Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Power
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did, but I don't. In no way am I profiting from this or any other story. Do not attempt to sue me, for I will just run away.
Chapter 6
Harry spent the rest of the Holidays exploring the castle by day and reading the restricted book by night. He would not call himself a master occlumense, but he thought it might be enough considering that no one expected him to know any occlumency at all.
Hermione returned the day before class started. She was completely fascinated by the cloak, upset that he used it to break rules, and curious with his story about the mirror and Dumbledore's odd behavior. Harry tried to explain that it was okay for him to use the cloak to sneak out at night, seeing as how Dumbledore told him to use it well, but she still seemed skeptical. She was also glad that Harry didn't glare at Ron quite as much anymore, though it wasn't enough to get her to stop pushing them together.
As promised, Harry let Hermione read the book he had copied from the library. She finished it in under a week. After that, they decided to learn occlumency and legilimency together. One would attempt to break into the other's mind, then they would switch. They were both doing quite well.
Ron had been acting oddly. He would sneak off for hours at a time and then pretend he hadn't. He was also growing more and more hostile towards Professor Snape and more and more sympathetic to Professor Quirrell. Hermione eventually decided that enough was enough.
"Please, Harry. I know you don't like him very much, but I do. We need to know why he is acting like this. For all we know, Voldemort has been manipulating him to do some....evil bidding or something."
"Well, if you are so worried, why don't you try out your legilimency skill on him?"
"I wouldn't do that! That is a serious invasion of privacy!"
"Fine, I'll do it for you." Harry thought it was funny that she didn't argue against that. 'Leave the dirty work to me then, huh? Hm, doesn't bother me.'
When they tracked down Ron, he was on the third floor, right outside the door to the forbidden corridor. When asked what he was doing there, he replied, "Oh, well...I was on my way to the common room when I got tired, so I sat down."
Harry didn't need legilimency to know that was a lie. Hermione just said, "Ron, we need to talk to you in private. Can you come with us?" He didn't seem to want to leave, but couldn't think of a good reason to stay.
When they got to an empty class room, Harry locked the door. Questioning this, Ron was answered with a muttered, "Legilimense.'
Shifting through Ron's most recent memories, Harry discovered that Ron had done enough detective work to find out that something important was hidden in the third floor corridor and that someone was after it. He suspected Snape. Digging a little further, Harry found a memory of a conversation between Snape and Quirrell that Ron had overheard. He had overheard just enough to think that Snape needed Quirrell's help with whatever protection he provided.
When Harry was done, Ron, needless to say, was very confused over what had just transpired, and had a bit of a headache. "What was that, Harry?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I needed to know why you were acting like you support Quirrell. You know more than I expected, but Snape is not the one trying to steal it."
"Why didn't you just ask what I know?"
"That way was faster, and I wanted to practice my legilimency." At Ron's confused look, Hermione explained what legilimency was. Harry then explained to Hermione what all he had seen.
Harry and Hermione had a brief private debate on whether or not to tell Ron what they know. Harry eventually gave in. He was against including Ron, and anything that causes trouble for Snape was okay in his book, but he agreed that it was more important to thwart Quirrell. They explained that it was the Philosopher's Stone that was down there. Then they explained what the Philosopher's Stone was ('Bleeding moron'). They also told him that Quirrell was the true culprit and that he was working for Voldemort.
When they were through, Ron seemed hurt. "Why didn't you guys tell me about this before?"
Hermione didn't want him upset at her. "We promised Hagrid that we wouldn't when he accidently let it slip to us."
"Besides, you didn't tell us either," Harry added.
"Well, yeah, that's true. Sorry. So, what are we going to do about it? I've been trying to guard the room in my free time, but I don't know how much I could do against You-Know-Who." 'I know how much you could do: nothing.'
"We aren't going to do anything. The only thing we can do is to wait and see what happens. Quirrell isn't going to try to take it with Dumbledore still at the school, and I don't think he knows how to get past the Cerberus yet, either."
Harry, Hermione, and Ron visited Hagrid the next day. He seemed reluctant to let them in when he noticed Ron, but complied just the same.
It was very hot in the cabin. Probably a side-effect of having all the curtains drawn and a fire going full blast. Hagrid was nervous, and Harry noticed that his thoughts centered on the fire. When Harry looked closer, he noticed an egg in the fire.
"Hagrid, what are you doing with a dragon egg?" Hagrid just sighed.
"Two seconds and yeh already foun' meh out, eh Harry? Yeah, it's a dragon egg. Norwegian Ridgeback. I won him in a card game down in the pub." Harry got a glimpse of a man with his face obscured by a hood.
Hermione got worried. "Hagrid, dragons are illegal to keep as pets. You can't tame them1"
"Sure yeh can, Hermione. Yeh jest have ter know how."
"You live in a wooden house!" But Hagrid had stopped listening. He was making cooing noises to the fire.
"Hagrid," Harry asked, "what did the guy you got it from look like?"
"Well, I dunno. Kept his hood up. Guy seemed a bit glad ter be rid of 'im ter be honest." 'Uh, oh.'
"Don't you think that's a bit odd?"
"Well, no. Might have been a dealer, mightn't he?" 'Well, I suppose. But I think a dealer would want some money in exchange.'
"Did the two of you talk at all?"
"Well, yeah. 'E wanted ter know what kinds of animals I've looked after, ter know if I could take care of a dragon, see. I told 'em, after Fluffy, a dragon'd be no problem.'
"Did he seem interested at all in Fluffy?" asked Hermione.
"Well, o'course he was interested in Fluffy. How many Cerberus's do yeh meet, even if yer in the trade? But I says ter him, I says, 'The trick with any animal is ter know how ter calm it. Take Fluffy, fer example. Yeh jest play him a bit o' music and he goes right ter sleep......damn. I shouldn' have told yeh that."
'Damn is right. Best to just pretend every thing is alright for now.' "Well, anyway, you know you can't keep the dragon, don't you?"
"I know, but I can't think of anything else ter do."
It was then that Ron decided to be useful. "My brother works on a dragon reserve in Romania. We could send it to him." Hagrid did not seem to appreciate Ron's helpfulness.
After the dragon hatched, Ron sent a note to Charley (Ron's brother) via owl. They were helping Hagrid take care of the dragon, but it was not easy. Dragons were mean.
Draco (who had been spying on Harry for some time now, trying to get him into trouble) saw the dragon through the window one evening. He seemed to enjoy having something to hold over them, so he didn't tattle right away.
One evening, Ron came back from taking care of the dragon with Hagrid (Harry had decided that if Ron was to hang out with them, he would fill the role of lacky, and thus, would do the grunt work). He had been bitten, and Hermione, who had been reading up on Norwegian Ridgebacks, told him to go to the infirmary as they were poisonous. The nurse made him stay overnight.
Draco "visited" Ron to gloat some more, and Ron accidently let him borrow the book that had Charley's reply in it. Draco knew they were sneaking the dragon to the astronomy tower that night.
Harry and Hermione were thus glad that the invisibility cloak covered both them and the box. On the way up, they passed Professor McGonnagal, who was dragging Draco by the ear as he tried to convince her that Harry Potter had a dragon. They made it the rest of the way up without incident, chuckling.
On the way back to the common room, Harry abruptly stopped and pulled Hermione into the shadows. She asked, "What's wrong, Harry?"
"We forgot the cloak."
"Oh, god! You're right! And I think I hear foot steps." She was right, of course. As Filch came around the corner, Harry tried to make the two of them invisible. He concentrated on not being noticed and forced his magic to comply. He remembered that, traditionally, invisibility did not use a wand, so he didn't.
Filch and Mrs. Norris just passed by them, with out looking at them. Looking down, Harry was surprised to see that they were not invisible. He supposed Filch could have just missed them because they were in the shadows, but Mrs. Norris should have noticed them. 'Noticed...of course! I somehow managed a notice-me-not charm on us with wandless magic. Awesome!'
When they were out of earshot, Harry and Hermione got the rest of the way to the common room. Harry then explained what he did. Hermione was both impressed and grateful. She didn't like the idea of getting caught. When she went to bed, Harry went back to the tower and retrieved his cloak. The next day, Harry learned that Draco had a detention along with Neville, who had heard Draco say that Harry had a dragon and had tried to warn him.
Chapter 6
Harry spent the rest of the Holidays exploring the castle by day and reading the restricted book by night. He would not call himself a master occlumense, but he thought it might be enough considering that no one expected him to know any occlumency at all.
Hermione returned the day before class started. She was completely fascinated by the cloak, upset that he used it to break rules, and curious with his story about the mirror and Dumbledore's odd behavior. Harry tried to explain that it was okay for him to use the cloak to sneak out at night, seeing as how Dumbledore told him to use it well, but she still seemed skeptical. She was also glad that Harry didn't glare at Ron quite as much anymore, though it wasn't enough to get her to stop pushing them together.
As promised, Harry let Hermione read the book he had copied from the library. She finished it in under a week. After that, they decided to learn occlumency and legilimency together. One would attempt to break into the other's mind, then they would switch. They were both doing quite well.
Ron had been acting oddly. He would sneak off for hours at a time and then pretend he hadn't. He was also growing more and more hostile towards Professor Snape and more and more sympathetic to Professor Quirrell. Hermione eventually decided that enough was enough.
"Please, Harry. I know you don't like him very much, but I do. We need to know why he is acting like this. For all we know, Voldemort has been manipulating him to do some....evil bidding or something."
"Well, if you are so worried, why don't you try out your legilimency skill on him?"
"I wouldn't do that! That is a serious invasion of privacy!"
"Fine, I'll do it for you." Harry thought it was funny that she didn't argue against that. 'Leave the dirty work to me then, huh? Hm, doesn't bother me.'
When they tracked down Ron, he was on the third floor, right outside the door to the forbidden corridor. When asked what he was doing there, he replied, "Oh, well...I was on my way to the common room when I got tired, so I sat down."
Harry didn't need legilimency to know that was a lie. Hermione just said, "Ron, we need to talk to you in private. Can you come with us?" He didn't seem to want to leave, but couldn't think of a good reason to stay.
When they got to an empty class room, Harry locked the door. Questioning this, Ron was answered with a muttered, "Legilimense.'
Shifting through Ron's most recent memories, Harry discovered that Ron had done enough detective work to find out that something important was hidden in the third floor corridor and that someone was after it. He suspected Snape. Digging a little further, Harry found a memory of a conversation between Snape and Quirrell that Ron had overheard. He had overheard just enough to think that Snape needed Quirrell's help with whatever protection he provided.
When Harry was done, Ron, needless to say, was very confused over what had just transpired, and had a bit of a headache. "What was that, Harry?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I needed to know why you were acting like you support Quirrell. You know more than I expected, but Snape is not the one trying to steal it."
"Why didn't you just ask what I know?"
"That way was faster, and I wanted to practice my legilimency." At Ron's confused look, Hermione explained what legilimency was. Harry then explained to Hermione what all he had seen.
Harry and Hermione had a brief private debate on whether or not to tell Ron what they know. Harry eventually gave in. He was against including Ron, and anything that causes trouble for Snape was okay in his book, but he agreed that it was more important to thwart Quirrell. They explained that it was the Philosopher's Stone that was down there. Then they explained what the Philosopher's Stone was ('Bleeding moron'). They also told him that Quirrell was the true culprit and that he was working for Voldemort.
When they were through, Ron seemed hurt. "Why didn't you guys tell me about this before?"
Hermione didn't want him upset at her. "We promised Hagrid that we wouldn't when he accidently let it slip to us."
"Besides, you didn't tell us either," Harry added.
"Well, yeah, that's true. Sorry. So, what are we going to do about it? I've been trying to guard the room in my free time, but I don't know how much I could do against You-Know-Who." 'I know how much you could do: nothing.'
"We aren't going to do anything. The only thing we can do is to wait and see what happens. Quirrell isn't going to try to take it with Dumbledore still at the school, and I don't think he knows how to get past the Cerberus yet, either."
Harry, Hermione, and Ron visited Hagrid the next day. He seemed reluctant to let them in when he noticed Ron, but complied just the same.
It was very hot in the cabin. Probably a side-effect of having all the curtains drawn and a fire going full blast. Hagrid was nervous, and Harry noticed that his thoughts centered on the fire. When Harry looked closer, he noticed an egg in the fire.
"Hagrid, what are you doing with a dragon egg?" Hagrid just sighed.
"Two seconds and yeh already foun' meh out, eh Harry? Yeah, it's a dragon egg. Norwegian Ridgeback. I won him in a card game down in the pub." Harry got a glimpse of a man with his face obscured by a hood.
Hermione got worried. "Hagrid, dragons are illegal to keep as pets. You can't tame them1"
"Sure yeh can, Hermione. Yeh jest have ter know how."
"You live in a wooden house!" But Hagrid had stopped listening. He was making cooing noises to the fire.
"Hagrid," Harry asked, "what did the guy you got it from look like?"
"Well, I dunno. Kept his hood up. Guy seemed a bit glad ter be rid of 'im ter be honest." 'Uh, oh.'
"Don't you think that's a bit odd?"
"Well, no. Might have been a dealer, mightn't he?" 'Well, I suppose. But I think a dealer would want some money in exchange.'
"Did the two of you talk at all?"
"Well, yeah. 'E wanted ter know what kinds of animals I've looked after, ter know if I could take care of a dragon, see. I told 'em, after Fluffy, a dragon'd be no problem.'
"Did he seem interested at all in Fluffy?" asked Hermione.
"Well, o'course he was interested in Fluffy. How many Cerberus's do yeh meet, even if yer in the trade? But I says ter him, I says, 'The trick with any animal is ter know how ter calm it. Take Fluffy, fer example. Yeh jest play him a bit o' music and he goes right ter sleep......damn. I shouldn' have told yeh that."
'Damn is right. Best to just pretend every thing is alright for now.' "Well, anyway, you know you can't keep the dragon, don't you?"
"I know, but I can't think of anything else ter do."
It was then that Ron decided to be useful. "My brother works on a dragon reserve in Romania. We could send it to him." Hagrid did not seem to appreciate Ron's helpfulness.
After the dragon hatched, Ron sent a note to Charley (Ron's brother) via owl. They were helping Hagrid take care of the dragon, but it was not easy. Dragons were mean.
Draco (who had been spying on Harry for some time now, trying to get him into trouble) saw the dragon through the window one evening. He seemed to enjoy having something to hold over them, so he didn't tattle right away.
One evening, Ron came back from taking care of the dragon with Hagrid (Harry had decided that if Ron was to hang out with them, he would fill the role of lacky, and thus, would do the grunt work). He had been bitten, and Hermione, who had been reading up on Norwegian Ridgebacks, told him to go to the infirmary as they were poisonous. The nurse made him stay overnight.
Draco "visited" Ron to gloat some more, and Ron accidently let him borrow the book that had Charley's reply in it. Draco knew they were sneaking the dragon to the astronomy tower that night.
Harry and Hermione were thus glad that the invisibility cloak covered both them and the box. On the way up, they passed Professor McGonnagal, who was dragging Draco by the ear as he tried to convince her that Harry Potter had a dragon. They made it the rest of the way up without incident, chuckling.
On the way back to the common room, Harry abruptly stopped and pulled Hermione into the shadows. She asked, "What's wrong, Harry?"
"We forgot the cloak."
"Oh, god! You're right! And I think I hear foot steps." She was right, of course. As Filch came around the corner, Harry tried to make the two of them invisible. He concentrated on not being noticed and forced his magic to comply. He remembered that, traditionally, invisibility did not use a wand, so he didn't.
Filch and Mrs. Norris just passed by them, with out looking at them. Looking down, Harry was surprised to see that they were not invisible. He supposed Filch could have just missed them because they were in the shadows, but Mrs. Norris should have noticed them. 'Noticed...of course! I somehow managed a notice-me-not charm on us with wandless magic. Awesome!'
When they were out of earshot, Harry and Hermione got the rest of the way to the common room. Harry then explained what he did. Hermione was both impressed and grateful. She didn't like the idea of getting caught. When she went to bed, Harry went back to the tower and retrieved his cloak. The next day, Harry learned that Draco had a detention along with Neville, who had heard Draco say that Harry had a dragon and had tried to warn him.
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