Harry Potter and the Fifth Element

Chapter 11 - Return Strikes

Harry was dazed, not quite sure if he was alive or dead. Soon, however, the weight of Hermione's body on his (especially her left elbow in his midsection), the racing of both their hearts, and the rhythm of their lungs, brought him back to reality. No, he was not dead - just somewhat subject to sensory deprivation. He could not see very well because, even after his pupils readjusted to the return of darkness, her hair obscured his vision. Harry could not tell if he could hear or not, because his ears were ringing so loudly, but he could feel, and what he was feeling terrified him.

He felt enveloped in a throbbing, pulsating force. It crackled all around him. While he did not know what it was, he could sense that this force was powerful enough to kill him - or Hermione. Urgently, Harry racked his brain for something, anything, he could use to banish this humming haze that surrounded them, but came up empty. He did not know what had happened, so he did not know how to even begin setting things right. The explosion and its aftermath were both utterly beyond his comprehension.

Not knowing what else to do, he clutched at Hermione with the same death grip she was also maintaining on him, willing them both to remain still. Whatever their current state was, at least the force field they were in did not seem to be hurting either of them or making anything worse. All Harry could do was concentrate, not move a muscle and try to fathom what had happened - what he could possibly have done. The seconds that passed seemed like an eternity.

Then, as quickly as the force came, it departed. Glowing gold this time rather than white, the power (whatever it was) left with the same spectacular concussion that marked its arrival - with a blinding, ear-splitting discharge that Harry thought must have reverberated even more loudly than the first. They were slammed into the ground with the pressure of its exit. The tinkle of falling glass sounded in the background. With the wind knocked out of him, Harry thought he must have left an indentation in the earth as the recoil rumbled through his chest with the force of the Whomping Willow.

After the force was gone, all was dark and still once more. It felt to Harry as if his flesh were buzzing and his nerves tingling. 'It must be Hermione's weight pressing on a nerve,' Harry thought. For the moment, his world did not extend much beyond his and her jumbled together bodies. There was no seeing, no hearing, just feeling ... and his sense of smell.

As Harry fought his way back to the land of the living, he could smell the acrid metallic odour in the air. He now knew to associate the smell of ozone with abrupt magical discharges - his own abrupt magical discharges. Now, this odour was stronger than he had ever known it to be. Harry knew that this had something to do with him, but he could not fathom how.

He needed to find out how badly he had hurt her.

"Hermione?" Harry whispered. "Can you hear me? Are you awake?"

He felt her stir in response, and relief flooded over him.

"Yes," she responded is equally low tones. Then came the oddest thing. It sounded and felt was as if she were actually laughing.

"Hermione, what's going on?" he croaked.

"Harry, if you were away all day pursuing all those serious things you were ranting on about...?" She tittered again, he was sure of it this time. "How come you smell of buttered popcorn?"

"It's a long story," he rasped, even more softly than before. "I learned a lot, and I have lots to tell you, just not now. Hermione, I'm so frightened, I might have wet myself. What just happened?"

"You were almost struck by lightning, Harry," she whispered back. Practically on cue, there was another white flash, almost immediately followed by a deafening peal of thunder. Hermione refused to flinch. She was surprisingly comfortable and was in no hurry to face the others again. She and Professor McGonagall had just had a spectacular row when Hermione had flatly refused to use her ring to search for Harry until midnight - and McGonagall was her favourite professor.

Hermione continued, "I saw textbook signs of an imminent lightning strike. ...And before you ask, yes, I read about that in a book. Your hair was standing straight up. There was static electricity between your fingers. I had to force you to ground immediately or else y-you pr-probably would have d-d-died. Oh Harry!" She was no longer whispering. "I tried to get your attention, but you were so intent upon Snape. I think Mad Eye figured it out too, but I move faster - the benefit of having a full complement of limbs. I didn't know what else to do!" She was no longer even trying to avoid being overheard.

Neither was Harry. "Hermione, you don't need to explain yourself. Thank you. I now owe you a wizard debt." He gave her a fierce hug. Harry was very tempted to do more, and disregard the consequences. She had just saved his life at the risk of her own, but he still knew he had an audience. He also did not know how Hermione would react - probably badly, he feared....

There was also all of this information Eliza had told him. He realised that Hermione did not truly know who he was anymore. Hell, he was no longer sure who he was himself anymore. All of these untold secrets lurking in the background weighed him down and gave him pause. He was determined not to prove that anything about what Draco-bloody-Malfoy had been saying about the two of them was accurate. Anything he did here, Snape would just relay back to them....

For her part, Hermione wanted more - her soul ached for Harry's touch - but nothing came. Unfortunately, she did not know why, except for her earlier misstep.... If not now ... after what had just happened ... then when?

Never...?

She was no longer laughing.

Another flash of lightning and crash of thunder rudely interrupted their thoughts. It was starting to rain - hard. With effort, Harry began to stir. "We have to get up, Hermione.... Need to sort out the others. But first...." He slipped a note he had written into her pocket.

"Harry, that tickled!" she squealed.

Harry instantly drew back. Hermione frowned; she had not told him to stop.

The others were indeed stirring, and comparing notes.

"You did see that, didn't you?" Professor Snape hissed at Dumbledore and McGonagall as they struggled through now pouring rain into the Dursleys' no longer neat house. Neatness was especially difficult with all of the windows blown in.

"Certainly," said Professor McGonagall. "She saved his life - again."

"You know full well that's not what I'm talking about," spat Professor Snape. "I mean the return shot - the ground-to-cloud thunderbolt - not to mention its distinctive colour. Being struck by lightning is one thing; being able to return the favour, is something else entirely."

"Of course. How could anyone have missed it?" replied Dumbledore neutrally.

"Don't be coy with me, Headmaster," warned Snape. "You know well and good what I mean.... Where it originated."

"I understand you perfectly, Severus," sighed Dumbledore. He gave his head a slight jerk, and all of the glass on the floor of the Dursleys' parlour and living room jumped back into its shattered panes. Then he pressed his long fingers together. "At times like this, it does indeed seem that everything happens to young Mister Potter. Regrettably he is not happy with either of us at the moment. I have to admit, it now appears that your hypothesis is almost certainly correct."

"And what are we going to do about it?" questioned McGonagall, her frowning lips pursed with worry.

Dumbledore paused, then answered, "The same as before, I suspect. Try rather poorly to assist Mister Potter in coming to grips with his own nature. His nature I can accept, but I am very worried about how he is channelling his developing power. He needs more positive outlets. Perhaps on this day he found one."

McGonagall knowingly gave Dumbledore a half smile. However, the Transfiguration professor did not know what she thought she knew. Neither of them did.

Dumbledore opened the door. Speaking loudly enough to address everyone over the roar of the downpour, he announced, "Inside everyone.... Let us try to complete today's festivities with as little additional destruction as possible, shall we?"

Quite a few squelching sounds later, everyone had found his or her way inside. Harry was disconcerted. He was facing a dozen wet, bedraggled, and tired witches and wizards in the Dursleys' uber-Muggle living room. Sodden robes of various colours would have soaked through the chintz furniture, but for the plastic slipcovers.

As far as he could tell, the Dursleys were not there. On top of this, he was not at all certain of his status. Was he grounded or not? Would cooler heads prevail? Did Harry even want cooler heads to prevail? The silence was deafening. The drumbeat of the rain was the only sound for several long moments. The musty odour of Drying Charms encountering soiled robes was the only smell.

Finally Harry filled the void. "Look, I'm shattered. I'm not sure how that all happened, but I feel very lucky just to be standing here. You might not believe it, but I'm sorry about putting you all through so much trouble. I had to find out the truth - even if it's bad. But if any of you had been willing to tell me the truth, none of this would have been necessary. Bill.... If I'm grounded, so be it. I won't try to escape. But don't expect me to go out of my way as long as I'm not free to come and go as I please."

His guardian seemed speechless and befuddled. It was Dumbledore who responded. "I agree that we should talk about things tomorrow, when we can all think more clearly. You and I..., we both need to explain ourselves."

Harry paused, thought a bit, and decided to début his alibi. "There is one thing though..., if I'm not to be allowed out on my own.... I accidentally left some papers in the British Library at St Pancras. If someone could get them for me. They're really not fit for Muggle eyes."

Dumbledore put a hand on Bill Weasley's shoulder to indicate that he should go along with whatever the older man was going to say. "We shall discuss your arrangements tomorrow. I have chatted briefly with Bill, and we are of a mind that what little free time you have should be your own. You should be able, within reason, to come and go as you please - and that includes going to London if you wish."

Harry felt like he had been struck by lightning all over again. He must have so appeared, as well, because Dumbledore reacted.

"Harry, please do sit down," the Headmaster requested. "There is a caveat, however.... You must accommodate your own safety. The fact remains that you are Voldemort's primary target. You simply cannot be travelling about unguarded. I hope that, after we all sleep on it, we can work out an acceptable compromise. While your tone this evening has certainly left something to be desired, you did make a number of persuasive substantive points."

"All right, then," Harry said warily, as he slid into a chair that Hermione hastily vacated. She stood behind him, leaning lightly on the back, her fingers centimetres from his shoulders. "If I'm to be staying here tonight, where are my relatives?" he asked.

"Your aunt and uncle were uneasy sharing their home with the large number of our kind who have passed through here today, so they are staying at your Aunt Marjorie's. Your cousin elected to remain, and he is in his room. Please be discreet in what you say to him, if only for his own safety," answered McGonagall.

After a brief discussion, Dumbledore and the others agreed that Hermione would retrieve Harry's papers. She was accustomed to Muggle libraries and, even more importantly, had volunteered. Dumbledore asked everyone to leave as quickly as possible and authorised Shacklebolt call in teams of Obliviators to deal with the Muggles who were attracted by the lightning strike.

After Harry, distracted by the stormy end to his tumultuous day, proved himself useless, McGonagall stayed behind to return the Dursley house to as close to pristine condition as she could. The inside anyway....

For the moment, the Dursleys' lawn was left as is - the scorch marks and other damage caused by the lightning strike were simply too massive to be concealed. A special Ministry magical reversal crew would have to be dispatched, although exactly how much of the damage was magical was open to debate.

Just before Hermione and Dumbledore left to return her to her parents, she mentioned to Harry that O.W.L. results had just now been officially distributed. Hermione had received hers earlier in this most eventful of days.

Harry had been telling the truth when he complained he was knackered. But in his room he found not one, but two owls - both waiting impatiently. He groggily relieved the annoyed Hogwarts school owl of its burden first. It boxed him about the face with its wings as it flew away, obviously upset at having to wait for several hours.

"Probably gets fed by the trip," he muttered.

Somewhat less upset was an overseas delivery owl bearing what turned out to be a letter from Ron. Harry was too fatigued to read any of his mail that night. He practiced Occlumency for a few minutes. Then he decided to use his Aural Pensieve even though he did not have training the next day. He figured that as long as there was any risk of having his training halted, he should take the opportunity to learn as much as he could as fast as he could. Soon enough, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep.

Although he had forgotten to set an alarm, Harry found himself being prodded awake at 5:00 a.m. by his cousin, who wanted to know if he was interested in going running. Initially, Harry was uncertain because he still did not know whether he had actually been grounded or not. Thinking it over, he decided "nothing ventured, nothing gained." He might as well push his luck until somebody tried to stop him - but first he was interested in what Ron had to say. Harry opened the envelope and took out a letter and a picture. The picture was of Ron and Cho seated on the same broom, with Cho's arms around Ron.

Harry:

Hogwarts rules mate! We are now 7-0 in the intramurals. I've only given up one goal in the last three games, and Cho and Ginny have been awesome too. Even the Slytherins have stopped acting like berks now, most of the time anyway.

I found something interesting the other day when I opened a Chocolate Frog. Why didn't you tell me that you now have your own card?! It's always you isn't it?

Still, it's something being the best mate of somebody as famous as you. People ask me about you all the time.

Any idea on when O.W.L. scores will be out? I'm getting nervous, and I'm sure you are too. We can't let Hermione get lonely, having to take advanced courses all by herself, while we go for Desmonds, now can we?

Quidditch forever!

Ron

Ron's letter made Harry wax nostalgic for the simpler life that his best male friend was leading this summer. Why did his own life have to involve so much more than games, girls and grades? Even more than before, he looked forward to doing more "normal" things with Eliza....

"Get your sodding arse down here Potter! Stop dawdling!" yelled Dudley from downstairs. Harry shelved Ron's letter and picture. It turned out that Dudley was at least as interested in finding out from Harry what had happened the day before as he was in running. Harry gave him a highly abridged version of his visit to Eliza - one that entirely omitted the real reason he had gone. To Dudley, it sounded like Harry had just been on an interesting date with an older woman that had involved a madcap motorbike ride, a first-run film, and dinner. In short, Dudley was actually somewhat jealous of his long-deprived cousin.

Surprisingly, Harry learned far more valuable information from Dudley than his cousin did from him. It turned out that Dudley had been a watchful, but unobtrusive, observer of all of yesterday's events at Privet Drive. Wizards had started arriving visibly before noon, and from Dudley's descriptions Harry thought that Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Lao Kung had been the first to appear. Chief Auror Scrimgeour and various maroon-uniformed Aurors began arriving about 2:00 PM., and Dumbledore arrived shortly thereafter.

Harry's aunt and uncle got more and more fretful (and in Uncle Vernon's case, more volubly angry) all afternoon. They departed for Aunt Marge's country house around teatime. Dudley decided to stay, and was supposed to ring his parents when all "the freaks" were gone. He seamed in no hurry to make that call, and had decided to wait until at least noon. Harry had a passing suspicion that Dudley had almost as little use for his parents as Harry had for them.

Harry was only moderately surprised when Dudley described a wizard who could only have been Minister Fudge. Dudley said that this wizard had paid a brief visit to Privet Drive around 6:00 p.m., wearing his trademark green bowler - something his cousin found laughable. Harry had a hard time fathoming something as incongruous as the Minister of Magic in the Dursleys' so resolutely non-magical home. Harry was reminded of Third Year, when Fudge had last intervened in similar circumstances. 'Here we go again,' Harry thought.

Dudley also informed Harry that Hermione ("that girl of yours who's been over here before") appeared shortly after that - escorted by a pair of adults whose descriptions matched McGonagall and Snape. But it was Dudley's description of the final events that proved the most revealing to Harry:

"You were bloody brilliant after that one bloke tried to blindside you," Dudley said rather breathlessly, "it looked like Star Wars out there, and you took them all out. But at least I could understand how you did that. After all you had your thingy out."

"It's called a wand, Dudders," groaned Harry.

"Whatever, did you do to create the golden lightning bolt?" asked Dudley in a hushed tone of voice.

"I didn't do anything," replied Harry. "It just sort of happened. I seem to recall that return lightning strikes are not all that rare anyway."

"Then why did the ruddy thunderstroke come from your hand?" asked Dudley.

Harry felt thunder struck all over again. He had done THAT?! Any intelligible response being beyond him at the moment, he just stared gape-mouthed at Dudley (who was doing the same to him), and ran his hands through his hair....

Then he looked at the palm of his right hand. Come to think of it, it did look somewhat scorched, although there was no pain. He examined his arm and noticed that there was no hair left on his right forearm. He sniffed at it, and he could still smell burnt hair. Harry had been around enough people (including himself) who had set their hair on fire that he was well acquainted with that smell.

Finally, Harry answered in a low voice, "I just don't know."

"Let's go running then," suggested Dudley, relieving the tense silence. "And if you see that nutter that's after you, let him have it with another bolt, then."

So run they did. Harry was a little surprised - but only a bit - that nobody tried to stop him, since he was supposedly grounded. He was also sure that he was being watched even more closely than before his escape. The two of them ran their usual circuit. Just as they started pounding back up Privet Drive, a post owl landed in their path. Harry removed the letter and the owl flew off. It was a prepaid letter, something that was uncommon when rented post owls were used. He opened the letter. It was from Eliza:

Dear Harry:

I trust you have returned home safely. I am returning your property, which I found in my flat after you'd gone. If you left them by accident, please be more careful. If you left them on purpose, please NEVER do that again. You need to consider appearances. I have no such motivation, and Malfoy doesn't need any more ammunition.

Eliza

Harry turned the envelope upside down and the two £50 notes that he had "forgotten" to put back in his pocket the day before came fluttering out. He felt crushed. What had been intended as a thank you obviously received quite a different interpretation. Would Eliza even want to see him again? Sullenly, Harry snapped up the notes, shoved them and the missive in his waistband and refused to tell Dudley what the letter - or what the presence of two quite large-denomination notes - were about. Dudley got annoyed.

"A Dear John letter so quickly?" jeered Dudley. "It was three strikes and you're out, wasn't it."

"Shut up Dudders," growled Harry as he kicked at the kerb with his trainers, "unless you want to try on a pig tail again. Maybe I'll throw in the snout for good measure."

Dudley wisely did as requested - despite suspecting that his cousin was less than serious. They approached Number Four in silence. Another owl approached. Harry recognised it as the delivery of his morning Daily Prophet. Dispiritedly, he paid for the newspaper without so much as looking at it as Dudley unlocked the front door.

Harry's froze as he stepped inside. There in the living room, chatting as calmly as you please while drinking pumpkin juice, sat Minister Fudge, Headmaster Dumbledore, Bill Weasley, Blackie Howe - and Hermione.

Superficially, it looked like a pleasant get together over drinks - albeit in the most unusual of locations. Harry, however, could read Hermione's body language well enough. That language was extraordinarily tense, with her legs tightly crossed and pointed away from the others. Regarding her more closely, Harry noted that the smile on her face could have been painted on.

"Harry, please do come join us at your earliest convenience." Dumbledore beckoned with excess affability.

He decided on the Gryffindor option - to face things as they came. Thus, his shower would have to wait. Harry summarily sat down heavily in the proffered armchair. Dudley hurried out of sight, and the inevitable Imperturbable Charm was cast.

"My dear Harry," began the Minister, "you gave us all quite a fright yesterday. I can't imagine what a blow it would have been to the morale of our community if you had been taken by the Dark forces. We had every Auror we could spare looking for you. Albus here tells me that you're interested in the proceedings involving Sirius Black. As I told you before, I'll do everything within my power to bring those to a favourable conclusion. I'd offer you a complete set of the transcripts of the proceedings, except that I'd have to show the same consideration to the other side.... So why alleviate their current disadvantage, eh?" The Minister winked at Harry.

"I'd just like to impress upon you, Harry, and all of the rest of you as well," Fudge carried on, "how committed my Ministry is to your safety and well being. Anything necessary to secure your safety, we'll provide. I assure you that whatever decisions you and Dumbledore reach concerning the resolution of this matter will have my full support and will be backed with all of the resources at the Ministry's disposal. But those decisions must be yours and yours alone."

The labourious political drivel continued. As Fudge's platitudinous speech droned on, Harry understood full well that what the Minister was telling him - albeit in the nicest way Fudge could phrase it - about the carrot and the stick.

The stick aspect was the Minister making it plain that Ministry would back Dumbledore to the hilt in whatever steps the Headmaster (and incidentally Bill) thought necessary to curb Harry's rebellious streak. If he attempted another escape, there would be significant adverse repercussions.

As for the carrot, if there was anything Harry wanted that he could plausibly relate to his safety, he would get it.

The boy quickly grew bored and impatient. He glanced at Hermione, who typically was paying much closer attention. Her foot however, was betraying disinterest akin to his - it traced lazy rectangular patterns in the air. She must have been wearing Muggle footwear, as a worn-through patch in her sole appeared at the top of the figure she made. Harry slumped in his seat and simply tuned Fudge out. He knew he was being told to behave, and he was anxious to get to specifics. Just when he thought his effort at politeness was about to come to naught, the Minister veered to an unexpected topic.

"Oh yes, and Harry, I want to convey to you my belief that the notes you have been writing to children are simply smashing. What a capital idea. I wish I had thought of it myself. By all means carry on...."

Harry's glazed-eye expression abruptly vanished. Perplexed, he asked the Minister how he knew about the Santa Claus letters, since Harry had been answering these on his own, in private, and (he thought) secretly. Fudge told him that his actions had been featured in The Magical Years, a wizard parenting magazine, in an article about the first two recipients of Harry's responses.

Jenny Fontaine was only mentioned in passing, but apparently the parents of little Jonathan Swanage had provided the publication not only with a copy of Harry's response, but also an additional drawing sample by their son of Harry lighting Voldemort up like a Christmas tree. While the image was a crude scrawl, its message was unmistakable.

This explained why the quantity of Harry's Santa Claus letters had grown so much recently.

Harry expressed some annoyance with the amount of time (both his and Hedwig's) that responding to these letters was consuming. Fudge almost immediately offered to provide him with clerical assistance. Seeing Hermione decisively shake her head "no" out of the corner of his eye, Harry politely demurred.

"I think I can handle it," he responded with feigned jauntiness, "the price of fame, and all that."

After saying his piece, Fudge took his leave, flanked by two Aurors who had been waiting circumspectly in the kitchen. Now it was time for Harry to face the music in earnest. He was pleasantly surprised.

Dumbledore and Bill agreed that, in his spare time, Harry could (within reason - and reason was sometimes difficult to ascertain in the wizarding world) come and go essentially as he pleased. However, he had to give advance notice and tolerate an appropriate and fittingly disguised escort from the Order.

He could travel to London if he wished, which meant (although nobody described things in those terms) that he could see Eliza again. Harry queried himself whether Eliza even wanted to see him again, but that was a completely different issue. In as much as the adults were being reasonable, he decided he would be too. He agreed to fulfil his social obligations to both the goblins and to Hermione's parents.

There followed a relatively brief question and answer session. Harry had not been particularly inclined to ask Headmaster Dumbledore for more information because he no longer trusted the completeness of his answers. Nevertheless, Dumbledore seemed eager to justify himself, so Harry decided it could not hurt to hear the Headmaster out.

Dumbledore explained that he would have been more than happy to tell Harry about the Malfoy interest in the Black inheritance at their first meeting, but that Harry did not seem especially interested in that entire subject. The Headmaster did not particularly concern himself with monetary matters, other than to deny resources to Voldemort. He had thought that Harry shared that perspective; therefore, he had not bothered to tell the boy anything about the inheritance beyond what Harry specifically asked to know.

Although he was deliberately trying to keep his mental distance from Dumbledore, Harry could not help but agree with him about the money. If it had not been for the Malfoy aspect, he would not have cared at all about inheritance questions. Particularly with Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban, Dumbledore had not anticipated that Harry would have any contact with any of the Malfoys until after the legal manœuvrings were over. He had not anticipated Draco Malfoy being involved with the Umbridge affair.

However, once the Malfoy lawyers filed the motion and began attacking Harry personally, Dumbledore's justification no longer held water. The Headmaster's excuse was that the motion had only just been filed when he had last spoken to Harry.

Dumbledore's barrister had assured him that the motion was legally groundless because it attacked only the fitness of the legatee of a legatee. Harry was simply not a beneficiary of Orion Black. That meant that, Malfoy's motion was directed against the wrong will.

At this point Blackie Howe began interrupting. While Howe agreed that the Malfoy motion was meritless "because the contingent nature of the bequest made testamentary intent a non-issue," he criticized Dumbledore for keeping "his client" uninformed. As Harry watched, Howe put the Headmaster consistently on the defensive about keeping Harry ignorant. Seeing Dumbledore's imperturbability thoroughly punctured in this fashion led Harry to appreciate the value of having his own lawyer.

Nevertheless, when Howe called Dumbledore "a bulbous meddler" the old man couldn't help but laugh. "That was a good one," Dumbledore complimented.

The argument gradually shaded into a negotiation. An agreement was reached that would allow Harry to intervene in the Black will contest. A barrister at the D'Israeli firm of his own choosing would represent him. Not only would Harry be informed, he would be a participant in his own right, and he would no longer be dependent upon Dumbledore in any way.

The conversation then broached the subject that interested Harry the most - what was the Fifth Element all about, and why was there such an uproar when that element (whatever it was), and Harry's name were mentioned in the same sentence?

Dumbledore viewed this as an extremely delicate subject. He refused to discuss the matter any further until Blackie and Bill left. Even then, he performed a complicated Concealment Charm. Surprisingly, the Headmaster made no effort to exclude Hermione. Harry certainly did not.

"Mister Potter, as you know magic in its purest and most ancient form is elemental - and wandless," Dumbledore explained. "Master Kung informs me that you are showing significant aptitude for all four elements in your work with him. As for elements, Aristotle perfected the concept of there being four of them over two millennia ago. Subsequent developments have of course shown that he was wrong about earth, water, air, and fire being actual elements. Coincidentally these four substances do closely approximate the four known states of matter. My knowledge of Muggle science is rather dated, but I believe those states are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma."

"This much is well known, but the rest of what I am telling you is quite confidential, and I must ask the two of you to keep it that way," Dumbledore continued. "Since magic is more concerned with states of being than with specific compositions, the fact that the four elements were really something other than fundamental building blocks has proven to be of little magical consequence. Thus, magic in general has functioned very well, despite much of it having been developed under somewhat erroneous theoretical premises."

The Headmaster then delved into magical history - some of it quite obscure. "The concept of a Fifth Element is thus largely foreign to traditional magical thinking. Its magical origins are uncertain. Some speculate that the mysterious Russian mage Kitai Gorod experimented with some sort of Fifth Element magic after being exiled to Siberia for turning czarist police into swine during an unsuccessful uprising in 1905. Nobody is quite sure, though, because all traces of what he did were destroyed in the magical accident that killed him three years later."

"To the extent there is a modern conception of a Fifth Element, it arose around the beginning of this century with Muggle scientists. I was still a young man, not much more than seventy, when I first heard the concept. I was intrigued, but rather frightened. Many of our kind thought the Muggles were being unfathomable and abstruse - maybe a dozen people in the world understood the mathematics. But it was fascinating. I still remember being struck by the prospect of almost unimaginable power that the Muggle theory suggested."

Dumbledore's eyes stopped twinkling. "Although many wizards discounted any idea that originated with Muggles, in the thirties some wizards began experiments with what they called the 'Fifth Element.' One of them, a Dane named Lisen Broh, succeeded in developing a curse of unprecedented power. We know that curse today as Avada Kedavra."

Harry and Hermione both gasped audibly. She clutched his arm. As he looked back at her, he saw her brow furrowed. She was deep in thought.

The Headmaster soldiered on, "The concept of an unblockable curse causing instant death was totally foreign to our world before then. I believe the Muggle phrase is they 'didn't know what hit them.' This creation obviously held out the prospect of great power, and Mister Broh was seduced by it. Sadly, Avada Kedavra did not prove terribly difficult to teach or to learn once it had been devised. Mister Broh threw in with Gellert Grindelwald, who went on to acquire a large following and to undertake a campaign of magical conquest."

"You defeated one of the first users of the Avada Kedavra curse?" Harry gasped.

"Indeed I did," sighed Dumbledore, "at the cost of immeasurable personal loss. With Grindelwald's defeat, and Broh a suicide, a great international magical conference was convened. Avada Kedavra was banned as the worst of several spells that were all classified as 'Unforgivable.' That much I am sure you, or at least you" (Dumbledore looked at Hermione), "know from your History of Magic studies."

"Less well known is the fact that further magical research into the so-called Fifth Element was proscribed by the International Confederation of Wizards. The only exceptions are three Confederation-approved approaches that magical researchers now believe are next to useless. Even the existence of the Fifth Element has been suppressed. Research into the Fifth Element is thus also considered Unforgivable, in Britain carrying with it the same life sentence in Azkaban. You can imagine the penalty in America...."

Harry shuddered.

"Thus, I am sure you now understand the gravity of the charge of involvement with the Fifth Element, even if, in your case, that involvement would be entirely involuntary. In your case, the charge has been even more controversial given your notoriety as The Boy Who Lived. When the Malfoys raised it in litigation, their motion was immediately suppressed. Thus, you can see why many of us thought it extremely unwise for you to be mentioning the Fifth Element in public last night, even though I am sure you had no idea what you were talking about."

Harry then asked the question that had been on his mind ever since he first learned of the Malfoys' claims. "Is there any truth to the accusation about me being a Fifth Element elemental?"

"Neither I nor anyone else can answer that question," spoke Dumbledore gravely. "The charge is based on the undeniable fact that you are the only person ever known to have blocked - no, given what you did to Voldemort, I had best say 'repulsed' - the Killing Curse. Since that curse is associated with the Fifth Element, the supposition is that you must have acquired some control over that element to have survived."

"Once the charge was made, the Unspeakables attempted to test you, but those test results were inconclusive. While your aura showed distinctly unusual features, there was nothing that could definitely be linked to the Fifth Element. I am not even sure how valid the test was, since it is doubtful that anyone even knows what to look for. In that sense, the ban on Fifth Element research is a hindrance, since in the absence of serious research all we now have is guesswork."

"I... I... I... was tested?" Harry spluttered. "Without my knowledge or agreement?"

"Precisely so," said Dumbledore. "I was against it, but the Unspeakables insisted. After what you did to their Department of Mysteries, my objections were unable to carry the day. The test was performed on your first day at the Ministry, while you were undergoing Auror orientation."

Harry thought back to the unknown piece of equipment he had worn when he had performed the Auror power test with the boiler.

"Hermione, when you took the boiler test, did anyone ask you to wear any sort of special device?" Harry blurted.

"No, coming from a medical background, I would not have permitted any test that I didn't understand," Hermione replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

To say that Harry was displeased over being secretly tested would be an understatement. He glowered at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore thought it wise to turn Harry's attention to the present.

"Mister Potter, while I wish to emphasize that nothing has been proven, you know what happened last night, and you know that there were quite a few witnesses to it. After those events, a number of us left the scene believing that there may well be more truth to the Malfoys' claim than even they suspect."

Harry's face flushed, his anger dissipated, and his throat went dry. He croaked out, "If it's true, what does that mean?"

"A Fifth Element elemental, assuming he or she could control the gift, would command magic of extraordinary power. Advanced elemental magic of any sort is impressive, but I am sure that the strength of true Fifth Element elemental magic, if indeed it exists, would exceed by several, perhaps many, orders of magnitude anything that I have ever witnessed. If this is so, and I believe that possibility is greater now than I did before last night, then you need to be very, very careful, Mister ... er ... Harry. I am not sure what you might be capable of."

Needless to say, there was not much more to be said after that discussion. Dumbledore prepared himself to leave, his objectives accomplished, and his presence no longer needed. Hermione remained behind. Her primary purpose in getting up early and coming to Harry's house had nothing to do with either the Headmaster or the Minister. Rather, she had wanted to discuss Sixth Year academic selections with Harry. But now there were other topics on the agenda.

As Dumbledore was leaving, Harry felt the rolled up Daily Prophet in his fist. Harry had maintained a death grip around it ever since he had walked in and encountered his distinguished welcoming committee. The newspaper was considerably worse for wear, so Harry made to bin it.

"I would not do that if I were you," remarked Dumbledore as he walked out the door. "I think you will find it of considerable interest."

Harry fumbled with the paper, but he had crumpled it pretty badly during the morning's discussions.

"Displia," Hermione helpfully incanted. The paper magically straightened itself out. Harry saw his and Hermione's pictures smiling back at him on the front page, just under the headline:

"GRANGER, POTTER PACE REMARKABLE HOGWARTS O.W.L. SHOWING"

Muggle-born witch Hermione J. Granger and her widely rumoured paramour, The Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, paced a remarkable Hogwarts performance in last year's O.W.L. examinations, the results of which were released today. En route to a Hogwarts-record sixteen O.W.L.s, Miss Granger racked up six top scores for the entire Northern and Western Europe Region, including three overalls. Mr. Potter turned in three regional bests, including one overall. Two other Hogwarts students, Su Li and Padma Patil, turned in one regional best each, giving the British institution eleven regional bests - tying the all-time record and far outpacing any other institute of magical learning this year. The overall academic showing was Hogwarts' best ever.

When asked for comment, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stated that he that the O.W.L. results were a "vindication" of the school's policy of merit-based admission, evidently referring to the Muggle-born backgrounds of Miss Granger and Miss Li, Mr. Potter's Muggle-born mother, and Ms. Patil's colonial, albeit pureblooded, heritage.

Miss Granger's sixteen O.W.L.s topped by one the Hogwarts previous record for most O.W.L.s, held by Headmaster Dumbledore and Thomas Riddle, and tied the regional record set by Ambrosia Carteret of Beauxbatons. Miss Granger's overall numeric of 103.2, is the second best overall Hogwarts GPA ever, and is well within striking distance of the record 104.1 Mr. Riddle posted in 1944. The Hogwarts Practical Astronomy O.W.L. was disrupted by outside events, and will be retaken in the fall, meaning that Miss Granger will have a chance to break that record as well. As a result of her top marks in both Charms and Transfiguration, she has been awarded a Ministry research fellowship.

Mr. Potter brought home a total of ten O.W.L.s and scored an unprecedented 127 in Defence Against The Dark Arts. His score led a raft of top-notch DADA scores at Hogwarts. Nine Hogwarts students received DADA scores of 100 or better, with only Slytherin House being unrepresented. There were only six 100+ scores in the rest of the region combined.

Harry was agog; Hermione resigned.

"So much for that," she sighed.

"So much for what?" he replied uncomprehendingly.

"So much for keeping my out-performing Voldemort under wraps," she answered. "Anyway, have you looked at your course options for next year? I think that if we budget our time well we can share...."

Harry broke in. "Before we get into that, let me tell you about what I learnt...."

It was Hermione's turn to break in, which she did by firmly putting her hand over Harry's mouth, physically shutting him up. She silently replied to his wide-eyed stare by putting a finger to her lips and beckoning him into the Dursley kitchen. Motioning for Harry to keep quiet, Hermione rummaged through Aunt Petunia's shelves until she found a bag of unshelled walnuts.

Harry watched as she poured the lot down the sink drain and turned on the garbage disposal.

The resultant racket as the plughole unit tried to digest walnut shells could have raised the dead. Harry could barely hear his cousin yelling at him from the upstairs bath to stop. Harry covered his ears as Hermione performed an imperturbable Bubble-Head Charm around the both of their heads.

"Fudge and his people have been all over this house since yesterday," she said. "I don't trust him, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he were trying to keep an even closer watch on you than the Order."

"What do you mean?" he responded.

"Do you remember what I said about bugs when we were wondering where Rita Skeeter was getting all of her information about you in our Fourth Year?" she hissed. "Well I would not put it past Fudge to arrange to have planted bugs here. And now I know how to find out."

Hermione ended the Bubble-Head Charm, waived her wand in a sweeping motion and said softly, "Surveillius revelato."

Both Harry's and Hermione's Auror rings glowed green, but she ignored that. Silently the two of them - or more properly, Hermione leading a rather perplexed Harry about - searched the house. They disturbed Dudley taking a shower, but Harry did not think that Hermione saw anything (she was not sick, at any rate). Sure enough, they located no fewer than seven concealed magical microphones, all glowing bright green.

Taking their search out of doors, they observed three more devices hidden in the front garden. When their search was finished, Hermione repeated the sweeping motion with her wand, uttering "Surveillius confundo."

"That will take care of that," she said smugly.

Harry was amazed. "Hermione, what did you just do?"

"The first spell caused all clandestine surveillance devices in the house and the grounds to show themselves. Because our rings can be used to track us, they glowed as well. When I was satisfied that I knew where they all were, I cast a variant of the Confundus Charm that mimics conversation. I can end the spell with the usual Finite."

"What conversation? How...? How did you learn all this?"

Hermione smiled. "One at a time, Harry. The Confundus Charm that I used will replicate whatever conversation the spell caster is thinking of at the time. I wanted something really inane and inconsequential, so I focused your Quidditch discussions with Ron - although the spell takes on the voices of whomever is actually here."

"So Fudge is going to think you are a Quidditch fanatic," chuckled Harry.

"Well, it IS called disinformation," Hermione sniffed. "I can be as disinformative as I want - as long as everything remains plausible - and Fudge does know that I attended the Quidditch World Cup two years ago."

"How did you learn about all this?" Harry inquired again.

Hermione's smile became a sly grin. "Courtesy of the Ministry itself. I've been working ahead on my Aural Pensieve. In my free time, I've been skipping around on the Pensieve, finding out what the other lessons we haven't been assigned are all about. My parents don't understand why I'm in bed so much. I tell them the training tires me out."

"From the moment I first examined our lesson plan, I immediately wondered why our training lessons aren't consecutively numbered. It turns out that there are 144 total lessons, and the Ministry did not bother to delete any of them from the Pensieve. A lot of it is rubbish of course: how to fill out forms, interrogation techniques, Auror command structure - but some of it, like Lesson 136 on surveillance and counter-surveillance, is dead useful."

Harry looked at Hermione knowingly. "For once I'm not that far behind you. I started working ahead last night, after I began to fear that they might halt my training. But I obviously haven't thought it through like you have. As usual, that's a clever idea, Hermione."

They spent the next half-hour talking about this and that. Harry now understood why Hermione had been signalled him to turn down Fudge's offer of secretarial help.

Particularly after the attempt to listen to his private conversations, there was no way Harry would now allow any of Fudge's people read his post. Hermione thought she knew someone else that might be suitable, and agreed to follow up. She was reluctant to embarrass anyone, so Hermione did not want to reveal any names unless she was successful. Harry did not press her.

In a pleasant surprise to him, she took the news that he stood to inherit Château Blackwalls rather well. She had already accepted the possibility that he might end up owning house-elves, so the news to her was more a difference of degree rather than of kind. Hermione was familiar with Blackwalls from her S.P.E.W. activities, of course, and knew full well that the Château bred and sold elves. They agreed that, if the inheritance materialised, their already agreed upon "little project" to figure out how to free Harry's house elves would just become that much grander in its scope.

They also discussed more generally the Blacks, the Malfoys, the inheritance, and Malfoy's accusations. Hermione agreed to help Harry investigate the various odd place names Harry had jotted on the note he had shoved into her pocket the night before. She had some ideas for some magical sources to check, and failing that, there was always the Internet. That reminded her of something:

"Harry, we both know that the Internet is a great research tool, but you do accept, do not you, that sometimes the results will not be to our liking?" Hermione asked in a quavering voice.

"Of course," said Harry, not sure what she was on about.

"Well, I used some of my nervous energy yesterday researching those Rocky Mountain oysters, and it turns out they're not what they seem...."

After Harry recovered from oyster shock (Hermione privately thought it might do Harry some good to eat more of them), they went back to discussing his inheritance issues. They agreed that Dumbledore had probably been honest in his claimed ignorance of financial matters - although Harry still had some doubts.

Hermione was considerably less shocked than Harry about Malfoy's allegations that the two of them were involved in some meretricious relationship. Girls thought about their "reputations" much more than boys did, and hers had been cannon fodder for well over a year now. She began to plot some way to make Malfoy pay - and pay as spectacularly as Rita Skeeter had. That, however, would take time.

Hermione was also willing to take Dumbledore's vagueness concerning the Fifth Element at face value, but Harry was not. He informed her about what his cousin had told him earlier that morning.

"If Dudley could see that it came from my hand all the way from his bedroom window, the Headmaster had to see it too, since he was much closer. Dumbledore's failure to mention it tells me more than what he did say. He has to think that the lightning bolt proves that I am a Fifth Element elemental - or close to it."

Hermione had to agree, although neither of them understood fully what the new element was or what all the implications were. More grist for her research mill.

Harry started to shift the discussion to next year's courses, when she, to his surprise resisted. She confessed that she had been quite worried about his disappearance, even though she knew that it would happen in advance.

Professor McGonagall and others had been very upset, fearful, even, and their concerns had affected Hermione - even though logically she believed them to be mistaken. She explained that, in order to assure herself that keeping her promise to him was "wise," she had "listened carefully to her muse."

That is, to be sure that Harry was safe, Hermione had concentrated long and hard on their emotional link. As a result, she had been more acutely aware of what Harry had been feeling than ever before.

She asked, "The person you went to see for this information.... It was a she, wasn't it?"

Harry felt his insides lurch. "Er.... Yes."

"The two of you.... You did more than just discuss business, didn't you?"

Again Harry answered yes. He found himself describing to her the motorbike, the music, the movie, and the meal. Especially at the mention of Beethoven, Harry thought he saw Hermione's lip quaver. She thus got the answer to her popcorn question of the night before, and a chuckle as well - when as Harry described his misadventure with Muggle popcorn popping in the microwave.

Harry eventually thought that this discussion seemed to be playing itself out - much to his relief. He looked forward to the less personal subject of courses for the coming term. Then Hermione took a deep breath and muttered something about "that damn Egyptian river again."

Harry could only respond, "Huh?"

She had not been aware that her last comment was audible. At Harry's inarticulate inquiry, she gave a start, seemed distracted, and finally replied, "I was just commenting on my Pharaonic tendencies, Harry," she said ruefully. After an uncomfortable pause during which he looked bewildered and she apprehensive, Hermione swallowed hard and asked, more briskly, "Did you kiss her, Harry?"

Harry could not have reacted as rapidly to a Death Eater attack. He jerked to attention so quickly that his knee struck the bottom of coffee table. The blow caused the table to jump and overturned a bowl of Aunt Petunia's wax fruit. Faux apples and pears went rolling across the living room floor. He envied them; wishing that he, too, could also roll away under a davenport. That was not possible, since his Transfiguration skills were nowhere near that advanced. Nervously, Harry considered the question as he stared into Hermione's slightly frowning face.

"Er..., no," Harry answered truthfully - if not wholly accurately.

Hermione studied him intently for a moment, and followed up, "I'll try again, then. Remember that I could feel your emotions Harry. Did she by any chance kiss you?"

He was trapped. He would not lie to her in answering such a direct question. Telling less than the whole truth was as far as he would go. Even if Harry had intended to lie, it would have been futile. Still he was worried that the truth might hurt her. "On the cheek," he muttered.

"Are you going to see her again, then?" she asked in a surprisingly dignified manner.

Harry simply confessed to his best friend. "She asked me to. I want to. But now I'm not so sure. I think I did something stupid...."

Hermione made a noise that might have indicated disgust, or it might have indicated amusement, he was not sure. She did not say anything else. The pregnant pause was soon unbearable, so Harry plunged ahead....

"I got rather cross-ways when I was told about what Malfoy was doing. I let loose with spontaneous magic that damaged some of her things. I couldn't sort them out.... My Repair Charm wasn't good enough.... I offered to pay for things instead. I'm afraid that my offer was rather much, and she refused it. Then we started watching the Muggle tape on the telly, and agreed to go out, so I thought she would change her mind. So I left it. She sent it back, though. I just got this letter." Harry fumbled in his pockets and presented the letter to Hermione, who quickly read it.

"And I thought Ron was an insensitive wart," she burst out. "Harry James Potter, do you have any idea how that must have appeared to her - especially with Malfoy and his scurrilous attacks? Not everybody knows you like I do, you know. Your fame and fortune precede you, and it's high time you realise that."

Harry's face flushed red at the mention of fame and fortune, and he unburdened himself. "What good is all this bloody money anyway? I can't spend it all! I can't even seem to give it away! She was nice to me. I was a prat and damaged her things. I like her, and I wanted to pay her back!"

"So you think it's going to impress her for you to drop cash money on her like she was some cheap East End tart?" Hermione replied just as hotly. "I'll accept that your heart was in the right place, but your actions leave a great deal to be desired. You made it look like it was payment for services rendered - or worse, for services expected. She's telling you she won't be your kept woman, Harry. Don't you see? If she took the money and Malfoy ever found out.... Why, what's been said about the two of us would be mild by comparison."

Harry's temper subsided straight away, replaced by a sense of defeat. "It's that bad, eh?" was all he could say in reply.

Hermione swallowed. "Well I suppose it could be worse," she said, feeling Pharaonic again.

Harry grunted, but said nothing else. She charged into the lull. "She could have told you to stay out of her life once and for all, but she did not. Even as angry and embarrassed as she undoubtedly is, she only told you not to do it again. I think that's a pretty clear signal that she's willing for there to be an again."

Hermione placed particular emphasis on the final word.

Harry's face brightened, and he jumped up. "You really think so? I'm not stuck having done something that came out so badly differently from how I meant it?"

Hermione was not happy. "Sit," she commanded. Harry sat down. She put her hands on both of Harry's shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Harry, listen to me," she pleaded. "This is an awkward time of life. You're a boy - but you're a man too. We're all living in the middle of doubt. The relationships that existed when we were children are in the process of rearranging themselves into an entirely new set, on a more adult basis. Romance is a lot harder than it sometimes appears, especially at the beginning. People say things and do things that come out in ways other than they mean them to. That's what ... er ... you did, but that's all you did. It was a mistake borne from lack of experience...."

"You did something capable of serious misinterpretation, but that doesn't mean that there's no chance for redemption. Anybody can do that. It needn't be the end of the story. If you really like someone, romance doesn't have to turn upon one stupid thing or a single statement gone terribly awry. Try again, Harry. That's all I'm saying."

He smiled thoughtfully. "You really should write that book, you know."

Harry might have continued this conversation, but Hermione seemed increasingly on edge, almost as if she were close to tears. Harry felt it prudent to talk about something else - something safer.

"Well, Hermione, how did your parents react to your marks?" he asked.

Her face brightened. "They were delighted Harry, as you might expect - especially when I explained what you just read in the Prophet. Oh yes, and my father was particularly pleased by the scholarships. I think that we may have been living somewhat beyond our means.... This relieves some of the pressure. I think that was another reason I was being withdrawn from Hogwarts."

Harry beamed. "You got a scholarship, Hermione. That's great. Good things do happen to people who work for them."

"Actually, I got several," she responded enthusiastically, "and I'll be shocked if you haven't also been awarded one or more. Hogwarts has been around for a thousand years, and many of its alumni come from very affluent families, as you have discovered. One way wealthy people show off is to endow scholarships with their names on them. When we reach the O.W.L. level, there's a scholarship attached to practically every achievement."

Harry gritted his teeth at the mention of rich people "showing off." There were worse uses for excess money, he thought.

She pulled a letter from her purse (which was not shrunken today). She ticked off her various awards. "I received the Merlin Award for best overall O.W.L. score at Hogwarts, and the Confederation Commendation for placing first in the region. That's two full scholarships right there. There's the Ravenclaw Medal for the most total O.W.L.s achieved, the Gryffindor Prize for the best performance in Gryffindor House, the Switch Scholarship for outstanding work in Transfiguration, the Marlborough/Spencer Award for Achievement in Charms, and the Pythagorean Prize for the highest score in Arithmancy. All together, my way is now paid more than four times over."

Harry's interest was piqued. He ran upstairs to get his letter, which was lying unopened in his room. Ripping it open as he pounded back down the stairs, Harry let out a whoop as he discovered that he also had won a full scholarship - not that he needed it, of course.

"You were right Hermione," he exclaimed. "I won the Ministry of Magic Scholarship for the highest O.W.L. in Defence, the Headmaster's Award for the highest single O.W.L. score in any subject, and the Belby Trophy for the highest score in Care of Magical Creatures."

They hugged each other in mutual recognition of their accomplishments.

The two friends then turned to the matter of next year's courses. To Harry's distinct lack of surprise, she had already studied and memorised the upper form mandates. Sixth Years with sufficient O.W.L.s were required to take no fewer than five, nor more than eight N.E.W.T.-level courses - assuming that they had passed that many O.W.L. examinations (which both Harry and Hermione had). Unlike pre-N.E.W.T. courses, the advanced courses took place mostly in the afternoon - except for those Professor McGonagall taught, as she routinely used a Time Turner to manage her schedule.

In addition to the mandatory course, all students were to take two non-N.E.W.T. electives. The two of them had no trouble agreeing on five N.E.W.T. courses. Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, and Care of Magical Creatures were no-brainers. Potions was also an obvious pick, even though Harry was revolted by the idea of enduring two more years of abuse from Professor Snape. Nevertheless Potions was a prerequisite to a career as an Auror, and that was what Harry wanted to do.

He was surprised to learn while discussing courses that she was no longer sure that she wanted to be an Auror. Hermione was now seriously considering a career in wizard healing - which was why she had been so excited over obtaining a medical research fellowship. Harry briefly thought about the likelihood of them going their separate ways after graduation, but quickly shelved the subject as both too upsetting and too remote to think about.

They agreed that they would both take Herbology as a sixth course.

Harry decided that was enough for him. He did not want to take more than six N.E.W.T.s, because he wanted to have time to continue the D.A. sessions, for Quidditch practice, and (he grimaced) for the responsibilities of simply being Harry Potter.

It was not something he wanted, but it was becoming increasingly unavoidable.

Hermione shocked Harry by only taking one additional N.E.W.T., in Arithmancy. In response to his accusation that she was "going soft," she explained that her student research fellowship also counted as a N.E.W.T.-level course, although it was not marked, as such. She also reminded him that she was a prefect and also would be involved in the D.A.

She convinced Harry that he should take the non-N.E.W.T. Arithmancy elective, because a working knowledge of that subject would be necessary for studying Necromancy as their Senior Independent Work. They both made notes of this desire in the "comments" section of the forms they were filling out.

Hermione was quite surprised when Harry selected Domestic Charms from the calendar as his second non-N.E.W.T. elective. That was overwhelmingly a girl's course, and if there was one thing that she did not think he needed, it was more exposure to his female classmates. Thus Hermione sought to talk him out of that choice. Harry replied that, coming from a Muggle background, he needed to learn how to look after himself in the magical world. He was none too happy when she reminded him of the likelihood that he would have servants and elves looking after him (she did not mention a wife). Still, he would not be deterred.

Hermione chose electives in History of Magic and Muggle Studies.

When they were done choosing, she uttered the spell listed in the instructions, and her course list appeared

Course List for Hermione J. Granger, Sixth Year, 1996-97 Term

Advanced & Human Transfiguration, Minerva McGonagall. Course books: Transfiguration of Living Things, by Minerva McGonagall; Transfiguring Oneself, by Tuan Mac Cairill; Animagus Workbook, by Gandolfus Rottweiler.

N.E.W.T. Potions - Bottling Fame, Brewing Glory & Stoppering Death (Part I), Severus Snape. Course Books: The Emerald Tablet, by Hermes Trismegistos; The Joy of Potions, by Auroleus Phillipus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim.

Charms for the Charming, Filius Flitwick. Course books: Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6, by Miranda Goshawk; Quintessence: A Quest, by Nicholas Flamel.

Defending Yourself with Modern Magic, TBA. Course Books: Confronting the Faceless: Creative Defences to Dark Magic, by Alastor Moody; The Pre-Auror Guidebook, by the Ministry of Magic Auror Candidate School Training Group.

Heavy Duty Herbology, Pomona Sprout. Course Books: One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, by Phyllinda Spore; Field Guide to Carnivorous and Other Dangerous Plants, by the Wizard Geographical Society.

Interesting Magical Creatures, Rubeus Hagrid. Course Books: Everything You Wanted to Know About Restricted Classification Beasts But Were Afraid to Ask, by Uric the Oddball; Light and Darkness: A Comparative Study of Unicorns and Leithifolds, by Newt Scamander.

Analytic Arithmancy & Numerology, Septima Vector. Course Books: Sefer ha-Zohar, by Shimon ben Yohai (De Leon translation); The Number of All Things, by Bridget Wenlock; al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wa'l-Muqabala, by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (Wenlock translation).

Selected Topics in Modern Magical History, Cuthbert Binns. Course Book: Patterns of Darkness & Light: The Magical History of the Twentieth Century, by Barbara Tuchman.

How Muggles Manage Without Magic, Arthur C. Asimov. Course Book: The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay.

The first six items on Harry's course list were the same as Hermione's. His two non-N.E.W.T. electives were:

Arithmancy for Poets, Septima Vector. Course Book: Arithmancy Made Easy, by Albert E. Hawking.

Household & Domestic Magic, Filius Flitwick. Course Book: The Better Homes & Gardens Complete Magical Guide, by Samantha Schlafley and Tabitha Palsgraf.

When Hermione and Harry finished, they fretted about having to pick courses without including Ron. While they did not have any choice, since Ron was in Denmark all summer, they felt guilty nonetheless. Hermione performed the Replico spell on their course lists, and they gave the copies to Hedwig to deliver to Ron. Harry was going to see Dumbledore that night for an Occlumency lesson, so he would deliver both of their completed forms by hand.

After Hermione left, Harry was at loose ends. For a while he amused himself by transfiguring some coat hangers into miniature Quidditch goal posts and trying to throw wadded up bits of pages from Teen Witches Weekly through them, but that soon became boring.

Harry had three choices:

First, he could apparate to Lao Kung's studio for more training. Harry felt guilty that he was not seeing the Sefu as much as before, but other things had taken precedence.

Second, he could try to avoid the Dursleys' return by taking a nap and checking out that intriguing gap after Tuesday's scheduled session in combat flying. "Hermione will love that," Harry thought.

Or third, Harry could grab the bull by the horns - so to speak - and call Eliza to apologise.

Being the courageous son of Gryffindor House that he was, Harry opted for the nap.

- 41 -

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C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.ch11 return strikes.doc 09/28/03