Harry Potter and the Return to Godric's Hollow

CHAPTER SIX

A Map, and Mysterious Letters

It was a crisp morning and the sky was clear. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were making their way side-by-side to Hagrid's cabin for their first Care of Magical Creatures class of the term.

"I wonder if Hagrid got the centaurs to come out for our first lesson," Hermione wondered aloud.

"I dunno," Harry remarked. "They're kind of strange, and I don't know if they'd come out or not. I think they like to just stay in there and mind their own business. Firenze may come out, though; he was the one who saved me in the Forest in our first year."

"Hullo!" Hagrid greeted the three of them as they joined the group congregating outside his house. In the next few minutes, the rest of the class had arrived, and Malfoy and his goons came waltzing up just before they were counted tardy.

"Welcome back! I got a special treat fer yeh all as our firs' lesson," Hagrid said with great fervor, the way he always talked when he was excited about some type of animal.

"It's not a skrewt or something of that sort, is it?" Seamus asked from behind Harry, with a slight note of alarm.

"Oh, no, it's much better than that," Hagrid answered. Seamus emitted a groan as the class was led towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"This week we'll be learnin' abou' centaurs." Hagrid lifted two fingers to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle that echoed through the rustling, dark trees of the forest. Soon, the clopping of hooves was heard as a large, white, half-man, half-horse came galloping on a path towards the students. It came to a halt before the cluster and bowed lowly to them.

"Firenze," Hagrid said loudly as he walked towards the centaur and nodded his head. "Glad yeh could come. These are the Fifth Years I wanted yeh to talk to as part o' their lesson."

"Ah, yes. Hogwarts students," Firenze said as he walked around the pupils in a slow circle. A few of them, like Lavender and Pansy, clustered into the middle, as if they were somewhat afraid of the large animal.

As Firenze came to Malfoy, who sniffed and turned his head away, he pawed at the ground. "Mr. Malfoy," he said. "Yes, I remember you. You journeyed into the Forest a while back, did you not?"

"I did," Malfoy replied sourly as he surveyed the centaur and scrunched his nose up. "It's not like I had a choice; nothing in its right mind would go in there, let alone live in there."

"Now, Draco, centaurs are ter be treated with respect. That's a basic rule yeh should've known by now," Hagrid said gruffly.

"It's alright, Hagrid. This creature gives no one respect." After a long, tense silence, Firenze's gaze slid icily over Malfoy and to Harry.

"Mr. Potter, I recall our first meeting as well. The circumstances we encountered were not exactly the best, but those obstacles have at least passed. New hindrances now face you; it was seen in the stars. There are many troubles ahead."

"Er," Harry stammered; he didn't know how to respond.

Hagrid cleared his throat. The students' gazes were transfixed on Harry as he shifted his weight uncomfortably. He couldn't help but to think of Cedric's lifeless body laying on the dirty, cemetery ground, and those graves that stood out against the cold night air. Harry shut his eyes briefly as guilt began to weigh his mind down.

"Firenze, I was hoping yeh could tell the students a little bit abou' yerself," Hagrid said as he shot Harry a concerned look.

"Of course," Firenze said at length, turning away from Harry. "But there is not much I can tell." He went on to tell them about how his ancestors had been from Greece, and how they had gotten to be in the Forbidden Forest. He told them about the many centaurs in there, and how the heavens forbade them to act against one force or another. "The others do not approve of my visit to you, but I was in debt to Hagrid and owed him a favor."

"And I thank yeh for it," Hagrid said with a grateful smile.

Firenze looked up at the sky, which was beginning to become overcast and gray. The beautiful weather that had overshadowed the grounds in the morning was now becoming foul.

"It is time for me to return," Firenze declared sadly. "And I suggest you retreat to your castle; the weather will soon be not in your favor." And with that, the centaur trotted back into the shrouded forest.

"Seems like he's right," Hagrid said lightly as he glanced at the darkening sky. "That'll do fer today. Yeh can all get back ter the castle now."

All the students hurried back to the castle before the sky decided to break open over them and pour down its rain. Harry shifted uncomfortably as many of the students looked at him with curiosity, and some even with - was it fear?

"Well, I suppose tha' could've been worse," Hagrid said as he led the trio to his hut and started to prepare tea for them.

"Yeah, real wonderful way to start out the year," Harry replied darkly.

Hagrid turned around quickly and looked at Harry, not bothering to worry about the water he'd sloshed onto the floor. "Now, Harry, yeh know centaurs; they're always sayin' things like tha'. Granted, Firenze is usually not one o' them like the rest, but he's still a centaur. It's in his nature."

"Besides," Hermione said quietly, "You-Know-Who's rising again. We all know that."

"And there isn't only trouble for you coming. There's trouble for everyone," Ron added as he handed Harry a teacup.

"Now, who wants some tea?" Hagrid asked.

They sat around the table, quietly at first, but gradually began to talk more as they were warmed by Hagrid's tea.

"I think I still have somethin' to give yeh, Harry," Hagrid said as he stood up and gathered the empty cups and placed them in the sink. He walked to the fire again, stirred it with the poker to lighten it up a bit, and then grabbed a folded piece of parchment off the mantel.

"Here yeh go. It's the rest o' your birthday present - though it's not really a present - Professor Dumbledore had it an' told me ter give it to yeh. Can't see why, it's just a piece o' parchment... Anyway, he said not ter send it to yeh in the mail, so it wouldn't get lost, an' that's why I had to wait ter give to yeh." Hagrid scratched his head and then handed Harry the tattered parchment.

As soon as he had a close-up look at it, Harry knew what it was. The shabby sides of the paper and the specific yellow coloring were familiar to Harry, even though he hadn't seen it since mid-term last year.

It was the Marauder's Map.

Harry blinked, smiled at Hagrid, and faked a perturbed look.

"Thanks," he said at last as he shoved the secret map in his pocket and glanced at Ron and Hermione.

"We should probably get going, then," Hermione said as she stood up. "The weather's getting worse."

"Yeah, thanks for the tea Hagrid," Ron said.

"It was no problem; yeh can always stop by."

They bade goodbye to Hagrid and started to walk across the shivering grass to the castle; the wind was howling and the sky was almost black.

"Harry, is that bit of parchment Hagrid gave you what I think it is?" Ron asked in a very loud voice so he'd be heard over the wind.

"What?" Hermione said; she hadn't made the same connection as Ron and Harry. Then again, she had also never used it very much.

"It's the Marauder's Map, Hermione!" Harry called out.

"Oh! But how did Dumbledore get it?"

"He probably found it after Crouch was taken last year - he'd borrowed it from me, remember? I never got it back."

"But I don't get it," Ron shouted over the wind as they walked up the steps. "Why would Dumbledore give it back to you? How does he know what it is?"

"Ron," Hermione said as she yanked open the doors to the Great Hall, "Dumbledore knows everything."

As soon as the three were in the confines of the castle, thunder and lighting rolled over the grounds and it began to pour.

~*~

"Was that really him?"

"I don't know, was it?"

"After last year, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't."

Harry looked quizzically around, trying to figure out what the students passing him in the hall were discussing - or rather, who.

"What're they talking about?" he asked Hermione and Ron as they continued walking down the long hallway to the Great Hall for breakfast. They both shrugged as they listened intently.

The Great Hall was abnormally buzzing with voices and noise, considering it was an early Saturday morning. Harry couldn't figure out what was going on. He sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Seamus, Fred, and George, who were all avidly talking about something as well.

"What's going on?" Ron asked them as he too took a seat.

Seamus stopped talking to Fred mid-sentence and sputtered, "Harry, did you see him?"

"See who?"

"It's actually him - Mad-Eye Moody!"

"What?" Harry croaked as he whirled around his head and looked around. His eyes came to a sudden halt at the staff table. Sure enough, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was accommodated there and was seated next to a few unfamiliar individuals.

"Who're the rest of those people?" Hermione asked as she stared at the guests.

"Aurors," George said simply as he grabbed a piece of toast and spread jam on it. "A bunch of them just arrived today - apparently, they were supposed to be here at the beginning of the week, but for some reason they all just made it here today."

"You don't think..." Hermione gasped.

Fred nodded. "Why not? They're Aurors, what else do they deal with?"

Ron picked up his fork and began talking with eggs in his mouth. "You don't necessarily know that they were dealing with Death Eaters or something."

"Oh, c'mon, Ron. It's the only thing that makes sense," George said while shaking his head.

"There's got to be other problems they could've been working on - how else would they work when nothing bad is going on?"

"Yeah, but... Bad things have been going on."

"Not yet."

The owls delivering the morning mail chose that exact moment to swoop in and distribute their burdens. A tattered, brown barn owl fluttered in front of Harry and dropped a note on his plate before snatching up a piece of his bacon and flying back out.

Harry picked up the letter and began to open it, wondering whom it was from. He was interrupted when Fred and George plucked it out of his hands and pushed his plate closer.

"Eat," Fred ordered. "We need to go practice before nine - which only gives us an hour and a half before the Slytherins come and claim the field."

"What? You never told us before that we had practice today!" Ron exclaimed.

"Hey, we're Captains. We can do what we want with you."

"You're all ours..." George said, and then gave a mock evil laugh. Ron rolled his eyes as he picked up his fork and stabbed a sausage a bit more forcefully than normal.

George slipped the letter in Harry's front pocket of his robe and then exited the Great Hall with his twin. Ron and Harry shoveled down their breakfast and gulped down their juice. Giving Hermione a quick good-bye, and leaving her with Ginny and Veronica, the two boys ran up to the Gryffindor Tower and grabbed their brooms, then headed towards the field.

***

After a very rigorous practice so early in the morning, and being hissed at by the Slytherins to get off the Quidditch field, Harry was glad to be up in his dorm so he could shower. After quickly doing this, he met up with Hermione and Ron down in the Common Room and they sat there for a moment, trying to figure out how to spend the remainder of their Saturday.

"Well, I could go get my O.W.L. books and we could do some early studying," Hermione suggested, to the disgust of both boys.

"Are you serious? I don't want to spend my Saturday studying!"

"Well," Harry said, "We could..." Harry noticed a small piece of paper peeking out of his pocket, and realized it was the letter he'd gotten that morning; he still hadn't opened it.

As Ron and Hermione continued to argue about studying, Harry pulled the note out, unfolded it, and read it.

He blinked in disbelief and read it over again, and then yet again. His eyes were fazing in and out of focus as he worked to study on the plain writing on the paper. It was none that he'd ever seen from his friends or teachers before. Harry furrowed his brow and continued to analyze the short sentence.

"But Ron, they're really important! And we won't study for too long..." Hermione trailed off, noticing Harry's bewildered face and deep concentration. She leaned forward to see what he was looking at.

"C'mon, you know we don't have to start yet! It's still a long ways away, Hermione." Ron paused. "Hermione?" He looked up from the couch's loose string he had been idly playing with, taking in the confused looks on both Harry's and Hermione's faces. "What's wrong?"

"This," Harry finally said, as he tore his eyes away from the note and handed it to Ron. Ron read the message and returned it to Harry.

"What's it mean?" Ron questioned him.

"I dunno..."

"D'you think it's anything serious?" Hermione asked with unmistakable concern in her voice. "I mean, maybe we should go tell someone - I'm sure Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind us talking with her; I'd bet that even Professor Dumbledore wouldn't care, for you."

Harry looked up at his friends. "No," he said as he rolled his eyes. "I'd bet it was just Malfoy or someone who's mad at me. Whoever it is was probably trying to scare me or just annoy me and waste my time."

"Mad at you? Why would anyone be mad at you?" Hermione said.

"Well, after that Care of Magical Creatures lesson last week, I'm sure word's gotten around the school about what Firenze said to me, about how bad things are coming. It probably stirred up some memories of Cedric, and I know there's got to be at least a few people mad at me for what I let happen to him last year."

"Harry, just shut up," Ron said sternly, taking Harry by surprise. "Nobody blames you for that - nobody else even knows half of what happened, and as far as they know, you saved them for at least a little while from You-Know-Who, and that's probably all they care about. Nobody blames you. And I sure as bloody hell don't." Hermione nodded in agreement.

Harry managed a laugh. "Yeah, I guess you could be right."

"Could be? I think he is!" Hermione said.

"I still don't think this letter's anything serious, though. It's probably just some prank." Harry worked hard to make his voice sound believing, even though he had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Okay, but we'd better keep our heads up just in case," Hermione demanded.

"Yeah, yeah, we will," Harry agreed.

"Okay, so that brings us back to our original problem," Ron said in a lighter tone than before.

"Huh?" Harry questioned.

"We are not spending our Saturday studying for some test that we're taking in nine months," Ron persisted.

"Definitely not," Harry agreed. Hermione groaned as she flopped back on the couch and folded her arms across her chest, looking bored.

Everything's alright, Harry thought to himself as he evaluated his mysterious letter again, reading the single sentence over before shoving the parchment in his pocket and pushing it altogether out of his mind:

We have the power to harm.

~*~

After a good bit of pleading and insistence on Harry and Ron's part, the three friends decided to go visit Arabella in her classroom, if she was there. On their way to the room, however, they met an unexpected problem: the Aurors that they'd seen that morning were now scattered throughout the hallways, and apparently their job was to make sure that nobody was causing any trouble and that all wanderers had a definite reason for roaming the castle. At one point, when Ron and Hermione had been arguing about making a quick side-trip to the library, three Aurors had come from opposite directions and pulled them away from each other. After a five-minute questioning, and a reprimand to be quieter in the hallways, they were on their way again. They hardly spoke; Hermione was mad at Ron for getting her into trouble; Ron was mad at Hermione for being mad at him when he thought he'd done nothing wrong; and Harry was mad at them both for acting so stupid and being mad at each other.

So, when they finally did reach Arabella's classroom and found it empty, it was no surprise when Ron kicked the wall. He yelped, hopping up and down on one foot and screwing up his face in pain. Hermione started to giggle, to the annoyance of Ron.

"What, you think this is funny do you?" he asked her, almost yelling.

"Well," she said, trying her best not to laugh. She pressed her lips together, but burst out laughing two seconds later when he glared at her. Harry tried to hold back a snicker as Ron continued to hop on his left foot and glower at Hermione.

"Oh, so you think this is just so hilarious too?" Ron said when he saw Harry. "Would you two like me to start banging my head against the wall too? Because I'm sure that would be a lot funnier than me only breaking my big toe."

Hermione doubled over as she gasped for breath; Harry, seeing Hermione laugh so much and Ron getting even angrier, howled even louder.

"I really don't see why you're laughing so hard!" Ron snapped. But before long, as the pain subsided, a smile began to creep across his face too as he realized how stupid he must look jumping around and yelling at his friends. He slowly started to laugh as Hermione slumped helplessly against the wall.

"I don't mean to interrupt you or anything," an adult's female voice cut through the mirth, "but what exactly is so funny?"

They all ceased laughing suddenly, afraid they'd get in trouble by a teacher, or worse by another Auror.

"Oh, I'm really sorry, we were just--" Harry turned around and was taken aback for a moment. "Arabella!"

"So surprised? You are right outside my classroom - but then, I think you knew that."

"Yes, we did," Hermione said. She was now standing up straight and was in the process of straightening her robes out. "We just came down here to see you, and when we got here, you weren't here, and we actually had a very rough time getting down here, so we were a bit frustrated..."

"Which doesn't explain why you were laughing so hard," Arabella said.

"I, er, got a little mad, and I kind of... kicked the wall and hurt my toe," Ron explained quickly in a jumble of words. Hermione bit her lip as she smiled hugely, as did Harry. Arabella's eyes shone.

"Well, maybe we should go in my room then, and check your toe out - if it hurt that bad, it could be broken."

Ron turned pink. "No, really, it's okay. It doesn't hurt that bad." Ron couldn't hide his limp, though, and after they were seated around Arabella's desk, she convinced him to take his shoe off and let her examine it.

"Well, I think you may have sprained it," Arabella commented. "Nothing that a small spell can't fix, though." She pulled out her wand and touched it lightly to his toe. When she was done, Ron flexed it and then shoved his shoe back on.

"Thanks!" he said. "I didn't really want to go up to see Madam Pomfrey; she would've yelled at me or something."

"Yes, well, just don't go kicking any more walls, understood?"

Ron snorted. "No problem."

"Now, was there anything in particular you wanted to see me about?" Arabella questioned them.

"No, we just came down to talk," Harry said.

"Good, because there's something I've been meaning to give you, Harry."

"Another birthday present?" Ron asked in disbelief. "They just keep coming!"

"Really?" Arabella said, raising her eyebrows.

"Hagrid had something for me last week, too," Harry clarified.

"Well, I hope you haven't gotten one of these yet, then," Arabella said as she maneuvered around the desks lined up from wall to wall in her classroom. She entered the enclosed office in the corner of her large classroom, and when she came back out, she was holding a thin box, which was a little bigger than the size of Harry's hand. It was wrapped in a silvery paper, and she handed it gingerly to him.

"It's breakable," she said as he held onto it.

He tore the paper off and used his fingernail to puncture the tape that held the box closed. He opened the flap and very slowly tipped the box towards his lap; a square object wrapped in white tissue paper slid onto his legs. When he took that paper off, too, he looked at what he'd been given: a mirror. But instead of seeing himself in it, there was a white, swirling fog and a few very pale, gray blobs.

"Is this a Foe Glass?" Harry asked in wonder. He'd only ever seen one before, in the fake Moody's office last year, and it had looked very different. Moody's was a lot larger, and the frame had been rustic looking and older. Harry's was smaller, sleeker, and looked to be designed in more of a modern style.

"Yes, it is," Arabella said, delighted. "I'm surprised you know what it is!"

"Well, I saw it last year in Moody's office," Harry repeated his thoughts.

"What does it do?" Ron asked curiously as he peered at the mirror over Harry's shoulder.

"It shows the owner's enemies in the glass, as they get closer," Arabella informed him.

"That's pretty cool, Harry," Ron remarked as he admired the gift.

"Yeah, it is. Thanks," he said to Arabella, smiling.

"You're welcome," she replied as she sat down behind her desk. "I actually got it at one of my favorite Auror shops in Ireland."

"Ireland?" Hermione asked. "When were you there?"

"Oh, just this summer. I was there doing some research for a few things, your class's lessons included."

"Oh, what are we going to study?"

"Just a few materials and objects that most Aurors tend to have; later, we'll be studying some dark equipment."

"I bet the Slytherins will have no problem with that subject," Ron said.

"Especially when they have Snape to teach them all they need to know," Harry said.

"And Malfoy's been learning it since the day he was born, I'll bet," Hermione added.

"Mmm, yes, I've met him and a few of his friends, though they seemed a bit slow."

Ron, Harry, and Hermione all snickered.

"But, I suppose I really shouldn't be saying things like that; I'm their teacher, I shouldn't be judgmental of them."

"It's not like anyone would know," Ron said. Then, there was a knock on the door and someone cleared his throat.

"Oh!" Arabella cried as she worked to wipe the surprised and embarrassed look off of her face. "Professor Snape... Is there something I can help you with?"

Harry narrowed his eyes as Snape walked briskly into the room and stopped to deliberately glare at Harry, Ron, and Hermione in turn. Then he said, "Oh, I'm sure it can be delayed. I wouldn't want to interrupt such an important discussion with your students." He scowled at Arabella, and for some reason Harry felt that Snape had overheard their whole conversation - or at least the part about himself.

"No, no, we were just finishing up," Arabella said as she stood up and gave Harry a half-smile. "I'll see you three in class, then. I hope you liked your gift, Harry."

Harry nodded and noticed Snape frowning at Harry's lap. He looked down and saw the teacher's sallow, identical reflection in the Foe Glass. He quickly blotted the glass from view with the tissue paper, and slid it back in its box. "See you, then," he said.

Hermione led the two boys past Snape and out the door. Closing the door behind him, Harry sighed.

"I wonder what he wants with Arabella," Ron marveled aloud.

"Dunno, but I don't think he was too happy."

"Is he ever?" Hermione asked as they rounded a corner and began climbing a flight of steps. They passed an Auror but weren't questioned this time; the woman was busy interrogating another group of students, second-years, who looked scared out of their wits.

When they got back to the Common Room, Ron and Harry decided to play a game of Wizard's Chess; Hermione chose to bring out her O.W.L. book and begin studying and questioning the two boys as they attempted to play their game. After a while, they gave up trying to concentrate and settled down on the couch as Hermione quizzed them.

~*~

Hermione scrunched her nose up as she chopped the head off of another scarab beetle. "Have you two ever noticed how badly these things smell?"

"Almost as bad as Fred and George's socks," Ron noted as he sliced off a few of his beetles' heads with one swipe of his knife.

"I'm glad I've never had to smell them then, though I daresay yours smell any better."

"If you think mine are bad--" Ron began to Hermione.

"If you're all done talking about socks and reeking feet, perhaps you can enlighten us why, Mr. Weasley, your Measles Tonic is an off-shade of pink and not bright red." Snape stood over Ron's desk and stirred the ladle of his cauldron, not bothering to watch where he splashed a few drops of Ron's mixture.

Ron's face hardened as he hacked the heads off of three more scarab beetles. "That would be because, Professor, I haven't added these yet." Ron tipped the bowl containing the severed beetles over his cauldron and slowly let the beetles fall one by one into his potion. He mixed the beetles in until they all sank to the bottom of the cauldron. The Measles Tonic bubbled for a moment and then changed from its pinkish shade to a vivid red. Ron smiled triumphantly.

"Glad to see you know how to make such a simple potion, Mr. Weasley," Snape said coldly as he noted the potion's new color. "But perhaps you should stop talking so much to Miss Granger and try working a bit faster. You're behind everyone else."

Ron bit his lip, hard, as Snape walked away. "Lousy git," he muttered as he began the next step to his potion.

"Don't bother worrying about it Ron. He's just mad because you've got it right," Harry said, though he couldn't help but give Snape a dark look.

"I'm not surprised you have the potion the right color, Weasley," Malfoy said from behind him. "It's not too hard to match that color up with your hair."

"Well, as least I'm making mine right. Yours looks like someone just hurled in it."

Malfoy smirked. "That's because I'm almost done."

Ron glanced at his set of directions and realized Malfoy was right. He clenched his jaw and began to walk towards Malfoy. Hermione reached across Ron and Harry's table just in time to grab his sleeve.

"Malfoy, do you have something worth our time to say, or are you just going to go on being the annoying git you are and waste our time?" Harry asked as he glared at the blonde-haired boy.

"Well, Potter, I always have something worthwhile to tell you. Such as... Oh, I don't know... It's usually your fault when something bad happens?"

This time, Harry started towards Malfoy. He'd hit a sore spot, and he knew it.

"It's true, Potter. If it weren't for you, through all these years, a lot of things wouldn't have happened; that Cedric Diggory wouldn't have died. But nobody blames poor little Potter. How could they? He has no parents, no friends, except needy redheads and know-it-all Mudbloods. He has no home, no real life... No, it can't be Potter's fault. But wait - there are some people who do blame you. You've seen them talking about you in the hallway, the way they all shut up when you walk past, haven't you, Potter? "

Harry had had enough. He wrenched out of Ron's grasp and dove across Malfoy's desk, knocking over his cauldron and Malfoy's supplies, which scattered all over the floor. He and Malfoy rolled over and over each other on the ground, not hearing the screams of the girls and the cheering of the boys. They only stopped their flailing arms when they saw the black, greasy hair swing about their faces and yank them apart with startling strength. Breathing hard, Harry took in the damage he'd put upon Malfoy; he had a black eye and a split lip, and the specks of blood in his blonde hair stood out lucidly. Harry licked his lips and realized that he himself had a bloody lip too, and he couldn't ignore the ache in his stomach, where he was sure there would be a bruise later.

"He started it!" Malfoy cried as Snape stared the two boys down.

"I don't want to hear excuses," Snape said icily as he looked over Malfoy. "I want you to go to Madam Pomfrey, now, and then come immediately back down here. Potter, in my office, now."

Harry trudged into Snape's office as Malfoy walked out of the Potions dungeon, smirking as best he could with a cut lip. Before Snape entered the room, he cleared the damage Harry and Malfoy had done with a flourish of his wand and barked, "Get back to work!" to the rest of the students, and then slammed the office door shut. He sat down behind his desk, put his head in his hands, and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes for a moment. Harry held his breath and looked around the room.

"Mr. Potter," Snape began when he opened his eyes. "An explanation, if you please?"

"Malfoy insulted me," Harry said helplessly, as he realized he really was the reason the fight had started - even if Malfoy had offended him.

"Such an excuse," Snape drawled as he pulled out a sheet of parchment and picked up a slender green quill. "I hear the things you and your friends say about Slytherin - I've heard it since I came to this school. In one aspect, you are all partially wrong. But be aware, Potter, that you're not completely mistaken; some Slytherins are the evil people you believe them to be. It would be in your best interest if you heeded your thoughts and didn't mess around with what disposition tells you. Picking fights with Mr. Malfoy is not going to help make matters any better, and the matters you have to deal with now are quite enough on your mind, if I'm not mistaken."

Snape signed the piece of paper he'd been writing on and then held it out so Harry could take it. "And I don't ever want to see another display of idiocy like that again."

Harry wasn't sure whether it seemed to him that Snape had changed a bit or not; it sounded as if he was trying to give him advice. "Yes, sir," Harry finally said through clenched teeth.

Snape looked down at his desk and waved a hand indifferently towards the door. "Now, get back to work."

"But, Professor, can I go to the infirmary?"

"Perhaps you should have thought about fighting before you leapt into it. I think your injuries can wait until after class."

Harry glowered as he walked out of the office and slammed the door shut behind him. All the thoughts of Snape trying to help him had vanished. Harry flopped down next to Ron and dropped the parchment Snape had given him on the table. Looking down at it, he groaned.

"What'd he give you?" Ron asked, looking at Snape's writing.

"Detention all day... the Saturday after the next," Harry said as he began to clean his area up; he didn't feel like working anymore that day.

"Blimey, that was the day Hermione was going to take us to Hogsmeade!" Ron said indignantly.

"Figures," Harry muttered.

Hermione turned around. "Well, what about this weekend?"

Ron shook his head. "Quidditch."

"Oh... Well, I really need to go soon, to get some things for classes..."

"It's okay; you two can go without me," Harry said, sighing.

"You sure?" Ron asked.

Harry looked from Ron to Hermione. "Yeah," he said at last. "It's fine."

A few minutes later, Malfoy stalked back in the classroom. His lip was healed, but it appeared that Madam Pomfrey hadn't been able to do anything about his black eye. Harry managed to smile to himself. At least he'd have that reminder until Saturday to make him feel better.

It wasn't long until the bell rang and class was dismissed. Harry parted with Ron and Hermione at a staircase, and began to walk to the infirmary.

"You kids," Madam Pomfrey scolded when Harry arrived. "I don't know why you think fighting helps at all!" She put some sort of disinfectant on Harry's lip, which stung and tasted awful, and then said a spell. In a matter of seconds, there was no trace that Harry had even been in a fight, unless he lifted his shirt to show the black-blue bruise on his abdomen.

~*~

When Harry got back to the Gryffindor Common Room, he noticed that there weren't many people inside. Most of the missing Gryffindors, as well as probably a lot of the other members of the school, were probably enjoying the unusually warm weather outside.

Harry ran up to his dorm room to put his things from his afternoon classes away. He was just shoving his potion ingredients violently under his bed when he heard a sharp rapping on the window. Harry peeked over the top of his bed and saw a small, gray owl hovering outside the nearest windowpane. It had a scroll attached to its leg, and looked as if it had been waiting there for some time. Harry hurried to the window and opened it; the owl flew in and then buzzed out as soon as Harry had removed the letter from it.

It seemed extremely strange to Harry to be receiving a letter at that time of the day. The only time Hogwarts students ever received mail, which he knew of, was at breakfast when all the owls made their deliveries.

Harry shrugged and unfolded the small note.

We have the power to harm.

Harry dropped the note on the bed as if it had bitten him. He looked around, and then raced to the window to see if the owl was still flying around outside. Cursing that he hadn't gotten a better look at the delivery owl, Harry returned to his bed and stared at the letter.

Turning his eyes away, he opened his bedside table's drawer and pulled out his other unexplained letter that he'd received just a few days earlier. He unfolded it and laid it down beside its twin. He compared the two: the writing was the same, the ink, and even the swirl of the final "m". They were identical, and there was no sign as to who the author was.

Slowly, Harry picked both letters up, folded them, and then stuck them in the drawer that the first letter had previously been in. Deciding that he'd had a bad enough day as it was, and that there was no reason to worry Ron or Hermione, Harry pushed the drawer shut and put a locking charm on it.

Ten minutes later, Harry was walking across the sunny grounds; he wasn't really paying attention to where he was walking, because of the thoughts that were running through his head about what had just happened, and didn't realize he was about to run into someone until it was too late.