The Rise of Chaos

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Chapter Five: To Knock Some Senses In

by Allizarin Phyre

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"Are you sure?" I asked; it surprised me that my voice was calm and steady, betraying nothing of the excitement that was building in my body.

Ginny glared at me, irritated. "Yes, I'm sure, Harry! I was right there when he woke up! I was sitting by his bed, Hermione was reading in the corner, and Ron was sleeping. He just suddenly opened his eyes and said, 'Hello, Miss Weasley.'

"I was so surprised I couldn't move, then when I blinked and saw that it wasn't a dream I squealed," Ginny blushed. "Madam Pomfrey came out from her office ready to scold me, but when she saw Professor Dumbledore awake," Ginny giggled, "oh, I wish I had a camera! To say that she was shocked is like saying a storm was a cloudy day!"

Moody raised his eyebrows in amusement, but showed no other sign of emotion. I myself kept my face composed, smooth and devoid of expression. Inwardly, however, was a completely different matter. A spring of hope welled up within me, a bloom of joy spread across my body.

Dumbledore was awake.

Ginny composed herself from the laughter. "Well, afterwards I ran to look for you because I knew you'd like to know if he was awake." Her brows drew closer in puzzlement. "Are you sure you were in the library? I looked for you there, but I couldn't find you!" She glared at me suddenly. "Harry! I looked for you everywhere! Where were you really?"

It was quite amusing to watch the play of emotions that chased each other across her face. First excitement, embarrassment, then joy, followed by laughter, chased by puzzlement, suspicion, and lastly anger. I suppressed a smile, though I knew that my lips twitched. "Yes, I'm quite sure that I was in the library. Maybe you came by when I visited the bathroom."

She rolled her eyes at me, her actions clearly saying she didn't believe me, but she let the matter drop. That was what I liked about her, she knew when to let matters go and when to press for information. Not like Hermione, I glowered, but it was a friendly one. Hermione was a true friend, though sometimes annoying.

I fingered my earring, an emerald of power encrusted in solidified holy water, it helped me release the tension that built up within me.

"Are you gay?" Ginny's voice tore through my thoughts, surprising me into jumping -- a little. Too little to be noticeable, I hoped.

"What?!" I was startled when her question finally sunk in. I was quite off balance; her unexpected question threw me off quite a ways. "I'm not gay!" I cried indignantly. Even Moody was taken aback by the randomness of the question.

"Well," she said dryly, "don't you know that gays wear their earrings on their right ear, and straight guys on their left?"

I frowned. No, I did not know that. But I didn't want to admit it to her. Merlin, where did people find out about these things? Light! No wonder people were giving me funny looks at Diagon Alley!

"No, I did not know that," I replied hotly through clenched teeth, I tried to suppress my embarrassment. I flicked my wand into my hand and quickly undid the spells that held the earring on my right ear. No, I did not get my ears pierced, only a simple spell kept it there.

I switched the earring to the other ear and tried to ignore the laughter from Moody and Ginny. "Let's go to the infirmary," I growled. If looks could kill, I would have been sent off to Azkaban for murdering two innocents.

Azkaban. I had forgotten that the dreaded prison was shut down.

"Oh, you should have seen your face, Potter," retorted the retired Auror, "you could have fried some eggs on that furnace you call a face!"

"Shut up, Moody," I glared sullenly. "You could have told me about that!" My voice was cool and straining with anger. I tried to brush off the emotions but the shame that flourished in me was great.

"I'm guessing you got the earring from the place you were at during the day?" asked Ginny when she managed to catch her breath. I ignored her.

I hid a grimace. I needed to hide them, or everyone would be asking questions about the earring, necklace, and bracelet. Without any noticeable change I slowed down until Ginny and Moody were a few paces ahead of me before I quickly charmed the three accessories with a spell to repel a person's interest.

I grinned triumphantly.

Catching up with them, we walked for a few minutes before reaching the Hospital Wing. We slipped inside to see all the Weasleys, minus Percy, crowding around Dumbledore's bed. Remus and Tonks were there, as well as Hermione and Madam Pomfrey.

I smiled as I walked up, "Long time no talk, sir!" I greeted him cheerfully. A genuine grin split my face as the sight of Dumbledore with his eyes open reached me.

"Took you long enough to wake, Albus, did you like your beauty sleep?" growled Moody. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in delight as he recognized us.

He laughed. "Ah! Harry, how are you? I dearly hope that you are well and rested." His eyes twinkled as they met my own, he turned to Moody, his said disapprovingly, "And Alastor, is that a way to greet a friend?" Sparkling blue eyes danced as he greeted us in turn.

I peered at Dumbledore, noting that even though his voice was strong and clear, his body still showed signs of fatigue. The strong body of his was now deteriorated into a fatless skeletal form. It was a sight to pity.

I looked at Dumbledore closer, activating my ability to see magic, and almost winced at what I saw. Dumbledore's aura was terribly weak, very transparent, almost to the point it could not be seen. An almost solid Pink, which for him, was extremely low indeed. It was the almost part that worried me, where there wasn't Pink -- in which one would expect to see either Orange or Red -- there was Gray. The books where I picked this up from never mentioned a Grayness.

I looked around quickly, barely turning my head as needed, and viewed the aura's of all the other's. Most were pretty strong, as far as I could tell; having a mix of Oranges, Pink's, and dark Yellows. Mrs. Weasley was the weakest, having mainy dark Yellow, with several large Orange flecks. Mr Weasley was mostly Orange, with a few tiny flecks of Pink. The twins were Orange, with a good many Pink flecks, and Ginny, suprisingly, was almost all Pink. Thinking on Ginny for a second, I decided that, if that was not simply her natural power, then she had somehow absorbed some of the memory Tom Riddle's powers during her time of posession.

Remus, likewise, was almost all Pink. Tonks a nearly even mesh of Orange and Pink, with just a bit more Pink. Madam Pomfrey looked to be a solid Orange, yet her aura contained a blue shine surrounding it. I guessed that it denoted her healer abilities, or healing nature within her -- as a black shine emits from a Death Eater, indicating their soul's corruption, and there alliegence to true evil. The second-to-last person I looked at was Ron, and I was again shocked today, not by the mountain of power he contained, far from it actually. He looked to be only a little stronger than Molly, a large bright Orange, with many large flecks of dark Yellow interspersed; of all the new generation of Weasley's, Ron was definitely the weakest. That left only Hermione, who, from the looks of things, was the strongest of the younger generations present (all of those under 70) being topped by only Moody and Dumbledore. She had a mostly solid Pink aura, with several large flecks of Scarlet. No wonder she always did so well in class!

"Apparently you haven't had a beauty sleep, seeing how terrible you look," grunted Moody. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Really, now," demanded the nurse. "You must rest, Headmaster. You're much too weak to be having any company at the moment."

Her voice was stern, but not unkind. She turned to us, her sharp words sending us on our way. "Now, shoo! The Headmaster needs to rest! And if I see any of you try to converse with him today I'll have you isolated in a room for the rest of the summer!"

Her words had weight, she really looked liked she would do exactly as she threatened. The crowd around the bed dispersed quite speedily, and I moved away no less quickly than the rest, accidentally bumping into Ron.

"Get off me, Potter!" snarled Ron.

He tried to stalk away but Mrs. Weasley was there, blocking his way. "Apologize to Harry this instant, young man."

"Why?" yelled Ron, everyone froze at this outburst, even Dumbledore peered at Ron. "He snapped Percy's mind, don't you remember? I can't believe you forgave him for killing your own son! How could you disgrace Percy like that? He was your son! And here you are telling me to apologize to the bastard who killed my brother? Didn't you love Percy? He was always the star of the family! And now you're here acting like nothing happened. I can't believe --"

A large slapping noise abruptly ended Ron's shouting.

Everyone froze as Mrs. Weasley lifted her hand up to slap Ron again. Her voice was cold, "How dare you? How dare you say that? Of course I loved Percy! I loved him so much. Don't you dare presume to think that I didn't love him! But he's a Death Eater now! He tried to kill Harry! He --"

Mrs. Weasley broke down, she cried, her tears tracking down her face. Mr. Weasley embraced her, and she cried harder. Everyone was glaring at Ron, who was fingering his red cheek. His eyes were watery, but his anger was obvious.

"You don't love Percy," he said quietly, "all you care about is your precious Boy Who Lived."

Ron ran out, the doors to the infirmary slamming open. The sound of his footsteps drifted away. I was flabbergasted at what just happened, before I tore after Ron, quickly enhancing my senses like I did at the flight from Private Drive.

With my hearing enhanced quite greatly, I padded after him, quickly gaining on him until I reached him at the hallway of the Room of Requirement. I watched as he entered the Room, the door slamming shut behind him.

I slowed down; my breathing was still even from the stamina-increasing gem on my necklace. No sweat streamed from my face for the same reason. I walked calmly towards the door. I knocked politely before entering.

"Stupefy!" shouted Ron.

The spell sped my way, I barely had time to roll away, and that was because of the reflexes I had honed on the Quidditch field. I straightened, my wand raised before me. "Ron, it's me Harry! I just want to talk --"

That was obviously the wrong thing to say, as Ron cried, "Reducto!"

"Protego," I muttered, as the shielding charm protected me from the spell, and threw it back in the direction it came from. I snapped at Ron, "Hey! Watch that! You could have blown my head off with the spell! Or put a hole through my --"

I never finished as Ron sent a severing charm my way. This was getting dangerous.

"Incendio," I muttered, burning the spell out of the air, I waved my wand, "Incarcerous." Binds sprang out of the tip of my wand, bursting to Ron.

"Incendio!" copied Ron, the binds burned to ash. "Naratho!" The air whipped my way, a solid wall of wind speeding in my direction.

"Tancilio," I sighed, the wall dispersed. "Stop, Ron! We don't need to duel. I only wanted to talk."

"Talk, Potter," Ron spat, "Talk about what? About the way you killed my brother? Talk about how you turned my whole family against me? Flamera!"

Fire jetting out of Ron's tip like a whip, "Protego," I muttered once more to shield myself.

"Flamera! Flamera!" shouted Ron, "Flamera!"

The flames hammered against the shield, again and again. But my strength and the gems I wore held fast. This wasn't even a challenge.

"Finite Incantatem," I waved at the flames; they promptly disappeared. "Expelliarmus."

"Protego!" Ron yelled, the shield wavered under the spell, before it dispersed. The disarming spell slammed against Ron, efficiently disarming him.

The wand clattered on the floor a few paces from where I stood. "Going to kill me like you did Percy, Potter?" Ron snarled, his voice hoarse from all the shouting he had done in the past ten or so minutes.

I sighed, before requiring a cushion, and sat down. "No, Ron. Why would I do that? You need to understand that I never meant to --"

Ron laughed, it was hollow and cold, I nearly flinched. "Never meant to? Never meant to what, Potter? Kill my brother? Snap his mind like a twig? Potter, what did you never mean to do?"

I felt a little annoyance build up within me, but I suppressed it, "I never meant to hurt him," I sighed, "I never meant to break him, Ron. You need to believe me."

"Believe you?" he sneered, "Oh, of course I do! After all, you're the Boy Who Lived, right? How dare I, your servant and slave, not believe you?"

I counted to ten in my mind to calm myself, to release the burning anger that was starting to grow in me. "Ron, be serious for a moment! I'm sorry for Percy, I'm sorry I had broken him! I'm sorry! But I'm not sorry for saving Remus! Percy was a Death Eater!" Ron glared at me. "Yes! A Death Eater! He gave his soul to Voldemort! He would have killed you and your family without any seconds' thought!" I sighed, "Ron, Percy was not the same person he was before. I'm sorry."

"But he's my brother, Potter," Ron was still glaring at me, "and you killed him! How could you do that, why did you kill him? But then, you wouldn't know how it feels to loose a brother, now would you?"

I snapped, my anger unleashing in a torrent. I nearly screamed in sudden rage, "I wouldn't know? I wouldn't know! How could you say that Ron?! How dare you?! I lost everyone! Everyone! Everyone who was close to me is lost! How could you say that, Ron? You were there; you were near me through those times! Who have I not lost in this war? My parents? They were killed when I was one! Any siblings I might have had? Lost the same day! Sirius? Killed last school year! Friends? So many of them! Dead!

"And here you are, throwing it back in my face! I can't believe you, Ron! You have everything! You have a dad, a mom, brothers and a sister for Merlin's sake! Are you jealous of me? Is that it? Are you that jealous, are you tired of being in my shadow as Hermione put it in our fourth year? Well, don't! Don't you dare to even think my life is better than yours!"

The sensation I had felt last time I was angry started once more, my emotions began to take a physical manifestation, a glowing orb of power that spread across my body. I felt myself start to feel strange; my anger was increasing by the moment.

"How could you Ron?! How dare you tell me to my face that I wouldn't know how it felt! Do you know how many times a day I regret their losses? Do you?"

It was becoming unbearable; the anger was building up to a point where I felt like I was about to explode. The manifestation was growing as well. It pressed against me in an attempt to unleash itself in a wave of magic that, I knew from instinct, had the power to destroy half the school. In the corner of my mind I wondered what was happening, but my focus was mainly on trying to calm this raging anger.

I took deep breaths, slow and steady, trying to think on happier thoughts. The power dimmed, my anger releasing. I sighed before I tried to speak once more, I spoke in a level voice, "Ron, I'm sorry about Percy. I'm sorry I had to snap his mind. But don't you dare blame it all on me. Don't you dare presume to know what I feel and don't feel. Don't you dare."

Ron started crying, his face filled with such pain, silent tears sliding down his cheeks, by all looks, he not even noticing. But no matter how hard I tried I could not forgive him for that. I walked to the door in disgust, mainly at myself.

"I didn't know," he wept at me, his voice wavering, his tears falling from his eyes. "I'm sorry."

I turned as I opened the wooden door; I looked at Ron's pitiful form, crying on the floor. "I know," I whispered to him, "Merlin help me, I know."

I knew that he would be. I knew that he would be sorry, but I could not forgive him yet, his words scarred me. The door closed behind me.

Ron cried.

---

Twinkling brightly in the far-away heavens, the stars shined in beauty across the night sky. The moon, only half of its bright orb showing, reflected the beams of the sun to lighten the earth. The cold night wind stirred along the knee-high grass, rising up to shift the leaves on the tallest trees. Still rising, the night breeze lifted up against the wall of the Astronomy Tower, it rose abruptly, scaling the wall to its roof. It swirled around me as I lay on the roof, one arm crooked behind my neck to cradle and comfort my head; the other arm was fingering the earring on my left ear.

A shudder raced across my cold body, I sighed and flicked my wand into my left hand. I layered a shielding charm and a warming charm to create a barrier against the night air and warm the intervening space within. My hand released the wand carelessly, returning absentmindedly to fingering my earring. The wand flew across my chest and up my right sleeve, into the holster.

I had climbed the Tower after my little duel with Ron. I was in no mood to return to the infirmary. I knew that I wouldn't be able to concentrate on studying nor visit the kitchens, either. I wanted to go to a quiet place to relax and sift through what had happened during the day.

My mind recalled the day, starting from the beginning. The trick of seeing magic I had learned from a Dark Arts book was great. It was a marvel to behold at all the magic in the castle. I frowned; I would need to ask Moody to teach me how to get through these barriers or wards. I did not know how to pass through security wards unnoticed, nor did I know how to break them. I would need to know that.

Apparating to the Leaky Cauldron was amazing. In barely a split second I had moved across hundreds of miles. The knowledge of Apparition would be greatly useful to me in my fight against Voldemort. The only problem with it was the unmistakably loud crack! that would resound whenever I Apparated or Disapparated if I did not use most of my concentration on it. When I did, I could appear almost soundlessly, but without intense focus I was louder than the twins and Mundungus-when-pissed combined. I remembered Dumbledore Apparating soundlessly at the courtyard in the Ministry of Magic. Most likely, the more experienced I gained, the easier it would become to apparate without too much noise. Although it hopefully wouldn't take too long to get there. Most adults could only soften the noise to a pop sound. Dumbledore, however, had managed it soundlessly, Voldemort too. I would need to achieve that level of focus as well.

It was sad, at Diagon Alley. Lots of shops, which were once open there, were now closed. The usual crowd diminished by nearly half. Briefly I speculated on how Magical Britain's Economy was fairing. All the leavings would hurt many families still out there. Many families would be made poor because of Voldemort. Anger once more burned in me. I took deep breaths to calm myself. Voldemort. That name hung in the air; Voldemort. He was the cause of all this.

Voldemort.

It was a memorable visit to Gringotts; the amount of gold I now had was mind-blowing. The talk I had with the goblins was enlightening. Everything I bought at Diagon Alley was in my pocket. I enjoyed the time I spent there. I took off my glasses, still quite amazed at my now perfect sight.

The secondary wand was simply incredible. I had to cast a Dark Curse at Peeves who still did not show me the proper respect. I used the second wand then, wanting to test the strength of the wand. The wand seemed to -- relish -- exalt when using the curse. It seemed almost eager for more Dark Spells. Curious I had tried to cast a few Light spells and see if it had the same results but found that my new wand seemed to want to resist in casting those spells. My primary wand on the other hand always seemed to cringe when it used any of the Dark Arts and relish using the Light Arts.

But then again, my second wand's core was of Unicorn hair, I mused, and Unicorns were known as the purest of creatures. It was an amusing paradox.

The cloud sparkling green and silver was stunning. The wand chooses the wizard, Ollivander had said, and people do change. When I had gotten my first wand, a shroud of gold and red had burst from its tip. Maybe the second wand reflected my darker and secretive Slytherin side and my first wand reflected my purer and more outward Gryffindor side.

It was an interesting theory.

I had forgotten to get a snake, I realized suddenly. A snake would have been perfect, but I guessed that I could always get it later when I went to Diagon Alley with the others. I would just needed to wait for a few days. The real reason, the most important reason for my wanting to get a snake was simple. Snake Magic. It was an Art only parselmouths could do. There were a variety of spells that would be enabled to me if I had a snake. It was a powerful Art, and I would need it to face Voldemort. After all, he probably knew all of it by heart, which explained his reason for keeping his snake Nagini close by.

I could always cast "Serpensortia," but I resisted the idea purely because I knew that I wanted a magical snake. The Snake Conjuring Charm would only conjure simple, not magical snakes.

Dumbledore waking up was shocking; after all, the Hogwarts nurse had been almost positive that he would not wake for another week or so. Dumbledore and I, I thought dryly, we did the impossible.

The fight that occurred between Mrs. Weasley and Ron was embarrassing, especially because it was about me. Seeing her cry cut me deep, and watching Ron rage about Percy and I hurt me even more.

Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me, goes the saying, but now I knew the difference. A single word could kill; a single word could hurt more than any amount of physical force.

Dueling with Ron would have been funny if it hadn't been such a serious moment. My training with Moody really paid off as it showed when we fought. Ron would not have been able to stand a chance against me if I really wanted to hurt him. He threw his might against me, and it was laughable.

I was ashamed of the temper tantrum I had. It embarrassed me that I lost my temper like that. It had been a while since I had lost my balance. But the power that grew in me when I did, the physical manifestation of my anger was exulting. I could relish in the power all my life.

What was it?

I had figured out by now that the power that bloomed in me was connected to my emotions, but what was it? The Discipline of an Auror had once said, "Your emotions feed your power, take control of that power, use your emotions as an advantage, not an obstacle!" But it never really told me what it was.

Maybe the power was Core Magic. I sat up, my eyes widening with the realization. Yes, maybe that was the fabled Core Magic. I lay back down, smiling in satisfaction at my hypothesis. Maybe with this new knowledge in mind, I could expand on the power to wield it effectively. I smirked; Voldemort would be surprised when he saw me wield the Art of Core Power -- yes, when, not if, I would become a scholar, or better, a master in that Art.

The scrape of a boot on the window that led to the roof pulled me out of my thoughts. In a smooth motion I flipped onto my feet, my right hand holding my wand at the intruder, my left holding a knife ready to throw.

"Lumos," I whispered, lighting my wand to see whom it was. A dozen spells were ready to be spoken at a moment's notice. The light flared, illuminating the roof in a clear dome of light.

It was Remus; his brows were raised, his hands held up to show that he was unarmed.

"Remus? What are you doing here?" my voice was neutral, but I was quite puzzled. I lowered both arms, returning the knife and wand to their places.

He stepped through the window, and came to stand beside me. I saw him look into the distance, look up at the stars, see the moon and shudder. I waited patiently the whole time, waiting for him to answer me.

"Ron apologized," he stopped, turning to study me with his weary eyes. I smoothed my emotions, controlling my features. I allowed nothing, no emotions to leak through. I was a stone, a rock.

He frowned when I didn't respond. "He came back an hour ago. He said he was sorry. He wanted to know where you were -- I think he wanted to apologize to you as well, but no one knew where you were."

He looked at the roof, and even in the dim light from the moon it was obvious that someone had been lying there, stirring the dust. "No one knows what happened. No one knows why Ron suddenly changed his mind, his opinion." He sat on the roof slowly; I pondered whether or not I should keep standing. But one look at Remus' face made me decide against it, he looked like he would be here for a while. Reluctantly I sat beside him, my body relaxed, but my mind poised to act. Constant vigilance.

"All he says is that he had his senses knocked back into him," Remus stated, but with a hint of question. His eyes bore into me, not like Moody's, but close -- I knew that Remus could not do Legilimency. He clearly wanted me to tell him if I was responsible for knocking the senses back into Ron, but I remained silent.

"Anyway," he went on when I didn't speak, "everyone was worried about you; no one knew where you were. It was Hermione who guessed that you would be here."

Hermione knows me well, I thought to myself. I nearly grinned but squashed the action before it happened. I remained still, my eyes drifting over to the Great Lake. A dark shape moved under the water, before a large tentacle lifted up into the air, and slowly sunk back in the water. The Lake waters rippled, tiny waves created from the tentacle of the Giant Squid.

"She guessed right," I said calmly, betraying no emotions. Remus looked at me sharply, not even the night's dark could hide the sharpness of the look.

"Well, yes, she did," Remus stumbled. He paused, visibly gathering himself and began once more, calmly, "You know? We never did talk that day, the day after you got drunk."

I nearly frowned, recalling that day; I remembered promising Remus to talk with him later that day. We never got around to it, I realized, we were just too busy. I shrugged, "I guess we didn't. I was busy."

"I've noticed," he said dryly, "you seem to be very elusive these days." He paused, looking at the Whomping Willow who swung its branches around as if they were tentacles. "What are you doing all the time? You and Moody are up to something, aren't you?"

I flicked my eyes to his, and stared at him levelly, "That's my business."

Remus dropped his eyes, shrugging, "If you say so." He looked at his hands, obviously trying to avoid looking at my eyes as I pinned him with its intensity.

I sighed, "I'm sorry. He's just helping me out with some Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. You do know that he's my professor this year, right?"

He nodded, "About that, I'll also be a professor this year, only this time in PE."

I nodded gracefully; my mind, however, was a mess. He's coming to teach this year? Why didn't anybody tell me! I was quite annoyed. I smiled at him cheerfully, though I did not feel it, "That's great! Hope you won't be too hard on me!"

Remus chuckled, though it sounded a little forced. "How could I? Sirius would have murdered me if he found out!" He seemed to realize a second later that it was the wrong thing to say. My face darkened at the mention of my godfather's name.

Remus cleared his throat uncertainly, "Did you know that we're going to hold a private funeral for him? Sometime after Dumbledore's strong enough to get up?"

I shook my head to say no, not trusting my voice. Yes, a funeral would be great.

"How are you about that?" Remus seemed cautious, as if he expected me to bite his head off if he ventured too far. "Are you okay?"

I cocked my head in thought, with an effort I calmed the turmoil within me, "I'm fine. Really, I'm okay with his death now. But it was so sudden, wasn't it? Sirius' death, I mean."

Remus also nodded silently, we both looked out at the night sky, both deep in our thoughts. "By the way, I was supposed to reprimand you for drinking that night," he said in a light tone, trying to cheer me up by the looks of it.

I smiled weakly, and winced as I remembered the hangover I had the next day, it was terrible. "I won't be doing that again," I said wryly, "you don't need to worry. Merlin, I felt like my skull was about to split open!"

Remus chuckled, " Well, that was what we thought, but I just wanted to make sure."

"We?"

Remus blushed; it was just visible in the dark night, "Tonks and I."

I smirked, "So, when did you get together?"

There was a silent moment. "A little after the Department of Mysteries," Remus finally replied, "Tonks was feeling terrible after Sirius had died," he paused, a little hesitant.

"And you were there for her," I finished for him. Remus nodded. I looked at him slyly, "So, I'm guessing you've been with her the past few days, I remember once seeing the both of you rush into the kitchen late and blushing red as if you were in the sun all day long."

Remus turned red, I laughed out loud.

"What were the others doing when you left?" I questioned, yawning from the day I spent out at Diagon Alley.

"Well, Hermione was reading a book, Ron was speaking with his family, and Dumbledore was off sleeping. Moody was guarding the doors and Madam Pomfrey was trying to get everyone to sleep."

I smiled and got up, "Gosh, I'm tired. I think I'll get back to the infirmary now."

I waved my wand at both of us, ridding our clothes and exposed skin from the dust on the roof. With another mutter at the barrier against the cool night air, I promptly dispelled them. We proceeded to head down to the infirmary, only to find that everyone had gone to sleep. I said good night to Remus before slipping into the bathroom, getting ready for a nice long bath.

I prayed silently, hoping I wouldn't fall asleep in the tub and accidentally drown myself.

All in all, I managed to clean myself quite thoroughly, and managed to pull on some transfigured clothes before tumbling into my bed, tired and weary. I had decided, since Dumbledore was now conscious, that I should stay down here for a while. If for nothing else, it added a bit more protection to the Infirmary, incase Voldemort decided to do anything while he was still down.

I fell into slumber within three breaths.

---

My eyes snapped open; the dark gloom of dawn filled the infirmary. With a quick habitual glance to check for anything unusual, I sat up, rubbing the last of my sleep from my eyes. I checked to see if anyone else had woken, but it looked as though everyone was fast asleep. I looked down at my watch. 6:30 am.

With a practiced jump I vaulted over the sidebars on the hospital bed, landing silently on the carpeted floor. I slipped into my slippers, gliding over to the bathroom. Another wave of my wand lit the candles, the bathroom radiated with the soft glow of flames. I looked into the mirror to see my face, the scars once more covered by the concealing charms. My earring and necklace fit in perfectly, my scar just visible under the unique but cool hairstyle of the Ewe Heyr Gel.

With a start, I realized that I had not worn my glasses, and with another widening of the eyes I realized that this was the first time I had looked into a mirror without having my glasses on. It was fabulous, my green eyes blazed as if on fire, a light of knowing sparkled in those eyes of mine. I looked into the mirror rapturously.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I looked into those eyes, the eyes that were nearly identical to Lily Evans Potter's. I ripped my eyes away from the mirror and reached into my pockets, emptying them on the area next to the stone sink: my old and new trunks, my backpack with all the books.

With a wave of my wand I undid the spells on the items, quickly enlarging them to the right size. With another few minutes of moving the junk to the new trunk, I finally cast an organizing charm to fix up the mess. Now my old trunk was empty and ready to throw away, my bag was emptied of its contents, all of which were neatly organized into a compartment on the new trunk.

I dug into the clothes section of the trunk, the third compartment, and took out a few regular muggle clothes, and seeing that I didn't have any other robes, I chose a black robe laced with silver designing. It was a dueling robe, but I didn't mind. It was actually quite light and amazing, giving me the ability to move without hindrance, and the extra spells on the fabric would protect me from unexpected assault. And the fact that it looked good helped me to decide to wear the robe anyway. There was, actually, nothing to distinguish between regular dress robes and dueling robes other than the spells placed on the second.

I lay the clothes out on the stone table, and stripped myself of my nightclothes. Reaching for a bathrobe in the closet, I chose a dark green robe, and wore it as I walked around the edge of the pool and tub to reach the faucets. I turned on a combination of faucets that I had grown to like, and waited, sitting on the edge of the pool.

Within minutes, the water level kept rising on a steady pace until it was high enough, and I flicked it off with a single graceful wave of my wand. Although I stripped away my clothes I always left one belt of knifes and both of my wand holsters -- they were water-proof so it didn't affect them, and the knives had a few spells on them to make it safe to bring into the pool, anti-rust and such. The wands however required a little bubble charm to keep the water at bay so that the woods of the wands would not soak up the water.

I proceeded to do just that, a simple bubble charm was placed around both wands, and with a practiced move I slipped silently into the water. I sighed as the hot water worked its magic, and lathered up the soap and shampoo at the wall on the other side of the pool. With careful and gentle scrubbing I cleaned myself, enjoying the sensation the hot water gave me, relaxing in the pool. I knew that I had a lot of time left.

Nearly an hour later, fully cleaned, I got out of the tub, and a towel summoned my way. I dried myself, before walking back to the mirror hanging above the sink. I shaved myself, and brushed my teeth, before putting my accessories back on and placing the necessary spells on them. With a bit of Ewe Heyr I spread the jell-like substance all over my hair and waited patiently. A tingling sensation started in my head, a pleasant sensation not at all irritable. It lasted a few minutes before stopping, and when I looked into the mirror, my hairstyle was back, the hair gel had made my hair into the best style that fit me.

Waving my wand almost carelessly and muttering incoherently I shrunk the items back into their miniature forms, and rewove the security wards that had been placed on them. I purposefully left one book out, though. It was titled, Through Wards and Past Barriers by Lena Marcelo. By what it said on the back, it was a book that basically taught you how to get through wards and past barriers. I shrugged myself out of my bathrobe and pulled on the muggle clothes slowly, enjoying the feeling of the dry and soft cloth on my bare skin. I reached over for my dueling robe, and pulled it on, enjoying the feeling of safety that came with the robes.

I looked at the mirror once more, to check my appearance. The dueling robes, the earring, the necklace, and the new hair style all added up to make me look better than any male models I had ever seen. I smiled, delighted with my new look, the scars on my face also added an affect of darkness and danger.

I sighed before putting my glasses on and covering the scars with the glamour charms. Now as I looked into the mirror, I saw that I still looked pretty good, but it was nowhere near the look of the first, without the glasses and the concealing beauty charms.

Glancing at my watch I saw that it was 7:45, nearly breakfast time. I doused the candles before stepping out of the bathroom to find only Madam Pomfrey awake. She motioned me to stay silent, mouthing at me, "Go eat your breakfast."

I nodded in understanding, exiting the infirmary, silent as a wraith. The dueling robes were incredible, they felt feather light, they seemed to almost anticipate my next motion and bend with me. It was a remarkable feeling, like flying and gliding with the birds of the air.

The people in the portraits that hung on the walls greeted me as I passed. I had passed through these halls many, many times during my stay here, and they were all nice to me. I greeted them back, saying pleasantries to them in turn. I walked for a few minutes, turning around a corner when I heard a familiar voice curse and yell.

The hall where the portrait of the fruit bowl hung, the poltergeist floated, howling at the entrance to the kitchens, hammering on it like a human would. His fists, instead of flying through like a normal ghosts' fists would have, slammed on the portrait as if he had a physical form -- though technically, Poltergeist's did have physical forms when they wanted them, it was obvously trying to pass through, and thus looked quite annoyed to be physical to the portrait. I smirked as Peeves tried again and again to float through, but the magic I had placed around the kitchens held him out. It was a spell, a ward against ghosts.

I had recently found the spell in a Necromancy Arts book, and the ward that kept the poltergeist at bay was the only type of ward that had the capability of keeping out the ghosts. Not even the Ministry of Magic was protected from snooping ghosts, and as it seemed, neither was Hogwarts. I was excited that it worked.

"Hello, Peeves," I called calmly, my voice unruffled, gliding forward.

Peeves turned, his eyes widened when he saw me, and with a girlish squeal he flew through the wall opposite the portrait in a frenzy to get away. I laughed as I continued to the portrait, it seemed the lesson I had taught Peeves last night had had the wanted effect. I stepped through to find the House Elves already hard at work, though I didn't actually figure out what they were doing yet.

I greeted Dobby as I had done many times before, and made my way to the table where I had eaten from since the first morning at Hogwarts. I read the book as I ate, my mind delving into the words. It was amazing! I couldn't wait to finish my breakfast and make my way to the Room of Requirement to test out these techniques. I didn't remember what I ate, but when I got up, ready to go, I saw that I had emptied all the plates on the table. Bewildered I stared at my stomach in wonder, how I ate all that was a mystery to me.

I knew that I looked like a Ravenclaw, my nose buried in a book as I headed absentmindedly to the Room of Requirement, but I hardly cared, as all my interest was in the book. That was why I had no warning when a spell exploded into my dueling robes.

Bloody hell! I had forgotten the Perimeter Charms. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

It was lucky I had worn these robes, the spells woven into the fabric was the only thing that saved me from exploding into oblivion. A quick glance at my robes showed that the spell had been absorbed and did not ruin the cloth at all. I rolled to the left; at the same time I flicked both wand and knife into my hands.

To give me time to recover, I threw the knife in the general direction of the opponent, at the same time I muttered, "Protego."

I rose swiftly; the shielding charm protected me from a hallucination charm sent my way. The attacker was wearing black robes, though not the robes of the Death Eaters. The hood was up, covering the greater part of the face from sight. The man's voice, and a man it was, was gruff and unrecognizable.

"Expelliarmus," I threw my wand out, from the tip exploded the red beam of the disarm charm. I moved at the same time, gliding to the left -- only a fool would stay in the same place and not expect to get hit, Moody had told me -- another knife was summoned into my left hand. I layered a stunner with another stunner, holding them.

"Protego. Flamera. Kholor!" bellowed the enemy in quick succession. My eyes widened as the disarming spell was reflected back at me in company with a whipping cord of flames and the floor below heaving at me. It was the fact that I lost my balance that I managed to escape the majority of the flames. The spell went right over my left shoulder, exploding into the walls behind me. My concentration on the Layered Stunner slipped, allowing the spells woven together to disappear into thin air.

This is getting rough, I thought to myself. My dueling robes held together against the ordeal, but the little flames that had managed to hit me singed my hair. I gritted my teeth, "Novaclor!"

A multitude of silver balls, the size of a bullet, exploded away from me and launched against the enemy, who promptly laughed, "Incendio Expande!" The bullets were met with a wall of intense heat, not fire, just very, very intense heat. A mass of red air that stood in the way of the bullets, which melted them out of the air, similar to what I had done to Ron yesterday. My eyes narrowed.

"Lavach!" I snapped.

"Korien!" he countered.

The spells discharged in the middle of the room. I leapt to the right while aiming my wand at the enemy who also leapt backwards. "Florene!"

Water poured out the tip of my wand, wrapping around the intruder. But I didn't stop and wait, "Linoaras!"

Lightning launched from my wand, shooting against the enemy who was suffocating in the water. I smiled; the water and the lightning should finish him.

However, I did not anticipate him to reflect the lightning back at me, my eyes widened before I threw myself to the ground. A fool who underestimated his enemy is a fool who has lost, Moody had told me. And here I was, underestimating my unknown attacker. The water around my attacker disappeared; he finally seemed to remember the counter curse.

I staggered onto my feet.

"Panora!" he pointed at me, pain shot up my right arm. With a pure effort of will I kept my wand in my hand and refused to let it drop.

"Caenar," I seethed through clenched teeth.

The intruder lurched away, as a more powerful pain spell imploded against him. The spell was made to override his nerve systems, pushing him into an overdrive of pain -- though it was far from the pain level of the Cruciatus. "Finite Incantatem," we both chanted to release ourselves from the pain.

"Confundo," he glared at me. I recognized one the Confundus class charms; this one would make me see left as right and right as left.

Focusing on my target, I whispered, "Reducto," to allow me time while he deflected the spell, before layering a Wall-of-Air Charm with the Incendiary Fire Charm, and fired it all.

The very air whipped with a twang, the intruder deflected the Reducto spell but barely managed to escape the advancing wall of fire.

"Aquaro," he grunted, and the water fell from the roof, dousing the fire wave. I managed to undo the Confundus Charm.

He turned to face me; a silence filled the room. Enough! I shouted at myself. I was fighting without thought, like an idiot. I cleared my mind of everything, and readied myself mentally for the duel. I stood straight and tall, my eyes sharpened. It was like being washed with cold icy water and waking up, I calmed my breath and drew myself up to my most intimidating stance.

My robes bellowed slightly, swirling as the winds died down. The silver lines on my robes shined in brilliance, but the fabric, made of the darkest of black cloth, gave a more frightening look. I stood, ready and poised, like a cat ready to pounce.

A cold wintry smile spread across my face, though it did not reach my iron hard eyes. My right hand with the wand clutched was lowered, level to my thighs, but I raised it up slowly and deliberately.

"Let's play," I purred.

The true duel had begun, we circled each other warily; my wand was steady and firm. The intruder was a challenge to me. I studied him, looking for an opening. As if by a mutual agreement we stopped and strengthened our grips on the wands.

"Incarcerous"

"Stupefy!"

The spells met and rebounded, the binds that had exploded from my wand flew back at me. "Finite Incantatem." The binds disappeared; I stared rapturously at the enemy who did the same.

"Kholor!"

"Impedimenta!"

The spells flew across the room, colliding with each other. The Earthquake Spell from the intruder met with mine and slowed down almost completely. It inched over but my spell held it fast.

"Stupefy alei Stupefy."

I wove the two stunners and released them.

"Protego. Flamera!"

The bright force of the stunner slammed into the opponent's shield, bending it. I would have been able to break the shield if the whipping flames did not whirl through the air in my way. Avoiding those flames took away my concentration, allowing the Layered Stunners to evaporate. "Protego." The flames had whipped around to attack me once more but met with the shield.

The intruder got rid of the tongue of flames, before waving his wand at the floor. The stones -- over four dozen of them -- lifted off the ground and shot towards me. My eyes widened. I threw my wand out in front of me and tried to banish them back towards the enemy. The two of us struggled for dominance over the 50 stones. I had never had to focus on so many things at once. I felt myself loose a grip on a few stones that immediately charged at me.

I threw myself to the floor because I had no other way to defend myself. It took all my concentration to keep the other, majority of the stones at bay, muttering a shield would have been useless because I would loose my tenuous hold on the rest of the stones. It was mainly the new accessories that I had purchased the day before that kept me going and aiding me, I must admit. Without the gems, my mind would have collapsed a while ago from the intensity in which I had been forced to concentrate upon.

The stones smashed on the floor where I had been moments before. I rose slowly and unsteadily, gritting my teeth from the migraine that was starting in my head. I pushed and pressed, I struggled with all my strength, but it was obvious that the stones were gaining on me. Black spots appeared before my eyes, my head felt like it had on the morning of my hangover.

Oblivious to us both, or at least to me, the Kholor Spell was still advancing on me, however slowly, and at that very moment the Impediment Spell wore off, allowing the Earthquake Charm to erupt at my feet, robbing me of my last ounce of will -- my mind lost its grip on the stones, the stones flew to me. I sank to my knees, my breathing harsh. Sweat soaked my clothes. I closed my eyes in defeat, waiting for the stones to crush the life out of me.

Seconds died like hours, but nothing so much as hit me. I opened my eyes slowly and suddenly gave a yelp. All the stones were an inch from my body, held there by magic. I didn't dare to move, my eyes staring fixedly on the stones.

The stones fell to the floor with a loud crash, and I stared dumbfounded at the mess of stones before I lifted my gaze to the intruder. Abruptly I realized that I was on my knees, and gathering my will and strength I stood, locking my knees together so I wouldn't totter and fall.

The enemy's hood was down, allowing me to see the face. It was Moody.

I exhaled sharply, "Moody!" Anger bubbled in me, "Bloody hell!"

Moody threw his head back and laughed, cackling.

"You bloody bastard," I glared, "You could have flaming killed me!" I glowered at him. I wanted to thrash him as he stood there looking so pleased with himself. I wanted to wipe that amused look off his face with my fists.

"Stupefy!" I barked, watching the spell collide with the retired Auror. "What happened to your constant vigilance, eh Moody?" I mocked.

I walked over to my book, which had fallen near the door, thankfully away from the major part of the battle. I glanced over at Moody, before deciding to leave him there on the floor. Serves him right, I told myself firmly.

Deciding I wanted to rest, my body was weary from the exercise, I wandered over to the infirmary, where I had resettled to for the time being, as everyone else was still there.

I listened as I approached, trying to verify if the others were awake, but the Wing was still silent, just as it had been when I left. With a frown, I neared the swinging door, sliding my head in to peak around and see what was up. The infirmary was empty save for the few beds that still held their patients. I saw that all the Weasleys were gone as well as Hermione. Dumbledore was still in slumber near the bathroom, and Madam Pomfrey looked to be working hard in her office, the sides of a cauldron just visible in the corner of the office. It was boiling.

Making healing potions, I wager.

I sat on my bed with a sigh, grateful that the bed was magicked into molding itself around the patient's body. The cushioning was perfect as I leaned against the wall of the infirmary. With a grimace, I cast the same spell Madam Pomfrey had cast on me on the Quidditch Field. It was one of my favorites.

With the sweat and grime gone, I pondered on where the Weasleys and Hermione had gone. I rolled my eyes, of course! They went to the kitchen for breakfast. Happy with being alone in the quiet and peaceful Hospital Wing, I took off my glasses before I opened my book, scanning through the pages to find where I had read last.

"Harry? How have you been?" I jumped at the words, turning to face Dumbledore who was up.

I shrugged, "I guess I'm okay sir. I heard that we'd be holding a funeral for Sirius. Is it true?"

Dumbledore nodded gravely, "Hopefully in a day or two, when Poppy allows me to leave. You have visited Diagon Alley then?" I struggled to keep my face impassive, but a little shock must have shown because Dumbledore chuckled. "You aren't wearing your glasses Harry, and that must mean that you were healed. And seeing the title of the book you were reading moments before was not a book in the library, I only put two and two together."

I nodded, not trusting my voice. It was always awkward and uneasy when you found that Dumbledore knew what you were trying to hide. "I'm guessing you either went alone, or with Alastor, perhaps? You would not have reacted like that if the other's went with you."

I nodded once more. Dumbledore smiled.

"Has anything happened while I was asleep, Harry?"

"No, sir. At least, nothing that I know of. Remus might know more," I replied. Suddenly I remembered Lucius Malfoy. "Except, er... well the thing is...."

"Yes, Harry?" Dumbledore prodded when I stumbled over my words.

I reached into my pockets before fishing out the jar with the bug. Dumbledore remained silent, but I saw a hint of bewilderment in his eyes. "The night out on the plains, I... well. Malfoy attacked me and I sort of captured him." I finished in a rush. I scolded myself, this was not the way I wanted it. I sighed, life was never easy or fair for me, was it?

"I see," said the headmaster, "and I am venturing to guess that the bug in the jar is Lucius Malfoy?"

"Yes, sir."

"And what would you have me do with him, Harry?"

I frowned, puzzled, "Well, send him to the Lazarus, maybe?" I didn't understand the question.

"Well, that can be arranged," Dumbledore said smoothly, "but you would not have waited for me to wake up to show that you had Malfoy captured if that was all you wanted, Harry."

I scowled before I cleared my face of expression. Lousy old coot, I thought to myself. But I really wasn't annoyed at him. Not really. Why did I not turn Malfoy in before? "I don't know, sir. Maybe because I thought he could be questioned by the Order."

Dumbledore nodded, accepting my answer, trusting me. Only a fool trusts. One cannot live without trust. Merlin, I'm so confused. "Well then, Harry, I'm sure I can get Severus to make some Veritaserum and have him questioned by Alastor or Kingsley. Afterwards he can have a trial --"

"Trial?" I burst, "What do you mean trial? Just ship him off to Lazarus!"

Dumbledore shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry, Harry, but he must be given a trial." He silenced me with a look when I opened my mouth to protest, "I agree that there is no doubt that Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater in the Inner Circle of Voldemort. Yet, even Sirius was condemned in that way. I'm sorry, Harry, but Lucius Malfoy must be given a trial. Do not sink to the level of the Ministry."

I desperately wanted to argue, but deep inside my heart I knew what he said was true, so I nodded my head, however reluctant, and that seemed to clear the matter up in Dumbledore's eyes. "Now, we can have Lucius Malfoy put under the influence of Veritaserum, but a Ministry law states that there must be at least one eye witness to testify, would you like to do it, Harry? Of course, you will not be placed under the Truth Serum unless you wish to."

I thought over the matter, and I dearly wanted to help Dumbledore in any way I can. "I'll do it, Professor. I guess it's okay if I'm placed under the serum for a bit."

Dumbledore smiled at me, his eyes twinkling, "Very good, Harry. Do you want to tell the others or should I?"

The others were surprised, angry, and happy at the same time. Surprised because they didn't know I held Malfoy, angry because I didn't tell them, and happy because of fact that he would soon be sent to the Lazarus. Those who didn't hear the news of Azkaban, mainly Hermione, were shocked when they heard it was abandoned; yet they quickly got over it.

When they heard of the trial they were in an uproar, but after listening to the reasons Dumbledore had set out before them, they calmed down, only to rise up once more when they heard that I was going to be a witness under the influence of Veritaserum.

All in all, it was quite amusing watching the emotions that fleeted across their faces, but their want to protect from witnessing touched me.

---

The day of the funeral seemed to come too quickly to be normal. It was almost as though my anxiety, fear, and dread had somehow made time tick faster. The day seemed to reflect my mood, as the clouds darkened the outside, an overcast that hid the sun.

My heart was heavy as I sat through the service; my thoughts were racing with memories, memories of Sirius Black. The time we first met sparked in my mind: I had run away from the Dursleys only to find myself lost. That was when I met him; he had changed himself into the black dog of his Animagus form.

I blinked away tears, my will forcing myself to calm. Oh Sirius, I wanted to cry, why did you have to leave me? But a small voice in my head, growing louder every moment, whispered that it was entirely my fault. It whispered that it was because of my "saving people thing" that I had gotten Sirius killed. It whispered that I had been a fool to fall into Voldemort's trap so blindly, like a senseless child. I argued with the voice, I tried to shut it out. But deep inside my heart, I knew it was true.

It was my fault.

My arms itched; it had not done that since the end of my fifth year. It itched to be cut once more. With a start I clamped my hands to my sides, clenching them into fists. I would not be helping anyone if I cut myself.

And yet the feeling persisted, a steady feeling of wanting to be released, released from the guilt, from the blame. I watched with only half an interest as people walked up to the empty casket to say their last farewells.

They went up one by one, the Weasleys, Hermione, Tonks, Remus, Dumbledore, Moody, and so on. But when it came to me, I could not move no matter how I much I tried. I wondered why that was, I tried to reason out why I couldn't move. My eyes widened, as I realized why my body wasn't moving; it was because a part of my mind didn't want to do it. Because in saying a farewell, it would mean that Sirius was really gone from my life.

Even up to this point, a part of me always felt that Sirius would return, always a hope that he wasn't truly dead. With great reluctance and pain, I slowly punctured those thoughts of hope; slowly, I burned them away from me. It was like tearing away my heart.

Suddenly Hermione was there, she touched my shoulders hesitantly, "Harry? Are you okay?"

I tried to tell her I was fine, that she needn't worry, but my throat didn't seem to want to respond. But Hermione grabbed my hand, "Come on." She pulled me forward, and I let her lead me to the casket. She patted my hand, she kissed my cheek, and suddenly I felt much better than I had felt for a long time.

I looked down at the empty casket, as I tried to phrase my thoughts.

"I'm sorry," I started, holding back my tears. "I'm so sorry." My eyes watered, and I tried to blink it back. It wouldn't. "It's all my fault." Once more I watched in my mind as the scene of his death replayed. "I should have done something." My voice wavered, tears leaked from my eyes. "It's all my fault." I leaned against the casket, suddenly weak. Tears that I had been holding back for all this time rushed out of me in a torrent I could not stop.

"I'm so s-sorry."

My knees buckled as I squat on the dirt ground. I tired to rise up but my limbs were too weak to hold me. "I'm sorry," I whispered before grief overwhelmed me. I whispered those words over and over again until the arms of darkness embraced me and pulled me into its depths.

"Sirius, I'm sorry. I'm sorry...."

It was hard for me the rest of the day after I woke up. Everyone was there for me, helping me, but the one to help me the most was Hermione. She seemed to know what I was going to do; she seemed to be able to read my thoughts. That was before Ron led her away from me. I felt jealousy well up in me, and it startled me.

I had never had feelings for Hermione, she and I were just friends, right? Why should I feel jealous? But no matter how I argued with myself, the jealously would not go away. It was a new thing to me, this jealousy; I didn't know what it was.

Then it hit me.

I had a crush on Hermione.

But, I questioned, when did this happen? I recalled all the times we spent together, and I smiled. She always did calm me; her soft words, and her capacity to understand soothed my emotions. Thoughts of her always comforted me.

Was that a crush?

I was so confused. If Ron kissed her I'm going to pin him by his ears on the Astronomy Towers for -- What am I thinking? I shuddered. But I still felt anger build in me whenever I thought of those two together.

Well, thought a rational side of me, you don't now if they're actually dating or not.

Oh, go away you, I scoffed at myself, let me brood on my own.

But since that day it hurt me to see them together, even when they were simply eating side by side.

---

"Come on, Harry! Dumbledore said the Portkey will activate any moment now!" called Ron. I hurried down the slope to meet with the rest of the Weasleys, Dumbledore, Moody, and Hermione. We were going to go to Diagon Alley to get our supplies for school, before the Weasleys left for the Burrow and Hermione and I stayed in the Gryffindor Common Room until the trial. The Order had been helped greatly by the knowledge of Lucius Malfoy, but finally, after squeezing all the information they could from him, they turned him in. The trial was set to be two days before the start of the term. I was the only witness, and I was going to testify under the influence of Veritaserum, the strongest truth serum in the world. At least it isn't Snape's varient, his had always been considered the strongest form of Veritaserum in the World.

The trial was in exactly one week.

I glided over and grasped the large white board -- six by four feet; it was large enough for all of us to get a firm hold on the wood -- after only a slight hesitation. I hate Portkeys! "Three, two, one," counted Dumbledore. He looked at us, "And we're off."

The tug in my navel started once more, and memories swirled around me, memories of bad happenings whenever I got on a Portkey. The air rushed by my ears, the spinning was making me dizzy. Colors swam in front of my ears in a mind-blowing speed before my feet slammed into the dirt ground.

I regained my balance a split second after I landed, so did Dumbledore and Moody, but all the Weasleys and Hermione were sprawled on the floor in huge disarray. It took several moments to untangle all the limbs of each person, but after a little navigating and instructions by Dumbledore while Moody and I helped, we were able to get everyone back on their feet.

"Remind me never to Portkey...." whined Fred.

"...With a large group ever again," finished George.

Ron shook his head as if to rid the aftereffects from the Portkey. I grinned at him, and he smiled at weakly. I had forgiven him days ago, and we were back together, close friends forever.

"I suggest we split up, buy our own supplies and meet here, say, in four hours?" Dumbledore inquired, looking at his weird watch with planets and stars. We nodded in acceptance, and we grouped up; Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Moody and me; Dumbledore with the twins; Bill, Charlie, and their parents.

We turned our separate ways, but before we reached the more crowded section of the Alley, I turned to Moody, remembering something, "Hey, Moody. Can you disguise me?"

I could have done it myself, but I was supposed to feign ignorance and stupidity. Moody nodded in understanding, "Glatia." The spell shaped me; I felt it tingling on my skin before it sunk into it. My skin visibly lighten to yellowish white color, I noticed my hair turning red. "What is the color of my eyes?" I questioned.

"Blue," grunted Moody before he pushed me into the crowd. We caught up to the other three just as they were entering Gringotts. We visited each of our vaults, before exiting the tunnels. Luckily no one commented on the extra gold that was in my vault, but that may have been because they were blocked from the view by both Moody and I. As we exited the building, I saw Giphon in the corner of the great hall, and we both waved at each other before I left. We entered Flourish and Blotts, buying our books was quick work with Hermione to navigate us, and a visit to the Apothecary was also quick because none of us could stand the smell of the place for long. We stopped to buy some ice cream before heading over to get our daily supplies such as parchments and quills and ink.

Seeing we had some time left, nearly two and a half hours, I asked if Hermione and Ginny would help me get a new wardrobe of both muggle and wizard clothes. Two hours later, I had two full wardrobes of muggle clothes and wizard robes; of the fashion the girls told me, after two hours of them making me try out new clothes, left and right. Getting the wizard dress robes wasn't so exciting to get as the muggle clothes, but the girls did put me through the usual "put this on, no, wait, put this one on!" pace for nearly thirty minutes.

In private I asked the sales lady to charm all the robes with the same spells as for the Dueling robes. She told me I would have to wait for twenty minutes to have that done. So we waited, though I didn't tell anyone the reason why we had to wait, but it was a short time considering the girls talking so excitedly about their day, it was amusing to watch them.

I exited with everything safely in my pocket, before we headed back to the place we set with Dumbledore to meet at. There was only ten minutes left.

I suddenly realized that I had one last thing to do, and with a quick charm to plant in their minds that I was still there following them (it was a Dark Spell), I snuck away to a store that sold a multitude of magical and unmagical snakes. I knew Moody wasn't affected by it, no one properly skilled in Occlumency would be -- their mind protected from all magical penetration. Whether it be Legilimency, Posession, or Confundus spells of any kind, it was near impossible to use them on a master of Occlumens. It was pure luck on Moody's part that his confundus spell actually worked when he surprised attacked me, as I was not ready for it in the heat of battle -- I had not thought to bring my Occlumency training into an active state. Supposedly, like Apparation, Occlumency would become second nature over time, and it would almost always be held up naturally by my mind, without my attention to it whatsoever.

The shop was dark and dank, reeking of animal waste. I entered, looking through the cages. I heard the snakes gossiping to one another.

"Another one of those humans!"

"Yes, I wonder which one of us it will take."

"Smelly humans," cried a black snake on the left, "Do they always smell so?"

"Hsst! Do not speak of the masters in that way! Snakes are the slaves of humans, do not forget that!" reprimanded an older and longer snake."Giphra is right. The humans are our masters, we serve them," the red snake sharing the cage with the black snake said firmly.

The black snake snorted, if that was possible for a snake to do, "Humans? Our masters? I'd rather bite a kin of mine before I submit to them!"

All the snakes hissed at the black snake as if it had spoken a curse. Mutters of "How dare that little, idiotic...." and "...so immature, not submitting to humans?" and "Never seen such a peculiar snake...." ran around the whole shop.

"There something you wanted, yes?" asked a sour old man.

I was startled out of my focus on the snake-talk, but quickly controlled myself. Time was running out. I pondered, looking over the snakes. The other snakes were staring rapturously at me, except the black one who simply curled up to go to sleep. I smiled; I liked the black one. It had spirit.

"I was wondering if I could purchase the black snake there? Yes, that one. May I know what it is called?" I asked as the old man prodded the black snake with a long metal stick.

"A Black Mathera, it is immune to most curses, its black scales are magical and when skinned, can create clothes almost as strong as dragon-hide, but much softer. Its poison can either kill or paralyze. If poisoned to kill, whatever was bitten will die within seconds, no matter how large the prey. If it poisons to paralyze, there is no cure except for another bite from the snake," toned the man. "You still want him, yes?"

I looked at the black slit eyes of the snake, before nodding firmly. The man lifted the snake with the metal stick, carrying it into a cage before telling me, "That'll cost you fourteen galleons and three sickles, sir."

I paid him, and left with the cage, but I stopped short of the exit, and looked back to make sure the man couldn't see me. I opened the cage, "Hello, little one."

The snake sprang out of its coil, startled, "Who are you, human?"

I smiled at the defiance, "I am Harry Potter. Who are you?"

The snake stared, "Gonriphassy."

My eyebrow rose, "Do you mind if I just called you Gonri?"

"If you must, human," replied Gonri.

I rolled my eyes at the stubbornness, "My name is Harry. And are you male or female?"

"Harry? That is a stupid name. But if you wish to be called Harry," the snake emphasized the name with distaste, "then I shall. And I am a female."

I smiled, "Would you like to get out of the cage."

The snake seemed to wrinkle its nose, "You do smell less than most humans. I guess I shall," and simply crawled up my sleeve. I felt it move along my arm and stick its head out by my neck. It wriggled over to my neck and settled around it, not squeezing too tightly.

Wondering if I had made the right choice by choosing a snake that would argue with me every time we spoke, I hurried to catch up to the rest who were almost to the Portkey point, placing a spell on the snake and the cage to go unnoticed by others, like the jewelry -- though I suspected, like with the other spells of the mind, Moody and Dumbledore would see them.

---

The rest of the summer passed by quickly, I learned and learned, practiced and practiced, using my free time well. Hermione seemed to be in the library with me for just as long, but we didn't ask each other questions, we both silently agreed to stick our noses out of the other's business.

But we were still friends; we talked together in the Common Room, and ate our meals together. We sometimes discussed our homework; she was still a pleasant friend to hang around with whenever we both got bored of our studies. She seemed to like me more now that I put my studies ahead of my play. We were getting closer, though we studied separately. We had already decided to reinstate the DA, except this year we would concentrate more heavily on dueling.

Ron and I sent mail to each other frequently. I found that Hedwig had fled from Grimmauld Place when the Death Eaters attacked and flew here directly. I petted her for a while, murmuring my affection to her. She worked hard, getting my mail to Ron. We were close friends once more, but even though he was my best friend I did not tell him of my training.

Moody was a great help, he guided me through my studies, and we dueled many times during the summer after the first. He was quite annoyed with the sneak attack I pulled on him when we first fought.

Dumbledore was working hard in restoring the Order; he worked hard to unite the world. I barely saw him, even though I stayed at the castle, I only occasionally met with Professor McGonagall who would always chat with me for a while whenever we met.

My studies in the Dark Arts started to get better as I got my second wand. It seemed that my progress in the Dark Arts was at first slow because my first and primary wand revolted at the idea of Dark Magic. The second wand was a perfect substitute.

The snake was also a challenge; she seemed to enjoy giving me headaches, as she always tried to argue with every single point that I made. But she participated in my practice of the Snake Arts, and she seemed to like the powers it gave her. I too enjoyed working with her.

So days passed by quickly and I didn't even know, until it was the day of the trial.

---

I walked up the familiar pathway in the Ministry of Magic. It was the day of the trial. I wore my battle robes, since they were the best looking robes I had, and I wore all my accessories. A feeling of dread rose in me, a feeling that something bad was going to happen, but when I spoke to Moody about them, he told me that they were just the usual nervousness before a trial.

Nevertheless I came prepared, trusting that little voice in my head that screamed danger. I proceed down to the courtroom, where the judge sat on the pedestal while the jury sat on one side of the room.

The introduction and stuff passed quickly, I was too nervous to listen or care. It wasn't until I heard my name voiced that I snapped out of my thoughts.

"We call on Harry James Potter to testify. He is willing to be questioned under the influence of Veritaserum."

A murmur passed through the crowds at the trial, as I stepped forward onto my seat. I sat, as the clerk approached me with a bottle of the murky serum. I opened my mouth to accept the potion, and waited as I slipped into that haze, it seemed as though I were in a dream. I couldn't concentrate, or move my body, only my eyes.

"What is your name?" asked a voice that rang in my ear.

I tried to answer, before I realized I didn't know. To my horror I found that my mouth was speaking my name.

"Harry James Potter."

"What --"

From the corner of my eyes I saw Moody jump up in alarm, before I felt my scar start to twinge. "Voldemort!" Moody shouted. Everyone froze at those words. Dumbledore rose from where he sat, his wand raised to re-enforce the doors before they exploded with a boom!

Black robes bellowed from the wind. His dark presence filled the room with an intoxicating terror. The hood of the cloak was up and covered his face, but his ironic yet cold, triumphant yet wintry smile could be seen in the light of the courtroom.

Distorted dark shapes crowded behind him, a multitude of Death Eaters ready to kill. Voldemort stood there, his crimson eyes flaring as they met my own. He spoke, his words chilling my numb body; purring in satisfaction and triumph. His words were spoken to mock me.

"Hello, Potter."

---

Feel You Everywhere

The clouds seemed like ash,
Black, like my heart.
And the pain burning deep inside,
Is ripping me apart.

The seconds pass so slowly,
As though this day will never end.
And my heart is in pieces,
Shall it ever mend?

The night air's so warm,
Yet my body is so cold.
Oh, how I long to be with you,
Deep within the earth's fold.

Yet I feel you in the night wind,
Your voice hanging in the air.
And though my eyes can't find you,
I can feel you standing there.

Though you are so far away,
You're closer than you're far.
For I can feel you everywhere,
From darkness to the star.

---