The Book of Morgan Le Fey

Chapter Eight: The Second Argument

The first Gryffindor Quidditch practice went off well, Ron thought. Seamus was a good beater and Kirke must have been practicing all summer, for he had markedly improved. Ginny and Parvati proved to be excellent Chasers, and Ron felt a swell of pride at well how his little sister flew, although he wished he had the money to buy her a decent broom. As he stripped off his Quidditch things at the end of practice and jumped in the shower, he made a mental note to owl Fred and George and ask them to consider buying Ginny a new broom for Christmas.

He and Harry headed back up to the common room, grateful to find the fire roaring and their favorite chairs empty. It was past ten o'clock by now and the only people in the common room were Hermione and a few second years, all of them doing homework.

'Hi,' said Hermione absently, not looking up from her Charms essay. 'How was practice?'

'Excellent,' Harry said, sounding and looking hearty for the first time in weeks. 'The team is really strong this year. Ginny's the best Chaser I've seen since Angelina. And Parvati's a real surprise. I had no idea she could fly so well.'

'Seamus is pretty good, too,' Ron added, flopping down into his favorite chair. 'Not as good as Fred and George, but he has a strong arm and good aim.'

'Mmm,' said Hermione vaguely, pausing to add something to her essay.

'Are you even listening to us?' Ron asked, feeling slightly indignant.

'What?' Hermione asked, looking up. 'Oh, sorry. I'm just on a roll here.'

'I'll say,' Ron said, noting the length of her parchment. 'More like the third roll. You know, Hermione, Flitwick did only ask for a single roll.'

'Yes, well,' said Hermione, 'I like to cover all the bases.'

Ron and Harry looked at each other and rolled their eyes. The small group of second years all yawned and went up to their dormitories. Ron and Harry were just getting comfortable in their chairs and pulling out their own homework when the portrait hole opened. Ginny clambered through, followed by Bill. 'Bill!' Ron said, standing up like a shot. 'I mean, uh...Professor Weasley...'

Bill laughed. 'Off-hours it's just Bill, okay?'

'What are you doing here?' Ron demanded, in a voice rather sharper than he intended.

'I need to talk to Harry again,' Bill said, nodding to Harry. Harry blinked in surprise.

'Uh, okay,' he said, clearly confused. Ron and Hermione made a move to get up.

'You two can stick around,' said Bill. 'And you, Ginny. This concerns all of you.'

Ginny took a seat next to Hermione on the sofa, and Ron and Harry slowly sat back in their chairs as Bill came around to face them, taking a chair of his own next to Harry.

'Harry, I know that last year you started Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape,' Bill said. 'But you didn't finish them.'

Harry's eyes flashed dangerously and Ron braced himself for an angry outburst, but instead Harry simply swallowed hard and nodded.

'It appears that Dumbledore is insisting you start up Occlumency lessons again,' Bill said in a sober voice.

'No,' Harry said flatly. 'There is no way I'm going back to working with Snape, get me? No way, no how. You can tell Dumbledore--'

'I will be teaching you,' Bill interrupted, not at all ruffled by Harry's sharp tone.

'Wh-what?' Harry stammered.

'What?' Ron, Ginny and Hermione all said at once.

'Dumbledore has asked me to continue your Occlumency lessons,' Bill said easily. 'And he has authorized me to teach you Legilimency as well. Dumbledore suspects that with each passing day that you're here in school, your mental connection with...Voldemort...is growing.'

They all stared at Bill, clearly impressed that he, too, was saying Voldemort's name out loud.

'I don't see how,' Harry said, after a moment. 'In fact, the whole time I was at the Dursleys nothing happened. No visions, my scar barely hurt at all. I mean, it prickles a bit all the time now, I guess, but nothing out of the ordinary.'

'Dumbledore believes that Voldemort has been lying low and trying to regroup. The events at the Ministry have put a big crimp in his plans, to say the least. He hasn't been active for these past few months because he's trying to come up with a Plan B. Dumbledore believes--and I'm inclined to believe this, too--that Voldemort is just biding his time and waiting for an opening. You're still at risk, Harry.'

Harry's eyes flashed again. 'Yeah, I know,' he said, sounding angry.

'This isn't just about protecting you, Harry,' Bill interrupted again. 'It's about training you to see into his mind, too. Your connection with him has its uses, remember? If it hadn't been for you our dad would have died from that snake attack last year.'

'Wait a minute,' Ron said. 'You're saying Harry has to learn how to...how to read Vol-Voldemort's mind?'

'In a manner of speaking, yes,' said Bill, leaning back in his chair.

'Do I get a say in this?' Harry asked, his anger rising. 'Maybe I don't want to go poking around in Voldemort's brain, you know. It sort of hurts like hell when it's happened in the past. And what if he pulls something like he did last year? He tricked me into going to the Ministry that night, remember? He could do it again. He's stronger than me. Dumbledore is off his nut, Bill, and you can tell him I said that. No way could I sneak around in Voldemort's head without him knowing.'

'You can if you learn Legilimency,' Bill said. 'Look, Harry, I know this isn't easy for you.'

'Do you?' Harry asked sarcastically.

'Yeah, I do,' Bill snapped, his cool demeanor faded. 'I'm not saying I know how you feel or what you've been through. You didn't ask for this, but you can't escape it. And I'm sorry about that, but I'm also here to help you learn how to deal with it, okay?'

'What does this have to do with us?' Ginny asked in a small voice.

'All of you are going to be learning Occlumency this year,' said Bill, looking at her. 'With the Death Eaters regrouping and the ones in prison ready to bust out any second we all have to prepare ourselves in every way possible. Physical defense isn't enough.'

'But why single me out, then?' Harry asked, sounding annoyed.

'Because,' Bill explained, sounding patient again, 'like Snape said, the regular rules don't apply to you. For Legilimency or Occlumency to work on most people there has to be eye contact, but not where you and Voldemort are concerned.'

'I don't like this,' Ron said nervously. 'Come on, Bill, Harry's got enough on his plate, don't you think? I mean, bad enough Voldemort wants to kill him. Why make him go through this?'

'Because,' Harry said sadly, 'if I can get into his head I can tell the Order what his plans are, maybe help head him off somehow. But I have to be able to do it so that he doesn't know.'

'So Harry has to act as some sort of...telepathic spy?' Hermione asked, speaking up for the first time and sounding very scared.

'Something like that,' said Bill.

'Since when did you become good at this stuff, anyway?' Ron asked suspiciously.

'It was part of my Curse-Breaker training for Gringott's,' said Bill. 'And just so you know, Aurors have to learn it, too. So you might as well accept it if that's what you want to do once you're out of here.'

'Great,' said Ron grimly.

'I'm not going to lie to any of you,' Bill said. 'This is some of the most dangerous stuff a wizard or witch can do, and some of the most painful. And most people who become skilled Legilimens or Occlumens wouldn't be able to resist Voldemort or his best Death Eaters.'

Harry sighed and covered his face with his hands, and Ron felt a surge of sympathy.

Harry pulled his hands down from his face and looked squarely at Bill.

'I'll do it,' said Harry. 'Not like I have much of a choice, anyway.'

'Good,' said Bill, but he didn't smile. 'I'm going to start taking up lessons in Occlumency later on in the term but I want to get started with you right away, Harry. Give you a leg up.'

'Okay,' Harry said dully, his happiness at the successful Quidditch practice now completely evaporated.

Bill nodded and said nothing else. He stood up and without a word, strode from the common room.

Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't watch him go; their eyes were fixed on Harry, who was staring into the fire. Ron wondered whether Harry was wishing that Sirius would appear there, as he had so many times in the past.

'Are you...all right, Harry?' Hermione asked timidly.

'Fine,' Harry said shortly. He looked around at them. 'Well, at least I won't have to work with Snape.' He forced a laugh that turned into a dejected, exhausted sigh.

'I'm turning in,' he announced, not looking at any of them. 'See you in the morning.'

'Okay,' Ron said. Hermione started to say something but Ron shot her a look, and she closed her mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second week of term proved to be even busier than the first, and Ron was beginning to appreciate that even without O.W.Ls to worry about this year, he had quite a full plate.

Harry, who thankfully had a slightly less manic captaining style than Oliver Wood or Angelina, nonetheless insisted on hard Quidditch practices three times a week. The weather had thus far been mild and dry so there was no getting out of the practice sessions.

Homework was no less onerous this year than last, either. With the additional Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, Ron, Harry and Hermione found themselves spending every free minute studying, reading, writing essays, or practicing charms and spells. Their Potions classwork became more and more difficult, but Snape seemed to have chosen a different tack to take with Harry this year. Instead of badgering him, Snape all but ignored him, which was probably just as well, because Harry stared daggers at Snape half the time, and Ron was worried Harry might do or say something stupid to get himself thrown out of the class.

Then there were Harry's Occlumency lessons, which Bill had started up right away. Harry took them twice a week, just after his last lesson of the day and before dinner. He wasn't saying a word to Ron or anyone else about how his lessons were going; he merely showed up at dinner looking pale and tired, and Hermione had to nag him to eat something. Ron and Hermione both wondered briefly whether Harry might actually crack under the strain, but Harry seemed to work out his aggression in Quidditch practices, which he approached with a single-minded ferocity that made Ron feel slightly uneasy. He was loath to pester Harry about anything, though, despite Hermione's urgings to do so. Harry would talk when he was good and ready and not before.

Bill, meanwhile, had proven to be as strong a teacher as his initial first impression. In just two weeks he had drilled them on Stunning Spells, Silencing Charms, Impediment Jinxes, Total Body Binds, Reductor Curses, Jelly-Legs Jinxes, Disarming Spells, and announced that work on Patronuses would begin in the third week. Ron learned from Harry that Bill had asked Harry about everything they had covered in last year's D.A. meetings, and that Harry would be assisting in the Patronus lessons, using boggarts. Bill was also interested in Harry's ability to resist the Imperius Curse and planned to work that into lessons, as well.

Bill impressed Ron and Harry with his knowledge and abilities, but nobody was nearly so impressed with Bill as the girls in the school. Nearly every girl in the sixth-year class was showing up to class ten or fifteen minutes early in the hopes of securing seats in the front row. Every day Ron heard girls whispering and giggling in the corridors about the 'gorgeous new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.' Parvati and Lavender declared that between taking Divination classes with Firenze and Dark Arts lessons with Bill, that this year was by far the best year ever, and that they hoped Dumbledore would continue to hire 'brilliant teachers who also happened to be fantastic-looking.'

'It's not fair,' Seamus grumbled to Ron after a Dark Arts lesson on Friday. 'When is Dumbledore going to hire a great-lookin' woman teacher for us blokes to gawk at? If I have to listen to Lavender drone on about your brother one more second I think I'll go mad.'

'Thank God Bill is Ginny's brother,' Dean Thomas said vehemently. 'At least I don't have to hear that stuff from her.'

Ron resisted the urge to step on Dean's foot, having forgotten until that moment that he was dating Ginny.

He better not be messing with her or I'll rearrange his face, thought Ron darkly.

On top of this were Ron and Hermione's prefect duties. Hermione had decided that the fifth years needed detailed study schedules in preparation for their O.W.Ls, and Ron was only too happy to let her take on this project, which she managed to complete in no time even with her numerous subjects (she was still taking more subjects than Harry and Ron) and her continued knitting of hats and socks for house-elves. Nobody had ever told Hermione that Dobby had taken every single piece of clothing she had ever knitted, and that the continued presence of house-elves was not, as Hermione thought, because Dumbledore kept hiring new ones to replace the ones who had left thanks to being set free by her, but because the original house elves were still there and simply refusing to clean the Gryffindor common room anymore, leaving the job entirely to Dobby.

Eddie Carmichael, meanwhile, insisted that all the prefects have their first meeting before September finished, but the scheduling proved to be a problem, considering that Ron, Katie and Malfoy all had Quidditch practices to attend. At last they wound up squeezing it in during a lunch hour in the second week.

The meeting was relatively painless and Ron felt his attention drift, until the last ten minutes, when Eddie announced that he had received permission from Dumbledore to organize a Halloween ball.

'It'll be a masked ball,' he said. 'You know, like they did in the old days. Costumes required. Lots of food, of course. Dancing. We're going to try for the Weird Sisters but I hear they're touring the continent so that might fall through. If so, no sweat, Lee Jordan's offered to come back and D.J. it for us. In any case, I'd like all the prefects to go, you know. Set an example for everyone. The younger kids are invited but they'll have to turn in by ten. We'll escort them up and then we can come back to the party.'

'Wait, wait, wait,' said Andrew Goldstein, sounding annoyed. 'We have to go to this thing, in costumes?'

'Well, it's not REQUIRED,' Eddie said in a tone that indicated that it might as well be. 'I mean, if you can't find a costume you should still show up. But come on, it'll be Halloween. Half the fun is wearing a costume.'

Speak for yourself, Ron thought darkly, wondering just what on earth he was going to wear to this event. Eddie talked over a few more things, which Ron barely listened to as he hated the sound of Eddie's voice, and then the meeting was over.

He stood up, stretched, and started to leave when he noticed that Eddie had pulled Hermione aside. Ron hung back, letting the other prefects and Katie pass him by (Malfoy bumped into him on purpose, but Ron ignored him).

Eddie was standing very close to Hermione. Doesn't think much of personal space, does he? thought Ron, trying to look casual, like he was waiting for Hermione instead of trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. He wished he had a pair of Fred and George's Extendable Ears.

Hermione laughed softly at something Eddie said, and blushed, and Ron clenched his fists. Then she was nodding, and Eddie was beaming at her, looking more like Lockhart (although his features were nothing like Lockhart's) than ever.

'What did he want?' Ron demanded in a sharper voice than he intended.

'Oh, nothing,' said Hermione, looking pink in the cheeks.

'Nothing,' Ron repeated, trying very hard not to get angry. 'Then how come he pulled you aside for five minutes? He couldn't say what he wanted in front of me, that doesn't sound like nothing.'

'If you must know,' Hermione said in an exasperated voice, 'he asked me to go to the Halloween ball with him.'

'WHAT?' Ron's voice was so loud it echoed down the corridor, which was thankfully empty as most of the students were in the Great Hall eating lunch or out on the grounds, enjoying the good weather.

'Ron, keep your voice down!' Hermione hissed, looking alarmed and annoyed. 'At least try to act like a prefect.'

'Well, what did you say?' Ron demanded. Let her have said no, he thought desperately.

'I said yes,' Hermione said, not looking at him.

'WHAT?' Ron's voice echoed even louder in the hall, and a few students who had just entered the castle stopped and looked at him.

'You're going,' Ron said, in a low voice that was shaking with rage, 'to the ball with that...that...strutting PEACOCK?'

'He is not a strutting peacock!' Hermione snapped.

'What's he going to dress up as, Gregory the Smarmy?' Ron hissed, his face hot with anger. 'Or maybe Leo the Lascivious, that sounds like more his speed.'

'Ron!' Hermione said furiously, her own voice shaking now. 'You either stop acting like an idiot right now or I'm not speaking to you ever again.'

'I can't BELIEVE you're going to a ball with that prat,' Ron stormed, his voice rising again.

'And I can't believe you're behaving like a child,' Hermione shot back. 'No, wait, yes I can!'

'At least I'm not acting like a...a stupid...GIRL!' he spluttered, making no effort to restrain his temper.

'I am NOT a stupid girl!' Hermione shrieked, now completely forgetting to lower her own voice. 'What's it to you, anyway? You're not my boyfriend! It's none of your bloody business who I go out with!'

The words hit Ron like a long, hot needle in his chest. He was so stung by them that when he opened his mouth to retort, nothing would come out. And then, to his horror, Hermione's eyes filled with tears.

'Wha--?' he said dumbly, completely horrified with himself for having made her cry again.

'Oh, dammit!' she cried, and before Ron could say or do anything, she took off down the hall at a run, her hair flying behind her.

Ron stood there, his anger forgotten, the hollow, constricting feeling in his chest engulfing him so heavily that he did not even have the presence of mind to snarl at the small crowd of second years who were standing in the corridor, staring at him in fear and awe.