Harry Potter and the Time of Shadows

- Chapter Seven-

The Confusing Curses

By the beginning of October, Harry had got used to many of the changes around the school. He had got used to a man who looked so much like Cornelius Fudge teaching him. He had got used to Charlie teaching classes. He had even got used to Hermione as a Prefect, bossing other people around.

But one thing he could not get used to was Hagrid not being there. He had so enjoyed being able to go and see him whenever he wanted to talk. He missed watching him walking Fang around the grounds. He even missed the hideous monsters he used to raise, in a funny sort of way.

No one else seemed to share his feelings, except Ron and Hermione. Although they all felt that Charlie was a very good teacher, it still did not stop them from missing Hagrid.

Harry stared out of the window from his dormitory down at Hagrid's hut. It looked just as abandoned as ever. Harry wanted nothing more than to go and look for Hagrid. But he couldn't. He was stuck in the castle, and he had promised Dumbledore that he wouldn't take risks.

The Dementors were still guarding the gates, which would make escaping almost impossible, the Dementors would stop Harry the moment he was anywhere near the exit to the school grounds. And he could not sneak out under the Invisibility Cloak, because the Dementors could still sense him there.

An owl flew past the hut. Harry wondered, as he had many times since September the first, where Hedwig was. She had been gone for almost three months. Harry hoped that nothing had happened to her, he could not think of how he would feel if his post owl had died.

Ron entered the room, he was holding his wand, and looked thoroughly worn out.

"I've been practising the hex deflection with Hermione. She came pretty close, but neither of us can do it yet."

"Yeah, neither can I. It's really hard," said Harry, distracted.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron asked, putting his wand away in his bedside cupboard.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about Hagrid," Harry replied.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure he's fine. He can take care of himself," said Ron, standing next to Harry by the window.

"But if he was OK he would have talked to someone. But he hasn't been seen since he was fired!" Harry said, starting to feel frustrated.

Ron backed away slightly.

"Harry, he'll be fine. He's probably just away doing that job for Dumbledore."

"No! Sirius told me he got back from that job before Fudge sacked him!" Harry felt his face get hot, and by Ron's reaction, he looked very angry.

"Harry," Ron said sympathetically. "I'm sure Hagrid is fine. Maybe he's off somewhere looking after some weird creature. I read about this Greek creature called a Chimaera, and no one's ever tamed one. I bet Hagrid would love to spend time with one of those."

Harry smiled. Yes, he thought, maybe he is just somewhere else, taking care of dangerous monsters.

Ron looked at is watch.

"We've got Potions in ten minutes. We can't be late, Snape'd give us detention is we show up two seconds after the bell goes!"

And they both ran down the stairs, and out of the portrait hole towards the dungeons.

When they reached the Potions classroom, barely a minute before the bell, Harry saw Malfoy standing outside, his wand pointed at Neville.

"Oi! Malfoy!" Ron yelled. "Drop that wand or you'll answer to us!"

Harry and Ron stood shoulder to shoulder, facing Malfoy, their wands both out.

"Oh please," Malfoy said, turning his wand to Ron. "You think you scare me Weasley? What chance do you and Potter have against us?"

Crabbe and Goyle stood behind Malfoy, cracking their knuckles.

"You don't get it, do you Malfoy?" said Harry, lowering his wand slightly. "Your two bodyguards may be very big and strong, but I bet neither of them can do this. Expelliarmus!"

Malfoy flew backwards, but Crabbe caught him, stopping him from hurting himself on a wall. His wand went sailing through the air, and was caught by Neville, who pointed it at Malfoy.

Pansy Parkinson stepped forwards, pushing her hair back from her face, wand out.

"Don't you attack him! He's a Prefect, he could report you. Expelliarmus!"

Malfoy's wand escaped Neville's grasp and went directly towards her. Neville was thrown against the classroom door, and fell to the floor.

Harry extended his arm to help Neville up, and after he had done, turned to Parkinson.

"I notice how quick you were to defend him. Tell me, how was your little adventure in the Trophy Room at the start of term?"

She looked shocked, and Malfoy took his wand back and pointed it at Harry.

"How did you know that Potter? Have you been following me?"

Harry smirked. "Maybe, but like you once said; watch your back."

Malfoy's pale face turned slightly red, and Harry thought that he was about to curse him. But just then, Snape walked towards them, looking very irritated.

"I apologise for my lateness. I was meeting with the Headmaster."

He opened the classroom door, and everyone filed in and took their seats.

As Snape wrote the Potion they would be making on the board, Hermione whispered to Neville in the place next to her.

"Why was Malfoy trying to attack you in the first place?"

"Oh, well I was showing Trevor to Parvati, I don't think he's very well, and he jumped out of my hand and hit Malfoy in the face."

Ron laughed out loud, and Snape turned to look at him.

"Talking in my class," he said icily. "Five points from Gryffindor."

Ron looked as though he was about to protest, but Hermione laid her hand on his arm, and he looked at her and nodded.

The Potions lesson was the usual dose of hell, Snape criticising every Gryffindor, and praising every Slytherin, especially Malfoy. By the end of the class Harry rushed out the door, Ron and Hermione at his heels. He heard Hermione cry out, and felt her fall and land on the floor behind him. He spun around, and saw Malfoy standing over her. Ron got down by her side and helped her carefully up.

"Careful Granger," Malfoy said, not looking at her. "We don't want the Gryffindor Prefect to hurt herself."

Ron ran up to Malfoy and punched him hard on the nose.

"How dare you!" he roared. "I would kill you now, but I wouldn't bring myself down to your level, to your father's level."

Malfoy held his hand over his face, and blood was coming out from under it.

"Don't you ever talk about my dad! You're just jealous. My father is successful, while yours is just a Muggle loving fool. I'm surprised he didn't marry a Muggle. It would be a big improvement from that fat cow he ended up with."

Ron's whole face turned red, and he began to shake, as though filled with repressed rage. He drew out his wand, and bared his teeth menacingly.

"Furnunculus!" he roared.

Malfoy raised his hand to his face again, where ugly boils were erupting.

"Weasley!" Malfoy yelled, and ran off in the direction of the hospital wing.

"How dare you!" Pansy Parkinson screamed, walked up to Ron, and slapped him hard.

"What's all this?" said a cold voice behind them.

Snape was standing in the doorway to the classroom. "Parkinson, what happened?" he barked.

"Weasley, sir. He attacked Malfoy!" she said, with an innocent voice.

"He attacked Hermione!" Ron retorted.

Snape looked at both of them, and sneered in Ron's direction.

"Five points from Gryffindor for attacking a student. Actually, make that ten points for attacking a Prefect."

Ron looked outraged.

"But he attacked Hermione! She's a Prefect!"

"I have no evidence of that," Snape replied simply.

"You've got no evidence I attacked Malfoy!" Ron protested.

"That will do Weasley," Snape warned, in his coldest voice he usually saved just for Harry. "And if you ever question me again, I will be sure to take one hundred points from your house."

He then strode back into his classroom.

The Slytherins swept swiftly to their next lesson, while the Gryffindors stayed put to discuss Snape.

"That was so unfair Ron, the way Snape always favours his Slytherins," Hermione said.

"Yeah, you should do something about it," Dean agreed.

"Like what?" Ron said. "Report him to Professor Dumbledore?"

"Come on," Neville interrupted. "We've got to go."

Ron, rubbing the cheek that had been slapped, which had a clear hand-mark on it, put his wand back in his pocket, and walked quickly ahead of Harry and Hermione to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

When they reached class, late, they saw all the Ravenclaws were already in their seats. Professor Fudge was standing at the front of the room, and he began to shout the moment the Gryffindors entered the room.

"Where have you lot been? The bell rang five minutes ago! Now get into your seats and take out your books!"

Harry sat down and took out his books. Professor Fudge seemed very different today, he thought, maybe he had a bad morning. Ron leaned over to Harry and whispered,

"Books? We've never had a written lesson before. We've spent the last four weeks practising the hex deflection."

Harry nodded, thinking the same thing. They had been attempting to stop curses since their first lesson, and the novelty of being able to curse each other had worn off. Although it was very hard to do, it had become slightly boring to practise the same thing again and again. Harry wanted nothing more than to be able do stop the curses, so they could finally move on to something else. He had a feeling that Fudge was capable of teaching other things.

"Now everyone," Professor Fudge called from the front of the class. "Everybody turn to page three-hundred and eighteen. Please read the chapter on mind-control and answer the questions that I will write on the board."

He then turned and began writing on the blackboard.

And Professor Fudge continued writing, until he reached the final question.

Harry took out a fresh piece of parchment and dipped his quill in a bottle of ink. Just then, Neville put his hand up.

"Sir, sir."

Professor Fudge looked up from the board and turned to Neville.

"Yes, er, Mr--"

"Longbottom sir," replied Neville, looking puzzled.

"Yes, of course, Mr Longbottom. What is it?" said Professor Fudge, loosening the plain, green tie around his neck.

"I've forgotten my quill, sir."

"Dear me, how can you not bring your quill to a lesson? Do you not write in classes? A point from Gryffindor. Here take this quill," he threw an old, grey feather towards Neville's desk, but missed, and it landed on the floor at Neville's feet.

"Well, pick it up!" he said, very stressfully.

Neville reached down to pick up the quill and quickly looked down at his text book.

Harry looked back up at the questions on the board, and began to write the answers to the easier ones straight away, without looking at his text book.

After he answered the first few questions, he consulted the text book for the answers to the others. He heard a whisper from somewhere behind him, it sounded like Parvati, but could have been her twin sister, Padma.

"This is so boring."

Professor Fudge looked up again and whispered loudly.

"No talking! I want you working in silence!"

Harry saw Ron roll his eyes, and he chuckled himself.

"What did I just say Potter? Silence!" Fudge said, banging his hand on his desk.

Harry looked down at his parchment, then at his text book, and answered the next few questions. When he reached the final one he scanned the whole chapter for the answer, but could not find it. He then read more carefully, and still could not find the answer to the question. He raised his hand into the air. Professor Fudge did not seem to notice, so he cleared his throat loudly, but Fudge still did not look up.

"Professor?" Harry whispered, making sure he could be heard.

"What is it now Harry?" Professor Fudge said.

"Um, the last question, the answer isn't in here."

"Really Harry? Or are you just not reading it well enough?" Fudge's voice had gone cold, and he snatched up a Ravenclaw boy's text book and read the chapter, silently moving his lips as he went through it.

"Well, it seems Harry was right. Does anybody know who discovered the ability to fight mind-control curses?"

All of the Gryffindors immediately looked at Hermione, but she shook her head, looking very disturbed that she could not answer a teacher's question.

"Very well then," Fudge continued. "That is your homework. Find out the answer to that last question, and you can all thank Harry for it."

Almost the whole class turned to look at Harry, most of them giving him reassuring looks, as if to say they did not blame him for the extra homework.

"Class dismissed," Professor Fudge finally said at the end of the lesson.

As they left the class Harry heard Ron muttering,

"What's up with Fudge all of a sudden? Did something bite him in the butt when he got out of bed?"

Harry laughed, and continued walking down the corridor.

*

When they reached Transfiguration that day, they saw Professor McGonagall had cleared away all the desks and chairs from the room. Apart from her own desk, the classroom was completely empty.

"Good afternoon class," she said to them as they entered, in an unusually cheerful tone.

"Good afternoon Professor," the class replied drearily.

Everyone had grown to despise Transfiguration, they had done nothing but bookwork since the first lesson of the year.

"Come on everyone," she said, as they all stood by the walls, wondering what was going on. "Today, we will finally be practising human Transfiguration."

Instantly, the whole class seemed to cheer up. Harry looked at Ron beside him, who had already taken out his wand eagerly. Neville on the other hand, was looking as though he had just been told that Snape would be coming to live in his dormitory. He was terrified.

"I have been going over your theory work, and I think you're ready," Professor McGonagall continued. "Everyone get with a partner."

As always in classes, Parvati partnered Lavender, Dean went with Seamus, and Ron and Hermione moved instantly towards each other. Harry approached Neville with incredible trepidation, he had a feeling that Neville to do more damage to him unintentionally than Voldemort. Although there was no question that Neville had made improvements in the past few months, but Harry still did not want him trying to turn him into a duck.

"Nobody worry," Professor McGonagall reassured them. "I'll be here to help if anything goes wrong."

They certainly needed her help. If any of them had thought that after reading about it for over a month, they would be able to do it without any major difficulties, they were very wrong.

They were attempting to change each other into an animal similar to humans, and roughly the same size: apes. Neville did not cause Harry any permanent misfortunes, but did somehow conjure up strange, spiky, vivid green hairs all over Harry's arms, legs, and face.

Ironically, that was one of the best results in the class. Neither Dean nor Lavender had made any progress, and Ron had managed to give Hermione a faint brown beard. He had been unable to remove it, and she had become slightly agitated with him as Professor McGonagall used her wand to give her a shave.

"It wasn't that bad," he defended. "You could hardly even see it."

But Parvati's quite different reaction of erupting in laughter obviously gave Hermione a different impression.

"Erm, not bad class," Professor McGonagall as she surveyed the damage done.

Then it was time for the others to have a go. Hermione pointed her wand at Ron, and instantly turned him into a strange creature, that resembled an ape in many ways, but had body hair as red Ron's regular hair. It also had abnormally long fingers for an ape. But the biggest difference between an ape and the thing that Ron had become, was the fact that it still had Ron's head.

"Um, sorry Ron," she said.

Ron replied, but it came out as a loud, ape growl. Harry wished he had a camera with him.

Harry pointed his wand at Neville. He tried to concentrate as hard as he could on Neville becoming an ape, but Ron's animal cries kept filling his brain. He tried to do the Transfiguration, but the roaring was distracting him too much. The end result was that Neville was completely unchanged physically, but he started to make ape noises too, not no mention jumping around the room and scratching himself.

He saw Professor McGonagall was actually giving a half smile, although she was trying her best to hide it.

*

"What have we got now?" asked Ron

"Defence Against the Darks Arts," Hermione answered.

Ron groaned. "I hope Fudge isn't gonna be all stressed again today."

"Yeah," said Harry. "What was wrong with him?"

"Who knows."

They walked to the classroom, passing Snape on their way. He gave a half-glance at the door to the Defence Against the Dark Arts room.

Snape had been behaving very coolly towards Professor Fudge, unlike how he was usually with the teachers. Even though it was common knowledge that Snape wanted that job very much, he had not been openly hostile with Professor Fudge. It was probably out of respect for the Minister for Magic, Harry thought.

They stood outside of the classroom along with all of the other Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Ron stretched up on tip toes to look through the high window in the door.

"Well, he doesn't look too moody today."

No sooner as he said that, the door opened, and Professor Fudge stepped into the doorway, almost walking into Ron.

"Sorry there Ron," he said. "Come on in everyone."

"Looks like he's mellowed out a bit," Harry whispered as they walked in and took their seats.

Professor Fudge walked to the front of the room, with a brilliant smile.

"Hi everyone, I hope you're all alright. Everyone take out your wands, we're going to have another practical. Now, as much as I want you all to be able to do the hex deflection, I sense that you're getting a little bit tired of it. So, we'll take a little break from it, and do something else."

Harry took out his wand, excited about what they could be doing.

"Today," Fudge said, and he started to pace the front of the class. "Today we will be practising something that I think everybody, from the most inexperienced first year, to Professor Dumbledore himself, needs practice at. Duelling."

An excited murmur ran around the class. Harry had not had a duelling lesson since he went to one session of a Duelling Club in his second year.

"Before we duel, I am going to teach you a few useful curses that can be done.

"Firstly, the Reflection Jinx. Simply, it makes your opponent think that their left is their right, and their right is their left. The incantation is, 'Mirosa'. Everyone practise that on a partner."

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, and not surprisingly, they had already paired up, as they had done in every lesson of the year. Harry was beginning to think that there was something going on between them. But then Harry remembered Viktor Krum, and he did not like to think that Hermione would cheat on her boyfriend.

So, Harry walked over to Neville, and he did not looked surprised. Neville pointed his wand at Harry, and Harry braced himself.

"Mirosa." Neville said, his voice sturdy.

Harry felt a slight dizziness, but when he looked down at his hands, he could still tell which was right and which was left. Just to be sure, he held up his right arm, with his wand in, and asked Neville,

"This is my right arm, right?"

Neville nodded, looking a little disappointed.

Harry then pointed his wand at Neville, and trying to concentrate, he muttered, "Mirosa".

Neville's eyes quickly crossed, and uncrossed. He looked down at his own hands, and gave a confused grunt, and took his wand out of his left hand, (which was the hand he always held it in) and put it in his right hand. He then looked around the class and turned to his right, he then quickly turned to his left, and then stood perfectly still and said,

"Harry, I think you've done it."

Harry smiled, and so did Neville.

"Excellent Harry!" he heard Fudge say.

"Finite Incantatem," he said, and Neville looked around the room again, and smiled more.

After a few more minutes of practice, in which most of the class had managed to perform the jinx at least once, (although Neville could still not seem to do it), Professor Fudge called the class to stop.

"Very good everyone. Now, here is another curse to confuse your opponent. It is called the Reversal Jinx. What it does is, it makes them think that everything has turned upside-down, and that they are hanging from the floor!"

The whole class laughed, and Harry remembered the gold mist he had encountered in the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament.

"The incantation is, 'Turnace'. Now practise that."

Neville went first again, he stood up straight, and said, "Turnace".

Sure enough, the golden dust came from out of his wand, and Harry felt it all around him, and instantly, he felt the floor and ceiling reverse, and he was hanging from the ground. He felt his glasses slipping up his face, and his hair standing on end.

Knowing what to do, Harry simply moved his leg, and he was suddenly right side up. The golden mist faded quickly, (Harry was sure that the mist in the Third Task was much stronger, and lasted for longer) and Harry pushed his glasses back up to his nose.

"That was good Neville, it worked," he said, still feeling a little disoriented. "My turn."

He pointed his wand in Neville's direction, and pictured the strange, upside-down sensation in his head.

"Turnace," he said, and the mist came out of his wand, slower than it had with Neville. As it surrounded him, Neville shook his head slightly.

It was very strange to watch. Neville's hair was standing straight up, and even the bottom of his robes folded upwards (Harry was not sure if his robes had done that).

"Harry let me down, let me down, let me down," Neville said, terrible panic in his voice.

"Just move your leg," Harry said to him.

Neville looked as though he thought moving his leg was one of the worst things he could do in that situation, probably worried he would fall off and land on the high ceiling. But, eventually, he moved his leg, and instantly his hair flopped back over his scalp, and his robes fell back down to his feet.

Slowly, a smile crept over his face, and he laughed out loud. Harry laughed too, remembering the look on Neville's face when the mist first reached him.

Suddenly, they realised that they were both laughing loudly in the middle of a class, and everyone was staring at them. They abruptly stopped laughing, and gradually the class returned to normal. Afterwards, Harry and Neville started laughing again, but much quieter.

After more practice, Professor Fudge once again stopped the class to teach them something else.

"Incredible," he said enthusiastically. "Everybody well done. Now, it is all very well and good to learn to confuse others, but what about if someone confuses you? How would you fight it if someone put the Reflection Jinx on you? Or even the Imperious Curse? Can any of you honestly say that you could fight it?

Very slowly, Harry raised his hand into the air.

"Harry? You have resisted mind-influence?" he asked, interested.

"Er, yes. I can overcome Imperious," he replied, trying not to sound too big-headed.

"You've had the Imperious Curse put on you? When?" Professor Fudge asked, even more interested.

"Well we all have, last year. Professor Moody, or Crouch's son pretending to be Moody, did it." Many people, who obviously did not know Moody was an impostor, gasped.

"But no one else could resist it that I heard about. And also, I've had Imperious put on me by Voldemort."

The whole class flinched. Professor Fudge, who did not flinch, lowered himself slightly to look Harry in the eye.

"You-Know-Who put you under Imperious? What did he want you to do?" Professor Fudge sounded more worried than interested.

"He didn't want me to do anything bad, or illegal. He was just toying with me I suppose. He had just put Cruciatus on me, and he was trying to force me to beg him to not do it again."

Professor Fudge's expression changed from being worried, to being horrified.

"You have suffered the Cruciatus Curse? Oh my god," was all he could say.

"Yeah," was all Harry could reply.

Fudge had a very small glint of amusement in is face.

"Do you realise then, that you are the only living person to be hit by all three Unforgivable Curses?"

Harry smiled. "Wow, I guess I am."

Professor Fudge looked up at the rest of the class.

"Anyway, as I was saying, you have to be able to fight these curses. Harry, please come up to the front of the class."

Harry walked up to Fudge, and Fudge smiled.

"I will attempt to put the Reflection Jinx on Harry, and we'll see if he can fight it. Mirosa!"

Harry felt the same dizziness that he felt when Neville had put the spell on him, but still did not feel a reversal between his left and right. He shook his head.

"Nothin',"

Professor Fudge hummed thoughtfully.

"Neville," he said. "Please come up here."

Neville walked to the front of the class, and stood next to Harry.

"Please put the Reflection Jinx on me," he said kindly.

Neville shook, but pointed his wand at his teacher.

"Mirosa!" he said, with more force in his voice than Harry had ever heard.

Fudge looked around the room slowly, then turned back to Neville.

"Well Neville, I think we've found the reason you had so much trouble with that curse. It seems Harry has been resisting it! I can resist it as well, but I recognise the feeling when the curse has worked right."

Neville laughed out loud again, and went back to the rest of the class.

"Now, I seem to have been side tracked, we were talking about resisting the curse. I am going to place Harry here under Imperious, and we will watch him resist it."

His voice lowered to a whisper, but one loud enough for the whole class to hear. "I would appreciate if you didn't mention this to anyone, the idea of what my brother would say if I performed an Unforgivable Curse on Harry Potter!"

The entire class burst out laughing, and Professor Fudge laughed along with them.

Finally, the class regained order, and Professor Fudge pointed his wand at Harry.

"Imperio," he said dreamily.

The familiar feeling of total bliss emptied Harry's brain. He did not think about a thing, and he had no cares or worries. He heard Fudge's voice echoing through his brain.

"Dance...dance and sing...dance and sing 'Happy Birthday'...sing 'Happy Birthday' off-key..."

"That's just stupid," another voice in his brain said.

"Just dance and sing off-key."

"No I don't want to."

"Do it!"

"NO!" said Harry.

"You see?"

Harry felt the dream state leave him, and heard Fudge's voice coming from Fudge's mouth, instead of inside his own head.

"You see how Harry did not do anything? That was great Harry. Now--"

Suddenly the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson.

"Sorry everyone," Professor Fudge said, looking like a small child, finding he had no presents on Christmas morning.

"I was really looking forwards to seeing what you're all capable of."

The class began to leave the room, but Fudge quickly called them all back.

"Wait a second please. I would just like to apologise for my behaviour last lesson. I was having a bad day. And about the homework I set, don't worry about it. You can all go now."

The class then all left the room, and the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws went their separate ways towards their common rooms before dinner.

When Harry reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, he gave her the new password, ("Flipendo") and walked into Gryffindor Tower.

When he entered the common room, the first thing he saw was Ginny breathing fire out from her mouth, having evidently eaten one of Weasley Wizard Wheezes's Flame Fries. Fred and George, who were both bent over laughing, walked up to Harry once they noticed him.

"Harry! We've been looking everywhere for you!" Fred exclaimed.

"What? What is it?" Harry asked.

"How come you haven't called any Quidditch practises? Our first match against Slytherin is in six weeks! We need a new Keeper, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Harry said, thinking of Wood.

"Well, we'd better get someone good, we want to win the Cup again," said George, obviously picturing the magnificent Quidditch Cup that they had won in the previous Quidditch season.

"OK then," Harry thought aloud. "How's Saturday morning for everyone?"

"Erm, could you make it Saturday afternoon? You don't want to be waking up the whole team at the crack of dawn, like Wood used to."

As soon as the words were out of Fred's mouth, he clamped his lips together and bowed his head.

"Yes, well fine," said Harry. "Saturday afternoon."