Harry Potter and the Old Believers

Chapter 10

All four teens decided it was strange to return to the normalcy of the Burrow. For one thing, they weren't allowed to do magic for four days. They were quite happy to do an hour run each morning and then perform their meditations, however.

Harry was rather surprised to get a note from Professor McGonagall, stating he would be the Quidditch captain that year. He had hoped he might get it, but had been doubtful. Harry had some plans, which he had discussed with his friends and Doctor Pwy, and this dovetailed into them. He sent a note off to McGonagall accepting the captaincy and outlining his plans.

Molly was quite surprised to see the children. For one thing, they were all over half an inch taller than when they'd left. Ginny and Hermione had each lost half an inch off their fairly trim waists and added five pounds of muscle to their frames. Ron had lost the same, and added nearly ten. Harry couldn't have lost any weight after the way his relatives had treated him. He had, however, added even slightly more muscle to his shorter frame than Ron.

Sunday evening, Ron and Hermione stayed with Hermione's parents, who were overjoyed to see their daughter, and anxious to spend time meeting Ron. Monday morning, Sirius took all four shopping in Muggle London (Mrs. Granger dropped Hermione and Ron off) for new clothes. They especially needed two new pairs of trainers each; they had run through the other pairs.

After lunch in the Leaky Cauldron and a visit to Harry's vault, Harry and Hermione led the group to Eelops. Errol was now ancient, and they purchased a new owl for the Weasleys as a thank you for everything they'd done over the years for them (Harry paid, but Hermione promised to pay him back in Muggle money for her half).

Harry then took the group to a jeweler he'd noticed two doors from Ollivanders just before his Third year (since he'd spent two weeks at the Leaky Cauldron, he knew every shop in Diagon Alley and Ministry Row). Mr. Mott, the jeweler, quickly sized the promise rings (Harry had written a note and had Remus owl it for him weeks before) for Hermione and Ginny, while Harry paid (Ron had promised to keep both his own part of their dorm room clean as well as Harry's for the entire year as payment). Ginny and Hermione were stunned when they saw how much Harry was paying for them. Sirius was already stunned from the time he'd entered the shop, since he'd come here with James for the same errand at about the same point in their Hogwarts' career.

"Harry, these aren't silver, are they?" Hermione asked. "I mean, at that price. . . ."

"Of course not," Harry answered. "I'm not buying anything that's made out of mostly silver; for Remus' sake, you know."

"Then these are?"

"Eighty-five percent platinum, ten percent gold, five percent nickel, as per Mister Potter's instructions," Mott told them. "An excellent idea, by the way Mister Potter. Silver absorbs magical resonances too easily, while platinum and nickel resist transfigurations to some degree. This combination is perfect, if a bit difficult to work with. I believe I shall offer an entire line based on this alloy. If I may use your name, Mister Potter, the rings will be free, along with equal purchases for the four of you?"

"Use my name how? I don't. . . ."

"I understand completely, Mister Potter. How about I merely state that the alloy was designed by Harry Potter?"

"Mister Potter is underage," Sirius said, speaking up. "Why don't we work out the details, while they look around?"

"Certainly. And you are?"

"Sirius Black, Harry's guardian." Mott blanched.

Sirius worked out a good deal, one which wouldn't have Harry's name flashed around too much. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny refused any more jewelry, and made Harry get a heavy-duty magically reinforced Muggle wristwatch that would work underwater and withstand a lot of knocking about and a magical pocket watch, which would give him a large amount of information once he programmed it. Everyone left satisfied.

Sirius said his goodbyes that night at the Burrow. Voldemort was still out there, waiting, and Sirius was now part of the group trying to plan the fight against Him.

Titus and Remus showed up the afternoon of the 31st. They escorted the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione to a Muggle hotel near the train station via Titus' corridors. Fred and George were thoroughly cowed by Titus and Remus into agreeing to behave. Having never really seen Muggle television, the twins sat in front of the tube until it was time to leave the next morning -- Titus made certain they got room service for dinner and breakfast. Titus and Remus took rooms on either side of the twins, to make certain of their behavior.

Ron and Hermione quietly took one room, while Harry and Ginny took the other.

They made an odd little procession the next morning as they arrived early for the train. Titus and Remus called the prefects, Head Boy and Girl, and new security prefects together.

Remus addressed them. "Sixth year prefects, take the Fifth year prefects to the front compartments and brief them as usual. After half an hour, please patrol the first two cars, while the Seventh years patrol the entire train. Head Girl will be in the third car, Head Boy fifth car. This is Professor. . . ."

"Doctor," Pwy growled.

". . .Doctor Pwy. He and I will be in the last car. Keep an eye on the cars between you, patrol them every half hour or so. Nott and Zabini will be in the second car, Miss Turpin in the fourth, Miss Perks will be in the sixth, Miss Weasley, who is working with us today, in the seventh and final student car. Mister Weasley and Mister Potter will also be moving throughout the train; feel free to use them to carry any messages. We must insure there are no problems."

The quartet of young wizards guided their possessions up and into the Hogwarts Express. Considering that there were several hundred other students trying to do the same thing at the same time, making for quite a crowd, this wasn't a particularly easy thing to do. All four were in some ways now more skillful than many adult wizards, however, and not only were they able to get their possessions into a compartment (Hermione would go to the prefects' compartment later), they managed to help quite a few nervous first-years along the way.

"What a helpful, thoughtful group you are," drawled an aristocratic voice in passing as they arranged their belongings in the compartment.

"Yes, we are, aren't we," Ginny Weasley said with a smile. "Everything you're incapable of."

Draco Malfoy's face darkened, and his hand moved slightly towards the pocket in his jacket where his wand was. "You really want to try, Malfoy?" Harry Potter said softly.

"You know he won't," Ron Weasley said. "He doesn't have us outnumbered four to one."

Malfoy glared. "Enjoy your last few days of peace, Potter and company," he snarled and then marched away.

Ron made the first trip from the final car; Harry waited fifteen minutes, kissed Ginny, and made the same route. They met soon after Harry had left.

"How's Hermione?"

"She's having fun," Ron said. "She likes all this stuff."

"Did you see Crabbe and Goyle with Bulstrode and two little kids back there?"

"Yeah. I asked Nott; she said that the ugly little boy is Goyle's brother and the uglier girl is Bulstrode's sister."

"Strange to imagine anyone breeding more than either one of those two!"

"Stranger to see them without Malfoy."

Harry had to agree with that. "Where is the little ferret?"

"He and Pansy are alone up in the second car, although Nott and Zabini parked their trunks there."

"How does he look?"

Ron shrugged. "I didn't want to stare. He's being quiet for now, so why stir up trouble?"

Harry didn't stare either, and for once Malfoy stayed in his compartment. Harry also thought Malfoy looked confused; his sneer earlier must have been mostly reflexive. It was harder to tell with Crabbe and Goyle, as they always looked rather dull-witted and confused.

The trip to the castle, the sorting, the speeches, the song -- all went normally. Every table had applauded wildly for Remus Lupin's return except the Slytherins, and even there they managed some more-than-polite clapping. The Gryffindors had of course also applauded wildly for Bill Weasley. Harry and Hermione had asked the others to cheer for Pwy, so despite the confusion over who he was, they cheered him well, too.

Since September 1 was on a Friday, the students had two days to settle in. Rather than throwing the First years off the deep end come Monday, Hermione organized tours for them on Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning, however, was given over to athletics.

Harry had asked for, and received, permission to start a running club. It was open to all Houses, Fourth year and above, plus any member or reserve member of a House Quidditch team and any faculty member. School days, weather permitting, it would go from 6:35 - 7:15; weekends 7:05 - 8:00. This first day, however, they met at 7:15.

Harry was encouraged to see every eligible member of Gryffindor present, although it had taken some cajoling to get Neville and Lavender to show up. There were also six Ravenclaws (including Cho and Padma), five Hufflepuffs, and two Slytherins (Blaise Zabini and his girlfriend Clarise Nott). Bill Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Titus Pwy would be joining them on Monday.

Harry explained the concept and the type of running shoes they should have. He didn't mention it, but he and Doctor Pwy would buy them their first pair of Muggle running shoes. Harry made it clear that this was for exercise, not competition. Those who wanted to sprint could sprint; those who wanted or needed to walk would walk. Harry also gave them all t-shirts ('Hogwarts Jogging Club').

The only ones who really could almost keep up with the quartet were the Patils and the two Slytherins. Each member of the quartet took turns staying behind and encouraging the others. By the Christmas break, not only had none dropped out (although Neville still walked most of the time), twenty-one more had joined from the other three Houses, including three more from Slytherin.

At 9:30, the Gryffindors gathered at the Quidditch field to select their new keeper. Harry also had permission to choose a complete reserve team, if possible. Gryffindor's chasers and beaters had played together so much, they needed little practice as such. Instead, the chasers and reserve beaters and keeper would face the beaters, keeper, and reserve chasers in scrimmages.

Despite the progress Hermione had made in her flying, she refused to try out. David Martin, a Sixth year, and Dean Thomas made the reserves as beaters. Dennis Creevy became the reserve seeker. Ginny, Colin Creevy, and a Third year, Victoria Angel, were the reserve chasers. Another third year, Brian Fudge (the Minister's great nephew) was the reserve keeper. Ron, to no one's surprise, made keeper.

Sunday afternoon, Pwy held a dueling challenge. Four professors took him up on the challenge: Sinistra, Snape, Lupin, and Weasley. Professor Flitwick acted as the referee.

Sinistra drew the shortest straw, and went out to the cheers of all the students. Nearly all the students were shocked at the speed of the hexes flying between the competitors. A little before the 10 minute mark, Pwy caught Sinistra with a smoke charm which confused her enough to disarm her.

Bill Weasley went next. His reflexes seemed a little quicker when it came to dodging and blocking, but was a little slower on the attack. He was also disarmed just before the 10 minute mark.

Snape looked a lot less confident and condescending than he had when striding to meet Lockhart nearly three years before. Snape relied more on blocking hexes than the first two challengers. The students could see the power of Pwy's hexes grow as they were deflected. One finally broke through Snape's blocking charm just after the 10 minute mark. Snape was disarmed a few seconds later.

Remus Lupin walked forward, looking rather surprised he was up in front of nearly the entire school. While Pwy had bowed with civility to his first three opponents, he seemed to do so with greater respect to Lupin.

Lupin's quickness was even greater than Bill's. Harry remembered Sirius saying that as brilliant as he and James Potter (and Snape for that matter) had been at dueling, Remus was always a step ahead. As the match progressed, Lupin even managed to graze through Pwy's defenses once. Pwy finally managed to break down Lupin's shields, and caught him with a simple leg-locker curse just after the 15 minute mark.

After Pwy bowed to his four opponents, he turned to the students. "Dueling is a very formalized type of confrontation. Still, it gives you a taste of fighting. Now, I have not lost a duel or a fight since I was fifteen. Three of your four instructors certainly fought at a national competitive level if not higher; Professor Lupin was certainly at the international level. We five, along with Professor Flitwick, who is the only person to fight me to a draw since I was twenty-one, are restarting the dueling club, for Third through Seventh year students. We will be starting next Sunday, from One o'clock through Three-thirty."

Pwy looked around. "Our world is a dangerous place. Learn to deal with that fact. I hope to see many of you next Sunday; I will see you all next week, in class. Come prepared to show me what you know."

The quartet went to sign up immediately. All of the eligible Gryffindors also signed up, although they had to really encourage Neville.

Titus waited until there had been a little minor rearrangement in the seating for his first class. "All set? Please remember where you are sitting for the remainder of the year. As I call your names, please raise your hands."

"Let's see, Slytherin: Bulstrode; Crabbe; Goyle; Malfoy; Nott; Parkinson; Zabini." Three Slytherins had transferred to other schools over the summer.

"Gryffindor: Brown; Finnigan; Granger; Longbottom; Patil; Potter; Thomas; Weasley."

"Now that you are in your Fifth year, you will be studying basic counter-hexes. Some of these are also covered in Charms, just as some the antidotes we'll be discussing will also be mentioned in Potions, but these are important, so a little duplication is good. In your final two years, we'll be practicing more advanced magic, charms and hexes used in dueling as well as more general purpose defenses. Rest assured, you will be learning the principles of dueling, as well as fighting."

A hand shot up. "Yes, Mister Malfoy?"

"Dueling and fighting are nearly the same, aren't they?"

"No, they are similar but not the same. Dueling has very strict rules, fighting has few, or even none. We will be practicing the former, but not the latter. However, you will still be expected to know how to fight."

Titus grinned to himself. 'Why not?' he thought. 'When fate gives you an opening, try and play it out.' "There are two forces constraining the Magical communities of the world. As the Muggle population grows and advances technologically, we are being forced into ever smaller niches. At the same time, the Magical communities are strengthening as communities. Some, Muggle and Magical, opt out of their society, although it's easier for one of us to become a warlock, with no resources other than our knowledge and our wands, than it is for Muggles without significant resources. Others, seeing the growing power of their community, wish to take it over and make it serve their needs, rather than the community as a whole. You need to be able to recognize those wizards, and, if called upon, to fight them. By the time you leave after your Seventh year, you will be able to. Yes, Mister Weasley?"

Weasley gave Malfoy a dirty look. "Couldn't you be teaching future Dark Wizards how to fight as well?" That brought a few grumbles from the Slytherins.

Pwy smiled a little. "Dark Wizards have never had much trouble figuring out how to manipulate others, and how to curse and kill them when necessary. And, when they do, they rarely do so in proper duels. Are there any further questions? Yes, Mister Malfoy."

"Mister Zabini, please allow Mister Malfoy to ask his question."

"Yes, sir."

"Sir, before we start the class, since we are your first class, a number of students were just curious about your background."

Pwy had to give a twisted half-smile at that. Amazing how people stuck to training. "Ah, an interest that used to be common amongst Slytherin students. I thought perhaps you'd changed. So, you wish to conform to your stereotype?"

"Uh, yes, sir?" All the Gryffindors rolled their eyes. Zabini and Nott closed theirs in pain.

"You are from a family which likes to consider itself 'pure blood,' correct, Mister Malfoy?"

"We are pure bloods," he proclaimed, in as aristocratic a sneer as possible.

"Yet the Malfoy family first enters the magical records in the late Eleven-hundreds, during the reign of William the Second. Where were the Malfoys before then?"

"Sir?"

"Well, perhaps you should all take notes on this, as I do not wish to waste time with my other classes going over this again. The parents of that first magical Guilliame de Malfoy, famous as an evil advisor of William the Second, didn't spring from the ground. Who were they?" Titus paused a few seconds. "No answer? Well, they were either Muggles or came from a line of so-called squibs, who were living as Muggles. Either way, that first de Malfoy was not a 'pure blood,' even if his decedents only intermarried with active witches."

"In fact, go back far enough and I know nearly all of us have a few Muggles mixed in our ancestry, and we all at least have some squibs. Actually, no wizard or witch comes from truly Muggle families on both sides. Instead, since most squibs have been driven from the Magical community throughout history, the so-called Muggle-born wizard comes from the inter-marriage of squibs or their descendants who have lost knowledge of the Magical communities, and whose combined genetic code is again strong enough to create a wizard or witch. Before any of you make fun of such people, remember that you all come from such ancestors as well."

"To be specific, Mister Malfoy, you are descended from that Guilliame de Malfoy who was born to an allegedly Muggle but well-off merchant family in London, back in the Eleven-fifties, who gained fame and fortune as an advisor to William the Second, twenty-six generations before you. Miss Bulstrode has the fewest magical generations in direct male descent in this class of Slytherins -- nine. Does that make her worse than Mister Potter, who has more generations in direct male decent than any of you, or better than Miss Brown, who has three? Or even Miss Granger, who is the first in her recent family? No, what really matters is how talented are you? How good a person are you? How good a witch or wizard are you?"

Titus gave them a hard smile. "Despite all that, since I see I haven't convinced most of you, you might think I must be either Muggle-born, or close to it, despite what the Headmaster told you last night. Well, if blood matters, then all of you, except perhaps Mister Potter, are pure trash." There were some soft noises of shock at that.

"I am of nearly-pure Old Believer ancestry. The one Muggle in my recorded past was a sailor who helped some of my ancestors flee to safety. That was in the year Three hundred and ninety three. One of the daughters fell in love with him, and because he was brave, and they were poor if powerful, with other daughters, they allowed the marriage. There are fifty-four generations between him and myself. What are fifty-plus generations compared to your twenty-seven, Mister Malfoy? In direct male descent, I am the hundred and second recorded generation, compared to those twenty-seven. In my paternal mother's family, I am descended from the first recorded Master of what you call Stonehenge, as it existed in its finished form. I am the hundred and fifteenth recorded in that line -- and the oral tradition puts it much further back than that. In my mother's mother's mother's family, I am descended from King Scorpion of Egypt, the first recorded wizard outside Mesopotamia. That makes me the Two-hundred and twenty-sixth generation. So, in this class, blood does not matter." Suddenly, his deep voice sank even deeper, and the teen students really noticed how incredibly large their instructor was. "Talent, intelligence, and character matter. No matter of you're from an old family, like Mister Potter; from a young family, like you, Mister Malfoy; or a family reborn to magic, like Miss Granger, make your families proud of you."

Pwy looked out over the now-silent class. "I first stood in the front of this same classroom eighty-five years ago." Small gasps were heard, which Pwy waved away. "If you haven't gotten the bit of news that I taught here from Nineteen-ten through Nineteen-thirty-nine, apply to Professor Snape, Miss Granger, or perhaps Mister Malfoy after class."

"I am reminded of that first class, which consisted of Gryffindor and Slytherin First years, because we had, almost verbatim, the previous discussion. Mister Malfoy, you're sitting right where your great-grandfather, Wilbur Lestrange sat, and he asked the exact same questions." Neville and Harry gave Malfoy a dirty look at the name of Lestrange. "Your great great aunt, Jane Malfoy, sat over there, next to her best friend, Sally Ann Marvolo, who would become Voldemort's mother sixteen years later." All the students looked shocked at that statement.

"Mister Zabini, you're sitting where Professor Snape's grandfather, Septimus Snape, sat, and took his role. Mister Crabbe is sitting right where his great great uncle Victor Crabbe sat. Mister Goyle is sitting where Miss Bulstrode's great grandfather Maximillian sat. Most of you know the family names of the other Slytherins in the class: Avery, Flint, Macnair, and Lockhart." The Trio and the Slytherins knew all those names, and the Slytherins weren't happy to be reminded that the Lockheart family were traditionally Slytherins.

"Mister Weasely, you are sitting where your great grandfather Percy Weasley sat, and you took his part. Miss Granger is sitting where his future wife, Harry's great great aunt Angela Potter, sat." The class was growing more amazed and confused. "Mister Potter is sitting where Percy's first cousin and best friend, Albus Dumbledore, was sitting." Harry blushed a little.

"Professor Lupin's grandfather, Julius Lupin, would later join Dumbledore and Weasley as a close friend. Miss Brown is sitting where her great grandfather sat, next to his best friend Warren Whisp, who is Mister Finnigan's great grandfather. Professor Hagrid's uncle, a rather shy boy, sat where Mister Longbottom is sitting. Miss Fudge, the Minister's aunt; Miss Pippen, one of Mister Longbottom's great grandmothers; and Miss Pettigrew, another of his great grandmothers; were sitting giggling in the back."

"Is this coincidence or deep magic?" Titus shrugged his shoulders. "Who can tell? Perhaps those of you to take Divination can consult with the Professor some time."

He came out of his revery. "Last year, you learned how to identify major curses and hexes. This year, you're going to learn how to counter them. Please take out your note books."