Training and Confrontations

Chapter XXIII Friday, August 30, 1996 Diagon Alley

"I really hate to see this," Ginny said. She, Ron, and Neville were seated on a small second floor balcony over-looking Diagon Alley, taking a break from helping the twins. The ground floor was the premises of Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, the first floor of the narrow building held the kitchen, dining room, and a parlor, and the second floor three bedrooms and a bath. The trio was staying the weekend (helping out in the store), and was currently waiting for the missing trio of Harry, Hermione, and Luna. They had stayed at the Lovegood and Moody flats the night before, and Harry had met with some financial people early that morning (to learn about his assets, and also to arrange financing for the twins). After that, the trio had planned a little shopping, and then would stop by before lunch.

"What don't you like?" Ron asked.

"How empty the street is."

"I've never seen it like this before in August," Neville agreed. The street was hardly deserted, but it looked more like the thin traffic of a typical early morning than the usual later morning crowds right before the start of Hogwarts.

"It's not like there have been many attacks, either," Ginny said. That was true. Between the time they had left and the night before, there had been twelve attacks on empty, wizarding houses, and the massive attack on Azkaban, which had resulted in one more Death Eater being killed than there had been Death Eaters freed.

"I guess a lot of people remember the First War," Neville suggested.

"And the wars against Grindelwald," Ginny added. "In some ways the second one was worse, because the Muggle Second World War was on, and the bombings sometimes penetrated to wizarding sites. Diagon Alley, the Ministry, and Hogwarts were the only places with wards strong enough to protect them."

"You were around Hermione too much," Ron grumbled.

After a few minutes of silence, Ginny remarked, "I wonder which direction they'll come from."

"Well, if they're coming from the Leaky Cauldron or Gringotts, they'll be coming from our right. If they're coming from The Quibbler offices, that's that building just over there to the left," Neville pointed out.

"Of course, if they're coming from Quality Quidditch supplies, they might just drop down next to you," came a voice from above them.

"Harry!" Ginny squealed happily. "Get down here!"

"Now there's something you don't see every day," Neville said laughing as Harry landed his Firebolt lightly on the small balcony, forcing Neville and Ron back into the guest bedroom. Hermione, who had been riding behind Harry with her eyes shut and a very firm grip on him (her flying had improved, but she still didn't like heights), finally opened them as she felt her feet touch. Luna, sitting sidesaddle on a broom, landed next to him. Ron remarked to himself that while he still was not attracted to Luna in that way, she did have really nice legs.

While Ron had seen the others enough not to really notice how much he and the other four had grown over the summer, he finally noticed that the changes in Harry were almost shocking. His hair was much the same, although a little longer. Without his glasses, his eyes were actually mesmerizing. Still, it was the other changes that Ron remarked on.

Harry would never be tall. Ron was now towering well over six foot three, and Neville a very muscular five foot ten. Harry was a good two inches shorter than Neville, and still built along the long-legged, rangy build he had always had. Harry only had a colored undervest on (Ron wondered what the Oakland Raiders were, and where Harry had gotten it), and was showing he had a lean but fairly muscular upper-body. Harry's forearms were even more muscular, almost massive.

"Sorry for dropping in, but Luna wanted to test her new Clean-Sweep All-Weather," Harry said with a smile that lit up his face. He reached over and shook Ron's hand, as if they had been separated for a long time, and Ron was very happy to get it back in one piece. Neville was less reserved, and he and Harry shook hands and clasped each other's shoulders. They all went downstairs to hassle the twins and eat lunch.

Even though Ron, Ginny, and Neville were helping the twins with the pre-Hogwarts rush that had finally materialized most of the afternoon, they did manage some fun shopping to spend their wages. Harry, Luna, and Hermione spent the entire afternoon shopping, despite Hermione's protests that Harry and Luna should leave her to her own devices so they could go to places other than the used bookstores she wanted to shop at.

"Diagon Alley should be mostly safe," Harry said simply, "but we can't be certain. Three is safer than two."

"And we're not going to disappear into dark corners, especially without you," Luna said, wrinkling her nose. "Besides, they're dirty as well as dark."

The trio stopped in front of a 'second hand' shop, and just looked into the windows, trying to see if there was anything interesting. Harry had his arm around Luna, and then placed his hand on Hermione's lower back to steady her as she tried get up on her toes to peer at a high display.

"Well, Mudblood, I see you've grown some tits at last, even if your hair is worse than usual. At least you dumped Scarhead and the Weasel, even if it was to sell yourself to someone else."

Hermione saw what happened in the reflection of the window. On the one hand, Harry seemed to move with such languid movements that it looked casual. On the other, he moved so fast no one had time to react.

Harry dropped his arm from around Luna and his hand from Hermione's back, and went into a spinning kick right to Malfoy's mouth. When his foot came down, Harry's other foot followed through and caught Goyle on the jaw. Harry ended up standing almost nose to nose with Crabbe. It had taken perhaps two seconds at the most. "Perhaps you should help your friends to get up and see a dentist," Harry said.

Crabbe finally blinked. "Potter?" he asked. Not even Draco had recognized who this was.

"Yes?"

Crabbe shook his head, and helped the confused Goyle to his feet. Together, they took the unconscious Malfoy away. The whole thing had happened so quickly, it had not even attracted any attention from most of the other people on the street. The only ones who saw was a quartet who simply moved on after they saw the Slytherins were making a rapid retreat.

"You weren't kidding about the martial arts work that went along with that Dragon training," Hermione said, still slightly in shock.

"No, I wasn't," Harry answered. "Ignoring Malfoy hasn't worked, cursing Malfoy hasn't worked. Your slapping him didn't work. Still, a little negative reenforcement seemed to be in order."

Hermione goggled at little at Harry's use of the term, but she let it go.

"It might make you feel better, but I don't think it will help Draco adjust his attitude," Luna pointed out, to which Hermione could only agree.

Harry shrugged.

The quartet of friends took the Muggle Underground to one of their parents'. They were fairly silent, thinking about what they had seen as opposed to what they had bought. The Thomas household was quiet, as all the younger children were visiting relatives for the week with their mother, while Mr. Thomas was still at work.

After putting away their purchases, the four went up to the roof to get a little air.

Finally, Lavender Brown said, "Have you ever seen anything like that?"

"A little," Dean said. "Aurors learn some of that kind of fighting, but Harry really looked like he knew what he was doing."

"He looked like some martial art movie characters I've seen," Seamus said.

"And Malfoy and Goyle looked like movie extras," Dean agreed.

"I just couldn't believe that was Harry," Parvati said.

"He really must have worked out this summer," Seamus pointed out.

"I'll say!" Lavender exclaimed. Seamus frowned. He had been pursuing Lavender since the Yule Ball a year and a half before, and she had only agreed to date him exclusively a few weeks before. This was the first time he had managed any time with her all summer. Dean and Parvati were in a similar situation, although they had met to go to the cinema twice over the summer.

"I wonder if he was with Hermione or that blonde," Dean remarked. "He looked pretty friendly with both."

"That's true," Seamus jumped in to say. He did not want Lavender thinking of Harry any more than Dean wanted Parvati to.

"She sort of looked like that Ravenclaw, Loony Lovegood," Lavender said thoughtfully. "You know, a year behind us."

"Ginny Weasley did say she was with them at the Ministry last June," Parvati reminded them. "If Harry's friendly with her, dating her or not, we'd better drop the 'Loony'."

"True," Lavender said.

"Maybe he's dating both of them," Seamus teased.

"You had better worry about keeping one woman happy without fantasizing about two," Lavender snapped.

"Yes, ma'am," Seamus said with a grin. "Any thoughts on how I should do that?"

Lavender rolled her eyes mockingly. Parvati was not ready to leave the subject of Harry. "I would think Hermione would be far too possessive to share Harry in any way if they're seriously dating."

"That's true," Lavender agreed. "And after teasing Ron along for a year, too! Still, I always thought she had a thing for Harry."

"I wonder if Harry was wearing those Muggle things, you know, the little lenses for the eye. . . ."

"Contact lenses," Dean supplied. "He might have been wearing them. There are some new surgical techniques available, too."

"Either way, I never knew his eyes were that gorgeous."

"True," Lavender agreed, "those eyes are even dangerously sexy than that bod!"

Dean and Seamus both scowled. Parvati and Lavender laughed and looked at each other in silent communication.

Finally, Parvati stood up.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Why don't you show me your new football posters," Parvati said. Dean looked confused. "The ones down in your room." Dean looked embarrassed for a moment, but only for a moment. He stood up and glanced at the confused-looking Seamus and the grinning Lavender.

"We're going to stay here," Lavender said.

"Oh . . . alright."

Parvati rolled her eyes and grabbed Dean's hand, and then dragged him from the roof.

"What was that all about?"

"Parvati's taking Dean to his room to snog."

"That's what I thought, but he didn't seemed to thrilled about it."

"He's thrilled," Lavender said, "just a little scared."

"Oh."

"He was also worried that I might take you to his room to snog instead."

"Oh." Seamus thought about that, and his face fell.

"It's probably better if we snogged up here instead, don't you think?"

Seamus smiled. "I'm sure you're right."

Sunday, September 1, 1996

Harry, Luna, and Neville settled into their compartment as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny of course had to start the train ride in the Prefect's compartment.

After searching for something new to talk about, the three spent a very interesting time talking about wands in general. Neville knew a lot about the magical properties of wood, Luna was a cousin of the Ollivanders and had picked up some of their knowledge and interests, and Harry, to his slight surprise, found the subject very interesting.

Some 45 minutes into the ride, the door of their compartment flew open with a bang, revealing Draco Malfoy, with Crabbe and Goyle behind him. Harry could see that two other Slytherins, Nott and Montague, were standing facing either direction in order to cover Malfoy. 'Drat,' Harry thought, 'Malfoy's getting a little sense.'

Harry said, however, "I see you're no longer eligible for the Prefect's carriage." There was no sign of the prefect's badge.

"That's another thing I have to blame you for, Potter," Malfoy spat.

"Let's see, you back Umbridge, go overboard bullying people, she loses, and you blame me. Yes, that sounds about your level of intelligence."

"You also had our fathers arrested. . . ."

"I didn't arrest them or tell anyone to arrest them. I didn't force them to follow Voldemort. . . ."

Draco shivered in fear. "Don't you DARE use his name!"

"Fine," Harry said in a bored voice. "I didn't force them to follow Tom Riddle, and I didn't force them to attack us in the Ministry. We did beat them, poor excuses of wizards that they are or were. . . ."

"How dare you. . . !"

"Come off it! Six students beating on twelve nasty Death Eaters? Of course, come to think of it, four students beat your Inquisitorial Squad. . . ."

"SHUT UP!" Draco screamed.

"Crabbe, I can understand that you and Nott are kind of stuck, since your fathers were at the Ministry, too, even if your father was also killed trying to escape." Harry raised his voice, "What about you, Montague? What's your connection? How about you, Goyle? Your father was at Voldemort's, excuse me, Tom Riddle's rebirth, but he wasn't at the Ministry. Why are you sticking to the losing side?"

"I don't know who this Tom Riddle is, Potter. . . ."

"That's all right, Malfoy. I didn't see the connection at first, either, but then, I was twelve at the time. Tom Marvolo Riddle was Head Boy back in the early 1940s. He was the heir to Slytherin who opened the Chamber then. Your father slipped a magical diary into a First year's supplies, and it used a form of the Imperius to use the First Year to open the Chamber of Secrets."

"There is no magical family called Riddle. . . ."

"True," Harry agreed. "His mother was the heir of Slytherin, the last Marvolo. Riddle was a Muggle. Your precious leader is a true half-blood."

Malfoy, pasty white, whipped out his wand but Harry already had him covered. "Watch and learn, Draco. The avatar of Tom Riddle did this little trick for me in the Chamber of Secrets."

Harry's wand sketched out the name 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE' in fiery letters, and then Harry rearranged them into 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.' "This isn't really about your Pure-Blood claims, Draco," Harry said firmly, putting his wand away, "it's about an egoistical, evil monster who is using them and you to gain power for himself."

Draco hesitated, trying to put all the pieces together, then brought his wand up. Even though he could see none of the three in the compartment had their wands out, he felt a hex hit him. He coughed, and tried again to curse Potter. Nothing came out of his mouth. He turned to Crabbe and Goyle. They could not speak either. They had somehow been hit by a powerful muting course, which, apparently, had hit Nott and Montague as well.

"I tried talking nicely to you, Malfoy," Harry said coldly. "I tried to reason with you. Why don't you five go off and really think about what I told you? Before I hurt you. Badly."

All five scowled, but there was little to do except do as they were told.

"What did you do to them?" Neville asked.

"Did you see me do anything?" Harry asked innocently, while Luna shook her head.

"No, I didn't," Neville answered, "but. . . ."

"Then let's say I must not have done anything, and leave it at that. Much safer, all around."

"Alright," Neville said. He knew a good deal about Harry's powers, but was not going to argue.

"What we don't know for sure, we can't tell," Luna pointed out.

Ron and Ginny were not happy they had missed seeing Malfoy and his goons routed. Hermione had scolded Harry, since it seemed evident he must have been behind the muting charm somehow.

"But how could I have done it?" Harry asked.

"Harry, don't be daft," Hermione said. She had an even better idea of how powerful Harry was than Neville, after all.

"I've heard the great thing about wandless magic is that you can't prove someone has used it," Harry said with a grin.

The six friends enjoyed the rest of the train ride, as a number of the previous year's DA membership had dropped by and agreed to continue the club. When they got off the train, Harry was especially happy to see Hagrid calling out to the First years. Hagrid waved at Harry, and Harry could see that unlike in the summer, there were no obvious bruises or injuries. He hoped that meant Grawp was someplace far away, or had at least calmed down.

Harry, Luna, Ginny, and Neville waited towards the end of the carriage line while the Sixth year prefects made certain that the other students stopped talking and greeting each other and got into the other carriages. Harry walked a little ahead, and patted the rump of the thestral. Harry looked towards the head of the line, and saw that most of the students were aboard, and many of the carriages were already moving out.

At that moment, behind him, Harry heard a cry of "Now! Get 'em!"

As Harry turned, he heard Ginny scream, and saw Crabbe hit Luna in the back of the head as hard as he could with his Beater club, while Montague hit Neville at the base of his neck with another club. Ginny was struggling with Nott, who was trying to choke her with his bare hands.

A flick of Harry's wand immobilized the three Slytherins, and Harry looked around for Malfoy or Goyle. He didn't really pay attention to the fact the Sixth year prefects were coming quickly. Harry instead went over to his friends.

Ginny was already kneeling over Neville. "He seems to be okay," she said. "Just knocked out."

Harry nodded and knelt beside Luna, checking her pulse. At first, he thought she was dead, but then he felt a slight flutter. As Hermione knelt beside Harry, Luna opened her eyes. "I love you, Harry," she said simply. Her eyes moved to Hermione. "I love you, too. Don't either of you . . . grieve . . . too much. Make sure . . . you both get hugged and kissed . . . at least . . . twice . . . a day. . . ." Luna shut her eyes, and a long breath slowly escaped her lips.

Harry looked at Luna. He looked at the immobile Crabbe, the bloodied bat still in his hand. He looked at Luna.

Harry snarled as he stood and took out his wand, pointing it at Crabbe while Hermione broke down, crying and keening for a brief moment as she held Luna.

Harry started to lower his wand, and then looked at Luna and Hermione. He growled, and raised his wand again.

Hermione looked up and took this all in through her tears, and stunned Harry before he could kill Crabbe. Then she went back to holding Luna's limp form.