Harry Potter and the Sacrifice of the Traitor

Chapter 6

The next morning, they had their first Conjuration lesson. Hermione as usual had read her textbook thoroughly and had bored the rest of them by reading excerpts from it. Harry was feeling rather nervous. When they arrived in the classroom, however, they found that there were no chairs to sit on, so they stood around feeling rather confused for a few minutes. The lesson turned out to be taught by none other than Albus Dumbledore. Harry was very surprised when he strode into the classroom, dark red robes flying out behind him. He stole a look around - most of the class looked equally startled at the thought of being taught by the Headmaster. Hermione however, looked pleased - perhaps she had already known this piece of information, thought Harry.

'Good morning, sixth years,' said Dumbledore, his blue eyes twinkling at them all over his half-moon spectacles. 'How lovely it is to talk to you as a small group, rather than with the rest of the school. Do pull up a chair and sit down, won't you?'

He gave a wave of his wand, and the chairs suddenly appeared from nowhere. They had seen him do magic like this before of course, but it was still most impressive.

'Wow, sir, that was brilliant!' said Ron, deeply impressed.

'Thank you for that, Mr Weasley,' said Dumbledore, smiling slightly.

They all sat down and watched him eagerly.

'Now then, as you have seen, Conjuration is a most useful skill to have. Unfortunately, it is also a very difficult skill, much more so than any other area of magic. Transfiguration is probably the closest form of magic, so if you are good at that, you may find that you become good at Conjuration. Put simply, it is the skill of creating objects from nothing. It is not the same as Transfiguring one object into another, but it requires the same sort of concentration on precisely what you are wanting your end product to be. We will be starting on small objects, much like your first Transfiguration lessons. Please open your books and turn to the first page.

Harry opened his book, and studied the chapter on Conjuring matches. It looked very difficult indeed, and he wasn't sure if he would be able to cope. It required a lot of willpower and concentration on exactly what you wanted to conjure. However, Dumbledore was a very good teacher, and by the end of the lesson, they had made some progress. Hermione had conjured enough matches to fill a whole matchbox, and was pink and glowing from pleasure and effort. Harry and Ron both had a few matches, although they were not as straight as they should be. Even Neville had managed something, although his two matches did not seem able to be lit. Harry was pleased to see Dumbledore had praised Neville highly for managing to produce anything at all.

As the rest of the class filed out, Dumbledore asked Harry to stay behind for a moment. He looked down at Harry, who stared back, trying not to remember their conversation of last term.

'Now then, Harry,' he said. 'I think it is best if you continue with your Occlumency lessons. Lord Voldemort seems to have left things quiet for the moment, but we cannot hope that this will continue to be the case. I believe I am right that you would prefer a different tutor than Professor Snape?'

Harry managed to bite back the retort, and merely said 'Yes please, sir.'

'Very good, Harry. In spite of the possibility of Lord Voldemort glimpsing me through your thoughts, I believe it would be best if I were to teach you myself now. We will hopefully be able to progress quickly enough that you will be able to shield yourself and me from his gaze.'

Harry shivered slightly - he didn't like the thought of Voldemort invading his thoughts, specially after what had happened last year.

'We will meet in my office every Thursday evening at 8 o'clock then. The password is Fainting Fancies,' said Dumbledore, smiling at him.

'Alright sir,' said Harry, and left to catch up with the others.

Before he reached Thursday evening, however, Harry had to make it through his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Snape as a teacher. He arrived with Ron and Hermione for this class, and was dismayed to find that they appeared to be with not only the Slytherins, but several Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.

'Surely we won't all fit into one classroom,' Ron muttered.

'Of course not, Ron, haven't you noticed that not all the Gryffindors are here either?' said Hermione impatiently. 'Nearly everyone had signed up for it, so they have mixed all four Houses together and some of us are having the class at a different time'.

Harry thought that if this was the case, it was just his luck to find Millicent Bulstrode, Blaise Zabini, and a boy who Harry thought was Andrew Nott in the class. At least Malfoy appeared not to be taking this class - it was unlikely that he wanted to defend himself against Dark Arts at all, thought Harry, angrily.

They went in and sat down, and Harry looked around. He spotted several other members of the DA, Ernie McMillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Susan Bones from Hufflepuff, and Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw. Then Snape swept into the room, and Harry hastily looked towards the front of the class. Snape looked different somehow, Harry thought, less sour and twisted. Perhaps he was pleased at finally getting the job he had been wanting for so many years.

'Welcome, class' he said silkily. 'It is my dubious pleasure to try and teach you all how to defend yourselves, should you be foolish enough to endanger your own lives, or perhaps even others' lives.'

Harry felt a surge of anger. Was Snape smirking at him as he said these words? But Snape was continuing.

'I understand that some of you have had ... extra tuition from one of the members of this class. I shall be testing you to make sure that you have learned your jinxes and counter curses correctly, at some point. However, to begin with, we will work on something rather different.'

The next hour was one of the most bizarre lessons Harry had ever had - and that included his second year lesson with the Cornish pixies. Snape refused to let them do any magic, and instead spent the lesson forcing them to learn a little physical defence. It turned out that Theodore Nott knew a lot of Muggle self defence, and so they were split into groups, and simple evasive manoeuvres were demonstrated by Nott, which they them had to copy.

'Phew!' said Ron, as they left. 'I'm exhausted, and I ache all over. Why did Mandy have to kick me that hard, eh?'

'And how does Nott know all that Muggle stuff?' said Hermione, keenly. 'Surely in Slytherin, he's a pureblood.'

'Actually, I'm a half blood: my mother was a Muggle born. She left my father when I was quite young, and was determined not to let me grow up like him,' came a voice from behind, and they whirled around to see Nott standing behind him, grinning shyly.

'Well, that explains it,' said Hermione rather lamely.

'Erm, thanks for showing us that stuff, it could have come in handy when my cousin used to beat me up,' said Harry, determined to show Hermione he had listened to the Sorting Hat and could be polite to a Slytherin. Ron shot him a startled look, but didn't say anything.

'No problem, see you next week,' said Nott, and went off towards the Great Hall, whistling cheerfully.

'Well done, Harry, I'm very impressed,' said Hermione.

'Huh, I could have been just as polite if I'd wanted,' said Ron, his ears turning red again. He looked rather crossly at Harry, possibly because Hermione was smiling at him so happily.

They went into dinner and found Ginny and a couple of other fifth year Gryffindors already there.

'Hi, Ginny, how was your day?' said Hermione as they sat down with them.

'Awful. Professor Richards had us trying to brew the Draught of Peace. Let me tell you, by the time I'd burned my mixture twice, and Luna had added too much hellebore, so that her potion turned orange, we felt anything but peaceful!'

The others laughed, and Ron started to clear his plate with great enthusiasm. Just as they were finishing, Luna herself drifted past the table and stopped to say hello.

'I was wondering, Harry, whether we would be continuing with the DA this year, now that Umbridge has left,' she asked dreamily.

'I don't really know, I suppose it depends on what Snape is teaching us, and whether he might forbid it as well,' answered Harry.

'You could always ask his permission, Harry,' said Hermione thoughtfully. 'That might make him think you are being mature and giving him the respect due a teacher.'

Luna and Ginny found this very funny, and started laughing.

Ron spluttered, spraying treacle tart all over himself. 'Respect? For that greasy git?' he laughed.

'Yeah, and what do you mean, he'd think I was mature? I am mature, Hermione. Wasn't I just polite to Nott?', said Harry indignantly.

This just seemed to make the three girls laugh even harder, so Ron and Harry tried to make a dignified exit, and went on up the stairs from the entrance hall by themselves, while Ron muttered darkly about letting Hermione get away with too many sarcastic comments.

The last of their new classes came that afternoon, Muggle Studies. They had another new Professor, who was called Professor Biddle. She was a short woman with wavy blond hair, and explained that this would be slightly different from the O.W.L Muggle Studies class. Rather than learning all about Muggles from the wizarding point of view, they were just required to learn the basics of the Muggle world, to enable them to move around in it without attracting too much attention. Ron was particularly excited by the demonstration of an electric light - he obviously hadn't quite understood them while staying at the Grangers, and was now keen to explain it all to his dad as soon as possible.

* * *

They were so busy over the next few days that it was the second weekend before they got down to see Hagrid. He had sent them an owl asking when they would visit, and on Saturday afternoon Hermione decided they have done enough homework for the day, and that there was time to go out for a while. It was a lovely late summer's day, warm and sunny, and most of the school seemed to be lying around on the grassy lawns, chatting or pretending to do homework. They ran down to Hagrid's hut, and banged on the door. They could hear Fang barking excitedly, and then Hagrid opened the door.

'About time!' he boomed. 'Come on in, I've just been making some fresh rock cakes in case you found time for me.'

'Sorry it's been so long, we've had so much homework,' Harry began, and then he saw the twinkle in Hagrid's eye.

'S'all right, I'm just jokin.' he said. 'Find yourselves somewhere to sit, then.'

They sat down at the table and had some tea, but politely refused the rock cakes, having had far too much experience of Hagrid's cooking in the past.

'Hagrid, you look much better this year,' Hermione said. 'Is Grawp, er, settling in better now?'

Hagrid's face was no longer covered in bruises and cuts from the attentions of his younger half-brother, a full giant. Hagrid had smuggled Grawp into the Forest last year, but Harry had not heard what had happened to him.

'Oh yeah,' chuckled Hagrid. 'Professor Dumbledore found out about him last summer when he went to rescue that Umbridge woman. He reckoned Grawp would be better off in a quieter place than Hogwarts, and found him a nice area in Romania, near where your brother works, Ron.'

Ron looked slightly alarmed. 'I hope Charlie will be alright if he meets him,' he said nervously.

'Not much chance of that,' Hagrid replied. 'Professor Dumbledore fixed him up with a nice large area to roam around in. Said he'd try to find him a lady friend like I was goin' to. Great man, Dumbledore, great man.'

Harry was immensely relieved that they would not be expected to attend to Grawp's social education anymore. They chatted for a while, and Harry was relieved that Hermione at any rate, seemed to realise that he still wasn't ready to talk much about Sirius. Hagrid did ask him how he was doing, but Hermione cleverly diverted the conversation away before Harry got too uneasy.

At last they looked out of the windows and realised it was time for dinner. They said their farewells, reluctantly accepted some rock cakes, and left the hut.

'Thank goodness Grawp's gone,' said Hermione, furtively tipping her rock cakes behind a tree.

'I never saw him though,' said Ron, looking disappointed.

'Trust me, you don't want to meet him,' said Harry fervently, chucking his cakes to Fang, who had followed them up to the castle. He gulped them down, then whined and slunk away, tail down.

* * *

A couple of weeks into the term, Katie Bell came over to Harry at breakfast. As they'd expected, Professor McGonagall had announced she would be the new Quidditch Captain for the Gryffindor team, although she was rather nervous about it.

'Harry, Ron, we've got Quidditch tryouts this evening, is that alright?' she enquired.

'Yeah, fine, looking forward to it,' said Harry eagerly - he couldn't wait to get back on his broomstick again.

That evening, after supper, they walked down to the pitch together with Ginny, who was trying out for Chaser. They had invited Hermione, but she had muttered something about a meeting with McGonagall and rushed off hastily.

'I wonder what Hermione's meeting McGonagall for?' said Ron curiously, as they entered the pitch. 'Can't be a Prefect thing or surely I should have gone.'

Harry shrugged, but Ginny looked a bit shifty - he wondered whether she knew what was going on. However, there was no time to ask her, as Katie was impatiently waving them over.

The tryouts lasted quite a long time, but they had successfully replaced the team members who had left. Ginny had made it onto the team as a Chaser, along with Natalie McDonald, a third year. They had expected to replace Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, last year's Beaters, but the boys, now firm friends, appeared to have done a lot of practice over the summer, and were now good enough to remain on the team. Katie still wasn't too happy, shaking her head and saying that they just weren't like the Weasley twins. However, they were certainly the best of the hopeful Gryffindors who had come. Katie had relied quite heavily on their opinions too, as she wasn't completely happy about being in charge.

The new few weeks flashed past, and their lessons continued to be difficult but interesting. Neville had managed to Conjure a match that could actually be struck, but Hermione was already Conjuring cushions. They had completed several different potions and tested them, and their Transfiguros potions were nearly ready. Snape had started to teach them new jinxes and curses, as well as continuing the self defence parts of the lesson. Although he still sneered at Harry when possible, he hadn't been able to find much to complain about in the DA members' abilities. Harry hadn't yet decided what to do about the DA meetings, although nearly everyone was asking him. He hadn't heard much from Lupin lately either, although his occasional owls said he was fine and seemed cheerful enough. Apparently he now had a part time job, as the anti-werewolf legislation Umbridge had put in place had been relaxed again.

Before Harry knew it, it was nearly Halloween. There were huge pumpkins all over the castle, and live bats were fluttering in and out of the suits of armour, making them giggle as they were tickled. Harry had his Thursday Occlumency lesson with Dumbledore just before the feast. He was making progress now, although it was still hard to keep Dumbledore out of his thoughts at times. It helped that although he was still rather angry with Dumbledore, he didn't loathe him in the way he loathed Snape, and didn't mind him seeing some of the more embarrassing moments of his childhood quite as much as he loathed Snape having seen them.

This evening, he made a large step forward and caught the briefest of glimpses into Dumbledore's past. He knew that that was what it was, because he caught the merest glimpse of Dumbledore talking to a tall dark haired boy - Tom Riddle. He lost the vision as soon as he realised who he was seeing, but Dumbledore seemed very pleased at his progress.

After they had all stuffed themselves at the Feast, Dumbledore stood up and called for a moment's silence.

'Thank you all,' he said. 'Well, I hope that you have enjoyed our wonderful Feast once more. I won't keep you long, I just wanted to remind the students from Fourth Year upwards about our exciting New Years Ball, which will start at 8 o'clock in the evening on New Year's Day. Make sure you don't leave it too late to ask a partner!'

He sat down, eyes twinkling merrily, but Harry was sure he'd caught him glancing swiftly in his direction. One of the memories Dumbledore had seen in Occlumency was of Harry trying to ask Cho to the ball in his fourth year. Harry felt his pudding congeal into an unpleasant lump in his stomach. He didn't really know who he wanted to go with this year, but he definitely didn't want to end up going alone. Ron had turned slightly green, and Hermione and Ginny were blushing and giggling together.

'So, who are you going to ask, then?' asked Ginny, smirking a bit, as they left the Hall.

'I don't know,' said Harry, already feeling rather desperate. 'Perhaps someone will ask me again and I can just say yes and have done with it.'

'Well, I haven't got anyone I particularly want to go with at the moment,' said Ginny. 'If we haven't found anyone better by then, why not just go together? As friends,' she added hastily, going slightly red.

'I suppose so, alright,' said Harry, feeling a bit confused. Last year she had seemed to be over her crush on him, but now she was asking him to go to the Ball with him, although in a rather casual way.

They followed Hermione and Ron up the stairs. They were arguing loudly because Ron had tactlessly said he was glad that Victor Krum, or 'Vicky' as he insisted on calling him, couldn't ask her to the ball again, and Hermione was not at all pleased by this reminder or by the nickname. Harry rolled his eyes at Ginny, who whispered, 'why doesn't he just ask her? Honestly!'

Grinning at her, and thinking much the same thing himself, Harry continued up the stairs to the common room, where Hermione worked off her frustration by forcing them to do piles of homework before allowing them to go to bed.