Harry Potter and The Secret of The Heirs

Chapter Eleven

Defence Against The Dark Arts

Ron, Harry and Hermione found themselves joined by Lavender as they walked to breakfast the next morning. Hermione and Lavender were chatting about what their timetable would be like, while Ron was staring at Harry.

'Did you get any sleep last night?' he asked Harry.

Harry looked as though he hadn't slept in months.

'I tried,' Harry replied.

'If it's worrying you that much, perhaps you should get a sleeping draught from Madam Pomfrey. There's nothing you can do Harry, even if it's true and we don't know that it is,' Ron tried to comfort him. When they reached the Great Hall, they found their timetables.

'What?' Ron was almost shouting. 'This is going to be a great year if I have to start it with double Divination.'

Harry looked down at his timetable. Whoever had drafted their timetable had reached a new form of sadism, not only did they have double Divination now, but they would have it every Monday morning.

'At least that gets it out of the way at the beginning of the week,' Harry said as he glanced at his timetable again and saw that they had Care of Magical Creatures after lunch, followed by Defence Against the Dark Arts.

'It's going to be an interesting day,' Harry commented to Ron.

Ron, Lavender and Harry made their way to the Divination classroom, as Hermione headed off to Arithmancy.

'Beware, she's going to predict someone's death today' she called over her shoulder, laughing.

Lavender glared at Hermione. She didn't really appreciate Hermione's constant cracks about Divination, as Lavender seemed to genuinely have a gift. She probably had made more real predictions than Trelawney, but that didn't stop her admiration of the teacher. Harry shuddered as he entered the tower. The crystal balls were sitting there again. Harry groaned, before remembering that he had actually made an accurate prediction, he had seen Buckbeak flying away unexecuted in their third year exam. It gave Harry some hope, but Ron just groaned. Lavender made her way to the front where Parvati was sitting. Neville sank towards the back of the classroom, where he joined Ron and Harry.

'So' began Trelawney. 'You have reached the final stage of your training. You will undertake your final exams at the end of the year. I expect you to put more effort into them this year than the entire effort of the whole class last year combined. Now gaze into the Orb and tell me what you see.'

Harry gazed into the orb. He saw nothing but haze. Trelawney was standing over his shoulder,

'What do you see boy?' she asked.

'It's going to be hazy' he replied only somewhat sarcastically.

'Let me see' she pushed Harry aside. 'I can see more than haze, I can see, no,' she looked at Harry sadly. 'The Grim.'

Ron turned around.

'That's enough you old fraud' he said. 'Harry is not going to die; you've predicting his death every year. That Grim you're seeing is just an Animagus. A big black dog Animagus.'

She looked glaringly at Ron.

'I shall see you after class Mr Weasley,' she said. 'Do you know a black dog that looks like a Grim Harry?'

'Yes' Harry answered.

'Perhaps I could be mistaken' she said pondering. 'But given the frequency of its occurrence, but you should beware.'

The rest of the class passed as slowly as the beginning. Harry and Lavender waited outside for Ron.

'Do you think he's in a lot of trouble?' Harry asked Lavender. 'You know Trelawney much better, what do you think?'

'I think it had to be said Harry,' Lavender said smirkingly, 'She keeps predicting your death and we can't have that can we have that can we?'

She leant over and kissed Harry as Ron emerged from the tower.

'I have to come and polish the crystal balls tonight,' he said. 'Without magic'

'Hard luck,' Harry said.

*~*

After lunch they had Care of Magical Creatures, which was, as per usual, with the Slytherin's. Ron looked extremely nervous, as if he was expecting the Slytherin's to start firing insults immediately. As they walked down to the traditional area, where Hagrid had conducted their lessons, Ron was exceptionally quiet. Everyone else however was whispering about what Charlie would be teaching them. 'Would they be as awful as the creatures Hagrid has?' or 'would they be doing real lessons now?' was coming from the Slytherin side.

Charlie appeared.

He did not appear to have any blast-ended skewts, so that was a good sign.

'Welcome to Care of Magical Creatures' he began. 'We will be working hard to ensure you cover all the necessary components of the course, tat you have not covered already. You have, however, covered a large number of creatures I would no have expected you to cover yet, but you are behind, through no fault of Hagrid's but because you live in Britain. So we will start by studying dragons for three months, then we will be visited by some, where you shall have a week of practical lessons.'

There was a buzz of noise around the classroom.

'Then once you are all dragon experts, we will cover the creatures not in Fantastic Beasts that you have not already covered. Any questions?'

'Are we actually going to go and see dragons, Professor?' Pansy Parkinson, an ugly Slytherin prefect who was always mooning over Malfoy, asked.

'Yes,' he replied. 'And you don't have to call me professor, it's too formal, call me Charlie. Now today we're going to learn the basics about dragons'

Charlie waited for the buzz of excitement to settle down before he resumed the class. Since dragons are illegal in Britain, Charlie pulled out some models of dragons, which looked and acted like the real thing, except that they were smaller than even baby Norbert was.

The class remained silent for almost the entire lesson; hanging on Charlie's every word as he talked about breeds and makeup of dragons. He dismissed the class early and not one Slytherin made a remark about the class. Even Malfoy appeared as though he had enjoyed it.

After the class had finished, Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to greet Charlie.

'Why didn't you tell us you were teaching Charlie?' Ron asked. 'You definitely kept it a well hidden secret.'

'I didn't tell you because; it's only been a last minute thing,' he explained. 'You see Ron, with everything that's been going on, I didn't feel too comfortable leaving Mum and Dad there alone, when I was going to be s far away, Bill didn't either, so while we were here for Percy's wedding we've been trying to see if we could get jobs here. Dumbledore owled me just after you left, and I accepted right away, so I beat you to Hogwarts. Bill's trying to work on a transfer, but he's got a lot more pulling him back to Egypt than I had to Romania. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if there's another wedding to go to soon,' Charlie winked at Ron. 'I hope you don't mind me teaching you Ron, but Hagrid's got a few more things on his plate at the moment, said he wouldn't have time to properly prepare your lessons.'

'It's okay with me' Ron said. 'But you have to promise to give Malfoy lots of detentions.'

Charlie, Harry and Hermione laughed at the suggestion.

'I was serious' Ron protested.

*~*

They then left Charlie to get ready for his next class, and headed up towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Harry didn't know quite what to expect. Chrystal had told him to watch out for her, she wasn't going to be nice. He assumed they would have a lot of homework; she was taking teaching very seriously. He wasn't quite prepared for the sight that met him as he walked in the door.

Chrystal Áille was waiting there for them to enter; looking the most serious he'd ever seen her. She looked stern and Neville appeared to be more frightened of her than he was of Professor Snape.

'Come in and take you seats at once,' she said. 'We have a lot to get through, and I expect everyone to be on time'

She waited for everyone to be seated before she continued. Harry felt that somehow the Slytherin's were going to be quiet this lesson.

'I am Professor Áille and I will be teaching you this year. I understand you've had teachers of varying ability so I am assuming you know nothing. It is up to you to prove me wrong. Defence Against the Dark Arts is a very serious matter and anyone mucking around in my class will be shown the door and not allowed to sit their end of year exams, therefore not being allowed to graduate. Is that understood?'

The class nodded in silence. Seamus Finnegan was staring up at her.

'Do you have a question?' she asked. There was silence. 'You must if you are staring like that. Shall I fetch some truth serum?'

'Are you a Celt?' he muttered.

'Would it be a problem if I was?' she asked. Seamus shook his head.

'What I am Mr Finnegan, is an Auror. I do have Scottish ancestry but that does not mean I am a Celt. Does anyone know why there are no Celtic Aurors?'

No one answered, nor even raised their hands.

'Can anyone tell me why there is a need to learn about Celts in relation to The Dark Arts, or why we need to be able to defend ourselves against them?'

Hermione slowly raised her hand. Chrystal recognised her.

'Well, it is obvious Miss Granger knows, but the rest of you obviously don't, showing that my assumption that you know nothing may be correct. You will therefore right me two rolls of parchment, on why Celts are important to The Dark Arts by next Monday. You may need books from the restricted section, I am happy to authorise their use.' She looked around at the less than happy class.

Two parchments! She must be mad.

'Now shall we move onto our lesson? You may have noticed that you have a lesson with another house, and the others are in single houses. The double house lessons will be practical ones. We will be learning about how to deal with the unexpected today. Can anybody here tell me what our greatest weakness is?'

Hermione raised her hand.

'Yes Miss Granger?'

'Our mind, Professor.'

'Spoken like a true Muggle, Miss Granger,' she said. 'But you are correct nonetheless. Five points to Gryffindor. How can we beat our mind?'

Hermione raised her hand. Chrystal looked at Neville.

'Do you think we cannot beat our mind, Longbottom?' she asked. The tone in her voice had softened.

Neville shook his head.

'I can understand your outlook Longbottom, and given your circumstances I respect that. I will tell you honestly; now, that not everyone is able to completely control what is going on in their minds. The aim of our lesson today is to discover what our greatest fears are and learn to try and block them out. You see to overcome what's in your mind, you need to realise what your minds says. For instance if you fear that someone will hurt you, you need to adapt realise this and then work out strategies to cope with that hurt. Do you understand what I' m saying?'

A few heads nodded. Harry's was one of them.

'Mr Potter', she asked. 'What is my point?'

Harry cleared his throat.

'In this case, if we realise that the hurt is just in our minds, then we can overcome it?' Harry asked.

'In a sense Harry is right,' she said. 'With respects to pain you can block it out. You can train yourself to block out pain. You already do in times of great stress. So I am going to partner you with someone of the opposite house. You will sit opposite each other and think about what you fear most from that person. Then you will concoct methods to deal with your fear. When you are done we will move onto something more practical.'

Professor Áille paired everyone off and strangely enough paired Ron with Malfoy.

'I'm going to enjoy this' he smirked.

Harry was partnered with Pansy. He didn't really have any fear of her that he could think of. But he had fear of what she could become. A Death Eater. Voldemort's loyal servant. Someone coming to get him. Someone trying to recruit him to the Dark Lord's service. Voldemort wanting to control him. The prophecy from fifth year still rattled in his ears. Neither he or Voldemort could live while the other existed.

'This is boring,' Pansy said. 'We should at least do something interesting. This is just as bad as Professor Umbridge.'

'Don't you ever say that,' Harry said raising his voice.

Pansy looked at Harry with hate.

'Afflictatio cyoncephalus'

The curse hit Harry in his forehead, at the same time his scar began to hurt. He tried to overcome the pain, but it was not pain from the Afflictatios Curse. He had had the Afflictatios Curse placed on his head before but it hadn't felt like this. Harry tried to block out the pain. It's only pain, it's not real, there's nothing hurting me.

Pansy released him from the curse. The pain was increasing. He blacked out.

Harry could see Voldemort. He was speaking to his servant, the face that had been there on the platform.

'How dare you come back here, having failed me?'

'Where is Potter, why have you not brought him here, why did you give him a choice?'

The face was trembling; it had disobeyed its master.

'I have not hands, I cannot carry him,' it replied,

'Why is the boy so important my Lord?' it whispered.

'Because he always escapes, he is a danger to our movement. Can't any of you fools comprehend that he has the ability to defeat me? If I defeat him, it is the end of a line; no more will be able to stand before me. If he becomes my servant it is the same.'

'But he will never' the face interrupted. 'He said he will never bow down before you. He would rather die..'

'Well then he shall indeed die,' Voldemort replied. 'Did you find the other two?'

'I have no idea who they are master,' the face conceded. 'If you have Potter, it is of no importance. It is you or Potter master.'

Voldemort looked with anger at his servant.

'Despite the truth in that statement, you disgust me. You were given two assignments and have failed in both of them, you must be punished.'

'No master' the servant begged. 'Give me another chance.'

'Avada Kedavra'

There was a flash of green light. The face was gone.

Harry screamed.

Professor Áille came rushing over.

'Stop that immediately Miss Parkinson,' she said.

'I have,' Pansy replied. 'I stopped almost immediately; I had stopped before he blacked out'

'Harry, are you alright?' Chrystal asked.

Harry nodded his head.

'Okay class' she said, 'that's it for today, I am taking you all up to the hospital wing. Now.'

Malfoy was smirking.

'Potty can't handle the pain' she said to Pansy. 'Well done.'/p>

Malfoy shook her hand. The action did not go unwitnessed.

'Mr Malfoy' Chrystal said. 'I shall see you in my office after I have taken everyone to the hospital wing. Failure to show up will result in detention for the entire year.'

Once Chrystal had ensured that Harry was indeed fine and told him to meet her in her office after dinner, she hauled Malfoy back to her office.

'That was uncalled for Mr Malfoy, but that is not why I have called you here. I shall be deducting house points for that action. I need to discuss another matter with you.'

'Do you make your own decisions Draco?'

Malfoy was stunned; he wasn't quite sure how to respond.

'Because you don't appear to,' Chrystal continued. 'Do you know that you're to be initiated as a Death Eater this year?'

Malfoy shook his head. While the statement did not shock him, the deliverance of it from someone who was supposedly an Auror did.

'How do you know that?' he asked. 'Or how do I know I can believe you? If you can see the future you must be a Celt or a Seer.'

'It has been foreseen Mr Malfoy, but not in the future. You obviously don't know anything about Celts. That essay will do you good. Do you know that Mr Potter's scar links him to Voldemort?'

Malfoy couldn't see what Potter had to do with anything.

'What happened to him in class today, you saw he was clutching his scar? Well, he can see what Voldemort is doing when his scar hurts, he watched your father receive the Cruciatus Curse for betraying Wormtail, and heard Voldemort say that you would have to make up for your father's mistakes. Is this what you want Mr Malfoy?'

Malfoy looked up at the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. She looked at him sternly.

'I don't know Professor' he answered. 'Why does it matter?'

There was an air of frustration in his voice.

'As I see it, there are two paths' she said. 'You can choose to serve the Dark Lord or choose not to. If you want to serve him, so be it, that's your choice. If you don't however, you have a further two choices. You can flat out refuse, and they will probably kill you unless we can protect you. Or you can go undercover and spy; if they discover you they will kill you. It is your decision. You can talk to me about it, if you want to be a Death Eater, there's nothing I can do about it Mr Malfoy, but I thought important that you know you have a choice.'

*~*

She had challenged him. No one had ever challenged him before; no one had ever given him a choice. It was inconceivable; that he Draco Malfoy actually had a choice as to what he could do with his life. He was expected to do whatever his father wanted him to do. He ran down to the Potion Dungeons, where he was supposed to meet Ginny to tutor her. He wasn't in the mood, but he wanted her, he wanted her to hold him and tell him that it would be okay. He ran downstairs, his face strewn with tears. Ginny jumped when she saw him.

'What's wrong Draco?' she asked.

'I don't want to be a Death Eater, Gin' he cried.

Ginny walked over and held him tight, telling him that it would be all right.

*~*

In his office, the potions professor was interested in the scene going on in his classroom. Neither student knew he was there.

'So,' he said to himself. 'Mr Malfoy doesn't want to be a Death Eater eh?'