Disclaimer: Dumbledore is always right.
The Fourth Turn
'His Next Move'
The Daily Prophet ran possibly the same story over, and over again, the headline read 'Voldemort - Back!'. Of course, ever since the incident Harry had no more visions, as Voldemort decided to be more careful than before - deciding to lay low. None of that mattered to Harry, as he continuously cursed himself for his mistakes - it was his fault Lupin died. And Lupin's death had given him a new motivation, he now trained every day, every morning, with whoever would offer to teach him. As soon as Lupin died, he made that resolve, and whenever someone would ask if he was alright, he'd reply with a simple 'Yes'.
"Harry, I think we've practiced enough today." Sirius said.
"No!" Harry said angrily, before realising his mistake. "Sorry, but I think I can still practice more."
"Harry if this is about Lupin -"
"It isn't about Lupin, it's about Voldemort." Harry replied. "I've trained for the past couple of months, and he still is overwhelmingly stronger than I am!"
"Harry." Sirius decided to leave Harry to sort out his own problems. "I'm going to go to bed now - I suggest you do the same. And remember, it's Christmas next week, be happy - Lupin would've wanted you to be happy." Harry sat down in the corner of the empty room, one that Harry had used to train very often. Now that Sirius had gone to bed, there was no one he could practice with. Suddenly, an idea formed in his head, as he found his perfect practice partner.
"Kreacher." Harry called, as the house elf appeared in front of him with a crack. "Teach me,"
"Teach you what?" Kreacher asked. Over the past few months, Kreacher had refrained from muttering insults about Harry under his breath, as he had grown used to him - though Kreacher did occasionally show resentment in his voice.
"Your magic. I want to know how you do it without a wand." Harry replied.
"Why would a wizard want to learn the magic of a house-elf?" Kreacher spat.
"Why does a house-elf serve its master?" Harry shot back.
"Because it has to..." Kreacher replied, rubbing its chin. "So, you - Master Potter - wants to learn my magic?"
"Yes."
"Fine. The magic of the house-elves is driven by their need to serve their masters." Kreacher explained. "The more the house-elf wants to serve its master, the stronger its magic is. That is why wizards cannot learn it."
"So it is fuelled by emotion?"
"Oath. And need."
"Oh." Harry tried to figure out a way past this loophole, something that would allow him to use magic like the elves did, wandless and wordless. "So say I wanted to protect someone - it'd be like serving them, right? So I could use your type of magic like that?"
"I guess so." Kreacher said, thinking deeply. "Though a wizard wanting to use house-elf magic is strange..."
"Strange and different is exactly what I need right now. Tell me how you're able to manipulate objects without words or wands, that's actually some good magic there..." Harry said.
- -
"Just think about what you want, why you want and know it's going to come to you! Yes Master Potter, that's it!" Kreacher said enthusiastically. As weird as it seemed, the more Kreacher passed on to Harry, the more enthusiastic Kreacher became. It was well into the night and Harry had mastered doing spells without saying the incantations, but so far he had only managed to do the most basic spells without a wand.
"I think I'm all worn out Kreacher." Harry said. "Thanks for teaching me..."
"Anytime, Master Potter." Kreacher said, before walking out of the room.
"Still up Harry?" Sirius asked, entering the room. "What were you and Kreacher doing?"
"Kreacher was teaching me."
"Teaching?"
"Taught me some useful magic." Harry said, as he stretched a hand out, his wand flying straight to his hand. Without saying a word, he cast a spell and a mattress appeared next to him, which he rolled onto and decided to use it for the night.
"I see." Sirius said, a strange smile on his face as he walked out the room.
"Servo pro laxus."
- -
"Ah, there's Harry!" Sirius opened the door to Grimmauld Place, as Harry walked in, his shirt drenched in sweat.
"Merry Christmas, Harry!" Ron smiled.
"Thanks, Ron." Harry said, wiping the sweat of his forehead, and breathing deeply.
"Where have you been?" Hermione asked, concerned.
"Went for a run." Harry replied.
"Since when did you go for runs?" Hermione asked.
"They're good for you." Harry replied, "and Merry Christmas to you too." He walked past her and up the stairs to change his clothes.
"Was that me, or did that not sound like Harry at all?" Ron asked Hermione, as they walked up the stairs and towards his room. "Sounds like he finally flipped and turned into Oliver Wood."
"Harry?" Hermione knocked on his door.
"Yeah?" Harry asked, opening it, dressed in a casual red shirt and jeans.
"Sirius tells us you've been training hard." Hermione said. "This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with Lupin, would it?"
"I already told you guys, I'm okay." Harry replied, walking past them and back down the stairs.
"You can't run away from it forever Harry, especially not on Christmas!" Hermione yelled after him, before turning to Ron. "It's your turn."
"My turn?" Ron asked.
"Try to talk sense into him!" Hermione whispered back.
"I already tried."
"Sure you did." Hermione said, patting him on the shoulder. "What did you do to help Harry?"
"I told Luna." Ron smiled back, as they walked downstairs to see Harry and Luna having a private conversation, under the stairs. "Here, take this, I borrowed one of Fred and George's Extendable Ears..."
"Luna, I've already told everyone I'm okay with Lupin passing on." Harry said. "I was sad, but I'm okay."
"Harry..." Luna said, looking him deep in the eyes and running a hand through his messy, black hair. "Remember what I said to you when we first met at the beginning of the year?"
"No..."
"C'mon Harry, I know you do - I remember exactly what you said." Luna replied.
"I don't remember what you said, because I was too busy paying attention to how beautiful you looked..." Harry winked, as above them, on the top of the stairs, Ron made a throwing up gesture while Hermione mouthed the words 'how sweet'.
"I said that your words betray your actions!" Luna said, still blushing from his past comment. "Part of your Hero-Complex, remember?"
"I know, I know..." Harry admitted, running a hand through her long, blonde hair.
"And Harry, everyone has to mourn after a loss. Even though I haven't known you for that long - I understand you well enough to know you have to do this." Luna said, catching Harry's hand as it ran through her hair. "If you don't, you'll end up regretting that you never bothered to grieve for your loss."
"Luna..." Harry said, looking her in the eyes, before hugging her close. "I'm fine."
"I believe you, Harry."
"Thanks, Luna."
"If your thankful now, just wait till you check out what I got for you." She said softly. "Three guesses, and the clue is - it wards off a creature with 12 noses that feeds off toe nails."
- -
"As you all have heard, Voldemort has returned." Dumbledore gave his speech to the whole of the school, it was the start of another term, and another feast was about to begin - yet it was one of the first times Dumbledore had given a speech with such seriousnesses. "Though, I shall tell you now, if we stand alone we fall - though if we stand together... Let us just say, if we stand together, we stand to have a better chance. Let us begin the feast!"
"United we stand!" Fred and George called, lifting their goblets as Gryffindor declared a toast.
"The Slytherin table doesn't quite like Dumbledore's speech..." Ron muttered, taking a bite out of his chicken leg.
"Yeah, they seem even more spiteful than usual." Harry replied. "I bet it's probably because most of their parents are on the run now."
"You should be having a plan now too, you know Harry." Hermione said, as Harry sighed.
"I do have one." Harry said quietly.
"One that doesn't involve you snogging Luna?" Ron asked.
"Maybe..." Harry said meekly, adding more food to his plate. "I've gotta talk to Dumbledore about the promise he made to me at the beginning of the year - he's got to teach me now."
- -
"You made a promise to me Professor," Harry said, standing in the headmaster's room, facing him from across his desk. "You told me that you'd teach me. I believe that time has come."
"Indeed it has." Dumbledore replied, stroking his beard. "Where would you like to start?"
"Spells obviously. Things that will help me against Voldemort. I want to know as much about him as you do - his army and the types of creatures he has under him." Harry said.
"Giants, werewolves, dementors, possibly vampires. I believe Voldemort is gathering a vast army extending beyond the reaches of human." Dumbledore said.
"And I want to know how to defeat them."
"Well I was previously a transfiguration teacher, so I might as well start with what I'm best at." Dumbledore said. "Excuse me for jumping to conclusions, but I doubt Sirius has taught you much in the field of transfiguration yet. Most wizards feel its difficulty is usually impractical in a duel."
"Then teach me transfiguration."
"That I will." Dumbledore replied. "We'll start with the basics, before moving up to the more complicated side of transfiguration."
"Complicated?"
"Larger objects, living objects - would it not be useful to be an Animagi?"
- -
Over the next few months, Dumbledore became an intense teacher. When Dumbledore wanted to be serious about teaching - he would. Though he and Harry hadn't gotten to learning about Animagi yet, they had certainly improved what used to be Harry's very limited knowledge of transfiguratoin. Harry found himself having no more free time, though he knew that with his current situation, there was no allowance for wasted time. His days were usually constructed with his normal classes, along with classes from Dumbledore, and the occasional Quidditch practice or game, along with that, the workload he was getting from some of the teachers who thought they were 'helping' him wasn't really doing a great deal for him at all.
Harry had 'seen' things through Dumbledore's pensieve, shown him memories of Voldemort and other useful memories usually bearing hidden messages that Harry was supposed to find out for himself.
"So Harry, have you come to your conclusion?" Dumbledore asked, after a particularly straining lesson. They had been using the Room of Requirement for their training, and it became quite an adequaete place for teaching.
"Yeah, I finished the list." Harry said. "Powers Voldemort knows not - ignorance of muggles and their abilities, light magic, ancient magic, anything that isn't of pureblood ancestory and of course - love."
"Very well said, Harry." Dumbledore smiled, a twinkle in his eye. "I guess that concludes this lesson. I must say, that I will not be able to teach you again until the start of your next school year."
"Why's that?"
"Order business, Harry. Along with that, I think your workload for the Easter holidays will be enough to keep you occupied." Dumbledore replied. "I'll be leaving next week, a week before the holidays. I suggest you also focus on your current priorities."
"I thought training was one of them?"
"As is education. And of course," Dumbledore chuckled to himself as he paused, "your commitment to Miss Lovegood."
"I guess you're right there."
- -
"Luna, how did you finish your work so early?" Harry asked, as he, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all sat together on a secluded part of Hogwarts, sitting under a tree to give them shade.
"I'm a Ravenclaw, that's all the explanation you need." Luna replied, curling up next to Harry.
"Yeah, Hermione only finished hers yesterday!" Ron added, earning him a death glare from Hermione.
"Because I'm a fourth year and I take more classes, meaning more and harder work." Hermione replied defiantly. "Anyway Harry, I think I've found something more important than homework for now."
"The Daily Prophet?" Ginny asked. "Since when do you read that?"
"Since they printed a story about what happened at Azkaban." Hermione said, as Harry grabbed the paper of her, as a moving picture of a destroyed Azkaban, surrounded by members of the Order and Aurors surveying the area.
"A massive breakout in Azkaban..." Harry read out loud. "Voldemort was there - and he escaped as soon as Dumbledore and the Order came. This must've been why Dumbledore had to leave before the holidays - he knew that Voldemort was planning something after being so quiet for the past few months." He watched the faces of Ron and Ginny, as they flinched when he spoke his name.
"Dumbledore's been trying to get the Dementors out of Azkaban for a while now, but the Ministry just didn't listen. And now this has happened, and the Dementors have sided with Voldemort." Hermione replied.
"That's just great." Harry sighed, "I can't wait to see what Voldemort's next move will be..."
"Which reminds me." Luna added, a strange look in her eyes, "would you like to come over to my house for the end of year holidays?"
A/N: Sorry for the lateness. Exams are over - hooray.
And about the no-quidditch review, the reason there wasn't any Quidditch was because of the Triwizard Tournament. And no Triwizard Tournament Quidditch.