I really don't have much to say this time around. Hopefully this chapter will be better than the last two...I haven't been really pleased with either. As always, just let me know what you think. Reviews always make my day. ::wink::
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Chapter 10: The Unforgiveables, Round Two
"Harry?"
"Mmph," Harry mumbled into his pillow.
"Come on, we have to get ready for breakfast," Hermione said rubbing small circles in his back.
"Mmmm....if you keep doing that I'll fall right back asleep," Harry said with a grin. Hermione removed her hand to which Harry lifted his head and blinked at her. "I didn't say stop."
"C'mon, sleepy," she said tossing his robes onto the bed. "I have to get dressed and leave from my room so it doesn't look suspicious. Don't miss breakfast."
"I won't," Harry said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Can I have a kiss before you go though? I won't get to see you again until lunch."
Hermione smiled at him and kissed him soundly on the lips. Winking, she grabbed some clothes and opened the new door to her room. Harry distinctly heard Fawkes chirp at her before the door closed.
He sighed and got dressed quickly, eager to be away from Hermione for as little time as possible. He finished and taking a quick glance in the mirror, stepped out of his room and walked headlong into Ron.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the red head shouted, rubbing his head.
"Sorry," Harry replied, grinning. "I haven't seen you around lately."
"We've been training extra hard because the playoffs are just around the corner," Ron said. "I wanted to come and wish Hermione good luck teaching. You too, since you're here."
"Thanks," Harry said.
"How've you two been?" Ron asked.
"Good," Harry said, trying to avoid the topic from progressing much further. "Your wife came by about a month ago."
"How was she?" Ron asked, losing his focus. "Not too strange, I hope?"
"Hardly," Harry said. "The interview was most enjoyable."
"Harry, have you seen my wand?" Hermione asked opening the door to the common room, not seeing Ron. "I looked in your room, but I can't find it."
"Why would your wand be in Harry's room?" Ron asked.
"Ron!" she exclaimed. "I...I erm...didn't see you there."
"I figured," Ron replied. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room for a minute until Ron spoke again. "So...why would your wand be in Harry's room?"
"We were working on a lesson plan together," she lied.
"You finished that months ago," Ron replied. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
Harry and Hermione shared a nervous glance with each other before she sighed and walked over to Ron.
"Ron....Harry and I have been sort of...well, living together," she said in a hushed tone.
"What?" Ron exclaimed in a whisper. "But...." he lowered his voice even further hoping that Harry couldn't hear his next words. "You mean like...living living?"
"Yes, Ron," Hermione answered, looking him in the eyes.
"But....what if he hurts you?" Ron asked so softly Harry almost couldn't make out what he said.
"He wont," Hermione replied.
"How do you know?"
"Ask Luna," Harry interjected, causing both of them to turn and look at him.
"Luna?" Ron asked. "What does she have to do with this?"
"She knows my entire story," Harry said. "There's a lot more to my life than you know, Ron. Hermione and Luna both know it."
"I read the interview," Ron said. "There wasn't anything special about it."
"She lied for both our benefits," Harry replied. "If she printed the truth, she'd probably have gotten committed and I'd have gotten sacked for sure."
"Wha -"
"Just ask her Ron," Hermione said. "She'll explain everything better than I could."
"Er....alright," Ron replied.
"Why are you here anyway?" Hermione asked.
"I wanted to wish you good luck teaching," Ron said. "Don't let the little midgets get to you."
"Ron, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times. They. Are. Not. Midgets," Hermione said adamantly.
"When did I first start calling them that again?" Ron asked with a wistful smile on his face.
"When you were made a prefect in your fifth year," Harry said without thinking. Ron's head turned so fast, Harry was surprised it didn't spin around completely.
"How...?"
"Ask Luna," Harry simply replied.
"Er....right," Ron said, embracing Hermione. "Good luck then."
"Thank you, Ron."
"You too, Harry."
"Thanks, just make sure to ask Luna. She'll explain everything."
"Right," Ron said. "C'mon, I'll walk you guys to the Great Hall."
The trip to the Great Hall was relatively quiet, the only conversation was Hermione asking how Luna was doing with everything at home. They reached the Entrance Hall and went their separate ways, Ron through the doors onto the grounds, Harry and Hermione into the Great Hall.
They saw immediately realised that they were rather late to breakfast, as most of the student body was already seated and eating. They took their usual seats at the head table and found two schedules sitting on the table at their places.
"Your timetables," McGonagal said to them. "Just so you know when you have the given years and breaks."
"Thank you," Hermione said, spreading jam onto a muffin while looking over her schedule.
"Fourth years first," Harry commented, sipping on a goblet filled with orange juice. "Then seventh. Fifth years after lunch, and third years last. Lupin's class."
"You must miss him," Hermione said, looking sadly at Harry.
"I do," Harry confessed. "What about you? You've been so collected about your parents' deaths, you'd hardly know they were gone."
"It was really hard at first," Hermione said simply. "But a wise man told me that to the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."
"I believe that was Dumbledore," Harry said. Hermione smiled at him.
"It also helped that I had a wonderful man to keep my mind off things," she said softly, causing Harry to blush.
"Not here," he said. "Don't want to students to get any bad ideas."
"Like that stopped you while you were in school," Hermione scoffed.
"How would you know?" Harry retorted playfully.
"I have good instincts," Hermione said. "By the way, you didn't tell me that you told Luna everything."
"I didn't have to," Harry said. "She remembered."
"What?" Hermione asked, shocked.
"Did you know that Luna apparently has some Seer gifts?" he asked. Hermione nodded. "Well she Saw everything that happened to me...us before it did, and was able to defend herself from the mass memory charm. The 'interview' was just really us reminiscing about our school days."
"I hope we can do that someday," Hermione said longingly.
"I'll find a way, Hermione," Harry said. "I promise."
"We'll find a way," she corrected with a smile, to which Harry nodded.
"You two should get to your classrooms and prepare," McGonagal said. "You want to make a good first impression."
"Okay," Harry said, standing up. "See you later."
"See you," Hermione said. "Good luck."
"Thanks, you too," Harry replied.
Harry arrived at the familiar classroom fifteen minutes before the class was supposed to start. As he had forgotten them, he summoned the lesson plans from his room.
"Accio," he muttered to himself with a smile. "Figures I'm teaching the same year I learned that spell in."
He chuckled as he started reading over the lesson plan he had made for the fourth year class. Although his own experience with Defense Against the Dark Arts in fourth year had been marred by the fact that his teacher was really a very deadly death eater in disguise, he had learned a lot, and decided (after receiving approval from Dumbledore and McGonagal) to teach the class the same way. He had just finished reading over the plan when the first students began to file in.
"Take any seat," Harry said as they walked in. "I'm not fussy about you sitting next to your mates, as long as you keep the chatter to a minimum."
This seemed to please most everyone, one boy (Harry guessed him to be a Hufflepuff from his extremely kind disposition) even told Harry about how Snape never let them sit where they wanted anymore, to which he could only chuckle. When everyone was seated, Harry took out the attendance list from his robes and called off everyone's names.
"Excuse me, sir?" a boy from the back asked when Harry was done.
"Yes?" Harry asked.
"Will you be staying for more than one year?"
A round of soft chuckles broke out at this question, and even Harry couldn't contain the smile on his face.
"Let's see..." he said, looking over the attendance list again. "You're Tobias Waltham, right?" The boy nodded. "I've been told by many of my peers that this job is indeed cursed. However, unless Professor Snape plans on doing me in so he can fill the position, I plan on remaining here as long as possible." This caused more laughter from the students.
"Sir?" a girl near the front asked, waving her hand like Hermione did when she had to know something.
"Yes...Melinda?"
"Headmistress McGonagal said at the Welcoming Feast that you had been in many battles," she said. "Is that true?"
Harry sighed and looked the girl square in the eyes.
"What do you think?" he asked kindly.
"Well, you have that scar on your forehead," Melinda replied, pointing to the lighting-shaped cut that was nearly hidden from view by his bangs. "So I'd say yes."
"That would be an accurate answer," Harry said, nodding.
"Who'd you fight?" someone in the back blurted out. Harry looked up to see who the question-asker was, but couldn't identify the person.
"Many," Harry answered. "All of whom were very dark wizards and witches."
"Were you an auror?" another student asked.
"I wanted to be," Harry said, taking a seat on top of his desk.
"Why didn't you become one?" Melinda asked.
"Motivation never met opportunity, I guess," Harry replied. "Listen, we're not here to talk about me. We're here so that you learn what you have to face out there, in the world where everything isn't as nice and cozy as it is here at Hogwarts."
"What are you going to be teaching us, then?" Tobias asked.
"There are three curses more heavily punished than any others in the wizarding world," Harry said, looking at Tobias. "Who can tell me what they are?"
A few hands went up, and Harry was not surprised to see that Melinda's was one of them. He didn't call on her, however, and instead chose a skinny, pale boy towards the back.
"The Cruciatus Curse," the boy said. Harry looked at the attendance sheet for the boy's name.
"Thomas Sanlow?" Harry asked. The boy nodded. "How do you know about that one?"
"My aunt and uncle were tortured to insanity by it," he said gravely. "I hadn't even been born then, but my mum and dad talk about it all the time."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Harry said. "I know someone whose parents suffered the same fate. Yes, the Cruciatus Curse is the most painful curse known to wizard-kind. I will not show you how it works, not even on something like an insect, because it is also quite painful to watch."
"Professor?" Melinda asked.
"Yes?"
"Have you ever been under the Cruciatus Curse?" Harry sighed.
"Not only have I been under it, I've seen loved ones tortured by it as well," he said. "And it hurts just as much to see someone you love under it."
"It's really that bad?" Thomas asked from his seat. Harry frowned, pulled out a very long piece of parchment, and placed it on his desk before pulling out his wand.
"Crucio!" he yelled, bringing forth all his hatred of Lord Voldemort. The parchment blackened and crumpled in on itself, though no fire was present to cause such an effect. The paper continued to crinkle and smolder until Harry lifted the curse and turned back to face the class.
"That," he said, "Is what happens to your body."
Looking around the room, Harry noticed that one or two of the students had turned an eerie shade of white.
"Does anyone else know one of the other two curses most heavily punished?" he asked.
Just like in Harry's fourth year, fewer hands were raised and he called on a small girl in the back.
"The Imperius Curse," she said.
"That's right," Harry replied. "Also known as the Mind-Control Curse. This, I will show you." Harry looked around the room for some sort of bug, and (thanks largely in part to his seeker eyes) found a fly lurking on the wall near the window. "Accio!" The bug zoomed straight into his outstretched hand. He quickly stunned it and placed it on the desk, enlarging it so the class could see it better. "Now watch carefully. Ennervate. Imperio!"
Harry noted that the sensation was similar to being influenced by the curse, only that this time he was giving commands, instead of listening to them. He made the fly zoom around everyone's heads a few times before making it dive at his desk while making a noise like a bomber plane. When he lifted the curse, he shrunk the fly and it flew off in an erratic pattern.
"Cool," said someone near the front amidst chuckles.
"Cool?" Harry asked with a frown. "What if someone made you do that?"
"I wouldn't mind," the same voice, a boy, said.
"What if they made you murder your parents in their sleep?" Harry asked, his voice a deadly whisper. That silenced the class immediately. "These curses that I'm showing you are not to be messed around with. They are all equally deadly for a reason. Now, does anyone know the last one?"
Only Melinda's hand was raised in the now shocked classroom.
"Yes, Melinda."
"The Avada Kedavra," she whispered, as if scared to see him perform the spell.
"The killing curse," he said simply, taking his seat upon his desktop again. "I don't have the capacity to cast it, and before you ask, I seriously doubt any of you do either. The killing curse requires such an amount of hatred along with a pleasure to cause pain and death, that only the darkest of wizards can cast it successfully. It is what gave me the scar on my forehead." He pushed back his bangs so everyone could see.
"If the curse is meant to kill, how did you live?" Melinda asked in awe.
"It wasn't pure," Harry said, recalling Dumbledore's words. "It was tainted by my mother's love, who died to save my life."
There was a hushed silence at these words, the class too stunned to speak.
"Those three curses are what's known as the Unforgiveable Curses," Harry said. "The use of any of them on a human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban."
"Did you ever use them on someone else?" Melinda asked. Harry sighed as he thought back to when he transferred his powers to Tom Riddle in the distant past.
"No," he lied, figuring it was best if they didn't know that he had in fact tried to kill someone, even though that person was the epitome of evil through and through. "Now then, let's talk about some of the less punished illegal curses..."
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Harry sat down to lunch at the head table with a sigh.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"Remember how I told you that I was going to teach the Unforgiveables to the fourth year?" Harry asked, to which Hermione nodded. "It affected me more than I thought it would."
"Oh, Harry," she said sadly, grabbing his hand under the tablecloth. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," he said softly. "The dueling in the seventh year class helped take my mind off things, but when I walked in here and saw you I couldn't help but remember when you were being tortured by Voldemort."
"Will you be okay?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, I think so..." Harry said. "It's just weird teaching things when I used to come here and learn them."
"Tell me about it," Hermione said. "I almost messed up the incantation to switching spells today. Think of the disaster that would've been. My first day on the job, and I give the students a bum spell."
"I'm sure you would've corrected it in a heartbeat," Harry grinned. He opened his mouth to say something but suddenly the smell of burning wood, grass, and (sickeningly) flesh reached his nostrils and he coughed several times before speaking.
"Something's...happening," he gasped. Hermione opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but the smell reached her and she had to cover her mouth to keep from retching. Harry quickly ran from the Great Hall as McGonagal was telling everyone to stay calm amidst the sounds of coughing and vomiting. He barreled through the doors in the Entrance Hall out onto the grounds and fell to his knees in shock as Hermione quickly reached him, and gasped at the sight that lay before them.
Hogsmeade was burning.
And the Dark Mark was hovering a hundred feet above it.
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The action begins! There was something I was going to say here but I don't remember it, so if I screwed up at all,
just let me know in a review and I'll get to fixing it. Hope you enjoyed this one (I actually enjoyed writing it),
I'll see you all next week.