Chapter 18: Delores Umbridge
He solved it." was the first thing Lyra told him when he flooed in. "That diary you gave him, in second year, my dad and mum finally cracked it. They're examining its inner workings right now."
Harry's heart soared. "They solved it?"
She grinned. "They're in the library with Draco. Apparently it's a really dark piece of magic."
"Can I get Sirius?" he asked.
She nodded. Ten minutes later they were gathered in the library, looking over a baffling array of Ancient Runes and numbers hovering above the diary.
"I can't read it." he shook his head. "The runes I can tell: dark magic, soul magic, resurrection magic, memories, and more dark magic, but I can't read the numbers very well."
"Horcruxes." Lucius stated grimly, swiping through the numbers to reveal a simple black string of runes and letters at the midst of it all.
Sirius hissed, and Narcissa stayed blank at the very word.
"Haven't heard of them." he shook his head.
Draco walked from the stalks of books, holding a huge black book titled MAGICS MOST OBSCURE. It was by Salazar Slytherin.
"Found it father." he said, putting the book on the table. "With detailed descriptions on horcruxes."
Horcruxes are the darkest soul magic alive. To make a horcrux, a life must be taken. From this murder the soul splits, fractured by the cold-blooded act that is killing. It must be done using the killing the curse. Once done, the broken part of the soul can be pulled out of the body and put into another object using a dark ritual, detailed on page 45. But be warned, the soul cannot be split many times, because with each peace of the soul breaks away a dash of sanity.
"The diary is a horcrux." Sirius commented grimly.
"There's also a spell that can find horcruxes in your radius, but it's really powerful magic and apparently you can't be light or dark attuned, only grey." Draco offered.
"I can try it." Harry said. "My magical inclinations are pretty grey."
"We'll get that later." Lyra waved her hand. "But the diary, it's a horcrux of Lord Voldemort?"
Narcissa nodded. "And from what we can tell, the fracture of the soul is so small that he could not have made just one. He has to have made at least six!"
"Seven seems reasonable." Sirius said. "It is the most magical number."
"And old Voldishorts is obsessed with magic." Harry grinned.
"This is a dark piece of magic though." Lucius stated, sobering the atmosphere. "We can only guess what the horcruxes are."
"I could talk to Dumbledore." Sirius offered.
"No." Harry shook his head. "For all his accomplishments, I trust the old man as far as I can throw him, just because he is always playing political games with us. He acts like a good old man but he knowingly left me in an abusive household and tried to separate me from my friends because they were Slytherins."
"But we know nothing about Voldemort." Lyra sighed.
"We might." Draco piped up. "Wasn't Grandpa Abraxas good friends with Tom Riddle? I know that he kept a journal, and his pensive might have some things we could use."
"What about McGonagall?" Sirius asked.
"Devoted to Dumbledore." Lyra shook her head. "But Snape might know some things."
Sirius made a rude face at Snape's mention and Harry sighed. "No matter his failings, he has been an ally to me Sirius. Please can you try to make amends and at least be civil?"
Sirius let out a huff of acceptance and blew a strand of his raven hair out of his face. "Fine." he grumbled.
"Anyone else we know?" Draco asked.
"Slughorn." Narcissa smiled. "The old man taught Tom Riddle, and will know a lot."
"He's also tight-lipped with his secrets." Lucius pointed out.
"I can get him to talk." she smirked. "I have the Black book of Blackmail."
"What's that?" Harry asked.
The matching smirks around the room honestly scared him.
"It is a book of blackmail that the family has been comprising on those around them since the time of Merlin. I know things about your ancestors that would make your toes curl." Narcissa smirked.
Harry let out a slight shudder. "Remind me never to anger a Black."
"Would there be anything on Tom Riddle?" Lyra asked.
Sirius shook his head negative. "No, the book only keeps track of the major power players. We might have a few notes on him, since Arcturus Black was in the same year as Tom Riddle. Arcturus was a Ravenclaw though, so no guarantees."
"You want to go do the spell while I look through the book with my cousin?" Narcissa asked. "Only those of Black Blood can open it, so I'm afraid that Lyra, Draco, Lucius, and you wouldn't be able to."
They flooed to the manor, Harry looking through the book before channeling his magic into his wand and casting the spell.
"Spiritus Tenebrosus revelare!" he cast, and immediately an object in the corner of the drawing room started growing with unearthly black magic.
They walked to it, Harry letting the spell down, only to have Kreacher pop in front of them, his eyes angry and long hooked nose quivering as he yelled, "Not Master Regulus' locket! Kreacher will protect it!"
"Regulus Black?" Harry asked, having taken Regulus' room upon moving the Grimmauld. "Kreacher, tell me everything."
And so the houself spilled the entire story, a sad tale about a Slytherin pushed into a world of darkness by his family, and killed in escape. By the end of it tears were freely flowing down Lyra's cheeks, and even Draco and Harry looked troubled.
"We need to get the others." Draco said finally. "We need to get to that cavern, get the fake locket, destroy this horcrux, and figure out what the bloody hell Riddle might have made his other horcruxes."
"Looks like we have a full summer ahead of us." Lyra smiled, and the three of them laughed.
They flood back to the Manor to meet the adults, who were still reading through the Black Book while Narcissa talked to Slughorn about a meeting, and told them the entire sordid tale. Sirius was freely crying by the end of it, at the idea of his little brother's sacrifice.
"Don't touch the horcrux though." Harry cautioned, levitating the locket a little higher. "When I did it tried to possess me."
It was horrible, it's voice hissing darkness in his ears.
They ended up storing the locket in a Malfoy vault and retiring for the day, ready to face the cavern tomorrow with Kreacher's help. After letting his story out the house elf had become surprisingly friendly and docile to them, cleaning with vigor and making the house a much nicer place to be.
The next day they woke up, ready to face the maze. Harry had put on his duelling robes for protection, and all of them wore fire-protection cloaks since they plan was the burn the inferi Kreacher told them about with fire.
At exactly half past ten Kreacher took them to the cavern in the ocean. Despite being a place of dark magic, it was beautiful, with colorful rocks constantly being hit by rough ocean waves.
"It's beautiful." Lyra whispered.
"What's the building over there?" Draco asked, pointing to a small white building in the distance, overlooking the area at which they were.
"I believe," Narcissa said slowly, "that we must come back to explore that building. It may have significance to the Dark Lord."
"There is a lot of magic coming from the wall." Harry said softly, walking towards the huge, coal-black cliff wall in front of him. "Runes everywhere too, though hidden."
"Revelio!" he encanted, and runes lit up along the wall in dozens.
"Blood enchantments, containment, weakening, magic dampeners, sensory spells, magic leechers, inferi, potions." Narcissa muttered as she walked along the wall, eying the runes.
"This isn't just a safehouse, it's a trap for those who enter." Sirius said softly.
"Children go home." Lucius instructed, paler than usual and fingering his wand.
They immediately protested.
"Father you can't!" Lyra protested.
"No." Draco just shook his head.
Harry stated, "We've come this far, we're not turning back."
"But you could die." Sirius whispered, looking at Harry with worry.
"Like I nearly died this summer?" he countered. "We've been training for this since second year, and we're part of the plan. We came in our duelling robes, we have fire spells prepared…"
"They must come Lucius." Narcissa interrupted. "I do not believe they will allow otherwise."
"We have to break the runic enchantments." Lyra stated, looking at the glowing runes.
"That will take a ritual at the least." Draco countered, looking up.
"But a quick one." she replied. "All we need to do is leach the magic out of the runes so that they are drawings."
"But who to put the magic in?" Sirius asked.
"All of us." Harry stated. "All of us should receive the magic."
They nodded and prepared. They etched a hexagon into the ground, and placed a bowl with all the magical elements at each corner. Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Dark, and Light. Then a magic siphoning rune was drawn in the middle, with connections to each of the corners.
They stood at the edges, alternating adult child. It was Harry, Narcissa, Draco, Sirius, Lyra, Lucius.
Then the real magic started.
Rogamus deos et astra de caelo
Auferte ab anathemate eosdem amet
Grex dispersus Israel, impuris,
Redige est sordidum, senex figere
Narcissa chanted.
"Libenter accipiunt magicis meis tamquam vas" Harry stated, the magic flowing from the runes into him.
He let out a shocked gasp at the inflow of magic, feeling the power in his veins. He barely noticed the others doing the same, taking an influx of magic into their bodies, until the runes on the wall stopped glowing.
"Wow." Draco whispered, looking over his hands like they were brand new.
The wall to the cave now had a door in it, and they all walked through, wands at the ready. An eerie sight met their eyes: they were standing on the edge of a great black lake, so vast that Harry could not make out the distant banks, in a cavern so high that the ceiling too was out of sight. A misty greenish light shone far away in what looked like the middle of the lake; it was reflected in the completely still water below. The greenish glow and the light from the two wands were the only things that broke the otherwise velvety blackness, though their rays did not penetrate as far as Harry would have expected. The darkness was somehow denser than normal darkness.
"Don't go in the lake." Lyra whispered, echoing Kreacher's words. "Inferi."
Harry swallowed down bile as he eyed the water, hundreds of bloated bodies floating in it.
"Try to summon the horcrux Harry." Sirius whispered.
"Me? Oh. . . okay. . . " Harry had not expected this, but cleared his throat and said loudly, wand aloft, "Accio Horcrux!"
With a noise like an explosion, something very large and pale erupted out of the dark water some twenty feet away; before Harry could see what it was, it had vanished again with a crashing splash that made great, deep ripples on the mirrored surface. Harry leapt backward in shock and hit the wall.
"Plan B." Lucius stated unnecessarily, eying the boat that floated ominously in the green water.
"Won't let us go through together." Sirius said, his wand waving over the boat in intricate patterns. "It'll take one trip there and back, with one adult wizard only."
"Would one kid and one adult be able to go?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but the boat will take only two that way."
"We can't levitate ourselves over?"
"Don't wanna risk it. The inferi could leap at us."
"I should go." Narcissa immediately said. "Harry has to go over."
"NO way." Sirius protested. "He's my godson, and my responsibility."
"He has a point Cissa." Lucius told her.
"I should go." Lyra offered. "This way Harry can protect us from the side."
Harry shook his head. "The Inferi will swarm the island if anything. Sirius and I should go."
Draco shook his head, glaring at the island. "What if we can't help?"
"Then you can't help." Harry said amiably. "We have the horcrux, but we need that locket to see if Regulus had any leeway with the finding."
"Don't die." Lyra muttered, kissing him sweetly.
With that, he boarded the boat and reached the island, Sirius next to him. The island was no larger than Dumbledore's office, an expanse of flat dark stone on which stood nothing but the source of that greenish light, which looked much brighter when viewed close to. Harry squinted at it; at first, he thought it was a lamp of some kind, but then he saw that the light was coming from a stone basin rather like the Pensieve, which was set on top of a pedestal.
The basin held a fluorescent emerald green liquid that gave Harry the chills. He could see the golden locket glimmering at the bottom, but when he tentatively extended this arm to grab it, his arm hit an invisible barrier.
"Do we have to drink it?" Sirius asked.
Harry shrugged and conjured a goblet which he dipped into the basin, but when he tried to pour it onto the rocks it shimmered midair and reappeared in the basin. Sirius tried vanishing it, to no effect. They tried siphoning it into cups, but the water disappeared from the cups.
"It has to be drunk." Harry concluded, reaching down for a cupful with his goblet.
"No way." Sirius stopped him. "I'm your guardian Harry, I should drink it."
"Who knows how it'll affect you?" he argued.
"All the more reason for me to drink it. You're the defense."
Harry bit his lip before sighing and consenting, handing Sirius the goblet with the liquid. Sirius have him a small grin and downed the goblet. His eyes closed as he hissed in pain, blindly reaching for another goblet. He drank that one, and another and another, until on the fifth he gave a small scream of pain and staggered forward.
His face was slack now, and Harry handed Sirius another goblet to drink, hating himself for the way his hands shook and the way Sirius blindly downed the goblet, letting out a bigger yell of agony and collapsing to the ground, his entire body shuddering as he seemed to fold in on itself.
"All my fault, All my fault. I didn't do it!" he moaned, his entire body shuddering.
Harry's heart dropped as he realized what was happening. Sirius was reliving his worst memory - the day his parents died, and he was sent to Azkaban.
"Come on Sirius." he muttered, tipping the goblet into the man's mouth as he let out another pain-filled moan, his babbling becoming more nonsensical.
"Last one Sirius." Harry muttered, scooping the dregs of the potion into the goblet and grabbing the locket, stuffing it into his robes.
Sirius let out a sob as he took the liquid down, before screaming in agony. "KILL ME!" he yelled.
"Water." Harry muttered, trying to conjure water. Every time he used the Aguamenti, however, the water fizzled out.
"Can't touch the water." he recalled Kreacher's words, looking at the cold green water lapping gently at the island.
Was Sirius' life worth it?
Yes.
He pulled out his wand, ready to cast the fiendfyre curse, and levitating the goblet, scooped a cup of fresh, freezing water out of he lake, giving it to Sirius.
The effect was instantaneous. White, soggy, waterlogged human bodies erupted out of the water on all sides and went straight for the island. He immediately made a circle of fiendfyre surround the island, but no matter how many inferi burnt themselves to a crisp more came. He could see the Malfoys shooting fire at the inferi, but at such a long range it did very little.
He carved a path to the boat with the fire and turned around to see Sirius standing up, frail looking, but a determined look in his slate eyes. He says nothing, just walks to the boat and sits down next to Harry as the boat sets off, a circle of fire around them. Harry can see bodies trying to get in, and then he feels a shaking on the boat and Sirius is staring, petrified, at one of the inferi.
It had long dark hair and a sharp jawline exactly like Sirius', and then they are on the other side and running out and apparating away but Sirius still doesn't move.
He didn't make a single noise, say anything, do anything, until they get back to Grimmauld Place. Harry has left the locket in a safe place, ready to be examined the next day, and when he gets back he sees Sirius staring into the fire, nursing a tumbler of firewhisky.
He makes no inclination that he knows Harry is there, even when he sat down next to his godfather. Finally, after ten long minutes, Sirius talked , his voice hoarse and his tumbler nearly drained.
"That's my brother. My brother, the one who I hated and jinxed in the hallways. The one who turned out to be the most selfless of them all and I never got to FUCKING THANK HIM!" he threw the tumbler into the fireplace.
Harry stayed quiet, knowing that Sirius needed to get it all out.
"It's my fault you know." he mumbled. "If I'd been a better brother he might not have died. I could have saved him, brought him to Potter Manor with me. James and Lily might not have died, Peter-"
Harry looked around at his godfather to see him letting out muted sobs, his long hair covering his face. He inched over and rubbed his godfather's back, rather unsure as to what to do in the situation.
At least he wasn't the only broken person in the world, Harry thought, thinking of sleepless nights punctuated by Cedric's wide eyes and flashes of green.
There was no hint on the other horcruxes in the note Regulus left, so they had thrown the note away and given the locket to Kreacher, who was now the most devoted house elf in the world. Grimmauld Place had never been cleaner, but Harry was miserable because fucking politics.
He groaned when Tonks finally flooed in, his escort for the meeting with Minister Fudge about stopping Voldemort.
"Ready Harry?" she asks, perky as ever with bubblegum pink hair and the traditional grey eyes of a Black.
"I hate politics." he scoffed instead, and she laughed.
"Doesn't everyone?" she replied with a grin. "So, I'm pretty sure you never got a schedule. You meet Fudge, then Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE, then Saul Croaker, head of the Department of Mysteries."
Harry just mumbled death threats incoherently at the entire ministry as they flooed in, then stopped talking and walked with Tonks courteously to the Minister's office, where Bones and Croaker were waiting too.
Amelia Bones was a tall, heavy set woman with a long scar tracing down the left side of her face, narrowly missing her eye. The sharp look in her brown eyes showed that she was not to be troubled with, and Harry could easily see her resemblance to Susan in the red hair they shared.
Saul Croaker was the opposite, thin and tall with long fingers that constantly fidgeted and undisguised curiosity in his eyes. He looked unassuming, in plain black robes and a tattoo on the side of his neck marking him as one of the Unspeakables, but his hair, eyebrows, and eyes were all pure white. Croaker could see though, but they were all pure white.
"Minister." he greeted respectfully. "Madame Bones, Unspeakable Croaker."
"I need you to tell me about Voldemort's fighting techniques." Bones immediately said.
Harry's lips quirked up in a grin. "I can see the resemblance - Susan isn't one for tarrying around."
"Now now, let's not go there just yet!" Fudge butt in. "Harry, we need to talk about Hogwarts, honestly."
"What do you need?" Harry asked, preparing himself.
"Do you plan to return to your house, Gryffindor?" Fudge asked.
"No. They kicked me out, and I want nothing to do with them. I am quite happy where I am."
Fudge looked like he wanted to protest, but sighed and held his tongue. "Very well. I would also like to tell you that you will be awarded the Order of Merlin, first class, for your actions in fighting the Dark Lord."
"I don't want it." he replied, amused at his gaping expression. "Until Voldemort," Fudge shuddered, "is gone for good, my job isn't done. Maybe after he's dead I'd accept it, but I haven't done anything right now."
"You're very modest." Amelia Bones smirked, before getting to the point. "Voldemort's fighting techniques."
Harry thought back to his fight against him.
"He favors uses of the Unforgivables, especially the Cruciatus." he stated thoughtfully. "He's also a bit of an egotist; he bragged a lot to me during the duel, giving me a little time to recover." Bones was taking notes of all he said. "He has a short temper too: he lost it when I didn't fall easily during the duel, and he let me take advantage of the distraction to bring him to Hogwarts. He thinks very little of his death eaters - as hostages, they have very little use unless they are part of his inner circle."
"My turn." Croaker clapped his hands in glee. "Harry Potter, in the hall of prophecies there is a prophecy concerning you and the Dark Lord. I would like to take you to go see it, so we may know its contents. None but you or the Dark Lord may touch it."
"A prophecy." Harry muttered as they took the elevator down to the DoM.
They finally reach the Department. They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling; identical, unmarked, handleless black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue; their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor made it look as though there was dark water underfoot.
Croaker immediately went forward and opened a door, leading them into a room high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle-brackets set at intervals along the shelves. Like those in the circular room behind them, their flames were burning blue. The room was very cold.
He motioned for them to follow him into the stacks, into a row, and through the towering shelves until they stopped, and Croaker motioned towards one of the dusty orbs. Harry noticed that written on the shelf below it was:
S. P. T. to A. P. W. B. D.
Dark Lord
and (?)Harry Potter
"Professor Trelawney gave the prophecy to Dumbledore." Harry breathed, picking up the orb. It was surprisingly cool on his skin.
"Drop it." Croaker instructed. "The prophecy will come out, and no-one else will know what it says."
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches . . . born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies . . . and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not . . . and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives . . . the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . . '
"Bloody hell." Harry summed up all their feelings. "So I'm destined to kill the Dark Lord, and I'm the only one who can. Fan-fucking-tastic"
He turned around to calm himself, basking in the silence of the Department, before turning around. "Apologies, finding out that the Wizarding World's fate rests on my shoulders is a little unsettling."
"Not just your shoulders." Bones tells him, surprisingly gentle. "The Ministry will stand by you, as will your friends. You may head the army, but the our fate lies within our own arms."
"Thank you." he said quietly, looking up at them all. "May we go back up? I would like to share this information with my allies so we may plan around it."
They took the news pretty well. Lyra shut herself off, and they had a furious snogging session later where she told him that he wasn't allowed to die. Draco just said that Voldemort would have to get to him first, and the others all voiced the same thing. Sirius just sighed and ran a hand through his hair, stating that he would support Harry.
A few weeks later Sirius came up to him with a letter in his hand. "Dumbledore has called a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix."
"The what?"
"A group of individuals Dumbledore assembled during the war to fight Voldemort. Your parents were part of it, I was part of it." Sirius replied, handing him a picture of the first order. "I've been invited, but you can come too if you want. It'll be at the Weasley Household."
The next day they made their way to the Burrow in Ottery St. Catchpole. Harry greeted Mrs Weasley and gave her a hug like always, ignoring Ron and going to hang out with Ginny, Fred, and George. They already knew all the news, and were researching horcruxes.
The meeting started, and Harry went down to the kitchen, slipping in before they could ward it and taking a seat next to Sirius.
"Harry, you can go. This is a meeting for members of the Order." Dumbledore told him gently.
"No." he replied firmly, tilting his chin up. "I've fought Voldemort, and I want to know what's going to happen. Whether you like it or not, you can't keep me in the dark anymore about your war actions. I'm just as much of a part of it as you are. I don't want three sides in this war Dumbledore."
"I don't approve of your use of dark magic, or your strategies." Dumbledore replied, his baby blue eyes flat and hard, and the wrinkles on his face more pronounced than ever.
"Too bad." Harry replied. "I don't like you either, but we can end Voldemort together. I'm not light, I'm grey. And the magic is not dark, the way it is wielded is dark."
"You're just a boy!" Mrs Weasley fretted.
"Not anymore." Harry shook his head. "I've seen too much."
"Fine." Dumbledore told him. "But you keep the information a secret."
Harry shook his head negative again. "I share with all my allies."
"Who are they?" Hestia Jones, a brown haired, slim Unspeakable asks.
"Sirius," he starts, "Tonks, Flitwick, Snape, The Malfoys, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Colin and Denis Creevey, the Greengrass Sisters, Blaise Zabini, Fred, George, and Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan."
"You're trusting Slytherins?!" a man scoffs from down the table.
"House has nothing to do with this." Harry replied. "They're my allies, and they need to know what's happening in the war."
"Has there been any word from Remus?" Sirius asks Dumbledore.
The old man shook his head and sighed. "I'm afraid he was found dead this morning in the forests of Kathmandu. Killed by Voldemort."
Sirius stiffened and Harry let out a sigh as Sirius lost his last remaining contact to his past. He was the last Marauder now. The meeting went on, mostly talking about Voldemort's strategies in the past war and how they needed to protect something. The only thing that peaked his interest was when the mentioned the Department of Mysteries.
"What about the Department of Mysteries?" Harry demanded.
"It's nothing you need to know." Dumbledore placated him.
Harry scoffed, and Dumbledore sighed before relenting. "Something needs to be hidden from Voldemort."
The prophecy. Harry let it go, though he was grinning internally. Now that he knew this, he might be able to set a trap in the Department of Mysteries. He zones out for the rest of the meeting, cataloguing the information and thinking of how they could set up the trap. Maybe put a fake prophecy in place? Linked to a magic suppressing jail cell?
The meeting ended and they went back home, before Sirius struck up conversation.
"They want to move in." he said, distracting Harry for his brainstorm.
"What?"
"The Order. They were hoping to use Grimmauld Place for meetings. They'd be around a lot, the Weasley's might even move in permanently."
"No." Harry shook his head. "They can do meetings, but I don't get along with Ron or Hermione or Dumbledore and I couldn't manage them living here."
"It's alright." Sirius grinned. "I'll tell them it's for meetings only."
"I'm gonna tell the others about the meeting." Harry said, heading upstairs to pen some letters.
The order met. They planned and planned but really didn't take action. Harry met up with Amelia Bones again to discuss plans for a trap, and he hung out with Susan and Hannah after. They had a mini pool party in Susan's yard, which was great fun.
He invited Luna over once, to hang out. She pointed out shapes in the clouds and innocently brought up spell books from the Black Library that would hold spells for him to use. He studied all of them. A lot of the stuff in there was really dark, but there were useful spells too, ones that Harry practiced in the duelling chamber.
He invited Lyra over a little later, and they mostly hung out in his room, practicing spells and kissing. They went down for a break before a practice duel when Harry realized that the Order was meeting today.
"I'll be fine." Lyra reassured him.
They walked down and entered the kitchen, where the Order was having lunch. The Weasleys and Hermione were there too, though many stiffened when Harry walked in with Lyra.
"A Malfoy?" Ron sneered. "She's going to take everything back to You-Know-Who!"
Lyra just glared at him coldly and drank her glass of water, smiling softly when Fred and George slipped one of their prank products into Ron's food.
"Duel?" Harry asked.
She flashed him a grin and nodded, both of them heading to the duelling chamber and putting on their robes. They noticed that Ron, Hermione, and some of the other Order members had followed them.
"Same rules as always?" Harry asked.
"Incapacitation or knocked out." Lyra nodded.
She immediately let off a number of spells, pushing Harry to the defensive as he shielded. One of the spells caught his robes but they deflected, and he took the momentary lull to launch his own spells, less numerous but more powerful.
She jumped to the side when his spike rocketed out of the ground next to her, and when he acciod her wand she just acciod it back and let of a cutting curse that caught him off guard and sliced his cheek. He grinned and absolutely covered her in spells, so many that she couldn't shield properly. While this was happening he disillusioned himself and snuck behind her, stunning her from behind and grinning.
"Damn." Fred grinned from the side. "You haven't duelled in a while. Lyra hasn't caught you like that in a one on one duel in a while."
Ron made a strangled noise from his throat. "You can do better?"
Harry shrugged, reviving Lyra and taking a sip of water. "I've beat Snape, Tonks, and Flitwick in a duel at the same time.
Tonks grinned. "He's been training since second year, so…"
"Not bad." Fred grinned. "Group fight? Lyra, George, and I on a team?"
Harry grinned, adjusting his glasses. "You're on."
The rest of summer passed that way, in a haze of training, order meetings, planning, and long, sleepless nights filled with words from Voldemort and the horrible, agonizing pain of the Cruciatus Curse. The nightmares finally started to peter away by the end of summer, but they still popped up occasionally.
Harry had fixed up Regulus' room, and it was now host to his belongings, though he repacked them when it was time to go to Hogwarts again.
"Right me pup, okay?" Sirius asked him, his eyes filled with concern.
"As much as I can." Harry promised hugging his godfather. "Thanks, Padfoot, for everything."
He got on the train, his trunk in his pocket, and entered the usual compartment. Blaise, Daphne, Dean, and Luna were already there. Dean was sketching like usual, and Harry caught sight of a pair of bright silver eyes before Dean yanked his view away with a grin.
"No looking." Dean shook his head. "I've been working on this project all of summer."
"So how was it?" Harry asked. "Summer?"
"Good." Susan smiled as she walked in.
The rest of the gang joined after a while in the expanded compartment, and they passed time playing chess, exploding snap, gobstones, eating, and reading. The ride was soon over and they got down, entering the hall together.
So to see that the arrangement of the Great Hall had changed was a huge surprise. It now had five tables, the fifth between the Hufflepuff and Slytherin tables. It had the distinctive flag of House Hedwig above it in purple and black, and Harry had to laugh delightedly.
Hogwarts now recognized them as a house, just like Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. He grinned and walked to the table with his friends, sitting down. Peeves, he realized, had a seat as their head of house, and the Moaning Myrtle was now there as a house ghost.
"We are definitely the weirdest house ever." Lyra grinned to him, and he had to laugh.
Many of the others were staring at them, but he didn't particularly care. The sorting started, but he was mostly interested to hear the phrasing for House Hedwig.
Or perhaps you are smart and loyal,
Powerful and different and ready.
Then House Hedwig will welcome you in,
And friends you will find aplenty.
They got two kids, a boy and a girl. The girl was named Carina Darling, and made quick friends with Astoria Greengrass and Luna Lovegood. The boy was named Michael Williams, and he found himself talking with Colin and Dennis about photography.
Dinner passed by, with Peeves giving them the news that it had taken him about ten minutes to choose Susan and Blaise as their prefects.
"Come on." Susan told the two young ones as they walked to the bathroom.
It was the same as last year, and Harry hissed the password they had set at the end of last year (Future)
"So, we'll be teaching you guys the phrases in Parseltongue so that you can get in by yourself, but if not Moaning Myrtle can usually help." Blaise told them.
"You're a Parseltongue!" Carina whispered in awe. "My mummy says that they are the most powerful of snake sorcerers."
Harry grinned. "Pureblood, correct? And Michael, muggleborn?"
They both nodded.
"Well just stick together and you'll be fine. Peeves said that you guys are sharing classes with the Hufflepuffs, since they have the smallest batch this year."
"What about the rest of us?" Astoria asked.
"Well, there's not that many of us per year, so we'll just have the same schedules as if we were in our old houses."
Harry sat inside the new defense room, wondering what the new teacher would be like. He knew that she was a ministry person, but he didn't know what her teaching method would be.
When she walked in, his first thought was She's so pink.
"Hello class, my name is Professor Umbridge, an I am your defense against the dark arts teacher for this year. Now, the ministry has decided that with the upcoming threat of You-Know-Who, you must be prepared. Along with this class, a duelling club will be started up after school. Now turn to page 412 in your books and start working on the hexing chapter. I will be reviewing your performance in these hexes next class after you get time to practice them."
Harry sighed under his breath as he flipped idly through the pages. He already knew all of these hexes, and more. He'd have to talk to Umbridge about free study in this time or something, because with Voldemort back he couldn't waste his time on this.
Finally the class ended, and he stayed behind to talk to Umbridge.
"Professor?" he started. "I had some questions about the duelling club. Could you just tell me more about it?"
"Of course." she smiled a sickly sweet smile that rather scared him. "It will be held every alternate day starting next Monday. You will simply pair off and duel each other in a safe environment. Any reading up on spells and whatnot will be done in your free time."
"Ok, and also, I was wondering if I might be able to bring my own research books to class. I've already learned all the jinxes in the book, and if I may be frank, it is a waste of my time."
She narrowed her eyes, before looking up. "I would see that as acceptable, if you agree to become a main part of duelling lessons. I know that exhibitions would certainly help the students learn."
Harry had to suppress a smirk. This woman was obviously a Slytherin, but he was going to attend duelling club anyway.
"Deal."
Harry sat at the table with the rest of the group. Carina had turned out to be an absolute ace at Transfigurations, and was eagerly devouring the books. Michael ended up being one of those kids who was excellent at mathematics in muggle primary school, so he was learning about Arithmancy, even though he was only a first year.
He looked up to see Cho Chang get up from her table and walk over to them, sitting down in the sudden silence at the House Hedwig table.
"I'm tired." she started softly, brushing her sleek black hair out of her eyes. "I'm tired of crying and moping around now that Cedric's dead. He's dead and I loved him, and I want to fight. You're my best chance at that."
"You want to fight?" Lyra asked, her eyebrow raised.
"I'm a decent dueller. I'm just really bloody tired of doing nothing. He killed Cedric and I haven't done one fucking thing!"
"Welcome to House Hedwig." Harry grinned, shaking her hand and watching as the symbol on her robes changed into the purple and black background with the snowy owl sitting on a pile of books.
And so Cho Chang was part of House Hedwig. She was in the same year as Fred and George, and though they were never very close they hung out together.
That night was the first duelling club day, and Harry prepared for it. Though he knew that it wouldn't do much, he thought it would be good practice to duel lots of people at the same time, as he would in a battlefield.
"Welcome to the duelling club!" Umbridge announced from the stage in the great hall, her high voice pitched across the crowd of hundreds of teenagers.
They started off by getting into pairs and practicing some basic jinxes. Harry ignored it in favor of stretching, and then he started a small duel with Lyra. Both of them decided to use only transfigurations, and eventually she won out when he was unable to detransfigure her wolves in time.
Good as he may be at duelling, he sucks at transfiguration in a duel. It was something he would need to work on.
"Good." Umbridge exclaimed. "I would like to hold a mock duel now, between one of our Aurors and our very own Harry Potter."
Harry took the stage, looking over at Kingsley. He had never duelled the darker older man, though it was said that he was the best in the force after Moody.
The duel started, and Harry let off his barrage of spells, aiming them all at Kingsley's limbs. The Auror shielded and let off his own barrage, which Harry dodged and shielded. Knowing that he couldn't use dark magic, he ran towards Kingsley, his shield in front of him.
At the last moment he let down the shield and dodged Kingsley's spell, disillusioning himself and stunning Kingsley from the side.
There was silence in the room, before everyone started clapping wildly.
"Good job!" some Gryffindor yelled.
Harry smiled and bowed before walking off the stage.
He was improving. That much he knew. His group duels had changed - sometimes he would only be allowed to use transfiguration, other times he could not use a shield charm. One particularly memorable time he had to use only wandless magic, and he had vowed to better that branch of his magic.
He was getting better though. His magic was improving beyond leaps and bounds, and in Ancient Runes they had finally moved onto battle runes - how to use runes in the battlefield.