of cold like a common breeze. The Fiendfyre spell was similar to the Patronus spell in that it conjures a corporeal, and sentient, entity out of some form of energy (in this case, fire) to fight its foes. The dangerous thing about the spell though is that it is notoriously difficult to control. If an inexperienced wizard or witch tried to cast it and lost control of their own spell, they are more likely to get killed by their own creation. Luckily for Harry, he knew what he was doing.
Harry held his wand in both hands while sweating form the immense heat his spell created in the surrounding area. The night air was filled with the sounds of shrieking Dementors as they were burnt to a crisp; they were still very much alive, but in a lot of pain too.
"You couldn't just do your job," Harry yelled to the shrieking creatures that even as they were burning, tried to get to him "all you had to do was find a fucking rat, but you couldn't help yourselves, you had to attack innocents, innocents who, unfortunately for you, mean something to me," Harry quickly cast a worried glance to his friend, hoping he didn't hear that. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw he was unconscious "I know hellish creatures like you should be accustomed to the fire, so really, I'm just doing you all a favour."
Several of the Dementors were able to escape with minor burns, but they escaped and fled as quickly as possible. The unlucky ones had the misfortune of being mauled by a giant panther of fire that batted at them with its paws, tail and head while scratching and biting them with its claws and teeth. It was a brutal punishment, but Harry couldn't bring himself to care.
Finally, after ten minutes of controlling his spell and making sure it didn't grow to an unmanageable size, Harry released it, allowing the Dementors to flee less his own creature turn on him should he lose control.
The clearing, once filled with painful shrieks, was now devoid of almost any sound. It made sense considering most of the local wildlife and inhabitants of the forest probably fled a long time ago as the Dementors passed through. Pocketing his wand, Harry hefted his friend over his shoulder and began the long trek back to the castle, thoughts of revenge being served dominating his mind.
Had Harry been in his Animagus form, he just may have spotted the small and ugly rat scurrying through the, now, empty forest and to safety; its plan to escape having worked perfectly.
If Harry was surprised to see a groggy looking Archie coming down to breakfast the next morning, he didn't show it. As far as he knew, the only people who know of what exactly happened to the Dementors last night were himself and the creatures he had attacked, and he would prefer it if it stayed that way. No need for everyone to know he can cast, and control, the Fiendfyre spell, it would just cause undue headaches.
The boy plopped down in the seat opposite him and looked about ready to say something to him until Harry tossed him today's issue of the Daily Prophet. Archie unfolded it to the front page and read:
Ministry Scandal of the highest level!
As you can see in the picture to the right, Cornelius Oswald Fudge, the Minister of Magic, was spotted getting rather comfortable with his senior undersecretary during lunch break yesterday afternoon.
The Incident, denied by all levels of the Ministry to be anything but, has sparked outrage from the community. If we can't have a minister who is faithful to us, how can we be certain that he will be faithful to the country he leads?
The Minister or Madam Undersecretary Delores Umbridge (the woman in the picture) were both unavailable for questioning, but several anonymous readers definitely wished to have their opinion heard on the issue.
"It's disgusting!" one zealous reader raged "our Minister is clearly some sleazy politician that uses his power to get into the panties of the women working under him. This is just the first time he's been caught, how do we know this woman is the only one?"
We at the Prophet must agree, how to we know this is the only woman the Minister is seeing 'on the side'? How can we ever trust our Minister again when he can't even be trusted to honour his own marriage?
Beside the article was a large picture of Umbridge giving Fudge a delicate kiss. Archie immediately burst into a fit of laughter, last's night happenings seemingly pushed from his mind, but most likely never forgotten.
"That was awesome," Archie grinned broadly "I'd love to shake the hand of the man who is responsible for this."
"What do you mean Archades?" Harry asked innocently "you want to shake the Minister's hand for cheating on his wife? How shameful of you."
Archie only response to Harry's words was an amused snort as he looked at a slip of paper he pulled out of his pocket.
"We have our Potions OWL today," he grinned "I just want to get these stupid tests over with so we can go home, this year's been so boring," the boy sighed "hopefully NEWTs will be more of a challenge."
"I doubt it," Harry shrugged nonchalantly "I'm more concerned about the final coming up, to be honest. These tests just show how pathetic the system is in testing the future rulers of their society – you want some jam?"
Archie laughed at his friend, accepting the small jar of toast spreading. Harry said some weird things sometimes . . .
"What the hell was that?" Archie complained as he and Harry exited their last OWL examination for the rest of their lives "I'm no genius at Transfiguration, but even I could tell that was bloody easy."
Harry didn't answer, the whole OWL examinations were a joke form the beginning, complaining however, would just be pointless.
"I mean, I don't know how people find those things hard, it just doesn't make sense," Archie sighed irritably "you could literally just do the assigned work the professors give you and pass the OWLs with flying colours if you retain the information taught well enough," he sighed "it's like they don't encourage independent study or advanced students at all, everyone in my study group could easily ace all those exams."
"It's why so many countries don't use the OWL system anymore," Harry shrugged "if they're content with producing house wives and politicians, they don't need to expand the curriculum, it's just fine as is."
"It's a god thing masteries are an international test," Archie sighed "they should be the real test, but we can't take them until we take our NEWTs."
"And we can't get our passports until we have our NEWTs either," Harry supplied helpfully.
"Wait," Archie paused "you have a passport, otherwise you wouldn't be able to travel and play for England!"
"It's a temporary one that only allows me to travel with the team, it doesn't count," Harry shrugged "don't you think I would have already gone to Greece to get that Gorgon if I could?"
"True, hey, isn't that Stephanie's owl?"
Harry saw the snowy owl approaching them and recognized it immediately as Stephanie's owl too. He had sent her a letter, at the insistence of Archie, to ask if she wanted tickets to the World Cup final. He doubted she would, but Archie just wouldn't shut up about it until he sent the damn letter.
Harry took a seat on the bottom step of the stairs right by them and took out his notebook, waiting for Archie to read the letter; he wouldn't be going anywhere until he was done anyway.
Several minutes passed and Archie still hadn't spoken. His back was to him and he seemed to be clutching the letter rather tightly, could he that exited to be seeing her again finally? Did she accept? They were going to be late for the Hogwarts express if he didn't hurry up.
"Will you hurry up Archades?" Harry sighed irritably "the train's leaving in half an hour, we're going to miss it."
Archie turned around a bit too quickly for his liking; something was wrong, that much was obvious.
"Well. Stephanie asked for four tickets, is that okay?" even Harry could tell the smile plastered on his face was a ridiculously fake one.
"There's enough room," Harry nodded "is there a problem? I didn't expect so many though, to be honest, I actually thought she'd say no."
"Oh, you know her room mate Fleur? Well, apparently she has a little sister who is a die hard Harry Potter, err, Quidditch fan, and she really wants to go," he joked feebly "so them two will be coming, as well as . . ."
Harry raised a brow as Archie trailed off, looking at the letter as if it were the obituaries.
"It's okay if you can't read the letter Archades, just sound out the syllables, it shouldn't be too hard . . ."
"She's bringing her boyfriend, Harry," Archie said in a quiet voice "it says she wants a ticket for her boyfriend, Fleur and her little sister."
"Huh," Harry mused quietly, thinking more on the issue then he would ever let Archie know "well, sucks to be you," he shrugged "four tickets it is."
Archie's complete silence and lack of theatrics as he followed him to the train were more disconcerting than any annoying performance he could ever have put on.