"Well, back here once more." Harry said as he climbed out of the carriage and moved round to pat the Thestrals. The one he was stroking made a whuffling noise and gently head-butted him.
"Harry…" Hermione prompted and Harry gave the Thestral a final pat before joining his friends in re-entering Hogwarts.
"So, the kin-slayer returns." A voice sneered and Harry looked up to see Draco looking back at him from the ceiling-crossing corridor. "You only got away with it because you're famous, you know."
Harry could almost feel Neville's growing anger and he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder to try and calm him down.
"You know, Draco," Harry said conversationally, pitching his voice so that everyone could hear him, "I'm quite surprised you managed to make it into Slytherin. I mean, the way you jump at things headlong, one might say you are the most Gryffindor Slytherin to walk the halls of Hogwarts."
Draco's face reddened and his fingers twitched.
"I mean, you accuse me of being a murderer, but you haven't thought it through." Harry continued. "After all, if I can kill people in a way that means that I can't be charged for it, do you really want to risk me turning my attention to you? If you still believe that I am a murderer despite the interview I gave, why exactly are you trying to attract my attention to you?"
Hermione made a strangled noise of protest, but Harry was watching Draco carefully. The blond boy paled slightly, then scurried away.
"Well, let's get back to the tower, shall we?" Harry prompted as he guided his friends out of the entrance hall, completely missing the looks that a pair of red-headed boys in one of the side-doors were giving him.
.
"Well, my dear twin, it would seem that the famed Boy-who-lived has a Slytherin side to be respected."
"Quite true, my brother. It does one's heart good, watching him shoot down that blond ponce."
"Indeed it does. Of course, when May finally comes around, we shall have an opportunity to see his mettle first-hand and at close range."
"You mean at Quidditch, Gred? Well, before then, the Ravens are going against the Snakes and given that he has shown he can take down Bludgers…"
"Quite so, Forge. Quite so. Which means, we must ask ourselves if the Snakes are going to try to create any new tactics."
"I do not know, brother, but surely anyone who can take down not one but two Bludgers with his hands has little to fear from the Slytherin Chasers."
"Quite so, Fred. That is not going to be a match to miss. Not even for a chance to plan a new prank."
"Speaking of, didn't we overhear the password to the Slytherin Common Room when we followed the Blond Twit yesterday?"
"Indeed we did, George, indeed we did. Why, what wonderful pranks are you devising?"
"Well, we do have that batch of delayed-action constant-color-changing hair dye we never found a buyer for…"
The Weasley twins snickered as they walked into the Gryffindor common room, causing the few students still there to pale and try to avoid attracting any attention to themselves.
.
"Ah, Harry, Neville, Hermione, welcome back." Filius beamed as the trio passed the door to his office which he had relocated to just inside the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room so that he was available to oversee the Ravenclaw Prefects (and intervene if he deemed it necessary). "I trust that you had a good holiday?"
"We did." Harry said, speaking for the trio. "We celebrated the new year… then kind of zonked out till late next morning."
"Several of the older students here did that too." Flitwick grinned, then he frowned dramatically. "Of course, in retrospect I suppose I should have been more suspicious about all those bottles of It's-Not-Fire-Whiskey-Honest that they were drinking…"
Neville managed to turn his chuckle into a cough while Hermione giggled.
"Anyway, since the lessons don't restart until the day after tomorrow, you should have plenty of time to get settled back in." Flitwick concluded with a gracious wave.
"Thanks, uncle Fil." Harry smiled, then he slapped his forehead. "I've just remembered. I have a cloak I wanted you to look at, it was given to me anonymously and I've got no idea what spells might be on it."
"Oh, bring it in and I'll have a look."
Harry pulled his shrunken trunk out of his pocket and tapped it with his wand, expanding it to full size. Opening it, he pulled out the neatly-folded cloak and placed it on Flitwick's desk.
"Oh my." Flitwick breathed almost reverently. "Harry, this cloak once belonged to your father! And his father before him!"
"A Potter Heirloom?" Neville asked and Flitwick nodded as he waved his wand, causing a mirror to appear in the corner. Another wave of his wand over the cloak seemed to satisfy him and he pointed to the mirror.
"Harry, put the cloak on and look in the mirror. There aren't any spells on it that shouldn't be there, but I think you'll find it interesting."
Harry slowly unfolded the cloak. Turning to face the mirror, he swung the cloak over his shoulders and stared at the sight of his head apparently floating in mid-air.
"An invisibility cloak!" Neville gasped. "Wow! Harry, look after that! Cloaks like that are really expensive!"
Harry pulled the hood of the cloak over his head. Although the fabric slightly distorted his vision, it didn't block it and he looked round, then crept behind Hermione as quietly as he could. Reaching out, he clapped his hand onto her shoulder.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Haaaarry!"
Hermione's flailing caught a corner of the cloak, pulling it off him, then Harry had to dodge her wrath. Neville and Flitwick laughed as Hermione chased Harry around Flitwick's desk, vowing vengeance. After several minutes, Hermione slowed down and Harry used that to catch her, hugging her so that she couldn't free her arms to try and hit him.
"Uncle Fil," He said as Hermione growled at him while trying to squirm out of his grasp, "Over Christmas, I discovered I don't have much in the way of magical resistance…. in fact, I have almost none at all. I'm going to need to learn some shielding spells."
"Yes, you will." Flitwick agreed, all traces of his previous laughter gone. "However, given your ability to fend off Bludgers… I think that a Duelist's Shield would be the best place to start. You've already seen me use it in class…"
"Deflecting Malfoy's spell?" Harry asked and Flitwick nodded.
"Indeed. Whilst it is e a very small shield and thus almost useless against area-effect spells, it can be used to deflect most spells, even reflect them back to the one who fired them. However, you need excellent reflexes and co-ordination to use it. Come and see me once you've finished settling in and I'll teach it to you… Yes, Miss Granger, I'll teach you as well if you want."
Neville crammed his fist into his mouth to choke down his laughter as Hermione's puppy-dog-eyes expression vanished into a pleased grin.
"Thanks… okay, Harry. You can let me go now!"
.
.
"The Duelist's Shield is both incredibly simple and very hard to use correctly." Flitwick said as Harry, Hermione and Neville stood before him. "It is a spell which relies on magical power and concentration, you must shape your magic to form a thin but strong shroud around your wand. Once you have done this, you must then maintain it as you physically move the wand into the path of the spell you wish to deflect. Be aware that there are many spells that this technique is useless against but in general, if you can see the spellfire and it isn't an Unforgivable, it can be deflected. Now, watch closely."
Flitwick held out his wand and a brief shimmer seemed to envelope it. "Miss Granger, if you would please send a stinging charm at me?"
Hermione twitched her wand and a spell flashed towards Flitwick, only for it to be deflected upwards, wasting itself against the ceiling.
"Well done, Miss Granger. Now, the key to the shield is concentration. You must keep control over your magic at all times, the instant you get distracted, the shield will unravel. Of course, the better you get at it, the easier it will become until you can perform the spell almost reflexively."
"And it will work against the spell Malfoy tried to hit me with?" Hermione asked and Filius nodded.
"Once you have learned it, then it will indeed." He replied.
"I still don't get how he escaped punishment for that." Harry frowned and Filius sighed.
"Because, technically, he didn't break any of the rules in place at the time. Oh, Battlesticks have now been limited to NEWT-level students only, but before Christmas, it wasn't against the rules of Hogwarts to own one or use it. The spell he tried to use wasn't on the banned list, and still isn't since it is impossible for anyone below NEWT level to cast it and even amongst NEWT-level students, perhaps two in the entire year are skilled enough to be able to cast it. In other words, despite the fact that what he tried was morally reprehensible, it wasn't actually criminal."
Hermione glowered for a long moment, then Filius waved his wand at the blackboard, causing a diagram of the spell they were trying to learn to appear on it.
"This is how I imagine the spell." He said as the trio looked at the image of a wand wrapped in a veritable web of lines. "Some prefer to use triangles to surround their wand, or squares. Just try different things until you find a technique you feel comfortable with, then try holding it for as long as you can."
.
.
"It's 'atchin!" Hagrid waved as Harry approached. "Perfessor Kettleburn's gone ta get da NEWT students, but feel free ta stay an' watch!"
Harry hid a smile as he followed Hagrid into the just-completed pen designed to hold the dragon during its early life. The pen was built of stone so that it could not be ignited and would keep the heat inside. The heat itself came from an odd type of stove that Harry had never encountered before but which had apparently been copied from an inventor in America who had created it less than two decades prior (making it a rather newfangled and untrustworthy device by Wizarding standards). A small hole held several sticks that were somehow burning sideways at their lower ends and the raised metal barrel next to it was radiating heat, as was the brickwork on the other side which formed the raised platform on which the egg was wobbling .
"Make way!" Kettleburn called and Harry scrambled sieways as the NEWT students flowed around Hagrid, taking up position around the raised area, albeit keeping a respectful distance. "Hagrid, you have the dragon food?"
Hagrid nodded and carefully waded through the students to retrieve a bucket and ladle. A cracking noise attracted their attention and Harry peeked round the pink-haired student he was behind. The Hufflepuff girl looked down and smiled.
"Wotcha, shorty. Not seen you around… ah, Harry Potter, right?"
At Harry's nod, she continued. "I'm Tonks. Just Tonks and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Did you know we're cousins? Sorta…"
"Really?" Harry asked and Tonks nodded.
"Yep. Your cousin-in-law twice removed Dorea Potter was my great-aunt. Heck, I babysat you a time or two when you were still a baby… you drooled all over me."
Harry blushed and Tonks laughed.
"You're okay, squirt. Heh, good to see you again."
"Hey, Tonks, who's your new boytoy?" One of the other students asked and Tonks swatted him, her hair reddening slightly.
"Hush you, he's my cousin."
Harry grinned. He'd never really thought of himself as having a family (the Dursleys didn't count) and Tonks seemed to be a very interesting person.
A loud cracking noise sounded and everyone resumed watching the egg as a small triangular piece fell to the ground, pushed by a claw.
"You can do it!" Hagrid crooned as he knelt beside Kettleburn. "Come on, you can do it! Poppa's waitin fer ya, Norbert…"
"Norbert?" Harry whispered in disbelief. "A Dragon called… Norbert?"