Harry Potter and The Tomb of Hogwarts

Harry Potter and

The Tomb of Hogwarts

Chapter 17

All Work and No Play

If Harry thought his schedule was full enough before now, Sunday quickly showed him a new appreciation for what little free time he had left.

He began the day still basking in the memories of his Hogsmeade trip with Amanda. Ron and Hermione, who were actually being civil with each other for a change, followed closely behind him as he went over his date in more detail, and they in turn told him everything they had done.

Still, more of the conversation drew on Harry's day, as he seemed to have had the most pleasant of the three dates.

Well, I got to see some really neat magic-electric hybrids from Davie," Hermione said in a chipper voice. "Like that Palm Pilot of his. Absolutely amazing."

"But I thought no electronic devices can work at Hogwarts," Harry responded with a confused expression.

"They can't. But it's not really electronic. It's all magical, but put together to look like common Muggle electronics. They've got laptops, and Palm Pilots, and even some TVs. It's all really cool. I saw a few of them when I was on vacation with my parents, but I had no idea they weren't just normal electronics. I'm gonna ask Mum and Dad if they'll get me a magic PDA for Christmas."

"Cool," said Harry, though he wasn't quite sure what she was talking about.

"Come on now, Hermione. I want to hear more about Harry's date. How far did you get with her?"

WHAP!

And so ended the short-lived harmony between Ron and Hermione, and they spent the rest of the trip down to the Great Hall arguing the appropriateness of talking about whether or not Harry got to third base.

But Harry hadn't heard a word of it. His mind was elsewhere, thinking about how much fun it was to look into her eyes and see his own reflection there. He knew that he could talk with her for hours or just sit together in silence, enjoying each other's company, and both would be equally wonderful as the other and both better than anything he could remember doing.

"What in the world is going on out here?" came a sharp voice as they approached the doors of the Great Hall.

"Sorry," Harry said, snapping out of his daydream. "What's going on?"

"Not you, Mr. Potter. These two. You're supposed to be Prefects. What could possibly be so important that two Gryffindor Prefects find it necessary to yell so loud that I could hear you clear from the staff table?"

It was obvious that Professor McGonagall was not very happy with them and Harry had been on the backside of her speeches too many times.

He took a few short steps from them, waiting to see if McGonagall would object, and when she did not, he continued into the Great Hall for breakfast.

By the time Ron and Hermione joined him at the table, Harry was already done with his cereal and was halfway done with his cheese omelette.

They both sat down without saying a word to each other, though Hermione did remind Harry that they were due in Professor McGonagall's office at nine for Animagus training.

Harry's face showed his angst. "I'd forgotten all about that," he groaned loudly. "I haven't done my exercises since I got back to the castle.

"Neither have I," Ron agreed.

"Well, she did say it was mainly for practice. You did practice before school, right Harry?"

"Actually, before I got to school I was doing it every night before I went to bed. I've just been so tired, I plain forgot about it. Truthfully, I was looking forward to this next week cause I figured it would be easier. But now I've got this to add to my schedule..."

"Plus Occlumency lesson," Hermione reminded him.

Another loud groan, this one twice as loud.

"I won't see the light of day for the next eight months."

"Oh, come on Harry. It's not that bad. I mean, your first Quidditch game is only a week away, and then you won't have another for over two months," she added in an upbeat tone.

Another loud moan from Harry told her he'd forgotten about this too.

"Way to go, Hermione," Ron interjected. Why don't you just start talking to him about the prophecy while you're at it?"

That was it. Harry jumped from his seat, having lost any appetite he had left.

He was just walking out of the Great Hall when he ran head on into the exchange students, with Amanda right there at the back of the pack.

A sinking feeling hit the pit of his stomach. Amanda made him feel better than he'd ever felt before, but as he realized how busy he was going to be with his new schedule, he'd be lucky to see her outside of classes.

He smiled weekly as he passed the group, nodding to Amanda as she approached, and she fell back out of the group. As soon as they were far enough away, Amanda grabbed his hand and pulled him back out into the hallway, waiting no longer, and planted a great big kiss that caused the whole world to melt away.

They pulled away a few moments later, and the moment he looked into her eyes a deep sadness fell over his face.

"What's the matter," she asked, a frightened look on her face.

"Well, I've been thinking about my schedule. You see, I've got a lot to do, and with teaching Duelling, plus my other classes, Quidditch, Occlumency, Animagus training, and everything else, it just doesn't seem like I'm going to have any time for myself."

"Oh," she replied, a look of relief spreading over her face. "Is that all? I thought you were going to tell me that you didn't want to see me again or something."

"Oh no," Harry blurted out. "No. There's little else I want to do. It's just that I wasn't sure if you wanted to see me, you know, when I'm not going to be able to be around that much."

"Well that's okay. I mean, Professor Dave's given us a bit of relaxation time to get used to the school, but starting next Monday, we've all got a lot more work to be doing. I don't think I'm going to have much free time before dinner as it is, and even after I'll have a lot of homework to do."

Harry gave a loud sigh of relief. He'd been worried that she wouldn't like how busy he was going to be, and here she was going to tell him the same thing within the next week.

"Well, all I have to do on Monday and Thursday nights is grade papers. I guess we could do our homework together then, and maybe get to spend a few moments together then."

"And maybe we can find an hour on Saturdays when we can go outside for a little bit and relax," she added hopefully.

"I'm sure we can work something out. In fact, I'll bet Dobby would be happy to bring us something to eat, and we could just have lunch out under this one tree by the lake," he added, thinking about his Mum and Dad.

They talked for a few more minutes before the alarm on his watch told him that it was time for Animagus training.

She gave him a brief kiss goodbye, and with his spirits lifted, he headed to McGonagall's office.

Ron and Hermione were already sitting in chairs when Harry arrived.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said politely as he entered her office. "Please take a seat."

Harry took the third seat and sat quietly, suddenly having flashbacks of the previous year when he had sat here so many times, learning of the different punishments he was to incur because of Malfoy or Professor Umbridge. He could feel the scared feelings creeping back in.

"The first thing I would like to do before we begin your official training is to give you a copy of the Ministry guidelines for Animagus training. The Ministry has found that following those guidelines will help most witches and wizards to find their Animagus forms within one complete school year."

She handed them each a small parchment with an outline on the proper training techniques for becoming an Animagus. When each of them had finished reading, she continued.

"Now, you have each worked on the exercises I gave you?" she asked.

"Yes Ma'am," answered Hermione.

"Of course," lied Ron.

"No," answered Harry honestly. "I haven't had the time since I got back to school, but I did get some practice in before."

"Well, unless you used a lengthening spell, it looks like you have been able to grow your hair out, so all is not lost."

"I did," Harry answered enthusiastically, hoping he might avoid getting in trouble.

"Well, those exercises were only to help you get started, so I don't suppose there is too much time lost. However, from this point on I expect each task I give you to be done on schedule. You are three of the best candidates for Animagus training I have seen in many years and I expect you to take your training very seriously."

The three of them sat there, nodding their heads as though she had questioned their resolve.

"Very good. Now, as you will see on the outline, the first level to becoming an Animagus is extremely long and takes by far the most work to accomplish. The second and third levels are much easier and combined take less than a month to accomplish, yet your first level will take the better part of this school year. This level, of course, is to find you Animagus form."

"But we already chose our forms," Ron interrupted. "I'm going to be a wolf."

"Mr. Weasley, you do not choose your Animagus. Your Animagus chooses you."

"But you told us to..."

"I know exactly what I told you to do. However, the form you choose is not always what chooses you, and in your case I would have to say that the chances of you choosing correctly is somewhere between slim and none."

Ron made to interrupt McGonagall again, but she stopped him short.

"I do not mean to offend you, Mr. Weasley. Many people will choose one form and become another. I myself had chosen a falcon, but instead I found myself as a cat. Professor Dumbledore is quite the same. In fact, the only person here I expect to be even remotely close to the form he chooses is Mr. Potter here, and I don't expect it will be exactly as he thinks either."

"Oh great. Of course Harry gets to choose. He gets everything," Ron blurted out, then turned to Harry and said softly, "No offence mate."

"None taken," Harry said as he punched Ron in the shoulder.

"That will be quite enough. And if you really must know, the only reason I suspect that Mr. Potter has any real chance of finding his Animagus form before it finds him is because Serious once told me that when he, Peter, and James had chosen their forms, James was the only one who was close to being right. He had chosen the form of a stallion, and though they may not seem the same, as Animagus forms are concerned they are quick closely related. I expect that with proper training he would could very well have chosen his form, and Harry could very well follow in his father's footsteps."

"So what are we going to be doing today," asked Hermione, getting a bit impatient.

"Very good, Miss Granger. We must get on, as you two have quite busy days ahead of you," she added, looking at Harry and Ron.

"Today we are going to work on hair colour. I want to see how far you all have progressed. From there we will see if you are ready to begin working on length and girth. We will be working on your hair for the next two weeks, and then we will begin working on our fingers and toes."

And so their official training began.

And as Ron had pointed out, Harry seemed to have a big advantage over the rest of them. Although he was only able to change the colour of his hair by a few shades, he was able to grow his hair out with very little effort. McGonagall chalked this up to his history of Aunt Petunia cutting his hair.

She explained that this was how the first level of Animagus training worked. Any one step of training could take weeks or even months to accomplish, but once it's been learned it's simply becomes a matter of practice.

McGonagall finally allowed them to go on their way at ten thirty, which gave Harry just enough time to run on up to Charlie's office while Hermione was going to go to the library to meet Dave to do some research. Ron had mentioned that he was going to get ready for Quidditch Practice.

When Harry walked into the DADA class he found it completely empty, so he walked over to the office door and knocked.

"Come in, Harry," called Charlie from the other side.

Harry opened the door and walked inside. The room he saw was completely different from anything he had previously seen. Before, when Professor Lockhart had been there the room had been covered with portraits of himself. Lupin covered it with all types of books and boxes about different creatures. That was most like what he expected the office should look like. Moody kept all sorts of magical devices that could detect and protect him from evil magic while Umbridge had kept it very neat and clean.

But this was like nothing Harry had ever seen.

There were four tall pillars placed perfectly at the odd four pointes of the room, from the door being at Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest.

Quite like the ceiling in the Great Hall, the ceiling here showed a version of the night sky, but with two distinctive differences. For one, it covered not just the ceiling, but the whole room from top to bottom. For another, instead of the sky being black with white stars, it was a rainbow of mix-matching colours, as though the night sky's black had been colour-sprayed.

With no desk or chairs left in the room, Charlie was sitting with his legs crossed in the center of the room, eyes closed, humming softly to himself.

Harry was about to say hello when Charlie's eyes flew open. Without a word, he pulled out his wand, pointed to the pillar to Harry's left, and whispered Alohomora.

Harry turned to look only to find the pillar had split down the middle and opened, an empty shelf protruding from it.

"Please both place your wand and your medallion," he said with a knowing smile, "on the shelf there, then come join me on the floor."

Harry did as he was told, placing both in the center, then sitting just across from Charlie, crossing his legs in the same way he had at the park during the summer.

He sat patiently for ten minutes, waiting for some kind of instruction, but Charlie just sat there as though oblivious to Harry's presence.

As fifteen minutes approached, Harry began to wonder if he should be doing something and he had simply missed it.

Just before the twenty-minute mark, he finally decided to speak up, but he was interrupted before the first word escaped his mouth.

"I see we have developed into quite a smart young man, Harry," Charlie said, opening his eyes and looking proudly at him. "Most young men at your age would have asked me for guidance after less than a minute, yet your patience lasted a full eighteen minutes."

Harry just looked curiously back at him, and Charlie smiled.

"There are three elements to becoming a good Occlumens, Harry, and the first and most important is patience. Without patience, any raw talent is wasted. With patience comes wisdom, which is the second element a good Occlumens. It's quite similar to duelling in that manner. That is why you were able to so easily defeat Mr. Malfoy in your duel, and it's that same reason which will lead to your victory over Voldemort."

"But the duel with Malfoy was all but fixed. I knew exactly what he'd do before he did it, and it had nothing to do with patience or wisdom, but just knowing what kind of person Malfoy was and exploiting it, not that it wasn't fun or anything."

"That may be true, but if I heard correctly, you used two different defensive techniques in your duel, and each led to an extremely easy point. That is evidence of patience, as well as the last and strongest element of Occlumency, trust."

Harry had a quizzical look on his face. Trust? he wondered. But where can trust come from when Occlumency and Legilimency are all about invading someone's mind.

"Legilimency is not just about reading someone's mind, nor is Occlumency only about blocking your mind from intrusion. They are about disciplining your mind, body, and soul. And to become a truly proficient Occlumens and Legilimens you must obtain a balance of all three. That is where your advantage over Voldemort comes. He is strong in body and mind, but his soul is weaker than ever, if there is indeed any soul left in him."

"So you know about the prophecy?" Harry asked, though he wasn't really surprised.

"Of course. Most of us in the Order know some of the details, though Dumbledore felt that I should be fully prepared to train you, so he informed me of some additional facts which few in the order are privy to. In fact, there are many things about you I know that even my parents are unaware of."

Harry began to go pale. He felt as though Charlie was about to drop another bombshell on him.

"Don't worry, Harry. I know no more than you do, and I have no news which will change your life, except perhaps for the knowledge of Legilimency and Occlumency which I am here to teach you. Which brings us back to the beginning. What we need to do first is open your mind as much as possible. It is only when we know what we are protecting can we fully understand how to do so."

Harry nodded in agreement.

"So, the first thing we are going to do, and it will seem quite fruitless in the beginning, is to teach you how not to think."

Harry's look of puzzlement must have been obvious because Charlie's smile grew quite large.

"What I mean by this, Harry, is that you must learn how to completely clear your mind of everything and anything, including the very thought of clearing your mind. Now, this probably sounds redundant until you see what I'm talking about, so let's try a little exercise."

Harry nodded his approval.

"I want you to take my hands. Then I want you to close your eyes but keep the picture of my face in your thoughts. Then, I want you to concentrate, listening to the silence of everything around you. Try hard not to think, but just to listen for the sound of my voice."

Harry did as he was told. He closed his eyes, still holding Charlie's hands, and concentrated on hearing his voice, but he heard nothing.

"Keep concentrating, Harry. Listen for my voice beyond the silence."

Harry kept his eyes closed, still concentrating, listening intently to the silence.

As time continued on the silence began to consume the room, and the background noise of the birds outside, the movement about the castle, all began to disappear, and another kind of silence took its place.

It was an odd kind of silence taking over the room. The quiet seemed to take on a life of its own, and somewhere deep in the background he could hear something that sounded like a voice chanting in the background. The more he concentrated on the silence the louder the chanting became.

Then, all of the sudden the voice zoomed towards him, and he knew at once who it was and what it was saying.

"Think of nothing. Think of nothing. Think of nothing." It was Charlie, chanting the same three words over and over, until finally he spoke out in another voice; one which now seemed quite odd.

"Congratulations, Harry."

Harry's eyes flew open, and for a moment he looked at Charlie in a new way, as though he had just learned a bit of very intimate knowledge about him. "Was that your thoughts?" Harry asked in a shocked tone.

"Indeed it was," he replied.

"But I thought Dumbledore said you couldn't just read a person's mind, but that it was more like swimming through memories."

"Normally that would be true, but things are not always as they seem, and there are things about magic that even Professor Dumbledore is still learning and the arts of Occlumency and Legilimency are some of the most mysterious."

"So you can read minds by using Legilimency?" said Harry with a look of marvel.

"Yes, and no. You see, being able to read one's mind is so extremely intrusive that less than a handful of wizards throughout the world are able and even fewer are willing. However, it is possible, with enough discipline, to give someone access to your conscious thoughts. But of course, there are some very strict restrictions to this process."

Harry listened intently, even leaning forward a few inches as Charlie continued.

"First, the subject having his mind read must know how to turn off all of his conscious defences because having someone enter your thoughts is quite a bit like walking into your home, only in this case you've got more than just a simple door holding intruders at bay. Your mind has set defences in place which are stronger than magic, if in the case of Muggles. If Voldemort were to pick up a Muggle off the street in London, starve and torture them until he told him anything that was asked, he would still have little to no chance of reading their thoughts. Of course, an accomplished Legilimens is able to direct their memories to get almost any information they wish, but they would not know what their victim was thinking at that moment."

"Okay," Harry said, though it sounded like a lot of double talk to him. He was sure he could figure it out later, or ask Hermione.

"The next requirement is that you have physical contact with the subject. Through physical contact, the energies of both participants begin to merge on a small level. And finally, the person whose thoughts are being read must will their thoughts to the front of their consciousness. If you don't will your thoughts then they are read only in small parts, as though looking at a puzzle with half of its pieces missing."

Harry nodded as he found at last something that began to make sense.

"Now, this all leads us back to my original statement. Though only some of your thoughts could be read, your memories are still quite free to be searched so long as you think of them. What you must learn is how to think of absolutely nothing. Now, if you were to try to search my memories and I was not prepared, you might be able to search at least one or two of my memories before I might be able to defend myself. However, if I were trying to invade your mind while you were actively working on blocking any attacks, even if I were unable to read your memories or emotions, I would still learn something very important about you."

"Because you would know I was blocking you," Harry replied. Now he could see what Charlie was talking about.

"Exactly. But if you train yourself not to think at all, to have no conscious or subconscious thoughts, then anyone trying to read you would come back with nothing at all. In that case, they are more likely to believe something other than you is blocking them, or else they might believe that their power is somehow failing them. But whichever it is, the idea that you are simply able to completely block them without trying is something they would not be willing to believe, and therefore would not believe."

"So how do you do it? How do you not think? I mean, I've tried blocking out my thoughts, but then I'm thinking about blocking, so that's still thinking."

"Right. And for the next few weeks, that's what we'll be working on for most of our time together, as well as building your basic Occlumency skills, which I might add seem to have come quite a bit further than I would have expected, seeing who trained you."

Harry found himself instinctively wanting to defend Snape, though he didn't know why and was able to stop himself before doing so, but it seemed Charlie had seen it coming.

"Don't get me wrong, Harry. Snape is an accomplished Occlumens, but he's not likely to win the title of Greatest Professor of All Time, though he's consistent enough in his own right. But add his distaste for you and I did not expect him to have made as much progress as he has. You've come quite far."

Harry sat up a bit more upright at the compliment.

"Now, what we've got to do is help you to learn how to fight back, and that's where these new exercises are going to make you a very dangerous man."

"Well, it's definitely a different type of training, I'll say that much," Harry replied.

"Well, a lot of that's because much of what I am going to teach you is known by very few people, Harry. To be honest, I had to get a great number of sanctions from different councils before I was permitted to teach you what I know."

"What councils?"

"Well, that's not important right now, but before the school year is out, if we progress as much as I hope, you will be coming with me to meet with two of them personally. But come now, let's work on clearing your mind."

They working on clearing Harry's thoughts until a little after noon, then headed down to lunch.

They talked about Quidditch all the way down to the Great Hall, and Charlie was just starting to give him a few hints when the walked in. He saw Ron and Hermione sitting at the table, apparently half way through their meal, and Harry decided he might as well eat with Charlie at the staff table.

After dropping by to tell them he'd see them after lunch, Harry spent the next forty minutes chatting with Charlie about Quidditch strategies and Charlie gave him some advice on how to be Captain without compromising himself in the process.

At ten minutes to one, Harry finally bid Charlie goodbye after being reminded that he'd be expected at the DADA office each Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday for the rest of the year.

Harry was already drained and the day was barely half over with Quidditch still to come, followed by duelling training with Dumbledore.

Harry landed on the Quidditch field a few minutes later, having flown over from the castle in order to make it there on time. The rest of the team was already there, ready for a rugged workout, and that was just what he had in mind.

"Alright team. Today we are going to work on pinch plays. I want one beater protecting Ron, and one working with me against him. Two chasers are going against you as well, Ron, with Ginny being your only offence. The idea here is to start working more in smaller groups. We work really well when we're all in a group, but that doesn't happen as much as we'd like and I have a feeling the Slytherins are going to do whatever they can to keep us apart. So let's run those drills for a good two hours and see how we're doing. Any questions? Good, let's go."

Ron had shown some honest signs of resentment towards Harry and his gruelling practice, even going as far as comparing him to one of his predecessors, Oliver Woods.

And Harry had to admit that the practice was pretty gruelling by any standards, but Charlie had made the suggestion and he agreed that it would definitely bring up their game. Everyone was going to be hindered, and just as duelling Dumbledore made duelling anyone else seem like child's play, so would practicing at such disadvantages now.

Harry would switch things up at different intervals, giving Ginny a partner and sending one of the other chasers off on their own. The Beaters would also periodically change positions, so that at the end of the day the only person who's place had not changed was Ron. True to form, Ron was seething by the end of the practice, although Harry was pretty sure that any retribution would not come for at least a week since it would likely take that long for Ron to get enough energy back to do anything.

Just as the sun began to go down, Harry decided to run one last drill before packing up for the day. It was a series of drills to sharpen their flying skills. Everyone lined up at one side of the Quidditch field. One by one they would mount their brooms and fly through a long series of glowing hoops. Three hoops would be illuminated in a bright neon-green at any one time and each time they went through one hoop it would disappear and the next one would illuminate someplace else. The goal was to go through each of the fifty hoops in quick succession, eventually getting their time down to three minutes or less.

Of course, it wasn't enough just to explain it to Harry, so he mounted his broom, gave his watch to Ron, and took off. The first twenty hoops were pretty well spaced and ran in a fairly smooth line so that even in turns it was not hard to find the next hoop. However, after Harry went through the eighteenth hoop he noticed that number twenty-one, which had just illuminated, had illuminated not in green, but instead it was a bright purple. When he finally got to this hoop he found that the turns were a bit tighter and the hoops were growing closer together. In addition, they began moving vertically, having one close to the ground, the next twenty feet higher and held at a ninety-degree angle so that Harry had to fly straight up in order to get through it.

But he was still making good time, he was sure, and when the colour changed again at the fortieth from purple to red, the hoops smaller this time and in very erratic positions, Harry was at least comforted by the fact that he was sure he had over a minute left.

But he never made it to forty-one.

Just as he approached the forty-first hoop, a blinding flash of light crossed right in front of him, engulfing him for a full five seconds. It had taken him by such a surprise that he lost his grip on his broom, rolled over, and fell.

He gripped for his broom, his nails biting into the wood of his Firebolt. Harry held on for dear life, but his broom was still flying at a very quick pace, and soon the strain was too great.

His fingers slipped.

The wind flew by his face as he whirled around, falling towards the ground, his speed increasing with every meter.

Harry jammed his hand into his pocket, searching wildly for his wand.

He was less than thirty meters from the ground when his fingers finally found their target. He gripped it hard and pulled, but something was stopping him from pulling it out.

He pulled harder, and finally he heard a ripping sound that told him the wand was at the wrong angle to be pulled out.

With only fifteen meters to go he turned his hand and freed his wand from his pocket, and pointed it down. He was just going to shout a spell when his decent suddenly began to slow. With a quick change of tactics he called out Aqua Lacuna and dove straight into a large pool of water.

Harry swam to the bottom and tapped the base of the bubble with his wand. The bubble exploded and the water all fell around him.

As Harry stood up and began to dry himself off, he heard Hermione's voice screaming from the distance. He turned to see her running towards him, a look of horror giving way to relief.

"Harry, are you alright?" she said exasperatedly. "What happened?"

"I don't know. It was just like that time with Quirrell during my first year, only this time I was vertical, so I didn't have any way to get a good grip."

By this time the rest of the team had arrived; all but Ron. He showed up a few moments later on his broom holding a Hufflepuff cloak with Dudley in tow.

"Guess who I found," Ron said with a look of disgust on his face. "Bloody well tried to kill you. Say the word Harry and he'll be cleaning the Great Hall with his own toothbrush for the next year."

Harry stared at his cousin with a kind of contempt and anger that he'd never felt before. Sure, there had been times when his cousin had teased him or bullied him some, but he had never deliberately put his life in danger. A thousand different punishments went through his mind, none of them allowing Dudley to see the light of day before the new millennium. Finally, after staring at his cousin for more than a minute he looked over at Ron and said in a voice much more calm than he felt, "Let him go."

"Excuse me?" Ron shouted in disbelief. "Are you joking? He could have..."

"I know, Ron, and I'm not letting him off, but he's not going anywhere unless I say so, so let him go." Harry noticed the calm in his voice and he was truly scared of just how detached and composed he sounded.

"Ginny, if you could bring him to Professor Sprout and tell her what happened. And please let her know I'll be there in a few minutes to go over the specifics, I just want to clean up around here. And why don't you hold onto his wand until you get to Professor Sprout's office. She should just be coming back from dinner about now."

"You got it," Ginny said with a salute. She then pulled out her own wand while taking Dudley's with the other and walked him back towards the castle.

Harry waited until they were both well out of sight and sound, then abruptly turned and fired off a large lightning bolt at one of the remaining Bludgers which was flying about over their heads.

Everyone stepped back, afraid they might be future victims of Harry's fury.

After several moments passed, a few words came from Harry's direction, though the voice sounded very rough and hoarse.

"That will be all for today. We'll meet back here Wednesday. If you hurry, you might be able to get in before it gets dark. I'll clean up out here."

There was no offer or invitation for debate in his voice, and Ron and Hermione knew it, so they nodded to the rest of the team, including Ginny, who turned for the changing rooms before going back to the castle.

Ron and Hermione stood there for several minutes, letting Harry stand there and stare up at the afternoon sky as it began to cross over to dusk. Finally, after nearly five minutes of continued silence, Hermione stepped forward and placed her hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Harry, are you alright?" she asked softly.

Harry remained silent, but she didn't need to hear it. She could feel him trembling beneath her hand, and there was no way for that to be anything but bad. Moreover, as she stood there looking at him from behind she could see the sides of his face, moist with fresh tears.

Without another word, Hermione put one arm around him while turning him around with her other and pulling him into a motherly embrace, and Harry fell softly into his friend's arms.

He only stayed there for a few moments before composing himself. He pulled himself away, straightened his cloak, and dried his face with his sleeve.

"What was that all about?" asked Ron bluntly.

"Nice Ron," Hermione chastised, shaking her head. "Real polite. You haven't got a sympathetic bone in you're entire body, do you?"

"What did I do? I just wanted to know... Oh, never mind. Are you alright, Harry?"

Harry just nodded and finished wiping the last of the tears of his face.

"You know," he said in a cool, monotone voice, "If Ginny hadn't taken him away, I don't know what I would've done to him. All I wanted to do was try every curse I knew on him, all at the same time. And what really buggers me is that if it weren't for me, he wouldn't be able to do magic. Now, not only is it my fault he's a Slyder, but I bloody well taught him everything he knows. Not to mention he nearly killed me, what happens when next time he does it to someone who can't help themselves. And how did I slow down like that in the first place?"

"That was me," Hermione answered. "I was coming out to tell you something and I saw you falling, so I cast Wingardium Leviosa on you to slow you down."

"Oh," Harry replied, then perked up for and asked, "What did you want to tell me?"

Hermione's eyes shot open wide. "Oh my, I forgot to tell you. With everything that's happened, I completely forgot."

"Oh, come on, Hermione," Ron moaned.

"Sorry. It's just; well... it's really big news."

"Out with it already," Ron exclaimed.

"Fine!" She shouted in response. "Harry, I found some more information on your Medallion. It's very important."

"What did you find?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Well, you know that there were originally four medallions, until Slytherin left the castle, taking his with him. Well, after he left the three remaining founders changed their medallions into keys."

"Keys?" Ron asked. "Keys for what?"

"Well, what do you guys know about The Tomb of Hogwarts?"

Coming Soon

Chapter 18

The Legend of the Tomb