Harry Potter and the Sacrifice of the Traitor

Chapter 7

Next morning they had another gruelling Transfiguration lesson. This time however Harry seemed to be improving at his human Transfigurations, and came out of the lesson with no worse memories than a temporary third ear he had given Ron for a moment. Ron was finally making progress, and had successfully given Neville 6 fingers on each hand and removed them. Hermione as usual was well ahead of them both though, and Professor McGonagall had smiled proudly at her, and declared that she was nearly ready to start Transfiguring herself. Harry was distracted from this achievement however, by yet another meeting between Hermione and Professor McGonagall after class. These meetings seemed to go on after most Transfiguration lessons, and in the evenings as well sometimes. Neither he or Ron could work out what she was doing, although Ginny seemed to know something about it. When they asked her though, she just smiled mysteriously and said,

'You'll just have to ask Hermione, I'm afraid. It's her project.'

They did of course ask Hermione, who just looked a bit flustered, and replied,

'It's nothing really, just some extra Transfiguration that Professor McGonagall is helping me with'.

'What on earth do you need extra Transfiguration lessons for?' said Ron, looking baffled. Hermione ignored him and led the way down to dinner.

Another disappointment came for Harry that week in the form of a letter from Mark Evans' mother. She wrote that she didn't know whether they were related to Lily Evans, and would have to look up the old family trees they had somewhere around. This would take time though. Harry wasn't quite sure why it mattered so much to him - Mark Evans, Jessica Thomas and the other first years were perfectly friendly to him now, after all. In fact, now that Mark knew the full story of Harry and Voldemort, he was starting to remind Harry a little bit of the Creevy brothers, and he kept thinking he needed a way to convince people to act normally instead of treating him like some kind of hero. He just would have liked to know that he had some relatives other than the Dursleys, but that hope seemed very far away now. Ron suggested that he ask Dumbledore, but although he was getting on a bit better with Dumbledore now, and his Occlumency lessons were going well, he still didn't want ask him about Mark Evans. If they weren't his relatives after all, he would feel disappointed, and if they were, he would be angry at Dumbledore having kept something from him yet again.

Next day, however, was such an exhausting and emotionally charged day for Harry that any thoughts of families, or indeed of Hermione's mysterious lessons, were completely driven out of his mind for the moment.

It started innocently enough with a perfectly normal breakfast. Hedwig arrived with the other post owls, carrying a note from Dumbledore, requesting that their Occlumency lesson be rescheduled for tonight instead of Thursday night. She pecked him on the ear in a friendly way, and stole his bacon rinds before taking flight again. Next to him, Ron and Hermione were having an argument about Ron's Potions homework from last night, but Harry just tuned them out as usual. And then, as he started to get up and leave, Luna Lovegood wandered over to their table. She smiled vaguely at them all and said good morning. Ron and Hermione stopped their squabble to respond, then returned to it.

'Hello Harry, I wanted to ask you something,' she said, gazing somewhere over his left shoulder.

'OK, what is it?' asked Harry, curiously.

'I wanted to ask you to the New Years Ball. I don't much like dancing, so I don't mind if you don't want to dance. Would you like to go with me?'

Across the table, Ginny stopped half way through a mouthful of cornflakes to stare at Luna. Ron and Hermione had obviously heard too, as they stopped arguing mid-sentence to gape. Harry was completely taken aback. He hadn't given any further thought to a partner for the Ball, and certainly hadn't expected a girl to ask him in the middle of the Great Hall, with everyone watching.

'Erm, I don't know, I hadn't really thought about it,' he mumbled.

'Oh. Well, now that you have had a minute to think about it, what's your answer?' asked Luna, still gazing dreamily at his shoulder, completely ignoring the fact that half the Gryffindor table was now stifling giggles.

Harry could have done with some time to think, but it seemed he had to give an immediate answer. He didn't really know if he wanted to go with Luna, but he definitely didn't want anyone else noticing the conversation, and staring at him. He also didn't want to upset Luna after her help at the Ministry last summer though, so he tried to smile casually, and said, 'OK, why not. I'll, erm, look forward to it.'

'Oh good, that will be nice then,' said Luna. She smiled cheerfully at him, waved to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, and walked serenely away, blissfully ignorant of the eyes staring incredulously at her and at Harry. Ginny gave her retreating back one more amazed look, and said to Harry,

'Well, it doesn't look like you'll be needing our pact after all. Congratulations, Harry.' She left the rest of her bowl of cornflakes unfinished, got up and hurried out of the Hall. Harry looked after her, confused. She had said they would just be going as friends, and she had plenty of time to find someone to go with, so why was she now seeming to be upset?

Ron was still speechless. Hermione nudged him hard and snapped, 'Shut your mouth Ron, you look ridiculous.'

Harry didn't know what to say to them. Hermione was now gazing at him in a penetrating way disconcertingly similar to McGonagall's beady eyed stare. Ron had shut his mouth, but was now starting to join in the giggling from around the table.

'See you in lessons then,' said Harry shortly, and left the table, before anyone could make any comments.

He was so shocked by this sudden development that he found it almost impossible to concentrate in Potions, and Hermione had to save him from making terrible mistakes several times with his potion. Luckily Professor Richards didn't notice her snatching the fluxweed out of his hand and replacing it with knotgrass.

'Sorry,' muttered Harry quietly to her.

'Honestly, Harry, you must learn to pay attention to what you're doing,' she whispered back.

After lunch, they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. They were now getting quite proficient with Muggle self defence techniques, and rather to Harry's surprise, they were getting on fairly well with the three Slytherin students. It was hard work at first, to be polite, but he did at times find himself forgetting what they were. Snape chose this lesson to start seriously testing them on some of the jinxes and hexes Harry had taught the DA members last year. At least this meant Harry had to pay attention, as he didn't want to be shown up in front of Snape. So far Snape had restricted himself to snide comments about Harry's weight, although this seemed pretty unfair as Snape himself was no heavyweight boxer, thought Harry irritably. Now, however, they hadn't practised the jinxes for several months, and he was very worried that people would mess them up.

His worst fears seemed about to come true when Justin Finch-Fletchley muffed a simple Impediment Jinx, instead hitting the desk next to Susan Bones, at whom he was aiming, and knocking one of its legs off. Snape restored the leg with a wave of his wand, and sneered at Harry. However, the other members of the DA seemed to have been practising over the holidays, and it was a huge relief to see how many hexes Ron, Terry and Lisa knew. At the end of the testing, Snape asked,

'Well, is that all you can do, or is there anything else you feel might impress me?'

Hermione's hand shot into the air. Snape gave her an irritated glance, but said, 'Very well, Miss Granger, I suppose I should have expected you to learn extra things you think might be clever to try. Proceed.'

Hermione flushed slightly, but said, 'Professor Snape, some of us can produce Patronuses now - me, Ernie and Mandy can do them.'

The three of them held up their wands, and said together, 'Expecto Patronum!'

Silvery animals burst out of the ends of their wands, ran together around the room, and dissipated into mist. Harry had to restrain himself from clapping, and Snape, from the twist in his lips and his refusal to say anything, either good or bad, was impressed in spite of himself. He merely turned to Harry and said,

'I suppose it's about time your constant rule breaking produced some useful results, Potter. Very well, let's see what the great captain of the group can do against me, shall we?'

He faced Harry, bowed swiftly, and almost before Harry could grasp what was happening, snarled, 'Reducto!'

Harry was knocked against the wall by the force of Snape's Reductor curse. Head ringing from its impact with a cupboard, he managed to get his wand up and croak, 'Protego!'

The shield charm worked, and Harry was able to stand up again. Hot with anger, he glared at Snape, who merely smirked back at him, and said, 'Dear, dear, Mr Potter, you will have to develop quicker reflexes than that if you expect to defend yourself adequately.'

A retort rose immediately to Harry's lips. However, an image of Hermione's face, smiling with pleasure at his maturity in not insulting the Slytherins after their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, also rose in his mind. He bit the remark back, and looked steadily back at Snape, fighting not to snarl with rage. Snape's eyebrows rose.

'Perhaps there's hope for you yet, Mr Potter. Very well class, that's all for this lesson.'

Still rubbing his head and looking at Snape, Harry packed up his bag and left, Hermione and Ron running to catch up with him.

'That greasy git, how dare he attack you like that!' said Ron angrily.

'Never mind, Ron, the important thing is that Harry managed to shield himself, and then kept his temper,' said Hermione. 'Well done, Harry.'

Harry was still fighting to control his temper and not shout out what he thought of Snape, and didn't answer.

Dinner was a terse, silent affair, and then Harry left for his Occlumency lesson with Professor Dumbledore.

Perhaps because of all the unsettling things that had happened to him that day, he was finding it much harder to keep Dumbledore out of his mind. After the fourth time in succession where Dumbledore had accessed visions of Harry's younger life with the Dursleys, Dumbledore stood back and lowered his wand. The usual twinkle was absent from his bright blue eyes.

'Harry, I wanted to say something to you. I always knew that your aunt and uncle were not enthusiastic about magic.'

Harry snorted at this understatement before he could stop himself.

'Exactly so,' said Dumbledore. 'However, I did not realise that your life would be so hard with them. Arthur and Molly Weasley have told me something of what you suffered, as did Sirius.' His voice trembled for a second as he spoke Sirius' name. Harry looked down at the floor to hide the fact that hearing his name still hurt him.

'Harry, I wanted to apologise. I still feel that it was better for you to grow up with Muggles than to grow up with wizards as a famous child. But I did not realise what they had put you through, until I saw some of it through your memories.'

Harry wasn't sure what to say. He did not know whether he wanted Dumbledore to go back to being all powerful and all knowing, as Harry had seen him in his first year, or whether it was better to realise that Dumbledore was, in fact, only human. He just shrugged, and said, 'Well, it's only one more summer I have to spend with them now, isn't it?'

Dumbledore smiled sadly.

'Yes, that's right Harry. Once you are of age, the blood protection offered by your aunt will no longer be of any use.'

Dumbledore sat down behind his desk, and offered Harry a sherbet lemon.

'I also wanted to talk to you about the future of your excellent group, Dumbledore's Army I believe you called it. Professor Snape was quite impressed by how much you taught them, and I think that it might indeed become a valuable resource in times to come. I wanted to thank you for doing such a good job of teaching your fellow students.'

'Thank you,' said Harry, quite surprised that Snape had said the DA was of some use. 'Should we go on meeting then?'

'Not for the present,' said Dumbledore. 'Professor Snape and some of the other professors will be teaching a few students here and there, nothing too organised at first, in case of spies. The only thing we will need to change, is that some of the Slytherins may want to join.'

Harry nearly choked on his sherbet lemon. 'The Slytherins, Sir!' he spluttered. 'But!' and then he remembered that Theodore Nott, even though his father was a Death Eater, seemed to be quite a decent boy. He had specifically said to them that his mother did not want him to grow up like his father. Dumbledore was looking at him penetratingly.

'Harry, we do not always have to grow up to be exactly like the rest of our families,' he said simply.

'No Sir, I suppose not,' said Harry reluctantly. He looked up at Dumbledore.

'Sir, I wanted to ask you,' he started, then fell silent again. He still wasn't sure if he wanted to know whether Dumbledore knew anything about Mark Evans.

'Never mind, Sir', he said instead.

'Very well Harry, if you're sure you don't want to ask me anything. I think we'll finish there for tonight,' said Dumbledore, and Harry left the office slowly, still thinking.

It had been a long, hard day, and had given Harry a lot to think about. As he lay in bed, thoughts rushed through his brain - going to the ball with Luna; whether Ginny would find someone else to go with, and whether that bothered him; Snape's treatment of him following by his compliments about the DA; and finally, Dumbledore's apology. He fell asleep still thinking about it all, and unsurprisingly dreamed again about Sirius. At least he managed not to wake the others this time - the last time he had dreamed about the chamber with the veil, he had had to spend a lot of time convincing the others that it had been an ordinary nightmare, and not a vision from Voldemort that had caused him to wake up calling out.

The rest of the week flashed past for Harry and Ron, as it was their first Quidditch game on Saturday, this one against Ravenclaw. Ron seemed to have lost some of the confidence gained from his spectacular final game of last year, and as the days passed, he grew paler and quieter. Practices had mostly gone quite well - the three Chasers, while not performing as seamlessly as the team of Angelina, Alicia and Katie, were working together quite well. Ron was starting to overcome his tendency to get flustered, although it was still a danger. And the two Beaters were improving rapidly.

Saturday morning dawned cool and cloudy, which suited Harry - they wouldn't have to contend with either the rain or bright sunshine. Ron had huge black circles under his eyes, and didn't look like he'd slept at all. Harry and Ron walked down to breakfast with the rest of the team, and entered the Great Hall to a roar of support from the Gryffindor table. Harry was glad to see that the 'Weasley is our King' badges seemed to have disappeared from the Slytherin table, but the sneers on most of their faces said as clearly as ever who they would be supporting today. He had a hearty breakfast, having long since got over any major case of nerves before matches. Ron however, had turned a nasty shade of murky yellow, and only managed a slice of toast.

'Come on Ron, you need to eat something,' said Hermione, gazing at him anxiously.

Ron gave a very bad attempt at a casual grin, and muttered that he didn't really seem to be hungry somehow. They gave up trying to coax him to eat, and soon it was time to make their way down to the pitch. Hermione hugged them both and kissed Ron on the cheek, wishing them both good luck. Harry was pleased to see this took Ron's mind off his worries to an extent, as he spent the walk down to the pitch touching his cheek absentmindedly.

'We'll be waiting in the stands to throw the Quaffle back to you when you miss it, Weasley!' drawled Draco Malfoy as they passed.

'Shut up, Malfoy,' said Harry wearily, and pushed Ron quickly past into the changing rooms, before he could reply.

They changed quickly, and sat waiting as the sound from outside grew steadily louder. Katie looked round at the team rather nervously, then at Harry and Ron. Harry nodded encouragingly, and she cleared her throat.

'Right then team, we ought to be able to perform pretty well against Ravenclaw today. They've made several changes to their line up since last year, but they haven't got in as much practice as we have, so we should have the edge,' she said. 'Let's go and show them what we're made of!'

They filed out onto the pitch. The Ravenclaw team were filing out of their changing rooms, dressed in their blue Quidditch robes. Harry was surprised to see that Cho Chang, who was still the Seeker, was also now the Captain. He supposed he should have realised that now, as she was one of the oldest team members. She looked straight at him, but didn't change expression at all, which Harry found rather unnerving. Madam Hooch watched closely as the two captains shook hands, and then blew the whistle for the game to begin.