I walked to my detention with a smile on my face. Things were progressing faster than they had last time, I know I had more support than last time, and I had planted the seeds in Hermione's mind to create the DA earlier. Without Quidditch and not having to do any homework except Ancient Runes, I would have enough free time to prepare for the battle at the ministry.
Clearing my face of any expression, I walked in to face Umbridge. She was busy grading some papers, and I noticed that a lot of them were graded in less than a second. As this was a single detention, I wondered if she would try and use the blood quill. I figured she would, but I wasn't sure how to deal with it.
On one hand, I could refuse and probably get her dismissed, but that wasn't a guarantee. The other option was to endure it and try and use it to benefit my push to enlist extra fighters in the cause. I had a few minutes, apparently she was not good at grading papers even if she was just marking them the same, until I had to reach a decision. By the time she had noticed my presence, I had decided.
"Well Mr. Potter, I believe that you have some lines to write." She placed me at a desk and set out parchment and a quill, it was definitely the blood quill. She watched as I picked up the quill, I was sorely tempted to refuse to do this, and started to write. I watched as the quill tore open my flesh while carefully controlling my features.
Standing up, I looked at her, "I believe that blood quills are illegal artifacts, are they not Professor? Not even ministry employees are not allowed to have such a dangerous object." Her face paled slightly.
"I don't know what you are talking about Potter," she said as levelly as she could, which wasn't much. Her fear that she could get caught was now overriding her desire to get a rise out of me. "I believe I will have to cut your detention short, as I have more pressing matters to deal with. Be fore warned, I will not tolerate a opposing opinion in my class."
I simply nodded and left the class room, with the quill in my hand. Tucking it up my sleeve, I quickly made my way to McGonagall's office and knocked on the door. A minute afterwards I heard "enter" and opened the door and entered.
As I entered the office, I noticed that it was very much like the person occupying it. The décor was very sparse, yet there was a sense of humbleness that complimented the very organized nature of everything. Walking up to the desk, I placed the quill down. "I believe that this is safer in your possession than most Professor."
She looked at it closely, then her eyes widened, "where did you get a blood quill Harry?"
I looked calmly at her, "Umbridge." I was pleased to note that she didn't correct me. "I had my detention tonight and she had me use it to write lines. She freaked when she realized that I knew what it was and could get her sacked if I said anything about it." I smiled, "She got so flustered, she didn't realize that I had it in my hand as I left."
McGonagall's eyes narrowed. "I believe that we can't do much, she might lose the job…"
"But we could get someone worse," I finished for her, "I already thought of that."
She looked at me with a slight smile, "that was very wise of you Harry. Now, what do you do now?"
I sat in one of the chairs in front of her, "I need you to turn a slight blind eye towards what I do. Also, I would prefer not to have to study under Umbridge if at all possible."
She looked intrigued, "and what would you do for the Defense owl you still have to take?"
I smiled sadly, "I have more than enough practice to ace the owl. Besides I can train myself, and I have a way to get some outside help."
"But you want me to not pay attention to you as you do this," she said to make things very clear. After I nodded, she said, "I can't get you out of the class, and it would look bad for a prefect to cut class. However, I can give you access to the restricted section of the library." She pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote a quick note.
I give Harry Potter permission to use the restricted section of the library.
Minerva McGonagallAs she handed it to me, she said "do not abuse this privilege Mr. Potter."
I nodded, "I have no intention to Professor." I smiled, "thank you." She nodded and I left. Still having time to spare until my detention was up, I walked to the Room of Requirement and set it up to practice. I wanted a way to train against someone as good as myself. When I opened the door and entered, I came face to face with myself.
Jumping clear, I looked at whatever it was and asked, "who are you?"
It answered, "I am what you requested, you wanted someone as good as you to practice against. Here I am." I noticed that even though he looked like me, he would not pass as me. His voice and features were dead.
"How do we start then," I asked, my wand still trained on it.
"Whenever you say so," it said in its deadpan voice.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
As I watched the replay, I realized that I had just gotten beat by an imitation of myself, badly. Apparently the copy had all my knowledge, and had very little lag time in pulling up spells for it to use. I watched as I was put on the defensive almost immediately, from which I never actually recovered.
The battle was intense, and I pulled off some very complex spell combinations, but it still wasn't enough to pull me out of playing defense. I hadn't actually said most of the words, which made me proud as it was my only accomplishment in the battle.
After watching to see where I had messed up, I quickly left and met up with Hermione for our rounds as prefects. I had cast a spell that Sirius had taught me, one that was useful to cover up bad odors and the natural smell that a person gave off.
The rounds were a study in boredom, as there was nothing to really do. We had drawn a lucky grouping, the first past curfew and the last just before curfew ended. It gave us the chance to talk, as we patrolled together, about various things of interest.
Hermione asked, "are you telling me that you have always been able to jump up to the level of skill required to be more than adept at matching me in a class?"
I smiled sheepishly and shrugged, "I didn't exactly have any reason prior to show that skill."
She glared at me for a few moments before saying, "you do realize that now that I know this,"
"You're going to make sure I apply myself all the harder," I finished. She seemed surprised that I knew what she was going to say and called me on it. I responded, "we have been friends for years, I would have to be pretty dense not to pick up on your habits."
We walked in silence for awhile, but it was oddly not uncomfortable. Finally I asked, "have you any thought about helping me start a defense study group?"
She shrugged, "I would love to, but I'm worried about how to get people involved."
I smiled, "simple, start talking to people, most have already heard about my," I paused, "disagreement with Umbridge, so use that as a starting point. As people start realizing how incompetent Umbridge is, some will come around."
She nodded, which I took as a sign to continue. "The main thing we need to do is insure that we can protect the secrecy of the group, as we will start coming under fire if it gets out that we have a group set up to train people. It can also be used as cannon fodder for Fudge against Dumbledore."
She looked at me, amazement clear on her face. "I can't believe you have thought this out so completely. You have really changed since last year."
I smiled, "A lot has happened that forced me to change my perspective. I couldn't just remain the same after watching Voldemort return and watching a comrade die senselessly." I noticed she only glanced at me when I said Voldemort, which was a step up from flinching.
She nodded and quickly lost herself in thought. Our patrol was soon over and we returned to the common room to turn in for the night. For some odd reason, I gave Hermione a hug before going up stairs. I hadn't even realized that I had done it until I had begun changing.
'Are you influencing my actions,' I ask Kyuubi, accusation in my tone.
'No,' came the curt reply. 'but the subconscious part of your mind seems to have started to react to the desire in a conscious way.'
I thought about it for awhile until sleep finally took me. Unfortunately Kyuubi wasn't finished with me yet. I now sat in the common room, or at least that was what it appeared to be.
Kyuubi lay on one of the couches, "sit, it's time I taught you to protect yourself from anyone, including me, attacking your mind."
As I sat down, I asked, "but I thought that you were going to do that, why are you changing the deal?"
"Because there's no guarantee that I will always do it, and I am tired of your thoughts intruding on mine." Kyuubi yawned and began giving me much better instruction than Snape ever did. His reason was two-fold, one was that I could visualize a wall protecting me, which helped me to form it, and that he was actually explaining things.
We spent at least the entire time I was supposed to be asleep practicing defending my mind from attack. What made it interesting was that since Kyuubi was inside my mind, it would allow me a sense of privacy as well as him.
Winky woke me so I could be ready for my morning patrol. I went downstairs and met up with Hermione who was coming down at the same time. We sat and talked for a few minutes before going and relieving the last patrol, Cho and the Head boy. I noticed Cho give Hermione a dark look when she thought neither of us would see her.
I put it aside, as it was something that was out of my hands. I remembered quite clearly that Cho had been suspicious of my relationship with Hermione, and I would no longer allow my friends to sit backseat just because I was dating someone.
We walked our patrol in silence, mostly because there wasn't much to say. I liked that neither of us felt the need to fill the silence, it was relaxing not to have to worry about keeping up a conversation and just enjoy her company.
We finished the patrol and I went up to collect Ron for breakfast. It took simply saying that he was about to miss breakfast to wake him up. I laughed as he realized that I was not serious. He grumpily got ready as I got a shower and into much cleaner clothes.
Soon enough we joined Hermione and went down to breakfast together. The three of us had the same classes today, but Hagrid wouldn't be back until later and we had Grubbly-Plank for a substitute for the time being.
Charms was mostly outline of what we would be studying , and the review we would have at the end of the year. I was glad that I had all the essays done, as they would have taken most of my time. I had already come up with excuse to explain away my lack of needing to write essays, Sirius and Remus had set out various essays for me to do, and I only wrote the ones that I hadn't already done. Transfiguration was very similar to Charms, and Professor Grubbly-Plank gave us a basic outline.
Herbology, which was consistently the only class in which there was mostly practical work, was now churning out essay topics. I noticed Hermione seemed to settling down for the long haul, while Ron, being Ron, complained about the amount of work that we were all being put under.
The three of us claimed our own table in the library, and soon became the place that we spent most of our time, for different reasons. Hermione and Ron were there to write essays, which I helped with by recommending books that would help. I, on the other hand, spent the time when I wasn't helping getting books on advanced spells and quickly memorizing them, which was a benefit of Occlumency.
The first week passed with barely a whimper, which made me comforted. Umbridge ignored me during class, which was fine. Snape was apparently madder than usual, because my grades in his class had improved and were just slightly less than Hermione. Given that I had compared my potions to hers, I figured that his personal feelings dominated his grading.
Hermione and I rarely talked about much during our patrols, but I didn't get the feeling that either of us was uncomfortable with not talking. It was odd how we could go through an entire patrol communicating in gestures and responded to each at times without any prompt from the other.
On Saturday Hermione and I sat down after our round. As it was still early for a Saturday, most of the house was still asleep because of the party celebrating the two additions to the Quidditch team, Ron and Ginny. I was happy that Ginny had made the team, even going as far to loan my broom to her so as to make sure that the team had the fastest seeker out there.
As we sat just relaxing, Hermione looked at me and said, "I've talked to a few people and they are agreeable to starting a defense group, but," her voice faltered.
"They want me to lead it," I finished, as that was the selling point the last time. She nodded. "I figured that it would be that way, so you don't have to worry about it. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get people able to protect themselves."
She looked at me in shock, then a smile crossed her face, "I'm glad you feel that way Harry. The question is how to get everyone together without getting caught."
I smirked, "all ready taken care of. Tell people to meet in small groups outside the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy on Monday after classes, I'll take care of the rest."
A/n: 2538 Words. Next: The first meeting of the DA and Umbridge's rise to power. Before anyone complains, Umbridge isn't so drunk on power to try and press her luck.
Drareqerreip: A fetish? Ok, maybe I'm obsessed with messing with Rowlings' time line, just a little.