Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Twenty-three October Surprises

Harry's life soon became a flood of training, rushed meals and Quidditch practices. This was fortunate, as most of the school seemed to think that he could be possessed by Voldemort at any moment, and so avoided him whenever they could. Only Daphne, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna treated him as they always had, though most of the Gryffindors tried to be as friendly as they could. D.A. meetings continued, and everyone was motivated to prove that they could defend themselves and their school.

The benefit of this was that many of the lessons in Tactics and Teamwork were progressing even faster than Harry had hoped. D.A. practices were increasingly hard-fought, and many students went to the Hospital Wing after most of the meetings. Apparently, many of the teams worked outside of D.A. practices, and Madam Pomfrey complained that she was spending far too much time reversing various hexes, jinxes and the effects of an increasing number of minor curses.

As usual, Quidditch provided Harry with an effective diversion, and, though not as polished as the team that opened the previous season, the new Chaser line showed tremendous promise. The Beaters were much improved, and Ron seemed to have mostly good days in goal though there were times when his confidence seemed to slip.

Unfortunately, Quidditch was only partly useful in inoculating Harry against the rapidly rising pressure from his work, added Occlumency and Duelling practices and, most painful of all, the nervous glances that he got from most of the students.

He soon found himself avoiding the great hall when he could and often went to the kitchens for food after curfew. Fortunately, his status as an Assistant Professor meant that he was able to do so without need of his Invisibility Cloak, but eating late also meant that his days were long and he was getting too little sleep.

Hermione returned at the end of September, and Harry was surprised by her apparent inattention to many of the things around Hogwarts that once interested her. She could often be found in the Gryffindor common room, talking with other students and even playing the occasional game of Exploding Snap or Gobstones.

Her response when he asked her about her new attitude was both simple and telling:

"You only live once," she said, not able to meet his eyes, "and I realized that I wasn't doing that before now."

A week after her return, Hermione asked Harry, Ron and Ginny to give her the help with flying that they'd promised her over the summer. Though he was happy to do it, helping the Weasleys teach her what they could also took time that Harry could ill afford to lose.

Though her flying would never be as good as his, or even Ron's, Harry thought that she might become a solid flier given time.

Harry soon realized that Hermione's determination to spend time with others had a purpose beyond simple socializing. She seemed to spend lots of time trying to talk to students who didn't appear to have a lot of close friends. By the middle of October she was exchanging friendly glances with Daphne, and Harry was sure that he'd seen her talking with Eloise Midgen from Hufflepuff as well.

As time passed and students continued to avoid him, Harry found himself increasingly envious of his friends' ability to be around everyone else. Much as he cared for his friends, they couldn't keep him from seeing the looks that he got as he walked through the corridors or the nervous glances that he got at D.A. practices.

Neither Harry nor anyone else at Hogwarts knew that a Hogsmead weekend was in the offing until the morning of the last Saturday in October. The Headmaster and other professors had been unusually quiet about visits to the village, and although many students asked about them, no-one was sure that they would be possible after Voldemort's return.

As the month neared a close and no announcements were forthcoming, the students began to accept Hermione's theory that the Headmaster had decided not to permit visits to Hogsmead without saying so in hopes that the students wouldn't raise too many objections to his decision.

The first sign that something unusual was going to happen was the presence of a young, dark haired woman sitting at the staff table that morning. Tonks caught Harry's eye, giving him the barest of nods as he entered the Great Hall with Hermione, Ron and Ginny.

"I wonder what she's here for," Ron said, gesturing at Tonks with one hand while he piled potatoes on his plate with the other.

"No idea," Harry said, as curious about Tonks' presence as Ron was but with many more possibilities to consider.

"Well," Hermione said, "it looks like you'll get your answers in a minute."

"How do you reckon?" Ron asked, fork suspended above his plate.

"Well," Hermione said, "since Professor Dumbledore's getting up and Tonks is doing so too, it seems pretty likely that he'll be explaining why she's here."

As always when the Headmaster addressed the students, silence fell across the great hall in waves as people realized that they would soon hear something of great interest.

"I know that this has been a difficult term and, in hopes of offering you a small diversion, today will be the first of two Hogsmead visits planned for the fall term."

Cheers broke out at this news, students who were frowning into their breakfasts before, suddenly smiled with pleasure at the thought of time away from school.

The Headmaster gave them a few moments to settle before shooting a few purple firecrackers from his wand.

Silence returned and his deep voice rang out across the hundreds of happy faces looking back at him.

"The guest, whom you've doubtless noted at the staff table this morning, is Miss Nymphadora Tonks."

Harry couldn't help grinning at the utter indifference with which the headmaster met Tonks' furious glare at the use of her hated first name.

"Ms. Tonks is an auror with the department of Magical Law Enforcement and is working with the security force that has been dispatched to the village. Members of the student body should feel free to see any of the aurors, one of the teachers or contact Mr. Potter if they come across any difficulty today. Because of the threat posed by Lord Voldemort...",

about half of the students in the Great Hall shuddered at the use of the name,

"...no Owl Post is being allowed from either Hogwarts or the village today. Other devices that permit long-range communication have also been blocked, and this will hold until your return to the castle this evening.

I sincerely hope that you have a wonderful day in the village and look forward to many weeks of mayhem rising from the many illicit items that I'm sure you'll purchase and bring back with you."

Everyone laughed, the tension from thoughts of Lord Voldemort broken for the moment.

"Well!" Ron said happily, "it'll be good to get out and hit Zonko's. Fred and George said that they've got a display there."

"Really?" Harry asked interestedly. "I'd have thought that Zonko's wouldn't want to have anything to do with them since they're competition and all."

"Oh," Ron said grinning. "Normally they wouldn't, but Fred and George are giving them half of the profits from everything that they sell in Hogsmead. They're hoping to start their own store of course but don't have the money to do it yet."

"Makes sense," Harry said, pleased that Fred and George were doing well enough to be thinking about expanding their business.

"Yeah," Ron said happily. "They said that I could help out up here next summer if I wanted to. Since I'll know how to apparate by then, I'll probably take them up on it."

"Great!" Harry said, exchanging an uncomfortable glance with Hermione. After all, they were supposed to learn how to apparate from the Headmaster as soon as the new Minister of Magic was in place, and even though they'd told Ron that they would teach him, both felt uncomfortable that he wouldn't be able to learn how to apparate with them.

"That is really good news," Hermione said happily, also seemingly determined to divert Ron's attention. "But speaking of money, I'd better go up to Gryffindor Tower to get mine before we leave."

"Me too," Ginny said, bouncing to her feet. "It'll be really nice to get some time away."

"You gonna come with us?" Ron asked, hopefully.

"No," Ginny said. "Dean's taking me to Madam Puddifoot's for tea, so I'll have to catch you up later."

"Right," Ron said, ears going red.

"Well," Hermione said uncomfortably. "I hope you have a good time."

"We will!" Ginny said, waving as she hurried off.

"We'd probably better go too," Harry said, trying to come up with a way to divert his best mate's worries over just what kinds of fun Ginny and Dean would have.

Fortunately, Tonks provided all the distraction that he would need, and news that Harry would have been just as happy not having to hear as well.

"You're Mr. Potter?" she asked, intercepting them as they walked toward the Entrance Hall. Her attitude was surprisingly cool and businesslike, and it took Harry a moment to realize that she didn't want other people to know that they already knew each other.

"Yes ma'am," Harry said, offering her his hand.

"I'm Tonks, and you already know that I'm an Auror with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," she said, shaking his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am," Harry said, flustered by the need to remain cold to someone whom he'd come to see as something of a combination of big sister, friend and authority figure.

"I wanted to see you, to offer you a chance to learn about how we coordinate a security operation like this one," Tonks said, eyes focused on Harry alone.

"Uh," he said, wanting to leave his responsibilities behind for the day but suspecting a hidden message in Tonks' words.

"Madame Bones thinks that you'd benefit from it, and we Aurors agree. We'd be honoured if you'd spend at least a couple of hours with us," Tonks said, trying to look serious though Harry thought he caught a mischievous glint in her eye as well.

"Well...," Harry said.

"Good," Tonks said brightly. "I'll find you in the village and we'll arrange a time then."

"Uh," Harry said confusedly, "right. I'll just see you there."

"Excellent," Tonks said, returning to the staff table.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked, before Hermione could stop him.

"Well!" she said loudly. "It's really quite an honour to be asked to assist the Aurors with something like this, Harry."

"Yeah," Harry said gloomily. "An honour."

"Why so depressed?" Hermione asked. "I know that if Auror Tonks gave me a chance to learn about security operations, I'd drop everything and spend as much time with her as she'd let me."

"But you're mad about learning," Ron said with a laugh, "and even though Harry's not nearly as much fun as he used to be, he knows that it's good to take a break every once in a while."

"But we only have so much time to learn before we leave Hogwarts," Hermione said, fretfully. "And I think that it's a good idea to take advantage of every opportunity to learn things that might be useful later on, even at the risk of not getting to drink a little Butterbeer or buy some chocolate frogs."

"If you say so," Ron said, craning his neck around as if looking for someone.

"Looking for someone?" Harry asked, wondering if his best mate might have his eye on a girl or something.

"Ginny," Ron said. "I may have told her that I'll back off of her and Dean, but it doesn't mean that I won't be watching to make sure that he's good to her."

"Oh, Ron...," Hermione sighed.

Harry was very glad that Mr. Filch waved them through the front doors before his friends could begin to argue about Ron's attitude toward Ginny. As they walked toward the village, Harry spared a moment to wonder who had given permission for him to go. With Sirius dead, his old permission letter wouldn't work anymore, even for Dumbledore. Whoever had given permission, he knew that it certainly hadn't been the Dursleys. Harry wondered if the Headmaster knew that Sirius had asked Tonks to keep an eye out for him. If so, she could have given permission for him to go, and Dumbledore would probably have accepted it so long as he thought that Harry could be protected.

Knowing that he wouldn't know how the decision had been taken without asking Tonks or the Headmaster, Harry decided to let things be, and simply enjoy the day with his friends until Tonks found him.

*-*-*-

Harry, Ron and Hermione were able to spend their entire morning wandering the village, buying things at Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Honeyduke's and several other shops on the high street. It was soon clear that the merchants were as surprised by the flood of students from Hogwarts as the young people were at their opportunity to go to the village.

Shops that they were used to seeing full of goods for sale soon looked like wastelands after an attack by a herd of rampaging hippogriffs. Fortunately, Hermione was thinking ahead as usual, and although she hesitated at spending only five minutes in Scrivenshaft's, she moved quickly enough to allow Ron to buy his fill of chocolate frogs at Honeyduke's, much to the disgust of Draco Malfoy, who arrived only moments after Ron bought the last one.

"Did you see the look on his face?" Ron crowed happily after they'd left the sweet shop.

"Yeah," Harry laughed. "You would've thought that Hermione had just hit him again."

"Hey, Hermione...," Ron said, grinning, "you don't suppose that we could get you to go back, so that we could compare the looks on his face, one after he missed the last frog and the other after you...," Ron couldn't finish the thought for laughing at disgusted expression on Hermione's face.

After walking up to the Shrieking Shack in order to enjoy the good weather that they were lucky enough to have this late in the fall, they found themselves heading for the three broomsticks.

The pub was unusually busy and Madame Rosmerta seemed to be the only merchant in Hogsmead who was ready for the appearance of nearly 200 teenagers.

"You'd probably better get the Butterbeers," Hermione told Ron after seeing the crowd near the bar.

"Yeah," Ron said, "definitely one of those times that I'm glad to be tall."

While Ron waded through the crowd, Harry and Hermione went to the table where they'd been sitting when Minister Fudge and their teachers had talked about Sirius during Harry's third year.

Harry now knew that the things that were said that day sprang from a skilful deception on the part of a man who had supposedly been one of his parents' closest friends. Thinking about the effects of Peter Pettigrew's deception, and the moral weakness that led to it, made him angrier than he was nearly three years earlier when he'd thought Sirius had sold his parents to Lord Voldemort.

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked, curiously.

"Rats," Harry muttered darkly.

"We were sitting here when we first heard the story as they knew it then, aren't we?" Hermione said, gently.

"Yeah," Harry sighed.

"You know that it wasn't your fault," Hermione remonstrated.

"Yes," Harry growled, "but that doesn't necessarily make it feel any better."

"No, it doesn't," Hermione sighed. "Ever since Voldemort attacked my house, I've wondered if I could have done anything differently."

"I can think of one thing," Harry said, bitterly.

"I wouldn't change being your friend for anything," Hermione snapped, eyes flashing. "You and Ron have given me friendship, support, love and people to care for in ways that I never had before. Ron was right, I didn't have friends during most of the first couple of months of first year, and it was that way before I came to Hogwarts too.

After that night with the troll, I had two wonderful friends from whom I've learned at least as much as I've taught them, probably more. Without you I would have been a very skilled and very lonely witch. I've never said it before, and may not get the chance to again, but I want you to know that I wouldn't give up what I've seen, learned and become because of knowing the two of you for anything."

"Not even your parents' lives?" Harry asked, afraid to hear the answer but needing to all the same.

"Not even for my parents' lives," Hermione said, giving Harry's hand the slightest of touches just before Ron dropped six tankards of Butterbeer on their table.

"Why the extras?" Hermione asked, pointing at the 'spare' tankards of butterbeer.

"It took me fifteen minutes to get through that lot, and I don't want to have to go back up again. Rosmerta told me to take the extras. Busy as it was, I wasn't going to argue with her."

"But what if other people want Butterbeer and can't get it?" Hermione asked.

"Well, that'll be their problem, won't it?" Ron said. "And anyway, Rosmerta said that she thought that she might have a big crowd this weekend so I suppose that she's got plenty more if she needs it."

"Well it was nice of her to keep you from having to go back up there again," Hermione said, picking up a tankard of Butterbeer.

"Sure was," Ron replied, upper lip already covered in foam.

The thought had barely crossed Harry's mind that maybe Madame Rosmerta had given them the extra Butterbeers as something of a back-handed response to what they'd done in the Ministry of Magic, when a slender hand reached out, tried to take one of the Butterbeers off the table, fumbling and finally dropping it on the floor with a clunk and rapidly expanding pool of slippery liquid.

"Hallo, Tonks," Harry whispered, not needing to see the person attached to the hand.

"Scourgify," a cheery voice responded as the pool of butterbeer disappeared.

Mess cleaned up, Tonks turned her attention back to Harry and his friends.

"How would you like to do some patrolling of the village with me and Auror Shacklebolt?" she asked, nearly bouncing out of her shoes with the gleeful energy that was as characteristic of her as pink hair usually was.

"Uh, sure," Harry said, wishing that he could stay with his friends but now certain that either Professor Dumbledore or Tonks needed to talk with him about things that couldn't be discussed at Hogwarts.

"May we come with you, Auror Tonks?" Hermione asked, hopefully.

"Uh, no," Tonks said in a business like tone. "We need to make some arrangements with Mr. Potter about matters relating to security. Unfortunately, we can't permit anyone else to be present for them."

"But we're team leaders for the D.A," Ron objected.

"And if these matters were related to your Defence Association we would be glad to have you."

"So what then?" Ron asked.

"Mister...Weasley," Tonks said, real anger now on her face. "The first rule of security is that when you're told that you don't need to know, you don't need to know."

Harry, who was thinking of all of the things that Professor Dumbledore hadn't told him in the past, nearly took up on Ron's behalf before remembering Mrs. Weasley's determination to keep her children 'safe' by keeping them out of the war until they'd graduated from Hogwarts. Even though he knew that Ron would probably come with him if something happened, he also knew that he risked his friend's status at school if Ron came along and Mrs. Weasley ever found out.

"I'm sure it's OK, mate," he said as he got up from the table. "Auror Tonks seems OK, and Auror Shacklebolt was there last year when Umbridge tried to arrest Dumbledore. He didn't seem a bad sort either and you know that they wanted to work me on some stuff today."

"Yeah," Ron sighed. "I was just hoping to come along, you know?"

"I know, mate," Harry said, knowing how frustrated his best mate was.

"We really should be going," Tonks said, eyes sad but expression business like.

"OK," Harry said to Tonks before turning back to his friends.

"I'll see you at the castle," he added, clapping Ron on the shoulder.

"Right," Ron said. "We'll probably be here for a bit and then walk around, see how everyone is."

"Sounds good," Harry said, pulling his cloak on and giving his friends a wave as Tonks escorted him toward the high street.

*-*-*-

"Sorry we had to pull you away from your friends Harry, but we couldn't risk people thinking that you were without protection for the whole day," Tonks said apologetically once they found Kingsley standing just outside of 'The Three Broomsticks'.

"Some of the seventh years know how to apparate and could have told Voldemort that you were out of the castle."

"So why cut off all of the other ways of communicating?" Harry asked, distracted from the frustration that he felt at the impact that Mrs. Weasley's attitude was having on his friendship with Ron.

"Well," Tonks said brightly, "takes a lot more time to walk down here, apparate and get the word to Voldemort, than it would to floo Mummy or Daddy and have them do it."

"I suppose," Harry said, "but couldn't they just plan a raid without his knowing about it?"

"Only if they wanted a dose of the Cruciatus Curse once they got back," Kingsley said. "Voldemort's anger at Death Eaters who take initiative is legendary. Probably necessary in a Dark Lord, since, if someone realized that they could act on their own, they might try to take over themselves."

"So that's how you managed to get permission to have a Hogsmead trip today?"

"Yep," Tonks said. "And if you think getting permission to get your friends out of the castle was hard, you should've seen the fight I had to put up to get Professor Dumbledore to let you come."

"So he didn't want me to come?" Harry asked, angry at the restrictions that he felt closing in on his life.

"Nope," Tonks said. "But I wasn't going to let you miss out altogether, so I threatened to bring you down here on a school day instead."

"He probably wasn't real happy with that," Harry laughed.

"Nope," Tonks said. "But since Sirius' will names me as your guardian, he couldn't do much about it."

"Uh, well..." Harry said, suddenly uncomfortable. "I hope that you didn't go to too much trouble over this."

"Nah," Tonks said with a grin. "Though he is making me spend the week at the castle to teach you all about the Wizarding Council meeting that you've got to attend on Thursday."

"Oh yeah," Harry said, having forgotten about the meeting. "What am I going to have to do?"

"Hopefully not much," Tonks said. "I'll have to vote on your behalf since I'm your guardian and all. We'll have to work out how to have you in a place where you can see and be seen since it'll be dangerous for you to be on the floor of the chamber, but it shouldn't be too hard. There'll be loads of Aurors there and I doubt that anyone will try much with Dumbledore there."

"He's there because he's chief of the Wizengamot?" Harry asked, remembering a discussion that had happened in Professor Binns' class several weeks earlier.

"Right," Tonks said. "He'll be there, and of course there'll be some other powerful witches and wizards there who are fully on the side of the light. Also, I've got a couple of ideas that I want to talk with you about to try to sway a few more votes in our direction."

"Oh," Harry asked, interested in spite of himself.

"Yeah," Tonks said, "but we should wait to talk about that until we're in a really secure place."

"OK," Harry said, frustrated that he would have to wait to hear what Tonks was thinking. "Any chance that this'll go on for more than one day?"

"Could be," Tonks said with a grin. "Hoping to get away from Snape?"

"Yeah," Harry laughed. "I don't really want to do this at all, but if I have to be there, I might as well take some benefits from having everyone staring at me."

"You're a good looking young wizard," Tonks said, laughing at the blush that spread across Harry's cheeks. "And even if you weren't, 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' you'd still have lots of witches gawking at you."

"Yeah," Harry said, "but if I weren't 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', they'd be looking at me, not some hero/freak/nutter that they can't decide whether to send propositions or howlers to."

"Oh, I wouldn't feel too bad," Tonks said. "After all, you've not lived until you've gotten a proposition that was a howler too."

"Uh," Harry said, shivering. "I'd rather not think about that too much if you don't mind."

"Oh, I don't know," Tonks said, grinning. "Thinking about 'that' can be almost as fun as doing it."

"Thanks Tonks," Harry said, face flaming.

"No problems," Tonks said cheekily. "Just standing in for Remus and the rest since they can't be here."

"Right," Harry sighed, knowing that the Weasley twins' teasing would doubtless have been even more colourful than Tonks' and somehow sure that Remus would have enjoyed his embarrassment nearly as much as Tonks was.

Their conversation was interrupted by a girl whom Harry recognized as a Hufflepuff third year. Unfortunately for Tonks, the girl wasn't watching where she was going when she ran around a corner in an effort to escape a group of Slytherins who were chasing her. Before she could stop herself, the little Hufflepuff, whom Harry recognized as the first student to leave the Great Hall on the morning after Voldemort's attack on Hermione's house, had knocked Tonks to the pavement.

"Sorry!" the little girl said, before bursting out into racking sobs.

"No harm done," Tonks said, picking herself up off the street and catching the girl up in a hug when it became clear that running into an auror had made the little Hufflepuff's day even worse than it already was.

Once he was sure that Tonks wasn't hurt, Harry looked around only to see Kingsley giving the pack of Slytherin students a ferocious lecture. Deep and slow though Kingsley's voice might be, Harry saw that the Senior Auror could be extremely intimidating when he wanted to be.

With the pack of Slytherins hastening away, shooting nervous glances over their shoulders as they ran, Harry's attention turned to the Hufflepuff who interrupted his conversation with Tonks.

"...muggleborn," she said, in obvious answer to a question from Tonks, who now rested on her knees so that she was at eye level with the girl who had so recently tripped her.

"And they were giving you trouble because of it?"

"Y-yes,"

"How did they get you away from your friends?"

"We were at Honeydukes, and they'd just restocked the shelves after the older students bought them out of almost everything. I wasn't really in the mood for candy you know, so I went outside to wait for them. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground and Miles Bulstrode's money bag was in my hand. He accused me of trying to steal it from him, which is impossible since he's about three times as big as me. I told them that, but they wouldn't listen. I dropped the money of course and ran, and well, you saw the rest."

"You know that we have to take you back to Professor Dumbledore so that he can sort all of this out?" Tonks asked gently.

"To the Headmaster?" the little girl asked, eyes filling with tears.

"He's the best you know," Tonks said gently. "And he's very good at getting the truth out of people."

"But I'm not lying!" cried the little girl, new sobs racking her small frame.

"I know, dearie," Tonks said softly, "but there are four of them and only one of you. No matter how much we want to believe you, we have to let the Headmaster decide what's going on."

"That won't be necessary, this time," Kingsley said to Tonks. "The little rascals admitted that they'd been chasing her for no reason, other than that she is muggleborn."

"Oh!" Tonks said brightly. "In that case, do you want us to walk you back to your friends?"

"N-no thanks," the girl said, shooting a nervous glance at Harry.

"You sure?" Tonks asked, the barest of changes in her expression showing that she'd seen the glance that the dark haired girl had thrown in Harry's direction.

"I'll be OK I think," the girl said, projecting confidence that Harry was sure she didn't feel.

"Right, then," Tonks said, struggling to her feet.

"Thank you for helping me," said the little Hufflepuff, giving Tonks a quick hug and no chance to tell her that she was "happy to help", before she ran back up the high street.

"Well!" Tonks said with a laugh. "I don't remember having that kind of energy when I was in school."

"Considering how much you have now, I'd say that the reason for that is that you've not descended to her level yet," Kingsley said, laughing at the outraged glare that Tonks gave him.

*-*-*-

As the afternoon continued, Harry felt increasingly guilty about his anger over the loss of time with his friends. Tonks had become one of the few people whom he trusted and her joyful attitude toward life always raised his spirits, no matter how depressed he might be about Sirius' death, the prophecy or the nervous glances that he got from students that they passed on the high street.

Before he knew it, the afternoon was over and Tonks was accompanying him back to Hogwarts. They didn't see Ron or Hermione but several of the D.A. members did find and walk with them.

"So you'll be here the whole week?" Phoebe Atwell asked, curiously.

"Yep," Tonks said. "With the meeting of the Wizarding Council coming up, everyone thinks that Voldemort..."

Tonks ignored the shocked gasps from the students with whom they were walking...

"...might try something, and Professor Dumbledore thought that it might be a good idea to have an auror around just in case. It also means that I can work with Harry here on the tactics that he's been teaching in your Defence Association. Madame Bones knows about it from Susan of course, and wanted to see if we could help you along since you students are certain to be involved if Hogwarts is attacked."

"But I thought Hogwarts was safe?" asked Justin Finch-Fletchley nervously.

"It should be," Tonks said reassuringly. "Professor Dumbledore is the only wizard that Voldemort fears. Still, trouble can come from any direction and you need to be ready in case it happens."

"That's what Harry's been saying since the beginning of the year," Justin said with a sigh. "But somehow I'd hoped that he was looking for trouble where there wasn't any."

"Harry's marks in Defence are better than any wizard to come through Hogwarts in a long time. We have a lot of respect for what he and his friends did at the Ministry last June, and I'd say that you should listen, if he tells you something that has anything to do with defending yourself or your friends," Tonks said, in what Harry saw as blatant, though much appreciated, attempt to restore a bit of the standing that he'd lost at Hermione's coming of age party.

"We do!" said Phoebe shrugging her shoulders in a way that accentuated her curvaceous form.

"Good," Tonks said, face stiffening in an effort to suppress a fit of laughter.

Dense though Harry might be where girls were concerned, he was able to connect Tonks' mirth with Phoebe's salacious attitude. It came as something of a shock to him to realize that the Ravenclaw, who starred in many a Hogwarts lad's dreams, was putting a move on him.

As with most of the boys at Hogwarts, he'd certainly noticed Phoebe's... assets, but until that moment he hadn't realized that she might find him attractive. After the disaster with Cho, he'd thought that none of the girls in Ravenclaw would be interested in him. As he was too nervous about the possibility of another disastrous encounter with a girl, he had been just as happy to assume that he was safe from having to worry about the possibility of a relationship with girls in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Though this still left Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, having half of the school's girls avoid him seemed like a good start. Now that he realized what Phoebe's actions probably meant, it was more than a bit disconcerting to face the fact that he mightn't be as "off limits" as he'd hoped.

Happily for Harry, they soon reached Hogwarts. Harry, who needed some time to think about the day's events, decided that it would be a good idea to avoid eating in the Great Hall.

*-*-*-

As always, the food tasted particularly good after a day in Hogsmead. Its quality and thoughts of his friends were nearly enough to change Harry's mind about avoiding the Great Hall but thoughts of the looks that he'd gotten from Phoebe were enough to keep him in the kitchens.

The sound of giggling from the portrait that covered the entrance to the kitchens was Harry's first warning that he wouldn't be as alone as he might have hoped to be. However, when he turned around to see who had come in, it wasn't Hermione, Ron or in fact any Gryffindor whose image greeted his shocked eyes.

Instead, Daphne Greengrass' regal form greeted his shocked stare, her eyes as cool as always, but a small smile softening the corners of her tightly controlled mouth.

"I thought I might find you here, Potter," she said, long strides carrying her toward the table where he sat.

"Uh huh," Harry said, not wanting her to think that he was glad to see her.

"Somehow I'm surprised that you're still avoiding everyone upstairs," she said. "After all, you should be used to being stared at by now."

"I am," Harry replied. "And since I get so much practice at it during the rest of the day, I try to avoid it whenever I can."

"Makes sense," Daphne said, slipping onto a seat that a nearby house elf hastened to bring her. "Of course, the longer you hide the more they'll think you've got something to hide."

"I'm not hiding!" Harry said, angrily.

"Sure looks like you are to me," Daphne said, looking around the kitchen as if trying to find other students there. "After all, I don't see any of your friends here, and there aren't any other members of the D.A. either. Not even that Auror that everyone says they've sent to make sure that you don't make too much trouble if Voldemort tries to mess with your mind again."

Harry's heart sank to his toes at the news that everyone thought that Tonks was at Hogwarts to protect them from him.

Daphne, who must have seen something in his expression gave him one of the small smiles that he had learned were her version of a hearty laugh.

"Of course," she said as she brought her mouth back under tight control, "those of us who know you, know that you're not dangerous. Thing is, you've gotten so good at hiding away that the rest don't know what's going on and can only talk. Considering who's doing the talking, I'd think that you'd be wanting to be out there setting them straight."

"Who's talking?" Harry asked, suspecting that he knew who it might be but wanting to hear Daphne say it anyway.

"The ferret," she said flatly, eyes so cold that Harry was momentarily amazed that looking into them hadn't frozen him solid.

"Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"So you're saying that I'd be better to get out and hold my head up while they talk behind my back."

"If I were a Gryffindor, that's what I would do."

"But you're a Slytherin."

"And supposedly the darkest of the bunch," Daphne agreed.

[If you object to animal Abuse, now is the time to stop reading this Chapter]

[You've been warned]

"So what would you do?"

"Oh," Daphne said with a small smile, "probably cast the Cruciatus Curse on Malfoy's owl. After all, I've already done that to Bulstrode's cat."

"You've, you've...?" Harry gasped, shocked.

"At the beginning of fourth year," Daphne said offhandedly.

"But it takes real hate to make that curse work," Harry said, realizing moments too late that by saying this, he had practically admitted to Daphne that he'd tried to cast it himself.

"True," Daphne said. "And you really can't imagine how much I hate most of the rest of the idiots in my house."

"But enough to go after Bulstrode's cat?"

"Well," Daphne said with an air of feigned lightness, "it seemed better than trying it on Bulstrode herself."

"Wow," Harry said, stunned that anyone could successfully cast Cruciatus so early in their Hogwarts career.

"Professor Snape wasn't very happy with me," Daphne said reflectively.

"S'pose not," Harry said, still shocked by the thought that someone nearly two years younger than he had been in June was able to successfully use an Unforgivable.

"The important thing," Daphne said flatly, "is that no-one in my house has bothered me about joining Voldemort. I don't know whether he knows about it or not, and I don't care, when the time comes I'll do it to his owl and send it back with the note resealed."

"But why?" Harry asked, unable to imagine why she would choose to curse an innocent animal.

"Because if I don't, they'll keep coming and coming. Few people in the magical world are able to cast Unforgivables and most of them are either Aurors or Death Eaters. I'm not interested in either, but only the Aurors will take a simple "No" The Death Eaters usually need a bit more convincing."

"But you're a Slytherin," Harry said, still trying to feel his way through a conversation that seemed to be spiralling out of his control.

"And so guaranteed to join Voldemort?" Daphne asked softly.

"Well," Harry said.

"The only thing that you can be sure of with Slytherins is that we are ambitious, conniving and determined to get ahead on our agendas. Fortunately for you, my agenda happens to be the destruction of Lord Voldemort and the fools in my house who are stupid enough to join him."

"Why?" Harry asked, still confused.

"Because they want to run everyone's lives the way they think is best. My family has never believed in doing things according to someone else's plans, and I'm not going to follow a bunch of idiots who can't see that sooner or later, 'their Lord'," she said, sneer firmly fixed on her face, "will have to kill them because letting them live is simply too dangerous for him."

"So that's why you've been helping me in potions?"

"Partly," Daphne admitted, "though cranking off Snape is also an incentive."

"But he's Head of your house, and pretty nasty too."

"True," Daphne admitted. "But he also respects strength. That's one of the reasons why he's been a lot less trouble for you this year," she added after a moment's thought.

"It did seem like he was a little better," Harry admitted. "Though I kind of thought that was because I was doing a better job in class."

"That's helped," Daphne admitted. "But since you earned your way in, it's a lot harder for him to attack you, since even we Slytherins would recognize that as dishonourable. Of course, if you mess up one of the assignments, all bets are off."

"Thanks," Harry grumbled, not sure that he wanted to know that his reprieve might come to an end.

"No problems," Daphne said in an eerie reprise of Tonks' voice.

Harry, who wasn't as thick as Hermione, and he for that matter, sometimes like to think, stared at Daphne in shock.

"You were there when that little girl ran into us?"

Daphne nodded.

"Why were you hiding?"

"Because Dumbledore asked me to keep an eye on you this year and didn't want you to know about it."

"He what?" Harry roared, furious.

"Asked me to keep an eye on you," Daphne repeated.

"But why?"

"Because much as you'd like to think it, this school is far from safe for you, and there are a lot of people here who would be more than happy to be rewarded by their Lord for bringing you to him."

"You mean Malfoy?"

"Him too," Daphne said flatly.

"Who else?"

"Not sure," Daphne said. "After all, I'm not exactly an insider with them, and I don't know for sure that they've recruited anyone outside of the ones that you probably know about."

"But you think they have?" Harry asked, insides twisting nervously.

"Probably," Daphne admitted. "Probably even one or two in the D.A. are either passing information on directly or doing it by talking to their friends about what we're doing."

"Great," Harry grumped. "And Hermione and I were so sure that we'd stopped them from using the stuff that they're learning."

"Oh, the using part's not happened," Daphne said. "But there's nothing that you can do about them talking about it this year without permission from Dumbledore, and everyone knows that he wouldn't let you have the kind of Contract Parchment that Granger made last year."

"I know," Harry said with a sigh.

"Still," Daphne said, rising from the table with her normal catlike grace, "you've made this place a lot harder for his supporters to attack and given everyone the feeling that they can defend themselves, whether they're here or not. It'll make a big difference when time comes."

"And you think something's going to happen?" Harry asked, back straightening.

"No doubt," Daphne said coldly, "no doubt at all."